The Forest

Sean Dibble and Zach Goodier

So, do you like plane rides or traveling over islands that seem uninhabited? Well, what you don't know is that some of those islands are not uninhabited, they are in fact full of blood thirsty cannibals. You must cut trees, kill animals, build shelter...and hide from the man eaters to survive. Are your willing to do that or will you just surrender?

The Forest is a survivalist's dream come true, you crash land on a island and when you wake up you see a mutated human taking a kid, who we assume is the character's, you then pass out and when you wake up again it's time to get moving. The plane has what you need to start out with such as an axe, meds, food, and of course, booze! From here you can head out to the woods, but keep your eyes open for the people of this island because they are not to friendly to outsiders. You must dodge crawlers, leaders and other types of enemies while hunting for food and keep your fire going to avoid the cold. The world is beautiful and you will get lost in the graphics that this developer has created for you. I like to compare this game to a high end, modded Minecraft. Why you ask? Because you need to chop down your trees and you can open up a survival guide (kind of like using NEI in modded Minecraft) to set up schematics for buildings/traps/and other things. You must also hunt for food, build shelter, and make a fire to hold off the deathly creatures that will come for you at night.

Sound wise, the game will scare the crap out of you. It will go from a nice sounding music as you frolic through the forest gathering berries and sticks to "HOLY CRAP YOU HAVE BEEN SPOTTED, RUN!!!" I kid you not when I hear the sound it makes when the enemies spot you outside of the game I jump and nearly poop myself because of it. I have to give the developers credit though because most games I have played lately have not done musically what this game has done, making me feel as though I was the survivor.

Graphically, the game has no equal in the Indie market. It looks as though it was developed by a AAA developer and would even beat some of those companies out easily. The sunsets and sunrises are beautiful, the water moves and looks realistic too. Trees and plants actually look like trees and you can easily tell blueberries from poison berries. Everything you touch will move and ripple as you run screaming by it. Again, all praise goes to the developers for taking the time to make such a beautiful game. 

There technically is no story mode yet but single player amounts to a how long can you survive alone type game mode and multiplayer works the same but with the added bonus of having up to 4 friends (if not more in the future.) Multiplayer is more fun in my opinion but I know Zach has liked the singleplayer part of the game. Because the game is still in early alpha, updates continue to come and more and more keep getting added to the game. 

The only problems at this point are technical. There has been trouble saving in multiplayer, and the game itself has been prone to a variety of bugs such as enemies and creatures running through walls of rock, sometimes there are trees you cut down that take a long time to turn into logs and once in a great while they don't change at all. Still, this is an early access game, and it feels more like a complete product than anything else I've bought on early access.

All in all, The Forest is amazing for early access title and even beats out a lot of so called "polished" games by big time developers. I certainly have enjoy it, I know Zach does too and a heads up to all our fans that watch the Youtube Channel. Once the next update comes out (within the next two months) we will start a series to see how long the staff of Scully Nerd Reviews can last in a world not suited for us.

Good:

- Beautiful graphics 

- Excellent survival mechanics 

- Overall feel is that of a realistic and brutal Minecraft

Bad:

- Still some bugs to work out, not all of them minor

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Dead Space 3

Zach Goodier

Isaac Clarke is back, and there’s more necromorphs to be dismembered.  This time around, you’re heading to the Marker homeworld, in a quest to finish off the menace once and for all.  However, the Unitologists are hot on your heels, and they want to make sure that “convergence” takes place, which means killing you and allowing the Markers to spread their signal throughout the universe.  However, Isaac in not alone, he has help from the last battalion of EarthGov at his back, but the odds are still stacked against him.  Can you end the menace once and for all? Or is the universe doomed to suffer the extinction of all life?

You've seen monsters like this before, but when they've had 200 years to make themselves at home, it somehow feels even scarier than ever, since you truly feel like you're on their turf this time around.

Story:

For starters, you begin the game 200 years before the current point in the story, playing as a soldier on Tau Volantis serving with a Sovereign Colonies unit exploring the icy world.  They are already in the midst of a Necromorph infestation when you start, and your job is to recover a “codex” needed to somehow end the Necromorph infestation on the colony.  Without getting into spoilers too much, that story serves as a prologue, which then leads into Isaac, who is struggling with living his life after surviving 2 encounters with Necromorphs and all of the marker knowledge swimming in his head. You’ll start out on New Horizons colony, where you quickly have to run off to Tau Volantis on the, being pursued by Unitologist terrorists who have overthrown EarthGov and taken control of the markers, and have begun using them to spread Necromorphs throughout the settled worlds of humanity. 

Danik is a guy I had mixed feelings towards. On one hand, I understood that since humanity has eaten and built its way into the corner Al Gore has been warning us about, he is trying to find a solution.  On the other hand.... HE KEEPS TRYING TO KILL ISAAC... Not cool, bro.

Gameplay:

You really have already played this game, just like in 2, but that’s not a bad thing.  One of the differences, however, is that you now have to fight against humans, as well as Necros.  Unitologist militants provide an interesting element to combat, and they definitely add a new challenge to an already challenging scenario. 

You'll spend a good chunk of the early game navigating a derelict fleet, before heading down to the planet... None of the locals are friendly, though.

Another big change is the ability to build custom weapons and modifications to create a potentially massive arsenal, although the ability to only carry 2 at a time is a little bit of a disappointment.  Ammo is now generalized, with one type going to every weapon.  This means you no longer have to juggle 4 types of ammunition trying to keep yourself stocked for whatever lies behind the next blood-covered door. 

Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Lord Cthulhu?

The scares are more of the same, but once again, that’s not a bad thing.  There are new Necros, and some of the classics return.  The scenery changes frequently, as your arrival on Tau Volantis starts with a struggle to find a new ship among the remnants of the Sovereign Colonies fleet, which has been derelict for the past 200 years.  Scary right from the start, right? I mean, of course they must be empty, right? 

While I wasn't able to delve into co-op very much, it does provide a thrilling way to game with your friends, and makes the darkness feel a little less perilous when you have backup.

There is one major element of the Dead Space series that has turned me off a bit, and this game only accentuated it even more for me.  For example, at one point in the game, you have to find a shuttle in order to get down to the planet.  Now, after heading across the ship to find the shuttle in the rear hangar, you find the shuttle, only to find that it needs parts before it can be ready to launch.  So, you fight around the hangar, fighting Necros and gathering the parts before you can assemble what you need.  You do that, then you find out the shuttle is out of fuel, so then you have to go to the rear section and go through the refueling process.  THEN, after that, you find out the hangar door is jammed and you have to head to the upper section above the hangar and un-jam the gears before you can finally get out, and mind you this is all after traversing across the entire ship to get there.  There are a few sections like this in the game, and it can really mess with the momentum of the story, and really make it feel like sometimes the developers just wanted to drag this game out as long as possible with as little effort as possible.

Weapon crafting allows you to combo things like shotguns with a ripper attachment, or however you wanna set it up.  By the end of the game, Necros didn't even scare me anymore because I was a tearing through them so fast I honestly think they were more scared of me.

Characters:

This is mostly a big weak point for the game, since you don’t spend a great deal of time interacting on any serious level with other characters.  There are a few moments, and there are a few twists along the way, but for the most part it’s like a horror movie in terms of supporting characters.  Isaac is still just… there, killing monsters and fighting Unitologists.  It really doesn’t change much from there.  But to be fair, the stupidity of the characters at some key moments does irritate me.  Without spoiling it, the only reason there was a last level was because of some random inability of Isaac and his buddy Carver could have easily put down the Unitologist leader, Danik, before he did something that really put the screws to Isaac, Carver, and Ellie.  All of this was clearly to set up for a massive boss fight, but it just felt so forced it kind of ruined the entire final act of the story for me.

HEY!!! Stay out of that cookie jar.

Overall:

This game is good, but not quite up to great for me.  The only reason is that a lot of the story elements, as well as the mission layout, just felt like they were trying to make less seem like more.  However, the gameplay is very good, with the ability to build weapons and a streamlined ammo system to save on some inventory space, it’s all very functional and fun, but there are a lot of times where you need to stop and think about what you’re doing, and why.  That’s what really held this game back.  And I really wasn’t at all surprised by any of the twists, because it was all so obvious I face-palmed when Isaac was surprised.  This game is worth playing, just not worth getting invested in the story for. 

Like any horror flick, you know that half of these people are disposable right from the get-go.

So much of this world could have been compelling, but I feel like the Dead Space universe just isn’t utilized as much as it could be for story, character, and lore.  The lore that exists is good, but I felt like a few interesting concepts like the depletion of resources, and the loss of necessary materials for mankind, weren’t explored as much as they could have been, especially since they fuel the Unitologist cause.  It all just feels like a wasted opportunity for the story and universe, but that doesn’t mean this game has nothing to offer.  The action, thrills, and scares are all as good as the franchise gets, I just sometimes found myself frustrated with the objectives, story, and irritating characters that let things go to hell, just so you can fight the big boss at the end.

Good:

-Awesome action and scares

-Monster design is awesome

-Weapon creation/upgrades make the arsenal fully customizable

-CO-OP!!!

Bad:

-Objectives, particularly sub-objectives, can feel like a real pain, and an attempt by the studio to make one or two areas take up over a half hour of your time running silly fetch quests while necros come after you.

-Characters  allow some very preventable events to occur, leading the obligatory boss battle that just left me shaking my head.

Scully Rating: 8 out of 10

Alien: Isolation Trailer

Zach Goodier

Alright, so I have a new trailer to review.  And while I normally don't go too deep into trailers, after the whole Colonial Marines issue, I wanted to discuss some of my hopes for this game, and my opinions on how this could turn out.

First off, I love the new direction.  While I still would love to play a good shooter as a colonial marine, I feel like it would be tricky to capture the feel of the second movie.  For instance, ammo was very tight in the movie, and most games give you more than enough to run in guns blazing.  This really ruins the sense of being trapped with hardly enough to defend yourself.  Resources need to be scarce, so that a marine would have to be forced to conserve ammo and decide between fight and flight, whether to engage enemies that threaten their survival, or fall back/hide to avoid confrontation when possible.  But these are issues for another game, sense this one doesn't seem to have any weapons at all, taking after the first movie and not the second.  You will not be fighting, and there is only the one alien, but you can't just flee, either, since the Xeno will hear you and immediately chase you down.

This is where the intriguing part of the game begins: you are prey, only.  The other games focused on letting you fight back, having a changing dynamic between hunter and hunted, but this game doesn't give you the option. 

The issue then becomes keeping the player from getting bored, or giving them incentive to even think of traveling through the shadows, if they have no way of defending themselves from the monster in the dark.  Well, you need to complete objectives to survive, whether it be repairing the ship, gathering resources to survive, or whatever you'll have to do.  And to keep the levels from feeling boring, the alien has its own AI, which uses sight, smell, and sound to always approximate where the player is, and hunt the player.  This is what makes the game both exciting, and scary as all hell in the darkest depths of space.  This thing is always hunting the player, and every little creak, sneeze, fart, or wrong step could bring this alien down on you like Thor's barb-tailed hammer.  Your only option is to play it smart, weigh your options, wait for your chance to move forward, and know that it will never be safe.

You will be playing the daughter of Ellen Ripley, who was briefly mentioned in the second movie as already deceased.  This game takes place 15 years after the events of the first movie, so this could be a neat transition between the first and second films.

I'm hoping this game turns out as advertised.  While I don't look forward to wetting myself under a table staring into the two sets of teeth before I shake loose this mortal coil, this could be the beginning of a new wave of successful Alien(s) games.  This franchise isn't made for shooters, but for survival.  Even in the second film, survival was the main theme, and even though the characters had weapons, they weren't going to be enough to protect themselves from the Xenomorph horde.  If this game is successful, I believe it could be a sign to producers to focus more on capturing this feeling, and making the game less about jump scares followed by a shooting gallery, and making it more like being a mouse with a slingshot looking up at a branch covered in owls.  This is something that Alien games have been missing, and I hope this return to horror will get the ball rolling for future games.

War Z

By: Kyle Fee

In this day and age zombies are everywhere, and I don’t mean this by hide your wife and kids and prepare for the undead horde, but in the sense that we see zombies in everything ranging from video games to film, T.V and literature.  So when the modern day gamer sees and hears a new zombie game is out they no longer run straight to their local gaming store to pick it up.  Zombie games are almost reaching the Call of duty stature where you can expect the same kind of game play from a new title in the genre.  Except in a zombie styled game you usually run, gun and slay the undead horde all while attempting to avoid being eaten.  However this is where War Z changes the gameplay, much like Dead Island did.  War Z, though under scrutiny for stealing ideas, is a different game than what the normal zombie slayer is used to.  It combines both survival and zombie slaying into one and offers a unique motivation to find the best gear and weaponry to bring to the apocalyptic world of War Z.   

Once you begin, your character starts off in a random location and only starts with the basic gear, a small back pack and flashlight.  On the side of the HUD on the screen you have your characters health and the player’s food levels and water levels.  Again, in War Z, you are not focusing on just killing zombies and getting from point A to point B but your ultimate goal here is to find food, water and gear.  The downfall with War Z is you have no certain goal or story here, but like some MMO’s, your story is what you make.  You can travel to any of the numerous locations on the games map and find gear because ultimately your goal in the game is to survive and find the best gear you can find.  However, like any zombie game you have to best the undead horde and avoid them or kill them to find a possible rifle or melee weapon to better kill them with.  A big change that War Z brings to the table is that War Z isn’t a game where you can play with one or two other people to slay the horde but a big open world were up to 100 people can be on one map, this brings raiding towns and cities a fun experience when playing a another person or a whole gang but this can also backfire and make you come to completely despise the game as a whole. 

As you go about playing War Z, you will notice the detail of the world that Origin created.  It does give a slight feel of a world that has been ravaged by a zombie apocalypse.  The graphics on the highest setting are very good, not anything that hasn’t been seen yet, but for a online P.C game is still very good.  As for the world you play on, the map is set in Colorado.   You will have small shacks to massive cities and abandoned military bases, all ripe to be raided.  What you find will be different every time, you can kill hundreds of zombies in a town run into a police station expecting to find a firearm and be disappointed to only find a baseball bat.  This is the motivation that drives the player to keep searching the giant map of War Z in search of that ultimate weapon or protective gear.  However finding gear and items all needed to survive is a fun experience but another exciting factor that I found fun to find was just trying to find a new backpack or large military ruck to carry more gear.  The bigger pack you have the more gear you can carry on your person.  Now the biggest thing that Origin was trying in order to get people into this game was having many people working together to raid cities and kill zombies.  The zombies in the game do react well to players and the AI isn’t bad.  The zombies lie down on the ground and sometimes I find myself surrounded by several zombies that literally rise out of nowhere.  You can run into a town and hear their moans from around the corner and that would help me to know that I wasn’t alone.  However there was much more to make them scarier or different kinds of zombies, like the sprinting zombies we saw from the Dawn of the Dead or zombie types that were made popular by Resident Evil and Left for Dead.  Overall, the zombies, though not the scariest or must unique in gaming, were ok and difficult at times when your first starting off.

Going back to other players in War Z, you come to learn that the zombies really are not your primary concern.  When you enter a town, your first concern is not the dozens of zombies blocking your way to the buildings that may hold an awesome amount of loot, but the possible other players lying in wait to ambush you and steal your gear.  After playing almost twenty something hours into this game I can’t begin to tell how many times me and another player would work together to sneak past hordes of the undead to get a amazing piece of loot to be beat in the back of the head by a player holding nothing but a flashlight. (Check out the link below to see such Tom Foolery) This was a massive nuisance but when really looking at it and thinking about it, this was an awesome concept.  The zombies that could easily overrun you in a heartbeat if you rush into a town aren’t the only enemy in the game, but the dozens of other players that could turn on one another and take you out for your gear.  When all else fails and you lose your gear, the game has a marketplace to allow for you to buy in game stuff like weapons, packs, food, water, meds and ammo.  So if you don’t feel like finding gear again just quickly purchase something from the in game market and go on your way slaying and looting. 

             

           

War Z when it first came out was bashed for stealing ideas from Day Z: an off game mod of ARMA II.  Another problem was that War Z was released while still in development.  The main map was not yet finished and players who initially bought the game could not even access the rest of the map that was still in development.  Since its initial release the game has undergone several major updates to include the clans, in game chat (which is still being worked on) and additional map details such as more cars on a highway and small details.  Overall, War Z, when first played, can be an annoyance when you have barely any gear.  After acquiring more gear and slaying the zombie horde with better weapons and fighting off gangs of other players, you come to enjoy War Z for its simple game play.   The game had many early  issues that have been slowly been resolved and the game allows for many players to play on one server to loot gear from ravaged towns and cities, or go and kill the zombie infection, or even simply kill one another as well.  For $13 dollars, this game is a simple, easy to play game with many cool ideas for the zombie genre in gaming (all debate aside).  Maybe with this game in mind game designers can use it as a template for future zombie multiplayer games. 

Good:

- Interesting take on the possible post-zombie apocalypse world

- Need for food and water, as well as survival gear, leads players to look under every rock and twig to find good gear.

-Get a lot of bang for the $13 price tag.

Bad:

- Still a lot of bugs and issues to work out, but they are being worked on.

- No missions or real objectives given, you just fend for yourself with no real direction to go in.

- Losing that shiny new item to some jerk that was camping outside with a rifle can be a turn-off for the less serious players out there.

- At times felt like a normal PVP game…with zombies

Scully Rating: 5 out of 10

Wrong Turn

“Wrong Turn” takes place in the back woods of West Virginia. A Group of friends are stranded on a long dirt road from what seemed to be a simple car accident. Only that’s the problem it wasn’t an accident. The group finds that barb wire was planted to blow out their car tires, then deciding to split up leaving Francine and Evan at the car while the Jess, Carla, Scott and Flynn (the man that just rear ended the group of friends) go off and look for help.  On their walk to find help the group finds a fire lit in the woods but no one around so they continue on, stumbling onto a rundown house in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of old cars and bikes. What they find inside the house are disturbing human remains. Before they can leave though the people come back for what they do mutilate bodies. Jess, Carla, Scott, and Flynn hide for their lives and witness the brutal mutilation of their now dead friend Francine. From that point on they know that they need to get the hell out of the woods and do whatever they can to get out with their lives. With expert huntsman on their tale it will take all of them to work together and come up with ways they can escape the woods. 

“Wrong Turn” is a good movie with great up and coming actors. Eliza Dushku and Desmond Harrington play the lead roles. Throughout the movie you will be rooting for the four to make it out alive. Fighting mutated humans who know these woods all too well. You will be on edge of your seat with this adrenaline pumping film, every twist and turn that could be there is. In all “Wrong Turn” is fast paced and very gruesome, if you do not like blood or torture this is not the film for you.

Good:

-Nice young group of actors

-Plot that scares you and makes you wonder if it could really happen

-Adrenaline pumping action

Bad:

-Little slow in the beginning for a Thriller movie

-Some may find the amount of blood sickening 

Scully Rating: 8 out of 10