A Love-Hate Relationship

Rather than going on a whim and saying a game is good or bad, I’ve decided to talk about one that’s neither good or bad, at least for myself.  It all started during my freshman year in high school, when my friends came along and just asked me to play a game called Maplestory.  I didn’t really know what to expect initially as the title didn’t really leave a lasting impression on me.  But how naive i was back then…

Maplestory was developed by Wizet, a South Korean game company who later joined with Nexon, a game publishing company, in releasing the different language versions of the game.  In essence the game is a 2-D side scrolling MMORPG with cartoon and anime like sprites…something like a Mario MMORPG if you will.  In the beginning you are…oddly enough…a beginner, where you have the choice of 4 classes once you reach level 10 as a beginner, the generic warrior, mage, archer, and rogue.  Each of these classes offer a rather generic array of attacks and are pretty much identical to their counterparts in other MMORPG’s.  Once you reach level 30 as any of these classes, you can advance into a more focused type of the first job you have chosen.  So for instance, the warrior would be able to become a spearman, page, or a fighter.

A generic 'map' in Maplestory

Players can choose to level their character with either quests or grinding monsters that just run straight at you, which really brings up the only issue I’ve ever had with this game: the time it takes to level.  In the beginning everything seems fine and dandy, I was able to get to level 10 within a reasonable amount of time, but after that point, the curve just seem to go up exponentially and I had to take an upward of 3-4 hours to get 1 level.  Needless to add that the maximum level of the game is 200, you can probably imagine the time it takes for one to get there when it takes more than a week’s time to get past 30.  But to make up for it the game does offer things that take your mind off grinding such as jump quests that tests your platforming skills, and party quests that gives significant boosts to your experience gain.  It also offers a cash shop for those who just want to play for the cosmetic aspect.

A party quest

Going onto the less technical aspects, the game does offer nice, colorful and consistent graphics for the majority of the game.  The sprites look much like disproportionate bobble-heads which always helps in attracting the younger audience and covers a wider gender demographic.  As for the music, it consists of a 1-2 minute loop of mostly jolly and calming music.  However, when coupled with the amount of hours a player spends in the same location the music easily becomes a mind-numbing drug, so it is best to play in mute when you know you will sit there for more than an hour.  The game has no speech, but it does have sounds that plays when a monster dies or gets hit, and these sounds can range from something like a squealing pig, squishing jelly, wood cracking, thumping, etc.

A Maplestory sprite with cash shop items

Now ironically, despite the game being named Maplestory, there is really no story in Maplestory, you are just some adventurer thrown into a world of monsters and people.  There’s no explanation of your origin, your species, history, or anything for that matter that the game centers around.  I think the purpose of the game is for the players to create their own story, if that does make any sense at all.  Also as a game that originated from Korea, the dialogue will at times display untranslated texts or grammatical errors.

Speaking from a personal view, I never really decided whether Maplestory was fun or not.  It’s one of those guilty pleasures that you never really understand and you just go along with.  It frustrates the hell out of you when you die because you lose experience, but it’s a delight to the eyes to see that level up sign go over your head.  And to be quite fair, the game has grown and changed so much over the years that all the flaws it had back then are more or less gone.  It’s not so much that I enjoy it now as it still bores me here and there, but at least I can safely say that this game bores me slower than it did before.

The world map

A Rather God-like Experience

As a first entry I’ve decided to play a fairly well-received game to save moaning and hair pulling for the future, because I know that I will eventually get there…But with that aside, here is God of War 3.  Now I have never followed the series ever since its successful first installment on the Play Station 2, but it’s not to the point where I have never even played the games before.  At the very least I knew the premise and basic style of the game, in fact, I think I prefer these fast paced types of action adventures over the generic mine-stepping based RPG’s of the past.  But I think anyone here would have heard of the title at least once if they consider themselves a gamer, and if you don’t…then well, I think it’s about time to get out from under that rock.

Box art of the game

The game revolves around Kratos, the returning protagonist from the previous installments continuing to set his bad weekend straight with the Gods of Olympus.  As an extra bit the developers actually began the game with a slideshow style puppet play illustrating the past events of the previous games which refreshes players who have enjoyed the past games but are too immersed in other ones to remember it.  The opening is accompanied with an action inducing theme song and whimsical narrative that you never seem to understand until you are finally greeted by a familiar title screen.  As you click into the ‘New Game’ option you are immediately thrown into the action atop the Titan Gaia on the ascent of Mount Olympus.  It seems as though games nowadays love to throw you in the midst of chaos at the very beginning, and personally I think it captures the attention of the player and establishes a strong tone of how the rest of the game will look, although sometimes that’s not the case, but it definitely reminds the players that they are indeed playing an action adventure game.  Continuing on with the game, you are showered with a bunch of ‘button-testers’, which are really just monsters that poses no threat or danger and exist solely for the purpose of letting you learn the controls.  At this point, it really becomes a free range slash-fest on your way to the top, but the game does glide rather linearly and guide you most of the time with the necessary camera angles to show you the way to go, and while doing so, it always displays an array of impressive backgrounds and effects.  The accompanying music are what one would expect in a game with the word God in its title, which compliments both the mood and situation of each scene.

For the majority of the first few minutes, the experience was great and the mini in-game cut scenes were downright epic in every sense of the word.  But to nitpick, I did have several confusing moments where I seem to have orientation issues with the joystick while I was climbing on some roots.  Usually one would naturally treat ‘up’ on the joystick as climbing up, however since Kratos at the time was hanging down on it, up became forward, and I took quite a beating from an aquatic horse crab snake thing while trying to figure out the right way to go.

The giant aquatic horse crab...snake thing...while on the arm of Gaia

On the topic of the aquatic horse crab snake thing, God of War was known for setting mini boss monsters for you to defeat before you can proceed to a different section of the chapter, and since most modern games are rather forgiving in nature, you are almost never required to beat the thing with one health bar since it replenishes every time the boss makes a dramatic exit and enters again.  Although that is the case, the bosses aren’t always a pushover and requires some memorization in attack patterns and escape maneuver command to escape from its grapples.

A little climbing around

Since I was only on the game for 10 minutes I never got around to the upgrading aspect of the game which I know exists, and that is another thing that really brings a either a challenge or simplicity to different players, for it gives the player freedom to decide whether they want to rambo their way to the end with no upgrades or load up and open a can of major whoop-ass with a juiced out Kratos.  Either way, it’s an experience for both the hardcore and the casual.

Overall, I enjoyed the eye candy, the ear candy, and all the gory glory the game offered in that short span of time, although at times it may get stale in its repetition of attack schemes and AI movements but the provision of interactive in-game cut scenes and reactive button commands really cover these flaws.  Moreover, the game is well balanced out in both its platforming, puzzle, and action aspect to keep you immersed in your journey of vengeance.  So if you are a fan of good ol’ hack and slash action adventure that involves ripping the heads of a god or two, do play this game even if you have never played the rest.

Starting off

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