Spent countless hours on the original in my youth. As a remake, this exceeds expectations. Each map has a ton of love and thought put into it, full of life and tiny set pieces. Its all very charming while rampaging through these cities.

If you ask me, the game peaks in Japan. Theres lots of fun in making ninjas and yakuza fight each-other, and the most memorable boss in the whole game. Still, the remainder offers tons of fun and exploration afterwards, and if you dont do everything all at once, you can always return to these areas to do cult missions and odd jobs.

Shadow of the Colossus meets Sunset Overdrive here, Heart Machine made something to be very proud of in Solar Ash.

Gameplay flows extremely smoothly, and solve all your problems through extreme feats of balance and finesse. It can feel like a Sonic game at times even. The art direction is top tier as well, so many vast, beautiful landscapes with intense coloration and surreal geometry.

The narrative structure of the game where you go through the main story, one stranger subplot and one voidrunner subplot each level really encourages you to explore the entire level. You really feel for all these characters, too. They're well written and performed.

The boss battles are the real crown jewel here, though. Similar to Shadow of the Colossus, you need to hit multiple points on the giant to kill them, but with Solar Ash, you have to do it three times, with the course changing and getting more difficult each time. Watching yourself sail through these sequences at high speed is insanely satisfying.

Definite recommendation from me on this one

Hard to wrap my head around this one. Certainly a huge step forward since its original release, but still with a lot of core issues with weapon and damage balancing. Stealth can also be pretty frustrating, though when the level design allows for it, it can be very engaging. My biggest other gripe is that I really wish this game had a third person perspective, I think third person is an option that should be available in any role playing game.

On the more positive side, the narrative and the world in general are very enjoyable. I spent a lot of time just walking and driving about and taking in the sights. I really appreciate their addition of the outfit system as well. You do get a very wide range of missions and characters to interact with, all of which have their own twists and quirks that keep them engaging. Also including Cyberpunk 2020 with every copy was a baller move.

I do have some gripes with the narrative in world, I think they could have explored and depicted punk culture itself a lot better, the musicians you're presented with are more like 80's buttrock type guys. And theres a scene where Alt Cunningham says Johnny is "no rockerboy" for being so devout in his opposition to corporations which had me like ??? what do you people think punk is supposed to be lmao. Also could have been cool to explore some of the theological stuff that a lot of cyberpunk authors like PKD or Iris Carver explored in the past, but that's much more specific.

All in all, you can get a pretty huge amount of hours out of this one and keep having fun. If you're into cyberpunk fiction, this game has solidified itself as a centerpiece of that experience.

Picked this up at a local games store on a whim. This game has some super rad visuals, the character design for the bad guys is cool as hell. The gameplay is fairly typical of an FPS, with the addition of a cover system that never works quite right.

To me, its biggest downside is honestly the boring protagonists and their faction. You're Space America(tm) with late 00's tacticool vibes. Your character is a boring shmuck, no two ways about it. I didn't give a fuck about the good guys in this game at all.

All in all, if you find it for a cheap price, i'd say give it a go. It's pretty cool looking and the level design isn't half bad, either.

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