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4 A R TS AND C U LTU R E GAMES TO G IF T NTQ Q.F"ÙC.nhl n - L U i M I ■ A holiday gift guide featuring this season's hottest new video games BY LUIS CORREA BY W ILLIAM FERRIS ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR THE CLACKAMAS PRINT If there is one thing that “Star Wars Battlefront II” accomplishes, it’s putting players inside the exciting legendary movie universe. From the historic landmarks to the iconic characters, “Battlefront II” will surely make your dreams come true, if you ever wondered what it was like to live the Star Wars. The campaign is one of the reasons why this game has gotten so much hype. While the 2015 “Battlefront” had no single player campaign at all, this one took me about five hours to complete. Though the characters were great, as well as the mechanics, the story just felt rushed. It starts off with an interesting perspective as you follow and play as an imperial special forces commander, Iden Versio, during the time period of “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens.” Though the missions were great thanks to a combinations of ground and space battles with beautiful detail, the whole story falls short in what looks to be a bigger character arc squished in just a few hours. The game makes the mistake of not following Iden Versio in depth, instead it ignores her by adding a lot of cameos of iconic characters. The game designers at Dice nailed the sound, feel and visuals of this game, but the campaign while fun and all, leaves you with djsatisfaction upon completion. Though the game offers a greater package of content from its predecessor, the game’s progression system in multiplayer has to be one of the worst systems. Since “Battlefront’s” main focus is the multiplayer, it gets the fundamentals of Star Wars firefights right. With new blasters and abilities, the multiplayer has improved. There is even an active reload mechanic that adds some skill and choice during battle. The heroes are also fun to control as you slice and tear down your opponents such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul, Kylo Ren, Yoda and many more. You can even take the battle to sky while controlling a star fighter and complete your objectives. But, while the combat is strong and fun, the star cards that are part of the progression system still intervenes. You upgrade by buying loot crates as you get points during the multiplayer battles, but .these resource costs are stupidly high. It certainly takes the Star Wars experience away from the average players. Overall, “Battlefront II” does a lot of things right. Stunning visuals, the sounds, the feel and it’s incredibly faithful to the source material. Though the delivery of the game stumbled hard with its slow-paced progression system that is hostile to many players and it’s messy campaign, this game is still fun to play. Clackamas Print The “Dishonored” games are critically-acclaimed stealth action platforms that gain just as many positive reviews I from critics as they do from players. When the long-awaited sequel to the first game came out in November 2016, developer Arkane Studios once again blew expectations with more impressive mechanics and gameplay. Arkane Studios has since taken the games even further with the latest entry in the series, the “DLC Death of the Outsider.” This new edition to the franchise changes many things about the “Dishonored” formula, but ultimately creates a fantastic experience that old fans and newcomers alike will enjoy. The game takes place after the events of “Dishonored 2” as you play as former assassin Billie Lurk; an important character from the previous games now out to find her old mentor. When she finds him nearing his death the old man gives her the terrifying mission of killing the god known as the Outsider. Right away this game takes an interesting new path with its story. The Outsider who has throughthe entire series been a central character that helped push the games forward has now taken the role of an antagonist; playing as the strong willed and cunning Billie Lurk lends the story to some interesting new characterizations. The mechanics also have some significant changes that alter how “Death of the Outsider” plays from the previous entry in the series. All of the games revolve around the use of the various powers and abilities to stealthily enter areas and take out targets. “Death of the Outsider” goes in a new direction however with unique hew powers that change the entire game. Instead of the teleport we’ve seen in the other games, you have displace which is an ability that allows you to set a marker in the world that you can then teleport to later. Your ability to see enemies and objects through walls has also been replaced with one that lets you freeze time to leave your body and search the space around you. You can also highlight a few people or objects in the world to keep track of them. If you’re new to the series then you should definitely start with an earlier game before jumping into this more skill-heavy experience. But if you’re a fan of the games or genre and are looking for something interesting and new, then do yourself a favor and get “Death of the Outsider” this holiday season. theclackam asprint.net
