Third Person Action Game thread (DMC, NG, etc.)

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

(I realize this is kind of a bump, but I figured this should either go in the Platinum Games thread or this one, and this seemed like the best choice.)

Has anyone here put time into The Wonderful 101? I realize that the Wii U is pretty much a failure, but I'm still surprised that I haven't seen a single post about the game on this board. Outside of Madworld, all of Platinum Games' releases have been pretty stellar, and Kamiya's games in particular are great, so I'm strongly considering getting a Wii U just for Wonderful 101.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Now it's up to you whether Wii U will be the new GameCube or the new N64.

[Pretas]

I've played it; it's essentially a fixed-camera Bayonetta clone with elements taken from Pikmin and Okami. Despite the kiddie atmosphere, the difficulty is very much there. I felt the biggest functional change from Platinum's other action titles was that it now costs a block of energy to perform your roll dodge, so you can't spam your way out of every attack like in Bayonetta. One of the coolest things is that you can form pieces of your swarm into auto-attack assist weapons (up to four at a time), which is where most of the depth of the combat system comes into play. The use of the tablet is entirely superfluous: I always used the right stick for contextual actions and weapon switching, and wished I didn't have to play on the screen during certain indoor "puzzle" segments. There are some nice survival arenas akin to Vanquish's Tactical Challenges, which support four players locally.

I don't know if I would buy the system for it, but it's definitely the best Wii U game available right now.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The use of the tablet is entirely superfluous: I always used the right stick for contextual actions and weapon switching, and wished I didn't have to play on the screen during certain indoor "puzzle" segments.

I fear Bayonetta 2 will have plenty of needless use of the touchscreen simply in order to show off the hardware and not because it's actually fun to do.

[Pretas]

Actually, it seems that Bayo 2 is going to restrict all of that nonsense to a casual-friendly touchscreen mode, where you just tap on things to attack them. On normal settings, the game will be entirely playable with a Pro Controller.

I liked TW101's description for Very Easy mode. It was something like "For people who don't like games and just want to get this over with already!" It shows the main character eating a pizza slice while playing one-handed and half-asleep. Despite this show of condescension, you still have to unlock Hard mode, and there's no code for it like in MGR:R.

[Bananamatic]

god hand makes my dick hard

plays like a shmup with fists
i need to beat it on KMS hard someday

[Obiwanshinobi]

Almost certainly posted it somewhere else, but Bayonetta 2 sounds like the very game I thought Classic Controller Pro deserved (CCP support confirmed). As much as I can live with Pandora's Tower not being The One, it could have still used some tighter combat system (see Crimson Tears).

[Sarethums]

i dont know if this has been mentioned but spec ops the line is a must for 3rd person shooter fans, it can be found pretty cheap too.

[shmuppyLove]

Rise from your grave!

Been playing a lot of Darksiders lately, here are my thoughts.

Combat is satisfying, a good variety of enemies that each require different strategies, and if you're not paying attention to what's spawning around you will cause you a lot of grief.

Expansive moveset and responsive controls, challenging to effectively use all your combos and weapons (some attacks rely on different timing for button presses), but having two secondary weapons and being able to swap them on-the-fly (literally mid-combo) gives you an insane amount of flexibility.

Stage design is maddening, forcing you to trudge back and forth through areas to turn a crank to open a door to fight a mini-boss that gives you a key to unlock another door to another lever that raises a platform that accesses a chest that gives you a power that allows you to access another route back at the start of the level that leads to a key that unlocks a door etc etc. Seriously, I have several times gotten lost and doubled-back all the way to the start of an area or just plain forgotten what I was trying to do. Really feels like they were intentionally dragging things out to increase the total playtime.

I also have the 2nd one, hoping that it improves on the stage design from the first, it really is frustratingly tedious at times. There is sometimes a map marker that shows your objective, but a tiny bit more assistance would make things a lot less annoying. Like an arrow you can pop-up for a moment that points in the direction you need to go or something, I've seen this in other games and appreciated it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Spartan: Total Warrior is MUCH more than a Dynasty Warriors clone. The A.I. seems a lot more involved (Eurogamer review likenes it to Halo) and boy, is the game engine darn sweet. On GameCube, I doubt anything comes close in this regard (two LotR slashers really don't).*) It's also nice to feel 'Cube stock controller had what the genre demands going for it.
Standing next to Republic Commando in a row of their times' would-be classics.
I wonder how the announced port will introduce co-op without altering the mechanics (there is a bit of controlled slowdown for a second or so preceding particulary nasty bloodshed).

*) Okay, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance engine was also impressive but - again - A.I. makes all the difference.

But seriously, fighting engine, if robust, isn't as technical (for lack of a better word) as Onimusha (neither does it try to), yet what those games have in common is ridiculous number of enemies you can take down with one, diligently timed blow. "Viscerally" it is one of those things video games are the best at.
No matter how sick you think you are of Japanese TPP slashers playable on PS2, you still need to play Spartan: Total Warrior (any version). It just might take you by surprise. If I was Nintendo, I'd outsource Zelda Musou to The Creative Assembly.