There is no game I've wanted to give 5-stars to more than The New Colossus. From its incredible (and incredibly timely) story to the ferocious creativity in its world building, level design (okay, Manhattan is a bit ponderous) and characterization, The New Colossus was a titanic achievement of feel and style.
I mean, I played 18 hours of this, the campaign portion practically straight through. I earned my first trophy just after Noon on November 5th, my last trophy (of the campaign) just after 2PM on November 6th, then dabbled in toe Übercommader stuff for about a week and walked away. That's fucking DEVOURING a video game!
Unfortunately, it doesn't always feel great to play. The previous game had a heavier dose of stealth than this does, but those roots are still lain and thus at times this game incentivizes anything other than laying waste to Nazi scum at the most brusk pace possible. I get it, the Nazis won and are very dangerous - I still would rather feel like a lawn mower than a field mouse! Speaking of danger, the A.I. itself isn't particularly robust, but this game has a hard time communicating damage as well as its source, leading to many frustrating deaths wherein you can't be entirely sure you were actually playing the game poorly.
There's a side of me that says, ah whatever, this has syphilitic Hitler, pregnant women double wielding uzis, weird secret Jewish space tech, character deaths* just as shocking as anything on Game of Thrones and one of the single most empowering, feel good endings to a video game there's ever been.
If anyone's ever told you that The New Colossus can be a frustrating experience, believe them! After two of these I'm actually not entirely convinced MachineGames are excellent video game designers. But they are certainly some sort of visionaries, daredevils beyond measure, and I really hope we get to hear from them again soon.
I mean, I played 18 hours of this, the campaign portion practically straight through. I earned my first trophy just after Noon on November 5th, my last trophy (of the campaign) just after 2PM on November 6th, then dabbled in toe Übercommader stuff for about a week and walked away. That's fucking DEVOURING a video game!
Unfortunately, it doesn't always feel great to play. The previous game had a heavier dose of stealth than this does, but those roots are still lain and thus at times this game incentivizes anything other than laying waste to Nazi scum at the most brusk pace possible. I get it, the Nazis won and are very dangerous - I still would rather feel like a lawn mower than a field mouse! Speaking of danger, the A.I. itself isn't particularly robust, but this game has a hard time communicating damage as well as its source, leading to many frustrating deaths wherein you can't be entirely sure you were actually playing the game poorly.
There's a side of me that says, ah whatever, this has syphilitic Hitler, pregnant women double wielding uzis, weird secret Jewish space tech, character deaths* just as shocking as anything on Game of Thrones and one of the single most empowering, feel good endings to a video game there's ever been.
If anyone's ever told you that The New Colossus can be a frustrating experience, believe them! After two of these I'm actually not entirely convinced MachineGames are excellent video game designers. But they are certainly some sort of visionaries, daredevils beyond measure, and I really hope we get to hear from them again soon.