The only full fledged story DLC this series has ever dropped. How'd they do? For my money, decent. Thirty bucks is steep though. I got it on sale so I'm not upset with how much I paid but I think that price tag is pushing it. There's nothing in the way of side content. Could break us off like maybe 10 substories or something like that. Of varying size. Just to have something else to do. The game stops you a couple times and ask, "is there anything left you wanna do? sure you wanna leave now?" like uh yeah? fuck else am I gonna go do? Play Virtua Fighter and order Ramen? I did that in the main game already.

That aside, I enjoyed the story. It was an RGG Mystery that refrained from involving mass government conspiracy so that's an achievement. Kaito is satisfying to play as. He's more of a brute than Yagami. His two styles are obviously aped from Kiryu's but there's enough little differences to make it passable. I'd rec this for the die hards of the franchise. Otherwise? You can live without it.

I really dug Judgment when I played it earlier this year so I was pretty hype for the sequel. For my taste, it doesn't quite stack up. I still think it's a pretty solid title but I have my hang ups.

To start on the positive side, the combat is super smooth. Some of the most fluid gameplay they've had. Snake style is a ton of fun, I loved parrying and making enemies look like fools. That said, I could've done without Yagami taking so fucking long to get up sometimes. I get it's to make him feel more human compared to other protagonists (mainly Kiryu) but it started to grind my gears some. I played with the Japanese audio but the voice acting is always great. Visually this thing's beautiful.

Story wise I'm up and down. They went a similar route with the prior title, giving sympathetic edges to the villains. I dug a fair amount of the characters, I liked seeing the gang back again. But I do think this lost me a little towards the end. I'd personally prefer if they did these LA Noire style with different cases. Maybe give me four cases, four chapters each. The long winded conspiracy shit started to drain me. I think the court segments help tie everything together but it's still so drawn out it gets exhausting.

The side content has always been a plus for me with these games. There's a ton of it, some won't appeal to you at all, but surely something will catch your eye. I liked the side cases here though I'm not into the whole listening to people on the street and trying to twitter search keywords to find substories. Some of this stuff was kinda overwhelming with just the amount of content I didn't find too interesting. I don't care about finding squirrel graffiti then wandering in a circle for 2 minutes to find a fuckin' pebble or something. Extracts can be useful but I never really needed them, I'll never care about VR, I don't care much about becoming BFFs with every stray cat either. So for me, outside of the side cases none of them really hit for me.

Outside of the combat I had issues with the other gameplay features. Parkour is boring, the stealth is pretty weak even laughable at times. Tailing still isn't very good. Chases sequences are still just OK. I wasn't too big on the gadgets either. It felt like filler to pad out the gameplay. Nothing kills momentum like fighting your way through a warehouse of thugs only to stop and start lockpicking doors or fumbling around searching for some obscure clue on where to go next.

All in all, I liked it. Overrated to a degree. If they make another Judgment I'll play it, if not I won't lose any sleep.

The AEW experience summed up in a video game. Get injured 3 matches into your career, be forced into a feud with Chris Jericho, have a heatless banger with Moxley on Rampage. Great stuff.

I'd question the honesty of any single person who gave this an even slightly positive review. Outside of a delusional AEW fan, anyone with eyes can recognize this is a piece of shit. The gameplay is not fun or reminiscent of No Mercy in the slightest. You can beat any singles match on any difficulty by simply using basic strikes. I won a triple threat against Omega and Moxley on normal difficulty in about 65 seconds without using a signature. It's unbelievably easy and basic.

Content wise it's laughable. No Mercy came out in 2001 and laps this fucking thing in every department. The Career mode is so bad. 12 storylines of nothing. You have next to no choice in anything that happens. Even if you reject a storyline you're still forced into it. There's some basic ideas that are interesting but nothing is well executed. You can plan out your day through workouts, doing bonus matches on Dark/Rampage (they're pointless), going out to eat, or random events like sightseeing, press conferences and MINIGAAAAAAMES. There's no substance here. You'll occasionally get a text based cutscene. If you're lucky the dialogue is so bad it's worth laughing at.

Outside of the bare bones story mode there's not much more to talk about. That's the hardest part of reviewing this game. How many times can you say, "there's an idea here but its not well executed"? I'm more than willing to give leeway for budget issues but where did the money go? Create-a-Wrestler is basic, every CAW looks the same. I like that Create-an-Arena was included but I used it maybe once. There's not much there either. The match types are lacking so much. No cage match? Backstage brawl? Tables? The game has fucking tables so what's the issue?? The company that does a gimmick match every week has none in their video game. If this thing was going for arcadey-fun at least crank that up and do the goofy gimmick matches we see in AEW.

The only other free mode added was Stadium Stampede. Very hokey, looks like a mobile game. You'll enjoy it some the first time and that's it. I don't even start on the minigames that could be programmed by an 8th grader.

In short: Not good.

The wrestling game genre has been dry for quite some time. Since the Smackdown Vs Raw (and eventually 2K) series took over, you basically got your singular WWE game a year. Occasionally you might get a title from another promotion. Which were always bare bones/half-assed entries that never a saw a sequel. (TNA, AAA, AEW?) Once in a blue moon you'd get an alternate, simpler WWE game like Legends of Wrestlemania (meh), WWE All-Stars (hey pretty good!), almost WWE Brawl (RIP) and this is another one of those.

It's not the simulation style that's been present since the mid 2000s. It's wacky, characters slap each other with fire hands, cages are electrified, there's environmental changes in arenas. The movesets are simplified. You fight based on whichever style you picked. If you're a wrestling fan I don't think you're gonna get much of the gameplay with how similar people play.

There's a little bit of variety in match types, you get your Rumbles, King of the Rings etc. The story mode is kinda funny. It's told through unvoiced comic panels. These aren't that nice to look at it but you can get a chuckle out of the absurdity of them.

Maybe the biggest issue with this game is the amount of locked items. Tons and tons of people are locked. Almost every person in the game has 2 to 4 outfits. Great!...Except they're all locked. It's designed for you to either grind or pay so you can get Bret Hart in a slightly different singlet. The same goes for Create-a-Character. Bunch of locked shit. It's a mess.

This isn't the worst wrestling game I've ever played, I'm not going that far but there's not much here with the redundant gameplay and overwhelming amount of locked content.

I have something of an unusual relationship with this game. I tried it back when it released, didn't get into it and moved on. I finally tried the prequel/sequel and found it to be easily the best video game story I've ever seen and one of the best games I've ever played. I was shocked that Rockstar pulled something like that off given how juvenile they tend to be.

Going back to this? It was a bit on the rough side. Story wise it's fucking night and day and I don't care what anyone says. This doesn't hold a fucking candle to RDR2. The mission structure feels so Grand Theft Auto. Redundant missions, quirky/eccentric mission bosses. The first section of this game has this cycle of cartoon characters who John will threaten to murder for wasting his time before proceeding to let them waste his time with mundane shit like horse racing.

Now the story does pick up with each section and I do think the final act is quite good. Some questionable writing here and there (how many fucking times can John ask "AND WHAT IF I SAY NO?!?", we just went over this you fucking doofus) and maybe it's TOO similar to the epilogue of RDR2. Still, I was moved at times. I found the ending incredible, it was just something of an arduous journey getting to it. The repetitive mission structure wore me out. How many times can we herd cows or get on a gatling gun?

Gameplay wise, if you've played the follow up its the same thing. A little clunkier as expected. It's almost fifteen years old now. Still, once you get adjusted to it, it's like butter. You're locked in. You can easily get lost in this world if you allow yourself too. Your actions matter, people recognize, it does feel like the map exists and lives with or without you as opposed to centering around you. This is helped by random events. The strangers missions are a mixed bag. "Eva in Peril" in particular is so unbelievably fucking stupid.

All in all, I'm never gonna believe this touches Red Dead Redemption 2 but it's worth while in its own right. For me personally, if I finished the game back in the day, I doubt I would've ever been in love with it so maybe I played it at the right time.

I skipped this when it came out and more or less moved on from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise until "The Man Who Erased His Name" came out and I was dragged back in.

While existing in the same universe, there's nothing you really need to know about the series lore wise. Kinda had me wondering if RGG wanted to make a detective game and this was the easiest way to do so. Never the less, if you're a long term fan you'll still see minor NPCs from prior games. The goofy townies that have inhabited this city for many titles now.

Story and character wise this would rank amongst the top entries. Every one of these gets long winded at best and incoherent at worst. While it's a lot to remember and a ton of characters and little threads to tie together, I think it all works out in the end. The villains have a sympathetic edge, the driving force of the plot adds up. Maybe Yagami is rather hypocritical in his actions at times but it's a video game. You gotta take what you can get sometimes.

Judgement has some unique gameplay features that are hit or miss for me and the misses hold this back a tad. On top of the typical RGG action, there's lock picking, chases (which have been absent since like 4?), tailing missions, drones, some crime scene investigation. There are all fairly bare bones. I don't have much beef with them but the lock picking is incredibly generic. It's the same minigame as always and it doesn't help the pacing when you're tearing through an office building of enemies and you need to slow the fuck down to do the boring lock-picking game from Mafia II. The tailing sequences were fine at first but they wear out their welcome. Especially later on when they get on longer. It's tedious filler.

The fighting does have it's own little quirks too. The mortal wounds, the police being a factor, the local gangs that come and go. I never personally had an issue with the Mortal Wounds despite many others feeling it makes the fights too challenging. I could really do without the text message every three minutes from that one old fart who goes, "AH JEEZ YAGAMI THE STREETS ARE UNDER ATTACK!" then his passive aggressive, "aw man, whaaa happen??" when I just ignore it.

After the main story's all said and done there's a plethora of side content. From the detective cases to the Friend system to the Girlfriends, the various minigames. It's a lot of bang for your buck as always with this franchise.

Pretty close to being my favorite game ever. Gameplay wise it's over any other open world crime game for me on the fun factor. The hand to hand combat is more satisfying than any gun combat. The actual shooting is simply serviceable, gets the job done. It works in doses. Even still there's tight little action movie-esque sequences like the time slow down when hopping a railing or bailing out of a car. Climbing out of your own car and jumping to another vehicle and chucking the owner down the street. Stuffing a civilian in your trunk. I mean, it just never ends. You always get a kick out of smashing a guys head off the trunk before throwing him in there.

Up there with my favorite video game stories as well. I enjoy the little diversity with the detective missions and the citizen favors that add some flavor and immersion to the open world, when you start getting recognized by other locals.

I did have some nitpicks in that there's some characters who could use more time, (get Old Salty Crab in there!) like Vincent who gets unceremoniously offed. That's not even a spoiler because you won't know who he is when it happens. You see him like twice and he never speaks. The girlfriend missions are...fine I guess? Kinda corny and pointless. The game turns into Leisure Suit Larry for five seconds where Wei will drop a cheesy pick up line and get some ass or whatever.

This deserved a sequel and it was failed. I even did the racing missions in this because I liked the game so much. RIP to my dogs. Shout out to the all the assholes in high school I couldn't convince to play this because it didn't have multiplayer.

I didn't get into the prior two games when I gave them a shot back in the day so I was on the fence about ever trying this but I'd say it's far and away Rockstar's best game. I'm not confident they'll top it given GTA 6 is probably gonna be a complete jerk off like GTA 5 was.

Arthur Morgan is one of the most interesting and introspective characters I've ever seen in a video game. The little details really add up. With the dialogue system, the NPCs not being as faceless as a typical open world game. Your actions matter one way or the other, through bounties and your general reputation amongst the towns and people.

The combat has a stiffness to it that feels deliberate to replicate older weapons. This is also a rare instance to me where the gore adds a lot. I highly recommend playing this in first person. After you dome piece a shopkeeper for calling the cops on you during a robbery and you see his fuckin' brains fly everywhere in front of your face, you do feel something. This is one of the only games where I've felt bad killing random NPCs. That'll probably never happen again. Hell, even in your oversized gang. I did care about most of the people in it despite how many characters are juggled around.

There's definitely some risky sections of the game that may test your patience but sticking with it is rewarding. The epilogue is a beautiful ending.

That said, get the concrete shoes off of Arthur, how many times can this guy plod around a shop or the camp? Can't I just fast walk? a nice brisk pace? Anyhow this isn't my favorite Rockstar game simply because Bully has a special place in my heart but I don't think they'll ever produce anything to match it. My only regret is not taking longer to beat it.