Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Yesterday I had a little gripe and moan session about Castlevania: Harmony of Despair going stale for me.

Also yesterday, I had a FIFTH person tell me I needed to get Hard Corps: Uprising. I caved. I hit Wal Mart after class and snagged a 1600 MSP card, and when I got home, I downloaded it.

And it is SPIFFY! I love it. While I don’t see it having the same kind of staying power for me that, say, CVHD had, I suspect it’s good for a month or so. There are gripes. Mainly that for the third and fourth characters you have to shell out 200 MSP each. Then again, I did have those extra 400 points from the 1600 MSP card…

Uprising is tough, fast paced, has a fair leveling system, and is fun. Graphically, it’s impressive. I’m fairly sure those are hand-drawn, animated HD sprites and backgrounds. It satisfies that good old platforming craving that I’ve had since CVHD came out, and satisfied only partially with Tomb Raider: Underworld a while back. It demands concentration, but is not so hard as to be impossible.

Basically, it’s a perfect game. I suspect it will grow much easier as I gain more experience with the levels, because the enemy patterns are predictable. And of course I don’t see myself putting in 300+ hours as I did with CVHD. 300+ games are few and faaar between, though. FF7 was one (Over several playthroughs). NWN2 was another. But generally, I’m pleased if I can get 35-45 hours of entertainment out of a game, and I can see Uprising being a 60-80 hour game. And for 20 bucks, that’s WAY better entertainment value than almost anything else I’ve bought in ages.