F.E.A.R. and it's expansions Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like a flop or an indie game, and was met with modest critical praise and sales, but no one really talks about it that much nowadays. It's been overshadowed by CoD, and as a horror game, it isn't terribly scary. But the firefights are what make this game stand out. The story is pretty straightforward and has a nice twist at the end. Basically, it involves a secret project called "Origin" that would mass-produce cloned soldiers and put them under the control of a Psychic Commander, known as Paxton Fettel. The project was abandoned, but Fettel managed to break out of containment and seize control of a battalion of cloned troopers in storage (conveniently located nearby with access to weapons, armor and vehicles). So, you take control of the Pointman of the First Encounter Assault Recon special forces division that is sent in to prevent a disaster.
The AI for the clone troopers is pretty advanced, and will react to your movements and update one another with information regarding your position. If you manage to evade them, they will check in with one another and begin to fan out and search the area. That's not to mention that the Bullettime feature looks fantastic, and the particle effects and physics were nice for their time.
The horror is okay. I'd really recommend this title for people just getting into horror, as it tends to pace the scares and action quite nicely. If you are an experienced horror gamer, you might find most of the scares a bit cheap and predictable. However, there are a few moments that might get you, but I don't want to spoil them.
All in all, it's a pretty good FPS with some horror elements that is well worth checking out, if you got the time. The expansion pack Extraction Point does up the horror factor and mindfuck ratio quite a bit, if you are itching for more.
Brandon
Dark Cloud 2
Good morrow chums. Time is of the essence today so I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut this one a bit short.
Both Dark Clouds actually, but this happens to be one of those occasions where the sequel is much better than the original, so to it the focus goes. Dark Cloud is a somewhat lesser known game made by Level-5 studios. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? Another of their games, Rogue Galaxy, was originally going to be the third Dark Cloud installment before they switched it over to what it is now. Still not ringing any bells? How about the entire Professor Layton series? That’s quite the shadow to live under. This game has a bit of everything in it. It’s an RPG, but it also has some aspects of a dungeon crawling Beat em’ Up. I’ve always been a glutton for little eclectic quirks that some games have to set them apart from others, and this game has a couple good ones. The main character’s weapons are a series of increasingly flamboyant Wrenches (Maybe not all that out there, but the fact that some of these things can be classified as tools at all is pretty hilarious). You don’t get stronger through level your characters themselves, but by building up your weapons, the system for doing so being spectacularly well done. I’m surprised no one has copied it yet. Oh, and did I mention the giant fighting robot? Well there’s a giant fighting robot. His name is Steve. DC2 also happens to feature an invention system, another idea I’d love to see copied into infinity. The premise is simple. Take a bunch of pictures from the photography thing, string a bunch together in a way that vaguely makes sense, collect the raw materials and build yourself a super weapon, or a laser bomb, or a fancy clown costume, your pick. As an example, Milk Can + Leather Belt + Basic Everyday Pipes = The first fuel pack for your robot.
All in all it’s a pretty fantastic game that you can sink hundreds of hours into, and it saddens me to see it so underappreciated.
Josh
Nier
In which, these aspects have gone unrecognized by majority of the general populace, leaving the game without the recognition it deserves. And Nier fits the bill! And this is a shame; Nier does some things that outshine all the other games that came out around its time and even this year. When you start playing Nier I’m sure you’ll slowly start falling in love with the game while realizing its charm and what makes it great. That’s exactly what happened to me and four “New Game +’s” later here I am to tell you, the readers about it.
The Soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNZmzLzvJo8
“Hills of Radiant Winds” is more or less the over world theme. And right when I leave a town to hit the plains and this particular track plays, I feel like I’m on a grand adventure. It makes me feel like I’m on a mission, on a mission that only I can do and that’ll leave an impact with my actions. However silly it may sound, soundtracks that trigger a feeling within me as Nier does, always stick in my mind and will for the remainder of my life. This in turn, makes a fantastic soundtrack.
The Characters:
There’s a rather small cast of characters, but they’re all great in their own way. The most interesting and mysterious being Nier and the relationship between him and his daughter which could pull some heart stings as the game goes on. Also the blunt foul-mouthed chick Kaine with another side to her is also very great to see how she develops throughout the game.
The Story:
Nier’s story is one of the best I’ve played through in recent years. For me, the characters are half the story and the story presented here develops the main cast of characters with a precedence not seen in a lot of games these days. The relationship between Nier and his daughter is at the forefront in the story. I can’t really get too much into explain it without spoiling it in some capacity, but I’ll also say that the two characters in your party “Kaine” and “Emil” are really fleshed out and you’re shown sides of them you’ll never really expect. The story takes some very interesting turns which then really picks up the pace of the game once you start to feel like things are getting slow. I love the story, the story alone made me not only want, but need, to play through Nier.
The Gameplay:
First off, Nier is an action RPG. But, it’s an action RPG that lacks a lot of depth compared to the Dragon Age and Skyrim’s of the world. This is the only major problem with the game in my eyes. Nier does make up this lack in depth with a very interesting twist in gameplay. The enemies and bosses shoot bullet hell patterns in which you can either get the pattern down and doge or just smash through the bullets with your attacks. Make sure you attack carefully though, because if your caught at the end of your combo, there’s a small window of vulnerability which can lead to you getting damaged. For example, you may have a bosses health dwindled down in which you can either risk attacking through the bullets to finish it off with the risk of being damaged or play it safe. So, there’s a little bit of risk and reward going on and this twist is pretty unique in Nier and makes the game better for it
Kam
This is the point where I start throwing out fighting words. And I'll do it right now.
The Breath of Fire games aren't anything special.
They have cool ideas, like a mechanic of being able to turn into a dragon, and making the party atypical outcasts of JRPG stereotypes. But as a whole, they're as by the numbers as they come. Not that that's a bad thing, it clearly has an audience who love the simplicity.
In short, the four Breath of Fire games, at their best, were well made JRPGs, albeit, with nothing much to add to the mix.
All of that changed with Dragon Quarter.
Now, your past experiences, and preference in JRPGs will do a large part in telling whither or not you'll want to burn Dragon Quarter with an inferno of Oregonian firewood, or treat it like your favorite cousin. Dragon Quarter has a niche audience, and you won't know if you're in it until you play it.
I'm not here to soap box it up saying something like “Nobody gave it a chance because of Call of Duty.” or some crap like that. I'm here to highlight why it deserves to be played.
For starters, it takes balls to radically change a game from typical JRPG high fantasy into post-apocalyptic dungeon crawling. With a pitch like that, I can easily see why anyone would immediately label it as a dark and edgy sell out.
Here's the thing though, this new direction, worked.
Which, honestly is strange enough as is. How many other games that go “dark and edgy” don't ruin a franchise? I think the answer could be counted on one hand.
Now, the short way to say “why Dragon Quarter is so good” by saying “everything” in it is good, which although the truth in my opinion, is a total cop out.
The long answer lies in the strengths of Japanese game design, subversion of common RPG elements, incorporating death as a tool, not a punishment, non-linear storytelling, thinking small, and just daring to fight against the norm. Instead of just going into rambling detail about each, I'll attribute it to one thing that makes me put it above most JRPGs.
The battle system.
Holy moses, this battle system kicks ass. Never have I seen a battle system use the rouge-like overworld navigation/enemy engagement, turn based strategy, terrain, and dirty tactics all at once.
Alright, that's a lot of throw out, let's try this again.
A typical battle goes like this. You see an enemy on screen. Normally in other RPGs, this gives you one of two outcomes.
1. Attack it /face it head on. Thus leading you into an advantageous position for combat.
2. Get attacked by it/ it faces you head on. Thus leading you to a disadvantageous position for combat.
Personally, I love it when RPGs do this. It gets rid of annoying random encounters, and lets the player pick their own fights. Dragon Quarter goes one step beyond incorporating a trap system. Similar to Deception
For example you can throw out fresh meat, causing all biological enemies to run over to it, leaving them open for your party to get the first strike.
There's a lot more variation of what you can do with that, like stunning, poisoning... bombing, anyway, the strategic placement of traps is better than any amount of brute force. Which is in my opinion, an evolution beyond the typical “hit fight 50 times, heal occasionally” battle systems of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Then comes the actual battle system itself. Like Chrono Trigger the area the party is currently in, instantly becomes the battlefield. Which means you can actually take advantage of the terrain, to create unique strategies like bottlenecking. Or hell, you can fight dirty like I did, by kick people into fire, and then eradicating them with dragon breath.
This is also the only JRPG where I've ever felt I was actually making my team work together, a trait I usually associate with excellent turn based strategy games like Fire Emblem. Despite only having three members, the amount you can do with Ryu's sword, Nina's magic, and Lin's guns is a treat.
In short, it has a huge amount of depth, and I'm not doing nearly good enough of a job to actually make it sound fun. Trust me, there's so much more to it than what I'm saying. How many other JRPGs actively make you use the surroundings to win?
I'm also not highlighting the other aspects that make Dragon Quarter head and shoulders above nearly any Japanese RPG,like the writing that doesn’t waste words, (something I need to learn how to do) the brilliant D-Counter, (I don't throw that word around often) and the melancholic soundtrack. (I need to write something here to make this sentence worse)
For modern gamers, if you at all liked the excellent Valkyria Chronicles series and how it blended third person shooters and turn based combat, you'll love Dragon Quarter. Outside of the giant scale combat, present in VC, here, we have quick, dirty, fast fights that feel like the best D&D brawl you've ever had.
This is a game I can write about endlessly, probably give it the Tim Rogers treatment. (which ironically, he did,) Games that think this outside of the box are in short supply, and the second hand market is selling it for the price of a Starbucks grande expresso.
Now I don't like to value quality based on how much money I spent on a game, but really, with all that nice stuff I just said, skip coffee for a day, this game might surprise you.
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