After five games of climbing, shooting, and narrow escapes, we have now arrived at the conclusion of Nathan Drake’s adventures. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End seems to do anything and everything to ensure the roguish charmer ends his series on a high note. But now that I’ve completed the game I can’t help but feel conflicted towards it. Some parts I adored, others not so much. So, without further ado, here are my scattered (and likely contradictory) thoughts on Uncharted 4. Spoilers ahoy!

Holy hell this is the best looking game ever

Let me get this out of the way; Uncharted 4 is the best looking game that I’ve ever played. This is irrespective of platform and I’ve seen no game on even the PC that comes close to matching it. Sure, you can point to the fact that the game runs at 30 fps and there may be textures here or there that aren’t as crisp as playing The Witcher 3 on ultra settings, but none of that matters. What matters is that Naughty Dog has such an eye for animation, framing, and artistry that is leaps and bounds ahead of rest of the industry. I mean, just look at this:

Or this:

Or this:

What’s even more insane is that I’m not even surprised by this anymore. Uncharted 2 was the best looking game ever when it released, so was Uncharted 3, and so was The Last of Us. Naughty Dog is working at such a high level that they make everyone else look like amateurs. Sure, we can rationalize all this. CD Projekt Red made an open world so of course The Witcher isn’t going to match the visuals of the relatively linear Uncharted series. Kojima was too focused on interlocking gameplay systems and heavily scripted cutscenes and so Metal Gear Solid V obviously can’t compete with the more straightforward The Last of Us. But when Geralt or Snake get into a conversation with someone, all the shiny graphics and smooth motion can’t make up for the fact that it still looks like awkward animatronic robots flapping their mouths at each other. I don’t mean to dump on other games, but it just seems like that the industry is so focused on hyper realistic textures and such that they forget the little details that make games feel real. The reason that Uncharted 4 is the best looking game ever is for all the little details, like Elena’s unbelieving smirk that tells you she doesn’t believe Nate’s lies or how Nadine’s hair bounces and bobs ever so perfectly. Perhaps more big-budget developers can take lessons here and start to focus on the little things rather than simply making explosions more explode-y.

Sam Drake is a retcon that only sometimes works

With their combined ubiquity, it seemed almost inevitable that Nolan North and Troy Baker would co-star in a game together. Uncharted 4 becomes that game with the introduction of Samuel Drake, Nate’s long lost brother that oh-so-conveniently has never been mentioned before. Like the rest of the voice cast, Baker deserves kudos for turning in a fine performance as the elder Drake. While the role isn’t quite as deep as Joel from The Last of Us, there’s still plenty in Sam’s backstory for the veteran voice actor to work with. After an attempt to find a clue for the game’s requisite treasure, Sam becomes trapped in a Panamanian prison with Nate believing him to be dead. He subsequently spends the next fifteen years rotting in captivity before being set free. He then proceeds to convince Nate to pick up the trail for the pirate treasure horde they were seeking all those years ago. Sam’s pale and aged skin evokes a man who has lived a very hard life, and it becomes clear as the story moves forward that behind the patented Drake family quips lies a very desperate and damaged man. It feels earned near the game’s end that Sam would go back to get the treasure even if it would be practically suicide for him to do so. He’s been dreaming about the pirate horde for years now, and in many ways that’s all that has kept him going. I fully expected him to die by the end, restoring the status quo, but I was pleasantly surprised that Sam survived and moved on from his quixotic quest. It’s all good character work and the late addition of Sam to the Uncharted canon actually works for the most part.

What didn’t work for me, however, was the Drake brothers’ backstory. The game suggests that Nate and Sam began adventuring together when Nate was about 10-11 years old. But then why is Nate on his own as a teenager in Columbia when he meets Sully in Uncharted 3? And then why is he back with Sam again as a young adult in Panama and no Sully around? Sully and Sam clearly know each other as implied by their meeting in Uncharted 4, but there’s no indication that they know each other all that well. It seems strange that these two men, whom Nate is close enough to consider family, are so leery and unfamiliar with one another. Finally, I’m not entirely on-board with the fact that Nate and Sam originally shared the last name Morgan and subsequently changed their surname to Drake. From Uncharted 1 to 3 there’s a through-line that Nate truly believed he was a descendant of Sir Francis Drake. Whether this was in fact true or not is less important than the fact that Nate was utterly convinced of it. But now we know that it was always a lie, and Nate knew it. Suddenly his recklessness and determination don’t come from a place of deep conviction, but from simply lying to himself and others. Nate was never a perfect hero, but now it feels like he’s suffering from a long, untreated case of narcissistic personality disorder that everyone in his life continues to enable. Definitely not a good look for our protagonist.

Nate and Elena’s marriage is the best relationship in video games

Throughout the series I was always a big fan of Nate and Elena as a couple. Here were two tough and capable people that were made better together, and I was beyond happy when they reconciled at the end of the last game. The story here picks up with them in the throes of domestic bliss being just the cutest lovey-dovey couple ever. Much has been already discussed about the dinner scene early on, but I can’t help but single it out for praise. There is no real conflict to that scene, and while there are hints that they both want more excitement, they seem content with the life they are leading. Maybe it’s because I’m married, but I can relate so much with grabbing some bowls filled with noodles and plopping down on the couch after a long day to just chat. The subtle details to this scene add to the authenticity, as I’ve seen my wife in the same pose as Elena, one leg on the couch and turned toward me, or the occasional drifting of attention from the conversation. It’s all just so well done.

Of course, Nate the idiot chooses to imperil his marriage by lying to Elena about Sam’s return and their subsequent adventure. I get the motivation, as he feels that he owes his brother but doesn’t want to tell his wife, but I can’t fathom such a big lie. It’s acknowledged over and over how dangerous this type of work is, but Nate doesn’t seem to care that there is a very real chance he could die and the last thing he said to Elena was a lie. Uncharted exists in a world where Nate can mow down countless soldiers, survive insanely large explosions, and fall from great heights with no severe injuries, but in previous games this was all hand waved by the fact that Nate is a thrillseeker with nothing to lose who gets very, very lucky. But now Nate does have something to lose, and he lives in a world where his incredible luck and survivability are not taken for granted. In that light he seems downright psychotic to not tell Elena about his intent to undertake a dangerous quest to save his brother. The Uncharted series has been accused of ludonarrative dissonance before, but it feels especially pronounced here. What’s the point of not adventuring if there’s no danger to it? Nate seems to take for granted that he’ll survive, so why bother lying to Elena?

Elena, to her credit, becomes absolutely livid when she discovers Drake’s deception (see what I did there?) and proceeds to storm off with their marriage in shambles. It’s the emotional low point for Nate and reframes his determination as selfishness. But this is not to last, and Nate is saved near the game’s end by Elena after a particularly rough tumble off of a cliff. On the surface it seems odd for Elena to come back to someone who’s lied to her repeatedly over the years, but I get it. She utterly loves Nate, flaws and all. He may be selfish, he may be completely and utterly wrong, and she may be furious at him, but dammit they’re married! That’s the funny thing about marriage, that no matter what, it’s just you two against the world. I’ve gone to bat for my wife, stood up for her even when I think she was in the wrong, because I know she’d do the same for me. So it goes with Nate and Elena, who put aside their differences to save Sam. The wound caused by Nate’s lies is still there and they will have to work things out later, but for now they’re a team. It all feels to so imperfect, so inconsistent, but above all it feels like the most authentic relationship I’ve ever seen in a video game.

Concluding thoughts

I feel like I’ll be mulling over Uncharted 4 for a good long while. On one hand, I’m still not entirely convinced that the game was even necessary as Uncharted 3 had a satisfying conclusion to Nathan Drake’s character arc. Indeed, part of me yearns for what the team at Naughty Dog could have done had they worked on an original IP instead. But on the other hand the game they made was so well executed, so wonderfully written, that I didn’t mind spending one more game with Nate, Elena, and Sully. I’m okay with taking a break from the series for now, and I’m excited to see what new things Naughty Dog does next. Nate’s adventuring days are over, but if in a couple of years they choose to follow the adventures of Cassie Morgan/Drake/Fisher, I’d be totally fine with that.

This is the latest in a series of retrospective write-ups where I relate my experience playing through the campaigns of the Halo series all over again, this time in the remastered form of the Master Chief Collection. You can find previous posts in The Great Journey here:

1. Halo: Combat Evolved

2. Halo 2

3. Halo 3

4. Halo 3: ODST

5. Halo: Reach

At last The Great Journey has arrived at the modern era of Halo. With Bungie’s final installment in the books, I now turn to the first entry of 343 Industries’s so called “Reclaimer Trilogy”. Halo 4, being the first game post-Halo 3 to follow the Master Chief’s story, certainly had a lot to prove. While the general response around its release ranged from apathy to disappointment, perhaps the intervening years have been kind to it. Time to wake up from cryo and save humanity. Again.

As it’s been a few games since we’ve last seen John-117, let’s consider where we were at the end of Halo 3. The Chief, with the help of Cortana and the Arbiter, managed to activate a half built Halo far away from the Milky Way and in doing so wiped out the majority of the Covenant hierarchy along with the Flood. While attempting to escape on the good ship Forward Unto Dawn, the Chief and Cortana got stuck on the stern of the ship which did not make it through a slipspace portal headed back to Earth. Adrift and millions of miles away from home, the Chief enters cryosleep while he and Cortana await a rescue that could be years away.

This setup opens up some interesting possibilities for where the story goes next, but 343 chose to start Halo 4 in an unexpected way. The opening scene involves the interrogation of Dr. Catherine Halsey, the founder of the SPARTAN-II program who made her first in-game appearance in Halo: Reach. While this is the first of many welcome references to Bungie’s beloved prequel, there really isn’t a whole lot in this scene that adds to the story being told. All it really amounts to is making sure that the players who hadn’t played Reach are clued in on who Halsey is and why the Chief and Cortana seek to get back to her at the start of the game. But what the cutscene lacks in substance it more than makes up in style.

The opening scene, like the rest of the game, is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Whatever voodoo that 343 had to do to make the Xbox 360 sing like this is simply extraordinary. For the first time in the series, human faces emote somewhat realistically and the level of detail is far and above what Bungie was ever able to accomplish. Indeed, with the addition of 1080p resolution and 60 fps framerate the game looks like it was developed specifically for the Xbox One. I really can’t overstate how good Halo 4 looks, even as I have already been exposed to the beauty that is Halo 5. But graphics are only the surface of this package. What of the story and mission design?

After Halsey’s speechifying, the game gets on with the plot proper. Four years have passed and the Chief is awakened by a panicked Cortana as their ship is boarded by a hostile Covenant force. Disoriented and not given much context, the Chief must repel these boarders in a fashion not dissimilar to the first missions of Halo 1 and 2. This mission is mainly a playground to showcase the upgrades Cortana has made to the Chief’s suit. The most apparent of these upgrades is a dedicated sprint button. While sprinting first made an appearance in Halo: Reach as an armor ability, here it is more closely integrated with as a player tool that you will come to depend on. It serves to make the game feel faster and decidedly more modern than previous entries, although it doesn’t quite have the smoothness of movement expected of shooters post-Titanfall. Other subtle changes include a bouncing reticle that encourages more controlled bursts of fire for increased accuracy with automatic weapons. Halo 3’s equipment has been ditched in favor of Reach’s armor abilities, and certain abilities such as the autoturret and boost come in quite handy in combat. The available weapons in this mission mostly play it safe, reintroducing the tweaked assault rifle, battle rifle, and pistol. The Covenant weapons are also pretty standard, with plasma pistols, needlers, and carbines feeling like they usually do, and the storm rifle from Reach taking over for the series staple plasma rifle. I’ll give credit to 343 as they really understand what gives Halo its distinctive “feel” and were able to replicate it quite well while also including some smart additions. But while Halo 4 does a great job of replicating the series’ gameplay, the narrative is a bit of a mixed bag.

Right off the bat the story of Halo 4 feels smaller and more intimate than the grand battles of the original trilogy. This was a smart decision, as simply escalating scale of the plot would have likely painted 343 into a narrative corner. There’s increased emphasis on the relationship between Cortana and the Chief and for the most part their interactions work to emotionally anchor the story. As hinted in Halo 3, Cortana is now in the process of succumbing to rampancy, which is essentially Alzheimer’s disease for AIs. While there’s no known cure for rampancy, the Chief believes that by getting Cortana back to her creator, Dr. Halsey, there’s a chance that she can be saved. For a character who in the past was so stoic and rational minded, it’s a welcome development to see our protagonist’s motivation come from an emotional place rather than a logical one. Indeed, John is a lot more chatty this time around, and while his conversations with Cortana can border on melodramatic at times, they at least provide a compelling core to latch onto when the other parts of the story falter.

As the Chief clears the Forward Unto Dawn of enemies, it becomes apparent that there’s a lot more going on than Covenant simply stumbling upon the ship. First, there’s the mysterious planet of Requiem in the distance and second, there’s the appearance of the UNSC starship Infinity. Unfortunately for the Infinity, by responding to Cortana’s garbled distress beacon, it gets pulled into the gravity well of Requiem, necessitating the Chief to rescue the flagship and her crew. Upon touching down on Requiem, which turns out to be a hollow Dyson sphere, the Chief attempts to warn away the Infinity by deactivating certain devices which appear to be jamming communications. Instead, by turning off these devices, the Chief unwittingly releases a being known as the Didact and his army of Prometheans.

The introduction of the Prometheans to the Halo universe is definitely Halo 4’s largest contribution to the franchise canon. Essentially, Prometheans are digitized beings that were formerly Forerunners and humans and were transformed in the aftermath of their ancient war. The backstory gets quite complicated, but it essentially asserts that humans ran an ancient galactic empire that stumbled upon the Flood. Having no effective way of holding back the infection, they retreated into Forerunner controlled space, sparking off a war between the two civilizations. After a millennium of fighting, humanity was forcibly reverted to a primitive state on Earth to rebuild their civilization. The Forerunners, victorious but also unable to fight back against the Flood, built and activated the Halos to cleanse the galaxy of the infection at the cost of their continued survival. The resulting Prometheans were then kept locked up on Requiem. It’s all a very complicated and unnecessary backstory that remains the weakest point of the narrative, especially when later on in the plot the Chief is singled out as the desired end result of humanity’s evolution. It all feels tonally inconsistent with the rest of the Halo universe. Certainly, in the previous games there were implications that the Forerunners and humans had some connection, but to imply that humanity had this sprawling civilization that was never heard about until now feels like an awkward retcon. Worse still is making the Master Chief a predestined savior, where in the past he was merely a super soldier who succeeded despite the odds.

The problems with Halo 4’s story are best exemplified with the Didact, and by extension the other named Promethean, the Librarian. These two are your typical haughty British accented “higher beings” that speak almost entirely in prophecy and could not be any less interesting. The Didact has a telekinetic power such that the Chief gets helplessly thrown around like a ragdoll whenever they meet. As such, there’s really no way that the DIdact could be fought using Halo’s combat system and so any interactions between the hero and villain are done via cutscenes. This further distanced me from caring at all about the bad guy, as I knew that would just be fighting his minions until a cutscene triggers. Even the Didact’s motivations are beyond cliche. He seeks a macguffin artifact known as the Composer that can kill all of humanity, which just marks off the “universe/world/humanity is in danger” box on the mediocre story checklist. But despite their leader being a complete wet blanket, the Promethean foot soldiers and their armaments ended up being quite fun.

With the Flood being wiped out at the end of Halo 3, a void was created for a third faction that were neither human nor Covenant. The Prometheans fill this gap nicely, and for the most part are a welcome addition. The enemy types are structured similarly to the Covenant with Crawlers being equivalent to Jackals and Grunts, Knights being ersatz Elites, and Watchers being more modular versions of Engineers. Their Tron-like designs are quite cool looking and take full advantage of Halo 4’s gorgeous lighting system. Even the Promethean weapons end up being fun to use, although they simply follow the standard paradigm of pistol, auto-rifle, marksman-rifle, sniper, shotgun, and rocket launcher. Like the enemies themselves, the design of the armaments are top notch with all their modular parts assembling in cool ways each time you pick them up. The one downside to this is the Chief feels a little less survivable than in previous games. Covenant weapons are exceptionally effective against shields but do little damage against the Chief himself, which allowed for some forgiveness when you’re ambushed by Grunts as their plasma pistols will almost never kill you outright. Not so with crawlers, whose pistols are quite effective at dealing unshielded damage and will take you down before you can get your bearings.. Combined with some of the weakest checkpointing since Halo 1, the game has some extremely frustrating sequences in its back half.

Halo 4 keeps a tight focus on the major players of its story, but it ends up feeling incomplete as a result. Being as it is a sequel to Halo 3, there is frustratingly little attention paid to what happened after the dust of the human-Covenant war settled. There’s no mention of the Arbiter, for instance, and no explanation of what happened to the Covenant outside of a small splinter group that worships the Prometheans. Humanity is also given short-shrift, as they are almost entirely represented by Infinity. It would have been nice to see more of the civilian side of humanity, but that isn’t to say that the ship and her crew aren’t compelling. Infinity, a marvel of post-war engineering, is a symbol of humanity’s ascendance to master of the stars. Now that the UNSC is no longer struggling to survive against overwhelming odds, Infinity’s crew comes across as optimistic and hopeful with a budding curiosity to explore the universe. The executive officer and later captain of Infinity, Thomas Lasky, best exemplifies these values and is a delightful addition to the cast. His instant rapport with the Chief and Cortana gave spark to what otherwise would have merely been expository dialog, and it was always great to see him pop up at various points in the story to lend a helping hand. The coolest part of Infinity, though, is Commander Sarah Palmer (voiced by FemShep herself, Jennifer Hale) and her compliment of SPARTAN-IVs. 343 Industries, possibly noting how cool it was to have a squad of SPARTANs in Halo: Reach, wisely included a new generation of enhanced soldiers into the story. Unlike previous generations of the ethically dubious program, these new SPARTANs are veterans from the various UNSC military branches who volunteer to get augmented. While much is made about the fact that the SPARTAN-IIs are superior to these new soldiers, functionally they seem to have the same capabilities as Master Chief. In any case, it’s pretty cool to be accompanied on missions by SPARTANs in powered armor rather than the typical redshirt marines of previous games.

The middle third of Halo 4 mainly focuses on the Chief and the SPARTAN-IVs running operations around Requiem in an effort to free Infinity to contact Earth regarding the threat that the Didact poses. It’s in this stretch that the game feels most like Halos past, with Requiem’s geology and architecture evoking the titular ringworlds. There’s plenty of vehicle battles, although the appropriately named Mammoth personnel transport is the only new vehicle of note. It’s more or less the same open ended combat sandbox that was perfected in Halo 3 but it remains fun nonetheless. 343 cleverly has this portion of the story focus on the increasing friction between Infinity’s captain, Andrew Del Rio, and the Master Chief. Del Rio comes across as stubborn and incompetent in all his scenes but serves his job as a minor antagonist who is more concerned with following protocol than actually completing his mission. Tensions come to a head when Cortana reveals her rampancy to Infinity’s crew and Del Rio orders her termination and the Chief’s arrest. Thanks to the timely intervention of Lasky, however, the Chief and Cortana are able to abscond with a Pelican and track down the Didact.

The final third of the game brings the super weapon known as the Composer to the fore. The Chief and Cortana, stowing aboard a Covenant ship, follows the Didact’s fleet to a remote UNSC science station floating near a Halo. The Chief sneaks into the station as it comes under attack and makes contact with the crew. Talking with civilians proved to be a refreshing change of pace and helped to expand the story’s tight scope, if only by a little bit. It also injected new life into the gameplay with tighter corridors leading to a more frenetic pace of combat. Also, after spending most of my time on Requiem scavenging Covenant and Promethean weapons, it was invigorating to use the abundant UNSC armaments on board the station. But alas, my ass-kicking was for naught as the Didact was able to find and activate the Composer, frying everyone on board save for the Chief who was protected by some ill-defined magic that the Librarian had given him earlier. Knowing that the Didact is heading to Earth to activate the super weapon yet again, the Chief commandeers a Broadsword fighter plane equipped with a nuclear warhead and mounts an attack.

The final mission begins in memorable fashion with the Chief flying the Broadsword on the surface of the Didact’s ship trying to find a way in. This sequence is equal parts Star Wars’ trench run, Halo: Reach’s space fighter sequence, and Halo: Combat Evolved’s Warthog escape. I especially loved the changing skybox as the Didact’s ship exits slipspace to reveal the pale blue orb that is Earth. The Chief and Cortana eventually find an opening into the ship but at the expense of trashing their fighter. With few other options, the Chief grabs the nuclear warhead from the Broadsword with the intent of blowing up the Composer and Didact before they can destroy the Earth. The final stretch of the game is on foot and involves countless Prometheans that needed to be mowed down. There’s a significant difficulty spike at this point in the game that really killed the story’s momentum for me. Still, after trying and retrying checkpoints I was able to progress to the final chamber containing the antagonist. Cortana begins using her rampant code to infect the ship’s systems and create a path for the Chief to get to the Didact. The final bits of the game are an incoherent mess, unfortunately, as the Chief is predictably stopped by the Didact’s telekinesis. Bizarrely, Cortana is able to physically manifest herself and distracts the Didact long enough for the Chief to attack him from behind. This sequence proved frustrating as its only instruction was to fire a machine gun that I did not have. After a few more deaths and retries I managed to luck into the right combination of buttons and finally kill the Didact. What follows afterwards is even more strange, as the Chief activates the nuclear warhead but is not completely vaporized. Instead, he seems to be transported to a dream-like world where he says his goodbyes to Cortana as she sacrifices herself. It’s a nice, heartfelt moment that feels emotionally resonant even if it makes no logical sense. The Chief is next seen floating in space to be picked up by a UNSC scout ship with no explanation as to why he got there. The game then ends with a short epilogue followed by credits.

I admittedly did not like Halo 4 all that much when it first came out and I was hoping that with the passage of time I would be able to appreciate it more. To a certain extent that’s true, as the gameplay and presentation were both good enough to keep me engaged for the duration. But the story is such a mixed bag that I can’t really recommend the campaign. 343 commendably tried to expand Halo’s universe by fleshing out the Forerunner backstory but in doing so attempted to make the series into something it’s not. The Master Chief never was the “chosen one” and while Halo has always had a flair for dramatic names (see the Gravemind) and charismatic villains (see also the Gravemind), the Didact and Librarian never felt natural in the game’s setting. There are places where the story succeeds, though, such as the SPARTAN-IVs and Cortana’s rampancy. It seems that the developers recognized this and retooled the story of Halo 5 to focus more on the elements that worked rather than doubling down on the pseudo-mystical nonsense that hobbled Halo 4. Coming off the outstanding campaign of Halo: Reach makes 343’s stumble all the more pronounced. Being a big Halo fan it’s hard for me to not recommend any of the games, but if there’s one to skip, Halo 4 is definitely it.

The Inuit tribes of northern Canada and Alaska are incredibly fascinating to me. Here is a people living in the harshest of environments that managed to create a thriving society with incredible cultural works. Still, due to their remoteness we rarely see much of them aside from brief references and inaccurate stereotypes. In this light it’s always heartening to hear Inuit voices and perspectives in our culture. It is especially encouraging when those voices choose video games as their preferred medium to tell their stories. Such is the case with Never Alone, or Kisima Inŋitchuŋa, a game made by Native Alaskan developers that showcases the art and storytelling traditions of the Iñupiat people.

Never Alone is the debut project of Upper One Games, a Seattle based developer that was launched by the Native Alaskan Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Given this pedigree, it’s no surprise that the resulting game is an authentic celebration of the Iñupiat culture. The story follows a young girl named Nuna who is seeking the source of a never ending blizzard that is threatening her village. Early on in her journey she is threatened by a polar bear but is saved at the last minute by an adorably rendered arctic fox spirit. The fox becomes her companion for the rest of the game as they encounter various characters from Iñupiat lore. The game is narrated by a tribal elder entirely in the Iñupiat language (with subtitles) and follows the spoken word storytelling tradition that has been passed down for generations. As such, the game has a calm, meandering pace to it that isn’t afraid to follow the narrator’s digressions into the unique parts of his people’s culture. This is buoyed by brief interviews of tribe members as they explain the finer points of Iñupiat folklore and life on the tundra. These interstitial segments are truly fascinating and help to provide context to the unfamiliar story beats. In an unfortunate adherence to video game orthodoxy, these segments are unlocked by locating owls in the game, some of which are better hidden than others. While I managed to find the majority of these owls in my playthrough, I was unable to get them all and so missed out on hearing more cultural insights. It’s an annoying contrivance that hinders the ultimate goal of Never Alone, which is to educate outsiders. Ultimately it’s a minor annoyance that doesn’t detract from the wonderfully told story.

What really sells the story, however, is the gorgeous art and music that surrounds it. The cutscenes are told in a two dimensional style reminiscent of Inuit scrimshaw art that eschews extraneous details to emphasize the larger-than-life characters and story beats. The in-engine style merges this scrimshaw inspiration with standard polygonal rendering to create a cutesy motif that had me cooing at Nuna and the fox’s interactions. While the in-game style works well and is likely the best the developers could do with their time and resources, I would have loved to see a game made entirely in the 2D style of the cutscenes. An Inuit take on Apotheon’s Greek art would be amazing, but I digress. The music is minimalist but kicks in during the more action-heavy parts with traditional drums and wind instruments. It’s quite apparent that a lot of thought went into composing the score, as it at various times evokes the beautiful serenity, harsh isolation, and sudden danger that can arise from life in the Arctic. Combined with the art, the game creates a relaxing and dreamlike atmosphere that is wonderful to experience.

While the story, art, and music are top notch, the actual gameplay falters a bit. That’s not to say that it’s all bad. For the most part the game is all about basic 2D platforming with environmental puzzles which require some coordination between Nuna and the fox. To that end Never Alone offers couch co-op with one player taking control of Nuna and the other the fox. While that’s the preferred way to play, there’s also a single player option that allows swapping control between the two characters that works just fine. For the first three quarters of the story the gameplay is quite entertaining, with engaging platforming and puzzle segments that complement the story beats nicely. The last quarter of the game, however, quickly gets frustrating as the gameplay begins to demand a precision that the controls have not been designed for. While this did lead to more cheap deaths than I care to remember, the game does feature an excellent checkpoint system that ensured I didn’t lose too much progress in the event of failure. The lack of gameplay tuning near the end possibly speaks to a new developer still finding its footing, but it doesn’t take away all that much from the experience as a whole.

Never Alone is a testament to the benefits of democratizing game development and bringing new voices to our beloved medium. By infusing the game with the influence of actual Iñupiat people it is given a distinct voice that takes it beyond the standard 2D puzzle platformer. It also demonstrates “edutainment” done well, as in addition to playing through a satisfying game I also came out of the experience knowing a little more about the indigenous peoples of Alaska. The game has been out since 2014, and thanks to Playstation Plus many of you probably own it already. Given that the game, including the Foxtales DLC, can be completed in a few hours there’s really no excuse to not give it a shot. I give Never Alone a hearty recommendation.

Note: Given the subject and timing of this post, I thought I should mention to you Toronto based readers that the Museum of Inuit Art will be closing May 30th, 2016. If you’re interested in learning more about the art that helped to inspire Never Alone’s gorgeous aesthetic, I recommend checking out the museum before it’s shuttered for good.

Throughout its lifespan the Playstation Vita has seemingly died several deaths. In the four years since its release Sony’s handheld has been proclaimed a failure many times over by a great many people. And yet, it keeps on ticking with a drip of sporadic yet quality releases. I personally adore my Vita, and will take every opportunity I can to fire it up. Sure, most of the time I’m playing an indie title that’s been released for every other platform, but the portability and gorgeous OLED screen makes it my favorite way to experience those games. So when I heard about Severed, a Vita exclusive from DrinkBox Studios (makers of Guacamelee! and luminaries of the Toronto indie games scene), I knew I had to check it out. I’m glad I did, as the game is a real gem that demonstrates what developers can do when they design their game to a specific platform.

Severed stars a young woman named Sasha who begins the game in what appears to be her family’s house. Exploring in a first person view that evokes dungeon crawlers of yore, she finds the house ransacked and empty, save for clues that indicate Sasha’s family has been kidnapped and possibly killed. The real shock, however, comes when you look into a mirror. Sasha’s right arm has been (if you’ll permit me) severed and the wound appears to be uncomfortably fresh. From there Sasha is given a sword and sets out to find her family in a gorgeously rendered but ultimately unsettling world.

The bulk of the game involves moving Sasha through various ruins and temples where you will solve environmental puzzles as well as fight enemies. The dungeon crawl aspects are pretty fun as there are plenty of secrets to uncover, such as health and mana upgrades. The puzzles themselves aren’t too difficult, as the environments are small enough that simply exploring every room will make it quite clear on how to proceed. The one annoying thing about these segments is the repetitive music that began to annoy me when I was stuck at various points. I simply turned down the volume until I moved on to the next section, but it’s a bummer that I had to do that. Ultimately, the exploring aspects of the game are decent but are merely connective tissue for the enthralling combat.

The combat system is not unlike that of Infinity Blade, where you will swipe the screen to slash opponents with your sword. To avoid damage you will need to either time your swipes in order to parry attacks or stun enemies by breaking their armor or using magic. Individual enemies are not too difficult to dispatch once you learn their patterns, but what makes the combat really interesting is when you face multiple enemies simultaneously. The game will often have you fighting as many as four enemies at a time, one for each of the cardinal directions, and you will need to juggle their various attacks while also looking for openings to deal damage. It’s a delightful mix of twitch reflexes and tactical thinking and it feels very rewarding to get through each encounter. This combat is made even better with a well thought-out leveling system.

What really gives Severed depth is its neat leveling system. Unlike in other dungeon crawlers or RPGs, there are no experience points to be found. Instead, upon killing an enemy (after stringing together a sufficient amount of hits) you are given the opportunity to amputate its various limbs and organs. By collecting and spending these body parts, you can improve Sasha’s abilities through a skills tree. Until you enable a certain perk, however, the upgrades you unlock are entirely dependent on the types of body parts that you’ve collected. For instance, if you don’t have enough arms you might not be able to unlock an increase to your sword’s damage, but you may have enough wings to increase the duration of your stun magic instead. It’s a system that will push you to try out the various upgrade types before committing to a specific path, and it discourages min-max strategies until you get a better feel for the combat.

I should mention that the game is not as gruesome as I may have been describing. While Severed does deal with the uncomfortable concept that is amputation, the vibrant and stylized art helps to ensure that it doesn’t become simple body horror. That said, the game does like to put you through the emotional wringer, as the isolation and confusion of Sasha’s situation can be draining. But that only serves to show Sasha’s indomitable resolve as she undertakes a seemingly hopeless quest while also being grievously wounded. This is reinforced by a clever “show, don’t tell” story where details are revealed primarily through the environment with only the most cryptic of dialog sprinkled about. Sasha herself is a silent protagonist and, combined with the game taking place almost entirely from her point of view, it helps to identify the player with her plight and makes each story beat feel momentous.

I am still quite shocked that a Western developer had the chutzpah to develop a Vita exclusive title, especially one that takes full advantage of that platform’s features. I have no doubt that Severed will eventually be ported to other platforms, with tablets and smartphones likely being its next destination, but the game feels most at home on its original system. The combination of physical and touch controls feels so good that playing on a touchscreen exclusively would be a lesser experience. To all Vita owners, I implore you to purchase Severed to encourage this kind of development on the platform. It’s not often we see a developer gamble their success on the community of a “dead” system, and it would be nice to see their faith vindicated. Regardless, Severed is a beautiful, creative game that is also super fun to play. I wholeheartedly recommend it to just about anyone.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve started the time-consuming but rewarding task of playing through the enormity of Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition. Since I’ve already completed the main game and its associated DLC packs, this post will have me review the remaining standalone DLC campaigns. Back to murdering yet more Darkspawn!

Awakening

The crown jewel of this package, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is a substantial 15-20 hour campaign that more than justifies inclusion into the Dragon Age canon. If Origins was a throwback to 90s point and click computer RPGs, then Awakening evokes another PC trope from that era; the expansion pack. Expansions have often been where designers experimented with new ideas that riff on the mechanics of the main game. This often resulted in some of the most interesting content in a franchise, and Awakening seeks to do just that. As the Grey Warden from the base game, I have been given the arling of Amaranthine, the former home of the Howe clan that were deposed during the Landsmeet. Unfortunately, my arrival to the main Grey Warden keep of Vigil was interrupted by a devastating Darkspawn attack. As I hacked my way through the hordes I eventually discovered something quite out of the ordinary; a Darkspawn that can speak. With precious little to explain the assault so long after the Blight had been quelled, I began a quest to root out and eliminate the threat from my lands.

In addition to my character from Origins, a few other party members make a cameo appearance in Awakening. Alistair, now married to the Warden and King of Ferelden, briefly appears to make my claim on the land official and to provide a few excuses as to why he won’t stick around for the duration. Wynne also pops her head in as an NPC quest giver, but it’s not at all a substantial role. The only other returning character, Oghren, actually is a party member and has substantial dialog throughout the campaign. The remainder of my party is filled with some well thought out companions. Sigrun is a dwarven rogue whose obsession with killing Darkspawn dovetails nicely with the mission of the Grey Wardens. Velanna is a Dalish elf mage who innately distrusts humans but forges an uneasy alliance with the Wardens to save her sister. Nathaniel Howe is the last scion of the House of Howe whose lands I had taken over. He would have been a useful rogue but I had him executed for both being lame and also as revenge for my murdered family. Anders, the apostate human mage, is the quipper of the party and has some great banter with the Warden and other party members. Finally, there’s Justice, a spirit that becomes trapped in the body of a dead Grey Warden and must find his purpose in the unfamiliar physical realm. The party is for the most part quite memorable (even if the combination of Justice and Anders becomes a wet blanket in Dragon Age II), and it was a nice touch to be able to recruit all of them as Grey Wardens, Joining ritual and all. It really helped sell the fact that I was the new Warden-Commander who is responsible for leading my order.

Awakening distinguishes itself by pushing this concept of leadership in its story and gameplay. In addition to being the Warden-Commander, I was also the Arlessa of Amaranthine and so was tasked with ensuring the safety and livelihood of my subjects. To that end the game had me seeking out vendors to ensure that trade flowed through my lands, assisting builders so that my city walls could withstand another Darkspawn attack, and even dispensing justice to those accused of crimes. If this is starting to sound familiar, it’s because the structure of the campaign is similar to that of the latest Dragon Age game, Inquisition. Playing through Awakening I was struck by how many of its ideas were used and expanded upon in Bioware’s most recent game. In fact, significant chunks of Awakening’s campaign took place in large (by Origins standards) open environments with various quests to complete, not unlike the open areas of Inquisition. These ideas, along with the characters that would play a large role in Dragon Age II, serve to showcase how forward thinking Awakening is in its design.

At this point you can probably tell that I enjoyed my time with Awakening. I can definitively say that it’s my favorite piece of content outside of the main game. A big reason for this is its longer runtime than any of the other DLCs. The Dragon Age formula is at its best when it’s given time to breathe. There is some padding here and there, specifically the fetch and collection quests, but even that filler forced me to really explore the open environments and get a feel for their design and hidden lore. We often emphasize quality of quantity in game design, but sometimes quantity can itself be quality, and it’s nice to be reminded of that on occasion. Awakening demonstrates both a mastery of the Dragon Age: Origins formula as well as a willingness to experiment and sow the seeds for future franchise installments. I heartily recommend Awakening as essential playing for franchise fans.

The Darkspawn Chronicles

This campaign starts out with an intriguing premise; what if the Grey Wardens, due to the death of the main game’s player character, fail to stop the Blight and as a result the Darkspawn run roughshod through Ferelden? And what if the player gets to control the Darkspawn as they sow chaos? Video games that let you play as the actual antagonist(s) are few and far between, so I was really excited to try out The Darkspawn Chronicles. Unfortunately, Bioware completely whiffed on the execution and made thoroughly boring piece of content. The campaign begins with me in control of a Hurlock Vanguard, a type of elite Darkspawn soldier that has the ability to recruit other Darkspawn to follow me and do my bidding. As a gameplay mechanic this is actually fairly interesting, as I was able to mix and match my party with a variety of abilities based on who I recruited. The entire scenario takes place during the main game’s final battle at Denerim so there was plenty of combat for me to experiment with the various Darkspawn at my disposal. It’s also pretty neat, in a twisted sort of way, to fight and slaughter the party members from Origins and to get lore on what happened to them in this alternate reality where the main character died early on. What really drags the campaign down, however, is the limited scope and shoddy production. There is almost no voice acting throughout the content’s 1.5 hour runtime and all cut scenes and environments are directly cribbed from the main game. The intriguing premise saves The Darkspawn Chronicles from being the worst piece of DLC in this package, but it’s still pretty bad. Feel free to skip this one.

Leliana's Song

One of my favorite aspects of Bioware games is how well they write companion characters. From the self-assured yet repentant Mordin Solus to the delightfully grumpy Jolee Bindo, you can pretty much guarantee a memorable performance from at least a couple of your companions in each game. Leliana, the Chantry sister seeking to atone for her sins as an Orlesian spy, may not be one of my all-time favorite Bioware characters but that isn’t to say that she’s uninteresting. Her introduction in Origins is ok, but she is necessarily kind of boring as a straight-laced and guilt-wracked version of her former self. I actually didn’t care all that much for Leliana until she reappeared in Dragon Age: Inquisition as my spymaster. In that role we can see a morally flexible version of the former bard that is more willing to use her considerable talents in order to complete her goals than she was in Origins. In Leliana’s Song, a prequel chronicling Leliana’s shady past with the Orlesian power broker Marjolaine, we see a Leliana unchained by guilt and fully capable of sowing chaos and subterfuge. The entirety of the campaign takes place in Denerim, but while the setting is recycled, the story is fully voiced and there are even a few new cut scenes. The presentation is also more brash with Tarantino-like character introductions and some neat action sequences. Gameplay-wise there isn’t much new here, but the story more than makes up for it. After a break-in goes awry, Leliana realizes that she may be on the hook for more than simple bourgeoisie intrigue. Betrayed by Marjolaine, she embarks on a quest to make things right. There’s great character development here for Leliana as we see the pieces move into place for her to become the person she is at the start of the main game. Unfortunately, being that this is a prequel the player is not given as much freedom to affect the direction of the story as they would in the other Bioware campaigns. In addition, given the short 1-2 hour runtime of the campaign, certain emotional beats feel unearned due to rushed development of certain side characters. But on the whole the campaign is decent and worth checking out.

The Golems of Amgarrak

Despite my dislike for the Orzammar sections in the base game, I do enjoy the lore surrounding the dwarves of Dragon Age. The idea of an enormous underground civilization all but lost to the Darkspawn is endlessly fascinating and so I was looking forward to The Golems of Amgarrak. In this campaign my player character from Origins, the Warden, is called down to investigate a lost expedition in the dwarven thaig of Amgarrak. Amgarrak apparently contained old research on golems which would be a valuable find for any explorer, but something powerful protects its secrets. The story is well told through dialog as well as voiced journal entries. As I explored the thaig the sinister truth of Amgarrak began to reveal itself, resulting in a satisfying climax. There are a few puzzles here and there that are better designed than one would expect and the combat was challenging enough to encourage more strategic play. Instead of the usual companions, I was accompanied by two dwarven brothers, one of which was able to summon a helpful bronto, and a golem that plays not unlike Shale. Despite not being able to pick my party members, the group provided was well rounded and I was able to get through the combat with little frustration. One annoying thing to note was that my Blood Dragon armor from the base game did not carry over and I was forced to start the campaign naked. Luckily I had some extra armor lying in my inventory, but this bug could definitely screw over players who like to travel with their backpacks empty. Overall, The Golems of Amgarrak is a decent piece of standalone content that highlights some of the best parts of Dragon Age’s gameplay.

Witch Hunt

Witch Hunt is an approximately 2 hour long module that has Origins’ player character on the trail of the elusive Morrigan, who at the end of the base game had absconded with her and Alistair’s archdemon ensouled child. The story had me traveling to various parts of Ferelden, including the Circle Tower and the Deep Roads, in order to determine the location of an eluvian, an ancient elven artifact. Eluvians look like mirrors but can act as teleportation devices and it becomes clear that Morrigan is seeking one for some unknown purpose. Since eluvians become important plot points in both Dragon Age II and Inquisition it was pretty neat to see them included here, which speaks to the larger theme of looking toward the future of the Dragon Age franchise. In fact, this DLC is almost exclusively concerned with teasing the future such that the story becomes secondary. The new companions that travelled with me in my search were thoroughly forgettable, with only the returning Mabari hound companion doing anything remotely interesting. In addition to the bland story it appears that Bioware yet again phoned-in the level design, as there are plenty of recycled environments with only Morrigan’s final meeting occurring in a new area. That final meeting turned out to be something of a disappointment as well. With the campaign entirely focused on finding Morrigan and getting answers for her actions, it’s a shame that the conversation with her lands with a dull thud. All of her answers to my questions were met with vague allusions and very little substance, likely owing to the fact that Bioware was still hammering down the details of future stories at the time of the DLC’s development. Of course with the release of later games we’ve seen how the story of Morrigan and Flemeth played out, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Witch Hunt is light on new answers. But while this campaign is not that great overall, it still is a decent coda to Dragon Age: Origins and worth checking out if you’re craving a small bite of some CRPG content.

Who’s up for some Darkspawn murdering? I know I am, as my yearly itch to replay a Bioware game starts to surface. Whereas in previous years I’ve gone through the Mass Effect trilogy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the oft-forgotten Jade Empire, this time around I’ve decided to wade into the seemingly infinite ocean that is Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition. This is my first time playing the game on PC (previous playthroughs being on the Xbox 360) and it will also be the first time that I’ve experienced most of the DLC, of which there are a lot. Before it was put out to pasture, Origins had 8 separate major content packs released for it. The sizes of these packs vary, with some taking only an hour or two to complete and the largest being a 20+ hour long campaign. Add that to the already sizable main game and I’ve realized too late that I’ve bitten off far too much. To justify my endless hours playing the game, I’ve decided to do mini-reviews of each piece of content. This will be the first of two entries, where I will look at the base game and DLC related to that campaign. The standalone campaigns will be discussed in the next write-up. So with a deep breath, here I go.

Dragon Age: Origins

The base campaign for Dragon Age: Origins is a successful modern take on the CRPG campaigns of old. Per the “Origins” in the title, a good portion of the early game is spent establishing the main character and their place in Ferelden, the nation that the game takes place in. Of the six possible origin stories, I chose to play as a female human noble, mainly because I was aiming for the regency of Ferelden by the game’s end. Unfortunately this precluded me from picking my favorite class, the mage, and I settled on being a warrior. Unlike the other origins, the human noble one becomes intertwined with the main quest right from the outset. As a scion of house Cousland living in Ferelden’s capital, I was inundated with references to Ferelden’s King, the supposed threat of a new Darkspawn uprising, and the treachery of Arl Howe, who betrayed and murdered my family. This left me with no choice but to join the visiting Duncan, a Grey Warden, who conscripted me into his order. Not to get too much into the lore of Dragon Age, but Grey Wardens are basically special warriors that fight Darkspawn, which are corrupted beings that threaten to overwhelm the world through campaigns known as “Blights”. Duncan believed that a new Blight was forthcoming and he, along with King Cailan, set out to the keep at Ostagar to head off this threat before it becomes too great. It was there that I officially became a Grey Warden, but then suffered something of a setback. During the battle Teryn Loghain, Cailan’s second, betrayed the King by withdrawing his forces at a crucial moment. The remaining force was obliterated and I along with another Warden, Alistair, were forced to marshal another army to end the blight and bring Loghain the justice. From there begins a long and well written quest.

The gameplay is an intriguing mix of old and new. While Bioware was blazing a new trail with Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins was designed to be a modern throwback to the 90’s CRPG paradigm. Combat is akin to Baldur’s Gate, with the party essentially fighting autonomously in pseudo-real time unless given commands by the player. Hitting the space bar at any time pauses combat, which allows for sober strategic thought as I considered which spell or ability would be the most appropriate for a given situation. There are a few features here that make the experience player friendly, including refreshed health and mana/stamina outside of combat and checkpoint saves. Dialog is similar to Knights of the Old Republic, with fully voiced lines from NPCs that the player will wordlessly respond to. While this decision makes sense given that the main character can be from a variety of origins, it still comes off as awkward and has not aged all that well. Still, the quality of writing and the fully realized characters you interact with more than makes up for this small shortcoming.

The world of Dragon Age is incredibly well realized and it’s clear a lot of thought went into its creation. While there are clear parallels with European history (i.e. the Tevinter Imperium being an ersatz Rome/Byzantium, Andraste being a Christ-like figure, etc.), the developers have also included some interesting twists from the typical fantasy canon. Elves here are essentially slaves and lower class due to their ancient kingdom being conquered by humans, and dwarves are isolationists due to their underground empire being overrun by Darkspawn many centuries ago. While Dragon Age is overall not all that distinct from the Tolkien inspired fantasy canon there are still plenty of interesting things within its setting to set it apart from other entries in the genre. Admittedly the more interesting aspect of this world are really brought to the fore in Dragon Age II and Inquisition, but the foundation is laid here for bigger and better things.

The bulk of the game involved me shlepping my party all around Ferelden and completing quests to curry the favor of the human, elven, mage, and dwarven factions in order to defend against the Darkspawn. There are smaller side quests not directly tied to these goals, but for the most part my time was focused on the various branches related to the main quest line. These quests are very well paced, with such high points as entering the magical Fade realm to exorcise a demon and brokering a complex political situation to restore the throne of Ferelden. However, there are times that the campaign drags, including an interminably long stretch in the dwarven Deep Roads where I was forced to fight Darkspawn in a drab and repetitive setting. Still, the story as a whole holds together throughout its nearly 40 hour runtime with little filler added. Even when the main campaign lulled, the writing of the NPCs and the banter between party members managed to keep my interest.

The endgame is one of the strongest that Bioware has ever put out. The amount of possible choices available is liberating and there is no prodding by the game to go down a specific path. Will I support Alistair's claim for the throne, keep Loghain in charge, or seize the throne myself? Will I have Morrigan carry a child that will absorb the Blight leader’s soul? The amount of world shaping truly made me feel like the story was my own, although the cursory lip service paid to my choices in the sequels shows the downside to this approach. However, as a standalone game the story is excellent and shows Bioware at its peak as an RPG maker.

Dragon Age: Origins’ base game still holds up six years after release. The game certainly can look and play a bit dated at times, especially when comparing it to modern CRPGs like Divinity: Original Sin, but the solid writing and excellent world building make the experience compelling throughout. One can make the argument that Origins focuses too much on homage and not enough on pushing the genre forward, but sometimes it’s a good thing for a game to double down on what it does best. Even without the additional content that make up the Ultimate Edition, I would still recommend the game to those looking for a well-crafted, substantive RPG adventure.

The Stone Prisoner

In what has now become a trend in Bioware games, certain characters are only offered as DLC. What began as a day one freebie in Mass Effect 2 has evolved into a frankly sleazy tactic to get players to pay more to fully experience the game (see Javik in Mass Effect 3). So it is with The Stone Prisoner, which introduces the free-willed golem Shale to the party. After coming across a merchant who gifts the Warden with a golem control rod, I journeyed to the village of Honnleath where my soon-to-be party member stood frozen in the town’s center. Jumping through a few hoops I eventually reanimated Shale, but soon realized that such a bruiser would not fit all that well with my active party. So outside of speaking to Shale at the party camp, I sadly saw little of the plucky rock monster. Shale’s personality seems to be one of indifference to the party’s goals and she has a bloodlust not unlike the unforgettable HK-47. Overall she’s not a bad character, but in the pantheon of premium DLC party members she’s about as memorable as Zaeed Messani, who most people can’t even remember all that well.

Her character specific quest involved an expedition down into the Deep Roads to uncover her dwarven past. Unfortunately there isn’t much to the quest aside from finding a few trinkets and monotonously killing Darkspawn, something I got my fill of during the main quest. Despite this I think Shale is a decent addition and her DLC is worth looking into, especially if your main character is a mage or rogue.

Warden’s Keep

In this relatively brief quest I was tasked with reclaiming the old Grey Warden fortress tucked away in snowy Soldier’s Peak. The story presented is surprisingly compelling given its length. The Warden is able to see ghostly visions of the previous tenants in a desperate last stand against an invading army and follows their final moments in the keep. There isn’t much player agency involved, as I simply needed to clear the fortress of demons and then determined the fate of the mage that doomed his fellow Grey Wardens to die. Still, the end of the quest provided a fantastic armor set, a new merchant, and above all, a chest to store excess items. For the chest alone I recommend that all players do this quest as early as possible, but the story and gear makes this DLC worth a playthrough regardless.

Return to Ostagar

This quest is the definition of filler and I can’t believe Bioware had the nerve to charge for it. Return to Ostagar, as the name would suggest, had me venturing back to the site of the disastrous battle that kicked off the events of the main game. The Warden is tasked with searching the battlefield for anything of value and also to recover some of the slain King Cailan’s secret correspondence. Though there are bits and pieces of lore scattered about and the reveal of Cailan’s defiled body is pretty neat, it’s outweighed by the repurposed old content that just felt like padding. The end of the quest has some good gear, including Cailan’s armor set and Duncan’s weapons, but it can’t save this DLC. Recommend a hard skip on this phoned-in content.

Rocksteady’s Batman series has been an almost perfect representation of modern AAA development. The first game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, was a big budget gamble with innovative mechanics that achieved enormous marketplace success. The second game, Batman: Arkham City, expanded the scope with an open world and achieved even greater success. We then got the “off-year” spin off game, Batman: Arkham Origins, made by a different developer and felt like a phoned-in effort. And finally, Rocksteady returns to complete their “Arkham trilogy” with Batman: Arkham Knight. With the jump in console horsepower this time around I can imagine pressure was high to deliver a bigger and better sequel to send off the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, it is this drive for bigger and better that ultimately sinks Arkham Knight.

Before I dig into the latest game, I’d like to explain what appeals to me about the series. I still hold Arkham Asylum as the franchise’s best simply for its focus.The game takes place in the relatively constrained confines of Arkham Asylum, the madhouse where Batman deposits his super-villain quarry. Whether this was simply due to the limited resources that Rocksteady had at the time or otherwise, this decision allows for the narrative to take center stage. The opening sequence as Batman escorts the Joker to be locked up in the bowels of the Asylum is memorable because it gives the player a preview of what was to come, with glimpses of villains like Killer Croc. It evokes the original Half-Life’s introduction but uses the homage effectively to convey where we are in the story. Batman is established by his rapport with Commissioner Gordon and he has already tangled with the inmates of the facility. The Joker in particular is presented effectively, with no one feeling particularly at ease even with the villain completely strapped down and our hero nearby. When things go inevitably sideways and the inmates gain control of the facility it feels earned and gives the player plenty of motivation to get the house back in order. The rest of the game more or less maintains this quality of writing and scripting to make each major antagonist feel distinct yet thematically linked. While not perfect, especially with respect to the overly sexualized female villains and uninspired ending, Arkham Asylum managed to nail what it felt like to both be Batman and inhabit his universe. The gameplay also held up with an oft imitated fighting system as well as stealth that made the player feel like a true predator in the night. Rocksteady even managed to integrate Batman’s gadgets into the mix by building the world into one of the best 3D metroidvanias ever made.

Arkham Knight ostensibly has many of the trappings that made the first game so great. The fighting system is as sharp as ever, the stealth sequences are well paced, and the story is top notch. I was surprised by the quality of the narrative, especially after the events of Arkham City leaving the Joker dead. In my opinion there has always been a wide gulf in appeal between the clown and the rest of Batman’s rogues gallery. I fully expected to be let down by Scarecrow and the newly introduced Arkham Knight, but Rocksteady made an inspired choice bringing back the Joker as an ongoing hallucination in the Caped Crusader’s mind. At first this feels like pandering akin to Arkham Origins’ late reveal of the Joker, but here it feels more nuanced. The Joker now feels like less a threat and more akin to a Greek chorus, echoing both my thoughts as well as exposing the doubts and fears behind the stoic cowl. Indeed, the Joker acts as a conduit for one of the more intimate looks into what drives Bruce Wayne to do what he does. The threat Scarecrow poses is almost secondary to the internal struggle our hero faces, and the focus on the “Bat Family” of Robin and Oracle (among others) makes it all the more personal. It really is compelling stuff that drove me to see it through to the end. Unfortunately, that was about the only thing keeping me going.

I’m not yet of the opinion that open worlds in general are bad for games, but I do feel that the shoehorning of open worlds into certain games is harming AAA development. Batman: Arkham Asylum is no exception to this trend and feels unfocused as a result. There is plenty of stuff to do in the game and characters will often nudge you off the main story to pursue secondary criminals that are terrorizing Gotham. But most of these criminals have already been seen in Asylum, City, and Origins and capturing them yet again feels pointless. I was particularly put off by the latest set of Riddler challenges, which are less mind teasers and more obstacle courses for the newly introduced Batmobile. Oh yes, the Batmobile, the most visible aspect of Arkham Knight’s bigger and better philosophy. The burly vehicle has been incorporated into most aspects of the game but rarely impresses. The game is chock full of interminable sequences where the Batmobile must go into the lame “tank-mode” and have pointless shooter battles with enemy tanks. These sequences all tend to go on far too long and feel completely out of sync with the version of Batman seen in the Arkham series. Sure, the game tells you that the tanks you’re blowing up are unmanned, but it just feels like a weird logical contortion to justify Batman’s new militarized toy. I’m usually ok with stretching the narrative to accommodate gameplay but that gameplay has to be good. The Batmobile does not improve a single aspect to how the Arkham series plays. Traversal is still better with the grappling gun and I’d much rather punch enemies than shoot them.

The one thing I will have to thank Arkham Knight for is finally breaking me of my completionist streak in open world games. After trying a few side missions and disliking them I simply mainlined the story. For the most part this helped me enjoy the game’s story a fair bit more as I was able to proceed with an urgency that the narrative demanded. There were a few gameplay sequences that felt like I was “underleveled”, particularly those previously mentioned tank battles, but a bump down to Easy difficulty took care of that. Annoyingly, the game’s “true” ending would only trigger on 100% completion, but a quick search on YouTube allowed me to enjoy the coda without any additional slogging.

Batman: Arkham Knight is not a bad game, merely an overstuffed one. There are great ideas at work here that is overshadowed by our ever greater demands for more content. Rocksteady has indicated that this will be their last Batman game and I hope that whatever they do next allows them to hit the reset button on constantly raising the stakes. It’s clear that they have a talented team that is exceptionally good at presenting a story within an interactive medium, and it would be a shame to see that work overshadowed yet again by another large scale project. The enjoyment one will get out of Arkham Knight is inversely proportional to how tired one is of the series. If you’re crazy like me and played through Origins, consider this safe to skip. The cowl’s been hung up, and like an aging Bruce Wayne, it does so while not quite getting the point of it all.

Another spring arrives and with it the return of baseball. As sure as the seasons, we are greeted with yet another edition of MLB The Show. While little has changed in this year’s edition since I last played the series in 2014, I feel pretty good about paying full price for it. I can imagine a lot of readers remain perplexed by the enduring popularity of sports games, as each new version offers little more than graphical and roster updates. Judging sports titles by traditional video game standards shows a clear deficiency in new content, but sports games provide something that few other games can offer; the fantasy of professional sports.

As I write this on the eve of baseball’s 2016 season, there is a buzz I am feeling. This buzz is familiar to most baseball fans. It’s the feeling of infinite possibility. Your team, and all other teams, still has a shot at winning the World Series. Everyone is at 0 Wins and 0 Losses, and whether you’re a defending World Series champion or a ramshackle roster not expected to do much, you still have the opportunity to finish the season 162-0. Of course, there’s logic and statistics and projections saying otherwise, but now is the time to dream. MLB The Show arrives at the perfect time to capture this buzz. Who knows how well my beloved Blue Jays will do between now and October? But in The Show Jose Bautista has already set the single month home run record, besting Sammy Sosa’s 20 shots by 6 additional long balls.

I learned at a fairly young age that I wasn’t cut out for baseball, but the dream of making it stuck with me. Through the years I’ve indulged this fantasy with video games, initially through R.B.I. Baseball on the NES through the modern iterations of The Show. Each jump in console horsepower brought with it an even more refined representation of the same game, and the details began to take center stage. The first time I saw Ken Griffey Jr.’s textbook swing captured on my humble SNES left me in awe. To this day I am consistently impressed with the fidelity of experience. Stepping up to the plate in an almost pixel perfect representation of Wrigley Field still takes my breath away and manages to make the fantasy feel all the more real.

In addition to graphical fidelity, MLB The Show indulges the baseball fantasy in a variety of ways. I can manage my team to a storybook season, trade to build the greatest roster ever to dominate the league, or even take a single player from minor league obscurity to the bright lights of the majors. Of course, supporting all this is an incredibly detailed baseball simulation that allows the player to get as deep into the sport as they wish. While I occasionally enjoy playing an exhibition to test my skills and baseball IQ, the fantasy is what keeps drawing me back.

So as I sit here, watching the last bits of Spring Training and refreshing Twitter for the latest rumors and speculation, I’ll keep taking at bats in MLB The Show. Like my MLB TV subscription, game tickets, and a fresh shirsey, The Show is another piece to fuel my obsession with my favorite sport. I’m sure by this time next week I’ll be in the throes of panic and agony as I live and die with my team, but for now I’ll enjoy the calm and keep on racking up the virtual home runs.

This is the latest in a series of retrospective write-ups where I relate my experience playing through the campaigns of the Halo series all over again, this time in the remastered form of the Master Chief Collection. You can find previous posts in The Great Journey here:

1. Halo: Combat Evolved

2. Halo 2

3. Halo 3

4. Halo 3: ODST

Welcome back, dear readers, to the return of The Great Journey! It’s been a little while since the previous entry in the series but rest assured that I intend on continuing my retrospective through the hallmark shooter franchise. This time I will be taking a step away from The Master Chief Collection in order to look at a different yet vital part of Halo’s lore. Halo: Reach is distinctive in a variety of ways, both big and small. Of course, this was Bungie’s final Halo game before handing off the reigns to 343 Industries, but there’s more to it than just that. The game’s plot is an adaptation to the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach, and so finally expands the narrative of the games to take advantage of one of gaming’s better extended universes. It also makes it known from the very start that this game will end in tragedy, and so the triumphant tone of previous games is not seen anywhere here. This is a somber, almost funereal tale that makes some bold changes to Halo while still honoring the series’ past.

The game starts in an unorthodox manner, asking you to design your player avatar. It’s not quite at a Bethesda level of character customization, but you get to select your character’s armor design, call sign, and gender, among other things. In addition to the campaign, this character stays with you through all of Halo: Reach’s modes, including multiplayer and Firefight. It’s a great design decision that enables a strong bond between player and avatar. In practice this character doesn’t work all that differently than playing as the Master Chief, but with the Chief you are dealing with an iconic figure that the player is always slightly distanced from. Here it’s less “the Chief is fighting the Covenant” and more “I’m fighting the Covenant”. This is one of the recurring motifs of Halo: Reach, and the campaign manages to use it effectively in telling its story.

After finalizing the design of the player character, referred to as Noble 6, you meet up with Noble Team as they are stationed on the planet Reach. The team is comprised of five other Spartans; the leader Carter, the tech expert Kat, the gunner Jorge, the sniper Jun, and the skull faced Emile. Each character isn’t necessarily given a whole lot of characterization due to the fast paced nature of the campaign, but there’s bits here and there that help to endear them. Carter and Kat exude a familiarity with each other and banter while also displaying great aptitude in managing a deteriorating situation. Jorge is the standout, showing a warmth and empathy that one would not expect coming from a hardened Spartan soldier. Jun and Emile are a bit less fleshed out, but their rapport with the rest of Noble team helps to humanize them. This emphasis on character interaction tends to be the focus of the early campaign, with Noble team investigating a disturbance in a civilian sector.

The first mission ominously starts off as you search for the source of the radio silence. Noble encounters a family at their farm, who mention that their son was killed recently in what they believe to be an animal attack. This conversation sets a new tone in the lore of Halo, as it becomes quickly apparent how little this family trusts the Spartans, and by extension, the UNSC. Up until this point the games have not directly addressed the civilian’s perspective of the Covenant war, and the player would be forgiven to think of the UNSC as a benevolent and heroic fighting force looking after humanity’s best interest. But it’s in this small interaction that this optimistic facade starts to crumble. We begin to account for the possibility that while we are fighting to defend humanity from the Covenant, we may also be fighting for a system that does not have every citizen’s best interest in mind. I may be making a bigger deal about this moment than the designers intended, but I do love the fact that Bungie took the time to show what life is like for those not carrying a gun.

After leaving the farm, Noble team quickly realizes that the communications shutdown wasn’t human sabotage, as originally suspected, but of course the first wave of a full scale Covenant invasion. The initial reveal isn’t exactly a major moment, as you simply engage some Jackals and Grunts in a courtyard, but the conflict builds steadily and soon you’re engaging with Elites and Drones. Eventually, you are left to defend a bunker as Kat tries to get the door closed. Waves after waves of Covenant arrive as you desperately try to hold them off until finally the door get shut just as the crowd gets too big to manage. After a brief moment of respite, Noble encounters one of the most interesting cutscenes in the Halo franchise. We see a scientist murdered and his daughter nearby in shock. Jorge attempts to communicate with her just as the team is attacked by a group of high ranking Elites. The ensuing scuffle is fast paced and well choreographed, but what sets it apart is that it is almost entirely seen from the player character’s point of view. I really can’t do justice to this scene in words, but you can see how it plays out here. It was a small change in how Halo presents its story but it was quite effective in selling the scene. I feel that this moment helps set the tone for the remainder of the game, with a confident design team knowing exactly what buttons to push to get Halo fans to take notice.

In addition to being a great set piece, that cutscene also gives the game an opportunity to bring the player up close and personal with the new Elite designs. The enemies in Halo: Reach have all been redesigned to look more menacing and alien than ever before. Jackals seem bigger, with more pronounced plumage on their heads, Grunts have bulkier and more visible suits to adapt them to the human atmosphere, but it is the Elite design that steals the show. Elites are bulkier looking this time around, and seem to take on a less humanoid posture. They look more formidable than in previous games, and there appears to be greater differentiation in Elite ranks. The zealot class in particular is quite scary looking and it feels like an accomplishment when you bring one them down. It makes sense why Bungie would opt to include more distinctive Covenant designs as the story necessitates that there will be no other factions for Noble to fight. To that end Bungie also included enemy types, such as Brutes, Drones, and Engineers, that wouldn’t be seen until well after Halo: Combat Evolved. It feels a bit like a plot hole, but I understand why the decision was made to help sell the overwhelming odds that humanity now faces.

With the threat of the Covenant revealed, Noble team is deployed to an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) base in order to deny the enemy valuable intel. It is here that the game first introduces Dr. Catherine Halsey, the mastermind behind the Spartan program and major figure in the extended universe. The way the Spartans react to her is telling, with most of them weary, except Jorge, the oldest of the team and part of the same SPARTAN-II class as the Master Chief. I found it strangely touching that he refers to her as “mom”, although were one to read about the methods used in the SPARTAN-II program, this endearment comes off as quite disturbing. In any case, Halsey reveals that the Covenant are searching for an important Forerunner artifact on Reach, which gives justification as to why they have not chosen to simply wipe out the planet. This plot point will come up later but first Noble team is dispatched to assist the UNSC in a counterattack against the Covenant.

The various operations that follow are filled with excellent set pieces that really show off the coolest parts of the world of Halo. The initial charge of dozens of Warthogs to repel the Covenant invaders is reminiscent of Halo Wars’ large scale battles. The Nightfall mission involves thinning the Covenant herd with a sniper rifle that recalls Halo: Combat Evolved’s famed Truth and Reconciliation level. In addition to paying homage to the franchise’s history, Halo: Reach manages some new tricks. One memorable mission has Noble 6 piloting a Sabre fighter plane in orbit as they attempt to board and sabotage a Covenant capital ship. This is the first time that spaceship combat has occurred in the series, and the change of pace is really well done. The combat takes advantage of the 6 axes of movement and throws enemy craft at the player from all directions. This level is quite possibly the biggest risk that the game takes and it pays off wonderfully, never feeling like a gimmick from start to finish. As that mission ends, Noble boards the Covenant ship and there is an extended section of low gravity combat, something not seen since Halo 2. However, as this mission wraps up we begin to see a turning point in the narrative. What at first seemed like an effective operation by humanity proves disastrous, as Jorge is forced to sacrifice himself in order to destroy the ship. What deepens this tragedy is that it immediately becomes irrelevant, as many more Covenant ships appear over Reach’s skies. Unfortunately for Noble team, this becomes a recurring motif.

The last third of the campaign focuses on Noble’s desperate attempts to save as much of Reach’s populace as it can, with the dawning realization that the battle has been lost. The story takes on an urgent tone with no member of Noble safe from harm. After Kat is ignominiously shot in the head by an enemy sniper, the team is recalled back to the ONI base to destroy it and hide humanity’s secrets from the enemy. However, once they reach the base the story’s final twist is revealed. Dr. Halsey explains that Noble’s mission is not to destroy the base, but to ensure that a valuable piece of Forerunner and human technology safely makes it off planet. This item turns out to be Cortana, the Chief’s faithful AI companion. Noble is tasked with getting her to the Pillar of Autumn, the very ship that discovers the first Halo. Noble team, except for Jun who is tasked with getting Halsey off planet, then makes a final run to the shipyard containing their target ship, and both Carter and Emile sacrifice themselves to ensure that Noble 6 can complete this vital mission.

Upon successfully delivering Cortana to the Autumn’s captain, Jacob Keyes, Noble 6 is left alone with no escape on a planet filled with Covenant. The player is given one final directive: Survive. This mission has no aim, and while you can kill as many Covenant as you like, the game will not stop until Noble 6 dies. It’s a very dour note to end the campaign on, but it works to hammer home the theme of sacrifice one final time. As my Noble 6 fell under the overwhelming force of the Covenant, I felt a distinct sadness that very few games can evoke in me. My Spartan, dead and alone on a destroyed planet. There’s a beautiful futility in that.

When I first started writing this post, I thought I would spend some time focusing on the new mechanics and gameplay tweaks that Halo: Reach had to offer. Indeed, the rebalanced arsenal, the new Spartan abilities, and the improved squad combat all make for a better playing Halo, but all of that is overshadowed by the excellent narrative that Bungie had constructed. The use of a customized Spartan this time around helps to make the tragic tale become personal, and the final, lonely stand the player must make ended the game perfectly. Halo: Reach’s campaign is easily my favorite of the ones that I’ve played so far in this retrospective. It not only sets a high bar for 343 Industries to measure up to, but also sets a standard for shooter campaigns in general. There are those that say that first person shooters are inherently mindless with no emotional or narrative value, but this game stands as a firm rebuke to that line of thinking. Halo: Reach demonstrates what an experienced and talented team can deliver when they truly understand their source material, and I hope Bungie can return to this level of narrative greatness someday soon.

For most of my life I have been a staunch console owner, gaming almost exclusively in front of TVs over the years. But with the latest generation of systems I began to feel the itch to cross over to the uncharted waters that is PC gaming. I had heard for years now about how PCs have finally matched consoles in terms of ease of use and how the gulf in performance has never been wider. And so, after months of hand wringing and planning I took the plunge. Today I’d like to share some thoughts on my experience one year in as a PC owner.

Building and maintaining a PC is easier (and harder) than expected

As I started to plan my build, I was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of resources available to get me up to speed. There is a veritable army of helpful users on sites like Reddit, Tom’s Hardware, and ever here at Giant Bomb that will politely answer even the most basic inquiries. I’ll give a shout out to r/buildapc and Logical Increments for being particularly helpful in determining what I needed. I found that the most effective way to get the build I wanted was to first envision the use case for the PC and to work backwards from there. Do you want a cutting edge rig that can handle VR and 4K or do you simply need the bare minimum to play DotA and Counter-Strike? Most users will land somewhere in the middle. I’m not going to delve into technical details, but the build that I went with can consistently do 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second on high to ultra settings for most modern games.

The build process went fairly smooth and only took me about two hours to assemble the unit. Unfortunately, no matter how effortless the internet had convinced me the process would be, I ran into a snag on bootup. For some reason my video card would not play nice with the monitor I had purchased. It was at this point I fell into a panic, as despite my Googling I could not find anyone else who had run up against the same issue. Dejected, I posted my situation on a few websites, hoping to get the same level of support I had received prior to my purchase. After several days I had received zero responses and began to feel betrayed by the community that had previously told me how “easy” getting into PC gaming would be. I posted again, and after a few more fruitless days one good Samaritan finally responded. This user walked me through the troubleshooting steps of re-checking my build, and we finally determined that the video card BIOS needed to be flashed. This is a risky process that could have bricked my video card and I was advised to have it done by a professional. And so I lugged my new PC to a computer repair shop, something I hadn’t ever considered doing since the 90s. After a few hours and an additional $90 spent, the PC was up and running.

To be fair, that was really the only major snag I’ve run into with my PC in the past year. There have been a few other minor things, such as PS3 and PS4 controllers not playing nicely with my Bluetooth drivers and the power button LED light slowly dying, but they haven’t really affected my enjoyment of the rig. I suppose the takeaway from all this is that while building a PC has never been easier, things can still go wrong. It’s not bad enough that I’d recommend sticking to consoles, but it’s not all the sunshine and rainbows that PC owners like to say it is.

Graphics are ok, but framerate is where it’s at

You often hear about how the PC versions of games look better than their console counterparts, but honestly in my experience the difference in visuals was minimal. We are increasingly in an era of diminishing returns on visual improvements and the console versions of most games look just fine. However, where I did see a big improvement with the PC is the ability to lock in a 60 fps (or higher) framerate. Games genuinely feel and play better with these smooth framerates and it does feel like a downgrade whenever I’m back to 30 fps on consoles. While certain genres, like shooters or racing games, are better served by higher framerates, it definitely makes the experience better regardless of game type. It’s encouraging to see more console releases (like Halo 5) prioritize framerate over resolution and I hope that the trend continues. Consider me a full convert to the Church of FPS.

Windows isn’t half bad

After over a decade of being a Mac OS X user, I was not enthused about coming back to Windows. My experience with Microsoft operating systems at that point had only been Windows on my work computer. I fully admit that Windows has been a perfectly capable OS through its many iterations, but it’s never been great. Compared to the sexy and intuitive design of OS X, Windows XP (and Vista) simply felt clunky. A year of using Windows 8.1 and 10 has dramatically changed my mind. Microsoft seems to have fully embraced user experience in recent years and it shows with their latest products. I really have come to love using Windows 10 and it has not made me miss my old Mac one bit.

Games are cheap, but that’s not special anymore

One of the biggest refrains from the PC crowd when advocating their platform is how much cheaper it is to buy games through Steam, GoG, and a myriad of other sites. While this may have been true in previous years, consoles seem to have caught up in this regard. PSN and Xbox Live, along with retailers, are now constantly discounting games and as such I wasn’t overly excited with the sales offered on PC. Overall this is good for consumers of all stripes, but console owners beware, you aren’t going to save much money by jumping ship to PC.

PC is still king of indies

It’s no secret that the primary platform for independent game development remains the PC. Sure, the console makers are actively pushing indie games on their marketplaces, but if you want to be on the bleeding edge of game development, places like Steam are where you need to be. Even if you’re not the biggest fan of indie games there will still be occasional gems that stand out. I myself don’t usually wade into the indie space until there’s a certain amount of buzz around a title, but every now and again a game comes out of nowhere and gets me hooked.

Final Thoughts

A year later, I can confirm that the PC is a fantastic platform and likely the future of gaming. Does it completely outclass consoles? I don’t think so. My PS4 and Xbox One both get plenty of usage whether I’m playing exclusives, PS+/GwG games, or simply titles that were cheaper than Steam that week. If you’re a console player thinking about making the jump, just know that while PC gaming can be “better”, your current system can still do about 90% of what a beefy rig is capable of. Whether that extra 10% is worth the price of an upgrade is up to you.