The Serebii Reviewing Team - Not the same as last time

[Overheat Hothead]

Crackdown​

Story

In Crackdown, you play as an "Agent", a physically modified super-soldier employed by the mysterious organization known as "The Agency". The Agent, who is name-less, is tasked with eradicating the bosses of all three gangs found within Pacific City. Each gang and their bosses are each found within a different part of the city.

Being extremely unlinear, there are no cut scenes found within Crackdown. Much information about the three gangs is found in dossiers transfered to you wirelessly by peacekeepers (cops). A smaller amount of information is provided by an unseen member of the Agency who communicates verbally with you threw out the game, although much of what he says is merely banter.

Although the plot is not a key element to enjoying the game, Crackdown has a surprise ending which may leave you thinking for a little while.

Story: 6.5 / 10


Graphics

I found the cell-shaded graphics to be quite nice looking. The characters, buildings, and vehicles were all fairly realistic and make it easy to get lost within the game world. You can use your weapons, vehicles or sheer strength to effect the environment, like cracking the asphalt on the road or scorching a wall with explosives. While this would usually make the game more realistic, it is done fairly lazily and it's quite apparent.

Graphics: 7.0 / 10


Gameplay

Crackdown is a third-person-shooter set in a large sandbox-style environment. There are many weapons found within the game, most of which are collected from dead enemies. Aside from guns, there are also grenades and a few different grenade launchers. Players are also given the option to use melee combat, although there isn't much variation.

Unlike some third-person-shooters, you have unlimited access to many different vehicles, but unlike the Grand Theft Auto series, they aren't required to traverse the large environment given to the player. As an Agent, you are able to jump from rooftop to rooftop without skipping a beat. You can also use these vehicles in races.

While you do begin the game with said powers, you can also upgrade them throughout the game by collecting experience points. Theses abilities are Agility, Strength, Driving, Ammunition use and Explosives use. Each one can be upgrade four different times with each time growing and expanding upon the ability.

Generally, I found Crackdown fun to play. One criticism would be the lock-on system. The fact that you can hold a button and never miss takes some of the challenge out of the game.

Gameplay: 9.0 / 10


Length / Replay Value

It took me around 15 hours to complete. Crackdown is a sandbox style game, but once you've beaten all of the gang leaders, there's not much to do. There is a co-op mode I have yet to play.

Length / Replay Value: 5.5 / 10


Ending Notes

A pretty fun game. I really enjoyed it. Considering how cheap it can be bought for, it shouldn't be a hard decision.

Crackdown is exclusive to the Xbox 360 and is rated M for Mature.

Overall: 7.0 / 10

[url=http://www.serebiiforums.com/showpost.php?p=10352467&postcount=101][B]Crackdown[/B] - Overheat Hothead - August 29th, 2009 - [7.0/10] (M)[/url]

 

[Polar Star]

Cave Story​

Story

I can't really say much about the storyline without spoiling it. What I CAN say is that there are three different endings and a dungeon exclusive to those trying to get the perfect ending. And it's HARD.

Story: 9.5/10

Graphics

I'm going to quote Game Informer here: If this game had been made in 1989, it would have been hailed as one of the greatest games of all time. The graphics go for a retro feel. It's an 8-bit sidescroller, and it's beautiful too. The areas are total eye candy.

Graphics: 10/10

Gameplay

For the most part, an easy game (Unless you're trying for the perfect ending). What I love about it though is the leveling system. Each weapon you have has three different stages. Enemies drop experience that levels up the weapon you have selected. When a weapon levels up, it alters it. For example, the lvl. 1 Polar Star has minimal range and does one damage per shot. The lvl. 2 Polar Star has slightly longer range and does two damage. And so on. Being hit takes away some of the experience on the selected weapon. There's a lot of different weapons too. Ranging from a gun that shoots out rubber ducks, to a machine gun that acts as a rocket if you jump and shoot it at the ground.

Gameplay: 10/10

Sound

Uh. May. Zing. The sound also goes for a retro feel, but still sounds amazing even by today's standards. SeewhatImean? (Note, four different songs.) The sound effects fit in nicely as well. None of them are annoying and they add a lot to the enjoyment of the game.

Sound: 10/10

Controls

Not much to say about the controls. Everything fits perfectly, but that's because it only requires 10 buttons, including the arrow keys. I'll give it a 10 since it works perfectly.

Controls: 10/10

Length

It's a fairly short game. The first time through, it took me around 6 hours to complete. Nowadays, I can speedrun it in three (not including the hard mode's cave at the end. That thing tacks on at least another 10 hours for first timers). Still, pretty long for a freeware game.

Length: 4/10

Replay Value

I've completed this game... I've lost count, but it's been well over 20 times that I've beaten Cave Story. The music, graphics, and weaponry just keep calling for me. (Hence why I named myself after the first weapon in the game)

Replay Value: 10/10

Fun Factor

If you enjoy retro gaming, this game is PERFECT for you. If you're not into retro, you're still going to love it. I was skeptical about playing this because it's 8-bit, and within 10 minutes, I couldn't put it down.

Fun Factor: 10/10



Overall: 10/10



Notes: PLAY. NOW. This game is my favorite game of all time. It's freeware, so it's BEYOND worth what you pay for it (a few clicks with a mouse).

 

[Krake]

This thread will probably close due to bumpage, but here goes...

Final Fantasy 5 (GBA/E)

Story

It starts off with the main character named Bartz (or Butz as he is sometimes called) coming across a meteor that lands near his location. When he investigates, he meets a princess named Lenna and an amnesiac old man named Galuf. They eventually meet up with the pirate captain named Faris, and they go off to save the crystals, which then leads to defeating Exdeath and preventing him from opening the Rift.

I can't really go through the story, since it's very long, but the story is great. It stands out more from the other Final Fantasy games because it has a more obvious sense of humor and cultural references (Reading Rainbow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, etc.). The translation is better than the other American versions too.

A few of main characters, however, are a bit cliche. Bartz is the orphaned central character, Lenna is the princess, Galuf is a cliche amnesiac (until later in the story), and Exdeath, the main villain, seems to lack motivation to destroy the world besides that he is evil and apparently evil beings want everything to not exist.

8.5/10

Graphics

The graphics are remade for the GBA. They are somewhat similar to FFIV's graphics, except the character models are smaller, so it's probably more similar to FFI's GBA remake.

8/10

Gameplay

The fighting is in the same Active Time Battle system that its predecessor popularized, but the main difference is the returning job system from FFIII.

FFV greatly improved the job system, allowing you to change jobs fluidly without backlash, magic spells being in one collective rather than being separately equipped, every job having unique traits (as opposed to jobs like White Mage and Devout, where the latter can use higher spells), and skills being able to be used by other classes when they are mastered. This is still somewhat inconvenient, as one other skill besides the one of the selected class can be equipped on classes other than Freelancer and Mime, but it is still a fun concept.

10/10

Music/Sound

I don't have that much to say about the music, but it is pretty good. My favorite songs are the boss battle song and Gilgamesh's theme.

7.5/10

Replay Value

Aside from killing Omega and Shinryu that the original had, a new dungeon has been added. I haven't gotten to it, but I assume that it is somewhat similar to FFIV Advance's.

8/10

Fun Factor

Play this game if you are a fan of RPGs. The cool job system and humorous lines are great fun.

10/10

Overall: 9/10

 

[BlitzBlast]

Alright, the first counter review of this thread.

FF V Advance

Story

The story of FFV is actually supposed to be a comedy. Hence the rather light nature of the whole thing, with the perfect example being the Big Bad. It's a tree. Okay, it's a tree that became evil because so many evil souls were sealed into it, but it's a flipping tree. Also, it wanted to destroy everything because it seeked the power of the void, but that came back to bite it later when it lost control of the void and became an avatar of it at the end.

Incidentally, "Butz" is the correct translation, but seeing as how the character comes from "Lix", Square Enix decided to use "Bartz" instead, for good reason.

It should be noted that FF V Advance's translation is much better then the PSX version ("Sarisa" was used correctly instead of "Salsa" for example).

Either way, the story is as good as any other FF story.

Story: 8/10

Graphics

It's pretty much the same as it was on the SNES, though there have been a few enhancements. Either way, the graphics have aged well.

Graphics: 9/10

Gameplay

FFV had the best job system of all the FF's in my opinion. As explained, you are allowed to pick any job you want for all the characters, and you can switch anytime you're not in battle. There are no drawbacks to switching, and each job can be leveled up to both power up the Freelancer and Mime class, and to gain new abilities.

It should be noted that there are a lot of useless classes only worth mastering for certain skills. The Berserker class is an example, being utterly pointless unless you want Equip Axes.

However many useless classes there are though, there are even more useless skills. By endgame the only ones you'll really get use out of are !Rapid Fire, !Spellblade, !Finisher, !White, !Black, !Time, !Blue, !Summon, !Dual Cast, !Jump and !Mime.

That's quite the list, but there are over 100 skills....

Anyway, every class has innate abilities that you can learn. But what's the point if the class already has them in the first place? The Freelancer, that's what.

The Freelancer is your first job, and it starts off pathetic, with its only bonus being able to equip all weapons. But as you master other jobs, the Freelancer gains innate abilities and bonuses from each one, eventually becoming the best Physical attacker in the game. The Mime class is exactly the same, only it's gained near the end of the game, and it's best for magic.

Anyway, four new classes have been added to this game. They all suck. Seriously, the only use you'll get is the Gladiator's !Finisher, which has a chance of doing an elemental finisher that always does 9999 elemental damage.

Anyway, the game uses the ATB system, but like FF IV Advance, there are noticable amounts of lag.

Gameplay: 9/10

Music

The music has been remixed a bit, but all in all it's still great. You'll probably find the PSX version better though. But Battle on the Big Bridge is recommended listening.

Music: 7/10

Replay Value

I have personally played the last dungeon, and I can say this: it's fun and long, but after that it's pretty much pointless. However, beating it does unlock a Boss Rush mode.... that would be fun if it actually had bosses people would want to battle again. Where's Gilgamesh damn it?

You can spend a while in the room before the final boss mastering jobs, but eventually you'll have done everything.

There's always Challenge Runs I guess....

Replay Value: 5/10

Fun Factor

This game is hilarious. Seriously, get it if you can.

Fun Factor: 10/10

Total: 8/10