Tag Archives: Video Game

Spiderman Edge of Time Review

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Edge of Time is another video game that I’ve had my eye on for a very long time. I greatly enjoyed Shattered Dimensions and while I’ve heard that this one is not even comparable..I knew that it would still be good. I’m pleased to say that the game is definitely a lot of fun and it’s worth buying.

The plot is pretty sad for Peter Parker since he is destined to die. Spiderman 2099 is going to need to alter the timeline to save him, but will there be consequences to his actions? Someone is messing up the time stream and both of the Spidermen need to find out who the culprit is. The answer may shock long time fans and amuse people who’ve never heard of Marvel before. Either way, the plot is solid and you’ll definitely enjoy it!

I definitely prefer this story to the one that was in Shattered Dimensions. For one thing, this game has more actual cutscenes as opposed to moving stills. You really feel the danger when Anti Venom gets involved and the beginning of the game is very epic. Seeing Spiderman 2099 take on Anti Venom was also pretty awesome. The start of the game is easily the best part and the rest is still good…just not as epic. There are three acts in the game, which results in around 15 levels. Acts 1 and 3 are great, but Act 2 isn’t quite as exciting. Less stakes and less danger, but that makes sense since the middle is usually the low moment for just about any game.

One factor that may hurt your experience is the portrayal of the two Spidermen. They’re constantly arguing and both of them come across as being unnecessarily mean to each other. Spiderman 2099 yells out pretty much all of his lines and he likes to insult Peter. Peter is quick to take some shots at Spiderman 2099 as well and while he doesn’t yell as much, he’s always very snippy. They just did not seem to be in character and I can’t imagine Spiderman acting like that. He even gives up at one point and resigns himself to oblivion. Finally, Peter was pretty overconfident during his fight with Anti Venom, which was okay….but letting down his guard is not cool.

Gameplay wise, this game tries to be the same as Shattered Dimensions. We still have the free fall levels and Spiderman’s gameplay is what you would expect. That being said, it’s not quite as smooth as Shattered Dimensions. I had to get used to this during the first few levels, but it’s great by the end of the game. I’m inclined to prefer Shattered Dimension’s fighting style, but this game is still solid in that aspect. The Spider Sense can’t stay on like in the last game so you can only use it as a short burst. Meanwhile, you can automatically dodge all attacks as long as you hold L2 while in Spiderman mode. It’s cool to watch, but it makes his fights extremely easy. The enemies cannot hurt you at all in that form, no matter what attacks they may try. Yes…that includes bosses! Spiderman 2099 doesn’t have that ability, but he can fire clones made out of energy which help you fight and it’s just as useful. All of the enemies will immediately go after the clone so you can get some free hits off of them.

Web slinging is the biggest negative compared to other Spiderman games. It’s hard to gain altitude and you constantly have to let go and just do a classic third jump. Unlike Shattered Dimensions, you can’t infinitely jump so you have to pause and swing around for a sec before continuing. It’s not a terribly long process, but it really wasn’t needed. They shouldn’t have altered the web slinging process! Defeating enemies can be a little tedious during the beginning of the game because the health bars on these minions are pretty large. It takes a lot of hits to finally bring them down, so I recommend upgrading your attack power right away. While the gameplay may not be as good as Shattered Dimensions, it’s still in 3D and we still get a lot of action. I would give the combat an 8/10, which is great!

One slight negative for the game is the lack of bosses. We get to fight Black Cat, Anti Venom and the final pair of bosses. That’s not as many bosses as I would like in a game. Throwing in some more would have definitely helped the game and it would have also lengthened the story. The game may be under 10 hours in length, but we have the Web Challenges to keep you busy. There are over 60 of them (Significantly less than Shattered Dimensions) and they are simple enough. The Free falling challenges can give you some mild trouble.

My biggest negative with the game is the level designs. Yes, even more so than the fact that you can’t skip many cutscenes. You never get to set foot outside, which is very sad. What happened to swinging across buildings? That’s typically one of my favorite parts about playing a Spider Man game and I was sad to see it go. There may be around 15 levels, but some of the designs actually appeared to be copied from each other. After a while, you’ll feel like you keep going to the same rooms and labyrinths. The bland level designs can take away from the fun and the scenery just isn’t fun to look at. It’s basically always night time. I really hope that they never cut out NYC from another big Spiderman game because that definitely hurts the experience.

The Graphics aren’t terribly impressive. It’s definitely using a different style than Shattered Dimensions, but the graphics during gameplay are pretty good. The ones that I was not impressed with were the scenes that took place in the cutscenes. At one point, Peter has his big scene and he takes off the mask…only to look nothing like Peter Parker. I had to wince at the design and the graphics did not really look like a PS3 game. It felt like I was looking at Madden character models. Either way, the game doesn’t have a whole lot of cutscenes and the gameplay graphics definitely suffice.

The trophies in this game are considerably easier than Shattered Dimension’s. You have fewer things to do and long challenges like getting all of the Golden Spiders have become pretty simple. Your Spider Sense will tingle if you’re near a spider and the game did a very good job with it. You can obtain just about every Gold Spider through a normal play through. I don’t have the Platinum yet, but I just have three trophies left so I should be getting it pretty soon. You don’t need to worry about any “unfair” trophies so that could help you decide to pick up this game.

I can’t say much for the soundtrack. It defeats Shattered Dimensions in this aspect, but it’s pretty close. I really like the main menu theme for Edge of Time and the epic music that occurred during the Anti Venom moments were also pretty intense. Beyond that, the rest of the music was pretty forgettable and we didn’t have much in the way of boss themes.

Overall, this was a very good Spider Man game. It may have lacked Shattered Dimension’s combat mastery, but the epic story line made up for it. The gameplay is solid and the graphics are good enough. The game isn’t terribly long and you can complete it in under 10 hours. That being said, the replay value will help you out and it’s definitely worth the current price. (Around 15-20) I guess this means that I need to go and pick up the Amazing Spider Man game for PS3 at some point, but I doubt that it will be able to beat this one. Still….we shall see! I recommend this game to all action fans and to anyone who is a fan of Spiderman.

Overall 8/10

Prince of Persia Review

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The Prince of Persia franchise has always been an exception to my desert rule. I typically do not like adventures in any form of media that take place in the olden times or in a desert. This game manages to accomplish both while still being a very good game and that takes a lot of skill. I’d say that the film is what got me into the franchise and then I quickly went and bought most of the games in the series. Currently, this is my favorite installment and it even passes the other PS3 title. (Forgotten Sands)

The plot involves a guy who has lost his donkey in a sandstorm. We don’t see the Donkey for the rest of the game so it’s safe to assume that it decided to go to New York. The hero then notices that a few guy are trying to attack a lady so he steps in. Her name is Elika and she needs to cleanse all of the lands. Unfortunately, her father has succumbed to the powers of darkness and all of the legendary villains have been awakened. Our hero must now go on his greatest adventure yet and save the planet!

Pretty safe plot and it’s good enough for me. Who doesn’t like a plot where the Earth is going into darkness and must be purged? It’s not super original, but it makes for a good formula. Naturally, the gameplay determines how well that will work out. During the platforming part, it’s a little bit like Mario. You run and jump through and place and Elika can give you a double jump in a sense. The gameplay is not quite as smooth as Mario and you’ll likely fall a few times due to unresponsive controls. You can temporarily run on walls and use grass to climb along them. You don’t have to worry about falling because Elika will make sure to save you.

Yes…you can’t really die in this game. If you get hit enough to the point where you get a red warning, then you have a chance of dying. I believe that it may have happened to be once, but I can’t really verify that. Aside from that instant, it’s extremely hard to die even if you end up throwing the fights. You can jump into an endless abyss for eternity and Elika will keep on saving you.

The Combat Gameplay is definitely my favorite part of the game and it’s what makes the title so enjoyable. You’re basically fighting in Dynasty Warriors mixed with Spiderman style. You can use slashing attacks, athletic maneuvers, or classic grabbing. Elika will also help you by charging into the opponent with her blue energy abilities. You can link these attacks to hit the opponent as many as 14 times in one combo. Mastering each of them is fun (and necessary for a trophy) and the gameplay never gets tiring.

The only problem with the fighting is that it is way too easy. The first boss is pretty much as simple as the final one. The final boss is a bit of a joke because you can beat him with ease. If anything, you just don’t want to beat him too quickly if you’re trying to get a 14 hit combo on him. This is a game that could have greatly benefited from an online vs mode. Testing your mettle against other players is always good and it would have been especially fun in this game.

The Main Character never really gets a name. Mostly, people refer to him as the Prince (Prince of Persia…it all makes sense now) but it doesn’t really matter as far as this review is concerned. He’s not one of the more likable main characters. He spends a lot of time flirting and he should concentrate more on the fight. I did like his decision at the end, which gained back some respect from me. He’s definitely a good fighter and that’s always a plus.

Elika is around for the entire game as well and she doesn’t always get along with the main character. I can’t say that I was really a fan of hers as well. She could get pretty irritated at the main character for no real reason at times. Her abilities are great, but she put too much faith in Ormadz all the time.

The King isn’t very likable either. He turns evil without really having a good reason. He’s also not very powerful and even after his super forms…he’s not much of a threat. The main character is still more than a match for him and that’s a little embarrassing for the King. So much for the power of darkness eh?

There are 4 main minions of Ahriman. The Warrior, The Hunter, The Concubine, and the Alchemist. The Concubine is really the only one that talks a lot. The Alchemist may have spoken, but I do not remember if he did or not. The Hunter and The Warrior were silent. I didn’t care for the Warrior. He struck me as a jungle fighter and he wasn’t very powerful. Quick, but that’s about it. I didn’t care for the Concubine and she wasn’t a terrific fighter. Usually she would just try to get Elika out of the picture so that she could win. The Alchemist was all right, but he didn’t really have any character so it’s hard to know if I’d really like him. The Warrior had the best design from the group, but that’s about it.

Graphically, this game is pretty underwhelming. The animations aren’t really fun to look at. The character designs are pretty good for the villains, but the graphics don’t really help their cause. I’m not saying that this game looks as if it were on the PS2, but it’s just not very good. It’s possibly because they were trying to get the game to look old or gritty, but it didn’t work for me. Give me Mario 3D World anytime!

Unfortunately, the soundtrack isn’t very good. I can’t really say that I liked any of the themes. The boss themes were uninspired and the stage music begins to get old as you listen to it for the 50th time. Considering how great the soundtrack was in Warrior Within and other Prince of Persia titles, this was a little disappointing. It’s not a terrible soundtrack, but it’s definitely one of the weaker ones that I’ve heard in a while.

The trophies in this game are definitely reasonable and none of them are insanely hard. I should know since this is one of the select games where I achieved the Platinum. It shouldn’t take you too long and one playthrough could be all you need for all of the trophies if you play your cards right. I ended up using 2 playthroughs with a few stages in the third one to get them all. Trophies are always an incentive and they can make a great game even better by adding that extra boost or replay value.

One extra negative that should be mentioned is the fact that you can’t skip cutscenes. That can be very frustrating when you have to start a new playthrough since the cutscenes are numerous and they can be very long. You should always have the option to skip cutscenes in a video game and I never like it when games stop you from doing this. It’s not large enough to take points away from the game, but it should definitely be noted. I suppose that the game would be pretty short without the cutscenes, but that’s no excuse.

I have to say that the ending to the game is awesome! More games should end like this and it was a good move on the main character’s part. It may be a little controversial, but I believe that he made the right move. The ending is almost worth getting the game for. It’s just that good and it’s definitely one of the best endings for a video game. If only a Mario game could utilize this ending…it would be one of the best Mario games out there! This game got a sequel…in a sense. I own it for the DS and it’s in the same continuity. I should probably go back to beat it someday….someday.

Overall, this is a pretty fun action game. It’s a mix of platforming and cool sword action which is great. The combat is definitely the best part about it since the soundtrack, character cast, and graphics aren’t the best. Sometimes, the gameplay is all you need to be a great game. I highly recommend checking this game out and it’s at a very low price right now. I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy such an epic adventure!

Overall 8/10