Review

Mars War Logs

Mars War Logs is an action RPG developed by Spiders and published by Focus Home Interactive. It features a plot about a civil war on Mars where basic necessities like water are a valuable resource. While not the most unique narrative ever, Spider does a fairly decent job of making an interesting story.  Throw in some fun gameplay (with a price of twenty bucks) and you get a game that can stand next to other action RPGs…just not as tall!

The story gets started with a twist right out of the gate. Instead of starting the story with the main character the game opens to a cinematic with the narrator, Innocence, giving you a background on his life and his current situation as he heads to a prison as a POW. Shortly after getting to the prison Innocence is attacked then rescued by the main character Roy. This sets both characters off on a journey as they work together to survive amongst the warring factions. Adding to this is the atmosphere of the red planet itself; when interacting with people you will be exposed to racism, a variety of crimes and other nasty elements which would make most people reconsider living on Mars.  Roy and Innocence’s developing relationship and the ongoing civil war is made more memorable do to the environment the game takes place in.

War Logs features everything you would expect from an Action RPG: crafting mechanics, a karma system, NPC’s to interact with, etc. Right at the start you will notice one thing that stands out though. Combating enemies early on is pretty difficult. Everything seems to function the way it should but you will definitely notice if you are outnumbered. A good thing to note is the combat does become easier as you level up, as it should. You start with two basic options, one of which is armed/generic melee attacks. The other is a guard-break which allows you to break harm a blocking opponent. As Roy levels up, you’ll be able to upgrade your basic attacks or get news ones using skill points obtain at each level. Depending on your choices, you may end up with more powerful melee attacks (like instance KO moves) or ranged options (like being able to shoot electrical blasts from your hands). Along with earning skill points for upgrading things like combat skills and health you can get point for feats which allow you to get extra XP for enemies defeated, craft new items and other enhancements that give an edge in battle. Being an RPG the combat system is pretty deep as it keeps you from using the same attack patterns by allowing the enemies to counter accordingly; if you spam one attack too often don’t be surprised if you get walloped!

Even though the combat is good there are some downsides that really hurt the games diversity. There are only about 3 enemy types with slightly different variations, so for the most part you’re fighting the same enemies throughout the entire game. Each enemy type does have its own combat style and strategy needed to defeat them; a strategy you use to defeat a human soldier may not work against mutated dogs. Those differences don’t go that far when it comes to having a decent staple of foes. Then there are your allies. The NPCs that fight alongside you are really disappointing at best. All of them have a unique fighting style that may complement what you want to accomplish but chances are their going to go down before you get the chance to employ any type of strategy/plan. I can’t tell you how many times I would take the time to give my allies orders only to see them be knocked out on the floor seconds later. Honesty, you’re better off just forgetting that they are there.

Moving on, War Logs has numerous trappings to keep you busy aside from the main quest. There is a healthy amount of sidequests, which are picked up by speaking to NPCs. Depending on the side-quest you do and how you complete them it will either negatively or positively affect your karma; killing someone will negatively affect your karma while finding a peaceful solution will result in a more positive outcome.  How people see and act towards you is based on your karma. This also affects the main story; the game’s ending changes depending on your karma. Not only that, there are certain perks to being good or evil. Being good could lead to discounts with venders while being evil could boost your fighting abilities. Basically, your choices matter in this game.

Another trapping comes in the ability to talk your allies. Talking to allies reveals insight on the cities and how the people of Mars operate. There’s a lot of info there if you want the extra backstory. Then there is crafting.  Taking a unique approach in this game, crafting can be linked to choices that’ll affect you later in the game. For instance, you can craft health injections (healing potions) by using serum which is the game’s currency. Serum is obtained by completing quests or by choosing to kill an enemy by extracting the serum, the latter of which will negatively impact your karma. Or you can just use the serum to buy gear to stem the dependence of health potions. The need to barter can weigh in on the want to craft something useful.

While it’s cool to find stuff to craft with, exploration in Mars War Logs teeters more toward the disappointing side of things. There isn’t an open world, with each area being separated by acts. So, if you’re the completion-ist type you may want to finish your side quests before advancing as you won’t be able to return to a previous location. Adding to this was a small pet peeve of mine. Whenever there is a group of barrels or boxes placed in an area, there will surely be a searchable pile of trash or a chest behind them.  This was the case every time without fail. And, most of the time you’d only find materials for crafting rather then something that you can actually equip. These facts made the idea of “searching” for items an unexciting experience. You always know where to look and there weren’t any surprises when it came to what you’d find.

War logs has a few issues here and there when it comes to the gameplay. When it comes to visuals though, the game fails to impress. One thing I did love (from a UI stand point) was the transparent map you could bring up on the screen. It shows you moving in real time as opposed to a static blip on the map, allowing me to ran around most of the cities with the map up so I’d never get lost (which is a huge plus for me). Outside of that though, the game is lacking in the graphics department. There aren’t that many details when it comes to textures, character faces are rendered badly (everyone seems to have the same scar patterns), the buildings are rough to look at…basically, more work needed to be done. The thing that bugged me the most though, was the death animation for the dogs. Half of the time they just fell over like a brick; it went straight from standing animations to lying down dead. There was no in-between.

The sound department fared better than the visuals, but that’s not saying much. The music does fit the atmosphere and the themes of the game really well. The voice acting on the other hand is terrible. It sounds like there are extra periods where they don’t need to be (starting and stopping in random places). A lot of times the subtitles didn’t match what was actually being said. Though I wasn’t confused when someone started talking, I did have some trouble hear/reading what was going on.

War Logs for the most part plays well. The combat is pretty deep, there is a lot of variety when it comes to selecting skills, an abundance of choices are available and for the most part there’s a good amount of content to keep your attention throughout the game. The story isn’t bad even with the subpar voice acting but the visuals are in need of major improvement. For the price of twenty bucks though I can’t complain too much. If you can get over some of the minor (and major) complaints I had, then I recommend buying this title. At the end of the day, I had fun with it!