Platform: PC

More episodic point-and-click adventure from Telltale Games. This series is definitely geared more towards younger gamers but there is much charm and witty story telling to keep older players entertained. If you enjoyed the movies and shorts, this is just like another cartoon in the Wallace and Gromit series. I thought the first episode, Fright of the Bumblebees, was the best and there is a nice bit of characterization and story that carries over from episode to episode. It’s not quite on par with Sam and Max but it’s still a worthy modern adventure game.

I played the first Assassin’s Creed several years ago and, while I thought it was an okay game, I was never compelled to continue on with the series. It was just too repetitive and item collection driven. The only reason I have AC4 is that it was bundled with my new video card. Black Flag is an absolutely beautiful game and it’s no wonder EVGA bundled it with my GTX660 as a way to showcase that mid-range card’s capabilities. Ever since the original FarCry I have been a sucker for games that are set on tropical islands.

At its core it is mostly the same game as AC1 but the narrative is much more focused. The missions, although similar from one to the next, aren’t the exact same quest over and over. There is actually a story-based point to most of the challenges you face. The mindless item collection is still part of the game, but looking for pirate booty sorta makes thematic sense here. The combat has also been streamlined but is ultimately kind of disappointing after experiencing the pure elegance of Batman: Arkham City’s excellent fighting system. Thankfully, avoiding combat and stealth are a big part of the game.

Oh, did I mention naval battles? Ever since reading all of the Aubrey/Maturin novels I have wanted a naval combat video game. Old Ironsides on the Apple ][, despite its simplicity, actually came close to capturing the feeling of the chase and ship-to-ship dueling. AC4 takes it one step closer by adding the hand-to-hand, yardarm-to-yardarm fighting that would decide the battle in the end. The combat is still very twitchy and too fast to be a true naval combat simulation, but it is really fun.

Like most things in this game, even the naval battles start to become a bit tiresome after a while. My advice to anyone picking up this game would be to stick with the main missions and ignore most of the side quests and collecting. The current-day framing story is a waste of time and should be ignored as well.

Contract J.A.C.K. is billed as a prequel to the super-excellent shooter No One Lives Forever 2. What we really have here is a modest set of stand-alone expansion levels for NOLF 2. It uses the same game engine, graphics and features a new main character but really not much effort was put into the story or game-play. While there are a handful of funny character interactions, mostly this is a linear, run-and-gun shooter. Don’t play this one expecting any of the dialogue or varied game-play that made NOLF 1+2 two of the best PC games ever created. J.A.C.K. is okay, I guess, but would rather play NOLF 3 instead.

When I heard that this game featured Michael Biehn as the main voice actor I was intrigued. When I saw that it was an over-the-top homage to eighties science fiction and action movies I had to have it. The game doesn’t disappoint in the nostalgia department. In addition to the neon Tron-style art direction, there is tons of cheesy dialogue, 8-bit cut scenes (including a power rock training montage), and an incredibly cool synthesizer-based soundtrack. In terms of story, the game has nothing to do with FarCry other than it using the same game engine and open-world mechanics. There is a good balance of stealth and good old-fashioned shoot everything gun play. This sells for cheap and is well worth the low price despite its short game length.

The first Darksiders was a blatant rip-off of (some might say “homage to”) the The Legend of Zelda. While it maintains much of that formula, the sequel feels a little more like its own thing. There’s more of an emphasis on acrobatic platforming complete with pillar jumping, vaults, wall-running and… er… okay it’s a rip-off of Prince of Persia this time, but who cares, it’s a formula that works!

The game keeps pushing you along from one puzzle room to the next and along the way you earn more and more advanced tools for passing obstacles. There’s still the pop gun, portal gun and hookshot thingy, but now you can also split into two characters, control ghosts and do a little time travelling. These new skills make for a couple really brain-twisting puzzles near the end of the game.

There is still quite a bit of hacking and slashing between the brainy stuff. A few of the battles are fun, but, for the most part combat is repetitive and uninteresting and can be reduced to spastic button mashing. The first game was a tad more sophisticated in its fighting controls.

As for the story, it just as convoluted and unintelligible as the it was in Darksiders. There’s a bit less of the bible fan-fiction feeling here, but still, I never really gave a crap about anything that was going on. The dialogue sounds like it was taken word-for-word out of the Lord of the Rings screenplay. Just replace “Mordor” with “The Corruption.”

This game has been on my back burner for quite some time now. I play a little here and a little there, but it never really got its hooks in me. This was Telltale’s first foray into episodic point-and-click adventure games and it shows. There is no over-arching story to tie the episodes together, solving the puzzles is mostly just a matter of clicking on everything in your inventory and they threw in a bunch of item collection nonsense to make up for the limited gameplay options.

If you are a fan of the web cartoon it’s worth playing if only because it is probably the last we will see of Homestar and the gang for a while. There are some pretty funny moments and there are also some clever twists on various video gaming clichés and there’s even some self-aware parody of adventure game annoyances. However, once you have played the first episode, it seems like the same thing over and over. Alright, Chapmans, you’ve made your computer game, now get back to making cartoons!

While Invisible War was not without its merits, it really lacked the depth of the original Deus Ex. This third installment attempts to amend some of that and bring the series a little closer to its RPG, stealth-centric roots. For the most part it succeeds. The levels offer all sorts of play options and paths. Also, the third-person perspective stealth system works much better than the hiding in shadows ever did in the original game.

Personally, I think the original is a tad bit overrated. I attempted to play it a again before diving into Human Revolution and found it doesn’t really hold up. My God that Hong Kong level is unbearably tedious and boring. There’s a point in Human Revolution when the game frees you to start exploring a more open environment. I immediately started to get panicked flashback of my hours spent backtracking through the dull streets of Hong Kong, but. thankfully, there are quest arrows that guide lazy modern gamers back into the action.

The story as something to do with kidnapped scientists and anti-cyber augmentation zealots. Once the Illuminati were brought into the mix I tuned out the narrative and just concentrated on getting through the levels undetected. Tightly plotted and understandable narratives are not a hallmark of this series.

The Tiny Bang Story is a small puzzle game that I think is designed more for younger players. Most of the game-play is in the vein of I Spy and other hidden object games. You look at a wonderfully illustrated setting and then click around trying to find a given number of similar items like apples, toy boats or gears. Once you have found enough objects a puzzle is unlocked. Complete all the puzzles and then you move on to the next setting.

I didn’t find the puzzles that difficult. Actually, the only parts of the game where I got stuck were a couple of the hidden image sets. Here’s a hint: click everywhere! Despite its simplicity, I did enjoy playing this. I found it to be a nice relaxing change of pace after carpal-tunneling my way through a couple of shooters over the last few weeks.

The original BioShock was a great game with an interesting plot and a wonderfully unique setting. I never really understood the bizarre take on Ayn Rand though. It seemed to say that if objectivism is taken to its logical extreme that would mean people who believe in individualism and self-ownership would immediately start modifying and enslaving people against their will? That makes no sense at all, but it was enough to give you a bad guy to pursue. BioShock 2 takes place in a more deteriorated Rapture several years after the fall of Andrew Ryan. This time, however, the collectivists are in charge and, whad-do-ya-know, they suck too. I guess the theme here is it’s cool to be an indecisive, on-the-fence moderate.

This sequel plays about the same as the original but there have been a few improvements such as the removal of those annoying pipe-dream style puzzles that represented hacking. The combat, while fun, was pretty difficult for me and I often felt like I was dying without warning. I eventually got the hang of it once I had enough power-ups. This game felt like it moved along a little better than the first with less back tracking. The story comes to a decent finale and, in the end, I think I liked this game just as much as I did the first one.

Crysis feels much more like the Far Cry sequel I wanted back when I played Far Cry 2. Once again you are dropped into a lush island paradise in which you must shoot everything that moves, including the chickens. The overall level design is fairly linear, but each set piece can be approached in many ways. I would always prefer turning on my cloak and then sneaking into a secure location before going on my shooting sprees. It’s not quite a Thief game, but this stealth system works reasonably well. And once the snooping ended, the gunfights were very fun and manageable.

The story is not terribly interesting. Like the original Far Cry there is a not-so-surprising sci-fi twist about two thirds the way through. This twist provides a nice change of environment, but fighting squid monsters just isn’t as fun as creeping through the bush to take out commies.