Strategy
Filter products
Close
-
-
Price range (£)
-
Fallout 3
The Fallout series has a long and beloved history with gamers and the latest in the series makes excellent first or third-person use of that tradition.
Set in a post-nuclear Apocalyptic dystopian future – in which everything has a slightly 1950s feel due to the fact that the bomb hit in... the 1950s – the game sees players first having to make their way out of the underground Vault 101 mini-city.
Using good solid RPG stat and inventory balancing that will appeal to lovers of detail, planning and strategy, Fallout 3 blends in first and third-person shooter style familiar to Call of Duty, GTA and Metal Gear Solid fans.
All of this is played out in a graphically rich open world. And if the visuals are not enough, then the atmospheric soundtrack will be enough to lure and then retain gamers of all tastes.
Once in, there are a series of side-quests than can be carried out to build up the points, experience and skills needed to complete the task of discovering what happened to your in-game father. He, like you, escaped Vault 101.
The less experienced shoot-'em-up player will also benefit from the ingenious targeting and combat system (V.A.T.S.) that adds in the playability of turn-based gaming to the fast-paced action of the traditional blaster. This is just one of the elements of a huge... no, vast gaming experience on console.£9.99 -
Hitman: HD Trilogy
IO Interactive's Hitman: Absolution is a big hit with the Xbox 360/PS3 generation, but whole swathes of them missed out on some of Agent 47's earlier escapades. This high definition collection of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money aims to rectify that situation.
In the second episode, we meet our intrepid assassin in a church on the Isle of Sicily. Codename 47 has been attempting to distance himself from his past, burying his career along with his identity. But his place of solitude is quickly discovered and Codename 47 is blackmailed into rejoining the criminal underworld of assassination. This time it's personal.
It's not an original story, but it's one that suits the setting of the game brilliantly. The tale spans some 20 objective and action-based missions, in which you must virtually travel the globe, meet with NPCs who speak in their native tongues (there are subtitles), guard your own life against hundreds of skilled assassins and become accustomed to library of deadly weapons such as sniper rifles and lethal explosives.
Hitman Contracts continues the cold-hearted and rather sinister traditions of the previous games, but don't mistake it for 'more of the same'. As well as delivering a host more brutal missions, the game also introduces a few new gameplay elements and visual overhauls.
The game kicks off in Paris as you find yourself wounded and trapped in some kind of asylum. From here the main task at hand is obviously to escape and, as with previous instalments in the series, there's more than one way to tackle the problem. Guns and ammo are not in short supply so the option of arming yourself to the teeth, taking the offensive and blasting your way right out of the front door is certainly not out of the question. However, the more stealthy approach can also prove handy - you've got your trusty wire for garrotting and you don't have to travel far before you find a willing volunteer with which to exchange clothing.
The rest of the game continues in similar style, with you travelling to various international locations and taking on a wide array of missions. In each case, you won't be surprised to hear that there's somebody or other who needs taking out - how you go about it is up to you. When you're infiltrating enemy territory it's often a good idea to take advantage of a recent victim's attire, but it's never too long before you're rumbled so be prepared to take part in some pretty large-scale shoot-outs.
Then, of course, there's Blood Money. When assassins from Agent 47’s contract killing firm The ICA are offed in a series of hits, it seems as though a more powerful agency has entered the fray. In an attempt to avoid the mortuary slab, Agent 47 travels to America – visiting and making money in places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Mississippi.
Agent 47 has a number of additional features, including the ability to dispose of bodies in boxes and enclosed spaces, as well as making hits look like accidents, such as by dropping a chandelier on a target’s head or using a remote bomb. Hitman: Blood Money also has a redesigned NPC and AI system. Gamers can use the cash raised from hits to bribe the press or to customise and upgrade weapons to suit their individual style of assassination.
Even if you are new to the Hitman series, don’t worry, because the game offers a new rookie mode, as well as various levels of difficulty, that will give players all the training needed to be a successful contract killer.£14.99 -
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Longtime Metal Gear fans might have been concerned that this spin-off could have been a thin, watery imitation. Within the first ten minutes of gameplay, you battle a modified Metal Gear Ray (!), run down the side of buildings (in an obvious nod to spiritual predecessor Bayonetta), hop over rockets and slice colossal mechs right in half. And that’s just the tutorial stage. So don't worry about things being dull.
There’s no doubt that Raiden makes you feel like a cool, techno-ninja badass right from the start. There’s also no arguing that, because of such aforementioned insanity, this has Platinum Games written all over it. While the gameplay mechanics and controls have a great amount of depth, the learning curve and impressive presentation makes you feel like a bona fide gaming wizard before things really hit the fan.
It all involves an organisation known as Desperado Enforcement LLC and its association with a cyborg terrorist uprising led by a rather nasty chap called Dolzaev. At the beginning of the game, Desperado’s cyborg samurai attack a convoy that Raiden (and the “private security firm” that he is enlisted in, Maverick) is protecting and leaves our hero for dead. So there’s bad blood between the two parties, for sure.
For anyone who’s familiar with Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising’s brand of gameplay pacing will not be such an obstacle. But there are many design and control traits that make Raiden’s game his very own, and it all comes down to his cybernetic abilities and swordplay. By holding L1 to run, you can automatically hop and slide through intricate areas of a stage, while it also allows you to deflect standard enemy bullets.
There are many nods, winks and blatant references to the Metal Gear franchise in Rising. The Codec is still present and correct (and a bit easier to navigate this time too), and VR missions can be discovered throughout the game to tackle at your own pace. There’s a fair bit of Metal Gear lore in there too, with references to Legionnaires to name but one spoiler-free example. Even a bizarre sense of humour, worthy of Kojima, is in there - Raiden in a sombrero? You better believe it.
Such franchise favourites are fused with Platinum’s unique presentation style to create something that’s the best of both worlds - a story-led Metal Gear game with the flair and fast-paced action that Platinum is best known for.£14.99 Buy Now -
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is either a brilliant idea or a totally bizarre one, depending on which way you tilt your head when you look at it. On the one hand, the game has its roots in a casual strategy title that's designed to be easy to pick up and play - that doesn't scream 'make a third-person shooter based on the Battlefield engine out of me!' On the other, the franchise is about plants and zombies trying to blast each other apart, so you can kind of see where EA is coming from.
The game is multiplayer only, with not even a half-baked attempt to introduce a campaign or solo play in a multiplayer style. It's all about taking on other players. And, of course, it wouldn't be much of a multiplayer shooter without direct competition, so in a break from previous games the zombies are playable for the first time.
The two sides are divided up into classes, with different weapons and styles for each side. For example, the Sunflower heals for the Plants, while the Scientist will do this job for the Zombies. The former heals with a beam of sunshine, while the latter uses a fire hydrant filled with purple goo. That gives you a bit of a taste of the strangeness you can expect to see on the screen at any given moment! The differing weapons means different tactics will be needed for each side, too, making for a deeper experience than you might expect.
This might sound like a bonkers idea for a shooter, but with such a strong pedigree behind it it could be the bridge between casual audiences and the FPS hardcore.£14.99 -
Tom Clancy's EndWar
It's war, folks, but not as we know it.
We spend all our lives worrying about when it was actually going to happen and then one sunny Spring afternoon Ubisoft went and casually announced it with Tom Clancy's EndWar! Doesn't really seem such a big deal, this World War Three after all!
Except the title 'EndWar' seems to suggest otherwise. Getting amongst it at the end of the world are three factions to play as: U.S. Joint Strike Force, European Enforcers and Russian Spetsnaz. Yup, them pesky Russians. Russia makes a return to the status of Big Bad in EndWar, as quadrupled oil prices elevate it back to the status of superpower.
Ubisoft plans to put you right in amongst it, too. Ditching the traditional, top-down view of other real time strategy games, EndWar sticks you in the thick of it with a third-person floating camera. You'll be at ground zero as hundreds of units do battle on fully destructible battlefields.
What really makes EndWar stand out, however, is its voice control system. Using intuitive menus, you'll be able to command your units without ever touching a controller.
Throw in a persistent online multi-player campaign with massively customisable units featuring cutting edge technology, and Ubisoft have given you something worth fighting for.£4.99 -
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
The X-COM series of strategy games has gone through a number of versions, mainly on PC, since its 1994 origins on Amiga, Playstation and PC - but it's now more than 10 years since the last one; X-COM: Alliance.
X-COM: Enemy Unknown began life as a remake of Julian Gollop's classic 1994: UFO: Enemy Unknown, which was released on Sid Meier's now defunct MicroProse label. But the guys at Meier's new company, Firaxis put so much into it that it evolved into a re-imagining. For the first time since that early iteration, console versions are available: for PS3 and Xbox 360. The game is powered by the Unreal 3 game engine.
Enemy Unknown takes place on a modern Earth, under attack from an alien invasion. Facing an unseen enemy of clearly superior technical capabilities, Earth's governments combine to create X-COM. Playing the commander of this global force, your mission is to create an operational base, research alien technologies, organise combat missions, and control your soldiers in battle. You'll dispatch aircraft to intercept and destroy or capture UFOs, and manage ground forces in their battles with alien invaders. All of this is controlled from your XCOM base. Yes, that's base in the singular, unlike the 1994 original, only a single base can be constructed and managed: this adds a strategic element to the game, because your base has to be defended at all costs.
The forces you command are not your own, but like the United Nations, you act a liaison between many disparate governments, and this adds to the tactical aspects of the game.
The Ant Farm view gives you an overview of the XCOM headquarters: you can then zoom in to individual departments to direct specific activities such as research and weapons construction.
Battle strategy takes pace on the Geoscape global view of the world, and you can be directing battle in many theatres of combat simultaneously. Ground combat is turn-based on an isometric-3D playfield. You directly control a squad of four-six soldiers or robots. As you would expect from a modern game, the user interface has been updated considerably from the original game, and gameplay has been tweaked to make it faster and more engaging. Players can make use of suppressive fire and active camouflage during combat.
One-on-one on-line combat missions enable players to control a squad each, and have a points budget to assemble and equip them before leading them into battle against your human opponent.
Console players will be happy to hear that they are not being offered a dumbed down version of the game. Apart from the mouse-based control method, which is exclusive to the PC version, the console owners are getting the same game as PC-gamers.£14.99 Buy Now
