ZeroSmirk30
2016
Believe it or not... I liked this game.
A lot.
It's not perfect. It could get repetitive. The fact it was online only really hurt the game in the long run (I mean, you can't even play it anymore lol). Releasing at the same time as Overwatch. The creator linking people to a porn subreddit of all things! So much went wrong, and it's a shame really, because I thought this game was a diamond in the rough at its best. It's not a polished diamond, but y'know, any diamond is worth something.
I liked the character designs a lot. They're obviously not on the higher end of attractiveness, which makes the subreddit incident hilarious in retrospect, BUT they were all very unique and well-fitting for the art style. I remember especially liking the designs for Orendi and Beatrix.
I enjoyed playing around with the skill trees. I will say, it's probably a bit too complicated for some players, but I had no issue. I thought it added a lot of replayability for every match.
I remember the campaign being a bit shit, with just a few levels to work with that were a bit boring, but it was alright if you had friends with you.
Overall, pretty fun game, I actually miss it.
A lot.
It's not perfect. It could get repetitive. The fact it was online only really hurt the game in the long run (I mean, you can't even play it anymore lol). Releasing at the same time as Overwatch. The creator linking people to a porn subreddit of all things! So much went wrong, and it's a shame really, because I thought this game was a diamond in the rough at its best. It's not a polished diamond, but y'know, any diamond is worth something.
I liked the character designs a lot. They're obviously not on the higher end of attractiveness, which makes the subreddit incident hilarious in retrospect, BUT they were all very unique and well-fitting for the art style. I remember especially liking the designs for Orendi and Beatrix.
I enjoyed playing around with the skill trees. I will say, it's probably a bit too complicated for some players, but I had no issue. I thought it added a lot of replayability for every match.
I remember the campaign being a bit shit, with just a few levels to work with that were a bit boring, but it was alright if you had friends with you.
Overall, pretty fun game, I actually miss it.
2022
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Great fun with a friend, kinda loses something if not, but is still worth your time.
Physics are a bit broken sometimes, game shows its age other times, game's really fun most of the time.
I played this game WAY too much on the Master Chief Collection version because of the achievements for par scores. Can't lie, that adds a ton of replayability, with the amount of skulls. If it was the original version I'd probably go lower, but that level of replayability definitely helps this release's case.
The story's meh, the level design is great in the first half then the second half is backtracking, the final level's kind of annoying with the Warthog physics. Getting thrown around by an exploding Flood is pretty funny though.
I can still recommend this one in 2024 for the most part.
Physics are a bit broken sometimes, game shows its age other times, game's really fun most of the time.
I played this game WAY too much on the Master Chief Collection version because of the achievements for par scores. Can't lie, that adds a ton of replayability, with the amount of skulls. If it was the original version I'd probably go lower, but that level of replayability definitely helps this release's case.
The story's meh, the level design is great in the first half then the second half is backtracking, the final level's kind of annoying with the Warthog physics. Getting thrown around by an exploding Flood is pretty funny though.
I can still recommend this one in 2024 for the most part.
2016
This game was great for about a year then became worse with each update.
With each rework the game got more broken, with each balance update it just became less fun.
That said, the events were good. I like the characters. The 6v6 meta seems to mechanically be optimal, especially in comparison to its (ugh) sequel. The updates really came at a snail's pace, but at least the game was pretty replayable.
Being able to earn loot boxes for a flat one time fee at launch was a HUGE plus in this game's favor.
With each rework the game got more broken, with each balance update it just became less fun.
That said, the events were good. I like the characters. The 6v6 meta seems to mechanically be optimal, especially in comparison to its (ugh) sequel. The updates really came at a snail's pace, but at least the game was pretty replayable.
Being able to earn loot boxes for a flat one time fee at launch was a HUGE plus in this game's favor.
2019
This review contains spoilers
What if we took everything that people thought was fun about Mortal Kombat X, kept all the problems people had with Mortal Kombat X, made those problems worse, tried to make the next game into Injustice 3, but also removed everything that made Injustice 2 fun?
This game is irritating. It had a lot of potential, but seems to just miss the mark on almost every level. It just misses the big picture on why people like MKX so much in literally every single way.
I'll get some positives out of the way. The fatalities are great. They're really cinematic, and they really went all-out on the guest fighters. Fatal Blows are also a great trade for X-Ray attacks. A lot of the skins look really good, and the game isn't as murky and gray as its predecessor. I'm especially pleased to say this, because when it came to art direction, Mortal Kombat X looked like a smoker's lung. This game at least feels like it has an art style.
All that said... There's almost nothing else here I enjoyed. I got a kick out of the game for what it was when I first played, but I can't go back to it at all. The unlocks are so fucking complicated here I just didn't bother with most of them. Being able to unlock so many skins would usually be great, but a bunch of them are found on towers that no one bothers to play. If you like fighting endless raid bosses to unlock pieces of gear, this is the game for you, I guess?
You CAN have an AI fight for you... When it works lol. The AI fighters don't use power-up modifiers that you equip on them, which is a really annoying design flaw. So, in order to get a lot of the gear and skins, you need to just slog through raid bosses yourself. A lot of these bosses can be fought in co-op, but good luck finding anyone who feels like doing that. So, unfortunately, the Living Towers, which were a great concept in Mortal Kombat X that I had a lot of fun with there, are a huge thumbs down here.
The gameplay is about five steps back. I do appreciate Fatal Blow being its own meter, but, I still don't like the whole "Here's a move that does 35% damage as a comeback mechanic to reward you for losing" thing a lot of games do. I think it'd have been better to just make it a one-time use per match that you can use any time, but maybe that's just me. I like the idea of breakaways being their own separate bar with movement abilities, that's definitely a plus. Besides that, though... The gameplay's EXTREMELY barebones. It's especially apparent in zoner characters. You'll spam 3 projectiles (or 2, depending on your variation) the whole match, maybe do a charge move into someone to get them off, do the same 3 moves in a combo over and over... I don't like it at all.
The developers basically admitted to as much. They thought certain characters in Mortal Kombat X were "too hard" because it's the "casual" fighting game. There's genuinely more sauce to the combo game in Armageddon.
The launchers, jumping into combos, it all feels... Static. Totally devoid of any fluid motion. There's no running, which is SORELY missed here with the abundance of zoning. The animations look awkward with how the game itself moves.
The story is just nonsense. Which I'd actually be okay with normally. The idea of the time travel plot is actually fine on paper, it can have interesting consequences for the overarching story. With that said... The execution leaves a lot to be desired. The story follows the same characters I already didn't like in its predecessor, and works to assassinate even more characters. Cool that Sonya Blade just dies nonchalantly in the first 10 minutes, lol.
I like Scorpion and Sub-Zero's relationship a lot here. Seeing them work together is nice. Cyber-Frost sucks though, and she was the one character I was really looking forward to seeing return. Shao Kahn's been neutered, opting to work for Kronika instead.
Speaking of which, Kronika isn't a memorable villain at all, and her existence makes no sense. Titans, which were never mentioned at all before, are basically just Elder God^2. And yet, even though she's supposed to be stronger than the Elder Gods, she isn't a threat at all. She's actually kind of a chump given that she loses all the time. Which is actually one of my biggest pet peeves about this game - The villains are all TOTAL jobbers. They literally do nothing to help the story along. They don't even operate as macguffins. Erron Black was cool, but he doesn't do anything here. Kano has literally zero purpose being here. Kabal is alright, I guess, even though I just think his cosmetics look cool lol. Shao Kahn does nothing, D'Vorah does nothing, everyone who people liked is just a bam nonfactor in this story. There's also The Kollector, who's so memorable that I...forgot to mention him in the first draft lol. Everything feels so thrown together, like they just had to include everyone in it, even if it didn't actually add any substance.
Also, the premium shop system sucks. There's skins I'd be willing to buy, but they're not even available or unlockable any other way. What happened to costume bundles like in MKX?
The Krypt is fun sometimes, but too archaic for its own good. It's weird that the gameplay is so simplistic now, but everything else about this game is so archaic. The Towers of Time are insanely grindy, the Krypt is both grindy and confusing. Also, the Towers of Time being online only is such a fucking Warner Brothers moment, lol. 90% of the game can't be played online and you can't unlock skins any other way. I guess it's not a deal breaker per se, but when all of this can be done in single player, why the hell would I need a constant internet connection?
Again, a consequence of making everything so archaic. It's the nature of this title, expanding things that didn't need expanding upon and dumbing down the things people enjoyed from other installments.
This game is irritating. It had a lot of potential, but seems to just miss the mark on almost every level. It just misses the big picture on why people like MKX so much in literally every single way.
I'll get some positives out of the way. The fatalities are great. They're really cinematic, and they really went all-out on the guest fighters. Fatal Blows are also a great trade for X-Ray attacks. A lot of the skins look really good, and the game isn't as murky and gray as its predecessor. I'm especially pleased to say this, because when it came to art direction, Mortal Kombat X looked like a smoker's lung. This game at least feels like it has an art style.
All that said... There's almost nothing else here I enjoyed. I got a kick out of the game for what it was when I first played, but I can't go back to it at all. The unlocks are so fucking complicated here I just didn't bother with most of them. Being able to unlock so many skins would usually be great, but a bunch of them are found on towers that no one bothers to play. If you like fighting endless raid bosses to unlock pieces of gear, this is the game for you, I guess?
You CAN have an AI fight for you... When it works lol. The AI fighters don't use power-up modifiers that you equip on them, which is a really annoying design flaw. So, in order to get a lot of the gear and skins, you need to just slog through raid bosses yourself. A lot of these bosses can be fought in co-op, but good luck finding anyone who feels like doing that. So, unfortunately, the Living Towers, which were a great concept in Mortal Kombat X that I had a lot of fun with there, are a huge thumbs down here.
The gameplay is about five steps back. I do appreciate Fatal Blow being its own meter, but, I still don't like the whole "Here's a move that does 35% damage as a comeback mechanic to reward you for losing" thing a lot of games do. I think it'd have been better to just make it a one-time use per match that you can use any time, but maybe that's just me. I like the idea of breakaways being their own separate bar with movement abilities, that's definitely a plus. Besides that, though... The gameplay's EXTREMELY barebones. It's especially apparent in zoner characters. You'll spam 3 projectiles (or 2, depending on your variation) the whole match, maybe do a charge move into someone to get them off, do the same 3 moves in a combo over and over... I don't like it at all.
The developers basically admitted to as much. They thought certain characters in Mortal Kombat X were "too hard" because it's the "casual" fighting game. There's genuinely more sauce to the combo game in Armageddon.
The launchers, jumping into combos, it all feels... Static. Totally devoid of any fluid motion. There's no running, which is SORELY missed here with the abundance of zoning. The animations look awkward with how the game itself moves.
The story is just nonsense. Which I'd actually be okay with normally. The idea of the time travel plot is actually fine on paper, it can have interesting consequences for the overarching story. With that said... The execution leaves a lot to be desired. The story follows the same characters I already didn't like in its predecessor, and works to assassinate even more characters. Cool that Sonya Blade just dies nonchalantly in the first 10 minutes, lol.
I like Scorpion and Sub-Zero's relationship a lot here. Seeing them work together is nice. Cyber-Frost sucks though, and she was the one character I was really looking forward to seeing return. Shao Kahn's been neutered, opting to work for Kronika instead.
Speaking of which, Kronika isn't a memorable villain at all, and her existence makes no sense. Titans, which were never mentioned at all before, are basically just Elder God^2. And yet, even though she's supposed to be stronger than the Elder Gods, she isn't a threat at all. She's actually kind of a chump given that she loses all the time. Which is actually one of my biggest pet peeves about this game - The villains are all TOTAL jobbers. They literally do nothing to help the story along. They don't even operate as macguffins. Erron Black was cool, but he doesn't do anything here. Kano has literally zero purpose being here. Kabal is alright, I guess, even though I just think his cosmetics look cool lol. Shao Kahn does nothing, D'Vorah does nothing, everyone who people liked is just a bam nonfactor in this story. There's also The Kollector, who's so memorable that I...forgot to mention him in the first draft lol. Everything feels so thrown together, like they just had to include everyone in it, even if it didn't actually add any substance.
Also, the premium shop system sucks. There's skins I'd be willing to buy, but they're not even available or unlockable any other way. What happened to costume bundles like in MKX?
The Krypt is fun sometimes, but too archaic for its own good. It's weird that the gameplay is so simplistic now, but everything else about this game is so archaic. The Towers of Time are insanely grindy, the Krypt is both grindy and confusing. Also, the Towers of Time being online only is such a fucking Warner Brothers moment, lol. 90% of the game can't be played online and you can't unlock skins any other way. I guess it's not a deal breaker per se, but when all of this can be done in single player, why the hell would I need a constant internet connection?
Again, a consequence of making everything so archaic. It's the nature of this title, expanding things that didn't need expanding upon and dumbing down the things people enjoyed from other installments.
2008
This review contains spoilers
This title isn't too in-depth of an experience gameplay wise, but is extremely profound through its themes to the point it stuck with me for weeks.
Is death and nothingness preferable to eternal guilt? Is it truly worth it to stop a world from turning apocalyptic if it means your own hands will be responsible for its destruction?
What does purification even mean? What are morals, if you have to destroy everything to ensure that moral code?
I kind of have to rate the game highly, because when I played through The Judge's ending, I genuinely lost contact with reality. I didn't cry, I totally shut down, for hours. It was like a fit of psychosis. I wasn't even aware that a video game could have such an effect on me.
I kind of have to give it a perfect rating based on that alone, right?
The whole game is based on perspective. Nothing changes, but the actions stay the same. The Guardians are incompetent. The people of this world are neurotic. All that's left is bleakness no matter the outcome. You have two options.
One, blame The Batter, and feel the guilt of The Judge for the rest of eternity.
Or two, return this contemptible world to nothingness.
The Batter appears as a monster, but whether or not you think he truly is that way is up to you. It's such a profoundly unique way of handling morality in that The Batter reduces everything to its purest blacks and whites, clearly having a misguided savior complex through his acts of abject genocide... But not entirely being wrong. He even requests the help of The Judge, implying that he doesn't want to fight him at the end, and views The Judge as the only being of the world in question not experiencing neurosis. As well, The Judge views their world as corrupt, but hates The Batter's methods. At the end of the game, he also begs The Batter to join him. They need each other, but their ideologies are so far apart, they can never come to a solution together.
The Batter is a truly amoral, inhuman figure, whereas The Judge is the last monument to the failure of the Guardians echoing the last gasps of a dying world.
If you choose The Batter's side, The Batter stays the same, being a humanlike figure.
If you choose The Judge's side, The Batter turns into a monster.
The Batter is the same person either way. He only changes in appearance because he's viewed as an enemy. He holds the same ideologies either way.
The other characters are equally compelling.
The Queen is one of the few people in the game who calls The Batter an extremist hellbent on destruction. It's easy to see her point of view, because The Batter's ideologue is to essentially perform mercy killings. At the end of the day, The Queen is a mother protecting her infant son from The Batter's rampage through righteous means. The Judge asks The Batter to expiate sins that they both are guilty of, and prevent "this monster" from completing his work.
Whereas The Queen is naive through her well-meaning, Enoch has a heart made of ice. He's a monument to how human sin corrupts each world, including this one. Even then, however, he is not an amoral individual. Enoch insists on giving the citizens of his zone drugs to prevent them from becoming Burnt, malformed souls with horrifyingly distorted bodies. He shows a more pragmatic attitude, but his solution is misguided, as we see denizens in other zones which haven't become Burnt. Citizens and specters murder each other over these drugs.
Dedan is resentful towards The Batter, even after he helps the Elsen rid his zone of the Specters. He's a permanent malcontent, and will never help purify the world, even if it helps his people. He barely even enjoys his own existence, let alone anyone else's.
Japhet is the epitome of naivety turned into madness, as he summoned the Specters as revenge for his subjects fearing him.
Zacharie is a permanent optimist, who takes it upon himself to remain ethereal in his role to aid the player. It's unknown what his connection is with Sugar, but sugar in the game is the drugs I referred to earlier. Sugar asking The Batter to say goodbye to Zacharie is... Utterly soul crushing on a level I haven't seen from any work of fiction before. Zacharie's reaction of, "I guess it's better like that", made me have to stop playing for several days. I understand the metaphor, Sugar is the drug that keeps him happy, the only thing he really had left. Sugar is the one thing The Batter doesn't call purified, as her childish nature simply betrayed her innocence. She's the only thing The Batter truly refers to as 'dead' across the entire game. Even through that one line of text, you can feel just that one pang of regret, that it was no longer a genocide, but instead an omnicide.
The ending of the game is just a different beast entirely. It perfectly encapsulates that there's just nothing left. It's either The Batter literally flipping an 'OFF' switch to turn the world 'OFF', or it's The Judge just wandering... Endlessly. The Judge is left with a chosen few left to run the world, and even then, it's likely the Secretaries will swoop in to finish them off, with the purification of each zone.
Was there even a choice? Was everything going to die like this anyway? Is The Batter a monster, or simply an accelerationist to the inevitable?
It's a game that gets me thinking every time I see anything of it. No game has made me go through so many separate stages of grief and epiphany. It's a brilliant look into the cosmic nature of morality and it's basically a must-play for anyone interested in indie RPGs. Quotes from nearly every character in the game are pure power etched into writing.
"Hence nothing remains but our regrets."
Is death and nothingness preferable to eternal guilt? Is it truly worth it to stop a world from turning apocalyptic if it means your own hands will be responsible for its destruction?
What does purification even mean? What are morals, if you have to destroy everything to ensure that moral code?
I kind of have to rate the game highly, because when I played through The Judge's ending, I genuinely lost contact with reality. I didn't cry, I totally shut down, for hours. It was like a fit of psychosis. I wasn't even aware that a video game could have such an effect on me.
I kind of have to give it a perfect rating based on that alone, right?
The whole game is based on perspective. Nothing changes, but the actions stay the same. The Guardians are incompetent. The people of this world are neurotic. All that's left is bleakness no matter the outcome. You have two options.
One, blame The Batter, and feel the guilt of The Judge for the rest of eternity.
Or two, return this contemptible world to nothingness.
The Batter appears as a monster, but whether or not you think he truly is that way is up to you. It's such a profoundly unique way of handling morality in that The Batter reduces everything to its purest blacks and whites, clearly having a misguided savior complex through his acts of abject genocide... But not entirely being wrong. He even requests the help of The Judge, implying that he doesn't want to fight him at the end, and views The Judge as the only being of the world in question not experiencing neurosis. As well, The Judge views their world as corrupt, but hates The Batter's methods. At the end of the game, he also begs The Batter to join him. They need each other, but their ideologies are so far apart, they can never come to a solution together.
The Batter is a truly amoral, inhuman figure, whereas The Judge is the last monument to the failure of the Guardians echoing the last gasps of a dying world.
If you choose The Batter's side, The Batter stays the same, being a humanlike figure.
If you choose The Judge's side, The Batter turns into a monster.
The Batter is the same person either way. He only changes in appearance because he's viewed as an enemy. He holds the same ideologies either way.
The other characters are equally compelling.
The Queen is one of the few people in the game who calls The Batter an extremist hellbent on destruction. It's easy to see her point of view, because The Batter's ideologue is to essentially perform mercy killings. At the end of the day, The Queen is a mother protecting her infant son from The Batter's rampage through righteous means. The Judge asks The Batter to expiate sins that they both are guilty of, and prevent "this monster" from completing his work.
Whereas The Queen is naive through her well-meaning, Enoch has a heart made of ice. He's a monument to how human sin corrupts each world, including this one. Even then, however, he is not an amoral individual. Enoch insists on giving the citizens of his zone drugs to prevent them from becoming Burnt, malformed souls with horrifyingly distorted bodies. He shows a more pragmatic attitude, but his solution is misguided, as we see denizens in other zones which haven't become Burnt. Citizens and specters murder each other over these drugs.
Dedan is resentful towards The Batter, even after he helps the Elsen rid his zone of the Specters. He's a permanent malcontent, and will never help purify the world, even if it helps his people. He barely even enjoys his own existence, let alone anyone else's.
Japhet is the epitome of naivety turned into madness, as he summoned the Specters as revenge for his subjects fearing him.
Zacharie is a permanent optimist, who takes it upon himself to remain ethereal in his role to aid the player. It's unknown what his connection is with Sugar, but sugar in the game is the drugs I referred to earlier. Sugar asking The Batter to say goodbye to Zacharie is... Utterly soul crushing on a level I haven't seen from any work of fiction before. Zacharie's reaction of, "I guess it's better like that", made me have to stop playing for several days. I understand the metaphor, Sugar is the drug that keeps him happy, the only thing he really had left. Sugar is the one thing The Batter doesn't call purified, as her childish nature simply betrayed her innocence. She's the only thing The Batter truly refers to as 'dead' across the entire game. Even through that one line of text, you can feel just that one pang of regret, that it was no longer a genocide, but instead an omnicide.
The ending of the game is just a different beast entirely. It perfectly encapsulates that there's just nothing left. It's either The Batter literally flipping an 'OFF' switch to turn the world 'OFF', or it's The Judge just wandering... Endlessly. The Judge is left with a chosen few left to run the world, and even then, it's likely the Secretaries will swoop in to finish them off, with the purification of each zone.
Was there even a choice? Was everything going to die like this anyway? Is The Batter a monster, or simply an accelerationist to the inevitable?
It's a game that gets me thinking every time I see anything of it. No game has made me go through so many separate stages of grief and epiphany. It's a brilliant look into the cosmic nature of morality and it's basically a must-play for anyone interested in indie RPGs. Quotes from nearly every character in the game are pure power etched into writing.
"Hence nothing remains but our regrets."
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Walkthrough
2015
This review contains spoilers
This game is... An extremely mixed bag.
I love the gameplay. Just to preface. There's an extremely fluid sense of combo structure, and each character feels extremely fleshed out. Variations add a lot to movesets, and guest characters especially feel true to life.
With that said. If you're a pro player looking for tournament matches, you'll LOVE this game.
If you're a casual player, you'll probably get a kick out of the camp in this game.
If you're a longtime Mortal Kombat fan like me... There's a lot you REALLY won't like about this game.
The story is no Mortal Kombat 9. The new characters, primarily the (ugh) Kombat Kids feel extremely lacking in the department of 'cool' we've been accustomed to. I think even a lot of the casual players feel this. I don't think I've ever seen a single fan of Jacqui Briggs or Kung Jin. And yet, I see people with profile pictures of Hsu Hao and Drahmin in the community on a weekly basis.
The Kombat Kids, for the most part, are extremely uninspired. Cassie is literally just Johnny, but a teenage girl. Jacqui is literally just Jax, but a teenage girl. One of my biggest pet peeves in fighting games is when designers clearly run out of ideas, so they make a character that clearly just apes from an existing character. Rock Howard, this is not.
Their writing, as well as the writing of a lot of veteran characters is... Actually just really bad, and at times it's really, REALLY bad. If you like Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, prepare to watch them get totally assassinated. Instead of a confident movie star and a fierce special forces fighter, we instead get Deadbeat Dad and Strong Indypendent Oil War Whamen going at it in the marriage counselor's office.
The story beats themselves are incredibly rushed at times. The entire last act feels like it was rewritten at the last minute and had half the act cut out just to wank the Kombat Kids. Cassie Cage beating Corrupted Shinnok, seriously? It's a teenage girl effortlessly beating a corrupted chaos Elder God. Fuck it, let's just have Stryker shoot Onaga in the face next game lol.
A lot of the drama surrounding the game is about the Kombat Kids learning to fight and getting into teen drama. Was any of this REALLY necessary when it's obvious the entire last act was rushed? And I don't just say it was rushed for no reason, there's characters with movesets you can fight in the story mode that aren't even playable lol. Hell, one of them (Tanya) was DLC just a few months after the game released. Something weird was going on behind the scenes here, I'm not gonna go on a limb and say "SWEET BABY INC CALIFORNIA GOTTEM" or something, but I suspect a lot of the writing was either outsourced, meddled, or, the most likely option, rushed. I realize that Mortal Kombat has never really been known for having a tight knit story, but it was never outright lame.
Now, we've established the Kombat Kids are terrible. But the villains... They're pretty good! Kotal Khan and Erron Black have very slick designs and dialogue, D'Vorah is one of the most loathable villains in the whole series, and Ferra/Torr is actually, in my opinion, one of the better and more unique new characters to come in one of these games. An Aztec royal, a bounty hunter, an insectoid, and a symbiotic species make for some genuinely captivating characters. There's a very bizarre discrepancy of characters NetherRealm REALLY gave a shit about, and characters they really didn't.
The art direction... Ugh. Don't like it at all. The move from a more animated style to realism and constant murky grays and browns did this game no favors. Levels that should look fun and colorful just don't, and a lot of the characters look flat out ugly from it.
I won't go too much into the discourse about censorship for these games, but this was also the first that started the really hypocritical idea that the old titles were problematic in how the women were depicted. Because making everything gray and having iconic characters go through divorce is more gripping than letting them show around 30% of their skin while whooping ass, right? As well, I guess watching fathers mutilate their daughters is less problematic... Lol.
Don't get it twisted here though. While this game started a lot of issues I have with the series, it definitely has its strong points. The Krypt has a ton of content, and the towers make it very replayable. Different modifiers can activate for each tower, leading to some great shenanigans. There's even a Kustom Kombat mode where you can freely mix modifiers together in singles matches. Though, you can't play the Living Towers offline, and you can't fight CPUs in Kustom Kombat, so the enjoyment of these modes is a little limited even if the execution is great.
There's a lot of unlockables, including skins, concept art, and the brutality system. The brutalities are GREAT, fantastic even, adding tons of new ways to finish every match by fulfilling requirements and hitting specific inputs to finish an opponent in a fun, flashy way.
Overall, the real strengths of this game lie directly in the gameplay. If you turn your brain off, you'll probably have a lot of fun. It's a mixed bag, as I said, but I do lean towards it being good.
I love the gameplay. Just to preface. There's an extremely fluid sense of combo structure, and each character feels extremely fleshed out. Variations add a lot to movesets, and guest characters especially feel true to life.
With that said. If you're a pro player looking for tournament matches, you'll LOVE this game.
If you're a casual player, you'll probably get a kick out of the camp in this game.
If you're a longtime Mortal Kombat fan like me... There's a lot you REALLY won't like about this game.
The story is no Mortal Kombat 9. The new characters, primarily the (ugh) Kombat Kids feel extremely lacking in the department of 'cool' we've been accustomed to. I think even a lot of the casual players feel this. I don't think I've ever seen a single fan of Jacqui Briggs or Kung Jin. And yet, I see people with profile pictures of Hsu Hao and Drahmin in the community on a weekly basis.
The Kombat Kids, for the most part, are extremely uninspired. Cassie is literally just Johnny, but a teenage girl. Jacqui is literally just Jax, but a teenage girl. One of my biggest pet peeves in fighting games is when designers clearly run out of ideas, so they make a character that clearly just apes from an existing character. Rock Howard, this is not.
Their writing, as well as the writing of a lot of veteran characters is... Actually just really bad, and at times it's really, REALLY bad. If you like Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, prepare to watch them get totally assassinated. Instead of a confident movie star and a fierce special forces fighter, we instead get Deadbeat Dad and Strong Indypendent Oil War Whamen going at it in the marriage counselor's office.
The story beats themselves are incredibly rushed at times. The entire last act feels like it was rewritten at the last minute and had half the act cut out just to wank the Kombat Kids. Cassie Cage beating Corrupted Shinnok, seriously? It's a teenage girl effortlessly beating a corrupted chaos Elder God. Fuck it, let's just have Stryker shoot Onaga in the face next game lol.
A lot of the drama surrounding the game is about the Kombat Kids learning to fight and getting into teen drama. Was any of this REALLY necessary when it's obvious the entire last act was rushed? And I don't just say it was rushed for no reason, there's characters with movesets you can fight in the story mode that aren't even playable lol. Hell, one of them (Tanya) was DLC just a few months after the game released. Something weird was going on behind the scenes here, I'm not gonna go on a limb and say "SWEET BABY INC CALIFORNIA GOTTEM" or something, but I suspect a lot of the writing was either outsourced, meddled, or, the most likely option, rushed. I realize that Mortal Kombat has never really been known for having a tight knit story, but it was never outright lame.
Now, we've established the Kombat Kids are terrible. But the villains... They're pretty good! Kotal Khan and Erron Black have very slick designs and dialogue, D'Vorah is one of the most loathable villains in the whole series, and Ferra/Torr is actually, in my opinion, one of the better and more unique new characters to come in one of these games. An Aztec royal, a bounty hunter, an insectoid, and a symbiotic species make for some genuinely captivating characters. There's a very bizarre discrepancy of characters NetherRealm REALLY gave a shit about, and characters they really didn't.
The art direction... Ugh. Don't like it at all. The move from a more animated style to realism and constant murky grays and browns did this game no favors. Levels that should look fun and colorful just don't, and a lot of the characters look flat out ugly from it.
I won't go too much into the discourse about censorship for these games, but this was also the first that started the really hypocritical idea that the old titles were problematic in how the women were depicted. Because making everything gray and having iconic characters go through divorce is more gripping than letting them show around 30% of their skin while whooping ass, right? As well, I guess watching fathers mutilate their daughters is less problematic... Lol.
Don't get it twisted here though. While this game started a lot of issues I have with the series, it definitely has its strong points. The Krypt has a ton of content, and the towers make it very replayable. Different modifiers can activate for each tower, leading to some great shenanigans. There's even a Kustom Kombat mode where you can freely mix modifiers together in singles matches. Though, you can't play the Living Towers offline, and you can't fight CPUs in Kustom Kombat, so the enjoyment of these modes is a little limited even if the execution is great.
There's a lot of unlockables, including skins, concept art, and the brutality system. The brutalities are GREAT, fantastic even, adding tons of new ways to finish every match by fulfilling requirements and hitting specific inputs to finish an opponent in a fun, flashy way.
Overall, the real strengths of this game lie directly in the gameplay. If you turn your brain off, you'll probably have a lot of fun. It's a mixed bag, as I said, but I do lean towards it being good.
2024
I went into this game through a lot of word of mouth, when the trailers first dropped I thought nothing of it. When it was announced as an online co-op third person shooter, I was extremely skeptical. I heard a lot of good things about the first Helldivers, but I feared that the transition from top down to third person would be extremely awkward. Upon it also being dubbed a "live service" game, I also feared that it would suffer the same fate as many others of its kind - A lot of live service games garner a small but serviceable player base for a few months, then quickly die out when they rely too heavily on microtransactions.
I've never been happier to be wrong.
The business model here is genuinely perfect. When hearing that there would be microtransactions in the game I was beyond skeptical, but I paid the $40 at launch (I never buy games at launch!), earned a lot of credits in-game and through the free battle pass (which never expires and nothing is time gated!), even managed to get a few armors I liked, got the premium pass, just by playing the game. I've never felt less inclined to buy anything, but weirdly enough, I still might, just because I genuinely love playing the game.
Enough about that though. The gameplay itself is honestly a dream come true for me, as a veteran Halo and Gears of War enthusiast. The mechanics behind the stratagems are used to their absolute fullest, with tons of variety available across different loadouts. Want to fight the enemies yourself? Cool! Grab a machine gun, flamethrower, or grenade launcher and go to town! Want to focus more on a defensive play? Also cool! Get some land mine emplacements or sentry guns! Want to focus on enemy strongholds? Still cool! Grab some orbital barrages or air strikes that cover a big area!
There's a lot of ways to tackle every mission, from taking out enemy outposts through boots on the ground tactics and circling large groups of enemies to just making the F in F-15 stand for Freedom and chucking in 10 air strikes on a base. It's really up to you. Every strategy has its merits and downsides. There's a lot of unique modifiers and objective types that work great for the concept, such as towers that jam your stratagems, evacuation missions, fixing radar towers, fueling missile silos, lots of variety in what you need to do.
The enemy variety is great too. There's certain types of Terminids you don't see on every planet under their control, and when selecting higher difficulties, the enemies don't just become bullet sponges. Instead, the enemies become more varied in types, with smarter and more powerful types of enemies requiring different strategies and abilities to kill.
One unfortunate consequence of higher difficulties is that it becomes pretty unbalanced, though. The enemies for each mode are about perfect, I'd say, but there's times where levels on Impossible are easier than levels on Challenging. It does also depend on who you're playing with, but I swear it does still feel a bit luck based.
The Terminids can also feel extremely annoying on certain missions. The stalkers, hunters, etc, the enemies that just jump right at you, are some of the most obnoxious enemies I've ever fought in a video game. I don't know why some people think the Automatons are more difficult, the robots have much clearer patterns. The chargers and bile titans can also just seemingly spawn in randomly. I've gone through missions on the second and third highest difficulties with just a few coming in, and I've also ended missions with 5 bile titans and 10 chargers swarming the evacuation ship.
Perhaps this is by design and is a point that shouldn't be used against the game. I will say it certainly makes things a bit more interesting. Whether or not it's a criticism depends on what a player enjoys from a co-op shooter overall. If you prefer a bit more random generation through in-game events, this is absolutely the game for you. If you prefer more concise structure, you may struggle quite a bit more.
That said, the levels are all very interesting in their design. The mission structure for each planet is heavily dependent on where your team lands, and given how many different types of missions are available, and the randomness of enemy spawns, it makes every session feel just that little bit more interesting.
I love the planets themselves. They all feel very alien, but just grounded enough. The aesthetic takes inspiration from every type of sci-fi title, with the Automatons clearly being inspired by battle droids and Skynet, the Terminids being HEAVILY inspired by Starship Troopers and a little bit of Alien, and the Helldivers themselves being clearly reminiscent of ODSTs.
It's clear the team at Arrowhead has an extreme passion for sci-fi media. Admittedly, I've never played the first game, so I've never seen the Illuminate, but it makes me very curious what they'll be like in this game compared to the current enemy lineup.
The game isn't perfect. There's a few issues, primarily with quickplay matchmaking, invites not working sometimes, and some of the balancing. I can tell that a few stratagems could use some buffs, but, these are all factors which I'm pretty positive will be ironed out.
Overall? Game is fantastic. It's extremely intense and makes for some absolutely hilarious co-op shenanigans. The premise is extremely satirical, but has the perfect mix of cool tossed into the mix which keeps the lore rolling. It's a rare time where people actually playing the game themselves makes them demand that more friends get involved for more shenanigans, instead of corporate marketing being the main driving factor.
Every moment feels like something out of a movie. It can be a comedy, or it can be a drama. It all depends how you play against what the game throws at you, and that can change on a dime in just a matter of minutes.
This game genuinely restored some of my faith in the online gaming scene. And there's a conclusion I've come to:
Live service will not kill the gaming industry.
Only bad games and bad business practice can kill the gaming industry.
EDIT: With the updates that followed my initial review, it's only improved certain quality of life aspects, become more varied, and become even more fun.
This is my third ever five star review, and I can't think of a game more deserving. They've already fixed basically every issue I've had, and constantly improve it in every way. The new weapons, new stratagems, new abilities, all fun as hell and the armor always looks cool to boot.
I've never been happier to be wrong.
The business model here is genuinely perfect. When hearing that there would be microtransactions in the game I was beyond skeptical, but I paid the $40 at launch (I never buy games at launch!), earned a lot of credits in-game and through the free battle pass (which never expires and nothing is time gated!), even managed to get a few armors I liked, got the premium pass, just by playing the game. I've never felt less inclined to buy anything, but weirdly enough, I still might, just because I genuinely love playing the game.
Enough about that though. The gameplay itself is honestly a dream come true for me, as a veteran Halo and Gears of War enthusiast. The mechanics behind the stratagems are used to their absolute fullest, with tons of variety available across different loadouts. Want to fight the enemies yourself? Cool! Grab a machine gun, flamethrower, or grenade launcher and go to town! Want to focus more on a defensive play? Also cool! Get some land mine emplacements or sentry guns! Want to focus on enemy strongholds? Still cool! Grab some orbital barrages or air strikes that cover a big area!
There's a lot of ways to tackle every mission, from taking out enemy outposts through boots on the ground tactics and circling large groups of enemies to just making the F in F-15 stand for Freedom and chucking in 10 air strikes on a base. It's really up to you. Every strategy has its merits and downsides. There's a lot of unique modifiers and objective types that work great for the concept, such as towers that jam your stratagems, evacuation missions, fixing radar towers, fueling missile silos, lots of variety in what you need to do.
The enemy variety is great too. There's certain types of Terminids you don't see on every planet under their control, and when selecting higher difficulties, the enemies don't just become bullet sponges. Instead, the enemies become more varied in types, with smarter and more powerful types of enemies requiring different strategies and abilities to kill.
One unfortunate consequence of higher difficulties is that it becomes pretty unbalanced, though. The enemies for each mode are about perfect, I'd say, but there's times where levels on Impossible are easier than levels on Challenging. It does also depend on who you're playing with, but I swear it does still feel a bit luck based.
The Terminids can also feel extremely annoying on certain missions. The stalkers, hunters, etc, the enemies that just jump right at you, are some of the most obnoxious enemies I've ever fought in a video game. I don't know why some people think the Automatons are more difficult, the robots have much clearer patterns. The chargers and bile titans can also just seemingly spawn in randomly. I've gone through missions on the second and third highest difficulties with just a few coming in, and I've also ended missions with 5 bile titans and 10 chargers swarming the evacuation ship.
Perhaps this is by design and is a point that shouldn't be used against the game. I will say it certainly makes things a bit more interesting. Whether or not it's a criticism depends on what a player enjoys from a co-op shooter overall. If you prefer a bit more random generation through in-game events, this is absolutely the game for you. If you prefer more concise structure, you may struggle quite a bit more.
That said, the levels are all very interesting in their design. The mission structure for each planet is heavily dependent on where your team lands, and given how many different types of missions are available, and the randomness of enemy spawns, it makes every session feel just that little bit more interesting.
I love the planets themselves. They all feel very alien, but just grounded enough. The aesthetic takes inspiration from every type of sci-fi title, with the Automatons clearly being inspired by battle droids and Skynet, the Terminids being HEAVILY inspired by Starship Troopers and a little bit of Alien, and the Helldivers themselves being clearly reminiscent of ODSTs.
It's clear the team at Arrowhead has an extreme passion for sci-fi media. Admittedly, I've never played the first game, so I've never seen the Illuminate, but it makes me very curious what they'll be like in this game compared to the current enemy lineup.
The game isn't perfect. There's a few issues, primarily with quickplay matchmaking, invites not working sometimes, and some of the balancing. I can tell that a few stratagems could use some buffs, but, these are all factors which I'm pretty positive will be ironed out.
Overall? Game is fantastic. It's extremely intense and makes for some absolutely hilarious co-op shenanigans. The premise is extremely satirical, but has the perfect mix of cool tossed into the mix which keeps the lore rolling. It's a rare time where people actually playing the game themselves makes them demand that more friends get involved for more shenanigans, instead of corporate marketing being the main driving factor.
Every moment feels like something out of a movie. It can be a comedy, or it can be a drama. It all depends how you play against what the game throws at you, and that can change on a dime in just a matter of minutes.
This game genuinely restored some of my faith in the online gaming scene. And there's a conclusion I've come to:
Live service will not kill the gaming industry.
Only bad games and bad business practice can kill the gaming industry.
EDIT: With the updates that followed my initial review, it's only improved certain quality of life aspects, become more varied, and become even more fun.
This is my third ever five star review, and I can't think of a game more deserving. They've already fixed basically every issue I've had, and constantly improve it in every way. The new weapons, new stratagems, new abilities, all fun as hell and the armor always looks cool to boot.
I mean, everyone's said everything they can about this game already, but I feel like they actually hate it for the wrong reasons. Yeah, the fatalities are beyond dogshit, but people really don't bring up anything else but that. The gameplay is extremely clunky, possibly because I was playing on Xbox 360 but the mechanics themselves are also not great, the quicktime events are...fine I guess but rage is dumb, and Dark Khan is an extremely broken annoying and frustrating boss. A lot of the game feels really 50/50 with how the match goes, the PS2 Mortal Kombat games had their share of dumb stuff but nothing half as egregious. There's also "pro moves", which basically work as enhanced or elongated moves, and they feel extremely awkward to pull off, which makes me grateful they just use the right trigger and meter bars in later games.
The story mode is...fine, I guess? There's not much to write home about, not really any depth to it. It works for the concept I guess.
The other real gripe I have with this game is that it was obviously rushed. The game is extremely barebones, with a lot of big names missing from the roster and no unlockables at all. There's no Krypt, which is SORELY missing here, because from everything you see in the menu, what you see is what you get.
Honestly though, even with all that... Honest to God, it has a better story mode than most of the NetherRealm games lmao.
And it has my favorite design for Sonya Blade, so, I'll give an extra half a star for that.
The story mode is...fine, I guess? There's not much to write home about, not really any depth to it. It works for the concept I guess.
The other real gripe I have with this game is that it was obviously rushed. The game is extremely barebones, with a lot of big names missing from the roster and no unlockables at all. There's no Krypt, which is SORELY missing here, because from everything you see in the menu, what you see is what you get.
Honestly though, even with all that... Honest to God, it has a better story mode than most of the NetherRealm games lmao.
And it has my favorite design for Sonya Blade, so, I'll give an extra half a star for that.
1996
I love this game. I also hate how this game has aged.
It's got some really fun points to it for sure, the level design is iconic, the art style has so much soul and life to it especially for the time. I think the #1 problem with this game is its control scheme. The platforming is fun don't mistake me, for instance, hitting a long jump is insanely satisfying. The problem more lies with specific aspects of specific levels, like the magic carpet ride, slipping on ice, things like that. It is worth your time, but for the love of Christ, do not try 100%ing it. Ride through it for the scenery, not the long haul.
It's got some really fun points to it for sure, the level design is iconic, the art style has so much soul and life to it especially for the time. I think the #1 problem with this game is its control scheme. The platforming is fun don't mistake me, for instance, hitting a long jump is insanely satisfying. The problem more lies with specific aspects of specific levels, like the magic carpet ride, slipping on ice, things like that. It is worth your time, but for the love of Christ, do not try 100%ing it. Ride through it for the scenery, not the long haul.
2018
Such a weird game. As difficult as it is, I never once felt frustrated or had an induction of the usual autistic rage I go through when going through platformers. It's actually really... Relaxing? I dunno if that's the right term. Tranquil, I'd say. Down to the aesthetic, the whole theme of starry, soulful mountain landscapes, the music, the theme of a character facing an evil spirit of themselves, it's just a fascinating time. The graphics are by all accounts incredibly simple, yet give the sensation of extreme vibrance. The mechanics, especially how they're animated in this style, feel bouncy and full of life. Really having a good time with this one, not all the way through yet but really, it's worth your time.
2017
"We have Super Mario Sunshine at home" except the homeowners run a hugeass farm where everything is grown organically and is way better than storebought.