Video Game Review: Child of Light.

Child of Light is a platform RPG developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the wonderful baguette people who made our beloved Far Cry's and churn out twelve Assassin's Creed games per year.
In Child of Light, you play as Aurora, a young princess who is taken away from her home and, in her return home, must bring back the stars, the moon and the sun. These are all held captive by the mysterious Queen of Night.

It's an absolute charmer of a game, using the UbiFramework engine, which gives the platformer a very 3D atmosphere. This is the same engine, I might add, that was used for Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends, games that were critically acclaimed but publicly ignored.

A thing I particularly liked about this game is that all the lines in the game, every single one, were rhyming couplets.
Because of this, the story takes on a rather relaxing and yet dark fairy tale atmosphere.
If you have ever heard a hack-job on a story, that's because there was far too much exposition and unnecessary telling instead of showing. If all your lines rhyme, you literally have a limited framework to frame the storyline and it leaves it open for artistic interpretation, drawing you in further.

As for Gameplay, this game is interesting.

At the start of the game, you meet a raindrop called Igniculus. You can then control him using the right stick, usually to open otherwise inaccessible chests, solve difficult puzzles, collect flowers to restore HP and MP by hovering Iggy over them and blind enemies to either get past them or sneak up on them for a surprise attack.

However, during combat Iggy has another role. Combat in Child of Light, is turn-based with a "timeline" system at the bottom of the screen to keep track of turns. (Similar to Final Fantasy, walking into an enemy changes the screen to the classic combat screen.)
In each combat screen, there are two bushels which replenish Iggy's light. By holding down L2, you can slow down enemies, making them attack less slower.
During combat, it is important to be aware of the position of enemy turns and slow them down accordingly. If an enemy attacks you whilst you have an attack lined up, you are immediately interrupted.



So Iggy is important.

You can also level up and set skills, collect items that permanently increase stats and craft Oculi (Basically, you get multiple gems and put them together to get weapon/armour/ring enhancements in certain orders with certain colours offering certain bonuses.) You can also fast-travel easily using the map.
Later in the game, you meet other characters, including a Jester.
New party members have their own differing skill levels and some are suited for combat where as others are suited for magic or healing.

The art is simply adorable, the combat is simple and addictive and the added exploration facets are perfect. An elegant game with incredibly neat menus, polished visuals and defining characters whilst keeping everything minimal and simplistic, an idea that most RPG's fail to grasp.

Child of Light is £16.00 from most retail stores, but my copy was given to me for reviewing by a third party.

(Thanks Murray.)

Video Game Review: Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is a game hailing from a long time series of Max Payne games. The name itself is enough to make people raise eyebrows, but the original title was made in 2001, a time in which snapshots made up the faces of characters and their heads were always hilariously blocky.
Here's the protagonist of Max Payne. Mr Facey-Constipatey.

Ever played a PS1 games? Very straightforward, linear shooter with basic puzzle elements. Max Payne 2, released on PS2 and Xbox in 2003.

Fast forward to 2012, and we get Max Payne 3.

It is important to remember that this is incredibly close to the revival of Duke Nukem  in Duke Nukem Forever.

What sets Max Payne 3 apart is the fact that it has taken a concept, moved it from PS1 to PS2 to PS3 and added story, concepts, more intricate plot details, more harrowing imagery of Max's painkiller and alcohol abuse which, in the PS1 era, would simple have been plot distraction to explain away why he was shooting everyone and/or running as if he had Parkinson's disease.

The story of Max Payne 3 is that Max is a disgraced cop who nurses his sorrows at a bar after his wife and daughter were murdered. 

He gets a job offer from a man named Passos which he then turns out. After a drunken argument, Max accidentally kills the douchey son of a local mob boss who then puts a bounty on Max's head. After killing most of the mob boss's men with Passos, he finally takes up his job offer.

After that, Max and Passos work for the Branco family, working as the families security before he's double crossed multiple times in events that would involve far too many spoilers.

If you're unfamiliar with Max Payne, then you may not recall "bullet time", 

That thing from The Matrix? Max Payne did it first. 2001. Before the film came out.

In Max Payne 3, bullet time can be activated at any point and uses "adrenaline" which drains as bullet time continues and ticks up as you kill enemies. During bullet time everything slows down but you can also leap back, forward, left and right whilst firing for evasion purposes. Obviously, it is most fun to do this over ledges, but the cover system also allows you to bullet time down the side of long desks and use the environment to throw yourself around with great, deadly, success. However, if you are me, it is also possible to bullet time yourself in a non-heroic fashion into walls and furniture and then get shot to bits when time speeds back up.

I still like having free reign of jumping though. It makes the worthwhile bullet time activations feel all the more cooler.

You know, unlike some games which insist that you do things in a certain way to progress.

There are also events every level where you'll be near a conveniently breakable window, on a moving fork lift, on a high ledge underneath something soft and in various places whereby the game says "You don't have to, but the opportunities are all there."

Also, the last enemy alive, outside of bullet time or not, is killed in super slow motion.

You then see the enemy fall down, getting a lovely glimpse of where you've punctured Mr Unfortunate.

This gameplay element is so popular it has been seen in Skyrim, Sniper Elite 1,2 and 3 and multiple other popular games in its own unique combat system.

Max Payne 3 is £3.50 to £4 in CEX and in GAME, £3.99.

Until next time, namaste.