This time around events are moved to Shanghai as Rios and Salem quickly find themselves caught in a large scale terrorist attack that decimates half of the breathtaking city. It’s an interesting premise, and the destruction of the city is spectacular, with explosives and aircraft knocking down some of the tallest and most impressive skyscrapers in the world. However, the story quickly takes a backseat to the action as you’re shunned into the unknown. Your antagonist doesn’t reveal himself until the very end of the game, and the only way to gauge what’s happening is to collect radio logs spread throughout each level and listen to them in the pause menu. It’s a poor way of storytelling, but the narrative is easy enough to ignore if you just want to focus on the action-heavy combat.

Though there are still some issues with the tone of the game as it once again struggles to find any sort of consistent identity. The story is fine – taking a simple, linear path with its typical action fare – but on each mission you’ll come across a few moral decisions. They seem out of place with the rest of the game, but offer certain rewards depending on your choices. For example, towards the beginning of the game you can choose to execute an ally you’ve just worked with for some extra cash from your employers, or you can let him go for free – since you’re supposed to have formed some kind of bond in the 10 minutes spent with him. If you choose the “good guy” option your reward will come later on, but for some instant gratification you’ll have to kill him then and there. It never really works as intended since you normally have more than enough cash and weapons to never need to go down the dark path, though if you choose the right path the outcome always has a negative conclusion so there’s little incentive to swing that way either. The message is clear, but it’s a flawed system, and when it brings up controversial issues like rape and child murder, it doesn’t work when the rest of the game deals with playing rock, paper, scissors and discussing how Rios has sex with endangered pandas.

Luckily this moral compass doesn’t have an effect on the gameplay since the shooting isThe 40th Day’s strongest aspect. There’s a nice range of weaponry available with pistols, assault rifles, sub-machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles and so on. And, once again, you can customise each weapon you buy or find with a range of attachments and improvements, whether it’s swapping out new barrels and grips or adding a laser sight and silencer. There’s a hefty rate of gear in each category so customisation is high on the agenda, and in the end it all factors into the returning Aggro system. Like before, one player can attract the attention of all enemies by firing a large, loud weapon, allowing the other person to flank around the sides for some easy kills. It works well, built on teamwork between two players, or one player and the AI, though it’s not always required since you can down most enemies in one or two shots. The only exceptions are the heavies, who you’ll need to flank in order to hit the weak spot on their backsides.

It’s a competent shooter, best played with a friend. The AI does its job, earning a decent amount of kills and generally staying out of your line of sight, but it does have its flaws. Oftentimes when you’ve gone down he’ll drag you into the open before trying to heal you so there are some unnecessary deaths. And I found that sometimes he’d wonder into the open himself and get killed even when ordered to hold his position. You see, you can give him three specific orders, to regroup, advance and hold position. For each of these you can also render him passive or aggressive, tying into the Aggro meter. It’s easy enough to make him advance or hold his position on aggressive, allowing you to flank the enemy positions with a silenced weapon, virtually unseen, while he gets all the attention. It works well and is probably the best way to play with the AI.

The downside is you’ll be performing this manoeuvre over and over again throughout the campaign’s short five hour runtime. There’s no real variation to any of The 40th Day’s seven missions; each one funnels you down a linear path as you engage in one shooting gallery after another. It looks good, particularly in the character models, but past the opening destruction of Shanghai the rest of the missions look like any old war-torn environment with the zoo being the only exception. When there’s no variety to the gameplay, and relatively little inspiration in the environments, it begins to get repetitive way before the miniscule five hours are up.

It’s just a shame that the solid fundamentals laid out by the original Army of Twocouldn’t be built on in this sequel. The story is an improvement only in its “less is more” execution, but the gameplay has remained mostly the same with no improvements to the systems already put in place or the design of its missions. It gets far too repetitive far too quickly so Army of Two: The 40th Day should be viewed as a rental at best. With a friend it can be fun for a while, but anything else and it outstays its welcome.

The story certainly strays wide of any substance, though it’s admirable enough to keep you interested throughout. Told via three distinct methods – CGI, in-game and animated cutscenes – Dante’s Inferno tells the story of Dante and his journey through Hell to rescue Beatrice, the love of his life. She made a dumbfounded wager with the Devil that if Dante remained faithful to her he would return home from the Third Crusade unharmed. Of course, it’s never a good idea to deal with the Devil and Dante eventually succumbs to temptation, unknowingly condemning Beatrice to the underworld for all eternity. It’s certainly an interesting premise, and while the small cast of characters are fairly bland, the use of CGI and animation to tell the story is impressive and serviceable enough to complement the gameplay and provide a good enough reason for venturing through the Nine Circles of Hell.

Of course it’s within those Circles that the bulk of the action takes place. Dante’s Inferno is, to put it lightly, a God of War copycat. From the use of light and heavy attacks, the fixed camera angles; the way you open doors, health and magic viles; the crate and lever puzzles and the QTEs to finish off enemies. The list could go on and on but I think you get the point. Sure, it’s derivative, but that doesn’t stop it being fun. Armed with Death’s own scythe and a Holy Cross, Dante’s certainly equipped to deal with any of Hell’s deadly minions. Combat starts out fairly basic with the scythe used for light and heavy combo attacks, and the Holy Cross as a useful ranged weapon, but eventually you’ll kill enough enemies to earn souls and upgrade both pieces of equipment to add an element of depth and variety to proceedings.

It’s here that Dante’s Inferno adopts some originality with holy and unholy upgrade trees. Whenever you grab an enemy for a brutal finishing move you can decide to either punish or absolve them, earning unholy or holy souls. These souls will open up more and more powerful abilities for you to buy for the scythe (unholy) and Holy Cross (holy) so choosing whether to punish or absolve an enemy carries a degree of strategy depending on what area you want to improve upon. As you reach the higher levels you’ll be able to purchase and utilise a variety of devastating moves for your two weapons and magic attacks, so there’s a lot of freedom to the combat allowing you to pick and choose which moves suit you. Combine this with different augmentations that give bonuses to particular areas and Dante’s Inferno has a case for stating its own identity.

It’s still very much derived from the God of War franchise with familiar and unoriginal combat; however, combining all of the light and heavy attacks with the Holy Cross and magic is wholly satisfying and stops combat from ever seeping into repetition. Plus, Dante’s Inferno has a unique setting and character designs going for it as well. Your descent into Hell will be a frightening one as you pass through each of the Nine Circles: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. It’d be easy to fill each Circle with rivers of lava and molten rock, but Dante’s Inferno goes for a much more gruesome look, spectacularly earning its mature rating. Death is all around, whether it’s the terrified screams of lost souls falling from above, or even the architecture itself; often moulded from the limbs and vital organs of the deceased. Everything about it signifies our worst nightmares, and as you venture deeper and deeper the environments will begin to represent each stage of the Nine Circles. Lust is full of phallic shaped towers and other such imagery, while gluttony sees you travel through the fleshy innards of a giant creature, eventually appearing out of its mouth. Even the enemy designs follow a similar pattern, with the controversial unbaptised babies waiting in limbo and bulbous, vile creatures eating anything that moves in gluttony. They’re fantastically grotesque and a joy to rip apart with your scythe.

Sadly these brilliant designs don’t far outstretch the first three Circles. While everything at the beginning of the game is new and exciting, enemies are eventually rehashed in each subsequent Circle. The only new enemy types you have to look forward to are mages and a couple of the other enemies re-branded, and it doesn’t make much sense that creatures seemingly specific to gluttony will appear in violence later on. It’s a shame because the few enemies you are introduced to are great, but you end up fighting them throughout the majority of Dante’s Inferno’s seven hour playtime. Even the level design carries a similar fate. There are a few standout moments past the first three Circles, but that initial grandiose scale is lost as you’re shuffled from room to room, forced to fight respawning enemies till the exit door opens. The only thing in-between these rooms are simple crate and lever puzzles and some light platforming. The sense of exploration and awe from your first few hours in Hell eventually fade away as the level design turns to tedium, culminating in fraud (the 8th Circle) where you’re forced into ten identical challenge rooms before you can face off against the last boss. They’re monotonous, frustrating and disrupt any excitement that could have been built before the grand finale; ultimately reeking of lazy level design.

Dante’s Inferno starts off big, consistently introducing new enemy types and grand environments, but by the end of the game that initial excitement turns to repetition as you fight through wave after wave of the same enemy type in increasingly familiar territory. The core gameplay is enjoyable enough to keep it interesting and fun throughout, with myriad upgrades and a unique punish and absorb mechanic to sink your teeth into, so it’s a shame the rest of the game couldn’t keep the momentum going. It might not be original but if you’ve never owned a Sony system before, Dante’s Inferno is an enjoyable alternative to Kratos’ Greek adventures, though the rest of us may want to wait until March.

The Star Wars universe is one of the most expansive in modern fiction and allows for the creation of games that explore the initial success of the films. The lucrative franchise has given birth to some of the most impressive games but also shows how such a popular entity can be misrepresented and misconstrued.

From its initial announcement, The Force Unleashed has been advertized as the ultimate Star Wars experience. An experience which will not only let the player control Darth Vader’s omnipotent apprentice, but guarantees that the “force will blow your mind”. This promise is seemingly fulfilled at several points in the game because of the engaging storyline and the beautiful level design, but it is diluted by unabashedly annoying enemy design and interruptive technical glitches.

Although fans of the Star Wars saga may find it particularly predictable, the story is still intriguing and fills in the largest gap in the canon. The main focus is on the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, but his own journey sheds light on the dissolution of the remnants of the republic while explaining the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Rebel Alliance.

While the story unfolds, you will travel to some beautiful locales. Both new planets and familiar places are among the bright and vivid worlds the apprentice explores as he attempts to complete his master’s bidding. Many of the levels are made up of wide open spaces that show phenomenal art direction and allow the apprentice to use his full repertoire of force powers. Yet often times the apprentice is contained-both literally and figuratively-in dark small corridors of space stations.

In addition to the story and the level design, the game does a number of things right, particularly at the beginning. Before you take control of the main protagonist, the player has the ability to fight as Darth Vader on the Wookiee planet of Kashyyk. The game gives an enticing preview of what an all-powerful Sith lord has at his disposal as Vader can force grip, choke hold, and throw his lightsaber among other deadly moves. The prologue level is one of the best parts of the game as you are in a vivid world, able to use all the force powers, and technical glitches do not hamper the experience as they do in later parts of the game.
It is the initial success of the game that makes the shortcomings of the later levels all the more unacceptable. Almost immediately after taking control of the apprentice (aptly named Starkiller as homage to the original name of Luke Skywalker) it becomes apparent that like in so many other games, the player must accumulate all of the force powers and powerful combos.

The prologue’s ease is completely reversed as the apprentice has problems mastering even the most basic skills of lightsaber combat-reflecting laser fire. At the same time, the apprentice has the ability to lift things with the force as monolithic as Tie Fighters but the power is often times rendered obsolete because of the horrid targeting system. In most games where there is an automatic locking system, the way the camera is facing will determine which enemies are targeted. In one of the biggest design flaws, the targeting system in The Force Unleashed is based upon what Starkiller is looking at. This makes beautiful level design burdensome as the confines of small corridors further illuminate problems with the camera.

In an ironic turn, once the player gains experience and chooses which force powers to power up, the enemy design makes the use of force powers less effective. Throughout the game, the player gains force spheres by gaining levels and finding holocrons which allows player to strengthen force powers, force skills, and force combos. However, once the player attains these powerful upgrades, the enemies become less threatened by the force. Some gain force shields and others can block lightsaber blows with ease, therefore making the most simple of enemies a difficult and frustrating affair. Adding to the frustration, many times enemies will glitch, either not having a health bar or simply stuttering around. This coupled with the fact that the player can only load from specific checkpoints (many times placed before unskippable cutscenes) makes many harder sections of the game simply not fun.

When Starkiller faces off against Jedi masters, the force powers become almost useless. Many of the fights will feel like they are more based on getting lucky hits with a lightsaber than any sort of skill or strategy. Lightsaber battles, a staple of the Star Wars experience, are never epic—rather the game relies heavily on the archaic God of War button press mini-game to dispose of bosses as well as the larger enemies such as Rancors and AT-STs.

The gameplay tends to lose most elements of fun and every sense of being fair due to the drastic changes in character design and the unoriginal boss battle mechanics. Yet there are still sections of the game that will prove awe inspiring to fans and non fans alike. As mentioned before, what really saves the game experience is the overall presentation and intriguing story. The game has incredibly imaginative and beautiful worlds and likeable characters which create a Star Wars film experience. One can argue that some characters mirror those in the films and that some take away from established themes, but they are crafted well and combined with John Williams rousing score, add emotional weight to the story.

The Force Unleashed is a Star Wars fan service-filling in holes in the canon and allowing players to have control of mystical force powers. It was promised to give the ultimate Star Wars experience and was hyped to be one of the best games of the year. While the game has impressive elements, unpolished and uninspired gameplay mechanics and frustrating enemies do not allow The Force Unleashed to achieve greatness.