William Saw
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MonsterVineLatest Reviews
Visually, Atelier Firis is stunning with a mix of animated and in-game cutscenes to flesh out the dialogue and story. The cutscenes are voiced but speaking to townspeople occurs in speech bubbles and text reads. The music isn’t very memorable thus far, but this could change as the story progresses and different encounters occur.
The combat in The Technomancer plays in a tactical fashion, punishing players for relying too heavily on attacks and instead encouraging a nuanced approach that caters to the situation at hand. Three combat styles (Warrior, Rogue, and Guardian) are available for use during battle. The Warrior stance offers effective crowd control against groups of enemies, Rogue brings agile hits and the use of a gun, while the Guardian is a defensive minded play style designed for a heavy handed approach. Layering all of this are Technomancer powers, which are all upgradable in their respective skill trees. Stealth is also an option for those looking to pick off enemies one by one through sneak attacks and well placed traps. The difficulty curve hits hard in the beginning hours and eases up as you become familiar with the various mechanics, like figuring out the lock-on button. It’s a bit overwhelming at first but the best approach is to experiment with everything at your disposal.
The music and washed aesthetic look also create a convincing setting, layering with the narrative in an effective manner. In the environment, there are several supernatural cues in the world of Arcadia Bay that made me do a double take, at times blurring the lines between the real and surreal. The harrowing image of birds smacking glass windows, or the sheer amount of eco-disaster left me with an eerie, haunting feeling. At times, the naturalist take of the idyllic days of yesteryear reinforce the teenage nostalgia but as the story develops, Life is Strange skillfully ventures into the creepier happenings of the world.
The driving segments are nicely matched with the set piece moments in Sleeping Dogs, enabling Wei Shen to hijack the pursuers’ car or ram a police vehicle off the road. Vehicle gunplay starts from tense slow-mo moments and ends in cars going out in a fiery blaze of glory. All the while, Sleeping Dogs keeps track of your actions during the missions and tallies up a score that in turn ranks you in a global leaderboard in the aptly named Social Hub to compensate as the multiplayer portion of the game. Aside from bragging rights, there’s not much else to do there.
While Dead Space is ultimately a decent game, it’s let down by a couple of large flaws, such as the poor execution of the story and the repetitiveness of the gameplay. The monotony of the enemies and the environment might put you off playing through a second time, and since the game is fairly short, maybe around 10 hours long, this might make you think twice about handing over your hard earned cash for it. Fans of survival horror games will almost certainly enjoy it, and there is a good solid game to be found in Dead Space if you can deal with it’s short comings.