Glen Stevens&#039; Thoughts

by Glen

Dungeon Defenders is a third-person mix of tower defence and action RPG developed by Trendy Entertainment. I didn’t spend very long playing this game solely because it’s not really my style of game at all. I almost wish it was, because it has a great art style and solid gameplay. There are plenty of varied character roles and RPG elements to upgrade your character.

I think a part of the problem was that I was playing solo, this seems like it could be a very fun game if playing with some friends online, requiring different skill sets.

After picking your character, you start in the dungeon you will be defending, before each wave of enemies you have the ability to put up defences like a tower defence game. When you are ready you trigger the wave and then you are able to run around and help out your defences by attacking the incoming enemies.

It seems there are plenty of various dungeons to defend, and there must have been twenty or thirty different characters in the version I have.

Pro: Great art style, fun gameplay, lots of variety, good tutorial

Cons: Basically it’s not my style of game, so I didn’t play it enough to find any real cons.

Tags: Action, Game Review, Role-playing, Steam, Third-Person, Tower Defense

Mar 16

Tomb Raider (2013) – Game Review

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by Glen

Tomb Raider, released in March 2013, is an Action Adventure Platform game developed by Crystal Dynamics and is a reboot/origin story of the legendary English archaeologist Lara Croft. I rented the PS3 version from Game Access, though I hear the PC version has substantially better graphics, the PS3 version wasn’t bad at all.

The story follows a young Lara Croft as she goes out on her first expedition as the junior archaeologist to the famous Dr. Whitman, who is funding the expedition to find the Yamatai, the Japanese kingdom where the Sun Queen Himiko was laid to rest. During the opening sequence Lara suggests looking in an area called the “Dragon’s Triangle” which is known to be rough water and responsible for many wrecked ships. The ship runs into a great storm and tears in half, and during a fantastic sequence to attempt to escape, Lara falls into the water and is washed up on shore. This is where the game begins for the player, and the first task is to find the rest of the crew.

Tags: Action, Adventure, Game Review, GameAccess, Platformer, PlayStation 3, Third-Person, Tomb Raider, Uncharted

Feb 14

X-COM: Enemy Unknown – Review

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by Glen

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based tactical role-playing strategy video game developed by Firaxis Games and was released on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. I rented the PS3 version through Game Access. The game places the player as the Commander of X-COM, a multi-national organization designed to fight alien threats. While no threats are occurring the player runs the operation of the base, including buying new equipment for the team, new satellites and fighter aircraft to protect member nations, and new facilities like labs and workshops which help your scientists create new equipment. When a threat occurs the player controls a group of 4 to 6 elite soldiers in a turn-based isometric 3D battlefield.

This is a great way to break up the game, you aren’t fighting for really long sessions (my typical attack lasted between 20 and 60 minutes) and then you return to the base with some form of spoils that you can use to research and build new items. After you have finished all the tasks you want to in the base you can look for threats, which advances the clock very fast and can help finish off research or building of facilities.

Tags: Destructible Environment, Fog of war, Game Review, GameAccess, Isometric, PlayStation 3, Role-playing, Strategy, Syndicate, Tactical, Turn-based, X-COM

Feb 03

Sleeping Dogs – Review

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by Glen

Sleeping Dogs is a 3rd person open-world action-adventure game developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix for Windows, PS3, and Xbox 360. I rented the PS3 version from Game Access after hearing some positive reviews for it. Sleeping Dogs was started as a True Crime: Hong Kong game, following the series which is essentially a Grand Theft Auto -like. The story follows an undercover cop with the Hong Kong Police Department who has childhood friends and rivals in the fictional Sun On Yee triad gang, which makes for a perfect opportunity to infiltrate the gang and destroy the triad from the inside. Along the way the character starts to get attached to the gang members and the war that is happening inside the triad, and will make certain choices that are not exactly legal.

I had never really gotten into the Grand Theft Auto 3D games (I played GTA and GTA2 to completion but never got into GTA3, Vice City, San Andreas, or GTA4 despite owning them all), but I thought I’d give this game a try with the promise that I didn’t have to finish if I wasn’t that into it. Luckily this game fixes what I feel are the things I don’t like about the GTA games (namely the over-reliance on gun combat).

Tags: Batman, Game Review, GameAccess, Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Mini-games, PlayStation 3, Racing, Sleeping Dogs, Third-Person Shooter

Jan 26

I Am Alive – Review

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by Glen

The story is set in the U.S. 1 year after “The Event” happened which caused earth quakes and power outages, basically putting the country in a dark age where survivors began hoarding supplies, forming gangs, and becoming increasingly violent to outsiders. You play a man who was on the other side of the country from his wife and daughter when “The Event” occurs and spends most of the year walking back home. The game starts just as you arrive outside your home city, which was a good way to not explain how your character is so good at climbing or shooting, I guess it’s just assumed he has been through some stuff in the previous months and got much better at the things that matter in this new world.

Tags: Game Review, Steam, Survival, Third-Person Shooter