Rezlo
BACKER
2006
About as racing as a racing game can be. I remember being kind of obsessed with this game as a kid. And to it’s credit, the terrain deformation and slow-mo crashes are pretty entertaining, and furthermore technically impressive for the time. AND THE VEHICLE NAMES. Peak middle school cool. Juvenile me very much approved. No joke there’s a Racing Truck named Voodoo Iguana, and better yet in one of the sequels there’s a motorcycle called Wasabi Katana. I like to imagine they had two darts boards full of random nouns and adjectives in the developer headquarters and whenever they needed a new vehicle name they got to throwing.
Unfortunately that’s where this game peaks. It’s a competent game, but not one that will hold your attention long. I like the format of motorcycles vs buggies vs big rigs vs trucks vs cars, it makes it more of a party racing game than a competitive one, and I even like that you’re restricted in certain races to specific vehicle types, with different routes better suited for for each dirt-kicker. My only technical issue with the game is most small and medium-size vehicles have overly tuned turn rates. Makes it a bit clunky when you’re just getting used to the movement.
That aside, the game feels very repetitive after a while, even adjusting for it being a drivey drivey vroom vroom game. Maybe some powerups or match modifiers would have given me more mileage. It goes without saying the online mode is kapoot, and with only one mode I can’t help but be burnt out before even halfway through this entirely too long game. Nostalgic fondness withstanding, MotorStorm is a second-rate game with third-rate staying power. As far as racing games are concerned, you could do much worse, but you could also do much better. I say keep this one on the shelves of time.
Unfortunately that’s where this game peaks. It’s a competent game, but not one that will hold your attention long. I like the format of motorcycles vs buggies vs big rigs vs trucks vs cars, it makes it more of a party racing game than a competitive one, and I even like that you’re restricted in certain races to specific vehicle types, with different routes better suited for for each dirt-kicker. My only technical issue with the game is most small and medium-size vehicles have overly tuned turn rates. Makes it a bit clunky when you’re just getting used to the movement.
That aside, the game feels very repetitive after a while, even adjusting for it being a drivey drivey vroom vroom game. Maybe some powerups or match modifiers would have given me more mileage. It goes without saying the online mode is kapoot, and with only one mode I can’t help but be burnt out before even halfway through this entirely too long game. Nostalgic fondness withstanding, MotorStorm is a second-rate game with third-rate staying power. As far as racing games are concerned, you could do much worse, but you could also do much better. I say keep this one on the shelves of time.
2006
An absolutely novel game with a fantastic setting. This game is in my mind the perfect blend of goofy and gruesome, set against the backdrop of a middle-America mall. Truly the perfect zombie sandbox concept.
Of course, while not every interactable is made equally, there are so many delightfully pedestrian AND devilishly bizarre items, clothing, sights, and weapons to interact with in the various outlets that the game practically has a built-in replayability factor. Not to mention the multiple endings. The bosses are no exception to being exceptional either, as the “psychopaths” come in varieties of silly, hilarious, and terrifying, as well as all of the above at once. Despite this the tone still feels consistent because it never dwells on or overloads on the absurdity of the situation.
Now being the first game in the series, Dead Rising also sets a number of precedents such as using a real-time countdown system, along with a photography mechanic to expose the goings-on of the mall and its ilk. Personally, I find both to be welcome features, allowing for fast-paced momentum in addition to rewarding the player for mindful exploration. On top of that, the protagonist Frank West is a refreshing mix of a witty yet still oblivious journalist who really gives life to the story, while still making you root for him as an everyman.
Granted, the game is a bit antiquated in some areas. Like in the annoying manual save system, old-school aiming, and bad follower AI. The poor AI in particular feels like it discourages pushing your limits in rescuing as many survivors as possible by making it super tedious. Still, with some patience it’s doable. Nevertheless, Dead Rising’s highest highs are far more numerous than its lowest lows, making it a triumph for anyone who desires a fresh take on zombie games.
Of course, while not every interactable is made equally, there are so many delightfully pedestrian AND devilishly bizarre items, clothing, sights, and weapons to interact with in the various outlets that the game practically has a built-in replayability factor. Not to mention the multiple endings. The bosses are no exception to being exceptional either, as the “psychopaths” come in varieties of silly, hilarious, and terrifying, as well as all of the above at once. Despite this the tone still feels consistent because it never dwells on or overloads on the absurdity of the situation.
Now being the first game in the series, Dead Rising also sets a number of precedents such as using a real-time countdown system, along with a photography mechanic to expose the goings-on of the mall and its ilk. Personally, I find both to be welcome features, allowing for fast-paced momentum in addition to rewarding the player for mindful exploration. On top of that, the protagonist Frank West is a refreshing mix of a witty yet still oblivious journalist who really gives life to the story, while still making you root for him as an everyman.
Granted, the game is a bit antiquated in some areas. Like in the annoying manual save system, old-school aiming, and bad follower AI. The poor AI in particular feels like it discourages pushing your limits in rescuing as many survivors as possible by making it super tedious. Still, with some patience it’s doable. Nevertheless, Dead Rising’s highest highs are far more numerous than its lowest lows, making it a triumph for anyone who desires a fresh take on zombie games.
2016
A great example of the principle that looks aren’t everything. When you peel back the layers of shine and fluff of the game, you’ll find a mechanically and narratively shallow framework that brings little to the table. This, along with the overly repetitive nature of the game makes Layers of Fear a slog to go through.
To start with, Layers puts almost the whole story on the table within the first ten minutes of the game. The remaining bit you can parse out long before the actual game tells you. Unfortunately, the rest of the time isn’t used effectively either, as you’ll spend it endlessly opening doors to be jumpscared by an item falling, a woman approaching, etc. Jumpscares are fine but this game hands them out like candy. Moreover, Layers feels overindulgent of itself, a trait wholly unearned and a tad ironic given the emphasis on the tortured artist aesthetic.
Instead of focusing excessively on trippy visuals, Layers of Fear should have tried to create a more unique story told via more engaging means. That’s not to say the game needed to be action oriented, but the refusal to commit to a single cohesive genre faithfully holds this horror entry back from being anything more than a pretty window display fit for a tech demo.
To start with, Layers puts almost the whole story on the table within the first ten minutes of the game. The remaining bit you can parse out long before the actual game tells you. Unfortunately, the rest of the time isn’t used effectively either, as you’ll spend it endlessly opening doors to be jumpscared by an item falling, a woman approaching, etc. Jumpscares are fine but this game hands them out like candy. Moreover, Layers feels overindulgent of itself, a trait wholly unearned and a tad ironic given the emphasis on the tortured artist aesthetic.
Instead of focusing excessively on trippy visuals, Layers of Fear should have tried to create a more unique story told via more engaging means. That’s not to say the game needed to be action oriented, but the refusal to commit to a single cohesive genre faithfully holds this horror entry back from being anything more than a pretty window display fit for a tech demo.
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.
2010
This review contains spoilers
Perhaps the single biggest gaming letdown I've experienced so far. With how much Alan Wake is hyped up by nearly everyone who plays it, it comes as a disappointment that actually playing the game is a mostly boring, positively confounding slog.
First, let me start with a few things I liked. The episodic tv-show format that it uses is a nice homage to the classic media like Twin Peaks that inspired the game. It doesn’t have a huge effect on anything, but it’s probably the most faithful execution I’ve seen yet, even if the “previously on Alan Wake” recaps are entirely redundant. I also adore Bright Falls, the sleepy Pacific Northwest town that’s as cozy as it is ripe for mystery. I just wish we spent more time in the town than the dull forest you spend 90% of the game in.
Now let’s get into how Alan Wake squanders its decent potential. Let’s start with the combat. At first the idea of using light to weaken enemies before putting them down seems like a unique spin on fighting foes. It’s a great setup for improvisation by not allowing you to brute force every encounter. Unfortunately not much thought was put into it besides that. The game just gives you a magically limitless flashlight that trivializes the concept itself. It’s painfully tedious to have to stare at every enemy for an extra five seconds before even beginning to shoot at them. It is comical how quickly the game becomes a chore to play when every encounter is artificially lengthened by the unengaging and shallow light mechanic, only made slightly less annoying by the occasional flashbang you can find.
Add to the list an inconsistent dodge mechanic that works whenever it feels like it and the gameplay can basically be boiled down to running from Point A to Point B while you’re made a pincushion by hordes of world-class axe throwers constantly surrounding you every 10 seconds. There’s no interesting puzzles, fun segments, or challenges of quick-wit. Just tests of attrition mislabeled as chapters. It says a lot that my personal favorite part of the game is whenever it lets you drive, because of how cathartic it was to feel like I was saving time by skipping possible enemy encounters.
Now onto the story. Alan Wake does one of those things that I absolutely despise. It presents a plausible explanation for the events of the story (he’s just imagining things), makes you think that’s where it’s going, and then does the fakeout. The problem is that not only does it all being fake or exaggerated make more sense, but it also offers the only out for a half-baked story with characters who act like the Dunkin Donuts got their order wrong instead of there being shadow monsters invading their town. I was praying it was all in his head the whole time because of how utterly devoid of logic it would otherwise be.
The whole story was told in such an over-serious way with such a silly premise that never really gets explored or explained that in my mind it couldn’t possibly be all that it seems. There simply HAD to be more to it. But nope, everything Alan witnessed and heard is actually exactly as it’s told. It turns out everyone else is crazy for thinking that an eldritch monster demon-woman is unlikely to latch on to and weaponize the writings of a second class writer with too much melodrama for his own good.
With a clearer focus on making a compelling narrative, I would have been much more likely to overlook the lackluster gameplay. I have nothing against cheesy or hokey stories, but Alan Wake feels like it’s trying to use its inspirations to excuse the lack of a tonally consistent story. I don’t hate Alan Wake, but I hate that I don’t like it.
First, let me start with a few things I liked. The episodic tv-show format that it uses is a nice homage to the classic media like Twin Peaks that inspired the game. It doesn’t have a huge effect on anything, but it’s probably the most faithful execution I’ve seen yet, even if the “previously on Alan Wake” recaps are entirely redundant. I also adore Bright Falls, the sleepy Pacific Northwest town that’s as cozy as it is ripe for mystery. I just wish we spent more time in the town than the dull forest you spend 90% of the game in.
Now let’s get into how Alan Wake squanders its decent potential. Let’s start with the combat. At first the idea of using light to weaken enemies before putting them down seems like a unique spin on fighting foes. It’s a great setup for improvisation by not allowing you to brute force every encounter. Unfortunately not much thought was put into it besides that. The game just gives you a magically limitless flashlight that trivializes the concept itself. It’s painfully tedious to have to stare at every enemy for an extra five seconds before even beginning to shoot at them. It is comical how quickly the game becomes a chore to play when every encounter is artificially lengthened by the unengaging and shallow light mechanic, only made slightly less annoying by the occasional flashbang you can find.
Add to the list an inconsistent dodge mechanic that works whenever it feels like it and the gameplay can basically be boiled down to running from Point A to Point B while you’re made a pincushion by hordes of world-class axe throwers constantly surrounding you every 10 seconds. There’s no interesting puzzles, fun segments, or challenges of quick-wit. Just tests of attrition mislabeled as chapters. It says a lot that my personal favorite part of the game is whenever it lets you drive, because of how cathartic it was to feel like I was saving time by skipping possible enemy encounters.
Now onto the story. Alan Wake does one of those things that I absolutely despise. It presents a plausible explanation for the events of the story (he’s just imagining things), makes you think that’s where it’s going, and then does the fakeout. The problem is that not only does it all being fake or exaggerated make more sense, but it also offers the only out for a half-baked story with characters who act like the Dunkin Donuts got their order wrong instead of there being shadow monsters invading their town. I was praying it was all in his head the whole time because of how utterly devoid of logic it would otherwise be.
The whole story was told in such an over-serious way with such a silly premise that never really gets explored or explained that in my mind it couldn’t possibly be all that it seems. There simply HAD to be more to it. But nope, everything Alan witnessed and heard is actually exactly as it’s told. It turns out everyone else is crazy for thinking that an eldritch monster demon-woman is unlikely to latch on to and weaponize the writings of a second class writer with too much melodrama for his own good.
With a clearer focus on making a compelling narrative, I would have been much more likely to overlook the lackluster gameplay. I have nothing against cheesy or hokey stories, but Alan Wake feels like it’s trying to use its inspirations to excuse the lack of a tonally consistent story. I don’t hate Alan Wake, but I hate that I don’t like it.
Ori starts off deceptively saccharine, borderline reminiscent of Up’s beginning scene. Giving a glimpse into the overarching theme of healing nature and restoring peace. A quaint enough premise. Make no mistake though, Ori and the Blind Forest can be a tough game. If you are set on playing it already I would strongly recommend sticking to the Definitive Edition of the game. Not only is the price hike not so painful after all these years but it gives some really nice QoL changes that I definitely noticed. Primarily, it adds a couple new abilities like a dash and the ability to teleport at spirit wells, which was a huge boon in saving time backtracking.
Beyond its flashy, mystical art style, there’s a few things they added to really differentiate Ori from the generic platformer crowd. For instance, saves are done through creating mystical orbs in the environment, which also act as a conduit to spend upgrade points. If you don’t have enough energy, you can't make a save point. It’s not as bad as it sounds, as this is circumvented by finding more energy cells so you’ll never realistically run out before you get more. It only becomes a nuisance when you forget to create one after a good while and ALL your progress has been undone. It’s not a particularly rare occurrence either. There’s no shortage of one-hit or half-health damaging obstacles. Just be mindful of unexplored areas and save liberally anytime you make a good chunk of progress.
With over 10 abilities and 7 main sections Ori is a good little Metroidvania with a lot of agency on how you get around. A lot of areas can be accessed in multiple different ways, both a blessing and a curse. The game has a great rhythm and I always found the necessary abilities naturally, but sometimes using them was easier said than done. A button remapping option would have been really welcome here, especially considering most of the 10 abilities only use three total buttons. Time significantly helped overcome muscle memory, but every now and again I would accidentally press the wrong button and get a different ability than I hoped for.
It’s your standard indie fanfare in terms of having a bubbly, sweet narrative. It starts strong and maintains a consistent tone, but Ori has what I like to call a frozen dinner quality of a story. It’s there, it’s simple, it’s just sorta shallow and not really filling. That might be a bit harsh, I think I’ve just seen this story too many times to be moved by it. That notwithstanding, the game really is extremely polished. If you can get used to the controls you can do some gnarly platforming tricks. Each main mission area uses puzzle gimmicks to their fullest extent and can get really fun with how it makes you think outside the box sometimes. While not without its twists and turns, Ori is very accessible and worthy of its praise. And one more positive about the Definitive Edition: you can always adjust the difficulty if you have too much trouble with the game.
Beyond its flashy, mystical art style, there’s a few things they added to really differentiate Ori from the generic platformer crowd. For instance, saves are done through creating mystical orbs in the environment, which also act as a conduit to spend upgrade points. If you don’t have enough energy, you can't make a save point. It’s not as bad as it sounds, as this is circumvented by finding more energy cells so you’ll never realistically run out before you get more. It only becomes a nuisance when you forget to create one after a good while and ALL your progress has been undone. It’s not a particularly rare occurrence either. There’s no shortage of one-hit or half-health damaging obstacles. Just be mindful of unexplored areas and save liberally anytime you make a good chunk of progress.
With over 10 abilities and 7 main sections Ori is a good little Metroidvania with a lot of agency on how you get around. A lot of areas can be accessed in multiple different ways, both a blessing and a curse. The game has a great rhythm and I always found the necessary abilities naturally, but sometimes using them was easier said than done. A button remapping option would have been really welcome here, especially considering most of the 10 abilities only use three total buttons. Time significantly helped overcome muscle memory, but every now and again I would accidentally press the wrong button and get a different ability than I hoped for.
It’s your standard indie fanfare in terms of having a bubbly, sweet narrative. It starts strong and maintains a consistent tone, but Ori has what I like to call a frozen dinner quality of a story. It’s there, it’s simple, it’s just sorta shallow and not really filling. That might be a bit harsh, I think I’ve just seen this story too many times to be moved by it. That notwithstanding, the game really is extremely polished. If you can get used to the controls you can do some gnarly platforming tricks. Each main mission area uses puzzle gimmicks to their fullest extent and can get really fun with how it makes you think outside the box sometimes. While not without its twists and turns, Ori is very accessible and worthy of its praise. And one more positive about the Definitive Edition: you can always adjust the difficulty if you have too much trouble with the game.
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.
2018
Having only extensively played the original Motorstorm and ATV Offroad Racing for the PS2 a long time ago, my references for racing games are a bit sparse. Going into it, Forza Horizon 4 is the first contemporary racing game I’ve played for longer than 30 minutes (looking at you Need for Speed: Rivals). Interestingly, I learned the Forza series does a sort of eventual obsolescence kind of like the WWE games. Where after a few years the game loses online support and gets delisted from the store. At least it’s not for nothing, as apparently third party license expirations are responsible for it. As disappointing as that is, the game is just as vast without online support and there were only a few modes I played PvP anyway. It’s simply the reason I’m starting with the fourth game in the series instead of the first.
Even without vast racing experiences I can recognize the top quality in every inch of this game. The graphics are gorgeous, the sheer volume of cars vast, and the amount of different race types dizzying. By hour 5 you’ll have practically filled up the world-map with how many markers there are for things to do. The game is also extremely accessible while still having tools for more experienced users. Tools like the life-saving rewind mechanic, car tuning to adjust to certain terrains, and vast difficulty modifiers make it so you can have a breezy journey or a tough trial, giving you bonuses depending on how difficult you make it. Not without purpose, in-game credits or earned wheelspins act as a constant stream of new toys to play with. Having spent no extra money on paid DLC or extra content I was easily left with over 50 cars by the end of my journey. Much like unlocking new races, the game always has something new to earn and test out.
Moreover, Forza Horizon has a season changing feature. Every real world week changes the in-game season from spring all the way to winter, giving a new appearance to the world and requiring you to change how you race. A select few races have predetermined weather conditions, like the showcase races (a personal favorite of mine), but for the most part it’s a constant state. It’s here where you really figure out what works and what doesn’t. Seasons like winter and spring will highly favor vehicles with greater traction while summer and autumn are a bit more lenient with high-sensitive turns. Not just races are affected either. For instance during the winter season you could drive over a frozen lake to cut through an area and save time, or maybe you have to go around because a river bed has filled up during the spring season. On the whole I really dug this feature and how it incentivizes playing at semi-regular intervals to see all there is to the game. A personal toggle for seasons when alone would be nice, maybe we’ll see that in a sequel.
Now Forza did take some getting used to. The fine controls and turning sensitivity is unlike any racing game I’ve ever played before. However after a while it really started to grow on me. Forza absolutely isn’t a mindless nitro booster game, but the satisfaction you get when you finally nail the rhythm of the racing is just as gratifying as when you would go flying off a motorcycle in Motorstorm. Even without online play Forza Horizon 4 is an easy recommendation for racing connoisseur and newbies alike. If that’s a sticking point though, the fifth game that recently came out looks just as good, is PvP accessible, and is next on my list to try. Otherwise with how the developers said they don’t have plans to delist the game anytime soon and with how often it goes on sale, there’s no better time than the present to pick it up.
Even without vast racing experiences I can recognize the top quality in every inch of this game. The graphics are gorgeous, the sheer volume of cars vast, and the amount of different race types dizzying. By hour 5 you’ll have practically filled up the world-map with how many markers there are for things to do. The game is also extremely accessible while still having tools for more experienced users. Tools like the life-saving rewind mechanic, car tuning to adjust to certain terrains, and vast difficulty modifiers make it so you can have a breezy journey or a tough trial, giving you bonuses depending on how difficult you make it. Not without purpose, in-game credits or earned wheelspins act as a constant stream of new toys to play with. Having spent no extra money on paid DLC or extra content I was easily left with over 50 cars by the end of my journey. Much like unlocking new races, the game always has something new to earn and test out.
Moreover, Forza Horizon has a season changing feature. Every real world week changes the in-game season from spring all the way to winter, giving a new appearance to the world and requiring you to change how you race. A select few races have predetermined weather conditions, like the showcase races (a personal favorite of mine), but for the most part it’s a constant state. It’s here where you really figure out what works and what doesn’t. Seasons like winter and spring will highly favor vehicles with greater traction while summer and autumn are a bit more lenient with high-sensitive turns. Not just races are affected either. For instance during the winter season you could drive over a frozen lake to cut through an area and save time, or maybe you have to go around because a river bed has filled up during the spring season. On the whole I really dug this feature and how it incentivizes playing at semi-regular intervals to see all there is to the game. A personal toggle for seasons when alone would be nice, maybe we’ll see that in a sequel.
Now Forza did take some getting used to. The fine controls and turning sensitivity is unlike any racing game I’ve ever played before. However after a while it really started to grow on me. Forza absolutely isn’t a mindless nitro booster game, but the satisfaction you get when you finally nail the rhythm of the racing is just as gratifying as when you would go flying off a motorcycle in Motorstorm. Even without online play Forza Horizon 4 is an easy recommendation for racing connoisseur and newbies alike. If that’s a sticking point though, the fifth game that recently came out looks just as good, is PvP accessible, and is next on my list to try. Otherwise with how the developers said they don’t have plans to delist the game anytime soon and with how often it goes on sale, there’s no better time than the present to pick it up.
2014
For all intents and purposes, Alien: Isolation is as close to a retelling of the original Alien as legally allowed while still adhering to the universe’s canon, hallow be thy name. And full disclosure, I kind of wish they had just retold Alien (1979), and just added a few sections for gameplay’s sake. I say that because the story here is.. eh. You play as Ripley’s daughter whom, while looking for her missing mother, boards the Sevastopol space station with a few colleagues who claim information about Ripley’s disappearance is onboard the station. Fast forward through a botched boarding attempt and a few minutes spent walking through an excessively unlit station and you find out you have more in common with your mom than you realize: there be aliens afoot. More than just that the androids, or “Working Joes”, throughout the station have gone haywire and started attacking all humans they encounter. And before you ask let me just say no, the family fun doesn’t end there. There’s a good few batches of human threats scattered around as well, just for fun.
To account for this dizzying array of scoundrels the game uses a crafting system for creating tools to distract or eliminate threats. I’m gonna level with you, this whole system feels quite unnecessary. Both from a practically standpoint and just from a gameplay perspective. I’m usually very forgiving when it comes to games adding miscellaneous mechanics that don’t fit the genre or enhance the experience. It artificially inflates time and complexity, but rarely is it invasive or annoying to me. Unfortunately, Alien: Isolation doesn’t skate by that excuse. I mean, need EVERY game be a scavenge simulator? I’m a wayward astronaut adventure, not a reject from Hoarders. This is made more obvious when you actually use the tools too and see how pointless most of them are, creating a resource scarcity/overabundance that incenses me to no end. The Medikit, Molotov, Flamethrower, and Noisemakers are the only items you should ever be making or using. Everything else is too clunky, too slow, and too costly. I’d take it a step further and say Noisemakers are 100% necessary. As it turns out patience can only get you so far. More on that further down.
Before we do though let’s wrap up the story first to the best of my ability. Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to be moderately spoiled. After a lot of meandering back and forth, meeting new folks you couldn’t pay me to remember the names or faces of, you finally find out this was all a bad case of the narrative acrobatics and you were actually unwittingly sent on a mission to retrieve the alien itself. I guess Weyland-Yutani had learned nothing from the first movie. It was at this point I fully checked out. There were genuinely parts where I forgot who I was cool with and who had betrayed me. Not because it was so complex but because it felt so textbook and safe. Which is a shame considering how much I admire everything else. From its gorgeous glossy cassette futurism aesthetic to the crisp sound design in every corner of the game it really is one of the most well-designed titles I can think of, with the exception of a bad case of the uncanny-faces syndrome. For goodness sake, the original Alien callback sequence where you played as the guy who found the alien nest is almost worth the price of admission alone. No, it’s the heart, at least in the story, that’s missing for me. Anyway, after just about everyone else is dead or forgotten you’re finally able to get the hell out of dodge after an EXTREMELY drawn out end-sequence. One fakeout is good form. When you do three fakeout endings with no end in sight is when I start to get annoyed in a way that no cinematic sequences can lessen the blow of. Yet finally it does end, and on a cliffhanger no less. One I doubt we’ll ever get closure on, but never say never. In terms of story I’d give the game a firm 4/10. Terribly boring and quite drawn out. Shave off a couple hours and characters and pull back on the wild goose chases and we’d be in business.
Now let’s get into the real meat of the meal. What everyone raves about without end. The Alien, and by extension, its AI. I feel a touch more lukewarm about this than a lot of other folks it seems. Technically speaking, everything about the Alien is impressive. The sound, the animations, the reliance on sound and your radar to know where the Alien is, the fact that if you’re caught, you’re dead. It has all the hallmarks of a fully realized horror experience, no ifs, ands, or buts. In practice though, the lines between scary and tedious become far too blurred. This frustration comes from two elements: your utter helplessness and the overreliance on the illusion of realism. The first one is more straightforward, so let’s knock that one out. While I’d say this aspect is largely exacerbated by the second element, it’s annoying on its own. When I say helplessness I don’t only mean the fact that you’re a one-hit kill. As I said, it’s a neat twist on the tag-like horror games that already inundate the genre. The issue is that your tools to hide and fight back also suck. They give you a rotunda of tools and gadgets to supposedly fight back. Not kill the creature of course, but slow them down. This is mostly untrue. Of the tools you have, only half of them are polished enough to actually use. Even then, they last about 5 seconds and give you about twice that time to haul your butt to timbuktu.
The reason this is so devastating is because of the illusion of realism I talked about earlier. The general philosophy the game takes is trying to make the Alien as responsive and dangerous as possible. Given that it’s you know, an Alien, it also has enhanced hearing. What this means is you’ll spend a lot of time running and hiding from it. Mostly hiding, as it is much faster than you. That’s not all though, If you hide too close to when the Alien gets in the same room as you, there’s a good chance it will find you anyway. Best case scenario, you’ll have to spend two minutes pre-hiding under a desk while it meticulously walks back and forth across the room as it searches for you. On its own this just encourages a more careful method of playing, but we’re STILL not done. As annoying as it can be to have to wait around on account of the architecture disallowing me to make a distraction, that can be forgiven. What can’t be is the obvious instances where the Alien sticks around FOREVER, because under all the realism is a perfect knowledge of where your player character is at all times. I suppose it’s to make sure you’ll still see the Alien even if you optimize for sneaky gameplay. It simply goes on too long, and little recourse from my crappy tools, I’m frequently left sitting still for 5 minutes, going out for 1 minute, randomly triggering the Alien 100 feet away, then having to go back to hiding. When I could I just doused the clown in flames and speedran through the section, but with limited flame ammo that was fewer than half of my interactions.
Don’t misunderstand me, it was visceral, it was cinematic, and it perfectly portrayed what the Alien should be on a realism level. Yet as a horror veteran, the waiting around in lockers and under desks, with the knowledge that it shouldn’t have found me when it did, left me bored in a way only remedied by sitting still for multiple minutes while I prayed for the Alien to dip. I’m glad they spaced out the Alien so it wasn’t constantly stalking you the entire game, however I think making it less obvious and frequent when the game forced interactions would not only add to the realism, but would further lessen the tedium that came with prolonged exposure.
Long-winded as it may have been, I feel a differing perspective is never unhealthy to flesh out. And don’t mistake my rant for hatred. My peak of agitation with this game never came close to tempting me to quit early. Not every interaction was hell. Only about a quarter of them ;) Holistically, this game has a fantastic presentation with a weak story, mediocre combat, and a should-be-better gameplay loop.
To account for this dizzying array of scoundrels the game uses a crafting system for creating tools to distract or eliminate threats. I’m gonna level with you, this whole system feels quite unnecessary. Both from a practically standpoint and just from a gameplay perspective. I’m usually very forgiving when it comes to games adding miscellaneous mechanics that don’t fit the genre or enhance the experience. It artificially inflates time and complexity, but rarely is it invasive or annoying to me. Unfortunately, Alien: Isolation doesn’t skate by that excuse. I mean, need EVERY game be a scavenge simulator? I’m a wayward astronaut adventure, not a reject from Hoarders. This is made more obvious when you actually use the tools too and see how pointless most of them are, creating a resource scarcity/overabundance that incenses me to no end. The Medikit, Molotov, Flamethrower, and Noisemakers are the only items you should ever be making or using. Everything else is too clunky, too slow, and too costly. I’d take it a step further and say Noisemakers are 100% necessary. As it turns out patience can only get you so far. More on that further down.
Before we do though let’s wrap up the story first to the best of my ability. Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to be moderately spoiled. After a lot of meandering back and forth, meeting new folks you couldn’t pay me to remember the names or faces of, you finally find out this was all a bad case of the narrative acrobatics and you were actually unwittingly sent on a mission to retrieve the alien itself. I guess Weyland-Yutani had learned nothing from the first movie. It was at this point I fully checked out. There were genuinely parts where I forgot who I was cool with and who had betrayed me. Not because it was so complex but because it felt so textbook and safe. Which is a shame considering how much I admire everything else. From its gorgeous glossy cassette futurism aesthetic to the crisp sound design in every corner of the game it really is one of the most well-designed titles I can think of, with the exception of a bad case of the uncanny-faces syndrome. For goodness sake, the original Alien callback sequence where you played as the guy who found the alien nest is almost worth the price of admission alone. No, it’s the heart, at least in the story, that’s missing for me. Anyway, after just about everyone else is dead or forgotten you’re finally able to get the hell out of dodge after an EXTREMELY drawn out end-sequence. One fakeout is good form. When you do three fakeout endings with no end in sight is when I start to get annoyed in a way that no cinematic sequences can lessen the blow of. Yet finally it does end, and on a cliffhanger no less. One I doubt we’ll ever get closure on, but never say never. In terms of story I’d give the game a firm 4/10. Terribly boring and quite drawn out. Shave off a couple hours and characters and pull back on the wild goose chases and we’d be in business.
Now let’s get into the real meat of the meal. What everyone raves about without end. The Alien, and by extension, its AI. I feel a touch more lukewarm about this than a lot of other folks it seems. Technically speaking, everything about the Alien is impressive. The sound, the animations, the reliance on sound and your radar to know where the Alien is, the fact that if you’re caught, you’re dead. It has all the hallmarks of a fully realized horror experience, no ifs, ands, or buts. In practice though, the lines between scary and tedious become far too blurred. This frustration comes from two elements: your utter helplessness and the overreliance on the illusion of realism. The first one is more straightforward, so let’s knock that one out. While I’d say this aspect is largely exacerbated by the second element, it’s annoying on its own. When I say helplessness I don’t only mean the fact that you’re a one-hit kill. As I said, it’s a neat twist on the tag-like horror games that already inundate the genre. The issue is that your tools to hide and fight back also suck. They give you a rotunda of tools and gadgets to supposedly fight back. Not kill the creature of course, but slow them down. This is mostly untrue. Of the tools you have, only half of them are polished enough to actually use. Even then, they last about 5 seconds and give you about twice that time to haul your butt to timbuktu.
The reason this is so devastating is because of the illusion of realism I talked about earlier. The general philosophy the game takes is trying to make the Alien as responsive and dangerous as possible. Given that it’s you know, an Alien, it also has enhanced hearing. What this means is you’ll spend a lot of time running and hiding from it. Mostly hiding, as it is much faster than you. That’s not all though, If you hide too close to when the Alien gets in the same room as you, there’s a good chance it will find you anyway. Best case scenario, you’ll have to spend two minutes pre-hiding under a desk while it meticulously walks back and forth across the room as it searches for you. On its own this just encourages a more careful method of playing, but we’re STILL not done. As annoying as it can be to have to wait around on account of the architecture disallowing me to make a distraction, that can be forgiven. What can’t be is the obvious instances where the Alien sticks around FOREVER, because under all the realism is a perfect knowledge of where your player character is at all times. I suppose it’s to make sure you’ll still see the Alien even if you optimize for sneaky gameplay. It simply goes on too long, and little recourse from my crappy tools, I’m frequently left sitting still for 5 minutes, going out for 1 minute, randomly triggering the Alien 100 feet away, then having to go back to hiding. When I could I just doused the clown in flames and speedran through the section, but with limited flame ammo that was fewer than half of my interactions.
Don’t misunderstand me, it was visceral, it was cinematic, and it perfectly portrayed what the Alien should be on a realism level. Yet as a horror veteran, the waiting around in lockers and under desks, with the knowledge that it shouldn’t have found me when it did, left me bored in a way only remedied by sitting still for multiple minutes while I prayed for the Alien to dip. I’m glad they spaced out the Alien so it wasn’t constantly stalking you the entire game, however I think making it less obvious and frequent when the game forced interactions would not only add to the realism, but would further lessen the tedium that came with prolonged exposure.
Long-winded as it may have been, I feel a differing perspective is never unhealthy to flesh out. And don’t mistake my rant for hatred. My peak of agitation with this game never came close to tempting me to quit early. Not every interaction was hell. Only about a quarter of them ;) Holistically, this game has a fantastic presentation with a weak story, mediocre combat, and a should-be-better gameplay loop.
2022
This review contains spoilers
Clocking in at around 20 minutes, How Fish is Made makes the smart decision and doesn’t muck about wasting it’s precious little time. True to its title, the game is about how fish is made. To expound, you’re a sardine newly entering a fish processing plant, encountering oily new friends as you explore further and further into the facility. Not solely a walking simulator (or would it be flopping simulator?), each fish you meet has an interesting question they all echo. That is, once you reach the end of the plant, which way are you going, up or down? Given it requires an answer each time they ask you, I took it seriously and thought of a few different reasonings that ultimately made my choice down.
To start with the weakest reasoning, the text for Up is red and Down is blue. And as we all learned at school, blue = good and red = bad. It’s mathematically proven at this point. Thesis ready as that was, for more support I took a look around the processing plant. As the start would suggest, you seem to be entering a downwards-built processing facility, which would suggest the natural sequence would be to go down, so I should go up right? We’re not finished. This is no ordinary facility, I hope. There’s mystery liquid stagnant ponds, eye-wall structure thingamabobs, too-large caverns that become more and more Cronenbergian in design as you go further in, and most disturbingly of all a general feeling that you’re not in a facility at all, but some sort of organic mass.
Now, with either interpretation of what you’re in it would seem sensible to go up. If it is a facility, maybe going up would take you out of the machine altogether, giving you another chance at oily freedom and all its worldly pleasures. And if it is a creature you’re in, then going up would surely seem more preferable than the alternative, in both cleanliness and general risk. Well, since that seems the obvious choice, it can’t possibly be the right one, so I decided to go the other way. Perhaps they used reverse psychology, and going down would end well for us after all. Besides, we already came from above, might as well see what they got in the other direction. Of course, meta-gaming can only get you so far, and while fun to ponder, these are all very flimsy theories.
Don’t worry though, remember those fish friends I was talking about? They’re more than happy to give their own input. I love these scaley friends of ours. Some are braggards, claiming with unfounded confidence they know which way to go, while others are less sure, themselves sweating over making the decision. Despite there seeming to be no obligation, every fish knew that they could only delay it so long. That no matter how long you put it off you must eventually face that million dollar choice. Finding the other indecisive fin-having fellows to be of little help, I stayed strong on my choice of down. I figured what upside could there be to changing my answer.
It’s here where the real bait and switch of the game is performed. That must be it, I thought. A test of conviction. That changing my answer, though seeming to have no consequence, could lead me to a “bad ending”, the consummate gamer’s archnemesis. So stand strong I did. Then I met the last two fish, each the most useful of all the waterfolk we met previously. The penultimate fish acted as the meta exposition, outright questioning what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Then gave two different explanation as to what the lesson is here. Is it a meaningless choice, or is it truly a test of conviction? Great, that’s another choice I have to make. Luckily the text for conviction was colored red, so we still have my rock-solid scientific method to fall back on.
Now normally I would call this clunky writing, to have them outright acknowledge the themes, but I think it works here. Throwing a wrench in the idea that there’s only message lends well to the over-analyzing this game thrives on, and it throws you off-kilter so effectively I just can’t muster the passion to deride it. Despite his later admission that he was just another lowly fish pretending to be of authority, his message still resonated. Still, I couldn’t falter at this point. So I stayed with my best friend Down.
The last fish, right before you make the decision for real this time, provides some stats like he’s some kind of Bill James. He tells you how many fish he’s seen go each way. He counted 199 fish that have gone down and 474 that have gone up. Interesting as it would appear, that little demographic does little to dissuade my love of down. Our final fish-bro’s not done yet though. He offers to go a direction we choose and yell at us what he sees as he goes through it. After sending him down he reports it’s “soft” before going silent. Alright, me and Tempur-Pedic are pretty tight, so make some room for me fish-bro. Steeling myself, I go down to the onyx abyss.
What splendors await me you ask? A yummy fish sandwich, with my sardine self providing the main protein. In other words, no bueno for me. A bad-ending perhaps, or maybe the only ending there is. The appetizer before our final form comes in the shape of some plain text on a black screen. A little send-off message. The author goes over how they hate the comfort given to people struggling that others are going through the same thing. They recognize this is unhealthy, before sending us off with the same message: “Don’t worry, a lot of people are going through the same thing.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure they’re likening the fish in the plant to those going through their own struggles. We might not be going at the same pace, but we all face trials and tribulations. Sometimes one’s we can’t avoid. Call me easy but I find this to be oddly endearing. I’m not familiar with the creator of the game but it feels startingly sincere and sobering.
Oh and to spoil the other ending, it’s just as unfortunate, with you becoming integrated into a huge mass of tormented fish flesh, unable to move or to exert agency. It’s here where the bait and switch I talked about is fully realized. It was never about conviction, except maybe for the benefit of your own self-respect. Changing your answer never amounted to any change. In fact, neither up nor down really mattered at all. Both were bad.
Which leads us to the main and largest theme of the game. That being the illusion of choice, the first theory posited and then dismissed by the penultimate fish. All that pondering, theorizing? All for nothing. You never had a chance to begin with. None of you and your fish friends did. Unbeknownst to you, you were all just helpless small fish in a scary world. Delay it as much as you want, you will have to face hardships, you might feel like a fish out of water, sometimes there will be no right answer. Certainly not one as simple as up or down. As the final text emphasized, sometimes all we can do is endure, It may not be romantic.
But that’s alright, just know,
a lot of people are going through the same thing.
To start with the weakest reasoning, the text for Up is red and Down is blue. And as we all learned at school, blue = good and red = bad. It’s mathematically proven at this point. Thesis ready as that was, for more support I took a look around the processing plant. As the start would suggest, you seem to be entering a downwards-built processing facility, which would suggest the natural sequence would be to go down, so I should go up right? We’re not finished. This is no ordinary facility, I hope. There’s mystery liquid stagnant ponds, eye-wall structure thingamabobs, too-large caverns that become more and more Cronenbergian in design as you go further in, and most disturbingly of all a general feeling that you’re not in a facility at all, but some sort of organic mass.
Now, with either interpretation of what you’re in it would seem sensible to go up. If it is a facility, maybe going up would take you out of the machine altogether, giving you another chance at oily freedom and all its worldly pleasures. And if it is a creature you’re in, then going up would surely seem more preferable than the alternative, in both cleanliness and general risk. Well, since that seems the obvious choice, it can’t possibly be the right one, so I decided to go the other way. Perhaps they used reverse psychology, and going down would end well for us after all. Besides, we already came from above, might as well see what they got in the other direction. Of course, meta-gaming can only get you so far, and while fun to ponder, these are all very flimsy theories.
Don’t worry though, remember those fish friends I was talking about? They’re more than happy to give their own input. I love these scaley friends of ours. Some are braggards, claiming with unfounded confidence they know which way to go, while others are less sure, themselves sweating over making the decision. Despite there seeming to be no obligation, every fish knew that they could only delay it so long. That no matter how long you put it off you must eventually face that million dollar choice. Finding the other indecisive fin-having fellows to be of little help, I stayed strong on my choice of down. I figured what upside could there be to changing my answer.
It’s here where the real bait and switch of the game is performed. That must be it, I thought. A test of conviction. That changing my answer, though seeming to have no consequence, could lead me to a “bad ending”, the consummate gamer’s archnemesis. So stand strong I did. Then I met the last two fish, each the most useful of all the waterfolk we met previously. The penultimate fish acted as the meta exposition, outright questioning what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Then gave two different explanation as to what the lesson is here. Is it a meaningless choice, or is it truly a test of conviction? Great, that’s another choice I have to make. Luckily the text for conviction was colored red, so we still have my rock-solid scientific method to fall back on.
Now normally I would call this clunky writing, to have them outright acknowledge the themes, but I think it works here. Throwing a wrench in the idea that there’s only message lends well to the over-analyzing this game thrives on, and it throws you off-kilter so effectively I just can’t muster the passion to deride it. Despite his later admission that he was just another lowly fish pretending to be of authority, his message still resonated. Still, I couldn’t falter at this point. So I stayed with my best friend Down.
The last fish, right before you make the decision for real this time, provides some stats like he’s some kind of Bill James. He tells you how many fish he’s seen go each way. He counted 199 fish that have gone down and 474 that have gone up. Interesting as it would appear, that little demographic does little to dissuade my love of down. Our final fish-bro’s not done yet though. He offers to go a direction we choose and yell at us what he sees as he goes through it. After sending him down he reports it’s “soft” before going silent. Alright, me and Tempur-Pedic are pretty tight, so make some room for me fish-bro. Steeling myself, I go down to the onyx abyss.
What splendors await me you ask? A yummy fish sandwich, with my sardine self providing the main protein. In other words, no bueno for me. A bad-ending perhaps, or maybe the only ending there is. The appetizer before our final form comes in the shape of some plain text on a black screen. A little send-off message. The author goes over how they hate the comfort given to people struggling that others are going through the same thing. They recognize this is unhealthy, before sending us off with the same message: “Don’t worry, a lot of people are going through the same thing.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure they’re likening the fish in the plant to those going through their own struggles. We might not be going at the same pace, but we all face trials and tribulations. Sometimes one’s we can’t avoid. Call me easy but I find this to be oddly endearing. I’m not familiar with the creator of the game but it feels startingly sincere and sobering.
Oh and to spoil the other ending, it’s just as unfortunate, with you becoming integrated into a huge mass of tormented fish flesh, unable to move or to exert agency. It’s here where the bait and switch I talked about is fully realized. It was never about conviction, except maybe for the benefit of your own self-respect. Changing your answer never amounted to any change. In fact, neither up nor down really mattered at all. Both were bad.
Which leads us to the main and largest theme of the game. That being the illusion of choice, the first theory posited and then dismissed by the penultimate fish. All that pondering, theorizing? All for nothing. You never had a chance to begin with. None of you and your fish friends did. Unbeknownst to you, you were all just helpless small fish in a scary world. Delay it as much as you want, you will have to face hardships, you might feel like a fish out of water, sometimes there will be no right answer. Certainly not one as simple as up or down. As the final text emphasized, sometimes all we can do is endure, It may not be romantic.
But that’s alright, just know,
a lot of people are going through the same thing.
2000
The genesis of what would be the wide-spanning Hitman franchise, Codename 47 walked so its sequels could run. Being a bit on the older side, the game is a bit irregular in how it plays 23 years later. Most older games are clunky in movement, organization, or precise aiming. Hitman is meritoriously free of these issues. Where it does stumble is in its enemy AI, damage numbers, and its excruciating propensity to get you stuck on random geometry like foliage. The enemies must be trained by John Wick himself with how pinpoint accurate they often are, further helped by a very small player health pool that will have you watch Agent 47 collapse dramatically 4-5 times a mission on the low end. And for some reason, enemy aggro frequently persists even after retries, making restarts a necessity at times. Though sometimes even that’s not required, as some enemies will just shoot you on sight through no provocation. It makes for a tedious time when evading is regularly incentivized over openly disguising yourself or having fun with the missions.
Least counterable of all and most aggravating personally, Agent 47 loves nothing more than to find himself stuck on an errant polygon, doomed to strand me forever as I frantically move my mouse to free my foolish compatriot. The free-camera “camera mode” worked half the time to unstuck me, but a sizable portion of runs were completely ruined by this problem. Predictably, that would be the final nail in the coffin for me. After getting stuck for the umpteenth time I decided to cut my losses and quit the game after the jungle mission. Codename 47 is inextricably a part of gaming history, but there’s really no reason to play it over its subsequent titles.
Least counterable of all and most aggravating personally, Agent 47 loves nothing more than to find himself stuck on an errant polygon, doomed to strand me forever as I frantically move my mouse to free my foolish compatriot. The free-camera “camera mode” worked half the time to unstuck me, but a sizable portion of runs were completely ruined by this problem. Predictably, that would be the final nail in the coffin for me. After getting stuck for the umpteenth time I decided to cut my losses and quit the game after the jungle mission. Codename 47 is inextricably a part of gaming history, but there’s really no reason to play it over its subsequent titles.
2016
After playing this game on and off for nearly 6 years and 5500 hours, I can’t help but harbor a love-hate relationship with this game. At its core, Dead by Daylight is a basic title with some comparatively good mileage considering its depth. Every match regardless of maps, characters, or other factors has four survivors repair generators to power doors to escape the match. Oppositely, the killer is tasked with sacrificing the survivors to the entity by throwing them on hooks to deplete their health phases. There’s some auxiliary factors like hatches for alternative escape when you’re the last alive, totems that power killer or survivor perks, or items that boost repair speed or healing efficiency. But really the generator-repairing, teammate-helping, killer-escaping dynamic is what you’ll be interacting with 99% of the time.
This is where fatigue rears its head. This gameplay loop is all there is to the game. No alternate objectives, no different modes, nothing. Doing the main objective sucks. All it entails is finding a generator and then holding left-mouse next to it. Some “skill checks” will occasionally pop up to make sure you’re paying attention but you’ll never miss those unless you’re new or make a misclick on your part. The real fun of the game is in being chased by the killer or making a clutch save. This is where the reward for skill is most felt in the game. Being able to reliably juke, time stuns just right or otherwise express your skill is done beautifully here. There’s not many mechanics to be memorized but those that exist can be honed to the maximum efficiency. And for as little as there is in DBD there’s a surprising depth that can only be understood after dozens of hours playing. Even still, that can only go so far. Playing killer can break up that monotony, but with more pressure to do everything on your own there’s little time to dawdle. And they run into the same problem in the opposite direction of JUST being able to patrol generators and interact with their own power. No sabotage mechanic or side abilities/tools exist.
The roadmap for the game boils down to an endless addition of new killers, survivors, and maps. With all but the killer powers being standardized or cosmetic. Now credit where credit is due. In the design department Behaviour does an A+ job. Whether it be their original characters or licensed chapters they more often than not do great at making a distinct chapter that fits well in the killer fog of DBD. That said, I would much rather they take a temporary or even permanent break from a new chapter and focus on adding to the depth of the gameplay loop. Like I said, getting chased is fun and the heart of the game. Everything else is just down-time until you do get chased though. Repairing generators isn’t a deep, interesting, or tasking experience. Why don’t they switch it up?
Dead by Daylight in the present is a decently popular game that would not be damaged by making more modes to experiment. It’s like they're too afraid of veering off from their simple but archaic gameplay loop in fear of messing something up. An unfounded idea because they have made a few sweet improvements to the game before. The Endgame Collapse mechanic was an awesome addition to the end of matches to prevent wasted time. Heck they don’t even have to make a new mode. Adding new ways to evade the killer besides pallets and windows, or new ways to reliably kill survivors besides hooking them would be a welcome feature. I mean they have a Public Test Build to test features before adding them to the main game, they should really use that more. Dead by Daylight is a fun evening game but I question anyone who can play this unendingly all the time. Once the honeymoon phase wears off it doesn’t have a large amount of endless staying power.
It’s no doubt a fun game to play with friends, but I would advise against taking it too seriously. People will argue until the cows come home about how unbalanced the game is in one direction or another. Most complaints are exaggerated or outright wrong. As a solo player you’ll definitely have a decidedly harder time, but experience and perks can mostly overcome this. It’s perfectly playable solo and rarely will you have an unfair time that’s not caused by external mistakes on the survivors’ part. Sure, some killers on certain maps can make or break the outcome. That’s just the nature of a game with so many different killer powers and map types. Though they could really use some more quality testing on the map design side. As good looking as the maps are, they are not the most well designed ones.
Believe it or not Dead by Daylight IS a game I would recommend. For all its missteps I still think DBD is a pretty good asymmetrical multiplayer game. Far too stagnant, but less obviously so if you know when to put it down and take a break. I’m hopefully optimistic about the future of the franchise with the announcement of more DBD universe games coming out, yet even without that Dead by Daylight is a game that holds on much longer than you think it would.
This is where fatigue rears its head. This gameplay loop is all there is to the game. No alternate objectives, no different modes, nothing. Doing the main objective sucks. All it entails is finding a generator and then holding left-mouse next to it. Some “skill checks” will occasionally pop up to make sure you’re paying attention but you’ll never miss those unless you’re new or make a misclick on your part. The real fun of the game is in being chased by the killer or making a clutch save. This is where the reward for skill is most felt in the game. Being able to reliably juke, time stuns just right or otherwise express your skill is done beautifully here. There’s not many mechanics to be memorized but those that exist can be honed to the maximum efficiency. And for as little as there is in DBD there’s a surprising depth that can only be understood after dozens of hours playing. Even still, that can only go so far. Playing killer can break up that monotony, but with more pressure to do everything on your own there’s little time to dawdle. And they run into the same problem in the opposite direction of JUST being able to patrol generators and interact with their own power. No sabotage mechanic or side abilities/tools exist.
The roadmap for the game boils down to an endless addition of new killers, survivors, and maps. With all but the killer powers being standardized or cosmetic. Now credit where credit is due. In the design department Behaviour does an A+ job. Whether it be their original characters or licensed chapters they more often than not do great at making a distinct chapter that fits well in the killer fog of DBD. That said, I would much rather they take a temporary or even permanent break from a new chapter and focus on adding to the depth of the gameplay loop. Like I said, getting chased is fun and the heart of the game. Everything else is just down-time until you do get chased though. Repairing generators isn’t a deep, interesting, or tasking experience. Why don’t they switch it up?
Dead by Daylight in the present is a decently popular game that would not be damaged by making more modes to experiment. It’s like they're too afraid of veering off from their simple but archaic gameplay loop in fear of messing something up. An unfounded idea because they have made a few sweet improvements to the game before. The Endgame Collapse mechanic was an awesome addition to the end of matches to prevent wasted time. Heck they don’t even have to make a new mode. Adding new ways to evade the killer besides pallets and windows, or new ways to reliably kill survivors besides hooking them would be a welcome feature. I mean they have a Public Test Build to test features before adding them to the main game, they should really use that more. Dead by Daylight is a fun evening game but I question anyone who can play this unendingly all the time. Once the honeymoon phase wears off it doesn’t have a large amount of endless staying power.
It’s no doubt a fun game to play with friends, but I would advise against taking it too seriously. People will argue until the cows come home about how unbalanced the game is in one direction or another. Most complaints are exaggerated or outright wrong. As a solo player you’ll definitely have a decidedly harder time, but experience and perks can mostly overcome this. It’s perfectly playable solo and rarely will you have an unfair time that’s not caused by external mistakes on the survivors’ part. Sure, some killers on certain maps can make or break the outcome. That’s just the nature of a game with so many different killer powers and map types. Though they could really use some more quality testing on the map design side. As good looking as the maps are, they are not the most well designed ones.
Believe it or not Dead by Daylight IS a game I would recommend. For all its missteps I still think DBD is a pretty good asymmetrical multiplayer game. Far too stagnant, but less obviously so if you know when to put it down and take a break. I’m hopefully optimistic about the future of the franchise with the announcement of more DBD universe games coming out, yet even without that Dead by Daylight is a game that holds on much longer than you think it would.
2020
I first heard about this game when the sequel was announced at the 2023 State of Play. To be honest I was surprised it flew under my radar at all. Maybe subconsciously my first impression before playing was that it seemed like yet another platformer game trying to reinvent the wheel. What caught my attention though was the combat, and motivated me to buy it during the steam summer sale. The first thing you learn is that Ghostrunner is a high octane bullet timing platformer where the focus is on how you secure the kill, letting you get creative with it. Everyone besides bosses are one-hit kills, including yourself. And with a well balanced checkpoint system this doesn’t cause too much frustration except on rare occasions. Of course I wouldn’t have balked had they made the player 2 hits, especially for the more cluttered areas. But no, I think it works for what they’re going for here. It makes it all the more satisfying once you get the hang of the movement and bullet timings and start slicing through enemies like butter.
Ghostrunner is very tight-knit, much like the tower you traverse throughout the game. Your main tools are your wall-running and your grappling hook to get to higher elevations, with more things like zip lines introduced later. By the way, this is a bit of a deep cut but does the grappling hook remind anyone of the electro-whip that the assassin class had in Lawbreakers, the failed Overwatch clone? Just me? Alright. In addition to that you have four main abilities on top of your basic slice such as an energy wave that shoots out horizontally or a wind pulse that kills enemies in close proximity. With around 17 or so levels the game is very good at keeping things feeling fresh with some levels very short and some a tad longer. You’re never stagnant, whether you’re unlocking a new ability, being introduced to a new parkour element, or enemies are gaining a new ability. There's always something for you to improve on and adapt to.
Being someone who likes to get a taste of everything I’m happy to say each skill has its place here and I really enjoyed being able to freely swap out abilities at any point for what the situation called for without being penalized. I would say it got repetitive if not for the stellar design that knew when to give you platforming and when to give you enemies. Any time you face a gauntlet of enemies you’ll be back to zipping around like a mad monkey right after. It’s really hard to say which one I preferred, they both have their moments of oh-so-sweet sweet endorphin releases. Besides normal platforming there’s also Cybervoid sections which consist of puzzles in a highly stylized digital world. They annoyed me at first but then started to grow on me after a while. They’re all very derivative of puzzles you’ve likely seen many times before, but still. They get the old noggin working and really shouldn’t be doing anything else.
There’s no traditional swordplay here. Your main move is just a simple slash, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling like a badass as you rely on auxiliary flourishes and listen to an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that I’m listening to right now as I review the game. If you get nothing from this review then at the very least go listen to the soundtrack as soon as you can. Daniel Deluxe really brought life to the already gorgeous visuals, be it in trippy Cybervoid or striking-neon Dharma Tower. I understand the game won’t appeal to those that expected more technical swordwork, but I’d really encourage those on the fence to give it a try when possible.
Ghostrunner is very tight-knit, much like the tower you traverse throughout the game. Your main tools are your wall-running and your grappling hook to get to higher elevations, with more things like zip lines introduced later. By the way, this is a bit of a deep cut but does the grappling hook remind anyone of the electro-whip that the assassin class had in Lawbreakers, the failed Overwatch clone? Just me? Alright. In addition to that you have four main abilities on top of your basic slice such as an energy wave that shoots out horizontally or a wind pulse that kills enemies in close proximity. With around 17 or so levels the game is very good at keeping things feeling fresh with some levels very short and some a tad longer. You’re never stagnant, whether you’re unlocking a new ability, being introduced to a new parkour element, or enemies are gaining a new ability. There's always something for you to improve on and adapt to.
Being someone who likes to get a taste of everything I’m happy to say each skill has its place here and I really enjoyed being able to freely swap out abilities at any point for what the situation called for without being penalized. I would say it got repetitive if not for the stellar design that knew when to give you platforming and when to give you enemies. Any time you face a gauntlet of enemies you’ll be back to zipping around like a mad monkey right after. It’s really hard to say which one I preferred, they both have their moments of oh-so-sweet sweet endorphin releases. Besides normal platforming there’s also Cybervoid sections which consist of puzzles in a highly stylized digital world. They annoyed me at first but then started to grow on me after a while. They’re all very derivative of puzzles you’ve likely seen many times before, but still. They get the old noggin working and really shouldn’t be doing anything else.
There’s no traditional swordplay here. Your main move is just a simple slash, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling like a badass as you rely on auxiliary flourishes and listen to an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that I’m listening to right now as I review the game. If you get nothing from this review then at the very least go listen to the soundtrack as soon as you can. Daniel Deluxe really brought life to the already gorgeous visuals, be it in trippy Cybervoid or striking-neon Dharma Tower. I understand the game won’t appeal to those that expected more technical swordwork, but I’d really encourage those on the fence to give it a try when possible.
Something of a blast from the past, the original Burrito Bison is something I remember playing back in middle school in the computer lab. Back then there was only one “launchador”, one enemy, and fewer special gummies. It’s a lot more fleshed out here now. More upgrades, more minigames when hitting gummies, and new pounce abilities for different launchadors. It’s surprisingly fun. Really luck based, but decidedly addictive for a mobile game. With no real endgame it starts to wear after a while though. The bonuses and increasing money boosts give a reason to keep playing, but there’s only so many walls you can break through before you start to ask why you’re still going. Burrito Bison is a solid time-waster that’s improved on the foundation of the main game, but typical in its endless play monetization. Good enough to grab your attention, but limited in its shelf life.
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.