Kago
And so the DLC is complete, and I will likely never play Marvel's Spider-man again.
This is actually the worst and yet the best chapter in the DLC, featuring the most interesting game-play out of the bunch but completely botching the narrative. All the build up in chapter 1 pays off with just a single cutscene with the black cat, which is immeasurably disappointing. All the character development with Yuri in chapter 2 gets no payoff, and Hammerhead's coolness is completely gone in chapter 3, he now just wants to kill you, lol. What you get is a return of Sable where she and spider-man repeatedly make stupid decisions until they beat the big bad guy and call it a day, hell MJ doesn't even get anything to do. This is just a complete narrative flop all around I believe. I honestly can't see this being a satisfying conclusion for anyone.
The open-world activities still suck and feature the same problems as the last two DLC's. As for main gameplay you've got more car chases, more beating up pools of bad guys, and a new jetpack guy that again, doesn't shake things up too much. The boss-fight at the end is also incredibly lame, same as the one in chapter 2, it's simply mind-numbing. Oh you've also got MORE trailing missions that are somehow worse that Assassin's Creed trailing missions. I think all of this just shows how limiting and lacking in depth this games combat system really is.
So that's it, I went through these before going into Miles Morales cause it's nearly winter and that game has snow! These DLC's have been immensely disappointing on all fronts, but I think they really just show off how basic this game is, how there is no depth to Marvel's Spider-Man. I already wrote about this extensively in my review for the main game, but this game is killed by how casual it is. It's a pretty thing to look at and not much else unfortunately, I cannot imagine anyone replaying the base game or any of these DLC's as the only enjoyment I see from these games are their initial cinematic thrill, almost as if I'm watching a movie. Any open world content lacks passion or creative thought, it's either mindlessly attacking people or mindlessly collecting pointless things. I doubt Miles Morales or Spider-Man 2 will fix this underlying problem, but hopefully they've got something for me to love.
This is actually the worst and yet the best chapter in the DLC, featuring the most interesting game-play out of the bunch but completely botching the narrative. All the build up in chapter 1 pays off with just a single cutscene with the black cat, which is immeasurably disappointing. All the character development with Yuri in chapter 2 gets no payoff, and Hammerhead's coolness is completely gone in chapter 3, he now just wants to kill you, lol. What you get is a return of Sable where she and spider-man repeatedly make stupid decisions until they beat the big bad guy and call it a day, hell MJ doesn't even get anything to do. This is just a complete narrative flop all around I believe. I honestly can't see this being a satisfying conclusion for anyone.
The open-world activities still suck and feature the same problems as the last two DLC's. As for main gameplay you've got more car chases, more beating up pools of bad guys, and a new jetpack guy that again, doesn't shake things up too much. The boss-fight at the end is also incredibly lame, same as the one in chapter 2, it's simply mind-numbing. Oh you've also got MORE trailing missions that are somehow worse that Assassin's Creed trailing missions. I think all of this just shows how limiting and lacking in depth this games combat system really is.
So that's it, I went through these before going into Miles Morales cause it's nearly winter and that game has snow! These DLC's have been immensely disappointing on all fronts, but I think they really just show off how basic this game is, how there is no depth to Marvel's Spider-Man. I already wrote about this extensively in my review for the main game, but this game is killed by how casual it is. It's a pretty thing to look at and not much else unfortunately, I cannot imagine anyone replaying the base game or any of these DLC's as the only enjoyment I see from these games are their initial cinematic thrill, almost as if I'm watching a movie. Any open world content lacks passion or creative thought, it's either mindlessly attacking people or mindlessly collecting pointless things. I doubt Miles Morales or Spider-Man 2 will fix this underlying problem, but hopefully they've got something for me to love.
Another bite-sized DLC down, I don't have much to say on this one that wasn't already said in the first DLC.
Open-world additions are still boring and suck, the story is honestly kinda less interesting, it feels very generic. Another enemy type is added but doesn't really shake up combat enough, and at least this time we actually get a boss fight at the end! Tragically it's a very vanilla boss-fight and is a pretty mindless affair.
Also who thought it was a good idea to add multiple trailing missions to this DLC?
This is on the same level of whatever-ness as the first DLC chapter. I'm honestly really surprised by how low-effort these DLC's feel. I think the base game has many faults but at-least it felt like a real effort was put into it, this stuff feels like they were forced to make it. Onto the finale then!
Open-world additions are still boring and suck, the story is honestly kinda less interesting, it feels very generic. Another enemy type is added but doesn't really shake up combat enough, and at least this time we actually get a boss fight at the end! Tragically it's a very vanilla boss-fight and is a pretty mindless affair.
Also who thought it was a good idea to add multiple trailing missions to this DLC?
This is on the same level of whatever-ness as the first DLC chapter. I'm honestly really surprised by how low-effort these DLC's feel. I think the base game has many faults but at-least it felt like a real effort was put into it, this stuff feels like they were forced to make it. Onto the finale then!
Surprisingly lame DLC
The Heist is honestly just kinda pathetic. It features a pretty bare-bones story that somehow wastes time despite only being like 2-3 hours, and its gameplay fails to innovate on the base game.
for open-world stuff, Insomniac made the genius decision to completely separate this DLC's open world activities from the base game, this makes New York feel empty and barren. All new open world content here is just boring collectables or challenges that pretty much just feel like the base games activities but a lil worse. I cannot be bothered to waste my time going through these activities.
In terms of gameplay, most additions are so insignificant they're not worth mentioning. The only big notable difference is that they've added a big dude with a machine gun as an enemy type, he's pretty whatever.
Finally onto the story, it's really not that bad but the first half really wastes time as it just takes forever to do what we already knew it was gonna do. The second half is a bit better but it's really just not enough. I like the voice acting and the character interactions between Peter, Cat, and MJ, but that's about it.
The actually gameplay content within these story missions don't create any interesting situations or dynamics, it's just more of the base game but less inspired, and they even had the gall to bring back MJ missions, which is just so silly to me. Why would I want to play as a regular human when I boot up my superhero game. It doesn't help that the MJ sections feature extremely linear and half-baked stealth that puts me to sleep, if it was actually well made it wouldn't be such an annoyance.
Anyways, this DLC is lame as hell, but at least it isn't long right? Hopefully the following chapters are more interesting.
The Heist is honestly just kinda pathetic. It features a pretty bare-bones story that somehow wastes time despite only being like 2-3 hours, and its gameplay fails to innovate on the base game.
for open-world stuff, Insomniac made the genius decision to completely separate this DLC's open world activities from the base game, this makes New York feel empty and barren. All new open world content here is just boring collectables or challenges that pretty much just feel like the base games activities but a lil worse. I cannot be bothered to waste my time going through these activities.
In terms of gameplay, most additions are so insignificant they're not worth mentioning. The only big notable difference is that they've added a big dude with a machine gun as an enemy type, he's pretty whatever.
Finally onto the story, it's really not that bad but the first half really wastes time as it just takes forever to do what we already knew it was gonna do. The second half is a bit better but it's really just not enough. I like the voice acting and the character interactions between Peter, Cat, and MJ, but that's about it.
The actually gameplay content within these story missions don't create any interesting situations or dynamics, it's just more of the base game but less inspired, and they even had the gall to bring back MJ missions, which is just so silly to me. Why would I want to play as a regular human when I boot up my superhero game. It doesn't help that the MJ sections feature extremely linear and half-baked stealth that puts me to sleep, if it was actually well made it wouldn't be such an annoyance.
Anyways, this DLC is lame as hell, but at least it isn't long right? Hopefully the following chapters are more interesting.
1998
And alas I have finally played Half-Life. I see why it's held in such high regards, but I cannot help but feel this game has become quite overrated.
The first half of this game is really awesome, with excellent level design and pretty fun game play. I believe the soldiers feel too spongy and aren't that fun to fight, but all the other enemies are great, as are the arsenal of guns you have. There are so many segments that have given me some of the most adrenaline I've ever felt playing an FPS game, I was completely immersed into it.
What stops this from being higher than a 3.5 for me is the game is noticeably buggy, and the second half sucks pretty hard. I say this as the game starts to drag out far too much with similar levels after similar levels, then the final 4 chapters switch things up finally BUT they feature flat out annoying game design, it felt like they were just trying to waste my time with slippery platforming and obnoxious enemies. I absolutely hate infinitely respawning enemies, especially in an FPS game. This feeling is all culminated with an insanely lame final boss fight, and a frankly underwhelming outro sequence.
This is still a very good game, my judgement is just really clouded by the crappy finale. I'd still undoubtedly suggest this game, just y'know, be prepared for the long haul at the end.
The first half of this game is really awesome, with excellent level design and pretty fun game play. I believe the soldiers feel too spongy and aren't that fun to fight, but all the other enemies are great, as are the arsenal of guns you have. There are so many segments that have given me some of the most adrenaline I've ever felt playing an FPS game, I was completely immersed into it.
What stops this from being higher than a 3.5 for me is the game is noticeably buggy, and the second half sucks pretty hard. I say this as the game starts to drag out far too much with similar levels after similar levels, then the final 4 chapters switch things up finally BUT they feature flat out annoying game design, it felt like they were just trying to waste my time with slippery platforming and obnoxious enemies. I absolutely hate infinitely respawning enemies, especially in an FPS game. This feeling is all culminated with an insanely lame final boss fight, and a frankly underwhelming outro sequence.
This is still a very good game, my judgement is just really clouded by the crappy finale. I'd still undoubtedly suggest this game, just y'know, be prepared for the long haul at the end.
2023
One of the best in it's genre
Many tycoon games are quite samey, repetitive, and lacking in QoL features. While Let's school isn't a complete exception to this, it stands above many of its peers.
Firstly, this game nails its themes. There is a clear passion behind the dev-team that can be felt, as anything school-related you could think of is here. You can really make your school feel lived-in and genuine. All of the things you can add to your school keep it's game-play loops interesting, as I looked forward to adding the next expansions to my school. I didn't feel any burn-out until about 15 hours in, which is huge for me.
After so many hours and upon perfecting all of the games mechanics, it can get dull and repetitive, but that's really just the end-game, and this is a thing with every tycoon game IMO. Still, there is so much content that has been lovingly crafted and there are many very sound game-play systems that make this game is a no -brainer.
If you're into management tycoon games, I'd highly recommend Let's School.
Many tycoon games are quite samey, repetitive, and lacking in QoL features. While Let's school isn't a complete exception to this, it stands above many of its peers.
Firstly, this game nails its themes. There is a clear passion behind the dev-team that can be felt, as anything school-related you could think of is here. You can really make your school feel lived-in and genuine. All of the things you can add to your school keep it's game-play loops interesting, as I looked forward to adding the next expansions to my school. I didn't feel any burn-out until about 15 hours in, which is huge for me.
After so many hours and upon perfecting all of the games mechanics, it can get dull and repetitive, but that's really just the end-game, and this is a thing with every tycoon game IMO. Still, there is so much content that has been lovingly crafted and there are many very sound game-play systems that make this game is a no -brainer.
If you're into management tycoon games, I'd highly recommend Let's School.
2020
I think I've played enough of this both in flatscreen and VR to give a fair review. Phasmaphobia is decent fun but features a very repetitive loop.
The atmosphere is top notch, as are the scares (at first anyways) it is very well done and captures that ghost hunting energy perfectly. Whether playing with friends or alone everything clicks pretty immediately. Phasmaphobia is seriously captivating.
These feelings unfortunately go away after enough playtime. After a couple runs, you'll probably never get that same high you got at first. Ghosts will never scare you the same, levels will never give you that anxiety again, and it's kinda a bummer!
The gameplay loop is simply just too repetitive. There is a certain method to play this game and there is no way to create new playstyles, so every run will just be going into the map, testing for things while also running into hiding spots every now and then until you've figured out the ghost, then you leave. Rinse and repeat. Ghosts have different traits sure, but they really lack in uniqueness and none of them stand out, thus again drilling in that repetition.
I've put in about 8 hours, 3 in vr, and I'm just kinda over it? I honestly find it a bit boring now. It's just like inspecting a house and filling out a checklist, which isn't any fun. Bigger maps just kinda drag on and don't solve the repetition problem either, so I don't really know what would fix this game's loop. Maybe a campaign mode? I'm unsure, but for now I just have to write Phasmaphobia off as an incredible first 2-4 hours, and the following hours are as dull as it gets.
The atmosphere is top notch, as are the scares (at first anyways) it is very well done and captures that ghost hunting energy perfectly. Whether playing with friends or alone everything clicks pretty immediately. Phasmaphobia is seriously captivating.
These feelings unfortunately go away after enough playtime. After a couple runs, you'll probably never get that same high you got at first. Ghosts will never scare you the same, levels will never give you that anxiety again, and it's kinda a bummer!
The gameplay loop is simply just too repetitive. There is a certain method to play this game and there is no way to create new playstyles, so every run will just be going into the map, testing for things while also running into hiding spots every now and then until you've figured out the ghost, then you leave. Rinse and repeat. Ghosts have different traits sure, but they really lack in uniqueness and none of them stand out, thus again drilling in that repetition.
I've put in about 8 hours, 3 in vr, and I'm just kinda over it? I honestly find it a bit boring now. It's just like inspecting a house and filling out a checklist, which isn't any fun. Bigger maps just kinda drag on and don't solve the repetition problem either, so I don't really know what would fix this game's loop. Maybe a campaign mode? I'm unsure, but for now I just have to write Phasmaphobia off as an incredible first 2-4 hours, and the following hours are as dull as it gets.
2007
And so, after never getting past that damn mission where you have to go save Cortana when I was a child, I've fully finished Halo 3. No surprise, it's fantastic.
Another strictly campaign review here
Halo 3 does a good job of bringing a modernized Halo 2 to the 7th gen, everything feels renovated though not innovated, which is a tad bit disappointing but it's the finale to a trilogy so what can you expect? I will say I think they should've expanded upon a lot of the ideas they were cooking with in Halo 2, such as the boss fights, those were neat.
weapons such as the pistol, shotgun, and battle rifle feel pretty damn nerfed and not as good as in the previous games, but with new abilities and weapons such as the gravity hammer, it's made up for.
Levels are pretty expertly crafted though some levels play it a bit too safe imo. The campaign is also quite short, so I'm wondering if there was some deadline crunch there honestly. Again I'm not saying these are bad missions some just lack unique ideas. The tank level on the ark is probably my favorite.
I'm a fan of the story and vibes though I would've liked to see a bit more personal story-telling, I think the chief staying a blank-slate works but I think the arbiter should've gotten more lines and just more to do in general, though it is a plus he is now player 2 in coop for immersion, rather than just two chiefs lol.
There's not much else to be said about Halo 3 that hasn't already been said, Halo 1-3 is just untouchable. I would say this is probably the weakest of the trilogy, but that's nothing negative, this is the best trilogy in gaming right here.
Another strictly campaign review here
Halo 3 does a good job of bringing a modernized Halo 2 to the 7th gen, everything feels renovated though not innovated, which is a tad bit disappointing but it's the finale to a trilogy so what can you expect? I will say I think they should've expanded upon a lot of the ideas they were cooking with in Halo 2, such as the boss fights, those were neat.
weapons such as the pistol, shotgun, and battle rifle feel pretty damn nerfed and not as good as in the previous games, but with new abilities and weapons such as the gravity hammer, it's made up for.
Levels are pretty expertly crafted though some levels play it a bit too safe imo. The campaign is also quite short, so I'm wondering if there was some deadline crunch there honestly. Again I'm not saying these are bad missions some just lack unique ideas. The tank level on the ark is probably my favorite.
I'm a fan of the story and vibes though I would've liked to see a bit more personal story-telling, I think the chief staying a blank-slate works but I think the arbiter should've gotten more lines and just more to do in general, though it is a plus he is now player 2 in coop for immersion, rather than just two chiefs lol.
There's not much else to be said about Halo 3 that hasn't already been said, Halo 1-3 is just untouchable. I would say this is probably the weakest of the trilogy, but that's nothing negative, this is the best trilogy in gaming right here.
With my game crashing after about 45% of the way through the game, I'm deciding to call it quits.
It feels a bit harsh to give such an influential and important title a 2/5, but I really just wasn't having fun with this one, it was just boring honestly.
So if you don't know, a lot of the people that made this went on to make Call of Duty, and you can really feel that. This game feels like it's in a bit of an identity crisis, as it sometimes feels like it's trying to be a new MoH1 but lacks the original charm, then at other times feels like Call of Duty 0.5.
The gun-play feels and sounds decent enough with a very run-and-gun feel to it but it isn't complimented well by the slow movement, some of the most punishing "flinching upon being hit" I've ever seen, and a dated health system. it's like they were at an impasse and couldn't decide what type of FPS they wanted to make. This was of course later figured out with CoD 1, which does everything this game does but better.
Level design is boring and often feels unfair. You will either be clearing out room after room, which generally just feels like proto-CoD gameplay, or you'll be peaking corners across massive open areas with basically no cover. This combined with enemy Ai that has seemingly limitless view distance and no drop in accuracy depending on their distance, results in slowly moving from corner to corner while sniping enemies here and there, which I personally find to be a real snoozer of a loop.
There seems to be a lack of variety and not enough set-pieces to carry this campaign either. The only notable one is D-Day, which is fine enough, it's lost it's luster a bit with me considering later games do it better, but this is a pretty good D-Day mission. Other than that though, it's just pretty generic WW2 missions that just feel uninspired. I skimmed through a youtube video of a playthrough and sure enough, it just looks like more of the same room clearing and corner peaking for another couple hours, thus I just have no real reason to keep playing.
Usually when I abandon a game it's because I'm heavily disliking it, but this one is really not that bad. I think it's a perfectly serviceable WW2 shooter, but there is absolutely nothing remarkable about it and you have no reason to ever play this over other WW2 FPS's.
Note: I own and planned on playing the expansions but they also just look like more of the same dull gameplay, so I guess I won't be doing that.
Also of note: this game does not play well with modern OS's, I had to get some patches for it.
It feels a bit harsh to give such an influential and important title a 2/5, but I really just wasn't having fun with this one, it was just boring honestly.
So if you don't know, a lot of the people that made this went on to make Call of Duty, and you can really feel that. This game feels like it's in a bit of an identity crisis, as it sometimes feels like it's trying to be a new MoH1 but lacks the original charm, then at other times feels like Call of Duty 0.5.
The gun-play feels and sounds decent enough with a very run-and-gun feel to it but it isn't complimented well by the slow movement, some of the most punishing "flinching upon being hit" I've ever seen, and a dated health system. it's like they were at an impasse and couldn't decide what type of FPS they wanted to make. This was of course later figured out with CoD 1, which does everything this game does but better.
Level design is boring and often feels unfair. You will either be clearing out room after room, which generally just feels like proto-CoD gameplay, or you'll be peaking corners across massive open areas with basically no cover. This combined with enemy Ai that has seemingly limitless view distance and no drop in accuracy depending on their distance, results in slowly moving from corner to corner while sniping enemies here and there, which I personally find to be a real snoozer of a loop.
There seems to be a lack of variety and not enough set-pieces to carry this campaign either. The only notable one is D-Day, which is fine enough, it's lost it's luster a bit with me considering later games do it better, but this is a pretty good D-Day mission. Other than that though, it's just pretty generic WW2 missions that just feel uninspired. I skimmed through a youtube video of a playthrough and sure enough, it just looks like more of the same room clearing and corner peaking for another couple hours, thus I just have no real reason to keep playing.
Usually when I abandon a game it's because I'm heavily disliking it, but this one is really not that bad. I think it's a perfectly serviceable WW2 shooter, but there is absolutely nothing remarkable about it and you have no reason to ever play this over other WW2 FPS's.
Note: I own and planned on playing the expansions but they also just look like more of the same dull gameplay, so I guess I won't be doing that.
Also of note: this game does not play well with modern OS's, I had to get some patches for it.
Easily the strongest game of the Ezio trilogy, I believe it has been made underrated due to everyone experiencing series fatigue at the time of release. This game is, in my opinion, clearly better than AC2 and Brotherhood.
Firstly Istanbul is awesome. Some great atmosphere and a city that is perfect for parkour. Combine this with a big ass hook blade, ziplines, lamps, and you've created what is honestly the best parkour in the series up to this point. Parkour in this game has the potential to be faster and more fluid than ever before, a stark contrast from brotherhoods boring reliance on horses for movement. Istanbul is the best city so far.
Onto the story, Altair is finally brought back and his story is actually continued in a meaningful way, every bit relating to Altair in this game is engaging to me. Ezio also gets a nice conclusion to his story, and I think he is at his most likable in this game. His goal in this game is also much more interesting than his previous two revenge stories. The side characters are also well written though a bit forgettable in the grand scheme of things, Yusuf should've gotten more to do.
In other game play aspects, most stuff stays the same. The assassin brotherhood mechanic is mostly the same but a little more involved, the renovation system is the same but a little less tedious, and combat is also mostly the same. I would've liked to see more advancement in these departments but it is what it is. The bomb crafting mechanic is pretty dumb and I almost entirely ignored it, as I did with most side content.
The side content is a lil more engaging than previous games but it is still completely skippable and not really worth the time sink.
Revelations is a very strong conclusion to an overall middling trilogy, I think it is clearly the high point of the trilogy. With finally bringing back ideology into the story and having satisfying character arcs, and the best map combined with the best parkour the series has seen up to this point, it's an easy recommendation.
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
Firstly Istanbul is awesome. Some great atmosphere and a city that is perfect for parkour. Combine this with a big ass hook blade, ziplines, lamps, and you've created what is honestly the best parkour in the series up to this point. Parkour in this game has the potential to be faster and more fluid than ever before, a stark contrast from brotherhoods boring reliance on horses for movement. Istanbul is the best city so far.
Onto the story, Altair is finally brought back and his story is actually continued in a meaningful way, every bit relating to Altair in this game is engaging to me. Ezio also gets a nice conclusion to his story, and I think he is at his most likable in this game. His goal in this game is also much more interesting than his previous two revenge stories. The side characters are also well written though a bit forgettable in the grand scheme of things, Yusuf should've gotten more to do.
In other game play aspects, most stuff stays the same. The assassin brotherhood mechanic is mostly the same but a little more involved, the renovation system is the same but a little less tedious, and combat is also mostly the same. I would've liked to see more advancement in these departments but it is what it is. The bomb crafting mechanic is pretty dumb and I almost entirely ignored it, as I did with most side content.
The side content is a lil more engaging than previous games but it is still completely skippable and not really worth the time sink.
Revelations is a very strong conclusion to an overall middling trilogy, I think it is clearly the high point of the trilogy. With finally bringing back ideology into the story and having satisfying character arcs, and the best map combined with the best parkour the series has seen up to this point, it's an easy recommendation.
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
Tragically cannot be bothered to finish.
While far better than II, Castlevania III is just a bit grueling to play. I recognize the awesome music, the awesome aesthetics the sometimes smart level design, the ability to change characters, it's very cool and this is all much more back to form with 1, which is all good and well.
However, just about every level is filled to the brim with unfair and sadistic game design. Half of the time it feels like it's my fault, but other times it just feels like complete nonsense solely put in to get more time out of the player, and I'm not here for that. There will be enemies spawning right on top of you, enemies infinitely spawning in a spot where you cannot hit them, enemies where if you miss one hit, you're probably dead, it's just tiring. Call it a skill issue, but I found every enemy more annoying than fun to defeat, and weirdly I found most of the boss fights overly easy? Like I would suffer through a super long level for eternity only to beat the boss in like, 2-4 tries, sometimes even first try. Just bizarre balancing going on.
I got about halfway through I think, I beat the serpents then I just sat there and realized, I'm not really having fun with this game. I was tempted to just suffer all the way through just so my opinion can be validated, but I just don't think it's worth it. I simply wasn't having fun at all. Playing the same very long level over and over and over and over again until you absolutely master it, because one hit can possibly kill you, is just not fun for me. So that's it, I decided it's not worth finishing, Castlevania 4 and onward look much more fun though, so maybe soon?
While far better than II, Castlevania III is just a bit grueling to play. I recognize the awesome music, the awesome aesthetics the sometimes smart level design, the ability to change characters, it's very cool and this is all much more back to form with 1, which is all good and well.
However, just about every level is filled to the brim with unfair and sadistic game design. Half of the time it feels like it's my fault, but other times it just feels like complete nonsense solely put in to get more time out of the player, and I'm not here for that. There will be enemies spawning right on top of you, enemies infinitely spawning in a spot where you cannot hit them, enemies where if you miss one hit, you're probably dead, it's just tiring. Call it a skill issue, but I found every enemy more annoying than fun to defeat, and weirdly I found most of the boss fights overly easy? Like I would suffer through a super long level for eternity only to beat the boss in like, 2-4 tries, sometimes even first try. Just bizarre balancing going on.
I got about halfway through I think, I beat the serpents then I just sat there and realized, I'm not really having fun with this game. I was tempted to just suffer all the way through just so my opinion can be validated, but I just don't think it's worth it. I simply wasn't having fun at all. Playing the same very long level over and over and over and over again until you absolutely master it, because one hit can possibly kill you, is just not fun for me. So that's it, I decided it's not worth finishing, Castlevania 4 and onward look much more fun though, so maybe soon?
Cryptic nonsense, enemy spam, grind, you name it. Castlevania II is a major misfire and a huge step down from 1. The game just wastes your time, and I'm not gonna waste anymore time with it, so alas it's been abandoned.
At least the soundtrack is pretty banging.
At least the soundtrack is pretty banging.
The Ezio trilogy just might be the most overrated trilogy in gaming.
I've finally completed Brotherhood, a game I was kinda dreading to play because just looking at it, it's just more AC2 and AC2 already dragged out reaaaaallly hard, but alas I pushed through it. Luckily for me Brotherhood is much shorter, likely because dev time was extremely short.
So, collectables and 50 million side missions are back, they're mostly all repetitive and boring as hell, so you'd be wise to ignore it all. I actually liked the idea of rebuilding Rome and went through a lot of that, but then I realized I'm doing the exact same thing over and over again and I'm getting extremely fatigued. I did a handful of Leonardo missions which were actually pretty cool, some other side stuff, I built up the brotherhood and got them all to max level, but I really started to get bored of it all, so I decided to just play main story missions to get this over with. This also means I didn't complete the missions to unlock the special armor, nor did I complete the post-launch content, but honestly man it's all so repetitive I don't care.
The story of this game is extremely simple, evil man and his army takes over Rome, destroy him and his army to clear Rome of his rule. That's it. I also HAVE to note that the main bad guy from AC2 does literally nothing the entire story, then towards the finale he is just murdered in a cut-scene by THIS games main villain. The guy that literally ordered Ezio's family to execution gets killed by someone else. Pretty shit writing there. When I inevitably beat this games bad guy, I found it to be pretty unsatisfying. I just don't care about him, he's a generic power-hungry villain with nothing interesting going on, so yeah, story is mid.
Whereas AC2 was filled to the brim with fetch quests, this game has a ton of trailing missions. It's like every other mission you have to trail or follow someone who walks around 20% slower than you, it's just boring. There were some good set-pieces and moments but overall just pretty meh missions overall, they're also all plagued by this "full-sync" system where you have to play a very specific way, and if you mess up the full sync you have to completely restart the mission. Because of this, I tried to ignore the full sync best I could, as there's no way I'm gonna fully replay missions just to get a full sync.
Talking about the map, I actually prefer just having one big map than having 3 or more like in previous games, it made scouting eagle towers feel pointless whereas here, while it was also pretty tedious, it at-least had some merit. I also liked the idea of the Borgia towers which are admittedly just some early "Ubisoft outposts," but once an area is cleared of Borgia control, there was still Borgia patrols everywhere, bit of some ludo-narrative going on there. The map of Rome itself kinda sucks tragically, the city section is un-intuitive as it's just faster to run around on the ground than to hop around on buildings, and the rest of Rome is a barren and empty place. you'll mostly just be riding a horse which is again, boring. I believe parkour has been really downgraded because of the mapping. Rome was a pretty big let-down, AC1 and 2 featured much better cities.
I don't wanna ramble on for too long, so I'm gonna try to conclude my thoughts; Brotherhood is essentially just a standalone expansion pack for AC2, it continues the story in an unfortunately mediocre way, and any new ideas such as the brotherhood are welcome but could've been executed so much better, I reckon if this game had more dev time it would've been a substantial upgrade. I'm surprised so many fans call this trilogy the peak of the series considering AC2 had a lot of flaws and brotherhood hardly innovated. I'm excited to go to Istanbul next though!
Side note: This game did not work for my PC no matter what fixes I did! Would suggest not buying it on PC right now.
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
I've finally completed Brotherhood, a game I was kinda dreading to play because just looking at it, it's just more AC2 and AC2 already dragged out reaaaaallly hard, but alas I pushed through it. Luckily for me Brotherhood is much shorter, likely because dev time was extremely short.
So, collectables and 50 million side missions are back, they're mostly all repetitive and boring as hell, so you'd be wise to ignore it all. I actually liked the idea of rebuilding Rome and went through a lot of that, but then I realized I'm doing the exact same thing over and over again and I'm getting extremely fatigued. I did a handful of Leonardo missions which were actually pretty cool, some other side stuff, I built up the brotherhood and got them all to max level, but I really started to get bored of it all, so I decided to just play main story missions to get this over with. This also means I didn't complete the missions to unlock the special armor, nor did I complete the post-launch content, but honestly man it's all so repetitive I don't care.
The story of this game is extremely simple, evil man and his army takes over Rome, destroy him and his army to clear Rome of his rule. That's it. I also HAVE to note that the main bad guy from AC2 does literally nothing the entire story, then towards the finale he is just murdered in a cut-scene by THIS games main villain. The guy that literally ordered Ezio's family to execution gets killed by someone else. Pretty shit writing there. When I inevitably beat this games bad guy, I found it to be pretty unsatisfying. I just don't care about him, he's a generic power-hungry villain with nothing interesting going on, so yeah, story is mid.
Whereas AC2 was filled to the brim with fetch quests, this game has a ton of trailing missions. It's like every other mission you have to trail or follow someone who walks around 20% slower than you, it's just boring. There were some good set-pieces and moments but overall just pretty meh missions overall, they're also all plagued by this "full-sync" system where you have to play a very specific way, and if you mess up the full sync you have to completely restart the mission. Because of this, I tried to ignore the full sync best I could, as there's no way I'm gonna fully replay missions just to get a full sync.
Talking about the map, I actually prefer just having one big map than having 3 or more like in previous games, it made scouting eagle towers feel pointless whereas here, while it was also pretty tedious, it at-least had some merit. I also liked the idea of the Borgia towers which are admittedly just some early "Ubisoft outposts," but once an area is cleared of Borgia control, there was still Borgia patrols everywhere, bit of some ludo-narrative going on there. The map of Rome itself kinda sucks tragically, the city section is un-intuitive as it's just faster to run around on the ground than to hop around on buildings, and the rest of Rome is a barren and empty place. you'll mostly just be riding a horse which is again, boring. I believe parkour has been really downgraded because of the mapping. Rome was a pretty big let-down, AC1 and 2 featured much better cities.
I don't wanna ramble on for too long, so I'm gonna try to conclude my thoughts; Brotherhood is essentially just a standalone expansion pack for AC2, it continues the story in an unfortunately mediocre way, and any new ideas such as the brotherhood are welcome but could've been executed so much better, I reckon if this game had more dev time it would've been a substantial upgrade. I'm surprised so many fans call this trilogy the peak of the series considering AC2 had a lot of flaws and brotherhood hardly innovated. I'm excited to go to Istanbul next though!
Side note: This game did not work for my PC no matter what fixes I did! Would suggest not buying it on PC right now.
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
Really just can't be bothered with this one. I find these side games to be insanely boring, there's just no features that would make them worth playing.
At least it's better than Altair's Chronicles?
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
At least it's better than Altair's Chronicles?
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
Unfortunately a bit of a downgrade here.
Doom II is of course just more Doom, but there's enough changes here to warrant a second game, I wouldn't really call this a "glorified expansion" though it is very samey. We've got new enemies, new weapons, a lot more verticality, and generally much larger levels. Despite these new additions, I think Doom 1 is a far superior game, and this mainly comes down to the level design.
Simply put, this game just doesn't have the same flow as 1. In 1 you're generally ripping through levels, just having a blast with the odd puzzle and level scouting that generally doesn't take that long. Doom II on the other hand is ridiculous with this stuff. There were like 5 or more puzzles in this game that were just straight up nonsense, the solution to progress on some of these is to just shoot at a random wall or something along those lines, it's just typical old game being cryptic stuff. It is seriously a flow killer to have to scour the map for 10-20 minutes, find literally no way to progress, then upon looking up a Youtube video the solution is something completely random that the player wouldn't naturally find. John Romero just had quite a bit too many annoying levels on this one for my liking.
As for enemies, they're a welcome edition, there is a MUCH larger enemy count though you the player are stronger, so it all evens out and feels like a fine next-step from Doom 1. Personally I would've liked to see more new weapons, the super shotgun doesn't provide enough variety from Doom 1.
I will also say I prefer the chapter setup from 1, it makes each portion of the game more memorable and stick out. Here all the levels are just put in continuously, sometimes broken up by a wall of text, it all just meshes together as samey. It's only towards the last 5 or so levels where the feeling of dread really ramps up that makes them stand out from the other levels.
I will also say, for a game that takes place on Earth, it definitely does not resemble anything human whatsoever lol.
Doom II is just a tad disappointing as I thought id learned from their level design issues in Wolfenstein 3D and mastered it in Doom 1, only to miss the mark again. With far worse level design, bloat, and not innovating on Doom much at all, I cannot see how anyone can say this is the superior game. Luckily the core Doom systems are still superb, and the aesthetics/music of the game is a joy, pretty much carrying the experience. I would recommend this game, but take your time with it and don't be afraid to look stuff up, chances are you'll need to at least once. Oh also, the Doom 1 soundtrack is far superior :)
Doom II is of course just more Doom, but there's enough changes here to warrant a second game, I wouldn't really call this a "glorified expansion" though it is very samey. We've got new enemies, new weapons, a lot more verticality, and generally much larger levels. Despite these new additions, I think Doom 1 is a far superior game, and this mainly comes down to the level design.
Simply put, this game just doesn't have the same flow as 1. In 1 you're generally ripping through levels, just having a blast with the odd puzzle and level scouting that generally doesn't take that long. Doom II on the other hand is ridiculous with this stuff. There were like 5 or more puzzles in this game that were just straight up nonsense, the solution to progress on some of these is to just shoot at a random wall or something along those lines, it's just typical old game being cryptic stuff. It is seriously a flow killer to have to scour the map for 10-20 minutes, find literally no way to progress, then upon looking up a Youtube video the solution is something completely random that the player wouldn't naturally find. John Romero just had quite a bit too many annoying levels on this one for my liking.
As for enemies, they're a welcome edition, there is a MUCH larger enemy count though you the player are stronger, so it all evens out and feels like a fine next-step from Doom 1. Personally I would've liked to see more new weapons, the super shotgun doesn't provide enough variety from Doom 1.
I will also say I prefer the chapter setup from 1, it makes each portion of the game more memorable and stick out. Here all the levels are just put in continuously, sometimes broken up by a wall of text, it all just meshes together as samey. It's only towards the last 5 or so levels where the feeling of dread really ramps up that makes them stand out from the other levels.
I will also say, for a game that takes place on Earth, it definitely does not resemble anything human whatsoever lol.
Doom II is just a tad disappointing as I thought id learned from their level design issues in Wolfenstein 3D and mastered it in Doom 1, only to miss the mark again. With far worse level design, bloat, and not innovating on Doom much at all, I cannot see how anyone can say this is the superior game. Luckily the core Doom systems are still superb, and the aesthetics/music of the game is a joy, pretty much carrying the experience. I would recommend this game, but take your time with it and don't be afraid to look stuff up, chances are you'll need to at least once. Oh also, the Doom 1 soundtrack is far superior :)
A fairly decent Total War experience.
This one's middle of the road, though I did enjoy China, I thought that was fun. A lot of the factions feel extremely similar so there's kinda a lack of replay-ability that you'd get from other Total War games, but honestly campaigns last so long one go is enough for me personally.
Battles are fun but very cavalry heavy, which I guess makes sense lol. China is a massive map and moving around it can be a bit of a pain, I'd just prefer if everyone could move a little faster.
Also, I installed this game on an HDD and as the campaign progressed things loaded slower and slower and everything just got kinda tedious, I would recommend installing this on an SSD.
I'm not a big expert on these games, but I enjoyed this play-through quite a bit, though it did get tedious towards the end. Would recommend.
This one's middle of the road, though I did enjoy China, I thought that was fun. A lot of the factions feel extremely similar so there's kinda a lack of replay-ability that you'd get from other Total War games, but honestly campaigns last so long one go is enough for me personally.
Battles are fun but very cavalry heavy, which I guess makes sense lol. China is a massive map and moving around it can be a bit of a pain, I'd just prefer if everyone could move a little faster.
Also, I installed this game on an HDD and as the campaign progressed things loaded slower and slower and everything just got kinda tedious, I would recommend installing this on an SSD.
I'm not a big expert on these games, but I enjoyed this play-through quite a bit, though it did get tedious towards the end. Would recommend.