MARVEL Vs. CAPCOM 3: FATE OF TWO WORLDS REVIEW - By Alex

It could be argued that had Capcom not reignited the 2D beat ‘em up scene, by hitting the Street Fighter 4 nail so squarely on the head, we may never have seen this utterly chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable fighter.

Following on from its Dreamcast predecessor that was released over 10 years ago, Marvel vs Capcom 3 (MvC 3) once again does exactly what it says on the tin and pits an assortment of the best Capcom game characters against Marvel’s superheroes. The huge amount of characters on offer provides for any number of dream match-ups and the resulting on-screen fracas does not disappoint.

MvC 3 is without a doubt the most bat-shit crazy, high-octane, visually explosive beat ‘em up since…well, Marvel vs Capcom 2. Fighters swoop and soar all over the screen unleashing insanely over-the-top attacks that fill the screen with enough bright colours and flashing lights to give even a Pokémon cartoon epilepsy. Never has a ‘flashing images’ warning at the start of a videogame been more justified (or exciting).

The characters range from all over both universes with the more widely known Capcom characters like Ryu and Chun-Li from Street Fighter, Dante from Devil May Cry and Resident Evil’s Chris Redfield coming up against lesser known foes like Felicia from the Darkstalkers Franchise and Arthur from Ghosts & Goblins. The Marvel roster is beefed up with blockbuster movie heroes like Spiderman, Wolverine and Iron Man and padded out with fan-service names like Dormammu from Doctor Strange and M.O.D.O.K. from the Avengers.

Each character is superbly well balanced and nuanced, giving the game a roster where every player will have different favourites. The control scheme is also so easy to pick up that players can easily pick fighters they may never have heard of and still unleash all manner of ass kicking, screen filling special moves. It’s a great system that makes the game tonnes of fun to pick up with a friend or two as even beginners can feel like all powerful beat ‘em up behemoths.

The learning curve is, as to be expected, pretty steep though. All moves for all characters are mapped to the familiar three patterns commonly used by all ‘n00b’ Ryu and Ken Street Fighter players, but throw tag team assists and super cancels into the equation and the game becomes exceedingly hard to master. On the flip side, the game’s ease of basic control can lead to even hardened pros becoming victim to the infamous button bashers amongst us, which is a real shame and doesn’t feel like much of a reward for persistence.

MvC 3 is undoubtedly a game that truly excels in local multiplayer and hence, regrettably, falls rather flat as a single player experience. The biggest gripe has to be with the pitifully short arcade mode. You face not even 10 battles before the game is over and, more annoyingly, the arcade mode has absolutely not back story or substance to it.

Despite this being the norm with beat ‘em ups, MvC 3 is a game that houses some of the most richly developed video game and comic book characters in history and to reward a player, upon completion of arcade mode, with no more than 2 still comic book images is pretty pathetic. Why aren’t there any cool cut scenes of Wolverine going berserk on Ryu or Chun-Li kicking ten bells out of Iron Man?

There’s no reason for these enemies to fight each other, no hint of a story mode or even ‘rival’ battles that Street Fighter 4 shoehorned in. A Wolverine vs. Magneto final showdown (yeah I know there’s three characters on a team but the story could at least involve and differ for the team leaders), for example, with some cut scenes and dialogue would provide a fun substance to the fighting and give the fans some awesome service, but sadly we get nothing.

With the arcade mode offering little to single players, the mission mode is all that remains and, again, is a pretty low key offering. Players are given button combinations to mash into their controller and upon completion are given a harder one to complete. And that’s literally it. Nothing along the lines of Soul Calibur’s story modes and a real disappointment when the huge amount of characters means there could have been some really awesome character specific tasks and story branches. Hell, even Street Fighter 2 had that car section!

As long as you have a lot of beat ‘em up hungry friends around most of the time, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is an absolute blast that will provide you with plenty of frenetic and exhilarating action that is unlikely to be replicated by anything outside of the series. It’s just in the long run and as a single player title that MvC 3 will hardly get a look in and this is down to the game severely lacking any substance or reason for replayability to anyone other than the obsessed combo-aholic perfectionists. Still, as a pick up and play title with mates, you will rarely find a better way to spend half an hour than this.      

3 GOOD POINTS

+          Tonnes of great characters that are all incredibly well balanced.

+          Fast, frantic and flashy action is total chaos and thoroughly entertaining.

+          Simple control system means the game is easy to pick up, but also provides a real challenge for those who want to master all the combos.

3 BAD POINTS

-           All the characters come from rich backgrounds, why is there absolutely no narrative at all here?

-           Simple controls mean the game is widely accessible, but button bashers can score plenty of cheap victories.

-           Very little in the way of different modes – arcade, mission and versus is all we get meaning very little in the way of longevity.

GRAPHICS A visual style sure to be loved and loathed in equal measure, but one that produces big, bright character models and tonnes of high octane epilepsy-inducing carnage. Stages could be better.	8/10
GAMEPLAY A button basher on the surface, but a game that has plenty of depth for the hardcore. Single player lets it down but grab a mate for some one on one local multiplayer and enjoy this insane ride.	7/10
STORY Completely non-existant…obviously. It’s a shame, when you consider the rich backgrounds that almost the entire roster comes from, that there couldn’t be some kind of soul calibur-esque mission mode or at least more than two pictures when arcade mode is completed.	1/10
REPLAYABILITY Purely 50/50. If you want to put the effort into mastering all the characters through mission mode and becoming an almighty champion online then there’s plenty to get through, but casual beat ‘em up fans could soon tire of losing to ‘Johnny press them all’.	5/10
VALUE FOR MONEY AT Not an essential purchase at launch. If you’re totally mad for beat ‘em ups then go for it, but a weekend rent will be enough to satisfy you and your mates until it goes cheap. You’ll break it open for a laugh but it’s unlikely to usurp your usual mainstays.	£20
OVERALL A fast, frantic and fabulous visual overload with easy to pick up controls and plenty of gameplay depth for those who have the patience to master the game, but there’s little replayability beyond that.	7.5/10

DEAD SPACE 2 REVIEW – By Alex

There’s one really noticeable problem with Dead Space 2 that I’m sure almost everyone who plays it will realise. Play for 15-20 minutes, especially for the first half of the game, and you’ll have had all you can handle. The reason, of course, is because Dead Space 2 really is that scary. It’s sheer testament to how superbly well paced the game is that there is very little breathing time at any point, leaving you no option but to switch off the console, turn the lights back on and calm yourself down.

But Dead Space 2 is more than just scares and features some truly innovative (holding off necromorphs while hanging upside down from a train anyone?) and utterly explosive action set pieces. And it’s the combination of nail-shredding terror and gut-busting action that Dead Space 2 gets so right that makes survival horror staples like Resident Evil, itself now much more shifted towards the action genre, look distinctly last gen.

Dead Space 2 is not only a great game in its own right, but as a sequel it ranks among the greatest of this generation of great sequels. It takes the near perfect formula of the first game and improves on almost everything. The scares are more frequent; the setting is more varied and the action is more ambitious. Not to mention the host of new weapons, the new jetpack-like flying sections and the introduction of a voice for our main protagonist Isaac Clarke.

   The choice to give Isaac a voice greatly improves the story-telling and gives gamers a character they can now actually care about

Isaac’s new found, and reasonably well acted, voice helps the story flow a lot better too. The story itself sees Isaac awoken in hospital on the Sprawl, a metropolis built on one of Saturn’s moons, to find himself in amongst yet another necromorph infestation. With no memory of the three years that have passed since the first game, Isaac is told that he is responsible for building a replica of the original marker that has not only caused said infestation, but fills Isaac’s head with horrifying visions of his deceased girlfriend Nicole. Naturally, he sets out to destroy it.

The setting of the Sprawl is a huge improvement on the dank and repetitive corridors of the mining ship Ishimura from the original. The action now takes place in hospitals (in one of the most exhilarating opening acts ever seen in gaming), shopping districts, nursery schools and sports gyms as well as the usual zero-g escapades in space itself, all of which are presented superbly by the games top notch graphics.

The new setting for Dead Space 2, on a moon orbiting Saturn, is another huge improvement on the original game giving much more variety in locations and stunning views such as this

The sequel also takes the player on the obligatory ‘trip down memory lane’ by re-visiting the Ishimura and this provides one of the best examples of the Dead Space 2’s ability to scare the player through sheer dread as well as the usual jumps and shocks.

The psychological scares are excellently provided through the games brilliant use of sound and lighting. Objects fall off shelves creating loud crashes; lights flicker and go out shrouding you in darkness and steam valves randomly go off in your face. Dead Space 2 literally never lets up on the scares even when there are no necromorphs around. It’s the anxiety built up by the game simply messing with you that keeps you on edge throughout. The aforementioned Ishimura section is a prime example of this – keeping you waiting through all the mind games for that inevitable wave of attack. This is immersive horror at its absolute peak.

It’s a shame, then, that the end of the game seems to dial down these brilliant aspects and switches to an all out necromorph onslaught – spewing room after room of enemies at you, much like the end of the original did. Luckily the excellent array of brutal weapons ensures the end of the game is still exhilarating and slicing up enemies never gets boring. The final few chapters also introduce (although it’s also in the first game) the genius idea of un-killable enemies that keeps the pulse racing to the, somewhat disappointing, climax.

The game offers so much more that cannot be done justice enough by simply talking about it – it really has to be experienced. The new zero-g flying sections are a great addition and some of the new enemies add even more terror to make you edge all the more slowly round every corner. Dead Space 2 does so much right and so very little wrong, providing one of the most exciting, frightening and downright brilliant games of this generation and is easily the early front runner for game of the year.   

3 GOOD POINTS

+          Absolutely terrifying in places, completely exhilarating in others. One of the finest survival horror games ever created with incredible tension and dread throughout.

+          Improves on the original in every single aspect, especially in adding a voice to Isaac and expanding the types of location.

+          Addition of multiplayer extends lifespan over previous game and promise of DLC chapters keeps fans hungry for more.

3 BAD POINTS

-           End of the game starts to do away with the suspense and starts to slide into shooting gallery mode and the end boss is slightly disappointing.

-           Hardcore mode is damned near impossible and not fun whatsoever. A real fly in the 1000G ointment.

-           Multiplayer is a cool addition, but not exactly very original *cough* left 4 dead *cough*.

GRAPHICS A truly stunning game with tonnes of gore and an epic sense of scale. Character models and necromorphs looks phenomenal and the game never lags or slows with multiple enemies on screen.	9/10
GAMEPLAY A perfect example of how to mix pant-soiling horror and balls-out action – this is how survival horror is meant to be – the finest example in its genre.	10/10
STORY Helped a lot by a now non-mute protagonist and the hallucination scenes and confrontations with Isaac’s girl frequently disturb. Ellie also provides some classic Alyx Vance style companionship towards the second half.	8/10
REPLAYABILITY You’ll definitely want to re-visit this game to fully upgrade your weapons and suits and the addition of multiplayer definitely adds to long term play. However the lastability is ultimately spoiled by an impossible game mode that will frustrate completionists.	7/10
VALUE FOR MONEY AT Get it while it’s hot; it’s the best game to come out this year so far and the multiplayer probably won’t stick around too long in the face of new games and certain map packs.	£40
OVERALL Stunning. The scariest, and quite probably the best, survival horror game ever made. Simply put - this is how it’s done.	9/10