DourCricket
Scott Pilgrim
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 20th, 2023
Short review which I will edit later, hopefully:
Still a fantastic beat-em-up, this and Castle Crashers back in the day helped me fall in love with the genre. The moment-to-moment mechanics pale in comparison to some of the more modern BMUs but honestly the music, art style, levels and characters more than carry this game to greatness.
I wish the leveling system wasn't opaque (a complaint I share with River City Girls) but as a returning vet it didn't bother me. Also the story should definitely change a BIT more for each character you play as, rather than just the ending slide but... still, running around this world, beating up hipsters and ninjas and extras on a movie set still felt damn good.
Also its like 15 bucks just buy it man
Final Grade: A-
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 20th, 2023
Short review which I will edit later, hopefully:
Still a fantastic beat-em-up, this and Castle Crashers back in the day helped me fall in love with the genre. The moment-to-moment mechanics pale in comparison to some of the more modern BMUs but honestly the music, art style, levels and characters more than carry this game to greatness.
I wish the leveling system wasn't opaque (a complaint I share with River City Girls) but as a returning vet it didn't bother me. Also the story should definitely change a BIT more for each character you play as, rather than just the ending slide but... still, running around this world, beating up hipsters and ninjas and extras on a movie set still felt damn good.
Also its like 15 bucks just buy it man
Final Grade: A-
2019
This review is coming WAY too late, but I figured it belongs here after Sekiro and Mario Odyssey changed my mind about needing to finish games if I just am really disliking them. However unlike those two games, there were plenty of things about Anthem that I liked, but oh boy is it a far more poorly made game than those two were.
Anthem is one of the bigger disappointment's I have felt in quite a long time, and that is due to the fact that this is BIOWARE. I have purchased every Bioware game more or less day 1 since Baldur's Gate 2, and I have NEVER felt disappointed or genuinely upset at any of them. Sure there's been big ups and downs, but I always recognized a consistent quality. Anthem has broken that chain. The story is VERY meh, there is basically one companion who is SUPER MEH, there is no roleplaying at all with your character, the missions are very boring, the enemies are boring... but the gameplay is good and so is the flying. So it has that at least! Seriously the mech suits look and play awesome, there is a good game here. I didn't do much multiplayer but had some fun when I did a few missions at least. Being a spritely Interceptor or a Storm wizard and floating over the battlefield chucking spells felt great. I just wish I cared to go back and finish it?
But, I really don't. Ouch
Anthem is one of the bigger disappointment's I have felt in quite a long time, and that is due to the fact that this is BIOWARE. I have purchased every Bioware game more or less day 1 since Baldur's Gate 2, and I have NEVER felt disappointed or genuinely upset at any of them. Sure there's been big ups and downs, but I always recognized a consistent quality. Anthem has broken that chain. The story is VERY meh, there is basically one companion who is SUPER MEH, there is no roleplaying at all with your character, the missions are very boring, the enemies are boring... but the gameplay is good and so is the flying. So it has that at least! Seriously the mech suits look and play awesome, there is a good game here. I didn't do much multiplayer but had some fun when I did a few missions at least. Being a spritely Interceptor or a Storm wizard and floating over the battlefield chucking spells felt great. I just wish I cared to go back and finish it?
But, I really don't. Ouch
This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy 7 is undoubtedly one of the most important experiences in my gaming history. My father bought it for me at a Best Buy when I was like 11 or 12, very very close to when I first played Baldur's Gate (as I mentioned in that review, these two were the one-two punch of turning me into a 100% full fledged gamer). I got the PC version and that caused me no end at all of annoyances in terms of crashes and glitches but eventually I was able to beat it on my own, one of the first games I can clearly remember finishing. To this day I still recall the collapse of Sector 7 and my legit tears I cried at the death of Jessie and Co.
So basically, this game is a big fuckin' deal for me okay?
Final Fantasy 7 (from here-on: FF7) tells a very gripping tale that feels more and more relevant today than even the time when it was written - a greedy company is set on drawing out the planets lifeblood in order to increase their wealth and power, and a scrappy group of do-gooders/terrorists are out to stop them: Avalanche. This is where we enter the story - the mercenary Soldier Cloud has left this evil company's employ and is now helping out his old childhood friend Tifa, now a member of Avalanche. And if I may start with the positives- this game fucking NAILED the characters in this game. Cloud is even more of an aloof douche who slowly warms up to others, Barret is a hothead who sees only in black and white, Tifa is a caring person deeply scarred by loss but happy to see Cloud again.... So you might see the resemblence to the real world at this point right? Climate change is becoming a more existential threat day by day and very few choose to take it seriously..
Writing this review I think should focus on the changes, both good and bad, and then my overall feelings on the game as a whole. Starting with the positives, I will reiterate again that they fucking nailed the characters. I mean absolutely nailed them. Everyone was a delight, from the companion characters, Avalanche guys, Don Corneo (I know how to say his name right! After all this time!) even the added characters are mostly pretty good. Corneo's lieutenants are solid, we get enough backstory and a bit of rivalry between them that they're fleshed out. The music is just god damn exceptional but I mean obviously it is, right? The combat is much more action focused, but still ATB in its own way. You can now control each character manually and the 4 main guys from the group all play quite differently - Cloud is a powerhouse, Tifa is a speedster who can lock down enemies, Barret blows shit up from afar, Aerith is a striaght up sorcerer now... I wouldn't say the combat is EXCELLENT or anyhting, but pretty good right?
To move to a more mixed bag - the added scenes. The original Midgar portion is only 10~ hours or so in the original, but more than 25 in the remake and that is on the easy mode! So what all did they add? Some of it is damn good - we get WAY more of Avalanche, not just Jessie & co. (who is cute as a fucking button + thirsty af for Cloud) but we also see Avalanche the GROUP - not just a group of 3 people + Tifa hahaha which is neat! It also gives WAY more context to what Avalanche v. Shinra are up to - Shinra is letting them get away with shit so they can excuse their extreme crackdowns plus restart the war with Wutai - who actually get a significant amount of foreshadowing in this! The expanded Wall Market is quite good as well, there's a neat battle arena + Aerith and Cloud get even more bonding time together. The missed double High Five with her and Cloud was precious and hurt my hearrrt.. Also there's a decent amount of unlockable scenes in this - there's 3 different dresses for you/Tifa/Aerith to see as well as extra scenes on who you will speak to in a nighttime scene - I got Tifa but I watched the Aerith one online and DAMN! So good... "You can't fall in love with me no matter what, okay?" "Don't I get a say in this?!"
Which leads us too the bad... A lot of the added scenes are just damn busywork. The sewer section pt. 2 where you have to chase Corneo's pig thing..? Boring. Mako Reactor 5 adding 6 levels of the exact same fight over and over just to change the boss that's coming up? Neat idea, still boring. The added side quest hubs? I barely did any of them but honestly they sucked from what I did see so fuck it. Gameplay wise the changes are overall good but ... there's not a lot to it, honestly? The materia system seems a lot simpler and the gameplay for each character is REAL same-y. It's nice to have other characters to swap to when you get bored, but you always have to swap out from Cloud anyway to make it happen. And then there's the ending to this story...
So the big thing about this remake - it isn't really 100% a remake? The final boss is essentially the force of Destiny? Capital D destiny, to quote a dumb line from Tifa. Throughout the story there are these weird ghost things preventing our characters from doing shit at various points - we have almost no idea if other people can even see them, and when they do, they spend almost no time at all wondering what the fuck these things are about or trying to figure that out. Like, this seems pretty fucking important guys, they seem to be blocking your way pretty frequently? We learn much later on that these are the forces of fate - preventing our heroes, and occasionally villains, from changing the way things will turn out. We see Barret stabbed by Sephiroth... but he survives, because he's not meant to die! But wait, why the hell are Wedge and Biggs still alive then?? We learn that we are essentially trying to fight fate... a stupid Japanese trope, but we never learn WHY? The characters see that there is a future - even a distant one. They win! Why the hell are they trying to change things???
So ultimately what they're trying to say - the future episodes of Final Fantasy 7 remake will not 100% play by the rules of what the original game has to say. This raises the HUGE question - is Aerith going to survive?!?!?!? I would be pretty shocked if no one ends up dying buuuuut... still, interesting. And its not so much that I think this is bad - I now get to replay FF7 again but this time not actually know what will happen! Kinda awesome right? At the same time I sorta hate how it was done.. There's a crap load of gibberish being tossed around by every character and no one has a straight damn answer about what is happening here - even at the very end. We see Zak and Aerith from two different times recognize each other but.. what does that even mean??? Is Zak still alive now? Does Aerith already know what will happen? Are her and Sephiroth in NG+ mode and not telling anyone???
Find out next time, on Dragonball Z!
No wait a minute...
So basically, this game is a big fuckin' deal for me okay?
Final Fantasy 7 (from here-on: FF7) tells a very gripping tale that feels more and more relevant today than even the time when it was written - a greedy company is set on drawing out the planets lifeblood in order to increase their wealth and power, and a scrappy group of do-gooders/terrorists are out to stop them: Avalanche. This is where we enter the story - the mercenary Soldier Cloud has left this evil company's employ and is now helping out his old childhood friend Tifa, now a member of Avalanche. And if I may start with the positives- this game fucking NAILED the characters in this game. Cloud is even more of an aloof douche who slowly warms up to others, Barret is a hothead who sees only in black and white, Tifa is a caring person deeply scarred by loss but happy to see Cloud again.... So you might see the resemblence to the real world at this point right? Climate change is becoming a more existential threat day by day and very few choose to take it seriously..
Writing this review I think should focus on the changes, both good and bad, and then my overall feelings on the game as a whole. Starting with the positives, I will reiterate again that they fucking nailed the characters. I mean absolutely nailed them. Everyone was a delight, from the companion characters, Avalanche guys, Don Corneo (I know how to say his name right! After all this time!) even the added characters are mostly pretty good. Corneo's lieutenants are solid, we get enough backstory and a bit of rivalry between them that they're fleshed out. The music is just god damn exceptional but I mean obviously it is, right? The combat is much more action focused, but still ATB in its own way. You can now control each character manually and the 4 main guys from the group all play quite differently - Cloud is a powerhouse, Tifa is a speedster who can lock down enemies, Barret blows shit up from afar, Aerith is a striaght up sorcerer now... I wouldn't say the combat is EXCELLENT or anyhting, but pretty good right?
To move to a more mixed bag - the added scenes. The original Midgar portion is only 10~ hours or so in the original, but more than 25 in the remake and that is on the easy mode! So what all did they add? Some of it is damn good - we get WAY more of Avalanche, not just Jessie & co. (who is cute as a fucking button + thirsty af for Cloud) but we also see Avalanche the GROUP - not just a group of 3 people + Tifa hahaha which is neat! It also gives WAY more context to what Avalanche v. Shinra are up to - Shinra is letting them get away with shit so they can excuse their extreme crackdowns plus restart the war with Wutai - who actually get a significant amount of foreshadowing in this! The expanded Wall Market is quite good as well, there's a neat battle arena + Aerith and Cloud get even more bonding time together. The missed double High Five with her and Cloud was precious and hurt my hearrrt.. Also there's a decent amount of unlockable scenes in this - there's 3 different dresses for you/Tifa/Aerith to see as well as extra scenes on who you will speak to in a nighttime scene - I got Tifa but I watched the Aerith one online and DAMN! So good... "You can't fall in love with me no matter what, okay?" "Don't I get a say in this?!"
Which leads us too the bad... A lot of the added scenes are just damn busywork. The sewer section pt. 2 where you have to chase Corneo's pig thing..? Boring. Mako Reactor 5 adding 6 levels of the exact same fight over and over just to change the boss that's coming up? Neat idea, still boring. The added side quest hubs? I barely did any of them but honestly they sucked from what I did see so fuck it. Gameplay wise the changes are overall good but ... there's not a lot to it, honestly? The materia system seems a lot simpler and the gameplay for each character is REAL same-y. It's nice to have other characters to swap to when you get bored, but you always have to swap out from Cloud anyway to make it happen. And then there's the ending to this story...
So the big thing about this remake - it isn't really 100% a remake? The final boss is essentially the force of Destiny? Capital D destiny, to quote a dumb line from Tifa. Throughout the story there are these weird ghost things preventing our characters from doing shit at various points - we have almost no idea if other people can even see them, and when they do, they spend almost no time at all wondering what the fuck these things are about or trying to figure that out. Like, this seems pretty fucking important guys, they seem to be blocking your way pretty frequently? We learn much later on that these are the forces of fate - preventing our heroes, and occasionally villains, from changing the way things will turn out. We see Barret stabbed by Sephiroth... but he survives, because he's not meant to die! But wait, why the hell are Wedge and Biggs still alive then?? We learn that we are essentially trying to fight fate... a stupid Japanese trope, but we never learn WHY? The characters see that there is a future - even a distant one. They win! Why the hell are they trying to change things???
So ultimately what they're trying to say - the future episodes of Final Fantasy 7 remake will not 100% play by the rules of what the original game has to say. This raises the HUGE question - is Aerith going to survive?!?!?!? I would be pretty shocked if no one ends up dying buuuuut... still, interesting. And its not so much that I think this is bad - I now get to replay FF7 again but this time not actually know what will happen! Kinda awesome right? At the same time I sorta hate how it was done.. There's a crap load of gibberish being tossed around by every character and no one has a straight damn answer about what is happening here - even at the very end. We see Zak and Aerith from two different times recognize each other but.. what does that even mean??? Is Zak still alive now? Does Aerith already know what will happen? Are her and Sephiroth in NG+ mode and not telling anyone???
Find out next time, on Dragonball Z!
No wait a minute...
The New Animal Crossing is finally here!! And Brynne plays it WAY more than I do!! Haha yeah didn't quite expect that... AC New Horizons for the switch has been out a couple weeks now and I've finally 'finished' it as of yesterday morning, but honestly, we aint done here for QUITE a while! While the credits may have rolled for me, Animal Crossing is not really a game made to be finished in such a convenient or easy manner..
So the formula of previous Animal Crossing's is still very much here - you've got your home 'town' and you kinda just live there! There are lots of villagers to talk to and play with, bugs to catch, fossils to dig up, bugs to catch, fruit to grow, capitalist power structures to overthrow.. Tom Nook is back baby! The major difference with this game however is the beginning week or so - instead of moving to a full town and getting into the full swing of things, you start on a 'deserted' island with a couple of folks and slowly build up to the full 'Animal Crossing' experience as you progress along. Tom Nook essentially gives you 'quests' to complete each day - finding a few fish to get Blathers interested in moving, asking for building materials for his nephews' shop to expand, inviting new people to live there, etc. It all culminates in asking KK Slider to start a concert on your island, and when he does so the credits roll! That's more or less where I'm at, and then the game just kinda lets you do your thing. In a way I do appreciate the more 'structured' beginning as it teaches newcomers more of the game to get started with, and makes your beginning more directed so you don't feel so overwhelmed with what all is going on in the game. Though at the same time I do worry once it is all finished up - are you going to miss that directed gameplay? We'll see how people feel in a month!
I personally spent most of the time building my orchards, as I believe I always do in these games haha. My trees are so dense in some areas I can barely see anything! That's part of the fun for me, it gives me a 'check list' to accomplish each day along with finding fossils for my museum to expand it. I've been falling off the bug catching and fishing though as I've been trying to play other games as well. I do enjoy the 'collection' elements a lot, and that museum is STELLAR in this game, its like the fanciest damn museum I've ever seen! Blathers also now has a fear of all bugs (despite being an owl that.. eats bugs) that is hilarious every time you turn one into him. There's a very chill atmosphere of how much time you're given to do things, and I think that fits very well with the real time nature of it. The game doesn't really WANT you to pour your entire day into it (though Brynne certainly seems to enjoy that), it just wants you to visit from time to time!
There's a lot going on in the world right now with the Coronavirus and being everyone being shut in that gives this game a very special feeling - like everything out there is nuts but here? Everything is pretty chill and happy. The social features are kinda crap but you still can hang out with your friends here if you want - and show off all the cool decorating you've done! Animal Crossing didn't intend to be a balm in deeply troubled times, but somehow it seemed to fit right in help calm our troubled times, at least for a little while...
So the formula of previous Animal Crossing's is still very much here - you've got your home 'town' and you kinda just live there! There are lots of villagers to talk to and play with, bugs to catch, fossils to dig up, bugs to catch, fruit to grow, capitalist power structures to overthrow.. Tom Nook is back baby! The major difference with this game however is the beginning week or so - instead of moving to a full town and getting into the full swing of things, you start on a 'deserted' island with a couple of folks and slowly build up to the full 'Animal Crossing' experience as you progress along. Tom Nook essentially gives you 'quests' to complete each day - finding a few fish to get Blathers interested in moving, asking for building materials for his nephews' shop to expand, inviting new people to live there, etc. It all culminates in asking KK Slider to start a concert on your island, and when he does so the credits roll! That's more or less where I'm at, and then the game just kinda lets you do your thing. In a way I do appreciate the more 'structured' beginning as it teaches newcomers more of the game to get started with, and makes your beginning more directed so you don't feel so overwhelmed with what all is going on in the game. Though at the same time I do worry once it is all finished up - are you going to miss that directed gameplay? We'll see how people feel in a month!
I personally spent most of the time building my orchards, as I believe I always do in these games haha. My trees are so dense in some areas I can barely see anything! That's part of the fun for me, it gives me a 'check list' to accomplish each day along with finding fossils for my museum to expand it. I've been falling off the bug catching and fishing though as I've been trying to play other games as well. I do enjoy the 'collection' elements a lot, and that museum is STELLAR in this game, its like the fanciest damn museum I've ever seen! Blathers also now has a fear of all bugs (despite being an owl that.. eats bugs) that is hilarious every time you turn one into him. There's a very chill atmosphere of how much time you're given to do things, and I think that fits very well with the real time nature of it. The game doesn't really WANT you to pour your entire day into it (though Brynne certainly seems to enjoy that), it just wants you to visit from time to time!
There's a lot going on in the world right now with the Coronavirus and being everyone being shut in that gives this game a very special feeling - like everything out there is nuts but here? Everything is pretty chill and happy. The social features are kinda crap but you still can hang out with your friends here if you want - and show off all the cool decorating you've done! Animal Crossing didn't intend to be a balm in deeply troubled times, but somehow it seemed to fit right in help calm our troubled times, at least for a little while...
2020
Half Life Alyx is the latest game from Valve! A game! from VALVE!! Man when was the last time that happened? Last I recall is Portal 2, which was like 2012? And of course the last Half Life Game was a bit before that right?? So my history with the Half Life series is not a super one - I played the original in middle school for a while but have no particular memory of it? The opening scene is fuckin' ace though, riding through the train in Black Mesa, awesome! We might actually see the remake Black Mesa on this review list soon enough actually... I managed to force myself through the Half Life 2 series (didn't get through episode 2) because I kinda hated it? Hahaha..
Anyway, so Alyx is a shooter/puzzler like the Half Life games before it - you move through very well curated environments and occasionally get into some gun fights. Alyx adds a very strong survival horror vibe that I am ALL about though. There's loads of places full of darkness and shadow and creepies crawling through the vents or along the rooftops you need to be aware of - pretty damn scary in some places actually. Those fuckin headcrabs flying at you out of the darkness is always terrifying... And I think this leads into the games focus - VR. This game uses virtual reality so god damn well. I felt MANY times that I was IN this place, and would often forget my own surroundings. At least twice I knelt on the ground to look about for resources and I would lift my hand to brace myself on a nearby table to stand up - only to remember just before my hand phased through that the table was not real!! Or the amount of times a headcrap snuck up on me successfully and I just EMPTIED a clip into them to put it down because I was so damn scared... it takes like 2 or 3 bullets to put one down, btw. Just saying fuck those things.
So the atmosphere is off the damn charts, the graphics are great, the sound design is solid, the gunplay is pretty good... okay, the negatives I guess? The story is a bit one note? We are chasing down our dad (formerly played by the superb 'Isaac Jaffe') who has been captured by the Combine - they we find him, talk to him for LITERALLY 30 seconds, then he talks to us a bit over the radio and we get to the twist ending: we're liberating Gordon Freeman! Bit rote, honestly? I do REALLY like the ending, and I like that we pick up essentially where we are leaving off with the Half Life story previously. Also it is always awesome to see the G-man... a bit sad we'll be playing as Gordon next time though??
All in all - holy hell VR is the real fuckin' deal. Gun fights may not be superb, but the world-building and sense PRESENCE to this game, drawing you in and immersing you, is like none other. I can't wait to dive in for more.
Anyway, so Alyx is a shooter/puzzler like the Half Life games before it - you move through very well curated environments and occasionally get into some gun fights. Alyx adds a very strong survival horror vibe that I am ALL about though. There's loads of places full of darkness and shadow and creepies crawling through the vents or along the rooftops you need to be aware of - pretty damn scary in some places actually. Those fuckin headcrabs flying at you out of the darkness is always terrifying... And I think this leads into the games focus - VR. This game uses virtual reality so god damn well. I felt MANY times that I was IN this place, and would often forget my own surroundings. At least twice I knelt on the ground to look about for resources and I would lift my hand to brace myself on a nearby table to stand up - only to remember just before my hand phased through that the table was not real!! Or the amount of times a headcrap snuck up on me successfully and I just EMPTIED a clip into them to put it down because I was so damn scared... it takes like 2 or 3 bullets to put one down, btw. Just saying fuck those things.
So the atmosphere is off the damn charts, the graphics are great, the sound design is solid, the gunplay is pretty good... okay, the negatives I guess? The story is a bit one note? We are chasing down our dad (formerly played by the superb 'Isaac Jaffe') who has been captured by the Combine - they we find him, talk to him for LITERALLY 30 seconds, then he talks to us a bit over the radio and we get to the twist ending: we're liberating Gordon Freeman! Bit rote, honestly? I do REALLY like the ending, and I like that we pick up essentially where we are leaving off with the Half Life story previously. Also it is always awesome to see the G-man... a bit sad we'll be playing as Gordon next time though??
All in all - holy hell VR is the real fuckin' deal. Gun fights may not be superb, but the world-building and sense PRESENCE to this game, drawing you in and immersing you, is like none other. I can't wait to dive in for more.
2020
The newest entry to our Resi Series playthrough - RE3 Remake! I was pretty fond of the original RE3 but definitely did not love it as much as the previous couple games and that sorta unfortunately remains true??? After the system shock to me last year that was Resi 2 REmake, I was definitely psyched to be getting another main RE game so quickly to sink my teeth into. Jill is one of my favorite RE protagonists after REmake 1 + 3, and she got done real dirty in 5 - so I was happy to get this chance to play as her again and boy is she SASSY in this one. Though in fairness she was pretty sassy in RE3 original as well so it tracks "You want STARS? I'll give you STARS!" which hardly even makes sense... but it was replaced by the 11/10 line about Nemesis after he plunges into a river
"Bitch can't even swim"
which honest to god might increase the game a whole letter grade..
So RE3 is very much in the vein of RE2 Remake - over the shoulder camera, zombies and other enemies are tough as nails while the atmosphere is off the damn charts. It feels like there's fewer puzzles in this one and the areas are certainly less densely designed as RE2. 2 often feels like half of the challenge is "I have this piece that needs to go over there - what's my best route and what am I going to face on the way?" which is not really a thing in RE3. It's mostly just going from place to place and getting what you need and moving on - the pace is MUCH faster all around, as evident by the fact it only took me part of a day to beat this, unlike the couple weeks it took for RE2 lololol. Also I'm just not fucking terrified of everything like I was playing RE2 lololol. There's a great sense of progression with weaponry as well, most REs do this at least, but 3 feels like quite a jump in terms of how I felt at the end of the game with fully loaded grenade launchers, 40 shotgun shells and 400 assault rifle bullets! I was nigh unstoppable at the end there.. The end with Nemesis was pretty great, though I do miss VARIETY in my boss battles, seeing Nemesis just keep coming was amusing and vexing!
Nemesis though - I feel like he was done a LOT better in RE3 vanilla, not gonna lie. There's much less backtracking in this game, and Nemesis chasing you feels almost entirely scripted in a way that is disaapointing - Mr. X felt a lot cooler in terms of an unflappable enemy, though Nemesis is far more deadly than him, rather than a regular obstacle. I'm just not a huge fan of scripted sequences honestly so a decent amount of his stuff fell a bit flat. Still liked him as a "Oh he can do what now?" at the start of each beat, but it felt odd almost never actually worrying about him while playing the game regularly when he's such a part of the original. Though in fairness while he may show up more in the original - he was much easier to get away from since all you had to do was change screens, albeit sometimes frequently, and there were pretty large sections of the game where he basically never showed up also. So while in a way it's a tad disappointing, it is also expected a bit - and a bit more appreciated? Not sure I'd like being stalked the entire time lolol
Story wise we're talking a MAJOR upgrade because obviously? There is no more ridiculous translation bullshit and just terrible editing everywhere "This is my, last escape", everything is competently written now! Nicholai is a damn fine villain for this, acted very well and I think pretty obviously working for Wesker right..? They should've hinted at that more! Carlos is even more likeable than last time, and he and Jill have a great relationship and banter. The Carlos sections are super good as well, though it feels like this could've easily been another A-B scenario business especially at the end - Carlos disappears from the story after saving Jill and then just pops up with like no explanation... where were you buddy?! Glad he made it though, I thought for sure he died! No Barry at the end though in the helicopter stings a bit but eh, didn't make a lot of sense the first time around haha..Oh one more thing!! Carlos's partner Tyrell who I'm 90% sure is new for this version - fuckin' loved that dude. I spent the whole game being like "Oh yeah this dude is totally gonna stab us in the back.. I like him though!" but he didn't! He was just a damn bro and Nemesis killed him :'( RIP in peace Tyrell
So Resident Evil 3 Remake is a damn fine game on the whole. The things that are missing are unfortunate (STILL no giant spiders!?) but the additions and how well the things that are there ARE done is so great I can mind all that much. A competent story with genuinely likeable characters keeps the plot moving, two great antagonists one human and one very not. The gameplay of manuevering around infested areas and carefully taking your shots is nerve wracking and the off the fuckin' charts atmosphere and sound effects make this a damn fine horror game. It is unfortunately short and lacks some of the extras that RE2 has which is unfortunate in terms of how much value I will get out of it, and ultimately the lack of tight design and maps of RE2 make this a bit of a step down overall. That said, I still loved my time with it and am eager to return some day in the near future..
"Bitch can't even swim"
which honest to god might increase the game a whole letter grade..
So RE3 is very much in the vein of RE2 Remake - over the shoulder camera, zombies and other enemies are tough as nails while the atmosphere is off the damn charts. It feels like there's fewer puzzles in this one and the areas are certainly less densely designed as RE2. 2 often feels like half of the challenge is "I have this piece that needs to go over there - what's my best route and what am I going to face on the way?" which is not really a thing in RE3. It's mostly just going from place to place and getting what you need and moving on - the pace is MUCH faster all around, as evident by the fact it only took me part of a day to beat this, unlike the couple weeks it took for RE2 lololol. Also I'm just not fucking terrified of everything like I was playing RE2 lololol. There's a great sense of progression with weaponry as well, most REs do this at least, but 3 feels like quite a jump in terms of how I felt at the end of the game with fully loaded grenade launchers, 40 shotgun shells and 400 assault rifle bullets! I was nigh unstoppable at the end there.. The end with Nemesis was pretty great, though I do miss VARIETY in my boss battles, seeing Nemesis just keep coming was amusing and vexing!
Nemesis though - I feel like he was done a LOT better in RE3 vanilla, not gonna lie. There's much less backtracking in this game, and Nemesis chasing you feels almost entirely scripted in a way that is disaapointing - Mr. X felt a lot cooler in terms of an unflappable enemy, though Nemesis is far more deadly than him, rather than a regular obstacle. I'm just not a huge fan of scripted sequences honestly so a decent amount of his stuff fell a bit flat. Still liked him as a "Oh he can do what now?" at the start of each beat, but it felt odd almost never actually worrying about him while playing the game regularly when he's such a part of the original. Though in fairness while he may show up more in the original - he was much easier to get away from since all you had to do was change screens, albeit sometimes frequently, and there were pretty large sections of the game where he basically never showed up also. So while in a way it's a tad disappointing, it is also expected a bit - and a bit more appreciated? Not sure I'd like being stalked the entire time lolol
Story wise we're talking a MAJOR upgrade because obviously? There is no more ridiculous translation bullshit and just terrible editing everywhere "This is my, last escape", everything is competently written now! Nicholai is a damn fine villain for this, acted very well and I think pretty obviously working for Wesker right..? They should've hinted at that more! Carlos is even more likeable than last time, and he and Jill have a great relationship and banter. The Carlos sections are super good as well, though it feels like this could've easily been another A-B scenario business especially at the end - Carlos disappears from the story after saving Jill and then just pops up with like no explanation... where were you buddy?! Glad he made it though, I thought for sure he died! No Barry at the end though in the helicopter stings a bit but eh, didn't make a lot of sense the first time around haha..Oh one more thing!! Carlos's partner Tyrell who I'm 90% sure is new for this version - fuckin' loved that dude. I spent the whole game being like "Oh yeah this dude is totally gonna stab us in the back.. I like him though!" but he didn't! He was just a damn bro and Nemesis killed him :'( RIP in peace Tyrell
So Resident Evil 3 Remake is a damn fine game on the whole. The things that are missing are unfortunate (STILL no giant spiders!?) but the additions and how well the things that are there ARE done is so great I can mind all that much. A competent story with genuinely likeable characters keeps the plot moving, two great antagonists one human and one very not. The gameplay of manuevering around infested areas and carefully taking your shots is nerve wracking and the off the fuckin' charts atmosphere and sound effects make this a damn fine horror game. It is unfortunately short and lacks some of the extras that RE2 has which is unfortunate in terms of how much value I will get out of it, and ultimately the lack of tight design and maps of RE2 make this a bit of a step down overall. That said, I still loved my time with it and am eager to return some day in the near future..
Separate Ways is a side-story DLC for Resident Evil 4 which is included in the base PC version available on steam. It is canon (which is why I played it!)and stars Ada Wong - Leon's Catwoman to his Batman from Resi 2. I quite liked this pair in the 2nd game (the remake, the original was awful haha) so I was curious to see more of them and see things from Ada's perspective, when we pretty much only get Leon's normally.
Gameplay wise, this is basically just Resi 4 repurposed (there's a couple new areas I think, but its at least 70%+ recycled) and with 1 new gun. The main draw here is the story bits I think, and it's a more condensed R4 experience if that's what you're interested in. It was fun to get a bit more time in this world and it made me more excited to play through the main game again at least. The shooting still feels good, and contrasted with 5 I do think I prefer 4? It's definitely rougher around the edges but it just feels more in depth. I'll admit I did just start sprinting through bad guys rather than fighting them near the end because I kind of just wanted to finish? I'm rushing a bit too much in this 52 game challenge!
I appreciated the extra bits to Ada's character and the confirmation that Wesker is the Big Bad of the setting, which 5 payed off on just a short time ago for me. We get to see that she really does very clearly care about Leon and sorta doing the right thing, barring whatever deal she has with Wesker (that will get cleared up in 6 right?!?!)
Unfortunately there's just not a whole lot to say about this, the gameplay is good but exactly like Resident Evil 4 the main game, story is solid but there's not a whole lot of it. Overall not a bad use of time I'd say!
Gameplay wise, this is basically just Resi 4 repurposed (there's a couple new areas I think, but its at least 70%+ recycled) and with 1 new gun. The main draw here is the story bits I think, and it's a more condensed R4 experience if that's what you're interested in. It was fun to get a bit more time in this world and it made me more excited to play through the main game again at least. The shooting still feels good, and contrasted with 5 I do think I prefer 4? It's definitely rougher around the edges but it just feels more in depth. I'll admit I did just start sprinting through bad guys rather than fighting them near the end because I kind of just wanted to finish? I'm rushing a bit too much in this 52 game challenge!
I appreciated the extra bits to Ada's character and the confirmation that Wesker is the Big Bad of the setting, which 5 payed off on just a short time ago for me. We get to see that she really does very clearly care about Leon and sorta doing the right thing, barring whatever deal she has with Wesker (that will get cleared up in 6 right?!?!)
Unfortunately there's just not a whole lot to say about this, the gameplay is good but exactly like Resident Evil 4 the main game, story is solid but there's not a whole lot of it. Overall not a bad use of time I'd say!
2010
Alan Wake is the game that precedes Control by nearly ten years, but to me is the follow up to that much loved game (literally, the #30 on this list is Control!). This seems to be now setting a pattern with Resident Evil 2 - some games are just so good you feel a need to play everything else like it just to keep it going! I'm not sure if Alan Wake is QUITE as good as the Resi games I've gone through so far, but I did genuinely quite like it.
I have actually played the game previously, I believe I rented it many years ago for the 360, I distinctly recall the beginning hour or so where I stopped, I was just a bit too much of a scaredy cat I believe at the time so I stopped. I finished it this time, mainly on my new laptop and despite its age, it looked quite good. A lot of the game however is very "PS360", the colors tend to be fairly muted, gameplay areas try to LOOK expansive but are actually pretty linear, animations are present and improved but nowhere near where we're at now.. that generation (as I suppose all of them do) has a very distinct feel.
To the story, which is the meat of the experience, you are Alan Wake, a writer heading to a small New England town with his wife for a much needed vacation. You've had intense writers block for two years now, and are trying to reset your batteries so to speak. Soon however things turn to the supernatural and to horror as your wife is seemingly kidnapped by a lake, and you wake up having lost a whole week of your memory in a car crash... You later pick up notes throughout each level of Alan's "manuscript", detailing what happened in your missing week, and what events will shortly transpire. The supernatural event seems to be a clash between Alan and a "dark presence", who resides in the area and is able to overwhelm and possess townsfolk into attacking you. Alan's writings seem to come true, and the game is essentially his writing out the events of the game and you going through them. This is a pretty interesting justifcation for the "game-i-ness" and plot contrivances, for instance there are flash grenades in several areas that Alan will specifically say "There's no reason for these to be here, they were just written into the story and now they're here..." which works in both a creepy 'What's going on here??' sort of way, and as a function of being a game. The game's standout character however is Barry Allen, your book agent/friend who comes to the town to rescue you when you go missing for the week. He's a bit of a slimeball goof, but he's got heart and he's very funny. There are some other side characters as well who range from creepy to likeable, but there is one major problem: Alan's wife.
I don't actually recall the name of Alan's wife, and I will pointedly not look it up because of how badly this game handled Alan's motivation. The brass tacks of the plot is"Your wife is kidnapped, get her back", however they do a very poor job of getting you to care about her, or to show her and Alan's relationship. The beginning portion of the game is just the two of them, but her voice acting is Blah at best, and they have basically no chemistry or real "scenes" together at first to show their current relationship, other than Alan being mad at her for wanting him to write on the trip. Then she gets kidnapped and you're off to the races. Now to the games credit, there are a handful of "dream" scenes where he will remember something about her and their life together, which are IN THEORY a great way for us to get to know her and care about her, BUT they are not particularly good and again, there are like 2 or 3 of them. This is pretty much the only major failing, story wise.
Gameplay-wise, the game is solid but not great. Your main weapon is the standard array of guns, pistol/shotgun/rifle, blah. However, the interesting bit is that enemies are shrouded in darkness that prevents damage, so you have to literally 'light them up' first before you can riddle them with bullets. You have a main flashlight for this, but also get flares, flashbangs and flareguns later on to help with this, and those are fun to use. However a big negative comes in terms of enemy variety. Essentially, there are just 4 enemies in the game-
1. Regular shadowy dudes
2. Big Boy shadowy dudes
3. Crows, shadowy
4. Various floaty objects, shadowy
Adding to that, a good 75+% of the game is "You're now in a spooky forest, make your way through the obvious path to get to the well-lit place far away P.S. all your guns are gone", now is that BAD? No, it's just tiresome. There are some notable and wonderful exceptions (heading through the town at night with the sheriff, the mental 'institution', the concert...), but a bit too much of it is just like all the rest of it to be wholly positive.
While there are many issues to list with this game, it is ultimately more than held up by good characters, interesting theme and storytelling, solid gameplay, and a creepy yet mysterious atmosphere. When the Control DLC was announced a few days ago confirming Alan Wake would be a part of it, I squawked with joy. I'm delighted to go back and get more of this story. Also, it has one of the best ending lines I have ever seen!
I have actually played the game previously, I believe I rented it many years ago for the 360, I distinctly recall the beginning hour or so where I stopped, I was just a bit too much of a scaredy cat I believe at the time so I stopped. I finished it this time, mainly on my new laptop and despite its age, it looked quite good. A lot of the game however is very "PS360", the colors tend to be fairly muted, gameplay areas try to LOOK expansive but are actually pretty linear, animations are present and improved but nowhere near where we're at now.. that generation (as I suppose all of them do) has a very distinct feel.
To the story, which is the meat of the experience, you are Alan Wake, a writer heading to a small New England town with his wife for a much needed vacation. You've had intense writers block for two years now, and are trying to reset your batteries so to speak. Soon however things turn to the supernatural and to horror as your wife is seemingly kidnapped by a lake, and you wake up having lost a whole week of your memory in a car crash... You later pick up notes throughout each level of Alan's "manuscript", detailing what happened in your missing week, and what events will shortly transpire. The supernatural event seems to be a clash between Alan and a "dark presence", who resides in the area and is able to overwhelm and possess townsfolk into attacking you. Alan's writings seem to come true, and the game is essentially his writing out the events of the game and you going through them. This is a pretty interesting justifcation for the "game-i-ness" and plot contrivances, for instance there are flash grenades in several areas that Alan will specifically say "There's no reason for these to be here, they were just written into the story and now they're here..." which works in both a creepy 'What's going on here??' sort of way, and as a function of being a game. The game's standout character however is Barry Allen, your book agent/friend who comes to the town to rescue you when you go missing for the week. He's a bit of a slimeball goof, but he's got heart and he's very funny. There are some other side characters as well who range from creepy to likeable, but there is one major problem: Alan's wife.
I don't actually recall the name of Alan's wife, and I will pointedly not look it up because of how badly this game handled Alan's motivation. The brass tacks of the plot is"Your wife is kidnapped, get her back", however they do a very poor job of getting you to care about her, or to show her and Alan's relationship. The beginning portion of the game is just the two of them, but her voice acting is Blah at best, and they have basically no chemistry or real "scenes" together at first to show their current relationship, other than Alan being mad at her for wanting him to write on the trip. Then she gets kidnapped and you're off to the races. Now to the games credit, there are a handful of "dream" scenes where he will remember something about her and their life together, which are IN THEORY a great way for us to get to know her and care about her, BUT they are not particularly good and again, there are like 2 or 3 of them. This is pretty much the only major failing, story wise.
Gameplay-wise, the game is solid but not great. Your main weapon is the standard array of guns, pistol/shotgun/rifle, blah. However, the interesting bit is that enemies are shrouded in darkness that prevents damage, so you have to literally 'light them up' first before you can riddle them with bullets. You have a main flashlight for this, but also get flares, flashbangs and flareguns later on to help with this, and those are fun to use. However a big negative comes in terms of enemy variety. Essentially, there are just 4 enemies in the game-
1. Regular shadowy dudes
2. Big Boy shadowy dudes
3. Crows, shadowy
4. Various floaty objects, shadowy
Adding to that, a good 75+% of the game is "You're now in a spooky forest, make your way through the obvious path to get to the well-lit place far away P.S. all your guns are gone", now is that BAD? No, it's just tiresome. There are some notable and wonderful exceptions (heading through the town at night with the sheriff, the mental 'institution', the concert...), but a bit too much of it is just like all the rest of it to be wholly positive.
While there are many issues to list with this game, it is ultimately more than held up by good characters, interesting theme and storytelling, solid gameplay, and a creepy yet mysterious atmosphere. When the Control DLC was announced a few days ago confirming Alan Wake would be a part of it, I squawked with joy. I'm delighted to go back and get more of this story. Also, it has one of the best ending lines I have ever seen!
Splinter Cell is one of my favorite genres of game (Stealth!) and a series that holds a pretty special place in my heart, despite not being super on top of the series in general. One of my fondest memories of my old Xbox was playing through the first VERY difficult Splinter Cell game and being entranced by the tactical gameplay and slowed down pace of action. The main character is a gruff old goat voiced by Michael Ironside who very much brings his A-Game in terms of growl and depth. The first game I replayed very shortly prior to my first 52 game challenge so I do have a decent memory of it and decided to skip it in a Splinter Cell series playthrough. So I decided to buy 3 games on my Xbox One because they're on sale and backwards compatible and started with the second game in the series - Pandora Tomorrow. I never actually got to play this back in the day, I skipped right to Chaos Theory.. so how was this very old stealth game to start off with?
Actually pretty darn good!
Sam is back for another generic adventure with a Bad Guy of the Week, this one an East Timor 'freedom fighter' who plays himself as a new Che Guevara trying to lead a revolution against the US on the world stage. He's basically just a jumped up terrorist and drug dealer however who has a major edge - several smallpox bombs he has smuggled into the US. Plus, he has a dead man's switch on all of the bombs - if he goes down, they go off. So how do we settle this? Sam sneaks about a bunch of a BROAD variety of locales, konking folks over the head and snooping around to get the thing that Lambert snidely wants! While the in-mission goals don't vary too much, the level designs themselves and the art directions for each are pretty wildly different. There's a dense jungle you're sneaking through in the late evening (that sun is still up don't you worry..), a fast moving train that's quite a stand out, a base leading to a fricken' submarine you get to fight your way out of, LAX airport!, and a couple others that were all at least decent if not pretty good? Quick aside as well on the art style - friggen' outstanding. There is such an EXCEPTIONAL use of dynamic lighting in every single level, it makes the darkness you are supposed to be hiding in feel good to make use of. There were several spots in each level where I'd say "Damn this looks tight for a 15+ year old game)
While the maps are solid, and the gameplay fundamentals themselves are good (the light/shadow and sound mechanics are fuckin' rock solid stealth systems, they give the player the perfect amount of info on how concerned the player needs to be on being discovered) sadly the levels a bit too linear to be genuinely great.. 90% of the time there is a very clear path the devs wanted you to take and no derivation from it is acceptable or will be rewarded. There were plenty of low fences I wanted to hop over, doors I wanted to go through out of order, or areas that just respawned bad guys for no reason other than the plot needed to. It was very unfortunate knowing that the sequel (we'll get to that one soon!) does such a great job with it, but honestly I was shocked when I replayed the original a couple of years ago to discover it had the exact same issue.. Well it was one of the first real attempts at the stealth genre on console, you gotta' start somewhere! Also the game lacks a proper save system other than checkpoints, and there were some damn ANNOYING sections I had to do 5+ times to get exactly right because I really had no fuckin' idea where the game wanted me to go or do so I had to wander around - and in a few of those places one mistake period meant going back to the damn load screen... very frustrating.
I don't often love replaying older games - the clunkiness, the graphics, the voice acting and storytelling are just not up to our standards... and in a lot of ways, Pandora Tomorrow has all of that. Picking up items and objects are rote animations, abysmal checkpoint system, voice acting is BAD except for Lambert and Ironside, the story/villain are pretty one-note and simple with no real overarching plot for the series... all of these things are true, but ultimately I had a damn good time just exploring these levels, marveling at a work more than 15 years old and being delighted to lurk in the shadows and pounce on some unsuspecting mercenary goon then slink back off into the shadows to strike again...
Actually pretty darn good!
Sam is back for another generic adventure with a Bad Guy of the Week, this one an East Timor 'freedom fighter' who plays himself as a new Che Guevara trying to lead a revolution against the US on the world stage. He's basically just a jumped up terrorist and drug dealer however who has a major edge - several smallpox bombs he has smuggled into the US. Plus, he has a dead man's switch on all of the bombs - if he goes down, they go off. So how do we settle this? Sam sneaks about a bunch of a BROAD variety of locales, konking folks over the head and snooping around to get the thing that Lambert snidely wants! While the in-mission goals don't vary too much, the level designs themselves and the art directions for each are pretty wildly different. There's a dense jungle you're sneaking through in the late evening (that sun is still up don't you worry..), a fast moving train that's quite a stand out, a base leading to a fricken' submarine you get to fight your way out of, LAX airport!, and a couple others that were all at least decent if not pretty good? Quick aside as well on the art style - friggen' outstanding. There is such an EXCEPTIONAL use of dynamic lighting in every single level, it makes the darkness you are supposed to be hiding in feel good to make use of. There were several spots in each level where I'd say "Damn this looks tight for a 15+ year old game)
While the maps are solid, and the gameplay fundamentals themselves are good (the light/shadow and sound mechanics are fuckin' rock solid stealth systems, they give the player the perfect amount of info on how concerned the player needs to be on being discovered) sadly the levels a bit too linear to be genuinely great.. 90% of the time there is a very clear path the devs wanted you to take and no derivation from it is acceptable or will be rewarded. There were plenty of low fences I wanted to hop over, doors I wanted to go through out of order, or areas that just respawned bad guys for no reason other than the plot needed to. It was very unfortunate knowing that the sequel (we'll get to that one soon!) does such a great job with it, but honestly I was shocked when I replayed the original a couple of years ago to discover it had the exact same issue.. Well it was one of the first real attempts at the stealth genre on console, you gotta' start somewhere! Also the game lacks a proper save system other than checkpoints, and there were some damn ANNOYING sections I had to do 5+ times to get exactly right because I really had no fuckin' idea where the game wanted me to go or do so I had to wander around - and in a few of those places one mistake period meant going back to the damn load screen... very frustrating.
I don't often love replaying older games - the clunkiness, the graphics, the voice acting and storytelling are just not up to our standards... and in a lot of ways, Pandora Tomorrow has all of that. Picking up items and objects are rote animations, abysmal checkpoint system, voice acting is BAD except for Lambert and Ironside, the story/villain are pretty one-note and simple with no real overarching plot for the series... all of these things are true, but ultimately I had a damn good time just exploring these levels, marveling at a work more than 15 years old and being delighted to lurk in the shadows and pounce on some unsuspecting mercenary goon then slink back off into the shadows to strike again...
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+
2019
Ion Fury, previously known as Ion Maiden, is an Old-School FPS in the vein of Doom, Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem 3D. You play as Shelly "Bombshell", a policewoman (private security? Something) whose night out drinking is ruined by a mad scientist and his army of cybernetic goons, so you head out into that crazy city to kick some ass with a small army's worth of weapons.
First and foremost, the story is basically nonexistent. You get more from the splash screen than you do for the entire first half of the game that I finished. And hey that's fine, some games don't need a story. There's a few bits here and there of Dr. Bad Guy (not his actual name) monologueing through a screen at Shelly and she has some witty retort to him, but that's about all you get. Shelly herself has comments about things that are going on but they're usually just some hardass/snarky one liners rather than any actual window into who her character is. She's not even a one-dimensional character, just seems to say things just to break up the fights.
Gameplay wise things are thankfully much deeper. There are about 7~8 guns that I unlocked, all of which have some sort of alternate fire mode to play around with. There's a revolver with auto aim, a shot-gun with built in grenade launcher, incediary dual SMGs... a very nice selection of killing tools. Sadly the enemy variety is not quite where it needs to be, the vast majority of enemies are the hooded humanoid goons that just use your own kind of guns against you that you need to maneuver around. There's a few other oddball cybernetic enemies, skulls on spider legs, armored centipedes, that kind of thing, but the bread and butter is the basic humanoid enemies. Their AI is pretty dumb, they are sometimes placed in clever areas to force you to think on your toes in case of a trap, but the actual AI just has them mostly stand there and shoot at you. This is an old school shooter so you are CONSTANTLY flying around the map, so it might be a bit too difficult to judge your shots if you and the enemy are both moving all of the time..
I only completed about half the game and then I stopped. It is a very good game for what it is, the level layouts are very cool and expansive, lots of neat things to look at and potentially shoot, many nooks and crannies to find ammo/health/shields.. but ultimately it wasn't really growing and I just wasn't having too great a time. I've been trying to make sure I don't just "Finish" games because I feel like I Have To for this 52-game challenge, and this is one of the ones I decided to put to bed. All in all a solid retro shooter that while I ultimately have no nostalgia for, I still quite liked.
First and foremost, the story is basically nonexistent. You get more from the splash screen than you do for the entire first half of the game that I finished. And hey that's fine, some games don't need a story. There's a few bits here and there of Dr. Bad Guy (not his actual name) monologueing through a screen at Shelly and she has some witty retort to him, but that's about all you get. Shelly herself has comments about things that are going on but they're usually just some hardass/snarky one liners rather than any actual window into who her character is. She's not even a one-dimensional character, just seems to say things just to break up the fights.
Gameplay wise things are thankfully much deeper. There are about 7~8 guns that I unlocked, all of which have some sort of alternate fire mode to play around with. There's a revolver with auto aim, a shot-gun with built in grenade launcher, incediary dual SMGs... a very nice selection of killing tools. Sadly the enemy variety is not quite where it needs to be, the vast majority of enemies are the hooded humanoid goons that just use your own kind of guns against you that you need to maneuver around. There's a few other oddball cybernetic enemies, skulls on spider legs, armored centipedes, that kind of thing, but the bread and butter is the basic humanoid enemies. Their AI is pretty dumb, they are sometimes placed in clever areas to force you to think on your toes in case of a trap, but the actual AI just has them mostly stand there and shoot at you. This is an old school shooter so you are CONSTANTLY flying around the map, so it might be a bit too difficult to judge your shots if you and the enemy are both moving all of the time..
I only completed about half the game and then I stopped. It is a very good game for what it is, the level layouts are very cool and expansive, lots of neat things to look at and potentially shoot, many nooks and crannies to find ammo/health/shields.. but ultimately it wasn't really growing and I just wasn't having too great a time. I've been trying to make sure I don't just "Finish" games because I feel like I Have To for this 52-game challenge, and this is one of the ones I decided to put to bed. All in all a solid retro shooter that while I ultimately have no nostalgia for, I still quite liked.
"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?
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?
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!