After a magnificent launch trailer, I do believe Thief is poised to be one of the first great achievements in the next-generation of gaming. Though AC4:Black Flag has already introduced us to some stealth gameplay on the XbOne and PS4, Square Enix's latest is a full fledged first person stealth fest. As a big fan of staying quiet and pulling off clean heists, the smooth stealth of Thief looks like a whole lot of fun.
Don't think you'll be moving in the quiet of the night the entire time, however. We see here that Theif aims to deliver on the loud just as much as they look to focus on the quiet. Hopefully a good balance will be struck between the two; as enticing as stealthily stealing prized possessions sounds, sometimes you just want to make something go boom.
The question here will be whether or not the next-gen port will be worth buying over the 360 and PS3 versions. We're in a very interesting time when one game is coming out for every system, but we expect the next generation to be vastly different than its younger siblings. By different, there seems to be a general thought that the visuals and overall performance of the game will be much better on the XbOne and PS4. Even further, there's the potential opportunity to add extra game content with the improved hardware, a potential that not all developers are opting to go for. And to a degree, the consumer is correct: if the game is basically the same on both systems, then why get the new one?
I'm not sure that gamers are seeing the mind blowing "difference" that they are expecting, but as developers get more time with these new systems, we'll be seeing more impressive products. Plus they do obviously look better, but I sense that people want more. When don't they?
Will Thief be the start of this upwards trend? Will trailer translate to game? I hope so, for someone's sake.
Thief Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PC Release: Feb 25, 2014 Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Eidos Montreal
I've never really payed much attention to games that go to Kickstarter in order to fund their products, but perhaps I should start. Darkest Dungeon is aiming to be the next great indie RPG, and they've already surpassed their fundraising goal, so they are well on their way.
This isn't your typical RPG, where all of the heroes are infallible pillars of light that dive head first into whatever danger they encounter. You have to look after your party's mental well-being as well as keeping tabs on their physical health. Every action has an equal reaction, and it will effect how you go about playing the game... they call this the "Affliction System". Each dungeon will push the characters to their limit, and there's no telling what they'll do...
I think the people at Red Hook are really on to something here, I can't recall an RPG where it truly takes into account the kind of stress that these heroes are under as they partake in this adventure. It's a dark, less glamorous look than the typical RPG, but I think that will garner an audience of its own. For more details on the game itself, you can visit the game website. Crowdsourcing for the win!
In a world that is bogged down by sequels, reboots, and remakes, it's nice to see an original story surface that looks worthy of checking out. Murdered: Soul Suspect is riding that line right now. While the premise of a cop killed in action searching for his killer in the afterlife has the potential for success, I have some questions: If that witness is the only one who can see him, how could he possible apprehend a killer? Is that girl supposed to be his liaison from the dead?
And that makes me want to play to find out, not the other way around. Square Enix has a reputation of either making the best or the strangest story you'll play until the next title they release. But if features include "using your ghostly powers to solve cases" and "combat against demonic creatures", count me in. Mostly because I want to see how in the world that's going to work.
Murdered: Soul Suspect Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3, PC Release: June 2014 Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Airtight Games
What Makes a Good Man: Wei Shen and the undercover cop drama
Launch Trailer
"That was very exciting... I like exciting."
Sleeping Dogs from Square Enix is the first game on the bucket to be crossed off. Despite selling more than 1.5 million copies and the announcement that the game had reached profitability, a feat that seems to be a bigger deal with original story titles these days, it feels as if this revival of True Crime: Hong Kong has flown mostly under the radar. However, these numbers were well short of Square's somewhat lofty expectations of moving 2 - 2.5 million copies.
Before I say anything else - I really enjoyed Sleeping Dogs. It was exactly as that quote above states: exciting. There was no shortage of brutal beat downs, simple gunplay, and high speed firefights. The launch trailer (above) actually paints a solid picture of the action and internal struggle you would be encountering as undercover cop Wei Shen.
Story Trailer
You're a very dangerous man, Wei Shen
Upon arriving back in Hong Kong from an extended stay in the United States, Wei Shen gets an opportunity to become muscle for the city's most notorious Triad, the Sun On Yee. But in this case, you aren't some random nobody that appears at their doorstep looking for thug work. Wei Shen has roots in Hong Kong and the Sun On Yee, and they run deep. He grew up with a current member who ends up being his initial in with the bad guys. His sister got mixed up with some of the same gangsters, ultimately leading to her drug abuse and demise. Wei has some serious stakes in this fight, and those motivations both push and haunt him at the same time.
Wei moves his way up the Sun On Yee very quickly without much resistance. There were a couple of tense moments in the first quarter of the game when he was being vetted, but it was too early in the story to worry about the protagonist being killed. The story up until the last couple missions felt predictable, a lot of time you could see the disaster that you were being set up for during some of the bigger story missions.
That said, the ending of Sleeping Dogs had a couple of very good surprise twists that saved the story and made the ending more enjoyable. Sometimes I will discuss spoilers in these posts, but the turn the ending took had me in enough shock that it's something I don't want to ruin for anyone looking to reach back into the 360 vault for a solid original story.
Sleeping Dogs 101 Trailer
Sleeping Dogs included a crisp combat system, shooting mechanics that weren't too difficult to master, and a massive open world littered with collectables. Hand to hand combat was easily the most enjoyable part of the gameplay, and the story missions allowed you to pick up statues that you could exchange at a dojo for new moves. By the end of the game, you could cut through crowds of ten-plus enemies like butter.
Enemies would become more diverse as the game progressed, turning hand to hand combat into a game of chess. Certain moves won't effect certain bad guys, which sometimes results in having to wait for a counter opportunity. Thankfully attacks come fast and often, so there's never much downtime during combat. It adds an element of timing and finesse to the fighting, which was very enjoyable. Not to mention the nasty environmental attacks. Try and get through this whole thing.
Driving is was where gameplay fell short in my experience. The cars were pretty basic apart from pure speed (pretty fast and really fast) and it was a chore getting from one end of Hong Kong to another no matter what you were in. The act of driving itself was a constant experiment in just how much brake is needed to take a corner smoothly. I swear it was never the same one time.
Another gameplay aspect of Sleeping Dogs was a penalty to your "Police" (good guy) score if your reckless driving caused property damage or death. This was especially frustrating when missions called for you to chase a triad fleeing at high speed, yet property damage hurt your score. L.A. Noire used a similar system, as reckless driving would hurt your overall case score. Plus I find no motivation to drive legally when I was literally on my way to break bones. 10 points for that old guy.
Final Thoughts
Year of the Snake DLC Trailer
I'm very glad I took the time to play Sleeping Dogs. It was an enjoyable story-driven experience, but I would not recommend it for everyone. If you enjoy an above average mix of combat and story, can appreciate the use of a foreign language in a game, and want to scratch your completionist itch, then this game is for you. If you want to run and gun and kick and punch without really knowing what you're throwing yourself into, then there are plenty of other games for you out there.
If you want a good laugh, the voice of Jack Black's "father" in the Kung Fu Panda movies (among many more roles) is the voice of the most feared gangster in Hong Kong: the head of the Sun On Yee. It's a little hard to take him seriously when it's the same voice as an animated noodle making duck.
James Hong >> Mr. Ping (Kung Fu Panda) >> Uncle Po (Sleeping Dogs)
Man, I want some Ramen now.
Sleeping Dogs Publisher: Square Enix London Studios/United Front Games Developer: Square Enix, Namco Bandai
