Game 28: The Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings was released in 1992 and was one of Silicon & Synapse's first games. Never heard of them? They are now known as Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of many, many good games that end in Craft. Anyways, The Lost Vikings was released on the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and various other systems throughout the years, and gives gamers nowadays a really interesting look at the early history of Blizzard. The game itself can be described as a puzzle platformer, where you have to use the different abilities of three Vikings to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and progress through the game's levels. My minute-by-minute update should help describe the game better. I will be playing just the first hour of the Super Nintendo version of The Lost Vikings, so let's get right to it.

In case you're a World of Warcraft veteran, you may recognize the three Vikings: Erik the Swift, Olaf the Stout, and Baleog the Fierce. They all make a cameo appearance in Uldaman, an ancient dwarven complex that serves as a mid-level dungeon. If you play as a Horde character you can even kill them for some unique items!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the first hour of The Lost Vikings begins. Quick note, what's up with this hip-hop soundtrack? A small, snow-covered village appears and Erik the Swift introduces himself, he can run like the wind and jump high. He's gotta go meet his friends Baleog and Olaf for some hunting.

01 - Erik says goodbye to his Viking wife and kids and runs off. Olaf the Stout comes out of his house, he can block anything with his shield.
02 - And finally Baleog the Fierce appears, he is the toughest of them all.

03 - Our hairy friends run around and show off their skills. It's kind of like a tutorial that I can't play.

04 - After running far enough right, the Vikings arrive back at their village. Small world. Erik foreshadows a bit saying he hopes he never has to leave his village...

05 - Later that night... Oh geez! Our heroes are getting sucked out of their homes by a giant spacecraft! That didn't take long. At least they didn't destroy the village.
06 - I now have control of Erik on the ship. Time to find my friends.

08 - Well that was a simple enough level, the L and R buttons allow me to take control of a different Viking and guide them to the exit. Hey, a password... GR8T.

09 - In the next level I approach a friendly alien who tells me I need to destroy the ship's computer. Erik doesn't believe this is a ship.

11 - Baleog seems the most useful, being able to kill enemies and all. I find some bombs with him and have to locate the place to plant them.

13 - I take an elevator downstairs and plant the bombs, kaboom!
14 - I guide all three Vikings into a gravity lift and shoot the switch, up we go! Ouch, Baleog gets shot twice in the back by a laser, I need to use Olaf to block the shots.

16 - Wow, a lot longer level than I thought, but since you basically have to go through it three times, it seems longer than it is. Password TLPT.

17 - I use Erik's hard noggin to knock out a wall.

18 - I send all three Vikings through a teleporter, these guys are definitely out of their element here. Hey, a door with a red keyhole, I wonder what color key I'll need to open it.
19 - Another alien tells me that someone brought us here to display like animals in a zoo. Creepy, but kind of makes sense.

21 - The next puzzle has me using Erik to jump on Olaf's shield to reach higher heights.

22 - Along with a yellow key I pick up a device that kills every bad guy in the area. The only problem is that I used it way too early... the next area has three laser toting nasties. Whoops. Olaf's shield plus Baleog's bow and arrow should be enough though.

23 - Another level finished, another password: GRND.
25 - Erik's long jump finally comes in handy as I leap over some spinning spikes!

26 - Oh crap, Olaf just got killed! He got thrown from a gravity lift into some nasty electrical current! What if I need him? Oh man, Baleog just died too. And Erik... tough spot.

27 - The game over screen features a Viking ship on fire, pretty sweet actually. I continue and our heroes are sent back to earth via lightning bolts.
30 - I'm replaying the level and back where I was before.

32 - Phew, I made it this time. I had to grab some special anti-gravity boots (or magnetized) and I was able to get past the gravity lifts then with Erik. Turning them off was a snap and then I took our trio into some kind of portal. Hey, is that the Spore logo?

33 - Woah, Mode 7 graphics! Next password is LLM0. Our friends are now in some sort of prehistoric land...
34 - I guess Vikings can't swim... Erik is dead and I can't proceed. I suicide Olaf and Baleog. The enemies here are stronger, take two hits to go down instead of one!

38 - The game is requiring a lot more preparation to fight enemies, basically setting up Olaf to block projectiles, getting Erik out of the way, and shooting them down with Baleog.

40 - After every level the Vikings talk a bit about what just happened, nice little bit of writing to flesh out some shallow characters there. New password is FL0T.

42 - Geez, now instead of dealing with deadly water I have to deal with deadly lava. There's a particularly nasty portion right now where I have to blindly fall and dodge platforms of lava. Evil! Luckily I only have to do it once with Erik.
43 - Next challenge is a rolling blue monster, Olaf to the rescue!

47 - I'm starting to realize that The Lost Vikings is much more of a puzzle game than a platformer. It's definitely requiring more and more strategy as the game progresses.

48 - Next level's password is TRSS.

51 - The next level is pretty big, full of trees and lots of water. This is a predicament considering Erik is the only one that can jump... but I use this to my advantage and have him explore the whole level, including finding the exits. Too bad I need to get all the Vikings there to win.
53 - I find the blue key in the upper right corner and use that on the bridge. I haven't even used Olaf or Baleog yet.

54 - Erik gets killed by a rogue snail shooting spit. You got to be kidding me!

56 - Long, tough level, but we make it. The Vikings even make a joke saying they need one of those waterfalls that float in mid-air back at home! The next password is PRHS.

60 - Well, in the last minute I discover the secret of the purple cave level: you have to shoot spikes with Baleog's arrow onto the deadly lava so you can guide Olaf and Baleog over it! Nice! But that's it for The Lost Vikings' first hour.
Story: 4
Not much of an actual story present in The Lost Vikings, but I do like its quirkiness. Too much of a story for a game like this would be a bad thing so Blizzard made the right decision to introduce the three characters with a few lines and then move on. Besides our three heroes, about the only other thing going on is Tomator, the leader of the Croutonian empire. He's captured our trio to represent the human race in his inter-galactic zoo, a noble cause if you ask me.
Graphics and Sound: 6
The Lost Vikings uses relatively simple sprites but the animations are well drawn and add to the game's uniqueness. I found it kind of odd though that both Olaf and Baleog wear green, it would seem to make more sense to maybe draw one in blue so they're more distinctive and easier to pick out on the fly. I think Blizzard made some excellent color palette choices too, and some scenes like the Game Over scene are really beautiful.
Gameplay: 7
It took me about 45 minutes to realize that The Lost Vikings is much more of a puzzle game than anything else, and I think this game really requires that mentality. Often I would find myself thinking that I can just take Erik and jump over all the enemies and pits and reach the exit quickly, but the goal is to also navigate Olaf and Baleog there too, typically a much more difficult task. The game throws a wide variety of challenges at you within the first hour and expects you to adapt and learn quickly. I think the game suffers from some odd quirks though like if you jump (or fall from) too high you take damage, this makes sense usually, but the fall distance is not very forgiving. Also, most of the enemies I encountered would quickly defeat me if I didn't have Olaf around to block their path or projectiles. This is a puzzle game that takes a lot of preparation and experimentation, kind of similar to Lemmings but with more direct control.
Fun Factor: 6
The Lost Vikings was pretty fun, until you started dying. I'm pretty sure you need all three Vikings to beat a level, so if one dies, for any reason, you're screwed. Since the game does take a lot of experimenting, I died quite a bit and restarting a level can take about a minute, not to mention the time it will take to get back to where you were before. I think the game has a lot of great ideas but they're executed in a way that can be frustrating at times. Completing a level though makes you feel like you really accomplished something, especially the later ones I played where the stages seemed HUGE!
Minutes to Action: 6
Overall: 6
The Lost Vikings is kind of a hybrid puzzle game, similar to Portal in where you don't realize you're playing a puzzle game until you stop and think about it. That is definitely a good thing and both of these games are examples that developers should look at. The Lost Vikings' first hour is not necessarily tough, but it punishes you harshly for small mistakes made or chances taken. Your Vikings dying is an unfortunate reminder that you are playing a puzzle game in a platformer environment; you still have to deal with lava and deadly water and nasty electricity when trying to work out which Viking to control. I believe the first hour would have been better if Blizzard would have focused more on the puzzles early on and less on the platforming aspects. All around though, a decent first hour and a promising experience ahead. Blizzard's pre-Warcraft era is really quite interesting.

Art by David Dupuis - used with permission.

Game 27: Gears of War

Gears of War is a third-person shooter for the Xbox 360 that came out in late 2006. The game was one of the first to use the Unreal Engine 3 (seen recently in Mass Effect), a game engine created in-house at Epic. Gears of War's combat system differs greatly from the typical shooter, focusing more on using cover effectively to engage the enemy. Hiding behind cover is built into the game and you either learn it quickly, or die trying. People were obviously looking for something a little different because the game sold quite well and it was just recently released on the PC.

Gears takes place in the future after an alien race has attacked humans living on the planet Sera, a world used to harvest fuel. All the men in the future seem abnormally large, as basically everyone in this game could play American football and dominate the game. I kind of like that style though as it serves the bombed-out, nuclear winter setting well. So I already like the atmosphere, let's see how the rest of the first hour of Gears of War turns out.

For my review on the whole game, please see my Gears of War review at Beyond the First Hour.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Campaign and the first hour begins. There are three difficulties to choose from, since I've only played Gears of War intermittently here and there, I select the easiest difficulty and the game loads the opening cutscene. Ashes, 14 years after "E-Day. " I'm looking at some creepy, drooling aliens. A very large man opens a door, he's breaking another man out of prison.
01 - I get control already! My objective is to escape the prison, but it doesn't look like they typical guards are on duty. I have the choice of going to either combat or training, I'm going combat, baby!!

02 - My guy is ready for some action, but the game still takes a few opportunities to teach me things. I can look at my squadmates by holding Y. Guess I'll find some use for that.

03 - A chopper flies over shooting at us, whoops, friendly fire. I kick a door open and some corpses wave in front of me.

05 - My first battle is not a good one... should have read the instruction booklet! Or maybe taken the training, right? I die because I mismanaged my ammo and got gunned down trying to reload. Dang.
06 - Ah, I can hold L to aim while under cover, that should help a ton.

07 - Battles are gritty and bloody. Our hero has a lot of weight to him and when he starts running, the camera dips down like we're in a war film and the cameraman is right at my hip. Great stuff.

08 - The bad guys are cutting through the door, dramatic. My friend goes down quickly but I'm able to revive him by hitting the X button over his body. Odd. Why didn't he revive me before?

09 - We're out in an open courtyard now, great textures and graphics. The Unreal Engine 3 is really strutting its stuff. It's not even the final build of it either.
11 - A small skirmish breaks out and my friend and I make quick work of the aliens. I'm really low on ammo. We run to a helicopter as the ground beneath us breaks up and a really giant spider monster erupts out of it! Just like in the commercial!

12 - A cutscene plays now as we're on the helicopter. It's full of ugly brutes. A soldier asks if I'm Marcus Fenix, it appears that I'm famous. No idea why I was in jail though.

13 - The chopper lands and we approach someone who looks like they're in charge. He calls me a traitor and then a woman climbs out of another helicopter. She's not wearing any armor of course (we're only in a war zone). A skirmish breaks out.
14 - We need some kind of resonator so that we can map the alien's tunnels and bomb them back to whatever nasty afterlife they believe in. The cutscene is still going with us getting shot at, sandbags are great protection for bullets I guess.

15 - As the cutscene finishes up the last of the enemies, it's time to head into the building we're outside of. The woman will feed us intel, she sounds scared.

16 - The game explains active reload, if I hit R bumper at just the right time, I'll reload faster. That actually kind of makes sense, a little.
17 - I pick up some dog tags from the ground, a teammate says we should honor our fellow comrades.

19 - Wish I knew how to use my grenades! I just was told to flank a bunch of scum on the left and there's a group of them packed together, ripe for the picking!

21 - Ah, the D-pad, the last buttons I tried. Looks like I can carry four types of weapons, each one associated with a direction on the D-pad. Our current objective is to find Alpha squad, but there's some human remains over there. Doesn't bode well.

23 - Moving through more and more rooms and more skirmishes with the bad guys. I can hold the B button to use a chainsaw attached to my rifle! Just need some fodder now...
24 - Ammo seems like it's on short supply in this game, maybe I'm just being reckless. I have to keep juggling weapons to make sure I have enough.

25 - A cutscene starts as we approach our dead comrades. We can't tell for sure who they are as their dog tags are gone. We still need to find the resonator though. Marcus thinks the bodies may be a trap.

26 - Marcus is a smart man, we just got ambushed!

27 - I hop on a gatling gun and literally rip one of the aliens in half! Awesome!

28 - I finally get to use my chainsaw as a rip a nasty in the chest! "Nothin' but bits!"

29 - We enter a courtyard with a statue in the middle. This is not a good position to defend from.

31 - And defending is tough, I go down, but I guess no one wants to revive me...

34 - That was kind of a difficult battle, all about working the cover though and watching your health carefully. Health in Gears of War regenerates, when you're really injured though almost the entire screen goes red indicating to take cover! That's the only sign of your status in this game, and it works.

35 - Locusts; that is what the aliens are called. The men discuss having nightmares about them. Maybe I will too now!
36 - Our team has to split up, I take the left path. I'm going with a soldier named Carmine.

37 - I rush into a room and get blasted down. Geez, slow down, Greg.

39 - I take out a spotter with my pistol but there's still a big stationary gun in the room, someone has got to flank that guy. Probably me...
40 - The controls go wonky on me as I try to chainsaw him... he kills me.

41 - Dom goes down so I try to raise him, then I get killed in a gushy mess.

43 - The same stupid gunner kills me again by punching me or something. This is getting really annoying.

46 - Finally! I clear the room, and then we get ambushed from behind. I jump on the big gun and start mowing them down, however, right when I'm having real fun, Dom gets killed and I have to resurrect him. Lame!
48 - My next objective is to gain entrance to the House of Sovereigns. Ha! Another wide open courtyard with tons of cover, I wonder what will happen?

49 - Well, I made a good run but I get blown to shreds by another large gun.

50 - I think I just got killed when my own man tried to take the same cover spot I had. It looked like he took cover and I splattered. Glitch?
52 - This time I take a different position and run into the building right away, hitting the Locust from behind and the side. Works much better, pretty intense sequence.

53 - A short cutscene of the disposable guy (red shirt) in our group getting sniped. Now we have to defend the area we just attacked. Could be tough with only three men.

55 - I actually do it the first try though and we move back into the building.
56 - Ouch, I just got shotgunned up close. I want that weapon. Now.

58 - Okay, what the frak? Why didn't the game checkpoint after I cleared out the courtyard and entered the building? That seems like two distinct sequences to me. Well, I replay the last area quick, this time grabbing the shotgun. We head up some stairs, Alpha Squad is alive! At least one of them. He gets shot down and I go down to the courtyard to save him.

59 - The survivor's name is Cole, I guess he was a famous football player but is now part of the war effort. Think Sam from Battlestar Galactica. We all head downstairs together but a new door is blocking our way. Our little robot friend who I guess has been following us the whole time uncloaks and starts working on the door.

60 - Oh crap, wretches! Small and nimble little aliens drop from the ceiling and scream, breaking all the windows in sight. Looks like I'll get good use out of my shotgun! Very awesome sound design here.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 3
I'm not really sensing much of a story in the first hour of Gears of War. We have Marcus Fenix, a man who was in prison until the game started for who knows why being broken out by who knows who and fighting an alien race for who knows what. The only clue we get is from some guy calling Marcus a traitor and another soldier who can't believe it's actually me. The game is trying to play the mystery card but doesn't pull it off well. I also had no idea the game didn't take place on Earth until I read its wiki page and my only tasks in the future are to rescue some soldiers and then bomb the world to bits. I might have given this game a break but the number of cutscenes would seem to indicate I would come away knowing more.
Graphics and Sound: 8
The Unreal Engine 3 shines as usual and even most of the sound design is good. I've read some complaints from people saying that there is basically no art design in Gears of War, but I'd have to argue otherwise. Epic created an apocalyptic world and while it's dark, it has a certain appeal to me and if you take the time to examine the environments, I think you will be impressed by the detail that went into them. The characters are scarred and those old wounds can tell a story too. The Locusts don't seem incredibly original, but they do look evil and sometimes downright scary. Gears is chock full of one liners, which can get old after a bit, but the last scene with the wretches really impressed me. The high-pitched screams and the glass breaking is a moment I won't soon forget.
Gameplay: 8
Overall, I really like the cover system in Gears of War, and other game designers must have enjoyed it too because we're seeing it in games like Mass Effect and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (not saying taking cover is a totally new thing, but these games were obviously inspired). The characters feel appropriately heavy and ripping apart aliens with my machine gun just plain works well. The game stumbled a few times though, especially in close combat. The game seems to fall apart a bit when the bad guys close in, the combat system works much better at a distance. Another complaint I have is with your squadmates, they sure seem to die a lot. And it seemed a little odd that they can't revive me even though I can revive them. It would have been nice to maybe give the A.I. 15 seconds or so to lumber up to me and wake me up.
Fun Factor: 9
Gears of War's first hour was a lot of fun, sometimes not having much of a story can help out the other categories and give them a chance to show off. There certainly is a variety of gameplay near the beginning and it's cool when Dom tells you to flank the Locusts and you really feel like you're working together as a team. There was just something about the combat experience that makes it feel really real. Bullets tear through the enemy, grenades are exploding, and your shotgun blows things away like a shotgun should. It's all a very satisfying feeling. Some parts seemed pretty challenging for playing on easy, but it was still fun to tackle places I had failed from different directions.
Minutes to Action: 1
Overall: 8
This game probably would have scored a bit lower if it weren't so darn fun. Of course it looks great, it's an Xbox 360 game in HD; and of course it plays great, it's a game from Epic. But I think where Gears of War really comes through is from the combination of the setting and the combat, if it didn't have either the dark and gritty atmosphere or the cover-focused combat, I really don't think the game would have done as well as it did. But either way, I enjoyed the first hour of Gears of War and it gets a really solid score from me, not to mention if you're looking for a game that gets right into the action, this is it. If you own a 360 or a nice PC, I would definitely recommend checking it out, I hear it even has great multiplayer...

Art by Dann Perez - used with permission.

Game 26: Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a point and click adventure game for the Nintendo DS. It was released early last year and features both interesting graphic styles and gameplay controls. As far as the graphics go, the characters are hand-drawn with a pencil and use no colors except for pencil shadings. The game is actually played quite differently too, instead of holding the DS like normal, you turn it on its side like you're reading a book. This gives you two vertical screens side-by-side that seem like it would be better for telling a dramatic story. It's definitely something to get used to when you first pick it up but it makes sense for the style of game it is. Speaking of the style of Hotel Dusk, something about this game reminds me of the old school scary game, Uninvited. Well, it scared me on the NES when I was eight years old!

Hotel Dusk is actually my first portable first hour review! Not sure why it took me 26 reviews to get to one, as I play portable games just as much as console and PC games. By the way, do you know how hard it is to get good screenshots of a portable game? Nearly impossible. Now let's get to the review.

For my review on the whole game, please see my Hotel Dusk: Room 215 review at Beyond the First Hour.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I click Start and the first hour of Hotel Dusk begins. A typewriter is flashing words on the screen giving me the date and location. Detective style music begins and the opening cutscene starts. The backgrounds look like photos, and then a character appears, he's completely pencil sketched! No coloring at all.

01- The man gets a call from Bradley, the next scene cuts to the docks where our pencil man shoots someone. Then he wakes up, "Just a dream," he says. Next scene, type goes too fast to read all the information. Actually this cutscene is moving pretty fast either way. The phone rings and the chief yells to get Hyde on the phone.
02 - Hyde, our hero, gets a page on his pager (did they have pagers in the late 70's?) Looks like he has an assignment. It's late December of 1979. Hyde is at a gas station returning the page on the pay phone. He's supposed to pick up a package at Hotel Dusk.

03 - The scene cuts to him driving away, even the fringes of the background are pencil drawn, very cool effect. Hyde drives by a woman on the road and then pulls into Hotel Dusk. Kyle Hyde introduces himself to me, I now have to use the stylus to advance text.

04 - The text appears on the right (bottom screen) and the action on the left. Hyde has been out of the force for three years and is now a salesman for Red Crown.

05 - Sounds like his boss doesn't run a totally clean shop as he has Hyde work a few side jobs here and there. Hyde says that this is what he'll be doing until he finds Bradley... I wonder who Bradley is?

06 - On the right is the hotel's front door, looks like I get to open it. I push on it and it creaks open. Chapter 1 begins, it's 5:00 PM on December 28th, 1979.
07 - I'm inside the lobby now, on the right screen I have a first person view of the entryway. Kyle is talking to himself on the left.

08 - Ah, very interesting! Now the first person view is on the left screen and an overhead view of the room is on the right. Looks like I'll be using the stylus to move Kyle around on the overhead map. I approach the front desk and examine it by clicking a magnifying glass icon.

09 - I'm able to examine all the things on the front desk, including a TV, clipboard, telephone, and calendar. Kyle has remarks about everything. I ring the bell. Quite a few times actually (I like being obnoxious in video games)!

10 - A man enters, the two screens feature Kyle on the left, and the man on the right. This guy looks a lot like Rocky Balboa from his latest movie of the same name. Creepy. I get some dialogue options, Kyle demands a room.
11 - The man's name is Dunning Smith, the hotel's owner. He welcomes me to his "little slice'a heaven."

12 - Dunning tries to talk to me into an expensive suite. I think I just need a regular room bud.

13 - He gives me a pen to fill out the registration. I'm able to scribble on the fields and Kyle Hyde's real information is filled out. Nifty.

14 - Dunning questions my name but then gives me my key. The key to room 215... *dun dun dun* The room is named "Wish."

16 - He also gives me a hotel brochure, this guy sure talks a lot.
17 - I tell Dunning that I'm waiting for a package, he doesn't look for it very hard. Says the bellhop will bring it up to me.

18 - I regain control on the overhead map, time to head to my room I guess. Woah, an old woman with an eye patch just walked in asking for a room! Creepy stuff! I'm now listening to her and Dunning talk.

19 - She wants the "special room, the wishing room." I bet I have the one she wants. Sucker.

20 - I enter the lobby area and wander a bit. All of a sudden Kyle starts talking to himself about Dunning and the reaction he had when he heard my name.
22 - Kyle does this thinking out loud bit two more times. I guess I should have questioned Dunning while talking to him!

23 - I enter the Central Hallway and take a moment to look at the map Dunning gave me. I poke at the first floor and can scroll around the map. Lots of areas are staff only, but it all doesn't seem that large. Wonder if the game can really keep it interesting with such a small area or if it'll expand? Guess we'll see (well, you won't in this review).

24 - I head for the stairs to the second floor, a young girl is sitting on the steps. I tell her to move it or lose it but she's being uncooperative. Kids these days.

26 - This kid sure is annoying, get off the stairs already! Or just go around her, she must way like 70 pounds.

the bane of my existence

27 - I finally get by her to the second floor, time to get to my room... until someone comes out of room 213 and stops me. There sure are a lot of people just wandering the halls. This ain't a bed and breakfast.

28 - Okay, the guy went back into his room already. Guess he didn't want to talk. Halfway down the hall and Dunning comes up behind me. He's pissed at me for hassling the little girl on the stairs.

29 - He tells me to get out before he throws me out. Holy crap, did I lose?! Sad music begins to play with the girl crying to herself again.

30 - Well, it really is Game Over. Geez. I click Retry and I'm back heading up the stairs...

31 - Guess I have to be nice to the girl this time.

33 - Still talking, she says she can't finish her puzzle. What the...

34 - It's a twenty piece puzzle with like five pieces not in place, this girl is pretty stupid if she can't finish this (or the game thinks I'm stupid and don't know how to use the DS). I use the stylus to drop the pieces in place.
35 - Now the girl is upset that she didn't finish it and throws it on the floor.

37 - My Lord, this is seriously the most obnoxious conversation ever. She finally runs off laughing that she tricked me with her crying. She left a puzzle piece behind, mysterious.

38 - I walk down the hallway and the guy from 213 stumbles out again. The guy introduces himself as Jeff Angel.

40 - I ask him a few questions about the girl on the stairs, he tells me her name is Melissa, from room 219. I also ask him why he said something about looking for a cop. He says it would be cool if there was a real violent crime here. Foreshadowing?

42 - I finally get to my room, but the game doesn't just let me in, I have to use my key.

43 - I set my suitcase down and the phone rings. I walk over to it and pick it up. It's Rachel, a cute woman that Kyle must work with. They talk for a bit about trust and rumors.
45 - She asks if the package has arrived yet, I'm supposed to give her a call when it does.

46 - I regain control and check out the room.

48 - When I reach an interesting part of the room, I can examine the surroundings more carefully and the overhead map becomes the first person view of the area. There I can click on objects and either collect them or listen to what Kyle has to say.

50 - The room and bathroom are all pretty grungy, not exactly high class. The shower is clean though and there is plenty of toilet paper.
51 - Not sure what else to do so I head back out to the hallway.

52 - I decide to knock on a few doors, something I would never do in real life, but then again I would never be a traveling salesman either or be such a jerk. I knock on 219 and Melissa's father opens the door. Well, he's already shut it, doesn't want to talk I suppose. Don't blame him. I did make his daughter cry in an alternate universe.

54 - Well, not sure what else to do so I head downstairs to question Dunning about those thoughts Kyle had before.

56 - He says another guest had the name of Kyle Hyde once. Odd. Kyle says it sounds like Bradley... He was in six months ago. But why would this guy pose as me?

58 - Next, Dunning tells me about the magic of room 215. Guests get their wishes after staying there a night. I wonder what Kyle's wish is? To find Bradley? To finally get with Rachel? To actually be colored in by his artist???

60 - I finish talking with the owner and that's the end of the first hour of Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I really feel like I have no idea what to do at the moment.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 4
Because Hotel Dusk is such a story driven game, I really have to be critical here. Hotel Dusk does very little to develop itself within its first hour. It does a good job eluding at things such as Kyle's past as a cop and his history with Bradley and the mystery behind room 215 at the hotel. However, this is offset by the extremely slow pace at which things develop and the agonizingly long conversations between characters. I really think the game could have focused less on the long conversation with the owner, Dunning, and let me explore the hotel and let the setting tell its story. I won't even mention the 13 minutes it took to successfully get past the little girl on the stairs (with a game over in between). This is disappointing and makes me leery on how the game will present the rest of the story, it will no doubt be doled out very slowly and in small increments.
Graphics and Sound: 8
First things first, I really like the graphical style of Hotel Dusk. The backgrounds are static but the characters are hand-drawn and sort of have that Beavis and Butthead style shake to them (or if you're more of a gamer, The Last Express), which surprisingly works in this 1979 detective drama too. On the other hand (or should I say the other screen?), we have rather ugly looking 3D graphics representing Kyle Hyde's first person view of the hotel. I guess they have to be polygonal due to being able to walk around and check things out close up, but I think maybe trying something less realistic like Okami did would have been a better decision. Sound wise, the music is really good and fits the setting and the sound effects match your actions well. Not much else I can say about them. Once again, a little voice acting would have been nice but I recognize the medium, so I won't complain any more.
Gameplay: 6
A mixed bag here considering I spent more than half an hour just clicking an arrow to go to the next piece of conversation. I have to give them credit though for trying out something different with the way you hold the DS. It works great for Hotel Dusk. Walking around the hotel is a breeze because you point at an overhead map with the stylus to direct Kyle. There doesn't seem to be much variation though in the actions you can do, but it's nice to be able to zoom in on a part of the room and check out every object in it individually. Goes to show how much time the developers put into the small things. It's pretty obvious the game is a plodder but it works for the first hour at least.
Fun Factor: 3
Hotel Dusk's first hour is not that much fun, a little below average, honestly. Investigating the hotel is enjoyable, but there's only so many lamps I can poke at to keep things interesting. Seriously though, the game throws way too much dialogue at you right away and it's boring, uninspired writing! Okay, I'll give the writers some credit for the opening scenes and Kyle's background, but I don't want to spend 10 minutes talking to a seven year old girl on a staircase! It's a blatant waste of my time and honestly sucks. Getting a Game Over screen in a point and click adventure game also makes little sense in this day and age, we're not playing King's Quest anymore people!
Minutes to Action: 8
Overall: 4
The bad outweighs the good here, unfortunately. Hotel Dusk's first hour is a drag to play. The story has some inspiration going for it but is blown out by the bland and never-ending dialogue. This adversely affects basically every other aspect of the game's first hour, except for the graphics. Once again, I'll note that they're very good and the pencil sketch characters are a nice change from the anime style we're seeing so much of on the DS (Trauma Center and Castlevania of note). I really had high hopes for Hotel Dusk but it seems like the game may disappoint overall. Let's hope it turns itself around.

Game 25: Mass Effect

Mass Effect is an action role-playing game for the Xbox 360. It was recently released in November and has received many great reviews and accolades since then. Of course, this doesn't always mean I will like it, but I have high hopes for it as it comes from a distinguished line of video games (notably Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire). Mass Effect takes place in the future after humans find out they're not alone in the universe and end up joining in a peaceful truce with many other powerful alien races. The human race has to deal with brand new styles of diplomacy and communication, but have also benefited from an influx of advanced technology. The concept of mass effect itself is similar to "the force" from Star Wars, but more grounded in technology and physics. It basically allows control over dark energy that species can take advantage of through the use of biotic implants and training.

For my review on the whole game, please see my Mass Effect review at Beyond the First Hour.

I'm starting 2008 (and Day 2 of reviews) where I left off with 2007: a new Xbox 360 game. And I'm actually really excited to be able to play Mass Effect finally (I've been borrowing a friend's 360 for about a month now, and have wanted to play this game more than any other, I even read the prequel book). Let's just hope my self-built hype for this game doesn't implode on itself, but from everything I've heard, I don't think it will. I'd like to quickly apologize for the choice of screenshots, they don't really fit the text but they are neat to look at! Now let's get started with Day 2 of The First Hour and my review of Mass Effect.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I click Start New Career and the first hour of Mass Effect begins. I enter the Alliance Military Personnel Database. The database looks for me, Greg Shepard (Shepard is the last name the game gives me, so all the voice actors can actually say my name), but can't find me. Looks like I get to create my own character!

01 - Lots of options available, but I don't want to spend too much time on this. Character creation doesn't seem as deep as it was advertised, but there are still lots of options to tweak and the human head in front of me looks really lifelike.. Not as many hairstyles as I'd like though.
02 - I get to decide what Greg's childhood and military career were like before the game. I'm a Sole Survivor from Earth and a Soldier. Just the defaults really, a few cool things you can do is modify your history, like where you were born (on Earth or in space) and how you became famous (all my fellow soldiers were killed in an attack).

03 - The game starts loading... A view of Earth. Some men are talking about me, Greg Shepard. They seem to know my history. There I am looking out a spaceship's viewport.

04 - The men say I'm the only man left to protect the galaxy. Some text appear on the screen, detailing the discovery of a super technology that thrust humans to the technology state they are in now.

05 - A few shots of a ship flying by, Greg Shepard is walking through the ship. A man voiced by Seth Green is noting some technical details. Greg stops, he looks rugged and experienced. The ship is approaching a really large space object, a mass relay it's called. The mass relay sends our ship at faster than light speeds across the galaxy to another mass relay.
06 - Joker, Seth Green, reports our arrival. An alien behind him says "good job" and Joker complains. Shepard walks up behind them. I get to respond to Joker's complaints. I tell him to "cut the chatter!"

07 - Captain Anderson comes on the comm and asks for me. I now have control of Shepard and start walking around the ship.

08 - I approach Navigator Pressly, he says there's something odd about this mission. Something about Spectres, top covert agents, being on board that makes things fishy.

09 - The dialogue options are really nicely laid out, I get a few short choices (one to three words) and Shepard expands on that option. Really cool design. The characters look so real too and I can even see some emotion in their faces.

10 - I ask Pressly a few more questions, he seems biased against this Spectre who is a Turian (an alien race). Next up I approach Jenkins the soldier and Chakwas the doctor. They argue a bit, Jenkins really wants a battle, but the doctor is sick of healing him!
11 - Everything I say is kind of mean, this is fun. I tell Jenkins not to play the hero. After our conversation I get +2 Renegade points. Sweet.

12 - In the captain's quarters is Nihlus, the Turian Spectre. He asks me about Eden Prime, the world where our mission is to take place. I tell him I'm a marine, not a tourist. Shepard's got some wit.

13 - Captain Anderson approaches, he has the voice of the Arbiter from Halo 2 and 3. Very deep and military like, his voice matches his character very well. Anderson was the main character from the book so I'm pretty familiar with him.

14 - Anderson and Nihlus explain the mission: a Prothean beacon has been found on Eden Prime. The Protheans are some long extinct but super advanced race so finding their artifacts is a very good thing. Nihlus is also around to evaluate me to become a Spectre. Must be a pretty elite squad as there isn't a single human Spectre.

15 - Eden Prime will be our first of several missions together. Joker interrupts, a message from Eden Prime. We get a jerky handheld camera view of an ongoing battle.16 - Looks like someone beat us to the planet, the three of us watch some soldiers get shot and a giant spider like ship floats in the air. Then the transmission goes dead.

17 - We arrive at the planet, Shepard and his team are going in. We need to find the beacon, top priority. Nihlus is going in solo. Not sure how he'll monitor Shepard if he's not with me.

18 - I have control now on the planet, time to check things out. This all feels a lot like Gears of War: behind the shoulder camera, holding L aims, R shoots. I'm liking this setup.

19 - We turn a corner and that fool of a soldier Jenkins gets shot. Well, he sure didn't last long, shouldn't have worn his red shirt today.

20 - My first battle! It felt really awkward shooting these little flying drones with my pistol, didn't feel like I was hitting them at all, but I must have because they soon blew up. Even my remaining partner, Kaidan, hit one.
21 - Kaidan asks what to do with Jenkins' body, I say to forget about him. More renegade points!

22 - More shooting, and more similarities to Gears of War: you can cover behind objects by pushing in the left stick. The game is being super lenient with the shooting, not sure if this is just because it's the first mission or what, but I'm pretty sure I'm not even close to hitting the enemies.

23 - I take a moment and hit start and check out the Squad Screen. Here I can assign talent points to various attributes such as pistol skill, assault rifle skill, and even intimidation. I spread my points out, not trying to focus on one thing. I can also give points to Kaidan. He's got totally different options though, he can Throw (mass effect throw, like the force), and has a specialty in first aid. That should come in handy.

25 - A cutscene begins of a woman in pink running away from some drones and then shooting them down. Woah, a man just got speared by something from the ground. And now I have to shoot Geth Troopers! I take them down easily with my enhanced pistol skill.
26 - Ashley Williams, the woman in pink armor approaches me. She was patrolling when the planet was attacked. She says they're fighting Geth, but no one can believe that it could actually be them. I tell Ashley to come with us, could always use a helping hand.

27 - Holding L2 gives me a quick look at the weapons we have equipped and what ones I can choose. Everyone seems to have a pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, and shotgun, but we're all not necessarily trained in them.

28 - The game quickly shows me how to use cover and then throws more enemies at me.

29 - My super soldier mows them down and we approach the dig site where the beacon should be, no dice though. Looks like we have to continue on looking. The actual control of this game plays a lot like Knights of the Old Republic but the shooting feels like Gears of War. It's a really weird combination but it seems to be working.

30 - Nihlus comes on the comm and tells me to head to the space port up ahead. Not really sure where to go so I guess I'll go straight. There is a radar map but it doesn't seem too informative. Just points north.
31 - We approach a burned out camp, and some spikes are poking out of the ground, but with bodies speared at the top. Ouch. The spears retract and the (used to be humans?) zombies come to life and approach. These guys can take a lot more hits so I whip my shotgun out and blow out their innards (not actually graphic though).

33 - I just realized I leveled up, so I spend some more available talent points on my heroes. Plus I can put points into Ashley as she's a new team member. Cool. I put more points for her into Assault Rifle.

35 - I open some crates and find supplies, and then approach a security door. I have to play a quick game of Simon Says to open it. That was easy enough. There's some scientists inside, looks like they were hiding out. We ask them what happened to the beacon, Nihlus was right, they moved it to the space port. One of the scientists think that the beacon could be the greatest discovery ever, the other thinks it is the fall of mankind.

36 - I leave them in their boxcar and then a cutscene starts. It's Nihlus, he's found another Turian, Saren. Nihlus asks Saren what he's doing there, but then Saren shoots Nihlus in the back of his head! Guess there won't be any more Spectre evaluating.
38 - As we approach the space port, we see the giant spider space ship flying off into the sky. Maybe that's Saren leaving?

39 - Not too much time to wonder though as we get into another firefight. Well, it's actually us shooting at the Geth and them running at us like suicide bombers. They don't seem to be doing any damage though.

40 - Haha, I shoot at an exploding crate and Kaidan dies. Whoops. He gets back up a moment later though. We approach Nihlus' body. A man appears from behind some more crates and says he saw another Turian shoot Nihlus. He said Saren shot him right in the back of the noggin and then headed towards another platform.
42 - I push the guy a little further asking how he wasn't killed, turns out he was napping on the job and when the Geth attacked he was sleeping behind the crates. The three of us rip on the guy pretty badly. We leave the guy and head for the other platform too.

43 - Dang, Shepard is a really good shot with the pistol! I also take out a thug by blowing up the barrel he was standing next to. Loser.

44 - We're supposed to head down a narrow passage now, but there's tons of bad guys. This may take a few minutes. A Geth Destroyer shoots what looks like a rocket at us!

46 - My team ends up making pretty quick work of them. We reach the end of a platform, hop on a mini train and a cutscene begins. It's Saren, he says to set the charges. He approaches the beacon and he's suddenly lifted up off the ground. No explanation there but it looks like he's received some kind of power.
47 - Woah, I have four minutes to dismantle four bombs. I head to the first one and shut it down. Three more to plus there's bad guys shooting at us.

48 - I press Y to heal my squad and then dismantle the second bomb.

49 - I overheat my gun by shooting too much, it doesn't seem that I have limited ammo though, just can't fire too many bullets in a small length of time. Another bomb down too.

50 - Shepard disarms the fourth and final bomb. We're safe in that respect at least.

51 - I'm able to press right on the D-Pad to tell my squad to attack the guy I'm attacking. Pretty nice tactics there.

52 - I take out the last of the Geth and level up, I also receive a 360 achievement. I head to the talent screen to assign a few more points to weapons and training. Well, actually I'll max out my intimidation skill!
53 - I walk up the beacon, looks like I beat the mission. Shepard reports in to Normandy (the ship) that we found the beacon. Williams approaches the beacon and she starts getting sucked into it! Shepard runs up and throws her away from it.

54 - But now he's getting lifted up! I see a bunch of bloody red flashes of something on my screen, and then I must have passed out.

55 - A cutscene with Saren and The Matriarch (no idea). She tells Saren that one of the humans (me) touched the beacon. Saren gets ticked off and throws a tantrum. Loading.

56 - Shepard wakes up in the infirmary, Ashley calls for the doctor. The doc tells me I was out for 15 hours. Ashley blames herself for the incident, I tell not to worry. She smiles... I think she likes me.
57 - The doc says she detected some abnormal brain activity and I tell her about the red vision I had.

58 - Captain Anderson approaches and I ask why Ashley is on board, he says she's been reassigned to the Normandy.

59 - Anderson says the Council wants answers, things are not looking good. He tells me that Saren is also a Spectre, but that he's gone rogue. He has allied himself with the Geth.

60 - We talk a bit more about my vision and Saren. This guy is obviously a bad dude as he doesn't like humans and seems to have the firepower and willingness to knock us out, and maybe all the other species to boot! I like games that introduce the main bad guy early on! Well, that's it for Mass Effect's first hour.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 9
Mass Effect has a huge story to tell, and the amount you want to take in is really up to you. During my review I didn't dive too deep into conversations and just skimmed any Codex entries I received. This allowed me to progress the main story and experience more action, but I started another new game and barely got off the Normandy in the first hour because I was reading so much information. The game also has a prequel novel available written by the game's writer, so there's plenty of history and backstory. However, looking purely at the first hour I experienced, the game still manages to pack a lot of cool development in. We get to meet an alien race, explore an advanced spaceship, and get to see a trusted super agent knocked off by the game's villain. There's drama and action, just what its genre of action role-playing game promises.
Graphics and Sound: 10
Mass Effect is running the Unreal Engine 3, so you know it's going to look great. The characters look awesome, more realistic than Gears of War (same engine) if you ask me. There's some funny looking texture draw-in that can draw your eye away from the real scene, but it's not too bad. Honestly, this game is like a movie, the default graphical settings have a white noise effect on and motion blur that gives Mass Effect that unique and realistic look. Sound wise the voice acting is outstanding. Shepard's voice sounds really good (both male and female versions, male in this review) and the other cast members are recognizable and even fit the part. The presentation in this game is outstanding and the best I've experienced on the 360 yet next to Call of Duty 4.
Gameplay: 8
Running around and interacting with objects in Mass Effect feels a lot like Knights of the Old Republic. This is both good and bad. The good is that the system is familiar and it works pretty well, the bad is that it feels a little last gen. I still feel like I don't have 100% total control when moving around. The action feels a lot like Gears of War. This is also both good and bad. The good is that this system is also familiar and it works pretty well, the bad is that it's hard to live up to a system like Gears of War, things just don't feel as fine tuned and a little sloppy. When I'm shooting at things it doesn't really feel like I'm hitting them, there's a health bar at top and that's really the only indication that I'm doing any damage. Assigning weapons to my squad is very easy though and they seem rather intelligent. The dialogue system is brilliant and works a lot better than the past games.
Fun Factor: 8
I was pumped to play Mass Effect and while I enjoyed it, I was surprised by a few things. I was super surprised by how the action played out, and was pleased with it at first. The shooting engine started showing its flaws along the way but my soldier was so strong I had no problem mowing down enemies. I think I had the most fun during the conversations, examining the character's faces and their reactions to what I said was really interesting. You can tell Bioware spent a lot of time on all the small muscles in the face. The story was also fun to follow but it took a while to get to the action, even longer if you want to read everything (but then maybe you don't really care about shooting things).
Minutes to Action: 20
Overall: 9
Mass Effect really does a lot of things right in its first hour: the graphics are amazing, the voice acting is outstanding, and the story is engaging. I have a warning though: if you are expecting an RPG with guns, you will probably be disappointed. The game is very action orientated, a lot more than I thought. Jade Empire also had a lot of action but that was martial arts, actually shooting something takes a lot more thumbstick skill so be prepared. Either way, I'm really excited to play the rest of this game. The minutes to action score (20) is probably the worst I will ever give to a game I scored a 9, but keep in mind that's just when the shooting starts. There's plenty of interesting cutscenes and dialogue trees to work through before then. When I reviewed Star Control 2 I made a conjecture that the classic game may have inspired Bioware to create Mass Effect and I look forward to seeing if that's true.