E3 2015 Preview
So I was lucky enough to not only go back to E3 this year but actually work for a major video game! I was hired to demo the upcoming Mad Max game to VIPs and the press (special shout out to Angry Joe and Zachary Levi who I personally demoed the game for). Over the course of the three days I managed to get some time, mainly by skipping lunch, to go and check out the titles on the floor. All the exhibitors were sympathetic to the fact that I was working and so long as I came at the very beginning or end of the day they didn’t seem to mind whisking me directly to a controller.
So here is what I got to experience at this year’s convention. Be sure to scroll down to see all six previews (in no particular order):
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
I could not be happier that this game is actually being made. The original was a true gem with some rough edges that deserved another shot and it looks like DICE and EA are really going all in. The demo was timed to exactly thirteen minutes, but it was a damn good thirteen minutes.
The first couple minutes show a cutscene of Faith getting released from a detention center. It’s clear that the city this time around is much more futuristic than it was in the first game. I became a tad worried because it started to remind me a bit of Syndicate, but the rest of the demo quickly reminded me DICE knows what they’re doing by improving the details and keeping the world minimalist. Another runner gets Faith’s attention after leaving the detention center and gives her an augmented reality enabled contact lens. It seems that the “runner vision” of the original game now has a place in the narrative as it is the lens that highlights the various paths that Faith can take in red.
The demo then dropped me in an open area that had three different objectives: hack an electronic billboard, take an item and transport it to a pickup location for another runner, and run the fastest in a time trail. The area was much more open than anything in the previous game, and while DICE isn’t saying the game is completely “open world” it seems as though large sections will be. Hacking the billboard was pretty straightforward as I just had to get to it using Faith’s parkour skills. Taking an item to a pickup location introduced me to the much improved combat system. Faith is so nimble and fluid and the animations are superb. I do not play on console but within just a few minutes I was pulling off some impressive, if I do say so myself, feats. Most importantly, she continues to keep moving without losing her sense of momentum. This was apparent in the time trial as well. I noticed a window Faith pulled herself through all while elegantly landing on the other side with the same stride as before.
All in all, the world feels very familiar but with a sheen that the first game deserved not unlike a beautiful sports car that hasn’t been washed in a year. I couldn’t be more excited for the release of this title now.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the finest games when it comes to player choice in recent memory. Luckily, it seems that much of the team stayed for the sequel. Giving the presentation of the game was Jonathan Jacques-Belletête: the art director from Human Revolution which unarguably has a superb vision. The demo showed a little bit of stealth and a lot of aggression as Adam Jensen infiltrated a augmented ghetto on the outskirts of Prague, Italy. A particular quote stood out in my head while watching the presentation:
“The thing with the first game was, you know, Adam didn’t ask for this. Well this time he totally asked for this.”
– Jonathan Jacques-Belletête
The game is thankfully using a new engine that really allows the facial animations to look more realistic than plastic. These environments felt real with the same sense of clutter seen in the first title taken to the next level with the power of the new consoles.
Jensen himself seems to be more mobile than ever with new augmentations allowing him to dash to levels above his opponents. The other nifty new gadgets include projectile blades from Jensen’s arms, remote hacking capabilities, and armor that can be activated to make Jensen look like a giant black diamond. More exciting than all of this is what seemed to be a revamped energy system. The energy system in the first game relied on batteries that would recharge but be gone if depleted unless a special item was used. Overall, I didn’t get to use my augmentations quite as much as I would’ve wanted to. I know it is a delicate balancing act, but if I’m given these awesome augmentations I want to use them. Unless things were changed for the demo, which is entirely possible, the energy came from a single bar that would recharge and did not deplete as fast as expected.
The amount of detail in the environments and respect for player choice is remarkable. As long as the narrative creates the same sense of mystery and scandal as the first game did we could be looking at another game of the year contender.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
So there is another Assassin’s Creed game coming out (SHOCKER), and it looks… like another Assassin’s Creed game. I will start with the positive since that list is short. The world seems relatively new and fresh if not just because of the time period. More modern inventions like proper guns and trains make appearances and streets are far wider than in previous games to make up for the fact that there are horse carriages. The dart gun/grappling hook is fun for traversing between buildings more manageable and fun. So that’s about it.
While I acknowledge that the team has just under four months until the game ships to fix problems, the game seems nowhere near as complete as I thought it would. I had quite a few bugs pop up during my gameplay which involved liberating an area from thugs (how inspiring and new). Some worth mentioning are my character holding an invisible weapon, one where I was fighting an opponent in a large area and we were all of a sudden teleported to the other side of the large area, and the visuals in general just seeming lackluster and fuzzy. Unless the story is truly compelling with the brother and sister dynamic of the two playable protagonists, which would be a first for the series since Assassin’s Creed II, then I doubt this title will resonate in any meaningful way.
Tom Clancy’s The Division
I am not entirely sure how to feel about the hands on I got from The Division. It wasn’t in any way a mind-blowing experience but it did seem as though I was getting only a small sliver of a much larger game unlike the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate demo. The visuals were for sure not on par with what has been shown during the conference and mirrored the fuzzy visuals from Syndicate but this game has a lot more time to get it to that point of perfection. Also, I didn’t run in to any noticeable glitches.
We were tasked the same mission as Ubisoft showed in their press conference: enter the the “darkzone”, which is where the virus of the story originated, and collect powerful weapons that need to be decontaminated outside of the area once we were successfully extracted. The problem was that there was another team entering the area from the other side doing the same thing as well as AI opponents. Before entering the area I took a second to take in the vastness of the city of New York around me. If I could actually go wherever I want, Ubisoft has not commented on just how big the world is, then the experience of mimicking the awe of real-life NYC will be an achievement in and of itself. There was plenty of detail to take in, even if the textures left me wanting, and animations seemed equally smooth.
There was a wonderful sense of tension once we saw another real team of players from a distance. Both teams are neutral and can actually work together unless one member starts shooting. If that happens then the team with the shooter goes “rogue” and becomes more high valued targets. This creates an interesting dynamic where, in practice, situations can arise for uneasy alliances and/or brutal betrayals as was shown in the conference demo.
I didn’t much care for the shooting mechanics which felt too jittery and imprecise; however, I normally play on PC rather than with a Dualshock 4 so that totally could’ve been the problem I was having. To my surprise, there actually did seem to be a level of strategy involved here. I was more vocal than I thought I would be with my team, and using my special abilities (in this case a deployable turret) actually seemed to make a difference. The numbers bouncing off of other players a la Borderlands combined with the loot driven objective left me feeling like the final game would have a very MMO like experience focused in the form of the standard AAA game package. I don’t really know how to feel about The Division other than I want to know more and that is good sign indeed.
Lego Dimensions
With Disney Infinity and Skylanders, and to some extent Nintendo’s Amiibos, Lego Dimensions has some sturdy competition, but I think it just might be, with time, the premiere “toy to life” game out there. The benefit Lego has going for it is that it has already been a successful toy brand for many years now coupled with the fact that the Lego games have been fairly positively received with a plethora of devoted fans and admirers. Hell, even I have a couple Lego games in my library.
The toys in the aforementioned games are used specifically for those games whereas Lego Dimensions’ toys fit right in with the existing Lego toys from years ago. They have the same style and the game even requires players to build certain things like entire vehicles that come to life in the game. It is damn clever especially considering the use of the gamepad which requires players to physically move and place characters on different parts of the gamepad to make the in-game characters change characteristics such as size.
Luckily, the charm of the series remains in tact. I laughed out loud when Batman freaked out when hearing about Scarecrow when in fact they were referencing Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. In fact, all the characters are optional in terms of bringing them in to the game so this occurrence might not have happened for other players that decided not to have Batman in that particular scene. It’s this attention to detail that makes this game special. Furthermore, the fact that I saw Homer Simpson, Batman, Gandalf, and Glaados from Portal all in the same scene makes my mind melt. I have never seen so many IPs come together in such clever ways that could bring joy to both kids and adults (I loved seeing Scooby Doo and even Back to the Future characters be given some love). If I had a kid (have mercy on his/her soul) then I would buy this over the competition in a heartbeat.
Mad Max
I know you must be wondering what I think about the title I was hired to work on for E3. I have just included this section to address that question and say I will not comment on the overall experience since I have intimate knowledge of the product (and mainly because I signed a legally binding NDA). I will say that I played through the main campaign for roughly nine hours, and that the game does have a high level of polish to allow for what is sure to be a smooth launch come the first of September.
Also, just for fun check out this short GIF courtesy of the Street Fighter team over at the Capcom booth. Just try and tell me this isn’t awesome!
Fire/Ashes 