Rise of Nightmares

Mad scientists often have the dangerous habit of combining things that don't naturally belong together, in an attempt to create new forms of life. So it is with Viktor, the disturbed doctor who fuses corpses and machines to create creatures that cause you no small amount of trouble in Rise of Nightmares. Rise of Nightmares itself is an uneasy combination of elements, awkwardly fusing grisly zombie-slashing gameplay with the Kinect's motion controls. The result is not unlike one of Viktor's shambling creations; it works, more or less, but it feels unnatural.


You’d have to be incredibly clumsy to walk into that wall of spikes. Luckily for the mad doctor, Josh is.
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You play as Josh, a young husband traveling with his wife, Kate, through Eastern Europe. Josh's drinking problem has long been a wedge between the couple, and Kate's frustration with Josh's behavior is boiling over. But the two soon have much bigger problems to deal with, when the train they're traveling on is derailed and Kate is abducted by the local mad scientist. As Josh, you must fight your way through legions of Viktor's combinations of flesh and metal in an attempt to save Kate and escape with your own life. The story is standard stuff, but Viktor's remorseless eagerness to butcher anyone who crosses his path makes him a villain you want to put a stop to. Rise of Nightmares is rarely scary, but the visuals create a convincingly creepy atmosphere; the dungeons you must travel through look so dank you can almost feel the foul moisture in the air, and the torture devices, human remains and bloodstains that decorate the halls create an unsettling sense of the horrors that have occurred there.

You use your body to navigate the corridors and courtyards of Viktor's estate. Turning your torso left and right makes Josh do the same, and walking is a simple matter of putting one foot forward. You feel more like you're steering a cumbersome vehicle than moving naturally through these places, but the controls are adequate in most environments, where precise movements aren't required. However, a few rooms and hallways of Viktor's mansion are outfitted with deadly spikes that shoot out of the floors, blades that periodically drop down from the ceiling, and other deadly traps. In moments like this, Rise of Nightmares' full body control is too limiting and too clumsy, making avoiding these hazards much harder than it should be. By putting your foot farther forward, you can make Josh move forward faster, but even in situations when running would be wise, you can't make him move faster than a brisk walk. And although you might want to look up to make sure you're not standing right underneath that guillotine-like blade above you, Josh's gaze is always fixed forward. If you don't feel like steering Josh around yourself, you can usually make him automatically head toward his current destination by holding your right hand up, but when environmental dangers are present, it's up to you to avoid them.


It's a well-known fact that the undead hate giant tongs.
It's also up to you to kill the countless creatures that stand between you and Kate, and here the controls fare better. By holding your arms up like a boxer, you automatically focus on the nearest enemy and guard against incoming attacks. You can use your bare fists to clobber these atrocities, but your creature-killing efforts are much more effective if you use the weapons scattered throughout the estate. These include mundane items like brass knuckles, hammers, and hatchets, as well as outlandish devices like shock knuckles, bone shears, and the mechanized arms of your fallen foes. Weapons degrade as you use them and eventually break, but there's always a new weapon nearby to pick up when one goes out on you.

To attack, you make a gesture that suits your current weapon, and although your attempts to target the weaker, fleshy parts of the creatures don't always work as well as they should, it doesn't matter much; a few solid strikes is enough to dispose of most enemies. A few enemy types force you to consider your surroundings and attack carefully, like the shriekers, whose sonic attacks require you to cover your ears, leaving you vulnerable to assaults from other enemies. But for the most part, combat is easy; you just guard when enemies attack and then you strike them down. It's fun to play with all the different weapons, and late in the game, you acquire a particularly satisfying combat ability, but there's just not enough depth or variety to the combat to keep it interesting throughout this adventure.

On occasion, you need to do battle with some of Viktor's more powerful and deadly creations. Fighting these bosses is a lot like fighting normal creatures, except that you must avoid their attacks by responding quickly to onscreen prompts. You might be prompted to sidestep an enemy's thrust or duck under an enemy's whirling slash. The more physical nature of these battles makes them stand out from the ho-hum combat of the rest of the game, but they don't offer much challenge, and they illuminate just how limited the controls are; you might wish you could backstep or crouch under the occasional attack from a standard creature, but apparently Josh is capable of making these moves only when a big prompt tells him to. Making the controls feel more unnatural still is that you can't just walk up to a door, a switch, or anything else and interact with it naturally; you must first hover your hand for a moment over a prompt that reads "Interact" before making your door-opening or switch-flicking gesture.


Rise of Nightmares is a great insect-swatting simulator.
Once in a while, Rise of Nightmares uses its Kinect controls to create tense moments. For instance, the hulking beast known as Ernst is sensitive to noise and movement, so when he passes by, you must stand very still to avoid alerting him. But aside from these occasional nail-biting situations, this is an ordinary journey whose motion controls too often just get in the way, rather than making the experience feel more real. Rise of Nightmares is far from an abomination, but its attempts to imitate life aren't going to fool anyone.

Rotastic

Vikings are not the only individuals who crave a life spent gliding through the sky. A ragtag group comprising an elf, boar, and reanimated skeleton join the party, though the only difference between these cartoon characters is their appearance. No matter which you choose, your goal is the same: swing from suspended points in the sky collecting gems, destroying barriers, and performing other odd jobs. Each level takes place on a single screen, and you have to complete your objective against the clock to move on to the next level with as high of a score as possible. Based on how effective you were in completing your task, you're given bronze, silver, gold, or platinum helmets, and when you unlock enough, you open up harder levels. It's an elegant system that is hounded by problems; chief among them is inconsistent controls that make unlocking the later levels a grueling, arduous plight that usually ends in aggravation.

Rotastic uses just two buttons. By holding A, you grab on to hook points, and you continually swing around them in a circle until you let go. If you want to change direction, just tap a bumper button. Grapple points dot the sky at strategic places, and you have to swing from one to another and then back again to collect gems hovering around you. For the first few levels, things run smoothly, and the easy-to-grasp control scheme makes it possible to forget what your hands are doing as you leap impressively from one hook to another without a care in the world. Bonus points are given if you pull off a trick--such as forming a figure 8 or other specific shapes--and there's simple pleasure to be found in the balletic manner you move. Without obstacles to get in your way or intense objectives forcing you to move in specific ways, the tutorial portion exhibits the surreal freedom of flight.


Like martial artists, Vikings wear different colors based on their talents. Clearly, he's a neophyte.
However, everything comes crashing down once the difficulty ramps up. The controls perform admirably when neither time nor precision are working against you, but this only lasts for so long. Once you have to hit switches, avoid buzzsaw blades, and break blocks, it's apparent that you don't have the proper tools to progress. The trick to successfully moving from one place to another comes from mastering your trajectory. By figuring out where you're going to land based on your angle of movement and speed, you can fling from one point to the next without many problems. But this is much easier said than done. There's no margin of error in Rotastic, so if you aren't a master of geometry, prepare to be frustrated frequently. In instances where you just have to land on a flat plane, it can take two or three attempts before you release at the right point. And even after getting where you want, you're liable to bounce right past your objective or miss it by the slimmest of margins. In later levels, you have to get past buzzsaw blades moving in asynchronous patterns or rush through closing gates against a timer, and there's little fun in repeatedly trying these grueling challenges only to come up short.

Every difficult level has the same problems because the controls are not up to the task. Levels require ultraspecific movement, and it's incredibly difficult to consistently pull off these exacting requests. Because of this, you often complete a stage by the skin of your teeth, which means you earn a mere bronze helmet. Without getting a high enough score for silver or gold, you can't unlock the later levels, so you're left replaying earlier stages with the desperate hope that you luck into a better ranking. And success does feel like luck in Rotastic. To get a high score, you have to pull off a string of almost-perfect moves in quick succession, and admittedly, it is a rush when you nail everything just as you should. But it's a rare moment when everything comes together, and you can only marvel at the implausibility of your landings. Did you really bounce off of two adjacent walls to nab that purple gem? How did you find room to squeak past that spiked log to hit the switch? The answers always come up the same: dumb luck. You never feel like a superstar because replicating these feats of brilliance is nearly impossible.


Boars don't fear death because they don't have souls.
The roughly 70 single-player levels should keep dedicated players busy for a few hours, and if you crave more swinging action once you've gone through the gauntlet, there's a four-player, offline-only multiplayer mode as well. There are two different ways to play. Deathmatch involves slamming into your friends or trying to cut their rope so they fall into a bottomless void. Collect is the same thing, except the winner is determined by how many gems you nab, though it's still more entertaining to send your friends plummeting. Multiplayer is more fun than the single-player counterparts because everyone is plagued by the same handicap: imprecise controls. Because of this, slinging yourself willy-nilly through the world is goofy fun, given that there's no real punishment for failure. Sure, you may fall into a pit or miss out on collecting coins, but who cares? You're just challenging friends in some good-natured competition. Still, there isn't a draw to hook you long term. After playing two or three matches, the shallowness of the experience is overwhelming, so even if you enjoy multiplayer, you'll be hard pressed to find someone to join you.

Rotastic ultimately feels like it could have been released on a mobile device for one-tenth of the price. It doesn't take advantage of any of the Xbox 360's technical wizardry, and the simple control scheme combined with the shallow gameplay would be ideal in five-minute bursts while waiting for your train to arrive. Sadly, Rotastic exists only on a console that's tethered to a television, and it's hard to justify shelling out 800 Microsoft points ($10) for this forgettable experience. With better level design and controls that allowed you to move with precision, Rotastic could have offered a quiet respite from the spectacle of most big-budget retail releases. But there are too many frustrations for it to slide into that role. Rotastic briefly soars through the air, but it quickly plummets back to the earth with a dull thud.

Duke Nukem Forever

The saying goes, “Better late than never.” I wish this was the case for Duke Nukem Forever. Unfortunately, stale gameplay and clumsy mechanics make me wish Forever was left as an idea, rather than made into an actual game. I wanted to like it. I really did. I tried to overlook its shortcomings and enjoy a story and character that brought me back to my childhood.
As far as character is concerned, nothing has changed. Duke is still the same testosterone-raging, foul-mouthed booby-slapper that he was in the 90s. He is a gun-toting badass who treats women as objects, mocks our society, and gets off on squashing aliens. The humor in the game is great. It brought me back to my adolescent days, when I got a rush out of doing things in the game that I wasn’t supposed to do in real life—-like looking at dirty magazines. Boy, did pixelated women ever look so good.

You’d think that after 12 years in the making, the women would look a little better. OK, so the game may have been an idea for 10 of those years, and the other two were development, but the point is that a game for consoles like Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 should look somewhat better than Duke Nukem Forever does. I thought blocky graphics and choppy movements were gone with the original Xbox. I would think the “King” would get the pleasure of a graphical overhaul, but maybe they purposely left us with these graphics for a nostalgia’s sake.
I wouldn’t be so hard on the graphics if the gameplay made up for it. The simple fact is that the gameplay is stale. There is nothing quite as adrenaline-pumping as running into a room full of aliens, guns blazing, and blasting the hell out of anything in sight. It was fun in the first Duke Nukem. It was fun for the first couple of levels in Duke Nukem Forever. Then it got repetitive. I can only get so much enjoyment out of shotgunning an alien and giving it the finger afterwards. Maybe today’s shooters have spoiled me into wanting more out of a game, and maybe the hype of Duke Nukem Forever made me expect more out of the game’s action. But there wasn’t more. All you do is run in and shoot up the place, often dying in the process because of “cheap” deaths. When I say “cheap” deaths, I don’t mean any time I die I’m labeling it as cheap. I admit, some of the deaths were results of careless play on my behalf, but when I am shrunken and nowhere near an enemy yet still die when he stomps his foot on the ground, I consider that a “cheap,” poorly programmed death.

Normally, I don’t complain about dying in a video game. I enjoy the challenge. However, when it takes five minutes to reload the level, it gets a little frustrating. No, I am not exaggerating. Each load screen takes about four to five minutes, and it happens quite frequently.
Duke Nukem takes gameplay elements from the very FPS games that it mocks. It has a regenerative health bar, called ego, and the constraint of only holding 2 weapons at once. Honestly, who can only carry two weapons these days? Especially when the hero is someone as badass as Duke. Duke’s levels are fairly straightforward—-linear maps filled with charging humanoid pigs and jetpack-wearing aliens. Some of the weapons are fun, as you can find shrink rays and freeze guns or use your blunt fists to pulverize enemies. After blasting your way around a level, you occasionally encounter some small puzzles. Although small and simplistic in nature, some of them can be quite difficult to figure out and can lead to frustration. The majority of them involve finding which crate to jump on next. Once you complete the acts in each chapter, you come face-to-face with a boss of some sort. These boss fights usually require patience, as you are forced to repetitively fire rockets at it until its health depletes.

The ideas behind some of Duke’s elements are there. It could’ve been fun shrinking into miniature size and driving miniature trucks around a room. However, its clumsy handling leaves you wanting more. “Jump on this crate and climb this ladder ... Jump on the hamburger buns to avoid being burned.” The puzzles are so dull that they are annoying. What should have been considered fun breaks in action sequences seem more like hindrances that only piss you off when you die because you can’t make the jump required to reach the next platform. Have fun waiting another five minutes to reload the level.  But hey, what is five minutes of waiting when we’ve waited 12 years for this game?
I enjoy the Duke character. I love flicking off aliens and cursing them out as I blow their heads off. I love chugging beer and cracking skulls with my fists. I love getting virtual lap dances in strip clubs and admiring myself in the mirror. The story, as hokey as it is, is still entertaining and filled with crude humor. I just don’t love anything else about the game. The graphics are dated, and the gameplay is pedestrian at best. I found myself begging for the game to end, playing it only for the sake of beating it rather than enjoying it. It seemed like a chore instead of a game. If you enjoy repetitive levels and corny one-liners, then you will find enjoyment in this game. The game will definitely bring you back to the 90s, but I wish it would have left 90s gameplay and graphics.

Dead Island

Dead Island had, what many consider, the roughest launch in gaming history.  From the accidental Xbox 360 developer build release on Steam to the “Feminist Wh*re” code to the PS3 trophy bug, Dead Island has had quite the rocky start.
Looking beyond that, Dead Island is still a fun play.  Dead Island strands you on a “small” vacation island off the coast of Papua New Guinea during the midst of a zombie outbreak.  Though labeled “small”, the island is actually quite large, featuring lavish environments filled with side-quests and hordes of zombies.  The game begins with you selecting one of four characters, each equipped with a unique skill-set that takes advantage of the types of weapons you’ll find scattered around the island.
Though Dead Island borrows features from other successful zombie games, like Dead Rising’s weapon creation and Left 4 Deads first-person, co-op action gameplay, Dead Island really is a totally different beast.  Though it’s a zombie game, the primary focus isn’t about the blood and gore.  At its core, Dead Island is a game about survival.  From the strategies you’ll use when playing to the side-quests you’ll pick up in your journey, the main goal is survival.
In most zombie games, you survive by shredding through the hordes of zombies.  Not in this game.  You survive by using what you find, and what you find is scarce and with limited durability.
You must pick and choose your fights carefully.  Strategy is a key element in this game; and sometimes, it’s smarter to just run from the wave of zombies than trying to bash your way through them resulting in a broken weapon.  These constant decisions you are forced to make is what sets Dead Island apart from other zombie games.

Check out the Dead Island Launch Trailer
Dead Island does a great job of making you feel like you are in the midst of a zombie outbreak.  The constant worry about lack of weapons, few med kits, and a limited stamina bar leave you with an unsettling feeling.  It’s a zombie game;  you should be scared.  You should be worrying about zombies lurking around the corner.  You should be worried about scavenging for weapons.  You should be worried about finding a workbench to keep your weapons repaired.
Unfortunately, the fear of dying is somewhat diminished by the lack of real punishment.  When you die, you must wait five seconds before resspawning in another location with slightly less money.  Any zombies you killed and the damage you inflicted before dying remain.  If you’re like me, and rush into fights resulting in death, you’ll appreciate the leniency.
The strength of Dead Island lies within the environment created and the open world RPG-element that results from it.  As you explore every nook and cranny of the massive world, you will run into plenty of survivors begging for your help.  There were so many side-quests that I actually found myself getting annoyed and asking why I’m the only person who could help them.  While you don’t have to, helping these survivors will result in rewards that will only make your main objective easier to achieve.
The great thing about Dead Island is you really become the character.  As you complete quests and kill zombies, you’ll be rewarded experience which you can use to level your character.  As you level, you unlock different skills by investing your XP points into them.  All of the characters each have unique skills that take advantage of the various weapons you’ll find.  There are three skill trees for each character so even if you’re playing with a friend who is the same character, you might have different specialties.

An extended, 20-minute gameplay clip
Speaking of multiplayer, Dead Island plays better when you have a buddy with you watching your back.  Not only does it give you a sense of camaraderie in a game where you’re constantly alone, but they can help with the more difficult quests.  Even if playing alone, you are given the option to join a player who is close to you via a pop-up message notification.
Dead Island is not without flaws though.  The combat is entertaining, though somewhat hindered by poor collision detection.  There are times when you can be aimed right at the zombie, swing, and still miss.  Though it isn’t game-breaking, it takes away from the enjoyment of zombie skull-bashing.  Don’t fret, there are plenty opportunities to make blood spurt out the top of a headless zombie in the game with the game’s dismemberment system.  The story, which offers 20-30 hours of gameplay, is pretty flat and filled with bland acting.
Dead Island may be a little rough around the edges, but it offers enough good things to make up for some of the more unpolished gameplay you’ll experience.  It does have some replay value when playing with friends and the announcement of DLC should add additional hours of gameplay.  It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a fun game.