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2018
If you ask me if I liked this game, Yes! I did. I had a enough fun with it. It's certainly a polished product with lots of content to enjoy for spiderman fans. But also it tries too hard to be likeable for everyone and in the end becomes an another spiderman game rather than "The" Spider man game. At least for me.
For example let's start with the gameplay. It does have it's web shooting, traversal abilities, combat abilities etc. They also feel nice enough to carry the game with their undeniable polished animations. But they also feel samey from products that came before it. There is nothing new in it other than more refinement and polish.
Feels like every idea in it, I played somewhere else already. That's not a bad thing if your priority is to become likeable for everyone. But also means it's not unique enough to pinpoint why this game is special then others other than it's high budget polished animations and refined gameplay.
For example let's look at the traversal, it uses a little bit momentum based web traversal system with heavily assisted webs that removes the error from the casual user, but also feels like spiderman 2's more casual friendly traversal system.
Or the combo system, it uses sliding auto lock on that slides you into the enemies when attacking, also uses the the dodge signal to use against incoming danger, it also have some combos at the ground and at the air combos. Also the gadgets of course. If this isn't your first super hero game you can see that sliding lock on and dodge signal comes from Batman Arkham games, gadgets on the other hand comes from their own Ratched and Clank games. Yes, combat is certainly fun but still that samey feeling doesn't disappear.
We can even look to open world and see... ubisoft like garbage objectives actually... Wait maybe I should take this game into my "Ubisoft Open Worlds" list? Eh...
Anyway my point is can be seen right?
We can look at story too. It's certainly a fun campaign with it's ups and downs and of course the emotional moments. I won't go in too much detail but it's about how Peter and Dr. Octa Octavius's relationships grow and break. It's certainly a fun story that feels impactful. But also somewhere in my mind feels like I had already seen this before... A Dr Octopus that is on the line between kind and evil... A Spider-man that have difficulties at balancing his relationships... Again it reminds me a lot of spiderman 2's movie story...
Yes it's much more varied with more characters, events and emotional up and downs but still it makes me feel like I am just experiencing the spiderman 2's expanded story script, or something like a director's cut version of it. Even It's suppossed suprises felt already seen to me.
This feeling permeates the entire game for me unfortunately. It's a fun time there is no doubt about that but also it doesn't have the rock energy of the first ps1 game of spiderman nor it does have the unique world of arkham games for me. So it's somewhere in between, it certainly isn't mediocre with it's high polish but it's not something spectacular either. It does it's job, gives you fun then disappears it.
So yeah, this is Marvel's Spiderman. Parts of it you already experienced, but if you want to see it on higher budget again, here it is. Have fun as long as you want like you always did. But I wonder if it's enough to make players want for the second time? For a second game?
For example let's start with the gameplay. It does have it's web shooting, traversal abilities, combat abilities etc. They also feel nice enough to carry the game with their undeniable polished animations. But they also feel samey from products that came before it. There is nothing new in it other than more refinement and polish.
Feels like every idea in it, I played somewhere else already. That's not a bad thing if your priority is to become likeable for everyone. But also means it's not unique enough to pinpoint why this game is special then others other than it's high budget polished animations and refined gameplay.
For example let's look at the traversal, it uses a little bit momentum based web traversal system with heavily assisted webs that removes the error from the casual user, but also feels like spiderman 2's more casual friendly traversal system.
Or the combo system, it uses sliding auto lock on that slides you into the enemies when attacking, also uses the the dodge signal to use against incoming danger, it also have some combos at the ground and at the air combos. Also the gadgets of course. If this isn't your first super hero game you can see that sliding lock on and dodge signal comes from Batman Arkham games, gadgets on the other hand comes from their own Ratched and Clank games. Yes, combat is certainly fun but still that samey feeling doesn't disappear.
We can even look to open world and see... ubisoft like garbage objectives actually... Wait maybe I should take this game into my "Ubisoft Open Worlds" list? Eh...
Anyway my point is can be seen right?
We can look at story too. It's certainly a fun campaign with it's ups and downs and of course the emotional moments. I won't go in too much detail but it's about how Peter and Dr. Octa Octavius's relationships grow and break. It's certainly a fun story that feels impactful. But also somewhere in my mind feels like I had already seen this before... A Dr Octopus that is on the line between kind and evil... A Spider-man that have difficulties at balancing his relationships... Again it reminds me a lot of spiderman 2's movie story...
Yes it's much more varied with more characters, events and emotional up and downs but still it makes me feel like I am just experiencing the spiderman 2's expanded story script, or something like a director's cut version of it. Even It's suppossed suprises felt already seen to me.
This feeling permeates the entire game for me unfortunately. It's a fun time there is no doubt about that but also it doesn't have the rock energy of the first ps1 game of spiderman nor it does have the unique world of arkham games for me. So it's somewhere in between, it certainly isn't mediocre with it's high polish but it's not something spectacular either. It does it's job, gives you fun then disappears it.
So yeah, this is Marvel's Spiderman. Parts of it you already experienced, but if you want to see it on higher budget again, here it is. Have fun as long as you want like you always did. But I wonder if it's enough to make players want for the second time? For a second game?
First impressions are not great. I think writer himself thinks they needed to up the first game and for that choose bullshit logic for difficulty purposes and also somehow thought this was appropriate for this game. I am gonna give you a hint: "Camera Angle" From case 3. This case's logic frustrated me so much that it managed to make me shelve the game. I can go as far as to say that "case" is probably in my top 10 worst detective cases ever list in all of the entertainment media I had experienced
1994
And with this game, we can see how Kojima: The man never shuts up born...
Joking aside, this game is a beast in itself. Unlike the previous game snatcher, in this one Kojima put world details to the MAX. What I mean is in this one, we have lore conversations in almost every goddamn single clickable pixel a game console can support and I am not kidding about that.
Also this is gonna be the deciding factor in your enjoyment for playing this game. Let me ask you this: Do you like mgs's radio conversations? If yes, then you are gonna have a hell of a good time.
But if you don't, then I would say try Snatcher, because it's pacing is lightning fast unlike this one.
So if we return back to the game, was it good? For me yeah. But unlike Snatcher, I like it for the opposite reasons.
What I mean is, this game is slow, conversation heavy and less on action. This sometimes makes the game slower than a turtle unfortunately, but also unlike snatcher, this slow pacing is the reason that made me connect to the characters more.
It's still a quite predictable story like snatcher (until it isn't), but hearing characters argue between themselves and open themselves more was extremely fun to watch for me. I even go as far as clicking every single thing in the environment just to hear more of them and I somehow find myself invested in this cliche buddy cop characters and when the epilogue came, I realized I was actually get a bit emotional for them. I would say it was enjoyable as much as metal gear 2, the characters that much enjoyable for me.
But will this be that much enjoyable for any of you too? I don't know about that, because this game just like snatcher, have a lot of pervy conversations and it's extremely nonsensical romance could make a lot of eyebrows rise. But for me, sometimes it's best to not think about it too much just like back to the future 2's plot. But if this sounds not good to you maybe it's best to be stay away from it.
For me I liked it, only thing was a bit of a letdown was it's soundtrack and atmosphere wasn't as energetic as the snatcher one. But other than that, both of them almost match with their positives and negatives. Both of them fun, a bit cliche...
But full of heart.
Joking aside, this game is a beast in itself. Unlike the previous game snatcher, in this one Kojima put world details to the MAX. What I mean is in this one, we have lore conversations in almost every goddamn single clickable pixel a game console can support and I am not kidding about that.
Also this is gonna be the deciding factor in your enjoyment for playing this game. Let me ask you this: Do you like mgs's radio conversations? If yes, then you are gonna have a hell of a good time.
But if you don't, then I would say try Snatcher, because it's pacing is lightning fast unlike this one.
So if we return back to the game, was it good? For me yeah. But unlike Snatcher, I like it for the opposite reasons.
What I mean is, this game is slow, conversation heavy and less on action. This sometimes makes the game slower than a turtle unfortunately, but also unlike snatcher, this slow pacing is the reason that made me connect to the characters more.
It's still a quite predictable story like snatcher (until it isn't), but hearing characters argue between themselves and open themselves more was extremely fun to watch for me. I even go as far as clicking every single thing in the environment just to hear more of them and I somehow find myself invested in this cliche buddy cop characters and when the epilogue came, I realized I was actually get a bit emotional for them. I would say it was enjoyable as much as metal gear 2, the characters that much enjoyable for me.
But will this be that much enjoyable for any of you too? I don't know about that, because this game just like snatcher, have a lot of pervy conversations and it's extremely nonsensical romance could make a lot of eyebrows rise. But for me, sometimes it's best to not think about it too much just like back to the future 2's plot. But if this sounds not good to you maybe it's best to be stay away from it.
For me I liked it, only thing was a bit of a letdown was it's soundtrack and atmosphere wasn't as energetic as the snatcher one. But other than that, both of them almost match with their positives and negatives. Both of them fun, a bit cliche...
But full of heart.
2020
Sometimes I think myself as an insane person when I can't see the reason of the praise for a new hot release and this game is one of them.
Don't get me wrong I had fun of this game, especially the beginning hours, but like every ubisoft style open world title of this generation, it padds it's content too much to the point game itself becomes too thin.
Gameplay is.. (Played on Hard)
Pretty challenging at first. Enemies loves to guard or attack, you realize best way to deal with them is with parrying or if it's a red attack, then it's dodging and countering. Just spamming attack is never a good option and I liked that a lot.
Then new enemies get introduced that are harder to get an opening for, so only way to deal damage to them effectively is with stances/movesets you get throughout in the story, I enjoyed that too. Not just that you also get pretty fun gadgets to use throughout in your game as well and most of them is just in the first quarter of this game! (Remember this)
Side activites is kinda.... and just 5-6 types there is, so it's meh but it wasn't repeated a lot in the first quarter so I didn't get bored at all.
Side missions are mostly the same thing that is about some npc wants help and wants you to save their captured loved one, you go there then kill the enemies then you find their loved one dead, they thank you then start crying then that's the end of it. They copy this format toooo many times throughout in the game to count, but hey! At least they are not that many in the first quarter of the game!
Then there are important marked side missions too! They look story rich at first with telling a tale about important weapon masters, but when you do one of them, you kinda did most of them... with how it repeats the same story of a master teacher's loved one turned to the bads and you need to help them in this journey to save them from this regret. Also they didn't even put full cutscenes on them. At least theere are ones that is nothing to do with weapon masters and just about dueling and they were kinda fun. But don't worry about it's repetition for now because you don't see much in the first quarter of the game.
Yeah I was actually having fun in a game that uses an ubisoft style gameplay that is about clearing enemy camps, doing the samey 6-7 side activities trillion times and doing samey side missions, imagine my suprise! I was really having fun!
(Because content repeat was actually on the reasonable state at first)
But then the first part ended and the second part started.
It was fine. They added a 2-3 new types of side activites onto it, I liked especially the duels ones... and also they add 2-3 harder types of enemies. That was nice as well... But unfortunately a bit of repetitiveness started. Yet still it was in the level of 4/5 at least.
Then the finale the 3rd part started and this time it didn't even add much to the game and reuse a lot of activities and enemies. (Only thing it added was a white winter theme to everything I guess...) AND THIS TIME.... I WANTED TO SEPPUKU MYSELF.
Story is a mixed bag too...
It starts with an attack... Mongols are coming to our land... We get our blade and we attack them head on with honor! But... Their attacks are too strong and dirty so they manage to beat us and our army down. When we almost die, a thief helps us to heal and teach us how to be stealthy(that isn't fun to play), even tho we don't like dirty fights, we accept to do this for saving our uncle because this is the only way. Then story stops.
You clean lots of enemy camps, then finally manage to save our uncle, but leader Khan escapes. You follow him, then he escapes again and again...
Until game reminds itself that, other than a shitty villain there is actually an ideology of honor here somewhere at there, so it reintroduces that at the end of the game. Finally game starts to go somewhere at the damn end! And the game ends shortly after...
Unfortunately I felt nowhere near satisfied tho. Because not just that there were also other a lot of problems too. Game uses cheaply made rpg looking far away conversation camera is one that infiruates me, or attacking npcs results with them screaming then suddenly sitting down like nothing happened is another one that takes me out of the atmosphere.
Saying this unfortunately pretty heartbreaking for me because it looks good! it plays good! But unfortunately that's not enough. Like I said at the top of the review, it spreads itself too thin and make everything feel repeated to the mindboggling degree...
But you know what? They could make it work it they wanted. It's messy pacing, it's unnecessary amount of repeat content, it's inconsistent presentation with npcs etc. They could make it all work with just one thing.
With not making it a ubisoft style unnecessarily giant open world game.
Don't get me wrong I had fun of this game, especially the beginning hours, but like every ubisoft style open world title of this generation, it padds it's content too much to the point game itself becomes too thin.
Gameplay is.. (Played on Hard)
Pretty challenging at first. Enemies loves to guard or attack, you realize best way to deal with them is with parrying or if it's a red attack, then it's dodging and countering. Just spamming attack is never a good option and I liked that a lot.
Then new enemies get introduced that are harder to get an opening for, so only way to deal damage to them effectively is with stances/movesets you get throughout in the story, I enjoyed that too. Not just that you also get pretty fun gadgets to use throughout in your game as well and most of them is just in the first quarter of this game! (Remember this)
Side activites is kinda.... and just 5-6 types there is, so it's meh but it wasn't repeated a lot in the first quarter so I didn't get bored at all.
Side missions are mostly the same thing that is about some npc wants help and wants you to save their captured loved one, you go there then kill the enemies then you find their loved one dead, they thank you then start crying then that's the end of it. They copy this format toooo many times throughout in the game to count, but hey! At least they are not that many in the first quarter of the game!
Then there are important marked side missions too! They look story rich at first with telling a tale about important weapon masters, but when you do one of them, you kinda did most of them... with how it repeats the same story of a master teacher's loved one turned to the bads and you need to help them in this journey to save them from this regret. Also they didn't even put full cutscenes on them. At least theere are ones that is nothing to do with weapon masters and just about dueling and they were kinda fun. But don't worry about it's repetition for now because you don't see much in the first quarter of the game.
Yeah I was actually having fun in a game that uses an ubisoft style gameplay that is about clearing enemy camps, doing the samey 6-7 side activities trillion times and doing samey side missions, imagine my suprise! I was really having fun!
(Because content repeat was actually on the reasonable state at first)
But then the first part ended and the second part started.
It was fine. They added a 2-3 new types of side activites onto it, I liked especially the duels ones... and also they add 2-3 harder types of enemies. That was nice as well... But unfortunately a bit of repetitiveness started. Yet still it was in the level of 4/5 at least.
Then the finale the 3rd part started and this time it didn't even add much to the game and reuse a lot of activities and enemies. (Only thing it added was a white winter theme to everything I guess...) AND THIS TIME.... I WANTED TO SEPPUKU MYSELF.
Story is a mixed bag too...
It starts with an attack... Mongols are coming to our land... We get our blade and we attack them head on with honor! But... Their attacks are too strong and dirty so they manage to beat us and our army down. When we almost die, a thief helps us to heal and teach us how to be stealthy(that isn't fun to play), even tho we don't like dirty fights, we accept to do this for saving our uncle because this is the only way. Then story stops.
You clean lots of enemy camps, then finally manage to save our uncle, but leader Khan escapes. You follow him, then he escapes again and again...
Until game reminds itself that, other than a shitty villain there is actually an ideology of honor here somewhere at there, so it reintroduces that at the end of the game. Finally game starts to go somewhere at the damn end! And the game ends shortly after...
Unfortunately I felt nowhere near satisfied tho. Because not just that there were also other a lot of problems too. Game uses cheaply made rpg looking far away conversation camera is one that infiruates me, or attacking npcs results with them screaming then suddenly sitting down like nothing happened is another one that takes me out of the atmosphere.
Saying this unfortunately pretty heartbreaking for me because it looks good! it plays good! But unfortunately that's not enough. Like I said at the top of the review, it spreads itself too thin and make everything feel repeated to the mindboggling degree...
But you know what? They could make it work it they wanted. It's messy pacing, it's unnecessary amount of repeat content, it's inconsistent presentation with npcs etc. They could make it all work with just one thing.
With not making it a ubisoft style unnecessarily giant open world game.
2007
Not sure if I can finish this tbh.
If I describe my feelings, this game feels like a artsy and experimental game that tries it's hardest to keep you engaged with it's strange and interesting combat system and mysterious world. Like most of the japanese small budget AA ps2 game to be exact.
It looks beautiful and atmosphere is simply amazing to the point I can say it's just mesmerizing, there is nothing quite like it. Just look at the screenshots, all of them have the quality of a arthouse painting!
Unfortunately it's also quite restrictive with being too linear other than hyrule style hub world and only interaction with the world you have is talking and doing combat.
But that's not the big problem. The big problem is how it structured and it's combat.
This game's combat is about assigning summons to face buttons then using them against to enemies. When I saw this I expected something similar to zelda like puzzles with how every summon have it's own attack and element. Unfortunately that's not the case, you can just spam buttons to get past most of the encounters(at least this is the case for the first half I had played) other than some specific enemy(bosses and mini bosses) types so it's not puzzle combat. If we look at from the action side, summon attacks moveset is hecking limited and also clunky and slow so it's also not a good action combat either. So what is it actually then? It's a button masher, that's what it is.
This wouldn't be a big problem at first glance right? After all as long as mission and world variety entertains you it should be enough right? Normally Yes, But that's where the second problem comes in. This game requires you to play 2 characters that feel similar to each other, to go to the same levels again with slight differences to beat it. Literally. Same. Levels. Again.
I know this game is a budget title but for what damn reason you would choose to mess your pacing with forced replay in your already small budget game I really don't get it.
Unfortunately this repetition managed to beat me tho as of now. Even tho my one side wants me to continue exploring to see how crazy, extraordinary and abstract the world gonna get with progressing (because like I said it's art is almost god level), my other side just gets nausea with the thought of forced replay of every level with a second character. I wish they didn't do that.
If I describe my feelings, this game feels like a artsy and experimental game that tries it's hardest to keep you engaged with it's strange and interesting combat system and mysterious world. Like most of the japanese small budget AA ps2 game to be exact.
It looks beautiful and atmosphere is simply amazing to the point I can say it's just mesmerizing, there is nothing quite like it. Just look at the screenshots, all of them have the quality of a arthouse painting!
Unfortunately it's also quite restrictive with being too linear other than hyrule style hub world and only interaction with the world you have is talking and doing combat.
But that's not the big problem. The big problem is how it structured and it's combat.
This game's combat is about assigning summons to face buttons then using them against to enemies. When I saw this I expected something similar to zelda like puzzles with how every summon have it's own attack and element. Unfortunately that's not the case, you can just spam buttons to get past most of the encounters(at least this is the case for the first half I had played) other than some specific enemy(bosses and mini bosses) types so it's not puzzle combat. If we look at from the action side, summon attacks moveset is hecking limited and also clunky and slow so it's also not a good action combat either. So what is it actually then? It's a button masher, that's what it is.
This wouldn't be a big problem at first glance right? After all as long as mission and world variety entertains you it should be enough right? Normally Yes, But that's where the second problem comes in. This game requires you to play 2 characters that feel similar to each other, to go to the same levels again with slight differences to beat it. Literally. Same. Levels. Again.
I know this game is a budget title but for what damn reason you would choose to mess your pacing with forced replay in your already small budget game I really don't get it.
Unfortunately this repetition managed to beat me tho as of now. Even tho my one side wants me to continue exploring to see how crazy, extraordinary and abstract the world gonna get with progressing (because like I said it's art is almost god level), my other side just gets nausea with the thought of forced replay of every level with a second character. I wish they didn't do that.
2017
-First trailer comes out:
+Oh shit. It looks something like shadow of the colossus puzzle bosses (・o・)
-Reviews comes out.
+They say it's a open world ubisoft style game.
-My expectations get shattered.
+But friend convinces me it's gonna be great, so I buy it.
-Turns out It's a grab plant/climb tower/craft garbage kinda ubisoft game first, boss game second.
+Dam#it.
+Oh shit. It looks something like shadow of the colossus puzzle bosses (・o・)
-Reviews comes out.
+They say it's a open world ubisoft style game.
-My expectations get shattered.
+But friend convinces me it's gonna be great, so I buy it.
-Turns out It's a grab plant/climb tower/craft garbage kinda ubisoft game first, boss game second.
+Dam#it.
2005
A heartfelt adventure with the budget of five water bottles.
So this game is about the journey of finding what really happened to our dad.
While I enjoyed the adventure, story wise game felt like a lore dump rather than full on personal story for me? What I mean is majority of the story is about Edward family's past rather than the main character Ashley.
I mean dad story comes back but it's just at the end of it and ends so fast with just only a small connection to the overall plot, also villain's story feels really abruptly ended as well. So that makes me wonder if it was rushed?
Now I maybe look like not enjoyed the story but like I said I enjoyed the adventure especially because of our companion D the Ghost. Their back and forward argues was entertaining enough to make the adventure more enjoyable for me.
But still in my opinion last chapter felt like rushed to me. So because of that story is kinda meh for me. In my opinion game must had at least one more chapter to flesh out the story more.
Gameplay wise puzzles were interesting but also quite hard to figure for the not so good reasons.
One reason is game does not explain how to combine two images at once in our ds machine well. Because of this I needed to check guides for one puzzle later in the game.
Another one reason is game expects you to keep up with every clue location you find. What I mean is sometimes game wants you to do backtracking. I would be fine with it but game never reminds you which objects you need to find again so it was kind of a hassle without a guide.
But rest of the puzzles were nice enough to make me engaged. There were password puzzles, matching puzzles, tool using puzzles etc. So it was enough in my opinion. Like I said my only problems are the ones game couldn't describe itself that well (I hope they didn't do this to lengthen this 5 hour game unnaturally...)
So yeah that was trace memory... Or another code(depending on your region). It was a nice adventure with a abrupt ending and some confusing puzzles. Do I recommend it? If you find it cheap why not. But it doesn't have nowhere near amount of content hotel dusk does (because it's really that small of a game) so keep it in your mind.
So this game is about the journey of finding what really happened to our dad.
While I enjoyed the adventure, story wise game felt like a lore dump rather than full on personal story for me? What I mean is majority of the story is about Edward family's past rather than the main character Ashley.
I mean dad story comes back but it's just at the end of it and ends so fast with just only a small connection to the overall plot, also villain's story feels really abruptly ended as well. So that makes me wonder if it was rushed?
Now I maybe look like not enjoyed the story but like I said I enjoyed the adventure especially because of our companion D the Ghost. Their back and forward argues was entertaining enough to make the adventure more enjoyable for me.
But still in my opinion last chapter felt like rushed to me. So because of that story is kinda meh for me. In my opinion game must had at least one more chapter to flesh out the story more.
Gameplay wise puzzles were interesting but also quite hard to figure for the not so good reasons.
One reason is game does not explain how to combine two images at once in our ds machine well. Because of this I needed to check guides for one puzzle later in the game.
Another one reason is game expects you to keep up with every clue location you find. What I mean is sometimes game wants you to do backtracking. I would be fine with it but game never reminds you which objects you need to find again so it was kind of a hassle without a guide.
But rest of the puzzles were nice enough to make me engaged. There were password puzzles, matching puzzles, tool using puzzles etc. So it was enough in my opinion. Like I said my only problems are the ones game couldn't describe itself that well (I hope they didn't do this to lengthen this 5 hour game unnaturally...)
So yeah that was trace memory... Or another code(depending on your region). It was a nice adventure with a abrupt ending and some confusing puzzles. Do I recommend it? If you find it cheap why not. But it doesn't have nowhere near amount of content hotel dusk does (because it's really that small of a game) so keep it in your mind.
2014
I want to say a lot of things about this game. So much so that if I start writing it would take hours, So much so that it would take days, So much so that it would take months...
But I am gonna stop here for now. Only thing I can say as of now is all of the pacing issues, all of the garbage comedy moments, all of the unnecessary time wasting was worth it just for the ending. To the point it made my score jump from 3 stars to 5 stars singlehandedly. It's that good or just felt "right" to me and impacted down to my core. This man knows no bounds, his pen is his blade and his mind is his weapon and as I pray, I desire to see unlimited masterpieces from him.
But I am gonna stop here for now. Only thing I can say as of now is all of the pacing issues, all of the garbage comedy moments, all of the unnecessary time wasting was worth it just for the ending. To the point it made my score jump from 3 stars to 5 stars singlehandedly. It's that good or just felt "right" to me and impacted down to my core. This man knows no bounds, his pen is his blade and his mind is his weapon and as I pray, I desire to see unlimited masterpieces from him.
2016
Run and gun in it's purest form.
I played on Ultra nightmare and whoa it made me sweaty both in a good way and in a bad way because I can certainly say it was an unbalanced campaign.
You have lots of weapons and alternate fires, lots of enemies and optional unlockables as well!
But for some reason difficulty rise is unbalanced. The middle point level Argent Tower managed to kill me too many times to count(also it's platforming part at the top sucked hard) But after that it was a smooth sailing to the point too easy until the finale mission for some reason.
Also checkpoints sucks. Why not do checkpoints at the start of a fight rather than before entrance door? I really don't get it. It just results dead time with watching the same door opening animation again and again...
Not just that if you decide to explore and die with falling down, enjoy watching the same door/lever/cutscene animations again and again. Checkpoints sucks so hard that I can't give you it's feeling enough.
But like I said it's combat adrenaline rush is really addicting as well! Not just that optional rooms to find and collect upgrades makes exploration fun as well! So I am conflicted.
I guess I will cautiously recommend this, because while the combat is pretty good, combat loop starts repeating a lot in the last quarter because game stops introducing new things and reuse a lot, also it's movement feels a bit limiting, you move not that fast and at times makes you wish for a dash move. Also like I said it's unbalanced nature and aggravating checkpoints unfortunately made the game old for me.
Btw it's grenades hecking glitchy as well. If you throw them and then use your pistol, your gun gets stuck and unable to fire for some reason. This bug happened to me two times and both of them in major areas and I needed to reload to solve that, so this problem really soured my enjoyment at times.
So this is my verdict. It's a good beginning but needs to fix it's small issues because even if you think I am nitpicking, in this full combat focused game they bother me more than a open world game could when you just want to live the adrenaline to the fullest. So that's why It wasn't perfect for me.
I played on Ultra nightmare and whoa it made me sweaty both in a good way and in a bad way because I can certainly say it was an unbalanced campaign.
You have lots of weapons and alternate fires, lots of enemies and optional unlockables as well!
But for some reason difficulty rise is unbalanced. The middle point level Argent Tower managed to kill me too many times to count(also it's platforming part at the top sucked hard) But after that it was a smooth sailing to the point too easy until the finale mission for some reason.
Also checkpoints sucks. Why not do checkpoints at the start of a fight rather than before entrance door? I really don't get it. It just results dead time with watching the same door opening animation again and again...
Not just that if you decide to explore and die with falling down, enjoy watching the same door/lever/cutscene animations again and again. Checkpoints sucks so hard that I can't give you it's feeling enough.
But like I said it's combat adrenaline rush is really addicting as well! Not just that optional rooms to find and collect upgrades makes exploration fun as well! So I am conflicted.
I guess I will cautiously recommend this, because while the combat is pretty good, combat loop starts repeating a lot in the last quarter because game stops introducing new things and reuse a lot, also it's movement feels a bit limiting, you move not that fast and at times makes you wish for a dash move. Also like I said it's unbalanced nature and aggravating checkpoints unfortunately made the game old for me.
Btw it's grenades hecking glitchy as well. If you throw them and then use your pistol, your gun gets stuck and unable to fire for some reason. This bug happened to me two times and both of them in major areas and I needed to reload to solve that, so this problem really soured my enjoyment at times.
So this is my verdict. It's a good beginning but needs to fix it's small issues because even if you think I am nitpicking, in this full combat focused game they bother me more than a open world game could when you just want to live the adrenaline to the fullest. So that's why It wasn't perfect for me.
So yeah it's an upgrade to first game. You need to use a music box now in every 30 seconds, you have a mask now, you have a vent pipe to check beside the doors to close etc.
But also it's hard in a unfair way. Think about this, every enemy needs their own exclusive equipment to deal with. So what you do? You give additional time to react. This game does not do that, no... Actually it's even more aggresive than the first game. I don't think I even manage to beat the final day and just watched it because rng just ###d me. It's not fun.
But there is now short 2d sequences that get shown in every night and they actually made me want to continue the game. They actually was more engaging to experience for me because of the mini stories it tells and for this reason I actually enjoyed a bit more than the first one.
This was the last game I played in the franchise and believe me when I saw there were 4? more games released after this, I was dumbstruck. I can say that definitely.
But also it's hard in a unfair way. Think about this, every enemy needs their own exclusive equipment to deal with. So what you do? You give additional time to react. This game does not do that, no... Actually it's even more aggresive than the first game. I don't think I even manage to beat the final day and just watched it because rng just ###d me. It's not fun.
But there is now short 2d sequences that get shown in every night and they actually made me want to continue the game. They actually was more engaging to experience for me because of the mini stories it tells and for this reason I actually enjoyed a bit more than the first one.
This was the last game I played in the franchise and believe me when I saw there were 4? more games released after this, I was dumbstruck. I can say that definitely.
2016
Gold colored garbage. Looks good, plays nice. But character wise have none of it.
My journey of ratchet and clank would be abandoned just as it started right there on a low note, until a year later I see a video that convinces me to try again but with the og game this time
My journey of ratchet and clank would be abandoned just as it started right there on a low note, until a year later I see a video that convinces me to try again but with the og game this time
2002
This is one of the best adventure/platformer game in the ps2, but I would be lying about it saying it's the best, when the late half of it have some big glaring issues. But I can say this. It does have it's heart in the right place.
Story
It's a simple, I want to see outside world! And help my alien robot partner in his quest to take down this money hungry garbage corporation! Kinda story.
It's cliche yes, but fun dialogue that is about forced friendship to slowly loving friendship writing makes it enjoyable to experience in my opinion, especially compared to the botched marvel like dialogues of it's "reboot" that I couldn't bring myself to finish to this day.
But unfortunately writing is not perfect. There is one section that where Clank makes a big mistake because of someone unknowingly and Ratchet doesn't forgive him for a bit toooo long time and that section really bothered me unfortunately. I know every cliche story have a no hope section at the middle but I felt like they kinda take it too far with taking too long to resolve that issue.
But other than that section I enjoyed the rest of it with how both of them starts as a constantly arguing couple because their preferences are completely opposite to each other, then slowly becomes best friends ever with settling their differences. A straight buddy buddy story this is after all.
Gameplay
Gameplay wise beginning wasn't that engaging, you have the basic guns, a melee wrench and jumping abilities. Also using guns felt weird to me because Ratchet uses guns like fire flower from Mario.
What I mean is there is no aim reticle so when you press the shoot weapon, he shoots where he looks and that's for the every weapon other than weapons that have scopes
But I used to that after couple of sections because it's really not that important to be accurate after all. Enemies are mostly basic running to your face kinda enemies so you are rarely required to be accurate and spamming guns like fire flower for Mario is enough to destroy enemies
But after that I realized actually gameplay is really enjoyable because of it's variety! There are so many worlds and every world has it's own buyable or obtainable exclusive weapons, enemies and gadgets to find!
Not just that, there is a slight metroidvania feeling injected onto it. What I mean is, you can go other planets as long as you have to coordiantes and if you found the neccessary gadget for exploration of that world before, you can explore that world early! It's not common in every part of it but still It made me suprised!
Actually the most engaging part for me was realizing every worlds have shorcuts that takes you back to the entrance of it something like dark souls! Unfortunately sometimes it cheats with putting teleporters or convoluted elevators but still, rest was enough for me to make me realize this game's level design is really perfectly handmade from start to finish and that's what I liked about it.
Unfortunately it's not all perfect tho, like I said I have some big issues for the late half of the game.
Late level equipment and gadget prices are off the chards and forcing you to grind money for progressing for them sucks.
Platforming fun and all but movement speed feels a bit tad slow for my liking.
Sections that you need to use Clank to command robots are also really damn slow
Ice levels are not fun platforming levels in this game.
Near the end enemies become bullet spongy in a bad way
Yeah that's about it. I enjoyed this game but some problems of this game unfortunately holds this game back in my opinion. Some of the problems I counted really at times soured me from continuing because of it messes up the pacing. But still in my opinion it's still worth trying this game because highs are really high especially for the first half.
Story
It's a simple, I want to see outside world! And help my alien robot partner in his quest to take down this money hungry garbage corporation! Kinda story.
It's cliche yes, but fun dialogue that is about forced friendship to slowly loving friendship writing makes it enjoyable to experience in my opinion, especially compared to the botched marvel like dialogues of it's "reboot" that I couldn't bring myself to finish to this day.
But unfortunately writing is not perfect. There is one section that where Clank makes a big mistake because of someone unknowingly and Ratchet doesn't forgive him for a bit toooo long time and that section really bothered me unfortunately. I know every cliche story have a no hope section at the middle but I felt like they kinda take it too far with taking too long to resolve that issue.
But other than that section I enjoyed the rest of it with how both of them starts as a constantly arguing couple because their preferences are completely opposite to each other, then slowly becomes best friends ever with settling their differences. A straight buddy buddy story this is after all.
Gameplay
Gameplay wise beginning wasn't that engaging, you have the basic guns, a melee wrench and jumping abilities. Also using guns felt weird to me because Ratchet uses guns like fire flower from Mario.
What I mean is there is no aim reticle so when you press the shoot weapon, he shoots where he looks and that's for the every weapon other than weapons that have scopes
But I used to that after couple of sections because it's really not that important to be accurate after all. Enemies are mostly basic running to your face kinda enemies so you are rarely required to be accurate and spamming guns like fire flower for Mario is enough to destroy enemies
But after that I realized actually gameplay is really enjoyable because of it's variety! There are so many worlds and every world has it's own buyable or obtainable exclusive weapons, enemies and gadgets to find!
Not just that, there is a slight metroidvania feeling injected onto it. What I mean is, you can go other planets as long as you have to coordiantes and if you found the neccessary gadget for exploration of that world before, you can explore that world early! It's not common in every part of it but still It made me suprised!
Actually the most engaging part for me was realizing every worlds have shorcuts that takes you back to the entrance of it something like dark souls! Unfortunately sometimes it cheats with putting teleporters or convoluted elevators but still, rest was enough for me to make me realize this game's level design is really perfectly handmade from start to finish and that's what I liked about it.
Unfortunately it's not all perfect tho, like I said I have some big issues for the late half of the game.
Late level equipment and gadget prices are off the chards and forcing you to grind money for progressing for them sucks.
Platforming fun and all but movement speed feels a bit tad slow for my liking.
Sections that you need to use Clank to command robots are also really damn slow
Ice levels are not fun platforming levels in this game.
Near the end enemies become bullet spongy in a bad way
Yeah that's about it. I enjoyed this game but some problems of this game unfortunately holds this game back in my opinion. Some of the problems I counted really at times soured me from continuing because of it messes up the pacing. But still in my opinion it's still worth trying this game because highs are really high especially for the first half.
I wasn't planning to write this review but for some reason my relative insisted on watching it's movie and...
(it's garbage btw, just uses familiar name drops to make you excited even tho in %90 of the movie there is literally nothing happening other than dad? and his little sister keeps arguing for hours and hours on end, also dad keep having same dreams that is super boring to look at, at least there are bunch of fanservice at the finale tho... But unfortunately supposed finale is ends up unsatisfying anyway, resolves nothing about the villain and just sequel baits you... Thanks I guess)
While watching the movie I was keep thinking the moments I had when I was playing years ago and this made me realize I actually really didn't care about the game itself. Just cared about theories of it
Game is a simple point click game, you have cameras, you have doors and lights and lastly you have a limited battery. You need to stay alive for 5 days lastly.
Unfortunately game is not engaging in it's core tho. You mostly don't need to use any cameras other than maybe last day. Because just lighting the doorway every 5 second just does the job. You see enemies clearly with light and you are given enough time to close the door. Yay.
I mean at least the fifth day is challenging because enemies much more aggressive so that's something.
But that's it tho. There is nothing interesting about it nor engaging especially for the first game.
(it's garbage btw, just uses familiar name drops to make you excited even tho in %90 of the movie there is literally nothing happening other than dad? and his little sister keeps arguing for hours and hours on end, also dad keep having same dreams that is super boring to look at, at least there are bunch of fanservice at the finale tho... But unfortunately supposed finale is ends up unsatisfying anyway, resolves nothing about the villain and just sequel baits you... Thanks I guess)
While watching the movie I was keep thinking the moments I had when I was playing years ago and this made me realize I actually really didn't care about the game itself. Just cared about theories of it
Game is a simple point click game, you have cameras, you have doors and lights and lastly you have a limited battery. You need to stay alive for 5 days lastly.
Unfortunately game is not engaging in it's core tho. You mostly don't need to use any cameras other than maybe last day. Because just lighting the doorway every 5 second just does the job. You see enemies clearly with light and you are given enough time to close the door. Yay.
I mean at least the fifth day is challenging because enemies much more aggressive so that's something.
But that's it tho. There is nothing interesting about it nor engaging especially for the first game.
As the Yakuza 6's biggest fan. My biggest fear going in was them to mess up it's ending. Suffice to say I was wrong. And I am glad I am wrong. (this part written before INFINITE F##### WEALTH)
Because They continued the Kiryu's story in the best way they could after all.
This is a story about a broken man getting tortured both physically and mentally 10 hours straight. He goes unbelievable amounts of pain more than any previous yakuza game just to keep his promise he gave at the end of 6 and he just does that with pain and all.
And when Kiryu started crying after all he sacrificed my tears started flowing like a river as well..........
Gameplay wise it felt unfortunately unbalanced. Felt like they put every crowd combat moveset in this one that feels damn amazing to clear millions of goons, especially more in this one because physics doesn't suck like k2 or 6(if you don't collide with objects that is), but unfortunately that resulted with one-on-one feel really unsatisfying in my opinion.
Because of every move we have is a wide slow attack, fighting with boss fights feels like uncontrollable chaos in a not so good way. It felt like your only options without getting damaged are using quickstep attacks or agent's rush combo with drones. They have a band-aid solution and that is heat actions do 10x more damage for some damn reason so I felt it was unsatisfying to fight with bosses compared to the lost judgment's careful strategic combo system.
But still I have to say I really enjoyed crowd combat and even the "new recycled" coliseum but with "clan creator" activity gave me immense fun to the point I finished almost every one of them just in chapter two and maxed Kiryu. Because new crowd control skills that comes with gadgets simply that much fun.
But still... like I said it's not perfect and couple of things bothered me a lot and those are... Why Dragon's Finishing throws exclusive to extreme heat mod??? Or why Agent's heavy attacks slower then a grandma crossing the road??? And lastly why the f... There is no speed upgrade??? That actually can improve the one-on-one combat you know.
Also new amon felt like more annoying version of Juzo from lost judgment ಠ_ಠ . What was I expecting anyway at least there is still an amon in this side game maybe I should be grateful.
Btw before I forget I want to talk about how crowded the expanded sotenbori in this game feels. I don't know if it's a pc thing but there are more npcs on the street like the older games and some of them even have unique animations. After the lost judgment's and y:lad's disappointing low number of npc count in Yokohama, this felt good and gave more of that alive world feeling.
If we look at everything again, like I said combat unfortunately felt like limited as Kaito because of the issues I told but even with this I still left the game with lots of enjoyment. After all they said it's just a little bit bigger then Kaito Files and because of that I didn't have big expectations and get what I expected.
But one thing I really can't accept and that is the fact that there is no new game plus... And NO! Premium adventure doesn't equal new game plus, it equals free-roam why the heck people think like that I really don't get it. This game have more long battles than lost judgment(hellll yesss). I just want to replay them with all of my abilities unlocked dammit!!!
Even with all of my complaints I still felt satisfied immensely. Especially because of the emotions this game gave... So only thing I can hope now is Like a Dragon 8 to be this good after all.
Edit: it didn't. It didn't even come close. Disrespect is real.
Because They continued the Kiryu's story in the best way they could after all.
This is a story about a broken man getting tortured both physically and mentally 10 hours straight. He goes unbelievable amounts of pain more than any previous yakuza game just to keep his promise he gave at the end of 6 and he just does that with pain and all.
And when Kiryu started crying after all he sacrificed my tears started flowing like a river as well..........
Gameplay wise it felt unfortunately unbalanced. Felt like they put every crowd combat moveset in this one that feels damn amazing to clear millions of goons, especially more in this one because physics doesn't suck like k2 or 6(if you don't collide with objects that is), but unfortunately that resulted with one-on-one feel really unsatisfying in my opinion.
Because of every move we have is a wide slow attack, fighting with boss fights feels like uncontrollable chaos in a not so good way. It felt like your only options without getting damaged are using quickstep attacks or agent's rush combo with drones. They have a band-aid solution and that is heat actions do 10x more damage for some damn reason so I felt it was unsatisfying to fight with bosses compared to the lost judgment's careful strategic combo system.
But still I have to say I really enjoyed crowd combat and even the "new recycled" coliseum but with "clan creator" activity gave me immense fun to the point I finished almost every one of them just in chapter two and maxed Kiryu. Because new crowd control skills that comes with gadgets simply that much fun.
But still... like I said it's not perfect and couple of things bothered me a lot and those are... Why Dragon's Finishing throws exclusive to extreme heat mod??? Or why Agent's heavy attacks slower then a grandma crossing the road??? And lastly why the f... There is no speed upgrade??? That actually can improve the one-on-one combat you know.
Also new amon felt like more annoying version of Juzo from lost judgment ಠ_ಠ . What was I expecting anyway at least there is still an amon in this side game maybe I should be grateful.
Btw before I forget I want to talk about how crowded the expanded sotenbori in this game feels. I don't know if it's a pc thing but there are more npcs on the street like the older games and some of them even have unique animations. After the lost judgment's and y:lad's disappointing low number of npc count in Yokohama, this felt good and gave more of that alive world feeling.
If we look at everything again, like I said combat unfortunately felt like limited as Kaito because of the issues I told but even with this I still left the game with lots of enjoyment. After all they said it's just a little bit bigger then Kaito Files and because of that I didn't have big expectations and get what I expected.
But one thing I really can't accept and that is the fact that there is no new game plus... And NO! Premium adventure doesn't equal new game plus, it equals free-roam why the heck people think like that I really don't get it. This game have more long battles than lost judgment(hellll yesss). I just want to replay them with all of my abilities unlocked dammit!!!
Even with all of my complaints I still felt satisfied immensely. Especially because of the emotions this game gave... So only thing I can hope now is Like a Dragon 8 to be this good after all.
Edit: it didn't. It didn't even come close. Disrespect is real.
2008
Isaac do this! Isaac do that! Isaaccccc!!! The game.
Actually I wasn't planning to play this game before playing all resident evils but just to look up I hop in, enjoyed it's first hours a lot then decided to continue more and here I am after 8 hours later. So what did I think?...
At first I really enjoyed it's first hours where you are defenseless, everywhere feels alien and dangerous, every step feels like a death sentence. Maybe even more scary for me because beating horror games are rare thing for me.
However after the middle point where the game introduced it's %95 of it's enemy variants I started to lost this tense feeling. Not just that, game started to repeat it's room layouts. I mean they are colored differently with more different stuff thrown in inside and there are still some locations that is different to give it's setpiece like feeling but most of them? Felt too similar to each other. I felt like walking inside the 1000th grey corridor.
After the middle point nearing the end I started to hate it's formula as well. It repeated itself too much that I couldn't wait this game to finish. Solving the game's own horror formula felt like end to me yet for some damn reason game still keeps going and going.
You always go out from the train station, come into similar looking 500th hallway where there are 3 doors. A radio calls, says: "Isaac Oh My God in this section you need a XYZ thing! You need to get it NOW! Out". You go into one of the doors, find the thing, while you return, suddenly you hear "Lock Down initiated". Doors close, you kill the enemies, then go to the second door, use the key, return, then go the third etc. then return to the station to go another part of the ship, leave the station, go to hallway.... etc. etc. etc.
Game used this so much that it became mindnumbing to me. I felt like near the end my brain become a puddle of soup.
With that, For me even as early as the 4th hour, game's magic was already disappeared unfortunately. Even with the dismembering system, I already solved how to destroy majority of the enemy types more efficiently so even this good mechanic itself lost it's magic for me.
I mean there is one time it tried to do something interesting after the half point where a stalker character gets introduced but at that point I was already a walking bullet machine so... unfortunately even it wasn't enough to remove this tiring feeling for me.
Only time after the half point I was close to getting scared was, one time I spent all of my bullets because of my own insistency of not buying bullets, but rather than getting tense, I just loaded my save and go to market sell my things get more bullets and go there again to decimate all the enemies. That's it. It felt like going through the motions rather than feeling fun.
Because It was already lost it's magic it builded up to that point after all.
Actually I wasn't planning to play this game before playing all resident evils but just to look up I hop in, enjoyed it's first hours a lot then decided to continue more and here I am after 8 hours later. So what did I think?...
At first I really enjoyed it's first hours where you are defenseless, everywhere feels alien and dangerous, every step feels like a death sentence. Maybe even more scary for me because beating horror games are rare thing for me.
However after the middle point where the game introduced it's %95 of it's enemy variants I started to lost this tense feeling. Not just that, game started to repeat it's room layouts. I mean they are colored differently with more different stuff thrown in inside and there are still some locations that is different to give it's setpiece like feeling but most of them? Felt too similar to each other. I felt like walking inside the 1000th grey corridor.
After the middle point nearing the end I started to hate it's formula as well. It repeated itself too much that I couldn't wait this game to finish. Solving the game's own horror formula felt like end to me yet for some damn reason game still keeps going and going.
You always go out from the train station, come into similar looking 500th hallway where there are 3 doors. A radio calls, says: "Isaac Oh My God in this section you need a XYZ thing! You need to get it NOW! Out". You go into one of the doors, find the thing, while you return, suddenly you hear "Lock Down initiated". Doors close, you kill the enemies, then go to the second door, use the key, return, then go the third etc. then return to the station to go another part of the ship, leave the station, go to hallway.... etc. etc. etc.
Game used this so much that it became mindnumbing to me. I felt like near the end my brain become a puddle of soup.
With that, For me even as early as the 4th hour, game's magic was already disappeared unfortunately. Even with the dismembering system, I already solved how to destroy majority of the enemy types more efficiently so even this good mechanic itself lost it's magic for me.
I mean there is one time it tried to do something interesting after the half point where a stalker character gets introduced but at that point I was already a walking bullet machine so... unfortunately even it wasn't enough to remove this tiring feeling for me.
Only time after the half point I was close to getting scared was, one time I spent all of my bullets because of my own insistency of not buying bullets, but rather than getting tense, I just loaded my save and go to market sell my things get more bullets and go there again to decimate all the enemies. That's it. It felt like going through the motions rather than feeling fun.
Because It was already lost it's magic it builded up to that point after all.