Dungeon Defenders

If you participated in the achievement hunt for the Steam winter sale in 2011, one of the things you'll have noticed was that there were lots of tower defense games featured, and that's pretty much the reason I got today's game, Dungeon Defenders.

Dungeon Defenders is another entry into the latest release of tower defense games that allow you to take a much more hands on approach than is traditionally seen in the genre. Though when placed among other members of this grouping, specifically Orcs Must Die! and Sanctum, Dungeon Defenders does stand out as a much more unique experience, largely due to it's RPG elements and inclusion, even focus on, co-op.

The story behind the game is that an ancient evil was sealed away by a group of heroes. Those same heroes must depart to a faraway land, and entrust the keep of the Enternia crystals, which are said seals, to our young group of adventures. While playing at their larger counterparts, a crystal is broken, and suddenly these individuals must defend the remaining crystals from hordes of orcs, goblins, ogres, elves, and many other typical fantasy fare.

Or sometimes it just one really, really big guy.

In the base game, there are four playable classes. The Apprentice, the Squire, the Huntress, and the Monk, with each one increasing in difficulty over the last. My preference was for the Apprentice, as his selection of towers allowed me to try the game more as a true tower defense game, placing flame towers, lightning towers, and deadly strike towers at places where enemies would be forced to travel through, resulting in a bit more of a hands off play style, since I could manage the hordes of enemies with nothing more than my towers. This compares with the Squire, where most of his defenses are baricades or short range physical damage, the Huntress who places traps with limited charges and cool down times, and the Monk that uses auras to slow down enemies, increase the damage they take, or heal friends.

In addition to the summonable defenses each class has, at five each, there are also two class specific abilities. The Apprentice can activate an ability that will drain mana, but rapidly increase the construction time of his defenses during the attack phase, or just use a mana bomb, which will do massive damage. The Squire, as a character that is encouraged to participate in the fighting directly, can either uses an AoE whirlwind type attack, or activate Blood Rage, which doubles his speed, damage, and resistance - perfect for slaughtering a large group of enemies. The Huntress is much more of a strike from behind type character, and her abilities emphasize this, allowing her to become invisible for a time, or fire a piercing shot from her ranged weapon. Finally, since the Monk is really just a support classes, he can either buff other classes defenses or other players, which can be extremely helpful in the right situation.

Physics is F=uN, where u is the coefficient of friction of course.

The different classes do make for an interesting mix of options if you were to try four player coop, or even higher on certain maps, since you could have the Squire block off paths, the Apprentice set up towers behind those barricades to kill enemies, the Huntress can go invisible and set up explosive or stunning traps behind enemy lines, and the Monk can make everyone's job easier by increasing the damage enemies are taking with his auras. Though if you'd rather just play by yourself, I would strongly recommend steering clear of the Monk or Huntress, because the lack of solid offensive defenses makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to advance very far. And since I'm someone who prefers single player, my few attempts with either of those two classes when horribly, horribly wrong.

One of the more interesting ideas behind Dungeon Defenders is the heavy investment into RPG/Action elements usually associated with games like Diablo. You see, each time you start a new character, you have to level him up. At each new level, you get a few points to spend amongst 10 different categories: player health, attack, speed, and attack rate, a similar four categories focused on your defenses, and you two special class abilities. The result is you could have two level 70 Squires, equipped with the exact same gear and weapons, but perform drastically differently depending on they allocated their points, with one being a heavy melee hitter, while the other invested more into their defenses. Furthermore, gear can be upgraded as well, as most items will have some number of levels associated with them, and if you choose to invest the requisite amount of mana in it, the item in question will gain a level, allowing you to increase one of the stats on it, but not add any stats that weren't already there. Ditto for pets.

Strong towers = less work for me.

At this point, you may be wondering where you get mana, since it seems to be critical to upgrade your items, which is true. However, mana is much more than that, since you pretty much need it for everything you do. Summoning defenses, using your character's special abilities, repairing your defenses when they get damaged, or just healing yourself - all these things require mana to complete. Mana is found in one of two ways. When you begin a level, and at each break between successive waves, several treasure chests will spawn, which contain mana, and occasionally an item. You'll uses these to get started building your defenses. After they are up, and the attack wave has commenced, you'll get far more mana by killing enemies, allowing you to continue building defenses while the attack is going, or simply let it remain on the ground until the next break, at which point you do with it as you please. However, it does not persist from one wave to the next, so as soon as you start an attack, it vanishes, so don't try and stockpile it up for the incoming horde. Instead, use what you want, and deposit the rest into your bank, so you can purchase new items or upgrade old ones.

As you move on up through the levels, they get harder and harder, as one would expect. This is for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that, at certain points of the game, the number of Eternia crystals you must protect increases. Dungeon Defenders isn't like other tower defense games where units must simply reach the end of a map for you to loose points, and if enough make it, you fail. Instead, each crystal has a health bar, and enemies will attack it until it's destroyed, meaning that a single small enemy could cause you to loose just the same as if all your defenses failed and it was like a dam broke, unleashing a flood of pain on your crystals. The problem is further compounded because if just one crystal is destroyed, you lose. You can't always build up huge defenses around every crystal either, because each defense requires a certain number of units, and maps are capped out, meaning you've got to judge if placing an 8 defense unit is worth the cost, or if you should go with two, weaker, 4 defense units to guard your crystals. So pay attention, because if one sneaky goblin makes it to a crystal, and you ignore him since you've got an army knocking on your front door, you still failed.

A shot of me failing. At least this time I did it on purpose.

One way you can counter the insanely large number of enemies you'll be fighting is to upgrade your defenses, which costs 100 mana, but doubles at each new level. Now, while it is nice to have stronger, healthier defenses, your enemies can do this too. Every now and then, and increasingly so as you progress through the levels, you'll find upgraded enemies. These guys are no joke, especially when the upgraded units are the big guys, like ogres, as I've seen their HP go from 17k to 82k for a double upgrade enemy, and yes, that's a lot. Further complicating things, especially when I was playing as an Apprentice, is that enemies are sometimes immune to certain elements, rendering attacks of that type null. There's nothing like having a perfectly function lightning tower destroyed by the one enemy that is immune to it.

There are, particularly towards the final levels, a metric ton of enemies you'll face. While they never seem to be in a hurry to attack the crystals, the number of them can easily overwhelm you. Thankfully, attacks come in waves, and between each wave, there is a build phase. This isn't a short phase, such as in Orcs Must Die!, where you get a 15 second break between waves, but as long as you want every third wave or so. Rather, Dungeon Defenders lets you take all the time you want each wave, letting you repair your defenses, build new ones, or gather up mana. This is nice, because after fighting off a couple hundred enemies, things start to break and you need to get geared back up, especially if the next wave is a boss wave, where the regular enemies don't stop spawning until the boss is down.

I actually beat him before the regular guys got there. It pays to know what's coming up next.

Despite this games interesting take on tower defense, and the appeal of many different aspects of it, I found I really didn't enjoy this as much as I had expected. Coming off of other TD games, I was hoping for something a little faster paced. While it sounds great that I can kill hundreds of enemies per wave, they take a long time to get to the points where I have towers set up, making it feel like the waves are dragging on and on. Additionally, even during the down time of the build phase, it felt like everything moved so slow. Building towers, running around and repairing everything that took damage, finding every chest and unlocking it for more mana, and so forth, just took a long time, largely due to how spread out everything becomes, and as such, made it less enjoyable.

The RPG elements, though interesting, also felt a bit odd, and really diminishes the enjoyment I get out of this game. You see, the achievement that was required for the Steam sale was very late in the game, and in my case, I actually beat the game on normal, then went to the bonus level that you needed to do, so I've got a level 36 or so Apprentice. Yet even at that point, I am far from hitting the max level, and the appeal of grinding repeatedly through the same content for more exp, more mana, and more gear, just isn't there. I didn't like it in Diablo, nor Borderlands, and I sure don't want to do it here, because I've already experienced the game once, so why don't I just move onto another game, another experience?

The idea of leveling multiple characters is another issue, though one I'd be much more forgiving on if some of the upper difficulty characters didn't appear to be so reliant on the presence of others. Add in the difference between official multiplayer servers and ones that let you use your local play character, as well as the inability to complete achievements, for those of you so inclined, in a local game, and you get something that rubs me the wrong way.

But I can't say it isn't pretty.

In retrospect, I do view Dungeon Defenders as a solid game, one that I enjoyed playing when I did, and that I might even come back to one day, perhaps if I had some friends that wanted to devote some serious time to it. After beating it once, I see no point in going back and continuing to grind my way through the levels, increasing the difficulty until I'm ultimately playing at the Nightmare level, because it doesn't substantially change the gaming experience. I could get some of the DLCs for this game, of which there are plenty, costing you $56 to purchase each pack individually or $50 for all the DLCs and the base game, but I'm not willing to shell out that much for this, fun as it may be. I got Dungeon Defenders in a trade deal, but it has been at the $3.74 mark numerous times, equating to about 75% off, and would suggest you wait until then, either just getting the base game, or the complete pack. I put roughly 14 hours of time into the base game, which is pretty good, but in the end, the game does fall short of the enjoyment I've gotten out of other similar TD games - 6 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 6/10

Suggested Price: $3.74/75% off

Swords and Soldiers HD

Today's game, Swords and Soldiers HD, is one that makes me realize just how bad I am at strategy games. I always seem to struggle with the idea of quickly playing an RTS game, usually devoting multiple hours to any one mission, since I would rather build up an army, upgrade everything to max, and then roll out and crush my opposition. My insistence on doing so has made for some truly awful moments in online games, usually when I discover that I've been upgrading my units, while my opponent has actually been building them. Swords and Soldiers HD doesn't have many of those aspects of traditional RTS games, instead presenting something far more simple, and easier to manage. The sad thing is, even at that lower level, I still loose. A lot.

You see, Swords and Soldiers is a, seemingly, simple game. While most RTS games have you building up your army, while managing your squads, while doing research, while guarding against enemy incursions into your base, all of which adds up to the point where I question if some of the pros are just very good about keeping track of the myriad of going ons in the average game, of if they are just so scatter brained and unable to focus on one specific thing that it all works out in their favor, Swords and Soldiers is much more basic than that.

But it does have Fog of War!

Your actions are limited to only a handful of options. Essentially, you decide two things - which units to build, and what abilities to deploy. You do not control your units directly, and are in fact limited to choosing their path, if the particular level you are playing on has a branch in it, and using abilities that could help them out, such as a heal or a shield, which belong to the Vikings and Chinese, respectively. So you can mostly forget about much of the more hands on aspect of many RTS games, though key ability deployment is critical if you want to win, and instead focus on managing your two resources and deploying units and abilities as need.

There are three races in the game, with the Aztecs rounding out the grouping. Each race has it's own unique units and abilities, and the result is that they provide a different approach to playing. There is nothing so drastic as needing to build on the creep as the Zerg or the ability to move buildings as Terrans from the original StarCraft, but differences nonetheless, and it is easy to become attached to a particular race, being more familiar, and comfortable, with the options it presents.

Personally, I think the Dwarfs, err, Vikings, are over powered.

There are four combat units for each race, consisting of a melee unit, a ranged unit, and then two special units, with at least one heavy hitter. Of course, each race brings something special to the table, and the units do vary - in cost, power, and health. For example, the Viking Berserker, the melee unit of that race, costs 65 gold to build, versus the equivalent Aztec unit, the Jaguar Warrior, which you can build for 50 gold. However, if they meet in a one on one scenario, the Jaguar Warrior will only deal about half the damage needed to kill a Berserker before he dies. Start mixing in the other units, and developing strategies about how to combat what unit with what unit/ability you have available, and the game can quickly become much more complex than it seemed at first blush, even without the ability to command your individual units.

Now I shouldn't give you the impression that you can automatically respond to whatever enemies are heading down the map to your side with whatever you like, as there are a few limitations. The first being that you do have to research a unit to unlock it, which takes some gold and time to accomplish. However, you also cannot simply research any unit at any time, because the game does have a mild tech tree, and each one is laid out differently for the different races. This is nothing so complex as systems where you must have a central base to build a drone, and the drone builds the armory, and the armory lets you build a tank, but only at the mechanics building. Instead, it's more "you can't research the Viking Heal until you've unlocked the Berserker." Some trees are completely linear, while others have a few more prerequisites, but all and all, it is much easier to follow than I've seen in other games, some of which provided a huge fold out paper that explained everything.

Okay, even I don't think I can screw that one up.

Of course, research isn't free, and neither is constructing units. What you'll need a lot of is gold, and this is acquired over time, as well as through your gold finders. You can have up to 10, and at that point the cash comes flowing in. This allows you to keep up a steady stream of units, each of which spawns instantly, but triggers a small cooldown before you can buy another of the same, so you can't just spam your Sun Giants or Zen Masters all you want. Therefore, you can spawn units in wave of 4 or so, but different movement speeds, unit abilities, as well as the actions your opponent might take to trap or mind control your units, can drastically change the situation.

The final actions you can take include building your race's one tower and using your abilities. Each tower is different, from the Aztec's which attacks enemies, to the Chinese that provides a bonus to mana, and they can only be built on predestinated spots on the map, but they can be very useful. Abilities are more so, since, depending on what race you're playing as, you can do things like mind control your enemies strong unit, turning him around and making him fight for you, though if you do this to the last unit in a wave, he'll proceed all the way back to the base, so long as he doesn't encounter anything before he gets there. Other abilities shield or heal your units, or spawn a group of clay soldiers to fight for your, or rains down fire arrows on your enemies. There is one ultimate ability for each race, which is really cool. The Aztecs summon a huge boulder the rolls across the map, which you can jump over your units, and squash your enemies with. The Chinese summon a dragon that breathes fires when you press the left mouse button, so save it up for high value targets. The Vikings have Thor send down his lightning hammer, which acts as a tower and damages enemies where it was called down. Now all of these abilities cost mana, which is accumulated over time, but can be modified by research, towers, and a sacrificial ability, again depending on which race you're using.

And now I've managed to get a mind controlled catapult in the enemy base.

Though Swords and Soldiers HD strikes me as a simple RTS, I'm sure there are those whole can still theorycraft which race is better, why you should spawn more Rocketters than Swordmen, and so on. Me? Well, I just enjoy the simplicity of the game, the humor found in each race's campaign, and the occasional skirmish where I inevitably end up setting the handicap to 100% easier. The game is normally $10, which is a little pricey for the 5 or so hours I put into it, but the game is brilliant in it's simplicity and approachability, and, if I had any I cared to try it with, I could see easily jumping into a multiplayer match with friends, or just getting this on a phone/tablet to pass the time during work or on a vacation. I suggest going for the game the next time it's on sale at $5 or less, though I'm certain sure it was $2.50 when I got it, because the game is pretty good - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $5

The Chronicles of Riddick Video Review

The video review for the Chronicles of Riddick is now available.

The Chronicles of Riddick

**Be sure to check out the video review!**  

Today's review is a bonus of sorts. That's because when you buy The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena you also get Escape from Butcher Bay from back in 2004. The combination of the two makes for a whole heck of a lot of playtime, and, consequently, a longer than average review.

Let's start with the commonalities, then break it down into the individual games, shall we? First, while the game is officially classified as action, I would call it a blend of stealth and FPS, with a bit of RPG thrown in for variety. It is a rather unusual combination of different elements, but it generally works well. While the proportions are different in each game, much of your time will be spent sneaking around in the dark, attempting to maneuver behind enemies, so you can break their necks or perform some other type of silent kill, or just avoid them outright. To this end, the eventual acquisition of the tranquilizer gun is a blessing, allowing you to not only stun enemies, but also blow out light sources, at least in most cases, and as such it will become one of your favorite items once you get it.

The Tranq gun lets you stun enemies for a close kill, or just saves your butt when you screw up.

Interspersed with long stealth only sequences are more action packed sections, where it is pretty much impossible to do anything other than pick you biggest guns and see how accurate you are. This is much more pointed when you get behind the wheel(?) of a mech or riot guard, and just lay waste to scores of enemies. Overall though, the gun combat isn't what this series is about, particularly in the first game, where it's more dedicated to close quarters combat - utilizing your fists, a club, or, since the first game is set in a prison, a shiv, to dispatch enemies.

To the ends of encouraging melee combat, the developers came up with a nice combat system, which includes directional aiming for your melee attacks. What I mean by that is you can "aim" your punches by selecting where they come from. Press right and punch, and you get a right hook. Back and punch gets you an uppercut. This makes for some pretty decent melee bouts, with certain times in the game designed for that exact purpose, during which you need to time your attacks, and the type of attack, based off of what your enemy is doing. Some are heavy hitters that will land some damage even if you're blocking, and once you include weapons in the mix, it does change things up a bit. Of course, none of that seems like it would help you very much going up against an opponent with a firearm, but if you close in enough, they will take a swing at you, which, if you can time it right, you'll turn into a counter that usually results in using their own firearm to execute them in this game's more graphic style.

Executing a guard with his own gun... I'm pretty sure this is why the game is rated M.

The final thing I'd like to cover before breaking down into individual games are the more RPG-esque elements of the game, specifically the notion of side missions, as well as mention the way the health system is designed. Predominately appearing in the first game are side missions. You see, you can talk to many different people in the game, so long as they aren't trying to kill you of course, which generally means prisoners. Some will offer you missions, granting you rewards if you do them a favor, which usually involves killing members of an opposing gang or hunting down an item. One somewhat unofficial side mission in the first game has you hunting down moths, which will require you to hop up in the air and grab them when they get close enough. That one in particular feels stupid, since you are supposed to be Riddick, apparently the most notorious criminal in the universe, and here you are hopping around grabbing moths. I seriously doubt that would help your street cred.

Most side missions will reward you with cigarettes during the first game, which unlock bonus content, or cash, which you can use at a few different points in the game to purchase a weapon, such as a shiv after a point in which you have lost all your weapons, or picking up a tranquilizer gun much earlier than you could find it on your own, though you can also acquire cash from dead enemies or sometimes find it hidden in lockers. Overall this portion on the game feels more forced, and was all but done away with in the second, where there are only four or so side missions, all but one right along your main path anyway, and the one that takes you out of your way at least rewards you with a sniper rifle, which can only be found in that location, at least as far as I can tell.

Just a few of the missions you can have at one time.

The health system is a bit more unique from my experience with either shooters or stealth games, where you usually have a set amount of health and keep it full from med kits or health stations you encounter. Not entirely so in Chronicles. Instead, you have blocks of health, starting with four, that deplete as you take damage. However, if you manage to spend enough time without taking damage, a partial block will regenerate to full. In this way it's more akin to Assassin's Creed, though that did come out four years later. If you want to refill your health, you have to find a med station, which will only heal up to four blocks of health, unless you have happened across a refill for the station. Furthermore, there are a few points in each game which allow you to upgrade your health capacity, and some stations are the rewards you get for spending that extra amount of effort when exploring. Nothing major here, but just something that is a little different from most games I've ever played, and so it bares mention.

So now that I've covered all of that, I can finally move unto the specific games. Escape from Butcher Bay covers Riddick's limited stay at the Butcher Bay "slam." From the get go you are looking for a way out. At first you find yourself locked in the more general population, and so you engage in some missions where you track a few people down that want to talk with you, some of which have information, or others that claim to have weapons. Pretty quickly things get messy, as one would expect, though the first portion of the game just introduces you to the melee combat.

A successful counter, which is followed by a punch to the enemy's throat.

After a time it looks like you've got a means of escape, at which point you begin stealthing around. This is particularly important because, even if you get the drop on an armed guard, you can't just take their weapon. You see, weapons are DNA locked so that anyone outside of a database cannot use them. If you attempt to pick one up, you are shocked. In this way you're locked into melee/stealth mode for this portion of the game. Especially at higher difficulties, the lack of any firearm makes risking getting shot at by a guard not worth it, and so your best defense is to hide in the dark, wait for patrols, and hide bodies, though I never found that last part to be particularly necessary, except in the cases where there were a good number of guards patrolling an area, and I didn't want them leaving their path. Of course, sometimes a body makes for a good distraction.

Eventually you do get access to something more advanced than a screwdriver or knuckleduster, at which point you're shoehorned into action mode, firing from cover, taking out lights and trying to avoid being seen by guards with flashlights. Sometimes that is even too tame though, and you must practice a little run and gun, with less than human enemies pouring in at you in endless waves, and only a limited amount of ammunition. Those points don't last too long though, and some of the game, at least where you are armed, does offer you the option of stealth or firearms, such as when you enter the guards quarters, and you can either make it an all out firefight, or practice a little deception by flicking off some lights, taking out some unsuspecting guards, and getting a hold of an enemy uniform.

Sometimes, it's just better to avoid enemies, because there is another guard and a riot mech just around the corner.

Unfortunately, Butcher Bay gets a bit cyclical, where you go from unarmed doing errands, to stealthing around, to getting your hands on something, such as the tranquilizer, to a big firefight, to getting captured and losing all your weapons, thus starting the cycle all over again, because even after you've been recaptured a few times, Riddick is the eternal optimist. In this sense the game is a bit repetitive, and it is frustrating to finally start filling up your weapons wheel only to have it emptied all over again, as well as begging the question of just how important it is to keep a prisoner who repeatedly defies your attempts to hold him in a state of consciousness. Or alive.

Butcher Bay feels like it is roughly a 2 to 1 split between slower, more stealth centered portions of the game, and the fast, shoot 'em up pace of stealing a riot guard mech or fleeing from alien like enemies. The lull that occurs about 25% of the way through the game, after you've been recaptured the first time, was tough to get through, not because of difficulty, but due to all the running back and forth, talking to people all over, just to run back to where you started, resulting in a crisscrossing path through several loading screens. This is also when you encounter most of those side quests, and is generally my least favorite part of the game.

Turrets limit the actions you can take, such as attacking other prisoners, among other things.

Another disappointing feature of the game deals with the AI, and the seeming lack of consequences for your actions. You have the option to drag bodies around, but as I pointed out earlier, that almost never matters, since enemies aren't dense enough to encounter a body, and if they do, they are very vocal about needing to keep looking, etc, which I understand, but at the same time, is a little frustrating if you're looking for a more intense stealth experience.

Something I did enjoy, though it felt as if it were added without being fully developed, were branching pathways and different options to complete an objective. For example, during said lull, one of the things you have to do to advance is get taken away by the guards to an isolation room where there are no cameras, in hopes to meeting up with an officer that would have access to the hanger where shuttles are stored. Well, there are two ways of doing this; do well in the pit fighting ring, defeating a total of 5 opponents, or get close to some guards while you have drugs on you. Unfortunately, they really aren't distinct enough, and you still have to participate in a few fights if you want to go the drug route, mostly because that portion of the game is meant to showcase the melee combat, but it still gives you the option of approaching something from a different angle. Similarly, there are occasionally two doors into a room, with one giving you an advantage, but generally requiring greater risk to access. All good stuff, but I really wish there was more of it.

All in all Butcher Bay was a good game, with an interesting movie tie in that I'll cover briefly later. I admire the developers for the gamble they took by mixing different genres together, but the whole experience could have been refined a little more. And, in many ways, that is exactly what happens when you get to the second game, Assault on Dark Athena.

I thought the "Peace: We Want It" was a nice contrast to the Dark Athena in the background.

This time you're on a shuttle, sometime after the events of Butcher Bay, that gets captured by a merc ship. Except these aren't nice mercs, because they have been messing around with some pretty nasty stuff. Specifically, they have a technology that allows them to turn a living person into some kind of AI controlled drone, which make for nasty, but particularly useful, enemies. Thus, you once again must escape.

Now if you would recall how Butcher Bay used the mechanic of DNA locked guns to force you to play in a stealthier style? Well, the drones in Dark Athena function in much the same way, because their weapons are fused to their arms. However, you are allowed to pick up the drone and fire while holding him like a shield, giving you a means to dealing with multiple enemies if you're detected. You can drag a drone body while armed, but it's slow going, and the amount of ammunition they have is limited to just the one clip.

You can't take him with you, but the ability to use a Drone's gun makes life a lot easier.

Another component to these drones is that they can be remotely controlled by another person, so sometimes you'll encounter ones covered in white lights, as opposed to the typical red. These drones are smarter, faster, and actually use a flashlight when exploring, making them more difficult than the standard versions, which aren't much more the canon fodder.

Drones do make up the majority of the enemies you'll face during the game, and this change in game mechanics makes for a generally faster feeling game, and I would say it changes the balance to more  of a 50-50 split between stealth and action, though once you get the tranquilizer gun, you can pretty much play it all as an action game, as long as you're a good enough shot to hit your target every time, because the reload is pretty long.

One way in which Dark Athena is more action oriented than the previous installment can be seen in just how many weapons there are. In Butcher Bay, you're lucky to get a shiv, club, or some kind of fist weapon, and the firearm selection was limited to handguns, an assault rifle, and a shotgun. Not so in Dark Athena, as they've included a SMG, a sniper rifle, and a rather interesting weapon called the SCAR gun, which fires charges that can be detonated when you choose, with up to five placed at one time. The latter is required for several of the more difficult fights in this game, where you go up against some large enemies that would be impossible to take down with just your ulaks, those curving over the fist blades that become Riddick's trademark weapon.

Another way in which Dark Athena is a different game from Butcher Bay is the level design. While Butcher Bay generally consisted of corridors, high cat walks, vents, and big looping paths that you never realized you were on, Dark Athena is almost designed with more of a platform feeling in mind. It may not be the most obvious thing, but there is a difference between sneaking behind your enemy using a vent shortcut during the first game, and instead climbing cargo boxes in the second game. Really nothing major, but it does change the feel of the game to something much more open, most likely due to the difference in power between the Xbox and Xbox 360, on with Butcher Bay and Dark Athena were respectively released.

A beautiful scene on a planet, which also includes more platforming elements.

While Dark Athena lacks all those side missions and conversation options that were present prior, you will find in its stead a deeper level of character interaction and development, particularly between Riddick and the captain of the Dark Athena, Revas, as they play a game of cat and mouse. You'll also find good guys that you're rooting for, or that actually help you, though I would attribute this to the difference between innocent people who are captured by mercs versus individuals locked up in a max security slam. Still, it fleshes out the game much more so than Butcher Bay.

I definitely enjoyed Dark Athena more than Butcher Bay, though that is perhaps due to my natural inclination towards action/shooter centric games. I would argue that the better story, the connection with characters' whose fate you wish you could alter, the inclusion of more environments, specifically thinking about the final portion of the game that takes place on a nearby planet, or just that you only lose all your weapons once, rather than three times, all make it a better game, though it does not take the same amount of skill and/or patience to get through like it does Butcher Bay, mostly due to the difference in the balance between stealth and action.

So how would you handle these drones?

If you're interested, the games take place sequentially sometime prior to the events of Pitch Black, but if you find enough of the extra content hidden through both games, in the form of cigarettes and bounty cards, you'll find out that they are intended to be flashbacks from sometime during the beginning scene of the second movie. The games explain some of the major occurrences during Riddick's life, specifically how he acquired his night vision eyes and ulaks, as well as showcasing his soft spot for children and giving some background about his relationship with Johns, who appears in the first movie. All cool stuff, but nothing that hampers your experience with the game if you haven't seen the movies.

All in all, I would recommend The Cronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena as a game you should play, though if you're more of a purist and don't fancy the mix of stealth and action, you may want to stay away. My original playthrough took me roughly 20 hours, while a second was more around 16 - the difference between normal and easy, and it is pretty obvious when playing. It will be interesting to see if we ever get another game in the series, since supposedly a third movie is in production. I for one would look forward to it, even if it does include the rolling activation limit that this one has (no more than 3 installs in a month), because it is a good game, though not without points where it stumbles, such as limiting the player to only two quick bound weapons, or feels a little undeveloped, such as the few branching choices in the first game. Look for it at $15 or less. Overall, I did have a blast playing it, and rate it higher than most games I've come across - 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price: $15+

Terraria

I'll admit I had no idea what kind of game I was getting when I picked up Terraria. Even from the trailers on the steam store page I wasn't sure what to make of it - apparently some kind of 2D shooter? In fact, the only thing I had even really heard about the game was from an article that showed there were more people playing it than modern warfare 3, and generally "better than mw" isn't a particularly high standard, unless you're reporting sales figures.

Maybe it sells because of the guns?

The first thing I realized when I started playing was that I had no idea what I was supposed to do. You spawn into the center of a randomly generated world, and it is completely up to you to figure out what you would like to accomplish. After sitting there for a while taking stock of my situation, examining the ui and talking to the guide for some pointers, I pulled out my axe so I could see what would happen if I tried to chop down a tree. A few swings later it broke up in many little blocks which I picked up and used to start building walls. Then it hit me, I was playing Minecraft.

Now, I've also never played Minecraft aside from a few jaunts into the free browser version, but from everything I've seen and read on the game, comparing Terraria to it seemed so natural. As I advanced through the game however, I came to realize how wrong my first impressions were. Yes, there are many similarities between the two, most notably in the "turn natural materials into blocks and then build things" aspect, but while it is easy to lump the two in the same genre, Terraria is certainly not a Minecraft clone.

The zombie attacks at night are just a coincidence.

Officially, Terraria is classified as an, ahem, "Action, Adventure, RPG, Indie, Platformer," and I guess that's right? Actually, this is a deceptively huge game, and I've struggled with giving it it's due of a review, because there is just so much to it, I've felt that some of my previous attempts (my virtual recycle bin is full of 'em) failed to cover all of what Terraria has to offer, though I'm not sure if that is a goal that will ever be within my reach - there is just that much you can do.

                                                                                              

One aspect of Terraira, the biggest actually, is what gives it it's Action, Adventure, and Platformer designations, and that is the theme of exploration. Once a world is generated, and you can determine which of three sizes it will be, it is entirely up to you to decide what you would like to do in it. Unless you're making a level into an art project, or even if you've just made a level to farm a dungeon, you're going to end up doing some exploration. Each world is divided up two ways: into horizontal strata, and again into vertical environments. As you progress left and right through the world, you'll encounter different environments, beginning with the forest, where you seem to always spawn, and proceeding through a mix of jungle, desert, corruption, until you eventually end up at the ocean that forms the ends of the world. You may encounter other, more localized zones as well, such as meteor craters or the dungeon, one of which exists in each world. As you pass through different environments, everything changes, from the music, to the enemies, to the items you'll find littering the ground. This will be important later on, when I get to the part about crafting, because pretty much everything you can find in this game is a reagent for something, so if you want, say, the Jungle set of armor and corresponding weapons, plan on spending some time exploring the jungle.

The Ivy Whip, a three armed grappling hook that saved my life sooooo many times, is created from items found in the jungle.

In addition to the different zones are those strata I was talking about. Nearly all of your game will involve tunneling underground, hunting down ores, gems, chests stuffed with gear, crystallized hearts to boost your health, and so forth. As you progress deeper and deeper, things start to change. Everything gets better, but likewise, everything gets more difficult, from the enemies you'll encounter, to the rewards you'll stumble across, to the environmental dangers you'll have to avoid, until even the basic materials you're digging through are different. To head deeper, you'll need better and better gear, from armor to absorb damage and weapons to actually be able to kill things, to utility items like a pick to dig through harder materials faster or a grappling hook so you won't fall to your death when you suddenly break through the ceiling of a cavern and find out that there is nothing underneath you but a pool of very hot lava, to just increasing your health pool from the basic 100 up to the max 400 so you can actually survive some of the damage you'll be taking once you dig all the way to hell, where the environment is tough, the enemies are tougher, and you'll face the final boss before unlocking hardmode.

In and of itself, I found the exploring portion of the game quite fun. It was always interesting to see what I would encounter as I randomly tunneled about, largely because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, but also because I'd usually spot something shiny off to the edges that would immediately distract be from whatever I was focused on before. It was difficult to remain alive in the earlier stages of the game, especially as I journeyed into the jungle environment and suddenly was facing giant wasps, annoying bats, and these vine like creatures that could project their bodies through walls, limiting the amount of time you can damage them while also making them particularly dangerous, since enemies will spawn just off screen, even in areas you've already cleared, meaning that pretty much no where is ever safe.

Eventually I progressed, largely through the game's RPG aspect of crafted gear (which I'll get to in just a moment), and did much better, except for the first time the Eye of Cthulhu spawned, which can happen randomly until he(?) is first killed, because I assumed I was totally safe deep underground since there would be no way he could phase through walls (in case you're wondering, yes, yes he can). The addition of taking time to hunt down more health, gear up, and acquire useful utility items like one that grants the ability to double jump or rocket boots, or another that acts as three grappling hooks in one, so that you can position yourself in mid air with anchor points at there different spots, a la spiderman swinging from building to building, made a world of difference in how easy it was to progress.

Where's Been Stein with Clear Eyes when you need him?

Now, most of the items I got, with the exception of accessories, were crafted, and there is a lot of that in this game. I mentioned earlier how pretty much everything you find in game is a reagent in something. Even something as benign as sand can be crafted, under the right conditions, into glass. The crafting system is incredibly deep, and there is no way I can come close to covering it in detail, so I'll just cover generalities about how the system works. See, you generally need two different things to craft something: the reagents, and the tools. The reagents come from all over; looted from dead enemies, gathered from mining or chopping down trees, or found growing wild above ground or in deep caverns. Tools you'll have to make, though you do start with a basic array of items when you create a new character, what you have are all gathering items, and that just won't cut it when it comes to serious crafting. Rather, you'll make crafting stations, like the furnace to smelt ore into bars, or the sawmill for advanced wood working. All these things build off of one another to ultimately create an intricate crafting system.

Take the bed, which is an item that lets you change your default spawn point, which is used in case you die or any time you use a teleporting device to get out of trouble, as an example of just how complex this system is. To make a bed, all you need is wood and silk for reagents, and then you must be near a sawmill. Sounds simple, at least until you consider where you get all of those. Wood you can gather from the get go, just find a tree and take an axe to it. Silk is different, because first you need to gather cobwebs, and then you need to be near a loom. Well, wait, where do we get a loom? Oh, a loom is made from wood, and requires a sawmill, which we need anyways. Perfect. So, a sawmill is made by combining more wood, iron bars, and an iron chain, together at a workbench. Great, now it's time to make more things, because aside from having to gather iron ore, and then smelt it at a furnace, which in itself requires stone blocks, wood, and a torch, which comes from combining gel from enemy slimes and more wood, all combined at a workbench, we also need to make a chain which comes from iron and an anvil, and the anvil comes from iron and a workbench, and the workbench comes from wood. And I haven't even covered the quantities of the reagents you'll need just to make one freaking bed from scratch, but I will say this - get wood, and get a lot of it.

And that is why I made a crafting dungeon, so I can stand within ranges of all those stupid stations at the same time.

Ultimately the system progresses, and these things build off themselves to get to the top tiers of crafting. You'll find the same is true in other aspects of the game as well, such as needing a better pick to mine higher level ores, which in turn lets you make better gear to progress deeper, at which point you'll need to gather the next tier of resources, and so forth. It is for this reason that I mention the Terraria wiki, conveniently found here. You should also check that out to get an idea of just how much gear is in the game, as it will also give you an idea of the scope of Terraria.

Now, normally I'm not one for self direction, and I could show you several poor grades from courses which required that high degree of motivation to succeed, such as art, but I set out on playing this game up to the point where I had unlocked hardmode, at which point I considered it beat, though there really is infinite replayability, such as grinding out better gear or building beautiful structures (seriously, you should see some of the things people have come up with). Still, I know I've only scratched the surface of what is possible in Terraria, both in my own game, and especially here in this review.

My sad attempt at making a castle proves to be about as solid as my average review :-(

A hard mode that unlocks a ton of new stuff, from weapons and gear to bosses. Levels of difficulty that range from permanent character deletion on death, to all your items dropping where you died, to just giving up your gold. All manner of weapons, from swords to bows, and then later to guns and magic weapons. The discovery of NPCs that you'll unlock along the way, so long as you make sure and build them a proper house. Invasions of goblins or zombies and floating eyeballs. Terraria is truly a massive game that is deceptively simple upon first glance.

I ended up putting over 50 hours into this game, most of it offline and solo, but some with friends as well. Even given all that effort, there is plenty left for me to do, should I ever wish to return to my "World 1." At $2.50, I got a lot of bang for my buck, and I would suggest picking it up at $5 or more. However, though I did enjoy the game, it wasn't the same kind of enjoyment I have gotten out of many other games, such as an awesome plot or heart pounding action found in other games, and upon reflection, I would say that the way that the game grabbed me and pulled me in was more akin to time spent playing an MMO, where you just want to farm out one more item to make that weapon of awesomeness, and by the time you finally get it, you realize it's been three hours. It was still fun, but time consuming to make progress, and ultimately once you reach a certain point, there isn't much more to do besides grind for gear or create works of wonder, though I've never been a fan of Diablo, and the closest I've come to making anything beautiful is to put some walls up for a castle like structure, and even that looks terrible. In the end, Terraira, with so much to do, is an 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price: $5+