Callandor
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Gone Gold
Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page
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Journaled 5+ games in a single day
3 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years
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Gained 10+ total review likes
Favorite Games
085
Total Games Played
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Played in 2024
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The Good:
- Really immersive cinematic feel
- Great soundtrack
- Actually interesting meta moments
- Engaging story and atmosphere
The Ok:
- Mixed voice acting
The Bad:
- Repetitive and sometimes frustrating combat
Conclusion:
Alan Wake is a game stuffed with awesome ideas that’s unfortunately held back by its gameplay (which is somehow less forgivable than vice versa). The base story is pretty simple, but I genuinely enjoyed the more outlandish the meta aspect became. The way the story frames Alan’s abilities as a writer is really cool, and it led to some awesome moments. I also really enjoyed the whole ‘we made it into a tv show’ thing; the songs at the end of each Episode always hit. However, I can’t quite bring myself to fully enjoy the game. In a word, I just don’t like the combat, which is rough when it’s easily the majority of your playtime. Against normal Taken, it works fine, and can even be fun, but I think it all falls apart in the late game when you’re being swarmed. It’s simply not fun, and the game doesn’t really give you adequate tools. Alan himself controls like a tank, and has the stamina of an old man. This is fine conceptually, as it emphasizes that he’s a normal dude in an outlandish situation, but the issue is that these limitations are combined with a very action oriented gameplay loop. It feels like the game wants you to be sprinting and dodging everywhere, but you just can’t, and it can become really annoying. Still, despite that major flaw, I enjoyed pretty much everything else about the game (although I quit the DLC partway through). I’ll pick up Alan Wake II for sure.
- Really immersive cinematic feel
- Great soundtrack
- Actually interesting meta moments
- Engaging story and atmosphere
The Ok:
- Mixed voice acting
The Bad:
- Repetitive and sometimes frustrating combat
Conclusion:
Alan Wake is a game stuffed with awesome ideas that’s unfortunately held back by its gameplay (which is somehow less forgivable than vice versa). The base story is pretty simple, but I genuinely enjoyed the more outlandish the meta aspect became. The way the story frames Alan’s abilities as a writer is really cool, and it led to some awesome moments. I also really enjoyed the whole ‘we made it into a tv show’ thing; the songs at the end of each Episode always hit. However, I can’t quite bring myself to fully enjoy the game. In a word, I just don’t like the combat, which is rough when it’s easily the majority of your playtime. Against normal Taken, it works fine, and can even be fun, but I think it all falls apart in the late game when you’re being swarmed. It’s simply not fun, and the game doesn’t really give you adequate tools. Alan himself controls like a tank, and has the stamina of an old man. This is fine conceptually, as it emphasizes that he’s a normal dude in an outlandish situation, but the issue is that these limitations are combined with a very action oriented gameplay loop. It feels like the game wants you to be sprinting and dodging everywhere, but you just can’t, and it can become really annoying. Still, despite that major flaw, I enjoyed pretty much everything else about the game (although I quit the DLC partway through). I’ll pick up Alan Wake II for sure.
This review contains spoilers
The Good:
- Insanely in-depth game mechanics
- Phenomenal voice acting
- Great music
- Compelling story and characters
- Fantastic gameplay
The Ok:
- Some very minor structural issues
The Bad:
- Not much
Conclusion:
I’m happy to report that Baldur’s Gate 3 fully lived up to the hype for me; this absolutely deserved Game of the Year (and I adore Tears of the Kingdom). It takes DnD (which I also love), and translates it almost perfectly into video game format. Seriously, the gameplay loop here is extremely fun and addicting, and it’s almost overwhelming how many choices you receive just in terms of combat. Presentation-wise, it’s almost flawless. The music is fantastic, the graphics are quite impressive, and the cinematic cutscenes are awesome. The story is fairly simple on its head (save yourself and then the world from Mind Flayers), but there’s enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. What really sets the narrative apart is the depth of the character writing, and the voice acting. Literally all of your party members are amazingly acted, particularly Astarion and Karlach, and they completely sell certain emotional beats. It’s also very fun to dive into their individual stories; I found a few party members a little boring (Wyll, Halsin), but enough were cool that I was more than satisfied. Honestly, I only have a few criticisms of the game (which is crazy considering it’s length). Firstly, it can be a little glitchy, particularly in Act III, but it’s nothing too bad. What’s more serious though, are a few structural issues. For one thing, Act II’s entire setup implies that you should do Shar’s Temple before Moonrise Towers, when in fact you’re supposed to bounce between them. I almost made that mistake before Googling it to make sure. Also, Act III is probably a little too overwhelming in terms of new quests; it can be hard to manage your time when you have 6 major active quest lines to complete, and they all seem urgent. Overall though, these problems are fairly minor, and I loved almost every minute I had with the game. I’m absolutely going to replay this multiple times. I love Baldur’s Gate 3.
- Insanely in-depth game mechanics
- Phenomenal voice acting
- Great music
- Compelling story and characters
- Fantastic gameplay
The Ok:
- Some very minor structural issues
The Bad:
- Not much
Conclusion:
I’m happy to report that Baldur’s Gate 3 fully lived up to the hype for me; this absolutely deserved Game of the Year (and I adore Tears of the Kingdom). It takes DnD (which I also love), and translates it almost perfectly into video game format. Seriously, the gameplay loop here is extremely fun and addicting, and it’s almost overwhelming how many choices you receive just in terms of combat. Presentation-wise, it’s almost flawless. The music is fantastic, the graphics are quite impressive, and the cinematic cutscenes are awesome. The story is fairly simple on its head (save yourself and then the world from Mind Flayers), but there’s enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. What really sets the narrative apart is the depth of the character writing, and the voice acting. Literally all of your party members are amazingly acted, particularly Astarion and Karlach, and they completely sell certain emotional beats. It’s also very fun to dive into their individual stories; I found a few party members a little boring (Wyll, Halsin), but enough were cool that I was more than satisfied. Honestly, I only have a few criticisms of the game (which is crazy considering it’s length). Firstly, it can be a little glitchy, particularly in Act III, but it’s nothing too bad. What’s more serious though, are a few structural issues. For one thing, Act II’s entire setup implies that you should do Shar’s Temple before Moonrise Towers, when in fact you’re supposed to bounce between them. I almost made that mistake before Googling it to make sure. Also, Act III is probably a little too overwhelming in terms of new quests; it can be hard to manage your time when you have 6 major active quest lines to complete, and they all seem urgent. Overall though, these problems are fairly minor, and I loved almost every minute I had with the game. I’m absolutely going to replay this multiple times. I love Baldur’s Gate 3.
This review contains spoilers
The Good:
- Some really nice improvements to the formula
- Great presentation, from frame rate to visuals to score to voice acting
- Extremely fun gameplay
The Ok:
- The third act is a little rushed
The Bad:
- Doesn’t really innovate at all
Conclusion:
Spider-Man 2 is pretty similar to a lot of Sony sequels. Like Horizon Forbidden West, GoW Ragnarok, and TLoU 2, it looks and feels better than its predecessor, but the story isn’t quite as good. This isn’t even necessarily a bad thing; Ragnarok takes a minor hit on focused writing in exchange for an absolutely insane scope, which I think it succeeds at. Here, it’s still very fun and quite good, but there’s not such an obvious upside. To start, the obvious thing is that it’s just an absolute blast to move around. The traversal is probably the best part of this game, especially now that web wings make up for those times when you run out of building. It looks fantastic, and both the performances and music are similarly quality. The combat is as fun as ever, but I do have a few gripes. For one thing, I think the new parry mechanic is a little silly. Spider-Man doesn’t parry things; his whole THING is dodging. All this mechanic adds is slightly frustrating mini-bosses that can only be defeated by parrying. There’s also the fact that stealth feels like such an afterthought. At least in SM1 and Miles Morales, we had a lot of gadgets or invisibility. Here, the gadget count is much reduced and Miles’ invisibility is nerfed (and not relevant at all to the story). Still, combat remains pretty fun, so these issues aren’t a huge deal at the end of the day. What’s a slightly larger deal, however, is the rushed story. For the first two acts, it’s pretty good to great, but once the third act starts, it just feels like everything happens so fast. Peter doesn’t wear the suit quite long enough, which makes his entire characterization change feel a little unearned at times. Overall, though, I still really liked Spider-Man 2; it just wasn’t as good as it probably could’ve been.
- Some really nice improvements to the formula
- Great presentation, from frame rate to visuals to score to voice acting
- Extremely fun gameplay
The Ok:
- The third act is a little rushed
The Bad:
- Doesn’t really innovate at all
Conclusion:
Spider-Man 2 is pretty similar to a lot of Sony sequels. Like Horizon Forbidden West, GoW Ragnarok, and TLoU 2, it looks and feels better than its predecessor, but the story isn’t quite as good. This isn’t even necessarily a bad thing; Ragnarok takes a minor hit on focused writing in exchange for an absolutely insane scope, which I think it succeeds at. Here, it’s still very fun and quite good, but there’s not such an obvious upside. To start, the obvious thing is that it’s just an absolute blast to move around. The traversal is probably the best part of this game, especially now that web wings make up for those times when you run out of building. It looks fantastic, and both the performances and music are similarly quality. The combat is as fun as ever, but I do have a few gripes. For one thing, I think the new parry mechanic is a little silly. Spider-Man doesn’t parry things; his whole THING is dodging. All this mechanic adds is slightly frustrating mini-bosses that can only be defeated by parrying. There’s also the fact that stealth feels like such an afterthought. At least in SM1 and Miles Morales, we had a lot of gadgets or invisibility. Here, the gadget count is much reduced and Miles’ invisibility is nerfed (and not relevant at all to the story). Still, combat remains pretty fun, so these issues aren’t a huge deal at the end of the day. What’s a slightly larger deal, however, is the rushed story. For the first two acts, it’s pretty good to great, but once the third act starts, it just feels like everything happens so fast. Peter doesn’t wear the suit quite long enough, which makes his entire characterization change feel a little unearned at times. Overall, though, I still really liked Spider-Man 2; it just wasn’t as good as it probably could’ve been.