Looking At: The Purge: Anarchy

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The Great Purge

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The wealthy have their own way of Purging.

I didn't watch the original The Purge, and apparently that's probably for the best. I liked the idea of it, take the basic de-construction of a zombie movie, and remove the zombies. Let's face it, deep down inside all mankind is inherently evil. Given the opportunity, we'd all probably go crazy and give in to our most feral desires.

 That's sort of the world that The Purge sets up. It takes place in the near future, about twenty years from now, where the US government has been replaced by a group calling themselves The New Founding Fathers. Crime rates are down, unemployment is at an all time low, and every year the number of citizens living below the poverty line goes down. Everything is hunky dory, and it's all thanks to the Purge.

The idea is that all a country needs to run is a release. Every year, from 7pm March 21 to 7am March 22 every crime in America is legal and all emergency services are shut down. Citizens are free to do whatever they want, as long as it ends when The Purge does. I dig this idea, since it's similar to one of my favorite comic series The Crossed, and the idea of stripping mankind down to it's most primal core is an interesting one we don't see played around with much.

My understanding is that the first film was something of a disappointment, failing to do anything with this concept. According to Wikipedia it's about a well-to-do white family protecting a black person against people during The Purge. I can see why it wasn't well received, as that sounds terrible. Why spend the time to create a concept that so big, then set the movie with that concept in one location?

God's Not Dead

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God, the villain. Not a metaphor, the film's not smart enough for that.

Thankfully the original was successful, and so now we have a sequel in The Purge: Anarchy. It's a great sequel, taking the concept of the original and blowing it up to where it should be. If it wasn't for some second rate acting, shaky camera work, and an overly boring plot it could've been a modern horror classic.

Then again, Anarchy isn't a horror. This time around character's aren't staying put, and the movie is more or less a collection of events in a linear fashion, only tangentially connected. The plot, as much as there is one, is that a small group of innocent people are following some super soldier to safety as he navigates The Purge to carry out his own act of cleansing.

That's really it. We get about twenty minutes of setting up the characters before The Purge actually starts. There's Eva (Carmen Ejogo), a mother struggling to get by; her daughter Cali [sic](Zoe Soul) who's annoying as fuck; and Shane and Liz (Zach Gilford and Kiele Sanchez), a couple going through some marital issues. For one reason or another they all find themselves caught in the middle of the sixth annual Purge, and chased down by a private military force and a gang of bikers lead by a man named God.

By coincidence everyone gets saved by an unnamed man identified as Sergeant (Frank Grillo). He's armed to the teeth and on his way to do some killing of his own when he stops to be a hero, accidentally getting caught up in saving everyone's lives, all while just trying to get rid of them. It's clear from the get-go that he's better prepared then the average Purger, and watching him just go to town on people is fun and likely the best part of the movie.

God Bless the US

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From left to right: Whiney, Useless, Angry Ethnic, Frank Grillo, Moose-Face

What's better then The Purge's second rate story and dialogue is it's world and concept. The Purge is a deeply flawed idea, and for some reason the only crime the movie actually focuses on is murder. But even the film seems to acknowledge this, and there are hints at a bigger world then the one shown in the films.

Anarchy at least lets us see what America during The Purge actually looks like, and at it's best it's a sort of Alice in Wonderland style trip through a Purge. We see what people become, and see the various factions the spring up. There are roving gangs of killers, snipers, crazy religious people, the works. It's strongly implied that Purging has become something of a religious experience for some people, with the wealthy buying their victims and saying a prayer to the government before killing. There are even people that see how stupid The Purge is, and what's it's true purpose may or may not be. It's a world aware of itself, just barely smart enough to make sense without thinking to much.

It's to bad then that once again the film fails to truly deliver on this. Like I mentioned, there are a lot of problems with Anarchy. For starters, the camera work is varying degrees of terrible. Occasionally it catches a good shot, but so much of the film is made up of poorly handled shaky cam that it becomes annoying and distracting, especially during some of the more close-quarters fights.

Secondly, the actual plot is boring. There's almost nothing in the way of plot development, and it's really only there to carry the people along to their next location. Worse the characters are all one dimensional and like the plot go absolutely no where. Frank Grillo is probably the best, just because his character doesn't whine or complain, and seems ready to face what everyone knew was coming anyway.

The Purge feels like it should've been a different movie. As a Grindhouse style flick, this could've been an ok movie. All the elements are there: Gangs of psychos, an army of shady mercenaries tonnes of violence, hell, at the beginning, the hero even has a tricked out car. But instead we get this, some sort of neo-modern horror action film that doesn't know what it wants to be. There's a good movie in The Purge, we just have yet to see it.

Looking at: This War of Mine

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Right Shift.

In a world post-Dead Island, I rarely trust video game trailers anymore. So many times have the games failed to deliver even the slightest bit of what the trailer promises that I've just become jaded to the whole thing. This War of Mine is a bit different through. No, the game doesn't involve a protracted gunfight in a ruined city street, but rather the cinematography of the trailer is what really sells TWoM, the entire game is a subtle shift off-screen.

I've always wondered what goes on just out of frame, be it in film or picture. With video games you rarely have to wonder, since most games give you free reign of the camera. But do they really? Think about the Call of Duty franchise for example. Sure, you have free reign over what you're looking at, but you don't decide what you see. Following their inclusion into the series in COD: MW2, civilians appear in almost every COD, but they're only there as moving distraction, part of the scenery. Other shooters are the same, with the game only showing what you and your team mates are up to. TWoM is a shift right, the camera has been knocked over, and now we're looking at what's usually off screen.

Black, White, Red.

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Nights are spent scavenging, and hoping no one else is. =

Everything about TWoM is a tonal shift, from it's subject matter down to it's graphical representation. The plot, as much as there is one, is you are in control of three survivors in an unnamed middle European country in the midst of a civil war. Your city is under siege and there's no escape. Indeed, there is no escape from anything in TWoM, and you'll send your small group through hell and back to see them to the other side. It's a game about survival, but it's more about what your willing to do to survive.

You'll have to worry about food, warmth, and everyone's health on a daily basis. The game starts a little easy, with at least a few days of relative heat, so you'll only worry about food. There's two phases, day and night. During the day you're confined to your shelter, and will spend time prepping food, making furniture, and crafting tools and weapons. During the night, one person will run out and scavenge while the others either stand guard or sleep. What happens back home is randomized, some nights it'll be quite, some nights you'll be attacked, and it all falls on your guards to sort the situation out.

Scavenging is one of the more interesting parts of the game, since it's the part where you'll have the most direct control over what's happening. You take command of the scavenger and direct them to loot locations. Sometimes you'll need to overcome obstacles, and sometimes you'll meet other survivors. These encounters are some of the more interesting parts of the game, as you can choose how to go about them in a variety of ways. The obvious answer is to run away, but this means you don't get any supplies, and food and medicine is almost always guarded. If you have goods to trade you can occasionally set up trades, offering useless items or items you have in excess in exchange for goods.

Both Sides.

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Other people are often your biggest obstacle.

When stealth or peaceful discord fails there's always option three. This is where TWoM really goes for the emotional gutpunch. See, you can just kill anyone in your way, and occasionally violence is the only answer. But a lot of survivors you meet are just like you, trying to get through with meager belongings and barely a roof over their heads. Worse is that robbing and killing people will affect your characters. Doing deplorable actions can make people depressed, and eventually break them mentally. having one of your survivors killed can be ruinous to moral sending everyone into a deep depression.

It creates an interesting balance of "how deep am I willing to go to survive?" that we don't often see portrayed in games. TWoM is easily one of the darkest games I've played in some time, approaching The Walking Dead or Spec Ops: The Line levels of human reflection. There are no monsters in TWoM, only people trying to survive.

The Line Blurs.

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Your home base, which can be upgraded over time.

To reinforce this is TWoM's striking visual style. The game looks like pencil sketches, with wavering lines and shades of black and grey. It's a great look and helps to sell the dark tone of the subject matter. At night the game looks great, with the darkness being an ever present entity, both friend and foe. Despite this look, things are easy to distinguish, and this is all helped by great UI tool tips that highlight items you can interact with.

What's perhaps most divisive about TWoM is how enjoyable it is. One the one hand it's an easy to play game, with plenty to keep busy with, and great moments of tension creating a rollercoaster of emotion. On the other hand, it's quite boring and repatative, with only a handful of items to make and no real direction or goal. The real question is whether a game with a message like this should be considered fun.

Spec Ops: The Line has often been praised for it's story and characters, but it's never received praise for being fun. Gone Home, for whatever reason, has received praise for it's presentation and story telling, but it's not been called fun. This creates the debate of should games with a message to them be fun? Does a game need to be enjoyable to play when it's trying to tell you something? It's like dressing a minister in a clown costume and asking him to do a sermon on the book of Job. Can he deliver his message? Probably, but we might not take him seriously while he's doing it.

For what it's worth, I think TWoM is enjoyable to play. It's really simple and easy to get into, and don't be surprised if there's an android/IOS port in the very near future. It's all mouse based, and the UI is just useful enough to make this not a hassle.

Gimme Shelter.

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Coming back to a looted shelter can be a nail in the coffin for your group.

TWoM obviously comes from a very personal place. It's examination of war is so in depth that most games simply don't compare. It's inspired by true events from the Siege of Sarenjevo, and the stories from that have really shaped the game's experience. There are some issues with TWoM however. It's lack of tutorials means that the barrier to entry can be high, and this is made harsher by the random nature of the game. My first game I started with no food at all, and it took some time for me to figure out how to get some. The pacing is often painfully slow, and while you can skip straight to the night sections, this is rarely encouraged since you risk wasting a the entire day. The game is also brutally tough, although I hesitate to complain about this since it's supposed to be difficult.

This War of Mine is an interesting game, and for once it's an indie game with a message that isn't horrible or un-enjoyable. There's a legitimately good game here, and it's foundation is strong enough to make playing it fun. It's a game with a message that remembers that it's a game, and it's refreshing to see. It might not change anyone like Spec Ops: The Line did, but it's a great game with some great stories to tell.

Looking at: Donkey Kong 64

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True story: I stole my original copy of this game. Not from an actual store, but I borrowed it from a classmate and never gave it back. That kid was fucking crazy anyway, so I feel no remorse for my actions.

So Rare!

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Even the main menu is filled to the brim.

Donkey Kong 64 turns 15 today. Good lord, and I thought the tenth anniversary of MG3 and Half Life 2 made me feel old. DK64 was released at the tail end of the N64's life cycle, and represents what can happen when a developer pushes a piece of hardware to it's absolute limits.

They're name holds little weight nowadays, but there was a time that Rare software was the absolute kings of gaming. Everything they released was pure gold, and they're responsible for some of the best and most innovated games of their time. Classics like the genre redefining Goldeneye 64 and it's followup Perfect Dark, or the interesting and uniquely adult Conker's Bad Fur Day. These are all great, but Rare's best work was their series of platformers, the Banjo Kazooie Games and a followup to the SNES classic Donkey Kong series, Donkey Kong 64.

It's unfortunate they've completely dissappeared, nothing more then a faded memory of a golden age long gone. Rare's legacy goes on, even if the company doesn't, and their games will be remembered for a long time as timeless classics.

So They're Finally Here...

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Clockwise: Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, Donkey Kong, Chunky Kong, and Diddy Kong.

DK64 opens with an absolute bang. The original Donkey Kong Country started with an elderly gorilla player a victrola, violently interrupted by Donkey Kong chiming in with a cool jungle beat. DK64 opens with an instantly recognizable hardcore 90's rap that introduces the major players, their abilities, and their combat effectiveness. It's almost a tutorial to a certain degree, and it remains a catchy tune even today. I'm just going to post the video in it's entirety below, but don't blame me if it get's stuck in your head.

Even the main menu is an indication of the game. It's huge, and filled with options. This wasn't a simple upgrade from 2D platformer to 3D, this was a new game for a new age, and it wanted to make sure you knew that. 

DK64 is massive in every respect. It's one of only three N64 games to require the expansion pak. It pushes the N64 to it's absolute limits, with absolutely astounding things for the time. The lighting was top notch, casting dynamic shadows as you moved, and it's physics was ahead of the curve for the time. Character animations are great, and it's all the more surprising since there are five main characters, each with completely separate move sets. 

The world is probably the biggest part. Like many early 3D platformers, DK64 features an overworld that connects the self-contained levels. People that thought Mario 64's game world was big were blown away by DK64's scope. The overworld is massive and has a tonne of hidden secrets to find and plenty to explore. The levels are equally big, and one DK64 is easily the size of two or three Mario 64 levels. There's a lot of life in the levels two, with things happening all over the place and plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. 

OHHHH...BANANA

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You'll need to visit Cranky's lab regularly for upgrades.

Like every Donkey Kong game, Bananas are the goal here. Once again the evil Lizard King K. Rool has stolen all of DK's bananas and it's up to you to get them back. Where DK64 deviates from every other Donkey Kong game is it's cast. This time around you have access to five different Kongs, each with different abilities. There's Donkey, of course, he's the most well rounded of the crew. There's Diddy, fast and agile and able to charge enemies and use a jetpack. Lanky Kong, who can strike from a distance using his extending arms and can walk up sloped surfaces. Chunky Kong who can dish out massive amounts of damage, lift heavy boulders, and grow to humongous sizes. And Tiny Kong who can float in the air, walk up walls, and shrink to fit in small places.

All of the characters get time to shine, and you'll need to learn to play as each Kong to get the best experience. Every level contains areas specific for each Kong, and switching between them is easy thanks to the barrels placed around. It can get frustrating finding yourself in an area with the wrong Kong, and there's quite a bit of back tracking, but exploration is encouraged, and the levels are well designed enough that this isn't a huge hassle.

What is a hassle is the game's upgrade system, that requires you to unlock upgrades for the Kongs individually. Often you won't be able to use a Kong's best abilities until you've hunted down enough of their specific coins to buy the upgrades. Even after acquiring the upgrades you'll still have to hunt down the specific item that the Kong requires to use the upgrade. It's probably the most frustrating part of the game, and can really grate on your nerves after a while.

Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

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Each of the characters has a special ability, like Diddy's jetpack.

The other major problem with DK64 is that it's perhaps too open. There's vary little in the way of direction, and you're often left wondering where to go. There's no real plot to DK64, rather just one long, drawn out fetch quest. It's a fun fetch quest, with plenty to see and do, but it all boils down to finding the banana and retrieving it. Mario 64's stars at least gave you a hint as to where to go and what to do, but the best DK64 offers is cryptic advise that rarely helps that much.

There's other issues with DK64, mostly just due to age. It's a game not really meant for the N64, with a confusing array of controls that can get easily muddled. Graphically it hasn't aged well, although it retains a certain charm to those who lived through the days of blocky 3D. The lack of proper structure is probably the worst thing about it, and it's fun enough that you can look past that.

There's also a mulitplayer suit included, which has some really fun games. It's fairly standard death match or survival stuff, and you get access to all the characters from the campaign as well as their various abilities. It's fun, and a reminder why Rare games were once the kings of slumber parties and casual get-togethers.

All in all, DK64 is a great relic of older platformers, and definitely a contender for best N64 game. It may not have the long lasting legacy of titles like Mario 64, or Goldeneye, but it's a really fun game with plenty to do. It was ahead of it's time, and remains a great game, even fifteen years later.

Looking at: Banished

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Wagon Train

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You'll need to keep an eye on citizen's health and happiness.

Banished is a the first ever survival-horror-city-sim game ever, at least as far as I can tell. All of those genres already exist, and they all have standout titles, but Banished is the first game I can honestly say combines all those elements together at the same time. The question is, does it do it well, and is it worth playing?

The first answer is, yes it's an incredibly well designed game. Coming to us from one man developer Lucas Hodorowicz's Shining Rock Software, Banished is a testament to what can be accomplished when you really put effort into a project. The game was in development for three years before release earlier this year, and the effort shows greatly. The last few years have given us a lot of great one man games like Braid, Cave Story, and (despite Phil Fish being Phil Fish) Fez, and Banished is just another great example.

Died of Dysentery

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Creating a well functioning city is difficult, but rewarding.

The easiest way to describe Banished is a combination of Dwarf Fortress and Anno 1404. The problem with that explanation is that both of those are incredibly niche titles, especially the later title that was actually re-named in the west. At a glance, it's Sim City, circa 1400's. You construct a city, taking care to provide needs to it's citizens both basic and luxury, and try and see how far you can get before your hard work inevitably implodes on you. It's a complex game that embodies everything PCgaming stands for. 

Like so many managerial games, Banished is a mess of menus. Thankfully, this shows off one of its strengths: the UI. Designing a good UI can be difficult, especially for a game like Banished where so much of the game takes place in various menus, and it's great to see how much effort has gone into making everything accessible. The various buildings are all categorized according to their functions, with a separate menu button for all your various managerial tools. You can assign people to do jobs from one overview menu, or select specific buildings and add workers there. Constructing a town hall will grant access to various charts, and there are simple to use tools for checking happiness and health of your citizens. 

Hard Core Agriculture

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Winter slows production to a crawl, and often brings with it death.

Where Banished differs from its contemporaries is its adherence to a hardcore nature. You will fail in Banished, quite often really. It's taken me somewhere close to ten tries to get a town to function successfully, and even then it's problematic. It all comes down to properly balancing everything. You'll need to provide food and warmth for everyone, but to do that you need to build houses and workshops, and to do that you'll need resources, and to get that you'll need properly maintained tools, and to do that you need people to work, and to get that you need to provide food and warmth for everyone. You'll constantly have several dozen plates spinning at a time here, and balancing them gets trickier the longer you survive. 

That's really the gimmick of Banished, just survive. The title of the game is derived from the proposed back story where your settlers are banished from their former home. You're abandoned in a forest with little resources and a steadily approaching winter, and all you need to do is survive. In a lot of ways its reminiscent of old frontier stories of the first settlers to America, sans the native slaughter, and its refusal to be anything but obtuse does a good job of reinforcing this motif. Doing repetitively simple things feels like an accomplishment, and surviving a winter or constructing a huge project gives you a feeling akin to Dark Souls. 

The Fire Consumes us All

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Fires can wipe out whole cities in seconds, and there's very little you can do to stop them.

Unfortunately Banished is problematic. There's a huge barrier to entry, despite the games modest price tag, and it's very hard to recommend it to people. I've always hated the way so-called "casual" gamers are portrayed by the gaming community, since I believe that games are for fun or interesting experiences, and nothing else; but I really can't recommend Banished to anyone who plays games casually. The managerial sim genre of games is already fairly niche, with only a few standout titles like Crusader Kings 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon, or the previously mentioned Anno series, so trying to talk about a game even more hard core then the norm becomes more difficult. Furthermore there's issues with the game itself, likely due to it's development. Like I said, it's a very well designed game, but graphically it's indie nature betrays it. There's a nice level of detail in things like trees changing colour with the seasons, or snow on the ground in winter. Like so many games before it, zooming in and trying to observe the little things is disappointing. There's very little detail put into the characters, and building are largely static. The different professions don't change what people look like, and there are only a small handful of animations for various actions. Landscapes can be difficult to read, and it can be hard to tell what's a buildable surface and what isn't.

Banished's biggest issue is it's balancing. It can be brutally difficult at times, and pleasently simple at others. Its a constant roller coaster, and you can't always control the speed. Citizens have a mind of their own, and construction projects will go unfinished for months without any explanation. Despite having a small army of people working to provide resources, you'll constantly receive messages telling you the stocks of food or firewood are low. You need to know exactly what to do from the first seconds of the game, and one small mistake, like queuing up a house rather then a fishery can cause everything to fall apart. Disasters like fire or disease can occur randomly, and there's very little in the way of proper prevention you can prepare. 

Banished is a good game, but only if you like games exactly like Banished. Considering how barren the world of managerial sims is, it is nice to get one that tries to add new ideas, and once you get on its wavelength there really is a great game here. Is it well made? Yes. Is it fun to play? Not always. 

Looking at: Brutal DOOM

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Holy shit what a terrible week I've had. I didn't write anything yesterday, and I've been down this whole week because of car troubles. I need a release, I need something simple, something requiring no mental stress. I need something... BRUTAL.


Temple of DOOM

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DoomGuy, showing why he's The strongest videogame character of all time.

Doom. DOOM.  Everyone knows Doom. Even if you don't play video games you probably know what Doom is. Its the daddy to every modern shooter, singlehandedly solidified the first person shooter genre, and the reason that when ID software talks you better listen.

 Its a simple game with a simple premise. You play as a nameless marine trapped in a research station on Mars when demons from hell start showing up. Being the sole survivor and complete badass you pick up your trusty shotgun and chainsaw and start going to town on the demons, eventually blasting your way in, and out of, hell itself.

It's fun to play, just mindless waves of enemies in expertly crafted levels. The only problem with Doom and it's sequel is time itself. By today's standards Doom is problematic, with only rudimentary mouse controls, no actual aiming abilities, and none of the traits of modern gaming. Take that for what it is, some people prefer that, but it's hard to play in the face of more modern shooters like Far Cry, Call of Duty, or Half Life. The greatest shooters of all time needed an overhaul, and there was no better way then to crank everything up to 11.


Huge Guts

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Pure catharsis.

Beginning development in 2010, Brutal Doom is the game that Doom always wanted to be, the game Doom was meant to be. It was a blood soaked, swear filled, adrenaline fest and it's fun as hell. The basic gameplay is much the same, you progress through levels filled with enemies, hunt for keys or switches, and progress ever forward leaving a trail of bodies behind you. Where the "brutal" of Brutal Doom comes in is it's presentation and balancing. All of the guns handle more like modern shooters, including full 3D mouse aiming. You now have to actually aim at your target to hit, rather then the game just auto aiming for you. Movement has been re-mapped to WSAD and are customizable to your choice, and the game now features jumping and crouching. Occasionally these last two additions can break the game, particularly jumping which the original Doom didn't feature, but it's a minor complaint.

Besides, you'll likely need all the help you can get. Brutal Doom is certainly brutal. Its not Dark Souls hard, but enemies are smarter, they have better aim, and do more damage, even on the lower difficulties. You'll need to blast your way through them and make liberal use of the quicksave button to get through.

The new difficulty is balanced out, kind of, by the new weapons. Almost all of the vanilla Doom weapons have been changed, at least somewhat, and rebalanced. Your pitiful pistol is now an incredibly effective assault rifle, complete with iron sight. The shotgun now requires reloading, and can be aimed with the iron sights. The super shotgun of Doom 2 can now be fired twice with individual barrels, or can blast both barrels at once. The rocket launcher now requires a reload, as does the plasma rifle, which also sports a new flame-thrower mode. There's also a host of new weapons, courtesy of your fallen foes in the form of the flame shot and seeker rockets.  The only weapon untouched is the infamous BFG, which still obliterates everything its blast touches.

Rip and Tear

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Show those demons you mean business.

The other reason Brtual Doom earns it's name is through its... well, brutality. When Doom originally came out, parenting groups were shocked at the level of violence on display. Those people would shit bricks if they saw Brutal Doom. Enemies now explode into a bloody mess when you shoot them, often in different ways. Use the shotgun to blow off an imp's head? Watch as his body crumples into a bloody heap. Take of an enemies legs and watch as they crawl away, screaming in agony. Enemies will beg for forgiveness, only to meet the business end of your boot as you go all Edward Norton in American History X on them. The walls will be plastered by blood and guts after every firefight, and you'll wipe the mess from your face as you press on. It's bloody, it's gory, and it's awesome.

Rather then try and explain everything, I'm just going to post a few videos of the mod in action below.

From Brutal Doom's official youtube (NSFW):

A montage of best moments (NSFW):

   

And 16 minutes of things dying in various ways (Do I even need to say it?):

Doom 2 is one of my all time favorite shooters. It's simple, its fun, and there's an undeniable level of skill put into everything about it. But sometimes the best things just need to be a little better, and Brutal Doom is a great example of fans making games even better, and why every game should allow modding. Brutal Doom is the absolute best Doom related thing since the Doom Comic, and I love the hell out of it. 

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

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While doing research for yesterday's article on Half Life 2, it was brought to my attention that it's also the tenth anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. MGS3 is particularly important to me because it's the only Metal Gear Solid game that I've actually played, an issue I now wish to remedy.

I didn't play MGS3 when it came out. I didn't even play it during it's console's life cycle. It wasn't until earlier this year, after receiving a PS2 as a Christmas gift did I dive in. I was excited, I'd never played a Metal Gear Solid game before, and MGS3, being a series prequel looked like a good place to drop in.

I'll admit, I had no idea what I should've expected. One of the reasons I picked MGS3 was because of this video:

I was so confused, perplexed, and intrigued that I had to know what was going on, and what was the big deal with this series.

I can honestly say I still don't know.

Virtuous Mission

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The infamous Box makes a return.

Unlike the other games in the series, MGS3 takes place during the cold war, specifically in the mid 60's. You play as secret agent Naked Snake, so named because he's dropped behind enemy lines with almost no equipment. Naked Snake is a central character in the future of the franchise, but here he's just an agent with a job to do. That job is shutting down a secret Soviet tank capable of throwing (literally) nukes right at the US.

It's hard to classify...everything about MGS3. On paper it's a stealth game, and you can certainly play it that way. But like any good stealth game you're also allowed to just play however you want. The game provides you with plenty of tools to just shoot your way through everything.

More then just trying to classify the gameplay, it's difficult to classify the story and characters. Again, on paper they're all grim, serious secret agents behind enemy lines. But MGS3 is filled with weird humour, and most of your "serious" conversations are absolutely bizarre. Talk to your health specialist and she'll give you detailed descriptions of the food you should or should not eat, and all Snake cares about is if it tastes good. There's a pervasive weirdness to everything people do and say in this game, and it's really hard to tell if it takes itself seriously.

Snake Eater

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A gunfight with series favorite Revolver Ocelot.

That sense of weirdness spreads to the actual gameplay too. Like I said, MGS3 is technically a stealth game, and that's certainly the best way to play. There are plenty of tools to help you avoid or eliminate your enemies silently, and there's even the option for a non-lethal playthrough, should you be so inclined. There's also the option to kill everything and everyone, with weapons like the AK-47, M37 shotgun, and the M63 light machine gun. The shooting handles well after a slight learning curve, and using the games cover system will allow you to outlast and out shoot whatever comes your way.

Perhaps the strangest addition to the gameplay is the survival elements. Naked Snake will need to take care of himself throughout the mission, meaning you'll have to eat regularly apply medical treatment when injured. It's strangely hardcore, especially the medical examinations, and probably paved the way for more modern survival games.

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It's a stealth game, but it doesn't have to be.

MGS3 also features a camoflauge system, where you can blend in with your environment by changing your clothes. It's an interesting idea and well implemented, and it makes sense in the absence of more modern sneaking technology. Or, alternitivly, you can walk around like John Rambo with a machine gun and ignore this mechanic.

Graphically there's a lot of charm to MGS3. When it was originally released ten years ago it was pushing the PS2 right to it's limits, and the scope of it's detail is impressive. The terrain feel realistic, it has a rudimentary physics engine, and character's change and react based on where they take damage. There's a lot of fine detail to everything, and it still looks great, even on the original PS2 version.

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You fight a man that controls hornets. This is normal.

It's worth noting that the version of MGS3 I played was actually the Subsistence version. This version comes with a fully 3D camera, a function I can't imagine the game without, as well as some other goodies. To my knowledge it's actually very hard to find a non-Subsistence version of MGS3, and both the HD version for the Metal Gear Solid Collection, as well as the 3DS re-release are both based on the Subsistence version.

SNAAAAKE!

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A good 70% of the game right here.

I feel like talking about MGS3 in to much detail gives away most of what I really liked about it. It's a spy fantasy, but it feels like a parody at times.It's down-right bonkers, but yet intricately composed. I know this is the norm for a series with questionable homo-erotic relationships, cyborgs, naked cyborgs, and just a whole whack load of crazy seeping through every pore, but to me MGS3 is a special game, even within the MGS series. It's grounded in it's crazy, and almost believable at points. I'm still waiting the day that I can experience more of the series, preferably on PC, and I'm deffinitly looking forward to the two upcoming MGS games for PC, but until then you'll find me in the Russian jungle, eating snakes.

Looking at: Half Life 2

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I originally meant to write this article yesterday, but I didn't for two reasons. One, I actually spent much of the day hanging out with friends, something of a rare treat in my adult life; and Two, I was legitimately waiting to see if Valve would announce... at this point fucking anything in celebration of Half Life 2.

See, it was Half Life 2's tenth birthday yesterday, and it's been seven years since anything Half Life related surfaced, save a few concept arts and some rumours. So why are people so interested in Half Life? And why is Half Life 2 the highest rated PC game of all time?

R.I.P PC Game, 1980-2004?

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The enigmatic G-Man, the first thing you see in Half Life 2

Much like it's predecessor, part of Half Life 2's success comes from the context in which it was released. 2004 is marked as something of a turning point in PC gaming, the beginning of a renaissance that would later peak in 2007 (The single greatest year in gaming). between 1998 and 2004 console gaming had come quite a ways, breaking from the polygonal days of yore and turning into a real powerhouse, largely thanks to the online capabilities of the Xbox and PS2, as well as a number of standout titles on Nintendo's Gamecube. PC gaming, meanwhile, was growing stagnant, with only specialized genres like Strategy and RPG's staying true to the system. Shooters were console territory now, and there was a decided lack of standout PC shooters.

Then came Half Life 2, the long awaited sequel to the progenitor of all modern shooters. Actually, 2004 brought a number of high caliber shooters to the PC, including Far Cry, Doom 3, and Unreal 2004. But all of these paled in comparison to to what Half Life 2 represented. Half Life 2 was a thinking man's shooter, grounded in science and reality and a huge, sweeping, seamless adventure with state of the art graphics and physics. Half Life 2 was a PC shooter, for PC gamers, and it saved PC gaming.

Opening the Steam Valve

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Your first glimpse at City 17. Old European buildings, with strange alien technology everywhere.

In a lot of ways, one of the best things about Half Life 2, has nothing to do with Half Life 2. Valve wanted a new way to distribute it's games and handle the online components of their multiplayer games. It wanted a single place where players could interact, congregate, and buy and store their games. Most importantly, they wanted to get rid of unreliable CD media, and make it so gamers could install and uninstall their games as much as they wanted.

At it's inception, Steam was... reviled. Players today often complain about connectivity issues, but back in 2004 it was much worse. To many people playing Counter Strike could crash the service, and that happened a lot since CT was, and is, the most popular online shooter. Back in 2004 the most DRM we had was a serial key that came with the game, so players also balked at the idea of being forced to install software on top of their game, in order to play the game. Perhaps worst of all was it's complete lack of things to buy, taking almost a full year to secure third party contracts.

Now Steam is the single largest distribution platform on PC at an estimated 70%, and with 40 million users it's one of the largest distribution platforms of anything. It's also evolved a lot in the ten years since release, adding support for non-game software, videos, mod support, and a bevy of social features. People still complain about it, and it's still got a number of issues, but it remains a simple, easy to use, and incredibly effective way to play games.

"Wake up and smell the ashes"

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Alyx Vance, the most useful NPC, holding the Gravity Gun, the most useful item

Back to the matter at hand. Half Life 2 opens, much like it's predecessor, on a train. You once again step into the silent boots of Gordon Freeman, theoretical physicist turned expert marksman and alien hunter. It's twenty years since the Black Mesa incident and the world has changed. Due to your actions in Black Mesa an alien race known as the Combine have conquered earth, enslaving it's residents and draining it's natural resources. The remaining humans, along with the now freed aliens of Half Life have banded together in a resistance movement against the Combine, but have been largely unsuccessful. They need a hero, some one not shackled down, someone willing to stand up. They need a truly free man.

You awake in a daze with the mysterious G-Man giving you a lecture. He remains one of the greatest mysteries in gaming, an enigmatic man of indescribable nature. He's a Caucasian male, early fifties, and he's holding a briefcase. But he's really none of those things, and he's pulling all of your strings, offering you to the highest bidder. He's telling you to wake up, and suddenly you do.

After leaving the train you're given a short tour of Earth under the Combine. You find yourself in City 17, an old eastern European city that's surrounded by an ever moving wall. It's a strange and surreal place, merging the familiar with the alien, and these few first moments really paint the picture for the rest of the game. That's the best way to describe Half Life 2's art direction, familiar, but alien. It's a world that stopped dead in it's track in 1998, and rather then properly evolve like we did, things were just, sort of glued on. A normal city park, complete with playground, looks out of place when there's a fence made of pure light beside it. A small coastal town is peaceful, save for the alien parasites infesting it. It eases the player in, while also reinforcing the gravity of the human's existence, a world frozen in time, unable to ever evolve on it's own.

After narrowly escaping capture you find yourself in the company of Alyx Vance, the poster child for great AI partners. She's smart, adaptable, and capable of defending herself. More than anything, she looks real thanks to the revolutionary face scanning abilities used in Half Life 2. Character have real, tangible emotions, and they show it. During a conversation about a teleporter Alyx shoots you a believable worried look. During an embarrassing talk with her dad she seems to be actually uncomfortable. All of the AI are capable of doing this, but with Alyx they went the extra step, and she remains one of my favorite AI, even against more modern games attempts like Bioshock: Infinite's Elizabeth, or The Last of Us' Ellie.

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Wallace Breen: evil, manipulative, bureaucrat.

Things quickly go from bad to worse for Gordon. After being reunited with you Hazardous Environment Suit, you accidentally alert the Combine to your presence and draw the eye of Dr. Breen. This is one of the better things Half Life 2 does then it's predecessor, is give you a tangible villain to fight against. You never knew who the enemy was in Half Life, just that you needed to escape and there were aliens in the way. Most players that made it to the end of Half Life were greeted by a giant baby creature, who's only real crime was being fucking ugly as hell. Dr. Breen, on the other hand, is an enemy to fear and loathe, and the game does a great job of making sure you know why to hate him. Breen was the administrator of Black Mesa, Gordon Freeman's old boss, the one that ordered the Resonance Cascade, and worst of all, the man that negotiated Earth's surrender to the Combine. Breen is actually one of the first people you see in the game, with a giant talking head spitting out pro-City 17 propaganda, talking about how great life under the Combine is, and why humanity should be thankful. He's broadcasts continue through the game, letting you know how your actions are affecting the world, and by the time you take the fight to him he's actively campaigning against you, calling you out by name. Meeting him in person is the climax of the game, and he says some very interesting things that have yet to be answered by the series.

Soon, you find yourself back into classic Half Life mode, moving along tightly constructed levels, eliminating enemies, and solving puzzles. Not content to just be a copy/paste of it's predecessor, Half Life 2 quickly starts throwing wrenches in and, like it's art design, mixes the familiar in with the alien. The first taste of this is it's continuous use of it's physics engine. Back in 2004, "realistic" physics in games barely existed, so Half Life 2's physics engine was an interesting novelty. By today's standard it's rather rudimentary, with almost all of the puzzles boiling down to "more/less weight on one side", but back then it was new and interesting. The second addition is Half Life 2's vehicle sections, with a good third of the game involving you in a hover boat or a dune buggy. These sections are great ways to move the character across long stretches of land, and are wisely broken up with occasional gunfights and puzzle sections. Lastly, in the very late sections of the game, your introduced to the idea of fighting as a group. You earn an item that allows total control of alien bugs known as antlions, and the human resistance will follow you anywhere. It might just be the game showing off it's advanced AI abilities, but it does make for some of the most intense fights in the game, with huge groups of AI going at it.

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The vehicle sections encourage exploration.

You slowly progress through the city, eventually escaping by way of hover boat, and your on your way to meet Alyx, as well as her father Eli in Black Mesa east. The game's levels all flow together in perfect harmony, with a logical progression to them. Much like the first one, you never wonder how or why you are where you are, and it all blends seamlessly. You start in the city, make your way underground, fight through the abandoned waterways, end up in the nearby river, and take that till you reach your destination. This kind of flow continues all the way through, and it's never jarring or immersion breaking.

"We don't go to Ravenholm"

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A group of zombies, and the best way to dispatch them.

You soon find yourself in Eli Vance's lab, and after some introductions and catching up, you get the Gravity Gun, one of Half Life 2's signature weapons. Like I said, physics engines barely existed back in 2004, and the gravity gun was Valve showing off. You could grab and shoot smaller objects with realistic physics, and move large objects out of the way with a pulse of energy. All of this is explained through a friendly game of catch with Alyx's robot helper Dog, and it's fun way to learn the mechanic.

I'm making a special not of Ravenholm, because it really does deserve it. After the Combine attack Eli's lab, you're cut off from Alyx and have to move through the abandoned mining town of Ravenholme. This entire level is a how-to of great game design, with everything the player needs being explained to them in the best way possible. I'm going to take this one slow, because Ravenholm is so good I could write a book on it alone.

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Father Gregori, a fast zombie, and your new shotgun.

We start with the setup. The philosophy of the Half Life games, and Valve games in general, is the three step show system. You show the player a mechanic three times, first from a distance with no pressure, then up close with some pressure, then full blast and let them figure it out. This is something that's gone to the wayside in modern games, with far to many games plastering their UI's with tool tips and constant reminders of how to do simple things. But Ravenholm is how it should be done.

The first thing to know about Ravenholm is that you shouldn't go to Ravenholm. Alyx herself tells you this, and this is later reinforced by Eli specifically saying not to go there. I still remember watching my oldest brother playing Half Life 2 and both of us saying "Oh, we're going to go there". Sure enough, you soon find yourself running down a poorly lit tunnel, through a locked and barricaded gate, and up a ladder. The constant reinforcement of "this place is bad" is noticable, but you really don't know why until you walk into the town itself.

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The first thing you see in Ravenholm

You're greeted by the darkness of the quickly approaching twilight, a few scattered hovels, and the dismembered lower half of a torso swinging from a tree. A Headcrab zombie soon emerges from the darkness, and you be met by a horde of them throughout the level. Dispatch the zombie as you wish, and your next obstacle is a table, simple, but heavy and covered with junk. This is the subtle way of telling you to use the Gravity gun, and indeed the entire level is on long Gravity Gun playground. There are sawblades and explosive barrels everywhere, given the rural nature of the town before, and a horde of zombies to fight. These zombies didn't come from no where, being created by headcrabs, small cat-sized parasites that devour and control their host. Headcrabs are familiar enemies, being the first thing you fight in Half Life, and the Combine have since weaponized them by putting them in shells and bombing rebel bases, as evidenced earlier in the game. Thanks to this, the situation in Ravenholm makes sense, and it's a sadly believable apocalypse, especially given Ravenholm's proximity to the rebel's headquarters.

The town's residents are horrifying to look at, with huge gaping holes in their chests, long claws bursting out of their arms, and blood streaming down their entire body. Worse yet is there screams, especially when set on fire. It's horrifyingly human, and it's often implied that the person trapped inside the zombie is completely aware of what's happening to them. When slowed down and reversed you can clearly hear the phrases "God help me!" and "Help me!" making them even more terrifying.

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Black Headcrabs, a combination of rattlesnakes, spiders, and ninjas.

But that's just the normal zombie. Apparently in the 20 years since Black Mesa headcrabs have evolved, and there are two new additions to the family. The first is the Black or Poison Headcrab. They're small, and hard to see and remain one of the most feared enemies in gaming. Rather then just kill you immediately, Black Headcrabs inject you with a poison, reducing your health to 1% temporarily while your suits antidote slowly counter-acts. It's ingenious because it means that the next hit you take will kill you, but you have a chance to live, and it avoids a cheap one-hit death by making sure the death is your fault. Black Headcrab zombies are almost more terrifying, acting as carriers of the black deaths, and standing up to an entire magazine of shotgun shells. They're walking death, but only if you fail to stop them.

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Keep telling yourself "I'm doing them a favour"

Then there's the fast zombie. Teased throughout the level from afar, like a werewolf in an old movie. They emit a piercing, inhuman scream, and run at you like a runaway train. They'll attack in droves, and only through ingenuity, and your newly acquired shotgun, will you survive their onslaught. They're skin has been ripped off, and they jump around from roof to roof, hunting you down as you try to escape.

To get you through the town are a number of traps, laid out by the sole survivor Father Gregori. He's a man of God, beholden to his flock, and heavily armed. At first glance he appears crazed, but spending time with him you realize the method to his madness. The zombies were his friends, and over time Gregori has figured out that the host is still alive, trapped in a personal hell. He's not just killing out of survival, he's killing out of love and affection. Gordon Freeman's arrival is just a sign that somewhere, somehow, there are still people alive, and he's so eager to help you because he wants you to live. As he leaves you to your fate he seems regretful that he couldn't do more, and despite having one of the least amounts of screen time he's one of my favorite NPCs in the game.

The Coast, Nova Prospekt, City 17

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The beach, appropriatly called Sand Traps. 

You finally emerge from Ravenholm, with the early morning light illuminating the way forward. A moment of piece quickly broken by a nearby sniper. Half Life 2 does this a lot, especially in the vehicle sections. It's a rollercoaster, often allowing you brief moments to examine and take in what's going on before tossing you back in the fray.

 You make your way down the train tracks and link up with another group of survivors. They inform you Eli has been captured, and give you a dunebuggy to go rescue him. At this point the game is largely done introducing new concepts, and just lets you go for some time. The coast drive is peaceful and under better circumstances could even be relaxing. Of course between the giant mutated bugs and Combine strike teams you'll still have your hands full.

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Your scout car, and an oncoming train.

The Antlions, the giant mutated insects that infect the coast, represent one of my favorite things about Half Life 2. Antlions are never explained, beyond "they hate people walking on sand" and your first meeting with them is watching a machine gun tear them apart. This how Half Life 2 builds it's world, just letting the player figure it out based on the evidence provided. There's never any explanation given for how the Combine conquered Earth, but by talking to people or reading part of the environment you can learn of the Seven-Hour war. Everything can be explained by careful observation and basic logic.

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Combine soldiers and Antlions go at it numerous times, showing off the advanced AI.

You make your way down the coast, and soon gain the ability to control the antlions. Much of the game after this point stays the same, with you moving through levels, overcoming challenges, and killing Combine with little prejudice. Finally, after battling through the prison of Nova Prospekt, you find yourself back in City 17, effectively looping the entire game back to the start. This time around your visit is very different, and very violent. The humans have started fighting back, and these levels have a certain air of World War 2 meets War of the Worlds, with a number of large scale siege sections including the walking death tripods that are the Striders. The urban fighting requires all of your skills learned from the game, mixing long, and short range engagements, quick puzzle sections, and even the occasional platforming ability to get through.

The Citadel

Finally you make it to the Citadel, the seat of power in City 17 and one of the first things you see in the game. The Citadel strips you of you weapons, leaving you only with a super-powered gravity gun capable of disintegrating enemies instantly. It's a cathartic experience as you tear a path of destruction ever upwards, destroying entire squads of Combine elite soldiers with a flick of your wrist.

Eventually you confront Breen, and barely avoid being killed. The climax requires you to climb higher, all the way to the top, with Breen and a timer constantly reminding you of your impending doom. This is the ultimate test, with a mix of logic puzzles, shooting, and jumping going on at the same time. You confront Breen, ready to deal the killing blow, and suddenly...

Nothingness.

Legacy

This has been my longest article ever. Originally I meant to write about Half Life 2's episodes, but that'll have to wait. Today also marks the tenth anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 3, so expect my look at that tomorrow.

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A typical situation in Garry's Mod.

Much like it's predecessor, Half Life 2, and it's much improved Source engine, there has been a cornucopia of mods. There's the previously mentioned HD graphics mod from Fakefactory that overhauls the graphics and makes minor adjustment to the gameplay. There's the fan-made remake of Half Life, the Black Mesa project I talked about already. There's the hilarious sandbox game Garry's mod, allowing you to play around in a virtual toybox of Source engine assets. There's the surreal multiplayer experience of Elevator: Source, or the horror filled No More Room in Hell. There's so many to mention that it'd probably stretch out this article another ten pages.

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Half Life 2, 2004 and 2014 versions.

Half Life 2 was, and still is, a landmark moment in shooters. It's a nearly flawless game, and it's even managed to age fairly well. The once pristine graphics don't always hold up, and in fact I used an overhaul mod in order to play it again for this review. But the great game that it was is still there, and it's a fantastic experience to revisit every once and a while.

It's difficult to say if Half Life 2 is actually a "smart" shooter. On the one hand it's well designed, and has a perfect flow. It's got puzzles, real science, and references to science and physics abound. On the other hand, it's a shooter, and so much of the game is just shooting things in the face. Combine forces pinning you down? Shoot them in the face. A horde of parasite zombies hunting you? Shoot them in the face. It's almost subversive, mixing the dumb shooter with the smart puzzler, but it's hard to tell which way it's subverting. Regardless, it's an incredibly fun game, and I've enjoyed talking about it almost as much as I enjoy playing it.