Endgame Spoiler Free Review

After years of build up and hype, Avengers Endgame has finally arrived, bringing a close to the Infinity Gauntlet era of the MCU. I didn't get a prescreening and I didn't even get to see it opening night, but I still rushed to the film just a day after release. After all, I didn't want to come across any spoilers on the internet. With that said, I am going to keep this review minimal, as I really don't want to spoil anything.

Avengers Endgame was truly fantastic.

I guess you might want some more detail than that. Endgame is a film that eliminates some of the biggest issues with the MCU. Characters never feel shallow, the villain feels like a true threat, and battles are actually believable (though fantastical). Every second of the film is unexpected but also not so surprising that I felt thrown off. I spent all 3 hours on the edge of my seat, prepared for the best and the worst and always pleased with the outcome. 

Endgame is surely a movie made for the fans. The whole thing is fan-service, not like explicit content to hook guys in their mom's basements, but actual moments that only fans would understand and would truly love. Emotions I didn't expect to feel filled my time in the theater, and simply put I loved it.

There were a few things that bugged me about the movie, but that will be included in the upcoming Spoiler Review. For now all you need to know is that Endgame is unique and wonderful and brings together the 11 years of the MCU perfectly.

Endgame Update

Quick Update: A spoiler free review of Avenger's Endgame will be going up tonight. Soon after a spoiler filled review will be posted. There will be a clear difference between the two. If you do not want spoilers then DO NOT read our spoiler review, but also please don't  be offended by us posting it. Thanks!

Age of Empires: Series in Review

(Age of Empires 1 art from microsoft.com)

Ah Age of Empires, a game series that has always managed to take me back to the good old days. Back to the days of warlords struggling for power and of priests being the most important people on the battlefield. A time when Romans were expanding their empire and Greeks were putting faces on boats. A time when I could slaughter a small village while my mom called me for dinner. Honestly, I grew up on these games and they even led to my love of history! Recently I downloaded my old copies of Age of Empires 1 and 3 onto my new computer (which actually has a disk drive!) and then bought AOE 2 on Steam. As I have played each game I've really gotten the chance to compare and contrast them and let me tell you, each game can easily represent an age in gaming. Their campaigns, their styles and gameplay focuses all reflect different aspects of Real Time Strategy games.

Starting off, Age of Empires 1 kicked off this franchise with kind of a bang. The game became a near-instant classic. Having released in late 1997, it sold about four million copies (shared by the initial release and the updated Rise of Rome version) by the year 2000. Back then it was generally well received, although it gained some criticism for having clunky and confusing controls. I can certainly agree with that. While Age of Empires 1 is very fun, I often struggle with units being unable to do what I command them to. This can prove annoying when trying to explore a massive map or avoid enemy detection and attacks. Also the AI's ability to micromanage things far beyond any human made versus AI skirmishes extremely difficult, even in ideal conditions. That said, Age of Empires shines in the wide array of playable nations to play as, upgrades to unlock, places to explore, and tactics to take advantage of. Player choice truly is the name of the game, and in that department it rises above nearly all others. The campaign is also interesting, as the scenarios are unique and the history is fascinating. However, the controls are very very bad and often cause issues with path finding or micromanaging combat. That said, the biggest issue I face is difficulty scaling. Even the tutorial set to easy is completely merciless, and one level opens with you having a small village and a few villagers and soldiers while the enemy being fully established with a navy, army, and vast resources. These flaws make the game feel unplayable at times. Groundbreaking does not always mean good, but it can mean better things are to come.

And come those better things did. Age of Empires 2 smashed its way into the gaming world in late 1999. Graphically superior, faster, bigger, more advanced in every way. This game was GREAT, simple as that. With a huge list of races to choose from, massive maps, more varied combat, and more, Age of Empires 2 became hugely popular. Moving the timeline into the Dark Ages, Ensemble simplified upgrade systems while also making it both more expansive and realistic, which is pretty impressive. All these things culminated to it receiving near absolute critical acclaim. I'm not going to sit and quote hundreds of game critics, but essentially they found every facet of the game to be great, from the sound design and tracking systems to the story lines and historical realism. Aside from critics though, the game exploded in the eyes of gamers with 2 million copies sold in just 2 months. Yeah... 2 months. And it kept going from there, receiving popularity across the globe. Playing it myself, I really love this game. I have sunk (this is embarrassing) over 400 hour into it in my life. I love all the different play styles with the races and the ever changing maps and scenarios. Every match feels completely different from the last, with a different map and different races on the map against you. I love how much each game can be customized to be exactly what I want to play every time I sit down. All in all, Age of Empires 2 is an absolute triumph of an RTS game and in my opinion is the best game in the genre.

Now, Age of Empires 3... oh man where do I start. The thing is, I don't want to sit here and tell you the game is awful, cause it's not. The issue is this: sequels should take what was good about the previous games and then add something new and exciting. AOE 3 adds so much that is new and exciting, but threw away so much that was great from AOE 1 & 2. I can't say that I dislike the game because it really is fun to play, but it lacks that feeling of massive war that the previous games--specifically 2--capitalized on. The graphics are on a whole different plane than the other games. Cannon balls bounce and knock over trees, buildings get blow to pieces, and combat looks like a true struggle. On the other hand, maps are tiny and repetitive, army sizes are highly limited, and there is practically no space to build up an empire. The reason there is no space is because the tiny maps are covered in all sorts of things like treasures, which are actually a cool new feature made a nuisance by the limited space. Hero units actually have special abilities making them a powerful force on the battlefield. You have a home city back in Europe which levels up to grant bonuses for your troops in the Americas, adding a whole new dynamic and really makes sense for the time period. Across the maps you can find Native American settlements which you can build trade posts to ally with the native people. Trade posts can also be built along preexisting trade routes to periodically grant resources or experience. So many very cool new features, but all of these get overshadowed by serious issues. In previous games, you can control how your units behave when you aren't directly commanding them. This included things like keeping them from hunting down the random guy who walks by them or patrolling an area. Instead, in 3 you have no such control: units will naturally attack and hunt down anything in their sight unless you are directly watching them at every moment. You also can't even start creating a military until the second age. Resources are scarce and are collected very slowly, making the game slow and uneventful. I have already gone over how the new features are destroyed by the small maps, but did I did not mention how that effects a navy. You have full access to naval forces, just as in every other game, but now the ocean is just a small piece of the map. There are no island-based scenarios or large spaces for water battles, making the very cool ship battle animations practically useless. The worst thing, though, is the highly limited number of troops you can control at once. Only small armies can be commanded, making combat no longer feel as epic as it once did. It seems they went for a more Starcraft style, small battle set up rather than the massive war themes typical of Age of Empires. All in all, Age of Empires 3 is fun, but it so obviously could have been so much better, hence why I tend to just go back to AOE 2.

Microsoft Games seems to recognize that Age of Empires was at its best during the second games, after all, DLC has been released for that game regularly up until 2015. With that said, Age of Empires 4 was announced a couple years ago and while I'm cautious of it being ruined al la Command and Conquer, I can see the companies focus on AOE 2 as a good sign for the future of the series.  

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It Should Be A Bigger Deal

It's finally here! I've got to say, Sekiro does not disappoint. Overall this should be very short review because there's not a whole lot to talk about. Sekiro is an absolutely amazing game. It looks great, feels great, and that's because it is great. The amount of detail is remarkable. Level design, graphics, even the music is well done. On top of that I feel like I'm following the story for once, and it's very enjoyable to see characters progress, including Wolf. The game itself is huge with versatile enemies and several ways to go about killing them. Personally I'm someone who tends not to use the prosthetic tools and I stealth kill just about every enemy. It's not that the prosthetic tools aren't good, it's just that I tend to shy away from items and things that have "limited" uses, even though you find plenty of spirit emblems. Because of this I'm capped with 999 spirit emblems in storage.

Combat is a lot of fun, but hard to get a handle on. I've been playing now for 35 hours and I still struggle with the "danger" prompts. I like though that the way to avoid an attack is to actually do something so you aren't in the way of the attack. If the enemy strikes low, jump. If they thrust, dodge to the side (or use the mikiri counter ability if you have it). Unlike Dark Souls where you roll with "invincibility frames", parts of the dodge where you are cannot be hit, Sekiro actually has you get out of the way of being hit. That or you can block or deflect attacks.

The only problem I have with the game is that when I'm in a fight and am using a lot of buttons, blocking is not one of Sekiro's priorities. What I mean is that if I'm moving and I hold the button to block, I'll keep moving instead. I want to hold the block button and have it override all other commands. Instead I have to make sure I'm not trying to do anything else otherwise he won't do it and I start getting torn apart. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

I don't want to say a ton about the game, I'd rather that you get it and enjoy it for yourself. I will say that I love it though. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does not disappoint. It does not feel like Dark Souls but I enjoy it just as much. I 100% recommend getting it and playing it too much, cause that's what I've been doing.

Dawn of War: I'm Nostalgically Biased

About a month ago, I noticed that one of the Dawn of War games I had on my Steam wish list was on sale. Turns out they were all something like 75% off, so I took the liberty of purchasing nine different Warhammer 40,000 games. I grew up playing Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, so that one in particular is somewhat nostalgic for me. Right now I want to write a brief review of the first Dawn of War game, which technically encompasses four different games: Warhammer 40,00 Dawn of War, Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, and Soulstorm.

All four of them are RTS (Real Time Strategy) games, released from 2004-2008. In the campaign of the first game, you play as the Space Marines, encountering Imperial Guard, Orcs, Chaos Space Marines, and Eldar. Winter Assault branches out and lets you play as all four of the encountered factions but not the Space Marines. Winter Assault also adds the Necrons as an enemy towards the end of the campaign. Dark Crusade and Soulstorm’s campaigns are a “conquer the world” scenario, like Rise of Nations or even Star War’s Battlefront II. Dark Crusade allows you to be any of the aforementioned races and adds the Tau Empire to the mix. Lastly, Soulstorm builds off of Dark Crusade and adds the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Elder for a grand total of 9 playable races. I should mention that this applies specifically when you have all of the games. From what I understand, playable races are limited if you only have one specific game in the group.

           Now, as far as gameplay goes, the graphics are decent enough for me. I wouldn’t say it looks good, but there’s certainly detail in unit designs and they're all unique enough that I don't get confused. For a game that started it’s release 15 years ago, it holds up for me. Troop composition is well done, there are effective counters, lots of options, and overall solid balance. I didn’t feel like there was so much as to overwhelm me, but enough that I wasn’t bored making a bunch of the same units over and over. The biggest problem I have with the game is how easily units get stuck on each other. I've never seen it be much of a problem in other RTS games but in Dawn of War (I say Dawn of War now to mean all four games) units jam up like nobody’s business. In reality they’re actually all up in each other’s business. It’s like one big hockey fight or like the ball just snapped in football, except there’s no opposing team: it’s just a bunch of my own guys bunching up. In particular it gets really bad whenever you have infantry mixed in with vehicles. I play now with vehicles as one army, and infantry as a separate army, and I try not to have them get too close to one another. But too many vehicles will also get stuck on one another as well. The problem is you have to spread out your guys, but that’s a terrible idea tactically telling your troops to charge the enemy base in small groups.

           That aside, perhaps my favorite thing about these games is the story. The world of Warhammer 40,000 is awesome and I absolutely love it. Each faction of units is unique and different from one another, and in general I love the dialogue of the units. Space Marines are seriously the coolest and I love them just like everyone else. All the main characters are impressively done and have my respect. In my opinion Dark Crusade in particular has the coolest bunch of commanders who each represent their factions well. It would have to be my favorite game to play. I love the interactions between the different commanders when you invade an enemy stronghold. That was probably my biggest letdown playing Soulstorm. I’ve only played it once but the dialogue seems disjointed. In Dark Crusade, commanders have different conversations entirely depending on what race you are playing as. Soulstorm lacks that. The other advantage Dark Crusade has over Soulstorm is that your base stays after you conquer a territory. In Soulstorm, whatever you built is wiped, and when you have to defend from an enemy attack you start with nothing, so you have put garrisons on territories and whatever effort you put in on a previous territory is lost.

           All in all, I think that Dawn of War is enjoyable, but more because I love the story and played it as a kid than anything else. I like to play it on the easiest difficulty and just blow through it, much like I play Fable, Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy, and occasionally Halo. I like to play it in a breezy manner, feeling stupidly powerful and enjoying the story more than anything else. If you’ve never played, I’d recommend starting with Dark Crusade to see how you like it. Maybe wait till there’s a sale and get it for three or four dollars like I did.

Apex Legends Takes the Gaming World by a Perfect Storm

Just over a month ago EA and Respawn Entertainment released the newest Battle Royale game, and it's massive success is all thanks to Fortnite...

About a year ago some information on a "Titanfall battle royale" game was leaked. According to Gamespot.com "No one noticed" when the game map leaked back then, and many passed it off as "fake." However, the map wasn't fake, and EA opened February 2019, with something that would absolutely shake the gaming world.

Apex Legends has undoubtedly taken the gaming world by storm, and if you are reading this you've likely already hear of it, or even played it. Capitalizing on many tropes in modern gaming, Respawn managed to make the perfect mix of Hero abilities, Battle Royale chaos, and that lovely Titanfall styling. The game hailed as the "Fortnite Killer" (but we know Pewdiepie really killed it) may just be living up to that title. In just one month Apex's player count broke the 50 Million mark, a number Fortnite didn't reach until after 4 months of being on the market. Heck, after 3 days Apex legends had matched Fortnite's week 2 player count. Point is, this game is off the rails popular. 

There are some interesting factors contributing to this popularity level. First off, it should be noted that Fortnite still has over 200 MILLION people registered to play, and is certainly not dead yet. But as to why Respawn's new game is catching up so quickly, I think it can be directly attributed to Fortnite, among a few other things. Consider this: do you remember PUBG being crazy popular? No? That's probably because, while Player Unknown's Battlegrounds introduced the item collection and shrinking death ring components now known everywhere, it was Fortnite that made those components so widely known. I mean, honestly, according to SteamCharts, PUBG peaked at 3 million players at once. Epic Games said Fortnite's concurrent peak was just 2 days before the release of Apex on February 2nd, during an event where DJ "Marshmello" put on a live concert in the game... somehow. That event saw, get this, 10.7 MILLION concurrent players. So it's obvious that Fortnite popularized Battle Royale as we now know it, but it didn't just use those basic mechanics from PUBG: Fortnite took Battle Royale from something hyper serious and transformed it into a fun, brightly colored party with guns. Fun skins and unique dances/animations combined with a cartoon-like art style made Fortnite the perfect game for all ages. 

So with Fortnite being so popular and dominating the Youtube trending page, as well as all gaming news sources, it's no wonder everyone's eyes opened a little wider when rumors of a Titanfall Battle Royale began to surface. Apex Legends' success can be called the perfect storm of hype and a need for change. Everyone loves Battle Royale, it's the most popular genre of game out there right now, but with Fortnite being the only player in the game people have been starting to burn out on Fortnite coverage. Beyond that, people had fresh in their minds just how good Titanfall 2 was and were eagerly looking forward to Respawn Entertainment announcing Titanfall 3. So when Respawn suddenly dropped Apex Legends for free, gamers were beyond ready to jump into it. 

Normally hype born from boredom wanes very quickly. Luckily, Apex has some tricks up its sleeve. The first and most obvious change is the introduction of Heroes or Legends. Each team member chooses a different Legend when starting the game. These Legends each have different abilities, game dialogue, and animation to customize and play with. It brings an aspect of popular MOBAs to the Battle Royale genre. The next thing they did was enhance the nervous sensations and the intensity of gun-play by making the camera first person. My biggest issue with PUBG and Fortnite was that, in 3rd person, I couldn't shoot as accurately as I wanted to. The perspective change fixed that, and also added to the intensity of gunfights and the nervousness you feel running around, unable to just move the camera freely or naturally see slightly behind you. First person also helped give it a grittier feel while keeping the fun vibes of the animation. As a result Apex Legends eliminated a Fortnite problem, the childish vibe which alienated adult fans and grew an army of young children within the game. To add to that, they included executions which also have unlockable animations based on character, and the made sure to give the Legends very unique personalities. Top that off with the familiar weapons and controls of Titanfall and Apex Legends has quickly become a bona fide hit.

Apex Legends is playable for free on all major platforms and can be found for PC here: https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends

Kingdom Hearts 3: Is it Worth the Hype?

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I love the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I have played the games since childhood and they quickly became a staple in my free time. I've easily sunk 300 hours into Kingdom Hearts 2 over the past 13 years, and nearly as much in the first game. Beyond that, I feel like I understand the series. It's a notoriously convoluted plot which I believe I have some semblance of understanding of. The point is I know Kingdom Hearts, so obviously I have been patiently (lol no) waiting for Kingdom Hearts 3. Imagine my joy when, for Christmas, my girlfriend revealed she had pre ordered it for me! This is my Kingdom Hearts 3 story, review, and... love letter.

I've never been so excited to receive a package in my life. I've never held a yellow sleeve of packaging so gently and carefully. I've never so precisely opened a piece of mail. 

January 29th, 2019, I opened up Kingdom Hearts 3 with the excitement of a 9 year old.

Back when I actually was 9, I saw my brother in law (my siblings are much older than me) playing a weird game. It looked like sort of like Final Fantasy but it was brighter and more cartoony. The main character's spiky hair was reminiscent of Cloud or Squall from Final Fantasy 7 and 8. In fact, very quickly Siefer, an antagonist from Final Fantasy 8, appeared on screen. In a cutscene he called out the Protagonist, but was quickly rebuked by... Donald Duck of all people. I was confused... and intrigued. My older brother had gotten me into Final Fantasy when I was like 4 and of course I knew and loved Disney even longer. Naturally I was drawn to this weird medley. Now if you know the series, you'll be able to guess that this was actually Kingdom Hearts 2 I was being introduced to. Maybe that's why it's my favorite installment in the series, but after I went home and ranted and raved to my parents about how cool it was they knew exactly what to get me for Christmas. That's how I got Kingdom Hearts, the original. Since then I have never looked back, enjoying any play-time in the series I've had access to. 

Well, this brings me to Kingdom Hearts 3. Like I said, I was excited to get it, my girlfriend is perfect, and I popped it in my Xbox. After a cutscene recapping the events up until now, I was eased into my main menu... OH MY GOODNESS... all of you go find a recording of Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts 3 RIGHT NOW. I've never been so pumped up by a slow somber orchestral piece on a white background with a watercolor-esque painting of a japanese anime guy! That description may sound silly, but to an outsider its what was happening. Anyway, hype aside, I started the game and after a gorgeous tutorial and gripping set of cut scenes, I already decided to give the game a 20/10 review. I kept playing--for 3 days I played until I beat the game and nearly 100% completed it. My journey started with joy and wonder as I explored new Disney worlds, fell in love with redesigns of series-staple worlds, and spent a lot of time playing with the new camera feature. The new character designs are just phenomenal and really bring it all together. Likewise, relationships between characters have been revamped as each character had gained greater purpose in their journeys. The combat system implemented the best of the old and the new, bringing back reaction commands from 2 but expanding them into fully controlled combos, and reintroducing Shotlock from Birth by Sleep which causes massive damage to enemies from afar. It feels like Sora is at his peak performance. At times it even hands over the reigns of keyblade masters Riku and Aqua, who feel like absolute gods to play as. The new improved movement system is phenomenal and attacks can be chained together better than ever.

But there is a big problem. Something that loomed through the whole experience. 

The issue is that Kingdom Hearts 3 feels like it isn't the best it can be. Every second is fantastic, but as you watch mouths just flap to the dialogue, usually not even matching up, you're mind can't help but drift to Red Dead Redemption 2. While playing I couldn't help but wonder why 13 years amounted to a game that seems like it would have worked just fine on PS3. 

Beyond its graphical imperfection, the game was also surprisingly shallow. In previous Kingdom Hearts games, you could play for hundreds of hours before completing everything, seeing every story, unlocking every ability, and finding every collectable. With Kingdom Hearts 3 I've 100% completed the game at level 65 in about 40 hours. I don't feel a connection to any new character introduced, and I was actually distracted by the lack of Final Fantasy characters, which drew me to the franchise in the first place. Oh yeah thats right, there isn't a single Final Fantasy character in the game pitched as Final Fantasy/Disney Mashup. The story is artificially drawn out by a massive series of boss battles during end game that just quickly tied a knot and a messy story that really should have had more time spent. Example, it is never explained how Xion shows up as when last we saw her she was being ERASED FROM EVER HAVING EXISTED. She was wiped from everybody's memory so how could the Organization known to bring her back. It just doesn't make sense and they don't even attempt to explain.

The point is, it doesn't feel like as full of a game as previous entries, but rather feels like they are haphazardly tying up loose ends while setting up plot threads for future entries. If this were "Kingdom Hearts 2.95 final previous chapter: sleep wake" then maybe that would be ok, but this is the main line title "Kingdom Hearts 3." Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 each had their own stories which, while they certainly set up plot threads for future games, had their own hearts. They had a beginning, middle and end which all made sense. KH3 feels like just a middle that hints at an end but then opens another bottle of "what the heck just happened?"

So... everything I just said looks pretty bad, huh? You probably are thinking "Nathan, if you love this series so much and want me to play it, why are you trashing it so much?" Well, sometimes you have to break something down to build it back up. Kingdom Hearts 3 is not up to graphical par, it doesn't hold up as its own story like previous games have, motivation as a character to progress the story is almost nil. However, if you look back in gaming history, it's not the graphics or similarity to other games of the franchise people view in the long run. It's the gameplay and how the game makes you feel, and in those departments Kingdom Hearts 3 is far beyond anything out there right now. Simple, straightforward, and perfectly over the top, the combat system is a huge breath of fresh air next to the run and gun cookie cutter of all modern shooters, the complexity of fighting games, and the intensity of Dark Souls. You really can have fun fighting enemies, chaining combos, and pulling off massive attacks. The chaos, though overwhelming to an onlooker, feels perfectly at home under the control of the player. It feels very childlike yet also complex enough to keep an adult entertained. Along with the gameplay, the characters interactions between one another are just beautiful and really make you feel for each and every one of them. The phenomenal music score coupled with emotional cutscenes makes you love not only the main characters, but also the side characters--and even the villains.

Speaking of music, THE MUSIC! Square as a company has always recognized a fundamental truth of game design: Soundtrack can make or break a game. Kingdom Hearts is no exception as they have never spared any expense on the games' gorgeous soundtrack. In Kingdom Hearts 3 that has clearly reached a peak. As previously mentioned, just entering the Start Menu you are greeted with a beautifully orchestrated rendition of the classic Kingdom Hearts theme "Dearly Beloved." This new version captures so many emotions at once, starting with tranquility, then easing into a new excitement, and ending with the melancholy knowledge that as the song ends, so does the series (as we know it). This concept remains even as you enter Disney worlds, which have their own songs from the films they depict; however, many are adapted to work in a playable area or to bring the focus to different plot points. All in all, the music helps to make every moment of the game touch just the right feeling you're looking for as you play.

All fiction, be it written or on screen, is based around the concept of materializing the abstract truths of reality into a fictional world, being, or object. Kingdom Hearts 3 perfectly exemplifies this, and as such stands as a shining light, not necessarily to storytelling as a whole, but certainly to using story as a means define the world around us. It allowed me to see the world once again through the eyes of a child, a young me. Nostalgia is very prevalent in this day and age, but Kingdom Hearts 3 manages to not only capitalize on it, but create something new from it. The developers put their whole hearts into this game, I only hope you will too.
9/10