Team Fortress 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Look to the far right of the Orange Box menu and you will see the one game that does not quite fit with the rest of the Half-Life-based goings on. Team Fortress 2 is the follow-up to the real grand-daddy of the class-based team shooter. Now, after what seems like an everlasting wait, it has made its way onto the Xbox 360.

Looks can certainly be deceiving; in the case of Team Fortress 2, the graphical style is a cross between Wacky Races and a cartoon version of Predator. However, the unique appearance is somewhat misleading as the gameplay that underpins this facade is very much aimed at the hardcore.

Team Fortress 2, more so than almost any other game, needs players to work as teams. The breadth of classes and options available means players must be aware of who on their team is playing as what type of character in order to evenly balance out offence, defence and support. It is good that classes are visibly distinct in battle due to the big and bold designs.

There are nine classes in all, three in each category. For the player wanting to just jump in and blast away, there is the Soldier, who uses a bazooka and can rocket jump around the place, or the Heavy, who wields a huge mini-gun. The battles are won and lost with the more specialist support classes, though; there is a medic, who heals players by shooting them with a ‘healing gun’, and the spy, who can cloak or disguise himself as any enemy unit (once the enemy is fooled, he can sneak up behind them and stab them in the back!).

Each class has three weapons: generally one specialist weapon, a close range gun and a melee weapon. The classes also have a unique taunt that can be called upon to really rub it into the enemies’ faces when you take them down. Adding to the spirit of competition, the game will soon tell you if a player is ‘dominating’ you by placing the word “nemesis” above them. This leads to highly competitive grudge matches starting up.

There are six maps in total to choose from, many with different sections that are played through over different rounds. On the face of it, the map selection would seem to be somewhat small, but in practice, the multi-section approach goes some way to alleviating repetition. The only real gripe some may have is that each map is designed with a certain play type in mind and this cannot be changed. ‘2Forts’, for instance, is a capture-the-flag map, so if that is not your cup of tea, you will have to stay clear of it.

This idea is actually more plausible than in many other titles. When searching for a game to join, a list of every host available will present itself, showing the amount of players currently in the game lobby and which map the game is based on. This means players can easily avoid or play the game of their choice, something more games should take account of.

Many players may find they do not take to Team Fortress 2 right away, and we found it took a few matches to really get into the right frame of mind to play it properly. Once it clicks, however, the game is immense fun. Matches will often last well over an hour but rarely become tiresome due to the chaos going on and the brilliant humour woven throughout.

Team Fortress 2 represents the Orange Box’s attempt at multiplayer online gaming and, although some may have preferred see Counter-Strike, this really has a chance to make an impact on Xbox Live. TF2 is different from the current kings of the online FPS and may well carve itself out a market. What can we say? It is yet another reason to recommend the Orange Box and something that could so easily have been added as twenty pounds of downloadable content later in Half-Life 2’s life span. Well done to Valve for including it. Now just make sure you all give it the time it deserves.

8/10

The Escapists Review (PC)

We first became aware of Mouldy Toof studios when we looked at Spud’s Quest a little while ago. It was a charming, Adventure's of Dizzy-like, game that showed some good potential. Now the one man studio is back with what should prove to be a break through title. There’s still an emphasis on moving items around to the correct place but The Escapists is a very different game.

The basic premise is that you are an inmate at a prison and have to find time in your daily routine to plan and execute an escape plan. There are a number of ways to do this and different prisons act as sandbox playgrounds for budding escapists to play around in. There is no one way to escape and everything from impersonating a guard to digging a good old fashioned tunnel can be attempted. You can even take over the prison if you find enough rope.

Viewed from a top down perspective you move your little dude around the prison as a clock ticks away. Different prisons have different routines but you will need to attend roll calls, meal times and things like exercise and shower sessions. You can also get work which earns you money (as well as possibly getting you closer to much needed supplies). Money can then be used to buy things from other prisoners, 

The other prisoners will also ask you to do favours for them. Completing these normally involves creating distractions, finding objects or beating someone up. Carrying out their requests will bring more money and also make them like you a bit more. Upset a prisoner and they will come looking for you and beat you up. The same can be said of the guards that patrol the place and it’s best to keep an eye on exactly who you are upsetting.

The key to the game is finding contraband items such as wood and metal and then crafting them into tools which can help you escape. Hiding these tools is one of the biggest challenges as your cells are given regular shake downs and the discovery of a banned item leads to solitary confinement and effectively a reset in your progress. This can be very frustrating when you have spent months digging a tunnel only to get found out and have to start again.

While the joy of seeing a well-executed plan come together is great the frustration of seeing a small mistake set back hours of progress will be too much for many players. It does seem a little unbalanced in this respect and we can’t work out why a discovery of tools somewhere results in every fake wall, vent or tool stash being removed around the entire prison.  You can reload to the start of each day but even that can seem to set back progress in a game where it comes slowly and every square of dirt dug needs to be done so incredibly carefully.

The game can also be a little repetitive. This is fine for your daily routine as it allows you to understand patterns and the movement of the prison. It’s not so great when you have been stuck in the place for months and the other inmates and guards don’t really offer you up much in the way of character or conversation. At times it can feel like you’re just waiting around for an inmate to have a certain type of item for sale and when this happened we really weren’t having fun.

That said, when you begin to make progress it can be a very special game world to be a part of. The problem with sandbox games by nature is that they don’t really have structure to progress and while your days inside certainly do, to finally get hold of an item after months of waiting and then have it quickly taken away with a small mistake just feels very unfair at times and we can see this putting some gamers off. If something was added to make the acquisition of items more proactive a lot of this problem would be solved very quickly.

Overall, despite its faults, The Escapists is a highly ambitious and clever title in a lot of ways and we simply have to recognise and applaud that. It’s also quite original and despite our frustrations we spend a good ten hours with the game in our first few days which show its ability to draw you into its daily routine. If you like free-form puzzle solving and have a high tolerance for pain then this could be the game for you. With a touch more polishing it could also be the game for everyone else as well.

Overall 7/10

Harold Review (PC)

Written by Thomas G.J. Sharpe

Strictly speaking, I get frustrated very quickly with reaction games, nimble controller gymnastics and pin-point plat-forming. I never finished Limbo or Super Meat Boy, despite loving them, for this reason. Hell, I think the only platformer I ever finished was Super Mario 2 on the Game Boy. Harold occupies a space somewhere in this ball-park of controller flinging angst, but manages to calm me down enough to enjoy the experience.

It goes like this: you play a guardian angel proving thine worth at a sort of Elysian polytechnic. You demonstrate your guardian abilities by guiding a runner who is competing on courses full of traps and devices. Strictly controller managed, you flick between platforms, moving them into the appropriate position, bash down barricades, knock out creatures and cut ropes that opponents are swinging on, to name a few. The obstacles are varied, but follow a sort of modular set-up in well planned tracks that take an unexpectedly leisurely pace. Upon booting up the game I was waiting for relentless twitch reactions and seizure inducing speed, but most of the time you are guiding Harold (the hapless runner) over one event at a time. The balance between preparation and execution of movements is pretty spot-on. Harold has to traverse a pit, you have to nudge him to jump. Fair enough. The next screen will slide in and you have a more complex track to traverse. The races scale nicely, adding in new vocabulary of traps and events.

The slower pace not only allows the core mechanics to really shine, but gives you much more time to enjoy the stunning aesthetics. Being a spawn of a certain era, I was raised on John Kricfalusi's joyfully demented Ren & Stimpy, but concurrently, a certain era of cartoon style ranging from Disney's Aladdin in 1992 to Dreamwork's The Road To El Dorado in 2000. The in-game backgrounds, characters and atmospheric effects feel like a blend of this era of cartoons. And I adore it. So much love and care has been put into the presentation of this game, I simply cannot fault it in it's current state. It seems almost churlish to say “could do with a bit more background movement” as if more studios put this much attention into their design, the world of gaming would be a much richer place. Kudos to the developers.

Where the presentation is a blend, the gameplay itself feels like a joyful mixture. Through the quite solid and simple premise, I get hints of Ignition (the spunky top-down racer), Abe's Oddysee and, eternally praised, Micro Machines. The 'god' element is a reasonably familiar trope in games, but it's nice to see it implemented in a way that means I don't possess someone to tear body parts away. There is a gentleness and an intrinsic joy to Harold that has largely won me over, despite it really not being a game-type that I would go for.

I do have one big irk though at this point, but would hope to see this ironed out somewhat on it's full release, is the excessive loading times. I enjoy the cut-scenes, but after having one before practising new actions, then the load for the tutorials, then another cut-scene and then a load for the race, I was just gagging to play the damn thing. The races themselves are fun and engaging, but I wanted to play much more quickly than I was being allowed. Sadly, this would stop me from clocking in more time on Harold if this is still the situation on release, and would be a real shame if it put people off.

Harold is an all-round, totally solid game, with exceptional presentation, sound (gosh darn the music is superb) and core gameplay. Just get me to the gameplay, Moon Spider, 'cos what you got is gorgeous.

Overall 7/10

Jet Set Radio Review (Dreamcast)

Set in the city of Tokyo-to the plots revolves around gang warfare and corrupt police and government institutions. In an attempt to stop the freedom of expression of its citizens just about everything that kids do has been outlawed, including skating. In an attempt to fight back against the powers that be rebel groups of skating gangs have sprung up to try and claim back areas of the city.

Starting with one character you must build up the gang known as the ‘GGs’ in order to battle both the other gangs and the police department and what better way to lay down chaos and anarchy than by covering everything in graffiti? The game works by presenting you with a number of small missions to undertake, these missions involve skating around areas while avoiding the police and painting over the marks left on walls and other structures by rival gang members. It sounds simple but in reality the police department will do everything from using run of the mill foot troops, to calling in tanks and the odd apache gunship in order to stop you.

What sets the game apart is undoubtedly the visual style. By using the cel-shading technique Sega has managed to create something completely unique and fresh. While at first the new graphical style may seem nothing more than just a cosmetic touch, without it the game would feel extremely flat. What the Cel-shaded look does is make the game a sort of living comic book, excellent considering the Japanese setting. Everything just seems to feel right about the look adding huge amounts of charm and really making Jet Set Radio one of the leading titles on the Dreamcast.

The quirky atmosphere developed by the visuals is further enveloped into the mind by the excellent Japanese techno-cyber pop soundtrack. Again being much more than just a cosmetic touch, if it was not there the game would be seriously lacking in the heavy levels of fun and charm brought by the music, all of which is of an excellent standard and not annoying in the least, something that cannot be said about the Xbox version.

However the game is far from perfect and the controls have to take the main blame for this. Your characters jump, grind, perform tricks and paint with relative ease. The problem comes when you are trying to turn to jump onto a rail. When you need to do this the camera is incredible awkward and more often than not you will completely miss the jump and have to try again. Not a problem most of the time but when the last few seconds of the clock are ticking away and you miss the rail for about the fifth time it can be very frustrating. Saying that though, with practice the problem soon disappears.

While the game has you doing more or less the same thing throughout, the variety of locations is excellent. Meaning you never find yourself getting bored with the constant spraying action. Some levels are set in sewers while others are abandoned train yards, neon heavy high streets or old junkyards each portrayed with their own unique and personality. Complete all the missions in one area and you get a boss section where you have to drive out a rival gang once and for all by ‘tagging’ them ten times each before the timer runs out.

Another problem with Jet Set Radio is that it really is to short, and accomplished skaters will not have too much trouble racing through the game. Once you manage to work out where all the areas to spray are the levels can be finished without much trouble. That is not to say the game does not offer up a challenge, it certainly does as finding all the areas that have to be sprayed can prove tricky, it just wont take you forever to finish it.

Overall, Jet Set Radio is inspired, mixing skating with the Japanese influences has created a beautiful and charming game that every Dreamcast owner should have, and the rest of us should get a Dreamcast to play. While short lived the game offers enough charm and incentives to keep you coming back to it even when it has been finished, and customisable graffiti and a large amount of playable skaters help keep the action fresh throughout the madcap levels. 

With a bit more attention spent on how the camera works and a rethink about using the time limit as a way to push up difficulty this would be up there with the all-time classics. As it is though it's an enjoyable experience that really should not be overlooked.

Overall 8