The Last Guardian Review

Alex the Kidd, Gamers of the Round Table

From the makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus comes a new adventure from the team at JAPAN Studio.  The Last Guardian, a title under development for the better part of a decade, arrives to the PS4 an entire console generation later than anticipated.  The question is whether this title lives up to its long anticipated release.

The Good

The Last Guardian is a beautiful game.  The details put into Trico, the large feathered beast, clearly show the dedication that went into this project.  The environment is massive in scale to both characters, and players can feel completely immersed in the world of the game.  Each set piece requires the characters to work together to overcome the obstacles placed before the player; taking direct control of the young boy, players will attempt to guide Trico to progress through the game.  

The bond between boy and beast develops through the player’s success, and communication improves between the two.  The challenge in many parts of this game comes from communicating with Trico, and getting him to perform the tasks that need to be done.  Players can feel a sense of accomplishment from achieving successful co-operation form the two characters.   

The Bad

The challenge in this game stems more from the ability to guide Trico then the actual level maps; what was made to feel like a creature that had its own attitude and intelligence can come off as a broken game mechanic at times.  This is especially true when you use all the methods to guide Trico, nothing happens, then you run around the area trying to figure something out, only to have Trico jump up onto the ledge you thought he couldn’t reach in the first place.  The controls to guide Trico aren’t user friendly, and can be difficult to understand exactly what it is you’re trying to get Trico to do as the camera tends to pan to Trico as you give commands.  

There isn’t much to do here except move from set piece to set piece, and while they are beautiful to experience, the game can feel less engaging at the beginning.  There is little plot or drive in the game beyond working with Trico, and discovering more about the area where he dwells.

Rating  

7/10 – This game isn’t for everyone, but it’s not a bad game.  The Last Guardian is a well put together experience, with a few setbacks regarding Trico’s response to command.  While epic in size, this isn’t the next big adventure game; Players need to try this game to decide for themselves if it’s a game they will love or not.  At the end of the day, Trico is a welcome member to the PlayStation family, and The Last Guardian an overall success.

Ubisoft brings us the sequel to the highly anticipated, over hyped, yet underwhelming Watch Dogs. Ubisoft released Watch Dogs 2 on November 15th. Announced back in June a week before E3, Ubisoft showed many videos on what the team did to improve the gameplay and the game mechanics in an attempt to earn the public’s trust back when it came to the Watch Dogs brand. Does Watch Dogs 2 become the Microsoft of the tech world, or does it remain a start-up company never becoming big enough to get out of the garage?
Story: Watch Dogs 2 takes place in San Francisco and its surrounding area. You play as Marcus Holloway a hacker originally from Oakland who resides in San Francisco. At the start of the game, you begin by going through a trial in order to join the Deadsec hacker group.  Deadsec’s goal is to become the biggest hacker group out there, by exposing the truth about big tech companies as they take the data you enter from your emails, to tracking you in your everyday life. Putting a stop to that will get you followers, but your big target is Blume a company run by a Steve Jobs wannabe “Dušan Nemec”, who turns out to be very crooked with having all these companies in his pocket from politics to human trafficking. So its “Dušan Nemec” and Blume you want to take out and give the people their freedom back.
Gameplay:  Watch Dogs 2 is a third person sandbox game. You explore the wonderful and very different area of San Francisco. Players get to experiences how techy San Francisco is in some of the missions, from hacking a camera to exploding a gas tank to kill one of your enemies. You have more gadgets in your arsenal rather than just a phone this time around; a remote RC jumper and a drone are at your disposal. The drone and jumper will help you during infiltration missions when you don’t want to be caught and go into combat. You can also sneak into places by taking out your enemies silently with a yo-yo, or go in guns’ blazing, which feels out of place in this game. I really feel Marcus should hack his way through everything. As you complete missions you gain followers, allowing for upgrades like vehicle hacking, combat skills, and RC and drone upgrades. This game is not just about the combat, it has some great puzzles to solve which at times can feel pressured because of a timer, but feels great when you accomplish them.
Graphics: The graphics in this game are well mixed; the character models and cars look fantastic, as does the scenery and main building structures. But it’s the NPC’s and environments that look like they belong on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Verdict: Watch Dogs 2 is a game that fixes almost all of the problems from the previous installment. It is a fun open world game, with great dynamic characters, great writing, and much better gameplay mechanics; it is definitely worth the pickup.
Watch Dogs 2: 8.5/10
Reviewed by ICE at Gamers of the Round Table.
Good job Ubisoft

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