Beaten in 2021, ranked (except replays)
Nothing here!
41 Games
"Hey guys, do you think Resident Evil is more about exploring and backtracking, horror, or crazy nonsense action?"
"Yes"
That was probably the pitch for this game, because yes, this fucking game does all of that.
RE6 kinda tried all that, but it was a disjointed mess. Someway, somehow, VIllage is a cohesive, focused game.
The castle is very reminiscent of RE1's mansion (the REmake specifically). Then the game actually scares you shitless (and it's the scariest thing in the franchise, and it's not even close). Then it somehow manages to have probably the most insane, nonsensical, over the top action the franchise has ever seen. And it all just works. I don't personally agree the final hours are bad, RE games have always had crazy bombastic endings. Though I guess I can see why one would think that. I guess.
RE7 just fizzled out at the end, this one fucking climaxes and by God does it climax hard, whether you're in on the ride or not.
The hub thing with the village made exploring suuuuper rewarding, and I hope they revisit the idea in future games. It works super well with RE, giving it a metroidvania-ish flair
And one thing I don't see mentioned for modern REs, is how Capcom raised their level of storytelling. It's still basic, nonsensical, cheesy, corny and dumb, but damn if it isn't fun to actually watch these stories.
And Ethan is on cocaine on this game or something, the stuff he says throughout the game is glorious. Man, this guy has some issues.
He's also the unluckiest bastard in video gaming. Jesus Christ.
Can't wait for RE9
"Yes"
That was probably the pitch for this game, because yes, this fucking game does all of that.
RE6 kinda tried all that, but it was a disjointed mess. Someway, somehow, VIllage is a cohesive, focused game.
The castle is very reminiscent of RE1's mansion (the REmake specifically). Then the game actually scares you shitless (and it's the scariest thing in the franchise, and it's not even close). Then it somehow manages to have probably the most insane, nonsensical, over the top action the franchise has ever seen. And it all just works. I don't personally agree the final hours are bad, RE games have always had crazy bombastic endings. Though I guess I can see why one would think that. I guess.
RE7 just fizzled out at the end, this one fucking climaxes and by God does it climax hard, whether you're in on the ride or not.
The hub thing with the village made exploring suuuuper rewarding, and I hope they revisit the idea in future games. It works super well with RE, giving it a metroidvania-ish flair
And one thing I don't see mentioned for modern REs, is how Capcom raised their level of storytelling. It's still basic, nonsensical, cheesy, corny and dumb, but damn if it isn't fun to actually watch these stories.
And Ethan is on cocaine on this game or something, the stuff he says throughout the game is glorious. Man, this guy has some issues.
He's also the unluckiest bastard in video gaming. Jesus Christ.
Can't wait for RE9
2
I'll admit it: I was a little bit worried that the game might not deliver what I was expecting. Between the 1st game and this one, Double Fine has a lot of games, but I don't recognize any of them except for a few, none of which are platformers.
Psychonauts 2 squished all those doubts in about 10 minutes. No hyperbole.
It's just as creative as the first game - even more so actually, visually this game is kinda crazy at times, and each level is insanely distinct from each other - but now with the benefit of an extra 15 years of game design advancements. Basically, exactly what I wanted.
I actually enjoy combat, but it gets messy because you're changing skills all the time. Having two sets you easily change would have solved pretty much all my issues with fighting.
The soundtrack gave my some severe Pixar vibes, particularly The Incredibles. I adore how they handled the visual style.
I'll anxiously await the Youtube essays with psychological analysis of this game's levels because holy shit. It's clearly clever and nuanced as hell, even if the meaning of all it eludes me.
I had the goofiest fucking smile pretty much my entire playthrough, and laughed out loud more than once.
I'll be rooting like mad for this to win GOTY at the end of the year. Can I dream of Psychonauts 3 already?
Psychonauts 2 squished all those doubts in about 10 minutes. No hyperbole.
It's just as creative as the first game - even more so actually, visually this game is kinda crazy at times, and each level is insanely distinct from each other - but now with the benefit of an extra 15 years of game design advancements. Basically, exactly what I wanted.
I actually enjoy combat, but it gets messy because you're changing skills all the time. Having two sets you easily change would have solved pretty much all my issues with fighting.
The soundtrack gave my some severe Pixar vibes, particularly The Incredibles. I adore how they handled the visual style.
I'll anxiously await the Youtube essays with psychological analysis of this game's levels because holy shit. It's clearly clever and nuanced as hell, even if the meaning of all it eludes me.
I had the goofiest fucking smile pretty much my entire playthrough, and laughed out loud more than once.
I'll be rooting like mad for this to win GOTY at the end of the year. Can I dream of Psychonauts 3 already?
4
Claire A, Leon B. Just as good as everyone says it is, what an incredible achievement. Leon B was more scarce with resources, I'm not sure if I just played worse.
A couple of minor complaints: it's a shame they got rid of the soundtrack. The dead silence adds to the atmosphere and tension, but only on the 1st run. On the 2nd one, I couldn't help but notice things were a bit duller without music.
I can't count how many times I got bit by a zombie waiting right outside the door. Felt kinda cheap.
Mr. X is memorable and provides some cool "oh shit" moments, but I'm not as enamored with him as everyone else. He can be more annoying than scary.
Those are minor. The big one is the A/B scenario thing: both campaigns are pretty much identical, with the exception of a few specific moments.
After I finished the og like a year ago, I thought "this zapping thing is neat, but needs more fleshing out", but it's worse in the remake, how do you do that
I don't think anything you do on A affect anything on B, and the two are actually completely incompatible with each other. Anette dies on both scenarios for crying out loud
By far the most disappointing thing in this game, and faaaar more disappointing than anything on poor RE3 Remake that caused so much rage.
Still, great stuff.
(As a side note, RE3 Remake is the Aliens to this game's Alien)
A couple of minor complaints: it's a shame they got rid of the soundtrack. The dead silence adds to the atmosphere and tension, but only on the 1st run. On the 2nd one, I couldn't help but notice things were a bit duller without music.
I can't count how many times I got bit by a zombie waiting right outside the door. Felt kinda cheap.
Mr. X is memorable and provides some cool "oh shit" moments, but I'm not as enamored with him as everyone else. He can be more annoying than scary.
Those are minor. The big one is the A/B scenario thing: both campaigns are pretty much identical, with the exception of a few specific moments.
After I finished the og like a year ago, I thought "this zapping thing is neat, but needs more fleshing out", but it's worse in the remake, how do you do that
I don't think anything you do on A affect anything on B, and the two are actually completely incompatible with each other. Anette dies on both scenarios for crying out loud
By far the most disappointing thing in this game, and faaaar more disappointing than anything on poor RE3 Remake that caused so much rage.
Still, great stuff.
(As a side note, RE3 Remake is the Aliens to this game's Alien)
6
About the only time the franchise ever becomes actual horror: I was truly scared at certain points in this game. Namely the initial section with Jack (who is one of the more memorable characters in the series), and that one time you have to enter this crazy dark bedroom, holy shit.
May I ask why so many people complain of "action-fest gauntlet" at the end of the game though? I wish! This game has a strangely abrupt ending, it feels somewhat anti-climatic. Never have I finished an RE game with such an ungodly amount of ammo. I didn't really have the chance to properly use my grenade launcher or magnum because the ending sorta sneaks up on you. In every RE game, it's super apparent when you can go full "fuck this shit" mode and start unloading everything you hoarded.
You know what it is? It's the Molded, they die with a single shotgun shot to the head, and are the only enemy during the whole game.
That part in the boat doesn't help, since all the stuff you hoarded won't do you any good. Unfairly maligned part though, I don't get the bad reputation.
After that though, you enter a fairly unremarkable mine section, fighting the same Molded as always, until you sorta stumble your way across an extremely lackluster final boss.
But man that Baker mansion is fantastic. With a better final area, this would've been at least 9 out of 10. As it is, it's the most lackluster final stretch in the series. Shame.
May I ask why so many people complain of "action-fest gauntlet" at the end of the game though? I wish! This game has a strangely abrupt ending, it feels somewhat anti-climatic. Never have I finished an RE game with such an ungodly amount of ammo. I didn't really have the chance to properly use my grenade launcher or magnum because the ending sorta sneaks up on you. In every RE game, it's super apparent when you can go full "fuck this shit" mode and start unloading everything you hoarded.
You know what it is? It's the Molded, they die with a single shotgun shot to the head, and are the only enemy during the whole game.
That part in the boat doesn't help, since all the stuff you hoarded won't do you any good. Unfairly maligned part though, I don't get the bad reputation.
After that though, you enter a fairly unremarkable mine section, fighting the same Molded as always, until you sorta stumble your way across an extremely lackluster final boss.
But man that Baker mansion is fantastic. With a better final area, this would've been at least 9 out of 10. As it is, it's the most lackluster final stretch in the series. Shame.
8
ou know, it kinda saddens me that this was met with such a polarizing reaction. I adored the pacing and flow of this game. In that sense, I feel it perfectly understands one of the strenghts of the original: the forward momentum.
Og RE3 was much more pronounced with its "James Cameron movie" feeling, even compared to RE2. You just keep moving forward, and that makes it the classic RE with the more "high-octane" energy: this remake perfectly captures that.
Nemesis is just a setpiece, and in that sense I understand people's disappointment if they were expecting the ultimate "stalker monster" game. I personally appreciate that he's more in-line with the og (where he was pretty much a setpiece too), instead of Mr. X on steroids, as everyone expected.
I feel like if they had added just one more area (the Clock Tower perhaps) and/or included a Mercenaries mode, instead of wasting resources on Resistance (which I assume is dead nowadays, so huh), complaints of the length wouldn't exist.
Jill and Carlos are great here. These iterations of the characters are perhaps my favorites in the franchise.
Og RE3 was much more pronounced with its "James Cameron movie" feeling, even compared to RE2. You just keep moving forward, and that makes it the classic RE with the more "high-octane" energy: this remake perfectly captures that.
Nemesis is just a setpiece, and in that sense I understand people's disappointment if they were expecting the ultimate "stalker monster" game. I personally appreciate that he's more in-line with the og (where he was pretty much a setpiece too), instead of Mr. X on steroids, as everyone expected.
I feel like if they had added just one more area (the Clock Tower perhaps) and/or included a Mercenaries mode, instead of wasting resources on Resistance (which I assume is dead nowadays, so huh), complaints of the length wouldn't exist.
Jill and Carlos are great here. These iterations of the characters are perhaps my favorites in the franchise.
9
This is how I like 'em: crazy, high-octane action with tons of energy. The gimmick-y stages I don't mind (except the motorcycle, that was lame), but yikes they're too long for their own good. Worthless and nearly incomprehensible story, but who cares (apparently the devs cared immensely given the amount of cutscenes. All skippable thankfully)
Though I wish Kamiya would stop with this nonsense of doing goofy over-the-top games, and then at the end get "serious" and "dramatic". DMC1 did the same crap, get out of here.
Could do without the QTEs.
Though I wish Kamiya would stop with this nonsense of doing goofy over-the-top games, and then at the end get "serious" and "dramatic". DMC1 did the same crap, get out of here.
Could do without the QTEs.
11
Man, this game is just cool you know. The sleek presentation, the cool spy-thriller story, it's all just nice to play.
I actually went to this one straight from Chaos Theory, skipping Double Agent and Conviction (both have less-than-ideal PC ports). The lighting thing being binary rather than having a meter like before is such an unneeded change, and so is the removal of the sound meter.
And Sam's voice, oof. Like, I get it: Ironside was treating cancer at the time and that fucking sucks. But then... why still do it with Sam Fisher? He not only sounds different, he acts and looks different too. He's kind of an asshole in this one, and with every passing game he somehow gets younger, huh. For crying out loud, just use a different character and say that Sam is fishing somewhere. A lot of the fanbase dismissed this game because of that, and that could've been easily avoided.
And this game is sometimes guilty of modern AAA trappings, like "immersive gameplay" (sections where all you do is walk forward and could've easily been a cutscene...). But credit where credit is due, this game handles the action setpieces quite well. They're not too frequent to be annoying or pace-breaking, and end up feeling electric and exciting, and plenty of them still have room for a stealthy approach.
I actually went to this one straight from Chaos Theory, skipping Double Agent and Conviction (both have less-than-ideal PC ports). The lighting thing being binary rather than having a meter like before is such an unneeded change, and so is the removal of the sound meter.
And Sam's voice, oof. Like, I get it: Ironside was treating cancer at the time and that fucking sucks. But then... why still do it with Sam Fisher? He not only sounds different, he acts and looks different too. He's kind of an asshole in this one, and with every passing game he somehow gets younger, huh. For crying out loud, just use a different character and say that Sam is fishing somewhere. A lot of the fanbase dismissed this game because of that, and that could've been easily avoided.
And this game is sometimes guilty of modern AAA trappings, like "immersive gameplay" (sections where all you do is walk forward and could've easily been a cutscene...). But credit where credit is due, this game handles the action setpieces quite well. They're not too frequent to be annoying or pace-breaking, and end up feeling electric and exciting, and plenty of them still have room for a stealthy approach.
12
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15
This is the classic RE formula stretched to its limit (stretch beyond the limit and you get RE Zero btw)
There are so many instances in this game where I legit stopped for a moment and thought "...why?". Countless baffling design choices that do absolutely nothing but make the experience of a first-time player much, much worse.
If you don't know what you're doing you will absolutely waste a lot of time either going the wrong way a lot of times (meaning door animations), or doing some insane backtracking. And if you don't know what to expect, you may even soft-lock yourself, forcing a reset. Great game design.
The story's cheesyness constantly crosses the line and becomes cringey, and Steve is a fucking idiot. Out of all the fiction I've consumed, he may very well be the worst character I've seen. He's so fucking bad he even makes Claire worse by osmosis.
The fully 3D backgrounds, while giving us some cool camera angles, means that backgrounds are much more sterile and forgettable that the previous 3 games.
You can skip nearly every single boss. That's not a positive nor a negative, I just find it funny.
Still, being the well-established RE formula means the game is still fun, even with the inexplicable design. But out of the "good" REs, it's easily the worst (that and Rev 2, but that's for different reasons).
(That was the actual review. Below is just me ranting about some of the dumb and/or bad design instances):
This game finds the idea of respawning zombies brilliant. Fuck off.
It also likes to spam a miniboss as regular enemy in the early game, these yellow hunter-ish creatures. With a long range attack! Cool.
At one instance, you must follow Steve, and put 3 medal things to activate a lift. Did you forget the medals, or didn't even realize they'd be needed (it's in a lift that's very easy to miss your first run through the area)? Too bad, go the item box 15 cities away and grab the stuff.
There are multiple instances of "all of a sudden you need a key item, and there's no item box nearby" actually. Like... why?
All because this game distributes the item boxes in such a strange manner. It always feels like the closest one is on the other side of the country, goddamn.
Save points however are spaced at complete random. Multiple times you find a lonely save point, implying there's a boss or something. But between it and the next save room, there's nothing. Literally nothing. ?????
The last area has the item box and the save point in completely separate rooms btw. Why?!
The "let's take 20 seconds to open the door" isn't tension-building, it's annoying.
Dear Capcom, don't have small, flying, fast enemies in your tank control RE. Bats and moths, yuck.
And also don't have tiny crawling minions on your final boss. Yuck.
Keep the damn extinguisher. You're not getting the Magnum without it.
Not that it matters actually, because explosive arrows are soooo much stronger than the Magnum... Unloading the Magnum at the final boss did nothing, but it died to like... 10 explosive arrows. Jesus.
And here's the big one: the second time you get control of Claire, if you give her too much stuff, you just soft-locked yourself. Fantastic design.
There are so many instances in this game where I legit stopped for a moment and thought "...why?". Countless baffling design choices that do absolutely nothing but make the experience of a first-time player much, much worse.
If you don't know what you're doing you will absolutely waste a lot of time either going the wrong way a lot of times (meaning door animations), or doing some insane backtracking. And if you don't know what to expect, you may even soft-lock yourself, forcing a reset. Great game design.
The story's cheesyness constantly crosses the line and becomes cringey, and Steve is a fucking idiot. Out of all the fiction I've consumed, he may very well be the worst character I've seen. He's so fucking bad he even makes Claire worse by osmosis.
The fully 3D backgrounds, while giving us some cool camera angles, means that backgrounds are much more sterile and forgettable that the previous 3 games.
You can skip nearly every single boss. That's not a positive nor a negative, I just find it funny.
Still, being the well-established RE formula means the game is still fun, even with the inexplicable design. But out of the "good" REs, it's easily the worst (that and Rev 2, but that's for different reasons).
(That was the actual review. Below is just me ranting about some of the dumb and/or bad design instances):
This game finds the idea of respawning zombies brilliant. Fuck off.
It also likes to spam a miniboss as regular enemy in the early game, these yellow hunter-ish creatures. With a long range attack! Cool.
At one instance, you must follow Steve, and put 3 medal things to activate a lift. Did you forget the medals, or didn't even realize they'd be needed (it's in a lift that's very easy to miss your first run through the area)? Too bad, go the item box 15 cities away and grab the stuff.
There are multiple instances of "all of a sudden you need a key item, and there's no item box nearby" actually. Like... why?
All because this game distributes the item boxes in such a strange manner. It always feels like the closest one is on the other side of the country, goddamn.
Save points however are spaced at complete random. Multiple times you find a lonely save point, implying there's a boss or something. But between it and the next save room, there's nothing. Literally nothing. ?????
The last area has the item box and the save point in completely separate rooms btw. Why?!
The "let's take 20 seconds to open the door" isn't tension-building, it's annoying.
Dear Capcom, don't have small, flying, fast enemies in your tank control RE. Bats and moths, yuck.
And also don't have tiny crawling minions on your final boss. Yuck.
Keep the damn extinguisher. You're not getting the Magnum without it.
Not that it matters actually, because explosive arrows are soooo much stronger than the Magnum... Unloading the Magnum at the final boss did nothing, but it died to like... 10 explosive arrows. Jesus.
And here's the big one: the second time you get control of Claire, if you give her too much stuff, you just soft-locked yourself. Fantastic design.
16
17
This game's existence is a miracle. It's kind of a spiritual sucessor to the Jedi Knight series, and that makes me so damn happy. The Souls-Zelda-Metroid-ish design and exploration tickles just the right spots in my brain.
The weakest aspect to me was the combat: it's neither the deliberate pacing of Souls nor the cocaine-induced speed of DMC, so you get this weirdly uncomfortable hybrid. Not having the ability to dismember foes also robs lightsaber combats of much impact - it makes it so that 2002's Jedi Outcast has a more satisfying-feeling combat
Things get better once you get more Force skills, but that takes a while... and regardless, it never truly clicked for me, particularly against stronger/bigger enemies.
The story is fine. There's a bunch of cool moments, and the proper cinematic flair you expect from the franchise. But the writing is very mundane, and the plot itself is ultimately pointless.
Other than that, a few nitpicks. I missed having a "go back to ship" button. This game has a bunch of extraneous animations (e.g. everytime you modify your saber, you have to watch Cal admiring it for a couple of seconds)
Here's hoping for a sequel. I'll be there.
The weakest aspect to me was the combat: it's neither the deliberate pacing of Souls nor the cocaine-induced speed of DMC, so you get this weirdly uncomfortable hybrid. Not having the ability to dismember foes also robs lightsaber combats of much impact - it makes it so that 2002's Jedi Outcast has a more satisfying-feeling combat
Things get better once you get more Force skills, but that takes a while... and regardless, it never truly clicked for me, particularly against stronger/bigger enemies.
The story is fine. There's a bunch of cool moments, and the proper cinematic flair you expect from the franchise. But the writing is very mundane, and the plot itself is ultimately pointless.
Other than that, a few nitpicks. I missed having a "go back to ship" button. This game has a bunch of extraneous animations (e.g. everytime you modify your saber, you have to watch Cal admiring it for a couple of seconds)
Here's hoping for a sequel. I'll be there.
20
Turns out this is an interesting piece of history: it's a metroidvania-ish lite from 1989.
It looks modern, but it's a 1:1 remake (apparently, the devs reverse engineered the code of the original game to make this remake), and damn I'm impressed: the level design holds up incredibly well. It's hard to believe this is contemporary to Simon's Quest or the original Metroid.
Definitely stood the test of time, though it still has instances of obtuse crap, like invisible doors where you just have to know to push up. Plus, I can't believe they didn't add the option for a map.
The art style gives it irresistible charm, the soundtrack is super pleasant to listen to, and it's just fascinating to see a game this old with relatively modern design.
It looks modern, but it's a 1:1 remake (apparently, the devs reverse engineered the code of the original game to make this remake), and damn I'm impressed: the level design holds up incredibly well. It's hard to believe this is contemporary to Simon's Quest or the original Metroid.
Definitely stood the test of time, though it still has instances of obtuse crap, like invisible doors where you just have to know to push up. Plus, I can't believe they didn't add the option for a map.
The art style gives it irresistible charm, the soundtrack is super pleasant to listen to, and it's just fascinating to see a game this old with relatively modern design.
21
This game has just irresistible charm, goddamn. Also showed me I can very much enjoy point-and-click games, it was a great way to spend 2-3 hours. I'm very glad I bought this and supported the devs.
Did I mention how charming this is? I can't get over it. Nice little puzzles too, though I checked a guide for a couple anyway. Whatever, I'm fully expecting it from this genre, I don't mind.
Did I mention how charming this is? I can't get over it. Nice little puzzles too, though I checked a guide for a couple anyway. Whatever, I'm fully expecting it from this genre, I don't mind.
22
23
Again in co-op. You know, I have no idea how these games fare solo now that I think of it. They're really fun blockbuster shooters in co-op at least.
This one is meaty as hell for the series' standards, there's actual sidequests here. Cool setpieces, hype as fuck climax, the story/cutscenes has the proper gravitas when required (I did tune out of the story for a while, looking back it's little more than a glorified fetch quest)
It runs like a dream too, goddamn. Gears 1 and 4 stuck around 30fps here, sometimes lower, this one rarely dipped below 30. And it's great looking too, there's just something about this and 4's art style that really appeals to me.
Cool shit. I'll be there for Gears 6.
This one is meaty as hell for the series' standards, there's actual sidequests here. Cool setpieces, hype as fuck climax, the story/cutscenes has the proper gravitas when required (I did tune out of the story for a while, looking back it's little more than a glorified fetch quest)
It runs like a dream too, goddamn. Gears 1 and 4 stuck around 30fps here, sometimes lower, this one rarely dipped below 30. And it's great looking too, there's just something about this and 4's art style that really appeals to me.
Cool shit. I'll be there for Gears 6.
24
Continuing our co-op journey through the series. Since Gears 2 and 3 are to this day only on the 360 (for some baffling reason...) we skipped right to 4
And damn, what a blast. Actually liked this one better than 1, the gunplay and movement felt smoother, and I was particularly shocked by the art direction, great color pallete throughout.
Great, exciting setpieces as well. This game was clearly inspired by Uncharted in some regards, which means it has come full circle. Nice.
Biggest issue was a bunch of technical issues, where the game would just freeze during the loading screen sometimes... Annoying, no idea what causes it. Probably some fuckery in the netcode
Among the Gears fanbase though, it has a really lukewarm reception, not sure why that is... Maybe it's the banter between the characters, it does feel distinctly different from the 1st one, and isn't familiar until Marcus Fenix and his delicious one-liners show up.
And damn, what a blast. Actually liked this one better than 1, the gunplay and movement felt smoother, and I was particularly shocked by the art direction, great color pallete throughout.
Great, exciting setpieces as well. This game was clearly inspired by Uncharted in some regards, which means it has come full circle. Nice.
Biggest issue was a bunch of technical issues, where the game would just freeze during the loading screen sometimes... Annoying, no idea what causes it. Probably some fuckery in the netcode
Among the Gears fanbase though, it has a really lukewarm reception, not sure why that is... Maybe it's the banter between the characters, it does feel distinctly different from the 1st one, and isn't familiar until Marcus Fenix and his delicious one-liners show up.
25
27
I'm a bit torn.
On one hand, as far as beat 'em ups go, this is a great one. Top notch presentation, great OST, satisfying punchy combat, multiple characters, the works.
On the other hand, I have this nagging feeling that this should've been beyond "as far as beat 'em ups go". It's almost there, and at times it really feels like certain mechanics and enemies are in the wrong game - they should be in a more nuanced one, closer to the character action genre.
Multiple moments where I kept thinking "if movement was better, this would be one hell of a fight..." or something like that. As it is, it's very much an arcade beat 'em up. One of the best ones I've played! But I feel like it should've taken it one step further. It's hard to explain how I felt.
Plus, it's also waaaaaay too punishing. No checkpoints, and the "normal" mode gives you only 2 lives. That's particularly absurd for the final stage, where I just went with the assistance (+3 lives), and still finished it with only one life to spare.
Mega Man 11 was also stingy with checkpoints, but easier difficulties were much more generous. This game missed that, imo.
It's like a 7 out of 10. But there's thing feeling in the back of my head telling me it really should have been an 8 or even a 9 out of 10.
I guess the bottomline is: this game is so good as a beat 'em up, that I wish it left the (rather restricted) confines of a beat 'em up.
On one hand, as far as beat 'em ups go, this is a great one. Top notch presentation, great OST, satisfying punchy combat, multiple characters, the works.
On the other hand, I have this nagging feeling that this should've been beyond "as far as beat 'em ups go". It's almost there, and at times it really feels like certain mechanics and enemies are in the wrong game - they should be in a more nuanced one, closer to the character action genre.
Multiple moments where I kept thinking "if movement was better, this would be one hell of a fight..." or something like that. As it is, it's very much an arcade beat 'em up. One of the best ones I've played! But I feel like it should've taken it one step further. It's hard to explain how I felt.
Plus, it's also waaaaaay too punishing. No checkpoints, and the "normal" mode gives you only 2 lives. That's particularly absurd for the final stage, where I just went with the assistance (+3 lives), and still finished it with only one life to spare.
Mega Man 11 was also stingy with checkpoints, but easier difficulties were much more generous. This game missed that, imo.
It's like a 7 out of 10. But there's thing feeling in the back of my head telling me it really should have been an 8 or even a 9 out of 10.
I guess the bottomline is: this game is so good as a beat 'em up, that I wish it left the (rather restricted) confines of a beat 'em up.
30
Since I've never had an Xbox, it wasn't until very recently I could play the series. A friend of mine accepted my invite for a coop playthrough, and we had a lot of fun.
It definitely feels like a relic of its time, what with the cover shooting, the hilarious edgy, dudebro tone (I do think it adds to the enjoyment). But it's just fun hockey action.
We're actually installing Gears 4 right now (130+ GB WHYYYY)
The PC port is poorly optimized though. It's a 2015-16 Xbox One game, bringing my 2019 CPU to its knees, the hell is that.
It definitely feels like a relic of its time, what with the cover shooting, the hilarious edgy, dudebro tone (I do think it adds to the enjoyment). But it's just fun hockey action.
We're actually installing Gears 4 right now (130+ GB WHYYYY)
The PC port is poorly optimized though. It's a 2015-16 Xbox One game, bringing my 2019 CPU to its knees, the hell is that.
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36
I'm conflicted on this one. On one hand, I had a lot of fun with the game's abilities. The dash and parry in particular were super satisfying, and every boss was damn intense.
On the other hand, this game's design is so.... backwards. Like, what separates hard as hell games like Cuphead, Celeste and Super Meat Boy, from a just as hard but not as satisfying one like Cyber Shadow here?
I'll tell you what: needlessly archaic design choices. Two main ones: post-damage invincibility does NOT protect you from instant death hazards (you know what else did this? Freaking Mega Man 1 in 1987), and enemies going through walls to chase you.
The amount of deaths I would have avoided without these two things is almost incomprehensible.
There's other stuff, like projectiles from off-screen enemies hitting you, and questionable enemy placement.
And the final boss is actually THREE bosses in a row. They're not that hard tbf (the 1st one is super easy actually), but that's just it: artificial difficulty. You know what else did this? The freaking Batman game on NES.
The ending teases at a sequel (I think?). If the developer can back away a little from the NES mentality when it comes to the design, we might have a gem in our hands.
Usually, this game would get a solid 7 from me, but the idea of replaying it and going through all that again... I don't know, a lot of it felt very outside of my control. I had fun, but yikes. And unlike other retro throwback games, there's no option for easier difficulties, more generous checkpoints, none of the sort.
So let's settle for a solid 6 out of 10
On the other hand, this game's design is so.... backwards. Like, what separates hard as hell games like Cuphead, Celeste and Super Meat Boy, from a just as hard but not as satisfying one like Cyber Shadow here?
I'll tell you what: needlessly archaic design choices. Two main ones: post-damage invincibility does NOT protect you from instant death hazards (you know what else did this? Freaking Mega Man 1 in 1987), and enemies going through walls to chase you.
The amount of deaths I would have avoided without these two things is almost incomprehensible.
There's other stuff, like projectiles from off-screen enemies hitting you, and questionable enemy placement.
And the final boss is actually THREE bosses in a row. They're not that hard tbf (the 1st one is super easy actually), but that's just it: artificial difficulty. You know what else did this? The freaking Batman game on NES.
The ending teases at a sequel (I think?). If the developer can back away a little from the NES mentality when it comes to the design, we might have a gem in our hands.
Usually, this game would get a solid 7 from me, but the idea of replaying it and going through all that again... I don't know, a lot of it felt very outside of my control. I had fun, but yikes. And unlike other retro throwback games, there's no option for easier difficulties, more generous checkpoints, none of the sort.
So let's settle for a solid 6 out of 10
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