Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 Review - The hero is you... once again!

Release(s):

October 25, 2016 (North America)
October 28, 2016 (Europe)
November 2, 2016 (Japan)

Platform(s): Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Genre(s): Fighting

Developer(s): Dimps

Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Entertainment

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

The past several years have not been kind to Dragon Ball Z games. Developers all just took one interesting concept and ran with it hoping it'd land but as a result the games did poorly... then came Dragon Ball: Xenoverse which does borrow the created character RPG concept from Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi and the super authentic co-op fighting from Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z but it brings them back to their roots from the fan favorite Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi (Sparking! in Japan) series'. A lot was riding on the game as not only did the combat have 360° movement as fans have gotten used to and there was an RPG action-adventure element that would serve as a crux for the game but the developer behind was Dimps, who not only have pedigree among the Dragon Ball franchise for creating the Budokai series they also developed various other popular games such as The Rumble Fish, Sonic Advanced, and even worked on the Street Fighter series since Street Fighter IV in collaboration with Capcom. For the most parts, Xenoverse lived up to the hype and became easily the most successful DBZ game since Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

Now a sequel has been announced on short notice and a lot of new things noticed along the way, good things were to be expected... but does it keep up with the momentum that Xenoverse had already established?

Gameplay

This game returns the fast-paced, 360° movement fighting mechanics from the first game along with the same simplified control scheme where all the basic moves are mapped to the face buttons (you have a light physical attack button, a heavy physical attack button which can be charged, a button for ki blasts which also now can be charged, and a jump/ascending button) while guarding and more advanced moves either involve multi-button inputs or the shoulder buttons. Xenoverse 2 also introduces a bunch of techniques to give a visceral experience closer to the show such as the Homing Dash which allows you to automatically dash towards your targeted opponent by pressing the light attack + jump/ascension buttons at the same time while doing an Aura Dash at the cost of one stamina bar and press the light attack + jump/ascension buttons again to circle around the opponent. Charge attacks can also be used to break your opponent's stamina while they are in a guarding state and there are even physical attacks that are specifically used to break an opponent's stamina by pressing the light or smash attack button in junction of a tilt movement. Stuff like Step Vanish have been fully implemented into the game (even being encouraged in the tutorials) and they can used either in the middle of a light attack (at the cost of one stamina bar) or a Dash Step by tapping the jump/ascend button at the right time like you would a Snap Vanish.

Other mechanics have been refined from the first game. Aside from the stamina breaking technique I mentioned earlier, the way Super Saiyan for example works in this game is revamped to where you can no longer spam super/ultimate attacks as you have ki but it does increase stats (depending on what level you transform into) and it allows you to warp towards a locked opponent if performing a light attack or charged attack. Not only that but all races of created characters now have their own transformations that have their own unique attributes. 

It's still far from being a balanced gameplay experience (nor is it terribly deep), whatnot with characters still being blatantly better than others or certain characters being completely useless to others, but it's at least much less frustrating to play than the first game (you can even see the computer's full HUD). It's pretty solid overall.

Content

Xenoverse 2 follows the same concept as the first game where you created a character who acts a time patroller who's mission is to restoring time to it's natural order from the wicked witch Towa but it's a new patroller this time taking place of the old one... of which you can choose between a pre-made character or if you still have a saved data from the first game you can have a created character from that save data as the legend. Other characters may help out but for the larger parts it's a one-man mission and while most events are linearly available, some require you to explore the rest of the game doing side quests in the hub world (which also serves as the game's main menu) called Conton City. It's several times larger than Toki Toki City from the first game but here you can learn of hover board, flight (which functions just how it does in combat), and the Flying Nimbus that serve as quicker means of transportation making exploring  the hub world far less tedious than better.

Stuff like Parallel Quests, where you and a party of either AI-controlled characters or online players go to fight a select set of enemies and some cases, collecting Dragon Balls while each quest will reward you in the end, have returned. One thing that's change is the drops isn't nearly as reliant on RNG and is based more on you fulfilling the requirements. New types of side-quests have been added to the game such as protecting Guru's House along with Nail by collecting dragon balls all the while fending off Freeza's men who may want it, completing various challenges given by Mr. Satan, exchanging items between other characters, race-specific training (like training under Vegeta to learn Super Saiyan), and the most challenging of them... generically named Expert Missions. In these missions you and a party of 5 (online players or AI-controlled) will fight against a possessed, more powerful version of enemies from the main story who have the ability to brainwash you or any of your partners into fighting against the rest of crew. If you get captured then you would have to fight yourself and win to escape but if you lose then mission failed. You can also train under most characters in the game to learn their super moves (with a few exceptions) like in the first game only now you don't have to accept any of them as an instructor (though it's still an option) in order to do so. No characters from the fairly new anime TV show Dragon Ball Super, sadly (unless you pay for DLC).

Unfortunately, there's still no difficulty setting so what ever challenge this game gives you is what you get but Dimps have at least addressed the No Training Mode issue in the first game by adding a Training section within the Offline Battle Mode. The Training section in Xenoverse 2 allows you to use the computer as a training dummy who either acts as a punching bag, guards constantly, guards when being attacked, performs Just Guards, performs super moves or ultimate moves on patternly, an opponent of varying difficulty levels, or even controlled by another player... but if that's not enough you can set you or the computer's gauges to either be normal, dangerously low, or infinite and you can set the damage ratio and/or commands to be displayed. It's not as great as the training modes in other fighting games (maybe not even as great as Budokai's) but it still does the job well enough. The Multiplayer section of Offline Battle Mode now allows for other stages outside the World Tournament arena to fight at and the tutorial is not only available at all times (unlike the first game's which only was available at the start) but it's greatly extended even teaching players of more advanced moves.

Graphics

The graphics engine is the same for Xenoverse 2 compared to the first game including animations only things have been tweaked. Lighting has been subdued giving character models less of a glossy thus easier to look at, though it makes things appear somewhat dark. Environments and particle effects are significantly more detailed... but that's not the best part of all. It's now the home consoles versions are capped 60 fps instead of 30 fps like the first game though PC users can set it to even higher than 60 fps (even as far as 120 fps). Still not the best-looking game out there but it's very pretty and flashy fanservice for fans.

Sound

Xenoverse 2 uses much of the same voice clips from the last but new ones recording for new moves, cutscenes, and of course... new characters which I don't mind because FUNimation do a great job like they always do. The problem I can't get past is the lip-syncing especially during cutscenes.... it's sloppy at best and horrendous at worst. Fortunately there's still the option of the Japanese voices if the issue really bothers you. SFX can also be on the annoying side as well, namely when heavier attacks and super moves are involved.

The music on the other I have no serious complains with (aside from a new annoying tracks during the Conton City hub world). It's fairly good stuff and is fitting to each situation even though a lot of tracks are recycled from the first game. It's not particularly memorable though.

Aesthetics

Like I said earlier, the story behind Xenoverse 2 follows the same concept as the first game where you take control of a Time Patroller who's mission is to restore time to it's natural order from the wicked witch Towa but this game takes more advantage of the concept and as result we get much greater character development, a more fleshed-out story, and some actually interesting plot points. Aside from story there's pieces of humorous lines and various nods to the actual series.

Tons of moves from the actual series have also been recreated even more obscure ones like the spinning escape Goku during his fight with Tien in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament and they all presented extremely well, even though they're all real-time and not one is cinematic like with the PS2 games. The destructive ability on environments is still lacking you can only cause real damage to smaller objects while the damage in others are mysteriously undone.

Overall 

While it's not a massive overhaul over it's predecessor it does what it should as a sequel and more. The story and universe are more fleshed out, it looks better, and it plays better too. It's a slow, but certain step in the right direction for the Dragon Ball video game franchise under years of failed games due to badly realized concepts.

Overall this game gets a 7.8 out of 10.

MDK Review - This is top!

Release(s):

April 30, 1997 (Worldwde)

Platform(s): Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation 
Genre(s): Third-person shooter
Developer(s): Shiny Entertainment
Publisher(s):

PIE (North America)
Interplay Entertainment (Europe)

Player(s): 1

Overview

Ah, yes... MDK, the abbreviated title of Max Doctor Kurt... or Murder Death Kill... or.. whatever, no one knows but one thing is known is the developers behind the game- the now defunct Shiny Entertainment has a history of making unique and difficult games that are beloved by pretty much everyone who's played them (aside from a few lackluster movie tie-ins), like Earthworm Jim. The revolutionary third-person shooter one of those such games. But does it hold up today? Let's find out...

Gameplay

MDK is a third-person shooter like no other. The movement controls is similar to that of Doom.... the arrow keys/directional buttons allow you to move up/down and turn left/right while pressing the shoulder buttons/left and right arrow keys in junction with X allows you to strafe. One thing that really sets MDK apart from the average third-person shooter is Kurt Hectic, the character that you play as, uses an unlimited ammo chain gun that is attached to his coil suit as his main weapon and this gun can be used even when you're moving Kurt around. You can also find other weapons scattered throughout levels such as the grenade (which come 3 a piece) which deals great damage (a lot more than the chain gun) and breaks glass walls instantly, a super chain gun which evidently is a more powerful version of the built-in chain gun but it equipped automatically and only lasts for 200 rounds (why this is a weakness I'll explain later), and the Dummy Decoy to keep the dim enemies away from attacking you by attacking you for a considerable amount time... along with less common weapons such as The World's Smallest Nuclear Bomb which destroys anything within it's radius but it only appears to be using them to bust through otherwise indestructible doors (kinda a waste if you ask me), a Tornado which bit-by-bit attacks all enemies across the field, and The Very Large Hamester Hammer which springs left and right shaking the ground while destroying anything that the hammer bashes on. The game also combines third-person shooting action with platforming and with that Kurt also has the movement of a shooter along with the mobility of a platformer like Crash Bandicoot, the controls are tight and fluid on top of this. Kurt also comes equipped with a reusable ribbon parachute (usable from holding the jump button while in the air) that either slow down your landing which is convenient when landing from dangerous heights or reach to greater heights while under an air vent. 

And finally, the most stand out feature of all in MDK is Kurt's Sniper Mode. In this mode, your fixed into position with a dead-center aim and you can zoom in or out from your aim. It also comes with an unlimited ammo shooter although not as easily flexible as the chain gun it does more damage and if you aim at a non-boss enemy's vitals it's an instant kill... you can also find different types of sniper bullets such as Homing Bullets and Sniper Grenades (you can even have Max assist you) but those have a limit so it's best to use them only against stronger enemies. Your movement during Sniper Mode is limited so use it with caution... with that said this Sniper Mode adds a nice stealth element to the game.

Now with these vast amount of weaponry and flexibility you would figure the game would be easy... it is not. In fact, the game can be quite brutal in it's difficulty. Enemies come at large numbers and they take quite a bit of brute force to bring down even with the Super Chaingun. The most common you face in the whole game are generically called Grunts, who spend just as much time messing around and cowering as they would attack you but there are others enemies who are stronger, more aggressive, and use more tactics against you. The bosses are evidently the hardest as they require completely different approaches to be defeated and this is where the game really takes advantage of the whole Sniper Mode feature. Fortunately, you can often find food for health scattered throughout each level though they kinda scarce... there's even a I Feel Top supplements which brings your health all the way up to 150 pts (in contrast to your base of 100pts) and can last throughout the whole level but you can't maintain it. Puzzle-solving in this game also prove to be rather tricky... while in other games, the puzzles given to you are fairly straightforward but MDK forces you to think outside the box and solve things completely on your own. 

Once you get past the steep difficulty curve you'll find MDK is a game that in encourages player inituition and creativity as well as knowing when/how to attack or when/how to move.

Content 

You either have the option to start a new save data or load up an already saved data... not only had you can save at any point of the game by pressing F2 or holding the select button while the game is paused. There is a total of 6 levels of which you will be graded by your performance after each level and while the levels themselves are vast in size and are fairly diverse, the game only clocks in at 6 hours tops. There is no extra unlockables, no backtracking, and you don't even get much of a conclusion after beating the game. Sure, you would get an amusing Music video by French singer BZK (Billy Ze Kick) doing a cover for the French 1973 anti-war pop song Non Non Rien N'a Changé (No No Nothing Has Changed) but certain rereleases of the game doesn't have it like the Playstation version.... otherwise you just get Kurt climbing on top of the MDK logo like in the Title Menu and the credits roll. 

Graphics 

Although this is a tricky section to review since this game is almost 2 decades old I still think this is a fine-looking game regardless. The level are all very nicely detailed and all very diverse... same goes for the character models. The rich design of the game is also accompanied by a consistently smooth framerate of no lower than 30 fps across all computer system as the game's graphics uses software rendering rather than relying on a special graphics processing unit. The game's graphical accomplishments and visual appeal helps masks it datedness whatnot with the low polygon count (especially the Playstation version) and Kurt's animation is rather choppy (there are actually a few times I messed up a jump due to Kurt's awkward jump animation). One thing I do have to complain about in the game is that in order to maintain it's frame rate performance, many parts of the environments are simply left untextured leaving a bunch of black in certain areas without reason. 

Sound 

There isn't much voice acting within MDK but when there is, it's usually the enemies making weird and sometimes funny noises. The game also has some really nice sound effects as there's always a sound when you pick up an item that represents said item including some really amusing ones such as the Gunta food making walrus sounds or those weird cow things making moo noises... the gun fires and explosions are also really lethargic. The whole strong point here is with the soundtrack as it's done by a composer who's a fairly big name in the industry, Tommy Tallarcio. All the tracks for MDK are combination of rock, orchestras, and synthesizers which is fitting as the game's story is pretty much about war and it's very sequence-based, keeping silent while running through corridors but comes blazing when something's about to go down. All the tracks work so well it's really hard to point to a specific example of how well it works but regardless, it's good stuff. 

Aesthetics 

I'll say this once and many who's played the game would agree, MDK is one of the most aesthetically-pleasing games I've ever played. The whole game carries a post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk atmosphere right from the menus to the gameplay while the same time very comical. On top of the silly sound effects, there's several other oddities such as the I Feel Top supplement suddenly sprouting legs trying to run away from you making screeching monkey sounds. The enemies are also odd-looking and grotesque while the same time showing such odd-ball behavior (like the Grunts acting like jackasses and Gunta jigging around) that you can't help but laugh at times. My only complain however is the story almost isn't there... all the story that you're given is aliens invade *insert city, state/province, country here* and it's up to Kurt Hectic to bring down the aliens' minecrawlers. You never even really get to know any of the main characters.... almost all of the story details are within the game's instruction manual as told from Doctor Fluke Hawkins' Journal. 

Overall 

Despite being nearly 20 years old this game still holds up very strong as being one of the greatest and most significant third-part shooters of all time. Once you get past the short length and the dated visuals (or even immerse them into the experience), MDK is a fun yet challenging and unique game that is worth the time/money for any hardcore gamer. 

I give this game a 8.5 out of 10.