This Assassin's Creed honestly surprised me. It probably helped that I played it so many years since its broken release, but I really enjoyed the time period, city, protagonist, and the climbing was my favourite of the series up until this point. I really appreciate that there are dedicated buttons while running for going up while parkouring or going down.

I had a lot of fun with it but I will admit I also avoided a lot of the content they throw in that feels like filler just to bloat the time spent with the game. The map is also insane with how full of collectibles it is. Sometimes I literally could not find the next main objective due to how full the map is with collectibles. It felt crazy even by Ubisoft standards.

A decent game with good feeling gunplay. It allows you to just switch off and shoot some bad guys. Gibbing enemies feels good and there are some fun, interesting weapons thrown into the mix.

My biggest issues were with the quick time events and the blinding lens flares. I can appreciate that this is a product of it's time though and reminded me of playing Xbox 360 games back in the day.

The game is quite forgettable with a cliche story but I enjoyed my short time with it.

This was my first time finishing a Lego game and maybe the formula just isn't for me. I found the gameplay loop very boring.

The game boils down to the same repetitive puzzles over and over, then every other mission you unlock a new costume which unlocks a new puzzle to add to the repetitive mix. I imagine this formula may be slightly more interesting when it's with a fun license containing characters that you know like the other Lego games. I can't say I was overly excited when I unlocked the "fireman" or the "miner". Every time I unlocked a new character I unfortunately thought "Great, another boring puzzle to add to the mix."

I will say, the humour was really stupid but got a chuckle out of me at times. Also the end... I really did not expect such a wild final sequence with a great music score.

I really wanted to continue as I was enjoying the story and the idea of the game, however for me personally it was too hard and I didn't want to put in the time to get better. The combat just wasn't fun enough for me to justify pushing forward.

I found a guide that shows you how to gain high levels in most skills during the tutorial of the game. Unfortunately I found this guide after the tutorial and 16 hours into my playthrough so maybe one day I will pick this game up again and use the tutorial tricks to lessen the skill issue.

Still a great world and immersive story.

It shares the same issues that I had with the Crash Bandicoot 2 remake, however the blow is softened by having the added abilities that you obtain. The super spin and double jump saved a few of my time trial runs.

The jet ski levels were also a nightmare due to controls yet conquering them and getting the gold time trial relics gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I can't imagine going for platinum relics though, that's where I drew the line.

Overall the time trials in this weren't as bad as the second game in the trilogy so it felt better to complete and get 100% of achievements.

My view of this game is admittedly clouded by nostalgia for the original games. I first completed it a couple of years ago and noticed it's flaws, however when I picked it up again for the time trials and 100% achievements this highlighted even more flaws or made them more difficult to accept.

The major one is just the overall feel of the game. It doesn't flow together as nicely as the original game. After Crash slides, he comes to a complete stop and crawl which had me pulling my hair out in time trials. Depth perception was also another issue as I found myself constantly missing platforms that I felt I was meant to land on.

I'm glad these remakes put Crash Bandicoot back in the spotlight but I will always recommend the originals.

Instead of going for slow, gritty, and edgy, they went for a fast paced arcade feel which I personally preferred.

Instead of your darkness tendrils sitting hidden behind a dedicated button press, The Darkness 2 has them visible and with you at all times and everyone knows about them.

It is a short story, with my first playthrough taking around 5-6 hours, but then my second New Game + playthrough on the hardest difficulty taking around 3 hours. I actually really enjoyed the short playtime because it makes playing the game on New Game + less daunting and recommended because you can mop up any collectibles or powers you missed on the first playthrough.

After my 2 playthroughs I completed the Vendetta campaign and "Hits", which were okay, but really highlighted the repetitive gameplay and got boring quickly. Thankfully it didn't take long to complete and I actually ended up enjoying my overall journey to 100% achievement completion which I don't normally bother with on most games these days.

An interesting enough story with a fun idea and dark, gritty atmosphere, however 2 mechanics when combined together really hindered my experience.

This game relies on you listening to the NPCs and really paying attention to where you need to go next. You will be looking out for street signs and trying to decipher your basic in-game map. Not usually a problem, however for a game leaning on this mechanic so heavily the main character moves way too slowly.

You're going to get lost on your first playthrough as you become familiar with the map and you are going to end up walking in the wrong direction. In this game small errors like this feel like they really punish you because Jackie walks at a snail's pace. This also prevented me from wanting to explore because I was too focused on the irritating, long walk back to the objective.

Overall it's a fun game with some of that classic Xbox 360 jank and edginess so I would still recommend.

I enjoyed this one more than Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, but I feel that was because I didn't enjoy Black Flag that much and this one was a shorter experience, with significantly less tailing missions. That was enough to prevent me from burning out as quickly.

I just played to finish the story as I wasn't engaged enough in the gameplay to want to force myself to collect the plethora of collectables.

Just like Black Flag, I am not a big fan of the ship combat, but I am aware that is just my opinion and an unpopular one at that. It's still a good looking game in 2024 with a decent enough story.

Decent RPG with a story that kept me engaged for most of my playthrough. At times I found myself enjoying this game but then other times it felt like a chore. I didn't expect myself to get so locked onto the story, wanting to know the outcome of many of the quests.

However many quests can feel draining and boring and you find yourself running from person to person just acting as everyone's messenger. It's not a great formula, but I feel like it wouldn't be as bad if your character didn't run as slow as they do. There is a run option however it feels just ever so slightly slower than it should be, and your character will suddenly lose momentum if you move the analogue stick in a way the game does not like.

At least by the time I was really getting bored, I was overpowered so could breeze through the last part of the game before I became too burnt out.

Still, I recommend this game as it feels unique to many of the other RPGs from around this time.