Speaking as someone trying to get into fighting games, here's a tip: Don't play the old ones unless you've got a friend. Actually, maybe just don't play the old ones at all.

I've been withholding doing reviews on all the versions of Street Fighter 2 I've played, alongside these two initial Mortal Kombats, because I thought I didn't have a full picture of what did I actually appreciate about this genre. And it seems like that's gonna remain a problem for a while, but something about this. Something about this game in particular has in the very least unlocked my full thoughts on what I don't appreciate about the genre. And if it sounds like I'm trying my hardest to hide my unbridled frustration, that's because I am. It's only been about half an hour since I gave up on trying to beat Mortal Kombat 2's campaign, after all.

Being a quarter muncher is one thing. Certain arcade games will just let you start right from the point where you died, so you could theoretically brute force your way through if you had enough quarters. 1993 fighting games, though... these things just didn't want you to play at all, did they? I have never so violently heard a game tell me to fuck off the cabinet and let the other suckers in the line waste their money, despite the fact that I'm playing this in the comfort of my own home with an infinite amount of virtual quarters.

If you're in a 1993 arcade playing a fighting game by yourself, it is - for the willful lack of a better term - a scam. An insult. Skill is discouraged, cheap tactics are incentivized, and the AI utilizes pitch-perfect reflexes to read every move you've got, the millisecond you input it. So don't worry, it's not just you. Playing against the AI is a matter of luck. I hate having to say this, because it makes me sound like a toddler, but I can't put it any other way, the game cheats. The first MK wasn't much better, but by comparison, I'd prefer beating that dogshit campaign again over this utter horseshit.

And even then, let's say you're playing with a friend. Technically it's a better experience, but still full of holes. You DID take an extensive look through an internet guide and memorize all the inputs associated with the character you're currently playing as, right? No? Well in that case, all you've got is a punch, a kick, and a block, and the rest you're gonna have to figure out via button-mashing. Which I'm sure is gonna be super fun for your friend, knowing that your two options are either to fight them like a jackass, or by using the most barebone moves available. Not to mention that the fatalities, the major selling point of Mortal Kombat, you're extremely unlikely to see here unless you already know how to do them. God, what I wouldn't give to be in an era of fighting games, where training modes became a norm. Like, how were you actually expected to get good at these games when you had to learn everything on the spot, against a timer, with your quarters on the line against either an AI that teaches all the wrong lessons, or a single multiplayer match?

Mortal Kombat 2 was designed as a guide game in fighting form. If you've peered through magazines, learned things by word-of-mouth, there was most likely some appeal in being able to show off what you've learned to unsuspecting challengers, shocking them with things they had no clue existed. But that requires intense commitment, and honestly, it's all for a game that isn't even worth practicing the moves in. It is unintuitive by design, more style than substance, and constantly makes me feel despised.

My intent with playing these old fighting games was to try and ease into the more basic ones, so that when they start getting much more complex, I'm less overwhelmed by it. But at this point, I'm coming to the realization that the difficulty and vagueness of games like Street Fighter 2 & Mortal Kombat 2 are much more likely to make me never try a fighting game ever again. Nonetheless... I'm stronger than that. I know they get better. I know they get more accessible. I just have to keep pushing forward. But let it be known, MK2 was this close to breaking my resolve.

Clockwork Aquario is a perfectly solid arcade action platformer that never saw release until 2021 where it was salavaged and finally released en proper. Its a very pretty looking game and the soundtrack is solid. The gameplay loop is satisfying where you hop on enemies and chain throws together to increase your score. That's really it though, by the time you click with what this game offers, it's already over. It's a shame because what's here is fun and has potential to be expanded upon but I don't think we'll ever see a followup that does just that.

If you see this game on sale for like 2 bucks definitely give it a whirl if you want a small game to knock out. The standard 10 bucks for this release is a bit much for what you end up getting (don't get me started on the collector's edition for 100 dollars).

Dragons Dogma 2 starts off super strong with a more fully realized world then the original. It's still very good by the end but it loses something as the difficulty doesn't ramp up appropriately in the late game and enemy variety remains underwhelming. Exploring its world and coming across unique areas is fantastic but just let down by the lack of really unique rewards given that in most cases you can buy the best stuff in shops. The Spinx stands out as something actually cool and unique with amazing rewards but the game really needed more of that. Story is something you may as well ignore since it isn't good but quest design at least is refreshingly more free of handholding then most modern RPG's. The various classes are all very distinct and fun to play. That's by far the highlight of this. Ultimately this is a great game despite the flaws but it is so close to getting to where it needs so it can be a masterpiece that said flaws stand out.

Cryptmaster: I beat this one, but only after running out of steam yet stubbornly persevering. It's a bummer, too, because I think Cryptmaster has a really strong opening -- but within 20 minutes you've seen just about everything you'll see across the next dozen hours.

I liked the premise of both its puzzles and progression. In order to learn more moves in combat, you needed to find “letters” that would fill in blanks on the bottom of your screen. Guess the word as early as you can and you either learn a new move or some backstory, which is essentially experience that once enough is garnered the character gains another hitpoint. Advanced combat moves require souls, and the fun way of getting those is by solving riddles you'll encounter on the journey.
This was all good, but you'll get this before you even finish the tutorial area. It's literally all in the demo of the game. New levels and areas hardly even look very different thanks to the game's achromatic visual style which definitely becomes grating (you can add some color in the options but it's clearly “wrong”, if that makes sense). Everyone you meet is kind of annoying and you want to spend as little time with them as possible. Sure: when asked to defile a statue and you type in “masturbate” and it works, you'll probably laugh a bit. “Shit” even makes a fart sound and you can do it any time. That's neat, but is it really going to keep you around? It probably shouldn't.

I guess my first suggestion for improvement would be to drastically shorten the game as I don't think there's enough going on here to justify its length. I wish the “letters” system worked a bit faster as by the time I beat the game, I don't think I even had half of any characters' total vocab unlocked – and this was with me solving almost every single riddle tossed my way (for more letters, combat only gives you a measly one as loot). I also wish the attack cooldown was shorter on my characters as a lot of the combat was just me sitting there waiting out a clock.
Lots and lots of work went into this game and it shows: the number of words you can type and have the Cryptmaster respond to is shocking, but was it needed? I don't think so. Sometimes it was nice, like when one time I said “rivers” but the intended answer was “water”, the game gave it to me. Cryptmaster is actually quite forgiving in its combat, too, as enemies won't respawn in challenging locations and you can go back to an altar (which revives/heals) at any time with a teleport. The Cryptmaster will also offer to solve riddles for you if you're obviously stuck.

I liked it until I didn't yet played on anyways and I regret that choice. I wish I just played the demo and forgot about trying this.
I do not recommend Cryptmaster. It's a cool concept but it definitely drags on too long and it's an adventure more likely to reward you with a headache than anything else.

EMPTY SHELL: Ever played Teleglitch? Probably not. But if you have? Well, then, you've played this.

EMPTY SHELL is pretty good, if kinda derivative of Teleglitch. I think the biggest things separating the two are the very limited inventory and its look. The inventory makes you choose carefully what kind of guns you'll be bringing along for the ride as both the weapon and its ammo take up precious inventory space. There's a lot of management and hard choices you're going to have to make along the way, especially early on. Weirdly enough, you will likely not suffer from a lack of ammunition, though. By my end, I had almost two thousand bullets just sitting there. That's a lot.
The aesthetic choices are probably (definitely) divisive. I see people in the Steam reviews complain about it and I cannot blame them. I just beat Cryptmaster which also went for the monochromatic look, but I find it far less jarring here. Probably partially because of the whole “CRT-look” with the scanlines and visual glitches. Combined with those, the black and white is practically to be expected. But, that said, it's definitely a personal preference. I can see it bothering a lot of people (and it clearly does).

The story isn't good. You're a randomized “volunteer” being sent to an island to stop it from spreading monsters. You'll find notes scattered around that answer almost nothing and largely just remind you that this monster-infested island is, indeed, quite bizarre.
Know what was oddly effective? Giving your faceless, rotating protagonists names, ages, and heights. For some reason that made me care about them. My first survivor was a 50 year old man who did his damnedest yet perished to some annoying freaks pretty early. My second, Kenzo Takahashi, was a 22 year old manlet who brought that Napoleonic rage to the front lines and made it the whole rest of the way. It took him two full days and he didn't eat nor sleep. His shitty-yet-reliable starter pistol was holstered on his side the entire ride. Kenzo was witnessed.

The strongest aspect is the gameplay, which is quite tight. The guns feel and sound good. A swarm of enemies emerging from a darkened door will cause you to panic then run-and-gun. You have a dodge-roll with i-frames and a stamina bar and you'll be diving like mad to dodge some of these bastards (“Scissors” are hell incarnate). If you want exploration with hectic firefights, this is a game for you.
There are some minor glitches, like radios continuing to play looping jams after you drop them without turning them off or flashlight drones that are “equipped” yet no where to be found after dropping something else, forcing you to unequip and re-equip them. It's annoying when it happens but it's not game breaking. I'm also not a fan of traversing some of the levels when their randomized design is just a long, straight line yet you forgot to check a room back at the entrance; but maybe that's on me.

There's a new game plus mode that I may try out sometime, but I managed to beat this in one sitting and I think I'll take a break from it for now. I'm glad I gave it a go for the $9.59 asking price (at the time).

I recommend EMPTY SHELL, especially if you can get it for even cheaper than I did.

Great story with visually stunning Eikon battles and in game cinematics, with an excellent cast. I really liked Ben Starr's Clive, and Ralph Ineson's performance as Cid.

World building was great, particularly enjoyed reading some of the lore in-game. Nice feature being able to bring up the "Active Time Lore" during gameplay to get some more background on certain characters, objects and locations.

I felt that overall combat was enjoyable, but became a little bit repetitive over the runtime, fighting similar groups of enemies- though I note I didn't experiment too much with all of the different skills and abilities from the different Eikons, and would like to give it another look on my second playthrough.

Overall I had a great time during my playthrough, cleared all of the side-quests and hunts, and intend to give it another playthrough in the future

It feels strange for me to not give this 5 stars because there's definitely some exceptional aspects. The movement, to me, might be the best movement I've played in a video game. More easily overlooked, its impressive how effortlessly it lets you move and orient yourself in 3D space, quickly, on an xyz plane. Being able to move that way in a game is relatively rare [I understand basically standard for mech games but I'm an outsider and am thinking of this more in the context of action games and 3D real-time combat games as a whole], and when it is present it's usually difficult to understand or somewhat clunky. If everything about this game totally sucked but it retained that movement, it would still be extremely notable and, imo, influential. In the same way as Sekiro mechanics have started to, and will continue to, influence action games- not just soulslike but video game combat in general- I believe (and really hope) the strides Fromsoft have made in creating fast, satisfying movement will inform movement in their games going forward, as well as inspire other developers.

The gameplay is extremely good overall, and despite it's old school mission-based format, stays fresh; arguably, it gets better the more you play it. It's easy to have a blast and let it wash over you, mashing buttons and smiling at the screen. On the other end of the spectrum, there's an almost bottomless amount of depth when it comes to customizing your mech, and your own control of it. There are so many interesting little techniques veteran players can master regarding movement and aiming that new players will never even know exist. It's a huge success for a game to have that wide of a spectrum of playability: that low of a skill floor and that high of a skill ceiling. PVP freaks will be discovering new techniques and builds for years to come.

While the story and characters are not the best Fromsoft have done, I think it's all a lot better than most people give it credit for. Characters like Walter, Rusty, and Carla- while not very complex or unique- are really likeable and memorable. These are more like archetypes than deep characters, and I think that's fine. Michigan's boisterous but charming affable drill sergeant routine, Snail's almost lovable uptight snootiness, Iguazu as a relatable figure the player can feel both a kinship and rivalry with. These were all great to me. Again, not super in-depth, but its not a game you're playing for character development. They have their roles in the story and in their relation to the player and it's executed well.

The visuals and sound design of the game are also extremely impressive. I've since gotten almost numb to it, but the first few times playing this game, it immediately stood out. Just flying up to a building in the war-torn city and rotating my camera to look at all the floating industrial megafactories in the sky. It's a really great science fiction aesthetic- the kind of thing I want to see a lot more in games.

Having said all that, I can't even really give you a good reason why this is a 4 instead of a 5. For comparison, I gave Resident Evil 4 Remake a 5. Why? Because I felt it perfectly executed everything it set out to do. For what the game is, and the players' relation to it, there are in my estimation no major mistakes on the developers part. It's extremely engaging from start to finish. As I said in my succinct review, it feels like "the perfect action game."

So what's my issue with AC6? It just feels, to me, like it could've been more. I can't quite put my finger on it, but so many aspects feel like it ALMOST got there. Like it could've been my favorite Fromsoft entry ever. The story could have just had a little bit more to it to make it more meaningful. Or the characters could have been a bit more engaging. Or the ending boss battles could have been just a little more interesting. And so on. I genuinely am too unfamiliar with the AC series and the mech genre in general, so that might just be an error in my perception. Maybe for what they set out to to do, this is about the limit of it. Maybe it is a perfectly executed mech game, and my vision is clouded by being a Fromsoft groupie. Like I'm holding them to a standard that's not reachable RE: mech games. I really don't know. I just know it does feel like there's something missing that would've taken it over the edge from "really, really good" to "one of the best of all time."