Toy Soldiers Review

It’s the devastating war between Britain and Germany, World War 1 is being replicated with stunning realism with… wait a minute, these are toys? Fly toy biplanes, drive wind-up and go toy tanks and destroy the opposition’s men in what is one of the finest strategy-come-action games on Xbox, and it’s all part of House Party month.

Story

Think of this as World War I with your mum and dad’s (possibly gran/dad’s) toy collections replacing real weaponry. You’re faced with the challenge of defending your toy box from the opposition by means of force and utilising all the equipment at your disposal. Battles take place right over Europe as the German movement to capture and cease power continues to build up pace.

Gameplay

Right, storyline over now I get on to what really matters with regards to this game, and that’s all about the gameplay. First of all, this is one of those little unique twists on an old, tried and tested formula that we like so much here at Game Attic.

Although from appearance and your first introduction to the game, yes it looks remarkably similar in style to a standard Real-time-strategy game (place guns here, defend this position etc.), Toy Soldiers throws a spanner in the works by completely changing gameplay by allowing the player to control the placements and other assorted weaponry (such as tanks, planes) along the way.

What you effectively have here, is 2 games. Should you wish to leave your AI guys to it and would rather play commander from the sky, you can do so no problem. Doing so removes the soul from the game though as so much detail and attention has been paid to the design and workings of the weaponry, that it’s the source of most of the fun.

Along the way and as you progress further into the game, different weapons are available to be placed. You begin the game (normally) with a stable of cash that allows to take stock and sort yourself out with basic defences to stop the first advance from your enemy. With each kill (whether it be enemy placement, soldier, cavalry, tank, ‘choppers etc.) you get a cash reward that allows you to boost your defences by either upgrading or occupying another placement point dotted around your toy box.

In the later levels, you can leave your guys to defend your box on their own and you have to go beyond enemy lines in order to wipe out the enemies defences which are hampering your armies progression.

Enemies come in ‘waves’ which can be seen and ticked down at the top of the screen allowing you to prepare for the next onsalught. If you see planes a’coming, set up an anti-air turret immediately and such, up until the final enemy wave. Final waves sometimes conclude with a “boss battle”, which sees a standard piece of equipment jumbo-ised (it’s a word) and your task is to kill it dead, good luck as these things are BIG.

Graphics

The general presentation of the game can be altered by your own personal preferences. If you feel like going all old school, turn the film grain option to on and be absorbed into the dark ages of technology and development as the cavalry come charging towards you.

That – you may be glad to hear – is completely optional though. Other than the film grain this is a totally 2010 affair with beautifully detailed surroundings, well animated enemy attacks and deep detail on everything within eyesight.

What’s great though is the real sense of 1900’s toys and play time. The massive big “ROAR” tanks have little clockwork windy up bits on them, when enemies are shot, they don’t explode in a puddle of blood with limbs flying everywhere, they simply break into two. It’s charming and unique look extends to the sympathetic battlefields where these wars take place.

The battlefields are detailed, with ruts full of mud, puddles, barbed wire and the like and are distinctively war torn and ravaged, just as you expect them to be. Overall, it’s a triumph.

Sound

From the early war gramophone style menu and pause menu music echoing the ‘tunes’ of the generation, through to the gritty cries of a sniped soldier as he plummets to the ground, this isn’t toy-like at all.

Tanks sound mean and furious and the base weapons all sound mean-as, with satisfying ‘boom’ bellows and the like, filling the battlefield.  The infamous bugle “we’re coming!” starts every wave of advancement and an alert siren informs you of when an enemy is too close for comfort to entering your base.

It’s less unique and adventurous sound wise, but we can forgive it that simply for the way it plays.

Multiplayer

Take the battle online via Xbox live over 5 maps encompassing all the stuff you loved about single player including: taking bombing runs in a plane then flying into the enemies toy box without him even knowing, to blocking the road with a tank and screaming “YOU SHALL NOT PASS”, this can either be a serious strategy game fix for your Live arcade collection, or a mess around laugh fest (which is what it turned into for me).

If anything, it catches the fun and spirit of actual toy playing just for the digital revolution and ‘kids’ of the facebook generation. It’s simply too fun at times for words.

Summary

Well, what a shocker. From the first try I had with the trial to actually playing the full game was a massive leap. The increasing learning and difficulty curve will keep you busy and on your toes, whilst remaining challengly fun throughout. One of the greats of Xbox Live Arcade (I say that a lot right?) and proof that we’re going through a golden time of arcade classics. Buy without concern, it’s great.

Dante’s Inferno Review

Take control of Dante in his crusade to save Beatrice by entering and kicking seven shades of ‘you know what’ out of hell in an attempt to break free and save the trapped souls under control of the evil and sinister Lucifer keeping them there.

Story

Dante’s Inferno is heavily based on one man’s passage through the circles of hell in order to free Beatrice – his sweetheart who was cruely taken as bait into hell – and to defeat the entities representing the rulers of the 9 deadly sins, to ultimately take over the Throne of God.

Throughout the game, you will see your passage take the path echoing the 14th Century Poem – Divine Comedy – on which the story is based on. The allegory is the telling of Dante’s adventure through a medieval interpretation of what hell is and what it represents and sees him travel through the 9 circles of hell in order:

Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sullenness, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and ultimately, Betrayal.

Later in the game, Dante must face up to and ultimately fight his own sins in a tale of treachery, war crimes, family tragedies and more as his descent into the center of hell deepens and the pursuit to rescue his beloved reaches a stunning climax.

Graphics

Normally, the path in which my reviews go lead on to the gameplay side of things next, but the presentation and quality of the story telling in Dante’s Inferno is so impressive it needs to be addressed now.

All of the main story developments are presented using a 3 tier mix of in game cutscenes (all of which have production values so high, they could be mistaken for real life), a cartoon-come-story board presentation similar to an historical timeline and a fully fleged animation.

It’s this stunning attention to detail and depth to the story telling that is ultimately the main feature selling point to Dante’s Inferno. WIthout a doubt, you’ll have your breath taken away in the opening scenes and hooked to the end because of it.

In game graphics continue the high quality theme as the journey through the 9 circles deepens and your crusade picks up pace, the action and environments react accordingly and with each increment in difficulty along your path, the tasks and challenges, enemies and puzzles reflect in a deeper, darker and more sinister presentation of your surroundings.

Boiling blood, fire effects are all impressive, but are dwarfed in comparison to the sense of scale both of the levels and in the size of the main ‘entities’ (think of these as ‘end of level’ bosses) and their respective attitude’s.

All in all, it’s bloody beautiful. Animation is slick, environments seedy, shiny and highly detailed and polished to a squeaky clean sheen and it genuinely pushes the limit of the 360 in terms of the stunning FMV interludes.

Gameplay

Think of this as the ultimate mix of hack ‘n’ slash, adventure, mini RPG and story telling and you’re pretty much there.

The standard mix of spam ‘x’ button and press ‘a’ to jump to kill and fly and jump from swinging vine to swinging vine idea is all present, mixed in with opportunities to scale and ride the larger enemies to either ‘absolve’ or ‘punish’ them by shoving your fabled cross in their face or by slashing them in half respectively by doing on screen commands (such as push the analogue sticks in opposite directions at the right time, or by mashing ‘b’).

Throughout the game, you’ll have the opportunity to develop the way in which you play with the introduction of magic and expanding your arsenal and killer moves by collecting souls and exchanging them as a sort of in game currency in order to progress further.

You also have the ability to rank up a good and an evil side by either rescuing souls at the appropriate times or by punishing them. Doing so much of one or the another allows your XP to rise in order to ultimately rank up and unlock the more advanced abilities depending on your play style.

Puzzles are a regular occurence and are often based and feature the same principles as the previous ones, such as: drag this block to hold this object up, or shove the block up to make an easier platform to jump up etc.  There’s no serious head scratching moments, it’s just simply a break up of the never ending slaughtering of the ever increasing amount and size of enemies throughout the game.

All objective or point of interests throughout the levels are highlighted by a spinning circle allowing you to grab, jump to, swing from, slide down or pull (ie. switches) and any interesting fixed objects that are able to be destroyed glow and flash in order for you to swing your scythe at in order to reveal new pathways.

It’s a simple game, but very enjoyable and for a hack and slash newbie like me, the storyline drove the game forward at a perfect pace and was complimentary to the simple gameplay design.

Sound

From the menacing screams of tortured souls or the desperate plees for help while climbing the walls within hell, the representation of hell is one of a pain and suffering.

Excellent voice acting throughout the game, whether via in game action or cutscenes adds to the sense of high production values. Dramatic tense undertones in the background whilst playing, through to the mechanical movements of stairways, chain lifts and creaking statues all add to the sense of depth and scale of hell.

To summarise the audio quality and cinematics, they’re complimentary to the proceeding comments on graphics, without being outstanding. Great voice acting talent is a genuinely pleasant addition.

Summary

Dante’s Inferno is an epic depiction of one man’s travel through hell using stunning graphics and simple to pick up and play game controls so everybody can enjoy and feel pro whilst gorging on it.

If a little short and some what lacking in replay-ability, the game is a must play for fans of such series as Devil May Cry and God of War, and whilst some fans of the forementioned series’ may feel that this is a blatant ‘rip’ of their favourite franchises, they can relax fully in the knowledge that this can sit comfortably next to them due to the quality and attention to detail Visceral Games have added to it.

Lost in Nightmares Review

Lost in Nightmares is the first of four DLC releasing this year for Resident Evil 5. The next bit of extra content containing extra chapters is called Desperate Escape which is coming out early March and the 2 other packs I mentioned are costumes packs. All can be found here. I have decided to purchase all the DLC because I have had Resi 5 since launch but coming out on March 9th is Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition which contains all the DLC on the disc. Each DLC costs 400 and the Costume Packs are priced at 160.

Lost in Nightmares is a new chapter that shows one of Chris and Jill’s old missions, it is not very long. On Amateur it took me 20-25 minutes but on Veteran it took me well over an hour. The mission takes place in Ozwell E. Spencer’s (Founder of Umbrella) mansion and it looks exactly like the one off the first Resident Evil. As soon as I started I was taken back to when I first played Resident Evil and it felt brilliant. The first half of this DLC takes place in the main part of mansion and you don’t have much combat, more running around finding pieces of paper and a crank.

There are a few boss fights later on but they seem to have re used a boss of the Resident Evil 5 storyline, of course the boss has had a few mild changes. When it got to final confrontation I was actually surprised it was ending, it was just starting to get better. After you have finished Lost in Nightmares you have the chance to give Mercenaries Reunion a go. This is basically Mercenaries but with different characters such as the famous Barry Burton and the evil Excella Gionne, unfortunately not in her Urboros state.

I have put a few hours into the new Mercenaries mode and I am still enjoying it. I need to finish Lost in Nightmares on Professional mode still and this time I will run through as Jill because as soon as you complete it once on any difficulty you get the option to choose Chris or Jill which is nice as some people do prefer Jill. This is also like the first game where you also there had the option between Jill and Chris.

I love the Resident Evil series and Resident Evil 5 did deliver. This DLC is a great addition, it’s just a bit disappointing how short it is and that it could have been much longer. I would not recommend buying this DLC unless you play Resident Evil 5 on a regular basis. I hope Desperate Escape is just that little bit longer when it comes out next month.

8/10