2020
This is really impressive. Adding the DMC Style system to a slide-n-shoot/airdashing FPS has been done before (see: Bulletstorm, Vanquish, etc.), where this one goes crazy is that health management is done entirely through CQC kills, meaning that the only way to survive in this game is to manage the risk of pulling off stylish shit with the insurance of your evasion skills. The weapon balance is also carefully considered, the long standard of the Hitscan Machine Gun and Shotty being the go to killers in FPS is not true here: Shotty is reliable but not as efficient or stylish as other options, and ULTRAKILL's Hitscan Machinegun is not only projectile-based now but also has severe dropoff a few feet past melee range. The power nerfs of the goto duo is made up through other weapons and alt-fires: the pistol is a surprisingly powerful weapon with two really strong, yet high skill alt fires, and the Shotty has two risky yet rewarding Crowd Control alt fires. Machinegun has another interesting alt-fire as well, but I'm digressing. The impressive point of ULTRAKILL is really how well executed it is; it could of have been Bulletstorm + Vanquish and had all the hardcore FPS gamers of the 7th gen goin crazy, but it goes a step beyond in offering more combat depth and a higher skill ceiling than either game. With four different alt-fires planned and some additional levels, as well as the removal of fall deaths, this could really become a pinnacle of the genre.
OHHHHHHH IT'S THE ULTIMATE MOVE
2016
You have to admire the audacity of a game in which a character with a full-screen 50/50 is like mid-tier at best.
2021
and so the long arduous process of adding shit to IGDB begins 🧍♂️. haste is a kind of a flashpoint entry in slaughter's "new canon"--it's a revived collaborative project spearheaded by slaughter's own revived pharaoh in insane_gazebo, and features the '92 dream team of guest mappers you'd want for this new era of the genre: the wizard ribbiks delves into his esoterics for two maps, nirvana gets in his monochromatic bag and delivers a really hellish slice of combat for a map, they even plugged benjogami here to craft this really striking, almost Pythagorean challenge map centering 90s slaughter's love of fireblu and obtuse geometry that ends up being a map pack highlight. the "newest" member of this all-star roster is bemused, who also punches in a decent map that shows off his student-like devotion to the genre's grandeur and antagonistic style of crowd control. the rest of the maps are composed mainly by insane_gazebo and former project head scotty: particularly interesting fit for scotty, who i'd deem has become kind of like the p.j. tucker of the genre (or the clefable if you dont follow hoops) in his versatility as a "glue guy" for these map projects, the rare talent in the scene who's able to mesh with the more subtle, congressional slaughter WADs like Fractured Worlds as well as get turnt with the excesses of WADs like Abandon. I'm not the biggest fan of his map output thus far, overall feeling uneven: his usage of hitscanners is more frustrating than provocative but his understanding of finales and how to squeeze multiple cyberdemons in small spaces is really good, maybe the best of the out the group. his maps here didn't necessarily move the needle either way for me, but i think his status as the most agreeable mapper in this scene should be noted for posterity, and its cool that this project of his came to fruition, even if it was by proxy.
so in sum, the shit shoulda been popping, shoulda served as like THE entry point for what this doomworld micro-scene has been cooking up these past three years...but its just straight mids 😑. which is honestly kinda rare for me. my main disappointment was that in spite of the visionaries on board this is a really muted aesthetic overall--there are some maps like the aforementioned nirvana and benjogami maps that break with the style, as well as an insane_gazebo tune that is concordant with late sunder's striking aesthetic (can someone with architectural knowledge spot check me and see if it would be accurate to describe this as Neo-brutalism), but everything else here is just bland. in no small part i think its because the color palette and architecture here are a more revisit of the aesthetic established by the 90's and early 00's WAD canon than the really grandiose OTEX texture wizardry contemporary slaughter is known for. it perhaps draws out a sense of familiarity for folks who haven't been tapped into the Doom scene outside the existing WAD canon, but it in turn made this feel more like a map-pack than the emotionally evocative experience the mapper list had me pumped for. when i play the other hits of these mappers i feel the precariousness, the sense that the shaky alliance of infighting i've generated might explode into uncontrollable hostility at any given moment; i feel the sense of alienation, illuminating a social truth about the dance of coalitions being built not on personal affinity but mutual, dynamic priorities; i feel that perseverance, the 'no easy answers' kind of problem-making that demands arcane knowledge and foresight and yet a sense of play in devising solutions. all of these feelings are latent in these mappers' gameplay motifs sure, and present in this map pack, but it was their individual aesthetics, the mythology of gazebo or the claustrophobia of benjogami, that accented these chords to the forefront. that boldness makes engaging with this micro-scene a really gripping experience in ways other mod scenes have yet to hit, and so to have all these personal styles blend into sights & sounds that already have been so thoroughly replicated is like, damn,,, what a disappointment. should serve as a sharp example that it has been the attention to visual spirit that has made this micro-scene one of the most popular doom things of the past few years as much as it has been the combat revolutions. shit's isn't really all that without it. slaughter's 1train p much.
so in sum, the shit shoulda been popping, shoulda served as like THE entry point for what this doomworld micro-scene has been cooking up these past three years...but its just straight mids 😑. which is honestly kinda rare for me. my main disappointment was that in spite of the visionaries on board this is a really muted aesthetic overall--there are some maps like the aforementioned nirvana and benjogami maps that break with the style, as well as an insane_gazebo tune that is concordant with late sunder's striking aesthetic (can someone with architectural knowledge spot check me and see if it would be accurate to describe this as Neo-brutalism), but everything else here is just bland. in no small part i think its because the color palette and architecture here are a more revisit of the aesthetic established by the 90's and early 00's WAD canon than the really grandiose OTEX texture wizardry contemporary slaughter is known for. it perhaps draws out a sense of familiarity for folks who haven't been tapped into the Doom scene outside the existing WAD canon, but it in turn made this feel more like a map-pack than the emotionally evocative experience the mapper list had me pumped for. when i play the other hits of these mappers i feel the precariousness, the sense that the shaky alliance of infighting i've generated might explode into uncontrollable hostility at any given moment; i feel the sense of alienation, illuminating a social truth about the dance of coalitions being built not on personal affinity but mutual, dynamic priorities; i feel that perseverance, the 'no easy answers' kind of problem-making that demands arcane knowledge and foresight and yet a sense of play in devising solutions. all of these feelings are latent in these mappers' gameplay motifs sure, and present in this map pack, but it was their individual aesthetics, the mythology of gazebo or the claustrophobia of benjogami, that accented these chords to the forefront. that boldness makes engaging with this micro-scene a really gripping experience in ways other mod scenes have yet to hit, and so to have all these personal styles blend into sights & sounds that already have been so thoroughly replicated is like, damn,,, what a disappointment. should serve as a sharp example that it has been the attention to visual spirit that has made this micro-scene one of the most popular doom things of the past few years as much as it has been the combat revolutions. shit's isn't really all that without it. slaughter's 1train p much.
One of those games you play for 50+ hours and have no real feelings associated with. As a ubisoft'em up its solid, I guess, there really isn't a point where I felt burdened by their systems or annoyed like I usually do. In fact the game kinda exists in this state of being lowly pleasurable and never escalates beyond that.
Sidenote: I also keep running into potential romantic partners who really dig this game, and every time I go through the process of "what do I think of this game?" before settling on the thought of "yea it's fine I guess". Not real insight here, just thought that was interesting.
Sidenote: I also keep running into potential romantic partners who really dig this game, and every time I go through the process of "what do I think of this game?" before settling on the thought of "yea it's fine I guess". Not real insight here, just thought that was interesting.
2005
probably the best thing to be inspired by gackt and the pillows since 2004
2011
"Terrorism? That's a popular word lately..."
2016
It's a lot like a STEM degree. It's fun recognizing problems, fixing them, optimizing your solutions, getting marketable skills, etc. However at a certain point the projects you're working on become more tedious than fun, especially when you start factoring in scale. Because you're spending so much time on something you find fundamentally draining, your interest in other hobbies decreases, you find doing actual life both too similar and too dissimilar from what the Factorio/STEM life is. And perhaps the biggest con, your social life takes a massive fucking hit--unless someone is also living the STEM/Factorio life, you're probably not gonna see them often.
Still though, in such a fundamentally unstable world, there's a definite appeal to being able to have a plan, follow through with that plan, and then see the fruits of that plan come to fruition. The industrial revolution happened for a reason right? We all need some rigidity, formality, and industriousness in the chaotic systems of our lives. I played the most Factorio when I was mentally rotting away at a bad coding job, physically isolated from my friends; in that period, the sandbox of problems and solutions was a perfect mental escape. Not to say that Factorio is only appealing when you're suffering from sadness (though this is very much a "breakup-game" if there was one), but that there's something distinct about the appeal that can really hit at certain points of life.
But IDK maybe I'm just projecting.
Still though, in such a fundamentally unstable world, there's a definite appeal to being able to have a plan, follow through with that plan, and then see the fruits of that plan come to fruition. The industrial revolution happened for a reason right? We all need some rigidity, formality, and industriousness in the chaotic systems of our lives. I played the most Factorio when I was mentally rotting away at a bad coding job, physically isolated from my friends; in that period, the sandbox of problems and solutions was a perfect mental escape. Not to say that Factorio is only appealing when you're suffering from sadness (though this is very much a "breakup-game" if there was one), but that there's something distinct about the appeal that can really hit at certain points of life.
But IDK maybe I'm just projecting.
Man the lightsaber duel against Darth Vader was and still is some of the coolest stuff, very few games to this day understand how much primal fun it is to kinetically and vicariously swing a beam sword at your neglectful father. The shooting gallery stuff aint that bad either.
Not having a community around this game is kind of big suck, there was some rumblings about it in my local area but it never got off the ground before COVID unfortunately. Even then, this is PS2-era ASW, so you'll have to dedicate some pretty serious lab time to just make some headwater here, doubly so because of how oppressive the offense in this game can be. Still, practicing and hitting dribble combos is very fun, getting a solid two-touch on the arcade AI is a good time, and this game is based on one of the most aesthetically unique shonens out there, so it's all great fun. I mean, sure, it's Mad Max Martial Arts if you're uncultured, but did Mad Max have the audacity to try and fit a Jesus Figure in Toki, Mr. Masculinity Incarnate in Raoh, and the ultimate joke character in Jagi all in the same narrative? Didn't think so.
This review contains spoilers
mannnnnnnnnnnnnn idkkkkkkkk rlly......if my nigga jeff couldn't save the whole "faction war" genre of CRPGs the whole sub genre might be done & dusted 4 me. made me appreciate how geneforge 1 is rlly tightly woven around the very --idea-- of the geneforge and the resulting question of control/power. (not just control over others but also control over self & environment e.g. "the geneforge will let me write my own destiny!", which makes for the ultimate irony that gene rewriting turns you into 2010s Orlando Bloom instead of God). even though there's various factions and unofficial subfactions in GF1, it never loses sight of its main appeal of being a quasi-sci-fi in concerns & motifs with a flair for some usual fantasy dramatics of faction politicking and will they/won't they betrayals. it's not pen to pad great writing or some life-changing shit but as an unassuming piece of genre fiction its really captivating.
GF2 just feels way sloppier. there's a rough beginning stretch until you meet the barzites where the narrative feels extremely repetitious coming off the prequel--forgivable in the original release considering GF2 was released as an unplanned sequel, less so in the context of a remake. meeting the barzites & the takers things pick up, using some of the minor floating concepts from Sucia Island (drayks as forbidden creations, shapers on the island before/during/after the protag's visit, etc.) and building compelling factions out of them--had a big pointing out at the screen "AT-ST!!!!" moment when Syros from the last game shows up as the de-jure Taker leader. the servile mindbreak & subsequent warcrimes the takers inspired in GF1 also balloons out into this drama of --everybody-- breaking Shaper law, & jeff is smart enough to upend the pro-freedom view players likely developed last game. one nigga you meet early on is like "hmm yea i started hearing voices in my head like randy orton after using the canisters and idk what to do about it" & you ask him "hey man u alright? are there certain things that help the voices go away?" thinking its a sidequest opportunity but then he's like "no you don't understand. the voices literally never stop" & then he just walks away. that's the whole NPC interaction. then like not even an hour earlier you see a created beholder go rogue & wipe out a whole outpost by mental projecting a 24 hour j. cole mix & its like.....maybe the wizard fascists were kinda cooking dawg idk. shits so unserious out here. its genuinely really smart stuff that after the trial by fire players go through in GF1 the sequel baits & festers a reactionary mindset towards shaper laws being relaxed. hard not to just hit the meanest unc headshake of all time when you see a local farmhand accidentally summon a creation that literally feasts on niggas' souls & promptly lose control of it. & then the farmhand will have the damn nerve to ask you clean up their mess. SMH nephew......
BUT it all comes crashing down hard when you get to the main quests endgame. the most succinct way i can explain it is that the stretch of midgame to credits in GF1 is about either going into business for yourself, striking a deal with the opps, or just blowing the whole island up and leaving the shitshow entirely. the stretch of midgame to ending in GF2 is you spinning the block on the other factions until you find out that there's a trio of drakkons (the thing on the cover) running the whole island and you need to kill them/make them gods almost immediately. & its like, ok??? the decision to kingmake or not feels distinctly impersonal to the roleplaying that happens in the majority of the game, & not in a 'subversive' way either. like there's just no build. hour 20 you ask me what an 'Eass' is and I woulda guessed an eastern european slur, hour 21 Eass is actually behind the Takers & p.s. he has an almost completed geneforge & p.s. he has the gloves always on him so he can't be tricked & p.s. he's creating another drakkon that's even better than him & p.s. when it slipped out she put back in & p.s. he tapped it on her tongue. like dawg nobody knew who this nigga is why does he have this much motion. i wish i can say more but i cant really state how abrupt shit is, even when allying with Eass's faction in the Takers, you don't know of his existence till maybe 90 minutes before credits in a 25 hour experience. & let me clear this isn't really treated as a shock twist either or an ozymandias situation jeff writes in Eass and his goof troop with a straight pen. just feels like an elementary & dare i say 'omg rushed 🤓' design flaw from a guy who goes beyond that usually.
just wished it was more man. i will say this game did two things i've never seen before in a CRPG. the first is that you can end the game 10 minutes into it by simply walking out of the whole mountain. GF1 also let you dip out the game early, but not like immediately after the tutorial cause like who tf does that LMAO. i hope he keeps including early exits their mere existence adds a lot of funny 'nah fuck this' moments of roleplay even if they all result in the same bad ending.
the second is that i have never seen a game setup a 1v3 final boss only it to turn into a 1v1 because two members of the trio just run out the boss room. and show back up after the fight is over like nothing happened. this is not a glitch. will leave as an exercise to the reader to investigate further on that one but man. some people will really just slime out you for no reason at all.
GF2 just feels way sloppier. there's a rough beginning stretch until you meet the barzites where the narrative feels extremely repetitious coming off the prequel--forgivable in the original release considering GF2 was released as an unplanned sequel, less so in the context of a remake. meeting the barzites & the takers things pick up, using some of the minor floating concepts from Sucia Island (drayks as forbidden creations, shapers on the island before/during/after the protag's visit, etc.) and building compelling factions out of them--had a big pointing out at the screen "AT-ST!!!!" moment when Syros from the last game shows up as the de-jure Taker leader. the servile mindbreak & subsequent warcrimes the takers inspired in GF1 also balloons out into this drama of --everybody-- breaking Shaper law, & jeff is smart enough to upend the pro-freedom view players likely developed last game. one nigga you meet early on is like "hmm yea i started hearing voices in my head like randy orton after using the canisters and idk what to do about it" & you ask him "hey man u alright? are there certain things that help the voices go away?" thinking its a sidequest opportunity but then he's like "no you don't understand. the voices literally never stop" & then he just walks away. that's the whole NPC interaction. then like not even an hour earlier you see a created beholder go rogue & wipe out a whole outpost by mental projecting a 24 hour j. cole mix & its like.....maybe the wizard fascists were kinda cooking dawg idk. shits so unserious out here. its genuinely really smart stuff that after the trial by fire players go through in GF1 the sequel baits & festers a reactionary mindset towards shaper laws being relaxed. hard not to just hit the meanest unc headshake of all time when you see a local farmhand accidentally summon a creation that literally feasts on niggas' souls & promptly lose control of it. & then the farmhand will have the damn nerve to ask you clean up their mess. SMH nephew......
BUT it all comes crashing down hard when you get to the main quests endgame. the most succinct way i can explain it is that the stretch of midgame to credits in GF1 is about either going into business for yourself, striking a deal with the opps, or just blowing the whole island up and leaving the shitshow entirely. the stretch of midgame to ending in GF2 is you spinning the block on the other factions until you find out that there's a trio of drakkons (the thing on the cover) running the whole island and you need to kill them/make them gods almost immediately. & its like, ok??? the decision to kingmake or not feels distinctly impersonal to the roleplaying that happens in the majority of the game, & not in a 'subversive' way either. like there's just no build. hour 20 you ask me what an 'Eass' is and I woulda guessed an eastern european slur, hour 21 Eass is actually behind the Takers & p.s. he has an almost completed geneforge & p.s. he has the gloves always on him so he can't be tricked & p.s. he's creating another drakkon that's even better than him & p.s. when it slipped out she put back in & p.s. he tapped it on her tongue. like dawg nobody knew who this nigga is why does he have this much motion. i wish i can say more but i cant really state how abrupt shit is, even when allying with Eass's faction in the Takers, you don't know of his existence till maybe 90 minutes before credits in a 25 hour experience. & let me clear this isn't really treated as a shock twist either or an ozymandias situation jeff writes in Eass and his goof troop with a straight pen. just feels like an elementary & dare i say 'omg rushed 🤓' design flaw from a guy who goes beyond that usually.
just wished it was more man. i will say this game did two things i've never seen before in a CRPG. the first is that you can end the game 10 minutes into it by simply walking out of the whole mountain. GF1 also let you dip out the game early, but not like immediately after the tutorial cause like who tf does that LMAO. i hope he keeps including early exits their mere existence adds a lot of funny 'nah fuck this' moments of roleplay even if they all result in the same bad ending.
the second is that i have never seen a game setup a 1v3 final boss only it to turn into a 1v1 because two members of the trio just run out the boss room. and show back up after the fight is over like nothing happened. this is not a glitch. will leave as an exercise to the reader to investigate further on that one but man. some people will really just slime out you for no reason at all.
forgot i played this one lol. from what i remember it's a really unique entry in the gundam game canon--a canon which has a really strong track record so im not just bullshitting. main appeal of the game is that it totalizes the 'relevant' UC timeline into one cohesive branching path action game for you to run amok in, which is p baller tbh. campaign tasks you with creating a custom character as you guide through them oyw to cca, in a somewhat extensive fashion, with the option to switch allegiances in between each stage of the conflict. there isn't really much of a personal reason why your OC switches sides iirc so feel free to make up your own, but its dope that the option exists, given how well considered the allegiance dynamics were setup in tomino's quadrilogy. also offers a gamut of side missions to involve yourself that covers UC side material. i cant quite recall either if that coverage was even adequate, but it was cool to see that said side material gets integrated in the 'main' moments of the UC campaign: like in one mission where you're attacking jaburo as zeon and you have to fight against the mudrock or when in one branching path christine from 0080 shows up in the battle of a baoa qu. won't mean shit to non-gundam fans but if you know it imbues the campaign with a certain tragedy to see these characters escape their canon narrative fates but ultimately be done in by the war machine & their own dysfunction regardless. its a move which extends not just tomino's ethics of war as horror but also his view of war as Freudian prison in which neurotic overseers conscript unsociable & neglected children to defend resources & ideas they only superficially care about.
in terms of game its a little less interesting, its a few notches above serviceable but is in a rather awkward stage in that it treats the nu gundam and the zakrello as functionally the same machine with just different variables. while a suit will generally 'feel' more light and aerial as you advance further in the timeline there's a few general archetypes that all suits fall under, erasing the uniqueness & differentiation that these suits have gotten over the years. not a huge deal, because on the flip side you can crank the variables under the hood to in the free battle mode to an absurd degree. feels like i just bought a brand new tonka & an ap when i crank the speed of the zaku ii to the max level so im outrunning a team of 3 f91s.
in terms of game its a little less interesting, its a few notches above serviceable but is in a rather awkward stage in that it treats the nu gundam and the zakrello as functionally the same machine with just different variables. while a suit will generally 'feel' more light and aerial as you advance further in the timeline there's a few general archetypes that all suits fall under, erasing the uniqueness & differentiation that these suits have gotten over the years. not a huge deal, because on the flip side you can crank the variables under the hood to in the free battle mode to an absurd degree. feels like i just bought a brand new tonka & an ap when i crank the speed of the zaku ii to the max level so im outrunning a team of 3 f91s.
I DARE you to watch a Ougi compilation clip and not get hyped, the cinematic supers in this game are the best the licensed game genre will ever see, bar none. As a game some changes to combat make the game more aggressive, but there's typical anime-game bullshit that holds the game back, such as the log substitution chase or whatever. Still selectable jutsus give some characters optional styles of play which is a nice bit of player expression in comparison to the previous entries. Nice selection of roster as well, including pretty much a who's who of PTS naruto. Very strong licensed game, one of my favourites.
2015
Thinking back on this there is SO much I have left unexplored, and I have platinumed this game, watch my brother do a complete playthrough, completed two separate playthroughs myself, and have a suspended run that is on NG+3. Still haven't seriously explore about half of the weapons, still haven't done a true arcane build, still haven't done a true bloodtinge build, etc. In any other souls-esque build differences are only generically change how you approach PvE (DS1 & DS3 are great examples of this), mainly affecting DPS or optimal ranges, but in Bloodborne going with the Wheel or the Pizza Cutter or the Boom Hammer or the Stake Driver present entirely new ways of playing and breaking the game; entire bosses can change from easy-mode to hard-mode and vice-versa depending on the weapon build. Can't comment on the crazy-ass lore, but the cutscene direction and voice-acting is still in the upper echelons. Ah, Kos, or some say Kosm...
The best example of gameplay loops I can think of. A very relaxing game when played in isolation, the loop of exploration > rewards > level > clear enemy camps > items > conquer > explore is genius in simplicity and multifaceted in execution, and all the factions offer at least one good reason to play them. Add in some depth in regards to what heroes, upgrades, build orders, etc. are necessary for matchups and maps and you get a very simple to understand yet intricately mechanical strategy game, which is the best you can ask for. HOTA is a much welcome expansion, seamlessly integrating with the base game, at this point it's pretty much a stark upgrade over the base game, though balance is still inherently wonky.