Posts Tagged PS3 Games
PS3 – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review
While licensed video games have a dubious history, those targeting the younger set have been particularly uninspired. It is a pleasant surprise, then, that Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa not only makes excellent use of its license, but presents a worthwhile game experience as well. Despite using different voice actors than the movie, the cutscenes capture the essence of the characters quite well, providing a continual string of well-constructed and downright funny moments. The simple gameplay may turn off experienced players, but the sheer variety of enjoyable activities will more than satisfy those looking for a fun romp through Africa.
The story in Madagascar 2 follows the path laid out by the movie it’s based on. Julien, king of not only his fellow lemurs but apparently every other species as well, thinks it is cruel to stay hidden away in Madagascar when the whole world should be lucky enough to make his acquaintance. The penguin-piloted plane carrying Julien and the rest of the animals crashes in Africa, though, far short of their New York City goal. The story is consistently goofy and the frequent cutscenes are pretty amusing. Julien is the star here, spouting jokes fueled by his kingly ego, often at the expense of his meek servant Mort. The other characters play off their own quirks, from Melman’s lack of confidence to Claire’s search for love, with humorous results. Some of the voice acting, most notably Melman’s, feels jarring and out of place, but the new cast is generally quite good. This is a silly game, and the tone stays true throughout the adventure.
Though this is primarily a platformer, you’ll be doing a lot more than jumping from one precarious platform to another. Through most of the game, you’ll be quickly shuttled from activity to activity. The tasks you’ll be asked to perform aren’t particularly deep, but they’re fun in short bursts. For instance, as Alex, you’ll attempt to join a herd of wild lions. To prove you’re worthy of such a prestigious position, you’ll be asked to perform in a variety of seemingly random competitions. Within the span of a half hour, you’ll compete in a game of musical chairs, play a variation of Hot Potato that uses the dreaded durian (a type of fruit with gooey, smelly insides), climb walls, avoid vultures, play dodgeball with mangoes, and ride on zip lines. The pacing is fast and furious–just before you tire of tossing around a durian, you’ll be whisked off to another event. Because of this, the game is never boring, despite the simplicity of many of these actions.
The breakneck pacing continues throughout most of the game. As Melman, you can ride atop boulders and whack moles intent on stealing suitcases; Marty plays a mean game of soccer and tests his speed in a series of races; the penguins drive around in a truck and build a flying contraption for Julien to ride in; and, of course, there is the quest to cure a herd of giraffes from a nasty outbreak of belly fish. Despite the many twists this game takes, the controls are tight and responsive no matter which ridiculous activity you’re competing in. And the punishment for failure is little more than a slap on the wrist, so younger gamers who have never experienced stealth in a game can get through the spy photography mission without worrying about unforgiving failure.
Later in the adventure, you’ll come across some longer, more varied quests as well. These are much closer to traditional platforming experiences, with the world opened up for free exploration and a few instances of combat thrown in for good measure. There are monkeys and coins hidden all over the land, and you’ll have to use each character’s specific abilities to navigate across every inch of the environment. As Gloria, you’ll have to get rid of a float of crocodiles by whipping mangoes at them. Once they’re banished, you’re free to explore the murky depths of the river for hidden chili peppers and fancy pearls. Alex is the most agile, able to double-jump to higher places and balance across narrow walkways. Melman can spin in the air, allowing him to float to faraway platforms. Once again, the variety keeps things interesting, constantly tossing new challenges at you.
There is replay value when you finish the five- to seven-hour main quest. Though some of the events, like musical chairs, are fun only once, there are enough interesting activities to make going back a second time worth it. There are lots of hidden monkeys scattered about and optional side quests to check out. If you feel like decorating, you can buy furniture and other gear for your monkey friends, which provides a quick joke and funny animation. The multiplayer offers some surprising thrills. Most of the activities are plucked straight out of the single-player adventure, which means you can play soccer or hot durian with a few pals. The real draw here is the mini golf. The physics are a little wonky, but the courses are huge and varied, creating a vivid atmosphere for healthy competition. One fancy quirk is being able to put some arc on your shot; if you’re daring, you can soar clear over obstacles. When you get three of your friends involved, it makes the games chaotically satisfying.
Madagascar 2 is a surprisingly fun game. The gameplay may be simple, but the variety of your objectives keeps the game flowing at a brisk pace. The cutscenes are really well done, with the oddball idiosyncrasies of the characters providing a consistent stream of enjoyable humor. And when you’re done with the main quest, there is plenty of reason to escape to Africa for a few more hours of entertainment. It’s a shame all licensed games aren’t of this level of quality, but Madagascar 2 is certainly something younger gamers or those just looking for silly fun can enjoy.
Add comment January 23, 2009
PS3 – Rise of the Argonauts Review
Rise of the Argonauts Review
Loosely based on the same Greek myth that inspired the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts, Rise of the Argonauts is an action-oriented role-playing game in which you assume the role of King Jason of Iolcus and go in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. All manner of monsters stand between you and your prize, and doing battle with them is a lot of fun. The same can’t be said for all of the time you have to spend wandering around and talking to other characters, unfortunately, and the wildly inconsistent frame rate makes even the stop-motion special effects in the aforementioned movie look silky smooth by comparison.
Rise of the Argonauts gets off to a shaky start. The assassination of Jason’s bride on their wedding day in the intro sequence ensure that the story is instantly compelling, but poor voice acting, awkward camera angles, questionable animation (Jason negotiating stairs is a must-see for all the wrong reasons), and numerous visual quirks waste no time in conspiring against it. Furthermore, there’s not much combat early on, so much of your time is spent trying to navigate Jason’s labyrinthine palace and conversing with guards who, save for their different-colored uniforms, all look identical. Iolcus, like the handful of other locations you’ll visit after acquiring the Argo, affords very few opportunities for exploration, but it still manages to be confusing enough in its design that you need to refer to the crudely drawn map to locate mission objectives in a timely fashion.
The high point of Rise of the Argonauts is undoubtedly the combat; Jason is skilled in the use of swords, spears, and maces, and he carries one of each as well as a shield at all times. The controls are uncomplicated and responsive, and it’s good that they’re the same no matter which weapon you’re wielding, because you’re encouraged to switch between them on the fly. None of the enemies are particularly intelligent, but they’re varied enough that you need to employ different weapons and strategies to get the better of them. Your spear can be used to keep overly aggressive enemies at a distance, while your mace is a good choice for destroying the shields of enemies attempting to hide behind them, for example. Putting your own indestructible shield to good use is crucial early on, but as you progress you become much more powerful and can spend more time on the offensive.
Interestingly, you need to go into the options menu if you want any kind of heads-up display for your health during combat. By default, you’re supposed to look for visual clues such as blood on the clothing of Jason and his allies to know when they’re in trouble, but the combat is so fast-paced that this isn’t always possible. Adding the HUD makes it much easier to know when Jason’s health is low, though it’s not always important because, in keeping with his mythological status, he’s a tough guy to keep down. When your health drops to zero you don’t die; rather, you enter a “state of grace” in which the screen blurs and you have 10 seconds or so to avoid taking any more damage before you regenerate around half of your health. You’ll die if you sustain a single hit during that time, but there are very few enemies who can keep up as you frantically run and roll around.
There are a number of ways in which you become a more formidable fighter as the story progresses. You’ll be joined by a handful of allies who will fight alongside you two at a time, you’ll be able to add more powerful weapons and armor to your arsenal, and you’ll learn new abilities by gaining favor with the gods Ares, Apollo, Athena, and Hermes. Each of the four gods has a skill tree composed of around 25 different “aspects” arranged into tiers so that more powerful ones become available only late in the game. The aspects vary a great deal and include both passive abilities and god powers that must be triggered manually in combat. Passive abilities include things like regenerating health anytime you kill an enemy, doing more damage to shields, and making your allies more powerful. God powers, which are fun but rarely needed outside of the most challenging difficulty mode, include temporary effects such as increased damage, explosions, and the ability to turn enemies into stone.
To purchase any given aspect you need to earn enough favor with the appropriate god to unlock it, which can be an interesting challenge in itself. The most obvious way to earn favor with gods is by dedicating to them any deeds you’ve accomplished. You can do this at shrines scattered throughout the world or, less elegantly, via an option in the pause menu. When you dedicate a deed to one of the gods, you earn an amount of favor proportional to the scale of your accomplishment. Settling a dispute among two traders is unlikely to impress in the same way that lopping off the heads of 25 enemies is, for example. The second way to curry favor with a god is by selecting dialogue choices that are clearly labeled as being appreciated by them. This can make the act of choosing dialogue a mechanical one if you care more about pleasing a specific god than you do about your interaction with whomever you’re talking to, but the conversations feel so unnatural anyway that this is as good a way as any to get through them quickly.
It’s unfortunate that so much of your time in Rise of the Argonauts is spent in conversation, because much of the dialogue is poorly written and the voice acting is even worse. It’s conceivable that one is the victim of the other, but certainly neither deserves any credit for keeping the story compelling. Even on the rare occasions that the script and the actors work well together, poor sound design results in unnatural pauses and in volume levels that compete with background noise or have you reaching for your TV remote. The lack of believable expressions on characters’ faces doesn’t help matters, nor do the load screens that frequently appear at the most inopportune times–occasionally so quickly after a piece of dialogue that there’s some doubt as to whether or not the character talking was even allowed to finish.
To say that Rise of the Argonauts has pacing issues would be an understatement of Olympian proportions; so much of your time is spent running around and talking to people that combat feels like a rare treat rather than a focus of the game. It’s a real shame that getting to the end of this adventure is as much a test of patience as it is a test of skill, because the combat gets increasingly satisfying as your arsenal of moves and equipment grows. It’s true that only boss encounters will pose any real challenge on the default difficulty setting toward the end, but by then that feels appropriate because you’re wielding godlike weapons and powers that can literally call down lightning from the heavens. With a greater emphasis on combat and fewer technical shortcomings, Rise of the Argonauts could have been easy to recommend. As it is, though, this is a great story poorly told.
Add comment January 23, 2009
