Castlevania

Castlevania: Lords of Shadows is occasionally beautiful, occasionally exciting, and occasionally rewarding. However, to fully enjoy its best parts, you must endure a handful of drab settings and boring stealth puzzles along the way. At times, it's enough to make you want to put the controller down. But stick around until the end, and you'll enjoy a satisfying reward of eye-catching boss fights and a satisfying conclusion that ultimately diminishes the negative impact of the game's earlier issues. Lords of Shadow 2's story should resonate with anyone with a continuing interest in the series' narrative, and even though the ending won't hit newcomers as hard, the occasionally fantastic environments and monsters create a worthwhile experience that stands tall on its own by the end of the tale.
You're in a tough position at the start of Lords of Shadow 2. You, Dracula, awake from centuries of rest in a cathedral, smack in the middle of a modern metropolis. Your archnemesis from the first game, Zobek, is your first real contact. Despite your hatred for the traitor, you enter into an agreement with him. Help Zobek defeat Satan so that he may conquer the earth in his place, and he'll free you from immortality once and for all. To do this, you must take on Satan's devoted acolytes, who've implanted themselves into key positions in society.

This all comes after a rousing prologue, which sees Dracula at full strength battling righteous warriors in and around his unholy castle. For all the excitement offered there, the true start to Lords of Shadow 2's plot with Zobek is relatively deflating. Your motivation, to hunt someone else's enemies, doesn't inspire much excitement. Plus, you're immediately thrust into one of the most bland and uninspiring settings to be found: an industrial scientific complex replete with sheet metal, red pipes, and security guards. Memories of the first game in the series are filled with fantastic vistas and monumental architecture; apart from the prologue, Lords of Shadow 2 frustratingly avoids them early on.


It would be one thing if the boring start to the central plot quickly gave way to combat, which is the real reason worth playing Lords of Shadow 2, but instead you're forced into tedious and questionable stealth missions almost immediately after your reunion with Zobek. It's not inherently bad, but Lords of Shadow 2's stealth puzzles offer no room for creativity and unnecessarily slow the pacing while offering little in return. The prologue teaches you that this is a game about dark castles, fearless knights, and heavy combat, then it hits the snooze button. Unfortunately, it's throwaway content that gets in the way of the good stuff periodically throughout the game, but thankfully, it doesn't dominate the experience.
Lords of Shadow 2 eventually returns to what it does best: gothic action adventure. Throughout the story, Dracula finds himself back in time, though it's not immediately clear whether this is actual or imagined, but it brings the game back to its roots. Combat and fantastic environments take center stage, and with the game's new free-moving camera and an emphasis on exploration, both aspects feel fresh and new. Thanks to the flexible vantage, you're able to dash and leap during battle with greater accuracy than before. Throw in multiple new and diverse skill sets, and Dracula accurately feels like a powerful evolution of his former self, Lords of Shadow's Gabriel Belmont. This time around, there are a few new tools to play with, including a new weapon class that's capable of breaking down fortified enemy defenses, but the biggest changes (apart from the camera system) are the skill mastery system and the weapon-dependent move lists.

In Lords of Shadow 2, you learn skills for each weapon--shadow whip, void sword, and chaos claws--independently. Skills are learned by spending experience points granted during combat, and each has a gauge that fills with use. Once the gauge is full, this experience can be transferred into the given weapon, increasing its mastery level and effectiveness. The fragmentation of the move lists delays your effectiveness in battle somewhat, but it also allows you to focus on customization, opening the game up to different types of combat strategies.
When you aren't fighting, you spend quite a lot of time exploring and clambering about your environment. By default, your objective is often highlighted on the map, but unlike in the linear Lords of Shadow, it's up to you to find your way there. It's usually clear where to go; hint-like swarms of bats tip you off to handholds for climbing and ledges for leaping. However, unlike in the first game, there are many alternate paths to explore in search of treasure. While not game-changing, the openness feels appropriate given the wide world around you. Apart from some occasionally frustrating pathfinding inadequacies, it's the map that ultimately stands in your way. Unlike older, exploration-heavy Castlevania games, Lords of Shadow 2 employs a map that is only ever displayed on a piece-by-piece basis. Plus, the "world map" is just an illustration with names and numbers attached. It doesn't hurt the moment-to-moment poking around, but it doesn't entice you to backtrack either. If you can't easily see things you've missed, or more importantly, places you haven't been, returning to previous locales becomes an unappealing prospect.

Of course, there's also the fact that halfway through the game, the narrative and frequency of impressive set pieces begin to steamroll ahead, and the last thing you want to do is look back. Zobek eventually takes a sideline to Dracula's ambitions, and you begin to understand why you're going to such great lengths to thwart Satan. With the emphasis on Dracula and the memories of his family, you feel compelled to move ahead. In this way, Lords of Shadow 2 is a late bloomer. It takes a while for the story to show its true colors, but it eventually blossoms into an engaging tale filled a few clever surprises that should thrill anyone who's familiar with the series.
Much of the latter half takes place amidst sublime examples of gothic architecture, with nearby storms raging as you hop along rooftops, adding to the drama. Boss fights become a much more frequent occurrence, pitting you against gruesome monstrosities befitting of Castlevania's legacy. Their appearances can be quite striking, bringing to mind some of the best designs from film director Guillermo del Toro's work. They're evil, expertly crafted, and offer a variety of challenges that test your abilities with every weapon in many different ways. They require fast reflexes and deep knowledge of your move list, and the creativity on display is nothing short of captivating.
It's a pleasing change of pace after slogging through boring environments, waiting for things to happen, and you finally get a chance to take advantage of the time spent buffing up your skills in combat. The contrast between the two halves of the game is hard to ignore, and even though you have to force your way through mediocrity to get to the good stuff, the conclusion and the last hours leading up to it justify the time spent steeped in boredom and frustration.

Lords of Shadow 2 should have been a much shorter game. Still, though the game's stealth sections and drab modern settings represent the worst elements of the three-part saga, the tail end of the game contains the best of every aspect that the series is currently known for. It's the stuff you expect Castlevania to be made of, and after contending with forced stealth gameplay and a weak narrative at the start, it feels good to be home. Even better, the final act wraps up the Lords of Shadow trilogy with authority, and the game's final moments leave you both gasping for air and sighing in relief. It may not strike newcomers to the Lords of Shadow tale with such force, but it's nonetheless a surprising and fulfilling conclusion to Lords of Shadow 2's distinct plot. Regardless of your experience with the saga, if you have the patience to get through the rough start, you'll discover a much better game waiting for you on the other side.

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Resident Evil 4

Nine years is a long time to wait for a proper port, even for a game as celebrated as Resident Evil 4. Its release on the GameCube in 2005 ushered in a new era for the franchise, as well as a different perspective and play style that its sequels quickly inherited. Capcom capitalized on its immense success, porting the game to multiple platforms, and the game was graciously welcomed by the succeeding console generation on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Though nine years is indeed a lot of time for a second PC port, there is a reason it may be warranted. Resident Evil 4 has been available on the PC since 2007, but its release was less than stellar compared to its console brethren. The horror it unleashed was more on a technical level, given the lack of mouse controls and the option to adjust visual settings. Dubbed Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD Edition, the game has returned in an attempt to set past wrongs right. The game has received substantial upgrades, and may be the best version yet released, even if "ultimate" might not be the right word.
Resident Evil 4 has returned to the PC with a fresh purpose. Unlike the original port, this latest edition comes complete with a host of welcome enhancements. The game has been adjusted for widescreen and 1080p resolution fixed at 60 frames per second. There is also native keyboard and mouse support with options for custom key binding, anti-aliasing, a bevy of high-resolution textures, and greatly reduced loading times. Resident Evil 4 HD contains the original game, complete with all prior additional content, including the Separate Ways side campaign.

The story of Resident Evil 4 is nearly common knowledge at this point. Ashley Graham, the daughter of the president of the United States, has been abducted, and series veteran Leon S. Kennedy has been dispatched to a remote, undisclosed village in Spain to recover her. There, he discovers that the religious cult responsible for the kidnapping has unleashed an ancient, mind-controlling parasite called Las Plagas onto the Spanish countryside. The game differs from its predecessors, detaching itself from the series' staple enemies, zombies, and favoring multifaceted foes that display cunning and a dark intelligence. As Leon progresses, enemies grow more grotesque, shedding their humanity and replacing it with a cold, insectoid carapace.
Leon travels across varied and fascinating environments as he searches for the missing Ashley. Adhering to the franchise's history of creepy atmosphere and dark locales, Resident Evil 4 features misty forests, rundown houses, musty caverns, a labyrinthine castle, and military facilities. Enemy types vary greatly and include pitchfork-wielding farmers, chanting cultists, and horrifying genetically engineered monstrosities that can force even the most stalwart players to turn heel. But Leon isn't alone against the infected horde. He is joined by a cast of interesting characters, some newly met and others appearing out of his history, teasing past romantic entanglements and bitter rivalries. The dialogue and some later sequences get goofy at times, but the story's somber overtones keep things intense, from the slow trek through creeping fog, all the way to the explosive finale.

The main attraction of Resident Evil 4 HD is the graphical upgrades, and what Capcom has done to breathe new life into its aging thriller is impressive, mostly. Leon and his assortment of allies and foes have never looked shaper or better defined. The wide-screen support with high-resolution textures running at a crisp, smooth 60 frames per second should be enough to get even the hearts of most veteran Resident Evil 4 fans pumping with adrenaline once again. And, yes, it all performs beautifully. Trees and shadows are imbued with realistic grace, text featured in menus and passing notes is clean, and even the fine-stitched lettering on Leon's alternate Raccoon City Police uniform is easily legible. However, the new textures have an unintentionally negative side effect.
One of the reasons behind Resident Evil 4's launch into stardom was the game's unequivocal attention to detail. Capcom took special care in crafting a realistic and believable world with a gloomy ambiance. While Resident Evil 4 HD boasts high-quality textures, they aren't universal, meaning the original textures that have lingered since 2005 stand out more than ever, ironically making the game feel more aged than ever. In the game, you may stumble across a stone wall composed of realistic cracks and earthy green moss. But in the same area, you could find a wooden box leaning up against the wall that still retains the archaic textures, resulting in a blurry, brown object strikingly out of place.

It can get distracting, considering it's difficult not to notice a stark contrast between a building and the ground it stands upon. Many of the new skins feel too clean, scrubbing away rotten wood and rust, robbing the game of its dingy flavor. Castle walls look sharp, and research laboratories feel uninviting and sterile, but the caverns between them look muddy, with textures that are warped and stretched. Texture glitches also pop up from time to time, and measure in intensity from flickering to, on a rare occasion, getting replaced by what appeared to be the image designated for text, because the enemies turned black and were covered in lettering. The game lets you switch back to original textures if you like, but the heavy pixelation may not offer abatement.
Benefiting from the graphical overhaul are all but one of the cutscenes during Leon's campaign, which play out in real time. Capcom gave far less attention to Separate Ways, which still includes low-quality full-motion video cutscenes that look even worse due to the game's higher resolution. There is also a grievous error that occurs following nearly every video. As the game transitions from the clip back to gameplay, there is a strong chance the screen will turn bright green for up to five seconds.
This passing annoyance quickly treads into frustrating territory. The game occasionally challenges you to complete a quick-time event between scenes. This transition alone, which takes you from a blurry clip, to sudden action, and onto the following clip, oscillates with enough force to threaten whiplash. Being asked to press a pair of buttons between the scenes comes as a jolt, and the lag produced may decrease the amount of time allowed to complete the move, ending in failure. In one such moment, I missed my cue and had to try again. Except the second time, the green screen overlapped the brisk moment of gameplay and cleared only after it was too late. To continue my game, I had to press the appropriate buttons right as the green screen appeared.

The loudest complaint befalling the original port of Resident Evil 4 to the PC was the lack of mouse support. The squirrely, nauseating user-created aim mods that followed only exacerbated the issue. During that time, PC users had to either get used to it or opt to play the game using a controller. Though aiming with the mouse is finally possible, it is far from perfect. When you're fighting at close range, the laser sight has a chance to twitch, making fights against advancing ganados more strenuous than necessary. At long distance, aiming a weapon's laser pointer has a slippery, unnatural feel, making shots difficult and unnecessarily taxing on your ammo supply. There is also a short, but noticeable, delay between holding out the knife and being able to look around.
Like before, your best chance is to equip yourself with a gamepad. The most preferable choice is the Xbox 360 controller, since the game has been updated to support it; gone is the need to memorize the cryptic numbered buttons from the old PC port, because the game includes appropriate onscreen graphics for the device. When you have a gamepad in hand, the controls are roughly comparable to the GameCube experience. The camera floats behind the protagonist's shoulder, creating a third-person view. When an enemy is spotted, the game requires you to first hold your aim, while the camera flies down closer, enlarging your field of vision. Combat favors strategy, offering different ways to dispatch enemies based on the current situation. Going gung ho and blasting away may leave you scrambling for ammunition, and the optional knife does only so much against tougher foes later down the line.

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Titanfall

When you look at Titanfall, it's easy to see the familiar. Most of the weapons, grenades, and abilities fill well-worn niches. Many of the environments are like the grimy villages and industrial complexes that have hosted countless online battles in dozens of other games. The competitive modes are bog standard. And yet, when you play Titanfall, it's impossible to shake the feeling that you're playing something special.

The key is mobility. Titanfall gives you the ability to leap, climb, and wall-run your way around the map, and these simple actions create an exhilarating array of possibilities. No longer constrained by corridors and stairwells, you and your foes engage in high-flying, freewheeling combat in which the sheer joy of movement makes the familiar feel fresh and vibrant. This novel brand of warfare is enough to heartily recommend the game, but that's not all that this multiplayer-only shooter does well. You also clash with your foes in lumbering battle mechs called titans. These powerful brutes fuel a weightier, more tactical type of combat that intertwines beautifully with the light-footed action, and herein lies Titanfall's triumph: two distinct kinds of combat blending seamlessly together to create chaotic and dynamic battlefields unlike anything you've ever experienced.

So how does this mobility work? As a jump kit-equipped pilot, the stunts you can perform all stem from two abilities: the double jump and the wall run. The first one is self-explanatory and allows you to surmount shipping containers and leap into second story windows with ease. The second one is dependent on the angle of your approach. If you run straight at a wall and leap into it, you're stuck trying to double jump your way to a window or a roof. If, however, you come at a wall from an acute angle, you automatically start running along that wall horizontally. Once you start wall running, your double jump capability resets, and then the fun begins.

If you spot an enemy down an alley, you can wall run straight at him, bouncing back and forth between parallel walls to make yourself a tougher target. If you're trying to cross a courtyard, then double jump off the rooftop, wall run along a billboard, and double jump again to another rooftop. And how did you get on the roof in the first place? Perhaps by wall jumping upwards, back and forth between two buildings, or perhaps by leaping out of a top floor window and double jumping back on to the roof. Though the moves you can eventually perform are complex, the root of every maneuver is those two simple abilities. A solid tutorial puts you through the initial paces, and though it might take a few matches to get a good sense of how your pilot sticks to walls, it's easy to start chaining together impressive feats very early on.

This makes simply moving around the map both a continual pleasure and a constant challenge, as you gleefully try to exploit every billboard, building, and zipline to your advantage. The 15 maps are all rich with opportunities for creative locomotion. Titanfall takes place on distant colonies in the space-faring future, where the polished steel of well-established settlements contrasts with the rusty metal of frontier outposts. Dense urban areas play host to daring rooftop acrobatics, while a corporate enclave provides curving architectural lines for pilots to exploit. Many buildings have open interior spaces as well, so weaving in and out of windows and changing elevation rapidly is par for the course. It's always empowering to learn the maps in a competitive shooter, but this satisfaction is heightened in Titanfall because your expanded mobility means there is so much more to learn.

It also means that your enemies can come at you from almost any direction. Pilots move at a brisk clip, so there's a lot of potential for quick flanking runs and rapid pursuits. They are also fairly fragile, succumbing to a few well-placed shots much like their military-shooter counterparts. This encourages you to be even more aware of your surroundings and to take advantage of one of the more disruptive maneuvers in the game: the wall hang. At almost any time you're running along or jumping onto a wall, you can stop and hang, take aim, and fire. Being able to switch quickly from wall running to guns blazing helps ensure that a mobile pilot is not a vulnerable pilot, and the potential for ambushing players by hanging in unexpected places is nearly endless.

Fortunately, one of the tactical abilities allows you to temporarily see your enemies' skeletons through walls and spot any potential ambushes. The other two--turning nearly invisible and boosting speed and regeneration--round out a trio of powers that have been extensively utilized by other games and aren't initially very exciting. But like so much in Titanfall, these familiar abilities take on new life because the extensive player mobility allows you to employ them in new ways.

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