every platformer in the early 2000s had a mandate from the government that the fun jumping levels had to be broken up with the worst minigames you ever played in your life. sly cooper follows this mandate to the letter.
2001
hideki kamiya was the first man bold enough to ask, "what if the combat in a 3d game was good?"
the cowards finally gave Lara some muscle definition. Also her characterization in the trilogy has been very funny in how the writers seem almost uninterested in giving her any heroic motivation beyond "bad guy wants thing I want." This was her motivation in the originals, but Lara made no bones about her own ego and greed driving her goals, she was very cutthroat and out for herself. This Lara fakes some kind of altruism for gunning down hundreds of dudes.
The disconnect is at its highest here. A villain tells Lara, "do not take this dagger." she takes it, causes a cataclysmic flood, and the villain is like "ah, dumbass!!" Lara is what a D&D nerd might call stupid good, when in the previous ones she was more lawful evil.
Gameplay is still really good though, god I love playing these games.
The disconnect is at its highest here. A villain tells Lara, "do not take this dagger." she takes it, causes a cataclysmic flood, and the villain is like "ah, dumbass!!" Lara is what a D&D nerd might call stupid good, when in the previous ones she was more lawful evil.
Gameplay is still really good though, god I love playing these games.
These games are so close to being my ideal AAA games, as they have a focused progression instead of some open world shit, but this one bungles the delivery by being way too fucking long. By the final stretch I was begging the game to wrap this shit up and it just flatly refused to. What started as an extremely positive playthrough ended with me exhausted and exasperated at this game.
2013
i LOVE the Tomb Raider series and there is a lot about this game I like but it's also in the hall of fame with DNF and Metroid: Other M for "Very Upsetting Depiction of Women."
I set the voices to French and skipped every cutscene and came away with a really fun action-adventure game with an awesome climbing system and gorgeous visuals. I recommend you do the same to feel any positivity towards this game, if you watch the cutscenes you will feel like you are watching a snuff film.
I set the voices to French and skipped every cutscene and came away with a really fun action-adventure game with an awesome climbing system and gorgeous visuals. I recommend you do the same to feel any positivity towards this game, if you watch the cutscenes you will feel like you are watching a snuff film.
Having beat it now I understand what put me off it at first: the Ashina Outskirts is a really rough way to open your game. Chained Ogre and Blazing Bull are fascinatingly bad bosses for this game and it's stunning they are so early in the game. Once I beat Ashina and the Guardian Ape I knew I had to finish the game.
God damn does it get good and stay good from then on out. This is so easily From's best game of their modern era (armored core fans represent) and it's impossible to go back to Souls games knowing they can make a combat system this interesting.
I will complain however about the lack of difficulty options. Oh yeah, I'm going there. I'm not talking about easy mode, even though there's no reason the game shouldn't have one, I'm talking harder modes. Kuro's Charm and the Demon Bell suck and barely count. I'm talking something equivalent to Ninja Gaiden's expert difficulty selections, where each one gives you remixed enemies, enemies unlock new moves, and items are in different spots. It's such a brilliant way to do difficulty that only NG and DMC have done.
Other than that, I was dead wrong, the game is really good. Elden Ring feels like a tremendous step back after playing through this.
God damn does it get good and stay good from then on out. This is so easily From's best game of their modern era (armored core fans represent) and it's impossible to go back to Souls games knowing they can make a combat system this interesting.
I will complain however about the lack of difficulty options. Oh yeah, I'm going there. I'm not talking about easy mode, even though there's no reason the game shouldn't have one, I'm talking harder modes. Kuro's Charm and the Demon Bell suck and barely count. I'm talking something equivalent to Ninja Gaiden's expert difficulty selections, where each one gives you remixed enemies, enemies unlock new moves, and items are in different spots. It's such a brilliant way to do difficulty that only NG and DMC have done.
Other than that, I was dead wrong, the game is really good. Elden Ring feels like a tremendous step back after playing through this.
1998
If You Talk About How Games "Aged Badly" I'm Fucking Stealing Something Out Of Your House
THEY ADDED VIGNETTING!! AHHHH!!!!
2001
a lot of charm, dirty early 2000s british humor, and a remarkable amount of variety for moment to moment gameplay. sadly some of the variations are Shit That Isn't Fun, but the animation and ideas on display are honestly too endearing to hate.
yeah it's a musou game, has a lot of dudes on screen at once. impressive amount still tbh.
but why does the music go fucking crazy? this soundtrack is awesome.
but why does the music go fucking crazy? this soundtrack is awesome.
2002
Sekiro Heads Wouldn't Last 10 Minutes In Samanosuke's World
real talk though making you control a game on the Xbox controller's D-pad is the funniest shit ever and prevents this game from scoring higher.
real talk though making you control a game on the Xbox controller's D-pad is the funniest shit ever and prevents this game from scoring higher.
this was the only pokemon game i ever had any interest in as a kid, and replaying it recently i had very good reason to: you get to play as totodile and have a companion squirtle you can name "Linkara."
2001
damn, you guys heard about this one?
2001
scrubs talk shit on the later levels, but this was one of the first games i remember when i was young that had no boring bits. no stupid minigames, no underwater escort boat mission, no weird gameplay diversions, just Halo being Halo.
2003
this game taught me an important lesson about hoping for the best as a child.