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The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is TRULY a generational defining video game.
I just want to take a moment to really appreciate my adventurous experience with this game. The size and scale of this game goes above and beyond anything I could’ve ever expected for a sequel to BOTW and with ENDLESS possibilities on how YOU choose to play this game. To its core, TOTK plays pretty much like BOTW but in its own special way. The abilities you can use in this game gives you a lot at your disposal. Recall which is definitely a much needed and useful ability. It saves me time if I accidentally activate or drop a vehicle I made and simply using it for puzzles was so satisfying to find out how to best use this ability. We have Fuse which I believe is a great new addition but it could’ve been better. Fuse lets you combine weapons with just about anything. And due to this you can get VERY creative with weapons that are not only just stronger but can help you out in other ways like attaching a flamethrower on your shield to burn enemies or attaching a rocket to send up into the sky. My problem with this ability is that weapon durability isn’t a factor that improves with Fuse. I wish Nintendo did better on that aspect since like in BOTW I really didn’t like how easily weapons would brake and it would discourage me from using certain weapons. I also didn’t like Fuse with arrows. To me it felt like an afterthought on how I had to scroll through all of my items to fuse my arrows with items. It got frustratingly annoying as I progressed through the game. Ascend is yet another much needed ability that makes it a lot easier to explore the world and it helped me think more carefully on how I should approach situations in this game. And then we have Ultrahand which is by far the greatest idea (my opinion) that Nintendo came up with for this game. This ability allows you to connect objects to each other. With this, you can build ANYTHING. You can build basics stuff like cars, motorcycles, boats, planes etc. and then you can get complex and build giant moving fortresses, you can make giant robots that are shooting lasers or even build your own dragon and make them as complex as you want. This ability only limited by 2 things. 1) The resources you have to build with and 2) Limited by how creative you can be. And with new abilities begins a grand adventure. With most of the world being the same, there’s TONS of new changes made in the land of Hyrule, most of which I couldn’t get to or just didn’t notice. There’s plenty of new enemies and a new variations of enemies we know from BOTW. Combat is still fun as ever and the boss fights in this game are simple but perfectly executed. In BOTW you got powers from the 4 champions. This time you get powers from 5 sages in which these abilities help a lot for combat so make sure you use the best of what you got. You’ll have shrines to complete again which I believe are amazing. Most people will solve these shrines as intended but again, this game just has endless possibilities since you can in fact find your own special way to solve the puzzles in the shines. I am very much so amazed by it. And there’s lot of similar stuff that comes from BOTW like collecting korok seeds, taming and registering horses, upgrading clothing, cooking food etc, some of which add new aspects or changed aspects. And now there are 2 new sections to the map of Hyrule. We have the Depths which is a MASSIVE underground cavern that’s the size of Hyrule’s entire map. The Depths is by far the most challenging part to explore in TOTK. There’s gloom everywhere which will temporarily disable your hearts if you touch it and you can’t get them back unless you go back to the surface, eat specific food, or by teleporting to a lightroot. Not to mention it’s very dark in the Depths. Enemies also poss more of a threat since they’re covered in gloom so keep your guard up. Besides all of that you will explore many ruins and abandoned mines in the Depths all with secrets and treasures to find. You can also infiltrate fortresses that belong to the Yiga Clan. And personally for me, my favorite part of this game are the Sky Islands. Something many people need to consider is don’t underestimate these Sky Islands. Yes, they may be small but most of them are very complex and dense to explore. The way you fly from island is so much fun and dynamic. They offer some of the most fun challenges in the game and I loved it a lot. Before I talk about the story I also want to appreciate how the towers function in this game. It helps me a lot to get around Hyrule to explore.
Honestly though, the biggest flaw for me in TOTK is the story. I don’t hate it, what I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t all that impressed by the story like how I was with BOTW. And don’t get me wrong, TOTK has its moments that really stood out. I honestly wish I did the Tear Memories sooner because it really did make the story a lot more interesting. All voice actors did good on their roles of their characters. There are new characters along with returning ones as well from BOTW. Also, I LOVED Ganon as a villain. His voice actor completely nailed his role and he’s just such a badass villain. Other than that I was pleased by a decent story that I was glad that I didn’t miss, especially during its climatic moments. While I wasn’t a big fan of the story, it’s still a damn good story nonetheless.
Just like my review, I have barely even scratched the surface of the amount of things I can do and see in TOTK. Even now at 120 hours I still have many upgrades to do for my gear and abilities with plenty more to do. TOTK feels like a totally new game that complements BOTW and I wouldn’t say a game of this scale is just a $70 DLC. And for anyone who believes that, I’m not here to say you’re wrong. I’m just here to say that I STRONGLY disagree. BOTW is already a phenomenal game and TOTK is just a masterpiece in its own right despite its flaws that I didn’t like but it was at least tolerable. With all that being said I wonder how Nintendo could possibly top off a game like TOTK.
I just want to take a moment to really appreciate my adventurous experience with this game. The size and scale of this game goes above and beyond anything I could’ve ever expected for a sequel to BOTW and with ENDLESS possibilities on how YOU choose to play this game. To its core, TOTK plays pretty much like BOTW but in its own special way. The abilities you can use in this game gives you a lot at your disposal. Recall which is definitely a much needed and useful ability. It saves me time if I accidentally activate or drop a vehicle I made and simply using it for puzzles was so satisfying to find out how to best use this ability. We have Fuse which I believe is a great new addition but it could’ve been better. Fuse lets you combine weapons with just about anything. And due to this you can get VERY creative with weapons that are not only just stronger but can help you out in other ways like attaching a flamethrower on your shield to burn enemies or attaching a rocket to send up into the sky. My problem with this ability is that weapon durability isn’t a factor that improves with Fuse. I wish Nintendo did better on that aspect since like in BOTW I really didn’t like how easily weapons would brake and it would discourage me from using certain weapons. I also didn’t like Fuse with arrows. To me it felt like an afterthought on how I had to scroll through all of my items to fuse my arrows with items. It got frustratingly annoying as I progressed through the game. Ascend is yet another much needed ability that makes it a lot easier to explore the world and it helped me think more carefully on how I should approach situations in this game. And then we have Ultrahand which is by far the greatest idea (my opinion) that Nintendo came up with for this game. This ability allows you to connect objects to each other. With this, you can build ANYTHING. You can build basics stuff like cars, motorcycles, boats, planes etc. and then you can get complex and build giant moving fortresses, you can make giant robots that are shooting lasers or even build your own dragon and make them as complex as you want. This ability only limited by 2 things. 1) The resources you have to build with and 2) Limited by how creative you can be. And with new abilities begins a grand adventure. With most of the world being the same, there’s TONS of new changes made in the land of Hyrule, most of which I couldn’t get to or just didn’t notice. There’s plenty of new enemies and a new variations of enemies we know from BOTW. Combat is still fun as ever and the boss fights in this game are simple but perfectly executed. In BOTW you got powers from the 4 champions. This time you get powers from 5 sages in which these abilities help a lot for combat so make sure you use the best of what you got. You’ll have shrines to complete again which I believe are amazing. Most people will solve these shrines as intended but again, this game just has endless possibilities since you can in fact find your own special way to solve the puzzles in the shines. I am very much so amazed by it. And there’s lot of similar stuff that comes from BOTW like collecting korok seeds, taming and registering horses, upgrading clothing, cooking food etc, some of which add new aspects or changed aspects. And now there are 2 new sections to the map of Hyrule. We have the Depths which is a MASSIVE underground cavern that’s the size of Hyrule’s entire map. The Depths is by far the most challenging part to explore in TOTK. There’s gloom everywhere which will temporarily disable your hearts if you touch it and you can’t get them back unless you go back to the surface, eat specific food, or by teleporting to a lightroot. Not to mention it’s very dark in the Depths. Enemies also poss more of a threat since they’re covered in gloom so keep your guard up. Besides all of that you will explore many ruins and abandoned mines in the Depths all with secrets and treasures to find. You can also infiltrate fortresses that belong to the Yiga Clan. And personally for me, my favorite part of this game are the Sky Islands. Something many people need to consider is don’t underestimate these Sky Islands. Yes, they may be small but most of them are very complex and dense to explore. The way you fly from island is so much fun and dynamic. They offer some of the most fun challenges in the game and I loved it a lot. Before I talk about the story I also want to appreciate how the towers function in this game. It helps me a lot to get around Hyrule to explore.
Honestly though, the biggest flaw for me in TOTK is the story. I don’t hate it, what I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t all that impressed by the story like how I was with BOTW. And don’t get me wrong, TOTK has its moments that really stood out. I honestly wish I did the Tear Memories sooner because it really did make the story a lot more interesting. All voice actors did good on their roles of their characters. There are new characters along with returning ones as well from BOTW. Also, I LOVED Ganon as a villain. His voice actor completely nailed his role and he’s just such a badass villain. Other than that I was pleased by a decent story that I was glad that I didn’t miss, especially during its climatic moments. While I wasn’t a big fan of the story, it’s still a damn good story nonetheless.
Just like my review, I have barely even scratched the surface of the amount of things I can do and see in TOTK. Even now at 120 hours I still have many upgrades to do for my gear and abilities with plenty more to do. TOTK feels like a totally new game that complements BOTW and I wouldn’t say a game of this scale is just a $70 DLC. And for anyone who believes that, I’m not here to say you’re wrong. I’m just here to say that I STRONGLY disagree. BOTW is already a phenomenal game and TOTK is just a masterpiece in its own right despite its flaws that I didn’t like but it was at least tolerable. With all that being said I wonder how Nintendo could possibly top off a game like TOTK.
Overwatch 2
2022
Don’t walk away from this game… RUN away from this game as fast as you can if you value your time and money.
This game isn’t even a sequel, it’s quite literally the same exact game as the first game but without loot boxes. I liked the first Overwatch when it released but I stopped playing in 2018 since I moved on to other games. When I heard about OW2 with a PvE mode, that was the ONLY reason I was even remotely interested in OW2. And after years of waiting, OW2 releases without a PvE mode only to scrape it months later and it turns out that Blizzard already knew they were going to cancel it before OW2 officially released. So like what in the actual fuck have you been doing these last 4 years beside lying through you teeth? At this point, if your end goal for OW2 was a PvE mode, why even bother making OW2? And of course it’s because you’re greedy for my money, just had to repackage the same game, add “2” on the logo and shove season passes and cosmetics into our faces for RIDICULOUS PRICES!
I’m so sick and tired of your bullshit Blizzard. I held off on making this review just because I was waiting for the PvE mode that never came. The whole point of OW2 was for the PvE mode and then you have the nerve to say “PvE is still a focus moving forward”. Overwatch 2 pretty much is just a game meant to lock content behind paywalls. I just uninstalled OW2 and from now on I will NEVER buy nor play another video game from Blizzard since it will be nothing more but a waste of storage on my consoles. Not only did you lose any trust and faith I had left for you but now Blizzard is one of the best examples on how scum and greed can ruin your franchise. As the years came by you never did get better, you only went downhill and still are because there’s no such thing as “rock bottom” for Blizzard.
This game isn’t even a sequel, it’s quite literally the same exact game as the first game but without loot boxes. I liked the first Overwatch when it released but I stopped playing in 2018 since I moved on to other games. When I heard about OW2 with a PvE mode, that was the ONLY reason I was even remotely interested in OW2. And after years of waiting, OW2 releases without a PvE mode only to scrape it months later and it turns out that Blizzard already knew they were going to cancel it before OW2 officially released. So like what in the actual fuck have you been doing these last 4 years beside lying through you teeth? At this point, if your end goal for OW2 was a PvE mode, why even bother making OW2? And of course it’s because you’re greedy for my money, just had to repackage the same game, add “2” on the logo and shove season passes and cosmetics into our faces for RIDICULOUS PRICES!
I’m so sick and tired of your bullshit Blizzard. I held off on making this review just because I was waiting for the PvE mode that never came. The whole point of OW2 was for the PvE mode and then you have the nerve to say “PvE is still a focus moving forward”. Overwatch 2 pretty much is just a game meant to lock content behind paywalls. I just uninstalled OW2 and from now on I will NEVER buy nor play another video game from Blizzard since it will be nothing more but a waste of storage on my consoles. Not only did you lose any trust and faith I had left for you but now Blizzard is one of the best examples on how scum and greed can ruin your franchise. As the years came by you never did get better, you only went downhill and still are because there’s no such thing as “rock bottom” for Blizzard.
The force is strong with this sequel…
I absolutely love Jedi Fallen Order and am very happy to have finally played Jedi Survivor. Overall, I would say this is mostly the same game as Fallen Order, which isn’t a bad thing if you want more of what Fallen Order had but at the same time Survivor was able to expand from what we were able to do in Fallen Order. We’ll get new abilities to help solve puzzles or more to do with platforming. On the gameplay side, you can now use 5 different stances with your lightsaber that makes it so much fun to experiment with. As my mains, I used Corssguard because it was useful for bigger and tougher enemies and I kept Double Bladed since it was even on offense and defense. Combat was a hell of lot of fun using different stances and if you’re looking for a good challenge, this game may offer that depending on what you’re looking for with combat. There’s enemy variety and the boss fights are full of action and fun to behold. I love the idea of stances but I wish Respawn gave me more reason to use different stances more often. You can upgrade your abilities with a skill tree. Generally the skill trees works like in Fallen Order but this time there are separate individual skill trees to upgrade depending on what you want to upgrade. You can also take customization to whole new level as there is more to change for Cal and BD-1. You can customize your lightsaber like never before and you can get cosmetics to change BD-1’s appearance. Cal can wear many different outfits and hair styles. You’ll find these cosmetics for Cal and BD-1 or for your lightsaber as you explore the planets/moons you visit and unfortunately you can’t customize the Mantis this time. You can also obtain these cosmetics through vendors as you collect shards, pucks or datadisks throughout your journey. You can also trade for perks which you can use to increase your stats for combat. Exploration was as great as Fallen Order. There’s so much to see and explore with tons of exciting action or just chill and relaxing scenery to take in. There’s also a small touch of gardening which was fun to mess around with as you can collect seeds like in Fallen Order. The worlds in Survivor are somewhat bigger and Koboh actually feels semi open world with side quests to do. Some were worth it for fun or at least worth it for decent side stories. Something that makes exploration a little more special are the creatures you can mount and explore with. Now these creatures won’t always be available for you to use but it was fun and amazing while it lasted. The frame rate now runs at a solid 60FPS with small dips in patch 7. Other than that, I had no bugs, crashes, or glitches to speak of in my experience.
There’s mixed opinions on the story, but I loved the story way more than I thought I would. The thing about Fallen Order is that it did great on having a straightforward but epic story with likable and with understandable characters. The plot of Fallen Order is about what the characters NEED to do whereas in Survivor the plot is more about what the characters WANT to do and discovering what they want to do. Because of this, the characters go from being likable to being lovable. Respawn did great on fleshing out their characters and perfectly executed their character development. Cal is definitely one my favorite Jedi now and I love him a lot but definitely still has a lot to learn. Greez is such an amazing, caring and hilarious friend, I’m so glad he’s a character for this story. And man I love Cal and Merrin’s relationship. It not everyday you see a Jedi and a Nightsister hook up besides that time with Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress. Cere is an underdog, she’s an amazing Jedi who shined a lot in this game. I even like Bode and I was very sad in how things had to turn out for him. I don’t even hate Bode, I just hate the path he went down with. The plot and direction for the story itself felt like it was a story made for me, that’s probably the main reason why I loved the story so much for Jedi Survivor. I have a lot to say about the story and what was so great about the character development but for the sake of not making my review any longer, I’ll leave my thoughts on the story at that.
Respawn made an excellent video game that released almost flawless. It gives me reason to keep playing with a lot for me to see and I haven’t seen it all just yet. And with a great story this game really did keep me invested and I loved all the characters whether they were a protagonist or an antagonist. I appreciate the living hell out of Respawn for keeping Star Wars video games alive for me and I will watch their career with great interest!
I absolutely love Jedi Fallen Order and am very happy to have finally played Jedi Survivor. Overall, I would say this is mostly the same game as Fallen Order, which isn’t a bad thing if you want more of what Fallen Order had but at the same time Survivor was able to expand from what we were able to do in Fallen Order. We’ll get new abilities to help solve puzzles or more to do with platforming. On the gameplay side, you can now use 5 different stances with your lightsaber that makes it so much fun to experiment with. As my mains, I used Corssguard because it was useful for bigger and tougher enemies and I kept Double Bladed since it was even on offense and defense. Combat was a hell of lot of fun using different stances and if you’re looking for a good challenge, this game may offer that depending on what you’re looking for with combat. There’s enemy variety and the boss fights are full of action and fun to behold. I love the idea of stances but I wish Respawn gave me more reason to use different stances more often. You can upgrade your abilities with a skill tree. Generally the skill trees works like in Fallen Order but this time there are separate individual skill trees to upgrade depending on what you want to upgrade. You can also take customization to whole new level as there is more to change for Cal and BD-1. You can customize your lightsaber like never before and you can get cosmetics to change BD-1’s appearance. Cal can wear many different outfits and hair styles. You’ll find these cosmetics for Cal and BD-1 or for your lightsaber as you explore the planets/moons you visit and unfortunately you can’t customize the Mantis this time. You can also obtain these cosmetics through vendors as you collect shards, pucks or datadisks throughout your journey. You can also trade for perks which you can use to increase your stats for combat. Exploration was as great as Fallen Order. There’s so much to see and explore with tons of exciting action or just chill and relaxing scenery to take in. There’s also a small touch of gardening which was fun to mess around with as you can collect seeds like in Fallen Order. The worlds in Survivor are somewhat bigger and Koboh actually feels semi open world with side quests to do. Some were worth it for fun or at least worth it for decent side stories. Something that makes exploration a little more special are the creatures you can mount and explore with. Now these creatures won’t always be available for you to use but it was fun and amazing while it lasted. The frame rate now runs at a solid 60FPS with small dips in patch 7. Other than that, I had no bugs, crashes, or glitches to speak of in my experience.
There’s mixed opinions on the story, but I loved the story way more than I thought I would. The thing about Fallen Order is that it did great on having a straightforward but epic story with likable and with understandable characters. The plot of Fallen Order is about what the characters NEED to do whereas in Survivor the plot is more about what the characters WANT to do and discovering what they want to do. Because of this, the characters go from being likable to being lovable. Respawn did great on fleshing out their characters and perfectly executed their character development. Cal is definitely one my favorite Jedi now and I love him a lot but definitely still has a lot to learn. Greez is such an amazing, caring and hilarious friend, I’m so glad he’s a character for this story. And man I love Cal and Merrin’s relationship. It not everyday you see a Jedi and a Nightsister hook up besides that time with Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress. Cere is an underdog, she’s an amazing Jedi who shined a lot in this game. I even like Bode and I was very sad in how things had to turn out for him. I don’t even hate Bode, I just hate the path he went down with. The plot and direction for the story itself felt like it was a story made for me, that’s probably the main reason why I loved the story so much for Jedi Survivor. I have a lot to say about the story and what was so great about the character development but for the sake of not making my review any longer, I’ll leave my thoughts on the story at that.
Respawn made an excellent video game that released almost flawless. It gives me reason to keep playing with a lot for me to see and I haven’t seen it all just yet. And with a great story this game really did keep me invested and I loved all the characters whether they were a protagonist or an antagonist. I appreciate the living hell out of Respawn for keeping Star Wars video games alive for me and I will watch their career with great interest!
Baldur's Gate 3
2020
This is a really cool RPG that I unfortunately will be stepping away from and play again on PC.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an interesting and unique experience. I most definitely can see the appeal to this game but I won’t lie to anyone and more importantly to myself that I wasn’t exactly having the time of my life with this RPG. I want to start off with the dice rolling system. And I’m going going to be straight forward and say that I absolutely hated this system. I really just couldn’t enjoy this game having to rely A LOT on luck. I get the design of this game is supposed to resemble a board game but for a video game I just don’t feel like it worked all that well. Most of the time I felt like the odds were purposely against me and really couldn’t stand it. That especially went for combat since it felt like I struggled to make progress. For choices, it overall wasn’t a big deal but man I would honestly stop playing sometimes just because I got so frustrated. Combat itself isn’t that bad but I feel like the dice rolling system is just a big takeaway for fun for me. Other than that what I did love about combat is the way you can approach combat. I went with a wizard build and I loved all the of magic I could use. And of course the many characters you meet along your journey all have a build of their own in which you should most definitely take advantage of. For instance you can take advantage of environmental hazards like using explosive barrels or destroying the support of a wooden platform to drop enemies to take fall damage. Baldur’s Gate 3 handles combat very well a deserves recognition for it especially for the anyone that loves it with the only downside being that you have to be lucky. Other than that I truly love the rest of this game. Exploration is truly special in Baldur’s Gate 3. You explore some incredible dungeons and caves with VARIOUS different paths. You find all sorts of really cool loot and and secrets that you can obviously miss. Baldur’s Gate 3 SCREAMS “use the the best of what you got” and I appreciate that. I also just love the amount of detail in these environments. I feel like it could’ve been very basic but I the developers were passionate at making this world believable and stunning. And the art style is amazing. I love all the art you can see in loading screens and cutscenes. And easily one of the best aspects of this game are the choices you can make. Each and every last choice feels VERY significant. I never felt like there wasn’t a choice that didn’t matter, and better yet your actions matter as well. It really does feel like there’s endless possibilities and that gives LOTS of replay value for this game. I also just love the side quests, they were so great that they didn’t really feel like side quests because they fit in so well with the main story.
The story is very epic. It has a slow and basic start but when you get to Act 2 the story insanely good. I love all the characters that you meet. You can get along with them if you so choose which also make this RPG incredible. I love how your choices can give your serious consequences that can break the relationships you make with characters. Better yet you can actually use character and leave them for dead. I’m amazed by that since there were characters that I couldn’t get on my team simply because I didn’t know better. Baldur’s Gate 3 does great on have realism with it story telling. And of course you can get romantic with a lot of these characters which I definitely recommend. The story and writing for each character is fantastic and I never really got bored. And that’s all I can really say for the time being since I didn’t finish the story.
Larian Studios deserves all the love and praise they get for Baldur’s Gate 3. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they win GOTY with this one and I can accept that. But honestly I just couldn’t have and even better time due to the fact that I struggled a lot and got pretty stressed during combat especially since it can take time. I’m sure people can say it’s a skill issue and perhaps that’s true. But nonetheless my point is just couldn’t always have the fun the way I wanted and it got to a point where just felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I felt like I lost a lot of time and time is just not something I have the liberty of nowadays. For the time being, I will be letting go of this game and come back to replay later, which is shocking to me because I almost NEVER shelve games. I will one day rewrite this review once I have the time to replay and will restart the game once I get a better PC.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an interesting and unique experience. I most definitely can see the appeal to this game but I won’t lie to anyone and more importantly to myself that I wasn’t exactly having the time of my life with this RPG. I want to start off with the dice rolling system. And I’m going going to be straight forward and say that I absolutely hated this system. I really just couldn’t enjoy this game having to rely A LOT on luck. I get the design of this game is supposed to resemble a board game but for a video game I just don’t feel like it worked all that well. Most of the time I felt like the odds were purposely against me and really couldn’t stand it. That especially went for combat since it felt like I struggled to make progress. For choices, it overall wasn’t a big deal but man I would honestly stop playing sometimes just because I got so frustrated. Combat itself isn’t that bad but I feel like the dice rolling system is just a big takeaway for fun for me. Other than that what I did love about combat is the way you can approach combat. I went with a wizard build and I loved all the of magic I could use. And of course the many characters you meet along your journey all have a build of their own in which you should most definitely take advantage of. For instance you can take advantage of environmental hazards like using explosive barrels or destroying the support of a wooden platform to drop enemies to take fall damage. Baldur’s Gate 3 handles combat very well a deserves recognition for it especially for the anyone that loves it with the only downside being that you have to be lucky. Other than that I truly love the rest of this game. Exploration is truly special in Baldur’s Gate 3. You explore some incredible dungeons and caves with VARIOUS different paths. You find all sorts of really cool loot and and secrets that you can obviously miss. Baldur’s Gate 3 SCREAMS “use the the best of what you got” and I appreciate that. I also just love the amount of detail in these environments. I feel like it could’ve been very basic but I the developers were passionate at making this world believable and stunning. And the art style is amazing. I love all the art you can see in loading screens and cutscenes. And easily one of the best aspects of this game are the choices you can make. Each and every last choice feels VERY significant. I never felt like there wasn’t a choice that didn’t matter, and better yet your actions matter as well. It really does feel like there’s endless possibilities and that gives LOTS of replay value for this game. I also just love the side quests, they were so great that they didn’t really feel like side quests because they fit in so well with the main story.
The story is very epic. It has a slow and basic start but when you get to Act 2 the story insanely good. I love all the characters that you meet. You can get along with them if you so choose which also make this RPG incredible. I love how your choices can give your serious consequences that can break the relationships you make with characters. Better yet you can actually use character and leave them for dead. I’m amazed by that since there were characters that I couldn’t get on my team simply because I didn’t know better. Baldur’s Gate 3 does great on have realism with it story telling. And of course you can get romantic with a lot of these characters which I definitely recommend. The story and writing for each character is fantastic and I never really got bored. And that’s all I can really say for the time being since I didn’t finish the story.
Larian Studios deserves all the love and praise they get for Baldur’s Gate 3. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they win GOTY with this one and I can accept that. But honestly I just couldn’t have and even better time due to the fact that I struggled a lot and got pretty stressed during combat especially since it can take time. I’m sure people can say it’s a skill issue and perhaps that’s true. But nonetheless my point is just couldn’t always have the fun the way I wanted and it got to a point where just felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I felt like I lost a lot of time and time is just not something I have the liberty of nowadays. For the time being, I will be letting go of this game and come back to replay later, which is shocking to me because I almost NEVER shelve games. I will one day rewrite this review once I have the time to replay and will restart the game once I get a better PC.
A great DLC I very much liked but definitely didn’t enjoy this more than the base game.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is my favorite game that released in 2022 for its incredible story, gorgeous world with a beautiful soundtrack. Not to mention that I loved or liked most of the characters. And Future Redeemed manages to match that energy but with flaws. Combat is fun and dynamic as always and I really liked the Affinity Growth system. This system felt like a great differentiation from the class system where you can take on a different classes from other characters in the base game. Affinity Growth allows you to make upgrades in skills where you can make your characters more powerful for their class. One reason I didn’t like this system is because you NEED to find kits or relics around the map to unlock more abilities to upgrade. And unfortunately, you also need kits to unlock more slots to do more attacks or to wear more accessories. In the base game you can unlock these slots by just leveling up which I much rather prefer. I get this is a DLC trying to make it’s gameplay feel different and fresh but I much rather prefer the base game’s functionality. Other than that combat is still solid and fun with a new section to play in Aionios (or rather old section timeline wise) and I just love exploring the worlds in any Xenoblade game. Unfortunately, a lot of quests weren’t that interesting but still fun to do if you’re interested enough to collect items you may need for various reasons later on.
I really liked the story with also having many moments that meant a lot to me, but I did have a few issues with the story in general. I didn’t really like the pacing simply because I feel like it didn’t have enough time to flesh out some characters. I don’t hate Matthew but to me he seemed really uninteresting until the final 2 chapters of the story. And Nikol felt like a very meh character with not much to say. A major factor that contributed to this issue is the amount of spotlight that well loved returning characters such as Rex and Shulk got, they pretty much overshadowed many of the characters in this Expansion. I did love the interactions between Rex and Glimmer and I wish there was more of it than what we got. I also wish the story did more with Na’el considering she joins your team on the final chapter and it sucks there isn’t more to her other than just having the short role of a temporary antagonist. And N becomes a really refreshing character and makes me like him more as an antagonist not just for this Expansion but for the base game story as well. And of course I did love the story I just felt like it could’ve been better on some aspects. I just didn’t have the same attachment to the characters just like how I did for the main characters in the base game.
Many people have said that this Expansion is what the base game should’ve been and I have to say that I strongly disagree with that take. I feel like I may have been a little negative but by all means I really did like Future Redeemed and I did like the mechanics. I just feel like I was hoping to get more of what I loved from the base game and maybe I just should’ve came in to Future Redeemed with a more open mind. But again I don’t hate this DLC since I did have a great time playing it. Moving forward I wonder where the series will go next as this saga comes to an end.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is my favorite game that released in 2022 for its incredible story, gorgeous world with a beautiful soundtrack. Not to mention that I loved or liked most of the characters. And Future Redeemed manages to match that energy but with flaws. Combat is fun and dynamic as always and I really liked the Affinity Growth system. This system felt like a great differentiation from the class system where you can take on a different classes from other characters in the base game. Affinity Growth allows you to make upgrades in skills where you can make your characters more powerful for their class. One reason I didn’t like this system is because you NEED to find kits or relics around the map to unlock more abilities to upgrade. And unfortunately, you also need kits to unlock more slots to do more attacks or to wear more accessories. In the base game you can unlock these slots by just leveling up which I much rather prefer. I get this is a DLC trying to make it’s gameplay feel different and fresh but I much rather prefer the base game’s functionality. Other than that combat is still solid and fun with a new section to play in Aionios (or rather old section timeline wise) and I just love exploring the worlds in any Xenoblade game. Unfortunately, a lot of quests weren’t that interesting but still fun to do if you’re interested enough to collect items you may need for various reasons later on.
I really liked the story with also having many moments that meant a lot to me, but I did have a few issues with the story in general. I didn’t really like the pacing simply because I feel like it didn’t have enough time to flesh out some characters. I don’t hate Matthew but to me he seemed really uninteresting until the final 2 chapters of the story. And Nikol felt like a very meh character with not much to say. A major factor that contributed to this issue is the amount of spotlight that well loved returning characters such as Rex and Shulk got, they pretty much overshadowed many of the characters in this Expansion. I did love the interactions between Rex and Glimmer and I wish there was more of it than what we got. I also wish the story did more with Na’el considering she joins your team on the final chapter and it sucks there isn’t more to her other than just having the short role of a temporary antagonist. And N becomes a really refreshing character and makes me like him more as an antagonist not just for this Expansion but for the base game story as well. And of course I did love the story I just felt like it could’ve been better on some aspects. I just didn’t have the same attachment to the characters just like how I did for the main characters in the base game.
Many people have said that this Expansion is what the base game should’ve been and I have to say that I strongly disagree with that take. I feel like I may have been a little negative but by all means I really did like Future Redeemed and I did like the mechanics. I just feel like I was hoping to get more of what I loved from the base game and maybe I just should’ve came in to Future Redeemed with a more open mind. But again I don’t hate this DLC since I did have a great time playing it. Moving forward I wonder where the series will go next as this saga comes to an end.
Terraria
2011
I honestly didn’t expect much for this game but it was better than I thought.
Terraria is an interesting handled great in some way and questionable in others. I actually started playing Terraria in early 2021 because my best friend kept bugging me to play it with him. Before I even played, I really had no interest whatsoever and it thanks to my friend I was able to have a lot of fun. First off I just want to say I love the soundtrack. It suits the game very well and fits in perfectly with the pixel art style. This is pretty much a survival game where you can build what you want and go out into the world to collect resources to better improve yourself with many caves, secrets and loot to find. All with lots of enemy variety that will can sometimes kill you easily if you’re not prepared. And the boss fight are a great challenge to take on with friends. I also just want to say that I LOVE the amount of different weapons. With will have basic weapons to weapons with unique abilities and some simply just taken from media I love and enjoy. That also goes for clothing as well since I acquired a creeper costume from Minecraft. Exploring cave not knowing what I’ll find most of the time was just incredible and the art style made me get so invested to observe many of the biomes or caves I explore. But even with all of that I did often get boring. For me it just got repetitive after a while and it got to a point where I wouldn’t even play on my own time and that brings us to 2023. I really only played Terraria when my best friend came over and we would also play along with his girlfriend. Something I hated how the cross play is handled. In 2021 I was able to play on my PS5 while my friend played on his mobile phone. Back then it worked fine but today we can’t do that and we eventually started playing on our Switches instead. No idea what the developers did but that felt like a major low blow that they never addressed.
You can even do quests for random characters you’ll meet in the world you generate. It’s fun and all but other than that there isn’t really a story which is fine since not every video game needs a story to be cool like Terraria.
I think Terraria is a chill and fascinating game that executes many of its idea perfectly. The problem is these kinds of games don’t generally appeal since I’m not exactly the most creative gamer out there. I’ll continue to play at least when my friend is around, but this is where I stop generally playing Terraria and consider myself retired from this game.
Terraria is an interesting handled great in some way and questionable in others. I actually started playing Terraria in early 2021 because my best friend kept bugging me to play it with him. Before I even played, I really had no interest whatsoever and it thanks to my friend I was able to have a lot of fun. First off I just want to say I love the soundtrack. It suits the game very well and fits in perfectly with the pixel art style. This is pretty much a survival game where you can build what you want and go out into the world to collect resources to better improve yourself with many caves, secrets and loot to find. All with lots of enemy variety that will can sometimes kill you easily if you’re not prepared. And the boss fight are a great challenge to take on with friends. I also just want to say that I LOVE the amount of different weapons. With will have basic weapons to weapons with unique abilities and some simply just taken from media I love and enjoy. That also goes for clothing as well since I acquired a creeper costume from Minecraft. Exploring cave not knowing what I’ll find most of the time was just incredible and the art style made me get so invested to observe many of the biomes or caves I explore. But even with all of that I did often get boring. For me it just got repetitive after a while and it got to a point where I wouldn’t even play on my own time and that brings us to 2023. I really only played Terraria when my best friend came over and we would also play along with his girlfriend. Something I hated how the cross play is handled. In 2021 I was able to play on my PS5 while my friend played on his mobile phone. Back then it worked fine but today we can’t do that and we eventually started playing on our Switches instead. No idea what the developers did but that felt like a major low blow that they never addressed.
You can even do quests for random characters you’ll meet in the world you generate. It’s fun and all but other than that there isn’t really a story which is fine since not every video game needs a story to be cool like Terraria.
I think Terraria is a chill and fascinating game that executes many of its idea perfectly. The problem is these kinds of games don’t generally appeal since I’m not exactly the most creative gamer out there. I’ll continue to play at least when my friend is around, but this is where I stop generally playing Terraria and consider myself retired from this game.
This is a BIG step in the right direction for 2D Mario games!
2D Mario games are some of the first video games I’ve played with Nintendo and they have a special place in my heart. That being said I actually wasn’t very excited to play this game. Yeah I was interested and knew I was going to enjoy this game before even playing but wow, Nintendo executed a lot of cool ideas perfectly with this new entry to the franchise. To start I just love that you can play as anyone with a decent amount of playable characters. I played as Princess Peach the entire game and it was worth it. It really doesn’t make much of a difference on who you play unless you play as any of the Yoshis or play as Nabbit which I personally don’t recommend playing as them just because it really wasn’t that fun to play as them. Like any Mario game there were new power-ups. My favorite is the bubble flower since it’s very essential to use if you know how to use it properly. We have the Elephant power-up which transforms you to be a really strong elephant that can carry water to use in certain situations and you have the Drill power-up which was my least favorite power-up in the game since I felt like Nintendo didn’t really find many reasons to use them. And of course we have the good old classic Fire Plant that works well with certain enemies as usual. While there aren’t many power-ups in this game there’s a good reason for that. In this game, you instead can use badges which give you a unique ability to use for ANY level and for different situations. This was handled very well since there were times I struggled to get a purple coin and switching badges can be a real game changer. Not to mention it was fun to experiment with these badges if you care enough to do so. In each level you’ll find a Wonder Flower which basically turns the level into a crazy and trippy challenge to collect a Wonder Seed and that’s only if you want to. This added so much random and unexpected fun and really feels so nice, relaxing and cheerful. Throughout the game you go through your levels where you collect 3 purple coins and 1-3 Wonder Seeds and then you’ll have all kinds of dynamic challenges that make you use different badges to earn a Wonder Seed. While I did like most of them, some were pretty frustrating to take on and I ABSOLUTELY didn’t like the KO Arena ones. Every world the moment I got to a KO Arena I honestly didn’t feel like playing anymore and I even wanted to skip them but since I was going for 100% I went ahead did them. I also started another playthrough just to play with 2 other friends and we all had a blast. We messed around and just generally played for fun and it was worth it. Also this some of the best art for any 2D Mario game. I was actually very fascinated by the art style.
Not much to say about the story other than it’s a nice and simple story where Bowser is up to no good. The usual plot for 2D Mario games. It’s a nice story and all but I wasn’t all that impressed by it and really only played to enjoy the gameplay.
Overall, Super Mario Bros Wonder is a solid 4 stars. But because I got to play this with friends and did make this game A LOT more fun I’ll give this one 4.5 stars. Not only is this is some of the most fun I had playing videos games this year but this will definitely be a memorable game that I remember in the future and I absolutely appreciate the new ideas Nintendo tried out for this game.
2D Mario games are some of the first video games I’ve played with Nintendo and they have a special place in my heart. That being said I actually wasn’t very excited to play this game. Yeah I was interested and knew I was going to enjoy this game before even playing but wow, Nintendo executed a lot of cool ideas perfectly with this new entry to the franchise. To start I just love that you can play as anyone with a decent amount of playable characters. I played as Princess Peach the entire game and it was worth it. It really doesn’t make much of a difference on who you play unless you play as any of the Yoshis or play as Nabbit which I personally don’t recommend playing as them just because it really wasn’t that fun to play as them. Like any Mario game there were new power-ups. My favorite is the bubble flower since it’s very essential to use if you know how to use it properly. We have the Elephant power-up which transforms you to be a really strong elephant that can carry water to use in certain situations and you have the Drill power-up which was my least favorite power-up in the game since I felt like Nintendo didn’t really find many reasons to use them. And of course we have the good old classic Fire Plant that works well with certain enemies as usual. While there aren’t many power-ups in this game there’s a good reason for that. In this game, you instead can use badges which give you a unique ability to use for ANY level and for different situations. This was handled very well since there were times I struggled to get a purple coin and switching badges can be a real game changer. Not to mention it was fun to experiment with these badges if you care enough to do so. In each level you’ll find a Wonder Flower which basically turns the level into a crazy and trippy challenge to collect a Wonder Seed and that’s only if you want to. This added so much random and unexpected fun and really feels so nice, relaxing and cheerful. Throughout the game you go through your levels where you collect 3 purple coins and 1-3 Wonder Seeds and then you’ll have all kinds of dynamic challenges that make you use different badges to earn a Wonder Seed. While I did like most of them, some were pretty frustrating to take on and I ABSOLUTELY didn’t like the KO Arena ones. Every world the moment I got to a KO Arena I honestly didn’t feel like playing anymore and I even wanted to skip them but since I was going for 100% I went ahead did them. I also started another playthrough just to play with 2 other friends and we all had a blast. We messed around and just generally played for fun and it was worth it. Also this some of the best art for any 2D Mario game. I was actually very fascinated by the art style.
Not much to say about the story other than it’s a nice and simple story where Bowser is up to no good. The usual plot for 2D Mario games. It’s a nice story and all but I wasn’t all that impressed by it and really only played to enjoy the gameplay.
Overall, Super Mario Bros Wonder is a solid 4 stars. But because I got to play this with friends and did make this game A LOT more fun I’ll give this one 4.5 stars. Not only is this is some of the most fun I had playing videos games this year but this will definitely be a memorable game that I remember in the future and I absolutely appreciate the new ideas Nintendo tried out for this game.
Eternights
2023
Eternights is a solid video game for what it has to offer but deserves better.
This is the type of game that many should really ask themselves if this game is for you. I’ve played many games like this during my high school days and being the big weeb that I was, this game just SCREAMS your typical ecchi anime and I don’t mean that as a bad thing personally. So if you’re expecting this to be like Persona, Eternights is similar but generally does its own thing in comparison to Persona. Eternights isn’t nearly as dense or complex as a Persona game. Eternights has a fairly simple combat system, it’s an action game that tends to make you use your abilities at the right moment but doesn’t stop from using them when you want. You’ll have a skill tree system to upgrade your abilities but it really doesn’t get anymore complex other than that. There are enemy encounters that will challenge you, overall the challenges for me weren’t that difficult but I was still getting enjoyment out of it. You go through dungeons where you fight these enemies and solve puzzles which can be very easy and some will take a bit more thinking. I love the art style of this game. And no it’s not just because it’s anime. The cool thing about art styles and visual views in video games are simply that they can make the world feel more alive and that is something I believe Eternights did a great job executing. The atmosphere and vibrant lighting in this game really just made me love the visuals of this game. And that’s not to say that some visuals were undercooked but not necessarily noticeable. Something I definitely didn’t like were the were the facial animations. Some look really awkward and ridiculous and I wish they worked more on that. And you get a slice of life aspect to this game that I really enjoyed. You get to hang out with characters you can bond with and eventually romance. You can even train with the characters you meet in which you’ll play mini games in order to upgrade your stats for combat. The soundtrack is underappreciated, I found it really cool and relaxing.
Story wise, I had a few mixed opinions. I liked the story and the direction it was heading. It quite literally does have the kind of plot for an anime or manga but I felt like this story was a little too straightforward. For a story I did like, I just feel like there really wasn’t a big climax. When you get near the end of the story and can feel it coming and it’s just over. And that’s not to say the characters aren’t interesting because they are. I really liked Yuna and I thought at one point I would even romance her but Min was more of my kind of girl. For me Min is by far the most brave character in the game. We also Sia who’s very optimistic and we have Yohan who has some of the best voice acting, I just don’t swing that way with dudes, honestly. And we also have Chani who I feel like he redeemed himself to a certain extent and I wish there was more to him than that. We have more characters but they overall don’t have any depth to their characters. They have reason to be in the story but nothing that interesting or deep. It’s overall a basic and generic story. Besides all of that there is a lot of lewd humor for this game that will bother some people. And without saying much about the ending, it at least made sense and gives me closure. Not everyone will feel the same about the ending. So to speak, it’s arguable that this is one of those “opening endings” kind of thing.
Eternights is cool and a solid game and that’s great for a game that only cost me $30, unfortunately it does feel pretty dull at times. While the combat is at least fun it’s rough around the edges. If you’re looking for a short and fun game to play then I highly recommend Eternights but then again, don’t forget to ask yourself if this game really is for you. I can see a DLC or even a sequel for Eternights but even if there isn’t then I’m at least satisfied with the experience I got from Eternights.
This is the type of game that many should really ask themselves if this game is for you. I’ve played many games like this during my high school days and being the big weeb that I was, this game just SCREAMS your typical ecchi anime and I don’t mean that as a bad thing personally. So if you’re expecting this to be like Persona, Eternights is similar but generally does its own thing in comparison to Persona. Eternights isn’t nearly as dense or complex as a Persona game. Eternights has a fairly simple combat system, it’s an action game that tends to make you use your abilities at the right moment but doesn’t stop from using them when you want. You’ll have a skill tree system to upgrade your abilities but it really doesn’t get anymore complex other than that. There are enemy encounters that will challenge you, overall the challenges for me weren’t that difficult but I was still getting enjoyment out of it. You go through dungeons where you fight these enemies and solve puzzles which can be very easy and some will take a bit more thinking. I love the art style of this game. And no it’s not just because it’s anime. The cool thing about art styles and visual views in video games are simply that they can make the world feel more alive and that is something I believe Eternights did a great job executing. The atmosphere and vibrant lighting in this game really just made me love the visuals of this game. And that’s not to say that some visuals were undercooked but not necessarily noticeable. Something I definitely didn’t like were the were the facial animations. Some look really awkward and ridiculous and I wish they worked more on that. And you get a slice of life aspect to this game that I really enjoyed. You get to hang out with characters you can bond with and eventually romance. You can even train with the characters you meet in which you’ll play mini games in order to upgrade your stats for combat. The soundtrack is underappreciated, I found it really cool and relaxing.
Story wise, I had a few mixed opinions. I liked the story and the direction it was heading. It quite literally does have the kind of plot for an anime or manga but I felt like this story was a little too straightforward. For a story I did like, I just feel like there really wasn’t a big climax. When you get near the end of the story and can feel it coming and it’s just over. And that’s not to say the characters aren’t interesting because they are. I really liked Yuna and I thought at one point I would even romance her but Min was more of my kind of girl. For me Min is by far the most brave character in the game. We also Sia who’s very optimistic and we have Yohan who has some of the best voice acting, I just don’t swing that way with dudes, honestly. And we also have Chani who I feel like he redeemed himself to a certain extent and I wish there was more to him than that. We have more characters but they overall don’t have any depth to their characters. They have reason to be in the story but nothing that interesting or deep. It’s overall a basic and generic story. Besides all of that there is a lot of lewd humor for this game that will bother some people. And without saying much about the ending, it at least made sense and gives me closure. Not everyone will feel the same about the ending. So to speak, it’s arguable that this is one of those “opening endings” kind of thing.
Eternights is cool and a solid game and that’s great for a game that only cost me $30, unfortunately it does feel pretty dull at times. While the combat is at least fun it’s rough around the edges. If you’re looking for a short and fun game to play then I highly recommend Eternights but then again, don’t forget to ask yourself if this game really is for you. I can see a DLC or even a sequel for Eternights but even if there isn’t then I’m at least satisfied with the experience I got from Eternights.
Granblue Fantasy Relink is an incredible game that falls short from greatness.
I would say that I’m just a casual fan for Granblue Fantasy and this game truly makes Granblue Fantasy very exciting. I’ve watched the anime and it had okay action, but this game truly feels like it does justice for how amazing the action can be. The visuals and graphics for this game look insanely good. I can tell they put a lot of effort into the art direction. Granblue Fantasy has always had a beautiful and wondrous world. Everything from a vast flow of clouds to its various islands. Something Cygames nailed with GBFR is the exciting adventure. I loved going through different biomes and running through chaos from the many actions sequences you’ll go through. It really did feel like an adventure and that’s something I did appreciate. The combat is well handled, you can choose to play as many characters most of which you unlock by obtaining crewmate cards. You can use up to 4 skills and it’s cool how you can pretty much make everyone in your party as powerful as you want, but of course becoming powerful takes time. Honestly you can go through the story at your own pace. If you’re just here for the story, you can do that but if you want to take the time to do other things to beef yourself up you can do that as well. And that’s where the quest counter comes in. This is where I start to have issues with GBFR. Don’t get me wrong on one hand I do love the quest counter to under take quests. But overall, the quests are just repeats of story missions that you’ve already done which is a bummer to say the least. Other than that they weren’t all that bad considering these quests have certain challenges for you to meet such as beating the quest in a certain amount of time or defeating a certain amount of foes in which you’re ranked based on your performance. There’s also side quests which are a let down in my opinion. Every single side quest is just go fetch or kill a certain enemy quest and it didn’t help that they were SUPER easy to do. Most side quests I accept would already be done before even starting the side quest. It would’ve been really nice to at least get some story telling from those side quest. But where GBFR truly shines is the combat. Every skill, power or advantage is worth looking into to find a play style that best suits you. I played as Charlotta for most of the game since I love her rapid and bright attacks. It really wasn’t until post game that started to play as other characters honestly. And the Boss fights are GODLY! The boss fights have so much chaos and flashy moves that I really just don’t get bored of replaying to fight some these bosses which is an option after you beat the main story. Something I didn’t like about the combat is the lock on system. It’s important to lock on to enemies to get a good hit in but my goodness they way the camera works can make thing difficult not to mention frustrating. As for the post game content, I really don’t have much to say other than is not crucial to play this part of the game. I did it simply because the gameplay is fun and wanted more closure for a certain character.
As for the story, it was a decent one at best. Every single character is likable. Something that definitely made this game worth while is watching the anime before playing because you get to know some of the characters and how they met to become a group. I honestly don’t remember there being a character that I disliked or hated in the story. However, I dare say that Gran felt pretty questionable. I feel like Cygames just didn’t give him much to say and that really took away his personality from the anime. But of course you don’t need to watch the anime like me especially since the Quest Counter provides Fate Episodes which give you a backstory for every playable character. Unfortunately these fate episodes are just a voice over of text with a background shot. It would’ve been nice to actually get some cutscenes from the Fate Episodes. Luckily, every character does get 2 playable quests for the Fate Episodes and it’s probably still worth checking out some of these Fate Episodes just to increase your stats. Other than that the story is still pretty good.
Granblue Fantasy Relink is a worth while video game not just for its incredible gameplay but for its fun adventure. I’m sure Cygames is proud of this project and did for the most part do justice for the world of Granblue Fantasy. I can’t wait to see where the adventure of Gran and Lyria take them next.
I would say that I’m just a casual fan for Granblue Fantasy and this game truly makes Granblue Fantasy very exciting. I’ve watched the anime and it had okay action, but this game truly feels like it does justice for how amazing the action can be. The visuals and graphics for this game look insanely good. I can tell they put a lot of effort into the art direction. Granblue Fantasy has always had a beautiful and wondrous world. Everything from a vast flow of clouds to its various islands. Something Cygames nailed with GBFR is the exciting adventure. I loved going through different biomes and running through chaos from the many actions sequences you’ll go through. It really did feel like an adventure and that’s something I did appreciate. The combat is well handled, you can choose to play as many characters most of which you unlock by obtaining crewmate cards. You can use up to 4 skills and it’s cool how you can pretty much make everyone in your party as powerful as you want, but of course becoming powerful takes time. Honestly you can go through the story at your own pace. If you’re just here for the story, you can do that but if you want to take the time to do other things to beef yourself up you can do that as well. And that’s where the quest counter comes in. This is where I start to have issues with GBFR. Don’t get me wrong on one hand I do love the quest counter to under take quests. But overall, the quests are just repeats of story missions that you’ve already done which is a bummer to say the least. Other than that they weren’t all that bad considering these quests have certain challenges for you to meet such as beating the quest in a certain amount of time or defeating a certain amount of foes in which you’re ranked based on your performance. There’s also side quests which are a let down in my opinion. Every single side quest is just go fetch or kill a certain enemy quest and it didn’t help that they were SUPER easy to do. Most side quests I accept would already be done before even starting the side quest. It would’ve been really nice to at least get some story telling from those side quest. But where GBFR truly shines is the combat. Every skill, power or advantage is worth looking into to find a play style that best suits you. I played as Charlotta for most of the game since I love her rapid and bright attacks. It really wasn’t until post game that started to play as other characters honestly. And the Boss fights are GODLY! The boss fights have so much chaos and flashy moves that I really just don’t get bored of replaying to fight some these bosses which is an option after you beat the main story. Something I didn’t like about the combat is the lock on system. It’s important to lock on to enemies to get a good hit in but my goodness they way the camera works can make thing difficult not to mention frustrating. As for the post game content, I really don’t have much to say other than is not crucial to play this part of the game. I did it simply because the gameplay is fun and wanted more closure for a certain character.
As for the story, it was a decent one at best. Every single character is likable. Something that definitely made this game worth while is watching the anime before playing because you get to know some of the characters and how they met to become a group. I honestly don’t remember there being a character that I disliked or hated in the story. However, I dare say that Gran felt pretty questionable. I feel like Cygames just didn’t give him much to say and that really took away his personality from the anime. But of course you don’t need to watch the anime like me especially since the Quest Counter provides Fate Episodes which give you a backstory for every playable character. Unfortunately these fate episodes are just a voice over of text with a background shot. It would’ve been nice to actually get some cutscenes from the Fate Episodes. Luckily, every character does get 2 playable quests for the Fate Episodes and it’s probably still worth checking out some of these Fate Episodes just to increase your stats. Other than that the story is still pretty good.
Granblue Fantasy Relink is a worth while video game not just for its incredible gameplay but for its fun adventure. I’m sure Cygames is proud of this project and did for the most part do justice for the world of Granblue Fantasy. I can’t wait to see where the adventure of Gran and Lyria take them next.
Thief Gold
1999
Ever since the Black Parade released to marvelous acclaim hitting Moddb’s mod of the year for 2023. I couldn’t help but ask myself “Is Thief good?” In an effort to see if the game holds up, I decided to start with the first installment before I inevitably reach the mod down the road. And I must say after 28 hours on expert difficulty. Thief Gold(Thief 1/T1) by Looking Glass Studio. Is a dark, thrilling, and fulfilling experience in reigniting all the checkmarks I like and love in the stealth realm. And I am glad to be back in the genre once again. From my days in Metal Gear, Syphon Filter & Old Assassin’s Creed.
Originally called Thief: The Dark Project. The gold edition adds three new missions to deepen the plot and five new enemies. Edited original missions with a slew of bug fixes. So this feels like a definitive edition. Although I did have to use several mods I’ll detail later on to bring the game up to modern standards.
The premise is simple and you control a single character Garret who is a master thief. With no special powers whatsoever. His days from being a homeless orphan were discarded long ago since he joined a secret order. Years later he leaves and decides to make it on his own. Delving into the path of thievery without remorse to fulfill his greed for money. He is ambitious, selfish, cynical, and an untraditional protagonist. All qualities I don’t like at all for a main character and yet by the time the end credits are rolling, I am very tempted to head right into the sequel to see what’s next in store for him.
Worldbuilding is subtle, dark, and strangely yet fittingly humorous at times. A mix of middle ages, dark fantasy, and on the cusp of an industrial revolution. With lore dropping from scrolls and conversations between guards during their breaks. Offering vital gossip on the citizenry, complaints of co-workers, and my personal favorite lore stories and convenient tips/hints that may connect to the main cast. A method to reach a previously unassailable location. Secrets will be revealed unintentionally and a good eavesdropper should without hesitation use it to their advantage to maximum effect. G-man will also monologue amongst himself and will at times drop interesting commentary during work. Usually comments like being dumbfounded or witty responses to abrupt changes in objectives. A nice change of pace from the otherwise silence permeating while you lurk in the shadows. Parchment readings and books offer insightful lessons and teachings from the factions of Hammerites and the Pagans. Both believe in their gods in a way bordering unhealthy zealotry and are at odds with one another. The supernatural elements took me by surprise many times. Spells, incantations, and rituals are fitting. Inducing a mystical wonder beyond the medieval. Zombies, ghosts, and malformed supernatural creatures are here to stay. Oh, and bugs like mutated spiders I didn’t think were a threat had me running away once I caught sight of them. Seriously, how can they jump so high and shoot acid!? Machinery such as factories, smelting tools, and items with a steady supply of lava provide their citizenry with new forms of artificial light instead of the traditional natural fire to illuminate surroundings. Creating an interesting level design throughout, a blend of medieval housing full of conventional bricks, wooden planks, and pavement with the power of adopting steel into the surroundings.
Quite ingenious for a stealth-based gameplay approach back in the old days. Erase approaches such as shooting from afar with guns or tasing anyone to oblivion. The game operates on a mission structure. Before a mission starts you are given a briefing of the events prior, a chance to buy equipment using gold earned from a prior mission, and a handy, but vague map. Embarking on a new place in the City at various times. Always looking forward to a new place to see the sightsand steal whatever I can of course. Sometimes your goals will change during an operation. Good o’l no plan survives contact with the enemy is important to keep in mind. Therefore, caution is advised when conducting skullduggery. But hey Garrett has immensely useful tools to help. No stamina gauge when swinging weapons. Innate ability knocking a bow and arrows. The blackjack is easily the #1 most useful weapon. Capable of one-shotting nearly every enemy into blissful unconsciousness. They never get back up despite hours passing by too! You can move them into shadowed areas preventing patrols from encountering them and thus initiating an alarm at a whole base. Arrows dipped in fire, water, gas, and rope are likewise vital in completing a task. Blasting creatures with fire is like launching a missile capable of damaging multiple enemies. Water aids in dousing torches causing the light in room/s to darken and therefore allowing one mistah G to conduct his activities in better stealth mode than dressing up like an orange ninja from a shinobi world. Gas is powerful. No not fart ones, these kinds if launched correctly can take out groups of enemies into dreamland. Vital when being chased by a horde of angry guards…
Additionally, the rope arrow single-handedly changed my whole experience. Making me think outside the box. Reminds me of using the GLOO gun from Prey and applying the weapon to reach places I wouldn’t otherwise be allowed to exploit regular means. The cable, by comparison, allows one to hit any wooden surface dropping a decent length of string. Becoming instantly available for climbing. As a result, you can traverse higher elevations. Furthermore, one can retrieve their shaft if applicable to re-use once again making the tool highly versatile in nearly any sticky situation he’s subjected to. Trust me you’ll need it when you're at a rock and hard place with nearby zombies closing in on your position with nowhere to run except upon checking your surroundings a wooden beam is above. Maybe a handy tool would surely be useful now.
Level design in every assignment is intricate, maze-like, and deep. Displaying an awesome sleight of hand in the dev’s works to craft initially simple environments then suddenly catching me off-guard by transforming into a large several corridors and passageways leading a lost one into a room full of secrets. It is deep and chock full of hidden areas that can be unlocked from levers, switches, and cleverly tucked away corners. Intrinsically linked in the environment. Delivering a cool verticality and thorough ‘puzzle-like’ solving when applicable. The start of any new venture won’t be the same to some extent in the end portion upon completing all your objectives. You will see sprawling organized streets and then hit unfamiliar ruined suburbs and towns. Dive underwater and emerge in desolate gray caves emerging into a facility of machinery mixed with stone masonry. Similar, but different to how dungeons are made from a certain Zelda series. Full of traps, few floors, and twisting passages that can be confusing to any newcomer unused to the design. One of my favorites is encountering an awesome Pixar-like ‘room’ essentially allowing me to venture inside and somehow escape replicating a [T$%] Story-like design. Someone at Looking Glass has good taste being inspired by the 1995 film huh. And to think this was an optional target I could’ve missed. I. Am. Amazed. Sure the rest of the content isn’t filled to the brim with cool sets like those, but to a degree, they offer a unique hodgepodge of interesting locales to wonder and gawk at least. As a newcomer coming into the series I did not expect at all to admire the sheer size of these levels. Some are more subtle in ways before a certain fire nation attacked delving into the mysticism of earth, wind, and water extending the dev’s creativity to their utmost limit. The elements become more profound and are used intricately as I delve deeper into the endgame. Changing the propensity of manmade structures into natural habitats. Surfaces of the earth and elevating platforms in one section demonstrate the move from traditional simple human paths to complex passageways. Can be confusing at times, but hey remember! You have a handy compass and a map too! So all is not lost. A master thief enjoys establishing their path forward through balanced platforming and embracing the wonders of being lost in the thrill of discovery.
Hell the power to jump provides excellent mobility in areas and the level design pays off in spades demonstrating to great effect. For example, Imagine facing a fort with no possible entryway. Ok well, let me go around to see for any wooden roofs or beams. Voila, there is! Shooting a rope arrow then. I climb and then acrobat onto the rampart. But wait, the door is locked inside! Hmm. The new plan is to head to another rooftop and get inside from there. I climb to the nearest rampart point then give myself a boost and ledge grab my way onto my destination. Successfully entering with no one aware. The ledge grab is super satisfying to enact every time. Although I quickly save before I launch myself just in case I fail. Yet holding the jump button is easy to maneuver and painless to execute.
Almost delving into the point of frustration at times, yet never truly becoming mad to the nth degree I wanted to throw my controller. Perhaps due to the save at anytime system in place making retries quick and painless. It is a relief to operate an easy system to retry failed attempts since most levels are so large. Not an open world at all. Garrett conducts most of his missions at different new locations within the metropolis, which we can explore without a time limit. And there’s always something new to look forward to. I ventured into a manor to steal a scepter. Dived into the pits below to enter hidden caverns and reach a prison facility. Sought treasure in abandoned ruins, boldly stole a precious item between two thieves' guilds, and enacted revenge on a rich dude who tried to assassinate me. Seriously the gall of that guy.
Sound design is brilliant, harsh, intense, and fair. And this is weird. Usually, I praise the heck out of the soundtrack, and while it is good. In Thief I found it more enjoyable to analyze how the gameplay and level design work in tandem with the soundscape. Each step you take and every breath you make is calculated. Go on the steel floor versus carpet and rugs and you can see the clear difference upon nearby patrols. Rugs and carpets muffle your steps while treading on steel produces loud noises capable of making any close enemy's senses go on alert. Any action like swinging your sword, launching an arrow, or even bringing out blackjack to play whack a guard heightens an enemy's awareness. G-dude will exhale after an action and it's gotten to a point where I hold my breath whenever I have a close encounter. Exhaling once the coast is clear. Sights and sounds are interconnected. If you’re in a very dark area, chances are you become neigh invisible compared to a brightly lit room. Staying in the shadows like a sneaky fella pays off. And thankfully, you can stay in a crouched position than a normal pose to conduct your sneaky endeavors. Harsh, but I kid you not I repeatedly felt it was balanced throughout at no point during my time did I feel it was brutally unfair at all times. Rather the usage of noise in this instance facilitates between easy to hard and complex as you dive deeper into the latter stages. As if the devs are saying “Hey, we are increasing the difficulty gradually, no steep cliffs or curveballs.” And I like it. Keeps things fresh and exciting to uncover new hurdles. Supernatural entities like zombies and spirits have this ghastly voice. I found myself with chills crawling up my back. And goodness the regular harmless citizen will shout for help to call attention to your current position. Tension is alive. Stress remains an ever-constant companion when pursued, and patience is needed every day for every hour.
Lastly, I also want to praise the main objectives of missions and AI. The latter for being smart and dumb. Patrols once memorize their route and what their limit is. Abusing their ai becomes rinse and repeat and oh so satisfying. Never waking up after becoming unconscious. Some enemies of different classifications will vary in their sight and danger capability. I.E. Seeing farther and more acutely aware of their surroundings than the usual shmuck of a guard with base intelligence. Think of them as elite guards who have an intruder radar built in updated to version 2.0 than the base version. Hearing better on how loud footsteps are near along with acute 20/20 vision if close in line in sight. This is fascinating and as I progressed deeper into the game, proved once again the devs are challenging me to be better. Goals likewise increase in complexity. You have standard, hard, and expert. Differs from traditional modifiers of upping the enemy's health I usually see in other games. Their parameters increase meaning more tasks to do. A 'normal' setting would indicate one or two retrieve an item and escape. 'Hard' adds a couple more like finding another item in conjunction with the main goal. Expert unleashes a full page of tasks to do. From not killing anyone, finding multiple items, checking with a friend of yours, and attaining a set amount of money all while completing the main quest and escaping to boot. Here are several examples of differences in difficulty. Insane. Furthermore, as I continued with 'expert' on all missions, they largely increased my time in a level due to how large they can be. I usually spent an hour or two depending on the size. Only occurred on max settings. If you try the standard option you can breeze through levels much faster. The addition of higher parameters causes an interesting shift to occur for the player. Thus I had to explore as much as possible, find hidden secrets, embrace the longer plans, being meticulous to survive and not incur any of the killings. The game is much easier killing anyone you come across. But a master thief should never kill. Only retrieve what was ordered and then get out without a fuss.
Time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Just some points from the game I think could be improved, tweaked for the better, and concerns I had. Didn’t affect my overall experience in a major manner.
First, same old, same old textures - Once I saw gray walls, gray bricks, stone pavement, same dirt in more than half of the missions, and frequent density in the latter stages it all became blurred together. Brought up with the maze-like corridors. I felt myself seeing the familiar paths without end. You don’t have a minimap either except a paper map that will vaguely pinpoint where you are. Therefore I had major deja vu. “Haven’t I been here before?” Thankfully, this isn’t egregious and the level variety for what it’s worth elevates everything else. Making it not so noticeable to see constantly. Makes me wonder if the sequel shakes things up a bit with colorful terrain when appropriate. I’m not asking for a rainbow from the color spectrum, merely suggesting slightly distinct patterns.
Second, Some objectives can be a bit vague to find. Like Mission 3. To retrieve the soul of the mystic required me to check everywhere and refer to my papyrus notes for hints and clues. Further, targets or items are not given exact instructions sometimes. Up to you to piece things together. Granted I personally like the non-approach to hand-holding, but some of these goals can be a real head scratcher. If you don’t come across hints and clues, eavesdropping a guard or finding a key to unlock another passageway or door is often the right path forward. Gentle reminder to explore thoroughly. Or use a guide when needed.
Third, May need a tool like a fire, water, or rope arrow to progress. While not required for every assignment. The wire is invaluable and shouldn't be utilized every so often at every opportunity. Elementals to a lesser degree, but still keep them in stock. Most of your inventory is consumables. And while you can find new ammo during a heist, it is best to at least save a decent amount. For situations when you require them. Sucks to use up all of your stock for minor loot grabbed when they may be needed for a critical venture.
Fourth, Wish some missions had health potions available close by. They’re pretty scarce in a job. Some later missions they in my opinion feel needed to help progress rather than me forcing a quicksave and quickload. Saving my health. Enemies can swarm you if you’re not careful and having more health is better than being one-shot. G-guy isn’t some deadliest warrior. So don’t think you can expertly assassinate any bloke. Keep in mind, I played on expert which usually required no bloodshed. Lowering settings offers no restrictions to eliminating anyone.
Fifth, Controls can take some getting used to. I tried keyboard and mouse and found the initial impression cumbersome so I switched to a controller setup and found it far better. Only had to input a couple more keybinds manually and I was fit as a fiddle tosteal! Borrow items. I suggest changing them if you feel weird handling your main character.
Sixth, due to the title being more than two decades old I highly recommend some of these mods I installed to grant an enhanced vanilla experience. Most you can find via a respective PC gaming wiki article. I did use a faithful texture pack. Not the popular one. Feel they change the original textures too much. I’ll leave the choice of what pack to choose up to you. I prefer Enhancement Pack 2.0 alpha.
Mods:
Unofficial patch for Thief 1/Gold - “improves compatibility with new pcs significantly, fixes graphic issues, adds support for widescreen resolutions and much more.”
Texture pack - “Replace all the old, low-quality objects and textures from Thief 1 and 2 with versions that have higher polygon counts and texture resolutions, while keeping as close to the originals as possible.” - This is the hardest mod to install. For some reason, the directions given resulted in half of the textures being improperly replaced. Displaying half high quality and half low quality. Inside you need to edit an ini file to put in the correct mod_path. Here is what I had that finally got everything to work. Hope it works for everyone else. If not, your mileage might vary.
mod_path usermods+mods\packfix+mods\candles+mods\EP\Thief1+NecroAge\Thief1+NecroAge+EP2\Thief1+EP2+mods+mods\t2skies+mods\EP+FMdml
Take a screenshot before the mod is installed and after to see if everything worked out. The rest of the mods I didn't have any trouble inputting.
Subtitles - Self-explanatory. In-game there is no option for subs. With this mod, you can read the spoken dialogue instead of straining your ears.
Sound Enhancement Pack - Makes all sound enhanced and not muddled. Providing clearer audio in both speech and sfx.
60 FPS Video Pack - Original videos are in a low resolution. With the video pack, all the videos are replaced with higher framerate and resolution.
Aside from minor tinkering to get the game up to speed and my barely noticeable mixed feelings. Thief shines when unconventional level design meets strong simple foundations in the gameplay to accentuate and enhance both categories. At its worst players(maybe newbies) may have difficulty in grasping the maze-like paths to reaching their objectives along with vague to almost obscure hints to their solutions(not always, uncommon I think). More so on increasing levels of difficulty than normal I feel. The central narrative I expected to be boring. And in turn I was mentally preparing myself for underwhelming. So to my delight, I was extremely glad to be wrong and found myself beset with a decent narrative and ultimately a likable protagonist.
Finally reaching the end of my trail I found Thief Gold impressed me to a degree I can’t stop thinking constantly about the missions inside. I adore it so much I had to hold off on playing the rest of the series so I won’t get burned out if I continue to run-non-stop at every entry. Filled with lengthy missions depending on difficulty and fair gameplay mechanics to tackle in whatever and however manner you so choose. A freedom in gameplay philosophy I love! And honestly its given me more thought to level design in general and the approach of AI to objectives. I encourage anyone to give it a shot. Especially those who love Stealth or dipping their toes into the genre. For those curious about this old title, it still holds up quite well. Especially if you installed mods to bring it up to modern standards. And hey here’s one tidbit I found fascinating. Turns out Ken Levine worked on Thief along with Warren Spector. These guys would ultimately father some well-known titles down the road. Pretty insightful stuff. I bet we're in for Shocking Examples down the road.
8.5/10
References & Additional Material:
Thief Black Parade Mod
Different Examples of Difficulty
Thief 1 Credits
Mods - Thief PC gaming wiki - Thief 1/Gold Unofficial patch - Sound Enhancement Pack - 60 FPS Video Pack - Texture pack
Subtitles
Edited: 4-3-24 - Small correction on Blackjack use. From human to nearly every enemy. Thanks to @blackcat for the correction! After the small edit. 99% of review still intact.
Originally called Thief: The Dark Project. The gold edition adds three new missions to deepen the plot and five new enemies. Edited original missions with a slew of bug fixes. So this feels like a definitive edition. Although I did have to use several mods I’ll detail later on to bring the game up to modern standards.
The premise is simple and you control a single character Garret who is a master thief. With no special powers whatsoever. His days from being a homeless orphan were discarded long ago since he joined a secret order. Years later he leaves and decides to make it on his own. Delving into the path of thievery without remorse to fulfill his greed for money. He is ambitious, selfish, cynical, and an untraditional protagonist. All qualities I don’t like at all for a main character and yet by the time the end credits are rolling, I am very tempted to head right into the sequel to see what’s next in store for him.
Worldbuilding is subtle, dark, and strangely yet fittingly humorous at times. A mix of middle ages, dark fantasy, and on the cusp of an industrial revolution. With lore dropping from scrolls and conversations between guards during their breaks. Offering vital gossip on the citizenry, complaints of co-workers, and my personal favorite lore stories and convenient tips/hints that may connect to the main cast. A method to reach a previously unassailable location. Secrets will be revealed unintentionally and a good eavesdropper should without hesitation use it to their advantage to maximum effect. G-man will also monologue amongst himself and will at times drop interesting commentary during work. Usually comments like being dumbfounded or witty responses to abrupt changes in objectives. A nice change of pace from the otherwise silence permeating while you lurk in the shadows. Parchment readings and books offer insightful lessons and teachings from the factions of Hammerites and the Pagans. Both believe in their gods in a way bordering unhealthy zealotry and are at odds with one another. The supernatural elements took me by surprise many times. Spells, incantations, and rituals are fitting. Inducing a mystical wonder beyond the medieval. Zombies, ghosts, and malformed supernatural creatures are here to stay. Oh, and bugs like mutated spiders I didn’t think were a threat had me running away once I caught sight of them. Seriously, how can they jump so high and shoot acid!? Machinery such as factories, smelting tools, and items with a steady supply of lava provide their citizenry with new forms of artificial light instead of the traditional natural fire to illuminate surroundings. Creating an interesting level design throughout, a blend of medieval housing full of conventional bricks, wooden planks, and pavement with the power of adopting steel into the surroundings.
Quite ingenious for a stealth-based gameplay approach back in the old days. Erase approaches such as shooting from afar with guns or tasing anyone to oblivion. The game operates on a mission structure. Before a mission starts you are given a briefing of the events prior, a chance to buy equipment using gold earned from a prior mission, and a handy, but vague map. Embarking on a new place in the City at various times. Always looking forward to a new place to see the sights
Additionally, the rope arrow single-handedly changed my whole experience. Making me think outside the box. Reminds me of using the GLOO gun from Prey and applying the weapon to reach places I wouldn’t otherwise be allowed to exploit regular means. The cable, by comparison, allows one to hit any wooden surface dropping a decent length of string. Becoming instantly available for climbing. As a result, you can traverse higher elevations. Furthermore, one can retrieve their shaft if applicable to re-use once again making the tool highly versatile in nearly any sticky situation he’s subjected to. Trust me you’ll need it when you're at a rock and hard place with nearby zombies closing in on your position with nowhere to run except upon checking your surroundings a wooden beam is above. Maybe a handy tool would surely be useful now.
Level design in every assignment is intricate, maze-like, and deep. Displaying an awesome sleight of hand in the dev’s works to craft initially simple environments then suddenly catching me off-guard by transforming into a large several corridors and passageways leading a lost one into a room full of secrets. It is deep and chock full of hidden areas that can be unlocked from levers, switches, and cleverly tucked away corners. Intrinsically linked in the environment. Delivering a cool verticality and thorough ‘puzzle-like’ solving when applicable. The start of any new venture won’t be the same to some extent in the end portion upon completing all your objectives. You will see sprawling organized streets and then hit unfamiliar ruined suburbs and towns. Dive underwater and emerge in desolate gray caves emerging into a facility of machinery mixed with stone masonry. Similar, but different to how dungeons are made from a certain Zelda series. Full of traps, few floors, and twisting passages that can be confusing to any newcomer unused to the design. One of my favorites is encountering an awesome Pixar-like ‘room’ essentially allowing me to venture inside and somehow escape replicating a [T$%] Story-like design. Someone at Looking Glass has good taste being inspired by the 1995 film huh. And to think this was an optional target I could’ve missed. I. Am. Amazed. Sure the rest of the content isn’t filled to the brim with cool sets like those, but to a degree, they offer a unique hodgepodge of interesting locales to wonder and gawk at least. As a newcomer coming into the series I did not expect at all to admire the sheer size of these levels. Some are more subtle in ways before a certain fire nation attacked delving into the mysticism of earth, wind, and water extending the dev’s creativity to their utmost limit. The elements become more profound and are used intricately as I delve deeper into the endgame. Changing the propensity of manmade structures into natural habitats. Surfaces of the earth and elevating platforms in one section demonstrate the move from traditional simple human paths to complex passageways. Can be confusing at times, but hey remember! You have a handy compass and a map too! So all is not lost. A master thief enjoys establishing their path forward through balanced platforming and embracing the wonders of being lost in the thrill of discovery.
Hell the power to jump provides excellent mobility in areas and the level design pays off in spades demonstrating to great effect. For example, Imagine facing a fort with no possible entryway. Ok well, let me go around to see for any wooden roofs or beams. Voila, there is! Shooting a rope arrow then. I climb and then acrobat onto the rampart. But wait, the door is locked inside! Hmm. The new plan is to head to another rooftop and get inside from there. I climb to the nearest rampart point then give myself a boost and ledge grab my way onto my destination. Successfully entering with no one aware. The ledge grab is super satisfying to enact every time. Although I quickly save before I launch myself just in case I fail. Yet holding the jump button is easy to maneuver and painless to execute.
Almost delving into the point of frustration at times, yet never truly becoming mad to the nth degree I wanted to throw my controller. Perhaps due to the save at anytime system in place making retries quick and painless. It is a relief to operate an easy system to retry failed attempts since most levels are so large. Not an open world at all. Garrett conducts most of his missions at different new locations within the metropolis, which we can explore without a time limit. And there’s always something new to look forward to. I ventured into a manor to steal a scepter. Dived into the pits below to enter hidden caverns and reach a prison facility. Sought treasure in abandoned ruins, boldly stole a precious item between two thieves' guilds, and enacted revenge on a rich dude who tried to assassinate me. Seriously the gall of that guy.
Sound design is brilliant, harsh, intense, and fair. And this is weird. Usually, I praise the heck out of the soundtrack, and while it is good. In Thief I found it more enjoyable to analyze how the gameplay and level design work in tandem with the soundscape. Each step you take and every breath you make is calculated. Go on the steel floor versus carpet and rugs and you can see the clear difference upon nearby patrols. Rugs and carpets muffle your steps while treading on steel produces loud noises capable of making any close enemy's senses go on alert. Any action like swinging your sword, launching an arrow, or even bringing out blackjack to play whack a guard heightens an enemy's awareness. G-dude will exhale after an action and it's gotten to a point where I hold my breath whenever I have a close encounter. Exhaling once the coast is clear. Sights and sounds are interconnected. If you’re in a very dark area, chances are you become neigh invisible compared to a brightly lit room. Staying in the shadows like a sneaky fella pays off. And thankfully, you can stay in a crouched position than a normal pose to conduct your sneaky endeavors. Harsh, but I kid you not I repeatedly felt it was balanced throughout at no point during my time did I feel it was brutally unfair at all times. Rather the usage of noise in this instance facilitates between easy to hard and complex as you dive deeper into the latter stages. As if the devs are saying “Hey, we are increasing the difficulty gradually, no steep cliffs or curveballs.” And I like it. Keeps things fresh and exciting to uncover new hurdles. Supernatural entities like zombies and spirits have this ghastly voice. I found myself with chills crawling up my back. And goodness the regular harmless citizen will shout for help to call attention to your current position. Tension is alive. Stress remains an ever-constant companion when pursued, and patience is needed every day for every hour.
Lastly, I also want to praise the main objectives of missions and AI. The latter for being smart and dumb. Patrols once memorize their route and what their limit is. Abusing their ai becomes rinse and repeat and oh so satisfying. Never waking up after becoming unconscious. Some enemies of different classifications will vary in their sight and danger capability. I.E. Seeing farther and more acutely aware of their surroundings than the usual shmuck of a guard with base intelligence. Think of them as elite guards who have an intruder radar built in updated to version 2.0 than the base version. Hearing better on how loud footsteps are near along with acute 20/20 vision if close in line in sight. This is fascinating and as I progressed deeper into the game, proved once again the devs are challenging me to be better. Goals likewise increase in complexity. You have standard, hard, and expert. Differs from traditional modifiers of upping the enemy's health I usually see in other games. Their parameters increase meaning more tasks to do. A 'normal' setting would indicate one or two retrieve an item and escape. 'Hard' adds a couple more like finding another item in conjunction with the main goal. Expert unleashes a full page of tasks to do. From not killing anyone, finding multiple items, checking with a friend of yours, and attaining a set amount of money all while completing the main quest and escaping to boot. Here are several examples of differences in difficulty. Insane. Furthermore, as I continued with 'expert' on all missions, they largely increased my time in a level due to how large they can be. I usually spent an hour or two depending on the size. Only occurred on max settings. If you try the standard option you can breeze through levels much faster. The addition of higher parameters causes an interesting shift to occur for the player. Thus I had to explore as much as possible, find hidden secrets, embrace the longer plans, being meticulous to survive and not incur any of the killings. The game is much easier killing anyone you come across. But a master thief should never kill. Only retrieve what was ordered and then get out without a fuss.
Time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Just some points from the game I think could be improved, tweaked for the better, and concerns I had. Didn’t affect my overall experience in a major manner.
First, same old, same old textures - Once I saw gray walls, gray bricks, stone pavement, same dirt in more than half of the missions, and frequent density in the latter stages it all became blurred together. Brought up with the maze-like corridors. I felt myself seeing the familiar paths without end. You don’t have a minimap either except a paper map that will vaguely pinpoint where you are. Therefore I had major deja vu. “Haven’t I been here before?” Thankfully, this isn’t egregious and the level variety for what it’s worth elevates everything else. Making it not so noticeable to see constantly. Makes me wonder if the sequel shakes things up a bit with colorful terrain when appropriate. I’m not asking for a rainbow from the color spectrum, merely suggesting slightly distinct patterns.
Second, Some objectives can be a bit vague to find. Like Mission 3. To retrieve the soul of the mystic required me to check everywhere and refer to my papyrus notes for hints and clues. Further, targets or items are not given exact instructions sometimes. Up to you to piece things together. Granted I personally like the non-approach to hand-holding, but some of these goals can be a real head scratcher. If you don’t come across hints and clues, eavesdropping a guard or finding a key to unlock another passageway or door is often the right path forward. Gentle reminder to explore thoroughly. Or use a guide when needed.
Third, May need a tool like a fire, water, or rope arrow to progress. While not required for every assignment. The wire is invaluable and shouldn't be utilized every so often at every opportunity. Elementals to a lesser degree, but still keep them in stock. Most of your inventory is consumables. And while you can find new ammo during a heist, it is best to at least save a decent amount. For situations when you require them. Sucks to use up all of your stock for minor loot grabbed when they may be needed for a critical venture.
Fourth, Wish some missions had health potions available close by. They’re pretty scarce in a job. Some later missions they in my opinion feel needed to help progress rather than me forcing a quicksave and quickload. Saving my health. Enemies can swarm you if you’re not careful and having more health is better than being one-shot. G-guy isn’t some deadliest warrior. So don’t think you can expertly assassinate any bloke. Keep in mind, I played on expert which usually required no bloodshed. Lowering settings offers no restrictions to eliminating anyone.
Fifth, Controls can take some getting used to. I tried keyboard and mouse and found the initial impression cumbersome so I switched to a controller setup and found it far better. Only had to input a couple more keybinds manually and I was fit as a fiddle to
Sixth, due to the title being more than two decades old I highly recommend some of these mods I installed to grant an enhanced vanilla experience. Most you can find via a respective PC gaming wiki article. I did use a faithful texture pack. Not the popular one. Feel they change the original textures too much. I’ll leave the choice of what pack to choose up to you. I prefer Enhancement Pack 2.0 alpha.
Mods:
Unofficial patch for Thief 1/Gold - “improves compatibility with new pcs significantly, fixes graphic issues, adds support for widescreen resolutions and much more.”
Texture pack - “Replace all the old, low-quality objects and textures from Thief 1 and 2 with versions that have higher polygon counts and texture resolutions, while keeping as close to the originals as possible.” - This is the hardest mod to install. For some reason, the directions given resulted in half of the textures being improperly replaced. Displaying half high quality and half low quality. Inside you need to edit an ini file to put in the correct mod_path. Here is what I had that finally got everything to work. Hope it works for everyone else. If not, your mileage might vary.
mod_path usermods+mods\packfix+mods\candles+mods\EP\Thief1+NecroAge\Thief1+NecroAge+EP2\Thief1+EP2+mods+mods\t2skies+mods\EP+FMdml
Take a screenshot before the mod is installed and after to see if everything worked out. The rest of the mods I didn't have any trouble inputting.
Subtitles - Self-explanatory. In-game there is no option for subs. With this mod, you can read the spoken dialogue instead of straining your ears.
Sound Enhancement Pack - Makes all sound enhanced and not muddled. Providing clearer audio in both speech and sfx.
60 FPS Video Pack - Original videos are in a low resolution. With the video pack, all the videos are replaced with higher framerate and resolution.
Aside from minor tinkering to get the game up to speed and my barely noticeable mixed feelings. Thief shines when unconventional level design meets strong simple foundations in the gameplay to accentuate and enhance both categories. At its worst players(maybe newbies) may have difficulty in grasping the maze-like paths to reaching their objectives along with vague to almost obscure hints to their solutions(not always, uncommon I think). More so on increasing levels of difficulty than normal I feel. The central narrative I expected to be boring. And in turn I was mentally preparing myself for underwhelming. So to my delight, I was extremely glad to be wrong and found myself beset with a decent narrative and ultimately a likable protagonist.
Finally reaching the end of my trail I found Thief Gold impressed me to a degree I can’t stop thinking constantly about the missions inside. I adore it so much I had to hold off on playing the rest of the series so I won’t get burned out if I continue to run-non-stop at every entry. Filled with lengthy missions depending on difficulty and fair gameplay mechanics to tackle in whatever and however manner you so choose. A freedom in gameplay philosophy I love! And honestly its given me more thought to level design in general and the approach of AI to objectives. I encourage anyone to give it a shot. Especially those who love Stealth or dipping their toes into the genre. For those curious about this old title, it still holds up quite well. Especially if you installed mods to bring it up to modern standards. And hey here’s one tidbit I found fascinating. Turns out Ken Levine worked on Thief along with Warren Spector. These guys would ultimately father some well-known titles down the road. Pretty insightful stuff. I bet we're in for Shocking Examples down the road.
8.5/10
References & Additional Material:
Thief Black Parade Mod
Different Examples of Difficulty
Thief 1 Credits
Mods - Thief PC gaming wiki - Thief 1/Gold Unofficial patch - Sound Enhancement Pack - 60 FPS Video Pack - Texture pack
Subtitles
Edited: 4-3-24 - Small correction on Blackjack use. From human to nearly every enemy. Thanks to @blackcat for the correction! After the small edit. 99% of review still intact.
