Joe's Action-Adventure Recommendations

Joe Recommends

Killer7

Grasshopper Manufacture's Killer7 is like a fine wine, every time you decide to revisit the wonderfully weird world of the seven mentally unstable assassins, you realise that the game is as good, if not better than it was the last time you decided to dust off your GameCube.

Killer7 was definitely a marmite game when it was originally released, and critics at the time were massively divided on whether Suda51's (Killer7's enigmatic creator) balls-to-the-wall crazy action-adventure title was a work of art or a clunky and nonsensical mess.

In the interim years though, Killer7 has gained cult status, and for good reason, as there really is no game like it; even today.

Each of the seven assassins work under the leadership of Harman Smith, an ancient and wheelchair bound assassin who is hired to put to rest the terrorist organisation known as Heaven Smile. There is, of course a twist, and these so called Smiles are people infected with a virus that mutates them into walking, laughing bombs. Oh God, that laugh.

The wonderfully crafted world is an on-rails affair, and the story is far deeper than is first apparent. Just don't expect to understand what the hell you see or hear until at least your second play through.

Shadow of the Colossus

Another cult classic, Team ICO's hugely popular Shadow of the Colossus redefined what an action-adventure game could be.The studio chose to disregard the trappings of the traditional action-adventure, and instead built a game entirely around a single premise: killing Colossi.

Sixteen giant creatures dotted around a beautifully imagined but lonely world literally comprise each level of the game. Progress entails scaling these skyscraper-sized creatures and defeating them one by one, with just a sword and bow as your only friends.

Team ICO took a dangerous step by doing away with monsters, experience points and looting mechanics, simply asking the player to kill these giants to save the protagonist's comatose maiden.

What makes SotC so remarkable is not just the wonderful uniqueness of the games structure and climbing mechanics, but the emotional and moral questions that the game silently throws at you each time you down one of the docile creatures.

Beyond Good & Evil

What the hell is Beyond Good & Evil? Is it even a game? I've never heard of it.

All of these are responses I've had thrown at me when attempting to talk about one of the most criminally underplayed games of all time. Created by Ubisoft, it's no surprise a game made by the same studio as the Prince of Persia series was critically acclaimed upon its release. Sadly, BG&E never received the publicity it deserved, fading into obscurity.

As the game's protagonist, Jade, you play a photojournalist who, along with her anthropomorphic pig uncle (yes, really) Pey'j, you discover an alien conspiracy on the world of Hillys and subsequently join a resistance movement to stop the so called DomZ from assimilating every living creature on the planet.

The cutesy visuals of the title form a clever veil for the mature themes that underscore the entire experience. It's sad that BG&E was so overlooked at the time of its original release, but the good news is, the title was recently given an HD update for Xbox's Arcade service. Buy it now, you are doing yourself a disservice by not playing it.