Charles Onyett
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Writing For
IGN Latest Reviews
Hotline Miami’s momentum of mystery builds right up to its finale, where snarling cynicism is offered as a justification for why all this machinery of neon fuzz and thumping bass, bright blood and fractured identity was started up in the first place. Yet the justification is also disarmingly simple, the same reason why quarters were dropped into arcade machines built during the late ‘80s era Dennaton Games so clearly reveres. Why bother with Hotline Miami? Because it exists. Because it’s fun. Because it deserves to be played.
When you’re driving at high speed across Ravaged’s large maps alongside teammates in rocket buggies and machine gun cars, blasting enemies at high speed and reveling in the fireworks of your coordinated destruction, the potential of 2 Dawn Games’ post-apocalyptic online shooter is obvious. Unfortunately the time between such moments isn’t always entertaining, as a lack of polish and boring class design limit Ravaged’s overall appeal. Though 2 Dawn did an admirable job of blending accessible vehicle-based combat with a few instances of more sophisticated mechanics, it feels like the game could have used more development time to smooth out the technical issues and, ideally, add in more weapons and combat options. For now, Ravaged is an inconsistent game at best, and one in dire need of a larger player base.
ArenaNet has built one of the most exhaustively detailed and rewarding MMOs in existence, one that never unfairly penalizes and fosters an incredible urge to explore through a generous reward system and achingly pretty environment design. It’s a virtual world that more than anything wants you to work together with others, and provides a huge number of possibilities for cooperation while minimizing restrictions. For those disappointed in the lack of open world PvP, the World versus World alternative is a fascinating, complex system that demands teamwork, and the arena PvP modes should provide an instant-fix for those who thrive on fast, adrenaline-fueled combat. Whether you’re looking for competitive play, want to be told a story or simply want to go for a walk through fantastic countryside, Guild Wars 2 lets you do it all with a minimal amount of arbitrary, irritating limitations, and all without a subscription fee.
With Risen 2 Piranha Bytes continues to demonstrate skill at crafting big, believable worlds. Dark Waters is at times beautiful, offering a finely detailed set of islands to explore on your quest to become a notorious pirate captain and vanquish an ancient evil. It's Piranha Bytes' most accessible game yet, and though its style and boorish, humorous dialogue fit well with the pirate motif, it's a role-playing experience that uses convention as a crutch and marginalizes or strips away a lot of elements that made the studio's past games stand out. Disappointing character development options, sloppy combat and run-of-the-mill questing structures often make Dark Waters more of a chore to play than it should be, and exploration isn't nearly exciting enough to make up for its many flaws. If you desperately to role-play as a pirate, you certainly can in Risen 2, but you'll also find little that's memorable, and a multitude of poorly implemented ideas and missed opportunities.
It's difficult to ever feel completely satisfied with a play session of Skyrim. There's always one more pressing quest, one more unexplored tract of land, one more skill to increase, one more butterfly to catch. It's a mesmerizing game that draws you into an finely crafted fictional space packed with content that consistently surprises. The changes made since Oblivion are many, and result in a more focused and sensible style of play, where the effects of every decision are easily seen. Featuring the same kind of thrilling freedom of choice The Elder Scrolls series is known for along with beautiful visuals and a stirring soundtrack, playing Skyrim is a rare kind of intensely personal, deeply rewarding experience, and one of the best role-playing games yet produced.
Though a limited in many ways, it's still easy to have a good time with Hard Reset. It's a classically styled shooter where your main concern is how to blow stuff up as fast as possible without losing all your health. The disposable story and flat characters shouldn't be surprising for a game like this, but other issues like a the lack of enemy variety and short overall length are disappointing. Despite that, the versatility of the weapon system and flashy visuals make Flying Wild Hog's product exciting from beginning to end. If all you're looking to do is shoot at things and watch them break apart into pretty pieces, you'll get what you want in Hard Reset.
The Witcher 2 is a dense, deep role-playing experience where your decisions have a significant impact on not only the structure of individual quests but also the direction of the main plot. Its world is stunningly realized with beautiful effects and an obsessive attention to detail. The plot stubbornly refuses to slow down and often unexpectedly spirals into crescendos of betrayals and wild revelations involving a huge cast of scheming characters who don't feel like tired video game stereotypes; they feel human. Combined with the remarkable environment design and to a lesser degree the decent writing and voice acting, the atmosphere of The Witcher 2 is one of unrivaled authenticity. The fast-paced swords and sorcery combat system, though not without quirks, provides plenty of entertainment, and the crafting and alchemy systems mean there's incentive to explore and collect. The Witcher 2 is alternately offensive and endearing, grimy and gorgeous, and never ceases to surprise. It's one of the great titles of 2011, and one of the best role-playing games in years.
The original Portal benefitted from its brevity. It had a concise story paired with inventive first-person puzzle mechanics that challenged you to be creative while pulling the trigger. Portal 2 makes the original look like the prototype it was. It's filled with a larger cast of characters vividly brought to life through brilliant writing and some of the best voice acting in video games. Its puzzles are challenging without being unreasonable, and, once you're finished with the single-player mode, one of the best co-operative experiences on the market awaits. Valve cuts no corners and finds ways to make you care about everything from the major characters to the cubes used to solve puzzles. From the beginning of the single-player story to the end of the co-op mode, Portal 2 is a novel, unforgettable experience.
Longtime fans will surely find a lot that's familiar in Shogun 2, but will also find Creative Assembly's most polished, well-presented and playable version of its Total War franchise. Shogun 2 is an expertly tuned turn-based strategy game filled with exhilarating real-time tactical battles against a capable artificial intelligence or others online. With a gigantic multiplayer suite and fantastic visuals and sound, Shogun 2 is a high point for the Total War series, featuring a staggering attention to detail and immensely satisfying gameplay.
Playing Magicka isn't about going through the motions with a control scheme you've used a thousand times before. It requires some reflex training that can reward you with wildly entertaining success on the field of battle. Unfortunately, Arrowhead's game is in need of patching at the time of this review, and bugs, crashes and connectivity issues occur with regularity. Even so, with a level-headed team of four, Magicka's cooperative action is entrancing chaos. It's rare for a game to feel this mechanically satisfying.