The Update

The Update

Happy Holidays! :)

Every now and then, I'll post these update posts just to put the lack of content into perspective. The name is kind of tentative, but I'm working on it! :)

The semester is finally over.... So, expect more posting in the upcoming days. I finished Wolfenstein: The New Order last weekend and I don't really have a good impression of it. The full review should be up in the next few days. Sneak preview: I am not really impressed by the game... :(

Another game that I have put in an unexpectedly large amount of hours into is Aura Kingdom. I have been playing it for 20+ hours and so far, it's great. I'll also probably make another piece on Aura Kingdom, so look forward to it :)

So, two pieces in store to accompany you guys this week. :) 

Review: Bastion - A short and sweet experience

Review: Bastion
A Short and Sweet Experience

If triple-A titles are like an all-you-can-eat buffet which you can eat until your stomachs all explode, Bastion is like a well-cooked meal. Modest in portion, but fulfilling nontheless.

Bastion is an isometric hack and slash developed by Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game was originally released on XBLA in July 2011. It was not until its Steam debut in August 2011 did the game receive the commercial success that they deserve.

Plot
The game takes place in Caelondia, a fictional world wrecked by the Calamity. You play as the Kid, suddenly waking up from your sleep in your room that is missing a few too many walls and floor space. The Calamity  swallows the land, transforming the world into pockets of floating islands and the people into stone statues. So, the Kid sets out into the world to uncover the truth about the Calamity and possibly save whatever and whoever is left alive.
 

The main character, Kid, waking up on his bed to a wrecked Caelondia.

In my honest opinion, the plot is quite compelling. I say quite because it gets a tad repetitive. The game requires you, for some reason that I won't spoil, to collect a certain number of shards to restore the titular Bastion. Twice. However, the reasons for doing so are reasonable and after every shard, you do get a nice reward. So, I cannot really penalize the game too harshly. 

The best part about the plot I feel is the ending. It is a great twist on the whole game and when I did pick the "right" choice, I felt good. One can argue that it is just laziness, but I think that the idea being conveyed is a good one and this is about the only way to implement it properly within the game. 

Gameplay
In my opinion, the most important thing about a hack and slash is the gameplay. I played mostly with a pad because I feel that the orthogonal movement allowed by the mouse and keyboard to be too restrictive for such a game. Originally released on the XBox 360, the game works wonderfully with my DualShock 3. Control was tight and polished, an incredible feat for a debut title from a relatively small team of developers.

The User Interface is very nicely laid, keeping the screen clean and clear for the action.

Combat is also nicely varied. The weapons in the game are divided into two main groups: melee and ranged weapons. The weapons handle very differently, keeping combat interesting and dynamic. The sword is a fast and high DPS weapon that can chew down monsters very quickly, but has a very short range. In contrast, the spear is much slower, but has about 2-3 times the range of the sword. On top of the traditional bows, guns, spears, swords, and hammers, there are also mortars, sniper rifles, and a form of bazooka called the Calamity Cannons. 

Into each mission, the game allows you to bring two different weapons and one special skill associated with one of the weapons. And that is the only limitation to the weapon selection. You can bring two melee weapon or two ranged weapons without problem. The game will even give a short commentary on the weapon combination that you chose. Weapons and skills can be changed in armories that can be found in the Bastion and some of the maps the game has. The flexibility offered by this mechanic, combined with the weapon variety, allows you to find a combination that suit your playing style. 

The weapon select screen showing the two weapons and one special skill equipped

As you progress through the game, you can unlock upgrades for the Bastion in the form of buildings. The buildings each have different functions, such as the Workshop allowing you to upgrade weapons and a shrine which applies handicaps to the player in exchange for increased experience and rewards. These buildings allow for an unprecedented degree of customization.

The different buildings that is housed within the Bastion. 

Bastion is a short game. According to Steam, I completed Bastion in only 4 hours. However, if Bastion has been a longer, it would have been much too padded and it would feel like a drag to continue. In truth, right up until perhaps the last 2 levels, Bastion still introduces new weapons. This amount of weapon variety that Bastion has is perhaps its biggest drawback. Despite the variety, once you find a combination that works for you, you will most likely use that combination until the end. As a result, after that point the gameplay stagnates, making combat feel rather dull. It also does not help that there is very limited enemy variety.  

The game also have replayability in spades. On top of New Game plus and a well implemented Horde Mode in an arena called "Who Knows Where," Bastion offers the Shrine. The Shrine is a building that is part of the upgrade system mentiond before. The function of the shrine is to apply handicaps or special skills to enemies in exchange for increased experience and rewards. By activating certain idols, players can have the enemy move and attack faster, drop grenades when they die, and have regenerating health. This feature will also be taken into account when your score is calculated and posted on the online leaderboard. This effectively turns this story-driven action RPG into an Arcadey action game that boasts a score attack mode. 

Sound
What moved Bastion from Great to Awesome is the sound design. If there was ever a game that is worth buying because of the narrator, this is it. The fact that this paragraph can belong to both the gameplay and sound section is the main reason why Bastion is so good. See, the narration goes in response to your action in game. Although they are undoubtly scripted, if you crush too many ornaments that line the paths, the narration will comment on how you are an angsty person who loves to crush random ornaments that line the path. The narration itself is read by a voice so fitting that it will be the only voice you remember from the game months after you complete it. Seamlessly weaving narration to gameplay is one of the best aspects of the game and I love it. 

The four main characters of Bastion. Look out for their character image songs~ :)

The background music is also fantastic, if not lacking a characteristic. On its own, they are fantastically composed, but since the same few tunes are played over and over again for different levels, they get a little bit repetitive. In contrast, the tunes that are dedicated to each of the main characters are heart-rendingly beautiful. This is perhaps the only few games that I recommend getting the OST as they are truly beautiful to listen to.

Graphics
Bastion opted for a more cartoonish art style, which is downright gorgeous. Environments are nicely varried, from lush jungles to frozen wasteland to ruined cities. Bastion is an artistic masterpiece and it is still a beauty to behold. 

Being an isometric game, Bastion does not suffer much from low texture resolution. The textures appear crisp and detailed, further augmenting the beautiful art style. Although lacking the breath-taking vistas of Assassin's Creed or the painstaking detail of the Witcher series, Bastion brings to the table a certain charm through its art style. Bastion is a beautiful game.

So intricate, yet still managed to be simple.

Conclusion
Like I've said at the beginning of the review, Bastion is like a good and fulfilling meal. After the credits roll, I was left not wanting more Bastion. On one hand, I was left satisfied with the story and had my fill of the combat. On the other hand, I don't want to have more of that dull repetitive combat. Don't get me wrong, there is quite a high skill ceiling to the combat, but the lack of enemy variety really killed it for me. 

All in all, I think you should know by now that I love Bastion. At $15, you really get more that your money's worth in this game, especially since if you can stomach the combat system, this game has a ridiculous amount of replay value. If not, Bastion is so often discounted during sales that you should have no problem finding it at less than $5. At that price, you really cannot go wrong with Bastion. This should be in everyone's library and if it's not, get it now.

Bulletstorm Review - Crackin' Jokes, Kickin' Ass

Bulletstorm Review 
Crackin' Jokes, Kickin' Ass

A very underrated game. This game was supposed to get a sequel, but EA canned the project because the original failed to meet sales target. This story is no masterpiece and the music is not mindblowing. If any, they are painfully average. However, what this game does best is with the shooting and oh boy, wasn't it fun.

Story
Bulletstorm follows the story of Grayson Hunt, a spec ops that went rogue after discovering that he is being used by his superior. One fine day, he saw the Ulysses, a battleship that belongs to General Sarrano, his superior. Blinded by revenge, and alcohol, he proceeded to shoot down Ulysses at the cost of his jet fighter. Both of them went down on this planet inhabited by mutants and savages. So our story begin with Grayson and his comrade-turned-cyborg Ishi trying to find a way to escape the planet's surface.

The setting is certainly a refreshing change from the yearly release of Battlefield and CoD. It has a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic feel to it. Something like Fallout, but much MUCH less serious.

The plot itself is a big cliche. A rogue soldier trying to get back on his evil superior. The twists are expected and it even gets a tad draggy at times. If you are looking for an excellent story, you won't get it here. However, the writing however is extremely well done. The chemistry between Bulletstorm's three main characters is very well fleshed out. Firstly, we have Ishi Sato, a makeshift cyborg with personality issues who is a serious and straight-faced guy. Then we have Trishka, a young military commander who is a vengeful tomboy. And lastly, we have Grayson who acts as the comic relief with his brainless, smash-em-all mentality.  Thought you've had enough? Towards the end of the game, another cast member joined the group, the antagonist General Sarrano who is a general that I swear uttered about half of the dirty words present in the entire game.

Yes, there are the cliched one-liners and it gets old after a while. However, the conversations are genuinely funny. I had a number of good 'wtf' moments and that usually is a good sign of a well-written game.

The campaign itself is quite short. Steam clocked me at 5 hours, but I personally think it was closer to about 7-8 hours. Also, the game did get a little draggy towards the end when the enemy gets EXTREMELY bullet spongy. So, if you are expecting a 40+ hour long campaign, the campaign will disappoint you.

Gameplay
This game is a first person shooting game and a fine one at that. The shooting was extremely satisfying with a wide variety of weapons, each with an alternate firing mode. On top of an excellent shooting mechanic, there is also the Energy Leash.

Pulling off multiple skillshots is extremely satisfying

The Energy Leash is a leash (duh.) that allows you to pull enemies from a distance towards you. It can pass through objects and hook to enemies that are within range even if they are not within you line of sight. To compliment the leash, you have your Boots that you can use to kick people away from you. Using this two tools, you can then perform Skillshots, which are basically fancy ways of killing enemies. There are various Skillshots, varying from the basic ones like headshots, to kicking enemies to spikes, cactus, ponds, live wires, grinders, power generators, you name it. If it looks dangerous, chances are you can kick enemies there to kill them. These Skillshots then grant you points and you use these points to purchase supplies and upgrade your guns (read: more ammo).

There are a few weaknesses to the game unfortunately. For starters, this game has no weapon customization system, so you cannot upgrade your gun. This becomes a problem towards the end, the assault rifle becomes extremely weak and is only usable because of the large magazine size. This is compounded by the fact that you cannot swap out your assault rifle with another weapon. And did I mention, this game only allows for THREE weapons? It's a shame considering the weapons are all interesting. In the end, I opted for the standard Sniper, Assault Rifle, and Shotgun for most of the game.

Also, although there are plenty of quick time events in this game and there is a turret segment in the game. Although I personally feel that they are well done segments and does not impede in the way of gameplay, I still feel it needs to be at least mentioned.

Fortunately, there are an overwhelming amount of positives to the gameplay.

Firstly, the Skillshots never gets old. There are only so many environmental skillshots opportunities (cactus, steel poles, and live wires), but they are so very well placed that every battle turns from just a mindless spray and pray, to a somewhat thinking game. Positioning and timing is key in surviving battles, especially towards the end where the enemy gets so bullet spongy that your assault rifle feels like it's just tickling them. Dashing, kicking and leashing quickly replaces aiming and shooting and it actually feels good. It's hectic and when you perform the big combo kills by using the explosive barrels, it's extremely satisfying.

This never gets old

The weapon variety also goes a long way to alleviate the monotony and weakness of the default assault rifle. Each weapon handles and feels differently. The Sniper has a remote controlled bullet, the Flailgun shoots remotely detonated grenade, the Penetrator shoots rocket powered drills, etc. They are ridiculously fun weapon to use and each have their own usage. Unfortunate as it may be that you can only equip 2 plus the assault rifle, they are still fun to use and there are plenty of Droppods where you can change your loadout.

Graphics
This game was released in 2011 and I think the visuals are gorgeous. The backdrops and the environments are as good as modern titles. There are plenty of open vistas and they are jaw droppingly good (it helps that they give you points for looking at them).

It is only a skybox, but it is a very good skybox.

Texture quality too was good for a game that was also released on consoles. Environment looks sharp and detailed. The developers of Bulletstorm is capable of creating a world that people could have once called paradise, even if most of them are just sets and props that are just pretty to look at, but are not actually accessible

Performance-wise, being quite an old game, it works very well on my i5-4670 and GTX760. Constant 60+ fps and no noticeable bugs.

Sound
Not much comment here. Probably the weakest aspect of the game and that is a huge compliment to the game. Voice acting is also not too bad. Overall, a decent sounding game leaving little to be desired.

Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed my time with BulletStorm. They almost overstayed their welcome, especially with the later enemies becoming extremely bullet sponges. However, I cannot help but feel that they are specifically designed so that you have to rely on the Skillshots in order to win, which is a good thing in my opinion. 

This is an extremely underrated game and more credit should be given to it. It has been on sale several times already, and if you do see it on sale, buy it. 

On Ubisoft's recent update on AC:U
and some small updates

It has been quite a busy week at school, so sorry for the lack of articles. I'm still waiting for the Assassin's Creed patches to roll out before resuming my game so, don't hold out for it. Anyway, if you liked AssCreed, you've probably bought it. If not, then you might want to look at AC4:Black Flag first, or AC2. Both of those games are not much worse, if not better, than Assassin's Creed: Unity.

As for reviews, I'm trying to play Far Cry 4 as fast as possible. I've liberated about half the Radio Towers, so I think I'll soon make a review of it. So far, the gameplay is solid. It was solid in Far Cry 3, and it's just as solid in Far Cry 4. However, my problem is with the story. I'll go in detail later in the full article, so look forward to it.

Today, I just want to talk a little bit about Ubisoft, especially the letter from their CEO that was released this week, link below. Paraphrasing, the CEO basically apologized for the blunder that they made in AC:Unity and is giving it their all to fix the game. They are offering the DLC Dead Kings for free to everyone who owns AC:Unity and a free Ubisoft game for Season Pass holders. 

Some people said that this is merely a move made as damage control and are pretty dismissive about it. The comments section on that letter is evident enough in my opinion. However, I am willing to give them a second chance given how much value the choice of games hold. Far Cry 4, Rayman Legends, and AC:Black Flag are solid titles, not to mention that The Crew is also there (although the lack of review copies for The Crew is not a very good sign) and they are basically giving them away for free to people who bought the Season Pass.

So, I think we should give them another shot next year. I don't have high hopes for The Crew due to recent circumstances surrounding the game, but knowing that they cannot possibly make drastic changes in two weeks following the outcry caused by the AC:Unity, I cannot really blame them either. It should all come down to their next big title releases and really hope, for Ubisoft's sake, that they are well designed and polished to a mirror-shine.

Just my two cents~

Link: http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-gb/news/news_detail.aspx?c=tcm:154-186654-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32 

Assassin's Creed: Unity - First Impression

Assassin's Creed: Unity
A whole lot of lost potential - First Impressions

I played around 4 hours of Assassin's Creed: Unity, and I really wanted to love it. My last Assassin's Creed was Assassin's Creed 3; and compared to ACIII, Unity is far far better. However, and this is a big one, the port is bad. 

Plot - spoilers ahead, probably you want to skip. I'll put a TL;DR
The story of AC:U revolves around Arno, a child born into a family of Assassins. Early in the game, his father was killed by a mysterious person and suddenly, Arno was orphaned. He was taken in by his father's acquaintance, a Templar, and raised as their own son. Years went by, until one fateful night, Arno's stepfather was murdered. Arno was wrongly accused of murdering his stepfather and imprisoned. In the prison, Arno met another one of his father's friend, an Assassin, who taught him the ways of the Brotherhood. And... that was as far as I have played. 

As a character, Arno is likeable. Unlike, Connor, Arno is not overly-zealous with his cause. He has his own goals, in that he wants to bring his step-father's killer to justice and live happily with his Templar -to put it crudely- girlfriend, Elise. If any, Arno is much more Ezio than Connor in terms of personality. Witty, brash, and is yet kind and compassionate to those in need. 

TL;DR The plot is good. In my opinion, it is at least on par with ACII.

Performance and graphics
This is where the game breaks down. I am running the game on a i5-4670 and a GTX760. To put things into perspective, my rig can run Tomb Raider with maxed settings (except Tress-FX) at almost constant 60 fps. It's no GTX980, bit it's no slouch for sure. With AC:U, I cannot even get constant 30 fps, at high settings. 

It would be fine if the game looks out of this world, but it's not. I must admit that the character models, especially the named characters looks fantastic. The detail in the clothings, skin, eyes, and expression looks amazing. Animation quality is also top notch, especially in cutscenes. However, for the rest of the non-named NPCs, they look horrible. Environment textures too look horrible, even at Ultra setting. Doors and pillars look horrible in this game, and is especially emphasized when the high-res character models interact with the objects. This mismatch in texture quality really detracts from the experience as they are really jarring.

One thing that I should commend about the game is that the lighting looks absolutely fantastic. Most of the reviews that I read online don't really touch on lighting, but I think it's so awesome that it deserves its own paragraph. If you are using an NVidia card, please do yourself a favour and turn on the HBAO+ lighting effect. Although it does tank the fps quite a bit, the really good lighting masks much of the murky environmental texture and improves the overall look of the game. 

In game screenshot that I think really emphasizes the beauty of the lighting in the game. Just look at that light pillar.

Gameplay

The biggest change in gameplay compared to the previous AC games is the addition of downward parkour. You will not know how much does downward parkour helps until you've tried it. It really is a godsend, especially when you want to descend from a ledge without jumping off and alerting every guard within a 20 meter radius. One drawback that I have with it is that every time you parkour downwards, the camera turns to face the ground for some reason. It wouldn't matter if the camera can quickly swivel back towards the horizontal, but it doesn't. So every time you parkour downwards, you need to readjust your camera to know where you are going.

Combat

Another big change in gameplay is the combat. In previous AC games, I have 2 main problems with the game: disarm and chain killing. Disarming allows you to kill anything in the game, including those that you cannot counter with the hidden blade; and Chain Kill is simply over-powered. The removal both of these aspects in AC:U makes me glad they. AC:U feels less like the power fantasy that recent AC games started to be and places more focus on stealth, rather than combat. 

Another big omission to me was the inability to equip the hidden blade in combat. What this entails is the you can no longer counter-kill enemies in AC:U. In AC1, you cannot block when equipping the hidden blade, making the hidden blade a high-risk, high-return weapon as a successful counter on-shots almost any enemy, whereas failing would mean taking damage. In AC2, they allow you to block with the hidden blade, removing the risk, but is still very difficult to counter with, providing incentive to master the timing. In AC:U, you cannot equip the hidden blade in combat at all and I find that as a rather odd design decision. I hope that Ubisoft brings hidden blades back into combat in subsequent AC games, but return it to how it works in AC1. 

All-in-all, the changes in AC:U combat has really made it better in my opinion. It is now much more difficult to kill a group of guards, and, combined with the improved parkour mechanics, this makes running when outnumbered a more viable and enjoyable option. Unfortunately, smoke bombs are still as over-powered as ever, allowing you to kill 5-6 guards without difficulty and are ridiculously cheap. Ubisoft, nerf them will you...?

Conclusion

So far, Assassin's Creed: Unity has captured me with its story. I will be playing more of it, only to see the story unfold as it is, in all honesty, quite interesting. However, I can only barely stomach the performance issues that the game has. If you can wait, do wait for a patch that fixes the game before purchasing. I will bring a full review once I have completed the game, or stopped playing due to frustration. Ubisoft, get it together, please. Patch it.

Freedom Wars

First Impressions - So far, So good

So, I picked up Freedom Wars on a wimp. The gameplay videos looks good and I am itching for a monster hunting game. After a few hours of playing, I can say that it is really worth hyping for.

Plot

Let's start with the plot. It is fortunate for me to report that there is a story in Freedom Wars, and it's not bad. The writing is cliche and does not really break new grounds. It is really typical anime plot whereby you are there to save the world with the power of friendship, bla bla bla. But, it is the setting where Freedom Wars really kills it. It goes something like:

The earth is basically ruined due to shortage of resources. Humanity now live in Panopticons, a "city" where some people live as a prisoner with a million year sentence from the moment they were born. In the game, you fight as one of the Sinners, who committed a sin by simply living, and must reduce your one million years sentence by going on suicide missions against other Panopticons. 

The 1 Million Year Sentence at birth

You really have to hand it to the Japanese to be able to come up with such brilliant and unique setting. It's really sufficient to provide a decent backdrop to the whole game.

When you start the game, you need to choose your Panopticon among the 50 randomly chosen cities around the world. The choice does not really matter as you can play with anyone from any Panopticons, but there is a leaderboard of some sort to rank which are the top Panopticons, but I am not sure how the leaderboard system works since I have not touched multiplayer yet.

Gameplay

Typical of many hunting games, gameplay consists of mainly combat and crafting. There are some conversation choices, but so far, choices does not affect the story at all. 

Combat

Combat is amazing. Although the weapons feel a bit samey, the thorns more than made up for the lack of weapon variety. Equipping different thorns makes up for the lack of distinction between the different weapon classes that are generally present with other hunting games. Jumping on Abductors and hacking away parts of their body still feels great after a few hours. I have heard that there aren't that many variety of Abductors in the game, but so far I cannot say that it's not fun. Battle do get a bit clusterf*ck-y, especially if the arena is small. At low health, the Abductors hit some sort of enrage threshold and start spamming attack. If your team is stuck in a small space, you will die pretty quickly. 

The main enemy in the game, the Abductors. Yes, you can jump on top of it and hack away parts of the enemy.

Another interesting addition that Freedom Wars adds into the combat are accessories. They are sort of the felines that you encounter in Monster Hunter games. They act as a companion the battle, acting as a distraction and support character. Outside battles, they act as your personal assistant and jailer, recording your progress, relaying messages and giving additional years to your sentence when appropriate. This causes me to, embarrassingly, develop sort of a bitter sweet feeling towards them as they will be the character that you interact the most during your playtime. 

Crafting

Crafting is handled differently in Freedom Wars. They are on a timer, like much mobile games. They will continue to tick down as long as you don't terminate the application. This gives me mixed feelings about the game. On one hand, I like it because this give some sort of resource management aspect to the game, in that you need to time your upgrades so that you will not be stuck using inferior equipments because your best weapons are being upgraded. On the other hand, it seems to be unnecessary clutter as you will just assign the upgrading to your different facilities as you end your play session anyway so that when you come back, they are all done. Also, some people seems to be bothered by the RnG aspect of crafting in this game. The fact is that the final stats of the weapon that you craft is randomly assigned and so far, I have not encountered any way to make the odds of obtaining a superior version increase. Take it as you may, but I am not really bothered by it. 

Graphics

An in game screen-shot as seen on the Vita TV.

The graphics in this game is easily one of the best on the Vita. Despite the sub-HD resolution that the Vita has, the graphics looks amazing. I did notice some jaggies, especially during character close-up shots in cutscenes, but they are hardly noticeable unless you are looking for it. Also, I think Sony does balance particle effects and graphical flare during combat as battles look bombastic, but not too cluttered.

In game on the PSVita.

Sound

Music is amazing, if not lacking in variety. There are a few tracks for the few locations in the game, but each of them sounds great. Weapon sound assets too sound really great. The sound, combined with the excellent visuals, makes the attack feel really powerful, especially when you can pull of a large hit with the great sword on the enemy Abductors. 

Bottom-Line

If it's not obvious by now, I really enjoy Freedom Wars. I will continue to play it and will write a full review once I am done with it. However, so far, I feel that it is really really good. 

FlappyBird Developer to take down his game from the Play Store

By now, this should have been public knowledge: FlappyBird will be taken down by its creator. For those that are not in the know, Flappy Bird is a game that was developed by a game developer named Nguyen Ha Dong and it involves one simple mechanic, to keep your bird alive while it maneuvers through a series of obstacles. Since uploaded, the game has been downloaded up to 50 million times and is generating tons of revenue from advertising.

The title screen showing the start button and an online leaderboard.

Unfortunately, the developer decided the success of the game was too much and he "cannot take this anymore." 

Tapping the screen propels your bird upwards.

The natural question to ask is why was the game taken down when it was generating tons of revenue. Call me ignorant, but from what I played, the game does not take much programming or even development to speak of. It has a pixel art graphic style, a basic set of sound effects, and no BGM. As such, it should have given him a huge source of income. 

Also, this abrupt exit is similar to the exit of Phil Fish, the creator of FEZ, albeit with much less drama and hate. 

What I hope did not happen is that the media publicizes his success so much to the point that he broke down. If that is indeed the case, the media has caused two perfectly fine game to never be played by anyone ever again.  

In any case, Nguyen did allow some time for downloads to be made and as the time of writing, the app is still available. However, it won't be for long so get your copy fast.

The LEGO Movie Review: A Great, Funny Movie

The LEGO Movie Review

So, I saw the trailer a months ago and I was excited to the max! However, the excitement quickly died down because I thought it was going to be disappointing. Oh, I couldn't be more wrong.

The LEGO Movie with its myriad of cameos

Well, to be honest, I cheated a little bit before watching the movie. I watched a video review made by IGN. So, I did have a certain expectation going in the theater. However, the movie blew my expectation away. 

Story

If there are any weak points to the LEGO movie, it's the overall story. It's as generic as it can get. So, don't go in expecting an Oscar-winning clever plot writing here. It's not lame and not overly stupid, but just not brilliant. There's no drastic plot-twists or anything like that, it's just a plain and straight story that gives the whole movie coherence. Also, the story gets a tad draggy at times and there are a few jarring plot holes, but overall, it's still alright

However, oh boy wasn't it a fun ride. Where the LEGO Movie shines is the script writing and the execution of said plot. In short, LEGO movie is funny. The jokes are well placed and are delivered in very short bursts such that they don't get old. There are some pretty touching moments, although even some of those (spoiler: the falling from the bridge scene) are still genuinely funny. This jokes helps very well with the drag that occurs at several points during the movie. 

This movie is also jack full of references, as you should have noticed if you have seen the trailer. On top of the various casts that LEGO have franchises with (DC heroes, Harry Potter, LotR, etc.), LEGO included several lines of its most popular lines of figures such as the Space, Knight, and Wild Wild West series among others. They are great to see and for everyone who have played with the original bricks, you will certainly enjoy this one. If there are any downsides to this is that they don't use their characters to their maximum potential. Outside of the original characters, the only one with significant screen time is Batman. I am tempted to say this is due to the popularity of the Batman trilogy, but I HOPE that is not the case.

Superman in The LEGO Movie

Picture Quality

CG is top notch as expected from WB. Also, some of the sets present in the movie are made form actual LEGO bricks. The kicker is, from watching it in the Cinema once, I cannot tell which are is which. The bricks are actually painstakingly detailed with chips and smudges to give them a feeling that they have been played with. Some interviews with the artists even mentioned that they even added details such as dandruff and dust to make the scene even more realistic. I didn't notice this personally, but if so, the details are absolutely amazing.

A scene from the trailer showed Emmet's house.

Animations are very good, especially the "builder-vision" that the character "activated" when they want to build stuff from random bricks. Another point that I like is that unlike in LEGO games, the LEGO characters in this movie has no elbow and knee joints. This makes their movement seem clunky and choppy. However, this actually makes the movie even more nostalgic in my opinion. Combined with the animation style which mimics a stop-motion movie, this lack of joints actually suits the movie much better.

The lack of joints is evident here with the stiffness of the forearm especially.
Also note the detail present in this shot, especially on Emmet's hair.

As I've mentioned, the animation style actually looks very much like stop motion. Reading some interviews and wikipedia article, the animators referred to stop-motion videos of lego figures that are available in Youtube for research during the early development phases. In my opinion, I am glad that they went down this route, rather than the route taken by the LEGO games. Although I understand why the games took that path, the use of such a stop motion-like movement allows them to differentiate themselves from other animation movies.

Sound

Music in my opinion is not the strong aspect of this movie. There are no obviously boring BGM, but they are not mind-blowingly good. To their credit, the music in this movie fits the movie and served its purpose, to help build the atmosphere. That being said, "Everything is Awesome" is a very catchy song and is easily the best piece throughout the whole movie.

Voice acting on the other hand, is top notch. Morgan Freeman (as Vitruvius) nailed again his trademark holy man role and I love Allison Brie's (as Uni-Kitty) performance giving life to this otherwise easily forgettable character. Will Arnett made Batman into an a**hole, but it does give an interesting contrast to Nolan's Batman. The main character, Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) is... plain. Now, before you start flaming me, I didn't mean that in a bad way. Chris Pratt as Emmet was solid, but he is... bland, Emmet has no aspect that makes him special in any way. To their credit however, Emmet is SUPPOSED to be a very generic character and if that is their intent, they nailed it perfectly. The rest of the cast is alright and I won't list it here as it's available in Wikipedia. Overall, the movie has a solid choice of casts and there are no jarring mismatch between voice and the look and feel of the character.

Conclusion

Well, it might have been my nostalgic feeling that I have for LEGO toys, but I really enjoyed the movie. It has a well written script combined with excellent CGI work. New York Times wrote, "'The Lego Movie' could easily have become an extended ad for the Danish toy company" and I think this aptly sums my feeling about this movie. This movie is certainly no where near the level of Frozen or Toy Story 3 in terms of music, story, and character design. However, this movie could have been a cash in from LEGO and I think we should be grateful that it is as good as it is. The story is generic and the music is just above average. What nailed it for me is definitely the strength of the LEGO brand and the script writing.

In conclusion, the LEGO Movie is definitely not the epic masterpiece that Frozen and Toy Story 3 was. However, it was a nice and nostalgic ride. It won't blow your mind, but it will certainly entertain the child in you (Spoiler: I think that is what they are intending to do, to entice the child in you). If you are a LEGO fan, definitely go out and watch it right now. For the rest of us that are not so much into LEGO, I'll say it's a good watch and I encourage you to watch it if you have the extra cash to burn; if not, then you are not missing much. 

I don't do scores as I think it's ridiculous, but if I must, 6.5/10 if you're not a LEGO fan and a 11/10 if you are.