Rezlo
BACKER
2020
In many ways, West of Dead is simultaneously the antithesis of AND the perfect model of the roguelike dungeon crawler. You got your consumables, different realms, rapid game reloads, short sessions meant to be replayable, and procedurally generated levels. I think what most sets it apart from your Hades or Enter the Gungeon is its particular emphasis on slower combat.
You learn this very quickly.
Instead of being "encouraged" to use cover generously, you’re all but forced to even in the first underworld area. When cover is destroyed our outside arm’s reach, you also have access to your main proactive defensive maneuver, the dodge. Your savior and condemner. This floaty dash is very inconsistent in its ability to actually dodge incoming shots. Try to use it only when necessary. While you can and sometimes have to spam it in swarm scenarios, I find it’s even less consistent in its pathing and distance you gain from using it when spamming the move.
So long as you can adjust your expectations for a slower, more methodical experience, you can enjoy yourself plenty with the combat, jank and all. In fact, the game is quite easy. I didn’t die once before I was already at the end in a minuscule four and a half hours. The only difficult sections - excluding getting used to the cover movement - was the final boss and the preacher, and the latter only because of his gargantuan health pool and seemingly neo-like ability to dodge your shots. Since it’s a roguelike you can obviously keep playing for more secrets and upgrades, but honestly? I had my fill by the end of my first session. In a pure dollars to hours exchange, West of Dead probably isn’t that great of a deal, but I didn’t regret my time with it at all. Luckily, I got it on sale, and so should you if you have any intention of playing it.
Also, as a side note: It’s odd how frequently I incidentally play games that are roguelikes or Metroidvanias, with this one being one of the former. I don’t know if that speaks more to my not looking into prospective games deep enough or just the prevalence of those genres, or both. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just funny how many titles from those genres I’ve played without knowing ahead of time. But I digress.
The procedurally generated maps here are much smaller, refreshingly small in fact, and are well designed in the sense that it makes you feel like you’re outside while still in actuality being in dank, claustrophobic rooms better suited for close-quarters gunplay. There’s little to no backtracking, and realms take less than an hour to clear.
And while the game is blink and you’ll miss it quick, it will at least be a visually stunning time for the night it takes you to beat it. The comic book art style is undeniably the biggest beacon of awesome West of Dead possesses, and what I’d wager is the largest draw the game has. One that I’m afraid has caused a lot of unfortunate expectations, like the assumption that the depth is as good as the art direction. And I admit that as someone who is in the 90th percentile of people who played and actually enjoyed the title. Even I can agree this is missing some much-needed variety in the gun and tactics department. That said, I certainly had a better time than Ron Perlman did, who appeared to have been threatened at knifepoint to provide the VO for the main character for the game. Which is a shame, because he really is a great choice for the role.
To anyone considering buying West of Dead the two roadblock questions I’d ask would be: are you ok with a shorter, easier adventure than most roguelikes, and are you content with this being a cover shooter focused on methodical gunplay? If both of your answers are yes, then the game isn’t such a hard sell when it’s discounted. Otherwise, I’d steer clear.
You learn this very quickly.
Instead of being "encouraged" to use cover generously, you’re all but forced to even in the first underworld area. When cover is destroyed our outside arm’s reach, you also have access to your main proactive defensive maneuver, the dodge. Your savior and condemner. This floaty dash is very inconsistent in its ability to actually dodge incoming shots. Try to use it only when necessary. While you can and sometimes have to spam it in swarm scenarios, I find it’s even less consistent in its pathing and distance you gain from using it when spamming the move.
So long as you can adjust your expectations for a slower, more methodical experience, you can enjoy yourself plenty with the combat, jank and all. In fact, the game is quite easy. I didn’t die once before I was already at the end in a minuscule four and a half hours. The only difficult sections - excluding getting used to the cover movement - was the final boss and the preacher, and the latter only because of his gargantuan health pool and seemingly neo-like ability to dodge your shots. Since it’s a roguelike you can obviously keep playing for more secrets and upgrades, but honestly? I had my fill by the end of my first session. In a pure dollars to hours exchange, West of Dead probably isn’t that great of a deal, but I didn’t regret my time with it at all. Luckily, I got it on sale, and so should you if you have any intention of playing it.
Also, as a side note: It’s odd how frequently I incidentally play games that are roguelikes or Metroidvanias, with this one being one of the former. I don’t know if that speaks more to my not looking into prospective games deep enough or just the prevalence of those genres, or both. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just funny how many titles from those genres I’ve played without knowing ahead of time. But I digress.
The procedurally generated maps here are much smaller, refreshingly small in fact, and are well designed in the sense that it makes you feel like you’re outside while still in actuality being in dank, claustrophobic rooms better suited for close-quarters gunplay. There’s little to no backtracking, and realms take less than an hour to clear.
And while the game is blink and you’ll miss it quick, it will at least be a visually stunning time for the night it takes you to beat it. The comic book art style is undeniably the biggest beacon of awesome West of Dead possesses, and what I’d wager is the largest draw the game has. One that I’m afraid has caused a lot of unfortunate expectations, like the assumption that the depth is as good as the art direction. And I admit that as someone who is in the 90th percentile of people who played and actually enjoyed the title. Even I can agree this is missing some much-needed variety in the gun and tactics department. That said, I certainly had a better time than Ron Perlman did, who appeared to have been threatened at knifepoint to provide the VO for the main character for the game. Which is a shame, because he really is a great choice for the role.
To anyone considering buying West of Dead the two roadblock questions I’d ask would be: are you ok with a shorter, easier adventure than most roguelikes, and are you content with this being a cover shooter focused on methodical gunplay? If both of your answers are yes, then the game isn’t such a hard sell when it’s discounted. Otherwise, I’d steer clear.
2024
I’ve not yet played it myself, but apparently El Huervo, the artist for this game, worked previously on Hotline Miami. And from all that I’ve seen, that makes more sense than the sun rising in the morning. By far Ultros’ biggest boon, the art style is absolutely gorgeous, with its sunbaked colors and sharp accents. The neon mosaic of a living sarcophagus adrift in space is an ethereal experience that, to make an early prediction, is a promising early contender for most visually stunning game of the year. If I were just grading the game on that I’d be a different story.
Sadly, the story feels like an experiment to say as few things in as many words as possible, which is weird considering your character doesn’t even talk. It becomes clear early on that Ultros is one of those metaphorical, lore-heavy games that requires a fair bit of reflection and time(line)-keeping to get in order, much less understand. I tried to hang on to every word said, but about an hour in I gave up on caring what the game had to say about metaphorical rebirth space-mumbo jumbo. I would say it made me feel like an idiot, but I challenge anyone not obsessed with the game to make any sense of the lore in Ultros. On its own the characters you meet are interesting and mysterious, shout out to my boy Gardner who’s just a chill dude doing what he does best, gardening. I think if they just left it there, with a kooky cast of characters that you meet and sometimes fight for first dibs at zoning privileges, it would be a charming story not unlike something like Undertale. As it stands, the cryptic monologues just didn’t do anything for me.
As the name Gardner suggests, planting and watering flora plays a significant part in healing yourself, fighting enemies, and traversing the living landscape. While the possibility of planting the wrong seed at the wrong spot exists, re-planting is made easy and non-punishing. Typically, when you plant a new seed, some time is necessary for the plant to grow to its full size if it’s a platforming shrub. A feature most evident in the rebirth mechanic that occurs every time you defeat a new section of the map, sending you back to where you first spawned and taking away your upgrades. On that aspect I’m lukewarm, since when I regained my skill points I usually just rebought the best upgrades over again. The idea is to experiment with new abilities and try out different skill sets, but with almost half the abilities falling squarely in the convenience category, I didn’t bother exploring too much. Conversely, I quite enjoyed the gardening angle. It’s a bit hard to keep track of what’s where when it’s a Metroidvania, but they sold me on the idea, however novel it may be.
The soundtrack was diverse, with traditional orchestral motifs and otherworldly moans interchanging throughout the winding tunnels of the ship. While I’m more privy to the weeping violins, I could appreciate the more haunting, abstract tunes as well. Fun fact by the way: composer Oscar Rydelius actually obtained a fair bit of the sounds in the score during a trip to Peru, including from ambient landscapes and indigenous instruments, which when pitch-shifted definitely fits the vibe they’re going for here.
And yet the weaving of all these cool, unique aspects can’t help but make it apparent how generic the world and movement is. You get gadgets, but none of them really stand out as particularly creative or fun. Even as far as Metroidvanias go, this one feels extremely linear. Twice did I have to look up how to progress further, as seemingly all points of entries into further areas were blocked off or otherwise restricted. If you’re going to make an ultra-dense Metroidvania that’s fine, you simply have to keep in mind that it should be tailored to all orders of progression. The last thing I want to do is go back and forth jump-hugging a wall in hopes that I can break the game into submission.
Now if more sections were like my favorite area of Ultros, the weird pirate game show section, where you play silly sports contests against various aliens, then I’d likely be singing a different tune altogether. It’s cheeky, and wacky, and unfortunately the only memorable section of the game that doesn’t involve running from Qualia, another character in Ultros. Next time, less filler and more killer. While my time was still positive overall, I can’t help finding myself somewhat disappointed with what we got. Unless you’re a hardcore Metroidvania fanatic AND in love with the style like me, maybe just stick to finding a neat wallpaper inspired by the game and giving a listen to the soundtrack.
Sadly, the story feels like an experiment to say as few things in as many words as possible, which is weird considering your character doesn’t even talk. It becomes clear early on that Ultros is one of those metaphorical, lore-heavy games that requires a fair bit of reflection and time(line)-keeping to get in order, much less understand. I tried to hang on to every word said, but about an hour in I gave up on caring what the game had to say about metaphorical rebirth space-mumbo jumbo. I would say it made me feel like an idiot, but I challenge anyone not obsessed with the game to make any sense of the lore in Ultros. On its own the characters you meet are interesting and mysterious, shout out to my boy Gardner who’s just a chill dude doing what he does best, gardening. I think if they just left it there, with a kooky cast of characters that you meet and sometimes fight for first dibs at zoning privileges, it would be a charming story not unlike something like Undertale. As it stands, the cryptic monologues just didn’t do anything for me.
As the name Gardner suggests, planting and watering flora plays a significant part in healing yourself, fighting enemies, and traversing the living landscape. While the possibility of planting the wrong seed at the wrong spot exists, re-planting is made easy and non-punishing. Typically, when you plant a new seed, some time is necessary for the plant to grow to its full size if it’s a platforming shrub. A feature most evident in the rebirth mechanic that occurs every time you defeat a new section of the map, sending you back to where you first spawned and taking away your upgrades. On that aspect I’m lukewarm, since when I regained my skill points I usually just rebought the best upgrades over again. The idea is to experiment with new abilities and try out different skill sets, but with almost half the abilities falling squarely in the convenience category, I didn’t bother exploring too much. Conversely, I quite enjoyed the gardening angle. It’s a bit hard to keep track of what’s where when it’s a Metroidvania, but they sold me on the idea, however novel it may be.
The soundtrack was diverse, with traditional orchestral motifs and otherworldly moans interchanging throughout the winding tunnels of the ship. While I’m more privy to the weeping violins, I could appreciate the more haunting, abstract tunes as well. Fun fact by the way: composer Oscar Rydelius actually obtained a fair bit of the sounds in the score during a trip to Peru, including from ambient landscapes and indigenous instruments, which when pitch-shifted definitely fits the vibe they’re going for here.
And yet the weaving of all these cool, unique aspects can’t help but make it apparent how generic the world and movement is. You get gadgets, but none of them really stand out as particularly creative or fun. Even as far as Metroidvanias go, this one feels extremely linear. Twice did I have to look up how to progress further, as seemingly all points of entries into further areas were blocked off or otherwise restricted. If you’re going to make an ultra-dense Metroidvania that’s fine, you simply have to keep in mind that it should be tailored to all orders of progression. The last thing I want to do is go back and forth jump-hugging a wall in hopes that I can break the game into submission.
Now if more sections were like my favorite area of Ultros, the weird pirate game show section, where you play silly sports contests against various aliens, then I’d likely be singing a different tune altogether. It’s cheeky, and wacky, and unfortunately the only memorable section of the game that doesn’t involve running from Qualia, another character in Ultros. Next time, less filler and more killer. While my time was still positive overall, I can’t help finding myself somewhat disappointed with what we got. Unless you’re a hardcore Metroidvania fanatic AND in love with the style like me, maybe just stick to finding a neat wallpaper inspired by the game and giving a listen to the soundtrack.
2022
I’m a bit embarrassed to rate this game as high as I am, but I just can’t resist when it’s Snake 2.0. And it is most definitely 2.0. The basic idea is that instead of the traditional Snake rules we all know and love, you can now jump over yourself and even ride yourself to prevent death and gain more snake length space. The catch is, mean little apples spawn outside the perimeter of the area, who are intent on taking a bite out of the snake this time. They’ll latch onto you and ride upwards towards your head, resulting in a game over if they reach it. To prevent this, you can jump on your back with clever positioning and jump-timing, allowing you to eat the homicidal apples right off of you.
There’s some different speeds you can choose to lower or raise difficulty, but regardless of what you choose you start at a moderately long length. Something I’m unique in not minding it seems. To me, the first few snake lengths are filler seconds that are negligibly difficult, so to short circuit that downtime isn’t such a massive lost. However, an option to outright choose starting length would be killer too.
Classic games like these are what I love to see being reinvented on the Playdate. Short, non-intensive ventures that already have wide recognition and at least a modest amount of fondness from the general public. The profitability might be low, but that’s what makes it such a great candidate for the seasonal catalogue. Personally, I would have been fine paying a couple of dollars no problem, but they made the smartest move to get more people on board and acquainted with the concept. Hopefully this trend of putting small spins on 90s Windows games continues. Next up, Minesweeper! Who’s with me?
There’s some different speeds you can choose to lower or raise difficulty, but regardless of what you choose you start at a moderately long length. Something I’m unique in not minding it seems. To me, the first few snake lengths are filler seconds that are negligibly difficult, so to short circuit that downtime isn’t such a massive lost. However, an option to outright choose starting length would be killer too.
Classic games like these are what I love to see being reinvented on the Playdate. Short, non-intensive ventures that already have wide recognition and at least a modest amount of fondness from the general public. The profitability might be low, but that’s what makes it such a great candidate for the seasonal catalogue. Personally, I would have been fine paying a couple of dollars no problem, but they made the smartest move to get more people on board and acquainted with the concept. Hopefully this trend of putting small spins on 90s Windows games continues. Next up, Minesweeper! Who’s with me?
2023
Reel Steal is a vertical progressing, height-based platformer where you control your thief character as you smash and grab loot from rich moguls and magnates to get back at them. You start from the top of the level - the building you’ve infiltrated - and by using the crank you control your descent, and once you’ve grabbed the loot, your ascent too. The one kink in the design for me is the perpetual horizontal strafing your character is forced to do at all times. The idea is for you to wait until your character is lined up just right to continue your descent into the level, or if you’re an impatient person, to use the face button to manually change your direction of movement at any time.
At no point are you given the ability to be completely still. Even when you are changing your movement direction you are always in motion. While this adds some intended challenge, the ergonomics of the handheld makes for an uncomfortable hand position if you want to use the crank and have constant access to the face button at the same time, at least for me. This usually meant unless I was feeling particularly impatient, I just waited for my character to loop around the right direction. The time loss was negligible for a game like this, but even still, with all things being equal I think forgoing the forced horizontal movement altogether would be a more satisfying choice. To compensate they could just elaborate on the trap and level design.
The levels themselves I found as endearing as the characters. Short bursts of simple platforming that wouldn’t be out of place on the homepage of coolmathgames.com, if anyone remembers that oasis that every middle schooler lauded. The campaigns are thematic, with repeated replays encouraged with small tweaks and new character abilities. I did it only twice, but I can see myself returning at some point. My favorite little detail though has got to be the option to leave a customizable calling card at the end of every level. It’s like a cursed etch-a-sketch that challenges your creativity and dare I say artistic capabilities. I love little bursts of character and flavor like that. As small as an aspect as that is, it’s the kind of thing that sticks with you when you think of the game.
Another thing that sticks with me is the perplexingly low ratings from other users. Beside the one issue I find with the control scheme, Reel Steal runs and plays like a charm. I’m a subscriber to the different strokes for different folks mentality, but I don’t want it left unsaid that this game isn’t earnest in what it’s trying to do. Given that it’s one of the handful of free games for the Playdate, there’s really no reason to not give it a chance.
At no point are you given the ability to be completely still. Even when you are changing your movement direction you are always in motion. While this adds some intended challenge, the ergonomics of the handheld makes for an uncomfortable hand position if you want to use the crank and have constant access to the face button at the same time, at least for me. This usually meant unless I was feeling particularly impatient, I just waited for my character to loop around the right direction. The time loss was negligible for a game like this, but even still, with all things being equal I think forgoing the forced horizontal movement altogether would be a more satisfying choice. To compensate they could just elaborate on the trap and level design.
The levels themselves I found as endearing as the characters. Short bursts of simple platforming that wouldn’t be out of place on the homepage of coolmathgames.com, if anyone remembers that oasis that every middle schooler lauded. The campaigns are thematic, with repeated replays encouraged with small tweaks and new character abilities. I did it only twice, but I can see myself returning at some point. My favorite little detail though has got to be the option to leave a customizable calling card at the end of every level. It’s like a cursed etch-a-sketch that challenges your creativity and dare I say artistic capabilities. I love little bursts of character and flavor like that. As small as an aspect as that is, it’s the kind of thing that sticks with you when you think of the game.
Another thing that sticks with me is the perplexingly low ratings from other users. Beside the one issue I find with the control scheme, Reel Steal runs and plays like a charm. I’m a subscriber to the different strokes for different folks mentality, but I don’t want it left unsaid that this game isn’t earnest in what it’s trying to do. Given that it’s one of the handful of free games for the Playdate, there’s really no reason to not give it a chance.
2023
A rare free game for the Playdate that doesn’t come from the seasonal catalogue, Recommendation Dog!! is the fast-paced brother of Root Bear in spirit and function, though noticeably lacking any delicious puns in this instance. I guess the developers just wanted you to be a dog with a job for some reason, fair enough I suppose. Where they substantively differ is in the details.
Recommendation Dog!! is more about pure speed and image recognition, with you trying to match prospective customers with a suitable worker for their problem as fast as possible to serve as many people as you can before the time is up. From starving customers in need of a chef, to people who just want to see some magic tricks, the rolodex of workers you’re given to search in order to fulfill as many clients’ needs as possible makes for a dizzying list of characters.
Besides that, it’s not so different from your typical score-chaser. It has a “story mode” that is extremely easy and over before you know it. The length is fine, but for a title offering such an inconspicuous challenge it should have been much tighter on the required timing of each level. It has an endless mode as well of course. I wasn’t nearly as drawn to spend too much time on it for this game. When the game’s difficulty is only capped by raw hand speed, I can only get so much better before I’ve had my fill. Still, for a free title I would say it’s a decent one.
Recommendation Dog!! is more about pure speed and image recognition, with you trying to match prospective customers with a suitable worker for their problem as fast as possible to serve as many people as you can before the time is up. From starving customers in need of a chef, to people who just want to see some magic tricks, the rolodex of workers you’re given to search in order to fulfill as many clients’ needs as possible makes for a dizzying list of characters.
Besides that, it’s not so different from your typical score-chaser. It has a “story mode” that is extremely easy and over before you know it. The length is fine, but for a title offering such an inconspicuous challenge it should have been much tighter on the required timing of each level. It has an endless mode as well of course. I wasn’t nearly as drawn to spend too much time on it for this game. When the game’s difficulty is only capped by raw hand speed, I can only get so much better before I’ve had my fill. Still, for a free title I would say it’s a decent one.
2023
Just what is says on the tin, Root Bear is a score-chaser game where you have a minute to fill as many glasses for thirsty bears as possible before times runs out. Unlike Whitewater Wipeout, there’s some extra elements here that add to it beyond simply cranking for your life. Which I’m especially thankful for, as I’m in no rush for my poor crank to wear out.
For one thing, trying to balance speed and precision is not only rewarding, but requires a fair bit of practice. While it’s true you can fill the cups quicker by pouring at a higher volume, using the predictive pour shadow isn’t so simple. It has this hard to describe pour stop delay/exponential pour speed growth that you have to try for yourself to really know what I’m talking about. Regardless of the technical explanation, it’s an addictive loop. Plus I can’t resist trying to get better when that sweet little harp twang and bear doing the bon appetit symbol is my reward for a perfect pour.
I believe Root Bear was briefly viral a few months back, when the aforementioned reward screen, failed pour screen (which is equally funny), and punny premise grabbed the indie corner of the internet by the joystick. And if for no other reason than it putting the game on my radar, I’m grateful for that. With a reasonably capped high score on account of a one minute round timer, it doesn’t feel unattainable to try for a new record, even if just by one point. Root Bear is a terminally easy to pick up and put down game. It may not be an all-time lister as far as the Playdate catalogue goes, but it’s genuinely one of my favorite entries in the score-chaser genre and a fantastic example of what the Playdate should strive to host.
For one thing, trying to balance speed and precision is not only rewarding, but requires a fair bit of practice. While it’s true you can fill the cups quicker by pouring at a higher volume, using the predictive pour shadow isn’t so simple. It has this hard to describe pour stop delay/exponential pour speed growth that you have to try for yourself to really know what I’m talking about. Regardless of the technical explanation, it’s an addictive loop. Plus I can’t resist trying to get better when that sweet little harp twang and bear doing the bon appetit symbol is my reward for a perfect pour.
I believe Root Bear was briefly viral a few months back, when the aforementioned reward screen, failed pour screen (which is equally funny), and punny premise grabbed the indie corner of the internet by the joystick. And if for no other reason than it putting the game on my radar, I’m grateful for that. With a reasonably capped high score on account of a one minute round timer, it doesn’t feel unattainable to try for a new record, even if just by one point. Root Bear is a terminally easy to pick up and put down game. It may not be an all-time lister as far as the Playdate catalogue goes, but it’s genuinely one of my favorite entries in the score-chaser genre and a fantastic example of what the Playdate should strive to host.
2023
An intriguing pitch, The Botanist is a comic that boasts a cutesy short story sequence with you turning the pages using the Playdate’s crank, along with using other interactive elements that help progress it along. I’ll ignore the money-to-experience ratio, as I went in expecting some loss in that department. At 8 dollars, 10 minutes long, and with a static story, the game has a low-replayability and little investment potential. That’s all good and well, the problem is when you actually see what it has to offer.
The art is fine, the interactivity is lower than it should have been, in scope and creativity, but the true nail in the coffin is the completely incomprehensible “story”. That is, there is no story, no narrative, no message, no real characters. There’s thousands of stories that can and have been told without dialogue, and done in much less time than The Botanist has. The issue is that it’s not really a comic, moreso a loose collection of images with vague connections to each other. I love arthouse, minimalist games with outside the box methods of communicating information and involving the player. Though The Botanist claims to do this, it feels more like a bait and switch, or to be more fair, an unfinished game altogether. Some more time in the oven with a clear intention laid out and implemented would have made me much more receptive to what we got.
The art is fine, the interactivity is lower than it should have been, in scope and creativity, but the true nail in the coffin is the completely incomprehensible “story”. That is, there is no story, no narrative, no message, no real characters. There’s thousands of stories that can and have been told without dialogue, and done in much less time than The Botanist has. The issue is that it’s not really a comic, moreso a loose collection of images with vague connections to each other. I love arthouse, minimalist games with outside the box methods of communicating information and involving the player. Though The Botanist claims to do this, it feels more like a bait and switch, or to be more fair, an unfinished game altogether. Some more time in the oven with a clear intention laid out and implemented would have made me much more receptive to what we got.
2016
I’m somebody who missed the initial Titanfall hubbub. Back in 2014 I was deep in the trenches of the console warfare, with my lot thrown in with the Playstation side, and I was years out from ever getting my hands on a PC. It’s when I first played Titanfall 2 five or six years back that I realized the true tragedy of that. If Titanfall 1 plays anything like its sequel, then I was missing out big time. I’ll admit, the game seems deceptively unremarkable on the surface.
The Titan mechs are the obvious draw of course, the spin on the traditional run-and-gun gameplay beyond the high octane movement that it already has otherwise. The balance they’ve found between making the titans neither overpowered nor underpowered is something that would leave any dev team green with jealousy. They’re strong, epic battle equalizers with firm limits that keep them fun to fight even as an on-the-ground pilot, be it with anti-titan weapons or by stealing the batteries directly from the Titans in a sneak attack. Moreover, each Titan has impressively varying abilities that allow for hunker down tactics, area denial crowd-control, blitz-based swordplay and many more playstyles. Similar to the story, Titanfall 2 very much rewards you for practicing your Titan tactics. Knowing when to drop and where to drop can make the difference between you being a one-man killing machine or being made into scrap metal. And with an average of 2-4 Titan call-ins a match you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
Miraculously, the boots on the ground parts of the match give the mechs a run for their money in terms of fun. Though ground is a loose truth seeing how often you’ll be midair, spraying and praying the day away. Wall-running, boost jumps, grapple hooks, and sliding are all commonplace in future shooters these days, but Respawn’s use of momentum is what truly elevates an already very polished experience. Be it the streamlined map design for both Titans and Pilots to shine, creative ability gadgets, or overall movement, every facet of Titanfall feels so good to play. It feels so excellent in fact that I actually wish the grapple hook ability was a permanent ability itself. It’s not the best competitively speaking, yet it raises the fun factor from a high 9 to a neck-breaking 10. So naturally, I require it be permanently grafted to my arm.
The story was short, even as far as shooters go. It introduced a good number of multiplayer gadget abilities and their mechanics, but I wish it had gone further with the trippy combining of multiple gadgets. Some massive time-parkour set pieces could be a milestone of cinematic gameplay if performed to its potential. We saw hints of that when held captive at that training facility by Ash, I just wanted more like it. That and the arcade-like boss fights with their little sassy intros. I could watch those all day. I had the ending spoiled to me beforehand, so maybe my expectations were too high for emotional beats, but even if I didn’t I’d still be surprised that they went with Glenn Steinbaum for BT-7274. During the whole game they’re clearing setting up a slow-burn friendship between yourself, Pilot Jack Cooper, and your newly acquired Titan, BT. Matthew Mercer is just fine as Jack Cooper, however Glenn is decidedly more monotone. Not in a “oh he’s a robot so he just sounds a bit off”, but in a “this guy is devoid of any emotional capacity beyond naivete” kind of way.
Luckily, the mediocre story mode being the lowest point of the game works just fine for me. In terms of multiplayer focused shooters, it does what it should set out to do, which is to keep me coming back again and again. After playing off-and-on the last couple of years on PS4 and PC I can freely say Titanfall 2 comfortably resides in my top 3 multiplayer PvPs of all time, something that I say with a LOT of experience behind me. It’s one of those rare titles where every moment in a match feels like it could be taken from a movie with how intense and badass each second fighting feels.
Granted it takes a bit of time getting into the handling of it, particularly when just coming from a different shooter. The floaty, fast movement is very different than your typical fanfare, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t cement itself as a A+ entry in the FPS Hall of Fame. Let me put it to you this way, I enjoy the franchise and its aesthetic so much that I own the wearable replica Jack Cooper helmet from the collector’s edition. If you’re curious what it looks like there’s pictures on my Twitter as well.
The Titan mechs are the obvious draw of course, the spin on the traditional run-and-gun gameplay beyond the high octane movement that it already has otherwise. The balance they’ve found between making the titans neither overpowered nor underpowered is something that would leave any dev team green with jealousy. They’re strong, epic battle equalizers with firm limits that keep them fun to fight even as an on-the-ground pilot, be it with anti-titan weapons or by stealing the batteries directly from the Titans in a sneak attack. Moreover, each Titan has impressively varying abilities that allow for hunker down tactics, area denial crowd-control, blitz-based swordplay and many more playstyles. Similar to the story, Titanfall 2 very much rewards you for practicing your Titan tactics. Knowing when to drop and where to drop can make the difference between you being a one-man killing machine or being made into scrap metal. And with an average of 2-4 Titan call-ins a match you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
Miraculously, the boots on the ground parts of the match give the mechs a run for their money in terms of fun. Though ground is a loose truth seeing how often you’ll be midair, spraying and praying the day away. Wall-running, boost jumps, grapple hooks, and sliding are all commonplace in future shooters these days, but Respawn’s use of momentum is what truly elevates an already very polished experience. Be it the streamlined map design for both Titans and Pilots to shine, creative ability gadgets, or overall movement, every facet of Titanfall feels so good to play. It feels so excellent in fact that I actually wish the grapple hook ability was a permanent ability itself. It’s not the best competitively speaking, yet it raises the fun factor from a high 9 to a neck-breaking 10. So naturally, I require it be permanently grafted to my arm.
The story was short, even as far as shooters go. It introduced a good number of multiplayer gadget abilities and their mechanics, but I wish it had gone further with the trippy combining of multiple gadgets. Some massive time-parkour set pieces could be a milestone of cinematic gameplay if performed to its potential. We saw hints of that when held captive at that training facility by Ash, I just wanted more like it. That and the arcade-like boss fights with their little sassy intros. I could watch those all day. I had the ending spoiled to me beforehand, so maybe my expectations were too high for emotional beats, but even if I didn’t I’d still be surprised that they went with Glenn Steinbaum for BT-7274. During the whole game they’re clearing setting up a slow-burn friendship between yourself, Pilot Jack Cooper, and your newly acquired Titan, BT. Matthew Mercer is just fine as Jack Cooper, however Glenn is decidedly more monotone. Not in a “oh he’s a robot so he just sounds a bit off”, but in a “this guy is devoid of any emotional capacity beyond naivete” kind of way.
Luckily, the mediocre story mode being the lowest point of the game works just fine for me. In terms of multiplayer focused shooters, it does what it should set out to do, which is to keep me coming back again and again. After playing off-and-on the last couple of years on PS4 and PC I can freely say Titanfall 2 comfortably resides in my top 3 multiplayer PvPs of all time, something that I say with a LOT of experience behind me. It’s one of those rare titles where every moment in a match feels like it could be taken from a movie with how intense and badass each second fighting feels.
Granted it takes a bit of time getting into the handling of it, particularly when just coming from a different shooter. The floaty, fast movement is very different than your typical fanfare, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t cement itself as a A+ entry in the FPS Hall of Fame. Let me put it to you this way, I enjoy the franchise and its aesthetic so much that I own the wearable replica Jack Cooper helmet from the collector’s edition. If you’re curious what it looks like there’s pictures on my Twitter as well.
2022
Casual Birder felt very much like a bite-sized version of the classic 2D Zeldas. With its top-down view, absurdist town plagued by a gang of bad apples who take birding way too seriously, slapstick humor, and meta references, the game truly is a love letter to OG adventure games as much as it is a love letter to birds. The picture-taking mechanic is definitely one of the most fleshed out features I’ve seen thus far for the console. And one that I actually enjoyed engaging in. I’m excited to think how they can add to it in a potential sequel, which I hope we’ll see someday.
Of course, some obnoxious design choices like the dark cave section keep me from declaring the game as flawless in its execution, and a couple of the birds are way too hard to photograph. For good and for bad (but mostly good), Casual Birder is quite the dead ringer to games like Link to the Past and Earthbound. Suffice it to say I can see why it is one of the most beloved of all the seasonal releases. And ironically enough, it needing to be short and succinct on account of being a Playdate entry actually allows it to reach it’s highest highs much quicker than most games, without overstaying its welcome a second too long.
Of course, some obnoxious design choices like the dark cave section keep me from declaring the game as flawless in its execution, and a couple of the birds are way too hard to photograph. For good and for bad (but mostly good), Casual Birder is quite the dead ringer to games like Link to the Past and Earthbound. Suffice it to say I can see why it is one of the most beloved of all the seasonal releases. And ironically enough, it needing to be short and succinct on account of being a Playdate entry actually allows it to reach it’s highest highs much quicker than most games, without overstaying its welcome a second too long.
2022
Pick Pack Pup is a grid-matching puzzle game that twists the traditional premise by having packages be sent only on a verification click by the user. The more packages on screen at once, the more points you get for shipping them. I bleed Bejeweled gems, so this was right up my wheelhouse. And the small mechanical change of cashing in matches felt novel enough to warrant its existence.
While entirely free of crank integration gameplay-wise, it offers very cute story sections presented as newspaper reels that you page-turn by using the crank. Nothing crazy, but it complimented the quirky aesthetic that they’re going for in this anthropomorphic world. The levels were broken up into time-based, move-based, and item-based requirements, and even had a lil Tetris homage. It wasn’t a hard game, so not letting player get too comfortable with level patterns kept the pace nice and brisk.
For those aching for that matching-game kick on Playdate, Pick Pack Pup also offers an infinity mode, chill mode, and danger zone. Just about every variation possible for stress-lovers and lazy-players are available for people who are particularly fond of the genre. For what it is I enjoyed my time with it. The grid perhaps could have been bigger by default, but that’s a minor nitpick of mine. Given its genre popularity it’s almost a given that something like Pick Pack Pup would be made for the Playdate, however it does provide that signature Playdate twist that sets it apart from mindless copycats, if only just slightly.
While entirely free of crank integration gameplay-wise, it offers very cute story sections presented as newspaper reels that you page-turn by using the crank. Nothing crazy, but it complimented the quirky aesthetic that they’re going for in this anthropomorphic world. The levels were broken up into time-based, move-based, and item-based requirements, and even had a lil Tetris homage. It wasn’t a hard game, so not letting player get too comfortable with level patterns kept the pace nice and brisk.
For those aching for that matching-game kick on Playdate, Pick Pack Pup also offers an infinity mode, chill mode, and danger zone. Just about every variation possible for stress-lovers and lazy-players are available for people who are particularly fond of the genre. For what it is I enjoyed my time with it. The grid perhaps could have been bigger by default, but that’s a minor nitpick of mine. Given its genre popularity it’s almost a given that something like Pick Pack Pup would be made for the Playdate, however it does provide that signature Playdate twist that sets it apart from mindless copycats, if only just slightly.
2016
I won’t explain the rules of Uno, I’ll just say if you don’t know already then you’re in for a real treat if you ever meet me. In fact, you’re actually reading a review from a celebrity. I’m the Wild4Uno guy in their screenshot for the steam page. I’m still waiting on those royalties by the way, but I digress.
It feels weird saying this about a silly card-based video game, but Ubisoft’s Uno is a very sleek experience. It’s colorful, streamlined, and does well to stretch the mileage offered by Uno’s basic premise. Sure, people still rage-quit way too much, and heaven help you if you ever find a match where people are using custom card art which massively changes the look of every single card. Even with all that though it’s still the definite way to play with your boys or just to wind down for the night.
It’s also where my mind was massively expanded as to the extent to which the game can be modified with rules. Playing a round with 7-0, jump-in, draw to match, stacking, bluffing, and force play will change you as a person. It can also significantly prolong a match, So be wary when making or joining a match how you’d like it set up. Recommending this game is much the same as recommending the actual card game. If you enjoy Uno (which you better you goober), then you’ll understand the draw. Of course some people would only ever play with friends, which I can also understand. Costing only five bucks and with only a miniscule amount of investment required, Uno makes for a great evening decompressor or a fantastic idle game just to kill time or do some multitasking.
It feels weird saying this about a silly card-based video game, but Ubisoft’s Uno is a very sleek experience. It’s colorful, streamlined, and does well to stretch the mileage offered by Uno’s basic premise. Sure, people still rage-quit way too much, and heaven help you if you ever find a match where people are using custom card art which massively changes the look of every single card. Even with all that though it’s still the definite way to play with your boys or just to wind down for the night.
It’s also where my mind was massively expanded as to the extent to which the game can be modified with rules. Playing a round with 7-0, jump-in, draw to match, stacking, bluffing, and force play will change you as a person. It can also significantly prolong a match, So be wary when making or joining a match how you’d like it set up. Recommending this game is much the same as recommending the actual card game. If you enjoy Uno (which you better you goober), then you’ll understand the draw. Of course some people would only ever play with friends, which I can also understand. Costing only five bucks and with only a miniscule amount of investment required, Uno makes for a great evening decompressor or a fantastic idle game just to kill time or do some multitasking.
2022
I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that Panic decided to start with a pretty weak title for the Playdate’s first free season 1 game. If you remember those McDonalds happy meal toys that were little handheld digital soccer goalie games in the late 2000s, Whitewater Wipeout very much reminds me of them. They’re both small, short, sports based games that rely on providing 1-5 minute sessions rather than a prolonged experience. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, as I am writing this review after having already played a handful of other Playdate games, but I think a couple of other titles do this so much better and more addictively than WW does.
Unlike Root Bear, Snak, (two Playdate games I’ll review soon) and even the soccer McDonalds toy, Whitewater Wipeout is less about precision practice and random chances resulting in strategy re-evaluations and more about doing one single thing the exact same every single time. I’ll give small props that it relies solely on the console’s crank, but finding the sweet spot in how many times you can spin around in a circle before you wipeout from the waves or landing upside down gets old fast. It’s a game about performing simple surfing tricks as you flee an approaching wave, so why can I only do one move? Why would I want to play the game any more than to understand what it’s about when that entails me having to sustain a single time-limit unbound run by flipping over and over and over with no breakup of monotony or increasing of stakes. Whitewater Wipeout isn’t bad because the mechanics aren’t sound or premise uninteresting. It’s bad because it offers little to latch onto past its elevator pitch and doesn’t stand out from other five minute pick-up-and-play games.
Unlike Root Bear, Snak, (two Playdate games I’ll review soon) and even the soccer McDonalds toy, Whitewater Wipeout is less about precision practice and random chances resulting in strategy re-evaluations and more about doing one single thing the exact same every single time. I’ll give small props that it relies solely on the console’s crank, but finding the sweet spot in how many times you can spin around in a circle before you wipeout from the waves or landing upside down gets old fast. It’s a game about performing simple surfing tricks as you flee an approaching wave, so why can I only do one move? Why would I want to play the game any more than to understand what it’s about when that entails me having to sustain a single time-limit unbound run by flipping over and over and over with no breakup of monotony or increasing of stakes. Whitewater Wipeout isn’t bad because the mechanics aren’t sound or premise uninteresting. It’s bad because it offers little to latch onto past its elevator pitch and doesn’t stand out from other five minute pick-up-and-play games.
2023
An oft overlooked game when considering the breakout hits of 2023, I feel like Atomic Heart is a praiseworthy shooter that promises good things for debut studio Mundfish’s future projects if they can keep us this momentum and passion.
Unfortunately, with as talented as a studio Mundfish clearly is, they haven’t yet nailed down dialogue, or for that matter quality voice acting. Going into the game I was no stranger to the fact that the dialogue and voice performances were less than stellar, so I made an executive decision to use the original Russian language setting and just turn on subtitles. That didn’t fix the clearly sophomoric and needlessly edgy script, but it made me roll my eyes just a teensy bit less when I had to read it instead of hearing it. Would definitely recommend doing that for anyone being held back from playing by memes they’ve seen online of the game’s writing snafus.
Because where Atomic Heart lags behind ten years in dialogue quality it more than makes up for in gunplay and graphics. Modifying guns with elemental mods, upgrading your high-tech glove to shoot electricity, frost, and telekinetic grabs, and perfecting the surprisingly reactive movement feels fantastic once you figure out what works against what enemy. Furthermore, the enemy designs were AWESOME, and what’s more they gave an actual reason to try different strategies what with their built-in immunities and weaknesses. Sometimes that means that you have a much harder time ahead, for when you don’t have the tools to most easily take down the boss in question, other times it’s a massive relief and provides a nice burst of happy brain chemicals when you can just melt the enemies because you’re armed for all occasions and have been upgrading smartly and in a wide range of upgrade paths. The only enemy that raised my blood pressure beyond enjoyment was the Plyush, the fleshly figures. Now that might be because I didn’t upgrade my combat axe particularly far, but I also think that limiting effective combat to exclusively melee methods are a mistake in all scenarios besides prologues. Regardless, don’t make the same mistake I did: mind your melee options.
Like I mentioned in passing, the game looks gorgeous as well. Graphically, it can compete with the likes of any triple-A giant. Only complication there is the game is quite spotty with stuttering and rendering new objects and environments, regardless of graphics settings. Only once did a bug force me to restart, but it’s something you’ll definitely notice now and again. Regardless, it’s still more stable than Fallen Order is five years later, as much as I like that game. Not that it excuses it, just wanted to add that comparison for anyone it might help evaluate the stability of the game.
The story was decent, if meandering at points. The back-to-back plot twists felt too predictable for what should have been game-changing, and it was clear rewrites forced things to be rushed. Which is made especially obvious when a certain someone dies near the climax of the game off-screen. Despite its hiccups, including the at-times confusing motivation of every character, the execution of its alternate history dystopia kept me intrigued enough to stay on the narrative rollercoaster. Granted the ending was strange. The “true” ending was the one that prematurely ended the game, while the “alternative” ending gatekept probably the best boss fight in the whole experience. I can understand wanting to continue the story in the DLC, and I know most people will get the boss fight ending anyway, however It’s a tad odd they didn’t or couldn’t weave gameplay and a satisfying conclusion together at once.
I would likely praise the open world too if not for the foolish decision to tie endless enemy respawning to every corner of the map. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you’ll not have more than a minute of peace in any square foot of the open world. The enemy spawn points, patrols, and respawns are brutal with a capital B. Kill them as many times as you want, some repair bots will show up to fix them up quicker than you can say gesundheit. I only hope they learn to relax the chaos in future installment/DLCs, because I would have liked to explore more than I was encouraged to.
Not without some very real flaws, I hold firm that Atomic Heart shows enough heart and genuine talent to overcome the weight of its issues. All the same, I would still strongly advise going into this game with a healthy serving of patience. For fair reasons and bad ones, Atomic Heart is a very polarizing title in the fickle, ever ebbing and flowing gamosphere, but it’s a title deserving of a fair shake.
Unfortunately, with as talented as a studio Mundfish clearly is, they haven’t yet nailed down dialogue, or for that matter quality voice acting. Going into the game I was no stranger to the fact that the dialogue and voice performances were less than stellar, so I made an executive decision to use the original Russian language setting and just turn on subtitles. That didn’t fix the clearly sophomoric and needlessly edgy script, but it made me roll my eyes just a teensy bit less when I had to read it instead of hearing it. Would definitely recommend doing that for anyone being held back from playing by memes they’ve seen online of the game’s writing snafus.
Because where Atomic Heart lags behind ten years in dialogue quality it more than makes up for in gunplay and graphics. Modifying guns with elemental mods, upgrading your high-tech glove to shoot electricity, frost, and telekinetic grabs, and perfecting the surprisingly reactive movement feels fantastic once you figure out what works against what enemy. Furthermore, the enemy designs were AWESOME, and what’s more they gave an actual reason to try different strategies what with their built-in immunities and weaknesses. Sometimes that means that you have a much harder time ahead, for when you don’t have the tools to most easily take down the boss in question, other times it’s a massive relief and provides a nice burst of happy brain chemicals when you can just melt the enemies because you’re armed for all occasions and have been upgrading smartly and in a wide range of upgrade paths. The only enemy that raised my blood pressure beyond enjoyment was the Plyush, the fleshly figures. Now that might be because I didn’t upgrade my combat axe particularly far, but I also think that limiting effective combat to exclusively melee methods are a mistake in all scenarios besides prologues. Regardless, don’t make the same mistake I did: mind your melee options.
Like I mentioned in passing, the game looks gorgeous as well. Graphically, it can compete with the likes of any triple-A giant. Only complication there is the game is quite spotty with stuttering and rendering new objects and environments, regardless of graphics settings. Only once did a bug force me to restart, but it’s something you’ll definitely notice now and again. Regardless, it’s still more stable than Fallen Order is five years later, as much as I like that game. Not that it excuses it, just wanted to add that comparison for anyone it might help evaluate the stability of the game.
The story was decent, if meandering at points. The back-to-back plot twists felt too predictable for what should have been game-changing, and it was clear rewrites forced things to be rushed. Which is made especially obvious when a certain someone dies near the climax of the game off-screen. Despite its hiccups, including the at-times confusing motivation of every character, the execution of its alternate history dystopia kept me intrigued enough to stay on the narrative rollercoaster. Granted the ending was strange. The “true” ending was the one that prematurely ended the game, while the “alternative” ending gatekept probably the best boss fight in the whole experience. I can understand wanting to continue the story in the DLC, and I know most people will get the boss fight ending anyway, however It’s a tad odd they didn’t or couldn’t weave gameplay and a satisfying conclusion together at once.
I would likely praise the open world too if not for the foolish decision to tie endless enemy respawning to every corner of the map. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you’ll not have more than a minute of peace in any square foot of the open world. The enemy spawn points, patrols, and respawns are brutal with a capital B. Kill them as many times as you want, some repair bots will show up to fix them up quicker than you can say gesundheit. I only hope they learn to relax the chaos in future installment/DLCs, because I would have liked to explore more than I was encouraged to.
Not without some very real flaws, I hold firm that Atomic Heart shows enough heart and genuine talent to overcome the weight of its issues. All the same, I would still strongly advise going into this game with a healthy serving of patience. For fair reasons and bad ones, Atomic Heart is a very polarizing title in the fickle, ever ebbing and flowing gamosphere, but it’s a title deserving of a fair shake.
2018
The first serious contender for best super-hero video game against Rocksteady’s Arkham series, Marvel’s Spider-Man oozes high production value in all four corners of its foundation. This is a holistic review, but I’ll try to minimize spoilers in the story section of this review, which is what we’ll start with. Well, it’s more of a character review section really, so don’t worry about significant spoilers for the main story.
Though I didn’t plan on it, watching through the 90s animated Spider-Man series while writing this review has given me some nice perspective with which to compare story beats to, as well as a healthy boost of nostalgia. Fun fact: 90s Spider-Man was my introduction to the character and is what I credit much of my initial knowledge of his rogues gallery and spiderman lore to. Rewatching it has definitely cemented the fact that it’s a kids show at heart, yet I’ll commend the writing and storylines for how mature they could get. Now let me stop myself before I turn this into a 90s Spider-Man cartoon review. One thing I liked that both the game and the show did was having an already lived-in universe, with the game going even further than that, having not just Peter be an established hero, but also having many of his villains locked up at the start of the game.
Speaking of which, I love the representation of his rogues gallery here. They don’t shy away from flexing his large group of bad guys and it pays off well here, with plenty still left to explore in later sequels. Making infrequently used Yuri Watanabe Peter’s police captain liaison and mission catalyst was more than alright with me. There’s a reason that Batman’s Gordon is such an integral part of his ensemble. Giving you a voice and advocate on the inside both explains a possible conflict away and sets up one that may occur if she gets compromised or overruled. Which is a thread that’s actually pulled on in her DLC. Overpulled in my opinion, considering her melodramatic overreaction to a run-of-the-mill mafia boss. I mean come on, in her base of operations city-ending catastrophes are practically as common as seeing someone walk down the street. And no, I don’t care that Hammerhead has some personal connection to her. It’s clear the police force in this world is a revolving door of soon-to-be-corpses, so trying to act like she cares SOOOOO much that she just has to go outside the law this time is just conflict for the sake of conflict. Prepare for me to complain about that more when I get to the next game.
Mainstay characters like Aunt May and J Jonah Jameson were given a respectable deal of justice, and with how developed some of the older and newer villains like Doc Ock and Mr. Negative were I can’t complain too much when comparing screen times. On top of that, seeing a fully realized Sinister Six in the first outing of Insomniac’s Spider-Man is beyond cool to see. The duo boss fights to space them out was the best way to sparse out the excitement in a way that wasn’t overwhelming or overly easy and anti-climactic.
In broad strokes, I’m happy with their characterizations, barring some minor hiccups here and there. Yuri Lowenthal is a fantastic Spider-Man VA, with just the right amount of spunk and earnestness. Only thing I don’t like is how much of a pushover he is when someone wrongs him or gives him an unfair shake, i.e. MJ and Black Cat, and Yuri in the DLCs. His dynamic with Miles, while early in its lifespan, is the ideal mentor/mentee relationship. Miles is a bit of white-bread square, but he’s still a kid after all, and hasn’t even gotten his powers yet. It works, if just for this game. And with that out of the way, let’s talk romance shop.
I know I’m mostly alone on an island in wanting to see a proper Black Cat x Spider-Man pairing. I’ve made amends that we’ll likely never see that in the mainstream. What I can’t make amends with is the downright character assassination they perform on her in this game. DLC spoilers ahead: after her sudden return to NYC back to raise hell again, she drops a bombshell on our boy Pete: she’s got a kid, and instead of telling him if it’s his or not, she strings him along as he helps her in the hope of keeping her kid safe. Well, not only is he not the father, there is no kid at all. In classic femme fatale fashion, she’s tricked him, got the goods for herself, and screws off to walk off into the sunset. I know Insomniac has firmly planted their flag on the MJ & Peter romance, but making it somewhat believable that Black Cat has some residual non-manipulative fondness for Pete would have been welcome. Black Cat is a scoundrel with a heart, not a apathetic kleptomaniac.
I find similar disappointments with MJ, just of a different variety. This is another instance where they should have taken a page out of 90s Spider-Man’s book, which is to give her some independence from Pete. I understand she’s an integral part of his story that they want to give a lot of screentime to, but I hate having to make every love interest a journalist, writer, investigator, etc so they can be the MC’s guy in the chair. Find a different way to weave them into the story, I beg of you. Believe it or not I’m not a part of the crowd that hated her gameplay sections. They were short, simple, and inoffensive. Her stun gun tomfoolery was a bit of a jumping of the shark, however it’s something I can overlook. So long as they don’t increase the output in future titles I can handle it. No, my biggest problem is the manufactured outrage and relationship troubles. Spider-Man saving her in the Sable outpost was indisputably justified and yet blowing that up to crazy proportions felt so soap-opera-y. She’s not superpowered! Why is she sneaking around like she’s Solid Snake? I hate when shows and games make reasonable worry or protectiveness a bad thing, as though it means your possessive or clingy. They need to give Peter more firm of a backbone in future installments. The world beats him down enough as is, can he not at least fight for fair treatment from his supporting cast? Once they get over that hump the banter is nice, just mind the potholes.
Oh there was one more character I forgot to mention because of how perfunctory she is. Silver Sable is one of the main… antagonists I guess? There’s not really an explanation for why but she seems to hate Spider-Man like it’s going out of style, at least beyond the run-of-the-mill hatred for those “outside the law.” Knowing she’s clearly just a plot contrivance to justify another enemy force to fight in the third act does nothing to alleviate her shallowness. Her turn heel to a reluctant peace with Peter is so laughably forced and quick I can practically hear the time crunch in the board room when they were discussing how to deal with her character and her veritable army at her fingertips. For someone so desperate to be badass, you’d think she’d be better at hitting a target just five feet away. Nevertheless, she does her sole jobs of padding the enemy’s numbers and game time well. Between you and me though, I much prefer Mr. Negative’s demon army to her failed Starship Troopers cosplayers. In truth, I find it easier to stomach a Rhino themed supervillain than I can her being unchallenged in flying a jet around New York City like it’s her personal playground.
The story itself was fairly decent, the pacing went from a bit too slow to a bit too fast, but narrative and character beats were on point and proper weight was given to each new villain encounter, with the Kingpin introduction being the perfect intro for the player to get used to the controls and fighting. Seeing as this is a superhero game first and foremost, I think the combat deserves its own section.
Being an Arkham veteran and brawler lover I was taken aback by how initially cumbersome the combat was in this game. Not that I was expecting a Arkham clone in combat, but I can’t lie that the controls took me around a couple of hours to get the hang of. You have to dodge a LOT in this title, as well as become acquainted with a juggling form of combat that doesn’t incentivize going from enemy to enemy as frequently as you would expect. When you’re new to the game don’t be surprised to find yourself low on health often, even if you’re above average in the genre typically. Once you do get the hang of things, this game actually inverses difficulty. A fact helped by the treasure trove of gadgets, suit abilities, and normal abilities. Once you can properly utilize movement you become near untouchable. Gadgets are technically locked behind takedowns so you can’t spam them forever but you end up with so many different kinds that if you spam them in every encounter you’ll eliminate everyone with no effort whatsoever, and by the time the next encounter rolls around you’ll be mostly refreshed on your inventory.
I like a challenge and making combat feel as cinematic as possible so I spaced out and limited my gadget use as much as possible to maintain a healthy variety. After recentering my fighting expectations and practicing my moves and gadget combos I’d almost say it’s as good as Arkham’s, if in an entirely different way. My objection against that idea is unlike Arkham, there’s a weight missing in my moves. I’m Spider-Man. I can destroy these average joes with little effort realistically. While I understand balance plays a part in this, it starts to feel a little silly when I can throw a guy at a dumpster, throw a motorcycle at him, and then uppercut him five feet in the air just for him to get back up and throw me the cleanest right hook I’ve ever seen at me. A ludonarrative nitpick I know, yet I feel like it’s worth mentioning. And while we’re on the nitpicking train a nice QoL feature would be to map gadget quick-fires to easy button combos instead of freezing time to look at a wheel. It would improve combat momentum enormously. And yes I know that a quick gadget change exists in one iteration of the game, even that though is not enough or as fluid as Arkham gadget quick-fires.
The missions themselves consist of beat-em-ups, stealth sections, movement based time trials, and minigames like Pipe Dream and a line-matching one. With how easy the minigames were I find it hard to agree with the criticism that they were invasive or tone-clashing. If anything they broke up monotony, and didn’t take long enough to get annoyed with them. Besides, who hates Pipe Dream anyway? The stealth portions were ultra easy, go figure when you’re a demon in the body of a young man with a gadget arsenal to rival inspector gadget himself. Making for a plausible reason they were so sparse and most of the time optional.
The timed races were a bit of a drag to be frank, for as breezy and smooth as the traversal is precise movements can be extremely finicky when you’re going for gold in the time trials. Additionally, the limited enemy open-world crime encounters is an interesting thought, however I think they lay them on a bit heavy when they’re not completed. It feels like you get a crime alert every five seconds in the first half of the game, which can often leave me thousands of feet away from my initial waypoint that I set 10 minutes ago. Having them come back in a limited capacity post-endgame in the form of Kingpin’s henchman was a good compromise for story and action integrity, but forcing the encounters to be spaced out pre-endgame would prevent burnout for people with like me with little self-control, or just those that don’t want to be alerted every other second.
In terms of the open world itself I’m afraid I can’t boast there being too much building on the formula concocted decades ago. The photo ops weren’t a terrible idea, but we need much more flavor like that and less like find the taped up backpacks. Having a larger chunk of missions similar to the fake Spider-Man one, or hubs actually worth going to (cough F.E.A.S.T. center cough) would go a long ways in justifying such a large world, past the top-notch web-swinging. That alone almost justifies the game’s gorgeous world. Not often is it that I would be content to just run around a world for minutes on end with no clear goal or destination in mind, but for such a faithful and genuinely breathtaking activity as swinging from building to building with just some webs and a dream, I couldn’t help myself from losing hours to simply flying across the city. As nice as it is having a modern fast travel system, I would look at you sideways if you use it more than once or twice in all here.
All in all a Marvel’s Spider-Man is an extraordinary polished start for Insomniac’s superhero ventures, with premier traversal, voice acting, set-pieces, and world building. I know I’m late to the game with this one, yet all the same I’d like my seal of approval to be on the record for this one. Even its lowest points in the writing department were dwarfed by the impressive universe they’ve built here. Eat your heart out J. Jonah Jameson.
Though I didn’t plan on it, watching through the 90s animated Spider-Man series while writing this review has given me some nice perspective with which to compare story beats to, as well as a healthy boost of nostalgia. Fun fact: 90s Spider-Man was my introduction to the character and is what I credit much of my initial knowledge of his rogues gallery and spiderman lore to. Rewatching it has definitely cemented the fact that it’s a kids show at heart, yet I’ll commend the writing and storylines for how mature they could get. Now let me stop myself before I turn this into a 90s Spider-Man cartoon review. One thing I liked that both the game and the show did was having an already lived-in universe, with the game going even further than that, having not just Peter be an established hero, but also having many of his villains locked up at the start of the game.
Speaking of which, I love the representation of his rogues gallery here. They don’t shy away from flexing his large group of bad guys and it pays off well here, with plenty still left to explore in later sequels. Making infrequently used Yuri Watanabe Peter’s police captain liaison and mission catalyst was more than alright with me. There’s a reason that Batman’s Gordon is such an integral part of his ensemble. Giving you a voice and advocate on the inside both explains a possible conflict away and sets up one that may occur if she gets compromised or overruled. Which is a thread that’s actually pulled on in her DLC. Overpulled in my opinion, considering her melodramatic overreaction to a run-of-the-mill mafia boss. I mean come on, in her base of operations city-ending catastrophes are practically as common as seeing someone walk down the street. And no, I don’t care that Hammerhead has some personal connection to her. It’s clear the police force in this world is a revolving door of soon-to-be-corpses, so trying to act like she cares SOOOOO much that she just has to go outside the law this time is just conflict for the sake of conflict. Prepare for me to complain about that more when I get to the next game.
Mainstay characters like Aunt May and J Jonah Jameson were given a respectable deal of justice, and with how developed some of the older and newer villains like Doc Ock and Mr. Negative were I can’t complain too much when comparing screen times. On top of that, seeing a fully realized Sinister Six in the first outing of Insomniac’s Spider-Man is beyond cool to see. The duo boss fights to space them out was the best way to sparse out the excitement in a way that wasn’t overwhelming or overly easy and anti-climactic.
In broad strokes, I’m happy with their characterizations, barring some minor hiccups here and there. Yuri Lowenthal is a fantastic Spider-Man VA, with just the right amount of spunk and earnestness. Only thing I don’t like is how much of a pushover he is when someone wrongs him or gives him an unfair shake, i.e. MJ and Black Cat, and Yuri in the DLCs. His dynamic with Miles, while early in its lifespan, is the ideal mentor/mentee relationship. Miles is a bit of white-bread square, but he’s still a kid after all, and hasn’t even gotten his powers yet. It works, if just for this game. And with that out of the way, let’s talk romance shop.
I know I’m mostly alone on an island in wanting to see a proper Black Cat x Spider-Man pairing. I’ve made amends that we’ll likely never see that in the mainstream. What I can’t make amends with is the downright character assassination they perform on her in this game. DLC spoilers ahead: after her sudden return to NYC back to raise hell again, she drops a bombshell on our boy Pete: she’s got a kid, and instead of telling him if it’s his or not, she strings him along as he helps her in the hope of keeping her kid safe. Well, not only is he not the father, there is no kid at all. In classic femme fatale fashion, she’s tricked him, got the goods for herself, and screws off to walk off into the sunset. I know Insomniac has firmly planted their flag on the MJ & Peter romance, but making it somewhat believable that Black Cat has some residual non-manipulative fondness for Pete would have been welcome. Black Cat is a scoundrel with a heart, not a apathetic kleptomaniac.
I find similar disappointments with MJ, just of a different variety. This is another instance where they should have taken a page out of 90s Spider-Man’s book, which is to give her some independence from Pete. I understand she’s an integral part of his story that they want to give a lot of screentime to, but I hate having to make every love interest a journalist, writer, investigator, etc so they can be the MC’s guy in the chair. Find a different way to weave them into the story, I beg of you. Believe it or not I’m not a part of the crowd that hated her gameplay sections. They were short, simple, and inoffensive. Her stun gun tomfoolery was a bit of a jumping of the shark, however it’s something I can overlook. So long as they don’t increase the output in future titles I can handle it. No, my biggest problem is the manufactured outrage and relationship troubles. Spider-Man saving her in the Sable outpost was indisputably justified and yet blowing that up to crazy proportions felt so soap-opera-y. She’s not superpowered! Why is she sneaking around like she’s Solid Snake? I hate when shows and games make reasonable worry or protectiveness a bad thing, as though it means your possessive or clingy. They need to give Peter more firm of a backbone in future installments. The world beats him down enough as is, can he not at least fight for fair treatment from his supporting cast? Once they get over that hump the banter is nice, just mind the potholes.
Oh there was one more character I forgot to mention because of how perfunctory she is. Silver Sable is one of the main… antagonists I guess? There’s not really an explanation for why but she seems to hate Spider-Man like it’s going out of style, at least beyond the run-of-the-mill hatred for those “outside the law.” Knowing she’s clearly just a plot contrivance to justify another enemy force to fight in the third act does nothing to alleviate her shallowness. Her turn heel to a reluctant peace with Peter is so laughably forced and quick I can practically hear the time crunch in the board room when they were discussing how to deal with her character and her veritable army at her fingertips. For someone so desperate to be badass, you’d think she’d be better at hitting a target just five feet away. Nevertheless, she does her sole jobs of padding the enemy’s numbers and game time well. Between you and me though, I much prefer Mr. Negative’s demon army to her failed Starship Troopers cosplayers. In truth, I find it easier to stomach a Rhino themed supervillain than I can her being unchallenged in flying a jet around New York City like it’s her personal playground.
The story itself was fairly decent, the pacing went from a bit too slow to a bit too fast, but narrative and character beats were on point and proper weight was given to each new villain encounter, with the Kingpin introduction being the perfect intro for the player to get used to the controls and fighting. Seeing as this is a superhero game first and foremost, I think the combat deserves its own section.
Being an Arkham veteran and brawler lover I was taken aback by how initially cumbersome the combat was in this game. Not that I was expecting a Arkham clone in combat, but I can’t lie that the controls took me around a couple of hours to get the hang of. You have to dodge a LOT in this title, as well as become acquainted with a juggling form of combat that doesn’t incentivize going from enemy to enemy as frequently as you would expect. When you’re new to the game don’t be surprised to find yourself low on health often, even if you’re above average in the genre typically. Once you do get the hang of things, this game actually inverses difficulty. A fact helped by the treasure trove of gadgets, suit abilities, and normal abilities. Once you can properly utilize movement you become near untouchable. Gadgets are technically locked behind takedowns so you can’t spam them forever but you end up with so many different kinds that if you spam them in every encounter you’ll eliminate everyone with no effort whatsoever, and by the time the next encounter rolls around you’ll be mostly refreshed on your inventory.
I like a challenge and making combat feel as cinematic as possible so I spaced out and limited my gadget use as much as possible to maintain a healthy variety. After recentering my fighting expectations and practicing my moves and gadget combos I’d almost say it’s as good as Arkham’s, if in an entirely different way. My objection against that idea is unlike Arkham, there’s a weight missing in my moves. I’m Spider-Man. I can destroy these average joes with little effort realistically. While I understand balance plays a part in this, it starts to feel a little silly when I can throw a guy at a dumpster, throw a motorcycle at him, and then uppercut him five feet in the air just for him to get back up and throw me the cleanest right hook I’ve ever seen at me. A ludonarrative nitpick I know, yet I feel like it’s worth mentioning. And while we’re on the nitpicking train a nice QoL feature would be to map gadget quick-fires to easy button combos instead of freezing time to look at a wheel. It would improve combat momentum enormously. And yes I know that a quick gadget change exists in one iteration of the game, even that though is not enough or as fluid as Arkham gadget quick-fires.
The missions themselves consist of beat-em-ups, stealth sections, movement based time trials, and minigames like Pipe Dream and a line-matching one. With how easy the minigames were I find it hard to agree with the criticism that they were invasive or tone-clashing. If anything they broke up monotony, and didn’t take long enough to get annoyed with them. Besides, who hates Pipe Dream anyway? The stealth portions were ultra easy, go figure when you’re a demon in the body of a young man with a gadget arsenal to rival inspector gadget himself. Making for a plausible reason they were so sparse and most of the time optional.
The timed races were a bit of a drag to be frank, for as breezy and smooth as the traversal is precise movements can be extremely finicky when you’re going for gold in the time trials. Additionally, the limited enemy open-world crime encounters is an interesting thought, however I think they lay them on a bit heavy when they’re not completed. It feels like you get a crime alert every five seconds in the first half of the game, which can often leave me thousands of feet away from my initial waypoint that I set 10 minutes ago. Having them come back in a limited capacity post-endgame in the form of Kingpin’s henchman was a good compromise for story and action integrity, but forcing the encounters to be spaced out pre-endgame would prevent burnout for people with like me with little self-control, or just those that don’t want to be alerted every other second.
In terms of the open world itself I’m afraid I can’t boast there being too much building on the formula concocted decades ago. The photo ops weren’t a terrible idea, but we need much more flavor like that and less like find the taped up backpacks. Having a larger chunk of missions similar to the fake Spider-Man one, or hubs actually worth going to (cough F.E.A.S.T. center cough) would go a long ways in justifying such a large world, past the top-notch web-swinging. That alone almost justifies the game’s gorgeous world. Not often is it that I would be content to just run around a world for minutes on end with no clear goal or destination in mind, but for such a faithful and genuinely breathtaking activity as swinging from building to building with just some webs and a dream, I couldn’t help myself from losing hours to simply flying across the city. As nice as it is having a modern fast travel system, I would look at you sideways if you use it more than once or twice in all here.
All in all a Marvel’s Spider-Man is an extraordinary polished start for Insomniac’s superhero ventures, with premier traversal, voice acting, set-pieces, and world building. I know I’m late to the game with this one, yet all the same I’d like my seal of approval to be on the record for this one. Even its lowest points in the writing department were dwarfed by the impressive universe they’ve built here. Eat your heart out J. Jonah Jameson.
2019
Playing Hunt: Showdown has solidified in my mind that Battle Royales are a tough buy for me with solo queue in mind. On its face I can see why it’s such a popular genre. The pressure of being the one victor among many as you rampage across a veritable playground plays to underdog and power fantasies extremely well. What shatters that illusion in my mind is taking 10 minutes to cross what equates to 20% of the world map on foot, getting MAYBE one kill before I’m sniped from 200 yards away by a speck in the distance. And since it’s a Battle Royale your only recourse is to swallow your seething annoyance and queue up again. Again, I can see the value of the game when upheld by many hours grinding and getting good enough to actually come close to winning, it just didn’t hook me in enough to dedicate the kind of hours it takes to do that.
There’s some debate apparently over how you should queue based on how large your group is. If you get really good at maneuvering the stunning but sort of herky-jerky animations of the game then it shouldn’t matter too much, otherwise you should probably queue up against other similarly sized teams. In presentation and setting I’d give it a solid 9/10, being a supernatural hunter in the 1800s Bayous couldn’t be more badass, yet I feel these types of games live or die by the squad which you can scrounge up, and I don’t know anyone who plays Hunt: Showdown. I put this in my retired category of games, but who knows, I may revisit this one someday with a bit more willpower.
There’s some debate apparently over how you should queue based on how large your group is. If you get really good at maneuvering the stunning but sort of herky-jerky animations of the game then it shouldn’t matter too much, otherwise you should probably queue up against other similarly sized teams. In presentation and setting I’d give it a solid 9/10, being a supernatural hunter in the 1800s Bayous couldn’t be more badass, yet I feel these types of games live or die by the squad which you can scrounge up, and I don’t know anyone who plays Hunt: Showdown. I put this in my retired category of games, but who knows, I may revisit this one someday with a bit more willpower.