HaloBlues
GRAPHICS: Charming and genuinely pretty in places such as the sky/weather and the textures and designs of most of the villagers. It's easy to forget how good they are, but looking back at older games makes it clear that New Horizons is a massive graphical upgrade.
CHARACTERS: Appropriately adorable-looking, but completely devoid of personality. Villagers are the entire point of this franchise, as well as the bonds you form with yours, and yet in this game they've been reduced to window-dressing for your customised island who recite the same dozen generic lines identical to every other villager of the same type. A lot of my 'dream villagers' are of the same few types, and so I can be hitting nothing but repeated dialogues within literal minutes of opening the game. It's soulless.
GAMEPLAY: It's... fine. There are some good QoL improvements, such as the way clothes shopping now works at the Able Sisters and terraforming the land, but there are just... so many things that were a given in older games that have been cut out or have regressed in this one. The crafting system is awful and repetitive, DIY recipes are time-consuming to get and even thenmostly just carbon copies of ones you already have, even golden tools (extremely difficult to construct) are now breakable, and shops have far fewer or no upgrades to uncover, just to name a few.
MULTIPLAYER: You can have up to eight players on an island over online multiplayer, or up to four using local co-op. It's pretty much what you'd expect from Animal Crossing - you can run around together and visit each other's villagers (so you can experience their generic dialogue, too!) but aside from activities you can come up with and design yourself there's nothing to really do together.
Overall, this game just... depresses me in a lot of ways. It's stripped back, sanitised, minimalised and "streamlined" in that corporate, modern game kind of way, where all the charm and heart is being lost in order to fit flashy new features to distract from all the ones that have been made worse. Sure, it was a nice refuge over lockdown, but it genuinely kind of angers me that that means this game is going down as a huge best-seller success when it's just... empty. It has the same kind of issue as Sims 4, to my mind, and the fact that so many players picked New Horizons up as their first Animal Crossing game means they don't even know what they're missing. I'll be returning to Wild World and perhaps even New Leaf, because playing this just reminds me I miss the old villagers.
Favourite Male Character: Of the villagers, Butch; of the NPCs, Brewster or K.K.
Favourite Female Character: Of the villagers, Goldie; of the NPCs, Sable
First Character I Liked: Goldie
Favourite Character Design: Merengue
Favourite OST: The Roost
Least Favourite Character: Fuck every single gorilla villager
CHARACTERS: Appropriately adorable-looking, but completely devoid of personality. Villagers are the entire point of this franchise, as well as the bonds you form with yours, and yet in this game they've been reduced to window-dressing for your customised island who recite the same dozen generic lines identical to every other villager of the same type. A lot of my 'dream villagers' are of the same few types, and so I can be hitting nothing but repeated dialogues within literal minutes of opening the game. It's soulless.
GAMEPLAY: It's... fine. There are some good QoL improvements, such as the way clothes shopping now works at the Able Sisters and terraforming the land, but there are just... so many things that were a given in older games that have been cut out or have regressed in this one. The crafting system is awful and repetitive, DIY recipes are time-consuming to get and even thenmostly just carbon copies of ones you already have, even golden tools (extremely difficult to construct) are now breakable, and shops have far fewer or no upgrades to uncover, just to name a few.
MULTIPLAYER: You can have up to eight players on an island over online multiplayer, or up to four using local co-op. It's pretty much what you'd expect from Animal Crossing - you can run around together and visit each other's villagers (so you can experience their generic dialogue, too!) but aside from activities you can come up with and design yourself there's nothing to really do together.
Overall, this game just... depresses me in a lot of ways. It's stripped back, sanitised, minimalised and "streamlined" in that corporate, modern game kind of way, where all the charm and heart is being lost in order to fit flashy new features to distract from all the ones that have been made worse. Sure, it was a nice refuge over lockdown, but it genuinely kind of angers me that that means this game is going down as a huge best-seller success when it's just... empty. It has the same kind of issue as Sims 4, to my mind, and the fact that so many players picked New Horizons up as their first Animal Crossing game means they don't even know what they're missing. I'll be returning to Wild World and perhaps even New Leaf, because playing this just reminds me I miss the old villagers.
Favourite Male Character: Of the villagers, Butch; of the NPCs, Brewster or K.K.
Favourite Female Character: Of the villagers, Goldie; of the NPCs, Sable
First Character I Liked: Goldie
Favourite Character Design: Merengue
Favourite OST: The Roost
Least Favourite Character: Fuck every single gorilla villager
2019
GRAPHICS: Pretty, particularly the character models. I loved the glowing reds and almost gory designs of the roots taking over the city.
CHARACTERS: Fun, charismatic, interesting, and if you've played the former DMC games they're endearingly familiar. My personal favourite is V, who neatly slots into character tropes I tend to enjoy, but I also liked (the sadly little we get of) Lady, and Dante was hilarious as always. I particularly enjoyed the Dante-and-Vergil dynamic.
DIALOGUE/VOICE ACTING: Voice acting is brilliant, particularly Dante's. Nico's accent grated on me a little, but that's entirely a me thing.
PLOT: Nothing mind-blowing or unique, but you probably don't come to Devil May Cry for the complex story. It's interesting enough to service the game.
GAMEPLAY: Genuinely fun to play through, and combat feels satisfying and flashy. I found V's combat style most fun to play, Dante's trickiest to do well at, and Nero's easy to master but not as engaging.
MULTIPLAYER: I didn't focus on it overly much during my playthrough, but it had a fairly interesting take on it from what I recall. In certain sections of the game, you can see other players controlling the other playable characters in the distance in their own sections of the map, and at the end you can give them a ranking on how well they did. I pretty much just gave everyone a Stylish rating, which grants them a gold orb, because why not? I'll have to delve more deeply into this aspect of the game when I replay.
Favourite Male Character: V
Favourite Female Character: Lady
First Character I Liked: Lady
Favourite Character Design: Repetitively, V and Lady
Favourite OST: Devil Trigger
Favourite Scene: V's hair turning white
Least Favourite Character: None
CHARACTERS: Fun, charismatic, interesting, and if you've played the former DMC games they're endearingly familiar. My personal favourite is V, who neatly slots into character tropes I tend to enjoy, but I also liked (the sadly little we get of) Lady, and Dante was hilarious as always. I particularly enjoyed the Dante-and-Vergil dynamic.
DIALOGUE/VOICE ACTING: Voice acting is brilliant, particularly Dante's. Nico's accent grated on me a little, but that's entirely a me thing.
PLOT: Nothing mind-blowing or unique, but you probably don't come to Devil May Cry for the complex story. It's interesting enough to service the game.
GAMEPLAY: Genuinely fun to play through, and combat feels satisfying and flashy. I found V's combat style most fun to play, Dante's trickiest to do well at, and Nero's easy to master but not as engaging.
MULTIPLAYER: I didn't focus on it overly much during my playthrough, but it had a fairly interesting take on it from what I recall. In certain sections of the game, you can see other players controlling the other playable characters in the distance in their own sections of the map, and at the end you can give them a ranking on how well they did. I pretty much just gave everyone a Stylish rating, which grants them a gold orb, because why not? I'll have to delve more deeply into this aspect of the game when I replay.
Favourite Male Character: V
Favourite Female Character: Lady
First Character I Liked: Lady
Favourite Character Design: Repetitively, V and Lady
Favourite OST: Devil Trigger
Favourite Scene: V's hair turning white
Least Favourite Character: None
GRAPHICS: Breathtaking upon release - anyone else remember how many times screenshots from Skyrim were mistaken for photographs of real-life scenery? Obviously aged now (at least in vanilla Skyrim), but still pretty gorgeous IMO.
CHARACTERS: None are particularly deep - this isn't the game to go to if you want broad, complex character development and personalities. NPCs serve their purpose, they make the world feel relatively alive, and they're nicely varied role-wise. Personal favourites are Brynjolf the Scottish thief, J'zargo the Khajiit mage apprentice, and Farkas the hulking werewolf mercenary.
DIALOGUE/VOICE ACTING: Dialogue's fine - conversation options are generally numerous enough (though more would be nice, and they tend to be questions that prompt lore exposition etc. rather than any meaningful two-way interaction). Voice acting is fine in itself, but you'll notice pretty quickly that there's a small pool of voice actors that voice almost every character you come across, not all of whom bother to put on different voices.
PLOT: Better than it's given credit for nowadays. I do, however, agree that the highlight of the game's writing is less the main quest and more the side quests and factions that surround it.
GAMEPLAY: Combat can be a little clunky, and I've had some friends who couldn't get used to it enough to stick with the game, but if you've played other Bethesda games (or some third-person RPGs in general), especially Fallout, you'll probably get the hang of it quick. I personally find archery far more intuitive and smooth to navigate than the slower, weightier movements of melee.
MULTIPLAYER: None available.
Frankly, flaws and all, this is one of the best games ever released, not just on its own merit back when it first came out but for its impact on other games and on gaming culture in general.
Honourary mention goes to the famous modding community - if you want to get into Skyrim and you own a PC, it's by far the best option to play it that way.
Favourite Male Character: Brynjolf
Favourite Female Character: Ysolda, Saadia
First Character I Liked: Farkas
Favourite Character Design: Sheogorath
Favourite OST: Dragonborn, The Streets of Whiterun, Sovngarde
Favourite Scene: Odahviing taking you to Sovngarde
Least Favourite Character: Fuck that racist guy in Windhelm
CHARACTERS: None are particularly deep - this isn't the game to go to if you want broad, complex character development and personalities. NPCs serve their purpose, they make the world feel relatively alive, and they're nicely varied role-wise. Personal favourites are Brynjolf the Scottish thief, J'zargo the Khajiit mage apprentice, and Farkas the hulking werewolf mercenary.
DIALOGUE/VOICE ACTING: Dialogue's fine - conversation options are generally numerous enough (though more would be nice, and they tend to be questions that prompt lore exposition etc. rather than any meaningful two-way interaction). Voice acting is fine in itself, but you'll notice pretty quickly that there's a small pool of voice actors that voice almost every character you come across, not all of whom bother to put on different voices.
PLOT: Better than it's given credit for nowadays. I do, however, agree that the highlight of the game's writing is less the main quest and more the side quests and factions that surround it.
GAMEPLAY: Combat can be a little clunky, and I've had some friends who couldn't get used to it enough to stick with the game, but if you've played other Bethesda games (or some third-person RPGs in general), especially Fallout, you'll probably get the hang of it quick. I personally find archery far more intuitive and smooth to navigate than the slower, weightier movements of melee.
MULTIPLAYER: None available.
Frankly, flaws and all, this is one of the best games ever released, not just on its own merit back when it first came out but for its impact on other games and on gaming culture in general.
Honourary mention goes to the famous modding community - if you want to get into Skyrim and you own a PC, it's by far the best option to play it that way.
Favourite Male Character: Brynjolf
Favourite Female Character: Ysolda, Saadia
First Character I Liked: Farkas
Favourite Character Design: Sheogorath
Favourite OST: Dragonborn, The Streets of Whiterun, Sovngarde
Favourite Scene: Odahviing taking you to Sovngarde
Least Favourite Character: Fuck that racist guy in Windhelm
2016
GRAPHICS: Cute, consistent, and charming. The character designs are varied and fitting for their personalities. The town is lovely and I'd move there in a heartbeat if I wasn't too damn lazy to put up with countryside.
CHARACTERS: A broad range of personalities and outlooks -- they're all pretty likeable to me, including less popular characters like Demetrius and Clint. Personal favourite is Sebastian and his introversion, and I'll always have a soft spot for Leah who was my first romance route. Linus is endearing, too.
DIALOGUE: Can get pretty repetitive. As someone usually aiming to talk to characters every day to build my relationships with them, I run into repeated chunks of dialogue within an in-game week, which is a pretty big deal when you can only have one individual conversation with each character per day, and has me losing motivation to check in with everyone.
PLOT: Far more character-driven than story-driven. Each major NPC has their own sort of mini character arc, especially if you romance them, and there are small storylines such as the Joja Mart vs. Community Center struggle, but ultimately you won't be playing this for any in-depth story. It's a game about the characters and about building your farm up from the ground.
GAMEPLAY: Completely fine for what it is. I'm not a fan of the time limit, it feels like I barely have time to do anything before the day is over and I'm forced to sprint back to the house lest I want to collapse and pass out on the ground on the dot at 2AM and go into the next day with an energy level hit. It makes it hard to enjoy the game and its aesthetics as you play because you feel like you're rushing around and shoving all your objectives in before shops close and you get tired.
MULTIPLAYER: Has up to four-player co-op. I've played it with one other player, but I do want to try it with a full game sometime. The co-op is fun, everyone gets their own relationships with NPCs, can marry characters, do all the usual stuff around town, etc. You share a farm, but other players get their own little guest houses on the land.
As surprising as it might be with the high rating and the general praise, Stardew Valley really isn't subjectively for me. I'm not a fan of games where you have to live out every day doing tasks, where you're dropped into the game with little hand-holding and left to come up with your own objectives (you'll probably need to do some Googling first playthrough, because the game Will Not explain how to do anything to you), the time limit is stressful, the repetitive dialogue is tiring, and I've never been able to get past the second season in any solo game I've tried.
And yet it's so damn endearing and charming that I can't justify giving it any less. The fact that this game was made by one guy - yeah, I know, everyone harps on about that in their reviews, but that shit is MIND-blowing. I almost want to give it five stars for that fact alone, because one person creating everything in this game is such a struggle to comprehend.
As a side note, there's a great modding community for this game, including the well-known Stardew Valley Expanded which introduces entirely new characters, marriage candidates, and storylines.
Favourite Male Character: Sebastian
Favourite Female Character: Leah
First Character I Liked: Sebastian
Favourite Character Design: Caroline
Favourite OST: TBA
Least Favourite Character: Leah's ex
CHARACTERS: A broad range of personalities and outlooks -- they're all pretty likeable to me, including less popular characters like Demetrius and Clint. Personal favourite is Sebastian and his introversion, and I'll always have a soft spot for Leah who was my first romance route. Linus is endearing, too.
DIALOGUE: Can get pretty repetitive. As someone usually aiming to talk to characters every day to build my relationships with them, I run into repeated chunks of dialogue within an in-game week, which is a pretty big deal when you can only have one individual conversation with each character per day, and has me losing motivation to check in with everyone.
PLOT: Far more character-driven than story-driven. Each major NPC has their own sort of mini character arc, especially if you romance them, and there are small storylines such as the Joja Mart vs. Community Center struggle, but ultimately you won't be playing this for any in-depth story. It's a game about the characters and about building your farm up from the ground.
GAMEPLAY: Completely fine for what it is. I'm not a fan of the time limit, it feels like I barely have time to do anything before the day is over and I'm forced to sprint back to the house lest I want to collapse and pass out on the ground on the dot at 2AM and go into the next day with an energy level hit. It makes it hard to enjoy the game and its aesthetics as you play because you feel like you're rushing around and shoving all your objectives in before shops close and you get tired.
MULTIPLAYER: Has up to four-player co-op. I've played it with one other player, but I do want to try it with a full game sometime. The co-op is fun, everyone gets their own relationships with NPCs, can marry characters, do all the usual stuff around town, etc. You share a farm, but other players get their own little guest houses on the land.
As surprising as it might be with the high rating and the general praise, Stardew Valley really isn't subjectively for me. I'm not a fan of games where you have to live out every day doing tasks, where you're dropped into the game with little hand-holding and left to come up with your own objectives (you'll probably need to do some Googling first playthrough, because the game Will Not explain how to do anything to you), the time limit is stressful, the repetitive dialogue is tiring, and I've never been able to get past the second season in any solo game I've tried.
And yet it's so damn endearing and charming that I can't justify giving it any less. The fact that this game was made by one guy - yeah, I know, everyone harps on about that in their reviews, but that shit is MIND-blowing. I almost want to give it five stars for that fact alone, because one person creating everything in this game is such a struggle to comprehend.
As a side note, there's a great modding community for this game, including the well-known Stardew Valley Expanded which introduces entirely new characters, marriage candidates, and storylines.
Favourite Male Character: Sebastian
Favourite Female Character: Leah
First Character I Liked: Sebastian
Favourite Character Design: Caroline
Favourite OST: TBA
Least Favourite Character: Leah's ex
2020
GRAPHICS: Great, consistent style. Environments are gorgeous, especially the purples and cherry blossoms of Inazuma, and the lakes and architecture of Liyue -- the first sighting of Liyue after leaving Mondstadt for the first time was genuinely breath-taking. Some character designs are great, personal favourites being Kaeya, Candace, Dehya, and Alhaitham. However, character designs are beginning to seem stale, repetitive, and uncreative by this point, and it makes it hard to get excited for new ones.
CHARACTERS: A pretty good variety of personalities and outlooks. The protagonist is basically a void who doesn't speak. Paimon, your ever-present 'helper'/companion, is genuinely infuriating. I don't care for the copy-pasted "sleepy girl" (Sayu, Layla) and "overworked woobie" (Jean, Ganyu) archetypes.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Varies, but it's generally pretty great. Paimon's voice is like nails on a chalkboard and I would actively love an option to mute her and her alone.
PLOT: I love the lore and storyline, and I'm genuinely invested in seeing where it goes.
GAMEPLAY: I like it fine. Now that I've had a taste of Honkai: Star Rail's combat I'm not super into going back to Genshin's, but that's just me.
MULTIPLAYER: The four-player co-op is useful and fun for domains and bosses, but there's a ton you can't do in multiplayer that just seems silly. Why can't you do any quests while in multiplayer? Why can't you talk to NPCs?
Overall, I like it. It's gacha, so obviously don't play it if you're prone to gambling, FOMO, or have an addictive personality - if you're able to resist temptation, you should be able to grind for all the currency you need without spending anything. It definitely gets review-bombed and unfairly maligned because of sections of the community and immediate opposition to just the gacha aspect (understandably). If you don't participate in the gacha side of the game, then the amount of free content you get is INSANE and completely worth it.
That said, unless you're really interested in the story, open world, and characters, I'd still recommend Star Rail over Genshin, and that's coming from someone who usually greatly prefers fantasy and real-time combat to sci-fi and turn-based. It's far, far more generous with its currencies, daily tasks are much quicker to get through, and it's much easier to get through without excessive grinding.
Favourite Male Character: Childe, Kaeya, Alhaitham
Favourite Female Character: Sara
First Character I Liked: Kaeya
Favourite Character Design: Kaeya, Candace
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: Everyone in Liyue fighting back against Osial
Least Favourite Character: Fanon Lumine irritates me, but none in particular in canon
CHARACTERS: A pretty good variety of personalities and outlooks. The protagonist is basically a void who doesn't speak. Paimon, your ever-present 'helper'/companion, is genuinely infuriating. I don't care for the copy-pasted "sleepy girl" (Sayu, Layla) and "overworked woobie" (Jean, Ganyu) archetypes.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Varies, but it's generally pretty great. Paimon's voice is like nails on a chalkboard and I would actively love an option to mute her and her alone.
PLOT: I love the lore and storyline, and I'm genuinely invested in seeing where it goes.
GAMEPLAY: I like it fine. Now that I've had a taste of Honkai: Star Rail's combat I'm not super into going back to Genshin's, but that's just me.
MULTIPLAYER: The four-player co-op is useful and fun for domains and bosses, but there's a ton you can't do in multiplayer that just seems silly. Why can't you do any quests while in multiplayer? Why can't you talk to NPCs?
Overall, I like it. It's gacha, so obviously don't play it if you're prone to gambling, FOMO, or have an addictive personality - if you're able to resist temptation, you should be able to grind for all the currency you need without spending anything. It definitely gets review-bombed and unfairly maligned because of sections of the community and immediate opposition to just the gacha aspect (understandably). If you don't participate in the gacha side of the game, then the amount of free content you get is INSANE and completely worth it.
That said, unless you're really interested in the story, open world, and characters, I'd still recommend Star Rail over Genshin, and that's coming from someone who usually greatly prefers fantasy and real-time combat to sci-fi and turn-based. It's far, far more generous with its currencies, daily tasks are much quicker to get through, and it's much easier to get through without excessive grinding.
Favourite Male Character: Childe, Kaeya, Alhaitham
Favourite Female Character: Sara
First Character I Liked: Kaeya
Favourite Character Design: Kaeya, Candace
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: Everyone in Liyue fighting back against Osial
Least Favourite Character: Fanon Lumine irritates me, but none in particular in canon
2007
Very short and more of a tech demo or proof of concept for its later sequel, but obviously massively impactful on gaming as a whole and on gaming culture. Initial dawning realisation that GLaDOS is sentient and malevolent, and when you first escape the boundaries of the testing chamber, were amazing.
I'll never understand why lines like "The cake is a lie" became the over-memed repeated jokes when there are infinitely funnier and cleverer pieces of dialogue in this game, but so it goes.
I'll never understand why lines like "The cake is a lie" became the over-memed repeated jokes when there are infinitely funnier and cleverer pieces of dialogue in this game, but so it goes.
2013
GRAPHICS: Were breathtaking back at release, still hold up pretty well today.
CHARACTERS: Nothing mind-blowing, but I do like the "each character represents a type of GTA player" concept. I never bought into the Trevor obsession and just found him kinda gross personally, but Michael and Franklin had their charming and funny moments. Background characters are all pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical, especially Michael's family, but that's par for the course with GTA.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Can't complain about the VAs, they all did their jobs admirably, though nothing stands out to me as notable.
PLOT: Again, nothing mind-blowing for me, but interesting and engaging enough to keep me playing through the story.
GAMEPLAY: A little awkward/clunky at times in that typical Rockstar way, but it didn't frustrate me overly much.
MULTIPLAYER: Had and has a thriving online mode that is still being maintained to this day, and has a vast modding scene. The economy is absolutely screwed and it's difficult to get into now -- the griefers/hackers drain the fun out of it and unless you're playing with friends it gets boring fast when you can't really do anything because everything costs millions of in-game dollars in 2023.
Overall, it's fine, but overrated. It's been a decade, they need to stop milking GTA V and focus on the actual next game. If they re-release V on yet another platform they'd better get the same amount of mockery as Bethesda re-releasing Skyrim a dozen times.
CHARACTERS: Nothing mind-blowing, but I do like the "each character represents a type of GTA player" concept. I never bought into the Trevor obsession and just found him kinda gross personally, but Michael and Franklin had their charming and funny moments. Background characters are all pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical, especially Michael's family, but that's par for the course with GTA.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Can't complain about the VAs, they all did their jobs admirably, though nothing stands out to me as notable.
PLOT: Again, nothing mind-blowing for me, but interesting and engaging enough to keep me playing through the story.
GAMEPLAY: A little awkward/clunky at times in that typical Rockstar way, but it didn't frustrate me overly much.
MULTIPLAYER: Had and has a thriving online mode that is still being maintained to this day, and has a vast modding scene. The economy is absolutely screwed and it's difficult to get into now -- the griefers/hackers drain the fun out of it and unless you're playing with friends it gets boring fast when you can't really do anything because everything costs millions of in-game dollars in 2023.
Overall, it's fine, but overrated. It's been a decade, they need to stop milking GTA V and focus on the actual next game. If they re-release V on yet another platform they'd better get the same amount of mockery as Bethesda re-releasing Skyrim a dozen times.
2018
It's hard to get a full, active lobby going online with strangers in 2023 -- the game's popularity has definitely died a lot. However, if you can get a group of friends going (a full lobby of 10-15 is best) this is SO much fun.
Always worth playing a bit regardless because of how memetically impactful this game was (not many games have fundamentally changed language and slang like this one has), but otherwise it probably won't be engaging for long if you're just playing alone with strangers via the in-game chat.
I always end up going back to this whenever I find people willing to play it with me - it's funny, addictive, and charming.
Always worth playing a bit regardless because of how memetically impactful this game was (not many games have fundamentally changed language and slang like this one has), but otherwise it probably won't be engaging for long if you're just playing alone with strangers via the in-game chat.
I always end up going back to this whenever I find people willing to play it with me - it's funny, addictive, and charming.
GRAPHICS: Gorgeous, obviously. Do these need to be commented on? It's well-known to be one of the most graphically beautiful and detailed games ever made, and it holds up as such to this day.
CHARACTERS: Arthur is widely regarded as one of the best video game characters of all time, and for the most part I have to concur. I'm a John Marston kind of guy myself, but I grew to love Arthur more than I ever could've expected, and he and his writing and development certainly deserve the love and praise they received. I could write you an essay on how vital and important it was for RDR2's protagonist to be a gentle, fundamentally kind-hearted and artistic man in a world of game protagonists who take pride in being violent and "gritty" and apathetic. I loved all of the other characters, too, with some obvious meant-to-be-hated exceptions -- personal favourites are Sean MacGuire and his Irish charm, Karen Jones and her shamelessness, Hosea Matthews and his wise wit, and (a less popular pick) Molly O'Shea and her very overlooked tragedy.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Great, charming, witty -- can't think of any duds in the major cast.
PLOT: Takes a while to get going, but God when it does it blows you away. There's a reason this game had a lot of grown adult gamers crying.
GAMEPLAY: I had far fewer issues with this than others did. I'm accustomed to the sort of clunky RDR style of movement -- sure, sometimes I would try to turn and fall flat on my face over a small stone on the ground instead, but honestly that just added to the hilarity at times -- and I had no particular problem with the slow realism of looting, skinning, opening cupboards, etc. I found it appropriately weighted and immersive.
MULTIPLAYER: There is an online mode to the game, but I haven't dabbled in it much myself. I hear it's not as active or well-maintained as GTA online (obviously), but from what I've seen of others playing it in videos and such it seemed much the same as single-player, just with more chaos. I seem to recall there is something of an Online mode storyline/'campaign' as well for those interested.
Favourite Male Character: Sean
Favourite Female Character: Molly
First Character I Liked: John
Favourite Character Design: Molly
Favourite OST: That's The Way It Is
Favourite Scene: The gang approaching Braithwaite Manor
Least Favourite Character: Micah
CHARACTERS: Arthur is widely regarded as one of the best video game characters of all time, and for the most part I have to concur. I'm a John Marston kind of guy myself, but I grew to love Arthur more than I ever could've expected, and he and his writing and development certainly deserve the love and praise they received. I could write you an essay on how vital and important it was for RDR2's protagonist to be a gentle, fundamentally kind-hearted and artistic man in a world of game protagonists who take pride in being violent and "gritty" and apathetic. I loved all of the other characters, too, with some obvious meant-to-be-hated exceptions -- personal favourites are Sean MacGuire and his Irish charm, Karen Jones and her shamelessness, Hosea Matthews and his wise wit, and (a less popular pick) Molly O'Shea and her very overlooked tragedy.
VOICE ACTING/DIALOGUE: Great, charming, witty -- can't think of any duds in the major cast.
PLOT: Takes a while to get going, but God when it does it blows you away. There's a reason this game had a lot of grown adult gamers crying.
GAMEPLAY: I had far fewer issues with this than others did. I'm accustomed to the sort of clunky RDR style of movement -- sure, sometimes I would try to turn and fall flat on my face over a small stone on the ground instead, but honestly that just added to the hilarity at times -- and I had no particular problem with the slow realism of looting, skinning, opening cupboards, etc. I found it appropriately weighted and immersive.
MULTIPLAYER: There is an online mode to the game, but I haven't dabbled in it much myself. I hear it's not as active or well-maintained as GTA online (obviously), but from what I've seen of others playing it in videos and such it seemed much the same as single-player, just with more chaos. I seem to recall there is something of an Online mode storyline/'campaign' as well for those interested.
Favourite Male Character: Sean
Favourite Female Character: Molly
First Character I Liked: John
Favourite Character Design: Molly
Favourite OST: That's The Way It Is
Favourite Scene: The gang approaching Braithwaite Manor
Least Favourite Character: Micah
2011
The lack of plot and characters make this difficult to review as I usually do games, but man. It's Minecraft.
Me and my high school friends, from around ages 12 to 15, would play this together for hours every day after school, and I still to this day have so many fond memories. It's not a game that immediately comes to mind when I think about my all-time favourites, but after some consideration I believe it warrants a place on that list for its longevity, its sentimental value, how easy it is as a method of bringing people together, and how broad and full of possibilities it is as an avenue for almost any kind of world or game-within-a-game you can think of.
Me and my high school friends, from around ages 12 to 15, would play this together for hours every day after school, and I still to this day have so many fond memories. It's not a game that immediately comes to mind when I think about my all-time favourites, but after some consideration I believe it warrants a place on that list for its longevity, its sentimental value, how easy it is as a method of bringing people together, and how broad and full of possibilities it is as an avenue for almost any kind of world or game-within-a-game you can think of.
2011
Graphics: Clean, fitting for the setting, some moments of genuine surprising beauty such as the first sighting of the overgrown testing facility.
Characters: Glados is as iconic as ever, and Wheatley is a great new addition. Chell continues to be a typical silent protagonist with no real personality of her own, but it's not an issue with a game of this type.
Voice acting and dialogue: All of the voice actors included, particularly the two major VAs behind Glados and Wheatley, are top-notch. Some great delivery of comedic lines adds to the humour.
Plot: Two separate storylines for single-player campaign and co-op, which is a great touch. Both are fun, engaging, and genuinely funny.
Multiplayer: Up to 2-person co-op available, with its own campaign and specially designed multiplayer puzzles. Would heavily advise you to play with someone over call and not with a stranger - communication methods without having a Discord voice chat or something similar up are pretty lacking and could be frustrating.
Characters: Glados is as iconic as ever, and Wheatley is a great new addition. Chell continues to be a typical silent protagonist with no real personality of her own, but it's not an issue with a game of this type.
Voice acting and dialogue: All of the voice actors included, particularly the two major VAs behind Glados and Wheatley, are top-notch. Some great delivery of comedic lines adds to the humour.
Plot: Two separate storylines for single-player campaign and co-op, which is a great touch. Both are fun, engaging, and genuinely funny.
Multiplayer: Up to 2-person co-op available, with its own campaign and specially designed multiplayer puzzles. Would heavily advise you to play with someone over call and not with a stranger - communication methods without having a Discord voice chat or something similar up are pretty lacking and could be frustrating.