Shobbrook
110 Reviews liked by Shobbrook
Mirror's Edge
2008
first person platformer got me trippin
GooeyScale: 70/100
GooeyScale: 70/100
My first Castlevania game.
The movements were really responsive. Alucard isn't slippery, he doesn't gain a weird momentum as soon as he starts moving forward, or any other shenanigan. It just felt very smooth. The same can be said about the bat form.
It was such a sick ability btw, being able to fly wherever you want, dodging every enemy while backtracking. And I like the detail of the bat changing color depending on Alucard's outfit.
The soundtrack is extremely catchy. There are elements from multiple musical genres, including classical, techno, rock and metal. It fitted perfectly with the gothic aesthetics of the game. The atmosphere is just very charming.
The game has a good amount of teleporters that are well spaced between each other. I could reach any part of the map pretty quickly. It's too rare in those retro games.
While some of the Bosses were too easy, I still enjoyed them a lot overall. Many of them have a really cool chara design, like Granfaloon, Medusa, Scylla and Shaft. And honestly, I usually prefer too easy rather than too hard.
By the way, having to fight Doppelganger 30 minutes into my playthrough was a big surprise. It was probably the most difficult Boss in the entire game. Still a great Boss tho 👌
I liked the RPG aspect of the game, with the items you can drop on defeated enemies, or by finding them during your exploration. Whether it's weapons, cloaks or talismans to make Alucard stronger, or consumables to heal yourself and boost your statistics momentarily in battle. I wish we could use items without having to unequip our weapon or shield tho...
The sub-weapons I used the most were the knives for their ease of use & high damage, and also the stopwatch. I didn't use the other ones very often.
I like how there is a possibility of getting a bad ending if you rush to the top of the castle before doing the necessary to save Richter. I ruthlessly killed him even though he is a human, and immediatly realized my mistake.
Hopefully I was able to reload my save right away to get the true ending.
I remember being stuck at some point, and I found a clue while looking at the tactic for Dracula, in the Librarian's Shop. When you watch this tutorial where Richter is fighting him, you can see that he opens a secret path at the very beginning, right before the fight. So I was able to go there myself, and I found an item that helped me to progress. I just think that was a cool way to proceed.
At first, when I reached the Reverse Castle, I was excited about the idea to go through the same map but upside down.
But when I realized that many of the rooms were now filled to the brim with enemies, I decided to keep using the bat & mist to breeze through the map and reach the Final Boss a lot quicker.
This last segment in the Reverse Castle felt like padding to be honest. It wasn't as great as the rest of the game.
Still, I had a very good time with the game overall. I enjoyed it more than Super Metroid which I played right before SOTN. (I mention it because I saw that there is a heated debate between the fans of both games to decide which one is the best 😂)
Anyway, if I play another Castlevania game in the future, it's gonna be Aria of Sorrow! 👍
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Started on May 8th & finished on May 10th 2024]
Playtime: 13 hours
I was at 88% after getting the first ending.
And at 150% after getting the true ending.
The movements were really responsive. Alucard isn't slippery, he doesn't gain a weird momentum as soon as he starts moving forward, or any other shenanigan. It just felt very smooth. The same can be said about the bat form.
It was such a sick ability btw, being able to fly wherever you want, dodging every enemy while backtracking. And I like the detail of the bat changing color depending on Alucard's outfit.
The soundtrack is extremely catchy. There are elements from multiple musical genres, including classical, techno, rock and metal. It fitted perfectly with the gothic aesthetics of the game. The atmosphere is just very charming.
The game has a good amount of teleporters that are well spaced between each other. I could reach any part of the map pretty quickly. It's too rare in those retro games.
While some of the Bosses were too easy, I still enjoyed them a lot overall. Many of them have a really cool chara design, like Granfaloon, Medusa, Scylla and Shaft. And honestly, I usually prefer too easy rather than too hard.
By the way, having to fight Doppelganger 30 minutes into my playthrough was a big surprise. It was probably the most difficult Boss in the entire game. Still a great Boss tho 👌
I liked the RPG aspect of the game, with the items you can drop on defeated enemies, or by finding them during your exploration. Whether it's weapons, cloaks or talismans to make Alucard stronger, or consumables to heal yourself and boost your statistics momentarily in battle. I wish we could use items without having to unequip our weapon or shield tho...
The sub-weapons I used the most were the knives for their ease of use & high damage, and also the stopwatch. I didn't use the other ones very often.
I like how there is a possibility of getting a bad ending if you rush to the top of the castle before doing the necessary to save Richter. I ruthlessly killed him even though he is a human, and immediatly realized my mistake.
Hopefully I was able to reload my save right away to get the true ending.
I remember being stuck at some point, and I found a clue while looking at the tactic for Dracula, in the Librarian's Shop. When you watch this tutorial where Richter is fighting him, you can see that he opens a secret path at the very beginning, right before the fight. So I was able to go there myself, and I found an item that helped me to progress. I just think that was a cool way to proceed.
At first, when I reached the Reverse Castle, I was excited about the idea to go through the same map but upside down.
But when I realized that many of the rooms were now filled to the brim with enemies, I decided to keep using the bat & mist to breeze through the map and reach the Final Boss a lot quicker.
This last segment in the Reverse Castle felt like padding to be honest. It wasn't as great as the rest of the game.
Still, I had a very good time with the game overall. I enjoyed it more than Super Metroid which I played right before SOTN. (I mention it because I saw that there is a heated debate between the fans of both games to decide which one is the best 😂)
Anyway, if I play another Castlevania game in the future, it's gonna be Aria of Sorrow! 👍
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Started on May 8th & finished on May 10th 2024]
Playtime: 13 hours
I was at 88% after getting the first ending.
And at 150% after getting the true ending.
Ico
2001
I absolutely respect Ico for the influence it had on artistic adventure and exploration games along with Shadow of the Colossus. I really wanted to like it, as Shadow of the Colossus is one of my favorite games ever.
Unfortunately I hated Ico.
The loose controls, weird camera, and blurry, eye-straining graphics with way too much bloom gave me an actual headache. I just could not continue playing when the game had made me physically unwell in the first half hour.
Unfortunately I hated Ico.
The loose controls, weird camera, and blurry, eye-straining graphics with way too much bloom gave me an actual headache. I just could not continue playing when the game had made me physically unwell in the first half hour.
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is a respectable sequel to the first game, but still retains all of its jank, making it equally frustrating despite its magnificent ideas.
There are some meaningful improvements from Splinter Cell 1. The swat turn is invaluable for staying unnoticed in certain indoor situations, and there is now an indicator for whether it's safe to hide a body. The laser sight on the pistol allows you to see exactly where your shot will land with the tradeoff that it's also visible to enemies. It's still ultimately a bandaid solution to the problem with Splinter Cell's shooting, though. The unpredictable bullet trajectory, which seems to exist to discourage shooting willy-nilly, can also completely blow your cover when you line up a seemingly accurate shot only for it to come out of your gun sideways and alert everyone nearby. Adding a sight made this issue less frustrating, but it just didn't need to be there in the first place and it took until the third game for Ubisoft to finally do away with it.
The lighting and atmosphere are superb as ever, and the level variety is much better than in Splinter Cell 1, with much more diverse and memorable locations.
Unfortunately the action sequences from the first game have been forced in again, though thankfully slightly fewer in number and I found them less annoying. But they also just didn't need to be there and it once again took until the series' third attempt to understand this. And even then, Chaos Theory didn't completely learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.
The detection system is incredibly janky, much like Splinter Cell 1, and was by far the most frustrating issue I had with this game. Even the tiniest movements could make the enemy turn around and start blasting while alerting everyone around immediately. This is the main reason, along with the bad combat sequences, that I can rarely recommend the first two Splinter Cell games.
There are some meaningful improvements from Splinter Cell 1. The swat turn is invaluable for staying unnoticed in certain indoor situations, and there is now an indicator for whether it's safe to hide a body. The laser sight on the pistol allows you to see exactly where your shot will land with the tradeoff that it's also visible to enemies. It's still ultimately a bandaid solution to the problem with Splinter Cell's shooting, though. The unpredictable bullet trajectory, which seems to exist to discourage shooting willy-nilly, can also completely blow your cover when you line up a seemingly accurate shot only for it to come out of your gun sideways and alert everyone nearby. Adding a sight made this issue less frustrating, but it just didn't need to be there in the first place and it took until the third game for Ubisoft to finally do away with it.
The lighting and atmosphere are superb as ever, and the level variety is much better than in Splinter Cell 1, with much more diverse and memorable locations.
Unfortunately the action sequences from the first game have been forced in again, though thankfully slightly fewer in number and I found them less annoying. But they also just didn't need to be there and it once again took until the series' third attempt to understand this. And even then, Chaos Theory didn't completely learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.
The detection system is incredibly janky, much like Splinter Cell 1, and was by far the most frustrating issue I had with this game. Even the tiniest movements could make the enemy turn around and start blasting while alerting everyone around immediately. This is the main reason, along with the bad combat sequences, that I can rarely recommend the first two Splinter Cell games.
Fallout
1997
Small town. A few brahmin herds, and a single watering hole. I step into the musty saloon. A local girl slithers up to me, complaining about her quiet farm life. She tells me about a local Vault - Vault 15. She mentions it by name. I press the "ask about" button and ask her about Vault 15. "Never heard of it" she says. I try to ask her about anything else whatsoever. She's never heard of anything. Alright. Keep your secrets honey... I tell the local gay man, Ian, he will get paid if he follows me forever until his eventual inevitable death. He agrees immediately and eagerly, because I am very "good at speaking".
We wander to the Vault that doesn't exist. We wander back, because we forgot to bring 50 ropes. We try again - the dungeon takes 10 minutes and nothing happens. A weapon is hidden in the bathroom smeared by 10 layers of poop, piss, pixels and blood. We find what we came here for (it's nothing), and go back to town. "Noo you gotta save my girl she's gonna get boiled in shit". I find the raider camp - I tell them I will fuck their mom. They let the girl go for some reason.
8 hours later my dog and all 3 of my friends I tricked in the same way as Ian the Twunk die in a single dungeon because they won't wear any clothes thicker than a dress shirt. It's a Mad Max reference or something. The travel time on the overworld gives me time to think. I think about the giant, barren wasteland. I think about how far and dangerous there is between settlements. I think about how no one has grabbed a broom in 100 years. I think about telling murder mutants where my family lives. I don't know what my meds do and I'm not sure how to find out. I found a backpack in this videogame that I simply couldn't figure out how to use - What? I think about why I have 4 CHA instead of 1. I think about the 2 hours I spent getting this game to run on a modern PC and a 4K monitor. I think about so far only having found one character that allows me to sex and cum in the entirety of California. It's lonely out here. Many games would throw sex and cum at me. Fallout? In Fallout it's about the lack thereof.
Eventually my player character completes their quests and drowns in an ocean of jank - jank that would later continue on through an entire genre shift, a new company, several new engines and somehow be recognizable still as the same old jank. After being stuck for half an hour I had to google an alternate solution for one of the final dungeons because it bugged out on me. Luckily there was one, because many quests don't have that kind of privilege. Some bugs in this game somehow persist in Todd Howards' Starfield. No one knows how. It's beautiful in a sense. A red string of jank.
This game is unfinished - like half the quests have cut content and an entire act of the game got left on the floor. It's a good basis. I hope the sequel will use it well. I hope someone mods it for Steam Deck controls.
We wander to the Vault that doesn't exist. We wander back, because we forgot to bring 50 ropes. We try again - the dungeon takes 10 minutes and nothing happens. A weapon is hidden in the bathroom smeared by 10 layers of poop, piss, pixels and blood. We find what we came here for (it's nothing), and go back to town. "Noo you gotta save my girl she's gonna get boiled in shit". I find the raider camp - I tell them I will fuck their mom. They let the girl go for some reason.
8 hours later my dog and all 3 of my friends I tricked in the same way as Ian the Twunk die in a single dungeon because they won't wear any clothes thicker than a dress shirt. It's a Mad Max reference or something. The travel time on the overworld gives me time to think. I think about the giant, barren wasteland. I think about how far and dangerous there is between settlements. I think about how no one has grabbed a broom in 100 years. I think about telling murder mutants where my family lives. I don't know what my meds do and I'm not sure how to find out. I found a backpack in this videogame that I simply couldn't figure out how to use - What? I think about why I have 4 CHA instead of 1. I think about the 2 hours I spent getting this game to run on a modern PC and a 4K monitor. I think about so far only having found one character that allows me to sex and cum in the entirety of California. It's lonely out here. Many games would throw sex and cum at me. Fallout? In Fallout it's about the lack thereof.
Eventually my player character completes their quests and drowns in an ocean of jank - jank that would later continue on through an entire genre shift, a new company, several new engines and somehow be recognizable still as the same old jank. After being stuck for half an hour I had to google an alternate solution for one of the final dungeons because it bugged out on me. Luckily there was one, because many quests don't have that kind of privilege. Some bugs in this game somehow persist in Todd Howards' Starfield. No one knows how. It's beautiful in a sense. A red string of jank.
This game is unfinished - like half the quests have cut content and an entire act of the game got left on the floor. It's a good basis. I hope the sequel will use it well. I hope someone mods it for Steam Deck controls.
Metro 2033 Redux
2014
It is a miracle that I got to finish this brilliant game, and now people can stop bullying me because I haven't played it before.
My rating criteria for this game are games released in 2010 and prior.
I had so many technical difficulties. Even by the standards of that time, this game has so many bugs that softlock you, tons of crashes, and buggy graphics settings. Also, controls got bugged, and I couldn't press the ESC key at all. I had to Alt-Tab every time to pause the game. These technical problems made me finish the game in a week, in about 25 sessions.
However, the story was intriguing, and the horror elements were used in such an amazing way that I got scared of my own shadow multiple times. The library part was made because they hate us players and they want us to have a heart attack. Plus. I liked the funny Ulman jokes.
Oh, the ending was also crazy! Here is footage of me during the ending!
My rating criteria for this game are games released in 2010 and prior.
I had so many technical difficulties. Even by the standards of that time, this game has so many bugs that softlock you, tons of crashes, and buggy graphics settings. Also, controls got bugged, and I couldn't press the ESC key at all. I had to Alt-Tab every time to pause the game. These technical problems made me finish the game in a week, in about 25 sessions.
However, the story was intriguing, and the horror elements were used in such an amazing way that I got scared of my own shadow multiple times. The library part was made because they hate us players and they want us to have a heart attack. Plus. I liked the funny Ulman jokes.
Oh, the ending was also crazy! Here is footage of me during the ending!
A worthwhile entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, but too brief to make much of an impact.
With its short length, everything good about the PS3 Ratchet games gets to shine without any filler. Unfortunately, being a DLC-sized entry that followed two poorly received spinoffs is one of the reasons the game failed to leave a lasting impression on most players, and in the eight year wait for a continuation of the story, which we weren't even certain was coming after the PS4 reboot, it was something of an unceremonious ending for Ratchet's story. Into the Nexus doesn't do a whole lot to progress the overarching story, and A Crack in Time had a much stronger ending that could have even worked as a conclusion to the entire post-PS2 narrative. Into the Nexus and Rift Apart both retread themes that were already resolved by the end of A Crack in Time.
I will give this game credit for trying some novel ideas, though. I thought the villains were decent and a breath of fresh air when the series is otherwise insistent on recycling Dr Nefarious at every opportunity. I also liked the jetpack levels and the sidescrolling Clank levels.
For some reason Into the Nexus has some really noticeable framerate issues when most of the other Ratchet games run a lot better, which made the gameplay feel less smooth than the other games in the series.
I also think Ratchet looks really weird in this game after A Crack in Time nailed his character design.
It's not one of the best Ratchet games, but it's still fun enough to play at least once if you're a fan of the series.
With its short length, everything good about the PS3 Ratchet games gets to shine without any filler. Unfortunately, being a DLC-sized entry that followed two poorly received spinoffs is one of the reasons the game failed to leave a lasting impression on most players, and in the eight year wait for a continuation of the story, which we weren't even certain was coming after the PS4 reboot, it was something of an unceremonious ending for Ratchet's story. Into the Nexus doesn't do a whole lot to progress the overarching story, and A Crack in Time had a much stronger ending that could have even worked as a conclusion to the entire post-PS2 narrative. Into the Nexus and Rift Apart both retread themes that were already resolved by the end of A Crack in Time.
I will give this game credit for trying some novel ideas, though. I thought the villains were decent and a breath of fresh air when the series is otherwise insistent on recycling Dr Nefarious at every opportunity. I also liked the jetpack levels and the sidescrolling Clank levels.
For some reason Into the Nexus has some really noticeable framerate issues when most of the other Ratchet games run a lot better, which made the gameplay feel less smooth than the other games in the series.
I also think Ratchet looks really weird in this game after A Crack in Time nailed his character design.
It's not one of the best Ratchet games, but it's still fun enough to play at least once if you're a fan of the series.
BattleBlock Theater
2013
I'll fully admit BattleBlock Theater isn't the most...sophisticated of 2D platformers, in more ways than one. A lot of my fondness for it is due to childhood nostalgia. Even so, it holds up incredibly well in 2024.
The aesthetics are very charming, capturing that Newgrounds artstyle very well while also sporting some wonderful details. The music absolutely slaps too, with the time trial and final level themes being personal favorites of mine. And the narrator is actually pretty funny! A large part of it is due to the performance, but there's some really good dialogue for him, the "pathological liar" bit being one of my favorites.
The gameplay is also fantastic. Your character is very responsive, easy to understand, and even has some nuance to their movement, like how you can double jump in midair with good timing or use the different weapons to sequence-break. The level design, while pretty simplistic, does a very good job consistently introducing new gimmicks and switching things up in a way that feels both fresh and fun. And that's not even mentioning the co-op, versus, and level editor modes, which add tons of really fun content.
And I really love the horses in this game. They're just these strange, cubic creatures and they're beautiful.
The aesthetics are very charming, capturing that Newgrounds artstyle very well while also sporting some wonderful details. The music absolutely slaps too, with the time trial and final level themes being personal favorites of mine. And the narrator is actually pretty funny! A large part of it is due to the performance, but there's some really good dialogue for him, the "pathological liar" bit being one of my favorites.
The gameplay is also fantastic. Your character is very responsive, easy to understand, and even has some nuance to their movement, like how you can double jump in midair with good timing or use the different weapons to sequence-break. The level design, while pretty simplistic, does a very good job consistently introducing new gimmicks and switching things up in a way that feels both fresh and fun. And that's not even mentioning the co-op, versus, and level editor modes, which add tons of really fun content.
And I really love the horses in this game. They're just these strange, cubic creatures and they're beautiful.
The Ascent
2021
The Ascent is an enjoyable video game that excels in many areas. The isometric view, cyberpunk setting, and diverse gameplay featuring various guns and melee weapons are all truly impressive.
However, there are a few drawbacks that hinder the overall experience. One issue is that when you die, the game reloads you in unpredictable locations. Sometimes you respawn far from where you were, while other times you are placed closer to your intended destination. Additionally, there are occasional bugs that can cause the game to crash or prevent the next objectives from loading, requiring a restart to resolve.
Despite these challenges, The Ascent is available at a relatively low price and offers a great deal of entertainment. I have even enjoyed playing half of the game in multiplayer mode with friends, which added to the fun and excitement of the experience.
However, there are a few drawbacks that hinder the overall experience. One issue is that when you die, the game reloads you in unpredictable locations. Sometimes you respawn far from where you were, while other times you are placed closer to your intended destination. Additionally, there are occasional bugs that can cause the game to crash or prevent the next objectives from loading, requiring a restart to resolve.
Despite these challenges, The Ascent is available at a relatively low price and offers a great deal of entertainment. I have even enjoyed playing half of the game in multiplayer mode with friends, which added to the fun and excitement of the experience.
Crysis 3 Remastered
2021
(reposting as I reviewed a different version of the game from the one I played)
A middling end to a middling series.
The first few hours of Crysis 3 were the most fun I had in any of the Crysis games. (Note that at the time of writing this review, I have not played Crysis Warhead.) The predator bow is awesome and the levels are well designed for creative gameplay approaches. The game fully embraces a sneaky hit-and-run disappearing into the shadows style of combat which is where this series is strongest. After Crysis 2's sharp turn into linearity, it seems the developers listened and brought back some of the sandbox creativity from Crysis 1. On top of that, it all takes place in beautiful overgrown ruins of New York, totally dripping with atmosphere. It's tremendous fun.
For a while.
Then the game's hurried development rears its ugly head. Crysis 3 is much shorter than Crysis 1 and 2, and it seems the developers knew this because the back half of the game mostly consists of large swathes of land with objectives plonked at opposite ends, which you just sprint or drive across with no actual content in between. It's a very obvious attempt to pad the game's length for as long as possible because it would otherwise be about four hours long. The last level turns into a corridor but still blatantly tries to delay the game's conclusion with pointless objectives and it plays like discount Halo, with a terrible final boss to boot. But desperately trying to stretch the game's length like this only served to make the game's final act more exhausting to get through, despite it still being shorter than its predecessors.
The Crysis series was built on a fine premise of a sandbox shooter with stealth-infused predator style combat. But somehow it let a mountain of potential slip through its fingers and each game fumbled the premise in unique ways. I still think the series deserves a revival, but only if it seriously takes its failures into account and properly builds on its strengths. There is definitely room in the market for a sandbox shooter that isn't Far Cry. A new Crysis would only have to stick to its guns and avoid trading player freedom for linear corridor levels, and ideally drop its nonsensical plot. But as it is, this series will probably be forgotten except for how amazing the first game's graphics looked in 2007.
A middling end to a middling series.
The first few hours of Crysis 3 were the most fun I had in any of the Crysis games. (Note that at the time of writing this review, I have not played Crysis Warhead.) The predator bow is awesome and the levels are well designed for creative gameplay approaches. The game fully embraces a sneaky hit-and-run disappearing into the shadows style of combat which is where this series is strongest. After Crysis 2's sharp turn into linearity, it seems the developers listened and brought back some of the sandbox creativity from Crysis 1. On top of that, it all takes place in beautiful overgrown ruins of New York, totally dripping with atmosphere. It's tremendous fun.
For a while.
Then the game's hurried development rears its ugly head. Crysis 3 is much shorter than Crysis 1 and 2, and it seems the developers knew this because the back half of the game mostly consists of large swathes of land with objectives plonked at opposite ends, which you just sprint or drive across with no actual content in between. It's a very obvious attempt to pad the game's length for as long as possible because it would otherwise be about four hours long. The last level turns into a corridor but still blatantly tries to delay the game's conclusion with pointless objectives and it plays like discount Halo, with a terrible final boss to boot. But desperately trying to stretch the game's length like this only served to make the game's final act more exhausting to get through, despite it still being shorter than its predecessors.
The Crysis series was built on a fine premise of a sandbox shooter with stealth-infused predator style combat. But somehow it let a mountain of potential slip through its fingers and each game fumbled the premise in unique ways. I still think the series deserves a revival, but only if it seriously takes its failures into account and properly builds on its strengths. There is definitely room in the market for a sandbox shooter that isn't Far Cry. A new Crysis would only have to stick to its guns and avoid trading player freedom for linear corridor levels, and ideally drop its nonsensical plot. But as it is, this series will probably be forgotten except for how amazing the first game's graphics looked in 2007.
Crysis 2 Remastered
2021
(reposting as I reviewed a different version of the game from the one I played)
It's one of the seventh gen shooters of all time.
Given the resounding disappointment surrounding Crysis 2 after Crysis 1 was such a boundary pushing game for the time, I expected a lot less of this game. But while it does feel stripped back compared to its predecessor, there is still merit in this game's ideas.
It's certainly nothing to write home about, and could easily get lost in the seventh gen sea of brownish shooters, but it's a fairly solid campaign with some fun setpieces that make it feel like an action movie. And the remastered graphics look excellent. Somehow this game got a much better remaster than Crysis 1 did, despite that game having a legendary reputation for its graphics.
While Crysis 2 lacks the open world design of Crysis 1, the levels are still built to allow multiple approaches. I found the cloak to be much more useful and fun in Crysis 2, but in both games I found armour mode underwhelming. I rarely used it tactically; it was more of a necessity to not die in a matter of seconds against certain enemies.
The much maligned aliens are back in Crysis 2, but I found them to be a lot more enjoyable to fight this time around because they're on the ground and use tactics like cover and cloaking, rather than flying space jellyfish that you just empty endless rounds into with little strategy or creativity involved. I got the feeling that the developers may have taken some inspiration from Halo for the aliens in this game. One thing that was not inspired however, was the AI. Both the aliens and humans have really stupid AI and it feels like a missed opportunity to make firefights more dynamic and tactical. Sometimes they would just stand there trying to figure out where I went.
Though I did find the remaster job better this time around, one issue I ran into was some severe slowdowns in the level Masks Off. It was only limited to this level, but it affected the gameplay experience quite badly.
There isn't really anything wrong with Crysis 2; it only suffers from sharing a name with a much more ambitious and unique game. Though it didn't reach the highs of Crysis 1, it avoided the lows and was a more consistent experience overall. The last third or so of Crysis 1 severely loses steam. The story and setting of Crysis 2 are unremarkable and feel very characteristic of the era, which was dominated by brown and grey shooters, but it was decent enough for me to finish. It's a perfectly average shooter.
It's one of the seventh gen shooters of all time.
Given the resounding disappointment surrounding Crysis 2 after Crysis 1 was such a boundary pushing game for the time, I expected a lot less of this game. But while it does feel stripped back compared to its predecessor, there is still merit in this game's ideas.
It's certainly nothing to write home about, and could easily get lost in the seventh gen sea of brownish shooters, but it's a fairly solid campaign with some fun setpieces that make it feel like an action movie. And the remastered graphics look excellent. Somehow this game got a much better remaster than Crysis 1 did, despite that game having a legendary reputation for its graphics.
While Crysis 2 lacks the open world design of Crysis 1, the levels are still built to allow multiple approaches. I found the cloak to be much more useful and fun in Crysis 2, but in both games I found armour mode underwhelming. I rarely used it tactically; it was more of a necessity to not die in a matter of seconds against certain enemies.
The much maligned aliens are back in Crysis 2, but I found them to be a lot more enjoyable to fight this time around because they're on the ground and use tactics like cover and cloaking, rather than flying space jellyfish that you just empty endless rounds into with little strategy or creativity involved. I got the feeling that the developers may have taken some inspiration from Halo for the aliens in this game. One thing that was not inspired however, was the AI. Both the aliens and humans have really stupid AI and it feels like a missed opportunity to make firefights more dynamic and tactical. Sometimes they would just stand there trying to figure out where I went.
Though I did find the remaster job better this time around, one issue I ran into was some severe slowdowns in the level Masks Off. It was only limited to this level, but it affected the gameplay experience quite badly.
There isn't really anything wrong with Crysis 2; it only suffers from sharing a name with a much more ambitious and unique game. Though it didn't reach the highs of Crysis 1, it avoided the lows and was a more consistent experience overall. The last third or so of Crysis 1 severely loses steam. The story and setting of Crysis 2 are unremarkable and feel very characteristic of the era, which was dominated by brown and grey shooters, but it was decent enough for me to finish. It's a perfectly average shooter.
Crysis Remastered
2020
(reposting as I reviewed a different version of the game from the one I played)
The graphics are still good I suppose.
The openness of the encounters and the satisfying guns are still fun to this day. You can rush straight in, sneak through the bushes and take the enemy by surprise, circle around with a boat, or my favorite strategy, ram through an enemy roadblock with a truck. And there are even more possibilities than that, thanks to the robust physics and the game's signature feature, the cloak. There's more expression here than in many other shooters.
Though your soldier allies will frequently advise a stealthy approach, stealth is basically nonexistent as enemies can see very long distances and there is no investigation state when enemies get even the tiniest glimpse of your nanosuited ass; they go from completely unaware of your presence straight to full alert. The cloak is more for repositioning than stealth. I notice a lot of fans raving about how you can use stealthy tactics but I found stealth borderline unusable, which really bummed me out. I still had fun thinking up tactics on the fly however.
Unfortunately everyone is correct when they say Crysis drops off quite hard. I didn't hate the final levels as much I thought I would, but it's undeniably a front-loaded game. The zero-G and VTOL sections were the worst parts for me though. Just shooting aliens wasn't too bad. It was still a competent shooter at the end; it just lacked the tactical and expressive gameplay that kept the game on the map when "but can it run Crysis?" wasn't funny anymore.
The graphics are still good I suppose.
The openness of the encounters and the satisfying guns are still fun to this day. You can rush straight in, sneak through the bushes and take the enemy by surprise, circle around with a boat, or my favorite strategy, ram through an enemy roadblock with a truck. And there are even more possibilities than that, thanks to the robust physics and the game's signature feature, the cloak. There's more expression here than in many other shooters.
Though your soldier allies will frequently advise a stealthy approach, stealth is basically nonexistent as enemies can see very long distances and there is no investigation state when enemies get even the tiniest glimpse of your nanosuited ass; they go from completely unaware of your presence straight to full alert. The cloak is more for repositioning than stealth. I notice a lot of fans raving about how you can use stealthy tactics but I found stealth borderline unusable, which really bummed me out. I still had fun thinking up tactics on the fly however.
Unfortunately everyone is correct when they say Crysis drops off quite hard. I didn't hate the final levels as much I thought I would, but it's undeniably a front-loaded game. The zero-G and VTOL sections were the worst parts for me though. Just shooting aliens wasn't too bad. It was still a competent shooter at the end; it just lacked the tactical and expressive gameplay that kept the game on the map when "but can it run Crysis?" wasn't funny anymore.
Super Mario 64
1996
I already knew plenty of things about this game before starting it. In the past few years, I've watched a bit of SM64 content on YouTube, especially speedruns...
It's unfortunate that I didn't go in Mario 64 completely blind, but hey, doesn't mean I didn't have fun!
And since the only speedruns I've watched are any%, I was still very unfamiliar with most of the levels.
I played an unofficial PC port of the game called "Super Mario 64 Plus"
The best additions of this port are the improved movements with Mario, and free camera control.
I've seen everyone and their mother complain about the game's controls, and how poorly they have aged. I guess this port did a wonderful job fixing the controls, because they didn't bother me at any point 👍
I love how fluid the movements are compared to Mario Galaxy, which is the only other 3D Mario game I've played. The Side Somersault especially is so much better. I often found myself using this move into wall jump to reach really high places. These moves are very flexible & satisfying to use.
Yes. I threw the baby penguin in the void after his mama gave me the Star 😈 evil laugh
"File Select", "Inside Peach's Castle" and "Dire Dire Docks" are my 3 favorite pieces of music in the game. It's just so good, I'm not surprised Mario 64's soundtrack has become so iconic!
I like how peaceful the exterior of the Castle is. No music, just the sound of waterfalls, birds & grasshoppers. Very calming ❤
For a game released in 1996, there were very interesting ideas in the level-design:
- The fact that they were already messing with the gravity, way before Sunshine & Galaxy (the tall pillars in Shifting Sand Land)
- In Tiny-Huge Island, the way you teleport to a shrunken version of the level gives the illusion that Mario shrinks after entering the green pipes. It was pretty clever.
- It's cool how some World's layouts change depending on how you enter the paintings! Whether it's Wet-Dry World with the water level, or Tick Tock Clock with the pendulum's speed.
This only occured to me after finishing the game, but the Worlds are really tiny. And what's great is that they all seem to be packed with content. There isn't any wasted space in any of the levels.
I also like how after unlocking the wing cap, vanish cap & metal cap, new stars become accessible in every level. It gave a satisfying feeling of progression.
After obtaining the 120 stars, you can meet Yoshi on the castle's roof and receive a sweet message from the developers. This was such a cool reward for finishing the game.
I don't know if I would have enjoyed the game as much as I did if I played it vanilla. This PC port made the adventure really enjoyable!
To end this review, I felt like ranking each World from most to least favorite:
1) Wet-Dry World
2) Lethal Lava Land
3) Hazy Maze Cave
4) Jolly Roger Bay
5) Big Boo's Haunt
6) Snowman's Land
7) Cool Cool Mountain
8) Tick Tock Clock
9) Dire Dire Docks
10) Tall Tall Mountain
11) Shifting Sand Land
12) Whomp's Fortress
13) Bob-Omb Battlefield
14) Tiny-Huge Island
15) Rainbow Ride
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Started on April 28th & finished on May 1st 2024]
Playtime: 16 hours
100% Completion
It's unfortunate that I didn't go in Mario 64 completely blind, but hey, doesn't mean I didn't have fun!
And since the only speedruns I've watched are any%, I was still very unfamiliar with most of the levels.
I played an unofficial PC port of the game called "Super Mario 64 Plus"
The best additions of this port are the improved movements with Mario, and free camera control.
I've seen everyone and their mother complain about the game's controls, and how poorly they have aged. I guess this port did a wonderful job fixing the controls, because they didn't bother me at any point 👍
I love how fluid the movements are compared to Mario Galaxy, which is the only other 3D Mario game I've played. The Side Somersault especially is so much better. I often found myself using this move into wall jump to reach really high places. These moves are very flexible & satisfying to use.
Yes. I threw the baby penguin in the void after his mama gave me the Star 😈 evil laugh
"File Select", "Inside Peach's Castle" and "Dire Dire Docks" are my 3 favorite pieces of music in the game. It's just so good, I'm not surprised Mario 64's soundtrack has become so iconic!
I like how peaceful the exterior of the Castle is. No music, just the sound of waterfalls, birds & grasshoppers. Very calming ❤
For a game released in 1996, there were very interesting ideas in the level-design:
- The fact that they were already messing with the gravity, way before Sunshine & Galaxy (the tall pillars in Shifting Sand Land)
- In Tiny-Huge Island, the way you teleport to a shrunken version of the level gives the illusion that Mario shrinks after entering the green pipes. It was pretty clever.
- It's cool how some World's layouts change depending on how you enter the paintings! Whether it's Wet-Dry World with the water level, or Tick Tock Clock with the pendulum's speed.
This only occured to me after finishing the game, but the Worlds are really tiny. And what's great is that they all seem to be packed with content. There isn't any wasted space in any of the levels.
I also like how after unlocking the wing cap, vanish cap & metal cap, new stars become accessible in every level. It gave a satisfying feeling of progression.
After obtaining the 120 stars, you can meet Yoshi on the castle's roof and receive a sweet message from the developers. This was such a cool reward for finishing the game.
I don't know if I would have enjoyed the game as much as I did if I played it vanilla. This PC port made the adventure really enjoyable!
To end this review, I felt like ranking each World from most to least favorite:
1) Wet-Dry World
2) Lethal Lava Land
3) Hazy Maze Cave
4) Jolly Roger Bay
5) Big Boo's Haunt
6) Snowman's Land
7) Cool Cool Mountain
8) Tick Tock Clock
9) Dire Dire Docks
10) Tall Tall Mountain
11) Shifting Sand Land
12) Whomp's Fortress
13) Bob-Omb Battlefield
14) Tiny-Huge Island
15) Rainbow Ride
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Started on April 28th & finished on May 1st 2024]
Playtime: 16 hours
100% Completion
This review contains spoilers
Finally a Xenoblade DLC that I enjoyed thoroughly!
Very nice QoL features: You can pin items required for quests, gem crafting or even X-reader upgrades. And it will then show you if you find an enemy that drops the item you're looking for.
Finally having access to a bestiary is also very welcomed! Now we can find specific resources more efficiently.
The game does a great job at being an Openworld. Exploring & doing side quests is very rewarding, as Unlock Kits are what allow you to upgrade your characters and become stronger. And the X-reader helps you locate hidden treasures very easyly. It's just a joy to explore.
The battles flow quite well even without using chain attacks, I'm really happy about that.
Just cancelling your arts nonstop and doing Unity combos depletes the enemies HPs quickly enough.
Sometimes, I didn't even use chain attacks even though I could. It just feels better to not use those all the time.
I mostly focused on strengthening Shulk because he is my favorite character. When I found Unlock Kits, I would always use them on him first. I also had fun using Matthew, A and Glimmer.
Btw, it was really sweet seeing the father/son relationship between Shulk & Nikol and Rex & Glimmer. Seeing Nikol having the same passion for engineering than his father is so wholesome.
There are a lot of callbacks to the previous games: The moment the kids ask Na'el to sing them songs, and they name-drop famous tracks from previous Xenoblade games, it made me giggle. "Gaur Plain! Tomorrow with you! Bringer of Chaos, Ultimate!"
The original Colony 9 from Xenoblade 1 is back, along with its music and the battle theme "Time to fight".
More over, they continued to mix up environments from previous games just like they did in base game Xenoblade 3. Combining the three snowy areas from each Xeno game to create the Black Mountains was sick!
And making Prison Island the final area of the DLC was amazing. The developers really wanted to trigger a reaction in the player with all this nostalgia.
Even though he did that to serve his own purposes in the long run, seeing Z team up with Shulk & Rex to try and get rid of Alpha was kinda raw. He's the last person I would have expected to team up with our beloved Heroes.
I was quite invested in the cutscenes showing the Past of Na'el, her struggles with the war & endless killing. The voice actor did a good job portraying her emotions and making us understand why Alpha chose her as a vessel.
After defeating Alpha for good, Shulk, Rex & Alvis leave to become the new avatars of the Trinity processor. This ending really got me in the feels. I loved the story of Future Redeemed, this was a great way to wrap-up the trilogy.
Also, we learn that Matthew is part of the Vandham lineage 🤯
The end credits were so good, great music, and I love that we see a recap of all 3 Xeno games, with actual in-game footage. It was an amazing send-off.
Playing that DLC reinforced my love for those games and the Xenoblade series in general. This really is my favorite video game franchise, no doubt about it.
I can't wait to see what Xenoblade 4 is gonna be like. Because the producer said Future Redeemed put an end to this trilogy, and the next Xenoblade games are gonna be quite different, with an entirely different storyline. So I'm very curious!
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Started on April 7th & finished on April 26th 2024]
Playtime: 28 hours
100% Completion
Very nice QoL features: You can pin items required for quests, gem crafting or even X-reader upgrades. And it will then show you if you find an enemy that drops the item you're looking for.
Finally having access to a bestiary is also very welcomed! Now we can find specific resources more efficiently.
The game does a great job at being an Openworld. Exploring & doing side quests is very rewarding, as Unlock Kits are what allow you to upgrade your characters and become stronger. And the X-reader helps you locate hidden treasures very easyly. It's just a joy to explore.
The battles flow quite well even without using chain attacks, I'm really happy about that.
Just cancelling your arts nonstop and doing Unity combos depletes the enemies HPs quickly enough.
Sometimes, I didn't even use chain attacks even though I could. It just feels better to not use those all the time.
I mostly focused on strengthening Shulk because he is my favorite character. When I found Unlock Kits, I would always use them on him first. I also had fun using Matthew, A and Glimmer.
Btw, it was really sweet seeing the father/son relationship between Shulk & Nikol and Rex & Glimmer. Seeing Nikol having the same passion for engineering than his father is so wholesome.
There are a lot of callbacks to the previous games: The moment the kids ask Na'el to sing them songs, and they name-drop famous tracks from previous Xenoblade games, it made me giggle. "Gaur Plain! Tomorrow with you! Bringer of Chaos, Ultimate!"
The original Colony 9 from Xenoblade 1 is back, along with its music and the battle theme "Time to fight".
More over, they continued to mix up environments from previous games just like they did in base game Xenoblade 3. Combining the three snowy areas from each Xeno game to create the Black Mountains was sick!
And making Prison Island the final area of the DLC was amazing. The developers really wanted to trigger a reaction in the player with all this nostalgia.
Even though he did that to serve his own purposes in the long run, seeing Z team up with Shulk & Rex to try and get rid of Alpha was kinda raw. He's the last person I would have expected to team up with our beloved Heroes.
I was quite invested in the cutscenes showing the Past of Na'el, her struggles with the war & endless killing. The voice actor did a good job portraying her emotions and making us understand why Alpha chose her as a vessel.
After defeating Alpha for good, Shulk, Rex & Alvis leave to become the new avatars of the Trinity processor. This ending really got me in the feels. I loved the story of Future Redeemed, this was a great way to wrap-up the trilogy.
Also, we learn that Matthew is part of the Vandham lineage 🤯
The end credits were so good, great music, and I love that we see a recap of all 3 Xeno games, with actual in-game footage. It was an amazing send-off.
Playing that DLC reinforced my love for those games and the Xenoblade series in general. This really is my favorite video game franchise, no doubt about it.
I can't wait to see what Xenoblade 4 is gonna be like. Because the producer said Future Redeemed put an end to this trilogy, and the next Xenoblade games are gonna be quite different, with an entirely different storyline. So I'm very curious!
----------Playtime & Completion----------
[Started on April 7th & finished on April 26th 2024]
Playtime: 28 hours
100% Completion
Halo: Combat Evolved
2001
Having never played Halo growing up, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the series with no nostalgia. Fortunately Halo: Combat Evolved proved that good game design is timeless.
There was something oddly heavy about the movement that took a while to get used to, but other than that the game was a blast to play from the beginning. Shooters live and die on the feel of the guns and every gun in Halo is unique and gratifying. Except the assault rifle. That one just sucks.
Most of the levels are pretty solid. Unfortunately the game has a lot of maze-like interiors with identical looking corridors which I struggled to navigate and often I wandered in circles for a frustrating amount of time trying to figure out how to progress. And while I don't think reusing levels is automatically bad, I didn't think it was done in a way that added to the game and it just felt like padding, possibly because the developers started running out of time.
I do think this game is subject to a bit of overhype from fans, but I don't believe it's overrated. I think you just had to be there at the time to feel the transformative effect it had on console shooters. Without that context, it might be puzzling why it's so revered when nothing it does seems that crazy today. I wasn't there, so I'll never really get it. But ultimately it's still a great shooter that stands the test of time.
There was something oddly heavy about the movement that took a while to get used to, but other than that the game was a blast to play from the beginning. Shooters live and die on the feel of the guns and every gun in Halo is unique and gratifying. Except the assault rifle. That one just sucks.
Most of the levels are pretty solid. Unfortunately the game has a lot of maze-like interiors with identical looking corridors which I struggled to navigate and often I wandered in circles for a frustrating amount of time trying to figure out how to progress. And while I don't think reusing levels is automatically bad, I didn't think it was done in a way that added to the game and it just felt like padding, possibly because the developers started running out of time.
I do think this game is subject to a bit of overhype from fans, but I don't believe it's overrated. I think you just had to be there at the time to feel the transformative effect it had on console shooters. Without that context, it might be puzzling why it's so revered when nothing it does seems that crazy today. I wasn't there, so I'll never really get it. But ultimately it's still a great shooter that stands the test of time.