Of all the re-imaginings of Lewis Carrol’s classic, Alice In Wonderland, my favorite is a video game released in 2000 called American McGee’s Alice. The game took the Alice mythos and gave it a dark and disturbing twist.

In 2011, American McGee released a followup game: Alice – Madness Returns. Either Mr. McGee has grown less conceited or more tasteful, because he left his own name out of the game title this time.

Wonderland Revisited

Without a doubt, Wonderland is the star of the show.  The game designers definitely milked every last pixel out of the Unreal engine. The characters of the Real World are exaggerated caricatures, that made Wonderland seem more real in comparison.

Visually, the level design is beautiful, and disturbing in a good way. Highlights are the Mad Hatter’s domain, where Dormouse and March Hare have taken over and turned everything into a steampunk nightmare.

Chapter 4 has you running around a bizzare realm made of body parts. You slide down giant tongues, doorways are mouths, and hallways look like the inside of intestines, the whole level feels like playing through something from the medical channel.

Another interesting section has you entering a Japanese painting and playing a suddenly two-dimensional Alice side-scroller. There are even a couple disturbing levels where you play as (I’m not kidding) a detached doll’s head, rolling around an obstacle course.

The occasional puzzles and riddles are a fun break from exploration and fighting, but you will get bored of invisible, moving platforms and timed race games.

Characters

The characters you expect to find are there, but not in the quantity/quality you would expect. The Cheshire Cat is a mood accent, showing up to make cryptic and unhelpful remarks (in an awesome deep voice.) At one point, he actually shows up and says “Be careful, Alice.” Really? No shit. The Mad Hatter seems to waffle between friend and enemy, but the truth is, he’s just mad.

The classic characters of Wonderland get watered down with new oddities: Shambling blobs of oil wearing doll masks, Samauri Wasps, “Bitch Babys” made of doll parts, and more weirdness abound, while characters that were main staples of the Alice in Wonderland mythos hardly show up at all. The White Knight makes an appearance (as a door) long enough for you to shatter him to gain entrance to the next section. Caterpillar, Mock Turtle, Carpenter, Walrus and the Red Queen all have little more than cameos in cutscenes.

The Jabberwock doesn’t show up at all.

Not entirely sure how we missed out on Alice’s older sister, Lizzie. from the first episode… oh wait. That’s right, she didn’t have one. Oops. Not sure why Lizzy was added, because the plot didn’t require her either. Double Oops.

Gameplay

Gameplay is more or less reminiscent of Tomb Raider in terms of exploration, puzzle-solving and fighting. You jump, you shrink, you explore, you fight. Collect teeth (yes, teeth) to upgrade your weapons. Finish special side-quests to receive increased health. There are plenty of variations in gameplay, but you may still get bored of some puzzle repetitions.

The Unreal engine looks good, but glitches galore. There are plenty of places that look like you can jump to them… but you can’t. Die and retry. Other places look like you can walk to them… but you can’t. Jump over those cracks in the ground, and continue on your way. These glitches are exponentially more frustrating if you’re in a hurry, which you often are.

The controls make this game feel like it was created for a button-mashing console and converted to PC as an afterthought. Button presses will occasionally fail to register (no matter how hard you mash the button, believe me) and this will kill your timing, requiring you to experiment until you find the button timing the game engine requires. This alone will ruin the game for some, when you can’t even make a simple double-jump because the second button-press does not register… die and retry. Thankfully, “deaths” are little more than colorful setbacks as Alice explodes into a burst of butterflies, and is instantly reborn on the previous ledge. The game is autosaved at checkpoints. There is no manual game save.

When the game shifts between the real world and Wonderland, the controls change. This is an absolute Forbidden, Please God, Do Not Ever Ever Ever Do This, but they did. Why can you switch to first-person view in the real world, but not in Wonderland? Worse yet, directional controls and camera angles will change instantly in-game after certain events, even during timing tests that require the reflexes of a hummingbird on crack. At times I felt I was actually playing against the game engine instead of the game.

But the biggest buzzkill in Alice was the combat. All the fun ran out once the monsters became impossible to kill. I switched the game difficulty to Easy, and still couldn’t make it past a boss fight in chapter 2. I went online and looked up enemy weaknesses. Turns out some enemies are puzzles in themselves – some can only be attacked at a certain time during their attack sequence.  For others, you have to deflect their own attacks back at them to break their defenses before your attacks have any effect. Some enemies are immune to certain weapons unless they are a high enough level. This means that if you spend your weapon upgrade points incorrectly, you’re screwed.  (But see my game-hack solution below.)

Even with knowledge of enemy weaknesses, my fun meter with Alice still dropped to zero. I considered calling the game a loss, filing it under “Meh” and waiting for Skyrim to be released. After a few weeks on the shelf, I was torn enough that I looked for a hack or cheat code that would allow me to get past the area where I was stuck. I couldn’t find one, so I hacked the game myself.

Alice – Madness Returns Game Hacks

These hacks allowed me to have fun finishing the game, and they also helped justify my Computer Science student loans:

1 – How to Increase Weapon Damage

Open the DefaultGame.ini file at …InstallFolder\Game\Alice2\AliceGame\Config\DefaultGame.ini

Find these lines and change the end number to 100. This makes all your weapons really powerful.

• AliceWeaponDamageMultiplier[0] = 100
• AliceWeaponDamageMultiplier[1] = 100
• AliceWeaponDamageMultiplier[2] = 100
• AliceWeaponDamageMultiplier[3] = 100

2 – How to Upgrade Your Weapons For Cheap

In the same DefaultGame.ini file, find these lines and change all the end numbers to 1 as shown. This makes all your weapon upgrades really cheap, you’ll be able to instantly upgrade your weapons to the maximum level 4:

• WeaponUpgradeToLevel2XPCost[0]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel2XPCost[1]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel2XPCost[2]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel2XPCost[3]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel3XPCost[0]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel3XPCost[1]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel3XPCost[2]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel3XPCost[3]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel4XPCost[0]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel4XPCost[1]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel4XPCost[2]=1
• WeaponUpgradeToLevel4XPCost[3]=1

With these cheats in place, combat wasn’t a problem anymore, and I considered this upgrade an even trade for putting up with the game glitches.

The Story

The story starts in the real world, ignoring the happy ending of the first game. Alice’s family (including bonus older sister) died in a mysterious fire, and poor Alice has been in a mental institution, slowly becoming stable enough to venture outside. Disturbing hallucinations begin to crop up, as well as a cat, who leads Alice to Wonderland, where a gigantic train is heading toward the heart of Wonderland to destroy everything.

The story shifts back and forth between Wonderland and the Real world, but spends most of the time (I’d say 90% of the time) in Wonderland. Throughout Alice’s adventures, she picks up clues and cutscenes that reveal the backstory of what happened to cause Alice’s madness.

The overarching story is really a who-done-it, but don’t bother trying to solve the mystery from the clues. The story will be revealed to you through the major cutscenes of each of the five chapters of the story.

While the ending works in a technical way, it’s fairly tasteless and reminded me (in a bad way) of the movie Sucker Punch. It’s like eating an entire box of Pop Tarts for lunch – satisfying in a way, but not really.

The Short Version

In the end, Alice – Madness Returns is a flawed gem. The levels are beautiful and Wonderland is a joy to explore.  But it will take a strong love for the mythos to tolerate a weak game engine, weak game design, weak weapons, repetitive gameplay, the minimal face time / absence of staple characters, and an overarching story that involves pedophilia.

In other words, unless you’re really sold on experiencing a dark and twisted fantasy Wonderland.. you can do better. In fact, you might be better off tracking down a copy of the first American McGee’s Alice.

This video game trailer is amazing. Its actually heart-wrenching. It’s better than most movie trailers.

Most astonishing of all, it’s also very violent and disturbing.

It’s a trailer for a zombie shooter video game called Dead Island, by company Deep Silver. Looks like a cross between Far Cry and Left 4 Dead.

I’ve never seen a trailer for a shoot-em-up game that made me want to cry. Don’t know if the game can live up to the trailer, but nice work.

Electronic Arts and Visceral Release New Chapter of Horror Sci-Fi Adventure

You start Dead Space 2 wearing a straitjacket. You couldn’t wield a weapon if you had one. Wanna live? Then mash the RUN key and run for your f**ing life, while hideous monsters called necromorphs chase you down, each of them eager to take your body apart in high definition. Good luck.

Dead Space 2 adds to the list of Electronic Arts (EA) Games I’ve raved about (namely Mass Effect and Dragon Age) that make EA the MGM of Video Games. These are more than just video games, they make you feel like the lead character in a movie. The level of detail in every aspect of the gameplay is sick. In a good way.

I just completed the game, and the folks at Visceral should be proud. They really did their homework. Check out this article from Wired that covers their disturbing analysis of anatomy. The writers spin an intriguing story, and the game designers know the tricks of pacing and timing. The musical score would give Howard Shore goosebumps, and I was pleased to hear Russian Circles contributing some audio kick-ass to the soundtrack. Dead Space 2 has an engaging plot, puzzles, environments, characters, conflicts and complications that distract you from the horror, and then… Well, let’s just hope you have a change of underwear handy.

Those familiar with shooters like Doom 3 are in for a surprise. There’s no pause button here. Browse through your inventory for too long, and your body parts are likely to become inventory for something else. Ammo and weapons are scarce, so you can’t just shoot at everything that moves. You eventually inherit a plasma cutter that’s about as dangerous as large Swingline Stapler. You’ll scavenge for clips to reload it, and you better make every shot count. No spray-and-pray here, Choirboy.

No more gentle deaths, either. No more, “Oh I’m floating up into the sky, looking down at my body! How peaceful! Is there a tunnel?” Trust me, watching yourself get pummeled, crushed, dismembered, skewered, decapitated by necromorphs or chopped in half by an airlock is not for the squeamish. One screwup, and you’ll get a lesson in internal anatomy: yours.

And just see if you can make it through a mini-game of running a drill press into your own eye. You need a steady hand for this one. In fact, you probably won’t get it right the first time, and even if you get it right and “win” it still looks painful.

Instead of downplaying the gruesomeness of the game, EA and Visceral Games embrace the horror. Check out www.yourmomhatesthis.com to see Moms’ reactions to this game. Marketing Genius.

More of the Same?

I won’t lie, Dead Space 2 is simply an extended version of the original Dead Space with a multiplayer option and some general improvements. You play the same character, Issac Clarke, and your story picks up several months after the end of events in Dead Space 1. I recognized plenty of graphics textures and sounds from the original game, as well as many of the monsters and weapons. Health monitor, stasis, suits, stores, benches, power nodes, upgrades and more are all straight out of the first game.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The original game was top-notch, and 2 is as good if not better. It’s safe to say that if Dead Space didn’t put you in the loony bin, you need Dead Space 2.

So What’s New?

Multi-horror… er, I mean Multi-player

Dead Space 2 adds in the ability to play with/against others online. I dig the occasional multi-player mayhem, but I certainly did not buy Dead Space 2 to play with/against others. The multiplayer option of Dead Space 2 seems like an afterthought to compete with L4D2 or cave in to fanboy demands, very similar to the way F.E.A.R. handled it.

I’d gladly trade in the multiplayer component of Dead Space 2 for pretty much anything else. More content in the single-player version, or a reduced price. Maybe they could sell the multiplayer component as a separate add-on for people who actually want it?

Zero G x 360

Dead Space 1 had a short section of Zero Gravity, but all you could do was jump straight across the room. In Dead Space 2, you have micro-thrusters built into your suit, so you can maneuver around in zero gravity. The controls are intuitive and you can press “Z” to reorient yourself to the floor. Zero G is unsettling all by its self, but when you add in 3-D 0-G puzzles, traps, necromorphs and a fricking countdown timer that shows how much air you have left before you DIE… well, the results are uberharrowing.

No time for posing, gotta go decapitate some necromorphs.

Story 2.0

The story from Dead Space 1 continues in the single-player version of Dead Space 2. You wake up in an insane asylum long after the events on board the USG Ishimura, and you have no memory what’s happened since then. The military wants you dead for reasons unknown. Religious zealots want you alive for reasons to horrible to mention. There really isn’t anyone to trust, not even yourself, since your exposure to the artifact has left you with hallucination scenes of your dead girlfriend that are possibly the most frightening part of the game.

Oh, and let’s not forget the necromorphs. Lots and lots of necromorphs, who want everything dead. Including you.

Especially you.

Weapons of Gross Destruction

There’s your old friends the line gun and plasma cutter, the assault rifle (my primary weapon), and the force rifle and flamethrower which are made for swarms of necromorphettes.  But one of the new kids on the block is the Javelin gun, which pins bad guys right to the wall. Gotta love that rag-doll physics engine. Use the line gun to sever creatures legs to slow them down, or their arms to limit their attacks, or their heads to limit their lifespan.

Ah yes, and you stomp on corpses to loot them, crushing them into bloody bits. Genius.  And the sound is spot on. [Editor's Note: How do you know this?]

In fact, anything you can pick up is a weapon: chairs, magazines, plants, debris… What the hell are all these long, metal spikes laying around for? Heh. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any more disgusting, use your telekinesis power to pick up and hurl body parts as weapons.

Breadcrumbs 2.0

Never thought I’d be comfortable playing an RPG without a map, but the stellar ‘breadcrumbs’ feature from Dead Space made me a believer. Just press a button, and a line on the floor shows you which way to go. No more getting lost or turned around. No more pulling up maps that take you out of the game.

In Dead Space 2, the breadcrumbs feature gets an upgrade. Now you can also use it to find the nearest store, game save location or upgrades bench.

Opportunities for Improvement

Weapons Improvement Matrix

I like the idea of using power nodes to upgrade your equipment, but whoever thought up the weapons improvement matrix should be shot with their own line gun. Power nodes aren’t handed out like Pez, you gotta work for them. Plugging power nodes into a matrix where they don’t actually increase weapon stats is a poor return-on-investment. While you can reallocate your power nodes, it’s still frustrating to have to pick some arbitrary upgrade path just to improve the features you want. Please. Either one upgrade per power node, or make them cheaper/more available.

EA Download Manager = Way Too Little, Way Too Late

Dead Space 2 comes bundled with an optional utility called “EA Download Manager”. Beware. This is simply a poor knockoff of Steam, a utility created by Valve that was released over a year ago and is Far Far Superior:

• Steam works with almost all game companies. EA Download Manager connects you to the EA store, which only sells EA Games. You can actually buy Dead Space 2 through Steam, but you can’t buy Blade Kitten through EA Download Manager. Nyah.
• Steam software keeps your installation media and keys in the cloud, and keeps your game software updated in the background. EA Download Manager only updates EA Games. Supposedly. It didn’t show Dead Space 2 after I installed it, even though that’s the game it came bundled with. WTF?
• Steam offers in-game voice chat and a picture uploader.
• Steam offers social networking. You can find your friends and see what they’re playing, and the lobby feature lets you gang up and hang out ‘backstage’ to make sure everything is working before launching into the game.
• Steam tracks stats and achievements.
• Steam did it first, and does it better.

Business 101 – if you want people to switch to your product, you have to offer something the existing competition DOES NOT OFFER. No one wants to run two gaming clients in the background, and no one’s going to ditch all their existing Steam friends, achievements, and purchased games just so they can run your limited knockoff.

The only thing EA Download Manager might be useful for is updating your EA game software. But shouldn’t this ability should be left built into the game? Don’t separate a necessary component from the game, connect it to your online store and call it a fucking feature.

Usability vs Piracy

The video game industry is still struggling to strike a balance between PC game accessibility and protection against piracy. Obviously, the game makers can’t just leave the game unlocked, but they also can’t have you calling in to their office with a note signed by your mother each time you want to play. Dead Space 2 hits you up for e-mail, username and password each time you start up. Yes, even to play the single-player version. Annoying, but you can cancel past that if you just want to play the single-player version.

Sadly, if that’s what it takes to make the game companies comfortable releasing games to the PC market, then I won’t bitch too loudly about it. Of course, these copy protection schemes doesn’t stop people from breaking the games and dropping them on torrents. Yes, I could probably get Dead Space 2 for free, but I don’t want game companies to drop the PC market for the console market. Notice that Red Dead Redemption is NOT available for PC, which is a shame. The way I see it, my money goes to a good cause, and is also a vote to keep game companies interested in the PC market.

Executive Summary: UberHorror + UberAdventure = UberAwesome

Dead Space 2 is a disgustingly gruesomely horrific masterpiece sure to give you paranoia, high blood pressure, a nervous tic, seizures, a heart attack, and (if you survive all that) post-traumatic stress disorder. In other words, bloody awesome fun, and worthy of the Conrad Zero UberCool Seal of Approval.

The Evolution of Video Games

In case you hadn’t noticed, RPG video games are evolving into movies. Check out the trailer for Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King – its better than most movie trailers.  People look forward to the release day of “blockbuster” RPGs like Dragon Age video game just like they did for the release of The Lord of the Rings movies. The sci-fi game Mass Effect has epic intros, finales, and cutscenes that look like they were lifted out of Battlestar Galactica.People buzz on the internet about the big names being cast as the voice talent.  The game credits scroll by and you wonder how it could possibly take that many people to make a video game.  The video game scores and soundtracks are nearly Howard Shore Awesome. In fact, many game companies are releasing the game scores and soundtracks separately from the games themselves, just like Hollywood movies do.

With this evolution, RPG’s have become more immersive than ever before. While playing Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I didn’t feel like I was playing a video game. I felt like I was the lead character in a movie. Game designers are realizing there’s a difference between people who want the experience of being the main character in an epic saga, saving the galaxy from the forces of evil while knocking boots with hot crewmates in the cargo hold of an experimental military frigate… and those who just want to kill ten-thousand zombies with a chainsaw.

There is a difference between playing a game and playing a movie. Playing a game is measured in character metrics: levels, kills, headshots, unlocks, money. Playing a movie is measured in character experience: achievements, accomplishments, alliances, romantic encounters, trusts and betrayals, watching in awe as the climactic cutscene unfolds, but most of all DECISIONS.

All of these things are given to us with the new generation of RPGs, but something is still missing. A bit more evolution is needed.

There We Were – The Limits of Linear Gameplay

Remember this? Classic RPG 'Doom' - the granddaddy of first-person shooters.

RPGs like Doom, Quake, Half Life, F.E.A.R., Dead Space and many, many others are designed around a linear gameplay system. They lead the player through an ordered series of events from start to finish.  This linear method is very efficient for game designers and programmers. It gives them control over everything including your inventory and your rate of skill/level advancement. Most importantly it gives them control over the order of events. This makes storytelling easy. The plot progresses like a book, from A to B to C to the end.

Notice the words “the plot” in that last sentence. One. Singular. This is a major limitation of linear gameplay. It can make you feel like a rat in a maze with no branches. No options. One path. One destination. Claustrophobic. Contrived. No matter what you do, the outcome will always be the same.

This might be fine for game players who just like to kill things, and they might enjoy playing the game several times, but those who want to play a story won’t have much interest in replaying the game when they already know the story and can’t do anything to change it. In the land of linear gameplay, you have no free will. Your fate is predetermined, and locked into the code of the game.

You are Here – Welcome to the Open World

Eventually game designers realized the limitations of linear gameplay. Their attempt at a solution is called Nonlinear Gameplay, more popularly known as “Open World” and a major step in the evolution of video games.  Current games like Grand Theft Auto, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption have made the Open World catchphrase famous. Gone are the narrow, one-way corridors. With open worlds, exploration is encouraged. The world is wide open for you to explore, and you are not forced down any particular path.

Mostly.

How Open Is That World? – The Inevitable Master Plotline

Fallout3 (Bethesda Game Studios) promised to raise the bar with over thirty or so different endings, depending on decisions you made in the game. I’m here to tell you, the cake is a lie. Some say there are four endings. While Fallout 3 is a fantastic game, it only has one ending in four flavors of lame, each awesomely narrated by Ron Perlman. See for yourself.

Neverwinter Nights 2 (Atari/Obsidian) proclaimed Everything you do has Meaning but that meaning is pretty limited. The Good/Evil barometer doesn’t have much impact on the game story. Primarily, it helps determine the loyalty of your party members. Make the wrong decisions and they will leave or worse, defect and side with your enemy. And if you play the game as an Evil character, you’ll have the option of joining the dark lord at the end of the game. But these supposed ‘differences’ don’t really change the story you experience, only the ending cutscenes that play out.

After playing Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights 2 and Fallout 3, I’ve found that games claiming to be Open World still have a problem that keeps them from being truly ‘open’. I call this problem The Inevitable Master Plotline.  You can branch off from it if you like – you can save every village from every dragon, and you can kill every living creature in the cosmos, but you can’t escape fate, destiny, and the power of the game designers. The inescapable master plot awaits. Check your journal, and there it is – The Single, Solitary, OverArching Plot. That “open” world suddenly doesn’t seem quite as open anymore. The game designers have simply modularized the path between the start and finish, and you’re free to knock off the pieces of the story in any order you choose.

Where the hell did I park my hijacked, experimental, military frigate? Traveling the open universe in Mass Effect 2.

The problem with the Inevitable Master Plotline is that it limits the ability of the player to affect the world. The story is still unchangeable. But some games are opening up the open world and letting players have an effect.

The Widened Open World

Dragon Age is the game Neverwinter Nights was trying to make. In this game, things you do DO have meaning. Your decisions have an impact on the world around you. Do you kill off or save a main character? This decision affects who becomes king. Do you stay to defend the keep, or rush off to flank invading forces? Do you help one of your classmates escape the mages’ tower?  These choices will come back to affect you later in the game. They actually change the story as it unfolds. This is the kind of interaction that makes people feel like they have an effect on the virtual world around them.

Some of the decisions in the game Mass Effect I had to pause the game and walk away from the keyboard to think about my choice. Whom will you choose to represent Humans on the Alliance Council? Which will you save from destruction, the council or the citadel? Will you kill off the last of a rogue alien species? How do you handle a fanatic fanboy? Do you fall for a hot crewmate or hold out for your true love? These decisions have major effects not just on the current game, but future game expansions.

While Bioware is clearly raising the bar for RPG interactivity, it’s just a step in the evolution. The world may be open, but we still have the Inevitable Master Plotline, which means every game will end the same way.  Nonlinear gameplay hasn’t really opened up the world, it just widened it, giving players multiple paths to the same ending.

Where The Hell Are We Going? – Beyond the Open World

Remember the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books? “If you climb into the alien spacecraft, turn to page 17. If you run away, turn to page 43.” I loved those books, and enjoyed going back and seeing how different choices changed the story. The same is true with RPG video games. For someone playing a story, replayability requires having the power to affect the story with your actions and create a different experience. This means Multiple Story Arcs, not just different cut scenes at the end.

For example, in Mass Effect an Evil character should have the option to become a rogue pirate, steal the Normandy, destroy the Citadel, and defeat the Alliance forces. Now THAT is a completely different game.

I can imagine game designers burning me alive for even suggesting such things. But I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to point out the path. And the path leads through interactive movies – where players must ride the One And Only Master Plotline – to a virtual reality with stories and worlds that really react to the player’s choices.

No doubt it would be damned expensive to create multiple story arcs for video games. However, with the new technology of DLC (DownLoadable Content) games can already be expanded. Currently, Dragon Age and Mass Effect have modules that let you expand on the game with side missions that offer you extra experience, achievements and items. There’s no reason game companies couldn’t release game expansions that add alternate plotlines, leading to alternate endings, just like television shows offer new episodes each week.

Having multiple possible story arcs would really open up the open world. Imagine the replayability of an open world crossed with infinite story arcs! Baby steps to Virtual Reality.

Bring on the Holodeck!

After playing through the awesomely awesome Dragon Age and all the expansions, my inner gamer/junkie was still craving another dose of RPG (Role Playing Game) gaming. Saveau tipped me off about a game by Electronic Arts / Bioware, the same group that produced Dragon Age. A sci-fi game called Mass Effect. A RPG that told a grand story on an epic scale. New and different races species! Magic Biotic powers! Magic High-tech weapons! Perilous quests!  Political intrigue! Companions! Interpersonal drama! Romantic encounters! The world universe in crisis!

Could it be? Dragon Age… in Space? Explore strange, new worlds? Seek out new life and new civilizations?

Let’s boldly go!

So I coughed up $20 for both Mass Effect 1 and 2 on Amazon. Not $20 each, I mean $20 for Both. Free Shipping too. Best twenty bucks I ever spent. After well over a hundred hours into the combined games, and you’ll get no argument from me that Mass Effect 1 and 2 are some of the best video games made to date.

Why is Mass Effect so Awesome?

Rich World

The races, places and characters you meet in Mass Effect are so well thought out it kind of makes you wonder why Star Trek: Voyager wasn’t a better show.  Bioware should consider writing screenplays.

Compelling Story

‘Compelling’ is a word rarely used when speaking of video game stories, but it applies to the overarching story of Mass Effect. For example, the opening sequence has my vote for best game intro I’ve ever seen. There are movies that aren’t this good.

And the bad guys aren’t just some drug-running space pirates. This is the most uber-uber enemy I’ve ever heard of! These creatures wipe out entire species! They abduct whole planets of creatures for their nefarious plans! You and your pitiful crew have NO CHANCE. HA! Just try it, Punk.

Safe to say that even the amazing story in Dragon Age pales in comparison to the storyline that runs through the Mass Effect series. Saveau was right when he told me it really is the best episode of Battlestar Gallactica never made.

I let Xtna make my Mass Effect Character for me. An ugly bad-ass... just like me.

Interactive Storyline

The story in Mass Effect changes in response to your decisions. Your choices have huge repercussions on the storyline, not just the ending.  Some decisions that came up in the game, I literally had to walk away from the computer and think about how I should really handle them:

• Do you save the council members or do you save the citadel?
• Do you kill the last of a rogue alien species?
• Do you shoot a teammate you don’t trust?
• Do you fall for one of your beautiful but emotionally unstable crew members?
• Do you hold out for your true love, whose picture sits on your desk?

These are not small decisions, they are not easy decisions, and they affect the future course of the game, continuing into future games that you import your character into. We’re all still waiting for an open world with truly multiple high level plots, but till that happens, Mass Effect is raising the bar for an intriguing story with world-changing replayability.

Intuitive Combat and Gameplay

I have a saying for video games and pieces of audio gear that have too many buttons on them. The saying is “Too many buttons” and I usually say it in a faux English accent. I’m happy to report that Mass Effect does not suffer from this problem. Bioware has streamlined the gameplay and combat. If you’re used to First-person shooters, then you’ll have no problem controlling Commander Shepard and letting your companions fend for themselves. If RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games is your thing, then you’ll have no problem micro-managing your space-buddies.

Hacking circuits to get into locked items is one of the fun micro-games in Mass Effect 2

Micro-games

Hacking firewall code? Bypassing circuits to open locks? The little micro-games that you encounter in Mass Effect are fun. Just often enough that you’ll get good at them, and just quick enough that you won’t get bored of them, with one major exception. See Resource Gathering, below.

The romantic encounters with crewmates are a micro-game in themselves, a little spice to shake things up on a ship where tongues will wag. The most fun is choosing whom to knock boots with. Check youtube.com for all the Mass Effect 2 romance soft-porn. And remember to save your game so you can ‘unscrew’ your crewmates!

Complaints Opportunities for Improvement

Just to prove that I’m not being paid by Bioware for product placement here on conradzero.com, I’ll take this opportunity to provide some constructive criticism EA/Bioware can implement in Mass Effect 3.

Resource Gathering

You’re Commander Shepard, the rogue/paragon, elite, spectre, uber-agent of the Future Future Future! Appointed by the High Council to save the metaverse from ultimate destruction!

So why the fuck do YOU have to manually scan planets for resources? Isn’t there a gorram Wesley Crusher on this fricking frigate who can take care of this job that’s more tedious than mixing a thousand Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters one at a time?

In Mass Effect 1, you enter orbit on the planet, click the aptly-named Scan button and whammo! Resources claimed. Even this simple act was tedious with the hundreds of planets to scour. But Mass Effect 2 converts that quarter-second scan into a multi-minute marathon of button-mashing-mouse-dragging nonsense. You need to do it, you will get good at it, and you will get sick of it.

And if I hear “Probe Away” one more time, I will break into maniacal laughter. Actually, I did break into maniacal laughter the first time the computer said, “Probe Away.” Seriously.

Object Selection and Focus

The object selection and highlighting reminds me of System Shock 2… in a bad way. It was wonky enough to be distracting. Objects in other rooms get highlighted that aren’t even visible, but the wall safe that I’m standing right in front of wont…f**ing highlight! Turning oh-so-slightly until the focus switches to what’s right in front of me is like trying to tune the rabbit ears on an old VHF TV antenna.

Movement hazards and hangups

I haven’t played a game before with so many areas that you could get ‘stuck’ on. A couple times I had to fall back to my most recent save game because I found myself levitating on an invisible platform several feet in the air and I couldn’t get back down to the ground.  Come on, Quality Assurance.

Travel

It's 2011 and we don't have flying cars yet... why don't we at least have something like this? (Mako from Mass Effect)

Make no mistake, traveling around the universe is mega-fun at first, whether you are leaping lunar craters in the 6-wheeled Mako, or jetting around the solar system in a hijacked, experimental alliance frigate. But after logging hours (literally hours) at the controls of the Mako, traveling barren planets… that fun will wear off.

These things are annoyances at worst, none of these issues ruined the fun I had playing the game. In fact, I’m looking forward to…

Mass Effect 3 – The FUTURE… Future… future…

Mass Effect 3 should be out around the end of 2011, and I can’t wait.  I’ve had so much fun playing through these adventures it makes it less interesting to watch movies and TV where other people get to have all the fun.

And it’s rumored that if you import your character, many of the decisions you made in Mass Effect 1 and 2 will come over as well. Bring on the repercussions!

Alice In Wonderland turns 60

Believe it or not, we will soon be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the classic tale of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Disney has the combo DVD/Blu-Ray all set to launch on 11 Feb 2011.

It’s not surprising that this story manages to keep us entertained after 60 years.  The dark, childish flexibility of the mythos lends itself to endless disturbing and fascinating reinterpretations. Here are several that I’ve enjoyed and highly recommend:

• A fun and twisted mini-series called Alice released in 2009, in which a 21-year old Alice (now a judo instructor) finds her way back to a futuristic, industrialized wonderland. Tim Curry stars, and Kathy Bates plays a deliciously evil Red Queen.
• A long-running series of gratuitously sexy and gratuitously bloody comic books released under Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales started back in 2007 and continues to this day. It covers several generation of Alice’s family and their ties to Wonderland.
• A series of books called the Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.His retelling has a cool twist – Alice told the story of Wonderland to Lewis Carroll, not the other way around as we believed. Not only did he think it was fantasy, he also got the story wrong. Alice is actually heir to the throne in Wonderland, the place where ideas come from. The Hatter is actually her personal bodyguard,  the Cheshire Cat is an assassin with nine lives working for the evil Queen Redd.
• There’s an accompanying soundtrack to Frank Beddor’s Looking Glass Wars which is quite good.
• Of course, there’s the 2010 feature length Disney movie starring Johnny Depp. Tim Burton? Yay! Disney? Boo. Adequate, but could have been better.
• For many many more, check out the wikipedia listing for Works Based on Alice in Wonderland. Add your favorites to the comments section below.

Do not ask Alice. Do not mess with Alice. This cover of the game was later replaced with a less-disturbing version.

A Dark Reimagining of a Classic

Of all the reimaginings of Alice in Wonderland, none were as entertaining to me as the video game American McGee’s Alice, an overlooked masterpiece released in 2000 that mixed interesting puzzles, weapons and baddies in a breathtaking, disturbing and cleverly-designed world (Well, breathtaking for games rendered on the Quake 3 engine back in 2000.)

American McGee’s Alice starts with a teenaged Alice institutionalized, the scars on her wrists and the hollow look in her eyes tell us that she hasn’t adjusted well to her parents dying in a house fire. You can watch the game intro (and entire game walkthru) on youtube.

A casebook packaged with the game, (handwritten by her psychologist) added a spooky level of realism. The cover of the game box got the mood right – Alice wielding a cold stare and a blood-stained butcher knife, her apron covered in blood and runes. The Cheshire Cat  is a caricature of a caricature – scrawny and hairless, sporting an earring and evil looking tattoos, and a deep rich voice in the game that I just loved.

The game was wicked fun. Disturbing and entertaining. Creepy atmosphere both visually and the audio score. Fun, problem-solving sections were buffered with cut-scenes and bosses that were problems to solve in themselves – each boss had a distinct weakness, and you’d have a hell of a time beating them unless you figured it out.

I’d give the game a 9 out of 10, and the only thing stopping it from being a ten was the lame-o ending cut scene that screamed, “OK, we’re out of time and money now, give us a quick Hollywood ending!”

Good thing that’s not where the game really ends…

A Dark Extension of A Dark Reimagining of a Classic

Soon, the mythos of Alice in Wonderland will be extended even further. The man who thought enough of himself to include his own name in the game title is back. Yes, American McGee is working with EA games to release another Alice video game called Alice: Madness Returns. This game picks up right were the original game left off. From the previews, we can expect another dark and disturbing retelling of Alice that I wished Tim Burton would have made. You probably won’t want the kids to watch this one.

IGN released a short trailer on youtube, and here is the official teaser trailer from EA games:

I can’t wait.

• Alice: Madness Returns – Official Site
• Alice: Madness Returns – Facebook
• Follow the @thewhiterabbit on Twitter

Finally, I’ve completed Dragon Age… all of it. Origins, Awakening and the expansions… I’ve saved Ferelden more times than I care to remember, and killed countless darkspawn. (Actually, you can see the count right here.)

Of course, the moment I finish, I found out they have released new expansions Leliana’s Song and tomorrow Witch Hunt is out. And it seems Dragon Age II is around the corner.

Ugh. Ferelden isn’t *that* awesome that it needs to be saved ten-thousand times. Maybe my character should just move to an island somewhere.

Bet on Black

My character for Dragon Age was a female, elvish mage named Black. Sorry I couldn’t come up with a more interesting name or appearance, but I didn’t care to waste much time getting into the game and kicking darkspawn ass.

By the end of the series, Black was an an astonishing force. A combination Blood Mage / Combat Mage, which explains why in the picture my character is able to wear heavy armour (lifted from a dead king, btw) and carry a sword taller than she is. Like I said, pretty damned powerful.

Black - Kick ass elvish blood/combat mage in Dragon Age

Goodness!

I went the good route with this character. I tried being evil before in Neverwinter Nights, and it was a lot of work. I liked how very simple and straightforward a Lawful Good character is to play. There weren’t a whole lot of ambiguous choices in Dragon Age, the only real decision in the Awakening expansion is whether you choose to believe what the Architect tells you or not. Simply save the game and play it out both ways. That’s what I did, and there really wasn’t much difference.

LOTR? LMAO

It has to be tough to write a game like Dragon Age without being compared to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  When the dwarf says “A fight with little hope of success? Don’t even think of leaving me behind!” you will be thinking of Gimli. I almost expected the elf to say, “A red sun rises. Blood has been spilt this night.”

The Awakening expansion does attempt to stretch beyond the standard trope of The Bad Guys Look Ugly And Therefore They Must Die… but it certainly doesn’t stretch very far.

Oh well, it still works. Don’t mess with a good thing, right? I think I said the same thing in my review of Neverwinter Nights.

Comparisons to Other Video Games

Dragon Age derives nicely out of  Neverwinter Nights. The gameplay mechanics are similar, the world and story are similar. Dragon Age is a better game than Neverwinter, but not by much. Dragon Age has lots of awesome cut-scenes that make you feel like you’re controlling the lead character in a movie, and its skill and inventory system are much improved over Neverwinter Nights (MUCH MUCH Improved, and Thank You Bioware!) But Neverwinter allowed for multiplayer and public-created content. Dragon Age does not.

I hate to say it, but the game Oblivion from over four years ago is still a better game than Dragon Age. Oblivion’s skills system and open world simply blow Dragon Age away. Oblivion also allowed players to shift into First Person, which is huge for me, and while it just requires a few more pixels of camera movement, the game designers refuse to do it.

Don’t get me wrong, Dragon Age is a marvelous game. I loved playing it, and I look forward to Dragon Age II, but the game could be better. Come on guys, Open world. Multiplayer. Open source content. First Person POV. Skill system = Oblivion, not Dungeons and Dragons.

Anyway, Dragon Age was a lovely distraction from all the First Person Shooters I’ve been playing lately. Now, I’m looking forward to a bit of Sci-Fi horror rehash when Dead Space II comes out in Jan 2011.

-Zero

A Review of Playing Evil in the Video Game “Neverwinter Nights 2″

[Editor's Note: There's a handful of micro-spoilers in here, but nothing that will keep you from enjoying the game.]

I’ve waxed philosophic before about breaking out of my assassin RPG niche. In the video game Oblivion, I played a  hyper-testostrinated human male fighter carrying the largest and longest weapon I could lift. In Jade Empire, I chose a female magic user. Throughout the Original Neverwinter Nights Trilogy (Neverwinter Nights / Shadows of Undrentide / Hordes of the Underdark) my avatar was a tricksy, elvish Shadowdancer.

Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2 for short) gave me a new option for avatar diversity.

It was 30 Dec 2007. The game installer chugged away as I read the back of the game box for the upteenth time. Bright letters across the box declared, “Everything you do has a meaning”. Other games have offered options for playing evil characters, but NWN2 seemed to go a step further, almost daring players to test the boundaries of morality. After all, the game designers had taken the time to plot out the repercussions of all your actions in the game. My Inner Philosopher pitched a denim pup-tent as he thought about turning the reins over to my Inner Evil Draconian Overlord.

Evil it is then. For while I’d played a diverse series of characters in the past, I’d always been on the Good side. The obviously-we-have-to-kill-the-shadowlord-because-he-wears-black-and-has-a-deep-voice side. What if I wanted to kill the shadowlord just so I could take his place? What would it be like to be the new evil on the block?

Pyro Firespawn and Posse. Yeah, We Bad

I decided to find out.

And so Pyro Firespawn was born. Don’t laugh. He’s a Chaotic Evil Tiefling. Tieflings are humans tainted with blood of a demonic heritage.  He’s got horns and a tail. He likes to burn things. He’s also a cleric, so he can kill people, raise them from the dead, and then kill them again. (That’s why I told you not to laugh.)

Xtna helped with the aesthetic creation of Pyro. He’s my first avatar to have any resemblance to my physical self. At least, as near as the game engine would allow us to create. Do you want to date my avatar?

The Difficulty of Evil

So I set out on my Evil Epic Adventure. It wasn’t as simple as it sounds. Right away, I discovered difficulties being evil. If I simply slay everyone who got between myself and what I wanted (merchants, for example) I’d have no one to back me up and the game would end with me in prison. That wouldn’t be a long game, and it wouldn’t be a satisfactory ending.

Evil Lesson #1 – Evil requires Power and/or Stealth. Pretty much all the sins require you to be stronger, faster or sneakier than someone else. When you’re a Level One Pissboy, you ain’t pushing anyone around. Therefore, I shied away from being what I called Stupid Evil. I had to keep my eyes on the big prize. Intelligent Evil is far more evil, don’t you think?

Evil Lesson #2 – Evil Looks Good. I often found myself weighing off which side of the fight would help me more in my evil goals. Should I be nice to this person because they might join my party or give me information? Should I kill the dragon and save the townsfolk, if that is the only way to get them to tell me where the uber-important evil magic sword could be found? Signs point to yes.

Evil Lesson #3 “The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend” One thing was always certain. I was literally hell-bent on defeating the King of Shadows, because he was coming to destroy everything.  In fact, some of my companions were happy to stand alongside me in battle although they did not agree with my alignment for the same reason – because the Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.

I was so Good at Looking Good and being Evil, I could have run for the Republican Party.

Evil Lesson #4 – Evil Loves Company. Did Hitler have any friends? Probably more like “associates” or “companions”, which were another aspect to consider in NWN2. They have alignments too, and if I upset their more…delicate sensibilities, they could leave or worse, turn on me at a crucial moment. There’s no pleasing everyone, and some of my companions did leave me because of my choices. Others flat-out defected to the other team. (…and died some pretty spectacular deaths because of it. Seems their actions had repercussions too.) So, in order to keep the allegiance of my followers, I had to avoid certain evil tasks that I wanted to do. In order to increase their loyalty, I had to help them perform some good tasks I didn’t really want to do. Basically picking my battles and weighing off short term Goodness for Long-Term, Big-Picture Evil.

Halfway through the game, I had my evil system perfected. I was truly evil in (seemingly) unimportant interactions and lied and backstabbed when appropriate to further my larger objectives. On the surface I was just a Regular Guy who looked like he was following the rules. In this respect, I became less Chaotic Evil and more Lawful Evil. I was so Good at Looking Good and Being Evil, I could have run for the Republican Party.

Or so I thought.

Fate and/or the game designers were a step ahead here, because it wasn’t long before I was placed on trial for a crime I did not commit. I thought I had little to worry about… until they began to call in Character Witnesses.

Let’s put it this way – it was a long trial.

That aside, my philosophy of Evil-When-It-Matters worked well. I gained a lot of trust and respect with my companions, the Thieves Guild, and with good King Nasher himself. Eventually I was granted my own keep and knighted. I had a party of very powerful followers, some of whom could beat Mother Teresa on the Goodness Meter.

Then the time came, and I took my party of followers deep into the enemy’s domain to confront the Shadow-Lord himself.

Denouement – Evil is Good

Sunday November 15, 2009 I reached the ending of Neverwinter Nights 2. The inner sanctum of the Shadow Lord’s stronghold. Because of my evil affiliation, I was offered the opportunity to leave my companions and join with the Shadow Lord.  I saved the game and played out both possible endings. [Note: You might get the same opportunity for the alternate ending if you play a good character, but since I didn't do this, I can't be sure.]

I have to say, the evil ending was easier and more satisfying, but it was more because of the way the actual endings were written – something which has raised concern with more than one person who played through NWN2. If you’re interested in reading more about the NWN2 endings, check out this review by aeon (warning: spoilers) which does a good job of summing up the disappointing ending for good characters.

Was it Fun Being Evil?

It was certainly a lot more work. Often, I had to try and guess what the game designers meant to be Evil choices in the game. The ambiguous wording of my question-response options made me think, “Is that an evil thing to say?” The Good responses were mostly obvious, so it probably would have been easier to play a Good character.

Some of the evilness was fun. Double-crossing a dragon? Wow. Fun and rewarding. Happily throwing out promises you have no intention to keep was more of a relief than actual ‘fun’. Killing people who thought they could trust you, that was a tough one.

In short, being evil towards evil beings was wicked fun. Being evil towards good people wasn’t easy. Being evil towards helpless people brought me no joy at all.

Beyond Evil

With NWN2 behind me, I’m just in time for the next big thing… Dragon Age: Origins. Apparently, they’ve tried even harder to blur the line between good and evil.

Dragon Age: Origins is on my Christmas list. So expect a review when I finish it…two years from now…

-Z

There’s two distinct advantages to waiting a few years after a game’s release before you pick it up:

• The price will be low
• The system requirements will be laughable. (Unless you never upgrade your computer)

Case in point is Bioware’s Jade Empire released in 2005. Fate laid a copy of Jade Empire in my path for a measily two dollars (plus tax)  Hey, I’m only human right? Some would argue that statement, since I put in 29 Hours and 31 minutes over a 4-day marathon of gameplay and finished the game.  Somehow I also managed to work my full-time job. There was time in there for bathroom breaks and caffeine power-ups, but no sleeping that I remember.

Those who played Neverwinter Nights will recognize the game engine and controls, although much has been simplified and streamlined for your pleasure. Combat is reduced to three options: Attack, Block, and Power Attack. These function in a Rock-Paper-Scissors format:

• Block avoids Attack
• Attack cancels Power Attack
• Power Attack beats Block

There’s also Chi, a spiritual ability which can be used for healing and applied to some attacks to make them more powerful. You also have Focus, which slows down time and allows you to move faster than your enemies.  Focus and Chi aren’t unlimited, and should be used sparingly during combat.

The Good

The real beauty of this game lies in its simplicity. For example, there’s very little inventory to manage. No armor. No potions. No weapons. You have a list of fighting styles that you’ve learned. If you learn a dual-sword technique, you have dual swords. No encumbrance, no shuffling equipment onto and off from pack mules. No running into town to sell off a bunch of stuff to make room for more stuff. You do have some magic gems that augment your abilities, and some ‘plot items’ which are simply keys to finishing certain tasks, but there’s nothing to be replenished or reloaded except your Mind, Body and Spirit.

Despite some yawnable cliche’s (see below) the story was top notch. Definitely not a writer’s strike going on when this game was made. Interesting, funny and lovable characters, who had some believable interactions and entertaining conversations. Throughout the game I could turn to Henpecked Hau for a lengthy and entertaining conversation. A turning point in the story comes when you finally confront the Emperor himself - what happens is something you will *never* see coming.

The Role Playing was the best I’ve seen in a game. Lots of discussions, and dialog options, and choices of how to specifically phrase your replies. For example, you might get the following four different ways to say “Yes”:

• Yes, your most worshipful Emperorness.
• Yes.
• For Gods sakes, Yes! Now quit asking me stupid questions!
• [Charm] Oh yeah you big stallion!

This much dialog might be a turn-off for those who just want things to Line Up And Die, but I thought it was fun. It really let me get into my character’s motivations and let me mold my character into what I wanted. More specifically a Cold-Blooded-Yet-Smoking-Hot-Asian-Female-Assassin. Duh.

The game world is ”based on” China.  The alternate language that occurs in the game is called Tho Fan, created specifically for the game by Canadian linguist Wolf Wikeley.

If it looks like China and it sounds like China… Fine, I’ll say it, the game takes place in China. Regardless, it is steeped in Eastern Philosophy, which gives it some great quotes. Here are some of the more memorable ones:

• The Wheel of Life must turn!
• Ask not where the path leads. Instead ask why the path is there.
• If we aren’t drinking we should be fighting.

The Bad

I had to turn the music down. Yeah, it fits the mood and all, but I need to be able to hear if a 20-foot tall stone golem is trying to sneak up on me.

The plot was good despite the cliche’s, but they were there. Ever play a game where you die and have to fight your way out of the underworld?  Yeah, me too. Ever played a game where you are forced to fight a copy of your own character? Yeah, it’s probably the first module every D&D GameMaster thinks up. Ever hear the plot, ‘Local peasant rises up to defeat the evil draconian overlord?’ You can check, but I think that might have been done already.

The game engine had a couple minor quirks. I got used to the limitations of the camera quickly. There is a very limited range of up/down motion with the camera, and no way to zoom the camera in or out. That said, the camera was positioned ‘just right’ for most of the game. Mostly. I did run into several places where the camera got stuck pointing straight down about a foot off the ground. Not very useful. I had to watch the map in the corner of the screen and move to a section with some stairs, and that would jar the camera back to the correct position.

Jade Empire takes the “I” out of AI.  Even on ‘Master’ and ‘Jade Master’ difficulty settings, the bad guys didn’t seem to have any attacking style. They seem to perform a randomized combination of Block/Attack/Power Attack. Enemies you aren’t directly targeting don’t go out of their way to hit you, like they want to wait their turn for your full attention or something.

The Upshot

Jade Empire is a fun console-ported-to-PC game, with an interesting blend of Hack-N-Slash mixed with Role Playing, all steeped in an Alternate Eastern Mythology. Simplified combat and no inventory put the focus back on gameplay where it belongs.

The Twitter Review

Just completed *Jade Empire* 29hrs 31min total, I kicked that game’s ass in 4 days! What an awesome game! It was like being in a movie!

The line between video games and movies blurs even more with this amazing trailer for the new World of Warcraft game: Wrath of the Lich King

Art Is Resistance
-Zero