Greed: Black Border (PC)
Genre: Action RPG Publisher: Meridian4 Developer: Clockstone - Headup Games Players: 1-2
As an action-oriented RPG exclusive to the PC, this release from German developer Headup Games has some pretty stiff competition in the form of Torchlight and – of course – a little upcoming release called Diablo 3 (you might have heard of it). Similar to Runic’s fantasy-themed title, Greed has three character classes on offer, with appearances that can’t be customised.
The general feel of the first few levels is reminiscent of Gas Powered Games’ Space Siege, taking place on a derelict spaceship inhabited by zombie cyborgs. From the outset, it’s not always clear what you’re doing and why. For one thing, just where the hell did the zombies come from? Even by video game standards, Greed employs some pretty piss-poor storytelling.
The first level goes on for way too long, and doesn’t do a very good job of introducing the game’s mechanics. While you collect currency from the start, you don’t meet a trader until the third level, an hour or more into the game. There are also some unforgiving obstacle traps, where a stuff-up equals a trip back to the last saved checkpoint. It says something for the game’s level design when the procedurally-generated dungeons from Torchlight hang together more cohesively than those built by a real person.
Indeed, the puzzles and traps are quite difficult from the start, requiring memorisation and the careful parsing of clues. When it works, it actually comes across as a refreshing change, at least if you’re tired of Bioshock and other games that spoon-feed you the solution to every problem you’re faced with. Figure out one of the combination-lock puzzles with a clue like “the last number is a prime while the one to the left is two less,” and you actually start to feel pretty clever.
Any intelligence disappears, however, when you’re faced with the first of the game’s bosses. These seem to have escaped from an arcade shooter circa the mid-nineties, requiring you to dodge bullets and other attacks while whittling down a huge health bar. These encounters aren’t so much challenging as they are a grind – the days of the monotonous bullet-sponge boss that takes up half the screen were over long ago, and the developers don’t seem to understand that nobody really misses them.
The term “monotony” could probably be applied to the combat in general. As they exist merely to get blown away at fairly short range, enemies in an action RPG don’t need to be the smartest of simulated life-forms. Still, it’s a little embarrassing to witness AI that can’t navigate its way around the simplest of obstacles. As the weapon selection doesn’t really change throughout, most combat boils down to the same thing – putting enough distance between yourself and the enemy so that they don’t have time to get close enough for a melee attack before you put them down.
The plot remains unclear throughout, most of it unfolding through diary entries discovered by your character, and the occasional news report that delivers itself to your PDA even when you’re in an underground cave on the other side of the galaxy. There are some intriguing concepts touched upon in the game’s back story, but sadly none of these really make an appearance in the game proper.
The loot is specific to each class – you can’t equip your marine with a flame-thrower, or use the pyro’s armour with a different character. Even worse is that all the main weapons of any particular class basically do the same thing, so every character really has only one way of taking enemies down. There’s no real heft to the combat either, and it occasionally feels like you’re aiming a hose full of bullets at enemies until they explode.
Character abilities can be upgraded whenever a new experience level is reached, but you can only have two passive abilities enabled at any time, along with one attached to the right mouse button. I actually didn’t mind this piece of design - in a better game it might lead to you having to choose your abilities carefully, figuring out what would be suitable for the situation you were about to walk into.
Stability was also a minor issue, with a few pauses and crashes to desktop. Most of these were rectified by turning down a few of the graphical options. The music is decent and goes well with the action, but some of the voice-acting is a little below par.
Thanks to the isometric viewpoint, the bullet-sponge bosses and the swathes of exploding barrels, Greed has the feel of a title from over a decade ago. And while it’s nice to see a game that doesn’t insist on holding the player’s hand throughout, people will probably be more turned off than engaged by the difficulty level of some of the puzzles, along with the long and occasionally tedious early levels. The graphics are decent, but what the game really needed was a more focused approach to level design and some more variety in the combat system.
While there is a lot to criticise, Greed: Black Border isn’t a terrible game. Despite the constant grapple with odd design decisions and poor pacing, the loot and trading system is serviceable, the puzzles are occasionally challenging, and there’s enough going on that you will want to see what happens next - even if you’re not following the plot. No, Greed isn’t terrible. It is, however, utterly inessential.
By Lachlan (19th Jan 2010)
Diablo in space might sound like a great idea for a game, but unfortunately this offering from German developers Headup Games falls a bit short.
If recent trends in entertainment are anything to go by, exploring deep space is going to involve dealing with an awful lot of zombies, giant bugs, and strange combinations of the two. Greed: Black Border is the latest title to jump on this particular bandwagon, but unfortunately this science fiction-themed action RPG lands a little flat-footed in its quest to conquer the galaxy.
The “creepy stuff happening in deep space” setting is about as worn out as Lindsay Lohan. Christ, it’s been seventeen years since Doom, and it feels as if every possible aspect of the “doomed outpost” scenario has been explored. Aliens bringing our dead back to life in some remote corner of the galaxy is fast becoming the sci-fi equivalent of a fantasy kingdom in the thrall of a dark lord, or a paperback narrated by a hard-nosed alcoholic detective.
As an action-oriented RPG exclusive to the PC, this release from German developer Headup Games has some pretty stiff competition in the form of Torchlight and – of course – a little upcoming release called Diablo 3 (you might have heard of it). Similar to Runic’s fantasy-themed title, Greed has three character classes on offer, with appearances that can’t be customised.
The general feel of the first few levels is reminiscent of Gas Powered Games’ Space Siege, taking place on a derelict spaceship inhabited by zombie cyborgs. From the outset, it’s not always clear what you’re doing and why. For one thing, just where the hell did the zombies come from? Even by video game standards, Greed employs some pretty piss-poor storytelling.
The first level goes on for way too long, and doesn’t do a very good job of introducing the game’s mechanics. While you collect currency from the start, you don’t meet a trader until the third level, an hour or more into the game. There are also some unforgiving obstacle traps, where a stuff-up equals a trip back to the last saved checkpoint. It says something for the game’s level design when the procedurally-generated dungeons from Torchlight hang together more cohesively than those built by a real person.
Indeed, the puzzles and traps are quite difficult from the start, requiring memorisation and the careful parsing of clues. When it works, it actually comes across as a refreshing change, at least if you’re tired of Bioshock and other games that spoon-feed you the solution to every problem you’re faced with. Figure out one of the combination-lock puzzles with a clue like “the last number is a prime while the one to the left is two less,” and you actually start to feel pretty clever.
Any intelligence disappears, however, when you’re faced with the first of the game’s bosses. These seem to have escaped from an arcade shooter circa the mid-nineties, requiring you to dodge bullets and other attacks while whittling down a huge health bar. These encounters aren’t so much challenging as they are a grind – the days of the monotonous bullet-sponge boss that takes up half the screen were over long ago, and the developers don’t seem to understand that nobody really misses them.
The term “monotony” could probably be applied to the combat in general. As they exist merely to get blown away at fairly short range, enemies in an action RPG don’t need to be the smartest of simulated life-forms. Still, it’s a little embarrassing to witness AI that can’t navigate its way around the simplest of obstacles. As the weapon selection doesn’t really change throughout, most combat boils down to the same thing – putting enough distance between yourself and the enemy so that they don’t have time to get close enough for a melee attack before you put them down.
The plot remains unclear throughout, most of it unfolding through diary entries discovered by your character, and the occasional news report that delivers itself to your PDA even when you’re in an underground cave on the other side of the galaxy. There are some intriguing concepts touched upon in the game’s back story, but sadly none of these really make an appearance in the game proper.
The loot is specific to each class – you can’t equip your marine with a flame-thrower, or use the pyro’s armour with a different character. Even worse is that all the main weapons of any particular class basically do the same thing, so every character really has only one way of taking enemies down. There’s no real heft to the combat either, and it occasionally feels like you’re aiming a hose full of bullets at enemies until they explode.
Character abilities can be upgraded whenever a new experience level is reached, but you can only have two passive abilities enabled at any time, along with one attached to the right mouse button. I actually didn’t mind this piece of design - in a better game it might lead to you having to choose your abilities carefully, figuring out what would be suitable for the situation you were about to walk into.
Stability was also a minor issue, with a few pauses and crashes to desktop. Most of these were rectified by turning down a few of the graphical options. The music is decent and goes well with the action, but some of the voice-acting is a little below par.
Thanks to the isometric viewpoint, the bullet-sponge bosses and the swathes of exploding barrels, Greed has the feel of a title from over a decade ago. And while it’s nice to see a game that doesn’t insist on holding the player’s hand throughout, people will probably be more turned off than engaged by the difficulty level of some of the puzzles, along with the long and occasionally tedious early levels. The graphics are decent, but what the game really needed was a more focused approach to level design and some more variety in the combat system.
While there is a lot to criticise, Greed: Black Border isn’t a terrible game. Despite the constant grapple with odd design decisions and poor pacing, the loot and trading system is serviceable, the puzzles are occasionally challenging, and there’s enough going on that you will want to see what happens next - even if you’re not following the plot. No, Greed isn’t terrible. It is, however, utterly inessential.
6.7
Single Play
6.5
Friend Play
6.7
Multi Play
6.8
Graphics
7.9
Sound
7.8
Challenge
6.5
Entertainment
6.5
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Greed: Black Border
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Greed: Black Border (PC)
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6.7 - you say:no one has scored it yet-
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