Witch Way

Last week I wrote about my love for the recently PC ported release of the strange but fabulous Bayonetta.  I'm happy to report that I am still joyfully mashing buttons, torturing the various minions of Paradiso, and screaming obscenities at myself for my inability to avoid attacks that I should know are coming.  This time around I am playing on the "hard" setting and wondering when my total lack of skill will become a roadblock to progression.  It hasn't happened yet...hurrah!

This week I thought I would share some helpful hints and poke fun at my pathetic leather-clad witching skills.

Each level includes stages which are wittily referred to as "verses."  Some verses are fights against the weaker variety of angels while others are boss fights.  At the end of each level you receive an award based upon your score on several different areas--how many times you died, how many items you used, the amount of time it took you to complete the level, and the amount of damage that you took.  If you do well you will receive bonus haloes in payment for your amazing performance.  This is how I have done:

There's plenty of Enzo to go around.

That's right....I got one gold statue on the very first and easiest level in normal mode.  Gold isn't even the top trophy!  I also managed to scrape out a silver trophy on the second level of hard.  Yep, I'm that good.  I've gotten used to the goofy sound of the stone Enzo trophy being presented at the end of each level.

Avoiding damage is my main downfall.  Even after having played through it once I STILL manage to get clocked.  Stupid reaction time!  I will give about .01% of the blame to the camera--I am bad about mashing the ALT button to recenter the camera and usually end up with a horde of angry angels standing just out of frame winding up a series of devastating attacks.

It is recommended to play Bayonetta on PC with a controller.  I laugh at your recommendation!  Plus, I don't have a controller.  Playing with the mouse and keyboard isn't undoable and the controls are actually decent.  It does take a little bit to get used to mashing LSHIFT (dodge) with your pinkie finger.  Here's a handy tip--turn off sticky keys.  I'm not even sure why I had this option still tagged but got really annoyed at constantly being booted to the desktop to be asked why I was hitting SHIFT so often.

The sweet magic of the chainsaw attack.

Somehow in my first playthrough (on normal) I missed almost all the Alfheim portals.  If you see a shining, golden circle on the ground you should go check it out.  Alfheim portals offer a series of different challenges for players to complete.  You may attempt those challenges as many times as you like and they will provide a reward--either a broken witch heart or a broken moon pearl--upon completion.  Each challenge has its own set of requirements--one challenge requires you to stay in the air for 30 seconds, another one presents a group of enemies that must be defeated within a certain amount of time, and another can only be competed by using a certain number of attacks.  These challenges are no joke....I have spent hours trying to complete some of them.  I've also probably disturbed my neighbors with the amount of yelling that I usually do.  Alfheim portals are tough!

I have discovered that there is a great deal of replayability in Bayonetta.  I confidently strode into my second playthrough thinking that this time would be a breeze since I would face the same enemies but had the experience of knowing their attacks.  WRONG!  So, so wrong....  On Hard you will face the same levels, but with new, harder enemies injected into each one.  Even the bosses seem to have slightly altered attacks that make them more difficult than they already are.

My least favorite enemy to face is the deadly duo of Glorious & Gracious.  Having to fight two of those little suckers at the same time is tough.  Either through design or my own total incompetence you cannot trigger Witch Time while fighting them.  My strategy in fighting them is constantly tapping dodge and praying for a torture attack so I can whittle one down quickly and then focus on number two.  Sometimes I get lucky and that series of attacks happens.  Mostly I just die a lot.

You can find Bayonetta on Steam for $19.99--which is a great price for a game that is truly enjoyable.  Someday I will get better at it.....likely I will just keep dying an obscene number of times and yelling at my computer.

I Never Knew

When it comes to my gaming choices I tend to veer towards the old familiar genres of my comfort zone--the carpal tunnel numbness of mad-clicking ARPG's, the life sucking 100 hour playthroughs of the modern RPG, a stylishly popular indie about something socially relevant, and possibly a little strategy.  Every once in awhile I decide to veer from this decidedly rote path and play something a little out of my ordinary.  Sadly, this choice had led me to some games that have remained firmly parked in my library with little to no play time (I'm looking at you Spelunky).  This time around I think I stumbled on a real gem though...and it's not even in a genre or type of game that I'm comfortable admitting that I play.  I never knew I wanted to be a sexy, British accented witch from hell, but thanks to Bayonetta my horizons have been broadened.

I'm pretty sure I've posted this same statement several times on my blog--I'm not really into anime or anime style games.  I'm so not really into it that I've actually disabled "anime" as a tag on my Steam discovery feed (for awhile there it seemed like there were many, many variations of the hot anime girls in tiny costumes and impossibly large boobs type of games inundating my queue--all thanks to playing The Valkyria Chronicles and Steam deciding that one game was enough to decide that I needed to see every new anime game in the store).  When Bayonetta started popping up on the top seller list on Steam I scoffed at yet another weird anime game.  Here's where I admit how wrong I was--Bayonetta is the perfect combination of fun yet challenging combat, quirkiness, and complete irreverence.  You should buy it....now!

One of the many irreverent moments sprinkled throughout Bayonetta.

Bayonetta was originally released as a console-only game seven years ago.  The PC port and release seemed to be a surprise--I only read about it because it kept popping up on some of the PC gaming threads that I follow.

In Bayonetta you play as a time-bending, lollipop sucking, leather-clad, witch who is recovering from a bad case of amnesia.  You shouldn't think of the traditional "broomstick" type of witch--Bayonetta is a lithe, martial artist who can manipulate time.  Oh and she also has guns attached to her high heels.  And can perform powerful magical attacks using her hair....which can transform into giant monsters.  Yup, it's kind of weird--but it's also wicked fun.

The combat in Bayonetta is probably the best part of the game.  Bayonetta herself is locked in some sort of eternal struggle against the forces of heaven and is constantly fending off attacks by the various (really weird) minions of Paradiso.  Combat is based on combination attacks executed by artfully timed punches and kicks.  The really unique aspect of the combat is the ability to perform a perfectly timed dodge which results in entering what is known as "witch time"--a state of temporarily slowed time that allows players to crank out powerful combo attacks.  As players complete these combos, Bayonetta's magical attack meter fills up.  If the correct combo is performed she will use a unique, powerful magic attack.  There are other times in combat where players have the option of perform "torture" attacks that utilize a variety of torture devices and mad-clicking to determine their effectiveness.  I still haven't figured out exactly what triggers the option to use a torture attack.  After you've stylishly slain your way through masses of smaller enemies you will reach the true crux of combat--the boss fight.  The bosses in Bayonetta tend to be giant monstrosities that take a few tries to figure out.  These long, drawn out battles are frustrating but oh so satisfying to finish.

The level of stylish cinematics and downright silliness balance each other out perfectly.  There are moments where I am in awe of Bayonetta performing a crazy move and then there are others where I am rolling my eyes at cheesy dialogue.  If anything, it's a game that doesn't take itself too seriously.  In the middle of a fight you might grab an enemy and get the option to "punish" it and mash the punch button to repeatedly slam it into the ground.  Bayonetta's moves are part martial arts and part stripper--it's a really weird combination.

Something I really enjoyed that might seem silly is Bayonetta's ability to "witch walk."  Witch walking can only take place when the moon is visible and allows her to walk across any surface--at several points throughout the game you have to navigate the sides of buildings or wind your way up a nauseating spiral tower.  Even though the game is linear this feature adds an entirely new dimension to some boss fights and different parts of the story.

My one major gripe is the camera and it's inability to stay in the right place.  This has been a long time issue for me with many console style games.  It's a little irritating to have the camera lodge itself in a location where you can't see the enemies you are fighting.  The camera movement isn't the worst I've ever dealt with, but it can be annoying.

At first glance Bayonetta might appear to be a tits n' ass punch em' up--it's true, there are definite aspects of that, but if you push past you will find yourself in the midst of a really bizarre story punctuated by genuinely fun bursts of combat.  It's unlike anything I've ever played and I don't regret buying it for one second.

Mindless Fun

After finishing up a fairly long Mass Effect:  Andromeda playthrough I felt the soul crushing reality of a game hole--you know, that feeling where you have nothing to play while you are staring at your 149 game Steam library.  Luckily, before the real mania set in, I remembered that I had bought the ARPG Grim Dawn while it was on sale right before Andromeda dropped.  Since most ARPG's share almost identical mechanics and controls it was easy to dive right back in.  There's something highly enjoyable about ARPG's that I don't really understand--maybe it's the concept of effortlessly slaying armies of evil or maybe it's the mountain o' loot that you collect along the way...or possibly the enjoyment of gearing up a character to make them into an almost invincible wrecking ball of destruction--ARPG's are their own special kind of fun.

At first glance Grim Dawn felt extremely similar to Diablo III--a great calamity has befallen the world and threatens to destroy it.  You play as the hero who is tasked with figuring out how to prevent the world from being taken over by the forces of evil.  It's a tale as old as time (sorry Beauty and the Beast--you lose).  Now that I've played more than a couple of hours I've realized that even with plot similarities that there are some intriguing mechanics present in Grim Dawn.  I'm positive that I have no idea how these mechanics work and that I am probably stumbling around blindly whacking things with my shaman stick.

My shaman taking on the Cthonian blood cult.

The class system in Grim Dawn offers several standard choices--you can sword and board as a soldier; opt for some dual-wielding stabby action as a nightblade; or fling spells as an arcanist (there are several others too).  Because I am the most boring person on the planet I opted for my standard "carry a big stick and whack things" class, which oddly happens to be a shaman.  The shaman class offers the ability to wield a two-handed weapons and to unleash the powers of nature.  You might be thinking...that doesn't sound like anything special..but, it gets even weirder (or better depending on your perspective).  Somewhere around level 10-15 players are given the ability to pick a second class.  Once you pick that second class you can choose to put talent points in abilities for either class.  This allows for the creation of very unique hybridized classes.  My shaman could feasibly take arcanist talents and not only give a mad beatdown, but fling fireballs at groups of zombies.  Even though I am a coward and haven't been brave enough to put points into the non-shaman trees, the versatility of talents and builds is very unique.

Along with the talent points there is also the "devotion" system which allows players to put points into specific constellations and add damage or stat bonuses.  Scattered around the map are shrines where players can either make offerings of one of the many item enhancements that drop or they can cleanse a desecrated shrine and fight a large group of baddies.  Once those actions have been completed points can be allocated to the deity/constellation of choice.  Completing entire constellations offers larger bonuses than scattering points over many different ones and can also offer unique abilities.  One constellation I picked will randomly pop up a cluster of poisoned spines that can damage clusters of enemies.  I've mainly put my points in the constellations that offer more physical and lightning damage since that is the meat and potatoes of the shaman class.  Like the talent system, the devotion system also gives players the option to create a very unique build for whatever style of play they choose.

One part of Grim Dawn that I am enjoying is the large variety of settings within the game.  My hero has wandered through ruined villages fighting hordes of the undead, traversed across ruined fields infested by giant, poisonous insects; and trekked through the blood-filled corridors of the sinister, Cthonian cult.  At no time have I had the feeling that I had seen a particular area, cave, or pattern before--maybe it's the fact that I've played a boatload of Diablo III, but I am enjoying the fact that things feel fresh and not like cave #43 which is being repopulated with enemies.

A few pointers--#1 Make sure that your hero eats any food or food rations that they find.  I learned the hard way that the transparent yellow bar over the health bar represents how recently you've eaten and is tied to your health regeneration.  If you don't eat and that yellow bar goes away you will find that your health regenerates at a cripplingly slow rate.  Finding food while in the field is not usually difficult--it's when you enter a cave, fort, dungeon, or other blue glowy entranced place that food can be scarce.

#2--There's no shame in running away and letting your health regenerate.  Many of the bosses you find around the map hit like Mack trucks.  Rather than just stepping up and getting whacked around, try to plan out attacks where you can dart in, land a few blows, and then dart out to let your health regen or to pop a health potion.  Unless you're playing on veteran or elite difficulty, bosses won't regenerate health.

#3--It's a good idea to pop a rift every few minutes.  I'm really bad about doing this and as a result I've had to run the equivalent of a video game marathon to get my character back to where I died.  Opening rifts when you are in the aforementioned blue glowy places is a must.  I would also recommend popping a rift whenever you see an enemy boss.  This is me admitting that I die all the time.

Even though every ARPG feels a little familiar I still love the accompanying carpal tunnel from mindless button mashing.  Grim Dawn adds some new elements and mechanics to the genre while maintaining the recognizable features that we all know and love.  Keep on mashin'.

Pathfound--Andromeda Thoughts

After some very intense Andromeda playtime, I have just finished my first playthrough.  I have ardently tried to avoid reading other reviews or articles so I wouldn't be influenced and that my thoughts would be as original as possible.  If you want this to be my review...fine, it can be a review.

Maybe Ryder will find a better story?

Mass Effect:  Andromeda Spoilers ahead!  Read with caution!

Now that my journey has ended I have to say that I feel a little underwhelmed with the story.  Alright...a lot underwhelmed.  Maybe it was the fact that there was a lot going on--you're trying to explore and settle a new galaxy as well as fight off a major galactic threat in the form of the kett.  When I got to the last mission it just didn't really feel like the whole Meridian thing was really much of a focal point--the entire exploration and colonization process was much more of a focus.  Then, before I realized it, I had won the day and saved the galaxy....and it wasn't really that exciting.  There weren't even any really big cliffhangers to make you feel excited for the next game!

Did I hate Andromeda?  Am I raving for a refund?  Not really.  I enjoyed certain aspects of the game, but I found that the core part of what makes a Mass Effect game has been severely limited in favor of much shallower gameplay related themes.  My playthrough clocked in at 92 hours--I tried to complete all the side missions but not necessarily all the "tasks."  In my gentle guesstimate, I would say that about 40 hours were strictly story/character related while the rest was exploration.  To me Mass Effect has always been about it's compelling story, characters, and writing.  This time around I just didn't feel like those areas were much of a focus.  I always enjoyed the times on the Normandy when Shepard would wander around and get to know the "team."  There were plenty of chances to chat up and really get to know your people...and that made them special.  I didn't feel that same connection to the crew this time around and felt like those interactions were limited.  I'm sure there are some people who thought that was the boring part of Mass Effect, but I always loved it.  Andromeda tried to capture those same feelings and it just didn't come off the same way due to the lack of interaction.  Liam's "movie night" mission felt...weird and like they were trying to recapture the magic of Shepard and the crew in the Citadel DLC, but with none of the character development.

Previously I had written about my disappointment that there were virtually no connections to the previous game.  I take that back--there is an explanation about the Reapers and the Milky Way but it takes place pretty late in the story.  One big cliffhanger that I am curious about is this mysterious "benefactor."  Could it possibly be Cerberus?  Who else would have the funding to push a huge mission like the Andromeda Initiative?  It has to be!

One part of Andromeda that I did enjoy was the combat.  I chose to make my Ryder a biotic of the more combo-prone variety (not vanguard style).  There was something highly entertaining about floating a group of kett in a singularity or with pull and then angling the combo detonator just right and watching them get launched into the atmosphere (although this could be annoying if they actually lived and came trekking back).  The fact that there are more enemy types, and that you really have to be prepared to move, is a big change for the series.

The best parts of Andromeda are the parts that have always been done well in Mass Effect--the loyalty missions and the story-based missions.  If only they had spent more time developing more stuff like that rather than the exploration or crafting system (which I've decided is fairly useless)!  I'm going to stick with my earlier analysis that Andromeda felt like someone was pasting little pieces of past games together to try to make a new picture and structure for it.  Within all those little bits are some good bits, but they are surrounded by a lot of other unneeded bits that you have to wade through.

If there's a future for Mass Effect, I hope they go back to the roots of what made the series a favorite for so many people--stellar storytelling and character development.

UPDATE:  4/8/17
I wrote the above immediately after I finished the game...then I went and read the other reviews that I had been avoiding.  Many of them saw a lot of the same flaws that I did but also pointed out some things that now that I think of them I completely agree with.

1.) Somewhere along the line a decision was made to take out the whole Paragon/Renegade character aspect.  When I first read about it I thought..."hmm, maybe that's a good thing."  As a player you were sort of forced into these two archetypes--the heroic Paragon or the ruthless Renegade--and could mold your decisions around fitting into that role.  After thinking about it more, it was at least something that gave you some variety and some depth of character.  Often your actions could reflect a simple decision, but they could also be something really huge--like in ME3 where you can choose to shoot Mordin rather than letting him administer the cure for the genophage.  Andromeda takes away those options--sure, you could say that they are still present in the form of the few cutscenes where you are given an option to quickly "click" an action--but it's not the same.  I wish more development had gone into keeping that system but expanding it--they added symbols to the dialogue wheel (ala Dragon Age II) why couldn't we have some dialogue choices that allow Ryder to make some wisecracks or to be a hard ass or to be that iconic hero?  I think Ryder would be a much better character with that ability to personify him/her into the type of character you want.  I miss the old blue/red choices and the variety they brought to the games.

2.) There were so many parts of Andromeda that felt like someone simply cut and pasted parts of the old Mass Effect into this new world of Heleus.  To a point I can somewhat understand it--if the Reapers are truly a system-wide phenomenon then it's believable that Heleus could be subject to the cycle of re-birth and eventual destruction just like the Milky Way.  In that sense, you could have the remains of former civilizations present.  But did that civilization have to be an almost exact match with the concept of the Protheans?  And really, that's just the beginning of the similarities.

I get it that you need some core parts of the game to remain the same--I'm cool with the whole ship and team aspect, but you can't just re-hash the same story in a different way!  (Or maybe you can--look at the 5 billion Superman/Spiderman/Batman movies out there)  I guess what I'm saying is that I would've liked something new--why couldn't the story have revolved around the settlement aspect?  That on each planet you have a story that revolves around its settlement and that the choices you make impact how the settlement turns out.  Once, literally once, you choose what type of settlement you want to establish--either scientific or military.  Why does it need to be carte blanche?  Why couldn't we have more options that could be based around the needs of the entire initiative?  Maybe you get to choose to make some settlements industrial--maybe like a mining colony on planets with rich minerals--or a military colony on planets like Voeld where there is the constant threat of Kett invasion.

3.) One review I read was actually pretty positive (my first thought was "did you actually play the other games?") and especially sang the praises of Ryder's crew.  I somewhat agree with parts of that.  Personally I felt like there was one standout on the crew--namely PeeBee--while the rest of the crew was extremely bland.  PeeBee is a great character and one who I enjoyed taking along all the time.  Part of that was influenced by the fact that I felt like there were a lot more opportunities to interact with PeeBee than with the other crew members.  She's a big part of the opening of the main storyline and then seems to have several character based quests where the others really don't have as much involvement.

The rest of the crew....well, were a little disappointing.  I had high hopes for Cora Harper; at first glance she has so much working for her--a badass haircut and a past working as the one human member of a joint species Asari commando squad--she has to have some amazing stories, right?  Wrong.  She has literally zero entertaining stories about her time doing something that almost no other humans have ever done!  That was a huge missed opportunity.  Even when you delve into her loyalty mission the most you learn about her is that she basically hero worships the Asari (and then, like in previous games, learns that they aren't all they are cracked up to be).

With a much greater focus and some better writing this crew could be salvaged and turned into a genuinely interesting bunch.  I am still unclear about what Suvi Anwar's role even was on the crew--co-pilot?  Science officer?  Designated Irish accent character?  Gil Brodie, who I am pretty sure is the one gay character on the crew, also confused me.  He talks and talks and talks about his friend Jill whose job is literally to get people to have kids--that is an interesting job, and another chance for some good and possibly funny storytelling to take place--and toward the end of the game he gets to make this huge choice about having a baby with Jill.  That seems like the type of decision that would warrant some very serious discussions--but you talk about it once!  One time!  Then he's like "yeah, I'm having a kid."Ohhhkay.

4.)  The inability to command your companions in combat is huge and their AI is abysmally bad.  I loved, loved, LOVED the ability to set up combos with my squadmates in the original trilogy.  Wham, bam, suck it Cerberus!  But now, it's mostly up to Ryder to make these combos happen.  Add to this the fact that unless you directly order them to attack a certain target your companions spend most of their time standing around...in weird places...getting shot in the face.  In the old games I would pick my companions based around who had the combat abilities that were most beneficial for a specific type of enemy.  In Andromeda I picked PeeBee and someone else because your companions are there for more entertainment value than for actual combat usefulness.  Ryder is the juggernaut (but should he/she really be?) who destroys everything while his/her companions are merely target dummies that somewhat conveniently soak up bullets.

5.) Romance.  It's a part of the Mass Effect series that some people absolutely enjoy and others could probably do without.  I opted to go with the lamest choice for my lady Ryder--Liam--and it, like Liam himself, was very bland.  There isn't even the signature last mission awkward sex scene!  I'm also not so sure how I feel about the ability to "hook up" with random crew members--PeeBee offers some escape pod fun, which I gracefully turned down in loyalty to Liam.  Maybe it's a sign of maturity that the game is offering characters with a wide range of relationship options.  It makes sense to me that some might be more open to a simple "hook up" while there are others who want to develop something deeper.  But there's this other part of me that thinks that it's something that we didn't really need and that it's just another shallow distractor.

Wow, this sort of turned into a rant.  I didn't hate Andromeda, I just feel like the series is morphing into this bland template of what people think a game needs to be (i.e. open world, multiplayer, combat heavy/story light).  It makes me sad to see the series losing its luster.