Vitocco11
27 Reviews liked by Vitocco11
English/German below
Another great Star Wars game from Respawn. I'll start with the negative, the open world was a bit overloaded for me and distracted too much from the story progress.
Cal Kestis works best for me in a linear story adventure. Nevertheless, the gameplay was phenomenal again, it's just fun to experience progress, learn new things and, above all, you weren't completely at the beginning. The landscapes were breathtaking and pulled you into the great world of Star Wars.
Cinematically and in terms of story presentation, it was to my liking. Some characters deserved more time, but it was great to meet some familiar characters.
I'm really looking forward to part 3 and part 1 was the best so far for me. Star Wars offers so much and it's finally being used again.
4/5 lightsabers.
--------------------------------------german---------------------------------------
Wieder ein tolles Star Wars Spiel von Respawn. Ich fang mal kurz mit dem negativen an, die Open World war für mich teilweise etwas überladen und hat zu sehr von dem Story Progress abgelenkt.
Cal Kestis funktioniert am besten für mich in einem linearn Story-Adventure. Trotzdem war das Gameplay wieder phänomenal, es macht einfach Spaß Fortschritt zu erleben, neue Dinge zu lernen und vor allem war man nicht völlig am Anfang. Die Landschaften waren atemberaubend und haben einen in die tolle Welt von Star Wars gezogen.
Cineastisch und von der Storydarstellung war das nach meinem Geschmack. Manche Charaktere hätten noch mehr Zeit verdient, aber es war toll einige bekannte Figuren zu treffen.
Ich freue mich sehr auf Teil 3 und Teil 1 war für mich bisher der beste. Star Wars bietet soviel und endlich wird es wieder genutzt.
4/5 Lichtschwerter.
Another great Star Wars game from Respawn. I'll start with the negative, the open world was a bit overloaded for me and distracted too much from the story progress.
Cal Kestis works best for me in a linear story adventure. Nevertheless, the gameplay was phenomenal again, it's just fun to experience progress, learn new things and, above all, you weren't completely at the beginning. The landscapes were breathtaking and pulled you into the great world of Star Wars.
Cinematically and in terms of story presentation, it was to my liking. Some characters deserved more time, but it was great to meet some familiar characters.
I'm really looking forward to part 3 and part 1 was the best so far for me. Star Wars offers so much and it's finally being used again.
4/5 lightsabers.
--------------------------------------german---------------------------------------
Wieder ein tolles Star Wars Spiel von Respawn. Ich fang mal kurz mit dem negativen an, die Open World war für mich teilweise etwas überladen und hat zu sehr von dem Story Progress abgelenkt.
Cal Kestis funktioniert am besten für mich in einem linearn Story-Adventure. Trotzdem war das Gameplay wieder phänomenal, es macht einfach Spaß Fortschritt zu erleben, neue Dinge zu lernen und vor allem war man nicht völlig am Anfang. Die Landschaften waren atemberaubend und haben einen in die tolle Welt von Star Wars gezogen.
Cineastisch und von der Storydarstellung war das nach meinem Geschmack. Manche Charaktere hätten noch mehr Zeit verdient, aber es war toll einige bekannte Figuren zu treffen.
Ich freue mich sehr auf Teil 3 und Teil 1 war für mich bisher der beste. Star Wars bietet soviel und endlich wird es wieder genutzt.
4/5 Lichtschwerter.
Tears of the Kingdom is more Breath of the Wild. I loved Breath of the Wild, So I was very happy to fall in step alongside its successor, and launching the game and advancing through the Great Sky Islands was among some of my happiest gaming moments. I was over the moon to be able to experience the joy that was exploring Hyrule all over again. Everything has been made bigger, flashier, louder, crazier than you could ever ask for.
Which is why I feel so conflicted. Initially I was certain that I might be playing the greatest game ever made. But as the game moved on, I slowly and sadly realized that much of what I didn’t like about Breath of the Wild survived the transition just as handily as what I loved. Breath of the Wild was a deeply flawed experience held up by its masterful world and exploration, and now Tears of the Kingdom turns everything to eleven. Everything. The world and exploration are even better, which only makes the flaws even more glaring and confusing, considering Nintendo had six years to innovate and smooth out the edges. It almost feels unfair to criticize the game like this. I got everything I loved and more, but not the jaw dropping wonder I got the first time around. I’ve given the game a 9/10, and yet I'm frustrated that it's not a 10/10. Many of the deep flaws of Breath of the Wild are either still present or somehow even worse, which absolutely astonishes me. But it feels incredibly childish to complain that the game was only a measly 9/10 that I sunk 110 hours into. I’m torn between really liking the game that I got, and feeling disappointed in its missed potential.
Make no mistake, Tears of the Kingdom does a lot right. The new abilities make exploring and interacting with the worlds completely different experiences from Breath of the Wild, despite the overworld map being largely the same. Ascend and Recall are both very convenient and allow you to move very creatively if you can find a ceiling or moving object respectively, but the real game changers are Fuse and Ultrahand.
Fuse automatically makes every collectable item more valuable and, critically, more interesting. You have access to many more options for combat and traversal. Attaching two spears and keeping every enemy out of range, shooting a muddle bud and just having the enemies fight each other, putting a glider on your shield and doing a super jump straight over their head, putting a puffshroom on your shield to slip away in a cloud of smoke should you take a hit. The durability system in Breath of the Wild both made weapons unexciting rewards and limited resources that you were reluctant to use, but Fuse neatly fixes both of these issues. Weapons are now as exciting as you make them. And because weapons are all more common and can be fused in any number of ways, most fights are a net positive, gaining more items than you used.
So It’s heartbreaking how tedious digging through the inventory to find fusion items actually is. You will only ever use a handful of staple items because trying to find anything that isn’t at the top of the menu when sorted by either ‘fuse strength’ or ‘most used’ is a massive time sink. Trying to experiment is unnecessarily time consuming, to the point where I just didn’t bother. And this is compounded by some fusions just towering over others. Muddle buds and puffshrooms can let you clear out entire crowds with no risk to yourself, rocket shields can completely break many of the shrines, Gibdo bones on a strong bow eviscerate every single boss and miniboss that the game has. And all of this is really highlighted by the frankly unimpressive combat that has been ported, untouched, straight from Breath of the Wild. I tried to find clever ways to deal with enemies whenever I could in order to avoid having to deal with the frustrating combat, and as a result, I spent quite a lot of time scrolling through menus just looking for items to fuse.
One noteworthy change is the rework of one of the most important combat tools, abilities. And they are easily the most glaring step back made by Nintendo. Breath of the Wild’s champion abilities were simple and elegant, you hold down a button and activate the ability. Using the sage’s abilities in Tears of the Kingdom is downright painful. You are followed by an AI companion that you must run up to, press A to prime the ability, aim the ability, and finally be able to actually use it. To make this even worse, there are five sages who will be running around you, getting in the way of the one you actually want to use. You can disable them, but that means you will need to dig around in the inventory even more when you actually do need them, which is quite common. You’ll want Tulin, as he gets used every time you glide. Yunobo is mostly used to break rocks, which is pretty frequently. Sidon was useless. Riju was the only one who was actually worth finding and activating, her lightning was actually quite powerful. I loathed having to physically find the sages in order to use the abilities, so much so that I never bothered. Letting the sages run wild was always preferable as they helped out passively by attacking enemies. Sometimes. They were extremely inconsistent, sometimes they would lock down an enemy by themselves, other times they would do absolutely nothing. I almost wonder if they began developing a companion AI system for a separate idea that they ultimately scrapped, and then recycled into the sages in order to justify the developer time spent. Because I struggle to stomach that developers and designers as talented as the team behind this game could make such an awful design choice when they had it just fine the first time around.
To top it all off, the enemy variety still is not very impressive. While there are several new enemies to encounter, Breath of the Wild’s enemy variety was miniscule, so a handful of new monsters only raises the count from ‘way too small’, to just ‘too small’. The bulk of fights will still be with the core trio of bokoblins, lizalfos, and moblins, and the interest in fighting them left me long before the credits rolled. Food and Armor upgrades are just as abusable here as in Breath of the Wild as well, you can heal at any time and at no risk, and a few upgrades to your armor makes you take almost no damage. The many types of armor to juggle between adds even more tedious digging through menus. Combat starts out incredibly fun and experimental, but is still too easily broken with food and armor upgrades, and monotonous in enemy types to remain interesting for a 100+ hour game. By the end you will be functionally invincible, fighting with the same handful of fusions and Ultrahand constructs.
Ultrahand is the true star of the show. The suite of Zonai tools and the ability to combine them however you want really cannot be overstated. You’ve seen the clips; people have built everything from fully automated mechs to log towers that reach higher than the sky islands. The ability to auto craft using zonaite also directly ties Ultrahand to exploring the depths, rewarding you for filling out the map and gathering resources. The ability to create vehicles fixes another issue I had with Breath of the Wild, which is that the actual, physical act of running around is very dull. Running is almost always just downtime between points of interest, and over a 100-hour playthrough that adds up to be a lot. Not a problem here, just build a motorcycle or hoverbike. The hoverbike especially received heavy use throughout all of my playthrough. For the low cost of either two fans and a steering stick, or just nine zonaite, you can fly away from all your navigational issues. Plus, the Autobuild helps to offset Ultrahand's clunkiness, while still requiring you to build what you want at least once. The controls are not great and the framerate can really drop while using Ultrahand so this is a fantastic addition.
Both titles heavily reward intrinsic motivation, the idea that the act of doing something is inherently satisfying to do, and that satisfaction is a fitting reward. Nothing showcases this better than Ultrahand. If you are not intrinsically motivated enough to just goof off with Link’s greatest toy, you will just make a handful of creations over and over again because they are all you really need. But if you find a lot of satisfaction in simply making stuff Ultrahand could keep you entertained for the entirety of your playthrough. I think I am more intrinsically motivated than not, and I loved creating solutions to the various problems Link will face. I built automatons during the “saving Hyrule” questline, to help out the soldiers who seemed shorthanded. Even though mechanically this obviously did not work, and the automatons despawned long before I encountered the soldiers again to clear out the next monster camp. If you are not so intrinsically inclined, you probably won’t be impressed with how open ended so much of Tears of the Kingdom is. There’s a well-known quote by Soren Johnson that you’ve probably heard, “Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.” Tears of the Kingdom can be very optimized, and I suspect that many players won’t force themselves to experiment and will instead just optimize as quickly as possible. And in doing so, they are missing out on the intrinsic value of doing something your own way. While many puzzles have open ended solutions, most have one clear ‘correct’ solution. If you really enjoy the intrinsic value of finding a new way to solve something, this is great. If you don’t, then it probably comes across as rather lazy. Why build a new solution when you can just rocket shield over the puzzle again? These scenarios are scattered all over Hyrule, but are especially prevalent in the shrines.
The shrines of Breath of the Wild were one of its most criticized aspects, and for good reason. The vast majority of them were too simple and unrewarding. I desperately hoped that Tears of the Kingdom would improve on them but it did not. The puzzles are all still undeveloped and mostly just a chore to do, and the new type of shrine, where you bring a crystal to the shrine pedestal, are never more complex or challenging. And this may be recency bias, but I think the puzzles in these new shrines are even worse. To its credit, the only real change made is an excellent one. The ‘test of strength’ format has been replaced with Eventide Island-esque combat challenges, where you are stripped of your loot and forced to navigate various combat arenas. These are a huge improvement, and also allow you to gauge just how far you’ve come. In the beginning, these are very difficult. You are forced to learn the combat, along with whatever particular technique the shrine focuses on. These get easier and easier as your stamina and hearts grow, and by the end you can just brute force your way through if that’s how you prefer to take these challenges. Many dislike how every shrine looks the same, but I personally actually quite like this. I like how it takes me from the mindset of exploration to the mindset of puzzle solving, even if the puzzles are never worth it.
There are also two brand new maps to explore, the Sky Islands and the Depths. The Sky Islands are excellent, the act of actually getting to them was always an enjoyable challenge, and once you make it up you are greeted with some of the more satisfying puzzles in the game. The visual style is excellent, and it’s no wonder this is what Nintendo focused on in the trailers. I only wish there were more islands, as the Sky is by far the smallest of the three explorable areas. The Depths I'm not so in love with. In the early and mid-game, these are genuinely excellent. Fighting your way through the darkness and trying to find lightroots to give you a little sanctuary to heal from the gloom was challenging and rewarding. I’m truly sad to say that once i had a decent amount of lightroots found, my enjoyment of the Depths dropped significantly. You no longer have to light your way and visually the Depths are barren, not nearly as pleasant as Hyrule or the Sky Islands, and it basically just becomes a giant zonaite mine. At some point I noticed that the overworld shrines and the Depths lightroots aligned. Later on, I noticed that the entire topography of the Depths was just the overworld inverted, and this is where my enjoyment of this area died. I had enough lightroots that I was no longer fighting the overwhelming darkness, and I knew what the entire map had to offer because I could just look at the overworld map. This really feels like forbidden knowledge, and any future playthroughs are going to be forever negatively affected because I can never un-learn this. Even when I have zero lightroots discovered, I will always be able to tell what the land around me looks like. And this really sucks, because not enjoying the Depths means that I don’t enjoy nearly half of all the explorable world.
Tears of the Kingdom is generally much more streamlined than Breath of the Wild, and it’s not great at communicating what you need to do in order to advance the various systems it offers. I didn’t unlock Autobuild until over 40 hours in, and I had no idea what I was missing that whole time because I was playing how I played Breath of the Wild. Who cares about the story? I just want to explore. As I advanced, enemies progressively got tougher until silver enemies were common, and seemingly out of nowhere my gear had become very under leveled. I had already found The Great Fairys, but now they are locked behind a quest that has you assemble an orchestra to coax them out of the flowers, instead of just paying them like before. I spent some time actually finding the quest I needed, before rushing through it just so I could upgrade my armor and not die instantly any time a silver bokoblin landed a stray hit on me. I found the construct factory in the Depths, and spent well over an hour trying to figure what it was and how it worked. It was not until 70 hours later when I was actually doing the story quests that I finally got to figure out what it was for. Tears of the Kingdom feels as though there’s a correct way to play, or at least a correct path to take, far more than I ever felt with Breath of the Wild.
I’m very hesitant to even give this a score. The 9/10 I've given seems too forgiving of its deep flaws, but a lower score wouldn’t accurately show how much I loved its strengths. I believe that, like Breath of the Wild, my score is set to only go down over the years as the honeymoon phase wears off. Over the years I've realized that I'm the kind of person who values the highs of something much more than the lows it sinks to, I’m more than happy to accept and overlook flaws if the game has something else to offer if it's really that good. I think exploring the world of Tears of the Kingdom is that good, but as the genre and industry advance this may no longer be the case. Tears of the Kingdom carries the unfortunate, crushing weight of being a sequel. Nintendo had six years to learn from Breath of the Wild, so many of the flaws were left in or even doubled down on as a conscious choice by the developers which not only frustrates me from how much could have been changed from the first game. Breath of the Wild gets away with a lot due to its importance and innovation, but that does not apply to Tears of the Kingdom. Pushing the idea of an open world to its logical extreme is no longer novel, and I'm left with a bitter taste by thinking of what Tears of the Kingdom could have been. And then that bitter taste is washed away with the savory world, and I'm back to feeling conflicted.
Which is why I feel so conflicted. Initially I was certain that I might be playing the greatest game ever made. But as the game moved on, I slowly and sadly realized that much of what I didn’t like about Breath of the Wild survived the transition just as handily as what I loved. Breath of the Wild was a deeply flawed experience held up by its masterful world and exploration, and now Tears of the Kingdom turns everything to eleven. Everything. The world and exploration are even better, which only makes the flaws even more glaring and confusing, considering Nintendo had six years to innovate and smooth out the edges. It almost feels unfair to criticize the game like this. I got everything I loved and more, but not the jaw dropping wonder I got the first time around. I’ve given the game a 9/10, and yet I'm frustrated that it's not a 10/10. Many of the deep flaws of Breath of the Wild are either still present or somehow even worse, which absolutely astonishes me. But it feels incredibly childish to complain that the game was only a measly 9/10 that I sunk 110 hours into. I’m torn between really liking the game that I got, and feeling disappointed in its missed potential.
Make no mistake, Tears of the Kingdom does a lot right. The new abilities make exploring and interacting with the worlds completely different experiences from Breath of the Wild, despite the overworld map being largely the same. Ascend and Recall are both very convenient and allow you to move very creatively if you can find a ceiling or moving object respectively, but the real game changers are Fuse and Ultrahand.
Fuse automatically makes every collectable item more valuable and, critically, more interesting. You have access to many more options for combat and traversal. Attaching two spears and keeping every enemy out of range, shooting a muddle bud and just having the enemies fight each other, putting a glider on your shield and doing a super jump straight over their head, putting a puffshroom on your shield to slip away in a cloud of smoke should you take a hit. The durability system in Breath of the Wild both made weapons unexciting rewards and limited resources that you were reluctant to use, but Fuse neatly fixes both of these issues. Weapons are now as exciting as you make them. And because weapons are all more common and can be fused in any number of ways, most fights are a net positive, gaining more items than you used.
So It’s heartbreaking how tedious digging through the inventory to find fusion items actually is. You will only ever use a handful of staple items because trying to find anything that isn’t at the top of the menu when sorted by either ‘fuse strength’ or ‘most used’ is a massive time sink. Trying to experiment is unnecessarily time consuming, to the point where I just didn’t bother. And this is compounded by some fusions just towering over others. Muddle buds and puffshrooms can let you clear out entire crowds with no risk to yourself, rocket shields can completely break many of the shrines, Gibdo bones on a strong bow eviscerate every single boss and miniboss that the game has. And all of this is really highlighted by the frankly unimpressive combat that has been ported, untouched, straight from Breath of the Wild. I tried to find clever ways to deal with enemies whenever I could in order to avoid having to deal with the frustrating combat, and as a result, I spent quite a lot of time scrolling through menus just looking for items to fuse.
One noteworthy change is the rework of one of the most important combat tools, abilities. And they are easily the most glaring step back made by Nintendo. Breath of the Wild’s champion abilities were simple and elegant, you hold down a button and activate the ability. Using the sage’s abilities in Tears of the Kingdom is downright painful. You are followed by an AI companion that you must run up to, press A to prime the ability, aim the ability, and finally be able to actually use it. To make this even worse, there are five sages who will be running around you, getting in the way of the one you actually want to use. You can disable them, but that means you will need to dig around in the inventory even more when you actually do need them, which is quite common. You’ll want Tulin, as he gets used every time you glide. Yunobo is mostly used to break rocks, which is pretty frequently. Sidon was useless. Riju was the only one who was actually worth finding and activating, her lightning was actually quite powerful. I loathed having to physically find the sages in order to use the abilities, so much so that I never bothered. Letting the sages run wild was always preferable as they helped out passively by attacking enemies. Sometimes. They were extremely inconsistent, sometimes they would lock down an enemy by themselves, other times they would do absolutely nothing. I almost wonder if they began developing a companion AI system for a separate idea that they ultimately scrapped, and then recycled into the sages in order to justify the developer time spent. Because I struggle to stomach that developers and designers as talented as the team behind this game could make such an awful design choice when they had it just fine the first time around.
To top it all off, the enemy variety still is not very impressive. While there are several new enemies to encounter, Breath of the Wild’s enemy variety was miniscule, so a handful of new monsters only raises the count from ‘way too small’, to just ‘too small’. The bulk of fights will still be with the core trio of bokoblins, lizalfos, and moblins, and the interest in fighting them left me long before the credits rolled. Food and Armor upgrades are just as abusable here as in Breath of the Wild as well, you can heal at any time and at no risk, and a few upgrades to your armor makes you take almost no damage. The many types of armor to juggle between adds even more tedious digging through menus. Combat starts out incredibly fun and experimental, but is still too easily broken with food and armor upgrades, and monotonous in enemy types to remain interesting for a 100+ hour game. By the end you will be functionally invincible, fighting with the same handful of fusions and Ultrahand constructs.
Ultrahand is the true star of the show. The suite of Zonai tools and the ability to combine them however you want really cannot be overstated. You’ve seen the clips; people have built everything from fully automated mechs to log towers that reach higher than the sky islands. The ability to auto craft using zonaite also directly ties Ultrahand to exploring the depths, rewarding you for filling out the map and gathering resources. The ability to create vehicles fixes another issue I had with Breath of the Wild, which is that the actual, physical act of running around is very dull. Running is almost always just downtime between points of interest, and over a 100-hour playthrough that adds up to be a lot. Not a problem here, just build a motorcycle or hoverbike. The hoverbike especially received heavy use throughout all of my playthrough. For the low cost of either two fans and a steering stick, or just nine zonaite, you can fly away from all your navigational issues. Plus, the Autobuild helps to offset Ultrahand's clunkiness, while still requiring you to build what you want at least once. The controls are not great and the framerate can really drop while using Ultrahand so this is a fantastic addition.
Both titles heavily reward intrinsic motivation, the idea that the act of doing something is inherently satisfying to do, and that satisfaction is a fitting reward. Nothing showcases this better than Ultrahand. If you are not intrinsically motivated enough to just goof off with Link’s greatest toy, you will just make a handful of creations over and over again because they are all you really need. But if you find a lot of satisfaction in simply making stuff Ultrahand could keep you entertained for the entirety of your playthrough. I think I am more intrinsically motivated than not, and I loved creating solutions to the various problems Link will face. I built automatons during the “saving Hyrule” questline, to help out the soldiers who seemed shorthanded. Even though mechanically this obviously did not work, and the automatons despawned long before I encountered the soldiers again to clear out the next monster camp. If you are not so intrinsically inclined, you probably won’t be impressed with how open ended so much of Tears of the Kingdom is. There’s a well-known quote by Soren Johnson that you’ve probably heard, “Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game.” Tears of the Kingdom can be very optimized, and I suspect that many players won’t force themselves to experiment and will instead just optimize as quickly as possible. And in doing so, they are missing out on the intrinsic value of doing something your own way. While many puzzles have open ended solutions, most have one clear ‘correct’ solution. If you really enjoy the intrinsic value of finding a new way to solve something, this is great. If you don’t, then it probably comes across as rather lazy. Why build a new solution when you can just rocket shield over the puzzle again? These scenarios are scattered all over Hyrule, but are especially prevalent in the shrines.
The shrines of Breath of the Wild were one of its most criticized aspects, and for good reason. The vast majority of them were too simple and unrewarding. I desperately hoped that Tears of the Kingdom would improve on them but it did not. The puzzles are all still undeveloped and mostly just a chore to do, and the new type of shrine, where you bring a crystal to the shrine pedestal, are never more complex or challenging. And this may be recency bias, but I think the puzzles in these new shrines are even worse. To its credit, the only real change made is an excellent one. The ‘test of strength’ format has been replaced with Eventide Island-esque combat challenges, where you are stripped of your loot and forced to navigate various combat arenas. These are a huge improvement, and also allow you to gauge just how far you’ve come. In the beginning, these are very difficult. You are forced to learn the combat, along with whatever particular technique the shrine focuses on. These get easier and easier as your stamina and hearts grow, and by the end you can just brute force your way through if that’s how you prefer to take these challenges. Many dislike how every shrine looks the same, but I personally actually quite like this. I like how it takes me from the mindset of exploration to the mindset of puzzle solving, even if the puzzles are never worth it.
There are also two brand new maps to explore, the Sky Islands and the Depths. The Sky Islands are excellent, the act of actually getting to them was always an enjoyable challenge, and once you make it up you are greeted with some of the more satisfying puzzles in the game. The visual style is excellent, and it’s no wonder this is what Nintendo focused on in the trailers. I only wish there were more islands, as the Sky is by far the smallest of the three explorable areas. The Depths I'm not so in love with. In the early and mid-game, these are genuinely excellent. Fighting your way through the darkness and trying to find lightroots to give you a little sanctuary to heal from the gloom was challenging and rewarding. I’m truly sad to say that once i had a decent amount of lightroots found, my enjoyment of the Depths dropped significantly. You no longer have to light your way and visually the Depths are barren, not nearly as pleasant as Hyrule or the Sky Islands, and it basically just becomes a giant zonaite mine. At some point I noticed that the overworld shrines and the Depths lightroots aligned. Later on, I noticed that the entire topography of the Depths was just the overworld inverted, and this is where my enjoyment of this area died. I had enough lightroots that I was no longer fighting the overwhelming darkness, and I knew what the entire map had to offer because I could just look at the overworld map. This really feels like forbidden knowledge, and any future playthroughs are going to be forever negatively affected because I can never un-learn this. Even when I have zero lightroots discovered, I will always be able to tell what the land around me looks like. And this really sucks, because not enjoying the Depths means that I don’t enjoy nearly half of all the explorable world.
Tears of the Kingdom is generally much more streamlined than Breath of the Wild, and it’s not great at communicating what you need to do in order to advance the various systems it offers. I didn’t unlock Autobuild until over 40 hours in, and I had no idea what I was missing that whole time because I was playing how I played Breath of the Wild. Who cares about the story? I just want to explore. As I advanced, enemies progressively got tougher until silver enemies were common, and seemingly out of nowhere my gear had become very under leveled. I had already found The Great Fairys, but now they are locked behind a quest that has you assemble an orchestra to coax them out of the flowers, instead of just paying them like before. I spent some time actually finding the quest I needed, before rushing through it just so I could upgrade my armor and not die instantly any time a silver bokoblin landed a stray hit on me. I found the construct factory in the Depths, and spent well over an hour trying to figure what it was and how it worked. It was not until 70 hours later when I was actually doing the story quests that I finally got to figure out what it was for. Tears of the Kingdom feels as though there’s a correct way to play, or at least a correct path to take, far more than I ever felt with Breath of the Wild.
I’m very hesitant to even give this a score. The 9/10 I've given seems too forgiving of its deep flaws, but a lower score wouldn’t accurately show how much I loved its strengths. I believe that, like Breath of the Wild, my score is set to only go down over the years as the honeymoon phase wears off. Over the years I've realized that I'm the kind of person who values the highs of something much more than the lows it sinks to, I’m more than happy to accept and overlook flaws if the game has something else to offer if it's really that good. I think exploring the world of Tears of the Kingdom is that good, but as the genre and industry advance this may no longer be the case. Tears of the Kingdom carries the unfortunate, crushing weight of being a sequel. Nintendo had six years to learn from Breath of the Wild, so many of the flaws were left in or even doubled down on as a conscious choice by the developers which not only frustrates me from how much could have been changed from the first game. Breath of the Wild gets away with a lot due to its importance and innovation, but that does not apply to Tears of the Kingdom. Pushing the idea of an open world to its logical extreme is no longer novel, and I'm left with a bitter taste by thinking of what Tears of the Kingdom could have been. And then that bitter taste is washed away with the savory world, and I'm back to feeling conflicted.
Metroid Prime
2002
Sure, present-day me has some qualms over the design and such, but Metroid Prime still stands as one of the AAA game industry's great achievements in pushing the FPS to new and interesting spaces. And it's a successful collaboration between an American studio and Nintendo, which is interesting. I love the relatively short 15-hour length, too, and the way the game's world feels just nonlinear enough that you're surprised when you can go to new depths, and it was always cool how well the scan visor slotted into the whole experience.
As for my design issues... I guess they're fairly minor, the game is strong overall. The musical and art direction are still amazing, over 20 years on!
The combat in MP is fun, when considered as a simple (and accessible!) FPS. And it's really cool when the game slips into a 'survival horror'-esque register - like going for the Thermal Visor or that late-game Phazon Mines gauntlet as you look for the Power Bombs (I think?). I feel like a modern Metroid Prime could look to various shooters like Amid Evil, DOOM mods, etc, for inspiration in enemy layouts in the more combat-intense sections, though. Or to modern metroidvanias in terms of structure inspiration? I always felt MP1 was really on to something.
At times the enemies feel too cut-and-paste - fire 4 missiles, aim a single super missile, etc. I also feel like a sparser experience, upgrade-wise, could be fun? To convey more of a sense of alien planet rather than perfectly laid out loop corridors that power you up. I always did feel the game shifted too much to exploring Space Pirate stuff as the game went on.
As for my design issues... I guess they're fairly minor, the game is strong overall. The musical and art direction are still amazing, over 20 years on!
The combat in MP is fun, when considered as a simple (and accessible!) FPS. And it's really cool when the game slips into a 'survival horror'-esque register - like going for the Thermal Visor or that late-game Phazon Mines gauntlet as you look for the Power Bombs (I think?). I feel like a modern Metroid Prime could look to various shooters like Amid Evil, DOOM mods, etc, for inspiration in enemy layouts in the more combat-intense sections, though. Or to modern metroidvanias in terms of structure inspiration? I always felt MP1 was really on to something.
At times the enemies feel too cut-and-paste - fire 4 missiles, aim a single super missile, etc. I also feel like a sparser experience, upgrade-wise, could be fun? To convey more of a sense of alien planet rather than perfectly laid out loop corridors that power you up. I always did feel the game shifted too much to exploring Space Pirate stuff as the game went on.
Better combat and gameplay than the first game, but the story isn't as good and there are some performance issues, but overall still a good game
Redfall
2023
Played the first 30 mins and oof, it's as bad as they say. Runs badly, visuals aren't anything too special, low texture bugs, and pretty bad AI. That mixed with the overly talkative characters and looter-shooter gun stats is enough to keep me away for now. At least I can always replay Prey...
Scorn
2022
English/German below
I still decided to quit the game. Took a total of 5 hours 33 minutes and collected all achievements except one.
The game had made a really strong first impression, acceptable puzzles and an incredibly well staged setting. Disgust comes up here from time to time and the sci-fi horror touch had a cool look. Unfortunately, it fell far short when it came to the horror aspect, here it concentrated more on the disgusting moment.
2 acts have passed and the game has been playing in a good flow, but then comes act 3 (or was it 4, I can't remember) where more and more enemy "gameplay" comes into play. This is where I took my break because I just didn't enjoy running past the opponents. Weapon handling is so sluggish and imprecise, enemies deal immense damage and hit far better, I didn't need that aspect of the game. He even steered the game in a more negative direction at times, even for me.
It had good staging, looks fantastic in places and some of the puzzles were okay, but they would have preferred to leave out the combat gameplay. All in all, you can take the game with you in its brevity and play it via the game pass, but horror fans in particular will be disappointed here and the gameplay can get on your nerves at times. It tells a bizarre and painful story, which is also rather confused.
6/10 2,5/5 blood presses.
--------------------------german-------------------------
Ich hab mich doch noch entschieden das Spiel zu beenden. Hab insgesamt 5 Stunden 33 Minuten gebraucht und alle Erfolge gesammelt bis auf einen.
Das Spiel hatte einen richtig starken ersten Eindruck gemacht, akzeptable Rätsel und ein unfassbar stark inszeniertes Setting. Ekel kommt hier das ein oder andere mal auf und der Sci-Fi-Horror Touch hatte einen coolen Look. Leider ist es aber gerade was den Horror Aspekt angeht viel zu kurz gekommen, hier hat es sich mehr auf den Ekelmoment konzentriert.
2 Akte sind vergangen und das Spiel hat sich in einem guten Flow gespielt, dann kommt aber Akt 3 (oder war es 4, ich weiß es nicht mehr) wo mehr und mehr Gegner"gameplay" zu Tragen kommt. Hier hab ich dann meine Pause eingelegt, weil es mir einfach keinen Spaß gemacht hat an den Gegnern besser einfach vorbeizurennen. Das Waffenhandling ist so träge und unpräzise, Gegner machen immensen Schaden und treffen deutlich besser, ich hätte diesen Aspekt des Spiels nicht gebraucht. Er hat teilweise das Spiel sogar für mich mehr in eine negative Richtung gelenkt.
Es hatte gute Inszenierungen, sieht stellenweise fantastisch aus und manche Rätsel gingen auch voll in Ordnung, aber das Combat Gameplay hätten sie mal lieber gelassen. Alles in allem kann man das Spiel in seiner Kürze mal mitnehmen und über den Gamepass spielen aber gerade Horrorfans werden hier eher enttäuscht und das Gameplay kann zwischenzeitlich Nerven rauben. Es erzählt eine bizarre und schmerzerfüllte Geschichte, die aber auch eher wirr daher kommt.
6/10 2,5/5 Blutpressen.
I still decided to quit the game. Took a total of 5 hours 33 minutes and collected all achievements except one.
The game had made a really strong first impression, acceptable puzzles and an incredibly well staged setting. Disgust comes up here from time to time and the sci-fi horror touch had a cool look. Unfortunately, it fell far short when it came to the horror aspect, here it concentrated more on the disgusting moment.
2 acts have passed and the game has been playing in a good flow, but then comes act 3 (or was it 4, I can't remember) where more and more enemy "gameplay" comes into play. This is where I took my break because I just didn't enjoy running past the opponents. Weapon handling is so sluggish and imprecise, enemies deal immense damage and hit far better, I didn't need that aspect of the game. He even steered the game in a more negative direction at times, even for me.
It had good staging, looks fantastic in places and some of the puzzles were okay, but they would have preferred to leave out the combat gameplay. All in all, you can take the game with you in its brevity and play it via the game pass, but horror fans in particular will be disappointed here and the gameplay can get on your nerves at times. It tells a bizarre and painful story, which is also rather confused.
6/10 2,5/5 blood presses.
--------------------------german-------------------------
Ich hab mich doch noch entschieden das Spiel zu beenden. Hab insgesamt 5 Stunden 33 Minuten gebraucht und alle Erfolge gesammelt bis auf einen.
Das Spiel hatte einen richtig starken ersten Eindruck gemacht, akzeptable Rätsel und ein unfassbar stark inszeniertes Setting. Ekel kommt hier das ein oder andere mal auf und der Sci-Fi-Horror Touch hatte einen coolen Look. Leider ist es aber gerade was den Horror Aspekt angeht viel zu kurz gekommen, hier hat es sich mehr auf den Ekelmoment konzentriert.
2 Akte sind vergangen und das Spiel hat sich in einem guten Flow gespielt, dann kommt aber Akt 3 (oder war es 4, ich weiß es nicht mehr) wo mehr und mehr Gegner"gameplay" zu Tragen kommt. Hier hab ich dann meine Pause eingelegt, weil es mir einfach keinen Spaß gemacht hat an den Gegnern besser einfach vorbeizurennen. Das Waffenhandling ist so träge und unpräzise, Gegner machen immensen Schaden und treffen deutlich besser, ich hätte diesen Aspekt des Spiels nicht gebraucht. Er hat teilweise das Spiel sogar für mich mehr in eine negative Richtung gelenkt.
Es hatte gute Inszenierungen, sieht stellenweise fantastisch aus und manche Rätsel gingen auch voll in Ordnung, aber das Combat Gameplay hätten sie mal lieber gelassen. Alles in allem kann man das Spiel in seiner Kürze mal mitnehmen und über den Gamepass spielen aber gerade Horrorfans werden hier eher enttäuscht und das Gameplay kann zwischenzeitlich Nerven rauben. Es erzählt eine bizarre und schmerzerfüllte Geschichte, die aber auch eher wirr daher kommt.
6/10 2,5/5 Blutpressen.
Hogwarts Legacy
2023
(Since my last review got removed)
I fully expected this game to suck since the creators have not done anything worthwhile but by god, they actually pulled it off. This is a legit a great open-world RPG. The graphics are fantastic and the combat is actually really fun and complex. I've been wanting a good triple A Harry Potter for a long time so I'm happy to say that it's finally here and it's terrific. I will say this though it does have its issues. It suffers from problems that most open-world games have and the story is fairly standard. But even with those problems the world and gameplay kept me satisfied. I hope the next game is even better. I feel like it has the potential to be a 10/10 game.
I fully expected this game to suck since the creators have not done anything worthwhile but by god, they actually pulled it off. This is a legit a great open-world RPG. The graphics are fantastic and the combat is actually really fun and complex. I've been wanting a good triple A Harry Potter for a long time so I'm happy to say that it's finally here and it's terrific. I will say this though it does have its issues. It suffers from problems that most open-world games have and the story is fairly standard. But even with those problems the world and gameplay kept me satisfied. I hope the next game is even better. I feel like it has the potential to be a 10/10 game.
Hogwarts Legacy
2023
I am a millennial and Hogwarts Legacy is a 20 year old dream come true.
There are few worlds in fiction with as much depth, lore, imagination, and popularity as the world of Harry Potter. Whether you grew up with the books, the movies, or both, more likely than not you were captivated by the world that these books and movies have built. I can safely speak for most people when I say that since the moment we were introduced to Hogwarts and the wizarding world in the first book and movie, we’ve all fantasized about getting our Hogwarts letters in the mail, buying our first wand, broomstick, and owl, sitting at the dining table with the rest of our fellow young wizards and witches while anxiously waiting to get sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses, then donning the team colors that represent the pride of our new house.
Over the years, and decades, we got a fair share of Harry Potter games. We got video game adaptations of every single movie. In fact, we got multiple versions of each of the game adaptations when you take into account all the various gaming platforms that the games were released on. There were even LEGO versions and other spin offs such as the Quidditch World Cup game. These games mostly ranged from decent to terrible, full of potential and ideas that unfortunately were never fully realized.
The year is 2023 and here we have Hogwarts Legacy. The entire premise of this game is that you are a young wizard who becomes a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You get sorted into a house based on a few questions that the Sorting Hat asks you. Personally I was sorted into Slytherin, but like Harry himself, I said “not Slytherin” and I chose to join Ravenclaw, because the game doesn’t force you into the house that the Hat sorts you into. You have the option to join any house that you want. From that point forward the entirety of Hogwarts is yours to explore. You go to classes to learn new spells and interact with other students in the school. Hogwarts feels alive and truly magical. Everywhere you go you will see students going to classes, playing games, studying for tests, and getting themselves into mischief. You will see ghosts flying around while having conversations, and armored statues singing and dancing. There are cats everywhere who make Hogwarts feel cozy that you can pet. The castle is huge and I had a blast just walking around exploring it, while watching the NPCs and listening to their conversations.
To my surprise Hogwarts isn’t the only area that you can explore. I was impressed by how large the areas outside of Hogwarts are. You can visit Hogsmade, which is a cozy town outside of Hogwarts in which you can shop for clothes, brooms, wands, potions and many other things. You can hang out at cafes and candy stores. The music is cheery and visiting Hogsmade always gave my mood a boost. Outside of the town you can explore many other small villages, beaches, camps, dungeons, and forests, including the Forbidden Forest. I found what would-be-Hagrid’s house (this game takes place 100 years prior to Harry Potter) and it warmed my heart.
As I mentioned earlier, you go to various classes to learn new spells, how to brew potions, and how to grow plants that can be used in combat. You’re not on a schedule of any kind. These classes are only classes in name. They are basically just missions which usually involve the professor of each class telling you to do certain tasks, and once you complete these tasks, they will teach you a new spell or skill. Some of the classes in this game mimic scenes from the Harry Potter movies. The flying lessons class felt like it was taken straight out of the first movie. Speaking of flying, unfortunately there is no Quidditch at Hogwarts this year because someone got injured last season. That's what the game says. In reality the developers just likely ran out of time to develop any deep or meaningful mechanics for the game of Quidditch, which is fine and understandable. However, I was impressed by how well the flying felt and controlled. Vehicles and traveling can really be a hit or miss, even in the most highly praised games, but in Hogwarts Legacy flying the broom was not a problem whatsoever for me. That is why I hope that they can hopefully take some time and give us a Quidditch DLC of some kind. Maybe even with multiplayer? I feel like that would really put a cherry on top of this game.
There are 20+ spells that you can learn, including the three infamous unforgivable curses. Many of these spells can be used in combat, while a few others are used for puzzle solving, decorating your Room of Requirements, and taking care of the fantastic beasts that you can catch throughout your journey. The combat can take some time to get used to but once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun. Your basic attacking spell is mapped to the right trigger, so it feels like a shooting game at times, and you can have four spells mapped to each of the face buttons. As you level up you earn development points that can be used in five different skill trees. With this method you can unlock more slots for your spells, so at any given time during combat you can have as many as 16 spells ready to be used. Once you get good at the combat, it feels amazing to pull off a huge combo with various spells, while also dodging, blocking, and parrying attacks from enemies.
There is a story in the game. It's not amazing by any means but it's definitely serviceable and takes you down some interesting paths. There are plenty of side quests and stories with fellow students, my most favorite stories being the ones involving Sebastian and Natsai.
For a first attempt at an open world game set in the Harry Potter magical universe, the developers did an outstanding job. They went above and beyond filling this game with the charm and magic (no pun intended) that we have dreamed of and expected. The attention to detail all over this world is immaculate. I will say that if you’re not a Harry Potter fan, or don’t know anything about the franchise, then this game may not feel all that special to you. The enemy variety is lacking, as are dialogue options and story branches in general. It may feel like a pretty basic fantasy RPG and there is always room for improvement. Whether we get a sequel, or maybe some expansions for this game, I’m sure that us Potter fans won’t be disappointed.
There are few worlds in fiction with as much depth, lore, imagination, and popularity as the world of Harry Potter. Whether you grew up with the books, the movies, or both, more likely than not you were captivated by the world that these books and movies have built. I can safely speak for most people when I say that since the moment we were introduced to Hogwarts and the wizarding world in the first book and movie, we’ve all fantasized about getting our Hogwarts letters in the mail, buying our first wand, broomstick, and owl, sitting at the dining table with the rest of our fellow young wizards and witches while anxiously waiting to get sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses, then donning the team colors that represent the pride of our new house.
Over the years, and decades, we got a fair share of Harry Potter games. We got video game adaptations of every single movie. In fact, we got multiple versions of each of the game adaptations when you take into account all the various gaming platforms that the games were released on. There were even LEGO versions and other spin offs such as the Quidditch World Cup game. These games mostly ranged from decent to terrible, full of potential and ideas that unfortunately were never fully realized.
The year is 2023 and here we have Hogwarts Legacy. The entire premise of this game is that you are a young wizard who becomes a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You get sorted into a house based on a few questions that the Sorting Hat asks you. Personally I was sorted into Slytherin, but like Harry himself, I said “not Slytherin” and I chose to join Ravenclaw, because the game doesn’t force you into the house that the Hat sorts you into. You have the option to join any house that you want. From that point forward the entirety of Hogwarts is yours to explore. You go to classes to learn new spells and interact with other students in the school. Hogwarts feels alive and truly magical. Everywhere you go you will see students going to classes, playing games, studying for tests, and getting themselves into mischief. You will see ghosts flying around while having conversations, and armored statues singing and dancing. There are cats everywhere who make Hogwarts feel cozy that you can pet. The castle is huge and I had a blast just walking around exploring it, while watching the NPCs and listening to their conversations.
To my surprise Hogwarts isn’t the only area that you can explore. I was impressed by how large the areas outside of Hogwarts are. You can visit Hogsmade, which is a cozy town outside of Hogwarts in which you can shop for clothes, brooms, wands, potions and many other things. You can hang out at cafes and candy stores. The music is cheery and visiting Hogsmade always gave my mood a boost. Outside of the town you can explore many other small villages, beaches, camps, dungeons, and forests, including the Forbidden Forest. I found what would-be-Hagrid’s house (this game takes place 100 years prior to Harry Potter) and it warmed my heart.
As I mentioned earlier, you go to various classes to learn new spells, how to brew potions, and how to grow plants that can be used in combat. You’re not on a schedule of any kind. These classes are only classes in name. They are basically just missions which usually involve the professor of each class telling you to do certain tasks, and once you complete these tasks, they will teach you a new spell or skill. Some of the classes in this game mimic scenes from the Harry Potter movies. The flying lessons class felt like it was taken straight out of the first movie. Speaking of flying, unfortunately there is no Quidditch at Hogwarts this year because someone got injured last season. That's what the game says. In reality the developers just likely ran out of time to develop any deep or meaningful mechanics for the game of Quidditch, which is fine and understandable. However, I was impressed by how well the flying felt and controlled. Vehicles and traveling can really be a hit or miss, even in the most highly praised games, but in Hogwarts Legacy flying the broom was not a problem whatsoever for me. That is why I hope that they can hopefully take some time and give us a Quidditch DLC of some kind. Maybe even with multiplayer? I feel like that would really put a cherry on top of this game.
There are 20+ spells that you can learn, including the three infamous unforgivable curses. Many of these spells can be used in combat, while a few others are used for puzzle solving, decorating your Room of Requirements, and taking care of the fantastic beasts that you can catch throughout your journey. The combat can take some time to get used to but once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun. Your basic attacking spell is mapped to the right trigger, so it feels like a shooting game at times, and you can have four spells mapped to each of the face buttons. As you level up you earn development points that can be used in five different skill trees. With this method you can unlock more slots for your spells, so at any given time during combat you can have as many as 16 spells ready to be used. Once you get good at the combat, it feels amazing to pull off a huge combo with various spells, while also dodging, blocking, and parrying attacks from enemies.
There is a story in the game. It's not amazing by any means but it's definitely serviceable and takes you down some interesting paths. There are plenty of side quests and stories with fellow students, my most favorite stories being the ones involving Sebastian and Natsai.
For a first attempt at an open world game set in the Harry Potter magical universe, the developers did an outstanding job. They went above and beyond filling this game with the charm and magic (no pun intended) that we have dreamed of and expected. The attention to detail all over this world is immaculate. I will say that if you’re not a Harry Potter fan, or don’t know anything about the franchise, then this game may not feel all that special to you. The enemy variety is lacking, as are dialogue options and story branches in general. It may feel like a pretty basic fantasy RPG and there is always room for improvement. Whether we get a sequel, or maybe some expansions for this game, I’m sure that us Potter fans won’t be disappointed.
Hogwarts Legacy
2023
well I actually played the game and finished it. So I can say its a very good game I would recommend it.
NBA 2K23
2022
I don't follow the NBA very closely so I tend to buy 2k every other year or so, and this year's 2k is like every year I buy 2k: whatever the newest 2k is is the best basketball video game there's ever been.
I don't want to sound too hyperbolic or anything; there's stuff in here that I don't like. But when it comes to the pure on-the-court basketball? Whatever the newest 2k is the best it's ever been.
Are the newest 2ks my favorite basketball games? It's tough to say, but probably no--that would go to Dunk Kids I think.
Basketball is a skill game--it's tough and wonderful and joyful to watch; I think spiritually it's America's soccer. But the sort of individual skill we see our favorite players display is incredibly had to replicate unless you've got a powerful engine. It's why, for as much as I love NBA Jam, you don't get to feel like those guys like you do in every newest 2k.
If you like basketball, grab this and have a blast. It's incredibly easy to ignore the obnoxious microtransaction stuff.
I don't want to sound too hyperbolic or anything; there's stuff in here that I don't like. But when it comes to the pure on-the-court basketball? Whatever the newest 2k is the best it's ever been.
Are the newest 2ks my favorite basketball games? It's tough to say, but probably no--that would go to Dunk Kids I think.
Basketball is a skill game--it's tough and wonderful and joyful to watch; I think spiritually it's America's soccer. But the sort of individual skill we see our favorite players display is incredibly had to replicate unless you've got a powerful engine. It's why, for as much as I love NBA Jam, you don't get to feel like those guys like you do in every newest 2k.
If you like basketball, grab this and have a blast. It's incredibly easy to ignore the obnoxious microtransaction stuff.
It Takes Two
2021
This is quite possibly the best co-op game I've played. Almost every single level was just absolutely spectacular and filled to the brim with creative ideas.
You could make entire games out of a lot of these mechanics, but luckily the devs here towed the line between overstaying their welcome with a particular idea and not abandoning it too soon either. My friend and I, who were able to easily play both locally and online on the same save files, had an absolute blast with all the different little ideas, fantastic level design, and charming side minigames (I kicked his butt at the races, but he whooped me in chess).
The game for the most part looks and sounds great as well. The story is beautifully written, and the different vocal performances really added to it. Some of the side characters really shone too like the Space Baboon and the Elephant Queen. The graphics really held up well, and there was some really cute, expressive animation on a lot of the characters. Only nitpick here would be the human characters/models which came off ironically wooden compared to the dolls and other magical item characters.
Finally, the big nail in the coffin here that keeps it from getting full marks has to be the last level and finale. Without spoiling anything, the last level while still being good definitely doesn't reach the same heights, and the very end feels anticlimactic. A little more time to hit the climax just right would've really sent this game into all-time classic status.
That being said, I still heavily recommend this! Find someone to play with either locally or online (and who has time for multiple sessions; this game isn't short!), and you're sure to have an absolute blast.
You could make entire games out of a lot of these mechanics, but luckily the devs here towed the line between overstaying their welcome with a particular idea and not abandoning it too soon either. My friend and I, who were able to easily play both locally and online on the same save files, had an absolute blast with all the different little ideas, fantastic level design, and charming side minigames (I kicked his butt at the races, but he whooped me in chess).
The game for the most part looks and sounds great as well. The story is beautifully written, and the different vocal performances really added to it. Some of the side characters really shone too like the Space Baboon and the Elephant Queen. The graphics really held up well, and there was some really cute, expressive animation on a lot of the characters. Only nitpick here would be the human characters/models which came off ironically wooden compared to the dolls and other magical item characters.
Finally, the big nail in the coffin here that keeps it from getting full marks has to be the last level and finale. Without spoiling anything, the last level while still being good definitely doesn't reach the same heights, and the very end feels anticlimactic. A little more time to hit the climax just right would've really sent this game into all-time classic status.
That being said, I still heavily recommend this! Find someone to play with either locally or online (and who has time for multiple sessions; this game isn't short!), and you're sure to have an absolute blast.
The journey to Metroid Dread starts here. I was not surprised that the original Metroid had been remade, as it is barely playable. That aside, Zero Mission is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure with equal amounts challenge and exploration.
This is my first time diving into Metroid other than Super, so I have to say I'm very impressed and excited to play the rest.
This is my first time diving into Metroid other than Super, so I have to say I'm very impressed and excited to play the rest.
Cyberpunk 2077
2020
This review contains spoilers
English/German below
I've invested 75 hours of play on my Series X and I've achieved 850 achievement points since the release on December 10th, 2020. Like many many others, I have waited a long time for this game (trailer, Night City Wire always followed) and experienced pretty much everything in terms of emotion during the passage. I did all the activities and side quests, except for the buyable cars and tested a lot of mechanics. The release fiasco, bugs, missing features annoyed me at the beginning while playing and also while reading about the game and I was sometimes angry that so much was apparently cut and the game was offered so catastrophically, especially for users of older console generations. On the other hand, there are the quests (main and side missions) and, despite the lack of opportunities for interaction, immersion in the world, which for me was almost like a phoenix from the ashes, I noticed that above all from the way it went of the game my rating is biting more and more upwards. It was absolutely thrilling.
Well a short foreword, lets do this:
Presentation / atmosphere / graphics
The game looks fantastic at times, although the next-gen update is still missing and I also switched off HDR (it just didn't look good) as well as all other cinematic effects (grain, etc. I always switch off anyway and I was happy to get the option here, too, TLoU2 didn't have that at the beginning) but nevertheless with Night City you got a graphic splendor that can be seen in all its corners. The Badlands brought with them the certain flair of the Nomads, but strangely enough, I had most of the pop-up problems or weaker textures.
Night City is an atmospheric delicacy and in its density, all its different levels (horizontal / vertical), unmatched for me. All the billboards, shops, lights, graffiti, posters, etc. have been created with a love of detail that I was always amazed at. Here I can also briefly note that the city was the real selling point for me and at least it was completely delivered in its setting. It's a fucked up city and CDPR put that into the spotlight graphically very well.
The characters are staged very strongly and look really good, at least the main characters and also many from the numerous side tasks (zooming in on characters shows how detailed they are shown).
The atmosphere can be felt from the dirty corners of this city, from the skyscrapers to the naked struggle for survival in the badlands. A phenomenal sound contributes to this, be it individual engine noises, the "Walk" or "Dont Walk" of the traffic light switch and generally the background noise in the city and not to forget the radio or the battle music. With the radio in particular, I would have wanted to listen more, but unfortunately I was simply not out in the car often enough (more on the gameplay). The excellent dubbing should also be mentioned, numerous well-known voices are represented here and it was also nice that some dialogues remain in their language and are then translated into the subtitles.
One can definitely criticize the numerous graphic glitches (floating cell phones, lanterns, people standing inside each other, etc.). The physics collisions were also very peculiar and usually started when they felt like doing it (e.g. when walking through the crowd). I also had countless display bugs with the subtitles that simply didn't disappear until you reloaded or the datapads that could freeze the gameplay when reading directly.
Gameplay
This is where the "dog is buried" for me, because I mentioned at the beginning that Night City was my selling point for Cyberpunk 2077, unfortunately the city, as atmospheric and outstanding as it is designed, is more of a backdrop than a real interactive open-world masterpiece . That is exactly the point at which I kept thinking for the first 20 hours: Damn it, how much potential was actually wasted in terms of the Open World because it was simply either not finished or was completely removed.
As an example, a few interaction failures: NPCS !!!!!!, unfortunately there is no reaction to almost everything you do; Adaptation (character e.g. tattoos, hairdresser, cars, weapon skins) in particular fashion (a huge topic in a Night City Wire) basically doesn't matter, nobody reacts to it ... you put on the best gear, with the most slots and stick with it (a transmogging system is also missing, how often I thought how shitty V actually looks) eg interactive fashion events would have been right for me; Unfortunately, BDS are usually not playable and I would have liked to have used the system more often to clear things up, even outside of missions etc. there was an integrated game experience with the River quest and those kids; was not a BD in that sense but a cool integration that could have been done with mini games; On the surface, sex naturally plays a huge role (jig jig street, dildos, dolls, BDS, clubs, sex shops, etc.), but the opportunities for interaction are extremely weak for the advertised relevance in the world and almost embarrassing that such a barrel from CDPR it was made out of it, it suited the world just as well (alone as some walk around) and is then only sporadically staged and integrated (e.g. only 2 whores with the same animation, no BDS) and it is about believable immersion; the romances and friendships could have used a lot more interaction and are just too quickly put aside for a later date; a few interactions within the city (mini-games, being able to order food at the table and adding an animation, etc.). Why can't I listen to the radio while I'm running, or why don't I actually have an integrated light. On Reddit there are very good listings of many different interaction features that have also been advertised.
Loot is not really satisfying and basically I was just disassembling (very poorly integrated), which brings me to the next point of criticism, the completely lousy crafting menus and the inventory and crafting in general. That will certainly be updated again as with the Witcher, but it was neglected again. Also, sometimes I couldn't loot because conversations couldn't be ended or were resumed when you came near.
The character's starting background is unfortunately quite a joke, is dealt with incredibly quickly and has no real relevance to the game except in one other dialogue option (I was a corporation and that was just bad, either something was taken out here or it was just marketing blubber ).
On a positive note, however, it should also be emphasized that the gameplay mechanics in combat and in terms of skills surprised me very much. The gunplay is phenomenal (SmartWeapons, GunFu Pistolfights ala John Wick, Sniper etc.) and was extremely fun, I also played the gorilla arms or the hacking extensively in my session (unfortunately at least when hacking without many skills, I have a lot in them Tech popped in for crafting). Cyber psychosis, grenade ignition were damn cool quick hacks, the slow motion was nice too, but strangely, I hit worse.
Despite the relatively "negative" gameplay parts, we now come to a big surprise.
Story Main- and Sidequests
I was really satisfied with my end, I decided at my own discretion and was happy how it went: I ran off to Arizona with the Aldecaldos and took it into my own hands at the end. With Panam (a really outstanding romance) and the others, I am trying to solve my problem of death that is too soon. I sent Jonny with Alt and putting his hand on V's shoulder was again pretty emotional at the end. Also the longer conversation before the final quest. Well, I really enjoyed the story. Tension from start to finish, strong characters (Takemura, Jacky, etc.), I was really surprised here, because the story was actually just a nice accessory for me before the game started and the city was, as already mentioned, the reason to buy, but then it did changed for the reasons mentioned above and the engaging story. I enjoyed the interaction with Jonny again and again and I didn't make a lot of decisions easily, always had the feeling that adequate alternatives were being offered to me here (how far what will affect the end, no idea). You go through a lot with Jonny and both grow tremendously with the task, you are completely in the story. I really didn't think that the story would get me so carried away (I think the whole setting is great), really strong what CDPR has delivered again.
I don't go into great detail on the side quests, but I did "all" and those were really some that I also found all outstanding. A few examples: the entire strand around the Cop River, the conspiracy theoretic series, Skippy the weapon, Peralez quest series, Ozob and above all the quests about Jonny and his objects, as well as the final concert.
A few examples of the Easter Eggs: Star Wars pose in photo mode, allusions in datapads to Taken, Mortal Kombat Scorpion, Breaking Bad Kitchen, "Joanne" Mcclane
Just as the gameplay "almost" made me wait / hope for more updates, content changes, the story and the side tasks just blew me away and let me keep playing.
Conclusion
With a few more options for interaction and the deepening of the atmosphere of this city through gameplay and better AI (COPS ????), the game would undoubtedly be a 5/5 ("dog buried"), so I thought it was 3.5/5 in the meantime but also good. But then the game picked up speed due to the story and many strong side tasks, characters, etc., that I now commit myself to 4.5/5 cyberpsychos (also very cool encounters, by the way).
------------------------------------------------German------------------------
75 Spielstunden hab ich auf meiner Series X investiert und 850 Achievementpunkte erreicht seit Release am 10.12.20. Ich habe wie viele viele andere lange auf dieses Spiel gewartet (Trailer, Night City Wire alles immer verfolgt) und ziemlich alles an Emotion beim Durchgang erlebt. Ich habe sämtliche Aktivitäten und Nebenquests gemacht, bis auf die kaufbaren Autos und sehr viele Mechaniken ausgetestet. Das Releasefiasko, Bugs, fehlende Features haben mich am Anfang während des Spielens und auch beim lesen über das Spiel genervt und ich war teilweise wütend, dass hier sovieles scheinbar gecutted wurde und das Spiel vor allem auch für die Nutzer älterer Konsolengenerationen so katastrophal angeboten wurde. Auf der anderen Seite stehen die Quests (Haupt- und Nebenmissionen) sowie das, trotz vieler fehlender Interaktionsmöglichkeiten, Eintauchen in die Welt, was für mich schon fast wie Phönix aus der Asche war, das hab ich vor allem daran gemerkt, wie sich im Verlaufe des Spiels meine Wertung immer mehr nach oben hin festbeißt. Es war absolut mitreißend.
Nun gut kurzes Vorwort, lets do this:
Präsentation/Atmosphäre/Grafik
Das Spiel sieht zuweilen fantastisch aus, zwar fehlt noch das Nextgen Update und HDR hab ich auch ausgeschaltet (sah einfach nicht gut aus) sowie alle anderen filmischen Effekte (Körnung usw. schalte ich sowieso immer aus und war froh hier auch die Option zu bekommen, TLoU2 hatte das nicht am Anfang) aber trotzdem hat man hier mit Night City eine Grafikpracht bekommen, die sich in all seinen Ecken sehen lassen kann. Die Badlands brachten den gewissen Flair der Nomads mit, hatten aber komischerweise bei mir die meisten Pop-Up Probleme oder schwächere Texturen.
Night City ist ein atmosphärischer Leckerbissen und in seiner Dichte, all seinen verschiedenen Ebenen (horizontal/vertikal) für mich unerreicht. Die ganzen Werbetafeln, Shops, Lichter, Graffitis, Plakate usw. ist mit einer Detailverliebtheit erstellt worden, dass ich immer wieder nur Staunen konnte. Hier kann ich auch mal kurz anmerken, dass die Stadt das eigentliche Kaufargument für mich war und zumindest in seiner Kulisse komplett abgeliefert worden ist. Es ist eine abgefuckte Stadt und das hat CDPR sehr gut grafisch in Szene gesetzt.
Die Charaktere sind ganz stark inszeniert und sehen richtig gut aus, zumindest eben die Hauptfiguren und auch viele aus den zahlreichen Nebenaufgaben (das Heranzoomen an Charaktere zeigt wie detailliert diese dargestellt sind).
Die Atmosphäre wird von den dreckigen Winkeln dieser Stadt, den Wolkenkratzern bis hin zum nackten Kampf ums Überleben in den Badlands spürbar aufgezeigt. Dazu trägt ein phänomenaler Sound seinen Teil bei, sei es einzelne Motorengeräusche, das "Walk" oder "Dont Walk" der Ampelschaltung und überhaupt die Geräuschkulisse in der Stadt und nicht zu vergessen das Radio oder die Kampfmusik. Gerade beim Radio hätte ich noch vielmehr zuhören wollen, nur leider war ich einfach nicht oft genug im Auto unterwegs (beim Gameplay mehr dazu). Weiter ist auch die hervorragende Synchronisation zu erwähnen, zahlreiche bekannte Stimmen sind hier vertreten und auch schön war, dass einige Dialoge in ihrer Sprache bleiben und in den Untertitel dann übersetzt werden.
Kritisieren kann man aufjedenfall die zahlreichen Grafikglitches (schwebende Handys, Laternen, Personen die ineinander stehen usw.). Die Physikkollisionen waren auch sehr eigen und setzten meistens dann ein, wenn diese Lust drauf hatten (z.b. beim laufen durch Passantenmengen). Auch hatte ich unzählige Anzeigebugs mit den Untertitel, die einfach nicht mehr verschwanden, bis man neugeladen hat oder auch die Datapads, die beim direkten Lesen das Gameplay freezen konnten.
Gameplay
Hier liegt für mich der "Hund begraben", denn ich hatte Anfangs erwähnt, dass Night City mein Kaufargument für Cyberpunk 2077 war, leider ist die Stadt, so atmosphärisch und herausragend sie auch gestaltet ist, mehr Kulisse als wirkliches interaktives Open-World-Meisterwerk. Das ist auch genau der Punkt an dem ich die ersten 20 Stunden immer wieder gedacht habe: Verdammt nochmal wieviel Potential wurde eigentlich was die Open World angeht verschenkt, weil es einfach entweder nicht fertig wurde oder komplett herausgenommen worden ist.
Exemplarisch ein paar Interaktionsversäumnisse: NPCS!!!!!!, leider erfolgt auf fast alles was man macht keinerlei Reaktion; Anpassung (Charakter z.b. Tattoos, Friseur, Autos, Waffenskins) insbesondere Fashion (ein riesen Thema in einer Night City Wire) spielt im Grunde keine Rolle, keiner reagiert darauf...man zieht das beste Gear an, mit den meisten Slots und bleibt dabei (ein Transmoggingsystem fehlt auch, wie oft ich gedacht habe wie scheiße V eigentlich aussieht) z.b. wären interaktive Fashionevents für mich stimmig gewesen; BDS sind leider in der Regel nicht abspielbar und ich hätte das System gerne öfter nutzen können um Dinge aufzuklären auch abseits von Missionen usw. eine integrierte Spielerfahrung gab es ja bei der Riverquest und den Kindern am Ende
war jetzt kein BD in dem Sinne aber eine coole Integration, hätte man mit Minispielen machen können; Sex spielt oberflächlich natürlich eine Riesenrolle (Jig Jig Street, Dildos, Puppen, BDS, Clubs, Sexshops usw.), die Interaktionsmöglichkeiten sind für die angepriesene Relevanz in der Welt dann aber extrem schwach und fast schon peinlich, dass da von CDPR so ein Fass draus gemacht wurde, es passte eben so gut zur Welt (alleine wie manche rumlaufen) und ist dann nur sporadisch aufflackernd inszeniert und integriert (z.b. nur 2 Huren mit der immergleichen Animation, keine BDS) und es geht hier um glaubhafte Immersion; die Romanzen und Freundschaften hätten noch viel mehr Interaktion vertragen können und sind einfach zu schnell beiseite gelegt bis zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt; ein paar Interaktionen innerhalb der Stadt (Minispiele, Essen auch am Tisch bestellen können und eine Animation dazupacken usw.). Warum kann ich beim Laufen kein Radio hören, oder warum habe ich eigentlich kein integriertes Licht. Auf Reddit gibt es sehr gute Auflistungen von vielen verschiedenen Interaktionsfeatures, die auch beworben wurden.
Loot ist nicht wirklich befriedigend und im Grunde war ich nur am Zerlegen (sehr schlecht integriert), was mich zum nächsten Kritikpunkt bringt, die völlig miesen Craftingmenüs und überhaupt das Inventar und Crafting. Das wird sicher auch wieder wie beim Witcher geupdatet, aber es wurde eben wieder vernachlässigt. Auch konnte ich manchmal nicht looten, weil Gespräche nicht beendbar waren bzw. wieder aufgenommen wurden wenn man in die Nähe kam.
Die Starthintergründe des Charakters sind leider ein ziemlicher Witz, werden unglaublich schnell abgehandelt und haben außer in einer weiteren Dialogoption keine wirkliche Bewandtnis für das Spiel (Ich war Konzernen und das war einfach nur schlecht, entweder wurde hier auch einiges rausgenommen oder es war eben nur Marketinggeblubber).
Positiv ist aber genauso hervorzuheben, dass mich die Gameplaymechaniken im Kampf und was das Skillen angeht sehr überrascht haben. Das Gunplay ist phänomenal (SmartWaffen, GunFu Pistolenfights ala John Wick, Sniper usw.) und hat extreeeeeem viel Laune gemacht, auch die Gorillaärme oder das Hacken hab ich in meiner Session ausgiebig gespielt (leider zumindest beim Hacken ohne viele Skills, hab einiges in die Tech reingeknallt zum Craften). Cyberpsychose, Granatenentzündung sind verdammt coole Quickhacks gewesen, auch die Slow Motion war nice, jedoch hab ich da komischerweise schlechter getroffen.
Trotz des relativ "negativen" Gameplayparts kommen wir nun zur faustdicken Überraschung.
Story/Haupt- Nebenquests (SPOILER)
Mit meinem Ende war ich wirklich zufrieden, ich habe ganz nach meinem Ermessen entschieden und war doch glücklich wie es verlaufen ist: Bin mit den Aldecaldos nach Arizona abgehauen und hab es selbst in die Hand genommen am Ende. Mit Panam (einer wirklich herausragenden Romanze) und den anderen versuche ich mein Problem des zu schnell bevorstehenden Todes doch zu lösen. Jonny hab ich mit Alt mitgeschickt und sein legen der Hand auf die Schulter von V war nochmal ziemlich emotional am Ende. Auch das längere Gespräch ihm vor der Endquest. Nun gut ich hatte richtig Spaß mit der Story. Spannung von Anfang bis Ende, starke Figuren (Takemura, Jacky usw.), ich war hier wirklich überrascht, denn die Story war für mich vor Spielbeginn eigentlich nur nettes Beiwerk und die Stadt war, wie schon erwähnt der Kaufgrund, das hat sich dann aber aus den oben genannten Gründen und der mitreißenden Story geändert. Die Interaktion mit Jonny habe ich immer wieder genossen und viele Entscheidungen hab ich nicht leicht getroffen, hatte schon immer das Gefühl hier werden mir adäquate Alternativen angeboten (wie weit sich was dann aufs Ende auswirkt, keine Ahnung). Man macht viel mit Jonny durch und beide wachsen an der Aufgabe ungemein, man ist komplett drin in der Story. Ich habe wirklich nicht gedacht, dass die Story mich so mitreißen würde (das ganze Setting find ich klasse), wirklich stark was CDPR wieder abgeliefert hat.
Ich gehe nicht groß ins Detail bei den Nebenquests aber ich habe "alle" gemacht und das waren wirklich einige, die ich ebenso alle herausragend fande. Ein paar Beispiele: der gesamte Strang um den Cop River, die Verschwörungstheoretikereihe, Skippy die Waffe, Peralez Questreihe, Ozob und vor allem die Quests um Jonny und seine Gegenstände, sowie dem Abschlusskonzert.
Zu den Easter Eggs auch exemplarische ein paar: Star Wars Pose im Fotomodus, Anspielungen in Datapads an Taken, Mortal Kombat Scorpion, Breaking Bad Küche, "Joanne" Mcclane
So wie mich das Gameplay "fast" dazu gebracht hätte auf mehr Updates, Inhaltsänderungen zu warten/hoffen, so hat mich die Story und auch die Nebenaufgaben einfach umgehauen und immer weiterspielen lassen.
Fazit
Das Spiel wäre mit ein paar mehr Interaktionsmöglichkeiten und der Vertiefung der Atmosphäre dieser Stadt durch Gameplay und einer besseren KI (COPS????) ohne Zweifel eine 5/5 ("Hund begraben"), so dachte ich mir zwischenzeitlich 3.5/5 ist doch auch gut. Dann nahm das Spiel aber durch die Story und viele starke Nebenaufgaben, Charaktere usw. so an Fahrt auf, dass ich mich nun auf 4.5/5 Cyberpsychos (übrigens auch sehr coole Encounter) festlege.
I've invested 75 hours of play on my Series X and I've achieved 850 achievement points since the release on December 10th, 2020. Like many many others, I have waited a long time for this game (trailer, Night City Wire always followed) and experienced pretty much everything in terms of emotion during the passage. I did all the activities and side quests, except for the buyable cars and tested a lot of mechanics. The release fiasco, bugs, missing features annoyed me at the beginning while playing and also while reading about the game and I was sometimes angry that so much was apparently cut and the game was offered so catastrophically, especially for users of older console generations. On the other hand, there are the quests (main and side missions) and, despite the lack of opportunities for interaction, immersion in the world, which for me was almost like a phoenix from the ashes, I noticed that above all from the way it went of the game my rating is biting more and more upwards. It was absolutely thrilling.
Well a short foreword, lets do this:
Presentation / atmosphere / graphics
The game looks fantastic at times, although the next-gen update is still missing and I also switched off HDR (it just didn't look good) as well as all other cinematic effects (grain, etc. I always switch off anyway and I was happy to get the option here, too, TLoU2 didn't have that at the beginning) but nevertheless with Night City you got a graphic splendor that can be seen in all its corners. The Badlands brought with them the certain flair of the Nomads, but strangely enough, I had most of the pop-up problems or weaker textures.
Night City is an atmospheric delicacy and in its density, all its different levels (horizontal / vertical), unmatched for me. All the billboards, shops, lights, graffiti, posters, etc. have been created with a love of detail that I was always amazed at. Here I can also briefly note that the city was the real selling point for me and at least it was completely delivered in its setting. It's a fucked up city and CDPR put that into the spotlight graphically very well.
The characters are staged very strongly and look really good, at least the main characters and also many from the numerous side tasks (zooming in on characters shows how detailed they are shown).
The atmosphere can be felt from the dirty corners of this city, from the skyscrapers to the naked struggle for survival in the badlands. A phenomenal sound contributes to this, be it individual engine noises, the "Walk" or "Dont Walk" of the traffic light switch and generally the background noise in the city and not to forget the radio or the battle music. With the radio in particular, I would have wanted to listen more, but unfortunately I was simply not out in the car often enough (more on the gameplay). The excellent dubbing should also be mentioned, numerous well-known voices are represented here and it was also nice that some dialogues remain in their language and are then translated into the subtitles.
One can definitely criticize the numerous graphic glitches (floating cell phones, lanterns, people standing inside each other, etc.). The physics collisions were also very peculiar and usually started when they felt like doing it (e.g. when walking through the crowd). I also had countless display bugs with the subtitles that simply didn't disappear until you reloaded or the datapads that could freeze the gameplay when reading directly.
Gameplay
This is where the "dog is buried" for me, because I mentioned at the beginning that Night City was my selling point for Cyberpunk 2077, unfortunately the city, as atmospheric and outstanding as it is designed, is more of a backdrop than a real interactive open-world masterpiece . That is exactly the point at which I kept thinking for the first 20 hours: Damn it, how much potential was actually wasted in terms of the Open World because it was simply either not finished or was completely removed.
As an example, a few interaction failures: NPCS !!!!!!, unfortunately there is no reaction to almost everything you do; Adaptation (character e.g. tattoos, hairdresser, cars, weapon skins) in particular fashion (a huge topic in a Night City Wire) basically doesn't matter, nobody reacts to it ... you put on the best gear, with the most slots and stick with it (a transmogging system is also missing, how often I thought how shitty V actually looks) eg interactive fashion events would have been right for me; Unfortunately, BDS are usually not playable and I would have liked to have used the system more often to clear things up, even outside of missions etc. there was an integrated game experience with the River quest and those kids; was not a BD in that sense but a cool integration that could have been done with mini games; On the surface, sex naturally plays a huge role (jig jig street, dildos, dolls, BDS, clubs, sex shops, etc.), but the opportunities for interaction are extremely weak for the advertised relevance in the world and almost embarrassing that such a barrel from CDPR it was made out of it, it suited the world just as well (alone as some walk around) and is then only sporadically staged and integrated (e.g. only 2 whores with the same animation, no BDS) and it is about believable immersion; the romances and friendships could have used a lot more interaction and are just too quickly put aside for a later date; a few interactions within the city (mini-games, being able to order food at the table and adding an animation, etc.). Why can't I listen to the radio while I'm running, or why don't I actually have an integrated light. On Reddit there are very good listings of many different interaction features that have also been advertised.
Loot is not really satisfying and basically I was just disassembling (very poorly integrated), which brings me to the next point of criticism, the completely lousy crafting menus and the inventory and crafting in general. That will certainly be updated again as with the Witcher, but it was neglected again. Also, sometimes I couldn't loot because conversations couldn't be ended or were resumed when you came near.
The character's starting background is unfortunately quite a joke, is dealt with incredibly quickly and has no real relevance to the game except in one other dialogue option (I was a corporation and that was just bad, either something was taken out here or it was just marketing blubber ).
On a positive note, however, it should also be emphasized that the gameplay mechanics in combat and in terms of skills surprised me very much. The gunplay is phenomenal (SmartWeapons, GunFu Pistolfights ala John Wick, Sniper etc.) and was extremely fun, I also played the gorilla arms or the hacking extensively in my session (unfortunately at least when hacking without many skills, I have a lot in them Tech popped in for crafting). Cyber psychosis, grenade ignition were damn cool quick hacks, the slow motion was nice too, but strangely, I hit worse.
Despite the relatively "negative" gameplay parts, we now come to a big surprise.
Story Main- and Sidequests
I was really satisfied with my end, I decided at my own discretion and was happy how it went: I ran off to Arizona with the Aldecaldos and took it into my own hands at the end. With Panam (a really outstanding romance) and the others, I am trying to solve my problem of death that is too soon. I sent Jonny with Alt and putting his hand on V's shoulder was again pretty emotional at the end. Also the longer conversation before the final quest. Well, I really enjoyed the story. Tension from start to finish, strong characters (Takemura, Jacky, etc.), I was really surprised here, because the story was actually just a nice accessory for me before the game started and the city was, as already mentioned, the reason to buy, but then it did changed for the reasons mentioned above and the engaging story. I enjoyed the interaction with Jonny again and again and I didn't make a lot of decisions easily, always had the feeling that adequate alternatives were being offered to me here (how far what will affect the end, no idea). You go through a lot with Jonny and both grow tremendously with the task, you are completely in the story. I really didn't think that the story would get me so carried away (I think the whole setting is great), really strong what CDPR has delivered again.
I don't go into great detail on the side quests, but I did "all" and those were really some that I also found all outstanding. A few examples: the entire strand around the Cop River, the conspiracy theoretic series, Skippy the weapon, Peralez quest series, Ozob and above all the quests about Jonny and his objects, as well as the final concert.
A few examples of the Easter Eggs: Star Wars pose in photo mode, allusions in datapads to Taken, Mortal Kombat Scorpion, Breaking Bad Kitchen, "Joanne" Mcclane
Just as the gameplay "almost" made me wait / hope for more updates, content changes, the story and the side tasks just blew me away and let me keep playing.
Conclusion
With a few more options for interaction and the deepening of the atmosphere of this city through gameplay and better AI (COPS ????), the game would undoubtedly be a 5/5 ("dog buried"), so I thought it was 3.5/5 in the meantime but also good. But then the game picked up speed due to the story and many strong side tasks, characters, etc., that I now commit myself to 4.5/5 cyberpsychos (also very cool encounters, by the way).
------------------------------------------------German------------------------
75 Spielstunden hab ich auf meiner Series X investiert und 850 Achievementpunkte erreicht seit Release am 10.12.20. Ich habe wie viele viele andere lange auf dieses Spiel gewartet (Trailer, Night City Wire alles immer verfolgt) und ziemlich alles an Emotion beim Durchgang erlebt. Ich habe sämtliche Aktivitäten und Nebenquests gemacht, bis auf die kaufbaren Autos und sehr viele Mechaniken ausgetestet. Das Releasefiasko, Bugs, fehlende Features haben mich am Anfang während des Spielens und auch beim lesen über das Spiel genervt und ich war teilweise wütend, dass hier sovieles scheinbar gecutted wurde und das Spiel vor allem auch für die Nutzer älterer Konsolengenerationen so katastrophal angeboten wurde. Auf der anderen Seite stehen die Quests (Haupt- und Nebenmissionen) sowie das, trotz vieler fehlender Interaktionsmöglichkeiten, Eintauchen in die Welt, was für mich schon fast wie Phönix aus der Asche war, das hab ich vor allem daran gemerkt, wie sich im Verlaufe des Spiels meine Wertung immer mehr nach oben hin festbeißt. Es war absolut mitreißend.
Nun gut kurzes Vorwort, lets do this:
Präsentation/Atmosphäre/Grafik
Das Spiel sieht zuweilen fantastisch aus, zwar fehlt noch das Nextgen Update und HDR hab ich auch ausgeschaltet (sah einfach nicht gut aus) sowie alle anderen filmischen Effekte (Körnung usw. schalte ich sowieso immer aus und war froh hier auch die Option zu bekommen, TLoU2 hatte das nicht am Anfang) aber trotzdem hat man hier mit Night City eine Grafikpracht bekommen, die sich in all seinen Ecken sehen lassen kann. Die Badlands brachten den gewissen Flair der Nomads mit, hatten aber komischerweise bei mir die meisten Pop-Up Probleme oder schwächere Texturen.
Night City ist ein atmosphärischer Leckerbissen und in seiner Dichte, all seinen verschiedenen Ebenen (horizontal/vertikal) für mich unerreicht. Die ganzen Werbetafeln, Shops, Lichter, Graffitis, Plakate usw. ist mit einer Detailverliebtheit erstellt worden, dass ich immer wieder nur Staunen konnte. Hier kann ich auch mal kurz anmerken, dass die Stadt das eigentliche Kaufargument für mich war und zumindest in seiner Kulisse komplett abgeliefert worden ist. Es ist eine abgefuckte Stadt und das hat CDPR sehr gut grafisch in Szene gesetzt.
Die Charaktere sind ganz stark inszeniert und sehen richtig gut aus, zumindest eben die Hauptfiguren und auch viele aus den zahlreichen Nebenaufgaben (das Heranzoomen an Charaktere zeigt wie detailliert diese dargestellt sind).
Die Atmosphäre wird von den dreckigen Winkeln dieser Stadt, den Wolkenkratzern bis hin zum nackten Kampf ums Überleben in den Badlands spürbar aufgezeigt. Dazu trägt ein phänomenaler Sound seinen Teil bei, sei es einzelne Motorengeräusche, das "Walk" oder "Dont Walk" der Ampelschaltung und überhaupt die Geräuschkulisse in der Stadt und nicht zu vergessen das Radio oder die Kampfmusik. Gerade beim Radio hätte ich noch vielmehr zuhören wollen, nur leider war ich einfach nicht oft genug im Auto unterwegs (beim Gameplay mehr dazu). Weiter ist auch die hervorragende Synchronisation zu erwähnen, zahlreiche bekannte Stimmen sind hier vertreten und auch schön war, dass einige Dialoge in ihrer Sprache bleiben und in den Untertitel dann übersetzt werden.
Kritisieren kann man aufjedenfall die zahlreichen Grafikglitches (schwebende Handys, Laternen, Personen die ineinander stehen usw.). Die Physikkollisionen waren auch sehr eigen und setzten meistens dann ein, wenn diese Lust drauf hatten (z.b. beim laufen durch Passantenmengen). Auch hatte ich unzählige Anzeigebugs mit den Untertitel, die einfach nicht mehr verschwanden, bis man neugeladen hat oder auch die Datapads, die beim direkten Lesen das Gameplay freezen konnten.
Gameplay
Hier liegt für mich der "Hund begraben", denn ich hatte Anfangs erwähnt, dass Night City mein Kaufargument für Cyberpunk 2077 war, leider ist die Stadt, so atmosphärisch und herausragend sie auch gestaltet ist, mehr Kulisse als wirkliches interaktives Open-World-Meisterwerk. Das ist auch genau der Punkt an dem ich die ersten 20 Stunden immer wieder gedacht habe: Verdammt nochmal wieviel Potential wurde eigentlich was die Open World angeht verschenkt, weil es einfach entweder nicht fertig wurde oder komplett herausgenommen worden ist.
Exemplarisch ein paar Interaktionsversäumnisse: NPCS!!!!!!, leider erfolgt auf fast alles was man macht keinerlei Reaktion; Anpassung (Charakter z.b. Tattoos, Friseur, Autos, Waffenskins) insbesondere Fashion (ein riesen Thema in einer Night City Wire) spielt im Grunde keine Rolle, keiner reagiert darauf...man zieht das beste Gear an, mit den meisten Slots und bleibt dabei (ein Transmoggingsystem fehlt auch, wie oft ich gedacht habe wie scheiße V eigentlich aussieht) z.b. wären interaktive Fashionevents für mich stimmig gewesen; BDS sind leider in der Regel nicht abspielbar und ich hätte das System gerne öfter nutzen können um Dinge aufzuklären auch abseits von Missionen usw. eine integrierte Spielerfahrung gab es ja bei der Riverquest und den Kindern am Ende
war jetzt kein BD in dem Sinne aber eine coole Integration, hätte man mit Minispielen machen können; Sex spielt oberflächlich natürlich eine Riesenrolle (Jig Jig Street, Dildos, Puppen, BDS, Clubs, Sexshops usw.), die Interaktionsmöglichkeiten sind für die angepriesene Relevanz in der Welt dann aber extrem schwach und fast schon peinlich, dass da von CDPR so ein Fass draus gemacht wurde, es passte eben so gut zur Welt (alleine wie manche rumlaufen) und ist dann nur sporadisch aufflackernd inszeniert und integriert (z.b. nur 2 Huren mit der immergleichen Animation, keine BDS) und es geht hier um glaubhafte Immersion; die Romanzen und Freundschaften hätten noch viel mehr Interaktion vertragen können und sind einfach zu schnell beiseite gelegt bis zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt; ein paar Interaktionen innerhalb der Stadt (Minispiele, Essen auch am Tisch bestellen können und eine Animation dazupacken usw.). Warum kann ich beim Laufen kein Radio hören, oder warum habe ich eigentlich kein integriertes Licht. Auf Reddit gibt es sehr gute Auflistungen von vielen verschiedenen Interaktionsfeatures, die auch beworben wurden.
Loot ist nicht wirklich befriedigend und im Grunde war ich nur am Zerlegen (sehr schlecht integriert), was mich zum nächsten Kritikpunkt bringt, die völlig miesen Craftingmenüs und überhaupt das Inventar und Crafting. Das wird sicher auch wieder wie beim Witcher geupdatet, aber es wurde eben wieder vernachlässigt. Auch konnte ich manchmal nicht looten, weil Gespräche nicht beendbar waren bzw. wieder aufgenommen wurden wenn man in die Nähe kam.
Die Starthintergründe des Charakters sind leider ein ziemlicher Witz, werden unglaublich schnell abgehandelt und haben außer in einer weiteren Dialogoption keine wirkliche Bewandtnis für das Spiel (Ich war Konzernen und das war einfach nur schlecht, entweder wurde hier auch einiges rausgenommen oder es war eben nur Marketinggeblubber).
Positiv ist aber genauso hervorzuheben, dass mich die Gameplaymechaniken im Kampf und was das Skillen angeht sehr überrascht haben. Das Gunplay ist phänomenal (SmartWaffen, GunFu Pistolenfights ala John Wick, Sniper usw.) und hat extreeeeeem viel Laune gemacht, auch die Gorillaärme oder das Hacken hab ich in meiner Session ausgiebig gespielt (leider zumindest beim Hacken ohne viele Skills, hab einiges in die Tech reingeknallt zum Craften). Cyberpsychose, Granatenentzündung sind verdammt coole Quickhacks gewesen, auch die Slow Motion war nice, jedoch hab ich da komischerweise schlechter getroffen.
Trotz des relativ "negativen" Gameplayparts kommen wir nun zur faustdicken Überraschung.
Story/Haupt- Nebenquests (SPOILER)
Mit meinem Ende war ich wirklich zufrieden, ich habe ganz nach meinem Ermessen entschieden und war doch glücklich wie es verlaufen ist: Bin mit den Aldecaldos nach Arizona abgehauen und hab es selbst in die Hand genommen am Ende. Mit Panam (einer wirklich herausragenden Romanze) und den anderen versuche ich mein Problem des zu schnell bevorstehenden Todes doch zu lösen. Jonny hab ich mit Alt mitgeschickt und sein legen der Hand auf die Schulter von V war nochmal ziemlich emotional am Ende. Auch das längere Gespräch ihm vor der Endquest. Nun gut ich hatte richtig Spaß mit der Story. Spannung von Anfang bis Ende, starke Figuren (Takemura, Jacky usw.), ich war hier wirklich überrascht, denn die Story war für mich vor Spielbeginn eigentlich nur nettes Beiwerk und die Stadt war, wie schon erwähnt der Kaufgrund, das hat sich dann aber aus den oben genannten Gründen und der mitreißenden Story geändert. Die Interaktion mit Jonny habe ich immer wieder genossen und viele Entscheidungen hab ich nicht leicht getroffen, hatte schon immer das Gefühl hier werden mir adäquate Alternativen angeboten (wie weit sich was dann aufs Ende auswirkt, keine Ahnung). Man macht viel mit Jonny durch und beide wachsen an der Aufgabe ungemein, man ist komplett drin in der Story. Ich habe wirklich nicht gedacht, dass die Story mich so mitreißen würde (das ganze Setting find ich klasse), wirklich stark was CDPR wieder abgeliefert hat.
Ich gehe nicht groß ins Detail bei den Nebenquests aber ich habe "alle" gemacht und das waren wirklich einige, die ich ebenso alle herausragend fande. Ein paar Beispiele: der gesamte Strang um den Cop River, die Verschwörungstheoretikereihe, Skippy die Waffe, Peralez Questreihe, Ozob und vor allem die Quests um Jonny und seine Gegenstände, sowie dem Abschlusskonzert.
Zu den Easter Eggs auch exemplarische ein paar: Star Wars Pose im Fotomodus, Anspielungen in Datapads an Taken, Mortal Kombat Scorpion, Breaking Bad Küche, "Joanne" Mcclane
So wie mich das Gameplay "fast" dazu gebracht hätte auf mehr Updates, Inhaltsänderungen zu warten/hoffen, so hat mich die Story und auch die Nebenaufgaben einfach umgehauen und immer weiterspielen lassen.
Fazit
Das Spiel wäre mit ein paar mehr Interaktionsmöglichkeiten und der Vertiefung der Atmosphäre dieser Stadt durch Gameplay und einer besseren KI (COPS????) ohne Zweifel eine 5/5 ("Hund begraben"), so dachte ich mir zwischenzeitlich 3.5/5 ist doch auch gut. Dann nahm das Spiel aber durch die Story und viele starke Nebenaufgaben, Charaktere usw. so an Fahrt auf, dass ich mich nun auf 4.5/5 Cyberpsychos (übrigens auch sehr coole Encounter) festlege.
Gears 5: Hivebusters
2020
English/German below
That was really fun. I was busy with the DLC for a good 4 hours. The island you visit is visually outstanding, Gears 5 looks good anyway, but this DLC goes one better. The cut scenes are damn sharp and the characters are excellently modeled. In terms of gameplay, Gears 5 is fun anyway and here, too, you not only have pure firing, but also moments to relax. I played with Keegan.
I just found it a bit annoying that the dialogue sound was always very quiet while playing, although I wasn't really far away from the comrades and these comrades are also a bit "wooden" in terms of their facial expressions in pure gameplay. The individual skills could have been made a bit more exciting in their upgrade versions, but let's see what comes next. I found the Mac skill to be pretty useless, because the AI doesn't actually run around the barrier to your advantage.
4/5 larvae.
-----------------------german----------------------
Das hat richtig Laune gemacht. Ich war gut 4 Stunden mit dem DLC beschäftigt. Die Insel die man besucht ist visuell herausragend dargestellt, Gears 5 siehst sowieso gut aus aber dieser DLC setzt nochmal einen drauf. Die Cutscenes sind verdammt scharf und die Charaktere exzellent modelliert. Gameplaytechnisch macht Gears 5 sowieso Spaß und auch hier hat man nicht wieder nur reines Geballer, sondern auch Momenten zum runterkommen. Ich habe mit Keegan gespielt.
Etwas nervig fand ich nur, dass der Dialogsound beim Spielen immer mal wieder sehr leise wurde, obwohl ich nicht wirklich weit weg von den Kameraden stand und diese Kameraden sind von ihrer Mimik her im reinen Gameplay auch etwas "hölzern". Auch die einzelnen Skills hätte man in seinen Upgradevarianten noch ein bisschen aufregender gestalten können, aber mal sehen was da noch kommt. Der Skill von Mac empfand ich als ziemlich nutzlos, denn die KI läuft eigentlich nicht für dich vorteilhaft mit der Barriere umher.
4/5 Larven.
That was really fun. I was busy with the DLC for a good 4 hours. The island you visit is visually outstanding, Gears 5 looks good anyway, but this DLC goes one better. The cut scenes are damn sharp and the characters are excellently modeled. In terms of gameplay, Gears 5 is fun anyway and here, too, you not only have pure firing, but also moments to relax. I played with Keegan.
I just found it a bit annoying that the dialogue sound was always very quiet while playing, although I wasn't really far away from the comrades and these comrades are also a bit "wooden" in terms of their facial expressions in pure gameplay. The individual skills could have been made a bit more exciting in their upgrade versions, but let's see what comes next. I found the Mac skill to be pretty useless, because the AI doesn't actually run around the barrier to your advantage.
4/5 larvae.
-----------------------german----------------------
Das hat richtig Laune gemacht. Ich war gut 4 Stunden mit dem DLC beschäftigt. Die Insel die man besucht ist visuell herausragend dargestellt, Gears 5 siehst sowieso gut aus aber dieser DLC setzt nochmal einen drauf. Die Cutscenes sind verdammt scharf und die Charaktere exzellent modelliert. Gameplaytechnisch macht Gears 5 sowieso Spaß und auch hier hat man nicht wieder nur reines Geballer, sondern auch Momenten zum runterkommen. Ich habe mit Keegan gespielt.
Etwas nervig fand ich nur, dass der Dialogsound beim Spielen immer mal wieder sehr leise wurde, obwohl ich nicht wirklich weit weg von den Kameraden stand und diese Kameraden sind von ihrer Mimik her im reinen Gameplay auch etwas "hölzern". Auch die einzelnen Skills hätte man in seinen Upgradevarianten noch ein bisschen aufregender gestalten können, aber mal sehen was da noch kommt. Der Skill von Mac empfand ich als ziemlich nutzlos, denn die KI läuft eigentlich nicht für dich vorteilhaft mit der Barriere umher.
4/5 Larven.
I'm new to Backloggd and I'm stoked as hell that this game is the first one I get to review. Just so you all know, If I have a lot of thoughts on a game I played I will go pretty in depth. So let bust some knee caps and get into it.( Bad joke I know but I'm fully italian so I'm allowed ;))
Pre-Game thoughts:
I have been a huge fan of Mafia 2 since it was released back in 2010 and I like many other were disappointed in Mafia 3. However, despite being a big fan of the second installment of this title I never played the original.
I heard that the original Mafia had some rough game play and and absurd difficulty etc. SO when I heard that Hangar 13 was doing a full re-build of the 2002 title my heart sank like It was wearing a pair of concrete shoes. I will say, after some time I started to get a little nervous due to the fact that Hangar 13 developed Mafia 3 and like I said earlier: I wasn't a fan.
However I did consider the fact that Hangar 13 as a company only ever cut their teeth On Mafia 3. It was the first official game the company ever developed so I figured it wouldn't be fair to judge their abilities as developers based on their first crack at it. I bought the game and I'm happy to say that Hangar 13 stepped up real well.
The Story:
Don't worry I'm not gonna spoil anything and I'm also not gonna talk about the story for long because I simply just really enjoyed it. I know that they didn't change anything about the story from the original except for expanding on some missions supposedly but since I never played the original, I couldn't tell. Plus I think this story might rival Mafia 2's so take that for what you will.
Game Play:
I think a majority of us would agree that this game looks gorgeous so I won't talk about graphics. The very first thing I took notice of after gawking at the cool scenery was that Tommy controls incredibly similar to Lincoln Clay in Mafia 3. I didn't take any grievance with this because I actually really like how the controls feel. Tommy is very responsive when he moves and he doesn't have stupid problems with taking cover like Vito sometimes did in Mafia 2.
Now I played this on PS4 and I didn't experience any glitches at all pretty much, frame rate drops at most. I did watch someones review of the game that played it on Xbox One and they experienced some major glitches as well as a few soft locks unfortunately. Maybe I got lucky or the PS4 version might be more stable for some reason but I just thought that was worth mentioning.
Combat is pretty fun and with how long the game is it didn't feel like it got repetitive or boring at any time. I really like that you aren't allowed to carry an arsenal on you like Vito can and that you're limited to one long gun and one side arm of your choosing as well as a melee weapon if you want. I think that this limitation is nice as it makes the player really think about what kind of job they are doing and gives you the opportunity to think carefully about what you'd like to bring or even just let you pick what gun you like the most. It will also force you to think on your feet and adapt a bit if the weapon you're currently using isn't well suited for the environment.
The weapons feel really nice to shoot ,however I think the reticle movement is very sluggish and stiff. Even if you up the sensitivity it still feels stuttery. I heard that some people weren't happy about the variety of weapons that were available and would've like to seen more. I personally really like the simple options and thought that every gun was designed to suit somebodies preference. I always thought that gun selection in Mafia 2 was a bit "verbose" for lack of a better word. To me it always felt like there was some other weapon that was objectively better or the difference was purely aesthetic so I like that the different types of pistols and long guns all felt like they fired or behaved a little differently in some way.
The weapon sway and recoil are VERY active. Trying to fire your gun while moving for any reason will be a fruitless venture about 9/10 times it seems. The mix between the drastic weapon sway, the violent recoil, and the fact that the enemies in this game actually have pretty smart aim and will shoot you A LOT if you're in the open for too long. This didn't seem like too much of a problem to me, I found that you can get used to it pretty quick. Plus I think the game is trying to incentivize the player to be smarter when approaching shoot outs and to not be the cliche movie mobster that stands out in the open with a Tommy gun and never gets hit. The only two melee weapons are a baseball bat and a stiletto and there's really only one or two times in the game where they can be used without getting killed, but they were still fun to have none the less.
The Driving is pretty solid. This all depends on the type of car you drive but all in all every car seems responsive enough. All the vehicles feel VERY heavy like the other games of the series. It doesn't necessarily seem like a bad thing, but if you've never played any of these games and you're the type of person who is very comfortable with the way GTA driving feels then it might take a chapter or two to get a good feel for it. Again, no story spoilers but we all know that if there's a game with heavy emphasis on cars and driving then there will probably be a race sooner or later. During some research on the original version I heard a few people refer to one mission in particular that was one of the hardest in the game due to a car race thats involved. However I didn't have any trouble with this mission when playing it on standard difficulty.
Conclusion:
As a whole, I had a blast with this game and I'm happy Hangar 13 rebuilt it. The story is engaging enough if you're into the whole mob theme, the characters are entertaining, gun play feels satisfying, and its fun to drive around. It might not be perfect and it certainly isn't a revolutionary or innovative game but it's a fun time. If you enjoy shooters you'll dig it.
Pre-Game thoughts:
I have been a huge fan of Mafia 2 since it was released back in 2010 and I like many other were disappointed in Mafia 3. However, despite being a big fan of the second installment of this title I never played the original.
I heard that the original Mafia had some rough game play and and absurd difficulty etc. SO when I heard that Hangar 13 was doing a full re-build of the 2002 title my heart sank like It was wearing a pair of concrete shoes. I will say, after some time I started to get a little nervous due to the fact that Hangar 13 developed Mafia 3 and like I said earlier: I wasn't a fan.
However I did consider the fact that Hangar 13 as a company only ever cut their teeth On Mafia 3. It was the first official game the company ever developed so I figured it wouldn't be fair to judge their abilities as developers based on their first crack at it. I bought the game and I'm happy to say that Hangar 13 stepped up real well.
The Story:
Don't worry I'm not gonna spoil anything and I'm also not gonna talk about the story for long because I simply just really enjoyed it. I know that they didn't change anything about the story from the original except for expanding on some missions supposedly but since I never played the original, I couldn't tell. Plus I think this story might rival Mafia 2's so take that for what you will.
Game Play:
I think a majority of us would agree that this game looks gorgeous so I won't talk about graphics. The very first thing I took notice of after gawking at the cool scenery was that Tommy controls incredibly similar to Lincoln Clay in Mafia 3. I didn't take any grievance with this because I actually really like how the controls feel. Tommy is very responsive when he moves and he doesn't have stupid problems with taking cover like Vito sometimes did in Mafia 2.
Now I played this on PS4 and I didn't experience any glitches at all pretty much, frame rate drops at most. I did watch someones review of the game that played it on Xbox One and they experienced some major glitches as well as a few soft locks unfortunately. Maybe I got lucky or the PS4 version might be more stable for some reason but I just thought that was worth mentioning.
Combat is pretty fun and with how long the game is it didn't feel like it got repetitive or boring at any time. I really like that you aren't allowed to carry an arsenal on you like Vito can and that you're limited to one long gun and one side arm of your choosing as well as a melee weapon if you want. I think that this limitation is nice as it makes the player really think about what kind of job they are doing and gives you the opportunity to think carefully about what you'd like to bring or even just let you pick what gun you like the most. It will also force you to think on your feet and adapt a bit if the weapon you're currently using isn't well suited for the environment.
The weapons feel really nice to shoot ,however I think the reticle movement is very sluggish and stiff. Even if you up the sensitivity it still feels stuttery. I heard that some people weren't happy about the variety of weapons that were available and would've like to seen more. I personally really like the simple options and thought that every gun was designed to suit somebodies preference. I always thought that gun selection in Mafia 2 was a bit "verbose" for lack of a better word. To me it always felt like there was some other weapon that was objectively better or the difference was purely aesthetic so I like that the different types of pistols and long guns all felt like they fired or behaved a little differently in some way.
The weapon sway and recoil are VERY active. Trying to fire your gun while moving for any reason will be a fruitless venture about 9/10 times it seems. The mix between the drastic weapon sway, the violent recoil, and the fact that the enemies in this game actually have pretty smart aim and will shoot you A LOT if you're in the open for too long. This didn't seem like too much of a problem to me, I found that you can get used to it pretty quick. Plus I think the game is trying to incentivize the player to be smarter when approaching shoot outs and to not be the cliche movie mobster that stands out in the open with a Tommy gun and never gets hit. The only two melee weapons are a baseball bat and a stiletto and there's really only one or two times in the game where they can be used without getting killed, but they were still fun to have none the less.
The Driving is pretty solid. This all depends on the type of car you drive but all in all every car seems responsive enough. All the vehicles feel VERY heavy like the other games of the series. It doesn't necessarily seem like a bad thing, but if you've never played any of these games and you're the type of person who is very comfortable with the way GTA driving feels then it might take a chapter or two to get a good feel for it. Again, no story spoilers but we all know that if there's a game with heavy emphasis on cars and driving then there will probably be a race sooner or later. During some research on the original version I heard a few people refer to one mission in particular that was one of the hardest in the game due to a car race thats involved. However I didn't have any trouble with this mission when playing it on standard difficulty.
Conclusion:
As a whole, I had a blast with this game and I'm happy Hangar 13 rebuilt it. The story is engaging enough if you're into the whole mob theme, the characters are entertaining, gun play feels satisfying, and its fun to drive around. It might not be perfect and it certainly isn't a revolutionary or innovative game but it's a fun time. If you enjoy shooters you'll dig it.