Deadpool

Deadpool is an action game that was built in the Unreal Game Engine, developed by High Moon Studios, and released by Activision on June 25, 2013.  The game follows the story of one of Marvel's craziest characters, Deadpool.  For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Deadpool was originally a mercenary who signed up for a secret project called Weapon X.  As a result of the project, Deadpool was gifted with an accelerated healing ability, his body was incredibly scarred, and he was driven crazy.  That insanity can clearly be seen throughout the entirety of the game.

The Plot:

The plot for Deadpool actually starts off with Deadpool submitting a poorly written videogame proposal to High Moon Studios, which is quickly rejected.  After a discussion with the voices in his head and detonating some explosives that he sent over to High Moon, his game proposal is approved.  After the player takes some time to explore Deadpool's apartment, a script arrives and Deadpool immediately begins ignoring the script and takes the game in his own direction.  

Exploring Deadpool's Apartment

Deadpool doesn't like the script

The rest of the plot for the game is rather simplistic, yet commonplace for videogames based on comic book characters.  Deadpool is contracted to eliminate a stereotypical comic book villain and just as he is about to collect his money his target escapes.  While following his target, Deadpool finds Mr. Sinister who kills his target.  As a result, he joins up with the X-Men in a fight to stop Mr. Sinister's master plan.  Deadpool's fight takes the character through city sewers, the island of Genosha, and even ancient crypts in order to stop Mr. Sinister. 

Deadpool commandeers a chopper

 

The Gameplay:

Campaign and Level Design:

The campaign for Deadpool takes place over 8 levels, including Deadpool's apartment.  Each level is designed in a way such that the player can only take one path to get from objective to objective.  As a result of this linear design there is no affordance for exploration of the levels.  Throughout each level, the player will be put up against waves of enemies that have to be defeated for the player to progress in the level, although some enemies have been placed such that the player can sneak up and perform a stealth execution.  As for difficulty levels there are three difficulty levels, easy, normal, and hard, for the player to choose from.  Based on the design of the levels and the strength of the enemies, the player can play through the entire campaign on normal difficulty in about 10 hours.

I don't think this is what Deadpool had in mind.

Combat:

Combat for Deadpool seems very standard for action games.  The player has three types of weapons: Melee, Guns, and Gadgets.  When the game begins, the player only has access to Deadpool's swords and pistols.  As the player proceeds he/she will be able to purchase more weapons and gadgets, and subsequently upgrades for those weapons.  When in combat, the player can cycle through weapons by pressing the 'M' button.  The 'N' button cycles through the player's available guns and the 'J' button allows the player to switch gadgets.  When using melee weapons the player can use 'Q' for light attacks and 'E' for heavy attacks, as for guns, the player can fire with the LMB and can zoom in with the RMB.  Finally, pressing the 'G' button uses the selected gadget.  Another ability that Deadpool can use in combat is teleportation.  By using the 'B' button, the player can use teleportation to avoid being hit, however, he can only do it two times in a row.  The 'B' button is also used by the player to counter an incoming enemy attack.  The player will know when he/she can counter an enemy because the letter 'B' will appear over an enemies' head as it is about to attack.

Deadpool in the middle of some bloody combat.

Points and Upgrades:

Throughout the game, the player will acquire points that can be used to purchase upgrades for weapons and his/her character.  Points can be found in each level and can be obtained by defeating enemies.  The player can also receive bonus points after fighting has stopped.  All points and upgrades carry over throughout the game, so if the player chooses to replay a level to get more points, he/she will keep all points gained and the upgrades that have been unlocked from the previous play through.

The Upgrade Screen

The Graphics:

Since the game was developed in the Unreal Game Engine, High Moon had the capability of creating a graphically beautiful game.  The environment is very well done and every one of the characters have a high level of detail added to them.  Even with all of the detail added to the characters, they still maintain some cartoonish features, such as Deadpool's colorful costume, Wolverine staying hunched over, and even the well-endowed women of the game.  No matter how you look at it, High Moon did an excellent job when creating the graphics for this game.

Domino and Psylocke

Final Thoughts:

After looking at each and every piece of the game, I would have to say that Deadpool is an excellent summer game.  There is a great deal of wacky and high paced combat for the player to get involved in.  The story is very simplistic and common for a comic book game, although Deadpool's personality adds a little something extra to the story.  The engine allows for high quality graphics and the designers took full advantage of the engine's capabilities.  Although Deadpool could not stand up against games such as The Witcher 2 and Skyrim, this game is still a great game and wildly entertaining ride.

The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings

The Witcher 2 Assassin's of Kings was released on May 17, 2011 and was developed by the studio CD Projekt RED.  It is the second game in the Witcher series and will be followed up by the much anticipated The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which is expected to be released sometime in 2014.  The game was developed in the REDEngine by CD Projekt RED, allowing the developers to create nonlinear RPGs, instead of licensing out the Aurora game engine that was used in the development of its predecessor The Witcher.  As a result of the change in engines, CD Projekt RED was able to build the game without having to sacrifice gameplay, story, etc.

Geralt of Rivia

The Plot:

The plot of The Witcher 2 is a continuation of The Witcher that was released in 2007.  The player takes on the role of the famous Witcher Geralt of Rivia.  One month after the events of the first game, Geralt finds himself acting as the bodyguard for Foltest, king of Temeria as he attempts to put down a group of rebels that are holding two of Foltest's illegitimate children in a nearby castle town.  Once the assault on the castle is successful, Foltest is murdered by a large Witcher and Geralt is left to take the blame for the assassination.  From there, Geralt embarks on a mission to bring the true assassin to justice and clear his name.  Along the way, Geralt will meet other characters of either human, elven, or dwarven descent that will help Geralt during the  course of his journey.  In addition, other challenges such as giant monsters and curses will be presented to the witcher and must be resolved before Geralt can continue on his mission.

Geralt and King Foltest

Foltest murdered

The Setting:

In the world of The Witcher games, there are two primary groups of nations, the Northern Kingdoms and the Nilfgaardian Empire to the south of the kingdoms.  Over the years, Nilfgaard has attempted to conquer the Northern Kingdoms and prior to the events of the first game, the Northern Kingdoms had united to stop a major Nilfgaardian invasion.

The story of The Witcher 2 occurs across several locations in the Northern Kingdoms.  These locations involve a small trading post called Flotsam, a section of one nation called Upper Aedirn that is currently the site of a war between the kingdom of Kaedwen and the forces of Aedirn's crowned prince, and finally a town by the name of Loc Muinne.

The Player Makes The Story:

Throughout the course of the game the player will be placed in situations that will require Geralt to make a choice of how to resolve a situation, and at the end of each chapter Geralt will have to choose to either side with the humans or the elves.  Each time the player has to make a major decision, the story will branch off into a new direction and at the end of the game, the player's choices results in one of multiple endings.  Normally, games that have branching storylines don't actually result in unique multiple endings, however The Witcher 2 accomplishes this with incredible ease.  Finally each major decision made by the player has an effect in the story of The Witcher 2.  Most other games would only have the player's decisions affect the end of the game's story and the stories of future games.

The Gameplay:

Combat:

Combat in The Witcher 2 could be classified as a free flow style, where the player chains together his/her own combos using fast hits and heavy hits, although the game does not keep track of how many hits the player has landed.  To perform a fast strike the player uses the Left Mouse Button and to land a heavy strike the player uses the Right Mouse Button.  When fighting with swords there are two types of swords that Geralt can use.  The first sword is a steel sword which is meant to be used on human enemies.  The second sword is a silver sword that is meant to be used on most forms of monsters throughout the game.

 

Geralt fighting enemy humans

In addition to using swords, the witcher also has a large assortment of potions, traps, bombs, and projectile weapons that can be used to aid the witcher in battle.  The primary use for the potions are to increase various stats such as sword damage or vitality regeneration, while the traps, bombs, and projectiles can be used to inflict damage and status effects on enemies.  Each of these tools must be crafted either through alchemy or using a craftsman.

The final weapon in Geralt's arsenal is a group of five magic symbols that can be used to stun enemies, trap them in place, or protect Geralt from attacks.  Throughout the game the player will run across several occasions that will require the use of magic to continue in the story.  It is impossible to make it through the entire game with only using one style of combat.  This is interesting because other games will present the player with different ways to fight enemies, but the player can easily play through by using whichever combat style he/she chooses.

 

Inventory:

The inventory system for The Witcher 2 works in a similar way as the inventory in Skyrim.  Each item that the player can pick up has a set weight, such as 0.5; the player has a preset weight limit, about 250.  For every item that is picked up by the player, the weight of the object is added to the weight of the player's inventory.  For example if the player picks up an item that has a weight of 2 the weight of the player's inventory changes from 123/250 to 125/250.  If the weight of the player's inventory ever exceeds 250, then the player's movements will be unable to run and must drop items from his/her inventory if he/she wishes to run again.  Overall, this system helps to keep the player from keeping every item that is picked up over the course of the game and there are plenty of spaces for the player to either store excess items for a later period, or the player can sell whatever items he/she does not want.

The Inventory Screen

Leveling Up:

As the player progresses through the story, his/her character will receive experience points that will allow the player's level to increase.  When the player levels up, he/she will receive a skill point that can be spent in the Character Menu of the game.  In the Character Menu, there are three paths that the player can choose to evolve his/her character.  They could make Geralt a better swordsman, alchemist, or mage, however, for the first eight levels the player can only spend points on skills under the Witcher category, which is equivalent to basic training for Geralt.

The Character Menu

Once the player unlocks the other three paths, it would be wise to select one path to follow and spend all of your points on that skill tree.  This is primarily because of the level cap placed on the player.  After the player reaches level 35, the player character will stop receiving experience points from defeating enemies and completing quests.  As an example, whenever I play The Witcher 2 I tend to spend most of my points in the Swordsman skill tree.  As a result, my character becomes so powerful with a sword that no enemy, or group of enemies, can take more than a couple of swings from my swords before all enemies are defeated.

The Graphics:

The graphics for The Witcher 2 can easily be described with a few simple words: Amazing, Beautiful, Unreal, and Gorgeous.  Each and every character has incredible detail from head to toe, and the clothing on the characters actually seem like the kind of clothes that people would have worn in medieval times.  Each environment is well detailed as well, from cities and forests to war torn battle grounds.  Overall, the graphics of The Witcher 2 are better than most games that have been developed in the Unreal Game Engine.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, The Witcher 2 is a shining example of what makes an amazing game that will be remembered far into the future.  The use of an in house game engine has allowed the developers to do anything that they wanted when developing the game.  The branching storylines are well written and executed, all the systems such as combat, inventory, and character development flow perfectly together, and the graphics are unlike anything that I have ever seen in a videogame.  The first game was great and The Witcher 2: Assassins of  Kings was infinitely better.  That being said, you cannot call yourself a gamer unless you play this game.