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Play Mars: War Logs Online
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ThanatosUnraveld
04-20-25 01:24 AM
04-20-25 01:24 AM
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04-20-25 01:24 AM
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| ID: 1413817 | 4669 Words
| ID: 1413817 | 4669 Words
Level: 28





POSTS: 123/154
POST EXP: 87603
LVL EXP: 117116
CP: 6450.6
VIZ: 155954





POSTS: 123/154
POST EXP: 87603
LVL EXP: 117116
CP: 6450.6
VIZ: 155954

Likes: 0 Dislikes: 0
Welcome to camp 19 pow # something-or-another-12, this is an in-depth review of what life will be like for you in this lovely establishment. As well as an in-depth review of the surrounding civilizations you'll never get to see (insert smiley face here) I sure hope you assimilate comfortably. So this is Mars: War Logs a seventh generation video game for the X Box 360/ PS3 and Pc Marketplaces, later released on digital storefronts for your streaming pleasure on newer consoles. Developed by the french developers Spiders, of whom I am of mixed opinion in terms of their games, Mars: War Logs being their closer to the beginning of their career. First released on April 26th, 2013 to mixed reviews, is this a case of an innocently underrated gem, or should it be left in the red space dust? Let's find out! Starting off with the looks of this space adventure, its honestly not too much of a looker, I mean I know half the games a prison, but wheres the daffodils? Coming out on the gen it did then this is loads of brown, and dark brown, and light brown, and brown, and I guess red........ and brown. I actually like the title screen of the game, it makes me wonder what the rest of this world could look like, something that I feel this game and a lot of other Spiders games also do well. which is to build a world that you don't ever see, its never crazy Game of Thrones lore but its enough to make me want more, and to possibly see ever, just one thing anyone ever talks about. To get a bit more into detail of the game world, I personally feel like the prison parts of the game definitely give the vibes of being on a crappy ran down prison that I would never want to be on. There is ran down buildings around you, loads of scrap piles around as well, nothing looks like it works. Everyone is wearing scraps of clothing and living in the scraps and ran down buildings. But spoilers, when you get out of there the city of Shadowlair looks the same, every area in this game looks like Megaton from Fallout 3, if it just never ended. It works up until then, if the rest of the game had a noticeable change in pallet in then I feel then bland and brown of the prison might either of stood out, or at least of not brought down the rest of the game. It makes me wonder why this war is even being waged over a world that looks it ended 3 times over. Honestly there isn't a single area that stood out in this game, the amount of time I spent stumbling around because nothing stuck to memory is a bad sign as well. In terms of character models the same can basically be said, there isn't anyone that sticks out as amazing, or groundbreaking or anything. Infact the best character design is a character named Mary who you really don't get very much screen time with and the most of the time she is on shes not even wearing her unique clothing I enjoy. The main character Roy also isn't to interesting looking either, his face looks a bit odd (sorry man) and his base clothing is kinda bland as well, and his personal Ashley named Innocence is, well he's alive, and he has a model, and a pipe! All the facial animations leave a lot to be desired as well does the body animations, both of which could of used a lot more polish (or paper bags!) The enemy and boss (if you call them that!) designs are also not as good as I feel they could be, None of them really stand out, except for the...... dogs? I have no idea why they are called that but they are the Mars versions of doggos I suppose! The only other things to bring up is the other Fallout vibes that are the Martians, who just look like ghouls from the fallout games, not much else to say about them. Their concepts as characters are ok, being the original inhabitants of the planet and we just Christoper Columbus them and then threw them into prison, but as designs, and designs made after even New Vegas being out, I feel comes off as bland. Same thing with the settlement of Green Hope, which is just Shadowlair 1.5, or Camp 13.75 (the FF 13 sequel we don't need) depending on how you look at your brown bland glass of half liquid. As a whole the everything is bland, the anything is boring and the inventory screen is brown, nothing seems to inspiring so sadly I'd say the graphics get a fairly low rendered brown 6 out of 10 and I feel like that's being a bit nice. So what does it sound like to escape from the prison planet? Well sadly it doesn't sound like any rock and roll outlaws that I know of that's for sure. Ill try to say as much as I can about the sound of this game but sadly, there is even less to remember I feel then the graphics of this game. The only things to remember is the 'battle theme' of which there is numerous but all sound the same and the ending credits song. There is the occasional good song in the background but they all sound a bit samey and I don't feel stand out enough to make me want to go out and listen to them. There also isn't anything in terms of background noises that I really soaked in either, no little squeaks or creaks or anything that picked up my ear along the adventure. In terms of the voice acting nothing was mind blowing either, Roy sounds kinda disinterested in everything when he isn't saying something wildly different and usually way ruder then the dialogue tree made it seem. And Innocence sounds for sure like hes not from this planet so I suppose he isn't so bad. But nobody sounds like they was hoping this was going to be their break out roll or anything. There was also this one solider you talk to throughout your stumble around Shadowlair who's voice I recognized but I couldn't pinpoint it, I believe it to be the voice actor David Gasman who is in a lot of things so you've probably heard his voice before as well. I was always kinda happy to listen to him and Roy talk, I think its the same guy you have a side quest to help cheer, come on man it could be worse, you could be on Mars, oh wait. I also suppose the banter between Roy and people is pretty good, he's a deuce-canoe but I dunno I could of got any kind of invested if it wasn't for his monotone and sarcastic comments that mostly land flat but they aren't the worst. To bring up the menus in this section to, I'll just say WOW those sound effects as you cycle through the options in the different menus or buy anything or whatever, are just so annoying, its just the same one sound effect for anything, from equipping something down to muting the sound itself. This is also a minor thing but in the next game Spiders made like this Bound by Flame there was a sound effect for when your weapons start to lose their elemental properties that I feel is sorrowfully missing from this game, I dunno just a me thing I feel. So to sound off this section I'm going to have to give the sounds a 5 out of 10, there isn't much to listen to from the soundtrack but if your into more atmospheric music then it isn't so bad, but even on the atmospheric side I feel there is loads better out there. So this is definitely where some basis may lie (contrary to my score) as I to a certain extent enjoy the system that Spiders made. They may go to use it better in the mid-evil-not-squeal Bound By Flame, but I enjoy what was made for this game in terms of combat and to a weird extent, the crafting/upgrade systems. This may be a odd comparison but I feel this game is the kind of game you sit down and play if you like Dark Souls but are just to tired from your day to want to commit to that. It's kinda like a poor mans Dark Souls (if that poor man is part martian) where you gotta dodge from attacks but the timing isn't super perfect nor is there any parrying or anything but for me it holds me enough to want to see to the end. As for the other part I rather enjoy getting a new weapon and making a whole new type of pipe of death, its not like your making a flaming plumbers friend or anything but its enough to give a noticeable advantage in combat for sure if you use wounding effects. Sadly there isn't any New Game Plus or anything like that, in fact the game autosaves right before the last cutscene so that's a weird thing the game does. So there really isn't any reason to play the game again rather then to pick different choices to ever so slightly change how the game goes, minus one choice which makes a big difference but that's for later to talk about. So really for me its the bare bones dark souls like combat that I come back for, there's something so fun about smacking someone a few times with a electric pipe, dodging back and finishing them off with a nailgun nail. So unless your easily entertained by dollar store Dark Souls then your not going to be addicted to this 4 out of 10-ness. Now onto some big news! And that's the wacky story that is this Total Recall knockoff, its actually honestly not that bad honestly. I talked about it earlier but the people over that at Spiders are really good at the show don't tell type of story, but this isn't a horror game/movie nor is it one of those kinda older RPGs like Planescape or Pillars of Eternity. I always end up wanting a lot more from the plots they make and I feel its more on the lackluster side instead of the 'use your imagination' side of that spectrum. So what is it then? What is the plot? Well really its all about spandex wearing sidekick Innocence who end up getting captured during the Mars Wars (which I guess has to do with lack of water and no communication with earth) and end up getting shipped off to Camp 13. There we get a really really awkward start to the game involving some fat guy and Innocence and Roy proceeded to show him what's for lunch, pipes and knuckle sandwiches. They then hit it off or don't depending on how you wanna treat the kid, soon you'll figure out that everyone is a walking cliche as everyone's name is so on the nose that you kinda forget how dumb of a main character name Roy is. In fact the naming is so dumb I'm going to say innocence's name wrong, starting with that misspelling right there. So Purity tells Roy he's not made for this place and Roy says 'naw really' and Honest Abe says 'yes and I really wanna get home to my mommy and daddy and turn a rebel.' Then basically nothing really interesting happens outside of planning the prison break, how you go about it is basically the same, it just depends if you want one or 2 NPCs to escape and never see them again or just never see them again. During this point you get a good amount of conversations between Leroy and Jenkins and honestly I like listening to them, there is a point where he goes to do some mapping out of a power plant and you go solo but it doesn't do much for anything. There's a point where a cut scene plays and you learn of existence of 2 people who doesn't look to be of the prison slums, one sharp dressed man named Sean (bean) and Mary who is wearing a special dress thingie that looks neato. So after or after not doing side quests involving maintaining up stuff around the prison or........ smacking Mars Puppers around and doing some spring cleaning of some mines you and boy wonder team back up. And lets talk about that for a second, there's a part where Roy goes into these tunnels with these two dudes probably named snitch and tax evasion and along the way they stumble across some tunnels that wasn't made during the mines excavation. I dunno how Roy noticed it all looks the same, he says the pre made metal fortifications on the walls, but I dunno I couldn't tell, must but more of a indoor decorator myself I guess. But they go back and tell the guild master dude about it and later Roy and Mary go to figure out about it. Which marks the first time they interact with each other but that's not what I'm interested in, its what they find I'm curious about. At the end of the tunnel they find some artifacts with strange markings on them that Mary says are from the original inhabitants of Mars. Obviously the Martians, but when you talk to them they are very much dis-attached from there original pre 'merica invasion of humans so I always got this vibe that their kind was kind of a lost kind that would be a big deal to learn about. But to jump ahead to near the end of the game you and Mary can find another set of stuff with strange markings on them but Roy's drags Mary off saying 'we cant deal with now' and just never bring it up again! So unless I missed something else, which I don't think I did as I literally did all side quests, then they literally never do anything with this strange set of objects and markings. And I would of been fine with them of doing something with this, like some how finding something and then trying to bring the Martians and humans closer, but no I feel like they spend the game getting treat worse then most ghouls in the Fallout games. Once you and Mary look at the first set in the mines you get attacked by a 'boss' and after Mary wakes up from being K.O.ed in combat for the cutscenes she destroys the entrance, never to be seen inside again. And yeah, that's all that I personally know about that, so how about we get back to escaping this mortal prison. Once you and Knightwing team back up and you do or don't regroup some NPCs then the time is ESCAPE!!! Something about letting some martians lose or something then you and Ball-and-Chain grab some nailguns from the caves and start your escape through the power plant. Let's also talk about that, whats up with the nailguns, there is numerous times throughout the game I was wondering if we was going to get anything else to project into peoples face, but no just some nails. I'd be fine if you only got nailgun weapons in the prison section but everywhere, everyone uses them. So is the war being fought with nails???? Well to jump ahead you do see a stationary LMG for 2 seconds, so unless that rapid fires nails then they got something somewhere, and there is like, rifle versions of the nailguns the guards and some soldiers have but we never get. After you get near the ending of the power plant you get stopped by Alec Sean himself, turns out he's known as a Technomancher, a super powered DJ!! Naw, just a super solider who uses a special device to shoot electricity out of their fingers, its a cool concept, but I dunno, they don't do to much with them here. Sean himself is super flat and you never learn anything about him, in fact there's a chance you don't even know his name because its not til hours later after he's DEAD you learn it from Mary. Oh yeah he dies because of this boss fight as well, good thing I just shot him up with nails in my playthrough then, makes more sense that way. Once you do then suddenly Rolls Royce says he was a Technomancher, probably back in the 80's in the club scene but that's neither here nor there. Once that's said and done then you've officially left the prison and the spoiler free portion of this review, skip to the story score if you don't want this shaksperian story ruined for you! Spoiler: Once you and bobert leaves the prison you get to Shadowlair he says that he wants to go to home and meet up with Ma and Pa for cookies and rebellions. Upon walking up to the ruined rubble of his house Dick Grayson realizes he's an orphan now and is super mad, and Roy is either upset as well or........ not, you know which ever you want. After that cutscene its time for Roy to once again somehow have a past connection with something which is a brothel (ahem) around town ran by a woman name Charity. After doing a bunch of normal and side quests for her some involving smacking stuff with pipes others...... smacking with pipes. She tells you about the local resistance and then Annie says he really wants to join them and that if we really loved him then wed let him go cuz he's a big boy now dad! I cant remember where but I know it cant be past this point, someone goes to a bounty hunter named tenacity (insert eye roll here) to kill Roy and obviously that fails, can get him as Robin Jr. though if you don't kill him. Also sometime around then you get a quest to go check out an explosion and find out its from Mary who came with some soldiers to kill us for killing her master named Sensei Sean. Not really but I wish, but she has what Roy calls an Overload, and outside of it being an ability that can be unlocked later, it never comes up again. Roy tells her he can help her if she forgets all the nails she saw in Sean's face, and she agrees, but does not agree to change her destroyed clothes for the entire game. Also I didn't state it yet but Mary is also a Technomancher, as she is indeed an Eiffel 65 fan. So later on a prison train gets intercepted by the rebellion and Charity tells Roy he better hurry if he wants to save Erik Kirby as its basically a trap. Upon getting there and fighting his way to him, Roy just isn't fast enough and Princess Peach gets kidnapped and taken to a different castle. From this point the game can take the huge change in story, its not the craziest thing but I do think it's enough to point it out. at this point there are 2 groups, the rebellion that got Princess Elise captured and this AWOL general who wants to fight against the government and the Technomanchers who's apparently been doing some crazy experiments on the residents of Green Hope and I believe Shadowlair, but we never learn much about that in this game that's for sure. If you go with the rebels then they get to show you their lack of compliance again by getting to watch Jason Todd shot by the only gun shown in the entire game, not gonna lie, I felt bad for the kid. I kinda felt like Roy had nothing really left to fight for then, I mean I guess he's fighting in the name of Chasity (which for all I know is a real characters name) but it still feels off. If you side with the general then Imminence survives and some things change up but not to crazy. I feel the correct ending is the death of Pablo but I could also be wrong, it kinda goes with the vibe of the game but also feels like the point was the bring our man child to the end game. But once you choose one or the other I personally feel the game screeches to a hault until the end. Depending on who you side with you can romance a few people, Mary, Judy on one side and Devotion on the other, the last to suck, might as well go with Mary. She's a weirdo, even for me who's likes strange characters but she is the most interesting of the 3 and deviation is kinda a jerk. The final bosses aren't anything to talk about and personally I'd put a nail in the general if you don't side with him as if not its left up in the air if any kind of justice was even going to happen as everyone else is leaving it up to a possibly corrupt court system. Either way Roy says something about Spongeb......... Innocence and his 'war logs' and the game end. Welp that sure was a game huh So over all the lack of showing and spending to much time on telling I feel all the game does is leave me wanting more in a unsatisfied sense. The only characters who I feel has chemistry is Roy and his boy wonder, so the rare times they aren't together leaves a bit to be desired, luckily they don't do that very much. The side quests also very much mostly feel like they are completely useless and have no story of their own, the only one that does is the coin killer quest, but that's actually rather dumb and here's a tip, kill him the first time around, its not worth the second time. I also felt like I had to shoehorn that whole entire martian thing as its rather pointless and has zero plot relevance, kinda sucks as I think they are a bit interesting but never get anytime to shine, cept in the sun. So all in all this story gets a 4 out of 10. So obviously this is a deep game right? Well no, its actually like everything else so far: its pretty tight like that. Like I've mentioned throughout so far, there isn't very much to the game, just the base story and no NG+ or anything. Very few branching paths, and not a lot in terms of upgrades. Either your upgrading the basics like your health or your damage, or something like your technopowers later on in the game, no upgrade really adds a whole new set of abilities or anything except when you get the technopowers. Sadly it doesn't go deeper then empowering your weapons with electricity I never found very much use for them. Mines kinda suck as well but I feel the grenades are really good, and with how easy money or 'serum' is to come by I say screw the grenade side quest and just buy them. The nailgun is a neat weapon and with the proper upgrades and crafting a few hundred nails, then you got a very very very basic 3rd person shooter, with manhunt-ish type shooting. Your not going to come here to make any kind of specific builds or anything, nor will you be coming here to max out a character either. I feel like my character always is a low level by the end of a usual Spiders game, not weak, just like like level 37 or something while a normal game would be like level 64 or something, I'm guessing its their short length. If you don't do the side quests then the game is pretty short, also to go into that, I feel like the side quests are handled kinda weird. In the prison you do a lot of fetch quests where a lot of times you have to go grab stuff from random scrap piles on the map, the game never really points that out, you just gotta pick up on it. I'm kind of OK with it, except they do it so much and your just always looking for the last part for whatever side quest it is that I'm just done with it at that point. Also they are usually in a spot you've already looked in the last set of items you had to fetch. They bring it back once or twice after that but from Shadowlair on wards its the usual smack things side quests or go look for someone specific side quests instead of look for items ones. And honestly that's about the depth of all that really, its kinda bare for a RPG, but for its length I also don't feel it overstays its welcome to much either, so I'd give it a 5 out of 10. Well is the game at least hard then? Yes and no, if you have any kind of RPG knowledge or just a brain then I feel you can make a pretty overpowered character without to much thought. I think the game has random difficulty spikes that come and leave out of nowhere, but nothing that I think will make you drop the game. If anything is to hard then you can just always nail anything to the wall with your nailgun as well. Just don't expect your teammate to do very much as they get knocked out quick and are out for the rest of that battle, they also don't really heal you or anything in this game as they do in Bound By Flame. Honestly once I found out about the wounding affect that just takes chunks off health it was basically over from that point. I also didn't use a health item once in the game, in fact I kind of forgot about them in the game, didn't forget about that nailgun though. Buying stuff is super easy as well and the crafting items enemies drop is more then enough to keep your weapons upgraded to where you can just focus on buying nails and grenades to blow up large groups of enemies who aren't even close to each other. But I feel if you don't grasp the clunkiness of the game then your probably in for a slogfest and might not want to finish the game. So to put all that into account I think I'll give the difficulty of the game at a 6 out of 10. Welp there we go! a in-depth look at the prison system on Mars, I sure hope you enjoy your stay here and make sure to stay away from Fatso! But on a real note and some more big news, I feel like Mars: War Logs isn't a super underrated gem but i feel like people might of overlooked it for its simplicity, the unknown names behind the game and the fact that it was only released online and not on a physical disc. The game is almost always on sale in someway shape or form, so if you ever wondered about this game and though the cover looked kinda interesting cuz it kinda does, then pick it up, What is the worst that could happen? You get arrested? But with all that being said I'm still going to say this game is only around a 6.7 out of 10 game, its not a full 7 but I don't think it deserves a 5 or a flat 6 either, pick it up if your interested, if not then your not exactly going to miss out on a masterpiece either. |
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i mean i like to drink out of cups just like any other panda but sometimes drinking Sunny D out of a jock strap is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 04-11-15
Location: 'merica
Last Post: 8 days
Last Active: 5 days