Verrggill
I'm sorry, but this reception has to be a psyop. I can't find anything remotely enjoyable in this game.
Armored Core VI is my first entry to the Armored Core series and would probably be the strongest entry to me because of the mildly inaccessible nature of the previous games.
But realistically I played it because I was incredibly disappointed with Elden Ring.
What I got was a different FromSoft game than the one I am familiar with.
With an stronger and clearer emphasis on narrative rather than lore chunks. A narrative that's a simple skeleton and fleshed out by underlying themes of greed, religion, exploitation, capitalism, fate and freedom of will. Exposition might be heavier handed than the souls games but to its benefit doesn't sound vague enough. I have never been a fan of narratives that get that it's standing from "lore" rather than the actual events that happen in game, something that FromSoft likes doing. There ARE text logs, but never have they felt so non-essential to make a sense of the usual aberrations, to my pleasant surprise. But the story doesn't end there, pun intended. One playthrough isn't enough. You aren't even close to eating the full pie. The full picture unfolds in your successive playthroughs with some of the most haunting and ethereal endings, which in my opinion, makes it the best new game+ implementation in a FromSoft game bar none. It goes beyond increased difficulty or small bits of new stuff.
It's almost meta that the overall plot of humanity returning to a previously dead planet for the previously exhausted Coral, just like how FromSoft and new and old players alike are returning to a once dormant franchise such as Armored Core.
It's a far more generous than punishing gameplay, it's a game with a philosophy of choice first and DEMANDS you to experiment (with varying but mostly complete success). The gameplay is mission based rather than sprawling open or closed metroidvania worlds, which is actually one of its biggest strengths. It is concise, to the point and unpretentious. It's an action game first and foremost and doesn't need to be anything else.
An antithesis and yet an acknowledgement to one of their previous titles, Sekiro, this game features ACS Strain. A system similar to posture; where it differs however is how this system forces the player on their action. This is not a one hit kill mechanic, it's mechanic that gives the enemy a moment of weakness, for players to exploit it and rain damage upon it. As such, players who solely rely on heavy weapons must not overuse them to fill up the ACS strain or its a waste. Similarly, a player who chips an enemy's health is a weak ac. It demands experimentation but also observation; a key trait in almost every FromSoft game.
But experimentation doesn't stop with the gameplay, rather it starts with you first. Your Armored Core is as expressive as you make it look. The paintjob customisation is so robust, it's almost unrivalled in ANY game that I have EVER seen. It's versatile but also manageable. The complexity isn't just thrown at you, they're presented in layers, pun intended again. Not satisfied with simple colour picks? Choose an rgb value. Not satisfied with simple color patches? Pick a pattern. Patterns aren't it for you? Apply a decal. Oh even the decals aren't doing it for you? Make you OWN decal or download someone else's with a code. Hell you download someone else's whole SETUPS with a code. It's my favourite aspect of this game and it's not close.
The boss fights are as equally fantastic as they are diverse. From a literal fortress, to intense ac battles, to a bullet hell goofy ahh Balteus, to the fan-named Mechlania to the "I won't miss"(iykyk). All of these give the sense of scale that for some amount of time, I subsconsciously believed my ac was as large as a regular human.
The visuals which received a bit of scrutiny at the beginning are actually nothing to scoff at. From the gigantic but sterile and ruinous grids to icy frigid fields below a bright burning sky to the whole ruins of an underground city that's is as alien but also as ancient and manmade.
The soundtrack is a banger. "The Man Who Burned the Coral" and "Contact with You" are my highlights.
However, my one criticism of this game is that some of the missions in the earlier chapters were so booring that I genuinely almost slept. It's filler with the utmost intent, and my only wish at the time was that they didn't sacrifice quality for variety.
Overall an incredible and fresh feeling game of a type that just isn't made anymore. Extremely happy that it is selling well. And since it's extremely unlikely that I will be playing Baldur's Gate 3 this year, this will be my GOTY.
9.5/10
But realistically I played it because I was incredibly disappointed with Elden Ring.
What I got was a different FromSoft game than the one I am familiar with.
With an stronger and clearer emphasis on narrative rather than lore chunks. A narrative that's a simple skeleton and fleshed out by underlying themes of greed, religion, exploitation, capitalism, fate and freedom of will. Exposition might be heavier handed than the souls games but to its benefit doesn't sound vague enough. I have never been a fan of narratives that get that it's standing from "lore" rather than the actual events that happen in game, something that FromSoft likes doing. There ARE text logs, but never have they felt so non-essential to make a sense of the usual aberrations, to my pleasant surprise. But the story doesn't end there, pun intended. One playthrough isn't enough. You aren't even close to eating the full pie. The full picture unfolds in your successive playthroughs with some of the most haunting and ethereal endings, which in my opinion, makes it the best new game+ implementation in a FromSoft game bar none. It goes beyond increased difficulty or small bits of new stuff.
It's almost meta that the overall plot of humanity returning to a previously dead planet for the previously exhausted Coral, just like how FromSoft and new and old players alike are returning to a once dormant franchise such as Armored Core.
It's a far more generous than punishing gameplay, it's a game with a philosophy of choice first and DEMANDS you to experiment (with varying but mostly complete success). The gameplay is mission based rather than sprawling open or closed metroidvania worlds, which is actually one of its biggest strengths. It is concise, to the point and unpretentious. It's an action game first and foremost and doesn't need to be anything else.
An antithesis and yet an acknowledgement to one of their previous titles, Sekiro, this game features ACS Strain. A system similar to posture; where it differs however is how this system forces the player on their action. This is not a one hit kill mechanic, it's mechanic that gives the enemy a moment of weakness, for players to exploit it and rain damage upon it. As such, players who solely rely on heavy weapons must not overuse them to fill up the ACS strain or its a waste. Similarly, a player who chips an enemy's health is a weak ac. It demands experimentation but also observation; a key trait in almost every FromSoft game.
But experimentation doesn't stop with the gameplay, rather it starts with you first. Your Armored Core is as expressive as you make it look. The paintjob customisation is so robust, it's almost unrivalled in ANY game that I have EVER seen. It's versatile but also manageable. The complexity isn't just thrown at you, they're presented in layers, pun intended again. Not satisfied with simple colour picks? Choose an rgb value. Not satisfied with simple color patches? Pick a pattern. Patterns aren't it for you? Apply a decal. Oh even the decals aren't doing it for you? Make you OWN decal or download someone else's with a code. Hell you download someone else's whole SETUPS with a code. It's my favourite aspect of this game and it's not close.
The boss fights are as equally fantastic as they are diverse. From a literal fortress, to intense ac battles, to a bullet hell goofy ahh Balteus, to the fan-named Mechlania to the "I won't miss"(iykyk). All of these give the sense of scale that for some amount of time, I subsconsciously believed my ac was as large as a regular human.
The visuals which received a bit of scrutiny at the beginning are actually nothing to scoff at. From the gigantic but sterile and ruinous grids to icy frigid fields below a bright burning sky to the whole ruins of an underground city that's is as alien but also as ancient and manmade.
The soundtrack is a banger. "The Man Who Burned the Coral" and "Contact with You" are my highlights.
However, my one criticism of this game is that some of the missions in the earlier chapters were so booring that I genuinely almost slept. It's filler with the utmost intent, and my only wish at the time was that they didn't sacrifice quality for variety.
Overall an incredible and fresh feeling game of a type that just isn't made anymore. Extremely happy that it is selling well. And since it's extremely unlikely that I will be playing Baldur's Gate 3 this year, this will be my GOTY.
9.5/10
Really between every playthrough my favourite moments shift between the feeling of isolation in Mexico, or the missions. This time it was the "My Last Son" mission
If some FromSoft game wants to crack it into the top 3, it needs to not have stinky bosses/aspects.
Sekiro had the Demon of Hatred, and the portion after the second invasion of Ashina are stinkers.
However other than that, this is the closest FromSoft has gotten to have a combat system that would rival a cinematic trailer while maintaining agency (well assuming you're good at the game anyway). I'm going to cheat and put it in the same place as DS1 aka top 3. Two top 3s.
Sekiro had the Demon of Hatred, and the portion after the second invasion of Ashina are stinkers.
However other than that, this is the closest FromSoft has gotten to have a combat system that would rival a cinematic trailer while maintaining agency (well assuming you're good at the game anyway). I'm going to cheat and put it in the same place as DS1 aka top 3. Two top 3s.
(This is pretty much spoiler free)
It's really enthralling to find something that brings my jaded and nostalgia biased perception of any media of "progressing mediocrity" and throw it out of the water to fire up the soul in your hearts once more and say "We're back and better than ever". Maybe my outlook will change and be more hopeful towards the future. Maybe I will stay jaded and just deem that thing an outlier and a modern classic or some other buzzword. No matter what it will be though, that particular "thing" will be a classic.
Outer Wilds is that "thing". It's a once in a lifetime achievement of video game design for the overall medium and a once in a lifetime experience for me. An experience that will be wholly ruined if spoiled beyond the synopsis and which makes it immensely difficult to talk about its qualities in public without ruining some of the magic. It's a game of knowledge. The less learned beforehand the better.
A game which ties the individual emotions of you as a player, you as a character with the seemingly cold and indifferent outer space. It dabbles on nihilism and the existential dread of your unimportance in "the big picture" and flips it entirely on something profound and hopeful melancholy in all the vanity. And it doesn't sprinkle hope in crumbs neither does it provide forcefully. The game will be hostile and indifferent pretty much all the way through and most of your efforts to best it will be in vain. You need to find that hope within yourself. The whole game is a song, whether a swansong or an elegy, it's up to you.
Being an exploration game, it's also a game about curiosity. Now the game explores curiosity thematically in two ways: through its base game and the DLC Echoes of the Eye.
(While we are here, I'd like to give a disclaimer that the base game and the DLC play very differently, for better or for worse)
The base game explores on the wonder of curiosity, the drive to know, the drive to find out, the drive to understand and the rush and magic that comes along with it; the DLC on the other hand explores on the fear aspect of curiosity, on how the things that you find maybe aren't something you want to find out or aren't ready for it. The exploration aspect is designed so organically, so meticulously and with such thought, that nothing feels "wrong" or out of place or order. There's full freedom of exploration and none of it feels non-satisfactory over an oversight.
The puzzles don't hold your hand at all and it's upto you to figure it out; by yourself as googling up your walkthrough will severely damage your experience. They're subjectively not easy and some of them can be incredibly complicated to figure out. But it's worth it. Finding them by your own is worth it.
All of this is bolstered by the amazing sound design and the stellar soundtrack by Andrew Prahlow which wouldn't be the first thing that come on your mind when thinking about exploring in space but it fits like a glove.
It's certainly did not come out of the blue and wears it's inspirations on its sleeves viz. Zelda, Myst, a lot of Metroidvania design. But it'd be an awful lie to insinuate and categorize it as something similar or akin to any of the others. It's a truly unique and original experience that is exclusive to games as a medium and which elevates the said medium.
Probably my second favourite game of all time, if not my favourite.
10/10
It's really enthralling to find something that brings my jaded and nostalgia biased perception of any media of "progressing mediocrity" and throw it out of the water to fire up the soul in your hearts once more and say "We're back and better than ever". Maybe my outlook will change and be more hopeful towards the future. Maybe I will stay jaded and just deem that thing an outlier and a modern classic or some other buzzword. No matter what it will be though, that particular "thing" will be a classic.
Outer Wilds is that "thing". It's a once in a lifetime achievement of video game design for the overall medium and a once in a lifetime experience for me. An experience that will be wholly ruined if spoiled beyond the synopsis and which makes it immensely difficult to talk about its qualities in public without ruining some of the magic. It's a game of knowledge. The less learned beforehand the better.
A game which ties the individual emotions of you as a player, you as a character with the seemingly cold and indifferent outer space. It dabbles on nihilism and the existential dread of your unimportance in "the big picture" and flips it entirely on something profound and hopeful melancholy in all the vanity. And it doesn't sprinkle hope in crumbs neither does it provide forcefully. The game will be hostile and indifferent pretty much all the way through and most of your efforts to best it will be in vain. You need to find that hope within yourself. The whole game is a song, whether a swansong or an elegy, it's up to you.
Being an exploration game, it's also a game about curiosity. Now the game explores curiosity thematically in two ways: through its base game and the DLC Echoes of the Eye.
(While we are here, I'd like to give a disclaimer that the base game and the DLC play very differently, for better or for worse)
The base game explores on the wonder of curiosity, the drive to know, the drive to find out, the drive to understand and the rush and magic that comes along with it; the DLC on the other hand explores on the fear aspect of curiosity, on how the things that you find maybe aren't something you want to find out or aren't ready for it. The exploration aspect is designed so organically, so meticulously and with such thought, that nothing feels "wrong" or out of place or order. There's full freedom of exploration and none of it feels non-satisfactory over an oversight.
The puzzles don't hold your hand at all and it's upto you to figure it out; by yourself as googling up your walkthrough will severely damage your experience. They're subjectively not easy and some of them can be incredibly complicated to figure out. But it's worth it. Finding them by your own is worth it.
All of this is bolstered by the amazing sound design and the stellar soundtrack by Andrew Prahlow which wouldn't be the first thing that come on your mind when thinking about exploring in space but it fits like a glove.
It's certainly did not come out of the blue and wears it's inspirations on its sleeves viz. Zelda, Myst, a lot of Metroidvania design. But it'd be an awful lie to insinuate and categorize it as something similar or akin to any of the others. It's a truly unique and original experience that is exclusive to games as a medium and which elevates the said medium.
Probably my second favourite game of all time, if not my favourite.
10/10
It barely deserves the "remaster" tag, it should have looked much better. So I understand the reception it had back in 2018. There were not enough changes made.
Still at the end of the day, it's the Dark Souls left intact and the few changes that were made outside of the minimal visual upgrade are complimentary and helpful.
Still at the end of the day, it's the Dark Souls left intact and the few changes that were made outside of the minimal visual upgrade are complimentary and helpful.
2022
This review contains spoilers
By far one of the most disappointing game I've ever played. I went into it with such high hopes that I eventually tempered them before playing for the offchance it disappointed me......and it still disappointed me.
First off, let's get over the positive aspects of the game that I genuinely admire : the art direction, the soundtrack and a couple of (4) bosses. The art direction has always been a pillar of FromSoft games and ER is no slouch, every frame is a painting, a highly imaginative painting at that, each location is carefully constructed to have a sense of grandeur or a mystic air into it. The soundtrack absolutely slaps, although it's not as good as their previous offerings. And I genuinely enjoyed fighting Placidusax, Malekith, Radahn and Mohg..in that order.
Now onto the negatives because I have quite much to say about it.
The open world is what I would call standard, not incredible, not terrible, not innovative, not revolutionary, just standard. There are still points of interest in this game such as graves, catacombs, caves and ruins that almost always play the same, have different puzzles but aren't the focus of that interest, it's the reward and the highly possible presence of a boss before it and it completely breaks the immersion for me so much that it screams "this is video game" to me. The catacombs are especially prone to this as there are so many of them in this game that they end up feeling monotonous half of the time, and really become tiresome. It doesn't help that the enemies in these catacombs are THE SAME (It's either imps, the undead or the skellies, with sometimes crabs thrown in). The open world and I truly say this is nothing special, in fact I'm going as far to say that it's very akin to a Ubisoft game too. While lack of minimap, quest log, overabundance of map markers IS good game design and it does motivate players to explore, I'm afraid to say it is good game design in UI, not the open world itself. Because it doesn't affect where the poi's (points of interest) are located, it just doesn't tell you. It's the same exact world.
Now let's talk about combat. Now FromSoft souls combat formula is iconic, it's satisfying and it works, everyone knows that. It's the main goddamn reason I play them. But having multiple options, heavy and light, special attack, ashes of war, poisture, stagger, lightning and other status effects (aka the options the player has) is only half of what constitutes the overall combat. It's the enemies you utilise your combat against (Eg. it doesn't matter if there are 5 different variations of heavy attacks if only few or even none of the enemies are weak to it, and you instead get punished for it. Not talking about ER in this specific example, just an explanation as to what I'm trying to say). There's simply put way tooooo many bosses in the game, worse yet wayyyyyy tooo many repeated bosses. I can only fight so many cemetery shades and bloodhound knights, crucible knights and tree guardians, ulcerated tree guardian, and watchdog guardians and tibia mariners and 70 (hyperbole) different dragons before I become bored and annoyed. To make matters worse, they not only reappear as bosses, but also as regular enemies, which is just lame, pathetic and ultimately lazy, it's so mind boggling to me, that what made every FromSoft enemy unique in the first place is noticeably lost here (Godefroy the grafted, I'm talking about you)......And I'm not even talking about the flatout terrible difficulty scaling that happens mid game, how is Caelid supposed to be so easy that after Limgrave, I manage myself pretty well when it comes to the regular enemies there, but whenever it comes to bosses, they are extremely and I mean extremely difficult to work against, like yeah bosses are supposed to be tough, but this far above tough, it's such a fucking mess that the supposed super boss of the area, Radahn isn't even the hardest boss of the area, not even remotely close, decaying ekzykes, greyoll, the godskin apostle and the gargoyle in dragonborrow are significantly more difficult compared to the already terribly difficult bosses of the region. This is true in Altus plateau and especially Mt. Gelmir, where the main boss of the area is significantly less difficult (I'm considering it as Rykard here, but you might say I'm a hypocrite because of the paragraph below) in comparison to something like Fallingstar Beast. Let's not even talk about Haligtree and Malenia herself, which imo is simultaneously one of the most difficult and one of the most poorly designed bosses in the game by virtue of having waterfowl dance. It especially doesn't help that I'm one of the few people apparently who doesn't think this style of combat fits well into the open world, in fact I think it conflicts with it. I find the premise of all your hard work being evaporated and your progress lost, just because of the already present terrible difficulty scaling extremely demoralizing and direct opposition of the freedom this game apparently boasts of offering you.
I cannot believe I am going to say this, but after finishing it, an overwhelming majority of my time (90%) feels like a gigantic waste of time to me. It's not the worst game of all time, no. It's not even the worst FromSoft game, as I atleast finished it. But I have truly never felt such massive disappointment from a game by a studio whose games I generally adore, that I am writing such a wall of text, that would probably get completely ignored by, or skimmed by or get made fun of by. But I don't care. I'm done with this fucking game.
Easily the 2nd worst FromSoft game I have ever played.
EDIT: After much introspection, I realised that I dislike it more now
3.5/10
First off, let's get over the positive aspects of the game that I genuinely admire : the art direction, the soundtrack and a couple of (4) bosses. The art direction has always been a pillar of FromSoft games and ER is no slouch, every frame is a painting, a highly imaginative painting at that, each location is carefully constructed to have a sense of grandeur or a mystic air into it. The soundtrack absolutely slaps, although it's not as good as their previous offerings. And I genuinely enjoyed fighting Placidusax, Malekith, Radahn and Mohg..in that order.
Now onto the negatives because I have quite much to say about it.
The open world is what I would call standard, not incredible, not terrible, not innovative, not revolutionary, just standard. There are still points of interest in this game such as graves, catacombs, caves and ruins that almost always play the same, have different puzzles but aren't the focus of that interest, it's the reward and the highly possible presence of a boss before it and it completely breaks the immersion for me so much that it screams "this is video game" to me. The catacombs are especially prone to this as there are so many of them in this game that they end up feeling monotonous half of the time, and really become tiresome. It doesn't help that the enemies in these catacombs are THE SAME (It's either imps, the undead or the skellies, with sometimes crabs thrown in). The open world and I truly say this is nothing special, in fact I'm going as far to say that it's very akin to a Ubisoft game too. While lack of minimap, quest log, overabundance of map markers IS good game design and it does motivate players to explore, I'm afraid to say it is good game design in UI, not the open world itself. Because it doesn't affect where the poi's (points of interest) are located, it just doesn't tell you. It's the same exact world.
Now let's talk about combat. Now FromSoft souls combat formula is iconic, it's satisfying and it works, everyone knows that. It's the main goddamn reason I play them. But having multiple options, heavy and light, special attack, ashes of war, poisture, stagger, lightning and other status effects (aka the options the player has) is only half of what constitutes the overall combat. It's the enemies you utilise your combat against (Eg. it doesn't matter if there are 5 different variations of heavy attacks if only few or even none of the enemies are weak to it, and you instead get punished for it. Not talking about ER in this specific example, just an explanation as to what I'm trying to say). There's simply put way tooooo many bosses in the game, worse yet wayyyyyy tooo many repeated bosses. I can only fight so many cemetery shades and bloodhound knights, crucible knights and tree guardians, ulcerated tree guardian, and watchdog guardians and tibia mariners and 70 (hyperbole) different dragons before I become bored and annoyed. To make matters worse, they not only reappear as bosses, but also as regular enemies, which is just lame, pathetic and ultimately lazy, it's so mind boggling to me, that what made every FromSoft enemy unique in the first place is noticeably lost here (Godefroy the grafted, I'm talking about you)......And I'm not even talking about the flatout terrible difficulty scaling that happens mid game, how is Caelid supposed to be so easy that after Limgrave, I manage myself pretty well when it comes to the regular enemies there, but whenever it comes to bosses, they are extremely and I mean extremely difficult to work against, like yeah bosses are supposed to be tough, but this far above tough, it's such a fucking mess that the supposed super boss of the area, Radahn isn't even the hardest boss of the area, not even remotely close, decaying ekzykes, greyoll, the godskin apostle and the gargoyle in dragonborrow are significantly more difficult compared to the already terribly difficult bosses of the region. This is true in Altus plateau and especially Mt. Gelmir, where the main boss of the area is significantly less difficult (I'm considering it as Rykard here, but you might say I'm a hypocrite because of the paragraph below) in comparison to something like Fallingstar Beast. Let's not even talk about Haligtree and Malenia herself, which imo is simultaneously one of the most difficult and one of the most poorly designed bosses in the game by virtue of having waterfowl dance. It especially doesn't help that I'm one of the few people apparently who doesn't think this style of combat fits well into the open world, in fact I think it conflicts with it. I find the premise of all your hard work being evaporated and your progress lost, just because of the already present terrible difficulty scaling extremely demoralizing and direct opposition of the freedom this game apparently boasts of offering you.
I cannot believe I am going to say this, but after finishing it, an overwhelming majority of my time (90%) feels like a gigantic waste of time to me. It's not the worst game of all time, no. It's not even the worst FromSoft game, as I atleast finished it. But I have truly never felt such massive disappointment from a game by a studio whose games I generally adore, that I am writing such a wall of text, that would probably get completely ignored by, or skimmed by or get made fun of by. But I don't care. I'm done with this fucking game.
Easily the 2nd worst FromSoft game I have ever played.
EDIT: After much introspection, I realised that I dislike it more now
3.5/10
2004
It has been taking the gaming industry 18 years now to make a game this continuously fresh, innovative, cinematic, and freeflowy fun and then heighten the narrative and atmosphere to this level all for a single game since Half Life 2. There have been an amount of games that excel at one or two things and not the other; maybe all of the things that this game does. But to such a polish and perfection? Nah, nothing has come close to Half-Life 2.
2012
I do not have time for this
Significantly improved upon its predecessor, but it tried to do too much and got lost in the sauce. Also, waaay to many things that the game plucked out pf other titles to just be "inspiration" or "culmination". It feels more inspired by the other games than its prequel at times which is sad.
It is an exceptional platformer tho.
It is an exceptional platformer tho.
2019
I have an intense fear of heights. So it says a lot when a game makes me wanna hike up a tall ass mountain in the middle of autumn
A bunch of things I have gripes with that doesn't make it a great metroidvania or a game, just a decent one. However it is a great EXPERIENCE, with the cranium curving visuals to back it up.
I was doubting Lucas Pope for some reason even though he gave me one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time. Uhhh yeah, no, what he gave me was THE greatest gaming experience of all time. I didn't scratch my head, I was getting pushed into thinking and deducing into desperation. It doesn't just require you your undisturbed, complete amd sharp attention, it also requires you an extensive knowledge, sharp deduction and and to look at things differently. It teaches you nothing and punishes you for trying to learn nothing. Because it has a reward for your effort. A conclusion that is uber satisfying and worth all the brainstorming to unravel its simple story that gets morphed and warped into layers that you wouldn't expect.
2022
Fuck you Bobby, you piece of shit, I hope you get castrated in public.
2019
I need to buy the special edition