Star Fox: Assault

With the success of Star Fox Adventures (Adventures), Nintendo greenlit a sequel, Star Fox: Assault (Assault), this time developed by Namco rather than Rare, with the latter having been purchased by Microsoft. After I had originally played Adventures, I admittedly didn’t have much interest in the other Star Fox games, until I learned that Assault was a sequel and even contained elements from Adventures beyond Krystal becoming a mainstay, which led me to explore the franchise further and eventually receive Assault as a gift. Like the previous game, Assault was also developed for the GameCube, however I could not get my GameCube to properly read the disc, so I ended up playing it through the backwards-compatible Wii. After finally getting to play it, I found it an interesting follow-up to Adventures due to its different gameplay approach, and I also liked getting to see its characters and setting again, however briefly.

Resident Evil 6 (PS4)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Resident Evil 2 (1998), Resident Evil 4 (2005), Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6.

Following the success of Resident Evil 5 (RE5) in 2009, Capcom took the next natural step and started development on Resident Evil 6 (RE6). Much like Resident Evil 4 (RE4) and RE5 before it, RE6 had its own share of development woes, apart from attaching a less-experienced director to the project, whose only prior directing experience included Resident Evil: Outbreak - File #2 and the lesser-known Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. The short version is that early in development, the focus shifted from survival horror to “the ultimate horror entertainment”, which included increasing its scope beyond the traditional bounds of a Resident Evil (RE) title and leaning even harder into the “action” genre than RE5 in an attempt at appealing to new players. This increased scope led to the inclusion of four distinct campaigns (much more on that later), each one tailored to appeal to a different corner of the RE fanbase, which also meant throwing over 600 people at the project to complete effectively four games’ worth of work in only three years. This effort proved fruitless, however, as RE6 sold fewer copies than its predecessors and received a frosty reception from critics during its initial 2012 release, as well as a lasting reputation as one of the worst games in the series.

Compared with RE4 and RE5, I had even less experience with RE6 before my series deep dive, as I had only played a small part of the demo without understanding the controls and watched a Clueless Gamer segment poking fun at it. Of course, I have much more experience with the series than I did twelve years ago, so I went into a full playthrough armed with far more knowledge and patience than before, this time through the more complete PS4 port from 2016 (though I played on a PS5). While I can see why it has its fans nowadays, I can’t say that I didn’t understand why it gained such a negative reputation, as I found it easily among the worst of the mainline games (apart from Code: Veronica X) thanks to its unfocused vision and how it plays more like a bombastic playable action movie than a proper RE game.

Resident Evil 5 (PS4)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Resident Evil, Resident Evil 3 (2020), Resident Evil Code: Veronica X, Resident Evil 4 (2005) and Resident Evil 5

The same year that Capcom released the original Resident Evil 4 (2005) (RE4), they already got to work on the next main game, Resident Evil 5 (RE5), with the goal to take advantage of the capabilities of seventh-generation consoles. Development of RE5 involved multiple scenario rewrites and changes in direction, which included scrapping ideas like having enemies attacking from the shadows or having the camera reflect the player character adjusting their eyes to darkness (not unlike Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater), the main constants were setting the game in Africa during the day, both to explore the origins of the Progenitor Virus and take advantage of the then-upcoming seventh console generation, and using RE4 as a foundation for gameplay due to its popularity. Although RE5 wouldn’t release completely without incident in 2009, it still garnered generally positive reception, though critics and fans noted a shift away from survival horror and more towards action. The following year, Capcom would also release an updated Gold Edition, which included additional content not found in the original release, as well as Move support for the PS3 version; PS3 copies of Gold Edition had all of the content on the disc while 360 copies still required a separate download of the new content (owners of the original version could also purchase the Gold Edition content separately).

As with RE4, I actually had a little bit of experience with RE5, specifically the PS3 Gold Edition, before I really got invested in the series with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. However, I didn’t actually get very far, not even past Chapter 1-1, as I found the controls too awkward and didn’t have the patience for it at the time. Naturally, my deep dive brought me back to RE5, this time through the PS4 rerelease, and while I enjoyed it much more this time around, I can also see why reception remains mixed.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner M∀RS (PS4)

Right after I took a dive into the world of Zone of the Enders, I thought it natural to immediately play the sequel, The 2nd Runner, to wrap up the remaining story threads. For the best possible experience, I played The 2nd Runner M∀RS, a 2018 updated release for PS4 with enhanced graphics, VR support and surround sound. This version not only felt great to play on modern hardware, it felt like a vast improvement over the original Zone of the Enders as well.

Zone of the Enders (PS2)

As a fan of the Metal Gear series, I inevitably came across the title Zone of the Enders. While this 2001 mecha game did sell well enough to warrant a sequel, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, it’s best known for coming bundled with the demo for the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in its initial release. As such, it developed a reputation as “the free game” that came with a full-priced demo, but still attracted a cult following of its own. I’ll admit that part of my attraction to this game was the fact that Hideo Kojima produced it, but a good amount of it was just to see what Zone of the Enders actually was. When I finally got my copy of the game, which, of course, came without the famous MGS2 demo disc, I played it at the first opportunity. I could definitely see the potential in the series, but this first game is definitely rough around the edges.

Gears 5

Note: This review contains spoilers for Gears 5.

Since I’ve played the previous Gears of War console titles, including Gears of War 4 (a game I never gave a full review for), it felt inevitable to me to play Gears 5, the second installment developed by The Coalition. I even went out of my way to get the version with the Terminator: Dark Fate DLC. When I finally got around to playing this game, I was curious about where this presumed second trilogy was heading, but I left very wary of how a Gears 6 will turn out.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD

If you hadn’t heard of Metal Wolf Chaos before, no one would blame you. The game, developed by FromSoftware of Armored Core and Souls fame, was originally released in 2004 as an Xbox-exclusive, but never made it outside of Japan. Its increasing cult status would eventually warrant a remaster, named Metal Wolf Chaos XD, courtesy of Devolver Digital. Now, nearly 15 years later, Americans finally have the chance to play what is perhaps the most American game ever made. While I was excited to play it and enjoyed my time with it, I have to admit it’s certainly rough around the edges.

Gears of War: Judgment - The Gears Turn Faster

Last March, I reviewed Gears of War 3 and mentioned at the end that it would be a while before I played the then-upcoming Gears of War: Judgment. This was because God of War: Ascension came out around the same time and we ended up buying that instead. Later, I would actually receive Gears of War: Judgment as a Christmas present, enabling me to finally play it. About six months later, when I didn’t have school to worry about anymore and I was between things to review, I finally got around to playing the game, finishing the campaign within a couple of days during my free time. I enjoyed my time and I thought the new developer, People Can Fly, created something worthy of being an entry in the franchise. At the same time, though, there are a couple of annoyances that do hold it back a little.

Gears of War: Judgment serves as a prequel to the previous games in the Gears of War series, taking place during some early point in the Locust War. Kilo Squad, led by Lieutenant Damon Baird, is on trial by Colonel Ezra Loomis under accusations of treason for stealing COG experimental technology while on a mission at Halvo Bay. The trial serves as a framing device for Kilo Squad to give their testimony on what happened, switching back and forth between the past and present to transition between each member’s testimonies.

Colonel Loomis is kind of an ass.

Personally, I thought the story was written pretty well and was generally easy to follow, although at times I needed a reminder on why a specific action was happening. As this takes place in the past, the personalities of Baird and Cole are different than the games later in the timeline, but the vocal chemistry between them adds some depth to their friendship by giving more specifics to the audience. Because of this, we can see how they are able to stick together for so long in the main games and hearing their dialogue is fun. Two new additions to the Gears of War Universe are Cadet Sofia Hendrik, a former reporter who went to the Onyx Guard academy before her assignment to Kilo Squad, and Private Garron Paduk, a former Gorasni soldier who was originally a Major in the UIR, but became a Private with the COG through the Open Arms Program and got assigned to Kilo Squad. These two are very interesting characters, written in a way that you’re aware of their back stories, but their personalities are pretty well fleshed out and let you get to know them as people. Allowing everyone a shot at giving testimony was a great idea since we get to know everyone better and are allowed to hear multiple sides of the same story. Granted the stories follow the same timeline, but the idea is still brilliant and executed very well, especially since all characters are playable this way.

The way the story is played through though could have used some work. Each chapter is divided into a number of parts, each part consisting of an introduction to a new part of the environment before fighting through at least one wave of Locust and then moving on. After a few sections it gets pretty formulaic and it’s easy to see when a fight is coming, especially if the map layout is suspiciously firefight friendly, but over ten hours of it gets tiring and got me more and more anxious to see the ending. Missions also have a star rating, with improvement on it providing incentive to replay through the levels. However the frequent stops to give the rating for each mission frequently break the immersion, which led to me getting increasingly anxious to end the game. An additional replay incentive is the Declassified goals, which add a modifier to the mission and give a boost in increasing your star rating, along with adding additional testimony for Kilo Squad by filling in details they would have otherwise neglected to mention. Since I did all but a couple Declassifieds on my first playthrough, I don’t really know if the additional testimony changes the game at all apart from the narrations in the past. Still, it’s a neat idea that deserves mention for allowing more self-imposed challenges.

Triggering a Declassified mission requires finding this glowing logo.

Gameplay is mainly the same as previous games, but with tweaks to make it flow faster. Switching weapons is now done with a single button, Y, and grenade throwing is done such that you can still go through the setup to aim with LB and then throw with RT, or you can just simply hold LB to aim and then release the button to throw, or, more simply, just tap LB to throw in the direction you’re facing. In addition, the game introduces a new Locust type called the Rager, which starts out as a normal Locust equipped with a Breechshot, but physically changes to a melee-focused enraged form that can only be quickly disposed of with headshots; the one Declassified I intentionally skipped included waves of almost nothing but already enraged Ragers. A number of weapons are also introduced for the first time, those being the Booshka, a grenade launcher which fires ricocheting rounds with a delayed fuse; the GZ18 Marzka, a UIR sniper rifle; the Breechshot, a Locust sniper rifle without a scope, Stim-Gas grenades, which create a field that heals anyone within its range; and the Tripwire Crossbow, which fires rounds that are useful when setting up a defense against waves of Locust. These additional weapons are all very responsive and easily lend themselves to differing play styles throughout the campaign, though if you choose to go after all the Declassified missions you will be forced to change things up anyway. In any case, new weapon variety is always welcome to prevent things from getting stale and these weapons end up making sense in the long run thanks to the game’s setting.

Things are about to get Ghnasty.

Graphically, the series is almost identical to Gears of War 3, but there are slight improvements to the color palette that helps things stand out a bit better on the battlefield, though I would chalk that up to the campaign taking place mostly during the day with clear skies. However, this just shows off how good the lighting is and it’s always pretty cool to look at. Sound design is the same from the last game, but is no less impressive, and the sound which indicates the end of an encounter remains as satisfying as ever. Voice acting is also good, displaying a good emotional range and chemistry between characters.

As a bonus, earning 40 stars unlocks the Aftermath campaign, which takes place during the events of Gears of War 3. At some point during that game, Marcus Fenix sent Cole and Baird on a mission to find a ship and reinforcements for their assault on Azura. With Clayton Carmine, the duo returns to Halvo Bay and run into an old ally, Paduk, whom they haven’t seen in years. Paduk begrudgingly helps them on their quest, since his people made camp there and he knows the area. I liked playing this storyline, since I finally got closure on what happened to these characters during Gears of War 3, specifically why it took them until the final act to show up again. The campaign is also pretty short, maybe a couple hours, and its gameplay is basically Gears of War 3 (complete with graphics) but with all of the tweaks from Judgment, minus the tedious stopping between sections, star ratings and Declassified-type modifiers (though this makes sense given its spot on the timeline). I highly recommend playing this after completing the entirety of the Judgment campaign.

One of the first shots of Aftermath.

Before I end the review, I’d like to briefly discuss the Multiplayer. Normally, I don’t play online and, unlike my Gears of War 3 review, I don’t have an Xbox Live Gold account. So, in the interest of still wanting to discuss it, I tried the offline options to see what each thing was. Thankfully you can play offline with a second player and/or with bots. However, none of the modes were really that fun with two people. Sure the bots add some variety and increase the enjoyability, but my brother and I both concluded that all of the modes would be infinitely more fun with three or four people locally to provide more variety. Fortunately the new OverRun mode, in which players take turns defending or attacking an E-hole cover, is very fun regardless of having only two people around, although I must say that, due to the assigned roles of the characters and having pre-determined loadouts, the mode reminded me a lot of Team Fortress 2. That isn’t really a mark against it, just merely an observation; also, OverRun is sadly the only mode where a player can play as the Locust and Down But Not Out and Executions are no longer there (there are too many additional changes to list in this space). In addition, the new Free-for-All mode is basically a nice way of saying Gears of War now has a Deathmatch mode, though our conclusion about the number of people needed to make the game fun still stands.

I’d like to make one final complaint, which is that three Multiplayer modes, Execution, Master-at-Arms and Breakthrough, can be seen in the menu, but trying to select them has the game telling you to buy the DLC in order to play them. I have no idea if these were added to menu from an update or they were already on the disc, but I don’t like the idea of having a game tell you to spend money on it so you can do more things, even if you never intended to do so. If this was through an update, then it’s more understandable (though no less annoying), but if it was already that way from the start, then I have a problem.

Gears of War Judgment improves on the formula in all of the right ways, introducing tweaks to make the gameplay faster and creating greater replay value through additional modifiers and star ratings. While the story is pretty well-written, the frequent stops erode at the immersion and make the campaign unnecessarily tedious. However, it’s still a very fun game to play and the unlockable Aftermath campaign provides some much-needed closure on what happened to Baird, Cole and C. Carmine during Gears of War 3. This is a must-buy for Gears of War fans, plus for those who are only interested in the Multiplayer, I don’t think you can really go wrong. The gameplay may be getting a little more formulaic, but I’d still be willing to buy the next game and see what they’ll do next.

NeverDead - Much Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts

The background color of the box art here clearly indicates the quality of the product.

When I first saw a trailer for NeverDead, it looked like it might be a fun and unique title. With a unique premise and a song written by Megadeth specifically for it, I couldn't help but be curious. Once I got my hands on it however, I ended up playing a game that not only failed to live up to my expectations, but also a product that feels like not enough effort went into it to balance the mess that it truly is.

First, the story. 500 years ago, Bryce Boltzmann faced the demon king Astaroth. After failing in his task, he is cursed with immortality and a demonic eye. In the current age, he ends up working as a demon hunter for a living, doing so for money and sport. When demons invade a city, he teams up with private investigator Arcadia of the organization NADA to remove the threat. Along the way, many clues hint at the possible revival of Astaroth, with the fate of the world in the balance. As it turns out, the resulting plot is very cliche and manages to cover a lot of the basic tropes of this genre to the point where I was able to guess the plot twists based solely on who was important enough to get a name. When the twists actually do come up, it doesn't really come as much of a surprise and I felt completely underwhelmed.

The characters are also as flawed as the story, but not in any enjoyable sense. Since Bryce is immortal, I never once felt worried about him no matter how many bits of his past are revealed. While he is supposed to be a wise-cracking demon, he comes off as more of a failed mixture of Duke Nukem, Marcus Fenix and Dante; Compared to them, his pool of one-liners is very small, extremely repetitive and groan inducing, his attempts at being serious make him look more like an a-hole, and weapons end up not being creative enough or exciting (more on that later). To balance out his immortality, they have him protecting his mortal assistant Arcadia, though she feels a lot like the love interest in a story that eventually starts to care for his life despite how she first feels about him. Otherwise, the villains come off more as cardboard and feel thinly developed. What doesn't help is the generic script and only somewhat passable voice acting.

Throughout the game, Bryce will come across a range of guns and swords to use in combat. Unfortunately, these weapons fail for their own reasons. To begin, the guns are all of the generic ones that gaming veterans will no doubt be familiar with by now. We've got the bare basics, from the pistol and submachine gun to the grenade launcher and shotgun. While they do operate fine on their own, the game insists on having you dual-wielding the whole time. This may not sound like a big problem, since games like The Darkness and BioShock made it fun, but this game seems to like making the reticles separate while in motion, meaning that I had to stand perfectly still and wait a couple of seconds to get the kind of shot I actually wanted. The process proved frustrating, especially considering one bigger flaw: you can't lock onto enemies with the guns.

Sure, you can zoom in and aim that way, but Bryce moves a lot slower than preferred in that time considering what goes on in each area. You could say that the destructible environments would justify the lack of an ability to lock on  to aim, but if the sword can do this with ease, why not allow the guns to do this as well? On that note, I found the swordplay to be much more reliable in combat despite needing to lock on and slash with the right stick, mainly because most of the time I could actually tell that what I was doing had any real effect on the enemies in front of me. While you can't switch between swords like you can the guns, although that process is slow and painful, collecting new swords at least makes it stronger and I was able to feel some satisfaction from that.

While the environments are all beautifully detailed, they are also incredibly small and cramped, which sounds like a winning combination when the game throws a vast multitude of enemies at you. The demons, while impressively detailed, all have absolutely unimaginative names that hardly match their appearance. When you've got demon types named Puppy, Spoon, Panda Bear and Hippo, maybe it's time to get more creative. While clearing rooms of enemies to advance isn't something new or anything to get worked up over, I once again mention Devil May Cry, this game manages to make it annoying. Most of the time enemies spawn from wombs that you have to kill, meaning that there can be a potentially infinite number of enemies unless you stop it from generating one to three enemies every so often, which is a pain to do when multiple wombs are in an area to help make the levels feel more claustrophobic than necessary. What doesn't help at all is how often they love to evoke the game's main mechanic: the inability to die.

Yes, instead of dying, Bryce's limbs can be decapitated from damage or holding certain buttons. This game mechanic is the big pitch for the game and sounds like it could be used to help solve puzzles or make the game more challenging since you have to retrieve your limbs by combat rolling past them. Unfortunately it adds another layer of frustration since your decapitated limbs fly off way too far, sometimes to the other side of the room. A secondary mechanic that should have relieved this is the ability to regenerate limbs on the spot once you've lost them, though it's pretty flawed too. This mechanic is determined by a gauge, the speed of filling determined by how many limbs are attached. It refills too slowly in the most dire situations however, and even when you do regenerate completely you'd  better be prepared to suffer through this all over again. These mechanics when combined with the inability to die and sheer size of enemy waves more often than not turn the game into less of a fun experience and more into something of an exercise in frustration.

Now, when you kill enemies you gain experience points, or XP. XP, rather than leveling up, is used as the game's currency for buying skills that Bryce can use. Buying skills isn't a bad thing really, like in Devil May Cry when Dante's new powers become dormant until you use them. Here however, skills require slots, some of which take up more than others. Not only was this part of the system annoying, but also what some of the skills do; some come in handier than others, though one of them is not letting the gun reticles separate! When I found the right combination of skills I was able to squeeze some sense of enjoyment out of the game, but not enough to overcome other frustrations.

As I had mentioned earlier, Arcadia is Bryce's mortal companion who can die and serves as one of the only two ways to ever fail a mission (the other being when your lone head is sucked up by a Grandbaby enemy and you fail at timing something from a sports simulation game properly). When she is about to die, Bryce has the ability to heal her by holding down a button near her body, and this is much easier said than done. A lot of the time when this kicked in I was completely decapitated and waiting for my body to regenerate, only to have my head cut off repeatedly and almost fail to make it to her in time. While struggling with getting to her, she'll also repeatedly say lines about how dying is annoying, which was simultaneously confusing as well as an accurate barometer of how I felt at the time while playing.

The game's music, aside from the one song I wanted to hear, is also very forgettable even if there are a couple of good guitar riffs here and there. The variety it tries to introduce is also off-putting at times and just sounds plain goofy. I also noticed that the sound mixing was off, since at several points I couldn't hear what the characters were saying and thus failed to notice some instructions on what to do next even with subtitles on. While I know the player can remix the sound levels of the game, I don't believe they should have to in order to get the best experience.

I realize that I have gone this far without discussing the boss battles of the game. Most of them are piss easy, including the first major boss related to the story, executing strategies that are pathetically easy to get around thanks to them telegraphing their moves. The penultimate boss however, much like the final section of the game, is easily one of the most annoying thanks in part to his moveset and how hard it is to get a bead on him, causing me to fall back on using two guns I had planned on saving for other purposes. This battle however has nothing on my experience with the final boss. The very last boss in the game was so frustratingly hard and broken, while also involving and exploiting every flaw of the game, that I ended up going temporarily insane with rage and then subsequently breaking down into tears over it. As a result, I ended up immediately exchanging this game for SoulCalibur V, which incidentally enough came out on the same day.

It is very hard for me to recommend NeverDead to anyone except those who really want something unique if incredibly flawed. If it were up to me though, I would tell you not to touch this game with a 50-foot pole. The worst thing about this game for me personally however is that Megadeth, my favorite band, now has their name permanently attached to such a sub-par production. I almost feel as if this game wouldn't have gotten as much attention or sold as much if not for this fact, although I need to point out that the big song they wrote for it is barely present at all.

If you're like me and Megadeth is a big motivation for playing, then just avoid spending $60 on this game and instead buy the album, Thirteen (stylized TH1RT3EN), that has the theme song on it and loop it forever. The song alone is shorter but light years more enjoyable than the game it was written for.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

With the launch of the PlayStation 3 in 2006, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Sucker Punch began developing more mature titles for the current console generation. In 2007, just a year after the console's launch, Naughty Dog released Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Similarly to Sucker Punch's Infamous, Uncharted contrasted with Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter IP by crafting a third person shooter, but also by going for the feel of a Hollywood movie. The game received critical acclaim, leading to a sequel in 2009 and a third entry to be released this November. To build up to a review of that game, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, I will review the first two games starting with Drake's Fortune.

The story involves the protagonist Nathan Drake, essentially a modern day Indiana Jones, who finds the coffin of his ancestor Sir Francis Drake. Inside, he finds a clue that leads him to search for the legendary treasure of El Dorado. As he goes off to search for it he is accompanied by TV documentarian Elena, who also serves as his love interest, and his shady partner Sully. The narrative surrounding the events that follow is masterfully crafted, filled with plot twists, double crosses, and cliffhangers that are perfectly weaved into the game. I felt like I was invested in what was transpiring onscreen and the characters it involves, giving me more incentive to keep playing to find out what someone would do next.

What helps greatly with this is the graphics. For an early PS3 title, the game is still amazing to look at thanks to its heavy photorealism. From the lush and beautiful foliage to some incredible water flow and physics, the environment really contributes well to setting up the atmosphere of the game. Equally amazing are the range of expressions the characters can emote, especially in the cutscenes, assisted well by some great choices for voice acting. While the game may be almost four years old at this point, the effort put into it all helps it stand the test of time. From an overall graphical standpoint I would consider this game a landmark in what was possible at the time.

Thankfully, the gameplay manages to match the game very well, its design traits consisting of intense shootouts, well-done combat, light puzzle solving, and challenging platforming. While the guns are fun to use and control in the right ways, there is more of a focus on finding and moving between cover to stay alive. This helps to keep the player at the height of their senses, making them more aware of the three-dimensional plane around them. If an enemy gets particularly close, you can easily exchange fisticuffs with them, using timed button presses to gain even more ammo compared to simply shooting them. The AI is also pretty smart and challenging, but like with Duke Nukem II, it's the right level of difficulty that makes winning a firefight all the more satisfying once you outsmart their tactics. The platforming is also in the vein of Prince of Persia, with some slick animations and a more streamlined approach.

Since this game is very well constructed even now, I only had a couple of fairly minor complaints. When you get the chance to pilot a jet ski through tropical waters, it's an enjoyable change of pace but the controls felt off and sometimes it took the pace with it. The only other thing I found weird was the sudden genre shift close to the end of the game, which, while justified for the plot, felt odd to play through nonetheless.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a masterfully crafted gem from the dark early days of the PS3 worth playing even now. It knows what it's doing and definitely delivers on it, coming very close to feeling like an actual movie. If you have a PS3 and want to experience gaming to a new degree, go out and get this game (it should be fairly inexpensive by now). Next up is Uncharted 2, and I can't wait to see again how it improves on this already great package.

[OLD] Duke Nukem: Zero Hour - Zero Patience

As Duke Nukem Forever continued to reside in development hell, 3D Realms released another Duke Nukem game in order to satiate fans. This time working with developer Eurocom, they created Duke Nukem: Zero Hour (written as Zer:0 H:0ur) for the Nintendo 64 (N64). Released in 1999, it is a game said by many to be a great addition to the series. Continuing the third-person shooter (TPS) formula of Time to Kill, Zero Hour makes many improvements to create a better experience. Unfortunately, one thing is required in order to play: Patience, and lots of it.

The game begins with an unskippable cutscene explaining the plot: A Duke Nukem from the past contacts the present one, revealing he is stuck there because aliens destroyed his time machine. It is then up to Duke to travel back in time in order to save the future and prevent the aliens from screwing it up. As I do not own the manual for this game, this is all I have to go by. While it's not original for time travel to be in a Duke Nukem game (Duke Nukem 1 and Time to Kill), I would say that Duke seems to have a better incentive to time travel than in the last game.

The controls are solid and respond perfectly, but can get awkward at times, if only due to the layout of the N64 controller. By itself, however, you must move Duke using the C D-Pad while controlling the camera with the Analog Stick in the center which takes some getting used to. Also, you use the Right Shoulder Button to jump, which is fine, except that the animation to jump is a little slow, making the timing off for jumping out of water. Otherwise, the aiming is much improved over the previous Duke game, since the red icon in the center will always stay where you point it.

Like the previous game, there is plenty of variety in the weaponry, and ammo is dropped with every enemy you kill. Your weaponry changes depending on the time period, which makes plenty of sense for a time-travel game, but you will find a favorite to use in no time. You can also use a variety of items such as Medkits and Gas Masks, the latter of which is especially needed when facing certain Pig Cops. The graphics are actually nice for an N64 game at the time, a notable aspect being that the Pig Cops are this time much less portly than in the last game. Everything is rendered with clear detail, with Duke looking more noticeably masculine than in Time to Kill. When you get a view of the background scenery, the buildings contain a lot of humor alone. The sound quality is also nicely put together, with a great score and Duke seeming to have less-annoying one-liners this time around (again, compared to Time to Kill).

However, there is one big flaw I should mention with this game, so big that it can just as easily cripple the experience as the game can make it: There's no Save feature. Rather, there is one, but it's like in the first game where it can only Save after every level, meaning that you have to start over again after you die. This would be more accepting if the levels were smaller, but they are actually quite large, so you must re-do everything you ever did every single time. What makes this worse is that the game is very scripted, so you'll more often than not die after seeing something unexpected and have to re-do at least 20-30 minutes of progress at a time. Unless you have an ungodly amount of patience and willpower, you are likely to give up rather quickly.

I apologize for this, but this flaw actually caused me to give up after a few hours, without even beating the first level! Without the motivation to keep playing, I looked up the ending on YouTube to see what it was like. I will say that it's better than the last game, but I honestly don't think getting frustrated over replaying a level several times in a row is worth the effort.

Duke Nukem: Zero Hour is fun at first, but that can all change in an instant once you start dying a few times. Because I succumbed to the game's major flaw, I can't exactly say whether or not it's overall good, but I can say this: If you're a big Duke Nukem fan and/or have patience for this kind of Save system, you might get some enjoyment out of this game. However, if you are the type that gets easily frustrated with that kind of system, this probably isn't a game for you.