This month, two long-awaited games that have a cult following in their respective TV shows or movies and books released. The games couldn’t possibly be more different — and here’s why.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, is set in the period between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings story. The range of interesting species in Middle-Earth makes it an ideal RPG, and the developers went a little further to build a player-specific Nemesis System.
This makes enemies develop a procedurally generated individuality — the game gets unpredictable and more challenging. Apart from the strengthened nemesis system and new story, not much could be said for the difference between SoW and its predecessor, Shadow of Mordor. But the game can hold its own — the gameplay environment resembles a hardened one like in Assassins Creed, but only darker and with more blacks and reds, giving a very combat-ready feel. The combat gameplay looks spectacular; it really is satisfying to slay an orc.
South Park: The Fractured but Whole may seem mellow in comparison to SoW, but is more dangerous than Middle-Earth — because apart from the graphics, the world resembles our own. The first game, Stick of Truth parodied the fantasy genre — and now we have ‘fractured but whole’, which has some serious grid-based superhero combat in 2D. The game deals with some pertinent problems like finding the missing cat, and lets you collect useful pick-up objects like rat poop. It hides the social commentary in the seemingly benign game customisations and the sarcastic dialogues. For example, the game’s difficulty is adjusted based on the player’s skin colour — the darkest being the highest level of complexity. This time around, it parodies the Marvel and DC enmity, with the kids dressed up as superheroes with interesting powers.
Like RPG games of yore, Fractured but Whole makes use of the rudimentary strategy-based combat rather than reflex based action, making the environment seem like a large checkerboard. The two games aren’t technically comparable, I’d still pick Fractured but Whole. Although the gameplay is shorter, it is less-repetitive compared to the brute-force combat in SoW, and can give you some laughs. Although the gameplay seems appealing, I’d leave Middle-Earth to the action and graphics lovers.
Anusha Ganapathi
Twitter@quaffle_waffle
(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)