Dead Island: Riptide Review

 Around 19 months ago was the release of the first ever Dead Island game, and it was released with very mixed reviews. I personally enjoyed the first game but it needed some big changes for it too be considered a "great" game, sadly nothing much has really changed from the first Dead Island to Riptide but also has some parts where the game really shines. Let's see what Dead Island: Riptide got right and mostly wrong.

The opening video to Riptide was perfect, it gets the player up to speed with what was going on during the first game and shows briefly what happened straight after the original game ended. After the surprisingly good opening we meet the 5th character who is new to Dead Island named John Morgan. John's introduction was kept pretty simple, when the original team of four get locked up they meet John, and it's pretty much "Hey I'm immune to the infection too" "Join us then!" after the rushed introduction and some minor storyline happenings, we finally get into the gameplay.

If you imported a character from the original game like I did then you will notice that Riptide doesn't mess around, and you will see that enemies will be at a similar level to your imported level, I was at level 30 when I finished Dead Island so enemies levels were around 28, 29 or 30. I liked how the game just starts like it never ended compared to other games that have some stupid storyline reason for you losing your level and all your skills you earned in the other game (Yes, even your Dead Island skills will carry over)

Not so long after you will find yourself back on another island called Palanoi. Pretty much straight after arriving on the island you will make your way towards an area full of survivors which leads to one of the few new additions to Riptide's gameplay as zombies can now attack in hordes, and there will be a icon on the screen showing the hordes strength as each zombie you kill the meter goes lower and lower until every zombie is killed. Before the hordes arrival you was asked by another survivor to put up fences to protect the survivors from the zombies, the zombies will attack and eventually destroy your fences. I actually really liked this addition to Dead Island and thought the same about the addition of boats. After this strong start I thought "Hey? Maybe this game might be pretty good" but not long after thinking that, it goes downhill quick.

Dead Island Riptide has way too many different features carried over from the original Dead Island, I noticed how during combat the characters would still say lines from the original game, Zombies make the same noise when attacked, Same animations for certain things like kicking enemies and breaking the cracked cars window and other things show how much this game has been rushed. After almost 20 hours of gameplay, I honestly can't find much different from the original to Riptide except hordes, boats, a new character and enemies, even though the setting might be different it is still pretty much the same as the original games setting. Somehow even existing problems from Dead Island made its way back to Riptide like the terrible respawn system that sometimes respawned me in some of the most stupidest places like right in front of multiple enemies causing almost instant death or being respawned even further from the mission.

One of Riptide's major problems is how similar each mission is to the other, almost every mission in the game is a fetch quest that can also turn into another fetch quest on top of the original fetch quest, and this happens straight after the fun horde mission when you have to fetch a boat motor to get to another part of the island. The problem is fetch quests get extremely dull and repetitive fast, and when like 90% of the game is fetch quests the other 10% of the game suffers from this big 90% of dullness dragging down what could be a great open world zombie survival game. If a true sequel comes out for Dead Island (Somehow this is a "spinoff" even though it follows the main story) then changes are needed to the quest system, fetch quests need to be cut down to a much more forgiving amount, and in its place should be unique quests that we haven't seen in Dead Island before.

The story in this game is almost non existent, and even that little bit of story is plagued by unlikable characters and extremely annoying voice acting, add them to the fact that missions are repetitive, you might end up smash your disc after playing. After so much disappointment the only really redeeming feature is that CO-OP with friends can be really fun and if you are going to be playing Riptide with friends you will most likely look past most of its faults and have much more fun playing it.

The Final Verdict 

Dead Island: Riptide is a rushed, mediocre game that could have been so much better, the first 30-45 minutes actually had legitimate promise (Minus the laughable introduction of John) I really liked the horde of zombies that attacked our group of survivors at the start and also how we had to fortify the area to keep the zombies at bay, almost straight after though the major problems start to arise like how repetitive the game is and how annoying the characters become. There is still something about this series that makes me think it could be really good if the problems are fixed, it's just a matter of whether they will be fixed in the next game or not.

+Zombie hordes and the addition of boats are pretty fun additions
+Killing zombies is still fun
+Playing in CO-OP is so much more fun than single player
+Importing your character from Dead Island

-The story is bad, characters are extremely unlikable and the voice acting is not that great
-Too much of the same and not enough additions
-Missions become extremely repetitive in a hurry

Final Score

5.5/10 

Assassin's Creed III - The Tyranny Of King Washington DLC Review

Note: This review is the three previous episodes reviews all in one review. The final verdict and score is new content. 

In the first episode of The Tyranny of King Washington (Of 3 episodes) we see an entirely different Assassins Creed 3 universe. Connor is well.... Never was actually Connor, and is known as Ratonhnhaké:ton like he was in the first few sequences of Assassins Creed 3. He was never apart of the assassins and is now dressed in a pretty cool looking wolfskin suit. George Washington has become in possession of the Apple Of Eden and has become corrupt with power. Washington has been doing awful things to the people like burning down villages, and now it's up to Ratonhnhaké:ton to save the day by killing Washington, and put an end to his madness. He can't do it as his current self though. He has to gain different powers (More on that later) Let's see what's in store for this DLC adventure.

While playing the DLC there is a noticeable twist to this alternate universe as Ratonhnhaké:ton who isn't Connor the Assassin still has memories of this other life which is also known to us as Assassins Creed 3. To make things worse no one has any idea about this other life he speaks of. I think we will be hearing more about this in future episodes. At the start of the review I talked about how the player has to keep gaining powers and you might be thinking "How does he do that?" well Ratonhnhaké:ton drinks a special tea which in return allowed him to meet different animal spirits. I liked the idea because it rewarded us with alterations to the gameplay in the DLC. I feel the twist was to freshen things up which I think was necessary.

Ratonhnhaké:ton needs to keep acquiring different powers in each episode to stop Washington's reign of terror. In this episode he is looking for the powers of the wolf which will give him new wolf related perks. These perks include the ability to call a small army of wolves to Ratonhnhaké:ton's aid (Very similar to calling Assassins in previous games) he will also gain the wolf cloak. The wolf cloak allows Ratonhnhaké:ton to become invisible for a certain amount of time and will help the player during the stealth missions in the DLC. Gaining these powers did feel different to the Assassins Creed I have been used to. Props though for changing things up with the new DLC.

Although I did say the DLC feels a little different to the usual Assassins Creed games it does still keep many of its old ways. You can expect to be doing similar missions to AC3 in this new DLC as well like eavesdropping for example.The episode overall was decent and I felt it did a good job of building up to the big finale already. The first episode also does well to get the player wanting more as this is how I felt once the episode was over. When it was over I wanted to power up Ratonhnhaké:ton and become the hero who puts a stop to Washington. You get about 2 hours of gameplay in the DLC which is lacking for the price being asked (800 points/$10)

The DLC continues with the animal powers gimmick per episode, and in this episode Connor learns the power of the Eagle. The power of the Eagle gives the player some new perks and moves to Connor's advantage. The first addition is the ability to fly (Yes, you learn to fly) to pull off the new flying ability you have to aim at certain high parts of the area you are in and press Y/Triangle to fly to that area. With the flying ability you also have the chance to now pull off flying kills at enemies by again holding the Y/Triangle button. I enjoyed the new animal perks and found them a little better than the wolf perks due to having a much more fun pulling these off, and well... Flying is pretty damn cool too! The whole animal powers gimmick, while it sounds pretty ridiculous has been a high point for these DLC episodes.

The new animal power is awesome but sadly that is one of few positives this DLC brings as the story takes place in an extremely dull Boston which kills any enjoyment you could have had with this DLC. Boston lacks any life that it once had in the main Assassins Creed 3 game and also stops any creativity with your newly gained animal power. I wish Boston's dullness was the only thing dragging this DLC down but then as you go deeper in to the episode you just see more and more bad, for example in one mission you have an A.I with you fighting off enemies, and if he dies the mission gets desynchronized, normally I wouldn't mind this but not when the A.I is so bad that it is causing you to fail something that isn't your fault.

Although there was some dull parts to the story, I found it better than the previous episode as it gave us more direction to final episode, and to be honest they have built up this final episode pretty well. I won't spoil the ending because it is a non spoiler review but I will say that in the end of Episode 2 you should find yourself wanting to play the next episode just to see what twist and turns will be happening, and also how it will all go down. After two disappointing episodes, Episode 3 really needs to blow us away, and make people think that this whole side story wasn't just a big waste of time.

The final episode of the DLC starts off with Ratonhnhaké:ton on his way to New York, and during this brings back the popular naval missions. We also get the final animal power in this episode which is the bear. The bear power gives Ratonhnhaké:ton even more new perks to add to his other perks that was gained during the first two episodes. The bear powers in my opinion were the weakest of the three animal power but are still pretty fun to use. The new perk spawns a huge glowing bear to attack around a certain area but it has a major down side, it can also attack allies that can ruin missions for you. I thought the animal powers were the best part of this DLC, they were fun to use and gave us a new side to Assassin's Creed that we had never seen before. 

New York follows the theme of the whole DLC series by changing things up. The most noticeable difference you will see in New York is King Washington's huge pyramid that is being built right in the middle of New York (Sadly it cannot be climbed) To me New York also felt like the most open area out of the 3 episodes, the feeling of been restricted in the past DLC's was a major downside to the episodes. 

This is a non spoiler review so I can't go into detail about the story, but I found the ending to be just "decent" it was always going to have a lot to live up to when you break DLC into episodes and build it up so much, and while it was still satisfying in some places it could have been much better just like the DLC overall. 

The Final Verdict 

The DLC just didn't work for me overall, the first major problem is the DLC coming out in episodes because it kills all of the momentum the DLC has. It would have been great if this was released as one big 6-7 hour expansion pack like the GTA/Elder Scrolls DLC, imagine if those great DLC's came out in episodes? It would have had a much less impact than it did being released as a full DLC. The other problem with the DLC is that it's way over priced for how many hours you are getting. 

I did like however the additions of animal powers and a change of direction compared to past Assassin's Creed games but in certain parts in the episodes the story falls flat, and ends up becoming a drag. Assassins Creed 4 DLC should be one big DLC this time around and hopefully the problems with this DLC is fixed in the next games DLC because if they are then it could be an amazing expansion. 

Final Score

6.5/10 

Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - The Redemption DLC Review

After 3 months of content it's now time for the final part of The Tyranny Of King Washington, while showing some brilliance in some areas and genuine effort to be different, the DLC overall has been a disappointing experience. There are many reasons why it has so far been disappointing like the lack of content in each episode, some dull locations, pricing and the story being flat at some parts. The third episode of this DLC is named "The Redemption" could this be the episode that redeems itself for its past mistakes? 

The DLC starts off with Ratonhnhaké:ton on his way to New York, and during this brings back the popular naval missions. We also get the final animal power in this episode which is the bear. The bear power gives Ratonhnhaké:ton even more new perks to add to his other perks that was gained during the first two episodes. The bear powers in my opinion were the weakest of the three animal power but are still pretty fun to use. The new perk spawns a huge glowing bear to attack around a certain area but it has a major down side, it can also attack allies that can ruin missions for you. I thought the animal powers were the best part of this DLC, they were fun to use and gave us a new side to Assassin's Creed that we had never seen before. 

New York follows the theme of the whole DLC series by changing things up. The most noticeable difference you will see in New York is King Washington's huge pyramid that is being built right in the middle of New York (Sadly it cannot be climbed) To me New York also felt like the most open area out of the 3 episodes, the feeling of been restricted in the past DLC's was a major downside to the episodes. 

This is a non spoiler review so I can't go into detail about the story, but I found the ending to be just "decent" it was always going to have a lot to live up to when you break DLC into episodes and build it up so much, and while it was still satisfying in some places it could have been much better just like the DLC overall. 

The Final Verdict

The final episode of The Tyranny Of King Washington was easily the best episode of the series although it still suffered from some problems like it being extremely overpriced for the amount of content you will be getting in this episode. The return of naval missions was welcomed and enjoyed just like in Assassins Creed 3. Hopefully if there is an Assassins Creed 4 DLC (Most likely) that some major changes are made. 

+Naval missions return

+New York is a much better setting

+/- Bear powers are fun but the weakest of the three 

-Still overpriced 

-Lack of content

Final Score 

7/10 

Dishonored: Knife Of Dunwall Review

The first of two DLC episodes sees Daud (The assassin who killed the empress at the start of Dishonored) story during the events of Dishonored. After killing the empress Daud is summoned into the void and confronted by the Outsider who makes it clear that Daud's story "will end soon" he is given one hint to help end Daud's story and that is to find "Delilah" 6 months had passed since Daud's encounter with the Outsider, and during that time he started to feel bad for the killing of the empress which is something he has been said to never feel after a kill. Now you have the back story lets see if the whole DLC is worth your money.

Knife Of Dunwall has just 3 missions, sounds bad right? It's actually not because these missions were made to be played more than once because of the different routes  you can take to get there or having the option if you want to be a stealthy assassin or a sword swinging madman assassin. Like Dishonored there are 2 different endings based on how high or low the chaos is, so that makes 2 playthroughs a must if you are a person who likes to see both sides of the story. The 3 missions you get in this DLC have that Dishonored "feel" still, and that makes them solid missions too of course. Like the main game you can do optional side quests during main missions that can also impact your final chaos rating. As this review is non spoiler though I can't go into anymore detail about missions.

I really liked how the DLC tried to change up from the main game of Dishonored, like for example one of the more noticeable things to me in Dishonored was that Corvo never spoke, and that is the complete opposite in this DLC as Daud will speak to characters and even has voice overs which brings me to the next change up in this DLC. Before each mission there will be a scene that is played in pictures that will give a backstory to the mission (Voiced over by Daud) I actually liked this change of direction for the DLC just for the fact that it was different. Those were the two major differences I noticed in the game at the start but I started to find even more changes/additions like the upgrade menu is shown just before a mission starts, there are new weapons like the Chokedust, Chokedust is used to temporarily disable enemies so if you are on a non killing playthrough you will love Chokedust.

The Final Verdict

The first of 2 DLC's ended up being an overall solid addition to the Dishonored storyline. I really appreciate how the DLC changed things up to try and give players a new experience while playing this DLC. The missions were really fun and well done, and should take you around 3-4 hours to complete the whole DLC depending on the way you play Dishonored. I personally don't like DLC being episodic, and feel this DLC would have worked way better as a 6-7 hour complete story but still this DLC is worth dusting of your copies of Dishonored for another fight through Dunwall. I'll hopefully see you all for the review of the 2nd DLC to this story called "The Brigmore Witches" soon.

+I like how the DLC encourages multiple playthroughs
+More Dishonored is always a good thing

-I feel this DLC would have been better as one big DLC rather than two episodes

Final Score

8.5/10 

This DLC was reviewed with a PS3 code supplied by Bethesda 

Injustice: Gods Among Us Review

 After the solid release of "Mortal Kombat" in 2011, Netherrealm Studios are back with a brand new fighting game. Injustice: Gods Among Us boasts a ton of features like an original Story Mode, Battles, S.T.A.R. Labs, multiple online modes and much more that will all be talked about in detail during this review of Injustice. Lets see if Netherrealm studios can start a streak of solid fighting game releases.

Netherrealm Studios out did themselves again with the amount of content they are offering in this game, large amounts of content is a rarity in fighting games so I was very pleased with that to start of with, and this was only minutes after starting the game up! I went straight to online mode after being amazed by all that content, and thought "Yeah, this will probably be like MK controls so I am ready" I was so wrong. I didn't know how to properly block, I was getting slammed through walls, combo'd and easily beaten. After that I went straight to the tutorial arena (Like I should have done from the start) I recommend everyone to have some practice first before even getting into the "real" game.

The tutorial allows you to learn pretty much everything the game has to offer in terms of gameplay. You will be taught the very basics and also advanced gameplay controls. During the tutorial I found out that blocking is done by either pressing back or down, sounds easy right? Well I found it to be pretty damn hard to block attacks in this game, I would however have preferred a block button instead but I do understand how people will like this instead of a block button, me personally though? Not a fan. After finishing the tutorial, I had a better understanding of how the game works as well as making me realize this isn't just "Mortal Kombat with DC characters"  

Now I knew it was time to dig into the incredible amount of content, and I chose to play the Story Mode first. Story Mode follows the same pattern of Mortal Kombat from 2011, a cutscene plays, a fight begins, a cutscene plays, a fight begins and so on. There are 12 chapters to the story with each chapter being played by a different character, again similar to Mortal Kombat. I booted up the Story Mode with extremely low expectations but once it was finished I was kind of amazed how well the story mode was pulled off. I found it to be really fun to play and also felt the story being told was actually pretty good too. The story admittedly  only lasts for around 3-4 hours but in a fighting game it doesn't really matter to me. A surprisingly good story mode was the sign to me that even more good things will come from Injustice and, I was right.

After a satisfying story mode I decided to try out the battle mode, I had originally thought Battle Mode was just 1vs1 with a "cool" name added to it. I quickly released I was wrong, and in actual fact it was the Injustice's answer to Mortal Kombat's famous "arcade ladder" with a big twist, there are multiple battles with different settings. One Battle for example is called "Heroes Only" and well you guessed it... It features Heroes only! There are other ones similar to this like Villians Only or a Classic battle with everyone from the games roster being eligible to fight. Then there are battles that have an impact on the gameplay like "Poisoned" and "Survivor" "Poisoned Battle" lowers your characters health during fights due to the poison and "Survivor Battle" carries over your characters health after each fight, and you can only regain health by "Performing feats of exceptional skill" I loved the twist on MK's ladder mode and will provide even more replay value.

S.T.A.R Labs is the 3rd and final single player mode in Injustice. It is similar to Mortal Kombat's (How many times am I going to say this?) Challenge Tower and again with a twist. Each S.T.A.R Labs mission has 3 objectives to do and each objective you do earns you one star out of the 3 stars. Missions are varied and are not all normal 1vs1 fights some missions are 1vs1 fights but have a twist to them like survive for 20 seconds or save a citizen. Each of the 24 characters have 10 missions so that adds up to 240 missions!! Add that to battles and story mode, and you are looking at quite a lot of game time here.

Injustice's Combat felt familiar due to me playing MK 2011 for like 50 hours, combos and special moves feel very similar in terms of controls/commands  but the way I see it is everything that was great from Mortal Kombat's gameplay has been added while also adding additional features that separates itself from the Mortal Kombat comparisons. One of the first differences I noticed is Injustice breaks away from most fighting games tradition by just having a straight up fight and that is all, no "ROUND 1! FIGHT!" it's just "Begin" and then start throwing until the other guy is out for good. I liked the change of pace with this one round only formula, it made the fighting just non stop action rather than a stopping and starting fight.

Fighters have two health bars in Injustice one is silver colored and one is red colored, it kind of reminds me of Mass Effect or Borderlands shield and health bars. Once your silver bar is fully drained you won't be able to get up for about 5 seconds while the other fighter taunts you. A wager system/combo breaker has also been added to fights which are known in this game as "Clashes", these "Clashes" are only allowed to be used once in a fight, and the clash wager is won by whoever bets the most of their "special meter" The execution of "Clashes" isn't great but the one liners before the "Clash" are really well done but sadly that is all the good that comes out from the clash system.

The one feature I absolutely love in this game is how interactive the arenas are. Parts of every arena can be used to your advantage, for example you can pick up cars and throw it at your opponent, you can kick you opponent behind the 2.5D area into a piece of the arenas environment (Computers in the batcave for example), freeze your opponent by breaking a pipe and many, many other different and hilarious ways to attack your opponent using the arena. The best part of the interactive areans is being able to transition from one area to another by using a very heavy attack that can make your opponent go flying all around until the character reaches the next area, my favorite transition has to be Arkham Asylum's as you can punch your opponent into a cell that has Scarecrow locked up inside which leads to crazy results and then the 2nd transition knocks the character into an area full of the Arkham series villians like Two Face, The Riddler and about 4 others that beat the hell out of you and throw you back in the arena. The arena transitions was an awesome feature that I would love to see in more fighting games.

The Final Verdict

Injustice: Gods Among Us was another solid fighting game from Netherrealm Studios, I liked how they tried to change things up with Injustice to try and break away from the Mortal Kombat shadow. They added tons of new features not seen in MK like the clash system, 1 round fights (I know you can in MK but they are extremely short), 2 health bars, very interactive arenas, XP and levels (Up to 100) which is earned in every mode in the game even a random 1vs1 game. It will still feel similar to people but it doesn't  really matter because the game is still solid and really that is all that matters. There is plenty of content and fun to be had with Injustice: Gods Among Us, and should be a 100% purchase for all fighting game fans.

+Surprisingly good story
+Gameplay is really fun
+Arena Environmental attacks/arena transitions are awesome features
+Large amount of content increases replay value

-I personally hate that there is no block button
-Unskippable fight ending scenes become extremely repetitive
-Clash system (Although the one liners between characters are great)

Final Score

8.5/10 

Bioshock: Infinite Review

The Bioshock series is another series I have not been familiar with, not long after becoming a video game reviewer last year, I had started to play games I wouldn't have even thought of buying, Bioshock: Infinite was one of these games. When I first started up "Infinite" I had no idea what I was in for, I never followed the game or watched gameplay videos, and just after a few hours of playing this amazing game, I found it to be one of those video games that makes you glad you became a video game reviewer just so you wouldn't miss out on such great games like Bioshock: Infinite. Keep on reading this review to see how a clueless Bioshock player turned in to a big fan of the series.

Bioshock Infinite is set in 1912, and features the main character Booker DeWitt who is sent to find a young woman named Elizabeth in the floating air-city known as Columbia. You will find Elizabeth not to long in to the story therefore you and Elizabeth will have to progress through the story together. DeWitt will start to find out something very odd is going on (Even before he officially meets her) like Elizabeth actually being able to rip open time travel tears that can be used to their advantage, that is one of the many different examples of very strange occurrences over the course of Infinite. Elizabeth starts to open up to Booker pretty early in the game, and will do throughout the whole game, she wants to know information before the two met each other, but there is one major problem, Booker isn't really the type of guy who likes to be open with his past, and shrugs off any attempt by Elizabeth to learn more about who Booker is. Two extremely opposite characters work very well in this instance, and  helps to make it a much more interesting story.

Elizabeth isn't just some lame character that you have been ordered to protect, actually she protects YOU more than you have to protect her. During conflict with enemies, if you run out of ammo, Elizabeth can actually throw ammo to DeWitt or if DeWitt is low on health she will throw a health pack at you to use. Not once during the game did I feel like I had to protect Elizabeth which must be relief to many who thought it was a "protect someone in need" kind of gameplay addition. I talked earlier about how Elizabeth can rip through time travel tears in the game, well these tears actually make a presence in the gameplay as an advantage for DeWitt. You can ask Elizabeth to open a tear (X or square) which can help DeWitt in different ways like spawning a heavy weapon that will automatically attack a group of enemies. Hopefully my description of Elizabeth should show you how important she is to actual gameplay rather than her being a drag along that will have a negative effect on the game.

Bioshock Infinite starts off really slow, and lasts like that for at least the first 30 minutes. Within those 30 minutes not one tiny bit of action will occur. I feel this is because the game was pushing for the player to understand the surroundings as well as getting to know the people who occupy it too. After it is known that Booker has been sent to help Elizabeth escape, the game picks up in a big way. At that moment DeWitt will get a hold of his first of many weapons in this game, the weapon we first get a hold of is a melee weapon known as the Sky Hook. The Sky Hook has many other different purposes in the game which will be discussed in further detail later. The Sky Hook (for melee purposes) can be used just to hit the enemy constantly until they die, constantly hitting is boring though so I recommend mixing it up by finishing them off in style with a melee execution. Executions are performed by holding the triangle/Y button when you're prompted too (via a little icon that pops above the enemy's head) Executions can range from a brutal snapping of their neck or even cutting the head clean off for bloody results.


Infinite also manages to mix in some non linear aspects to the story so not everyone will have the exact same story experience  The choices don't impact the game, and most of them aren't the toughest choices in the world, but some can leave you thinking "Hmm what should I do?"A good example of this is having the option to choose if this certain person should be killed or spared. It's a minor addition but it's something I like, and I think others will like the fact that the story isn't totally linear. It felt to me like it was a little extra to add to this already awesome package of various features.

DeWitt will get a hold of a Pistol shortly after his true intentions of saving Elizabeth are well known, the pistol is one of the many guns that can be found in this game like shotguns, RPG's, Machine Guns and other guns can be found, but why keep your guns the same when you can upgrade the guns? Each gun has four upgrade slots that can be used to increase the power of each gun. Only two guns can be in your possession so you will have to drop your weapons if you lose all of that guns ammo/want a better a gun. Not every weapon you use in Bioshock Infinite is an actual physical weapon you have to hold, as the game progresses you will come in contact with these mysterious drinks called vigors. There are eight different vigors that you can obtain in this game, each one has its own power that is given to DeWitt. One of the vigors you will obtain early in the game is called "Devil's Kiss" which gives DeWitt the power to throw these fireballs from his hand. Vigors are also upgradable like guns.

Remember how a little bit earlier I talked about the first use of the Sky Hook? Well I said it has multiple purposes, one of the Sky Hook's purposes was as a melee weapon and the other reason to use the hook is to connect to the Sky Line which helps you travel all around Columbia. Travelling on the Sky Line also brings up even more gameplay options as you have the option to shoot enemies while on the Sky Line or you can perform a Sky Hook strike by jumping off the Sky Line on to the enemy that has a resemblance of an air assassination in Assassin's Creed.

During the game you might want to upgrade weapons or vigors which all can be done at the many vending machines that are scattered all around the world of Columbia. How do you purchase these items? Well there is a currency system in the game which are called Silver Eagles, these Silver Eagle coins can be found all around Columbia, but the best place to find them is looting them from the enemies you just killed. Looting enemies can also reward you with some food and/or ammo. Vending machines also have supplies of ammo and health but become pointless once Elizabeth is there to offer you these items.

The Final Verdict

Bioshock: Infinite was my first Bioshock game, and it was that good that it made me want to play the other Bioshock games that I never had even thought of playing before. The story was fun, gameplay was at a top quality, and I liked the many different combat choices that was on offer like being able to use guns, magic, melee (with executions) or let Elizabeth use a tear to our advantage and kill enemies that way. Columbia was graphically an amazing site to look at, I liked just looking around the area or from a far because it was just a stunning site to see. The game isn't too long, and shouldn't take more than 12 hours to complete the story, but that to me isn't a negative at all because I felt like it ended when it should, any longer would have caused the game to start dragging. Thinking about it there wasn't too many negatives except some little problems I had here and there. Solid game and a 100% recommended purchase.

+ The gameplay is really fun
+ Columbia looks graphically amazing
+ Elizabeth never felt like something that was dragging the story down but rather something that was making it better.
+ Good story. I like how it had me thinking "What is going on!!??" a few times during the game.

-Nothing too bad some might not like the extremely slow start, I personally had problems with the vigor/gun switching layout and not being able to have more than two weapons/vigors in your loadout

Final Score

9.5/10

Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - The Betrayal DLC Review

 This review contains Episode 1 spoilers

It's March so that means it's time for the next part of the Tyranny Of King Washington DLC. Last month Episode 1 gave us a taste of what we will be incoming for the next 3 months, and to be honest that first taste we got wasn't all that great, although it wasn't bad at all. Episode 2 carries on straight after Episode 1's ending which sees Connor being sent to jail as well as being sentenced to death. Lets see if Episode 2 can improve from a lack luster Episode 1.

The DLC continues with the animal powers gimmick per episode, and in this episode Connor learns the power of the Eagle. The power of the Eagle gives the player some new perks and moves to Connor's advantage. The first addition is the ability to fly (Yes, you learn to fly) to pull off the new flying ability you have to aim at certain high parts of the area you are in and press Y/Triangle to fly to that area. With the flying ability you also have the chance to now pull off flying kills at enemies by again holding the Y/Triangle button. I enjoyed the new animal perks and found them a little better than the wolf perks due to having a much more fun pulling these off, and well... Flying is pretty damn cool too! The whole animal powers gimmick, while it sounds pretty ridiculous has been a high point for these DLC episodes.

The new animal power is awesome but sadly that is one of few positives this DLC brings as the story takes place in an extremely dull Boston which kills any enjoyment you could have had with this DLC. Boston lacks any life that it once had in the main Assassins Creed 3 game and also stops any creativity with your newly gained animal power. I wish Boston's dullness was the only thing dragging this DLC down but then as you go deeper in to the episode you just see more and more bad, for example in one mission you have an A.I with you fighting off enemies, and if he dies the mission gets desynchronized, normally I wouldn't mind this but not when the A.I is so bad that it is causing you to fail something that isn't your fault.

Although there was some dull parts to the story, I found it better than the previous episode as it gave us more direction to final episode, and to be honest they have built up this final episode pretty well. I won't spoil the ending because it is a non spoiler review but I will say that in the end of Episode 2 you should find yourself wanting to play the next episode just to see what twist and turns will be happening, and also how it will all go down. After two disappointing episodes, Episode 3 really needs to blow us away, and make people think that this whole side story wasn't just a big waste of time.

The Final Verdict

It's such a shame the way this DLC has been so far because it seriously has so much potential but there are way too many problems to consider this side story a success. I applaud the efforts for trying something different with Assassin's Creed but the problems all started pretty much straight away as the DLC shouldn't have even been in episode format because it keeps taking you out of the story every time you become interested, it is like playing the full retail version of a game but you can only complete half of it in one month and the other half in the next month. I just really hope Episode 3 is really good, and leaves the player with a good taste in their mouth once they are finished.


+The animal powers are defiantly going to be the highlight of this entire DLC side story as the eagle powers give this DLC some life.

+I found the story better this time around, and once I finished the 2nd DLC episode I found myself wanting to see how the story ends.


-A.I issues could cause you some troubles in this episode.
-Boston is dull as the location for this new DLC.
-Overpriced, shouldn't be in episodes and the DLC is no longer than 2 hours.


Final Score

6/10