Quadrophenia2023
2020
Took me awhile to get used to the layout (I was not raised on old-school text adventures and 80s RPGs, lemme tell you), but after awhile I settled into a nice groove. This game is engaging as hell, gang.
2023
This was a treat for me. I adore the world Remedy's created with Wake and Control, and I am invested. I cannot wait to see where they go after this.
Addendum: RIP James McCaffrey.
Addendum: RIP James McCaffrey.
2003
... Honestly, I think this game is as wonderful as 2.
2001
Still the GOAT.
2022
What a poignant, beautiful, sapphic throwback to early Silent Hill and Resident Evil.
2020
God, what a good time, especially with friends!
2006
I forgot how brutally punishing this game could be, more punishing still with the horrible survivor AI, my God. I feel spoiled by years of autosave features, because it's atrophied the necessity to always find save points for me.
This is still a fine, fun, game, but you have to approach it with the right frame of mind.
This is still a fine, fun, game, but you have to approach it with the right frame of mind.
... If Ground Zeroes is any indication?
I'm looking forward to Phantom Pain, at least on a gameplay basis.
I'm looking forward to Phantom Pain, at least on a gameplay basis.
The only problem with this game?
It's too damn short, even when accounting for DLC.
Other than that, goddamn, it's like a distillation of everything whacky and absurd about the Metal Gear series squeezed into a DMC-sausage casing.
It's too damn short, even when accounting for DLC.
Other than that, goddamn, it's like a distillation of everything whacky and absurd about the Metal Gear series squeezed into a DMC-sausage casing.
This review contains spoilers
I walked into Peace Walker with an open mind. Up until this point, I'd fallen in love with the series. Hell, I walked away from Guns of the Patriots something of an apologist. Seeing Peace Walker experiment with the formula with XCOM-inspired resource management and, of all things, Monster Hunter-inspired combat, seemed fresh and exciting.
And the interactive, comic book-esque, cutscenes in the style of Yoji Shinkawa's classic art direction? Inspired choice.
... But, and I understand this was a PSP game, the story feels so short? If you stripped away the gameplay loop you'd have maybe the short MGS game in the series. For some, that's a bonus. For me, even though it introduced Hal's scumbag father and compellingly vengeful mother, it felt... undercooked, narratively.
There's something lacking when you replace all boss fights with character-less mechs. Without that bombastic anime melodrama theatre kid energy, Metal Gear loses much of its charm.
And that you have to farm those same boss fights, over and over, to build ZEKE, and pray to the random number generator gods to bless you with the drops you need to unlock the final chapter? Yeah. Yeah, that cinched it for me.
I'm sorry to say, and it certainly hurts to, but this might be the only Metal Gear game (so far) I've outright haven't enjoyed.
... Well, onto MGSV and see if I've spoken too soon, eh?
And the interactive, comic book-esque, cutscenes in the style of Yoji Shinkawa's classic art direction? Inspired choice.
... But, and I understand this was a PSP game, the story feels so short? If you stripped away the gameplay loop you'd have maybe the short MGS game in the series. For some, that's a bonus. For me, even though it introduced Hal's scumbag father and compellingly vengeful mother, it felt... undercooked, narratively.
There's something lacking when you replace all boss fights with character-less mechs. Without that bombastic anime melodrama theatre kid energy, Metal Gear loses much of its charm.
And that you have to farm those same boss fights, over and over, to build ZEKE, and pray to the random number generator gods to bless you with the drops you need to unlock the final chapter? Yeah. Yeah, that cinched it for me.
I'm sorry to say, and it certainly hurts to, but this might be the only Metal Gear game (so far) I've outright haven't enjoyed.
... Well, onto MGSV and see if I've spoken too soon, eh?
This was... perfectly okay! The gameplay loop is addictive but–and I'm speaking personally, here–after awhile it hit a point of diminishing returns. Lacklustre bosses, short dungeons, repetitive cutscenes dragging out the same beat every time you awaken a new sage, etc.
I can't help but find this is more a physics engine that happens to have a fantasy quest attached, rather than a full game in its own right.
I can't help but find this is more a physics engine that happens to have a fantasy quest attached, rather than a full game in its own right.
I adore 2 for its ambition, but 3 grounding its story in the tragedy of Naked Snake and Boss's relationship makes it feel so much more personal.
Superior to the original in every way, and all the more eerily prophetic.