They have outdone themselves
Rebirth makes the original remake look like a demo LOL. I am simply blown away with this game by every aspect of it and crave to continue to play more even after finishing the story to clear up side stuff I missed. It is hard for me to comprehend how anyone can play this title and dislike it even if you are not a fan of certain story changes.
STORY
THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS ABOUT ANYTHING.
This is where most fans divide with rebirth. To explain I will not talk about anything within the story but I will simply state my opinion quickly before moving on. To put it simply, when the story is the original it's as amazing as you remembered but when the story is rebirth’s you may or may not like it. Personally I love what is being done here with the expansion of characters and the world but I can also understand why hardcore fans of the original may not be a fan of it. Just enjoy it for what it is and come to your conclusion when we get the final game as everything will most likely be answered with that game. For me it's silly to blindly hate when we do not have the completed story in our hands. All in all I loved the story and certain changes that were done.
Graphics
The games world is simply breathtaking and honestly hosts some of the best town visuals I have seen period in gaming. You can move to literally any spot , look out in the distance and have art worthy of a picture. One thing that blew me away was how NOTHING would load in as if you were on a highpoint of an area you can literally look out to the distance to places you were just at or areas you may not have been to that you want to go to. Its things like this that take the immersion to a whole new level with this game that makes you cherish every moment you move around the world. However, there are some short fallings as some ground textures looked horrendous and a few textures that didn’t seem correct but overall the game is gorgeous. I played in performance mode to get that 60FPS boost so I did lose some visual performance but the game still looked amazing.
Characters
You love them all like I love them all.... Unless if you are Chadley.
Gameplay
Besides the sheer hugenous of the game what also caught me off guard was the amount of content thrown at you that was good. To explain, with open world titles side content can feel like a drag as it sometimes doesn’t offer enough to really keep you entertained enough to want to do it. With FF7 rebirth you will WANT to do everything as the side content is insanely addicting. Side quests can be hit or miss but mostly were a hit and all the mini games were very well done and fun to play. Each time you hit a new area of the game you most likely will want to do everything the map has to offer before continuing the story and I would highly recommend it as its very fun content and will give you lots of items to use for the next story portion. Furthermore, combat is just as fun with many synergies , spells and unlocks to mess around with making you want to change things up constantly. The biggest surprise for me was Queen’s blood as I fell in love with the mini game. It's a very simple card game that turns pretty complex with specific deck builds as you progress the story for it but Queens blood is insanely addicting and makes me really want an online mode for it. Finally, the combat simulation is back as just as challenging as the original remake but very fun to fight against summons. They really knocked it out of the park with its content and gameplay that almost makes you think this game isn’t real.
My only real complaint
Chadley is in the game.
In the end
FF7 Rebirth IMO is a masterpiece that should be played by all FF fans. While some story elements may not sit well with you there is no denying the masterfully crafted game they have created here. FF7 rebirth is an almost dream-like game that doesn’t happen often. I can only hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. There is a lot I didn’t get into as I really didn’t want to get into ANYTHING specific since for me seeing all the new content the game was throwing my way not knowing what it was going to be was such a blast so I wanted to refrain from talking about WHAT mini games and side stuff were here besides queens blood which you most likely have heard of by now.
THIS IS A MUST BUY AND 200% WORTH THE ASKING PRICE.
Rebirth makes the original remake look like a demo LOL. I am simply blown away with this game by every aspect of it and crave to continue to play more even after finishing the story to clear up side stuff I missed. It is hard for me to comprehend how anyone can play this title and dislike it even if you are not a fan of certain story changes.
STORY
THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS ABOUT ANYTHING.
This is where most fans divide with rebirth. To explain I will not talk about anything within the story but I will simply state my opinion quickly before moving on. To put it simply, when the story is the original it's as amazing as you remembered but when the story is rebirth’s you may or may not like it. Personally I love what is being done here with the expansion of characters and the world but I can also understand why hardcore fans of the original may not be a fan of it. Just enjoy it for what it is and come to your conclusion when we get the final game as everything will most likely be answered with that game. For me it's silly to blindly hate when we do not have the completed story in our hands. All in all I loved the story and certain changes that were done.
Graphics
The games world is simply breathtaking and honestly hosts some of the best town visuals I have seen period in gaming. You can move to literally any spot , look out in the distance and have art worthy of a picture. One thing that blew me away was how NOTHING would load in as if you were on a highpoint of an area you can literally look out to the distance to places you were just at or areas you may not have been to that you want to go to. Its things like this that take the immersion to a whole new level with this game that makes you cherish every moment you move around the world. However, there are some short fallings as some ground textures looked horrendous and a few textures that didn’t seem correct but overall the game is gorgeous. I played in performance mode to get that 60FPS boost so I did lose some visual performance but the game still looked amazing.
Characters
You love them all like I love them all.... Unless if you are Chadley.
Gameplay
Besides the sheer hugenous of the game what also caught me off guard was the amount of content thrown at you that was good. To explain, with open world titles side content can feel like a drag as it sometimes doesn’t offer enough to really keep you entertained enough to want to do it. With FF7 rebirth you will WANT to do everything as the side content is insanely addicting. Side quests can be hit or miss but mostly were a hit and all the mini games were very well done and fun to play. Each time you hit a new area of the game you most likely will want to do everything the map has to offer before continuing the story and I would highly recommend it as its very fun content and will give you lots of items to use for the next story portion. Furthermore, combat is just as fun with many synergies , spells and unlocks to mess around with making you want to change things up constantly. The biggest surprise for me was Queen’s blood as I fell in love with the mini game. It's a very simple card game that turns pretty complex with specific deck builds as you progress the story for it but Queens blood is insanely addicting and makes me really want an online mode for it. Finally, the combat simulation is back as just as challenging as the original remake but very fun to fight against summons. They really knocked it out of the park with its content and gameplay that almost makes you think this game isn’t real.
My only real complaint
Chadley is in the game.
In the end
FF7 Rebirth IMO is a masterpiece that should be played by all FF fans. While some story elements may not sit well with you there is no denying the masterfully crafted game they have created here. FF7 rebirth is an almost dream-like game that doesn’t happen often. I can only hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. There is a lot I didn’t get into as I really didn’t want to get into ANYTHING specific since for me seeing all the new content the game was throwing my way not knowing what it was going to be was such a blast so I wanted to refrain from talking about WHAT mini games and side stuff were here besides queens blood which you most likely have heard of by now.
THIS IS A MUST BUY AND 200% WORTH THE ASKING PRICE.
2002
When nostalgia hits you like a truck…. For the wrong reasons.
There will always be games you remember from your childhood that you never got to play. Maybe because of a trailer you saw or because the cover art is so ingrained in your head for whatever reason. Dead to rights was always that game for me even though I don’t really find the cover art that crazy for some reason always popped up in my head every once in a while. A while back I bought 1-2 and they were just sitting on the shelf so I thought it was finally time to throw down with these games that I never grew up with. Sadly that is where the fun memories end because this game does not hold up well.
Fun but flawed
I want to start off by saying I played the Xbox version which on paper shouldn’t really mean much HOWEVER idk how true this is but I heard this version was way more difficult then the others. Obviously I haven’t played the PS2, Gamecube versions so I can’t fully say but I will say I can believe due to how frustrating this game got at certain points. To begin, this is a max payne clone through and through and that doesn’t have to mean anything bad because in general the formula for Max Payne is immensely fun so I wouldn’t mind more clones. Dead to rights gets this aspect right enough to make a fun enough experience but lord does it get frustrating. To explain, I like the gunplay honestly but whoever thought of the melee aspects should never touch a game again. Not only is the Melee in this game horrible but they had the bright idea of making a WHOLE LEVEL BASED AROUND IT on top of MULTIPLE BOSS FIGHTS THAT ARE MELEE only. The hand to hand combat makes ZERO sense and will make you want to throw your controller across the room. It seems simple on paper with punch , kick , grab and block and yet they somehow make it the most mundane thing ever. When you fight enemies sometimes they will power through your punches , will block and instantly punish you in which you can do NOTHING about it. The grabbing is somehow even more annoying because you can break out of a grab but if you do not press the button within .5 seconds you will get thrown and SO MUCH of your HP will be gone. Honestly I wouldn’t ramble about Melee if it wasn’t shoved in your face as much as it was in this game because it was really that annoying. Luckily the gun sections which do take up most of the game's runtime are fun and will keep you entertained enough. You have a decent amount of gun selection in the game in which you pick up from the enemies once you defeat them. And how can we forget about the best boi Shadow who is not only a good doggo but also VERY helpful during annoying segments. During the game Shadow can be used to instantly kill an enemy if you are within range in which he will grab their weapon to give to you. Using Shadow is insanely important as he will lower the enemy count on top of giving you weapons / ammo from them.
Why?
Oh boy oh boy here we get to the fun part of this review in which I will complain about everything. To begin, the damage counter makes zero sense with weapons because some pistols do piss poor damage while others do a lot. Snipers in particular do literally NO damage and it got to the point where I thought I was doing something wrong. In which game do you know a sniper to be the weakest weapon? Using a sniper should make you feel powerful when you land shots but in Dead to rights you mine as well be using a nerf gun if you pick up a sniper. This only escalates even more annoyingly since enemies from what I can tell have the most OP versions of these guns and will mow you down with the same exact gun you pick up and shoot green pea bullets with. Furthermore , the lock on system gets insanely annoying with it flinging to everyone around you but the one person you want to aim at making you slowly cycle through them until you aim at the one you wanted to aim at. When you dive into slow down the lock on system will sometimes just straight up not work even though you literally are right next to enemies. You can actually free aim in this game but why in the world you will freely use it I will never know because it's terrible lol. Furthermore , this game's difficulty only brought out the more terrible aspects of this game to me. There were certain segments where the game clearly wants you to try stealth killing some enemies but the issue is enemies will almost instantly catch you. On top of spotting you instantly everyone in this game apparently is a trained gold medalist for disc shooting because EVERYONE will laser aim at you and sometimes will even shoot you through the tiniest hole in a wall. I understand shooters from this era usually had laser aim enemies but when you mix it with the BS difficulty this game has it will not make you feel good. In addition , the bosses were all underwhelming and the final boss was insanely annoying until you figured out what you had to do. Cover mechanics are present in the game but I almost found them pointless since the moment you pop out the enemies will instantly beam in your direction thus having you struggle to get out of cover. Weirdly enough this game isn’t super long but I still felt like the ending portions of the game dragged out making me believe they could have cut 30 mins to an hour of the game out. Story is very basic but it will get the job done for the most part. LAST BUT NOT LEAST as it's been brought up throughout this review let's get into the difficulty. To put it simply it is outrageous imo since there isn’t even any difficulty option so you are just stuck with one option which will put you through pain. Certain level segments are set up to have you instantly get showered with bullets and if you have no armor your HP will instantly DRAIN. It gets so bad to the point you almost can softlock yourself during a level if you load into a segment with little HP where enemies instantly shoot at you from every direction. This actually almost happened to me when I got to a part where you walk up some stairs and are greeted by 3 snipers + a buttload of enemies with NO armor to pick up. I am not sure why the xbox version is so much more difficult than the other console versions and it made me want to actually try the versions just to see how much of a difference it is.
In the end
Honestly this game isn’t the worst thing ever, it just simply doesn’t hold up well and maybe the other console versions are a bit better. This game runs for cheap so honestly I still say give it a spin and see for yourself since it won’t break the wallet and may provide you some fun. I do recommend staying away from the Xbox version and going for the PS2, gamecube version but I would not expect anything out of this game for the most part. I wonder how the sequels will be!
I just realized even in what should have been the positive section that I was rambling about the bad more LOOOL
There will always be games you remember from your childhood that you never got to play. Maybe because of a trailer you saw or because the cover art is so ingrained in your head for whatever reason. Dead to rights was always that game for me even though I don’t really find the cover art that crazy for some reason always popped up in my head every once in a while. A while back I bought 1-2 and they were just sitting on the shelf so I thought it was finally time to throw down with these games that I never grew up with. Sadly that is where the fun memories end because this game does not hold up well.
Fun but flawed
I want to start off by saying I played the Xbox version which on paper shouldn’t really mean much HOWEVER idk how true this is but I heard this version was way more difficult then the others. Obviously I haven’t played the PS2, Gamecube versions so I can’t fully say but I will say I can believe due to how frustrating this game got at certain points. To begin, this is a max payne clone through and through and that doesn’t have to mean anything bad because in general the formula for Max Payne is immensely fun so I wouldn’t mind more clones. Dead to rights gets this aspect right enough to make a fun enough experience but lord does it get frustrating. To explain, I like the gunplay honestly but whoever thought of the melee aspects should never touch a game again. Not only is the Melee in this game horrible but they had the bright idea of making a WHOLE LEVEL BASED AROUND IT on top of MULTIPLE BOSS FIGHTS THAT ARE MELEE only. The hand to hand combat makes ZERO sense and will make you want to throw your controller across the room. It seems simple on paper with punch , kick , grab and block and yet they somehow make it the most mundane thing ever. When you fight enemies sometimes they will power through your punches , will block and instantly punish you in which you can do NOTHING about it. The grabbing is somehow even more annoying because you can break out of a grab but if you do not press the button within .5 seconds you will get thrown and SO MUCH of your HP will be gone. Honestly I wouldn’t ramble about Melee if it wasn’t shoved in your face as much as it was in this game because it was really that annoying. Luckily the gun sections which do take up most of the game's runtime are fun and will keep you entertained enough. You have a decent amount of gun selection in the game in which you pick up from the enemies once you defeat them. And how can we forget about the best boi Shadow who is not only a good doggo but also VERY helpful during annoying segments. During the game Shadow can be used to instantly kill an enemy if you are within range in which he will grab their weapon to give to you. Using Shadow is insanely important as he will lower the enemy count on top of giving you weapons / ammo from them.
Why?
Oh boy oh boy here we get to the fun part of this review in which I will complain about everything. To begin, the damage counter makes zero sense with weapons because some pistols do piss poor damage while others do a lot. Snipers in particular do literally NO damage and it got to the point where I thought I was doing something wrong. In which game do you know a sniper to be the weakest weapon? Using a sniper should make you feel powerful when you land shots but in Dead to rights you mine as well be using a nerf gun if you pick up a sniper. This only escalates even more annoyingly since enemies from what I can tell have the most OP versions of these guns and will mow you down with the same exact gun you pick up and shoot green pea bullets with. Furthermore , the lock on system gets insanely annoying with it flinging to everyone around you but the one person you want to aim at making you slowly cycle through them until you aim at the one you wanted to aim at. When you dive into slow down the lock on system will sometimes just straight up not work even though you literally are right next to enemies. You can actually free aim in this game but why in the world you will freely use it I will never know because it's terrible lol. Furthermore , this game's difficulty only brought out the more terrible aspects of this game to me. There were certain segments where the game clearly wants you to try stealth killing some enemies but the issue is enemies will almost instantly catch you. On top of spotting you instantly everyone in this game apparently is a trained gold medalist for disc shooting because EVERYONE will laser aim at you and sometimes will even shoot you through the tiniest hole in a wall. I understand shooters from this era usually had laser aim enemies but when you mix it with the BS difficulty this game has it will not make you feel good. In addition , the bosses were all underwhelming and the final boss was insanely annoying until you figured out what you had to do. Cover mechanics are present in the game but I almost found them pointless since the moment you pop out the enemies will instantly beam in your direction thus having you struggle to get out of cover. Weirdly enough this game isn’t super long but I still felt like the ending portions of the game dragged out making me believe they could have cut 30 mins to an hour of the game out. Story is very basic but it will get the job done for the most part. LAST BUT NOT LEAST as it's been brought up throughout this review let's get into the difficulty. To put it simply it is outrageous imo since there isn’t even any difficulty option so you are just stuck with one option which will put you through pain. Certain level segments are set up to have you instantly get showered with bullets and if you have no armor your HP will instantly DRAIN. It gets so bad to the point you almost can softlock yourself during a level if you load into a segment with little HP where enemies instantly shoot at you from every direction. This actually almost happened to me when I got to a part where you walk up some stairs and are greeted by 3 snipers + a buttload of enemies with NO armor to pick up. I am not sure why the xbox version is so much more difficult than the other console versions and it made me want to actually try the versions just to see how much of a difference it is.
In the end
Honestly this game isn’t the worst thing ever, it just simply doesn’t hold up well and maybe the other console versions are a bit better. This game runs for cheap so honestly I still say give it a spin and see for yourself since it won’t break the wallet and may provide you some fun. I do recommend staying away from the Xbox version and going for the PS2, gamecube version but I would not expect anything out of this game for the most part. I wonder how the sequels will be!
I just realized even in what should have been the positive section that I was rambling about the bad more LOOOL
A cozy feeling that continues in its sequel
Honestly this is just an overall good follow up to a very good first title which saw some improvements. The first title really put my mind at ease with its great setting, OST, characters and great dialogue that can sometimes get very thoughtful and deep. I simply couldn’t have asked for much more with the sequel and in every way they simply did what I think more games should do with its sequel. Don’t fix what isn’t broken just simply add onto it and improve and that is what you get with its sequel.
What is different and what is good?
Of course with this being a VN you ask yourself “what in the world can they change” which is a simple answer. The core loop of Coffee Talk EP1 has you creating drinks for your customers as you listen to their story. In EP2 you now have even more ingredients to use for your tasty looking drinks opening up how many possible combinations you can make. In addition there is a new side mechanic in which customers will sometimes forget items or give you items for you to give to someone else. This serves as a way for potential story changes for characters as you have to remember to give specific items to specific people. It's a neat mechanic which however does lead into a small issue I have that I will get more into in my negative portion of the review. What would be a good VN without good dialogue? Luckily I am happy to say this game continues the trend of great storylines with sometimes really thoughtful dialogue that can really hit home for some people if you are in the field of creating. In addition, the new cast of characters were great and all fit in very well to the story quickly making you care very deeply for these pixels. It's funny because I almost felt terrible when I had to go through my bad end run because I genuinely did not want to see these characters fail LOL.
A way to calm
I want to give this a little section on its own because I really want to drive home how comfy this game feels. They really created such a cozy atmosphere that I really adore and wish I could have in real life. The OST is just as great and the setting is once again just as great, really making you feel like you have gone back home. I really recommend this game just for this alone if you want something that will help you put yourself at ease while getting a fix of great stories and world building.
Some negatives
Luckily while I do have some negatives it isn’t anything game breaking that will push anyone away it's just annoyances for a specific group of people. To explain , remember how I mentioned the new item mechanic ? you get items from characters and pick up forgotten items from characters to give to another character or back to the person who lost it. It's a simple yet cool addition that can lead into some VERY frustrating routes if you do not want to guide. On top of having to get drinks right you have to remember to give items to specific people and if you forget anything you will ruin a run. This becomes an issue because this game is insanely confusing when it comes to 100% YOU WILL HAVE TO GUIDE THIS GAME. Going for a 100% playthrough without guiding will make you pull your hair out as it is so damn specific of what is needed from you. In general you will have to go through this game multiple times to see everything and this time around the dialogue skipping button feels slower due to the game pausing every time characters expression changes or anything. This will slow down the process a bit but not to an annoying degree.
In the end
While going for the true ending is annoying I will say I DO recommend it as it is one of the most heartfelt endings that I have seen in a while put into a game in recent times. It really elevated the experience for me and just really showed how close the team who made this game was. What is to come from this series is unknown ( to my knowledge ) but I am VERY happy to have picked up and read both titles.
Honestly this is just an overall good follow up to a very good first title which saw some improvements. The first title really put my mind at ease with its great setting, OST, characters and great dialogue that can sometimes get very thoughtful and deep. I simply couldn’t have asked for much more with the sequel and in every way they simply did what I think more games should do with its sequel. Don’t fix what isn’t broken just simply add onto it and improve and that is what you get with its sequel.
What is different and what is good?
Of course with this being a VN you ask yourself “what in the world can they change” which is a simple answer. The core loop of Coffee Talk EP1 has you creating drinks for your customers as you listen to their story. In EP2 you now have even more ingredients to use for your tasty looking drinks opening up how many possible combinations you can make. In addition there is a new side mechanic in which customers will sometimes forget items or give you items for you to give to someone else. This serves as a way for potential story changes for characters as you have to remember to give specific items to specific people. It's a neat mechanic which however does lead into a small issue I have that I will get more into in my negative portion of the review. What would be a good VN without good dialogue? Luckily I am happy to say this game continues the trend of great storylines with sometimes really thoughtful dialogue that can really hit home for some people if you are in the field of creating. In addition, the new cast of characters were great and all fit in very well to the story quickly making you care very deeply for these pixels. It's funny because I almost felt terrible when I had to go through my bad end run because I genuinely did not want to see these characters fail LOL.
A way to calm
I want to give this a little section on its own because I really want to drive home how comfy this game feels. They really created such a cozy atmosphere that I really adore and wish I could have in real life. The OST is just as great and the setting is once again just as great, really making you feel like you have gone back home. I really recommend this game just for this alone if you want something that will help you put yourself at ease while getting a fix of great stories and world building.
Some negatives
Luckily while I do have some negatives it isn’t anything game breaking that will push anyone away it's just annoyances for a specific group of people. To explain , remember how I mentioned the new item mechanic ? you get items from characters and pick up forgotten items from characters to give to another character or back to the person who lost it. It's a simple yet cool addition that can lead into some VERY frustrating routes if you do not want to guide. On top of having to get drinks right you have to remember to give items to specific people and if you forget anything you will ruin a run. This becomes an issue because this game is insanely confusing when it comes to 100% YOU WILL HAVE TO GUIDE THIS GAME. Going for a 100% playthrough without guiding will make you pull your hair out as it is so damn specific of what is needed from you. In general you will have to go through this game multiple times to see everything and this time around the dialogue skipping button feels slower due to the game pausing every time characters expression changes or anything. This will slow down the process a bit but not to an annoying degree.
In the end
While going for the true ending is annoying I will say I DO recommend it as it is one of the most heartfelt endings that I have seen in a while put into a game in recent times. It really elevated the experience for me and just really showed how close the team who made this game was. What is to come from this series is unknown ( to my knowledge ) but I am VERY happy to have picked up and read both titles.
2020
A cozy feeling
I have always eyed this VN as I am a fan of coffee….. And cafes so this is very much my ally. As time went on however I just forgot about the game but seeing its sequel make its way to gamepass made me remember. Finally with my memory I could buy the first game on sale and sit down and read this wonderful story.
Short and simple
I will be keeping this review short and simple as there really isn’t a lot to talk about gameplay wise since this is a visual novel. Coffee talk is a Visual Novel that sees you play as a barista who runs a cafe that is only open during the night. The game revolves around the many characters that show up and the stories that follow them. The only gameplay element attached to this game is that you prepare drinks for the customers by combining ingredients to make Coffees , Tea, Green tea, chocolate and milk based drinks. Right off the bat the OST and graphics really put you at ease as the setting is just so peaceful to look at. Combine this with a great cast of characters and very well throughout and thoughtful stories this game is a very good time. I was taken back by some of the dialogue as some of the characters' issues presented are VERY real and the way they go about them are honestly good enough to the point that you can apply what these characters say to real life situations. I really appreciate how deep they get with specific topics that made me nod my head many times in agreement to what characters would say. Weirdly enough however, the only character I wasn’t really fond of is the main recurring character Freya. To explain , I found her dialogue sometimes to be annoying and honestly just found her character to be overall annoying multiple times during certain areas. Maybe her character will grow on me with the sequel so we shall see.
In the end
If you are a Visual novel fan and want to read a well written, thoughtful story with a great OST and great setting AND great characters then I highly recommend this game!. I am looking forward to reading the sequel !!!
I have always eyed this VN as I am a fan of coffee….. And cafes so this is very much my ally. As time went on however I just forgot about the game but seeing its sequel make its way to gamepass made me remember. Finally with my memory I could buy the first game on sale and sit down and read this wonderful story.
Short and simple
I will be keeping this review short and simple as there really isn’t a lot to talk about gameplay wise since this is a visual novel. Coffee talk is a Visual Novel that sees you play as a barista who runs a cafe that is only open during the night. The game revolves around the many characters that show up and the stories that follow them. The only gameplay element attached to this game is that you prepare drinks for the customers by combining ingredients to make Coffees , Tea, Green tea, chocolate and milk based drinks. Right off the bat the OST and graphics really put you at ease as the setting is just so peaceful to look at. Combine this with a great cast of characters and very well throughout and thoughtful stories this game is a very good time. I was taken back by some of the dialogue as some of the characters' issues presented are VERY real and the way they go about them are honestly good enough to the point that you can apply what these characters say to real life situations. I really appreciate how deep they get with specific topics that made me nod my head many times in agreement to what characters would say. Weirdly enough however, the only character I wasn’t really fond of is the main recurring character Freya. To explain , I found her dialogue sometimes to be annoying and honestly just found her character to be overall annoying multiple times during certain areas. Maybe her character will grow on me with the sequel so we shall see.
In the end
If you are a Visual novel fan and want to read a well written, thoughtful story with a great OST and great setting AND great characters then I highly recommend this game!. I am looking forward to reading the sequel !!!
2022
You know it. You love it
It's no surprise that Ape Escape is well loved by fans and well hated by Sony who refuses to revive the damn series but will still port every damn game onto newer consoles ( Besides 3 ). With that being said this game is very special to me and my childhood as it's probably my all time favorite PS1 game and will probably remain that way forever. I suddenly got the urge to play through the game for the 12932193821th time and seeing as it got a PS5 port with trophies I thought it was the perfect way to replay this masterpiece. Overall They did a great job with this port!
It still holds up
Look I know some people in recent times have claimed this game to be nostalgic only and doesn’t hold up well but imo it holds up very well. To explain , the controls can be awkward at first having you jump with R1 and constantly having you press L1 to focus the camera in front of you. However, with little time the controls are honestly not bad at all, imo people just refuse to get adjusted. Past that the levels still look great with its upped rendering on PS5 and traversing levels has never looked as great as it does now. The gameplay loop is simple, having you simply capture monkeys across multiple areas with you unlocking more gadgets as you progress. I wish some Gadgets had bigger roles like the Hula Hoop which honestly is a useless gadget past a few areas. However the overall pool of gadgets are very fun and will have you constantly swapping them out in later levels to get through specific situations. Look , you cannot expect a game that literally was a game changer in its genre being the first to use what are now known as Analog sticks to be perfect in every way. While the game has very few faults in certain areas the overall experience is still just as joyful and masterfully crafted now as it was when it was first released. Packed with a great OST you cannot simply ask for a better time if you just use a little time to get used to the controls. And hell I don’t care, I love the stupid voice acting which is 100% nostalgia bias so sue me LOL.
The few faults
I only really have a couple issues with this game so this will be pretty short. To begin, I think the camera works fine overall once you learn how to use L1 effectively to reposition the camera there are a few issues. Mostly in the later levels the camera will start to become a slight issue as it's simply in your face and some segments are a lot tougher due to this. To explain, in the final stage there is a segment where you are on a rollercoaster and will need to precisely jump to dodge roadblocks. However due to the camera being so in your face the time frame is VERY strict making this segment very annoying as you will constantly get hit since you won’t see things until it's too late. Besides this I personally have no issues with the camera overall and still find it fine to use to this day. My last issue is the random slowdown even for a PS5 port during certain segments in the game.
Overall
It's a classic through and through and one I will always recommend people to play and get used to. Ape escape is truly a holy trinity because all 3 games are great and not many series can say they have 2 good sequels. You will have a good time with Ape Escape 1 if you are willing to learn and adapt to a different era of gaming and you will not regret that choice!!!. This remastered port is $10 which is a good price imo or if you have PS Plus premium this game is included in that sub tier !
It's no surprise that Ape Escape is well loved by fans and well hated by Sony who refuses to revive the damn series but will still port every damn game onto newer consoles ( Besides 3 ). With that being said this game is very special to me and my childhood as it's probably my all time favorite PS1 game and will probably remain that way forever. I suddenly got the urge to play through the game for the 12932193821th time and seeing as it got a PS5 port with trophies I thought it was the perfect way to replay this masterpiece. Overall They did a great job with this port!
It still holds up
Look I know some people in recent times have claimed this game to be nostalgic only and doesn’t hold up well but imo it holds up very well. To explain , the controls can be awkward at first having you jump with R1 and constantly having you press L1 to focus the camera in front of you. However, with little time the controls are honestly not bad at all, imo people just refuse to get adjusted. Past that the levels still look great with its upped rendering on PS5 and traversing levels has never looked as great as it does now. The gameplay loop is simple, having you simply capture monkeys across multiple areas with you unlocking more gadgets as you progress. I wish some Gadgets had bigger roles like the Hula Hoop which honestly is a useless gadget past a few areas. However the overall pool of gadgets are very fun and will have you constantly swapping them out in later levels to get through specific situations. Look , you cannot expect a game that literally was a game changer in its genre being the first to use what are now known as Analog sticks to be perfect in every way. While the game has very few faults in certain areas the overall experience is still just as joyful and masterfully crafted now as it was when it was first released. Packed with a great OST you cannot simply ask for a better time if you just use a little time to get used to the controls. And hell I don’t care, I love the stupid voice acting which is 100% nostalgia bias so sue me LOL.
The few faults
I only really have a couple issues with this game so this will be pretty short. To begin, I think the camera works fine overall once you learn how to use L1 effectively to reposition the camera there are a few issues. Mostly in the later levels the camera will start to become a slight issue as it's simply in your face and some segments are a lot tougher due to this. To explain, in the final stage there is a segment where you are on a rollercoaster and will need to precisely jump to dodge roadblocks. However due to the camera being so in your face the time frame is VERY strict making this segment very annoying as you will constantly get hit since you won’t see things until it's too late. Besides this I personally have no issues with the camera overall and still find it fine to use to this day. My last issue is the random slowdown even for a PS5 port during certain segments in the game.
Overall
It's a classic through and through and one I will always recommend people to play and get used to. Ape escape is truly a holy trinity because all 3 games are great and not many series can say they have 2 good sequels. You will have a good time with Ape Escape 1 if you are willing to learn and adapt to a different era of gaming and you will not regret that choice!!!. This remastered port is $10 which is a good price imo or if you have PS Plus premium this game is included in that sub tier !
2006
Surprise comes in many forms
I have a very specific attachment with Black as I own the demo disc for the PS2. I played the hell out of that demo disc but never played the full game until now. I have to say I am pretty damn impressed with the game overall and had a good time despite its flaws.
Ahead of its time
When you play this game it doesn’t dawn on you it's an OG xbox/ PS2 title as they really pushed the hardware to its limits. To explain, The game looks VERY good for the time when you once again consider what platform it's on. Guns feel great to shoot and sound great and the area by area gameplay is just fun even though repetitive. Attached to all this is a nice little story that we will sadly never see a continuation of which is sad since I do feel this game deserved way more than it got. Playing through Black makes me wish Criterion would make another story driven FPS game because the potential was unreal with Black through and through.
Issues
Sadly the game does have some issues that held it back for me but not overall ruining the experience completely. To begin , While the gunplay is fun the levels become extremely repetitive as they never try to break the formula. Most levels play out the same exact way making you go through the same exact hordes of enemies only adding very few new types of enemies along the way. It's a blessing that the core gameplay is such a good time because this issue doesn’t fully ruin the game for me personally. However , what I felt DID hold the game back was its very high TTK. To explain , you will notice how magazines are extremely large for every gun ranging from 60 - 90 for SMGs and assault rifles which sounds like a lot. However, you will quickly learn this is due to the fact that enemies have an insane amount of health and if you don’t focus shots onto their head you will be dumping most of your clip into one enemy. You will need to mix grenades into the mix as they will shred enemies and shotguns will as well shred enemies. Furthermore , keep an eye out for special guns in each level as they are the most OP weapons during the game. I just wish they balanced out the TTK with the regular weapon pool because some sections were annoying due to this. As mentioned before the enemy types are very limited and this hits extremely hard when you get into sections where you are supposed to take out a specific person. Due to how bare bones the enemies are, some sections which should feel epic end up feeling like every other section. “Go and defeat this person!!!” okay cool but why do they look like enemy #93328 doesn't aid in its story when the section by section gameplay doesn’t add specific bosses or unique enemies for specific characters. Maybe I seriously missed it but I as well didn’t see any way to change camera sensitivity which quickly annoyed me as the camera moves soooo damn slow. I can bypass no jump ,and sprint but having to drag your camera from country to country to aim at a damn enemy becomes annoying sometimes.
In the end
As I said , despite its flaws I honestly had way more of a fun time then I would have ever expected with this game. I am glad I finally got around to it and do recommend it as it's pretty cheap to buy and is on xbox game pass. With games like Dead rising , GOW1 , Oblivion and Saints row 1 coming out the same year it's no wonder this game failed. I never understood why they left it to rot on the previous gen consoles. It's truly a shame. If they could remake this game and modernize it I honestly believe it would be a hit.
I have a very specific attachment with Black as I own the demo disc for the PS2. I played the hell out of that demo disc but never played the full game until now. I have to say I am pretty damn impressed with the game overall and had a good time despite its flaws.
Ahead of its time
When you play this game it doesn’t dawn on you it's an OG xbox/ PS2 title as they really pushed the hardware to its limits. To explain, The game looks VERY good for the time when you once again consider what platform it's on. Guns feel great to shoot and sound great and the area by area gameplay is just fun even though repetitive. Attached to all this is a nice little story that we will sadly never see a continuation of which is sad since I do feel this game deserved way more than it got. Playing through Black makes me wish Criterion would make another story driven FPS game because the potential was unreal with Black through and through.
Issues
Sadly the game does have some issues that held it back for me but not overall ruining the experience completely. To begin , While the gunplay is fun the levels become extremely repetitive as they never try to break the formula. Most levels play out the same exact way making you go through the same exact hordes of enemies only adding very few new types of enemies along the way. It's a blessing that the core gameplay is such a good time because this issue doesn’t fully ruin the game for me personally. However , what I felt DID hold the game back was its very high TTK. To explain , you will notice how magazines are extremely large for every gun ranging from 60 - 90 for SMGs and assault rifles which sounds like a lot. However, you will quickly learn this is due to the fact that enemies have an insane amount of health and if you don’t focus shots onto their head you will be dumping most of your clip into one enemy. You will need to mix grenades into the mix as they will shred enemies and shotguns will as well shred enemies. Furthermore , keep an eye out for special guns in each level as they are the most OP weapons during the game. I just wish they balanced out the TTK with the regular weapon pool because some sections were annoying due to this. As mentioned before the enemy types are very limited and this hits extremely hard when you get into sections where you are supposed to take out a specific person. Due to how bare bones the enemies are, some sections which should feel epic end up feeling like every other section. “Go and defeat this person!!!” okay cool but why do they look like enemy #93328 doesn't aid in its story when the section by section gameplay doesn’t add specific bosses or unique enemies for specific characters. Maybe I seriously missed it but I as well didn’t see any way to change camera sensitivity which quickly annoyed me as the camera moves soooo damn slow. I can bypass no jump ,and sprint but having to drag your camera from country to country to aim at a damn enemy becomes annoying sometimes.
In the end
As I said , despite its flaws I honestly had way more of a fun time then I would have ever expected with this game. I am glad I finally got around to it and do recommend it as it's pretty cheap to buy and is on xbox game pass. With games like Dead rising , GOW1 , Oblivion and Saints row 1 coming out the same year it's no wonder this game failed. I never understood why they left it to rot on the previous gen consoles. It's truly a shame. If they could remake this game and modernize it I honestly believe it would be a hit.
2021
A very fun idea bogged down by execution
On the surface this game sounds like a blast!!! It's a Parkour, speedrunning Basketball game where the goal is simple: you just need to dunk the basketball into the hoops as fast as you can. Sadly the idea is the only thing that is a blast about this game lol.
What a buggy mess
Before even diving into the game itself I just have to talk about the sheer amount of bugs and glitches this game holsters. Ranging from clipping through levels all the way literally soft locking yourself from beating levels this game has it all. To explain , there are guns you can pick up from enemies as you go about the levels but so many times after you finish using a gun you literally would not be able to do anything with your basketball forcing you to restart the level. Furthermore, Bosses would just straight up get stuck literally making them cheeseable which I honestly didn’t mind because the bosses were abysmal anyways. Level textures would sometimes bug out and textures would disappear and reappear. Hell sometimes the ball would just glitch and take up your whole screen not allowing you to even know where you were about to shoot it.
Not off to a good start
The fact that I had to start my review talking about its horrendous issues is safe to say it isn’t going to get any better talking about the actual game. To start, the game is insanely short, running around 50 minutes to beat every level including extra levels. On paper this shouldn’t be an issue as this is a speedrunning game the issue lies that it isn’t fun at all not really making it enticing to try and get good times on each level. The level by level gameplay is just boring and never once changes up its formula until near the end for a few levels. Graphically the game looks horrible ranging from terrible enemy designs to terrible level design. Bosses were cookie cutter and basic not really offering much of a challenge since half of them bugged out anyways.
in the end
Honestly there isn’t much else to talk about , the game was a huge letdown for what could have been a great idea. I do not recommend this game at all unless you want to play an unpolished buggy mess of a game.
On the surface this game sounds like a blast!!! It's a Parkour, speedrunning Basketball game where the goal is simple: you just need to dunk the basketball into the hoops as fast as you can. Sadly the idea is the only thing that is a blast about this game lol.
What a buggy mess
Before even diving into the game itself I just have to talk about the sheer amount of bugs and glitches this game holsters. Ranging from clipping through levels all the way literally soft locking yourself from beating levels this game has it all. To explain , there are guns you can pick up from enemies as you go about the levels but so many times after you finish using a gun you literally would not be able to do anything with your basketball forcing you to restart the level. Furthermore, Bosses would just straight up get stuck literally making them cheeseable which I honestly didn’t mind because the bosses were abysmal anyways. Level textures would sometimes bug out and textures would disappear and reappear. Hell sometimes the ball would just glitch and take up your whole screen not allowing you to even know where you were about to shoot it.
Not off to a good start
The fact that I had to start my review talking about its horrendous issues is safe to say it isn’t going to get any better talking about the actual game. To start, the game is insanely short, running around 50 minutes to beat every level including extra levels. On paper this shouldn’t be an issue as this is a speedrunning game the issue lies that it isn’t fun at all not really making it enticing to try and get good times on each level. The level by level gameplay is just boring and never once changes up its formula until near the end for a few levels. Graphically the game looks horrible ranging from terrible enemy designs to terrible level design. Bosses were cookie cutter and basic not really offering much of a challenge since half of them bugged out anyways.
in the end
Honestly there isn’t much else to talk about , the game was a huge letdown for what could have been a great idea. I do not recommend this game at all unless you want to play an unpolished buggy mess of a game.
Oh how the tides have changed
Force unleashed 2 has always remained in my memories due to how much people were hating it when it was released. A lot of “the first game is so much better” and the more valid “this is too short” was most of what I was seeing around this title and at the time I was young so I thought the same as well. However, isn't it interesting how perception of things changes as time moves on? Because I genuinely think the sequel is leagues ahead of the first title.
Why do I like it more?
To start, the combat is actually good in this game. It feels more fluid , more skills to use and the lock on works better making for a solid gameplay loop. For a game that was released so shortly after the first title this game looks way better in both graphics/ stage design. As force unleashed 1 was aggravating to play, this game was so much fun and I never once felt dread past a few glitches that occurred during my playthrough. Bosses for the most part are unique and fun but on one hand there are so few of them. Skills progressing is streamlined with you earning money to power up your skills and finding cubes in each level to level up your HP , energy. I prefer this honestly because the level up system made zero sense in a linear story mode game of this calibur imo. Speaking of skills once more they feel great and very fun to use in the sequel. To explain, in the first game comboing was terrible due to delay in moves , clunky lock on and things just not connecting. However in the sequel it simply just works as combos come out way quicker and there isn’t any annoyance of delay / animations to ruin combat for you. It is a damn shame this game is as short as it is because if they just let this bake more in the oven and added more and more levels to flush out the world even further this really could have been a classic.
What didn’t I like?
Well the story in the sequel really didn’t do it for me. I do think it's better in the first title overall but even that isn’t saying much as the story in the first title is not that great. Furthermore, Starkiller is honestly more annoying in this game??? There are a good amount of scenes where he just screams and I wish I could jump in the game and tell him to stfu LOL. As stated before the game is just way too short you can literally beat it in one sitting in under 4 hours which is insane. It makes sense due to how quickly this game was pushed out hence why I believe they should have just released it later and added more content to it. As well I did run into a few bugs and glitches but nothing as severe as the first title. One last point on an issue I as well had with the first title that reappears in this tone is lacking enemy variety. There are a few new enemy types but they do not stand out enough for me to really consider them new or game changing.
in the end
I am surprised by the divided feeling for this game because past its short runtime I think force unleashed 2 is a genuinely fun title and better then the first game.
Force unleashed 2 has always remained in my memories due to how much people were hating it when it was released. A lot of “the first game is so much better” and the more valid “this is too short” was most of what I was seeing around this title and at the time I was young so I thought the same as well. However, isn't it interesting how perception of things changes as time moves on? Because I genuinely think the sequel is leagues ahead of the first title.
Why do I like it more?
To start, the combat is actually good in this game. It feels more fluid , more skills to use and the lock on works better making for a solid gameplay loop. For a game that was released so shortly after the first title this game looks way better in both graphics/ stage design. As force unleashed 1 was aggravating to play, this game was so much fun and I never once felt dread past a few glitches that occurred during my playthrough. Bosses for the most part are unique and fun but on one hand there are so few of them. Skills progressing is streamlined with you earning money to power up your skills and finding cubes in each level to level up your HP , energy. I prefer this honestly because the level up system made zero sense in a linear story mode game of this calibur imo. Speaking of skills once more they feel great and very fun to use in the sequel. To explain, in the first game comboing was terrible due to delay in moves , clunky lock on and things just not connecting. However in the sequel it simply just works as combos come out way quicker and there isn’t any annoyance of delay / animations to ruin combat for you. It is a damn shame this game is as short as it is because if they just let this bake more in the oven and added more and more levels to flush out the world even further this really could have been a classic.
What didn’t I like?
Well the story in the sequel really didn’t do it for me. I do think it's better in the first title overall but even that isn’t saying much as the story in the first title is not that great. Furthermore, Starkiller is honestly more annoying in this game??? There are a good amount of scenes where he just screams and I wish I could jump in the game and tell him to stfu LOL. As stated before the game is just way too short you can literally beat it in one sitting in under 4 hours which is insane. It makes sense due to how quickly this game was pushed out hence why I believe they should have just released it later and added more content to it. As well I did run into a few bugs and glitches but nothing as severe as the first title. One last point on an issue I as well had with the first title that reappears in this tone is lacking enemy variety. There are a few new enemy types but they do not stand out enough for me to really consider them new or game changing.
in the end
I am surprised by the divided feeling for this game because past its short runtime I think force unleashed 2 is a genuinely fun title and better then the first game.
2022
A very fun FPS Roguelite!!
I knew very little about deadlink before its full launch but after its release I grew interested in it and got it through a bundle recently. Having little knowledge I was curious about what this game would be like and I am honestly really pleased with the outcome. This is a very fun , fast paced and challenging FPS game that will test your skills.
What makes it so fun?
I just think this fast paced style of FPS games works well with the roguelite genre. It gives you heavy doom reboot vibes which is a very good thing making you always focus during encounters. With fun gunplay , movement , build variety this makes for an overall great package that I 100% can recommend if it sounds like something you might want to try. I don’t really want to get too in depth with mechanics but there is 1 character to choose from in which you unlock 3 more as you progress and do multiple runs. While the game starts off pretty much unbeatable you quickly will level up your character through a perm skill tree that will make the game tons easier if you learn boss patterns. I have heard people complaining about how hard it is but honestly I did not struggle after a certain point until hitting the hardest difficulty which is pretty damn brutal. I just had so much trying out new classes , weapons , skills because as usual once you stumble across an OP build for a run it truly is an amazing feeling to shred everything. Each character plays vastly differently which makes for a refreshing gameplay loop if you want to try someone else out. A core mechanic across the board is shield regain in which when you use a specific skill on an enemy and by killing them they will drop shields. This is crucial as if you don't utilize this enough you will simply lose runs a lot more so make sure you build around your shield skill and use it at any given moment you can!. After trying each character I landed on Engineer which I found to be very fun / powerful and have beaten multiple playthroughs with him only. I won’t speak on the other characters as I didn’t play them nearly as much but for sure give Engineer a go when you unlock them. There is just something so exhilarating about high action / fast paced FPS games that always stick with me and this game simply hits the spot.
What I didn’t like?
I don’t have many complaints about this game past a few. To begin, The bosses do feel pretty basic and lacking; they don’t really try anything too crazy which makes them very easily learnable. This can become a problem because it hits a certain point where the bosses simply pose no challenge and most of the challenging will be within the stage by stage leading up to the bosses. Furthermore, the enemy variety is also lackluster as they just give them different looks in each area past a couple new enemies in the later areas. I didn’t really mind it too much but I do wish they would have created a more vast variety of them.
In the end
An overall great game I enjoyed my time with and probably will return to it as time passes on. This game has made me realize how much I would love even more FPS rougelike/lite games in this fashion because the 2 genres really do blend well with one another. The game imo is worth at full price for how fun it is and its replay value alone but I can recommend it 9439394% on sale.
I knew very little about deadlink before its full launch but after its release I grew interested in it and got it through a bundle recently. Having little knowledge I was curious about what this game would be like and I am honestly really pleased with the outcome. This is a very fun , fast paced and challenging FPS game that will test your skills.
What makes it so fun?
I just think this fast paced style of FPS games works well with the roguelite genre. It gives you heavy doom reboot vibes which is a very good thing making you always focus during encounters. With fun gunplay , movement , build variety this makes for an overall great package that I 100% can recommend if it sounds like something you might want to try. I don’t really want to get too in depth with mechanics but there is 1 character to choose from in which you unlock 3 more as you progress and do multiple runs. While the game starts off pretty much unbeatable you quickly will level up your character through a perm skill tree that will make the game tons easier if you learn boss patterns. I have heard people complaining about how hard it is but honestly I did not struggle after a certain point until hitting the hardest difficulty which is pretty damn brutal. I just had so much trying out new classes , weapons , skills because as usual once you stumble across an OP build for a run it truly is an amazing feeling to shred everything. Each character plays vastly differently which makes for a refreshing gameplay loop if you want to try someone else out. A core mechanic across the board is shield regain in which when you use a specific skill on an enemy and by killing them they will drop shields. This is crucial as if you don't utilize this enough you will simply lose runs a lot more so make sure you build around your shield skill and use it at any given moment you can!. After trying each character I landed on Engineer which I found to be very fun / powerful and have beaten multiple playthroughs with him only. I won’t speak on the other characters as I didn’t play them nearly as much but for sure give Engineer a go when you unlock them. There is just something so exhilarating about high action / fast paced FPS games that always stick with me and this game simply hits the spot.
What I didn’t like?
I don’t have many complaints about this game past a few. To begin, The bosses do feel pretty basic and lacking; they don’t really try anything too crazy which makes them very easily learnable. This can become a problem because it hits a certain point where the bosses simply pose no challenge and most of the challenging will be within the stage by stage leading up to the bosses. Furthermore, the enemy variety is also lackluster as they just give them different looks in each area past a couple new enemies in the later areas. I didn’t really mind it too much but I do wish they would have created a more vast variety of them.
In the end
An overall great game I enjoyed my time with and probably will return to it as time passes on. This game has made me realize how much I would love even more FPS rougelike/lite games in this fashion because the 2 genres really do blend well with one another. The game imo is worth at full price for how fun it is and its replay value alone but I can recommend it 9439394% on sale.
May the nostalgia be with you because this game simply is not that good in this day and age.
You couldn’t escape this game when it was released. It was VERY popular and for good reason. At the time this was truly a great game and I remember renting it and being blown away by this game as a kid but I never finished it. Fast forward to my knowledge landing me on the fact that both titles are Backwards compatible with the series X. I wanted to sit down and finally play through both titles. I went in with very minimal expectations since games from the 360 can truly be hit or miss in terms of how they hold up today and sheesh this game didn’t hold up very well. HOWEVER! That isn’t to say its bad because it isn’t and if anything if this game would receive a remake that fixes my issues I have no doubt it can be a great game but as it stands the game is fine at most.
What are my issues?
Keep in mind I am talking with my experience on the Xbox series X version of this game which I would assume would be the best way to play this game nowadays in terms of consoles. To begin , combat while fun on one hand grows extremely frustrating on the other hand. The game constantly fights against you with a terrible lock on system , delay in skills/ combos and extremely annoying enemy types on harder difficulties. To explain, there is a huge delay in when you can use your next attack so for example if you finish a combo and want to jump or back off you will have to wait a few seconds which can really mess you up. This hits harder when you simply want to jump sometimes because the delay is atrocious enough to make you mess up multiple times during certain segments. Specific skills have animations that you NEED to sit through so if you fight multiple enemies and do a combo that has a finishing animation you will be left wide open which is annoying since you would at least assume that you wouldn’t be able to take damage during animations like those. Furthermore, the lock on system will randomly jump to multiple enemies and sometimes even lock onto an enemy that is already dead. When you combine these two things together it makes for an extremely frustrating experience as half of your deaths will be due to the controls just not working in your own favor. However , the enemies will not make this any easier as some enemy types can stun lock you to death , kill you in 2 shots or just act very weird making it awkward to get hits in. Beyond that there are bugs and glitches ranging from the game enemies clipping into the environment , skills not hitting enemies for whatever reason to the game just hard crashing ( which only happened once luckily). Hell the wait time to even load back in after death is so damn long you can probably watch the whole titanic before you load back in. To make the loading times even more annoying you are frozen still while the game loads back in for like 5 seconds so if you die in an area where the checkpoint has enemies right away YOU CAN GET HIT AS YOU WAIT TO BE ABLE TO MOVE. Moving on, I played on the hardest difficulty you can play for the first time since you have to beat the game once to unlock its actual hardest difficulty. Overall the game is very cheesable but very annoying at some parts and it left me not wanting to replay this game again because I can only imagine how annoying the last difficulty will be.
What did I enjoy?
Not all is bad with this game because honestly I still enjoyed it a decent amount despite its flaws. First the bosses imo are very cool and I love how the final boss of the game gives you two options leading you to 2 different endings. When the combat wants to work properly I can take a hint of what could have been because I truly believe a ironed out version of this combat can be amazing. The story while not amazing is honestly enjoyable and the voice acting performances were well done imo. Environments are nice albeit very linear usually.
In the end
Its tragic because I wanted my return to this title to be way better than it ended up being so I am curious to see how the second title will hold up since I remember even less about that one.
You couldn’t escape this game when it was released. It was VERY popular and for good reason. At the time this was truly a great game and I remember renting it and being blown away by this game as a kid but I never finished it. Fast forward to my knowledge landing me on the fact that both titles are Backwards compatible with the series X. I wanted to sit down and finally play through both titles. I went in with very minimal expectations since games from the 360 can truly be hit or miss in terms of how they hold up today and sheesh this game didn’t hold up very well. HOWEVER! That isn’t to say its bad because it isn’t and if anything if this game would receive a remake that fixes my issues I have no doubt it can be a great game but as it stands the game is fine at most.
What are my issues?
Keep in mind I am talking with my experience on the Xbox series X version of this game which I would assume would be the best way to play this game nowadays in terms of consoles. To begin , combat while fun on one hand grows extremely frustrating on the other hand. The game constantly fights against you with a terrible lock on system , delay in skills/ combos and extremely annoying enemy types on harder difficulties. To explain, there is a huge delay in when you can use your next attack so for example if you finish a combo and want to jump or back off you will have to wait a few seconds which can really mess you up. This hits harder when you simply want to jump sometimes because the delay is atrocious enough to make you mess up multiple times during certain segments. Specific skills have animations that you NEED to sit through so if you fight multiple enemies and do a combo that has a finishing animation you will be left wide open which is annoying since you would at least assume that you wouldn’t be able to take damage during animations like those. Furthermore, the lock on system will randomly jump to multiple enemies and sometimes even lock onto an enemy that is already dead. When you combine these two things together it makes for an extremely frustrating experience as half of your deaths will be due to the controls just not working in your own favor. However , the enemies will not make this any easier as some enemy types can stun lock you to death , kill you in 2 shots or just act very weird making it awkward to get hits in. Beyond that there are bugs and glitches ranging from the game enemies clipping into the environment , skills not hitting enemies for whatever reason to the game just hard crashing ( which only happened once luckily). Hell the wait time to even load back in after death is so damn long you can probably watch the whole titanic before you load back in. To make the loading times even more annoying you are frozen still while the game loads back in for like 5 seconds so if you die in an area where the checkpoint has enemies right away YOU CAN GET HIT AS YOU WAIT TO BE ABLE TO MOVE. Moving on, I played on the hardest difficulty you can play for the first time since you have to beat the game once to unlock its actual hardest difficulty. Overall the game is very cheesable but very annoying at some parts and it left me not wanting to replay this game again because I can only imagine how annoying the last difficulty will be.
What did I enjoy?
Not all is bad with this game because honestly I still enjoyed it a decent amount despite its flaws. First the bosses imo are very cool and I love how the final boss of the game gives you two options leading you to 2 different endings. When the combat wants to work properly I can take a hint of what could have been because I truly believe a ironed out version of this combat can be amazing. The story while not amazing is honestly enjoyable and the voice acting performances were well done imo. Environments are nice albeit very linear usually.
In the end
Its tragic because I wanted my return to this title to be way better than it ended up being so I am curious to see how the second title will hold up since I remember even less about that one.
2023
A step in the right direction…. Until you trip
I wasn’t that big of a fan of crystar by the end, while its story, ost and artwork was good everything else about the gameplay fell flat. I was hoping with Crymachina swooping around they would iron out some of the issues and we would finally get a good game from FuRyu. Crymachina is for sure an improvement over Crystar but it still falls flat in some departments really leaving this to be a forgettable experience by the end.
Let's start with the good !
Crymachina in a very similar fashion to Crystar has a good story , amazing artwork and a very good OST. This time around I actually didn’t find myself hating the combat as much. It felt more fluid and landing off combos were fun but I will get more into combat later. Furthermore the characters were good and were flushed out ENOUGH by the end making you care for the main cast as they go through this journey of becoming “real humans”. It’s really interesting though because I pretty much like and dislike the same exact things I did with Crystar as I do with Crymachina. It's just this time around Crymachina improves on some of Crystars bad aspects A LITTLE.
Let's get into the bad
While I did compliment the combat it's still far off from being as good as it should be. The loot pool is better in this title giving you side weapons you can use alongside your main weapon which once again is not changeable. Hell this time around you can’t even equip new main weapons that will change its look you only get number upgrades for your main weapons. The side weapons you collect you activate by pressing L1 and R1 and it will start an automatic use of those weapons. Furthermore you collect skills/ buffs that you can equip to your side weapons that will give you more of an edge in fights. It sounds fun on paper but it quickly feels pointless as the game is extremely easy making you not really think about what you NEED to use. These titles could really use some sort of buff / debuff system because everything just feels so basic in that aspect. In addition, while you collect a good amount of side weapons to use there are only a handful of variants which once again you will not care about what you will use by the end. Furthermore the EXP system is downright weird in this game. To explain , you don’t earn EXP until you finish a mission which sounds normal so far right?. Well EXP isn’t automatically distributed amongst the characters you will simply earn the number and will have to give the EXP to the character you want meaning. What this means is if you dump all your EXP into one character not knowing the next mission you will need to use someone else you just screwed yourself over. Thus starting a boring little grind you will need to do to catch them up to the story level because level scaling is extremely weird in this game. To explain , if you are even 1 level below the recommended level the game wants you to play, the monsters will literally 1 shot you like you are 999 levels below. While the grind isn’t terrible it's just weird and doesn’t add anything to the gameplay loop. Moving on , I was really hoping they would improve on level design but somehow it got worse in this game????. To explain, the backgrounds are extremely boring to look at, the level designs are literally now a straight line. Sometimes you will literally just walk down the aisle to fight the boss with no sub enemies on the way. Furthermore , there are side missions you can do by finding coordinate points that you put into a screen. This sounds cool as you feel like you will have to search hard for these codes but they are simply in the archive section for you to get. On top of these side missions are extremely boring and literally are the same really giving you ZERO reason to do these missions.
While the story is nice the way it's presented is pretty boring at times. You will have the usual cutscene fair but this game throws in a “tea” talk section where you get A LOT of the lore/ character learning from. This becomes an issue quickly as these cutscenes ALL LOOK THE SAME having the characters just sit down and do literally nothing. You will not see them move or anything just sit and you read the bubble text which can go on FOREVER sometimes …. Sounds fun right?. Furthermore, the story, while good, ended abruptly, really not leaving me satisfied at all for these characters and everything they had gone through up to this point. You don’t see ANY of the aftermath for anyone past one short true ending cutscene and it just really leaves you hanging. It’s a shame because I really felt like a rug got pulled out from under me at the end for what was a good story up until that point.
They truly can make an amazing game
If FuRyu has proven anything is that they can truly make/ publish an emotional story mixed with great artwork and awesome characters. I Simply believe if they can just really work in the gameplay field and really flush out their combat , world design and level design we can get a genuinely amazing game from them. I feel as if they need to get better devs for the combat portions of the games seeing as Aquaria worked on this title which they make the SAO titles which are not that great. It’s really a shame because this and Crystar both honestly should have been amazing games but really just fall flat in specific fields by the end.
I 100% do not recommend this game at full price however if you still want to give it a go I do think it would be worth it when it gets a deep sale.
I wasn’t that big of a fan of crystar by the end, while its story, ost and artwork was good everything else about the gameplay fell flat. I was hoping with Crymachina swooping around they would iron out some of the issues and we would finally get a good game from FuRyu. Crymachina is for sure an improvement over Crystar but it still falls flat in some departments really leaving this to be a forgettable experience by the end.
Let's start with the good !
Crymachina in a very similar fashion to Crystar has a good story , amazing artwork and a very good OST. This time around I actually didn’t find myself hating the combat as much. It felt more fluid and landing off combos were fun but I will get more into combat later. Furthermore the characters were good and were flushed out ENOUGH by the end making you care for the main cast as they go through this journey of becoming “real humans”. It’s really interesting though because I pretty much like and dislike the same exact things I did with Crystar as I do with Crymachina. It's just this time around Crymachina improves on some of Crystars bad aspects A LITTLE.
Let's get into the bad
While I did compliment the combat it's still far off from being as good as it should be. The loot pool is better in this title giving you side weapons you can use alongside your main weapon which once again is not changeable. Hell this time around you can’t even equip new main weapons that will change its look you only get number upgrades for your main weapons. The side weapons you collect you activate by pressing L1 and R1 and it will start an automatic use of those weapons. Furthermore you collect skills/ buffs that you can equip to your side weapons that will give you more of an edge in fights. It sounds fun on paper but it quickly feels pointless as the game is extremely easy making you not really think about what you NEED to use. These titles could really use some sort of buff / debuff system because everything just feels so basic in that aspect. In addition, while you collect a good amount of side weapons to use there are only a handful of variants which once again you will not care about what you will use by the end. Furthermore the EXP system is downright weird in this game. To explain , you don’t earn EXP until you finish a mission which sounds normal so far right?. Well EXP isn’t automatically distributed amongst the characters you will simply earn the number and will have to give the EXP to the character you want meaning. What this means is if you dump all your EXP into one character not knowing the next mission you will need to use someone else you just screwed yourself over. Thus starting a boring little grind you will need to do to catch them up to the story level because level scaling is extremely weird in this game. To explain , if you are even 1 level below the recommended level the game wants you to play, the monsters will literally 1 shot you like you are 999 levels below. While the grind isn’t terrible it's just weird and doesn’t add anything to the gameplay loop. Moving on , I was really hoping they would improve on level design but somehow it got worse in this game????. To explain, the backgrounds are extremely boring to look at, the level designs are literally now a straight line. Sometimes you will literally just walk down the aisle to fight the boss with no sub enemies on the way. Furthermore , there are side missions you can do by finding coordinate points that you put into a screen. This sounds cool as you feel like you will have to search hard for these codes but they are simply in the archive section for you to get. On top of these side missions are extremely boring and literally are the same really giving you ZERO reason to do these missions.
While the story is nice the way it's presented is pretty boring at times. You will have the usual cutscene fair but this game throws in a “tea” talk section where you get A LOT of the lore/ character learning from. This becomes an issue quickly as these cutscenes ALL LOOK THE SAME having the characters just sit down and do literally nothing. You will not see them move or anything just sit and you read the bubble text which can go on FOREVER sometimes …. Sounds fun right?. Furthermore, the story, while good, ended abruptly, really not leaving me satisfied at all for these characters and everything they had gone through up to this point. You don’t see ANY of the aftermath for anyone past one short true ending cutscene and it just really leaves you hanging. It’s a shame because I really felt like a rug got pulled out from under me at the end for what was a good story up until that point.
They truly can make an amazing game
If FuRyu has proven anything is that they can truly make/ publish an emotional story mixed with great artwork and awesome characters. I Simply believe if they can just really work in the gameplay field and really flush out their combat , world design and level design we can get a genuinely amazing game from them. I feel as if they need to get better devs for the combat portions of the games seeing as Aquaria worked on this title which they make the SAO titles which are not that great. It’s really a shame because this and Crystar both honestly should have been amazing games but really just fall flat in specific fields by the end.
I 100% do not recommend this game at full price however if you still want to give it a go I do think it would be worth it when it gets a deep sale.
A childhood classic that holds up very well
I have a very specific relationship with this game growing up. My dad was very strict on what games I can play on PC and he took me to gamestop to buy a PC game. Upon entering my eyes BEAMED straight for toon town but once he heard that it was an online game in which I can play with others it was a huge no for him. Being the kid I was of course I got sad but I ended up looking for another SINGLE player game which landed me with Neighbours back from hell. To this day I really don’t know why I chose it but maybe planet earth wanted me to discover what would become a classic title from my childhood. I loved the game as a kid and still love this game to this day.
What makes this game so good?
It's such a simple yet effective and fun gameplay loop. To explain , the premise has you playing as Woody, a simple and calm person who is constantly harassed by his neighbor. Upon being harassed so much Woody takes it upon himself to make his neighbor live in hell. Thus beginning the game which is a point and click puzzle game where you need to be sneaky. You will roam your neighbors house while trying to evade him to find items that will allow you to prank him. Each mission will have a certain amount of goals you can achieve around the area but will only need to complete a specific amount to complete the level. It can be a bit confusing in the later levels but for the most part the game isn’t extremely challenging you will simply need to click around and use your head on where to use items. It's a goofy , joyful and fun gameplay loop that honestly never gets boring and to top it off this version combines both Neighbours from hell 1 & 2 so you get all the content with the game. It's satisfying when it finally clicks in your head what to do and watch the prank unfold onto your Neighbor. It almost feels like you are watching a TV show as the game pretty much plays out like a TV show and it does it very well. So much joy and love went into this game you can tell they had fun making it. Some traps are reused but for the most part as you unlock more and more levels they will open up a lot more new traps to discover and do. There really isn’t much else to say because the game is basic in its core but it's just executed so well you can’t help but to smile as you play the game.
A few issues
I honestly don’t have many issues with the game past the few bugs I encountered but I still feel the need to talk about them. First off, I ran into a glitch where the male Neighbor would bug out causing his whole character to vanish turning him invisible. Luckily it didn’t happen often and didn’t ruin any levels but it was annoying a bit to see it happen. Lastly, there were a few moments where I clearly should have not been caught but for some odd reason was even though I was not in the radius of being caught. Luckily these are the only issues I personally ran into and don’t have many more issues with this game past this.
In the end
If you for some odd reason have never played this title and it sounds interesting from what I said I HIGHLY recommend it. It's a good time and will feel very nostalgic to play even if you have never played it. This title is worth its full price of $15 but if you would like to save money it does go on deep sales for around $5 which I would 100000% recommend it at that point. What are you waiting for give this classic a play!
I have a very specific relationship with this game growing up. My dad was very strict on what games I can play on PC and he took me to gamestop to buy a PC game. Upon entering my eyes BEAMED straight for toon town but once he heard that it was an online game in which I can play with others it was a huge no for him. Being the kid I was of course I got sad but I ended up looking for another SINGLE player game which landed me with Neighbours back from hell. To this day I really don’t know why I chose it but maybe planet earth wanted me to discover what would become a classic title from my childhood. I loved the game as a kid and still love this game to this day.
What makes this game so good?
It's such a simple yet effective and fun gameplay loop. To explain , the premise has you playing as Woody, a simple and calm person who is constantly harassed by his neighbor. Upon being harassed so much Woody takes it upon himself to make his neighbor live in hell. Thus beginning the game which is a point and click puzzle game where you need to be sneaky. You will roam your neighbors house while trying to evade him to find items that will allow you to prank him. Each mission will have a certain amount of goals you can achieve around the area but will only need to complete a specific amount to complete the level. It can be a bit confusing in the later levels but for the most part the game isn’t extremely challenging you will simply need to click around and use your head on where to use items. It's a goofy , joyful and fun gameplay loop that honestly never gets boring and to top it off this version combines both Neighbours from hell 1 & 2 so you get all the content with the game. It's satisfying when it finally clicks in your head what to do and watch the prank unfold onto your Neighbor. It almost feels like you are watching a TV show as the game pretty much plays out like a TV show and it does it very well. So much joy and love went into this game you can tell they had fun making it. Some traps are reused but for the most part as you unlock more and more levels they will open up a lot more new traps to discover and do. There really isn’t much else to say because the game is basic in its core but it's just executed so well you can’t help but to smile as you play the game.
A few issues
I honestly don’t have many issues with the game past the few bugs I encountered but I still feel the need to talk about them. First off, I ran into a glitch where the male Neighbor would bug out causing his whole character to vanish turning him invisible. Luckily it didn’t happen often and didn’t ruin any levels but it was annoying a bit to see it happen. Lastly, there were a few moments where I clearly should have not been caught but for some odd reason was even though I was not in the radius of being caught. Luckily these are the only issues I personally ran into and don’t have many more issues with this game past this.
In the end
If you for some odd reason have never played this title and it sounds interesting from what I said I HIGHLY recommend it. It's a good time and will feel very nostalgic to play even if you have never played it. This title is worth its full price of $15 but if you would like to save money it does go on deep sales for around $5 which I would 100000% recommend it at that point. What are you waiting for give this classic a play!
2018
A good story wrapped up in a boring bundle.
Crystar has been sitting on my pick back up pile for a long time now. I started this game a few years ago but just stopped playing it for no particular reason. With the release of Crymachina I thought it would be fun to go back and finally finish Crystar. By the end I found myself really enjoying the story but really just wanting to finish the game and get it over with due to its horrible midpoint gameplay choices that followed through until the end.
What did I enjoy about this game ?
To start off, the story was very nice and one that will keep you interested until the end. The story of Crystar is simple on a base level, having you play as Rei , a girl whose sister has died. In order to get your sister back you make a deal with the devil that sets you out on a journey in Purgatory / Limbo. Crystar does a good job building up its story to its eventual climax giving you multiple characters you will meet and care for throughout the runtime. Beyond that , the OST is great and has tracks you will want to listen to when you are not even playing. Furthermore , the artwork is simply amazing making you wish they had even more of it in game because I loved the character artworks , specific cutscene artwork.
Sadly this is where it gets tricky.
I want to touch upon the story real quick because while I think it was overall great I was not fond of the ending. There was so much aftermath we the players deserved to see but simply didn't. My biggest complaint which ultimately ruined the game however was its gameplay and runtime of the game. First off, the game doesn’t have a high quality feel to it which is FINE not every game needs to have a AAA feel to it. However, this doesn’t mean you can have boring and repetitive gameplay and think it will be passable. To simply put , the gameplay is BORING and downright BAD not ever feeling fluid or fun. Hits don’t feel impactful , certain skills are insanely OP making what you use severely limited as you will end up using what is OP. This sadly translates over to characters as 2 out of 4 characters overpower the other 2 by a crap ton. By the end I saw myself using literally 1 character as there was ZERO reason to use anyone else. Furthermore, the loot pool is boring as it all comes down to numbers and looks. The weapons will not have special effects or stats the higher the tier they will simply look different and have better numbers. You will not sit and think about what to equip, you will just equip what is best and move on. The game features an upgrade system which is utterly useless as upgrading weapons do not really boost the stats to a degree that makes it worth grinding for. All these small things will begin to add up quickly and maybe wouldn’t have taken as much of a toll on me if it wasn’t for the runtime of this game. By now you would think these would be my biggest issues right? Well you would be wrong weirdly enough. I always find enjoyment in games and do not mind middle of the road gameplay HOWEVER the story makes one of the worst decisions gameplay wise. The story hits a point in which you will have to replay the SAME EXACT MISSIONS OVER AND OVER. Doesn’t sound bad at first but when you take into account how long and boring levels are you will literally lose your mind by the end. I cannot fathom why they force replays of the same levels over and over when they simply could have saved so much time by skipping so much of that portion of the game. By this point I literally found myself confused as the game makes you go through so much just to get new story scenes that eventually lead into its ending. It truly makes for a dreadful experience and one that I was not sad to see finished lol.
Do not 100% this game
As a trophy hunter my #1 rule is to get my feelings and review out of the way when I finish a game. I NEVER allow trophy hunting to affect my overall feeling of a game but I felt the need to add this section for people who do like Plat hunting. DO NOT GO FOR THE PLAT ITS INSANELY GRINDY AND BORING , that is all.
In the end
I am really bummed out because if there was a great gameplay loop to back up the great story that is already present I believe we could have had a really good game on our hands. I am very intrigued to dive into Crymachina as I played the demo and personally really enjoyed it. The physical for Crystar is quite expensive now for a US copy so I 100% do not recommend hunting a copy down however if you catch it on a deep sale digitally then give it a go if you understand what you are getting into.
Crystar has been sitting on my pick back up pile for a long time now. I started this game a few years ago but just stopped playing it for no particular reason. With the release of Crymachina I thought it would be fun to go back and finally finish Crystar. By the end I found myself really enjoying the story but really just wanting to finish the game and get it over with due to its horrible midpoint gameplay choices that followed through until the end.
What did I enjoy about this game ?
To start off, the story was very nice and one that will keep you interested until the end. The story of Crystar is simple on a base level, having you play as Rei , a girl whose sister has died. In order to get your sister back you make a deal with the devil that sets you out on a journey in Purgatory / Limbo. Crystar does a good job building up its story to its eventual climax giving you multiple characters you will meet and care for throughout the runtime. Beyond that , the OST is great and has tracks you will want to listen to when you are not even playing. Furthermore , the artwork is simply amazing making you wish they had even more of it in game because I loved the character artworks , specific cutscene artwork.
Sadly this is where it gets tricky.
I want to touch upon the story real quick because while I think it was overall great I was not fond of the ending. There was so much aftermath we the players deserved to see but simply didn't. My biggest complaint which ultimately ruined the game however was its gameplay and runtime of the game. First off, the game doesn’t have a high quality feel to it which is FINE not every game needs to have a AAA feel to it. However, this doesn’t mean you can have boring and repetitive gameplay and think it will be passable. To simply put , the gameplay is BORING and downright BAD not ever feeling fluid or fun. Hits don’t feel impactful , certain skills are insanely OP making what you use severely limited as you will end up using what is OP. This sadly translates over to characters as 2 out of 4 characters overpower the other 2 by a crap ton. By the end I saw myself using literally 1 character as there was ZERO reason to use anyone else. Furthermore, the loot pool is boring as it all comes down to numbers and looks. The weapons will not have special effects or stats the higher the tier they will simply look different and have better numbers. You will not sit and think about what to equip, you will just equip what is best and move on. The game features an upgrade system which is utterly useless as upgrading weapons do not really boost the stats to a degree that makes it worth grinding for. All these small things will begin to add up quickly and maybe wouldn’t have taken as much of a toll on me if it wasn’t for the runtime of this game. By now you would think these would be my biggest issues right? Well you would be wrong weirdly enough. I always find enjoyment in games and do not mind middle of the road gameplay HOWEVER the story makes one of the worst decisions gameplay wise. The story hits a point in which you will have to replay the SAME EXACT MISSIONS OVER AND OVER. Doesn’t sound bad at first but when you take into account how long and boring levels are you will literally lose your mind by the end. I cannot fathom why they force replays of the same levels over and over when they simply could have saved so much time by skipping so much of that portion of the game. By this point I literally found myself confused as the game makes you go through so much just to get new story scenes that eventually lead into its ending. It truly makes for a dreadful experience and one that I was not sad to see finished lol.
Do not 100% this game
As a trophy hunter my #1 rule is to get my feelings and review out of the way when I finish a game. I NEVER allow trophy hunting to affect my overall feeling of a game but I felt the need to add this section for people who do like Plat hunting. DO NOT GO FOR THE PLAT ITS INSANELY GRINDY AND BORING , that is all.
In the end
I am really bummed out because if there was a great gameplay loop to back up the great story that is already present I believe we could have had a really good game on our hands. I am very intrigued to dive into Crymachina as I played the demo and personally really enjoyed it. The physical for Crystar is quite expensive now for a US copy so I 100% do not recommend hunting a copy down however if you catch it on a deep sale digitally then give it a go if you understand what you are getting into.
2023
A modern masterpiece
Just finished the game about 30 minutes ago and I am just left speechless by everything I had just experienced. Never in my many years of waiting for Alan Wake 2 did I ever think this would be the sequel we receive. Everything about Alan wake 2 is handled to perfection which is why I believe this game will go down in history as one of the best ever in its genre. Not only is it an achievement for its genre it is now my GOTY.
A mind boggling story
This game is a trip from start to finish , every second oozing with aesthetic and brilliant storytelling. I would like to go into details on what makes this journey so brilliant but this is very much best played without knowing anything. Moving on , the cast is great from Alan , Saga to Casey with even some surprise characters showing up. I will take this quick moment to really recommend fans to play through Control if you would like to understand even more of the lore. Beyond that , I also recommend a replay through of Alan wake 1 as it would really make things a lot more coherent with 2. I will just leave the story part at that because you simply need to experience this game with as little information as you can but just know its an amazing story that will surely be diagnosed for years to come.
I will not be getting into ANY of the story bits in this review as I never do for games that are best played blind. Just experience this jaw dropping, mind twisting and mind blowing journey for yourself and you will understand why this story was masterfully crafted.
A beautiful looking adventure
Furthermore, the graphics are beautiful, the game just looks amazing on the PS5 so I can only imagine how it must have looked maxed out with 4K on PC. Many times throughout my playthrough I just saw myself looking at the scenery during the daytime and it was always magical.
Scary
This game nails the atmosphere, really giving itself a perfect creepy vibe. One aspect I wasn’t too much of a fan of was the constant jumpscares you will experience in specific sections. It can be scary but most of the time it just serves as a way to annoy me. Besides the jumpscares I genuinely found the game unsettling and creepy which is very rare for a game to accomplish for me nowadays. There were many times I would be creeped out traversing certain sections since the game always made you wonder about what could be down that hallway. It's simple tactics like that that will really give you the creeps as you make your way through the game. The story itself is just as unsettling and creepy in which once again I won’t get into so I just really hope you play it.
This game is true horror.
Gameplay
One of the more interesting aspects of Alan Wake 2 is its gameplay. Why? It's simple because there are many segments of the game where you won’t be doing much combat. I honestly really like this as it aids in really panning out its story more. Furthermore, it makes the moments you do engage in combat even more impactful and fun but this can be argued so just be aware you won’t always be in combat. The combat itself is very akin to Alan wake 1’s combat which is a good thing because I found it very fun. The big changes in the combat is through movement which is a lot more akin to RE4Rs movement. Dodging is fine but it can be a bit wonky against certain enemies but for the most part it was passable. The enemy variety is pretty basic sadly but I really liked the designs on them but be aware there isn’t a big pool of enemy types there are only a few types you will be battling against. Playing on hard difficulty the game provided a fair enough challenge but honestly wasn’t too tough if you are good about managing the resources you get. One of the more welcome editions this game has is how open and exploration centric the game is. It will not hold your hand and give you markers on the map telling you where you need to go. You will simply just look at your objective then look at the map to see where the spot you need to go is and on the way find collectibles. Speaking of collectibles there are multiple to look for in this game from Puzzles, lunch boxes to supply stashes. It is highly recommended to be on the lookout as all 3 collectible types will give you very useful resources. If you plan on 100% the game I HIGHLY recommend making save points near the end of the game so you have a save file to go back to. This can come back and bite you in the ass because once you hit a certain point you will not be able to explore the sections freely forcing you to replay the whole game again if you want to collect everything. The gameplay feels second to the story and I was 100% fine with that because the story of Alan wake 2 is phenomenal but the gameplay we do get here is very fun and combat that I hope is explored more in its DLCs this game will be receiving.
Some Issues sadly
I hate to have to bring up some issues I have with this game because I do think it's a perfect game….. But it has some issues. Luckily the issues I have with this game do NOT have anything to do with the core game, it's only with its performance. Playing on the PS5 version I experienced many frame drops and bugs and glitches throughout the game's run time. Glitches ranging from characters model glitching out all the way to soft locking the game forcing a game restart its moments like these that will set you back a bit. Picking up items can sometimes freeze your whole screen for a few moments making you wonder if the game crashed or not lol. Hell I even got audio bugs that would quite frankly bug all sound effects only leaving environment sounds to be heard. It is frustrating because the glitches happen more than they should have and I can only hope they iron out these bugs and issues with patches.
in the end
Usually I would have knocked this down half a score for all the bugs but Alan Wake 2 is truly a masterpiece. This game is an achievement in every aspect that should be played by ALL horror fans. Easily my GOTY currently and I really don’t see that changing now for this year. I would gladly wait 13 years for sequels of games if this the quality we will get over getting the garbage we usually get now.
100% recommend at full price.
Just finished the game about 30 minutes ago and I am just left speechless by everything I had just experienced. Never in my many years of waiting for Alan Wake 2 did I ever think this would be the sequel we receive. Everything about Alan wake 2 is handled to perfection which is why I believe this game will go down in history as one of the best ever in its genre. Not only is it an achievement for its genre it is now my GOTY.
A mind boggling story
This game is a trip from start to finish , every second oozing with aesthetic and brilliant storytelling. I would like to go into details on what makes this journey so brilliant but this is very much best played without knowing anything. Moving on , the cast is great from Alan , Saga to Casey with even some surprise characters showing up. I will take this quick moment to really recommend fans to play through Control if you would like to understand even more of the lore. Beyond that , I also recommend a replay through of Alan wake 1 as it would really make things a lot more coherent with 2. I will just leave the story part at that because you simply need to experience this game with as little information as you can but just know its an amazing story that will surely be diagnosed for years to come.
I will not be getting into ANY of the story bits in this review as I never do for games that are best played blind. Just experience this jaw dropping, mind twisting and mind blowing journey for yourself and you will understand why this story was masterfully crafted.
A beautiful looking adventure
Furthermore, the graphics are beautiful, the game just looks amazing on the PS5 so I can only imagine how it must have looked maxed out with 4K on PC. Many times throughout my playthrough I just saw myself looking at the scenery during the daytime and it was always magical.
Scary
This game nails the atmosphere, really giving itself a perfect creepy vibe. One aspect I wasn’t too much of a fan of was the constant jumpscares you will experience in specific sections. It can be scary but most of the time it just serves as a way to annoy me. Besides the jumpscares I genuinely found the game unsettling and creepy which is very rare for a game to accomplish for me nowadays. There were many times I would be creeped out traversing certain sections since the game always made you wonder about what could be down that hallway. It's simple tactics like that that will really give you the creeps as you make your way through the game. The story itself is just as unsettling and creepy in which once again I won’t get into so I just really hope you play it.
This game is true horror.
Gameplay
One of the more interesting aspects of Alan Wake 2 is its gameplay. Why? It's simple because there are many segments of the game where you won’t be doing much combat. I honestly really like this as it aids in really panning out its story more. Furthermore, it makes the moments you do engage in combat even more impactful and fun but this can be argued so just be aware you won’t always be in combat. The combat itself is very akin to Alan wake 1’s combat which is a good thing because I found it very fun. The big changes in the combat is through movement which is a lot more akin to RE4Rs movement. Dodging is fine but it can be a bit wonky against certain enemies but for the most part it was passable. The enemy variety is pretty basic sadly but I really liked the designs on them but be aware there isn’t a big pool of enemy types there are only a few types you will be battling against. Playing on hard difficulty the game provided a fair enough challenge but honestly wasn’t too tough if you are good about managing the resources you get. One of the more welcome editions this game has is how open and exploration centric the game is. It will not hold your hand and give you markers on the map telling you where you need to go. You will simply just look at your objective then look at the map to see where the spot you need to go is and on the way find collectibles. Speaking of collectibles there are multiple to look for in this game from Puzzles, lunch boxes to supply stashes. It is highly recommended to be on the lookout as all 3 collectible types will give you very useful resources. If you plan on 100% the game I HIGHLY recommend making save points near the end of the game so you have a save file to go back to. This can come back and bite you in the ass because once you hit a certain point you will not be able to explore the sections freely forcing you to replay the whole game again if you want to collect everything. The gameplay feels second to the story and I was 100% fine with that because the story of Alan wake 2 is phenomenal but the gameplay we do get here is very fun and combat that I hope is explored more in its DLCs this game will be receiving.
Some Issues sadly
I hate to have to bring up some issues I have with this game because I do think it's a perfect game….. But it has some issues. Luckily the issues I have with this game do NOT have anything to do with the core game, it's only with its performance. Playing on the PS5 version I experienced many frame drops and bugs and glitches throughout the game's run time. Glitches ranging from characters model glitching out all the way to soft locking the game forcing a game restart its moments like these that will set you back a bit. Picking up items can sometimes freeze your whole screen for a few moments making you wonder if the game crashed or not lol. Hell I even got audio bugs that would quite frankly bug all sound effects only leaving environment sounds to be heard. It is frustrating because the glitches happen more than they should have and I can only hope they iron out these bugs and issues with patches.
in the end
Usually I would have knocked this down half a score for all the bugs but Alan Wake 2 is truly a masterpiece. This game is an achievement in every aspect that should be played by ALL horror fans. Easily my GOTY currently and I really don’t see that changing now for this year. I would gladly wait 13 years for sequels of games if this the quality we will get over getting the garbage we usually get now.
100% recommend at full price.
A great sequel!
After a very good first title I was very much looking forward to spiderman 2 so it makes me happy to see Insomniac games have yet to lose their touch.
We will keep this short
Honestly you probably are already playing this title and or have looked into it so I will keep this review short. Spiderman 2 just builds upon the first game and adds more to the formula. To explain , the biggest upgrade imo is web swinging around the map. It feels insanely fluent , fun and fast which makes moving around the huge area of New York very fun. In addition Miles now joins the main crew for the first time ( apart from his spinoff title ) and makes a great addition to the game. His combat is very fun and his story is also very nice. I enjoyed my time with him as a character. Speaking of combat , what is there to say? It's extremely fun mixing punches with your gadgets and web shots. The combat stays consistently engaging and fun throughout the whole game, never once leaving me bored. The bosses for the most part are fine but once you learn how to really combo you will mostly demolish most bosses in the game. Furthermore , the story was honestly very good. I really was entertained throughout it all and I am not the biggest Spiderman fan. I enjoyed the early films but I have never dived deep into the world but these games have seriously gotten me more interested in the many worlds of spiderman. Many great moments in the game I honestly think the story was leaps better in this game over the first title. In addition , the graphics look nice , the map still looks great and the overall vibe of the game is just very free and wonderful. I would like to commend the side quests because while the gameplay loop for them is FINE at best I did really enjoy the sidequest stories in this game.
Some issues
With that being said this game surprised me in the bug department because I ran into quite a few. To explain , there were moments where audio would just completely die out during a scene leaving me to miss whole dialogue sections as the only thing I would hear are sound effects. Graphical glitches happened more than I would have liked with character models completely glitching out. To elaborate, there was a scene where Miles jumps into the frame but he literally had no body , only his floating head. Another cutscene a character's neck was completely stretched out. And to top it all off the game literally spawned me in as a white cube which you have probably seen clips of by this time. It's a bummer because I don’t remember this many issues with the first title and while it didn’t ruin the overall experience It for sure hindered it a bit. Moving on , while improved on a bit I am still not a fan of the MJ sequences AT ALL they are boring and easily exploited making for some very boring “stealth”. However , I do think they play out better cutscene and story wise over the first title but I still do not enjoy these parts. Speaking of stealth even on the spiderman side of things the stealth just isn’t that great and once again very exploitable making it very easy at times to just wipe out a whole section of enemies. Finding my way through the map to 100% it I did enjoy it mostly but I am still not impressed with the gameplay loop the Sidequest have to offer. While the stories for them are solid - Great I think it becomes repetitive at points really never changing up the core gameplay rotation enough.
In the end
This is a great sequel that should have spent a little more time in the oven to iron out some issues but overall they knocked it out of the park again. Insomniac has really mastered these types of games but I really hope that wolverine will serve as a gateway for them to truly evolve spiderman even further. I genuinely believe Insomniac can create a Spiderman 3 that can blow the game to a new level of greatness if they truly innovate even more and get even more risky with the third title. If you enjoyed the first game it's a no brainer that I highly recommend this title. If you didn’t enjoy the first game I would either skip this one as it probably won’t change your mind or wait for a nice sale to give it a shot.
After a very good first title I was very much looking forward to spiderman 2 so it makes me happy to see Insomniac games have yet to lose their touch.
We will keep this short
Honestly you probably are already playing this title and or have looked into it so I will keep this review short. Spiderman 2 just builds upon the first game and adds more to the formula. To explain , the biggest upgrade imo is web swinging around the map. It feels insanely fluent , fun and fast which makes moving around the huge area of New York very fun. In addition Miles now joins the main crew for the first time ( apart from his spinoff title ) and makes a great addition to the game. His combat is very fun and his story is also very nice. I enjoyed my time with him as a character. Speaking of combat , what is there to say? It's extremely fun mixing punches with your gadgets and web shots. The combat stays consistently engaging and fun throughout the whole game, never once leaving me bored. The bosses for the most part are fine but once you learn how to really combo you will mostly demolish most bosses in the game. Furthermore , the story was honestly very good. I really was entertained throughout it all and I am not the biggest Spiderman fan. I enjoyed the early films but I have never dived deep into the world but these games have seriously gotten me more interested in the many worlds of spiderman. Many great moments in the game I honestly think the story was leaps better in this game over the first title. In addition , the graphics look nice , the map still looks great and the overall vibe of the game is just very free and wonderful. I would like to commend the side quests because while the gameplay loop for them is FINE at best I did really enjoy the sidequest stories in this game.
Some issues
With that being said this game surprised me in the bug department because I ran into quite a few. To explain , there were moments where audio would just completely die out during a scene leaving me to miss whole dialogue sections as the only thing I would hear are sound effects. Graphical glitches happened more than I would have liked with character models completely glitching out. To elaborate, there was a scene where Miles jumps into the frame but he literally had no body , only his floating head. Another cutscene a character's neck was completely stretched out. And to top it all off the game literally spawned me in as a white cube which you have probably seen clips of by this time. It's a bummer because I don’t remember this many issues with the first title and while it didn’t ruin the overall experience It for sure hindered it a bit. Moving on , while improved on a bit I am still not a fan of the MJ sequences AT ALL they are boring and easily exploited making for some very boring “stealth”. However , I do think they play out better cutscene and story wise over the first title but I still do not enjoy these parts. Speaking of stealth even on the spiderman side of things the stealth just isn’t that great and once again very exploitable making it very easy at times to just wipe out a whole section of enemies. Finding my way through the map to 100% it I did enjoy it mostly but I am still not impressed with the gameplay loop the Sidequest have to offer. While the stories for them are solid - Great I think it becomes repetitive at points really never changing up the core gameplay rotation enough.
In the end
This is a great sequel that should have spent a little more time in the oven to iron out some issues but overall they knocked it out of the park again. Insomniac has really mastered these types of games but I really hope that wolverine will serve as a gateway for them to truly evolve spiderman even further. I genuinely believe Insomniac can create a Spiderman 3 that can blow the game to a new level of greatness if they truly innovate even more and get even more risky with the third title. If you enjoyed the first game it's a no brainer that I highly recommend this title. If you didn’t enjoy the first game I would either skip this one as it probably won’t change your mind or wait for a nice sale to give it a shot.