The first two Arkham games are some of my favorite games. The experiences I had playing them were amazing, partially because I think of the age I played them at. I was disappointed in Arkham Origins though that I never got around to this, but I’m very glad that I did. This is an epic, operatic conclusion (with a great twist on a classic Batman tale) to what is probably my favorite (and maybe only?) game trilogy ever (that’s right, trilogy, I’m simply not counting Origins—it was a different developer after all).

That said, I do have some problems with the game. I was warned ahead of a time by a friend that to get the “full ending” you need to 100% the game, but tracking down all the riddler trophies is an immensely frustrating task that simply is not particularly enjoyable to me (although this could be ignored if you don’t care about the full ending). I also am not a fan of how Ubisoft-y the open world is—lots of watchtowers and checkpoints and menial tasks to do that just kinda become annoying. My last complaint is that, while the Batmobile is very fun, the game turns into urban battle tanks a little bit too often.

Unlike the first two games, I cannot (in good conscience) give this a 5 star rating. I did enjoy the narrative (even if it also has flaws, which I don’t feel like expounding on here) and the core gameplay loop remains very satisfying, but it simply did not have the same impact on me that Arkham Asylum and Arkham City had.

I never thought I’d say this—but I think the zombies is my favorite part of this? I’ve never been big on zombies before, but I think they mastered the gameplay loop and made it more accessible, also the fact that you actually progress MP guns and unlock unique zombies camos and challenges helps a lot too. the campaign is pretty cool and fun, but kinda short. the multiplayer is typical cod multiplayer. sometimes i wanna smash my head against the monitor, but I’ll probably put multiple full time days into it regardless. i like cod.

wowwwwww i loved this so much. definitely the best movie tie-in i've ever played by an incredibly, inexhaustibly huge margin. the gameplay is exhilarating and addicting, if at times frustrating (though i was playing on nightmare difficulty, so that may be on me). however, i never got discouraged, even when i got stuck on some difficult sections for rather lengthy amounts of time.

however what really made me adore alien: isolation is the way in which it captures those things which make the og film so special--and not only in regards to its dense, tense atmospherics and sci-fi world-building, but also in its themes. the monstrous xenomorph is not the actual villain of the film, but the faceless corporations completely disregarding the safety and health of their employees, only craving the accumulation of capital--even when that comes at a great, great human expense. obviously no parallels to the real world to be gleamed there lol.

dammit i would love play more games like this.

This is my first Uncharted game and the biggest problem for me is the cover-based 3rd person shooting, not just because it’s a style of gameplay I don’t prefer (though I will note that the movement afforded to Drake makes this a much better cover-based 3rd person shooter than others I have played) but also because I think it rather damages the story. Makes it a lot more difficult to root for the wisecracking Drake and co. when they’re all apparently gun-toting mass murders. Seriously, in this game alone you kill hundreds of people—such a fact puts something of a damper on the epilogue. Raiders of Lost Ark avoided this problem by making Indy’s enemies Nazis—if Drake was killing Nazis, I wouldn’t bat an eye.

Anyways, still a very fun game and I love the whole treasure-hunter adventure gameplay—and I love pirates!!

en garde dickhead!!

A flawed and dated game, but holy cow does it ever have some great (and even fresh?) tactical FPS gameplay mechanics, which I’m sad we didn’t see further developed in other FPS games. In particular, the amount of control/command you have over your squad is a terrific and provides a lot of potential approaches to the gameplay—and it works particularly well in this setting of slower and more methodically paced FPS gameplay (although my squad-mates also consistently stood in front of doorways I was trying to get through—like I said: it’s flawed). However, a more refined and elaborate version of this game could very well be amazing. I hope we eventually get something like that :/