Installing takes less than 30 seconds.
Cut scene of huge electrical plasma explosion. engulfing the city.We see Cole wake up looking burnt and battered. he is standing on an island of melted rock, at the epicentre of the huge explosion. All the city around him is burnt broken and melted.Oh and it's on fire.We get control as a helicopter flies over Cole and tells him to get the hell out of there.We have to follow a path through explosions and collapsing rubble, jumping over cars and debris. Cole passes an electrical arc and it hits him, he is unharmed.We progress through the collapsing rubble and Cole gets hit by more and more electricity.Cole spots his friend Zeke and runs accross a bridge towards him, the electricty discarges get more and more violent. Cole collapses and is taken to hospital.We see a cartoon style cut scene where Cole tells us about events after the explosion. There was a plague and rioting. The city is quarantined and law has been beaten into submission. The streets are dangerous now. Cole is trying to come to terms with his electrical abilities.
We get back in control and find ourselves on a rooftop, Zeke is trying to watch tv but his batteries are dead. He asks Cole to charge them for him.We have to charge three batteries by zapping them.Then we are told to zap loads of dummies which are on the roof for target practice.On the Televison a pirate signal from activitst in the city for the people tell of a food drop in Archer square.Usual analogue stick movement and camera. Pressing L1 aims and R1 fires a burst of lightning.We are told to jump down to the street, which we do unscathed. Zeke comes down the stairs and we have to follow him on foot to a place where someone he knows has left him a gun.Zeke it has to be said runs like Sonic the Hedgehog, which looks a little odd.When we get to the area through the ruined streets There are a load of cars. Zeke does not know which one. Cole uses a shockwave to move the cars and uncover the gun. Pressing X while aiming unleashes the shockwave.Cole feels drained and his electricity meter is empty. We are told to Press the Left analogue stick in to locate a source of electricity. We can then hold L2 to charge up the meter.Cole gets a call from Trish his girlfriend, who is worried about him. She lost her sister in the explosion.We then go with Zeke to the square trying to get some of the food drop.The crates have fell onto a statue and are hanging twnety metres above the ground.Zeke urges Cole t climb up and get them down.I jump up the building clambering up handholds and scaling a pipe.When we get to the crates zapping a rusty hook drops them to the ground.Reapers turn up. The comic book cut scene tells us that before the blast they were junkies and street gangs. Now they rule the streets and are something more.A few Reapers at a time arrive and shoot at me. I zap them with my electricty blasts and eventually they stop coming.There is a karma moment, we are told both sides of our action, zap the crowd coming for the food, scare them away and take it all for ourselves or let the starving crowd get the food. I do nothing and am awarded good karma.The tv anarchist is looking for Cole, seems they think he was the terrorist who let of the bomb.Seems that Cole was a messenger and the package he was delivering was the bomb.Zeke tells us to meet him at a bridge.I take the chance to explore a little and get a feel for the controls.There are Reapers on the rooftops of most buildings and it only takes a quick shockwave to knock them flying off to their death. Which is fun in a sadistic way.Well they are shooting at you.You can rejuvenate your electricty meter at any electrical outlet and this seems to double as health.
Mission 2I meet Zeke at a map location and he tells us that guards are stopping people getting to somewhere. I think we have to take them out.When we get to a bridge there are a crowd of people protesting in front of police who are blocking the bridge.We get a choice moment again. Start a riot by firing from the crowd at the cops or go up and attack them on our own. Again since I am choosing to be good so far it seems a no brainer what the good moral choice is.
I move forward and am awarded good karma. I attack the cops and kill them all. There is a box with red lights on it, shooting it with electricty turns them green and opens the gate.All along the gate there are emplaced guns and soldiers, Zeke and the civilians run for it and I have to attack the soldiers to progress, there are a few times when you have to shoot the boxes to open gates. At the end of the bridge a cut scene kicks in. We zeke fall from the bridge and Cole captured as most of the civilians are chopped to pieces by huge firepower.Cole is questioned by an FBI agent named Moya. She is looking for another agent who was in the city working on a case. She tells Cole about the Son's of something or other a group who are obviously the bad guys. They were working on a device that takes neuroelectric energy from a large group of people and concentrate it into one person, which is obviously what had happened to Cole, the package he was carrying was this raysphere. It must have activated early in Cole's hands. Moya sends Cole back into the city to work for her. She wants him to find the FBI agent in the city, named John.We have to make our way back to the city under the bridge avoiding the riot above. This is a fun platforming section. Collapsing poles, poles you have to release by zapping rusty bits. Avoiding gas jet nozzles, makes this feel old school platform like.A few Reapers run interference.When we get back to the city we find that Zeke has survived his fall and we go back to his rooftop home annd chat about what has happened.
Story Mission 3Moya calls and three missions appear on our map which we can tackle in any order.The nearest is proabably the best as we will have to do them all anyway. When I get to the blue marker on a rooftop Moya tells us that there are weird signals coming from a roof nearby. She wants us to investigate.The signals are coming for a sattelite dish on the roof a music player is attached and Cole takes it and copys the files to his phone, Moya then takes them and runs decryption on them. We have to find two more of these files in the dead drops before Moya has enough to work with and get a message from the files. Turns out the messages are from John the missing FBI agent. He is worried about Kessler and tells us that he retrived the ray sphere from Cole's unconscious body just after the incident. Their current whereabouts are unknown.Moya tells us to find more of the dead drops if we can. Pressing down on the left stick gives us a rough heading to the closest dead drop.There are 32 dead drops to find.
Side Mission 4Moya wants us to go and help a medical worker who has set up a makeshift clinic. The Reapers are attacking him.At the clinic speaking to the medical worker starts the mission. We have to kill around six Reapers around the clinic. This unlocks the area from the Reaper control. Which means the area will be safe from continual Reaper harrassment. I am told that if I an knocked down I will come back to life at the clinic.
Side Mission 5I find a side missions in yellow, an informant has seen something that the Reapers are sensitive about. We have to protect him from an attack by about ten Repears and that is that side mission done.
Side Mission 6Moya wants us to reinitialise a sattelite system, we have to drain electricty from one and then run in a sequence past about six more to get the system working. So really these are race side missions. Quite fun in a Crackdown sort of way.
Side Mission 7We have to follow a Reaper Courier ass it takes a package and hides it in a dumpster, staying close but out of sight is quite hard at first.
I take the time to upgrade some powers now. A few more have unlocked. I buy using the xp i have gained as cash, Improved Lightning bolt, shockwave, Thunder drop, Reduced damage and Improved melee skills.There is also overload burst, arc lightning and electric drain still to buy and there seems to be three levels in each thing. 8 slots are still to unlock as well.
Side Mission 8Counter surveillance, You have to clamber all over a specific building destroying Reaper surveillance devices.12 in total on the first building.
Side Mission 9More surveillance device destruction.
Side Mission 10I am given an area and visual clue to find a small package in.
Side Mission 11I walk up to a man and he tells me he is going to get me, he then changes into a Reaper before my eyes. There are new types of Reaper here, they can explode like suicide bombers and one of them can shoot an electrical discharge that travels along the ground.
Side Mission 12Abduction, a group of seven people are being led away by about seven armed Reapers. I have to kill all the Reaper guards.
Side missioon 13walk the dogs.We are called by a Warden Harms who has captured some Reapers, they are under his guard but he hasn't the men to escort them to jail. We have to make the Reapers move by prodding them with our electric blast. They try and escape and we have to zap them to keep them in line. They also try attacking us and must be zapped into submission. We have to take them a short distance to the police station where police take them into custody.
I am told that an evil mission has been locked out. Looks like there are evil jobs to do as well if you were going for bad karma.
Side Mission 14Abduction again, same drill save the escorted people from the Reapers.
Main Mission Blood Trail 15Moya tells Cole to try and find someone called Brandon. Cole goes to his last known location as shown on the gps. I find a dead woman, Cole senses something new, a power and he reaches down to the dead woman and has a vision of her last moments. This is Brandon's wife and Brandon has been taken away by the Reapers.Clicking in the Left stick now shows us the ghost of where Brandon was taken.We follow the green outline of him through the city. We are funnelled through some areas where Reapers attack. At the end of a huge electrical sub station type area a Reaper blows himself up inside the machines and takes out the power for the entire island. With this down Cole only has the cars to charge himself from.Following the ghost takes us down a manhole.In the sewers we have a little platforming type action and then we have to restore a circuit at a transformer. We do this using Cole to bridge the gap in the circuit.Cole now unlocks touch related abilities, we can kill and heal using electricty.An example is given a man is lying injured.Going up to him and pressing R1 to lock on and then Triangle to heal revives him. He opens a gate for us.In the next room are some wounded reapers we can drain for energy.Also some wounded normal people who we can heal.We traverse some more platforming and find Brandon.He thinks that his wife is alive and won't let Cole in to the sub station where he can fix the power.We have a karma moment, we can just shoot him or tell him his wife is dead. I think they were going for a difficult moral descison here, it's again obvious that killing him is alot worse than giving him bad news.So it's bad news time.He doesn't take it well. After you tell him he lets you through and you can power up the spare substation.Moya tells us that there are three more substations that we should reactivate to restore power to the whole island.
Side Mission 16 Playing Doctor.We are given the choice of helping a policeman whoose men are down, he will give you some blast shards he has collected if you do. You are given the choice of just taking them anyway.I do the mission and go and heal some downed cops. After that the policeman with the shards comes under attack from Reapers. I have to save him and then get my shards.
Main Mission 17 High GroundMoya wants us to repair a cell tower.It is in the blacked out portion of the island. Doing it drains our power meter.We are told about emergency generators which seem to be our only way of recharging in this area of the blacked out city.We have to try and be a little more stealthy here to avoide getting shot up with little way of recharging.I make it to the manhole and down into the sewers for more platforming.On making the circuit connection I unlock shock grenade powers.we have to progress to the sub station and turn it on.
I have noticed that you can go into cover by pressing circle near an object.It's a bit clunky but it works.
side mission 18The imposterA reaper conduit is disguised as a civilian in the park, we have to kill it.The civilian looks normal enough and does not attack you until you attack him. Then he changes and you have to defeat him.
Side mission 19Hunt the hidden package.
Side mission 20Another clinc liberationNow we have another restart point for when we die.
Side Mission 21Spy gamesAnother courier to follow.
I upgrade my shock grenade, melee and reduce damage.
Side Mission 22A cop wants me to take four Reapers alive. I have to wound them then use the arc restraint to hold them for capture.
Main Mission 23 Mind gamesThe Reapers are infecting the water supply.We have to investigate.When we get to the fountain black tar is pouring out instead of water.Trish is there our ex girlfriend. She blames cole for the disaster and the death of her sister. Obviously stuck in one of the blame stages of grief. Cole still wants her back though.She asks us to turn a valve that is stuck and seems to be the source of the tar.As we do a blast of the tar hits cole in the face. He begins to hallucinate. Hearing a seductive female voice.Trish asks Cole to follow him to an ambulance. On the way the screen blurs and shakes, visions of giant Reapers appear. The voice seems to be the boss of the Reapers and she tells Cole that no one loves him and that he will be hers to possess.Trish sprays Cole with something and clears the tar. There are two other valves to do and both are guarded by reapers. Once they are killed then we can turn the valve. Each time Cole is hit with the tar and the woman talks to him again for a few seconds.We are given a karmic moment here at the last one, turn the valve ourself or get a civilian to do it at blast point.The voice talks about love and making a crack and breaking through.Now the valves are turned we havee to go down a tunnel under the park and destroy a tanker guarded by many reapers. The tanker is pumping the black tar into the water pipes.Moya tells us that the tar is a mind control agent.
Side Mission 24Mobile poisonWe have to destroy one of the tar tankers as it's moves through the city. It is escorted by a lot of Reapers and takes a lot of punishment.
Main Mission 25Now we have to go back to Zeke's to sleep off the headache given to us by the tar.Moya calls when Cole wakes and asks him to go and restore power to the only remaining blacked out part of the island.Once we get down the manhole we activate the circuit and unlock a new power, grinding on cables and train rails.Same deal close circuit and then activate the sub station. We are given some sewer areas to teach us about the cable riding.
First days play 7 hours
Side Mission 26Abduction, save the hostages being taken by the Reapers.
Side Mission 27Clinic has been raided by junkies and the supplies taken.Reapers are running from the area, catching and killing them makes them drop three boxes of medical supplies. Returning the boxes to the emt makes the area safe and another clinic/respawn point available.
Side Mission 28Mobile poison. Destroy the Reaper tanker.
Side Mission 29Satellite uplinks Race point to point on the rooftops.
Side Mission 30Explosive choicesReapers have planted a bomb at the police station. We are asked by a cop to defuse it.We are told the we can try and defuse it by draining it, or we can just leave it to blow.I defuse it and it works. I presume it could have exploded as well. Though the point of that would have been useless as we would have just kept retrying until it defused.
Main Mission 31 The RescueThis is the demo main mission. We have to take a broken train out of Reaper held territory. The Train is broken and filled with people, one of them could be John the FBI Agent we are looking for. The train will move if we stand on it using our electricity. Reapers get in the way of the moving train and we have to power several junction boxes to get the train going past certain points it sticks at.John isn't on the train however after all the effort of rescuing it.
Side Mission 32Reapers are attacking a police station, we have to stop them.Again a good or evil choice here to stay back until one side wins then take down the Reapers if it's them.
On occasions we see tv broadcasts from the government who claim to be doing the best for the city to the outside world, while it seems all they are actually doing is holding the quarantine and letting Empire city rot. The hacker also keeps popping up and has a real problem with Cole. Denying it was him that saved the train etc.
Side Mission 33Fan ClubA march of solidarity for Cole comes under Reaper attack, we come to the rescue.
Main Mission 34Nemesis revaled.Trish harrangues Cole for not sorting out the Black tar.Moya tells him that the Reapers are putting kegs of the tar on rooftop water tanks. We go to one and are told to zap it. Doing so makes it pump out all of the tar at once into the water system. Which is bad. Moya tells us that there are more of them. We have to use shockwave to blow them up, which will not put the tar into the water but will cover us in it. We are given the choice again to absorb some tar or let the citizens have it.No choice at all really for the good guy.After four more tar kegs with increasingly harder Reaper defenses we meet up with a man who has similar power to Cole. He grabs cole and shows him a vision of the future, and it's not pretty. The man leaves and also does not harm Cole.
Side Mission 35dark waterAgain destroy a heavily guarded Water tower keg.
Side Mission 36Dark water
Side Mission 37Dark water
Main Mission 38Zeke tells us he has found out something about Moya. Apparently she is part of a really secret answer to no one part of the FBI.
Main Mission 39Moya tells us about a woman called Sascha who is the 2nd in command of the first Sons. I presume the man we met earlier is Kessler.We have to restore another substation.Doing this unlocks prescision power. By holding up on the dpad we get a zoom in and bullet time like ability which allows us to shoot reapers with much greater accuracy.
Side Mission 40Spy gamesFollow the courier to the drop point without being seen.
Side mission 41Satellite uplink rooftop race.
Side mission 42Photographera civilian asks us to heal a civilian, punch a reaper and then blow up three cars while he takes pics for the news.
Side Mission 43abductionSave the group that are being kidnapped.
Side Mission 44Clinical disasterkill all the reapers disturbing the clinic.Unlocks the clinic.
Side Mission 45Cole finds a dead policeman and uses his abilities to follow the ghost of the reapers who attacked him. He finds the rest of his squad being attacked by Reapers and saves them.
Side Mission 46Dark water, destroy the keg attached to the water supply tower.
Main Mission 47Trish reaches outI have to defend a crate of food supplies that have been dropped in by the government. The Reapers seem to want it destroyed.They come in waves and bring trucks with mounted guns to the party.
Main Mission 48Dinner with SashaMoya tells us where we can find Sasha.She is in the Jefferson tunnel.The Reapers are guaring this place as if it's a fortress with mounted guns and sniper towers.We have to climb into a sniper tunnel and use a lever to open the main gates.We have to fight down through the tunnel.Where the game essentially becomes a corridor cover based shooter.We find people in cages being sprayed with the Black tar, there are huge machines here.The female voice has been talking to Cole all along. As he frees the hostages she starts to get angry for the first time. She calls him Kessler which is strange.When we find Sasha she is like us, given powers by the Ray sphere. She can teleport, shoot fireballs etc. She is full of the tar. We have to hit her normally with whatever attacks we can get in. The go up to her when she is down and regaining energy. We then have a kind of quicktime where we have to move the left stick to a point and press x rapidly as if fighting against her. Do this three times and Cole pulls metal objects from her. She is downed and about to be beaten into telling what is going on. Suddenly the whole place explodes and trained troops come in. They take Sasha away. The place is filling with water and Cole has only one option to escape the tunnel by going to the next island.
2nd days play 3 hours 10 so far in total.
In the new island the enemies are different, bigger and more numerous.
Main Mission 49StrandedThis is an underground sub station switch on job, as all of this island is without power.We are given static thrusters here. Which allows us to glide a little on our electricity.Much platforming to try them out and then mission is done.
Side mission 50Sattelite uplink, these are much more fun with the static glide.
Side mission 51A girl wants us to save her brother.there is a karma moment here.
I purchase damage reduction power up, and a melee power up.
Side mission 52Brother's keeperAn emt's brother is being forced into joining the dustmen, he is on patrol with three other dustmen, we are to kill the three with round hoods and save the one with a square hood, which means we have to be more careful with grenades and showckwaves than ususal.
Side mission 53We have to climb up a building which the dustmen are using as a base. Sabotaging the air conditioning sends smoke inside the building and all the dustmen out into the street. Police and Cole are waiting, kill 25 of them and the mission is over.
Side Mission 54Clamber around the building for 12 spy devices, not had this one for a while.
Side mission 55Prisoner escort again.More attacking me, and we are ambushed by rooftop snipers halfway.
Side Mission 56ContainmentSome dustmen have escaped from prison. We are to take them out.The prison is one of the highest buildings we have seen so far.Climbing it reminds me of crackdown, trying to find the way up.
Main mission 57Trish's friend who might be able to fix the bridge between islands is being guarded by two Dustmen, they have been taking engineers for their own ends. Those who refuse to work willingly are executed. This seems to be what is in store for Roger.Killing the two dustmen frees Roger. We then have to escort him to the bridge.Now we have to watch his back while he fixes the bridge.Enemies come from both sides. New ones with miniguns and exploding emeniesWhen the bridge starts moving it jams halfway. We now have to cross the bridge and make it safe for another engineer that Roger has called to fix the problem.Now we can use the half swung bridge to get back to the first island.We have to go and save another engineer from two reapers.Then take him to his controls at the bridge.We have to defend him from reapers for a few waves.Then Roger gets attacked again, so back across the bridge to help him.The Lou gets attacked back across the bridge to him.Now we have to juice up the control panels on both sides of the bridge.The bridge finally lowers.
Side Mission 58Street fightNow the reapers and the dustmen are fighting each other.This is a big fight and some new enemies are introduced.They seem to be creatures which use force fields to bind scrap metal into twisted mockeries of life. These ones seem to be little scorpions. If the creator dustman is killed then his creatures die too.
End of 2nd days play another two hours making 12 in total. Main mission 59Zeke wants us to find a freind, we do and he is dead.We use our powers to find out what happened. We follow the ghost of the killer from the scene. We meet a man who is making posters of Cole. We are asked to choose good or bad images of us.Then we follow the ghost a little more to the conduit. This is the creature that makes the crab/scorpion junk monsters. Once the conduit is dead the junk monsters die with him.
Main Mission 60We have to go back to Zeke, then time for a power reconnect.Playing Hero.We go underground, unlock ball lightning ability. Shoot some bad guys and reconnect the sub stations.
Side Mission 61Satellite uplinks, rooftop race.That one was a hard one.
Side Mission 62Stolen PrescriptionsDustmen have made off with an emt's drugs. We have to go and retrive 7 boxes of drugs from the dustmen nearby.
Side Mission 63Spy games, blow up the 14 cameras on the building.
Side Mission 64Surgical operationRescue an Emt to unlock a clinic/respawn point.Surgical operation is the correct description here as two dustmen right beside the emt must be killed very quickly as just one shot from their guns kills the emt.
Side mission 65Photographer, drain electricity, kill marked baddies, do a thunder drop, grind a rail. Side mission 66The dustmen are camping out on the train track, if we clear them out we can get the train moving again.Same as the previous train mission only shorter, kill dustmen, move cars off the track and charge up junction boxes.
side mission 67Hidden package, in a junkyard, quite hard to find.
I upgrade my new ability megawatt hammer, you can fire a bolt into the air then shoot a target with a normal zap and the rocket bolt will then home in on the target.You also can turn off the gravity on targets hit with the megawatt hammer.
Side mission 68Satellite uplinksThis one was a lot easier than the last.
Side Mission 69Walk the dogs, Prisoner escort.
Main Mission 70Moya asks us to stop the dustmen leaving the islands in boats, taking hostages with them. The boats with the dustmen will be sunk by the navy. Moya and Cole agree that the hostages don't need to sink with the dustmen. We have to disable the boat engines.Four boat engines have to be destroyed, they are at compass points of the island and are heavily guarded, four hostage cages can be opened on each boat.
Saw some heavy glitching here, have seen levitating pedestrians and cars, now i went through the tarmac and died in the water under the city.
I haven't been on the upgrade screen for a while.I buyRighteous headshot, which chains electricty to nearby enemies when i get a headshot.Overload burstIncreased blast radius from grenades
have noticed twice glitched getting caught between fences and buildings and signs and buildings. Really stuck almost to the point of having to switch off and restart stuck.
Main mission 71I have to find a black box from a crashed UAV to find out who is controlling them.The crashed UAV shows us that it's the first sons who are controlling the UAV's. There are around four or five more circling around this area. We have to shoot them down and get to them before they self destruct to get more intel.Once we gather all the data we have to take it to a satellite uplink to transfer the huge amount of data to Moya.
End of third days play 3 hours, total time now 15 hours.
Main Mission 72Alden StrikesThe dustmen leader whom i presume is the Alden of the mission title, tells Cole that he has Zeke and plans to kill him.We have to negotiate a corridor shooter section in the shipyard, through a maze of containers. Dustmen spring out of containers in surprise ambushes.We have to climb up a crane and free Zeke by lowering it. Zeke is jealous of our powers and does not understand Cole's concern.
Side Mission 73The informantThe informant we meet turns out to be a fraud and we are ambushed by Dustmen popping out from the nearby containers. Killing them all completes the mission.
Main Mission 74Anything for TrishTrish wants us to escort her on her mercy mission to pick up wounded from the warrens and take them back to the hospital.She rigs up a bus with a non stop electricity supply for us.We have to get the bus to the hospital through non stop reaper and dustmen attacks. Getting off the bus seems to stop them attacking it, which is a big survival tip.When you get to the hospital The leader of the Dustmen is waiting for us.Alden Tate is a powerful psychokinetic. He lifts the bus, Trish and all into the air and plonks it down precariously on top of the hospital.We have to avoid heavy Dustmen fire and get up to the roofWhen we do find Trish she forgives us for Amy and we are back with Trish as the trophy puts it.
Another 1hr 20 mins on the clock today. Side Mission 75 Chasing echoesFinding a body on the ground Cole chases the ghost of the killer.We are led back to the maze of containers from earlier and have to kill three conduits hiding in the maze.
Main Mission 76The arrestThe police who are gaining in strength due to Cole's actions taking down the majority of the gangs are trying to arrest Alden themselves. Moya asks us to help them.When Cole get to the scene all he finds are dead cops. Using his ghost vision he gets a trace on Alden.We have to fight our way through a dustman shanty town which is cannibalising the city. Then we come to a boss fight against a huge version of the scrap monsters with Alden inside controlling it.It fires in two ways, huge chunks of flaming metal or a hot rivet gun type machine gun fire. It also swings for you. Shooting it with all you have until it's energy wears down is the only strategy. Once you destroy it Alden is captured by the cops.
side Mission 77The cops need help in a battle with the dustmen. One of the bosses from the last encounter is attacking the station.
I upgrade shockwave, karmic overload,
Main Mission 78Terrorised streetsThe dustmen have borrowed our armoured bus idea and after their leader is taken by the police they have went on a rampage with the six machine gun mounted buses. There are four of them patrolling the streets mowing down anyone they can find. You have to approach the bus from above as it will cut you down if you try and go at it on foot. Once on top you blast a lights box until its full and the bus blows. Repeat times four and the mission ends.
Side Mission 79Terror busAnother bus to take down.Have noticed twice now that dying whilst fulfilling mission objectives lets you pass the mission.
Side Mission 80Terror bus
Side mission 81Terror bus
Main mission 82Alden in chainsAlden is in prison, the fbi are coming to extract him from the quarantine. We must keep Alden in the prison until the fbi come for him. The dustmen are doing all in their power to free him.We have to stand on a platform that is electrified and bat back flmaing rocks and cars shot over the walls by the dustmen. Then they break in and run riot, one of the bosses has a go as well. We then have to go to the top of the prison and restore power.Once we do we have to go back down for more slaughter. The dustmen throw everything at us. Three boss robots, loads of soldiers. Zeke comes out to help and Alden manages to escape. Cole seems to blame Zeke, but how it's his fault I don't know. Alden is free though and now he is ready for us.
Main mission 83 Light in the tunnel.Subway reconnectWe gain a polarity wall, by holding down R2 we get a shield.John calls us and asks for a meet.
Side Mission 84Terror bus
Side Mission 85Satellite uplinks
Side mission 86Ulterior motives.A man offers us a blast shard in return for escorting him to his locker. We get the chance to kill him and take them all.
Side Mission 87InfestationClinc saving, infested with dustmen. Kill them all and the clinic is yours.
Side mission 88Counter surveillanceComb the building for bugs.
Main Mission 89John wants to meet us, when we get to the meeting place a chopper appears and asks John to get on for extraction. John is upset and tells us that we were to come alone. Moya says that she is not responsible for the chopper and she thinks it's the first sons. We have to follow the chopper.We have to follow the chopper around using the zip wires between buildings for a bit. Then it finds John. John starts shooting at the chopper. One of tthe golems blows up the chopper.We get a karma moment when shooting the gas tank of the chopper will make it easy on us to kill the golem, but will fry a lot of civilians. Or we can take the hit ourselves.Once we defeat the golem John vanishes.He calls us and tells us that he is not fbi and is not married. That makes Moya a liar, either that or John has had his mind scrambled or is lying for his own ends. Who is he working for. Kessler/Shasha seem to be one side, Alden is also a baddie but hates Kessler. So is John working for either or on his own for the raysphere. Who is Moya working for? Is she really FBI. The plot thickens.The raysphere is supposed to be at the top of the tower built by the dustmen.Cole and Zeke ascend the tower, Zeke using lifts. This reminds me of the agency tower from crackdown. There are checkpoints which make it less frustrating.At the Top Alden is there with the raysphere. Zeke tries to prise the raysphere from it's place while Cole fights the dustmen and golem. Once done Zeke prises the sphere from it's place. Kessler arrives by helicopter and Zeke is caught between them. He activates the raysphere, potentially killing thousands so he can become superpowered. It does not work, Kessler tells Zeke that he can fix it and to come with him. Zeke and Kessler leave in the chopper and Alden enraged goes after them. Cole is forgotten at the top of the tower. John calls and tells Cole that he must go after the raysphere into the historic district. Kessler can't be allowed to keep it.
End of 4th days play 4hrs 30 mins making a total of 19hr 30 mins
Main mission 90 Alden's rampageAlden is breaking through quarantine on a bridge to the historic district, the third and final island.We have to make our way across the bridge, which is being torn apart by Alden's fury.We have to avoid the usual dustmen interference and puzzle our way across the bridge, though it's not a hard puzzle as the way is fairly well signposted. Gives you a bit of vertigo as did the previous tower ascent.At the end of the bridge we meet Alden in the biggest golem yet.Same deal as the rest, he is immobile only formed from the waist up. He fires large chunks of metal, rivets and fire at us. Once we take down the energy of the golem the mission ends.Cole grabs Alden and he tries to plead with Cole to join forces in taking down Kessler. Cole hesitates for a fraction of a second and Alden jumps from the bridge. Cole isn't stupid enough to believe that he is dead.
Side Mission 91We have to help an emt, aid boxes have been dropped, some are stuck on the rooftops and the enemies are partrolling the rooftops as usual. We have to go up there and knock the boxes to the ground using our shockwave. 7 crates to knock down.
Side mission 92Hidden package
side mission 93Tied downWe have to take down and keep alive for arc restraint capture 5 first sons.
Side mission 94Private propertyWe are asked to follow a girl to a wounded man who has been hurt defending a locker full of blast shards from the first sons.We get a karma moment, take them for ourself or help the man. He gives them freely when you heal him and also says that the locker was rigged to explode so it was a good choice to be nice.
Side mission 95There are invisible shotgun armed first sons lurking in the park, we have to kill them.They are quite hard to kill and they sneak up on you.
Side mission 96Counter surveillance 8 bugs to zap.
I can finally afford the steep price of 12000 xp for the biggest upgrade to your basic lightning bolt. The righteous strike allows you to gain energy from everyone you hit and getting a heashot restores your health.
Main mission 97We have to lower the bridge to the other islands, since the big one is now totally out of comission.John gives us this mission, we still don't know where either his or Moya's allegiences lie.Once the bridge is lowered Kessler gives us a call. He has trish and has planted bombs in the city. We have to disarm them to save trish. Kessler also sends an enlarged first son at us, using some kind of technology to make it huge.The conduits shrink back down when you hit them enough, and are fairly susceptible to the megawatt hammer weapon.We have to go to a circle of electrified fence with a bomb and a few people inside the fence, draining the fence disarms the bomb and frees the people. We have to then battle an enlarged conduit. Repeat 3 times with increasing numbers of first son interefence.Kessler then tells us that there are two bombs on the top of buildings. There are six doctors at one and Trish at the other. The timers are activated and we only have time to save one set of people. Trish or six people like her who can do five times more good. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I have to say that Trish has been nothing but unlikable throughout the game and I'm wondering why Cole bothers. So it's no choice at all to go after the six doctors.Climbing to the top of the tower with the docs saves them automatically. Trish falls to her death. She dies in Cole's arms. He buries her swearing vengence on Kessler.
i upgrade the polarity wall.
Main Mission 98VengenceWe are back for the final time into the sewers to restore power to the remaining half of the island.We unlock lightning storm, which calls down lightning from above to kill those around us.You hold down on the d-pad to fire it.We go through the sewers for a shorter than usual time then out onto the surface for some lightning storm fun with trucks to zap. You can steer the path of the storm using the sixaxis controller.We now have three stations to recharge to get the power on fully.At each one we have to fire it up then defend it for about two minutes while it gets up to full power.
John works for the NSA it is revealed.He tells us that Kessler has succeeded in extracting Shasha's mind control ability and has made it into a gas which when inhaled allows Kessler to control anyone inhaling it.
side Mission 99Walking woundedWe have to escort fifteen civilians to the clinic. On the way we are attacked by flying robots and a conduit. Sometimes we have to stop and heal a few of the civilians.
Side Mission 100Titanic justiceFirst sons and dustmen are duking it out in the crater we started the game in.Big conduits, golems, flying robots. Kill them all to end the mission.
Side mission 101Drug runnersHelp an emt get his drugs back.Kill a few first sons, pick up the three boxes and then back to the emt.
Side mission 102Satellite uplinksHard this one.
Side mission 103Photopgrapher, Climb and building, use static thrusters and call down the lightning.
Side mission 104Mobile poison, blow up the truck.
Side mission 105Rats Nest Sabotage the air conditioner, flush out the first sons from their hq and kill them all.
Side mission 106A bus full of wounded needs escorting to the hospital.Stand on the bus it move, get off it stops. Kill all the baddies on the way to the clinic.
Side Mission 107El train.We have to ride the train, clearing the tracks of the first sons. UAV's attack here.
Side mission 108Fan clubprotect the peace march.
Side mission 109Hidden package
Side mission 110Hidden package
5th days play 3hrs 20 mins added on.
Side Mission 111Hidden Package
Side Mission 112Hidden Package
side Mission 113Hidden Package
Main Mission 114Against the worldA balloon is being used to disperse the mind control gas.Four balloons in total. They are shielded by a force field that is vulnerable only to our lightning strike attack. You have to get close enough to hit the balloon with lightning then be high enough to jump and glide onto the platform below the balloon. There are thre couples that hold the balloon to the platform, undo them and the platform crashes down and the balloon floats away free. The later balloons have automatic machine guns guarding them.
Main Mission 115Hunt for the raysphere.John gets a helicopter and a platform dangling underneath it with power for us. We are going looking for the raysphere.John takes us on a ride through the city to three locations of jammers which are hiding the signal generated by the raysphere, with these destroyed we will be able to look for the raysphere using it's unique signal.Each generator is heavily guarded and the ride through the city is chock full of enemies on rooftops with rocket launchers.
Main mission 116 End of the road.John knows where the raysphere is now. Problem is it's heavily guarded. The building has anti-aircraft guns, John's best plan is to drop a gas bomb on the building rendering everyone unconscious. Only thing is the aa guns will chop him up long before he can bomb the place. We have to take out the guns so that John can make his approach.Moya tells us that since she has lost control of the situation the army are now blowing the place to an even deeper hell and preparing for a ground invasion.There are three aa guns and as missions go getting them blown up using the lightning from above isn't that hard. Once all three are down John tells you to go to a safe position marked on your gps. Once there you watch as he drops the bomb on the building. Kessler is faster though and a truck is seenn fleeing with the raysphere on board.We have to follow the helicopter as it chases the truck. Eventually at the dock we run the gauntlet of Kessler's men. Eventually at the end of the dock we find the raysphere in a device. We are given the choice activate it again and possibly become twice as powerful. Alternatively destroy the device which has ruined thousands of lives.I choose to destroy it.Cole hits the raysphere with everything he has and it is blown up. John is killed in the blast.Kessler calls Cole and tells him he has been stupid.Kessler tells Cole to meet him.
Main mission 117We have to meet Kessler where the game started, in the crater of the explosion.Where we fight him to the death. Kessler has many moves, bullet time fast movement. Blasts of energy. huge duplicates of himself that walk inexorably towards you.He is a hard boss, but once you get a handle on him not to bad. I tried to predict where he was going and have grenades waiting close by him ready to explode. It worked.
Kessler shows Cole a vision and an explanation.Kessler is Cole, back from the future, a future where a superpowered titan has destroyed the world. In this alternate reality Cole chooses to run with Trish and his family. Eventually they are caught and his family killed. Cole decides that he can't fight the titan in the future, their powers are too mismatched. He uses his powers to travel back in time and orchestrate the event's that Cole in this time line has experienced. A trial forcing Cole to become strong. When the unknown titan arises Cole will be ready to crush him. Kessler dies pinching out his timeline and leaving the new one with a strong Cole.
3hours more and that's the end of the game.
Roughly 26 hours to complete the main story and all side missions.
45% of trophies or 450 achievment points.
Time for an evil playthrough??Why not.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Terminator Salvation Notes
Made by Grin who it seems have saved up for a splurge or are making an awful lot of games very fast.
Seems that there are eight levels. You get an extra 180 points for playing on hard so hard it is. I might regret this, however, here we go.
StoryFirst cut scene shows the typical Terminator future war scenario, humans being cut down by legions of terminator robot ground troops and flying hunter killers. We watch Connor running around through the action, seeing a machine stronghold in the distance and nearly getting crushed by a falling human helicopter after it's shot down by the machines.We help the heroes escape from LA in trucks.The road is out so we have to go underground.We trudge through the underground and then out onto the streets for lots of firefights.Then meet up with a resistance commander who is in charge of the evacuation.A wounded man called Weston radio's for help.John is ordered to evac and leave the wounded men behind. He commits mutiny and goes off alone to try and save the men. Blair his friend joins him. The chopper they were going to evac on is destroyed anway, so it was the right choice.Escaping the harvester we go into the tunnelsWe are going to follow the LA river into skynet territory.We meet up with Dobkin and his men at a crashed chopper.Dobkin and his men salvage what they can from the chopper. We meet Angie who looks like she is in shock or combat stress.We go with Dobkin to a resistance supply cache.At the supply cache t-600's ambush us, we kill them with pipe bombs but Dobkin does not make it.As we progress we meet rubber skinned t-600's done up to look human, only they don't look convincing at all, only from a distance. Connor seems to know that they will encounter t-800 with real skin soon, Angie asks him why he knows this.We are going to a tower and eagle point, why i don't know, I thought we were going to save some wounded men.We go up to the top of the tower to decide that it's not safe, well whatever gave him that idea. John decides that we had better use the subway to get across LA to Eagle point.we get to union station.John tells David they are going underground and on the way, David tells him that they can't last much longer.In the tunnels we meet up with Warren and his gang of survivors that have been hiding down in the tunnels for years. They agree to give us help, however Warren tells John he will kill him himself if the machines have followed them down into the tunnels.We go back to Warren and sirens go off, the machines have followed us. We have to help Barnes defend the survivors long enough for them to pack up and make a break for it.We run back to the defensive position we saw earlier with the charges and wait for the machines to turn up.We hold off machine waves long enough for Barnes to get his charges working and then he blows the roof down on the terminators. The refugees escape on subway trains.After a long ride on trains and vehicles Warren tells us that skynet scans the area using a huge array that towers over the landscape. The only way to travel over ground without attracting unwanted machine attention is to destroy the array. John sets out to do it, Barnes decides to come along with John, Blair and angie.We fight through the suburbs to the antenna building.At the array there appears to be no guards at first.Inside John tries to take a hard drive and triggers an alarm, machines come and we have to defend Barnes while he sets charges.Once the charges are set it's a run to an elevator and escape. Angie sacrifices her life to use remote controls to move the elvator so the rest of the gang can escape.Once on the surface with all the communication jamming stopped John Speaks to Weston to reassure him that he is still coming. He contacts resistance command and asks for helicopter support on his resuce mission. The resistance think he's nuts until we see that John has manages somehow offscreen to capture and rig to his control a machine tank like thing.The survivors also turn up and give him a laptop so he can control the machine properly.Now John has to drive the machine up to skynet at eagle point and then blast the anti air turrets, find the trapped men and then escape, easy for a movie star.The tank gets the gang so far and then we go on foot into the heart of skynet in LA to find our men.We actually do find the men, I thought it was going to be a machine trap, but never mind. Weston's wounded are taken away and he joins us.Now we have with the aid of Weston to find the turret control room. Once we turn off the turrets we can get our choppers to bomb the place after they pick us up.Once into the control room Connor attaches the laptop to the computer and runs a program to take down the turrets and emp the terminators nearby. This allows an easy run to the chopper and the resistance come in and nuke the facility.This of course isn't the end of skynet but it's a big step for the resistance.
GameplayThe controls are standard, analogue sticks for camera and movement. Left trigger aims. Right trigger fires. A goes into cover, when you are in cover an icon appears showing you a 180 field of view with segments highlighted for available moving to new cover options.X reloads you gun.Pressing and holding B brings up an weapon selection Wheel.
Level 1Our first combat is against flying things called wasps.I pick up a shotgun to complement my machine gun.A few more encounters with wasps then a walking terminator turns up at T600. It seems to take an awful lot of punishment.So much so that I can't seem to kill it. I then realise that you just have to run away from it.We get into a building and meet some other humans. The choppers that were going to evacuate us as grounded due to far too much machine activity. The only way out is by truck. As the cut scene plays an Hunter Killer arrives, we are told to take it out using rockets.The hk flies around looking for a way to shoot in through gaps in the building and sends wasps in to get us. We can pick up a rocket launcher and it takes about four or five shots to kill it. A T600 comes after us and we make our escape to the next building across a sign which has fell as a bridge.Now we get an on rails vehicle section where we are gunning at wasps and HK's from the mounted gun on a jeep.We have to shoot a damaged engine, sensor pods and plasma guns off the HK before it crashes. A t600 arrives kills some of our men and takes their van and drives after us, we are now shooting at the van with the t600 driving. Wasps accompany it.Once the van is down we have more wasps and then it's level complete.
Level 2We make our way out onto the ruined streets, where we encounter more wasps then our first spider robot.You have to shoot the robots in what looks like their batteries at the back. They wander around shooting at people who fire at them, you basically have to get into a flanking position and let them have it. Sometimes the a.i. backup will shoot them for you but you can't count on it it seems.After a few skirmishes with the spiders and wasps we meet up with a commander type at an evacuation point. The people argue amongst themselves about the futility of it all and then wasps turn up.We have to go outside the building and survive for three minutes through waves of wasps.We now have to clear a landing zone for the choppers.We go out onto the roof and there are wasps and spiders everywhere.I find that rockets take out the spiders from the front and grenades are fairly effective.The evac chopper is destroyed and John goes off with Blair to save the wounded Weston.A harvester turns up, a huge robot exoskeleton.We have nothing that can kill this so we basically have to run for it into an underground tunnel.
Level 3In the tunnels following the river to skynet territory and the wounded men.Have foound a bigger machine gun, fires faster bigger clip.We see a helicopter going down in the distance and go to rescue the survivors.Spiders arrive in the way of our rescue.Once taken out we come to the crash site and find Dobkin and his men under heavy fire from wasps and spiders.More spiders and wasps turn up.Going with Dobkin to a resistance supply cache.A T600 turns up. We run from it a Dobkin makes a building fall on it to kill it.Or not as the case may be, Dobkin gives us pipe bombs and we have to try and take down three t-600's.This is fairly hard.Once two are downed with pipe bombs we retreat through a door that the terminators open up. We make a stand in a room where about four t-600's come into, loads of pipe bombs available and good cover though. Once that sis done it's the end of the level.
Level 4We fight on with Angie and Blair heading to eagle rock.Spiders and wasps as usual.We are now heading for a tower.We come across some terminators with skin pretending to be human, well at least until we show ourselves to them.The two giant rubber skinned t-600 took a lot of bullets each but tend to stand in front of your cover just hammering away, you can just blind fire and kill them.Mores spiders and wasps.More wasps and spiders, are you sensing a theme here.Just different fight boxes with wasps and spiders.We get to the tower block, which is falling apart.Inside the tower block we have a fight with an HK which is similar to the encounter on the first level, only this time we can get up on the roof and run around better.Now to the subways.We have two more fight boxes with wasps and spiders then just to mix thing up we have a pipe to climb and a two floor room with an emplaced gun. Wasps and spiders yet again though.We get to union station and the level ends.
Level 5The first area of the underground is rigged with recent explosives, who placed them, it does not seem to be machine work.We walk through a long section of empty station and subway.We have to find Barnes and then he asks us to follow him.Then back to WarrenMachines loads of wasps and spiders in a fight box. This time there are some t-600's in the mix.Now onto subway trains.We now have An on rails section where we ride the train and shoot rockets at terminator motor bike things and spiders. We get to a station and pick up survivors while defending the stationary train.Then on through more tunnels.We now are going in vehicles, dune buggy type things. We have school bus to defend also.We travel through the landscape shooting up all sorts of machines we have seen so far, this section is actually fun.
Level 6Out in the suburbs, overgrown and ruined.We meet the skinned terminators again, along with spiders.Another fight box with spiders, wasps and skin jobs.Now we can see the antenna in the distance.At this fight box there is less cover and the terminators actually encroach on your cover, which is a new thing, they have been politely staying out of your uncomfortable zone so far.
Level 7Inside the antenna buildings.Barnes places charges and the room floods with t-600's and spiders.As if this game isn't annoying enough without having to really worry about the dense partner a.i.Once the enemies are dead, sorry charges are places you move on through about four fight boxes with the usual suspects. Barnes keeps muttering on about the timer on the charges, I hope this isn't against the clock.Now we have an on rails section driving the terminator machine, it has guns and rockets.We have to hit turrets and incoming spiders and t-600's.Once we clear three sets of turret sites of all enemies we finish the on rails section.The place we enter looks like a factory, lots of t-600's and spiders.Usual fight boxes.
Level 8We fight to the control room, then have to defend the control room while the program runs to stop the turrets.Once that is done we have to escape skynet before the resistance drops some nukes.Basically we have to run for it past emp'ed terminators to a helicopter and escape.That is game over.
Getting into cover besides your partner a.i. is a fairly glitchy affair.Grenades are a bit of a problem, there is one grenade button, and two grenade types, there is also a grenade launcher. So you can be firing normal grenades and run out, only you have pipe bombs as well, instead of just chucking them when you press grenade you have to actually select them first, so you can have 2 pipe bombs and five grenade launcher grenades, but once you have chucked two normal grenades then you can't just tap the grenade button to start chucking pipe bombs, in the heat of battle you have to hold B and then move the analogue stick to the weapon you want. You end up doing this just to see if you actually have any pipe bombs or grenades and end up dying just to see what your inventory is.There are ridiculously long loads between dying and getting restarted which is one thing that really nags me in a game.Also when you die you are asked if you want to continue or quit back to the menu, options which are uncomfortably close and flash instead of being a different colour.Not only long loading screen you get sent back to the start of unskippable in game dialogue scenes after each time you die.You health does not seem to regenerate until you complete certain sections of the games own design.When reloading the game from a switch off you have to navigate around four menus to get back to where you left off, first rule of game design, people want to get to where they left off usually straight away when they load a game up. So one button press should be all it takes. No menus no navigating them, just one button to get going. Of course this should be the menu, highlighted, not some obtuse thing you can't get out of if you want to go to the options or extras bits.
First days Play 1hr 47mins then 55 mins
2nd days play 3hrs 30mins
total 6hrs 20mins
1000 achievement points.
Seems that there are eight levels. You get an extra 180 points for playing on hard so hard it is. I might regret this, however, here we go.
StoryFirst cut scene shows the typical Terminator future war scenario, humans being cut down by legions of terminator robot ground troops and flying hunter killers. We watch Connor running around through the action, seeing a machine stronghold in the distance and nearly getting crushed by a falling human helicopter after it's shot down by the machines.We help the heroes escape from LA in trucks.The road is out so we have to go underground.We trudge through the underground and then out onto the streets for lots of firefights.Then meet up with a resistance commander who is in charge of the evacuation.A wounded man called Weston radio's for help.John is ordered to evac and leave the wounded men behind. He commits mutiny and goes off alone to try and save the men. Blair his friend joins him. The chopper they were going to evac on is destroyed anway, so it was the right choice.Escaping the harvester we go into the tunnelsWe are going to follow the LA river into skynet territory.We meet up with Dobkin and his men at a crashed chopper.Dobkin and his men salvage what they can from the chopper. We meet Angie who looks like she is in shock or combat stress.We go with Dobkin to a resistance supply cache.At the supply cache t-600's ambush us, we kill them with pipe bombs but Dobkin does not make it.As we progress we meet rubber skinned t-600's done up to look human, only they don't look convincing at all, only from a distance. Connor seems to know that they will encounter t-800 with real skin soon, Angie asks him why he knows this.We are going to a tower and eagle point, why i don't know, I thought we were going to save some wounded men.We go up to the top of the tower to decide that it's not safe, well whatever gave him that idea. John decides that we had better use the subway to get across LA to Eagle point.we get to union station.John tells David they are going underground and on the way, David tells him that they can't last much longer.In the tunnels we meet up with Warren and his gang of survivors that have been hiding down in the tunnels for years. They agree to give us help, however Warren tells John he will kill him himself if the machines have followed them down into the tunnels.We go back to Warren and sirens go off, the machines have followed us. We have to help Barnes defend the survivors long enough for them to pack up and make a break for it.We run back to the defensive position we saw earlier with the charges and wait for the machines to turn up.We hold off machine waves long enough for Barnes to get his charges working and then he blows the roof down on the terminators. The refugees escape on subway trains.After a long ride on trains and vehicles Warren tells us that skynet scans the area using a huge array that towers over the landscape. The only way to travel over ground without attracting unwanted machine attention is to destroy the array. John sets out to do it, Barnes decides to come along with John, Blair and angie.We fight through the suburbs to the antenna building.At the array there appears to be no guards at first.Inside John tries to take a hard drive and triggers an alarm, machines come and we have to defend Barnes while he sets charges.Once the charges are set it's a run to an elevator and escape. Angie sacrifices her life to use remote controls to move the elvator so the rest of the gang can escape.Once on the surface with all the communication jamming stopped John Speaks to Weston to reassure him that he is still coming. He contacts resistance command and asks for helicopter support on his resuce mission. The resistance think he's nuts until we see that John has manages somehow offscreen to capture and rig to his control a machine tank like thing.The survivors also turn up and give him a laptop so he can control the machine properly.Now John has to drive the machine up to skynet at eagle point and then blast the anti air turrets, find the trapped men and then escape, easy for a movie star.The tank gets the gang so far and then we go on foot into the heart of skynet in LA to find our men.We actually do find the men, I thought it was going to be a machine trap, but never mind. Weston's wounded are taken away and he joins us.Now we have with the aid of Weston to find the turret control room. Once we turn off the turrets we can get our choppers to bomb the place after they pick us up.Once into the control room Connor attaches the laptop to the computer and runs a program to take down the turrets and emp the terminators nearby. This allows an easy run to the chopper and the resistance come in and nuke the facility.This of course isn't the end of skynet but it's a big step for the resistance.
GameplayThe controls are standard, analogue sticks for camera and movement. Left trigger aims. Right trigger fires. A goes into cover, when you are in cover an icon appears showing you a 180 field of view with segments highlighted for available moving to new cover options.X reloads you gun.Pressing and holding B brings up an weapon selection Wheel.
Level 1Our first combat is against flying things called wasps.I pick up a shotgun to complement my machine gun.A few more encounters with wasps then a walking terminator turns up at T600. It seems to take an awful lot of punishment.So much so that I can't seem to kill it. I then realise that you just have to run away from it.We get into a building and meet some other humans. The choppers that were going to evacuate us as grounded due to far too much machine activity. The only way out is by truck. As the cut scene plays an Hunter Killer arrives, we are told to take it out using rockets.The hk flies around looking for a way to shoot in through gaps in the building and sends wasps in to get us. We can pick up a rocket launcher and it takes about four or five shots to kill it. A T600 comes after us and we make our escape to the next building across a sign which has fell as a bridge.Now we get an on rails vehicle section where we are gunning at wasps and HK's from the mounted gun on a jeep.We have to shoot a damaged engine, sensor pods and plasma guns off the HK before it crashes. A t600 arrives kills some of our men and takes their van and drives after us, we are now shooting at the van with the t600 driving. Wasps accompany it.Once the van is down we have more wasps and then it's level complete.
Level 2We make our way out onto the ruined streets, where we encounter more wasps then our first spider robot.You have to shoot the robots in what looks like their batteries at the back. They wander around shooting at people who fire at them, you basically have to get into a flanking position and let them have it. Sometimes the a.i. backup will shoot them for you but you can't count on it it seems.After a few skirmishes with the spiders and wasps we meet up with a commander type at an evacuation point. The people argue amongst themselves about the futility of it all and then wasps turn up.We have to go outside the building and survive for three minutes through waves of wasps.We now have to clear a landing zone for the choppers.We go out onto the roof and there are wasps and spiders everywhere.I find that rockets take out the spiders from the front and grenades are fairly effective.The evac chopper is destroyed and John goes off with Blair to save the wounded Weston.A harvester turns up, a huge robot exoskeleton.We have nothing that can kill this so we basically have to run for it into an underground tunnel.
Level 3In the tunnels following the river to skynet territory and the wounded men.Have foound a bigger machine gun, fires faster bigger clip.We see a helicopter going down in the distance and go to rescue the survivors.Spiders arrive in the way of our rescue.Once taken out we come to the crash site and find Dobkin and his men under heavy fire from wasps and spiders.More spiders and wasps turn up.Going with Dobkin to a resistance supply cache.A T600 turns up. We run from it a Dobkin makes a building fall on it to kill it.Or not as the case may be, Dobkin gives us pipe bombs and we have to try and take down three t-600's.This is fairly hard.Once two are downed with pipe bombs we retreat through a door that the terminators open up. We make a stand in a room where about four t-600's come into, loads of pipe bombs available and good cover though. Once that sis done it's the end of the level.
Level 4We fight on with Angie and Blair heading to eagle rock.Spiders and wasps as usual.We are now heading for a tower.We come across some terminators with skin pretending to be human, well at least until we show ourselves to them.The two giant rubber skinned t-600 took a lot of bullets each but tend to stand in front of your cover just hammering away, you can just blind fire and kill them.Mores spiders and wasps.More wasps and spiders, are you sensing a theme here.Just different fight boxes with wasps and spiders.We get to the tower block, which is falling apart.Inside the tower block we have a fight with an HK which is similar to the encounter on the first level, only this time we can get up on the roof and run around better.Now to the subways.We have two more fight boxes with wasps and spiders then just to mix thing up we have a pipe to climb and a two floor room with an emplaced gun. Wasps and spiders yet again though.We get to union station and the level ends.
Level 5The first area of the underground is rigged with recent explosives, who placed them, it does not seem to be machine work.We walk through a long section of empty station and subway.We have to find Barnes and then he asks us to follow him.Then back to WarrenMachines loads of wasps and spiders in a fight box. This time there are some t-600's in the mix.Now onto subway trains.We now have An on rails section where we ride the train and shoot rockets at terminator motor bike things and spiders. We get to a station and pick up survivors while defending the stationary train.Then on through more tunnels.We now are going in vehicles, dune buggy type things. We have school bus to defend also.We travel through the landscape shooting up all sorts of machines we have seen so far, this section is actually fun.
Level 6Out in the suburbs, overgrown and ruined.We meet the skinned terminators again, along with spiders.Another fight box with spiders, wasps and skin jobs.Now we can see the antenna in the distance.At this fight box there is less cover and the terminators actually encroach on your cover, which is a new thing, they have been politely staying out of your uncomfortable zone so far.
Level 7Inside the antenna buildings.Barnes places charges and the room floods with t-600's and spiders.As if this game isn't annoying enough without having to really worry about the dense partner a.i.Once the enemies are dead, sorry charges are places you move on through about four fight boxes with the usual suspects. Barnes keeps muttering on about the timer on the charges, I hope this isn't against the clock.Now we have an on rails section driving the terminator machine, it has guns and rockets.We have to hit turrets and incoming spiders and t-600's.Once we clear three sets of turret sites of all enemies we finish the on rails section.The place we enter looks like a factory, lots of t-600's and spiders.Usual fight boxes.
Level 8We fight to the control room, then have to defend the control room while the program runs to stop the turrets.Once that is done we have to escape skynet before the resistance drops some nukes.Basically we have to run for it past emp'ed terminators to a helicopter and escape.That is game over.
Getting into cover besides your partner a.i. is a fairly glitchy affair.Grenades are a bit of a problem, there is one grenade button, and two grenade types, there is also a grenade launcher. So you can be firing normal grenades and run out, only you have pipe bombs as well, instead of just chucking them when you press grenade you have to actually select them first, so you can have 2 pipe bombs and five grenade launcher grenades, but once you have chucked two normal grenades then you can't just tap the grenade button to start chucking pipe bombs, in the heat of battle you have to hold B and then move the analogue stick to the weapon you want. You end up doing this just to see if you actually have any pipe bombs or grenades and end up dying just to see what your inventory is.There are ridiculously long loads between dying and getting restarted which is one thing that really nags me in a game.Also when you die you are asked if you want to continue or quit back to the menu, options which are uncomfortably close and flash instead of being a different colour.Not only long loading screen you get sent back to the start of unskippable in game dialogue scenes after each time you die.You health does not seem to regenerate until you complete certain sections of the games own design.When reloading the game from a switch off you have to navigate around four menus to get back to where you left off, first rule of game design, people want to get to where they left off usually straight away when they load a game up. So one button press should be all it takes. No menus no navigating them, just one button to get going. Of course this should be the menu, highlighted, not some obtuse thing you can't get out of if you want to go to the options or extras bits.
First days Play 1hr 47mins then 55 mins
2nd days play 3hrs 30mins
total 6hrs 20mins
1000 achievement points.
Eat Lead Notes
Three difficulty levels Hardest is ghosted, choose medium.The intro cut scene is narrated by Matt, basically it suggests that Matt Hazard is an actual actor used for the Matt Hazard series of games which started as 8-bit side scrollers. Things progressed as they do and Matt found himself in 3D FPS's and then on into diverging game genres. Ultimately like all long running franchises the karting game and non-violent water pistol shooter saw his popularity wane. Taking things in his own direction was the final nail in the Matt Hazard franchise coffin. A new Owner has bought Marathon, the company who make the games and they want Matt to star in their new next generation game.
The game starts with Matt making the game, which is of course achieved by us playing it.The story sees Matt as a private detective taking on some triads in a chinese steakhouse.
TutorialLeft and Right analogue sticks control movement and camera as usual, third person view of character. Clicking right stick changes which shoulder you view over when aiming/zoomed using left trigger. Right trigger shoots. Right bumper reloads.Pressing A near cover goes into cover. Pointing the crosshair at nearby cover and pressing Y moves you to that cover swiftly. Pressing B while moving into cover vaults you over it.Pressing X melee's opponents.
Level 1We move into the resturaunt via the kitchens taking out suited soldiers.After the kitchens it's the steakhouse proper and then up into an office where we meet our first boss. He is Sonny Tang a blacksplotation 70's disco Kung fu idiot.I beat him up using dreaded quicktime sequences, which at least are always the same sequence so aren't all that frustrating.115 achievement points in about ten minutes, this game is good for score whores.We then go back to fighting the usual goons in the steakhouse, back out into utility areas and then into another office.We meet Sting Sniperscope, who sounds like a bad arnie rip off. He shoots us in the head and the game pauses, well everything except for Matt. A voice in his ear tells him that all of his saves have been erased and if that bullet had hit him then he would have been dead. Someone is tampering with the game and Matt is trapped in it. If he dies in the game he dies for real. The mystery female erases Sting's gun and we knock him down with one punch while he is paused.The woman tells us to call her QA. In some kind of holodeck type affair she appears as a digital ghost. Someone was going to pull a fast one on Matt, he was to be killed in the first level and Sting Sniperscope was to take over as the hero. QA tells Matt to carry on and she will try and get him out and help him through the game if she can't.She restores his saves and gives him weapons.
Level 2The next level is a meat market and casino???QA tells us that we can now absorb enemy code packages when they die.We move through the shopfront of the meat market and then into the freezer rooms with sides of beef hanging up. We progress into another area and then the game is hacked by someone else. The scene changes to a western scene. QA is puzzled but can't help, we will just have to progress.The western scene does not last long, but the cowboys keep coming. We make our way through the casino to the mangers office, which was the original level objective. The soliders here are armed with different weapons. Shotguns magnums etc.At the managers office Matt meet's Kitty who seems friendly after she knee's him in the crotch. The unknown bad guy uploads russian soliders from another game into the level and we have to help Kitty kill them all.Once that is done QA opens an exit for Kitty. We have to finish the level to progress though.We now have an ice upgrade, the code packages fill a meter and once full we can now unlock ice bullets for a short period of time.We have to fight through the lower floor of the club with it's horde of robotic dancers. Back into the western area we started in and we meet General Neutronov.This is a traditional boss Fight, Neutronnov has an atomic bomb, we have to shoot him from a series of platforms, and once shot enough we move onto another of three sets of platfroms. Different objectives, like shooting exlpoding barrels on his platform and releasing clamps make our progress. Once we have shot him enough the final time we can go and disarm the bomb.
Level 3Bill the wizard has been taken from his game and we need to save him. It seems that all the marathon company heroes are under attack in this game not just Matt.when we enter the level Bill is being ambushed by teams of about four guards at a time. We are on the roof and have to snipe them to prevent Bill being killed.We then run around on the roof shooting at enemies. We have to defend Bill again with the sniper rifle again.New enemies are hacked in, from the kid friendly shooter "Soak em", cue laughter, however the water guns turn out be just as deadly as real guns.We fight some more with the water shooter guys and then snipe more for Bill.Next Sting turns up on the roof accross the street and we have to avoid his sniper fire.Usual laser sighting we have to stay in cover.We have to work our way through the warehouse avoiding sniper fire and the usual enemies.A flying alien ship turns up ourside the warehouse and fires in through the windows at us.after we have avoided the ship for a while and shot some more baddies Bill the wizard turns up and uses his staff to knock out the helicopter as they describe it, looked alien to me.Now we have unlocked fire bullets.We come to the showdown with Sting Sniperscope.We have to make our way through a long room avoiding his sniper fire and killing the super soaker commandos.This is a real pain in the ass, avoiding the sniper fire is hard work. Eventually I get to the end ducking and diving and finding alternate routes between all the machinery. When you reach the end of the room you get a quicktime fight sequence with Sniperscope and kick his ass for the second time.
Level 4We watch a cut scene where we find out that the new owner of Marathon has a grudge against Matt because as a kid he couldn't finish his games. He wants him killed off. New characters are found from other games to be patched in to kill Matt.The next level begins and we have to find Dexter who was Matt's partner in a previous game.This level starts out in a luxurious house by the sea with nice gardens.Swat type enemies, nothing new here so far.we reach a tennis court and suddenly the game is hacked. Zombies rise up out of the ground. We have to shoot them in the head.We get a few areas where the zombies are mixed in with russians and swat guys. Then the super soaker commandos turn up again.We find Dexter lounging in bed, Kitty and another scantily clad lady turn up, seems they are duplicates under Dexter's control. Dexter has been promised his own game if he kills off Matt for the CEO.Killing the two fembots isn't hard if you have managed to keep the ice upgrade handy.We get a dual wield sub machine gun for killing them.We catch up with dexter and have a quicktime fight with him, he kicks us in the balls and manages to get away. So we are after him again.After more shootouts with men and the female bot defenders we come back to Dexter and beat him up. Matt stops short of actually killing him however.We have to go back to the guest house to find the exit to the level.Which basically means there's no more level and we are just backtracking with different amounts of varied enemies in the same areas as before.When we get back to where we started a cut scene starts.Matt is trapped in a room of the mansions with Zombies in large numbers trying to get in. He asks QA to open an exit but she is having trouble and says that someone is trying to block her out. QA appears but she is acting strangely and is probably an imposter. She tells Matt to leave through an exit she opens up.
Level 5We find ourself on a ship.Where we fight through corridors and a submersible bay. After fighting through a house type office area on the ship, Don't ask, the game is using game cliches to allow any type of environments it wants at any time. We meet up with Master Chef. No, I didn't think it was funny either. He is pinned down with no gun in a kitchen. Space marines are coming to attack him and we must save him. Even the music here is riffing on Halo. There are two space marines in the area which must be killed to progress, they take a lot of shooting due to their advanced armour. After we have dealt with them we get some new weapons. QA is acting oddly again. Even Matt is starting to doubt it's her.The energy pistol is a good weapon. Shame the plasma rifle isn't so good. The ODST troopers drop in using pods, and refreshingly you can shoot them whilst they are still in their pods to make them a little less of a pain in the ass. You make your way through the ship with the ODST fighting you all the way, there are some zombies thrown in to make things fun. Eventually you come to a face off with Evil QA who is still acting badly. Real QA breaks in and tries to shut out the evil QA. She can't and the ship turns into a pirate ship with a huge sea monster boss to deal with. Seems from the references here we are taking the mick out of God of War.The tentacle beast of Tramm is a really hard annoying boss battle. I am sensing a theme here. You have to hit it's tentacles on certain orange areas as it gets them stuck in the deck. Do this six times and it's onto the next stage. Here you have to shoot smaller tentacles to get the larger ones to appear and throw mines at you. If you hit the mine enough it explodes in the tentacles grasp hurting it. Yes again six times you do this. Then you have to shoot the tentacles as they wave around in the air jabbing at you again. Whilst all this is going on the ODST's drop in and run interference. You get a 40 point achievement for doing this missions and it is well earned.
Level 6The CEO is getting even more upset with his underlings at Matt's ability to survive everything they are throwing at him. They have also lost him in the server.QA explains to Matt that he is in a warehouse level of another action hero.We fight our way through and find Captain Carpenter. This area is the place where all the game props are made and stored.Captain carpenter is a poor Mario knock of who vanishes down a pipe when we rescue him.We have to clear out all the enemies from the warehouse to stop the enenmies from having better weapons later on.There are little jokes about long waits in elevators.We start to come across 2D sprite enemies from early 3D games like Wolfentstein.Then the ODST rip offs return.We fight past them and come to a large area with a glowing crystal in the middle.A cut scene starts and we have come to the JRPG mickey taking section of the game. The Final fantasy generic androgenous warrior talks in text speech bubbles and fantasy cliches. He has been sent to kill us.He has a few attacks, a swirling sword, ice meteors, bringing down odst's. He also regenerates his health, which you can stop if you shoot the health globes as they approach him. Ammo is the hardest thing to find here, with ammo spread around the wide area leaving you running exposed to Altos's attacks and and odst running around as well. Killing him is easy enough if you manage to shoot all his health globes and keep his health going down instead of up.
Level 7We watch Wally the CEO shouting at his programmers again, this is the last level of the game. They are going to throw everything they have to kill Matt, well I would expect nothing less. This level takes place at a Dock.The docks is all about wide open areas, fight boxes, filled with waves of all the enemies seen so far.It's actually quite fun.We progress from the dock onto a ship, with long corridors, bunk rooms and cargo areas.Interesting bit here when a huge crane trundles through the firefight box. Moving cover.Never mentioned the Master shield and Maximum Hazard power ups that can be found on some levels. These give you around 30 seconds of increased bullet damge and invulnerability.We progress into real wolfenstein 3D territory.
get the stuff from the ipod to go in here*****************
When we finally get past the countless space marine office staff controlled respawning enemies we find outself in Wally's office.Evil QA appears and gets killed by good QA then good QA gets zapped by Wally.Now we have the final boss fight with Wally, of course he is not going to be alone and loads of varied enemies run interference.We have to survive a few waves of robogirls and zombies, then go hit a switch. Once we have hit it we get waves of odst and wolfenstein sprites.In between this we have to avoid the de-rezzing gun that Wally weilds from his high platform.Getting from cover to cover should be easy with the point and click cover system, however it's more trouble than it's worth most times, ending you up on the wrong side of cover etc.After hitting the next switch we get waves of the inept worker players again.We have to avoid his de-rez fire to hit another switch.A cut scene shows Wally cornering Matt and about to kill him when Dexter turns up with two fembots and shoots Wally.Matt gets to go bare fists with Wally.Which is censored due to violent content, we see a black screen while comedy chainsaw sounds happen. Matt knocks him out then Dexter and QA comes to chat. Turns out that QA is a guy called Quentin in real life.
Completed in around 15 hours playtime. Have to say the levels themselves were easy enough, the boss battles were annoyingly hard. Still 815 achievement points for one playthrough on Normal are not to be sniffed at.
The game starts with Matt making the game, which is of course achieved by us playing it.The story sees Matt as a private detective taking on some triads in a chinese steakhouse.
TutorialLeft and Right analogue sticks control movement and camera as usual, third person view of character. Clicking right stick changes which shoulder you view over when aiming/zoomed using left trigger. Right trigger shoots. Right bumper reloads.Pressing A near cover goes into cover. Pointing the crosshair at nearby cover and pressing Y moves you to that cover swiftly. Pressing B while moving into cover vaults you over it.Pressing X melee's opponents.
Level 1We move into the resturaunt via the kitchens taking out suited soldiers.After the kitchens it's the steakhouse proper and then up into an office where we meet our first boss. He is Sonny Tang a blacksplotation 70's disco Kung fu idiot.I beat him up using dreaded quicktime sequences, which at least are always the same sequence so aren't all that frustrating.115 achievement points in about ten minutes, this game is good for score whores.We then go back to fighting the usual goons in the steakhouse, back out into utility areas and then into another office.We meet Sting Sniperscope, who sounds like a bad arnie rip off. He shoots us in the head and the game pauses, well everything except for Matt. A voice in his ear tells him that all of his saves have been erased and if that bullet had hit him then he would have been dead. Someone is tampering with the game and Matt is trapped in it. If he dies in the game he dies for real. The mystery female erases Sting's gun and we knock him down with one punch while he is paused.The woman tells us to call her QA. In some kind of holodeck type affair she appears as a digital ghost. Someone was going to pull a fast one on Matt, he was to be killed in the first level and Sting Sniperscope was to take over as the hero. QA tells Matt to carry on and she will try and get him out and help him through the game if she can't.She restores his saves and gives him weapons.
Level 2The next level is a meat market and casino???QA tells us that we can now absorb enemy code packages when they die.We move through the shopfront of the meat market and then into the freezer rooms with sides of beef hanging up. We progress into another area and then the game is hacked by someone else. The scene changes to a western scene. QA is puzzled but can't help, we will just have to progress.The western scene does not last long, but the cowboys keep coming. We make our way through the casino to the mangers office, which was the original level objective. The soliders here are armed with different weapons. Shotguns magnums etc.At the managers office Matt meet's Kitty who seems friendly after she knee's him in the crotch. The unknown bad guy uploads russian soliders from another game into the level and we have to help Kitty kill them all.Once that is done QA opens an exit for Kitty. We have to finish the level to progress though.We now have an ice upgrade, the code packages fill a meter and once full we can now unlock ice bullets for a short period of time.We have to fight through the lower floor of the club with it's horde of robotic dancers. Back into the western area we started in and we meet General Neutronov.This is a traditional boss Fight, Neutronnov has an atomic bomb, we have to shoot him from a series of platforms, and once shot enough we move onto another of three sets of platfroms. Different objectives, like shooting exlpoding barrels on his platform and releasing clamps make our progress. Once we have shot him enough the final time we can go and disarm the bomb.
Level 3Bill the wizard has been taken from his game and we need to save him. It seems that all the marathon company heroes are under attack in this game not just Matt.when we enter the level Bill is being ambushed by teams of about four guards at a time. We are on the roof and have to snipe them to prevent Bill being killed.We then run around on the roof shooting at enemies. We have to defend Bill again with the sniper rifle again.New enemies are hacked in, from the kid friendly shooter "Soak em", cue laughter, however the water guns turn out be just as deadly as real guns.We fight some more with the water shooter guys and then snipe more for Bill.Next Sting turns up on the roof accross the street and we have to avoid his sniper fire.Usual laser sighting we have to stay in cover.We have to work our way through the warehouse avoiding sniper fire and the usual enemies.A flying alien ship turns up ourside the warehouse and fires in through the windows at us.after we have avoided the ship for a while and shot some more baddies Bill the wizard turns up and uses his staff to knock out the helicopter as they describe it, looked alien to me.Now we have unlocked fire bullets.We come to the showdown with Sting Sniperscope.We have to make our way through a long room avoiding his sniper fire and killing the super soaker commandos.This is a real pain in the ass, avoiding the sniper fire is hard work. Eventually I get to the end ducking and diving and finding alternate routes between all the machinery. When you reach the end of the room you get a quicktime fight sequence with Sniperscope and kick his ass for the second time.
Level 4We watch a cut scene where we find out that the new owner of Marathon has a grudge against Matt because as a kid he couldn't finish his games. He wants him killed off. New characters are found from other games to be patched in to kill Matt.The next level begins and we have to find Dexter who was Matt's partner in a previous game.This level starts out in a luxurious house by the sea with nice gardens.Swat type enemies, nothing new here so far.we reach a tennis court and suddenly the game is hacked. Zombies rise up out of the ground. We have to shoot them in the head.We get a few areas where the zombies are mixed in with russians and swat guys. Then the super soaker commandos turn up again.We find Dexter lounging in bed, Kitty and another scantily clad lady turn up, seems they are duplicates under Dexter's control. Dexter has been promised his own game if he kills off Matt for the CEO.Killing the two fembots isn't hard if you have managed to keep the ice upgrade handy.We get a dual wield sub machine gun for killing them.We catch up with dexter and have a quicktime fight with him, he kicks us in the balls and manages to get away. So we are after him again.After more shootouts with men and the female bot defenders we come back to Dexter and beat him up. Matt stops short of actually killing him however.We have to go back to the guest house to find the exit to the level.Which basically means there's no more level and we are just backtracking with different amounts of varied enemies in the same areas as before.When we get back to where we started a cut scene starts.Matt is trapped in a room of the mansions with Zombies in large numbers trying to get in. He asks QA to open an exit but she is having trouble and says that someone is trying to block her out. QA appears but she is acting strangely and is probably an imposter. She tells Matt to leave through an exit she opens up.
Level 5We find ourself on a ship.Where we fight through corridors and a submersible bay. After fighting through a house type office area on the ship, Don't ask, the game is using game cliches to allow any type of environments it wants at any time. We meet up with Master Chef. No, I didn't think it was funny either. He is pinned down with no gun in a kitchen. Space marines are coming to attack him and we must save him. Even the music here is riffing on Halo. There are two space marines in the area which must be killed to progress, they take a lot of shooting due to their advanced armour. After we have dealt with them we get some new weapons. QA is acting oddly again. Even Matt is starting to doubt it's her.The energy pistol is a good weapon. Shame the plasma rifle isn't so good. The ODST troopers drop in using pods, and refreshingly you can shoot them whilst they are still in their pods to make them a little less of a pain in the ass. You make your way through the ship with the ODST fighting you all the way, there are some zombies thrown in to make things fun. Eventually you come to a face off with Evil QA who is still acting badly. Real QA breaks in and tries to shut out the evil QA. She can't and the ship turns into a pirate ship with a huge sea monster boss to deal with. Seems from the references here we are taking the mick out of God of War.The tentacle beast of Tramm is a really hard annoying boss battle. I am sensing a theme here. You have to hit it's tentacles on certain orange areas as it gets them stuck in the deck. Do this six times and it's onto the next stage. Here you have to shoot smaller tentacles to get the larger ones to appear and throw mines at you. If you hit the mine enough it explodes in the tentacles grasp hurting it. Yes again six times you do this. Then you have to shoot the tentacles as they wave around in the air jabbing at you again. Whilst all this is going on the ODST's drop in and run interference. You get a 40 point achievement for doing this missions and it is well earned.
Level 6The CEO is getting even more upset with his underlings at Matt's ability to survive everything they are throwing at him. They have also lost him in the server.QA explains to Matt that he is in a warehouse level of another action hero.We fight our way through and find Captain Carpenter. This area is the place where all the game props are made and stored.Captain carpenter is a poor Mario knock of who vanishes down a pipe when we rescue him.We have to clear out all the enemies from the warehouse to stop the enenmies from having better weapons later on.There are little jokes about long waits in elevators.We start to come across 2D sprite enemies from early 3D games like Wolfentstein.Then the ODST rip offs return.We fight past them and come to a large area with a glowing crystal in the middle.A cut scene starts and we have come to the JRPG mickey taking section of the game. The Final fantasy generic androgenous warrior talks in text speech bubbles and fantasy cliches. He has been sent to kill us.He has a few attacks, a swirling sword, ice meteors, bringing down odst's. He also regenerates his health, which you can stop if you shoot the health globes as they approach him. Ammo is the hardest thing to find here, with ammo spread around the wide area leaving you running exposed to Altos's attacks and and odst running around as well. Killing him is easy enough if you manage to shoot all his health globes and keep his health going down instead of up.
Level 7We watch Wally the CEO shouting at his programmers again, this is the last level of the game. They are going to throw everything they have to kill Matt, well I would expect nothing less. This level takes place at a Dock.The docks is all about wide open areas, fight boxes, filled with waves of all the enemies seen so far.It's actually quite fun.We progress from the dock onto a ship, with long corridors, bunk rooms and cargo areas.Interesting bit here when a huge crane trundles through the firefight box. Moving cover.Never mentioned the Master shield and Maximum Hazard power ups that can be found on some levels. These give you around 30 seconds of increased bullet damge and invulnerability.We progress into real wolfenstein 3D territory.
get the stuff from the ipod to go in here*****************
When we finally get past the countless space marine office staff controlled respawning enemies we find outself in Wally's office.Evil QA appears and gets killed by good QA then good QA gets zapped by Wally.Now we have the final boss fight with Wally, of course he is not going to be alone and loads of varied enemies run interference.We have to survive a few waves of robogirls and zombies, then go hit a switch. Once we have hit it we get waves of odst and wolfenstein sprites.In between this we have to avoid the de-rezzing gun that Wally weilds from his high platform.Getting from cover to cover should be easy with the point and click cover system, however it's more trouble than it's worth most times, ending you up on the wrong side of cover etc.After hitting the next switch we get waves of the inept worker players again.We have to avoid his de-rez fire to hit another switch.A cut scene shows Wally cornering Matt and about to kill him when Dexter turns up with two fembots and shoots Wally.Matt gets to go bare fists with Wally.Which is censored due to violent content, we see a black screen while comedy chainsaw sounds happen. Matt knocks him out then Dexter and QA comes to chat. Turns out that QA is a guy called Quentin in real life.
Completed in around 15 hours playtime. Have to say the levels themselves were easy enough, the boss battles were annoyingly hard. Still 815 achievement points for one playthrough on Normal are not to be sniffed at.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Microsoft E3 Conference live blog
Beatles : Rockband
Starts with a skyline panning down to the city. It's 60's Liverpool This is the Beatles. We see that Cavern club. Then as time progresses the band get bigger and break America. The sergeant Pepper Era, Psychedelia. Looks like the coca cola adverts. I am the walrus plays with a stunning drug addled elephant ride over the white cliffs of Dover.
Alex and Van Thomson apear and talk about the Beatles history. 9/9/09 is release date.
The Harmonix House band appear on stage and Play Day Tripper. Vocal Drums Guitar and Bass. New instruments are Rickenbackers.
Giles Martin comes on stage. The game is remastered from the original master tapes and includes original studio chatter.
We are shown a quick trailer which shows the Beatles character models used in the game. They have a pretty low polygon count to be showing them off. They appear to be trying to show us that they change through the times. Clean cut mop tops to hippy bearded psychedelia.
Downloadable content will be added, full albums like Abbey Road later down the road.
Danny Harrison comes on stage, smiles and does little. Whoever he was.
Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison appear on stage.
When it looks like they won't actually appear Paul McCartney and RIngo Starr appear on stage.
Pity they never gave them a script as they ad lib horribly and sound like your granddad talking about games.
Oh there is one exclusive song for the xbox version. Whoo hoo, not.
John Schappert appears
John suggests that in a recession people need their fun more than ever.
Promises 10 world premiers unseen before.
Tony Hawk Ride
Tony Hawk appears on stage with the board peripheral.
Tony tells us about the board and how it will improve skating games greatly, you can kick it up and it has all sorts of infra red and motion sensing tech.
The trailer shows, only with interview shots of lots of pro skaters talking about the game.
Live feed from Ign breaks down.
Onto Xbox.com
Modern Warfare 2
Come into the middle of a Modern Warfare 2 Live demo
Snow environment, Gun has a radar attachment on it which brings me in mind of Aliens.
Seems like there is a stealth element until charges are placed then all hell lets loose on the airfield.
Graphics are nice and so it the character animation. We see the gang get onto snowmobiles. This scene looks fast and frantic.
Modern Warfare map packs will be released first on Xbox.
Final Fantasy XIII
Kitase and Toriama arrive on stage. Talk about the history of Final Fantasy.
Tell us that last year they announced that XIII was coming to XBOX. They show us game which is supposedly running on XBOX.
Cut scene segues seamlessly into gameplay. The heroes are fighting a giant Mech, which has been seen before but not shown in actual gameplay.
They summon a monster to fight, which is the first time this has been seen.
Spring 2010 is a tentative release target.
Schappert tells us that everything from here on in will be exclusive.
Epic
Cliff Blezinski and Donald Mustard appear
Epic XBLA game Shadow Complex
This is a 3D game with a 2D platform side scrolling type feel.
10 hours long. Boss battles
Reminds me of Flashback, Strider or Turrican.
Joy Ride
Big Park who are now part of Microsoft Game Studios
Looks like an Avatar game where you choose a car and drive around with it along with your friends. DOing trick and racing around.
Free to download and Free to play.
Tracks and cars have to be bought.
Crackdown 2
Wow neat trailer
Left 4 Dead 2
Zombies
Very gory
Coming November???
Splinter Cell Conviction
Ubisoft
Sam Fisher is back to his older look.
Looks to be set in Washington
Sam stills seems to be rogue.
Max Beland Alex Paresaw
Are here to show us a gameplay demo.
Sam is asking with his fists of a man who killed his daughter.
Seems it was a man called Kobin.
Objectives are explained in a kind of projected video on the action.
There is a feature called Mark and Execute. Like Rainbow six vegas you look into an area mark what you want to do when you go in and the execute.
Putting out the lights is important.
The objectives being painted on the walls and such reminds me of Heroes titles being imposed on the environment.
Gameplay does indeed look different from previous installments, nothing entirely new but it does all look good.
Glad to see they have dropped the assassin creed style of the earlier tech demo.
Forza 3
Turn 10
It looks nice.
Short trailer.
Dan Greenwalt arrives on stage with a car in the background.
Now someone is actually playing the game on stage.
Car goes off the road and spins overturning.
60fps is promised. 400 cars.
Gameplay rewind and lots of assists for the newbies.
Community Features
Car painting was a big feature in prior Forza games.
You can create and upload HD video
Very cool trailer is shown of the Machinima that can be achieved.
Halo ODST
Joe Staten
Bungie
The covenant are pulling back and you are dropped into the area.
Watch from the drop pod as it goes through the cloud and down to the ground. The covenant cruiser jumps out and your pod is knocked out by the emp. The crashed pod opens and your trooper is let loose in the city
Low light visor
We watch the demo guy shoot some brutes and covenant troops.
Weapons from first Halo are promised.
Story is told from various ODST's points of view until you find out what happened.
We see some more gameplay. A section where you have to place charges on a bridge.
Co-op game mode called Firefight.
Another team at Bungie have been on a top secret project.
Trailer is shown
Looks Halo universe
We see covenant attacking a world, lots of nukes going off.
Halo Reach comes 2010
Reach multi-player Beta key will be given with ODST
Remedy
Alan Wake
Trailer is shown then some gameplay.
Alan approaches a house and there is shots and screaming going on inside.
The house has been torn apart inside.
As Alan gets out into the garden things start levitating and hurling themselves at him. His flashlight seems to be stopping them.
Trees are being ripped down in the distance.
Monsters come out of the trees, light seems to hurt them, so does Alan's shotgun.
Load of them arrive and Alan runs for it to a generator which has to be cranked with a mini-game. Once the light is on the monsters retreat.
Alan narrates the story as it unfolds.
There seems to be some sort of bullet time going on. Flares keep the monsters at bay as well as the flashlight.
The force takes over a digger and it plows into the building.
Alan Wake is coming spring 2010
Schapert comes back and tells us it's time to move onto XBOX live
Last FM
Free to gold members
Changing Netflix usability
Sky tv deal will bring similar functionality to the UK
Zune video
Full 1080p downloaded video.
18 countries
Instant on is promised
Live party
Makes the movie or sport screen slightly smaller, and you see your group of avatars in a live party sitting around watching the show, as you all watch it together.
Felica Day appears to show us facebook on XBOX360
This is the facebook functionality converted to the NXE interface.
Twitter will also be included.
These features will be added this fall.
Don Mattrick arrives
Hideo Kojima turns up on stage
Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Trailer is shown
Short teaser seems that Raiden is the star.
Don asks can we go beyond the controller.
Trailer shows a living room
A new way to play
No controller required
Shows a youth kung fu fighting in front of the tv with the character acting out his moves.
Then we see racing with kids pretending to use invisible steering wheels.
Then ther is a football game.Kid scans his skateboard in and then plays a boarding game jumping around as if using the board.
We see a girl video conferencing with her friend.
Buzz quiz type gam where you thump your palm, no buzzers required
People moving their hands to move through the NXE
Looks like the peripheral will be a two lens camera
Project Natal is the name
It will be backwards compatible with every XBOX, which seems strange.
Steven Spielberg turns up on stage, they talk about 60% of households not having a console. They suggest that the controller is one of the hurdles.
He feels that Project Natal will be a huge leap. Not reinventing the wheel but no wheel at all.
Kudo Tsunoda come on stage to demo Natal
He suggests that even though this will be more accessible for non gamers, it will also go beyond what most core games have ever dreamed of.
He shows us that the system will facially recognize you and sign you in. Your avatar will mimic your body.
Moving your hand will navigate the dashboard
A 3D arkanoid clone is shown. A girl jumps around like a loon as balls are fired down a squash court type room at her. She has to bounce them back
A shadow of her avatar is the bat and it does seem to be following her well.
Now a painting game. A guy stands in front of the xbox and his avatar is transparent on the screen in front of a canvas. The guy waves around his arms and throws paint at the canvas making a painting in a very slapdash manner.
He makes a backdrop then shows the silhouette function which does seem to be tracking him very well. Abbey comes back up on stage they make an elephant shape and snapshot it and impose it on the picture.
Full body control of avatar
Moving in 3D space
Peter Moleneux turns up
Lionhead have had Natal for a few months now.
Milo is shown, he is a boy, he interacts with you in a new way, this looks very scripted.
A girl chats with Milo about his homework, he seems to respond to emotional cues in her voice and body language.
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