Editorial | Halo: ODST 10 years later - Lost in the darkness.

By Sam Coles:

(Minus the title card, all screenshots are mine via an Xbox One)

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed, 2009 doesn’t seem that long ago but lo and behold that was 10 years ago. Halo: ODST was a bit of a strange release in the series as it wasn’t a full Halo game, but that doesn’t make it a bad game far from it. However you weren’t this unstoppable killing machine like the Master Chief, no you were for a lack of better words human. I remember playing this game when it came out, being 16 years old I didn’t like it too much due to its slower pace, however as I get older I have more appreciation for it due to my love affair for slower games these days.

Halo: ODST takes place in between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3, when the city of New Mombasa is under siege by Covenant forces. You take control of “The Rookie” who is a part of the titular ODST, which stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, a bit of a mouth full but they are UNSC’s Special Forces. They are used for covert operations, and have been tasked for taking down a Covenant carrier or that is what they think when they are told to change course mid drop. Things go inevitably wrong, and you wake in a drop pod that is nothing more than shattered glass and twisted metal in the rain and darkness. After that explosive introduction, things dial back and become lonely and isolated as you look for your squad in the darkness.

During 2009 games were rather frantic and over the top, we had such titles like Modern Warfare 2 and the first Borderlands. Halo: ODST almost went completely under the radar, but most (me included) probably bought it for the upcoming Halo: Reach multiplayer beta. 10 years later I have a better appreciation, why is that? Is it the gameplay? No, because it was basically Halo 3 with a few new weapons, no instead it was the atmosphere.

The key word to take in with you when you play this game is isolation; throughout your play through as The Rookie you are alone. You have nothing but the rain beating down on your visor, coupled with the darkness as you hear the grumblings of Brutes, Grunts or worse Hunters. The Rookie is a silent protagonist which some would roll their eyes at these days, but honestly this trope works in the game’s favour as he doesn’t need to speak as his squad mates and environments themselves tell you everything you need to know. It’s very much like Half-Life in that regard of storytelling as you can choose your level of immersion.

The soundtrack really emphasises the lonely nature of game, with piano tracks as you skulk in the darkness to the deep and heavy drum beats as you explore the claustrophobic interiors where there is nothing more than blood and corpses strewn across the floor. It’s this juxtaposition from the rest of the Halo series that makes it standout; it doesn’t have these sweeping and epic orchestral scores because you are not this godlike entity you are just a soldier on the battlefield fighting for your home. You almost feel scared for your life when are The Rookie, because it is clearly his first live combat scenario and you feel under powered with the silenced pistol and SMG.

However as the game progresses he starts to have a greater grasp on the situation as he pieces the puzzle together, and this is done without any dialogue or heavy exposition. They could have had him comment on everything that he came across, but that would kill the atmosphere and it’s up to the player to understand the situation.

Halo ODST is a strange game in the series, and I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. It took what was the current Halo formula and turned it on its head, where it crafted this atmospheric and ambient experience where you are alone in the darkness, with little ammunition and just the rain to keep you company. It is stunning that it is now 10 years old, I remember it like yesterday when it was announced, and as I get older I have a new appreciation for its subtle storytelling with its silent protagonist. If you haven’t played it, it is super cheap on the 360, or if you want to play it at a smoother framerate and resolution it is available on the Master Chief Collection. It is a game that not only Halo fans should experience, but gamers in general.

Editorial | Tomb Raider: "It belongs in a museum" (not in a bad way).

By Sam Coles:

Tomb Raider, a game that was a household name, and still is to a certain extent but not as much as it did in the 1990s. From its humble beginnings to its reboot in 2013, what made it so special that we’re still playing and talking about it over 20 years later? Well let’s talk about it.

What stands out when you think about the series? Well first off Lara Croft, she alongside Samus Aran was one of the first prominent female protagonists in video games and she could hold her own where she would raid tombs (pun intended) while gunning down opposing forces and the wildlife. She wasn’t particularly a complex character as she just wanted to find artefacts for the glory and not for preservation; she is basically Bruce Wayne and Indiana Jones mixed together.  If one were to examine the old Tomb Raider games Lara comes across as a bit of a psychopath, she slaughters everything that gets in her way, whether it is animals or humans that get in the way of her goal as she spouts her dry wit. Yes one could argue that she was used for cheap titillation which I would agree to a certain extent for obvious reasons, however you wouldn’t say things like that to her face as she would blow your head off with a shotgun.

Now it wasn’t just the character that people loved about the games, it’s the games themselves from the early growing pains on the PS1, the plunge to hell on the PS2 in the early 2000’s to the fantastic reboot in 2013. They weren’t anything particularly ground breaking; they were 3D action games with an emphasis on exploration and platforming, with sprinkles of combat here and there. Think of them as Prince of Persia in 3D before Prince of Persia did its 3D interpretation in the late 90’s,  you have to be precise with your platforming as Lara has weight to here she is not floaty. She can grab ledges do flips, she may feel clunky in the older games, but honestly it just works because the controls require you to take your time as this is a slow pace affair.

Now this may come across as laughable today, but the visuals were ahead of their time. The reason why I say this is that most games at the time on the PlayStation would usually have 3D character models sat on top of a pre-rendered background, however Tomb Raider renders everything in 3D. It was something that developers didn’t do often, this due to the PlayStation’s inferior capability of producing 3D, as it has texture warping, unlike its later competition the N64 which was more capable of rendering 3D environments. It is certainly crude by today’s standards, but put yourself in the shoes of a teenager in the mid-90s and it is mind blowing!

After the slew of PlayStation games in the 90s the series started to show its cracks, this due to Eidos wanting yearly releases from Core design since the release of the second game. However it wasn’t until the PS2 release of Angel of Darkness is where it went downhill quickly, a cobbled together mess of a game that stained the Tomb Raider license for a decade. Core Design were taken off the Tomb Raider projects, and then shortly after that shut its doors, however a few years later when the dust settled and a developer called Crystal Dynamics picked up the mantle.

Crystal Dynamics took on the Tomb Raider license during the mid-2000s, where they put out the remake of the first game aptly named Tomb Raider Anniversary. This was a full remake of the original 1996 title to celebrate 10 years (god that makes me feel old), and it was good and after that they made a few more titles, however it wasn’t until 2013 where they would reboot the franchise and put a mature spin on it.

In 2012 Crystal Dynamics announced Tomb Raider (yes they did that annoying trope), which was a complete reboot of the series which was gritty and mature. This was telling a story of a more naïve Lara, she was less of a strong woman and more scared as she is thrown straight into the deep end. Written by Terry Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna, she put a new spin on the titular raider and was nothing short of amazing.

It didn’t lose sight of what made Tomb Raider well…. Tomb Raider. It took some ques from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted, while not losing its identity where you still explore, find items and craft to help you survive. While at the same time, it improved the combat greatly as it took influence from other third person shooters at the time but it was rather challenging as you couldn’t just sit there in cover. No the enemies would find ways to flush you out of cover, where they would flank, charge your position or just throw explosives or Molotov Cocktails at you.

After the success of Tomb Raider (2013), Crystal Dynamics got to work on a sequel that would release just only two years later. However there was a very strange deal between Square Enix and Microsoft, which saw the sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider release in 2015 on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 exclusively, but this was only a timed exclusive for one year. This understandable got a lot of people worked up, because up to that point most Tomb Raider games have been multiplatform experiences. This felt like an odd decision, however Square would redeem themselves by releasing it on the PS4 just in time for the 20^th anniversary.

Rise of the Tomb Raider was basically an enhanced version of the first game, but with some additional features such as being able to craft traps, coupled with a more open ended design with its levels. Visuals were given a massive bump too due to the power of the Xbox One, where they could use they advanced hair effects on console for the first time which was present on the PC version of Tomb Raider (2013). The scope of the entire project was amplified by ten where everything just played better with tighter controls and more intense combat scenarios.

The third game in the reboot series was a bit of departure, this was because it was not developed by Crystal Dynamics but instead Eidos Montreal. Crystal Dynamics did supervise the project; however main development duties were handed to Eidos, as Crystal Dynamics were focusing on their Avengers game (which has not been released at time of writing). This is not a bad thing, as Eidos Montreal brought us the reimaging of the Deus Ex series in the form of Human Revolution. However Shadow of the Tomb Raider didn’t gel with critics and a lot of players as it felt more of the same and it wasn’t as polished as its pre-assessors. It wasn’t bad per say, but there was something that wasn’t quite right with the game.

Tomb Raider is a series that is hugely influential, it paved the way of how third person adventure games were created in the 90s. Yes it had its stumbles during the early 2000s, but it managed to rise from the ashes with the reboot series of games, it is a series that belongs in the museum of video games.

Editorial | Borderlands: Why is it special?

By Sam Coles:

The looter shooter tends to be ubiquitous in the gaming industry, where they tend to be met with a unanimous eye roll. However back in 2009 a little game called Borderlands came out and everyone fell in love with it, the art style, gameplay, quirky sense of humour and its atmosphere is something that still stands the test of time. With the release of Borderlands 3 around the corner (at the time of writing), I want to talk about what makes Borderlands so special. So join me Vault Hunter, and let’s journey across Pandora in search of millions of guns and fortune!

Picture this, it is late 2009, I’m 16 years old and I see a bizarre game sitting there on the shelf. It’s not a sequel or a reboot of a franchise, no it’s something new and I had no idea what the game was about so you know what I did? I bought it and it turned out to be really good. Borderlands was a game I had no idea about because at the time I wasn’t following games media due to other commitments. What appealed to me right away was its unique and standout art style, as I have talked about many times before the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation was about gritty realism with colour schemes that resembled an edgy emo kid, dark and grey. No this game was bright, colourful and cell shaded which has helped the game age surprisingly well.

The gameplay was something that hooked players, as it gave a good sense of progression as it would constantly reward the player with new weapons, armour among other things. Unlike looter shooters of today, where they would purposely hold rewards back through unnecessary grind. No Borderlands never really tells you to grind with its gameplay, yes it will attach difficulty to certain quests, but it won’t bar you from participating in the quest although you might get seven shades of blue knocked out of you. The game doesn’t restrict you; it just merely recommends you be a certain level which is a great challenge for the sadists out there.

One could examine the weapons at first and say they are generic, and yes I wouldn’t blame you for having that outlook from the start. However the further you get into the game and the more you level up, the more exotic and strange the weapons get. For starters they can have elemental effects, this can range from corrosive damage which melts your foe’s rib cage, fire damage which is self-explanatory, shock damage and the things that are more thematically appropriate to the world. Not only that some guns will have certain quirks to say the least, such as when you reload your gun you can throw it as a grenade (yes really) or every time you fire your gun it shrieks like your drunk friend as he jumps from pool table to pool table.

What also stands out with Borderlands is the atmosphere; I’m talking about the first game specifically as the game had over worldly and almost a haunting environment. The first game had the humour; however it was before it got obnoxious in the second game where the writing has aged about as well an open pot of hummus left out for a week. Anyway the game had a more and subtle tone with its overall atmosphere, the jokes were there but the tone was darker and sinister compared to the second. Not to say that the second game doesn’t have solid atmosphere, but it is overshadowed by the ear grating humour, which is the reason why I play the game on mute most of the time while listening to a podcast.

Borderlands is a game that has a great hook to it, it is rewarding, beautiful visually and has an atmosphere that no other game has. Yes the sequels can be a bit annoying at times with their writing, but the overall experience especially with friends is a lot of fun with dynamic weapons that change things up, as well as a steady progression route. It really put the looter shooter on the map before it was an actual thing, and to be honest does a better job of all the modern interpretations.