Feb 25, 2010
Platform: PC
Developer: ClockStone Software
Whilst reviewing Greed: Black Border, I actually fell victim to my own version of the Seven Deadly Sins. There was Despair, because I had pigeon holed myself into playing this awful game, but wanted to be really nice about it, too. Then came Envy: “How come the other reviewers get such fun and media hyped titles to play? It’s not fair!” However, at the end, I just became Sloth and I shoved this entire project under the rug and forgot about it. Or at least tried to, but editors never forget, and here I am to warn the world of what this game is about.
Greed: Black Border decided to kick the tires and light the fires by introducing a space drama. Or so it says. It is INDEED set in space, but any real drama is lost to me entirely. The first level takes entirely too long, the fighting is mundane, and it does a piss poor job of introducing any game mechanics or plot. I still have no idea what this game is about. You collect currency but can’t do anything with it until further on in the game, at which point you’ve been struggling to just fight your way through the dense mob of robots and zombies that are swarming everywhere. While clearly an homage to Diablo, it is such a copycat failure that it’s kind of insulting.
You start out with three different characters, all with different attack preferences. A big black man (The BBM!), who does close range combat. A white guy with a turret that can do mid to long range, and a girl who can really only excel at long range because she must be a dainty flower. I chose the white dude and named him Pete because I thought he’d be a good balance to get through this game.
The characters have a skill tree and, while you level up, you can put points into different areas that you’d like to do. There’s offensive, defensive and passive abilities.
For example: Pete had points in Offense to make his bullets create splash damage and he also learned an ability to fire a napalm shell into a large crowd. I then put points into Passive to let his protective shield (think Halo) come back faster after a few hits because it would naturally degenerate with damage. The Protective Shield was extremely helpful, I will admit, because without it my guy would get chewed up immediately.
The puzzles in this game are a nightmare. I’m aware they’re there to create some kind of conflict, but some of the obstacles are unforgiving. A lot of rooms had several poles with swinging lasers and Pete had to dodge them. The circular movements never changed, but the only way you can move in this game is through a point and click. Which is admittingly hard when you have little space and time to do it. The puzzles almost require you to die and try again from the last checkpoint so that you can memorize the patterns, which is a punishment in itself because sometimes that checkpoint will be far away.
While Greed toots its own horn about being puzzle based, and a drama, the overall monotony of the combat is a buzzkill. Even with boss battles, which SHOULD require you to use your special abilities and skills, it just turns into a ‘who-can-out-last-the-other-person-longer’. In fact, the entire combat throughout the game, even with the unimportant mobs, feels exactly the same way. You stand far away enough from the enemy and keep firing until they die. Over and over.
There’s absolutely no change in the combat and Pete was useless at melee, so I had to keep a solid distance at all times.
For all that it is, Greed should have come out a decade ago. That’s exactly how it looks and feels. I’m sure gamers would be a bit more forgiving because we wouldn’t have experienced the amazing Torchlight and would be riding high on Diablo love. The game offers little compensation and help to the casual player (or any player, for that matter), and I can see most getting turned off from this game. The learning curve is too difficult and the combat actually caused me to zone out on several occasions. The plot was non-existent and only seemed to be told through what little diary entries you’d acquire throughout the game, or when the computer talked to Pete to signal some kind of event.
Here’s my cheesy ending line: “Don’t be GREEDY about trying to find this game!”
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