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Figured we might as well have a new one of these, the old one being a bit long and unwieldy.
So anyway, I've been playing the Xbox versions of Metal Arms: Glitch in the System and Beyond Good & Evil (the latter of which I picked up yesterday). Both victims of this Christmas' frighteningly unadventurous all formats sales chart. Metal Arms was going for £14 on some websites a week after its release, and BG&E's RRP is only as low as it is because the PS2 version seemed to be glued to store shelves. A crime, 'cause they're both excellent.
In a way, Metal Arms is like a cross between Halo and Metal Gear Solid. The enemies react with the same level of intelligence as those in Halo, with small grunts running away, screaming in fear when you start to get the better of them, and the larger ones coming in as backup. It offers a lot more freedom than Halo, though, because of the huge set of tools you collect as you progress, which is where the MGS comparison comes in. It completely lets you decide how to tackle each situation, never forcing you into one solution or another, and combines this with open level design so that you can also choose your path through each. Do you sneak around ducts, sniping at enemies or taking out their gun arms, do you run straight into them, do you take over the body of one to destroy the most important targets first, do you aim for the destructible scenery to take out as many bad guys with one shot as possible... And it's kinda funny, in a good way.
It's got some faults, the main one being the difficulty level. It's a hard game, but never unfair, up until you get to the boss levels. There's one about five or six levels in which is so frustrating that I nearly quit trying. According to those who've played all the way through, that one's the hardest level in the game - seeing as it's one of the earliest, it's a pretty serious cock up. Once you get past it though, the entire game comes to life. I don't think I've ever played a shooter that offers quite as much variety as this one. I've defintitely never played one that pulls each part off so convincingly. Shame the Xbox version suffers from some serious tearing at times which the others don't, but it's still supposed to be the best of the three.
Not got far in BG&E yet, obviously, but it's another one that tries to offer as much variety as possible and actually succeeeds. Most games that try to do a lot of things at once fall apart at the seams, so both of these are something special. And this one looks gorgeous at times. A bit of a mixed bag, because in some sections everything's a bit blocky, but when it works it pulls of scenes that could pass for heavily-airbrushed, 2D fantasy art: all alien mists and phosphorescent plant life. Like Metal Arms, it's full of character and smart, attractive characterisation (which is doubly unexpected here, considering who it comes from).
And it's yet another game to use the whole 'camera' theme. I dunno what it is about asking the player to take photographs in games, but it's a mechanic that I've yet to see used badly. Pokemon Snap, Metal Gear Solid, Wind Waker, Fatal Frame, Pilotwings 64 - it always draws you even further into the game world. Mind you, I've not played any of those 'model photo session' games...
But yeah. If you see either of these cheap I really recommend picking them up. Stonking way to start the gaming year. Next up on my 'most wanted' list: Harvest Moon GameCube and GBA. Got to love a bit of Harvest Moon. |
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