Retro Review: The 3rd Birthday

<p>I love the original<em> Parasite Eve<&sol;em> games on the PlayStation&semi; the world&comma; the story and the graphics drew me in&period; When I heard that the <em>The<&sol;em> <em>3rd Birthday<&sol;em> was coming to the PSP&comma; I was insanely excited&comma; seeing as it seemed as though I was one of the five people on Earth to own a PSP&period; This third installment to the series was released twelve years after the sequel&comma; and it is somewhat of a reboot of the franchise&period; Unfortunately it falls short from the high expectations that the first two games gave me&period; It is a well made game&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s pretty&comma; the controls work for the small PSP and the story is decent&period; However Square-Enix has changed the concept so much that it could have been an entry to a completely new franchise and not part of Aya&&num;8217&semi;s tale&period; The new concept may have been the last nail in the coffin of this franchise&comma; but let&&num;8217&semi;s all hope that&&num;8217&semi;s not the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The 3rd Birthday <&sol;em>is a reboot of sorts&semi; the developers started the game off in a very similar vein as the original&period; It opens with a gorgeous fly in of New York City and people enjoying the Holidays on Christmas Eve&period; Snow is falling on their smiling faces when suddenly huge tendrils tear through the concrete and begin to destroy all of New York&&num;8217&semi;s icons&period; These tendrils we later find out are called &&num;8220&semi;Babels&&num;8221&semi; which spawn monstrous lifeforms called the &&num;8220&semi;Twisted&period;&&num;8221&semi; A year of so after this havoc in New York occurs&comma; a response team is created called the CTI &lpar;Counter Twisted Investigation&rpar; to battle the Babels and Twisted&period; The protagonist Aya Brea is introduced here&period; She was found after the initial incursion in New York with no memory and a completely different personality&period; Dr&period; Hyde Bohr&comma; Chief of the CTI&comma; takes her in and discovers that Aya is capable of &&num;8220&semi;Overdrive&comma;&&num;8221&semi; which allows her to jump her soul into other people&&num;8217&semi;s bodies&period; Dr&period; Bohr then uses this power to send Aya back in time in hopes of changing the past and ending the Babels&&num;8217&semi; reign in New York&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103368" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103368" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-103368" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03200929&sol;maxresdefault&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;THE 3RD BIRTHDAY - SQUARE ENIX&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103368" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>THE 3RD BIRTHDAY<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; SQUARE ENIX&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game&&num;8217&semi;s levels are episodic and sometimes jump in and out of order of the actual story which can make it difficult to follow&semi; time traveling has a way of doing that&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve never been a huge fan of episodic gaming&comma; even when you get all of the episodes at once&semi; to me it breaks up the flow of the game and pulls you from the experience&period; My personal opinion should not steer you away from this title&semi; I just felt a caveat was in order&period; The cut scenes between the episodes surprised me with their quality as do the in-game graphics&period; To be honest the graphics in <em>The 3rd Birthday<&sol;em> look better than some PlayStation 2 games I own&comma; and a few PlayStation 3 games to boot&period; The voice-overs and music quality match that of the graphics as well&period; Square Enix spared no expense with this release&comma; which is disappointing due to the fact it was only released on the PSP&period; Had they released alongside a PlayStation 3 version&comma; this title may have received a better reception from previous <em>Parasite Eve<&sol;em> fans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls would have been better suited to an actual controller over a portable device&period; During intense boss battles&comma; my hands would begin to cramp up because I would have to bend my fingers in very strange ways to stay alive&period; The firing controls are similar to all those in gaming at the moment&comma; the left trigger is aim and the right trigger is fire&period; Movement is the tiny circle pad on the PSP and camera control is the D-pad&comma; which gets tricky&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been trained in using the right thumbstick to move the camera for years now&comma; so I found myself facing the wrong direction several times&period; Probably the second most important button after fire is &&num;8220&semi;X&semi;&&num;8221&semi; this is a very unforgiving game and if you don&&num;8217&semi;t learn how to dodge fast you&&num;8217&semi;ll be continuing quite a bit&period; Triangle is &&num;8220&semi;overdrive&semi;&&num;8221&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s when you can jump from soldier to soldier during the fray to get a better tactical advantage and better weapons&period; To change to those weapons you hold down square and they show up on the screen for you&period; You then choose one with the D-pad&period; The game has relatively easy controls until you&&num;8217&semi;re battling a boss and can&&num;8217&semi;t quite keep them in view&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s when the carpel tunnel sets in&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103381" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103381" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-103381" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03200905&sol;maxresdefault-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;THE 3RD BIRTHDAY - SQUARE ENIX&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103381" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>THE 3RD BIRTHDAY<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; SQUARE ENIX&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I enjoyed this game much more than I thought I would&period; My nostalgia levels shoot through the roof when anything survival horror PlayStation era comes my way&comma; old or new&period; Those nostalgia levels sometimes affect my take on remakes or re-envisions of certain titles&period; <em>Parasite Eve<&sol;em> is very important to me&comma; and while <em>The 3rd Birthday<&sol;em> is far from perfect&comma; it was quite fun to play&period; The story keeps you moving even though it reminds me a bit of <em>Source Code&period; <&sol;em>The graphics are stunning&comma; and the controls could be a bit tighter&comma; but the PSP is the PSP&comma; so that comes with the system&comma; not the game&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve not picked up this title and have a PSP smothered in dust&comma; you should give it a try&period; Or if you happen to have a PS Vita and can download it from the PSN give it a go&comma; you won&&num;8217&semi;t regret it&period; Any<em> Parasite Eve<&sol;em> fan should at least try the game&semi; it may grow on you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;