86

Occasional Playstation 2 jank aside, this was an absolute joy to play over the weekend. Saturday morning cartoons, noir films, and graphic novels all stirred together to create a game beaming with an amount of personality hard to find in most games. It isn't all style, however, as the game shoots you into its gorgeous, cell-shaded levels that are packed with (mostly) tight platforming, races, mini-games, collect-a-thons, bosses, and polices chases that can be all finished in a tight, addicting six hour period! It's crazy nowadays to see a game this to the point and focused, not bogged down by unnecessary parts, that leaves you satisfied but wanting more. sigh, if only there were sequels made.

91

I played this one on expert mode and this is the most fun I have had with a game in a while.

Aside from the annoyance of unskippable cutscenes, there is very little majorly wrong with this game, and the reviews here saying that the game is "janky" and has "aged poorly" ring false in my ears.

The story is simple, but there are enough interesting plot threads and progressions here to keep things engaging. The game also goes through its perfect roster of worlds at such a brisk pace to where it was impossible for me to lose interest. To be honest though, the combat and side content were more than enough to keep me engaged. I understand to a small extent why some people would label the combat as "janky", but aside from a couple annoying bosses and moments everything here feels tight and punchy. There are a perfect amount of abilities and spells to play around with, and almost all of them feel useful. There are many challenging moments sprinkled throughout this game, but none of them felt like the difficulty was due to poor design choices. As long as I consistently dodged and parried, strategized well, and engaged with most of the side content, the game was smooth sailing. The game forcing me to do the side content would be a problem, if it wasn't for how much fun it is. colosseum fights, collecting secret items, and hidden bosses all feel fun to do and the game never makes these side quests outstay their welcome.

Couple more things I wanted to add at the end here. First, the party A.I. is garbage for anything other than healing, but your main playable character more than makes up for them, and having your party members heal you and serve as meat shields definitely come in clutch multiple times. The A.I. being bad is unfortunate, but it is barely a problem. Second, gummi ships are annoying, however, these sections are really easy and after a certain point you can skip most of these sections entirely. This makes gummi ships more of a minor inconvenience rather than a major problem.

Missing so much of what makes a good Fallout game. RPG elements dumbed down to merely a skeleton of its former self. No satisfaction in leveling up, no need to put thought into what skills to pick, and worst of all no sense of diversity to each playthrough. You have one save file? That's all you're ever gonna need baybeeeeee!

Doesn't help that most side quests are basically get this, or kill that, or worst of all build this shudders. Without any sort of interesting story to back it up, by the time you reach a certain level, you'll just decide to rush to the end of the story because you've seen basically all the game has to offer by then.

Is there any fun to be had at all then? Absolutely! The gunplay is actually quite satisfying and fun. And there are multiple quality of life improvements that make it a bit hard to go back to earlier entries. The atmosphere is also still on point even if I prefer the more desolate feel of the other games. That's about it though.

I could get into the story, but I'd rather just sum it up as: neat set pieces, barely any depth.

Y’all I don’t know if you know this, but Bioshock is good?!?!

It’s not exactly the masterpiece a lot of people hype it up to be due to a few lackluster elements, but the overall atmosphere of Rapture is still unmatched. Walking through Rapture’s run down yet enchanting hallways inhabited by an interesting and twisted cast of characters will forever be a magical feeling.

The final boss was wayyy to easy tho.

84

The story rips, the soundtrack rips, the atmosphere rips, the gameplay kinda rips if you play a couple missions a day, stop, turn off the game, leave your room, go down stairs, prepare yourself a nice lunch, prepare your two cats a meal as well, sit down to eat your meal, finish your meal, let out a long, hard burp of satisfaction, before getting off your ass and considering cleaning the dishes, but ultimately deciding to hold off on it till later. You decide to move your way into the living room, so you can relax on your newly bought, comfortable couch. You fall down onto the couch, and start to ponder what you should do next in the day. You could go back to gaming, but the weather is unexpectedly nice today and a walk in the park does sound relaxing right now. Oh, what the hell!" you say, as you attempt to get off the couch. Unfortunately, the comfortability of the couch magnetizes you to it leaving you unable to get up. You try again to get up, but despite all your effort and might you're unable to win. The couch looks at you with a smug grin as you helplessly attempt to rip yourself from its grip. Time goes by at a rapid pace, and you're losing your chance to take that much needed park walk. At long last you gain the strength to break free, and you lift yourself with the might of a lion. You've a taunting glance at the couch, before heading outside and getting inside your car. You drive all the way to the park, take your walk, and come back home exhausted. You prepare you and your cats a large meal, eat it, and then head upstairs to play some rounds of (Insert multiplayer game here) with your friends. After a long day, you get yourself ready for bed, before finally falling on the bed and getting yourself a nice four hours of sleep. A couple more missions of Drakengard will be pretty fun after that.

92

Tomb Raider in a few ways feel like the antithesis of Mario. While Mario is focused on fast and slick movement throughout zany and expansive worlds, Tomb Raider is more slow and methodical with its platforming and is more focused on grounded and atmospheric levels. They are wildly different in their goals, but that doesn't stop the both of them from being fun as hell.

Tomb Raider's style is not for everyone, but I never once thought the game was being too unfair. The most seemingly unfair mechanic that being the combat can be clunky, but as long as you're smart with your jumps and conserve the right ammo most combat encounters won't be that much of a problem. Everything else in this game is perfect, especially the save point placements. The person who placed them deserves a raise and a kiss on the cheek.

88

Minor disappointments and a couple problems lingering from the second game (albeit the severity of these problems are minimised here) hold this one back for me, however, these are only minor issues in an otherwise fantastic game. Sly 3 isn’t the radical shift in gameplay and tone like the second, but rather the developers focusing in on the details and creating a much tighter experience. This is all best illustrated by the drastic improvement in the missions. The repetitive missions that overstayed their welcome from the second game are gone, replaced with fast pace missions booming with variety. I think what helps this variety is the developers honing in on the Ocean’s 11 style from the second. The storyline’s focus on setting up a team of different playable characters to crack a vault not only allows the story to go through many interesting story beats, but also allows the gameplay to be far more unpredictable and experimental. However, despite this sense of unpredictability, the game remains consistently fun and engaging throughout the entire experience whether you’re fighting an operatic mob boss or an evil genius mandrill.