Posts Tagged'respawn entertainment'
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order: Life After Order 66.
by David Klemke on December 31, 2019
Going into games with little to no expectations makes for some…surprising moments. Most of the time I know what kind of experience I'm in for but there are times when I haven't looked into the game beyond a cinematic trailer or two before I consider myself sold on playing it. Such is the case with Jedi: Fallen Order as I'm something of a Star Wars and Respawn Entertainment fan so I figured it was a done deal that I'd enjoy whatever happened when the two were combined. Imagine my surprise when I find myself in the middle of a Star Wars soulslike experience, far from the traditional RPG or third person shooter style games that this IP has been known for. Coming into this game somewhat late in the piece means I missed most of the extreme jank that plagued early reviews but still, as an overall experience, I think Fallen Order could do with some more work in a few key areas.
Five years after the execution of Order 66 and the beginning of the Great Jedi Purge, former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis is in hiding from the newly risen Galactic Empire. On the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars. After he uses the force to save one of his friends from certain doom he becomes a target for the Inquisitors, an elite squadron of force users trained by Darth Vader himself. Luckily Cal is able to escape with the help of a former Jedi Knight named Cere Junda and her partner pilot Greez Dritus. Cere then tells you of her plan to rebuild the Jedi order using a holocron that contains the names of numerous force sensitive children scattered throughout the universe.
Fallen Order's visuals excel in the wide open spaces that it puts you in, the wide vistas in the background providing some great screenshot bait. Up close however it's clear that the visuals have been tuned a little bit more towards the performance end, wanting to ensure that the framerate remains more consistent during heavy action sequences. Part of that could also be due to my older rig not being capable of rendering more detail as I know that the PlayStation 4 version has a "performance" graphics setting which is recommended for non-pro users which looks quite similar to the results I'm seeing here. Even with all of that taken into consideration Fallen Order is still a fine looking game.
Fallen Order doesn't make too many changes to the souslike core game loop, staying pretty true to the original formula. You have bonfires (meditation points), estus flask (stims), maps that twist and turn on themselves to reveal shortcuts that will make repeated trips through them quicker and a progression system that punishes death in the usual way. Fallen Order is a little more generous with its various mechanics however, making it one of the more tame soulslike experiences I've played to date. The only real changes to the formula are the much more contained levels with each world being its own distinct area to explore and the combat tending towards Bloodborne a little more than a traditional souls game. If you've been shying away from this genre for a while now I'd say that Fallen Order would be a good place to start, especially if you're a fan of the IP it comes from.
Following the Bloodborne style for combat means that the game's pace is a lot faster than your traditional souls game, being a little more hack 'n' slash rather than a strategic stamina management battle. Parrying is very much the name of the game here as you'll have a much easier time if you're able to hit the required timings rather than trying to dodge your way through everything. That's partly due to the parry timing being somewhat generous and the dodging feeling a little buggy as it rarely works as you'd expect it to. Indeed the whole integration of the physics engine with the combat mechanics doesn't feel 100%, even after the patches that took out the most egregious errors that plagued the game's release.
That, coupled with the game's rather basic approach to increasing the challenge for you (mostly by just throwing more enemies at you and/or the time between save points) makes for a combat experience that's a little below par. To be sure there's some great fights in there and I quite enjoyed a lot of the boss battles as they really did capture that same feeling I got when facing down bosses in other souls games. However much of the later challenge was really just frustration, forcing me to replay through sections over and over again just because I encountered something that I couldn't have planned for. There was a lot of scope for Respawn to make every world have its own unique set of challenges with different enemies and mechanics but, in the end, they opted for most of them to be basically the same with only slight variations in the trash mobs. That could have been done a lot better.
Progression comes pretty steadily as you gain XP by defeating enemies, finding collectibles and unlocking secrets. Early on you're likely going to unlock all of the skills available before you get the next tier unlocked and, even towards the end of the game, you're likely going to be wondering what you really want to spend your points on. For the most part though the skills and upgrades are minor improvements and there's no one build that's going to be a lot better than others. To be sure there's a few skills which will likely make some encounters a little easier than others but you won't be able to say, build around a particular boss in order to cheese them.
Exploration feels somewhat rewarding however looking for all the crates isn't something you're going to need to do. Pretty much all the items contained in them are just cosmetics with no impact to your character's stats at all. There are upgrades to your health and force scattered around the place but they barely feel worth seeking out as the talent tree does a good enough job of bolstering those up for you.
Whilst I never had any issues with the game freezing or crashing there was still a good helping of physics and hitbox related issues during my playthrough. I couldn't tell you how many times I jumped at a rope, tried to wall run or jump onto a small rail only to have Cal fall to his death. That only got more frustrating during the more challenging platforming sections as I'd often fail at the last point, requiring me to replay the whole section again. This physics and hitbox jankiness pervades throughout all of the game's various elements making for a rather annoying and inconsistent experience at times. It's certainly no where near as bad now as some of the early videos show but there's still a lot of room for improvement here.
Fallen Order's story goes through peaks and troughs; sometimes reeling you in with some heartfelt moments whilst at others falling utterly flat. Usually this comes down to bad pacing however Fallen Order does manage to get that right, delivering story items at a consistent rate to keep you engaged enough. I think it partly comes down to a lot of false crescendos as the story appears to be leading to a pivotal point only to shoot off in a completely arbitrary direction, making you feel like you really haven't gotten as far as you think. The one thing I will credit them for is not relying heavily on main Star Wars characters to drive everything, a sin many Star Wars games commit all too frequently.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a competent soulslike experience that suffers from some fundamental technical issues that make it a good, but not great experience. There are glimmers of excellence all over the place, from the expansive visual set pieces to the steady pace of progression and some key story moments that really hit home. But those are buried under the janky physics and hitbox issues that pervade the rest of the experience making things like combat, exploration and solving puzzles a frustrating experience. This is something that will, hopefully, get better over time but as it stands today, even after a couple patches, Jedi: Fallen Order is a game that's probably best picked up when it's on sale a few months from now.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One right now for $89.95. Game was played on the PC with a total of 17 hours play time and 46% of the achievements unlocked.
ea, exploration, open world, pc, playstation 4, respawn entertainment, soulslike, star wars, third person, xbox one
Apex Legends: Battle Royale Done Right.
by David Klemke on March 17, 2019
You never seen a review for a battle royale game here and that's with good reason: I'm not a fan of them at all. I played PUBG for a few hours with a mate of mine, along with a couple hours solo to see what it was like, and honestly I just didn't enjoy it. I like my shooters dumb and fast; the antithesis of what battle royale games typically are. When Apex Legends was announced I figured it was going to be more of the same and figured I'd leave it for more greener gaming pastures. That changed however when all of my friends started playing it relentlessly, giving me plenty of opportunity to play with a crew. Since then I've come to appreciate Respawn's take on the battle royale genre, vastly improving on the formula by including numerous quality of life improvements that take nearly all the pain out of playing games like these.
Apex Legends is set in the same universe as the Titanfall series and takes a lot of design cues from its spiritual predecessors. All the weapons in the game are come directly from Titanfall, although they're really only copies in name and look only. There's really no plot to speak of, not that you'd be coming here looking for one, and the opening cinematic just serves to set up the characters that you get to choose from. As a big fan of the Titanfall series I can tell you that I was somewhat disappointed to hear that Respawn was working on this rather than another Titanfall game but after sinking a good amount of time into the game I think I can forgive them…for now.
Like all of Respawn's games Apex Legends comes to us via the Source engine, albeit with a completely different kind of aesthetic to that of their previous titles. Instead of the more realistic visuals that the Titanfall series was known for Apex Legends goes for a slightly stylized look with bright colours, reminiscent of other slightly cartoony games like Team Fortress 2. That being said the world they've crafted is brimming with detail, enough that in my time with it I've yet to fully explore the single map that you're given to play. Performance is still quite good even on my now 4 year old rig, something which I'm sure has helped broaden its appeal tremendously. That's likely Respawn's reason for keeping with their modded Source engine for so long as it's far more lightweight than its competitors. Apex Legends might not do anything particularly novel visually but it certainly pulls all its varying visual elements together nicely.
The core of Apex Legends game play is the same as any battle royale: a number of players drop into a large map which constantly shrinks and the last one standing takes the crown. Whilst the addition of classes is certainly one differentiator it feels like the most minor compared to the rest of the improvements they've made to the formula. The inventory system has been streamlined to perfection, allowing you to loot with reckless abandon and know that you'll always be upgrading your gear. The integrated ping system is an absolute godsend for both pub groups and organised teams alike, enabling rapid communication without the need for voice chat. The pace of the game has also been ramped up significantly, both in terms of how long matches take to complete as well as how long it takes to start one. Gone are the long downtimes between matches, replaced with a rapid fire matchmaking system that ensures you'll never go more than a couple minutes without being in a fight. Instead of simply being a "battle royale game with X" Apex Legends feels like the new bar for what all games from this genre should be.
Whilst Apex Legends comes from the same developers who gave us Titanfall the combat is nothing like it at all. The gunplay is far more in-depth with numerous options that are sure to suit any player's preferred style. Of course whether or not you can find your preferred kit is all up to RNJesus, so you're forced to get good with a number of weapons so you always have something you can rely on. After a short stint trying my hand at sniping I've settled on a more medium range build typically consisting of a SMG (a prowler with select fire being my favourite) with either a peacekeeper or EVA-8 as my backup. This does mean of course I'm usually the first one in and the first to die but that's pretty much my playstyle for all shooters anyway. Your mileage will vary though and the only way to figure it out is by playing.
The character classes mean a lot less than they do in other games, mostly just giving you some additional things to play with rather than actually making a huge difference to how the game plays out. I started out playing as Gibraltar, thinking that the gun shield would give me an edge in gunfights. That advantage was quickly outweighed by the fact that the shield is a massive giveaway for any enemies who might be looking for you and his other abilities didn't really feel like they were making much of an impact to how my games were going. So I switched to Bloodhound which provided a lot more utility overall, even if the impact of their abilities still feels pretty minor overall. Realistically I think this is probably the only way you could do characters and still feel like its balanced as anything that really changed the gunplay dynamics would make it feel quite unfair. That's why you don't see any characters that have abilities that directly buff gun damage, reduce reload times or anything else of the sort. More the abilities are about positioning, intel and forcing your opponents to make bad decisions that you can take advantage of, adding an intriguing layer of strategy rather than simply finding the best place to camp.
The ping system goes a long way to making the pub experience much better, facilitating a higher level of communication than you'd typically find in any multiplayer game.It helps that it's given such a prominent position during the tutorial, ensuring that everyone knows how at least the basics of it works. Of course whilst the pub experience is far better than any other battle royale game I've played it's still a pale shadow compared to the experience of playing with a proper squad, especially if you're like me and love dropping straight into the hottest zones and getting your fight on immediately. Indeed that's probably why I've enjoyed Apex Legends so much more than other battle royale games; there's a steady stream of mates to play with.
The microtransaction system doesn't feel particularly in your face, only really showing up during the pre-match screens where you see your team and the champion's player cards. Even with the legendary drop of crafting materials above I still don't have enough to craft a legendary skin (that'd take 2 of the above drops) and there's unfortunately no way to melt down other drops you've gotten to get more materials to use. This is all deliberate of course, forcing you to either play more or to shell out some real money to get the fancy cosmetics you're lusting after. I'm quite fine with this approach honestly as you're more likely to pay to lose with these kinds of things, what with all the sparkly skins that people seem to be rocking. We'll see how long it takes me to crack before I pay a couple bucks to get a skin as I think it took me a couple hundred hours in DOTA 2 before I bought my first there.
Apex Legend's release hasn't been without its issues, many of which I've thankfully not experienced but have affected those I've played with. Crashes are commonplace, especially for those rocking the latest graphics cards from NVIDIA, which can often leave you a man down right at the start of a match. The servers will also turn the tick rate right down for seemingly no reason at all, making everyone move in slow motion before it starts to clear up. There's also some weird loading issues with the pre-match lobby, sometimes dropping people before they get a chance to choose a character. Respawn is aware of all the issues and is working towards fixing them although they have said that they're probably not going to bother putting in a reconnection feature due to their concerns around abuse. That's somewhat disappointing so we can only hope that the work they do to increase stability makes the need for a reconnection solution moot.
Apex Legends is likely to down as the surprise hit of 2019, coming out of nowhere to dominate the charts with its fresh take on a genre that had started to grow stale. Its improvements come in the form of making the genre more approachable to a wider audience, reducing complexity without taking away from the depth of the gameplay. When I first saw it I didn't think it would have anything to offer me but here I am, some 34 hours deep in it with no signs of stopping playing anytime soon. Those that were looking to unseat Fortnite as the game of choice now have a new contender they have to beat and a bar that's been set even higher again.
Rating: 9.25/10
Apex Legends is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 right now for free. Game was played on the PC with 34 hours of total play time and 42% of the achievements unlocked.
battle royale, character, ea, fps, pc, playstation 4, respawn entertainment, xbox one
Titanfall: We Thank You For Your Service, Pilot.
The origin story of Respawn Entertainment is one that's cemented in many gamer's minds. Not long after Infinity Ward released Modern Warfare 2 tensions between some of the executive team and Activision began to escalate. This eventually led to Jason West and Vince Zampella being fired from Infinity Ward for "breaches of contract and insubordination", a line not many in the industry believed. However not long after that the former employees announced that they were starting a new games company (with blackjack and hookers, obviously) called Respawn entertainment. It didn't take long for many current Infinity Ward employees to follow them but after that they went dark. Last year Respawn announced their first title would be called Titanfall, a sci-fi FPS that would be an Xbox exclusive. Thankfully that, and a few other things, have changed since then and Titanfall has shaped up to be a great first title, even if can't hide its Call of Duty roots.
It's the distant future and mankind has succeeded in building warp technology, opening up the universe for our exploitation. Humans have expanded far and wide however with distance became a growing disconnect and resentment began brewing between the core worlds and those that live on the frontier. Over time this has escalated into a full scale war between the core world's military force, The IMC, and the frontier's Resistance. Neither side has any intentions of backing down and battles continually rage on multiple planets, devastating their colonies and turning paradises into giant fuel depots and factories dedicated to the war effort. You're a pilot, one of the elite 2% who make it through the notoriously fatal training programs, and it's up to you to fight for your cause.
For a game that's based on a modified version of the Source engine (the same one that powered Half Life 2 all those years ago) Titanfall is surprisingly pretty with all the eye candy I had come to expect from games like Crysis or Far Cry. The initial settings that Titanfall selected for my system had me a little worried that it'd run like a dog once I started tweaking it but, surprisingly, it runs incredibly well with only a few things like shadow detail turned down. Still, as you can see in the screenshot below, those tweaks don't appear to have a lot of impact on the overall visual quality something Respawn are to be commended for. You won't be spending much time looking at the scenery however as Titanfall is designed to throw you head first into the action and it doesn't let up until the round is finished.
Typically I'd go over most things from the view of the single player campaign first before talking about the multiplayer experience but Titanfall takes the interesting route of blending in single player elements into multiplayer matches to facilitate the story. It actually works out really well as a gentle way to introduce you to how Titanfall plays as you'll likely be matched up against other people just starting out with it, ensuring that you're not stomped by max level players who've already amassed hundreds of hours. The game's story is also passable however since you're always in the middle of the action when critical things are occurring it's kind of hard to pay attention to it which is probably the only major letdown of the multiplayer campaign experience.
Titanfall has 2 distinct modes of gameplay, each of which has its own unique tech tree for you to customize to fit your playstyle. The first is a traditional style FPS experience with the added benefit of lots of mobility, including parkour style wall running and double jumping, and an array of weapons that are distinctly different to anything you'll find in similar deathmatch style games. The second one happens when you call in your Titan from the sky, giving you a giant battlesuit with high powered weapons to take on both players and other Titans alike. How you customize your loadout, both for Titan and Pilot play, will determine how effective you are in certain situations and whilst there's no one build to rule them all there's definitely going to be one that suits you perfectly.
At first glance you'd figure that everything would revolve around Titan based combat because, come on, they're giant mechs. Whilst this is partly true you're given a heck of a lot of tools to deal with Titans as a Pilot. This isn't to say that Titans are your biggest threat on the field however as you'll likely spend quite a lot of time facing down with other pilots. Thus the larger strategic decision you'll have to make when customizing your Pilot load out will be: do I want to be anti-Titan or anti-Pilot? The same choice applies to your Titan load out as well and will determine when you're most effective in the game. Since you've got multiple loadouts to choose from this usually isn't too much of an issue as you can build for multiple situations but each of them will need to be geared towards either one of those objectives otherwise you'll likely find yourself ineffectual at both.
For me I chose to go for a primarily anti-Titan build for both my Titan and Pilot. I kind of fell into it as I kept tweaking my build throughout the campaign missions, trying out things that were used against me that I felt were pretty effective. The main exception to this is the smart pistol which is like having a sanctioned aimbot and is very handy in showing you where enemy Pilots are hiding. Of course its stopping power is somewhat limited, given its aimbot nature, but if you're able to dance around someone long enough you're guaranteed a kill. Walking around a corner into someone else will likely see you dead first, however.
However once I got past level 20 or so (which doesn't take long to do, I think I got there in about 3~4 hours) my build remained largely static. Whilst I did encounter some other builds that were particularly effective at one thing or another they all seemed to be pretty limited outside of that. Indeed the best one I came across, the light Titan with the Arc Canon, wouldn't last long after I landed a couple hits on it. Couple that with the Vortex Shield nullifying their fully charged shots most of the time and it made it hard for me to want to try anything different, lest I start getting owned. This is in stark contrast to the way I play Call of Duty where I'll typically have 4 completely different builds loaded up just for variety's sake, all of which I feel are viable. Maybe my build just fits into the way I play best but, honestly, whilst the initial customization options seem large they pale in comparison to similar games in this genre.
This, I think, is probably the one thing that could be Titanfall's… downfall. There's just not enough variety in the game to keep you going past a certain point as you'll unlock most things relatively quickly and will tend towards things that work. There's a whole mess of things in the game that just aren't worth using, shrinking the pool of viable builds considerably. Whilst 15 maps sound like a lot you'll get familiar with them quickly and apart from attrition all of the game modes are the same kinds of modes you've seen dozens of times previously. Thus in order to keep Titanfall new and engaging Respawn needs to keep releasing content, something which they've planned to do but I have no idea how well it will work should it not come out soon.
Titanfall is a gorgeous, action packed game that delivers a great multiplayer experience reminiscent of the Call of Duty series but with an identity that's uniquely its own. The blended single/multiplayer campaign works well, functioning as an extended tutorial that ensures you know what you're getting into before diving into the multiplayer in earnest. It's let down a bit by the lack of variety which is exacerbated by the fast levelling process, which could affect Titanfall's longevity for some. All that being said it is an incredible amount of fun to play and is a solid first title from Respawn entertainment.
Titanfall is right now on PC and XboxOne for $49.99 and $99.95 respectively with a Xbox360 release due in the near future. Total play time was approximately 7 hours, reaching level 31.
fps, mechs, multiplayer, pc, respawn entertainment, xbox360, xboxone