amc215
2019
Pros
+Environment Variety and Detail
+Character Development
+Graphics
Cons
-Gunplay
-Campaign Length
-Treasure Hunting
+Environment Variety and Detail
+Character Development
+Graphics
Cons
-Gunplay
-Campaign Length
-Treasure Hunting
2011
The game that got a lot of people into the tower defense genre. I first ever tried it back in the day on my iPhone. But left it due to the microtransactions. But playing it on my Steam deck it felt right at home with no microtransactions and mouse support. The mouse helped quick sections be made mid tower battles. For such a simple genre each tower and troop as much depth and strategy necessary to master to be able to play on higher difficulties. And the art style keeps you wanting to see what the next level/map looks like.
Some of the most enjoyment I had with a game in the past 5 years. Everything is dam near perfect for the type of game it is. But after a while combat and enemy variety begins to wear thin on my excitement. One of the few games where it was fun to actual 100% it.
2021
One of the best music trivia games I’ve ever played. Everything from how quick the matches are played to the cool art style and especially the Apple Music integration. Always a fun competitive time with family members on their phones.
2014
A very addictive number matching mobile game with no in app purchases. Anyone can pickup and play and understand the concept of combing numbers in increments of threes to reach the highest total possible numbers. Classic.
2020
A unique take on Peggle with RPG elements. That is fun at first. But the physics are never quite as good as Peggle itself. Has some depth for a roguelite. With some decent replayability.
2008
"Run, Fight, Fall"
Story: Fate is a runner. You got her sister twisted some in some criminal activity. Your job is to run and find those involved in her framing. The bad guys aren’t who you think. And in the end we find the one responsible. She gets her sister back. But do we as the player get a good ending?
Gameplay: Parkour traversal is the star of the gameplay. At the time of release the game contained the best parkour system of any game at the time. Granted there were very few games at the time that had parkour. The combat in the game is forgetful and down right bad. Luckily you can avoid it entirely if you’re skilled enough with the parkour system.
Online: Originally there were two online focused modes. Speed runs and time trials. Both took segments from the campaign to play on for those modes. Now since those EA servers have been taken offline. They are just strictly local modes now.
Graphics: A showcase of DICE’s first iteration of the Frostbite engine. Up close textures look piss poor. But from a normal distance the art style allows things to hold up fairly well. There seems to be a lot of assets carried over from Battlefield Bad Company which they released prior. The weakest part of the presentation is everything associated with street level of the city. Models, animations, textures down there are of a PS2 era game.
Audio: This is where the frostbite shines. Everything had that realistic and punchy sound. From every tumble to gust of wind. The only thing a bit weak is some of the voice acting. Other than that the sound design will hold up for many years.
Performance/Bugs: Experienced stutters and frame drops when going between zones in a level. But only for a few seconds. Otherwise performance was fairly good. But it should be for a game as old as it is. With basic geometry.
Story: Fate is a runner. You got her sister twisted some in some criminal activity. Your job is to run and find those involved in her framing. The bad guys aren’t who you think. And in the end we find the one responsible. She gets her sister back. But do we as the player get a good ending?
Gameplay: Parkour traversal is the star of the gameplay. At the time of release the game contained the best parkour system of any game at the time. Granted there were very few games at the time that had parkour. The combat in the game is forgetful and down right bad. Luckily you can avoid it entirely if you’re skilled enough with the parkour system.
Online: Originally there were two online focused modes. Speed runs and time trials. Both took segments from the campaign to play on for those modes. Now since those EA servers have been taken offline. They are just strictly local modes now.
Graphics: A showcase of DICE’s first iteration of the Frostbite engine. Up close textures look piss poor. But from a normal distance the art style allows things to hold up fairly well. There seems to be a lot of assets carried over from Battlefield Bad Company which they released prior. The weakest part of the presentation is everything associated with street level of the city. Models, animations, textures down there are of a PS2 era game.
Audio: This is where the frostbite shines. Everything had that realistic and punchy sound. From every tumble to gust of wind. The only thing a bit weak is some of the voice acting. Other than that the sound design will hold up for many years.
Performance/Bugs: Experienced stutters and frame drops when going between zones in a level. But only for a few seconds. Otherwise performance was fairly good. But it should be for a game as old as it is. With basic geometry.
2011
"Another MW2 Wannabe"
Story: Let me try to comprehend the 4hr story that took place. It starts with you thrown in mid-occupation of North Korea invading the U.S.A. You are an unvoiced character apart of a freedom fighter group. That is trying to take back America. You journey throughout the country dismantling the opposing force one mission at a time. As you go through it you see how torturous the North Koreans were to the American civilians who didn’t fall in line. As you go through the story, you think to yourself how is all of this death and destruction benefiting the people you are trying to save. And then after a grand finale the story ends on a cliffhanger.
Gameplay: If you played any early Call of Duty, then you’ve played this game. And controls like it too. Run, shoot, run with the occasional vehicle controlled segments as you progress through a mission based FPS campaign. You’re provided the traditional set of military weapons to take out endless of the same enemies and vehicles. Some missions have a few mini items of no combat. In order to give you a break of the same thing and to throw some story beats in.
Online: First off, the game severs are basically dead. Surprised me that they are even online to begin with. Once in a while you’ll see a single populated server. But that’s it. Playing online on the Steam Deck is difficult because you can’t really compete against the few players left who are assumed to have a ton of hours with mouse and keyboard. To sum up the experience of online. It is basically a mash up of COD and Battlefield. With American based maps.
Graphics: The draw graphically in this game is the backdrop of fighting in the U.S.A. And at some points there are highlights of decent texture work for a game coming out in 2011. Besides that there is nothing graphically to write home about. An overall generic visual presentation.
Audio: The audio similar to the graphics is for the most part generic. With decent voice acting. But at the same time not COD level with the sound affects and voice acting. Average overall.
Performance/Bugs: Experienced many stutters through the same on the Steam Deck. But that was most likely due to different parts of the level loading and it being and old game. I was able to get a constant 60FPS experience throughout the game besides that. There was also a lot of texture clipping throughout the game. And animation bugs. The thing that annoyed me the most is that when using a game pad was enabled in settings. Control prompts on screen didn’t correlate with buttons on the controller.
Story: Let me try to comprehend the 4hr story that took place. It starts with you thrown in mid-occupation of North Korea invading the U.S.A. You are an unvoiced character apart of a freedom fighter group. That is trying to take back America. You journey throughout the country dismantling the opposing force one mission at a time. As you go through it you see how torturous the North Koreans were to the American civilians who didn’t fall in line. As you go through the story, you think to yourself how is all of this death and destruction benefiting the people you are trying to save. And then after a grand finale the story ends on a cliffhanger.
Gameplay: If you played any early Call of Duty, then you’ve played this game. And controls like it too. Run, shoot, run with the occasional vehicle controlled segments as you progress through a mission based FPS campaign. You’re provided the traditional set of military weapons to take out endless of the same enemies and vehicles. Some missions have a few mini items of no combat. In order to give you a break of the same thing and to throw some story beats in.
Online: First off, the game severs are basically dead. Surprised me that they are even online to begin with. Once in a while you’ll see a single populated server. But that’s it. Playing online on the Steam Deck is difficult because you can’t really compete against the few players left who are assumed to have a ton of hours with mouse and keyboard. To sum up the experience of online. It is basically a mash up of COD and Battlefield. With American based maps.
Graphics: The draw graphically in this game is the backdrop of fighting in the U.S.A. And at some points there are highlights of decent texture work for a game coming out in 2011. Besides that there is nothing graphically to write home about. An overall generic visual presentation.
Audio: The audio similar to the graphics is for the most part generic. With decent voice acting. But at the same time not COD level with the sound affects and voice acting. Average overall.
Performance/Bugs: Experienced many stutters through the same on the Steam Deck. But that was most likely due to different parts of the level loading and it being and old game. I was able to get a constant 60FPS experience throughout the game besides that. There was also a lot of texture clipping throughout the game. And animation bugs. The thing that annoyed me the most is that when using a game pad was enabled in settings. Control prompts on screen didn’t correlate with buttons on the controller.
"Barebones Sniping"
Story: What the hell even happened? Snipe your way through an army in the forest to kill an evil leader. I think that’s what took place.
Gameplay: Involves a lot of running through the forest then sniping someone from a ledge. Rinse and repeat for many hours with no enemy variety or location variety. Playing it becomes a chore after a while and you start to use your postal more often so you can run and gun through each level to get it over with faster.
Online: Online is run of the mill modes with more of a focus on shorting each other from long distances. They make you create and account to play online but was not able to on my Steam Deck due to menu navigation issues.
Graphics: Looks like a poor man’s jungle level of Crysis. With everything being pretty low detail. Only decent graphical aspect I can think of is the water. And even that’s not great.
Audio: Just like the graphics. The audio detail and variety is pretty poor. Generic and repetitive sounds. And basic gun sounds. But by far what is the worst is the voice acting.
Performance/Bugs: Experienced stutters and frame drops all over the place. Lots of shadow artifacting, which is terrible for a kindle based FPS. Checkpoint based difficulty spikes that made no sense.
Story: What the hell even happened? Snipe your way through an army in the forest to kill an evil leader. I think that’s what took place.
Gameplay: Involves a lot of running through the forest then sniping someone from a ledge. Rinse and repeat for many hours with no enemy variety or location variety. Playing it becomes a chore after a while and you start to use your postal more often so you can run and gun through each level to get it over with faster.
Online: Online is run of the mill modes with more of a focus on shorting each other from long distances. They make you create and account to play online but was not able to on my Steam Deck due to menu navigation issues.
Graphics: Looks like a poor man’s jungle level of Crysis. With everything being pretty low detail. Only decent graphical aspect I can think of is the water. And even that’s not great.
Audio: Just like the graphics. The audio detail and variety is pretty poor. Generic and repetitive sounds. And basic gun sounds. But by far what is the worst is the voice acting.
Performance/Bugs: Experienced stutters and frame drops all over the place. Lots of shadow artifacting, which is terrible for a kindle based FPS. Checkpoint based difficulty spikes that made no sense.
2009
"Not Your Normal Brick Breaker"
Gameplay: It’s classic brick breaker with a twist. Force push and pull powers. And bricks that fall towards you that affects the trajectory of the balls. The most fun and frustrating part of the game was the boss battles. Each having a unique way of defeating them. With many gameplay difficulties along each battle.
There are multiple modes of play. Story Mode, Endless, Co-op, Boss Rush.
With Story-Mode being the only one worth the time.
Online: Consists of online co-op via its endless mode.
Graphics: The game has a unique 2.5D’ish sci-fi art style. Simplistic for what it is.
Audio: All of the audio bits sound clean and unique. Pleasant on the ears. The soundtrack is just alright.
Performance/Bugs: Anything can run this game. The only annoying things that I ran into was when the ball would get wedged between a wall and an enemy. It showed that the physics weren’t that grate. And the users paddle hit-box isn’t the most accurate.
Gameplay: It’s classic brick breaker with a twist. Force push and pull powers. And bricks that fall towards you that affects the trajectory of the balls. The most fun and frustrating part of the game was the boss battles. Each having a unique way of defeating them. With many gameplay difficulties along each battle.
There are multiple modes of play. Story Mode, Endless, Co-op, Boss Rush.
With Story-Mode being the only one worth the time.
Online: Consists of online co-op via its endless mode.
Graphics: The game has a unique 2.5D’ish sci-fi art style. Simplistic for what it is.
Audio: All of the audio bits sound clean and unique. Pleasant on the ears. The soundtrack is just alright.
Performance/Bugs: Anything can run this game. The only annoying things that I ran into was when the ball would get wedged between a wall and an enemy. It showed that the physics weren’t that grate. And the users paddle hit-box isn’t the most accurate.
Some including myself consider the first Uncharted the worst of the series. I’m sure back in 2007 when it came it, it was a surreal experience. But today it is just a quick slog to play through. Movement feels janky, gunplay feels floaty. Acting looks icy compared to todays standard. Great entry point for people who have never played third person shooters before.
The hit of nostalgia quickly dissipated after starting this game the first time again in about 20 years. It brought be back to exploring in and around Andy’s house. But the player and camera controls are some of the worst I can remember. A modern remake of this would probably be really cool when a Toy Story 5 comes out. But until then avoid this.
2017
Was going into this game thinking it would be fun and simple like the first one when that one was a neat concept when it first came out. But I was wrong. Early in the game seemed fun. There was now a story with voice acting and cutscenes. But when that charm needed. Out came the micro transaction ads all over the screen. And then realized the dodging zombie gameplay was no longer fun. As I was just in it to get to the next cutscene for the story. Even that wasn’t worth it anymore. The charm quickly wore off after a few days. Leading me to delete the app.
"Product of Its Time vs. MW2"
Story: The story was fun at the start when you went back in time. But over the course of the game the reasoning behind what you were doing just began to drag. There wasn't enough substance to hold your attention through the short runtime. The characters at the time might have been funny, but in todays games they would be considered annoying. Definitely not worth your time running through more than once. Simplified version of the story is bomb goes boom back in the 1940's. Then comes modern day component when you have to find said bomb to make it not go boom again.
Gameplay: The shooting is actually decent for being a game from 2010. There is no prone which is a shakeup from the traditional COD and Battlefield games. But that is mostly what the game consists of. Glorified target practice because the enemies are dumb, but they do do heavy damage even on normal difficulty. Vehicle segments perform rather poor. The one gameplay element that sets BFBC2 apart at the time was the destruction. but even its implication of it is in predetermined chucks when you decide to destroy things. Online is where the gameplay shines. It makes the basic destruction and other components fun when others are involved.
Multiplayer: Online on PC contains the annoyance of its anti-cheat not working properly out of the box. But there are many fixes online for that. None of which I wasted my time with. But when I played the online back when it came out on Xbox 360. It was a blast to play. Being one of my first online full scale experiences. This game conations some of the best designed Battlefield maps ever made. And conations the best implantations of the Rush gamemode on said maps. The unlock progression system doesn't hold up to todays standards but it gets the job done. The player base is small now, but it is still there. Much more of a fun experience to play than the campaign that is for sure.
Graphics: They don't hold up to well today. Due to the older version of the Frostbite Engine. But they get the job done. The color palette through the game is very muted which doesn't help. And many assets are reused heavily throughout the game. Both online and offline. The environments and and objects/buildings feel very empty both in the sense of clutter and texture detail. Gun models might be the only decent visual in the game.
Audio: The sound design was game changer when it released. But doesn't hold up today either. Partially due to the repetitive soundboard. There are much better sounding Battlefield games out that's for sure.
Performance/Bugs: The game should run at a high refresh rate on any modern pc now matter the graphical settings or resolution. When it came to bugs the only noticeable ones where random bits of geometry popping in/out and such. And audio effects clipping. The heaviest bug was at multiple times at the end of a level my PC would lock up on the loading screen. Forcing me to restart my PC and restarting at the previous checkpoint.
Worth The Money?: Yes (On Sale)
Estimated Completion Time: 5 Hours
Final Rating: 6/10
Story: The story was fun at the start when you went back in time. But over the course of the game the reasoning behind what you were doing just began to drag. There wasn't enough substance to hold your attention through the short runtime. The characters at the time might have been funny, but in todays games they would be considered annoying. Definitely not worth your time running through more than once. Simplified version of the story is bomb goes boom back in the 1940's. Then comes modern day component when you have to find said bomb to make it not go boom again.
Gameplay: The shooting is actually decent for being a game from 2010. There is no prone which is a shakeup from the traditional COD and Battlefield games. But that is mostly what the game consists of. Glorified target practice because the enemies are dumb, but they do do heavy damage even on normal difficulty. Vehicle segments perform rather poor. The one gameplay element that sets BFBC2 apart at the time was the destruction. but even its implication of it is in predetermined chucks when you decide to destroy things. Online is where the gameplay shines. It makes the basic destruction and other components fun when others are involved.
Multiplayer: Online on PC contains the annoyance of its anti-cheat not working properly out of the box. But there are many fixes online for that. None of which I wasted my time with. But when I played the online back when it came out on Xbox 360. It was a blast to play. Being one of my first online full scale experiences. This game conations some of the best designed Battlefield maps ever made. And conations the best implantations of the Rush gamemode on said maps. The unlock progression system doesn't hold up to todays standards but it gets the job done. The player base is small now, but it is still there. Much more of a fun experience to play than the campaign that is for sure.
Graphics: They don't hold up to well today. Due to the older version of the Frostbite Engine. But they get the job done. The color palette through the game is very muted which doesn't help. And many assets are reused heavily throughout the game. Both online and offline. The environments and and objects/buildings feel very empty both in the sense of clutter and texture detail. Gun models might be the only decent visual in the game.
Audio: The sound design was game changer when it released. But doesn't hold up today either. Partially due to the repetitive soundboard. There are much better sounding Battlefield games out that's for sure.
Performance/Bugs: The game should run at a high refresh rate on any modern pc now matter the graphical settings or resolution. When it came to bugs the only noticeable ones where random bits of geometry popping in/out and such. And audio effects clipping. The heaviest bug was at multiple times at the end of a level my PC would lock up on the loading screen. Forcing me to restart my PC and restarting at the previous checkpoint.
Worth The Money?: Yes (On Sale)
Estimated Completion Time: 5 Hours
Final Rating: 6/10
2007
"Paved The Way For Modern 3rd Person Action/Adventure Games"
Story: This game is the beginning of Desmond’s story for four games. You are tasked as an Assassin to take down 9 targets. In order for you to get back in good Frances with the Assassins Creed. But after doing so many twists are involved. Rulers get the info they want and you learn you were never told the truth. Then the sort cuts off after these things are learned. Hyping up the story for the next game in the series.
Gameplay: The feeling of the game back in 2007 was unmatched. You felt like you were really moving around in this world. But that’s where things fall off. Parkour is clunky but revolutionary for the time. 50% of the time you go where you were aiming to go. The rest of the time you grab stuff or fall off things you didn’t mean to do. Combat oils down to countering attacks for instant kills. But I really enjoyed that at first because of the animations that came with those moves. Content wise the game consists of doing basic side objectives multiple times until you earn the info to assassinate a target. The side content is generic and annoying. But the assassination targets were surprisingly varied for the time. With unique gameplay challenges being involved.
Graphics: Back when the game first game out I have never seen graphics or animations like it. Character Models felt like they had substance to them vs. games that came before it. You wouldn’t clip through people or things. You would have impact with them. Things containing clothes had physics to them. One of the biggest downsides was the texture work and environmental/model design variety.
Audio: The audio of the entire game sounds very poorly recorded. Most of the sounds from the environment and characters sound alike it was recorded on speaker phone. And the main character Altair has an American accent which throws everything off.
Performance/Bugs: The game crashes at start on the default exe. You have to go into files and force the DX10 version to be the launch exe. And to get a controller to work, it requires a bunch of wonky steps. Through out the game there are many graphical bugs as well. Other than that the game runs smoothly.
Worth The Money?: Yes (On Sale)
Estimated Completion Time: DNF
Final Rating: 5/10
Story: This game is the beginning of Desmond’s story for four games. You are tasked as an Assassin to take down 9 targets. In order for you to get back in good Frances with the Assassins Creed. But after doing so many twists are involved. Rulers get the info they want and you learn you were never told the truth. Then the sort cuts off after these things are learned. Hyping up the story for the next game in the series.
Gameplay: The feeling of the game back in 2007 was unmatched. You felt like you were really moving around in this world. But that’s where things fall off. Parkour is clunky but revolutionary for the time. 50% of the time you go where you were aiming to go. The rest of the time you grab stuff or fall off things you didn’t mean to do. Combat oils down to countering attacks for instant kills. But I really enjoyed that at first because of the animations that came with those moves. Content wise the game consists of doing basic side objectives multiple times until you earn the info to assassinate a target. The side content is generic and annoying. But the assassination targets were surprisingly varied for the time. With unique gameplay challenges being involved.
Graphics: Back when the game first game out I have never seen graphics or animations like it. Character Models felt like they had substance to them vs. games that came before it. You wouldn’t clip through people or things. You would have impact with them. Things containing clothes had physics to them. One of the biggest downsides was the texture work and environmental/model design variety.
Audio: The audio of the entire game sounds very poorly recorded. Most of the sounds from the environment and characters sound alike it was recorded on speaker phone. And the main character Altair has an American accent which throws everything off.
Performance/Bugs: The game crashes at start on the default exe. You have to go into files and force the DX10 version to be the launch exe. And to get a controller to work, it requires a bunch of wonky steps. Through out the game there are many graphical bugs as well. Other than that the game runs smoothly.
Worth The Money?: Yes (On Sale)
Estimated Completion Time: DNF
Final Rating: 5/10