Niall O’Colmain
Staff Writer
Asura’s Wrath
Have you ever wanted to play a game that was exactly like the most fist-pumping, invigorating, high octane anime you’ve ever seen? One so mind-blowingly over-the-top, it defies whatever expected bar you set for its possible ridiculousness, and by the end of it, you’re just along to see where in the world the writers are going to take you? If so, you’re in for a fun time. Asura’s Wrath is a strange phenomenon, coming out of CyberConnect2, a company previously known for various .hack and Naruto games, so their pedigree for anime games is well established.
The game opens with the titular character, Asura, leaping from a spaceship in order to punch a planet in the face – it only gets more absurd and ludicrous from that point on. By the end of the game, you’ll have punched a handful of gods square in the face, caused a fistful of cataclysms, and dealt with at least two or three “end of the world” scenarios. The game itself is played through a series of episodes over a course of chapters, inheriting this from its anime stylings (even going so far as to include a “Previously/Next time on” set of segments). The gameplay is mostly concerned with quick time event based events, where the failure or success of the QTE does not affect the overall outcome of the game (apart from your end game score). There are also some minor battle sequences. While some of the battles are challenging, the thrill of the game lies in the manic lengths that the game goes to without the player’s consent; fighting giant mutant elephants, getting poked by fingers the size of mountain ranges, spending a good portion of the game with either far too many or far too few arms, and finally the QTE and combat ending action of ‘Burst’ activation, which causes something awesome to happen.
Asura’s Wrath is by no means a perfect game. There are repeated boss battles in some sections, the battle sequences can get rather tiresome after a while, and the game is rather brief. On the other hand, it doesn’t outstay its welcome, and if the idea of the game even mildly interests you, it can be a very enjoyable ride. A word of warning though; the game inherits another painful piece of its anime style, in that the “True” ending for the game is sold as DLC. The game itself is still a complete experience without it, but the DLC ending actually contains the most fun sections of the game and some of the best visuals. This might disgust some people, but if it doesn’t, you might enjoy one of the more unique intellectual properties to come out in a while.
Diablo III
Sixteen years ago, the town of Tristram had a portal to hell open up underneath it – the Lord of Terror emerged, and was slain. Twelve years ago, the three Prime Evils enacted their master plans, and were destroyed. And now, the shadow of evil rises again to threaten the world, in one of Blizzard’s most anticipated releases, Diablo 3. Anyone who has ever picked up the mantle to war against the forces of hell will probably be well versed in Diablo’s high speed, action oriented RPG play style – this involves a high turnover of new and better items and impressive skills and facing down ever increasing hordes of new monstrosities , all with a very deep story keeping everything coherent.
The visual team worked to create a distance with the darker screens of Diablo 2, but make no mistake; just because you can see better doesn’t mean the horrors that crop up aren’t as grotesque, they’re just better lit. Many have criticised D3 for its “Always and Only Online” play, even if trying to play the game as a single player experience – this was due to some teething problems with servers reaching capacity rapidly, coupled with the troubling frequency of reports of account hacking. Even so, the core game itself remains solid, and the teething issues are, for the most part, resolved at this point.
If you aren’t a fan of the always and only online play, then at least you know that you can enjoy playing Diablo 2 if you wanted. You can even get these Diablo 2 items to really help you have a great time with the game. Even if you like Diablo 3, maybe it would be worth going down memory lane and enjoying a game that you use to love playing.
The game itself contains four difficulty modes, with each beyond normal having a pair of requirements; reach a certain level in game and kill the final boss of the final act in your current difficulty, with the modes named Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno. While players in higher modes can come back and help out lower level allies, one cannot join a game with a higher mode friend. There are also five radically different character classes, each with a unique visual style and method of playing: the tanky Barbarian, the nimble Demon Hunter, the glass cannon Wizard, the powerful Monk and the bizarre Witch Doctor. Every one of these classes has a unique feel and look, with multiple play styles, which can be modified on the fly with tons of active and passive abilities. There’s a twist, however – you can only use three passive and six active at a time. While this may seem limiting, the “runes” you can use to modify your abilities, along with the range of classes and difficulties to play mean there’s almost endless possibilities as to how you can enjoy the game.
