The Strain Season Two: Fallen Light

Abraham and Palmer both prepare for the bidding war for the Occido Lumen meanwhile Gus and Angel recruitment some more help from the local prison.

I admit for an episode that is before the finale this one didn't have as much impact as I thought it would but I will say what I first liked about it. Firstly the best subplot in this episode was the one involving Councilwoman Feraldo and if I haven't said so before she is defiantly one of my favourite characters on the Strain and I hope she sticks around for a long time. She had some strong scenes where she butted heads with the mayor because she pissed off the rich of NY while having the support of the cops. In everyone of her scenes she makes me completely join her side of things with her dialogue and the way she takes action; like how she argues that it is her cops on the line fighting the vampires while the rich can't fork over a bit of tax. Palmer may think that he can manipulate her (which is why he seems to be supporting her) but no, no I thought, Palmer isn't going to control her so easily lol. The other best subplot was the one with Gus and Angel where they liberated the prisoners to join in Quinlan's army and gave us some tense action scenes which where the only ones in this episode. It is cool seeing Gus take charge because he actually seems like a capable leader but it was really awesome seeing Angel so badass when he shot one of the rouge prisoners at the end. With the way the episode ended we'll probably see them fight Abraham's group first before the Master and wouldn't it be really cool to see Abraham vs. Angel? Speaking of Abraham his alliance with the Ancients is an interesting gamble but I just want someone to get the freaking Occido Lumen already so we can see how important it is!

As for everything else this episode sees Nikki leaving NY and I hope this is the last time we will see her because I have hated her since she first came back. They never even bothered to make her likable or even fleshed out her character in any way; the only thing she has done is ruin Dutch's character for me. This better be the end of this romantic triangle for good because I am sick of watching Dutch obsess over Nikki when they haven't made us care about it and I want Fet back to his old self rather than brooding over his relationship with Dutch. Another disappointment is they fact that Coco has completely gotten over how she was healed and has fully embraced what she is a part of now with out us seeing a single second of it! What a waste of an opportunity, I wanted to see her reaction to the existence of vampires and how the hell did Palmer convince her to join him!? While that was a shame I liked the mention that Palmer and Coco need more of the White to survive because while this is some good new info I seriously doubt Palmer wants to have that threat constantly dangled in front of him. We might see him (maybe not in the finale but next season) make some moves against Eichorst or even the Master to get more White or be turned fully into a vampire. Finally the scenes with Eph, Nora and Zach where good like Zach having a nice emotional moment on the phone with his grandparents and the fact Eph finally may have found a safe haven for him. However it is the Flashbacks that really stood out because this really developed the relationship between Eph and Nora a bit more which has been neglected this season and it was really nice seeing Sean Astin as Jim once again.

Overall this episode did have some good moments but it really failed to build excitement for the finale which usually is the job of the one before last.

SCORE: 6/10

Highlights: Feraldo steals the episode
                   Prison breakout with Gus and Angel
                   Flashbacks

Let - Downs: Dutch and Nikki subplot
                      Coco accepting things already?
                      Feels like a normal episode rather than build excitement for the finale

The Strain Season Two: Dead End

Eph, Fet and Nora try to locate and rescue Dutch before it is too late meanwhile Gus and Angel work to get the Guptas out of NY.

You know I thought there where going to be bigger plans for Dutch, maybe something involving Palmer, but I guess she was just going to be Eichorst's dinner. Parts of this episode where showing Eichorst torture Dutch but more in the psychological sense rather than the physical; they did a really good job of showing how much terror Eichorst was instilling in her, I guess he likes to play with his food before he eats it. Now I have a shrewd idea what Eichorst was planning to do with his tongue when he asked Dutch to take off her jeans and most of them involved hentai, tentacle stuff lol. We also got a really good chase scene between the two and again does a good job of showing Dutch is really afraid and just wants to get away; either through the looks of horror on her face to the constant dead ends. However a real highlight in their scenes where the Flashbacks to Eichorst's past as a salesman to a Nazi officer, it's been too long since we have had a Flashback involving his days as a human. It is nice seeing how Eichorst used to be just a humble salesman with barely any self - confidence to a Nazi who betrayed a girl he used to have feelings for though she was a Jew; you can tell he regretted that she was killed but that was when the last of his humanity went away and he became the hardened Nazi we saw in Season One Flashbacks. Now does this excuse what Eichorst is, no, because he is pure evil in the present day now but these gave us an understanding of how he became what he is now. The let down however was that the confrontation between Eichorst and Eph's group just ended in him fleeing once again, we didn't get to see even a little bit of a punch up.

A weak subplot this episode was Abraham's involving the Occido Lumen because after the cliff hanger last week the owner just turned out to be an ass who is only interested in money. Sure you can really tell Abraham's desperation at getting the book as he tried to convince the owner how important it is but at this point I just want him to get the book already so we can find out what all the fuss is about. I was surprised that there was no Coco and Palmer subplot this episode but it was made up with Gus and Angel back because I really like the team up with those two. Gus is shown as a more tragic character now, finding a woman he is in love with and a family he wants to protect but has to leave them now. I'm glad that he got the Guptas out of NY because it was a nice relief for Gus knowing he did this right rather than them being killed in an attack and it is just another thing he wants revenge for. I am also glad that Angel has decided to fight with Gus because as I said I like these to character together since Angel has now really come to trust Gus over the course of this season. Plus Angel does really have some guts, volunteering to stay in a warzone to kick some ass when he could have drove to safety!

Overall a good episode and since we are only two episodes away from the end of the season I am expecting things to pick up a lot now.

SCORE: 7/10

Highlights: Dutch's torture and escaping
                   Eichorst Flashbacks
                   Gus and Angel subplot

Let - Downs: Could have had a better fight between Eichorst and Eph's group
                      Abraham's subplot was disappointing     

The Strain Season Two: The Silver Angel

Eph ad Nora check the results of their experiments meanwhile Abraham and Dutch try to recruit Reggie to their cause and Gus runs into a retired luchador wrestler and movie star.

You know when I first watching this I didn't know what the hell was going on because it began with a cheesy look at an old vampire film, then of course it made sense later lol. I got to give this opening high marks because it was really creative and I was not expecting it at all, plus I am a massive fan of old black and white monster films and I watch them all the time (for example a few nights ago I watched Gorgo and Quatermass). As for the rest of Gus's subplot it did feel a bit slow and aimless; we don't see what happened to the Vaun and I don't know how much Angel is going to help with the vampires, however I really liked his confrontation with the Master who was speaking through his mother. A subplot I really liked though was with Eph and Nora and the fact that their hard work at making a virus has paid off with the Master ordering the infected to suicide themselves, it's satisfying to know how much of a danger the virus is. Eph also wants to take this to Washington where the virus can be used as a weapon though Nora is having her doubts, from what I learned from TV and film if someone has doubts about something they made it is going to eventually backfire on them (maybe the virus will target humans?). Besides that Eph also got some time with Zach again but this time it was ok; their bonding is nice and it was an emotional Flashback where Zach imagines his mom with the bating cages with them.

As for everything else I am glad that Reggie may be involved with the story more soon when he got a visit from Abraham and Dutch even though his subplot is going a bit slowing too but the Flashbacks was the highlight. Besides from some cool vampire killing action with a sword I am liking this team up of young Abraham and Palmer, shame it seems to be over now but its interesting that they used to be vampire - hunting partners and kind of friends. Then there was a Eichorst who told the young Palmer something that made him switch sides, like with Abraham and Palmer it was a surprise those two have known each other for longer than I thought. In the present however Palmer is once again causing chaos as he gets all of the finical leaders in New York killed which made for a really awesome news report scene. Finally there is Fet who was captured by the security forces who are locking down certain areas and while I like them and wanted to see more of them trying to maintain order (like what they did with Staten island) I'm not sure I going to like this subplot of Fet captured by them.

Overall while a bit slow it is an improved over last week's episode and with the scene with Kelly at the end I hope she gets more involved soon.

SCORE: 7/10

Highlights: The opening
                   Eph and Nora's experiment results
                   Flashbacks

Let - Downs: Slow pacing with some of the storylines
                      Fet being captured at the end

Game Review: DMC Devil May Cry

Time to finally do another game review, this time on a game that received much backlash after it's release; DMC Devil May Cry, the remake to the popular game series.

DMC still has the same basic plot of the original games but with a lot of changes, the first being that the world of Demons (Limbo) and the world of Humans are separate and only certain people can pass in between them. Dante is one of those certain people because he is a Nephilim (a hybrid of Angels and Demons) and he battles the Demons when ever he is dragged in to Limbo. Unbeknownst to him and the rest of society the whole world is under the control of the Demon King Mundus, who prefers to operate in secret and control the Humans through finance, politics, media and drugs. However a mysterious person named Vergil, who leads a resistance group called The Order, challenges Mundus and wishes to recruit Dante to his cause.

DMC was developed by Ninja Theory and I admit I am not that familiar with their work however I know of their two other games, Heavenly Sword and Enslaved, both of which are third person, melee action oriented gameplay so it seems that is their main type of genre. What they have done with DMC is that they have decided to try and make it more appealing for the Western and younger audience.

Namely this includes changes to character designs such as Dante; gone is his trademark silver hair and long, red leather coat (which is a Japanese, anime style) . Instead he is given more of street punk redesign where he has brown spikey hair and a hooded trench coat. But that is not all; Vergil has gone through a similar redesign where they have removed a lot of his Japanese influence (luckily he still keeps his katana sword and silver hair) and Mundus, instead of being a demon in the form of a Roman - looking statue, his human form is that of a business typhoon who resides in a massive office tower.

Also it is not just the characters that are changed it is also the whole entire tone of the game as well like the overall gothic tone of the original games. Instead it has a more Hollywood action movie feeling to it whether it is the heavy metal music that is in much of its soundtrack or the fact that the setting is in a twisted version of a city instead of a ancient castle or tower.

As for gameplay it is still very similar to what you expect from the original game series however I noticed that while I was playing it that it was a lot easier. This was because the developers wanted it to appeal to newcomers but veterans of the original series and hack and slash games in general would want to put this on the harder difficulties when playing this.

It still has the same multiple button combos for new moves with your weapons and guns and you can still buy new skills with orbs as well however they have introduced a new colour coded mechanic. Since Dante is Nephilim he can switch between his blue, low damage, fast paced Angel moves or his red, high damage, slow paced Demon moves. This offers an interesting variety to the gameplay because their are certain enemies that can only be killed by a certain colour however while this is good there is a severe lack of weapons in this game for my taste. Dante has only two weapons each for red and blue and even though he can instantly switch between them in game so you don't have to break off a combo, I would much rather have had to pause the game and equip a new weapon like the original series if it meant more weapons. One thing I dislike but also don't mind much is that they have removed the option to lock on to any enemy you want however the automatic lock on feature is  really smart and can accurately predict which enemy you want to attack anyway. 

The enemies in this game are really good, like I mentioned above some can only be damaged by a certain weapon, however I have played through every difficultly setting in this game and I didn't really have any trouble with them no matter how hard the difficultly said it was. The same goes for bosses too, they have some great designs but I was just a bit disappointed in them. Also thought I'd say that since this game was published by Capcom they have put a chainsaw wielding enemy in it and I am getting sick of seeing them (There is enough of them in the new Resident Evils!).

There isn't that many cast of main characters in this game and their personalities have also changed with this remake. Dante is a lot more cocky and outspoken now and less laidback like in the original, I guess this was another change that the developers wanted to appeal to a younger audience. Vergil however is a lot more reserved in this, preferring to take a back sit throughout the majority of the game. There is the lead female named Kat, a member of The Order, who is really good but not as good as Trish or Lady from the original. However I do like the new Mundus in this because he has a lot more personality in this than when we barely got anything of his ideology and reasoning from the original.

Now I guess the most important question in my review is; Do I like it? Are all of these changes for the better?

I do really like this game however I do not agree with many of the changes. Devil May Cry 1 and 3 where known as one of the hardest games back in the day and while it was really frustrating at times, who really wants a easy game? I do not like the removing of the gothic themes and while the character redesigns of Dante and Vergil are cool, I still prefer the original. This is probably because I am more of a fan of Japanese style when it comes to creating characters (Anime and Manga). However I do really like the overall story of this game because it creates a more detailed backstory for Dante, Vergil (in Devil May Cry 3 it is implied that they have battled many times before but it doesn't go in to detail) and the world they are apart of in general. Also despite not being a challenge like the originals I immensely enjoyed the combat system because it was so fluid and smooth.

Overall this game, as I already know, will have a very hard time pleasing veterans of the original Devil May Cry series however newcomers will find this easy to pick up. It has it's flaws to be sure but if they can be looked past that then you can find an enjoyable and fun hack and slash game.

SCORE: 7/10