Depending on who you are, God of War 2018 is either a bastardized attempt to reinvent the series and its signature perpetually-angry misogynist lead by stripping it from its hack-n-slash roots in favor of a slower, more 'generic' gameplay style, or its the kick in the pants that the franchise needed to shake up its stale formula in lieu of something new with a deliberate, crafted vision and a stronger, more focused narrative. Of course, there are nuances to these viewpoints and the space between them, but generally, these are the loudest extremes you'll find in online discussions about this game.

Personally, I lean further towards the latter, although I can appreciate where the former is coming from. Indeed, Kratos gains a renewed purpose and lease on life in this soft reboot in the form of his plucky, ever-curious son, Atreus, as they journey across Norway together, centuries(?) after Kratos wiped Greece off the map. It's a narrative premise that's easy to be cynical about going into it—trying to make Kratos empathetic by giving him 'dad feels' does come across as a pretty transparent decision from the outset.

However, something I very much appreciate about GoW2018 is that it never really tries to redeem Kratos—it simply tells you who he was, shows you who he is now, and how he interacts with his son and those he meets along their journey together, allowing you to come to your own conclusions about him.

It's a great thing too, since I went into this game back when it was released somewhat bitterly after having just played God of War 3 and seeing a certain moment (if you know, you know) towards the end playout where Kratos pretty much crosses the point of no return as a 'redeemable' character, try as they very much did.

Instead, 2018 is very much Atreus's story, with Kratos playing the stern, powerful mentor who wishes to guide him along a more righteous path than his own. It's simple yet truly compelling storytelling from start to finish. The cast of characters you meet along the way only helps to sell that journey further, with Mimir being my personal favorite, dropping sagely wisdom, weaving tales, and dropping one-liners at appropriate intervals.

Yes, the combat is indeed a slower, more deliberate affair than its hack-n-slash past, appealing less to combo perverts and more to action-RPG fanatics. While it's clearly not a souls-like, it does take some appropriate cues from those games in terms of enemy encounters and combat strategy. It all works extremely well, and you can tell that it's the aspect that took the most time and effort to craft out of all. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you've heard, this does not apply to enemy variety, with generally one new enemy type for each different realm you visit that then gets mixed in with the other ones. It doesn't spoil the experience, and it still keeps you on your toes, sure, but it does start to get a bit too familiar as the game goes on.

What's a bit more of a mixed bag in GoW2018 however, is the game's insistence on being a 'one-take wonder', which is to say that the entire game is made to look as if it's all in one, unbroken shot, with all the pros and cons that could come with such a decision. While yes, I do find that it aids the narrative and helps to sell it as a narrative and thematic 'journey' that the leads are embarking upon, the gameplay also suffers for it somewhat. Namely, fast travel is still fast(er), but it isn't instantaneous and can start to feel tedious, especially if you're grinding side quests.

This decision also means it is privy to frustrating disguised loading screens, such as squeeze-throughs and other less-fun traversal obstacles. Granted, sometimes these are there more to funnel the player into a particular area than load the next one, but in a game with a 'done in one-take' design ethos such as this, it's clear what they're meant for here.

Regardless, God of War 2018 is still a strong reinvention and compelling action-RPG on its own, as it has been since its release. There's room for improvement, for sure, but the foundation they have here is something for Sony Santa Monica to be proud of (as they well are).

9/10

In 2001 the IT guy at my Dad's work loaded the shareware levels for DOOM onto his work laptop for him.
My Dad, excited to show me (at the time only 5 years old) his new toy, proceeded to boot it up, and unceremoniously died to the caged imp on e1m1 - this scene haunted my nightmares for weeks.
The memory of a screaming imp shooting fireballs towards us... of watching the portrait of an unnamed space marine go from bloodied to entirely dead, is forever singed into my brain; and even so I wanted nothing more than to watch him do it again.

Watching my Dad play something with the big scary "R-16" sticker on the box, and subsequently not being able to sleep for weeks following (as also happened with Halo 2) is the sort of thing that seems like it ought to put you off a video game for the rest of your life, but truthfully the allure is much too strong to resist forever.

I never ended up playing through the entire original DOOM - I absolutely loved the re-imagined 2016 reboot, as well as re-re-imagined DOOM: Eternal - but it's only now, scraping through my library for games, seeking those deemed as "worthy of playing on my Steam Deck", that I decided to pick it up.
Technically I'm not nostalgic for DOOM, even though it certainly feels like it - but every level past "Knee-Deep in the Dead" was a brand new experience for me.

At first I played in the middling manner of someone who'd never really played a retro title before - not really looking for secrets, and relying heavily on the shotgun. But around the intermediate levels of "The Shores of Hell" I started to linger, my level time went from close-ish to par, to 5x, 6x. I was actively looking for extra secrets and un-ripped enemies, making sure every room was purged of unscrupulous demon scourge. I'm genuinely surprised at how engaging and exciting this game is. I haven't enjoyed a shooter game this way since I played Wolfenstein: The New Order... Which probably says more about the type of shooter games I play than anything else.

The enemy types, while occasionally thrown at you in repetitive droves, are varied and fun - gradually built up and trickled out across the campaigns. The weapons are fun, and once you learn their strengths, each serve to create a hole you hadn't even realised that cacodemon needed. The level design is, admittedly, quite maze like - as seems to be the major criticism of modern reviews, but I always found them to have a nice flow, and any back tracking was done easily and quickly.... Once I found out about the Map, and embarrassingly, the sprint button.

I will subtract the penultimate level of "Inferno" from that praise, however. That shit took me like 35 minutes and I felt like John Carmack expected me to personally hand draw a personal copy of the map to figure out which teleporters go where. Maybe there was a blank page at the back of the manual for that.

At the time of writing I have yet to finish "Thy Flesh Consumed". I'm currently unable to get past the Baron spawn on e4m1, but once I get through I imagine I'll move straight onto DOOM II.

Might have to iddqd it though.

After the disappointment of Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2, I am very happy that Defiance managed to live up to my expectations, despite some flaws. Unlike previous Kain games, Defiance chooses to focus on both of the series' protagonists at once, alternating between their stories. I think this is to its benefit, switching around makes for a more engaging storyline.

Let's start with the gameplay, which I would say is a mixed bag. Defiance's combat is much more free-flowing than previous games, and resembles something like Devil May Cry (quite presciently, given DMC3 would not come out for two more years). Kain is actually very fun to play, thanks to his Telekinesis' mechanics: At any time you can pick up the enemy you're targeting and toss them in a direction of your choice- into pits, spikes, fires. What's particularly fun is that if the enemy hits you they'll be vulnerable to your attacks, acting as a combo starter/extender. You can hit an enemy into the air, hit them with your air combo, interrupt it and pick them up with TK, throw them against yourself and combo them again all before your feet touch the ground. It's a really clever mechanic that allows for a lot of experimentation and I'm shocked that more games of this genre haven't tried something like it.

The rest of the combat is more by the numbers, but this would be fine if it weren't for two issues. The first one is that Raziel does not have Kain's TK, being instead limited to simple energy blasts, which makes his combat a lot less interesting - The game seems to realize this as his chapters rely more on exploration and puzzle-solving, but they're still mostly combat.

The other is the game fails to live up to its potential in terms of combat encounters. There's few kinds of enemies in the game, and none of them are interesting, running the gamut from common fodder to annoyingly spongey big guy. A lot of people end up feeling burned out by the end and while I wasn't too frustrated, I did feel myself having less fun by the end of the game. Doesn't help that enemies respawn when you leave areas, and one of the late game dungeons will be seeing you do a lot of that.

On that topic, Defiance intersperses mostly simple puzzles in-between the story and combat. The Forges, which were the highlight of Soul Reaver 2, are unfortunately now all extremely simple and formulaic dungeons with roughly identical architecture, appearance and progression. However I did enjoy going through Vorador's mansion, a positively massive dungeon which while a bit frustrating, I thought was quite fun. There's also some platforming to do and unfortunately it all sucks because of the fixed camera. For the rest, not much to say, but nothing awful either. I'd say that's a good breakdown of Defiance's gameplay quality overall, some points of brilliance and some bits of mediocrity. Honestly, I'll take it, all things considered, I had fun!

Presentation is better than it's ever been. Music is good, the game looks great (although unfortunately the all too common Forges are the exception), and the characters' models finally escape the uncanny valley, for the most part. Cutscene and gameplay animation are both great, and I find the game to be quite atmospheric at times.

Now obviously, the real reason anyone would play this game is the story. And I am pleased to finally say that Defiance is my favorite Kain story and easily a worthwhile end to the series. Alternating between Kain and Raziel you get to see both of their journeys slowly escalate to heights never before reached- all of Soul Reaver 1 to 2, and Blood Omen 2 to a degree, were building up to this, and the conclusion is worth it, although maybe a touch sudden. Defiance was not meant to be the last chapter of Kain's story, and that is clear, but at the very least it works as a satisfying ending, and that is enough.

In my Blood Omen 2 log I voiced worry on whether playing through all of these often janky games was worth it, and I'm glad that the answer is yes, yes it was.

[European Portuguese - Nintendo Switch - Dated 10/05/2022]

"Quanto mais joguei e cativado pelo enredo fiquei de Triangle Strategy, mais entendi que a sua excelente história abrangente estava a alterar a minha crítica. É muito fácil deixarmo-nos levar pelo o que há de bom e fechar os olhos a tudo o resto, mas a verdade é que o mais recente título da Square-Enix tem alguns problemas: algumas personagens pouco desenvolvidas, pouco conteúdo fora da história principal, desequilíbrio entre exposição e ação, entre outros referidos na análise. Nem tudo é mau porque chega a ser um RPG tático divertido até certa medida, mais ainda após iniciar New Game Plus com todas as outras rotas por explorar; larga parte dos sistemas em questão também funcionam bem para o que são. É uma recomendação sólida a fazer para qualquer amante do género, só espero que tenham uma estratégia com vista a combater as longas sessões de diálogo."

See more @ https://squared-potato.pt/triangle-strategy-analise/

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is arguably the most Yakuza game since Yakuza 0, but I don't think it managed to surpass that mark.

I won't deny that I started playing the series last year with Like a Dragon in mind, largely because of the sudden boom in popularity. Yakuza 0 was, and still is, the pinnacle of the series. I'm beginning to realize that the reason Like a Dragon became such a fuss is because it showcased the essence of a Yakuza game for people that did not know, rather than being exceptionally high in quality compared to other similars.

The transition from a beat 'em up style to turn-based combat was acceptable, given that it was their first attempt in this genre. However, what bothered me the most was the change in the overall "feel" of the game. Yakuza games have always struck a brilliant balance between a serious and dramatic main storyline and the goofy side content. Unfortunately, the turn-based combat system pushed the goofiness too much into the main story, which didn't work out very well for me.

Surprisingly, the side content turned out to be one of the weakest aspects. The substories were underwhelming, the bond system felt useless, part-time hero is completely garbage, the money-making mini-game was far too easy and quickly became tedious, and I never felt motivated to switch jobs.

In terms of the story, it met the typical Yakuza game expectations, better than average but still pretty ordinary. However, Ichiban is an amazing protagonist, which was a relief after losing Kiryu's spotlight. The party members were okay, not very well developed but charismatic enough.

So, with a lot of mediocre and passable elements, you might wonder why I didn't give it a lower rating. It's because it's a Yakuza game, plain and simple. It delivers what I love most about the series, and after breezing through 60 hours of gameplay, I had fun all the way. I acknowledge that this is not the most objective game review i done from a quality perspective, but I genuinely enjoyed playing it.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon remains an amazing game, and even though I have some concerns about the future of the series, what I've seen of Infinite Wealth shows promising improvements to the issues I had. With better turn-based mechanics and enhanced side content, it seems like we can look forward to a healthy amount of excellent games in the series' future.