Arkham Asylum is the definition of simple yet very effective.

I know its almost cliché to praise this game as the 2nd coming of christ but It kinda was for superhero games much less licensed titles, with this and the surprisingly underrated X-Men origins wolverine game adaptation by raven in 09 really told the world how comic book games SHOULD be done after a sludge of just licensed shovelware with some hidden gems here and there. Showing that this genre isnt a laughing stock and that these relatively unknown (non mainstream anyway) devs at rocksteady, who just came off 3 years after making urban chaos, being a janky console fps of playing a cop having to take down thugs lethally or nonlethally, weren't anything to scoff at.

Just to set the stage: I was a fan of batman to the point of watching a lot of cartoons featuring him on Cartoon network including BTAS or Brave and the bold, getting off the high of the dark knight the last year, even owning those special DVDs where the case was the mask of the hero (same with iron man) and owning a batman costume as a kid for halloween that very year. So to see this games reveal trailer on old youtube got me so intrigued to the point of begging my parents to get it that summer when it first dropped, and they did, having to drive all the way down to target, drive back to home to get enough money to pay for it, go BACK to target then go back home. and even got this very GOTY version off ebay one year later on PS3 coming with 3D glasses and extra maps like the endless combat scarecrow nightmare/totally insane, crime alley and nocturnal hunter predator challenge maps, only fueling more hours into it.

All of that to say this game and eventually franchise means a whole lot to me and i'll admit to my bias there, however i had to come back to this game after not only beating it multiple times, nearly platinuming it on PS3 with regular AND GOTY, but also getting that remaster on PS4 and finally got the platinum trophy on there, to see if it still holds up. And seeing my rating you can tell, it does. (for the most part but we'll get to that titan filled elephant in the room)

The setup is very simple: Batman captures Joker who seemingly gave up very easily and takes him to Arkham Asylum, medical facility set to "treat" the criminally insane, however he seemingly escapes and takes over the asylum and releases not only his thugs from Blackgate who got transferred to here, not only actual insane lunatics in straightjackets but also come to find out, his main rogues gallery including: Bane who's been fucked up and addicted to titan after origins, Scarecrow, Killer Croc who's gotten more animalistic than half hybrid in origins, Poison Ivy, Victor Zsasz, all with the help of his girl Harley Quinn who also got in and helped him with this plan to stop batman from thwarting his REAL plan to release an army of roided up behemoth monsters with a Titan formula (that's been since retconned from Bane's TN-1 Formula that gave him strength but fucked him up mentally) into Gotham City. Even hearing instances on the radio of little diversions he placed within Gotham to distract the GCPD from focusing on the clusterfuck going on at the asylum.

Its the way the journey plays out that really makes it special, its like wack-a-mole, as soon at bats put down one villain, another pops up running amok, activating "detective vision" (X-ray mode where batman's eyes go white like in the comics or cartoon) and investigate the crime scene, scan the key problem and trace down certain DNA throughout the island to get to the next objective, running around the island in this castlevania ass design backtracking back & forth, all while joker just talkin shit on the mic throughout the game. This really feels like an long ass animated series episode with how all these villains hamming it up or even the sequences at play here with the scarecrow nightmares. Which is funny seeing all of them like this compared to the rest of the series where they take a darker, almost more grounded turn from city onwards.

It helps with the fact that they got not only paul dini who wrote for TAS but also Kevin conroy, Mark hamill, arleen sorkin, etc. to reprise their roles from TAS, like rocksteady could've easily gotten any one else but it definitely was on purpose by them & WB to have an less family friendly, more mature, more dark oriented vision of batman using influence with the animated series. Like not just with cussing or dead bodies everywhere, its also be having conversations with the thugs implying to do some devious shit like the infamous "Joker told me to kill my sister" dialogue.

You can tell rocksteady are also huge fans because they did their research and be having riddles or references to very obscure ass villains (by comparison) like prometheus, tweedledee and dum or the great white shark, like jesus this games character bios is the first time i've seen these characters and they give you a brief run down on them. and even give "patient recordings" to the villains and even an brief sequence of Dr harleen quinzels encounter with the joker before escaping with him and turning into Harley. On top of that, they got characters in the comic this games named after like aaron cash, whom went onto become a recurring character in the series and new characters made specifically for this game like quincy sharp or penelope young whose also a major player in the plot as to why joker got himself into the asylum in the first place.

They didnt have to go so hard on the detail on making this a more unique batman story but they did. Even getting the same narrative director from urban chaos, rocksteady even implemented a few workers, security guards, etc. just in minor 2 second roles on people batman have to save and check up on. It really makes this feel a lot more lived in despite it being mostly barren. I say barren, not empty because this is a map that gets more dynamic throughout the story, going from thugs who've just broken out, to snipers who've taken guns from the armory, to the insane patients who are weak with 1 punch or counter but will latch on and drain your health to ivys pods that you need to quickly dispatch or face 3 little ball spores that'll also kill ya.

The atmosphere has peaked to the point where it hasn't been matched for its sequels or prequels. The gothic nature and the art direction of the asylum really pops out, including the designs from Harleys nurse fit, to ivys fit with wearing nothing but the arkham shirt and vine based panties and vine veins, to scarecrow having discount Freddy Krueger claws (or needles in this case), venom-roided up bane, to killer crocs massive size to even batman and joker themselves being realized with such detail, joker having a dying flower on his suit or bats having to be all scratched up with his suit throughout the game.

All with the faces looking like they're straight out graphic novel and the mo-cap featured in cutscenes also really gives it that GRIMEY feeling that's been lacking as the series went on ironically with bigger budgets and better mocap.

Speaking of animations, id be amiss to not mention those throughout the game, the little animations even the thugs or lunatics be doing, it really gives them a lot of character, from the thugs taunting batman to kiss their ass or lunatics be walking around smacked outta their mind with loose straightjackets or running at ya like toddlers. And on PC is the definitive version because on console they don't have PhysX, but if you have an Nvidia card, you can enable PhysX which makes paper, debris, shotgun shells, etc. on the floor move all over the place, even being able to break some porcelain tile floors during combat, or the debris flying during scarecrow sequences just adding to the experience. Its such a small thing but it really makes a difference.

The combat with the freeflow system punching one thug to leaping to the next, countering their attacks, doing attack takedowns and throwing them, all in a rhythm like pattern that you have to keep going otherwise it'll drop and you have to start over. To think rocksteady went from an actual rhythm combat to this more simplified less taxing version, actually makes it all the better and it was so influential, other devs just straight up copied it without realizing why it was special in the first place. Having to stun enemies with knifes who block straight punches, having to counter lunatics jumping on you to jump over others who'd cattle prod you. Its easy to learn but hard to master FULLY but when you do, you'd see some smooth as hell moves that make you feel like batman. and on top of that i do miss the actual physics the enemies have to where you can hit 2 of em at once, or how they're almost Rockstar's euphoria levels of reaction of beating their asses with the titan or throwing them at each other. Shame that isn't really there from what i remember within Arkham City, Origins or Knight when they've tightened up the combat.

Sounds definitely help, i usually don't mention sounds but when i do, its either bad or succint, this is the case of the latter, from punch sounds, specifically the 1-2-3 punch, to the bones crack in takedowns to the batarangs to the batclaw to the grappling hook to the line launcher, zipping you across the area to the explosive gel to the batglide to the sonic batarang to the cryptography sequencer, these sounds are so damn iconic and live rent free in my head for so long. Same with the music, playing nothing but that trombone notes during exploration and when the shit escalates it'll start to get more intense.

The stealth is also very simple but when you master it, you'd feel like a badass. With you typically come into a room with a handful of armed thugs covering the room, picking them off one by one and the ai having to scramble to find you. While they aren't too complex with their tactics, they make up for it by being aimbots as soon as they see you they'll shoot you. So you CANNOT be seen. there's no get out of jail free card with the smoke bomb either, you gotta be smart and get rid of em one by one quickly especially when they got "suicide collars" (heartbeat monitors) that'll go off when an enemy is unconscious. So you gotta use all the aforementioned gadgets to clear the room including getting onto gargoyles and do inverted takedowns by stringing them up on a gargoyle with a rope or sometimes to a ledge takedown which is the same thing but on most ledges. All of this to make a well designed stealth system that you can play semi-aggressively and pull off some cool shit. And its so simple to where most can clear a room without much problem but the challenge is to do it so fast within a blink of an eye.

Though it isn't all sunshines and rainbows, the unfortunate boss fights range from "alright i actually like this" to "fuck it lets reskin the titan boss", Arkham origins this is not. There's standouts like Ivys big plant battle dodging her spores (whom i hated as a kid but can easily wipe just based on timing), having to sneak in Killer crocs lair, scarecrow nightmares where you have to sneak around his vision, even peeping your head out will get you dead but then the most of the time, its the one type of fight that'll be throughout the game and that are titans, basically humans turned into roided up monsters that'll charge at you or throw bodies at you. and you just stun them with a batarang, move the hell out of the way, let them hit a wall and go in for the 1-2 punch then dodge their incoming attack and repeat until they get down and you can strangle and ride them to punch all those around you. Its fun but then you realize, 90% of the damn fights were based on titan including 2 major ones: Bane & Joker. Bane makes sense given the backstory but Joker on the other hand, you literally avoid his attacks get his boys to come in, beat them up and batclaw him onto the platform while he's distracted by jack ryders news choppers, They aren't frustrating, its just a bit repetitive of having to face again and again. And while i do miss the sillyness of the titan bosses from Asylum, I'm glad rocksteady evolved the boss fights in city. (not knight unfortunately but we'll talk about that when we get there)

Then after you beat the story you'll get to play challenge maps that'll put combat and stealth up front and challenge yourself into mastering them. Combat you'd have to use all your gadgets and moves and even a bonus on not being hit ONCE, and Stealth you get the chance to do creative shit that'll earn you a medal. Both of these have 3 medals for a certain high score on combat or all these lil mini challenges in stealth. Infinitely replayable especially the actual bonus infinite ones that has no metals but to see how long you can survive. Then there's the bonus on the PS3 and PC (You have to mod in the files tho) where you can play as the joker himself, where you can play all the maps in the original game as the joker taking down the guards, his combat and movement is different, a lot more jovial, just wacky as hell, and instead of batarangs and batclaws, he got 1 bullet in his revolver, explosive rattling teeth, and goofy x ray glasses instead of detective vision. Which is funny as hell seeing the compare and contrast between the 2.

Then there's the riddler trophies/riddles that you have to do via detective mode, which is easier than i remember, its like a combination of having to look around in the environment with some clever shit to scan like things that were out of place or stuck out like a sore thumb and also using your gadgets like the sequencer, line launcher or the batclaw/ultra batclaw to solve the riddle/collect the trophy. Ironically i did most of 'em subconsciously without any guides, only for the damn joker teeth that you have to destroy with batarangs to be hidden under my nose. On top of having to do scanning the chronicles of armadeus arkham in the island and his backstory. I'd probably take back the riddler trophies being the easiest in origins, because asylum is even easier and to think i just pass by them when i was playing this as a kid when they were so simple.

Overall, This game is a classic and while its successors did a lot of improvements, this was remembered for being the quintessential batman game for a reason.

Certified hood classic, replaying this made me remember why i loved playing this back in 08 with my big bro.

With the chemistry between rios & salem, the dialogue which is definitely suited for the fratboy PMC soldiers thing they got going on, the animations from transitional cutscenes of having to lift a gate or door up, or the little interactions you can have with your partner by pressing X (or A on 360) with dapping him up or air guitars, or the other end where you hit him in the head for doing something stupid. (which is definitely suitable for what i had to go through with the ai bot in single player but we'll get to that in a minute)

Then there's the gameplay which definitely makes it stand out from other TPS games at the time, since you are a 2 man army wink wink, you've gotta rely on your partner on either advancing, regroup, or hold position on the dpad. and if you press the button of the command again, you can order him to cover you and take all the aggro. Now, the "aggro" system is basically where whomever plays aggressively gets all the smoke, gets all the attention from enemies while your partner sneaks around and flanks enemies. Which you would HAVE to use with certain armored enemies or guys in turrets. And once you get full aggro, You and your buddy can activate "Overkill" mode which can act as a slow mo feature where you deal 2x damage and just feel powerful.

Then there's other features like "Coop snipe" where you and your bro decide to snipe 2 people close together with the snipers you've equipped, where your buddy takes one and you take the other out simultaneously. the "back 2 back" system where whenever there's a shit ton of enemies around you, you go as it implies, back 2 back with your partner, and shooting around you from both angles and even being able to turn around and cover every base in slow motion like its an action movie. and be ready to get used to hearing "STEP JUMP BRO" a lot when you have to lift up your buddy to a ledge to climb on and you have to get lifted by him.

This game's a legit time capsule of the mid to late 2000s. From post 9/11 military shooters (well sorta, after the first mission, it goes from rangers working with a batshit PMC contractor to full on PMC adventures) with the both of you suited up with body armor and bulletproof masks that you can customize but by default, its flames for salem and a scarred skull for rios. With these, the handler Alice, whose a badass hot chick with tattoos (which artists at EA dev studios might've got a type because Mirror's edge was in the same year with a similar looking hot chick with tattoos with Faith), and a hacker named "Section 8" who speaks in "L337 Speak" the whole game which is funny as hell seeing in subtitles with NO voice speaking that which is a smart move because, good luck speaking the dialogue in that text lol
On top of being a globe trotting adventure, Going from Somalia (Prologue in 1993), Afghanistan (Post 9/11 2001), Iraq (2003), Kiev (2004), An South China aircraft carrier (2008), and China & Miami (Both set in 2009), It also has a conspiracy plot of Rios & Salem finding some real shady shit happening in the PMC during their missions and they have to find out why. The plot, cutscenes, and even the clean looking models during cutscenes and missions briefings look like they're straight out of the late 2000s. and I wouldn't have it any other way.

While its a time capsule in a positive way, AOT also aged poorly in the time capsule with 2 things: 1. The bullshit artificial difficulty at times where they just send you enemies with shotguns, rockets, etc. especially in the last mission where you storm the airport and then the HQ, which holy mother of god i died more times in this than anywhere else and that's thanks to number 2: THE FUCKING AI BOT THAT "ASSISTS" YOU IN SINGLE PLAYER. You've heard this complaint before with other reviewers which unfortunately I can confirm. On one end, its competent enough to drag you into cover and revive you and provide cover. On the other end of the spectrum, it feels like its on the lower depths of the damn spectrum riding on the short bus snorting pixie stix like its pink cocaine, in other words, its genuinely pants on head retarded. Like getting lit up and not taking cover AFTER you order it to call off providing cover fire or often getting itself killed while its trying to revive you.

These 2 issues are bad enough, but combined with the gunplay you have to master with the massive recoil/bullet spread, especially with LMGs, You'd have a catastrophic clusterfuck. and this is me playing on "contractor" which i assume is this games "medium" difficulty, imagine having to play on "professional" aka the hardest one after beating the game.

So when you play this game, you need a friend, otherwise you'd have to deal with the bipolar AI who'll sometimes help out, other times you will have to babysit. Thankfully this game is enjoyable enough to get away with a 3.5/5 in solo with the aforementioned issues and 4/5 in co-op. It would be miserable if everything else wasn't solid. Seen many people say "its much more fun with friends" as a positive when it comes down to mediocre or straight up hot garbage games but I'm afraid this is legit true when it comes down to this one.

Post Review Edit This game also got a "Veterans Map Pack" DLC that i only see listed on xbox now but here's the brief impressions on that: There's extra 2 campaign missions: Kiev where they're doing screwed up experiments and an ALT ending in the final mission in miami with a different final boss. And while Kiev is, at best, more of the same, The Alternative ending/boss is where the DLC really shines but is also a bitch to get through getting shot in all angles on contractor difficulty. It's like they saw the last mission, think it was a bit much but then cranked up the bullshit by 11. But one thing, i'll actually say, its a much more satisfying finale and level than that original final boss despite that glaring issue. While the boss kept fucking throwing grenades like its WAW on veteran, its a lot less infuriating than i first expected. and instead of going for potshots like the original game, you have to actually use what they taught you in the beginning with the aggro. which its not only fitting but also far more engaging than ducking and sniping the other final boss. On top of that, Kiev and "Alternate" Miami have the best instances of Back 2 Back in this game just by the sheer imagery that stood out vs the main game. And art design wise, they really stand out as well. Kiev with its train station then going to the seedy and screwed up underground and Miami with its vault looking like a villains lair straight out of a bond film. I don't know if it's obtainable via normal means on PSN (probably due to licensing because it was "sponsored by Pontiac", so thanks a lot Pontiac) because this only adds to the game. But if you're playing on Xbox, You should download it. Its free and gives you a better final battle than the actual game did.

Here is my review for the main game

And here's my review for the initiation DLC

Welp, this is the final major dlc for Arkham origins and WB Montreal definitely saved the best for last. Continuing the pattern of the Arkham series being heavily influenced by Batman the animated series (including having most of the voices from TAS return to reprise their roles and Paul Dini Co-writing the 1st few arkham games) while being far more mature take on the batman characters and universe, this is a literal adaptation of the heart of ice episode which was Batman's first encounter of Mr freeze.

Only stretched out to an mini campaign dlc expansion only taking place in only the "new gotham" area closing off the "old gotham" and the bridge and burnley were cut off thanks to mr freeze closing everything off to make the map small and tightly constrained to just the one upper area of the main games map. Only thing to do in these is to help out the GCPD who were frozen and stop anarky's henchmen rioting in the streets.

But really you mainly traverse through the main gothcorp building to rescue ferris boyle after getting your new years party crashed by mr freeze, even getting to kick ass as bruce wayne in the beginning before donning the batsuit. Not initiation bruce but more like bruce from arkham city's intro. but you can obviously tell how the stories gonna go, but it does provide some backstory as to the relationship between batman and freeze goes and how they end up the way they are in the later games.

But the building itself is frozen from top to bottom and you gotta go through such negative degrees to the point of even trickling down your health if you stay for too long. Which is where the XE Heat Batsuit come into play. You have this big hulking armored suit which can go through very low temperature eras no problem and has the ability of "heat gloves" which are reskinned shock gloves but for a reskin, its definitely a lot more fun than i initially expected because, not only you can save frozen cops by thawing them out of ice, but also get through some frozen areas by punching through them. This coupled with the "thermal batarang" upgrade makes for a nice lil change up in origins solid gameplay.

You've also have another variant in the armored thugs category, "freeze ray" types where they have a freeze ray like mr freeze and you have to dodge that and have to target them first during combat, otherwise you'd be frozen and have to thaw yourself out via tapping A (or X for PS controllers), They're a nice challenge once you've gotten used to em. Took me a min to know how to properly deal with those and not get annoyed.

Then there's the big bad, Mr Freeze. Whom I must say, has a fight on par with city's with having to figure out different ways to stun and throw a few blows on him. Like using said thermal batarang to knock down icicles on his head, corner take downs, having to do a line takedown, etc. Its definitely a fight that i've had the most challenge with overall with the game, notice how i didnt say bullshit artificial difficulty like my initiation review. because this was actually designed well and not haphazardly throw you in without any care in the world. On top of that, you'd got all your gadgets unlocked from the jump so you can go through this dlc with little to no problems.

Its definitely the best this games got to offer, its more optimized than the base game, more focused in terms of design and its short but its sweet. Sure, the plots predictable even if you didn't watch the TAS series but its definitely worth playing after to see an additional adventure after beating the main game.

Here's my very long review for the main game

While I thought the main game did its job well standing on its own 2 feet compared to its brothers, I cant say the same for this DLC. This DLC while actually giving the earliest point of Bruce Wayne's life post his parents' murder, training with various martial arts until he reaches North Korea, seeing a new trainer who is named "Kirigi" to train him using various skills he would eventually make use for his Batman persona. Pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, This dlc is vastly underdeveloped, this being 5 maps total in one challenge mode campaign with modifiers which makes it more challenging (aka much more bullshit difficulty with the finale but we'll get to that), interspliced with very, very, very brief 30 second cutscenes between you and your sensei Kirigi even doubting an outsider can stand toe to toe with his own students.

Premise itself has potential and even very heavily draws inspiration from the likes of batman begins in terms of setting and tone. Problem arises when you see that this man has barely much to stand on his own given that he has:
- Catwoman's caltrops from city
- Shiruken, which functions as a reskin of robins from city
- Kijuki Smoke bomb, which is the only actual new gadget that acts as an invisibility trick that allows you to sneak past enemies whilst not being seen for 30 seconds with only a few uses and do a multiple ground takedown with
- the zipkick, which is not only aped from deathstroke but who also stole from robin from city

Reason why i mention or even make a big deal of this, its due to the fact that I've played much better similar fast paced, nimble, capeless characters with quick movement and combat in other games in this very series, and that initiation bruce is just another box to be ticked to play in a different style from the brawler batman or a pole swinger (city has robin and origins has deathstroke). Does NOT help when even the "concentration" vision you have is reskinned detective mode instead of something cooler like echolocation or something else that could stand out.

I could forgive all of this if the dlc was enjoyable but, really it starts out simple, becomes challenging and fun but the final boss with lady shiva was a complete total clusterfuck of epic proportions. Not even with shiva herself because she's similar to deal with like in the main game with her attacks, just updated to fit a lot more with the challenge map itself. But rather the fuckery you have to deal with BEFORE her. Iirc, you'd have to deal with regular ninjas, armored ninjas amongst other shit, but then once you fight her they bring in: the martial artists. If you don't know, you fight these nimble martial artists whom function very differently from the regular thugs you've fight in the main game. Having to hit the counter button preemptively to counter their attack and will not easily get knocked down. You can see where i'm going with this, Getting your shit pushed in and ransacked by those fucks AND shiva ends up being so artificially difficult to where its legitimately bullshit. On TOP of the aforementioned bug in my main game review where my combo inputs including counters do not register 50% of the time. Don't get it twisted either, like i said, i liked the previous maps with their difficulty (mainly the combat ones, the stealth ones are definitely "eh can take or leave it"), even though they also spawn in more enemies in the later half of the combat sequences. What i don't like is easily being cheapened out to the point of barely beating the DLC by the skin of my sack.

This is definitely the DLC WB had to get out of the way as a sacrifice out of a season pass obligation being that its the 1st offering. and it shows.

Looking past the numerous bugs that I've encountered in my playthrough, including Deadshot running around in circles during his boss fight, numerous amounts of clipping through structures unintentionally, MULTIPLE enemies/thugs getting stuck in walls, barrels, etc. and the frame rate dipping at points despite maintaining a somewhat stable fps 90% of the time, and other shit where im pretty sure i press the counter or ground takedown buttons but never registers (i had to make sure i wasn't trippin' because of a higher framerate and lo and behold i can keep up with the other games combat just fine and even the combat challenges in this but not the main campaign, wasn't just me, even saw similar complaints on steam forums) and what's not the hardest or bullshit Riddler trophies/side mission (that comes far later in City/Knight) but definitely the most tedious despite being the easiest in the series, This definitely doesn't deserve to be the redheaded step child of the Arkham franchise given how solid everything else is.

Albeit, There's the aforementioned BIG asterisk () given that theres a big elephant in the room being that this is a "you gotta make some thing while people wait for "the big game" to drop" game (think of this as the "Borderlands The Pre-Sequel" to Gearbox's Borderlands 3), I'd say a cashgrab but really its little more effort put into to be precisely called that but for the lack of a better term, that's basically what this was to WB. Even straight up Copied & Pasted AC's map with new additions to make it feel 2x bigger or denser than City including:

- needing a bridge to connect the 2 "hub central cities"
- needing fast travel points via batwing

and while i didn't notice at first, I eventually started to recognize where the locations and only made me appreciate the art direction rocksteady went for to make these locations stand out. I guess I can call that a backhanded compliment to WBM given the circumstances. They were originally the ones who developed Arkham City: Armored Edition (a Wii U port of AC) and many features in that made it into here like the shock gloves which made combat far easier than City/Knight despite again, borrowing City's Combat or investigative mode via detective vision where you can look for evidence and rewind/FF the crime scene like its a recording that even rocksteady took and ran with that idea in Arkham Knight.

Then there's 3 different changes to gadgets that weren't just straight up copied and pasted, the line launcher turns into the "remote claw" which you can string enemies up to gargoyles for a remote takedown, pull em into smoke or explosive canisters, make a tightrope you can walk on and use it as a regular line launcher. Its very versatile and easily the best change and makes me wonder why the hell bruce disassembles it by the time asylum rolls around. The 2nd being the "glue grenade" which is a prototype of the eventual "ice grenade" for Arkham City, only difference between the 2 is that one can be placed as a mine but only covering the enemies feet and not their whole body which is basically a handicap at that rate. Then the final and most useless change of all is going from the Remote electric charge gun into a "stun grenade" which functions the same purpose but is way more useless during combat more than i realized as i progress throughout the game. What makes things more puzzling is the fact that its SLOWER with its quickshot mechanic during combat than literally firing an electric projectile and only has one purpose. I've used the sonic batarang more than the stun grenade and i've rarely use that during this game than i did in asylum or city.

Its very very hard not to judge it compared to its predecessors and successor because it's got its DNA through and through but on its own merits, its got the best bosses in the series (not hard given Asylums was pretty braindead, City's rocksteady's peak and Knights was just... no.), Gave a good explanation to certain things in the series on how bane ended up being a Titan addict in asylum, or show killer croc in his VERY brief period when he was half-man/half-lizard with his human skeleton structure still intact, recontextualize batman's history with oracle/barbara gordon and her father James, The joker, the GCPD, the riddler, alfred, etc. through out the mainline arkham trilogy even if very heavy-handed and as subtle as a brick to the noggin'. But also makes room for villains not seen before in this series like Shiva, Copperhead, Anarky, Firefly & Deathstroke (Both reappear in Knight), and I'd also say electrocutioner but he's a walking punch line in game with one of the funniest but anti-climatic "boss fights" in the game.

Despite this game's eye rolling "Plot Twist" is definitely a slap in the face with the infamous Black Mask/Joker fakeout, This is an interesting story to Arkham Batman. Even more interesting factoring the DLC's to account for with the fullest extent of Batman's First encounters/training but still, seeing a much more aggressive, temperamental Bats played not by Kevin Conroy (R.I.P.) but by Roger Craig Smith, gives it enough distinction to stand out on his own. Including taking the time to include an arc Bruce's got with Alfred that really makes you feel like he truly cares about him and helps establish their relationship later on in the series.

Despite having the limitations of it being on the same framework as arkham city, it also does little things to help it stand out on its own. Like having Snow everywhere to set up the festive atmosphere taking place on Christmas Eve, really makes the atmosphere stand out with PhysX turned on making it a whole immersive experience walking through the snow. Having Bruce get his own batcave where he can do AR training to test his gadgets/combat and even talk to alfred from time to time. Even starting and ending on blackgate prison during riots, the one event that was heavily mentioned back in asylum. Even some new enemies introduced like the martial artists who you have to look out for, preemptively pressing the counter button to actually counter them in a thorough animation, and TN-1 mini bosses where they function like the armored enemies requiring the stun + combo beatdown but they charge at you like Titan Venom Bane in Arkham asylum and you have to evade quickly. Then there's "crimes in progress" pop ups or "Most wanted" side-content list that often break the monotony of flow going from one place to the next, I can definitely say I wasn't bored throughout especially after beating the main story and finishing up those. Like taking out black masks drug stashes or penguins arms deals, or finishing up lady shivas, anarky's, deadshot's & mad hatters storylines.

Well, 90% of them, The fucking riddler "most wanted" side mission is the only exception being bored out of my mind. Instead of trophies, you collect "data packs" and destroy "control towers" which are the size of cameras. And while i do think its clever to instead of dishing out recordings, make them be "encrypted" dirty blackmail pieces and having to "unencrypt" them, and they're often very close together on the map, and most are very relatively straightforward to where they can be easily missed and some require clever solutions, there are a very select few that are definitely tedious bullshit having to comb through and look up guides for.

Keep in mind: I've played the FIXED version (on GoG though apparently there's even bugs in this that wasn't on steam) and can actually 100% the main game, others don't even have that type of luxury.

Regardless, This is definitely worth having to go through alongside the arkham trilogy but be very aware of that lack of polish and even predictable but well told (for the most part) story that'll probably make you shake your head in bewilderment. There's even some plot threads from the series that this game even explains like why the asylum has to be reopened after the events of this and its subsequent mini-sequel, Arkham Origins Blackgate, and the plot thread that would have to unravel itself for the rest of the franchise.

I've already reviewed the first game here

Despite bizarrely having to reset the level back to level 12, it winds up edging out the main game for me in terms of execution, especially given now you wind up getting backstory on Kyle reese and what little characterization evans & ferrio, the other squadmates in your squad, have.

Like this DLC is very brief and is just more of the same as the main game but also wont hold any punches given its difficulty, throwing not only the main games enemies at you, but another variant, the T-650s where they're easy to take out but you need to be quick because they wield miniguns like the infiltrator mode where you play as a infiltrator terminator. This DLC is one of the only times where i DID run out of ammo and just kept hugging the cover like it was World at War.

The only sad part is that it didn't really add any actual new weapons, mostly just get the ones from the infiltrator dlc including the .45 longslide which unfortunately, like the other bullet weapons in the main game, outlives its usefulness halfway through the game, so don't get too excited.

Though this time around I found myself using stealth a LOT more than i did with the OG game, Like they give you 5 termination 1 hit kill knives during one side quest at one point. So really, it was much more preferable than to get lit up again, and again, and again, especially on hard.

What does make it through is the concept of going through the annihilation line, the very thing they warn you about in the main game of civilians and platoons getting slaughtered, and this dlc is the exact opposite of the main game where in the main campaign you'd slowly feel like you can take em head-on but in this, you're actually scared of em and was desperate to take em out thanks to the more cramped, linear design. Sometimes, I had to do a fuckin 40 yard dash to GTFO from 2 big ass T-47 robots because i was just THAT ill-equipped.

Guess this also fits the tone of the overall game but thing is, this takes place in between parts of the game, right after you capture the first infiltrator bot/during the timeskip at barons camp when you go through the rank of sergeant but definitely before the ending where you become a badass war hero, which makes it hard to recommend playing this chronologically because this dlc is much, much harder than the main game.

Which also makes it a bit predictable where as the main game i didn't exactly know how things were gonna play out until near the end. But this one given that its an inbetweenquel quasi-standalone story arc between missions, its sorta hampers on what twists it'll reveal as shocking and unfortunately what deaths is gonna happen just by realizing rivers never mentioned any of the crew despite this dlc making you feel like an inseparable team, or even the little arc he has about his father whom plays a big part on why rivers is even on this assignment in the first place. But really, while its predictable on what's gonna happen, its definitely surprised me on HOW it happens. Particularly one moment which is a huge spoiler, Made me go from "that's a neat reference-" then the reality sinks in and then it just makes me think "oh fuck.", But without spoiling it, It also does tie into T1 and why Reese is so on edge during that movie. Cant blame him after now experiencing it in a different POV.

Overall, this DLC is definitely worth 1 playthrough despite poking inconsistencies (aforementioned not mentioning any important characters moments in a prequel during the aftermath of the original, or that "time capsule" secret which you'd scratch your head on how did rivers father get THAT of all things in 2012 during the prologue.) and being a pain in the ass in terms of difficulty (beaten it on hard) and also skewed progression where it flowed naturally in the main game, should've just had different skill trees and progression, but really they had developed this like right before moving onto Robocop: Rogue City, so they'd just did what they could do to send this game a proper send off. And what a send off it was.

Man this was a surprise gem for me. I always wanted to see the future war in T1/T2 Realized in its harrowing tone rather than what salvation was and this delivered in spades.

Is it jank? Yes- God yes. Its very apparent that this was made on a shoestring budget with the animations and models which actually adds to its charm. What ISNT charming is the fact that there's not an FOV slider on PC and its so zoomed in to where any attempts of using an FOV tool just messes up and makes the weapon models disappear. The reason? turns out they had to force to have it like this on console to get around covering up the sex scenes not showing any nudity, which is fucking weirder not seeing shit than to see janky sex cutscene in its fullest, its a damn bizarre reason to not have something as simple as that. Also this next point isn't an FOV problem, but I did notice moving throughout the levels, sometimes the Level of Detail or the level having to load in terrain as you move towards another location. Which would be smart on cutting corners in terms of optimization, but it was so distracting and stuck out like a stubbed toe while trying to get myself immersed into the game.

Looking past all of that jank? An actual good terminator game with some heart poured into it. Teyon really redeemed themselves after Rambo (which now i wish they hadn't done because they more than prove their worth with 80s action classic adaptations with this and Robocop, which i cannot wait to try.) Story's very, very simple, playing as a soldier named Jacob rivers whose platoon was wiped and you need to get back to the resistance and meeting survivors along the way.

Yea nothing to write home about, but the survivors are actually refreshing and made me actually care about each of them and their backstories, actually had me doing their (very brief) side missions willingly just to build up the relationships with them even further. And the best part? these actually matter to the ending! That's right! Your actions actually matter! Though don't get too excited, its less "Fallout"/WRPG where dialogue choices matter (Most of 'em are the survivors explaining their backstories except the ones near the end) since its more like CoD Black Ops 2/Cold War where its a linear domino effect of small things can affect the outcome a bit. and it actually makes sense for the story, because without spoilers, it actually goes full circle with not only its own story but also Terminator/T2 as well. Even gives some clever recontextualization to the first 2 movies, where if you play this then rewatch those with what little info/lore they have here, it makes things go full circle a bit. Certainly more so than T3, "Genisys" (which is still a retarded name for any movie much less Terminator) and Dark Fate where they tried to leech off the first 2 while also making them pretty much pointless by the end. This, on the other hand, not only respects those movies but also its own story by not just SOLELY rely on those. There's fan service in here, loads of it, including getting to see the .45 longslide in the Infiltrator mode or the technoir music playing on an abandoned boombox, but its more endearing than eye rolling like other types of modern adaptations do.

The gameplay I'd describe a mix of metro, fallout and far cry with the outposts you'd have to destroy. Having to sneak your way past little robots with miniguns, aeriels that have a big ass spotlight looking for you in the shadows, robot spiders, turrents, scout drones, and of course, the T800s and also the "T-850s" which are the infiltrators. If you try to bum rush the last ones without explosives or plasma rifles, its over. Even with the pipe that you use as a melee does jack shit to enemies except the little spider bots, which kinda makes it useless tbh. It fits the overall desperate survivor aspect but damn i gone through 3/4ths the game without even melee-ing enemies.

This alongside lockpicking, like copy and pasted straight outta dying light type of lockpicking, not even the other types in games where its very intricate, Hacking, where its literally frogger but can be bullshit in certain levels, Crafting, Scavenging through boxes, Even exploding trucks and going through certain areas really make you feel like a Survivor going through some shit. Of course, this being a survival game, You progress throughout the game via a skill tree. Even with the hacking and lockpicking separated into 3 levels, Easy, medium and hard in the skill tree. and really, you should spend your skills on the hacker class because that would save your ass. You can hack into turrents and outposts that you'll get to destroy and try to get really creative on how to execute. Hence why i made the Far Cry comparison.

Thankfully, Unlike FC, It ain't open world so it wont get too repetitive as those and while its pacing starts really slow, it really starts to shine when you get into skirmishes during the 2nd/3rd act. Its one of those games that only gets BETTER as it goes on than worse.

This isnt without its faults though, the injections like slow mo, endurance and super speed are damn near useless and i only used those when i didnt have medkits around. Another aspects that's more useless the more you play is the gunplay of actual guns. Other than the rocket launchers and maybe the shotgun, the rest you can literally ditch after you get the plasma rifles because those are more versatile and useful than to waste kinetic bullets on machines that are invincible to those. Which had me question why the hell am i keeping the M4, Uzi, M1911 (I sold that immediately after getting the uzi and sharing the same ammo), etc. when those are literally useless. Like there's no special bullets for those, nothing. Which makes sense given you know, Terminators. but really after the 1st act, there's NO use for them. There's more use for plasma rifles and explosives like the C4, Tripwires, grenades, dynamite, etc. than those guns. Speaking of, I hate that instead of putting C4 into the throwable explosives column, its an actual weapon you have to replace 1 of your 4 weapons with. Same with the "terminator knife" which is a knife with electricity that you can use only in stealth killing T-800s. That only makes me question, Why not use that as a melee replacement and switch between that and breaking down barriers with the pipe? Hell, the inventory system is definitely needing improvements just on having to manually select the different types of grenades or medkits/injections every time you run out of one instead of just, oh i dont know- automatically switching to them after you run out like it does anyways when you put both of them into their respective columns.

That being said, I'd had a helluva time with this game by the end. Especially the final level giving you that feeling of triumph with the theme hitting just right with my ass having a shit eating grin when it started playing mowing down T-800s with finesse. That and the infiltrator side mode which lets you play as the infiltrator that was in the bunker killing survivors in T1. What a nice touch. Alongside being able to throw humans into each other with ragdoll physics like in the movies was a nice touch too. And the game teasing me by giving me the .45 longslide and the minigun, actually making regular guns actually useful in combat because you're shooting humans than nearly invulnerable machines. Though its 45 mins total and you only have 1 life like a roguelike, i still had more variety in the combat than i did with the main game where i felt like the only weapons that were worth a damn were red and violet plasma rifles.

Overall, I'm glad to play this game even with those various flaws and all, it may not have a "fuck-you AAA Ray traced, photorealistic nose hairs and pores $250 million" budget, but Teyon has really made something special in spite of everything. If you love terminator, i highly recommend to at least TRY this. Just remember to use the FOV unlocker thing if you're playing on PC. Cant wait to try the annihilation line story DLC and their Robocop game.

Its a lot longer than i expected, but damn i didn't expect for this to hit so hard as it did. I played it back in January when it shadow dropped out of nowhere (only to wind up having my game pass expire go figure), and finally got the chance to wrap it up once i've renewed it.

The one word i can describe this game is.. unique. Sure, its a hack n slasher action game but its a hybrid of that plus rhythm gameplay you'd see out of guitar hero, meshed with a Saturday morning cartoon artstyle. On top of some corporate satire which kinda reminds me of ratchet and clank but with less cynicism. Also another word to describe this game is genuine, There's not some irony poisoned energy where, y'know, people taking the piss out of very bizarre and wacky situations. I mean this game stars a dude named chai who wants to become a rockstar that can summon a guitar out of scrap metal with a robotic hand he got from an assembly line who accidentally crushed his ipod into his chest. Best thing to do is just RUN with that premise and they did with flying colors. There's actual genuine convos between chai and the rest of his gang that actually did get a chuckle out of me. Even with the added touch of CNMN, your robo pal, having to constantly draw emotions on his face with a sharpie, that you can also see with the subtitles, will always get a kick out of me. That and The endless robots with either incompetent on doing work, suffering in a predicament or just fucking around.

Once i got a hold of the gameplay, that's when things really shine. Like ive said previously, its a hack n slash combat system with a rhythm beat behind it, Just like how games like metal hellsinger or BPM winds up being FPS games with rhythm behind it. You can summon your pals with very useful one off attacks with a cooldown via a tech cat named 808 (Tango really has a thing with cats, with evil within and this and ghostwire). On top of all that, everything is synonymous with the beat. And i do mean EVERYTHING. The environments, the guitar strings when you hit an enemy, the platforms you have to jump on, even the little miscellaneous things you gotta do to go through obstacles, EVERYTHING. I haven't seen anything like this since Def Jam Icon in 2008, where the environment reacts to the rapper you beat up synonymous with the beat. and that was 15 years ago. Really props to the musicians, designers and programmers because this definitely would be a pain in the ass to pull off properly but id say they'd did good. With a game with 0 expectations that they've developed in secret might i add.

Now, This game does have options for those who are rhythmically challenged (i sure was after not playing guitar hero since 2008), but i really did not wanna enable that and actually wanting to provide myself a challenge. Though i rarely scored an A on "Just timing" which much more skilled players wont have a problem with.

The bosses are actually kind of fun and unique. Have their own different quirks and ways to beat em and I always had fun and looked forward to the next one. Except the final one which is definitely bullshit and is responsible for the most deaths i've ever had in this game, and i just wind up button mash my way through and tossed everything and the kitchen sink at him.

And i gotta say, this game definitely feels like it could've dropped in the 2000s with the music choices here, like NIN to their own OSTs. Even surprised the shit out of me by playing the prodigy at one point, whom i haven't heard in ages ever since tv ads stopped using em. That's a definite deep cut right there. That mixed with some of the action mixed with the beats, got me impressed. On top of chai imagining a crowd of people chant his name like its a concert is the cherry on top.

Then there's the artstyle, Which i can best describe as Saturday morning anime/cartoon. It does stick out and its an almost reverse on what happened with Overstrike/Fuse whereas Insomniac went from a quirky tone to UBER serious military sci-fi shlock to be forgotten, with this seeing some concepts, I was baffled on how they went from basic scifi to THIS, which is far more suitable. I cant imagine what this game would've been like if they stuck with the original concept art. Because this game wears it on its sleeve, literally jumping from gameplay to cutscene is almost smooth, because it goes from an animated segment, usually chai breaking a window INTO gameplay. Its little touches like that, that makes this one big playable cartoon (in a good way). In game, it almost like they took Ratchet and Clanks industrial/futuristic dystopia design and mix it with jet set radio. I gotta say it is aesthetically pleasing to look at and even runs well since it isn't "photorealistic".

If you haven't heard me mention the story by now, its because there's not much to talk about there, if you played a game about a ragtag team going against a corporation, You've know where the stories gonna go. Including the plot reveals which, yeah, explains a lot. Only 1 plot twist actually surprised me but i wont spoil but it also impacts the gameplay a bit. But really the characters and the interaction between them is what elevates it for me.

Overall, Id say this is one of my favorite games in this generation because on how much fun i had with it. I HIGHLY recommend checking it out, especially if you have game pass, you aint got much to lose. After beating the campaign you can also do a lot of side objectives, a "BPM rush" mode where its a turbo mode to crank the beat higher and higher, or the tower mode where your abilities are gone and you have to rework your way to the top. Or the hardest difficulty being rhythm master which, screw that, this game already filtered me by the end lol

But seriously, i cant praise this game enough. Go play it.

Massive Improvement over the original game by a wide margin. The gameplay is a lil different than i would've expected from a Ghostrunner dlc and for good reason. Instead of playing as Jack in the main game, You play as Hel, an experimental modification of the Ghostrunners semi-replacing freeflowing agility with sheer ruthlessness and super jumps.

Now if she sounds familiar, that's because she was a boss fight in the main game and you had to fight her, and parry her attacks, jumping from one platform to the next, and often shoot her "surges", as its called in this dlc, at you.

They did a really good job at, not only replicating her style into gameplay but also made it intertwine with the main games gameplay mechanics without it feeling forced or jarring. Even adding a new mechanic called "Rage" which you can fill up by killing enemies, or stand in individual powerups for a refill. And this allows you to shoot "surges" at enemies similar to Jack's. Only this time, its really necessary given its your only tool and you don't have the other abilities he had. Despite that, it worked in the dlc's favor because of the satisfying combat actually getting an additional incentive to play aggressively. In fact, I wind up playing far more aggressive overtime in this than i did in the main game because of it. If the main game is more focused on freeflow movement and strategy, then this DLC is like Katana Zero but in first person. Focusing on SLAUGHTERING those in your way.

Even the upgrades focus on aggressiveness. While it shares traits like multiple dashes, outline enemies, deflect bullets, etc. It also has its own unique upgrades like giving you a temporary shield when your rage meter fills up that can block plenty of attacks, giving you a split-second chance. or being able to change your surge into an X, just like the hel fight in the main game. Even the tetris upgrade minigame has more of an incentive giving you additional Rage abilities like Very short invincibility after shield is down and X-ray being able to see enemies through walls or Overdrive which you kill enemies by air dashing into em. Even without these upgrades, you still feel like an unstoppable force to be reckon with.

Which does suit well with the story, which i definitely prefer in terms of execution than the main game despite it being a direct prequel. While Hel is obviously a puppet just like Jack, the story of her going from Maras puppet to capture the commander after refusing her orders to straight up becoming more and more ruthless and losing it overtime makes it more memorable. No biological brain and even starting to gain willpower and becomes rebellious against Mara. The whole tone of the DLC is a lot more mean spirited with dark humor throughout which suits it nicely of the premise of playing as an unhinged killing machine. Between Hel's banter with mara being straight up being a smartass with her in a matter-of-fact way, to even a cutscene confrontation where she confronts 3 climbers, only to kill one and the other panicks and shoots himself realizing its futile to go against her, and the last one getting choked while interrogated only to get his neck snapped. Even the rebel plotline is a lot more fleshed out with the spearheader "Connor" being flippant towards his pal Diego's concerns about Us going after them, and even Zoe argues with him basically going from giving a huge speech to the masses over the comms only for him to not really risk his ass on the frontlines AND having to leave Jack behind. Its brief but its WAY more effective than the main story which treats it as an afterthought.

In terms of enemy variety? There's only 2 main bosses in the expansion and 1 new enemy type. The new enemy is a rocket propelled soldier shooting sticky bombs while flying in the air, forcing you to traverse and not stay in one singular spot. they can easily be taken down like the drones in the main game. Just jump on em and its an instant kill. and the 2 bosses, one being the aforementioned commander which acts as both a hybrid of the new enemy type and a callback (or call forward, I guess?) to the constant parrying Hel's fight. and the other, without spoiling much, is a mech whose lasers and orbs you have to dodge whilst simultaneously avoiding the shocking platforms. Yes you've read that correctly. There's a shit ton of em and while i've gotten used to their patterns, it does feel cheap as hell sometimes during combat or certain sections of platforming.

I'd still take the final boss any day of the week over that frustrating final parkour section of the main game. And if that's all i had to complain about, then the DLC over exceeds at doing what it needed to do and even overshadows the main game in terms of gameplay, story and even Music which is a tall task given the main game already has a great OST. Its short but sweet, and its a great stepping stone for what to do with Ghostrunner going forward.

The game went from a smooth solid parkour combat trial and error experience, slicing up enemies and having to deflect bullets, some enemies having a charge attack (that you gotta be quick to parry), some being big robots shooting a big fuck off laser thats the size of a brick wall, some being exploding spiders, some having the ability to play "guess whos the real one" by multiplying via mitosis, and being able to manipulate, explode/push back these bastards, slice through em like butter, traverse via slow down, dashing and even riding drones downward, slinging yourself to edges or in the air, running on walls, etc., all while trying NOT to die in one shot, alongside a good OST by daniel deluxe that'll set the scene and get you into the mood..

To the very last mission being the most rage inducing bullshit and a huge test of my patience, not the boss fight which was serviceable, rather the wallrunning sequence in the "Cyber space" where you usually get your upgrades which aren't that bad until the finale. Where you have to dodge red balls coming straight for your ass, you CANNOT slice 'em and there's a fuckton coming at you while trying to hop on platforms.

That, having to take down shield balls in order to kill enemies and maybe the upgrade system of pick and choosing which chips go in via a tetris minigame, while cool, winds up holding the game back. I'd just go for the ones that made me go a bit more agile and deflect bullets so i could go through the game smoothly.

Story wasnt much to write home about, kinda knew where it was going given i played other games where you play as a killing machine commanded by an unknown almost untrustworthy entity who betrays you in the end, only i could name another game with that premise, that's also set in a cyberpunk dystopia and that was Ruiner.

When the last cutscene happen i was like "Oh yea there was also a rebellion going on, i had forgotten all about it". Especially when the more interesting tale was rather the intrigue on the ghostrunner "Jack" as you play as him and game explaining what was your purpose, who created you and those who are trying to stop you.

That being said, It is satisfying when you play it, and while its more of a fast runner/parkour type of game and not reliant on hefty weight like Mirrors edge or dying light, I'd say this is one of my favorite parkour games that i had slept on for too long. Despite that horrible final level that almost made me thought i had a skill issue and not the fact that the level is just plain bullshit and tedious to get through more than its worth.

Dead Space had the hallmarks of a horror classic. The atmosphere is one of the best I've seen, even having a unique HUD to where it never distracts what's in front of you, the enemies and their designs are gnarly as hell, the audio design is so eerie to where when you play with surround sound or speakers, it had me looking over my shoulder. Guess this game was ahead of its time with its creepy ass whispers like its an ASMR reading. All of this to invoke the biggest sense of dread and have this urgent need to GTFO of there.

Even the story comes into the play with you playing the, now famous, engineer issac clarke and his crew consisting of hammond and kendra, to find out what happened to issacs wife on the ishimura, a huge "planet cracking" ship that can take a piece of a planet to be studied on board. and they severely fucked up by bringing in an artifact known as "the marker" on board which causes hallucinations and can reanimate people into such nasty contorted creatures aka necromorphs. and the only way those can be killed, is via limb shooting.

Speaking of which, the necromorphs, all varied, manage to have some very gruesome designs, sure you got the boomer who spews out little fuckin minions when you shoot its belly, or the annoying as hell sprinters that give you no time to breathe. but there are those which throw a curve ball at ya like the little fuckers with tendrils coming out of their shell throwing shit at you or the regenerative one which can GROW BACK its limbs and head you shot off or the armored brutes where you have to shoot its glowing weak spots to have it lie down and attempt to shoot them off surgically precise. all of these make for some unique encounters that you can appreciate... for the most part. We'll get to why i say that in the negatives.

I'm sure many know the story of this game, given how many prequels, sequels, movies, spinoffs and even a remake has now spawned from this single game. But disconnecting from all of that, it is a great executed story on its own merits. Like i've said before with the HUD, it is non-intrusive on how it executes its story. That means 0 skippable cutscenes, all in game. Most popular example of this would be Half-life/Portal titles where characters talk in front of you while you walk around or mess around with the environment. I'd be turned off by the notion of unskippable cutscenes but Not once have i felt like the controller been taken away from me and i WANTED to see what's happening on screen, or in a mini screen on issac's visor. Be it audio logs, briefings, certain story plot points, etc. The voices are well performed, especially for 2008, Your crew members sound panicked but at least assured of themselves that they were gonna escape. or those who you find on the ship like the devout unitologist (Cult worshipping the marker and its creations) or the regretful Dr. Kyne, or various members audio logs capturing their final moments before death. To say this game is pretty bleak is an understatement. And they did a damn fine job with it. Even if Issacs a mute in this, and not the sequels and remake, i still felt bad for him and you can hear some frustration and anger whenever he stomps on a necromorph and so on.

Now since you're playing as an errand boy engineer, you are limited on your arsenal, but its unique in terms of variation. Starting with the well known plasma cutter, a weapon that can vertically or horizontally shoot off limbs easily. To the line cutter, same function but on a much bigger scale and has an alt fire that acts as a trip mine. To a flamethrower that can also shoot flame balls. To an auto rifle that can alternatively scattershot multiple rounds all over the place. To the force gun which can blow enemies back or its alt being a grenade launcher. To the saw ripper that can either activates buzzsaws in the air, slicing off enemies when held or alternatively can be shot normally. or the Beam which can be charged up to fire one powerful laser shot or can be used as a AOE explosive attack, damaging or killing those around you. These are perfectly fitted and you can see issac wielding them as an engineer or used by military personnel and none of em feel out of place. And given one of my first review on here was on Bulletstorm and how im a sucker for Guns that have alt fires, I love it. On top of these, You have a stasis module which can slow enemies down and a Kenesis module which you can guess by the title, Allows you to pick up anything in the environment and pull it towards you or forcefully push it. These work well hand in hand with the weapons to provide a unique combat experience given other horror games have you either aim for the head to kill (or in RE4s case stagger 'em for a bit for a roundhouse kick) but in this, you HAVE to go for limbs. and the physics engine, given that this is a game from the 2000s and that was the hot new thing at the time, is fun to mess around with. Having to see bodies react when you stomp on em or walk past them, including limbs and gore that much more gnarly and visceral. Which is impressive given the fact that this is the same engine that powered shit like Tiger woods PGA tour and this is all Visceral (At the time EA Redwood) had to work with, with no carte blanche and having to prove themselves.

Now why do i give this a 4 instead of a 5? Few problems here and there, One, the zero G sections are very janky as hell and can cause motion sickness for the less fortunate. Which the sequel has greatly improve on. 2nd, the bullshit enemies pull, like the sprinters completely bum rushing you and leaving you no time to breathe winds up invoking not fear or being scared shitless but rather being pissed off and had me yelling "Fuck off" during the last few levels of the game, and by that point they have worn out their welcome. and finally 3rd, CONSTANT CRASHES ON PC, MY FAVORITE. Its so much worse during the final few levels than it is previously, It runs smooth at 4k144fps on my rig no problem, but it got me frustrated having to restart a section, right as i finished but before i got to save. Even the physics weren't that fucky as i feared when typically games in this era, tie their physics to frame rate.

Other than those, I can recommend this, even with the remake out there, as it shouldn't be glossed over or worse, disrespected for its "game-yness" which is far better to embrace that mixed with cinematic storytelling than to strip all of that just to seem that much more "realistic" as i seen online when comparing this to the remake. Just prepare for crashes, play with a controller (mouse and keyboard is completely FUBAR) and brace yourself with some bullshit moments of sprinters near the end.

Played during the free weekend on Steam and uh, its fine... not for goddamn $60 or $40 on sale or even worse, the infamous "double expensive fuck you give us $100+ for battle passes and skins and extra shit" edition that every game 2K has nowadays.

For a lil background: I was looking forward into playing this because Lego was a part of my childhood, especially the games, specifically Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman and that Lego RC Racer Flash game back in the day. While I sorta grew out of it, only having to watch the Lego movie, so i had missed out on the modern lego games like city undercover or Marvels superheroes/Avengers or DC super villains or the updated Lego Star Wars saga, I was willing to give this a shot since its akin to The Crew 2 but with Legos, being able to switch from Regular on road car to an off road to a boat in a flash. But knowing 2Ks practices and greedy ass nature, I passed on it for a while until i waited for a sale. So when it had a free weekend i was looking forward to it, albeit I played it pretty last minute on the final day so i only had 4 hrs of playtime but i think that's enough.

First thing I see when i boot up the game is that i need a 2K account, So i had to dig up an old ass 2K account i havent used in forever, because you need that for the following:
-Unkie monkey's Shop which can net you better vehicles
-The community made cars to download into your garage and drive in game
-Multiplayer
and so on

So you have to get an account to experience 50% of the game, which is bullshit right from the jump, then the game begins..

Game starts out with you being the new racer on the block being trained by Clutch Racington to defeat the big bad Shadow Z, With S.T.U.D assisting you and acting as a guide to the world. Speaking of which, the tutorials is so bombarding that i just skip most of it because i wanted to get to the open world and the races. the former being the highlight and the latter being ok but with one HUGE problem that ill get to in a second.

The races play like your average kart racer but the tracks are fun with that feature of transforming your vehicle on the fly, like ive said before, On road its your supercar, sports car, electric car, etc., off road its your atvs, trucks and even a drivable saucer, and in the sea its jetskis and boats, and when i say on the fly, i mean INSTANT. Seamless. and the driving feels better than expected. You can even drift! which is a miracle after playing NFS Unbound which you cant properly drift for shit. But for that HUGE problem, I cant recommend playing this game for the racing since its frame rate dips HARD during races. Even if you downgrade the resolution scale or graphics settings. (I'm willing to bet its that damned denuvo DRM shitting the frame rate alongside the constant unreal engine 4 stutters) Which is funny because in the open world sandbox it actually runs well despite having to render a larger map (well 4 different open zones) on the fly.

Speaking of which, the sandbox mode is a highlight and reminds me of shit like burnout paradise with the open world, only with a LOT more destruction physics like you can destroy other cars, destroy environment (except houses this aint Bad Company) and run over lego civvies, obviously they're not dead its a kids game but its funny knocking them on their asses. And the open world does reward such exploration and you smashing vehicles acting as collectibles rewards you with money to buy cars and different racers and XP to level up to race. Even have powerups such as jetpacks later on in the game which lets you not necessarily fly, but hover.

The progression isn't as smooth as id like it to be tbh, while You level up after finishing races but then the game starts to halt your progress and pad it out with minigames including destroying robots from destroying generators, getting car parts to repair someone's car and saving civvies from zombies, while the novelty is fun the first time around, it gets old pretty fast.

So in my 4hrs of playing, I'd say wait for a deep, DEEP sale and for 2K remove fuckin Denuvo or patch the frame rate which probably is unlikely given they're shitting out NBA and WWE games annually.

This was the most disappointing CoD Treyarch has put out.

Usually i go by the run down of Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies but this has No Campaign, Went though so much development hell including a 2v2 competitive mode with One team taking out the enemy and one protecting it, And a more cinematic version of what we got, and what we got is "Specialists HQ", A glorified tutorial mode for the multiplayer specialists that you've come to know and love (or hate) from BO3. Except more "tactical" (Expect that to be the theme throughout this review because its sure the theme of the entire game. But I digress.)

The Story- Ok, the "Thesis" of Specialists HQ is seeing the backstories of the specialists you'd play within BO3 and 4, Some returning from 3 and Some new but revitalized certain streaks/abilities from last time. I'll delve deep into their abilities in a bit, But the real Lore, fucking story thing was Mason's granddaughter Savannah in 2040's being the worlds first trillionaire in the BO universe, using the money to form the specialists to change the world. Only to have a severed relationship with her sister Jessica, with a Mission gone awry disfiguring her. and having a really bonkers plot of reviving the dead characters we knew and love (no, not that kind of way, but we'll get to that eventually.) via "Project Blackout". This includes Woods, Their Granddad Alex, Viktor Reznov and get this, Raúl Menendez. Yes. The commie revolutionist bastard you killed in BO2, is not only revived but also somehow running the show within this program and has conflict with Jessica. Who in turn warns the specialists about Savannah tying up loose ends and offing all of them. Its as stupid as it sounds. Now, if you noticed the title "Project Blackout", You'd assume that the story would continue within the blackout battle royale mode. Which you'd be correct on that assumption, Only to realize this was PRE-Warzone 1.0 where they tried to follow up the story within the live service model. But nope. All you have is loose ends, Audio logs detailing savannahs conflict with menendez and uh weird as fuck relationship basically with her granduncle woods, and a cliffhanger ending suggesting woods brainwashing mason and setting up plans in the verrukt asylum and the specialists planning their plot against savannah. I shit you not, that was the whole gist of the plot. and if you think this is all sloppy and not as concise as my previous CoD reviews, I'd understand because its EXACTLY how its executed. As a Makeshift Prequel to BO3, It failed and even manage to put a bittersweet ending given how its implied BO3s MP is all a simulation. and As a sequel to BO2, (and By extent BO1/WAW) its horrid. It basically spits in the face of those who were invested into the history of these characters and has a resolution of reviving the dead, again, not in a zombie like fashion, unsolved because after this, the series goes back to the era of BO1 with Cold War being set in the 1980s.

Now, How does the gameplay of Multiplayer and Blackout fair since those are basically the main throughline of this game?

Multiplayer is more "Tactical", Replacing your usual tactical/lethal grenades with a specialist ability and a Health stim. You heard me correctly. No health regen in this shit. Which would make the gunfights more intense and one of the few things i'd give credit for this game. That and the gunplay is a lot more weightier than any CoD before, Not as weighty as the overhauled gunplay in MW19-the current MWII, but More weighty than any of the previous black ops games, OG modern warfares, WWII games and Standalone titles like AW, Ghosts and Infinite warfare. Like there's more recoil kick, more impact with the sound effects. (as long as you don't put on the optional "death effects") And in the create a class you can even have perks that include having 2 secondary weapons called "underkill", polar opposite of "Overkills" 2 primaries, and the other being Operator mods within the weapons that can change a weapon with minor or major changes. Like you can dual wield the saug 9mms and ballistic knives, have a belt-fed mag on an smg with the cordite, a bayonet on the Vapr-XKG, and an LMG called Hades having a horizontal grip replacing ADS like the chainsaw from ghosts or the Finn from MW19. Gear alongside the health stim, would be including a acoustic sensor that make people appear on the mini map via directional ping, Body armor, COMSEC which allows you to earn scorestreaks 20-25% quicker and an equipment charge that allows you to recharge your equipment faster.

As for the abilities, You have a lethal/tactical side powerup and an "ultimate" powerup. this consists of Specialists:
- "Ruin" with the power slam, a battering ram-shaped device that'll kill off enemies around ya and have a grappling hook and traverse the map like you're batman (so much for the boots on the ground marketing gimmick.)
- "Prophet" with the electric sniper that shoots electric bolts that incapacitates the enemies into a "downed" state and a seeker bot that stuns enemies for an easy kill
- "Battery" with a war machine grenade launcher and a semtex grenade that spawns mini grenades when detonated
- "Seraph" rocking a revolver hand cannon that hits like a truck and a respawn beacon
- "Nomad" sending in an attack dog and trip mines you can place anywhere
- "Firebreak" wielding a flamethrower and a nuclear core that incinerates those around you and can kill you if you overheat it
- "Spectre" who has a katana and smoke grenades
- "Reaper" whos got a Detached double barrel turret and a scrambler that can be shot and stick onto any direction
- "Recon" rocking NVGs that has vision pulse, detecting enemy outlines to the entire team, and a radar that functions similar to reapers scrambler that can be shot and stick onto any direction
- "Crash" who can heal/boost everyones health with his touchscreen tablet, and an ammo pack that can replenish others ammo and gives bonus score with kills
- "Zero" who is a hacker and have emp grenades and can hack enemy equipment and scorestreaks
- "Torque" who has barbed wire and the guardian killstreak from BO2 but bigger and provides larger cover, to incentivize camping
- "Ajax" who has a 9bang flashbang and a Riot shield/machine pistol hybrid that you can stick the pistol into and shoot while the shields up and block (most) bullets
and - "Outrider" who has a explosive bow and recon drones

Now this sounds all gimmicky and shit for a cod game, more so than the predecessor (or successor chronologically) Black ops 3, Why is that? Its because thanks to the development of this heaping pile, it was originally inspired by the likes of Overwatch and R6 siege in particular. Scorestreaks weren't even in the game and Advanced movement was gonna be prevalent. and the scorestreaks was gonna be certain specialists ultimate/ability, like ajax with the riot squad, nomad with the RCXD, torque with the sentry, etc. and suddenly the comparisons made a whole lot more sense. and the maps are certainly designed for more mobile movement than "boots on the ground". So now we have a scenario of its CRACKED for a boots on the ground cod but its slow for a "futuristic" one. Even the perks and pick 10 system that return, Weren't even planning to return iirc. Its a cataclysmic disaster that wind up having the MP revamped from something that was dated and chasing a lot of trends, to now something a bit more half-assed but "traditional cod", chasing hero shooter/"tactical" trends and will be forgotten.

Same with the Blackout mode, Which unfortunately is a shame because as a "10 year anniversary for treyarch cods since WAW" type of deal its a fun celebration with Campaign, MP and Zombies POIs on a huge ass map, especially for CoDs standards at the time. and you can feel the struggle of the dated engine being from forked from idtech3. Yes its reusing THAT engine to create a 100 (well 88 standard) player battle royale. Those who aren't familiar with the mode, its the survival of the fittest between all players on a huge map having to scavenge weapons (and their attachments), health kits, armor, backpacks for more room, etc. and be the last man or group standing. How blackout does things differently is that it also has the MP perks that can be activated for a short period of time like dead silence to make your footsteps quieter. and quest items to unlock your favorite zombies, MP and Campaign characters. Oh yea that's also another selling point, You can play as basically almost all notable characters in the Blops series in this. Excluding the presidents, Mobsters from MOTD, Celebs from COTD (except Danny trejo, he can be played as), the Shadows of Evil crew, the crew from Dead of the night- Yea basically all the celebrities they couldn't get. But other than that, You can play as the OG zombies crew from WAW-BO1, the Tranzit crew from BO2, the "Primis" crew from BO2 Origins-BO4, The newly introduced "Chaos" Crew unfortunately only in BO4, Even the cosmic silverback from Dead Ops Arcade 1 & 2. Along with the aforementioned specialists and Campaign characters. And have the "Dangerous Cloud" closing in make you see the sleeper agent numbers and certain POIs be Zombies maps like Call of the dead, Tranzit, Verruckt, Buried having actual zombies spawn in and MP maps like Hijack, Nuketown, Firing Range. And even have a Separate Map that is Alcatraz. The entirety of it. Like I've said, its almost like a celebration of the whole BO series than it is an actual game with its own sense of identity. As fun as it is running matches and getting very few wins, specifically back on my PS4, Its not really worth having to sacrifice the campaign for it.

and Finally, Zombies. Arguably, the only damn redeeming thing about this game, and even that has its faults. Lets start positive, Custom Mutations allows you to play and customize however you want to play zombies, what round you wanna start with, how many downs you wanna have, how much health the zombies have, etc.
Having that and multiple modes like Classic, and new modes: Rush and Gauntlet does offer replayability, specifically gauntlet more than rush. Rush is a simple mode of having to gain the most amount of points among the players win, Gauntlet on the other hand has all these challenges you have to do each round, and if you fail 3 times you lose. Can put on all the attachments on most weapons just like in MP. And It has 8 maps total, 4 on launch (without dlc its 3 maps) and they all provide vastly different experiences between 2 storylines: 4 being on Our continuing "Aether" Storyline and the other 4 being on the Newly formed but unfortunately cut off short "Chaos" Storyline.

And here's where the underwhelming rants begin. Starting off, Said maps were 4 original maps and 4 "reimagined"/remasters. Now if you been following along on the troubled development and insinuations toward the chaos storyline being cut short, You can guess which storylines were the 4 original maps and which one had the remasters. and it wasn't supposed to be that way originally. it was supposed to be more maps upon the chaos storyline and i assume a "year 2" of aether maps. But seeing BO4 wasn't doing so good and Activision plucked treyarch's manpower to complete cold war after a falling out with Raven Software and Sledgehammer, On top of so many other factors like the black ops pass, and massive budget cuts and outsourcing, Both got the short end of the stick. Chaos Story consists of a new adventure of a woman named scarlett rhodes looking for her father with her ragtag of companions after a cult has kidnapped him and the artifacts begin a trial to test the worthiness of people who are inside the circle. Which also causes anomalies like the deformed mystery box made of people or turning people into zombies, catalysts that turn into bosses, and so on. You play with Scarletts crew consisting of her, Diego, Shaw and Bruno on most of the Chaos maps except Dead of the night. That being a prequel consisting of Tywin lannister or Charles Dance from GOT fame, Kiefer Sutherland from 24 and also previously was in CoD as Roebuck from WAW. Brian Blessed who was in Star Wars, Tarzan, and Flash Gordon, and Finally Helena Bonham Carter, Who if you watched Tim burton movies, You'd know exactly who she is.

Regardless, That had a storyline dealing with greek mythology and a lot of crazy ass shit including zombie tigers, a boss called the "blightfather" who is this 3 legged creature that can spawn brutally tearing out of someones body, same with variant zombies like the shrieker and fire zombies similar to the one in BO1's Shangri-la, One powering up and increasing zombies health, and finally one spewing poison, Gladiators that throws axes and blades at you or just lunge towards you and slices at you, Nosferatu, Werewolves, Stokers who were crew ship members who attack you with a big ass shovel, Skeletons, and Six armed Giants. All in 4 Maps, Voyage of despair being on the titanic, IX being an Hallucinogenic gladiator arena, Dead of the night being in a mansion in a party gone wrong and finally Ancient Evil set in an underground delphi, greece. Basically everything the zombies team and Jason Blundell by extension wanted to do without the restrictions of being on the Aether storyline. I mentioned him because halfway through the lifecycle when he starting to part ways with Treyarch, You can see why it got shelved, It was the one that was the most advertised, the one the most budget put towards, including CGId/In game cutscenes, the one that actually makes sense with the modern mechanics of BO4, the one thats basically his baby, and when he dipped and the budget was cut, it was over with the chaos storyline. Shame too because it actually had something going for it, just a shame that its also coincided with the aether storyline with long awaited remasters that didn't make it with Black Ops 3's Zombies Chronicles DLC. That being Blood of the Dead (Mob of the dead remaster), Classified ("Five" Remaster but with the OG "Ultimus" zombies crew), Alpha Omega (a Reimagining/expansion of Nuketown zombies with the underground section from blackout, with both "Ultimus"/"Primis" crews playable) and finally Tag Der Toten (Call of the Dead with the Tranzit Crew).

Mechanics consist of very, very strange changes with the perk system, Instead of looking for the perks and buy all of em on the map or at least the useful ones, You're now forced to choose 4 perks of 18 perks in the main menu. Like ive said before, only chaos benefits from this system and only one map of the 4, and that was IX where the statues are literally erected (hehe) up in 4 different directions. The rest either are confusing as shit to find within the maps or easy to find because of the map layout (if you played Five or Mob, the perk machines are in the exact same spots excluding one being in a few new areas they've added.) Its restrictive response to BO3's Perkaholic which can let you get every single perk on the map, but then also have that as a "elixir" but instead of every single perk, its the 4 perks you have plus 4 random extra ones. As for the "elixirs" they are basically like gobblegums from BO3 but a lot less useful and more situational, can do a variety of things like spawn power ups or teleport you to a random location amongst many other things. and i've never bothered with talisman aka the "extra" starting power, like starting a game with another life or even starting it with an LMG. Thing is, they're only activated once per game and those are often a bitch to get in the laboratory which requires nebulium plasma, a currency earned in zombies.

Why is this change happened? According to Treyarch, they wanted to get rid of "Crutch" Perks like Juggernog or Speed Cola or Double Tap, You know, the 3 of the Original 4 Perk a Colas that was in the mode ever since the very beginning? Only to get OP perks like Winters Wail, Getting hit freezing zombies around you or Death Wish that can let you off with 1 HP instead of going down for a short period of time. On top of those, thanks to criticism and backlash, they wind up adding in 200HP (4 hits like Jug) on start up on normal, Speed cola when you buy all 4 of your perks, and double tap if you pack a punch 4 times to get the full damage. Right i forgot, You need to needlessly pack a punch 4 times to get the full amount of damage when it was a one and done before. (or 2 and done in BO3)

Then there's the specialists, Yup in zombies there are specialists but unlike BO3 where you have to find the parts or do steps to earn it, you just spawn in with it and just charge it up during the game. This is a huge get out of jail free card that even i just find abusing more than id like. The Chaos side has: - Viper and Dragon, a Shotgun and sword combo that can be upgraded into explosive rounds and can make an AOE attack distracting and killing zombies in its wake
- Scepter of RA, a steady beam burning zombies and can revive teammates and can create a bubble to slow down and damage enemies
- Hammer of Valhalla, just swinging around a big ass hammer and shooting and summoning a shit ton of lightning like you're mighty Thor towards the enemies akin to the wunderwaffle
-Chakrams of Vengeance, Which is self-explanatory, one can be thrown and the others for melee and can activate a shield that can kill and damage those around you temporarily

and for the Aether Storyline:
-Hellfire, a Flamethrower that can summon fire tornadoes
-Overkill, a death machine minigun with grenade launcher that can turn into a nuke
-Path of Sorrows, Takeo's katana that can slide through zombies like butter and provides camouflage
And -Ragnarok Dg-5, Similar to its BO3 counterpart, can slam down and killing zombies in its path similar to the gravity slam and can click together to shock zombies near you and finally can turn into a huge tornado that can electrocutes and snares enemies and slam em to the ground.

All of this winds up becoming theoretically the easiest zombies, only being harder than cold war which can be a complete snoozefest that can easily hit into round 50 if you know what you're doing. But they manage to "balance" in a damn PVE mode that many aren't really complaining too hard about. It changed but also half-asses their change by going back and adding in shit that everyone came to expect in the first place.

That sums up BO4 succinctly, Change for the sake of it, and Ruins what made the first 3 Black Ops games (and WAW if you wanna count that as well) so fun and interesting to just this. A "Tactical" Multiplayer that was supposed to be originally an Overwatch clone, A Battle Royale Mode which is now overlooked by its newer Free 2 Play counterpart Warzone (which now is overlooked by its newer, newer counterpart, formerly known as WZ 2.0 and is gonna be soon shutting down its servers) and finally A zombies mode that not only screws up what made good before and also screws itself on what could've been. Its worse than BO2 in terms of overambition and cut content and promises, At least BO2 HAD A CAMPAIGN AND A SENSE OF IDENTITY (Zombies is a little split in the middle in terms of identity like here) and that's also a consequence of having no campaign, No setting a unique tone between all 3 modes intertwined. Not like Modern Warfare (Both OG and Reboots) or WAW or Black Ops 1-3 and So on. Black Ops 4 is a game that the more i think on it, the worst it gets and its painful to think about the missed potential in the zombies and "specialists HQ" mode, or just no potential within multiplayer being botched or stolen all the resources and potential and put it in Blackout, only for that shine getting stolen, merely a year later.

The future is black.

This game was special seeing this was one of the games i was heavily anticipating in 2012 and was surprised on the sci-fi near future direction the series and the franchise as a whole taking in. (at the time, nowadays its 2 years out from being considered "modern")

It (mostly) did not disappoint. Put it like this. Campaign is by far, not only the best of the "futuristic" cods, not only the best campaign of the black ops series, and that's saying a lot given the past 2 games but also the best written Treyarch CoD campaign its not even funny. Multiplayer, while being completely overblown and overhyped while many overlooking a lot of shit that was frustrating, is solid. and Zombies... well.. that was the disappointing aspect. Like only 2 of the 6 maps were actually well rounded experiences by comparison, and one of them is executed far better than the other. I think you can guess which maps i'm referring to.

Campaign is the best part of BO2 by far. The thing that makes it stand out from the others including the games before is the branching storylines. This is the only CoD other than Cold War that manages to do that, except much more in depth given the amount of time the devs got to make such branches, even the little things you'll do in the story, leads into something else completely. Including the strike force missions, which isn't really fond of with most but i definitely enjoyed it as a change of pace between campaign missions despite its faults with the Ai soldiers just being absolute glue sniffers. or the RTS overhead "tactical view" being just sluggish in controls. Which is a huge problem given its supposed to be a FPS/RTS hybrid and what little knowledge i've known of RTS, that's no bueno. Would rather just play as the grunts on the ground in first person or one of the drones/walking tanks. Really reminds me of the older CoDs where you were really a cog in the wheel and not a one man army protagonist. Then there's the story, which involves Alex Mason and his son David "Section" Mason dealing with a tragic revenge plot by a Nicaraguan gunrunner named Raul Menendez that spans across between the mid to late 1980s to 2025. All after Alex crosses paths with him with an OP saving his battered friend Frank Woods gone awry. And Woods tell David all the stories about Menendez in a retirement home and why he's launching a cyberattack upon the world and fancies himself a revolutionary into a populist movement called "Cordis Die". Now this story is very bittersweet by the end because you'd lose a lot of people throughout, some Canon, others optional or just made the wrong choices and having to witness brutal consequences without spoiling too much. It has you spend some time with each of the side characters including standouts like admiral briggs (played by Tony Todd) or Harper (played by Michael Rooker), very, very briefly throughout the story and has you make decisions that'll affect them in huge ways. In terms of gameplay, its a lot more custom than before. Sure its your linear campaign shootouts but it does have little deviations here and there's a perk called "Access points" which can net you some extra equipment like throwables (Mortar Bombs and Molotovs make a comeback after WAW), Mines, Bear Traps and Flak Jackets, and for the future missions, being able to have drones shoot enemies you target, Galvaknuckles (a brass knuckles/tazer hybrid that'll make enemies vomit when hit) or a straight up invisible/translucent camo cloak. On top of all of these, You can also Create your own custom class like in Multiplayer. From Attachments to Perks, Grenades, and even whole weapons that you can unlock through the campaign and also additional challenges. With all of these innovations, This campaign is very replayable.

As for MP, its funny seeing a lot of discussions online getting nostalgic after witnessing its MP just get eviscerated for such gimmicks like the shock charges, the quickscoping, the lag compensation (back when i played on PS3), the target finder/LMG combos, bouncing betties, the head glitching and the campers. Now all of that being said, Is it the worst Blops multiplayer? No, not by a long shot. That goes to Black Ops 4, i vehemently hated that cobbled together overwatch knockoff hybrid pile of dogshit. Is it solid? Yes, in spite of the aforementioned gripes, and it being very SMG/Sniper dominated, and the removal of the customization of your soldier and removal of the extra gadget slots that BO1 had. It winds up having its own system famously known as the "Pick 10" within the create a class. where you have up to 10 slots to pick your gun, sidearms, attachments, perks, lethal/tactical grenades, and wildcards. You'd have to sacrifice something in order to build a proper loadout. I can see where they are going with this, gotta build a class with a competitive edge but at the sacrifice of say grenades for extra attachments or perks. Thing is, This just gives an incentive to just straight up have the map be dominated by the likes of DSR50 snipers, MP7s, AN94s with a shit ton of perks on top of that. Went from its theoretical customizable premise to just straight up pigeon holing into using this certain type of class setup. The things it did well where the introduction of score streaks, rewarding gamers to PTFO-ing (play the fucking objective) and getting kills instead of just going on a killstreak, the score streaks themselves really taking advantage of the future setting, Including the quadcopters and little AGRs from the campaign, a "hunter killer" drone which you can chuck or "YEET" at an enemy and it'll explode on 'em. or the highest streak being a whole swarm of that which'll make the lobby quit FAST. and then there's the Maps which ranges from those i actually love (Grind, Raid, Magma, Express, Standoff, Plaza, Rush, Hijacked, Yemen) and those i don't give a shit about (Meltdown, Overflow, Mirage, Cove, Detour, Aftermath), and its definitely a testament on how these maps were solely designed made for BO2's gameplay, because remastering them for BO3-Cold War just doesn't fit with those types of playstyles what-so-ever. I occasionally go back to this MP via the Plutonium client which does fix the issues of Lag, Host migration, etc. of the issues i mentioned earlier but now going back 11 years later, just made me remember all the shit many just gloss over.

Zombies, well this was a disappointment back in 2012 where we only had the Tranzit/"Green Run" pseudo-open world Map and Nuketown Zombies. Throughout those years we had either a choice of a huge map filled with fog to cover up or mitigate the issues of the 7th gen consoles and its old ass engine that's a heavily modified IW engine, which itself was a modified idtech3 engine, or a Multiplayer map turned zombies map with an RNG system where perks and Pack a punch drop from the sky.

Though it wasn't all bad, it does have a new version of Double Tap called "DT 2.0" which not only is rapid fire but also does 2x the damage and has a change of shooting the equivalent of 2 bullets for the price of 1. A new perk in Co-op (Yes, unfortunately exclusive to Co-op) called "Tombstone" which when you die and respawn in the next round, you can get all of your weapons and perks back. A New mechanic that's in most of the BO2 zombies maps called "Buildables", and these are basically survival tools you can make on a tool bench akin to Dead Rising 2. Though these require 3-4 parts to build, on Mob and Origins you can carry multiple parts at once vs Tranzit, Die Rise and Buried you have to hold one piece at a time. Tranzit had the most of these, most of which were straight up useless. Most of the time you wouldn't need to use a turrent or an electric trap because both needed a electric turbine. and the shield is more so useful as protection than actually use it to hit zombies or worse, actually setting it down and leaving it to break within a few hits unless you picked it up. Then there's the J E T G U N. So basically, it was hyped up on being the next wonder weapon with the likes of Thunder gun except instead of blow, they hit the switch to S U C C to suck in the zombies right into it, like a jet turbine. Only thing is, It breaks after like 30 continuous seconds of usage, so you're just stuck having to press and hold the fire button for a few intervals to prevent it from breaking. You may think "oh ok, then we can just rebuild it", except, Remember the aforementioned Parts system? Where you can only carry 1 at a time? Its a depressing wonder weapon, mainly on how it has so much potential yet its squandered. And lastly, 2 mechanics that were only in Tranzit, Die rise and buried are the Bank and the locker. Banks can store points you usually earn in zombies up to 250k points and can withdraw at any time. Lockers can store any non WW weapon in a fridge, even pack a punch and can be taken out at any time.

Now throughout 2013, You have maps like Die Rise which takes place in Chinas skyscraper which includes sweatshops, restaurants and hotels/stores. Good idea on paper, only to find out that its all based on verticality and DOESNT HAVE THE ONE PERK THAT ALLOWS FALL DAMAGE TO NOT EXIST. Even worse, it trolls you by teasing it to you via an easter egg troll but you can never buy it. That plus the wonder weapon being a makeshift squirt gun that shoots out a purple substance akin to fabuloso but a lot more bubblier and slippier. for both you AND the zombies. and a new perk that's a quasi-replacement for quick revive, called "Whos Who". and it involves you go into a limbo state when you go down to revive yourself with nothing but a pistol. and i do mean NOTHING. so if you go down, that's it. So, you have a map that has no way to mitigate fall damage, a perk that legit is more risk than reward unless you're skilled enough and a gun that slips and slides you all over the place. Its definitely as frustrating as it sounds.

At this point, All hope was lost for a GREAT zombies map, Until Mob of the Dead comes along. A Zombies map made by at the time "Campaign team" led by Jason Blundell instead of the "Zombies team" whom made the maps from WAW-BO2's Tranzit, Die Rise & Buried led by Jimmy Zelinski. A standalone map that is separate from the main zombies story (well now its been retconned smack dabbed into the middle of it thanks to BO3-4), All involving 4 gangsters in Alcatraz Prison: Billy Handsome, Sal Deluca, Al "The Weasel" Arlington and Finn O'Leary. All played by celebrities Ray Liotta, Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pantoliano, and Michael Madsen. All starred in such crime classics such as Goodfellas, Sopranos, Reservoir dogs and The usual suspects. Blundell really had an A list celebrity cast, for a zombies map set in Alcatraz prison, this gotta be some Call of the dead self aware wink wink nudge nudge shit- NOPE. Its a somber story of 4 gangsters having to try and escape the prison via a makeshift plane after a botched escape in reality, only to realize they're in a hellish purgatory with a zombie outbreak and in a loop of trying desperately to escape but wont be able to unless they break the cycle. All while introspectively thinking about their regretful pasts and feeling nothing but remorse. This is the most somber, depressing, most memorable and well written story in zombies. Even when you go down in Co-op you can hear their regrets and them recounting their past while bleeding out.

All of this while being juxtaposed with a gameplay that's beautifully intertwined with the story/easter egg without being convoluted or too "Hand-Holdy". Thanks to the new mechanic "Afterlife mode", now this time Completely replacing quick revive in solo, whenever you go "down" you can go into this mode, solve puzzles, gain parts of the escape plane or the new wonder weapon, "The Blundergat" (exactly as it sounds like an unholy combo of a blunderbuss and a Gatling gun) and revive yourself. Thing is, You have to revive yourself since its on a timer, and you got a limited amount of time before you fully bleed out. (or go into a down state in co-op)

On top of that, there's an upgrade than can turn an blundergat into an "Acidgat" which shoots out 3 canisters of acid to melt zombies. a lot of things really fit into this theme of being a hellish prison, the new perk "electric cherry", unlike the previous perks where their sole purpose is to get you or your stuff back, it does an AOE attack by shocking zombies while reloading your gun. Tying into the whole "death by electric chair" thing that's happened to 3 of 4 of our mobsters, and that is a mode transportation going from the golden gate bridge to back into the prison. Then there's the acidgat and traps like the acid shower for the zombies. You can get a "Golden Spork" as a melee weapon that is very powerful, and a special tomahawk called the "Hells Retriever" which can go through a ton of zombies and even grab powerups in impossible range.

I can go on for hours and hours but Mob of the Dead was the peak of BO2 Zombies and not even the follow-ups Jimmy's "Buried", The last map with the Tranzit crew for BO2 and Blundell's "Origins", A Semi-reboot/prequel map in an alternate universe with different version of our OG crew called "Primis" (Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen) can really follow it up. BO2 Zombies is what i liked to call "over-ambitious, a little confused with its identity with some bright spots here and there". Even more so given all the modes, Including a "Turned" mode which is a PVP mode about 3 player controlled zombies vs 1 poor bastard trying to survive the longest to make it out, And "Grief" which for the first time is a 8 player mode for zombies, a 4v4 mode to see which side wins, in Green run's town and Buried, its the CDC vs CIA. In Mob, its the prisoners vs the guards. On top of cut content that can be summed up as a page long if not more. Including a mode called "Meat" which you play hot potato between two teams and the one who has the rotten "meat" is the one zombies swarm. and the other PVP mode being "race" which is pretty self-explanatory. The weakest installment overall for CoD Zombies compared to BO1 & BO3.

Overall, Black Ops 2 is a solid but Mixed bag in terms of modes. Certain things like Campaign and MOTD is arguably Treyarch's peak in terms of writing, MP is solid but not the Peak CoD multiplayer as its made out to be, even thought this back in 2012/2013. and Zombies, 50% of it is just not good, even frustrating at times. the other 50% is actually solid though Origins is a royal pain in the ass with the panzersoldat and Buried is almost a snoozefest with how easy it is with its new wonder weapon the Paralyzer, a gun with unlimited ammo that freezes zombies into place and kills em but needs to be on a cooldown, but unlike the jetgun, it. does. not. break. and a new perk called "Vultures aid" which can make you temporarily invisible to the zombies within a green gas.

A solid, even if a bit over ambitious, followup to one of my favorite games.