Doom

Zach Goodier

Doom is a first-person shooter that reboots the original game. Now, some of you might be thinking the original is like an early 2000’s production…. No. This is meant as the spiritual reboot of the original 90’s game that, more or less, defined the modern shooter. Many of the demons will be familiar, and the game doesn’t throw a lot of story or character your way, only bloody, wondrous carnage.

Environments look and feel impressive to travel and fight in.

You play “Doom Guy,” AKA “Doom Slayer,” depending on who is describing you. You awake in a sarcophagus from Hell, in a UAC Mars facility in the midst of being overrun by demons. You quickly awake and begin smashing and blasting everything that crosses your path, and you soon meet/talk to a couple of survivors, who are each trying to accomplish their own ends: Olivia Pierce is trying to open the gate to Hell so the demonic overlords can usher in a new age for mankind, and Samuel Hayden, director of the Mars facility, who is helping you try to contain the nightmare.

Olivia Pierce is a fanatic who believes Hell will pave the way to humanities future.

The story is basically just killing demons and killing more demons, and that’s exactly why I loved every second. This is the true spiritual successor to the original game: it doesn’t throw exposition and characters at you, it just gives you a gun and points you to the demons.

Demon runes can be found by completing challenges to earn them.

So, if the story is deliberately minimal, then the entire single-player campaign is coming down to gameplay, and I am glad to say Doom delivers big time. The game has many of the classics, with some new looks and what not, and the same goes for the demons. You are running and gunning your way through corridors, open rooms with large hordes, and the deepest bowels of Hell itself. Weapons all have mods which can be swapped on the fly to alter your combat abilities, and they all look and feel unique in how they can work in your favor. Combat is fast-paced, tense, and richly satisfying, with glory kills, ragdoll physics, and gruesome carnage being cornerstones to combat.

Hell looks appropriately... well, you know.

Multiplayer is where the game does lose some steam, with all its’ modes being remakes of classic types, but the fast-paced combat is still present and enjoyable. For me, though, it’s all about the campaign, which is fantastic. With higher difficulties comes more fun, which is somewhat rare. Sure, the challenge is higher, but with the pacing, it makes everything feel faster and more exciting.

Good luck.

This is a fantastic game. It captures the essence of the classic Doom in a modern game. The graphics, pacing, and design all feel amazing. The rewards for exploration and skillful gameplay are great, with upgrades and challenges to work on, even after the campaign is over. Multiplayer is somewhat uninspired, but the look, feel, and action is all that fans of the originals should appreciate in a modern version.

Good:

-Great visuals and level design.

-Fast pacing keeps the action going and the player on edge.

-Challenges and upgrades to inspire replay.

Bad:

-Multiplayer is fairly unoriginal in concept, with most ideas already found in some form in other games.

Scully Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Captain America: Civil War

Zach Goodier

Cap is back, and he’s bringing back most of the Avengers with him. This time, after a semi-successful mission in Africa, the Avengers are called to answer for the increasing amount of collateral damage left in their wake. Towards this end, the UN decides to create an oversight committee in order to reign in the superheroes. This splits the group, with people like Cap and Hawkeye believing that to agree would be to involve the Avengers in politics and limiting their ability to function as protectors of the planet as a whole. Meanwhile, people like Tony Stark, especially after creating Ultron, feel that they have too much power to operate separately from the people they are supposed to be protecting, and their mistakes, willful or not, cost lives.

If you're hoping for a lot of this, then you might be somewhat disappointed, but it does happen.

This movie initially does a good job of making both sides out to as reasonable as they are: Cap prioritizes personal freedom and the right to make our own choices (conservative), and Stark takes the stance that the safety and security of the world as a whole should take precedent. However, things get more complicated as the summit to sign the accords is bombed, and Bucky Barnes is believed to be the culprit. Afterward, Cap goes AWOL trying to save Buck, while Iron Man is called to apprehend him. From here, things get fuzzy quickly, as both new and old faces are called on to side with either leader.




Any more specifics would be spoilers, so in terms of how everything turned out? Pretty good, but there are a few minor issues with both the story and how things turned out. First of all, this probably shouldn’t have been a Captain America movie, but another Avengers film. Sure, Hulk and Thor are missing, but the vast majority of the group is fighting. Sure, the central story heavily involves Bucky, but the first Avengers had Loki, so clearly that shouldn’t have any huge bearing. The reason this becomes an issue is how the story starts to eventually sway in Cap’s favor, with Tony being treated like a traitor for much of the story when it’s actually Rogers who went rogue. Plus, much of the fighting could have been avoided with relative ease had Rogers and his comrades tried talking before attacking.

Scarlet is back, and while she doesn't get extensive time to develop her character on-screen, she does a solid job.

The tone feels somewhat biased towards Cap, with Stark being treated more like an antagonist, even if his reasons for believing they need limitations ultimately end up proven valid by Cap going rogue, especially with how it all turns out in the end with the movie’s villain, who *SPOILER ALERT* was playing Captain by framing Barnes in order to drive a wedge between them, which is ultimately successful to some extent. *END SPOILERS*

This basically sums up the tone of the movie: everyone hating on Iron Man.

So, this movie does have some issues, but it does ultimately deliver as an action movie and it does add some realism to the Avengers franchise, forcing the heroes to face the consequences of their sometimes mixed outcomes when fighting dangerous foes. The visuals are all that we’ve come to expect from Marvel, which is to say excellence, and the story is somewhat convoluted, but ultimately should provide you with enough to keep you entertained. The only issue is that the attempt to make these characters turn on each other has some mixed results, and labeling this a Captain America film does kind of tilt things in one direction, even when it feels counter to reason. Rather than showing both the right and wrong of both sides, like the comics, this movie takes a fairly Captain-centric view, which still makes a solid film, but ultimately loses much of the depth that the comics had towards this event. 

There is a late film development that definitely makes things personal for one of our Avengers.

Overall, go watch it. It's a great film, and you will almost certainly enjoy it. However, if you're going in believing this will be a balanced and open film about the equal validity of these opposing ideologies and characters, then you might feel this movie comes up short, basically forcing a particular outcome to satisfy a somewhat convoluted plot with a villain who had potential, but ultimately wasn't developed enough to be memorable. My beef with the film is more in comparison to the comic storyline, and how 

Good:

-Great action.

-Outstanding visuals all around.

-Realistic consequences from the first movies.

Bad:

-Villain kind of an afterthought, with a convoluted plot that really shouldn’t have worked.

-Some VERY questionable moments by many of the characters that occur just for the sake of plot, to keep the tension high and the conflict rolling.

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10

Tom Clancy's The Division

By: Robert Murphy

In the wake of an unknown viral outbreak, New York City has become a desolate wasteland filled with roaming gangs, murderous psychopaths and an all around lack of the basic necessities people need in order to survive. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world however there is a secret organization of individuals who are the last line of defense in the event of such a catastrophe. These average looking men and women are the agents of The Division and they are here to put New York City back together again.

As I said before, danger is lurking around every back alleyway and down every manhole cover on the once "peaceful" streets of NYC. After a brief character customization and introduction into the pandemic that started this whole mess, players are given free rein over the city and help those in need. And boy, are there a lot of people who are in dire need of your help. People wander the streets seeking shelter and aid against the batches of criminals who escaped during the outbreak and the madmen trying to "cleanse" those who may still be infected. The sheer size of everything though is exceptional, NYC feels as grand as it would in real life as you wander the streets and begin to construct a base of operations where people can come for help and you can begin unraveling the mystery behind what happened here. 

The derelict environment doesn't do much more for the main story however. The missions for The Division are top notch in my book and play out like you would expect from a MMORPG. There are the basic missions which amount to fetching this or that and then the heavier missions that go through various locations and increasingly difficult to handle enemies. Sitting down and tackling the games main story missions feels like you're headed off in to battle with you and your friends all assuming different roles. The content itself is okay, there is a standard story that doesn't really wow but rather it feels par for the course for a game like this. The real catch though is the fact that the story isn't completed and will be revealed later as the game expands forward with more missions and gameplay. 

As for player classes, there are three variants to choose from once you begin to level up your character that reflect upon the three types of main missions players will be going on. Once you find your base of operations there are essentials that need to be gathered in order to rebuild what was taken for the city. These essentials boil down to Medical, Tech and Security wings that make up the various areas of your base. As you complete main story missions it will give players points to upgrade these various portions of your base and in turn it unlocks players character tress to follow. The toys and gadgets for each class are fun to try out, Tech having some enjoyable explosives, Medical a looking you to emit healing shock-waves and Security allowing you to create shield walls for your friends. Each class does well to benefit either single player or online play well and can be switched up with relative ease if you would like to try out something different on the fly. 

Speaking of online play, one of the best and the most challenging thing The Division has going for it. Playing missions with your friends or anyone else in the game is quite simple, the various safe points to find around the city are like meeting points for fellow agents. Once you step in to one there could be any number of players reequipping themselves for their next fight and you in turn can join them on this journey. Then, of course, you have the simple method of sending a request to your friends but there is something rather nice about this meeting area that made the experience feel rather engaging. It was like going out to a bar and meeting someone new. The aspect of the game that often ruins this warm sentiment of coming together to meet new people is the addition of the Dark Zone.

Smack dab in the middle of NYC lies this area known as the Dark Zone and it promises many things such as new challenging missions and some legendary loot. The challenge in going into this area for a new adventure is the area is entirely PVP where players can move in droves to take down unsuspecting players. This is often the case too, I cannot account how many times I entered the zone to try my hand at getting some new items and seeing how I stack up, only to be sent packing with my tail between my legs. The Zone is a challenge and there in lies it's fun but at the same time the risk doesn't always outweigh the reward. When you usually die in the game you lose some EXP and maybe a item or two but in the Dark Zone you could lose a whole lot before you earn something good. It's definitely a place for serious level 30 players and above, but as the game has develop a little already to try and compensate for it, I feel the Dark Zone could be a potentially great addition to The Division.

Like most games that play to the vein of online action or an MMORPG format there needs to be plenty of groundwork laid for future updates and missions while having a good amount of intrigue in it's initial release to keep players interested. I believe The Division has this going for it. The many different mission modes to choose from, the Dark Zone PVP area, the feeling of accomplishment that goes into building your base up and just the all around enjoyable gameplay itself had me hooked from the moment I sat down to play the game. Combat is easy to pick up on and the story, while not extremely enthralling, is still a blast to go through by yourself or with a group of friends. The Division takes everything that the Tom Clancy games have done over the years and brought it to the modern age of online play and it feels great.

Good:

- Addictive gameplay from the missions to gun play

- Immersive environment, apocalyptic NYC is beautiful if not scary 

- Seamless multiplayer enjoyment for your friends and potential ones

- Fun progression system that can easily be switched up

Bad:

- Dark Zone is a challenge with not a lot of reward to it

- The main story of a huge viral outbreak is okay it just doesn't excite

Scully Rating: 8.7 out of 10