Blinx 2
Posted December 18, 2004
Following on the heels of the 2002 release Blinx: The Time Sweeper, comes a follow up which tries to improve and expand the gameplay that made the first game somewhat unique, yet distinguish itself from its predecessor. What Artoon has released to us via Microsoft Game Studios is an improvement on the original, with added features such as two “classes” of character to play and some split screen multiplayer modes. But does it warrant a purchase?
Gameplay:
The game's story is a very generic, overused and under developed one involving giant time crystals, cats that sweep garbage (and work in a time factory) through time, and a group of pigs called the Tom Tom Gang who desire the time crystals for their evil purposes.
Each race of characters has a different set of skills available to them: The time sweeping cats control time, be that the ability to pause time, rewind, or record; while the Tom Tom Gang can manipulate space with such special moves as creating a black hole in while you can move freely underground a level for a period of time, or throwing a grenade type object which creates a bubble which can suck the life out of your enemies.
When you create a game and enter story mode, you’ll initially assume the role of a time sweeper. OIddly enough, Blinx (the heroic cat from the first game) is merely a side character in this one who is limited to appearances in cut scenes. Before the game starts, you are given the option to customize your character (actually make this your team of cats) in areas ranging from tail length and girth, clothing choices, to emblems and crests very similar to what was recently seen in Halo 2. As the game goes on, you also assume control of the Tom Toms and similar customization can take place with that team of characters.
Each character type adds a vastly different game types; the Tom Tom’s are heavily focused on stealth action, with the standard stealth moves such as crawling and pressing ones body against a wall to evade the wandering eyes of a guard. Also your weaponry is much more stealth oriented, slingshots, banana peels and silencers for guns are all commonplace.
The levels in Blinx range from wide open space of an island when you control the cats, or to industrial complexes that seem dark and dingy for the stealth action for the Tom Tom levels. Each level is broken up into smaller missions that range from things like press X buttons, or collect 4 keys to advance to the next mission. While most levels contain your basic platform game elements such as traversing from point A to point B, some missions will change the mode of play to an almost multiplayer shooter mode, where it’s your team of Sweepers or Pigs versus the other in an open map frag fest. This method of play seems a little out of place in what initially seems like a simple platformer, but actually does a good job of breaking up the monotony of the platformer levels.
Included in Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space is a nice twist to the basic co-operative multiplayer mode that is finally starting to make its way into more and more games. What we have here is two methods of play, one called Novice which gives both players all access to time controls and weapon controls. Then we also have specialist mode, which limits what each player can do, resulting in actual coordination to be done by the players, because only one player can control the time/space controls and the other is in charge of the weaponry and taking out enemies. I find this to be Blinx’s greatest strength because it’s rare that we see co-op mode, and even more rare when we see a mode as involved as this one. Kudos to Artoon for this change.
Another multiplayer mode is exactly like the gameplay mentioned earlier where it is like Battlefield 1942, except with time controlling cats and space warping pigs. This mode also includes time and space control, with some interesting effects such as rewinding shrinking your enemies. Scattered about the playfield are weapons and other objects that you can use to increase your odds of knocking off more of your friends like jetpacks and bombs. The multiplayer is a nice way to spend some time, but if you’ve got some other multiplayer games kicking around, there is no contest in which you’ll play…here’s a hint: Blinx 2 isn’t it.
Graphics:
Now developers, please repeat after me; “There should never be pop-up in the current generation of games”. While in some levels that should have offered an expansive look at things from a high vantage point, I noticed some severe graphical pop-up that I think is far from excusable, especially this far into the current generation of games. This was very noticeable in the multiplayer levels which were a lot more wide open and should have offered the feeling of space.
In reference to character models, I flipflopped between being impressed with what I saw while playing as the time sweeping cats. The characters looked very nicely detailed with the vacuums used looking quite sharp against the furry cats. However, when playing as the Tom Tom Gang, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the look of the characters. Even after I spent some of the hard earned gold coins on fancy sailor hats for my team of stealth pigs to wear, I still felt like that section of the game was rushed.
Audio:
It’s painfully obvious the Japanese influence on this game from the moment you boot it up. I was instantly reminded of the scene in the Clerks animated series where it switched to anime, and they had an American Dance Party, the music here is very Japanese pop influenced. Personally, I didn’t enjoy the musical selections while playing, and for one time actually wished there was a custom soundtrack option. The voice acting during the cut scenes and the vocal interaction during gameplay was also sub-par, with some low-brow actors doing the English voice work. I was very under whelmed in the audio department.
Conclusion:
On the whole, looking closely at Blinx 2 the developers did try to improve on the issues that people had while playing the first iteration of the series by adding a decent multiplayer portion, and changing up the gameplay by introducing stealth to the game. However, I cannot recommend this game unless you really enjoyed the first, and couldn’t wait for a sequel. Some of my biggest complaints with it were not with the theme of the game, but with some of the smaller issues that add up to a large one. My main gripe is when saving and resuming the game, I could not figure out a way to get to the current sub-mission on a given level. So if you were part way through a level and had to switch the game off, you’d have to replay the portions again to reach the same spot you were just at. Another big issue was just the overall control feelings; while nothing specific that I can harp on, the overall control mechanism was muddy and didn’t give me the nice warm fuzzy feelings that some other platformers had. Even Tak 2 felt better controlled than this, and I had issue with that.
Gameplay:
The game's story is a very generic, overused and under developed one involving giant time crystals, cats that sweep garbage (and work in a time factory) through time, and a group of pigs called the Tom Tom Gang who desire the time crystals for their evil purposes.
Each race of characters has a different set of skills available to them: The time sweeping cats control time, be that the ability to pause time, rewind, or record; while the Tom Tom Gang can manipulate space with such special moves as creating a black hole in while you can move freely underground a level for a period of time, or throwing a grenade type object which creates a bubble which can suck the life out of your enemies.
When you create a game and enter story mode, you’ll initially assume the role of a time sweeper. OIddly enough, Blinx (the heroic cat from the first game) is merely a side character in this one who is limited to appearances in cut scenes. Before the game starts, you are given the option to customize your character (actually make this your team of cats) in areas ranging from tail length and girth, clothing choices, to emblems and crests very similar to what was recently seen in Halo 2. As the game goes on, you also assume control of the Tom Toms and similar customization can take place with that team of characters.
Each character type adds a vastly different game types; the Tom Tom’s are heavily focused on stealth action, with the standard stealth moves such as crawling and pressing ones body against a wall to evade the wandering eyes of a guard. Also your weaponry is much more stealth oriented, slingshots, banana peels and silencers for guns are all commonplace.
The levels in Blinx range from wide open space of an island when you control the cats, or to industrial complexes that seem dark and dingy for the stealth action for the Tom Tom levels. Each level is broken up into smaller missions that range from things like press X buttons, or collect 4 keys to advance to the next mission. While most levels contain your basic platform game elements such as traversing from point A to point B, some missions will change the mode of play to an almost multiplayer shooter mode, where it’s your team of Sweepers or Pigs versus the other in an open map frag fest. This method of play seems a little out of place in what initially seems like a simple platformer, but actually does a good job of breaking up the monotony of the platformer levels.
Included in Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space is a nice twist to the basic co-operative multiplayer mode that is finally starting to make its way into more and more games. What we have here is two methods of play, one called Novice which gives both players all access to time controls and weapon controls. Then we also have specialist mode, which limits what each player can do, resulting in actual coordination to be done by the players, because only one player can control the time/space controls and the other is in charge of the weaponry and taking out enemies. I find this to be Blinx’s greatest strength because it’s rare that we see co-op mode, and even more rare when we see a mode as involved as this one. Kudos to Artoon for this change.
Another multiplayer mode is exactly like the gameplay mentioned earlier where it is like Battlefield 1942, except with time controlling cats and space warping pigs. This mode also includes time and space control, with some interesting effects such as rewinding shrinking your enemies. Scattered about the playfield are weapons and other objects that you can use to increase your odds of knocking off more of your friends like jetpacks and bombs. The multiplayer is a nice way to spend some time, but if you’ve got some other multiplayer games kicking around, there is no contest in which you’ll play…here’s a hint: Blinx 2 isn’t it.
Graphics:
Now developers, please repeat after me; “There should never be pop-up in the current generation of games”. While in some levels that should have offered an expansive look at things from a high vantage point, I noticed some severe graphical pop-up that I think is far from excusable, especially this far into the current generation of games. This was very noticeable in the multiplayer levels which were a lot more wide open and should have offered the feeling of space.
In reference to character models, I flipflopped between being impressed with what I saw while playing as the time sweeping cats. The characters looked very nicely detailed with the vacuums used looking quite sharp against the furry cats. However, when playing as the Tom Tom Gang, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the look of the characters. Even after I spent some of the hard earned gold coins on fancy sailor hats for my team of stealth pigs to wear, I still felt like that section of the game was rushed.
Audio:
It’s painfully obvious the Japanese influence on this game from the moment you boot it up. I was instantly reminded of the scene in the Clerks animated series where it switched to anime, and they had an American Dance Party, the music here is very Japanese pop influenced. Personally, I didn’t enjoy the musical selections while playing, and for one time actually wished there was a custom soundtrack option. The voice acting during the cut scenes and the vocal interaction during gameplay was also sub-par, with some low-brow actors doing the English voice work. I was very under whelmed in the audio department.
Conclusion:
On the whole, looking closely at Blinx 2 the developers did try to improve on the issues that people had while playing the first iteration of the series by adding a decent multiplayer portion, and changing up the gameplay by introducing stealth to the game. However, I cannot recommend this game unless you really enjoyed the first, and couldn’t wait for a sequel. Some of my biggest complaints with it were not with the theme of the game, but with some of the smaller issues that add up to a large one. My main gripe is when saving and resuming the game, I could not figure out a way to get to the current sub-mission on a given level. So if you were part way through a level and had to switch the game off, you’d have to replay the portions again to reach the same spot you were just at. Another big issue was just the overall control feelings; while nothing specific that I can harp on, the overall control mechanism was muddy and didn’t give me the nice warm fuzzy feelings that some other platformers had. Even Tak 2 felt better controlled than this, and I had issue with that.