‣ 10/10 – Damn…

‣ Thoughts: There are two ways to play this game. One, hate Abby and in turn the story or two – set the difficulty to grounded and cry.

The first time I completed this title, I was among the people who absolutely despised the way this story goes. I hated Abby segments, had no interest in the characters around her and just found the overall experience annoying. But through all that unreasonable hate, the gameplay was still amazing. Today I replayed The Last of Us II and think it is Naughty Dog’s magnum opus. Although, the overall story happens in an order I would rearrange every single, time I’ve come to appreciate what Neil Drunkass was trying to accomplish with this narrative. It is really tough to make players like a character that kills a fan favorite, nonetheless, force them to play as that character, but if you just try to look at it from her perspective it becomes quite a good story.

Playing this game on grounded changes everything. Every encounter, every shot you take, every bullet you pick up becomes a piece of a puzzle you are constantly trying to solve. At times it is bizarre how accurate humans are, but it makes combat one of the most realistic experiences I’ve had in a PlayStation title. Stealth is no longer optional but a means to survive. Resources are scarce but not gone. By the end of the game, I still had over 20 bullets to spare which is impressive, because some encounters expect you to eliminate over 15 enemies (mind you, I’ve only picked up around 15 shotgun shells across the whole game). My advice for any brave souls attempting The Last of Us on grounded: don’t do your first playthrough on permadeath. It is just not worth the time.

Overall, I don’t think The Last of Us II needed a remaster, but I know why they did it. The game looks absolutely stunning, and the animation work is above S tier. I have a strong suspicion this title will be ported to PC when the second season of the show drops. When that time comes, I cannot wait to play the game yet again on grounded and see how well I do, because this combat deserves mouse support.

‣ 8/10 – This message was democratically approved.

‣ Thoughts: I haven’t played a lot of this year’s games yet, but I can already say this might be game of the year, at least for me. Helldivers 2 is a perfect example of how to do a live-service title. After you pay a generous price, you get everything. Yes, there’re microtransactions, but you can simply earn enough credits for anything in the game, which is perfect.

Right now, the game is constantly updated with small changes and keeps slowly evolving. New missions, enemy types are added frequently enough to keep those who are extremely addicted hooked. At the time of this review there are only two factions to fight which after 60+ hours gets tiresome. Don’t get me wrong, I had a fantastic time playing, but one day I just hit a wall where my interest dropped instantly. A few new enemies and guns won’t keep me involved, but I respect the constant support and can’t wait to see how this game grows.

Gameplay wise this is as good as it gets. Guns feel punchy and pack a lot of damage, explosions are deadly and incredibly fun to use. Every enemy reacts to damage like they should, some are more resistant but that just encourages experimentation until you find the perfect set up. One problem though, some weapons are so good compared to others that most players will default to them leading to a rather repetitive experience. Other guns look cool but get absolutely outclassed quick. Same can be said about armor. Why pick anything else than the severely amazing set that gives you a 50% chance to outlive lethal damage? It is clear that this game requires a lot of small tweaks that can only be achieved by constant trial and error, and I hope it will reach perfect balance at some point.

Even though I am prepared to name Helldivers 2 my current game of the year, I doubt it will stay that way. This is a fantastic title with one of the most memorable, cinematic gameplay moments I had in a multiplayer title, but it is wild how many people ignore the problems once something is this good. It takes only a few hours to notice how many bugs and glitches there are. It’s nothing that game breaking like Cyberpunk, but there are still a lot of hitches along the way. It can vary from simple things like a gun reloading but not injecting bullets, getting stuck under the map, glitching into the shop or your friends using weapons that crash the game. The spectrum of glitches is wide but seems like most ignore it, because they are too busy having fun. Well, I had fun, but at times the game just worked against me, and I won’t let that slide. Anyway, good game, needs a lot of updates to stay strong.