We play lots of games here around GamerSushi. So many, in fact, that there’s not possibly time to write reviews for all of them. While we would love to give some in-depth analysis of every title that graces our screens, we just don’t always get a chance to.
So, rather than neglect this bunch of titles, and make way for the deluge of blockbuster games that are about to appear on the queue, Mitch, Anthony and I decided to give you guys a new feature called Quick Hits.
What are Quick Hits? Quick Hits are fast and to-the-point reviews of several titles we’ve played recently, machine gunner style. Feel free to discuss the games at article’s end, and let us know what you think of them.
Mitch’s Quick Hits
Red Faction: Guerrilla
If you’ve ever wondered what Saint’s Row 2 would be like if it took place on Mars and featured destructible buildings, then Red Faction: Guerrilla would be your answer. The destructible environments, powered by the GeoMod 2.0 engine, are extremely well done and it’s hard to imagine the game being any sort of success without them.
The overall story of Red Faction is nothing special, but it serves its purpose in dishing up a variety of destruction-themed missions to keep you busy for quite a while. Besides the main plot, Red Faction also features a variety of interesting side quests along the way. These help with increasing your funds to purchase a variety of upgrades for use in the campaign.
Supplementing the main game is the multiplayer component, which has a very robust feature set. There are a variety of game types, ranging from your standard death-match to capture the flag and siege mode. Siege mode takes the cake for incorporating the game’s environment abuse into its mechanics. Despite floaty controls, somewhat sub-par graphics and a weak story-line, Red Faction: Guerrilla is a solid title well deserving of your time.
- GamerSushi Score: B
inFamous
If you got super-powers, what would you do with them? Would you use them to put things right again, or would you take every opportunity to turn things to your advantage? Infamous presents these questions to the player in the most black and white way possible in Sucker Punch’s free-running lightning extravaganza.
You play as Cole McGrath, an unfortunate bike courier who gets caught in the middle of a huge explosion and is gifted with the power to manipulate electricity. Before the incident, Cole was also a skilled urban explorer, which brings a unique style of movement to this game. Infamous is divided by the choices the player makes during the game, whether they decide to work for good or evil. As such, various powers are available depending on which path you chose, but there’s no middle ground. This serves as a mechanic for making you play the game twice to sample everything it has to offer, but it’s so much fun to hop around the city and blast your opponents that you won’t mind.
While you may sometimes get distracted by the odd-looking facial animations and the stark dichotomy of the moral choices, Infamous’ pros far outweigh its very few cons. This is one of the few open world games where getting from place to place is not only easy, it’s actually fun. Couple this with awesome lightning powers and some really nifty comic-book style cut scenes and you’ve got one of the best PS3 titles this year.
- GamerSushi Score: B
Anthony’s Quick Hits
Dead Space
Dead Space rips off tons of movies and books, notably Event Horizon, but it has a decent story to go along with it. Sadly, the story is obscured by useless fetch missions. There is about 6 solid hours of gameplay here, but the game stretches it to 12 with all kinds of annoying missions that don’t advance the story.
Let’s say you just repaired the engine; literally 2 seconds later, the turrets conk out and you have to hot foot it down to another section and fix it. Then the toilet over flows and the plunger is in a supply closet 5 decks away and we need soft light bulbs for Sick Bay and yadda yadda yadda. It’s gets old quick, but the game is fun despite being a soulless EA board room concoction.
- GamerSushi Score: B-
Punch Out!!
One thing I love about this game is that you can actually feel yourself getting better. When you face a new boxer for the first time, you will likely get destroyed. The next time, you get a bit farther and a bit farther until you manage to finally put him away. Eventually, you can whip them just as bad as they whipped you, which is a great feeling.
After you manage to beat the 13 boxers and win all the titles, you open up Title Defense mode, which changes the patterns and styles of the boxers. For example, Glass Joe, who is easy to beat if you hit him in the face, puts on headgear and now only body blows affect him. He actually beat me the first time with his new style, which was a humbling moment. This is a great hardcore game for the Wii and if you have one, I can’t recommend this enough.
- GamerSushi Score: A-
Eddy’s Quick Hits
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Meet everything that is wrong with the JRPG genre, all tied up in one neat little package. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a sci-fi fantasy story that puts you in the shoes of a generic young warrior, the rookie who somehow becomes the captain of his own ship all within the first few hours. Ultimately you will save the universe.
While I really enjoyed the combat mechanics and the fact that battling in this game is actually fun, I couldn’t stand the storytelling and the pacing. If you play this game, be prepared to pull every single fetch quest ever, all while running endlessly back and forth between point A and point B, watching more and more cutscenes. Also, there is a cat girl who meows during her sentences. Yes, really.
- GamerSushi Score: D
Secret of Monkey Island
Relive the old PC classic, new and updated via Steam or XBox Live Arcade. I’ve always been a fan of retro point-and-click adventure games, but somehow managed to miss the bus on Secret of Monkey Island, one of the all-time favorites of the gaming community by Lucas Arts.
Playing this old game in a new skin is really a treat, though sometimes the gameplay feels just a tad outdated. One of the bad things about those point-and-click games is that often times you just play a guessing game at what you’re expected to do, rather than using logic and really researching it. I found myself reaching for hint too often. Despite that, it’s superbly written, funny and nicely updated visually.
- GamerSushi Score:B
Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. And there you have it for Quick Hits. What do you guys think of these review scores? Fair/unfair? Have you played these games?
How does our grading system work? Check out our grade chart!
I agree with all of them but Anthony’s Dead Space review. I would have to respectfully disagree with a B-, I personally would give it a A-, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would just slightly tweak Red Faction: Guerrilas score up. I think the game deserved an A. destroying things like that never gets old.
Great job guys. I really enjoy the idea of multiple little capsule reviews all in one post.
BTW I wanted to point out that I think Punch Out was our first review of a Wii game!
Also, I have Red Faction from GameFly but haven’t put it in yet and was thinking about just returning it, but Mitch’s review has made me want to pop it in and check it out.
Once again, good job guys!
Huh, I just picked up Red Faction for the PC. So far, there is something primally fun about it, and the AI is pretty darn good, but the environments are just too bland to completely warrant something in the ‘A’ range, I think.
@ Anthony, I just fixed the engine right before I read this lol, but have to question the B- for Dead Space. The ‘fetch’ missions take place in plenty of games and I didn’t think that makes it repetitive as there was always a set piece to make the trek worth it. I dunno, maybe I didn’t get exactly what you meant (I can imagine how tough only working with 2 paragraphs is) so if I got it wrong, do say.
Also RFG looks good Mitch, have you tried the DLC? I was wondering how good it is.
@ SkubaPatr0l
No, I haven’t tried the DLC. My credit card was stolen, so I haven’t been able to buy MS points. I’ve heard it was decent, however.
Well, the fetch quests have no place in furthering the story. The story could be over in half the time and it was very contrived. Literally, the second you repair something, something else breaks. By the time the game was over, I was ready for it to be over. I felt like I had seen everything the game had to throw at me halfway through.
@ Mitch, that sucks 🙁
@ Anthony, Yeah they had no real relevance to the plot a lot of the time but is that really much different from any other game? All FPSs are just shooting and throwing a C4 on a tank once in a while, rescuing a buddy and shooting your way out. All JRPGs are grinding and slaying an enemy with an unimaginative name constantly slogging through random battles, dying for a save ponit, watching a long, boring, irellevant-to-the-plot cutscene, more random battles and a boss. Over and over again. Okay, kinda generalising there but surely Dead Space worked in a similar way? Name one game where you’ve never thought ‘Oh, this again.’ At least with most games (Dead Space included) when you had to repeat a similar idea then there was always something worth it such as a big set piece (eg, Regenerator thingy).
I understand what you mean, but I was tired of Dead Space at the end. Some games leave you wanting more. Dead Space had me charging through fast as I could to finish it cause I was annoyed with it.
It’s a very good game. I just think it falls short of greatness.
@ SkubaPatr0l & Anthony,
I can see where both of you are coming from, on one hand most games are just repeating the same task while occasionally throwing in something new. On the other hand I probably herd the line “ok lets get this ship up and moving…wait there is something ELSE that needs to be fixed” five times in a row. I am ok with fetch quests, I just want some down time between them. In the words of Mr. Incredible “I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for… for ten minutes!”
(also I would have given dead space a B+ but to each his own)
Gadfly,
Me too, but our grading system’s B+ is ot what I felt about the game.
You hit the nail on the head. I am glad they did not create a super short game, but they could have done something to NOT make it feel like busy work.