The Walking Dead (2012) Review - Tom Parkin

*SPOILER INFESTED*

The father-son or father-daughter approach seems to be the most effective way in provoking emotional attachment in post-apocalyptic fiction; Cormac McCarthy's The Road pulled it off, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us executed it perfectly, and I'm glad to say that Telltale's The Walking Dead nailed it. This game essentially falls under the 'point and click' genre (Telltale's speciality) and is delivered through five episodes – all of which I've recently managed to plough through. It's a shame for me to say that I've neglected this title for so long as I'm not exactly a massive fan of the TV Series, sure, it's okay – but that's all. On the other hand I'm a huge, HUGE obsessor for anything Post-Apocalyptic, but AMC's The Walking Dead feels more like a soap opera with the occasional zombie. I'll just go and say it – it's overrated, this is predominantly down to the fact that I can't find myself attached to any of the characters. Anyhow, Telltale's The Walking Dead doesn't seem to have any similarity with the show, and that is probably for the better.

We start our story spectating Lee Everett, a convicted murderer being escorted to prison in a police vehicle. About five minutes into this ride a zombie (or "walker", as they like to call them) conveniently causes the car to crash and Lee manages to escape with a mere leg injury. Soon after this he meets Clementine, an eight year old girl in isolated hiding from the prevailing plague; Lee and Clementine then set off out into the world with the hope of finding help and supplies.

It doesn't take long for the duo to encounter survivors along their journey, some stay with them, others abandon them or fatally meet their demise. Most of this is down to the player to decide; as a point and click game, you wouldn't expect much in the way of action, but to my surprise I was forced to make rapid life changing decisions in a matter of seconds – in my opinion this is one of the strongest points of the game.

The general gameplay is significantly varied, some segments which allow the player full control over Lee's movement combined with virtual camera angles reminded me vaguely of Silent Hill; whereas other portions incorporated with stealth gameplay seemed to share a similar kind of vibe with The Last of Us.

A specific part of the choice making mechanic I really loved was the thought of volunteering to sever Lee's recently bitten forearm in the fifth episode, it actually gave me a certain degree of hope that he'd pull through. Nevertheless it didn't change a thing as Lee was growing weaker through the progression of the episode, part of me was in denial – telling myself that it was due to blood loss, but in the end my hopes were shattered as I faced up to the fact that he didn't have long to live, and that is what the game was really good at. I have never found myself so attached to fictional characters like this, ironically I was really grief-stricken by the death of Duck, that annoying little prick who was burdened with no guilt whatsoever for the death of Hershel's son Shawn in Episode 1.

I mostly feel a great amount of attachment towards Clementine as she is probably the most important plot device; of course she represents untainted youth and innocence, but the primary reason for her existance has to be the concentration on her relationship with Lee. He immediately steps in as her father figure the instant they first meet, and all because of Clementine, Lee finally has a means to function up until his dying breath to keep her well trained for the outside world as well as love and cherish her on a personal level. Lee's old life was practically over as soon as he was arrested in the pre-apocalypse, but we all witness his re-birth as this societal disaster occurs. However morbidly suicidal the end of the series left us, it was also poetically beautiful as Lee had served his function to maintain the safety of Clementine, concurrent with which, the child grows up since she has no choice to. The post-credit cutscene deeply reminded me of (one of my favourite films) The Road – the thought of a lone child encountering strangers in the wasteland, unknowing whether to be trustful really gets my blood pumping - to some extent the two mediums possess the same design in both story and character development.

Moving on, the general visuals stood out immediately to me; I'm filled with intrigue how Telltale adopted a display which appeared to be somewhat comic book-esque with a slightly exaggerated spectrum yet retaining 3D. Due to this I'm hit with a surge of relief that Telltale didn't go for a look of realism, this makes blatant sense as the game is supposedly more inspired by its comic book counterpart as opposed to the TV show – to that I am thankful. For this reason, I overlooked the small fraction of graphical textures being a tad underdone.

Coinciding with the gameplay – the physical control scheme lacks any form of complication. The A, B, X and Y buttons serve as on screen prompts for picking a line of dialogue during spoken discourse as well as quick time events devised for the more action oriented sequences – thus giving this game the feel of an interactive TV show.

I can gladly confirm this masterpiece of narrative innovation as an emotional ride inside out. Filling the boots of Lee Everett helped me comprehend the many traumas involved in maintaining the sanity of the surviving group as well as his own. Continually strained with my decisions, I was well and definitely filled with regret along with fear for both past and future events. This title is a type of horror fiction in its own right, not for the hordes of flesh-hungered walkers, but for the more psychological fear of people. The sheer unpredictability and impulsive nature of the featuring characters compelled me to become extremely cautious with my trust, the journey forced me to adapt to such bitter social conditions that it had indeed shaped me to the point where I actually questioned the definition of 'mercy'. I heavily advise to any fanatics of post-apocalyptic fiction or comic books in general to give this slice of craftsmanship a try; as aforementioned, post-apocalyptic fiction is guaranteed to work successfully so as long the protagonist has something to lose besides his long gone possessions in the shell of a world that once was, like a son or daughter figure. The Walking Dead has a great amount of replay value, I'm quite keen on the idea of starting the story afresh whilst experimenting with alternative decisions before the release of the sequel. In conclusion, this astounding artwork has an undying talent for the involuntarily exposure of our inner schoolgirl, tears will be shed.

9.5/10 - Smashing!

Far Cry 2 (2008) Review - Tom Parkin

I'm aware of how dated this title is for a video game, but I simply couldn't resist giving it a review. I'm fairly new to the Far Cry series after only recently playing Far Cry 3 along with its standalone expansion Blood Dragon, however each entry to the series has nothing to do with one another in terms of narrative or setting – so I'm trying my best not to make this review a full on comparison between each game. Firstly the title in discussion is an open world first person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal (for those who aren't aware, this is the same company which brought us Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia); it throws the player into the setting of a civil war in which two factions, the UFLL (United Front for Liberation and Labour) and the APR (Alliance for Popular Resistance) are pitted together under a collapsed government of a fictional African state. On top of this the game objects the player to track down and eliminate the notorious arms dealer known as “The Jackal”, no other hints are given. As the game world itself it insanely huge at 50km squared, the player is provided with a map and GPS system which works in realtime as the avatar physically holds the two items without the game pausing (giving the option to find scattered diamonds using the GPS to be used as in-game currency in order to purchase weapons and upgrades), this already starts the game off with a tone of realism.

On the topic of visuals, I perceive this title as graphically astonishing for its time; the gritty colour pallet of at least fifty shades of brown makes one feel well and truly immersed into a decrepit and desperate world filled with conflict. It would also be worth noting the quality of the fire mechanic, which was considered revolutionary for its time (and as quoted on the box “the most realistic fire ever seen in a game”); after playing video games at least five years more visually advanced, I must admit it isn't bad - witnessing an infernal bush fire in an arid savannah is a stunning sight to witness. The mechanic also allows these flames to spread to trees or other wooden structures, providing a sincerely convincing simulation of a serious natural hazard.

The main gameplay is presented through two core mechanics, which are driving and shooting; in fact there isn't a significant amount of variation – drive, shoot, obliterate, that's right – the player will need to travel from point A to point B to either terminate a specific person or blow up a certain object.

Already we can see the limitations of the gameplay design in spite of the vast openness of its map. That said, it's never as easy as a casual drive to point B, the player will often be forced to abandon their vehicle in order fend off an oncoming attack from the enemy – and it is safe to say that it will leave some battle scars. The thrill itself is in surviving such a hostile world given with the fact that there is danger around each corner, this is what I love most about the game, it punishes you in the sense that it virtually spits acid in your face as it teaches you to kill or be killed.

As an example I'd often find my health draining rapidly as I struggle to escape one of the many inevitable gunfights I'd encounter; after using my remaining morphine syringes the game provides the option to heal oneself in several excruciating ways, from plucking a bullet straight from the wound to snapping a dislocated limb back into place, I soon learned that the battlefield was a desperate place to which survival was rewarding in itself.

Another great example would be the weapon conditioning mechanic, guns would jam on a regular basis and occasionally break in the middle of a skirmish - it truly granted a sense of realism, the kind of which most modern shooters fail to utilise. This mechanic would effectively stricken me with with panic and adrenaline, thus compelling myself to feel as vulnerably helpless as a crippled turtle lying on its back – and this eventually became a routine for me.

Additional mechanics include the protagonist contracting malaria right from the beginning; giving the player no choice but to perform delivery tasks in order to be rewarded with pills, this medicine however wears off after roughly forty five minutes in realtime forcing the player to stay on their feet. During my play-through I was in favour of this mechanic as it reinforces the idea of survival, as well as acting as a reminder that the UFLL and the APR in conjunction with The Jackal weren't the only present threat.

There isn't much to say about the controls of Far Cry 2 as they are fairly typical to that of a modern shooter. My only complaint is with the driving mechanic – which can only be described as clunky; the vehicle itself is indecisive with its sensitivity, often under-shooting I plunge head first into a ditch and over-shooting the corner, finding myself crashed into a tree with some idiot trying to ram me down as I attempt to exit the vehicle; due to this I'd excessively exclaim “fucking bullshit!” at my TV, hastily shutting down my console after being run down by an enemy vehicle (which may I add – is an instant kill) and having to revert to an earlier save file from at least thirty minutes prior. Even the smallest object on the side of the road could cause the vehicle to come to a complete halt, as opposed to simply slowing it down; for example sometimes I'd find my car sticking to the tiniest of boulders, meaning that I'd have to inconveniently continue my journey on foot – apart from this nothing stood out as a concerning issue.

I purposefully kept the narrative to one side as I found it the weakest part about this game, it wasn't bad – just not great. To begin with, the story progression felt extremely tedious; as aforementioned, the core mechanics of the game have their limitations, after playing roughly twenty five missions of repetition I felt little to no attachment to any characters, most of which were non-memorable – with the slight exception of The Jackal – he was kind of a badass, but apart from this he didn't have much of a personality. I also wasn't a particular fan of stepping into the shoes of a silent protagonist (it's a pet peeve of mine – silent protagonists are usually intended to be ambiguous, and to make the player feel more immersed – I on the other hand believe it to be a lazy method of designing a character); at the start of the game the player is told to pick from a range of avatars from diverse backgrounds; I decided to choose the Irish guy (his name is easily forgettable and is never mentioned throughout the game) thinking that it would make a difference with the way in which the story was set out – how wrong I was. I was quite disappointed about this, and due to the silent protagonist approach, there was obviously no character arc.

It wasn't all such a let down; the third act of Far Cry 2 gave off an Apocalypse Now vibe as I plunged into the lush, jungle-like area named “The Heart of Darkness” (which so happens to be the title of a book of which Apocalypse Now is based upon – I hope that was a deliberate reference); as well as this the player can have the option to choose one of two endings, but this didn't really make much of a difference as the outcome is virtually the same in either one of them and it isn't the most climatic of endings. Personally, I didn't feel much of a build up towards the fate of The Jackal or the protagonist, due to my lack of connection with the both of them.

Wrapping this up to a conclusion, I was fairly satisfied with Far Cry 2 – with the exception of its consistent flaws. On the contrary I can't be too mad at Far Cry 2; given the fact that Far Cry 3 had enhanced its mechanics and narrative in various ways I honestly perceive its predecessor as my preferred game of the series. On a scale of recommendation, this game is definitely worth a try for those who are willing to try a decent and unique shooter on the market, the only catch being - they must possess superhuman patience and the unnatural desire to perform the same task over and over. This is a decent game for having an impressive ingenuity in engaging the player in a severely bitter society – or at least what is left of it.

7/10 - Good!