Christian Movie and Video Game Reviews

Relic Run changes the endless runner genre formula quite a bit in the new Tomb Raider: Relic Run mobile game. For starters it has three different levels, tons of unlockables and power ups, and the use of vehicles and guns…yeah…running and shooting.

Lara Croft is known mostly for her adventures in huge jungles and caves while solving puzzles and shooting bad guys. Well, Relic Run incorporates some of that feel, without becoming to complex or losing its endless runner feel.

 The game starts off as a standard endless runner. First they had me running down lanes, jumping or sliding my way around obstacles, collecting power ups. But then they had me running along walls. Which sounds kind of lame, but it was actually pretty fun. Then they threw me a huge curveball when they had me shooting enemies, riding ATVs, and rapelling along a wall with a grappling hook.

Cosmetically, the game looks really good too. I downloaded it on my iPhone 6 and it looks like I’m playing a PS2 game. The environments are gorgeous, and the detail is very good for an iPhone game. They also added some cool looking parkour scenes that have no bearing on the game, but are very fun to watch! You can tell that Square Enix is really putting effort and care into the Tomb Raider franchise.

Description: Picture a Halo game that plays like Borderlands, but has the rules and open-world-ness of World of Warcraft and you get Destiny. A massive, multiplayer, online, role-playing, open-world shooter. 

Storyline: It’s set in the future and most of mankind has been wiped out by “The Darkness” and the remaing survivors are forced to live under a massive, floating, marble-like thing called “The Traveler”. The Traveler, in it’s dying breath, created the “Ghosts”,  floating robot-type things, whose sole purpose is to find warriors of the light, called Guardians, to fight off the darkness. That’s basically where you come in. You’re a guardian who’s mission is to fight off the darkness and take back the universe. Sounds like it could be interesting? You’re wrong. Basically, what I just described here is the whole story given in the game. There are no other details introduced, except from a mysterious person named “The Stranger” (Yeah, the naming of people and places is extremely generic), whom you know nothing about…and apparently, neither does Bungie, because they don’t explain ANYTHING! The storylie is the most underdeveloped shallow story I have ever played. And for someone whose main drive to play video games is stories, it is a strange that I love this game so much. 

Review: Truth is, very few games tend to hold my attention the way that Destiny does. I’ve been gaming for about 20 years and one of my favorite aspects of video games is enjoying them with friends. I've played quite a few MMOs in the past but honestly, they all end up becoming very boring. I think last MMO to hold my attention before Destiny was World of Warcraft, but that was during my college  years in my Pre-wife/pre-kids days.  Destiny is like most MMOs, in that it has a shallow storyline, it is “grindy” by nature, and is boring to play by yourself. So, why do I give Destiny an 8 out of 10? Because what Destiny excels at is community. It is probably the most cooperative driven game I have ever played. From PVP to PVE - Destiny makes sure that you NEED friends to play with you to have any fun. But if you are the only one of your friends to own the game, dont worry, because the game does have matchmaking to help you find other people to play with. Except the Raid missions…you have to assemble your own party to do those.

Another interesting thing that I love about Destiny, is that it is a successful AAA game that is incredibly clean. In a world where most of the AAA games are rated M and are full of nothing but swear words, sex, nudity, and needless gore - it is nice to see a game that doen’t have any of that garbage in it and still do well. Destiny is rated T, not M, and as of last week it has over 20 million players. There are 0 swear words in Destiny and the violence is cartoony and not needlessly graphic.

Conclusion: Before MMOs you had to actually invite friends over to your house to play games. I remember being 10 years-old and having Golden-Eye parties. We would sit in front of my tiny TV playing 4-player split-screen trying to kill each other. I have fond memories of that game. And those same feelings come surging back to me while I play with my friends on Destiny. We’ll play online talk about gear we’ve earned, various strategies for the different “strikes” and “raids” - it is a pile of fun.

Despite the fact that this is the worst story I have ever played, it is for these reasons why I give Destiny an 8 out of 10. If you have friends playing this game, go swoop on it. Or If you enjoy cooperative shooters, like Borderlands, you will also enjoy this game.

I have been going back and forth with the idea of doing a movie/video game review blog. But I wanted to make it geared for Christian audiences. Well, after a great chat with one of my best and closest friends yesterday, we decided we’re going to do it. 

It’s going to be V-Log. So, unlike most review blogs, it will have little-to-no reading. We will actually have clips of the games and movies to help prove our points and give you further insight.

This will be a great chance for me to share some of my very opinionated and sometimes irrational thoughts on games and movies, as well as, offer some insights for my fellow believers in Christ who want to know if such and such a movie or game is worth the time, even if it is “clean” or not.