Gamesugar

May 25, 2011

Review – Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD

Might and Magic Clash of Heroes
Though the Great Fall of the PSN has much delayed us, that service’s howling, furious resurrection has finally allowed Team Sugar to report on the matter of Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, the HD upgrade of 2009’s DS original.

Clash of Heroes exists in some infinite limbo between puzzle game and turn-based strategy. The goal of each battle is to deplete the enemy’s health by firing attacks into his endzone—which is carefully protected by his army of units. Units can be organized to form attack formations or defensive wall formations. Additionally, specialized hero units can be purchased and employed for devastating attacks.

The primary task here is to maximize the number of actions that can be performed in one turn. The player has a limited number of moves, and while certain actions may grant additional moves, one must be mindful of the most efficient, useful maneuvers on the field. Combat, accordingly, is as much a puzzle as a strategy game.

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May 14, 2011

Review – Section 8: Prejudice

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 9:00 am

Section 8 Prejudice
Section 8: Prejudice straddles an interesting zone between downloadable budget title and full-fledged retail release. Though it isn’t quite comparable to similar on-disc titles, it provides a comprehensive multiplayer mode and a campaign of near-retail length, providing decidedly more value than the standard downloadable experience.

Prejudice is, however, chiefly a multiplayer product. The competitive mode is where players will spend most of their time and contains the most replay value. The strength of it comes from Section 8’s intriguing core combat mechanic, which may appear deceptively simple, but employs a number of unique features to change the face of the battle.

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May 3, 2011

Review – Portal 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:53 am

Portal 2
I think it’s fair to say that probably every game is made, at least in part, by committee. The results can be fairly obvious; it’s easy to see when some executive has made the decision to pursue a Call of Duty or a Gears of War.

Valve, by contrast, produces perhaps the purest product available on the current market; the games where it’s clear that most decisions have been made in the interest of making the best videogame possible.

Portal 2 exemplifies this condition; it is pure game, straight through, with each facet specifically calibrated to produce what, undoubtedly, becomes an instant classic the moment the disc enters the tray.

The sequel returns the player to the life of Chell, unknown Aperture test subject, as she awakes hundreds of years after the events of the original game, once again trapped in the Aperture facility. If this change of circumstance is somewhat mystifying, then I recommend reviewing the updated ending to Portal (dispensed via Valve-patch), or better yet, reading the online comic bridging the events of the two games.

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May 2, 2011

Review – Conduit 2

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 9:03 pm

Conduit 2
Conduit 2 is a strange, mysterious product—much like the preposterous conspiracy story it attempts to tell. A mix of ideas from other games, painted with a brush of humor and absurdity and featuring a hero who recalls Duke Nukem more so than the grim soldiers of more recent games, it’s software that strains against the limitations of its platform and manages to come out only as satisfying as it is frustrating.

The protagonist is Michael Ford, former secret service agent on a quest to defeat some sort of alien bad guy who’s out to do stuff, I guess. I can’t tell you much more than that, because the game didn’t see fit to tell me much more than that. The story provides no context for the events, which I imagine is fine if you played the previous game—but I did not. I suppose I now understand how new players feel when picking up Halo 2 or 3.

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April 30, 2011

Review – Outland

Outland
A simulated wind raised the orchestral tension as I ran along the back of a flying serpent, dodging falling explosives while waiting for the chance to strike at the key points that beast ferociously sought to protect. This was around the time it occurred to me that anyone who yearns for developers to be given the time and freedom to create memorable and compelling gaming experiences, will undoubtedly fall in love with Outland, perhaps as severely as I have for the girl I immediately yearned to show that same sequence to.

The play of that boss encounter reminded me of Ico, and there is certainly a much longer list of titles that came to mind throughout the experience – few of which need to be named given the way Outland doesn’t simply patch together a quilt of influences, rather taking inspiration into its own folds to weave a game worthy of the player’s investment.

The lingering importance of citing those influences is that Outland shines with the energy of a game designed by people who don’t just enjoy games on some theoretical level, but enjoy playing games. In fact, Outland will convince you that the team at Housemarque grew up loving the same games you did, assuming you burned candles late into the night playing through the same who’s-hot list of 2D titles old-school gamers look back on today with teary-eyed nostalgia.

The only game that can’t escape mentioning is Treasure’s Ikaruga, the light and dark trickery of which gives Outland the means to teach a few new tricks of its own, giving the mechanics of the shooter strange but stable new legs to walk upon the land with.

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April 29, 2011

Review – Nin2-Jump

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 2:17 pm

Nin2 Jump
Between the release of bullethell shooters that keep the name Cave warm in the hearts of the gaming faithful, the niche developer’s latest offering tackles the platforming genre and gives players a chance to perform puppet theater for an audience.

NIN-JA finds himself caught up in a classic quest to save a Princess, his striking red scarf always caught on the fixed wind in a world of painted backdrops and paper characters. Animation is largely reserved for the audience occupying the bottom of the screen, ever anxious and vocal while watching the player navigate Cave’s obstacle course.

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April 27, 2011

Review – Hector: Badge of Carnage
Episode 1: We Negotiate With Terrorists

Review Hector Badge of Carnage Episode 1 We Negotiate with Terrorists
I spent a good part of my Easter Sunday playing Hector: Episode 1, a game that I would definitely not want to get caught playing if Jesus were coming back.

Why? This is easily one of the bluer point-and-click adventure games on the market – a hypothesis supported by the fact that you can’t escape the first room in the game without solving a puzzle that involves a condom and a severed foot.

Did that get your attention? Great, I’ll continue then.

Hector: Episode 1, originally released for the iPhone by Straandlooper Animation, has now been brought to the Mac, PC, and iPad by Telltale Games, a company already known for police-based adventure games, although Hector is neither a dog nor a rabbit. You play as Detective Inspector Hector, a (human) constable working in Clapper’s Wreake, an English town that, as they say, “took the ‘Great’ out of Britain.”

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