The Getaway Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

In the early to mid-2000s, many video game developers produced GTA clones after the monstrous success of GTA III. Some producers blatantly ripped off GTA while others took the model and added their own bells and whistles to the newly created genre. Developer Team SoHo and publisher Sony Computer Entertainment released “The Getaway” in 2003 for the PlayStation 2. Placing the game in the back alleys of London, you’ll take control of two separate characters. Mark Hammond, an ex-gangster who has been forced to return to crime to rescue his son, and Frank Carter, an elite police officer who is trying to bring down the mega crime organizations that have been running rampant. Does The Getaway earn some respect or is it just another cheap GTA clone? Hey Wanker, let’s read this Getaway review!

The Getaway Plot:

The Getaway will give you two different perspectives on the overall plot. The first twelve missions you’ll play as Mark Hammond, a father, and a husband who has left his former gang to start an honest life after years of being in organized crime. This doesn’t last long as about three months after Hammond has gone legit, a rival crime lord sends his goons to kidnap Hammond’s wife and child. The kidnapping goes wrong and Hammond’s wife is shot and killed. The thugs are successful in stealing Hammond’s son, Alex, and stuff him in the back of their car before driving off.

Hammond comes storming down from their apartment and gives chase following the gang to their hideout where he is bopped over the head and placed in front of crime lord, Charlie Jolson, a wrinkly cigar-smoking psychopath. Charlie informs Hammond that if he ever wants to see his son alive again that he’ll have to work for him doing various missions. Furious but desperate, Hammond agrees and begins to do insane tasks like busting out members of Charlie’s gang from prison vans, heading to the police station to assassinate police chiefs, and shooting up his former gang and friends.

During these missions, Hammond knows he can’t keep this up forever and that it’s only a matter of time before he is killed so he calls his buddy that is in his former gang and asks for help. His friend while reluctant to believe Hammond begins investigating Charlie’s overall plan. Hammond continues to do hits on rival gangs including the Chinese, and the Yardies. One mission sends Hammond to the police station to kill the police chief who has been working for Charlie and an assassin named Yasmin who helped kill Hammond’s wife. Hammond decides to spare Yasmin and the two work together to take down Charlie.

They eventually get captured and are imprisoned in Charlie’s underground warehouse. This is where Frank Carter comes to the rescue to bust them out. Carter was an elite police officer who has been suspended from the force for being too reckless while investigating a little too close to the police chief. The three of them meet up on Charlie’s large cargo ship. Hammond and Yasmin search for Alex, while Carter tries to bring down Charlie.

At the center of the boat, Hammond and Yasmin are held at gunpoint by numerous gangs all wanting a piece of him. Hammond explains everything and after a vote, the gangs decide to let him and his son go as they would have done the same for their families. Meanwhile, Carter is holding Charlie at gunpoint in front of all the gangs. Being a cop, the gangs are far less forgiving and want him dead. They decide to take out Carter and Charlie but just as they start shooting Charlie pulls out a detonator to multiple explosives rigged throughout his vessel. Carter makes a run for it as do the other gangs. Charlie begins singing the British anthem (maybe?) and pulls the trigger sending the ship up in explosions. Hammond, Yasmin, and Alex watch from the dock and Carter barely escapes with his life as he jumps off the deck and into the water just as the ship explodes.

There isn’t any closure to the end of the game, however, and you’ll just have to assume that Carter lives and that Hammond and Alex escape from London without any troubles.

The Getaway Gameplay:

For a PlayStation 2 game, The Getaway is superb in the presentation and voice-acting. Every cutscene plays out like a scene from a movie, the character models all move smoothly as their voice actors give a great performance. The developers may have been a little too proud of their work because you can’t skip the cutscenes even after you’ve seen them, which can get annoying as some of them can take up to five minutes.

I’ve never been to London, but I think they did a good job of developing the city with various landmarks around the city. You’ll see the signature taxis and double-decker red buses driving around and overall the city feels big. Overall, they make London cloudy and gray, I would have liked to see a change in weather at some point during play, maybe a sunny day or maybe a mission at night.

There are two elements to missions, driving, and shootouts. The driving segment of missions takes too long. Especially when you are playing as Hammond, these driving segments can be frustrating. The car controls adequately for the most part and the navigation system of having you follow your blinker signals was genius, but this part of the game didn’t come across as fun. It felt like I was driving for five to ten minutes just to get to a warehouse with rival gang members and police cars chasing me the entire time. Some glitches occurred occasionally like watching rival cars go full speed through light poles but for the most part, the game kept up with the speed of the chases. The Getaway has a lot of realistic aspects including damage to vehicles. You can pop your tires by running over police spikes or from being shot by rival gangs. Bullet holes will show through the back window in the exact location of where they hit and after a few shots, the back window will shatter. While these segments weren’t fun, they at least looked good.

Once you reached your destination there would usually be a shoot out that followed. I didn’t know there was an auto-aim until I started playing with Frank Carter so for the first half of the game, I beat every mission using manual aim which made the game incredibly hard but even more impressive that I got through it. Thank God there was an auto-aim because this game is tough with all the thugs they throw at you. You’ll be able to double-wield pistols and pick up shotguns, machine guns, and sub-machines. You’ll get shot a lot but don’t worry, just rest against the wall and watch the blood on your clothes disappear as you recover. Combat was more fun than driving, but it still was difficult. There was one mission where you had to infiltrate a police station that took me at least ten times to beat. It was very frustrating in part because of the cover mechanics. Pressing “x” will make you take cover by a wall but it is also the button to “roll” making Hammond or Carter harder to hit. I died numerous times because they stupidly stuck to the wall instead of rolling away from the gunfire. Perhaps the thing I hated the most was the fact that police could arrest you if they got behind you. Hammond will give up if a cop runs up behind him and I screamed at the television numerous times because of this and the poor controls.

Memories:
Back in the glory days of my childhood, I was subscribed to the official PlayStation Magazine. I was so excited every month to receive the magazine not only because it was amazing content but because it came with a demo disc of all the upcoming games. There were numerous games I asked my dad for strictly based on my experience of playing them on the demo disc. One of those games was The Getaway, which I came away impressed with as a kid.

It was way too violent and way too vulgar for a 12-year old but thankfully my dad didn’t know too much about it. On Valentine’s Day, we were at Best Buy as my dad always went there to look at the music CDs, remember those? While he looked at the newest releases I was in the video game section. I picked out The Getaway and asked him for it. Since it was Valentine’s Day, he thought it would make a good gift for me. After all, nothing says “I Love You” like murdering countless naughty Brits in the streets of London.

The game was fairly hard for me and I probably only beat the first few missions before giving up. Thankfully there was a cheat code that allowed you just to drive around in the game and have fun causing chaos. I remember spending time finding the hidden supercars around London and driving them before forgetting about this game until I properly reviewed it.

The Getaway Review Score:

The Getaway looks amazing as you cause chaos on the streets of London. The acting, presentation, and bullet mechanics all come together to present a game that is visually very appealing on the PS2. Unfortunately, poor gameplay controls and missions that just aren’t fun can sour the taste of The Getaway. It separates itself from GTA clones and earns some respect. Definitely pick it up if you get the chance but don’t be surprised if you get a bit frustrated during your playthrough.

The Getaway scores a 7.6 out of 10.

Do you remember when The Getaway first came out? Did you understand all the insults being hurled at you? Who did you like playing as more? What did you think of the story and overall plot? What was your favorite car to drive? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

MX Unleashed Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

Dirt bike games go all the way back to Excitebike in the mid-80s. They always seem to have a niche audience so when developer Rainbow Studios and publisher THQ teamed up and released MX Unleashed in 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, extreme sports fans were thrilled. MX Unleashed features a great soundtrack, tons of content, and a surprising level of technique. Would MX Unleashed be rad or would dirt bike enthusiasts tell it to kick rocks?

MX Unleashed Plot:

MX Unleashed doesn’t have a plot, but it does offer a career mode for you to progress through.

MX Unleashed Gameplay:

On the surface, MX Unleashed is a racing game but it’s anything from simple. The game tries to warn you that you won’t just be holding down the gas and turning around corners but you’ll have to learn plenty of techniques to win. When you start the game, it will offer you a chance to learn all the techniques of the trade through a few training videos. Since I’m impatient, I passed at the chance but probably should have watched them.

There are a few modes that MX Unleashed offers including a lengthy career mode. You’ll start off racing 125 CC bikes and progress to 250 CC bikes that are faster. You’ll begin (I think) ranked as the 150th ranked dirt bike racer in the world and have to work your way up the ranking by winning leagues to qualify for harder circuits. Each league has 5-8 races and you’ll earn points based on the position you finish for each race.

There are three different leagues during career mode. The first is the “national” races which are more cross-country and outdoor tracks that have huge hills and valleys. These were my favorite to race on as they offered the best visuals. There are tons of courses to race on, I’m just guessing but there are probably around 20 outdoor tracks all featuring different challenges or unique themes like Mardi Gras or Camels. Some courses featured rain or snow but I don’t think it changed how the bikes handled.

The second league was the “supercross” league which is probably what you are used to watching on TV. These courses are shorter and all indoors with plenty of bumpy hills in front of a large audience. These were a little harder and this is where technique came in. I did fairly well on these after practicing a bit but I still preferred the outdoor tracks. The final league was the “freestyle” league which were all about tricks, stunts, and scoring points. I didn’t care too much for these but I appreciate having this mode in the career.

As mentioned, technique is a big part of racing. You won’t win just by gassing the bike up. Turns will require you to hit the clutch to turn sharply but that’s not it. There are many segments on the course that are straight but filled with tiny bumps. You’ll have to move your rider back to absorb the small bumps making the bike cruise better. If you struggle on a course the game will give you tips afterward noting that you didn’t use a certain technique. It will show you what buttons to push to perform the needed technique and I really appreciated this and thought it was a great feature. Once I learned what I was doing wrong from the game I quickly corrected and implemented the tips making me much more competitive. One technique that I never quite mastered was jumping higher. You can make the rider launch himself right before going up a ramp to gain height but I sucked at it and that’s why I rarely won the 250 CC races. One of the more realistic features was the actual league standings. I didn’t win every race and I didn’t have to. Some races I came in fourth or fifth place and was still atop the league standings. I loved this as it added a realistic feel to the game because you never knew who was going to win instead of having one great racer that seemed to always win or come in second as other racing games do.

Presentation and customization are each quite satisfying in MX Unleashed. There was a cool opening video and the soundtrack that you’ll listen to as you race were all punk rock or hard rock tunes from the early 2000s. Courses were always unique and fun to learn. You’ll hear the rev of your engine and watch dirt kick up behind the wheels. There was one instance where a weird glitch occurred making all the dirt behind the bike turn blue. It only happened one race but it was strange. Customization is a must in this game. You’ll be able to select all your gear, your jersey number, the name you wear, your bike, and other things. It was pretty awesome.

MX Unleashed offers many great things but a few things didn’t work. The freestyle mode lets you cruise around an area and select mini-games like stunts, or races against Monster Trucks or helicopters. It was a great idea but just didn’t turn out very fun. You can unlock vehicles like the Monster Truck, helicopter, dune-buggy, racing-truck, and a bi-plane. You would think they would be tons of fun to drive around but it didn’t excite me as much as I thought it would, as they ended up being a bit of a dud. The other thing I hated about racing was the chance that you got creamed by the other racers. With so many ramps, you’re bound to get landed on which knocks you off the bike for a few seconds. I rarely landed on other racers but it felt like more often than not I was getting hit by them.

Memories:
I remember seeing this game in middle school but since I wasn’t really into dirt bikes or extreme sports I passed the chance to play it. It wasn’t until this game was offered as a free game on Xbox Gold that I picked it up and played it. I had a great time and was surprised at how well it held up over time and listening to the soundtrack took me back to my middle school days.

MX Unleashed Review Score:

MX Unleashed is a great game for both fans of dirt bikes and extreme sports as well as casual gamers. It’s not easy to master but you’ll have fun learning the techniques as you race on tons of tracks both indoors and out that feature a cool soundtrack. You’ll have plenty of fun in career mode that is both fair and teaches you how to be a better racer.

MX Unleashed scores an 8.9 out of 10.

Do you remember when MX Unleashed first came out? How does it compare to other dirt bike games? What league did you prefer to race in? Did you like the freestyle mode and driving the other extreme vehicles? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

LocoRoco Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel

SCE Japan Studio isn’t afraid to get weird. In 2006, they released LocoRoco for the PlayStation Portable. The strange game would come with colorful singing little bouncy balls, immersive landscapes, and catchy tunes. With simplistic controls and easy gameplay, LocoRoco invited all gamers to have a go with the strange world that it had conceived. How does the game hold up on the PSP?

LocoRoco Plot:

If you played the game without reading the manual, which is what I did, you still would have a general idea of what was going on in LocoRoco despite the lack of language or text. Through a short cutscene, you’ll see black blobs that look like they have dreadlocks invade a planet. They begin to eat away at the happy squishy balls that jiggle around peacefully. Soon, these little balls must team up and take back their planet through the power of…singing? Well, that’s my version of the story but if there’s any confusion, let’s take a look at what the manual says.

“A long, long way away, past the moon, the sun, and further than the very best telescope could see, an extra special planet spun contentedly in space. This planet was very much alive, covered with greenery, and home to many exotic species of creatures, including the every-cheerful LocoRoco.

The LocoRoco lived in harmony with the planet, helping to look after the plants and generally making it a pleasant place to be, playing and singing the days away.

It seemed like the fun and laughter would go on forever… that was until the day the Moja Corps came down from the stars to take over!

Now everything’s going wrong. The LocoRoco are a peaceful bunch, they don’t know how to deal with the invaders from outer space! It’s up to you. There’s only one thing to do:

Take control of the planet, tilt the land, and rescue the LocoRoco!

LocoRoco Gameplay:

LocoRoco is presented in a very cartoonish style, something that you’d see on Cartoon Network. Everything is very colorful, cheerful, and happy. It’s all very cute, even the enemies aren’t very scary. The best part of LocoRoco is the music and believe me you’ll hum along even though you don’t speak the fictional language that the LocoRoco sing in.

There are 40 levels to play over five worlds. Each level starts the same, with a single LocoRoco and it’s up to you to get him to the end of the level and through various obstacles. Controls are very simple, you’ll use only three buttons the entire game! The left and right triggers on the back of the PSP will tilt the screen to the left or right making your LocoRocos roll in a certain direction. If you push the triggers at the same time, the LocoRocos will jump up in the air. The last button you’ll use is “circle” which can separate the LocoRoco with a quick push or bring them together into one big blob by holding it.

LocoRoco isn’t a difficult game and there’s no change in the difficulty as you progress through the worlds. Level one was just as easy as the final level. Each world has eight levels and they all vary a bit. There will be a flower stage, a snow stage, a star stage, a creature stage, and a few others I’m forgetting but typically each world will have one of these. My favorite stages were the snow levels and creature levels. The snow levels made the LocoRoco slide at top speeds and creature levels took place inside an animal like a penguin or a frog as the LocoRoco traveled through the insides. When LocoRoco get going, it reminds me of the Sonic the Hedgehog sequences where he’d spin perfectly through an entire level at top speed. Most of the time, you’ll have your LocoRoco team up to form a huge blob as it’s easier to control than 10-20 individuals but on occasion, the level or player will break them up to enter small spaces or tubes.

While making your way through each level is easy for the most part, exploration is a huge part of the game and you’re scored on it and the end of each level. There are small little spacemen to find that are hidden away in secret tunnels or holes. Other times you’ll need to collect a certain number of LocoRoco to wake up a creature by singing to it. They will awaken and give you a gift usually in the form of a building part to the LocoRoco house which can be accessed at the main menu and customized to your liking to have the LocoRoco play in.

Most levels I’d explore to the best of my ability but near the end of the game, I just wanted to finish so I’d skip being extra snoopy. The only way you can get a “game over” is if all of your LocoRoco die either by being devoured by mean creatures or punctured by sharp spikes. This only happened twice to me and it was the same level in the final world. I became careless and ran into the same spike twice at the beginning of the level resulting in a game over.

The final level actually had some skill involved as you had to fight the king of the Moja Corps. Using bouncing floors you had to jump on his head to deflate him and then again to hurt him. You repeated this sequence a few times before he was vanquished. The power of song was the theme throughout the game as the LocoRoco would sing in unison to wake up allies or show appreciation for being at the end of the level. As I said earlier, they don’t speak a real language but it’s catchy.

Memories:
I remember seeing LocoRoco characters and landscapes in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. I had no idea what the heck it was or who they were, I just remember the level gets shredded by a Metal Gear as you fight through the stage. I had a fun time playing LocoRoco after receiving it as a gift from my sister-in-law.

LocoRoco Review Score:

LocoRoco can be played by anyone but the game isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a challenge you won’t find it here but if you’re looking for a unique game with plenty of charm, exploration, and some easy fun, LocoRoco is the right choice. I loved the way anyone can pick it up and play and I encourage you to play a few levels before judging it.

LocoRoco scores an 8 out of 10.

Do you remember when LocoRoco first came out? Which color of LocoRoco did you play with? Did you build their house up? Did you catch yourself humming along to their tunes? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Infamous: Second Son Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

The series of Infamous was well-established on the PlayStation 3 after the success of the first two games. In 2014, developer Sucker Punch Productions and publisher Sony Computer Entertainment teamed up and released Infamous: Second Son for the PlayStation 4 taking the series to the next level. Infamous: Second Son also introduces a new protagonist in Delsin Rowe, a street punk Native American who looks out for his tribe. Would the next generation of Infamous be up for the challenge of continuing the series?

Infamous Second Son Plot:

It’s been seven years since the heroic death of Cole MacGrath, well heroic if you had the good karma in Infamous 2, this is the ending that Infamous: Second Son assumes so let’s just go with that. It’s also the way I played Infamous 2 so it fits perfectly. No longer set in Empire City or New Marais, Infamous: Second Son takes place on the coast of Washington state.

We are introduced to Delsin Rowe, who doesn’t have too much going on for him in his life. For the most part, he runs the streets, but not in a drug-dealing gangbanger way, but as a graffiti artist who vandals properties and causes headaches for business owners throughout the town. He’s not well-liked by the local police force but has a brother named Reggie who is on the force and constantly makes sure that he stays out of trouble.

After the events of Infamous 2, the D.U.P. was established which is a government organization in charge of rounding up the rest of the conduits in America and placing them in secure facilities to make sure they don’t abuse their powers. Remember that conduits are like mutants who have received superpowers from a mysterious sphere in the first game. One day, a truck that is transporting conduits crashes and the three conduits try and escape. Delsin tries to intervene and stops one of them named Hank but in the process of trying to subdue him, the powers from Hank are given to Delsin who becomes a conduit much to the horror of him.

Delsin now has smoke powers that allow him to travel through vents in a smoke-like state, and attack or defend with smoke powers. The escape of the conduits brings the ultimate D.U.P. agent to the city, her name is Brooke Augustine. She is hell-bent on finding the escaped conduits and will do anything in her power to find information. She starts by torturing Delsin’s tribe members to see if they know anything. A conduit herself, she can create massive shards of rock that will grow. She inserts these shards into the bodies of the tribe as they slowly become paralyzed or even die weeks later.

Realizing that while he has pretty rad smoke powers, Delsin’s true powers are the ability to absorb other powers from conduits, think of Rogue from X-Men and you get the idea. Delsin and his brother Reggie come up with an idea to rescue the tribe from the shards that will kill most of them if not treated. Reggie is horrified that Delsin is a conduit as it’s part of his job to keep tabs on them or even arrest them but he goes along with the fact that the only way to help the tribe is to have Delsin come into contact with Augustine to absorb her powers and use them to treat the injured tribe members.

Delsin ends up finding the other two escaped conduits who have escaped to Seattle and tracks them down for help. He absorbs their powers, one can create a virtual-like reality and have digital weapons, while the other has neon powers. The first attack on Augustine goes terrible, and Reggie ends up drowning as she creates a concrete block around his feet and blasts him into the ocean. This only angers Delsin and he tracks Augustine back to her headquarters where it is revealed that Augustine faked the whole car crash and let the conduits free on purpose to smoke out other conduits to capture. In the second battle, Delsin can spare Augustine, expose her crimes, and dissolve the D.U.P. while freeing the conduits and healing the tribe if he has good karma. If you played the game as a dick and have bad karma, your ending will include Delsin killing Augustine and taking control of Seattle as he absorbs the powers of all conduits in the area. He gets banned from the tribe and decides to destroy all of the reservation.

Infamous Second Son Gameplay:

It’s silly to say that graphics and environments have “improved” from the first two Infamous games, as this title was on the PS4 instead of the PS3, but it’s all very true. I was impressed by the city of Seattle but even more so by the way that Delsin can transverse the world. It was extremely smooth to travel through a vent in a puff of smoke and reach the top. It was quick, and easy to learn and I felt like the game’s pace was much faster than previous entries.

I didn’t have any issues with the story and enjoyed the back-and-forth nature between Delsin and Reggie in their brotherly relationship. The smoke powers were fun to use but even better was that you didn’t have to stick with them. With Delsin being able to absorb other powers, it was awesome to try out the other powers no matter how weird they were, and believe me, the video game powers were weird.

Augustine as a villain was believable and she is that “bitch” that we all know. That snooty, stuck up nose, the “Karen” if you will just with a ton of power. We all know a woman like that who values herself above all else and thinks her opinion is the best no matter how much power they actually have. It was nice to crush Augustine but I was tempted to kill her, but playing with the “good” karma I didn’t.

Just like the other Infamous games, you’ll slowly clear out section by section of the city eventually taking it over 100 percent. There’s just something about that task that soothes my OCD of completeness and I enjoyed many of the objects that you had to do to clear out the D.U.P. from the area. I loved doing the drug busts as they generally caused lots of chaos. With more battles comes more experience and you’ll be able to level up powers for Delsin just like the previous games.

Infamous: Second Son was a much smoother experience than the previous entries, it was a solid experience with new powers, a new character, and a new setting. Sucker Punch did a great job.

Memories:
I heard some negative things about Infamous: Second Son when it was released but I don’t remember what the complaints were. It took me a few years to play it but I’m happy I did. I think it was my favorite in the series and I enjoyed all the powers that Delsin could use. I’d like to see future Infamous games have single-stories where they focus on one character just for one game to tell their story instead of the continuation of the character. Delsin’s story was refreshing and I hope they make other games in the series.

Infamous Second Son Review Score:

Infamous: Second Son will have you experimenting with new powers as you transverse through a new setting at a much faster pace than previous games. It’s rare that a series can change the main character and survive but I feel that Infamous: Second Son upgraded enough elements of the gameplay to entice players who loved Cole MacGrath enough to get them to play.

Infamous: Second Son scores an 8.7 out of 10.

Do you remember when Infamous: Second Son first came out? What did you think of Delsin and his brother Reggie? What was your favorite power to use? Did you choose the path of good karma or evil karma? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Medal of Honor: Underground Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

Following the success of the original Medal of Honor released in 1999 for the PlayStation, Electronic Arts, and Dreamwork Interactive set out to produce a sequel. One year later in 2000, they produced Medal of Honor: Underground for the PlayStation. My review of the original Medal of Honor was quite positive, but Underground had some serious flaws that could not be overlooked.

Medal of Honor Underground Plot:

In the first Medal of Honor, you took control of Jimmy Patterson as he completed missions during World War II under the command of his French pen pal Manon Batiste. In the sequel, the player controls Manon herself set before Jimmy Patterson arrives and shows how she helped liberate the French from the Nazis.

I thought it was smart to include a familiar character in the sequel and to turn the spotlight to Manon who you never saw in the first game but heard plenty from. Manon’s story includes showing how she rose to power in the resistance first starting with a mission paired with her brother who ends up being killed and ends with a final push in Paris as she helps force back the Nazi army from the French capital. The story is again told through real World War II footage on an old projector. I didn’t care much for the presentation this time around as I barely paid attention to when the clips were playing. The real information you’ll need to complete your missions is in the letters that are sent from Manon’s companions who request her to do specific tasks during her mission.

Medal of Honor Underground Gameplay:

Medal of Honor: Underground is essentially the original Medal of Honor just repainted but with more bugs and less fun. This is what happens when companies get greedy. They see the success of a game and want a sequel right away, skipping the care and attention to detail that it takes to produce a proper game.

The menu of the game is just as great as the first, this time you’re in an underground bunker that’s been disguised as a winery. Highlighting objects reveal sub-menus like options, multiplayer, new game, etc… presentation before gameplay was never in question. It’s when the gameplay starts that Underground falls well short of the original.

It doesn’t seem that there have been any changes to the enemies. They all look the same, including all the death animations. There was nothing new and that was disappointing but again easy for the team at EA just green light the same game. Sound effects are the same too, you’ll hear the same bullet clanks and explosions. It’s not bad, it just comes off as lazy. Now let’s get to the real problems.

Medal of Honor: Underground is an overall mess. Passageways are buggy, if you get too close to a corner expect the wall to vibrate until you move away from it. Moving through openings are not as smooth as they once were. Spaces will be open and you’ll make your way through a door but you’ll get stuck and have to try again and again until you either push through the opening or give up. Sometimes you’ll get slowdowns when there are too many enemies, especially when you are reloading. There was a mission when you are in a castle and you were in a display room. If you approach the corner of the room everything just turns black except the displays. It’s like they just forgot to program the wall and I went back and forth through the wall again and again just to test it out.

Those bugs are very annoying but are nothing compared to by far the worst glitch. Mission after mission, enemies will just appear out of thin air. Worst yet, they will appear ON TOP OF YOU. There were too many times to count when I would clear a room, go about my business, and then turn around and proceed only to watch new enemies appear out of thin air and start firing at me. It led to multiple deaths, but the worse was when I would be making my way through narrow hallways, and I’d look around the corner and start a firefight only to have a soldier spawn right on top of me. It was complete garbage and made my playthrough very frustrating and unfair. Pair this with some ammo on the floor that was unobtainable and this led to a game that lives in the shadow of the original.

Level design was unique, and many of the missions felt different than the previous game, which was a good thing. You’ll fight in France and even Africa. The environments were fun to explore, and they looked okay for the most part. I mentioned a castle level earlier, and it’s here where you’ll face Nazi Knights. I encountered one who is in full armor. He was posing like a statue, and I took a shot at him. He didn’t move so I didn’t think anything of it and continued down the hallway. I heard metal footsteps behind me and turned around to see the suit of armor chasing me with his sword raised. It gave me a jump, but I quickly engaged him. There were several other knights throughout the level, and I thought that was a cool inclusion. The worst level by far was a mission where you had to destroy several machines and then a huge supply room. This takes like 20 minutes to complete, but the final part is placing the bomb and then sprinting toward an exit that’s about 100 feet down a twisting hallway. If you don’t do it in time you’ll die too. I died during the first playthrough, but thought I got the hell out of that room pretty quickly for not knowing what was coming. I reread the mission log and it says you need to run as soon as you plant the bomb. I made my way through the entire mission again which takes up a good portion of time, planted the bomb, and sprinted away, toward the exit, I couldn’t have done it any better and I still died. It was such BS. You have to be perfect to get out of there alive and you have a 95% chance of death each time. What really sucks is that these long missions have no checkpoints. It’d be great if after a halfway point through your objectives you get a checkpoint but nope if you die you have to restart the whole mission again. The final mission has you in an underground train station where you set the tracks to make the trains collide killing a bunch of Nazis. How poetic for an ending as this entire game was a train wreck.

Memories:
I loved the first Medal of Honor and played it a ton as a kid but never had Underground. One of my friends did but I never heard him say much about it. Maybe he thought it sucked too.

Medal of Honor Underground Review Score:

Medal of Honor: Underground is just a cash grab for EA and Dreamworks Interactive. It’s the same game as Medal of Honor with the same animations and sounds, just with different missions and ten times the bugs. It’s an extreme disappointment compared to the original as the bugs, respawning enemies, and cheap death-level designs ruin what could have been a great game.

Medal of Honor: Underground scores a 6.1 out of 10.

Do you remember when Medal of Honor: Underground first came out? Did you have issues with the bugging gameplay and enemies that respawned out of thin air? Did you like this game as much or even better than the original? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Monster Truck Rally Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Monster Trucks were as cool as it got. It was only a matter of time before someone made a Monster Truck video game which developer Realtime Associates and publisher INTV Corp did in 1991 when they released Monster Truck Rally for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I’m on a quest to find the ultimate Monster Truck game, would I find it with Monster Truck Rally? Hint: I would not, this is to date my worst scored game for reviews.

Monster Truck Rally Plot:

There’s not a story to Monster Truck Rally, so let me share my childhood love and secret obsession with Monster Trucks. I had a VHS tape when I was a kid that I would watch once a week at least. It was called “Return of the Monster Trucks”, and it featured my all-time favorite truck “Big Foot”. He was blue, (my favorite color) and he won almost all the events. There was nothing cooler than watching the power of Monster Trucks, and I was hooked

Fast forward about twenty years, and I hadn’t watched the VHS since I was a young kid. I found it on YouTube, and oh boy did that open up a wormhole. I was watching Monster Trucks Rallies from the ’80s and early ’90s. I learned all the truck names like Equalizer, No Problem, Carolina Crusher, Jersey Outlaw, SnakeBite, Thunder Chicken, USA 1, and of course Grave Digger. I couldn’t stop watching these rallies and it made me crave the perfect Monster Truck video game. I had a Monster Truck game for the PlayStation 2 from my middle school days and while I liked it as a kid, it’s absolute garbage during my review session. So my hunt begins at the earliest Monster Truck game that I know of, Monster Truck Rally for the NES.

Monster Truck Rally Gameplay:

The cover art for Monster Truck Rally looks great. It shows a blue monster truck (Probably Big Foot) jumping over cars. If I was a kid, it totally would have drawn me in. The box art is unfortunately the last compliment I will give Monster Truck Rally. It’s a terrible game, let me tell you why.

Starting the game up you’ll be greeted with an ugly menu of a Monster Truck with flat tires jumping. When you hit start you’ll see a long list of options on the menu. Monster Truck Rally is very customizable, you’ll be able to choose the color of your truck, you can select the difficulty of the computer trucks, the direction of the laps, how many laps, and even a course builder. It gives you plenty of options but it all goes to waste once the actual gameplay starts.

There are tons of events to choose from but they all suck. I tried them all to see if there were any that stood out but none of them did. The first event I did was the “Hill Climb”, this was before I had played any of the game and had plenty of enthusiasm. I remember hill climbs from the 80s, where Monster Trucks would go down a hill and race back up a giant hill to see if they could make it to the top. A lot of them would fail so I thought the event might be a button masher to see how high my truck could go. Instead, it was me and three other trucks who “raced” a course that just had some hills on it. The race was way too long taking almost ten minutes and the other trucks blew me away within ten seconds so I was basically racing against myself the entire time. The trucks look nothing like “Monster Trucks” and could be confused for ordinary trucks, they lacked the signature huge tires and generally looked bad. Good luck winning in any event as I had the difficulty on a “1” which I think was the easiest but I lost every event except one which I’ll get to in a second.

I tried the “Drag Race” next and it was just a straight shot. I had hoped that it would be a quick race over some cars like they do at the rallies but it was just a flat dirt track and like the first event the computer blew me out. Next was the “Bog” race where the hills were replaced with bodies of water. It didn’t matter if you jumped over the bog or not, the race wasn’t fun, and driving through the bog just slowed me down like driving up the hills in the course. I understand there should be some slowdown but my truck was going 5 mph and took forever to drive six inches on the screen.

My last chance for excitement was the “car crush” event. It’s my favorite part of rallies. I love watching them race over cars crushing them and destroying them. Yes, I was able to run over cars, but the cars had almost no damage and just acted like a ramp. The other trucks did very little damage to the cars, but my truck didn’t do anything. I turned around and went over them again and again since I was so far behind in the “race” but the cars didn’t change. What a joke!

There’s a “tug of war” where a rope is tied behind two trucks. I tried this and mushed the button but thankfully the other truck pulled mine and beat me within six seconds. Whatever, this game sucks. Sled Pull is up next and I mashed the button to pull the sled as the weight increased. This was about as close to “realistic” as the game was. It was boring but I appreciated the event as early events in the 80s had these. The last two events were “Drawbridge” where you race on a course with ramps that go up and down. (Just as terrible as the other races) and a donut challenge that I actually won. It’s a tiny circular course where you just go around against another truck. There was no skill or no donuts to be done. Thank God the events were over.

Memories:
Thankfully I have none or else my love for Monster Trucks might be ruined.

Monster Truck Rally Review Score:

Monster Truck Rally has ever ideal event you’d want to see at a Monster Truck Rally but wastes every single opportunity to be realistic or fun. The courses are repetitive, dull, and lack any excitement. The trucks look ordinary, and the “car crushing” is a joke. Any fun against the computer will be impossible to find but if you want to play a terrible game with your friends, Monster Truck Rally offers a four-player mode. My search for the perfect Monster Truck game continues as this is one of the worst games I’ve ever played in general.

Monster Truck Rally scores a 3.5 out of 10.

Do you remember when Monster Truck Rally first came out? Were there any events that you were good at? Was your love for Monster Trucks ruined by this game? Did your childhood judgment make you think this game was fun? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Operation C Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

After the success of the first two Contra games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Konami wanted to try their hands at developing a Contra game on the Game Boy. In 1991, Konami teamed up with publisher Ultra Games and released “Operation C” for the hand-held system. The Contra series is known for being extremely fast-paced with tons of action. Would the Game Boy version be able to honor the previous games and supply non-stop action?

Operation C Plot:

Operation C takes place one year after the events of Super C in the year 2635. Our favorite run-and-gun tag team is back with Bill and Lance, the alien-killing, gun-toting commanders. Let’s take a look at what the manual says:

“Corporal Lance (Code name: Scorpion) is no slouch when it comes to man-to-alien combat. He and his partner Sgt. Bill “Mad Dog” Ko has twice defeated Red Falcon, the most despicable villain to overtake a planet…or at least try. But the danger is not over yet.

The vile Black Viper has come from deep space to finish what Red Falcon started. And he did not come alone. Black Viper has transported a battalion of battletron tanks, stealth subs, laser cannons, and annihilating androids. Now, from a secret naval base on a desolate ocean island, he is planning to unleash his hideous secret weapon: a new mutant breed of killer aliens.

Armed with an array of devastating weapons, Scorpion’s new mission is to infiltrate the five freak-laden levels of the enemy base and put an end to the madness – and Black Viper – once and for all. As he prepares to enter the secret army base alone, he knows it will take more than sheer firepower to wipe out Black Viper’s horrific horde of mega-mutants. Scorpion will have to keep his eyes peeled sharp for unceasing assault by artillery snipers and keep his wits about him as he leaps into battle against grotesque genetic mishaps. The revival of the aliens must be stopped, and the ambitions of the evil Viper vanquished forever!

Operation C Gameplay:

I was nervous that the Game Boy version of Contra would be heavily toned down with the action and speed. Thankfully, I was very wrong. You’ll get plenty of action on the screen although not as overwhelming as previous Contra games, but all sprites appear clear and there’s no screen tear or flickering.

You’ll play through five levels of action on your quest to take down Black Viper all while listening to a great soundtrack. There aren’t many tunes that I listen to during video games that stick out, but the programmers did a great job with Operation C. During the end credits, there’s a fantastic end track that fits perfectly into the end of the game.

During my playthrough of Operation C, I picked up the spreadsheet weapon right away multiplying my bullets by three. Shortly afterward I picked up a second upgrade that activated a homing device that made my bullets chase enemies. This made me nearly unstoppable within the first minute of the game and I never switched weapons afterward. Contra veterans will know how valuable a homing weapon is with all the enemies attacking from above, below, and everywhere in-between.

The first level boss was a submarine that emerged from the water. I was able to destroy it within 15 seconds as my bullets tracked the guns on the ship. After the first level, and like the other Contra games on the NES, you are given a top-down view as you make your way through level two. I didn’t mind this and I like that it changes the gameplay but I do enjoy the side-scrolling levels more. The second level felt like it was in a train freight station as I navigated through it. There were a few tanks that needed a good blasting and the final boss ended up being a train tank but as the first boss, I took care of him rather quickly.

Level 3 returned to the roots of Contra, no pun intended as it was a jungle. The tops of the trees rustled and there were wall-mounted guns as well as the ones that popped up from the ground. You’ll make your way through a jungle before climbing up multiple cliffs by jumping onto rocks while enemies shoot at you. The third boss was challenging and I died a few times. It was a boss that had two portions, one flying above you stabbing you with poles, and a platform that had guns. The key was jumping on the platform and focusing on the hovering machine.

Again, level four turned the view to a topdown as you make your way through a giant bug cavern. There were plenty of egg sacks to destroy as little bugs escaped from them. This level was a bit challenging because the spreadsheet takes time to track the enemies so I had to back off a few times from charging enemies so my bullets could properly find them. Once you reach the end of the cavern you’ll face a giant spider with a ricocheting laser.

The last stage is set in a high-security lab where you’ll face soldiers, lab creatures, and plenty of security guns. The final boss looked like he was in a mech from Gundam as he hopped around the screen firing rockets and detachable claws. Once you defeat him you make your way into the secret chamber and let loose on a glass tank that is housing a strange alien brain. It has no defense so after you blow it up the credits roll with a helicopter flying away from a smoking island.

Memories:
It had been years since I had played the Contra series so I was excited to give the Game Boy version a go. I’m happy to say it fits nicely into the series.

Operation C Review Score:

Operation C takes the best parts of Contra from the NES and shrinks it down onto the Game Boy. There are no issues with speed or enemy flicker as the game is packed with solid action. Operation C is a bit easier than previous entries in the series and you’ll quickly beat it but you’ll have fun doing it.

Operation C scores a 7.9 out of 10.

Do you remember when Operation C first came out? How did you feel it held up compared to the previous Contra games? Were you able to beat the game and if so, who was the hardest boss? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Space Harrier Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

Space Harrier was a big hit in the arcades so, in 1986, Sega ported the game to the Sega Master System. The game showcased what the Master System could do while providing a solid port to the game so many loved. For this review, it was my first time playing Space Harrier. Would I love it or hate it? What did I think of everything flying at me every two seconds and the acid-trip graphics?

Space Harrier Plot:

If you wait a few seconds on the main menu before playing, a prologue to Space Harrier appears. This is what it says:

“Once upon a time there existed a beautiful utopia located far, far beyond the most distant galaxy of the universe, called “Dragon Land”.

It was a peaceful world brimming over with life and light. Then suddenly in the space year 6226, a dastardly scheme carefully orchestrated by the evil one was unleashed on this land which had once been a “Garden of Eden”. Supernatural phenomena became rampant throughout the devasted planet and barbaric and evil creatures could literally be seen roaming everywhere. Although everything imaginable appeared to have been destroyed on Dragon Land, the only living that that continued to resist the forces of evil was “Uriah”, a friendly dragon. He was nearly at his wits’ end in his unrelenting search for a savior, when lo and behold, a fighter from Earth with superhuman ability and physic powers heard his plea for help and arrived on the scene to help save the day.

Now, with the whole universe as your audience, a legendary battle that is surely destined to be passed down to future generations, is about to unfold.”

If you think that the writers were on acid when they wrote the prologue, wait until you see the graphics. The programmers had to have been on something stronger. Anyway, that’s the story of Space Harrier.

Space Harrier Gameplay:

Space Harrier is unlike any video game of its time on a home console, at least to my knowledge. There was nothing like it on the Sega Master System or for the Nintendo for that matter. In Space Harrier, you’ll play as a blonde man who can run and fly by moving him up and down with the direction pad as well as left and right. The game is a “rail shooter” but presented in a very fast-paced action with tons of enemies and objects on the screen. Don’t let the cute menu fool you. Sure, a blonde-haired man is waving at you, and a happy mech robot with a shiny gun sits peacefully, and some type of hairy mammoth that is the best friend to Big Bird winks at you, but this game wants to murder you. Over, and over.

Sega did a wonderful job porting the game to the Master System. There is no issue with speed and the sprites are huge! They will start off small as they look to be in the distance and as you run/fly toward them they grow in size until they are nearly the size of the entire screen. The goal of Space Harrier is to avoid all of these objects as they fly at you with top speed. These objects include pillars, steel balls, rocks, mushrooms, trees, and other strange things. You’ll have a split second to decide which direction to go to avoid a collision. If you hit any of these objects you’ll lose a life as you fall to the ground. If you go through your three lives, then it’s game over!

Objects aren’t the only things you need to worry about as you make your way through 18 levels of non-stop action. There are also enemies both on the ground and flying through the air that you’ll have to avoid or shoot with your gun. These enemies range from skulls, marbles, spaceships, and other objects that are indescribable. Usually, they will come in threes, and aside from getting in your way, they also shoot bullets at you that you need to avoid. With all of this happening on screen in the form of humongous sprites, it can be a bit overwhelming.

The color palette to Space Harrier comes straight from an acid trip. Everything is neon and vibrant from the pinks, blues, and greens. You’ll feel like you’re going down a tunnel on a bad trip as monsters cross your path or mushrooms hop toward you. It’s impressive that Space Harrier has such large sprites but they also did a great job with the hitbox around your character. I didn’t feel like I had any cheap deaths during my playthrough.

It’s hard to distinguish between objects that are exploding from your bullets and the fiery bullets that enemies are shooting at you. There were many times when I was killed because I couldn’t tell which was what and it had me frustrated. Level 9 was a nightmare along with another level further in the game. These levels were “speed” levels meaning that an already fast-paced game doubled in speed making it feel like you’ve jumped to lightspeed in a rainbow tunnel.

Bosses were at the end of each level and for the most part, were manageable. Let me rephrase that, Space Harrier as a whole was manageable because I was playing on an emulator and could pause and save whenever I wished. I could never beat this game in a million years on my own. The final level was a boss rush which I hated and it ended with the most impossible boss that I’ve ever encountered. Even with the ability to save whenever I wanted, it took me at least 50 tries to beat the two-headed fire dragon that nearly blended into the screen. It was simply too much and I’d love to see someone beat this game in person on a real Master System. This was the toughest final boss I’ve ever encountered as I died every two seconds for a solid twenty minutes before beating him. It was extremely frustrating and it felt unfair.

Memories:
I had seen Space Harrier a few times from video game channels on YouTube, most particularly GameSack but I never expected it to be as tough as it was. I’m thankful I played it but man, this is near impossible to beat.

Space Harrier Review Score:

Space Harrier shows off what the Sega Master System is capable of in an extremely fast-paced rail shooter filled to the brim with trippy colors, large sprites, and shrooms straight from a nightmare. It’s impressive that Sega managed to get this game ported but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it. The final boss was insane and it takes this game down a few notches to go along with the overall bizarre tone of Space Harrier. Play if you dare, you won’t live long.

Space Harrier scores a 6 out of 10.

Do you remember when Space Harrier first came out? Were you impressed with the graphics? What did you think of the trippy colors and weird enemies? Don’t lie to me and tell me you beat it, I won’t believe you. Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Extermination Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

Quite possibly the first “survival horror” game for the PlayStation 2, Extermination was developed by Deep Space and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Taking place in Antarctica, a special Marine squad receives orders to investigate a research facility that has gone silent. Would this mission be met with a rousing round of success or would it get frozen in time?

Extermination Plot:

One of the rare games that take place around Christmas, Extermination has a squad of marines departing for a research facility on December 24th, 2005. Their plane mysteriously goes up in smoke just as they arrive and the Marines parachute to safety. You take control of Dennis Riley and are led by his mentor Roger who helps the two of you enter the research facility named “Fort Stewart”.

Things quickly go South, as Dennis and Roger discover that the facility seems abandoned after some type of disaster occurred leaving scientists, researchers, and other members of the fort dead and scattered throughout. Dennis scouts ahead and turns the power back on enabling Roger to lower the drawbridge that will allow them to rendezvous with the rest of their squad. Unfortunately for Roger, he is attacked by slug-like creatures about the size of your forearm. His body is engulfed by a strange substance and is left for dead. Dennis is saved by a woman in a yellow hazmat suit as she shoots away at the slugs before instructing him to leave the facility.

After exploring more of the facility while searching for his squadmates, Dennis encounters the mysterious woman again who is revealed to be Cindy, a long-time friend of Dennis. They had a mutual friend or perhaps it was Cindy’s lover die in battle with Dennis in Cambodia, and Cindy has yet to forgive Dennis for letting Andrew die. (Even though he had nothing to do with the death and couldn’t have stopped it! Women…, am I right?!) Cindy gives Dennis some more advice and tells him again to leave.

He continues to search for his squad as he encounters more slugs and a few humans who have mutated into walking monsters (think of the clickers in The Last of Us) until he finds a man named Travis Miller who claims to be a journalist. This Traver Miller fellow says he has been researching this place for five years for a huge story and that he’s working on releasing all the news. Dennis ignores him and continues to search for his squad.

Eventually, Dennis teams up with Cindy and her co-worker Sonja who instructs him to blow up the facility by activating three detonators that are placed throughout the buildings. Fighting his way through monsters and slugs, Dennis activates the detonators while finding his commander, a man named Mike. Mike is badly injured from an attack by the body of Roger. Dennis kills mutant Roger and Mike realizing that his future is grime, volunteers to blow up the third detonator manually.

Dennis leaves Mike and heads down to a secret lab where he discovers the source of all the mutants. 60,000 years ago an alien in the form of bacteria found on a meteor crashed into Earth. Recently scientists have monitored it and experimented on it in the labs before it broke loose and started infecting the staff through the water turning them into mutants. It’s just my guess, but I bet the slugs were once rats.

Cindy tells Dennis that she is leaving and to hop on the boat to escape with her as Sonja has been killed. Dennis makes his way to the boat as they escape the facility as it blows up. The original source of bacteria has materialized into a huge sea monster that chases them from the facility eventually attacking their ship. Dennis kills it with cannon fire and Cindy finally forgives Dennis for the death of Andrew with a very awkward “friend zone” conversation. This has me thinking though that since the bacteria flourish in water and with the body of it being in the ocean…wouldn’t it go on to infect other creatures like fish? I don’t know, I guess it’s irrelevant since there is no sequel.

Extermination Gameplay:

Extermination is an impressive-looking game especially as it was one of the earliest titles on the PS2. The character models look great, and the environments match. The voice acting is very solid, I thought they did a fine job, but the dialogue itself is terrible. It comes across as very awkward. You can tell the writers wanted to have the characters come off as “troubled” and battling real emotions throughout the from the intro to Extermination, but they come off as comical and mechanical.

To save in Extermination you’ll need battery life in your pack. You can recharge your battery as various stations so it’s not too much of a bothersome, but sometimes you’ll need the battery charge to open doors up so you’ll have to spend the power wisely if there isn’t a charger nearby. You have two separate health bars, one is the physical health of Dennis who can get hurt from bullets, falling, fire, etc.. and an infection meter that goes up when he is bit or spit on by monsters. If the infection reaches 100 percent his health will start to dwindle quickly. The only way to cure Dennis is to find booster shots that help fight the infection or to find a medical bed where he will be administered a special antidote that restores him to 100 percent health both physically and with the infection. Be careful though, as this practice takes antidote syringes and they are few and far in-between.

Throughout the game, there are large wooden crates that can be smashed revealing helpful items like ammo or other special items. It’s a risk vs reward because most of the time they contain slugs. These slugs aren’t as easy to kill as you think. Many times I’d try to knife them and end up missing only for them to fly onto me or spit on me. About halfway through the game, the whole facility becomes a swarming breeding ground for the bacteria and mutants are in just about every room. The style of gameplay went from clearing out rooms of enemies to running away and avoiding them because of how many outnumbered you.

I loved the in-game menu. It was intuitive and sophisticated as it offered submenus for your map, gun, items, and more. The gun comes highly customizable and you can equip things like a laser sight, zoom scope, and other sub-weapons like shotgun shells, flamethrower fuel, grenades, and even rocket missiles. This was a huge shining light in the game and I found it very impressive.

The final battle is in three segments. First, you’ll have to take control of a cannon or Gatlin gun to lure the monster out of the ocean and onto the ship. Second, you’ll fire grenades or ammo at the core of the monster and finally, it will transform into a mutant human that resembles Dennis. It was a tough final boss and it took me three or four times to beat him. Thankfully, I had enough rockets to take him down. The big “pay off” to the game was Cindy giving Dennis some quick BS line about forgiving him for Andrew’s death, while Dennis friendzone’s her hard with a line about “being friends, right?” as he practically pats her on the back. Ouch! It was a super lame payoff, and everyone saw it coming from a million miles away as Cindy teased throughout the game that she had to tell Dennis something. Also, what the hell happened to Travis Miller who was seen throughout the game masquerading around as a journalist when he was a scientist? I feel like he was a big plot point and he just disappears.

Memories:
I played Extermination from a PS2 demo disc that I received from PlayStation magazine. Playing the demo a hundred times I ended up buying the game using birthday money my friends gave me in sixth grade. I randomly bought Extermination, and Metal Gear Solid 2. My friend Tony and I were on vacation and his parents stopped at a Meijer where I bought the two games. Tony had brought his mobile PS2 screen so I remember playing Extermination on the floor in some cubby. I don’t know, we were weird kids.

Extermination was never a game I got too far in as a kid and I kind of forgot about it until I reviewed it. I’m glad I finally played the game through and gave it a proper play.

Extermination Review Score:

Extermination offers some early survival horror on the PS2. The graphics look great and paired with a customizable gun, Extermination shows it can be a solid game in your collection. Cheesy dialogue and some questionable plot holes make for some eyebrow-raising moments, but for the most part, Extermination deserves a chance.

Extermination scores a 7.4 out of 10.

Do you remember when Extermination first came out? What’s a game for the PS2 that you feel that no one remembers? What did you think about the plot of Extermination? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.

Infamous 2 Review

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel!

Following the success of the first Infamous game, Sucker Punch Productions developed Infamous 2 and published it with the help of Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 in 2011. Cole MacGrath was back with his electrical powers, and so was the karma system letting players decide on how Cole plays through the game. Would the second installment be an improvement, or would it be shockingly bad?

Infamous 2 Plot:

The plot for Infamous 2 picks up after the events of the first game as Cole MacGrath desperately tries to defeat the “Beast”, a powerful monster that will likely destroy the world if no one can stop it. Cole fails, and he and his friend Zeke run away from Empire City as it is destroyed by the Beast.

Taking haven in a city named New Marais, which resembles New Orleans quite a bit, Cole discovers that a Doctor named Sebastian Wolfe is trying to create an even stronger sphere, one that would give superior powers over Cole. Wanting to defeat the Beast and save the world, Cole wants to work with this Doctor. Unfortunately, New Marais is a heavily populated city, and a man named Joseph Bertrand resides there with his personal army of militiamen. Bertrand is against conduits like Cole and wants to kill anyone with these powers.

Cole searches throughout New Marais for power shards to help power the new sphere and gain powers capable of defeating the “Beast”, but he isn’t alone in his quest. Bertrand has developed a tool that strips conduits of their powers and is planning on using it on Cole. Cole begins to work with another conduit named Nix, and together they battle Bertrand’s military. They soon discover that Bertrand is also a conduit and has been unleashing mutant conduits to help win over the people of New Marais in his cause to wipe out other conduits.

The Beast begins to approach New Marais, just as Cole defeats and kills Bertrand. A former conduit named John White is revealed to be the Beast, and he tells Cole that all humans will die from the radiation of the original blast sphere but that he can save the humans with the new power sphere. The new sphere will kill all the other conduits though, so it’s up to Cole whether he wants to save the humans or turn his back on them and live with the small population of conduits.

I chose the good path and sided with the humans. Cole activates the sphere killing himself in the process along with the other conduits and the Beast. There’s the “bad” ending in which Cole sides with the conduits. Cole kills Zeke and Nix and joins the Beast as they start to destroy the world together.

Infamous 2 Gameplay:

Very similar to the first Infamous, Infamous 2 is an action-adventure game with “super-hero” or “super-villain” elements depending on how you choose to play the game. As Cole, you’ll be able to travel all around New Marais unlocking new sections of the city by clearing out the militia and securing areas. While Cole can run on the streets, he can also power grind along telephone and power cables to make things go faster. He also has a glide function where he can use his lightning powers to slowly approach the ground giving him the ability to travel over long distances through the air if he jumps.

Citizens will react differently to Cole depending on the karma meter. If you’re acting righteous, the citizens will cheer for you and even sometimes assist him. If he has been a bad boy, don’t expect a warm welcome as the citizens run away and boo him. Cole depends on the power of electricity to keep him going and to be able to use his powers. By sucking away at anything that has electricity, Cole can refill his meter. If it disappears, Cole can no longer use his powers until he finds something to refuel him. It didn’t happen much to me, but there were a few times, particularly during battles when I did run out of electricity and I’d have to hide or search for an electric sign to refuel. It’s quite fun to charge up and I didn’t mind having to do it every so often.

Infamous 2 has RPG elements intertwined in the game. Like the first, you’ll be able to upgrade your powers by earning experience points through missions and battles. Depending on how you are playing you’ll unlock evil and good powers to help assist. You’ll also get some new powers that aren’t electric, depending on how you are playing the game you’ll earn some ice or fire powers too which added a lot of fun to the game.

I didn’t care for the comic book style cut scenes in the first game but they grew on me during the second game. Overall, the game looks better as everything seems smoother and more detailed. Character models looked realistic and I’m happy to say the presentation was an upgrade. I found exploring New Marais much more enjoyable than exploring Empire City.

Memories:
I wanted to love Infamous but it just didn’t click with me. I gave the second game a chance and enjoyed myself much more. I’m not sure what it was but perhaps a change in setting helped. It also felt a bit more darker and I remember I loved the ending with Cole sacrificing himself. It sounds twisted but I love it when the hero dies in the end, there’s something about the ultimate sacrifice and courage to do so that I admire. Of course, if you played the evil way and had Cole kill everyone that’s a different story.

Infamous 2 Review Score:

Infamous 2 upgrades the style, powers, characters, and gameplay of the first game which was rough around the edges. You’ll spend time exploring New Marias and learning new powers in a fun action-adventure game that will satisfy your need to be an edgy super-hero or super-villain.

Infamous 2 scores an 8.5 out of 10.

Do you remember when Infamous 2 first came out? Which style did you play it? Did you like Empire City or New Marais better? What was your favorite power to use? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments.