Retro Review, Reminisce, Relevance: The Bourne Conspiracy

Once again, I've taken it upon myself to create another series of posts that I will likely never continue. If I recall my track record to this point, I have yet to follow up any categorization of a post with a second entry. Actually, to be more honest, many of my posts probably fall into the same vein, but due to the time between posts, I have failed to recall just what the original series was called.

Reflecting on The Bourne Conspiracy

It happens all too frequently; an above average game, not one set for surefire greatness or "top ten" lists at the end of the year, not one set to find itself bracketed in "Platinum Games" cover art, simply disappear. Oftentimes the publisher simply doesn't send a second shipment, wanting to run away with its minimal gain or pulling even. The game may have merit of some sort; a fantastic graphics engine, an innovation in gaming physics, an inspired design aesthetic, or an unparalleled story to tell. But because reviews were short of unbridled praise, and copies failed to fly off supplier's shelves, these titles were fated to live on in the obscurity of "bargain bins." The Bourne Conspiracy is a poster child of said movement.

US Embassy? Check. Red backpack? Check. Inability to acquire rights to Matt Damon's likeness? Check fo' sho.

For those who believe in history repeating itself, The Bourne Conspiracy could easily become "exhibit A." High Moon Studios, the developers put in charge of the abovementioned title, had only published an equally "above-average, but nonetheless forgotten" title several years before with Darkwatch. One would think that a marketable film franchise and a top-tier publisher could turn these circumstances around. Sadly, The Bourne Conspiracy appears to endorse the theory that, to paraphrase, "you'll be damned if you make the game of an endorsed intellectual property" and damned if "you choose to create your own franchise."

The first misstep was the inability to secure the likeness rights to Matt Damon. Damon felt that where the game was going was "too violent" (again, remember, this is from the man that acted out said violence in a film of a similar name) and was hoping that the game would instead go in the direction of Myst. And yes, he quite literally said Myst. That's like asking Street Fighter to aim for Tetris. Wait, they did make that Street Fighter puzzle game for the GBA. You get my point. Due to the fact that High Moon Studios felt that being a "30 Million Dollar Weapon" did not involve listening to ambient noise, and clicking through a glorified powerpoint presentation, they declined Damon's offer.

Secondly, High Moon Studios was easily culpable of going outside their knowledge base. There's a reason Free Radical (Timesplitters) has stuck to shooter games, and Naughty Dog has, with few exceptions, yet to make anything other than Action/Platformer titles (Uncharted, Crash Bandicoot, Jax and Daxter). Video games, like any other field, favors specialization. Like the age old adage says, "The Jack of all trades, fails to be the master of any." High Moon Studios could have made The Bourne Conspiracy all about the fighting, and simply skirted over the Mini chase in Paris by turning it into a cut scene. Problem solved. Instead they enacted one of the larger unspoken taboos of game development: unless you're making a driving/racing/open-ended game, AVOID driving segments!

Is this Grand Theft Auto? No. Is this Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit? No. Should there be a driving sequence in this game? Nope.

I'll be honest with you about this, reviewers are anxious, above all, to excessively praise a game. There is a reason few "perfect" scores are ever given out, and that magazines are writing in their fine print that just because a game got a "10" does not, in fact, make it perfect. We're all in this field for one reason or another, and I'd like to think that our love of video games is a primary one. Still, even when we play a game we love, we're still looking for that one imperfection, subtle or mile-high, so that we can give it its due, and move on to the adoration. Driving levels in a brawler/action game naturally attract this unwanted attention, and even if the experience is flawless: collision detection, handling, damage, physics, the sequence may still be admonished for taking the player away from the "bread and butter" of the game.

Another thing that reviewers target is the severing of the firearms/close combat dichotomy. Simply put, there's a reason that fighting games and shooters have developed into their separate camps. Those that attempt both usually appear as having "tacked on" the other element. As for the guilty party in Bourne, that would be the firearms element

Yes, there's no denying that the Bourne films and novels did include him being an expert marksman, but perhaps not as trigger-happy as this depiction of him

Small problems aside, The Bourne Conspiracy stands as one of the finer examples of a third party developer utilizing the Unreal 3 engine. Above everything else, the graphical engine is quite solid, and the art design, while not wholly inspired, didn't have much latitude to work with anyway. One can only go so far with an established franchise, a pre-determined storyline, and something so grounded in reality as Bourne is. The level design suffers from "linearitis," there's very little breathing room when it comes to methods of achieving objectives, but the set pieces do not disappoint. After all, throwing people into neon signs, or slamming their head on a table counter, or bringing the hurt with an oversized tome is all greatly satisfying. This all culminates in some of the best boss fights in a while, you'll go back just to see all the different objects in the environment that one can utilize.

Some will say that the combat engine is too basic: heavy and light attacks, blocks, and large kicks, accompanied by the takedowns, which will differ depending on the sort of takedown one selects. And...well...it is. But it's intuitive, and harkens back to the old side-scrolling beat-em ups, and looks amazingly fun. People will complain that by the end, it's nothing more than a glorified "block-fest" and while this is hard to deny, one must remember that Bourne isn't built like the disproportioned characters of Street Fighter II with biceps requiring their own town hall, he's tactical, opportunistic...you know? Well, you're not buying it, but that's okay.

Story-wise, Bourne satisfies, but all of the missions are of two varieties: playing through the events of the first film AND through missions in your past, a storyline that was specially written for the game. The new missions don't connect with the main story much, but are a legitimate excuse to introduce some of the more firepower-heavy and generally over-the-top levels, without tampering with the plot of the tried and true The Bourne Identity.

In closing, The Bourne Conspiracy is a good looking example of the Unreal Engine that can provide a cathartic form of stress relief in the form of generating massive beatdowns. The controls aren't complex, but you won't be left stumbling remembering the thirteen button sequence to Hadouken or perform some disturbingly odd fatality. However, as is the case with far too many games, the starting price point was far too high.

Dead Space: Proof Activision is the New EA

This is the plasma cutter, don't let the fact that it is your starting weapon fool you into placing it into a storage locker. You'll find it remarkably more useful than many of the other ones.

Preface: This article was originally published in Kalamazoo College's newspaper The Index. While this is not the actual edition that went to print, I don't have the actual text file that was used in said edition. However, not only is my draft probably about 90% the same as that which went to press, but I feel that this version is more suited for the blogging/more hardcore gamer crowd. So, all and all, it's a more fitting one for teh interwebs.

Without further ado, I present to you, my review of Dead Space

Before anything else, let this be said: Say at some point in your life you happen to be a spacecraft engineer, and your girlfriend just happens to be a doctor on a mining ship that reduces planets and other space-related phenomena to a smorgasborg of useful minerals and metals. Let’s suppose that this ship happens to come across a luridly blood-red alien artifact during the aforementioned process of planetary pulverization, and due to man’s predilection for all things tall, shiny, and ominous, it finds its way into the cargo hold, and shortly following such, the ship loses all communication with the outside world. If this more than highly probable scenario happens (an intergalactic hunt for “black gold” isn’t that out of the question, is it?) and your girlfriend sends you a semi-coherent message begging for your assistance…you might want to find someone slightly less needy.

I say this only because, informed by EA’s new title Dead Space, I’m more than aware that all that awaits you is unmatched atmospheric terror, coupled with a gaggle of creatures called necromorphs which harbor a craving for aged decaying bodies matched only by Hugh Heffner’s girlfriends. So I’d suggest playing the game instead of going through the “real deal.” As I already touched upon, Dead Space surrounds an engineer named Isaac Clark (an intentional combining of the great sci-fi authors Arthur C Clark and Isaac Asimov) who volunteers on a team sent out on a seemingly mundane mission to repair the USG Ishimura’s communication’s array.

Unsurprisingly, only minutes after setting foot on the Ishimura, Isaac is separated from his crew, and is forced to fend for his own while attempting to uncover how the ship became an intergalactic sanatorium, while also locating Nicole. Since the Ishimura is a mining ship and not a NORAD bunker, lightsabers and stockpiled phasers are nowhere to be found. Instead Isaac must rely on constructing makeshift weapons from mining equipment: plasma cutters, buzz saws, explosive mines and the like. You’ll certainly need anything you can muster together, considering that the necromorphs are a crafty lot; they’ll feign death, use the ventilation shafts around the ship as a means of catching you with your spaceman pants down, and despite being reanimated flesh, know a thing or two about flanking.

One of Issac's pet peeves? People reading over his shoulder.

Oh, and did I neglect to mention that headshots don’t work? Dead Space utilizes a system called “strategic dismemberment” that emphasizes the fact that Isaac must turn his assailants into the Black Knight of Monty Python fame before rendering them totally harmless. In fact, with certain necromorphs, headshots only serve to send it into a more frenetic state of rage.

There are those who will say that, innovative combat and locale aside, Dead Space is nothing more than “Bioshock in space.” While it is certainly true that both share a steampunk approach to highly-upgradeable weaponry, retro-art aesthetic (though decidedly more of the streamlined 60s look, than Bioshock’s art deco look) and the act of being forced to piece together a back story through audio and video logs, the similarities are superficial. Dead Space distances itself from Bioshock with gory, visceral combat that is gratifying, and a control scheme that does little to impede “going Ripley”.

But what truly sets Dead Space apart from all other survival-horror titles is its immersive factor. There are no traditional HUD (heads-up display) elements to be found; health bars and ammo counts have gone on sabbatical in Dead Space. Instead, health is represented by a vertical blue bar that runs along the spinal column of your suit, and ammo is shown by a holographic display that projects from the base of your guns. All videocam interactions with team members, maps, objective screens, and the like are also blue holographic projections that spring from your suit’s helmet, and all are accessed in real-time. Simply put, there is no disconnect between you and Isaac, and you can stand to be attacked at any time…aside from pausing.

The hologram displays are stunning in their Tang-ish hue, to the extent that this compress screen does not do justice. Click on the screenshot for a better glance.

Graphically, Dead Space is the Sistine Chapel in macabre form; shadows dance from exhaust fans and loose cables, the lighting flickers to an inconsistent beat, enemy models are grotesquely detailed in ways you wish they wouldn’t be, and for a game so absent of humanity, the few character models are well-detailed, animated, and expressive, and convey their sense of horror and desperation convincingly. The real unsung hero is the art design, which has taken on the challenge of making an industrial environment have distinctive and memorable areas (the bridge, the science labs, the engine room) instead of providing the player with an infinite twisting of labyrinthine grey halls (think F.E.A.R). One only has to take the time to gaze at the corporate advertisements and scrawled graffiti coating the walls to understand the commitment of the aesthetic that permeates Dead Space. Assisting these excellent visuals is a soundtrack and voice acting that had yet to be matched in the horror genre…though the hammy voice acting of the Resident Evil series did little to set the bar high.

Allow me to demonstrate gaming law #457.9: If there is room within the realm of believability within the game's universe for a flamethrower, it must exist. If there is not, you are clearly not creating a great game.

Overall, Dead Space is living…or should I say, undead…proof that large publishers with a Rolodex of in-house developers are capable of producing a new and epic franchise that is unique, enjoyable, and most importantly, will be the motivating factor in the purchase of a night light. Whether or not EA will turn this “sacred cow” into one of the “cash” variety remains to be seen, but what one can say for certain is that Dead Space is a terror-filled romp in space whose plot and presentation rival films of the very genre and paves the way for new forms of storytelling, much in the way Half Life 2 did. Mission objectives are sometimes derivative, but a lack of load times, smart enemy AI, and the sight of alien guts floating in zero gravity somehow overcome these nitpicking issues. Four and a half out of five stars.

My Journalistic Foray

Sometimes non-violence is the best path to conflict resolution; other times incinerating mutated creatures into piles of ash with a laser pistol does the job.

Over the past couple months I've been busy with school, but have also been taking the time to write some video game reviews for my paper at school, The Index. The reviews are bit more formal, and brief than many of the ones on this blog, but I've considered it an exercise in moderation, if you will. Sometimes we all need to step outside of our normal comfort zone, expose ourselves to different styles of writing, and getting back to more mainline journalism has been...an experience.

I've gotten the chance to review both Fallout 3 and Dead Space, specifically, and I figure before I attempt to write some new material for this blog over break, I'd best upload both of those. I've also taken the liberty of releasing the "Director's Cut" edition of both. This is a fancy way of saying that, while I have my editor's final cut in print form, I don't have the actual text files. Ah...well...I can pride myself in saying that the version that went "to print" didn't have many changes required.

So, without further ado, here is my Fallout 3 review:

It’s a classic gamer’ nightmare; a pedigree franchise finding its way into the hands of a new developer, having to make the transition to next-gen consoles. After all, for every mind-boggling success (Retro Studio’s Metroid Prime, Ubisoft Montreal’s Prince of Persia) there’s the butchering of a previously wonderful franchise (Atari’s Alone in the Dark). Thankfully, I can assure you that Bethesda’s recent release, Fallout 3 firmly falls into the latter category with flying colors…provided those colors are “irradiated glow green” and “tetanus inducing rust.”

Fallout 3, for one who has lost all sense of the obvious, is the third installment in the classic post-apocalyptic Fallout series. Unlike recent Mad Max-esque titles like Gears of War or Resistance: Fall of Man, Fallout doesn’t have things “going south” for America via a spaceship fleet of ‘roided up E.Ts. Instead, it goes the Dr. Strangelove route of mutually assured destruction in the year 2077. Those who have the forethought to not join the Marie Curie fan club end up in government contracted fallout shelters called “vaults.”

"Say hello to my little...err...drastically oversized steampunk firearm!"

You yourself begin the game 200 years after the nuclear war as an infant in Washington D.C.’s Vault 101, one that, unlike the remaining vaults, was never meant to be opened. From here the introduction of the game has you progressing through several key moments in your life leading up to your nineteenth birthday. In a clever fashion, the selecting of your characters looks, skills, and particular aptitudes are skillfully implemented into this introductory narrative, unlike Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which merely overwhelmed you in deciding all of this from the get go, without providing any sense of narrative backstory for your character. That being said, at the age of nineteen, your father leaves the vault for unsaid reasons, and, being blamed for his disappearance, you follow in pursuit.

If it sounds open-ended, that’s because…it is. Your character’s look, abilities, morality, clothing, weapons, sidekick, living quarters and fate among other things are all left up to you. Want to be a mohawk-donning fellow who enjoys a nice three-piece suit and the right to bear laser-fueled arms? Have at it! Care to throw on some riot gear on top of a wonderful mullet, and go to town with brass knuckles? The choice is yours! Those who are accustomed to the customization system of the Elder Scrolls series will feel right at home.

That is, until they find themselves in combat. Unlike the clunky, very less-than-gratifying, hit-or-miss combat system of their previous titles, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 utilizes a new hybrid combat mechanic called V.A.T.S., which stands for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. Think of it as a half shooter, half turn-based RPG. See, in the middle of a sortie, bringing up V.A.T.S. will freeze the action, and highlight your target, allowing you to specifically hone in on whichever limb and/or vital organ you think they could make just fine without, allowing the less than “twitch-happy” RPG crowd to fully utilize their carefully crafted characters skill. To those who thought they were getting to play Half Life and not Final Fantasy VIII, worry not; V.A.T.S. utilizes an “action points” system that prevents the feature from being over utilized.

Don't be overwhelmed by the diagram above; V.A.T.S. is really this simple: use it, or you will die...a lot. Even if you are good at FPS titles, I would still advise using it.

Graphically, Fallout 3 impresses. For a game with so much customization, you almost expect to see a dip in the graphical fidelity, but the textures are well-detailed, and character models are certainly a step up from the lifeless zombies one was forced to interact with in Oblivion. The art design is unparalleled, however. Think 1950’s suburbia and a “Keeping up with the Joneses” unbridled materialist style of advertising meets nuclear induced blight. Vibrant billboards for “Super Bomb Cereal” stand behind a single swing set, with nothing but cracked roads and char-broiled trees for miles. There’s something darkly comical, and yet frighteningly real about the future posed by Fallout 3. Populations rise and fall, empires come and go, but consumerism reigns supreme. The soundtrack, like in Bioshock, is composed of largely old 40’s and 50’s tunes, and the sound effects are extensive, no two weapons sound alike, the voice talents (including Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman, and Malcom McDowell) do not go unutilized.

Don't be fooled by the speed blur, Fallout 3 is a beautiful game, and an epic one at that, one could watch their slo-mo replays of violent acts...err...justice...over and over and OVER again.

All in all, it’s hard to go without comparing Fallout 3 to its older brother Oblivion, and thankfully, there’s no reason it should suffer an inferiority complex. While it builds on the tried and true action RPG staples of the Elder Scrolls series, it’s not afraid to make the combat enjoyable (something none of the Elder Scrolls game could ever attest to), improve the frame rate as well as the graphical quality, and simultaneously deliver a carefully crafted narrative within the framework of an immersive “do anything, go anywhere” world. The side quests are compelling, not tiresome, and you’ll be amazed at the variety of ways one can accomplish a goal. While it will be a while before I can fully judge Fallout 3 in the grand scale of gaming excellence, suffice it to say that unless the new Prince of Persia or Left 4 Dead truly sets my mouth agape, Fallout 3 is my choice for game of the year. Five out of five stars.