To the people who got the God of War HD re-release bundle: now you’ve really done it. Apparently, the guys in charge up there got funny ideas and the market has just been hit with the fist wave of HD re-releases. So far, I count only 4 titles but because 3 of them are bundles, they total in 10 games! We got Beyond Good and Evil HD, Prince of Persia Trilogy HD
and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD
However, there is one thing I have to admit: I was one of the people, who got the God of War HD re-release. To be perfectly honest, I kinda enjoy them. They are a good opportunity to re-play and re-discover old gems. Unlike with old 2D games, there is not really a nostalgia associated with the 4:3 SD format. Features like achievements and a more steady frame-rate make it very easy to get into the games. I mean on top of the fact that you don’t even need to dust off that old PS2.
So I got Beyond Good and Evil HD and I started playing it. I got it back in the day as a bargain bin deal but never found the time to really dig into it. It’s a fascinating game, but I found it quite difficult to get used to it at first. The setting and mood seems all over the place. The fact that the story begins in media res adds insult to injury. “Um, sure, I will repair the hover-boat talking pig guy, right after I deal with that Spanish speaking hologram, I guess? Why is one of the children I need to save a goat? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!”.
But after a certain acclimatization period the charm and the depth of the game start kicking in. That’s where I’m at right now. I discover interesting mechanics and characters at every corner and I’m starting to feel the itch to find out how deep this rabbit hole goes. It feels like some wacky Bande Dessinée made into a game in every way. So far, there is just one downer. The game offers the possibility to “invert” the stick controls. But that inverts BOTH: the x-axis AND the y-axis. Luckily, the game isn’t really very difficult but that’s certainly a very frustrating detail. I hope the fix it eventually.
The other thing I picked up was the Prince of Persia HD Trilogy. It came with a sting of guilt since I already got a trilogy box for the PS2. But I didn’t have the opportunity to play the old box yet and the advantages of the HD re-release are just undeniable. I put it in real quick to see if it works. It does indeed and I will let you know when I have gained some more insights. Right now I want to give priority to Beyond Good and Evil.
I don’t think I will pick up the Tomb Raider HD Trilogy. It’s certainly yet another series I want to get into. But the series already went through so many remakes and reboots that I can’t seem to figure out where to start. I saw that the old PSX ports are out on PSN. For some reason, this seems straight-forward and thus more appealing to me than this re-released remake. My head is spinning.
The Splinter Cell trilogy is the one I can most easily skip although I keep in mind of the day I run out of games to play. Yeah. Like that will ever happen. Instead, I’m still waiting for that one HD re-release everybody else seems to be anxious to get their hands on: ICO / Shadow of The Colossus HD!
As long as you can enjoy it… The reason I’ve put down BGE in the past was because there was a quite nasty bug where you’d spend your pearls buying an item which wasn’t added to your inventory afterwards. That quite killed the mood, though I thought it was a nice game.