First Halo, Now This?

The Goldeneye-esque control might be a turn off for some in 2020, but adjusting is fairly easy and the game's auto-aim is forgiving enough to make the control negligable.

What does make TimeSplitters 2 more difficult to enjoy in a 2020 replay is the lackluster mission design after the third or so level - The game goes from dense and complex in the opening stages to uninteresting, unintuitive, and uninvolved throughout the rest of the bunch.

TimeSplitters 2 does get points for having a dense amount of content by any standard with different challenge modes and bot-enabled multiplayer - TimeSplitters 2 definitely scores some for having custom bind-able controls in 2002; Something modern shooters seem afraid, or just don't care to offer.

The single-player is somewhat more substantial and offers and actual story, but it's not very interesting or funny, and the atmosphere and music isn't as good as TimeSplitters 2, nor does any mission reach the heights of TS2's Siberia.

There's some ambition and interesting attempts at gameplay additions, some cool new weapons and maps, but the slow-feeling movement and stiff modern control settings make me wish I was playing TimeSplitters 2 instead. (Granted, there is an option for more classic style aiming/control, so bonus points)

"It's time to shit" - Vince Diesel

Daggerfall has some excellent atmosphere, just the right amount of 90's DOS stink that I'm a sucker for. Frankly, the combat is whack and not very fun, but I'm willing to put up with it to a point. There's a lot of cool features and freedom, but very quickly the game starts to boil down to endless dungeon crawling bookended by dialogue boxes.

The dungeons themselves aren't very fun or interesting for the most part - A few manage to stick out, but almost all overstay their welcome by a long shot. Had i grown up with this game when it was new, I could see it taking up most of my free-time, but the more modern Elder Scrolls games are simply more fun to play.

I played the Unity port, but am writing my review on this version; While the Unity port makes this game more accessible than ever, I want to assess the game design and not so much the technology behind it. About 20 hours was spent in this game.

ODST experiments with a moody hubworld to varying degrees of success, and goes for a smooth jazz, almost noire cyberpunk style of vibe. The vehicle sections don't land quite as hard as most Halo titles, but the thrilling and short segments of vulnerable ground combat make up for it.

Ironically, despite the shift to more deliberate firefights with smaller quantities of enemies and the player character's physical traits being weakened, ODST is probably the easiest of the franchise, even on Legendary difficulty - Which is to say the encounters are thoughtfully designed around the player's stats to create a tense, but not frustrating campaign that can be briskly ran through in a few sessions. ODST cuts down on the Halo sandbox in an effort to focus on the core of what makes Halo tick, and refreshingly focuses more on small scale, close and intimate combat encounters over the mid-to-long-range "Connect the Dots"-fest later games would trend toward starting with Reach.

The story is technically there, the voice cast is solid, and the story-telling methods are novel, but the real heart and soul of ODST that makes for a convincing world is the best in class soundtrack - Arguably Halo's best.

With Firefight finally being included in the Master Chief Collection, and it getting matchmaking support 11 years later than it should have, ODST is a complete Halo package. It's hard for me to pick many nits with this game, other than pining for a sequel to flesh out the ideas presented here.

what a funny lil game :^)

the atmosphere and aesthetic is real stank and cool, and the voice acting is wonderful

da game is a little jank but surprisingly still playable. It's a short game which i like but it could stand to be a little shorter! lots of padding it feels like, could be a good speedrun

i also did get jumpscared by the funny monsters on more than one occasion, so bonus points for the scary factor