iv1632
2007
A flawed, yet cathartic, gem.
I'll start by saying that I haven't watched Hard Boiled and am mainly familiar with John Woo through cultural osmosis and some movie clips, so I won't be commenting on how the story works as a sequel to Hard Boiled, but it doesn't have any returning characters asides from the lead if you care about that. Also not touching on the multiplayer cause it's dead.
This game is the result of a development studio working under a sinking publisher trying to translate the "gung fu" style popularized by director Woo, and previously partially represented in videogames by Max Payne, into an interactive spectacle. It's probably easy to say that this is a Max Payne rip-off, but with the little I've seen of the director's movies, I think this game was going to end up playing like this regardless of if Max Payne had done it first or not.
So what is this really like in practice? Well, there's some problems. A lot of the actions in this game, in terms of movement, are either automated or guided. You automatically vault over low height objects like tables, and things like jumping on rails or taking a zip line down only work when the game thinks you're in position and highlights the point at which the action starts, where you're supposed to press the jump button. Another thing that's automated is the slow motion Bullet Time, here named Tequila Time, which will automatically kick in during acrobatics or when aiming under cover as long as you have some Tequila juice filled in the bar.
The way I described those things may even sound really bad, but the interesthing thing about this game is that once the level design clicks in, it all works. Instead of always being a linear affair where you're pushing forward through small groups of enemies, often in corridors, like in Max Payne, Strangehold will throw you into combat arenas filled with cover, jumping points, usually two floors and many entries for dozens of enemies to ambush you. It's in these moments where you're improvising where to jump to, seeing your bullet time kick in, stacking up combos with kills as you take cover, jump and vault around where the game shines.
The developers worked on the engine to get some of the most impressive destructible environments you'll ever see. So many objects can be destroyed, enemies come at you from all angles, the walls get chipped away by bullets often losing you your cover and you must keep that murder momentum going to fill up your Tequila Powers to use Tequila Bombs. The Tequila Bombs are special abilities that require you to kill enemies to fill their bar, and they're all useful in some way. First you can heal, then you get to use a precision shot, followed by the ability to get 30 seconds of invulnerability paired with unlimited ammo, and finally, a sweeping circle shot move that kills every enemy in the area. In later levels, the game will be throwing you so many enemies that you will need these in nearly every fight to survive, and so keeping your meter up to have a reserve of powers at your disposal compliments the otherwise basic gunplay.
Unfortunately, this game falters in the pacing and variety department. We have what's called "standoffs" which are basically shooting QTEs where you stand in place and must dodge slow moving bullets making sure you hit the target. The standoffs are pretty clunky, and will often lose you health no matter what you do, luckily we barely have a few of them throughout the game. The other part where they drop the ball hard is in the second level, a linear affair where you must tick off objective targets to destroy to progress and it closes off with an overly long and mindless turret section. It creates a terrible impression of the game after the decent first level that actually had a cool combat arena, but luckily the game never falters like that again. It's just unfortunate that in trying to create variety, they simply kill the pace.
But all in all, this game is extremely cathartic. Played for 4 hours and 49 minutes to see the end, so it wasn't longer than it needed to be considering that shooting is all it has, and seeing my stats of how many people I killed and property damaged I caused in that time was great. After you finish up a fight, you leave behind an incredible trail of destruction as a result of all those bullets and explosions you used to survive. There's no other game quite like this that I know of, which is why I'm willing to overlook the flaws in favor of just taking it all in and enjoying it.
We need more like this, this is a great attempt at translating an action movie over to video-game form and another game that can work out the issues it had, led by a developer with more resources to work with, would simply be perfection under the right circumstances. The game is up for purchase on GOG and it's practically given away during sales, I really recommend checking it out if it looks cool to you at all.
I'll start by saying that I haven't watched Hard Boiled and am mainly familiar with John Woo through cultural osmosis and some movie clips, so I won't be commenting on how the story works as a sequel to Hard Boiled, but it doesn't have any returning characters asides from the lead if you care about that. Also not touching on the multiplayer cause it's dead.
This game is the result of a development studio working under a sinking publisher trying to translate the "gung fu" style popularized by director Woo, and previously partially represented in videogames by Max Payne, into an interactive spectacle. It's probably easy to say that this is a Max Payne rip-off, but with the little I've seen of the director's movies, I think this game was going to end up playing like this regardless of if Max Payne had done it first or not.
So what is this really like in practice? Well, there's some problems. A lot of the actions in this game, in terms of movement, are either automated or guided. You automatically vault over low height objects like tables, and things like jumping on rails or taking a zip line down only work when the game thinks you're in position and highlights the point at which the action starts, where you're supposed to press the jump button. Another thing that's automated is the slow motion Bullet Time, here named Tequila Time, which will automatically kick in during acrobatics or when aiming under cover as long as you have some Tequila juice filled in the bar.
The way I described those things may even sound really bad, but the interesthing thing about this game is that once the level design clicks in, it all works. Instead of always being a linear affair where you're pushing forward through small groups of enemies, often in corridors, like in Max Payne, Strangehold will throw you into combat arenas filled with cover, jumping points, usually two floors and many entries for dozens of enemies to ambush you. It's in these moments where you're improvising where to jump to, seeing your bullet time kick in, stacking up combos with kills as you take cover, jump and vault around where the game shines.
The developers worked on the engine to get some of the most impressive destructible environments you'll ever see. So many objects can be destroyed, enemies come at you from all angles, the walls get chipped away by bullets often losing you your cover and you must keep that murder momentum going to fill up your Tequila Powers to use Tequila Bombs. The Tequila Bombs are special abilities that require you to kill enemies to fill their bar, and they're all useful in some way. First you can heal, then you get to use a precision shot, followed by the ability to get 30 seconds of invulnerability paired with unlimited ammo, and finally, a sweeping circle shot move that kills every enemy in the area. In later levels, the game will be throwing you so many enemies that you will need these in nearly every fight to survive, and so keeping your meter up to have a reserve of powers at your disposal compliments the otherwise basic gunplay.
Unfortunately, this game falters in the pacing and variety department. We have what's called "standoffs" which are basically shooting QTEs where you stand in place and must dodge slow moving bullets making sure you hit the target. The standoffs are pretty clunky, and will often lose you health no matter what you do, luckily we barely have a few of them throughout the game. The other part where they drop the ball hard is in the second level, a linear affair where you must tick off objective targets to destroy to progress and it closes off with an overly long and mindless turret section. It creates a terrible impression of the game after the decent first level that actually had a cool combat arena, but luckily the game never falters like that again. It's just unfortunate that in trying to create variety, they simply kill the pace.
But all in all, this game is extremely cathartic. Played for 4 hours and 49 minutes to see the end, so it wasn't longer than it needed to be considering that shooting is all it has, and seeing my stats of how many people I killed and property damaged I caused in that time was great. After you finish up a fight, you leave behind an incredible trail of destruction as a result of all those bullets and explosions you used to survive. There's no other game quite like this that I know of, which is why I'm willing to overlook the flaws in favor of just taking it all in and enjoying it.
We need more like this, this is a great attempt at translating an action movie over to video-game form and another game that can work out the issues it had, led by a developer with more resources to work with, would simply be perfection under the right circumstances. The game is up for purchase on GOG and it's practically given away during sales, I really recommend checking it out if it looks cool to you at all.
Postal: Brain Damaged was a surprise for me. Being into Postal 2 and Paradise Lost mainly, I am still not very attracted by Postal 4 and when this got announced I thought it'd be a neat side game but not much else. As it turns out, it's simply amazing.
Color me surprised by how solid this is! The start of each episode is just a tiny bit slow, but once it picks up the game is some of the most fun I had with arena boomer whatever shooters in recent years. First level is too open imo, but all the rest are way more focused on the arena design.
The arsenal is really fun, all the guns have some use AND are just fun in and of themselves, even your basic shovel-chainsaw and not so smart pistol remain viable guns throughout the entire game. It's true, we have guns blatantly taken from other games, like the smart pistol from Titanfall and the SSG from Doom Eternal, but they are really well implemented here so they don't feel off at all (and with better thought than they'd have in Eternal!).
Speaking of the arsenal, I feel like explaining what the Pussy Launcher really is like as even I misunderstood it at first. It feels clunky when you first get it, but once you get how to get into the habit of shooting 3 times behind enemies and then pulling the projectile back towards them, it's basically an infinite ammo gun. I do think it's worthy of being your final gun, as proper use is extremely powerful, please don't overlook it.
This game also has HUGE enemy variety, each map up until around the last 3 introducing new enemies for you to fight. Many of them are variations of each other, but they're still distinct enough so that mixing them up in combat makes for a good balance. My favorites must be the silly asylum enemies, what with the lobotomized ones and gone rogue medical staff.
I guess I should talk about the humor. It's still a Postal game so it's not exactly particularly funny, and it's mostly interesting for the absurdity rather than humor. But I have to say, I don't get why people think this is darker than 2, in my view it simply has jokes and references that hit too close to recent times (mainly 2020-2021) and will age out like Postal 2 did eventually. The dream setting is great though, it allows the developers to blend in way more stupid things without it being inconsistent.
Corey Cruise does the main Postal Dude voice this time, and it's great to hear him be the main character in a good game. Rick Hunter is in here too, but his lines feel phoned in, similarly to 4, makes me wonder if he doesn't like being the Dude anymore.
My only problem with the game was the kinda slow start to each episode, but nothing can be a high forever, and the fact that I encountered a rare save bug that prevented saves from being created until you restart the game. This happened twice and I only found 2 other reports of this so I doubt it's common, but my preemptive measure was simply not letting the game run for more than ~20 minutes or at least rebooting it after each level. I doubt most people will encounter this though, or at least I hope. It lost me around 40 minutes of progress, but at least the gameplay is solid enough to not let that be too frustrating.
Overall this was a fun surprise, it's simply a well designed and engaging shooter with a crazy theme. Personally it's my favorite Postal game now and I highly doubt 4 will take that place whenever I get around to it. It's definitely the most functional Postal game despite that bug I encountered as it at least never crashed or dropped in performance by 105% for no reason, not to mention that it's a more traditional kind of game so it's definitely going to be appealing even to those that hate the usual Postal brand. I recommend this game to any FPS game player that doesn't mind edgy jokes that are already aging in relevancy, really, it's just good.
Color me surprised by how solid this is! The start of each episode is just a tiny bit slow, but once it picks up the game is some of the most fun I had with arena boomer whatever shooters in recent years. First level is too open imo, but all the rest are way more focused on the arena design.
The arsenal is really fun, all the guns have some use AND are just fun in and of themselves, even your basic shovel-chainsaw and not so smart pistol remain viable guns throughout the entire game. It's true, we have guns blatantly taken from other games, like the smart pistol from Titanfall and the SSG from Doom Eternal, but they are really well implemented here so they don't feel off at all (and with better thought than they'd have in Eternal!).
Speaking of the arsenal, I feel like explaining what the Pussy Launcher really is like as even I misunderstood it at first. It feels clunky when you first get it, but once you get how to get into the habit of shooting 3 times behind enemies and then pulling the projectile back towards them, it's basically an infinite ammo gun. I do think it's worthy of being your final gun, as proper use is extremely powerful, please don't overlook it.
This game also has HUGE enemy variety, each map up until around the last 3 introducing new enemies for you to fight. Many of them are variations of each other, but they're still distinct enough so that mixing them up in combat makes for a good balance. My favorites must be the silly asylum enemies, what with the lobotomized ones and gone rogue medical staff.
I guess I should talk about the humor. It's still a Postal game so it's not exactly particularly funny, and it's mostly interesting for the absurdity rather than humor. But I have to say, I don't get why people think this is darker than 2, in my view it simply has jokes and references that hit too close to recent times (mainly 2020-2021) and will age out like Postal 2 did eventually. The dream setting is great though, it allows the developers to blend in way more stupid things without it being inconsistent.
Corey Cruise does the main Postal Dude voice this time, and it's great to hear him be the main character in a good game. Rick Hunter is in here too, but his lines feel phoned in, similarly to 4, makes me wonder if he doesn't like being the Dude anymore.
My only problem with the game was the kinda slow start to each episode, but nothing can be a high forever, and the fact that I encountered a rare save bug that prevented saves from being created until you restart the game. This happened twice and I only found 2 other reports of this so I doubt it's common, but my preemptive measure was simply not letting the game run for more than ~20 minutes or at least rebooting it after each level. I doubt most people will encounter this though, or at least I hope. It lost me around 40 minutes of progress, but at least the gameplay is solid enough to not let that be too frustrating.
Overall this was a fun surprise, it's simply a well designed and engaging shooter with a crazy theme. Personally it's my favorite Postal game now and I highly doubt 4 will take that place whenever I get around to it. It's definitely the most functional Postal game despite that bug I encountered as it at least never crashed or dropped in performance by 105% for no reason, not to mention that it's a more traditional kind of game so it's definitely going to be appealing even to those that hate the usual Postal brand. I recommend this game to any FPS game player that doesn't mind edgy jokes that are already aging in relevancy, really, it's just good.
It's good, actually.
I'm someone that got really disappointed, frustrated and baffled with Wolfenstein II, and even though this game is still not what I wanted, I was able to really enjoy it for what it is.
Playing with my bestie, and even doing some offline play, there was a good amount of fun to be had. The level design was handled by Arkane and as such we have very open ended, but not outright open world, levels, with lots of shortcuts, items to find and different encounters to get into.
Most of the game will be spent doing side content instead of the 5 story missions at hand, but I really didn't mind cause that's where the strenght is this time instead of the story. The gunplay is nearly identical to Wolfenstein II except now placed in levels that aren't frustratingly small or unfair, and while you can't dual wield as many guns, the upgrade system (which isn't actually grindy) can make any gun very reliable, especially the machinepistol and shotgun, so that it isn't missed at all.
The RPG mechanics in this game aren't actually that deep. Some enemies will not scale to your level from below so you need to get some level ups before getting to certain encounters, but you always have the option of finding an alternative route or taking them down with some more challenge. Leveling up actually doesn't take much effort, and even just running around shooting anything will net you some good XP. The guns are upgraded with currency you find or get from completing missions and you get more than enough to have a decent arsenal in the first couple of hours. What's most important is getting your skill points and weapon upgrade coins spent, you don't even have to think too much about it, just look at what you like and get it. As long as you actually upgrade whatever, enemies will not become bullet sponges and the game actually remains fairly balanced.
Something very worth noting is that everything scales for each player independently, both on their level and difficulty setting, so asides from those few encounters with enemies that have set levels, playing with someone that's not on your same level will not drag you down, this feature is actually extremely well implemented and I'm surprised it's never mentioned.
The big thing where this game fails in comparison to other Wolfenstein games as of late is story, but really not due to "cringy" protagonists (I really thought they were fine, and way less annoying than any real teenager I'm likely to find), but simply due to it being a very straightforward and short plot. That's really my only big complaint, the story could have been better, but it's not nearly as terrible as Wolfenstein II's (seriously, THAT should be your example of tone inconsistency making things hard to take seriously).
I guess I should mention the microtransactions too, and I'll just say, they're so easy to forget while you're just playing and are never in your face. Very few select items are tied to it, none of them relevant to progression. CAPCOM has been doing way worse on their singeplayer games for years, so if they can do that I just find this case very inoffensive.
I quite enjoyed playing this, both with a friend and alone, and certainly think it's worth at least a run on especially with how cheap it usually goes for on sales now. I think people are too harsh on it because it's not Wolfenstein III, but it's at least way more consistent than II with decent level design, an actual final boss, and characters that aren't pissing on New Order with their writing. I actually hope Wolfenstein III adopts the more open ended design and considers a lighter tone like found here if they're still gonna go with what II was doing. Either way, please chill, this game wasn't made to replace Wolfenstein III and it's not the future of the series like many wanted to assume it was just to be angrier at it.
I'm someone that got really disappointed, frustrated and baffled with Wolfenstein II, and even though this game is still not what I wanted, I was able to really enjoy it for what it is.
Playing with my bestie, and even doing some offline play, there was a good amount of fun to be had. The level design was handled by Arkane and as such we have very open ended, but not outright open world, levels, with lots of shortcuts, items to find and different encounters to get into.
Most of the game will be spent doing side content instead of the 5 story missions at hand, but I really didn't mind cause that's where the strenght is this time instead of the story. The gunplay is nearly identical to Wolfenstein II except now placed in levels that aren't frustratingly small or unfair, and while you can't dual wield as many guns, the upgrade system (which isn't actually grindy) can make any gun very reliable, especially the machinepistol and shotgun, so that it isn't missed at all.
The RPG mechanics in this game aren't actually that deep. Some enemies will not scale to your level from below so you need to get some level ups before getting to certain encounters, but you always have the option of finding an alternative route or taking them down with some more challenge. Leveling up actually doesn't take much effort, and even just running around shooting anything will net you some good XP. The guns are upgraded with currency you find or get from completing missions and you get more than enough to have a decent arsenal in the first couple of hours. What's most important is getting your skill points and weapon upgrade coins spent, you don't even have to think too much about it, just look at what you like and get it. As long as you actually upgrade whatever, enemies will not become bullet sponges and the game actually remains fairly balanced.
Something very worth noting is that everything scales for each player independently, both on their level and difficulty setting, so asides from those few encounters with enemies that have set levels, playing with someone that's not on your same level will not drag you down, this feature is actually extremely well implemented and I'm surprised it's never mentioned.
The big thing where this game fails in comparison to other Wolfenstein games as of late is story, but really not due to "cringy" protagonists (I really thought they were fine, and way less annoying than any real teenager I'm likely to find), but simply due to it being a very straightforward and short plot. That's really my only big complaint, the story could have been better, but it's not nearly as terrible as Wolfenstein II's (seriously, THAT should be your example of tone inconsistency making things hard to take seriously).
I guess I should mention the microtransactions too, and I'll just say, they're so easy to forget while you're just playing and are never in your face. Very few select items are tied to it, none of them relevant to progression. CAPCOM has been doing way worse on their singeplayer games for years, so if they can do that I just find this case very inoffensive.
I quite enjoyed playing this, both with a friend and alone, and certainly think it's worth at least a run on especially with how cheap it usually goes for on sales now. I think people are too harsh on it because it's not Wolfenstein III, but it's at least way more consistent than II with decent level design, an actual final boss, and characters that aren't pissing on New Order with their writing. I actually hope Wolfenstein III adopts the more open ended design and considers a lighter tone like found here if they're still gonna go with what II was doing. Either way, please chill, this game wasn't made to replace Wolfenstein III and it's not the future of the series like many wanted to assume it was just to be angrier at it.
2023
Another case similar to REKKR, not in that these games are very similar, but in that both fill the same niche. They both feel like something that could have come out back in the day, Zortch feeling like something you could get right in the middle of the year 2000 and see it turn into a cult classic, with smooth gameplay and a silly story and setting.
This game is impressive to me in so many ways, the custom engine in use here has wonderful vertex lighting, funky early 2000s physics and extremely smooth movement. The developer has focused a lot on optimizing this engine for as many systems as possible, and can apparently run on single core CPUs. If you have issues with it, report it, they seem to get to work on it really fast.
Another impressive aspect is the enemies, there's so many of them for a game that's of this sort and it still has more enemies than DOOM as well. They're also so mobile, a lot of them can jump around (or fly) so fast and with such precision that they can really flank you and surprise you. I had a lot of fun engaging in the encounters in the hard difficulty, I recommend jumping straight to it if you're already familiar with this kind of game, which you most likely are if you're looking into playing this one.
The levels aren't too long, having 20 of them and they're usually ~15 minutes and boss levels are only up to ~5 minutes long, while they can be confusing and there's no map system, if you look closely there's signposting to follow and you shouldn't remain lost for long. This game is pretty good at pacing and not overstaying its welcome.
Only thing I found kinda questionable at first was the sprinting being very modern, but later on I realized that if it was like DOOM where you can shoot while running you'd just be too unstoppable, so I understood why this decision to lock your weapons was made.
This game feels really authentic beyond its aesthetic and is clearly the product of passion. It's an impressive showcase of how to create something that feels just like a lost gem from the past without falling into the same issues that a lot of the games from the time had, and also it's so cheap that it's hard to say no to it. Please buy it, it's great.
This game is impressive to me in so many ways, the custom engine in use here has wonderful vertex lighting, funky early 2000s physics and extremely smooth movement. The developer has focused a lot on optimizing this engine for as many systems as possible, and can apparently run on single core CPUs. If you have issues with it, report it, they seem to get to work on it really fast.
Another impressive aspect is the enemies, there's so many of them for a game that's of this sort and it still has more enemies than DOOM as well. They're also so mobile, a lot of them can jump around (or fly) so fast and with such precision that they can really flank you and surprise you. I had a lot of fun engaging in the encounters in the hard difficulty, I recommend jumping straight to it if you're already familiar with this kind of game, which you most likely are if you're looking into playing this one.
The levels aren't too long, having 20 of them and they're usually ~15 minutes and boss levels are only up to ~5 minutes long, while they can be confusing and there's no map system, if you look closely there's signposting to follow and you shouldn't remain lost for long. This game is pretty good at pacing and not overstaying its welcome.
Only thing I found kinda questionable at first was the sprinting being very modern, but later on I realized that if it was like DOOM where you can shoot while running you'd just be too unstoppable, so I understood why this decision to lock your weapons was made.
This game feels really authentic beyond its aesthetic and is clearly the product of passion. It's an impressive showcase of how to create something that feels just like a lost gem from the past without falling into the same issues that a lot of the games from the time had, and also it's so cheap that it's hard to say no to it. Please buy it, it's great.
2020
I dropped the game with like maybe half an hour of playtime left. It's not a terrible and unplayable game, but it is so incredibly boring. What we have here is a less interesting RE2Remake where they tried to make it more action oriented by throwing more ammo your way and giving you a barely noticeable dodge move, but not anything much beyond that so it's just kinda clunky.
There's like 3 puzzles which are barely even puzzles, the level design is aggressively linear, the music barely exists, no enemy is more than a minor 10 second inconvenience, the story was really unengaging and Nemesis is scripted 90% of the time which really makes him infinitely inferior to Mr X. I actually mind that it's TOO LONG for how boring to play through it is, what a way to drop the ball. Only positive I found was that the atmosphere in the city is really well done, but once out of the first area no eye candy would distract me anymore.
There's like 3 puzzles which are barely even puzzles, the level design is aggressively linear, the music barely exists, no enemy is more than a minor 10 second inconvenience, the story was really unengaging and Nemesis is scripted 90% of the time which really makes him infinitely inferior to Mr X. I actually mind that it's TOO LONG for how boring to play through it is, what a way to drop the ball. Only positive I found was that the atmosphere in the city is really well done, but once out of the first area no eye candy would distract me anymore.
2020
Not much to say, this game is very much what you see is what you get. Yeah it borrows a lot from DOOM and others, but the good level design and satisfying guns make for a great time. There's even an included level editor and browser, so you can play lots of high quality community creations as well.
A couple major issues: the checkpoint system is too forgiving, you simply respawn without really losing anything, so I recommend playing on hard or even very hard so enemies can actually cause an inconvenience (You can switch difficulty anytime). Final few levels drag on, and theres no ending, it just teases the DLC while also having a really lame boss fight.
Despite a couple problems though this game was a really good time, not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, just being really good at rolling can be enough to be worth the time.
A couple major issues: the checkpoint system is too forgiving, you simply respawn without really losing anything, so I recommend playing on hard or even very hard so enemies can actually cause an inconvenience (You can switch difficulty anytime). Final few levels drag on, and theres no ending, it just teases the DLC while also having a really lame boss fight.
Despite a couple problems though this game was a really good time, not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, just being really good at rolling can be enough to be worth the time.
I am very underwhelmed.
This is a difficult game for me to rate cause I have to ask myself, what did I really get from it? No doubt this game has the most polished combat and stealth mechanics in the series, not to mention superb visuals (kinda, there's problems) but so many things get in the way of the good parts.
1. The Batmobile: Not a bad idea in concept, but it doesn't control all that resposively which would be fine if this was a racing sim but it's not that kind of game. Turning this thing is a complete bitch and maintaining speed is nearly impossible without upgrades, upgrades that I would prefer to spend on the fun aspects like combat and gadgets instead. I could never have too much fun while playing through the game cause soon after some nice combat or stealth it'd force me on the batmobile for a few minutes. Batmobile combat also kinda sucks, you simply dodge heavily delayed projectiles as your guns nearly instantly take down the enemy drones and I would always play these sections mindlessly bored, not giving it much thought, and still win.
2. The visual design: On a technical level this game is graphically amazing, definitely too much for the hardware of the time but it has aged well. At first I was put off by the typical cliche of making things wet to make them shinier but that's not actually the whole game. Some problems still remain like Bruce Wayne looking horrendously out of placed compared to other characters for some reason (Origins had a good Bruce, what gives?). But I found some bigger issues in the visual departmet: character design in general is really hit and miss. Most of it is fine, but what's up with Batman's new suit and Batmobile being really noisy? What's up with Robin looking so stupid? What's up with returning characters sporting their look from Arkham Origins despite it making no sense timeline wise? That last thing simply reminded me that I had way more fun playing Origins. Also the character skins for Batman mostly suck, even the decent ones like the Origins suit have problems like the colors or general design being off for some reason, and then there's abominations like the Beyond suit.
3. The story and game structure: This game has no focus and the main story is just... so strangely melodramatic except when it isn't. The whole deal with the Arkham Knight being an original character is a lie, it centers around a character that never had presence on this series but they assume you know cause he's part of the Batman mythos, and his introduction is handled so poorly, as well as him being little more than an angsty teen in writing which I'm not sure they really intended? Batman generally acts without care for his allies despite him being in the process of dying or losing his mind, choosing to be mean to them knowing he won't be able to keep seeing them soon. Returning villains have really underwhelming captures and there's only like 1 or 2 new ones (I am unsure wether to count 2 or not). The worst thing though is how it all is structured, the situation of the city is extremely urgent but Batman also has like 50 hours to do side tasks in a single night, most of that being busywork of fighting militia underlings and riddler challenges that make no sense (Did anyone tell him that driving fast is not a riddle?).
This is a really ranty review but the game itself felt ranty, I felt like I was looking at people trying to write a desperate Batman and accidentally just writing the most annoying one possible. Combined with the good parts of the gameplay constantly being interrupted, I just can't fathom wanting to replay this and I'm also left really unsatisfied. I wish I could like this more, but those problems are really felt throughout despite the good parts being the best in the series.
This is a difficult game for me to rate cause I have to ask myself, what did I really get from it? No doubt this game has the most polished combat and stealth mechanics in the series, not to mention superb visuals (kinda, there's problems) but so many things get in the way of the good parts.
1. The Batmobile: Not a bad idea in concept, but it doesn't control all that resposively which would be fine if this was a racing sim but it's not that kind of game. Turning this thing is a complete bitch and maintaining speed is nearly impossible without upgrades, upgrades that I would prefer to spend on the fun aspects like combat and gadgets instead. I could never have too much fun while playing through the game cause soon after some nice combat or stealth it'd force me on the batmobile for a few minutes. Batmobile combat also kinda sucks, you simply dodge heavily delayed projectiles as your guns nearly instantly take down the enemy drones and I would always play these sections mindlessly bored, not giving it much thought, and still win.
2. The visual design: On a technical level this game is graphically amazing, definitely too much for the hardware of the time but it has aged well. At first I was put off by the typical cliche of making things wet to make them shinier but that's not actually the whole game. Some problems still remain like Bruce Wayne looking horrendously out of placed compared to other characters for some reason (Origins had a good Bruce, what gives?). But I found some bigger issues in the visual departmet: character design in general is really hit and miss. Most of it is fine, but what's up with Batman's new suit and Batmobile being really noisy? What's up with Robin looking so stupid? What's up with returning characters sporting their look from Arkham Origins despite it making no sense timeline wise? That last thing simply reminded me that I had way more fun playing Origins. Also the character skins for Batman mostly suck, even the decent ones like the Origins suit have problems like the colors or general design being off for some reason, and then there's abominations like the Beyond suit.
3. The story and game structure: This game has no focus and the main story is just... so strangely melodramatic except when it isn't. The whole deal with the Arkham Knight being an original character is a lie, it centers around a character that never had presence on this series but they assume you know cause he's part of the Batman mythos, and his introduction is handled so poorly, as well as him being little more than an angsty teen in writing which I'm not sure they really intended? Batman generally acts without care for his allies despite him being in the process of dying or losing his mind, choosing to be mean to them knowing he won't be able to keep seeing them soon. Returning villains have really underwhelming captures and there's only like 1 or 2 new ones (I am unsure wether to count 2 or not). The worst thing though is how it all is structured, the situation of the city is extremely urgent but Batman also has like 50 hours to do side tasks in a single night, most of that being busywork of fighting militia underlings and riddler challenges that make no sense (Did anyone tell him that driving fast is not a riddle?).
This is a really ranty review but the game itself felt ranty, I felt like I was looking at people trying to write a desperate Batman and accidentally just writing the most annoying one possible. Combined with the good parts of the gameplay constantly being interrupted, I just can't fathom wanting to replay this and I'm also left really unsatisfied. I wish I could like this more, but those problems are really felt throughout despite the good parts being the best in the series.
I am surprised at how enjoyable this game was for me. I had ignored it for a long time, thinking it was probably a pretty half assed crossover for the sake of brand recognition, going by what I had heard of it before. Definitely ran into a case of needing to form my own opinion. I am someone that's only barely into Layton games, as I only played Curious Village, but it still entertained me a lot.
From what I understand this is the first time either franchise went 3D, and with that in mind they did a good job, especially considering the art style had to account for both of them. Animated 3D models like what we find in the future Ace Attorney games but with drawn on 2D details that are more in the style of Layton games, with great backgrounds and courtroom design.
The music is great, compositions that remix and resemble older tracks from both franchises but in the fantasy theme, as well as totally new ones. It always fits and is a joy to listen to while going through the story.
I guess I should say, I didn't mind Phoenix and Maya being the dumber ones cause... they really are. The Professor and Luke drive a lot of the investigation, true, but Phoenix and Maya have a drive to the truth on their own which is what leads to their contribution. The title of "VS" is pretty misleading as it's largely a story about them working together, but I really enjoyed their dynamic. I appreciate how the fantasy elements are incorporated in a pretty natural way, and the resolution was surprisingly intense, I do think that this ranks as one of the top 3 stories in the Ace Attorney franchise on the 3DS alongside the GAA duology.
Gameplaywise we find a good balance of both franchises mixing, as the investigation parts are "Layton" sections where asides from gathering clues you solve puzzles to progress, and then we get to the courtrooms which are all just Ace Attorney gameplay. There's only 4 trials in the game, but they are really good and introduce new mechanics in the multiple witnesses interrogations that would influence the GAA games.
Sadly it's in the puzzle solving where the game has its big flaw, the puzzles are too simple and often easy. Even as someone that's not deep into Layton games I can feel how this aspect is underwhelming, especially when you can't fail like half the puzzles, including the final one that closes the game. Nevertheless, at least they never annoyed me, but their simple design keeps this game from being great at representing the Layton side.
All in all though I found this really enjoyable, many great moments in the story and fun to be had with the characters. It is also interesting how it clearly influenced Shu Takumi while making The Great Ace Attorney, and makes me wonder if it also influenced future Layton games. Either way, I really recommend going into this one with an open mind.
From what I understand this is the first time either franchise went 3D, and with that in mind they did a good job, especially considering the art style had to account for both of them. Animated 3D models like what we find in the future Ace Attorney games but with drawn on 2D details that are more in the style of Layton games, with great backgrounds and courtroom design.
The music is great, compositions that remix and resemble older tracks from both franchises but in the fantasy theme, as well as totally new ones. It always fits and is a joy to listen to while going through the story.
I guess I should say, I didn't mind Phoenix and Maya being the dumber ones cause... they really are. The Professor and Luke drive a lot of the investigation, true, but Phoenix and Maya have a drive to the truth on their own which is what leads to their contribution. The title of "VS" is pretty misleading as it's largely a story about them working together, but I really enjoyed their dynamic. I appreciate how the fantasy elements are incorporated in a pretty natural way, and the resolution was surprisingly intense, I do think that this ranks as one of the top 3 stories in the Ace Attorney franchise on the 3DS alongside the GAA duology.
Gameplaywise we find a good balance of both franchises mixing, as the investigation parts are "Layton" sections where asides from gathering clues you solve puzzles to progress, and then we get to the courtrooms which are all just Ace Attorney gameplay. There's only 4 trials in the game, but they are really good and introduce new mechanics in the multiple witnesses interrogations that would influence the GAA games.
Sadly it's in the puzzle solving where the game has its big flaw, the puzzles are too simple and often easy. Even as someone that's not deep into Layton games I can feel how this aspect is underwhelming, especially when you can't fail like half the puzzles, including the final one that closes the game. Nevertheless, at least they never annoyed me, but their simple design keeps this game from being great at representing the Layton side.
All in all though I found this really enjoyable, many great moments in the story and fun to be had with the characters. It is also interesting how it clearly influenced Shu Takumi while making The Great Ace Attorney, and makes me wonder if it also influenced future Layton games. Either way, I really recommend going into this one with an open mind.
2011
Blandest game id software has done
2012
This review contains spoilers
Honestly? It's ok and fun.
First off let me say, yes the art style in this game has a lot of questionable changes and is a bit over the top on bloom and vfx, but damn I'd be lying if I said it looks bad. This game is beautiful and it feels like it was an entire generation ahead visually. I honestly can't complain about this when it still looks like Halo, albeit a little washed out and less silly, and is very pretty while at it. I'll take this style over Reach's any day.
Gameplaywise this game feels like what Reach would be like had it been a sequel and got more polish time. Armor Abilities are more balanced, sprinting is always on by default (I prefer this to it being the default armor ability) and we get to fight the covenant again (Miss the Brutes though) alongside the new Prometheans.
The Prometheans are not annoying to me at all with the exception of the final level where they're the only thing present, and also probably thanks to only playing Normal and Heroic instead of going Legendary, a difficulty that I find will ruin the fun of any Halo game for me anyway.
I honestly don't see what makes this game a CoD clone when Reach apparently isn't? Is it the like 3 set piece sections at the beginning, middle and end of the game? Is it the sprinting? The bloom mechanic doesn't feel nearly as prominent and the tone of the characters doesn't make me think I'm playing a tacticool aesthetic game anymore.
The music is ok, but it's like movie music, mostly there to fit the scene and nothing else. I honestly can't remember any track off the top of my head, something disappointing for a Halo game.
Now the story isn't great... not awful, but not great. The relationship between Chief and Cortana explored here is pretty good! But it's very forced by the fact that Chief pretty much completely changes personality immediately, and despite the game starting with a cutscene about how he's a broken human with no emotion, the game doesn't explore this outside of 2 cutscenes at all, as he's the most expressive he's ever been. He clearly had his own thoughts in the previous games too, but he never opened up as much as he did here and there is no arc of him overcoming any sort of conditioning or whatever, which makes this feel like it skipped a chapter.
(Spoilers for up to Halo 3 that you hopefully already know) What I really don't like though, and the only thing I would have removed from the game in some fantasy world where I owned Halo for some reason, is the Forerunner lore. Teased since CEA, 4 abandons the original theme of Forerunners being ancient humans and replaces it for a contrived story where the Forerunners were some highly advanced alien race that got in a misunderstanding with the humans.
Humans discovered the flood and hunted it down on various planets, needing to glass them to halt the infection, eventually doing this to forerunner planets as well. They naturally never take the chance to explain to the forerunners what they're doing, and end up in a war where all human leaders (or maybe all current humans at the time?) are killed and then we're forced to regress to a primitive stage as a species by the Librarian. The Didact is really obsessed with getting revenge on the humans though, so he turns them all into Promethean Knights to fight the flood, but the Librarian gains empathy for humans after discovering they were helping stop the flood, so she pushes to have the Didact imprisoned until humans revive after the rings are fired, and he's forced to repent by helping them progress.
I gave a big summary of what happened for one reason: to say it's really stupid. It abandons a cool theme of humans unknowingly dealing with their past mistakes, legacy lost in translation, ironically being in a war with the Covenant which considers their ancestors Gods, and eventually making things right by stopping the flood without sacrificing all life, for something that just feels very contrived and which only justifies the Didact as a villain. The Didact is a very weak villain, his entire philosophy being that humans are stupid (to be fair, they could have spoken up about the flood anytime so the forerunners knew what they were doing) and must be punished, while the Librarian was stupid enough to think he would be the best candidate to lead humanity into their future after becoming technologically advanced again. The whole mantle of responsibility story is generic sci-fi tropes replacing a simple, but effective, mystery with interesting implications.
ALL THAT SAID, I enjoy this game. The gameplay is a nice middle ground between Reach and the rest of the series and, if I ignore all the Forerunner stuff, the story is still decent as a sequel despite the flaws. Sadly, I know it was all for the worst in the sequels, but this game itself is fine and I don't understand why it's considered a CoD clone at all. I guess the multiplayer is a thing, but with MCC matchmaking sucking I can't really pay much attention to it, and ultimately all the bad ideas here are mostly holdovers from Reach. For me personally though, I think Halo is most memorable for its singleplayer.
First off let me say, yes the art style in this game has a lot of questionable changes and is a bit over the top on bloom and vfx, but damn I'd be lying if I said it looks bad. This game is beautiful and it feels like it was an entire generation ahead visually. I honestly can't complain about this when it still looks like Halo, albeit a little washed out and less silly, and is very pretty while at it. I'll take this style over Reach's any day.
Gameplaywise this game feels like what Reach would be like had it been a sequel and got more polish time. Armor Abilities are more balanced, sprinting is always on by default (I prefer this to it being the default armor ability) and we get to fight the covenant again (Miss the Brutes though) alongside the new Prometheans.
The Prometheans are not annoying to me at all with the exception of the final level where they're the only thing present, and also probably thanks to only playing Normal and Heroic instead of going Legendary, a difficulty that I find will ruin the fun of any Halo game for me anyway.
I honestly don't see what makes this game a CoD clone when Reach apparently isn't? Is it the like 3 set piece sections at the beginning, middle and end of the game? Is it the sprinting? The bloom mechanic doesn't feel nearly as prominent and the tone of the characters doesn't make me think I'm playing a tacticool aesthetic game anymore.
The music is ok, but it's like movie music, mostly there to fit the scene and nothing else. I honestly can't remember any track off the top of my head, something disappointing for a Halo game.
Now the story isn't great... not awful, but not great. The relationship between Chief and Cortana explored here is pretty good! But it's very forced by the fact that Chief pretty much completely changes personality immediately, and despite the game starting with a cutscene about how he's a broken human with no emotion, the game doesn't explore this outside of 2 cutscenes at all, as he's the most expressive he's ever been. He clearly had his own thoughts in the previous games too, but he never opened up as much as he did here and there is no arc of him overcoming any sort of conditioning or whatever, which makes this feel like it skipped a chapter.
(Spoilers for up to Halo 3 that you hopefully already know) What I really don't like though, and the only thing I would have removed from the game in some fantasy world where I owned Halo for some reason, is the Forerunner lore. Teased since CEA, 4 abandons the original theme of Forerunners being ancient humans and replaces it for a contrived story where the Forerunners were some highly advanced alien race that got in a misunderstanding with the humans.
Humans discovered the flood and hunted it down on various planets, needing to glass them to halt the infection, eventually doing this to forerunner planets as well. They naturally never take the chance to explain to the forerunners what they're doing, and end up in a war where all human leaders (or maybe all current humans at the time?) are killed and then we're forced to regress to a primitive stage as a species by the Librarian. The Didact is really obsessed with getting revenge on the humans though, so he turns them all into Promethean Knights to fight the flood, but the Librarian gains empathy for humans after discovering they were helping stop the flood, so she pushes to have the Didact imprisoned until humans revive after the rings are fired, and he's forced to repent by helping them progress.
I gave a big summary of what happened for one reason: to say it's really stupid. It abandons a cool theme of humans unknowingly dealing with their past mistakes, legacy lost in translation, ironically being in a war with the Covenant which considers their ancestors Gods, and eventually making things right by stopping the flood without sacrificing all life, for something that just feels very contrived and which only justifies the Didact as a villain. The Didact is a very weak villain, his entire philosophy being that humans are stupid (to be fair, they could have spoken up about the flood anytime so the forerunners knew what they were doing) and must be punished, while the Librarian was stupid enough to think he would be the best candidate to lead humanity into their future after becoming technologically advanced again. The whole mantle of responsibility story is generic sci-fi tropes replacing a simple, but effective, mystery with interesting implications.
ALL THAT SAID, I enjoy this game. The gameplay is a nice middle ground between Reach and the rest of the series and, if I ignore all the Forerunner stuff, the story is still decent as a sequel despite the flaws. Sadly, I know it was all for the worst in the sequels, but this game itself is fine and I don't understand why it's considered a CoD clone at all. I guess the multiplayer is a thing, but with MCC matchmaking sucking I can't really pay much attention to it, and ultimately all the bad ideas here are mostly holdovers from Reach. For me personally though, I think Halo is most memorable for its singleplayer.
2010
I WANT to like this more, I really do, but it just somehow stays way below the "great game" line for me.
First I guess I should get the story out of the way, except for the final part, I was not at all into it. The tone and pacing of the general game and story made me feel like I was playing a sci-fi Call of Duty with dull characters that all fall into a generic soldier archetype. Half of the Noble team is barely present, and the ones that are, are extremely one dimensional characters even for this series. Noble Six himself is barely a character as well, but for some reason instead of going the Rookie from ODST route (silent protagonist), they decided he should be a diet Master Chief. Whenever Six tries to be quippy or something, it falls flat, as he lacks any charisma or character outside of a very small amount of lore. Everyone in this game is a rough soldier type and the tone is just about the tacticool aesthetic, which feels so far removed from the personality of this series.
As for the gameplay, most of the levels felt fairly repetitive and bland to me, with the soundtrack rarely matching the mood as well. Gunplay is more military shooter-ish, really just missing aim down sights, and we have sprinting now. Sure, sprinting isn't an innate mechanic and it's part of the Spartan Abilities, but only Sprinting and Jetpack are versatile and actually worth using. Active camo doesn't help much in these cramped levels, hologram rarely comes in handy, drop shield nearly locks you into a small area, and armor lock completely locks you to where you are. Armor lock in particular is really annoying as even in campaign enemies can use it, and all it does is make you wait until it turns off to keep fighting.
Recruiting marines is a cool concept but it all happens automatically when you get near them so it doesn't actually feel like you're recruiting them, they feel even more useless anyway as they rarely hit their target. Vehicle driving feels way heavier and harder to control, the only decent vehicles are flyable and you only get them in a couple missions.
But now to what saved the game for me: the final mission. Despite not caring at all for the characters, it IS where the game is the most thematically strong, with music that fits the mood and scale of the conflict, and a very well executed ending for what happened, not to mention the mission itself is just very fun. Gets some large scale fights with lots of weapons to scavenge and rush in with or try to sneak by, and the final fight you get is a pretty interesting introduction to firefight mode. I probably don't really need to explain what these elements are in detail, because anyone familiar with the game will know even if not played, something that sadly does take the magic away a bit.
I should also mention that while previously 3 ODST was the MCC port that gave me most issues, this one takes the cake. Asides from stutters, cutscenes have broken lighting and completely out of sync audio often cutting off dialogue or delaying sound effects by several seconds, unfortunately unlikely that these things will get a fix as MCC developers are no longer working on it and the game seems to be in just "let's just keep it online" mode (Thanks Xbox!).
But really asides from the ending, I don't really see what makes this game so acclaimed? I feel like I might be going insane, but with Halo 3 and CE existing I can't help but feel like this game is a regression in the formula, like it is a prequel gone too far. I understand the tone needed some adjustment for the story at play here, but it just seems like it loses focus and turns it into a fairly generic and average experience.
First I guess I should get the story out of the way, except for the final part, I was not at all into it. The tone and pacing of the general game and story made me feel like I was playing a sci-fi Call of Duty with dull characters that all fall into a generic soldier archetype. Half of the Noble team is barely present, and the ones that are, are extremely one dimensional characters even for this series. Noble Six himself is barely a character as well, but for some reason instead of going the Rookie from ODST route (silent protagonist), they decided he should be a diet Master Chief. Whenever Six tries to be quippy or something, it falls flat, as he lacks any charisma or character outside of a very small amount of lore. Everyone in this game is a rough soldier type and the tone is just about the tacticool aesthetic, which feels so far removed from the personality of this series.
As for the gameplay, most of the levels felt fairly repetitive and bland to me, with the soundtrack rarely matching the mood as well. Gunplay is more military shooter-ish, really just missing aim down sights, and we have sprinting now. Sure, sprinting isn't an innate mechanic and it's part of the Spartan Abilities, but only Sprinting and Jetpack are versatile and actually worth using. Active camo doesn't help much in these cramped levels, hologram rarely comes in handy, drop shield nearly locks you into a small area, and armor lock completely locks you to where you are. Armor lock in particular is really annoying as even in campaign enemies can use it, and all it does is make you wait until it turns off to keep fighting.
Recruiting marines is a cool concept but it all happens automatically when you get near them so it doesn't actually feel like you're recruiting them, they feel even more useless anyway as they rarely hit their target. Vehicle driving feels way heavier and harder to control, the only decent vehicles are flyable and you only get them in a couple missions.
But now to what saved the game for me: the final mission. Despite not caring at all for the characters, it IS where the game is the most thematically strong, with music that fits the mood and scale of the conflict, and a very well executed ending for what happened, not to mention the mission itself is just very fun. Gets some large scale fights with lots of weapons to scavenge and rush in with or try to sneak by, and the final fight you get is a pretty interesting introduction to firefight mode. I probably don't really need to explain what these elements are in detail, because anyone familiar with the game will know even if not played, something that sadly does take the magic away a bit.
I should also mention that while previously 3 ODST was the MCC port that gave me most issues, this one takes the cake. Asides from stutters, cutscenes have broken lighting and completely out of sync audio often cutting off dialogue or delaying sound effects by several seconds, unfortunately unlikely that these things will get a fix as MCC developers are no longer working on it and the game seems to be in just "let's just keep it online" mode (Thanks Xbox!).
But really asides from the ending, I don't really see what makes this game so acclaimed? I feel like I might be going insane, but with Halo 3 and CE existing I can't help but feel like this game is a regression in the formula, like it is a prequel gone too far. I understand the tone needed some adjustment for the story at play here, but it just seems like it loses focus and turns it into a fairly generic and average experience.
2009
Pleasantly surprised. This game is way more than just a Halo 3 expansion and has an unique take on what Halo can be like. Half the game is spent exploring the New Mombasa streets at night, with a particularly beautiful soundtrack and ambience setting the mood right for what is you, a rookie soldier, looking for his buddies all alone.
The other half of the game is played through flashbacks of what the other ODSTs were doing as you find clues to their wereabouts and has more of the typical Halo tone.
But there's something else adding to the game, and it's that you don't play as a Spartan. You have a threshold before you truly lose health, but when you do, we're back to looking for med packs instead of having everything recharge. It's like going back to CE but weaker, as under the right circumstances even Grunts can be threatening. During the times in which you're alone, you really have to use the environment to your advantage, and when you're not, it truly feels like you're part of the group instead of the big savior that keeps them safe. This is the game where losing allies to gunfire hurts the most.
Something else that I find really noteworthy is the use of audio logs, they are really good and tell another story that happened just before you came down. It is not essential, but the context added and the storytelling in them is great, takes some effort to get all of them but I would say try it.
This is the game where I found the issues with MCC to be most prevalent though (UPDATE: Reach is worse), constant audio syncing issues and weird stutters all around. This is a fault of the port, not the game, but it did hurt it a bit.
All in all though this is a very interesting Halo experience with a different perspective that's worth the time you can put into it, it may not be the highest point of the franchise but it succeeds in what it wants to do. Plus, we got Firefight from this, which is a big bonus.
It just hits different...
The other half of the game is played through flashbacks of what the other ODSTs were doing as you find clues to their wereabouts and has more of the typical Halo tone.
But there's something else adding to the game, and it's that you don't play as a Spartan. You have a threshold before you truly lose health, but when you do, we're back to looking for med packs instead of having everything recharge. It's like going back to CE but weaker, as under the right circumstances even Grunts can be threatening. During the times in which you're alone, you really have to use the environment to your advantage, and when you're not, it truly feels like you're part of the group instead of the big savior that keeps them safe. This is the game where losing allies to gunfire hurts the most.
Something else that I find really noteworthy is the use of audio logs, they are really good and tell another story that happened just before you came down. It is not essential, but the context added and the storytelling in them is great, takes some effort to get all of them but I would say try it.
This is the game where I found the issues with MCC to be most prevalent though (UPDATE: Reach is worse), constant audio syncing issues and weird stutters all around. This is a fault of the port, not the game, but it did hurt it a bit.
All in all though this is a very interesting Halo experience with a different perspective that's worth the time you can put into it, it may not be the highest point of the franchise but it succeeds in what it wants to do. Plus, we got Firefight from this, which is a big bonus.
It just hits different...
2007
It's finished. This game truly is the culmination of everything Bungie was building up to this point. Everything from the gameplay to the story has been given the just amount of polish and attention to keep players engaged and satisfied.
The story takes off right after the ending of Halo 2 and loses no time to keep going. Many great moments and even really natural and cool callbacks, something really difficult to achieve. While the characters can be argued to be simple, everyone has a strong personality and this is the game where their story truly concludes. Love you Arbiter.
The gunplay is amazing, you can feel the power on pretty much all weapons when you get used to them, even if some are underwhelming at first like the magnum. There's also more grenade types and now we have access to equipment. Equipment can be simple things like throwing down a shield or some support items, as well as invincibility or so, and while I didn't use them much they still come in handy when needed. You can also yank off big turrets to delete anything in your sights for a while, basically being the Team Fortress 2 Heavy.
The enemy and ally AI seems to talk a lot more and their gameplay lines are super fun to listen to, I felt very attached to them while playing and would get sad when my marines died, or amused when enemies reacted to me. This is of course an element from previous games, but it feels much more natural in here.
The mission design is basically Halo 2, linear but grand in scope, except this time extremely polished. Many memorable set pieces and the most fun vehicles in the series aid playing through them to be super fun as well.
I was so absorbed in this game that I couldn't stop playing whenever I had the opportunity and would often stop to admire what was going on-screen or around the game feel itself. I am really happy that I finally played it after losing interest on Halo when it stopped getting PC ports way back when, and have to give props to everyone who worked on it for making the best thing possible on top of what CE and 2 gave us. It's finished, and we really didn't need more Halo games to happen, but I'll continue on and see how that goes.
The story takes off right after the ending of Halo 2 and loses no time to keep going. Many great moments and even really natural and cool callbacks, something really difficult to achieve. While the characters can be argued to be simple, everyone has a strong personality and this is the game where their story truly concludes. Love you Arbiter.
The gunplay is amazing, you can feel the power on pretty much all weapons when you get used to them, even if some are underwhelming at first like the magnum. There's also more grenade types and now we have access to equipment. Equipment can be simple things like throwing down a shield or some support items, as well as invincibility or so, and while I didn't use them much they still come in handy when needed. You can also yank off big turrets to delete anything in your sights for a while, basically being the Team Fortress 2 Heavy.
The enemy and ally AI seems to talk a lot more and their gameplay lines are super fun to listen to, I felt very attached to them while playing and would get sad when my marines died, or amused when enemies reacted to me. This is of course an element from previous games, but it feels much more natural in here.
The mission design is basically Halo 2, linear but grand in scope, except this time extremely polished. Many memorable set pieces and the most fun vehicles in the series aid playing through them to be super fun as well.
I was so absorbed in this game that I couldn't stop playing whenever I had the opportunity and would often stop to admire what was going on-screen or around the game feel itself. I am really happy that I finally played it after losing interest on Halo when it stopped getting PC ports way back when, and have to give props to everyone who worked on it for making the best thing possible on top of what CE and 2 gave us. It's finished, and we really didn't need more Halo games to happen, but I'll continue on and see how that goes.
2014
First some context for what my perspective on Halo is: I'm someone that was introduced to Halo on a pre-owned cheap computer that came bundled with the old Gearbox port of CE, despite the issues with that port I milked it for as much as I could throughout my childhood.
As for Halo 2, when I got my hands on the PC port for Vista from 2007, it was really broken and hard to run even on just Windows 7, Games for Windows Live and all. This prevented me from replaying the game as I just didn't feel like it, and when I later did the game simply didn't want to run.
So I spent a lot of time following the development of Halo games and other media but it was never enough to make me consider the Xbox as an option just for one series, and by the time MCC came to PC I had already lost a lot of interest. Recently though I bit the bullet and got MCC, so after revisiting CE I decided to play 2 again to get it fresh on my mind, as CE is something that I played so much but 2 was always a bit off to the side for me.
I had forgotten most of the game and now I know why. But first impressions are great in some ways: the story is much better presented, characters get more developed and the conflict actually feels grand, this is especially true with the Anniversary cutscenes. I was never really a fan of this game visually, the classic graphics are very held back by their hardware and the anniversary graphics are great and have a lot of work into them, but don't feel like the same game exactly, as well as replacing some music tracks with new ones that don't fit the game at all and shocked me when I heard them, and in general butchering (imo) the sound design in favor of something closer to Halo 4 and 5. Still, I decided to play through with the Anniversary edition for the most part, for the sake of something new.
Biggest technical improvement compared to CE, perhaps, is the level design. More linear, but still grand in scale and does a good job of leading you into what feels like a journey. We get some extra weapons and enemy variety with the introduction of Brutes and more Elite variants, although we lose the classic assault rifle in the process, fine though.
But something holds back this game for me, and it's the balancing. A lot of weapons flat out feel useless, especially covenant weapons like the plasma pistol and blue plasma rifle. Enemies feel tanky from normal difficulty upward no matter what, and your health pool is so low. Regardless of difficulty, there will be many situations where enemies can take you out in a blink and you can't do anything about it unless you play extremely carefully.
Eventually, levels fill up with annoying enemies like Brutes and Hunters, so despite the level itself being fairly straightforward in concept, the weapon and enemy balancing make the final stretch of the game a pain. I understand that it is due to the troubled development which forced Bungie to crunch and rush, but sadly knowing that doesn't solve the issue, this game really needed a delay for polish.
Final thing I'll touch on: the story. As I already said it's presented way better and is much more developed, establishing a lot of the lore and character the series would get. Only problem is that it ends midway, and the rest is found in Halo 3. Learning of this back then made me quite upset, and it still stings although way less because 3 is already out, but I still consider this a big negative when the narrative is so enthralling and, at the time, it forced you to wait 3 years and buy a new console to see through to the end.
Overall I appreciate this game's vision and what it did for the series, but the balancing needs serious work and it holds it back from being better than CE in my eyes, although nostalgia may be playing some part in this. I wish I could like this more, but I still consider it a great play, if anything just to see how the game evolves over CE and sets up greater things to come, as upsetting as it was back then.
As for Halo 2, when I got my hands on the PC port for Vista from 2007, it was really broken and hard to run even on just Windows 7, Games for Windows Live and all. This prevented me from replaying the game as I just didn't feel like it, and when I later did the game simply didn't want to run.
So I spent a lot of time following the development of Halo games and other media but it was never enough to make me consider the Xbox as an option just for one series, and by the time MCC came to PC I had already lost a lot of interest. Recently though I bit the bullet and got MCC, so after revisiting CE I decided to play 2 again to get it fresh on my mind, as CE is something that I played so much but 2 was always a bit off to the side for me.
I had forgotten most of the game and now I know why. But first impressions are great in some ways: the story is much better presented, characters get more developed and the conflict actually feels grand, this is especially true with the Anniversary cutscenes. I was never really a fan of this game visually, the classic graphics are very held back by their hardware and the anniversary graphics are great and have a lot of work into them, but don't feel like the same game exactly, as well as replacing some music tracks with new ones that don't fit the game at all and shocked me when I heard them, and in general butchering (imo) the sound design in favor of something closer to Halo 4 and 5. Still, I decided to play through with the Anniversary edition for the most part, for the sake of something new.
Biggest technical improvement compared to CE, perhaps, is the level design. More linear, but still grand in scale and does a good job of leading you into what feels like a journey. We get some extra weapons and enemy variety with the introduction of Brutes and more Elite variants, although we lose the classic assault rifle in the process, fine though.
But something holds back this game for me, and it's the balancing. A lot of weapons flat out feel useless, especially covenant weapons like the plasma pistol and blue plasma rifle. Enemies feel tanky from normal difficulty upward no matter what, and your health pool is so low. Regardless of difficulty, there will be many situations where enemies can take you out in a blink and you can't do anything about it unless you play extremely carefully.
Eventually, levels fill up with annoying enemies like Brutes and Hunters, so despite the level itself being fairly straightforward in concept, the weapon and enemy balancing make the final stretch of the game a pain. I understand that it is due to the troubled development which forced Bungie to crunch and rush, but sadly knowing that doesn't solve the issue, this game really needed a delay for polish.
Final thing I'll touch on: the story. As I already said it's presented way better and is much more developed, establishing a lot of the lore and character the series would get. Only problem is that it ends midway, and the rest is found in Halo 3. Learning of this back then made me quite upset, and it still stings although way less because 3 is already out, but I still consider this a big negative when the narrative is so enthralling and, at the time, it forced you to wait 3 years and buy a new console to see through to the end.
Overall I appreciate this game's vision and what it did for the series, but the balancing needs serious work and it holds it back from being better than CE in my eyes, although nostalgia may be playing some part in this. I wish I could like this more, but I still consider it a great play, if anything just to see how the game evolves over CE and sets up greater things to come, as upsetting as it was back then.
Basically the best of Duke we've gotten in around 2 decades by now. Despite being slotted in awkwardly, he's better written and characterized than he ever was in an FPS game. It was worth it.