DemonicRobots
2016
A great game and my favorite in the Dark Souls trilogy. A really solid experience all the way through with interesting locations and weapons. I enjoyed the bosses the most, and felt they had the most consistent quality outside of Sekiro.
This is my girlfriend's favorite game, and combined with how much she likes it along with seeing YT edits (cringe I know) I picked it up. And it is a masterpiece. Wonderful combat that utilizes all these amazing mechanics, and a great story and wonderful visuals to boot. This game came out like, two years before Elden Ring and looks infitely better visually. I love this game, and I can't wait to do more playthroughs.
2015
One of the best games ever created. Absolute masterpiece.
MGS: Peace Walker is a pretty good game in the context of the release, with that same MGS feel in terms of story of style. But I don't think the substance of the actual gameplay is enough to make this a really great game, and I would only recommend playing this if you're going to play MGS5.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is a little different than the other mainline games. This one is mission-based, where you are sent out on missions and prepare your loadout before you go into the game, and you have a military base you control. You can research things and recruit people to unlock more things to research and manage, as well as play other characters. This is the precursor to MGS5, and definitely was the main inspiration. Once you get into a mission, either a main or side one, you will go through the level following the objectives. You have a couple of paths and options you can take, but it isn't nearly as free as the main games. The gameplay is very easy. Enemies are easy to take down, they don't notice you nearly as often, and you really only have a few people on screen that you have to deal with at a time. It is probably the easiest MGS game I've played so far. The missions are also pretty annoying because of the format. Some of them are literally one or two rooms and bam, mission complete. The reason for this is usually you have boss fights you can't stealth, so they let you do the stealth mission for two rooms then you go loud for the boss. The boss fights though are amazing, but I wish they were more natural to encounter with the mission system. The mission system also has side ops, but these were complete bloat for 90% of them. There are a few unique ones, but most are just remixes of things you're already doing and not in fun ways. But, the best part about this game is the multiplayer. I played through this with a friend and it was what really made this game fun and enjoyable. Doing objectives and needing to do different things was really cool, and I wish we got more experiences like this with the MGS format.
Story:
The story follows Big Boss as his military is hired by a Russian Professor, and your goal is to help stop the cold war from escalating, and you of course stumble across some Metal Gears. I won't discuss the story much but it is the highlight of the game, with some AMAZING characters that get completely fleshed out like Miller. I would say also if you want to play MGS5 you should play this first, because there is a lot of crossover. It is good, especially for a side game. I really liked this part the most.
Artstyle:
Not that great. It has some unique areas but they all blend together and don't have much variety. I like some of the environment aspects though, like having blow up doll enemies or snipers that are actually hidden in the environment that you won't easily spot. Some of the aztec locations are cool and the beach areas but I wasn't too impressed.
Music:
Great music, though there isn't a lot. You can also use a walkmen and unlock a lot more songs, but the soundtrack is really good and helps capitalize a lot of emotional scenes.
Overall:
Pretty much, it is a good MGS game. If you're a fan of the series play this, but if you're not big then you can skip this (unless you're playing MGS5).
Gameplay:
The gameplay is a little different than the other mainline games. This one is mission-based, where you are sent out on missions and prepare your loadout before you go into the game, and you have a military base you control. You can research things and recruit people to unlock more things to research and manage, as well as play other characters. This is the precursor to MGS5, and definitely was the main inspiration. Once you get into a mission, either a main or side one, you will go through the level following the objectives. You have a couple of paths and options you can take, but it isn't nearly as free as the main games. The gameplay is very easy. Enemies are easy to take down, they don't notice you nearly as often, and you really only have a few people on screen that you have to deal with at a time. It is probably the easiest MGS game I've played so far. The missions are also pretty annoying because of the format. Some of them are literally one or two rooms and bam, mission complete. The reason for this is usually you have boss fights you can't stealth, so they let you do the stealth mission for two rooms then you go loud for the boss. The boss fights though are amazing, but I wish they were more natural to encounter with the mission system. The mission system also has side ops, but these were complete bloat for 90% of them. There are a few unique ones, but most are just remixes of things you're already doing and not in fun ways. But, the best part about this game is the multiplayer. I played through this with a friend and it was what really made this game fun and enjoyable. Doing objectives and needing to do different things was really cool, and I wish we got more experiences like this with the MGS format.
Story:
The story follows Big Boss as his military is hired by a Russian Professor, and your goal is to help stop the cold war from escalating, and you of course stumble across some Metal Gears. I won't discuss the story much but it is the highlight of the game, with some AMAZING characters that get completely fleshed out like Miller. I would say also if you want to play MGS5 you should play this first, because there is a lot of crossover. It is good, especially for a side game. I really liked this part the most.
Artstyle:
Not that great. It has some unique areas but they all blend together and don't have much variety. I like some of the environment aspects though, like having blow up doll enemies or snipers that are actually hidden in the environment that you won't easily spot. Some of the aztec locations are cool and the beach areas but I wasn't too impressed.
Music:
Great music, though there isn't a lot. You can also use a walkmen and unlock a lot more songs, but the soundtrack is really good and helps capitalize a lot of emotional scenes.
Overall:
Pretty much, it is a good MGS game. If you're a fan of the series play this, but if you're not big then you can skip this (unless you're playing MGS5).
2023
Pseudoregalia is a N64-styled indie game made with pure heart and soul. This game attempted to emulate that ethereal, empty feeling a lot of older games had while giving it some fantastic movement and freedom of exploration. While it is lacking in some areas like combat, this is a really good game that nailed exactly what it was going for. And the music is banger after banger.
Gameplay:
Pseudoregalia has you play as Sybil, a cat-goat-lady of some kind who comes into Castle Sansa from a magic mirror. You explore the game in your own way, searching for upgrades that give you new movement tools, more health, more damage etc. The areas are all very unique styles and have different ways you can navigate it, and sequence-breaking is almost expected. You have a lot of amazing traversal mechanics that you can utilize. Slides, wall kicks, wall slides, bubble jumps, dashes in air, etc. The coolest part is the fact that you don't have a double jump means you have to be very creative with your movement, and is super versatile. Casually, blindly, I was able to get to a lot of areas earlier than expected or it required a power I didn't have. This made exploration interesting because I could really go all out and the game rewarded me for being creative. My biggest issue with the gameplay is you get lost a little too much. The game is designed for you to get lost and explore, and fits with the themes of the game. But it happens a bit TOO often that by the end, when I needed one more key, I was getting frustrated especially since I had been to the area before, I just couldn't find my way back. I also feel the combat was much too simplified. Enemy designs weren't very good or interesting and didn't really offer much. I almost feel like they could've been cut or reworked where they were a puzzle piece and you needed to platform around them. The last boss was the only exception, as a lot of the attacks were specifically designed for you to use plenty of platforming moves in order to avoid the attacks. I like when platformers force me to use platforming abilities to fight enemies.
Story:
There isn't much to the story. You're a cat-goat-lady and you're exploring a castle. You run into some little goat guys but they don't really tell you much, and it is all very dream-like. I wouldn't say it is the focus though, as the intention is for the game to feel weirdly empty. Having a story would probably hinder that. I would've liked a little bit more hidden away that you could discover if you really looked, and maybe there is some I missed, but I never got that feeling from the game.
Artstyle:
The artstyle is great. It hits that N64-era of flat textures on 3D objects, bulky character models and everything having harsh edges. I think the simplicity works with the movement too, as it makes it very clear and very easy where everything is and makes timing jumps and movement much easier. The goal was to make the game look like an N64 metroidvania, and it succeeded. It was almost meant to feel etheral and empty, and I think it its that too by isolating every room entrance in shadows, having a these large, luxurious spaces or dark depths almost completely empty and hollow. Your character's hints of yellow also make you stick out, giving you a nice visual indicatior in darkness. Sybil also has a great a- I mean, a variety of really cool costumes too.
Music:
The music is amazing, with my favorite being the theme for the Twilight Theater. You'll listen to all of the songs a lot and while there aren't much, I could listen to them forever. They all convey the vibe of the area you're in which is great to see, and I could see myself listening to these songs a lot. Super great retro style with a lot of variety to them, and all have that choir, old-school style feel to it.
Overall:
For such a cheap game, it is worth it. Great movement, great music, great style, and it is a one-woman developer that kicked ass. I would highly recomend this game to N64 fans, or platformer fans looking for a game that lets them freely explore and rewards them for this.
Gameplay:
Pseudoregalia has you play as Sybil, a cat-goat-lady of some kind who comes into Castle Sansa from a magic mirror. You explore the game in your own way, searching for upgrades that give you new movement tools, more health, more damage etc. The areas are all very unique styles and have different ways you can navigate it, and sequence-breaking is almost expected. You have a lot of amazing traversal mechanics that you can utilize. Slides, wall kicks, wall slides, bubble jumps, dashes in air, etc. The coolest part is the fact that you don't have a double jump means you have to be very creative with your movement, and is super versatile. Casually, blindly, I was able to get to a lot of areas earlier than expected or it required a power I didn't have. This made exploration interesting because I could really go all out and the game rewarded me for being creative. My biggest issue with the gameplay is you get lost a little too much. The game is designed for you to get lost and explore, and fits with the themes of the game. But it happens a bit TOO often that by the end, when I needed one more key, I was getting frustrated especially since I had been to the area before, I just couldn't find my way back. I also feel the combat was much too simplified. Enemy designs weren't very good or interesting and didn't really offer much. I almost feel like they could've been cut or reworked where they were a puzzle piece and you needed to platform around them. The last boss was the only exception, as a lot of the attacks were specifically designed for you to use plenty of platforming moves in order to avoid the attacks. I like when platformers force me to use platforming abilities to fight enemies.
Story:
There isn't much to the story. You're a cat-goat-lady and you're exploring a castle. You run into some little goat guys but they don't really tell you much, and it is all very dream-like. I wouldn't say it is the focus though, as the intention is for the game to feel weirdly empty. Having a story would probably hinder that. I would've liked a little bit more hidden away that you could discover if you really looked, and maybe there is some I missed, but I never got that feeling from the game.
Artstyle:
The artstyle is great. It hits that N64-era of flat textures on 3D objects, bulky character models and everything having harsh edges. I think the simplicity works with the movement too, as it makes it very clear and very easy where everything is and makes timing jumps and movement much easier. The goal was to make the game look like an N64 metroidvania, and it succeeded. It was almost meant to feel etheral and empty, and I think it its that too by isolating every room entrance in shadows, having a these large, luxurious spaces or dark depths almost completely empty and hollow. Your character's hints of yellow also make you stick out, giving you a nice visual indicatior in darkness. Sybil also has a great a- I mean, a variety of really cool costumes too.
Music:
The music is amazing, with my favorite being the theme for the Twilight Theater. You'll listen to all of the songs a lot and while there aren't much, I could listen to them forever. They all convey the vibe of the area you're in which is great to see, and I could see myself listening to these songs a lot. Super great retro style with a lot of variety to them, and all have that choir, old-school style feel to it.
Overall:
For such a cheap game, it is worth it. Great movement, great music, great style, and it is a one-woman developer that kicked ass. I would highly recomend this game to N64 fans, or platformer fans looking for a game that lets them freely explore and rewards them for this.
2014
A massive downgrade in almost everyway outside of graphics compared to the original. The story was bad, the gameplay was bad, it was buggy and glitchy, and it was the worst sin of all: boring.
Gameplay:
The gameplay of this game is like the first two, where you have an open world city that you need to free from the D.U.P, an overarching government organization that has somehow taken over the entirety of Seattle for two escaped condu- Oh wait, we need to give them a dumb name: Bio-terrorists. You play as a new character, Delsin, who has to go to Seattle to gain the main bad guy's powers so you can heal your tribe from their wounds. You start out with a new type of powers other than Cole's, and that is smoke powers. I like the idea of new powers, but this one is just discount electricity. You have way less sources of powers to refresh, and I found myself disengaging from battles to search for a new smoke thing to suck. You get some later on, like Neon and... Video, but they aren't really creative because they all have to fit the cookie-cutter formula. You also get another power later, but it is from the end boss and by the time you get there, you've probably one hundred percented the game already like I did so it is pointless. The enemies are a massive downgrade with annoying powers, no personality, and no unique creatures to fight like in inFamous 2. You just fight boring, generic human enemies or concrete powered ones that are annoying or easy to defeat. Or both. You don't really have 'side missions' like in the first two games, but you do have the same boring, tedious missions you have to repeat OVER. AND OVER. AND OVER. There are no unique side missions like in the second game, it is 'find the secret agent' or 'tag the wall' and that is how you hundred percent the game. It is generic, boring, and designs to pad out the game's short length. The main missions aren't much better and also have a formulaic feel to them. You investigate a possible new power, you find the person and they get away, you plan on a way to find them. You find them and fight them and get their power. You go upgrade your power by walking around. Then you do a mission for them and rinse and repeat. Three times. All the characters are annoying and bad, with a lot of the 'karma' moments being cut out to be big decisions that are completely contrived and don't feel nearly as natural as the first game. The difference btween good karma powers and evil isn't nearly as big. In the first two games you were locked out completely of powers. Now you just have to upgrade differen't ones. The game is buggy too. Lots of shots would phase through enemies, I would get stuck in a lot of parkour sections that I shouldn't have and never did in the other games, and the lock on for melee was terrible. Enemy right in front of me? Go ahead Delsin, do a 180 to the guy fifty feet away and miss. Need to melee a car to get smoke? Sorry, he'll phase his chain right through it. It got SO frustrating because I didn't even have issues with this in the first game, which came out like six years before. This was the biggest downgrade, and really buried this game.
Story:
The story is terrible, and regresses entirely from what happened in the first two games. It doesn't make any sense and has a massive jump from the game and basically retcons the ending from 2. I get they kind of wrote themself into a corner but this wasn't the way to do it. You start out as Delsin, a small town delinquent with a cop brother. Sound familiar? Nearby a bunch of conduits escape from an escort and you touch one, which activates your powers instead of the explosion of energy setup in the games before. Your tribe gets attacked because they protect you by a GOVERNMENT BODY. AND NO ONE CARES DESPITE ALL THE ENVIDENCE OF IT. Like, I'm expected to believe the pictures, video, physical evidence, x-rays, medical reports that this happened would be swept under the rug? Really? So, you go to Seattle to get the bad guy's power and save your tribe, and in the process you dismantle the DUP, which has somehow COMPLETELY taken over the ENTIRETY of SEATTLE to capture THREE conduits. Really? All the characters are annoying too, especially yours. They're also stereotypical, which means they have almost no depth despite their attempts when they info dump the backstories for them. The first two didn't have amazing stories, but still had memorable characters with a lot of depth that I cared about. Here? None of them. Not even a little. I also hate how the first two games basically had NOTHING mentioned at all, even though they would've been very relevant events. There was like, maybe three instances of small references but it was almost like they lost the licenses of the first two games and weren't allowed to talk about them. It is weird.
Artstyle:
Pretty much the only good thing I can say about this game. The game looks great visually. The powers look great visually. This game definitely looks flashy and good especially with a lot of the powers and animations. I think that Seattle's portrayal is a little... Meh. Since like, it is sooooo much tinier than the other games it doesn't feel like a big, sprawling city. I think it should've been like the first two with a 'inspired' city, that they could've been more creative with. But I think the game looks good, and most people would agree.
Music:
Barely any, nothing good, all generic bland and mediocre except for the licensed music, which is used sparingly.
Overall:
Don't play this game. There are plenty like it that are more fun and interesting and attempt to be unique. This one has so many 'we need to checkmark this off the list of what is required in a video game' moments it almost drove me insane. I hated this game.
Gameplay:
The gameplay of this game is like the first two, where you have an open world city that you need to free from the D.U.P, an overarching government organization that has somehow taken over the entirety of Seattle for two escaped condu- Oh wait, we need to give them a dumb name: Bio-terrorists. You play as a new character, Delsin, who has to go to Seattle to gain the main bad guy's powers so you can heal your tribe from their wounds. You start out with a new type of powers other than Cole's, and that is smoke powers. I like the idea of new powers, but this one is just discount electricity. You have way less sources of powers to refresh, and I found myself disengaging from battles to search for a new smoke thing to suck. You get some later on, like Neon and... Video, but they aren't really creative because they all have to fit the cookie-cutter formula. You also get another power later, but it is from the end boss and by the time you get there, you've probably one hundred percented the game already like I did so it is pointless. The enemies are a massive downgrade with annoying powers, no personality, and no unique creatures to fight like in inFamous 2. You just fight boring, generic human enemies or concrete powered ones that are annoying or easy to defeat. Or both. You don't really have 'side missions' like in the first two games, but you do have the same boring, tedious missions you have to repeat OVER. AND OVER. AND OVER. There are no unique side missions like in the second game, it is 'find the secret agent' or 'tag the wall' and that is how you hundred percent the game. It is generic, boring, and designs to pad out the game's short length. The main missions aren't much better and also have a formulaic feel to them. You investigate a possible new power, you find the person and they get away, you plan on a way to find them. You find them and fight them and get their power. You go upgrade your power by walking around. Then you do a mission for them and rinse and repeat. Three times. All the characters are annoying and bad, with a lot of the 'karma' moments being cut out to be big decisions that are completely contrived and don't feel nearly as natural as the first game. The difference btween good karma powers and evil isn't nearly as big. In the first two games you were locked out completely of powers. Now you just have to upgrade differen't ones. The game is buggy too. Lots of shots would phase through enemies, I would get stuck in a lot of parkour sections that I shouldn't have and never did in the other games, and the lock on for melee was terrible. Enemy right in front of me? Go ahead Delsin, do a 180 to the guy fifty feet away and miss. Need to melee a car to get smoke? Sorry, he'll phase his chain right through it. It got SO frustrating because I didn't even have issues with this in the first game, which came out like six years before. This was the biggest downgrade, and really buried this game.
Story:
The story is terrible, and regresses entirely from what happened in the first two games. It doesn't make any sense and has a massive jump from the game and basically retcons the ending from 2. I get they kind of wrote themself into a corner but this wasn't the way to do it. You start out as Delsin, a small town delinquent with a cop brother. Sound familiar? Nearby a bunch of conduits escape from an escort and you touch one, which activates your powers instead of the explosion of energy setup in the games before. Your tribe gets attacked because they protect you by a GOVERNMENT BODY. AND NO ONE CARES DESPITE ALL THE ENVIDENCE OF IT. Like, I'm expected to believe the pictures, video, physical evidence, x-rays, medical reports that this happened would be swept under the rug? Really? So, you go to Seattle to get the bad guy's power and save your tribe, and in the process you dismantle the DUP, which has somehow COMPLETELY taken over the ENTIRETY of SEATTLE to capture THREE conduits. Really? All the characters are annoying too, especially yours. They're also stereotypical, which means they have almost no depth despite their attempts when they info dump the backstories for them. The first two didn't have amazing stories, but still had memorable characters with a lot of depth that I cared about. Here? None of them. Not even a little. I also hate how the first two games basically had NOTHING mentioned at all, even though they would've been very relevant events. There was like, maybe three instances of small references but it was almost like they lost the licenses of the first two games and weren't allowed to talk about them. It is weird.
Artstyle:
Pretty much the only good thing I can say about this game. The game looks great visually. The powers look great visually. This game definitely looks flashy and good especially with a lot of the powers and animations. I think that Seattle's portrayal is a little... Meh. Since like, it is sooooo much tinier than the other games it doesn't feel like a big, sprawling city. I think it should've been like the first two with a 'inspired' city, that they could've been more creative with. But I think the game looks good, and most people would agree.
Music:
Barely any, nothing good, all generic bland and mediocre except for the licensed music, which is used sparingly.
Overall:
Don't play this game. There are plenty like it that are more fun and interesting and attempt to be unique. This one has so many 'we need to checkmark this off the list of what is required in a video game' moments it almost drove me insane. I hated this game.
2011
inFamous 2 is such a great game that took all of the good things from the original, carried it over, and improved on all the lackluster aspects of the original. This game, minus some of the collection efforts and pacing, is great with tons of replayability and really good fun.
Gameplay:
The gameplay loop involves you exploring a New Orelans inspired city with electric powers that have a ton of different variety depending on your karma level. You do side quests, main quests, and collect things throughout the game while fighting bad guys all over. The game has a lot of parkour included with it, climbing up on buildings, riding telephone polls, and more. I think it is quite impressive honestly for the time and still holds up well today. The combat is fun, cycling through your different powers and modifiers in order to have maximum carnage, fighting a lot of unique enemies and leaning more towards the sci-fi aspects of the superhero/supervillain genre.
Story:*
The story involves the destruction of Empire City and The Beast almost killing your character, Cole. Losing almost all of his powers, he escapes to New Marais, inspired by New Orelans. There, he meets up with an FBI agent who helps him get into contact with someone who can help him locate Blast Cores to gain back his powers and then some, all the prepare to fight the best. During the game you run into other conduits, and you can actually kind of gain some of their powers depending on your choices. And choices are important for this game, deciding between evil and good actions. For my playthrough I did an evil playthrough which I really enjoyed, as it gave somewhat of a justification for why he needed to be evil other than 'I like it' which was really good. The good karma ending was awesome too, and I think the game has a really strong story if a little one-dimensional.
Artstyle:
Artstyle is decent in this game but a big improvement compared to the original. More color, more flashy attractions and more varied areas. The graphics are almost exactly the same as the original but polished, with lots of improvements to animations and extra little details that sets it slightly above the original. There were a couple of areas I wasn't a fan of like the flooded part of town, but I think it really fits the gritty theme of that time they were trying to go for.
Music:
I don't really focus on music myself honestly, and I'll admit that I can't really remember much about the soundtrack. It is decent, it does the job, but nothing really stuck out that I remember and went 'wow, this is great'. It is serviceable, which is all I need honestly.
Overall:
I love the game, and had a lot of fun 100%'ing it which I normally don't do with games (helps it was super easy for this game). I also played on the hardest difficulty, which felt much more balanced compared to the first one. A bit of a rarity for me as well, but I liked the challenge and felt it was fair. Definitely would recommend picking up this game and I would love a remaster that gets it on modern consoles!
Gameplay:
The gameplay loop involves you exploring a New Orelans inspired city with electric powers that have a ton of different variety depending on your karma level. You do side quests, main quests, and collect things throughout the game while fighting bad guys all over. The game has a lot of parkour included with it, climbing up on buildings, riding telephone polls, and more. I think it is quite impressive honestly for the time and still holds up well today. The combat is fun, cycling through your different powers and modifiers in order to have maximum carnage, fighting a lot of unique enemies and leaning more towards the sci-fi aspects of the superhero/supervillain genre.
Story:*
The story involves the destruction of Empire City and The Beast almost killing your character, Cole. Losing almost all of his powers, he escapes to New Marais, inspired by New Orelans. There, he meets up with an FBI agent who helps him get into contact with someone who can help him locate Blast Cores to gain back his powers and then some, all the prepare to fight the best. During the game you run into other conduits, and you can actually kind of gain some of their powers depending on your choices. And choices are important for this game, deciding between evil and good actions. For my playthrough I did an evil playthrough which I really enjoyed, as it gave somewhat of a justification for why he needed to be evil other than 'I like it' which was really good. The good karma ending was awesome too, and I think the game has a really strong story if a little one-dimensional.
Artstyle:
Artstyle is decent in this game but a big improvement compared to the original. More color, more flashy attractions and more varied areas. The graphics are almost exactly the same as the original but polished, with lots of improvements to animations and extra little details that sets it slightly above the original. There were a couple of areas I wasn't a fan of like the flooded part of town, but I think it really fits the gritty theme of that time they were trying to go for.
Music:
I don't really focus on music myself honestly, and I'll admit that I can't really remember much about the soundtrack. It is decent, it does the job, but nothing really stuck out that I remember and went 'wow, this is great'. It is serviceable, which is all I need honestly.
Overall:
I love the game, and had a lot of fun 100%'ing it which I normally don't do with games (helps it was super easy for this game). I also played on the hardest difficulty, which felt much more balanced compared to the first one. A bit of a rarity for me as well, but I liked the challenge and felt it was fair. Definitely would recommend picking up this game and I would love a remaster that gets it on modern consoles!
2009
inFamous was a much better game than I expected when I played it. The abilities were really fun to use even if they were a bit basic, the parkour was really good for the most part, and I really liked the story. It was all a bit simple but I think that makes sense for the first game in the series, and I also enjoy the morality mechanic. This was pretty new at the time and I think they did a decent job not going overboard with it.
Gameplay:
The gameplay involves fighting a variety of groups throughout Empire City that has their own minions to fight against, with some being clones but also having a few unique variants for the factions. You spend a lot of the game traversing the city and using you powers to get through the areas in a variety of ways, and I really enjoy the mixture of parkour and combat. You have side missions and main missions, with the main missions helping to unlock more of the map, while side missions clear areas of enemies. The side missions had a few highlights but it was quite frustrating sometimes because you got a lot of repeated ones that weren't very fun, but thankfully they were relatively short so if you got a mission you disliked you could get through it quickly. The game also has a lot of replayability by going through the game again making new choices to be evil or good, which also gives you some new missions and changes a few aspects.
Story:
The story for the game involves you, Cole, as a bike messenger when your package explodes, causing destruction through the city with you also gaining powers. Because of a plague, the city is quarantined and during this you are framed as a terrorist. The story involves you and your companions trying to clear your name, escape the city, and to figure out what to do with a mysterious object called the Ray Sphere, the thing that seemingly gave you your powers. Simple story, but I think it worked really well and I like some of the story beats it hit, even if it had very little depth and left a lot to be unresolved. I want to say though the voice acting was a HUGE improvement compared to the Sly games. Every character lands their role so well, especially Cole and Zeke. I was seriously impressed.
Artstyle:
This game looked like the year it was made it. Brown, grey, dark and gritty. You get these really nice contrasts with your character's powers against the backdrop but I would've loved some more interesting and iconic locations to explore and see. The game is extremely impressive with the lack of loads as you explore the overworld, but the performance took a dip occasionally, especially when you used some of your powers. The abilities though look visually amazing, especially the final one you acquire.
Music:
I was not really a fan of the music. Too little, no interesting tracks to remember, I especially disliked the ending boss fight music because it was about as basic as it could possibly get. Especially because Sucker Punch had some really good music in the games before, so I kinda wish that talent transferred over to this game.
Overall:
I loved this game. It had great combat and movement, it had fun gameplay and a good story with unique things about it and talent. I felt the side missions were poorly done and it was a bit too basic to be an extremely good experience, but I liked this game way more than I thought I was going to.
Gameplay:
The gameplay involves fighting a variety of groups throughout Empire City that has their own minions to fight against, with some being clones but also having a few unique variants for the factions. You spend a lot of the game traversing the city and using you powers to get through the areas in a variety of ways, and I really enjoy the mixture of parkour and combat. You have side missions and main missions, with the main missions helping to unlock more of the map, while side missions clear areas of enemies. The side missions had a few highlights but it was quite frustrating sometimes because you got a lot of repeated ones that weren't very fun, but thankfully they were relatively short so if you got a mission you disliked you could get through it quickly. The game also has a lot of replayability by going through the game again making new choices to be evil or good, which also gives you some new missions and changes a few aspects.
Story:
The story for the game involves you, Cole, as a bike messenger when your package explodes, causing destruction through the city with you also gaining powers. Because of a plague, the city is quarantined and during this you are framed as a terrorist. The story involves you and your companions trying to clear your name, escape the city, and to figure out what to do with a mysterious object called the Ray Sphere, the thing that seemingly gave you your powers. Simple story, but I think it worked really well and I like some of the story beats it hit, even if it had very little depth and left a lot to be unresolved. I want to say though the voice acting was a HUGE improvement compared to the Sly games. Every character lands their role so well, especially Cole and Zeke. I was seriously impressed.
Artstyle:
This game looked like the year it was made it. Brown, grey, dark and gritty. You get these really nice contrasts with your character's powers against the backdrop but I would've loved some more interesting and iconic locations to explore and see. The game is extremely impressive with the lack of loads as you explore the overworld, but the performance took a dip occasionally, especially when you used some of your powers. The abilities though look visually amazing, especially the final one you acquire.
Music:
I was not really a fan of the music. Too little, no interesting tracks to remember, I especially disliked the ending boss fight music because it was about as basic as it could possibly get. Especially because Sucker Punch had some really good music in the games before, so I kinda wish that talent transferred over to this game.
Overall:
I loved this game. It had great combat and movement, it had fun gameplay and a good story with unique things about it and talent. I felt the side missions were poorly done and it was a bit too basic to be an extremely good experience, but I liked this game way more than I thought I was going to.
2023
Sweet, cute little puzzle game with FANTASTIC gameplay mechanics. This game has such a good system of gameplay. The art style was fun, the story wasn't amazing but the ending half started to get me, and overall just a cute game.
2023
Remnant 2 takes the original game and improves on the formula they created. A third-person shooter with a lot of Dark Souls and rogue-lite inspiration created as a third person shooter. It is really good, and I think it hit a lot of great beats that it wanted to hit.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is third-person shooting with an emphasis on dodge rolls, mixing up between shooting and melee, and utilizing different abilities and mods to help enhance combat. You go up against a very large cast of enemies that all have different attack patterns you need to learn as you go through open areas and into dungeons in order to find items, scrap, and more. This all feels really good, though the animations can look a little awkward as it prioritizes movement over animations, which aren't blended well together for the quick pace movement. I don't think this is a super bad thing, but it is noticeable how stiff your character looks. The shooting is punchy and good, with a lot of unique weapons you can find that fit the alien aspect of these planets. The boss fights are the highlight of the game, all with their own unique mechanics you need to learn. They all feel fair and balanced, with every death feeling more like a mistake I made. A missed dodge roll, misreading the attack, not paying attention to the mobs in the arena, or missing a vital mechanic. And each time I died I felt like I learned something from it and improved in the next attempt. The randonmess with the mutators was cool as well, making you have to play slightly different each time. The one complaint I had about this was the fact that I played with the handler archetype, which was effectively useless in a lot of the fights because my dog couldn't attack the boss. A lot of them require range, so close range characters with have a disadvantage against a few of them. But otherwise, I think they were all fantastically designed, especially the final boss. It really felt like the enemy design was a focus of the game and it really shined through. The endgame content is really good: you can find secret archetypes that will stay unlocked on your account to play with as new characters, you can reroll campaign levels in the game to reunlock items or to try different story beats to get new mods or weapons, and adventure mode offers a lot of replayability and is
really good to let you continue your character after the game ends. This, combined with the trait system you can really build your character to your specifications, and you can do a lot of this with friends as well as the game has a pretty good co-op system, with archetypes that are specifically designed for it.
Story:
The story was pretty mediocre. The main story was boring with boring characters that I never felt a connection too, and the writing for them was way too simple and generic. You can pretty much predict the story because every character fulfills the exact stereotypical role you expect of them, and characters drop in and out without a care. And the side-stories or mysteries aren't interesting. You never feel attached to the realms you explore and their plight, and you're kinda just running through without paying attention to it because it tries to be complicated and interesting, but fails.
Music:
The music in this game is used sparingly, with a mixture of great and mediocre tracks. The mediocre tracks are the ones you here the most that kicks in during combat, and some of the casual exploration ones. But there are a few really good ones that add to the environment as you explore, and the boss themes are fantastic and fit the tone of the area you are in very well. It is all ambient tracks that helps solidify that you're travelling through different worlds.
Artstyle:
The game looks really good, the budget quite obviously improved from the original through screenshots alone. Each level has their own tone and feel, from a lush forest to a deserted planet. My only complaint is the lack of levels. The last level was pretty boring in comparison to the rest, and the hub world which has some combat and exploration aspects to it was pretty lacking and boring. I wish we had another one or two levels to really capture how different every single world felt. I also enjoyed how mods would change the look of every gun in the game, making them matching the style of the mod that they came from. Animations are decent but like I said before, they could feel lacking and stiff at times even during cutscenes. The bosses and enemies all looked fantastic, and there were a lot of cool looking bosses and effects.
Overall:
This game is a great experience. It has a lot to offer and features really good systems that allow a lot of creativity. My main complaints are pretty superficial: despite every gun being viable I feel like there isn't a large variety, and you're mostly going to get the variety for your shooting with the mods you get. I also feel that some archetypes are inherently weaker because of enemy design rewarding ranged combat more than close combat, so melee builds or the Handler archetype are going to be inherently weaker in comparison to something like gunslinger. I also felt like armor took a step back by getting rid of set bonuses completely, so they basically only have armor, weight, and resistances and that is the only difference (outside of cosmetic differences). I think this was a really good game with some great replayability, and you definitely can get a lot of playtime from a game like this.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is third-person shooting with an emphasis on dodge rolls, mixing up between shooting and melee, and utilizing different abilities and mods to help enhance combat. You go up against a very large cast of enemies that all have different attack patterns you need to learn as you go through open areas and into dungeons in order to find items, scrap, and more. This all feels really good, though the animations can look a little awkward as it prioritizes movement over animations, which aren't blended well together for the quick pace movement. I don't think this is a super bad thing, but it is noticeable how stiff your character looks. The shooting is punchy and good, with a lot of unique weapons you can find that fit the alien aspect of these planets. The boss fights are the highlight of the game, all with their own unique mechanics you need to learn. They all feel fair and balanced, with every death feeling more like a mistake I made. A missed dodge roll, misreading the attack, not paying attention to the mobs in the arena, or missing a vital mechanic. And each time I died I felt like I learned something from it and improved in the next attempt. The randonmess with the mutators was cool as well, making you have to play slightly different each time. The one complaint I had about this was the fact that I played with the handler archetype, which was effectively useless in a lot of the fights because my dog couldn't attack the boss. A lot of them require range, so close range characters with have a disadvantage against a few of them. But otherwise, I think they were all fantastically designed, especially the final boss. It really felt like the enemy design was a focus of the game and it really shined through. The endgame content is really good: you can find secret archetypes that will stay unlocked on your account to play with as new characters, you can reroll campaign levels in the game to reunlock items or to try different story beats to get new mods or weapons, and adventure mode offers a lot of replayability and is
really good to let you continue your character after the game ends. This, combined with the trait system you can really build your character to your specifications, and you can do a lot of this with friends as well as the game has a pretty good co-op system, with archetypes that are specifically designed for it.
Story:
The story was pretty mediocre. The main story was boring with boring characters that I never felt a connection too, and the writing for them was way too simple and generic. You can pretty much predict the story because every character fulfills the exact stereotypical role you expect of them, and characters drop in and out without a care. And the side-stories or mysteries aren't interesting. You never feel attached to the realms you explore and their plight, and you're kinda just running through without paying attention to it because it tries to be complicated and interesting, but fails.
Music:
The music in this game is used sparingly, with a mixture of great and mediocre tracks. The mediocre tracks are the ones you here the most that kicks in during combat, and some of the casual exploration ones. But there are a few really good ones that add to the environment as you explore, and the boss themes are fantastic and fit the tone of the area you are in very well. It is all ambient tracks that helps solidify that you're travelling through different worlds.
Artstyle:
The game looks really good, the budget quite obviously improved from the original through screenshots alone. Each level has their own tone and feel, from a lush forest to a deserted planet. My only complaint is the lack of levels. The last level was pretty boring in comparison to the rest, and the hub world which has some combat and exploration aspects to it was pretty lacking and boring. I wish we had another one or two levels to really capture how different every single world felt. I also enjoyed how mods would change the look of every gun in the game, making them matching the style of the mod that they came from. Animations are decent but like I said before, they could feel lacking and stiff at times even during cutscenes. The bosses and enemies all looked fantastic, and there were a lot of cool looking bosses and effects.
Overall:
This game is a great experience. It has a lot to offer and features really good systems that allow a lot of creativity. My main complaints are pretty superficial: despite every gun being viable I feel like there isn't a large variety, and you're mostly going to get the variety for your shooting with the mods you get. I also feel that some archetypes are inherently weaker because of enemy design rewarding ranged combat more than close combat, so melee builds or the Handler archetype are going to be inherently weaker in comparison to something like gunslinger. I also felt like armor took a step back by getting rid of set bonuses completely, so they basically only have armor, weight, and resistances and that is the only difference (outside of cosmetic differences). I think this was a really good game with some great replayability, and you definitely can get a lot of playtime from a game like this.
2023
A game with excellent shooting mechanics that is mediocre in almost every other aspects, except maybe for the music. The gunplay is great, and it makes combat feel great and fun to run around shooting everything in slow-motion. While that carries a lot of the game however, it isn't enough to make this a great game. The story is pretty mediocre and I feel didn't lean into the story aspects it should've, where they could've ran with a lot of interesting ideas. The scares and horror influence weren't used often enough outside of one mission, and the attempted 'scariest' mission literally used a PNG image jumpscare. The graphics are terrible and look like unity -bought models with visually different art styles between some objects and flat lighting, with that in-engine sheen that makes everything look pretty poor. The music was good, however I feel like it didn't fit the atmosphere of the combat at all. It was very DOOM influenced which didn't work with the slow motion, harsh brutality of the viscous combat. Some of the characters were interesting but didn't live up to their in-game, combat counterpart when they finally showed up. The game is also incredibly short too for the side mission/main mission format it has, and except for one side mission they were all pretty boring wave-based gameplay. That doesn't really work when you can count the amount of enemies the entire game has on one hand. I think it was a really good job from an indie studio and the developers clearly cared about the product, I just think they stumbled a little too much to make this any more than a 'decent' game.
I have never seen a game fumble the bag so hard like this game. Goddamn I understand why so many people dislike this game. I don't like the Sly games but even I can feel the disrespect. Gameplay was just worse Sly 2. Slightly worse movement, slightly worse hub areas, slightly worse minigames, slightly worse hacking, slightly worse bosses, slightly worse everything. This, combined with an AWFUL, disrespectful story and ending makes it really sad this is probably the last thing we will ever get from Sly. I dislike Sly Cooper as a series, but I don't think this is how he should've gone out.
2023
While I like the changes that added actual new, interesting mechanics while keeping the feel, the game is so short and tiny that you don't really get to use any of these to the advantage. Combined with a mediocre story this wasn't too good.
This was my favorite Sly game so far, with some great variety in the gameplay, characters, and levels. I really liked the incorporation of characters from past games and think giving them playable aspects was very good. Music was great and I enjoyed the story, though I felt the bosses weren't nearly as iconic. I also felt like the game was missing a lot of its roots with pretty much no actual collectibles to find, so you basically just farmed enemies to get enough coins for powerups that you didn't really need to complete the game. I didn't like the messenger bottles, but it would've been cool to find painting or artifacts around the level that you have to bring back to the safe house. It made it feel kinda pointless to explore the hub world and not just go from A to B with the missions.
Sly Cooper 2 is a classic for a lot of people, but I'm not a fan of this game. I liked it, liked the improvements they made compared to the original, but I'm not a big fan. The Klaww Gang was hit or miss with a lot of characters being really good and ones being really bad, and it had amazing music but bad voice acting (except Murray and Bentley). I like the exploration but it was annoying trying to search for the last bottle on the map and the rewards weren't that great. I feel like most of the abilities weren't that interesting to use and swap out, so overall I'm pretty lukewarm on this series.