DourCricket
This review contains spoilers
I was going to give this one a 4 due to the emotional gutpunch I almost received for not using either nuke... but then the game just subverted it almost immediately by having ED-E survive!
2020
You are the HELLTAKER - a man with a mission. You want your own harem of Devil ladies so where do you need to go? HELL. And what do you need to go when you get there? ASK DEVIL LADIES TO POLITELY COME HOME WITH YOU. So that's what you do.
Helltaker is a pretty damn adorable puzzle gameplay about moving across a board in X number of moves to get to the girl at the end. Each level is a conundrum of how EXACTLY you need to hop, kick or push things out of your way to get the key and get past the guards. There are only ten levels and unfortunately I only found out you can skip levels you get stuck on at the very end... Even getting stuck it only took me about 90 minutes to complete the game. Once you finish the ten puzzles however one final challenge awaits! A boss lady who isn't a puzzle at all... its an interesting gameplay twist that I appreciated however.
There is a STORY but its pretty bare - the girls are the main interest. At the end of each level there's a specific Devil girl waiting - you have a few dialogue options to get her to come along and if you say the wrong thing you get killed and have to do the level all over again (hope you remember your old path). Once the ladies have joined however there's a very cute "help" section on each level where all the girls talk to you about what is going on. This isn't actually helpful at all I must stress, they're demons after all they don't much care to assist you in figuring out puzzles. Each girl however has a distinct personality and style and they're all looking pretty damn dapper and I am here for it. The ending is a pretty sweet check in with the Helltaker and his harem on a sleepy morning of making pancakes for everyone, then the cops show up and the game is over... or is it?? I'd gladly pay for a sequel to this. The art is great, solid music, cute characters and premise... give me more!
Helltaker is a pretty damn adorable puzzle gameplay about moving across a board in X number of moves to get to the girl at the end. Each level is a conundrum of how EXACTLY you need to hop, kick or push things out of your way to get the key and get past the guards. There are only ten levels and unfortunately I only found out you can skip levels you get stuck on at the very end... Even getting stuck it only took me about 90 minutes to complete the game. Once you finish the ten puzzles however one final challenge awaits! A boss lady who isn't a puzzle at all... its an interesting gameplay twist that I appreciated however.
There is a STORY but its pretty bare - the girls are the main interest. At the end of each level there's a specific Devil girl waiting - you have a few dialogue options to get her to come along and if you say the wrong thing you get killed and have to do the level all over again (hope you remember your old path). Once the ladies have joined however there's a very cute "help" section on each level where all the girls talk to you about what is going on. This isn't actually helpful at all I must stress, they're demons after all they don't much care to assist you in figuring out puzzles. Each girl however has a distinct personality and style and they're all looking pretty damn dapper and I am here for it. The ending is a pretty sweet check in with the Helltaker and his harem on a sleepy morning of making pancakes for everyone, then the cops show up and the game is over... or is it?? I'd gladly pay for a sequel to this. The art is great, solid music, cute characters and premise... give me more!
2010
"Truth is - game was rigged from the start"
Blam! Our character gets shot in the head and one of the strongest game openings ever kicks us off on the adventure. Amusingly enough the first time I played the game on release I was so invested in this premise that I stopped playing the game entirely AFTER I got my revenge because at that point - hey, job done right?
Well, like the best Obsidian games (okay maybe its just this and Pillars 2, but those are the best ones!!) the main personal narrative is woven into the larger conflict of the region you're in. In the Mojave Wasteland there are several factions vying for power and they all swing around you and what you think is the best path forward. And, even within those routes you have quite a bit of wiggle room on determining who you are and why you're doing all this wandering around and rootin and tootin and shootin... But ultimately it comes down to - are you the message, or just the messenger?
The Good:
-Damn, where to start
-The roleplaying!! From the very beginning quest you get to use your skills to define what you're good at and.. not so good at. Corral people to help defend a town from bandits, but didn't take explosives? Pete won't lend you his dynamite because he doesn't want you to blow everyone up on accident. This carries on pretty far through the game all the way to the end where you can use the BARTER skill to talk down the Big Bad at the end because Supply Lines and Capitalism or some shit.
-In addition to that there's a lot of ways to sneakily complete quests or do them in a roundabout way and the game will notice and credit you for it. You can also do things like string the major factions along and then betray them only at the very very end (like I did. Sorry General Oliver!) . Just superb amounts of choice and consequence here.
-Adding to the writing: the companions are all strongly defined and very memorable. I used Arcade and Cass for this playthrough who I had never really used before, loved em both - Arcade especially.
-Gunplay is a solid step up from 3. Aim down sights and a much broader variety of weapons (non-gun categories especially, Energy/Melee/Explosives are much more usable here from the get-go)
-DLC quality ranges from "pretty darn good" to "excellent". Small open world exploration of a beautiful and lush region with great characters, mad science opera, The Tomb of Horrors but for video games.. we've got it all, baby!
-The mod scene is still healthy and excellent. I did one of the more 'basic' collections on Nexus that installed nice and easy on my steam deck - it was mostly QOL upgrades but it made a big difference with extra animations, some extra guns and rebalancing for survival mode
The Bad:
-Even with nearly15 years of mods its unstable. I actually had a pretty good run for the first 40~ hours but the last ten I had at least one crash per hour of gameplay. My mods were pretty minimal too
The Ugly:
-The color palette for the game is too much samey brown. It is of course a desert and there are several exceptions but overall... too brown!
-And I never actually include this category it just fit well with the cowboy/western theme and my usual good/bad categories I use. Sue me!
The Meh:
-The DLC, while excellent pretty much across the board, throws the power curve out of whack. Everything in the wastes gets notably tougher when you return from each to the point where there was literally half the game (if not more) for me to do and I was rocking 200+ DPS weapons + in the best power armor + fighting exclusively the toughest enemies. AND I had the JSaw mod which lowers XP gain too!!
-Monster/enemy variety is a bit low. There are the occasional odd enemy but its 90% recycled from previous fallouts.
-The POIs on the map feel a bit less meaningful compared to other Fallouts. There's a lot of small stuff that gets its own marker for not much reason
-The companions, while VERY well written, very rarely have much to say about what you're doing.
The Hmmm:
-Voice acting. It's pretty much all high quality, HOWEVER it is very clear they got the Oblivion levels of funding for their VO work from Bethesda so you will hear the same... 7-8 voices? For 90% of the NPCs. It's a bit annoying but honestly at least its good? Can't complain too much.
New Vegas is a titan of a roleplaying game and a superb achievement for a team who only had 18 months of development. It is very clearly just a deeply expanded "mod" for Fallout 3 with no huge leaps in the engine or gameplay but it just does everything better in terms of story and roleplay. You feel the weight of your choices for good and bad.. and its fun to blow things up into piles of goo, okay?
Blam! Our character gets shot in the head and one of the strongest game openings ever kicks us off on the adventure. Amusingly enough the first time I played the game on release I was so invested in this premise that I stopped playing the game entirely AFTER I got my revenge because at that point - hey, job done right?
Well, like the best Obsidian games (okay maybe its just this and Pillars 2, but those are the best ones!!) the main personal narrative is woven into the larger conflict of the region you're in. In the Mojave Wasteland there are several factions vying for power and they all swing around you and what you think is the best path forward. And, even within those routes you have quite a bit of wiggle room on determining who you are and why you're doing all this wandering around and rootin and tootin and shootin... But ultimately it comes down to - are you the message, or just the messenger?
The Good:
-Damn, where to start
-The roleplaying!! From the very beginning quest you get to use your skills to define what you're good at and.. not so good at. Corral people to help defend a town from bandits, but didn't take explosives? Pete won't lend you his dynamite because he doesn't want you to blow everyone up on accident. This carries on pretty far through the game all the way to the end where you can use the BARTER skill to talk down the Big Bad at the end because Supply Lines and Capitalism or some shit.
-In addition to that there's a lot of ways to sneakily complete quests or do them in a roundabout way and the game will notice and credit you for it. You can also do things like string the major factions along and then betray them only at the very very end (like I did. Sorry General Oliver!) . Just superb amounts of choice and consequence here.
-Adding to the writing: the companions are all strongly defined and very memorable. I used Arcade and Cass for this playthrough who I had never really used before, loved em both - Arcade especially.
-Gunplay is a solid step up from 3. Aim down sights and a much broader variety of weapons (non-gun categories especially, Energy/Melee/Explosives are much more usable here from the get-go)
-DLC quality ranges from "pretty darn good" to "excellent". Small open world exploration of a beautiful and lush region with great characters, mad science opera, The Tomb of Horrors but for video games.. we've got it all, baby!
-The mod scene is still healthy and excellent. I did one of the more 'basic' collections on Nexus that installed nice and easy on my steam deck - it was mostly QOL upgrades but it made a big difference with extra animations, some extra guns and rebalancing for survival mode
The Bad:
-Even with nearly15 years of mods its unstable. I actually had a pretty good run for the first 40~ hours but the last ten I had at least one crash per hour of gameplay. My mods were pretty minimal too
The Ugly:
-The color palette for the game is too much samey brown. It is of course a desert and there are several exceptions but overall... too brown!
-And I never actually include this category it just fit well with the cowboy/western theme and my usual good/bad categories I use. Sue me!
The Meh:
-The DLC, while excellent pretty much across the board, throws the power curve out of whack. Everything in the wastes gets notably tougher when you return from each to the point where there was literally half the game (if not more) for me to do and I was rocking 200+ DPS weapons + in the best power armor + fighting exclusively the toughest enemies. AND I had the JSaw mod which lowers XP gain too!!
-Monster/enemy variety is a bit low. There are the occasional odd enemy but its 90% recycled from previous fallouts.
-The POIs on the map feel a bit less meaningful compared to other Fallouts. There's a lot of small stuff that gets its own marker for not much reason
-The companions, while VERY well written, very rarely have much to say about what you're doing.
The Hmmm:
-Voice acting. It's pretty much all high quality, HOWEVER it is very clear they got the Oblivion levels of funding for their VO work from Bethesda so you will hear the same... 7-8 voices? For 90% of the NPCs. It's a bit annoying but honestly at least its good? Can't complain too much.
New Vegas is a titan of a roleplaying game and a superb achievement for a team who only had 18 months of development. It is very clearly just a deeply expanded "mod" for Fallout 3 with no huge leaps in the engine or gameplay but it just does everything better in terms of story and roleplay. You feel the weight of your choices for good and bad.. and its fun to blow things up into piles of goo, okay?
"Truth is - game was rigged from the start"
Blam! Our character gets shot in the head and one of the strongest game openings ever kicks us off on the adventure. Amusingly enough the first time I played the game on release I was so invested in this premise that I stopped playing the game entirely AFTER I got my revenge because at that point - hey, job done right?
Well, like the best Obsidian games (okay maybe its just this and Pillars 2, but those are the best ones!!) the main personal narrative is woven into the larger conflict of the region you're in. In the Mojave Wasteland there are several factions vying for power and they all swing around you and what you think is the best path forward. And, even within those routes you have quite a bit of wiggle room on determining who you are and why you're doing all this wandering around and rootin and tootin and shootin... But ultimately it comes down to - are you the message, or just the messenger?
The Good:
-Damn, where to start
-The roleplaying!! From the very beginning quest you get to use your skills to define what you're good at and.. not so good at. Corral people to help defend a town from bandits, but didn't take explosives? Pete won't lend you his dynamite because he doesn't want you to blow everyone up on accident. This carries on pretty far through the game all the way to the end where you can use the BARTER skill to talk down the Big Bad at the end because Supply Lines and Capitalism or some shit.
-In addition to that there's a lot of ways to sneakily complete quests or do them in a roundabout way and the game will notice and credit you for it. You can also do things like string the major factions along and then betray them only at the very very end (like I did. Sorry General Oliver!) . Just superb amounts of choice and consequence here.
-Adding to the writing: the companions are all strongly defined and very memorable. I used Arcade and Cass for this playthrough who I had never really used before, loved em both - Arcade especially.
-Gunplay is a solid step up from 3. Aim down sights and a much broader variety of weapons (non-gun categories especially, Energy/Melee/Explosives are much more usable here from the get-go)
-DLC quality ranges from "pretty darn good" to "excellent". Small open world exploration of a beautiful and lush region with great characters, mad science opera, The Tomb of Horrors but for video games.. we've got it all, baby!
-The mod scene is still healthy and excellent. I did one of the more 'basic' collections on Nexus that installed nice and easy on my steam deck - it was mostly QOL upgrades but it made a big difference with extra animations, some extra guns and rebalancing for survival mode
The Bad:
-Even with nearly15 years of mods its unstable. I actually had a pretty good run for the first 40~ hours but the last ten I had at least one crash per hour of gameplay. My mods were pretty minimal too
The Ugly:
-The color palette for the game is too much samey brown. It is of course a desert and there are several exceptions but overall... too brown!
-And I never actually include this category it just fit well with the cowboy/western theme and my usual good/bad categories I use. Sue me!
The Meh:
-The DLC, while excellent pretty much across the board, throws the power curve out of whack. Everything in the wastes gets notably tougher when you return from each to the point where there was literally half the game (if not more) for me to do and I was rocking 200+ DPS weapons + in the best power armor + fighting exclusively the toughest enemies. AND I had the JSaw mod which lowers XP gain too!!
-Monster/enemy variety is a bit low. There are the occasional odd enemy but its 90% recycled from previous fallouts.
-The POIs on the map feel a bit less meaningful compared to other Fallouts. There's a lot of small stuff that gets its own marker for not much reason
-The companions, while VERY well written, very rarely have much to say about what you're doing.
The Hmmm:
-Voice acting. It's pretty much all high quality, HOWEVER it is very clear they got the Oblivion levels of funding for their VO work from Bethesda so you will hear the same... 7-8 voices? For 90% of the NPCs. It's a bit annoying but honestly at least its good? Can't complain too much.
New Vegas is a titan of a roleplaying game and a superb achievement for a team who only had 18 months of development. It is very clearly just a deeply expanded "mod" for Fallout 3 with no huge leaps in the engine or gameplay but it just does everything better in terms of story and roleplay. You feel the weight of your choices for good and bad.. and its fun to blow things up into piles of goo, okay?
Blam! Our character gets shot in the head and one of the strongest game openings ever kicks us off on the adventure. Amusingly enough the first time I played the game on release I was so invested in this premise that I stopped playing the game entirely AFTER I got my revenge because at that point - hey, job done right?
Well, like the best Obsidian games (okay maybe its just this and Pillars 2, but those are the best ones!!) the main personal narrative is woven into the larger conflict of the region you're in. In the Mojave Wasteland there are several factions vying for power and they all swing around you and what you think is the best path forward. And, even within those routes you have quite a bit of wiggle room on determining who you are and why you're doing all this wandering around and rootin and tootin and shootin... But ultimately it comes down to - are you the message, or just the messenger?
The Good:
-Damn, where to start
-The roleplaying!! From the very beginning quest you get to use your skills to define what you're good at and.. not so good at. Corral people to help defend a town from bandits, but didn't take explosives? Pete won't lend you his dynamite because he doesn't want you to blow everyone up on accident. This carries on pretty far through the game all the way to the end where you can use the BARTER skill to talk down the Big Bad at the end because Supply Lines and Capitalism or some shit.
-In addition to that there's a lot of ways to sneakily complete quests or do them in a roundabout way and the game will notice and credit you for it. You can also do things like string the major factions along and then betray them only at the very very end (like I did. Sorry General Oliver!) . Just superb amounts of choice and consequence here.
-Adding to the writing: the companions are all strongly defined and very memorable. I used Arcade and Cass for this playthrough who I had never really used before, loved em both - Arcade especially.
-Gunplay is a solid step up from 3. Aim down sights and a much broader variety of weapons (non-gun categories especially, Energy/Melee/Explosives are much more usable here from the get-go)
-DLC quality ranges from "pretty darn good" to "excellent". Small open world exploration of a beautiful and lush region with great characters, mad science opera, The Tomb of Horrors but for video games.. we've got it all, baby!
-The mod scene is still healthy and excellent. I did one of the more 'basic' collections on Nexus that installed nice and easy on my steam deck - it was mostly QOL upgrades but it made a big difference with extra animations, some extra guns and rebalancing for survival mode
The Bad:
-Even with nearly15 years of mods its unstable. I actually had a pretty good run for the first 40~ hours but the last ten I had at least one crash per hour of gameplay. My mods were pretty minimal too
The Ugly:
-The color palette for the game is too much samey brown. It is of course a desert and there are several exceptions but overall... too brown!
-And I never actually include this category it just fit well with the cowboy/western theme and my usual good/bad categories I use. Sue me!
The Meh:
-The DLC, while excellent pretty much across the board, throws the power curve out of whack. Everything in the wastes gets notably tougher when you return from each to the point where there was literally half the game (if not more) for me to do and I was rocking 200+ DPS weapons + in the best power armor + fighting exclusively the toughest enemies. AND I had the JSaw mod which lowers XP gain too!!
-Monster/enemy variety is a bit low. There are the occasional odd enemy but its 90% recycled from previous fallouts.
-The POIs on the map feel a bit less meaningful compared to other Fallouts. There's a lot of small stuff that gets its own marker for not much reason
-The companions, while VERY well written, very rarely have much to say about what you're doing.
The Hmmm:
-Voice acting. It's pretty much all high quality, HOWEVER it is very clear they got the Oblivion levels of funding for their VO work from Bethesda so you will hear the same... 7-8 voices? For 90% of the NPCs. It's a bit annoying but honestly at least its good? Can't complain too much.
New Vegas is a titan of a roleplaying game and a superb achievement for a team who only had 18 months of development. It is very clearly just a deeply expanded "mod" for Fallout 3 with no huge leaps in the engine or gameplay but it just does everything better in terms of story and roleplay. You feel the weight of your choices for good and bad.. and its fun to blow things up into piles of goo, okay?
2008
Gears of War 2
#3
Xbox One
Beaten January 19th 2019
A very interesting improvement on the first game. The combat feels a bit better, but the level design really kicks it up a notch. There's a lot of varied things to hide behind, half the time they snap in and out, or use some mechanism to go up and down that can be used by you or the enemy. No real weird boss fights since they kind of sucked in the first game anyway.
The story definitely aims more for mystery and emotion but to mixed results. Doms search for his wife is well done, but Marcus remains capable of only anger and it is difficult to empathize with him. Even Tai's suicide comes a bit too early and Marcus doesn't mention it much past its occurrence. The main plot hints at even more mystery with the Fenix family and their connection to the Locus - plus a new threat of infection drives them to madness. Why is the queen basically human??
The game also drops a number of horror elements from the first game to aim more at action. Less dark parts, no berserkers, no weird bats... But I miss those crazy things. They were a great enemy. It also feels even more focused for co-op than the previous one, which obviously reminds me of my first playthrough a decade or so ago with Ibn. I've included a screenshot of the infamous scene with the giant worm, hahaha.
Onto the third game!
Final Grade - B+
#3
Xbox One
Beaten January 19th 2019
A very interesting improvement on the first game. The combat feels a bit better, but the level design really kicks it up a notch. There's a lot of varied things to hide behind, half the time they snap in and out, or use some mechanism to go up and down that can be used by you or the enemy. No real weird boss fights since they kind of sucked in the first game anyway.
The story definitely aims more for mystery and emotion but to mixed results. Doms search for his wife is well done, but Marcus remains capable of only anger and it is difficult to empathize with him. Even Tai's suicide comes a bit too early and Marcus doesn't mention it much past its occurrence. The main plot hints at even more mystery with the Fenix family and their connection to the Locus - plus a new threat of infection drives them to madness. Why is the queen basically human??
The game also drops a number of horror elements from the first game to aim more at action. Less dark parts, no berserkers, no weird bats... But I miss those crazy things. They were a great enemy. It also feels even more focused for co-op than the previous one, which obviously reminds me of my first playthrough a decade or so ago with Ibn. I've included a screenshot of the infamous scene with the giant worm, hahaha.
Onto the third game!
Final Grade - B+
2017
One of my favorite games in existence is Super Mario 64. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of that game, and I would credit no small portion of my love to video games for it. And so with a heavy heart I have to say that the successor to Mario 64 - Mario Odyssey - is BAD. Well I don't know if it is bad, but I certainly did not like it very much.
First off, it looks and sounds pretty nice. That's more or less the end of my compliments for the game. Well not really, Cappy as a mechanic and character is quite clever, I just don't think it turns out to ever be very fun? Like, I got turned into a TRex and smashed through boulders and it was.... okay? I feel like something is wrong with me but it's just how I feel. Turning into Goombas and jumping to make giant stacks is also pretty cute.
My real issue with the game - the moons. Moons are the "stars" from old games only in this game, you don't get stars through working your butt off or doing something particularly clever, no, you get stars for anything dumb that looks out of place or special in an area. Now there are plenty of "clever" moons or tough moons that require you to go through a lot to get them, but most are not. Basically just move the camera around a bit to see where they're tucked away at and go ground pound something once and they're yours. But to move on between levels you need a certain number of moons and... why do the difficult moons when the easy ones are right there?
The controls for Mario also feel VERY off. Mario as a character is extremely "slippery" and I constantly felt like I was fighting him more often than the challenges presented. It could be mostly the Joy Cons fault but I don't own a pro-controller (is it time to get one?) so that's what I was working with.
I might go back to it one day just to really finish it, as I only got to about the 2/3rds point in my time with it (according to some guides I looked up), but honest to god - I just wasn't having a damn bit of fun. Waste of $40.
Ugh.
First off, it looks and sounds pretty nice. That's more or less the end of my compliments for the game. Well not really, Cappy as a mechanic and character is quite clever, I just don't think it turns out to ever be very fun? Like, I got turned into a TRex and smashed through boulders and it was.... okay? I feel like something is wrong with me but it's just how I feel. Turning into Goombas and jumping to make giant stacks is also pretty cute.
My real issue with the game - the moons. Moons are the "stars" from old games only in this game, you don't get stars through working your butt off or doing something particularly clever, no, you get stars for anything dumb that looks out of place or special in an area. Now there are plenty of "clever" moons or tough moons that require you to go through a lot to get them, but most are not. Basically just move the camera around a bit to see where they're tucked away at and go ground pound something once and they're yours. But to move on between levels you need a certain number of moons and... why do the difficult moons when the easy ones are right there?
The controls for Mario also feel VERY off. Mario as a character is extremely "slippery" and I constantly felt like I was fighting him more often than the challenges presented. It could be mostly the Joy Cons fault but I don't own a pro-controller (is it time to get one?) so that's what I was working with.
I might go back to it one day just to really finish it, as I only got to about the 2/3rds point in my time with it (according to some guides I looked up), but honest to god - I just wasn't having a damn bit of fun. Waste of $40.
Ugh.
Nemesis, the supposed black sheep of the family.. in a way I can see why, but I really really liked it! The game has only one protagonist this time: Jill Valentine. Jill is pretty serious in RE1 but generally is portrayed as always out of her depth.. she has developed a bit since then and is more serious and out for revenge on Umbrella. The game however kicks off with the zombies having already overrun Raccoon City, which is great from an action point of view but I was very interested to see "Early" outbreak RC. Where RE2 sort of dropped the ball with "being in a city in a zombie outbreak", you are primarily stuck in a few larger locations and there aren't THAT many zombies, especially at once. RE3 fixes that in a big way.. there are lots of zombies roaming the streets with you and they respawn very often.
The new big bag, Nemesis, is the big talking point of this game. He is definitely terrifying when he shows up and is clearly a response to two big 'weakness' in the first two games - once you clear up an area of enemies, you essentially have free run of the place until a certain small handful of story sections that will repopulate enemies (REmake 1 tried to fix this with Crimson Heads, who will reanimate later on in the game, presumably after you've taken down all the regular zombies) and even then, later in the game you tend to have a good amount of ammo so taking out a few extra enemies is pretty easy. How does Nemesis fix this? By chasing you through zones like a dog and not wanting to go down easy! Like RE2Remake, he goes down with a bunch of hits but not for very long. While Nemesis shows up in the first 30~ minutes and stays until the end of the game, there are plenty of long stretches where he doesn't show up at all for a while that serves fine in terms of breathing room, there's basically no section where the point is to get something complicated done while he is harassing you.
The story isn't bad, Jill has to work with a small mercenary company that may or may not be the bad guys (The Russian guy obviously is, the cute hispanic guy who flirts with Jill obviously isn't) and they have to work their way out of a zombie and puzzle infested city. The usual right? There's a neat twist in that when you get several hours in and it looks like the game might be ending.... BOOM! Nemesis has a rocket launcher and your ticket out of town goes down. What is more unfortunate about the story - the writing and voice acting is garbage. "They won't stop me this is my, last escape.." is a line you'll see a lot - and it was physically painful to read each time. Each document you find is written in Google-Translate level English straight from Japanese, obvious phrases and expressions included. Did they have no editors on this game? At all?! And the voice acting for basically everyone but Jill is horrendous, and even she is not great. Also the ending is a bit meh, we get no real closure on Nemesis, other than we learn he was probably a STARS member. It would've been better as a character we know, like the movies.
I can't believe I said something nice about the movies...
Not as groundbreaking or clever in design as the first game, nor interconnected and charming as the second game, but I really really enjoyed the new look at Raccoon before its fall, and the very spread out area maps and sense of exploration you get to enjoy while being chased by a freaky mutant. Starsssssss....
The new big bag, Nemesis, is the big talking point of this game. He is definitely terrifying when he shows up and is clearly a response to two big 'weakness' in the first two games - once you clear up an area of enemies, you essentially have free run of the place until a certain small handful of story sections that will repopulate enemies (REmake 1 tried to fix this with Crimson Heads, who will reanimate later on in the game, presumably after you've taken down all the regular zombies) and even then, later in the game you tend to have a good amount of ammo so taking out a few extra enemies is pretty easy. How does Nemesis fix this? By chasing you through zones like a dog and not wanting to go down easy! Like RE2Remake, he goes down with a bunch of hits but not for very long. While Nemesis shows up in the first 30~ minutes and stays until the end of the game, there are plenty of long stretches where he doesn't show up at all for a while that serves fine in terms of breathing room, there's basically no section where the point is to get something complicated done while he is harassing you.
The story isn't bad, Jill has to work with a small mercenary company that may or may not be the bad guys (The Russian guy obviously is, the cute hispanic guy who flirts with Jill obviously isn't) and they have to work their way out of a zombie and puzzle infested city. The usual right? There's a neat twist in that when you get several hours in and it looks like the game might be ending.... BOOM! Nemesis has a rocket launcher and your ticket out of town goes down. What is more unfortunate about the story - the writing and voice acting is garbage. "They won't stop me this is my, last escape.." is a line you'll see a lot - and it was physically painful to read each time. Each document you find is written in Google-Translate level English straight from Japanese, obvious phrases and expressions included. Did they have no editors on this game? At all?! And the voice acting for basically everyone but Jill is horrendous, and even she is not great. Also the ending is a bit meh, we get no real closure on Nemesis, other than we learn he was probably a STARS member. It would've been better as a character we know, like the movies.
I can't believe I said something nice about the movies...
Not as groundbreaking or clever in design as the first game, nor interconnected and charming as the second game, but I really really enjoyed the new look at Raccoon before its fall, and the very spread out area maps and sense of exploration you get to enjoy while being chased by a freaky mutant. Starsssssss....
Can a superb visual style carry a game? Yes, yes it can! Moody and atmospheric, this feels like a game designers graduation project and showing off a keen visual style. It's free also on Steam so actually this may very well be correct haha..
It starts off with an odd narration from the designer (or a character named after them) implying that we are in his thoughts, and at first I was rolling my eyes at a Stanley Parable~esque ripoff but eventually we got to the good stuff. A lot of genuinely creepy imagery ensued as you walk through some environments and try to get to the end. Interesting gameplay? Maybe not but it was quite the haunted house. There's some interesting messaging in the game about finding your own meaning to life and facing fears of rejection buuuuut it was mostly just window-dressing for an excuse to keep going through the scary scenes. A pretty cool experience for what it was.
Final Score: B+
It starts off with an odd narration from the designer (or a character named after them) implying that we are in his thoughts, and at first I was rolling my eyes at a Stanley Parable~esque ripoff but eventually we got to the good stuff. A lot of genuinely creepy imagery ensued as you walk through some environments and try to get to the end. Interesting gameplay? Maybe not but it was quite the haunted house. There's some interesting messaging in the game about finding your own meaning to life and facing fears of rejection buuuuut it was mostly just window-dressing for an excuse to keep going through the scary scenes. A pretty cool experience for what it was.
Final Score: B+
Gears Of War: Ultimate Edition
#2
Beaten January 4th. It was a pleasant experience mostly going back through the first Gears game. I definitely remember now having played at least the first Act or two at some point, but I don't believe I ever finished it. Getting an X1 for Black Friday is feeling more like a good investment. The game shows its age in a lot of ways, a frustrating checkpoint system made me redo several sections hoping that the enemies would be dumb next time so I wouldn't have to do the sequence again. The big boss fights at the end with the Brumak and General took many tries, as did the Fenix manor battle. I wussed out and set the the sequel to casual.
Despite my difficulties though I still quite enjoyed the experience. The Story was well told I tried many new strategies I liked the level layouts they were very well laid out with several routes and opportunities for flanking. The art design was excellent I liked the visual design for the levels and the enemies. I felt the enemies were a little too Bullet spongee which was annoying but they had a certain gravitas to them that I learned to fear and I liked that. The corpser boss fight however was just terrible they really hyped up how scary this creature was going to be and then it just turned into like a little crab that hid in his shell and like trying to poke at you and then wanted to do you to do something stupid to kill it and I was really disappointed by that. All in all a good game that I appreciated the chance to playthrough and I look forward to finishing the trilogy and may be looking forward to the 4th game?
Final Grade: B
#2
Beaten January 4th. It was a pleasant experience mostly going back through the first Gears game. I definitely remember now having played at least the first Act or two at some point, but I don't believe I ever finished it. Getting an X1 for Black Friday is feeling more like a good investment. The game shows its age in a lot of ways, a frustrating checkpoint system made me redo several sections hoping that the enemies would be dumb next time so I wouldn't have to do the sequence again. The big boss fights at the end with the Brumak and General took many tries, as did the Fenix manor battle. I wussed out and set the the sequel to casual.
Despite my difficulties though I still quite enjoyed the experience. The Story was well told I tried many new strategies I liked the level layouts they were very well laid out with several routes and opportunities for flanking. The art design was excellent I liked the visual design for the levels and the enemies. I felt the enemies were a little too Bullet spongee which was annoying but they had a certain gravitas to them that I learned to fear and I liked that. The corpser boss fight however was just terrible they really hyped up how scary this creature was going to be and then it just turned into like a little crab that hid in his shell and like trying to poke at you and then wanted to do you to do something stupid to kill it and I was really disappointed by that. All in all a good game that I appreciated the chance to playthrough and I look forward to finishing the trilogy and may be looking forward to the 4th game?
Final Grade: B
2019
A side-scrolling slasher/puzzle game by the guys who made Hotline Miami. The gameplay itself is good enough I suppose, it has levels broken down into "screens" where you have to work your way through, cutting up bad guys. Like Hotline, you and your enemies are 1HKO's which adds to tension, but with any button press it will "rewind" you back to the beginning to try again. This is cool because it fits thematically with the game (we'll get to that) and lets you jump back in after you fail. It becomes NOT cool when you are trying a level for the 20th time and just have to repeat the same motions again and again trying to get things juuuuuust right. Especially the last couple of levels, this was getting a bit out of control for me. Overall it was enjoyable enough to play, but the real meat is in the story.
The main character is often teased as "a guy in a bathrobe", which is a funny way to describe a samurai in a cyberpunk~esque future, but we get to see him work through some psychological issues that show he was a real (maybe?) soldier in the not-too-distant past. Each level has a section with the main character attend a session with a 'therapist' who gives him a medicine that makes the screen and music go wonky. It quickly becomes clear that this Doctor is manipulating you and may or may not be the primary antagonist? You also form a friendship with an adorable neighbor girl (who may or may not be real?). You regularly meet others who share your abilities which is neat, but ultimately just means you can only kill them when the plot says you can. It sets up a very interesting tale but leaves MANY questions open and I think needs a full sequel or two to finish completely and ultimately is a bit unsatisfactory I think in terms of telling a whole story, this is obviously just a part 1 of X.
The main character is often teased as "a guy in a bathrobe", which is a funny way to describe a samurai in a cyberpunk~esque future, but we get to see him work through some psychological issues that show he was a real (maybe?) soldier in the not-too-distant past. Each level has a section with the main character attend a session with a 'therapist' who gives him a medicine that makes the screen and music go wonky. It quickly becomes clear that this Doctor is manipulating you and may or may not be the primary antagonist? You also form a friendship with an adorable neighbor girl (who may or may not be real?). You regularly meet others who share your abilities which is neat, but ultimately just means you can only kill them when the plot says you can. It sets up a very interesting tale but leaves MANY questions open and I think needs a full sequel or two to finish completely and ultimately is a bit unsatisfactory I think in terms of telling a whole story, this is obviously just a part 1 of X.
Another cute Paramedium game. I actually paid for this one so I'll be honest I expected a bit more meat to it buuuuuuut nah not really? There's a couple extra 'gameplay' segments which are cool but nothing too substantial. I'd liken it to a DnD adventure: show up to find a problem, bit of a twist, action beat or two then resolve it. Honestly might steal this plot for a DnD sidequest now that I think about it...
The art is just great and I like the two main characters. They've got a lot of witty banter between them and chemistry. The "bad guy" and young girl character are spooky & sympathetic simultaneously which is what you really want from ghosts I suppose. The voice acting is decent enough and I'm more tempted now to get their follow up work, Faulty Apprentice. It's also been a hot minute since I played a visual novel for real.
Pretty decent!
Final Grade: B-
The art is just great and I like the two main characters. They've got a lot of witty banter between them and chemistry. The "bad guy" and young girl character are spooky & sympathetic simultaneously which is what you really want from ghosts I suppose. The voice acting is decent enough and I'm more tempted now to get their follow up work, Faulty Apprentice. It's also been a hot minute since I played a visual novel for real.
Pretty decent!
Final Grade: B-
2013
Ninjas fight free! Except all the money I spent on it... You're a robot/mech suit/android/who knows who fights aliens in the Solar system after some unspecified apocalypse. Your enemies might be what is left of humanity.. but I really don't know! The game puts a lot of roadblocks in the way to get you to grind and honestly I spent too much time leveling my weapons and such to get a good distance into the story.
You can customize your 'frame' (your class basically) and weapons, and I had a great time swapping between the characters you play and weapons but I also spent a nice chunk of change on the game because damn the starters are boring... I played this game a decent amount on PC already, but having an on-the-go option seemed like a no-brainer for me. Unfortunately I just sort of lost interest in running the missions over and over again to keep it going towards the end. They're all essentially variations on "Drop into map, kill stuff or go to x spot, then run to exit", and while the gunplay/powers are cool most of the time, they're just not strong enough to keep it feeling good. Destiny this is not. It has an excellent art style and certainly looks distinctive, but outside that and the quite frequent content updates, I'm just not looking for a grinding game like this for now. Maybe I'll come back to it again one day.
Mag/Ember/Nova are my girls <3
Final Grade - B
You can customize your 'frame' (your class basically) and weapons, and I had a great time swapping between the characters you play and weapons but I also spent a nice chunk of change on the game because damn the starters are boring... I played this game a decent amount on PC already, but having an on-the-go option seemed like a no-brainer for me. Unfortunately I just sort of lost interest in running the missions over and over again to keep it going towards the end. They're all essentially variations on "Drop into map, kill stuff or go to x spot, then run to exit", and while the gunplay/powers are cool most of the time, they're just not strong enough to keep it feeling good. Destiny this is not. It has an excellent art style and certainly looks distinctive, but outside that and the quite frequent content updates, I'm just not looking for a grinding game like this for now. Maybe I'll come back to it again one day.
Mag/Ember/Nova are my girls <3
Final Grade - B
Shovel Knight - Spectre of Torment is the first shovel knight dlc I managed to beat despite having bought the damn collection 3 times.. It does the usual "go to various themed levels and beat up awesome bosses to get a damn solid plot" thing to a T. The titular Spectre is a man whose past we see in glimpses (with great images of him brooding off a castle), playable and otherwise. It also sets up the world as we see it in Shovel Knight - how the Order of No Quarter is formed, the enchantress and why Black Knight is how he is, that one weird adventurer kid.. All great stuff.
The gameplay is very good but the magic powers are a bit too lopsided, the healing power is so strong it never felt right to use magic for anything else. Also there's a suit that stops spikes / pits from being OHKO which saved me from going crazy. Spectre himself has a neat "diagonal slash" to all his moves that gives you a cool sense of mobility but ultimately it still feels a bit too clunky like Shovel Knight - its NES roots are just a bit too old for me. Hollow Knight remains on his throne!
Final Grade: B+
The gameplay is very good but the magic powers are a bit too lopsided, the healing power is so strong it never felt right to use magic for anything else. Also there's a suit that stops spikes / pits from being OHKO which saved me from going crazy. Spectre himself has a neat "diagonal slash" to all his moves that gives you a cool sense of mobility but ultimately it still feels a bit too clunky like Shovel Knight - its NES roots are just a bit too old for me. Hollow Knight remains on his throne!
Final Grade: B+
2017
Great! Liked it more than the first.. Which I played a good few hours of on the 3DS. That game was a more straight-forward, proof of concept for this game: How to dig up dirt and the occasional gem in 2D and make it interesting. Where the first game was very simple, this adds a whole layer of "metroidvania" skills and tools to help mix up exploration and gameplay that I quite enjoyed. It is very soothing to just head down into the mines, hack through a bunch of dirt and stone blocks to fill up your pack, sell it for loot, grab an upgrade you want, then head back down for more.
There a few "dungeons" of sorts that also help break this up that are more standard Metroidvania puzzles and exploration. Nothing too exceptional in terms of gameplay but the art direction is crazy good. Where the world initially looks like a desert wasteland, you quickly find old ruins, acid swamps, and technological nightmares not too far down in the deeps...
There's an attempt at a story and characters, and while nothing is grand they are certainly functional. The robot townsfolk are cute with their beeps and boops, there are some surprise human characters later on that hint at a dystopian backstory and Dot's (the MC) search for her uncle (the character from the first game!) is interesting at least. She makes friends with a floating light who likes to be a jackass and blow things up, but he and Dot become friends and that leads to a touching 'end' between the two that sets up a third game.
A giant leap over its predecessor and a simple but fulfilling game loop plus a dash of great art... make this a worthwhile purchase.
Final Grade: A-
There a few "dungeons" of sorts that also help break this up that are more standard Metroidvania puzzles and exploration. Nothing too exceptional in terms of gameplay but the art direction is crazy good. Where the world initially looks like a desert wasteland, you quickly find old ruins, acid swamps, and technological nightmares not too far down in the deeps...
There's an attempt at a story and characters, and while nothing is grand they are certainly functional. The robot townsfolk are cute with their beeps and boops, there are some surprise human characters later on that hint at a dystopian backstory and Dot's (the MC) search for her uncle (the character from the first game!) is interesting at least. She makes friends with a floating light who likes to be a jackass and blow things up, but he and Dot become friends and that leads to a touching 'end' between the two that sets up a third game.
A giant leap over its predecessor and a simple but fulfilling game loop plus a dash of great art... make this a worthwhile purchase.
Final Grade: A-
2019
One of the first mobile games I have put more than a half hour into, AFK arena drew me in with its great art style and promise of progress even when not playing. It lets you build a team that essentially just auto-attack sans a super move, which I suppose is enough for a game that is for general audiences. Wouldn't want to put things like choice or strategy into a game now would we hahaha.. Each level of progress showers you with various coins, xp and gems and for the first several days my progress was steady and interesting. I was getting new characters, unlocking new features, upping my squad... But eventually I realized it was all pretty much the same shit over and over, and realized I didn't even WANT any of the new guys I unlocked.
There are many systems and modes working together to get you to keep playing, and while I did spend 5 bucks I do wish there was an option to just pay 60 and get the whole thing. Obviously mobile games just don't work like that, but I saw no reason to read over or get invested in the story/character parts (and there definitely was some of that and it was interesting what I saw) when I knew I'd have to spend actual months or actual hundreds of dollars to hope to see a conclusion of sorts.
Fun for what it was I suppose? Plus some dope art.
Final Score - C
There are many systems and modes working together to get you to keep playing, and while I did spend 5 bucks I do wish there was an option to just pay 60 and get the whole thing. Obviously mobile games just don't work like that, but I saw no reason to read over or get invested in the story/character parts (and there definitely was some of that and it was interesting what I saw) when I knew I'd have to spend actual months or actual hundreds of dollars to hope to see a conclusion of sorts.
Fun for what it was I suppose? Plus some dope art.
Final Score - C