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Game #6 - Axiom Verge (Vita)
Game #7 - Dante's Inferno
Game #6 - Axiom Verge (Vita)
I've been meaning to play Axiom Verge pretty much since it launched, and I finally got around to playing it on and off over the last few weeks. This game is exactly what I wanted it to be and what I thought it would be. It's a game that's built solidly on the Metroid formula with great pixel art, cool and inventive upgrades, a serviceable map layout, a story that's interesting enough to get you through it, and some bad boss fights. I really appreciate the fact that I got lost multiple times playing Axiom Verge, and I sometimes found some really cool secrets while I was trying to find how to progress the story. If you like these games, Axiom Verge is right up your alley, but it won't be the game to change your mind if you don't.
Game #7 - Dante's Inferno
I hate this game. Let's ignore for a second that it's a bastardization of an incredible literary work (although that is a problem, and I'll get to it). This game ranges from boring to bad. It's like God of War with a less likable main character, more brain-dead combat, worse puzzles, and less exciting set pieces. The amount of times that I died from poor level design absolutely outnumbers the amount of times I died from challenging gameplay, and it's not even close. Nothing in this game is particularly interesting or new, and it's only worth playing to see how bad they butcher the source material. On that point, a God of War derivative was never going to be the best way to adapt something like The Inferno. But they could have done a much better job than they did. The characters of Dante and Beatrice are both handled really poorly, while Virgil is turned into a walking (or actually standing) exposition machine (not to mention the fact that turning Dante into a crusader as opposed to a poet means that he would have no connection to Virigil in the first place, but that's more of a nitpick). But the most disappointing thing is that they do a terrible job of showing the actual punishments of sinners. Of all the things they could have gotten wrong, that had to have been the easiest to get right. The frustrating thing to is that half of the time they absolutely nail it. The most egregious example of them failing on this front is the ten malebolge where the sinners are represented by statues of their punishments. There are no reasons from a design standpoint not to actually show these punishments, because none of them would get in the way of anything. Ultimately, this a poor idea poorly executed. There aren't a lot of good book to game adaptations, but this has to be one of the worst.