inFamous: First Light
Though liking it a great deal the beginning of the year, inFamous: Second Son, grew cold for me as time pasted. It’s not a bad game but there was something more I wanted out of it that didn’t deliver for me. Thankfully inFamous: First Light gets all of the things inFamous 1 & 2 had and puts it in a standalone DLC for $15.
The game feels more focused since you’re only dealing with one power, neon. You know what you need and can get it right away instead of having to be in a situation where you’ll have to deal a power you don’t want to use due to it being closer. First Light also introduces challenge arenas which are basically Horde Mode from Gears of War; fight waves of enemies which is actually pretty fun when using Fetch neon mixed with melee powers. The story deals with Fetch and what she does to save her brother. It goes deeper into her psyche on how she deals with the issues she has when you eventually meet her in Second Son.
First Light is something that shouldn’t be pasted up. It highlights what makes the inFamous game so fun for a cheap asking price. Let it light up your life.
~~~~Nabeshin
Tales of Xillia 2
Tales of Xillia 2, much like its predecessor is a huge departure from all other iterations in the franchise. You play a new character, Ludger, a silent protagonist, who joins up with the old gang of Xillia characters and makes several choices through the story to completely personalize your journey.
As a huge departure from most JRPGs with its silent protagonist and severe choice system, Xillia 2 takes on a completely different tone than any of its other franchise members. Unfortunately, it hits huge pacing issues with a debt-system that has you paying large chunks of change in order to progress the story, and doing filler old-jobs in between in order to get the cash to do so.
Other than that, the excellent combat system returns with some well-incorporateded tweaks to make it even smoother and faster. It takes the best parts of the combat from Xillia and just makes it better.
~~~~Alex
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
You know whats always funny about Blizzard? They know how to make that involves clicking a button hundreds of time seem like the most fun you can have playing games. Diablo’s “kill, loot, repeat” recipe has worked or almost 20 years, and has never seen such polish or precision like its latest entry on the PS4.
For a game native to the PC (with a small console stint for the original game) the game plays like a dream with a controller. The UI is tailor made to make up for the lack of the ease and gracefulness mouse and keyboard can provide when skimming through menus. A generic dodge roll was added two the console versions, which might seem to hand a bit of utility to classes that lacked it in the original makes, but by in large, the classes are quite unique in their combat objectives. A rolling crusader doesn’t make him any less the classic meat shield, for instance.
Though I am well past 70 on my first character, there is still plenty I haven’t seen in this game. Much of it locked away behind the upper half of the game’s 12(!) difficulty levels. I wont stop till I shield bash a clicker directly in their heathen mouth (a special PS4 only map provides owners the chance to run through a Last of Us themed dungeon).
~~~~Jarrett
The Swapper
The Swapper is a puzzle game with you can make up to four clones of yourself to solve various of room to collect orbs to leave a haunted spaceship. Not since Portal have I been so involved with a puzzle-driven game like The Swapper. It gives you the right kind of challenge/reward that all games of this type need to succeed in engulfing a player. When I played it there were only two puzzles in the game that I got stumped on and had to look up feeling defeated, just to immediately say I’m an idiot for not figuring that out myself. All the others had me feeling so awesome that I found the solution to it despite how long it took to figure it out. If you enjoy making your brain work give The Swapper a go.
~~~~Nabeshin
