NovaNiles
I love this game. I have a thing for exploring ancient tombs and this gives me exacly what I want from that fantasy. Add to it the really sick movement options and Lara beeing a complete badass. I could have done with less of the repetditiv combat but considering I unlocked everthing by getting collectibales and perfecting the time trials, its a overall very minor issue. The time trials rock btw, as close as I have ever come having a blast speedrunning a game.
2016
Its the super polished, fan service filled Victory Lap finale to the Souls series. Its a good step up from DS2, while suffering from diminishing returns. I feel myself loving its art style while getting annyoid by its super linear gameworld. I adore some of the boss fights like the Abyss Watchers, only to return to a world to offers me nothing I havent seen done better by this very series. At the very atleast this feeling is kinda fitting for a world that presents itself a rotting corpse screaming that it wants to end.
I dont know how the original version of DS2 fairs but I cant denyie that this is a huge step down as far as Sequels go. Enemie placement is piss and the fact that you have to waste lvl ups on adaption is awful. I will always love its vibe, the silly armor sets and the feeling of power stancing the fuck out of bosses but its flaws I can never denyie.
2011
2002
Man was it a downer revisiting this. I love the graphics, the writting, the music and the gameplay up until about the half way point. Once you hit the blarg refineries and factorys its like night and day how awful the game becomes. Like what the fuck happend ? Its like they knew the limitations of the gameplay up to a point and then suddenly someone took over who knew none of those things, then went ahead and ruined the game.
I just dont get why everyone is creaming themselfs about this Remake. They fucked up the Gunplay so much that it made me turn of the game multiple times. The new music is so unfitting, that it nukes the intended tone from orbit leaving me feeling no investment what so ever. I guess it looks really nice, in some parts atleast. And lastly they didnt even do what they promised: They didnt fix Xen. Now its just longer but still as awful as in the original, killing any reason for me to ever play this over the OG.
Thank god this a 100% worth while remake now, even comes with Voice Acting in the old graphics out of the box. That said im not the biggest fan of Monkey 2. Its writting is clever but lacks so much focus and structure. Some of the later puzzles I also find to be a bit too extra. Its like they wanted to design a game with the most clever and elaborate puzzles, but had no consideration for anybody that isnt programming adventure games for a living. I consider the parts where you find the 3 map pieces some of the most unfun hours in any adventure game.
The One and only reason I give this 5 Stars is because this abomination of a remake the comes with a file of the original. Take that file and use it to make the Ultimate talki version of the game, wich is a mod made by fans. Than you have the best version of a timeless classic with great puzzles and writting.
I suprisingly like the story better than the original. Its a really clever deconstruction where I dont even mind revisting what are basicly asset flips from KH1. But goddamit the card battlin system is so poorly explained. It even comits the fucking grevous sin of letting you coast through hours of the game only to suddenly hit you with a brickwall. Then its either hours of deck building/grinding or just straight up restarting 10+ hours all of over again with a fresh save.
I do respect that they had the balls to make this more than the game itself honestly. Its fun on some weird level, but the choices in the begining and how heavily they effect your progession is not explained at all, to the point where it can make the game impossibly difficult if you happen to pick wrong. The levels are just boxes and the writting just didnt click with me. I honestly have no better way than describing it as: it is very gay. Its honestly respectable that a PS2 game leant so much into that specific audience. And judging by the huge fanbase, it seem to have done alot of things very right for people.
1991
1986