Gallery: Control

Now Playing: Far Cry 5

Given that I kind of hated Far Cry 4, I didn’t think I’d ever bother with Far Cry 5. But when I saw it go on sale recently I thought I’d give it a shot. And I guess the best thing I can say now that I’ve completed it is that I don’t kind of hate it. But I do kind of not care. Whereas Far Cry 4 made me irritated and angry, Far Cry 5 didn’t trigger any kind of emotional reaction good or bad. It just kind of happened. And in a week or two, I’ll probably forget I even played it. I suppose you could say that makes it both better and worse than Far Cry 4.

Far Cry 5 tells the story of ‘The Deputy’, a rookie cop sent to apprehend Joseph Seed, the leader of a doomsday cult. Obviously, things don’t go to plan and you (The Deputy) find yourself leading a resistance movement against Joseph and his fanatical disciples. I quite like the concept of the story, but the execution . . . not so much.

The map of Far Cry 5 is split into three main regions, each ruled by one of Joseph’s Lieutenants. As you would expect with a Ubisoft open world game, each region in terms of gameplay structure and progression is essentially identical You have ‘main’ missions, although these don’t actually progress the main story – more on that later. You also have side missions and collectible / busywork style quests – blow up 10 cult shrines / destroy 10 cult tankers etc.

So far, so formulaic. There aren’t any radio towers to climb, I suppose, but the main difference in Far Cry 5 when it comes to progression is the ‘Resistance Meter’ of each region. The idea is that every action you take to harm or undermine the cult will raise the Meter. ‘Main’ quests will raise it a lot, whereas smaller actions – like destroying a cult transport – will raise it a little. The idea, and I guess it’s kind of a neat idea, is that you can progress through the game by only focusing on the content that you want to engage with – all of it is optional.

So if you don’t care about the ‘main’ missions and just want to capture cult outposts and free cult prisoners, that’s a totally viable option – although it will take you significantly longer to raise the Resistance Meter. That’s why it’s advisable to mix things up and do a little bit of everything. Along the Resistance Meter are ‘event triggers’. These are unavoidable checkpoints that place you into a story based quest to progress the overall narrative of the fight against the cult.

Like so much of Far Cry 5, I can say I like the concept, but not the execution. These event triggers kick in so abruptly and in ways that make little to no sense. You can be talking to a friendly NPC in the middle of a friendly settlement and you’ll suddenly be ‘captured’ by the local Lieutenant . . . somehow. The game doesn’t even wait for you to be in a position where you might actually be vulnerable.

On two occasions I was piloting a helicopter accompanied by two AI companions when my screen suddenly turned black and I was, once again, ‘captured’ by the enemy. It’s stupid and it’s jarring and it creates a narrative disconnect from the main story and everything else in the game. This is particularly noticeable with your ‘buddy’ characters who simply de-spawn during these missions and then re-spawn once they’re done.

And these ‘event missions’ – I guess we can call them – often don’t make a lick of sense when taken within the context of the game world and the characters within it. During the final mission, for example, when you think you’re going to be leading some kind of assault upon the final ‘boss’ with all the people you’ve liberated . . . guess what? You don’t.

Nobody goes with you. Your companions vanish. It’s like nobody else exists. It’s as if all of these characters who have been fighting so hard to take down Joseph and his disciples don’t care when you’re actually going to finish them off.

The concept of the story isn’t bad, but the game does nothing notable with it. It feels completely disconnected from everything in the game and it results in a story that feels extremely shallow with a cast of disappointingly shallow characters.

It might have helped if the event missions had some kind of choices that would change the flow of the narrative and how each region / the characters within each region perceived you, or determined who lived and died. A branching narrative and a more dynamic world that reacted to your choices really would have elevated the story and made the way your progression is structured actually make a lot more sense.

But that’s not the only problem with the Resistance Meter and the ‘event triggers’. Sure, you can progress the Meter by tackling any content you want in any order you like but if, like me, you reach a point where you just want to focus on pushing through the story to reach the end, that Meter suddenly becomes an incredibly tedious grind. You might want to just get on with the main story but the game won’t let you – not until you grind out some more content to push that Meter up to the next trigger point.

What I like to call ‘progression fatigue’ sets in quite early in Far Cry 5 because once you’ve seen one region – you’ve seen them all. And although I like the companion system, they do have a limited number of lines that they like to repeat to the point that you kind of get sick of them. I did really like the helicopters though, mostly because once I’d bought an attack helicopter I kind of broke the game because I could simply fly from one outpost to the next and ‘liberate’ it without ever touching the ground. It made grinding out that Resistance Meter a whole lot easier.

Far Cry 5 is, of course, a first person shooter, but it’s also not a very good one. The weapons, aside from maybe the bow and the grenade launcher, kind of suck. The assault rifle feels weak and the shotgun is absolutely pathetic – it’s like you’re just releasing a puff of air at the enemy when you pull the trigger before they awkwardly flop over. Nothing packs a punch.

I really don’t think I have much else to say about Far Cry 5. I wouldn’t say that, overall, it’s a bad game – I just found it incredibly bland and mediocre. It’s another formulaic Ubisoft open world game that’s packed full of unfulfilled potential because they don’t dare stray too far from that safe, familiar and comfortable structure.

I’m sure the kind of people who loved the previous games will probably love this too because it’s more of the same. But I’m not one of those people. I didn’t want more of the same. I wanted Far Cry 5 to surprise me and do something new. I didn’t expect it to, but I think I was hopeful that maybe, just maybe, it would be a step up from Far Cry 4.

But it’s not. It’s not as irritating, I suppose, but that’s not exactly high praise. I don’t even know why I bought it now. I mean, what did I really expect? I guess I’ve only got myself to blame. See you in a few years when I pick up Far Cry 6 on sale. Maybe they’ll win me over with that one.

5/10

Suburban Killbot Year 9

Well, I guess we’re still stuck in a global pandemic. And just when things seemed to be getting better, another variant pops up and it looks like things are only going to get worse.

I’m continuing to push my e-books. I’ve done free promotions and paid advertising and although they’ve given my work a short term boost, long term . . . not so much. I think most people do like the work, although getting people to leave a rating, let alone an actual review feels almost impossible.

I know from my analytics that those who read Queen of the Seven Spheres almost immediately go on to read the other two books in the series, which I wouldn’t assume they’d do if they didn’t like it. But nobody wants to rate them, at least on Amazon.

I’ve done better with ratings on Good Reads, but at the time of writing, Queen only has 7 ratings from the 200 free copies I’ve given away in promotions. I’m not sure if it’s worth doing another with such a low return. And I really need to write something new. I want to finish up the Hunter trilogy next, even if nobody ever reads it.

Here’s my updated mosaic. I guess I’ll see you next year. Maybe.

Now Playing: Control

Control is a third person action game in which you play as Jesse Faden, a woman on a mission within the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control. The game doesn’t tell you much up front. And honestly, the less you know going in, the better. That’s why I’m going to keep this review as spoiler free as I can.

The first few hours of Control aren’t particularly inspiring. The environments are clean and striking, and the destruction physics are impressive, but the combat . . . not so much. But stick with it, because once you begin unlocking various powers, Control suddenly (and unexpectedly) becomes one of the best superhero games you’ll ever play.

The combination of telekinesis and levitation completely transform the combat. And when you factor in the environmental destruction, Control doesn’t just feel great to play, it looks pretty spectacular, too. Your base pistol also undergoes a welcome transformation as you unlock new modes of fire that you can switch between on the fly.

Control may get off to a slow start, but once it hits its stride, it doesn’t let up. It’s one of those games where the combat becomes so fun, that you really don’t mind when the next wave of enemies spawn in – you just want to keep fighting.

Aside from the combat, the best thing about Control is the world and the lore contained within. I’m not talking about the story – which I’ll touch upon later – but the setting. The Federal Bureau of Control is an organisation dedicated to the discovery, study and containment of mysterious artefacts.

As you explore the Bureau, Jesse will uncover many videos, audio recordings and written documents describing the various artefacts, their history and effects. Typically, I tend to skip through these kinds of collectibles but in Control, I was happy to read, listen and watch them all.

That said, I do wish more of the lore contained within these optional collectibles was presented more prominently within the main story. You’ll miss out on a lot of important, interesting and fun information if you ignore them.

Because, I hate to say it, the main story is probably the weakest aspect of Control. Jesse (mild spoiler) enters the Bureau searching for her brother, Dylan. But the ‘relationship’ between Jesse and Dylan just doesn’t work, and it’s a shame the game revolves so much around this plot point.

I guess the intention was to provide a more personal stake for Jesse within the story, but Dylan is such an irritating, unlikeable weirdo, that I just didn’t care about him at all, not when there were far more exciting secrets to discover hidden within the Bureau.

That’s what I enjoyed most about Control – exploring the Bureau, uncovering secrets, learning about the artefacts and completely trashing the environments with my newly acquired superpowers. Dylan? I couldn’t give a flying f**k.

There’s a moment when the game seemingly ends and I was pretty disappointed. Fortunately, it was only a ‘fake’ ending and there was more yet to come. Unfortunately, the real ending is just as disappointing. It’s pretty anti-climactic and, given how challenging some of the fights throughout the game can be, incredibly easy, too.

Control gets off to wobbly start but soon begins to soar. Sadly, it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Thankfully, it does come with some pretty fun DLC, including a pretty cool Alan Wake crossover and a post-game expansion that I found far more interesting in terms of story than the main game.

Overall, I’m glad I picked up Control. I was a little wary of it because I’d only ever seen footage of the first few hours of play and those really aren’t representative of what the game becomes as you progress. The world is great. The combat is fun. It’s a shame the story focused too much on the wrong thing, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment too much. If you see it on sale, be sure to check it out.

7/10

Amazon E-Book Giveaway!

 

Starting next week, I’m going to be running an e-book giveaway on Amazon! For five days you’ll have the opportunity to claim your FREE copy of QUEEN OF THE SEVEN SPHERES. Offer begins 04/05 and ends 08/05.

Now Playing: Panzer Dragoon: Remake

I have a lot of love for the Panzer Dragoon series which is why I was a little wary of this remake. But when I saw it go on sale recently, I figured I’d give it a shot and see how it compared to the original. Incidentally, you can read my review of the original game and the sequel here and Orta here.

This is a remake, not a remaster and that’s an important distinction to make. The developers – MegaPixel Studio – have rebuilt the original game in a modern engine, updating the visuals whilst seeking to retain the original style, spirit and gameplay.

From a visual standpoint, I’d say they did a pretty good job. The opening episode is easily the weakest if we’re judging it purely on how it captures the vibe of the original game, but I think this is somewhat due to how ‘clean’ and vibrant this remake is in comparison.

The first episode in the original Panzer Dragoon was a little visually ‘muddled’ and, as I said in my review, that’s where some of the difficulty came from. But with clean, striking and colourful visuals, the remake doesn’t suffer this issue. It does, however, end up feeling significantly easier to play as a result.

Whilst the opening episode may feel a little off, I think the rest do a pretty good job of capturing the vibe and style of the originals upon which they are based. I also think they’ve done a good job of updating the visual designs of the enemies you’ll fight. The Imperial ships in particular look very nice.

That said, I would agree that this more ‘colourful’ approach to the visuals doesn’t always quite feel right when compared to the more sombre, subdued style of the original. It’s a different kind of look, not necessarily a bad one – just different.

Of course, the most important aspect they had to get right was the gameplay and, once again, I think they’ve done a pretty good job. Not a perfect job, though, as some things feel a little off, most notably the targeting reticule which feels strangely ‘detached’ from the dragon rider as you aim.

 

And then there’s the question of content. Does this remake add anything new aside from a more ‘modern’ control scheme? The answer is – nope! There’s no new episodes or enemies. I guess, from a purist perspective, this is a good thing and maybe a potential backlash is the reason the developers avoided it – or they simply didn’t have permission.

But given that this is a remake and not a remaster, I wouldn’t have been opposed to the developers adding an original episode or two of their own design. They seem pretty passionate about the series and seem to want to do it justice and, as far as I’m concerned, any new Panzer Dragoon content is something I’d welcome.

But just as there’s nothing new, there’s also nothing old either – I’m talking about a version of the original Panzer Dragoon as an unlockable bonus. It feels like a really weird omission. Maybe they just couldn’t get permission for it? It seems odd and it would have been an excellent addition to the overall package, easily enough to knock the score up another point.

 

Because overall, although I did like playing this remake, I think I still kind of prefer the original. It’s a real shame it’s not included here. I know the developers are working on a remake of Zwei and, based on what I’ve seen here, I think they’ll do a pretty good job. But what about Saga or Orta?

Saga certainly deserves some kind of new release, remake or remaster – it doesn’t matter. It just needs to happen. Orta, on the other hand, which in my opinion was the best of the rail shooter Panzer games, really just needs a visual remaster. It still plays beautifully today and I really wouldn’t want anyone trying to ‘remake’ it in a new engine because there’s no way they’d do it better.

If you’re a Panzer Dragoon fan then I’d say this remake is certainly worth checking out, but the absence of the original game makes the package feel strangely incomplete. Hopefully the developers can look at the feedback they’ve had and do an even better job with the Zwei remake.

6/10