The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker
David Aucoin
Overall: Very impressive visuals and effects. Always gave me the impression that I had a long way to travel if I had a long way to travel. The only thing that I would have really done differently (asides from increase the difficulty a little) would be to add another mode of transportation that would have been faster and more affective for later on in the game.
Intro: Easy to get into the game from the menu. Intro story is told in a unique way and does a god job of getting the player into the mood to play.
Getting Going: At the beginning of the game, the player has a good amount of room to explore. A couple of casual, clear objectives are placed giving the player time to adjust to the controls and function of the character while still progressing. People who have played other Legend Of Zelda games will probably catch on quicker than others.
Fun: The beginning of the game is relaxing and laid back. Somewhat early on, however, the game presents a fortress for the player to get into and work their way through. There were a couple of annoying times when I accidentally fell off a cliff I was climbing across or times I was spotted by enemies when trying to sneak behind them. At times like these I found myself letting out aggravated sighs. Overall the game was fairly fun and had me stick with it long enough to get to the end. It was entertaining and fulfilled the adventure side of me, but I would have liked to see one or two moments where the game picked up and got a little faster. I felt more excited in the battles than I have with any other Zelda game but as a result of this was left hoping for the same feeling while solving some of the puzzles. There was really only one spot where you have to climb a spiral stair case inside a tower and the stairs are crumbling behind you as you run. Even in this spot, though, I felt pretty confident that I could get through it without even coming close to falling. It was a nice addition, but was still just a little too easy.
Visuals: Very interesting use of its cell-shaded visuals. This is one of the primary aspects that distinguishes this game from others in its class. Also, by using this method they've created cartoonish but still realistic waves. Since most of this game takes place on, in, or very close to the ocean, it was really important for the waves, the horizon, and the perception of distance to be really accurate. They probably could have done it without the cell-shaded technique but by doing this they were able to spend the time working on the detailed culture the game offers. Also, it was a nice way to explore how to create the affect of water in a video game. Something which is so sometimes a problem spot in video games (in the past, water usually meant death or an area that had little gravity; just recently developers have been integrating water in interactive ways).
Intelligence: Most of the enemies behave just like other enemies. Also, when fighting enemies, they are, a lot of the time, just dumb video game characters. The battles with smaller enemies were generally easy and just an annoyance. The bosses of the game were the only ones that really posed any threat. The bosses seemed to somewhat learn what you were trying to do to defeat them, but even then, they weren't exactly rocket scientists. The only exception to this were the guards in the fortress that are searching for you. Although they weren't a problem to defeat, they were still fun to try and get by without having them notice you. These enemies mostly just walked between two points and if you made too walked to fast or did something stupid they would notice you, but it still gave the illusion that they were really looking hard for you.
Immersion: While completing the puzzles, it was easy to feel "in the moment". While crossing the ocean in my slow, rickety boat, that's a different story. The ability to control the wind speeds you along a little bit, but it still takes a pretty long time to sail from one end of the world to the other. Eventually you can get the ability to warp to certain places around the map, but even this sometimes isn't good enough. It would have been nice to be able to warp to ANY part of the map (since, by that time, you've pretty much been everywhere). This is an example of too much freedom. Exploring a huge city is a lot of fun. Sailing across the ocean just sucks. For the most part I was immersed in the game, I just dreaded climbing back into that boat.
Cameras: No complaints at all about the cameras. I don't think I was ever annoyed by them and they were always more help than hinder.
Controls: The game was fairly simple to control. It was exactly what I expected for a Zelda game. The only instances that gave me any trouble was the autojump. When the character runs (or walks too quickly) at a cliff of any height, he will jump directly off on his own. This has always annoyed me a little at some point in Zelda games so really I'd consider that my own fault.
Ideas: As most Zelda games, packed with innovations and clever little additions. The game offered no customization to it but gave the player a lot of gadgets and gizmos to play with and to solve puzzles with. Nothing hugely revolutionary or anything like that, just a few items such as the scope (to see over distances) and the composer's wand (to use songs much like spells are used in other games).
Memory: The game is definitely addictive. When the game was off, I was always wondering what the next area would be like. I'm probably always going to remember this game at least somewhat just because the story line seemed so important to the entire Zelda story as a whole.