LivingGhost1
62 reviews liked by LivingGhost1
3 stars for pure nostalgia, but also despite the game’s overall jankiness, it has some neat mechanics for its time. Qui-Gon’s level just straight up changes the game’s genre from an action/adventure to an RPG, and that was a really cool experience as a kid.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
2013
Very overhated. Its nothing amazing but the amount of hate it gets is unwarranted. Campaign is solid and multiplayer isn't terrible
This review contains spoilers
Underwhelming sequel but fun gameplay
The force unleashed 2 is a direct sequel to the first where you played as Star Killer who was a secret apprentice to Darth Vader. It was a simple idea that was hit with huge success for its level design, character design, story and replay ability. So, the idea of that game getting a sequel makes a lot of sense on paper but man I'm not going to lie to you that it massively disappointed me when I finally got around to playing it.
Force unleashed 2, just like the first game is a 3rd person hack and slash Star Wars game where you play as a secret apprentice to Darth Vader between episodes 3 and 4. This game picks up with a clone of star killer from the first game and running off to find out more on who he is and what happened to his friends and love interest. You travel to multiple planets and reconnect with old allies. You can collect different light saber crystals and outfits while exploring different planets, ships and locations from the Star Wars universe. You also have a much-improved combat system using 2 lightsabers this time and man is the combat fun as hell in this game. You can use the force to pick up objects and move them around to platform off them or use them as weapons to throw at enemies. The different lightsaber animations and combat is crazy satisfying to pull off and I had nothing but a blast with the gameplay this time around. I guess you could say the core gameplay isn't crazy different, like it's still a linear hack and slash style game but the force abilities you use this time around are crazy and overpowered as hell.
Graphics, voice acting & music: Graphically this game looked great for its time and each planet you go to was fairly interesting and was either an original planet or something from the movies. The voice acting here is probably just as good as the first game with Sam Witwer killing it again as star killer. The music wasn’t anything crazy memorable other than the regular Star Wars music you've heard before. This game does have an original soundtrack too, but it wasn't anything that stuck with me.
Story/ SPOILERS: oh man... so based off everything so far it seems like this is a great game, right? And well yeah so far, I love it... until we get farther into the story. In order to talk about it I have to spoil some stuff and I won't talk about the entire plot but the basic idea of it and the endings so stop here if you do not wish to be spoiled. So, this game picks up some months after the good ending to the first game. Darth Vader is making a bunch of Clones of Star Killer trying to make the ultimate appearance that's extremely obedient, so he keeps cloning star killer and the one we play as in this game remembers who he was and escapes the facility. There was also a somewhat minor romance between him and his pilot Juno from the last game and that's now his driving force and basically the only thing he cares about in this game, okay sure. Love is a powerful motivator in storytelling and I'm okay with this, but I guess to me there's something about it that feels a bit out of nowhere in this story. Like in the first game he slowly develops feelings for Juno and he gives her a Lil kiss at the end of that game but aside from that I feel like he didn't spend enough time with her romantically for him to be like straight up obsessed with her In this game and this isn't even the real star killer but again not a huge deal, I just wish there was a bit more to his motivation here. There's a lot I could say about the plot of this game and cloning force users and how it may or may not fit into the bigger Star Wars universe, but I don't dislike it and of course this game takes place more or less in its own timeline so who cares if it breaks lore right? Same can be said with how overpowered he is at this point, I'm just along for the ride. I guess the biggest complaint with this story is how short it is. Force unleashed 1 was roughly 8-9 hours long but this game is like 4-5 hours long. That's crazy short for no reason and the ending or endings feel a little anti-climactic and also both endings feel like they don't make sense in and of themselves for multiple reasons. Basically, you start on kamino, escape, go to a bunch of planets and find yourself back at kamino just for the game to end and yeah that's it. I guess I don't have an answer for what I was expecting the ending to be but fighting faulty Clones felt a bit goofy and having a rematch with Vader isn't a bad thing, but it was a bit underwhelming to me like an “aw sh*t here we go again” kinda feeling. It feels like we are right back where we started at the end of the first game where he either chooses his friends or to kill Darth Vader and honestly Star Killer doesn’t feel like he’s really grown all that much as a character either, like what does this journey really accomplish for him by the end? The 2 endings you get also make no sense. If you pick the good ending Juno doesn't die from her fall and you capture Darth Vader (which to me feels silly as hell, like any restraint would hold this dude? Like okay sure.) Also, I don't understand the bad ending. In the first game you either took Darth Vader’s place or sacrificed yourself to save your friends but in this game you either capture Vader and Juno somehow survives, or you try to kill Vader but instead are killed by a random evil clone and everyone basically dies by being pushed off the edge of the platform and it all just feels rushed and all forced. Like how does the evil ending contrast with the good one? Does the evil clone just not exist in the good ending timeline and why? What about killing Vader causes an entirely new character to suddenly exist? I feel like this wasn’t really thought through in the writing room. This all goes without saying, clearly this story is far from the regular Star Wars timeline at this point. I mean the first game you could probably make some stupid argument that the game could have still existed in the timeline before a new hope but where this one ends… yeah, there's no way in hell it could but I mean ultimately that's okay and this story honestly works better in its own universe either way. It's an overall fun story I just wish more time went into it. Evil clones can absolutely work it just feels random with how they did it in this game. Everything except the gameplay has this superficial feeling like it was rushed and pushed out the door for money and as for the dlc? Well, just like the first game, it goes off the bad ending and continues that idea that an evil star killer can kill basically all the mainline hero’s and it is fun for sure and both the dlc and main story endings all leave off on these wacky cliffhangers for the sequel that we unfortunately never got and probably never will. I think that's the thing that hurts the most about this game is that we got a short middle game that left off on an unsatisfactory mark not having a satisfying conclusion. A conclusion they probably planned to finish in a 3rd game that probably will sadly never happen.
6.5/10
The force unleashed 2 is a direct sequel to the first where you played as Star Killer who was a secret apprentice to Darth Vader. It was a simple idea that was hit with huge success for its level design, character design, story and replay ability. So, the idea of that game getting a sequel makes a lot of sense on paper but man I'm not going to lie to you that it massively disappointed me when I finally got around to playing it.
Force unleashed 2, just like the first game is a 3rd person hack and slash Star Wars game where you play as a secret apprentice to Darth Vader between episodes 3 and 4. This game picks up with a clone of star killer from the first game and running off to find out more on who he is and what happened to his friends and love interest. You travel to multiple planets and reconnect with old allies. You can collect different light saber crystals and outfits while exploring different planets, ships and locations from the Star Wars universe. You also have a much-improved combat system using 2 lightsabers this time and man is the combat fun as hell in this game. You can use the force to pick up objects and move them around to platform off them or use them as weapons to throw at enemies. The different lightsaber animations and combat is crazy satisfying to pull off and I had nothing but a blast with the gameplay this time around. I guess you could say the core gameplay isn't crazy different, like it's still a linear hack and slash style game but the force abilities you use this time around are crazy and overpowered as hell.
Graphics, voice acting & music: Graphically this game looked great for its time and each planet you go to was fairly interesting and was either an original planet or something from the movies. The voice acting here is probably just as good as the first game with Sam Witwer killing it again as star killer. The music wasn’t anything crazy memorable other than the regular Star Wars music you've heard before. This game does have an original soundtrack too, but it wasn't anything that stuck with me.
Story/ SPOILERS: oh man... so based off everything so far it seems like this is a great game, right? And well yeah so far, I love it... until we get farther into the story. In order to talk about it I have to spoil some stuff and I won't talk about the entire plot but the basic idea of it and the endings so stop here if you do not wish to be spoiled. So, this game picks up some months after the good ending to the first game. Darth Vader is making a bunch of Clones of Star Killer trying to make the ultimate appearance that's extremely obedient, so he keeps cloning star killer and the one we play as in this game remembers who he was and escapes the facility. There was also a somewhat minor romance between him and his pilot Juno from the last game and that's now his driving force and basically the only thing he cares about in this game, okay sure. Love is a powerful motivator in storytelling and I'm okay with this, but I guess to me there's something about it that feels a bit out of nowhere in this story. Like in the first game he slowly develops feelings for Juno and he gives her a Lil kiss at the end of that game but aside from that I feel like he didn't spend enough time with her romantically for him to be like straight up obsessed with her In this game and this isn't even the real star killer but again not a huge deal, I just wish there was a bit more to his motivation here. There's a lot I could say about the plot of this game and cloning force users and how it may or may not fit into the bigger Star Wars universe, but I don't dislike it and of course this game takes place more or less in its own timeline so who cares if it breaks lore right? Same can be said with how overpowered he is at this point, I'm just along for the ride. I guess the biggest complaint with this story is how short it is. Force unleashed 1 was roughly 8-9 hours long but this game is like 4-5 hours long. That's crazy short for no reason and the ending or endings feel a little anti-climactic and also both endings feel like they don't make sense in and of themselves for multiple reasons. Basically, you start on kamino, escape, go to a bunch of planets and find yourself back at kamino just for the game to end and yeah that's it. I guess I don't have an answer for what I was expecting the ending to be but fighting faulty Clones felt a bit goofy and having a rematch with Vader isn't a bad thing, but it was a bit underwhelming to me like an “aw sh*t here we go again” kinda feeling. It feels like we are right back where we started at the end of the first game where he either chooses his friends or to kill Darth Vader and honestly Star Killer doesn’t feel like he’s really grown all that much as a character either, like what does this journey really accomplish for him by the end? The 2 endings you get also make no sense. If you pick the good ending Juno doesn't die from her fall and you capture Darth Vader (which to me feels silly as hell, like any restraint would hold this dude? Like okay sure.) Also, I don't understand the bad ending. In the first game you either took Darth Vader’s place or sacrificed yourself to save your friends but in this game you either capture Vader and Juno somehow survives, or you try to kill Vader but instead are killed by a random evil clone and everyone basically dies by being pushed off the edge of the platform and it all just feels rushed and all forced. Like how does the evil ending contrast with the good one? Does the evil clone just not exist in the good ending timeline and why? What about killing Vader causes an entirely new character to suddenly exist? I feel like this wasn’t really thought through in the writing room. This all goes without saying, clearly this story is far from the regular Star Wars timeline at this point. I mean the first game you could probably make some stupid argument that the game could have still existed in the timeline before a new hope but where this one ends… yeah, there's no way in hell it could but I mean ultimately that's okay and this story honestly works better in its own universe either way. It's an overall fun story I just wish more time went into it. Evil clones can absolutely work it just feels random with how they did it in this game. Everything except the gameplay has this superficial feeling like it was rushed and pushed out the door for money and as for the dlc? Well, just like the first game, it goes off the bad ending and continues that idea that an evil star killer can kill basically all the mainline hero’s and it is fun for sure and both the dlc and main story endings all leave off on these wacky cliffhangers for the sequel that we unfortunately never got and probably never will. I think that's the thing that hurts the most about this game is that we got a short middle game that left off on an unsatisfactory mark not having a satisfying conclusion. A conclusion they probably planned to finish in a 3rd game that probably will sadly never happen.
6.5/10
This game feels like filler. Short and underwhelming compared to the first game which felt so much more triumphant. The gameplay is really clunky and feels more repetitive. Level design also feels uninspired and bland and the ending of the games also feel pretty lukewarm? Also many of the boss fights long overstay their welcome.
The only good points I can attribute to this game is that the mystery of SK being a clone or not was pretty interesting (although it doesn't really go anywhere) and the voice acting was really well done.
The only good points I can attribute to this game is that the mystery of SK being a clone or not was pretty interesting (although it doesn't really go anywhere) and the voice acting was really well done.
My personal favorite COD. The campaign is the best in the series and maybe even the franchise. Multiplayer was enjoyable aswell. Still waiting for a remaster
This review contains spoilers
The campaign is really good but controversially I actually think its the worst one of the original 3 modern warfare. Of course it has iconic missions like the burger town one and of course no russian. The characters are great to and shepards betrayal will never not hurt. Good gun variety and each mission is entertaining.
Great remaster, The original looks very dated now. Nice addition of the multiplayer. This boosted the sales of infinite warfare by a large amount
Replayed the fantastic campaign and it still stands as one of the series' best. The whole host of new iconic characters feel different as apposed to their modern warfare counterparts. Some amazing mission set pieces and of course the fantastic twist at the end which goes down as one of the best of all time however upon replay it is very obvious and I think that if I played this for the first time today I would guess it from a mile off. Never touched the multiplayer or zombies was only really in for the campaign. Personal top 3 campaign
One of the best online games at its peak. After nearly 10 years you can tell that its fallen off a fair bit. Public sessions are a no go if you want to try and make money. Grinding the same heists gets a bit boring after a while and eventually once you have bought everything you want money becomes useless. However you cant deny that we all have great memories on this game.
Starfield
2023
I think the best way to sum up Bethesda's effort with Starfield (other than just calling it “Fallout 4 in space”, which it is, but that's far from original at this point and I need to ramble) is to just look at the Red Mile quest.
In a space bar that's too dim yet hurts your eyes no matter where you look, a woman named Mei promises you certain death in “The Red Mile”; some challenge you won't remotely begin to fear because even at a measly level 12, you're slaughtering anything stupid enough to fight you. You follow her to the hype platform (which looks like the galaxy's cheapest VIP section), each step taking you closer to the annoying, looping music's source. It gets louder and louder and when Mei finally speaks into the microphone, she's almost fully drowned out by the shitty tune.
The gathering to see you off on this edge of your seat adventure is... four NPCs. When Mei is done riling up this “crowd” - who could fit in a Mini Cooper - three of them clap soundlessly. You can't even bet on yourself because that's just obviously free money. One patron goes to longingly gaze out the window, but it only reflects the room's interior. The reflection is missing almost all of the assets that should be there, including you and the would-be gazer himself. He doesn't seem to care.
The Red Mile itself is infested with the worst bulletsponge enemies you've seen yet and they'll concuss you with insta-explosion, toxic shit-bombs. They'll give a tease of experience per ammo-wasting kill. And you can get stunned really easily now! That was a smart choice for combat flow.
When I completed the “impossible” task of flipping a switch then running away from this horrid mess, Mei met with me in the world of blistering snow and no atmosphere to congratulate me while she wore no spacesuit. None of this surprises me, but people thinking highly of this absolutely blows my mind. The “I built a computer/bought a Series X for Starfield!” crowd almost disgusts me. Maybe Todd Howard is right, though, and all of this is my fault for not having a 4090 because I'm a dirt-coated peasant.
Bethesda knows how to make a video game, and you know this because they've made that same video game like four times now, and yet people still seem to clamor for more of the stale, sloppy mess. If this was your first ever Bethesda game, I could see someone enjoying this played out, buggy ride. I have friends who fall into this category, they'll get many hours out of Starfield. If you're familiar with Bethesda's work, though, you may say Starfield feels like one step forward and several steps back.
Is Starfield a bad game? Kind of, but I've played much worse. I wish I hadn't ever played Fallout 4 and had played this instead, but I can't go back and undo the hours which lead to the feeling of repetition. It is, beyond a doubt, comically sterile. “Space” doesn't really feel like space when it's just broken up into rooms, same as the Capital Wasteland or Skyrim. Whiterun was just a room and so is Mars, it's just a slightly nicer looking one. The trade for this visual upgrade is traveling anywhere is a bigger pain than ever before. “Space” is just a series of loading screens and animations you'll get sick of seeing immediately (thank god for mods).
The fact that you can see out of your ship's window is impressive to me, considering what they're working with. Just like I was “impressed” by Fallout 4 having real-time elevators (no longer in Starfield, and actually a good call as this saves you time). Modders, of course, swooped in immediately to fix stuff Bethesda should have already dealt with. How low is the bar for the multi-billion dollar company? The Ryujin "stealth" missions feel a college student's experiment, not "one of the most important RPGs ever made." (Xbox made this claim, not me.)
The best thing about Starfield is the return of the Adoring Fan. I cannot believe I just said that, but he rules and I'll stand by that forever. He has gifted me a plushie and a coffee mug and they're perfect. His voice actor still has it 100% down, each line brings me back to the fever-dream theater of Oblivion. If I can't have any innovation, I may as well at least get nostalgia. “My respect for you grows by the kilogram!” – This game's saving grace.
I do not recommend Starfield.
In a space bar that's too dim yet hurts your eyes no matter where you look, a woman named Mei promises you certain death in “The Red Mile”; some challenge you won't remotely begin to fear because even at a measly level 12, you're slaughtering anything stupid enough to fight you. You follow her to the hype platform (which looks like the galaxy's cheapest VIP section), each step taking you closer to the annoying, looping music's source. It gets louder and louder and when Mei finally speaks into the microphone, she's almost fully drowned out by the shitty tune.
The gathering to see you off on this edge of your seat adventure is... four NPCs. When Mei is done riling up this “crowd” - who could fit in a Mini Cooper - three of them clap soundlessly. You can't even bet on yourself because that's just obviously free money. One patron goes to longingly gaze out the window, but it only reflects the room's interior. The reflection is missing almost all of the assets that should be there, including you and the would-be gazer himself. He doesn't seem to care.
The Red Mile itself is infested with the worst bulletsponge enemies you've seen yet and they'll concuss you with insta-explosion, toxic shit-bombs. They'll give a tease of experience per ammo-wasting kill. And you can get stunned really easily now! That was a smart choice for combat flow.
When I completed the “impossible” task of flipping a switch then running away from this horrid mess, Mei met with me in the world of blistering snow and no atmosphere to congratulate me while she wore no spacesuit. None of this surprises me, but people thinking highly of this absolutely blows my mind. The “I built a computer/bought a Series X for Starfield!” crowd almost disgusts me. Maybe Todd Howard is right, though, and all of this is my fault for not having a 4090 because I'm a dirt-coated peasant.
Bethesda knows how to make a video game, and you know this because they've made that same video game like four times now, and yet people still seem to clamor for more of the stale, sloppy mess. If this was your first ever Bethesda game, I could see someone enjoying this played out, buggy ride. I have friends who fall into this category, they'll get many hours out of Starfield. If you're familiar with Bethesda's work, though, you may say Starfield feels like one step forward and several steps back.
Is Starfield a bad game? Kind of, but I've played much worse. I wish I hadn't ever played Fallout 4 and had played this instead, but I can't go back and undo the hours which lead to the feeling of repetition. It is, beyond a doubt, comically sterile. “Space” doesn't really feel like space when it's just broken up into rooms, same as the Capital Wasteland or Skyrim. Whiterun was just a room and so is Mars, it's just a slightly nicer looking one. The trade for this visual upgrade is traveling anywhere is a bigger pain than ever before. “Space” is just a series of loading screens and animations you'll get sick of seeing immediately (thank god for mods).
The fact that you can see out of your ship's window is impressive to me, considering what they're working with. Just like I was “impressed” by Fallout 4 having real-time elevators (no longer in Starfield, and actually a good call as this saves you time). Modders, of course, swooped in immediately to fix stuff Bethesda should have already dealt with. How low is the bar for the multi-billion dollar company? The Ryujin "stealth" missions feel a college student's experiment, not "one of the most important RPGs ever made." (Xbox made this claim, not me.)
The best thing about Starfield is the return of the Adoring Fan. I cannot believe I just said that, but he rules and I'll stand by that forever. He has gifted me a plushie and a coffee mug and they're perfect. His voice actor still has it 100% down, each line brings me back to the fever-dream theater of Oblivion. If I can't have any innovation, I may as well at least get nostalgia. “My respect for you grows by the kilogram!” – This game's saving grace.
I do not recommend Starfield.