people talk about this game like it's some groundbreaking, breathtaking, wonderful pinnacle of video games and i really wish i understood that. this game feels really nice to move around in, its visuals are really appealing and its score is pretty cute. but there's not much of a real narrative (or writing at all), no memorable characters, no cool side-quests, no dungeons, a pitiful lack of enemy variety + almost no bosses, and nothing that made exploring feel worthwhile. most of it feels like filler check-list fluff (towers, shrines, koroks). the world is well-designed but there's not much substance inside of it beyond its sandbox elements. i genuinely feel like, insane for not liking this the way people talk about it but i just do not see it personally. it's just okay!

So, just like with many NES sequels at the time, for some reason, Konami thought that, for the next Castlevania game, they needed to make it completely different from the original. However, unlike Mario or Zelda, who managed to get away with this (somewhat), this series doesn't get that lucky.

Yeah, it may not be an unpopular opinion, but this game isn't really that good at all, and it has a TON of problems. Sure, I don't think it's a terrible game, and it isn't as bad as others make it out to be, but it certainly has not held up all that well.

The story is pretty dumb, but you can accept it quickly when not thinking about it, the graphics are pretty good still, the music is yet again a banger, the control is just about the same as the original, so nothing to say there, and the replay value is actually pretty good, with the different endings you can get.

The main problems with the game all stems from the gameplay. It is a creative way to differentiate from the original game, and as proven by future titles, it does work, but it is executed very poorly in this entry, with elements such as the day and night cycle being very annoying and inconvenient, the level design being pretty terrible, grammar errors everywhere you look, a confusing menu and item system, losing all your hearts upon getting a game over, and some of the most PATHETIC boss fights in video game history. Seriously, the bosses range from being pathetically easy with the right item, to where you can just straight up ignore them by walking past them.

The biggest problem with the game, however, is the matter of progression. It is definitely a guide game, 100%, because some of the things you are required to do to progress through the game, and even collect everything to 100% the game, you would NEVER be able to figure out on your own. Some instances of this would be with all of the invisible gaps in platforms that plague the entire game, having to kneel by a body of water with a crystal equipped to... make the screen go down a bit, needing to buy and throw a stake at the orb at the end of each level, and possibly the most infamous part, going to a dead end, equipping a crystal, and kneeling down for a couple seconds, resulting in a tornado coming and taking you to the next area... seriously, how would ANYONE figure that out on their own?

Overall, I appreciate the attempt at changing up the gameplay, and there are some good elements about it, but it is plagued with WAY too many problems for me to say that it is good by any means. Thankfully, future games will take what this game started and fix it.

Game #21

Reaching the end of a trilogy is always exciting to me. Ideally, it's the conclusion of all the previous lessons learned and the moment everything gets tied together into one satisfying bundle. The PS1 is probably the console I think of the most when it comes to looking back at trilogies by single developers, simply because it had so many different ones during its life-span. Crash, Spyro, Resident Evil and even to some extent Final Fantasy. I think there is something special about seeing a game series in different stages of refinement, clearly being able to observe how a developer's ideas evolve over time. And yes, of course Tomb Raider went through that aswell. With the continued smash hit of TR2, Lara Croft was now without question video game royalty and Core Design was yet again given no breaks in pumping out another sequel for publisher Eidos Interactive. Setting aside the undoubtedly horrid working conditions at Core Design during the development process, I find it once again incredible how TR3 released only a year after its predecessor. And after my new-found love for this franchise was only reinforced by how much I enjoyed TR2, I was excited to jump into Lara's third adventure.

Sadly, as you can already guess from the rating, this turned out to be a massive disappointment. As the hours passed and the downward spiral of bad level design began, I became more and more miserable having to put up with everything Tomb Raider 3 was throwing at me. I was worn down and finally broken when I reached the end. I don't want this to be a rant about how much I hate this game. I still do, but there are so many fantastic qualities here that I can not even stoop so low as to call this a lazy sequel. Core Design really cared. It's just that all the visible care and love gets utterly crushed under the weight of unfair difficulty and a lack of polish, most likely due to razor tight deadlines along with an overworked staff. So let me go through the positives first before I start falling down the rabbit hole that has become my absolute hatred for this game.

Tomb Raider 3 has the best locations in the series so far. There is an incredible leap in art design at display here. Be it the opening trek through the jungles of India, the massive canyons in Nevada or looking out over the rooftops of Nighttime London. Levels feel lived in, in a way Tomb Raider 2 was still struggling with. The updated engine makes everything look so much less blocky, which the designers take full advantage off. I love the lighting, the colors and the great texture work. The atmosphere is so good, and I wish more games would take what Core Design accomplished here as an example. Really, in terms of atmosphere, TR3 doesn't miss even once. I love just standing in these maps and soaking it all in, ready to be pulled along into more adventures. It helps of course that the soundtrack is amazing aswell. There is a tone of ambiance to each location, of course classic series leitmotifs return and new tracks have been added that round everything out. It doesn't matter if it's discovering ancient ruins or if you find yourself face to face with horrifying creatures. It always fits, and I'm in love with the overall sound of TR3.

When it comes to the story, we find our favorite adventurer once again on the trail of a mysterious artifact. While on a treasure hunt deep in the jungles of India, she encounters a scientist named Dr Willard. He is looking for the missing pieces of a meteor that crashed down on earth millions of years ago, is responsible for having whipped out the Dinosaurs and starting the chain reaction of modern evolution. Supposedly these pieces also contain mysterious powers, once even being worshiped by Polynesian trips for their god like properties. And that's all we need to trot across the Globe. It's a dumb story even for the schlocky standards of classic Tomb Raider, but I still very much enjoyed it. The increased focus on cutscenes and Lara having more fun interactions with different characters helps the story flow much better than it did previously. This finally feels like a continues narrative and not just a semi connected sequence of video game stages. There is of course the obvious issue in how Lara has now been fully reduced to nothing more then what can only be described as a full on sociopath. More than ever before, she is an absolute bitch that cares about no one but herself and is willing to kill anybody that just so much as glances at her wrong. I'm still somewhat fine with her because the point was always to have an uncompromising action heroine, but previous games at least gave her some shred of humanity. The absolute girl boss attitude I fell in love is still present, but there is certainly a discussion to be had about crossing the line from girl boss to unlikeable cunt. This crosses that line way to often. TR2 is also guilty of this to a lesser extent, but toed the line in keeping her likeable much better in my opinion.

When it comes to combat, I'm happy to say that Core massively overhauled their approach to how you fight enemies. The fundamental controls are the same, but enemie encounters are spread out way smarter. Gone are the days of spawning goons right on top of the player.  There are often spots you can jump to that give Lara a clear advantage, and even late game foes can be taken down with just a bit of effort and only the standard handguns. And that's basically all I wanted to see, and I'm glad they at least took the time to improve an aspect of the series that desperately needed a revision. Croft Manor now has been expanded with a shooting range as well. This version of Croft Manor is for sure the best one. Many secrets to find and all the tutorials you could ever need. Lara's home is practically its own giant level now. Once again I fully recommend you play around in the tutorial not only because it's a lot of fun but because it will also helps in familiarizing you with the expanded move set. Lara can now crawl, grab on to certain ceilings in order to use them as monkey bars, and is able to use a short dash that can be ended on a quick roll forward. These added options are mostly used to great effect, but I will admit that the dash stays fairly underutilized. There are only very few spots where it's actually needed, and even then I find those challenges more annoying than anything else.

And that's about all the positives I can think of. For all the love I can express for TR3, it just wouldn't be honest if I omitted all my frustrations and all the reasons why I ultimately came away with the conclusion that this is simply a very bad video game.

Starting off with the basic structure: You're now allowed to pick between locations in between the opening chapter and the finale. What sounds cool on paper, turns out to be a nightmare in reality. The three places you can pick from: Nevada, the South Pacific Islands and London vary so wildly in complexity and challenge that you're most likely going to fuck yourself over if you happen to choose wrong. Pro-tip: Always start with Nevada. I didn't, and it screwed me over hard by the final stretch. Nevada contains the easiest and most enjoyable set of levels, and most importantly: There is a similar bit to TR1 and 2 where all your items will be taken away from you, as Lara is once again captured by armed guards. Unlike previous games there is a high chance you will not get most of your inventory back, meaning that if you happen to pick Nevada last, you might lose hours of collected guns, ammo and med packs. At that point, you are just stuck desperately searching for scraps during the final 4 segments of Antarctica. It's a horrible design decision that I despise with a passion, and they should have either ditched the level select entirely or put actual effort in balancing each locations difficulty. And while the South Pacific Islands are a mostly tolerable set of levels, London is where the game fully backflips into of pit of rusty spicks.

London is a confusing labyrinth of dark hallways that loop around in the most unintuitive ways. I got lost so many times just backtracking, not knowing what my goal even was, and finding crucial progression items in spots that made me scream in agony. Of course, one of the keys needed to progress in on top of a mining drill you just escaped from in order to not get crushed to death. It's not like every sane human being would see the section now occupied by the giant death drill as blocked off for good. Add to that weird angled jumps that shouldn't work, but sometimes just do, and hard to make out wall texture that are supposse to signal climbable surfaces. Trust me, you will run past those surfaces for a couple of hours before looking up a guide and then promptly feeling the primal urge to buy a gun along with a time machine in order to pay Core Designs studio a friendly visit back in the late 90s. All that misery and I haven't even mentioned the vehicle sections yet. Oh, the fucking vehicles. TR2 had the exact same issue, but the meaningful difference is again that this was limited to only 2 sections. We had a boat, that controlled fine, and a snowmobile that controlled like shit. TR3 on the other hand has at least one vehicle for each location. There is an ATV, a kayak, a weird underwater robot, a Donkey Kong style minecart ride and another boat. I don't know which one is the worst for me, but it has to be a tie between the kayak and the minecart. Paddling the kayak through the rapids of the south pacific rain forest is pure luck, as you can't really control it and are at the mercy of the game's geometry in order for Lara to not straight up smash into a pile of rocks and drown. The minecart on the other hand will make you randomly fly off the tracks if you happen to pull the break at the wrong time, that is if you even know where to fucking go in the nightmare labyrinth known as the RX Tech Mines. Either way, the conclusion is always: try to get somewhere, die, reload, repeat that step about 50 times per stage until you get that one lucky try that lets you progress.

I hate Tomb Raider 3. I can't recommend it to anyone ever. The final boss was a giant spider mutant that makes you run around in a circle for 40 minutes so you can pick up some shinny rocks. Watch the game end with Lara shooting a totally innocent Helicopter pilot in the face and a shot of her ass while the credits play. Fuck this game, I need to game something good next.

for all of the ubiquity of the big-ass fantasy JRPG it hides a secret in its gargantuan underbelly: very few games even attempt to make the physical process of the traditional fantasy adventure fun enough to be the load-bearing part of the experience. you perform the decorum of an adventure, fighting fuckers and exploring (or pillaging?) new lands, but focus is scarcely allowed to rest on anything besides the most sexy and emblematic parts of the adventuring process.

more often the idea of a grand fantasy adventure is invoked for what is essentially narrative framing in a game where you manifest a power fantasy, or you engage in a story, or you exercise mechanical excellence. and these are all well and great but i think that many of us still have an unscratched itch for a game where you crest a hill with your familiar compatriots and gaze out over the landscape and you see a distant port village, rolling fields, and jagged mountains with a dragon’s cave, and you know that every landmark and many more you haven’t seen yet are the breadcrumbs that will lead you to the next visceral, novel adventure.

it’s incredibly easy to root for dragon’s dogma as it wants so desperately hard to be this game that we crave. and at its best, it is.

it’s difficult to think of another title that captures the full process of a self-guided adventure with such a level of literalization. the rate at which your party’s performance decays without rest and the stinginess of good vendors and services outside of cities is strong enough to pull even the most committed cartographer out of patrolling the map algorithmically and come back in to smell the hearthfire. there’s a humility to the landmarks in the way they attract intrigue and wonder without being ostentatious elden ring megastructures.

not just the world is constructed so that you get to experience the organically emergent qualities of an adventure, the same is true in the moment-to-moment gameplay as well. DD2 isn’t exactly a strand-type game, but the roughness of the world is so tangible it is not just seen, but felt. no shockers here, itsuno combat feels good, but more importantly, it further augments the broader vision of the game. with combat as physical and grounded as this, even my jaded ass had my action RPG goggles knocked off. instead of looking at these monsters through the lens of i-frames and super armor, you navigate combat through your physical intuition.

i’ve seen a lot of (justified) pushback to the screeching about mtx and performance that has accompanied DD2’s release, but some part of me believes that a large amount of dissent was always inevitable on release and people had to tangle with just how frictional dragon’s dogma could be. maybe in something more arcadey like monster hunter there’s more of a case for streamlining but nahhhh yall just bitchmode, can’t handle any of the spicier brain chemicals with your dopamine. don’t get me wrong, not only do I personally love the more prickly parts of the experience, but it’s absolutely necessary for the kind of vision at hand. this game would be destroyed if fast travel was readily available, quests would lose all their weight and urgency if they could be done whenever, and dragonsplague would be trivial if its downsides were ignorable. thousands of redditors, screaming in agony. a symphony to my tired ears.

dragon’s dogma 1 could not fully escape the allegations of being a menu game. dragon’s dogma 2 dodges this, retaining nearly all of the systems from DD1 that were interfaced through these menus but also ensuring far fewer interruptions to the meditative diegesis of its core gameplay loop.

however, the black mark on the original that the sequel cannot escape is that the game is tragically front-loaded. there comes a point, like there is in many of these games with a large exploration focus, where your hands stop fumbling in the dark and finally feel the walls of the room around you, or, as is more often, the cage around you. my guess is it’ll hit most people around an act and a half in as the enemy and encounter variety dries up. the reliance on elemental palette swaps does stretch the small roster a little farther but it also poisons the well a bit, as the fantasy of fighting a new kind of guy is intruded on by the palpable sense that this new creature is as they are for the sake of authorial convenience.

hilariously, i think they could’ve gotten it just about perfect if they toned down the density at which enemies show up in the overworld, which would’ve also made walking around a bit less rote. the game so deftly pushes you into its more structured downtime so it’s shocking how reluctant it is to you give you much at all while you’re out and about. but the way it is now yeah the game definitely becomes a meat grinder. once you reach the point where the enemies you’re fighting feel expendable, regardless of how good the combat feels, it cannot escape the sense of being an empty exercise. dragon’s dogma 2 often feels like the first level of a game extended far past its natural run, mirroring the legend of how its predecessor had to be released when only a quarter of its area was prepared. dragon’s dogma 2 is a much longer game than 1, but i think you could make a really compelling argument that there isn’t really any more meat on its bones in order to compensate.

for better or for worse, dragon’s dogma 2 might go down as the strongest possible indictment of the game that itsuno and so many others have been yearning for for decades. this game had capcom money, a guaranteed audience, and no shortage of talent, and yet it ends up falling this obviously short? but that’s the gamble you play with ambitious games. it’s a gamble worth playing. despite the questionable amount of gas in the tank, for stretches at a time, dragon’s dogma 2 makes that dream in our heads tangible. and, if you can buy into the fantasy, that alone is enough.