Judalene Cheetham
I started my last day at E3 2015 with a remake that I have wanted for a very long time, Ratchet and Clank.
While I was aware that this was more of a reboot of the original, I still wasn’t sure how much they might change things up. Picking up game and having a play though really gave me better idea of what Insomniac are trying to do with this remake.
The game while having a familiar feel felt new and even reinvented with new weapons and some classic old ones. Newer game mechanics like strafe was available and the environments were all new while still capturing the essence of the old. The game was still recognisably the original Ratchet and Clank game but with a new feel and direction.
I was told they have remade everything from character models to cut scenes and they have modified this reboot to closer tie in with the up-coming Ratchet and Clank Movie due for release next year.
Suffice to say I was impressed with what was shown and I can’t wait to get my hands on the game when in releases on PS4 next year.
Running down to the Xbox booth I soon found myself having a personal non-playable demo of Crystal Dynamics’ Rise of the Tomb Raider. While the initial footage looked more like a few well shown set pieces, this showed greater gameplay and some of the mechanics.
Off the bat it looks amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the first and this seems to capture the same magic the first one had me feeling. I will definitely be going through the demo in a bit more depth very soon.
I didn’t mean to play Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate but it was kind of there and so I figured what the hell.
It does look better than Assassin’s Creed: Unity but even in the short gameplay I had there were some issues. Maybe it’s just me but I managed to find a few bugs/break the scene on show. Climbing and traversing the city of London and especially assassinating felt more natural and fluent but this didn’t last too long as when parkouring around the place I soon found myself getting frustrated with some aspects.
There was a scene where I was supposed to jump on a horse and carriage and chase down a certain enemy. First time round I managed to get pulled off the cart by local law enforcement and was unable to finish as I was stuck in combat with a rather large unhappy lot of policemen. My second attempt had me accidently running ahead of the pursued enemy jumping on her cart before she got to it, only realising after, and then being unable to actually attack her while policemen attacked both me and her.
My last attempt had me making it closer to the destination but still getting pulled off, I was told just to run the last 100m, which I did and finally made it to the ending scene of the demo.
It may just be I have the unfortunate skill of accidently breaking these kind of things as I also managed to find all the bugs and issues in Assassin’s Creed: Unity when I played that one too. I do however actually have higher hopes for Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and I hope they will have all the bugs and glitches ironed out come release day.
Uncharted 4 being one of the biggest Sony titles on show I managed to get a more personal run through of the gameplay demo. The game once again looks great with detailed textures and environments. The demo I sat through didn’t go too much further than what was in the Sony conference but it was very action packed with poor Nathan Drake copping all manner of brutality.
Can’t say personally I’m looking forward to this title but it does look good and may even get me back into the series since I haven’t touched once since the first game.
ID@Xbox had me sit down with the creator and developer of Beyond Eyes, Sherida Halatoe.
The game is based on a young girl, Rae, who lost her sight in an accident and has been afraid of the world ever since but one day Rae loses her best friend, a little cat called Nani. With this she takes courage to explore the world in order to find Nani. The game’s art style is that of a watercolour painting and is very beautiful with the soft water colour pallet setting off the environment perfectly.
Rae slowly visualises the world around her based on both her sense and memories of what things making a particular sound looks like. She might imagine a fountain on hearing running water but on closer inspection it is in fact a pipe drain. It is entirely up to if you wish to clarify all the objects in your surroundings.
This game looked beautiful and eloquent and had a sweet story to it as well. I really don’t think I’d mind forking out the few to finish this game to find out if Rae is finally reunited with her kitty.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was the last thing I got to see at E3 and while not a big fan of the series it did have fun and interesting gameplay to show. This instalment is set two years after Deus Ex: Human Revolution and during that time augmented (half human half robotic) have become feared and reviled.
The hero Adam Jenson is part of antiterrorist task force. Playing as him you apparently uncover all level of conspiracy. Doing so you have a decent arsenal of weapons and abilities to take on the enemy of numerous ways. The Levels are apparently large and allow numerous ways to traverse them along with many options in taking down the enemy from your super stealth to the gung hoe approach each allowing different use of the arsenal on hand.
I admit it did look interesting and the amount of unique abilities and items seemed to allow for a more unique experience from the FPS genre. This was just a showcase but I hope the whole game manages to stick to the ideals of the demo.
And finally, on my last day at E3 2015 I also managed to get very brief glimpse of Vicarious Visions Skylanders: SuperChargers.
This game is based on a growing collection of toys and using these toys and a portal of sorts, the toys come to life within the game. Each toy has is an individual character and element to the game. Things like gold and upgrades are saved to it.
This new chapter encompassed a somewhat new idea to the series. Vehicles play a much bigger role.
There is sky, land and sea vehicles all of which come as actual toys. These along with the character(s) need to be placed on the portal. Skylanders: SuperChargers plays similar to that of its predecessors and like them, all previous toys will be usable in the new game. While my time with the game was brief, I certainly have enjoyed previous instalments and am pretty sure I would enjoy this one just as much.
I have to say E3 this year was truly one for the record books. There was an astounding amount of great games and announcements with me not knowing which way to go as I simply wanted to play everything. I will say my highlight was definitely the personal experience with the HoloLens. It was truly spectacular.
From a game perspective it really is hard to pick a favourite. Being a huge Ratchet and Clank fan I can say I was quite impressed with what they had to show for the reboot so far but there was just so much I was genuinely impressed with.
Rise of the Tomb Raider and Horizon were two stand outs for me. They both looked amazing and like a lot of fun to play.
I hope you managed to get some insight into what the world of gaming has to offer us in the year to come and keep reading for a few more in-depth reviews of some of the games mentioned in my day one reviews.