Stabbed
"MGS2 is the smarter game, but MGS3 is the better game." - my art teacher
Can't think of a better way to put it. I don't think this is as thematically rich an experience as 2, but I believe it's a much more emotionally rich one. Truth and lie, friend and enemy, us and them, all lines are blurred throughout the entire game, which leads to one of the most impactful climaxes to a story I've seen. Outside of that, the game itself is a very fun experience, with many different ways to think outside the box to solve your problems; my personal story is using a shaky rope bridge to drop a body off the side by running past it.
There's a sad irony to the fact that a nearly 20-year-old game this linear allows you to experiment and find your own solutions to a degree that many modern games boasting the same don't even come close to.
Can't think of a better way to put it. I don't think this is as thematically rich an experience as 2, but I believe it's a much more emotionally rich one. Truth and lie, friend and enemy, us and them, all lines are blurred throughout the entire game, which leads to one of the most impactful climaxes to a story I've seen. Outside of that, the game itself is a very fun experience, with many different ways to think outside the box to solve your problems; my personal story is using a shaky rope bridge to drop a body off the side by running past it.
There's a sad irony to the fact that a nearly 20-year-old game this linear allows you to experiment and find your own solutions to a degree that many modern games boasting the same don't even come close to.
2019
God, I genuinely don't even know where to start. This is a monster of a game that is entirely in its own lane in what it sets out to do, say, and make you feel. Comparing it to anything else feels impossible, but describing what it is feels even harder. I'll try to write something up at a later date. Just, please play this game. Especially if you're a leftist. The messages will most likely resonate with you a lot stronger, and I don't mean you'll agree with them more.
Hope is the keystone element in the fight against cynicism. Keep your chin up. Keep fighting. We love you.
Hope is the keystone element in the fight against cynicism. Keep your chin up. Keep fighting. We love you.
1997
Bram Stoker's Evil Dead
2012
Resident Evil 6 is a game that exists.
I do not mean that in a condescending or reductive way, and don't let my score tell you otherwise. This is a rare situation where I have perfectly balanced mixed feelings on a game. I truly have never felt this way before. Everything I think of that I like in this game, I also dislike. Everything I dislike, I also like. What works conceptually, is executed poorly. What is executed greatly, is broken conceptually. There is nothing I can say about this game that feels concrete other than the fact that it does, indeed, exist.
Is it a bastardization of the Resident Evil name to turn Chris's campaign into a "zombie" Call of Duty, or is it just the natural progression of where the fourth and fifth entries took the series? Do the new additions to the cast work well with the returning crew, or should they have just been swapped out for other classic characters (e.g. Claire for Helena)? Does the multilinear hyperlink cinema-esque storytelling lead to one of the grandest and most intense stories in a horror game, or does it just end up as treading water and repetitive for the player? Is this the result of Capcom truly wanting to create the biggest, best Resident Evil game they could, or is it the result of giving the game designers a blank check after Resident Evil 5 rolled in such impressive numbers?
These are the questions Resident Evil 6 leaves me, and the answers to all of them are "yes." Part of me thinks it's bold for not trimming itself down at all, the other part of me thinks it's exhausting. Part of me thinks it's impressive to not have a single filter on what you put in your game and cram every idea possible into it, the other part felt like quitting halfway into the game. Part of me really does think this is the sprawling, maximalist epic it's been described as, the other part thinks it's terminally bloated.
Am I sounding repetitive? My apologies. I suppose I should've thought about how to word this review better, but instead, I was too busy putting in every single thing I thought of.
I do not mean that in a condescending or reductive way, and don't let my score tell you otherwise. This is a rare situation where I have perfectly balanced mixed feelings on a game. I truly have never felt this way before. Everything I think of that I like in this game, I also dislike. Everything I dislike, I also like. What works conceptually, is executed poorly. What is executed greatly, is broken conceptually. There is nothing I can say about this game that feels concrete other than the fact that it does, indeed, exist.
Is it a bastardization of the Resident Evil name to turn Chris's campaign into a "zombie" Call of Duty, or is it just the natural progression of where the fourth and fifth entries took the series? Do the new additions to the cast work well with the returning crew, or should they have just been swapped out for other classic characters (e.g. Claire for Helena)? Does the multilinear hyperlink cinema-esque storytelling lead to one of the grandest and most intense stories in a horror game, or does it just end up as treading water and repetitive for the player? Is this the result of Capcom truly wanting to create the biggest, best Resident Evil game they could, or is it the result of giving the game designers a blank check after Resident Evil 5 rolled in such impressive numbers?
These are the questions Resident Evil 6 leaves me, and the answers to all of them are "yes." Part of me thinks it's bold for not trimming itself down at all, the other part of me thinks it's exhausting. Part of me thinks it's impressive to not have a single filter on what you put in your game and cram every idea possible into it, the other part felt like quitting halfway into the game. Part of me really does think this is the sprawling, maximalist epic it's been described as, the other part thinks it's terminally bloated.
Am I sounding repetitive? My apologies. I suppose I should've thought about how to word this review better, but instead, I was too busy putting in every single thing I thought of.
Fuck you, Sandy.
1998
I love this game so much. Despite its sequel being my favorite of the series, the gameplay in this is easily the best of... really, anything Valve has put out. Some of the most nuanced and thoughtful combat ever put into an FPS ever, if not the most. Every weapon has a purpose, despite some trumping others. (shotgun for life!) Battlefields are not a test of your abilities, but rather, the closest thing to a chessboard in a shooter. Just as much as you plan out your moves, your enemies have reactions that challenge those moves. You're not shooting at idiots who blindly walk at you like in other games (hell even Half-Life 2 does this), you're shooting at trained military officers who know what they're doing and will fight back against you just as hard as you fight against them.
The most common complaint I see about this game is some of the levels are frustrating, the two that get called out most being On A Rail and certain parts of Xen. All I can say is... I don't see it. I had no problems with On A Rail, and the only part of Xen I was frustrated with was the platforming in Interloper, and that was a short segment.
Despite being their first game, Valve already showed how they told their stories, with a fair bit of storytelling and worldbuilding being from what you see rather than what you're told, a concept which would be amplified tenfold in the sequel, of course. Regardless, for a debut, it showed immense skill and care taken to make sure the game would hold up in the decades to come, and I say it has. Sure, the graphics are dated, but they have a charm to them, y'know? For newer fans of the series, I do recommend playing Black Mesa and then coming back to the original if you enjoyed it to get the full experience, but this game still holds up completely on its own.
The most common complaint I see about this game is some of the levels are frustrating, the two that get called out most being On A Rail and certain parts of Xen. All I can say is... I don't see it. I had no problems with On A Rail, and the only part of Xen I was frustrated with was the platforming in Interloper, and that was a short segment.
Despite being their first game, Valve already showed how they told their stories, with a fair bit of storytelling and worldbuilding being from what you see rather than what you're told, a concept which would be amplified tenfold in the sequel, of course. Regardless, for a debut, it showed immense skill and care taken to make sure the game would hold up in the decades to come, and I say it has. Sure, the graphics are dated, but they have a charm to them, y'know? For newer fans of the series, I do recommend playing Black Mesa and then coming back to the original if you enjoyed it to get the full experience, but this game still holds up completely on its own.
All the comments talking about how much this game falls to pieces in the third act were not joking, man. I already wasn't completely on board with this like most other people (mainly because I found the movement to be very slow and constantly bogged down), but I liked it well enough and loved the Raimi/Hooper inspiration in the first act. The horror wore off on me quick, but still had some good scares throughout, enough to not feel bored. Of course, again, this all goes to pot once the second act closes. You can feel how forced the third act is, to the point where you could sum everything that happens in it up with a document. The drawn-out unskippable cutscenes and repetitive videotape sections throughout the game (but especially near the end) aren't great, either.
I haven't played the DLCs yet, maybe they'll enhance some of the game for me, but this was honestly a letdown for how much it had been hyped. The first act was gold, second act was pretty good, third act was a total bomb that kinda soured the whole experience for me. Not a bad game at all; hell, the characters here are some of my favorites in the series (save for the bland-ass protagonist), but it's not one I could see myself coming back to too often, and if I do, it'll be after I learn some speedrun strats for the last couple sections.
I haven't played the DLCs yet, maybe they'll enhance some of the game for me, but this was honestly a letdown for how much it had been hyped. The first act was gold, second act was pretty good, third act was a total bomb that kinda soured the whole experience for me. Not a bad game at all; hell, the characters here are some of my favorites in the series (save for the bland-ass protagonist), but it's not one I could see myself coming back to too often, and if I do, it'll be after I learn some speedrun strats for the last couple sections.
2012
Bursting with creativity, it feels like nothing truly like Hotline Miami had come out before, or has come out since its release. Despite wearing its influences brightly on its sleeve (or perhaps, on the back of its jacket), it never once feels like a copy of those it pulls from. A true original.
2003
Manhunt is a game that's always really interested me. I've always had a grim, morbid fascination in the transgressive and controversial, the way the media can make people fear a film or game more than the actual work itself could. When I was younger, I probably had the entire Rockstar history memorized and would spring into a hearty speech about how "games aren't really the problem, it's the people", but you'd never really find me playing any of Rockstar's games; in an ironic reversal, I was just as fixated on the controversy of the material rather than the material itself. Of their entire catalog, Manhunt was the game that piqued my curiosity the most, since the very concept was so boiled down: you just kill people in gruesome ways, no morality tests, no philosophical questions. I played the first few levels when I was 13 or so, and thought I was a real scary edgelord for loving a game where brutality was so rewarded (guess what my favorite fighting games were), but I never really got far in it. I felt satisfied with the couple hours of exposure I got, and I think that feeling hasn't changed for me now, years later.
Manhunt lays its cards on the table early, and lets you know what you're getting into quite clearly: a dark, almost noiresque atmosphere, aided by the gritty PS2 visuals and clearly Carpenter-inspired soundtrack, and the sneering voice of Brian Cox cheering you on as you brutally murder the people in your way. For the first hour or so, it really is effective. The camera angles and quality of the Executions, along with the fluid mocap work, provides a grisly realism that works to unsettle even the most grizzled of horror vets. Combine that with some high-level sound design, and the end result is a spectacle of potently macabre entertainment, but it's not something that lasts.
As with most horror-adjacent media, exposure and desensitization are its Achille's heel. Not only is the arsenal of weapons surprisingly limited, a good third or more of that arsenal aren't available for Executions, and some of the weapons even reuse their Execution animations, which leads to even the most effective kills feeling dull after a couple levels of repeats. Unfortunately, rather than try to "up the ante" and make the game progressively more disturbing, it feels as though the developers completely throw in the towel somewhere around the third act, and turn the game into something more like Max Payne (sans bullet time) or even a "3D Hotline Miami"; the difficulty spikes, stealth is thrown to the wind, and guns become your primary tools against enemies, drying what remained of the atmosphere out completely, and turning it into a repetitive chore as the game gets closer to the finish line. And once you get to that finish line, is there a grand revelation waiting for you? Something that completely changes the context of the game, and perhaps even gives an "explanation" of the savage bloodthirst that you willingly took place in?
No. The antagonist dies, and the game ends with a brief news montage giving a slight bit of depth as to what happened, but never any concrete answers or commentary, which leads me to ask: what was the point? Was this a meta-commentary on how the elites are the real monsters, how police are just as cruel as the sadistic gangs you've been victim to, but society still finds a scapegoat to blame rather than looking at root causes? Is there perhaps an ironic connection between me, the player, never finding out any reasoning for why this all happened, leaving me in the same shoes as the protagonist? Could Rockstar be criticizing themselves, using the antagonist as an obvious stand-in for game developers who revel in the controversy garnered from subjecting the world to gruesome imagery?
Then I remember that this is a game that actively applauds you for performing more sadistic kills, with no cartoonish overexaggeration or a detached "silliness" to the bloodshed, just a jagged realism to everything you see. I believe there is no deeper meaning to be extracted from it. The game is sick, and I'm sick for playing it through to the end.
Manhunt lays its cards on the table early, and lets you know what you're getting into quite clearly: a dark, almost noiresque atmosphere, aided by the gritty PS2 visuals and clearly Carpenter-inspired soundtrack, and the sneering voice of Brian Cox cheering you on as you brutally murder the people in your way. For the first hour or so, it really is effective. The camera angles and quality of the Executions, along with the fluid mocap work, provides a grisly realism that works to unsettle even the most grizzled of horror vets. Combine that with some high-level sound design, and the end result is a spectacle of potently macabre entertainment, but it's not something that lasts.
As with most horror-adjacent media, exposure and desensitization are its Achille's heel. Not only is the arsenal of weapons surprisingly limited, a good third or more of that arsenal aren't available for Executions, and some of the weapons even reuse their Execution animations, which leads to even the most effective kills feeling dull after a couple levels of repeats. Unfortunately, rather than try to "up the ante" and make the game progressively more disturbing, it feels as though the developers completely throw in the towel somewhere around the third act, and turn the game into something more like Max Payne (sans bullet time) or even a "3D Hotline Miami"; the difficulty spikes, stealth is thrown to the wind, and guns become your primary tools against enemies, drying what remained of the atmosphere out completely, and turning it into a repetitive chore as the game gets closer to the finish line. And once you get to that finish line, is there a grand revelation waiting for you? Something that completely changes the context of the game, and perhaps even gives an "explanation" of the savage bloodthirst that you willingly took place in?
No. The antagonist dies, and the game ends with a brief news montage giving a slight bit of depth as to what happened, but never any concrete answers or commentary, which leads me to ask: what was the point? Was this a meta-commentary on how the elites are the real monsters, how police are just as cruel as the sadistic gangs you've been victim to, but society still finds a scapegoat to blame rather than looking at root causes? Is there perhaps an ironic connection between me, the player, never finding out any reasoning for why this all happened, leaving me in the same shoes as the protagonist? Could Rockstar be criticizing themselves, using the antagonist as an obvious stand-in for game developers who revel in the controversy garnered from subjecting the world to gruesome imagery?
Then I remember that this is a game that actively applauds you for performing more sadistic kills, with no cartoonish overexaggeration or a detached "silliness" to the bloodshed, just a jagged realism to everything you see. I believe there is no deeper meaning to be extracted from it. The game is sick, and I'm sick for playing it through to the end.
2015
TL;DR: Greatly exceeded my expectations. Lovecraft + Dark Souls + guns = very good. Worth buying a new console for. Buy the DLC.
Let me tell you a little story about me and Bloodborne.
Around this time last year, I started really getting into Souls. I beat the trilogy, got all the achievements, picked up (and put down) Sekiro, I was really sinking my teeth into everything I could get my hands on. However, throughout all of this, I was really itching to play this one. H.P. Lovecraft is my favorite author and I'm a huge fan of gothic art styles, so mix those together with the Souls formula and add in a little gun parrying as a bonus? I was immediately sold from the get-go, and I spent a year feverishly trying to find a way to play it. I tried sucking it up and playing on the delay-plagued PS Now, but it gave me a headache. I tried getting a PS4 off of eBay, and it turned out to be a scam (got my money back though). A PS5 was low on my list due to how hard it was to get, but it remained a distant option. Come November, and I was planning on opting out of any Black Friday sales due to my bitter realism about getting a PS5. However, the night before, I had a dream that I had managed to get one! I was playing Bloodborne and absolutely loving it, it had lived up to all my expectations... and then I woke up. Out of frustration of my situation, I went back to sleep and had the dream again. When I awoke the second time, I was so overcome by my need for the game that I re-bought a subscription to PS Now only to play for about an hour, the delay still giving me a headache, but it was the fix I needed to keep me stable. After months of tracking and a few weeks of hard watching, I finally managed to get a PS5, Bloodborne already bought from a sale a couple months ago. I eagerly settled in and started my journey through Yharnam.
Now, with all that said, you might be wondering why I brought it up. You're probably thinking that I'm going to say this was a letdown, though seeing my score, you probably won't. I'm making all of this known so you can truly understand what it means when I say this game not only lived up to my expectations, but exceeded them. This game managed to do what no other game in the Souls franchise had managed to do: recreate how I felt with Dark Souls 1.
It's not a perfect 1:1 ratio, and I still prefer DS1 over this (barely. they're pretty much tied), but the way the game focuses on exploration within the levels themselves is something that, again, I hadn't felt since the original. The extreme conservatism with lamps gave me the same feeling of needing to explore, to find shortcuts or other possible routes to make it back to a safe place if I needed to. In later games in the series, bonfires/graces tend to be much too frequent, leading to a very linear experience with how you go through areas; the worst offender of this being DS3. My favorite part of DS1 when I first played was finding the shortcuts, like riding down a giant elevator to get to the hub world or finding a hidden path that linked two different areas together, and it was an incredibly rewarding and satisfying feeling to have that experience back again. But enough talking about DS1, let's look at Bloodborne as its own beast.
My lord, the combat is unbelievable. A common complaint I hear from people on both sides of this game is the lack of weapon choice, and while I haven't replayed it enough to find out if that holds water, I had an extremely fun time using just the Saw Cleaver and imagine that subsequent replays will prove the other weapons to be fun to use as well. The rally system, combined with the seamless gun parries, actively encourages you to play aggressive and get in your enemies' faces. No more worriedly circling around bosses hoping they'll do that one attack that you like, you're right in their chest hitting as hard as you can and only backing up to get your stamina back. Needless to say, that feels amazing, and leads you to experiment with how much you can combo. In the other games, it was more about how much you could do before having to roll away, but here, you might try to find a way to finish off your attacks with a stagger of some kind to perform a visceral and keep the damage going. It all feels very rewarding and exhilarating in a way that words can't describe, it's really something you have to play to feel.
As mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Gothic art styles, and the game does not disappoint in that field, either. Every little structure feels so textured and real; the complex designs webbed into clock towers and chapels, talking to NPCs via knocking on lantern-lit doors, climbing up long ladders to get an aerial view of a village below you, it all breathes life into the world of Yharnam and makes it feel more like a truly lived-in place, more than any other world in Souls. Not only does it succeed in the Gothic style, but at times might throw a complete left-field speedball into dream-like surrealism. The way the world changes as you progress through the game and the sun starts to set fills me with such a delightfully eerie dread is just great, not to mention how cool it is that the game constantly changes depending on your Insight as well, it encapsulates that feeling of Lovecraftian insanity really well.
Speaking of Lovecraft, the lore is so rich for what's essentially a one-off game. One might think that this being completely disconnected from Souls might make its story a bit lesser in regards to the three-game overarching lore, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm not a bookkeeper on all the information just yet, so I won't act as though I know everything, but what I do know has really dug its claws into my brain and has had me discussing meanings and theories with my friends for this entire playthrough. The Souls dichotomy of light vs. dark being paralleled by man vs. beast is so instantly compelling and just evolves into something so much greater as the game continues; I don't want to say too much since I don't want to spoil anything, but the way the gameplay itself reflects that concept is absolutely brilliant.
As a bonus, since I don't like rating individual DLCs (in Backloggd's current state, anyways), I figure I should mention The Old Hunters. #1 DLC in Soulsborne, easily. To a degree that feels genuinely unfair. My previous favorite, DS1's Artorias of the Abyss, does a good job at expanding on what that game has in terms of lore and area design, and in fall fairness is still a great expansion, but pales in comparison to what TOH brings. Three mind-blowingly good areas with some of the best bosses the franchise has to offer, incredible additions to the lore and expanding on concepts old and new, and such a sense of scale in terms of what's being given. DS3's The Ringed City was definitely big, but was plagued by shoddy enemy placement which bogged the pacing down some, while TOH keeps that size while making the enemies both very fun to fight as well as the perfect level of frequency. All of it is so good, not to mention the last third basically being a playable version of Shadow over Innsmouth.
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge my one problem with the game, and I do mean one. In comparison to what came after it, I do feel like the bosses are somewhat too quick and over with. Saying this not to humblebrag, honest, the fact that I beat the final boss on my first try doesn't sit right with me. I'm not sure if that's a reflection on how quickly I picked up this game's mechanics or the game's difficulty being lacking, but regardless, I think I might enjoy my NG+ playthrough more, if only for longer boss fights. For the record, the reason why I dislike how quick they are is because they're such good fights. A couple of times, I threw the match just so I could have another try and keep fighting the bosses I loved.
I've said so much about this game, and I honestly feel like I could say even more. It's an indescribably rewarding feeling, down to my core, to have another FromSoft game fill me with the same sense of wonder and intrigue that Dark Souls 1 did, and I feel like it very well might step up to be the next game in my #1 throne for the franchise. I'm really looking forward to replaying this with different weapons, and I would love to see it get remastered or, better yet, remade in the future to let more people in on this absolute masterwork.
Let me tell you a little story about me and Bloodborne.
Around this time last year, I started really getting into Souls. I beat the trilogy, got all the achievements, picked up (and put down) Sekiro, I was really sinking my teeth into everything I could get my hands on. However, throughout all of this, I was really itching to play this one. H.P. Lovecraft is my favorite author and I'm a huge fan of gothic art styles, so mix those together with the Souls formula and add in a little gun parrying as a bonus? I was immediately sold from the get-go, and I spent a year feverishly trying to find a way to play it. I tried sucking it up and playing on the delay-plagued PS Now, but it gave me a headache. I tried getting a PS4 off of eBay, and it turned out to be a scam (got my money back though). A PS5 was low on my list due to how hard it was to get, but it remained a distant option. Come November, and I was planning on opting out of any Black Friday sales due to my bitter realism about getting a PS5. However, the night before, I had a dream that I had managed to get one! I was playing Bloodborne and absolutely loving it, it had lived up to all my expectations... and then I woke up. Out of frustration of my situation, I went back to sleep and had the dream again. When I awoke the second time, I was so overcome by my need for the game that I re-bought a subscription to PS Now only to play for about an hour, the delay still giving me a headache, but it was the fix I needed to keep me stable. After months of tracking and a few weeks of hard watching, I finally managed to get a PS5, Bloodborne already bought from a sale a couple months ago. I eagerly settled in and started my journey through Yharnam.
Now, with all that said, you might be wondering why I brought it up. You're probably thinking that I'm going to say this was a letdown, though seeing my score, you probably won't. I'm making all of this known so you can truly understand what it means when I say this game not only lived up to my expectations, but exceeded them. This game managed to do what no other game in the Souls franchise had managed to do: recreate how I felt with Dark Souls 1.
It's not a perfect 1:1 ratio, and I still prefer DS1 over this (barely. they're pretty much tied), but the way the game focuses on exploration within the levels themselves is something that, again, I hadn't felt since the original. The extreme conservatism with lamps gave me the same feeling of needing to explore, to find shortcuts or other possible routes to make it back to a safe place if I needed to. In later games in the series, bonfires/graces tend to be much too frequent, leading to a very linear experience with how you go through areas; the worst offender of this being DS3. My favorite part of DS1 when I first played was finding the shortcuts, like riding down a giant elevator to get to the hub world or finding a hidden path that linked two different areas together, and it was an incredibly rewarding and satisfying feeling to have that experience back again. But enough talking about DS1, let's look at Bloodborne as its own beast.
My lord, the combat is unbelievable. A common complaint I hear from people on both sides of this game is the lack of weapon choice, and while I haven't replayed it enough to find out if that holds water, I had an extremely fun time using just the Saw Cleaver and imagine that subsequent replays will prove the other weapons to be fun to use as well. The rally system, combined with the seamless gun parries, actively encourages you to play aggressive and get in your enemies' faces. No more worriedly circling around bosses hoping they'll do that one attack that you like, you're right in their chest hitting as hard as you can and only backing up to get your stamina back. Needless to say, that feels amazing, and leads you to experiment with how much you can combo. In the other games, it was more about how much you could do before having to roll away, but here, you might try to find a way to finish off your attacks with a stagger of some kind to perform a visceral and keep the damage going. It all feels very rewarding and exhilarating in a way that words can't describe, it's really something you have to play to feel.
As mentioned before, I am a huge fan of Gothic art styles, and the game does not disappoint in that field, either. Every little structure feels so textured and real; the complex designs webbed into clock towers and chapels, talking to NPCs via knocking on lantern-lit doors, climbing up long ladders to get an aerial view of a village below you, it all breathes life into the world of Yharnam and makes it feel more like a truly lived-in place, more than any other world in Souls. Not only does it succeed in the Gothic style, but at times might throw a complete left-field speedball into dream-like surrealism. The way the world changes as you progress through the game and the sun starts to set fills me with such a delightfully eerie dread is just great, not to mention how cool it is that the game constantly changes depending on your Insight as well, it encapsulates that feeling of Lovecraftian insanity really well.
Speaking of Lovecraft, the lore is so rich for what's essentially a one-off game. One might think that this being completely disconnected from Souls might make its story a bit lesser in regards to the three-game overarching lore, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm not a bookkeeper on all the information just yet, so I won't act as though I know everything, but what I do know has really dug its claws into my brain and has had me discussing meanings and theories with my friends for this entire playthrough. The Souls dichotomy of light vs. dark being paralleled by man vs. beast is so instantly compelling and just evolves into something so much greater as the game continues; I don't want to say too much since I don't want to spoil anything, but the way the gameplay itself reflects that concept is absolutely brilliant.
As a bonus, since I don't like rating individual DLCs (in Backloggd's current state, anyways), I figure I should mention The Old Hunters. #1 DLC in Soulsborne, easily. To a degree that feels genuinely unfair. My previous favorite, DS1's Artorias of the Abyss, does a good job at expanding on what that game has in terms of lore and area design, and in fall fairness is still a great expansion, but pales in comparison to what TOH brings. Three mind-blowingly good areas with some of the best bosses the franchise has to offer, incredible additions to the lore and expanding on concepts old and new, and such a sense of scale in terms of what's being given. DS3's The Ringed City was definitely big, but was plagued by shoddy enemy placement which bogged the pacing down some, while TOH keeps that size while making the enemies both very fun to fight as well as the perfect level of frequency. All of it is so good, not to mention the last third basically being a playable version of Shadow over Innsmouth.
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge my one problem with the game, and I do mean one. In comparison to what came after it, I do feel like the bosses are somewhat too quick and over with. Saying this not to humblebrag, honest, the fact that I beat the final boss on my first try doesn't sit right with me. I'm not sure if that's a reflection on how quickly I picked up this game's mechanics or the game's difficulty being lacking, but regardless, I think I might enjoy my NG+ playthrough more, if only for longer boss fights. For the record, the reason why I dislike how quick they are is because they're such good fights. A couple of times, I threw the match just so I could have another try and keep fighting the bosses I loved.
I've said so much about this game, and I honestly feel like I could say even more. It's an indescribably rewarding feeling, down to my core, to have another FromSoft game fill me with the same sense of wonder and intrigue that Dark Souls 1 did, and I feel like it very well might step up to be the next game in my #1 throne for the franchise. I'm really looking forward to replaying this with different weapons, and I would love to see it get remastered or, better yet, remade in the future to let more people in on this absolute masterwork.
1998
An inconsistent, dated, and genius work of art that, even in its worse moments, shows the vision that Kojima had. Its highs are fantastic, and its lows are grueling, but the sum is certainly greater than its parts. Rather than do a full-length review, I'll give the cliffnotes.
- Otacon and Snake are bi lovers, you can not change my mind, don't try.
- The sudden shift into the backtracking and boss battle-focused second half was admittedly jarring, but not enough for me to not enjoy it anymore. The first half's emphasis on stealth is still much stronger, however.
- The game's lore, while good, is delivered in an odd way. It's mostly just pausing the game to give you 5-10 minutes of exposition before continuing. Obviously, this is more of a limitation of the time period, and wildly ambitious for that time period as well, but reveals some pacing oddities almost 25 years later.
- The boss battles are hit or miss. The one in the freezer is super cool and rewards tactical thinking, as well as the one with the chairs, but any fight that has sniping is dreadful and the lack of checkpoints during certain fights (see: the one with the Stinger rockets) turn some awesome battles into repetitive slogs.
- The characters are all fantastic, super memorable and enjoyable to hear. Otacon's naivete about the work he does, Colonel's paternal way of speaking to both Snake and the player, Mei Ling's genuine sweetness and desire to help at all turns, it's all really good. The voice acting is great, too, especially for the time period when you compare it to games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. David Hayter's almost-parody action hero voice for Snake, Cam Clarke's condescending sneer for Liquid, Greg Eagle's cool glide that cuts through the air like a knife reminiscent of 70s exploitation film stars for Ninja, I really just can't get enough of the cast.
- I genuinely can not imagine being a kid in 1998 and experiencing the 4th wall breaks that happen in this. Like, even as an adult in 2022, they're still cool as hell to me. They don't feel hokey or cheesy, like the typical "nyahah, you're playing a VIDEO GAME" types in other games, but rather at the drop of a hat connecting the player and Snake as one entity, and I think it works really well.
So, in short, despite it being very obviously dated and clunky, as well as totally all over the place in terms of quality, I still think this game has earned its stripes as one of the all-time greats, not even factoring in how influential it was and how fresh it, honestly, still is. I'm very excited to see where the rest of the series goes.
- Otacon and Snake are bi lovers, you can not change my mind, don't try.
- The sudden shift into the backtracking and boss battle-focused second half was admittedly jarring, but not enough for me to not enjoy it anymore. The first half's emphasis on stealth is still much stronger, however.
- The game's lore, while good, is delivered in an odd way. It's mostly just pausing the game to give you 5-10 minutes of exposition before continuing. Obviously, this is more of a limitation of the time period, and wildly ambitious for that time period as well, but reveals some pacing oddities almost 25 years later.
- The boss battles are hit or miss. The one in the freezer is super cool and rewards tactical thinking, as well as the one with the chairs, but any fight that has sniping is dreadful and the lack of checkpoints during certain fights (see: the one with the Stinger rockets) turn some awesome battles into repetitive slogs.
- The characters are all fantastic, super memorable and enjoyable to hear. Otacon's naivete about the work he does, Colonel's paternal way of speaking to both Snake and the player, Mei Ling's genuine sweetness and desire to help at all turns, it's all really good. The voice acting is great, too, especially for the time period when you compare it to games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. David Hayter's almost-parody action hero voice for Snake, Cam Clarke's condescending sneer for Liquid, Greg Eagle's cool glide that cuts through the air like a knife reminiscent of 70s exploitation film stars for Ninja, I really just can't get enough of the cast.
- I genuinely can not imagine being a kid in 1998 and experiencing the 4th wall breaks that happen in this. Like, even as an adult in 2022, they're still cool as hell to me. They don't feel hokey or cheesy, like the typical "nyahah, you're playing a VIDEO GAME" types in other games, but rather at the drop of a hat connecting the player and Snake as one entity, and I think it works really well.
So, in short, despite it being very obviously dated and clunky, as well as totally all over the place in terms of quality, I still think this game has earned its stripes as one of the all-time greats, not even factoring in how influential it was and how fresh it, honestly, still is. I'm very excited to see where the rest of the series goes.
2006
Speaking purely critically, I would give this a 9/10, but the amount of love, care, heart, and soul this game has makes that rating feel almost unfair. Majora's Mask has the reputation of "how did Nintendo put this out", but I would wager that this game raises that question more, since the themes in this are incredibly mature and thought out to the point where you almost don't even believe Nintendo made it. Not much I can say, it really is a play-it-to-believe-it type game. Beautiful music, touching story, loveable characters, and a narrative that's surprisingly gripping and much more of a throughline than most of Nintendo's other works (EarthBound included). Play it, it's good, you'll cry, and that's okay. The gods are watching over you.
Rating this is kind of impossible because I really didn't play the same game everyone else did. I abused the shit out of my emulator's rewind and turbo options, ESPECIALLY the latter. If I didn't, I probably would've thrown in the towel about 30 minutes in. However, I credit these as a workaround to the game's poor aging, because the story at the heart of the game is incredibly compelling and kept me just interested enough to keep going. The final 15 minutes was, surprisingly, worth all of the pain of grinding and pushing through the constant encounters. I think the best summation I could give of this game is that everything you've heard about it is true. The grinding is pretty excessive, the encounters are way too frequent, and in general it feels like a dry run for Mother 2, but it is saved by having really intriguing worldbuilding and themes, an absolutely stellar soundtrack, and an impactful final boss fight that sticks with you despite its simplicity. I wouldn't recommend that you play it, maybe just watch someone else play it instead, but if you do, there are a lot of hacks to make things more enjoyable; I'd personally recommend the all-in-one Demiforce hack.
Also, Backloggd dropped the ball on this. It's called Mother. Nothing else. Don't listen to Nintendo's lies.
Also, Backloggd dropped the ball on this. It's called Mother. Nothing else. Don't listen to Nintendo's lies.
2022
It feels incredibly bizarre to finally complete my arc, but yeah, I love this game. I made a promise around 8 months ago that once the endgame was better handled that I'd gladly come back and give this the love it deserves; I'm happy to announce that I can fulfill that promise. I don't know if it's because I spent more time exploring that I was more leveled up and had better gear, or if my time away let me ruminate on my feelings towards this game, or if even my new PC setup made it a smoother experience, but something clicked in my brain, and I'm now officially a whole-hearted fan of this game. It has its flaws, yes, and I do think that the latter parts of the game that are less exploration-heavy are weaker than the rest, but they make up for it by having excellent level design, crushingly hard boss fights, and an overall sense of brevity to a lot of the story details near the end. But, man, when you have this much great stuff in one package, I feel like it's almost nitpicking to say that one part of the game isn't as great as the rest. I don't want to copout a review, but really, there's just so much that I can't even talk about it all. I'm beyond happy to love this game now, and I can absolutely see myself sinking more and more hours into it as time goes on. I would consider this the peak of the Souls formula, even if it's not my personal favorite (nor my vote for the best), and I truly wonder how FromSoft is going to follow this up, if they even will at all. Can't wait for the DLC.
2023
I've been delaying writing this review for a few hours because I was busy playing through it again. I want to be critical and say that it doesn't need to exist (which it doesn't, really), or say that it's a 9/10 due to some aspects that are lesser than the original, but nah, fuck it. It's still RE4, and it's still great.
I guess I'll start with my short list of complaints, which are more like nitpicks, really. The RE2make style aiming is a great way to mimic the classic tank controls, but it does feel a bit restrictive at times, leading to more than a few scenarios of getting hit when you didn't need to, due to having to stand near-perfectly still to aim. I do wish there was some kind of recipe for making a "knife repair kit" on the fly, because while I absolutely love the new knife system, it can be a bit strict on just how much you can use it if you're not careful. Granted, I think this is a deliberate choice, but it's just so fun to use that it's hard not to. Uhm... a couple rooms were removed that I liked from the original? Does kind of bum me out, but not nearly enough for it to matter. Legitimately, maybe my biggest and most wholehearted complaint for this remake is that suplexes no longer explode cultists' heads. Your kicks still explode heads, why not your suplexes???
Nah, I can't do this anymore. Making a remake, as much as some overly critical gamers might disagree with me, is not easy. You change too much, you have people saying it's not the same game. You change too little, you have even more people wondering why it was made. With such a delicate balance in mind, remaking a game like Resident Evil 4 should be like walking a razor's edge; questionable and moderately concerning to everyone watching, even your biggest fans. Capcom, being Capcom, decided to start breakdancing on the razor. Not only do they perfectly understand what made the original so beloved and able to withstand the test of time, they were brave enough to change things up to keep it fresh and prevent it from being a 1:1 remake. Certain sequences are redone, boss fights are added onto while still retaining their original feel, and even the characters have had a good level of polish to them, while still keeping great care to not deviate from their original versions. They didn't make a game that held hands and appealed only to new players, and they didn't make a game mired in nostalgia and self-references that appealed to veterans, they made a game that anyone can pick up and feel like it was their first time playing RE4.
It's always been very hard for me to describe why RE4 works, why it's such a great game, and unfortunately that difficulty has stuck with me, but throughout my entire time playing this, I was constantly shocked at how little I was thinking "the original did this better" or "I don't like this change". Hell, most of the times I did think that were for a line delivery that was less cheesy than I had wished, which of course makes sense for the REmakes; the perfect balance of serious and cheese. Leon is grittier and less goofier here, but still knows how to show off and crack some great action movie one-liners. Salazar is played a bit more straight, but is still just as absurd and sneering as his original. Granted, I do miss hearing "MEESTAR KENNEDYYYYYY", but the new version is certainly not a bad replacement. It's more realistic, sure, but not soulless in the slightest. The exact same sentiment stands for the visuals, as well. I feel like too many critical gamers have the belief that photorealism = soullessness, and while I get why such a belief exists, I can't think of a worse game to apply it to than this. It is still just as stylized as the original, with characters all looking incredibly distinct and memorable; not even characters, your guns all look really unique, the different areas do, even basic props still have a very video game-y feel to them while looking fantastic doing so.
Yeah, man, I don't know what else to write here. I've been up all night playing this, and this is just my scribbled out rambling thoughts so I can get back to playing it more. I will leave on a very important thought: I do not think this is better than the original. Similarly, I don't think it's worse, either. I think they are both exceptional action-horror games that have their own great strengths and minor weaknesses. I will probably end up coming back to this version more simply for the gameplay, but that's not necessarily a reflection on quality. The original's level design is still unbeatable, but the new gameplay additions in this version give it an undeniable edge for me. Point is, I don't think we need to hate on one version to praise another. The original is still available to play (unlike RE2 and 3...), and I think this is a fine modern counterpart to it, rather than a full-on replacement. We can like both! Hopefully, that sentiment will begin to ring true in some of this game's detractors. An excellent remake that stands toe-to-toe with the original in nearly every front, and one I'm going to be spending a lot of time with for a very long while.
I guess I'll start with my short list of complaints, which are more like nitpicks, really. The RE2make style aiming is a great way to mimic the classic tank controls, but it does feel a bit restrictive at times, leading to more than a few scenarios of getting hit when you didn't need to, due to having to stand near-perfectly still to aim. I do wish there was some kind of recipe for making a "knife repair kit" on the fly, because while I absolutely love the new knife system, it can be a bit strict on just how much you can use it if you're not careful. Granted, I think this is a deliberate choice, but it's just so fun to use that it's hard not to. Uhm... a couple rooms were removed that I liked from the original? Does kind of bum me out, but not nearly enough for it to matter. Legitimately, maybe my biggest and most wholehearted complaint for this remake is that suplexes no longer explode cultists' heads. Your kicks still explode heads, why not your suplexes???
Nah, I can't do this anymore. Making a remake, as much as some overly critical gamers might disagree with me, is not easy. You change too much, you have people saying it's not the same game. You change too little, you have even more people wondering why it was made. With such a delicate balance in mind, remaking a game like Resident Evil 4 should be like walking a razor's edge; questionable and moderately concerning to everyone watching, even your biggest fans. Capcom, being Capcom, decided to start breakdancing on the razor. Not only do they perfectly understand what made the original so beloved and able to withstand the test of time, they were brave enough to change things up to keep it fresh and prevent it from being a 1:1 remake. Certain sequences are redone, boss fights are added onto while still retaining their original feel, and even the characters have had a good level of polish to them, while still keeping great care to not deviate from their original versions. They didn't make a game that held hands and appealed only to new players, and they didn't make a game mired in nostalgia and self-references that appealed to veterans, they made a game that anyone can pick up and feel like it was their first time playing RE4.
It's always been very hard for me to describe why RE4 works, why it's such a great game, and unfortunately that difficulty has stuck with me, but throughout my entire time playing this, I was constantly shocked at how little I was thinking "the original did this better" or "I don't like this change". Hell, most of the times I did think that were for a line delivery that was less cheesy than I had wished, which of course makes sense for the REmakes; the perfect balance of serious and cheese. Leon is grittier and less goofier here, but still knows how to show off and crack some great action movie one-liners. Salazar is played a bit more straight, but is still just as absurd and sneering as his original. Granted, I do miss hearing "MEESTAR KENNEDYYYYYY", but the new version is certainly not a bad replacement. It's more realistic, sure, but not soulless in the slightest. The exact same sentiment stands for the visuals, as well. I feel like too many critical gamers have the belief that photorealism = soullessness, and while I get why such a belief exists, I can't think of a worse game to apply it to than this. It is still just as stylized as the original, with characters all looking incredibly distinct and memorable; not even characters, your guns all look really unique, the different areas do, even basic props still have a very video game-y feel to them while looking fantastic doing so.
Yeah, man, I don't know what else to write here. I've been up all night playing this, and this is just my scribbled out rambling thoughts so I can get back to playing it more. I will leave on a very important thought: I do not think this is better than the original. Similarly, I don't think it's worse, either. I think they are both exceptional action-horror games that have their own great strengths and minor weaknesses. I will probably end up coming back to this version more simply for the gameplay, but that's not necessarily a reflection on quality. The original's level design is still unbeatable, but the new gameplay additions in this version give it an undeniable edge for me. Point is, I don't think we need to hate on one version to praise another. The original is still available to play (unlike RE2 and 3...), and I think this is a fine modern counterpart to it, rather than a full-on replacement. We can like both! Hopefully, that sentiment will begin to ring true in some of this game's detractors. An excellent remake that stands toe-to-toe with the original in nearly every front, and one I'm going to be spending a lot of time with for a very long while.