Back(log) to the Front: Week 8

It’s back to some smaller-ish games as I continue to work my way through Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory. Fortunately there are some smaller games I can still play, and it works well for cases like this where I have a big game I still want to play too. This weekly article is meant for different games each week, and it is more difficult when I have a long one I really love. Not sure how well that will play out the rest of the year…

As for this week!

Titanfall 2

Apex Legends may be out but it appears to have given Titanfall 2 new life. It reminded me that I bounced off of Titanfall 2 pretty hard, and I figured I would give it another shot. I did just that, and thank god I gave it a new chance.

When people say Titanfall 2 is one of the best shooters they have ever played, that is not hyperbolic. It really is that damn good. I have fallen out of love with shooters, specifically first person shooters, but Titanfall 2 had me hooked (after that first main level at least). It is incredibly fun to play with a somewhat crazy story and some great character work between the main two protagonists.

So let me start with the characters. You play as Jack Cooper whose personality is mostly dependent on choice driven dialogue throughout the game. Overrall, there isn’t a lot, and I was a little irked with how quiet he was during cutscenes with other side characters, but it’s enough to hammer home the relationship between his robot buddy and true star of the game: BT-7274.

BT-7274 (BT) is fantastic and one of the better characters to come out of this generation of games. The delivery is spot-on and his dialogue is both perfect in directness with humor mixed in. He interacts well given the situations that come up (“no more shortcuts”) and his pilot in Jack Cooper. I found myself pulling for BT more than most characters in other games just to illustrate just how well he was written.

The story also comes along pretty well. For the most part it feels relatively standard for shooters, but there are enough bumps along the way to keep it fresh and interesting. One part in particular mixes in time travel in a way that reminded me of Singularity or Gemini: Heroes Reborn; although I was disappointed it didn’t continue that mechanic another chapter or two.

I have mentioned how well Jack Cooper and BT work together, but unfortunately the same can’t be said for the villains and side characters. This is a problem I find in most shooters, but it’s here as well. I have a difficult time getting invested in villains who are mostly interacted with through audio logs or voice comms. I also find it hard to care about side characters who mostly has a purpose to give you a mission late in the game with almost no interaction before, during or after. Titanfall 2 is guilty on both of these fronts.

I also want to praise the level design. Considering the wall-running aspect of the game, which is fun as hell by the way, the level design could make or break the game. Respawn did a wonderful job crafting believable reasons to wall-run throughout the game, and several levels stand out because of it. My personal favorite was a factory that built homes. Pure fun.

I don’t have a lot to say about the shooting and titan work. It’s a Respawn game, so it comes as no shock that firing a weapon is solid and feels great. Even piloting a titan feels good and weighty with its array of weapons and abilities at its disposal discovered during the story. My only complaint would be how similar some titan abilities are. There are a limited number of titan loadouts, so I wasn’t expecting several of them to have matching abilities. It’s not a major complaint, but the biggest one I can muster there.

As for multiplayer – I’m awful. Not worth embarrassing myself talking about how poor of a player I am there. At least they have AI grunts for me to kill!

Titanfall 2 deserves every piece of acclaim it’s received. It’s a shame it didn’t succeed as well as it should have, because it is hands down one of the best shooters someone could try out. If you haven’t given it a shot yet, it’s cheap enough most of the time for a guiltless purchase, and it’s worth every cent.

Disneyland Adventures

When Disneyland Adventures originally released on the Kinect for the Xbox 360 back in 2011, I had little urge to play it. First off, it was on the Kinect. Secondly, it seemed like a baby game that wouldn’t be any fun whatsoever.

Now it’s 2019. I have had two kids and this game was remastered for Windows and the Xbox One. Seeing it as an option on Game Pass, I shrugged my shoulders and installed it. Not so much for me, but mainly my little one who is three years old and loves Mickey Mouse.

He loves it. There’s not much to it, but he loves it. Mainly what you do is run around a re-creation of Disneyland helping the Disney characters with missions. Ariel needs some dinglehoppers. Alice needs her ribbon. Donald Duck lost his hat. Some are easily found in the park, others are done with the simple mini-games; but it’s all done with children in mind. And it works just fine in that regard.

The mini-games are pretty basic from what I have seen and are what one would expect from a website from a beloved cartoon station. An example would be shooting fireworks in the sky or sledding down a mountain collecting coins. The games themselves are overly long and not a ton of fun for an adult, but for the audience it shoots for, does the job.

The coins earned in the mini-games can also be found in the park itself. They are easy to spot as they bounce in place and not difficult to get, and can be spent in stores to purchase new clothes for your custom avatar, photo books or even autograph books. Those last two items are important as they give the player more to do in the park itself.

For instance, in each section of the park, there will be signs used for photos. The only way to take pictures here is to purchase a photo book from a shop in that section. Similarly, the autograph books allow an interaction with the Disney characters in the park to sign. But there are multiple photo books to purchase, so to get Cinderella to sign, you will need a princess autograph book. If you want Captain Hook, buy a villain one.

The characters were where my little one was the most attentive. Each character has four interactions with the player all of which are voiced. They each have a high five of sorts, they can dance, sign the appropriate photo book, and even hug. The hugs are adorable by the way. Outside of that, you can also have your avatar take a photo with the character as well and do a special pose.

Seeing my son enjoy Disneyland Adventures made it worth it. Watching him try to pose during the pictures was cute and he would hug me when the characters would hug each other. During pictures you can make your avatar wave and he would do the same. If you have a child who loves Disney, and they are on the younger side, this might be something worth trying with them.

Those being out of the way, I’m thinking of doing some more spooky stuff this upcoming week. I have a last gen trilogy I’m looking to inspire some *ahem* fear…..along with a couple indie games on Steam to tackle.

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