Wander Review
Unlike other massively multiplayer games, Wander does not begin with you tuning sliders and picking palettes to create a character or accepting a fetch quest from a non-player character, because neither of those options exist. Nor do you have to kill ten of X, because combat or creatures are nowhere to be found. The only to-do list is the list of achievements, most of which read like chores. Wander focuses on exploration and wants to be a refreshing new contender, yet it’s nothing more than a glitchy, boring mess.
Instead of embracing the aforementioned genre standbys, Wander starts you off playing as a humanoid tree creature known as an Oren. This Tolkien-inspired being moves around the island at a grueling pace trying to find a transformation stone as soon as possible. The forest floor only has a few paths at the beginning, yet you can still find a dead end, requiring you to backtrack at the speed of a turtle. The game, whose sole purpose is exploration, penalizes you for doing just that in the first five minutes.
Once finding the stone in a nearby cave, the Oren shrinks and becomes a Hira: a nimble figure with fins that act as a wingsuit. Once you transform, there’s no reason to even think about returning to your prior ineffective form. However, shortly after freeing myself from the Oren’s fetters, the game crashed, and I knew this would be an unpleasant walkabout.
As a Hira, you can glide like an ice skater, walk under water, stop time, and burrow through earth. Oh wait--those are movement glitches, bugs, not features. The graphics are another imperfection. Although it was made with CryEngine, Wander looks like an extension of Playstation Home. Textures are flat and dull, if they even load at all. Trees and vegetation flicker in and out of existence as they sway in the coastal breeze. Ponds vanish, and you swim through the air and on dry beds of rock. The plants farther down the road are identical to the ones that came before, and my eyes glazed over scanning the thick brush for something unique or captivating. Each summited outcropping teases a view of a breathtaking landscape, but disappointment sinks in every time. The Hira is a marooned sailor destined to die from monotony on an island prison.
Wander’s narrative is supplied via lore stones, which are similar to the audio logs found in games like Bioshock. These rocks provide meaningless blurbs discussing flora and fauna rather than any actual story or plot. After finding the first lore stone, the map room is unlocked. In this cave, you can also switch between four different forms, such as an aquatic lizard or a flying griffin, at will. However, the relief map itself is useless without a “You Are Here” marker.
In addition to the lore and transformation stones, pillars give the gift of speech. Each found stone lets players speak necessary words, like “hello,” and extremely specific terms that you will never need to utter, like “thermal.” You say sentences by drawing the corresponding glyph on the DualShock’s touchpad and hoping the gods accept your handwriting. Chances are they won’t. Thankfully, there’s an alternative method, but it requires cycling through each individual gleaned word on the D-pad. Then, when the controller is idling on the coffee table, random words will sound without any input--not to mention, the same tutorial for the Rozhda language system plays, even if it’s your tenth time finding a glyph. The touchpad is also used to summon fireflies, but they never heeded my call, so I can only guess at their function. Luckily, I didn’t find any chatty players, so I was never forced to piece together a fragmented phrase from an obtuse mechanic.
The only respite provided in Wander is the lovely soundtrack composed by Benjamin Woodgates. The soothing vocals contrast with the grating gameplay and give life to the vacant land. However, the music rarely plays, and most sounds that graced my ears were the chirping of invisible wildlife. Otherwise, Wander is a sandbox constructed from rotted wood that lacks toys. Without character customization or any semblance of proper communication, the game has nothing to offer in place of its sacrifices. Like Sisyphus on a treadmill, I fruitlessly walked around in hopes of discovering something worthwhile. Unless this game can find its way, discovery will remain a lost cause.
AMC’s Humans is This Week’s TV Highlight
The summer TV season continues to provide relief from the heat this week as AMC debuts Humans, an "alternate present" sci-fi series produced in conjunction with Channel 4 in England. Written by the British team of Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley (Spooks, MI-5), and based on the award-winning Swedish science fiction drama Real Humans, the series explores the emotional impact of the blurring of the lines between humans and machines.
William Hurt stars as Dr. George Millican, once a brilliant scientist - a mechanical engineer on the original Synth project - now a widower who forms a fatherly bond with his outdated "synth" (a highly-developed robotic servant).
5 Hot Comics to Buy This Week
We all want the best of the best, so let us point out the hottest comics and collectibles released each week. We spotlight our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent, new books that look cool, and any toys we can't wait to play with.
Check out our picks, then take to the comments to let us know what looks good to you!
By writers Cameron Stewart, Brendan Fletcher & artist Babs Tarr | DC Comics
Shenmue Creator Wants to Make Shenmue 4
The Shenmue series may be getting more than just one additional entry, according to series creator Yu Suzuki.
In an AMA interview on Reddit, Suzuki has revealed that he'd be interested in completing the entire story, which would go beyond just Shenmue III. "There are a total of 11 chapters that make up the whole story," he said. "Over the past 14 years I originally planned for there to four or five games to the series. If at all possible, I would still like to realize the full story of 11 chapters."
The first chapter in Suzuki's story is told in the original Shenmue, while the second chapter was told in manga form and Shenmue II spanned chapters three through five. As such, Shenmue III will likely knock off a few more chapters, but at the very least, a fourth game would be needed to round out the entire 11-part narrative.
Hulk Sequel Rights Clarified
With the popularity of Mark Ruffalo's Hulk that came after the release of the first Avengers film, many have wondered when the character might get his own sequel. Recent reports (including talk from Ruffalo himself) have indicated that the Hulk's solo movie rights were still tied up with Universal (who distributed The Incredible Hulk, which Marvel Studios produced), but now it sounds as though that isn't quite the case.
According to Forbes, while Universal holds distribution rights to the Hulk sequels, Disney and Marvel Entertainment have film production rights to the large green superhero. Marvel regained cinematic rights to the character in 2005 after Universal failed to make a follow-up to Ang Lee's Hulk movie.
Why Perception Will Be Terrifying
The Deep End Games -- a new studio composed of developers who worked on Bioshock and Dead Space -- has released a new video teaser for its upcoming horror, Perception.
The first-person horror game, which was announced last month, is currently just £15K short of its $120K Kickstarter goal with three days left of the campaign.
The video demonstrates how Cassie, the game's visually-impaired protagonist, navigates via echolocation. It also showcases how the sprawling mansion, Echo Bluff, will mess with the players.
Abzu’s a Stunning Game From the Artist Behind Journey
There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Abzu. Well, let’s change that immediately. Abzu is the first game from Giant Squid, a new indie studio led by Matt Nava, the award-winning artist who formerly worked at Thatgamecompany on Journey. Keep that incredible game in mind, because my brief 20 minutes with Abzu brought forward the kinds of emotions, questions, and moments of awe that 2012's classic did.
Nava told us that he set out to make a game that provided, "A more respectful and personal interaction with animals." Abzu is a third-person adventure exploration game that places you in the role of The Diver, a slender undersea wanderer that reminded me of the robed figure from Journey, albeit a bit more wet.
Doctor Strange Gets a New Comic and a Really Big Axe
As part of Marvel Comics' relaunch this Fall after Secret Wars ends, Doctor Strange will be getting an ongoing comic series.
Written by Thor's Jason Aaron with art by Uncanny X-Men's Chris Bachalo, the upcoming Doctor Strange series is attempting to depict the Sorceror Supreme in an all-new way.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Aaron and Marvel Editor Nick Lowe shared some of the changes they've made to the mystical character.
The use of magic and any repercussions that result from it will be a central concern for Stephen Strange, Aaron explains.
"Any of this stuff with magic, there’s always a cost to it," he said. "I think that’s kind of the only rule of magic we ever really talk about—everything he does, there’s a price to it."
Hannibal Cancelled by NBC
NBC has cancelled Hannibal and will not be renewing the show for a fourth season.
TVLine broke the news, confirming the current third season will be it for the show's run on the network.
Said the show's creator, Bryan Fuller, in a statement:
“NBC has allowed us to craft a television series that no other broadcast network would have dared, and kept us on the air for three seasons despite Cancellation Bear Chow ratings and images that would have shredded the eyeballs of lesser Standards & Practices enforcers,” Fuller said in a statement. “Jen Salke and her team have been fantastic partners and creatively supportive beyond measure. Hannibal is finishing his last course at NBC’s table this summer, but a hungry cannibal can always dine again. And personally, I look forward to my next meal with NBC.”
Dark Horse Comics (Finally) Available on ComiXology
An extensive catalog of Dark Horse Comics' past published works are now available digitally through ComiXology.
The same catalog as that found on Amazon's Kindle Store, Dark Horse's digital offerings cover collected editions, graphic novels, and manga from several famous series, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, Sin City, 300, Fear Agent, and Usagi Yojimbo.
It should be noted that single issues of current series are only available through Dark Horse's own digital comic store and will not be available for purchase through ComiXology.
Comic Book Resources reports the addition of Dark Horse's catalog was merely a matter of bringing Kindle's offerings over to the Amazon sister service.