ThumbsMckenzie
BACKER
2023
An amalgamation of various game genres that just doesn't land anything in a way that feels fun or interesting to play.
Part rhythm based game, part rpg turn based game, part beat em up as well I guess? On paper, it's an interesting combination of different elements. All of which feel very surface level without much development behind them.
If this game was short and sweet, that wouldn't be a big deal but this game took me well over 20 hours to beat so this type of surface level gameplay gets so old so fast.
On top of it, the game has a lot of bugs. When I originally downloaded the game I was unable to open up the first rhythm game which is vital to open up a door in order to proceed. I had to play a lot of this game streaming it via cloud, which when you are a rhythm based game, does not feel great with some delay. This eventually went away and I was able to play it downloaded but there were other issues as well unfortunately.
On top of it, the hit detection on this game is bad. I'd be right next to something on the main stage, trying to attack boxes that were in my way to clear them, but I would oftentimes be considered too far to destroy them, even though my perspective said otherwise. Same with climbing up stairs or avoiding things, it just muddles the experience as a whole.
The main stage traversing in general has a ton of frustration with it. You constantly have things trying to attack you, unfortunately a lot of these things are just random projectiles that you just can't get rid of. When you get hit with these things you will take damage, which isn't actually that bad, the biggest issue with it though is that any time you do get hit from one of these things, you fall down and stop moving for a brief period of time. So you are constantly having to battle with the controls, hoping you're not clipping something and stop moving, hoping you don't hit something so you stop moving, it just gets so tiresome taking a few steps, getting hit, stopping, taking a few more, getting hit, stopping, etc, etc. It just feels like padding to make the game take longer.
There's a lot of that feeling throughout this game too unfortunately. The game feels like it's on the cusp of wrapping up twice before it actually does. The story isn't all that engaging or interesting too so this extension of the game and the story isn't all that rewarding and just feels like a way to make the game longer. Hell, this game uses the "fight the bad guys you fought to get here before fighting the final boss" trope TWICE.
The general turn based battling is nothing to write home about. It's serviceable but if you are not a fan of turn based type games, this is not going to convince you otherwise.
The music is solid and the guitar riffs are neat. The biggest issue is once again, this game is too long so the riffs you play to do special attacks sound good at first but quickly wear out your welcome when you're doing them over and over and over and over.
The style and art are nice as well but none of the things this game possesses as pros are enough for me to say its worth trying in the end.
Part rhythm based game, part rpg turn based game, part beat em up as well I guess? On paper, it's an interesting combination of different elements. All of which feel very surface level without much development behind them.
If this game was short and sweet, that wouldn't be a big deal but this game took me well over 20 hours to beat so this type of surface level gameplay gets so old so fast.
On top of it, the game has a lot of bugs. When I originally downloaded the game I was unable to open up the first rhythm game which is vital to open up a door in order to proceed. I had to play a lot of this game streaming it via cloud, which when you are a rhythm based game, does not feel great with some delay. This eventually went away and I was able to play it downloaded but there were other issues as well unfortunately.
On top of it, the hit detection on this game is bad. I'd be right next to something on the main stage, trying to attack boxes that were in my way to clear them, but I would oftentimes be considered too far to destroy them, even though my perspective said otherwise. Same with climbing up stairs or avoiding things, it just muddles the experience as a whole.
The main stage traversing in general has a ton of frustration with it. You constantly have things trying to attack you, unfortunately a lot of these things are just random projectiles that you just can't get rid of. When you get hit with these things you will take damage, which isn't actually that bad, the biggest issue with it though is that any time you do get hit from one of these things, you fall down and stop moving for a brief period of time. So you are constantly having to battle with the controls, hoping you're not clipping something and stop moving, hoping you don't hit something so you stop moving, it just gets so tiresome taking a few steps, getting hit, stopping, taking a few more, getting hit, stopping, etc, etc. It just feels like padding to make the game take longer.
There's a lot of that feeling throughout this game too unfortunately. The game feels like it's on the cusp of wrapping up twice before it actually does. The story isn't all that engaging or interesting too so this extension of the game and the story isn't all that rewarding and just feels like a way to make the game longer. Hell, this game uses the "fight the bad guys you fought to get here before fighting the final boss" trope TWICE.
The general turn based battling is nothing to write home about. It's serviceable but if you are not a fan of turn based type games, this is not going to convince you otherwise.
The music is solid and the guitar riffs are neat. The biggest issue is once again, this game is too long so the riffs you play to do special attacks sound good at first but quickly wear out your welcome when you're doing them over and over and over and over.
The style and art are nice as well but none of the things this game possesses as pros are enough for me to say its worth trying in the end.
2014
I kinda hated this but also kinda loved everything about it?
Overall a really great game with a ton of great potential to build upon in the future. The open world aspects really work with this franchise much more than I anticipated. The story, the world and a lot of the characters are super interesting and fun to explore. A lot of the controls are setup in a very fluid and easy-to-handle way when you need to be swapping things out in battle. Overall there's a lot to love about this game.
The camera, the lock on mechanics though hold this game back a bit for me. Both I think are pretty bad. Some of the dungeons and puzzles involved with them are also not all that fun or interesting. I found myself more interested in looking up how to get through it and move on as quickly as possible over trying to really dive deep and figure it out myself. The final area of this game makes up for a lot of those issues though as that area is ripe with areas to explore, secrets to find, and combining a lot of your attacks and tools to get through it all.
Like a lot of Nintendo games, even though the item swapping in battle is nice and fluid, I found a lack of QOL aspects to this game as well. Looking up recipes while cooking is a pain, fast traveling to only temples and towers is nice but not being able fast travel directly into most towns is annoying.
Overall, great game that's just held back in a few areas. The potential for a legendary game though is there in the foundations of this first outing.
The camera, the lock on mechanics though hold this game back a bit for me. Both I think are pretty bad. Some of the dungeons and puzzles involved with them are also not all that fun or interesting. I found myself more interested in looking up how to get through it and move on as quickly as possible over trying to really dive deep and figure it out myself. The final area of this game makes up for a lot of those issues though as that area is ripe with areas to explore, secrets to find, and combining a lot of your attacks and tools to get through it all.
Like a lot of Nintendo games, even though the item swapping in battle is nice and fluid, I found a lack of QOL aspects to this game as well. Looking up recipes while cooking is a pain, fast traveling to only temples and towers is nice but not being able fast travel directly into most towns is annoying.
Overall, great game that's just held back in a few areas. The potential for a legendary game though is there in the foundations of this first outing.
A short and sweet little April Fools release from Sega. A whodunnit on a train finding out who killed Sonic is a wild idea on paper. The end result is a super charming, short and sweet little game that, unfortunately, has a terrible gameplay loop. The only real gameplay involved is the standard ring collecting game. It's tiresome, it's boring, it is what it is.
The game is so short and charming and harmless though, that it's hard to be completely upset about this, since you honestly don't do a ton of it overall. The game is easy as hell on top of it all. If you are a big fan or confused by this idea, it's free (also free!) on Steam as of this writing. Give it a shot, it's a few hours tops and honestly, there's potential in this idea for something longer and more fleshed out, just leave the gameplay loop out of it completely.
The game is so short and charming and harmless though, that it's hard to be completely upset about this, since you honestly don't do a ton of it overall. The game is easy as hell on top of it all. If you are a big fan or confused by this idea, it's free (also free!) on Steam as of this writing. Give it a shot, it's a few hours tops and honestly, there's potential in this idea for something longer and more fleshed out, just leave the gameplay loop out of it completely.
2023
There is so much potential here. The setting, the general style, the level design, it's all so damn good. Then, you play the game, and it all goes to shit.
Atomic Heart is a super frustrating experience from top to bottom, for many reasons. The game starts off so damn good and interesting, transporting you into this super gorgeous, super interesting world, showing things off at first like Bioshock games would do in the past where you're just kinda touring the setting and soaking all the coolness in before things go haywire and things need to be shot.
There are a lot of similarities to me between this game and Bioshock, at least in what this game is attempting to do. Atomic Heart is just a discount version of this in most aspects.
You have weapons to shoot, melee weapons, and weird superpowers at your inventory disposal. You can upgrade both the weapons and the powerups, mixing and matching various equipped items and abilities.
None of the shooting mechanics and abilities feel all that particularly good to use. In order to unlock more weapons you'll have to stumble across blueprints which unlock these weapons in the store. You will then need to get enough random gear in order to build these weapons.
On top of making you work to get these weapons, you also have a limited inventory, so you have limited space to hold these weapons. The inventory system is in the same setup as a Resident Evil 4 style, where you have a certain space limit and certain items take up more space depending on their size so you'll have to balance which weapons to use vs items you'll want to carry. Ammo takes up space on top of it all, just like in RE4 so you're constantly having to balance all of these things.
The similarities actually don't stop there between Atomic Heart and RE4 (yes, I know I just got done comparing it to Bioshock) because in Atomic Heart, you will need to be ultra conservative with ammo because you will go through it constantly.
Melee weapons are your best friend in this game. They don't break or anything so they are very necessary to use in this game. Unfortunately, this drags out a ton of fights since melee weapons do take more time (least this feels the case).
The biggest problem with the guns in the game really isn't the lack of ammo, it's the fact that every enemy in this game is a bullet sponge. These are some of the worst bullet sponge enemies I've seen in a game in quite sometime, it's bad.
Every single gun takes so much ammo to kill something. Boss battles in particular are egregious since every one of them has a health bar so you can see how little your guns do damage wise.
It stretches this game out so much because every battle takes so much time.
On top of that, the game features an open world style setup eventually. But because combat is so bad and takes so long and everything takes so much ammo to kill, trying to explore for secrets is basically a nonstarter. Which means you're missing out on potential blueprints and weapon upgrades.
The last boss of the game literally took every single bullet I had in my inventory, even after I had tried to focus a good amount on my melee attacks and an energy gun, and I still had to finish it off with more melee at the end. It's brutal and not fun since the mechanics aren't fun using.
There are other issues with this game too that I could go into, collecting random items is a pain since they are hiding in every closed shelf, drawer, desk, etc and you have to search them all manually. These bits and pieces are what you use to upgrade weapons too so you need to do it to make things a little easier. There's also the dialogue being cringey, the story not being easy to follow but bonkers from the bits and pieces I could follow, the stealth elements (there's stealth!) being weeeeeak and annoying and so on and so forth.
If this game was just a by the book shooter, with ammo aplenty for you to mow down enemies with, with this setting, the character design, the music, the various levels, this game could've been spectacularly fun. Instead, it's just a massive disappointment.
Atomic Heart is a super frustrating experience from top to bottom, for many reasons. The game starts off so damn good and interesting, transporting you into this super gorgeous, super interesting world, showing things off at first like Bioshock games would do in the past where you're just kinda touring the setting and soaking all the coolness in before things go haywire and things need to be shot.
There are a lot of similarities to me between this game and Bioshock, at least in what this game is attempting to do. Atomic Heart is just a discount version of this in most aspects.
You have weapons to shoot, melee weapons, and weird superpowers at your inventory disposal. You can upgrade both the weapons and the powerups, mixing and matching various equipped items and abilities.
None of the shooting mechanics and abilities feel all that particularly good to use. In order to unlock more weapons you'll have to stumble across blueprints which unlock these weapons in the store. You will then need to get enough random gear in order to build these weapons.
On top of making you work to get these weapons, you also have a limited inventory, so you have limited space to hold these weapons. The inventory system is in the same setup as a Resident Evil 4 style, where you have a certain space limit and certain items take up more space depending on their size so you'll have to balance which weapons to use vs items you'll want to carry. Ammo takes up space on top of it all, just like in RE4 so you're constantly having to balance all of these things.
The similarities actually don't stop there between Atomic Heart and RE4 (yes, I know I just got done comparing it to Bioshock) because in Atomic Heart, you will need to be ultra conservative with ammo because you will go through it constantly.
Melee weapons are your best friend in this game. They don't break or anything so they are very necessary to use in this game. Unfortunately, this drags out a ton of fights since melee weapons do take more time (least this feels the case).
The biggest problem with the guns in the game really isn't the lack of ammo, it's the fact that every enemy in this game is a bullet sponge. These are some of the worst bullet sponge enemies I've seen in a game in quite sometime, it's bad.
Every single gun takes so much ammo to kill something. Boss battles in particular are egregious since every one of them has a health bar so you can see how little your guns do damage wise.
It stretches this game out so much because every battle takes so much time.
On top of that, the game features an open world style setup eventually. But because combat is so bad and takes so long and everything takes so much ammo to kill, trying to explore for secrets is basically a nonstarter. Which means you're missing out on potential blueprints and weapon upgrades.
The last boss of the game literally took every single bullet I had in my inventory, even after I had tried to focus a good amount on my melee attacks and an energy gun, and I still had to finish it off with more melee at the end. It's brutal and not fun since the mechanics aren't fun using.
There are other issues with this game too that I could go into, collecting random items is a pain since they are hiding in every closed shelf, drawer, desk, etc and you have to search them all manually. These bits and pieces are what you use to upgrade weapons too so you need to do it to make things a little easier. There's also the dialogue being cringey, the story not being easy to follow but bonkers from the bits and pieces I could follow, the stealth elements (there's stealth!) being weeeeeak and annoying and so on and so forth.
If this game was just a by the book shooter, with ammo aplenty for you to mow down enemies with, with this setting, the character design, the music, the various levels, this game could've been spectacularly fun. Instead, it's just a massive disappointment.
Overall, a really fun experience. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has its flaws but a solid story with some interesting developments, some fun combat (albeit a bit repetitive at times), and some fun areas to explore make up for some of these issues.
The combat I kinda love? It's pretty simple but the satisfying lightsaber mechanics mixed with the force powers you get at full strength make mixing and matching force + lightsaber combos that can make group killing so damn satisfying. I never quite gelled with the dual lightsaber style you eventually unlock but even that had its moments of fun.
The unfortunate counter to the combat mechanics are the general platforming and exploring aspects to this game. There are platforming sections that are just abysmal to get through. Jumping across some areas, I just would overshoot or undershoot the distance and fall. Luckily you just lose health and can restart right where you started, but it sorta feels like an addition that was added to make up for how shitty the traversing can be at times.
Since you can't fast travel in this game AT ALL and you are constantly having to trek back to your ship in order to leave and travel, you are just hitting these bad sections a bit too consistently.
The game has some secrets and collectibles that are interesting and helpful on every planet. You can unlock skins for your ship, for BD-1 (who is amazing sidekick and has his own unique skills that are great), your costumes, and lightsaber parts. You can also find locations for more stimpacks for healing so searching all parts of a planet and returning to them once you start getting new powers and upgrades is a pretty worthwhile venture.
These changes are not necessary but in a world filled with paid skins and DLC for these kinds of things, the free options in this game are very satisfying to manage and go through.
The cast of characters that go along with you through this journey are all really interesting and without giving much away, the story is not half bad. The final location in particular is just so damn crazy across the board that it probably raises this game to the four stars I've given it. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order certainly has its frustrations but the ride is overall a good time, ending at one hell of a setup for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
The combat I kinda love? It's pretty simple but the satisfying lightsaber mechanics mixed with the force powers you get at full strength make mixing and matching force + lightsaber combos that can make group killing so damn satisfying. I never quite gelled with the dual lightsaber style you eventually unlock but even that had its moments of fun.
The unfortunate counter to the combat mechanics are the general platforming and exploring aspects to this game. There are platforming sections that are just abysmal to get through. Jumping across some areas, I just would overshoot or undershoot the distance and fall. Luckily you just lose health and can restart right where you started, but it sorta feels like an addition that was added to make up for how shitty the traversing can be at times.
Since you can't fast travel in this game AT ALL and you are constantly having to trek back to your ship in order to leave and travel, you are just hitting these bad sections a bit too consistently.
The game has some secrets and collectibles that are interesting and helpful on every planet. You can unlock skins for your ship, for BD-1 (who is amazing sidekick and has his own unique skills that are great), your costumes, and lightsaber parts. You can also find locations for more stimpacks for healing so searching all parts of a planet and returning to them once you start getting new powers and upgrades is a pretty worthwhile venture.
These changes are not necessary but in a world filled with paid skins and DLC for these kinds of things, the free options in this game are very satisfying to manage and go through.
The cast of characters that go along with you through this journey are all really interesting and without giving much away, the story is not half bad. The final location in particular is just so damn crazy across the board that it probably raises this game to the four stars I've given it. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order certainly has its frustrations but the ride is overall a good time, ending at one hell of a setup for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
2022
Another very solid entry from the Polyphony Digital team that just gets bogged down by some poor Microtransaction mechanics and some missing quality of life features. Gran Turismo 7 still sounds incredible and looks incredible and the sleek designs of many of their menus are still so nice, but with Forza existing in the same space, there are parts that are starting to feel dated from this franchise.
2022
I have played many Dark Souls games before so I knew the kind of hard task that I was in store for (to a degree). I've never felt compelled to really keep the fight going. Bloodborne was the most I spent on a game like this, until Elden Ring.
Elden Ring has been complimented to death, and it deserves all of it and more (for the most part). Its scale, it's satisfying combat (even when you are getting absolutely smashed for hours on end), it's world building, the scale (the scale deserves multiple compliments), the secrets. The game never feels like you're near the end of exploring.
Even when you get the crumb of the end game starting, the amount of content between that and the real end game is unbelievable. I thought I was done multiple times, defeating a near-impossible boss that took 100s of runs before finally getting a little luck, only to discover, "there's more, and it's gonna get worse."
The satisfaction of beating those unbeatables, the areas the open up when you're near that end, the effects you choices have on other parts of the already explored world, it's all so interesting even when nearing the end. I put over 170 hours into this game and there's still more for me to do, more for me to kill. These enemies no longer scare me, for I am a God, I fear no man, woman, child, or creature.
Anyway, the combat is very satisfying. When you edge out a roll dodge or a jump at the last second and spring a massive wave of damage at your opponent, it feels damn good. Get surrounded by a plethora of annoying low level bad guys that manage to get you near death, only for you to figure out a way to roll out the way of danger, sneak in a heal, and finish them all off, is so damn satisfying. Getting crushed, still, by wolves because a group of them came out of nowhere and killed your horse, and killed you when you were stunned, while having enough runes to level up once more, is not satisfying and sucks but it's worth it for the highs.
This game makes you paranoid about everything, on purpose. No empty looking room is safe. No empty looking corner with a glowing treasure to pick up is safe. Everything wants to kill you and the game purposely makes it come at you from every unexplored corner. You eventually get used to this hellscape, you don't trust anyone.
Which is interesting for this whole game. There are "bad" guys that will not attack you but because you have been trained to murder anything that doesn't resemble yourself (even that is shaky trust wise) or an NPC usually attacks. But eventually you will discover things that won't and those creatures are the best......unless you accidentally hit one of them, and then they do attack you. It's a risk I sometimes took, unless I wanted more blood. Sometimes you just need more blood.
There are some negatives, definitely. The camera is your enemy way more often than it should. Auto targeting is sometimes awful, and in tandem these two combined can straight up ruin a great run against tough bosses. Especially if those enemy encounters are big. The camera just cannot scale up in a way that doesn't leave you feeling super venerable to things, and since many attacks can one hit kill you, this can be real awful.
The game is also very hands off. It really lines nothing up for you when it comes to many of the items and how the menus and prompts do. It is very "try and see what happens" with a lot. Obviously your play style will dictate what items you give chances to more often than not. There are many items I straight up never touched because they never seemed to go with my build type. I don't want a full on hand holding but it would be nice to get some explanation as to how to setup some of your stuff without so much trial and error and just being left in the dark until you look something up or something else.
Despite these flaws, there are a ton of jaw dropping design choices with areas you explore, there are a ton of jaw dropping bosses that just........do things to make themselves more powerful halfway through a fight or just when you think you've finally beaten them. It never feels severely cheap (every once and a while in the heat of it it def can). It's all wild and brutal and insane. Early on you will face something that rips off a dragon's whole head and use it as a weapon after you've reached a certain level of health. It completely changes strategy on the fly but god, these things are so cool.
The game wants to fuck with you and destroy you. It wants to mentally destroy you. It may have accomplished that with me. I'm still not sure. But God, beating this game was a very satisfying and crazy experience (mostly). I don't know if I will ever touch this game again and beat some of the other, non-main bosses. But I will have this written on my tomb, in blood. Not really though. I am a God now, I will never die.
You will either want to play this already or you don't. This review will probably not change your mind. These games are not for everyone. But for someone who never feels like it's worth sticking through in order to beat these, I beat this one, and I think that's really cool.
Elden Ring has been complimented to death, and it deserves all of it and more (for the most part). Its scale, it's satisfying combat (even when you are getting absolutely smashed for hours on end), it's world building, the scale (the scale deserves multiple compliments), the secrets. The game never feels like you're near the end of exploring.
Even when you get the crumb of the end game starting, the amount of content between that and the real end game is unbelievable. I thought I was done multiple times, defeating a near-impossible boss that took 100s of runs before finally getting a little luck, only to discover, "there's more, and it's gonna get worse."
The satisfaction of beating those unbeatables, the areas the open up when you're near that end, the effects you choices have on other parts of the already explored world, it's all so interesting even when nearing the end. I put over 170 hours into this game and there's still more for me to do, more for me to kill. These enemies no longer scare me, for I am a God, I fear no man, woman, child, or creature.
Anyway, the combat is very satisfying. When you edge out a roll dodge or a jump at the last second and spring a massive wave of damage at your opponent, it feels damn good. Get surrounded by a plethora of annoying low level bad guys that manage to get you near death, only for you to figure out a way to roll out the way of danger, sneak in a heal, and finish them all off, is so damn satisfying. Getting crushed, still, by wolves because a group of them came out of nowhere and killed your horse, and killed you when you were stunned, while having enough runes to level up once more, is not satisfying and sucks but it's worth it for the highs.
This game makes you paranoid about everything, on purpose. No empty looking room is safe. No empty looking corner with a glowing treasure to pick up is safe. Everything wants to kill you and the game purposely makes it come at you from every unexplored corner. You eventually get used to this hellscape, you don't trust anyone.
Which is interesting for this whole game. There are "bad" guys that will not attack you but because you have been trained to murder anything that doesn't resemble yourself (even that is shaky trust wise) or an NPC usually attacks. But eventually you will discover things that won't and those creatures are the best......unless you accidentally hit one of them, and then they do attack you. It's a risk I sometimes took, unless I wanted more blood. Sometimes you just need more blood.
There are some negatives, definitely. The camera is your enemy way more often than it should. Auto targeting is sometimes awful, and in tandem these two combined can straight up ruin a great run against tough bosses. Especially if those enemy encounters are big. The camera just cannot scale up in a way that doesn't leave you feeling super venerable to things, and since many attacks can one hit kill you, this can be real awful.
The game is also very hands off. It really lines nothing up for you when it comes to many of the items and how the menus and prompts do. It is very "try and see what happens" with a lot. Obviously your play style will dictate what items you give chances to more often than not. There are many items I straight up never touched because they never seemed to go with my build type. I don't want a full on hand holding but it would be nice to get some explanation as to how to setup some of your stuff without so much trial and error and just being left in the dark until you look something up or something else.
Despite these flaws, there are a ton of jaw dropping design choices with areas you explore, there are a ton of jaw dropping bosses that just........do things to make themselves more powerful halfway through a fight or just when you think you've finally beaten them. It never feels severely cheap (every once and a while in the heat of it it def can). It's all wild and brutal and insane. Early on you will face something that rips off a dragon's whole head and use it as a weapon after you've reached a certain level of health. It completely changes strategy on the fly but god, these things are so cool.
The game wants to fuck with you and destroy you. It wants to mentally destroy you. It may have accomplished that with me. I'm still not sure. But God, beating this game was a very satisfying and crazy experience (mostly). I don't know if I will ever touch this game again and beat some of the other, non-main bosses. But I will have this written on my tomb, in blood. Not really though. I am a God now, I will never die.
You will either want to play this already or you don't. This review will probably not change your mind. These games are not for everyone. But for someone who never feels like it's worth sticking through in order to beat these, I beat this one, and I think that's really cool.
2023
The game ends with a song from Zwan, what more could you ask for?
Hi-Fi Rush is a dope concept in a sea of devs playing it safe. It doesn't all work for me but the creativity, the fun, and the high concept that never stops does enough to overshadow a lot of those flaws.
If you've been living under a rock, Hi-Fi Rush is a game that is in a constant rhythm. Everything moves to that distinct beat, enemies attack at that beat, you can attack at that beat (for better scores of course, the character even walks in the same rhythm. It's incredibly impressive to have all these things work in tandem with each other.
I found combat to be a bit annoying and tedious at times though, with many enemies being incredibly frustrating to deal with. When everything is weighed in this rhythm, I found there were times when I would be trying to line up that rhythm with my attacks, only for the enemy to run or get out of the way. Sometimes this would result in me constantly having to pull myself back into close range over and over because I would only get a hit or two in before they ran back off.
Some of the platforming aspects didn't quite work for me either, the camera being the main culprit to the issue. I found it difficult to gauge range or when I was underneath things. Since some of the platforming is timed, like when platforms disappear and you have to start over, it would get really annoying to have to try and line things up sloooowly so that I didn't die and have to restart, but since i was going slower, I was still running into the time issue. Some enemy attacks were harder to catch in rhythm too since I'd have a tough time gauging when a range attack was actually hitting me or still a little bit off still.
Again though, the charm of the characters, the music (ZWAN!), the styyyyyyle, the concept, the creativity with bosses and boss battles (even through the frustration) was all a fun time for the most part. It's well worth giving a shot to this game.
Hi-Fi Rush is a dope concept in a sea of devs playing it safe. It doesn't all work for me but the creativity, the fun, and the high concept that never stops does enough to overshadow a lot of those flaws.
If you've been living under a rock, Hi-Fi Rush is a game that is in a constant rhythm. Everything moves to that distinct beat, enemies attack at that beat, you can attack at that beat (for better scores of course, the character even walks in the same rhythm. It's incredibly impressive to have all these things work in tandem with each other.
I found combat to be a bit annoying and tedious at times though, with many enemies being incredibly frustrating to deal with. When everything is weighed in this rhythm, I found there were times when I would be trying to line up that rhythm with my attacks, only for the enemy to run or get out of the way. Sometimes this would result in me constantly having to pull myself back into close range over and over because I would only get a hit or two in before they ran back off.
Some of the platforming aspects didn't quite work for me either, the camera being the main culprit to the issue. I found it difficult to gauge range or when I was underneath things. Since some of the platforming is timed, like when platforms disappear and you have to start over, it would get really annoying to have to try and line things up sloooowly so that I didn't die and have to restart, but since i was going slower, I was still running into the time issue. Some enemy attacks were harder to catch in rhythm too since I'd have a tough time gauging when a range attack was actually hitting me or still a little bit off still.
Again though, the charm of the characters, the music (ZWAN!), the styyyyyyle, the concept, the creativity with bosses and boss battles (even through the frustration) was all a fun time for the most part. It's well worth giving a shot to this game.
Man, what a let down. A great idea on paper, let's take the Yakuza/Like a Dragon universe and move it into a new time period. There are some differences here and there of course, but the general idea should be a slam dunk and unfortunately, it comes up quite short and becomes maybe the worst Yakuza/LaD game in the franchise (excluding Dead Souls).
This game just feels incredibly scaled down from LaD's normal over-the-top nature. I never found much of the heat moves that you normally see to be that impressive. Most of the items around you that are normally grabbable and usable are pretty generic as well. Luckily this game features sword and gun (and a combo of both) fighting styles to help make up some of that.
Unfortunately, these aren't all that fun to play with either. All four fighting styles feature pros and cons to them but quickly you'll realize that the hand to hand is kinda pointless. You do get a weapon you can swap to in this fight style, some of which can be interesting and fun to use but to me, it just never made up for some of the limitations this game felt like it possessed.
The enemies feature a lot of the Yakuza 3 issues of just constant blocking. All four fighting styles do have a guard break attack but some of those had range issues. It also happens so frequently too that some of these moves get so old because you are constantly having to use it to break through for damage.
The gun had moments of being OP which was satisfying and the sword/gun style had some fun crowd control uses. I just wish they went over-the-top with these styles, though I didn't unlock every heat action or move so there might be some I missed out on that are silly and over the top. If they do, I wish they would've better spread those out to make the combat more fun, I might've stuck it out more if I was getting these fun moves, would've probably made the monotony of the combat decrease as well.
The new feature in this game where some of the over-the-top attacks resided was the army/card system. Think Majima Construction type card setup but in Ishin you are able to set these cards up for use in battle. There are a few over the top attacks found here, you can have a Tiger or Bear help you for instance. You can add 3-4 cards to each fighting style all that have different powerups. Some will heal you, some are stat buffs, general attacks, etc. If they are the General in your squad, those also lead to various powerups as well, so placement can be important as well.
In order to use these attacks you'll have to attack in that fighting style in order to build up bars that, when filled, will allow you those abilities during a fight. If you aren't using those styles though, they will stay at the level they were at when you last used that fighting style. I found some of these pretty useful and fun to use but there seemed to be a lot less 'rare' or story character cards then in previous games so rarely strayed from the cards I selected fairly early into using it (this card based thing is not unlocked right away in the game).
I found crafting and upgrading your weapons a bigger grind than in previous Yakuza games and more annoying to deal with. There aren't a ton of super powerful weapons that can easily be found in this game, so you'll be tasked with focusing on crafting to help keep your attacks doing damage as you progress. The weapons are so pricey to make though. You can 'level up' your crafting abilities to help cheapen prices but I always felt like it was barely knocking them down. Since you're having to craft basically everything too, from weapons to armor, you're still spending a good amount.
You can get money in various ways, many that should be familiar to people who have played other games in the franchise. If you like some of the money making ways of other games, you'll probably be able to still go through those means in order to make money. I did grind through my normal ways of making money but because so much was going to crafting, it just felt like a bigger grind in those ways.
The farming side game is kinda neat and easy to use. You can use these items to make food as well, and those cooking games are pretty standard but a nice addition as well. Think Cooking Mama style mini games. The biggest pain with this cooking game though is you have to make every item one by one, there is no ability to cook multiple dishes at the same time. I wouldn't even mind having to do these mini games over and over and over if I could at least choose to make more than one of a dish at one time. These dishes I found were a huge lifesaver too since they provide a good amount of health recovery. The normal medicine and items you can buy in this game always felt pretty underpowered too so I was constantly going back and making dishes.
The other big problem with this game is just traversing in it. If you want to go farm and make dishes, there is only one point on the map that will take you there. You can't even use a taxi to go there directly. So if you're on the other side of the map, you'll have to either walk all the way down to that one singular location or fast travel to it, and the fast travel areas that are set in the game are spread out way too far. So even when you fast travel to the nearest point, you're still having to walk a good amount after that.
The side quests, another Yakuza staple are all a pretty big let down. Another area that feels scaled back from its normal silly and over-the-top nature. You can also make connections/relationships with various people around town, something that has been featured before. These connections though are not all that different from each other. So you'll be constantly giving people dishes or junk or vegetables to slowly build up these meters.
Overall, Like a Dragon: Ishin just feels like a missed opportunity. This setting and the LaD style should be great, but the grind, the lackluster side quests and main story, the slog of battle, and overall lackluster location just made me want to get through this game as quickly as I could. Besides all of this, it looks pretty nice, seeing some of these familiar character in newly imagined ways is neat, seeing some characters that only were featured in one Yakuza game from ages ago was a nice treat as well, it's not all doom and gloom when it comes to this game. It's just that the bar for Like a Dragon games is pretty damn high for me and Like a Dragon: Ishin just doesn't come close to hitting that bar and being as silly and satisfying as the other games in this franchise.
This game just feels incredibly scaled down from LaD's normal over-the-top nature. I never found much of the heat moves that you normally see to be that impressive. Most of the items around you that are normally grabbable and usable are pretty generic as well. Luckily this game features sword and gun (and a combo of both) fighting styles to help make up some of that.
Unfortunately, these aren't all that fun to play with either. All four fighting styles feature pros and cons to them but quickly you'll realize that the hand to hand is kinda pointless. You do get a weapon you can swap to in this fight style, some of which can be interesting and fun to use but to me, it just never made up for some of the limitations this game felt like it possessed.
The enemies feature a lot of the Yakuza 3 issues of just constant blocking. All four fighting styles do have a guard break attack but some of those had range issues. It also happens so frequently too that some of these moves get so old because you are constantly having to use it to break through for damage.
The gun had moments of being OP which was satisfying and the sword/gun style had some fun crowd control uses. I just wish they went over-the-top with these styles, though I didn't unlock every heat action or move so there might be some I missed out on that are silly and over the top. If they do, I wish they would've better spread those out to make the combat more fun, I might've stuck it out more if I was getting these fun moves, would've probably made the monotony of the combat decrease as well.
The new feature in this game where some of the over-the-top attacks resided was the army/card system. Think Majima Construction type card setup but in Ishin you are able to set these cards up for use in battle. There are a few over the top attacks found here, you can have a Tiger or Bear help you for instance. You can add 3-4 cards to each fighting style all that have different powerups. Some will heal you, some are stat buffs, general attacks, etc. If they are the General in your squad, those also lead to various powerups as well, so placement can be important as well.
In order to use these attacks you'll have to attack in that fighting style in order to build up bars that, when filled, will allow you those abilities during a fight. If you aren't using those styles though, they will stay at the level they were at when you last used that fighting style. I found some of these pretty useful and fun to use but there seemed to be a lot less 'rare' or story character cards then in previous games so rarely strayed from the cards I selected fairly early into using it (this card based thing is not unlocked right away in the game).
I found crafting and upgrading your weapons a bigger grind than in previous Yakuza games and more annoying to deal with. There aren't a ton of super powerful weapons that can easily be found in this game, so you'll be tasked with focusing on crafting to help keep your attacks doing damage as you progress. The weapons are so pricey to make though. You can 'level up' your crafting abilities to help cheapen prices but I always felt like it was barely knocking them down. Since you're having to craft basically everything too, from weapons to armor, you're still spending a good amount.
You can get money in various ways, many that should be familiar to people who have played other games in the franchise. If you like some of the money making ways of other games, you'll probably be able to still go through those means in order to make money. I did grind through my normal ways of making money but because so much was going to crafting, it just felt like a bigger grind in those ways.
The farming side game is kinda neat and easy to use. You can use these items to make food as well, and those cooking games are pretty standard but a nice addition as well. Think Cooking Mama style mini games. The biggest pain with this cooking game though is you have to make every item one by one, there is no ability to cook multiple dishes at the same time. I wouldn't even mind having to do these mini games over and over and over if I could at least choose to make more than one of a dish at one time. These dishes I found were a huge lifesaver too since they provide a good amount of health recovery. The normal medicine and items you can buy in this game always felt pretty underpowered too so I was constantly going back and making dishes.
The other big problem with this game is just traversing in it. If you want to go farm and make dishes, there is only one point on the map that will take you there. You can't even use a taxi to go there directly. So if you're on the other side of the map, you'll have to either walk all the way down to that one singular location or fast travel to it, and the fast travel areas that are set in the game are spread out way too far. So even when you fast travel to the nearest point, you're still having to walk a good amount after that.
The side quests, another Yakuza staple are all a pretty big let down. Another area that feels scaled back from its normal silly and over-the-top nature. You can also make connections/relationships with various people around town, something that has been featured before. These connections though are not all that different from each other. So you'll be constantly giving people dishes or junk or vegetables to slowly build up these meters.
Overall, Like a Dragon: Ishin just feels like a missed opportunity. This setting and the LaD style should be great, but the grind, the lackluster side quests and main story, the slog of battle, and overall lackluster location just made me want to get through this game as quickly as I could. Besides all of this, it looks pretty nice, seeing some of these familiar character in newly imagined ways is neat, seeing some characters that only were featured in one Yakuza game from ages ago was a nice treat as well, it's not all doom and gloom when it comes to this game. It's just that the bar for Like a Dragon games is pretty damn high for me and Like a Dragon: Ishin just doesn't come close to hitting that bar and being as silly and satisfying as the other games in this franchise.
2022
A neat idea that unfortunately gets more tedious and frustrating as the game progresses. The general idea for this game is interesting, you play a mute who, with the help of some shady new friends, starts to cheat at card games across all of France.
Cheat successfully, win the hand. Fail to pull off the trick, lose the hand. It's a pretty simple concept and at first the mechanics are fun. The longer you take though and the more suspicious you'll become. The more suspicious you become, the closer you'll become at being called out and lose the game.
It all works relatively nicely, at least at first, but as the game progresses and the tricks and mechanics get more technical (and you have to start remembering even more steps), the more tedious and annoying it all becomes and the less fun it becomes. Near the end of the game I felt like I was tuning a lot of the game out in an effort to just remember the steps I had to do more than anything. It's a bit of a bummer since the game has a nice visual style, solid music, and a nice charm to it. The story is also not half bad, though it does start to become pretty convoluted near the end and the twists are all laid out.
There are multiple endings to this game as well. I'm not sure exactly what changes and effects this game in effort to get these endings since most of the game's story beats are very linear. If you can get this game on a deal, if the general idea intrigues you, I'd recommend it. Maybe the mechanics will click better with others.
Cheat successfully, win the hand. Fail to pull off the trick, lose the hand. It's a pretty simple concept and at first the mechanics are fun. The longer you take though and the more suspicious you'll become. The more suspicious you become, the closer you'll become at being called out and lose the game.
It all works relatively nicely, at least at first, but as the game progresses and the tricks and mechanics get more technical (and you have to start remembering even more steps), the more tedious and annoying it all becomes and the less fun it becomes. Near the end of the game I felt like I was tuning a lot of the game out in an effort to just remember the steps I had to do more than anything. It's a bit of a bummer since the game has a nice visual style, solid music, and a nice charm to it. The story is also not half bad, though it does start to become pretty convoluted near the end and the twists are all laid out.
There are multiple endings to this game as well. I'm not sure exactly what changes and effects this game in effort to get these endings since most of the game's story beats are very linear. If you can get this game on a deal, if the general idea intrigues you, I'd recommend it. Maybe the mechanics will click better with others.
2022
This review contains spoilers
So many incredible moments in this game. Both fights with Thor are incredible and some of the best in action games and overall, the story finishes nicely. A bit too long and playing as Atreus is not my favorite either, but outside of that and a few other nit-picks, the game's scope is still incredible, the voice acting is great, so many of the supporting cast have great moments, and more importantly, the weapons are all so satisfying to use.
2022
The vibes are still in tact for the most part but Somerville is definitely a bit of a step down from what you'd expect from ex-Playdead devs. There are some crazy scenes and the scale can be impressive at times but everything top to bottom is just a little less interesting than Inside and Limbo.
Visual esthetic especially is pretty lacking here compared to some of these other games.
There are also some tough to explore, tough to control areas as well that can be a tad frustrating to deal with. If you liked the Playdead type games though, Somerville will still hit the spot for the most part, given it's short run time as well, it's still a game that can be a chill and harmless weekend playthrough.
Visual esthetic especially is pretty lacking here compared to some of these other games.
There are also some tough to explore, tough to control areas as well that can be a tad frustrating to deal with. If you liked the Playdead type games though, Somerville will still hit the spot for the most part, given it's short run time as well, it's still a game that can be a chill and harmless weekend playthrough.
2021
Impossible to put into words without ruining a lot of the fun. Well worth the money if the game's mythical status has intrigued you.
2022
A game that feels like a poor man's homage to DMC that was developed in 2008, buried, and then discovered in 2022. I don't even think this would've been a good game in 2008 though, it's just so chunky and stiff.
It wants to be over-the-top and arcadey (least this feels intentional), but it is more of a half step in that direction than a full commitment. The action, the attacks, the enemies, their own attacks, it just all feels so toned down. The special attacks all feel the same. The only differences are the ranges on those special attacks and how long they take to charge and use, that's about it. Most of the time I completely forgot to use them.
There's not a whole lot of purpose to any of the attacks in this game. They don't feel good to use, they don't feel easy or fun to chain together. I got through this game mostly just holding down the shoot button and dispose of the waves that were coming at me with my melee attack. Both attacks do enough damage to just about anything, even at a normal difficulty. I didn't try it on anything harder than that so maybe the other attacks are more worthwhile but I just never found any motivation to try and make this game last longer than it already did.
The gameplay does feature an upgrade system like you'd see in games like Bayonetta. You can unlock more generic special attacks and damage/health/range upgrades as well. Those upgrades were pretty noticeable at the very least.
The game does feature a few technical hiccups and some glitches, but honestly, the game was pretty stable outside of a few quirks. The sound mix at the start is very poorly done with the special effects completely drowning out any background music this game features. You can adjust these things in the options, but I've rarely had to do this with a modern game. That being said, the audio isn't anything to write home about in either direction. It's just the same generic bullet sounds and upbeat electronic music.
The story is also so hard to follow and pretty bad from what I was putting together. The entirety of the story is told through load screen text. That's it. There are cutscenes but you won't really be able to put together the things going on just in these sequences.
Despite all of this, I beat this game. It's just so fascinatingly bad in just the right way. The gameplay is so blase that it just washes over you, so it's easy to just shut your brain off and let the bad aspects just keep coming without too much frustration. So maybe play this and there's something better/great about this game that I'm just not picking up on? It's weird, it's bad, it's still kinda weird and bad enough to recommend. But probably don't play this? I dunno, if you're still reading this at this point you should just give it a shot.
It wants to be over-the-top and arcadey (least this feels intentional), but it is more of a half step in that direction than a full commitment. The action, the attacks, the enemies, their own attacks, it just all feels so toned down. The special attacks all feel the same. The only differences are the ranges on those special attacks and how long they take to charge and use, that's about it. Most of the time I completely forgot to use them.
There's not a whole lot of purpose to any of the attacks in this game. They don't feel good to use, they don't feel easy or fun to chain together. I got through this game mostly just holding down the shoot button and dispose of the waves that were coming at me with my melee attack. Both attacks do enough damage to just about anything, even at a normal difficulty. I didn't try it on anything harder than that so maybe the other attacks are more worthwhile but I just never found any motivation to try and make this game last longer than it already did.
The gameplay does feature an upgrade system like you'd see in games like Bayonetta. You can unlock more generic special attacks and damage/health/range upgrades as well. Those upgrades were pretty noticeable at the very least.
The game does feature a few technical hiccups and some glitches, but honestly, the game was pretty stable outside of a few quirks. The sound mix at the start is very poorly done with the special effects completely drowning out any background music this game features. You can adjust these things in the options, but I've rarely had to do this with a modern game. That being said, the audio isn't anything to write home about in either direction. It's just the same generic bullet sounds and upbeat electronic music.
The story is also so hard to follow and pretty bad from what I was putting together. The entirety of the story is told through load screen text. That's it. There are cutscenes but you won't really be able to put together the things going on just in these sequences.
Despite all of this, I beat this game. It's just so fascinatingly bad in just the right way. The gameplay is so blase that it just washes over you, so it's easy to just shut your brain off and let the bad aspects just keep coming without too much frustration. So maybe play this and there's something better/great about this game that I'm just not picking up on? It's weird, it's bad, it's still kinda weird and bad enough to recommend. But probably don't play this? I dunno, if you're still reading this at this point you should just give it a shot.