I bought this because I had an itch for a good Mario game and just wanted to relax and have pure, nostalgic fun. That’s exactly what I got! This (and all Mario games) was such a cozy game and just really comforted me in a really trash time in my life. Bowser’s Fury was a great bonus too that takes every mechanic you’ve learned in the main game and throws them all together into one giant playground (because of this I highly recommend you play it after the main game). This is one of my favorite Mario games, definitely well worth the money.

I had to put this game down since Google Stadia doesn’t work on my college wifi lmao, but from the 30 hours I played I’d say this is a pretty solid game. It's nothing crazy original or special, but it has an enjoyable enough story and a fun world to explore. It doesn't seem as overly long as I expected it to be based on how the game was progressing, but I haven't beat it yet so I could be wrong.

One big thing that could turn some people off is that it doesn’t really feel like an Assassin’s Creed game, to me at least. The game very much leans toward full on beating people the fuck up with an axe type of action. There is stealth, but I found myself in action battle sequences more often than stealth. This doesn’t really bother me though since I enjoyed the combat, and I’m not an AC purist since I’ve only played like 4 of the games. Overall I enjoyed myself and I’d recommend it on sale for like $40.

UPDATE: Not really sure what prompted me exactly, but I picked this game back up around two months ago (after putting it down in January) and finally beat it recently. I think after sitting on it for a while, I was able to view the game for what it was and not what I expected it to be, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more! They did also fix pretty much all the bugs I’d encountered on release, and it was a much smoother and cleaner experience. I still agree with pretty much everything I said in my first journal entry (below), but with progressing further into the game I learned to deal with the combat and really enjoy the story. The main missions still didn’t really thrill me, but the side missions were great. I loved the cast of side characters, especially Judy and Panam (my Boo). This game is still fundamentally flawed in ways, but there’s something really charming about the story and world that pull me in. I ended up really enjoying my time with this game and I’m glad I finished it. I’ll be playing any DLC that comes out for this as well.

Old Review:
I think Cyberpunk 2077 could have been a fantastic open world RPG with one of the most interesting worlds and stories of any game in the genre. Sadly, they underdeliver on most aspects of the game, and deliver something that feels lost in its own expectations.

Even comparing it to other open world RPG’s, it’s not very good. The map is super bloated, with so many icons of things to do it’s overwhelming. There’s not much customization, with the only thing you’re able to change being clothes which are tied to armor points, taking away the only incentive of customization in the game. As of my 20 or so hours so far, the first big mission where you break into Arasaka tower was pretty cool, and every other mission has been fine. They’re pretty generic and nothing special nor bad. There’s some cool side quests like the ones where you reclaim rogue taxi’s, but even those get repetitive and boring after a couple of them.

The FPS mechanics feel clunky and not at all responsive or satisfying to play. Combat always felt like a chore in this game, even after I turned off the default settings of gradual camera turning (which was dumb to have implemented in the first place). They’ve been talking about adding a multiplayer and that honestly sounds horrible. Having competitive modes based on this combat system sounds like the opposite of fun.

The other day I walked around the heart of downtown in this game for 5 or so minutes actively looking for anything to do. I didn’t find a single thing. There wasn’t one bar, club, shop, or anything of the sort that I could actually walk into and interact with. There were a couple of shootouts in the street which seems to be one of the only dynamic events in the game. I saw a really cool neon rainbow tunnel and thought “oh wow that’s cool I want to go check that out”. Turns out it was a train station that you can’t even enter, it was just a fast travel point, and this entire structure was just for looks. This all leads into my biggest problem with the game.

The world, for how detailed, dense, and vertical it is, feels remarkably empty and without soul. I rarely felt the feeling of “oh wow that looks so cool I want to go over there and check that out” that I should feel in an open world game, since I knew it was just for looks and I probably wouldn’t be able to do so. The immersion was also broken so often by stupid AI or bugs. There’s so many beautiful, tall buildings in this game, yet there’s no way to actually utilize them. You see flying cars all the time in the sky, yet you can’t drive any of them. How cool would it be to be able to drive around on the street and have the world that’s going on down there, and also drive around in the sky and see the world from a totally different perspective up there? Like if there were a bar near the top of a tower, and there was a hangar in the side of the building to park in and go inside?That’d be so cool! They tease you with how cool flying cars are by showing you them in the main missions (even in one of the first missions in the game) but never give you access. Huge missed opportunity there.

The story as well is fine, but doesn’t seem to really do anything super special. It doesn’t take full advantage of the cyberpunk genre and all the complex themes there are to explore there.

This game makes me sad, because I see so much potential in it. It could’ve been a 4 or maybe even a 5 star game for me, but there are so many areas throughout the game where they under-deliver what clearly could have been significantly more fleshed out mechanics and concepts. I hope that maybe a Cyberpunk 2 (if they ever decide to return to this IP) can expand on the good ideas that are already here, and make a game that lives up to the hype that this one had. I’m shelving this after 20 or so hours because I’m bored and disappointed, but I plan to return in a month or so and beat it. Maybe with the upcoming updates and finishing the full game my review could go up to 3 stars.

This is a great game and an improvement over the first in nearly every way. The levels are far more open, varied, and interesting, and it feels much smoother to play (at least on PS4). I have the same problem with this as the first game though. The core gameplay loop doesn't quite hook me all the way. I'll typically play a level thoroughly once, mess around on a second run-through, and then be done. I don't feel much desire to do the plethora of challenges and other things. I may pick this back up and beat it before playing Hitman 3, but I'm gonna shelve it for now.

I enjoyed this game a lot. I liked the 2018 Spider-Man as well, but I thought it was a little too long and got too repetitive towards the end. Miles Morales is the same core game but better in every way. The stealth is improved by the addition of invisibility. The city is much prettier and has a generally more warm and cozy atmosphere since it takes place around the holidays. The combat is very much improved by the addition of the electric venom powers. And the story I found more compelling and better paced, culminating in a game that’s short but sweet. Overall I think it’s absolutely worth getting and one of my favorite games of 2020.

[STORY SPOILERS AHEAD]




My one gripe with it though is the portrayal of the Underground faction in the game. Miles Morales essentially has two villain factions: Roxxon and the Underground. The issue is, I never really viewed the Underground as villains, even in the end of the game. Miles acts like a fucking idiot for a decent amount of the story, never listening to any reason or trying to compromise with the Underground’s plans, which were an extreme approach to taking down a large corporation, but one that fits in this game’s world. It got to the point where I would sometimes actively not do some of the random events that popped up to stop the Underground since I didn’t support them (like when Ganke tells you to shut down a billboard they hacked with their logo, which I view as harmless and a good way to spread awareness of who they are).

Also, whenever Phin (easily my favorite character in the game) beat up Miles, I would usually cheer her on like “yeah he deserves it for what he did to you”. I also view her death as ultimately his fault since if he hadn’t lied and gone behind her back, she would’ve trusted him more, and listened to him when he tried to tell her the consequences of blowing up Roxxon Plaza.

All this aside though, I was still able to enjoy the story and found it more endearing than the first game. This one gripe just kind of annoyed me in the back of my head during most missions in the game, but it didn’t ruin my experience.

Updated Review: I picked this game back up and for some reason this time around the gameplay clicked for me. I didn't get annoyed after dying and was excited to run through it again. It does a good job of spicing up each run. I especially appreciate the little dialogue changes that reflect your continual attempts against the same enemies. This game has a solid heart. The gameplay is super satisfying, and completing a part you've previously been stuck on in a run feels amazing.

Old Review:
This is definitely a solid game, but at this point I’m very confident rogue-like is just not my genre. This is absolutely the best entry in the genre that I’ve played, and it held my interest for a while with its satisfying combat. Something about this game and other rogue-likes though just didn't compel me to return.