Friday, April 15, 2011

Game Review - Hard Corps: Uprising

Game cover - Bahamut left, Krystal right
INFORMATION

Hard Corps: Uprising is a sidescrolling platformer game for the Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360) and PlayStation Network (Playstation 3).  It is the latest addition to the popular Contra series being the sequel to Contra: Hard Corps, and is the first game of the series that does not include "Contra" in the title.  The game was published by Konami and developed by Arc System Works which is known for its Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fighting game series.

PLOT

"In 2613, the world is now ruled by an empire known as the Commonwealth under the reign of Tiberius. Neighboring nations have suffered under the Commonwealth's oppression and Resistance Forces rise across the land. However, so many Resistance Fighters have fallen to the overwhelming might of the empire, that their strength is now severely diminished. A group of elite soldiers rise through the ranks of the Resistance and band together to execute a desperate plan." - from Wikipedia.

Hard Corps: Uprising's opening movie shows Arc System Works' skill with the anime artsyle and character design, and composer Daisuke Ishiwatari's great music and identifiable style.

CHARACTERS

Left to right - Krystal, Harley, Sayuri
There are two playable characters to start with:  Bahamut and Krystal.  There are currently three additional characters available for purchase as Downloadable Content (DLC):  Harley, Sayuri, and Leviathan.

The main male protagonist Bahamut (top image, left) was once a soldier of the Commonwealth.  However, after witnessing a squad of imperial soldiers execute innocent people he turned his back on the empire and joined the Resistance.

The main female protagonist Krystal (top image, right) was a regular civilian girl until imperial troops attacked her home, killing her parents and shooting her right eye.  She became a solider and joined Bahamut after that to try to help end the war so no one else would have to suffer through what she went through.

The characters Bahamut, Krystal, and Harley play similarly.  Bahamut is good all around both offensively, defensively and has good maneuverability.  Krystal is slightly weaker both offensively and defensively, but she has much greater maneuverability.

Harley is strong offensively and the strongest defensively, but has the worst maneuverability, making the levels towards the end of the game exceedingly difficult as his jumps often end up falling short resulting in an instant death.

Harley Daniels
Sayuri is completely different.  She uses a katana as opposed to a gun like all the others; her attacks are short range but she can charge her slash to make a projectiles that pierces through all enemies and obstacles.  Additionally, her attacks after upgrading are insanely fast and ridiculously powerful, making her beyond the strongest offensively.  She also has the unique ability to launch an enemy into the air with a dashing punch, then can follow up by jumping up to them and slamming them to the ground at a forward-down angle.

Sayuri (without her hat)
A video made by me showing off a fully upgraded Sayuri in action.

Leviathan is a mix of Krystal and Sayuri; he only has one weapon slot and poor defenses but is the most maneuverable and has the unique abilities to slide kick, back-flip, and throw grenades.  On another note, Leviathan plays through the game just like all the others but his presence as a playable character does not happen canonically (it occurs as a dream or something).  This results with Leviathan fighting himself as a boss.

GAMEPLAY

Like all Contra games, the player walks back and forth across the side-scrolling screen while platforming, shooting, and dodging enemies and other hazards.  The player can aim and shoot in eight directions:  up, down, left, right, and at each 45 degree angle in between.  There are eight stages in total, including, in order, a desert, a jungle, ruins, a city highway, a laboratory, an underground cargo train, a towering building, and on top of flying battleships.  Most of these stages involve occasional platforming while mostly focusing on combat; however, towards the last few stages, platforming becomes life-or-death while the combat is still intense with enemies and projectiles coming at you from all directions.  Each stage features multitudes of enemies in large variety and throw up to several mini-bosses at you throughout leading up to the final bosses.  Everything in this game follows a pattern and learning these patterns is the key to success at the game.

There are two game modes:  Arcade Mode and Rising Mode; there is also Online Mode which allows players to join another play over the internet to play either Arcade or Rising Mode cooperatively.  Arcade Mode is a single-shot run through all eight stages in order; this mode gives your character minimal health and lives with no weapon or movement upgrades but grants access to all character skills. Rising Mode gives your character only one skill and nothing else but uses a Shop system where points you earn from playing Rising Mode can be used to purchase all of the upgrades; the points you earn with one character do not carry over to the others.  Additionally, Rising Mode allows the player to choose which stage they wish to play and continues to the end from there.

MUSIC

The music in this game was composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari.  He is well known for his work composing songs for Arc System Works' fighting game series Guilty Gear and Blazblue.  For those familiar with those games, the songs in this game will have a very familiar vibe.  Ishiwatari's style really shines through here.

MY THOUGHTS

I love this game.  The art design, the characters, the story, the gameplay, the music - all of it is just fantastic.  I'm hoping for more from this game in the future.  I hope to see Arc System Works continue to work with Konami and make bigger games like this.

SCORE

10/10

A 10/10 may seem a bit generous, but a 10 in my book doesn't necessarily mean a perfect game, just a seriously awesome one.

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