Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale

Hi guys,

I had heard a few rumours last year about a combat game with all the top Playstation characters in it, and I honestly couldn’t see it really working. I know that’s pessimistic of me to say, but I’ve seen similar games from a number of different companies fail in the past. The first game that comes to mind when you think of success in this genre has to be Super Smash Bros. Even at it’s initial selling price of £50, (ridiculous!), it couldn’t put me off  getting Smash Bros. It was a proud piece of my N64 collection, and it was so different compared to other combat games I’d played that it has always stood out for me as a true classic.

So when games try to replicate something that was so dear to my childhood, I hope you can understand some of my pessimism towards games which do attempt this. But I am pleasently surprised by Sony and the developers they have teamed up with, SuperBot Entertainment. I only recently had a look at a full gameplay video, and it really sparked my intrigue towads All Stars. So I then went on to check out the character list, and damn you Sony, you’ve made a great selection. As much as I loved the Nintendo consoles when I was younger, ever since my first Playstation, I have been a massive fan of Sony Games and they have made some classic titles. So to see characters such as Sir Daniel Fortesque (from MediEvil) & Sweet Tooth (from Twisted Metal), it makes me even more excited about it.

This is a video preview from IGN, which shows off some of the great features of the game.

 Playstation All Stars preview

The character list confirmed so far is:

Big Daddy (Bioshock)

Cole MacGrath/Evil Cole MacGrath (Infamous)

Colonel Radec (Killzone)

Dante (Devil May Cry, reboot version)

Fat Princess (Fat Princess)

Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)

Jak & Daxter (Jak & Daxter series)

Kratos (God of War)

Nariko (Broken Sword)

Nathan Drake (Uncharted)

PaRappa the Rapper (PaRappa the Rapper series)

Raiden (Metal Gear Solid)

Ratchet & Clank (Ratchet & Clank series)

Sackboy (LittleBig Planet)

Sir Daniel Fortesque (MediEvil)

Sly Copper (

Spike (Ape Escape)

Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal)

Toro Inoue (Sony’s Japanese mascot)

Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale is released on the 23rd of November, 2012. If I find out any more about this game, I will let you know as I am definitely going to keep reading up on this one.

Over and Out

Game review – Darksiders 2

Darksiders 2 – PS3/Xbox 360/PC (August 2012), WiiU (Late 2012)

Death is humanity’s last resort.

Following the action-adventure game Darksiders, (released back in 2010), you are now given the opportunity to play as Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse. Darksiders 2 is a parallel sequal to the first one, as Death seeks to prove his brother War’s innocence by reviving Humanity during War’s imprisonment. War has been accused of starting the end-battle between Heaven and Hell on Earth prematurely, subsequently causing the destruction of all Human life. Death has to battle across light and dark, Heaven and Hell, life and death, and even time itself to ensure that his brother does not face execution.

The first Darksiders was one of those games where I would promise myself that I would only play it for just an hour, but would break this promise as I was unable to put the game down. The game itself had an intriguing storyline, and took the story of the Four Horsemen in a whole new direction whilst creating an impressively designed world, (reminiscent of Warhammer 40k), with a variety of bosses, environments and quests to complete. For those of you who haven’t played the first game, it is worth noting that Darksiders made it fairly clear that a large portion of the items and weapons throughout the game showed signs, (and I mean big signs), of influence from the Legend of Zelda series. Normally when a game imitates another title in such an obvious manner, it would be a cause for many grumbles, from both fans of the source of inspiration, as well as the critics. They managed to avoid this though, as it’s application of features such as a summonable horse, a boomerang-esque throwing blade, as well as the rest of War’s gear, just added to the enjoyment factor of the game.

So after Darksiders managed to hit a fairly high point of popularity, THQ had to ensure that Darksiders 2 would be able to achieve similar glory, (without too much repitition). So what did they change to avoid said repitition? Well firstly, the combat system has been renovated and rehauled to suit Death and his main choice of weapons, a pair of Scythes, (because one just doesn’t quite cut it…get it?). The new system has sped up the combat throughout the game as well as adding more combo-attacks and an easier way of switching between Death’s primary and secondary weapons. This fluidity is greatly appreciated, as there were a few times where the combat system was a little slow and clunky throughout Darksiders.

Which leads me onto one of the best new features of Darksiders 2, the character customisation. In the first title you were able to purchase new upgrades, abilities and weapons from Vulgrim, (a merchant who makes a re-appearence in the sequel), but there was limited choice. Now you can purchase a large variety of weapons, armour and talismans which can improve Death’s abilities/health/etc… to suit both your playing style and your chances of survival. You can also use skill points received from levelling up to purchase special attacks such as a teleport slash to deliver massive damage, and the ability to summon the dead to assist you in battle. There a number of new merchants located throughout the game’s vast worlds where you can purchase new combo’s, rare items, and they may even offer you side quests to earn extra XP, cash and items, (which are not to be ignored). As a bit of a gung-ho gamer, I tended to aim for the quickest and biggest damage weapons, whilst ensuring that I took minimal damage, and Darksiders 2 was able to allow me to optimise Death in such a manner. But if you prefer to crush your enemies with magic attacks or high-strength hammers, you will have no problem with being able to do that. You are also offered by Vulgrim the chance to respec, (at a small cost), so if you’re unsure of some of your decisions it is relatively easy to correct them.

Darksiders 2 has managed to keep up the mantle of the first game by offering an RPG-length experience within the Action-Adventure setting, as it took me just over 23 hours to complete the game. However, that didn’t include completing all of the side quests, and additional quests received from downloadble content, so you could easily be playing the game for up to 30 hours. For me, this is always been a big selling point for a single player title, as there has been numerous occasions where I have completed a game before I even realised it was over (*cough* Wanted *cough* 2.5 hours *cough*). When you’re shelling out your hard-earned cash, a game needs to be able to offer something to make that worthwhile and Darksiders 2 has definitely completed that task. The side quests can range from defeating a collection of enemies to collect items, defeating hidden bosses, finding specific items in dungeons, and completing a variety of trials in The Crucible. So you will have plenty of chances to stray from the main storyline if you feel like it may be over a little quickly for you.

The storyline has been very well written, and even contains a few twists and turns which you may not be expecting. You won’t find yourself in the same area for too long as there are a number of dungeons and different worlds to explore, each with their own types of enemies and bosses to take on. I did find at points that there were a few times where I would be so close to achieving a goal, only to be blocked by someone offering me a different quest as they didn’t seem to really want me to, you know… save Humanity! This wasn’t a massive issue for me, but it did seem that these quests should be considered as chances to extend the length of the story, rather then offering any real story-line advancement. Fortunately, not all of these moments were entirely pointless as you would usually be rewarded with additional items, chances to level up, and even new gear which would open up secrets in previously unaccessible areas. Some of the extra gear does offer a slight issue for me though. I was happy with Darksiders being influenced by Zelda, but when you are given items which are pretty much copies of other recent games, it does give the impression that the creators decided not to bother with coming up with original ideas. The best examples of this had to be the Voidwalker gun, which creates two portals used to complete puzzles, (I don’t think I need to explain which game that’s from… ok, it’s Portal), and the heavy-style gun sequences which were very reminiscent of THQ’s recent title, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine.

As I mentioned previously, the combat system is now far more fluid then it’s predecessor, as is the movement system. This is understandable really as it needed to be smoother to compliment the combat, but this isn’t exactly glitch-free. There were a number of occassions where I would find myself making silly, (and costly), mistakes whilst traversing some of the more platform-esque areas of the game due to the game being unable to keep up with me. With the new movement system, you are presented with a fast-paced, thrilling experience as you jump and sprint across walls, but you have to ensure that Death is facing in a particular direction, (or has the correct item equipped), before carrying out these moves. This can become particularly infuriating during some of the sequences where you have to avoid encroaching dangers and timing is of the essence, but you find yourself unable to tell Death to jump to the left instead of up, (leading to a very awkard, and painful, death!). The best way of summing up this infuriating issue is by telling you how many times I died, which was the very high number of 136! I should point out that most of these were environment deaths where you are resuscitated quickly and with only a small amount of health loss, but this is still counted as a death. If you aren’t a fan of your friends knowing how many times you’ve died, you may not want to play this one whilst being online, as the game takes it upon itself to divulge this fact, (instead of just telling your friends which game you’re on). This isn’t such a bad feature as it’s more of a source of laughter when you realise your friend has died even more times then you have.

The graphics of the game are not the most impressive, but this tends to be due to the style that the creators have gone for, (which is fairly clear with the character/level design), so you can forgive them for that. The main visual issues the game suffers with is a decrease in frame-rate during some of the more visually impressive moments, such as in one level where a wall crumbles and floats away, but I was unable to really notice this due to the camera slowing down, and I pretty much missed this happening.

I definitely enjoyed Darksiders 2. The writers of the game have created a universe which I find very immersive and enjoyable. It is also a relief to see a game which not only offers lengthy gameplay, but a variety of ways to customise the main character to suit each gamer’s own style. However, it does let itself down a little bit when the movement system can lead to too many issues and slightly embarrassing deaths when they really shouldn’t be occurring. Also, I think I would be more willing to offer the game a higher rating if some of the main story quests didn’t feel a bit like time-fillers rather then real contributions to the story itself. Plus the fact that there are quite a few borrowed ideas from a number of recently released titles, is a bit of a problem for me. However, I am definitely holding out hope for a follow up game and can’t wait to see if THQ will carry on the series.

Score: 8/10