User Reviews

All Reviews by Gladio

Okami - PS2

Just give it a chance

For anyone who generally passes up that "wierd looking" Japanese game in a store needs to back up a step, and re-think Okami. With the saturation of "realistic" looking games on the market, Okami is the artistic and fun one-two punch this industry needs. A stigma has befallen the world, almost all life has been stunted by it, now it's up to a goddess in the form of a white wolf and her flea-like sidekick to restore the barren world back to it's former beauty. And in this case, beauty is an understatement. The visuals alone are enough to at least play this game. They aren't cell-shaded in a gimmicky sense, they are used more as an extension of the painting and mythical theme the art style depicts. This is combined with a traditional Japanese audio track. To say the least it would fit nicely into any samurai movie out there, but it only adds to the grand feeling this game exudes in spades. Yet the major sore spot in the game, (at least in my oppinion) does come from the audio. The dialogue isn't spoken, but instead emoted with a bunch of strange grunt like sounds. It's hard to say if it was to keep the mood light, but either way, it becomes irritating quickly. Yet despite that minor gripe, the game still hits a target that a lot of Japanese games of this ilk miss on a regular basis, fun gameplay. The general exploring and combat are pretty standard stuff, Ocarina of Time actually comes to the forefront of references here. The main draw if you can forgive the pun is the painting mode. Drawing certain designs can bring trees to life, turn night into day, create bridges, or slash enemies in half. At first it sounds gimmicky, and by all accounts it is, but it's a fun gimmick that only adds to the fun instead of being there just because. Okami overall is a game worth it's money for adventure fans looking for something a little different, but still a fun experience. Future Japanese developers would do well to learn from Okami's mix of great gameplay and an original art style.

Rez - PS2

Trippy...Just Trippy

Finally, a game that can be seen as real art...Take that Jack Thompson! Unfortunately, that is about all this game is worth. Although the game can prove strangely addictive, it takes more than tripped out visuals and music that only rave fans could truly appreciate to overcome it's painfully short length. Anyone who is a veteran of side-scrolling shooters could probably finish this game in just under two hours. Anyone else may have a little trouble with the last level, but that's about all the challenge it has to offer. Was it mentioned that level 5 is the last level and Rez's only unlockable? It is nice that there is a game mode that allows you unlimited health just for those times you want to "relax" but a longer length and a higher challenge combined with it's tripped out art style could have made this a must have. It's worth a rental just to see this game in action but as it is, that's all it's worth.

Soul Calibur III - PS2

Solid, but Ultimately Unrewarding

A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold. The first time Soul Calibur came out, who would have realised the statement was meant to be taken literally. Yes, here we are again with Soul Calibur 3 as it pulls out all it's old tricks with few new ones, and this proves to be it's main problem. The game is as good as ever. The fighting mechanics are as fluid as last time and the graphics have shown a slight increase in polish, but there just isn't enough content added to justify the update. Besides some new stages, 3 new characters, and a useless "strategy based" game, and a create a character feature, nothing has changed that much. In fact, the create a character feature is the games saving grace. After unlocking new parts the options become quite numerous for a custom character and pitting a creation against a friend's proves to be quite fun as the only real feeling of accomplishment surfaces. But besides that, it's just Soul Calibur 2 with 3 new characters and acutal cinemas for the character endings. Yet again, half of them are just plain unrewarding. In fact, that seems to be the main feeling here. Besides the create a character feature, it's all just the same. Now it does sound like that this review is unusually harsh, but don't be mistaken. Soul Calibur 3 is still a good game to buy if you don't own 2. But the rest of the gaming community should decide if a character creation system is enough to warrant a purchase.

Jade Empire - Xbox

Jaded? me?

After spending countless hours in at least fifty different games levelling up my scantilly clad elf women and finding that new plus 5 strength sword, I thought I had seen everything RPG's had to offer. Then Bioware broke the mold and gave us KOTOR, a game that took us out of ork filled dungeons and into a familiar universe of blasters and lightsabers. And now Bioware continues to surprise with Jade Empire, but with less flare then before. Veterans of KOTOR will feel right at home during the exploration and story sequences. The choose your own adventure type gameplay and high quality voice acting for every entity in the game has returned. But alot of the plot devices are surprisingly cliched. As a student at a martial arts school, your master is suddenly kidnapped and the town sacked. Just as he was going to reveal your destiny. Then a search for parts of a medallion and finding out that you are the last of a cool order. All seen before. But some of the smaller plot twists are surprisingly, well surprising. And keep the game's story from feeling too familiar. The big innovation was supposed to be the combat system. Although mixing up the styles adds alot of strategy, the extremely small amount of moves for each style and the sometimes awkward camera causes the game to degenerate into a simple button masher. The harmonic combos alleviate this somewhat, but even that gets a bit boring after a while. But what isn't boring are the mystically beautiful environments and backstory in Jade Empire. The world actually feels like it could exist, as every expertly detailed area has a history and population with real feelings. This only serves to make it a greater shame that there weren't more places to visit in the game though, since there are only two real towns and a handfull of locations to fight in. But all in all, it's nice to see a game that isn't set in a medieval universe filled with orks again. And it's pretty fun to play, for veterans of Kotor or otherwise.

God of War - PS2

Hands On Preview

Take Prince of Persia, reverse it's formula of 75% exploration 25% action and slap on some extremely violent ancient Greek mythology and you'd have a pretty good idea of what God of War is like. As Kratos, a chain sword (think Ivy's weapon from Soul Calibur only two of them and twice as cool looking) wielding Spartan who is extremely disturbed, you'll hack n' slash your way through a gritty world filled with alot of nasty things that would like you dead. The demo level played took place on (I'm guessing) a series of ships run aground on some rocks in the Aegean Sea, and wouldn't you know it, they are under attack from giant hydra's and other ableit smaller adversaries. There wasn't much plot revealed, as Krato's involvement in this is unkown, and it is made pretty clear that he cares for no one on these ships, but what is clear is that this guy is a warrior and out to prove it. Using simple button combos Kratos swings his swords around in a rather gorgeus ballet of death and chaos that becomes more and more satisfying as the player's finesse with the controlls increases. Before you know it you'll be whipping men up in the air for some juggling action or tearing the wings off a beast with your bear hands. An abnormal amount of boss's poplulated the area as well. After defeating a giant hydra head using a series of timed button taps (similar to Resident Evil 4) setting off a chain of animations that can only be described as increadibly cool, Imagin the surprise to find another one. And then a two more were thrown into the mix at the end. The environment also looked increadable in that depressing "How do I survive this?" way. Fish hooking a giant hydra and slamming his head on the deck of a sinking ship in a rain strom while sailor's are being ripped into the air by flying gargoyle like beasts is one of the greatist moments you'll have as a gamer. Not kidding. Just wait a few months and disapontment should be kicked out the door. Estimated score-5.0