Curdalu
2021
Surprisingly ambitious, but just a bit too janky to really stick the landing. Generally things feel like they're just barely working, but it's really not a BAD game. The first half of the game is very strong in concept and you can see what they were imagining with the gameplay. Something more akin to Dino Crisis 1 and 2 while wrapping it in some modern game design concepts. Given a proper budget, this could have probably been a pretty good 7th console gen game. It's just a shame the second half turns into the worse parts of a 7th gen console game. Dinosaurs disappear almost entirely and it's just Call of Duty. That shift ends up showing more cracks in the walls that are duct taped together. It also just gives you so much shotgun ammo, I dunno why you'd use anything else.
But at the very least, it's short and has multiple endings to check out and it's a clear effort by the dev, so respect.
But at the very least, it's short and has multiple endings to check out and it's a clear effort by the dev, so respect.
2019
A considerable step up from Malebolgia in terms of presentation and gameplay. The style feels very committed and inspired. Generally it just looks very good! The combat feels a lot more polished and fluid taking some queues from DMC to go with the Souls like combat pacing.
There's some interesting mechanics here albeit maybe a bit unpolished. The motorcycle is fun but a bit jank on any ledge, the SotC style bosses are neat in theory but get a little frustrating when your window to capture them is tiny and the grapple can be a bit inconsistent, and the open world is really neat in theory but is marred by one of the most difficult maps to decipher. That and a really wonky lock on camera sorta drag the experience down. It's a shame because this otherwise is really good! It's a solid and moody 5 hours.
I think with a little more polish, this dev has a real winner on their hands.
There's some interesting mechanics here albeit maybe a bit unpolished. The motorcycle is fun but a bit jank on any ledge, the SotC style bosses are neat in theory but get a little frustrating when your window to capture them is tiny and the grapple can be a bit inconsistent, and the open world is really neat in theory but is marred by one of the most difficult maps to decipher. That and a really wonky lock on camera sorta drag the experience down. It's a shame because this otherwise is really good! It's a solid and moody 5 hours.
I think with a little more polish, this dev has a real winner on their hands.
2015
There was a time where this felt ahead of the curve of the Souls-like genre purely for the fact that it existed at all. Bloodborne was out but the market wasn't overly flooded so there was a chance for Malebolgia to stand out. Now a days it's unremarkable but for a first solo project, it has the right heart and idea.
It's sets a great mood and atmosphere and I like it's story. The minimalist art style evoking a Killer 7 look while also understanding glowing green eyes in the near pitch black is objectively cool. Playing this game at the lowest brightness feels appropriate even if it contributes to the navigation problems.
Which realistically, that's maybe this game's biggest fault: Everything looks the same and the map is very unhelpful. As a result I wasn't getting lost so much as just opening the wrong door because I couldn't tell where I was facing in relation to the map. When you have this many corridors that you are expected to loop back through many times it makes things feel like a bit of a slog sometimes.
But I also appreciate the game's commitment to not handholding you into every direction. You get to explore while also knowing the general locations you should be going to without having a marker to tell you. It helps the feeling of wandering a big haunted palace.
For the gameplay as a whole though, it's pretty simple and I can't say I'm upset or disappointed by that. The game is 5 hours long roughly and didn't need to be any longer. You don't need RPG elements, multiple weapons, and an inventory system. The combat is generally functional and has the appropriate Bloodborne pacing but it ends up being way too easy and you ultimately can just spam the heavy attack because it's lunge is so OP. I appreciate the commitment to the many bosses (all of who have unique attack sets), I just wish outside of the bosses there was much reason to really fight the enemies. I usually end up fighting them because corridors are tight or just to engage in combat but generally you can just... run past them and it doesn't seem to matter.
Overall though, I think it's a noble first effort and I've followed the dev for a number of years and watched them grow. I'm excited to see how they keep playing around in the space and at the very least they're one of the few devs making atmospheric games that totally sync up with the vibes I crave.
It's sets a great mood and atmosphere and I like it's story. The minimalist art style evoking a Killer 7 look while also understanding glowing green eyes in the near pitch black is objectively cool. Playing this game at the lowest brightness feels appropriate even if it contributes to the navigation problems.
Which realistically, that's maybe this game's biggest fault: Everything looks the same and the map is very unhelpful. As a result I wasn't getting lost so much as just opening the wrong door because I couldn't tell where I was facing in relation to the map. When you have this many corridors that you are expected to loop back through many times it makes things feel like a bit of a slog sometimes.
But I also appreciate the game's commitment to not handholding you into every direction. You get to explore while also knowing the general locations you should be going to without having a marker to tell you. It helps the feeling of wandering a big haunted palace.
For the gameplay as a whole though, it's pretty simple and I can't say I'm upset or disappointed by that. The game is 5 hours long roughly and didn't need to be any longer. You don't need RPG elements, multiple weapons, and an inventory system. The combat is generally functional and has the appropriate Bloodborne pacing but it ends up being way too easy and you ultimately can just spam the heavy attack because it's lunge is so OP. I appreciate the commitment to the many bosses (all of who have unique attack sets), I just wish outside of the bosses there was much reason to really fight the enemies. I usually end up fighting them because corridors are tight or just to engage in combat but generally you can just... run past them and it doesn't seem to matter.
Overall though, I think it's a noble first effort and I've followed the dev for a number of years and watched them grow. I'm excited to see how they keep playing around in the space and at the very least they're one of the few devs making atmospheric games that totally sync up with the vibes I crave.
2019
It starts out quite promising. Evoking a solid mixture of Metroid Prime and Zelda at the best of times even.
But it really starts to show the cracks in the latter half. Puzzles start to feel a lot more obtuse by introducing mechanics that never had any introduction as a thing that was possible, the level design feels a lot more slap dash with paths that don't even feel legitimate, the combat feels awful all through out, and it has a pacing that feels like you're almost at the end but it just keeps going and going. Simply put, the game is bloated for how otherwise small it would be.
It feels just a bit too over ambitious for how scrappy and janky it is.
But it's not without it's positives for sure. I like the setting a lot (I'm a sucker for rat maps always), and I love what the game is trying to do. It has the sensibilities and charm of a 6th gen game and that hits right where I want it to.
It's ALMOST really good, it just needed a lot more polishing and trimming. At the very least, it has me interested in it's sequels just to see how the devs refine it.
But it really starts to show the cracks in the latter half. Puzzles start to feel a lot more obtuse by introducing mechanics that never had any introduction as a thing that was possible, the level design feels a lot more slap dash with paths that don't even feel legitimate, the combat feels awful all through out, and it has a pacing that feels like you're almost at the end but it just keeps going and going. Simply put, the game is bloated for how otherwise small it would be.
It feels just a bit too over ambitious for how scrappy and janky it is.
But it's not without it's positives for sure. I like the setting a lot (I'm a sucker for rat maps always), and I love what the game is trying to do. It has the sensibilities and charm of a 6th gen game and that hits right where I want it to.
It's ALMOST really good, it just needed a lot more polishing and trimming. At the very least, it has me interested in it's sequels just to see how the devs refine it.
2022
at a point you have 100%'d everything before you've 100%'d the game and it's just so fucking monotonous. It's purgatory
2020
A game I'm willing to say is nearly perfect. At the very least one of my favorite stealth games and quickly becoming one of my favorite games ever. I just don't have many complaints here.
What you have is top tier stealth gameplay combined with all the delightful strategy of the tactics genre to make for some very solid challenge that will get you thinking creatively through some super tight and polished maps. Every encounter is a puzzle with like a trillion solutions. Every solution felt like my own and none of them unsatisfying.
In fact, I'm going to say every mission is a banger. They strike a great balance between variety while mingling various scenarios together. Maybe some of the smartest ramp up in difficulty I've seen. Especially as you get new members for your party.
Which party wise, I think it's incredible how often you're encouraged to use each character pretty equally and each's set of abilities ensures none of them don't fill a niche. I think my favorite combo ended up being Hector + Isabelle.
Though everyone has at least one that has it's moments, but largely goes ignored. Kind of says a lot that like... 3 characters get a healing option instead of another gadget. The final mission's difficulty can also be so high as to feel a little trial and error at times (or am I too impatient?).
Still, with this incredible presentation (this game is a stunner to me and has a great soundtrack), slick stealth (a genre I will always love the most), and near perfect level design, I'm head over heels.
Also worth noting, there's some very solid replayability with the post-mission challenges and the baron's unique challenge missions that are short and sweet. The game is also adapted pretty well for controllers. Giving you direct control over characters movements and a unique HUD. Fantastic Steam Deck game too.
What you have is top tier stealth gameplay combined with all the delightful strategy of the tactics genre to make for some very solid challenge that will get you thinking creatively through some super tight and polished maps. Every encounter is a puzzle with like a trillion solutions. Every solution felt like my own and none of them unsatisfying.
In fact, I'm going to say every mission is a banger. They strike a great balance between variety while mingling various scenarios together. Maybe some of the smartest ramp up in difficulty I've seen. Especially as you get new members for your party.
Which party wise, I think it's incredible how often you're encouraged to use each character pretty equally and each's set of abilities ensures none of them don't fill a niche. I think my favorite combo ended up being Hector + Isabelle.
Though everyone has at least one that has it's moments, but largely goes ignored. Kind of says a lot that like... 3 characters get a healing option instead of another gadget. The final mission's difficulty can also be so high as to feel a little trial and error at times (or am I too impatient?).
Still, with this incredible presentation (this game is a stunner to me and has a great soundtrack), slick stealth (a genre I will always love the most), and near perfect level design, I'm head over heels.
Also worth noting, there's some very solid replayability with the post-mission challenges and the baron's unique challenge missions that are short and sweet. The game is also adapted pretty well for controllers. Giving you direct control over characters movements and a unique HUD. Fantastic Steam Deck game too.
2023
I wanted to dig a hole. A deep hole. Multiple deep holes even. And that's what I got to do over and over and over and over while the game's performance gradually went lower and lower like my holes until I restart or it crashes on its own.
As far as an idle game goes, it's boring, it's badly optimized, and it just doesn't feel right.
As far as an idle game goes, it's boring, it's badly optimized, and it just doesn't feel right.
2023
I dunno why I bought it, but I had an itch to play it. It's a repetitive mobile game that was probably meant to shove ads in your face constantly. It's pure shovelware. But I dunno, at least it had an ending state that I was able to get through in the day. I also didn't hate the loop.
But for one of those gather and automate types of idle games.... it doesn't really have much to automate.
But for one of those gather and automate types of idle games.... it doesn't really have much to automate.
2005
Maybe a great example of the 7/10 game. Something that you can see it's intention and ambition but weighted down by what may have been a lack of resources or deadlines due to the launch of next gen systems.
A gritty and gore appearance of a story you expect from the prime days of westerns, a modest (though pretty empty) open world that isn't a huge pain to traverse, a simple but fun combat system. It's got the makings of something that could have been fantastic. It's a game that in a pre-Red Dead Redemption world was really cool back in the day, but it's vision did not age as well today.
While it eventually does land at a better spot with it's depiction of native americans and tries to redeem itself within the story (though it definitely takes a bit of a 180 to get there...), it's still filtered through the lens of the 2000s where America was still openly parodying every culture but themselves and it's very... tropey and downright gross at times. I guess not surprising for Neversoft doing their Rockstar impression, but this is no Blood Meridian when it comes to deconstruction of an ugly era full of the worst types of men. You end up stomping all over yourselves when saying you're depicting the time while you have those subjects dressed like they're in Saturday Night Live costumes. Consider me surprised they didn't go even more hard on the chinese characters...
On top of all of that, despite a very good and star studded cast, the game's story doesn't have enough room to breathe. It often feels abridged and there was a point where I wasn't sure if my game was glitched and missing a couple scenes. I looked up a couple long plays on different systems and no, it is just that way. I thought I had just remembered it being full of sudden changes when I was a kid. Characters come and go at odd times but through the writing you're supposed to understand they have some form of bond/history that developed like entirely off camera while I was looking for gold in the open world. So it never truly feels earned as it presentation suggest. But there's definitely some banger lines here and like all of them from Brad Dourif's character.
Uneven and I don't regret revisiting it. I still think it's a pretty good game. It's largely about as jank as I remember it, but through a modern lens it's not deserving of a remaster so much as it deserves some proper preservation and maybe just a way better remake that is... a lot less racist at it's core.
A quick tip if you're playing the PC version, there's a couple mods out there like a widescreen mod and 60fps mod that aren't too difficult to setup. For the most part 60fps won't cause issues, but there was maybe one or two instances where the game logic was definitely tied to it and I had to go back to 30 for that brief moment. It's not a great port but it's probably the best way to play this game today.
A gritty and gore appearance of a story you expect from the prime days of westerns, a modest (though pretty empty) open world that isn't a huge pain to traverse, a simple but fun combat system. It's got the makings of something that could have been fantastic. It's a game that in a pre-Red Dead Redemption world was really cool back in the day, but it's vision did not age as well today.
While it eventually does land at a better spot with it's depiction of native americans and tries to redeem itself within the story (though it definitely takes a bit of a 180 to get there...), it's still filtered through the lens of the 2000s where America was still openly parodying every culture but themselves and it's very... tropey and downright gross at times. I guess not surprising for Neversoft doing their Rockstar impression, but this is no Blood Meridian when it comes to deconstruction of an ugly era full of the worst types of men. You end up stomping all over yourselves when saying you're depicting the time while you have those subjects dressed like they're in Saturday Night Live costumes. Consider me surprised they didn't go even more hard on the chinese characters...
On top of all of that, despite a very good and star studded cast, the game's story doesn't have enough room to breathe. It often feels abridged and there was a point where I wasn't sure if my game was glitched and missing a couple scenes. I looked up a couple long plays on different systems and no, it is just that way. I thought I had just remembered it being full of sudden changes when I was a kid. Characters come and go at odd times but through the writing you're supposed to understand they have some form of bond/history that developed like entirely off camera while I was looking for gold in the open world. So it never truly feels earned as it presentation suggest. But there's definitely some banger lines here and like all of them from Brad Dourif's character.
Uneven and I don't regret revisiting it. I still think it's a pretty good game. It's largely about as jank as I remember it, but through a modern lens it's not deserving of a remaster so much as it deserves some proper preservation and maybe just a way better remake that is... a lot less racist at it's core.
A quick tip if you're playing the PC version, there's a couple mods out there like a widescreen mod and 60fps mod that aren't too difficult to setup. For the most part 60fps won't cause issues, but there was maybe one or two instances where the game logic was definitely tied to it and I had to go back to 30 for that brief moment. It's not a great port but it's probably the best way to play this game today.
2019
Out of all the vpets I've played with over the years, I think this one is my favorite and has the most potential.
There's a couple draw backs to over the original 20th anniversary namely in a much more limited roster that is broken up across each device (encouraging you to get multiple devices so you can explore the whole thing and jogress). But I think the monster training and quest mode are very strong additions that could really help the digivices expand a lot more mechanically in the future. I also think the XAI dice is a great modifier to freshen up combat. That and the combat minigame is just a lot more fun with the sliding bar over mashing the button of previous games. Each digimon has a different bar and the effect from the XAI dice gives you a little more to do.
Taking care of one pet at a time invests you more into it's stats and evolutionary path so you feel more attached while also giving you the option to actually pause the damn thing if you're gonna be away for a day or more. I also just like a lot of the x-antibody designs. They're just edgier versions of the OG designs that remind me of Deviant Art OCs (something Digimon already runs a fine line on).
There's a couple draw backs to over the original 20th anniversary namely in a much more limited roster that is broken up across each device (encouraging you to get multiple devices so you can explore the whole thing and jogress). But I think the monster training and quest mode are very strong additions that could really help the digivices expand a lot more mechanically in the future. I also think the XAI dice is a great modifier to freshen up combat. That and the combat minigame is just a lot more fun with the sliding bar over mashing the button of previous games. Each digimon has a different bar and the effect from the XAI dice gives you a little more to do.
Taking care of one pet at a time invests you more into it's stats and evolutionary path so you feel more attached while also giving you the option to actually pause the damn thing if you're gonna be away for a day or more. I also just like a lot of the x-antibody designs. They're just edgier versions of the OG designs that remind me of Deviant Art OCs (something Digimon already runs a fine line on).
Maybe the most polished version of the Digivice to date if you're looking for a more pure experience. There's some great QOL improvements with quicker fresh and in-training stages, being able to raise two digimon at the same time, having all the different evolution trees in one device, and the single player battle mode. In general this device seems geared primarily towards someone who can't convince any of their friends to get a digimon in the year 2023 nor get anyone to stick with it for more than like a week. Being able to raise two digimon at a time and jogressing them together lets you explore the entire device without really needing a second one.
If you're looking for a device to get into, in my opinion this is the place to start.
If you're looking for a device to get into, in my opinion this is the place to start.
One of those games I've thought about a lot over the years. I loved it from day one and back when it came out on PS3 I played it hours upon hours just adventuring around even though I never beat it.
The base game itself is a bit on the shorter end by today's standards (though tbh not a bad thing when I think about all the plethora of unending RPGs). The game is a bit unforgiving when it comes to story and questing. It does not tell you which quests are timed events and those entirely missable quests contain key story details you would at most have to pick up through context clues later.
And you know what? that's perfectly fine. The game is extremely replayable from it's campaign to it's class system. A proper NG+ encourages you to experiment and really master it's excellent combat system.
But the real star of the show here, the Dark Arisen expansion. Maybe one of my favorite dungeon crawlers ever offering just an absolutely brutal gauntlet that has you finally making use of all those excess items you've been gathering throughout the game. The amount of enemy variety here puts the base game to shame and the technical expertise of the combat needed here is pretty insane at times. Make no mistake, Dark Arisen is extremely difficult. But it is rewarding in some wonderful ways. This is the real meat of the game after the base game credits roll.
Capcom was firing on all cylinders with this game on the backhalf of a very wonky generation for them. They took all the right parts from their other successful games and mashed them together and for the most part nailed it.
Fair warning about the Switch port, it's got a pretty annoying combat music loop bug that happens pretty frequently. It can be fixed by entering a loading screen (loading doors, towns, major cutscenes, reloading, etc.), but I've found this game also works wonderfully with the music off at times because the soundscape is also very well done.
The base game itself is a bit on the shorter end by today's standards (though tbh not a bad thing when I think about all the plethora of unending RPGs). The game is a bit unforgiving when it comes to story and questing. It does not tell you which quests are timed events and those entirely missable quests contain key story details you would at most have to pick up through context clues later.
And you know what? that's perfectly fine. The game is extremely replayable from it's campaign to it's class system. A proper NG+ encourages you to experiment and really master it's excellent combat system.
But the real star of the show here, the Dark Arisen expansion. Maybe one of my favorite dungeon crawlers ever offering just an absolutely brutal gauntlet that has you finally making use of all those excess items you've been gathering throughout the game. The amount of enemy variety here puts the base game to shame and the technical expertise of the combat needed here is pretty insane at times. Make no mistake, Dark Arisen is extremely difficult. But it is rewarding in some wonderful ways. This is the real meat of the game after the base game credits roll.
Capcom was firing on all cylinders with this game on the backhalf of a very wonky generation for them. They took all the right parts from their other successful games and mashed them together and for the most part nailed it.
Fair warning about the Switch port, it's got a pretty annoying combat music loop bug that happens pretty frequently. It can be fixed by entering a loading screen (loading doors, towns, major cutscenes, reloading, etc.), but I've found this game also works wonderfully with the music off at times because the soundscape is also very well done.
2013
I've played this over the years and saw how it evolved gradually in order to prioritize ads and in app purchases and I just find myself annoyed at how this could be great. It's a promising concept but it ends up feeling too shallow. It's too easy generally so the game decides to give you some really shitty obstacle spawns that are impossible to avoid. But the grind is so fucking agonizing that you wonder why you're still playing.
Not to mention ads on mobile games have gotten so fucking shitty that half the time they don't even work so trying to revive with an ad is a total crapshoot.
Ultimately Sonic Runners was way better and should have been the one that stuck around if one of these games had to die.
Not to mention ads on mobile games have gotten so fucking shitty that half the time they don't even work so trying to revive with an ad is a total crapshoot.
Ultimately Sonic Runners was way better and should have been the one that stuck around if one of these games had to die.
I'm convinced the Silent Hill fanbase is the worse fanbase out there and actively hates anything in the series that isn't their favorite entry in the series. The immediate reactions I saw to this game have solidified this into my brain. To be honest, can it really be helped though? I feel like Silent Hill's impact on the horror game community can't be understated but also to be honest, I don't think Silent Hill as a concept ever really died even with Team Silent or Climax and Double Helix.
The problem is Silent Hill was embraced at a conceptual and inspirational level by Indie devs. Everything you could do with Silent Hill has been thoroughly explored and recontextualized for someone else's personal story. The amount of indie horror games that are very obviously inspired by and even just list Silent Hill directly as an influence is more numerous than there has ever been Silent Hill projects. In the last year we had half a dozen that have high profile coverage (Go play Lost In Vivo and Signalis, they're wonderful) and another dozen of them on the horizon. There basically is no room for Silent Hill to comeback in my opinion because we just sorta never needed it back.
But obviously Konami has been watching all of this and here we are with a new mood board for the franchise following in the foot steps of PT before it. Honestly, it's OK. I don't think it's ultimately worth playing but I think it's really not that terrible or that disrespectful to the series in terms of themes. It's certainly no different than the billions of other Silent Hill fan games.
I think it's biggest problem is it's largely just kind of nothing on the gameplay front while the story isn't done well enough to make up for it. I appreciate what it wanted to do with it's story about suicide, parental abuse, bullying, young love triangles, and vapid obsession with social media fame. I think it was brave to try to tackle these at all in the way that it did (though really not uncommong) and I appreciate how often the suicide hotline messaging comes up. But it's just also kind of... badly written. It's patronizing most of the times and none of it really sticks the landing well either. It feels like the target audience for this story is largely teenagers and that's fine, they need their stories. But there's not much to really chew on here when everything is so upfront.
That being said, I loved the music and loved the monster design. Love to see Ito and Yamaoka doing cool shit. I thought Yamaoka's score had a modern twinge to it that fit the presentation and had some genuinely pretty ambient melodies thrown in. Ito's new monster captures the beautiful tragedy of the character it manifests and I think it's interesting to see a design that doesn't try to be just generic scary but still menacing in its own right. The low frame movement was a neat effect too.
The problem is Silent Hill was embraced at a conceptual and inspirational level by Indie devs. Everything you could do with Silent Hill has been thoroughly explored and recontextualized for someone else's personal story. The amount of indie horror games that are very obviously inspired by and even just list Silent Hill directly as an influence is more numerous than there has ever been Silent Hill projects. In the last year we had half a dozen that have high profile coverage (Go play Lost In Vivo and Signalis, they're wonderful) and another dozen of them on the horizon. There basically is no room for Silent Hill to comeback in my opinion because we just sorta never needed it back.
But obviously Konami has been watching all of this and here we are with a new mood board for the franchise following in the foot steps of PT before it. Honestly, it's OK. I don't think it's ultimately worth playing but I think it's really not that terrible or that disrespectful to the series in terms of themes. It's certainly no different than the billions of other Silent Hill fan games.
I think it's biggest problem is it's largely just kind of nothing on the gameplay front while the story isn't done well enough to make up for it. I appreciate what it wanted to do with it's story about suicide, parental abuse, bullying, young love triangles, and vapid obsession with social media fame. I think it was brave to try to tackle these at all in the way that it did (though really not uncommong) and I appreciate how often the suicide hotline messaging comes up. But it's just also kind of... badly written. It's patronizing most of the times and none of it really sticks the landing well either. It feels like the target audience for this story is largely teenagers and that's fine, they need their stories. But there's not much to really chew on here when everything is so upfront.
That being said, I loved the music and loved the monster design. Love to see Ito and Yamaoka doing cool shit. I thought Yamaoka's score had a modern twinge to it that fit the presentation and had some genuinely pretty ambient melodies thrown in. Ito's new monster captures the beautiful tragedy of the character it manifests and I think it's interesting to see a design that doesn't try to be just generic scary but still menacing in its own right. The low frame movement was a neat effect too.
MGS3 is a game that needs really no introduction. It's a masterclass of it's platform using the PS2's limitations to craft something that impresses even today on any platform. There's some of the best cutscenes ever created here full of detail and emotion and energy. It's a type of creation that is ahead of the curve even today.
It's also just one of the top tier stealth games with AI that is both fun to exploit while still presenting a solid challenge for the hardcore stealth players. I've always appreciated that Metal Gear has never let you save scummed your way to a perfect ranking. There's every type of self imposed challenge you might want to put on yourself here while the ranking system accommodates and encourages it all. The pacing of the stealth is also just top notch. I think it's better to slow down a stealth game than to make it super fast and the camo and environment do that wonderfully. I also think the survival elements in this game are a perfect balance. Stamina is never a true annoyance and you never have to spend time scrounging around for resources while curing wounds is also a pretty fun procedure too. The game makes it clear it's something you can't ignore without making it a hassle and I'm actually surprised this never seemed to catch on as a mechanic in other action games including this very series.
If there's maybe one problem I have with this game is that the controls are definitely clunky. They were clunky back in the day and they're more so clunky playing the Vita version. Losing those pressure sensitive buttons from the PS2 required some finagling and the end result is having to press several different buttons at once.
It's one of the top tier games of all time no questions asked. MGS3 Ocelot was a peak character too (in a game already full of fantastic characters). I can't believe how dirty MGSV did him.
It's also just one of the top tier stealth games with AI that is both fun to exploit while still presenting a solid challenge for the hardcore stealth players. I've always appreciated that Metal Gear has never let you save scummed your way to a perfect ranking. There's every type of self imposed challenge you might want to put on yourself here while the ranking system accommodates and encourages it all. The pacing of the stealth is also just top notch. I think it's better to slow down a stealth game than to make it super fast and the camo and environment do that wonderfully. I also think the survival elements in this game are a perfect balance. Stamina is never a true annoyance and you never have to spend time scrounging around for resources while curing wounds is also a pretty fun procedure too. The game makes it clear it's something you can't ignore without making it a hassle and I'm actually surprised this never seemed to catch on as a mechanic in other action games including this very series.
If there's maybe one problem I have with this game is that the controls are definitely clunky. They were clunky back in the day and they're more so clunky playing the Vita version. Losing those pressure sensitive buttons from the PS2 required some finagling and the end result is having to press several different buttons at once.
It's one of the top tier games of all time no questions asked. MGS3 Ocelot was a peak character too (in a game already full of fantastic characters). I can't believe how dirty MGSV did him.