Tag: Review

Review: In Verbis Virtus

In Verbis Virtus (The Power of Words) is the geek’s dream game. You play a wizard and cast spells by shouting their words into your mic. Ok, you just need to speak them, but come on? Shouting’s the way to go!

Genre(s): Action Adventure

Developer: Indomitus Games

Publisher: Meridian 4

Release Date: April 2015

Played: Main Story (2 Endings)

Platforms: PC

Purchase At: Steam, Green Man Gaming

Good:

  • Layered Lore.

  • Innovative and clever gameplay.

  • Beautiful visuals.

Bad:

  • Finicky voice recognition.

  • Bland enemy design.

Review

At the game’s opening you’re travelling the desert and come across a mysterious temple. You, the player, won’t really know what’s going on, what you’re doing there or who your protagonist is. But as you explore, face the temple’s devious challenges and puzzles, find new spells and read documents, you’ll not only piece together your character’s motivation but also the Temple’s and world’s backstory.

The character’s arc is simple. He has a single purpose and it drives him forward, but you won’t know much until his journal reveals it to you. He’s a silent protagonist and the journal pages are his only voice, the only way he can talk to you. Otherwise, he’s just a blank slate, a faceless avatar.

You'll need to memorise these, or draw them on paper!
You’ll need to memorise these, or draw them on paper!

The world’s story on the other hand is multilayered and quite complex, and it has hundreds of tiny clues to what is really going on in the game that you might miss. The lore you find tells you about the civilisation before the Temple, the structure itself, the study of magic and the religion. These all tie to the plot in one way or another and at the same time make the game world feel grander. But the lore pieces can be quite dark. There is one in particular about a girl trying to be useful that freaked me the hell out.

The Temple is home to different locations, from stone rooms and caverns to deep chasms filled with strange mystical lights. And that is just the base floor. Without spoiling much, there are two main levels of the temple, the lower and upper. The lower is closer to the typical fantasy temple, while the upper I nicknamed The Jedi Temple, technological and made of steel and glass. But beyond aesthetics, the visuals are amazing. Early in the game you come across a cavern with beautiful waterfalls and multicoloured lights. I was so busy looking at the spectacle of magic and lights I didn’t see the swarm of tiny enemies coming and I died.

The environments were amazing but the creature design lacked polish. There are only a handful of enemies and while the bosses (yes there are those) all look amazing, the cannon fodder looks plain and dull. One of the earliest enemies is a red-eyed brown monster with three tentacles coming out its back. The tentacles look like wires, and the creature has a basic and quite bland texture, with almost no features visible. Worst of all, while at first it seems like the red eye is shining, the truth is it has a red light-box floating in front it. Their AI is often buggy so I had many chances to look them up close and I was disappointed to find them so bland.

Another enemy, further down the line is a Lich-like creature, a floating robed skeleton and this one also looks too plain for a game that offers so many beautifully detailed environments and wonderful magic effects.

Clues to puzzles come in many ways, some written and others in beautiful holograms!
Clues to puzzles come in many ways, some written and others in beautiful holograms!

The spell effects are hands-down fantastic. There are subtle ones like the Light spells, a flickering and pulsing ball of light in your hand, and Telekinesis, a semi-transparent hand grasping things, and then are the amazingly flashy ones like the Fire Seal, a pulsing sigil that blows up on command, or the teleportation spell, with its ripple visual effects and floating sigils to mark where you can teleport to. From now on, every time I’m lost in some dreamland of my choosing or writing about sorcerers, this is how I’ll see many spells in my mind.

For a game revolving around words, there aren’t many spoken in the game. There is only one voiced character and it’s difficult to judge the voice acting when she speaks a strange and made-up tongue, as it’s impossible to tell if she’s using the proper inflection or not.

Die you bastard!
Die you bastard!

In Verbis Virtus’ music I found had a different effect depending on whom was listening. There was a piece in the Jedi Temple that I found soothing and wonderful—then again, I have a thing for piano pieces—so I called over my cousin and told him to listen to it. His response, “that’s a pretty eerie tune” and only after he mentioned it did I recognize the somber tones in the piece that gave it the unnerving quality he felt. And it’s the same for most of the background music, and because of it, the music tells as much a story as the lore you find. It’s impressive.

Voice recognition is the most important aspect of this game if we’re being honest and I’d love to tell you it’s amazing and we should all hail Indomitus Games as our overlords. But that’s not the case (besides, I’ve already called dibs on the world, sorry), as the voice recognition will often fail and cast a different spell to the one you want. This is partly because of how it plays with regional accents and the finicky nature of voice recognition in general. To help, Indomitus built in a couple of voice profiles and even a system for you to ‘train’ the recognition system so it works with the way you speak. I never had the need to do this as my English is a pretty neutral accent-less American one (or at least that’s what I tell myself).

Now you get why I called it the Jedi Temple
Now you get why I called it the Jedi Temple

The other problem with the voice recognition system is the vocabulary. What I mean by this is the spell formula (the words you speak) design. Formulae in the game’s made-up language, Maha’ki, share too many words, so it’s not surprising that the voice recognition gets confused with them from time to time. You can change the formula language in the options to English but the formulae become much longer and more complex. For example, the Maha’ki formula for the ice beam is “Ibohn Ektoh,” which is quite easy to say and pronounce, even when you’re running from three monsters and trying to kill them; but the English one is “Freeze by Ice,” which in the same circumstances I squish together or say so fast the voice recognition failed. Another example and one where regional accent plays heavily into is the TK spell, “Obi Kehnu” in Maha’ki but “Mind Over Matter” in English. Just think of them many ways someone can say “Matter.”

Personally, I would’ve expanded the Maha’ki lexicon, to make the different spells as unique as possible. Thankfully, you can do this on your own, as the vocabulary files are editable in your game folder. I’m currently working on making the light spell respond to the word Muffin and the teleport to Boogabooga. If you want to suggest words I use, be my guest! For Russians, someone has already created a Russian pack for the game, which you can get on the Steam forums. There is also one for Latin for the Roman Empire survivors or old-school Catholic priests among you.

But when it works, it’s quite easy to learn and use and if you forget a spell you still have it in the journal and they come with an example pronunciation.

Puzzles will almost exclusively depend on spells in one way or another, particularly Telekinesis if you have to use other objects. Indomitus didn’t play it safe with its design but took a risk and many of the spells have timing. You’ll use one spell to trigger a change and then have to react with another to follow up. For example, later in the game you have a redirecting light puzzle and you need to use coloured cubes to change the light’s hue before it hits a switch. The first switch is Red but as soon as the light hits it, it shifts to a yellow one, so you need to find a way to knock off one of the colour cubes out of the way at that specific moment. Because of what I mentioned above with the voice recognition system, these timing puzzles can lead to a certain degree of frustration, but they are very clever. Telekinesis-focused puzzles require a lot more precision and will often not have any timing involved, but instead you’ll have environmental hazards and even enemies.

As I mentioned, there aren’t many enemies but the ones present are quite deadly (except the little crawly bugs) and hard to fight with the voice control, especially early in the game when your only real choice is to run. Once you have your first fire spell you can start defending yourself properly though. The one-eyed bastards I mentioned in the visual section of this review are difficult enough on their own but then the game starts throwing them at you in packs and always, always, in confined quarters. I often uttered a curse or two along with the spell words when fighting them.

One of the most complex, multi-part puzzles and intricate environmental design!
One of the most complex, multi-part puzzles and intricate environmental design!

The lich like enemies on the other hand are pushovers. When you read about them and what they can do you think them extremely complicated. But when you realise you can use the same spell to counter everything they do, they lose their enemy appeal.

Bosses are puzzles themselves, as they should be in a game like this. The first one buzzes around extremely fast and fires projectiles at you. It’s impossible to hit it when you figure out how to return fire, unless you use another spell first to give you a window. The last one is impossible to kill until you figure out what you need to do to actually damage it and then it becomes much easier. Then there’s the bastard that chases you across lava pits…it’s where I lost my voice playing the game. That is, until I realised there was a second version of the Teleport spell that creates a floating sigil. You can use it to mark where you want to go and that way I got through those sections.

Some environments are rather creepy...
Some environments are rather creepy…

Conclusion

I enjoyed my time with In Verbis Virtus, and while the voice rec cost me my voice for a week and possibly gave me an ulcer, it’s an extremely innovating title and I want to know what Indomitus games come up with next.

TMA SCORE:

4.5/5 – Amazing!

Review: Dead Synchonicity: Tomorrow comes Today

Dead Synchronicity (DS): Tomorrow Comes Today is the début game by Spanish Fictiorama Studios. Set in a post-apocalyptic world approaching the dissolution of time itself, you must piece together the mysteries of the ‘dissolved’, unlock your own past and try to stay alive!

Genre(s): Adventure

Developer: Fictiorama Studios

Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment

Release Date: April 2015

Played: Main Story

Platforms: PC, GNU/Linux, Mac OS

Purchase At: Steam

Good:

  • Dark and gritty post-apocalyptic setting.

  • Expressionist art-style.

  • Outstanding sound design.

Bad:

  • No ending.

  • Uneven writing.

  • Frustrating puzzle design.

Review

When I mention unlock your past I mean it. Michael, our protagonist—and whose voice actor sounds so much like Kevin Sorbo I had Hercules flashbacks—has lost his memory. He only remembers his name and that’s because he hears a woman calling out to him in his dreams. This amnesia or ‘blanking’ as it’s referred in game makes Michael the perfect protagonist to take us through this post Great Wave world. There’s enough pathos to make him his own character, but also a naïveté that makes him perfect as an avatar, a canvas. His caretakers, Rod and his family, use this to their advantage to push Michael—and the player—out into the world. They ask he find a cure for their son, Colin, in exchange for information on the character’s past.

The world of DS is post-apocalyptic and rusty. Before the events of the game, there was the Great Wave, a worldwide event that left civilisation in ruins. People were put into Refugee Camps while the governments attempted to sort things out…but they never did, leaving the people to rot. When the dissolved started appearing, those infected with a disease that kills by liquefying the body, the army took over and turned the camps into concentration ones. To the army, everyone in the camp is a Rat—living in and off garbage—unless they’re a Mole, a Rat elevated to a higher station and kept there to let them know about any dissolved.

The art style eventually grew on me!
The art style eventually grew on me!

Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today isn’t a happy game. It’s dark, violent and disturbing and some of the decisions you’ll make will probably haunt you afterwards. I can say, with all certainty that I had never used Acid to disfigure someone in a point & click game, yet here I did it. You do what you gotta do is the motto for The Hunter, one of the rats in the camp, the one controlling its limited underworld. He’s amoral and depraved, but over the course of the game your actions will put you in equal standing with him, and I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with that, but DS kept me wondering if Michael was a good man as much as the character did in voice overs. But that’s what the game does best, put you in uncomfortable situations that make the dystopian future feel real.

What I like the most though is that it’s effective in its use of ‘misery’. It’s not all pervasive and there are genuine moments of hope, which in turn make the bad moments so much more effective.

Michael’s memories and his life before the Great Wave, the prophetic ramblings of the dissolved and their link to our protagonist are central to the plot. Then there’s the Dead Synchronicity Point, the Annihilation of Time itself, which you experience in moments when the world shifts around Michael, showing him visions of the past and the future. These moments are surreal and intriguing, and give you clues as to what is going on before they give you the full exposition. In fact, the Synchronicity shifts tie into one of the best puzzles in the game.

Some of the dialogues feel forced and unnatural. People just don't talk like this.
Some of the dialogues feel forced and unnatural. People just don’t talk like this.

Sadly, the plot doesn’t really go anywhere as the game abruptly ends once you have your first set of real answers. The only thing missing was a To Be Continued message. As good as the setting is and as intrigued as I was by the plot, the end was a complete letdown. Fictiorama Studio builds up to a climax that leads nowhere. And it’s not an episodic game—I wouldn’t be reviewing it if that were the case. This is the first entry in a saga, meaning this is all we have until Fictiorama develop and release a sequel.

I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of the expressionist art style of Dead Synchronicity when I saw the demo for it last year, but it gradually grew on me. Combined with the rusty Mad Max look of the world, the visual style adds to the grittiness and Michael’s dirty, blood-spattered shirt are a constant reminder of everything you’ve done throughout the game.

The Synchronicity shifts have a nice visual cue, with distortions and TV grain on the screen, making it all look like a badly tuned channel—for those of us old enough to remember what that was like. In terms of environments and cutscenes, Dead Synchronicity doesn’t shy away from going dark and some of the scenes and locations are incredibly disturbing, with Suicide Park being one of the most shocking ones, especially during a Synchronicity shift, as well as Colin’s fate.

When this game goes dark, it goes really dark!
When this game goes dark, it goes really dark!

Puzzle design in DS is a bit of a mixed bag. You will often use items for different purposes than intended, coming dangerously close to moon logic, but it feels natural for a scavenger setting, where you have to make do with what you have. Some of them can be extremely frustrating though, especially because as a norm, puzzles in Dead Synchronicity don’t follow the basic tenets of adventure game design. Solving one doesn’t always lead you to a new location or open the path to new items you can use to solve a previous puzzle, but instead they lead to roadblocks. One of the best examples is the sewer. Manage to open a manhole, climb down and see Michael come up again because he has no light. Find the flashlight for him and he goes down again before returning because he doesn’t have a map of the sewers. It’s not unusual for adventures to chain puzzles together, but give me a shopping a list, so I can know when I have everything I need to proceed. Every time I found myself solving a puzzle that led to another dead-end the frustration grew. It’s even worse when some of the item to solve a certain puzzle can only be acquired once you move on to another Chapter in the story with new locations and an altered “world state,” because it leads to dead ends and wasting time banging your head against the wall on a puzzle that is impossible to solve at that moment. And there are only rare instances where the character will say, “I can’t do anything with my current items.”

The sound shines through, both in terms of music and voice acting. The music is moody and gritty rock, with heavy electric guitar strums. The music blends into the background for the most part but during intense sequences and cutscenes it’ll ramp up and grip you completely. When I was trying to prevent an execution, the music kept me on edge through the entire sequence. Michael’s actor, Jeremiah Costello is outstanding. My second favourite would have to be the actress voicing Rose, the mentally disturbed prostitute in the camp—told you this game was dark—she sounds helpless and scared and you can’t help but want to protect her. The rest of the supporting cast is a bit mixed. Hunter’s actor, for example, fails at making the character truly intimidating, and every time he said ‘dude’ it felt forced, as if the actor had never used the word before in his life. Some of the dialogues don’t sound natural, a flaw in the game’s writing. I found myself saying, “People don’t talk like that…” quite often and you could feel it some of the performances, the actors struggling to remain convincing.

I have it on good authority that this nurse is inspired by a friend of mine!
The rusy mad-max visual style is great.
Things just get worse after you cross Suicide Park
This character broke my heart!
Suicide park is just horrible, but in a good way
Love the shift effect!
Sharp protruding object? Wasn’t there a better way to call this?
The camp, and you’re just another rat!
You do find friends and enjoy brief moments of happiness with them.
The phrasing’s a bit too eloquent for this mook.
Michael’s voiceovers help you know what he’s thinking, though he does repeat himself a bit.

Conclusion

Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today greatest flaw is that it leads nowhere. In the face of this problem, the uneven and frustrating puzzle design and strange and forced dialogues are forgivable. The game has a fantastic setting, and handles its grittiness better than I’ve seen many games do in the past years and the visual and sound design is great, but it all ultimately feels pointless.

TMA SCORE:

3.5/5 – Good

Review: Pneuma: Breath of Life

Pneuma is a first person adventure game putting you in control of a would-be-god as he travels through a new world while commenting on his own divinity and the nature of creation.

Genre(s): Adventure

Developer: Deco Digital, Bevel Studios

Publisher: Deco Digital

Release Date: February 2015

Played: Main Story

Platforms: PC, GNU/Linux, Mac OS

Purchase At: Steam

Good:

  • Lovable character.

  • Beautiful visuals, music and phenomenal voice acting.

  • Intriguing plot.

Bad:

  • POV puzzles can be frustrating.

  • No real puzzle variety.

  • Too short.

Review

You start the game in complete darkness, something your character doesn’t like, so uttering famous words a crack opens in the void and light spills in, opening a door towards a beautiful white hallway. Musing on how his words manifested light he comes to the ‘obvious’ conclusion that he is God and he created this world, yet he feels it’s odd he keeps meeting challenges and puzzles. Throughout the story you will hear him philosophise about his nature and that of ‘his’ world.

It’s not a complex plot, but it does lead to a satisfying payoff. Without revealing the surprises Pneuma has in store for you, the game plays you as much as you play it.

One of the very few 'interaction' puzzles in the game.
One of the very few ‘interaction’ puzzles in the game.

In terms of gameplay and puzzles, Pneuma is a one trick pony, with more than 90% of puzzles visual based. This means you’ll be looking at (and away from) things—glowing metal eyes in particular. There is very little interaction and you can count these puzzles with one hand. While it’s a very interesting approach to puzzle design and offers some interesting moments, it can also lead to some degree of frustration when a simple camera movement derails the puzzle you’d been working on for minutes. In the playthrough video below you’ll see two of those puzzles, one involving a wall with holes you need to close by looking and approaching, and one where your point of view changes the colour of the tiles on the floor. Both get tiresome very quickly—though I did solve them for my main playthrough.

Environments are gorgeous and seem straight out of a Roman villa, with classic style architecture and murals. The opening white rooms give way to colour as the character gets tired of their emptiness and this visualstyle remains until the end of the game, where you once again shift into a forest path.

Audiowise, the highlight of this game is Jay Britton’s voice acting. The character is instantly likeable and his quest for answers, to make sense of the world around him and his own existence makes him relatable and quite human, even if you never see anything of him. That isn’t to say the music isn’t good, it’s actually fantastic and you’ll probably want to get the soundtrack—if you don’t get it together with the game in a bundle!

This is a short game, with only five or six chapters and each of these is a few puzzles long. There’s a good chance you might be able to finish it in one sitting, but the story makes this short ride very sweet.

This is what you'll do for most of the game: stare at glowing eyes!
This is what you’ll do for most of the game: stare at glowing eyes!

Conclusion

Pneuma: Breath of Life is one of the cleverest games I’ve ever played. It’s quite short and you’ll have some frustrations with the puzzle design, but you will enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts.

TMA SCORE:

4/5 – Exceptional

Review: The Talos Principle

The Talos Principle is a first person adventure game, developed by Croteam, where you control a robot working his way through dozens of challenge rooms guided by a voice from above. Will you obey and seek eternity in servitude or will you quest for the truth, no matter how hard it may be?

Genre(s): Adventure

Developer: Croteam

Publisher: Croteam

Release Date: December 2014

Played: Main Story (All Endings)

Platforms: PC, GNU/Linux, Mac OS

Purchase At: Steam

Good:

  • Amazing and very human plot.

  • Visually stunning.

  • Highly challenging puzzles.

Bad:

  • Badly designed help system.

Review

When Talos opens, you find yourself in what seem to be Greco-Roman ruins. As you explore, you find your first puzzles and challenges and a voice speaks to you from on high. His name is Elohim and he claims to be your creator. He wants you to find sigils—Tetris Blocks—to prove you’re worthy of paradise. You will collect the sigils through overcoming the various challenge rooms.

These rooms are in giant simulated worlds in three towers—the first with a Greco-Roman feel to it, the second with an Egyptian theme and he last with a Middle Ages vibe. And as you explore them, you’ll come across terminals with the emails, blog posts, rants, articles and thoughts of the people behind the simulated world and the library containing all human knowledge and history. Through them, and especially through Alexandra Drennan’s time-capsule messages, you learn of their struggle to finish this project before the world—and humanity itself—come to an end. It’s a heartrending epistolary story but also an uplifting one, as you read and hear about humans at their best in the face of inevitability. It’s a wonderful plot and one I’m overjoyed of experiencing. And that is without considering the deep philosophical debates, over the nature of humanity, you have with the Library Assistant AI, always there to put you down and offer counterpoints to your arguments.

But it’s not just the story that kept me coming back, but the puzzles. Each room has a theme, a set of tools you should/have to use and one of the Sigils. You start out with only the Jammer, to disable barriers and hazards such as turrets or bombs. As you collect Sigils you unlock the Connector, to redirect beams of energy—red or blue depending on the emitter; the Fan, to lift yourself and objects off the ground or propel you across distances; the Playback terminal, to record yourself performing actions and then generate a recording-clone to perform them (my favourite tool); and finally the Platfom, which you’ll never use on your own but with a Playback clone.

For some QR codes you need to be very crafty!
For some QR codes you need to be very crafty!

Talos’ rooms are all about logic and experimentation to reach your goal. You’ll jam doors so you can pass beams through them, overlap red and blue beams without crossing them, lift Connectors on boxes so they reach enough height to redirect beams even across challenge rooms or all the above using the Playback terminal. As you progress the challenge ramps up and it’s such a joy to complete the hard rooms. After playing so many inventory-based games in the past few years, I sincerely missed logical ones and that’s what Talos offers. It’s about logic but also creativity, to think outside the box and find the solution that best works for you.

Completing each room’s puzzle is hard enough but there are also Stars spread across the levels and you need 10 of them at a time to open the star doors in every tower and reach special closed-off worlds with greater challenges. Some star puzzles are straightforward, a variation on the room’s theme and goal, but others will blow your mind with their complexity. One in particular, involving some pillars and buttons, was extremely challenging to figure out. Finally, there are Sigil puzzles, where you arrange a set number of the Tetris blocks together to form a square or rectangle. The first ones are simple but they too become increasingly challenging as you progress through the game.

If there is one flaw to the game it’s the hint system. In some rooms you can find a little shrine where you can ask for help, but unless you’ve woken the messengers up by visiting their home simulations, you won’t get any. It fits into the simulation world’s myth, but the tool you need to unlock them is in the third tower so you’re going to spend a long time without any help from a guardian angel.

The upside is you’ll often find QR codes across the levels and challenge rooms, telling you more about those that came before you, the world and the puzzles themselves. Some are very cryptic, but they can offer significant help if you read carefully. You can even leave your own messages for your friends to find, but these are just random phrases generated from the documents you read and your conversations with the Library Assistant. Some are deep, some are fun and others are just right down silly. “Frogs are people too!” is my favourite.

DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!!! Overlap them instead!
DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS!!! Overlap them instead!

The fact I mention challenge rooms might make it seem like they’re closed-off, claustrophobic, but you’d be wrong to assume that. Environments in Talos Principle are astoundingly beautiful. The first area is comprised of ruins, true, but there is lush vegetation, sandy and rocky beaches, vast expanses of water and detailed constructions that leave you in awe. The Egyptian one is straight out of your wildest archaeological dreams. And the last one makes you feel in Camelot…if it had lasers and turrets. Even outside the simulated levels, the temple-like lobbies are phenomenal and are in stark contrast to the rusting metal of the towers and the lifeless frozen expanse where they all stand. The visuals in Talos tell as much a story as the documents and voice-overs.

Speaking of voices, you only ever hear Elohim and Alexandra but the voice acting is superb. Elohim is grandiose and imposing, and Alexandra is as human as you can get. It’s her voice that carried me through the journey that is the Talos Principle, even if at times she broke my heart. In terms of music, from the simple melodies to the Latin religious choirs, it’s all amazing. At times when I played Alexandras recordings, there were sweet gentle melodies in the background that seemed both uplifting and saddening at the same time, depending on what she said. Maybe it was the location’s music—her messages mute all other sound effects—or maybe it came with the time capsule, but either way, the music moved me.

These get really difficult later in the game
Is it just me who thought of The Mummy after looking at this?
Life lessons right there!
Names are indeed a funny thing. TMA could well stand for Tested Mature Avocados!
Simba, Everything the light touches is our Kingdom!
Handsome bot with a badass axe!
The nature of humanity and civilisation!
Beautiful castle
This is the only complaint I have of the game!
You can find messages your friends leave!
There are some cool easter eggs in this game!
Documents in terminals can be very philosophical
Croteam has good comedy taste!

Conclusion

The Talos Principle is not only about amazing puzzles, but also about a very human story in a game where you never see one of our species. Instead, you feel the impact they had on the world.

TMA SCORE:

5/5 – Hell Yes!

First Look: iZombie

iZombie is a supernatural procedural drama airing on the CW, featuring a zombie partnering with a detective to solve murders. It’s an adaptation of the Chris Roberson and Michael Allred comic of the same name, but only in the loosest of terms.

Genre(s): Procedural

Created By: Rob Thomas

Network: The CW

Air Date: Ongoing (Airs Tuesdays)

Good:

  • Interesting twist on the genre.

  • Rose McIver’s performance.

  • Ravi & Liv have wonderful chemistry.

Bad:

  • Forgettable secondary characters.

  • Deus-ex-machina abuse.

  • Some tired tropes.

Review

The series stars Rose McIver as Liv Moore, a former cardiac resident turned into a Zombie during a party. With her now unhealthy appetite for brains, she abandons her job and takes a position at the Seattle Coroner’s office. The job gives her access to fresh brains to keep her hunger at bay and humanity in check, but if she feeds, she takes on some of the victims’ personality traits and last memories. While working with Detective Babinaux (Malcolm Goodwin) she and her boss, Ravi (Rahul Kohli), claim she’s a psychic to explain he sudden visions.

The premise itself isn’t bad. It’s certainly more interesting than most procedurals and modern Zombie series. It has a lot of style and manages to keep itself silly even with the somewhat dark subjects it handles. And it has to be said, the comic-style intro and scene transitions are awesome! But it depends on Deus-Ex-Machina a bit too much, on Liv getting a vision or hulking-out (more on that later) at just the right time to solve murders or catch the criminals.

The intro panels are really fun!
The intro panels are really fun!

The episodes follow the standard procedural formula: victim, investigation, culprit apprehended. The twist is Liv eats chunks of the victim’s brains to get the visions they need to get the criminal. Along the way they deal with some of Liv’s family and romantic issues—which to me, considering she’s a zombie, feels kinda icky. But while she is the protagonist, I would love it if they explored Ravi & the Detective’s lives as well, to help us form a connection with them. Episode 4 makes some headway on this but only because it’s case-related.

So far, the episodes have stuck to the above formula down to the letter and including some voice-over commentary from Liv, which actually works in the series’ favour as it makes her an even more compelling character. When you’re supernatural, it helps to have something to connect you with us normal folk.

It’s impressive how McIver portrays the different personality traits she inherits from the brains she eats. Her boss Ravi provides the much-needed comedic relief, acting as the mad scientist, studying his zombie employee. The two actors have wonderful chemistry so their scenes are always a joy to watch. On the other hand, there isn’t any chemistry between them and the Detective, making all his scenes drag on more than they should. It doesn’t help the fact that he’s stuck in a very tired trope: the Detective using a disreputable source of information because it works. It’s been done before, masterfully so in series like Psych, but it hinges on the chemistry, which we’ve established is non-existent, and the performances. I have to give it to Malcolm Goodwin, his portrayal is very good. You can feel the stress his character deals with every day.

I was surprised at how good a villain he is!
I was surprised at how good a villain he is!

They seem to be putting David Anders’ character up to be the big bad of the season and at first I didn’t feel it, he felt less of an evil mastermind and more a bumbling sleazeball—much like he is in all his other roles. But then he zombified a one-night-stand, extorted her and has been shown to mercilessly kill people, so I quickly changed my mind! I especially like his scenes with Liv, how he tries to both get into her good graces and still manipulate her. Their Zombie-shop-talk is lovely.

The rest of the cast, however, is entirely forgettable. Even the room-mate and ex-fiancé are bland and uninteresting. Liv’s mother is the cliché overbearing mother, his brother is the cliché annoying teenage brother and so on. It’s still early in the series, I know, but the characterisation is just too weak on the secondary characters.

It’s very early to tell just how deep the ‘lore’ is. Zombies all have chalk-white skin and ash-blond hair…and no one comments on this. I’d say that’s a dead giveaway that something is definitely wrong with you. The way they feed to keep the zombie-urges at bay and keep their humanity is a bit too Vampire-y for my tastes, but it’s not bad, though I wish they explored how other Zombies react to the brain eating—is it just Live who gets a personality shift and memories or do they all? In certain situations they can ‘hulk-out’ and become unstoppable killing machines but so far it’s just another example of Deus-ex-Machina. It’s not something Liv has to struggle with, to keep at bay, but something that happens at the most convenient moment. I wish they had used it as an avenue for character growth.

Best scenes in every episode!
Best scenes in every episode!

Conclusion

So far, I’m on the fence with iZombie but the good outweighs the bad. It has an interesting premise, oozes style, Liv is a strong character and her scenes with Ravi are so fun—and good at world building—they overcome some of the series’ deficiencies.

Do note that is just a first impression based on 4 episodes.

TMA SCORE:

4/5 – Exceptional

First Look: Powers

Adapting the Brian Michael Bendis comic by the same name and set in a superhero-filled world, Powers stars the Detectives from the Powers Division, the ones tasked with dealing with superhuman crimes.

Genre(s): Sci-Fi

Created By: Brian Michael Bendis | Charlie Huston

Network: Playstation Network

Air Date: Ongoing (Airs Tuesdays)

Good:

  • Interesting world.

  • Unique spin on procedurals.

Bad:

  • Bad plot and pacing.

  • Abominable performances.

  • Clichéd characters.

Review

I first heard of this series during 2014’s E3. I wasn’t thrilled about the PSN exclusivity, but didn’t know enough about the comic to actually care that much.

In a departure from my usual 3-episode limit for first looks, I saw more than half of Powers’ current season, up to the latest one (6/10) and getting there was as struggle.

I like the premise. I’m not a fan of procedurals, having seen so many in my life that the genre bores me on principle alone. But the idea of cops dealing with superhuman criminals and sometimes working along the superheroes, aka Powers, is extremely appealing. Add a former-Power protagonist and you should have enough to make me jump for joy. So why didn’t powers do that for me? Well, several reasons in fact.

The cast...only the one in the garish spandex does a good job!
The cast…only the one in the garish spandex does a good job!

First are the characters. Procedurals hinge on their likeability, on the chemistry between the partners and on how much you can relate to the things they go through. Powers fails on every mark. Sharlto Copley can’t manage a single emotion as Christian Walker, he has the same expression for happiness, sadness and everything in between. I only found his anger convincing and only because of the Batman-factor: snarling voice and scowl. As a former superhero—now depowered—he should be our bridge between the regular folk and the Powers, to help us understand them all. But his inability to display any emotion makes it impossible to connect with him.

But it’s not just the abominable performances but also the direction and editing for the show. During the first couple of scenes, his partner dies and instead of showing him grieving and thus making him human enough to relate to, they show him watching the news with extreme indifference and then going back to work as if nothing had happened.

Asking for information on the witness they already lost twice in as many episodes!
Asking for information on the witness they already lost twice in as many episodes!

Walker’s partner is the stereotypical hard-ass female cop. She is unwavering, uncompromising and the only things she’s capable of are sarcasm and aggression. The rest of the police are a forgettable bunch, so much so that after six episodes I couldn’t remember any of their names. They are all tired clichés: the brash younger cop, the ball-busting female detective, the old-timer only six months away from retirement and afraid to die before he gets there. Beyond quips and vain attempts at cheap laughs, there is no depth to them.

And if this wasn’t bad enough, there is absolutely no chemistry between any of the characters. It’s forgivable for Walker & his partner, because they start out disliking each other but not even when they ‘make up’ do you feel any rapport between them, and it’s on their relationship that the entire thing hangs on.

The ‘main’ superhero present in the series so far is Retro Girl and she’s just as unlikeable as the rest, though for her you can tell—because there has to be at least one good performance—that it’s because of years on the job and keeping a nice public image, as Powers are both heroes and celebrities.

Oh Eddie, why did you sign up for this?
Oh Eddie, why did you sign up for this?

The supervillains lack punch and the producers/directors seem to be at a loss as to whether humanise them or show how dangerous they are. And it shows in the performances. I’ve seen Eddie Izzard play bad guys before and he’s lovely at it, but in Powers I hated his scenes. You can see Izzard struggle to make the character monstrous and pitiful at the same time. Rule of thumb: establish one aspect of the character before you add to it. Otherwise, it’s confusing for the audience—and the actors.

It’s the same problem with the ‘secondary’ villain, Johnny Royalle (Noah Taylor). Introduced as a cunning and ruthless crime lord, the characterisation derails the second the arc’s McGuffin, Calista, comes in to play. They try to show you he’s not truly evil by having him care for the girl—some of it due to his very weak backstory—but much like Wolfe’s (Izzard) case, they also want him to remain ruthless, leading to one inconsistent performance after another. The emotional scenes are worse as Noah Taylor is incapable of crying on demand, leading to mawkish expressions at best. The scenes between him and Izzard during Wolfe’s escape are appalling.

You can tell this a promotional image because he's smiling!
You can tell this a promotional image because he’s smiling!

But these are examples of another issue the show has: indeterminate tone. Powers doesn’t know what it wants to be, if comedic or dark. It tries to do both and doesn’t quite accomplish it. Wolfe’s escape is a clear example. Police banter is well and good but when you have the Detectives exploring a superhuman prison looking for the escaped supervillain, you want tension, not two Detectives having fun talking about their love lives. The tone of their conversation doesn’t match that of the episode or even the scene. Comic books are very good at tonal shifts within stories, but they are very difficult to do right on TV.

The plot for this first story arc revolves around the drug Sway. Its first victim is one of Walker’s close friends in his superhero days—not that he shows any sign of feeling anything—and the one witness is the woman he slept with, the wannabe Calista. The investigation, which is central to the first season’s plot and takes up most of the six episodes I saw, goes nowhere and when it does, it’s in circles and muddled by unnecessary subplots with Walker’s dead partner’s son and Walker’s relationship with Retro Girl. Powers wants to do too much at the same time and because of it, the pacing suffers. The episodes are slow and tend to go nowhere. Episodes four and five, Wolfe’s escape, finally start moving things along, but by episode six, the progress once again stops dead in its tracks.

What should've been a simple witness turns into the central focus...and it's a horrendous character.
What should’ve been a simple witness turns into the central focus…and it’s a horrendous character.

The series overreaches with its considerably low budget—you can tell from the minimalistic set/costume design. Understandably, they will want to show the heroes fighting but good low-budget shows know that less is more, the less you show, the more convincing you can be. The people behind Powers didn’t learn that lesson and the first thing they show you is a superpowered fight in the sky with extremely cheap CGI. They follow that up a few episodes later with Zora, the coloured-light flinging superhuman. It’s bad. I haven’t seen CGI this bad since Once Upon a Time in Wonderland!

A couple more points, one of which is pure nitpicking: First, they should have invested in some tactical training for their actors. The way they move in pairs or teams while exploring the super-prison is amateurish: they would sometimes walk side by side, point their guns in near each other’s faces, there’s even one of them holding two handguns, which no one actually does. Second, they should’ve hired some choreographers! Those fight scenes are atrocious. Powers will forever be the series that bored me—or confused if we count the nonsensical Walker/Wolfe fight—with superhuman combat.

Powers' version of Batman...is actually not bad!
Powers’ version of Batman…is actually not bad!

Conclusion

With more than half of its season aired, there’s very little that can save this series. Bad direction, casting, performances and a mess of a plot killed what could have been another great comic adaptation.

TMA SCORE:

1/5 – Oh Hell No!

Review: The Room & The Room Two

If you read my Rezzed coverage you’ll know some of the best games there were those from Fireproof Games: Omega Agent and The Room Three, and that thanks to them, I discovered The Room One & Two.

Genre(s): Puzzle | Horror

Developer: Fireproof Games

Publisher: Fireproof Games

Release Date: The Room September 2012 | The Room Two December 2013

Played: Full playthrough, both games

Platforms: iOS & Android

Purchase At: The Room: iOS, Android, Steam 

The Room Two: iOS, Android

Good:

  • Amazing visuals.

  • Challenging puzzles.

  • Terrific atmosphere.

Bad:

  • Uncomfortable to play on mobile phones.

Review

The Room and The Room Two are puzzle-centric adventure games. As your almost silent protagonist you progress through a series of rooms solving intricate puzzles and slowly piecing the story of your predecessor’s research into the Null Element, a strange and otherworldly material and power source that slowly draws people close to it mad. During the events of the first game you’re following your friend’s footsteps, opening a puzzle box that draws you ever closer to the Null. During The Room Two however, you travel to rooms used by others who discovered the element, trying to escape from the endless maze of rooms and puzzles. The Room series, as stated by the developers themselves, is light on plot and following it will depend on each player—and they expect most to ignore the story altogether.

The Room revolves around giant puzzle-boxes, one per chapter. Each of them has multiple puzzles to solve, ranging from inventory to deduction, and solving one will open the way to another or give you an important item needed to complete yet another puzzle. The game starts you off easily but soon enough drops you into the deep end and you’ll have only your wit—and the useful hint system—to help you solve the puzzles.

Don't get used to the tutorial, it won't last long!
Don’t get used to the tutorial, it won’t last long!

One of my favourite boxes is also one of the last in the game, where you have puzzles on the side that open as you find ways to generate and reflect light. They’re all wonderfully intricate and the way solving one puzzle opens up the others in a chain reaction is fantastic. I still replay this segment every so often.

This game is where you can most clearly see the Chinese Puzzle-boxes that inspired the development—as well as the Hellraiser elements that inspired the tone and atmosphere.

You learn plot elements through other people's notes and letters!
You learn plot elements through other people’s notes and letters!

The Room Two expands on its predecessors offering larger rooms with multiple locations and puzzles to complete. These puzzles become increasingly complex. One of the early rooms is a pirate ship and it took me the longest to complete of all of them, but every time I pulled a puzzle off I felt like a genius…until the next one stumped me.

The controls are very simple, consisting of just swipes and taps, but everything from turning a key to pulling open a drawer controls smoothly. To use the inventory items, you can tap for a closer look (needed, as some items are themselves puzzles) or drag them to use.

You also have a special lens. You find it in The Room and in its sequel, you first need to repair it before putting it to use. The Lens shows you hidden messages and lets you see and interact through objects made from the Null element. If you see an iridescent object or surface, then it’s time to pull out the lens! Point-of-view puzzles using the lens feature heavily in both games, so you first use it to make random symbols visible, and then rotate the camera to form numbers or letters with them.

I do wish the lids on objects opened automatically or with a tap. I was playing on my mobile, with very little surface area so I always had issues with lids. This was a game developed for tablets and while you can play it on mobile phones, I wouldn’t really recommend it. You’ll often squint or tap like crazy to find small hotspots and it gets a bit uncomfortable. Dragging items to hotspots proved a challenge as well, as the aspect ratio made it so my—admittedly chubby—fingers completely covered the item, so I couldn’t see if the item was useful in a given situation or not at all. And it might be my mobile, but playing the game violently drained the battery.

The lens reveals things hidden to the naked eye!
The lens reveals things hidden to the naked eye!

Visually it’s impressive, perhaps the best-looking game I’ve ever played on mobile. They’re the type of visuals you expect from a PC game. Puzzle boxes and rooms are intricately detailed and there are tons of tiny elements that bring rooms to life, from delicate wine glasses on a table to hay and cannonballs in the pirate room. The Room Two even features a full cinematic ending that before playing I didn’t ever expect to see running on my mobile.

In terms of sound, both Room games have wonderful soundtracks. The main theme for the games has become of my favourite videogame pieces, both soothing and eerie at the same time if you can believe it. Speaking of eerie that’s the music’s direction in each room. It can be as subtle as a single tone, almost a whistle, to more intense pieces, often with dissonant cords to take you over the creepy edge into disturbing. It all plays fantastically into the madness theme and with the visuals and the sound effects—creaking boards, whispers, and even footsteps—they all make up this lovely atmosphere of fear. I sincerely recommend playing this game with full volume. If you don’t you won’t get the true experience.

Sometimes, items are puzzles as well!
Sometimes, items are puzzles as well!

Conclusion

With The Room Three soon to hit the Apple App Store, now is the time for you to go play these two games. They are outstanding puzzlers with an intriguing plot. If you’re like me and you love a brainteaser, then you’ll enjoy The Room and The Room Two

TMA SCORE:

5/5 – Hell Yes!

Review: The 100 Season Two

A couple of days ago I reviewed the first season of The CWs adaptation of the Kass Morgan novel, The 100. It’s time to take a look at the 2nd one!

Genre(s): Sci-Fi

Created By: Jason Rothenberg

Network: The CW

Air Date: Season 3 begins this Fall

Good:

  • Outstanding performances.

  • Terrific season plot.

  • Amazing visual design.

Bad:

  • Poor overall characterization.

  • Thelonius sub-plot.

  • Far-fetched ‘science’.

Review

The 100 season 2 picks immediately after the previous season’s finale. The 100 defeat he grounder forces, but the Mountain Men—those living in Mount Weather—soon capture them. While some left for space, others stayed behind in bunkers protecting them from the radiation. Mount Weather is one such place. They welcome The 100—or The 47 as they call them this season. But Clarke suspects something’s off with these bunker people.

And man is she right!

The first thing I have to say about The 100 Season 2 is how much I loved the visual design of it. The people of the Ark are on Earth and they’ve made their own makeshift camp around their landing zone, the look of it an amped up version of The 100 camp, with makeshift structures but a badass electric fence and gate. Mount Weather has a definite Americana feel to it while still being extremely oppressive, with its secret bunker door and tight hallways. The Ton DC village and other Grounder settlements tell you so much about their civilisation.

The bunker even has an All-American President!
(Image Credit: The CW) The bunker even has an All-American President!

Second thing is that this season took the time to both show and explain how the hell Grounder culture works, helping to explain why they’re all so crazy for battle and eager to go Friday the 13th on the Sky People—yet another unoriginal name. Really, this show’s greatest weakness is in naming crap.

The overall plot of the season involves Mount Weather and its questionable practices towards both Grounders and Ark-folk—I refuse to call them Sky People—and Clarke doing her very best to forge an alliance and still remain human in the face of hard choices. In terms of character growth, hers is the best, closely followed by Octavia’s warrior journey. Bellamy has calmed down and become more level-headed since last season but it was now Finn’s turn to lose all his marbles and become the new resident douchenugget. You know you’re a complete bastard when Murphy is telling you you’re crossing a line.

Indra is one badass character!
(Image Credit: The CW) Indra is one badass character!

My two favourite characters this season were Maya and Jasper, the latter one of the original 100s, and the first guy to get crucified by Grounders—he got better—and the former one of the Mount Weather people. At first, you think she’s an enemy but you slowly see more sides to her until she’s one of the best in the season.

Aside from those characters I’ve mentioned, the ever badass Licoln and the newcomer female Grounders, Indra and The Commander—who’s an outstanding character—I pretty much hated all characterization in this season of The 100. The Ark people are asinine, completely disregarding the kids’ accomplishments and treat them like children. They spend the entire first season seeing this kids survive impossible situations and even state how proud they are of them, but the first thing Kane says when meeting them is “You are not in control anymore!”. Clarke’s mother is the worst of the bunch. She constantly tries to be the protective parent to a child she essentially sent to her death on the ground and then harshly judges her for making some of the same choices she made as a leader on the Ark. But it does lead to one of the most amazing lines in the entire season, from Clarke to her: “You may be the Chancellor, but I am in charge!”

The Commander is one of the most compelling characters this season!
(Image Credit: The CW) The Commander is one of the most compelling characters this season!

Speaking of Kane, he goes back to being a complete ass for the first few episodes, even going so far as flogging Clarke’s mum with a taser, but then becomes a really nice guy again and remains that way for the rest of the season. It’s the Ark’s original Chancellor, Thelonius, who gets a permanent spot on the douchenugget fun train, leading to one of the strangest, most convoluted, contrived and harebrained character and plot developments in any TV series to date, with him first riding a missile to Earth and then taking a handful or survivors and Murphy across the desert to find the promised land, all while acting like he’s freaking Moses. Every scene with him will have you asking “What?” as it becomes more and more surreal. It’s the kind of stuff you’d expect from dream sequences or after a character has a psychotic break during the previous season. By the season finale, it broke my Bullshit Tolerance Threshold—or my suspension of disbelief, use whatever term you prefer.

Having said so, the performances are good all around, though the Grounder actors could’ve showed a bigger range of emotions. Resting Bitch Face is their default mode. I wanted to see some of them at least crack a smile that wasn’t cruel or scary. They’re stoic and humourless for the entire season. It’s not their fault because I know Adina Porter—you’ll recognise her from her True Blood days—is a terrific actress, and even though she barely shows any emotion, she manages to convey just how strong her character, Indra, is. It’s the same with Alycia Debnam Carey’s Lexa, the Commander for the Grounder forces, but in her case, the lack of emotion is fully explored through her interactions with Clarke and you can understand it. In fact, I give Alycia full props because she manages to portray the character’s emotions with just her eyes.

Grounder punishments are severe!
(Image Credit: The CW) Grounder punishments are severe!

If you thought The 100 Season 1 was a dark show, you haven’t seen anything. This one goes so dark I’m tempted to call it evil. People die by the scores, some are tortured and others die slow and painful deaths, though a lot of those really deserve it. The season finale has a fantastic climax and things end in a believable way for Clarke…and completely off the rails BS for Thelonius. They should’ve let that character die in peace.

Aside from the characterization and the Thelonius messiah plotline, this is the season that got a bit over the top with the Sci part of Sci-Fi. What the Mountain Men do to stay alive will have you react like “Holy s***!” before you realise it’s complete nonsense. What they do to the 47 afterwards is beyond that and well into poppycock territory.

Finn (on the left) dives head-first into the super fun slide of evil!
(Image Credit: The CW) Finn (on the left) dives head-first into the super fun slide of evil!

Conclusion

Even with all I’ve said above, this is a very strong season. The main storyline, characters and pacing overcome some of the more glaring deficiencies.

TMA SCORE:

4/5 – Exceptional

Review: Monument Valley

Monument Valley is a puzzle game for iOS & Android, in which you help a princess explore strange monuments left by her people, restoring them to power.

Genre(s): Puzzle

Developer: ustwo

Publisher: ustwo

Release Date: April 2014

Played: Main Story + Expansion

Platforms: iOS & Android

Purchase At: Apple App Store, Google Play

Good:

  • Beautiful visuals.

  • Music part of gameplay.

  • Amazing use of perspective.

Bad:

  • Too short.

Review

I first heard about this game during this year’s BAFTAs, where they nominated it in pretty much every category. It won the Best British Game and Mobile & Handheld awards. Once I finished watching the awards, I decided to buy the game on the Google Play Store and I even got the expansion pack.

As this is a mobile game, you control everything through taps and swipes. You tap on the screen to where you want the princess to move and you swipe to interact with the environment. There are cranks to turn, and segments of the environment with small stubs on them that you can move horizontally, vertically or even rotate the stage, to help the princess move along the monuments. Each level ends when you approach a certain tile and the character places an increasingly intricate geometrical piece on it, the Sacred Geometry, which is central to the plot, which I won’t comment on due to its simplicity. Anything I say will ruin it for you.

Some stages shift around and rotate, showing new rooms and puzzles.
Some stages shift around and rotate, showing new rooms and puzzles.

The mechanics are simple but the stages will take some trial and error as you learn to properly navigate them and make use of the different movable pieces. I’m certain one of the inspirations for this game were the works of M.C. Escher, as you have to take perspective into consideration. For example, something that is far away can be an adjacent platform if you turn the camera in a particular way. Perspective is central to many of the Monuments. There is one in particular where a door takes you to another one, placed in a different perspective so that now you’re walking on what you thought was a vertical wall. At certain times I had to turn my mobile around just to see things from the character’s new point of view. It was these moments, when the game took perception into consideration, where it truly shined for me and left me awed.

The Forgotten Shores expansion adds new levels and different mechanics, such as these twisty corridors.
The Forgotten Shores expansion adds new levels and different mechanics, such as these twisty corridors.

It’s difficult to talk about Monument Valley’s sound as a separate thing to gameplay. There is a soundtrack and the music is beautiful and ranges from subtle soothing melodies to haunting ones and even some upbeat adventure-y tunes, but also every stage is essentially a giant music box and interacting with them generates its own music, from pulling cranks to pressing a button that shifts the entire stage around. It’s almost as if by playing, you’re composing the stage’s music. It didn’t matter what level it was, this always made me smile.

I do wish the stages were longer. This is a game, like many mobile ones, meant for short play bursts and as such, the different monuments take at most ten minutes to complete. The Lost Shore—the 8 level expansion—has longer levels but still not long enough. It doesn’t detract from the marvellous experience, but it did leave me wanting more. Some of the later stages get complicated but as an experienced adventure gamer used to intricate puzzles, I felt as though the game could’ve given me much more than it did.

The visuals are minimalistic but gorgeous. Each monument is a work of art—if I could I would frame and hang them on my wall—that would make M.C. Escher blush, and it’s a joy to watch these music puzzle boxes change and move around to reveal new rooms and alcoves. The developers at ustwo must’ve known this because they added a camera mode for you to turn the world around however you want for screenshots. They even built in some of the more popular Instagram filters.

Conclusion

Monument Valley is a wonderful game, one of the best mobile games I’ve ever played and while I do wish there was much more and a higher difficulty, what is there is breathtaking and you should all play the game right now!

TMA SCORE:

5/5 – Hell Yes!

Review: The 100 Season One

Last year I said on social media that The 100 was a terrible show. I saw the first few episodes of this loose adaptation of Kass Morgan’s novel, and I wasn’t even remotely impressed. This year, my brother-in-law convinced me to give it another shot, as it had become one of his favourites. Having nothing else to do, I did as he asked and watched the first season on Netflix.

I was wrong and he was right.

Genre(s): Sci-Fi

Created By: Jason Rothenberg

Network: The CW

Air Date: Season 3 begins this Fall

Good:

  • Strong writing and acting.

  • Fantastic visual design.

  • Doesn’t shy away from dark stories.

Bad:

  • Terrible pilot.

  • Unoriginal terms and names.

  • Grounder plot could’ve used some work.

Review

After a Nuclear war the Earth became an uninhabitable radioactive dump, forcing humanity into space stations that over time join to form the unoriginally named Ark. The Ark holds the last vestiges of humanity as they wait until such a time as they can return home. To make sure everyone works for the community, all crimes are punishable by ‘Floating’, which in The 100 is code for “we’ll shoot you out of an airlock!” That is unless you’re a minor, in which case they lock up you for a few months.

That’s what the eponymous 100 are—One hundred criminal kids. With the Ark’s resources dwindling and life support slowly failing, the Ark Council decides to send the 100 to Earth, to check if the planet can support life. For all the 100 know, it’s a death sentence in a radioactive wasteland. Instead, they find an almost pristine, nature-retaken planet. They land in a lush forest.

Humanity's last hope, a rust bucket!
Humanity’s last hope, a rust bucket!

But it’s not the Earth itself that starts killing them like teenagers in a slasher movie, but their neighbours, the unoriginally named ‘Grounders’, Viking-like people living on the ground since the time the first humans left for space, surviving and adapting to their new world.

The 100 doesn’t have the strongest opening. The reason for sending the kids down is a bit contrived—and might as well be “just because”—and the status quo and relationships and conflicts between the kids are ridiculous, just episodes of leadership and domination battles between Belamy and Clarke. But to balance that out, they introduce the Grounders and the threat they pose and don’t abandon the Ark storylines, showing you how things degrade in space and revealing some of the more heinous acts the leadership has committed to keep things stable. And of course, they start killing the kids off. It doesn’t take long for there not to be a hundred of them. This is a show that goes dark very often and I’m glad it does.

Everything on the ground you see from the 100’s point of view, in that unless one of them is present in the scene, you don’t learn of the world around them. It’s a very good approach as it keeps the mystery for as long as possible. On the Ark on the other hand you see things from many points of view, learning just how crappy life in space can be.

There's lots this season you just don't see coming!
There’s lots this season you just don’t see coming!

But what finally hooked me on The 100 were the characters. One you move past the annoying leadership and faction nonsense, characters really start developing, and you learn their origins and their fears and you see them growing out of them or falling deeper down the super-fun-slide of psychosis. Even the characters you think are complete bastards turn out to have a lot of depth and become relatable. Marcus Kane, a council member and head of security on the Ark is an example—he becomes less of a murderous antagonist as the season goes by. On the ground the equivalent is Belamy, at first an idiot taking command of the 100’s makeshift camp—built around their dropship—and later becoming one of the best characters in the series. Clarke goes from determined young woman to the absolute leader of the group, crossing more and more lines as she’s forced to do what’s necessary to survive. And then there are Finn and Murphy. Finn is the absolute good guy in the first season, always taking the high road, and Murphy’s the complete opposite, a unforgivable monster of a kid, for lack of a better term that is still polite among company. Oh, screw it! He’s a douchenugget from start to finish.

In terms of visual design—a term I find very strange to use outside of a video game—they do a bang up job with the Ark, making it look futuristic and still derelict—steel corridors with scorch marks and emergency welds. The Ark people dress mostly in hand-me-down rags, which they are. If you die, your stuff goes to the community and it made me feel a bit weird that they’re all wearing dead people’s clothing. This is not high-tech, with lasers and super-science but the “we’re barely keeping things together” kind of Sci-Fi. The technological level isn’t very high and things usually get resolved the medieval way—with copious amounts of threats and violence. On the ground, it’s all wilderness and shacks, a mix of survivor and Mad Max. Things are gritty, deadly and people die every episode in horribly painful ways—the acid cloud being the worst to be honest—but there are also beautiful landscapes and bright open areas, giving you a sense of awe every so often to break the tension, making the next emotional moment much more intense.

This is the evil kid, Murphy!
This is the evil kid, Murphy!

The performances are strong all around…after the pilot. We’ve established that the start is atrocious but it does get better. Eliza Taylor’s performance as Clarke is phenomenal and she’s one of the most believable actors in the show. Bob Morley’s and Marie Avgeropoulos are equally strong as the Blake twins, Bellamy and Octavia. The latter in particular becomes one of the strongest characters in the show. It was a surprise to see Dichen Lachman in the 100 as Anya, one of the Grounder leaders. She and Tristan (Joseph Gatt) become the main antagonists for the season, leading the grounder forces in attacking The 100 camp. On the Ark, Henry Ian Cusick is outstanding as Kane and I immediately recognized Jean Paige Turco, who playes Clarke’s sometimes-annoying but just as badass mum.

The conflict with the Grounder is the season’s main plot, but don’t expect any deep reason behind it. The Grounders hunt and kill The 100 because they’re in their territory and being the stereotypical Vikings they are, they can’t see that it’s a bunch of kids and start picking them up with greater efficiency and zeal than Jason Voorhees.The only character from this group not to show this level of tunnel vision is Octavia’s love interest, Lincoln, one of the most badass characters on TV—hands down.

I’m not a fan of the overall plot, as you can say the Grounders’ reason for attacking is “because.” The season gives you glimpses into who they are as a people but not enough to give their aggression a bit of much-needed context.

The 100 goes dark very often, including violence, murder and torture!
The 100 goes dark very often, including violence, murder and torture!

Conclusion

The 100 starts off weak, but once you get past the first set of episodes it all picks up significantly and keeps its pace and momentum all the way to the outstanding and intense season finale. With strong performances, beautiful landscapes and fantastic set design, this is a Sci-Fi series you should give a watch

TMA SCORE:

4/5 – Exceptional