darkSpyro

Time to have your say! Rate your Swap Force experience; let everyone know your thoughts.
A few things you might like to rate:
* Toy Quality
* Character Design
* Game Graphics
* Level Design
* Game Play
* Game Variety
* Controls
* Value

Or post a link if you’ve already reviewed it on another site.

I'll post mine when it's ready. It won't really be a "fan" review though, I do them for my official site.

Just got my copy today, so review on monday.

Impressions of the 360 version here.
I just beat Winter's Keep, and I'm loving this game so far. I just hope I'll have motivation to keep replaying it over and over like SA once I'm done, which it seems I will.

I posted a first-hour review of the 3DS version here.
I didn't like it at all. It's absolutely poor on its own, and it's a very boring companion product.

My quick score-card:

* Toy Quality
7/8 - They are better than ever, but the Disney Infinity toys have really raised the bar for collectable toys.
Solid, fun - but not remarkable.

* Character Design
8.5/10 - I hated the first looks we had of the new figures (too cartoony), but I've been pleasantly surprised. Some characters I thought were terrible (Popthorn, S3 Stealth Elf) have turned out really well, and the ones I was looking forward to (Star Strike, Roller Brawl) are just as good as I hoped.
The one thing pulling this down is now samey the Swaplanders look. Unfortunate, but perhaps unavoidable

* Game Graphics
8/10 - We're not talking GTA V or Skyrim here, but they are pretty good. Perhaps a little too smooth and cartoony (a few to many rounded corners), but great to look at.


* Level Design
9/10 - Great stuff. The levels are really long and offer lots of stuff to do. I think even the start mission is longer than the longest SG/SSA levels.

* Game Play
8/10 - Lots of fun.
Jumping adds a lot to the game, may make it too hard for young kids.

* Controls
8/10 - Good, but annoying that they changed the one's they used in the first two games.
Mapping to triggers may make it too hard for young kids

* Value (game)
9/10 That game itself is GREAT value,

* Value (toys)
7/10 Swappers give you lots of options, but the figures my pump the cost up too much for some

See my post in the Press Reviews thread.

http://capitalk.com/swap%20force%20review.htm

So I’m finally to jot down some thoughts about Swap Force… basically its good stuff.

The biggest change is the ability to jump. Jumping is used sparingly in the opening levels, but later areas throw a dash of traditional platforming into the traditional Skylander. This is combined with levels that are much, much longer and are packed with side-paths and mini-games. The result is something that feels a lot closer to the original Spyro games and other platforming games of years past.

I like that the levels are now huge, and the later ones can be pretty winding and twisty, with a lot of vertical movement. They are perhaps more reminiscent of SSA levels than SG levels, and particularly in the second half of the game the levels become increasingly complex to navigate (in a good way).
I love that the levels are packed with stuff to do and find. The new Swap-Zones really do add an incentive to collect the swap-force characters, but at the same time they definitely feel like something other than part of the level, so it’s not too painful to walk by one you can’t get into.
Element gates often contain little mini-games of their own. The duel-element gates do (at first) seem like a cheap attempt to make you buy more swappers – but you can open those by dropping in player-2 and approaching the gate with two single element characters, so they are forgiven.
You can locate maps to side-quests, which is what has replaced heroic challenges. Treasure chests and legendary treasures are back, but I like the other small level-specific items for you to hunt out. A significant part of the fun for me (and I imagine most older players) has always been the treasure hunt aspect, and that is well and truly catered for this time through.
Another awesome touch is that on subsequent playthroughs, any collectable you found previously is replaced with a semi-valuable diamond – which provides some incentive to re-visit those hidden side areas and helps you keep track of which places you’ve previously uncovered.

The different difficulties are somewhat more diverse than in the previous titles, and hard will give gaming veterans a bit of a challenge right out the gate. Just from my experience, I’d say that hard is only slightly easier than nightmare mode was in Skylanders Giants, which made the game instantly more appealing for me. And Swap-Force’s nightmare difficulty has been a challenge – even once my new Skylanders had all their abilities unlocked and were a fairly good level.
It’s also nice that you can set the difficulty to nightmare without restarting the game now. I mean, in Giants it was nice to have to re-find all the loot when starting again, but the aforementioned diamonds mean that it’s not really required (and besides, restarting the game is still on the table if you really wanted to).

The new hub area is a joy to behold, and it hides a lot of secrets of its own. Shopping is back, but I love that it’s been expanded with lots more to buy. I also enjoy the limited number of pedestals around the town on which you can place the legendary treasures you’ve found - it’s like the wheels and luck-o-tron from Giants, only a lot more varied.
There are also a lot more gameplay options in the hub area than in any of the previous titles, like the much needed practice area with training dummies and a signpost offering daily bonuses that changes with the day of the week.
Side Quests replace Heroic Challenges - the big differences are that side quests are unlocked via normal gameplay (not tied to specific toy figures, like previous titles) and the bonus stats are applied across all your toys, not just the specific toy that completed the level. A better system all around and the only drawback is that the bonus is tied to your save game, not the toy. Perhaps in the next one you can choose X number of tokens to use on specific characters, to bring back in a little customization.

Once you’ve completed the game you unlock score attack and speed run modes. These modes ask you to replay the story missions, but now tasked with a new goal – and as well as earning stars, these game modes feature leader-boards so you can compete with friends. It might not be the online play that fans are clamouring for, but it’s great to race through the levels trying to beat the times of your friends.

I like that you have your own ‘portal master’ level, and higher levels unlock more perks. It’s a genius move that helps tie the whole experience together - everything feeds into it.
The graphics are much improved, but I don’t think that I need to tell anyone that. The characters are slightly more curved and cartoony, but the effect doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it might. It really does look great now.
Swap-Force does feature the return of unskippable dialogs and cut-scenes – but most of the time it seems to be hiding loading screens, so it can be forgiven.

This is where I’m going to go on a short, slightly negative rant, around accessibility. Accessibility is a bit of a dirty word in gaming circles, as it normally means ‘dumbed down’, but accessibility is important and in a game for youngsters it’s vital. One of the things I really loved about the first two Skylander games was that it appealed to all age groups and managed to accommodate all-comers (SSA’s difficulty spikes on some platforms notwithstanding). It meant my nieces (4 and 6) could play with the rest of the family or by themselves.
Not so much with Swap Force. Even the easy jumping has the youngest stumped – and she now needs help, whereas before she was able to toddle along behind her older sister. And the harder jumping even has the elder sister frustrated.
There are also less significant changes that have made things a little more difficult. It used to be that using items (opening boxes, using keys) was tied to the right-hand stick – but now you activate them with the right-hand trigger. That’s fine for older gamers – but my nieces have issues reaching the 360s trigger with their tiny little-girl fingers – it was much simpler for them when everything was on the face of the controller.
Lastly, there is a new ‘locked door’ mini-game which I love, but unlike Giants you can’t buy ‘keys’ to allow you to skip the puzzle, meaning the girls are often stuck whenever they come across a gate.
In the long term, you can make the argument that things like slightly more advanced platforming was required to keep the attention of the core Skylander fanbase, most of whom are getting older, but I can’t help but think that there are some compromises that could have been made (for example, you could have jump-pads on the critical path when playing on easy and reintroduce the keys that let you auto-open locks).
But those are minor complaints… and even then, they are only complaints if you are playing with very young kids – otherwise they could be considered improvements.

I think all that leaves are the new characters. You can use any of the figures you already have, but honestly the new characters are pretty great. The toys aren’t quite at Disney Infinity’s level, but they look awesome and are packing in even more detail.
You have the new Swapable ones obviously, which are surprisingly fun to use and then the new core toys. Honestly, I expected to enjoy the swappers, but I’m really surprised at how much I’ve taken to the new core characters.
It really is amazing that after all the characters they already have, each new one still manages to be so unique.
I could write a novel about the new characters, but I’ve already droned on enough.

TLR:
+ Heaps longer game
+ Suited for a slightly older crowd. More complex levels and now with platforming
+ Heaps of new things to do.
+ Score and Speed Run modes have leaderboards so you can compete with friends
+ Like seriously, lots of stuff to do
+ New characters are great
+ You level up now as well
+ I’m even more in love with Skylanders now

A few more random thoughts that I missed in the mega rant:
- There are Giant-only treasure chests! It’s great to have your investment in the old game pay off in the new one – even if it’s in a small way. Good job, whoever put those in. Also, bring back bomb/giant hybrid walls.
- Yay for levels for Portal Master levelling-up and all the content in the hub!
- Environmental obstacles are now totally gone (water that swimmers can swim in, shortcuts over lava fire guys can take, gems that earth guys can smash). BOOO! Especially since some characters have skills specifically for that.
- If you’ve got jumping in, make sure there are fences or something to indicate when you can’t leap to a new platform. Invisible walls suck.
- Bring back intro movies for old characters. But keep the stories – those are cool.
- Seriously, the amount of content is this game is great. Score modes and race modes are a great way to get more content with the same assets. Stroke of genius. Next time, offer global leader boards, not friends only ones. Perhaps put the toggle for that deep in the sub-menus so that younger kids won’t activate it by accident.

I didn't(and won't play this game) but I'm still reviewing it,because seriously,the game is NOT okay enough for me to simply watch as everyone praises it. Before any attacks on how I need to play it to understand it,keep I mind that for all games I watched an LP while I waited for it to get here since I buy it abroad,it wasn't any different for SF,but I watched a big chunk of it on LPs and it's just way more than what I actually wanted to see,so I DO have a right to say some stuff.

* Toy Quality - 8/10
- Considering I live in a country where you have to pay more than 100 bucks to have something that won't break in a kid's hands or have awful quality in general,it's hard for me not to like Skylanders figurines in general.I didn't notice any kind of step-down from Giants,so I doubt it's any worse - though some LightCores and some poses are really jarring.

* Character Design - NOPE/10 (5/10 if you must know)
-No,seriously,NO. Skylanders is about UNIQUE CHARACTERS put together. Only Six Faces style (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OnlySixFaces) has NO place in here,yet we have Swappers all with the same overall shape(they could've avoided it,just didn't use triangular chests,stubby legs and polygonal chins,also just not slap a goofy grin on all of them to make it more noticeable) with the differences being species-specific things and the acessories(including hair). For someone who's been doing character designs for some time and trying to get better,it sticks out like a sore thumb once you see them all together. Other mentions are Smoulderdash and Punk Shock(and probably Rollerbrawl,but I didn't analyze them enough) sharing body shape though not the heads and Riptide pretending to be a buffier Scorp. The only thing worse than that is the raw wasted potential that is Scratch,which somehow is labeled a cat with things from a Sphinx(like wings and feline appearance) and dragon claws on her feet. That's not a thing you spend so much money on,even if it's cheaper than your average action figure.
The NPC and enemy designs are a little more varied and creative,but I didn't have the patience to see every single Gillman and feline/canine of choice guarding Elemental Zones or giving you missions. Kaos' mom stands out and looks cool,and Mesmerelda,though having a confusing design,is also great.

*Graphics - 9/10
-That is an improvement,no other way. SSA and Giants still look good,of course,but the years won't do well to them,while SF will still look good on the outside. It has a bit too much of shiny that I wish that stayed in DOTD,but overall,everything seems realistic yet cartoony,making it a lot easier for kids to like it. Though obviously, graphics don't make the game,and I'm forever insisting on this now that SF is a thing;it won't make it a instant GOTY,not if everything else isn't just as awesome.
And since this wouldn't fit anywhere else,please tell the person that put subtitles to stop doing it wrong.Subtitles aren't the big chunk of text you're told to put in,they're the lines that the characters say and they should be separated that way - no excuses on having dubs for other languages either,I like it in english even if it's not my main language and I also like subtitles so I don't have to miss anything.

* Level Design - 8/10
-Compared to the previous games,not much other than length has changed.Jumping gives new choices of challenges and it's fun an all,but I didn't see many differences other than Elemental Zones being way too easy compared to Giants,where secret boss battles made it fun and actually worth going in even if you weren't looking for hats or treasure anymore.
The Hub is bigger and nicer,but gotta say,the only thing that it was better than the Dread-Yacht on was the size.The ship gave a real feel of adventure since you only landed to finish the objectives,while in Woodburrow it's like SSA and doesn't offer much else other than minigames and a better shop.
Also,there was no reason whatsoever for Boss-only levels.Giants and SSA had special checkpoints for them even if you ran out of Skylanders,no need to make a level with one objective and nothing else specially since there is little reason to go back to them.

* Gameplay - 9/10
-Not much difference from the previous games either.Jumping didn't really add much other than strategies to avoid attacks since you don't get that penalized for jumping mistakes. It's a solid hack-and-slash with plataforming elements,so not much to talk about,really.

* Gameplay Variety - 9/10
-Again,not much that differs from the previous games. Lockmaster Imp isn't around anymore,but the Shock and Bolt puzzle didn't seem as hard,so I guess that younger players can at least try finishing it instead of buying Keys en masse to bypass them. There are shooting minigames,the Swappability zones,and different game modes - they're new,yes,but it doesn't feel like the game has something new to throw at you every moment like some games do.
(cont. next post)

* Controls - 8/10
-Maybe if the controls were mapped,no muscle memory would be keeping players from having to relearn how to play the game. Jumping button being the same as most other games is okay,but it's hard to get used to if you force it on people that prefer having it for the Primary Attack.

* Value *Story(can't really talk about Value if I didn't even buy anything) - 6/10 with a F- in tying the games together
The story isn't good,at all. Two main points: One,if you need to create plot holes to fit in,you're doing it wrong.Two,saving the world isn't new,and you don't make it any better with useless 'plot twists'.
From the outside,nothing is bad,really. It's your usual thing that we've been seeing at the 3DS games - save the world from a faraway land with new villains and stuff. It progresses fine,never feels slow or too fast,and it's never stopped over something else.Then you start noticing the little things.
First things first,things from previous games seem to be pushed aside in a way - subtle,but still; as Cali makes her last appearance seconds before Tessa comes in looking important to the plot,or how there was the need of the Dread-Yacht being upgraded to some horribly small ship in primary colors. Making that kills the purpose of a sequel,since you're not supposed to take anything away,just continue where it left off and improving ASPECTS of it as you go. Yet,we have these suddenly important Elementals showing up,many new enemies that came out of nowhere(no one ever says where Kaos got Greebles,and it's handwaved he ran out of Trolls despite having quite a lot of them in levels) and characters that start contradicting themselves - Kaos' mom mentions her son prefers attacking all the time and she can do better,despite the fact she also does attacks whenever she is given the opportunity.
Then plot holes start - first things first, all of Kaos' plan. Making Skylands be filled with Darkness would NEVER work - the Core of Light's sole purpose is dispelling Darkness,even when everywhere around it is taken over,yet it's not even mentioned - despite being one of the most important things in SSA. A friend of mine actually said Petrified Darkness could be more powerful since it's too concentrated and could do enough damage before it was dispelled,but it wasn't ever given enough of a description for any certainty. Then,Kaos' mom supposedly great plot twist,she's a Portal Master. Somehow,that makes everything change despite the fact you were going after the villains anyway,and we're presented with her using Portals on herself left and right - though Giants' BEGINNING was all about a Portal Master causing trouble because they're not supposed to do that. Not only it's silly,considering she isn't getting anywhere by staying in the void between worlds,it can't be explained by her power or anything - Skylanders are the only ones who can use the Portals safely,and that was stablished for a long time.
I'd stay the whole day mentioning more that I found,but the point doesn't change; you don't have to tear a hole in the canon to make SF look better.All it'd take was some explaining,a bit more solid characters(Kaos is nearly harmless now for a guy that could stand his ground on a fight,who even let that happen?!), and it wouldn't have been the mess that's now.


tl;dr - The game doesn't deserve the hype it got.Presentation is good,but as soon as you get a bit deeper it's far from Giants and SSA in terms of being a solid game overall.

I have to disagree around character designs – I think that there is plenty of variation across the board.

I’ll give you that the swap guys are all samey, but that’s required for the gimmick to work. When they did make characters that don’t fit the same mould they end up looking weird – for example Hoot Loop is a different shape to the others, but when swapped his top half looks awful paired with any of the legs – and his legs look goofy on any other character too.
However once we are away from the swappers I feel that the characters show a good level of diversity. Smoulderdash and Punk Shock might share similar builds, but you can have more than one ‘lithe warrior’. And I’m not sure what your beef with Scratch is, because she’s my most anticipated character.

Quote:

Then plot holes start - first things first, all of Kaos' plan. Making Skylands be filled with Darkness would NEVER work - the Core of Light's sole purpose is dispelling Darkness,even when everywhere around it is taken over,yet it's not even mentioned - despite being one of the most important things in SSA.

This is the one thing I majorly disagree on with you. Mount Cloudbreak dispenses all Magic in Skylands. That would mean it also provides the Magic in the CoL - and if that happens it would, indeed, be possible for Kaos to rule Skylands that way, as if Mount unleashed all the Magic as darkness Kaos wouldn't need to touch the Core. Eternal Magic Source, sure, I'm not saying introducing this plot point in this way was a good idea, or that they shouldn't have added some exposition explaining this, but still... That's actually quite a clever plan when you think about it...

I agree though, I miss the Core. I feel like the story went horribly downhill after SA. I didn't even notice how many plot holes there are, but now I'm going to find it hard to ignore them. They need to quit ignoring the stuff from previous games- I'm tired of them ignoring the assets that they built in the first game. I don't want them to re-use them too much, but why was the Core never mentioned again when it's so clearly important? Why doesn't Kaos speak like a Portal Master any more, he hasn't referenced you (besides breaking the fourth wall, which they built in Giants, wait why do we need a fourth wall in this series?) since the first game where he clearly hated you, did he forgive us or something? Eon just turned into a hint exposition guy, hardly mentioned like he was an actual person again, when he was meant to be a great wise Portal Master in SA. And what is up with Hugo being tossed to the side so badly? And don't get me started on how generic the personality of all the new Skylanders- even the core ones- look right now. Love ya Bumble and Slobber, but your personalities are as interesting as a twig and dull as a rock.

I'm all for going new places and meeting new people, but conclude their stories before you do that, don't just make new ones out of the blue or erase old characters from the story! That's just lazy! The writing was disappointingly underdeveloped for something which had so much time put into making it... SA's story was far from perfect, but it did have a unique flavour, something no game I know has achieved with the same effect, because it actually, directly involved you, and you were continually mentioned- you were the hero- Giants and SF are basically SA without that flavour. They're solid, but they aren't really special, and they could be much better. Wasted potential.

The gameplay is awesome. But when story is such a big part of the experience, it's difficult to excuse when it has so many flaws, flat characters... Honestly, I just didn't care for it as much as even Giants, I hoped they would go back to SA quality this time but even Kaos- a character that has been around for the whole series- feels horridly flat, somehow. EVERYONE feels goofy ALL THE TIME. EVERYONE. They feel like caricatures. And nothing about them feels very subtle. I did like the lore as that was actually pretty well built, but it didn't really tie in well with anything from SA or Giants, which I don't really like. And there were so many NPCs I just didn't care for once their level was done, they didn't even have any cute one-liners to spout. Oh and remember Gorm guys isn't he annoying saying the same line every time your Skylander speaks to him to upgrade and aren't you sick of Rufus talking to your Skylander each time you play and aren't you tired of being ignored by all the NPCs even though you do absolutely everything to save Skylands?

Well,Arc,the games can't be always serious specially because kids will never get it -take for example MLP Friendship is Magic,even when they drop enough lore for the fandom to last six months straight without episodes,they can't really keep it,because no kid is going to watch previous episodes to understand.But something that MLP kept was consistency,and a way or another Skylanders keeps dropping it - Giants was great in depth when they used ambiguous facts from SSA but dropped it on keeping itself serious with Machine Ghost being Deus Ex Machina'ed and others;meanwhile SF decided to be so kiddy it hurts. The writers would be doing a great job to themselves and the fans by keeping things the way they are - no problem with making the Skylanders and you fit the story other than making the dialogue work,and no tearing holes in the canon and a thousand fanfics every time you forget something.

Quote: Tel Prydain

I have to disagree around character designs – I think that there is plenty of variation across the board.

I’ll give you that the swap guys are all samey, but that’s required for the gimmick to work. When they did make characters that don’t fit the same mould they end up looking weird – for example Hoot Loop is a different shape to the others, but when swapped his top half looks awful paired with any of the legs – and his legs look goofy on any other character too.
However once we are away from the swappers I feel that the characters show a good level of diversity. Smoulderdash and Punk Shock might share similar builds, but you can have more than one ‘lithe warrior’. And I’m not sure what your beef with Scratch is, because she’s my most anticipated character.

Sir,you required my services on explaining the character design part in depth now.Brace for pictures :I
There's a difference between Magical-owl-with-goofy-look vs. Magnetic Robot design against Top-Heavy vs. Top-Heavy design. I'm not iffy against the archetype,it's the core of the design.
The rule of thumb for designing a character which I always see when someone makes a tutorial about it -your character has to be distingushed from others even if they had no clothes,no acessories,or any color at all. Of course,you can't keep that up with over 70 of them(Cynder and Camo share too much in most of their poses,for example),but you can't repeat that all at once without being too noticeable.

I'll take the example I mentioned - Hoot Loop and Magna Charge and one with the repeats most visible,Grilla Drilla.They look different looking at the archetype - a magician,a robot and a gorilla. But then,you take that away.



As you can see,repeated shapes.Same chunky fists,same triangular chest,same polygonal chin(and face,noticing that now) and stubby legs I'll bring up later.That's the problem. The characters feel different,but in truth they aren't.
Next,you just do the same to everyone else.



Some characters stand out - Freeze Blade actually surprised me that he seems to be that slender compared to others - but the rest? Triangular chest.Polygonal face.Stubby legs.Over and over again.
And despite the part where they have to fit each other at least a bit,it could've been done different! It doesn't take more than a few different shapes:



See? Just in a few minutes,I could doodle a few varied shapes.It'd look kinda silly swapped,but the current ones look silly already since you're mixing archetypes too - but they have to come later.
Scratch is something else entirely - simply,cats don't work that way and it feels like the artists drew a Sphinx but the rest of the creative department got it wrong,but it seriously is nothing compared to what I just said.Hopefully it helps clear things out,if it doesn't,I'll have to try again a bit later.

Considering my post on character design killed the thread,just another thing that might be worth reviewing for other people - the Soundtrack,SFX and Voice Acting(all can be categorized as Music I think). One thing that always pushed me to buy games was great music in them,and it was no different with SSA and SG...And also pushed me away from SF with 20 and 26-second long songs. But since I didn't play the game(and most LPs had people speeding through everything), I think fans with the game would be better off reviewing it as a whole since they heard every single piece(or almost all of them) :I