122 Reviews liked by Nodima
I can't believe I just spent half an hour mashing B to the shittiest SNES cover of the power rangers theme song in recorded history
Dynasty Warriors 2
2000
Having birthed the musou genre as we know it today, it's very interesting to take a look at this, and I dare say it's even quite playable to this day. That being said...yeah, there's more than a few square miles of room for improvement.
Dynasty Warriors 2 may be titled as if it's a sequel to the original fighting game on the PS1, but it absolutely is not - it was called Shin Sangokumusō in Japan, a successor to the original Sangokumusō, but they just decided to make it a straight sequel in the West. Of course, as a result this barely resembles a fighting game, and is more of a hack and slash on a far larger scale than anything at the time.
The main gimmick of the game, and what would therefore become the main gimmick of the Musou genre, is the sheer size and scope. You are a soldier on a sprawling battlefield, and said battlefield is littered in enemy forces. You have to mow them down as you make your way through enemy officers until you confront and kill their leader, before they reach and kill your own. It's as if a real time strategy game let you play as a solider and let the AI do the orders instead, and it's ridiculously impressive for early PS2.
Levels are huge areas, usually sectioned off by gates that necessitate killing the officer guarding it to progress, who is clearly marked with their name (and usually riding a horse). As you make your way through the enemies immediately ahead of you, your allies will also be fighting far away in the distance, and may push forward or get pushed back depending on the morale of them/their opponents. Morale is determined by, well, killing lots of guys. If your guys are dying, allied morale drops, and if enemies are dying, allied morale rises, which in theory makes them more aggressive and powerful. It all happens in real time and you get non-stop status updates on the minimap on how your buddies are doing. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but I can't help but feel in awe of it all.
Of course, this might sound really impressive, but you already saw the 5/10 rating and can probably tell what I'm about to say: it doesn't actually make for an especially good game. The biggest offence here is easily content: now granted, there are 28 characters to play as. The problem? There are only 3 campaigns between them, one for each of the three kingdoms. The story isn't particularly the highlight: it follows the events of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a dramatisation of ancient Chinese conflicts. Rather than a clear-cut narrative, it's basically a greatest hits compilation of battles from RotTK, with a little flavour text. You go from level to level, and between the three campaigns there are several reused ones, albeit from the opposite perspective. Between this and only like, 3 different weapon types, once you've played as a character from each kingdom, you've seen everything you need to.
The gameplay is also pretty monotonous, not that I think that it was too bad the first time around. Square is your normal attack and Triangle your heavy. Pressing heavy to end normal attack combos results in a different effect, from knocking down, to launching, to stunning. Circle is your special Musou Attack, which does decent damage and needs to be charged, either by holding Circle or killing enemies. While you can air juggle enemies, it's difficult and really just pointless when most enemies go down in a handful of hits...assuming you're increasing your stats. Killing officers and gate guards drop items that permanently increase certain stats, and these are absolutely necessary to beat later stages. The game is actually designed to make you grind the earlier levels for a while until your stats are high enough to continue Musou Mode, which is just more tedium on top.
Oh, I didn't mention X. Uh, X jumps...which is never really useful unless you encounter an officer on a horse. Funnily enough, X also lets you get on said horse, but only when you're in the pixel perfect position. Horseback combat is pretty neat and essential for rescuing your useless allies before they get slaughtered, but killing enemies via horse-and-run annoyingly doesn't go towards your kill count, which determines exp gain and morale. You can still get the kill by swinging your weapon on horseback, but the hitbox is large enough to accidentally hit them with the horse before your weapon. You also have a bow and arrow by holding R1 and aiming, though it feels like complete shit, it may be one of your only hopes against bosses: more on that later.
On top of everything, the graphics are understandably poor. While you participate in massive battles, the PS2 can only render so much, resulting in a pitiful camera position and fog everywhere. Character models are pretty fine...maybe too much so, as if enough enemies are in close vicinity, they'll begin blinking in and out of existence, which is just really poor for combat. The droning action music is samey, but encouraging if nothing else.
However, the biggest nail in the coffin for this game is the difficulty. Particularly, enemy officers and generals. While they're not all too aggressive or damaging, there is one biazarre choice in their behaviour. Whenever an attack of yours (or an ally) knocks them down, which will happen a lot as that is what they're designed to do, the boss will get a random buff. This can be attack up, defense up...or full HP restoration. This completely deranged mechanic makes encounters completely anticlimactic, as you're forced to chip away at them lest you incur all your work undone. Unfortunately, your allies did not get this very important memo and will try and sabotage your efforts. It's a really unfortunate mark on this game that keeps it firmly below getting a 6/10.
Altogether, I actually really liked this game, but it's just got too much holding it back. It sucks that most of the 28 characters are reskins with nothing original to them except a model and a basic ending text, as I'd have honestly played through 28 story modes with any kind of distinct features to them. Alas, it's simply a curious tech demo of a game that I can't recommend, but also can't bring myself to hate. What it does excite me for, however, is seeing how DW3 improves on making the Nasty Warriors Die.
Dynasty Warriors 2 may be titled as if it's a sequel to the original fighting game on the PS1, but it absolutely is not - it was called Shin Sangokumusō in Japan, a successor to the original Sangokumusō, but they just decided to make it a straight sequel in the West. Of course, as a result this barely resembles a fighting game, and is more of a hack and slash on a far larger scale than anything at the time.
The main gimmick of the game, and what would therefore become the main gimmick of the Musou genre, is the sheer size and scope. You are a soldier on a sprawling battlefield, and said battlefield is littered in enemy forces. You have to mow them down as you make your way through enemy officers until you confront and kill their leader, before they reach and kill your own. It's as if a real time strategy game let you play as a solider and let the AI do the orders instead, and it's ridiculously impressive for early PS2.
Levels are huge areas, usually sectioned off by gates that necessitate killing the officer guarding it to progress, who is clearly marked with their name (and usually riding a horse). As you make your way through the enemies immediately ahead of you, your allies will also be fighting far away in the distance, and may push forward or get pushed back depending on the morale of them/their opponents. Morale is determined by, well, killing lots of guys. If your guys are dying, allied morale drops, and if enemies are dying, allied morale rises, which in theory makes them more aggressive and powerful. It all happens in real time and you get non-stop status updates on the minimap on how your buddies are doing. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but I can't help but feel in awe of it all.
Of course, this might sound really impressive, but you already saw the 5/10 rating and can probably tell what I'm about to say: it doesn't actually make for an especially good game. The biggest offence here is easily content: now granted, there are 28 characters to play as. The problem? There are only 3 campaigns between them, one for each of the three kingdoms. The story isn't particularly the highlight: it follows the events of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a dramatisation of ancient Chinese conflicts. Rather than a clear-cut narrative, it's basically a greatest hits compilation of battles from RotTK, with a little flavour text. You go from level to level, and between the three campaigns there are several reused ones, albeit from the opposite perspective. Between this and only like, 3 different weapon types, once you've played as a character from each kingdom, you've seen everything you need to.
The gameplay is also pretty monotonous, not that I think that it was too bad the first time around. Square is your normal attack and Triangle your heavy. Pressing heavy to end normal attack combos results in a different effect, from knocking down, to launching, to stunning. Circle is your special Musou Attack, which does decent damage and needs to be charged, either by holding Circle or killing enemies. While you can air juggle enemies, it's difficult and really just pointless when most enemies go down in a handful of hits...assuming you're increasing your stats. Killing officers and gate guards drop items that permanently increase certain stats, and these are absolutely necessary to beat later stages. The game is actually designed to make you grind the earlier levels for a while until your stats are high enough to continue Musou Mode, which is just more tedium on top.
Oh, I didn't mention X. Uh, X jumps...which is never really useful unless you encounter an officer on a horse. Funnily enough, X also lets you get on said horse, but only when you're in the pixel perfect position. Horseback combat is pretty neat and essential for rescuing your useless allies before they get slaughtered, but killing enemies via horse-and-run annoyingly doesn't go towards your kill count, which determines exp gain and morale. You can still get the kill by swinging your weapon on horseback, but the hitbox is large enough to accidentally hit them with the horse before your weapon. You also have a bow and arrow by holding R1 and aiming, though it feels like complete shit, it may be one of your only hopes against bosses: more on that later.
On top of everything, the graphics are understandably poor. While you participate in massive battles, the PS2 can only render so much, resulting in a pitiful camera position and fog everywhere. Character models are pretty fine...maybe too much so, as if enough enemies are in close vicinity, they'll begin blinking in and out of existence, which is just really poor for combat. The droning action music is samey, but encouraging if nothing else.
However, the biggest nail in the coffin for this game is the difficulty. Particularly, enemy officers and generals. While they're not all too aggressive or damaging, there is one biazarre choice in their behaviour. Whenever an attack of yours (or an ally) knocks them down, which will happen a lot as that is what they're designed to do, the boss will get a random buff. This can be attack up, defense up...or full HP restoration. This completely deranged mechanic makes encounters completely anticlimactic, as you're forced to chip away at them lest you incur all your work undone. Unfortunately, your allies did not get this very important memo and will try and sabotage your efforts. It's a really unfortunate mark on this game that keeps it firmly below getting a 6/10.
Altogether, I actually really liked this game, but it's just got too much holding it back. It sucks that most of the 28 characters are reskins with nothing original to them except a model and a basic ending text, as I'd have honestly played through 28 story modes with any kind of distinct features to them. Alas, it's simply a curious tech demo of a game that I can't recommend, but also can't bring myself to hate. What it does excite me for, however, is seeing how DW3 improves on making the Nasty Warriors Die.
Ah yes, my favourite part of Indiana Jones: that scene where Indy's attempts to demolish Cairo was repeatedly gatekept by a horde of monkeys holding all the vital tools.
After tackling Star Wars, Bionicle, Star Wars and...Star Wars, it was clear that Traveller's Tales had figured out what formula and franchise worked best for making these Lego games. However, they had run out of Star Wars movies to make videogames out of (right? right??) and thus, it was time for another IP. I don't know whether it was their choice, or something that the Lego Group mandated from them (to coincide with their own toyline the same year, which itself would coincide with the 4th movie), but it's perhaps appropriate that it turned out to be the other popular George Lucas trilogy. And given the popularity of franchises such as Tomb Raider (and Uncharted just the year prior) it was proven that such a theme works pretty well in videogame form. Traveller's Tales took all this...and make Lego Star Wars wearing the plastic skin of Indy and friends.
Hell, "Indy and friends" could sum up the first big flaw with this installment: Indiana Jones is not at all known for its rich vault of established characters. For each movie, you've got Indy, token love interest, token sidekick, and token villain. And of course, lots and lots of Nazis/culturally insensitive stereotypes! With such a poor roster of characters, especially off of the back of Star Wars, coupled with a setting that is generally grounded in reality beyond the supernatural nature of whatever artefact everyone's fighting over, you get some truly desperate attempts to create differing character classes. Indy? Well, all like, 10 versions of him do the same shit; he's the only one who can use the whip, which is needed for like 50% of the game's progression. Uhh...Nazis can go through Nazi doors...Women can checks notes jump higher, Willie specifically can...uh, scream, really loud, breaking glass...now I know that they were really stuck for ideas, especially when a lot of aspects of films are problematic, but damn.
Beyond the character cast, the levels and gameplay are going to look very familiar to Lego Star Wars, though there are a lot of new mechanics that I'm pretty sure are thrown in as a desperate attempt to avoid being accused of being a reskin. Build stuff out of lego to progress or reach secrets, break other stuff made out of lego for money, levers, switches, pushing blocks, all the classics. As before, all levels have 10 shiny objects to collect, as well as a separate collectible that grants you a "cheat" you can purchase at the hub world. What I do actually like is that unlike Star Wars, where said collectible was simply another hidden object to find and pick up, this time you have to both discover a parcel, and the mailbox to carry it to and put it in. Unfortunately, this highlights one of the new mechanics that I'm not too fond of.
Of the new mechanics, the one you'll probably spend most of your time doing is picking up objects. These can be small ones, such as bottles or chairs to throw at enemies, or even swords and guns (the latter of which can actually run out of ammo)...but you'll also be doing this for puzzle solving. Let me tell you, there's little else more tedious in this world than slowly, painfully carrying a large object to its destination, let alone like, 100 times over. There's also rope climbing, except sometimes you can only swing from ropes instead of climbing them and it's never obvious which ones are which. Combat, with the obvious lack of lightsabers, also now mainly tilts towards firearm superiority, which are often one-hit-kills against enemies. Melee weapons are slow and clunky to use in groups, and Indy's melee attacks specifically have these overly long comedy animations, where he kills the enemy in some silly manner, like a lethal noogie.
In fact, wasting time is probably my biggest criticism. Aside from the Indy melee animations, opening Nazi checkpoints takes an ungodly amount of time. You knock like, 7 times, watch the window slowly open, have the Nazi spend like 3 entire seconds checking you out, then he nods like, four times. Four. Then the door finally opens, like 10 total seconds later. The statues you have to pray to are also offenders, although not nearly as badly. Hell, there are cheats to speed up the more tedious animations, such as digging and repairing. Nothing for those damn Nazi checkpoints, though!
Of course, beyond all the grievances, and how adapting Indiana Jones into the Lego Star Wars formula is a bit of a doomed undertaking, the actual, minute to minute gameplay is fine! It's just Star Wars again, but a bit different, a bit jankier, but with a few adjustments for the better. You can finally, finally save and exit a level in free play while keeping what you obtained! Still no checkpoints of any kind, but it's something. The level designs themselves can be pretty creative and fun, although certain levels drop the ball hard (looking at YOU, Motorcycle Escape!). And of course, the cutscenes adapt all the famous moments from these movies while adding in cartoonish slapstick (and uh, removing all the bits where the Nazis are actually Nazis, and the weird stuff with Mola Ram and that guys' heart...). The John Williams soundtrack is there, and it wouldn't be right without it...though, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a little sick to death of hearing them on loop for 20 hours so soon after playing Lego Star Wars.
All in all, this is a simple enjoyable kids game, complete with classic couch co-op drop-in/out, and is sure not to fall too far from the Lego Star Wars tree. Even if not all of its changes are for the better, this is a perfectly competent videogame with a lot of small issues that neither the developers nor the target audience probably gave a shit about.
But I'm a gamer, so naturally, I'm furious.
After tackling Star Wars, Bionicle, Star Wars and...Star Wars, it was clear that Traveller's Tales had figured out what formula and franchise worked best for making these Lego games. However, they had run out of Star Wars movies to make videogames out of (right? right??) and thus, it was time for another IP. I don't know whether it was their choice, or something that the Lego Group mandated from them (to coincide with their own toyline the same year, which itself would coincide with the 4th movie), but it's perhaps appropriate that it turned out to be the other popular George Lucas trilogy. And given the popularity of franchises such as Tomb Raider (and Uncharted just the year prior) it was proven that such a theme works pretty well in videogame form. Traveller's Tales took all this...and make Lego Star Wars wearing the plastic skin of Indy and friends.
Hell, "Indy and friends" could sum up the first big flaw with this installment: Indiana Jones is not at all known for its rich vault of established characters. For each movie, you've got Indy, token love interest, token sidekick, and token villain. And of course, lots and lots of Nazis/culturally insensitive stereotypes! With such a poor roster of characters, especially off of the back of Star Wars, coupled with a setting that is generally grounded in reality beyond the supernatural nature of whatever artefact everyone's fighting over, you get some truly desperate attempts to create differing character classes. Indy? Well, all like, 10 versions of him do the same shit; he's the only one who can use the whip, which is needed for like 50% of the game's progression. Uhh...Nazis can go through Nazi doors...Women can checks notes jump higher, Willie specifically can...uh, scream, really loud, breaking glass...now I know that they were really stuck for ideas, especially when a lot of aspects of films are problematic, but damn.
Beyond the character cast, the levels and gameplay are going to look very familiar to Lego Star Wars, though there are a lot of new mechanics that I'm pretty sure are thrown in as a desperate attempt to avoid being accused of being a reskin. Build stuff out of lego to progress or reach secrets, break other stuff made out of lego for money, levers, switches, pushing blocks, all the classics. As before, all levels have 10 shiny objects to collect, as well as a separate collectible that grants you a "cheat" you can purchase at the hub world. What I do actually like is that unlike Star Wars, where said collectible was simply another hidden object to find and pick up, this time you have to both discover a parcel, and the mailbox to carry it to and put it in. Unfortunately, this highlights one of the new mechanics that I'm not too fond of.
Of the new mechanics, the one you'll probably spend most of your time doing is picking up objects. These can be small ones, such as bottles or chairs to throw at enemies, or even swords and guns (the latter of which can actually run out of ammo)...but you'll also be doing this for puzzle solving. Let me tell you, there's little else more tedious in this world than slowly, painfully carrying a large object to its destination, let alone like, 100 times over. There's also rope climbing, except sometimes you can only swing from ropes instead of climbing them and it's never obvious which ones are which. Combat, with the obvious lack of lightsabers, also now mainly tilts towards firearm superiority, which are often one-hit-kills against enemies. Melee weapons are slow and clunky to use in groups, and Indy's melee attacks specifically have these overly long comedy animations, where he kills the enemy in some silly manner, like a lethal noogie.
In fact, wasting time is probably my biggest criticism. Aside from the Indy melee animations, opening Nazi checkpoints takes an ungodly amount of time. You knock like, 7 times, watch the window slowly open, have the Nazi spend like 3 entire seconds checking you out, then he nods like, four times. Four. Then the door finally opens, like 10 total seconds later. The statues you have to pray to are also offenders, although not nearly as badly. Hell, there are cheats to speed up the more tedious animations, such as digging and repairing. Nothing for those damn Nazi checkpoints, though!
Of course, beyond all the grievances, and how adapting Indiana Jones into the Lego Star Wars formula is a bit of a doomed undertaking, the actual, minute to minute gameplay is fine! It's just Star Wars again, but a bit different, a bit jankier, but with a few adjustments for the better. You can finally, finally save and exit a level in free play while keeping what you obtained! Still no checkpoints of any kind, but it's something. The level designs themselves can be pretty creative and fun, although certain levels drop the ball hard (looking at YOU, Motorcycle Escape!). And of course, the cutscenes adapt all the famous moments from these movies while adding in cartoonish slapstick (and uh, removing all the bits where the Nazis are actually Nazis, and the weird stuff with Mola Ram and that guys' heart...). The John Williams soundtrack is there, and it wouldn't be right without it...though, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a little sick to death of hearing them on loop for 20 hours so soon after playing Lego Star Wars.
All in all, this is a simple enjoyable kids game, complete with classic couch co-op drop-in/out, and is sure not to fall too far from the Lego Star Wars tree. Even if not all of its changes are for the better, this is a perfectly competent videogame with a lot of small issues that neither the developers nor the target audience probably gave a shit about.
But I'm a gamer, so naturally, I'm furious.
This review contains spoilers
Get yourself a partner who says your name the way Connor says Charles Lee's ~
This is a big one, so if you want a summary just skip to the end. Minor gameplay related spoilers, but nothing directly plot related.
AAA development is hard. Ever since the HD era of gaming brought standards up to new levels, studios and big publishers have had to go to immeasurable lengths to ensure that they can make videogames to such ever-increasing standards, while meeting tight deadlines. I'm not a living encyclopaedia of gaming history, but I think Assassin's Creed III might be one of the earliest examples of how overambition got mixed with abhorrent planning, and led to complete disaster. Of course, the game sold amazingly and probably recouped costs - but I don't think anything will recoup the souls of the people who worked on this.
I'll clear something up off the bat: the story. This is where I see the most negativity, particularly surrounding the Assassin you get to control: Connor. He's been called bland and uninteresting - and while he couldn't be more different from the charming Ezio (if you're into that), I think he's massively underappreciated. His thirst for vengeance can descend into comical levels of obsession and the writing absolutely fails to bring his background, relationships and characterisation to their full potential. But his bluntness, dedication to his people, overall mannerisms, are all very well-conveyed to the player. Is it the voice acting? Because yeah, I will admit - a lot of line reads are chuckle-worthy. But I think it's deeply unfair to simply pin all of this game's issues on "Connor bad".
The story itself, on the other hand, misses multiple marks. Certain events in American history are essentially reduced to footnotes, with a little encyclopaedia pop-up at the end to basically say "Hello! That was the <notable historical event> you just participated in!". The supporting cast...they exist, but they genuinely do very little else. Achilles, Connor's mentor for most of the game, is meant to be a father figure of sorts - but everything to do with their bonding and gaining any kind of respect is skipped over in favour of only focusing on their disagreements. Skipping might be the most offensive thing here - after each major story event, there's suddenly a minute or so of narration and timeskips of up to several years at a time. Don't do this. It's pace breaking, and disconnects me from whatever narrative there was. You can tell things were cut out, and that the writers had no idea how to naturally make the different parts flow smoothly into each other.
I don't think I need to say much of the modern story, as the big deal is entirely regarding the ending. So as not to spoil it, I'll refrain from saying anything other than how utterly pathetic an ending it is - and that's right after an ending that's arguably almost as stupid during Connor's story. The rest of the modern story though...undercooked wouldn't even begin to describe it. Undercooked would imply that Ubisoft put a damn thing in the oven to begin with. It's a goddamn oxygen sandwich. Eat your bread, it's all you get. The hub world is just a mass of black rock that is almost impossible to see in and inspires nothing. Three people are there, and once in a blue moon they even have a line of dialogue, but mostly stand around repeating one of three animations. Sometimes you even get to solve a mediocre parkour puzzle in the dark and watch a cutscene. It's mesmerizingly miserable. There are a handful of proper, modern gameplay segments that utilise the proper game mechanics in a modern setting, which is very cool until you realise it adds up to about 15 minutes of gameplay total. Another one of many ideas that clearly had grand plans, only to be scaled back dramatically when the game had to be dialled down to ship on time. There's an entire antagonist who shows up for only this game, but is on screen for no more than 5 minutes.
This is all a range of mediocre to poor, but the real meat of the game is the bit where you actually hold your controller. And I have never felt so much dread from holding a controller than the prospect of having to play this game.
The sad thing is, the combat is, while clunky and full of bugs, the main thing that keeps me going. Rather than the standard combat from the AC2 trilogy that was simply mashing attack and countering, you're now basically waiting to enact a counter on an enemy at all times. This triggers a brief bit of slow motion that lets you either attempt a counter kill, disarm them, or throw them away. Different enemies require different manoeuvres, and I like that this somewhat keeps you on your toes, in spite of how it's not much deeper than rock paper scissors (but each opponent only plays one of these in their lifetimes). You can also shoot, which is an instant kill...uh, sometimes? Usually if they're not aware, gunshots tend to kill in one hit, but not always in combat? And the less said about the inconsistency of your bow, the better. You get a lot of cool and creative sub-weapons, but most simply are not practical. Rope darts are pretty brutal, but you're not using them outside the forests. Trip mines...just, don't bother. Combat works, but just barely.
As for the rest, you get the biggest world yet to explore...and it's horrible. Colonial America consists of a huge, sprawling frontier with multiple cities to enter. And by multiple, I mean two. That's a multiple. You can traverse a huge forest with small settlements, but the most you can do in any of them is accept a meaningless side quest or two, or maybe have an optional conversation with a bored NPC. The main thing you'll be doing there is hunting - yes, there's an entire chunk of the game dedicated to grinding resources from hunting animals. You'll then want to craft the drops into important weapons and items, and then use the trading mechanic to sell the surplus off. But be careful, because the British will attack your trade wagons, forcing you to ride there in person to stop them from taking everything. It's needlessly complicated and shockingly user-hostile, with the entire thing run from a poorly organised menu. You can't really ignore it either, as the game's pricey economy expects you to trade resources as your primary method of income. Beyond the hunting, quests and collectibles, there's just a handful of forts that you need to infiltrate, kill the leader and liberate from within. Of course, this just descends into a bloodbath because the stealth in this game continues to be a joke. Overall, just a dull, lifeless timesink.
The cities themselves are far more concentrated, with a lot of enemies to fight, more opportunities to evade pursuit, and way better quest design. Traversal, however, is limited by attempts to make Boston and New York as accurate to how those cities looked during the American Revolution as they could, while still making it work within the parkour system. The result is a precise balance of the two that looks historically inaccurate and sucks to parkour in. While the parkour within the frontier is at least entertaining within the forests, the building placements in the cities makes parkour a bothersome chore, and it's usually faster to stick to the ground.
Mission design is pretty atrocious here, particularly in the optional objectives you're pressured into doing to reach "full sync". These can simply be a case of not taking damage, or using a certain assassination method. They can also border on the completely unreasonable, such as only killing a single specific enemy within a large crowd, while also not being detected in the process, on a tiny boat with one spot of cover. They break any immersion the game may have pretended to have, and pursuing 100% sync becomes an exercise in frustration. There's another reason that the full sync sucks, but all in good time. Other gameplay segments simply ask you to walk a distance without any real dangers or combat, or perhaps escorting an NPC while they talk. A good quarter of the gameplay could've probably been relegated to more cutscenes, as they simply allow you to move your analog sticks and press buttons during dialogue before suddenly cutting into another actual cutscene. Assassin's Creed's pacing has always been like pulling teeth, and 3 is no improvement in that regard.
One last notable aspect of the game are the sailing sections. These have you steer a ship around, use cannons to blow away other ships, basically a very simple and arcadey distraction with its own stories, upgrades, and rewards. It's a neat distraction, but you need to buy the expensive upgrades very quickly as it's easy to get stunlocked by enemy ships without them. I don't think much of it - and getting full sync is also very stupid and unfair here - but it's not a bad distraction and it's unsurprising that it resonated with players enough for Ubisoft to make sailing the main attraction of the following game.
So, the story sucks, and the gameplay is pretty bad. But what drags these down even further...are the bugs. Now, I played Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered, because Ubisoft hate game preservation and wiped the original game from everywhere. Beyond this point, I'm not sure which of these flaws are directly associated with the original, and which are with the remaster. But holy shit, this is the buggiest AAA game I've ever played. Let's start with horses: you'll be riding them a lot as you have a huge barren open world to traverse. Here's the problem: these animals cannot deal with anything other than smooth ground. The instant you run into the slightest imperfection in the floor, the horse jolts to a dead stop, and persuading it to move in any other direction takes way more than it should. This can be critical if you're avoiding detection. Combat can also freak out and animations constantly fail. Cutscenes are ruined when certain entire voice lines don't play. The actual scripting for missions breaks frequently and forces some kind of restart to ensure you can even finish them. Almost every aspect of gameplay, I found myself being stopped in my paths by a bug that disrupts gameplay entirely.
Graphically, I can definitely say that the remaster is directly responsible for many new problems. While models are much improved, several textures are untouched from the PS3/X360 originals. This creates immense juxtaposition with the new lighting engine. Upscaled models and water can look amazing in this new lighting engine from certain angles, but then pan over to the worlds worst grass texture of all time and it becomes the textbook definition of putting lipstick on a pig. The lighting itself, while responsible for some breathtaking landscapes, also introduces problems in darker areas. These are made overly dark, to the point of being unable to see a single thing in caves, and the theater in the opening sequence. They also cast shadows on characters faces, obscuring almost every detail whenever they're facing away from the sun. Subtitles have also been changed in the remaster for some reason, and these are the most offensive thing of all; the subtitles in Remastered just outright lie to you, on multiple occasions. Infrquently, the subtitles will read out a different line to the one spoken, sometimes with the same meaning or other times just wrong. More offensively: it repeatedly attributes dialogue to the wrong character entirely, leading to Desmond apparently talking to himself a whole lot if you happen to have impaired hearing. It's disastrous and shameful that such a mistake could be made and never once addressed post-launch.
Overall, to summarise my lengthy commentary of contempt for this miserable waste of 35 hours... The story is too afraid to tell history exactly how it was, ideas are forgotten and wasted, the gameplay tries to do literally everything that was trendy and collapse under it's own weight. And while the visuals were fine for their time, impressive even, the remaster has done a shockingly bad job at improving it, doing the opposite in most cases. Abhorrent remaster of a poor game, and one I never hope to revisit. Except I will, because I still need to play the DLC, which has it's own page on Backloggd. I will review that if I live to tell the tale.
This is a big one, so if you want a summary just skip to the end. Minor gameplay related spoilers, but nothing directly plot related.
AAA development is hard. Ever since the HD era of gaming brought standards up to new levels, studios and big publishers have had to go to immeasurable lengths to ensure that they can make videogames to such ever-increasing standards, while meeting tight deadlines. I'm not a living encyclopaedia of gaming history, but I think Assassin's Creed III might be one of the earliest examples of how overambition got mixed with abhorrent planning, and led to complete disaster. Of course, the game sold amazingly and probably recouped costs - but I don't think anything will recoup the souls of the people who worked on this.
I'll clear something up off the bat: the story. This is where I see the most negativity, particularly surrounding the Assassin you get to control: Connor. He's been called bland and uninteresting - and while he couldn't be more different from the charming Ezio (if you're into that), I think he's massively underappreciated. His thirst for vengeance can descend into comical levels of obsession and the writing absolutely fails to bring his background, relationships and characterisation to their full potential. But his bluntness, dedication to his people, overall mannerisms, are all very well-conveyed to the player. Is it the voice acting? Because yeah, I will admit - a lot of line reads are chuckle-worthy. But I think it's deeply unfair to simply pin all of this game's issues on "Connor bad".
The story itself, on the other hand, misses multiple marks. Certain events in American history are essentially reduced to footnotes, with a little encyclopaedia pop-up at the end to basically say "Hello! That was the <notable historical event> you just participated in!". The supporting cast...they exist, but they genuinely do very little else. Achilles, Connor's mentor for most of the game, is meant to be a father figure of sorts - but everything to do with their bonding and gaining any kind of respect is skipped over in favour of only focusing on their disagreements. Skipping might be the most offensive thing here - after each major story event, there's suddenly a minute or so of narration and timeskips of up to several years at a time. Don't do this. It's pace breaking, and disconnects me from whatever narrative there was. You can tell things were cut out, and that the writers had no idea how to naturally make the different parts flow smoothly into each other.
I don't think I need to say much of the modern story, as the big deal is entirely regarding the ending. So as not to spoil it, I'll refrain from saying anything other than how utterly pathetic an ending it is - and that's right after an ending that's arguably almost as stupid during Connor's story. The rest of the modern story though...undercooked wouldn't even begin to describe it. Undercooked would imply that Ubisoft put a damn thing in the oven to begin with. It's a goddamn oxygen sandwich. Eat your bread, it's all you get. The hub world is just a mass of black rock that is almost impossible to see in and inspires nothing. Three people are there, and once in a blue moon they even have a line of dialogue, but mostly stand around repeating one of three animations. Sometimes you even get to solve a mediocre parkour puzzle in the dark and watch a cutscene. It's mesmerizingly miserable. There are a handful of proper, modern gameplay segments that utilise the proper game mechanics in a modern setting, which is very cool until you realise it adds up to about 15 minutes of gameplay total. Another one of many ideas that clearly had grand plans, only to be scaled back dramatically when the game had to be dialled down to ship on time. There's an entire antagonist who shows up for only this game, but is on screen for no more than 5 minutes.
This is all a range of mediocre to poor, but the real meat of the game is the bit where you actually hold your controller. And I have never felt so much dread from holding a controller than the prospect of having to play this game.
The sad thing is, the combat is, while clunky and full of bugs, the main thing that keeps me going. Rather than the standard combat from the AC2 trilogy that was simply mashing attack and countering, you're now basically waiting to enact a counter on an enemy at all times. This triggers a brief bit of slow motion that lets you either attempt a counter kill, disarm them, or throw them away. Different enemies require different manoeuvres, and I like that this somewhat keeps you on your toes, in spite of how it's not much deeper than rock paper scissors (but each opponent only plays one of these in their lifetimes). You can also shoot, which is an instant kill...uh, sometimes? Usually if they're not aware, gunshots tend to kill in one hit, but not always in combat? And the less said about the inconsistency of your bow, the better. You get a lot of cool and creative sub-weapons, but most simply are not practical. Rope darts are pretty brutal, but you're not using them outside the forests. Trip mines...just, don't bother. Combat works, but just barely.
As for the rest, you get the biggest world yet to explore...and it's horrible. Colonial America consists of a huge, sprawling frontier with multiple cities to enter. And by multiple, I mean two. That's a multiple. You can traverse a huge forest with small settlements, but the most you can do in any of them is accept a meaningless side quest or two, or maybe have an optional conversation with a bored NPC. The main thing you'll be doing there is hunting - yes, there's an entire chunk of the game dedicated to grinding resources from hunting animals. You'll then want to craft the drops into important weapons and items, and then use the trading mechanic to sell the surplus off. But be careful, because the British will attack your trade wagons, forcing you to ride there in person to stop them from taking everything. It's needlessly complicated and shockingly user-hostile, with the entire thing run from a poorly organised menu. You can't really ignore it either, as the game's pricey economy expects you to trade resources as your primary method of income. Beyond the hunting, quests and collectibles, there's just a handful of forts that you need to infiltrate, kill the leader and liberate from within. Of course, this just descends into a bloodbath because the stealth in this game continues to be a joke. Overall, just a dull, lifeless timesink.
The cities themselves are far more concentrated, with a lot of enemies to fight, more opportunities to evade pursuit, and way better quest design. Traversal, however, is limited by attempts to make Boston and New York as accurate to how those cities looked during the American Revolution as they could, while still making it work within the parkour system. The result is a precise balance of the two that looks historically inaccurate and sucks to parkour in. While the parkour within the frontier is at least entertaining within the forests, the building placements in the cities makes parkour a bothersome chore, and it's usually faster to stick to the ground.
Mission design is pretty atrocious here, particularly in the optional objectives you're pressured into doing to reach "full sync". These can simply be a case of not taking damage, or using a certain assassination method. They can also border on the completely unreasonable, such as only killing a single specific enemy within a large crowd, while also not being detected in the process, on a tiny boat with one spot of cover. They break any immersion the game may have pretended to have, and pursuing 100% sync becomes an exercise in frustration. There's another reason that the full sync sucks, but all in good time. Other gameplay segments simply ask you to walk a distance without any real dangers or combat, or perhaps escorting an NPC while they talk. A good quarter of the gameplay could've probably been relegated to more cutscenes, as they simply allow you to move your analog sticks and press buttons during dialogue before suddenly cutting into another actual cutscene. Assassin's Creed's pacing has always been like pulling teeth, and 3 is no improvement in that regard.
One last notable aspect of the game are the sailing sections. These have you steer a ship around, use cannons to blow away other ships, basically a very simple and arcadey distraction with its own stories, upgrades, and rewards. It's a neat distraction, but you need to buy the expensive upgrades very quickly as it's easy to get stunlocked by enemy ships without them. I don't think much of it - and getting full sync is also very stupid and unfair here - but it's not a bad distraction and it's unsurprising that it resonated with players enough for Ubisoft to make sailing the main attraction of the following game.
So, the story sucks, and the gameplay is pretty bad. But what drags these down even further...are the bugs. Now, I played Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered, because Ubisoft hate game preservation and wiped the original game from everywhere. Beyond this point, I'm not sure which of these flaws are directly associated with the original, and which are with the remaster. But holy shit, this is the buggiest AAA game I've ever played. Let's start with horses: you'll be riding them a lot as you have a huge barren open world to traverse. Here's the problem: these animals cannot deal with anything other than smooth ground. The instant you run into the slightest imperfection in the floor, the horse jolts to a dead stop, and persuading it to move in any other direction takes way more than it should. This can be critical if you're avoiding detection. Combat can also freak out and animations constantly fail. Cutscenes are ruined when certain entire voice lines don't play. The actual scripting for missions breaks frequently and forces some kind of restart to ensure you can even finish them. Almost every aspect of gameplay, I found myself being stopped in my paths by a bug that disrupts gameplay entirely.
Graphically, I can definitely say that the remaster is directly responsible for many new problems. While models are much improved, several textures are untouched from the PS3/X360 originals. This creates immense juxtaposition with the new lighting engine. Upscaled models and water can look amazing in this new lighting engine from certain angles, but then pan over to the worlds worst grass texture of all time and it becomes the textbook definition of putting lipstick on a pig. The lighting itself, while responsible for some breathtaking landscapes, also introduces problems in darker areas. These are made overly dark, to the point of being unable to see a single thing in caves, and the theater in the opening sequence. They also cast shadows on characters faces, obscuring almost every detail whenever they're facing away from the sun. Subtitles have also been changed in the remaster for some reason, and these are the most offensive thing of all; the subtitles in Remastered just outright lie to you, on multiple occasions. Infrquently, the subtitles will read out a different line to the one spoken, sometimes with the same meaning or other times just wrong. More offensively: it repeatedly attributes dialogue to the wrong character entirely, leading to Desmond apparently talking to himself a whole lot if you happen to have impaired hearing. It's disastrous and shameful that such a mistake could be made and never once addressed post-launch.
Overall, to summarise my lengthy commentary of contempt for this miserable waste of 35 hours... The story is too afraid to tell history exactly how it was, ideas are forgotten and wasted, the gameplay tries to do literally everything that was trendy and collapse under it's own weight. And while the visuals were fine for their time, impressive even, the remaster has done a shockingly bad job at improving it, doing the opposite in most cases. Abhorrent remaster of a poor game, and one I never hope to revisit. Except I will, because I still need to play the DLC, which has it's own page on Backloggd. I will review that if I live to tell the tale.
Earthworm Jim
1994
This game is one of those that doesn't really care if you enjoy playing it moment to moment. It's gonna do what it's gonna do and you are just along for the ride.
This game sucks hot ass but is so fun to play it makes up for it.
Dumpster tier fighting game but very fun
One of the best arguments for putting a cd drive on any pc you own
This whole ass series is 2.5 stars even though I love them to the core.
This review contains spoilers
Wow, this must be one of the shortest Call of Duty campaigns out there. Only took me 4.5 hours this time, and about 0.5 of that must've been idle time.
Gameplay-wise this is practically CoD 2, which is a good thing. Compared to Black Ops, level design feels very open and intricate, and the game in general feels more like a game, as opposed to an interactive movie that is Black Ops. One big difference from CoD 2 is the ability to shoot through walls, and while it's a minor thing, it actually impacts the gameplay quite significantly.
Where it definitely outdoes CoD 2 is in its scenarios. From being executed in a coup to witnessing an atomic explosion in first-person, the game keeps surprising us, making us want to keep going forward just to see what else it's got in store. And the regular shootouts have enough restraint to actually convey the illusion of modern-day special operations, as opposed to turning it into an explosion bonanza.
All these things could lead to one of the best entries in the franchise, but it's all ruined by the absolutely idiotic story. I know I called Black Ops' story dumb, but that shit is a fucking masterpiece compared to Modern Warfare. I mean, Black Ops is ridiculous, but at least it kinda makes sense in the 80s action movie way. Modern Warfare, on the other hand, is just moronic. It's like the devs looked at the Chechen War and the Iraq War and thought "this looks kinda cool, let's do this in our game" without actually understanding any of the context of these wars. So, in this game there is an Ultranationalist party in Russia that is in fact not nationalist in the slightest, but rather Communist. They sport Communist symbols and their goal is the restoration of the USSR. In what fucking way are they nationalist? And they are led by a man named Imran Zakhaev, who clearly has a Caucasian name and looks nothing like an ethnic Russian. I actually grew up in Russia as a Caucasian myself, and ultranationalists were people who wanted to bash my head in for no reason other than my origin. In what world would a Caucasian lead an ultranationalist party? But even if you forget the stupid name of this party, in what world would a Caucasian want the restoration of the Soviet Union? I mean, those kinds of people might exist (god knows I was one of them for a brief couple of years as a teenager), but this fascination with the USSR falls apart as soon as you learn some history. Name me one Caucasian ethnicity that didn't suffer from the hands of the Soviets. I am convinced that no Caucasian with any political consciousness would want anything to do with Russia or the USSR in any way.
But what's even stupider are the cutscenes that happen during the loading screens. I honestly cannot understand how you could be THIS geographically illiterate. It's almost like they did it on purpose. What's most puzzling is how this game was allowed to be published in this state, and how everybody just swallowed this. Between missions, where your characters are clearly still in the same location, the map keeps jumping across various nations. In the Middle East you might be somewhere in the Southern Arabia in one mission and then in Iraq in the next one, despite clearly remaining in the same place. When you play as Soap, most of the missions take place in the Caucasus, first in Azerbaijan and then in Circassia. Then the game jumps to Altay, but the next mission suddenly forgets where Altay is located. In one cutscene it literally shows the Caucasus and calls it Altay. Then for the final mission the map throws you to Western Kazakhstan while still claiming you're in the Altay mountains. Like wtf is actually happening here?
The actual locations are also hardly reminiscent of what they're supposed to represent. The game never specifies where exactly in Northern Azerbaijan it is taking place. I swear the map jumps from Northwest to Northeast at a certain point (which are on two sides of the Caucasus mountain range), but we've already established that the map is insane in this game. The Call of Duty Wiki claims that it all takes place in the village of Amsar, the district of Quba. Now, see I was born in Northern Azerbaijan and am currently living there. The town I'm from is only 18 km away from this village. And I am convinced Infinity Ward does not know what Azerbaijan is. Because it looks like anything but Azerbaijan. With American looking country houses, Russian posters everywhere, Christian churches and Christian cemeteries. I'm not saying there aren't Christian churches and Christian cemeteries here, but they are really few and far between. I dunno what country this game is depicting as "Azerbaijan", but it's clearly not Azerbaijan.
I also want to highlight the mission in Pripyat that does not know how radiation works, and is in general one of the worst missions in the game because it's another one of those "Simon Says" missions where you're supposed to do EXACTLY what they tell you. A close second is a mission on AC-130, which is a glorified turret section. A lot of people praise it for highlighting the distancing from actual human consequences of modern war, but I think it utterly fails to do that, primarily because it doesn't actually show you the consequences. The game revels in the ease of murder, and after the mission is finished you just move onto the next task. Compare that with how Spec Ops: The Line handled the same kind of mission. I don't need to say anything else.
In conclusion, I wish this game had no story in it, and I wish the devs had done some geographical research. It's not that hard. This could be a decent military game that just moves you from task to task and has you shooting enemies. But I just can't help but cringe every time there is anything story-related here. As a person of Caucasian descent, I find this game hitting too close to home in the worst way possible.
Gameplay-wise this is practically CoD 2, which is a good thing. Compared to Black Ops, level design feels very open and intricate, and the game in general feels more like a game, as opposed to an interactive movie that is Black Ops. One big difference from CoD 2 is the ability to shoot through walls, and while it's a minor thing, it actually impacts the gameplay quite significantly.
Where it definitely outdoes CoD 2 is in its scenarios. From being executed in a coup to witnessing an atomic explosion in first-person, the game keeps surprising us, making us want to keep going forward just to see what else it's got in store. And the regular shootouts have enough restraint to actually convey the illusion of modern-day special operations, as opposed to turning it into an explosion bonanza.
All these things could lead to one of the best entries in the franchise, but it's all ruined by the absolutely idiotic story. I know I called Black Ops' story dumb, but that shit is a fucking masterpiece compared to Modern Warfare. I mean, Black Ops is ridiculous, but at least it kinda makes sense in the 80s action movie way. Modern Warfare, on the other hand, is just moronic. It's like the devs looked at the Chechen War and the Iraq War and thought "this looks kinda cool, let's do this in our game" without actually understanding any of the context of these wars. So, in this game there is an Ultranationalist party in Russia that is in fact not nationalist in the slightest, but rather Communist. They sport Communist symbols and their goal is the restoration of the USSR. In what fucking way are they nationalist? And they are led by a man named Imran Zakhaev, who clearly has a Caucasian name and looks nothing like an ethnic Russian. I actually grew up in Russia as a Caucasian myself, and ultranationalists were people who wanted to bash my head in for no reason other than my origin. In what world would a Caucasian lead an ultranationalist party? But even if you forget the stupid name of this party, in what world would a Caucasian want the restoration of the Soviet Union? I mean, those kinds of people might exist (god knows I was one of them for a brief couple of years as a teenager), but this fascination with the USSR falls apart as soon as you learn some history. Name me one Caucasian ethnicity that didn't suffer from the hands of the Soviets. I am convinced that no Caucasian with any political consciousness would want anything to do with Russia or the USSR in any way.
But what's even stupider are the cutscenes that happen during the loading screens. I honestly cannot understand how you could be THIS geographically illiterate. It's almost like they did it on purpose. What's most puzzling is how this game was allowed to be published in this state, and how everybody just swallowed this. Between missions, where your characters are clearly still in the same location, the map keeps jumping across various nations. In the Middle East you might be somewhere in the Southern Arabia in one mission and then in Iraq in the next one, despite clearly remaining in the same place. When you play as Soap, most of the missions take place in the Caucasus, first in Azerbaijan and then in Circassia. Then the game jumps to Altay, but the next mission suddenly forgets where Altay is located. In one cutscene it literally shows the Caucasus and calls it Altay. Then for the final mission the map throws you to Western Kazakhstan while still claiming you're in the Altay mountains. Like wtf is actually happening here?
The actual locations are also hardly reminiscent of what they're supposed to represent. The game never specifies where exactly in Northern Azerbaijan it is taking place. I swear the map jumps from Northwest to Northeast at a certain point (which are on two sides of the Caucasus mountain range), but we've already established that the map is insane in this game. The Call of Duty Wiki claims that it all takes place in the village of Amsar, the district of Quba. Now, see I was born in Northern Azerbaijan and am currently living there. The town I'm from is only 18 km away from this village. And I am convinced Infinity Ward does not know what Azerbaijan is. Because it looks like anything but Azerbaijan. With American looking country houses, Russian posters everywhere, Christian churches and Christian cemeteries. I'm not saying there aren't Christian churches and Christian cemeteries here, but they are really few and far between. I dunno what country this game is depicting as "Azerbaijan", but it's clearly not Azerbaijan.
I also want to highlight the mission in Pripyat that does not know how radiation works, and is in general one of the worst missions in the game because it's another one of those "Simon Says" missions where you're supposed to do EXACTLY what they tell you. A close second is a mission on AC-130, which is a glorified turret section. A lot of people praise it for highlighting the distancing from actual human consequences of modern war, but I think it utterly fails to do that, primarily because it doesn't actually show you the consequences. The game revels in the ease of murder, and after the mission is finished you just move onto the next task. Compare that with how Spec Ops: The Line handled the same kind of mission. I don't need to say anything else.
In conclusion, I wish this game had no story in it, and I wish the devs had done some geographical research. It's not that hard. This could be a decent military game that just moves you from task to task and has you shooting enemies. But I just can't help but cringe every time there is anything story-related here. As a person of Caucasian descent, I find this game hitting too close to home in the worst way possible.
Man, the characters in this series need a vacation. Well, those that are able to take one now...
A Plague Tale: Requiem once again puts us through a harrowing journey in a dark fantasy twist on Black Plague era Medieval France, this time with plenty of upgrades and improvements to make it an even more worthwhile experience than the first game. Again, we play (mostly) as Amicia De Rune who must journey with her brother Hugo to potentially cure the Macula in his blood that's causing all this magical plague nonsense. I won't be holding back on spoilers for the first game here, though I'll keep it spoiler free as possible on the second. No I'm not marking this, that's silly; don't read reviews for the sequel to a game you haven't played.
After defeating the Inquisition and journeying off with your totally alive the whole time Mother, Amicia and gang are plunged into the thick of it once again when a violent run-in with a gang of mercenaries reawakens the Macula in Hugo. Help from The Order of Alchemists is at first sought, but nothing seems to be working. Hugo dreams of an island and wishes to go there, but is this really the solution they've been looking for? Does this island even exist at all?
You'll find out the answers to these here, and as in its predecessor, developer Asobo Studios doesn't pull its punches. The storytelling is at an even higher level of excellence than before, and the characters you know as well as those you meet in this game go through a lot of development before the end. I was really satisfied with the ending, even if it did shatter my emotions to a degree, as it was clear the writers really respected these characters and their respective journeys. I left feeling fulfilled which is really the best you can ask for in such a narrative driven game.
This whole ordeal is bolstered by excellent production values as well. The graphics this time aren't just "good for a smaller studio" but downright stunning. The game frequently drops you into gorgeous vistas that'll take your breath away, the sheer number of rats they are able to get on screen now is just ridiculous, and the lighting continues to be an excellent aid to some beautiful, period appropriate art direction. My only nitpick here has to be the faces. As wonderful and realistic as they look in stills, their animation is unfortunately a bit too stiff most of the times. There are excellent moments, but usually, this was the one thing taking me out of the game when the rest of the visuals were doing such a great job of keeping me in. Olivier Deriviere's score is score is mesmerizing as well, capturing each moment and setpiece beautifully with its period accurate instrumentation and beautiful vocal performances. Atmosphere was already a strength of the first game, and its sequel only improves on this.
All that being said, the gameplay is what really is going to tie this whole experience together, and I'm happy to report that it's a massive success. My only small gripe is I miss the boss battles from the first game. There were some really fun encounters, especially the final one. Instead, Requiem has high action sections where waves of enemy come rushing at you in different variations, challenging you to use all your tools and surroundings to take them out. These sections aren't bad, especially with the new additions made to the game, but it's a shame we lost out on boss fights altogether.
Speaking of additions, Requiem gives the player FAR more tools to work with than Innocence in all of its facets: combat, stealth, and puzzle solving. Rock ammo for your sling is now infinite, so you always have something to use no matter what. The focus is now on managing crafting resources and using them to build the other ammo types and tools you'll need. All the different ammo types, both returning and new, are now able to be utilized by your sling, throwing by hand, mixed into pots (these are no longer just for distractions in stealth), and tied to the bolts of your handy dandy new crossbow.
This results in a multitude of new options when you find yourself in a sticky situation, and also allowed the developers to add more enemy types. Now there's a mix of unarmored, semi-armored, and heavily armored baddies with different ranged and melee capabilities for you to worry about. I had a blast going through different areas trying to use my resources I already had and those in the environment to not only get past the set of enemies put in front of me, but sometimes to take risks and go for secret chests or other goodies. It also makes the aforementioned enemy wave sections way more fun than they have any right to be. Amicia now takes two hits to die too, so you'll find yourself scrambling around, using what you have to take out enemies in front of you only to then have to take cover from ranged enemies and scrounge around for further resources. It's a much more empowering game which really fits with a narrative that sees Amicia start to give into more violent tendencies to protect Hugo. It's not too empowering though, and while there are moments of high stakes thrills and victories, it never saps the tension and dread from where it's needed.
Puzzles with these new tools remain fun too, and I only had a couple issues here and there when technical implementation of a solution felt a bit wonky. All in all, that never really ruined any moment for me, and while they were never brain-bustingly difficult, the puzzles throughout were consistently engaging and entertaining.
Big shoutout too specifically for the PlayStation 5 version of the game. The DualSense integration here is magnificent, particularly with the advanced haptic feedback. You can feel the drops of rain, the type of surface you're running on, and blades of grass through the controller which only further helps with an already immersive game. The Adaptive Triggers are used well too, blending nicely with the types of shooting you'll do with your sling and crossbow as well as giving some nice feedback and push when using R2 to sprint. A+ here for Asobo Studio, especially considering they're not a first party company.
Overall, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a phenomenal follow up to Innocence, and one that ties up the story and its characters' journeys in a neat bow while also providing an engaging and immersive gameplay experience. I highly recommend checking out both games in this series, as the overall story is something special to behold.
A Plague Tale: Requiem once again puts us through a harrowing journey in a dark fantasy twist on Black Plague era Medieval France, this time with plenty of upgrades and improvements to make it an even more worthwhile experience than the first game. Again, we play (mostly) as Amicia De Rune who must journey with her brother Hugo to potentially cure the Macula in his blood that's causing all this magical plague nonsense. I won't be holding back on spoilers for the first game here, though I'll keep it spoiler free as possible on the second. No I'm not marking this, that's silly; don't read reviews for the sequel to a game you haven't played.
After defeating the Inquisition and journeying off with your totally alive the whole time Mother, Amicia and gang are plunged into the thick of it once again when a violent run-in with a gang of mercenaries reawakens the Macula in Hugo. Help from The Order of Alchemists is at first sought, but nothing seems to be working. Hugo dreams of an island and wishes to go there, but is this really the solution they've been looking for? Does this island even exist at all?
You'll find out the answers to these here, and as in its predecessor, developer Asobo Studios doesn't pull its punches. The storytelling is at an even higher level of excellence than before, and the characters you know as well as those you meet in this game go through a lot of development before the end. I was really satisfied with the ending, even if it did shatter my emotions to a degree, as it was clear the writers really respected these characters and their respective journeys. I left feeling fulfilled which is really the best you can ask for in such a narrative driven game.
This whole ordeal is bolstered by excellent production values as well. The graphics this time aren't just "good for a smaller studio" but downright stunning. The game frequently drops you into gorgeous vistas that'll take your breath away, the sheer number of rats they are able to get on screen now is just ridiculous, and the lighting continues to be an excellent aid to some beautiful, period appropriate art direction. My only nitpick here has to be the faces. As wonderful and realistic as they look in stills, their animation is unfortunately a bit too stiff most of the times. There are excellent moments, but usually, this was the one thing taking me out of the game when the rest of the visuals were doing such a great job of keeping me in. Olivier Deriviere's score is score is mesmerizing as well, capturing each moment and setpiece beautifully with its period accurate instrumentation and beautiful vocal performances. Atmosphere was already a strength of the first game, and its sequel only improves on this.
All that being said, the gameplay is what really is going to tie this whole experience together, and I'm happy to report that it's a massive success. My only small gripe is I miss the boss battles from the first game. There were some really fun encounters, especially the final one. Instead, Requiem has high action sections where waves of enemy come rushing at you in different variations, challenging you to use all your tools and surroundings to take them out. These sections aren't bad, especially with the new additions made to the game, but it's a shame we lost out on boss fights altogether.
Speaking of additions, Requiem gives the player FAR more tools to work with than Innocence in all of its facets: combat, stealth, and puzzle solving. Rock ammo for your sling is now infinite, so you always have something to use no matter what. The focus is now on managing crafting resources and using them to build the other ammo types and tools you'll need. All the different ammo types, both returning and new, are now able to be utilized by your sling, throwing by hand, mixed into pots (these are no longer just for distractions in stealth), and tied to the bolts of your handy dandy new crossbow.
This results in a multitude of new options when you find yourself in a sticky situation, and also allowed the developers to add more enemy types. Now there's a mix of unarmored, semi-armored, and heavily armored baddies with different ranged and melee capabilities for you to worry about. I had a blast going through different areas trying to use my resources I already had and those in the environment to not only get past the set of enemies put in front of me, but sometimes to take risks and go for secret chests or other goodies. It also makes the aforementioned enemy wave sections way more fun than they have any right to be. Amicia now takes two hits to die too, so you'll find yourself scrambling around, using what you have to take out enemies in front of you only to then have to take cover from ranged enemies and scrounge around for further resources. It's a much more empowering game which really fits with a narrative that sees Amicia start to give into more violent tendencies to protect Hugo. It's not too empowering though, and while there are moments of high stakes thrills and victories, it never saps the tension and dread from where it's needed.
Puzzles with these new tools remain fun too, and I only had a couple issues here and there when technical implementation of a solution felt a bit wonky. All in all, that never really ruined any moment for me, and while they were never brain-bustingly difficult, the puzzles throughout were consistently engaging and entertaining.
Big shoutout too specifically for the PlayStation 5 version of the game. The DualSense integration here is magnificent, particularly with the advanced haptic feedback. You can feel the drops of rain, the type of surface you're running on, and blades of grass through the controller which only further helps with an already immersive game. The Adaptive Triggers are used well too, blending nicely with the types of shooting you'll do with your sling and crossbow as well as giving some nice feedback and push when using R2 to sprint. A+ here for Asobo Studio, especially considering they're not a first party company.
Overall, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a phenomenal follow up to Innocence, and one that ties up the story and its characters' journeys in a neat bow while also providing an engaging and immersive gameplay experience. I highly recommend checking out both games in this series, as the overall story is something special to behold.
“Western adaptation of Snatcher” is the glib one-line review here, but it is remarkable how closely this game mimics Kojima’s Blade Runner fan-game in structure and content, to the point where I’m suspicious about whether someone from Westwood played the 1994 MegaCD release and saw the opportunity for an Officially Licensed Blade Runner™ Product. Click on a corpse, fly-by-night to a multi-storey police station, see a Coca-Cola advertising board with Japanese writing on it, that sort of cyberthing. The key difference between the two games is that Blade Runner is suffocated by the tedium of a traditional point-and-click-and-walk template - while the back of the box brags about not having any puzzles and a story that unfolds regardless of what you choose/fail to do, you’re still going to find your progression blocked by the pixellated whims of a 240p environment and the typical this-noun-then-that-noun chains that govern whether an adventure game can progress; best exemplified by me brick-walling 15 minutes before the finale because I hadn’t found out about the type of cheese sauce a sandwich had, which in turn had locked me out of a whole series of conspiracies that lead all the way back to Eldon Tyrell and the nature of human existence itself. Remember the part of the original movie where Deckard couldn’t confront Roy Batty because he’d forgotten to check which toy was in the Burger King Kidz Menu this month? (“This game really feels makes you feel like Blade Runner!” - PCGamer, November 1997)
To some extent, the game does succeed at making you really feel like Mr. Blade Runner - the music is here (amusingly, Westwood created a room the exists solely for you to stand around listening to Blade Runner Blues from the movie soundtrack), the sleaze is there, the neon is everywhere, and it does, on occasion, achieve the paranoid-android feeling of wondering and worrying whether the next person you interact with is going to be a hostile replicant (the game’s primary claim to fame is that they’re randomised on every playthrough). But it’s mostly superficial simulacra, Blade Runner for the fans who would display Rick Deckard’s Iconic Blaster Pistol on their toy shelf or drink out of a plastic whisky glass that looks like it came from the props cupboard of 2049. Gaff shows up to drop his little origami animals, but more as a referential signifier than a concerted attempt to implant any thoughts or memories beyond those of the movie; compare this with Blade Runner 2049, a sequel that used its predecessor’s philosophy as a foundation to build upon rather than outright replicate as this game does with its Dick Reckard protagonist and little Universal Studios field trips to the original sets. There’s a real lack of the ambiguity that defines Blade Runner - the (well-realised) Voight-Kampf Test’s role here as an absolute judge of character seems to fly in the face of that iconic scene with Rachael, and every crisis can be averted by presenting evidence like you’re a cyberpunk Phoenix Wright - quite the contrast with boozy Harrison Ford showing up half a day late to every crime scene reeking of cigs and regrets. Frankly, I expected more from the writing team who gave us this.
With regards to the “Enhanced Edition” claims - all signs seem to point to this being a big downgrade from the ScummVM port that launched on GOG a few years ago, and my playthrough on the Switch crashed to desktop twice with debug info being written to console (no!!! bad nightdive!!!) Avoid, unless you really wanna play this on console for whatever reason - the “classic” edition is bundled with every purchase of the new PC version now. There was a whole bunch of drama between the scene hackers who originally brought it back from the dead and the otherwise-spotless Nightdive, but seems like they’ve decided to bury the hatchet (due to literal death threats from “fans” over a 90s point and click game) so I won’t get into the morality of that particular can of highly-artefacted electric worms.
To some extent, the game does succeed at making you really feel like Mr. Blade Runner - the music is here (amusingly, Westwood created a room the exists solely for you to stand around listening to Blade Runner Blues from the movie soundtrack), the sleaze is there, the neon is everywhere, and it does, on occasion, achieve the paranoid-android feeling of wondering and worrying whether the next person you interact with is going to be a hostile replicant (the game’s primary claim to fame is that they’re randomised on every playthrough). But it’s mostly superficial simulacra, Blade Runner for the fans who would display Rick Deckard’s Iconic Blaster Pistol on their toy shelf or drink out of a plastic whisky glass that looks like it came from the props cupboard of 2049. Gaff shows up to drop his little origami animals, but more as a referential signifier than a concerted attempt to implant any thoughts or memories beyond those of the movie; compare this with Blade Runner 2049, a sequel that used its predecessor’s philosophy as a foundation to build upon rather than outright replicate as this game does with its Dick Reckard protagonist and little Universal Studios field trips to the original sets. There’s a real lack of the ambiguity that defines Blade Runner - the (well-realised) Voight-Kampf Test’s role here as an absolute judge of character seems to fly in the face of that iconic scene with Rachael, and every crisis can be averted by presenting evidence like you’re a cyberpunk Phoenix Wright - quite the contrast with boozy Harrison Ford showing up half a day late to every crime scene reeking of cigs and regrets. Frankly, I expected more from the writing team who gave us this.
With regards to the “Enhanced Edition” claims - all signs seem to point to this being a big downgrade from the ScummVM port that launched on GOG a few years ago, and my playthrough on the Switch crashed to desktop twice with debug info being written to console (no!!! bad nightdive!!!) Avoid, unless you really wanna play this on console for whatever reason - the “classic” edition is bundled with every purchase of the new PC version now. There was a whole bunch of drama between the scene hackers who originally brought it back from the dead and the otherwise-spotless Nightdive, but seems like they’ve decided to bury the hatchet (due to literal death threats from “fans” over a 90s point and click game) so I won’t get into the morality of that particular can of highly-artefacted electric worms.
Unpacking
2021
Interesting idea, not sure about the execution. At some point it just felt like a chore. Didn't hit me emotionally as much as I expected unfortunately. (low 6)
Didn't quite hit for me the way the first one did, but still a solid sequel that I feel suffered in places from trying to be BIGGER than the original.
At the end of the stream, chat and I were going back and forth on whether we wanted to see them try to do another based purely on an insane post-credits scene that I'm amazed hadn't been spoiled for me.
At the end of the stream, chat and I were going back and forth on whether we wanted to see them try to do another based purely on an insane post-credits scene that I'm amazed hadn't been spoiled for me.
The first Plague Tale came out of nowhere and at times neared AAA levels of production values, with strong video game storytelling and fun puzzle-stealth gameplay. The game was ripe for a sequel, and Asobo returns with a worthy follow-up which expands on the gameplay ideas of the first game for another rat-infested adventure.
A Plague Tale Innocence got pretty crazy toward the end with the plot, and Requiem continues veering into that supernatural side pretty quickly. The escalation worked for me, though I could see how some players might have appreciated a narrative that was a bit more grounded overall. The game definitely drags in places, with odd pacing issues here and there. There are some big tense setpieces early on and then things grind to a halt when Amicia and Hugo reach a sort of safe haven. The 16 or so hours it took me to get through this one never wore me out, but there were definitely some exploration-focused chapters that dragged on too long. Still, the sibling bond between Amicia and Hugo runs strong as ever and the game packs a real emotional punch in its dramatic conclusion.
Gameplay is quite a bit expanded from the first game. While there are still plenty of puzzle-solving areas where there is only one way forward, there are more open stealth combat oriented sections. While Amicia doesn't have all of her tools off the bat (there are some early chapters where she's like "I forgot about this tool" and I rolled my eyes a bit), but she at least acquires all of her old abilities pretty quickly. My favorites sections of the first game were at the very end where you had some freedom with how to get through a hostile area. Requiem gives you so much freedom to craft different types of ammunition for your sling and wreak havoc on your foes. I loved working my way through each section by trying different things, and the game encourages experimentation by not making the act of getting spotted an instant death like the first game.
Sometimes the game throws you into full-on combat arenas which are super intense, though the implementation could be better. Amicia has a crossbow now that takes out most enemies with one hit, and I wish there was more to these fights than just trying to strafe around the arena waiting to see crossbow ammo respawn to take out more fools.
The whole experience feels more game-y than last time, all the way down to Hugo's new ability to sense enemies around the environment. Overall I appreciated the variety of the gameplay, and we still get plenty of the linear environmental puzzles of the first game.
The presentation is excellent here and Asobo has really pushed the game into a AAA-feeling experience akin to something you'd play from PlayStation Studios. The game is not cross-gen (though is on Switch lol) and feels like a technical showcase. It even makes a lot of use of the PS5 controller gimmicks like the rumble and shoulder buttons. The score is fantastic like the first game. I played the game in French like I did the first one, but hear the English voice acting is excellent too.
I'd definitely recommend playing A Plague Tale Innocence before hopping into Requiem, but this is a pretty worthy sequel. It loses focus and drags in places, but ultimately brings it home with a really excellent sequel that expands on the great ideas that made the first game a standout.
A Plague Tale Innocence got pretty crazy toward the end with the plot, and Requiem continues veering into that supernatural side pretty quickly. The escalation worked for me, though I could see how some players might have appreciated a narrative that was a bit more grounded overall. The game definitely drags in places, with odd pacing issues here and there. There are some big tense setpieces early on and then things grind to a halt when Amicia and Hugo reach a sort of safe haven. The 16 or so hours it took me to get through this one never wore me out, but there were definitely some exploration-focused chapters that dragged on too long. Still, the sibling bond between Amicia and Hugo runs strong as ever and the game packs a real emotional punch in its dramatic conclusion.
Gameplay is quite a bit expanded from the first game. While there are still plenty of puzzle-solving areas where there is only one way forward, there are more open stealth combat oriented sections. While Amicia doesn't have all of her tools off the bat (there are some early chapters where she's like "I forgot about this tool" and I rolled my eyes a bit), but she at least acquires all of her old abilities pretty quickly. My favorites sections of the first game were at the very end where you had some freedom with how to get through a hostile area. Requiem gives you so much freedom to craft different types of ammunition for your sling and wreak havoc on your foes. I loved working my way through each section by trying different things, and the game encourages experimentation by not making the act of getting spotted an instant death like the first game.
Sometimes the game throws you into full-on combat arenas which are super intense, though the implementation could be better. Amicia has a crossbow now that takes out most enemies with one hit, and I wish there was more to these fights than just trying to strafe around the arena waiting to see crossbow ammo respawn to take out more fools.
The whole experience feels more game-y than last time, all the way down to Hugo's new ability to sense enemies around the environment. Overall I appreciated the variety of the gameplay, and we still get plenty of the linear environmental puzzles of the first game.
The presentation is excellent here and Asobo has really pushed the game into a AAA-feeling experience akin to something you'd play from PlayStation Studios. The game is not cross-gen (though is on Switch lol) and feels like a technical showcase. It even makes a lot of use of the PS5 controller gimmicks like the rumble and shoulder buttons. The score is fantastic like the first game. I played the game in French like I did the first one, but hear the English voice acting is excellent too.
I'd definitely recommend playing A Plague Tale Innocence before hopping into Requiem, but this is a pretty worthy sequel. It loses focus and drags in places, but ultimately brings it home with a really excellent sequel that expands on the great ideas that made the first game a standout.