Reel Deal Casino: Gold Rush (PC) - Review

I’m not a gambler, never have been really.  Sure I might make the occasional bet on the Melbourne Cup, or slip a couple of dollars into the office tipping comp, but otherwise it’s never really interested me.  Hell, I worked at an office in Star City Casino for two years, and never once got tempted to go and put cash into a poker machine, or lay down a bit of moolah on the blackjack tables.  So why then is Real Deal: Gold Rush so incredibly enthralling?

Gold Rush is a casino game, with many (many!) table and slot-machine games available for play both offline and in an MMO-style environment online.  The individual experience is very solid, with the multitude of games on offer meaning that there is inevitably something you will find entertaining, and there’s always something new to learn.

The presentation is top-notch; a casino floor is virtually recreated, with little people playing games at little tables or sitting at the pokies.  Navigation of the virtual casino is as simple as moving your mouse around and clicking on the game you want to play; to simplify things even further, you can instead navigate to the game of your choice via a drop down menu in the corner of the screen; a great emphasis has been placed on making everything as intuitive as possible, and it really shows.

The poker machines are all recreated faithfully, with all the flashing lights, whirling displays, and fun little minigames that you get with the real thing.  The various card games, as well as casino favourites like roulette or craps are also displayed realistically and animated well; the dealers actually deal out cards, and the virtual dice roll convincingly.  All the sounds are there as well, and add to the experience, although the ‘muzak’ may soon get on your nerves; luckily there is a built in mp3 player, so your own music collection can be imported if you get over it.

The meat and potatoes of Gold Rush is of course the games themselves, and this casino sim delivers in spades.  While I’m not much of a real life gambler, I do enjoy various card games, especially everyone’s favourite Texas Hold’em.  Multiple versions of all the popular card games exist, as well as quite a few rather obscure ones which are nonetheless fun, and well worth learning if you do like to frequent real life casinos.  The various poker machines are all well presented, and I’m sure are great if you enjoy that kind of thing (I admit I’ve always disliked the pokies).  The various other games on offer are also well recreated.  Some games might not be up your alley, and occasionally they may be a little bit obscure or just not as much fun as the others, but nonetheless everything is well made and you’ll find something that tickles your fancy.

The presentation and user-friendliness cannot be understated; every game has the complete rules listed at the bottom of the screen, as well as an explanation of HOW to play, which is a pretty important but oft-neglected aspect of so many games.  Your stats are also presented in an easy to access and understand manner, so you’ll know exactly how much cash you’ve laid out, and how often you’ve lost (if you’re like me, anyway).  The game even presents you with various odds, and also allows the choice between real-world and game odds, with the real-world being much less forgiving.

Of course, there comes a time where betting fake money against fake people just starts to wear a little thin for some.  It is at this time that you can take advantage of the multiplayer aspects of the game.  For a very cheap subscription fee (the first month is free), you can take things online and start (if you’re still at all like me) losing money to real people, instead of just bots.  Multiplayer really opens things up; as you play more games, you level up ala a traditional RPG, and through levelling up you begin to unlock more and more content, including multiple different tournaments.  You also get your own place to stay at the casino, and can use your funds to purchase furnishings, which helps to make everything feel a little more real, as well as feeding the “just one more game” mentality so familiar to anyone which has played any form of MMO.

Gold Rush also offers online betting on various real-life sporting and racing events; these are localised to America (so it’s NHL, NFL, etc), but nonetheless it’s a great feature and adds a bit of real world spice to the action, without allowing you to waste your real world money.

Reel Deal: Gold Rush was a really surprising game for me, and a bit of an educational experience to boot.  The huge collection of games, the slick presentation, and the extensive online components, all make Gold Rush a very comprehensive and highly enjoyable game.  If you’re already a professional gambler in training, this will be your Valhalla; an authentic online casino to realistically practice games without the need to lose all that cash.  Even if the whole gambling thing doesn’t do it for you, however, Gold Rush is still a surprisingly fun way to spend some time, and may just help to bring out your inner cardshark; even if it doesn’t, you’ll at least be able to show off your knowledge of Dragon Bonus Baccarat to all your friends and pretend like you’re an expert.            

               

Graphics: 7.5/10 (Good graphics and animations are far slicker than most casual games, especially casino ones.)

Sound: 6/10 (All relevant sound effects you’d hear in a real casino are there, although the music can be annoying.)

Gameplay: 8/10 (A huge amount of varied games, as well as numerous online tournaments; adding real people makes the experience even more fun.)

Longevity: 10/10 (An essentially unlimited experience; new content is regularly available, and the existing games can be played until whenever you grow tired of them.  Online gaming and betting on real events means that there is always something new around the corner.)

Overall: 9/10 (The complete casino experience in every way possible; while it may not convert everyone into a lover of games of chance, it is impossible to deny that this is probably the most thorough and enjoyable virtual gamble you are likely to have.)

      

-Tim Sweeney

Army of Two (360) - Review

Army of Two was touted as many things before release; a game which really focused entirely on co-op play, with numerous abilities and situations requiring you to work together with your intelligent AI partner, or another human; large, realistically laid out levels with branching objectives and multiple paths; a contemporary, gritty storyline about private military companies working in real modern warzones; and, of course, a pair of main characters with a depth of personality and sense of humour that makes you connect with them and their plight.

And, indeed, a lot of these things are present… sort of.  The developers had a great many good ideas, and some of these even made it into Army of Two; but most have been executed kind of poorly, and the rest are there in such a crippled form that you wonder why they even bothered.

Take the co-op mechanic, for example.  The combat system of Army of Two uses something called ‘Aggro’, in which the person with the biggest gun and doing the most shooting attracts all the enemy attention, allowing your partner to flank around behind them and take them out.  Kind of cool in theory?  Well it’s as boring as anything in practice.  Every single conflict occurs in exactly the same way; in singleplayer you use the partner AI (who is fairly dim and bugs out frequently) to gain attention while you do all the actual fighting, one of you might get wounded badly enough that the other has to drag them away and heal them by holding a button, and that’s about it.

All the fancy new co-op features like step-ups, usage of mobile cover (riot shields or car doors), back-to-back shooting, or simultaneous sniping, are all presented in a completely linear, “must use this feature to progress” way, rather than encouraging any of the kind of progressive, experimentation-oriented gameplay originally promised.  In fact, most of the time you will be specifically told what to use when, and the back-to-back shooting only ever occurs at pre-determined times.

The actual gunplay is fairly poor as well.  The cover mechanic is glitchy, oftentimes allowing you to be shot despite appearing to be behind a concrete wall, and the ability to blind-fire or aim out of cover will generally see you blasting said piece of cover rather than the enemy you should easily be killing.  For a game presented as being semi-realistic, the fact that it is almost impossible to really die is just a little bit silly, and removes any sense of challenge from the experience beyond trying to work with the stupid co-op AI.

The lack of realism also takes into account your opponents; enemies will often take multiple hits even when shot in the face, and attacking someone in hand-to-hand combat will usually see them laughably spin ten meters across the room in a massive example of poor physics implementation.  And don’t even mention the boss enemies which can only be killed by being shot from behind; oh yeah, now THAT’s realistic!  It all just adds up to make the entire combat experience a little farcical, and is completely at odds with the presentation of a gritty, real-world based game.

One fun aspect of the experience is the use of cash earned during the game to buy and upgrade your weapons.  The large range of primary, secondary, and special weapons can be purchased and upgraded with longer barrels, bigger clips, silencers, and underslung grenade launchers, and can even be ‘pimped’ out, covered in gold, chrome, jewels, and various other examples of bling-bling.  This all helps to increase the stats of the gun, as well as attracting more aggro from the enemies; hell, the mechanic is worthwhile simply for the amusement value running around Iraq with a golden AK-47 provides.

The storyline itself has already received a great deal of criticism in the media, seeing as how the events of 9/11 play a fairly major role in what occurs.  This would not have been a problem if it was executed with finesse and a bit of class, but that is just not the case here.  The real world events depicted in the game merely serve as a backdrop for what amounts to an advertisement for the private military; become a mercenary and kick some terrorist butt for cash while wearing a mask and being macho, hoo-RAH! There’s a bit of an attempt to present a moral at the end, but you’ll find that the whole thing is diluted by the gigantic wave of pure, testosterone-filled machismo oozing out of the game’s every pore.

One thing that EA has partially succeeded in is giving the main characters of Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem unique personalities; the pair have known each other for decades, and their relationship comes across as a genuine friendship built on their wartime experiences.  Unfortunately, while Rios is intelligent and has a (admittedly peculiar) sense of morals, questioning everything, Salem is a pretty-boy moron who provides the comic relief, but is otherwise extremely aggravating, especially with his lack of anything approaching ethics, as well as his constant use of the word ‘bro’.  By the end of this game you will despise this word more than any other, guaranteed.

Of course it won’t take you long to reach the end of Army of Two anyway; if it takes you longer than six hours on the normal difficulty, you might want to consider taking up something less challenging to the reflexes, like Solitaire.  What’s worse is that it is obvious many of the game’s original levels and features have been reduced massively from their original state, if not cut completely.  Many of the coolest things in the game are relegated to cutscenes, and one level sees a step-by-step description of what you will be doing in the mission, only to find out that you won’t be doing most of it in game; instead you just kill some guys for 10 minutes and the level ends,

Thankfully, adding another human into the mix improves things dramatically.  Not having to depend on the partner AI, which spends much of its time getting itself killed or failing to assist you in the way its supposed to, allows the game to open up and really lets you enjoy the co-op gameplay.  The downside is that you will most likely complete the game even faster, and will probably breeze through with nary an actual death to deter you.

The multiplayer modes on offer are entertaining and a nice diversion, although it is unlikely they will keep you distracted for too long.  The co-op mechanics are emphasised, with teams competing to assassinate targets or rescue hostages and what have you, and the fact that it’s all about balancing your need for new equipment with the fact that the team with the biggest wad of cash wins, means that the whole thing is a nice departure from your typical deathmatching experience.

Graphically things are a mixed bag as well; the main characters look good, and the cutscenes are definitely very pretty to watch, but the levels themselves are plain to the point of boring. Plus there appear to only be three or four character models per ethnic group being slaughtered; killing the same shoeless Afghani a hundred times in a level is just weak.

The voice acting in the game is definitely a highpoint, as is much of the dialogue. The frequent arguing and insults passed between Salem and Rios are often quite amusing, and feels authentic considering these guys are rough soldier types.  The music in the game is suitably militaristic without standing out in any way, shape, or form, and all the weapon sounds are suitably grunty and dangerous sounding.  It’s perhaps a sad indictment of the game that the audio, despite being only above average, stands out as one of the highlights.

Army of Two is a prime example of wasted potential. If it had had another year of development this game could have been a terrific example of a story-based co-op game, one that redefined the genre and inspired future games in the genre.  Well Army of Two will serve as inspiration sure enough; inspiration of how not to execute what was a great concept.  Being an EA game, perhaps the hundred inevitable sequels will get the formula right; in the meantime, this game might be worth a rent to play through with a friend, but only if you can deal with the frustration involved.    

               

Graphics: 6.5/10 (Some great cutscenes and decent effects counteracted by sloppy levels and dodgy enemies.)

Sound: 7.5/10 (Some great voice acting and good, meaty weapon sounds. Music is uninspired, but otherwise there are no real downsides to the aural experience.)

Gameplay: 5/10 (A great deal of potential which has not been remotely acted upon; instead we have pure, unadulterated average and some regret for what could have been.)

Longevity: 2/10 (The world’s shortest full-price game, offering little in the way of replayability.  Multiplayer modes might add a little life to the experience, but not enough to save it)

Overall: 5/10 (Average in every possible way, with glitches, bugs, and a tonne of wasted potential.  Army of Two had the potential to be a brilliant game, but is let down by a rushed production and poor execution.)

      

-Tim Sweeney