Jamie53824
2013
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played this a fair bit over the last couple of days. Have played it when I was younger and considered it one of my favourites for a long time.
Coming back to it, I don't quite feel the same way about it but I still think its pretty good. The gameplay is actually fun here which is a nice improvement over '12. Its faster and just feels better, there is a slight issue that I have in that unless a heavyweight (or heavier) wrestler is in the match then any moves are basically silent, it makes it feel like there's no impact when using moves which I'm not really a fan of.
30 years of Wrestlemania is a really cool concept and for a while I was quite into it but eventually I got a little tired of it and stopped as it was getting kind of repetitive and losing late into a match meant having to redo the thing again along with the objectives which was just annoying. But I quite liked having the unlockables tied into this mode and acting as rewards for completing the objectives in each match, its probably one of my favourite ways this franchise has handled unlockables. As someone who doesn't watch WWE it was interesting seeing certain things, what and who were popular at various points in time and how weird the whole thing got at times.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The HUD is basically just the '12 one again but there's now a thing that shows how damaged the limbs of an opponent are and its handy to have and I quite like it but I still just wish the game had a normal HUD.
• Create a Superstar seems basically the same as the one in '12 which is good.
• I kind of like the music even if its not my usual kind of thing but its weird to me how songs cut off after a while, I get these are supposed to be the various wrestlers' themes and it makes sense for them to eventually cut out but it doesn't feel right and it sort of ruins it when I've been enjoying the song.
I think this game is good, it was a bit of a shock coming back to it as I didn't realise how similar it is to some of the older ones. I mean both when I was younger and now I've just sort of gone straight from '12 to this and skipped over '13, but I remember it feeling like such an upgrade. I definitely think its better than '12 by a fair bit though and I think its quite enjoyable. I could see me coming back to this one a lot.
Played this a fair bit over the last couple of days. Have played it when I was younger and considered it one of my favourites for a long time.
Coming back to it, I don't quite feel the same way about it but I still think its pretty good. The gameplay is actually fun here which is a nice improvement over '12. Its faster and just feels better, there is a slight issue that I have in that unless a heavyweight (or heavier) wrestler is in the match then any moves are basically silent, it makes it feel like there's no impact when using moves which I'm not really a fan of.
30 years of Wrestlemania is a really cool concept and for a while I was quite into it but eventually I got a little tired of it and stopped as it was getting kind of repetitive and losing late into a match meant having to redo the thing again along with the objectives which was just annoying. But I quite liked having the unlockables tied into this mode and acting as rewards for completing the objectives in each match, its probably one of my favourite ways this franchise has handled unlockables. As someone who doesn't watch WWE it was interesting seeing certain things, what and who were popular at various points in time and how weird the whole thing got at times.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The HUD is basically just the '12 one again but there's now a thing that shows how damaged the limbs of an opponent are and its handy to have and I quite like it but I still just wish the game had a normal HUD.
• Create a Superstar seems basically the same as the one in '12 which is good.
• I kind of like the music even if its not my usual kind of thing but its weird to me how songs cut off after a while, I get these are supposed to be the various wrestlers' themes and it makes sense for them to eventually cut out but it doesn't feel right and it sort of ruins it when I've been enjoying the song.
I think this game is good, it was a bit of a shock coming back to it as I didn't realise how similar it is to some of the older ones. I mean both when I was younger and now I've just sort of gone straight from '12 to this and skipped over '13, but I remember it feeling like such an upgrade. I definitely think its better than '12 by a fair bit though and I think its quite enjoyable. I could see me coming back to this one a lot.
2011
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played this for a couple of hours over the last couple of days. Did play it when I was younger but don't really have any memories of it outside of getting it.
So, I have missed three games and while I may get to them in the future, if there's something about this game that was not in 2007 or 2008 that I want to talk about, then I'll still bring it up even if I know it did not originate in this game. Not that I think there's much to discuss here.
This game is kind of boring. It feels unpleasant to play, just slow and kind of awkward which 2008 also had but it feels so much worse here. Some improvements seem to have been made, the tap any button thing is only for submissions now and that's fine, I prefer it over the submission minigame in 2008. There's also a new minigame for pins which is to hold a button until it reaches a small shaded in part of a bar and then release the button in that bar, I kind of like it.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The lack of a HUD is something I really don't like, while there may be other types of games that I'm fine if they don't have a HUD, a wrestling game isn't one of them. The only thing is the bar that shows the player how close they are to getting a signature move.
• I started Road To Wrestlemania which actually seemed pretty interesting and kind of out there which was quite fun but the gameplay not being good made it so that I didn't want to put time into this mode to see it through a lot further than a few matches.
• Create a superstar is good and something that is pretty neat that I don't think was a thing in 2007 & 2008 is a lack of restrictions when it comes to customising wrestlers, in that anything present in this mode can be used by either Superstars or Divas.
• Difficulty seems fine but due to the gameplay, the game felt like a slog no matter what difficulty it was on.
• Character select screen is exactly what I think this series should have, having all the pictures at once and not having to cycle through them one by one.
Its a fine game I think, but compared to some of the other WWE games there's just no reason for me to come back to it, the one thing would have been the story mode but I could just watch the cutscenes on YouTube and probably have a better time. I don't really see me picking this up again.
Played this for a couple of hours over the last couple of days. Did play it when I was younger but don't really have any memories of it outside of getting it.
So, I have missed three games and while I may get to them in the future, if there's something about this game that was not in 2007 or 2008 that I want to talk about, then I'll still bring it up even if I know it did not originate in this game. Not that I think there's much to discuss here.
This game is kind of boring. It feels unpleasant to play, just slow and kind of awkward which 2008 also had but it feels so much worse here. Some improvements seem to have been made, the tap any button thing is only for submissions now and that's fine, I prefer it over the submission minigame in 2008. There's also a new minigame for pins which is to hold a button until it reaches a small shaded in part of a bar and then release the button in that bar, I kind of like it.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The lack of a HUD is something I really don't like, while there may be other types of games that I'm fine if they don't have a HUD, a wrestling game isn't one of them. The only thing is the bar that shows the player how close they are to getting a signature move.
• I started Road To Wrestlemania which actually seemed pretty interesting and kind of out there which was quite fun but the gameplay not being good made it so that I didn't want to put time into this mode to see it through a lot further than a few matches.
• Create a superstar is good and something that is pretty neat that I don't think was a thing in 2007 & 2008 is a lack of restrictions when it comes to customising wrestlers, in that anything present in this mode can be used by either Superstars or Divas.
• Difficulty seems fine but due to the gameplay, the game felt like a slog no matter what difficulty it was on.
• Character select screen is exactly what I think this series should have, having all the pictures at once and not having to cycle through them one by one.
Its a fine game I think, but compared to some of the other WWE games there's just no reason for me to come back to it, the one thing would have been the story mode but I could just watch the cutscenes on YouTube and probably have a better time. I don't really see me picking this up again.
2014
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played this for a bit because I was in the mood and also to write this. Have played since 2017 consistently for about 3 years before taking a break and only properly coming back towards the end of last year.
My relationship with this game has varied over the years, after getting Sims 4, it became my main Sims game and I could very easily consider it my favourite of the franchise, but due to a bit too much time with parts of the fanbase of this franchise, I found myself questioning this. I took a couple of years away from these games (only playing every once in a while and not for too long) and after coming back I'm kind of where I started again. To my knowledge this is my favourite Sims game and one of my favourite games of all time, I am aware of a lot of the issues this game has but I had it in my head that there were far more problems because thats what other people were saying and I just don't think I agree with this.
To start off with the music is pretty nice, I think I prefer it over Sims 3 which surprises me a fair bit but I don't think I quite like it as much as the music from Sims 1 or Sims 2. During CAS a lot of the music feels kind of spooky or Halloween themed which is very strange but I really like it.
This game also has my favourite artstyle in the franchise as it just looks so nice and colourful, but I also just think that it looks really good and I don't really think it'll age poorly either.
Create-A-Sim is at its best here for me due to a lot of different things, the amount of customisation has increased again but this time you can make certain body parts bigger and smaller by holding the left mouse button and moving it in a certain direction to adjust something the way you want it. This is such a simple way of doing things but it works so well.
There's also less restrictions on some things, as now a sim can basically wear anything, at any time regardless of gender. Not everything looks great and while I can, I don't exactly put my sim in swimwear for a formal event or whatever, but the fact you can do things like this is really handy at times and just a great addition. Another new addition is that you can now add specific aspects to sims, like who they're attracted to, whether or not they can give birth, more options for different gender identities (even if it is kind of stuck with the whole male/female jumping point to start off from) and what things they like and dislike (e.g, sports, activities, types of music). I really like this as it makes each sim feel more unique in a way that doesn't feel quite as restrictive as the turn ons and turn offs from Sims 2. The likes and dislikes can be either chosen from CAS or obtained whilst playing the game, its not the most organic feeling thing in the world and a sims who you've planned to be a singer could realise they dislike singing, but thankfully you've got the option to reject a like or dislike when it comes up.
But going back to CAS, the clothing and hairstyles collection in this game is probably my favourite in any video game. Due to me believing I needed every expansion pack and game pack for a while (which thankfully dissipated during a break from the franchise after the University pack) it means that I've amassed a wide selection and it all looks so nice, there's so much variety due to the different types of clothing from each pack. One of the main ways I can justify having gotten a pack that nowadays I wouldn't have picked up due to lack of interest is that I tend to use a lot of the CAS items from it. Admittedly some of the older hairstyles look a little rough but they've managed to make better ones as more time has passed.
Create-A-Style from The Sims 3 is gone and while I didn't really use it all that much, it was still nice to have and I'm a little surprised its not in this game. There seems to have been an attempt to add different versions of clothes to make up for it and I do quite like the variants for a lot of the clothes, but in some cases an outfit will look nice but there isn't any version of it I like. I will say though, if Create-A-Style is gone because that was the reason why Sims 3 CAS ran like shit and took so long, then I am very much ok with it not being in this game.
Another thing that I think was done better by Sims 3 are traits, they're back again (thank fuck) but there's only three slots rather than 5 which I'm not overly upset about but it is quite limiting and I do wish that it was still 5 or at the very least the amount of slots was up to the player or something. My real issue though is the amount of traits themselves, when I was playing I had all the packs I own installed which was, every expansion up to and including Discover University, every game pack up to and including Realm of Magic, around 5 stuff packs and 2-3 kits (I only bought like two stuff packs and the rest is just whatever they gave away for free) and while I don't know for certain, it very much seemed like there were a lot less traits than the selection in Sims 3's base game going off of when I played it recently. This is honestly embarrassing to me and not even remotely enough, even if they had to reuse traits from Sims 3 I wouldn't care, I find myself constantly reusing the same ones and its just annoying. The worst thing is that in Sims 3 I like to try and have some variety in what I choose, two positive traits, two negative traits and one thats skill based (or at least something like that). In Sims 4 I just don't feel like I can do that as much and unless I make a bunch of sims at once and can have a wider variety in what I choose, it just makes a few of the traits feel like they would be a waste of a slot.
Build/Buy mode is mostly the same but just improved upon again, the amount of items to use is great and some things are a really big help (computer desk that only takes up one square is the most notable for me). Being able to drag a wall to extend it is a great addition. Having a search function is so good. Auto-roofing is not a thing (from what I can tell) when I'm pretty sure it was in one of the older games and I sort of wish it was, I suck at making roofs in these games and if I have the option to not do it then I'll take it.
The game is mostly the same Sims gameplay loop but there's a few new things, multitasking is something that feels so more natural, now that a sim can be at a computer, listening to music and every so often just having a quick conversation with another sim. Emotions are easily manipulated and can create some annoyance with the likes and dislikes system (a painter sim can be bored after having watched a crap film and then if they do some art in this state they may decide they don't like painting anymore which is sort of irritating, but as said earlier it can be rejected) but otherwise I do kind of like them.
As time has gone on more systems and the like have been changed or added to the game, Likes & Dislikes got added, Whims became Wants & Fears and story progression got added. While its nice they've tried to add this stuff, half of it doesn't work and if it couldn't be ignored or turned off in the settings it would be far more of a pain. But, in all honesty I preferred it when the game didn't have this stuff as the game seemed to work better and it really only feels like it got added because of complaints from people who never would have been satisfied in the first place, it just feels like a waste.
Speaking of systems from this game, a few got added by various packs and this game is probably my favourite for the packs as there are quite a few that I love and feel like they really add something substantial to the game. There's the usual mainstays, like Seasons which is my favourite version due to the inclusion of holidays and the calender. Being able to celebrate multiple different holidays (some real, some not) is quite fun and feels like a natural progression of the festivals in Sims 3 where it feels like it adds to the experiences Sims can have in their lives (celebrating with family and friends, on their own, in a new or familar home). But also being able to edit them and make your own is great and is one of the few examples of this game really letting the player have their own way with customisation.
I have similar sentiments for the festivals in City Living, as while there aren't that many and they're probably not the best thing to do over and over again. They still provide fun experiences like finding stuff at the flea market, getting into a friendly competition at the humour n hijinks festival and finding love at the romance festival. But the real highlight from this pack for me is the city, I think San Myshuno is easily one of if not my favourite worlds in this franchise. I'm already a big fan of the cities in these games but this just feels great, the lot traits of the apartments, the karaoke bar and of course the festivals. One more thing I really like from this pack is the ability for sims to work from home for certain jobs, while being an author, artist or musician have always been viable options as jobs in the franchise, I think Sims 4 really does try and make a few more options in having different types of careers that feel and play differently. Even outside of this pack there's the freelancer career, registering with the Ministry of Labor to make certain careers feel more professional and Get To Work.
I came a couple of years late to Sims 4 and even with that Get To Work was the first pack I got for the game and I'm really happy it was. I think being able to go to work with your sims was a common fantasy for a lot of sims players including myself and I think this pack does it as well as it could. Sims 3 did have this with Ambitions but it just got old so quickly and the professions could just get so repetitive. In this pack there's a neat sense of progression meaning you're doing different things as you rank up in the careers and going from, say, cleaning up mess in the hospital and giving the patients their food to actually diagnosing patients and being able to cure whatever ails them is a great way of doing it. The three careers feel different enough from each other so it makes any of them feel unique and more fun. I do slightly wish that there were more active careers though. Running a shop is good fun as well and can feel pretty hectic at times.
Get Famous is easily my favourite celebrity style pack as the acting career is a nice return to the active careers and while it could get kind of repetitive and not work at times it was still pretty good. Fame and reputation are two very neat additions that really add to the mark your sim may leave in the world, also I really like all the different ways a sim can get famous as they all make sense on some level and it helps not make becoming a celebrity get too tedious or boring. The content creator career path is also something that I quite enjoy although there's not much to it I think.
The last expansion pack that I have very positive feelings towards is Get Together which I don't think resembles any of the other packs in the older games and that's part of why I like it so much. Over the years I repeatedly saw people asking for redos of basically everything from the older games and while that's fine and all and it lead to some good shit, I do kind of prefer when the game goes out on a limb and tries something different. Its not even a completely out there conept like Into The Future was but it still felt new. The club system is one of the best things to come to the franchise as it just fits in so well with these games, having your sims be able to join clubs and just hang out with like-minded people is already really nice but the level of customisation really makes it feel like it could be used for so much more. You could make a proffesional club, something a bit more light-hearted like a kids club, a cult, a small group that has a rivalry with another group and even making a bunch of people clean and fix your shit for free under the guise of it being a 'club gathering' is what makes this system work so well in my opinion. This is then made even better by Windenburg being a great world and the CAS being one of the best (for me at least) outside of maybe Discover University, Seasons and Cats & Dogs. This is probably my favourite expansion pack from this game and maybe even in the series in all honesty, I just really love it.
This isn't to say I dislike the rest of the expansion packs, I actually really like Discover University and think that it manages to offer a fun and different gameplay experience from not only the standard gameplay loop but also Sims 3's one from University Life. The only thing is that I just think UL is a better pack. Cats & Dogs is fine, I somewhat like the vet career and the animals are pretty cute, its just not often that I enjoy playing with pets in these games. The only expansion pack I kind of regret getting is Island Living as I just don't use it, I do want to properly play with it at some stage as the world seems like it would be pretty different but I never get round to it. Odd jobs and the CAS are good though so that's at least something.
A new type of pack for this entry are the game packs and I think these are for the most part pretty decent. The best ones I think are easily the Vampires and Realm of Magic pack because they put more effort into these supernaturals as they weren't just an add-on to a bigger expansion pack or all squeezed in together in to a single expansion pack and I think this was a good experiment that in my opinion worked out pretty well. Playing with vampires and spellcasters is enjoyable as there's quite a bit to do with them and it makes them actually fun and a nice change of pace from playing with regular sims.
I also quite like Dine Out (despite its issues) and Parenthood as the Character Values system is a really good addition to me as I don't normally like playing with child sims but this make it genuinely interesting. Outdoor Retreat, Jungle Adventure & Strangerville are fine and are somewhat interesting but I've only played with each like once and while I had a good time I haven't really gone back to any of them. Spa Day is really only saved by a couple of the items and the CAS, this is probably the purchase I regret most but at least I can use it as an example to myself to not get other packs I don't give a shit about (not that I think I would anymore anyway).
Stuff packs I don't really bother with but the two I bought (Cool Kitchen Stuff and Movie Hangout stuff) I really don't regret as I use items from both of those all the time. Kits are also new to this game and if one is free, I'll pick it up and that's it. There's probably a conversation to be had about it but considering The Sims Store in Sims 3 and the fact that EA seems to have been a money-hungry company for a while now and they only seem to be getting worse as time goes on, it just seems kind of pointless. I will say though I do feel somewhat ambivalent towards kits as I've seen good arguements for and against them but eh.
Something that is kind of questionable though is the state this game is in, it usually has some kind of annoying glitch. Simulation lag is a pretty annoying one that's quite common (although I haven't suffered it much for this playthrough), sims being more likely to cheat on each other (I just didn't go for a romance because of this, but I had this at one stage with a sim who had the loyal trait and I kind of hate this glitch) and sometimes theres a slowdown of sorts that needs to be fixed by pausing and un-pausing the game (didn't get this one either this time). It feels like it has gotten worse over the years but its not often or bad enough for me to be too affected (it happens every once in a while or so) and its not as broken for me as Sims 3 is.
Another thing to talk about after having talked about the packs is how much money needs to go into this game for it to get fun. The base game has gone free in the last couple of years which I think is a good idea (even though I think the base game itself is fine) but it was originally a full priced game and then its charging quite a bit for all of the packs. So before my break, I did get a fair few of the packs and after looking a couple of months ago, I've found out just exactly how much money has gone into this game and I don't exactly mind. I love this game and so I've played it a lot and I have basically gained something from every pack even if I no longer think it was worth it, so for me overall the amount gone in has been easily worth it. It also helps that I only ever bought like one or two game packs full price and literally everything else I got was on sale for usually half price, I don't really think the expansion packs are worth £34.99 each but £17.49 is definitely acceptable to me. So taking all of this into account, I think the game is fun anyway but the things brought in by the packs are so good that I don't really mind it for the most part. I think the packs have been the best they've ever been and if its less than half a new game (or from what I've seen about less than two thirds nowadays) (also remembering that I think of these packs at their sale price and they go on sale every five minutes, but I do think the game should have a permanent price cut where everything goes to the usual sale price) and also gives me a ton more playtime with the game, not mentioning the fact that I can just research online whether I want a pack or not, I do think its fine and what the DLC should be doing anyway.
To sort of finish a bit more positively there are once again improvements and general QOL changes from the last game, not quite as many as the jump from Sims 2 to Sims 3 but still. Choosing a career straight from the phone and having all of them available is very nice, also not being restricted to a single world in a save file and being able to go to any of them is an incredibly good addition. It has become really easy to check what age an NPC is and what their traits are after you learn them, there's now two relationship bars again but rather than a lifetime relationship bar and a daily one, its now a much more simple friendship bar and romance bar. Many little conveniences have been added as well like, locking your computer so no one else can use it and choosing which sinks are for washing hands and which are for washing dishes.
But something that I consider an improvement is the difficulty of the game as its now the easiest one, There feels like there's more free time to do stuff without needing to tend to your needs and less surprises happen in the game, it has basically become really good as I've always liked having a fair bit of control over what happens in the game and don't really like it when things go to plan. So even though I think we should get to a point in the series where things like needs decaying, random events and how easy it is to get/lose money or whatever have settings which can be adjusted so that players can make the game the want they want it. I'm just happy that there is an entry in the franchise that caters to my preferred play style.
This game is far from perfect and I really do think that the issues it has should be fixed before EA moves onto the next entry, but it'll probably just get abandoned in a less than desired state. Still though for now my problems with it aren't too big and this game has brought me so many great times and has just been a constant source of fun for me when I play it. I love this game and feel more than comfortable calling it one of my favourites of all time.
Played this for a bit because I was in the mood and also to write this. Have played since 2017 consistently for about 3 years before taking a break and only properly coming back towards the end of last year.
My relationship with this game has varied over the years, after getting Sims 4, it became my main Sims game and I could very easily consider it my favourite of the franchise, but due to a bit too much time with parts of the fanbase of this franchise, I found myself questioning this. I took a couple of years away from these games (only playing every once in a while and not for too long) and after coming back I'm kind of where I started again. To my knowledge this is my favourite Sims game and one of my favourite games of all time, I am aware of a lot of the issues this game has but I had it in my head that there were far more problems because thats what other people were saying and I just don't think I agree with this.
To start off with the music is pretty nice, I think I prefer it over Sims 3 which surprises me a fair bit but I don't think I quite like it as much as the music from Sims 1 or Sims 2. During CAS a lot of the music feels kind of spooky or Halloween themed which is very strange but I really like it.
This game also has my favourite artstyle in the franchise as it just looks so nice and colourful, but I also just think that it looks really good and I don't really think it'll age poorly either.
Create-A-Sim is at its best here for me due to a lot of different things, the amount of customisation has increased again but this time you can make certain body parts bigger and smaller by holding the left mouse button and moving it in a certain direction to adjust something the way you want it. This is such a simple way of doing things but it works so well.
There's also less restrictions on some things, as now a sim can basically wear anything, at any time regardless of gender. Not everything looks great and while I can, I don't exactly put my sim in swimwear for a formal event or whatever, but the fact you can do things like this is really handy at times and just a great addition. Another new addition is that you can now add specific aspects to sims, like who they're attracted to, whether or not they can give birth, more options for different gender identities (even if it is kind of stuck with the whole male/female jumping point to start off from) and what things they like and dislike (e.g, sports, activities, types of music). I really like this as it makes each sim feel more unique in a way that doesn't feel quite as restrictive as the turn ons and turn offs from Sims 2. The likes and dislikes can be either chosen from CAS or obtained whilst playing the game, its not the most organic feeling thing in the world and a sims who you've planned to be a singer could realise they dislike singing, but thankfully you've got the option to reject a like or dislike when it comes up.
But going back to CAS, the clothing and hairstyles collection in this game is probably my favourite in any video game. Due to me believing I needed every expansion pack and game pack for a while (which thankfully dissipated during a break from the franchise after the University pack) it means that I've amassed a wide selection and it all looks so nice, there's so much variety due to the different types of clothing from each pack. One of the main ways I can justify having gotten a pack that nowadays I wouldn't have picked up due to lack of interest is that I tend to use a lot of the CAS items from it. Admittedly some of the older hairstyles look a little rough but they've managed to make better ones as more time has passed.
Create-A-Style from The Sims 3 is gone and while I didn't really use it all that much, it was still nice to have and I'm a little surprised its not in this game. There seems to have been an attempt to add different versions of clothes to make up for it and I do quite like the variants for a lot of the clothes, but in some cases an outfit will look nice but there isn't any version of it I like. I will say though, if Create-A-Style is gone because that was the reason why Sims 3 CAS ran like shit and took so long, then I am very much ok with it not being in this game.
Another thing that I think was done better by Sims 3 are traits, they're back again (thank fuck) but there's only three slots rather than 5 which I'm not overly upset about but it is quite limiting and I do wish that it was still 5 or at the very least the amount of slots was up to the player or something. My real issue though is the amount of traits themselves, when I was playing I had all the packs I own installed which was, every expansion up to and including Discover University, every game pack up to and including Realm of Magic, around 5 stuff packs and 2-3 kits (I only bought like two stuff packs and the rest is just whatever they gave away for free) and while I don't know for certain, it very much seemed like there were a lot less traits than the selection in Sims 3's base game going off of when I played it recently. This is honestly embarrassing to me and not even remotely enough, even if they had to reuse traits from Sims 3 I wouldn't care, I find myself constantly reusing the same ones and its just annoying. The worst thing is that in Sims 3 I like to try and have some variety in what I choose, two positive traits, two negative traits and one thats skill based (or at least something like that). In Sims 4 I just don't feel like I can do that as much and unless I make a bunch of sims at once and can have a wider variety in what I choose, it just makes a few of the traits feel like they would be a waste of a slot.
Build/Buy mode is mostly the same but just improved upon again, the amount of items to use is great and some things are a really big help (computer desk that only takes up one square is the most notable for me). Being able to drag a wall to extend it is a great addition. Having a search function is so good. Auto-roofing is not a thing (from what I can tell) when I'm pretty sure it was in one of the older games and I sort of wish it was, I suck at making roofs in these games and if I have the option to not do it then I'll take it.
The game is mostly the same Sims gameplay loop but there's a few new things, multitasking is something that feels so more natural, now that a sim can be at a computer, listening to music and every so often just having a quick conversation with another sim. Emotions are easily manipulated and can create some annoyance with the likes and dislikes system (a painter sim can be bored after having watched a crap film and then if they do some art in this state they may decide they don't like painting anymore which is sort of irritating, but as said earlier it can be rejected) but otherwise I do kind of like them.
As time has gone on more systems and the like have been changed or added to the game, Likes & Dislikes got added, Whims became Wants & Fears and story progression got added. While its nice they've tried to add this stuff, half of it doesn't work and if it couldn't be ignored or turned off in the settings it would be far more of a pain. But, in all honesty I preferred it when the game didn't have this stuff as the game seemed to work better and it really only feels like it got added because of complaints from people who never would have been satisfied in the first place, it just feels like a waste.
Speaking of systems from this game, a few got added by various packs and this game is probably my favourite for the packs as there are quite a few that I love and feel like they really add something substantial to the game. There's the usual mainstays, like Seasons which is my favourite version due to the inclusion of holidays and the calender. Being able to celebrate multiple different holidays (some real, some not) is quite fun and feels like a natural progression of the festivals in Sims 3 where it feels like it adds to the experiences Sims can have in their lives (celebrating with family and friends, on their own, in a new or familar home). But also being able to edit them and make your own is great and is one of the few examples of this game really letting the player have their own way with customisation.
I have similar sentiments for the festivals in City Living, as while there aren't that many and they're probably not the best thing to do over and over again. They still provide fun experiences like finding stuff at the flea market, getting into a friendly competition at the humour n hijinks festival and finding love at the romance festival. But the real highlight from this pack for me is the city, I think San Myshuno is easily one of if not my favourite worlds in this franchise. I'm already a big fan of the cities in these games but this just feels great, the lot traits of the apartments, the karaoke bar and of course the festivals. One more thing I really like from this pack is the ability for sims to work from home for certain jobs, while being an author, artist or musician have always been viable options as jobs in the franchise, I think Sims 4 really does try and make a few more options in having different types of careers that feel and play differently. Even outside of this pack there's the freelancer career, registering with the Ministry of Labor to make certain careers feel more professional and Get To Work.
I came a couple of years late to Sims 4 and even with that Get To Work was the first pack I got for the game and I'm really happy it was. I think being able to go to work with your sims was a common fantasy for a lot of sims players including myself and I think this pack does it as well as it could. Sims 3 did have this with Ambitions but it just got old so quickly and the professions could just get so repetitive. In this pack there's a neat sense of progression meaning you're doing different things as you rank up in the careers and going from, say, cleaning up mess in the hospital and giving the patients their food to actually diagnosing patients and being able to cure whatever ails them is a great way of doing it. The three careers feel different enough from each other so it makes any of them feel unique and more fun. I do slightly wish that there were more active careers though. Running a shop is good fun as well and can feel pretty hectic at times.
Get Famous is easily my favourite celebrity style pack as the acting career is a nice return to the active careers and while it could get kind of repetitive and not work at times it was still pretty good. Fame and reputation are two very neat additions that really add to the mark your sim may leave in the world, also I really like all the different ways a sim can get famous as they all make sense on some level and it helps not make becoming a celebrity get too tedious or boring. The content creator career path is also something that I quite enjoy although there's not much to it I think.
The last expansion pack that I have very positive feelings towards is Get Together which I don't think resembles any of the other packs in the older games and that's part of why I like it so much. Over the years I repeatedly saw people asking for redos of basically everything from the older games and while that's fine and all and it lead to some good shit, I do kind of prefer when the game goes out on a limb and tries something different. Its not even a completely out there conept like Into The Future was but it still felt new. The club system is one of the best things to come to the franchise as it just fits in so well with these games, having your sims be able to join clubs and just hang out with like-minded people is already really nice but the level of customisation really makes it feel like it could be used for so much more. You could make a proffesional club, something a bit more light-hearted like a kids club, a cult, a small group that has a rivalry with another group and even making a bunch of people clean and fix your shit for free under the guise of it being a 'club gathering' is what makes this system work so well in my opinion. This is then made even better by Windenburg being a great world and the CAS being one of the best (for me at least) outside of maybe Discover University, Seasons and Cats & Dogs. This is probably my favourite expansion pack from this game and maybe even in the series in all honesty, I just really love it.
This isn't to say I dislike the rest of the expansion packs, I actually really like Discover University and think that it manages to offer a fun and different gameplay experience from not only the standard gameplay loop but also Sims 3's one from University Life. The only thing is that I just think UL is a better pack. Cats & Dogs is fine, I somewhat like the vet career and the animals are pretty cute, its just not often that I enjoy playing with pets in these games. The only expansion pack I kind of regret getting is Island Living as I just don't use it, I do want to properly play with it at some stage as the world seems like it would be pretty different but I never get round to it. Odd jobs and the CAS are good though so that's at least something.
A new type of pack for this entry are the game packs and I think these are for the most part pretty decent. The best ones I think are easily the Vampires and Realm of Magic pack because they put more effort into these supernaturals as they weren't just an add-on to a bigger expansion pack or all squeezed in together in to a single expansion pack and I think this was a good experiment that in my opinion worked out pretty well. Playing with vampires and spellcasters is enjoyable as there's quite a bit to do with them and it makes them actually fun and a nice change of pace from playing with regular sims.
I also quite like Dine Out (despite its issues) and Parenthood as the Character Values system is a really good addition to me as I don't normally like playing with child sims but this make it genuinely interesting. Outdoor Retreat, Jungle Adventure & Strangerville are fine and are somewhat interesting but I've only played with each like once and while I had a good time I haven't really gone back to any of them. Spa Day is really only saved by a couple of the items and the CAS, this is probably the purchase I regret most but at least I can use it as an example to myself to not get other packs I don't give a shit about (not that I think I would anymore anyway).
Stuff packs I don't really bother with but the two I bought (Cool Kitchen Stuff and Movie Hangout stuff) I really don't regret as I use items from both of those all the time. Kits are also new to this game and if one is free, I'll pick it up and that's it. There's probably a conversation to be had about it but considering The Sims Store in Sims 3 and the fact that EA seems to have been a money-hungry company for a while now and they only seem to be getting worse as time goes on, it just seems kind of pointless. I will say though I do feel somewhat ambivalent towards kits as I've seen good arguements for and against them but eh.
Something that is kind of questionable though is the state this game is in, it usually has some kind of annoying glitch. Simulation lag is a pretty annoying one that's quite common (although I haven't suffered it much for this playthrough), sims being more likely to cheat on each other (I just didn't go for a romance because of this, but I had this at one stage with a sim who had the loyal trait and I kind of hate this glitch) and sometimes theres a slowdown of sorts that needs to be fixed by pausing and un-pausing the game (didn't get this one either this time). It feels like it has gotten worse over the years but its not often or bad enough for me to be too affected (it happens every once in a while or so) and its not as broken for me as Sims 3 is.
Another thing to talk about after having talked about the packs is how much money needs to go into this game for it to get fun. The base game has gone free in the last couple of years which I think is a good idea (even though I think the base game itself is fine) but it was originally a full priced game and then its charging quite a bit for all of the packs. So before my break, I did get a fair few of the packs and after looking a couple of months ago, I've found out just exactly how much money has gone into this game and I don't exactly mind. I love this game and so I've played it a lot and I have basically gained something from every pack even if I no longer think it was worth it, so for me overall the amount gone in has been easily worth it. It also helps that I only ever bought like one or two game packs full price and literally everything else I got was on sale for usually half price, I don't really think the expansion packs are worth £34.99 each but £17.49 is definitely acceptable to me. So taking all of this into account, I think the game is fun anyway but the things brought in by the packs are so good that I don't really mind it for the most part. I think the packs have been the best they've ever been and if its less than half a new game (or from what I've seen about less than two thirds nowadays) (also remembering that I think of these packs at their sale price and they go on sale every five minutes, but I do think the game should have a permanent price cut where everything goes to the usual sale price) and also gives me a ton more playtime with the game, not mentioning the fact that I can just research online whether I want a pack or not, I do think its fine and what the DLC should be doing anyway.
To sort of finish a bit more positively there are once again improvements and general QOL changes from the last game, not quite as many as the jump from Sims 2 to Sims 3 but still. Choosing a career straight from the phone and having all of them available is very nice, also not being restricted to a single world in a save file and being able to go to any of them is an incredibly good addition. It has become really easy to check what age an NPC is and what their traits are after you learn them, there's now two relationship bars again but rather than a lifetime relationship bar and a daily one, its now a much more simple friendship bar and romance bar. Many little conveniences have been added as well like, locking your computer so no one else can use it and choosing which sinks are for washing hands and which are for washing dishes.
But something that I consider an improvement is the difficulty of the game as its now the easiest one, There feels like there's more free time to do stuff without needing to tend to your needs and less surprises happen in the game, it has basically become really good as I've always liked having a fair bit of control over what happens in the game and don't really like it when things go to plan. So even though I think we should get to a point in the series where things like needs decaying, random events and how easy it is to get/lose money or whatever have settings which can be adjusted so that players can make the game the want they want it. I'm just happy that there is an entry in the franchise that caters to my preferred play style.
This game is far from perfect and I really do think that the issues it has should be fixed before EA moves onto the next entry, but it'll probably just get abandoned in a less than desired state. Still though for now my problems with it aren't too big and this game has brought me so many great times and has just been a constant source of fun for me when I play it. I love this game and feel more than comfortable calling it one of my favourites of all time.
2009
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played for over a couple of days because I was in the mood for it and also I wanted to write this. Have played this a lot over the last 10 years and it was my first PC Sims game. Will be like what I wrote for This Sims 2 and will look at how this game feels while taking the rest of the franchise into account rather than trying to look at it on its own or for when it came out.
To start off with, I really like this game and due to it not only being an important milestone in my history of The Sims but also my main Sims game for a fair few years, I'm a bit more positive towards it compared to a few of the other games in the series. With that said though I'm still going to note what issues I have with it.
But first is Create-A-Sim and its a massive improvement over the previous games, there are so many options when it comes to customising your sims, you can make a supernatural sim straight from CAS and there's been an overhaul of the personality system. The points are gone and now there's traits, I really like the traits and I think its the best way of giving sims distinct personalities. While I was playing I saw sims dumpster diving, wanting to tell my sim their plot to take over the world and when speaking to a couple I would learn one of their traits which made me re-evaluate how I was interacting with them (a sim I was considering as the romantic partner for my sim turned out to be unflirty so I decided to scrap my plan and go for someone else). There are a lot of traits to choose from (I was playing base game only and was surprised by just how many there were) and having 5 slots makes it so the sims feel more multifaceted in their personality, even with all the years I've played I still haven't used them all and there are some that I could easily see bringing a new way of playing (like a challenge of sorts). The aspirations have now been replaced by lifetime wishes that also have a fair amount to choose from and I'm also a fan of.
I quite like how the sims look in this game (although I do think that I prefer how they look in other games) and I don't really have the issue of creating sims that look alike, because altering specific parts of them feels like it works quite well and is quite simple. The hair and outfits are generally good and there's a good amount that I really like but due to the time the game/expansions came out, some things are very much a product of their time and in all honesty just look really bad to me but there's enough choice so that I don't have to feel like I choose a hair or outfit I don't like.
Unfortunately though CAS and the game as a whole can have a pretty big problem and that's how it runs. While I don't use a gaming PC or laptop and never have done, the laptops I have had over the years (including my current one) are at the recommended specs of the game (at least going off of what it says on the EA App thing) and yet the game can run pretty terribly if I try to use more than 2 or so packs. If I have more than this then the game will run very slowly and start crashing after about an hour and a half of playtime in a save and CAS will take ages to load all of the clothing options, making choosing outfits in this game feel very annoying and not worth doing just to save me the hassle. I really don't like this as creating a sim is one of my favourite parts of these games. I wouldn't have too much of an issue if it wasn't for the fact that I know this is an incredibly common problem for this game and also that Sims 4 (where I'm pretty sure I've got more packs than I do with this one) doesn't have this issue for me, yet came out 5 years after this game. As it stands though, this is my biggest problem with this game and the reason that I struggle to come back to it.
However, one aspect of this game that is probably the reason why it can run so badly but is also one of if not the main reason I come back to it is the open world. I don't always get a chance to fully explore the worlds in this game but the fact its there and that it really brings something to the standard Sims gameplay makes it one of my favourite things that the series has done. Being able to just go anywhere at anytime is great and even though a lot of the locations are rabbit holes that doesn't really matter to me as the areas that aren't, like the park, beach and graveyard are fun to go to and do whatever in, but also it still makes the world feel real and I just love it. This game being the only Sims game to implement this (aside from the Wii port of this game from what I've seen) really helps the game stand out and gives me a reason to come back to this game as often as I do.
Something else this game brings to the table is an unbelievable amount of what I consider to be improvements, most of the things I had an issue with in Sims 2 are gone. You can have more than one save file, lifespans are not only changeable but are so good that you get a really specific lifespan with each life stage being the length you want it to be. There's a map so its now incredibly easy to get to anywhere you want, you don't need to go out of your way to get groceries or a mobile phone, you actually learn things about other sims and can find out what their personality is like and whether or not they're single. Playing through this game not long after Sims 2 and also re-reading what I wrote for that game really opened my eyes as to how much changed and I am so grateful as it makes the game less annoying and quite fun to play.
As for the DLC for the game, its quite good and it feels like when it comes to this game's take on the series mainstays it manages to get it the most right I think in a couple of cases. University Life is at its best purely because of the open world, that is exactly what a pack like that needs, it also has a gameplay loop that feels different from the core Sims gameplay. Pets is also at its best here as you can actually play as the pets themselves which offers its own type of gameplay that is pretty fun.
Seasons is good as the festivals are nice to do and can just feel like a special moment as its fun to take part in the activities and can be great for something like a family day out or a date. Late Night gets a special pass from me as it was the first expansion pack I got, but in all fairness I do enjoy the city-based packs as I really like living in the apartments. Ambitions is decent enough as while I'm kind of lukewarm on the professions in this pack, I've always loved the inventing mechanic (mainly for when you get the ability to detonate objects as I get great enjoyment from going into other Sims' homes and blowing up their toilet or whatever).
Supernatural is the second pack I got and I really liked it when I was younger and was even really looking forward to it before I got the game which was why I asked for it. But having played the supernatural type sims in 4 have kind of made me look at them in this game and notice how little there is to do with them and how they get kind of boring a bit too quickly. Generations is neat I guess but I don't really use much from it outside of CAS items (probably because I don't play with families all that often). Showtime is sort of interesting but the showbusiness theme doesn't interest me much here (I greatly prefer Get Famous from 4 when it comes to the celebrity stuff in this series) and while I enjoy a city pack for each game I don't exactly feel like I need more than one for each game. World Adventures seems good but almost never gets used by me. Into the Future is admittedly quite a cool concept and I enjoy when an entry in this series will try something different but I don't really think it actually works all that well as a Sims experience and I severely dislike the CAS items from this pack so much and the teleporter appearing two seconds after you start a new game every time (same can be said for recruitment Llama from University).
So while most of the packs offer at least something for me, something to note is that I'm pretty sure that this game has the most things in it. Every pack feels like it brings a high amount of stuff and that is another thing that gives Sims 3 its identity, but in all honesty its something I have mixed feelings on. I like the idea of there being a lot of stuff to do in the game but I feel like if I ever try to engage with it, I don't spend too long before I'm done with it. Supernatural has multiple types of supernatural sims but they just don't feel like they offer much gameplay outside of a five to ten minute play around and then moving on to something else, the professions in Ambitions each feel different from each other and are fun to use like once but then they just get repetitive and then there's just the packs that feel like they do so many little things like Generations but realistically get used once or twice by me before I forget about them and never really feel the need to use them again. There are some things that certainly stick for me though and I use them a fair amount.
The thing is though when the game is itself recommending to not play with too many packs and one of the biggest things about this game is how much there is to do (at least that's the way I see it), it becomes all too apparent just how little time I spend with the various stuff the expansions bring. But saying this, playing with nothing but the base game can still lead to a great time and the game doesn't need all that other stuff to make it interesting as it does the Sims experience really well by itself, I came out of playing base game only still really liking it and that shows what a good game this is at its core.
A couple of scattered thoughts:
• The music is good but I don't quite think its as strong as Sims 2's music.
• Building houses in this game is great and I have no real issues with it.
I think this is a great game and because of when I played it and my relationship to it, its really special to me. I don't exactly come back to it all the time and I do have some issues with it but the good absolutely outweighs the bad here and its more than likely one of my favourite Sims games.
Played for over a couple of days because I was in the mood for it and also I wanted to write this. Have played this a lot over the last 10 years and it was my first PC Sims game. Will be like what I wrote for This Sims 2 and will look at how this game feels while taking the rest of the franchise into account rather than trying to look at it on its own or for when it came out.
To start off with, I really like this game and due to it not only being an important milestone in my history of The Sims but also my main Sims game for a fair few years, I'm a bit more positive towards it compared to a few of the other games in the series. With that said though I'm still going to note what issues I have with it.
But first is Create-A-Sim and its a massive improvement over the previous games, there are so many options when it comes to customising your sims, you can make a supernatural sim straight from CAS and there's been an overhaul of the personality system. The points are gone and now there's traits, I really like the traits and I think its the best way of giving sims distinct personalities. While I was playing I saw sims dumpster diving, wanting to tell my sim their plot to take over the world and when speaking to a couple I would learn one of their traits which made me re-evaluate how I was interacting with them (a sim I was considering as the romantic partner for my sim turned out to be unflirty so I decided to scrap my plan and go for someone else). There are a lot of traits to choose from (I was playing base game only and was surprised by just how many there were) and having 5 slots makes it so the sims feel more multifaceted in their personality, even with all the years I've played I still haven't used them all and there are some that I could easily see bringing a new way of playing (like a challenge of sorts). The aspirations have now been replaced by lifetime wishes that also have a fair amount to choose from and I'm also a fan of.
I quite like how the sims look in this game (although I do think that I prefer how they look in other games) and I don't really have the issue of creating sims that look alike, because altering specific parts of them feels like it works quite well and is quite simple. The hair and outfits are generally good and there's a good amount that I really like but due to the time the game/expansions came out, some things are very much a product of their time and in all honesty just look really bad to me but there's enough choice so that I don't have to feel like I choose a hair or outfit I don't like.
Unfortunately though CAS and the game as a whole can have a pretty big problem and that's how it runs. While I don't use a gaming PC or laptop and never have done, the laptops I have had over the years (including my current one) are at the recommended specs of the game (at least going off of what it says on the EA App thing) and yet the game can run pretty terribly if I try to use more than 2 or so packs. If I have more than this then the game will run very slowly and start crashing after about an hour and a half of playtime in a save and CAS will take ages to load all of the clothing options, making choosing outfits in this game feel very annoying and not worth doing just to save me the hassle. I really don't like this as creating a sim is one of my favourite parts of these games. I wouldn't have too much of an issue if it wasn't for the fact that I know this is an incredibly common problem for this game and also that Sims 4 (where I'm pretty sure I've got more packs than I do with this one) doesn't have this issue for me, yet came out 5 years after this game. As it stands though, this is my biggest problem with this game and the reason that I struggle to come back to it.
However, one aspect of this game that is probably the reason why it can run so badly but is also one of if not the main reason I come back to it is the open world. I don't always get a chance to fully explore the worlds in this game but the fact its there and that it really brings something to the standard Sims gameplay makes it one of my favourite things that the series has done. Being able to just go anywhere at anytime is great and even though a lot of the locations are rabbit holes that doesn't really matter to me as the areas that aren't, like the park, beach and graveyard are fun to go to and do whatever in, but also it still makes the world feel real and I just love it. This game being the only Sims game to implement this (aside from the Wii port of this game from what I've seen) really helps the game stand out and gives me a reason to come back to this game as often as I do.
Something else this game brings to the table is an unbelievable amount of what I consider to be improvements, most of the things I had an issue with in Sims 2 are gone. You can have more than one save file, lifespans are not only changeable but are so good that you get a really specific lifespan with each life stage being the length you want it to be. There's a map so its now incredibly easy to get to anywhere you want, you don't need to go out of your way to get groceries or a mobile phone, you actually learn things about other sims and can find out what their personality is like and whether or not they're single. Playing through this game not long after Sims 2 and also re-reading what I wrote for that game really opened my eyes as to how much changed and I am so grateful as it makes the game less annoying and quite fun to play.
As for the DLC for the game, its quite good and it feels like when it comes to this game's take on the series mainstays it manages to get it the most right I think in a couple of cases. University Life is at its best purely because of the open world, that is exactly what a pack like that needs, it also has a gameplay loop that feels different from the core Sims gameplay. Pets is also at its best here as you can actually play as the pets themselves which offers its own type of gameplay that is pretty fun.
Seasons is good as the festivals are nice to do and can just feel like a special moment as its fun to take part in the activities and can be great for something like a family day out or a date. Late Night gets a special pass from me as it was the first expansion pack I got, but in all fairness I do enjoy the city-based packs as I really like living in the apartments. Ambitions is decent enough as while I'm kind of lukewarm on the professions in this pack, I've always loved the inventing mechanic (mainly for when you get the ability to detonate objects as I get great enjoyment from going into other Sims' homes and blowing up their toilet or whatever).
Supernatural is the second pack I got and I really liked it when I was younger and was even really looking forward to it before I got the game which was why I asked for it. But having played the supernatural type sims in 4 have kind of made me look at them in this game and notice how little there is to do with them and how they get kind of boring a bit too quickly. Generations is neat I guess but I don't really use much from it outside of CAS items (probably because I don't play with families all that often). Showtime is sort of interesting but the showbusiness theme doesn't interest me much here (I greatly prefer Get Famous from 4 when it comes to the celebrity stuff in this series) and while I enjoy a city pack for each game I don't exactly feel like I need more than one for each game. World Adventures seems good but almost never gets used by me. Into the Future is admittedly quite a cool concept and I enjoy when an entry in this series will try something different but I don't really think it actually works all that well as a Sims experience and I severely dislike the CAS items from this pack so much and the teleporter appearing two seconds after you start a new game every time (same can be said for recruitment Llama from University).
So while most of the packs offer at least something for me, something to note is that I'm pretty sure that this game has the most things in it. Every pack feels like it brings a high amount of stuff and that is another thing that gives Sims 3 its identity, but in all honesty its something I have mixed feelings on. I like the idea of there being a lot of stuff to do in the game but I feel like if I ever try to engage with it, I don't spend too long before I'm done with it. Supernatural has multiple types of supernatural sims but they just don't feel like they offer much gameplay outside of a five to ten minute play around and then moving on to something else, the professions in Ambitions each feel different from each other and are fun to use like once but then they just get repetitive and then there's just the packs that feel like they do so many little things like Generations but realistically get used once or twice by me before I forget about them and never really feel the need to use them again. There are some things that certainly stick for me though and I use them a fair amount.
The thing is though when the game is itself recommending to not play with too many packs and one of the biggest things about this game is how much there is to do (at least that's the way I see it), it becomes all too apparent just how little time I spend with the various stuff the expansions bring. But saying this, playing with nothing but the base game can still lead to a great time and the game doesn't need all that other stuff to make it interesting as it does the Sims experience really well by itself, I came out of playing base game only still really liking it and that shows what a good game this is at its core.
A couple of scattered thoughts:
• The music is good but I don't quite think its as strong as Sims 2's music.
• Building houses in this game is great and I have no real issues with it.
I think this is a great game and because of when I played it and my relationship to it, its really special to me. I don't exactly come back to it all the time and I do have some issues with it but the good absolutely outweighs the bad here and its more than likely one of my favourite Sims games.
For personal reference more than anything else.
No idea what number playthrough this is but I have played it a lot since I was a kid (not always finishing it or doing all of the levels though). Played through every level. Played with PS1 copy on the PS3.
This is one of those games that gets quite a hefty pass from me purely because I played it so much growing up. I mean, the controls are just awkward, the camera is awful and I really don't think that I could call any level in this game 'good'. The thing is though, its an incredibly charming game that feels like it had quite a bit of effort put into it or did things that weren't necessary but kind of cool. The pyramid in the golf level, the fact that there's a level which is just the Pickle's house but upside down with you on the ceiling and even just the fact that you can explore the Pickle's house in the hub world. While it repeats some level types (collect so many of one thing, get the babies to eat/drink whatever and pass whatever it is around so Angelica can't get to it) it really does try and have a variety, I don't think much if any work particularly well but its still impressive and worth admiring in my opinion.
Most levels are about the same level of quality but there are a couple that are noticeably worse, Circus Angelicus is just so awkward and if you fail at the last section (sometimes) you have to redo the entire level again, Mirrorland as cool as it is, is where the game gets the most tedious as by the end you've collected over 100 balloons, The Mysterious Mr Friend and the last part of Incident of Aisle 7 makes you use this game's crap combat system that just feels so bad. But the absolute worst one is 7 Voyages of Cynthia because Spike controls terribly, he's too big to not fall into the water half of the time and his jump is dreadful, yet the game expects you to do this platforming and avoid the water as it slowly drains his health (all this in a maze-like area where you have to figure out where to go), when I played it I just usually ended up in the water and bypassed the platforming sections as it was less annoying and the level is quite generous with the healing items.
I think my favourite levels were probably the outer space and shadow monster ones as they have a different combat system from the aforementioned levels which is a lot easier to do and just feels better (also that the outer space one is just really cool to me as its so different from everything else in the game and the shadow monster one is amusing to me as it genuinely scared me a lot when I was younger). Chuckie's Glasses is admittedly the level where the camera is at its worst but its the level I always think of when I think of this game, I just really like it. Also levels like Egg Hunt and Gold Rush as while Mirrorland is one of my least favourites despite being the same level type its only negative to me because of how long it is, Egg Hunt and Gold Rush are a much better length and are quite fun as I do like the concept.
Now even with all the problems I had, I was still having a really good time. Its one of the earliest games I played I think and its one I really enjoy coming back to every once in a while, there's just something about it. So even though its probably due to a very heavy bias, I really did enjoy coming back to this game and I know for a fact that I'll still continue to come back to it.
No idea what number playthrough this is but I have played it a lot since I was a kid (not always finishing it or doing all of the levels though). Played through every level. Played with PS1 copy on the PS3.
This is one of those games that gets quite a hefty pass from me purely because I played it so much growing up. I mean, the controls are just awkward, the camera is awful and I really don't think that I could call any level in this game 'good'. The thing is though, its an incredibly charming game that feels like it had quite a bit of effort put into it or did things that weren't necessary but kind of cool. The pyramid in the golf level, the fact that there's a level which is just the Pickle's house but upside down with you on the ceiling and even just the fact that you can explore the Pickle's house in the hub world. While it repeats some level types (collect so many of one thing, get the babies to eat/drink whatever and pass whatever it is around so Angelica can't get to it) it really does try and have a variety, I don't think much if any work particularly well but its still impressive and worth admiring in my opinion.
Most levels are about the same level of quality but there are a couple that are noticeably worse, Circus Angelicus is just so awkward and if you fail at the last section (sometimes) you have to redo the entire level again, Mirrorland as cool as it is, is where the game gets the most tedious as by the end you've collected over 100 balloons, The Mysterious Mr Friend and the last part of Incident of Aisle 7 makes you use this game's crap combat system that just feels so bad. But the absolute worst one is 7 Voyages of Cynthia because Spike controls terribly, he's too big to not fall into the water half of the time and his jump is dreadful, yet the game expects you to do this platforming and avoid the water as it slowly drains his health (all this in a maze-like area where you have to figure out where to go), when I played it I just usually ended up in the water and bypassed the platforming sections as it was less annoying and the level is quite generous with the healing items.
I think my favourite levels were probably the outer space and shadow monster ones as they have a different combat system from the aforementioned levels which is a lot easier to do and just feels better (also that the outer space one is just really cool to me as its so different from everything else in the game and the shadow monster one is amusing to me as it genuinely scared me a lot when I was younger). Chuckie's Glasses is admittedly the level where the camera is at its worst but its the level I always think of when I think of this game, I just really like it. Also levels like Egg Hunt and Gold Rush as while Mirrorland is one of my least favourites despite being the same level type its only negative to me because of how long it is, Egg Hunt and Gold Rush are a much better length and are quite fun as I do like the concept.
Now even with all the problems I had, I was still having a really good time. Its one of the earliest games I played I think and its one I really enjoy coming back to every once in a while, there's just something about it. So even though its probably due to a very heavy bias, I really did enjoy coming back to this game and I know for a fact that I'll still continue to come back to it.
2021
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
First time playing through this after playing the demo like twice. Played on normal mode.
Through playing a lot of games over the years I'd usually find stuff that felt like it was very much my thing and stuff that was very much not my thing. I think that this is the first instance where its both and it lead to a kind of confused experience even if I did end up enjoying the game. One of the biggest problems is that I don't think there's much about the game that I can say I only liked or only disliked, most things I think I had a more complex opinion on.
Combat in the game had things that I really liked, like the parry which was always satisfying to do and some power-ups feel good to use and helped make Samus feel like she was getting more and more powerful. But then on the other hand there was the aiming, something I think I've noticed since I got my Switch is that for certain things the sticks don't feel like they really work all that well. When I replayed Celeste I was a little confused as platforming felt harder to do than when I was playing on the PS4 and then I replayed Hollow Knight (which I also first played on the PS4) and just not being able to do the downward slash jump thing unless I used the directional buttons, it became apparent that it was a Switch thing. After these occasions I chalked it down to the sticks not protruding from the device enough (fuck, I hope this makes sense) and so I'd just use directional buttons when I could but when aiming in this game you have to use the stick and this game requires not only quite precise aiming at times but to do it quickly as well, so I pretty regularly had issues with this.
Another problem I had was how much of the latter half of this game felt like it depended on a really quick reaction time from the player, multiple bosses and enemies need you to be so on the ball that you can respond to something incredibly quickly and while I felt that I was usually ready, I still wasn't fast enough to react in the correct way most of the time.
Just before I get on to bosses I need to talk about power-ups. For a while I was having quite a good time getting them, I really like the music that played when you got one and while I do kind of wish that there was a bit more pizzazz or something when you get one, I did actually quite like how simplistic it was with just some words in a text box. Some of the power-ups are really fun to use or feel so good as they would help out with a problem that I had been having for a while. Also, it may be explained in an earlier game or something (at the time of writing this, Dread is the only game in this franchise that I have played for longer than 20 minutes) but I have no clue why Samus can turn into a ball and honestly I kind of love it even if it grosses me out a bit thinking about how she'd even physically be able to do that.
After a while though, the power-ups just started to get kind of old, there are so many and not all of them feel like they bring about the same level of excitement. I'd even forget about some eventually as I just didn't use them and then would get very confused a few hours later when I needed to use one to progress in an area. The biggest problem I had though was with the double jump and later upgraded infinity jump, rather than be a simple press once to jump and then press again to jump whilst already in the air kind of deal, instead when doing the second or subsequent jump(s) it has to be timed correctly. No matter how many times I tried it I could not get it to click and had about a 60-75% success rate trying to do one of these, but while that sounds high, the latter half of the game relies on it so much during platforming & bosses that I kept fucking up and failing to do it. This caused a lot of frustration for me.
But with that I can properly talk about bosses and generally I liked them, I really enjoyed the first couple and Experiment No Z-57 as they felt fun yet kind of difficult which made them an engaging experience. There were a couple that I wasn't quite as keen on due to issues I was having like, Drogyga because of the issues I was having with precise aiming and the Robot Chozo Soldier Twin battle after acquiring the storm missile as I just could not keep the missiles charging without getting hit or the charge cancelling. Raven Beak was both decent but also quite annoying as the fight does rely on being able to do the multi-jump a fair bit.
E.M.M.I were initially kind of cool but after a while they just became annoying as due to each new one being an upgrade in some way it made it a bit too hard to navigate the areas they were in without getting caught and also because there were a few of them they were getting kind of repetitive. The design of the E.M.M.I was pretty neat and looked like something out of Portal but then they just started using the same design but making them a different colour which felt kind of weird and at first reminded me of the multi-coloured Daleks in that one Doctor Who episode and then reminded me of the multi-coloured Krabby Patties in Patty Hype which didn't really help me feel all that threatened by them. I did enjoy the eye-brain thing fights though and never really got tired of them.
Locations in the game were something I feel mostly positive about though as they all looked really cool and distinctive, I loved how Artaria looks once its frozen over and despite it being kind of annoying to move around in for a while, I also really liked how Burenia looks as well which is helped by the music being really good in that area. Due to the way the map works and a fair few places that can first be normally moved around in but then later on are not anymore, overall the game felt a bit like the Infected Crossroads from Hollow Knight which I was not a fan of, but admittedly I didn't actually end up having too much of a problem with this game doing that so its not the biggest deal.
I did have to use a guide quite often though as I just had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be a lot of the time as the game (and ADAM) doesn't really explain it to you and as there are a lot of situations where you have to progress by destroying a block which is hidden in the terrain, I was just really confused. It did make me realise though just how linear this game is, maybe if I'd played more of one of the older ones I would have known going in but my best point of reference is Hollow Knight as they're kind of similar games and I thought it'd be more like that where there's usually multiple viable options for you to choose when deciding on what area to do next. I don't have an issue with it or anything and I really like the whole certain areas and sections being locked off until you get the correct power-up thing but the linearity just came as a surprise to me.
I wasn't really into the story admittedly and as someone who hasn't played the rest of the games it was a bit of a struggle trying to remember (lore-wise) which one is the X and which one is the Metroid. Samus is kind of boring as a character as she only has like one line in the game but I was enjoying her more towards the end when she started doing cool shit like draining an entire spaceship of its energy and her facial expressions got more and more expressive and angry. ADAM might go down as having the most annoying voice I have ever heard in a game as it sounds like someone speaking through some crap robotic filter or a cheap voice changer toy, after a few meetings with him I just muted the game before he started to talk and would read the text just so I didn't have to hear him.
The other characters I also didn't really care about and considering that Quiet Robe, gets introduced, turns off the E.M.M.I, expositions a lot to Samus, dies, has his corpse possessed so that the E.M.M.I can be turned back on and then for some reason comes back at the end of the game as a ghost X thing (?) so he can act as a Deus Ex Machina and Samus can get her ship working, I don't exactly think he was the best character going. Raven Beak was just boring in all honesty.
Singular scattered thought:
• The power-up music, Burenia music and main menu music were the only parts of the soundtrack that really stood out to me and I really liked. I did enjoy some of the other music in different areas but that was about it.
I did enjoy this game and I think if I had less issues with it, I would've really enjoyed it (no shit) but unfortunately the issues I did have were just annoying and at points made me wish that the game was over like 1 or 2 hours before it actually was and because of that I don't think I can really regard the whole thing any higher and I don't think I should ever come back to it. But I think despite this I will remember this game more fondly than negatively and I do think its a good game.
First time playing through this after playing the demo like twice. Played on normal mode.
Through playing a lot of games over the years I'd usually find stuff that felt like it was very much my thing and stuff that was very much not my thing. I think that this is the first instance where its both and it lead to a kind of confused experience even if I did end up enjoying the game. One of the biggest problems is that I don't think there's much about the game that I can say I only liked or only disliked, most things I think I had a more complex opinion on.
Combat in the game had things that I really liked, like the parry which was always satisfying to do and some power-ups feel good to use and helped make Samus feel like she was getting more and more powerful. But then on the other hand there was the aiming, something I think I've noticed since I got my Switch is that for certain things the sticks don't feel like they really work all that well. When I replayed Celeste I was a little confused as platforming felt harder to do than when I was playing on the PS4 and then I replayed Hollow Knight (which I also first played on the PS4) and just not being able to do the downward slash jump thing unless I used the directional buttons, it became apparent that it was a Switch thing. After these occasions I chalked it down to the sticks not protruding from the device enough (fuck, I hope this makes sense) and so I'd just use directional buttons when I could but when aiming in this game you have to use the stick and this game requires not only quite precise aiming at times but to do it quickly as well, so I pretty regularly had issues with this.
Another problem I had was how much of the latter half of this game felt like it depended on a really quick reaction time from the player, multiple bosses and enemies need you to be so on the ball that you can respond to something incredibly quickly and while I felt that I was usually ready, I still wasn't fast enough to react in the correct way most of the time.
Just before I get on to bosses I need to talk about power-ups. For a while I was having quite a good time getting them, I really like the music that played when you got one and while I do kind of wish that there was a bit more pizzazz or something when you get one, I did actually quite like how simplistic it was with just some words in a text box. Some of the power-ups are really fun to use or feel so good as they would help out with a problem that I had been having for a while. Also, it may be explained in an earlier game or something (at the time of writing this, Dread is the only game in this franchise that I have played for longer than 20 minutes) but I have no clue why Samus can turn into a ball and honestly I kind of love it even if it grosses me out a bit thinking about how she'd even physically be able to do that.
After a while though, the power-ups just started to get kind of old, there are so many and not all of them feel like they bring about the same level of excitement. I'd even forget about some eventually as I just didn't use them and then would get very confused a few hours later when I needed to use one to progress in an area. The biggest problem I had though was with the double jump and later upgraded infinity jump, rather than be a simple press once to jump and then press again to jump whilst already in the air kind of deal, instead when doing the second or subsequent jump(s) it has to be timed correctly. No matter how many times I tried it I could not get it to click and had about a 60-75% success rate trying to do one of these, but while that sounds high, the latter half of the game relies on it so much during platforming & bosses that I kept fucking up and failing to do it. This caused a lot of frustration for me.
But with that I can properly talk about bosses and generally I liked them, I really enjoyed the first couple and Experiment No Z-57 as they felt fun yet kind of difficult which made them an engaging experience. There were a couple that I wasn't quite as keen on due to issues I was having like, Drogyga because of the issues I was having with precise aiming and the Robot Chozo Soldier Twin battle after acquiring the storm missile as I just could not keep the missiles charging without getting hit or the charge cancelling. Raven Beak was both decent but also quite annoying as the fight does rely on being able to do the multi-jump a fair bit.
E.M.M.I were initially kind of cool but after a while they just became annoying as due to each new one being an upgrade in some way it made it a bit too hard to navigate the areas they were in without getting caught and also because there were a few of them they were getting kind of repetitive. The design of the E.M.M.I was pretty neat and looked like something out of Portal but then they just started using the same design but making them a different colour which felt kind of weird and at first reminded me of the multi-coloured Daleks in that one Doctor Who episode and then reminded me of the multi-coloured Krabby Patties in Patty Hype which didn't really help me feel all that threatened by them. I did enjoy the eye-brain thing fights though and never really got tired of them.
Locations in the game were something I feel mostly positive about though as they all looked really cool and distinctive, I loved how Artaria looks once its frozen over and despite it being kind of annoying to move around in for a while, I also really liked how Burenia looks as well which is helped by the music being really good in that area. Due to the way the map works and a fair few places that can first be normally moved around in but then later on are not anymore, overall the game felt a bit like the Infected Crossroads from Hollow Knight which I was not a fan of, but admittedly I didn't actually end up having too much of a problem with this game doing that so its not the biggest deal.
I did have to use a guide quite often though as I just had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be a lot of the time as the game (and ADAM) doesn't really explain it to you and as there are a lot of situations where you have to progress by destroying a block which is hidden in the terrain, I was just really confused. It did make me realise though just how linear this game is, maybe if I'd played more of one of the older ones I would have known going in but my best point of reference is Hollow Knight as they're kind of similar games and I thought it'd be more like that where there's usually multiple viable options for you to choose when deciding on what area to do next. I don't have an issue with it or anything and I really like the whole certain areas and sections being locked off until you get the correct power-up thing but the linearity just came as a surprise to me.
I wasn't really into the story admittedly and as someone who hasn't played the rest of the games it was a bit of a struggle trying to remember (lore-wise) which one is the X and which one is the Metroid. Samus is kind of boring as a character as she only has like one line in the game but I was enjoying her more towards the end when she started doing cool shit like draining an entire spaceship of its energy and her facial expressions got more and more expressive and angry. ADAM might go down as having the most annoying voice I have ever heard in a game as it sounds like someone speaking through some crap robotic filter or a cheap voice changer toy, after a few meetings with him I just muted the game before he started to talk and would read the text just so I didn't have to hear him.
The other characters I also didn't really care about and considering that Quiet Robe, gets introduced, turns off the E.M.M.I, expositions a lot to Samus, dies, has his corpse possessed so that the E.M.M.I can be turned back on and then for some reason comes back at the end of the game as a ghost X thing (?) so he can act as a Deus Ex Machina and Samus can get her ship working, I don't exactly think he was the best character going. Raven Beak was just boring in all honesty.
Singular scattered thought:
• The power-up music, Burenia music and main menu music were the only parts of the soundtrack that really stood out to me and I really liked. I did enjoy some of the other music in different areas but that was about it.
I did enjoy this game and I think if I had less issues with it, I would've really enjoyed it (no shit) but unfortunately the issues I did have were just annoying and at points made me wish that the game was over like 1 or 2 hours before it actually was and because of that I don't think I can really regard the whole thing any higher and I don't think I should ever come back to it. But I think despite this I will remember this game more fondly than negatively and I do think its a good game.
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played it for a little bit to compare with 2007 and to also write this. Have played it before a fair few years ago but not enough for me to really remember playing that much, came back to it a little in the last year.
I went in to this one today not really expecting much, when I've played it recently I didn't think much of it and its the next game after 2007 so I figured at best there'd be a couple of improvements with the only real noticeable change being the graphics as its going from a PS2 game to a PS3 one. I was wrong though as this really seemed to improve a lot from the last game and multiple issues I had with 2007 were now either gone or changed for the better.
Difficulty is the main thing as the game is easier now, the reversal system seems the same but it just felt like I was able to actually reverse moves more often here which stopped fights being incredibly one-sided. Tap any button repeatedly sections are still here, but from what I could tell it was only when my character was on the ground and the time spent on the ground before being able to get up felt a lot shorter compared to the last game, gradually as the match goes on and my character took more damage they would be on the ground for longer but that's how it should be I think. So basically, button mashing isn't necessary for long. This does mean that the submission minigame has changed and I don't think I particularly like it, its just move the right stick until you either can't or shouldn't any more and its just kind of weird and dull.
The difficulty options themselves are mostly better now as normal and hard are fun to play, although they are a bit too easy I think now. Easy is kind of boring but funny at the same time as most of the time the opponent will just look at you and not do anything which makes it feel more like a practice mode perhaps. Legend is actually what I was looking for though as it doesn't feel too easy but its not too difficult either, it feels like a good balance and led to matches I could get really invested in and enjoy playing, there was an initial problem with the opponent being able to reverse basically everything all the time but thankfully this can be adjusted in the options and after that it finally felt right.
Some scattered thoughts:
• Customisation was better in this game as there were more moves to choose from but still the same amount of slots in create a moveset. Create a superstar was also better as while it was mostly the same, it just felt like there were more options and due to the graphical upgrade the characters you can make just look a lot better than the ones in 2007.
• Saving was no longer annoying as shit as the game could auto-save, so even though the game saved just as much as 2007 did, it wasn't constantly asking if I wanted to save or not.
• There are some things where my opinion just hasn't changed, I still don't really care about the career mode and I like the roster although how character selection works leaves much to be desired.
• The soundtrack though is another story as the music seems to be the same kind that was in 2007 but because I haven't really spent time with it I have no interest in it at all.
• There was this strange sense of slowness and awkwardness when it came to movement but I was just able to roll with it and quickly got used to it.
When I first realised that this game was a lot better than 2007, I was admittedly kind of pissed off because it felt wrong to have a higher opinion on this game that I have no real attachment to, instead of 2007 where I have a much stronger attachment. Its kind of a stupid feeling I think but it does come from a place of genuine surprise due to how much of an improvement was made between games, it is wild to me just how much more enjoyable this game is. I may not have particularly strong emotions regarding this game but I really like it and its a perfectly acceptable choice for when I want to play a wrestling game.
Played it for a little bit to compare with 2007 and to also write this. Have played it before a fair few years ago but not enough for me to really remember playing that much, came back to it a little in the last year.
I went in to this one today not really expecting much, when I've played it recently I didn't think much of it and its the next game after 2007 so I figured at best there'd be a couple of improvements with the only real noticeable change being the graphics as its going from a PS2 game to a PS3 one. I was wrong though as this really seemed to improve a lot from the last game and multiple issues I had with 2007 were now either gone or changed for the better.
Difficulty is the main thing as the game is easier now, the reversal system seems the same but it just felt like I was able to actually reverse moves more often here which stopped fights being incredibly one-sided. Tap any button repeatedly sections are still here, but from what I could tell it was only when my character was on the ground and the time spent on the ground before being able to get up felt a lot shorter compared to the last game, gradually as the match goes on and my character took more damage they would be on the ground for longer but that's how it should be I think. So basically, button mashing isn't necessary for long. This does mean that the submission minigame has changed and I don't think I particularly like it, its just move the right stick until you either can't or shouldn't any more and its just kind of weird and dull.
The difficulty options themselves are mostly better now as normal and hard are fun to play, although they are a bit too easy I think now. Easy is kind of boring but funny at the same time as most of the time the opponent will just look at you and not do anything which makes it feel more like a practice mode perhaps. Legend is actually what I was looking for though as it doesn't feel too easy but its not too difficult either, it feels like a good balance and led to matches I could get really invested in and enjoy playing, there was an initial problem with the opponent being able to reverse basically everything all the time but thankfully this can be adjusted in the options and after that it finally felt right.
Some scattered thoughts:
• Customisation was better in this game as there were more moves to choose from but still the same amount of slots in create a moveset. Create a superstar was also better as while it was mostly the same, it just felt like there were more options and due to the graphical upgrade the characters you can make just look a lot better than the ones in 2007.
• Saving was no longer annoying as shit as the game could auto-save, so even though the game saved just as much as 2007 did, it wasn't constantly asking if I wanted to save or not.
• There are some things where my opinion just hasn't changed, I still don't really care about the career mode and I like the roster although how character selection works leaves much to be desired.
• The soundtrack though is another story as the music seems to be the same kind that was in 2007 but because I haven't really spent time with it I have no interest in it at all.
• There was this strange sense of slowness and awkwardness when it came to movement but I was just able to roll with it and quickly got used to it.
When I first realised that this game was a lot better than 2007, I was admittedly kind of pissed off because it felt wrong to have a higher opinion on this game that I have no real attachment to, instead of 2007 where I have a much stronger attachment. Its kind of a stupid feeling I think but it does come from a place of genuine surprise due to how much of an improvement was made between games, it is wild to me just how much more enjoyable this game is. I may not have particularly strong emotions regarding this game but I really like it and its a perfectly acceptable choice for when I want to play a wrestling game.
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played around with it for a little bit because I was in the mood for it but also so I could write this. Played this game a lot growing up and gone back to it a fair bit in the last few years. This will be quite similar to the Sims 2 thing where I am looking at it more in comparison with the other games I play from the franchise as they're all generally doing the same thing and if I ever want to play one of these games I do have a choice between a few so it'd be nice to have my thoughts on each one at hand.
That said though it is important for me to acknowledge just how important this game is as it was my first ever wrestling game and I got it at a time when I don't even think I knew what WWE was. I don't even think I used to play it properly when I was younger most of the time as I either just wanted to get the weapons from under the ring and repeatedly whack whoever I was in a match with or I'd do ladder matches, wait until two wrestlers had climbed the ladder and then push it over and these things entertained me to no end. So no matter what gets said, I think I'll always have a soft spot for this game with many happy memories attached.
As for the game itself, its not half bad but I don't exactly think I find playing an actual match fun. The control system is pretty decent and due to the low amount of moves a wrestler can do (at least compared to later games) the controls are quite simple and easy to remember. I don't have much of a problem with the right stick being how you grapple and I quite like L1 being the finisher move. The difficulty options are kind of an issue for me though as easy feels too easy, hard & legend feel way too hard and normal feels a bit too hard, like not bad enough that I can't get anywhere with it but just to the point that I'm kind of struggling a bit too much and not really having fun.
One of the reasons for the difficulty for me is how reversals work in this game, where a lot of the games afterwards only have a single button for reversing, this game has two and one is for strikes and the other is for grapples and you're just supposed to predict what your opponent is going to do and I kind of like the concept of this but it does just end up being mainly guesswork. I often struggle to successfully reverse a move and it can lead to long periods where the opponent is doing many different moves on my character and I can't really do anything which usually leads to a loss. I think its quite unforgiving and in all honesty I'm not really the biggest fan, the later games are easier but I have more fun actually playing them.
This is probably going to sound a little weird but I wanted to do another paragraph here about my thoughts on the matches as the difficulty and reversals aren't the only reasons why I don't really like them, but I can't. It feels wrong to say something and not be able to explain it properly but in this case I'm going to have to. The matches are just boring, I can't really explain why but I get far more enjoyment from the later games than this one. The only exceptions being games like 2010 as it doesn't have a HUD which I really don't like and 2K16 as it just feels slow. I don't get it and it feels weird but I think its better to state it and not explain rather than not state it at all as it would defeat the purpose of this.
Create a superstar is fine but kind of lacking in the customisation options for me, create a moveset would be at its best here due to the low amount of moves that can be applied to each wrestler making the whole process quick and painless (I like my created characters to have their own movesets but I don't really like actually making them) but the choice of moves is a bit too small for me. The soundtrack is kind of funny to me as I don't really listen to music like it but due to the amount of time I've put into the game, I've really warmed up to it and I really like the majority if not all of the songs.
Odd things that I did not originally write before I posted this but thought of afterwards:
• It might be that for a lot of other games they just auto-save but the amount of times this game asks to manually save is straight up annoying. After every match, after every time you change something in the options and after every time you create something (this one makes a fair bit of sense). I understand its optional but it constantly coming up just feels absurd.
• I didn't mention career mode because I forgot but admittedly I wasn't sure if I would anyway, I don't really use the career modes in these games as while I do find the idea interesting, I just can't seem to get into them once I start them and I remember this game being no different.
• Despite many memories of mashing every button on the PS2 controller during the 'Tap any button repeatedly sections', I don't actually like this method as its kind of annoying and can just lead to my fingers aching after having to do it a few too many times. Even now that I know I can just mash one button and it will work just the same (from what I can tell), its still crap and I am so thankful it didn't stick around for long in this franchise.
• The roster is fine although as I don't have much interest in the actual WWE not a lot of the people mean anything to me. Its not particularly big which makes finding certain people easy despite the character select only showing one person at a time.
I feel like this has been not great and I understand why but if I could come out with something better I would have done. I do like the game (even if its the nostalgia doing a lot of the heavy lifting) and I like coming back to it every now and then to mess about with it for about 30 minutes to an hour, but I think when it comes down to it, if I've got a choice between this and nearly any game that came after it I probably wouldn't choose this one. I think it was one of my favourite games growing up though and that's the main thing that's important to me.
Played around with it for a little bit because I was in the mood for it but also so I could write this. Played this game a lot growing up and gone back to it a fair bit in the last few years. This will be quite similar to the Sims 2 thing where I am looking at it more in comparison with the other games I play from the franchise as they're all generally doing the same thing and if I ever want to play one of these games I do have a choice between a few so it'd be nice to have my thoughts on each one at hand.
That said though it is important for me to acknowledge just how important this game is as it was my first ever wrestling game and I got it at a time when I don't even think I knew what WWE was. I don't even think I used to play it properly when I was younger most of the time as I either just wanted to get the weapons from under the ring and repeatedly whack whoever I was in a match with or I'd do ladder matches, wait until two wrestlers had climbed the ladder and then push it over and these things entertained me to no end. So no matter what gets said, I think I'll always have a soft spot for this game with many happy memories attached.
As for the game itself, its not half bad but I don't exactly think I find playing an actual match fun. The control system is pretty decent and due to the low amount of moves a wrestler can do (at least compared to later games) the controls are quite simple and easy to remember. I don't have much of a problem with the right stick being how you grapple and I quite like L1 being the finisher move. The difficulty options are kind of an issue for me though as easy feels too easy, hard & legend feel way too hard and normal feels a bit too hard, like not bad enough that I can't get anywhere with it but just to the point that I'm kind of struggling a bit too much and not really having fun.
One of the reasons for the difficulty for me is how reversals work in this game, where a lot of the games afterwards only have a single button for reversing, this game has two and one is for strikes and the other is for grapples and you're just supposed to predict what your opponent is going to do and I kind of like the concept of this but it does just end up being mainly guesswork. I often struggle to successfully reverse a move and it can lead to long periods where the opponent is doing many different moves on my character and I can't really do anything which usually leads to a loss. I think its quite unforgiving and in all honesty I'm not really the biggest fan, the later games are easier but I have more fun actually playing them.
This is probably going to sound a little weird but I wanted to do another paragraph here about my thoughts on the matches as the difficulty and reversals aren't the only reasons why I don't really like them, but I can't. It feels wrong to say something and not be able to explain it properly but in this case I'm going to have to. The matches are just boring, I can't really explain why but I get far more enjoyment from the later games than this one. The only exceptions being games like 2010 as it doesn't have a HUD which I really don't like and 2K16 as it just feels slow. I don't get it and it feels weird but I think its better to state it and not explain rather than not state it at all as it would defeat the purpose of this.
Create a superstar is fine but kind of lacking in the customisation options for me, create a moveset would be at its best here due to the low amount of moves that can be applied to each wrestler making the whole process quick and painless (I like my created characters to have their own movesets but I don't really like actually making them) but the choice of moves is a bit too small for me. The soundtrack is kind of funny to me as I don't really listen to music like it but due to the amount of time I've put into the game, I've really warmed up to it and I really like the majority if not all of the songs.
Odd things that I did not originally write before I posted this but thought of afterwards:
• It might be that for a lot of other games they just auto-save but the amount of times this game asks to manually save is straight up annoying. After every match, after every time you change something in the options and after every time you create something (this one makes a fair bit of sense). I understand its optional but it constantly coming up just feels absurd.
• I didn't mention career mode because I forgot but admittedly I wasn't sure if I would anyway, I don't really use the career modes in these games as while I do find the idea interesting, I just can't seem to get into them once I start them and I remember this game being no different.
• Despite many memories of mashing every button on the PS2 controller during the 'Tap any button repeatedly sections', I don't actually like this method as its kind of annoying and can just lead to my fingers aching after having to do it a few too many times. Even now that I know I can just mash one button and it will work just the same (from what I can tell), its still crap and I am so thankful it didn't stick around for long in this franchise.
• The roster is fine although as I don't have much interest in the actual WWE not a lot of the people mean anything to me. Its not particularly big which makes finding certain people easy despite the character select only showing one person at a time.
I feel like this has been not great and I understand why but if I could come out with something better I would have done. I do like the game (even if its the nostalgia doing a lot of the heavy lifting) and I like coming back to it every now and then to mess about with it for about 30 minutes to an hour, but I think when it comes down to it, if I've got a choice between this and nearly any game that came after it I probably wouldn't choose this one. I think it was one of my favourite games growing up though and that's the main thing that's important to me.
2018
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Got 120%.
So to start off with, there's not much of a story and I also don't really like much of the dialogue as its either just dragons you save telling you how to play the game or Spyro being what I can only assume was considered 'cool' when the original game released. I kind of love Gnasty Gnorc as an antagonist with his only motivations for his actions being him getting insulted and told he's not really a threat, its so stupid and petty and its amazing. I also didn't hear much of the game as I was listening to music while playing it, but the little I did hear was good, the music was nice and the sound effects were really good.
The gameplay is the main attraction though and I really like it, Spyro feels great to control and being able to charge, glide and breathe fire is really fun. The game is pretty easy most of the time but it doesn't feel like its the kind of easy where its just straight up boring, instead it just feels fun. The only thing that I felt even slightly negative towards was the level Haunted Towers as the gimmick of repeatedly going back to a fairy to be able to deal with certain enemies or obstacles was kind of annoying, but even then it was trying something different and I didn't exactly dislike it (it along with Tree Tops were the only two levels I needed to consult a guide on to 100% though as I couldn't remember what to do and the actual solutions were things I'd never guess).
There are a few gimmicks throughout the game and they're nothing groundbreaking but they do offer a change of pace of sorts when it comes to thinking about a level. There's also the flying levels where Spyro has to hit all of the things within the time limit and I got really into these as they went on as it was fun to learn the best order to do everything in whilst also trying not to fly into something or end up in the the water. The boss fights were there but there weren't really any that stood out to me for any particular reason.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The game is genuinely so pretty looking, the bright cartoony look of it was really working for me and the fact that a lot of the levels look different from each other was so nice.
• Although speaking of the appearance of the game, I did run into a couple of graphical issues in that in one level, the enemies in boats were at a noticeably lower framerate than the rest of the game and in a couple of levels, I had enemies pop in quite close to me.
• I appreciated being able to use a level select and get basically anywhere from anywhere through the menu and even if I didn't use it, being able to listen to either the original soundtrack or the new one is a really good addition.
• There were some levels that felt quite good to explore as they made use of not only the ground but the rooftops of buildings and nearby floating platforms, I enjoyed having an excuse to use the glide more often and it also felt quite cool being on a higher part of a level and being able to see anything I missed or somewhere that is a bit further in the distance but I could now get to.
Either way I really like this game and it was quite fun to come back to.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Got 120%.
So to start off with, there's not much of a story and I also don't really like much of the dialogue as its either just dragons you save telling you how to play the game or Spyro being what I can only assume was considered 'cool' when the original game released. I kind of love Gnasty Gnorc as an antagonist with his only motivations for his actions being him getting insulted and told he's not really a threat, its so stupid and petty and its amazing. I also didn't hear much of the game as I was listening to music while playing it, but the little I did hear was good, the music was nice and the sound effects were really good.
The gameplay is the main attraction though and I really like it, Spyro feels great to control and being able to charge, glide and breathe fire is really fun. The game is pretty easy most of the time but it doesn't feel like its the kind of easy where its just straight up boring, instead it just feels fun. The only thing that I felt even slightly negative towards was the level Haunted Towers as the gimmick of repeatedly going back to a fairy to be able to deal with certain enemies or obstacles was kind of annoying, but even then it was trying something different and I didn't exactly dislike it (it along with Tree Tops were the only two levels I needed to consult a guide on to 100% though as I couldn't remember what to do and the actual solutions were things I'd never guess).
There are a few gimmicks throughout the game and they're nothing groundbreaking but they do offer a change of pace of sorts when it comes to thinking about a level. There's also the flying levels where Spyro has to hit all of the things within the time limit and I got really into these as they went on as it was fun to learn the best order to do everything in whilst also trying not to fly into something or end up in the the water. The boss fights were there but there weren't really any that stood out to me for any particular reason.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The game is genuinely so pretty looking, the bright cartoony look of it was really working for me and the fact that a lot of the levels look different from each other was so nice.
• Although speaking of the appearance of the game, I did run into a couple of graphical issues in that in one level, the enemies in boats were at a noticeably lower framerate than the rest of the game and in a couple of levels, I had enemies pop in quite close to me.
• I appreciated being able to use a level select and get basically anywhere from anywhere through the menu and even if I didn't use it, being able to listen to either the original soundtrack or the new one is a really good addition.
• There were some levels that felt quite good to explore as they made use of not only the ground but the rooftops of buildings and nearby floating platforms, I enjoyed having an excuse to use the glide more often and it also felt quite cool being on a higher part of a level and being able to see anything I missed or somewhere that is a bit further in the distance but I could now get to.
Either way I really like this game and it was quite fun to come back to.
2003
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Played on Xbox One using the HD Collection version. Played on Easy Action difficulty, Normal Riddle difficulty and got the Normal ending.
There was a short while when I was playing this that I just wasn't feeling it, any issues I had, had boiled over and I just felt bored. But then I got to about the last hour and the game managed to pull me back and I was probably the most into it than I had been throughout the rest of the game.
The story here I was initially worried about as just coming off of the original where I wasn't a fan of the plot and this game being a direct sequel to it, I figured I wouldn't be able to get into it and for a while this was kind of true. The story is told quite sparsely in the first half like in the first game but once it hits the second half not only does the story come out more but it also gets quite interesting. I'm sort of interested in media surrounding cults but when the religious aspect takes over quite a lot it starts to lose me and this game is very heavy on the religious aspect, but there was something about it that just worked and I was enjoying listening to the dialogue or reading the memos in the game.
The characters also worked in a similar way, although straight from the start I found myself liking Heather as a character and she only got better as the game went on with her being one of my favourite characters of the series so far and perhaps one of my favourite protagonists in a video game. Her story is interesting and I found myself caring about her a fair bit. But the main thing for me is that I love that the game remembered at the end of the day that no matter what happens, she is still a teenage girl and she acts like one. She's a bit bratty and not afraid to say what's on her mind as she does not take shit from anyone and it made her all the more interesting. Various quotes she had or some of her thoughts when interacting with an item were either quite funny or enjoyable to read as it felt like they really put her personality in the writing which was great.
The other characters mostly needed time for me to warm up to them, Douglas was ok and he basically stayed that way the whole time though. Claudia just felt like Dahlia again for a while but once the game got to the church I found her a lot more compelling as the game was sort of going into why she was the way she was and her becoming more of a complex character who I was beginning to feel kind of bad for despite what she was doing. Vincent started off just being annoying but he also got better as well around the same time as Claudia when he had more interesting dialogue and also was being revealed to be more and more of a prick which was more engaging to see compared to how he started.
Gameplay was really not great here I think, its better than the first game as I didn't have to use tank controls but it felt kind of worse than the second because while neither game had great combat, the melee weapons at least felt somewhat good to use in the second game. The melee weapons are generally what I prefer to use in these games and none of the weapons felt like they were actually hitting anything half of the time, I thought that maybe I just needed to wait for a bit to come across something like the hammer in the first game but nothing like that ever came. I also didn't really like the enemies much in this game either, some had interesting designs but that was about it.
The areas in the game were kind of weird to me because in all honesty considering what locations were actually in the game this should probably be my favourite collection in the series so far but it just wasn't. Going to the hospital again was fine as I think they actually managed to make it feel quite different from the last two games but what is basically the same location three games in a row is a bit much I think. The final area was nothing special and I think the game had played the 'Otherworld' aesthetic a bit too much by this point. But the rest of the areas were pretty good, I liked how they reused areas or ideas in the first game that I felt didn't get used enough like the shopping centre and the amusement park (the haunted mansion was probably my favourite area in the game even if I wish it was a bit longer). I also quite liked the subway and the building with all of the different businesses as they were fun to explore and were not really places I see used in many horror games.
Just like with 2 I'd like to acknowledge how playing the game actually went with using this version. I was quite worried going in as when I last played it, it crashed on me three times (twice in the subway and once in the building with the businesses), but thankfully that didn't happen this time. Outside of what I think were two minor but noticeable visual glitches I don't think I had any problems with the game. I will say that there was a few times where the only audio coming from the game was Heather's footsteps and I didn't know if this was supposed to be like this or not as it was usually in quiet areas with no enemies around. But I actually kind of liked it and it made me feel a lot more alone which I think worked in the game's favour, so whether or not it was a glitch or not I don't really mind. One more thing concerning this version was that I had to play with the new voice acting and I quite liked it, I've not really heard the original voices all that much outside of a couple of YouTube videos and I think it helped me be able to enjoy these new voices even if they don't really fit the Silent Hill tone or whatever.
Some scattered thoughts:
• I think the game was quite creepy at times and even scary at points but for the most part I didn't really feel anything for a lot of the game. I think the game tries a bit too hard to be scary and ends up overusing some things or going a touch too out there with some things (to better explain, they looked kind of cool and interesting but far too weird and over the top to be genuinely scary).
• The puzzles weren't half bad in this game and I actually felt like I could do them without looking them up but what I ended up struggling with was some of the combine the items things as the things necessary were not things I was thinking of and another issue I had was seeing items that I needed (the chain that is the same colour as the bench its on in the dark as shit amusement park).
• While I'm more interested in the whole cult plotline than I was before, I would be perfectly ok if it wasn't the subject of another game as I already kind of felt like this was sort of unnecessary. From what I've seen though I don't think I have anything to worry about thankfully.
Overall I really liked this game, I think even when I was kind of bored during the middle I was still thinking that it was a good game and the fact that it picked up so much towards the end really helped it (that and the game being short as well). I'm happy that I still quite like this game.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Played on Xbox One using the HD Collection version. Played on Easy Action difficulty, Normal Riddle difficulty and got the Normal ending.
There was a short while when I was playing this that I just wasn't feeling it, any issues I had, had boiled over and I just felt bored. But then I got to about the last hour and the game managed to pull me back and I was probably the most into it than I had been throughout the rest of the game.
The story here I was initially worried about as just coming off of the original where I wasn't a fan of the plot and this game being a direct sequel to it, I figured I wouldn't be able to get into it and for a while this was kind of true. The story is told quite sparsely in the first half like in the first game but once it hits the second half not only does the story come out more but it also gets quite interesting. I'm sort of interested in media surrounding cults but when the religious aspect takes over quite a lot it starts to lose me and this game is very heavy on the religious aspect, but there was something about it that just worked and I was enjoying listening to the dialogue or reading the memos in the game.
The characters also worked in a similar way, although straight from the start I found myself liking Heather as a character and she only got better as the game went on with her being one of my favourite characters of the series so far and perhaps one of my favourite protagonists in a video game. Her story is interesting and I found myself caring about her a fair bit. But the main thing for me is that I love that the game remembered at the end of the day that no matter what happens, she is still a teenage girl and she acts like one. She's a bit bratty and not afraid to say what's on her mind as she does not take shit from anyone and it made her all the more interesting. Various quotes she had or some of her thoughts when interacting with an item were either quite funny or enjoyable to read as it felt like they really put her personality in the writing which was great.
The other characters mostly needed time for me to warm up to them, Douglas was ok and he basically stayed that way the whole time though. Claudia just felt like Dahlia again for a while but once the game got to the church I found her a lot more compelling as the game was sort of going into why she was the way she was and her becoming more of a complex character who I was beginning to feel kind of bad for despite what she was doing. Vincent started off just being annoying but he also got better as well around the same time as Claudia when he had more interesting dialogue and also was being revealed to be more and more of a prick which was more engaging to see compared to how he started.
Gameplay was really not great here I think, its better than the first game as I didn't have to use tank controls but it felt kind of worse than the second because while neither game had great combat, the melee weapons at least felt somewhat good to use in the second game. The melee weapons are generally what I prefer to use in these games and none of the weapons felt like they were actually hitting anything half of the time, I thought that maybe I just needed to wait for a bit to come across something like the hammer in the first game but nothing like that ever came. I also didn't really like the enemies much in this game either, some had interesting designs but that was about it.
The areas in the game were kind of weird to me because in all honesty considering what locations were actually in the game this should probably be my favourite collection in the series so far but it just wasn't. Going to the hospital again was fine as I think they actually managed to make it feel quite different from the last two games but what is basically the same location three games in a row is a bit much I think. The final area was nothing special and I think the game had played the 'Otherworld' aesthetic a bit too much by this point. But the rest of the areas were pretty good, I liked how they reused areas or ideas in the first game that I felt didn't get used enough like the shopping centre and the amusement park (the haunted mansion was probably my favourite area in the game even if I wish it was a bit longer). I also quite liked the subway and the building with all of the different businesses as they were fun to explore and were not really places I see used in many horror games.
Just like with 2 I'd like to acknowledge how playing the game actually went with using this version. I was quite worried going in as when I last played it, it crashed on me three times (twice in the subway and once in the building with the businesses), but thankfully that didn't happen this time. Outside of what I think were two minor but noticeable visual glitches I don't think I had any problems with the game. I will say that there was a few times where the only audio coming from the game was Heather's footsteps and I didn't know if this was supposed to be like this or not as it was usually in quiet areas with no enemies around. But I actually kind of liked it and it made me feel a lot more alone which I think worked in the game's favour, so whether or not it was a glitch or not I don't really mind. One more thing concerning this version was that I had to play with the new voice acting and I quite liked it, I've not really heard the original voices all that much outside of a couple of YouTube videos and I think it helped me be able to enjoy these new voices even if they don't really fit the Silent Hill tone or whatever.
Some scattered thoughts:
• I think the game was quite creepy at times and even scary at points but for the most part I didn't really feel anything for a lot of the game. I think the game tries a bit too hard to be scary and ends up overusing some things or going a touch too out there with some things (to better explain, they looked kind of cool and interesting but far too weird and over the top to be genuinely scary).
• The puzzles weren't half bad in this game and I actually felt like I could do them without looking them up but what I ended up struggling with was some of the combine the items things as the things necessary were not things I was thinking of and another issue I had was seeing items that I needed (the chain that is the same colour as the bench its on in the dark as shit amusement park).
• While I'm more interested in the whole cult plotline than I was before, I would be perfectly ok if it wasn't the subject of another game as I already kind of felt like this was sort of unnecessary. From what I've seen though I don't think I have anything to worry about thankfully.
Overall I really liked this game, I think even when I was kind of bored during the middle I was still thinking that it was a good game and the fact that it picked up so much towards the end really helped it (that and the game being short as well). I'm happy that I still quite like this game.
1999
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
First time playing through this after a couple of attempts over the last couple of years with the furthest one in being about halfway through the game four years ago. Played on Easy and got the Good+ ending.
Originally I wasn't going to bother with this game as I tried it again quite recently and still wasn't really into it but changed my mind after how good Silent Hill 2 was and realising that (for me at least) its just better to play on the easier difficulties with these games as I then find my issues with them diminished. After playing I honestly can't really tell if I made the right choice by fully playing this or not.
I really couldn't get that interested in this game, the story was just told in a way where it feels like most of it happens in the later half and even then it just feels like its told kind of weirdly (as stupid as that may sound). If it wasn't for the fact that I'd seen the film based on this game not only before but recently I would've struggled even more than I already was in following it. None of the characters were particularly interesting and I felt that the voice acting in the game basically destroyed any last hope of me caring about the characters or the story. I didn't really give a shit whether Harry found Cheryl or not because it didn't even sound like he cared himself.
The locations in the game were sort of cool and I actually quite liked the hospital, sewer and Nowhere sections. I wasn't really a fan of having to do the school two times in a row though and exploring the town was a pain in the arse because of the constant roadblocks and the annoying enemies.
Speaking of which, I think that over half of the types of enemies in this game can just be described as annoying. The pterodactyls, the dogs, the mole people, the ghost children (in the final area) and even the bosses. I think most of it comes down to having to deal with them using tank controls and the fact that the majority of them have some kind of grab. But a couple of them fly and are difficult to see (even with holding down L2 (the look button or whatever its called)).
The puzzles in this game were absolutely not for me, I struggle too much when given a puzzle and being told "here, solve it," and not understanding what I'm supposed to be doing in the first place. I got to what was essentially the first puzzle of the game (the bird story and piano keys in the school) and I literally had no idea what I was even being asked of, so I ended up using a guide and I'm really glad I did. The guide was consulted a fair bit, especially towards the end of the game as I was just constantly confused. I don't consider this to be a fault of the game, just another reason why I personally couldn't quite get on with it. I did like the Alice in Wonderland tablets puzzle and the make the shapes from the pictures on the doors bit.
Some scattered thoughts:
• I really liked how the game looked and I think its so cool how the developers managed to work with the limitations at the time in such creative ways.
• Despite being a horror game I didn't really feel all that scared or anything outside of a couple of moments here and there, that's not a big problem for me but I do think that the game is kind of banking on the player feeling at least a little on edge due to its atmosphere.
• The music wasn't really for me but I think there were a couple of songs I thought were decent.
• I didn't really enjoy the combat most of the time but I loved using the hammer.
I think the game was alright and there were some interesting things in it but I don't exactly think I had a particularly good time with it and I don't think I'm going to want to come back to it.
First time playing through this after a couple of attempts over the last couple of years with the furthest one in being about halfway through the game four years ago. Played on Easy and got the Good+ ending.
Originally I wasn't going to bother with this game as I tried it again quite recently and still wasn't really into it but changed my mind after how good Silent Hill 2 was and realising that (for me at least) its just better to play on the easier difficulties with these games as I then find my issues with them diminished. After playing I honestly can't really tell if I made the right choice by fully playing this or not.
I really couldn't get that interested in this game, the story was just told in a way where it feels like most of it happens in the later half and even then it just feels like its told kind of weirdly (as stupid as that may sound). If it wasn't for the fact that I'd seen the film based on this game not only before but recently I would've struggled even more than I already was in following it. None of the characters were particularly interesting and I felt that the voice acting in the game basically destroyed any last hope of me caring about the characters or the story. I didn't really give a shit whether Harry found Cheryl or not because it didn't even sound like he cared himself.
The locations in the game were sort of cool and I actually quite liked the hospital, sewer and Nowhere sections. I wasn't really a fan of having to do the school two times in a row though and exploring the town was a pain in the arse because of the constant roadblocks and the annoying enemies.
Speaking of which, I think that over half of the types of enemies in this game can just be described as annoying. The pterodactyls, the dogs, the mole people, the ghost children (in the final area) and even the bosses. I think most of it comes down to having to deal with them using tank controls and the fact that the majority of them have some kind of grab. But a couple of them fly and are difficult to see (even with holding down L2 (the look button or whatever its called)).
The puzzles in this game were absolutely not for me, I struggle too much when given a puzzle and being told "here, solve it," and not understanding what I'm supposed to be doing in the first place. I got to what was essentially the first puzzle of the game (the bird story and piano keys in the school) and I literally had no idea what I was even being asked of, so I ended up using a guide and I'm really glad I did. The guide was consulted a fair bit, especially towards the end of the game as I was just constantly confused. I don't consider this to be a fault of the game, just another reason why I personally couldn't quite get on with it. I did like the Alice in Wonderland tablets puzzle and the make the shapes from the pictures on the doors bit.
Some scattered thoughts:
• I really liked how the game looked and I think its so cool how the developers managed to work with the limitations at the time in such creative ways.
• Despite being a horror game I didn't really feel all that scared or anything outside of a couple of moments here and there, that's not a big problem for me but I do think that the game is kind of banking on the player feeling at least a little on edge due to its atmosphere.
• The music wasn't really for me but I think there were a couple of songs I thought were decent.
• I didn't really enjoy the combat most of the time but I loved using the hammer.
I think the game was alright and there were some interesting things in it but I don't exactly think I had a particularly good time with it and I don't think I'm going to want to come back to it.
2001
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Played on Xbox One with the HD Collection version. Beginner action difficulty and Normal riddle difficulty. Got the 'Rebirth' ending. Also played 'Born From A Wish' on Easy.
The first time I played this game I came out of it seeing it less as a game and more of an experience, thinking that I had no issues with it and basically considering it perfect. This time around though I found that I did have issues and didn't think it was perfect anymore but I felt that I was able to appreciate it a lot more compared to when I first played it. I also saw it more as a video game but there were multiple moments towards the end where I was genuinely so surprised to look down and see a controller in my hands as I was so completely invested and had just forgotten that I was playing a game.
This is a very good game, I think this way at least more to the story, audio and presentation. Admittedly some story and character stuff did go over my head but I didn't really mind that and it just made me want to have a look and see what other people think or see what theories there are. The music is also great with a quite a few songs that were really good and captured the feeling the game was going for, although there were a couple I weren't entirely sure on.
But the main thing that got me was just how brilliant certain sections in this game were due to a mixture of the design of the locations and the sound design. The game is already creepy enough but the prison has got to be one of the creepiest sections I've ever played in a game before, where I genuinely felt relief when I heard the static from the radio meaning one of the monsters were nearby as at least they were something I recognised and found almost comforting in a weird way as opposed to the incredibly unpleasant looking prison and all the strange noises it housed.
And then there's the hotel which is already a great location but it gets so much better once James has his revelation and the hotel transforms into this dilapidated and desolate building that for a short while I felt almost trapped in with so many locked rooms and the guest rooms that the majority of kept looping sending James back to the same areas. Throughout a lot of the second half of the game it just kind of got to me how horrific of an experience this all was and what James must be going through in his head (or what Silent Hill deemed fit for him after his actions (I don't really know which it is in all honesty but I think it's one of these two)) to create this.
My biggest issue with the game though is the gameplay unfortunately, while I played from start to finish on the aforementioned difficulty options today, I actually started playing yesterday with the action difficulty on Normal, this was a pretty bad decision on my part. I don't really like the combat of this game and the way I saw it, lower difficulty meant less hits that each enemy would need to take and it meant that I could spend less time doing the combat. I think I may have gone a bit too far and should have just put it on Easy as while I wasn't too bothered about the normal enemies, the boss fights were going down in about 10-30 seconds which hurt the impact of them I think. As for riddles, I was actually fine with most of them but the coin one at the beginning I had to look up as I found it a bit too difficult. I also was initially having problems with the movement (and I nearly stopped playing because of it), but then I realised that I didn't have to play with tank controls and instead could change it to '2D Controls' in the options which felt a lot better. Overall though I think the gameplay while being my biggest issue, isn't actually a massive problem as I was able to change things more to my liking.
The characters were good, although I did find Laura kind of annoying and I also was sort of mixed on the voice acting (I played using the original voices) as sometimes I was really into how normal the characters sounded and how they felt like real people when they spoke, but then there were quite a few times where the voice acting just sounded straight up bad and it sort of took me out of it, especially as I can't usually tell when acting of any kind is good or bad. The different characters each having their own story and all going on their own journey just like James made them more compelling, especially considering that they don't all get a whole lot of screen time and it also gave me something to chew on during less story-heavy moments in the game where I could think about them and sort of how 'Silent Hill' as a place actually works.
Something to note here is the fact that I played using the HD Collection which has a bit of a reputation. I didn't really remember having many issues on my first playthrough and this time it was mostly the same. I think the game sort of stopped for like a second two or three times and it also was a bit too dark for me to see in certain areas but other than that I didn't actually have any real issues. One of the biggest things is how this version affects the game on a visual and atmospheric level and considering that I came out of this game, loving how it looked and feeling very freaked out at times or creeped out most of the time, I don't really think it was that bad. I'm sure if I played the original versions I would have a better time but I think the game is able to carry itself and the experience it wants to share with the player, in spite of any potential problems this version brings.
I really liked Born From A Wish as well, it was interesting and had me on edge a lot of the time even if it was a telling a sad story. The story was good and I enjoyed the role Maria played in it but I did have issues with Ernest. I didn't really trust him at all and I didn't even believe that he was actually who he said he was and part of that was down to the voice acting, its already pretty bad I think but actual quality of the sound really didn't help things. I noticed it with Maria a couple of times as well, either the microphone was cheap or the voice actors were too close to the microphone and I think for Ernest it was done on purpose because he's talking from behind a closed door but it still didn't sound right even for that. I also wasn't keen on the puzzle as it felt like it didn't really work with how you solve puzzles in this game. Great little whatever it was though that only took me 45 minutes.
In the end this is truly a special game and I'm so pleased to have had such a great experience on my second playthrough of it. I've come out of this game feeling far more excited about exploring this world than I ever had before and I'm also way more interested in playing more games in the franchise as while I've played a bit of the first four games I've only finished 2 & 3 before so I'm looking forward to playing through more.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Played on Xbox One with the HD Collection version. Beginner action difficulty and Normal riddle difficulty. Got the 'Rebirth' ending. Also played 'Born From A Wish' on Easy.
The first time I played this game I came out of it seeing it less as a game and more of an experience, thinking that I had no issues with it and basically considering it perfect. This time around though I found that I did have issues and didn't think it was perfect anymore but I felt that I was able to appreciate it a lot more compared to when I first played it. I also saw it more as a video game but there were multiple moments towards the end where I was genuinely so surprised to look down and see a controller in my hands as I was so completely invested and had just forgotten that I was playing a game.
This is a very good game, I think this way at least more to the story, audio and presentation. Admittedly some story and character stuff did go over my head but I didn't really mind that and it just made me want to have a look and see what other people think or see what theories there are. The music is also great with a quite a few songs that were really good and captured the feeling the game was going for, although there were a couple I weren't entirely sure on.
But the main thing that got me was just how brilliant certain sections in this game were due to a mixture of the design of the locations and the sound design. The game is already creepy enough but the prison has got to be one of the creepiest sections I've ever played in a game before, where I genuinely felt relief when I heard the static from the radio meaning one of the monsters were nearby as at least they were something I recognised and found almost comforting in a weird way as opposed to the incredibly unpleasant looking prison and all the strange noises it housed.
And then there's the hotel which is already a great location but it gets so much better once James has his revelation and the hotel transforms into this dilapidated and desolate building that for a short while I felt almost trapped in with so many locked rooms and the guest rooms that the majority of kept looping sending James back to the same areas. Throughout a lot of the second half of the game it just kind of got to me how horrific of an experience this all was and what James must be going through in his head (or what Silent Hill deemed fit for him after his actions (I don't really know which it is in all honesty but I think it's one of these two)) to create this.
My biggest issue with the game though is the gameplay unfortunately, while I played from start to finish on the aforementioned difficulty options today, I actually started playing yesterday with the action difficulty on Normal, this was a pretty bad decision on my part. I don't really like the combat of this game and the way I saw it, lower difficulty meant less hits that each enemy would need to take and it meant that I could spend less time doing the combat. I think I may have gone a bit too far and should have just put it on Easy as while I wasn't too bothered about the normal enemies, the boss fights were going down in about 10-30 seconds which hurt the impact of them I think. As for riddles, I was actually fine with most of them but the coin one at the beginning I had to look up as I found it a bit too difficult. I also was initially having problems with the movement (and I nearly stopped playing because of it), but then I realised that I didn't have to play with tank controls and instead could change it to '2D Controls' in the options which felt a lot better. Overall though I think the gameplay while being my biggest issue, isn't actually a massive problem as I was able to change things more to my liking.
The characters were good, although I did find Laura kind of annoying and I also was sort of mixed on the voice acting (I played using the original voices) as sometimes I was really into how normal the characters sounded and how they felt like real people when they spoke, but then there were quite a few times where the voice acting just sounded straight up bad and it sort of took me out of it, especially as I can't usually tell when acting of any kind is good or bad. The different characters each having their own story and all going on their own journey just like James made them more compelling, especially considering that they don't all get a whole lot of screen time and it also gave me something to chew on during less story-heavy moments in the game where I could think about them and sort of how 'Silent Hill' as a place actually works.
Something to note here is the fact that I played using the HD Collection which has a bit of a reputation. I didn't really remember having many issues on my first playthrough and this time it was mostly the same. I think the game sort of stopped for like a second two or three times and it also was a bit too dark for me to see in certain areas but other than that I didn't actually have any real issues. One of the biggest things is how this version affects the game on a visual and atmospheric level and considering that I came out of this game, loving how it looked and feeling very freaked out at times or creeped out most of the time, I don't really think it was that bad. I'm sure if I played the original versions I would have a better time but I think the game is able to carry itself and the experience it wants to share with the player, in spite of any potential problems this version brings.
I really liked Born From A Wish as well, it was interesting and had me on edge a lot of the time even if it was a telling a sad story. The story was good and I enjoyed the role Maria played in it but I did have issues with Ernest. I didn't really trust him at all and I didn't even believe that he was actually who he said he was and part of that was down to the voice acting, its already pretty bad I think but actual quality of the sound really didn't help things. I noticed it with Maria a couple of times as well, either the microphone was cheap or the voice actors were too close to the microphone and I think for Ernest it was done on purpose because he's talking from behind a closed door but it still didn't sound right even for that. I also wasn't keen on the puzzle as it felt like it didn't really work with how you solve puzzles in this game. Great little whatever it was though that only took me 45 minutes.
In the end this is truly a special game and I'm so pleased to have had such a great experience on my second playthrough of it. I've come out of this game feeling far more excited about exploring this world than I ever had before and I'm also way more interested in playing more games in the franchise as while I've played a bit of the first four games I've only finished 2 & 3 before so I'm looking forward to playing through more.
2006
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
Fourth time playing through this game (third time playing the original version and second time playing it on PS4).
I love this game, I was pretty sure of that going in and this playthrough truly solidified it. Starting was a little awkward as I noticed that the camera was pretty bad and Jimmy felt a little awkward to control, I almost considered leaving it and waiting to get Scholarship Edition again as I felt that might not be as bad but within a couple of hours I had already come back to it as I figured that I would get used to it and I mostly did. Bike races were sort of painful to do as the tracks were quite narrow and I straight up could not see where I was supposed to be going at times because of the camera but everything else felt fine.
This is one of my favourite worlds in a game as it feels sort of alive, there's a ton of stuff to do and interact with (with the majority of it being fun) and the characters that populate the school are memorable due to their distinct appearances, quotes and even the fact that they have names. While I don't know literally everyone, I do know a fair chunk of them and it felt so cool just being able to see characters out and about and be able to go "oh look at Algie trying to pick a fight with Trent" and that's another thing, this feels like one of the few games I've played where NPCs feel like they can basically do half of what you can do (using items like firecrackers, making out with each other and getting into fights). I can just be wandering around the school and usually come across some interesting event to watch.
And one of the funniest things to me is that I barely even register about half of the world, once New Coventry opens up I don't really care as much about the new areas, even the towns aren't the biggest deal to me but I do admit it is fun to go doing whatever in a town while Jimmy's supposed to be in class. The school is not really that big compared to a lot of areas in other games but it doesn't need to be, the characters make it and then the ways you can interact with it only adds to it, starting food fights in the cafeteria, shoving students and prefects in lockers and creating panics when pulling the fire alarm. It feels difficult to me to say the world feels truly alive as it is common to hear repeated lines, see glitches and all that but even those aspects I kind of enjoy as they can usually be quite fun, but other than those the world does feel alive for a game world I think.
Classes are another aspect to the game which could've probably sucked but just don't and not only are mostly enjoyable but also really impacted how I played the game as I would lightly plan doing missions around classes and even play truant some times just to get that experience. I think something I've noticed is that while this game is an action-adventure or whatever, I think it manages to hit the simulation genre as well as the whole going to school and doing school things aspect was really good. As for the classes themselves though, I think that basically all of them are at the very least decent whether that comes from the minigame attached or the reward for doing them. English, Chemistry and Shop were probably my favourites as the first two were really fun and it felt great to get better and better bikes from doing the shop classes. Art is kind of weird and I'm not entirely sure that I like the minigame but the rewards are useful, Photography is kind of dull to me and most of the rewards don't matter to me but I do quite like the yearbook thing and Gym is kind of fun if a little easy when doing the dodgeball matches (I think I was a lot more into it when I was younger) and I like the wrestling classes as along with the 'A Little Help' missions its quite useful to learn new combat moves in this game. I will say that its something that SE improved but I do think there only being six classes in this game was maybe a little too low and I did wish that there were more.
Speaking about combat though, its kind of boring to begin with but as Jimmy learns new moves it gets better even if its mostly just a case of hitting square a couple of times, holding it and then just kicking whoever when they're down. It feels kind of slow almost and I actually quite like it. Its not as though melee is the only way to fight enemies in the game as there's various items to use that are mostly fun to use, throwing a firecracker at something will never get old to me, putting down marbles while being chased is useful and fun and its a special moment anytime I get one of those firework volcano things.
Now the story was something I think I was paying more attention to then usual this time around and its fine but not particularly paced well I think, things just happen and a bit too quickly most of the time. It gets pretty bad in the last two chapters as Chapter 4, while mostly decent and kind of neat to see two cliques focused on for once just felt like it sped by and didn't focus on the jocks enough. Chapter 5 on the other hand was trying to do too much in one chapter and I think it would've been better if it had been split into two chapters with Jimmy being top of the school and his eventual downfall leading to his expulsion being Chapter 5 and then him getting to know Zoe and the townies, then him taking the school from Gary being Chapter 6.
Most of the chapters are good though as they usually give a bit of insight as to how each clique works but something I think could have really worked was if there were more missions that allowed you to get to know various members of the cliques as optional content. As it stands, optional missions seem to cover the Galloway & Hattrick storyline, two missions for each girl from a clique and certain characters getting a mission or two (Algie, Edna, Ms Phillips). I think too much of the focus on each chapter is spent on the leader of the group and then like one or two other members which makes sense but I think more time with other characters could have gotten the player even more attached to the characters in the game.
The main characters are another weak point for me as Jimmy is kind of interesting and I like his 'fighting for the little guy' thing and the fact that he's not a completely moral character but I think the game doesn't really know what to do with him as his level of intelligence doesn't really feel consistent throughout the game. It seems like one aspect of his personality is that he's easily manipulated and in that respect kind of dumb (him thinking that Gary was actually his friend until the end of Chapter 1 is... interesting), but he also feels like he's supposed to be a little smart with some of the plans he comes up with and how he views the people and world around him. Gary isn't a great character and the game stating that the reason he is the way he is is just that he has A.D.D and is off his meds is kinda shit. But I think he's such an entertaining arsehole and I kinda love that his reasoning for why he does what he does is just 'because I can and its funny'. Petey feels kind of true to his character as he fades into the background, unfortunately though that's not great for a character to me and I just didn't really care about him or even really remember him when he wasn't on screen. The rest of the characters are a mixed bag with some of my favourites being, Algie, Christy, Beatrice, Johnny, Lola and Trent.
This being a game from 2006 and a Rockstar game at that means that this game isn't really afraid to do and say what it wants. A lot of things can be chalked up to things being more acceptable at the time or making sense as this is a game filled with people who really aren't nice or good people, so of course they're going to do shitty things in general or to each other (Cook's Date, Paparazzi/Discretion Assured, Panty Raid). There are some things that a bit much I think, even with the previous reasons in mind (some things that were a bit much including some or all of those examples of missions) but I don't really know enough to properly talk about but it usually just felt either uncomfortable or kind of gross. There's also a lot (and I mean a lot) of homophobia in the game which makes sense and feels realistic for the setting but it did get kind of annoying after a while as its sort of insulting and repetitive. Something that I did really like though was the ability for Jimmy to make out with other guys in the game as not only is it a welcome surprise from a game like this, I also think that being able to do this kinda helped me be able to accept my own sexuality more when I was growing up (in some way at least) as the game just treats it as normal (somewhat).
On to something more positive, the soundtrack to this game is one of my favourites in gaming, it may be from it just being really good and hearing a lot of it over the years but there are so many great tracks and throughout this replay none of it ever got annoying. The game is also quite funny and there are many lines or moments that I always remember and look forward to hearing or seeing whenever I play this game.
Overall, its not a perfect game at all and I have my fair share of problems with it but I just can't help but love this game. It feels so unique and its just incredibly fun to play whether its doing missions, side activities or just fucking about in the world. I had a fantastic time coming back to this game and I really feel comfortable calling it one of my favourite games of all time.
Fourth time playing through this game (third time playing the original version and second time playing it on PS4).
I love this game, I was pretty sure of that going in and this playthrough truly solidified it. Starting was a little awkward as I noticed that the camera was pretty bad and Jimmy felt a little awkward to control, I almost considered leaving it and waiting to get Scholarship Edition again as I felt that might not be as bad but within a couple of hours I had already come back to it as I figured that I would get used to it and I mostly did. Bike races were sort of painful to do as the tracks were quite narrow and I straight up could not see where I was supposed to be going at times because of the camera but everything else felt fine.
This is one of my favourite worlds in a game as it feels sort of alive, there's a ton of stuff to do and interact with (with the majority of it being fun) and the characters that populate the school are memorable due to their distinct appearances, quotes and even the fact that they have names. While I don't know literally everyone, I do know a fair chunk of them and it felt so cool just being able to see characters out and about and be able to go "oh look at Algie trying to pick a fight with Trent" and that's another thing, this feels like one of the few games I've played where NPCs feel like they can basically do half of what you can do (using items like firecrackers, making out with each other and getting into fights). I can just be wandering around the school and usually come across some interesting event to watch.
And one of the funniest things to me is that I barely even register about half of the world, once New Coventry opens up I don't really care as much about the new areas, even the towns aren't the biggest deal to me but I do admit it is fun to go doing whatever in a town while Jimmy's supposed to be in class. The school is not really that big compared to a lot of areas in other games but it doesn't need to be, the characters make it and then the ways you can interact with it only adds to it, starting food fights in the cafeteria, shoving students and prefects in lockers and creating panics when pulling the fire alarm. It feels difficult to me to say the world feels truly alive as it is common to hear repeated lines, see glitches and all that but even those aspects I kind of enjoy as they can usually be quite fun, but other than those the world does feel alive for a game world I think.
Classes are another aspect to the game which could've probably sucked but just don't and not only are mostly enjoyable but also really impacted how I played the game as I would lightly plan doing missions around classes and even play truant some times just to get that experience. I think something I've noticed is that while this game is an action-adventure or whatever, I think it manages to hit the simulation genre as well as the whole going to school and doing school things aspect was really good. As for the classes themselves though, I think that basically all of them are at the very least decent whether that comes from the minigame attached or the reward for doing them. English, Chemistry and Shop were probably my favourites as the first two were really fun and it felt great to get better and better bikes from doing the shop classes. Art is kind of weird and I'm not entirely sure that I like the minigame but the rewards are useful, Photography is kind of dull to me and most of the rewards don't matter to me but I do quite like the yearbook thing and Gym is kind of fun if a little easy when doing the dodgeball matches (I think I was a lot more into it when I was younger) and I like the wrestling classes as along with the 'A Little Help' missions its quite useful to learn new combat moves in this game. I will say that its something that SE improved but I do think there only being six classes in this game was maybe a little too low and I did wish that there were more.
Speaking about combat though, its kind of boring to begin with but as Jimmy learns new moves it gets better even if its mostly just a case of hitting square a couple of times, holding it and then just kicking whoever when they're down. It feels kind of slow almost and I actually quite like it. Its not as though melee is the only way to fight enemies in the game as there's various items to use that are mostly fun to use, throwing a firecracker at something will never get old to me, putting down marbles while being chased is useful and fun and its a special moment anytime I get one of those firework volcano things.
Now the story was something I think I was paying more attention to then usual this time around and its fine but not particularly paced well I think, things just happen and a bit too quickly most of the time. It gets pretty bad in the last two chapters as Chapter 4, while mostly decent and kind of neat to see two cliques focused on for once just felt like it sped by and didn't focus on the jocks enough. Chapter 5 on the other hand was trying to do too much in one chapter and I think it would've been better if it had been split into two chapters with Jimmy being top of the school and his eventual downfall leading to his expulsion being Chapter 5 and then him getting to know Zoe and the townies, then him taking the school from Gary being Chapter 6.
Most of the chapters are good though as they usually give a bit of insight as to how each clique works but something I think could have really worked was if there were more missions that allowed you to get to know various members of the cliques as optional content. As it stands, optional missions seem to cover the Galloway & Hattrick storyline, two missions for each girl from a clique and certain characters getting a mission or two (Algie, Edna, Ms Phillips). I think too much of the focus on each chapter is spent on the leader of the group and then like one or two other members which makes sense but I think more time with other characters could have gotten the player even more attached to the characters in the game.
The main characters are another weak point for me as Jimmy is kind of interesting and I like his 'fighting for the little guy' thing and the fact that he's not a completely moral character but I think the game doesn't really know what to do with him as his level of intelligence doesn't really feel consistent throughout the game. It seems like one aspect of his personality is that he's easily manipulated and in that respect kind of dumb (him thinking that Gary was actually his friend until the end of Chapter 1 is... interesting), but he also feels like he's supposed to be a little smart with some of the plans he comes up with and how he views the people and world around him. Gary isn't a great character and the game stating that the reason he is the way he is is just that he has A.D.D and is off his meds is kinda shit. But I think he's such an entertaining arsehole and I kinda love that his reasoning for why he does what he does is just 'because I can and its funny'. Petey feels kind of true to his character as he fades into the background, unfortunately though that's not great for a character to me and I just didn't really care about him or even really remember him when he wasn't on screen. The rest of the characters are a mixed bag with some of my favourites being, Algie, Christy, Beatrice, Johnny, Lola and Trent.
This being a game from 2006 and a Rockstar game at that means that this game isn't really afraid to do and say what it wants. A lot of things can be chalked up to things being more acceptable at the time or making sense as this is a game filled with people who really aren't nice or good people, so of course they're going to do shitty things in general or to each other (Cook's Date, Paparazzi/Discretion Assured, Panty Raid). There are some things that a bit much I think, even with the previous reasons in mind (some things that were a bit much including some or all of those examples of missions) but I don't really know enough to properly talk about but it usually just felt either uncomfortable or kind of gross. There's also a lot (and I mean a lot) of homophobia in the game which makes sense and feels realistic for the setting but it did get kind of annoying after a while as its sort of insulting and repetitive. Something that I did really like though was the ability for Jimmy to make out with other guys in the game as not only is it a welcome surprise from a game like this, I also think that being able to do this kinda helped me be able to accept my own sexuality more when I was growing up (in some way at least) as the game just treats it as normal (somewhat).
On to something more positive, the soundtrack to this game is one of my favourites in gaming, it may be from it just being really good and hearing a lot of it over the years but there are so many great tracks and throughout this replay none of it ever got annoying. The game is also quite funny and there are many lines or moments that I always remember and look forward to hearing or seeing whenever I play this game.
Overall, its not a perfect game at all and I have my fair share of problems with it but I just can't help but love this game. It feels so unique and its just incredibly fun to play whether its doing missions, side activities or just fucking about in the world. I had a fantastic time coming back to this game and I really feel comfortable calling it one of my favourite games of all time.
2004
For personal reference more than anything else.
Played it for a little bit after having played it for probably somewhere around 20 hours over the past six or so years. This is less supposed to be a normal playthrough and more just a dick about with it to be able to write this as I'd like something to come to anytime I consider playing this game. This isn't going to be the best written thing and might even be quite crappy and just feel like a scattered list of things rather than a properly constructed review or whatever but it'll be what I need it to be.
This was the third mainline PC Sims game I played and about the fifteenth Sims game I played at least some of overall, because of this and the fact that the two PC Sims games I played before it were 3 & 4, while it may not be entirely fair to the game, this is going to be less seeing it on its own terms and more how it feels to play compared to other games in this franchise as quite a few of the other games offer a very similar but in my opinion better experience.
Obviously I could try to take things like the games age into account and try to overlook it but when I can just play one of the other games that I already prefer for what they do with the gameplay or how well they do certain things and notice that they don't have the same issues that this one has due to more recent time of release, it feels a little weird to ignore the issues I have. Yeah the game's going to be not quite as in depth with its mechanics, not provide a higher amount of options of things or whatever and that's not the games fault, but even with that in mind I have played Sims games without those issues beforehand and because of the whole similar experience thing it means I will talk about those problems as they are actual issues I have with the game and impact my enjoyment of it.
Something I'll quickly note though is that while I understand that I could just use cheats or mods to get something closer to the experience I would actually want. I don't really use either of those and I also think that I wouldn't end up with the game being the way I want it. But also I'm looking at the game how its available to me and probably meant to be played, it also then begs the question if I'm just going to do all that then why not just play a different Sims game where I don't have to do that and I'll be having a better time?
To start off with one of the biggest problems to me and one of the main reasons I struggle to spend much time with this game is, when looking at it alongside all the others in the franchise it just doesn't do anything to stand out from the rest that actually interests me. Sims 1 has the cool artstyle and higher difficulty, Sims 3 has the open world and seemingly endless amount of things to do, Sims 4 has my favourite CAS + Build/Buy mode and the various gameplay mechanics brought in by expansion packs like the calendar, the active careers and club system. Even some of the spin-offs and ports have their own thing, Sims 2 on consoles has direct controls, Sims 3 on consoles has Karma Powers and this is without mentioning that a big thing is just being able to play The Sims on consoles and handhelds which is cool in itself as each console doesn't really have a whole lot of similar Sims games that provide the typical Sims experience. Sims 2 if I was trying to work it out myself I'd get nowhere but having been more into the Sims community a few years ago for a while has made it clear to me that for this game its the details that it has (the pizza looking good, the kid either being happy or sad returning home with their report card and various other animations), the story or lore aspect and the things like 'dinner with the headmaster minigame' or the chemistry system and personally none of this is really enough to make me want to come back to this game all too often. The details are cool and all but once I've seen them, I've seen them, the story and lore doesn't even remotely interest me and the other stuff is fine but not really things I use all that much. The game not having much of an identity (gameplay-wise) is why I think I notice the other stuff which I will focus on for a lot of this log, as the game just then becomes nothing to me but how does this fare as a Sims experience/video game and that's why I think I think of it the way I do.
I really like the music though, because I grew up with some of the soundtrack from playing the PS2 spinoffs which had music from this game its quite nostalgic for me even though I only first played this game a few years ago. The soundtrack is really good on its own merits I think though.
A big issue for me is having only one save file and to get a new one you have to delete the first one in the files of the games, they can't co-exist yet if anything happens in the game (a certain sim dies or whatever) it stays like that and if you want things to go back to the way they were, you would need a new save file.
Create a Sim has a lot more depth than the first game but having first played it after years of playing 3 & 4 it feels so unbelievably restricted. Some examples being only four skin tones, two body types, four hair colours and just a low amount of outfits for certain things like outerwear and athletic wear. I also wish that I could make my sim be a supernatural type straight off the bat and the fact that I can't and have to meet one in game and develop a high enough relationship with them makes it so that I don't really play with the supernatural types as much.
I don't particularly like how the sims themselves look and it feels like if I try to mould them how I want, then they go from looking kinda weird to really weird in like a second, because of this I usually stick to just the presets and it makes most of the sims I make look the same.
The personality system is mostly the same as the first game where you assign points in certain personality types. The only differences being that you can choose a Zodiac sign that automatically assigns points and being able to choose an aspiration. I already didn't like the point system as I think that while it changes how the sims act some of the time I just think that I am more likely to play a sim a certain way with the trait system of 3 & 4, whereas in this game all the sims I play end up feeling the same as there's not much personality to glean from the options present. I also have a problem with the amount of points as any time I've tried to make a sim in this game I nearly always have to compromise on the personality I want due to not having enough points. I can sort of understand that this probably comes from the game not wanting players to have sims that have no points in anything or all personality types being maxed out, but I feel as though something like that wouldn't matter in a game like this as its singleplayer and a game where people enjoy playing how they want.
The turn-ons and turn-offs are also new to this game and I don't really like them, I don't like that its mandatory to choose them whenever I'm making a new sim and I don't see the point in it anyway as while there are quite a few options there, the majority of them feel way too specific and it makes it kind of hard for me to know what to choose as I have no idea who my sim is going to be interested in going in as I have no idea what townies I'll get and considering that it feels like you can just go for someone who doesn't adhere to your turn-ons and turn-offs anyway, the whole thing just feels kind of pointless. I like the idea in theory though.
Something from the first game that's been improved here is the camera as you can now freely zoom and rotate the camera as its no longer restricted to a couple of set options, this is great and doesn't gets changed in later games as it doesn't really need to be.
Sims 2 is bigger than Sims 1 (or at least you can see more when on a certain lot) and while this is nice it creates an annoyance for me as when I can see a house I'm not currently in, clicking on it only gives me the option to play as that household rather than just go visit them. This wouldn't be a big problem if it wasn't for the fact that going to places in this game feels needlessly complicated, outside of certain areas that I'm guessing came from expansion packs like the vacation areas, the Universities and downtown, the game doesn't seem to have a map that you can access whilst playing the game. This means that if I want my sims to go anywhere then I have to click on them or get to a phone and use a menu that has a list of places they could potentially go to, but other houses aren't named by who lives there or whatever but instead just the house number and street name creating a need to learn and remember where the sims I would like to visit actually live which might be cool for other people but I just don't like it.
Buying things in the game is kind of annoying to me as you don't have (mostly) everything in your wardrobe when playing and it means you have to go out to shops and buy the clothes to be able to wear them which is interesting but I wish was optional. There's a couple of other things like this like buying a mobile phone and also the groceries. Having to buy groceries is not something I'm keen on as it may be realistic but just feels kind of annoying as I usually forget I need to do it until I've run out of stuff and then its just having to wait a bit until I can cook again. Its another thing that I just would rather be optional and it doesn't really interest me all that much.
Another thing I don't really like is the lifespan of sims as its not changeable (from what I could tell) and feels far too short, I remember a playthrough where I had a sim who I wanted to get married, have at least one kid and try to reach the highest point in her career but I just couldn't do it with the time the game gave me and by the time her child was a teenager she was already an elder. There is a device you can get with aspiration points that adds another three days to a sim's life or a cheat to turn off aging but they're still not quite exactly what I'd like and I just prefer how it works in 3 & 4.
Conversations feel sort of weird in this game and it feels like there's so many categories of options but not so many options themselves. I also prefer options where your sims stay where they are and continue talking rather than go play a game or whatever, which is what a fair few of the options are. It feels kind of pointless to me to have all the questions in the Ask section as you don't really seem to learn anything from it outside of one or two things. On this, maybe its just that I've never been able to find it but I don't think there's a way to ask a sim if they're in a relationship with someone which is kind of annoying when considering them as a potential romantic partner for my sim.
I think a big thing for me is that while I recognise it as an integral part of the series, I'm not actually that keen on looking after my sims (feeding them, making sure they sleep and go to the toilet), I'm usually having the most fun when I can just create stories for them or doing experiments/challenges and this game with its short lifespans and the needs decaying quite quickly and often makes it so that I can't really do that aspect as much which makes the game kind of boring to me.
The expansion packs in the game are kind of a mixed bag for me, one of the biggest problems I have is that a few of the packs are series mainstays and have been done by the other games and if I'm being completely honest are kind of at their worst here. Universities feel like the standard Sims gameplay loop but in a bigger house and you don't have to cook, Seasons seems to only bring weather and gardening and gets outshined by those things being in the later games plus the festivals in 3 and calendar/holidays in 4. The only expansion that doesn't feel like the worst version is probably Pets (which is admittedly not a pack type I'm particularly keen on) as the pets can have jobs which is kind of cute and makes it somewhat better than 4 I think.
FreeTime, it may just be because I got the majority of the packs at once and the only way I can tell what each pack brought is by the encyclopedia in the pause menu, but this pack feels unbelievably shallow and low in content compared to a lot of the packs in the series, it brings hobbies (which I don't really use) and things that feel like if they came out once patching/updating was more prominent with games, they would have just been added for free.
Open For Business is a neat idea and I like being able to sell things at a stand and essentially have boot sales but I find the actual act of running a shop to be kind of boring in this game (I think that 4 manages to make it feel more fun). I don't really use Bon Voyage as I don't have the in-game time to give my Sims holidays but it seems like a neat pack. I do enjoy Nightlife and Apartment Life though as I like the inclusion of the Downtown area and I've always enjoyed having my sims live in apartments.
I don't think that this is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination and I think if I played it when I was younger and it was the newest release I would have been a lot more into it, but it just pales in comparison to the rest of the games in the franchise and any time I try to come back to it I just get bored or annoyed with it kind of quickly. Its alright but I'd rather be playing something else.
Played it for a little bit after having played it for probably somewhere around 20 hours over the past six or so years. This is less supposed to be a normal playthrough and more just a dick about with it to be able to write this as I'd like something to come to anytime I consider playing this game. This isn't going to be the best written thing and might even be quite crappy and just feel like a scattered list of things rather than a properly constructed review or whatever but it'll be what I need it to be.
This was the third mainline PC Sims game I played and about the fifteenth Sims game I played at least some of overall, because of this and the fact that the two PC Sims games I played before it were 3 & 4, while it may not be entirely fair to the game, this is going to be less seeing it on its own terms and more how it feels to play compared to other games in this franchise as quite a few of the other games offer a very similar but in my opinion better experience.
Obviously I could try to take things like the games age into account and try to overlook it but when I can just play one of the other games that I already prefer for what they do with the gameplay or how well they do certain things and notice that they don't have the same issues that this one has due to more recent time of release, it feels a little weird to ignore the issues I have. Yeah the game's going to be not quite as in depth with its mechanics, not provide a higher amount of options of things or whatever and that's not the games fault, but even with that in mind I have played Sims games without those issues beforehand and because of the whole similar experience thing it means I will talk about those problems as they are actual issues I have with the game and impact my enjoyment of it.
Something I'll quickly note though is that while I understand that I could just use cheats or mods to get something closer to the experience I would actually want. I don't really use either of those and I also think that I wouldn't end up with the game being the way I want it. But also I'm looking at the game how its available to me and probably meant to be played, it also then begs the question if I'm just going to do all that then why not just play a different Sims game where I don't have to do that and I'll be having a better time?
To start off with one of the biggest problems to me and one of the main reasons I struggle to spend much time with this game is, when looking at it alongside all the others in the franchise it just doesn't do anything to stand out from the rest that actually interests me. Sims 1 has the cool artstyle and higher difficulty, Sims 3 has the open world and seemingly endless amount of things to do, Sims 4 has my favourite CAS + Build/Buy mode and the various gameplay mechanics brought in by expansion packs like the calendar, the active careers and club system. Even some of the spin-offs and ports have their own thing, Sims 2 on consoles has direct controls, Sims 3 on consoles has Karma Powers and this is without mentioning that a big thing is just being able to play The Sims on consoles and handhelds which is cool in itself as each console doesn't really have a whole lot of similar Sims games that provide the typical Sims experience. Sims 2 if I was trying to work it out myself I'd get nowhere but having been more into the Sims community a few years ago for a while has made it clear to me that for this game its the details that it has (the pizza looking good, the kid either being happy or sad returning home with their report card and various other animations), the story or lore aspect and the things like 'dinner with the headmaster minigame' or the chemistry system and personally none of this is really enough to make me want to come back to this game all too often. The details are cool and all but once I've seen them, I've seen them, the story and lore doesn't even remotely interest me and the other stuff is fine but not really things I use all that much. The game not having much of an identity (gameplay-wise) is why I think I notice the other stuff which I will focus on for a lot of this log, as the game just then becomes nothing to me but how does this fare as a Sims experience/video game and that's why I think I think of it the way I do.
I really like the music though, because I grew up with some of the soundtrack from playing the PS2 spinoffs which had music from this game its quite nostalgic for me even though I only first played this game a few years ago. The soundtrack is really good on its own merits I think though.
A big issue for me is having only one save file and to get a new one you have to delete the first one in the files of the games, they can't co-exist yet if anything happens in the game (a certain sim dies or whatever) it stays like that and if you want things to go back to the way they were, you would need a new save file.
Create a Sim has a lot more depth than the first game but having first played it after years of playing 3 & 4 it feels so unbelievably restricted. Some examples being only four skin tones, two body types, four hair colours and just a low amount of outfits for certain things like outerwear and athletic wear. I also wish that I could make my sim be a supernatural type straight off the bat and the fact that I can't and have to meet one in game and develop a high enough relationship with them makes it so that I don't really play with the supernatural types as much.
I don't particularly like how the sims themselves look and it feels like if I try to mould them how I want, then they go from looking kinda weird to really weird in like a second, because of this I usually stick to just the presets and it makes most of the sims I make look the same.
The personality system is mostly the same as the first game where you assign points in certain personality types. The only differences being that you can choose a Zodiac sign that automatically assigns points and being able to choose an aspiration. I already didn't like the point system as I think that while it changes how the sims act some of the time I just think that I am more likely to play a sim a certain way with the trait system of 3 & 4, whereas in this game all the sims I play end up feeling the same as there's not much personality to glean from the options present. I also have a problem with the amount of points as any time I've tried to make a sim in this game I nearly always have to compromise on the personality I want due to not having enough points. I can sort of understand that this probably comes from the game not wanting players to have sims that have no points in anything or all personality types being maxed out, but I feel as though something like that wouldn't matter in a game like this as its singleplayer and a game where people enjoy playing how they want.
The turn-ons and turn-offs are also new to this game and I don't really like them, I don't like that its mandatory to choose them whenever I'm making a new sim and I don't see the point in it anyway as while there are quite a few options there, the majority of them feel way too specific and it makes it kind of hard for me to know what to choose as I have no idea who my sim is going to be interested in going in as I have no idea what townies I'll get and considering that it feels like you can just go for someone who doesn't adhere to your turn-ons and turn-offs anyway, the whole thing just feels kind of pointless. I like the idea in theory though.
Something from the first game that's been improved here is the camera as you can now freely zoom and rotate the camera as its no longer restricted to a couple of set options, this is great and doesn't gets changed in later games as it doesn't really need to be.
Sims 2 is bigger than Sims 1 (or at least you can see more when on a certain lot) and while this is nice it creates an annoyance for me as when I can see a house I'm not currently in, clicking on it only gives me the option to play as that household rather than just go visit them. This wouldn't be a big problem if it wasn't for the fact that going to places in this game feels needlessly complicated, outside of certain areas that I'm guessing came from expansion packs like the vacation areas, the Universities and downtown, the game doesn't seem to have a map that you can access whilst playing the game. This means that if I want my sims to go anywhere then I have to click on them or get to a phone and use a menu that has a list of places they could potentially go to, but other houses aren't named by who lives there or whatever but instead just the house number and street name creating a need to learn and remember where the sims I would like to visit actually live which might be cool for other people but I just don't like it.
Buying things in the game is kind of annoying to me as you don't have (mostly) everything in your wardrobe when playing and it means you have to go out to shops and buy the clothes to be able to wear them which is interesting but I wish was optional. There's a couple of other things like this like buying a mobile phone and also the groceries. Having to buy groceries is not something I'm keen on as it may be realistic but just feels kind of annoying as I usually forget I need to do it until I've run out of stuff and then its just having to wait a bit until I can cook again. Its another thing that I just would rather be optional and it doesn't really interest me all that much.
Another thing I don't really like is the lifespan of sims as its not changeable (from what I could tell) and feels far too short, I remember a playthrough where I had a sim who I wanted to get married, have at least one kid and try to reach the highest point in her career but I just couldn't do it with the time the game gave me and by the time her child was a teenager she was already an elder. There is a device you can get with aspiration points that adds another three days to a sim's life or a cheat to turn off aging but they're still not quite exactly what I'd like and I just prefer how it works in 3 & 4.
Conversations feel sort of weird in this game and it feels like there's so many categories of options but not so many options themselves. I also prefer options where your sims stay where they are and continue talking rather than go play a game or whatever, which is what a fair few of the options are. It feels kind of pointless to me to have all the questions in the Ask section as you don't really seem to learn anything from it outside of one or two things. On this, maybe its just that I've never been able to find it but I don't think there's a way to ask a sim if they're in a relationship with someone which is kind of annoying when considering them as a potential romantic partner for my sim.
I think a big thing for me is that while I recognise it as an integral part of the series, I'm not actually that keen on looking after my sims (feeding them, making sure they sleep and go to the toilet), I'm usually having the most fun when I can just create stories for them or doing experiments/challenges and this game with its short lifespans and the needs decaying quite quickly and often makes it so that I can't really do that aspect as much which makes the game kind of boring to me.
The expansion packs in the game are kind of a mixed bag for me, one of the biggest problems I have is that a few of the packs are series mainstays and have been done by the other games and if I'm being completely honest are kind of at their worst here. Universities feel like the standard Sims gameplay loop but in a bigger house and you don't have to cook, Seasons seems to only bring weather and gardening and gets outshined by those things being in the later games plus the festivals in 3 and calendar/holidays in 4. The only expansion that doesn't feel like the worst version is probably Pets (which is admittedly not a pack type I'm particularly keen on) as the pets can have jobs which is kind of cute and makes it somewhat better than 4 I think.
FreeTime, it may just be because I got the majority of the packs at once and the only way I can tell what each pack brought is by the encyclopedia in the pause menu, but this pack feels unbelievably shallow and low in content compared to a lot of the packs in the series, it brings hobbies (which I don't really use) and things that feel like if they came out once patching/updating was more prominent with games, they would have just been added for free.
Open For Business is a neat idea and I like being able to sell things at a stand and essentially have boot sales but I find the actual act of running a shop to be kind of boring in this game (I think that 4 manages to make it feel more fun). I don't really use Bon Voyage as I don't have the in-game time to give my Sims holidays but it seems like a neat pack. I do enjoy Nightlife and Apartment Life though as I like the inclusion of the Downtown area and I've always enjoyed having my sims live in apartments.
I don't think that this is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination and I think if I played it when I was younger and it was the newest release I would have been a lot more into it, but it just pales in comparison to the rest of the games in the franchise and any time I try to come back to it I just get bored or annoyed with it kind of quickly. Its alright but I'd rather be playing something else.
2017
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
Second time playing through this game after the first three years ago where I did the main story, majority of the boss fights and played a little bit of the bonus content (Pantheon, Grimm & Path of Pain). This time did the same thing except for the bonus content which I didn't bother with. Hit 90% and got the Dream No More ending.
I honestly think I love this game, there's so much about it that's great and I (for the most part) was having such a good time replaying it. It looks beautiful, while I may have been playing most of it with no sound and just listening to my own music or whatever, the times I did hear the game, the music was really good and the sound effects were great as well. Admittedly I don't really pay much attention to the story as it doesn't really interest me but what I did pay attention to seemed good and I really liked a lot of the characters as they either had dialogue I enjoyed, made funny sounds or just looked cool or cute.
The areas are a highlight as well as I either came back to them quite fondly or had completely forgotten that some were in there, which lead to a nice surprise (had also forgotten just how big the world in this game is as well). They all provided a good experience with the only ones I felt unsure of being Deepnest (basically just because I really don't like spiders and some of the enemies looked like spiders or were spiders), Infected Crossroads (its just annoying to try and work out how to navigate it especially as the map doesn't update with the new roadblocks or whatever) and the White Palace (some of the platforming felt a little shitty as it took advantage of the player not being able to see everything and required split second decision making to not fuck up a certain section (for example, having the player do a crystal heart and placing spikes at the other end or doing a wall jump and having to quickly leave one side just for there to be a saw blade which I couldn't see on the other)).
When it comes to the gameplay, the Metroidvania style really works for me and while I struggled at points to remember where to go, I was still having a good time and played through a lot of the game without looking things up which was quite fun for me. The game feels great to play once the Knight starts getting powers like the Dash and the Mantis Claw which thankfully is quite early on. One thing I feel kind of mixed on is the Charm system, while I get the point of it and like the idea in theory, I feel as though I would have preferred it if certain things weren't charms and instead upgrades or just something you have to begin with but its not a big deal.
As for boss fights, I really enjoyed most of the ones I ended up doing, there feels like a nice variety in how each enemy attacks and how you need to do each fight. It also feels like a lot of the bosses can properly be learnt yet still provide a challenging experience. There were a couple of annoyances for me though with the first being that, as the game can be kind of difficult at times, it makes it so that boss fights where the issue isn't so much that the boss is just hard but instead that you don't have the right power or something, its sorta difficult to tell that that's the problem. An example is the Watcher Knights fight where I was doing it before getting the dash through enemies power and having a really horrible time with it before remembering that you can get that power and coming back to the fight after retrieving it and it made it a far more enjoyable fight, its not a massive problem but still something that stuck out to me.
Another problem I had was with the final two bosses, while I have no issue with games having more than one boss for the final section, I really wasn't keen on the fact that anytime I died to the Radiance I had to redo the Hollow Knight fight which made two bosses that I genuinely think I enjoy sort of a low point of the game for me. I think that both fights aren't consistent enough for it to feel fair to lose to them at certain points, I could have a decent enough time with the Hollow Knight just to get hit with all manners of bullshit by the Radiance and then next time around die to the Hollow Knight due to what feels like getting unlucky with the RNG. At the very least if I could just go straight to the Radiance fight without having to redo the Hollow Knight one, it would feel a little better when I die early on because of the RNG. I will state though that maybe it was worse for me as I really struggle to act quickly in certain moments and can easily get overwhelmed when there's a lot going on.
Either way though, while I don't have the most to say about this game and I did run into some issues, I had such a great time replaying this and its made me look forward to Silksong a lot more than I already was. Not entirely sure but probably one of my favourite games.
Second time playing through this game after the first three years ago where I did the main story, majority of the boss fights and played a little bit of the bonus content (Pantheon, Grimm & Path of Pain). This time did the same thing except for the bonus content which I didn't bother with. Hit 90% and got the Dream No More ending.
I honestly think I love this game, there's so much about it that's great and I (for the most part) was having such a good time replaying it. It looks beautiful, while I may have been playing most of it with no sound and just listening to my own music or whatever, the times I did hear the game, the music was really good and the sound effects were great as well. Admittedly I don't really pay much attention to the story as it doesn't really interest me but what I did pay attention to seemed good and I really liked a lot of the characters as they either had dialogue I enjoyed, made funny sounds or just looked cool or cute.
The areas are a highlight as well as I either came back to them quite fondly or had completely forgotten that some were in there, which lead to a nice surprise (had also forgotten just how big the world in this game is as well). They all provided a good experience with the only ones I felt unsure of being Deepnest (basically just because I really don't like spiders and some of the enemies looked like spiders or were spiders), Infected Crossroads (its just annoying to try and work out how to navigate it especially as the map doesn't update with the new roadblocks or whatever) and the White Palace (some of the platforming felt a little shitty as it took advantage of the player not being able to see everything and required split second decision making to not fuck up a certain section (for example, having the player do a crystal heart and placing spikes at the other end or doing a wall jump and having to quickly leave one side just for there to be a saw blade which I couldn't see on the other)).
When it comes to the gameplay, the Metroidvania style really works for me and while I struggled at points to remember where to go, I was still having a good time and played through a lot of the game without looking things up which was quite fun for me. The game feels great to play once the Knight starts getting powers like the Dash and the Mantis Claw which thankfully is quite early on. One thing I feel kind of mixed on is the Charm system, while I get the point of it and like the idea in theory, I feel as though I would have preferred it if certain things weren't charms and instead upgrades or just something you have to begin with but its not a big deal.
As for boss fights, I really enjoyed most of the ones I ended up doing, there feels like a nice variety in how each enemy attacks and how you need to do each fight. It also feels like a lot of the bosses can properly be learnt yet still provide a challenging experience. There were a couple of annoyances for me though with the first being that, as the game can be kind of difficult at times, it makes it so that boss fights where the issue isn't so much that the boss is just hard but instead that you don't have the right power or something, its sorta difficult to tell that that's the problem. An example is the Watcher Knights fight where I was doing it before getting the dash through enemies power and having a really horrible time with it before remembering that you can get that power and coming back to the fight after retrieving it and it made it a far more enjoyable fight, its not a massive problem but still something that stuck out to me.
Another problem I had was with the final two bosses, while I have no issue with games having more than one boss for the final section, I really wasn't keen on the fact that anytime I died to the Radiance I had to redo the Hollow Knight fight which made two bosses that I genuinely think I enjoy sort of a low point of the game for me. I think that both fights aren't consistent enough for it to feel fair to lose to them at certain points, I could have a decent enough time with the Hollow Knight just to get hit with all manners of bullshit by the Radiance and then next time around die to the Hollow Knight due to what feels like getting unlucky with the RNG. At the very least if I could just go straight to the Radiance fight without having to redo the Hollow Knight one, it would feel a little better when I die early on because of the RNG. I will state though that maybe it was worse for me as I really struggle to act quickly in certain moments and can easily get overwhelmed when there's a lot going on.
Either way though, while I don't have the most to say about this game and I did run into some issues, I had such a great time replaying this and its made me look forward to Silksong a lot more than I already was. Not entirely sure but probably one of my favourite games.