DourCricket
2023
This review contains spoilers
Alan Wake 2
#25
PC - Epic Game Store
Beaten Nov 18th, 2023
The decade+ follow up to the beautiful schlocky Alan Wake, we finally get to try and spring our favorite horror author from his prison and find out what the final line means! Well, that's a gag in the game - I thought "Its not a lake, its an ocean" made perfect metaphorical sense, the dark place was an enormous realm that was trapping them, not something small and manageable like a lake, however there are some fun meta gags at the expense of the first game. This time we have dual protagonists: FBI Agent Saga Anderson in the real world and Alan himself, still trapped in the Dark Place trying to bust out, and this duality carries over to a lot of the game and how its systems work. But yeah, Alan Wake 2, finally.. was it worth the wait? What all has changed? Yes and a lot is the answer!
The Good:
-Damn where to even start on this one??? Art style I guess! Yeah, this is absolutely stellar. Similar to Remedy's previous game Control, almost every frame of this game is a painting. I feel equal parts sympathy and envy at my future self who have to pick ten screenshots to show off from all the exceptional art here.
-Story has some very satisfying twists and turns, some of which are nicely telegraphed but plenty come out of left field. It's a satisfying continuation of both the Alan Wake game + Control as well. I was worried Saga wouldn't be as great as Alan but she very much holds her own, especially when she has Casey to bounce off of.
-The vastly improved gameplay from the first game is pretty much the RE2/3/4make style and it serves them well. Fights are tough, not a lot of enemies, weapons handle pretty tight, enemies take quite a few hits to go down. For Alan's sequence there's a nice twist with the shadow enemies - only some are actually aggressive, most are just there to spook you and taunt you and its very difficult to tell them apart until its almost too late... helps play very well into the paranoia of the dark place
-Returning to Bright Falls in 4k is beatiful
-The environs in general are great to move around in, so much creativity on display even in the real world. Coffee World, the trailer park, the basement of the Sheriff Station, out in the spooky woods... Obviously the Dark Place too (perpetual rainy New York city) is rad
-Semi retcon of Alan Wake 1/Control: Alan's writing DOESNT just rewrite and create reality to whatever he wants, it can only twist what is there to suit the purpose of the story. I was initially having a bit of a tough time caring about our characters/story because they were fake people (Saga Anderson? Alex Casey? Yeah, these are made up people) but with the explicit change they make to how his powers were described previously I started enjoying the narrative limitations.
-Speaking of semi retcons: Alan is kinda of a douchebag. Alice talks about their marital issues and reveals the Dark Presence chose Alan for more than just his writing: he's also got some darkness in him already.. just like all the other people the dark place infects
-Saga & Casey Coffee Sips 11/10
-SHOW ME THE CHAMPION OF LIGHT!
The Bad:
-The first boss fight is easily the hardest and honestly not super interesting from a gameplay standpoint? You basically just run away, shoot, run away. No real progression against him like an RE boss, not super interesting arena or mechanics, pretty meh
-Lack of bosses in general. They're all in the dark place and there aren't that many of them.
-The mind place specific puzzles - some parts of the game require you to work through the mind place to get the door/item which was already obvious and feels like a waste of time. These need to be tossed out sorry
The Meh:
-The ending, from a gameplay perspective. You reawaken in the Dark Place as Saga and... walk around for like 15 minutes? There are a couple fights but they're against normal shadow enemies and very easy to just waltz right past. Why even bother with these if you're not going to do them right? It's not bad (the ending with her there looks awesome and offers some more leads on Sheriff Breaker and Door, the obvious sequel bait)
-Pacing - this one is on the cusp of bad honestly, but my chosen path between Alan and Saga's storylines (Alan pretty much all the way through after playing Saga to a good stopping point) I think helped it. Randomly bopping back and forth I think would feel odd
-The Mind Place in general is a neat idea, having to manually place things is kinda annoying. I'd do everything non-main-plot automatically pinned to save time.
-Encounter design/ enemies still need a level up or two. There needs to be "licker" type enemies to steal from RE2 some more: enemies where you have to interact with them in a very different way from the vanilla enemies that are dangerous AF. I also can't really remember any particular rooms/encounters other than a few ending bits as opposed to RE2/3/4 where I can think of several.
-Book Casey chime ins get long in the tooth BUT have an exceptional payoff at the end so I'll give it a pass
The Hmmmmmm:
-There's quite a few things here that are just obviously setting up for an inevitable sequel/spin off at some point that are left dangling here. A lot of it happens in the Dark Place so things being weird makes some sense but still feels a bit hmmmmmm
-Alan's story sequence is pretty hard to follow HOWEVER that does make sense given the nature of the dark place. When were the books written? Who actually wrote them? Did Scratch actually fuck with him/Alice or was it all Wake himself? Did he involve Saga intentionally and her family? The map keeps changing a little bit and its a bit hard to follow where to go... again, this could all be intentional but its definitely notable
A tour-de-force in video game art as Remedy keeps swinging for the fences and a step forward in the survival horror genre (what, these things can have interesting and layered stories now??), Alan Wake 2 follows up on its cliffhanger predecessor with a hell of a bang. Oh, and another cliffhanger lol
Final Grade: A
#25
PC - Epic Game Store
Beaten Nov 18th, 2023
The decade+ follow up to the beautiful schlocky Alan Wake, we finally get to try and spring our favorite horror author from his prison and find out what the final line means! Well, that's a gag in the game - I thought "Its not a lake, its an ocean" made perfect metaphorical sense, the dark place was an enormous realm that was trapping them, not something small and manageable like a lake, however there are some fun meta gags at the expense of the first game. This time we have dual protagonists: FBI Agent Saga Anderson in the real world and Alan himself, still trapped in the Dark Place trying to bust out, and this duality carries over to a lot of the game and how its systems work. But yeah, Alan Wake 2, finally.. was it worth the wait? What all has changed? Yes and a lot is the answer!
The Good:
-Damn where to even start on this one??? Art style I guess! Yeah, this is absolutely stellar. Similar to Remedy's previous game Control, almost every frame of this game is a painting. I feel equal parts sympathy and envy at my future self who have to pick ten screenshots to show off from all the exceptional art here.
-Story has some very satisfying twists and turns, some of which are nicely telegraphed but plenty come out of left field. It's a satisfying continuation of both the Alan Wake game + Control as well. I was worried Saga wouldn't be as great as Alan but she very much holds her own, especially when she has Casey to bounce off of.
-The vastly improved gameplay from the first game is pretty much the RE2/3/4make style and it serves them well. Fights are tough, not a lot of enemies, weapons handle pretty tight, enemies take quite a few hits to go down. For Alan's sequence there's a nice twist with the shadow enemies - only some are actually aggressive, most are just there to spook you and taunt you and its very difficult to tell them apart until its almost too late... helps play very well into the paranoia of the dark place
-Returning to Bright Falls in 4k is beatiful
-The environs in general are great to move around in, so much creativity on display even in the real world. Coffee World, the trailer park, the basement of the Sheriff Station, out in the spooky woods... Obviously the Dark Place too (perpetual rainy New York city) is rad
-Semi retcon of Alan Wake 1/Control: Alan's writing DOESNT just rewrite and create reality to whatever he wants, it can only twist what is there to suit the purpose of the story. I was initially having a bit of a tough time caring about our characters/story because they were fake people (Saga Anderson? Alex Casey? Yeah, these are made up people) but with the explicit change they make to how his powers were described previously I started enjoying the narrative limitations.
-Speaking of semi retcons: Alan is kinda of a douchebag. Alice talks about their marital issues and reveals the Dark Presence chose Alan for more than just his writing: he's also got some darkness in him already.. just like all the other people the dark place infects
-Saga & Casey Coffee Sips 11/10
-SHOW ME THE CHAMPION OF LIGHT!
The Bad:
-The first boss fight is easily the hardest and honestly not super interesting from a gameplay standpoint? You basically just run away, shoot, run away. No real progression against him like an RE boss, not super interesting arena or mechanics, pretty meh
-Lack of bosses in general. They're all in the dark place and there aren't that many of them.
-The mind place specific puzzles - some parts of the game require you to work through the mind place to get the door/item which was already obvious and feels like a waste of time. These need to be tossed out sorry
The Meh:
-The ending, from a gameplay perspective. You reawaken in the Dark Place as Saga and... walk around for like 15 minutes? There are a couple fights but they're against normal shadow enemies and very easy to just waltz right past. Why even bother with these if you're not going to do them right? It's not bad (the ending with her there looks awesome and offers some more leads on Sheriff Breaker and Door, the obvious sequel bait)
-Pacing - this one is on the cusp of bad honestly, but my chosen path between Alan and Saga's storylines (Alan pretty much all the way through after playing Saga to a good stopping point) I think helped it. Randomly bopping back and forth I think would feel odd
-The Mind Place in general is a neat idea, having to manually place things is kinda annoying. I'd do everything non-main-plot automatically pinned to save time.
-Encounter design/ enemies still need a level up or two. There needs to be "licker" type enemies to steal from RE2 some more: enemies where you have to interact with them in a very different way from the vanilla enemies that are dangerous AF. I also can't really remember any particular rooms/encounters other than a few ending bits as opposed to RE2/3/4 where I can think of several.
-Book Casey chime ins get long in the tooth BUT have an exceptional payoff at the end so I'll give it a pass
The Hmmmmmm:
-There's quite a few things here that are just obviously setting up for an inevitable sequel/spin off at some point that are left dangling here. A lot of it happens in the Dark Place so things being weird makes some sense but still feels a bit hmmmmmm
-Alan's story sequence is pretty hard to follow HOWEVER that does make sense given the nature of the dark place. When were the books written? Who actually wrote them? Did Scratch actually fuck with him/Alice or was it all Wake himself? Did he involve Saga intentionally and her family? The map keeps changing a little bit and its a bit hard to follow where to go... again, this could all be intentional but its definitely notable
A tour-de-force in video game art as Remedy keeps swinging for the fences and a step forward in the survival horror genre (what, these things can have interesting and layered stories now??), Alan Wake 2 follows up on its cliffhanger predecessor with a hell of a bang. Oh, and another cliffhanger lol
Final Grade: A
2022
An interesting reverse-bullet-hell (did we ever pick a name for this genre other than Vampire Survivors-likes?) with some neat guns and characters. Feels more "build" based than I think I like, it pretty clearly shoves you down one of like five available paths and then you can dabble in another one or two to round out a build. The weapons are neat and there's a good variety of them plus you actually USE them which gives it a more tense feeling and also plays it out strategically when things get hairy, rather than just focusing on dodging.
Despite that the palette feels very same-y between levels and the bosses are not much to write home about.
Final Grade: B-
Despite that the palette feels very same-y between levels and the bosses are not much to write home about.
Final Grade: B-
A super short and weird tale of a wormcel living under a house. It's got some AI-generated art used for its proper purpose: being fuckin WEIRD and GROSS looking. Love it. Story is messed up but in a fun way and its pretty short with a couple different endings to go through. Not a bad use of your time for horror fans.
Final Grade: B
Final Grade: B
A Warhammer 40k Boomer Shooter... why did it take us so long to make this???
There are some issues though - the enemy variety is eh, the level design has some high highs but low lows, and the guns take a while to feel varied but... you get to literally taunt the bad guys with the push of a button and stomp around with your stompy Space Marine boots turning heretics and demons into gibs of flesh I just can't not appreciate this
Final Grade: A-
There are some issues though - the enemy variety is eh, the level design has some high highs but low lows, and the guns take a while to feel varied but... you get to literally taunt the bad guys with the push of a button and stomp around with your stompy Space Marine boots turning heretics and demons into gibs of flesh I just can't not appreciate this
Final Grade: A-
I wish I was good enough at puzzle games to properly appreciate how great this game is
Final Grade: A
Final Grade: A
2023
A beautiful tale about slaying a princess and the many different expressions of love. I will update this with a full review shortly.
Final Grade: A+
Final Grade: A+
2012
Dishonored is a fantastic stealth-action game from 2012, a tale of revenge set in one of the most well realized cities and fictional settings in its generation if not all of gaming. While I've completed the game a couple times before this is my first replay in over a decade and frankly I'm torn - do I review the game for what it is now or by how it stands up today?
The Good:
-Art direction for the city/characters is fantastic. Steampunk in theme but very much with its own gritty twist. The city is crumbling and every person and object you come across (even the very nice places..) is showing this decay has spread
-Level design for each area you head to is distinct and good looking from a distance..
-The overarching story is quite good albeit simple and there are some twists that come from a mile away but it is made in such a competent way you won't really mind
-Worldbuilding in general is off the charts good - the City of Dunwall and its world are fascinating places and the many hints of how this world is NOT our world (the whales and magic esp) are as intriguing as they are unsettling
-Following off a previous point from "bad" about High/Low chaos, I do actually LIKE the two different endings and feel like they make sense. High chaos actually makes MORE sense really, as the one issue with Low is the Certain Twist Betrayal later makes a lot more sense with a bloodthirsty maniac Corvo vs. a Peace&Love Corvo in a Low Chaos ending.
Bad
-Lots of people cry about the "bad ending" being too punishing for people who want to use the powers and I think they're little babies who can't handle consequences for their actions BUT.. I think the straight dichotomy of High/Low and it just being based off of how many people you kill is definitely undercooked. More based on story, more based on civilians vs. guards, more based on what you talk with Emily etc
-This one is a bit mean but the fine details of each area is pretty barren. Desks and beds are empty cookie cutter models, houses are all pretty much the same minus a few exceptions. This is 100% due to the limitations of the 360/PS3 hardware and in Dishonored 2 the leap in this is enormous.
Meh
-The melee combat leaves quite a bit to be desired, but for a primarily stealth game I can see why they didn't put too much into it. It's pretty much just attack or block. Good and brutal animations though
-Powers are pretty imbalanced with focus on lethality vs. utility. There are some neat ones like possession and time stop can be used in fun ways but for a game that chastises wanton violence they sure love handing you the tools for it.
-Undercooked sidequests. There are a few of them but they're pretty limited w one exception (Granny!)
Hmm
-There are quite a few points in the game where the bad guys realllllly should've just shot Corvo in the head, cmon
Typically I never give out half stars in my reviews - they are for gutless cowards who can't make decisions and 5 Point scales are objectively the review system (5/5 Stars for 5 point scales I say) but a game of this age and style just honestly has two real reviews. For its time, it was an amazing move foward for the stealth genre with added layers of action and powers to create excellent immersive sim situations along with a beautifully portrayed decomposing Empire. Today, the details lack the honed edge it once held over a decade ago on release: the combat is a bit simple, the environments are underdeveloped and the special powers strongly promote a playstyle that only suits one half of the game's narrative and leaves the other out to dry. Now, there is still oodles of fun to be had even leaning into the leaner parts of this game but it does feel like a bit of that black magic has lessened.
Final Grade: A-
The Good:
-Art direction for the city/characters is fantastic. Steampunk in theme but very much with its own gritty twist. The city is crumbling and every person and object you come across (even the very nice places..) is showing this decay has spread
-Level design for each area you head to is distinct and good looking from a distance..
-The overarching story is quite good albeit simple and there are some twists that come from a mile away but it is made in such a competent way you won't really mind
-Worldbuilding in general is off the charts good - the City of Dunwall and its world are fascinating places and the many hints of how this world is NOT our world (the whales and magic esp) are as intriguing as they are unsettling
-Following off a previous point from "bad" about High/Low chaos, I do actually LIKE the two different endings and feel like they make sense. High chaos actually makes MORE sense really, as the one issue with Low is the Certain Twist Betrayal later makes a lot more sense with a bloodthirsty maniac Corvo vs. a Peace&Love Corvo in a Low Chaos ending.
Bad
-Lots of people cry about the "bad ending" being too punishing for people who want to use the powers and I think they're little babies who can't handle consequences for their actions BUT.. I think the straight dichotomy of High/Low and it just being based off of how many people you kill is definitely undercooked. More based on story, more based on civilians vs. guards, more based on what you talk with Emily etc
-This one is a bit mean but the fine details of each area is pretty barren. Desks and beds are empty cookie cutter models, houses are all pretty much the same minus a few exceptions. This is 100% due to the limitations of the 360/PS3 hardware and in Dishonored 2 the leap in this is enormous.
Meh
-The melee combat leaves quite a bit to be desired, but for a primarily stealth game I can see why they didn't put too much into it. It's pretty much just attack or block. Good and brutal animations though
-Powers are pretty imbalanced with focus on lethality vs. utility. There are some neat ones like possession and time stop can be used in fun ways but for a game that chastises wanton violence they sure love handing you the tools for it.
-Undercooked sidequests. There are a few of them but they're pretty limited w one exception (Granny!)
Hmm
-There are quite a few points in the game where the bad guys realllllly should've just shot Corvo in the head, cmon
Typically I never give out half stars in my reviews - they are for gutless cowards who can't make decisions and 5 Point scales are objectively the review system (5/5 Stars for 5 point scales I say) but a game of this age and style just honestly has two real reviews. For its time, it was an amazing move foward for the stealth genre with added layers of action and powers to create excellent immersive sim situations along with a beautifully portrayed decomposing Empire. Today, the details lack the honed edge it once held over a decade ago on release: the combat is a bit simple, the environments are underdeveloped and the special powers strongly promote a playstyle that only suits one half of the game's narrative and leaves the other out to dry. Now, there is still oodles of fun to be had even leaning into the leaner parts of this game but it does feel like a bit of that black magic has lessened.
Final Grade: A-
2023
An entirely competent albeit obviously first-pass Souls like, Lies of P is Bloodborne made by amateurs - albeit ones with serious talent. They just need a bit more practice I think...
Longer review coming later
Final Grade: A-
Longer review coming later
Final Grade: A-
2014
A fantastic premise and art style support a toughs-as-nails grim trek through the Russian underground... It's Half-Life 2 but with more vodka (and actually good, hahayaburnt Half-Life)
There are some veryyyyy dodgy stealth sections and checkpoints however...
Final Grade: B+
There are some veryyyyy dodgy stealth sections and checkpoints however...
Final Grade: B+
Honest Hearts is the second DLC for Fallout New Vegas but is often suggested as the first you should complete when replaying the game. It is more open-world than its predecessor Dead Money and also a much gentler difficulty curve. The stories for each DLC being ultimately non-linear up to Lonesome Road also lend well to this route. So shortly after arriving at New Vegas proper I decided to head to the start of this DLC as an in-game excuse to nab some caps before heading into Vegas to find that rat bastard who shot me. What I found was a mini-open world with plentiful resources and a few very intriguing characters - though I wish I had gotten a few more.
The Good
-Zion itself is beautiful, the art direction and music fit perfectly with the mood of a tucked away part of heaven, incredibly distinct from the Mojave.
-The main characters of Joshua Graham, Daniel and of course the posthumous "Father in the Caves" are enthralling. Legit choked up several times reading the survivalist's notes + Graham has some excellent lines.
-The POIs are mostly quite good. Old ranger stations, supply drops, soul-shatteringly sad schoolbus remains...
-More melee focused White Leg enemies are a good differentiator from typical raider or Legion bad guys in the Mojave. VATS is actually tough to use on them from point blank range.
The Bad
-The main middle quests of "helping" the Sorrows and Dead Horses are pretty thin excuses to just wander around. There's only one kinda interesting quest in the middle with the Fiery YaoGui. The rest are too straightforward.
-The "Happy Trails" group is a thin plot device to get you to the start of the DLC but then get a whole chunk of the ending slide? Who honestly cares
The Meh
-Sadly the graphics are showing their age here. The blockiness of a lot of the textures does not flow well between the rock, dirt and plant life. That's just the time the game was made + the Bethesda engine sadly.
-The ending two quests are halfway interesting but need a bit more meat on their bones. Either you have enough Speech to have a sorta-peaceable ending or you just kill everyone and deal with the fallout. The base NV has MANY ways around your problems besides a speech check or gun - sadly not the case here.
-Didn't really care for any of the new guns either.
The Hmmmm
-The Flee Zion ending seemed a bit underbaked compared to the White Legs assault
Honest Hearts doesn't present a huge shakeup to the New Vegas formula but a combination of a more verdant wilderness + some excellent characters and the somber tale of the Survivalist that you piece together really make an excellent DLC that is quite a bit more than the sum of its parts. Ultimately being forced to choose whether to flee from danger or to face it head on, but ultimately realizing that will fundamentally change you... feels very apropos for the series.
Final Grade: B+
The Good
-Zion itself is beautiful, the art direction and music fit perfectly with the mood of a tucked away part of heaven, incredibly distinct from the Mojave.
-The main characters of Joshua Graham, Daniel and of course the posthumous "Father in the Caves" are enthralling. Legit choked up several times reading the survivalist's notes + Graham has some excellent lines.
-The POIs are mostly quite good. Old ranger stations, supply drops, soul-shatteringly sad schoolbus remains...
-More melee focused White Leg enemies are a good differentiator from typical raider or Legion bad guys in the Mojave. VATS is actually tough to use on them from point blank range.
The Bad
-The main middle quests of "helping" the Sorrows and Dead Horses are pretty thin excuses to just wander around. There's only one kinda interesting quest in the middle with the Fiery YaoGui. The rest are too straightforward.
-The "Happy Trails" group is a thin plot device to get you to the start of the DLC but then get a whole chunk of the ending slide? Who honestly cares
The Meh
-Sadly the graphics are showing their age here. The blockiness of a lot of the textures does not flow well between the rock, dirt and plant life. That's just the time the game was made + the Bethesda engine sadly.
-The ending two quests are halfway interesting but need a bit more meat on their bones. Either you have enough Speech to have a sorta-peaceable ending or you just kill everyone and deal with the fallout. The base NV has MANY ways around your problems besides a speech check or gun - sadly not the case here.
-Didn't really care for any of the new guns either.
The Hmmmm
-The Flee Zion ending seemed a bit underbaked compared to the White Legs assault
Honest Hearts doesn't present a huge shakeup to the New Vegas formula but a combination of a more verdant wilderness + some excellent characters and the somber tale of the Survivalist that you piece together really make an excellent DLC that is quite a bit more than the sum of its parts. Ultimately being forced to choose whether to flee from danger or to face it head on, but ultimately realizing that will fundamentally change you... feels very apropos for the series.
Final Grade: B+
"Can you think of a miracle more amazing than that? I mean, cure blindness, sure. Or part the seas, all right. But a second chance? That’s the real miracle."
If only Father Hill was here to talk to these guys
Final Grade: A
If only Father Hill was here to talk to these guys
Final Grade: A
Heading into the Big MT - a world of mad science and even madder science...
The Good
-Characters are obviously the star of the show. A genocidal toaster, clean freak sink, the 5 (6 really) main scientists... exceptional, punchy writing.
-OWB is the DLC that ties all the others together most strongly. It sets up the other 3 very well and I got a chuckle every time Elijah is mentioned (have fun in that vault buddy)
-Stronggg foreshadowing of Ulysses. Wanted to hear a bit more though about what he was up to
-New guns are cool... for Energy weapons users!!! Not so much for me
The Bad
-The typical fallout issue of a lot of quests being too thinly-veiled fetch quests
-Roboscorpions are verrrry tanky for gun builds. The other enemies have a good lethality to them but also aren't too hard to kill. The scorpions had me running as often as fighting, just to save on bullets..
-The Scientist brains are great, absolutely hilarious, but a bit underutilized. Or more, are too packed in? You can do like 90% of their content in your first conversation with them. The intro with them needs to be shorter, then spread out a bit more over the DLC. Even if its just one more meeting with them for extra exposition before the finale.
The Meh
-The world map has some cool bits to it but ultimately is ruined buildings on more ruined buildings. The interior maps are pretty samey too.
The Hmmm
-Why do you have to destroy Moebius at the end? Did I miss a dialogue or sidequest somehow?
A hilarious and fun romp through the mad science that has always been in the background of Fallout but never quite front and center - plus its usual splash of genuine horror at just how fucked up everything is in this wasteland. A good story (with an interesting 'twist' ending) with great characters and some worthwhile sidequests.
The Good
-Characters are obviously the star of the show. A genocidal toaster, clean freak sink, the 5 (6 really) main scientists... exceptional, punchy writing.
-OWB is the DLC that ties all the others together most strongly. It sets up the other 3 very well and I got a chuckle every time Elijah is mentioned (have fun in that vault buddy)
-Stronggg foreshadowing of Ulysses. Wanted to hear a bit more though about what he was up to
-New guns are cool... for Energy weapons users!!! Not so much for me
The Bad
-The typical fallout issue of a lot of quests being too thinly-veiled fetch quests
-Roboscorpions are verrrry tanky for gun builds. The other enemies have a good lethality to them but also aren't too hard to kill. The scorpions had me running as often as fighting, just to save on bullets..
-The Scientist brains are great, absolutely hilarious, but a bit underutilized. Or more, are too packed in? You can do like 90% of their content in your first conversation with them. The intro with them needs to be shorter, then spread out a bit more over the DLC. Even if its just one more meeting with them for extra exposition before the finale.
The Meh
-The world map has some cool bits to it but ultimately is ruined buildings on more ruined buildings. The interior maps are pretty samey too.
The Hmmm
-Why do you have to destroy Moebius at the end? Did I miss a dialogue or sidequest somehow?
A hilarious and fun romp through the mad science that has always been in the background of Fallout but never quite front and center - plus its usual splash of genuine horror at just how fucked up everything is in this wasteland. A good story (with an interesting 'twist' ending) with great characters and some worthwhile sidequests.
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!
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?