Unorthodogg.com: November 2007

Monday 19 November 2007

UNCHARTED: DRAKE'S FORTUNE (2007) REVIEW

More than just a pretty game.

PS3 exclusive.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is an action adventure game published by Sony and developed by Naughty Dog for the PS3.

GAMEPLAY
In a couple of later levels the game genuinely gets quite scary and the change of tone is pretty impressive. To some people's frustration though the game is a bit repetitive, largely just going between similar looking places and mostly, outside of that segment towards the end, just really being slightly varying platforming and shooting sections.

STORY

GRAPHICS

One of the best looking games at its time of release

SOUND

VALUE FOR MONEY

OVERALL
Along with Tools of Destruction, Uncharted is one of the PS3 best launch titles.

Friday 16 November 2007

MASS EFFECT

version reviewed.

GAMEPLAY
Dialogue tree is great, the paragon and renegade unlocks add some interesting depth to already potentially deep conversations.

Combat is pretty rough and could certainly use improvement

The Mako is pretty crazy sometimes but the real problem is usually the giant empty worlds you're thrown into simply to drive to one small location and leave again. Thankfully these things are only really the side quests, so you can ignore them.

STORY
Saren is a fantastic antagonist, the Sovereign reveal is a cool twist

I actually found myself having the most fun simply talking to the squad mates and getting to know them in between missions. The level of depth the characters you bring along have is really brilliant and I was happily surprised to find that I enjoyed learning about them more enjoyable than the rest of the game.

The world building is excellent and sets up a really strong foundation

GRAPHICS

Some of the characters look fantastic, such as Wrex

SOUND
A really solid soundtrack

VALUE FOR MONEY

OVERALL

Tuesday 13 November 2007

ASSASSIN'S CREED (2007) REVIEW

A fish out of water.

PS3 version reviewed.

Assassin's Creed is a game published and developed by Ubisoft for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

GAMEPLAY
The open-world is pretty detailed and cities look nice. Travelling around locations is pretty great too, being able to scramble up most walls and move across the city quickly is a nice idea, but the amount of times Altaïr jumped in the wrong direction or did something I didn't want him to do wasn't great.

Combat seems pretty well presented, but the moment you actually start fighting it feels a bit clunky and can be annoying, especially when facing numerous enemies.

Most missions pretty much follow a similar pattern and may begin to feel a bit repetitive.

While I appreciate that listening to some of the targets, or leads to them, seems somewhat realistic, but some of the exchanges go on too long and you're left sat there watching two people talking for five minutes, which will certainly leave some people twiddling thumbs.

Not being able to swim.

STORY
I didn't really find any of the characters engaging,

GRAPHICS
Looks pretty good.

SOUND
Altaïr's voice actor stands out for all the wrong reasons because he has an American accent when every other character has a Middle-Eastern one. You can perhaps imagine some marketer at Ubisoft demanding him having such a voice to make him more "relatable".

The soundtrack is pretty good.

VALUE FOR MONEY
Around 15 hours, possibly more to offer. Not so much replay-ability but the price of the game seems justified

OVERALL
Despite having some really great qualities, Assassin's Creed failed to really engage me, with some frustrating mechanics and lacklustre story. It feels a bit like a jack of all trades, as it gets a lot of basic and interesting ideas in but doesn't really master anything.