The Zelda series has been around since 1986 spanning 18+ games on Nintendo’s major game consoles with the main attraction being the creative and immersive world that guides players through each of the stories. The latest edition, Breath of the Wild (BotW), has been released with Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo Switch. Luckily for Nintendo, the established name of Zelda along with positive game reviews remains arguably the number one (maybe only) reason most have splurged on the new technology. The game itself remains in the same world as many remember before, where our main character, Link, is tasked with saving the kingdom of Hyrule and princess Zelda, from the evil Ganon that rules over the land. Link must adventure through Hyrule defeating enemies along the way though strength, creativity, and resourcefulness of the world around him. Luckily for Zelda and the rest of the world, Ganon is willing to wait 100+ years to destroy everything because the best parts of this game are in the little details and it might take a while to find them all.

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The Metal Gear franchise is a series of games created by developer Hideo Kojima and is renowned for having one of the most in-depth storylines in all of the videogames. The series contains 10 main releases spanning nearly 20 years and countless spin-offs in-between with the most recent major release being Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Unfortunately, MGS5: TPP is the last Metal Gear game developed by Hideo Kojima following his departure from Konami, the longtime publisher of the series. His decision to leave the publisher was largely due to a restructuring of the company and a power struggle that ensued, making MGS5: TPP the last “true” Metal Gear game.

Metal Gear games are typically action-adventure with a focus on stealth and espionage. The storyline revolves around the existence of several “Metal Gear,” or bipedal tanks that world governments, military contractors, and terrorists constantly seek control or the destruction of. Metal Gear are considered superweapons and are highly desirable for those seeking global dominance. Many of the games are played by Solid Snake, one of the several genetic clones of the legendary soldier known as Big Boss. Major Spoiler (skip if desired): However, MGS5: TPP is played by Punished “Venom” Snake, a former lieutenant of Big Boss that was unknowingly turned into his body double using hypnosis and plastic surgery. Punished “Venom” Snake assumed Big Boss’s identity, thereby becoming his ‘phantom’ which is where The Phantom Pain gets its name.

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ABZÛ is an underwater exploration game with a distinctive, breathtaking art style and a soundtrack to match. Diving through open oceans or sunken ruins, the player experiences vast numbers of oceanic life of all shapes and sizes. There is no violence other than a basic food chain among the fish, and there’s not even any way for the player to die. Despite this, there is plenty of suspense and anxiety as the player encounters darkness and dangers in the deeps. The story is vague – told only through hieroglyphics encountered in the game – but it is emotionally deep and engaging. Its gameplay is simple but creative; it is peaceful and immersive in a way that must be experienced to be understood.

Upon starting a new game, the player watches a short intro sequence before being given control of a Diver floating on the surface. The player is instructed on how to dive and swim, and before long…

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Total Time Played: Approx 38.8 days (37 days 18 hours at max level + approx 24hrs to level from 100-110)

Completed all Current Content: Yes; Current endgame raid completed at Heroic difficulty

These days it’s hard to talk about the MMORPG genre without mentioning World of Warcraft (WoW). The MMO monster has been at the top of the food chain for nearly 13 years and with the release of its current expansion, there are no signs of that changing anytime soon. Legion has brought with it a large complement of significant changes to the game’s that have breathed new life into what was quickly becoming a stale, been-there-done-that experience.

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Rules of fun are laid out typical of most first person shooters. This game, in particular, falls into Koster’s Theory of Fun in a couple of ways. It contains an endless supply of familiar, yet different scenarios with each round. This is due to having different players, starting as a different country and even having different game modes (team deathmatch, conquest, etc). Both controls and basic tactics are taught throughout the storylines in campaign mode so that people new to the series, beginners, or people who enjoy storylines can have something besides online gameplay. Out of Lazzaro’s Four Keys this game falls under Hard Fun. This is due to taking on a plethora of enemies in the form of ground, air and water terrains from foot or vehicles. The game modes offer a variety of objectives to accomplish besides just “kill the enemy” and you are rewarded based on your performance. [Read more…]

Overview

No Man’s Sky is a sci-fi game released in August 2016 for PC and Playstation 4. It had enormous ambitions and came from a development team that had no previous comparable works. The game generated a lot of excitement from those anxious to play it, but on release, it became apparent that some of the features that had been directly promised and even shown in videos were very dumbed down or not present to begin with. This caused a backlash of criticism of massive proportions, tarnishing the game’s name and developers forever.

Since then, however, at the time of writing, there have been two major updates to No Man’s Sky, both providing a massive amount of new content while introducing very few and minor bugs. Additionally, different modes for different players were added apart from the standard normal mode; an extremely difficult “Survival” mode, and a creative mode where health and resources are infinite. For the purposes of this analysis, I will discuss the game in its current state in early April 2017 most prominently on normal mode, and ignore the features which were promised or planned that have yet to find their way into the game. [Read more…]

Tom Clancy’s The Division is based in Manhattan, New York after a viral outbreak has occurred. A mutated smallpox virus that was planted on money and sent through New York caused the viral outbreak. The city has lost all control and has been taken over by the corrupt. Thugs, gangs, rioters, escape convicts and the Cleaners, people from the NYC sanitation who believe everyone is infected and are out to ‘clean’ the city with their flamethrowers, are all in the way of bringing control back to the city.

Police forces and military personnel were sent in to take control but it was too much for them to handle. As the last chance of hope, sleeper agents were activated and brought in. These men and women are among the most elite and well-trained in the United States. They make up the task force known as The Division.

Upon arriving in NYC, you meet up with another division agent named Faye Lau. You and Lau are waiting as an aircraft full of the rest of The Division against approach. As the aircraft is landing, it is attacked and explodes. Killing everyone on board. It is now up to only you and Lau to take back the city but unfortunately, Lau was also injured in the explosion and cannot go into combat with you. She in turns acts as your source of intelligence and keeps you informed about what is happening in the city. [Read more…]

Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action role-playing video game. The story is post-apocalyptic and revolves around an archer hunter, Aloy. The world is overrun by robots and Aloy, being an outcast, sets out to discover the dangers that kept her sheltered. Aloy uses range, melee, and stealth tactics to combat the robots, which can be looted for resources. These resources are vital to Aloy’s survival and can be crafted.

The learning curve for Horizon Zero Dawn is shallow. It is very easy to pick up and doesn’t take long for the player to know what to do and how to do stuff. The crafting system in the game is also very easy to learn. Compared to Skyrim, Skyrim’s crafting system is a lot more complicated. The crafting system in Horizon Zero Dawn is as simple as picking something up and going to the crafting menu to see if you have all the resources to make what you want. Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t have any unneeded mechanics like Skyrim and this makes it very easy to pick up.

The graph below is a good representation of the learning curve of Horizon Dawn Zero. Once when the player picks up and learns how to play the game, the payer zips right through the rest of the game. Once when the player reaches level 35, the game plateaus and that is when the player is their best and can’t really advance anymoreany morell.

Horizon Zero Dawn incorporates decision making very well into the game. There are many different ways to play the game. The combat aspect of the game especially does this well. The player can use many different strategies to attack and can be successful no matter what strategy is used. The combat is fluid and fast with a vast arsenal of weapons to the player’s disposal. The attacks can be quick hits and straight forward, or the player can be stealthy and strategic.

The fact that the game is an open world, it allows for randomness to play a big role in the game. The randomness however does not affect the player’s skill as the player skill is very important to the success of the player.

The flow of the game is very well done. There are some parts of the game that get difficult as the game progresses, but that is to be expected since the skill of the player should be better. The game at any point does not get boring and is very good at keeping the player attached. So overall the flow of the game is perfect and incorporates player skill and difficulty really well.

The game does a really good job at following Koster’s Theory of Fun. The player is intently playing the game all the way through. Before the player finishes the game, the player learns almost everything there is to know about the game and all the mechanics. The game also incorporates Lazzaro’s four keys to fun which are: Hard fun, Easy fun, Serious fun, and People fun. Horizon Zero Dawn can be played in any of these terms depending on the player. The player has the choice to make it hard, easy, serious, and amusing and can also combine multiple at once. In Bartle Taxonomy of Player Types, Horizon Zero Dawn, can really be part of all four parts depending on how the player wants to play. The game really incorporates the “Killers”, “Achievers”, and “Explorers”, into the game.