ThisIsLeesy
2019
This game has pretty much everything you could want in a game. Having every choice you make matter to your outcome and ending of the game, and on a smaller scale this same principle executed well with the fun and experimental gameplay. Characters that feel real and do a really good job at showing you the toxic aspects of relationships and some of the root causes of these issues. A story that packs a real punch and tackles really hard and difficult questions. A deep atmosphere that is complimented well by the game's incredible soundtrack. And the fact it is all paced exceptionally well for it being a 12 hour game makes Catherine easily one of the best games I've ever played.
2004
Half-life 2 is one of the most well made games I've ever played. It took me a little over 8 hours to beat but it was some of the most fun and enjoyable 8 hours I've ever had while playing a game. Almost every single level in the game adds a new gimmick or weapon and asks the player to go ham with experimentation. It's world is incredible and expanded on the present but lacking story of the first game, as that game mainly focused on the atmosphere and apocalyptic consequences of the black mesa experiment. This game however expands further on the results this experiment caused on the world, as you play as Gordan Freeman and slowly lead a resistance against the mysterious and powerful combine. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give to this game however is the incredible physics engine that make this game up there with some of the greatest of all time. Physics in games has always been a feature I love messing around with, and something that really makes or breaks a sandbox experience to me. While HL1 by no means had a bad physics engine, and was actually quite competent at the time playing that game in the modern era really makes it show it's age. Contrastingly, I never not once in my playthrough of HL2 believed for a micro instant "this game came out in 2004 and it really shows". Whilst playing this game, I firmly believe one of valve's greatest goals with Half Life 2, other than making an incredible game, was to really show off their fancy new source engine, and in that aspect, they fucking knocked it out of the park. Half Life 2, whilst being one of the earliest entries of games made in the source engine, still is one of the best games that utilizes it to it's fullest potential. The movement in this game feels absolutely incredible, doing parkour feels so natural aided by the layouts and level designs complimenting this aspect greatly, especially compared to the first entry. Smashing windows takes off individual chunks that depend on what part you hit off, making me incredibly immersed in this world. The iconic gravity gun is one of my favorite weapons ever added in a video game, and breaking boxes and throwing exploding barrels is still incredibly satisfying.
Half Life 2 in conclusion is by far one of the best games I have ever played, and I can definitely see this game as one that I go back to countless times to experience it's incredible plot and gameplay over and over again.
Half Life 2 in conclusion is by far one of the best games I have ever played, and I can definitely see this game as one that I go back to countless times to experience it's incredible plot and gameplay over and over again.
2024
This review contains spoilers
NOTE: Played this game on PC gamepass and did a max social link run as I beat FES: The Journey shortly before I started reload. Got all achievements and the only request I didn't do was "Beat the Ultimate Adversity" since it was too hard and cbs.
This game lived up and exceeded all my expectations. While I did like the story elements of 3 a lot it didn't connect with me as much as 4 and 5 did, and the gameplay (especially tartarus) took a heavy hit on my enjoyment of the game. I can safely say though that gameplay wise I ran into no annoying issues, and that it is by far my greatest praise to reload.
The gameplay of FES, to put it bluntly, at the best of times is bearable. Not controlling party members isn't my big issue however, as once I realised that if you just don't put them on act freely they have a 90% chance to do what you want them to. No, my biggest issue with FES's gameplay is that tartarus is one of the worst dungeons I have ever played through in my life. It is 250+ floors of fighting the same fucking enemies to the same fucking music (that adds one more midi instrument every 2 months) and make save scumming a necessity since dying puts you all the way back to your last save. It was a miserable experience for me and made me borderline almost drop 3FES completely because of how ass it was. Tartarus in Reload however, is a LARGE improvement. While there is an argument that a lot of the same points against FES tartarus can be made against reload tartarus, the added benefits and features to the gameplay made it 100 times more enjoyable to go through floors in reload compared to FES. For starters, the new battle theme is a great new addition that adds some variety to encounters (although i will say they massacred mass destruction compared to its edition in previous versions of 3). Getting items from breaking pillars for more money at the end of my grind sessions also is a great addition, as it resulted in me needing to grind for money less and also just kept me awake going from point a to b on floors. Fighting enemies and being able to control my party members properly is also a welcome addition, and the new theurgy skills added were fun to experiment with, especially with the skills obtained from party members I obtained later on in the game (ken is my goat). I also found shifting to be really fun and it made experimenting with different party members against different encounters of enemies really fun and enjoyable. My only gripes with combat however is that:
A) it is WAYYYYYYYYY too easy. I played this game on hard and only sturggled on the secret boss and about 2 encounters in monad doors. It wasn't so easy that I could just turn my brain off but i wouldnt be telling the truth if i said at times in between battles and dungeon crawling i would put on a youtube video to illeviate my boredom.
B) You (protag) can only use one weapon type. In FES while I did fucking hate going through tartarus I at least enjoyed trying out all the different weapons on my character to see what worked best for a specific block, and this feature being absent form reload is a bit of a disapointment (although I will say if you could equip different weapon types the game would probably be even easier than it is now).
C) While the game is really easy most of the time, It has some REALLY bad difficulty spikes in tartarus; The main one being the secret boss basically requiring to grind for the reaper (which isn't bad but you become so overlevelled it makes the final boss laughably easy), and a situation where in block 5 I struggled to kill one stronger enemy type (dunno the name but it's weak to piercing use madyne skills and is a massive damage sponge) while the normal enemies were so underlevelled comparatively they ran away from me.
I really liked the story of this game also. Doing the social links I missed out on in my playthrough of this game let me see some really cool conclusions I was thankful I saw (keisuke's arc and hayase off the top of my head rn were great and are some of my fav links in the series). The main story also was amazing, but one aspect I didn't really appreciate too much was that on replay and also with some added cutscenes and dialogue in reload, this game does NOT understand show not tell. The Ryoji reveal scene immediately comes to mind as half of it is just the party repeating to you bar for bar what Ryoji just told you. Another scene that comes to mind after watching some other people's opinions on the game is the intro scene with added dialogue from yukari, and the final scene of tartarus disappering missing a lot of the impact from the original cutscene in FES. Another one i also disliked was a cutscene where takaya admires the original evoker, as it just straight up revealed that him jin and chidori were kirijo test subjects halfway through the game, which took a lot of the impact that came from the reveal in the og game that was honestly one of my favorite twists in the game. I did however really like outside of this the more scenes with strega in this game. I never really got the argument that these guys weren't a prominent enough force in FES and that they didn't have too much screen time, but the added screentime in this game as learning about them more was one of my favourite experiences in FES and Reload (side note: I was spoiled the ending of P3 before beating FES so I cared a lot more about strega since I genuinely didn't know their role in the grand scheme of things).
The music in this game admittely while mostly good, did have some changes that I wasn't too fond of. I loved full moon full life and colour your night a LOT, and the reload version of changing seasons is one of my favorite tracks in a persona game period. However. WHAT DID THEY DO TO MASS DESTRUCTION AND MEMORIES OF THE CITY?! Memories of the city especially. That was one my my favorite tracks in P3 and they just ruined it. There's no higher octive on the piano it sounds so close to something amazing but they just fumbled the bag it pisses me off so much.
Anyways, while I do have a lot of gripes with P3 reload, as it makes some amazing changes with some questionable ones too, it is in no doubt the definitive way to play persona 3 IMO. If I'm ever going to replay persona 3's the journey, it will most likely be this version. With that said however, of the "modern persona games", this is probably my least favorite. It's not that I hate it, but that I simply like the other ones more. This is definitely a must play for this year however and I will be incredibly shocked if this doesn't get nominated for GOTY.
This game lived up and exceeded all my expectations. While I did like the story elements of 3 a lot it didn't connect with me as much as 4 and 5 did, and the gameplay (especially tartarus) took a heavy hit on my enjoyment of the game. I can safely say though that gameplay wise I ran into no annoying issues, and that it is by far my greatest praise to reload.
The gameplay of FES, to put it bluntly, at the best of times is bearable. Not controlling party members isn't my big issue however, as once I realised that if you just don't put them on act freely they have a 90% chance to do what you want them to. No, my biggest issue with FES's gameplay is that tartarus is one of the worst dungeons I have ever played through in my life. It is 250+ floors of fighting the same fucking enemies to the same fucking music (that adds one more midi instrument every 2 months) and make save scumming a necessity since dying puts you all the way back to your last save. It was a miserable experience for me and made me borderline almost drop 3FES completely because of how ass it was. Tartarus in Reload however, is a LARGE improvement. While there is an argument that a lot of the same points against FES tartarus can be made against reload tartarus, the added benefits and features to the gameplay made it 100 times more enjoyable to go through floors in reload compared to FES. For starters, the new battle theme is a great new addition that adds some variety to encounters (although i will say they massacred mass destruction compared to its edition in previous versions of 3). Getting items from breaking pillars for more money at the end of my grind sessions also is a great addition, as it resulted in me needing to grind for money less and also just kept me awake going from point a to b on floors. Fighting enemies and being able to control my party members properly is also a welcome addition, and the new theurgy skills added were fun to experiment with, especially with the skills obtained from party members I obtained later on in the game (ken is my goat). I also found shifting to be really fun and it made experimenting with different party members against different encounters of enemies really fun and enjoyable. My only gripes with combat however is that:
A) it is WAYYYYYYYYY too easy. I played this game on hard and only sturggled on the secret boss and about 2 encounters in monad doors. It wasn't so easy that I could just turn my brain off but i wouldnt be telling the truth if i said at times in between battles and dungeon crawling i would put on a youtube video to illeviate my boredom.
B) You (protag) can only use one weapon type. In FES while I did fucking hate going through tartarus I at least enjoyed trying out all the different weapons on my character to see what worked best for a specific block, and this feature being absent form reload is a bit of a disapointment (although I will say if you could equip different weapon types the game would probably be even easier than it is now).
C) While the game is really easy most of the time, It has some REALLY bad difficulty spikes in tartarus; The main one being the secret boss basically requiring to grind for the reaper (which isn't bad but you become so overlevelled it makes the final boss laughably easy), and a situation where in block 5 I struggled to kill one stronger enemy type (dunno the name but it's weak to piercing use madyne skills and is a massive damage sponge) while the normal enemies were so underlevelled comparatively they ran away from me.
I really liked the story of this game also. Doing the social links I missed out on in my playthrough of this game let me see some really cool conclusions I was thankful I saw (keisuke's arc and hayase off the top of my head rn were great and are some of my fav links in the series). The main story also was amazing, but one aspect I didn't really appreciate too much was that on replay and also with some added cutscenes and dialogue in reload, this game does NOT understand show not tell. The Ryoji reveal scene immediately comes to mind as half of it is just the party repeating to you bar for bar what Ryoji just told you. Another scene that comes to mind after watching some other people's opinions on the game is the intro scene with added dialogue from yukari, and the final scene of tartarus disappering missing a lot of the impact from the original cutscene in FES. Another one i also disliked was a cutscene where takaya admires the original evoker, as it just straight up revealed that him jin and chidori were kirijo test subjects halfway through the game, which took a lot of the impact that came from the reveal in the og game that was honestly one of my favorite twists in the game. I did however really like outside of this the more scenes with strega in this game. I never really got the argument that these guys weren't a prominent enough force in FES and that they didn't have too much screen time, but the added screentime in this game as learning about them more was one of my favourite experiences in FES and Reload (side note: I was spoiled the ending of P3 before beating FES so I cared a lot more about strega since I genuinely didn't know their role in the grand scheme of things).
The music in this game admittely while mostly good, did have some changes that I wasn't too fond of. I loved full moon full life and colour your night a LOT, and the reload version of changing seasons is one of my favorite tracks in a persona game period. However. WHAT DID THEY DO TO MASS DESTRUCTION AND MEMORIES OF THE CITY?! Memories of the city especially. That was one my my favorite tracks in P3 and they just ruined it. There's no higher octive on the piano it sounds so close to something amazing but they just fumbled the bag it pisses me off so much.
Anyways, while I do have a lot of gripes with P3 reload, as it makes some amazing changes with some questionable ones too, it is in no doubt the definitive way to play persona 3 IMO. If I'm ever going to replay persona 3's the journey, it will most likely be this version. With that said however, of the "modern persona games", this is probably my least favorite. It's not that I hate it, but that I simply like the other ones more. This is definitely a must play for this year however and I will be incredibly shocked if this doesn't get nominated for GOTY.
While this game does have some faults (some puzzles are really obtuse and the final boss's gimmick is really annoying), I had a really good experience with MP1R and would highly recommend checking out for it's world and atmosphere alone. Easily some of the best I've seen in a video game
2023
After loving the 100+ hour experience that was red dead 2 I decided to come back to this game as i a) wanted to see john marston's story in the original and b) saw that it had recently been re-released for the ps4 and switch and could easily access this great game without having to go out and look for a physical ps3 or 360 copy of the game.
Almost 14 years later and this game still holds up exceptionally well. From the 3D open world rockstar games I have rolled credits on (everything except gta 4, red dead revolver and bully), I think this game might have perfected the cover system that has been in these games since from what I remember SA. I find the cover system in rockstar games in general to be pretty clunky, with SA barely protecting the player and V and RDR2 struggling to put the player behind any object whatsoever as in those games half the time I pressed the cover button my character would have a 50/50 chance to hide behind a shitty crate or hug the wall. However I never felt that problem in RDR1 as John pretty much went exactly where I wanted him to be, and the cover itself did very good protection allowing me to enjoy finding my opportunities to kill specific enemies in a tough encounter.
I didn't have high expectations of New Austin in this game, as I found it to being laughably underutilized and boring in red dead 2, but this game somehow managed to make traversing an almost completely baron wasteland actually enjoyable, as the stranger missions, gang hideouts and wide range of animals made exploring it extremely rewarding.
I also didn't know what to expect with the story, but was pleasantly surprised by how well it still holds up to today. It made me like RDR2 even more as the mysterious characters like Bill and Dutch in this game were given an opportunity to be developed further in RDR2 and in a way that made going from 2 to 1 feel extremely natural and enjoyable.
I was however spoiled on a couple major events in the story which admittedly did take a hit on my desire to see this game's storyline to the end, but I'm glad I did as it's narrative and characters are very strong and compelling. Aside from John, Bonnie MacFarlane has risen as one of my favourite characters in this universe, Nigel West Dickens and his antics always made me laugh, and the entire mexico saga I believe is one of the strongest chapters I've seen in a rockstar game.
Overall, this game still holds up incredibly well today, and it's re-release on modern systems allows accessing it's great story easy and accessible to all. This is definitely a must play, especially if you enjoyed RDR2, and is certainly in the upper echelon of Rockstar's phenomenal games.
Almost 14 years later and this game still holds up exceptionally well. From the 3D open world rockstar games I have rolled credits on (everything except gta 4, red dead revolver and bully), I think this game might have perfected the cover system that has been in these games since from what I remember SA. I find the cover system in rockstar games in general to be pretty clunky, with SA barely protecting the player and V and RDR2 struggling to put the player behind any object whatsoever as in those games half the time I pressed the cover button my character would have a 50/50 chance to hide behind a shitty crate or hug the wall. However I never felt that problem in RDR1 as John pretty much went exactly where I wanted him to be, and the cover itself did very good protection allowing me to enjoy finding my opportunities to kill specific enemies in a tough encounter.
I didn't have high expectations of New Austin in this game, as I found it to being laughably underutilized and boring in red dead 2, but this game somehow managed to make traversing an almost completely baron wasteland actually enjoyable, as the stranger missions, gang hideouts and wide range of animals made exploring it extremely rewarding.
I also didn't know what to expect with the story, but was pleasantly surprised by how well it still holds up to today. It made me like RDR2 even more as the mysterious characters like Bill and Dutch in this game were given an opportunity to be developed further in RDR2 and in a way that made going from 2 to 1 feel extremely natural and enjoyable.
I was however spoiled on a couple major events in the story which admittedly did take a hit on my desire to see this game's storyline to the end, but I'm glad I did as it's narrative and characters are very strong and compelling. Aside from John, Bonnie MacFarlane has risen as one of my favourite characters in this universe, Nigel West Dickens and his antics always made me laugh, and the entire mexico saga I believe is one of the strongest chapters I've seen in a rockstar game.
Overall, this game still holds up incredibly well today, and it's re-release on modern systems allows accessing it's great story easy and accessible to all. This is definitely a must play, especially if you enjoyed RDR2, and is certainly in the upper echelon of Rockstar's phenomenal games.
2023
This game is reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly good for a soulslike not made by fromsoftware. Normally games like that dont really interest me as I find that fromsoftware soulslikes have a certain vibe and atmosphere that is unmatched compared to other games that take inspiration from that. While Lies of P I wouldn't say matches that fromsoftware level of charm that sets their games above other soulslikes and more broadly action rpgs in general, it comes damn near close and this game has got to be the most underrated and underappreciated games that came out last year for that reason alone.
The combat is this game is amazing and very unique compared to other soulslikes. Parrying in this game feels godly and while I slightly prefer the crunchy deflects of sekiro and the awesome gun parry's of bloodborne, watching an enemy's weapon fucking break after parrying it enough times makes me feel like an actual god. The dodging in this game while it can be a little bit janky at times does definitely get the job done and I really like the feel of it as imo at least it aims to improve on the lock on dash and lock off roll mechanics of bloodborne, and I do think it succeeds in the fact that dashing in bloodborne has a 50/50 chance to actually give me a reasonable amount of iframes compared to this game which I found to be wayyyy more reliable.
The bosses in this game can be a bit hit and miss, and the one on one humanoid fights are laughably easy compared to literally every other boss, maybe except for the giant puppets. But I generally think that the bigger enemy boss fights in this game are executed almost flawlessly, especially the one at the halfway point of the game.
I also liked fighting enemies in this game a lot. Their designs are very unique and I found that mixing together different elements on specific enemies, such as bolt damage on puppets to be a very fun and rewarding experience as I could eventually by the enemy design alone see what specific enemies were elementally weak to.
Overall if you're like me and have hesitated to branch out into other soulslikes made by people outside of fromsoftware, Lies of P is definitely a good starting point and I genuinely believe that it matches the quality of fromsoftware soulslikes and even in some aspects succeeds them, especially if you want a game that has a similar experience to bloodborne and sekiro.
The combat is this game is amazing and very unique compared to other soulslikes. Parrying in this game feels godly and while I slightly prefer the crunchy deflects of sekiro and the awesome gun parry's of bloodborne, watching an enemy's weapon fucking break after parrying it enough times makes me feel like an actual god. The dodging in this game while it can be a little bit janky at times does definitely get the job done and I really like the feel of it as imo at least it aims to improve on the lock on dash and lock off roll mechanics of bloodborne, and I do think it succeeds in the fact that dashing in bloodborne has a 50/50 chance to actually give me a reasonable amount of iframes compared to this game which I found to be wayyyy more reliable.
The bosses in this game can be a bit hit and miss, and the one on one humanoid fights are laughably easy compared to literally every other boss, maybe except for the giant puppets. But I generally think that the bigger enemy boss fights in this game are executed almost flawlessly, especially the one at the halfway point of the game.
I also liked fighting enemies in this game a lot. Their designs are very unique and I found that mixing together different elements on specific enemies, such as bolt damage on puppets to be a very fun and rewarding experience as I could eventually by the enemy design alone see what specific enemies were elementally weak to.
Overall if you're like me and have hesitated to branch out into other soulslikes made by people outside of fromsoftware, Lies of P is definitely a good starting point and I genuinely believe that it matches the quality of fromsoftware soulslikes and even in some aspects succeeds them, especially if you want a game that has a similar experience to bloodborne and sekiro.
1998
While this game has definitely shown its age as some of the puzzles are fucking evil in what you're actually supposed to and made me drop the game many years back, playing through and beating half life has helped me understand why this game was so important for it's time. It's arguably one of the most important games to ever release as it put valve on the map and has as a result given us phenomenal games that have also been incredibly important in shaping the gaming landscape into what it is today. I can appreciate that aspect and despite my gripes with a few of its flaws the gameplay and combat of this game along with it's plot and characters has aged surprisingly well. While I don't see myself coming back to the first half life game too much in the future I can definitely say that it is still worth playing today
While i can appreciate and respect this game a lot for what it did for the persona series and leading to 2 of my favourite games of all time (4 golden and 5 royal), i didn't connect with this game as much as the others. This was mainly due to a lot of aspects that mainly come from this game, which i'll discuss now.
While this is the first game that introduced social links, and the stories themselves are fairly well written with me only really feeling weird about like 2 characters of the whole bunch, my main complaints revolve around features they added to this system in 4, mainly being that outside of fusion bonuses there are no rewards for doing social links, and that i found it annoying that i couldn't do any links with male characters. The second point wasn't too much of an issue in the second half of the game compared to the first because the characters developed more and i liked them a lot more, but this led to me fucking hating junpei from the start of the game until like august of september when his character started to actually develop outside of being jealous of the MC, which made me like him a lot more.
Tartarus fucking sucks. I didn't like the dungeons in 4 coming from 5 as the repetitive nature of the layouts and enemies i found really annoying, but the themes each dungeon had made going through each one at least somewhat bearable. But Tartarus is litterally a giant fuck you tower that repeats the same structure for the entire game. My complaint with this games gameplay is not the fact you can't control party members attacks (as while it is fucking annoying I can at least almost control what they do when fighting enemies and it actually made grinding easier for me as it was almost purely automatic in the end game with my setup basically killing every enemy in 1 or 2 turns), it is that actually bringing myself to go to tartarus outside of getting to the top of a block (which i usually do in the first couple nights i can go) is a damn near impossible feat when I'm essentially just replaying the same fucking levels for 30 minutes or an hour so my party can be like 3 or 4 levels higher than they normally would be.
I will admit that I was spoiled major points specifically relating to the ending of the game, which also factored into me not caring for the story probably as much as I would have going blind into it, but the side narratives of the story because of this I found to be extremely compelling and I really appreciated seeing the growth of characters over the course of the game.
There are some other nitpicky things about this game that rubbed me a bit the wrong way, but all of these mainly boil down to complaints that the other persona games did better in later entries.
Overall while I did like The Journey of persona 3, I will probably never ever in a bagillion years play through it on fes ever again, and this has made me more than ever interested and excited to play through reload as I feel that a lot of the problems I have with this game will be fixed there.
While this is the first game that introduced social links, and the stories themselves are fairly well written with me only really feeling weird about like 2 characters of the whole bunch, my main complaints revolve around features they added to this system in 4, mainly being that outside of fusion bonuses there are no rewards for doing social links, and that i found it annoying that i couldn't do any links with male characters. The second point wasn't too much of an issue in the second half of the game compared to the first because the characters developed more and i liked them a lot more, but this led to me fucking hating junpei from the start of the game until like august of september when his character started to actually develop outside of being jealous of the MC, which made me like him a lot more.
Tartarus fucking sucks. I didn't like the dungeons in 4 coming from 5 as the repetitive nature of the layouts and enemies i found really annoying, but the themes each dungeon had made going through each one at least somewhat bearable. But Tartarus is litterally a giant fuck you tower that repeats the same structure for the entire game. My complaint with this games gameplay is not the fact you can't control party members attacks (as while it is fucking annoying I can at least almost control what they do when fighting enemies and it actually made grinding easier for me as it was almost purely automatic in the end game with my setup basically killing every enemy in 1 or 2 turns), it is that actually bringing myself to go to tartarus outside of getting to the top of a block (which i usually do in the first couple nights i can go) is a damn near impossible feat when I'm essentially just replaying the same fucking levels for 30 minutes or an hour so my party can be like 3 or 4 levels higher than they normally would be.
I will admit that I was spoiled major points specifically relating to the ending of the game, which also factored into me not caring for the story probably as much as I would have going blind into it, but the side narratives of the story because of this I found to be extremely compelling and I really appreciated seeing the growth of characters over the course of the game.
There are some other nitpicky things about this game that rubbed me a bit the wrong way, but all of these mainly boil down to complaints that the other persona games did better in later entries.
Overall while I did like The Journey of persona 3, I will probably never ever in a bagillion years play through it on fes ever again, and this has made me more than ever interested and excited to play through reload as I feel that a lot of the problems I have with this game will be fixed there.
2016
While some of the boss mechanics can be really fucking annoying to learn and play at times, the combat of this game is really well done and shines high as this game's greatest quality. The story also is quite good and the characters of this game are interesting to learn about. There are some annoying difficulty spikes in between phases of boss battles which I struggled learning and adjusting to at first but this is mainly related to my issues with bullet hell games, and outside of this the difficulty is relatively manageable but challenging. Definitely recommend picking up if it's on sale, as it was a fun experience learning and mastering this game's unique combat style. The music in this game is great too.
Playing the first mission after suffering through DMC2 twice for both campaigns is the biggest jump in quality I've ever seen from a direct sequel of a game. This is the actual definition of a perfectly paced action game. The story is incredible and learning about vergil arkham lady and especially dante was an amazing experience I think everyone should have once in their life. The combat in this game is really only rivaled by later games in the series, and even then it is just phenominal. The hardest choice I ever had to make in this game was choosing what weapon I wanted to use for each mission, as they all have their own unique qualities and benefits for every mission. The new style system is also amazing, with 4 and later 6 different options that all have the benefits and weaknesses making the game infinitely replayable, especially with the challenge of higher difficulties. There are really only 2 faults in this game and that is that some of the enemies are really fucking annoying to fight and one of the bosses is just ass but apart from that this game holds up incredibly well today. This game has easily crept up to be one of my favourites not just in the action game genre, but of all time, and is a must play especially in this day and age just to see why it gained its reputation that it did.
2012
I have done 2 playthroughs of this game so far, one with dante and lucia, and with all of that knowledge I believe that this game's a tad bit overhated.
Does the combat suck? yes, removing delay based combat is one of the worst moves this game did.
Do the bosses suck? yes, Infested chopper the fish in the lucia disk and pretty much every single boss except for the VERY final boss's second phase for dante (which i did like) is either boringly forgettable or just awful.
Does the music suck? not necessarily, but it is incredibly forgettable and I've never gone back to ANY individual track on spotify or youtube.
Other complaints I have are that the enemy names are completely useless (they litterally mean nothing and are just bland filler words that make no sense), DT guns literally mow down any enemy or boss in SECONDS, the game's difficulty is laughably easy except for some annoying spikes in the second half, the story sucks, while some people like it dante's fit is NOT it (the black and red do not mesh well with how he wears it), the story is bland and this is coupled with a laughably bad main villain, the style meter words went from making sense in the first game to just random ass words the dev team thought of (WHY IS THE PHRASE FOR D "Dont Worry" WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE WORRYING), skill upgrades have been changed with weapon upgrades which litterally do nothing except make the weapons slightly more powerful, along with weapons just being shitty reskins on the basic sword with either more damage but less range or less damage but more range, and the world building and level design is all over the place, with the game mainly making one big open room to fight enemies in (or just run past if u dont want to fight them) after another, until you either mission end or fight a boss.
The game is by all means a complete downgrade
With all of that said though,
running up walls is kinda fun.
i like the final boss for dante.
lucia's devil trigger design looks neat.
the boss "orangguerra" has a funny name.
In conclusion, I think everybody needs to play this game just to be reminded of what a bad video game actually is.
Also playing 3 after this is probably the best jump in quality i've ever seen from a direct sequel
Does the combat suck? yes, removing delay based combat is one of the worst moves this game did.
Do the bosses suck? yes, Infested chopper the fish in the lucia disk and pretty much every single boss except for the VERY final boss's second phase for dante (which i did like) is either boringly forgettable or just awful.
Does the music suck? not necessarily, but it is incredibly forgettable and I've never gone back to ANY individual track on spotify or youtube.
Other complaints I have are that the enemy names are completely useless (they litterally mean nothing and are just bland filler words that make no sense), DT guns literally mow down any enemy or boss in SECONDS, the game's difficulty is laughably easy except for some annoying spikes in the second half, the story sucks, while some people like it dante's fit is NOT it (the black and red do not mesh well with how he wears it), the story is bland and this is coupled with a laughably bad main villain, the style meter words went from making sense in the first game to just random ass words the dev team thought of (WHY IS THE PHRASE FOR D "Dont Worry" WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE WORRYING), skill upgrades have been changed with weapon upgrades which litterally do nothing except make the weapons slightly more powerful, along with weapons just being shitty reskins on the basic sword with either more damage but less range or less damage but more range, and the world building and level design is all over the place, with the game mainly making one big open room to fight enemies in (or just run past if u dont want to fight them) after another, until you either mission end or fight a boss.
The game is by all means a complete downgrade
With all of that said though,
running up walls is kinda fun.
i like the final boss for dante.
lucia's devil trigger design looks neat.
the boss "orangguerra" has a funny name.
In conclusion, I think everybody needs to play this game just to be reminded of what a bad video game actually is.
Also playing 3 after this is probably the best jump in quality i've ever seen from a direct sequel
2001
This review contains spoilers
Played the HD version of this game. This game was my introduction to the DMC franchise and I hold it dear to my heart, as I believe that its combat systems hold up so incredibly well to this day. While there are some parts that didn't age as well (nightmare and mundus fights), nelo angelo and many of the enemies in this game are just so fun to play and fight against. The 2 weapons you have access to also are amazing to use and unlocking their skills was a really fun motivator to keep playing the game, along with finishing it off in general. It holds up incredibly today and would highly recommend checking this game out just to experience its influence and the progression from the series as a whole
2016
The movement is probably the best I've seen at least in any multiplayer shooter I've played. The campaign is surprisingly well thought out and good too. Weapons are fun and varied and the loadouts for titans was fun to customize and mix together. Highly recommend picking up even for the campaign, especially if you're a fan of apex doom or other movement shooters
2015
Great and fun game to kill time alone or with friends. Mechanics are fun and story is passable. Enemy encounters and boss fights are also fun. I also enjoyed its parody elements a lot. Would recommend but not much to get out of it after beating its main campaign, which takes around 6-7 hours
2020
I miss games that had a mid story but fun gameplay ;(