Xbox 360 Game Reviews Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Video Game News, Reviews, and Art

Gears of War 3 Review

Posted on November 22, 2011January 16, 2012 by blooddash

Gears of War 3 is an amazing finally to the trilogy. Epic did a really good job on this game. If you want CoD you’re in the wrong place. This game is here to throw everything at you that Epic made great from the very start of the series.

First things first, campaign mode. Campaign is harder than it was in the previous games. Epic has made it their job to make the campaign harder and harder with each installment. The game is long enough and will keep you occupied for quite some time. It may be possible to beat it in one day but you’ll be there in front of the tube the entire day. Something that they did great about the campaign is the multiplayer. They’ve always had split-screen with a friend but this time they made it possible to play online with up to 4 people. Enjoy running and gunning with 3 other friends all the while chainsawing the enemy till none are left standing. They let you skip parts with talking by hitting the Back button so that’s a fun fix on your second run through. You don’t have to keep walking with your hand up to your ear for 5 minutes any longer. One thing I didn’t care for is how the ammo crates no longer give ammo to all of the guns you have. It gives ammo to only your basic primary guns that you find everywhere. It no longer gives grenades, sniper, boom-shot, or anything else that you may think of along those lines. They also make you bury through most of your ammo at every confrontation. So at times you’re switching for what ever gun you can find in the middle of the fight. It does help keep things interesting I guess. There’s still a lot of collectables for people that want to find them but there’s a ton of Easter Eggs as well for fun. I can’t even name all of them. There’s a Cluck-shot (Boom-shot that fires chickens), everyone with Dom’s beard, and a giant golden Lambent chicken to name a few. I personally enjoyed everyone with Dom’s beard because even Carmine had it on the outside of his helmet.

Before I go into multiplayer I want to talk about the weapons. There have been some changes as well as additions to the roster. The shotgun is no longer a rape everything gun. It’s been greatly balanced. Not saying nerfed because everyone knew it was over powered in the past. They have a sawed-off shotgun that has incredible power but extremely short range. There’s only one in the chamber so if you get in your opponents face and pull the trigger you’ll get the enjoyable splash and gore but if you miss you could be sitting on the exam table instead. The retro lancer is the new addition to the primary assault gun. It’s range is a bit shorter with a wider spray but a little more damage. So you should use it in close to medium range. The benefit of this gun is the lance at the end. Hold B and you’ll charge your opponent and gore them on the tip of it. Lots of enjoyment in this one. Haha. There’s a digger launcher that you shoot into the ground and it pops up next to the opponent. Nothing too special there. Aside from a couple new heavy guns similar to the Grinder that’s about it. Oh! You can now use the Cleaver that the Butchers used in GoW2. It’s fun but not worth it. Trust me.

So onto Multiplayer. There’s still the verses modes that we grew to enjoy in GoW2. Not much has changed here. Pit yourself against the enemy team and go at it. The levels are balanced and a ton of fun. You may not care for one particularly but everyone has those. Everything here has just been refined from previous games and beta testing. They did a great job with Beta testing this game because it let them fix anything before launch while giving the public what they wanted. Props to Epic for doing this. Not many companies do this any longer and it’s sad because it helps them out.

There’s Horde mode still as well as a new addition, Beast mode. Horde is the same thing that everyone has grown to enjoy in every single shooter since its release on GoW2 3 years back. With the difficulty of the game getting harder this mode as well has gotten a little more frustrating. Beast mode is awesome. You get to chose to be a Locast and attack the humans. It’s a nice little change but leads to some awesome things. The Wretch is a ton of fun and the Ticker has some incredible moments when you get there and blow up in the enemies face. They did something great here. I don’t see other games having this but once again they’re just pushing the envelope from last time.

Gears of War 3 has a lot to show for the work put in. The campaign is great and multiplayer just gives more and more for players to have fun with. The sheer among of Easter Eggs put into this game shows how much Epic wanted people to play this game and enjoy every little bit of it. I kid you not when I tell you that there’s more than 10 EE in this game. In the end they did a great job with the game and I recommend it to anyone that enjoys a 3rd person style shooter with fast gameplay.

Gears of War 3 Rating:

Graphics: 9.5

Gameplay: 9

Audio: 8.5

Replay Value: 9

Overall: 9/10

Halo Anniversary Collection

Posted on November 17, 2011November 17, 2011 by GameNinjaX

It has been 10 years since the first Halo game of the franchise was introduced on the original Xbox and paved the way for first person shooters on the newest generations of consoles.

Fortunately, the developers over at 343 Industries celebrated the 10th anniversary of Halo with a remastered version of the original Halo. Halo Anniversary Collection was built using the same software engine that was used for the original Halo so the look and feel of the original game are completely there. The graphics however have received a few steroid injections and look more up to date. One of my favorite features of Halo Anniversary Collection is that you can press the back button at any time during the campaign and revert back to the original graphics.

At any moment of the game you can notice a difference between the orignal Halo details and the details of Halo Anniversary Collection. 343 Industries did a really good job on staying true to the feel of the original Halo which not only brings a faint nostalgia but some moments make you feel like Deja Vu. If you played the original Halo 10 years ago and haven’t touched it for almost a decade then you will know what I’m talking about when picking this game up again.

Halo Anniversary Collection Multiplayer oddly enough uses Halo Reach’s multiplayer engine so your gear and rank from Halo Reach is carried over into this game as well. The multiplayer seems very balanced like how Halo 2 used to be, where it actually requires skill to go on killing sprees rather than just finding a hammer or rockets (newbs). The avaiable playlists right now are somewhat short but I assume more will be added on later. You can select from 4×4 team battle/objectives, Big team battles, FFA, and classic 4×4 team battle/objectives.

The current maps that are available are: Beaver Creek / Battle Canyon / Battle Creek, Damnation / Penance, Timberland / Ridgeline, Prisoner / Solitary, Hang ‘Em High / High Noon and Headlong / Breakneck. I’m assuming more classic maps such as Blood Gultch and Waterworks will be leveraged for DLC map packs in the future.

Halo Anniversary Collection Rates:

Gameplay 9/10 Haven’t had this much fun playing Halo multiplayer since Halo 2 which came out in 2004. The campaign is pretty decent as well, I’m just happy that I can play the Maw on legendary over Xbox Live now.

Graphics 8/10 343 Industries did a great job on keeping the original feel and experience of Halo while remastering the graphics and details of the game. Hopefully more classic games will follow suit (Original Smash, Star Wars battlefront) .

Audio 8/10 The classic Halo theme song is implemented throughout the game with the usual combat sound effects so I’m happy.

Replay Value 9/10 The original campaign on Co-op plus the multiplayer is going to take many hours of Americans free time.

Halo Anniversary Collection is not only reasonably priced at $40, it also comes with redeemable codes for a Halo Reach map pack, and a Spartan suite for your avatar. This game is a must buy for any Halo fans especially if you have been waiting for 4×4 Capture the Flag on Blood Gultch as long as I have.

Sonic Generations Review

Posted on November 8, 2011November 8, 2011 by GameNinjaX

Just in time to satisfy my cravings for some lightning fast action comes Sonic Generations, which celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the legendary hedgehog. To my surprise this game incorporated the classic Sega genesis games with the look and feel of the new Sonic games very well. Not only does it bring back nostalgia to all of those who played Sonic back in the 90’s but it starts you out at the revamped Green Hill Zone with the classic music and everything! I love how the developers kept the feel of the old Sonic games for the Sega Genesis, but added more detail and brought it up to speed. The game also incorporates the new versions of Sonic games which is the 3D platform style instead of the 2D side scrolling classics. Both are a fun way to play and keep you interested with the game because you are able to switch back and forth between each generation of Sonic at anytime.

The storyline (in-case you haven’t figured it out already) starts off with Sonic celebrating his 20th Birthday with his friends when suddenly a ghostly looking takes everyone besides sonic and warps the past and present dimensions together in some kind of limbo world where only Sonic’s super speed can save the land and his friends. Sonic eventually realizes that he has been to these places such as Green Hill Zone before and meets up with his former self (which for some reason can’t talk). Together both Sonic’s team up and play through the stages in both the past and present times. Along the way you free each of your friends in their current limbo state and they “help” you along the way to defeating each of the bosses.

The Game play is very fun for several reasons, First if you’re a fan of classic Sonic you will love this game because it brings to life the old stages and zones. Secondly, the game keeps you entertained longer because you can switch back and forth between the classic 2D side scrolling feel of Sonic as well as the 3D platform version. The third and most important thing is that there is FINALLY a new Sonic game that is worth buying.

Sonic Generations also makes you play mini challenges throughout the story mode to unlock the boss battles and points for more power up features. For instance as the picture on the left shows, you can control a go-kart and drive around at sonic speeds for the Seaside Hill zone challenge.

The stages you can play in Sonic Generations:

Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary (slow down on this one!), Speed Highway, City Escape, Seaside Hill, Crisis City, Rooftop Run, and Planet Wisp.

Sonic Generations Rates:

Gameplay 9/10 This game is fun for everyone especially if you played sonic back in the day. Sonic Generations does a good job integrating the classic games with the new style and graphics of current Sonic games. This game will definitely give you your dose of just holding down the X button to speed up and blast away through ramps and rails.

Graphics 8/10 The graphics in this game a somewhat look like the Mario kart for the Wii graphics which fit the game. Although I do like the environments and the amount of detail that you see while you are speeding through the levels, even in the classic 2D side scrolling stages you can notice a big upgrade with the details for each zone.

Audio 9/10 The audio brings back nostalgia and memories of countless hours learning how to use a controller back when I was in diapers. The music in this game is for the fans of the classic genesis 8 bit audio feel. Although some of the newer songs are on the game I tend to not pay attention.

Replay Value 8/10 The replay value is quite good for this game because the detailed environments and amount of fun most people have speeding through the levels. I currently am renting this game from GameFly but I will probably buy it.

Sega finally put out a Sonic game that will be a hit for a long time, I suggest buying Sonic Generations if you’re a fan or at least renting if you are curious.

Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Posted on October 29, 2011October 29, 2011 by GameNinjaX

Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been one of the better games I have gotten the chance to play lately. My boyfriend and I started playing a few weeks ago and have learned that it has quite a lot of action and different areas that you get to experience. Which is awesome because the graphics are amazing and there are many small spoofs or outtakes, if you want to call it that, which are definitely silly little additions to the storyline? Such as in the Prologue, where you are taken to the Geonosian Arena and it shows Padmé, Anakin, and Obi-Wan tied to the pillars. In the beginning it shows a little outtake of the movie where Padmé and Anakin almost kiss and then when she is tied to the pillar she is putting some lipstick on. I thought it was pretty funny, and this continues throughout the game with different characters doing silly little things.

After the Prologue in the Geonosian Arena, there are three main storylines which lead you through many of the different planets following Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku, and General Grievous. Now within each of these different storylines there are six different chapters. This totals out to 18 different planets within just those three storylines, there is also the Prologue and the Epilogue, which together has 4 planets. All together there are about 24 different places you get to go within this game, this includes the Jedi and the Sith bases, which are the giant flagships.
Throughout the game there are also side quests that you can do to get more “studs” which is currency within the game and “gold bricks” which also unlock doors and build the “Stealth Ship, “ which is good for flying around outside the flagships gathering up more studs. There are also “mini-kits” that you can gather throughout the game on the different chapters. These mini-kits create different unlockable characters that are not available through the actual game play; such as Han Solo, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and more.

All in all, this game was definitely worth the rent. I almost have the urge to purchase it just to go back and fully complete all of the side quests and get 100% “true jedi” (gathering a certain amount of studs on each chapter) on each level. It also made me very interested in the other games within the Lego world such as Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Shortly after renting this game through gamefly, my boyfriend and I decided to go and check out Legoland in San Diego. Needless to say, there were some rides that we found entertaining, but by entertaining I mean how silly the ride was. It is definitely a place that is geared more for families with children. It was something that everyone should experience at least once in their life though, because it was pretty crazy seeing all the different things built from Legos.

Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars Rates

Gameplay 8/10 This game is a lot of fun if your a star wars or Lego fan. It does get repetitive after a while though so keep that in mind.

Graphics 7/10 The graphics are meant to look like Legos so they don’t really matter much in this game.

Audio 8/10 The background music is from all the old star wars sound tracks and definitely fit well into the game.

Replay Value 6/10 I wouldn’t go through this game again because of the repetitiveness but it would be fun to play as some other characters.

Shadows of the Damned Review

Posted on September 30, 2011October 5, 2011 by GameNinjaX

Say hola to the newest badass demon hunter in town Garcia Hotspur from Shadows of the Damned. Let me start off by saying this game requires a lot of crude humor to enjoy, I’m talking every sentence there is a F*** you Mother F**** or a Holy Shit! (My personal favorite). As well as your hilarious sexually oriented jokes such as his main gun being named Boner, which eventually upgrades into Hot Boner and you’re asked to blow shit up with your flaming hot boner.

Anyways, this game is very enjoyable for a zombie 3rd person shooter game. It reminds me of a Devil May Cry feel mashed with House of the Dead and it works! The story starts out with Garcia killing a few demons in his apartment and realizing that his “Angel” (think deep Spanish accent) was taken by demons and dragged down to hell. You know typical Dante’s Inferno story line. Garcia Hotspur is such a badass that he decides to unleash his wrath on the demons and zombies in hell while chasing after his girlfriend Paula. His wise mouthed sidekick Johnson is a floating skull that can transform into torches, and guns that allow Garcia to do some heavy damage.The guns are a powerful handgun named Boner, a shotgun called skullcushioneer, and the machine gun teethgrinder.

The game play in Shadows of the Damned is an over the shoulder 3rd person shooter infused with puzzles to progress through the game. The puzzles are pretty simple, but keep the game interesting because the introduced a “you can’t kill zombies while there is darkness surrounding the area, which also takes away Garcia’s health.” How do you shine light on the darkness covered areas? Shoot the mounted Goat heads on the walls of course! (Don’t ask me, but apparently Goats are a symbol of light).

Then you also have your occasional boss battles that can be fighting anything from mounted minotaur knights, to grim reapers. There is also one part of the game where you can have Garcia read a book called Stinky Crow, I highly recommend taking the 5 minutes to read the book. Not only will you enjoy what happens in the end of the book, but Garcia’s narrative that sounds like he had some serious issues reading back in elementary school. I guess Garcia got A’s in demon hunting but had a little bit of trouble in the literature department.

Shadows of the Damned Rates:

Gameplay 8/10 The 3rd person shooter had a smooth feel to the game and the zombies definitely made me jump a couple times throughout the game. Not to mention all the laughs throughout Garcia’s and Johnson’s commentary.

Graphics 7/10 Nothing special here, but nothing to really complain about. Shadows of the Damned has your average Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics which could have been improved upon a bit more.

Audio 8/10 The zombies and demons made the typical aarrhhh noises and sounds but the voice actors for Garcia and Johnson did an awesome job.

Replay Value 7/10 The only reason I would run through this game a second time would be to laugh at the jokes again, not to play through the story.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters

Posted on September 28, 2011September 28, 2011 by feliciarosee

I was so excited to see the email in my inbox. “We have shipped Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters.” I had been waiting to play this game since the movie was out in theaters. Little did I know that I accidentally rented it for the Nintendo 3DS and not Xbox 360. At this point, I don’t know exactly how big of a difference it would have made. What I do know is that it was one of the worst games I have ever played, and I barely got through the training in the beginning. I was so disappointed because it had some pretty good reviews at first and seemed to follow its storyline pretty well, but I was terribly wrong.

For starters, the graphics were TERRIBLE. I felt as if I had gone back in time and I was playing a game from the ‘90s. With all of the cut scenes of conversation it was even worse. It showed the different characters as 2D on the screen with just a huge dialog box of what they were saying. It didn’t even scroll by itself; you have to press A over and over… It was even worse when I realized there was a part where the same person was talking and it had a separate box for every few words (this box could fit up to 10 at least) and they only worked in maybe 3 or 4. While playing, it doesn’t have much of a 3D affect, or at least to me it seemed as if they just labeled it 3D and threw it in there if you REALLY pay attention.

The game play was the worst part. I felt as if this game was just dragging on and on, without really going anywhere. In the beginning you obviously start out with the training sequence. This was one of the most annoying things I have ever experienced. At one point, you have to simultaneously press the touch screen, the joystick and one of the action buttons. Flying was the most irritating as well because you have to press A twice to jump and then stay floating. I kept pressing too fast or too slow and was never really able to do it the first time. Directionally, flying is just as terrible because you can fight while fighting but it is really difficult to aim and turn.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters Rates:

Gameplay 3/10 The game itself seemed to take forever just to get to the first stage after training. I didn’t play much longer after that but I felt as though it was all talk and not too much hands-on action and training. There were a lot of areas in this game that could have been improved upon and could have been done different to keep up with the new-age technology and gaming we have these days.

Graphics 4/10. I have no reason to even back it up for why I gave it 4 points, because I really don’t know. I just feel as though they tried a little bit to give it a good look, but in the end it was just terrible.

Audio 2/10 I felt as though I wasn’t really even sucked into the game or interested enough to listen. It is extremely unfortunate because I have never really had that happen to me before. I had absolutely no interest in this game after my first 20 minutes.

Replay Value 2.5/10 Although they did try to have the storyline in there, it just was way too slow for me and the graphics just didn’t catch my eye enough to even bother playing to see the rest of the worlds.

If you want to try it out I highly suggest renting or borrowing it from someone that already has it. I wouldn’t waste your time on this game though try playing my personal favorite Nintendo 3DS game Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D

Dead Island Review

Posted on September 23, 2011September 27, 2011 by blooddash

The first thing I have to say about this game is that it deserves the Mature rating it received. If you don’t care for cursing, blood, dismembering, gruesome scenes, zombies, guns or other such things, then this is definitely not the game for you.

Now, for everyone that has no problem with these, I give you a game that is a lot of fun. Dead Island is basically a zombie game with RPG elements to it. If I were to compare it to another game, I’d have to say that it’s a mix between Left 4 Dead and Borderlands.

The story of this game is that you are immune to being turned into a zombie and you have to go around and help a bunch of people with different tasks trying to get off the island. You start off in a hotel on the beach and continue toward your ultimate goal of rescue. The main quest takes you from the beach, to the city, along to the sewers, and several other places. I enjoyed the change of scenery and it made things feel very different. I hated some areas and enjoyed others more.

The map and environment is basically open to explore. You load in and get to walk around and go anywhere you want with no loading. If you change areas, like from beach to city, then you have to load. But this is because it’s a completely different area and map. I played with the game installed on my Xbox 360, so there may be some loading possibly elsewhere but I haven’t heard anything about it.

There are 4 different characters to chose from and each of them have their specialties: blunt weapons, sharp weapons, throwing weapons and firearms. You are able to use any weapon in the game that you want but the abilities you get pertain to these weapons. Every character has an ability called fury. It’s makes you very strong for a short period of time and gives you a special weapon to use. Each character’s weapon pertains to their specialty. Sharp gets a knife, blunt gets brass-knuckles, throwing gets throwing knives and firearms gets a pistol. You have to build the meter to use it, but it honestly doesn’t take too long to get it up. It’s a free pass to kill everyone in your path until it’s gone.

Each character has 3 skill trees. The first is only for fury. There are upgrades in there that increase damage, health, time and several others. It’s very helpful if you enjoy using fury a lot. The second is the combat tree. These bonuses are most often related to your weapon of choice. Here you can increase damage to your specialty, durability of your weapons and give yourself bonuses and skills to use, such as ramming enemies to the ground. The third and final one, is the survival tree. This one has a large range of abilities. For some, it may give more healing, lowered prices, more xp and the ability to avoid zombies. For others, it could make them attract zombies more or even give you a chance to recover a thrown weapon instantly. The thing that I enjoy is that the creators didn’t just give the same trees to every character. They’re all specific to the character. Some skills may be similar, but others may not show up at all on the other three character’s skill tree. It makes your character feel more unique.

There are a lot of weapons to chose from and you will find them absolutely everywhere. Melee weapons are either sharp or blunt, but there are several different types with different ranges and bonuses. The larger weapons provide more damage, but take much more stamina to use. Weapons also have an attribute called force. The higher the number, the easier it is to just knock a zombie on the ground. The last thing to note about melee weapons is durability. Every weapon takes damage the more you use it. You can find workbenches throughout the game to repair your weapons for a low cost. It’s never too much.

The other weapons include firearms and explosives. Early game you will not be able to find a single firearm. Even if by some chance you do find one, there wont be any ammo to use for it. So that may seem like a lost cause for some, but mid to late game you start to see them everywhere. If you want to use them, you are free to do so. It does make the game a little easier at certain times, but it’s completely up to you whether or not you use them. I used them for specific situations. Explosives are basically molotov cocktails or some kind of grenade made from ingredients. They always have a huge blast radius, so use them with care.

The game allows you to find a lot of different items lying around. They take up no room in your inventory and you can hold as many as you want. These items are either used for quests or, in most cases, to upgrade weapons. At the workbench you can upgrade weapons for a cost. This uses no items at all and increases the base attributes of the weapons. Every weapon can be upgraded 3 times. The other way to upgrade weapons is to use items found or bought to attach onto the item of choice. You find recipes for these mods and there are a lot of them. They range from nails in a bat to a sword hooked up to batteries that you can use to electrocute the undead. You can even upgrade your guns to have poison, fire or electric shots.

There are several types of zombies in the game for your enjoyment. There are the really slow and stupid zombies, but there’s also the Left 4 Dead running zombies that pissed me off the most. As you progress through the story you’ll see the others. One is a zombie on roids that’ll knock you to the floor and kill you far too easily. Another is a charger that runs at you. There’s one that gets close to you and blow up, as well as others that spit some kind of flammable fluid on you. Among the zombies are some humans. Nothing special about them. It was a good cast of enemies that they put in the game in my opinion.

Playing the game is a lot of fun. You can go at it solo or play multiplayer via system link or Live/PSN. People can jump into your game freely if you allow them or you can do it to others. They also allow you to have saved spots if you want to invite your friends but others are in the way. You can join any game that is where you are in the story or earlier. Sorry, but no power leveling off of higher level friends.

All of these sound like a great game, but there are some little things that make the game a little troublesome at times. The game seems to be released as a beta. There are a ton of glitches. Most are minor inconveniences, while others are good. For instance, an NPC wont talk to you or some unknown force wont let you get up the stairs. These can be fixed by just reloading your game. A good one is being able to duplicate weapons. I used this one a lot. Oh, how I loved this glitch! There is one in particular that the company is working to fix ASAP though. A small percent of people have found that while playing online with friends, their entire character data was deleted. Yea, that’s right… Imagine putting in 10+ hours into the game only to find out it’s gone. I’d be pissed off. From gamers reports, the game just stopped autosaving all together. Next time they tried loading the data for that character they realized that the character wasn’t there at all. No record of them ever being there.

Dead Island Rating:

Graphics: 8.5/10 The graphics on the zombies were great. Slicing off limbs and smashing heads in left bloody messes everywhere, but there was nothing that really stood out. Plus, the characters had a weird way of talking by wobbling their head side to side constantly.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 The game was a lot of fun to go through and got you hooked mission after mission. There’s so much to do in the game from grabbing items to killing zombies for experience, that it’s hard to put down the controller. The game does feel like screwing you at times by throwing everything at you and spawning you right there once again. This is what made me feel like stopping. I hate how the computer functions at times…

Audio: 9/10 The sounds really immersed you in the game. Zombie sounds everywhere, but they were still distinct. Every zombie type had their own sound, so you knew when you were going to be ambushed by those runners. Didn’t always mean you lived, but at least you had that second to realize they were coming after you.

Replay Value: 9/10 The game does have a lot to make you keep playing. It truly does. The leveling up and items that you can get do help to add to the enjoyment. Plus, if you’ve got some friends, it’s a lot of fun to join their game and help ’em out a little. I personally beat the game and still play with my brother and friends. Not sure how much more it’ll last if they don’t play, but in my opinion it’s doing the job for me right now.

Overall: 9/10 The game is a lot of fun. Leveling, weapons, upgrades and a ton of missions add to the flavor and playability. I’m still playing it now and enjoy it a lot. The one thing that’s holding this game back is all the glitches it has. I’m not joking when I say that it feels like it was released as a beta. They needed to get more testers for this game.

xbox-360-el-shaddai-ascension-metatron cover

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review

Posted on September 22, 2011September 27, 2011 by GameNinjaX

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron could have been one of those revolutionizing video games for the gaming industry, but it just fell short.. very short.

I wanted to like this game for the fact that the graphics and the game designer also created Dante from Devil May Cry. The graphics were absolutely stunning in some of the environments such as this one.

The game play is a third person action adventure, that basically ends up being a very boring button masher. In the beginning of the game, you learn the basics of fighting and eventually learn how to steal your enemies weapons. Sounds fun right? The problem is that there are only 3 weapons to use in the entire game, with very little variation in the fighting style. Let’s just say that Dynasty Warriors characters have more moves and combos than the main character in this game.

The first weapon is called the Arch, which is the most interesting weapon to pound demons heads with. It is a dual sided blade that looks more like a bow designed to stab and fight off hordes of demons from the heavens. It is also given a unique feature to help Enoch glide around the stages.

The second weapon is the Gale, which is a long ranged bow attached to Enoc’s back. This weapon is fun for about 5 minutes but then gets very difficult to keep enemies at bay.

The last weapon is called the Veil, which used to be a shield for one of your enemies but Enoch decides to break it in half and receive gauntlets. The Veil weapon is just a pound away attack that makes you feel like your character is running around with Hulk hands.

The story of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is from the book, Apocryptic of Enoch,which follows the main character Enoch as he travels the Metatron looking for the seven fallen angels to stop them from destroying the world. Enoch is consistently being guided by Lucifel who is in charge of protecting the world.

The seven fallen angels are all angels that broke away from God’s reach and heaven, with their own plans to start civilizations and rebellions of their own. It’s up to Enoch and his guardian angel, Lucifel, to Ascend through the Metatron and save the world.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Rates

Gameplay 4/10 This was the main reason why I couldn’t continue playing El Shaddai. The game play is supposed to be action adventure, but really it is slow button mashing battle with the same actions over and over again.

Graphics 9/10 The graphics are a unique blend of cell shading animation combined with a very Japanese stylized art. At a few parts of playing El Shaddai, I had to just stop and look at the environments.

Audio 7/10 The audio is meant to sound like the background sound effects are coming from a “heavenly” voice which ties into the game plot well.

Replay Value 5/10 The game play is just too boring to keep on replaying this game.

If you are into Japanese art and experiencing a new kind of game play in video games, I would suggest renting this game at least once. It seems like the developers of this game were focused on the graphics and then realized that they needed to actually make this a playable video game and rushed it. If the developers found a way to make the game play more enjoyable, this game could have easily been a 9 out of 10.