The threequel to the Parasite Eve series (not seen since the original Playstation) once again stars Aya Brea, this time as an amnesiac agent with the power to psychically "dive" into other bodies. Though it'll certainly have feminist gamers up in arms, credit is due to The 3rd Birthday for its ambitious storyline, exciting gameplay, and Lovecraftian boss battles.
The Pros
- Extremely customizable
- Insane boss battles
- Exciting Overdive ability
The Cons
- Hypersexualization of yet another female lead character
- Poor camera
- Story difficult to follow without copious between-mission research
The 3rd Birthday Review:
The threequel to the Parasite Eve series (not seen since the original Playstation) once again stars Aya Brea, this time as an amnesiac agent with the power to psychically “dive” into other bodies. Though it’ll certainly have feminist gamers up in arms, credit is due to The 3rd Birthday for its ambitious storyline, exciting gameplay, and Lovecraftian boss battles.
Tentacle Scorn
On Christmas Eve in New York City, tentacles or roots erupt from the ground, wrapping around subways, toppling skyscrapers, and taking over the Statue of Liberty. Lovecraftian creatures called the Twisted are roaming the streets, feeding on human beings. The Counter Twisted Unit, or CTI, is relying on gifted amnesiac Aya Brea and her Overdive ability to cleanse the earth of these monsters.
Lithe, blonde heroine Aya Brea is appealing as an enigmatic protagonist who doesn’t take the worn path of amnesiac JRPG stars with burned villages and bright destinies. She raises questions as soon as the tutorial unfolds: where did she get the power to inhabit other bodies? Why does she seem to be in pain when does it?
As the game progresses, however, Aya shows herself to be simpering milquetoast despite possessing obvious tactical superiority over everyone and everything around her. While there are secrets within the game I am not at liberty to reveal to you, suffice it to say that there will never be any official imagery of Nathan Drake in a Chippendales-issued bikini briefs ‘n bowtie combo. The fact that when she takes damage her jeans and top are strategically battered a la Natalie Portman in the Star Wars prequels to reveal maximum skin but no blood or other visible damage is not lost on me, nor should it be on you. Producer and designer Tetsuya Nomura has told the press that this was designed to produce internal conflict in the player: to keep Aya safe clothed, or to allow her to take damage and show the goods? Where are our Sigourney Weavers, our Linda Hamiltons?
Though the weakening of yet another female character (to be fair, Aya has been skanked out previously in the series) no doubt marred this game experience for me (consider this my official plea for the sanctity of Jade in Beyond Good and Evil 2), The 3rd Birthday is compelling and successful on other fronts.
Put It Into Overdive
Aya’s Overdive ability allows her to psychically transfer between bodies, giving us the opportunity to strategically teleport around the environment in order to flee the Twisted, inhabit soldiers with new and powerful weapons, and gain better vantage points when firing on an enemy. Oftentimes you’ll find yourself racing to Overdive into a new body before the Twisted that just grabbed you drains your health in a split second. These moments are among the most exciting in the game. Along with the Overdive power comes the ability to, once you’ve dealt them significant damage, teleport inside the bodies of the Twisted and explode them from the inside-out. As you can imagine, this never gets old. Neither do the Twisted themselves, whose bio-horror designs (especially the final boss) make this game worth playing alone.
This being a third-person shooter (with light RPG elements), Aya heavily relies on her tactical loadout. There are plenty of weapons available in the game, each with upgrades that come with their own stat boosts. The sheer amount of possible combinations is impressive for a handheld game. You will find yourself coming back for multiple playthroughs in order to boost your weapon levels high enough to collect and use them all.
Aya herself is quite customizable, thanks to a layout called Over Energy that helps you manipulate her DNA and, consequently, her abilities. As you progress through the game, you’ll collect chips that will change Aya’s abilities depending on how you lay the chips on a three-by-three grid. It’s an enjoyable concept to play around with.
Should've Been on Consoles?
The same goes for the story, which wants to be epic. It certainly is, but when spread over six handheld missions, it begins to be a bit much to take in. Though periphery characters and their stories add to the game’s sci-fi/horror drama, you’ll need to read through your case files to keep track of exactly what happened and who everyone is. Perhaps the story is a bit ambitious for the exposition allowed by so few cut-scenes?
The 3rd Birthday could also benefit from a better camera. Since you walk with the PSP’s single analog stick and operate the camera with the d-pad, both on the left side of the handheld, it’s practically impossible to do both at once. Though this is fine when using weapons that lock on, it is nightmare when aiming on the fly with heavy weapons or trying to run away from rampaging monsters you are unable to damage.
Despite my strong distaste for the way female sexuality is portrayed and inextricably linked to violence in The 3rd Birthday, I can’t deny the innovative Overdive gameplay and the game’s overall fun factor. Giving this game a low score would effectively equate it with mediocre (or worse) titles, which it isn’t. It is a great title with a bad problem. My recommendation, given solely on the qualities of the game itself, therefore comes with a strong caveat.
Comments
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ShdwFox
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!
This honestly has to be one of the worst reviews G4TV has ever produced. It's definitely not a 4/5, or even a 3/5, this game is a flat-out 2/5, probably even a 1/5. Chiefly, the review is just silly because the game even has some of exact same flaws as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII had, a game clearly shunned by G4TV.
For example, Crisis Core got slammed for it's gambling slot reel, since it wasn't a tactical decision on the player's part. Third Birthday also does this in the form of "DNA chips" you acquire, which augment Aya's strengths in various ways. While you might have a chip that augments Aya's defense during overdives, placing said chip over another chip on the grid creates seemingly random affects. If you place it over a different type of DNA chip, say one that increases crossfire damage, the chances of your defense DNA chip becoming a crossfire chip once you place it on top of it is about fifty-fifty. In addition, if you have a level two DNA chip placed, and you place a level one chip on top of it, they may become level one chips, or even level three chips. Again, it's seemingly random just what affects you'll get. And while you could repeat the process over and over again, to get the ideal chip set you want, it's rather boring.
On top of that is the horrible story line (another thing Crisis Core was bashed for). It's trash, absolute god-forsaken trash. The only thing this game holds in common with Parasite Eve 1 and 2 is that a character named Aya is in it, she is still in New York, and she still carries around guns. She's not in the FBI anymore, like Parasite Eve 1, she's not even with the same special group in Parasite Eve 2. All characters from previous games have been completely removed. Not even mitochondria has been mentioned at all. And finally Aya's memory has been (coincidentally) completely wiped clean prior to the start of the game. It's like the developers slapped the title Parasite Eve on the game just to sell it. Even as a stand alone game, the story is terrible. Nothing makes any sense, and nothing is ever explained, completely typical of many J-RPGs these days.
And as mentioned by a many others, the portrayal of Aya is just down-right disgusting. I knew going in to this game from the review she was going to be sexualized, and I figured I would just overcome that small hurdle and enjoy the game. But it's not just that, it's just her character in general. She looks and acts like a pre-teen, it's sickening. By now in the series she is at least in her late twenties, if not thirties, and while her mitochondria keeps her young and fit, she should still look, at least, in her early twenties, if not older according to Parasite Eve 1 & 2. In this game she just acts like a scared girl half the time, always panting or whining, and always in a depressed mood. And mind you, this is the third game in the series! By now Aya should be used to all the mutant mavericks she encounters. It doesn't fit in with her character at all mentally, or physically, from the previous games.
And finally the last straw is the gameplay. I always want a fair, decent challenge from my games, and the hard mode just feels like a second thought on the developers part. Without getting much more lengthy with this post, their is just many technical aspects to the gameplay that never get explained which ruin the experience on hard mode. For example, your told how to overdive in the game early, but they never tell you that you also receive the health of the npc you overdive into. This aspect of the game is crucial, because depending on to the npc you dive in to, it can either save you or kill you in a flash. They continue this tradition in your first boss fight of the game. While your fighting the boss, an npc comes along with a grenade launcher. They highlight this npc, to show you he came to the fight, but they never actually -tell- you that he has a grenade launcher. And why should you expect anything different; since every prior soldier-type npc up to that point in the game carries an assault rifle.
In the end I'm absolutely ashamed I spent any money on it at all, let alone twenty bucks. The downloadable version didn't even come with a digitized manual! Just everything about this game is disappointing, and feels like a complete waste of my time.
taze201
I LOVE this game....for me i give it a 9/10.....the story was awesome and the graphics were amazing for a psp.....but i found the story a little too short.....i wanted MORE......anyway i loved it and i WILL play it again sometime.
lskingofhearts
Great game so far, I am loving how tough the game is... It is really a 3rd birthday for me! Thank You Square-Enix!!!!!
TheReaver80
So, they dusted off the PE franchise and made an action game out of it, great. I think they could have done a better job of it on consoles but I suppose a psp title isn't a bad way get the series going again.
Personaly, I think all the b*tching about "hypersexualization" here is getting a little old. Games are not there to make political statements or purposfully offend anyone. If you happen to take offense to Aya's clothes getting ripped up then don't play the game. Would you rather her boobs get ripped off by some ugly *ss monster? What's worse, showing a little skin or the over the top gore that is present in so many games these days? Lighten up people.
DeadlyFlutterby
As a girl gamer, I'm fully enjoying this game. I personally could care less about the 'hypersexualization' of Aya. Did you see what she wore in PEII? I figure that if people have a really big problem with having her clothes destroyed, then they won't play PE: 3rd B-D. Simple as that.
Darkreaper1
Surprising a lot of the reviews I have seen for this game have been in the opposite direction. I'm going to wait to buy this or borrow it.
Rolandknight1
Hhmm, I have to say one thing and that the ending to it was like, "What? Really that's the story? That sucks." but over all the game is very fun to play and feel like the losing of clothing if damaged is to bad this might add to go with white eider protective gear. As is still covers her alot more even when damaged. But, really, I forget she's like that while I'm trying to kill everything around me and try not to get hit at the same time.
Hitotsuboshi
Why the huge cry on hypersexualization? Ridiculous!
After reading all these, I find it hilarious on how everyone is saying "Ooh female gamers might not like games like Devil May Cry and blah blah blah". I've played all the Devil May Cry games. I've also played my fair share of other games where there are oversexed guys and girls, and being a female, it honestly doesn't bother me a bit. While the graphics are very nice, what I go for the most is the STORYLINE.
markmc01
Right, hypersexualization! That's why G4 also disapproved of this video they made: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/bl og/post/708588/adult-star-kirs ten-price-tests-kinect-does-mi crosofts-camera-censor-nudity/ ?page=9 Oh right, they didn't!
kentla57
Remember who made this game SE. Japanese culture is way different than macho American culture. I think SE should keep their games in Japan or farm out to a US company when making games for America.
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