Tom Clancy's The Division Review

Hands are on the trigger with the latest Tom Clancy game, The Division. When a terrible plague is released upon the streets of New York, the Big Apple falls into chaos like it has never known before. In addition to the police and other forces of the government, the task of getting things back in order falls to a very special group called The Division. The Division is made of regular citizens of the city, who are activated in such a case to return the city to its previous condition.

Overall, this game is a pretty standard FPS, with the exception of the RPG elements added in. There's more than just pointing and shooting in this one. There are a few different skill sets which offer up some different ways to customize your character and play the game. Items and weapons increase stats or provide other bonuses.

As far as the story goes, there really isn't a lot of content. Maybe a dozen or so story related missions, which show the history of the outbreak, responsible parties, etc.. There's a headquarters to build too, but I do not recommend this game if you are looking for a single player experience alone.

Multiplayer is going to be the strong suit of this one. In addition to a matchmaking system for the above mentioned story missions, there is a zone in the city called the Dark Zone, where players can go free for all or team up to either collect loot from the NPC enemies, or fight against other agents as a Rogue Agent. This is where the game shines the most.

As far as any glaring issues, for one thing the player can't crouch at any time, which is pretty odd for any type of shooting game. The only way to crouch is to hide behind cover. However, the cover system is pretty good aside from that. Getting a hold of the best weapons and armor is also a little convoluted. Like Destiny, for example, one generally farms certain missions for equipment and currency. However, to get the cream of the crop you must craft the weapons yourself. The problem is everything is randomized each time you craft an item, from damage to special skills. Getting the exact combination of skills plus the higher end of potential damage or armor is tedious to say the least. There's also some pretty serious balance problems with some of the weapons and skills, but that type of thing happens a lot as games with these elements are first released.

Overall Score: 7

HITMAN (Full Experience) Review

So you want to assassinate some people. Who doesn't? Sure, you've got your Assassin's Creeds and what not, but nothing has ever quite made me feel like I'm truly doing the job more than the Hitman series.

Before I say anything, let me just say that this game is fun. Not perfect, but fun. So let's break it down.

Right off the bat we run into my biggest complaint. This game is split into episodes, and, as of the publishing of this article, there's only one real episode available, and that is the Paris fashion show. According to Square/Enix, they want to experiment with a new way of releasing content.

As far as I'm concerned, the experiment is already over. I didn't pay $60 to wait five months to get the complete game. I would have GREATLY preferred to just wait until later in the year and have it all released as one game. I'm not saying it's the end of the world or anything. I'm just saying that it's a cheap attempt to extend the life of the game that doesn't really extend it at all. Let me explain why.

Whether I spend the time playing all the episodes when it comes out, or play them one at a time a little each month, it doesn't change the total amount of time I played the game. It merely stretches it out and creates the illusion that I spent more time on it. The game may get talked about for five months or what not, but the amount that the game is talked about will be less, because there isn't as much content to enjoy, view or discuss. In a world where there are new and interesting games coming out all the time, it's possible players may lose interest before all the episodes are even out or be forced not to play because other games they want to play are out.

There, biggest complaint out of the way. Now, let's dive into the game itself.

Like any standard Hitman, you are presented with a level where you can accomplish your objective(s) in a myriad of ways, including special or unique kills, such as accidents, poisons, etc.. However, I was saddened to see, in the levels available at launch anyways, that you can't hide items in a basket or what not and carry them like you could in some of the previous Hitman games. While there are a lot of things you can interact with in the environment, most of them are stuck where they are.

In addition to the Paris level are some tutorial levels that are much smaller, and provide the backbone for the beginning of the Hitman story line.

There are some glitches to be found, which is to be expected. I haven't encountered anything too serious, but I've fallen between floors when choking someone or other such things, but there just aren't many complaints in the bug department.

Aside from the story mode are a few other modes you can kill time with. One of the most interesting is the ability for players to make custom contracts within the levels and then upload them for other players to play. I've even made one called Three Shots, Two Guns, One Vampire. The fun in this mode comes in that you aren't limited to the few characters you get to assassinate in the story version of the levels. Players can select any character in the level and make them a target, choosing which weapons or costumes to wear when assassinating said targets to add even more variety.

Another mode available at launch is the Escalation Contracts. These are staged contracts that are divided into five levels. The first level, for example, will have you kill a certain target in the level. After completing the first level, you escalate to stage two, where you have to complete the previous objective, plus a new one. This happens up to the fifth level, each time adding objectives. However, like story mode, there is a limited amount of this content at release too.

There are more levels and modes to come, so you can expect some changes to this article, but overall I think the score below will more-or-less reflect the score of the game over all, unless one of the episodes they release is just terrible.

Edit (4/1/16 ) - Something I have been considering, and this doesn't impact the game's score in any way, is a change they should consider making in future titles in the series. To put it simply, the detection system needs to be layered. For example, in the Paris level (all that is available at this time), if wearing say, the palace staff disguise, you can follow Viktor Novakov around to any area he travels to, minus the actual stage, with no chance of being detected. You can listen to all his personal conversations while standing so close you can touch him. Now, I'm not saying he should get super sensitive and detect you the moment you enter the room, you are dressed as a servant after all. This is where the layering comes in. If the player continues getting near him, passing by, letting him see your face to say, he starts to recognize you, then becomes suspicious. However a pass here, a nudge there, maybe not so much. Just something for the developers to consider, if they were ever to see this.

Score - 7 (8.5 if released as a full game and made the environment so you could move some stuff or hide weapons and carry them like the old days)

If you would like to see some footage or need some assistance you can check out my videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmasf7hzvOeqfjVtj_h4Qw

Street Fighter V Review

Kicks and punches are flying around in a quick and hectic battle between (currently) 16 characters in the most recent installment of this series. Street Fighter V brings some old and new action to the table in what is ultimately a high frenzied, fun but certainly not perfect time.

The basics:

This game pretty much requires an internet connection if you are going to enjoy much of it. You can do a lot of the single player stuff offline, but many of your rewards will not be given to you unless you're connected to the servers.

Through the various modes, as well as in online battles, you will earn fight money. At time of release of this article, you can't spend this money yet. There is going to be an update in March that includes the store, but as of yet you can't do anything with the money you earn, as well as a new mode called Challenge Mode.

This content will not be counted in my review, with the exception of the absence of the store when the game was released. That does weigh into my final score, on the sole basis of opinion.

As for the actual fighting, you've got rather standard controls for this series, which include low, medium, and high punches/kicks, throws, various special moves, etc..

New additions include the EX Special bar, and the V-Gauge, both of which give access to another layer of special moves.

Certain actions, such as characters reaching a certain level or completing certain other objectives will reward the player with titles, which only serve a vanity role.

From the top:

We'll start with story mode. Honestly it's not much to speak of. There are a small series of battles for each character that shows some various highlights about their life at the time of Street Fighter V. They are simplistic battles seem to be really meant for just introducing the player to the cast with some easy battles.

It's not like most (or really any?) are buying this game for the story, but masking this tutorial-type mode as a story mode seems insulting to the word 'story'. On the plus side, it is a pretty easy source of experience and fight money, if you're interested in either of those things.

Second mode:

The next mode available is the standard Versus Mode, which allows for vs. play with a second controller. There's not really much to say about this mode, pretty common for most games, especially arcade-style fighters.

Third Mode:

Your third single player mode will be Survival. This mode pits you against varying amounts of cpu controlled opponents one after another. The catch is that your health and EX Special bar are transferred from one round to the next. Between rounds the player is given a choice of boosts (called Battle Supplements) which aid in your progress through the battles. They include things like healing, increases damage, stun resistance, and the ability to earn more points, but the supplement for each category is random in every battle, meaning luck will also play its part. At the end of each battle you will be rewarded points based on health and time taken to complete the round. There are four difficulties. Easy, with 10 consecutive rounds, Normal with 30 consecutive rounds, Hard with 50 consecutive rounds and finally Hell/Extreme with 100 rounds. Lose at any time and you have to start again from 1, regardless of which difficulty.

This mode makes up the VAST majority of your single player time, and each time you complete a level with any given character you unlock new colors for that particular character's costume (with the exception of Hell/Extreme, which awards a title 'Back From Hell' regardless of who you complete it with the first time. Any subsequent completions with other characters will only give fight money and xp for that character, once again only the first time you complete it with that character).

Fourth Mode:

This last mode, which actually has multiple parts, is the bread and butter of this game when you get right down to it. This is the online fighting mode. There are a few different ways you can choose to fight. You can go into the battle lounge and set up rooms which allow you to invite others to play exhibition matches. You can also just queue up for a casual battle with a random opponent. The main online mode is going to be your ranked matches. When you go into the online matches you start as a rookie. From there are leagues, each with three levels within itself, that stretch from bronze to platinum, and some special spots that go above even the platinum.

Other details:

On release this mode was very unstable. It was hard to even get connected to the servers. And once you got connected it wasn't that strange to be disconnected before you could even complete a fight or two. On top of that, since some of the single player rewards require an internet connection to get, there was quite a lot of frustration going around. As of the writing of this article things have stabilized much better, and disconnects have happened to me MUCH less.

It would be remiss of me to not say I am disappointed to see this game released without at least the store content added in. It feels extremely weird to log in and see a store option that is blurred out and not usable. It gives the game a certain 'incomplete' feeling, which has been going around in games since the idea of DLC came into existence.

The heart of the matter:

This game is a lot of fun if arcade-style fighters are your thing. Maximum enjoyment is going to come from playing against others, whether that is with a second controller or battling for online supremacy. Fighting the AI isn't as fun, especially in the more difficult modes, because there's just too much input reading. It doesn't feel like a fight, it just feels like trying to find a way for the computer not to remind you that it already knows what attack is coming.

My overall score - 7 (with online or vs. play, would drop a lot with just single player)

If you would like to see some footage of this game, want some tips, or just want to support this blog you can head over to my Youtube channel and watch some of the videos there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmasf7hzvOeqfjVtj_h4Qw

3/28 Update - Today the Challenge section of the game went live. All I can wonder is what the SFV developers were thinking. This is no challenge mode. This mode is what I was disappointed to see didn't exist in the training mode. All the Challenge mode is is 10 different combos for each character. Performing them once clears the level.

This is useful for training, don't get me wrong, but this is something that should have been part of training mode, not a separate game mode release.

New score: 5 (I'm sorry, but making the update seem like a big deal then releasing something even worse than story mode, it's lucky I don't take it lower than 5. Shame on you SFV developers and staff).