A beautiful storytelling masterpiece

By judging the game's case it looks like just another japanese rpg, never really stood out from the game shelf, but from the reviews i read and recommendations from friends, i decided to buy the game... best decision i ever made.

The thing that makes this game so amazing is the plot and character development, every single character on your squad has it's own personality, talents and weaknesses, which show up in game as 'potentials' , which could take you to victory or make things harder for you, the potentials are related to the soldier's life and experience, which makes the characters ( even those who have no real participation in the story) that much more realistic and detailed.

The game itself starts of normally but interesting, every time you get farther into the game, the plot keeps developing beautifully and more interesting. Unlike most game plots nowadays which don't make you feel much emotion, this one made me feel every emotion under the sun, happiness, regret, hope, sadness, desperation, hopelessness, shock, etc. The game constantly made me emotional, be it happiness or sadness and etc, i even laughed, not many games can do this. It even deals with real world issues as racism and obviously war and the ways it affects everyone.

The actual gameplay is really fun, though it takes some time for it to grow on you. The battles play out in turns, like a tactical rpg like final fantasy tactics, but instead of moving on a square grid, you have free movement over the character, each class has it's own unique weapon and abilities, they are nicely balanced, battles require thinking strategically, and you can use different orders you acquire throughout the game, which ranges from snipers support, healing members and everything in between. Plus the missions are diverse and you're not doing the same thing in them. The only flaws i saw against the gameplay is when the characters would miss and basically screw you over, and the duration of some missions, which makes defeats soul crushing ( i stopped playing the game three different times for weeks and even a month or two thanks to that), but hey that's an rpg for you. Also sometimes enemies would waste game changing opportunities, but most of the times they fought smartly. You can level up, gaining new orders and potentials, plus there's a lot of different weapon and armor upgrades you can buy.

Sound :The music is quite good, enhances the situation at hand perfectly, the voice acting is quite good too, the voice actors made me believe what was happening on screen, there's also a japanese voice track for the purists or if you can't stand the voice syncing, which is notably off sometimes, but never bothered me. 9.5

Controls: The controls are precise enough and never too confusing and the like. 9.5

Graphics: The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, everything looks as if it was painted in a animated water color canvas, and that's just the in game graphics, there are cutscenes, which blur the line of 3d graphics and anime, wish i could explain it better, just watch the game in action and you'll get what i mean. 10

From start to finish the game is absolutely beautiful, the plot, the twists, the feeling you get from the game's story, i cried a quite a few times, laughed and so on and so forth, while witnessing the resolution of the game, my eyes were welling up with tears as the events unfolded, no spoilers here.

If you enjoy a great story and a fun and tactical rpg, you owe it to yourself to play this game, RPG of year 08 - 09 in my opinion.

10/10

A Beautiful example of amazing sound and art design married with great gameplay design.

It was 10+ years ago, when i first played on the playstation and even back then i was struck on how fun and amazing it all felt, the sound, the graphics, the backgrounds, and how fun it was, after all this time, i had the opportunity to get it via PSN and it still felt the same as it did years ago.

Just from the main screen you can notice the beautifully composed music,and this is the game's genius, every area of the game has it's own different feel to it which is greatly enhanced by the music, the composer deserves lots of praise, seeing how each theme matches the environments beautifully, it's one of those soundtracks that you could listen to again and again. The voice acting is solid, though Alucard's voice actor is the best performance along with Dracula's voice actor, they really nailed the parts in my opinion.

The art design is also a plus, every area is different and nicely detailed, sure it's an old game, but the game aged beautifully, the backgrounds are filled with great vistas, and the game just looks good along with the characters, i love the Gothic vibe everything has. The only smear on the graphics are the graphical glitches that are strewn through out the game.

The plot itself is simple really, go find out why Dracula's castle appeared yet again, but there are interesting moments in between the real ending which makes the experience that much richer, from some memorable bosses, to the few twists the plot goes through.

The gameplay itself is also simple but so fun, kill stuff, level up (no stat allocation though) collect and find gear, explore and discover new abilities, and that's where the game can get addicting, when you finally get X upgrade, you start thinking ' where did i need to double jump? and etc' and those ' ahaha! i remember where' moments feel so good that they keep you from setting the controller down until you figure it out and find a new area with new challenges and places to explore. I wish i would be able to sell items i didn't need, instead of carrying all that useless stuff around which makes the item selection a bit of a pain, nothing major though.

The spell system is a little weird though cool, instead of learning it the normal way, you have to figure it out yourself, by tapping random button combination, THOUGH, some spells are sold, most spells and techniques i figured out for myself, even if they aren't needed to finish the game, it makes the experience that much better, why slash away when you can teleport behind an enemy and slash him twice on the back and teleport back again?

This is one of those games that if you invest time in it and try to discover everything it offers, the game gets that much better, those who don't like exploring and finding secret stuff will probably don't enjoy it that much, same can be said with those who need to be told where to go.

The only defects i can find with it, it's that the secret level you discover (if you explored the first game area thoroughly and find some important items.....) while it has great music, a lot of the themes are repeated which makes the experience drag on a bit, though there are still areas with unique and beautiful themes. And even that secret area features good art design.

Graphics: 4.5
Sound: 5.0
Controls: 4.5
Fun Factor: 5.0

So in the end, you get an amazing, challenging (specially that secret
level) game filled with great atmosphere,music,art,interesting plot and cool characters, that oozes styIe and coolness,if you haven't yet played it, buy it now and love it, i seriously can't find much wrong with this game.

You always wanted to break stuff.... here's a hammer.

Ever since i can remember games either have had either indestructible buildings or slightly damageable ones, but Red Faction: Guerrilla, changed that, hopefully for good, but it suffers from some not too exciting design choices.

It starts putting you right in the action and giving you reason enough to want to fight the EDF ( once heroes, now corrupted by power), the first thing i noticed were the great cutscene graphics, it truly looks marvelous but the in game graphics left me a bit disappointed, everything looks detailed with some nice visual effects but nothing out of the ordinary (plus mars isn't the most exciting environment to look at) ,BUT the physics and the detail of the destruction of buildings makes it worth it. Never have i seen such realistic looking, behaving and sounding buildings (nothing like concrete thumping in the floor and groaning steel wanting to give away and take the whole building with it), whack it with the sledgehammer (badass starting weapon, i never stopped using it) and watch the chunks fall off, place explosives, shoot an rpg at it or my personal favorite, smash a car through it and the building will react to all those, it's a great experience, and that destructibility adds a strategic side to the combat, create a new door for you to flank your enemies (which are smarter than i expected), destroy their cover, or just blow the whole building down, your choice.

Which takes me to the gameplay, which is the usual sandbox game progression, there are main missions, which are varied enough to make them interesting, and there are some epic battles in those, side missions(or guerrilla actions, some which suddenly pop up and allow you to intercept someone, go to a location and defend it and etc), collectibles to destroy, secret stuff to find and the best part about the game, lowering the EDF's control over an area, which is done by destroying EDF buildings, and there's where the game's genius lies,YOU choose how to destroy it, hit and run attack, attack it for a while and retreat or just crash a vehicle through the building and blowing the car with building and all while you escape like an action hero unscathed.... if you're fast enough, whatever you want to do, and there is where the game shines, though after a while it can get a bit repetitive, and it doesn't help that the open world isn't too interesting to explore, except for finding buildings to destroy. Plus the story is forgettable at best, it had some potential but they didn't bother integrating it better and making it more interesting. But the thing is that when you are in the middle of a mission, raid or guerrilla action, you just won't care, the feeling you get from the intense action is great, this is one of those games that are easy to pick up and play but it'll get tiring in a few hours, at least until you stop playing and pick it up later again.

One of the best things about the game are the upgrades which increase your ability to own people and buildings alike, and you'll always have something to buy upgrades for so you don't max out your skills before the game ends. The weapon selection is varied enough and you'll always have to choose carefully for whatever your about to do. And the protagonist is a likeable character, shame that the game didn't have a better plot.

So after all that the game is enjoyable and it'll change how you look at buildings in other games, but it never reaches it's full potential and the repetitive aspect of it can get annoying.

Graphics: boring environment, nothing out of the ordinary, great cutscene graphics, great physics and damage models for the buildings. 4.5

Control: they do their job, and the weapon hotkeys are comfortable enough, though i sometimes selected the wrong weapon, but it was most likely due to the intense fire around me. 4.5

Sound: good voice acting, decent musical score, impressive sound effects. 4.75

Fun Factor: 4.5

Sequels are not as good as the original

I'll start with saying that Butcher Bay is as awesome as you remember it, which has been remastered, which means better graphics and performance. But it's expansion doesn't fare as good as the original.

Butcher Bay: The classic that debuted on the xbox is STILL is one of the best FPS's around, it's mixture of stealth, great melee combat and good run of the mill FPS sections (read run and gun) but what made it great is the layout of the game, it's divided on a sort of hub world, where you receive side quests from fellow prisoners that run from simple ' kill this guy' to ' find me this' while at the same time accomplishing your main objective. The melee combat is the star of the game with faces and bodies getting marked realistically, hit someone with a punch and see the bruising, stab someone and watch the gash, i wished there was more melee combat on both games. The kill moves are animated greatly and look brutal and bloody, plus your weapon (whatever it may have been) will be stained with blood, a great little detail, BUT, the transition from the kill move animation to the ragdoll physics is most of the times embarrassing looking, it might have been fine on the xbox but next gen consoles have SO much more computing power to make those transitions realistic looking.

The story is enjoyable and has that cool vibe of the Riddick movies, and one of this game's strength is making you feel like Riddick, be it in cutscenes or in gameplay, though the story won't blow your mind, it's good enough for it to be enjoyable, think of a great action movie story and you'll have an idea of it.

Now the A.I is questionable, sure they'll look for you but they'll stand in the dark with the flashlights turned off, that makes sense (sarcasm), though if they hear something they'll look for you with the flashlights on but that little detail is annoying.

Dark Athena: It starts out good enough, some sneaking action, some firefights and great melee combat but along the way it runs a little stale, relying more on run and gun than on melee and the sidequests, picking up dead drones in the middle of combat (basically people turned into cyborgs) to use their rifle is a blast, but as i said it runs a little stale, the whole vibe of the game isn't as great or enjoyable as Butcher Bay, though the Ulaks (a great pair of blades) make you feel even more as Riddick, killing three plus enemies in the dark like in the movies or dropping from high up killing one and then wailing at the other, great stuff. The A.I is better than Butcher's but not by much.

The story is good, but i preferred Butcher Bay's it had more of Riddick's great one liners, though the story gets interesting (and slightly cooler than Butcher's) but it ends kind disappointing, and leaves you wanting for more and not in a good way.
Graphics: I was surprised with how much they improved the graphics (on Butcher Bay), though the physics and some bugs here and there (the graphics sometimes get blurry) are slightly disappointing. Great lighting and the damage engine on faces and bodies is great. 4.5

Sound: Great voice acting by it's cast, good atmospheric music that enhances the mood of the game, decent gunfire and explosion.

Control: Good controls, weapon wheel is great though sometimes in the middle of the action chose the wrong gun, though you can hotkey two weapons to left and right on the directional pad. aiming is precise if slightly touchy. 4.5

So in conclusion this game would have fared pretty bad if Dark Athena had been sold on it's own, but by adding Butcher Bay to the package, makes it a more solid package, DA is not bad, just not as good as the original.
Fun Factor: 4.5

It isn't anything special offline, but online it shines brightly

After years of hype and high expectations Killzone 2 finally releases, it's the game the the first one was supposed to be but it fails to make any splash story wise or gameplay wise, it's another good FPS with gorgeous graphics and great online, nothing more.
The game begins greatly with Visari giving a rousing speech that impressed me ( GREAT voice acting ) and the game starts with ISA invading the Helgast and the intense combat and situations start. So far so good, but along the line the game loses steam story wise, with the story driving you to certain locations but it never really made me emotionally connect with any of the characters ( there are key exceptions but there were too few of them) which makes the game feel kind of dry and plain, seeing that you are facing against waves of the Helgast, make no mistake, this game is really fun, but it just isn't as amazing as it was supposed to be. The best part of this game is the atmosphere, people dying all around you ( in cutscenes and in gameplay) explosions everywhere and etc. Though the climax is pretty good, it really draws you in, here's hoping that they continue the story shortly.
The combat is great, it feels like a more intense rainbow six game, you will need to fight smartly, suing cover, and tactics, run and gun enthusiast will die... a LOT, specially on the harder levels. The cover system is sort of sketchy, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, but it's a good addition to the game.
Graphics: now this one is a looker, smoke from explosions and rounds hitting stuff clouds your views, gusts of wind and fog realistically pass along the combat zones clouding your view, great stuff. Character models look great and the amazing physics system makes you marvel at the carnage you and your enemies cause, THE best physics i have ever seen yet. The way the screen turns almost black and gray when you're dying makes it almost as if you were dying for real. 5.0
Sound: War is noisy indeed, weapons fire, the screams of allies, and enemies alike, explosions, etc., all immersed me greatly into the combat. 5.0
Controls: The aiming is a tad loose, which makes aiming sort of annoying at first, but after you get used to it, it gets better, i just wished it had tighter controls. 4.25
If the game had no online the fun factor would be 4.25, seeing that it's single player campaign is nothing special though fun, really fun, but thankfully that's not the case.
Online: It's pretty amazing, it's addictive as hell, the ribbons you unlock ( for certain achievements like lots of headshots, being the guy that kills more people in a match etc.) give you special abilities, such as extra points, the classes are great ( except for the extremely over powered assault class) are greatly balanced and are tailored for teamwork, and each class has special abilities,plus a secondary badge to unlock after certain requirements are met. The game looks great online and there's lag but not as bad as other games, i would say that an 80 percent of the time i played with minimal lag. Plus the community is pretty good, with honor ranks given to the best weekly players, clans and etc.
In short, this game shines Online, with great features and addicting gameplay, this game would have been so much better if it had a much better offline campaign, it's not bad, it's just not special.
Fun Factor WITH online: 5.0