Resident Evil 4 Remake – Game Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Resident Evil series has long been held up as the pinnacle of the survival horror genre, and with it being one of the longest running and best selling series in that genre it’s hard to disagree with that statement. Fans of the series will often hold up Resident Evil 4 as the best of the series. Released in 2005, the game took the series into a new era, introducing more action elements, revamping the structure of the game, and introducing several quality of life improvements that would become staples of the series going forward. The game not only helped to redefine the Resident Evil series, but gaming in general (we have Resident Evil 4 to blame for all of the quick-time-events segments in games around this era).

With the remake of the original Resident Evil (now itself 20 years old) the original clunky game was given new life. It introduced new areas, new enemies, and a fantastic upgrade to graphics in what’s still possibly the best looking game on the Nintendo Gamecube. The recent release of updated remakes for Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 did much of the same, taking games with pretty poor graphics, stiff tank controls, and very basic game-play and gave them a huge revamp. But, with Resident Evil 4 being the entry in the series that revolutionised the modern Resident Evil era, is there much that can be done in remaking it? Is there any real point in this game? The answer to both, is absolutely yes.

Resident Evil 4 takes place in 2004, several years after the Raccoon City incident. Since surviving the destruction of the city and the monstrous hordes that plagued it, rookie cop Leon Kennedy (Nick Apostolides) has been recruited into special government training. When the daughter of the President, Ashley Graham (Genevieve Buechner), is kidnapped, Leon is sent to find her. Tracking her location down to rural Spain, Leon travels to a small village where he hopes to find clues to her whereabouts. What he finds instead is a community under the control of a mad cult leader who is using an ancient parasite to transform people into willing slaves and monsters. Leon will have to fight through hordes of cultists, mutants, and monsters in order to save Ashley and get home.

Upon beginning the game it’s clear that the remake has been given a huge face-lift. The drab orange and brown colour scheme of the original has been replaced with a darker, moodier tone that seems to have embraced the horror elements a bit more. Before you’ve even reached the main village where the first portion of the game takes place you discover mutilated offerings on shrines, creepy cabins, murder victims, and dangerous foes that force you to have to sneak past them. The original game opened with a bang, and whilst the remake does once you enter the main village, the steps getting there make a point to remind you that this is a horror series too.

And this is one of the things that has changed the game the most. The original Resident Evil 4 shifted more towards action, with Leon able to punch, kick, and suplex downed enemies (don’t worry, he can still do all of that), and there being enough ammo that you could plough your way through enemies. This would continue a trend across the next two games that saw the horror almost completely forgotten by the time the sixth game came out. Here, however, the game is tense throughout. It’s not just the first time that you encounter enemies that you have fear, as fairly standard foes in later segments of the game will still cause you to get worried as they swarm towards you, weapons raised.

A big part of the fear factor in the remake is down to resources. There’s simply not enough ammo lying around to get through the game. You cannot find enough bullets and shells to see you through. To deal with this the crafting system that was utilised well in Resident Evil: Village makes a return. Gathering resources and gunpowder allows Leon to craft ammo for his guns, as well as flashbangs and grenades. Whilst resources aren’t exactly abundant, finding and crafting will get you through the game. Though you may be finding yourself juggling inventory space to make room for your much needed resources, and considering carefully which ones to make.

The game also introduces what I’d describe as your new best friend, the bolt thrower. At first I was a bit unsure about this fancy crossbow because the big selling point was that you could reclaim spent ammo. Would this ruin the careful balance of resource management? No, if anything, it almost felt necessary to use to get through my first play-through. Whilst you can reclaim your bolts, it does depend on where you shoot them, and you can lose them, resulting in having to gather to craft more. It does lead to some tense moments as you’re pumping enemies full of shots, watching your ammo count go down, and realising you’re going to have to make a mad dash to grab some spent bolts to finish the horde. The bolt thrower quickly became my new favourite weapon, however, and the fact that it could be used for stealth purposes made it essential too.

Speaking of stealth, the game has introduced a new mechanic in the form of sneaking and silent take-downs. Leon is able to crouch-walk up behind enemies and take them out with a single knife attack that doesn’t alert nearby foes. You’re able to use this mechanic to sneak your way around the environments, trying to bring the horde down before they spot you and swarm at you. You can’t stealth your way through the entire game, and you will find yourself forced to fight openly more than not, but it is a cool addition to the game that opens up some extra choices for you.

Outside of game-play, the new remake has also altered the environments and level design a lot. The game feels very similar at first, with a tweaked but familiar path leading to a village that has pretty much the exact layout that long-time fans will remember. Pretty soon, however, it becomes apparent that the game will not allow existing fans to fall into a sense of ease as it starts to mess with the order of things. An early stage of the game flips things on you entirely, as you begin in the part of the level where you would have been heading to in the original, and makes you play the new environment backwards. There are other parts where the placement of locations have been moved around slightly in order to make a better flowing game, and some parts have been removed entirely.

The castle location is perhaps the most changed in the game, and will provide a number of nice surprises. There are segments in there that not only never appeared in the original, but may have even been impossible to do back then. For everything removed from the original design the team have added something new to replace it. Because of this, it never feels like you’re missing out on something that the original game had. Pretty much every enemy comes back, along with several new ones, and the only thing I can think of that didn’t make the return is a boss that felt kind of forced into the original anyway. The game also decided to take one of the scariest enemies from the original and made them worse by making them a lot faster this time round too, and I hate how it made them so much more frightening to go up against.

There’s also a new request system in the game. In the original game you got one request from the Merchant, to shoot a number of medallions to get a free handgun. This time round there are nineteen such challenges to undertake. This can range from shooting medallions to hunting rats, gathering eggs, or taking on dangerous enemies. These challenges will often get you to revisit areas in order to unlock them, and reward you with exclusive treasures that you can use to unlock extra items and resources. This, along with hunting down all of the treasures scattered across the maps, will lead to a lot of exploration and revisiting of areas.

All in all, the Resident Evil 4 Remake takes everything great about the original and improves upon it tenfold. All of the things about the original that feel kind of clunky and dated have been dealt with, and there have been improvements across the board, including game-play, story, and design. Having replayed through the original before the remake was released (literally finishing the night before) I can say that out of the two there’s one that I’ll hold up as one of the best made and most fun entries in the Resident Evil franchise, and it’s not the one that’s almost 20 years old.

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Martin (1977) – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The name George A. Romero is incredibly well known within the horror world, and for good reason. Romero forever altered the zombie genre when he created Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Before he created that film, zombies were the results of voodoo and magic; they were slaves who did the bidding of the one who reanimated them. The zombies that we think of today, as an infection, as a horde of flesh-eating creatures, that’s down to him and his films. He’s unarguably the father of the modern zombie. So, with that in mind it might surprise some to learn that he also tried his hand at creating a vampire movie.

Created in the decade between Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, a period in which Romero failed to release another film that was as big a hit as his first, and a time in which he found himself struggling financially and almost facing bankruptcy, Martin was an attempt to create another hit in order to get out of financial difficulties. The fact that I’d never heard of this film, or that Romero had even made a vampire movie tipped me off before even watching this that it might not be the best that the director has to offer from his long and illustrious career.

Martin tells the story of a young man named Martin (John Amplas), who believes himself to be a vampire. The film begins with him on a train to Pittsburgh, where he attacks a young woman in her cabin, injecting her with a sedative. After stripping her down and sexually assaulting her, he slits her wrists with a razor and drinks her blood as she bleeds out over him. He then sets the place up to look like a suicide, and leaves. Upon arriving in Pittsburgh he’s met by an uncle, Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) who he’s supposed to be staying with. It seems that Cuda is aware that Martin is a vampire, and keeps referring to him as Nosferatu, as well as having set up rings of garlic and crosses in parts of the house. He tells Martin that he will save his soul, then destroy him.

Over the course of the film we learn that parts of Cuda and Martin’s family, highly religious and superstitious Lithuanian Catholics, believe that their family is cursed, and that over the generations several members have been born as vampires. Cuda’s granddaughter, Christina (Christine Forrest) rejects these superstitions, and comes to believe that Martin is just mentally ill. She’s upset to see that he believes this family superstitions, especially when he claims he’s more than eighty years old. As the film progresses, we watch as Martin begins to try to live a normal life in Pittsburgh, but his cravings for blood continue to plague him.

Martin isn’t a long movie, just under an hour and a half in length, but it feels a lot longer than that. Romero manages to pack a lot into the short runtime, and juggles chaotic scenes of Martin trying to claim victims, the banality of his everyday life working in Cuda’s store, and the lives of the people around him. With the amount that happens in the film, and the generally laid back pace the film has, it ends up feeling like a much longer movie, and I found myself checking the clock more than once.

Part of why the film feels so long is that there are numerous scenes where it feels like several moments, if not the entire scene itself, could have been cut down. In the extras we learn that the original cut of the film was close to three hours long (though it would probably feel closer to six if it still existed). As with many horror films of this decade, Martin is quite slow, and much of the movie lacks the feel of a horror film. It mostly feels like a family drama movie with some violent and horrific moments thrown in here and there. These moments are okay at best, and the scene in which Martin tries to take a victim and ends up chasing a couple of people around a house for ten minutes or more feels too long to be entertaining. Perhaps the best scenes of horror in the film comes right at the very beginning of the film, and right at the very last minute.

One thing that the film does well, however, is the presentation of Martin and his belief that he is a vampire. Martin states that he’s more than eighty years old, he says he is a vampire, yet he says several times in the film that magic isn’t real, and mocks his uncle with the fact that crucifixes and garlic do nothing to him. He seems to be in a constant state of contradiction, where he’s saying he’s this supernatural being in one scene, and mocking the notion in another. The film makes it quite clear that Martin is a young man with violent mental issues, and using modern parlance, is an incel who kills women because he’s too afraid to have sex (he manages to sleep with a woman at one point in the film and it does seem to change his outlook quite a bit). It seems that he believes he’s a vampire thanks to his family, and that their hard-line, almost violent approach to religion and their ‘old way’ beliefs have caused considerable damage to Martin. The film ends up being less a movie about a vampire, and more a film about what familial abuse can do to a person’s psyche.

The new Blu-ray release comes with a 4K scan and restoration from the original film negative, but compared to a lot of older films that have received similar treatment Martin comes away looking pretty rough. Perhaps it’s down to the film used at the time making it harder to create a cleaner, crisper image, but visually the movie looks pretty bad at times, and reminded me more of old VHS films than what I’ve come to expect from Blu-ray. It does come with a lot of extra features, however, including four separate commentary tracks. Two of these are from previous releases, and feature cast and crew including George A. Romero, John Amplas, and Tom Savini (who appears in the film in a minor role). There are also two brand new tracks recorded for this release, featuring film critic and writer Travis Crawford (who passed away late last year), and film critic Kat Ellinger. There is also a new feature length making of feature, an interview with the films composer, some trailers and TV spots, and a short film included on the extras.

Martin is an interesting movie, and an interesting release. Whilst the film itself failed to grab me, or entertain me much, the insights into this point in Romero’s career are interesting, and the extensive behind the scenes extras and the audio commentaries make for a more entertaining time than the actual film itself does. If there are any big fans of Martin out there I’m sure that they’re already eyeing up this new release, but for those who’ve never seen it and are thinking of taking a punt it might prove to be a bit of a let down.

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V/H/S/99 – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The V/H/S/ series has been around for a few years now (eleven to be exact!) and in that time we’ve had six mainline entries, two spin-off movies, and even a television series. The anthology format means that whilst the title stays the content can be hugely different each time. Whilst this does mean that viewers are able to discover new names within the horror industry they may not have been aware of before, it also means you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get when you start a V/H/S/ film off.

The latest entry in the series, V/H/S/99 tries to stick to a theme, however, and it seems like there may be some kind of indication as to the types of movies you’re going to be getting. According to the blurb for the movie, the short stories presented here are set in the year 1999, centring on the final days of analogue, and the paranoia surrounding Y2K. That feels like a bit of an oversell, as other than one of the stories presented within being set on the eve of the millennium, there’s nothing here that necessarily needed them to be set in the times they are, and they only share a vague connection to the year 1999.

V/H/S/99 opens by perhaps putting its weakest foot forward, as the first segment in the movie is the least interesting of the five. ‘Shredding’, written and directed by Maggie Levin, follows a group of four teens who are trying to make both a band, and either a really odd documentary film about their band, or a Jackass style prank and stunt show; it’s not entirely clear what their deal is. The four teens head to an old building where a band called Bitch Cat died being trampled to death during a fire. Breaking into the condemned building, the teens discover that they might not be the only things inside.

‘Shredding’ is the opening act of the film, and it was my least favourite of the five presented. It takes a while to really get into things, and the constant antics from the teens, and the inter-cutting of footage from the band CKY, featuring Ryan Dunn, leads it to feeling very disjointed. By the time anything horrific actually starts to happen you’ve either failed to connect with the characters, or thoroughly dislike them. This segment does contain some pretty decent practical effects and make-up, but that alone doesn’t do much for it.

The second segment, ‘Suicide Bid’, by Johannes Roberts, tells the story of a college girl who’s desperate to join the most popular sorority on her campus. She makes a suicide bid, where she only applies to the one sorority, and it seems to pay off and the girls invite her out for a night of partying. It’s then that she gets hazed by them, as they tell her that she has to go through a specific ritual in order to join; she needs to spend the night buried in a coffin. She agrees to the challenge, but once the lid is sealed and the soil begins to drop she realises she’s made a terrible mistake.

Compared to the difficulty in connection with the characters in the first segment, ‘Suicide Bid’ instantly brings you onto the lead character’s side, and makes her to be a likable, if naive, character. The claustrophobia of being buried alive in a coffin is captured really well, and the tension starts to build even before the really horrific things begin. As to the more overt horror elements (not that being buried isn’t horror enough), the segment does a nice job at escalating the tension and the frights throughout, and does a couple of unexpected things too.

‘Ozzy’s Dungeon’, directed by Flying Lotus, is a short of two halves. In the first we see footage from a cheap and cheesy children’s challenge show where contestants compete to win their wish. No one has ever won Ozzy’s Dungeon before, and when one of the contestants is about to win, making her the first to ever do so, her leg is viciously broken on the assault course (and by broken I mean almost clean off!). From here we jump forward in time, to the show’s host waking up in his underwear in a cage in a dank basement. The girl’s family have taken him prisoner, and now intend to make him compete in their own version of his show, though one much more deadly.

This segment is pretty gross thanks to the fact that a lot of it feels very real, and very gritty. The horror of being taken prisoner, of being tortured for the pleasure of your captives is one that isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility. Because of that, and because everything that isn’t bright kids’ show is dirty and grimy, it feels gross and off-putting to watch. This segment contains several surprises that will keep you entertained, and manages to never stray completely into the real of gross-out torture porn.

‘The Gawkers’ is directed by Tyler MacIntyre, and follows a group of older teens as they use their video camera to try and spy on girls, even going so far as trying to upskirt them. When a beautiful young woman moves into the house opposite them they begin to obsess over her, desperate to get her naked on film. When the younger brother of one of the teens ends up talking to her, and gets invited round to help set up her tech, the group try to convince him to help them spy into the woman’s home.

This segment has a frankly ridiculous twist to it, but it’s one that’s delightfully fun so I can’t really hold it as a bad thing. There’s not a huge amount that can be said about this part of the film without giving too much away, but it’s a pretty decently made segment with some cool moments in it. The behind the scenes extras reveal some amazing practical effects used in this segment that sadly don’t quite translate to the final film, as it looks like these effects were enhanced with CGI that ended up making it look worse.

The final segment of the film is by far the best. ‘To Hell and Back’ is written and directed by Vanessa & Joseph Winter and is more of a horror comedy. The story follows a couple of documentary filmmakers who are tagging along with demon worshippers who are attempting to summon a demon into the body of a woman at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1999. When another entity creeps in on the ritual the witches send it back to Hell, but accidentally send the two filmmakers too. Stuck in Hell, and with only a few minutes before midnight, the two men try to find the demon that’s being summoned so that they can try to hitch a ride back home.

This segment feels like it could be part of the What We Do In The Shadows universe. It’s got a silly humour to it that finds the perfect tone to keep the ridiculous things that are happening constantly entertaining. Moments that could have come across as slightly too cheesy to be frightening are given enough of a comedic leaning to make them enjoyable, the dialogue is pretty witty, and there are several visual and dialogue based gags that will have you laughing out loud. Out of all of the segments on offer in this film, this is the one I would absolutely watch an entire, feature-length movie of.

The new physical release comes with several extras to make it stand apart from its standard Shudder release. There’s an audio commentary that features most of the different directors, who interact and talk about their sections. There’s also a couple of gag reels and blooper segments, some behind the scenes looks at how certain segments were made and their practical effects. There’s also a music video for Bitch Cat, camera tests, make-up tests, storyboards, location scouting videos, and more. There’s a surprising amount here, and it’s great to see behind the scenes into what goes into making a film like this.

Whilst there are some parts of the film that are genuinely fantastic, there are other parts that are borderline dull. Sadly, when some parts of an anthology piece fail to deliver, it can affect the overall quality of the piece. If you do pick this up and find yourself questioning why during some segments, try to stick with it until the end, as you might find some that you love.

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Batman #134 - Comic Review

 

Bruce Wayne is lost in the multiverse, trapped on a strange world where that version of Bruce is dead, and the city lies in the grips of the Red Mask, who rules Gotham from behind the scenes with his venom powered enforcers.

The issue begins with Bruce being led to the Arkham Tunnels, a vast underground network of sewers and cells where the Red Mask is keeping his prisoners, and conducting his experiments. Not only does he have regular people trapped, but even has some metahumans as his test subjects; such as an insane version of The Flash. After finally coming face to face with Red Mask, the villain reveals himself to be more than just Darwin Halliday, but a man who has been given a glimpse through the multiverse at other versions of himself, and discovered that he is The Joker. 

Halliday is experimenting with his subjects and the multiverse in order to try to glimpse backwards through time on another Earth to learn what makes The Joker become who he is, so that he can experience the same thing and become The Joker fully. Stepping up his plans, Halliday releases a gas into Gotham that will cause people to connect with their multiverse counterparts. Bruce heads off to stop it, but ends up encountering this worlds version of Ghostmaker, Ghostbreaker. 

The fight between the two of them goes on for several pages, and is really well structured. Despite being without most of his equipment and having been beaten around a lot lately Bruce is still a good match for Ghostbreaker. Their fight sees them trading blows, clashing with swords, and falling down chasms as they make their way through the tunnels. There's a ridiculously fun moment when a number of frees inmates comes after Bruce that includes this world's version of Clark. How does Bruce deal with Superman? He makes a creepy face, puts on a scary voice, and tells him that he's his nightmare. And it frightens Superman away. I'm sure that there will be some who roll their eyes at this, but this was too ridiculous to be anything other than fun. 

Bruce is forced to fight Ghostbreaker a second time at the controls for the deadly gas, and is able to shut the thing down, but loses his right hand in the fight. Sadly, this doesn't really slow Halliday down, as he releases a small army of Manbats that have the gas pouring out of tanks strapped to their backs.

After a slower start, where we got a chance to learn more about this version of Gotham and its inhabitants, and got to see Bruce figuring out how to navigate this strange new place, things really started to make a dash towards a big conclusion here. However, it still feels like there's a lot more to come with this story. We don't know yet how Bruce is going to stop the gas, how he could get to Halliday, or what he's going to do with his hand. This story could wrap up in an issue or two, but I could also see it going on for a lot longer than that too. And I love that this story has been structured and paced in a way that it doesn't feel obvious where it's going to be going, or what's going to be coming. 

The back-up feature continues the story of Tim trying to find Bruce and bring him home. However, before he heads out to find him we get a moment where we see what the heroes are doing about Gotham. They can't let the villains know that Batman is gone, otherwise there'll be absolute chaos instead of just mostly chaos. As such, someone is having to fill in for Bruce. And it's not a member of the Bat Family. Superman is making appearances around Gotham in a Batsuit. I love this, I love it every time Clark pretends to be Batman to help out. The moment where we suddenly see Batman take off into the sky genuinely made me yell 'what?!' before I twigged what was coming. I need more of Clark helping out like this, as it's always a fun time.

After chatting with Clark for a bit, Tim heads back to base where Mr Terrific and Toyman are working on the equipment that should take Tim to the world where Bruce is lost. All he has to do it think hard about Bruce, and the tech will get him to him. Tim gets a special new suit for the trip, one with a huge illuminated R on his chest. Unfortunately, Tim can't help but think of another person whilst travelling through the multiverse, and ends up on a world where his mother is still alive. The two of them meet, and she can tell that Tim isn't her Tim, but is still happy to meet him. The two of them talk for a while, and Tim tells her about his life. They have a really tender moment, and it gives Tim a chance to feel a sense of closure and peace. He then heads back into the multiverse to go find Bruce.

I've seen some folks say that they dislike Tim's suit here, and whilst it's not his best look it's certainly not my least favourite of his. I kind of love the big R as a symbol for Bruce to lock on to, and I'm loving the fact that Zdarsky's Batman run is giving us multiple costumes for Bruce and Tim. It's fun to see our characters get temporary suits sometimes, and this is just that; it's just enjoyable. The conversation between Tim and his mum is enjoyable too, and it feels like the character has absolutely earned that kind of moment. Though, I can't help but wonder if he didn't take that detour and chat with her for hours might he have gotten to Bruce in time to save his hand being cut off? 

The Zdarsky run on this title hasn't had a bad issue yet, it's been making some bold story choices, doing a lot of big, bombastic stuff that borders on ridiculous, but always manages to come off as extremely cool. This issue is no different; and is fun from start to finish. 

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Monkey Prince #12 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

And thus another comic series come to an end, as the final issue of Monkey Prince arrives. However, things seem far from over for the young hero.

Acting as a kind of epilogue for Lazarus Planet (though nothing on the cover would indicate that), the book catches up with Monkey Prince as he helps Supergirl clean up the chaos in Metropolis with the help of Shifu Pigsy. However, King Fire Bull is freed from the magical prison he was put in at the end of Lazarus Planet and is coming to take Supergirl prisoner to steal her life force and re-power himself.

With an army of skeletons to fight, and some extra help in the form of Deep princess  Shellestriah, who claims she wants to learn under Pigsy too, Monkey Prince thinks he has things under control thanks to the new clone technique he learned from his father, the Monkey King. However, his plans at rescue are thrown for a loop when the villain reveals his true origin to him. It turns out MP isn't the son of Monkey King, but a hair clone that refused to disappear once his task was done. 

The news shatters his sense of self, and he's left reeling. Thankfully, with some guidance from his mentor he's able to break through this, and is able to save the day.

I like that Monkey Prince has gone from being an incredible annoyance for Supergirl, to the two of them having a kind of friendship, and seeing the young hero sticking around to do the clean-up and damage control that he normally skips out on is a nice treat. I even like that Shellestriah turns back up and the slightly antagonistic response MP has to her even though she seems to be completely honest about not being up to no good. The moments where she still calls him Tasty Monkey to tease him are kind of funny.

Where this issue falls a bit flat for me, however, is with the return of the villain. It took a lot to beat him at the end of Lazarus Planet and it took every single magic user, good and bad, working together to do it. And now he's immediately out. Yes, he's weak now so he's not really a threat and MP can friends can beat him, but it does make it feel like the end of the event, which was only a couple of weeks ago, was kind of a nothing thing. Maybe it's just me, but it felt like something about the whole situation was off.

Outside of that though, things worked pretty well here. The reveal of MP's actual origin was very cleverly done because we've known about the hair clones for a while now, and the Monkey King is the one who taught Monkey Prince how to master it, so we know he's got a lot of experience with it. The series has been telling us for a while that him being the son of Monkey King has been a lie, and this reveal at least makes a lot of sense in the established lore. It's also hugely open to exploration in the future if the character gets to come back again.

The book does end feeling like there's a lot left undone. We don't get long with the revelation, we've got a new student joining Pigsy and Monkey Prince, his adoptive parents are continuing their lifestyle of journeying around and getting into trouble. This feels like less of an end to the character, and more of a close to his first chapter. His character has been firmly established now, he's got some decent relationships with a few members of the superhero community. I hope that this is just the start for him, and that there will be further adventures with this interesting and enjoyable character.

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Waiqar: A Descent: Legends of the Dark Novel by Robbie MacNiven - Book Review

 

'Enter the extraordinary fantasy world of Descent: Legends in the Dark through the eyes of its most notorious necromancer as he begins his conquest of the realms of Terrinoth.

'Waiqar, Lord of the Mistlands, is a necromancer of supreme power, arrogance, and skill. Driven by his hunger for power, he has the whole of Terrinoth in his sights. But before he can raise his undead armies and march on the Baronies, his hold on the Mistlands must be complete. Waiqar’s court is rife with scheming and deception, from corrupt vampires with plans to usurp him, to an apprentice harboring dark ambition of his own. As his enemies vie for power, Waiqar’s own plans come to fruition. For power is hard won but easily lost, and this great necromancer has more to lose than anyone.'

My only real experience with Descent: Legends of the Dark are the books produced by Aconyte; it's a game that kind of slipped past me, and that I've never really had the chance to play. Each time I read one of the books though, such as Zachareth and The Raiders of Bloodwood, I find myself getting more and more interested in this world and its lore. I loved the deep dive of Zachareth, and the focus on a villainous character, and I thought that it was my favourite of the series, but writer Robbie MacNiven has blow it out of the water with his new villain focused book, Waiquar.

Waiquar begins by introducing readers to Tomaz, a student at Grayhaven (a place that will be familiar to those that read Zachareth). Tomaz has had an interest in necromancy for years, studying the dark magical art in secret for years, and since coming to Grayhaven found himself meeting like-minded students. This small death cult turns on Tomaz, however, and drags him from his bed in the middle of the night. Bound and gagged, Tomaz is taken far from Grayhaven, and is eventually brought to the dark and festering swamps of the Mistlands. It's here that he comes face to face with the undead for the first time, as he's taken by skeletal knights deeper into the territory of the living dead.

Tomaz is our entry character, as he's brought to Zorgas, the main seat of power in that dark and forsaken land. Here he's brought before the greatest necromancer in existence, the ancient and powerful Waiquar, who called upon the hidden servants and worshippers hidden throughout the world of the living to bring him a human student of Grayhaven. Tomaz is a gift to Waiquar's apprentice, Tristayne. He's ordered to keep Tomaz alive, to keep him safe. Now Tomaz finds himself as one of the only living creatures in the Mistlands, and whilst his physical safety seems assured by the will of powerful entities, he now faces a constant nightmare of death and horror around him.

Whilst this is happening, Waiquar is dealing with unrest within his kingdom. Waiting patiently for the perfect time to lead his forces of the dead against the rest of Terrinoth, some of his subjects have begun to speak out against their lord, mistaking his patience as a sign of weakness. When an outside, ancient, force begins to whisper in the ears of several members of the court plots begin to form to challenge Waiquar for power and rule. As open dissent begins to take root Waiquar will have to lead his forces into combat in order to maintain his grip upon his kingdom.

Waiquar is a book about fantasy politics and shady double-dealings. Secret alliances are made, oaths are broken, plots are formed, and full open warfare takes over the Mistlands as people make grabs for power. It's all of these interesting, engaging things, but with the undead. The book features necromancers, skeletal soldiers, vampires, spirits, and ghoulish beasts rather than people. Everything in the Mistlands is a horror of some kind, something from nightmares, yet they're not mindless monstrosities but thinking, calculating characters with more depth than you'd first think. This makes Waiquar one of the most enjoyable and engaging fantasy novels that I've read, as it's all a dark, twisted version of what you come to expect from high court drama fantasy.

Most fantasy stories, when dealing with the undead, fall into the trap of making everything into a monster. There might be a powerful figure or two that has some kind of personality and agency, but for the most part the undead are treated as mindless figures, or monsters. MacNiven goes the opposite route with this, and near every creature in this book has some kind of agency and personality. The skeleton soldiers that make up Waiquar's army aren't just mindless automatons, we get to know his key generals, understand their drives and motivations, and get inside their ancient heads. This shift away from the expected makes the book a lot more interesting, and means that you can never be sure exactly where loyalties lie.

Despite never really leaving the Mistlands, and even then staying mostly within a location or two when there, the book manages to pack an incredible amount of world building into the pages. As said earlier, I'm not a huge fan of the franchise, and my lore knowledge is relegated to a few books, but this book really expanded upon that. Thanks to the massive age of the characters involved the book is able to delve deep into the history, to take readers back to times long passed, as well as exploring what's happening in the world at the present. The book does a wonderful job at slowly giving you more and more information, of slowly expanding your knowledge without giving you huge info-dumps and lore drops that could cause you to become overwhelmed. The information you're given feels natural, it fits with the moments, and it allows you to feel like you have access to all of the key information to get everything you can out of the story.

Waiquar has everything that I love about fantasy stories, it has complex double dealings and betrayals, court politics, the outbreak of war and huge battles, dangerous monsters, deep history, and complex characters. The book is incredibly clever in that is gives you a lot of key information early on that explains the core story of the book, yet it's done so in so subtle a way that once it's revealed at the end you feel silly for having not realised before. MacNiven makes Waiquar look incredibly smart, not by pulling some obscure info out at the end or giving you a reveal that you could never see coming, but by allowing the audience to not realise that they've already been given everything they need. 

Come the end of the book I was honestly upset that the story was done, I'd come to love the world that MacNiven had created, and wanted to explore it further. There are a couple of characters that I'd come to really enjoy reading, and there's one in particular who goes through quite a big development that the end really feels like the start of the next chapter of their story; a chapter I really want to read. This book is up there with my favourite fantasy novels, it's got the scale and scope of an epic, and it feels like this could be the first entry in an amazing series dedicated to this character and his evil schemes. I really, really hope that we get more of Waiquar and his court, but if not, we've got a fantastic book that I'm going to be reading again and again. 

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Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

Jonathan Kent has been a figure that seems to have caused a few issues within comic circles over the last few years. There are those that dislike him because he was aged up, others dislike him because he's openly queer an in a relationship with another man, some dislike him because he's called Superman. There are those that call any book he's in a failure before the first issue is already out, saying that DC 'went woke, went broke'. And there are conspiracy theories around him that claim he's not the real Jon Kent, and that this mini-series will get rid of him somewhere into the multiverse and bring the 'real' Jon back. All I know is, I really like him.

I'm happy to see Jon getting another book, and some of the things that this new series is going to be doing to him could be really interesting. The first up is the most obvious, as it's been built up for a while and is on the front cover. Jon is getting the Superman Blue treatment and getting different powers. All absolutely down for this. The Superman Family is getting a big push at the minute, and whilst they make a great unified front I think leaning into their differences, and giving some new powers, is a great way to add some variety and make characters more interesting. Things like Jon's new power, Connor's tactile telekinesis, Power Girls new psychic abilities, and Kong Kenan's ability to use magic.

But, this isn't the only thing that this series is doing; Jon is getting sent on a mission to save Superman. Every Superman. Ultraman, the Earth-3 villainous Superman, is travelling from world to world in the multiverse, killing any version of Superman he can find. Jon is told this by Val Zod, the Superman of Earth-2, who wants to recruit him to help stop Ultraman.

Jon and Ultraman have a lot of history, and whilst most books don't really cover Jon's past and the trauma he would absolutely be going through, the fact that this series looks set to have him facing up against the man who took his childhood with his parents away from him is hugely exciting. This could be one of the more important stories that Jon has been involved in for quite a while. 

The other big thing about this series, and the thing that some people are latching onto to try and claim he's not the real Jon, is that he's going to be visiting the Injustice universe. Some folks think that it's going to turn out that he's this universe version of Jon, rather than our own. Whether or not that's true, it should still be fun to see him interact with yet another evil version of Superman. There are also several other heroes and former heroes in that universe that should make his visit there fairly interesting for him.

This first issue manages to pack a lot into it, it sets up a lot of stuff to come, has some lovely moments with Jon, and stands out as one of the better issue one's we've had in a while.

This article, and many others, can be read a month early on my Patreon for as little as $3 a month!

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Bioshock Infinite – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Bioshock franchise is one that most gamers will have heard about. The original game, released way back in 2007, was the kind of massive hit that only seems to come along once or twice a decade, where the game not only ends up becoming a huge seller, but is labelled as ‘redefining’ the genre it’s a part of.

And in a lot of ways Bioshock did change first person shooters, and there were a number of games that tried to cash in on its success, with studios quickly churning out imitations. Even the creators of Bioshock tried to cash in on the popularity of their game with Bioshock 2, a sequel that perhaps played it a little too similar to the first to really be creative or impress. The creators seemed to realise that they’d need something different if they were going to recapture the magic of that first game, and as such fans got a huge shift in tone and style with Bioshock Infinite.

Where Bioshock took players deep under the ocean to the underwater city of Rapture (and again in the sequel), Bioshock Infinite does the opposite, and takes to the skies. Players take control of grizzled Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt (Troy Baker), who is drowning himself in debt and drink in order to deal with the phantoms of his past. When he’s recruited by a pair of mysterious siblings to travel to the city of Columbia to rescue a girl named Elizabeth (Courtnee Draper), he thinks that he might be able to get a fresh start. However, things become extremely complicated when he arrives in Columbia, a floating city.

Columbia is a place filled with technological wonders, where not only does the city fly, but autonomous machines exist, and people are able to harness the elements at their will. There is, however, a darker underside to the city, as Booker soon learns that racism and bigotry run rampant in Columbia, and the downtrodden are treated as little better than slaves. A public act of defiance by Booker, in which he refuses to abuse an interracial couple, seems to be the spark that Columbia needed, and a full blown civil war begins around Booker as he tries to escape the city with Elizabeth.

One of the best descriptions I’ve heard about Bioshock Infinite (and I can’t for the life of me remember who said it), is that the first game felt like you’d missed the party because you turn up in Rapture after the fall of the city, but in this game you are the party. This time round players see the violence erupt on the city streets, they get to help the rebels fight back against the fascist government, and they see this once amazing place fall into ruin and disrepair. And thanks to the way the game is set up, it’s an incredibly fun time too.

One of the best new additions to this entry in the series is the Sky-Line system. These rails run across Columbia, connecting different locations, levels, and even floating segments. Thanks to a weapon that you get early in the game (by shoving a fascist cop’s face into whirling blades!) you’re able to ride these rails. Players are no longer hampered in combat, stuck behind cover, trying to make their way through tight corridors and small rooms. If there’s a Sky-Line nearby simply grab hold and fly around the battlefield. You can move from area to area, or even attack enemies whilst zipping past them.

The game also introduced a new element in the form of Elizabeth. As well as being a hugely important part of the story, Elizabeth got to accompany the player across parts of the game as an AI controlled companion. I’m sure that there are some people already groaning at that, remembering some of the worse examples of this in gaming, but Elizabeth wasn’t just a damsel in distress, nor was she another combatant. Thanks to powers that let her tear holes into time and space, Elizabeth is able to help out in combat by tossing Booker weapons, ammo, and health kits. It might not sound like much, but these moments can make a big difference in terms of combat, and there will be a number of times where Elizabeth’s help can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

The bold new direction for Bioshock seemed to work, and fans and critics praised the third game for ditching Rapture and trying something new. Ask any fans of Bioshock which of the series is the best and you’ll probably find a pretty decent split between this and the first game (sorry Bioshock 2), and that’s the beauty of this third instalment. It’s very clearly a Bioshock game, with all of the things that you come to expect from the series, but it also offers some very different things. If you want fast paced combat that you can tackle multiple ways, then it’s the one for you. If you want spookier, more horror based stuff, then the first one is the way to go. If you’re looking for a more character focused adventure with a more complex story, Bioshock Infinite ticks those boxes. It added options for players, for those who might want something a bit different in tone and style.

Bioshock Infinite sold incredibly well upon release, landing in the top ten on Steam on release week, and selling more than 878,000 physical copies in the first month. According to the studio, it would go on to sell 6 million copies in it’s first year, and 11 million by the end of its second. It was the third highest selling game of 2013, only losing out to mammoth hits Grand Theft Auto V, and The Last of Us. It would also go on to win several awards for its music, art, and visual design.

Despite being a huge hit, having created several new gameplay systems, and reinventing the series in a new direction, there has still been no follow-up to the game (other than an additional DLC). With the popularity of the series as a whole, it’s surprising that Bioshock Infinite was the last we’ve seen of the series. And whilst it’s not impossible that another entry may surface one day, if this is the final part of the series it’s a hell of a high note to end on.

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The Flash #796 - Comic Review

 

The One Minute War comes to a conclusion in this issue of The Flash as the Flash Family come together for one last battle; and they get some reinforcements from an unexpected place.

The last issue of The Flash ended with a pretty startling revelation, as Wally, who was thought to be dead, found himself waking up in a strange location with Gold Beetle, and all of the heroes who died during Heroes in Crisis. Now, I don't think that it's going to be particularly controversial to say that Heroes in Crisis was a bad book. Not only was the mystery at the heart of it pretty convoluted and weird, but the fact that it did terrible things to Wally West means most people hated it. It wasn't just a character assassination, they came to the funeral and kicked the tombstone over and pissed on the mourners. It was awful. Some comics have been trying to do their best to repair the damage it did since then, but the fact remained that several heroes were dead because of him. Well, not anymore. And for that alone this issue gets a five star review.

It turns out that when he met Gold Beetle whilst jumping through the timeline Wally told her to 'save everyone', and she took that to heart, and went and grabbed everyone killed at Sanctuary and pulled them out of the timeline, replacing their bodies with fakes. So yeah, Wally West isn't a killer anymore. And now he gets to smash back into reality with a team of characters thought dead and gone to help Team Flash against the Fraction. They might only get a minute of super speed in which to help out, but they absolutely help.

Whilst the fight against the Fraction rages the rest of the Flash Family start to put their plan into motion to try to send the Fraction back in time to just before they arrived. But what difference would that make? Well, it turns out that their leader is a natural speedster, and after being beaten and put into one of the battery units it means that when time reverses he seems to have simply vanished; making the Fraction rethink attacking Earth-0, and getting them to run away.

I'm sure that there are some who will view this as an easy out, who'll roll their eyes and go 'of course they're using time travel again', but I like this solution. It feels very Flash, yet it's done carefully, smartly, and in a way that doesn't break the universe. And the entire family are there to do it. Getting so see all of the speedsters working together, all of the generations of Flash saving the world as a team is everything I could want as a Flash fan.

With the reversal of time it means that Iris doesn't die, Central City is trashed, and no one other than the speedsters know what happened. It also means that Barry and Iris can also finally get engaged again. The issue ends on a hopeful note, with Wally and his friends and family gathering for a party, Barry and Iris getting their happy ending, Max and Bart heading off into the Speedforce for adventure, and Gold Beetle putting the lost heroes back into the timeline. This is one of those stories that not only managed to save everyone who died during this story, but some extra ones too. 

This feels like a celebration of The Flash, of the family, of their abilities to save the world. It's not that often that The Flash is really given a big showcase like this, even in his own book, and it not only feels well earned, but it feels like a fantastic end to this run. There are still a few more issues to go before the creative team changes, but this really does feel like the crescendo; with everything else to come after being a nice wrap-up. The next team are going to have a tough act to follow, as this has been one of the most enjoyable and entertaining eras for The Flash. Hopefully we'll continue to get more amazing stories; and if this story has shown one thing, it's that with this many amazing members of the family it's well past time that we got more than one Flash title.

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Budgie by Joseph Coelho - Book Review

 

'A lost little budgie brings together a young neighbour and his seemingly grumpy older neighbour in this touching Little Gem from award-winner and Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. Mr Buxton is always having a go at Miles and his friends for climbing the trees outside their tower block. Miles thinks he’s just a grumpy old man but when he finds a lost little budgie, Miles also discovers that he and Mr Buxton have more in common than he could ever have imagined.'

Budgie is the latest Little Gems release from children's book publisher Barrington Stoke, one that focuses on the love that people have for animals, and how that can bring us together.

The story centres on Miles, a young boy who's out playing with his friend one day, but gets chased off from climbing a tree by Mr Buxton, an elderly man who lives nearby. Miles runs home, and watches out of his window as Mr Buxton wanders around the park, waving a big black bag in the air. 

The next day Miles heads outside to play and spots something unusual, a bright green and yellow budgie. The small bird seems to be having a tough time flying around, so Miles is able to pick up the bird and bring him home. His mother agrees to let him keep the bird, who Miles calls Pippin. Miles and Pippin bond over the rest of the day, with the small bird flying around the apartment, and playing on Miles hand and shoulder. 

The following morning, however, Pippin doesn't seem to be very well, and whilst Miles' mum is trying to get in touch with a vet Pippin falls down in his cage, dead. Miles and his younger sister are sad at the loss of their new bird, and spend the rest of the day saying goodbye to him, drawing pictures of him, and writing letters about how he made them feel. They bury Pippin in the park. Later that day the family are visited by Mr Buxton, who reveals that Pippin was his bird, and he and Miles begin to share stories about the tiny animal, and their shared loss brings them together.

I wanted to make it pretty clear in my review of Budgie that the story kills the bird, I wasn't aware of that before reading it, and actually found the twist to be not only surprising, but a little upsetting too. I have budgies, so perhaps that's why it ended up effecting me more than I thought, but the sudden twist in this story of a boy making friends with a tiny bird for it to then die was jarring to say the least. As such, any parent interested in the book should probably be aware of that before going into it, so as best to avoid ending up with an upset child, or a difficult talk about death.

That being said, the book is very bittersweet, and whilst Pippin (real name Lemon) dies his passing does end up bringing people together. We get a chance to get to know Mr Buxton, and see him as more than the scary older man that Miles had decided he was. There's a surprising depth that happens in the latter half of the book, and it's lovely to see where things go. I especially liked the fact that Mr Buxton had a husband, and that he and Mr Buxton had Lemon together as their first pet. The book doesn't make a big deal about one of the characters being gay, and treats his relationship as completely normal; which is absolutely the kind of lessons children should be learning.

The book if filled with wonderful, full colour illustrations by David Barrow, who really helps to bring the story to life. The art is simple, yet conveys a lot, and manages to pack in all of the important details. It has a way of translating the emotions of the scenes well, and I adored how much it brought Lemon to life on the page. I suspect that a number of younger readers might come away wanting a bird of their own after reading this book.

Budgie was a surprisingly touching and emotional read, one that I think shows not only how quickly people can come to care for animals, but how even through losing them the love that they bring into our lives can bring people together. 

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