Humanimal Farm – Animal Crossing: New Leaf

The last few days have all melted together into a slurry of bugs, fruit, furniture and adorable animal villagers.   That’s right, it’s time to review Animal Crossing: New leaf.

I’ll be the first to admit that I did not ‘get’ AC when it first came out on the Gamecube.  It was a bizarre series, even for Nintendo, putting the player in control of a large-headed mute migrating into a village of tiny schizophrenic anthropomorphic animals.  You caught bugs, collected furniture, and just kind of hung out.  It was all very zen, and it was the first game I’d ever encountered that was so different from the goal-oriented ‘get-to-the-next-level-beat-the-boss’ formula that every other game seemed to follow.  There were no levels, there was no boss.  The only real measuring stick for making any sort of progress at all was how enormous your house had become.  And the strangest part of all was just how much fun doing nothing at all could be.

Fast-forward to now, Animal Crossing has become a staple series in the Nintendo lineup.   It’s been released on multiple consoles and gotten great reviews on nearly every one, with the formula staying relatively unchanged.  And yet, the series doesn’t really seem to suffer for it.  Maybe it’s the laid-back atmosphere itself that doesn’t really demand a lot in the way of change, or maybe this is a genuine case of “if it ain’t broke, etc.”

But I digress, onto the new game itself.  New Leaf is far and away the most enjoyable entry in the game to date.  Once again proving that the 3DS doesn’t seem to realize that it’s a portable console, it contains every one of the features that made the previous titles enjoyable, while even going above and beyond to grant the player more control over their town with the new Mayor features.  Promptly upon arriving in town the player is informed that due to shenanigans, they have been dubbed the new Mayor of their town, and after doing a bit of housekeeping, are given all of the power that role grants.  The player is able to set ordinances such as how late businesses and villagers operate, as well as the level of income in the town.  They are also allowed to build various structures around the town, from tiny cosmetic additions like streetlights and fountains, to constructing entirely new stores and buildings that unlock new game features and villagers.

Also new to this game is a brand new collecting side-game, swimming and diving.  Simply by obtaining a wetsuit a player can frolic about in the ocean bordering their town and collect various sea-dwelling critters to add to their museum, adding an entirely new collecting distraction for those that have grown tired of merely collecting hundreds of bugs, fish, works of art, and fossils.  (Each of those sections has been made more robust as well, in case you were worried.)

The City from City Folk doesn’t return, but instead players are given a ‘Main Street’ section just to the north of their town that conveniently groups together the majority of the shops and buildings into one area.  Many of the stores aren’t available from the beginning of the game and must be unlocked by completing various objectives such as filling out the museum or tending to mayoral duties.  One such new feature that can be unlocked adds an interesting new dimension to visiting other people’s towns in the “Dream Suite.”  Basically, it’s a way to visit the towns of players whose friend codes you don’t have, the catch is that you can’t really damage their town in any way, so it provides an interesting way for people to see and explore your personal town, without having to worry about griefing.

Various other older features have been improved substantially or streamlined, such as the museum donation process.  It’s now a simple matter to have all of your fossils identified in one fell swoop, and just as easy to donate multiple new finds all in one dialogue option without having to sit and donate each individual piece.  Now this does mean that we aren’t treated to one of Blathers’ anecdotes for each and every item donated to the museum, but a lengthy description of each specimen/piece is available on a plaque next to it.

My favorite addition to the game is the fortune cookies available in the general store once a day using the 3DS’ Play Coins currency. (Tracked and awarded to the console when the player walks around in the real world)  These have a random chance to contain various pieces of Nintendo-themed clothing and furniture.  It’s like a daily chance at getting to geek out a little bit wondering whether the next cookie is going to contain a warp star, the Master Sword, or the Varia Suit.  It is, hands down. the best part of my day.

This is kind of an odd game for me to review, because as I said before, the game series has changed so very little over the years, it just becomes more polished with each iteration.  This game, so far, is the pinnacle of that polish.  Everything you do is fun and rewarding.  The characters are likable, adorable, and talking to them is delightful.  Each one has their own individual style and personality, evident in the design of their house, their mannerism, and they way they dress.  The game is just fucking fun.  End of discussion.  End of Line.  Go buy a 3DS you fucking mongoloid.

GenericGuy Reviews – The Last of Us

So after a two week break I’m back with my first AAA review. Today I will be talking about The Last of Us.

For those of you who live under a rock or intentionally avoid game release news, The Last of Us is a new game from Naughty Dog, the company who brought us the Uncharted series. For lack of a better genre I’ve been referring to it as survival horror, but there’s a lot to the game. The game takes place in the US, 20 years after a catastrophic disease outbreak which has forced the government to setup military enforced quarantine zones around the country.

The Last of Us does a great job in getting you emotionally invested right from the beginning with having you control Sarah, Joel’s daughter, as she is pulled from a sound sleep by a phone call from her clearly panicked uncle. Sarah wanders the house, unable to find her father, growing increasingly more anxious as she witnesses distant explosions that cut short a news report on the TV her dad left on, and then when a squad of police cars goes flying by. The atmosphere of the whole situation is captured fantastically in everything from Sarah’s body language to the increasing panic in her voice as she calls out for her father. The entire introductory chapter takes roughly 30 minutes and does a completely phenomenal job of setting up Joel’s character.

Flash forward 20 years and we are met with the real meat of the game. Joel and his partner Tess head out on a hunt to find an old business associate of theirs that owes them some product, but crossing the section checkpoints in the quarantine zone is not always simple. After some exposition and basic tutorial work you run into your first bit of stealth. It becomes immediately clear that outright combat is not only undesirable, but nearly outright foolish as you are faced with soldiers who are much better equipped and have greater numbers than you.

The introduction of the other main character, Ellie, is when we start to really see the true shine of what is already shaping up to be a great game. Ellie is 14 and has known nothing but the quarantine zones her whole life, and now she must be taken from them. The true wonders, and dangers, of the world outside the wall are all new to her. The character growth shown, both by Joe and by Ellie, is rarely seen a video game. Without spoiling too much, Ellie’s hunt during Winter is probably one of the single most powerful pieces of character development I have personally ever experienced in a game. The story telling sequences, which are done with both cutscenes and gameplay, easily run the spectrum from gut-wrenching to heart warming. The Last of Us has no qualms about exploring exactly how dark the human psyche can get, but does a brilliant job of juxtaposing it next to gleaming moments of hope.

This game also hits every mark on the mechanics side as well. The pacing is smooth, with many sections where you are not actually in danger, but you always know it’s lurking just around the corner. The stealth areas are tense, nearly heart-pounding in some parts, and the combat is hectic and visceral. After a few sections of open combat I quickly decided that I never wanted to do it again. Fighting is brutal, and while it is rewarding to complete a combat  encounter successfully, it is hard to take enjoyment in it, especially once you start fighting other survivors.

There is also a multiplayer mode that seems to be generic death match style gameplay. It has an additional meta game associated with it, where you provide resources to your camp based on your performance in the match, which is interesting, if not entirely compelling. Overall the multiplayer is a nice touch, but feels somewhat out of spirit with the rest of the game as a whole.

I can without a single reservation recommend this game. For most people it will offer a couple of weeks enjoyment, or you may end up like me, riveted to your Playstation every evening for 4 days while you plow through it, emotionally tied to Joel and Ellie’s successes and challenges.