I understand why people give this game a bad rating. However, the initial game that launched and the end product are two vastly different games.

I loved this, cover shooter combined with looting elements and asymmetrical pvp in the dark zone. I hadn't felt that level of paranoia being in a pvp space since the old school Runescape wilderness.

I drilled it to completion, saw all the content, had all the uniques, legendries etc and bagged a platinum for it.

This game wasn't really made for everyone, but it felt perfect for me.

This game is a great example of wasted resources. What I mean by this is that the game has a great engine and visually looks amazing and includes many immersive elements like snow staying on your clothes, cars locking when you push the door, and one of the best weather effects in a game I've seen. However despite how good the game looks it plays like trash. First off in a loot shooter one of the biggest disappointments is how little variety there is in weapons, sure there might be a bunch of weapons with different names but they almost all feel the same to shoot; you basically have a pistol, an assault rifle, sniper, and shotgun and tiny variances on those. Continued with the complete lack of variety is the missions. There are many many side quests in this game many of which you are forced to do because you don't level fast enough to skip to the main missions and there are only about 6 types. What I means is you do around 40 side missions all of which are slight SLIGHT changes on the base 6. This is incredibly boring very fast; added on to this main missions just feel like side missions stretched out agonizingly long. There is few differences between main missions and side missions besides how long it takes to finish them. Now about the loot system the other half of the game. It's garbage! I think I can count on my hands the number of times a gun dropped from an enemy that was actually better than one I had bought from the store, 90% of the time the drops you got were absolute trash. This is even more so with the armor drops I would consistently get no better armor for my character for probably about 5-6 levels and then all the sudden would get something that was like 3x better just to repeat the cycle again. In a game about drops and shooting this game makes sure you enjoys neither of those at all. Finally the story; it's lame and generic adding nothing to an already boring game. All of the characters are forced archetypes of characters already in most shooting games, especially Faye Lau the supposedly bad ass chick trying to lead you through this whole mess. However it makes no sense her being the leader as she was a recruit just like you and gets injured before she was even in action. I guess her being injured before actually doing anything makes her a fallen hero, this game makes no sense. Further when you finally beat the game it forces to give you any satisfaction no cutscene no anything, just a shitty voiceline from Faye saying how much more there is to do in this shitty game; DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE DARK ZONE GUYS. All in all this is truly a terrible game with it's only redeeming factor is it being fun to mess around in co-op and laughing at how bad the voice lines can be sometimes. "I repeat small arms fire!"

jump to the bottom of this review for the optimal physics settings. game is ass without them. thank me later

frustratingly close to being the best sonic game ever. with proper momentum there would be little contest, but thankfully the freeflowing open world promotes speed and precision above all else. if you're playing the game as it's intended you won't really ever be standing still, and thanks to sonic's, well... speed - frontiers may be the only open world game in the past ten or more years to actually justify its own vastness

regardless, the lack of momentum is still a problem during the few sections that are strictly 2d. i have no idea why there are levels that depend on inertia in a game where your character literally grinds himself to a halt every time you're not holding forward. all of this could be fixed if sonic only stopped after gradually losing speed or when holding a braking button or something, but because nothing like that is in place there's a few especially jarring sequences here and there

momentum aside, my only other complaint is the deceptive progression and noticeable lack of budget. i was really eager to see all five islands and what kinds of biomes they'd cover or what other characters may pop up. unfortunately the last two are pretty disingenuously labeled. think of the actual zone count as 3.5 and you wont be too underwhelmed - the first three are pretty massive areas anyway. i just wanted more. it's been a while since i've played a 30+ hour game that i didn't want to end

i'm incredibly eager to see what comes next. i hope sonic team picks up on frontiers' slack and puts out the actual best game in the franchise next time

optimal settings:

starting speed: 60
initial boost speed: 90
turning speed: 100
boost turning speed: 20
top speed: 100
steering sensitivity: 100
acceleration: 50
bounce height: 100

the most important things here are the third, fourth, and sixth options. sonic steers like a fucking tank otherwise. i'd recommend dropping the camera distance to 40 and upping its speed to 70ish but that's up to preference

edit: with the update this all stays the same. you'll just want to also turn deceleration completely off and keep the deceleration rate somewhere around 90 to 100 depending on what you prefer. i'm not a fan of stopping completely on a dime, but anything below 90 gets real stupid real fast

Would be a decent collection with some fun and challenging missions (Though there isn't many) with a cool new story mode and 16:9 but is ruined by lacklustre and short cutscenes though are animated well, Dumb and unesscessary DLC that makes no senese from a business standpoint, poor optimization due to denevo, weaker prototype music, some sprite bugs being unaddressed, game looking blurred and lack of any real customizability, at least the bonus content is decent.

Still if you just want the missions and maybe the story mode wait for a discount, there's many better ways to play the classics thanks too fans and sega delisting them is stupid too.

impressively, all of sonic team's greatest minds have come together to fuck up remastering already great ports of 30 year old games


if you'd love to pay five dollars for expansive day one content such as... the characters moving in the menus, then this is the game for you. integer scaling? fuck you. everything is blurry, play at 320x224 for the authentic Sega Genesis experience. shitty DRM to protect these untouchable, pirate proof genesis games? check. do you like your games optimized, because we don't, god bless whatever rig you're using because it won't get past the title screen. high quality audio? nope, it sounds and loops like shit. also we couldn't get the sonic 3 songs back so here are awful rearrangements of the prototype tracks that sounded fine lmfaooooo. welcome to the museum featuring NEVER BEFORE seen content such as youtube.com sonic mania adventures part 2. it's a 2d platformer but sorry! you're not allowed to bind anything to arrow keys.

you get the idea. somehow, this isn't all of it. sucks because somewhere under the slew of baffling decisions and technical issues is a great collection, but I suppose sonic being run through a shit filter a few dozen times is par for the course now. better versions of these games exist already via Sonic 1 Forever, Sonic 2 Absolute, Sonic 3 AIR, and Sonic CD Restored, but if you want to play the last two legally, you're probably out of luck - because both sonic 3 and CD have been delisted.

at least the cutscenes are boss

Fuck dude, this fuckin sucks. I love Suikoden, and I know this is just an introductory game before the REAL, BIG game. But the writing is so mediocre, I'm worried about the real Eiyuden. Playing this is like being in purgatory. It's like a fake mobile game. Total slog. Total waste of time. Honestly, this is the type of game that stumps me. How was it made? I guess the playtesters are just afraid to say "this fucking sucks and is boring as hell." You're probably wondering why this has 1.5 stars instead of 0.5. Well, there's probably some weirdos out there who will find the characters, story, or world charming or nostalgic. There's definitely much better stuff they could play, but if you like it, you like it.

Going to be succinct on this one. Controls are not great, something that needs to be perfect for a light gun game, the menus and UI scream “cheap cash-in”, and technical issues hamper what should have been an easy slam-dunk of a game. Zombie designs are pretty bland and lifeless (something that’s been an issue of the series since HOTD4; comparatively, look at the designs in 1, 2, and 3, which tow the line between “generic” and “immediately recognizable”.) Typos and sound balancing issues left and right leave an air of amateurism. The worst way to play an arcade classic. Never trust Forever Entertainment, folks!

The House of the Dead is a series near and dear to my heart. I've played it in arcades some growing up, but my real love for it developed when I originally played The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return and Overkill on Wii. I have always thought that console/PC games needed more on-rails shooters, as it is a genre that has slowly died out with the fall of arcades. So, when seeing the announcement for this game, a remake of the original House of the Dead, I was pretty damn hyped. Does this game live up to the hype tho? Well, I am a bit mixed, but overall find the game enjoyable and a good time as a fan of this series.

Let's start with the positives. I really enjoy the visual style that they went with here. Everything looks pretty damn good imo. Zombies, humans, and the environments all look fantastic and faithful to the original game. The music and sound design are also very well done here. Its spooky, but also full of B-movie level voice acting and vibes.

The thing I have seen complained about the most is the way the game controls. You basically have two options: use the gyro controls on the joycons/pro controller, or use the left/right stick to aim. Many have been wanting to use gyro controls in order to full get that light gun experience. Unfortunately, THOTD Remake has some pretty wonky gyro controls. It always feels just a bit off, even when tampering with it in the settings. Curiously enough, unless I completely missed it, there doesn't seem to be a way to reset the gyro either. This is a baffling decision to me, as pretty much every game that I have played on Switch that features gyro controls has a simple way to reset them. Instead, you have to opt for dual aiming with the gyro and the left stick, and use the left stick to sort of manually reset it. This is very cumbersome to the point where I opted to just use the left stick to aim. While this sort of defeats the purpose of a light-gun game, I still found it to be fun overall to control the game this way. But this does not mean that I was not disappointed to relive the light-gun arcade, or even the Wii Zapper days here with this game.

The game's performance has also been called into question. In my experience, after turning on Performance Mode, things operated perfectly fine. There were some long load times and the occasional stutter in a cutscene, but I never had the performance affect the way I played or cost me a life.

There is also some neat little features added here, such as a horde mode and model viewer. I would have liked to have seen a bit more here though in this remake. For example, I would have loved to have seen some concept art from the original game, some videos detailing the history of the series, or some more unlockables other than achievements.

With all that being said, I do really enjoy this remake. I am surely going to play it a ton in order to get all the endings, discover all of the paths throughout the game, and play co-op with my girlfriend and friends. But I do wish that a bit more went into this game, especially on the controls side. Even with that said, this is a game that captures the feeling of old-school on-rails shooters pretty damn well. Just patch in a way to reset gyro, and this game could be one of the best HOTD games out there. As it stands now though, this is a good time for fans of the series, but probably won't win over anyone else.

If I would let my love of the series cloud my judgement, I would give this a 7/10. However, turning my fanboy off, the game is def closer to a 6/10.

EDIT: I bought the PC version and my god, what an improvement. The game runs a lot better, looks great, and sounds better too. I'd love to get a PC lightgun controller so that I can get the full experience. But even with just using a mouse and keyboard, the PC version of THOTDR is much, much better. I'd say this is now around a 7.5/10 for me. If you are going to get this game, the PC version is the way to go.

I think Judgement is amazing, and I don't think Judgment needs Yakuza to be amazing. I believe it is at its best when it strays away from the storytelling style of that series, or uses that style to contrast itself. Compared to the bombastic ever-present, crime world shaking melodrama of the titular decade spanning franchise, Judgement decides to zoom in a bit more, tell a simpler story, and make the people the story is about its #1 priority. This games biggest “moments” see fully realized characters reaching the end of their respective arcs and watching as their shifting alignments shape the world inside and outside Kamurocho, where every single thread of fate will intertwine in the climactic finale.

Actually, lets rewind a bit, because like I said, Judgement really is just a simple story, a story about one man, Takayuki Yagami, and how his perceived failures turned him into a detective, seeking forgiveness for his actions. I could not think of a more perfect protagonist for this sort of story than Yagami. Supremely likeable, but incredibly selfish, he has just the right level of bullheaded determination and craving for justice that gives you hope that he can crack any case wide open. That isn't to say Yagami is just some kind of truth cyborg, he's portrayed as a very logically flexible and legitimately intelligent protagonist, which plays perfectly against his endearing oaf of a partner, Masaharu Kaito.
Kaito, and the rest of the Matsugane family, feel plucked straight from the Yakuza series in a way that seems directly opposed to the murder mystery vibe running throughout the game. He's brash, impulsive, and never beyond a joke, even in the most dire of scenarios, but it's loyalty that makes Kaito such a definitively loveable ally. He brings a simple approach to any scenario that helps Yagami out more than any like-minded genius could.

We'd be here all day (and things would start entering spoiler territory) if I really wanted to start diving into the delightful layers of the entire main cast, and even most of the secondary cast, but the main point I'm getting at here is just how uniquely personality driven Judgement's story ends up being.

One big example of this is the games priority on friend events over side quests. Friend events are unique interactions with permanent fixtures of the overworld, barfly's, restaurant manager's, weird cat bloggers, and after these interactions are over and these people's questlines are "done", they never go away. It gives this tangible, lived in quality to the world, as you turn a corner and see your landlady, or the in-universe inventor of Kickstarter. Judgement ends up creating a unique tapestry of associates, friends, and allies that goes to show Yagami's networking ability in real time.

When it comes to the side-quests however, I can't say I was as much of a fan of their general presentation. Despite having some good laughs, and fun writing for the most part, the side quests all ended up having a similar structure that disincentivized me from even seeking them out after a certain point, especially when the main story reaches about the midway point i was so enthralled that accidentally hitting a side-quest event trigger felt way more like a nuisance than it should have.

Which i think is where an interesting line begins to form between Judgement and the Yakuza series. The DNA of Ryu Ga Gotoku's beloved series can be seen all over Judgement, from its setting, to its combat, but that's why I think the distinctions in tone matter so much. Judgement's existence as a mystery story following a singular protagonist leads to a much more streamlined approach to the storytelling, as the player is encouraged to piece together the mystery right alongside Yagami, rather than simply be presented a story, moment to moment. I personally loved this, and found myself itching to play the game every single day after work into the small hours of the morning. I grew up on a steady diet of Ace Attorney and Danganronpa and those series' taught me that even if the mystery is a bit obvious in places, being in the middle of a spiderweb of deceit and intrigue is just fun in and of itself.

I honestly could go on. I could talk about the incredibly fun, if not slightly unbalanced combat system, how warm and comforting the girlfriend mechanics were (as lonely as that makes me sound), Ayabe being the perfect foil to Makoto Date, and plenty of other things, but I think I'll just leave it there. Judgement is a wonderful experience filled with endlessly charming characters, brilliantly written dialogue, and a brisk pace that sunk its hooks into me and never let go. It's so much more than "that yakuza spinoff". I hope everyone reading this finds the opportunity to play it so I have more people to talk about it with.

Also, if I wrote a one sentence meme review for this game it would be:
Kaito is just Kiryu if Kiryu had sex"

I know very little about the Twilight Syndrome series, but from my understanding, the original game was an impressive horror adventure about highschool girls investigating paranormal activities and urban legends active in Japan. Suda51 aided the production of that game near the end of its development period, and its success granted him the keys to the series . . . for a brief moment.

With that, Suda's sequel, Moonlight Syndrome, was basically him going "You know what's way scarier than ghosts and urban legends? PEOPLE. They're fucked in the head, and commit evil when they want to. This sequel ain't gonna be about those ghosts or ANY OF THAT BABY SHIT. The human mind is the true horror! That's what the fuck I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! THAT'S WHAT THE F-" and then everybody hated it, and Suda shortly left Human Entertainment after warping this series so unrecognizably, that Human removed this game from the continuity for future titles.

Thanks to the fan translation by CJ_Iwakura, I was able to play through the first 5 chapters, and the game is absolutely WILD. The depth he goes with these characters is very interesting, and the entire game doesn't stop exuding this discomforting aura, it's a very creepy score by Masafumi Takada, who has incredible range!

There isn't much to the gameplay, as it merely expects you to walk to places and make choices while listening to the characters interact. There's choices to be made throughout, but it doesn't really change the story much, if at all. The story is the real meat, and so far, I love what I've seen! As someone that has experienced Suda's future titles such as The Silver Case and The 25th Ward, it's so fascinating to see the kinds of themes and analogs that this title has in common with those games, such as the dangers of the human psyche, and commentary towards modern housing/infrastructure, along with what that does to a society.

While I've really enjoyed the "patient zero" of Suda51's 'Kill the Past' ethos, I can't give this a full score, as I didn't finish the game, but intend to once the translation is finished.