RyoCaliente
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This review contains spoilers
A lot of mixed thoughts about this expansion. It had been ages since I last played Phantom Liberty, so it was difficult to get back into the swing of things, especially with the massive amount of gameplay changes that had happened due to the patch. This led to plenty of early frustrations...because I didn't hate Cyberpunk 2077 on release. It didn't run too well at times on my old Xbox One, but I enjoyed just playing the game. Getting dropped into this expansion and having to first run over all my skills again to find which ones were relevant to me, and then having to go over all my equips to see which one I liked (no more silenced revolvers...) made the initial part of this expansion a bit of a chore. I had been out of it, I had to remake my build and so I never figured out if I no longer knew how to do things or if the way I used to do things was just no longer available.
The evolution of that build went well, however. Where before I played my V as a stealthy ninja, I still played her stealthy here, however...she had become a complete and total tank. There's a lot of fun in getting into a firefight and realizing that 95 % of enemies can't damage you (fast) enough to counteract your health regen. Coupled with the fact that I was powerful enough to take out enemies in a few shots (thus diminishing the damage done to me) and I felt awesome again; I had reached endgame with this V, so I enjoyed that my power was reflected. Scaling enemies is all well and good, but if I've reached the end of the game or the level cap, I want to feel as powerful as I should.
My problems on a gameplay level tie in to my main problem with Phantom Liberty however; it comes too late. I had arrived, lived, and left Night City already. To come back to it so much later, but still with my V, still tied to the story that had already been told, continuously gave me a feeling of disconnect. I was interested and engaged with the storyline of So Mi, Reed, Alex, and Kurt Hansen (even though the latter is surprisingly unused, given his status in the DLC), but I was never truly immersed into it. I slid back into my V easily enough, but it never really felt good to me. Certainly a personal issue, but one that bothered me a lot, was that I was really struggling to find anybody to root for (of the main sides; Alex is the easy lovable NPC). I could not align myself (or my V) to either Reed or So Mi's side, and so pretty much every ending option left me frustrated and wondering what it had all been for. There's a tragedy element that works for a lot of writing, but combining it with a playthrough of Assassin's Creed Odyssey certainly meant I've had my fill of (Greek) tragedies.
Looking forward, it will be a lot of fun to start a new file and experience this story and the Dogtown gigs interweaved through the main campaign, and fully immerse myself in the perspectives and characters of the DLC. As a stand-alone attachment however, it was impossible for me to gel with what was going on.
The evolution of that build went well, however. Where before I played my V as a stealthy ninja, I still played her stealthy here, however...she had become a complete and total tank. There's a lot of fun in getting into a firefight and realizing that 95 % of enemies can't damage you (fast) enough to counteract your health regen. Coupled with the fact that I was powerful enough to take out enemies in a few shots (thus diminishing the damage done to me) and I felt awesome again; I had reached endgame with this V, so I enjoyed that my power was reflected. Scaling enemies is all well and good, but if I've reached the end of the game or the level cap, I want to feel as powerful as I should.
My problems on a gameplay level tie in to my main problem with Phantom Liberty however; it comes too late. I had arrived, lived, and left Night City already. To come back to it so much later, but still with my V, still tied to the story that had already been told, continuously gave me a feeling of disconnect. I was interested and engaged with the storyline of So Mi, Reed, Alex, and Kurt Hansen (even though the latter is surprisingly unused, given his status in the DLC), but I was never truly immersed into it. I slid back into my V easily enough, but it never really felt good to me. Certainly a personal issue, but one that bothered me a lot, was that I was really struggling to find anybody to root for (of the main sides; Alex is the easy lovable NPC). I could not align myself (or my V) to either Reed or So Mi's side, and so pretty much every ending option left me frustrated and wondering what it had all been for. There's a tragedy element that works for a lot of writing, but combining it with a playthrough of Assassin's Creed Odyssey certainly meant I've had my fill of (Greek) tragedies.
Looking forward, it will be a lot of fun to start a new file and experience this story and the Dogtown gigs interweaved through the main campaign, and fully immerse myself in the perspectives and characters of the DLC. As a stand-alone attachment however, it was impossible for me to gel with what was going on.
A brutal experience. In that sense it is probably equivalent to the feeling of the Gears themselves as they fight against the endless horde of Locust, but it was an exhausting experience to me playing through this game. Every victorious encounter and pop-up telling me I had reached a checkpoint was met mostly by a big sigh of relief, rather than a victorious fist-pump.
I assume this game must be a blast to play with a friend; Gears of War really seems to dig its team mechanic, but it mostly winds up being frustrating as Dom, Baird, and Gus are not exactly...useful. They'll distract enemies, but offensively they won't really do much good and they'll die quickly, leaving you to have to go revive them. Nobody revives you when you go down though...
That's all coupled with the fact that the Locust are brutally tough. Your bullets heal them, in fact, or that's what it seems like at least, as you unload bullet after bullet into their bodies or heads, after which you'll duck back in cover to reload and recover some health. There's a nice flow to the combat, and as I said, the difficulty of it makes sense in-universe, but it also never felt satisfying to me. The shotgun was about the only weapon that could give that 'oomph' to enemies that I was looking for, but even then really only on one type of enemy.
Gears of War gets criticized for being one of those games that killed colour for a while, and while I totally get it, I also think this game looks really good. I have to imagine it must've been a kind of 'first time Final Fantasy X' moment or something to see this in 2006. Obviously the graphics are dated now, but it's very clear that the quality is still there, and that it was impressive on release.
I'm not sure I could recommend playing Gears of War nowadays if you don't have any nostalgia for it. It could be interesting from a history perspective, as an Xbox 360 exclusive, the cover mechanic that this game seemingly brought to the fore,... but the genre has evolved, and it might be more enjoyable to play any of those games than it would be to go back to this one. But if you love a tough challenge, this could be a really good option.
I assume this game must be a blast to play with a friend; Gears of War really seems to dig its team mechanic, but it mostly winds up being frustrating as Dom, Baird, and Gus are not exactly...useful. They'll distract enemies, but offensively they won't really do much good and they'll die quickly, leaving you to have to go revive them. Nobody revives you when you go down though...
That's all coupled with the fact that the Locust are brutally tough. Your bullets heal them, in fact, or that's what it seems like at least, as you unload bullet after bullet into their bodies or heads, after which you'll duck back in cover to reload and recover some health. There's a nice flow to the combat, and as I said, the difficulty of it makes sense in-universe, but it also never felt satisfying to me. The shotgun was about the only weapon that could give that 'oomph' to enemies that I was looking for, but even then really only on one type of enemy.
Gears of War gets criticized for being one of those games that killed colour for a while, and while I totally get it, I also think this game looks really good. I have to imagine it must've been a kind of 'first time Final Fantasy X' moment or something to see this in 2006. Obviously the graphics are dated now, but it's very clear that the quality is still there, and that it was impressive on release.
I'm not sure I could recommend playing Gears of War nowadays if you don't have any nostalgia for it. It could be interesting from a history perspective, as an Xbox 360 exclusive, the cover mechanic that this game seemingly brought to the fore,... but the genre has evolved, and it might be more enjoyable to play any of those games than it would be to go back to this one. But if you love a tough challenge, this could be a really good option.
Death is an interesting concept in video games. On the one hand, it is needed to create tension and the tension adds an important and exciting aspect to the playthrough. On the other, death breaks immersion. You're in the game, making it happen, living through it, and then you see a game over screen and you realize, "Oh right, I'm playing a video game."
Mega Man is not an immersive game. It hails from a time when games were just games, entertainment bits in the way you'd watch an episode of a TV show. And good for it too, as you will die a lot in Mega Man.
Modern video games are accused of having bloat; endless amounts of meaningless sidequests just to have content, just to pad out the game length. Mega Man, a game from 1987 also has bloat. The bloat is also part of the game design. Death is the bloat.
Other video games released at the time have their difficulties. Doing a deathless run on your first time through Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda is not easy...but it is not impossible (especially if you go to them now with experience in video games, back then it was far harder). Doing a deathless run on your first time through Mega Man is impossible. Every encounter with an enemy is basically teaching you what the enemy does and how it hurts you by hurting you. The flying cutters will hit you the first time they appear. The big hopper will hurt you the first time it appears. If not by their attacks, just the area where they spawn. Mega Man loves spawning enemies at points where you have to jump over a gap. It teaches you by killing you.
Doing a deathless run on your first time through Mega Man is impossible, but is almost required to beat the game. The game is unforgiving with health drops, throws enemies and bosses at you continuously and to beat it, you will need to know the level, spawn locations and boss strategies by heart.
And that is the bloat. If you use the Suspend Point function on the Wii U VC, you can get through this game in a short amount of time. If not, you'll probably spend months honing your skills, perfecting level after level of a NES video game.
Is that worth it? If you like bragging to your friends that you perfected Mega Man 'the right way', it is. You can pat yourself on the back afterwards for your skill. If not, Mega Man does not really have anything to offer you.
Mega Man is not an immersive game. It hails from a time when games were just games, entertainment bits in the way you'd watch an episode of a TV show. And good for it too, as you will die a lot in Mega Man.
Modern video games are accused of having bloat; endless amounts of meaningless sidequests just to have content, just to pad out the game length. Mega Man, a game from 1987 also has bloat. The bloat is also part of the game design. Death is the bloat.
Other video games released at the time have their difficulties. Doing a deathless run on your first time through Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda is not easy...but it is not impossible (especially if you go to them now with experience in video games, back then it was far harder). Doing a deathless run on your first time through Mega Man is impossible. Every encounter with an enemy is basically teaching you what the enemy does and how it hurts you by hurting you. The flying cutters will hit you the first time they appear. The big hopper will hurt you the first time it appears. If not by their attacks, just the area where they spawn. Mega Man loves spawning enemies at points where you have to jump over a gap. It teaches you by killing you.
Doing a deathless run on your first time through Mega Man is impossible, but is almost required to beat the game. The game is unforgiving with health drops, throws enemies and bosses at you continuously and to beat it, you will need to know the level, spawn locations and boss strategies by heart.
And that is the bloat. If you use the Suspend Point function on the Wii U VC, you can get through this game in a short amount of time. If not, you'll probably spend months honing your skills, perfecting level after level of a NES video game.
Is that worth it? If you like bragging to your friends that you perfected Mega Man 'the right way', it is. You can pat yourself on the back afterwards for your skill. If not, Mega Man does not really have anything to offer you.