Among Us Review - Better Late Than Never

Publisher: InnerSloth

Developer: InnerSloth

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: iOS, Android

Among Us released over two years ago, but the jellybean/astronaut online game is currently seeing a massive surge in popularity that began in early September. The world may have started out quarantine by playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a wholesome game about friendship and taking care of our islands, but after many months of pandemic life, we're hungry for the void of space filled with chaos and deceit. That’s what Among Us is all about.

Developed by InnerSloth, the foundation of Among Us is simple: a social deduction game where a player is either a crewmate or the lone imposter. The imposter must pretend to do the assigned daily tasks in the game while stealthily killing off each crewmate one by one. If a body is discovered, a crewmate can call an Emergency Meeting to have a group chat trying to figure out who the imposter truly is.

There is only one level aboard a spacecraft where players see sectioned rooms where daily tasks are. Using basic vertical and horizontal movements, the imposter and crewmates move from room to room to accomplish their respective goals without giving any other players cause to vote them out. Each Emergency Meeting discusses who is suspicious and who is not, and the player that has the most votes against them is effectively gets the boot. Players that are killed then become "ghosts" to see how the rest of the match plays out.

Click here to watch embedded media

This is where the game gets hilarious. Picture this: It's my first time playing Among Us, and I am the imposter. I don't know the tasks or where they are; I am just a blundering 2D astronaut bumbling around looking for stealthy ways to try to eat my crewmates. I'm confused, but I use that to my advantage.

One crewmate suspects me, "purple," and hurls out the most offensive accusation ever seen in-game: "Purple is sus" (a popular slang version of "suspicious" that is the root of all Among Us memes). I panic, but then try to see myself through their eyes. "I'm sorry, I was just following you guys," I reply. "This is my first time playing, I'm not really sure what I'm doing." My response lands the way I need it to, the rest of the players now feel the need to teach me instead of suspect me. Little do they know it's the last thing they will ever do – at least until this match is over.

This is the level of intrigue that makes Among Us so fun despite having basic visuals and only one level. Another charm is that it also has meme-quality features as seen in its comedic art style and low-budget animations. Friends turn against one another, bonds are broken, and the chat is absolutely comedic.

Among Us takes meme culture to its highest peak with parody costumes, my absolute favorite being the sticky note for your face that has "dum" written on it. That, or the toilet paper. The costumes add a personal touch to gameplay in addition to several color options, skins, and even pets. Does this add stat value? No, but it adds customization that allows players to immerse themselves fully in a way that stays inline with the "don't take this too seriously" feeling that Among Us offers. 

 

What makes this game such a hit for me is that a lot of online games today are set up in a way that you have to play with friends, otherwise the entertainment value can decline drastically. One aspect of online gaming that turns me off when I want to play solo is the severe level of trolling that can turn hateful and malicious at the drop of a hat. While it's easy to just turn the other cheek, sometimes I don't want to have to do that, I just want to enjoy the game. The entire nature of Among Us is basically one giant troll, so the usual suspects in the online gaming community really lose their power here; you're encouraged to troll, making it an ingrained mechanic, removing the feeling of satisfaction from people acting in bad faith. 

Another refreshing aspect that makes Among Us worth checking out is the minimal time investment it requires. Some online games are built to keep you playing for months on end; I often joke that Destiny 2 and Apex Legends are second marriages because of the grind for the former, and the desire to be the best in the latter. With Among Us, you can play as much or as little as you want and still have a good time. When I want to stream for a few hours, this is a good fit because of the type of interactive content it produces, but I can also pick up the free mobile version and play for 10 or 15 minutes during my lunch break. There are no levels, there is no Battle Pass; there is no penalization for playing as little or as much as I want, which makes it easy to return to again and again. 

As much as I enjoy playing Among Us, I have just as must fun watching it. Its simplicity makes it easy to boot up for streamers, and the conversations about who is sus are great entertainment for active livestream chats. 

Diving into Among Us, I see the charm despite its simplicity, and I can't help but to love the way this game makes me look at everyone as if they are super sus. Among Us is what it is, and unapologetically so. This year may be bad, but having fun experiences definitely isn't; Among Us provides a much-needed reprieve from reality without taking itself too seriously.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

 

                                                                                                           

Score: 8.5

Summary: Among Us is hitting its stride two years after launch, and is the perfect representation of how integrated memes are within our entertainment infrastructure.

Concept: Complete assigned tasks as a crewmate or kill your way to victory as an imposter

Graphics: Minimalistic graphics that appeal to meme culture while inspiring insanely realistic fan art

Sound: No voice acting and sparse sound effects help facilitate the suspicious atmosphere that Among Us thrives on

Playability: Though simple and one-track, this s an experience that has unlimited replayable potential due to its hilarious and unpredictable in-game chat feature

Entertainment: A clever take on the "whodunnit" genre while a tapping into what makes meme culture so relevant and universal

Replay: High

Click to Purchase

Read More

Mafia: Definitive Edition Review – Loyal To A Fault

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Hangar 13

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Stadia, PC

Mafia: Definitive Edition is an interesting time capsule that not only lets players experience Tommy Angelo’s rise in an ersatz ‘30s-era Chicago dubbed Lost Heaven, but will likely inspire greater appreciation for how far the industry has come since 2002. Hangar 13 has rebuilt the nearly 20-year-old game, bringing the visuals up to contemporary standards and adding a few quality-of-life enhancements while ultimately respecting the original’s core design. It’s an admirable approach, but then you have to actually play the damned thing.

The early Mafia games used their open worlds differently than their competitors, with cities that aren’t really interactive playgrounds, but are more similar to film soundstages. You’re free to peel off from the next story beat and explore side streets and back roads, but don’t expect to find much in the way of optional activities or interesting secrets. Instead, the narrative relentlessly drives you forward, with the end of one chapter propelling you right into the start of the next. Need to catch your breath? Too bad! It's an interesting approach, and one that I’d probably enjoy more if the story was more engaging. Unfortunately, Angelo’s tale is disjointed and boring, with time skips that undermine how you’re supposed to feel about the relationships that he apparently builds over the years.

Click here to watch embedded media

Angelo’s story is told in flashbacks as he’s going over his past with an investigator. He starts his rise as a taxi driver pulled into the mob by happenstance, then becomes the victim (and participant) in all the intrigue, backstabbing, and capers you’d expect. There’s an interesting tale in here somewhere, but the timeline moves so erratically that I never felt connected with Angelo’s plight as a man caught between loyalties. We meet his eventual wife and are told that they love each other, but their interactions are so lifeless and sparse that Angelo’s eventual speech about the importance of family feels hollow and unearned. The newly recorded voice performances are solid, but inconsistent. Some characters, like Angelo and Don Ennio Salieri, give understated, naturalistic performances. It’s jarring to hear them interact with characters like Paulie, who gives his lines a livelier (and occasionally hammy) read. Sometimes, it felt like these characters had been yanked from different stories.   

Nearly every mission predictably ends in a hail of gunfire; it’s a gangster story, after all. In addition to tossing molotovs and filling the air with bullets, I also hurled a consistent stream of profanity at my television. The gunplay is simply terrible, with weapons that feel sluggish and underpowered. It’s not uncommon to dial in several headshots before an enemy registers the damage, flopping to the ground in a dramatic ragdoll flop. Rival gangsters glide between cover points like Fred Astaire on ice skates, or pop in and out of safety in suicidal frenzies. Melee combat is even worse, with successful button-mashing rewarding you with canned finishing-move animations that look like hokey fight choreography from a middle-school production of West Side Story. And woe to those who trigger one of these unskippable animations in the middle of a battle. Enemies may be able to shrug off your bullets, but you’re not so lucky.

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

 

                                                                                                            

Ultimately, it’s difficult to shake the very real feeling that you’re playing a relic from a bygone era. There are some set-piece moments, such as busting down a warehouse door with a rail car or escaping an abandoned prison, but the thrills that they may have once offered are brought down by the subpar gameplay you’re stuck with once the smoke clears. The worst examples are the times when you’re forced into stealth sequences. There are only a few of these sections, thankfully, but the “raise the alarm means game over” failure stakes make them more about frustration than in building tension.

The original Mafia was well-received at its release, and I’m sure a lot of people remember it fondly. For me, it’s something that’s probably best seen as a foundational statement in a series that got better over time and subsequent entries. As part of the Mafia trilogy, it’s an interesting footnote on what came before. As a standalone game that can hold its own against modern titles in the open-world genre? Fugetaboutit.

Score: 5.5

Summary: Mafia: Definitive Edition is an interesting time capsule that shows how far the industry has come since 2002.

Concept: Revisit Tommy Angelo’s ascent in Lost Heaven’s criminal underworld, in a complete remake of the 2002 open-world game

Graphics: The visuals are an improvement over the original, but dodgy animations and lackluster environments pull the experience down

Sound: The new orchestral score occasionally seems better suited for a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The licensed ‘30s tunes add to the atmosphere

Playability: Gunplay is awful, melee combat is unintentionally hilarious, and forced stealth sections are a reminder of how far games have come in the years since the original’s debut

Entertainment: Faithful almost to a fault, Hangar 13’s remake puts a glossy finish on a title that is fundamentally musty by contemporary standards

Replay: Low

Click to Purchase

Read More

NBA 2K21 Review – Living Off The Legacy

Publisher: 2K Games

Developer: Visual Concepts

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, PC

Just like the star athletes that adorn its cover every year, NBA 2K has created a strong legacy, launching it to the top of this generation’s sports games. The series has maintained solid gameplay while never forgetting about innovation, and I appreciate the risks Visual Concepts takes even when they don’t completely pay off. NBA 2K has advanced sports storytelling, character customization, and the level of detail we expect from overall presentation. However, once you’re on top, you have to fight to stay there, and a bad season or two can haunt you. The current-gen version of NBA 2K21 is not a bad game, but it does not live up to the legacy Visual Concepts built. 

While this iteration lacks improvement in most off-the-court situations, the classic gameplay on the court remains a keystone of this entry. I love how players of all different levels can play the NBA 2K series and get as deep into the mechanics as they want and still have success. Every possession becomes about finding the best path to the basket, knowing the right window to pull off the perfect pass, or setting that screen to free up your point guard to drive to the net. It never gets old, especially when you nail that devastating drunk. This year, expect some improvements to the A.I., such as your big man in the paint making a bigger impact on defense. The A.I.’s reaction time could be better; their biggest offender is some late executions when I requested a pass and not recognizing when the window has lapsed. Plus, they still make weird hiccups like backcourt violations for no good reason. 

Outside of the A.I., Visual Concepts also made a slew of other additions, from new shot types to the inclusion of oversized point guards. But the biggest shift is to the pro stick for dribbling and shooting. Dribbling is more full-featured; jump shots can now only be initiated by moving the right stick down, which provides a wider range of motion for more advanced dribbling moves, which I used to give me more success at beating my man off the dribble. The change that didn’t click with me was the introduction of “pro stick shot aiming,” which eschews the timing meter fans have become accustomed to. Now, a target window resizes based on your player’s skill and a few other factors as they shoot. As a longtime player, I struggled with shifting the stick left or right to hit the target. In the past, the timing meter punished you if you didn’t keep the stick straight when shooting. Now, it’s too easy to accidentally shift the stick a little too far, causing you to miss a wide-open shot. I like that the stick aiming is more challenging and means that I can’t take any shot for granted, but I miss the predictable rhythm of the timing meter. I adapted after a while, but it’s hard to break old habits. You can turn the stick aiming off in the game and go back to the old timing meter, and I’ll admit, once I did, I was much happier. 

Other than that, the changes across all modes feel limited. If you’re like me and spend most of your time in MyCareer, you can treat yourself to a new cinematic experience to play through as your created character called “The Long Shadow.” This year’s story centers on a young player named Junior, who is living in the shadow of his dad’s career. It’s not as over-the-top and produced as what we saw with Spike Lee and the Frequency Vibrations storyline a few years ago, but it’s a more grounded tale in managing the expectations that come with being a top talent and finding your own place in the game. It isn’t the most memorable plot and takes some predictable turns, especially with a girlfriend storyline, but it does its job at giving you a backstory. As a plus, star acting bolsters its scenes, especially Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy) as Junior’s father and Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Lovecraft Country) as an old family friend who becomes your agent. My favorite part was that Visual Concepts brought back the college experience here, giving you 10 officially licensed colleges to pick from, and put great detail into recreating the crowds’ chants and the look and feel of each arena. 

NBA 2K21 also has a new Beach Neighborhood, where you can take your MyPlayer to do everything from complete in 3v3 streetball or 5v5 ProAM games to shop for the latest apparel. The cool cosmetic items are all overpriced, so I didn’t even bother with making my player look cooler. Worse yet, to be able to stand a chance and not embarrass yourself when competing here, you’re probably going to need to grind in MyCareer to earn VC (2K’s virtual currency) or purchase it to improve your player’s stats. As for the new Neighborhood aesthetic, I like the change of scenery, which was inspired by Southern California's local beach community; it feels inviting and colorful in a time when many of us are stuck indoors. That being said, it is more window dressing than a huge attraction in NBA 2K21, and it’s the area of the game where I’ve experienced the most crashes, especially when traveling between areas. 

Click image thumbnails to view larger version

 

                                                                                                            

I was most disappointed in MyGM, where you manage a franchise and make the big decisions when it comes to trading, scouting, and managing prices. This mode is practically identical to last year, and that is not a good thing. The conversation system still drags down the entire experience with pointless blabber about hand soap and waffles. CFOs constantly ask you to raise prices, and coaches demand you make ridiculous trades. You have action points to spend each day, but not enough meaningful things to do with them. The mode also doesn’t focus enough on big events and moments in the season; I should be feeling the stress of making the playoffs or trade deadline, and if a big-star player wants to test free agency, it should be a huge beat – not relegated to a measly social media post. The skill tree to unlock abilities like better scouting or more sponsorships feels more compact than last year, but it’s another area where Visual Concepts needs to get more creative and interesting. Unlocking new abilities just doesn’t feel impactful. 

Similar to MyGM, MyLeague still shines in your ability to customize rules, teams, and rosters to your liking, but it also remains basically unchanged. The WNBA is back here, which I love because Visual Concepts really commits to making the experience feel like a women’s game with a more technical and team-centric style, but sadly you can still only play for a season.  

MyTeam, where you open packs to create the roster of your dreams, offers a great deal of events, challenges, and rewards to keep you logging in and ensuring your team is in top form. This year it added seasons, which are free and (similar to a battle pass) you get rewards purely through meeting certain gameplay criteria. It also introduced the Exchange, which lets you trade in extra or unused cards for more powerful ones. I like that the Exchange lets you deposit cards you’re not using for something better, but be warned you have to give up a lot to get many of these valuable cards. While this mode is still where players will probably spend the most of their VC, these are at least some steps in letting players earn cards that don’t always require putting down cash.

As we approach a new console generation, Visual Concepts is building a version of NBA 2K21 from the ground up for the new systems. As a result, this current-gen NBA 2K21 feels left in the dust. It still offers the strong gameplay the series is known for, but compared to last year, it’s not making many leaps. I know I’ll still play it a good amount until I move on to the new-gen edition, but it’s disappointing that loyal fans playing on current-gen consoles didn’t get more of an upgrade. It still gives you a decent basketball experience, but we’ve come to expect better and more. 

Score: 7

Summary: The current-gen version of NBA 2K21 is not a bad game, but it does not live up to the legacy Visual Concepts built. 

Concept: Bring back the fantastic gameplay with a few tweaks, but without making meaningful changes across the various modes to make it stand out from last year’s iteration

Graphics: Accurate player models with realistic movements help sell the experience. I noticed fewer graphical hiccups than in previous years

Sound: The commentary is still some of the best in sports games, and the crowd reacting to the highs and lows of the on-court action puts you right in the moment. A stellar soundtrack provides great background beats

Playability: The new shot aiming has an adjustment period bound to frustrate players, but improved mechanics to dribble off the right stick fare much better

Entertainment: NBA 2K21 still delivers the thrill of being on the court and producing spectacular plays, but it lacks innovation and fresh ideas

Replay: Moderately High

Click to Purchase

Read More