Phantasy Star - Sega Master System

If you're really paying attention you're probably saying "But Squid, there's no mention of a Sega Master System or Phantasy Star in your original post about what games and systems you have!" to which I reply "You're paying way too much attention to this blog, seriously."

But you would be correct, I don't own a Sega Master System. Then what type of witchcraft is this you ask? Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360. So while I may not technically own a SMS or Phantasy Star I'm still counting it toward the games I need to play.

As far as I know I've only ever played the third Phantasy Star game, but I remember absolutely loving it. So much so I remember almost purchasing it about ten years ago for $35. Never having played a Phantasy Star title other then three I'm not exactly sure what I'm in for, but I'm looking forward to it.

Also just a helpful little tip: if you want to unlock Phantasy Star on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 you need to play Sonic 2 with two players and beat the first boss who's at the end of the second level. Don't have a second controller? The Guitar Hero controllers will also work, just keep in mind a lot of people say that on the boss fight the second player has to at least hit one button.

Squid.

Metro 2033 - Review

A while back I read about Metro 2033 in Official Xbox Magazine, they had a couple page preview. I remember being rather excited about it, it looked great and I love those types of games. Then I didn't hear anything about it for a while. I had almost completely forgot about until I noticed a release date for it. I quickly added it to my Gamefly queue and hoped they would have it by the time my disc got there.

After playing a few hours I realized that Metro 2033 is a game I should have hated. It's incredibly dark, there's escort missions, and it's occasionally very difficult to stealth... but for some reason, I enjoyed it.

Let's start off with the things I thought I wouldn't like.

The Darkness. This game is dark. We're talking Doom 3 dark. We're talking playing an original Gameboy Advance in a closet dark. And yet... this game makes it work. Instead of a hindering you it actually adds to the ambiance of the game. The darkness seems to encompass you. Every little bump in the night seems all that much worse because you're not sure what it is or where it's coming from. All you have is your flashlight and later on in the game, night vision goggles to light your way. Not since Alien Vs. Predator 2 have I seen a game that makes the darkness work so well in its favor.

Escort missions. If there's one thing I hate in a game it's escort missions. Metro 2033 did it right though, it gave me escort missions without me knowing they were escort missions. Occasionally you have a computer controlled teammate that will help you out along the way, occasionally these are escort missions. So if that person dies, you have to start from the last checkpoint. For the most part you won't actually know that it's an escort mission unless you let that person die, and as long as you help them out, for the most part you don't have to worry about them dying.

The problem with stealth isn't really that much of a problem. When you have an AI teammate they're not stealthy so you can't be stealthy. It's occasionally a pain because stealth in this game is awesome, but there are plenty of times when you'll be by yourself so you can just be stealthy then.

So even the points about the game that I thought I wouldn't like turned out to be okay... and after that you had an awesome game.

A really awesome game. When I first heard about the game it sounded a lot like Fallout 3, and since I have a love obsession with Fallout 3 I was totally game. Other then being set in a dystopian, irradiated future it turned out to be nothing like Fallout 3... but instead I got a little gem of a game.

Metro 2033 is like if you mixed Fallout 3, STALKER, and FEAR all into one game. So basically, awesome.

A nuclear war has taken out all of human civilization, those who survived now live in the metro under Moscow. And that's where you meet Artyom, the protagonist of our little story. Basically you're world has been taken over by a bunch of funky mutated creatures who are hell bent on eating your face off as well as the Dark Ones. The Dark ones are the real threat in the world, they have the power to drive humans insane and slaughter entire groups of people... and it's your job to stop them! Lucky Artyom!

So you start out on your quest through the metro, and you're going to meet a lot of people and creatures. Some will want to help and some, again, will want to eat your face. Which keeps things interesting.

This game certainly keeps you on your toes. Whether it's sneaking past a group of enemies, heading down a dark corridor, wondering where that noise came from, or searching for more gas mask filters, you will be on edge.

Seriously, one of the most tense moments in the game came from searching for a gas mask filter. You see the air on the surface is unbreathable, so you need a gas mask as well as filters while on the surface. Run out of filters, you run out of air, which means you die a slow death. There I was, in a huge firefight and I notice I have no filters left. There's still three guys to kill and I can't breath. I start choking for air. Two men down, one to go. I'm gasping. I kill the third. It's a mad dash into houses, cars, corridors looking for a filters. My mask if fogging up, the wind is whipping up snow, I can't see. Finally I spot a shack, I run in and find spare gas mask filters. I can breath again. It was a seriously intense moment... and it wasn't scripted. I ran out of gas mask filters because I had been wandering around. Not because I hit a trigger scene and it happened. It could really happen anywhere... and it was great. Sure if I had died I would have just gone back to my last checkpoint, but I wasn't thinking about that. All I was thinking about was that I needed to find more filters.

There's just so much fun to be had in Metro 2033. My advice, as soon as you can, get some silenced guns. Once you have the night vision goggles it can be so much fun. I was sneaking up on a camp of bad guys, so the first thing I did was shoot out all the lights and shroud them in darkness. Then I pull out the night vision goggles and pick them off one by one as they stumbled around in the dark. Now I know why Buffalo Bill did it in Silence of the Lambs... because it's damn fun, that's why.

Sure Metro 2033 has some flaws: I would have much preferred a save anywhere system to a checkpoints system, sometimes I was unclear on whether the gun I was carrying was better than the gun I could buy/pickup, there were a couple quick time events, and scopes seemed fairly useless. But these were all minor complaints in an otherwise very good game.

This is 4A Games first game, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next. This game was a hell of a fun time, do yourself a favor and grab it. If you're a fan of first person shooters I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Squid.