Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition

When you’ve spent about a decade developing games in one genre, making a dramatic shift to another can invite a lot of risk. Guerilla Games certainly had their work cut out for them when they took such a risk, transitioning from the FPS-centric Killzone franchise to an open world game, Horizon Zero Dawn. Not only did crafting a whole new world require plenty of research, their own Decima engine needed to adapt to a genre it wasn’t originally designed for. Fortunately, their gamble paid off when the game launched in 2017 to rave reviews from critics and enough positive response to warrant a sequel. With the release of this sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, I finally took a look at Horizon Zero Dawn, specifically the Complete Edition, and found myself wondering by the end why I hadn’t played it sooner.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

2004 was a big year for gaming, with several heavy hitters like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Half-Life 2 releasing to critical acclaim and a lasting legacy. If there’s one game that I distinctly remember from this time period, however, it’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (San Andreas), Rockstar’s fifth entry in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series. Even though I wouldn’t have been able to play the game at the time, I remember that everyone talked about the game, including a number of students in real life, and how great it was, with additional praise from gaming news sources. I also remembered the “Hot Coffee” controversy and how it made the news at the time, along with the recall and rerelease of the game. Eventually, I heard enough hype that I actively sought out a copy, but couldn’t find a single one in any GameStop that I looked at (back when I actually bought all of my games at GameStop). Fortunately, the game was rereleased under the Greatest Hits label and I got a complete copy that way.

Sometime later and about eleven years ago, I tried to play San Andreas, but for whatever reason only completed three missions (or about an hour of gameplay) before I got epically sidetracked by other games, including Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the only GTA game I had played to completion. Since then, I wanted to try playing San Andreas again, but that interest didn’t fully reignite until I saw footage of the botched Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, glorified console ports of mobile ports of console games. With San Andreas now relevant again, I passionately played the original PS2 version over two weeks, with an in-game time of 24:07 and completing the main story with an overall percentage of 63.10%. With that goal finally accomplished, I can confidently say that despite its rough edges, San Andreas is still a game worth playing and has definitely earned its reputation.

Wall Street Kid HD

The original Wall Street Kid, released in 1990 on the NES, has become an interesting cultural item in the US. It is not a fondly remembered game in comparison to other famous NES titles like Tetris or Super Mario Bros., but it is still talked about if only to mention the odd notion of basing an entire game around the idea of playing the stock market. Despite this odd premise, which has roots in the Japanese series The Money Game, the second of which Wall Street Kid is the localization of, the game seems to have garnered enough interest to create a brand-new entry nearly 30 years later. This new installment, Wall Street Kid HD, continues its focus on the concept of the stock market, but puts a new twist on the Tycoon genre by adding open world elements.

As with the original Wall Street Kid, the player is to inherit $600 Billion from the wealthy Benedict family. Before they can receive the inheritance, however, they must prove themselves by taking a $500,000 loan and grow it into $1,000,000 using only the stock market. Along the way, they will also need to have enough money before certain dates to purchase key items including a boat, a house and a castle. At the same time, the player must pay attention to both their significant other and their physical health, improved by activities such as exercising and swimming.

The first twist Wall Street Kid HD places on the formula is the existence of not one, but two stock markets to invest in. One is influenced by the actions made within the game itself while the other is tied to the habits of everyone else playing Wall Street Kid HD, provided they have an internet connection. This twist provides the player with an incredible wealth of options for investment, which both provides more variety and presents a potential issue with the player-controlled stock. Due to the volatile nature of the secondary stock option, some players may be more hesitant to invest, especially with the possibility of players crashing the stock market either intentionally through a coordinated effort or unintentionally by independently making the same decisions. This concern, however, only really comes into play with the addition of open world elements to the Tycoon genre, though I’ll go into more detail later.

The more stable game-controlled stock, which
the player can actively manipulate.

The more unstable online-controlled stock.

Another twist on the Wall Street Kid formula is the need to control not one, but three stock portfolios, as there are two additional characters added to the game, each with their own storyline. Each character has their own reason for investing in the stock market and making it big and are surprisingly well fleshed out. However, instead of choosing one character’s story to play through, the player has to balance all three of them at the same time, forcing them to pay close attention to the timing of stock in their individual portfolios. Thankfully, it is possible to have them all invest in the same stock at the same time for a more reliable result, though the player should keep in mind that they all have different amounts of seed money at the beginning and all have different monetary goals even though the major dates are all the same.

In an odd twist for the Tycoon genre, the game also features open world elements that are accessed through the game’s mission system. If the stock market isn’t moving fast enough for you, you can partake in different missions which become available over time. These missions include, but are limited to, destruction of a competitor’s property or assassination of CEOs. Should you accept a mission using one of the three characters, you’ll be tasked with driving around the world to make the appropriate preparations for each mission before formally taking it on. Occasionally, the player will be tasked with having different combinations of each playable character work together, which can be mutually beneficial to each storyline, as well as reveal more about each character through the way they interact with each other. While this system is a very interesting leap forward for the genre, it does come with the drawback that missions still use time on the clock, time which also needs to be used buying and selling valuable stock. In other words, this mechanic can offer a potentially bigger payout through direct manipulation, but runs the risk of taking away valuable time to complete other tasks the player must balance.

In addition to stock market manipulation, the player must also make sure that each character has a healthy personal and social life. These include tasks such as working out and swimming or showering your significant other with gifts and attention. Like the missions, these segments are also completely playable, but the timer for these tasks operates a little differently. Rather than actively eat away at your time like the missions, the tasks take off a set amount of time like in the original Wall Street Kid, so no matter how long you take to play through each of these segments, it will still use up the same amount of time. This is certainly an odd choice, one that is only somewhat mitigated by the ability to toggle the playability of tasks.

The new Tennis activity.

As an upside, the game features phenomenal graphics which are leaps and bounds ahead of the NES version. Likewise, the sound design and voice acting are top notch, as is the original score by Celldweller, which uses elements from the original Wall Street Kid soundtrack while updating it for the modern day. The controls are also very functional during missions, although the driving can be a bit sensitive at times. This may be due in part to the sudden transition to 3D and HD after such a long period of time, but the grand level of polish this game has can only hide so much.

Overall, Wall Street Kid HD is a huge step forward for the series and shows a willingness to take risks with the Tycoon genre. A refined stock market system as well as a larger wealth of content make it surprisingly fun to play for hours on end, though as time goes on its blemishes begin to show. This includes the balance of time between playing the stock market or going on missions, which could have been improved upon to remove the rather large gamble enforced with the latter. Considering the length of an average playthrough with all of the interactive elements, it may be difficult to justify repeat runs with the campaign. Then again, some may be turned off by the feeling that they essentially reversed the formula of Grand Theft Auto V.

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - A Hideo Kojima Game

I played the PS3 Day One Edition.

Note: The following review contains spoilers related to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

For one reason or another, I never really got around to reviewing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain when it first came out. Looking back, however, it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t considering the controversy surrounding the dissolving relationship between Konami and Hideo Kojima at the time, which led to less than friendly discussion about the game and its shortcomings, both real and imagined, as a result of the fallout. Since it’s been over a year since the game released, and to celebrate the sixth anniversary of this blog, I figured it was now about time to share my thoughts on this game. I will say now, however, that this review is based mostly on memory and retrospection, since it took me nearly a month to beat it before and I won’t have that same pocket of time to play it for that long again. In addition, I will not be talking about the Kojima/Konami fallout apart from this paragraph, nor will I talk about what may or may not have been cut from the game. I will discuss it for what it is, not what it isn’t.

In the year 1984, nine years after the events of fall of Mother Base at the end of Ground Zeroes, Snake wakes up from a coma and, with the aid of the mysterious Ishmael, escapes a hospital as it is overrun by soldiers looking to capture him. After his successful escape from the hospital, and an ambulance he rode off in that got overturned, he receives aid from Revolver Ocelot in getting to safety. Ocelot helps Snake recover enough to rescue Kazuhira Miller, who has forced new armed force named Diamond Dogs. Together, the three of them work to both rebuild Mother Base and take revenge on the mysterious organization known as Cipher by defeating their leader, Skull Face.

The Prologue also introduces the mysterious Man on Fire.

The rest of the story which follows is actually very compelling and impactful, as it tackles the main themes of Race and Revenge (as explained by Kojima) rather well, though ultimately it feels somewhat unfulfilling thanks to some lingering loose ends. After the prologue chapter, Awakening, a good bulk of the story is contained within the first chapter, Revenge, and the second chapter, Race, has a fairly uneven pace. The length of time it takes to complete Revenge makes it feel like a whole game on its own, and while Race does answer some lingering questions, it is much shorter and requires some interesting conditions to unlock the ending, where you replay the Prologue mission, but with some additional scenes and dialogue added to fill in some of the story gaps and reach a rather controversial twist ending.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, since it’s the kind of game that’s difficult to talk about otherwise, I will end up having to forgo specifying which questions remain unanswered, but I will address the twist ending, or at least my own reaction to it. Initially, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it and I can understand why some people would be put off by it, especially since it can feel reminiscent of another game in the franchise. However, now that I have had time to reflect on it, it actually makes a lot of sense to the overall story of the franchise, since I’ve come to realize that the entire game basically exists solely to fill in a plot hole from all the way back in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

During the story, the characters all go through some interesting development, in that players get to see them reveal some of the darker aspects of their personality and how they react to what’s been thrown at them in the past. Kazuhira Miller in particular is much more revenge-driven to where Ocelot acts as a foil for his actions and would much rather be diplomatic about their decisions, though Ocelot does have a sadistic side. Snake, as well, displays a more pacifist approach in his treatment of the Diamond Dogs members, but is also capable of displaying a darker part of himself. These personalities and how they conflict with each other and other characters they encounter help drive the story forward toward their final encounter with Skull Face and with the ultimate decision regarding their conflicting levels of trust with Huey Emmerich.

Skull Face, as a villain, has a plan that’s over-the-top enough for Metal Gear, even revealing the development of the deadly Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, but he’s not as intriguing as previous villains in the series overall. He’ll certainly be talked about within Metal Gear discussions, but despite his importance to some of the later events in the series, he does not capture the imagination in the same way as Big Boss, Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, the Cobra Unit, The Patriots (mainly their involvement in MGS2) or the Winds of Destruction.

Skull Face as he appears in The Phantom Pain.

Two other major characters introduced are Code Talker, an elderly Diné (Navajo) scientist, and Quiet, a scantily-clad mute sniper. Code Talker is important to the story and is an effective character when he is necessary, but in retrospect I only remember him for his optional cassette tape recordings, in which he discusses his past as well as the faults he sees in the ethics and politics of America. I also remember the cassette tapes where despite being critical of America, he unironically, and hypocritically, wants to eat a hamburger. As for Quiet, she came off as the most interesting of the new characters, as she is written in a way that comes off as mysterious, but not in a way that the mystery is tiring. The more the game reveals aspects of her past, the more intriguing she becomes, including the reason why she wears what she does in the first place.

One highlight of the game is the voice acting. Even though Venom Snake doesn’t say very much in the game compared to previous Snakes, Kiefer Sutherland gave an amazing performance by not only conveying the proper emotion in his voice, but also his rather subtle facial expressions. As a result, I couldn’t really imagine anyone else doing Venom Snake, as I had gotten used to Kiefer Sutherland’s fitting delivery. Troy Baker is also good in his role as Revolver Ocelot, serving as a good voice for the character at that chronological point in time and displaying a good range as Ocelot displays a number of emotions. Rounding off the main trio, Robin Atkin Downes provides a memorable performance for Kazuhira Miller. Although he’s prone to hamming up the anger every once in a while, he also shows a good capacity for humor during a particular set of cassette tapes where he interacts with Code Talker in relation to hamburger recipes. As for Skull Face, despite the shortcomings of the character, James Horan delivers a spectacular vocal performance that helps him stand out when he is relevant.

Kiefer Sutherland delivers in the role of Venom Snake.

Now that I’ve mentioned it a couple times, this is probably a good time to mention that The Phantom Pain has a large volume of cassette tapes to collect, be they automatically gathered from story progression or manually gathered out in the field. While it can be fun to collect some of the tapes, particularly ones which increase the selection of music you can listen to, a good majority of them are relevant to the story in some form or another. In retrospect, I have some mixed feelings about this. On one hand, this reduces the amount of time spent the player has to spend viewing cutscenes at various points across the story, an aspect of the franchise which garnered mixed feelings over time and came to a head with MGS4’s nine hours of cutscenes. On the other hand, this means that most of the development, both major and minor, for the story and characters is instead placed within the cassette tapes, meaning that players may have to sit through up to six hours of optional tapes just to learn everything. This is somewhat mitigated by only a certain number being required for story progression, but it can be a damper on things depending on how attached you are to the traditionally lengthy cutscenes of the Metal Gear franchise.

While the execution of the story is uneven, the actual gameplay is simply phenomenal and easily the best in the entire Metal Gear series. For one thing, the shift to Open World gameplay was handled better than expected, with a map that easily dwarfs Ground Zeroes, as well as all of the other Metal Gear games put together. There are a lot of touches of realism which help to sell the open world, including the presence of a day-and-night cycle and dynamic weather, with both systems actually affecting various aspects of the gameplay. For example, nighttime operations will more involve the use of enemy searchlights and the occasional sandstorm can decrease visibility for both enemies and the player. Rain can also help disguise your footsteps and daytime makes it easier to spot enemies, but also for enemies to spot you. There’s a lot to take into consideration as players are encouraged to find the style and approach that works for them. In this sense, it is truly an open world with great freedom of choice.

Of course, there is a downside to the open world. There are two maps the player can explore, one based on Northern Kabul, Afghanistan and one based on the Angola-Zaire Border Region in Africa. The latter is more densely populated by foliage and has a lot of places to hide while the former is vast and more sparsely populated. When not doing any missions, it is possible to freely explore either of these two areas, but due to the placement of everything, it is possible to go for quite a while and not really find anything worthwhile unless you had an exact idea of where to find a particular resource or you wanted to get to side missions the hard way. The only other reason to explore outside of missions, then, is to see the incredible amount of detail put into the world.

Outside of exploration, there are two other ways to interact with the two regions: Main Ops and Side Ops. Main Ops are the ones which propel the story forward and Side Ops are optional, but can help get some extra GMP (Gross Military Product; the currency of the game) or rescue useful soldiers to boost Mother Base’s forces. The Side Ops can feel repetitive at times, but the gains are still mostly worth the effort in the long run. There are even a few Side Ops that are required to continue the story. The Main Ops are generally very good, although Chapter 2 has been, perhaps fairly, criticized for featuring duplicates of Main Ops from Chapter 1, but with different difficulty setting or modifiers placed on them, making these missions feel like filler meant to artificially lengthen the game. Fortunately, none of these duplicate missions are required to advance the story and can be skipped entirely.

However, there is a sort of unevenness to the overall difficulty. By this, I mean that there is a sort of baseline difficulty the game runs on which is fairly manageable, but then there are times when the game feels next to impossible. One standout moment in particular for me was the end of Mission 12, “Hellbound,” in which you have to outrun and sneak away from the new Metal Gear, Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, and escape on a helicopter. Sahelanthropus’ abilities made it feel unnecessarily difficult to escape detection and I was unable to finish the mission until I managed to find a perfect window of opportunity to board the chopper, and even then Sahelanthropus was less than a second away from blowing everything. The inevitable fight against Sahelanthropus was also difficult, but somehow felt more satisfying to outsmart it and achieve victory.

Metal Gear Sahelanthropus

That said, this game still has an unprecedented amount of freedom for a stealth game. During missions, players are capable of approaching the situation with either non-lethal stealth or lethal run-and-gun options based on the loadout they choose to go into the field with. Both approaches alter the skills required from the player and greatly change how they deal with enemy forces. The weapons and tools the player uses also change how they can disrupt enemy technology, one example being a radar; you can short circuit it with water, shoot it with guns or plant an explosive and remotely detonate it. While these choices are present for most of the game, there are times when you will be forced to go on the full offensive in order to survive, including the fight against Metal Gear Sahelanthropus.

As an example of this freedom, my personal loadout worked with my playstyle, emphasizing non-lethal stealth. Just looking at weapons, I used a RENOV-ICKX TP tranquilizing sniper rifle (Grade 3) customized with a suppressor, a UN-ARC-NL non-lethal assault rifle (Grade 3), a Water Pistol (Grade 4) and the Stun Arm (Grade 4); I would also equip Venom Snake with the Sneaking Suit for the health recovery bonus. With this loadout, I could tranquilize enemies from long-range, fire non-lethal rounds at a rapid pace at close range and channel electricity or summon lightning to stun enemies at close range to conserve ammo. The Water Pistol is actually far more versatile than it sounds, especially since it has infinite ammo, as it can put out campfires, temporarily blind enemies with a shot to the face or short out sensitive equipment. This weapons loadout is just one way of approaching the game and you may find something else which works well for you.

Another factor which can alter your approach is the addition of enemies who adapt to your playstyle. What this means is that if you do a lot of headshots, then enemies will start wearing more helmets, or if you attack at night a lot, enemies will start wearing night vision goggles. These are just two examples, but the results really force the player to consider how they may need to change tactics or if they should start mixing up the time of day in which they go after enemies. You can disrupt these tactics by sending your own soldiers out on missions to destroy supplies, a measure which may only be temporary, but is nevertheless effective. Similarly, if you destroy certain equipment within the environment, the game will remember it and when you return to the same area later, the equipment will still be destroyed. After about 72 in-game hours the destruction will be reverted, but this is still something to keep in mind.

Yet another wrinkle is the introduction of the Buddy System. Before going on a mission, you can select from one of four buddies to take with you into the field: D-Horse, D-Dog (aka DD), Quiet or D-Walker. Each has their own strengths that they can carry onto the battlefield, so it depends largely on personal playstyle. D-Horse can traverse long distances, serve as a mobile hiding spot for Venom Snake, distract enemy vehicles or even poop onto the road to cause vehicles to slip up. DD can scout the area via scent to discover items of interest, including enemy and weapon placements, and can even stun or kill enemies depending on what he is equipped with. Quiet can take advantage of various vantage points to scout for enemies by placing a marker on those she sees or she can be ordered to lethally or non-lethally snipe targets from afar. Lastly, D-Walker is a small bipedal robot Venom Snake can pilot, its exact usage being entirely dependent on how the player customizes its equipment.

Venom Snake with DD in the helicopter.

From my experience, D-Horse is useful in the beginning, as he is your only option at first, but as soon as I acquired DD and Quiet as buddies, I quickly shifted my focus to figuring out which of those two would be best suited for a particular mission, sometimes switching between them during a mission should the situation call for it, though more often than not I would choose DD, equipped with the Sneaking Suit (Stun version), for his versatility (plus I actually grew an emotional attachment to him). When I did use Quiet, I would always equip her with the Guilty Butterfly to fit in with my playstyle. I did use D-Walker occasionally, but found it to be more situational due to my playstyle prioritizing non-lethal stealth. I’m sure other players will feel differently about which one is their favorite to use, but I figured I would share my own experience to demonstrate how subjective this feature is.

Two additional gameplay aspects which are fully implemented in this game are the return of the Fulton Recovery System and the inclusion of a Supply Drop system. The Fulton balloons are once again used to extract enemy combatants for recruitment into the Diamond Dogs, but can also extract various wildlife and can also now be upgraded to extract weapon placements, vehicles and large resource containers. Should the player go through the effort to obtain the Wormhole Fulton option, they can even use this system indoors. This improvement to the system makes it more worthwhile to use and is a big step up from its use in Peace Walker.

As for the Supply Drop system, it makes it possible to request certain items, weapons or ammunition to be dropped onto the battlefield for easier access. However, you can also select where the item box will drop, which means you can also use it to knock out anyone unfortunate enough to be standing within the landing zone. This system is rather effective and I found myself using it every so often to change up my tactics and make sure I had plenty of ammo in a tense situation.

It should also be mentioned that this game has a huge wealth of customization options. To name a few, you can customize Mother Base with different colors or a customized Diamond Dogs emblem, customize D-Walker to your liking, alter your Buddy’s equipment, change up the helicopter’s weapons and effectiveness or create customized guns with various abilities based on the parts used. It can be fun to play around with the options from time to time, since this is a feature which allows you to change up the game to your liking, at least to an extent.

Naturally, the sea-based Mother Base makes a return from Peace Walker, although this time located by the Seychelles Archipelago off the coast of Africa. One notable difference from the Peace Walker version of Mother Base is that players can now explore Mother Base on foot and see everything for themselves, as opposed to mainly viewing Mother Base from a menu. This iteration of Mother Base is much larger than one can imagine, although exploring each strut entirely on the ground can take quite a while, as it would take a few minutes to drive across the bridges to each strut. The length of time it takes to travel can be mitigated by taking a helicopter to another strut’s landing zone in less time, though it still takes a while, or by crouching in a cardboard box on a delivery zone to warp to another delivery zone you have already discovered (this form of fast travel also works in the open world Afghanistan and Africa regions).

The game's Fast Travel system.

Each strut of Mother Base covers a different specialization of the Diamond Dogs, with plenty of secrets to be discovered as a reward for exploration. These secrets include hidden diamonds and posters, both of which automatically raise GMP, secret interactions and various challenges to test your skills. There is even a zoo you can visit which houses all of the animals you Fulton out of the battlefield. You are occasionally required to revisit Mother Base every so often, although frequent visits do have their benefits, such as boosting overall morale by passing fellow Diamond Dogs staff. One benefit in particular is returning to shower every so often, which helps Venom Snake feel physically and mentally refreshed. This makes it so Snake can’t be as easily detected by how bad he smells from the stench of blood, since blood can’t be removed unless you shower, and helps his reaction time in Reflex Mode. Visiting Mother Base under special conditions will also allow the player to view special cutscenes, which is its own reward.

But Mother Base is not the only place Venom Snake can be. You may spend a majority of your time away from the battlefield within the Aerial Command Center (ACC), where Snake can take a break in between missions. It also serves as a quieter place where you can listen to cassette tapes and manipulate various aspects of the Diamond Dogs through the iDroid, as well as the only place where you can decide what Ops you will tackle next and how you will go about them. Having this in-between zone is actually very useful and helps to establish a gameplay rhythm for yourself.

Venom Snake in the Aerial Command Center.

One iDroid feature you will use a lot, apart from sorting staff members and sending the Combat Unit on missions, is dealing with the R&D Unit to develop and upgrade various tools. While it is worth it to get that next item, upgrade or Mother Base expansion, the one thing a long-term player will need is commitment, a quality which many players may not be prepared for at first. You need to make sure you have all the requirements fulfilled before you can go through with development, but this may require you to do some grinding in a sense for GMP and resources. You may also need to do some shuffling around with staff members to make sure you have a high enough Staff Level, as well as making sure you Fultoned specific soldiers with specific skills or occasionally upgrade Mother Base strut sizes to make sure you can have the right Staff Level in the first place. Eventually you will need to care about and focus on Fultoning soldiers whose ratings in different areas match or exceed a high threshold, which may require quite a time commitment. In other words, R&D is very useful and a requirement to survival, but prepare for a large time commitment if you want the very best equipment you can get.

What easily deserves praise, however, is the Fox Engine, developed by Kojima Productions. This engine is capable of so much environmental and organic detail that it looks and feels close to real life, even when playing on seventh generation hardware (I played on the PS3 version). There is a lot to praise the engine for, including how it handles weather and lighting, but it would also be enough to say that it is a technical marvel that’s hard to beat.

Apart from the original score, which I found to be good at setting the mood, there are also 16 licensed songs you can listen to in the game by finding their cassette tapes. Since the game takes place in 1984, these are naturally mostly 1980s songs you can listen to through the iDroid. However, you can also use the cassettes to set what music you will hear when the helicopter arrives to assist or transport you. I found this to be a fun feature, since I set it so the helicopter played “The Final Countdown” by Europe (a selection which I personally found pretty fitting during a firefight). While I had played the PS3 version, as I had mentioned previously, I am aware that the PC version allows you to set the helicopter music using any song you happen to have on your computer.

There are a couple other complaints I remember having with the game which I couldn’t fit anywhere else in here. One is the fact that after a certain mission, the game forces you to create a Forward Operating Base, even if you never wanted to. The only way to avoid doing so is to play offline by never accepting the online terms and conditions that pop up whenever you start up the game (playing offline also speeds up the game anyway). The other is that despite making a big deal out of it and even allowing you to advance its progress by checking in on it, the Battle Gear is unusable, becoming more of a tease of something you’ll never be able to use. As a result, it feels like your time is otherwise wasted.

The Battle Gear ultimately goes nowhere.

One final thing to consider about The Phantom Pain is the length. As it is a very large game, it will take quite a while to complete the main story, let alone reach 100% completion (for those who are into that). At the time of this writing, my current playtime is 100:47:10 (aka 100 hours, 47 minutes and 10 seconds) and my completion percentage is 52%. Needless to say, there’s a lot to see and do.

Looking back on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, it definitely could have used a little more time to develop the story. It felt a little uneven and with a conclusion which leaves some plot threads open to speculation, although I have come to appreciate the twist ending a little more due to its role in filling in a plot hole from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. The gameplay, however, is simply the best I’ve ever played in any stealth game and its large amount of depth creates a very immersive and engaging experience. The game may be flawed, but I had a lot of fun and found it very hard to put the controller down. In the end, I think that’s what matters the most.

Watch Dogs - A Bold New IP That Needs A Little Work

In actuality the very top is replaced with the new blue PS3 banner,
but this is the best I could find.

During E3 2012, Ubisoft announced a new IP called Watch Dogs (stylized WATCH_DOGS) which aimed to focus on a hacking mechanic in an open world Chicago. While watching Sony's E3 2013 press conference, I got a better look at the game and found it to be an interesting idea, so much so that I ended up pre-ordering it at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. Initially my pre-order was more of an excuse to get a free shirt, but since then I decided I might as well play the game anyway due to the interesting concept. When I got my copy I also had to deal with finals in college, hence why the review was delayed until now. Looking back on it, I’d say that Watch Dogs is a very interesting new IP, though it definitely needs to make some improvements if it wants to survive as a series for more than a game or two.

Watch Dogs follows the story of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante hacker whose niece was tragically, and inadvertently, killed in a car accident caused by an attempt on his life. Since then, he’s been hunting for the person responsible for her death and, eleven months later, by using a backdoor in Chicago’s ctOS system, he finds the hitman, Maurice Vega. At first, Aiden believes that the hit on him was ordered because of a failed robbery he orchestrated at the Merlaut Hotel, since Maurice wouldn’t tell him anything. However, as he investigates further, he realizes that there is more to it than he thought and tries to find the source of it all. Not far into his investigation however, his family is dragged into the conflict as a man named Damien kidnaps Aiden’s sister, Nicole. To save her, Aiden complies with Damien’s requests and, over the course of the game, is surprised to learn just how complicated the web of connections is to find the one who ordered his hit.

Aiden Pearce in his default outfit.

When the story began, I was hooked on learning more about the world until the very end. The web of intrigue and the political involvement, not to mention the corporate elite in general, made the story that much more fascinating to play through. That said though, it’s also a bit generic. Aiden Pearce is a man motivated by revenge and he has to go from one place to another while dealing with gangs and bosses, all while speaking with something akin to a Christian Bale Batman voice. I was able to get into him anyway, but his lack of real character development got me to focusing on the side characters which turned out to be much more interesting to follow from time to time. For example, there’s a gang member with the nickname Bedbug who’s not only a little dense, but he’s shown to have a very wide range of emotions. During his involvement with Pearce, they never meet face-to-face and Bedbug is terrified the entire time, added to him being afraid to directly confront his boss and having a home life where even his Grandma thinks he’s a loser; it’s enough to genuinely feel sorry for him.

There’s also an antagonist, a hacker name Defalt, who is hinted at through the story, but once he finally shows up, he’s powerful enough to be on equal footing with Pearce. His unique presence, including being an expy of Deadmau5, got me wondering why the game wasn’t structured around him being the ultimate villain. In fact, I found his part of the story to be much more interesting, but felt disappointed by this portion lasting only a few missions and ending with a very unceremonious disposal of him.

Defalt is actually a very interesting antagonist.
Also, why isn't there a Defalt outfit?

Like the story, the gameplay is also pretty uneven. I’d like to begin with the game’s main gimmick, which is the ability to hack at the push of a button. The concept of hacking in an open world is a cool one, which Watch Dogs thankfully pulls off very well. By holding down a single button, just about anything can be accessed or altered in some way, such as screwing around with traffic lights or peering through cameras to hack from further away. You can even hack civilians for quick cash or other great rewards, including the locations of certain side quests or caches. Hacking is also helpful during a police chase, since you can impede their progress by activating blockers or combusting steam pipes. I also liked that hacking isn’t a mini-game that imitates any form of Hollywood hacking, but rather is explained by using backdoors or other exploits to gain access to that part of ctOS. There are some instances where a mini-game is used, which I guess would play the Hollywood hacking a little straight, but when that happens it becomes an interesting breed of puzzle game that I enjoyed playing through.

This leads into something which can negate the wondrous idea of open-world hacking: gunplay. Aiden has access to a sizable selection of weaponry, with some guns obviously being more effective than others, although it isn’t always required. Guns can affect how you are viewed by the residents of Chicago depending on how you use them, including robbing stores or killing criminals unnecessarily, but there are points in the game where stealth and hacking simply won’t be an option. A silenced pistol will help with the stealth option to minimize detection in missions which require going through small areas populated with enemies, but it would be a little better if the hacking had more emphasis in the grand scheme of things. I’ll repeat that I liked the hacking, and it works really well, but the fact that most of the time you use it to blow stuff up or spy on people takes a little of the fun away from such an amazing idea. If the environment could be solved more like a puzzle just by hacking, then I might have felt more powerful in a bold new way, as opposed to someone armed to the teeth that can also hack to get the job done. It’s not a total waste of a perfectly good gimmick, but it’s enough to wish that the developers had focused more on stealth, which is the more entertaining way to play.

If only pure hacking was more of an option.

But Aiden can do more than just hack with his Smartphone. He also has access to a variety of apps, one of which acts as a manual of sorts for the game; it’s not a manual like ones that would comes with games in the olden days, but it’s not like the game doesn’t kind of tell what you can do as you go anyway. You can also check your progress or spend skill points to improve various aspects of the gameplay, including more things to hack or better driving and combat skills. One very useful app is the ability to summon any car you want on demand (as long as it fits into a list), which will materialize at the nearest spot to you to minimize the pain of getting one. Cars, motorcycles and trucks, to name some types, all have their own sub-lists and individual stats, which help making a selection easier. Of course the actual driving is an interesting subject, since the physics are a little floaty, as in the game itself is pretty good about the realism until it comes to colliding with any car or object (or even just turning/drifting). Steering is a little hard to accomplish because the cars are a bit sensitive to the controls and objects will comically fly about once you hit them, including phone lines and highway barriers (those yellow things that resembles trash cans and are filled with water or sand). It’s not impossible to get through the game anyhow, since I managed to drive my way across the city with little problem, but when it does get in your way, it really gets in your way; alternatively you can make a game out of it and see how closely you can total your car between points A and B.

One of the most fun apps by far though is the one for Digital Trips. Digital Trips are side games that you can play, which are similar to the VR game interactions spread across the city, but are far more immersive by putting you in an unconscious dream state, with someone even explicitly stating that they aren’t drugs. Digital Trips have you accomplishing certain objectives for skill points which you can use on each game’s individual skill wheel. The Trips end when you either fulfill all of the objectives or fail to meet one in an allotted time frame (or, in the case of one Trip, die). Obviously they get progressively difficult and it can get easier to screw up, but overall it’s fun to play each of the four Trips: Alone, Madness, Spider Tank and Psychedelic. My only real complaint beyond this is that there is a fifth Digital Trip, Conspiracy, which is DLC only, but the game actually went out of its way to not only place it in the Digital Trips app, but also plaster “Downloadable Content” on it and have selecting it take you to the DLC store. I don’t mind DLC normally, since I can choose to ignore it, but having it be advertised when it’s not a main menu announcement is going a little far for my tastes.

But on the other hand this Spider Tank is really awesome.

The Digital Trips aren’t the only major distraction however, since there are a number of side missions to partake in, some of which have their own storylines. Completing these missions in full can be very satisfying or, in the case of the Missing Persons cases, terrifying. When not uncovering a Weapons Trade operation or locating Burner Phones though, there’s always the ability to stop a crime or the Privacy Invasion side missions that will essentially grant you free experience or cash. These distractions are by now an essential element of an open world game and it’s good that there is pretty good execution to boot. Since I pre-ordered the game, I also had access to an exclusive mission, The Palace, but I didn’t really get very far because when I tried playing it, I kept running into a broken checkpoint that prevented me from going any further. You see, you’re supposed to go to the mansion of SoSueMe and hack his stuff before chasing him. When it gets to the part where you have to chase him and the checkpoint does work, it’s an exercise in frustration because you have to wait for a cutscene to end and then go down a specific winding path to catch him. When it doesn’t work however, he doesn’t even enter his car and you can kill him, but it will generate an invincible rag doll that will perpetually have an objective icon and can’t be removed no matter what you do (even if you grenade blast him to the nearby riverbed and make him fall through the game world).

In fact, glitches turned out to be a part of the experience in general. There’s nothing too game breaking, the worst is usually water not reacting to bullets, but sometimes there wouldn’t be a single car on the road at all. During a certain mission near the end of the game, I swear that Chicago turned into a large scale ghost town, since no one was around and, once, the only parked vehicles were motorcycles (how oddly specific). This was especially annoying since I was, by design apparently, unable to avoid the cops chasing me, which necessitated a vehicle despite none being around. I had to resort to stealing a police car right in front of them, which solved the problem for a bit until I found out that dying was the only surefire way to get cars (and people!) to finally spawn. It feels as though there was some sort of miscommunication (or lack thereof) with QA or they couldn’t fix that in time for release.

Fortunately, the PS3-exclusive hour of content was free from glitches. It consists of four missions, Ctrl, Alt, Delete and Shut Down. These involve Aiden working with the hacking collective DedSec to steal data from another group and use it to upload a virus to cripple them without being seen. The missions themselves amount to three tailing missions and a stealth/defense mission. I actually enjoyed these for the most part due to their simplicity and you may not be missing too much should you go away from the PlayStation versions. However, I always prefer the option where I get more out of my game, so I would encourage prospective players to take this into consideration.

Of course, one of the most hyped features about Watch Dogs was the ability for players to hack each other’s games via asynchronous multiplayer. I only took advantage of the Online Hacking option (there’s also Online Tailing and Racing), but I got the gist of how the logistics work. In Online Hacking, you invade someone else’s game either on a whim or encouraged by them having a bounty. When inside, you then install a backdoor and try to steal their data to benefit your game, though you have to be careful not to get caught; when on the receiving end of the invasion, it’s up to you to track down where the invader is and kill/neutralize them before they have a chance to do anything. Whenever I was hacking someone, I felt a huge adrenaline rush as I hoped that they wouldn’t find me, leading me to conclude that the mode is absolutely terrifying to initiate. Being on the receiving end however is a different story, since I’ve been successfully hacked a couple times but then figured out that the best way to quickly take someone down is to make sure you are in an isolated area or one with only one or two entry points to more easily pick them off. This mode works very well and it’s good that such a natural extension of the game’s gimmick is a success.

When you see this, it's time to act fast.

The most common complaint people would likely have about Watch Dogs is the graphics. The E3 trailers had very advanced graphics and looked very nice, which served as a heavy contrast to a later trailer displaying toned down capabilities. At first I sort of cared, but then once I played I didn’t really care. The graphics are still very nice and detailed, with great cloth and hair physics to boot, plus I didn’t really notice too much of a difference anyway.

I’m pretty impressed with the voice acting, particularly from the side characters, and was surprised to learn that Aisha Tyler has a physical presence in the game, so when I see her now I’ll be able to recognize her. No real complaints with voice acting (I usually never do unless it’s bad or wooden). As for the music, the licensed stuff is just all right, I even made an in-game playlist of the songs that I did like, but the original score is amazing. It captures just the right feel for each scene and is also very listenable to boot. If I see a soundtrack for it, I’d totally think about buying it.

Overall, Watch Dogs is pretty good game, though more by virtue of not being bad. There are some really great ideas in here, but for everything good there’s usually something else that almost negates it, resulting in a package that more or less (and more accurately) is just okay. If they had ironed out some of the bugs, emphasized the hacking more or had something that was more tonally equal, then this could easily have been a real gem. But as it stands, the questions it raises aren’t explored enough, especially given the world at the time of this writing, and the main character isn’t completely interesting. I ended up liking the game anyway, but prospective buyers should consider if this is really the game for them. If you’re totally sold on the game though, and the graphics are really important to you, then consider buying a PS4 copy to get a little more bang for your buck.

Spider-Man 2 (PS2)

You have no idea how hard it was to find screenshots for this.

When Spider-Man 2 first hit the silver screen back in 2004, I obtained the PS2 version of its tie-in game out of curiosity. Back then, when I was about 11, I remember having a total blast with it as I spent a lot of my free time completing a lot of the game’s side goals or just swinging around New York for fun. Later, however, I ended up getting rid of the game and had regretted it ever since. Recently though, I believe it was last year, I got a replacement copy, which I began playing around the time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out since we had rewatched Spider-Man 2 to get a review on this blog. The result is that, as a 21-year-old, I have a new perspective on the game itself, though I’d say that, despite some things not aging well, the magic is still there.

The game follows the plot of the film rather closely, detailing Peter Parker’s struggle between continuing on as Spider-Man and giving up the persona to live a normal life. However, there are a few places where the game notably deviates from the film, mainly in how it introduces a few additional characters. Spider-Man has to fight additional villains, those being Rhino, Shocker and Mysterio, and Black Cat shows up to help Peter choose which life he wants to live. I found this new narrative to be interesting, partly because it feels like they used an earlier version of the script, but also because it offers an alternate string of events to follow that gives it a different feel than the movie. The scenes that do recreate the film are altered in some ways, but you can still imagine them as they really were if it bothers you (it didn’t for me). Still, it was pretty easy to follow and it wasn’t bad at all to revisit it, however the gameplay can make specific sections annoying (more on that later).

Spider-Man 2, or at least this version of the game, is notable for its gameplay. More specifically, it is the first game where you can web-sling as Spider-Man in a three-dimensional space. The physics in this game work very well, taking speed, power and momentum into account when swinging off of buildings, effectively allowing you to do whatever you wish in a very intuitive fashion. When not trying to complete objectives, it’s a lot of fun to just simply swing around Manhattan (as well as Roosevelt, Ellis and Liberty Islands) and feel a sense of great freedom. The combat also takes some of these things into account, though it is basically a fun brawler. You can buy upgrades at the Spider Store with Hero Points that you earn during gameplay that increases your effectiveness in combat and while web-slinging. An additional mechanic allows you to dodge attacks, visualized through Spidey-Sense, as well as another that lets you slow down time to either dodge more effectively or attack certain enemies more easily. When all put together, both the exploration and combat is actually pretty exciting at times and really captures what it feels like to be Spider-Man.

You can eventually do stuff like this.

Like in any open world game, there are missions that Spider-Man can complete. The story missions follow the script and understandably happen in a more linear fashion. Side Missions, on the other hand, are numerous and are spread across the world. However, these occur more naturally, being able to randomly pop up wherever you go. Some are triggered by talking to someone while others are active and happen at that given moment. There is no penalty for ignoring a mission, but if you don’t complete what you are actively participating in, you lose 100 Hero Points, which can be a big deal if you’re trying to save up for one specific upgrade in the store. While there are a few types of missions you can partake in, most of which involve stopping armed equal opportunity thugs, it can get a little repetitive to complete them, especially when playing them back-to-back, since in the end there are very little types but only slight variations on them occur each time. Going through the story unlocks more types, but in the end they are still variations on the same missions you’ve already completed multiple times.

One mission type which stands out as particularly annoying though is when you must retrieve a girl’s balloon. The girl’s voice is very loud, as you can hear it from a mile away, always reminding you that a balloon is very slowly rising to the sky. You can’t use your web on the balloon, or else it will pop, so your only choice is the physically grab it, but in some environments the task is rendered very herculean or otherwise impossible. The worst part however is that, when you fail, you’ll hear the same girl sob very loudly in the same annoying tone. I never liked it ten years ago and I don’t like it now, so in this playthrough I intentionally avoided the balloon side missions as long as humanly possible, though I did succeed a couple of times.

The story missions aren’t without their faults either however. Naturally the missions get harder, though at times the difficulty felt supernatural. I did succeed with missions once I knew what to do, but especially noteworthy is the final battle with Doctor Octopus. At this point it’s understood that you’ll need to dodge his attacks and use webbing on his arms, but the reaction time required is very short and, if you’re not careful, he can throw you into the water almost as soon as the fight begins, resulting in an automatic loss. In other words, be very careful.

For the time that it came out, the graphics are pretty impressive, faithfully recreating the look of each character that appears, especially when it comes to making the ones who appeared in the movie look like the actors who played them. When I look back on it now, the graphics, especially the draw distance on the city, haven’t really aged too well, but there’s still a charm to this so I didn’t really mind. However, I will say that certain movements looked a little odd, especially the mouths within and outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. Still, it’s interesting to know what they were capable of in 2004. I liked the bright color palette, which matches the inherently silly tone of the comics and Sam Raimi films.

New York is your playground.

As for the voice acting, I’m impressed by the fact that they managed to get Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina to reprise their respective roles as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson and Doctor Otto Octavious/Doctor Octopus. Their deliveries seem a little off now, but I still think they turned out great performances, especially Alfred Molina who pulls off Doc Ock really well. Bruce Campbell also appears as the voice you hear giving tips, which he does very humorously in his signature voice. The other voice actors do a good job as well, even if we have to settle for not-as-good sound-alikes for Harry Obsorn (James Franco in the movie; Josh Keaton in the game) and J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons in the movie; Jay Gordon in the game). I will say also that the music is pretty good too, with very energetic combat music by KMFDM and a very good score by others, including a not-that-bad rendition of the Spider-Man theme by The Distillers (who are even advertised in-game via graffiti).

Simply put, Spider-Man 2 is a very good game. The different story direction is interesting and while the gameplay is amazing, it has its own hang-ups that could have been worked out a little. What makes up for this is the inclusion of three major stars from the film, as well as the humorous Bruce Campbell, along with the faithfulness to the tone of Spider-Man in general. I’m certain that modern open world superhero games, including the Infamous series, have made improvements on the genre in significant ways, but Spider-Man 2 has a certain charm that is hard to override and is definitely worth a look for those who are seeking PS2 nostalgia or who don’t like the divisive gameplay of later Spider-Man titles. Plus, there is plenty of replay value in the many collectibles or the simple joy of web-slinging through a huge city. Trust me; this game is worth every penny.

[OLD] Saints Row IV - Everything You Want in Open World Gaming

I’ve mentioned before that open world gaming isn’t a genre that I normally pick up. My main experience in this genre of gaming has come from the Assassin’s Creed and Infamous franchises as well as Batman: Arkham City and Saints Row: The Third (as well as a couple hours of Grand Theft Auto). While I have some experience with Saints Row 2, it was Saints Row: The Third that got me into the Saints Row franchise, so my anticipation of Saints Row IV had already begun when development of it became known. As it turns out, while they were developing this game, they had cancelled the planned Enter the Dominatrix DLC for the third game, as they realized that they could expand the concepts from it into a full game and fold it into what they already had (though now Enter the Dominatrix will be DLC for this game, which is kind of weird). This explains why Volition returned to Steelport for Saints Row IV and recycled assets, but doesn’t explain why no one was mad at them for reusing Stilwater between Saints Row 1 and 2.

Every video I saw of it increased my anticipation, with the reveal of some of the customization and weaponry wishing I could play it quicker. In that time however, THQ sadly went under, which briefly put the franchise in a state of limbo. As the publisher’s properties went on sale to other companies, publisher Deep Silver acquired developer Volition as well as the Metro franchise. It is through this acquisition that Saints Row IV was able to be published last week and how I’m able to share my opinion on the game. This latest entry in the Saints Row franchise is an improvement on Saints Row: The Third and is a game that open world fans should definitely look into playing.

Five years after the events of Saints Row: The Third, the Saints have risen from taking over Steelport to taking over the White House, with The Boss as President of the United States. Things seem to be going well, although the President’s approval rating has dropped to only 20 points. Just before he can give a big speech however, an alien race known as the Zin invade and abduct the important members of the President’s cabinet. While the President attempts to fight them off, he is ultimately taken by Emperor Zinyak, leader of the Zin Empire, who places him in a simulation of Steelport for his own amusement. The President manages to escape from Zinyak’s control, ending up on a spaceship with Kinzie and Vice President Keith David. Seeking revenge, the President decides to use the simulation to rescue more people he thinks will be useful so that the Saints can defeat Zinyak and take back Earth.

Emperor Zinyak at his throne.

By focusing on a single villain, the story of Saints Row IV seems to have more focus than the previous game. While I did say I liked the story of Saints Row: The Third, though there were problems with it, there seems to be more to this entry. I saw some character moments that seemed to mean something and there is a specific scene which gives the player good motivation to try and kill Zinyak. We even get to understand the kind of person the President is and see that the justification for his actions is quite sound. However, while the story is longer than that of Saints Row: The Third, it does prove itself to be nothing more than an excuse to throw as much over-the-top lunacy as possible to the player, and I consider that a good thing considering what we get to play around with.

First off, let’s talk about the super powers. That’s right; the President of the United States has access to super powers. This feature seemed to be the one discussed the most, which is why I wish to bring it up first. Among the abilities accessible are Super Speed, which can extend to gliding and running up buildings, and a Super Jump, which will eventually let you leap tall buildings. Other powers, like Blasts and Telekinesis, also have further sub-abilities based on what element is selected at the moment. This means that, for instance, a Blast augmented with fire has different effects from one augmented with ice, which allows the player to use their newfound abilities as they see fit. Using these powers in combat gave me new thrills, but it was especially fun to just roam around Steelport with a combination of powers, especially as they got more powerful, which also really increased mobility and made it more fun to get to places, rather than having to drive a long way to a mission or go somewhere to acquire some kind of jet. Just having the powers gave me a sense of glee, and even if it does make things easier, I like that they didn’t completely remove the sense of challenge from the game.

Of course, just because you get super powers, it doesn’t mean you can’t use any weapons. Saints Row IV sees the return of the standard weapons from previous games (Pistol, RPG, etc.) as well as their different versions, but now there are a slew of brand new weapons that are so ridiculous you’d be crazy not to use them. Apart from standard alien weaponry –laser-firing versions of standard weapons– Volition has included such things as an Inflat-O-Ray, which cartoonishly expands people’s heads until they explode, a Bounce Rifle, which fires balls with the properties of a pinball ball, and my personal favorite, the Dubstep Gun, which fires Dubstep instead of bullets. The preview that introduced the Dubstep Gun was the one that sold me on the game and, as a result, this was pretty much the only weapon I used regularly, especially when fully upgraded, which made the wubs generated by the weapon explosive. If you have the Commander in Chief upgrade, you also have access to the 'Merica weapon, a combination of a dozen guns as well as flamethrower and rocket launcher, which is so American that it hurts.

The Dubstep Gun, the best weapon in the game (no, really).

The best thing about having weapons and super powers is that you can combine them in combat, such as using a freeze blast followed by a gunshot to break the frozen enemy, or even use a particular power to enhance your bullets with a selected element. You even have the option, should you desire, to only use conventional weaponry and keep the use of your powers to a minimum, but it’s good to be aware that you’ll need to use your powers sooner or later to fight off the Zin, particularly against Wardens and shielded variants of the Zin (as well as shielded Wardens).

In addition to the weaponry, there’s also a rather wide selection of vehicles. All of your favorites from previous games are back, along with some new ones acquired from story progression or completion of certain challenges. Your super powers may allow you to run faster than a car or fly at the speed of a jet plane, but sometimes you want to just go for a drive, or get into a tank and shoot the crap out of everything or even take a plane and do some barnstorming; whatever floats your boat. While you don’t have a garage anymore, vehicles you are currently in can be saved by pressing the down button on the d-pad so that you can summon it at any time with your phone. If that doesn’t sell you, then consider that you can even combine super powers with vehicles, which includes jumping off a tall building and then summoning a jet to your location, such as the awesome Screaming Eagle (available with the Commander in Chief upgrade), thus now letting you pilot it while you’re in mid-air. You can even steal a car Dukes of Hazard style by running up to the desired car while going at supersonic speeds and then initiating the action. Performing this on my own generated some laughs as well as amazement from accomplishing it.

While you can use super powers with your guns, you’ll no longer be able to use grenades, as they have been removed from the game…Whatever.

Of course, I should also mention the customization options, which blow Saints Row: The Third right out of the water. Not only can you customize the President or your car collection to absurd degrees, but now guns have a much greater degree of customization. Aside from a series of skins, your guns can also assume different shapes, including making your RPG look like a guitar case or a Burst Rifle appear as a Super Soaker, perhaps even making a Quickshot Pistol into a Star Trek phaser. There are even skins for these different looks and it’s amazing how much attention to detail there is on the weapons, such as how the different skins for the Dubstep Gun change the music that comes out, one being an industrial mix of the default music and another allowing it to fire “Vindicate” by Datsik & Excision; the Dubstep Gun even has dials which react in time with the wubs. The level of customization is insane and I like this game all the better for it.

You didn't believe me about the guitar case, did you?

Most importantly, I like the fact that the options are open for the players. Whether you want to use your powers or conventional/alien weapons or just go for a joy ride, you can do it all and have everything look the way you want. I applaud Volition for this move, as, even if I don’t take full advantage, I’d rather have the option be there than not have the option at all.

Another improvement over Saints Row: The Third is how activities work. In the previous game, the only real incentive for completing activities was to take over 100% of Steelport or complete another version of the same activity at a higher difficulty (Easy, Medium or Hard). In Saints Row IV, activities now have completion tiers (Bronze, Silver and Gold) in addition to having different levels of difficulty. Not only will you want to improve your performance, but getting enough Silver and Gold medals across all instances of the activity will earn you new stuff to play around with, which is fine by me because I want to be able to run on water and get Gold in everything I possibly can.

As for the activities themselves, you won’t be finding all of your favorites from the course of the series, including the oft-mentioned Septic Avenger activity from Saints Row 2, but what they do have are better versions of activities from the previous game, or at least in the way that they accommodate both cyberspace and the super powers. Trailblazing, for example, is now Blazin and has you using the Preisdent’s Super Speed and Super Jump to collect orbs that will increase his speed and temporarily freeze a timer, with the goal of running all the way to end while hitting every checkpoint. The Mayhem activity also returns, but with many more variations in the level at once, such as Tank and Mech Suit versions, to provide some variety and let you blow stuff up with whatever you happen to use. I’ll admit that super powers did make the Insurance Fraud mission a little easier to do, but in the fun way where I tried to see just how much damage I could rack up with my ragdoll flying a few stories into the air in its travels. There are others, one which features Professor Genki again, but most of them are really fun to play and the Gold medal rewards are worth it.

Yay! More Genki!

You can also perform missions for your Homies, which are actually the open world activities grouped into sets, their completion tied together loosely for one reason or another. As these missions grant worthwhile rewards, there are a couple of ways you could go about them Either you could keep going back and forth between your ship and the simulation, or you could actually complete every mission available and then talk to your Homies a few times to receive every available reward. This is something to keep in mind for those who don’t like the idea of constant movement, but all you really have to do is take advantage of the option to circumvent movement and give you more time to play around.

If you want to get the best ending in the game however, you’ll also need to complete each of your Homies’ Loyalty missions. These Loyalty missions reveal more about the characters and provide different spins on certain things, such as one referencing Genki Bowl, but reward you with a super powered version of that Homie to call on in combat with the phone. On the subject of references, the missions you perform to rescue members of the cabinet are isolated and warped simulations based on fears that those characters have. These levels are also unique in that they reference past games all the way back to the first one, as is the case with Benjamin King, or actually act as vehicles to lampoon other popular video games, such as Asha Odekar’s targeting Metal Gear Solid (as a fan of the series, I actually found it to be quite funny, though I was a little disappointed by the use of an inexplicably popular misquote). These levels contribute to the story, but also let you have some more fun with how ridiculous the game can get.

Before I end my review, I’d like to mention the music. How good the licensed music selection is in a video game is very subjective, but I think that the songs in Saints Row IV are more miss than hit. A lot of the radio stations return, including a new one devoted entirely to the Mad Decent record label. However, what I didn’t like was the complete lack of a Heavy Metal station, which had been a series tradition since the first game. Personally I liked most of 106.66 The Blood, as well as the presence of an Adult Swim station, and the former was actually the only station I listened to with any regularity. So, for the first time, I created a Mixtape of what I thought were the best songs in the game, including the lone In Flames song since it was the closest I could find to Heavy Metal; I hope that a fifth Saints Row game brings back this station. The only consolation I had was that the radio can now be heard anywhere in the world, not just when you’re driving a car, which is a huge improvement (and would’ve let me enjoy Heavy Metal at all times).

I find your lack of Metal...disturbing.

Though extremely over-the-top and occasionally nonsensical, Saints Row IV is the open world game to play. It improves over Saints Row: The Third in almost every way and while the story is ultimately useless in the long run, it did actually have a good progression and gave the player some reason to care about the events taking place. Fans who don’t mind an insane premise and equally insane execution should pick this up, as well as open world fans in general who want to be able to experience things they won’t be able to anywhere else (though if you liked Crackdown, Prototype and Destroy All Humans!, you’re in for a treat). While this entry did start life as an expansion, it has managed to become, and should be seen as, a full game in its own right.