(Written by Eyr Ôsk)

Name: Little Nightmares

Released: 28th April 2017

Developer: Tarsier Studios

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Reviewed on: PC

Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platformer horror adventure game. Yes that is a long list of genres but it fits them all. Its an eerily adorable take on horror.

Story

The story in Little Nightmares follows a small girl called Six who seems to be trapped on The Maw, which is a watery prison and full of horrors. Six is only equipped with nothing but her wits and a lighter. Given a chance to escape The Maw, she travels through the spooky/horror filled areas.  There does not seem to be all that much of a story, which does tend to happen with horror games.

Gameplay

The game itself is set in The Maw, which is an underwater hell hole to put it lightly. The game consists of you playing as Six and trying to get through each “map” with your wits about you. So basically do your best to figure out the puzzle and survive.

There are a few “bad guys” in the game, a nightmarish custodian and twin butchers to name a few. In order to get past these “bad guys” you have a number of choices (hence the puzzle factor), you can outsmart some, sneak past others, and even have to sprint for your life.

The game is very entertaining to play considering you can get stuck and spend hours trying to figure it out, before you realise “oh I closed myself in” and have to restart.

Graphic/Controls

The graphics in this game are done using Unreal Engine 4, which makes them beautiful, even if at parts scary. When you start the game the first time you are asked to adjust the screen brightness in order to get the most out of the dark atmosphere. While not being realistic the graphics are a fun horror-cartoon mixture which gives the game a very nice environment.

The controls, so I played the game using a laptop keyboard and wireless mouse. While they took me awhile to get used to as it seems they are more intended for controllers, I am just happy I had mouse and playing this game on touch pad would not have worked all that well. Also one thing that bugged me is I did not get all that much of a torotial of the controls (but that could just be an oversight by me).

(Written by Jon Baldvinsson) 

Name: Styx: Shards of Darkness
Developer: Cyanide
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Released: 14, March 2017
Reviewed on: PC

Are you looking for a new stealth adventure? Then look no further Styx: Shards of Darkness serves that purpose very well. If you have played the first game Styx: Master of Shadows, you will be very familiar of our spiteful little goblin Styx, if not Styx is well a goblin and he is quite spiteful the little miscreant, and works as a blade for hire. Styx is as far as we know the only Goblin who can speak the tongue of man, this makes him seem at a higher intelligence level that his fellow

goblins, sadly it also makes him easily recognisable if he made enemies that know this feature.

Originally Styx was the first goblin mutated from a orc scholar who was studying the magic of the World Tree, the same power was used deliberately to turn voluntary humans into elves. Styx is a clone of the real styx and the main reason to the green plague as the humans call it, Styx feel into the pool of amber in Akenash which caused hundreds of clones to pour out.

Styx himself is a great character he has great puns and devilish humor, although he is definitely a character you do not want to be in debt to.

Story

Styx: Shards of Darkness starts with Styx who is up to no good and is stealing some gold from the local guard in Thorben, once Styx has completed his mission he returns to Ephron who wanted him to steal the gold and gets rewarded in amber. Styx uses amber to fuel his powers, using any of his powers costs amber. Once Ephron leaves a C.A.R.N.A.G.E squad shows up and wants to speak with Styx, C.A.R.N.A.G.E squads are an elite squad whole specialize in killing goblins. Helledryn is the squad’s leader and she tells Styx that she wants a deal with the goblin, in exchange for a lot of amber. Of course being a sucker for amber he accepts the deal which is to steal an ambassador’s scepter, once styx gets aboard the ambassador’s airship he tries to steal the scepter alas he is not the only one trying to get the scepter. Styx get’s screwed over by a shape changing dark elf who blames the missing scepter on Styx. Styx of course doesn’t appreciate this and wants his revenge on the Elf so he get’s Helledryn to help him sneak into Korregar to find the elf. Later on Styx confronts the Elf and learns about Quartz which is a very powerful substance to increase Styx’s power.

Gameplay

Styx: Shards of Darkness really has great gameplay, it makes you feel immersed into the role of being a assassin. You have to sneak around in the shadows using multiple skills that Styx has to offer. Styx has three main skills Cocoon, Invisibility and Amber Vision. Styx has also multiple tools which he can craft although most of those have to be learned through the skill tree. Styx can craft a few items to help himself from the basic bolt which can be used to kill enemies from afar, to acid traps that instantly kills enemies that step onto them. Styx can also craft chemical help, such as Health Potions, Amber Potions and Odorous potions to mask Styx’s strong smell, the Acid Solution is always great to dissolve bodies. Lockpicks are also great to unlock locked doors and cocoons can be used to spawn clones.

The talent tree has wide of variety of skills, it is split into five paths Stealth, Kill, Alchemy, Cloning and Perception. The Kill Tree increases your deadliness in such ways that when hiding in a box you can change places with your enemy and leave them dead inside the box. Although killing enemies comes with a price, when playing the game you are rewarded skill points after each mission depending on a few things such as speed, alerts triggered and enemies killed. So if you want to get as many skill points as possible you want to kill as few enemies as possible after all this is a stealth game and you are supposed to be undetected. Every tree enhances your gameplay and you can respec your Styx at anytime so you can go into each map, every map is also filled with side quests which will grant you additional skill points. At the top of each skill tree there is a big talent which requires you 1 Quarts to unlock these will be unlocked at certain points in the game and are very useful, some of the have two skills and you can only choose one of them.

The controls of the game seem quite fluent and easy to master, after a while I was running around in the shadows and into the light without enemies even noticing me.

Although there is great fun to be had in Styx: Shard of Darkness there was one particular boss fight that seemed off putting, you had to run around and use objects preferable in stealth otherwise the boss would attack you while releasing these mechanism. It would probably have been more fun to tie the Stealth genre closer together and have some other means of defeating the boss.

Another flaw of the game is that the AI isn’t always the best, sometimes when you alerted some enemies they would come looking for you, when looking for you they would check boxes but if you pulled enough enemies they couldn’t get to the box you were in because of them pushing each other around.

Enemies would indicate that they are noticing you with a bubble above their head that turned yellow or orange when starting to get more suspicious, and even red if they spotted you.

Graphics

The Graphics of Styx are great, Styx himself is very well textured and all the characters are see well refined, most of the environment is made with great detail and each map is huge and dark. This really helps setting the scene for this adventures stealth game. The general setting of the game is a great choice in a fantasy world where goblins, orcs, human, dwarfs and elves exists, is a great choice as it really fits the goblin skulking about killing or spying on bigger enemies.

This last week and a half i have been playing through Ubisoft’s new game and the huge world it offers. Playing as a Ghost with a total freedom to solve every problem the way you best see fit. Primarily an experience best enjoyed with friends in the coop part of the game, which is identical whether you play alone or with others.  In this review i will go through the good and the bad for each category and i will try to give you as a consumer an idea about the game and if this something you should acquire.

STORY

The story is about a country under siege by the ruthless Santa Blanca Cartel, corrupt politicians and criminal public figures. The leader of this drug cartel, El Sueño, has the country on it’s knees praying to a twisted version of the the Catholic religion and has enslaved and murdered countless countrymen in search of his sick vision of a free country for his empire. The place is the very real country of Bolivia, but other than this the story and characters in it are totally fictional, but surely inspired by reality.

You play as a Ghost which you can customize to look like you want with the limited tools available, i will go through the customization later in this review, and the large weapon and gadget arsenal you have at your disposal.

You are assigned here by the government and your handler is Karen Bowman. A tough woman ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done. You also get help from the rebel group Kataris26 and their leader Pac Katari. They help you with assistance in various ways from vehicle drop offs to diversions on the battlefield. In return you have a variety of resource missions and simple pickups that that you gather for them and yourself in the process. These resources are also for raising your skills and abilities.

The story in itself is not a very broad story and it is not something i feel they were focusing on in this title. The only interaction where you get some story and dialog about the main bosses or your handler is in short video clips before missions and after you capture or kill a main targets.I like the different personalities and character design of the bad guys.They are presented very cool and you really see the gritty and bloody world they live in.

Some dialog between the squad is usually played when you travel for sometime without something interrupting the general gameplay.

Personally i don’t mind this but the game for me is not so much about the story as it is the gameplay itself. All in all in would say i liked the story parts of the game, but the quality could be much better and it failed to get me very interested in what happened to anyone other than getting the next weapon upgrade and killing the next boss.

GRAPHICS,LOCATIONS and AUDIO

The map in this game is very big, i guess one of the biggest i have ever played without knowing exactly the size, compared to a huge map as for example GTA 5, i would say roughly double or triple the size. The scenery is dense green jungles, huge wide open salt flats and mountain tops covered in snow. Small villages and outposts breaks up the landscape in a place that seems like it is only trees and rocks. The population is sparse it seems and usually the towns are either controlled by Santa Blanca or the corrupt Unidad.

It all looks very beautiful and the day & night cycle combined with the different weather situations gives the game a nice atmosphere to it.

The sounds are generally very good, nice ambient sounds and different situational sounds depending on what you are doing. All the guns sounds unique and are also affected by how you customize them and what attachments you use. Also all the different radio commercials and programs were very well done and some of them were funny, but I must admit I got really annoyed with some of it as the game progressed and you kept hearing the same thing over and over for hours. The voice acting was not very good in my opinion but it had its ups and downs, the worst part being the scenes when they interrogated the criminals being captured. Bad acting and worse writing.

CUSTOMIZATION

You can make your own character and customize from a selection of pre made faces and skin colors. Also you can choose your clothes and accessories from sunglasses,tattoos, bandanas, hats and backpacks. The selection is very limited and hopefully it will grow in the future but it will probably come in the form of microtransactions as we have already seen items only available by accessing the store. This is in my opinion unfortunate but that is the trend we have seen in similar games the last years. The weapon customization however is a whole other thing. You have a enormous selection of every weapon and every attachment you ever played with in a videogame and more. Scopes, lasers, grenade launchers , grips , that not even half. All real life weapons with very realistic sounds and feeling to it. The different guns and attachements are gathered in mission rewards or by seeking out weapons cases.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is very solid and enjoyable with many ways to approach a situation. Your arsenal of weapons and gadgets are impressive. In addition you have multiple skill groups with many useful upgrades to help you along the way. As I mentioned earlier the game is best enjoyed with a full squad of friends or you can also use the matchmaking system that is a really smart and useful function in this title. It analyses your playstyle and compares it with other people playing the game. It then presents you with players playing similar to you and that would fit your style of playing the game. This is very nice and makes sure you get a better experience when you play with random people and you want to make sure that they also do it the same way.

This is of course because you have a lot of different way to do a mission, you can go in guns blazing or you can take the more stealthy approach by night, scoping out the place and mark every enemy you can find to make sure an extraction goes smooth.

You also have a pretty good variety of vehicles, cars,motorbikes,planes,helicopters, boats and even a light tank! They all have a noticeably different feeling to each other and almost everyone of them feels a bit off. But once you get the hang of them they are fun to use, mostly.

Or you can just sit hundreds of metres away and snipe everyone until you can stroll in take what you want, whether it is a new weapon you want or attachment you need.

That said the AI in this game is pretty average but generally challenging with aggressive flanking and at times the sheer amount of enemies could be staggering. But I found myself playing either on advanced or extreme difficulty setting to feel challenged. The two easiest settings will not challenge the average player much.

What i really miss in this game are boss battles. They were no different from other enemy encounters, other than looks and a unique personal weapon, they offered no other strategy or game mechanic to deal with the bosses from how you would take out any other enemy. Here I believe Ubisoft missed a chance to make every boss encounter unique and challenging. When I can just lay down outside the base of a boss, take out the drone jammer and fly my drone right I his face and explode it the whole mission becomes comically easy and kind of anticlimactic and not very satisfying. It is more realistic i guess but that has never been this game’s intention anyway in my opinion and they should have made the boss battles way more challenging. When you also have this admittedly very cool ability called “Sync Shot”, where you can mark up to 3 enemies at the the same time that your squad executes simultaneously it also makes certain situations too easy.  

Also i need to mention the bugs in this game. None of them directly game breaking but nevertheless they were annoying and at times it made rage a little. From choppers being stuck halfway into the tarmac so the mission could not be done, NPCs not reacting properly, audio cues playing at wrong times and falling through the map. These are all bugs that is something you would expect in a game this big and i am also confident that Ubisoft is working on fixes for all of this and will update this soon.

As we have yet to see the multiplayer part of this game that will come in a later review for that.

It is supposed to be a 4v4 pvp experience with different game modes.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

(Written by Jon Baldvinsson)

Name: For Honor
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release date: 14th of February, 2017
Platform: PC
Reviewed on: PC

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fight in a medieval war, For Honor brings you back to the times of the knights, samurai and the vikings. Although historical accuracy is not something we will be discussing here, For Honor does a great job of displaying what medieval combat was like, running through the battlefield slashing your sword or axe like a madman has its thrills. For Honor is a fresh breath into the competitive combat game genre, it takes combat into a new strategy.

Gameplay

The combat itself is really good, at first you think swinging your weapon like a madman has its benefits which it really doesn’t. For Honor has a slow paced combat system compared to other combat games, where you have to decided which direction to attack or parry from. This seems to give the game a small learning curve although it does have a lot more to offer, you can easily become a good Warden although it will require a lot of practise as there are combo’s and a vary of parries. The game features currently four classes spread across the three factions which gives you a total of twelve playable characters. Vanguard are your all purpose characters which are great for starters, Heavy have the highest survivability in the game. Assassin are cold blooded killers they are fast and utilize their speed very well generally hard to get a hold of if you are playing a slow class. The Hybrid are in the higher end of the skill cap, rewarding players who master them greatly. If you are playing this game first time we would suggest you to start out with the Vanguard class if you go straight to multiplayer, playing the singleplayer will give you a lot of hands on with some of the classes. For Honor is equipped with two combat wheels one on your own character once you enter the battle stance, this wheel allows you to decide which direction you will be striking your enemy from. When you are targeting an enemy you will be able to see their striking direction once they attack you, which gives you a short time to switch into a stance and parry in that direction. You can also break block if your enemy keeps parring, which then can either be comboed into other attacks or break blocked again to move your enemy in a direction of your choice.

You can play online in the following modes, Duel one versus one, Brawl two versus two, Elimination four versus four, and Dominion which is a four versus four capture the point. Dominion has AI NPC’s who push points, which have to be dealt with if they are pushing your forces back. All modes can be played with AI or Players, during the games there will be pickup’s which benefit your character in various ways. The tenacity that can unfold when you are the last in a four versus one is sometimes fun although it is easy to get ganked, although there are some honorable players out there who wait for their turn to fight you one on one. Playing For Honor is very fun and exciting getting that one last hit before the opponent kills you, or those random kills where you accidentally throw an enemy player of the map which causes them to instantly die.

Sadly one flaw with the game currently is that the game doesn’t provide dedicated servers, which means that every player needs to connect to each player to play the game. This can cause a bit of frustration if you have for example two friends who have closed net which means you cannot play with them at the same time. Hopefully Ubisoft will hear the voice of the community and supply players with dedicated servers.

Multiplayer also has craftable items which give you a chance to customize your character a certain degree, clearly the developers are very happy for hats as the game has wide variety of hats. Steel is the currency which you earn from completing missions or winning matches. It can also be used to purchase perks with which give you some benefit over your enemies.

Story

The story of For Honor depicts various characters through the struggles of their homeland being attacked by the other factions, the first chapter is regarding the Warden and how he joined the Blackstone Legion and their Leader Apollyon. Apollyon is a bloodthirsty warlord who wants nothing but war, the story that unfolds gets the warden to question Apollyon’s motives. The second chapter follows a Raider from the mountains who joins the Warborn clan, and his struggles through the winter and dealings with the other clans. The raider manages to unite the clans and leads them into the assault of the samurai. The third chapter follows a Orochi who is freed and has to take back their city from the Vikings, they then attack Apollyon’s fortress.

The story mode seems to be more of a tutorial into multiplayer than anything, the story itself isn’t very long although this game was surely intended as a multiplayer game not a single player game, although note that you can play the story in co-op.

Graphics

The Character models are great and the animation of them with their own set of attacks seem really well polished. Every map has its own niece to it, where there are details depending on who is currently conquering the map and the weather is factored into it as well. The executes are very well made and it really gives you that exciting feeling once you decapitate your enemy or finish them off in whichever way you decided to unlock through the multiplayer system.

Written by: Morten Haugen

Developer: DICE, Uprise
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Release date: 21.10.2016
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
I have been running in the dangerous streets of Amiens, the beautiful mountains of Monte Grappa, the dark and misty Forest of Argonne and the broken grounds of St,Quentin Scar.

The last week I have been sucked into this amazing and brutal world that is Battlefield. There has clearly been a big focus to also have a strong campaign element in the game this time. Which is paying of, this release is turning out to be one of their best releases to date. So without further delay let us dive into the specifics, without too much spoilers.

STORY

The story mode in Battlefield differs from all earlier games in the series, except maybe Bad Company, and relies heavily on emotional settings and a lot of action set pieces.

It is told over 5 different story lines following different destinies. The human side in this horrific war is highlighted and effectively made this writer a little teary eyed at some points.

The stories are very well written at times and they manage to make you care for the people you play as and the outcome of their path. Some might feel it is a little bit short and I can see that if you are not playing for the multiplayer at all, maybe then it is not for you.

Storylines in this series have never been particularly strong so this a good change.

Although this is not a very challenging story, even on hard it is pretty straight forward with maybe a couple retries. The A.I is very stupid and poorly designed and is clearly something they did not focus on and the gameplay suffers a bit from that.   

MULTIPLAYER

This is where Battlefield shines, and shine it does. We are given 9 maps on release including St.Quentin Scar and Sinai Desert from the alpha and beta.

Not every map plays well on every game mode but some play very well and the rest is pretty good also. We have all the familiar game modes like “Rush”, “Conquest”, “Domination” and “Team Deathmatch”, including two new ones called “Operations” and “War Pigeons”.

“Operations” is an epic new mode that is essentially a mix between “Conquest” and “Rush” that progresses through different maps and provides players with mini cutscenes and somewhat historic settings. The map is split into sections that the attacking team must control one by one in order to progress through the map. Your team starts on one side of the map and you have from 1 to 3 flag areas you need to take and hold like in “Conquest” before you control that section of the map, once you are successful you open up the next section. The defending side is basically trying to prevent the attacking side to control the zones instead of defusing M-coms in “Rush”.

The attacking team has 3 attacks to make through all the sections and to the next map, if they fail, and loses all tickets before completing the map they get a Behemoth reinforcement the next round and if they plough through the defenders on the first map in one attack, the defenders get the reinforcement.

This plays out really well on all the maps in my opinion with my only complaint being that the Behemoths must be balanced, on some levels they are so dominant and very powerful yet on others they are almost useless to a degree.

The whole “Operation” can take from 1 to 3 hours depending on the development of the rounds.

“War Pigeons” is a silly game mode that makes each team chase after the Pigeon, holding onto it long enough to write a message and then releasing that Pigeon, after which it can be shot down.

Silly and chaotic, something i think will be a forgotten thing in a few months. Probably a lot more fun in a lobby full of friends.

And I must say DICE has been careful to make sure this launch has been painless and bugfree.

Although some minor flaws and legacy bugs do appear from time to time it has been an excellent experience playing this last week. The connection was good considering the major flow of players.

I had some issues from time to time with tanks shells dusting on vehicles, bullets not registering despite clearly hitting the target and invisible edges, but it is nothing compared to the disastrous release of BF4.  

Gameplay in general stays true to the Battlefield formula with minor tweaks to certain game mechanics. Spotting has been greatly reduced on the minimap, players only showing up for a short while when spotted directly by another enemy player or a sniper flare.

Weapons in general are not so accurate and the tanks are slow and heavy compared to modern weaponry and forcing the player to really get to know his weapon to best utilize it. No fancy gadgets or self guided weaponry makes more unpredictable and fun gunfights. Playing the objective is as important as ever and it rewards huge points for completing this. Teamplay is heavily rewarded and also a major contributor to a good team score.

Some balancing is required, but what to balance and how it’s needed is still a little early to judge in my opinion.

WEAPONS and VEHICLES

Battlefields arsenal of weaponry and war machines have always been impressive and abundant in variation, almost too much in BF4. This time around the number of guns are significantly less but rather different variations of a weapon. That variation can be a scope/optics, fire modes or different magazine size depending on each weapon type to name a few. This narrows the choices drastically from previous titles but it is still quite a selection of weapons and they all work great in each of their specific ways of using them. In contrast to modern weapons they require some more skill to use but they can be really effective in the right hands.

The classes you choose from are basically the same as before with some name changes and swapping some of the gear available between the classes. Also three more classes have been added, which are Pilot,Tanker and Cavalry. These three classes only come into play if you spawn in a vehicle or on a horse. Each class has now a much more specific playstyle and area of use best suited to wreck havoc or aid teammates. No longer can you use just one or two weapons for every situation and that is all you need, no instead each class and arsenal is catered to specific areas of the battlefield and this forces players to adapt to different situations and maps to make weapons work effectively.

GRAPHICS & SOUND

The graphics in Battlefield 1 are the most beautiful i have ever seen in this franchise, and that is saying a lot when you look back at the previous titles who also were stunning in both the audio and visual aspect. The details that goes into every part of the map from the leaves on the trees to the raindrops that fall on your weapon, it is simply gorgeous.

And talking about the sound. Stunning soundtrack with so much depth and authenticity in ambient sound, gun noises and inspirational music. And they fit perfectly for each setting.

I want to point out i especially enjoyed the added warcries and generally all the noises and shouting from the players running around which helps get you in the zone.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

(Written by Jon Baldvinsson)

Name: Beat Cop

Developer: Pixel Crow

Publisher: 11 bit studios

Platforms: PC

Review on: PC

Ever wondered how it is to be wandering the streets of 1980´s Brooklyn as a police officer? Beat cop offers that experience pixelized. Many people refer to Beat cop as a glimpse into a 1980’s cop tv show, where characters are just as rude and foul mouthed as they were back in the 80’s.

Story:

Jack Kelly arrives at a certain senator’s house and clearly something of value has been stolen, and he is framed for the crime. Jack Kelly gets demoted to a beat cop where he gets three weeks to clear himself of the crime, before he gets wiped of the face of the world. Sadly the story of the game develops quite slowly, and the story comes in tiny bites. The game itself is filled with references which is quite nice and fun. The story doesn’t start well after that, your fellow beat cops really dislike you and the cop you take the street of who is retiring called Fat Mike gets gunned down in front of you. This makes you determined to find his killer while trying to solve your own crime.

Gameplay:

Beat Cop is a time management game and cop simulator, every day you get orders from your captain usually a set amount of ticket quote. On the street you find a lot of cars which can be ticketed for three different reasons, Tires, Broken Light or Parking Violation. Sadly there after a while you notice a visual difference, and you can simply drop checking the vehicles which saves you a lot of time, and really removes the whole time management off the game. Shopkeepers also give you quests which usually would require you to choose between doing the quests from the shopkeepers, or do more tickets for cash, but this isn’t an issue as you can get your ticket quote very fast. There are three factions within the game the Police, the Mafia and the Crew you need to manage your reputation of those 3 or else you will wind up dead or get fired. Sadly I went into the game with the intention of being a pure good hearted cop, but that ended up getting myself​ killed as I became a fast enemy with the crew. If you manage to gain full meter with the crew or the mafia you finish the game, without learning who set you up or solving the crime. You also need to remember that you need to balance the reputation as you will loose rep with the crew when working for the mafia and vise versa. The game will try to grab cash from you through various means, one being that you need to pay an alimony check or you lose your job, other means are to get food or simply being good hearted and giving a veteran some money which gives the benefit of additional eyes on the street. You can also use your money for some love of the night with a lady, of course she has different services which costs differently. You can also accept bribes from civilians who want to bribe you out of getting a ticket.

Graphics:

Visually the game does pixel art very well, characters are well made compared to the low amount of pixels used for each of them. The animations are great but considering that the game doesn’t have a lot of levels I would be surprised that if it wouldn’t be. Considering that you mostly see one street the whole game and inside a couple of shops, you know that there went a lot of work into this section. The game does lack a bit of music as you will mostly hear cars passing by or if you walk past some hip hoppers or a 80’s rocker.

It’s been a week since the release of The Rise of Iron DLC and this last week I have been striking,looting and shooting my way around in the new area called “Plaguelands”.
Was it worth the return? Continue reading and find out my thoughts on The Rise of Iron.

STORY

The story is laid out over 10 missions and very much like previous Destiny storylines you are tasked with investigating and ending the new and dangerous threat that has appeared in the Plaguelands. The new threat are SIVA, a powerful life form “The Fallen” are trying to control but they do not understand its power.

Without spoiling anything I can say that the story is very similar in the way it is presented and executed, much like “The Taken King”. I can not say it is a bad story but it’s forgettable.

And the ten missions go by pretty fast. Unfortunately Bungie did not deliver on this part in my opinion. The storyline culminates as the previous ones in a raid to take out the big boss.

GAMEPLAY

This has always been the strongest feature in Destiny, and it still delivers fast paced and fun gameplay that demands a lot from players wanting the most sought after gear.

New weapons and armor have been added with new perks and the ability to change the appearance of exotic items.

The new raid is, as its previous DLC’s , in my opinion the best part of the game.

This is a little bit shorter or not as difficult as the last raid, partly because Bungie has toned down the need for specific gears and items that greatly help or are needed.

That said I thought it was one of the most fun ones I have played. Involving more of the fireteam members to participate in the different segments of each stage.

It’s still challenging but in a slightly different way, not so technical as “The Kings Fall” raid was.

But that is just the normal mode, as before, the hard mode is not available yet. And I have not encountered any bugs in the raid, yet.

In the “Plaguelands”, which is the new patrol area on earth, are the familiar patrol missions you are used to plus one new patrol mission called “Quarantine” and a challenge area called “Archon’s forge”.

Much like “Court of Oryx” in the “Dreadnaught” area, you are challenged with waves of enemies with a boss. Three difficulties depending on the offering you present.

Fast, fun and a different way to get gear.

CRUCIBLE

With the new DLC is also a new CRUCIBLE mode called “Supremacy”, basically it is like “Kill Confirmed” from “Call of Duty”, you run around killing other guardians and then you pick up something resembling an engram to confirm the kill and get more points.

I have not been such a big fan of Destiny’s PvP, mostly because I felt that it needed balancing on multiple parts and partly because I play mainly for the PvE aspect.

But surprisingly I was having a lot of fun. It has been a while since my last PvP session and I felt that the teams were more balanced and the matches was pretty even.

With all the maps from “Trials of Osiris” now being available in regular crucible and 3 new maps,(4 if you have PS4), new weapons and gear, players have a lot of things to do.

“Iron Banner” and “Trials of Osiris”will also return.

ARMOR, WEAPONS AND LIGHT LEVEL

With the new DLC came also new weapons and armor both in PvE and PvP, new light level capping at 400. The “Gjallarhorn” returns in a cool Black design, though not as powerful as its predecessor.

It was little confusing at first thinking you straight up get it but it’s got to be earned and the black version is a skin you can infuse after earning it in a separate quest.

DESIGN, AUDIO & GRAPHICS

I always enjoyed look of “Destiny” and graphics are beautiful as usual. But I feel it is lazy from Bungie’s side that they basically just reskinned “Fallen” enemies like they did with the “Taken” characters in the previous DLC.

They should have take the time to design them way more different than the “Fallen”.

Same goes with a lot of the strike missions where you play on the same maps as another strike, you just enter from a different entrypoint.

And as always the musical theme to each mission or area are superb, as well as audio in general.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

The lombax and his friend Clank is back again in Insomniac’s “new” adventure. And by new i mean old. The studio behind Spyro and The Resistance isn’t remaking into a HD version of the game. It’s a complete overhaul of the game plus more, i will come back to that later in the review.

The game based on the movie, based on the game is little start for those who haven’t played Ratchet & Clank before or if you’re a hardcore fan of the series. The movie itself launches in the end of april, but us in Norway won’t see it in Norwegian theaters yet. According to Filmweb Norwegian Distributor haven’t picked up the movie yet, but we can only hope.

The game itself is a glorious looking game, the overhaul of the graphics is improved and its impressive work. Ratchet has a little different look on his personality, but for the better.
If you are a 90’s kid you will remember the layout of the different planets, enemies and weapons. Our mission was to stop foreman Drek destroying the Galaxy Solona back in 2002.
And now we got to do it again in a new format.

Story
The story itself is basically the same as the original game back in 2002, but with a few small differences. For us hardcore fans it will be a little strange to play the same story again, but Insomniac games changes to the story will i say is a little improvement of the story. Basically it’s the same plus more to it.
Captain Qwark who is Ratchet’s idol, is telling the story of the lombax and his mechanic friend Clank throughout the galaxy while you play. But i got the feeling that the main story of the game was pushed on, i feel like there’s something missing in the story. It goes to fast forward. (But then again, i think we just got a little taste of what’s coming to the movie)

Gameplay
The controllers in the game is easy to learn, and off course fun to play. Even there is a few little frame drops on the graphics, but it isn’t so noticeable.
The maps or planets as we say in the game will feel like new to hardcore gamers even though you might have seen the planets before. Some maps will look exact the same you saw back in 2002, but you will notice something different every time. And the weapons, o mighty the weapons.
The weapons in the game is still so much fun to use, turning enemies to sheep’s, or maybe turn them into 8 bit enemies. My personal favorite, the Gravitron. Make the enemies dance will you slaughter your way through.

Even if you’re finished with the main story, there is still something you can do in the game. Collect all cards and gold bolts on the planets. Hoverboard tournament and more. So the game is replayable and not yet ready to be put on a shelf.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.