Gaming – Angelica Wallingford

New Spider-Man video game impresses

Coming off the massive hits at the box office, the folks at Marvel decided to dust off the controller and team up with Insomniac Games and Sony PlayStation to revisit the world of gaming. What could have been an insufferable, generic superhero gaming experience was made into an immersive, nearly flawless game that’s sure to be the textbook superhero game for years to come.

At face value, “Spider-Man” feels like just another chapter in the epic of Peter Parker’s life. Donning his signature blue and red suit, you weave through the streets of New York stopping villains and saving civilians from harm.

What the player gets is an immersive experience that just doesn’t compete with any one of the myriad of “Spider-Man” games, or even films, that have been released over the past two decades.

Where this games succeeds the most, and what most of the games and films in the series failed to do, was capture the essence of what it is to be Spider-Man. It takes off the proverbial spider mask and shows the iconic superhero for who he truly is: a guy trying to balance his life out and do the right thing. On one hand he’s a tough crime fighter taking down New York’s criminal elite; on the other he’s dealing with things that everyone struggles with: love, family, career and mortality.

The game starts with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, equipped with his signature sassy comebacks and a popular social media account, taking selfies at death-defying heights and mingling with the people of New York, all while keeping the city safe. His day job is working as an assistant for Dr. Otto Octavius, a scientist experiencing a fall from grace due to immense jealousy and guilt from his former friendship with Mayor Norman Osborn.

Other well-known characters from the franchise’s past include Peter’s beloved aunt May, former-Daily-Bugle-editor-turned-conspiracy-theorist-radio-host J. Jonah Jameson and Parker’s love interest Mary Jane Watson, who’s a reporter with a penchant for getting caught in Spider-Man’s web of enemies.

The boss fights are something to behold. They don’t feel like a series of standard ones from past video games. It feels like an actual fight, not a series of code that reacts to a particular attack. While the first major boss fight, featuring an angry and charging Kingpin, was a generic combat tutorial at best, the rest bring an atypical experience, which highlights the game’s fluid combat system.

The momentum doesn’t stop when you move from the fan favorite villains to common street criminals. The way the player moves from villain to villain is an excellent exhibition of flawless fluidity that the game captures so well. This style of combat feels more at home in “Spider-Man” than it did in another stellar superhero gaming classic, “Arkham Knight.” While Batman is just as idolized as Spider-Man, the parkour laced combat moves feel more at home with Spidey than they do with the Dark Knight.

The inclusion of Mr. Negative is a welcome surprise and interesting turn from the usual selection of Spider-Man’s cavalcade of villains. In this incarnation, Mr. Negative, AKA Martin Li, is aiming to take over Kingpin’s territory and using the deadly Devil’s Breath virus to do it. While our web-slinging hero stops him, the effects the virus leaves has consequences felt throughout the rest of the game concluding with an epic rooftop fight against Spider-Man’s mentor-turned-madman Otto Octavius, now known as Doctor Octopus.

Aside from the main missions, sleuthing with MJ and the next incarnation of Spidey, Miles Morales provides a refreshing break from beating up bad guys. Another high point is stripping off the iconic spider suit and playing as Peter Parker, the scientist. The mini games include gene splicing, chemical arrangement and circuit puzzles that range from absurdly easy to so difficult you’re practically close to throwing your controller across the room.

Where the game falls flat, is when it comes to innovating the open-world format. “Spider-Man” utilizes age-old tropes and while they are familiar to anyone who has played any open-world game, they become repetitive fast. The side missions could become monotonous after a while, but they don’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the game.

However, while the open world doesn’t provide any groundbreaking features, it’s the perfect medium to highlight the stellar web-swinging. It’s your main mode of transportation and it’s the best way to navigate from mission to mission around the vast landscape and tall buildings.

Despite its few shortcomings, “Spider-Man” succeeds in providing an in-depth story which immerses the player in every aspect of Peter Parker’s world.. With the fluid combat system, multitude of mission and stellar graphics, this game is well worth picking up the controller for a few hours and swinging through the city.

Originally published in the Daily Aztec in September 2018.

GAMING REVIEW: ‘Sonic Forces’ brings a new twist to an old classic

Following the events of the 16-bit masterpiece “Sonic Mania,” SEGA and Sonic Team have bounced back from a slew of epic 3D failures with “Sonic Forces,” a fun, action packed, multi-console platformer that is one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog games that has been released in recent years.

The plot of “Sonic Forces” sounds like it comes straight from a Sonic fanboy’s fanfiction. After a plethora of attempts the hilariously evil Dr. Eggman has finally taken over the world and it’s up to the resistance, led surprisingly by Knuckles, everyone’s favorite endangered echidna, to stop them and bring peace to the world. Sounds like a somewhat typical “Sonic” game right?

Not necessarily.

The one element “Forces” brings that is unlike other games in the franchise is that Sonic and pals are helped out by a very unusual and unexpected character–you.

The introduction to the player’s custom character, aptly named the Rookie, is rather interesting. After playing through the first level of the game Sonic is captured by Dr. Eggman and his ruthless regime of antagonists from games past, along with new resident bad guy Infinite. Resident tech geek Miles “Tails” Prower tells the rest of the resistance that a new member is joining and that’s when the player is taken to the customization screen.

Adding “you” as the third playable character was a bit of a hit-and-miss. While it’s great that SEGA added this element to the game, at times it feels as if it’s just playing as an off-brand third-world knockoff of Sonic blasting through stages with various accessories. The accessories, called “Wispons,” can make the original character overpowered, which takes the Rookie and turns them into the overpowered MVP of the entire game.

Along with the same ragtag group of fan favorites of games past in the resistance, Classic Sonic comes from his dimension to aid them in their hour of need. For most of the game users play as Classic Sonic, Modern Sonic and the Rookie and face-off against villains that include Zavok from “Sonic Lost World,” masked newcomer Infinite, and perhaps the most unsuccessfully hilarious video game villain of all time, Dr. Eggman.

Then we get to what was one of the biggest teases in the game that sort of delivers: Shadow the Hedgehog. What makes Shadow such a great character, especially in “Forces,” is that players actually get a backstory. The free downloadable content, titled “Episode Shadow,” acts as a prequel for “Forces,” letting the “you” play through three stages of storyline that adds some context to the game.

Ironically, “Episode Shadow” actually provides players with more of a challenge than “Forces” does. Even though the downloadable content is somewhat harder to play than the main game, it’s really fun, especially since this is the first time in several years that the fan favorite has been a playable character in a “Sonic” game.

A highlight of the game is that players get an introduction to “Forces” main antagonist, Infinite, and see what became of Shadow’s closest, albeit reluctant, comrades Rouge the Bat and robot E-123 Omega.

One of the biggest flaws of “Forces” is that there is no epic Shadow vs. Sonic boss fight. Instead players get Shadow defeating a clone of himself that Dr. Eggman created to aid in his world domination. It’s not the worst thing in the world but if SEGA and Sonic Team were going to tease this battle-for-the-ages boss fight then they should have delivered.

The levels are gorgeous to look at. The vibrantly colored Green Hill Zone that was once filled with flora and fauna is now reduced to sand dunes and crumbling structures, which was a nice break from the norm. However, after playing title after title with Green Hill Zone as the first level, it’s time for a shake up from the usual nostalgia and have something a little different to kick off the game.

Most of the stages, including the beautifully designed Metropolis, flow seamlessly from the standard Sonic 2D side scrolling to 3D without making the transition awkward.

Initially, the gameplay is relatively short if players just doing the bare minimum of simply completing the game. However, the addition of SOS missions, daily missions and the thrill of getting trophies, or achievements on XBOX and PC, makes “Forces” prime for long-term replayability, especially after players complete the main storyline.

Completing daily missions is also a great way to get more accessories to deck out one’s custom character to give them more power-ups and generally make them look as cool as possible.

The mechanics of the games are straightforward: complete the stages, 37 total, as fast as one possibly can, pick up rings along the way and defeat the enemies. It’s that simple.

Taking one’s time with stages is fine if the player is new to the series or are obsessively trying to 100 percent the game, but it’s a Sonic the Hedgehog game—the objective is to complete the stage as fast as possible.

His theme song has the lyrics “fastest thing alive” for a reason. An awesome bonus is that depending on how fast one completes a stage, they get ranked with players from all around the world to see how they stack up to other fans playing the game.

Another difference from other titles in the series is that the rings, which are normally used to help players not die during stages, are used as a means to boost one’s score as well as serve the function of not losing a life.

What that means is there is technically no system for how many lives you have with this game and that there is no “game over.” Players can technically can keep playing a stage until they beat it or gather all of the bonuses, although it will affect one’s ending score in a negative light and turn what would have been an S-rank to a C-rank in just a matter of seconds.

Each level has recommended Wispons, items that correspond to various colorful alien power-up from “Sonic Colors,” to use for that particular stage. Its basic function is to help the player find an alternate route, collect rings and other non-essential items. However, even though the Wispons are there for the players use, they are not essential to complete the stage.

Although the game is really fun, it can be heavily automated and repetitive at times. At its core “Sonic Forces” is just like any other “Sonic” game.

Players finish stages, beat down bad guys, collect rings and, spoiler alert, defeat the “A for effort” antagonist Dr. Eggman and Infinite to save what remains of the world from complete destruction. There is also the issue of the stages being really short. There are certain stages where players can really get sucked in, only for it to end a few short moments later.

The boss fights are also hit and miss. With the exception of Zavok and Infinite boss fights the rest of them, particularly the ones with Dr. Eggman, feel somewhat repetitive and like players are rehashing a boss fight from a previous game rather than providing the gamers with a new experience. Then there’s also the issue of not fighting fan favorite villains like Chaos from “Sonic Adventure” or Shadow, which was heavily teased before the game’s release.

Despite “Forces” being just another “Sonic” game, it’s a really entertaining and enjoyable experience that both hardcore Sonic fans and non-Sonic fans would appreciate.

Is it perfect? No, far from it, but it does give players hours upon hours of mind numbing enjoyment that Sonic Team has been lacking with previous titles.

The story, gameplay, soundtrack and characters provide gamers with a visually dynamic and amusing experience that can extend way beyond the main storyline and provide gamers with endless hours of fun.

Originally published in The Daily Aztec in November 2017.

Everybody plays: A look at video games’ most outspoken critic, why her arguments for change of gender tropes are misguided

To advocate for an issue that you’re passionate about is admirable, however, to demonize an entire group of people in the name of the issue your advocating for is completely and utterly wrong.

Take that mindset and apply it to one of the most controversial pop culture issues surrounding one of the most popular forms of entertainment and you’ll end up being knocked out so fast you swear you’re in “Street Fighter.”

The Gamergate controversy started in August 2014 when the scorned ex-boyfriend of indie game developer Zoe Quinn made a long blog post detailing their break up and accused her of a number of things including a relationship with Kotaku journalist Nathan Grayson.

Gamergate has sparked somewhat of an uproar in the gaming community and has made various figures such as Quinn and developer Brianna Wu bring up issues such as sexism, gamer identity and misogyny.

However, both Quinn and Wu have been relatively quiet compared to gaming’s most infamous outspoken critic – current gaming public enemy number one: Anita Sarkeesian.

Through her website and YouTube account Sarkeesian’s commentary on video games, called “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” discusses famous gaming tropes such as the damsel in distress, the sexual object and the background character.

Sarkeesian’s bare bones argument about how there should be more women characters in video games – on top of the already long laundry list there are – is completely valid and is something that most, if not all, gamers are in completely favor of.

Where Sarkeesian’s argument falls flat is when she attacks and accuses gamers and developers of being sexist and misogynistic just for playing or developing a game that has even an ounce of sexualizing women or having violence against them.

“It gets worse and worse,” Sarkeesian said in an interview with ABC News. “It reinforces this idea that women are sexual objects… it reinforces the idea of women as… playthings for amusement.”

It almost goes without saying that Sarkessian’s strong comments, critiques and analysis against gaming has gotten her a lot of negative reactions and backlash. Sarkeesian, like everyone else in this world, has every right to voice her opinion, no matter how wrong or flawed her analysis about games and gamers might be.

However, gamers and developers also have the right to respond to her allegations of sexism and misogyny. The problem is that a very very small percent of gamers and “trolls” take things way too far, bombarding Sarkeesian, Quinn and Wu with a multitude of death and rape threats.

One of the most famous cases happened in October 2014 when Sarkeesian was to speak at the Utah State University. The university received terrorist threats from a person perpetuating a student. The letter-writer said they would commit “the deadliest school shooting in American history,” and cited the 1989 Montreal Massacre as inspiration.

That threat was just one of many threats that Sarkeesian and company get on an almost daily basis. Death and rape threats like these are proving her point that gamers are sexists and misogynists that only want gaming to be some sort of a “boys club,” which, on the grander scale of gaming is false.

If the small percentage of gamers and trolls really want to make a statement about Sarkeesian’s skewed critiques and analysis then they would stay silent.

Silence speaks volumes. If they would just keep their mouths shut and log off of whatever social media site they frequent then Sarkeesian and her war against tropes would just go away and fade out. However, that doesn’t mean that Sarkeesian can completely escape criticism.

For Sarkeesian to call an entire group of people, both male and female, sexist for killing random woman character A on the street in “Watch Dogs ”or for picking up a prostitute in an off-brand knock off of a Ferrari the “Grand Theft Auto” franchise is completely absurd.

Objectives such as these examples are almost always optional when playing a game. No one is going to hold a computer generated coded gun to your characters head and make them do any of those things. It’s all up to the player, which brings in a discussion of the person playing, not video games at large.

To accuse developers of being misogynists because they have sexy female fan service characters or the token female character is illogical. By that conclusion, that would mean that the developers of games such as the “Call of Duty” and “Wolfenstein” franchises are Nazi sympathizers for featuring Nazi figures in their games. It would mean that Juliet Starling of “Lollipop Chainsaw” would just be that sexy blonde all-American cheerleader sucking on lollipops and not the fierce chainsaw wielding, limb maiming, decapitating zombie slayer that she is in the game.

The fact is, none of these age-old video game tropes are going away anytime soon.

Mario is always going to save Princess Peach, there’s always going to be those random side characters with extraordinary “jiggle” physics that serve absolutely no purpose but to be looked at, killing random characters A and B is always going to an optional objective and the one of the most iconic and fierce video game characters – Samus – is always going to be female.

Originally published in City Times, March 2015.