I'm a couple hours in at launch so far and I'm really liking Helldivers 2. A 4/5 game atm, will be updating that score as major updates release.

However I could easily see myself coming back to the game pretty regularly even if there was no promise of future updates. Whether with friends or randos, Helldivers 2 is good fun!



Extended Thoughts

I really enjoyed the first game, and I think Helldivers 2 is a perfect transition from stylised twin-stick, to photorealistic 3rd person. Something as simple as the combination of having weapons need to "catch-up" to the crosshair and how ricochet works, perfectly translates the conditions that would lead to friendly fire incidents in the first game.

Also while the art style shift was confusing at first. After playing the game, I think it effectively uses this art style change to add to gameplay. Dark/fogged areas being illuminated with gunfire is both visually impressive, and mechanically engaging.

Hoping for vehicles, weapon upgrades/customising, and The Illuminate (or some other 3rd faction) to be added over the next year(s). I honestly don't have any complaints other than the obvious launch network issues and missing vehicles

(Vehicles which I think added nothing but flavour to the first game. I do think could be the final piece of the puzzle that pushed Helldivers 2 to be a 5/5).

[Edit 03/03/24: The game is continuing to hit all the right notes and I saw the mech leak. Yeah this is a perfect co-op game.]

Gravity Rush was a fun romp, Gravity Rush 2 was a chore.

Before going into specifics I'll say I found Gravity Rush charming as hell (I 100%'d it and gave it 4/5 stars). GR2 is ONLY for people who already liked the first game.

If you played GR1 and feel the need to play GR2 instead of watching a "Gravity Rush 2 full movie" youtube video (which I do recommend over playing the game). I would strongly suggest to just do Story Quests (also maybe knock it down to Easy later to compensate for lack of upgrades).

Doing otherwise makes the game worse. I honestly believe if I didn't decide to pivot from doing every Side Quest, to beelining the story after Story Quest 9, I wouldn't have finished it.

Extended Thoughts

I'm gonna get pretty negative here.

Gravity Rush had some rough edges, but was unique enough to carry someone through to the end. Gravity Rush 2 still has those rough edges, plus everything new it adds is awkward at best, tedious at worse.

The core mechanics of Gravity Rush 2 haven't been improved at all from the original. So the issues with camera wrestling, awkward geometry collisions, and barebones combat haven't been addressed. When the concept was fresh this was more forgivable, in a sequel it sticks out.

Instead of improving the core, it is "built upon" with a style switch system. On top of the default, there is now a lighter style that lets you attack faster+weaker plus float better. As well as a heavier style that lets you do big slow hits and fall faster. This does nothing for me. It's awkward and almost solely exists to use in situations where the game locks you out of your default kit to make you use the light style to jump to a goal, or use the heavy style to slide fast. Outside of that, there are times where it makes sense to switch for combat, and being able to fall slower or faster has it uses. But I don't think the style switch overall really does anything for the core gameplay.

If instead of the bloat of the style switching, Gravity Rush 2 added some kind of timing mechanic to traversal and made combat more fluid instead of the constant stop/start, it would have done wonders.

Outside of toolkit "additions", the other new feature is stealth sections that make me want to rip my hair out holy shit they suck. Enough of the Side Quests had them, that I just stopped doing Side Quests all together.

So why finish it?

If you ignore all the extra content in favour of just doing the main story (and got the game cheep) Gravity Rush 2's worst crime is just slightly overstaying it's welcome (also those stealth sections holy shit).

There was still a part of me going "oh this is cool" or "oh this music is fun" or "oh X from Gravity Rush 1!" to carry me through to the "Final Chapter". In which case I was locked in until the actual end of the game.

Light Spoilers
Gravity Rush 2 has an erupt "ending" after an honestly pretty gnarly (for its age-rating) looking boss fight. Then after talking to a new NPC at different locations a couple of times, it starts the "Final Chapter", which is what fans of the first game would have been waiting for this whole time.

I stress, while not fully worth playing the whole game just for it. The Final Chapter is solid closure for loose narrative threads and characters from the first game. (If you told me the Final Chapter was originally bonus content for Gravity Rush Remastered, I'd believe it. It honestly just kinda happens as a replacement for a strong ending for Gravity Rush 2).
Light Spoilers Over

With Japan Studio sadly being closed and the talent breaking off into many smaller studios. If we every get a spiritual follow up to Gravity Rush (assuming after Slitterhead actually comes out in another 5 years), I would still love to see one with less jank, and more of those good tunes.

OH! Not to leave this rambling as all negative, credit where its due, Kohei Tanaka obviously kills it. The music is easily the best part of the game. While nothing hits the high of Douse Shinundakara, plenty of songs rival the quality of the rest of GR1's OST.

Analgesic Productions continues to scratch a very specific artistic itch. This time in the flavour of "made during the pandemic".

Sephonie is an interesting mashup of unique 3D platforming, a hybrid tetromino/colour-match puzzle, and talking about the nature of human interaction.

Go in knowing the game is surprisingly dialogue heavy, and both gameplay types are fun. Would recommend.

Midnight Suns is an intelligently designed hybrid of deck building and unit positioning. That also happens to be a fun Marvel Comics (note, not MCU) friendship simulator in the style of Mass Effect.

The gameplay alone is both engaging and unique enough that I would easily recommend to people regardless of their thoughts on superhero media.

Extended Thoughts

Midnight Suns was sadly slept on. I think the two reasons for so are:
1. Its gameplay is such that trying to accurately describe it in mass market advertising is a challenge. The only promo that showed the game off well were the developer driven "combat showcase" deep dives.
2. We hit a level of cape saturation, that people dismissed the game because they thought all the praise post-launch was coming from 'live-action cape adaptation uber fans' who have no taste. (Ironically the games fan-service is mostly surface level comic stuff that would be unknown to movie watchers.)

The saddest part of people not playing this gem is knowing I will never get a gameplay follow up to Midnight Suns that is a HoXPoX-era game. This being true while at the same time continuing to live in world were everyone now has opinions on superheroes is hell. One or the other, both is just cruel.

A pretty under looked game in the genre of So Bad It's Good™.

I wouldn't recommend actually playing it, but if you can get some friends over, get some drinks, and get one of THEM to be the one playing. Great time.

Short of that, here a string of mini-LPs to take you through this games multiple endings. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL57hJfweW_2sAI-yw8CKX_u81snQ8i5pa