Thief 2: The Metal Age

Title: Thief 2: The Metal Age
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: February 29, 2000
Date Played: Spring 2000
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Thief 2: The Metal Age, was one of the first games to be played on my shiny new Pentium 2 (350Mhz 256Mb of Ram and 8mb ATI Video card), and the standard at the time 15 inch 50 pound CRT.

The Thief series created a sub-genre of first person games. It was among the first first person games to put heavy emphasis on stealth and non lethal take downs. I have never played the original Thief. As far as I understand it is very similar to Thief 2, but the key here is that I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started Thief 2.

I remember starting the first level up on a wall, jumping down and sneaking into a castle. I must have played that level at least a dozen times exploring the castle and inevitably getting caught in the process. But every single time I was eager to try again and again. This was because I was amazed by Thief 2. It was the first time where I played a game that would encourage me to sneak around and steal things while dispatching as few guards as possible.

Thief was one of very few games of the time that felt completely realistic. The guards would have their patrols, engage in conversations with each other and behave as you would expect them to. Unlike most games where you take on dozens and even thousands of enemies at once in Thief 2 if you got more than a couple guards chasing you, and you didnt slip away into the shadows you were dead. I dont know if it was my 15 year understanding of being a thief in real life, but playing Thief 2 felt like playing a real life medieval simulator. I loved every minute of it.

That is of course until I progressed further into the game and it went crazy on me. All of a sudden guards that I had so much fun dispatching and sneaking by were replaced by steam powered one eyed robots. This was the point where Thief 2 started to fall apart for me. It was akin to having a nice dinner with your family and having the "Kool Aid Man" burst through the wall. The game's difficulty spiked, and Thief 2 became one of those "when is the end?" type of games. I had to power through the last several levels just to finish it up, and the only culprit was this nonsensical addition of robots to otherwise perfect game. I will say however that sneaking around those robots scared the living bajesus out of me.

Thief 2 is definitely more good than bad, in fact its waaaay more good than bad. Thief 2 is a piece of gaming history that will stay in my memory forever. I absolutely loved 90% of it. The whole series (3 games) are available on Steam and can be picked up  for a few bucks during a sale. If you are picky about your graphics then Thief 3 should be on your list. If gameplay is all you care about then get the whole pack there is no doubt about this whole series being a must play on any serious gamer's list. These games remain fairly unique even now, over a decade since their release.

Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel

Title: Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel
Platform Played On: PSP
Release Date: June 13, 2006
Date Played: Summer 2008
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5





Opinion:
Although technically not a game MGS: Digital Graphic Novel is an excellent piece of gaming content for the PSP.

MGSDGN... (crazy acronym)... is the retelling of the PS1 classic in a graphic novel style. You can find my opinion on Metal Gear Solid (here).

There actually is not much to say about this PSP release. It is exactly how you would expect it to be and tells the story you would expect it to tell. The art style chosen and the animations accompanied by sound effects look and sound great on high resolution PSP screen. There is one thing that I wish they did for MGSDGN and that is to fully voice it. I can see why they would choose not to (aside from budgetary reasons), its a graphic novel after all... and everything else about it is perfect.

It has been many years since I played MGS, and so to rekindle my memory I was presented with two choices. Replay the whole thing on the PSP (PSX emulator), or enjoy two hours of the digital graphic novel. I chose the latter. It was a great experience. The creators did an excellent job with the battle scenes utilizing cool camera and sound techniques to make you feel like you are in the battle. At times I would feel that I was watching a movie and not reading a book.

If you are a fan of comic books, and/or want to remember your play through Metal Gear Solid on the PS1, I would definitely recommend this graphic novel. It accomplishes everything it sets out to do, and in my book thats a 5 out of 5.

PS - The entire thing (About 2 hours) is available on youtube. So there is no reason to not check it out!

Space Invaders Extreme

Title: Space Invaders Extreme
Platform Played On: PSP
Release Date: June 17, 2008
Date Played: Summer 2008
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 3/5





Opinion:
Space Invaders... I never really got to play it back in the day, and the only games of the type that I did play were Galaga and Galaxian on the NES. And to be honest I've never been a fan. Even in the NES days there were far more interesting and visually engaging titles such as Contra, Rush'n'Attack, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Indiana Jones, Tale Spin, and the list goes on and on. The point here is that I started playing Space Invaders Extreme with zero nostalgia.

Space Invaders Extreme took the 1978 formula and brought it into the 21st century. The basic gameplay is untouched. You still pilot a little ship left and right on the screen. You are still dodging bullets and suicidal enemies. One thing that is different though in this "extreme" version is that now you can collect and use powerups. These certainly vary the gameplay and coupled with pretty good technoish soundtrack make you (the player) feel like you are laying in some major kickassery.

Space Invaders Extreme is much more visually engaging than any Space Invaders iteration before it. If you are a fan of the original, or want to hit some nostalgic spots, then Space Invaders Extreme will not dissapoint. But if the games of this type are not your thing, it is unlikely your love for them will start here. Personally I got pretty bored after a few rounds. As all games of the late 70's Space Invaders is extremely repetitive and has little reward aside from the high score. One of the benefits of the technological progress is that we all can be spoiled with games like Uncharted, Metal Gear, Halo and Modern Warfare.

Boiled down, Space Invaders Extreme is a very good Space Invaders game. However with so many more sophisticated games out there and limited time to play them, I would ask myself if that limited time is best spent playing this game. 

Metal Gear Acid 2

Title: Metal Gear Acid 2
Platform Played On: PSP
Release Date: March 21, 2006
Date Played: 2008
Time Played: 15 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5





Opinion:
I enjoyed the time I spent with Metal Gear Acid 1. And so the moment I finished it I jumped into this sequel.

MGA 2 uses the same engine and basically the same mechanics as its predecessor. It does look a bit different since Kojima Productions (developer) decided to go with a cell shaded look for this game. The original has more of Metal Gear Solid 1 art style, while this game is surprisingly colorful for the franchise. In a nutshell the developers basically took the first game, sooped it up a bit and gave it a new story. Acid 2 has more cards, enemies and better designed fights than its predecessor. Kojima Productions had less than a year to churn this sequel out, and they did not disappoint.

In Metal Gear Acid 2 you are given the opportunity to play as two characters, this throws more strategy into the mix since now you have the ability to flank and corner the enemies. Having two characters also gives you double the cards to play with in the battlefield. Overall having more characters is a good thing. I do wish however that the second character was a bit more likable. The tone is a huge part of what makes the Metal Gear games so good, and having a big boobed barbie in pink running around is rather immersion breaking and annoying. It is for this reason that I prefer the story and characters in the first game (save for boss fights, MGA2 has better boss fights).

Basically when it comes down to it, I feel that Kojima Productions vastly improved the actual level to level gameplay with adding new mechanics, cards and characters, but they took a dive on the overall story. I found myself caring more about the battles than any of the story (although I still read and followed it).

By the end of it all I was getting a little bit fatigued by MGA. Admitedly this was largely because of playing the two MGA games back to back. But nevertheless I enjoyed the time I spent with the series.

I would definitely recommend both Metal Gear Acid 2 and its predecessor. Fun turn-based battles, exciting deck collecting and the awesome universe.. whats not to like? This offshoot of the Metal Gear franchise has got to be one of the best action puzzlers ever made, at least for the PSP. If you are into turn based action games and/or card games this is a must have if you own a PSP.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Title: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Date Played: December 2011-March 2012
Time Played: 150 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5



Opinion:
It is hard to express an opinion on MMOs. It is a genre that is always under development and as such it constantly evolves while patching up old problems and spawning new ones. So this is my opinion of SWTOR after its first 4 months of release.

I am pretty dissatisfied with the direction WOW took after its first year and so a prospect of a new MMO from a developer that is almost as good as Blizzard (BioWare) was very appealing to me. I am not a Star Wars fanboy (I appreciate the universe but dont really care for it), nevertheless I picked up two copies of TOR (for myself and my girlfriend) on the day of release. The plan was to play together, and so we did. Almost every minute of the 150 hours or so that we played, we played together. Running instances, questing, and leveling.

The Old Republic innovates on the MMO genre by brining single player (Mass Effect like) fully voiced and acted out character interactions. Unlike most other MMOs where quests are broken up by race, in TOR each class has its own epic questline that takes them from level 1 all the way to level 50. These quest lines are well done and do indeed feel like something you would experience in a well crafted single player RPG.

The game utilizes a beautiful and smooth running engine (although it does require a PC from the last 2 years to run well). Each planet has its own theme and style. This adds a good variety to the environments. We found ourselves spending about a night or two of playing on each planet and it was pretty exciting to find out what the next planet's environment would be like.

The Item Modification System

However, the focused planets and the linear storyline is where The Old Republic begins to fall apart for me. While the actual story is good, and the personalized fully voice acted NPC interactions are engaging, I found that as I gained levels I had no reason at all to explore the world. I found myself running from objective A to objective B, and eventually I realized that there isnt much that makes TOR an MMORPG. The way I was progressing through zones was strikingly similar to the heavily instanced Guild Wars. The vast planets started to feel like an illusion as the actual gameplay started to feel like running down a corridor.

The Old Republic makes some interesting changes to the standard MMO tropes. Every character gets to have several companions that they meet though the personalized epic arc. These companions are quite handy as they can go to town and sell your junk items (like the pets in Torchlight), they can fill in a role in a group (DPS, Tank, Healer), and they also do all of your crafting for you.  Bottom line is that the companions are pretty awesome. No longer are you by an anvil crafting 1000 of item X, no longer are you leaving white items on the corpses, and no longer are you stuck on a quest because you are unable to find a tank or a healer. While the companion is not nearly as good at filling in the class roles as a real player would, most of the time its enough to get the job done. These are great additions, but they reduce your reliance on other players even more, making it seem even more like a single player (or small scale multiplayer) game.

Character Sheet

As far as the actual substance of quests, it has not really changed. It is still go kill 10 of X and bring me back 5 of Y. Same could be said about PVP, it is a slightly modified version of Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley (both are on a much smaller scale). And the 3rd arena called "Hutt Ball" is sort of like football. All three of these got boring fairly quickly especially since there were some major balance issues when it came to PVP. Bioware did make a step in the right direction by auto leveling everyone to one level for PVP, but they omited the skills you would gain from all those levels, so even though you are the same level as someone else they will easily kill you because of the skills (spells if you will) that they have.

Instancing (flashpoints) is another interesting innovation in The Old Republic. For the most part its an instance like in any other MMO; however, at certain points, and usually multiple times per instance everyone involved will engage in some sort of conversation with NPCs and depending on the outcome of that conversation the instance can lead the group to a completely different area, with different bosses, enemies and story. This adds at least some (although admittedly not a lot, but more than most other MMOs) replayability to the instances.

Character gear and equipment is approached rather interestingly as well. If you see something that you like but its for a different class, you simply strip it of its "modifications" and plug in the ones that are suited for your class. Same applies to out-leveling gear. If you really like those pants you got at level 5, you can plug in better (high level) mods and keep using those pants all the way to the end game. This system not only allows you to "dress" your character as you like. It also means that if an inferior item drops you can always strip it of its mods.

Gryphons

If there is one thing that other MMOs should take away from TOR its the way group questing works. When talking with the quest NPC everyone in the group gets to participate. Everyone gets the same choices on the screen, and once everyone picks, a die roll determines who's choice will be picked as the primary. There are some exceptions to this, for example the epic personalized story arc. While others will be in the cut scenes, they will simply observe.

The Old Republic was fun while it lasted. It however felt more of a multiplayer RPG than an MMO. Due to heavy quest line instancing and easy (and early) mount acquisition it was rare to run into another human being even on a heavily populated server (Rakata Mind Prison). TOR introduced some neat ideas to the stale MMO formula, it however is far from being the next big thing.

For a Star Wars fan (or even a Sci Fi fan) The Old Republic is a good WOW alternative; but for those that would rather loose themselves in a medieval fantasy, World of Warcraft is still the best thing out there. If you are remotely interested in playing an MMO set in the Star Wars universe I would highly recommend grabbing a trial. When all is said and done The Old Republic is one of the better MMOs to ever grace our monitors. In my opinion its just not the best.

PS - I got my Sniper to level 37 (cap was 50) before stopping. I felt that I saw everything The Old Republic had to offer, and the linearity and repetitiveness of it was starting to bore me.

My Sniper

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (Director's Cut)

Title: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (Director's Cut)
Platform Played On: Nintendo DS
Release Date: March 24, 2009
Date Played: Summer 2009
Time Played: 8 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
Although I am a fan of point and click adventure games since the days of Scooby-Doo Mystery on the Sega Genesis (1995) I never had a chance to play any of the Broken Sword games. When I saw that the first game in the series (Shadow of the Templars) was ported to Nintendo DS I could not miss the chance to check it out.

The main obstacle with going back to old games is the fact that they were not designed with the gaming conventions we are all so used to today. Back then it was the wild west, everyone charted their own frontiers with gameplay and controls. While this made it an exciting time in the gaming industry with innovations around every corner it also meant having huge learning curves. Which leads me to my next point, knowing that Broken Sword was being ported on to a modern platform I knew that they would have to adjust it in such a way as to make it more accessible and easy to get into and play than it was in 1996 when the original came out. With the DS port I knew that I could jump in and enjoy the game and not have to struggle with all of the conventions of playing the games from the 90's (DosBox emulation and all that).

Story in Broken Sword is not what I am accustomed to seeing in adventure games. While it is still primarily a puzzle driven adventure it has a much more mature theme. It features murders, poisonings and terrorist acts. I was really surprised to find such mature undertone in an adventure game. I liked it though. It made Broken Sword seem more like a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle than a video game.

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is presented via an art style and animation akin to the cartoons of the early 1990's, and to my surprise has every character completely voiced. Most of the major plot turns are told via great looking animated shorts. Together these elements make Broken Sword seem like an interactive cartoon. I can only imagine how impressive it was when it came out in the mid 90's.

Although Broken Sword's story is full of mystery and intrigue it is by no means perfect. While trying to keep interesting and engaging to the player it at times gets pretty ridiculous. At one point you chase clowns, at another you are solving mysteries of the Templars. The game changes locales quite frequently, which is great, as it keeps things fresh, but this also means introduction of new characters and mechanics which may become overwhelming at times. Especially with all of the crazy French names everywhere.

As far as adventure games are concerned Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is one of the best. It's masterfully crafted settings and animations are a pleasure to look at, it's voice acting allows for relaxed narrative akin to an audio book, and it's availability on portable platforms such as Nintendo DS and iOS devices allows for spontaneous and incremental gameplay anywhere.

If you are an adventure game junkie, you cant go wrong Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. For those that played it back in the 90's there is a whole new opening chapter in this "Director's Cut" version of the game, and for those that have never played it... well what are you waiting for?

One Of Numerous In Game Animated Shorts

Chess With Friends

Title: Chess With Friends
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: October 22, 2009
Date Played: Fall 2009
Time Played: 10+ hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
Chess with friends was among the first "With Friends" type of games. It came out around the same time as Words With Friends and became an instant hit.

Almost everyone in the world is familiar with chess. It is one of the oldest and widespread games in the world. It provides almost infinite amount of possible moves, which adds a ton of replayability. There are 20,000 possible moves within the first 4 moves. And the total number of moves is over 10 with 120 zeros (the Shannon number) which is larger than the number of atoms in the observable universe. Basically chess is a pretty crazy game that is easy to learn (somewhat) but very hard to master.

There is only one problem with chess, and that is the fact that it is most interesting when playing with another human opponent. Sure the modern age of computing allows us to play versus an AI (CPU if you will), but at that point it becomes very hard to balance, to make the computer think as a human would. To a computer chess is a math problem, a calculation of the best move. This of course leads to the computer being too powerful, in essence cheating, since it can calculate moves a billion times better than a human being. In a game versus computer, the variation depends on you, in an identical situation it will always make identical moves, while a human will not always make the same move.

I think its clear that human vs human games are the most interesting when it comes to chess. The problem is that as you grow up, you have less and less time to meet with friends, let alone play chess with them. So it becomes impractical and adults are not likely to play chess until they sit down to teach their children how to play.

No more shall one be deprived of chess. Zynga is here to save the day. Chess with friends is such a brilliant idea that I don't know why it took 2 years of iPhone's existence for it to come to fruition. It is nothing extraordinary, it is so simple that its perfect. It is the game of chess, as we all know it and love it, but instead of playing the computer or passing the phone back and forth between multiple people it allows you to play chess on the go, in your own free time with anyone in the world, as long as they have the same app installed.

As soon as you make a move Chess with Friends utilizes push technology to notify your opponent that it is their time to make a move. They can either do so immediately or take their time. As soon as they make their move, you get a notification on your phone that its time for you to move. It is a perfect system. A game can be a fast back and forth if both people are not busy, conversely it can be a weeks long game. Chess with Friends adjusts chess to your personal schedule.

Chess with Friends brings chess into the 21st century. It is a very convenient way to play, and allows even the busiest of us to enjoy this classic game. Whether you are a casual chess player or find yourself finishing 10 games per day, this app is a must.

Heavy Rain

Title: Heavy Rain
Platform Played On: PlayStation 3
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Date Played: June 2010
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5


Opinion:
Heavy Rain is not just a game, it is a breathing novel, an interactive film... a masterpiece.

Heavy Rain starts with a sequence of events depicting a wonderful life of a happy suburban family. You go about your daily tasks of shaving, taking a shower and getting dressed. While familiarizing you with the game's setting it actually creatively teach you the controls and basics of the gameplay.

As soon as you start getting comfortable with the game's unique context sensitive control system the story starts taking unpredictable turns and you soon find yourself in the middle of a huge mess involving murder, kidnapping and of course riddles. In Heavy Rain there is no main character, although I suppose most people will associate the first character they play as (Nathan) as the main character. In truth though you play as about half a dozen characters, each with their own reasons for doing what they are doing. This is one of the most interesting parts of Heavy Rain.  All of these characters have little to do with each other, but all of their stories impact each other in one way or another. Perhaps the most interesting part about Heavy Rain, something that is almost never seen in video games is the fact that any one of the characters you play as can die, and their death will impact the rest of the story and the ending. There is no game over, the game just keeps going with that character dead. And in addition to these major impacts to the story, each character story has several branching points, which can help to further the uniqueness of your personal Heavy Rain narrative.

Quantic Dream (developer) did a phenomenal job on Heavy Rain's presentation. Everything about it is simply top notch. The camera work is some of the best I have ever seen in a video game, not only is it always perfectly positioned for any given scene, but it also does masterful dramatic sweeps, and artful multi-camera views. Coupled with an amazing musical score, it is an absolute pleasure to just sit on the side and watch someone else play Heavy Rain.

All in all Heavy Rain feels like you are playing through a book. Everything about it is very unique and not seen in other video games. It is an absolute must play for everyone. The story is that of a really good thriller novel, and the presentation is that of a great Oscar winning film. I would go so far to say that it is absolutely worth buying a PlayStation 3 for this game alone. Bravo Quantic Dream, bravo! I give you a standing ovation.


PS - In my game the only character to die was Lauren Winter (Scott Shelby's Partner), she was drowned in the car by the mafia.

One Of The Many Scenes With Different Outcomes

Labyrinth

Title: Labyrinth
Platform Played On: iOS
Release Date: July 1, 2008
Date Played: Summer 2008
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 2/5

Opinion:
Labyrinth was one of the first iOS games I have ever played. It was the summer of 2008 and I have just traded in my Windows Phone "Tilt" for a brand spanking new iPhone 3G.

I dont know about you, but I loved these wooden, glass covered puzzlers in real (material) world when I was a kid. The problem with those however is the lack of variety. There is a finite number of times that you can traverse the ball through the same maze before getting bored with it and putting it back on the shelf, to rediscover it a few years later and spend another 10 minutes with it. Labyrinth on iOS solves that problem by offering several dozen tables varying in difficulty from simple to ridiculous.

I dont know if you remember, but gyroscopes in phones was kind of a novel thing back in 2008. So it was actually pretty amazing to watch the physics simulation play out on your phone as you tilted the screen. 

Labyrinth on iOS was a pretty cool technical show off. It did exactly what it set out to do, and behaved exactly like its real life counterpart. The problem is that it did that and nothing more. There were no new twists or flashy animations that the $600 phone allowed it to do. In a nutshell it is just a ball physics simulator, and no matter how cool it seemed at the time you got bored with it almost as fast as with the real life glass encased wooden box labyrinth. It was cool in 2008, when the iOS store was a barren place, but now with nearly a million apps you ought to find something much better to show off iPhone's capabilities. But hey, if you truly want to roll a ball into a hole, perhaps take a look at more recent apps, such as Labyrinth 2.

Doom 2 RPG

Title: Doom 2 RPG
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: February 8, 2010
Date Played: February - May 2012
Time Played: 6 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5

Opinion:

Chainsaw and Demon... Doom Classics

Doom... One of my most beloved franchises. The father of deathmatch and telefragging. John Carmack himself worked on this role playing adaptation of Doom 2.

Doom 2 RPG uses the same engine as Wolfenstein RPG, and therefore shares a lot of the same mechanics. However it does add more complexity to the gameplay by having a lot more weapons to choose from, a lot more enemy variety and adding character stats that you can level up and make yourself better at fighting the hell spawn. There are several ways to raise your skills. You can hack vending machines to raise IQ, or exercise on a treadmill to raise agility. Practice on a dummy to raise aim or lift weights to raise strength. These not only make your character better, they also help add variety to the gameplay through pretty cool mini games. You can choose which stat you want to have more off by picking one of the three characters when starting the game. A more agile Major, a smarter Scientist, or run of the mill and everyone's favorite Sarge. Me being me, I could not pick anything but the Sarge. He is the icon of the series, and it would be blasphemy to play as anyone else.

Similarly to the FPS series Doom 2 RPG is broken into about a dozen levels which take you from experimental facilities on Mars to Earth and eventually to Hell itself. On the way you encounter familiar creatures such as zombified workers, Imps, Revenant and many others. In fact, come to think of it... you run into almost every creature that has been featured in the Doom franchise. The only ones you do not fight are Barons of Hell, Heavy weapon dude, Pain Elemental and Former Human Sergeants. But to counter those omissions you get to encounter some new enemies, Chainsaw Goblins, Sentinels and Sentry Bots.

As you make your way through the game you come across more modernized scenery. The level design and some weapon design closely resembles what can be seen in Doom 3, which is not a bad thing. To a veteran like me though it would have been better to see Doom 2 themes in Doom 2 RPG game.

Well rendered 3d Environments

One strange thing about Doom 2 RPG is the fact that your arch nemesis is a computer program.. a virus... Duuuur?!?! Yeah, dont ask me, but the Icon Of Sin (the same final boss as Doom 2), but this time he is computerized... 21st century I guess? Whatever... it doesn't matter, just like with the games that started it all Doom 2 RPG is more about shooting and exploring than paying attention to any kind of story. Although there is plenty there to read for those that are interested, I generally skipped any walls of texts the game thew at me to get back to the action, most of it is fluff anyways and plays little to no importance. Going back to the Icon of Sin though... what RPG would be without choices, and based on your choices in Doom 2 RPG you can effect how hard the final battle will be. The way it works is you can basically make things easier now, by making them harder later, or making them harder now instead of later. Not revolutionary but sitll I thought that was a neat idea.

Doom 2 RPG is not without its problems though. The stats (mentioned above) agility, IQ, etc are not explained at all, and therefore it is impossible to judge what exactly you get better at as these stats improve. To me the gameplay and combat felt the same the moment I started and the moment I stopped 6 hours later, I just had more weapons.  Some parts of the game with same looking corridors and enemies appearing over and over again tend to drag a bit. Granted I need to give ID (developer) credit with spicing up variety with having a lot more enemies and level designs than they had in Wolfenstein RPG, but its still not enough.  This could be partially due to the fact that Doom 2 RPG (just like Wolfenstein RPG) came out on much more limited flip phones years before iOS.

Overall Doom 2 RPG is a gem of an RPG on the iOS platform. ID did exactly what they needed to do with it. They included nostalgic monsters and weapons, and basically retold the events all of us remember from the mid 90's. If you are looking for an RPG on the iOS... look no further. Also note that it is very similar to Wolfenstein RPG. So if you have played Wolfenstein RPG, you will most likely enjoy Doom 2 RPG, and vice versa, if you want more like Doom 2 RPG go check out Wolfenstein RPG.

My Finishing Screen

Metal Gear Acid

Title: Metal Gear Acid
Platform Played On: PSP
Release Date: March 22, 2005
Date Played: 2008
Time Played: 15 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5





Opinion:
Metal Gear Acid is nothing like the Metal Gear Solid games we are used to. Nonetheless since I love all things Metal Gear I wanted to play this game.

To be perfectly honest mechanically Metal Gear Acid to Metal Gear franchise is as Mario is to Call of Duty. This game could have been called anything, and be set in any universe. The only thing that the Metal Gear name gives it is theme and setting, which is a great thing because if it werent for it being set in the Metal Gear universe I would have probably never played it.

MGA is a turn based strategy game where everything is dictated by a deck of cards. You can use each card to make Snake physically move on the battlefield to get a better angle (line of sight) at the enemy (or hide from the said enemy), or you can use these cards as the item portrayed (described) on them. These can be anything from special movement cards, to grenades, weapons and gadgets. The game is broken up in levels, goal of each is to get to the end and kill everything that stands in the way. These levels are tied together by an over the top overarching story.

Every Metal Gear story is for lack of a better word "insane" and Metal Gear Acid is no different. You encounter equally insane bosses and equally bizarre characters. All of these things are in no way negatives, if fact they simply reassure you that you are still in that same Metal Gear universe.

Overall Metal Gear Acid is a fairly unique game. It's turn by turn gameplay makes it a perfect candidate for PSP (portable platform). It does become fairly repetitive and level design is really basic and most of the time boring. But as long as you do not try to play through the whole thing in a couple of sittings, but instead come to it for 15-30 minute sessions you will have a lot of fun with Metal Gear Acid.

The story is not nearly as interesting as those in the main series, and is not what I would play Metal Gear Acid for, instead I would play it for it's unique, and fun strategic combat. It is almost like a mix of a shooter and a puzzle game. Sure, the story could have been a bit better, and the levels could have been designed better; however when everything is said and done I enjoyed MGA so much that the minute I finished it, I started playing the sequel Metal Gear Acid 2. In my opinion this is one of very few PSP games worth playing.

Some Of The Many Cards In The Game