E3 Special 2020

It’s time for another E3 Special in which I . . . oh. There was no E3 this year. But did anyone really miss it? If I recall, Sony and EA didn’t even bother to turn up to the last one. That said, it was kind of useful to have all the major players announce and reveal everything within the context of a coordinated event. Unlike this year, where everything is split between odd videos and streams and it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening and when.

Inside X-Box was the first big online event in which we expected to see the first ‘next-gen’ gameplay of the upcoming new X-Box Series X . . . is that really what it’s called? Or did I just make that up? But the event was a big disappointment, as we didn’t really see anything ‘next-gen’ at all. The notes I made following the event just read ‘I recall nothing’.

And the same applies to the PC Gaming Show which, as now seems to be tradition, was awful and awkward and I just spun through a replay of the stream as quickly as possible. I guess we saw a little of Evil Genius 2 (looks fun) and a little more of Total War Saga: Troy. Troy looks really bad. If you’ve read my previous post about Troy you’ll know I was looking for something new and unique about Troy in terms of battle mechanics.

Troy, given the setting, could have been a fantastic opportunity to experiment with an entirely new approach to sieges. But instead, we just get . . . siege towers? Seriously? And ‘earthquakes’? Which sounds to me like the ‘damage walls’ agent ability from Total War: Warhammer 2. What’s the point of a spin-off series in which you ‘experiment’ with new features and mechanics if you don’t actually do that at all?

EA had their own showcase, but the only title that really caught my eye was Star Wars: Squadrons, and that was primarily due to the full VR support. Flying an X-Wing in VR sounds absolutely baller. I just hope the single player content isn’t just a glorified tutorial, and that the MP modes also support bots so I can keep playing solo even if player numbers dwindle.

Speaking of VR, there was a VR dedicated showcase but the only title that really caught my eye was Panzer Dragoon: Voyage Record which appears to be some kind of remake of key moments from the Panzer Dragoon games in VR? I’m honestly not sure because we didn’t really learn or see anything of the game at all. But it’s Panzer Dragoon, so it’s got my attention.

And then we have Sony who revealed the new PlayStation 5. I can’t say the console, by design, is much of a looker, but what really matters is the games. Kena: Bridge of Spirits looked neat but it was Village AKA Resident Evil 8 that really caught my eye. There was also Horizon: Forbidden West which looked pretty good and I’ll be sure to pick up and play the original when it releases on Steam.

Am I interested in getting a PS5 though? Maybe. I think the key selling point for me would be backwards compatibility. There are a handful of games on PS4 I’d like to play, but not enough to justify purchasing the console. But if the PS5 supports those games, in addition to having several exclusives of its own I want to play, I’ll certainly think hard about picking one up.

And finally we have Cyberpunk 2077 which has now been delayed until November, so I really need to avoid contracting and dying from Coronavirus before then. The game looks fantastic. I kind of don’t want to see too much more prior to release because I don’t want to spoil anything. My main concern is how my PC will handle it. I’m hoping I can at least run it on High at 1080p. I can live with that.

Now Playing: Yakuza Kiwami 2

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is set one year after the events of Kiwami 1. Kazuma Kiryu, once again, finds himself pulled back into his old life at the heart of a new struggle for control of the Tojo Clan. Whereas Kiwami 1 was built upon the Yakuza Zero engine, Kiwami 2 uses the more recent ‘Dragon’ engine of Yakuza 6.

The visual overhaul is impressive compared to Kiwami 1, and the maps of Kamurocho and Sotenbori, whilst instantly familiar in terms of layout, feel fresh to explore thanks to an expansion of indoor environments and alternative paths.

The combat can, initially, feel a little slow compared to Zero and Kiwami 1, but once you’ve upgraded several of Kiryu’s skills and unlocked new abilities, it’s as satisfying and enjoyable as ever. Like Kiwami 1, it doesn’t offer quite the same variety of combat styles as Zero, but I do like the changes to the way Kiryu earns and spends experience to unlock new skills.

 

The story of Kiwami 2 is engaging and fun. It’s better paced than Zero during the early stages and, thankfully, the irritating ‘Majima Everywhere’ mechanic of Kiwami 2 has been scrapped. The story builds to a satisfying conclusion and, honestly, I’d actually be okay if Kiryu’s story ended here. It feels like a nice ending for the character.

The main missions are all good, taking you from Kamurocho to Sotenbori and back again. There’s a good variety of environments and fights and I’m also glad they scrapped the boss health regeneration mechanic introduced in Kiwami 1. In fact, it feels like they took a good look at Kiwami 1 and improved upon everything that worked, whilst also scrapping everything that didn’t.

That said, Kiwami 2 does suffer from the same core problem that Kiwami 1 did – it’s not Yakuza Zero. There’s no escaping the fact that Kiwami 2 is a remake of a game originally released in 2006. I’d say this remake does a better job of bringing Kiwami 2 up to par with Zero than Kiwami 1, but it still falls short in a couple of key areas.

 

The first, as I’ve said, is the variety of combat styles compared to Zero. The other is side content and substories. The substories in Kiwami 2, like Kiwami 1, are nowhere near as enjoyable as those in Zero. They’re typically short, simple and often feel rather pointless. There are some good ones sprinkled throughout, but most of them are entirely forgettable.

Kiwami 2 does improve upon the ‘business’ side content, however, with the return of the hostess club, although I can’t give it too much praise because it is, aside from the characters and story surrounding it, exactly the same mechanically as it was in Zero. But Kiwami 2 does introduce a new – sort of – business mini-game called Clan Creator which is a fun little RTS style experience. I say ‘sort of’ because it was actually ripped from Yakuza 6, but as I’ve not played Yakuza 6, it was new to me.

 

I don’t have much more to say about Kiwami 2. I’d certainly rate it as a step up from Kiwami 1, but once again, it falls short of Yakuza Zero. At the time of writing, I don’t know if more of the Yakuza series will be coming to PC. In a way, I’m now kind of wary of playing more games in this series.

I’m pretty satisfied with how Kiwami 2 ends in terms of story, and I’m not sure if any of the subsequent games will ever live up to Zero in terms of content and mechanics. That said, if you’ve played Zero and Kiwami 1 then Kiwami 2 is worth picking up. It’s an excellent game with a great central story and an abundance of side content to explore.

8/10

Total War Saga: Troy & The Epic Store

Let’s begin by talking about Troy as a game. Troy is the second ‘Saga’ Total War game following Thrones of Britannia – and no, I don’t really count Fall of the Samurai as a ‘Saga’ game despite the recent re-branding. I quite like the concept of the Saga series – games with a smaller scale or focus, featuring wars or conflicts that wouldn’t necessarily feature well in a ‘main’ Total War game.

And these smaller games with a smaller budget and therefore, presumably – less financial risk – are a good opportunity to experiment with various features and mechanics that can then feed into the next main title. So the concept is good, but what about the execution?

I liked Thrones as a game, but in my review I had a lot of criticism relating to what it was versus what it was supposed to be. Thrones felt like a decent expansion to Attila, but did little to define itself as its own separate product. It wasn’t just the reused engine or animations, but that Thrones – and the new ‘Saga’ series as a concept – lacked its own identity.

I suggested not only a lower price point for this new series, but also selling them as ‘feature complete’ – so no DLC. Blood could be included as standard. I had other suggestions, more specific to Thrones such as unique maps for every settlement, but the general point I wanted to make was that as a series, the Saga games needed to do more when it came to defining what they are and what they represent, both mechanically and commercially.

Which brings us back to Troy, the next Saga game. The question is, does Troy learn from the mistakes of Thrones? At the time of writing, it’s hard to say, because we’ve still seen so very little of the game in action. No campaign gameplay, and only a handful of details relating to campaign mechanics. All we’ve seen so far is a single historical battle and I have to say, it didn’t really get me very excited for the game.

Troy looks to be built upon a modified Warhammer 2 engine – at least judging by the reused Warhammer animations. Like with Thrones, I’m not going to criticise Troy – a smaller budget game – for reusing perfectly fine animations where they can be appropriately applied to the new setting – although seeing a human character walk, run, jump and fight like Grimgor Ironhide is a little weird.

But the battle didn’t really show anything new to get excited about. Units having different ‘weight’ isn’t very exciting if it doesn’t translate into meaningful gameplay – such as heavier units ‘pushing’ lighter units back. Units being able to ‘hide’ in long grass isn’t new or exciting, nor is ‘mud’ slowing unit movement. I guess the new ‘alternative weapon mode’ for some units is neat, but is that really the best Troy has to offer in terms of new battle features?

Considering this is a setting with such a heavy infantry focus, I expected to see more in this first demonstration that would clearly set Troy apart from other Total War games and deliver a unique and fresh experience. How about much larger units than we’ve ever had in a Total War battle? How about unit mass really playing a significant factor? How about more extensive unit formation options? In fact, the demo didn’t show any unit formations at all. How about a new system of army management, whereby the army could be split into smaller blocks and commanded by unique ‘captain’ units.

I’m just tossing out random ideas and maybe not particularly good ones. The point I’m trying to make is that Troy and the Saga series is supposed to be about ‘experimentation’ – but I’m not seeing anything in the current previews that is new or unique compared to previous Total War games. I might be wrong – maybe there’s a lot more to Troy than we’ve seen both in battle and campaign. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

But wait, there’s more! It’s now been announced that Troy will be an Epic Store exclusive for one year and will be free on the first day of its release. This does raise certain questions regarding the perceived quality and reception of Troy within Creative Assembly. Was Troy tracking to sell or review badly at release? Is that why, when Epic called, they took a deal that all but guaranteed Troy would at least break even in terms of sales?

If so, you could argue it was a pretty shrewd move – dump the game on Epic, take the cash and run. But maybe that’s not a fair assessment. Maybe Troy is going to be great and CA genuinely think this deal will help introduce Total War to a large and previously untapped audience. I’d you’ve read my previous post regarding the Epic Store, you’ll know I’m not exactly a fan – at least in the way they’ve chosen to do business.

But I’m not totally opposed to alternative platforms – I do use Origin and Uplay and more recently the Rockstar Launcher alongside Steam, even though they pale in comparison to Steam in terms of user features. I guess the question is, does this announcement persuade me to set up an Epic account? A free Total War game at release? What’s not to like?

It’s pretty clear what the intent of Epic here is, just as it was with all their other free game offers – to expand their user base. So will I be joining them? Right now, I can’t honestly say. I’ve not seen enough about Troy to decide if I even want to play it. But what little I have seen hasn’t left me very excited because nothing I’ve seen suggests it has learnt from the mistakes of Thrones.

And more worryingly, the developers – the new CA Sofia team – don’t appear (at least based on what I’ve heard in a few ‘influencer’ videos from people who spoke with them) very willing to listen to critical feedback. They seem pretty insistent that the game is ‘working as intended’ even when there’s clearly some pretty bad unit balance issues in the preview build they provided.

Overall, nothing I’ve yet seen of Troy has me very excited. I wanted to see something truly new and unique about Troy in terms of battles, but what I’ve seen so far, to be blunt, looks like a bad re-skin of Warhammer 2 with the ‘duel’ system of 3K shoved on top. Maybe there’s more to be revealed. Maybe the campaign will be truly unique and exciting. But I guess however it turns out, it’s going to be free, so why not give it a shot?

Now Playing: GRIS

GRIS is an indie platform adventure game. You play as a mysterious girl who must traverse a mysterious world in search of four mysterious lights that will restore colour to the world and banish a mysterious foe. GRIS, at its heart, is about the journey to overcome grief and depression. The foe you face throughout the game symbolises the despair that seeks to drag you back down into the dark, away from the light.

Visually, GRIS is fantastic. It’s one of the most beautiful games you’ll ever play. And it’s a timeless beauty – you’ll always be able to play and admire the visuals of GRIS. It’s the kind of game where you’re always reaching for the screen shot key. The audio in GRIS is also fantastic. Purely in terms of visuals and sound, GRIS really knocks it out of the park.

The problem with GRIS, unfortunately, is that as incredible as it looks and sounds, I found it kind of boring to actually play. The ‘gameplay’ of GRIS primarily consists of holding down the analogue stick to the left or the right. At times, my thumb began to ache. I also kept hitting the jump button – not because I needed to, but in the futile hope it would speed my progress.

 

There’s a lot of long sections of GRIS where all you do is run from one side of the screen to the other. The backgrounds may be absolutely gorgeous but that doesn’t change the fact that all you’re doing is pushing in one direction on a control stick. I’ve written before about how video games are an interactive medium – and that interactivity is the key strength of the medium. How we interact with the experience – the gameplay – is always going to be key.

As beautiful as GRIS may be, the gameplay – the way we interact with its world and story – isn’t particularly engaging. At times, the game transitions into non-playable scenes where all you can do is sit back and watch. As a player, you don’t really feel involved in the experience. GRIS would be so much more effective – at least to me – if I was an active participant in the struggle.

That’s the strength of this interactive medium. I’m a part of the journey. I’m the one guiding this character through this world and helping them overcome this challenge. I feel like I’ve helped them reach their goal. But in GRIS, most the time, I just felt like like a passive observer.

 

The levels are all very linear – there’s typically only a single path to follow. There’s no real puzzles to think through in order to progress. The platform segments aren’t challenging. There’s no combat. There’s no real sense of danger. It’s impossible to fail. GRIS, by design, is a very sedate, relaxed experience.

And that’s fine – I’m not saying it needed boss battles or difficulty settings – but it did need to engage the player through its gameplay, and that’s where GRIS sadly stumbles. Reaching the end of GRIS – overcoming this foe – would have felt so much more meaningful and satisfying if I’d felt as if I’d played my part in the experience. It I felt like I’d been tested. But I never did. All I did was hold down a stick and jump on occasion.

To be fair, GRIS does attempt to inject a little more variety into its gameplay with some abilities you unlock as you progress – but they don’t do much more than change the way you move from left to right. They don’t increase the complexity of the level design, forcing you to combine these abilities to traverse tricky platforms or solve clever puzzles. They save GRIS from being a total bore to play, but that’s about all they do.

 

I feel kind of bad writing this review because I really do like GRIS. I love the style, its visuals and sound. I love the way it incorporates its themes into its design. I love how universal it is – anyone can sit and play GRIS and understand what it means.

But what GRIS seemed to forget is that the strength of this medium is how we can connect the player to the experience. By limiting player interaction, by frequently removing player interaction and by not testing the player to any degree, GRIS is, overall, a very beautiful but also a very disconnected experience. On sale, I’d still recommend GRIS just for the visuals and audio alone. And maybe you’ll get more out of it than I did. But as a game, I think GRIS is sadly lacking.

6/10