ClassyPenguino
88 Reviews liked by ClassyPenguino
Fire Emblem Engage
2023
peak fiction doesn't even begin to describe it
Fire Emblem Engage
2023
I am eternally destined to like games that are divisive because people are too joyless to appreciate em, and Fire Emblem Engage is absolutely no exception.
Don't get me wrong - my first impression of this game was far from stellar too. I had half a mind to avoid using Alear entirely because I hated their design so much.
But with every bit of gameplay features we got to see, I got more and more excited for this game - and man, I'm so glad I did. It is such a ridiculously fun game.
We haven't had such a heavy focus on player-phase combat in the series since FE12, which was already my favorite FE gameplay-wise - but this game just goes above and beyond. The Break system took me a while to get used to, but when it finally clicked it was so ridiculously satisfying.
The low deployment slots and gigantic amount of Emblem Ring combinations you could pull off means it's gonna be great fun to replay too, and I can't wait to give that a shot.
The story definitely takes a while to get going, and I don't blame anyone for losing interest relatively quickly, but I'm glad it picks up as well as it does.
Didn't think I'd ever say this about Fire Emblem but the ludonarrative harmony is what especially fascinated me about this game - there's some really impactful moments where you're supposed to feel powerless and it shows SO goddamn well through the gameplay that follows. It's incredible.
Despite the story being pretty basic at first, the characters are still as enjoyable as always - and although it takes more of a GBA FE approach of having some quick and simple supports, there's still plenty of meaningful and enjoyable ones. Ivy was a really stand-out character to me, because she's one of the few that tackles issues that are very specific to the game's setting. I think you could've taken any other character in a different setting and they'd still work - which doesn't bother me too much, honestly - but she's definitely the most layered character I've seen in the supports in my playthrough. Pleasantly surprised about that!
All in all, I'm really happy with this game. It's not perfect by any means, but I think any long-time fan should really be able to appreciate what this game's going for. Tons of subtle nods to older games and tons of direct fanservice with the Emblem Rings and how they play.
Couldn't think of a better (regrettably delayed) anniversary celebration!
Really excited for Fire Emblem's future after playing this game. Fantastic gameplay, a story that works more than well enough for what the game's supposed to be, great fanservice, incredible animations and hell - the game looks gorgeous in general, honestly.
With so much going well for it, I can't wait to see what's next!
Don't get me wrong - my first impression of this game was far from stellar too. I had half a mind to avoid using Alear entirely because I hated their design so much.
But with every bit of gameplay features we got to see, I got more and more excited for this game - and man, I'm so glad I did. It is such a ridiculously fun game.
We haven't had such a heavy focus on player-phase combat in the series since FE12, which was already my favorite FE gameplay-wise - but this game just goes above and beyond. The Break system took me a while to get used to, but when it finally clicked it was so ridiculously satisfying.
The low deployment slots and gigantic amount of Emblem Ring combinations you could pull off means it's gonna be great fun to replay too, and I can't wait to give that a shot.
The story definitely takes a while to get going, and I don't blame anyone for losing interest relatively quickly, but I'm glad it picks up as well as it does.
Didn't think I'd ever say this about Fire Emblem but the ludonarrative harmony is what especially fascinated me about this game - there's some really impactful moments where you're supposed to feel powerless and it shows SO goddamn well through the gameplay that follows. It's incredible.
Despite the story being pretty basic at first, the characters are still as enjoyable as always - and although it takes more of a GBA FE approach of having some quick and simple supports, there's still plenty of meaningful and enjoyable ones. Ivy was a really stand-out character to me, because she's one of the few that tackles issues that are very specific to the game's setting. I think you could've taken any other character in a different setting and they'd still work - which doesn't bother me too much, honestly - but she's definitely the most layered character I've seen in the supports in my playthrough. Pleasantly surprised about that!
All in all, I'm really happy with this game. It's not perfect by any means, but I think any long-time fan should really be able to appreciate what this game's going for. Tons of subtle nods to older games and tons of direct fanservice with the Emblem Rings and how they play.
Couldn't think of a better (regrettably delayed) anniversary celebration!
Really excited for Fire Emblem's future after playing this game. Fantastic gameplay, a story that works more than well enough for what the game's supposed to be, great fanservice, incredible animations and hell - the game looks gorgeous in general, honestly.
With so much going well for it, I can't wait to see what's next!
Fire Emblem Engage
2023
This game is actually amazing. Story wasn't anything special, but it I like some of the story beats and how it incorporated its story into gameplay quite a few times. Definitely a lot of great moments present, and it is unfortunate that people will write it off.
There were plenty of times where you are powerless in the story, and then on the same map the game exactly makes you feel the same way. Something we have been missing in Fire Emblem since arguably Thracia?
The game goes back to the GBA days and make supports very quick and simple, meaning after a map you don't have to spend a long time reading all of the supports. Not to say the characters are hot garbage, there are definitely good ones even with the change of length in them.
I played the game on Maddening and the gameplay itself is REALLY player phase heavy, which is awesome because that means you spend time more strategizing which is very welcomed for a strategy game. Generally the maps have a very consistently alright to good quality (with some really cool ones). Paralogues are definitely the maps with the lowest quality, but I'd argue you could blame the respective games for its quality. (on Maddening they are NEAR identical to the source material)
I had fun, only issue are the hit rate getting pretty shake late game and it gets kinda annoying when using the turnwheel doesn't even reset RN. It takes the FE12 H3 endgame approach where you want to fucking finish every late game map as fast as possible and the Thracia approach of using your entire arsenal to deal with every problem. Which I think is a fine thing at least, but a kinda annoying while dealing with hit rates.
My other complaint is that the UI has been a downgrade compared to its predecessors, a lot of design choices baffles me and it shouldn't be this hard just to look at a might of a weapon.
An insane amount of tools that the game gives you, story that works with the game, pretty good fanservice for older fans, amazing animations, beautiful looking world. A lot of steps forward, I am very content with this game. Definitely a favorite in the series for me.
There were plenty of times where you are powerless in the story, and then on the same map the game exactly makes you feel the same way. Something we have been missing in Fire Emblem since arguably Thracia?
The game goes back to the GBA days and make supports very quick and simple, meaning after a map you don't have to spend a long time reading all of the supports. Not to say the characters are hot garbage, there are definitely good ones even with the change of length in them.
I played the game on Maddening and the gameplay itself is REALLY player phase heavy, which is awesome because that means you spend time more strategizing which is very welcomed for a strategy game. Generally the maps have a very consistently alright to good quality (with some really cool ones). Paralogues are definitely the maps with the lowest quality, but I'd argue you could blame the respective games for its quality. (on Maddening they are NEAR identical to the source material)
I had fun, only issue are the hit rate getting pretty shake late game and it gets kinda annoying when using the turnwheel doesn't even reset RN. It takes the FE12 H3 endgame approach where you want to fucking finish every late game map as fast as possible and the Thracia approach of using your entire arsenal to deal with every problem. Which I think is a fine thing at least, but a kinda annoying while dealing with hit rates.
My other complaint is that the UI has been a downgrade compared to its predecessors, a lot of design choices baffles me and it shouldn't be this hard just to look at a might of a weapon.
An insane amount of tools that the game gives you, story that works with the game, pretty good fanservice for older fans, amazing animations, beautiful looking world. A lot of steps forward, I am very content with this game. Definitely a favorite in the series for me.
Fire Emblem Engage
2023
People who dislike the story of this game simply cannot feel joy
Fire Emblem Engage
2023
Only having 1 and 5 star reviews makes it easy to tell who's actually played the game and who just hates fun
No Straight Roads
2020
Listen kid I don't have much time, the level design is all straight ro-
No Straight Roads
2020
A game with incredible soul and personality put into it, with amazing music, style, and fun characters, but very rough and relatively unpolished gameplay.
Bard Harder!
2020
seeing a skeleton blush made my day honestly
Pokémon Violet
2022
This review contains spoilers
UPDATED 12/05/22: Finished story.
Summary: At its core, this is the best Pokemon game ever made. Everything from the region's design to the new Pokemon to the music to the story is so good that it feels flawless. While the game's technical hiccups can sometimes detract from the gameplay, everything else about the game is so well-crafted that it doesn't really matter. I'll take a cracked and worn ball of gold over a polished turd any day. 10/10.
GAMEPLAY. The first thing I notice about a game. While P:LA felt like a completely different experience, SV feels like the perfect refinement of the traditional Pokemon experience. Wild battles are always initiated from the overworld, and some Pokemon require you to aim at them with a Pokeball to battle them; some hide when you get close, some are in the air, and some are in the water. Trainer battles are only initiated when you speak to another Trainer, a welcome change from how it was before, especially in an open-world game. There's a lot of strong Pokemon, and even the less ones feel viable for in-game teams. A lot of new Pokemon have signature moves, which is cool. The controls work really well, both on foot and while riding Miraidon. I got very, very overleveled very early into the game, but I'm much older than the target audience, and even overleveled I struggled with a few of the endgame battles. Battles are fun overall, though they're much slower than they were in Legends Arceus. The level/map design is great, particularly in late-game areas in North Paldea and Area Zero. There are serious frame rate problems, but I never had any adverse outcomes because of them, and the only serious glitch I found was five hours into the game and easily fixed by a restart. VERIDCT: Near-perfect, slightly flawed. 9/10.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN: This isn't the best-looking game on the Switch, but it still looks great. The Pokemon and human models are very well-done, with a lot of attention to detail and personality. Where the graphics falter are rendering (low-res textures are used even at a medium distance from some objects) and some of the overworld textures that obviously tile/repeat.
The art design is phenomenal. Each area feels very distinctive and different, the new Pokemon and human designs are great, the concepts behind the landscape are beautiful, some of the towns are gorgeous...IMO the art team at Gamefreak struggled with SwSh, but they really hit their stride here. VERDICT: Flawed graphics can't keep Paldea and its Pokemon and Characters from looking very pretty. 9/10.
MUSIC: This is by far the best Pokemon soundtrack. Everything works together as a whole and there were probably 10-15 times i just paused to listen to the music for a new area or a certain battle. It's easy to credit that to Toby Fox, but he didn't work on every song on the soundtrack - GameFreak was putting in their best effort too. Gamefreak's music team and Toby are a formidable combination and I hope they work together more in the future. VERDICT: Nearly flawless. 10/10.
STORY: The game's best aspect (though the music is close). There are three stories in this game. Victory Road didn't really have a narrative in the same way the others did, but most of the Gym Leaders are really interesting and the Gym Tests tend to be fun. Nemona is also a really funny rival. Starfall Street had me on the verge of tears, mostly because of Penny's reunion with Team Star and how sweet it was. It helps that I was a victim of bullying as well, so I can really relate to Team Star and why they did what they did. It's also nice to see some positive representation of trans girls in a Pokemon game thanks to Penny. I'm not kidding, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she's canonically a trans girl, the strongest of which is her yelling "Become who you really want to be!" while Terastallizing her Sylveon (her ace Pokemon, and also a symbol of trans Pokemon fans due to its color scheme) - wording that's nearly exactly the same as the wording of a tweet from TPC on Trans Visibility Day in 2020. Some elements of the Team Star story could also be read as allegorical for certain trans experiences.
The story that really messed me up, however, was Arven's. Path of Legends is a sweet story, and I got choked up when Mabosstiff finally stood up. And then there's The Way Home.
The Way Home is the best story in all of Pokemon history. It's not even close. I started crying during a fucking Ed Sheeran song, it's THAT good. I refuse to spoil any details of it, even in this review. I've seen some people calling Arven the best character in Pokemon history - they're absolutely right.
Overall? The story alone makes this game worth it. 10/10. 11/10 if I could.
FINAL THOUGHTS & CRUNCH COMMENTS: Pokemon Violet manages to be greater than the sum of its parts - an atmospheric and immersive experience with an incredible story to go alongside it, with some of the best new Pokemon in years and some of the best music ever composed for a Pokemon game. At its core, the game is nearly flawless.
The problems that it does have were clearly caused by crunch. The Pokemon Company is to blame for this, not Gamefreak - I think Gamefreak asked for more time, and TPC refused to budge on the game's release date. I think Gamefreak knew to expect crunch, so they chose to focus on the game's core elements instead of optimization. I think it was the right choice (you can patch better optimization into a game; you can't patch in better Pokemon designs, better story, etc.) but I'm extremely frustrated that the choice had to be made at all.
I hope that the game's reception and Nintendo's willingness to offer refunds get TPC to stop forcing Gamefreak to meet such strict deadlines. With a couple more months for optimization, Violet could have been a nearly flawless experience. As it stands, I'm giving the game a 10/10 less for its intrinsic quality and more for the sheer emotional impact it had on me. That, and I can't stop playing it. I want to explore every inch of Paldea, even if 10 FPS is the price I pay.
If you can't get over the performance issues, then don't get the game until it's patched. But if you can? You're in for an incredible experience.
5 STARS OUT OF 5 - MASTERPIECE
Summary: At its core, this is the best Pokemon game ever made. Everything from the region's design to the new Pokemon to the music to the story is so good that it feels flawless. While the game's technical hiccups can sometimes detract from the gameplay, everything else about the game is so well-crafted that it doesn't really matter. I'll take a cracked and worn ball of gold over a polished turd any day. 10/10.
GAMEPLAY. The first thing I notice about a game. While P:LA felt like a completely different experience, SV feels like the perfect refinement of the traditional Pokemon experience. Wild battles are always initiated from the overworld, and some Pokemon require you to aim at them with a Pokeball to battle them; some hide when you get close, some are in the air, and some are in the water. Trainer battles are only initiated when you speak to another Trainer, a welcome change from how it was before, especially in an open-world game. There's a lot of strong Pokemon, and even the less ones feel viable for in-game teams. A lot of new Pokemon have signature moves, which is cool. The controls work really well, both on foot and while riding Miraidon. I got very, very overleveled very early into the game, but I'm much older than the target audience, and even overleveled I struggled with a few of the endgame battles. Battles are fun overall, though they're much slower than they were in Legends Arceus. The level/map design is great, particularly in late-game areas in North Paldea and Area Zero. There are serious frame rate problems, but I never had any adverse outcomes because of them, and the only serious glitch I found was five hours into the game and easily fixed by a restart. VERIDCT: Near-perfect, slightly flawed. 9/10.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN: This isn't the best-looking game on the Switch, but it still looks great. The Pokemon and human models are very well-done, with a lot of attention to detail and personality. Where the graphics falter are rendering (low-res textures are used even at a medium distance from some objects) and some of the overworld textures that obviously tile/repeat.
The art design is phenomenal. Each area feels very distinctive and different, the new Pokemon and human designs are great, the concepts behind the landscape are beautiful, some of the towns are gorgeous...IMO the art team at Gamefreak struggled with SwSh, but they really hit their stride here. VERDICT: Flawed graphics can't keep Paldea and its Pokemon and Characters from looking very pretty. 9/10.
MUSIC: This is by far the best Pokemon soundtrack. Everything works together as a whole and there were probably 10-15 times i just paused to listen to the music for a new area or a certain battle. It's easy to credit that to Toby Fox, but he didn't work on every song on the soundtrack - GameFreak was putting in their best effort too. Gamefreak's music team and Toby are a formidable combination and I hope they work together more in the future. VERDICT: Nearly flawless. 10/10.
STORY: The game's best aspect (though the music is close). There are three stories in this game. Victory Road didn't really have a narrative in the same way the others did, but most of the Gym Leaders are really interesting and the Gym Tests tend to be fun. Nemona is also a really funny rival. Starfall Street had me on the verge of tears, mostly because of Penny's reunion with Team Star and how sweet it was. It helps that I was a victim of bullying as well, so I can really relate to Team Star and why they did what they did. It's also nice to see some positive representation of trans girls in a Pokemon game thanks to Penny. I'm not kidding, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she's canonically a trans girl, the strongest of which is her yelling "Become who you really want to be!" while Terastallizing her Sylveon (her ace Pokemon, and also a symbol of trans Pokemon fans due to its color scheme) - wording that's nearly exactly the same as the wording of a tweet from TPC on Trans Visibility Day in 2020. Some elements of the Team Star story could also be read as allegorical for certain trans experiences.
The story that really messed me up, however, was Arven's. Path of Legends is a sweet story, and I got choked up when Mabosstiff finally stood up. And then there's The Way Home.
The Way Home is the best story in all of Pokemon history. It's not even close. I started crying during a fucking Ed Sheeran song, it's THAT good. I refuse to spoil any details of it, even in this review. I've seen some people calling Arven the best character in Pokemon history - they're absolutely right.
Overall? The story alone makes this game worth it. 10/10. 11/10 if I could.
FINAL THOUGHTS & CRUNCH COMMENTS: Pokemon Violet manages to be greater than the sum of its parts - an atmospheric and immersive experience with an incredible story to go alongside it, with some of the best new Pokemon in years and some of the best music ever composed for a Pokemon game. At its core, the game is nearly flawless.
The problems that it does have were clearly caused by crunch. The Pokemon Company is to blame for this, not Gamefreak - I think Gamefreak asked for more time, and TPC refused to budge on the game's release date. I think Gamefreak knew to expect crunch, so they chose to focus on the game's core elements instead of optimization. I think it was the right choice (you can patch better optimization into a game; you can't patch in better Pokemon designs, better story, etc.) but I'm extremely frustrated that the choice had to be made at all.
I hope that the game's reception and Nintendo's willingness to offer refunds get TPC to stop forcing Gamefreak to meet such strict deadlines. With a couple more months for optimization, Violet could have been a nearly flawless experience. As it stands, I'm giving the game a 10/10 less for its intrinsic quality and more for the sheer emotional impact it had on me. That, and I can't stop playing it. I want to explore every inch of Paldea, even if 10 FPS is the price I pay.
If you can't get over the performance issues, then don't get the game until it's patched. But if you can? You're in for an incredible experience.
5 STARS OUT OF 5 - MASTERPIECE
Dragalia Lost
2018
a game that had the potential to become a solid IP, dicked over by lacking marketing and a fight between its parent companies.
Harle should call me.
Harle should call me.
ok so if ichiban beats up old people on the streets its called grinding but when i do its called a felony sure
Astro's Playroom
2020
a surprisingly difficult game to talk about, almost entirely because it is filled to bursting with passion, creativity, and a genuinely warm overflowing love for the medium of video games and their history that is completely unreflective of Sony itself or, indeed, the console this serves as an elaborate marketing tool for. a console that, with titles like Bluepoint's Demon's Souls, seems content to paper over the history Astro has such fondness for. a console on the cutting edge of graphical tech, an edge so sharp that the kind of experimental, innovative, remarkable games that are paid homage here are unfeasible to produce apace with the graphics gamers demand of their hideous new box. and, of course, a console that no one can fucking buy because Sony rushed a toy for rich people out in the middle of a global pandemic. astro's playroom presents a hugely likeable vision for playstation that is completely out of step with reality. maybe it was inevitable that this would be Japan Studio's last hurrah. RIP.
mostly the game itself manages to sidestep direct cynicism like that but the one area where astro's playroom failed to is the gacha minigame. gacha mechanics are completely exploitative dogshit and you only need a cursory google of "fifa ultimate team" to find examples where the marketing of these mechanics towards young children has caused very real harm. putting something like that in something so geared to ignite kids' imaginations seems irresponsible at best and downright insidious at worst.
all! that! being! said! there's a reason this is still sitting pretty with those number of stars and that's because this game is a delight. as a platformer it's breezy, satisfying, and varied enough to constantly keep you rolling through the endlessly charming the endlessly charming spaces that are the real highlight of the experience. this is such a wonderful kids' game, so perfectly in tune with a childlike sense of imagination and wonder. pitching this as the story of what goes on inside your PS5 is an incredible home run, and I can't imagine how exciting it would be to unwrap a PS5 on christmas day as a kid and get to play a game about how cool the thing santa brought you is!!! one about exploring the world and seeing how the games you love come to life, from the obvious yet always delightful concept of in-game characters "filming" the games, to genuine info about GPUs through the game's catchy-as-hell background music. an inner world filled with secrets that explores a vast hidden past to the medium, a past that I guarantee will ignite a passion for Games and their history that will create a whole new generation of people commenting on how fucking cool the PS2 startup noise is, how Vagrant Story is prettier than any game on the PS5, and, of course, of backloggd users talking about how good Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse or whatever is.
i have all these issues with the PS5 and AAA gaming and Sony but it's hard to be cynical about it when I see astro bots excitedly crowding around a recreation of FF7's title screen, recreating the same myth and aura that game had for me ever since Cloud strode onto the screen in Kingdom Hearts up until I finally got a chance to play his game many years later. contrary to the increasing fixation of obliterating the past in favour of the new and shiny, Astro knows that for so many of us, our favourite games were waiting for us to find them, on dusty old consoles and dumped ROMs and stories told on forums and playgrounds.
and if sony won't provide a means to explore that history, kids will find a way. we always have.
mostly the game itself manages to sidestep direct cynicism like that but the one area where astro's playroom failed to is the gacha minigame. gacha mechanics are completely exploitative dogshit and you only need a cursory google of "fifa ultimate team" to find examples where the marketing of these mechanics towards young children has caused very real harm. putting something like that in something so geared to ignite kids' imaginations seems irresponsible at best and downright insidious at worst.
all! that! being! said! there's a reason this is still sitting pretty with those number of stars and that's because this game is a delight. as a platformer it's breezy, satisfying, and varied enough to constantly keep you rolling through the endlessly charming the endlessly charming spaces that are the real highlight of the experience. this is such a wonderful kids' game, so perfectly in tune with a childlike sense of imagination and wonder. pitching this as the story of what goes on inside your PS5 is an incredible home run, and I can't imagine how exciting it would be to unwrap a PS5 on christmas day as a kid and get to play a game about how cool the thing santa brought you is!!! one about exploring the world and seeing how the games you love come to life, from the obvious yet always delightful concept of in-game characters "filming" the games, to genuine info about GPUs through the game's catchy-as-hell background music. an inner world filled with secrets that explores a vast hidden past to the medium, a past that I guarantee will ignite a passion for Games and their history that will create a whole new generation of people commenting on how fucking cool the PS2 startup noise is, how Vagrant Story is prettier than any game on the PS5, and, of course, of backloggd users talking about how good Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse or whatever is.
i have all these issues with the PS5 and AAA gaming and Sony but it's hard to be cynical about it when I see astro bots excitedly crowding around a recreation of FF7's title screen, recreating the same myth and aura that game had for me ever since Cloud strode onto the screen in Kingdom Hearts up until I finally got a chance to play his game many years later. contrary to the increasing fixation of obliterating the past in favour of the new and shiny, Astro knows that for so many of us, our favourite games were waiting for us to find them, on dusty old consoles and dumped ROMs and stories told on forums and playgrounds.
and if sony won't provide a means to explore that history, kids will find a way. we always have.
Astro's Playroom
2020
Bold of Sony to release a Wii game as their introductory PS5 title, thus making a strong case for collectathon mascot platformers with questionable minigames as superior to cinematic action-adventures and open-world checklists on day 1, but I respect it
Marvel's Avengers
2020
Now I may feel like I was one of the few who was actually interested in playing this game. After playing Spider-Man on PS4, I wanted to get more into Marvel games and get back into the superhero video game genre since the Batman Arkham series.
And I was honestly still looking to play it because I thought the trailers made it look genuinely fun. I know it's getting some flack with certain things but I still gave it the benefit of the doubt. So is Avengers for PS4 worth it? Well let's go through it.
You play between six heroes being Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Kamala Khan. They all have their unique abilities and play styles that you can later upgrade with skill points and all of them are pretty fun in their own ways. Throwing Cap's shield is very satisfying, the might of Thor makes you feel mighty as well, flying around as Iron Man works surprisingly well that it makes me think we can make a functional Superman game, rampaging as Hulk is super fun, Black Widow's shooter assets is good for both close and ranged combat, and Kamala Khan has her standout moments as well with her newly discovered abilities. There's gonna be more heroes as DLC like Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Kate Bishop and I'm honestly excited for them as well.
The campaign takes around 12 hours and the story around is that after an event called A-Day where the Avengers failed to stop a Terrigen explosion which has infected the city of San Francisco giving them superpowers, Kamala Khan plans to reassemble the Avengers because she believes that they were set up by the corporation known as A.I.M. run by Monica Rappaccini and George Tarleton also known as MODOK.
The story to me felt satisfying and it was structured pretty well. Though there are consistencies that made me question it a few times like where Banner gets the jacket after being the Hulk but overall, I enjoyed it. The voice cast does fairly well, it had some awesome moments, and the designs for the characters looked good. Even MODOK which makes me think the MCU can pull off a design for him now. The campaign gives an equal amount of playtime with each character switching between them unlike say The Last of Us 2.
I do wish there was more variety when it comes to villains though. Like sure Taskmaster, Abomination, and MODOK are cool choices but that's really all the villains in it. Like who the hell knows this Monica chick? Hopefully in the DLC we get more.
Now you can play online with friends which I have and it's fun to do though there's some bugs and glitches as well as some frame rate issues that also happen in single player mode. Hopefully Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics can fix it up with patches but it's not Fallout 76 glitchy to where it's unplayable.
You can unlock upgrades for your gear as well as cosmetics and emotes through the game though I suggest doing it through the in-game store and not through the ridiculous microtransactions. Though they are expensive as hell nonetheless which leads to probably it's main flaw.
You really have to grind. A lot of the levels have high difficulty so you have to power up your heroes as much as you can. It's pretty tedious. Sure it's only six heroes but it still takes a long time to do it.
Not to mention that when you die in certain spots of the game, you'll have to sit through loading screens that take forever.
So overall, I do enjoy playing it and I do feel like they can fix it over time with patches since I played this on it's release date. By the end, it hints towards some potential for a sequel and I feel like they can learn from this to improve how they would change some things for the future.
So for an Avengers game, I say it's okay. I give Marvel's Avengers a 6/10.
And I was honestly still looking to play it because I thought the trailers made it look genuinely fun. I know it's getting some flack with certain things but I still gave it the benefit of the doubt. So is Avengers for PS4 worth it? Well let's go through it.
You play between six heroes being Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Kamala Khan. They all have their unique abilities and play styles that you can later upgrade with skill points and all of them are pretty fun in their own ways. Throwing Cap's shield is very satisfying, the might of Thor makes you feel mighty as well, flying around as Iron Man works surprisingly well that it makes me think we can make a functional Superman game, rampaging as Hulk is super fun, Black Widow's shooter assets is good for both close and ranged combat, and Kamala Khan has her standout moments as well with her newly discovered abilities. There's gonna be more heroes as DLC like Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Kate Bishop and I'm honestly excited for them as well.
The campaign takes around 12 hours and the story around is that after an event called A-Day where the Avengers failed to stop a Terrigen explosion which has infected the city of San Francisco giving them superpowers, Kamala Khan plans to reassemble the Avengers because she believes that they were set up by the corporation known as A.I.M. run by Monica Rappaccini and George Tarleton also known as MODOK.
The story to me felt satisfying and it was structured pretty well. Though there are consistencies that made me question it a few times like where Banner gets the jacket after being the Hulk but overall, I enjoyed it. The voice cast does fairly well, it had some awesome moments, and the designs for the characters looked good. Even MODOK which makes me think the MCU can pull off a design for him now. The campaign gives an equal amount of playtime with each character switching between them unlike say The Last of Us 2.
I do wish there was more variety when it comes to villains though. Like sure Taskmaster, Abomination, and MODOK are cool choices but that's really all the villains in it. Like who the hell knows this Monica chick? Hopefully in the DLC we get more.
Now you can play online with friends which I have and it's fun to do though there's some bugs and glitches as well as some frame rate issues that also happen in single player mode. Hopefully Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics can fix it up with patches but it's not Fallout 76 glitchy to where it's unplayable.
You can unlock upgrades for your gear as well as cosmetics and emotes through the game though I suggest doing it through the in-game store and not through the ridiculous microtransactions. Though they are expensive as hell nonetheless which leads to probably it's main flaw.
You really have to grind. A lot of the levels have high difficulty so you have to power up your heroes as much as you can. It's pretty tedious. Sure it's only six heroes but it still takes a long time to do it.
Not to mention that when you die in certain spots of the game, you'll have to sit through loading screens that take forever.
So overall, I do enjoy playing it and I do feel like they can fix it over time with patches since I played this on it's release date. By the end, it hints towards some potential for a sequel and I feel like they can learn from this to improve how they would change some things for the future.
So for an Avengers game, I say it's okay. I give Marvel's Avengers a 6/10.
Hammerhead probably has aids