Demon's Souls

(Amazing cover artwork.)

Demon's Souls 

Review 

               What is Demon's Souls? Well to put it simply it's an RPG that was brought to Europe in 2010, although Sony was skeptic about how the game will sell, that's when publisher Namco Bandai brought the game despite the odds being against them and to Sony's surprise it was a huge success. The game got won a Game Of The Year Nomination on Gamespot and got good reviews overall from IGN, 1Up, Gametrailers, Edge, Euro Gamer Etc.  

               After playing this game for several frustrating hours my deepest respect went to the creators of this game and the publishers that worked so hard for it being released in every region of the world. The nostalgia gates have quickly opened when I started playing  because the game immediately reminded me of games with similar experiences such as: Baldur's Gate, Sacred and Shadows of the Colossus.    

               One word in particular comes to mind when the title of this game is heard and that is: Difficult. Sure it is one of the most difficult games of this modern console generation and for a good reason it punishes you fairly often for every simple mistake, but live long enough and you learn how to improve yourself, to the point where the slightest twitch of a major boss can mean a instant advantage for your next final blow. (I make it sound easy but trust me this game will go out of it's way to make your life incredibly hard)

(They said I can become anything so I became O.P.)

              Punishing as it may be Demon's Souls has a tendency of getting you sucked in with a harsh grasp that defies reality. To you it might seem that you just finished one boss fight but in the real world it has been about an hour and thirty minutes. What I'm trying to say is this game will end up being a huge time spender even tough the world is formed only of 20 some levels and boss fights, but that's exactly what makes the experience so damn rewarding every time you slay a boss of a world and you take his soul and consume it for some more upgrades or stats, or even learn a nifty new spell.

(One of the most amazing boss fights in the game.)

              The constant frustration that you may get is worth it at the end of the trail. The general story is not the best story ever told but it gives a lot of context to the kingdom of Boletaria, and it's king also it does explain why you are ruthlessly hunting down souls. A few boss fights in particular have some very well presented cinematic's with beautiful ambient orchestral music that give this game a very old perspective that appeals to any gamer of the 90's, and like every single gamer kid that grew up in the 90's can tell you most of the problems you will face in this game are regarding the flying enemies. (That's if you didn't make the smart choice and actually chose a character that has some spells or if you aren't a very dexterous character when it comes to wielding a bow)

(So i heard you like spells taste my Soul Arrow b&%*h!!!)

                The best advice I probably can give anyone that starts the game is to chose one of the easier classes such as Royalty, Priest or Magician, because from the beginning spell damage is pretty over powered, but once you had a proper look at the game and see what needs to be done I actually advise you to go ahead and  check the gameplay with some of the melee based characters such as Knight, Soldier of even the Barbarian or Thief, because that is definitely a good challenge. The game does have a new game plus option which is very helpful. Because you might want to  backtrack the miss-able collectibles equipment you couldn't get due to the fact that you were either overburdened or didn't have a proper world tendency that will either open up new ares with loot or give you enemies you might kill for better loot, none the less the option is there if you want it.

                 So what did I learn from my time with Demon's Souls: be careful with your surroundings, be careful of every enemy and for god's sake please play this game with headphones on because the slightest sound will keep you aware of the upcoming dragon's, black phantoms, giant spiders or even rats that hunt in a pack and it will give you a slight upper hand in battle.

(One of the most annoying monsters ever in the most annoyingest cave ever.)

                  

                On that note I will end this weeks review segment and stay tuned for more Delirium in Games during Christmas when I will be posting more reviews for you guys. Feel free to follow me on the Twitters: @GrafRiMaGo, Facebook: Grafrimago and the G+: Grafrimago, and don't forget to message me with any questions you might have.

                Also if you have some time go check out some of the co-hosting stuff I do with my friends Asare and Wiliiam over at: 

AfroNinjaX: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/afroninjax

DefianceChanel:

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-TN9NVX-v21obrAdYuxwPIcaZgE7mbFm&feature=view_all

Overall Score:

9.2/10.0 

+ The Boss Fight

+ The general Dark Atmosphere

+ The combat system

+ The Soundtrack (especially during the boss fights)

+ The open world environment

+ No checkpoints or quick saves

- The frustration it causes you when you eventually die

- The fact that you lose your precious souls easily 

- The one hit one kill Boss fights

- The bad platforming puzzles 

Assassins Creed III

Assassins Creed 3 Review

The first sentence of this review shall stipulate my full emotions towards this franchise: 
Ubisoft never learns.

As I'm farely sure most of you are aware of a Ubisoft's Assassins creed series, and their evolution from Assassins creed to Assassins creed 2. If you have no awareness of that difference I suggest you play the first 20 minutes of each game and you will understand.
Of course on the other hand you might want to chose the easy way out, then I recommend you watch some video reviews and you will arrive to the same result: Assassins creed was a prototype and Assassins creed 2 was the game that touched all the stones Ubisoft wanted to and also delivered a fine game-play to the consumer, but in my opinion Brotherhood and Revelations added more improvement one the basic Structural plan. During the past 3 installments of the game we fully saw a evolution of Etzio, the adventurous adolescent to master assassins and overall bad-ass who is easily able to be a one man army, and in the latest installment we have Conor.


The main protagonist Conoor has one of the most hart breaking story's in video gaming history: his village gets burned, his mother dies in front of him and he's powerless to help her, then he gets transformed in the ultimate loner wolf that gets treated like shit by most people, and the ones that don't treat him like shit just help him out because they want him to do other things on their behalf, while he's on a crazy mission to kill all the Templar's and surpass his daddy issues.(Talk about your emotional baggage.) 

Connor's character is very complex and often I found relating to him the most because, Etzio had his mother, sister and uncle still alive, Altair had the creed, but this kid is left all by himself and he does the best he can in a crappy situation, he knows he isn't weak and he knows that he has a thirst for blood and that motivates him as much as it did Kratos.

So gameplay wise is where all the problems appeared for me. I had to restart several missions due to the Npcs blocking the characters I meant to follow, the target of one of my assassinations just disappeared in the ground once, and the new alert system screwed with me until I realized that it feels more Batman Arkham City like than Assassins creed.
I prolonged this review more than usual because i needed to replay the game to give my full opinion.

So here it goes: The new game mechanics are okay once you remember how to play games like: Batman or Sleeping Dogs, but it really fucks with you for the first 4-6 sequences. Connor is a brilliant character that i would love to know in depth more than Etzio but instead of having more gameplay with him we get a back story of his parents which is cool in itself but there is absolutely zero reason why that is stretched for 4 main mission sequences. Second of all this game makes you feel like the ultimate killing machine once you learn the new control scheme. Far less weapons than i would love but it's okay we have a bow like every mainstream game this year (yes i fucking said it, and if you don't believe me just check the list of gametrailers with bows: TombRaider, Crisis 3, Assassins Creed, Far Cry 3, Dishonored well the last one technically has a crossbow but never the less this is the year of the bow), but the most fun that i had with the game was hunting down animals for their skins and running around the frontier, and when i wasn't doing that i was freaking blowing up ships like a pirate of the seven seas. The game trows half way trough this a managing resources and marketplace which is never properly explained and is pretty much useless because you never feel like using it.

The end is a sucker punch in the face and makes me feel like Ubisoft is really pushing it's luck with the hardcore fans that they have surrounded themselves over the past 6 years. In the very end the last mission is a disappointment altogether with both Desmond and Connor, and it gives me the impression that the game was cut short, and i do feel like the King George Washington DLC should have been part of the main game, but maybe that's just the nostalgia of having another franchise fucking up with their own creation. In conclusion I would recommend you don't buy it but rent it or borrow it from a friend, or wait until the game of the year edition appears, and maybe then buy it.

Overall Score:
7.2 out of 10.0


Plus:-More Assassins Creed-Soundtrack-Brutal Kills-Connor-Amazing navy battles -Free runing at it's finest



Minus:-Unfinished Story-Changed mechanics-Buggy Npc's-Slow progression