Crimson Alliance

At the start of Crimson Alliance, you're presented with a choice of three archetypal characters: the elderly wizard, the burly mercenary, or the nimble assassin. At first blush, these characters all feel distinct: the wizard conjures rolling waves of ice, the mercenary cleaves enemies in two with his sword, and the assassin can throw daggers. However, once you spend an hour with each, you find they all follow the same combat style of two normal attacks and one nonlethal technique that stuns foes. They also have special techniques that unlock after you collect a specific number of hidden items all designed to wipe the screen of enemies. Which character you play as is really just a choice between range and melee--or you could just pick the assassin who does a bit of both.

A lack of greater complexity is a recurring issue in Crimson Alliance. From level design to character customization, the game leaves you wanting in every category. The mission layout is a linear gauntlet of stages that repeatedly pit your heroes against the same basic enemy types: Those that run at you and those that shoot at you. Only in the final act does the game start mixing things up with traps and creative objectives, but by then it's too little, too late. In between these encounters, there are secret areas to discover that are filled with gold and treasure. You can also replay levels on a higher difficulty to compete for the high score on each stage's leaderboard.

For your troubles, you're awarded copious amounts of gold, the adventurer's delight. In lieu of experience points and levels, you spend gold on weapons and armor to advance your character. Item vendors open up after you complete specific missions with new wares for you to buy. And because all of the items are split up between vendors, it can make comparison shopping a pain. Items improve your character's four stats: three for your attacks and one for your health. Improving health lets you take more damage, while improving your attacks changes their properties slightly--such as creating a bigger ice wave.

The game's strongest feature is its four-player, online or local cooperative play. Mindless slaughter is always more enjoyable with a buddy or three, and there are even a few puzzles scattered throughout the game that require teamwork to surmount. It's a pity that the soundtrack is so forgettable. Crimson Alliance's light jazz accompaniment might be great for sneaking into a mansion or stealing a ruby necklace, but here, the music only further deflates the already-lackluster combat.


If you're in a jam, just grab an exploding red barrel and watch your troubles go up in flames.
Crimson Alliance simply does the bare minimum across the board. Its tale of an evil sorceress returning from the dead is accented with a bit of humor that should have been taken further. If the game followed through with its halfhearted attempts at comedy (a crate that serves as a familiar, for example), it might have produced a bit of sparkle. But Crimson Alliance doesn't go far enough in this respect, or in any other. It's a hollow game that offers little more than mindless monster slaying.

BloodRayne: Betrayal

If you're curious about Rayne's genetic makeup, wonder no more. Her father is the vampire (which makes her mother a mere human), and he has certainly gotten on the wrong side of his fair daughter. Accompanied by a small army of less-than-able troops, Rayne storms her papa's palace to finish him off for good. The skimpy plot plays out in brief dialogue exchanges between the characters, and though it's good for an occasional chuckle, it lacks a memorable comedic punch. Likewise, the strong foundation of the visuals eventually shows copious cracks. Grotesque creature designs give personality to every being you meet (and beat) along the way. Rayne's model is nicely detailed and takes up a large portion of the screen, and it's a pleasure to watch her slice demons to shreds. But as good as the characters look, the backgrounds are just bland. They repeat continually throughout each level and enemies often blend in to their surroundings.

The 2D action blends combat and platforming, with an emphasis on the former. Rayne has a healthy range of moves that can be strung together in deadly combinations. Forward stabs, rising uppercuts, and calf-cutting sweeps make up your standard move set, though you need more than these individual attacks to quell the rush of enemies that swarm the screen. You have one very handy trick to keep your relentless attackers at bay. Hitting an enemy momentarily stuns him in place, and once frozen, you can lock your lips on his neck to create a makeshift bomb. After he's stricken, your sickly foe carries a green hue and lumbers across the screen. With the tap of a button, you can detonate this foul beast, taking out a gang of monsters in one seismic blast. Conjuring an explosion at a key moment is an undeniable rush, and once you master this technique, you blow through enemies as if they were living tissue paper. Rayne also regains lost health by drinking delicious blood from stunned attackers, has a handy dash that gives her temporary invincibility, and can fire a gun when things get particularly heated.


Rayne enjoys a cool glass of blood during quiet moments.
At its best, combat is fast and violent in Betrayal, though awkward controls often hinder your chance of unrepentant bloodletting. Rayne has stiff animations that make each of your attacks feel clunky. This herky-jerky rhythm means Betrayal lacks the smooth grace that the best games in the genre so effortlessly enact, but that's far from its biggest issue. Rayne's animations are uninterruptible, so if you try to jump out of the way of an imminent blow while you're still swinging away, you can't do anything to avoid getting hit. There are also times when one mistake can thrust you into a string of unavoidable attacks because enemies continually whale on you when you're vulnerable. Furthermore, Rayne doesn't always perform the proper move. When you strike enemies low, you chop off their legs, and they continue to drag their wretched carcasses toward you even though they can't do any damage. You may run toward a healthy, gun-toting enemy in an attempt to end his life, but when you try to hit him, you might stomp the crawling beast on the ground instead. Other times, you reach out to grab a stunned enemy only to come up empty-handed or snatch a non-stunned one nearby. This may sound like a small issue, but when enemies flood the screen and you need to use every trick to survive, it leads to more than a few unfair deaths. With practice, you can avoid these pitfalls, but you never feel as if you're totally in control.

When the action shifts from combat to platforming, new problems arise. Although Rayne is nimble, she is not particularly accurate in where she lands. You have little control once airborne, which makes landing on small ledges aggravating. To reach higher ground, you perform a backflip, but this is too clunky to make for satisfying jumping. It's far too easy to overshoot your mark, and repeatedly trying to land on the same platform quickly becomes tedious. During certain sequences, you need to run as fast as possible while performing midair dashes to maintain your speed, and it's clear that Betrayal's controls are not up to the task. In some levels, you turn into a bird, and though you have more freedom than when you're restricted to the ground, it isn't more fun. Tapping a button keeps you afloat, but you're unwieldy in this form, so it's too easy to fly into spikes or other traps when you're just trying to stay alive.


Welcome to the third circle of hell.
Despite problems in combat and platforming, Betrayal isn't particularly difficult for most of the game. However, though you can easily triumph in individual battles, poorly placed checkpoints force you to replay large portions if you should falter. Furthermore, there are a few difficulty spikes that ramp up the challenge to a frustrating degree. Certain platforming sequences are guilty of this problem, but it's the boss fights who pose the most annoying threats. In one, you have to survive a veritable gauntlet of enemies while an evil lord laughs at you from above. When you reach this point, this is the hardest battle you've yet encountered, so just surviving the string of enemies is an achievement. But after you finish them all off, the real boss fight begins, and if you die, you have to start from the beginning. If the controls were perfect, this wouldn't be a huge problem. But mistakes are almost a given in this stilted adventure, and fighting through the same wave over and over again until you figure out how to destroy the boss is a rage-inducing experience.

With practice and determination, you can come to grips with the cumbersome controls. And once you overcome the handicaps, Betrayal can be a lot of fun. Each of the 15 levels tracks your score, and though you can squeak by with an F rating your first time through, going back to raise that to a respectable level gives the game plenty of replay value. But it's just not worth sinking hours into Betrayal to uncloak that saving light. There's a deep and varied combat system under the surface that's struggling to be dug out, but there are just too many swollen corpses weighing BloodRayne: Betrayal down.

Radiant Silvergun

For the uninitiated, Radiant Silvergun is absolutely daunting the first time you start things up. The right side of the screen displays all of the weapons you currently have access to, as well as the buttons that they're mapped to. Your eyes stare at the screen, trying to comprehend how you're going to manage seven separate guns at once. Do you unlock them as you go? Maybe grab power-ups from destroyed enemies? Nope! The weapons you begin Radiant Silvergun with are the ones you keep for the entire game. There are three base weapons that continually upgrade as you use them. Homing missiles, explosive diagonal blasts, and a deadly frontal ray offer good diversity in your killing powers. The four secondary weapons have more specific uses. Lock-on missiles, a sweeping laser, and rear assault fit right in with what you'd expect, but the final weapon is quite different from the norm. A short-range sword can be used to defeat enemies, as well as gobble up certain attacks, and figuring out how to use this bad boy is the key to mastering the game.

There are many shoot-'em-ups where enemies flood the screen with so many bullets that the games have become known as "bullet hell." Radiant Silvergun is not one of those games. Challenge comes from managing your guns so you can efficiently dispose of the vast assortment of enemies you encounter. The radar strike, for instance, is the only weapon that can pass through barriers, so using it to clear out foes in front of you is a great way to win a battle before your life is even threatened. At other times, your best bet is to fly toward the top of the screen and use your rear cannon, so you're safely out of harm's way while your enemies fire their worthless guns toward the bottom. But you have to play levels many times before you understand these methods. Furthermore, your guns are so weak in the early going that it takes an awfully long time to take down simple enemies. Because of these two elements, you have to spend hours upgrading your weapons and learning patterns before you're adept enough to triumph.


Those happy pink balls spell your doom.
There's no use sugar coating the experience of playing Radiant Silvergun during its first few hours. Unless you're an expert in this genre, you will die repeatedly, and you will be forced to replay the first level over and over again. It's exhausting. If you aren't prepared for this onslaught, it's easy to lose faith and move on to a less demanding game. And because Radiant Silvergun is so challenging, there's no reason to feel bad for admitting you're just not good enough. But if you have the dedication to see things through, Radiant Silvergun is richly rewarding. Every minute you spend playing makes you that much stronger, and it's empowering to cleave through enemies that stoically stood in your path when you were weaker. Every hour you spend fighting waves of enemies adds another life onto your total, so even those who aren't proficient in shoot-'em-ups should be able to amass a large enough collection to succeed.

Radiant Silvergun is never cheap. When you die, it's because you messed up. You misjudged an enemy's attack pattern or flew too close to a barrier. This knowledge gives you the strength to push on because if you stay attentive, you won't make careless mistakes that cost you dearly. Precise controls ensure you're completely in command of your craft. Whether you're weaving in and out of bullets, circling bosses to find their weak points, or wielding your sword like a dragon slayer, everything feels just as it should. Age has been extremely kind to Radiant Silvergun because the core mechanics are so well implemented. The visuals have been updated slightly from the Saturn original, and though it's clear this is a game that was first released more than a decade ago, it still looks sharp. It's easy to discern the background from the foreground, as well as identify enemies, and that instant communication is the most vital aspect of a shoot-em-up's visual design.


This boss demands an artistic style all its own.
The persistent Story mode is the most interesting way to play Radiant Silvergun, but if steep difficulty is too much to handle, you can dive into Arcade mode for a breather. Here, you can tweak how many lives you have, and that cushion gives you a chance to experiment without the fear that constantly hounds you in Story mode. If you're still stuck, Practice mode gives you a chance to test out the best strategy in a specific portion before you make a legitimate run for it. Here, you can tweak the speed settings, which gives you a chance to understand everything unfolding before you crank things up full blast. There's also a cooperative mode (online or offline) if you crave help from a more adept player or want to take a novice under your wing. Finally, you can tweak the difficulty, even in Story mode, so beginners have a chance to succeed. Turning things down to easy lowers the hit points of your enemies, so you can spend less time focusing on leveling up and more time having fun.

Radiant Silvergun has stood the test of time. The core mechanics are so well implemented that you can never blame the game for your mistakes, which goes a long way toward lessening the frustration. But it's impossible to completely eliminate the feeling of helplessness in a game this difficult. You will need to sink in many hours before you're strong enough to expertly gun down enemies, and it's hard to deny the tedium of repeatedly playing the first levels until things finally click. Those easily intimidated need not apply, but anyone craving a serious challenge should look no further, and the novel persistent upgrade system offers a healthy change from other shoot-'em-ups. When you throw in modern amenities, such as leaderboards and downloadable replays, this turns into an addictive challenge for anyone who loves chasing high scores. Radiant Silvergun is unkind to beginners but offers a satisfying experience to those who are willing to invest themselves in it.

Naval Warfare

Last year, Aqua: Naval Warfare launched on Xbox Live Arcade to below average critical reception. The game featured a highly intriguing steampunk story that took place at sea, and the gameplay premise—a twin-stick shooter set on water—was incredibly promising. Unfortunately, the game failed to deliver on practically every front. One year later, developer Games Distillery is re-releasing the game on Steam (this time simply titled Naval Warfare) and not surprisingly, it remains a big disappointment.
The world has been flooded, and various groups have been formed by the survivors. These groups are battling on the sea for total control of various territory, and this is where you come in. As part of one of these factions, it is up to you to take on enemies and engage in escort missions. Though the story is interesting on paper, the execution is rather lackluster. In between chapters you’re treated to stylish hand-drawn cutscenes. As cool as these look, it’s hard to really care about the story due to some weak characters and uninspired voice acting.

Storytelling isn’t the only area where Naval Warfare falls short. Oftentimes, games with weak narratives can easily be forgiven as long as they provide a compelling adventure. But even in its gameplay, Naval Warfare is an utter failure. Rest assured, the ideas are most certainly interesting. A twin-stick shooter at sea could have been really awesome, but a number of gameplay hindrances keep this game from being as fun as possible.
The first thing that really sticks out about Naval Warfare is its lack of direction. As you play, you’re tasked with certain objectives, but the game never puts much emphasis on them. You end up waiting for an on-screen arrow prompt to guide you to whatever destination the game chooses. Naval Warfare should have been a much more linear experience, but due to the large stages, which often feel devoid of life, you’ll constantly stray off course and hit barriers. You then realize that all of the enemies you’re supposed to eliminate or the ships you’re supposed to protect are on the other side of the map, so you have to backtrack before you can complete a mission.
You can obtain upgrades or play in two additional ships, but doing so doesn’t yield anything in the way of impressive results. Instead, the mild customization options make you wish there was more to do. This aspect of the game could have delivered some deep options, but with a lack of content, it’s just another failed aspect of Naval Warfare.

Naval Warfare feels so misguided, and the campaign ultimately gets too boring to sit through. You can team up with a buddy and take on waves of enemies as a team, and it’s certainly more fun than messing with the single-player game on your own. You can even play Skirmish mode, which pits you against hordes of enemies and tests your twin-stick shooting mettle. As decent as these modes may be, they get repetitive and only hold your attention for so long. Naval Warfare was supposed to offer a great story mode, and the disappointment will stay with you the entire time you play, regardless of what mode you’re tackling.
At the very least, Naval Warfare manages to do one thing right, and it happens to be the least important aspect of any game: the graphics are pretty damn awesome. Water effects look great, ships and enemy fighters are richly detailed, and the whole ocean atmosphere looks spectacular. Explosions are a bit weak, but other than this minor gripe, everything in-game is remarkable. As previously mentioned, the hand-drawn cutscenes are great, and they really give the steampunk story a unique appearance.

The Baconing

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.  It’s one thing to release a game and then space out its sequels every two years or so, but it’s another to release a game, then follow it up every few months with a new adventure, to the point that we never really got to enjoy the previous one as we’re curious about venturing into new territory.  That’s the case with The Baconing, the third adventure to feature DeathSpank, the peculiarly named hero who last fought on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in Thongs of Virtue a few months back.
It’s business as usual for DeathSpank.  He’s enjoying the thrill of justice, but is busy seeking out a new adversary after finally snagging the Thongs of Virtue.  Bored, he decides to put on all the thongs at once and throws the world into chaos, creating a new enemy – a robotic version of himself that’s known as the Antispank.  Before you know it, he’s off creating all kinds of terror, and DeathSpank finds himself having to burn the Thongs of Virtue in bacon fires in order to save it and stop the evil menace.  But nothing comes that easy – not for DeathSpank.
If you’re a fan of the first two games, you’ll feel right at home here.  Hothead Games continues to load up its franchise with all sorts of weirdness, whether you’re seeking justice for a mooing cow (because, hey, cows deserve great justice!) or dealing with the likes of such characters as Tankko and Bob From Marketing.  Hothead knows how to write a swell, Monty Python-esque tale, and the third time around, there are a few laughs digging through here.

So then, why the less than favorable score?  Because it’s mostly the same stuff that we’ve dealt with in the last two games.  While there are some interesting power-ups that tend to change the shift in battle every once in a while, most of The Baconing is spent beating up guys.  And beating up more guys.  Though you have a number of battle techniques and weapons that prove useful, results are about the same – you kill until you die, and then you’re brought back in an outhouse (of all places) to do it all over again.  Worse yet, Baconing seems a little more linear, as you’re following a guided path throughout most of the game.  As a result, exploration is cut even shorter here than it was in Thongs of Virtue.
The visuals are nothing spectacular for Baconing though they work for the most part, with plenty of cartoon-style animations and interesting locales, such as a retirement home for worn-out Gods.  However, there are times they can be a little fuzzy, due to a lack of polish that was apparent in the first two DeathSpank games.  It’s not a horrible game when it comes to appearance, but you can see marks of where Hothead was growing a little weary.  The dialogue is still humorous, with DeathSpank sounding like some kind of spin-off of The Tick.  We almost expect him to yell “SPOON!” at any given second.
As for extras, there aren’t much.  The game will take a few hours to get through, provided you can put up with the monotonous gameplay.  There is some co-op available, with you and a friend sharing a life bar as you take on enemies, but it can be mildly frustrating.  What’s more, you can’t play others online through Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.  What a bummer.
The Baconing is proof positive that if you push a franchise too soon and too fast, signs of wear begin to set in.  There are still moments of fun scattered in the game, but they’re hidden beneath slightly worn out gameplay and limited options.  Maybe Hothead ought to take some time off and wait a couple of years for the next DeathSpank game to make the rounds.  Otherwise, he and his Thongs of Virtue will wear out their welcome.

SEGA Rally Online Arcade Review

Sega Rally Online Arcade doesn't add anything new to the series, but it still offers plenty of enjoyable racing.

The Good

• Fast and responsive arcade handling   
• Online races and leaderboards create good competition   
• A good amount of unlockable content.

The Bad

• No ranking system in online multiplayer.

The Sega Rally series has its origins in the arcades from the mid-1990s. You visited exotic locations and drove some of the world's most recognizable rally cars, but the emphasis was firmly on high-speed arcade thrills rather than simulation. Sega Rally Online Arcade is based on the most recent arcade version, Sega Rally 3, and drifts into view with all-new online modes and the responsive handling which made the series famous. Online Arcade is not a revolution for the series or its genre, but it does offer a good amount of content for a reasonable price on Xbox Live Arcade.