Cazraan
Parapolitical, climate doomer, cyberpunk thriller disguised as a Call of Duty game. Treyarch presents gamers with their toughest challenge yet: Be able to read.
I think that there is an important discussion to have about how much of your plot, setting and world-building are supposed to be shown/told, but I won't bother with it right now. I'll only say that winks and nods towards a deeper, richer world in the actual game that you are playing are probably not actually enough to engage most people and this is a legitimate criticism.
BUT, if you are interested in what the campaign is about, there is a whole in-game wiki which explains the setting and backstory of the plot, factions, history and characters, its actually insane. Down to the caliber of each weapon in the game, what metal alloys the robots are made out of, which countries form part of the Winslow Accord (super NATO, basically) and the CDP (super BRICS, kind of) and even WHEN they were incorporated.
And that still is not the whole picture. The collectibles you find unlock extra lore which amounts to little more than flavor text, but I personally love stuff like that. You can tell that a LOT of effort went into the setting of this game. One collectible in particular that you find in one of the Egypt levels unlocks a wiki link that takes you to a fictional blog of an Egyptian soldier before the NRC invasion, which is crazy since you can only access it through the link in the collectible entry inside the data vault. The only explanation you are given about the importance of the place you visit is given two lines in a cutscene and they are basically: We need to find a guy here and people are fighting over water. That's it. The wiki gives some very welcome context and personality to the game. Another collectible gives you information regarding the implanted chips the main characters get: How they, in essence, allow full VR-like experiences down to extrasensory phenomena like melding memories, what the hallucinations that you see in the game might be and why they look so real to the main character. Again, nothing explained in depth during the main story, besides some allusions to things.
Why did they choose to hide so much of the game? I don't know the real answer, but I speculate that it was two things: The way that the community engaged with the Zombies game mode easter eggs and the fact that if a lot of the background writing was translated into gameplay it would have been easily three times bigger than it is, I'm talking RPG levels of size and something like that was likely way too ambitious for a Call of Duty campaign. They most likely expected a similar level of engagement with the story from players, but fans certainly made it known that this is not what they were looking for, unfortunately.
The campaign itself is perfectly fine at worst, I genuinely do not understand the hate it got. Most COD campaigns (I would argue a lot of FPS games) are trite! At least here they designed more open levels and you can progress your character by unlocking stuff for your loadouts like in the multiplayer mode which makes it immediately more interesting than previous campaigns since there are now abilities and perks tailored to aggressive, passive or movement heavy playstyles. Cloaks, boosters, charge attacks, multi-target stuns, anti-robot abilities, possession mechanics(!), gear suited for robot or humans enemies. Tons of ways to play. Also, a scoring system and challenges are in there if you like replaying levels that way as well.
From the amount of hate the campaign got one would think that it was completely broken or unfinished or something, but it totally is the opposite of that. The other COD games only really stand out by having big set-pieces or very scripted, linear missions which are fine and what the majority of fans want, I suppose, but none of those stuck with me more than this game. Finding out that the game is basically about a second cold war with a bipolar world created by actual conflict and tensions around today was so fascinating to me, no other COD game even tries something like this one.
This game makes me a bit sad knowing how much talent and creativity they had at Treyarch at the time and how they are relegated to making Call of Duty games seemingly forever. They clearly wanted to do more, but we can only imagine what could have been if their situation was different.
Oh and by the way, this was easily the best "jetpack era" Call of Duty muliplayer mode.
I think that there is an important discussion to have about how much of your plot, setting and world-building are supposed to be shown/told, but I won't bother with it right now. I'll only say that winks and nods towards a deeper, richer world in the actual game that you are playing are probably not actually enough to engage most people and this is a legitimate criticism.
BUT, if you are interested in what the campaign is about, there is a whole in-game wiki which explains the setting and backstory of the plot, factions, history and characters, its actually insane. Down to the caliber of each weapon in the game, what metal alloys the robots are made out of, which countries form part of the Winslow Accord (super NATO, basically) and the CDP (super BRICS, kind of) and even WHEN they were incorporated.
And that still is not the whole picture. The collectibles you find unlock extra lore which amounts to little more than flavor text, but I personally love stuff like that. You can tell that a LOT of effort went into the setting of this game. One collectible in particular that you find in one of the Egypt levels unlocks a wiki link that takes you to a fictional blog of an Egyptian soldier before the NRC invasion, which is crazy since you can only access it through the link in the collectible entry inside the data vault. The only explanation you are given about the importance of the place you visit is given two lines in a cutscene and they are basically: We need to find a guy here and people are fighting over water. That's it. The wiki gives some very welcome context and personality to the game. Another collectible gives you information regarding the implanted chips the main characters get: How they, in essence, allow full VR-like experiences down to extrasensory phenomena like melding memories, what the hallucinations that you see in the game might be and why they look so real to the main character. Again, nothing explained in depth during the main story, besides some allusions to things.
Why did they choose to hide so much of the game? I don't know the real answer, but I speculate that it was two things: The way that the community engaged with the Zombies game mode easter eggs and the fact that if a lot of the background writing was translated into gameplay it would have been easily three times bigger than it is, I'm talking RPG levels of size and something like that was likely way too ambitious for a Call of Duty campaign. They most likely expected a similar level of engagement with the story from players, but fans certainly made it known that this is not what they were looking for, unfortunately.
The campaign itself is perfectly fine at worst, I genuinely do not understand the hate it got. Most COD campaigns (I would argue a lot of FPS games) are trite! At least here they designed more open levels and you can progress your character by unlocking stuff for your loadouts like in the multiplayer mode which makes it immediately more interesting than previous campaigns since there are now abilities and perks tailored to aggressive, passive or movement heavy playstyles. Cloaks, boosters, charge attacks, multi-target stuns, anti-robot abilities, possession mechanics(!), gear suited for robot or humans enemies. Tons of ways to play. Also, a scoring system and challenges are in there if you like replaying levels that way as well.
From the amount of hate the campaign got one would think that it was completely broken or unfinished or something, but it totally is the opposite of that. The other COD games only really stand out by having big set-pieces or very scripted, linear missions which are fine and what the majority of fans want, I suppose, but none of those stuck with me more than this game. Finding out that the game is basically about a second cold war with a bipolar world created by actual conflict and tensions around today was so fascinating to me, no other COD game even tries something like this one.
This game makes me a bit sad knowing how much talent and creativity they had at Treyarch at the time and how they are relegated to making Call of Duty games seemingly forever. They clearly wanted to do more, but we can only imagine what could have been if their situation was different.
Oh and by the way, this was easily the best "jetpack era" Call of Duty muliplayer mode.
1999
Fantastic romp through PS1 era square ass cities. Enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to.
This game serves as a nice contrast to other driving games of this era that focused more on track racing such as Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer which was a bigger genre back then. The open-ended levels give a nice degree of freedom to your maneuvers around the streets.
Speaking of maneuvers, the driving in this game is so satisfying. It's arcade-y enough to keep it fun but with enough realism to push you to improve your skills and take better corners, apply brakes efficiently, dodge traffic, etc.
The most prominent pain points in this game relate to mission design: Some missions in the second half are dreadful. I'm talking boring AND hard. I don't know if they just gave up with their missions or what, but just making you drive all the way across the maps is not engaging at all, on top of the fact that longer missions are just simply more annoying since your "Felony" meter (or Wanted meter) keeps building up making cops more aggressive. The cop spawning system guarantees that you will bump into cops at some point, and you can't avoid it, unless you want to cut it really close with your timer. The infamous final mission is the best example of this. You need to get from one end of the map to the other on max felony pretty much the entire time. I don't think I would have completed it without save states. I don't even feel bad about it.
Still, I loved this game despite the bad spots. Apparently, a lot of people drop this game in the tutorial that's inside the car park. I thought it was really fun, but I guess it’s a nice barometer for your enjoyment of the game. It shows you what you can do in this game with your car, and you may or may not find it cool enough to stick it out. I know I did.
This game serves as a nice contrast to other driving games of this era that focused more on track racing such as Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer which was a bigger genre back then. The open-ended levels give a nice degree of freedom to your maneuvers around the streets.
Speaking of maneuvers, the driving in this game is so satisfying. It's arcade-y enough to keep it fun but with enough realism to push you to improve your skills and take better corners, apply brakes efficiently, dodge traffic, etc.
The most prominent pain points in this game relate to mission design: Some missions in the second half are dreadful. I'm talking boring AND hard. I don't know if they just gave up with their missions or what, but just making you drive all the way across the maps is not engaging at all, on top of the fact that longer missions are just simply more annoying since your "Felony" meter (or Wanted meter) keeps building up making cops more aggressive. The cop spawning system guarantees that you will bump into cops at some point, and you can't avoid it, unless you want to cut it really close with your timer. The infamous final mission is the best example of this. You need to get from one end of the map to the other on max felony pretty much the entire time. I don't think I would have completed it without save states. I don't even feel bad about it.
Still, I loved this game despite the bad spots. Apparently, a lot of people drop this game in the tutorial that's inside the car park. I thought it was really fun, but I guess it’s a nice barometer for your enjoyment of the game. It shows you what you can do in this game with your car, and you may or may not find it cool enough to stick it out. I know I did.
2011
I have always read from discussions and reviews of this game how badly the "console-ization" of the gameplay detracted from it but had never experienced the game myself. Turns out, people were correct for criticizing this game at the time. I can't imagine what the super fans of the first game felt when they finally got their hands on this.
Crysis 2 is set a couple of years after the first game ends and continues with the big question "what's up with all these alien guys?". Turns out they are all over the world! I'm going to be honest, I wanted to comment on the story more, but I can barely remember anything as I was so bored by the end.
Now look, there is nothing wrong with linear games, I don't have a strong preference one way or another. If a game does linear or open well, I'll like it. But think a bit about what you actually do here: You are fighting two sets of enemies for the entire game, CELL soldiers (humans) and alien guys. These two sets have a couple of notable enemy types, but most of the mooks you gun down are just hitscan grunts that punish you for peeking out of cover while you lay rounds into them. There is just not a lot to this; some of the suit powers return from the first game (Armor, "Speed", and Cloak), but neither the arenas you fight in, nor the guys you shoot demand anything special from you. You CAN cloak and sneak up on one dude, take them out, then sneak over to another guy and so on, but then you're just taking way more time than is necessary to clear out areas. Cloaking, ambushes and hit and run tactics just don't feel worth it here, when in the first game you have a lot of foliage and terrain to break line of sight and re-engage. You could also go guns blazing using armor mode in the first game, but you were slow and exposed and enemies were generally smarter. In Crysis 2, armor mode has no real downside since you have to plow through enemies all the time anyway. Situations do not depend on much beside what weapons you have with you and even then, it's only a choice between short- and long range.
The gameplay just doesn't ask much of you. In my opinion, tons of first-person shooters from this generation and the next suffered from this thing where devs had to design encounters in linear games in a way that most people can get through them eventually, accounting for all kinds of skill and experience levels. The principle is completely fine, of course, I don't care for keeping people from finishing a game and letting only skilled people beat it, but I suspect that most people that played this casually will not be able to recall most encounters since you most likely just gunned everything down quick. There is a fine balance to encounter design where you want to streamline things so people can enjoy themselves, but surely you need to throw people some curve balls to make people try new approaches and engage with all of the elements of your combat system.
Still, I would not call the game "bad", it’s just very disappointing to me. The game does have very strong art direction! Maybe a little too gritty, but I liked the whole "disaster movie" thing they went with, even though I prefer the pretty landscapes and global illumination tech of the first game. Oh and the sound direction is really cool. I liked that a lot, actually. It's nice as hell.
I finished it in around 8 hours on hard mode and I can't say I recommend it. I tried to like it, man. I really tried.
Crysis 2 is set a couple of years after the first game ends and continues with the big question "what's up with all these alien guys?". Turns out they are all over the world! I'm going to be honest, I wanted to comment on the story more, but I can barely remember anything as I was so bored by the end.
Now look, there is nothing wrong with linear games, I don't have a strong preference one way or another. If a game does linear or open well, I'll like it. But think a bit about what you actually do here: You are fighting two sets of enemies for the entire game, CELL soldiers (humans) and alien guys. These two sets have a couple of notable enemy types, but most of the mooks you gun down are just hitscan grunts that punish you for peeking out of cover while you lay rounds into them. There is just not a lot to this; some of the suit powers return from the first game (Armor, "Speed", and Cloak), but neither the arenas you fight in, nor the guys you shoot demand anything special from you. You CAN cloak and sneak up on one dude, take them out, then sneak over to another guy and so on, but then you're just taking way more time than is necessary to clear out areas. Cloaking, ambushes and hit and run tactics just don't feel worth it here, when in the first game you have a lot of foliage and terrain to break line of sight and re-engage. You could also go guns blazing using armor mode in the first game, but you were slow and exposed and enemies were generally smarter. In Crysis 2, armor mode has no real downside since you have to plow through enemies all the time anyway. Situations do not depend on much beside what weapons you have with you and even then, it's only a choice between short- and long range.
The gameplay just doesn't ask much of you. In my opinion, tons of first-person shooters from this generation and the next suffered from this thing where devs had to design encounters in linear games in a way that most people can get through them eventually, accounting for all kinds of skill and experience levels. The principle is completely fine, of course, I don't care for keeping people from finishing a game and letting only skilled people beat it, but I suspect that most people that played this casually will not be able to recall most encounters since you most likely just gunned everything down quick. There is a fine balance to encounter design where you want to streamline things so people can enjoy themselves, but surely you need to throw people some curve balls to make people try new approaches and engage with all of the elements of your combat system.
Still, I would not call the game "bad", it’s just very disappointing to me. The game does have very strong art direction! Maybe a little too gritty, but I liked the whole "disaster movie" thing they went with, even though I prefer the pretty landscapes and global illumination tech of the first game. Oh and the sound direction is really cool. I liked that a lot, actually. It's nice as hell.
I finished it in around 8 hours on hard mode and I can't say I recommend it. I tried to like it, man. I really tried.
2003
This was a weird game revisit after all these years. It punches way above it's weight in terms of "cinematic" feel, clearly the people directing the game were going for something there, but it's all a little bit drab and dated. I appreciate the effort to make the game something a little bit more than just a shooter, Jesper Kyd's soundtrack really helps out there, it just doesn't really go anywhere you don't expect it to. The shooting itself if alright, it's nice seeing the studio in charge of the Hitman games from the era nail straight up action gameplay as well. The game picks up in the second half, I think, where you can have a decent squad of fighters running around. There's just something about games where you command a bunch of minions. It's pretty satisfying watching your underlings toss themselves straight into gunfire and watching them wreck shit.
2022
Decent stealth action game. Mission design reminds me of the new hitman games with multiple objectives to complete and a free reign over how to complete them. This game very much surprised me, I did not expect it to be this fun.
But I do have some issues with the game:
I did not ever play two missions back to back after the second one. I always took a break from playing. The game does give you plenty of tools and even non-lethal approaches, but the formula never changes much. You're either sniping from far away (though I admit, it has some very satisfying sniper kills), or headshotting guys up close with some sort of silenced pistol which is now apparently the default playstyle for stealth games. In between the action you are looking for keys or tools to infiltrate buildings and they are always the same things and you can always expect at least one of them wherever enemies are guarding. So you can kinda tell how the level will play out.
The levels are nicely detailed and are varied, but are deceptively designed; they are never as open as they look. There are a lot more closed paths than one would think. Tons of invisible barriers, non climbable walls or hills, etc. Sure, it makes sense that if you want to infiltrate, say a building, yes it's very tight quarters, but I hated trying to flank someone in the open field, only to be stopped by some really hard bushes.
The animations are quite stiff and the character slides into place whenever you do a contextual action like opening doors and it always has a weird delay. Animation transitions like standing to crouched is also very jumpy and not smooth. This is a minor criticism but it happens often enough that it takes you out of the experience.
The game also has a sort of multiplayer invasion mechanic which looks fun, but I could only play this offline.
I wish this game was just a little bit more polished, a little bit more open, a little bit more creative. For what it is, I still think it is worth checking out though. Especially if you like the Metal Gear Solid 5 style of open stealth.
But I do have some issues with the game:
I did not ever play two missions back to back after the second one. I always took a break from playing. The game does give you plenty of tools and even non-lethal approaches, but the formula never changes much. You're either sniping from far away (though I admit, it has some very satisfying sniper kills), or headshotting guys up close with some sort of silenced pistol which is now apparently the default playstyle for stealth games. In between the action you are looking for keys or tools to infiltrate buildings and they are always the same things and you can always expect at least one of them wherever enemies are guarding. So you can kinda tell how the level will play out.
The levels are nicely detailed and are varied, but are deceptively designed; they are never as open as they look. There are a lot more closed paths than one would think. Tons of invisible barriers, non climbable walls or hills, etc. Sure, it makes sense that if you want to infiltrate, say a building, yes it's very tight quarters, but I hated trying to flank someone in the open field, only to be stopped by some really hard bushes.
The animations are quite stiff and the character slides into place whenever you do a contextual action like opening doors and it always has a weird delay. Animation transitions like standing to crouched is also very jumpy and not smooth. This is a minor criticism but it happens often enough that it takes you out of the experience.
The game also has a sort of multiplayer invasion mechanic which looks fun, but I could only play this offline.
I wish this game was just a little bit more polished, a little bit more open, a little bit more creative. For what it is, I still think it is worth checking out though. Especially if you like the Metal Gear Solid 5 style of open stealth.
2007
Reprising the role, Chow Yun-fat is Inspector Tequila and he rocks. The plot is nothing special (pretty funny though). The chief of police or whatever he is comes very, very close to saying "give me your gun and your badge".
The game features bullet time and a style meter which fills up your Cop Mana which is needed to unleash Tequila's powers on the poor goons gunning for you. Pretty cool.
I gotta say, the game looks nice for it's age. The visuals are clean and the character models are fairly expressive when you're shooting them in the eye or crotch.
The first two and very last levels drag this game down pretty bad since there are only seven levels total. The game hits a good stride in the middle with cool set pieces and nicely detailed interiors which are impressively destructible, especially the penthouse level. The second mission sucks hard, I mean damn.
Anyway, I would like to give this game a higher rating basically for it's engine alone, but it can get too repetitive. Sure, it's all about guns, but gunning down wave after wave of guys can only hold my attention for so long without something else going on.
Decent fun, OK PC port from GOG. Worth it to go back to? Only if it's really cheap.
The game features bullet time and a style meter which fills up your Cop Mana which is needed to unleash Tequila's powers on the poor goons gunning for you. Pretty cool.
I gotta say, the game looks nice for it's age. The visuals are clean and the character models are fairly expressive when you're shooting them in the eye or crotch.
The first two and very last levels drag this game down pretty bad since there are only seven levels total. The game hits a good stride in the middle with cool set pieces and nicely detailed interiors which are impressively destructible, especially the penthouse level. The second mission sucks hard, I mean damn.
Anyway, I would like to give this game a higher rating basically for it's engine alone, but it can get too repetitive. Sure, it's all about guns, but gunning down wave after wave of guys can only hold my attention for so long without something else going on.
Decent fun, OK PC port from GOG. Worth it to go back to? Only if it's really cheap.
2009
Pandemic Studios' very last game before EA shut their ass down, and a fitting one. I unfortunately skipped this one when it came out, for some reason, even though Pandemic Is one of my all time favorite developers.
Some of their open world games have had the qualifier "GTA clone" thrown onto them a little bit unfairly, but this one is the game that closest comes to that from the studio. Set in 1940s German occupied France, the game stars Sean Devlin, a stereotype of an Irishman that has just enough charm and one-liners to make the thin characterization just a footnote. A revenge story is thrust upon him and is the main motivator throughout the whole campaign. You meet plenty of French resistance fighters and mount offensives against the occupying Nazi forces. As opposed to other games of this era that were set in the second world war, it has less to do with big battles between armies, and has more of an insurgent, guerilla style of action.
A lot of Pandemic gameplay motifs are present here, but are organically included. Pandemic had a disguise system in Destroy All humans, a faction system in Mercenaries, open world challenges, collectibles, stealth and destruction in both. All of these are included in ways that make sense for the setting. For example, the bombastic destruction of Mercenaries where you can level whole enemy bases with air strikes is contrasted to simpler sabotage methods like Devlin planting bombs at key structures. Crypto using alien tech to disguise himself via hologram is carried over here where Sean can knock out guards and steal their outfits. Progression is gated by story, but also challenges which unlock perks for the protagonist. Some of these are tricky but rewarding, so they are a nice addition to the formula.
The story structure is very much cribbed from GTA; You go to the icon on the map representing a character and then, following some dialog or a short cutscene, you are given an objective which you can complete in any way you see fit, using stealth, melee, long range or short range weapons. Barring some very close quarters missions, you are never really restricted in how to go about missions. One thing new to Pandemic games is the climbing mechanic. I suppose this is the least organic of the game mechanics because it seems that the developers felt the need to include it since it was popular at the time. I mean, Sean is a mechanic and driver, not an acrobat, c'mon. The climbing feels better when running around on rooftops and sniping people below, than climbing a huge structure and figuring out which ledges you can and can't go on. The game highlights which ledge Sean is aiming for though, so that's a nice. One other thing to mention is that this game has a ton of free roam targets (maybe too many), but the icons on the map do not distinguish between them clearly. There are structures you can destroy like guard towers, key figures you can eliminate, and stunt jumps to hit, but they are all the same icon. Weird. Another cool thing the open world has is a territory system where whenever a neighborhood is heavily occupied or it's an enemy stronghold, the game has a black and white Sin City style filter on it. Some missions help weaken the enemy presence in a neighborhood and somebody turns the color on in the world. It at least changes up the visuals nicely. Also, security checkpoints. Some may find them annoying, but I like them. They section off different sectors of the map and you can ram through them and gain a wanted level, or slow down and let the guards check your forged documents. I think it is a neat addition that reminds you that the forces you are fighting are still very much in control, no matter how much chaos you are causing all around the place.
Music plays when driving around the open world and also a score for whenever the action starts. The music is serviceable, I guess, but I do like the chase music. The characters in the story have simple motivations and personalities, but the plot is fun, if not terribly deep. For example, Skylar is definitely a stereotype femme fatale/secret agent type and never really subverts the first impression you get at the start, but the game presents all of it's schlock in a charming way, so it never really gets bad, in my opinion. There's even a little love triangle thing. Neat. Luc is kind of a creep.
If there is a big flaw with this game, I believe it is that they stuck too close to the GTA formula and played it a little safe. A lot more emphasis should have been put into guerilla warfare that is not just lightly sneaking around enemies. This regrettably dates it as there were plenty of games that were doing just that (open world, light stealth) and are still doing it. The game is still better than the sum of it's parts, most of which are carried over from Pandemic's other franchises, but unfortunately, it can be a little short. I recommend doing optional side missions to get more out of the game. The PC port is a little lacking, but just OK enough to still recommend it, unless you cannot handle those late 2000s console ports, In which case hey, I get it. I loved Pandemic's previous open world games, and I still kick myself for not playing this when it came out, but honestly I still enjoyed it more than I expected. This here is some good, old fashioned, mid-budget fun.
Some of their open world games have had the qualifier "GTA clone" thrown onto them a little bit unfairly, but this one is the game that closest comes to that from the studio. Set in 1940s German occupied France, the game stars Sean Devlin, a stereotype of an Irishman that has just enough charm and one-liners to make the thin characterization just a footnote. A revenge story is thrust upon him and is the main motivator throughout the whole campaign. You meet plenty of French resistance fighters and mount offensives against the occupying Nazi forces. As opposed to other games of this era that were set in the second world war, it has less to do with big battles between armies, and has more of an insurgent, guerilla style of action.
A lot of Pandemic gameplay motifs are present here, but are organically included. Pandemic had a disguise system in Destroy All humans, a faction system in Mercenaries, open world challenges, collectibles, stealth and destruction in both. All of these are included in ways that make sense for the setting. For example, the bombastic destruction of Mercenaries where you can level whole enemy bases with air strikes is contrasted to simpler sabotage methods like Devlin planting bombs at key structures. Crypto using alien tech to disguise himself via hologram is carried over here where Sean can knock out guards and steal their outfits. Progression is gated by story, but also challenges which unlock perks for the protagonist. Some of these are tricky but rewarding, so they are a nice addition to the formula.
The story structure is very much cribbed from GTA; You go to the icon on the map representing a character and then, following some dialog or a short cutscene, you are given an objective which you can complete in any way you see fit, using stealth, melee, long range or short range weapons. Barring some very close quarters missions, you are never really restricted in how to go about missions. One thing new to Pandemic games is the climbing mechanic. I suppose this is the least organic of the game mechanics because it seems that the developers felt the need to include it since it was popular at the time. I mean, Sean is a mechanic and driver, not an acrobat, c'mon. The climbing feels better when running around on rooftops and sniping people below, than climbing a huge structure and figuring out which ledges you can and can't go on. The game highlights which ledge Sean is aiming for though, so that's a nice. One other thing to mention is that this game has a ton of free roam targets (maybe too many), but the icons on the map do not distinguish between them clearly. There are structures you can destroy like guard towers, key figures you can eliminate, and stunt jumps to hit, but they are all the same icon. Weird. Another cool thing the open world has is a territory system where whenever a neighborhood is heavily occupied or it's an enemy stronghold, the game has a black and white Sin City style filter on it. Some missions help weaken the enemy presence in a neighborhood and somebody turns the color on in the world. It at least changes up the visuals nicely. Also, security checkpoints. Some may find them annoying, but I like them. They section off different sectors of the map and you can ram through them and gain a wanted level, or slow down and let the guards check your forged documents. I think it is a neat addition that reminds you that the forces you are fighting are still very much in control, no matter how much chaos you are causing all around the place.
Music plays when driving around the open world and also a score for whenever the action starts. The music is serviceable, I guess, but I do like the chase music. The characters in the story have simple motivations and personalities, but the plot is fun, if not terribly deep. For example, Skylar is definitely a stereotype femme fatale/secret agent type and never really subverts the first impression you get at the start, but the game presents all of it's schlock in a charming way, so it never really gets bad, in my opinion. There's even a little love triangle thing. Neat. Luc is kind of a creep.
If there is a big flaw with this game, I believe it is that they stuck too close to the GTA formula and played it a little safe. A lot more emphasis should have been put into guerilla warfare that is not just lightly sneaking around enemies. This regrettably dates it as there were plenty of games that were doing just that (open world, light stealth) and are still doing it. The game is still better than the sum of it's parts, most of which are carried over from Pandemic's other franchises, but unfortunately, it can be a little short. I recommend doing optional side missions to get more out of the game. The PC port is a little lacking, but just OK enough to still recommend it, unless you cannot handle those late 2000s console ports, In which case hey, I get it. I loved Pandemic's previous open world games, and I still kick myself for not playing this when it came out, but honestly I still enjoyed it more than I expected. This here is some good, old fashioned, mid-budget fun.
1990
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Wall Street Kid starts out simple enough: The year is 1990. You are the last remaining person in a family of rich war criminals and guess what? You are set to inherit six hundred billion dollars. I've never even seen a billion, let alone six hundred! In his weird dying wish, your uncle wants you to secure the bag by any means necessary and purchase a castle to prove yourself. Nothing good ever comes from a family that owns a castle. Even less so from a family that had to sell their castle and move to a different continent. Oh and also you have to wife up your smokeshow gf.
The first objective: buy a simple, modest one million dollar house. To start the game you are encouraged to pull yourself up by your bootstraps with a measly loan of $500,000 dollarydoos. Go get 'em champ.
You are now in the game; A fledgling stock trading moron set loose upon the bustling financial sector. To quote Mad Men, the world looks like one big bra strap waiting to be snapped.
The first thing that happens is you check the newspaper to see what money moves are happening. What's the play here? Interest is up 0.5%? Cool!! Suddenly, the phone rings. It is a man who claims to be a "real estate agent" (AKA Satan's minion) and he tells you he will have information on the house next week. Whatever, nerd. Now for some hot tips.
Rule #1: Buy low, sell high
I have years of experience reading self-help books and stock trading tips, trust me on this one kid.
Rule #2: Never ask for advice.
A real alpha relies on intuition. But you can phone a consultant for some handy advice. The guy let's you ask some really advanced stuff like "What is a stock?", "How to buy and sell stocks". He asks for 500 bucks first. This is high level shit here, maybe leave it for the big dogs.
Rule #3: Go big or go home.
What are you gonna do. Invest in bonds? Invest in gold? Are you some kind of middle class loser? Go for the big companies, dummy! They are worth a lot of money so they are doing something right!! Business 101, pal. Money talks, and I'm all ears, baby.
At this point you are maybe ten minutes into this shit game and the music has already invaded your psyche. I can attest to this as the horrifying melody of the only track that plays induced a psychotic trance in me. My mouth started foaming, then I promptly slipped into a coma where I recalled a deep genetic memory of my caveman ancestor where he is looking proudly at his son Unga and his daughter Bunga. He feels a great pride because he knows that Unga will grow up to be a capable hunter and will provide plenty of feasts for the clan.
Rule #4: The grind never stops.
The only interesting part of the game is the time management, and I'm being generous saying "interesting". You have to stay in shape and buy your partner stuff that she asks for to keep her happy. Every action takes time in the game so you have to balance trading, your gf and her demands and working out. That's about it. Very cool!! Just keep buying hot stocks or whatever. I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen in the future because of the increasing financialization of the economy!!
I dropped this before even getting the house, although I came close to it once, I think. Supremely boring game.
At the end of the game you apparently enter an auction for the castle so you can get it cheap if you're lucky. Finally, the torment ends and now you have six hundred billion greenbacks in the bank and a castle. Seems pretty useful if you plan on doing things like plotting a coup in a developing country or calling yourself a "philanthropist" and never doing anything to help the world.
There is unironically more depth in the real estate minigame in Yakuza 0 than this whole game. I rate this game 5 stars.
Wall Street Kid starts out simple enough: The year is 1990. You are the last remaining person in a family of rich war criminals and guess what? You are set to inherit six hundred billion dollars. I've never even seen a billion, let alone six hundred! In his weird dying wish, your uncle wants you to secure the bag by any means necessary and purchase a castle to prove yourself. Nothing good ever comes from a family that owns a castle. Even less so from a family that had to sell their castle and move to a different continent. Oh and also you have to wife up your smokeshow gf.
The first objective: buy a simple, modest one million dollar house. To start the game you are encouraged to pull yourself up by your bootstraps with a measly loan of $500,000 dollarydoos. Go get 'em champ.
You are now in the game; A fledgling stock trading moron set loose upon the bustling financial sector. To quote Mad Men, the world looks like one big bra strap waiting to be snapped.
The first thing that happens is you check the newspaper to see what money moves are happening. What's the play here? Interest is up 0.5%? Cool!! Suddenly, the phone rings. It is a man who claims to be a "real estate agent" (AKA Satan's minion) and he tells you he will have information on the house next week. Whatever, nerd. Now for some hot tips.
Rule #1: Buy low, sell high
I have years of experience reading self-help books and stock trading tips, trust me on this one kid.
Rule #2: Never ask for advice.
A real alpha relies on intuition. But you can phone a consultant for some handy advice. The guy let's you ask some really advanced stuff like "What is a stock?", "How to buy and sell stocks". He asks for 500 bucks first. This is high level shit here, maybe leave it for the big dogs.
Rule #3: Go big or go home.
What are you gonna do. Invest in bonds? Invest in gold? Are you some kind of middle class loser? Go for the big companies, dummy! They are worth a lot of money so they are doing something right!! Business 101, pal. Money talks, and I'm all ears, baby.
At this point you are maybe ten minutes into this shit game and the music has already invaded your psyche. I can attest to this as the horrifying melody of the only track that plays induced a psychotic trance in me. My mouth started foaming, then I promptly slipped into a coma where I recalled a deep genetic memory of my caveman ancestor where he is looking proudly at his son Unga and his daughter Bunga. He feels a great pride because he knows that Unga will grow up to be a capable hunter and will provide plenty of feasts for the clan.
Rule #4: The grind never stops.
The only interesting part of the game is the time management, and I'm being generous saying "interesting". You have to stay in shape and buy your partner stuff that she asks for to keep her happy. Every action takes time in the game so you have to balance trading, your gf and her demands and working out. That's about it. Very cool!! Just keep buying hot stocks or whatever. I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen in the future because of the increasing financialization of the economy!!
I dropped this before even getting the house, although I came close to it once, I think. Supremely boring game.
At the end of the game you apparently enter an auction for the castle so you can get it cheap if you're lucky. Finally, the torment ends and now you have six hundred billion greenbacks in the bank and a castle. Seems pretty useful if you plan on doing things like plotting a coup in a developing country or calling yourself a "philanthropist" and never doing anything to help the world.
There is unironically more depth in the real estate minigame in Yakuza 0 than this whole game. I rate this game 5 stars.
Interesting title and a cool take on the third person shooter multiplayer game that was just starting to take off. This came before Gears of War, mind you.
The story itself is somewhat lame and gets convoluted in later on. My biggest gripe is how characters keep talking about people not on screen and it's a pretty small cast.
The gameplay is engaging enough, although the energy mechanic is never really that important and you heal so fast, it takes a lot to kill you, at least on normal. The highlights for me were the bosses. it was pretty fun going around in a VS shooting up huge bugs.
One thing I feel is important to mention is that this game has a pretty big multiplayer component to it and it's pretty unfair to only review the campaign missions here. The multiplayer was so chaotic and fun, and apparently as of this review there is still a very small community that plays this and it's sequel online so that's nice.
Overall, the only thing holding the story experience back is the plot and the mission structure itself (a lot of the missions are go from A to B. You can ignore a lot of enemies). At the very least, it is interesting to look back on these types of early 7th gen games from a historical perspective. It would have been cool to see a timeline where the multiplayer was a big hit.
The story itself is somewhat lame and gets convoluted in later on. My biggest gripe is how characters keep talking about people not on screen and it's a pretty small cast.
The gameplay is engaging enough, although the energy mechanic is never really that important and you heal so fast, it takes a lot to kill you, at least on normal. The highlights for me were the bosses. it was pretty fun going around in a VS shooting up huge bugs.
One thing I feel is important to mention is that this game has a pretty big multiplayer component to it and it's pretty unfair to only review the campaign missions here. The multiplayer was so chaotic and fun, and apparently as of this review there is still a very small community that plays this and it's sequel online so that's nice.
Overall, the only thing holding the story experience back is the plot and the mission structure itself (a lot of the missions are go from A to B. You can ignore a lot of enemies). At the very least, it is interesting to look back on these types of early 7th gen games from a historical perspective. It would have been cool to see a timeline where the multiplayer was a big hit.
Played this through about 3 times. It still holds up and I definitely recommend it, but you can tell that this game was really held back by the console generation it was released in.
2017
Did everything Bioshock wanted to do and more.
2011
Truly weird game, this one. Got a lot of hate on release and honestly, a lot of it is understandable. The character builds here are very, very boring and just do huge numbers in endgame and it is a mashfest in combat. The sidequests here are particularly bad as they are boring fetch quests or "get to the end of a dungeon you have already been in and see what's up". Some nice dialog here and there, and I personally don't think the overall plot themes are bad, but the execution is definitely lacking.
This game was infamously rushed out the door and it shows. I honestly think that there is nothing wrong with skipping this one.
This game was infamously rushed out the door and it shows. I honestly think that there is nothing wrong with skipping this one.
2009
Even though I personally prefer Mass Effect 1, I admit that DA:O is a much better RPG. This era of Bioware was certainly interesting.
2012
Such a great experience playing this game and you can get a LOT out of it. The difficulty system is such a cool idea. Not enough praise goes to this game. Favorite game on the 3DS for me, hands down. Controls were never an issue for me, but playing on the original 3DS was uncomfortable for long sessions because the corners dig into your hands lol. The physical copy came with a stand to put the system on it and it rocked
Better than the first one of the reboot trilogy; the game systems are iterated upon here in a way to make upgrades and such feel meaningful, properly rewarding exploration of the environment. This was around the peak of the "open world" icons scattered all over the map style of exploring but the optional tombs felt unique enough that it does not get boring.
I feel that the biggest mark against these reboot trilogy games is the fact that they turn into straight up shooter games for no good reason. These games can benefit more from a slower, more deliberate gameplay loop with fewer enemies gunned down and a bigger focus on environmental traversal and puzzles. Hell, taking on enemies is fine, just in some other way than just gunning them down. The DLC for this game where you re-live some of Lara's memories growing up in their manor is a massive highlight for me and proof that giving Lara's character space to breathe when not gunning down platoons of baddies is the way to go.
I feel that the biggest mark against these reboot trilogy games is the fact that they turn into straight up shooter games for no good reason. These games can benefit more from a slower, more deliberate gameplay loop with fewer enemies gunned down and a bigger focus on environmental traversal and puzzles. Hell, taking on enemies is fine, just in some other way than just gunning them down. The DLC for this game where you re-live some of Lara's memories growing up in their manor is a massive highlight for me and proof that giving Lara's character space to breathe when not gunning down platoons of baddies is the way to go.