Tag Archives: Xbox Series X

Halo Fest 2020 – Reach

Even more than with Halo 3: ODST, I was hyped-up for the release of Halo: Reach. By this time we knew that Reach was going to be Bungie’s last Halo game and between previews and Bungie’s own PR, it sounded like they had every intention of sending the series off with a bang. While I was a bit disappointed that early rumors of Reach being a more squad tactics oriented game were never realized, the game we ended up with was still my favorite entry in the series up to that point (at least, when I’m not nostalgically giving that credit to Halo: CE.) As with ODST, I only really played through Reach’s campaign once, just after its release, and I was looking forward to playing through it again. I wasn’t disappointed.

“Everyone to the cave for a team meeting!”

Despite my praise, Halo: Reach ended up being controversial to much of the hardcore fanbase for various reasons, from its lore departures from most people’s introduction to Halo fiction, The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund, to a plethora of mechanical adjustments that, while seemingly small on the surface, drastically changed the landscape of multiplayer – from overpowered and gimmicky armor abilities such as armor lock, jetpacks, and sprint, to reticle bloom and the overreliance on Forge-built maps, just to mention the highlights. Even today Reach is blamed for killing the Halo competitive scene, beginning a downward spiral as Halo headed into the 343 Industries years. Thankfully, being relatively casual multiplayer players, me and my friends didn’t have too many complaints on this front. The game felt a little different, sure, but each iteration does, and hey, fucking jetpacks!

Halo: Reach was added as part of the Master Chief Collection almost 10 years after its original release, and of course, that’s how I played it on my Xbox Series X for this playthrough. Like MCC’s Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, Reach didn’t receive a remaster as much as a straight port with requisite improvements to its resolution, textures, and framerate. That’s okay, as Reach was certainly a major technical leap from Halo 3 if not one of the Xbox 360’s best looking games, period. It’s just an amazingly beautiful game all around, and it still holds up rather well today thanks to the abundance of care and polish Bungie put into it. Save for some occasionally stiff looking character animations and some odd looking facial and hair texture and lightning issues, it even manages to look fairly modern.

“MY gravity hammer!”

Iterative technical improvements aren’t anything new for the series, of course, but one major departure from the rest of the Halo games is the story. While still conjuring the typical themes of heroism against overwhelming odds, sacrifice, like, real loss of life sacrifice, is a huge theme in Reach. As such, the game has a much darker, more mature story than any other Halo game. Characters die, the heroes of the story aren’t conventionally victorious, and as such, Reach is utterly lost to the Covenant. Hopefully none of that was too spoilery. In fact, since this is a side story taking place out of chronological order from the main series anyway, I’ll recap the plot now. While I’m fairly vague in these plot summaries they absolutely do still contain spoilers, so skip the next two paragraphs if you want to avoid them.

The Story: NOBLE Team, a SPARTAN special operations fireteam assigned to the colony world Reach, is dispatched to investigate a blackout at a major communication hub. NOBLE quickly discovers a Covenant advanced team in the area, triggering a planet-wide emergency declaration. A short time later NOBLE participates in a reconnaissance mission that leads to the discovery of a large invasion force gathering on the planet’s surface. In response, the UNSC launches a massive preemptive strike, taking down a number of Covenant teleportation spires and anti-air batteries before progress comes to a devastating halt when the Covenant supercarrier Long Night of Solace appears. Lacking sufficient weapons to take down the supercarrier, NOBLE is dispatched on a mission to commandeer the slipspace drive from a UNSC frigate, infiltrate a Covenant corvette, and then detonate the drive close enough to the supercarrier to cripple it. Manually detonating the drive, NOBLE-5 successfully destroys the ship, though sacrificing himself in the effort. Victory is extremely short lived as an enormous Covenant fleet jumps into orbit only a short time later. NOBLE team is assigned to assist evacuation efforts in the city of New Alexandria during which NOBLE-2 is killed in action and the city is completely annihilated. With a full withdrawal now underway, NOBLE is dispatched to ONI Sword Base on a demolition mission. Fighting their way into the base, the team is led into a secret research facility built around a large underground Forerunner ruin where they meet Dr. Halsey, the head scientist behind the Spartan program. Halsey tasks the team with carrying new information that she believes will be vital to the war effort safely off world. NOBLE-3 accompanies Halsey while the remainder of the team head to the shipyard where the UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn is waiting to depart. NOBLE-1 sacrifices himself clearing the way for NOBLE-4 and NOBLE-6, who manage to clear the shipyard, repelling multiple waves of Covenant attackers before NOBLE-4 is killed. NOBLE-6 delivers the package to Captain Keyes but elects to stay behind to man an anti-air battery, helping the Pillar of Autumn to escape. NOBLE-6 is eventually overcome while the Pillar of Autumn jumps to safety where it is revealed that Dr. Halsey’s information is contained in the AI Cortana and that the Pillar of Autumn has just jumped to Halo Installation 04.

“There are so many beautifully framed cutscenes but this one was especially poignant.”

The focus on Master Chief as the hero of the series has mythologized the idea that Spartans are practically demi-gods so actually seeing them dying left and right in a Bungie developed Halo game was, hopefully, a bit of a wake up call, even if most of them being SPARTAN-IIIs provides something of an out for diehard fanboys. The events of Reach also send home how overwhelmed humanity was by the Covenant. They had the technical and numerical superiority and a fanatical cause driving them, and humanity was being systematically wiped out. Finally, I love how the end of the game brings the series full circle, with the last moments of the campaign being precisely where Halo: Combat Evolved starts. Knowing that NOBLE’s sacrifice directly led to and enabled the events of the main trilogy made it all the more effective, putting a positive spin on an otherwise somber story. It also managed to conjure up some unexpected but powerful nostalgic emotion in me, even the second time through.

Appropriately, Bungie seemed to go back to the original game for a lot of inspiration. Based on original designs, the Covenant species feel more alien and more menacing. Even those adorable little grunts are less overtly silly and are all-around tougher than they’ve ever been before. In fact, playing through Reach on “Heroic” felt a lot more like the difficulty of Halo: CE or even Halo 2 than Halo 3 or ODST. While I don’t remember being utterly stuck at any point, I definitely feel like I had a lot more back to back deaths this time around. Part of that was due to Reach’s reliance on Firefight arena style map sections where you’d need to defeat wave after wave of enemies before moving on. I know ODST is the game with the reputation for overusing this mechanic, but I honestly felt it more with Reach.

“Kat and I taking our new Revenant out for a spin.”

There were plenty of departures too. The aforementioned “armor abilities” were probably the biggest single change to the Halo formula. Replacing Halo 3’s equipment system, armor abilities allow the player to activate a single on-demand power, most governed by a recharging energy pool. These abilities are all over the place, from classics like active camouflage and the bubble shield, to seemingly simple ones like the ability to sprint or dodge roll. The biggest two additions are the jetpack, which is a little controversial but I’m personally a fan of hopping around all over the place like an idiot, and armor lock. Armor lock essentially makes the player totally invulnerable while on, while an EMP pulse charges and is unleashed once the lock is over. The player’s health and shields will also recharge as normal during the lock. In the campaign this could be useful for preventing big damage or doing an emergency recharge (although the enemy AI tends to simply stop and wait around for the armor lock to end, with feels a little stupid) but in multiplayer the ability to be invulnerable on-demand combined with the situationally usefulness of the EMP pulse altered the flow of fights in a way that many people thought was devastatingly overpowered.

Halo Reach only includes one new enemy, the barely noteworthy Skirmishers which come in several varieties, although all of the classic Covenant enemies have been re-tuned and come in several varieties themselves. Weapons wise, we have a lovely new battle rifle stand-in called the designated marksman rifle (DMR) and its Covenant equivalent, the needler rifle. There’s also a new grenade launcher and its rough match, the Covenant concussion rifle. There’s a few other new items, like Covenant focus rifle, plasma repeater, and plasma launcher, but as usual, nearly every weapon in the game has been adjusted. Reach’s additions to the vehicle inventory are even more conservative, with the new Covenant Revenant which is something like a mix between a Wraith and a Ghost, a fun new UNSC aircraft similar to the Hornet called the Falcon, and the new UNSC Sabre and Covenant Seraph fighters.

“Now do a barrel roll!”

Those new fighters are specific to what is probably the biggest new feature of the game, the space sections of the mission “Long Night of Solace”. In these sections you pilot the new Sabre fighter in what feels a little like the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games or the more freeform Star Fox levels. While I thought those sections were an interesting addition to the already good amount of gameplay variety available in Halo campaigns, some people absolutely hated it. As a personal anecdote, every time Reach comes up in conversation with my brother, he always complains about this particular mission, claiming to have been stuck on this part of the campaign since 2010. Ha! The new Falcon also gets some dedicated time in “New Alexandria”. Beyond these sections, Reach features the typical selection of levels from on-foot corridor-running CQB sections, more open on-foot areas, sections reliant on running Warthogs and Scorpion tanks, and of course, most missions mix up all of these. There’s a lot of variety in the environmental aesthetics of these sections too. It all feels appropriately very Halo and about the only thing Halo: Reach is missing is another “Warthog Run” section.

There’s a lot more I could go into about Reach: the weird AI-centered sidestory found on the datapad pickups in the campaign, the numerous changes to multiplayer including an overhauled progression system and the new epic Invasion mode, bringing back Firefight for more co-op shenanigans, greatly expanded Forge and Theater modes, etc. It’s overall one a hell of a package, and a wonderful way for Bungie to wave goodbye to the series. Most importantly, the love Bungie put into it is obvious, and while it might not have the staying power as the mainline Master Chief installments of the series, it’s story was at least uniquely impactful.

“Kat is having a bad day.”

As with my last few entries, I’ll end by touching a bit on the awesome live action promotional content developed around Halo: Reach. There’s “Birth of a Spartan” which is a short that shows Carter-A259 being transformed from a young trainee into a SPARTAN-III and “Remember Reach” which depicts numerous citizens of Reach as they go about their normal lives, oblivious to the impending Covenant invasion. Neat but not essential. “Deliver Hope” on the other hand is absolutely essential! This live-action trailer shows NOBLE team in a battle to defend the colony Fumirole as they attempt to get a fusion bomb onto a Covenant battlecruiser to destroy it. Go watch it if you haven’t seen it!

I got so many amazing screenshots this time around, it really was quite an effort to not just replace all of this rambling with a huge image galley and drop the mic!

Halo Fest 2020 – ODST

When Halo 3: ODST was shown at E3 2009 I wasted no time preordering it, though I did have some minor reservations. I mean, the game was essentially a standalone expansion pack for Halo 3, a game which reasonably wrapped up the trilogy, and this game wouldn’t even feature the iconic Master Chief! Halo 3 was also 2 years old at this point, despite the undeniable staying power of its excellent multiplayer. Still, the reviews ended up being absolutely glowing, with the biggest criticism being the sticker price. Today ODST is still as celebrated for the interesting deviations it made from the core series as it was at release. On top of everything I’ll go into below, I also fondly look back on it for first introducing the “Firefight” gamemode, a “Horde mode” like cooperative wave survival mode that my brother became particularly enamored with.

Over 10 years later, I was able to easily play Halo 3: ODST again as part of the Master Chief Collection on my Xbox Series X. As with Halo 3’s MCC port, ODST didn’t receive the ridiculously thorough remaster treatment of the Halo: CE and Halo 2 anniversary editions, but the fact that it still looks so stunning today with little more than some upscaling speaks volumes about Bungie’s expertise. They were clearly at the top of their game with Halo 3: ODST, and it ages even better than Halo 3 as a result.

“The boys!”

Since so many of ODST’s gameplay elements are related to its story, and this is a side story taking place out of chronological order from the main series anyway, I’ll start by recapping the plot. Unlike Halo Wars, which took place before the events depicted in the main Halo games and has little direct relation to their plots, Halo 3: ODST actually takes place during events depicted in Halo 2. Aside from that, it is still very much its own story, however, and while I’m fairly vague in these plot summaries they absolutely do still contain spoilers, so skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid spoilage.

The Story: Breaching Earth’s defenses, the Prophet of Regret’s carrier has taken up position over New Mombasa while Covenant forces terrorize the city streets below. In a desperate move that could help turn the tide of the war, multiple squads of the UNSC’s elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) are ordered to drop onto the ship and capture the Covenant leader. ODST fireteam Alpha-9, led by Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, is attached to Office of Naval Intelligence officer Captain Veronica Dare for the assault. As the fireteam prepares to drop, Capt. Dare unexpectedly orders them to adjust their drop locations to land in the city instead. As they drop, Regret’s ship performs a surprise low orbit slipspace jump, resulting in a destructive shockwave that sends the fireteam’s drop pods wildly off course. The members of Alpha-9, now completely scattered, individually make their ways through the wreckage of the Covenant occupied mega-city to regroup. One of the members of the fireteam, picking up Dare’s radio signal and subtly guided by Vergil, the city’s Superintendent AI, locates Capt. Dare as she attempts to infiltrate the city’s underground data center. Upon reaching the data center’s core, Dare reveals the true purpose of her mission: to secure the Superintendent AI. The pair quickly discover that the Superintendent AI has been taken over by a Covenant defector. This Huragok, a rarely encountered species of alien dubbed “Engineers” which the Covenant use as biological supercomputers, could be extremely valuable in learning the purpose of Regret’s attack. Escorting this renegade Engineer back up to the surface and fending off multiple Covenant attacks along the way, they eventually meet up with Buck and the rest of his fireteam and make a hasty escape from the city.

“Holding out against a ton of Covenant air with nothing but a huge pile of heavy weapons.”

Structurally, ODST plays unlike any other Halo game. You initially assume the role of the new member of the fireteam referred to as “the Rookie”. By the time the Rookie wakes up after his violent landing quite a few hours have passed and you’re tasked with wandering the dark, deserted streets of New Mombasa searching for signs of what happened to the rest of Alpha-9. Each of the clues you find results in a flashback mission switching you from your silent protagonist to one of his much more developed (and talkative) squadmates. These missions are structured more like your typical Halo mission and, taking place in different areas and at different times, allow Bungie to really mix up the scenery and the action. Once a mission is complete, you’re sent back to rejoin the Rookie in New Mombasa, with these sections ultimately functioning as something of an abstracted hub area. Very cool.

“The Rookie surveying the New Mombasa streets.”

The New Mombasa streets area has a couple of other interesting tricks up its sleeve. First, the expansive map is more or less wide open. While you’re guided to the location of each subsequent clue, it’s only by a waypoint, and there will be multiple ways to reach it. You’ll probably end up taking different routes whether you want to or not, as navigating the maze-like city streets isn’t easy, often requiring the use of the in-game map. Along the way you can choose whether to engage the Covenant patrols you encounter or attempt to sneak around them entirely. You can even find the aforementioned clues and play their associated missions totally out of order if you want to.

More importantly, these New Mombasa sections have an absolutely unique tone. As the Rookie, you’re all alone in the dark, rainy city streets. Remnants of the day’s earlier conflict surround you: ruined buildings, destroyed vehicles, and dead UNSC and Covenant soldiers alike. It conjures a lonely, bleak feeling. The Superintendent AI’s poltergeist-like attempts to guide you only add a further creepy layer to this. There’s also something of a light survival feel to these sections, as ammo is scarce; your UNSC weapons will probably be depleted after your first few encounters, forcing you to scrounge for Covenant weapons and ammo. The pacing is altered by all of this too. In the proceeding Halo games you’re shuffled from mission to mission with an urgency that is, I suppose, appropriate to the epic task at hand. You know, saving the planet and whatnot. In the New Mombasa streets, however, there is no such urgency. You’re just one person, completely isolated. It all feels very grounded and very personal.

“A squadron of Banshees fly by the remains of the space elevator.”

The graphics and sound are a large component of why this all works. The lighting and shading certainly conjure a particular mood, but with ODST’s soundtrack they’ve incorporated a greatly expanded variety of different musical influences, from the more traditional Halo sounding orchestral tracks and electronic ambiance to smoky jazz-inspired, piano and saxophone laden pieces that sell the game’s intentionally film noir vibe. Halo has always had extremely strong soundwork, but ODST is really something else entirely. Anyone who thinks Marty O’Donnell is a one trick pony really needs to stop what they’re doing and go give the ODST soundtrack a listen. Right now!

Gameplay wise, Halo 3: ODST is built directly on top of Halo 3 and plays more or less the same, but it’s hard to mark the game down for that. I mean, that is one damn fine foundation. Some of the few differences between the two games relate to the fact that you’re not playing a literal supersoldier like Master Chief. I recall Bungie making statements before ODST’s release that perhaps oversold that just a little; that as a normal human, you’d be weaker and less capable and that suddenly even the previously laughable grunts would be fearsome opponents. That sort of thing. Instead, there is another new health system, this one feeling similar to Halo: CE’s with a shield-like recharging “stamina” layer and a core health pool that is only refilled with health packs. Unlike Halo: CE, however, these health packs are relatively plentiful. There’s also no hijacking vehicles, no dual wielding, no use of Halo 3’s special equipment, and no radar.

“New Mombasa Streets: VISR off.”

“New Mombasa Streets: VISR on.”

Bungie giveth as well. As an ODST your standard armaments are a new silenced version of the submachine gun and, something of a throwback to Halo: CE, a lovely new silenced magnum pistol. There’s also the VISR mode which serves as both a sort of night vision and also highlights friendlies, enemies, and certain objects with a thin colored outline on your HUD. The only negative to VSIR mode is that there’s no real reason to ever turn it off, and leaving it on means seeing only one, lesser version of the game’s lighting.

The VISR mode’s ability to highlight objects is key to ODST’s single collectible system: audio logs. Similar to the terminals of previous games, these logs are hidden throughout the New Mombasa streets. Interestingly, rather than typical voice memo type recordings, these are audio and still images recorded from security systems scattered around the city and tell the story of a single character, Sadie, and her attempt to meet up with her father as the fighting erupts. This story links directly into ODST’s overall plot, giving some insight into the Vergil AI and its fate. While I remember liking these audio logs, I could barely stand them this time around. The script feels unnatural and the voice acting and sound effects come across like a old time radio play. Sadie’s main nemesis in the story, the city’s police commissioner, is a particularly ridiculous mustache twirling villain stereotype that I just couldn’t take seriously.

At least that’s not an issue the campaign has! The voice cast is excellent, with notable TV actors including several of the core cast of Firefly with Nathan Fillion, who Buck is both voiced by and modeled after, and Battlestar Galactica’s Number Six, Tricia Helfer, voicing Veronica Dare. Say what you will about Buck’s sarcastic attitude or he and Dare’s relationship issues, but in the brief time we spend with these characters they express a lot more personality than we ever got from Master Chief, and the strong cast only helps that.

“Dutch’s level is a total throwback to previous games.”

I beat the game on “Heroic” difficulty, and even with the aforementioned lack of ammo and other constraints I found it to be one of the easiest campaigns so far. That’s not to say there weren’t some intense moments. The first time I ran into a Hunter I struggled like hell to take him down, depleting all of my grenades and most of my ammo in the process, only to have his buddy saunter into the room just as I was catching my breath. Sheer panic. There was also a lot more variety in the action than I’d remembered, with missions featuring a tank section, a wide open Warthog-centric level, some Banshee flying including a unique Scarab fight, and even yet another Warthog run-like level towards the end of the game. Even with its relatively short length, there’s definitely enough to make it feel like a full Halo game. While a part of me does have to wonder if you had to have played the previous games in the franchise to really appreciate it to its full extent, I personally think Halo 3: ODST is something of a masterpiece and is easily one of the strongest games in the series.

“We are ODST!”

Just a quick footnote, but similar to Halo 3’s “Landfall”, ODST’s considerable promotion efforts included the absolutely awesome The Life. This live-action short shows the journey of an ODST from a young recruit to a battle hardened veteran. Compelling and absolutely worth a quick watch if you’re a Halo fan and haven’t seen it!

The Next Generation

Before I get started, welcome to 2021! 🎉

As I casually dropped in my last article, I was lucky enough to preorder an Xbox Series X for launch day. The Series X, Series S, and PlayStation 5 are impressive machines, without question, though Microsoft and Sony (to a lesser extent) have launched with perhaps a pair of fairly lackluster launch day lineups. Of course, this new generation of Xboxes was supposed to launch with Halo: Infinite which would have satisfied a huge swath of Xbox devotees. That release getting pushed back was a major fail, but as a Halo fan I’m hopeful that the Halo: Infinite we end up with will be better for it.

“Sharing is caring, after all.”

Beyond that one glaring issue, Microsoft treating the Series X|S as more of an extension of the Xbox One rather than an entirely new console generation suits me quite well. I’ll most definitely continue taking advantage of the Xbox One’s expansive library, which of course includes backwards compatibility with many Xbox 360 games and some original Xbox titles as well, only now with improved loading speeds and other enhancements. There’s also at least one Xbox One game I’ve been wanting to play that reportedly ran terribly on the original Xbox One that I’ve purposely delayed playing until I could upgrade to the Series X, actually, and given that I skipped over upgrading to the Xbox One X, this really is a notable jump in performance for me, even while still rocking a 1080p TV.

One more practical change, as minor as it might be, is the Xbox controller is finally catching up to the PS4’s with the addition of a “share” button, meaning I can at long last capture my own action shots of Xbox games with ease instead of having to plunder the nether regions of the Internet for screenshots for some of these blog posts. I know most people won’t care about this feature but, having already used it extensively for my Halo 3 game log, I can say I’m a fan.

“Captain Spirit, ready to beat some Mantroid ass!”

I’ve not just been using my shiny new Xbox Series X to play ports of 13 year old Xbox 360 games though! My girlfriend and I had also started playing Life is Strange 2 just before the Series X launch, and managed to transition to playing the remaining episodes on the Series X with ease thanks to the wonder of automatic cloud saves. Life is Strange 2 is a much newer game, of course, but it’s not Series X|S enhanced, nor was it really pushing the hardware of even the original Xbox One, but hey, we have to start somewhere, right?

As I’d recommend to anyone reading this, we started our playthrough with The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. In this free mini-episode you play as Chris, a young boy who lives a somewhat isolated life due to the difficulty his father is facing coping with the death of Chris’s mother. Chris is able to compensate a bit better by leaning into his huge imagination, with Captain Spirit being his superhero alter ego, for example. The game itself is typical Life is Strange fare, with the player navigating Chris through a variety of tasks around his home. The “slice of life” stuff is quite strong in this one, and Dontnod manages to paint a compelling picture of these characters in the short time we’re with them. We both left this episode really rooting for Chris and hoping to see him make a proper appearance in Life is Strange 2.

“Exploring the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.”

In Life is Strange 2 you play as Sean, a teenager living with his dad and little brother in Seattle. Starting off with more slice of life mundanities, shit quickly escalates in unexpected and tragic ways, with Sean’s brother Daniel exhibiting some sort of supernatural powers (a recurring theme in Life is Strange, apparently) Sean and Daniel find themselves all alone and on the run. Without getting too much further into spoiler territory, this sets up the rest of the game as we follow Sean and Daniel’s journey, with the relationship between the brothers being the real highlight of both the story and the mechanics.

You’re constantly faced with decisions about how Sean interacts with Daniel, how you let him behave, and yes, how (and when) you let him use his powers. I personally took a very careful approach with him, always attempting to be a good influence on him despite the difficult situations we often found ourselves in throughout the course of the game, while also giving him an appropriate modicum of freedom and respect that children often crave but so rarely receive. That’s a bit more of a balancing act than you might think though, but I almost always left every episode satisfied with how I’d played as Sean when looking at the end of episode statistics.

“With great kid brother power comes great older brother responsibility.”

It really is kind of an interesting take, not being the person with the power, but instead being the person next to the person with the power. In that way, the whole experience is a bit more grounded than the first Life is Strange, perhaps feeling a bit more like Before the Storm. The similarities don’t stop there though. Life is Strange 2 really focuses on those “slice of life” moments, character building, and decisions which were the real focus of BtS. Attempts to shoe in puzzles or action sequences are barely there at all, and I think that fits the tone of the stories Dontnod seems to like to tell better overall, personally.

The game has a similar look to the original Life is Strange and Before the Storm, though, again, as with BtS, leans into the stylization just a tiny bit more, and for the better. Like the former two games, it definitely has moments where the visuals really work, especially when paired with another fantastic Syd Matters soundtrack and some talented voice actors. The writing (notably, the character dialog) is also worlds better than what we encountered in the first Life is Strange. I do think I had more minor bugs and technical glitches in Life is Strange 2 though, especially in later episodes, but nothing terrible enough to ruin my experience – just oddities like odd bits of clipping, overlapping dialog, that kind of thing.

“Sean’s journal entries are short and (usually) fun.”

The new backpack and journal system is a nice upgrade from the former games. This both expands on those titles’ similar systems, yet somehow simultaneously makes it less intrusive. The journal entries are much more terse, consisting mostly of short thoughts, notes, and sketches related to recent events rather than the more complete transcriptions of the story, so they don’t take too long to review, yet still add a nice bit of extra exposition. This is particularly useful when it comes to filling the gaps from several timeline leaps that occur throughout the story.

Speaking of sketches, Sean’s a bit of an artist, and you’ll have several opportunities to sketch in your journal throughout the game. While the sketching mechanic itself feels a little half baked, the sketches themselves are pretty cool, and sitting down to sketch is yet another “slice of life” that serves to connect you with Sean. Like the photograph and graffiti mechanics from the former titles, this is basically a “collectible” system, though LiS2 also features a more tradition one of those too, where you can find various odd items in the world and squirrel them away in your inventory for achievements out of game, and the ability to use many of them to decorate your backpack in game. Fairly pointless, but a fun little addition.

“After finishing the game, this one brings the feels.”

Back to the more important stuff though, the story eventually reaches its end, culminating in a final decision. In an interesting twist, keeping with the theme of Sean guiding his younger brother, the decision ends up not being yours alone. Whatever you pick is paired with Daniel’s response based on who he has become by that point in the game, which itself is dictated by numerous other decisions, both major and minor, you made regarding him throughout. The endings vary quite a bit, with one of them being pretty insane, and while there are ultimately only four endings with some variations thrown in, this felt far superior to the absolutely binary choice and corresponding ending you got at the end of Life is Strange. I was pretty happy with my ending, for the record!

Despite some significant hype from some reviewers and podcasts I frequent, Life is Strange 2 managed to avoid letting me down. I’m happy with Dontnod’s decision to only very loosely connect Life is Strange 2 to Life is Strange, as getting to know new characters in new settings, and in new situations, was a lot more interesting than needlessly rehashing the events of Life is Strange yet again. While it didn’t emotionally affect me quite as much as either of the previous games, it definitely still did, and that remains a rare, powerfully compelling thing to encounter in a game.

Something a bit more appropriate to let my Series X flex just a little, was Star Wars: Squadrons.

“X-wing versus Star Destroyer. Classic!”

I’m a big fan of the old LucasArts X-wing series and I’ve wished for something resembling a proper sequel for ages now. The closest was perhaps the Jump to Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies, which while kind of cool in its own right, wasn’t quite a fit, never mind being attached to an expansive MMORPG weighing it down. Now with Star Wars: Squadrons, Motive, likely inspired by their work on the space battles from Battlefront II, has come out with a modern, online focused Star Wars space combat game of its own that is clearly heavily influenced by those older games.

I’m not sure where my expectations were when first checking the game out. I mean, EA made no secret that Squadrons was going to be a bit of a budget game, but it feels and looks plenty polished to me, pretty much nailing those Star Wars aesthetics. Zipping around a Star Destroyer in an X-wing, rolling and turning as you try to evade the Tie Interceptor on your tail, laser fire and explosions all around you? Yeah, it just looks flat out amazing if you’re a Star Wars nerd like me. The intermission cutscenes and in-game world menus (somewhat aping those seen in the original X-wing games and it’s ilk, such as Wing Commander) look reasonably nice too, despite them feeling more aimed at PC players using VR than fans of those old titles. Oh, and yes, there is full VR support here too! I don’t have a VR headset myself, but if I ever get one, Squadrons will be high on my list of games to try it out with.

“Boring conversations in boring hangers.”

Despite being online focused, there is a single player campaign. I feel like it gets a bit of a bad rap, often being described as little more than a glorified tutorial, but it certainly feels like a full enough campaign to me. You’re tossed back and forth between pilots for the Empire, still reeling from the Emperor’s death, and the emboldened New Republic, who are looking to capitalize on their recent victories by building a super weapon of their own. I think it’s story is… adequate. It’s not terrible, and it certainly does a fine job of giving you a reason to be in the cockpit, which is the main thing, but it’s all a little ho-hum. I found talking to your fellow pilots and other NPCs between missions similarly unfulfilling. I just didn’t find many of them very interesting, honestly.

Once in the cockpit the scenarios you’re put into are much more appealing, thankfully. There’s a fair amount of variety in set pieces and objectives, and some of the battles actually managed to remind me of those good old days playing Tie Fighter for hours on end. The biggest difference is perhaps the lack of mundane tasks and dead time in missions that often comes with simulation games, and was certainly a big part of the original X-wing series. A few times in a few missions aside, you’re always hopping from fight to fight, rarely out of the action for very long. I haven’t decided if that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it’s worth noting as a significant difference, at least.

“The campaign is pretty fun though!”

It took me longer than it seems like it took most people to work my way through the campaign’s 14 missions, but after doing so, I immediately dove into the game’s practice mode which functions as a bit of a sandbox, complete with obstacle courses to race though, Fleet Battles tutorial, and then into the Fleet Battles vs AI mode, which you can run solo or coop with up to 4 other players. Fleet Battles is the main online game mode, and while the formula will probably eventually get a tiny bit old (at least versus AI) I’m intrigued by the design, which seems to borrow some concepts (most notably “creeps”) from MOBAs. It also contains phases similar to those games, though defines them in terms of fronts like some strategy games that attempt to simulate battle lines.

Each side starts out with their team of 5 players, a bunch of AI creeps. A flagship and two cruisers hold each team’s backline, while a smaller capital ship heads out to attack the enemy. Whoever wins this phase progresses to the next phase, in which they must attempt to take down the enemy cruisers. Winning that, results in a phase to finally destroy the flagship. These phases aren’t static though, and if the losing side manages to do enough damage to players (or farm enough AI creeps!) while avoiding taking too much themselves, they’ll push the winning side back and progress to the next phase themselves. This back and forth can continue for a while depending on how quickly the players can manage to take down the capital ships, and can be pretty dramatic at times, with victories pulled from the brink of total defeat not being all that uncommon. It’s a pretty cool system that mixes some objectives in with the dogfighting, while also letting us feel like we’re in the midst of a larger battle.

“Maximum Star Warsiness.”

There are four classes of ship you can select between lives (or swap out by flying into your flagship’s hanger) like which can all be geared and used somewhat differently, while still allowing for a fair amount of overlap. The gear you can unlock and equip can be adjusted for different purposes and preferences, but that feels more about flexibility than catering to flavor of the moment easy button meta builds. There’s also a system for unlocking cosmetic items for your pilot, your ship, and your ship’s cockpit. The whole unlock system is clearly just there for the sake of providing players with some kind of progression, but it doesn’t provide any sort of edge, and works well enough. Plus, who doesn’t want a Grogu (ok, “Baby Yoda”) bobble head on their ship’s dashboard?!

I feel like going much further into the game’s mechanics would be digging into the weeds more than anyone would likely want to read, especially coming from someone who has barely even played online where real tactics and skill are developed. If you’re interested, there are all kinds of YouTube channels and streamers with a lot more expertise than I have putting out content. Here’s one I like, for instance. This is the type of game I do wish I had a crew for though, as I can imagine sinking a ton of hours into this thing with an organized team would be insanely fun, but for numerous reasons, the timing just wasn’t right to attempt to pull something together. In any case, even without playing it online much, I love the game and am definitely happy with my purchase. If you’re a fan of the old X-wing series (or any of its contemporaries) and don’t mind the more competitive, online nature of the game, it’s hard not to give it a solid recommendation, but even if you’d rather stay out of the online lobbies completely, you might just get enough fun out of it to justify your $40.

“Fleet Battles is the gift that keeps on giving.”

One more interesting thing about Star Wars: Squadrons is that despite announcing close to its launch that they wouldn’t be releasing any new content for it, Motive has continued to put out patches, new cosmetics, a new map, and they’ve even recently added two new ships – my beloved B-wing is now in the game to round out the classic roster of Rebel Alliance ships! This is all unpaid content, I should mention, because on paper this game definitely sounds like it could be yet another cynical microtransaction cash grab. Anyway, I imagine (and hope) that all of this continued support is due to the game being quite a bit more successful than originally planned. Fingers crossed that it’s done well enough to justify a future, larger sequel!

The Squadrons screenshots are mine, though the Life is Strange 2 shots were sourced from Steam Communities. I didn’t want to annoy my girlfriend with constant capture notification spam while playing through it with her.