iv1632
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.
Unexpected gem. At first though, I was really not into it. I knew the marketing around this game being retro was misleading, but I still didn't expect that to imply I'd have to go through a dragged out tutorialized chapter full of QTEs and story beats that I doubt anyone cares for, with some of that carrying over to the rest. But due to my bestie's recommendation and assurance that it gets better, I kept going.
Once that's over you'll find the game still isn't very retro, it doesn't play like any older FPS I can think of, you sprint, reload and aim down sights. Only thing connecting this to the old times is an arcade like scoring system.
This however turns out to be a fairly unique game on its own, the scoring system is called skillshots and rewards you with points for meeting different criteria while killing enemies, doing a new skillshot granting you bonus points. This ends up encouraging you to vary up your playstyle a bit, and combined with the quick kicks and leashing, essentially a grappling hook for reeling enemies in, and the different guns all having different skillshots, combat encounters pick up the pace really quickly.
Another aspect of this game's balancing is the dropkits, you won't get too much ammo from dead enemies or pickups so you will need to rack up points both to upgrade your guns and to keep your ammo up when running low unless you're super efficient. Near the end of the game you'll probably be able to afford whatever you need, but it kept me on my toes a fair bit while building up to it as I was playing on hard difficulty.
Presentationwise, this game is surprisingly good looking. You mostly fight nasty enemies that are either mutated freaks or humans gone insane, but you also get to see really nice views of cool looking deserts, caves, ran down cities, etc. And what you see up in your face is often pretty detailed. The guns are well designed, and the music while nothing especial fits the game.
Storywise, this is just dumb. Typical revenge story with some basic character dynamics, with characters overtly swearing like this was written by an edgy teenager, making serious moments kinda hard to take seriously as overall the game isn't really going there. However this is where I should mention that I played this with the Duke Nukem Tour DLC on, and let me tell you, it makes up for any shortcoming in the story. Yes, he replaces the main character in an awkward way and nobody else re-recorded their lines to call him Duke instead of Gray, but even so this feels like such an appropiate environment to throw Duke in and being able to listen to a surprisingly good rendition of him (So, not DNF) made up for the parts of the game that annoyed me, especially the slow start.
This is overall a game that isn't quite like anything else I know of and I'm surprised that the same studio that made Painkiller, a game with some of the most average FPS gameplay I've touched, managed to create this. It is very enjoyable once you get past the first hurdle and somehow a forced inclusion of Duke Nukem just elevates it more. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys a fast action shooter. Really wish a sequel or spiritual successor happens, I want more like this, but seeing the studio's output I'm not getting my hopes up from their part.
Once that's over you'll find the game still isn't very retro, it doesn't play like any older FPS I can think of, you sprint, reload and aim down sights. Only thing connecting this to the old times is an arcade like scoring system.
This however turns out to be a fairly unique game on its own, the scoring system is called skillshots and rewards you with points for meeting different criteria while killing enemies, doing a new skillshot granting you bonus points. This ends up encouraging you to vary up your playstyle a bit, and combined with the quick kicks and leashing, essentially a grappling hook for reeling enemies in, and the different guns all having different skillshots, combat encounters pick up the pace really quickly.
Another aspect of this game's balancing is the dropkits, you won't get too much ammo from dead enemies or pickups so you will need to rack up points both to upgrade your guns and to keep your ammo up when running low unless you're super efficient. Near the end of the game you'll probably be able to afford whatever you need, but it kept me on my toes a fair bit while building up to it as I was playing on hard difficulty.
Presentationwise, this game is surprisingly good looking. You mostly fight nasty enemies that are either mutated freaks or humans gone insane, but you also get to see really nice views of cool looking deserts, caves, ran down cities, etc. And what you see up in your face is often pretty detailed. The guns are well designed, and the music while nothing especial fits the game.
Storywise, this is just dumb. Typical revenge story with some basic character dynamics, with characters overtly swearing like this was written by an edgy teenager, making serious moments kinda hard to take seriously as overall the game isn't really going there. However this is where I should mention that I played this with the Duke Nukem Tour DLC on, and let me tell you, it makes up for any shortcoming in the story. Yes, he replaces the main character in an awkward way and nobody else re-recorded their lines to call him Duke instead of Gray, but even so this feels like such an appropiate environment to throw Duke in and being able to listen to a surprisingly good rendition of him (So, not DNF) made up for the parts of the game that annoyed me, especially the slow start.
This is overall a game that isn't quite like anything else I know of and I'm surprised that the same studio that made Painkiller, a game with some of the most average FPS gameplay I've touched, managed to create this. It is very enjoyable once you get past the first hurdle and somehow a forced inclusion of Duke Nukem just elevates it more. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys a fast action shooter. Really wish a sequel or spiritual successor happens, I want more like this, but seeing the studio's output I'm not getting my hopes up from their part.
Halo deserved better for its anniversary, only not rating it lower cause it's still CE
Despite (or maybe thanks to) the smaller scale, I find this to be a considerable improvement over the original game.
Game is more straightforward in many ways, the warp system no longer requires finding lots of collectibles, dancing transformations are simplified and there's only 3 actual dungeons to go through. What makes this an improvement for me is that it simply feels more focused, I was rarely lost but still found myself exploring as opposed to lost and hoping not to explore areas that will kill me accidentally.
The game is overall easier, but I prefer that over frustratingly hard. Not that Shantae GBC is a super hard game, but its shortcomings from all the padding with long backtracking, increasingly mazey dungeons and tanky enemies being gone makes this one way easier to swallow.
Asides from all of that it doesn't do much different to being a simple platformer with some of metroid, and that was exactly what I expected. It's easy to tell that this game had a rocky development, so it's good that it functions as it should.
Game is more straightforward in many ways, the warp system no longer requires finding lots of collectibles, dancing transformations are simplified and there's only 3 actual dungeons to go through. What makes this an improvement for me is that it simply feels more focused, I was rarely lost but still found myself exploring as opposed to lost and hoping not to explore areas that will kill me accidentally.
The game is overall easier, but I prefer that over frustratingly hard. Not that Shantae GBC is a super hard game, but its shortcomings from all the padding with long backtracking, increasingly mazey dungeons and tanky enemies being gone makes this one way easier to swallow.
Asides from all of that it doesn't do much different to being a simple platformer with some of metroid, and that was exactly what I expected. It's easy to tell that this game had a rocky development, so it's good that it functions as it should.
2020
This review contains spoilers
This game has been on my list for a while, mainly curious by how a game this inspired by VA-11 Hall-A would handle similar mechanics and themes.
Gameplay wise, it is even more basic as you only get to mix 3 ingredients per drink, and not all combinations are possible. As a twist, however, most drinks are unknown in the menu and you must make them first before they get added. This ends up in the puzzle elements coming in occasionally, when a client will ask for a drink with certain characteristics and you must think of how to make them. Sometimes it's fairly fun, but a couple of times the clues given are not great and I'm not sure of how you're supposed to figure it out without trial and error.
Now, in terms of presentation I have a couple of issues. The music fits, but it doesn't stay in my head nor am I excited to put the soundtrack on when not playing. And the artwork has some problems, often with weird anatomy or uneven parts (Look at Freya's eyes). I know this is nitpicky, but it's hard to unsee when these things present themselves. That aside, I appreciate how animated the bodies are at times, and also that there's actually animation for the characters drinking after you serve them, just a nice touch to connect to them more that VA-11 Hall-A didn't have.
But on to the big thing about games like this: the writing. I like most of the characters and the only ones I don't are the ones that appear little (except for Hyde), but I was still able to empathize with all of them. They're all people who live in a world similar to ours, in what was basically current day at the time of release, but pretty fantastical in many ways, yet they have problems we could consider ordinary which is what's supposed to draw us in there. Nothing wrong with the concept there but the allusions to our world are often corny and lacking in giving context a few times, which ultimately makes me wish some more thought was put into presenting it alongside the characters.
There is an exception to what I qualified the characters as for me though, which is the main character, the Barista. I am pretty conflicted on them as they're both a "Link" and their own character themself, but not fully either.
At the start of the game you're asked to name the Barista, and my biggest mistake was giving them my name. They are not a blank slate and have ruined some of the connection I had to the other characters by saying things I would not have said. This isn't something that would bother me normally, but the Barista isn't a fully fledged character either, not having much to their character asides from their words. We don't know what they look like, what they do outside the coffee shop, what their life is like outside of the nights when clients come in.
By comparison, and I don't mean to say copy VA-11 Hall-A, but it has an example of a main character who's her own person and really effective at connecting you to her world, as half the fun is understanding her as much as you understand everyone else.
Now all this is for a reason, and that reason is why this review has spoilers: The twist is that they're a time traveler. We are supposed to wonder and get intrigued by how this comes to happen and what they're doing, but the way this just sort of turns up when you finish the game once and then replaying parts of it reveal a little more dialogue which just ends in Freya going "I know what you are :)" makes this felt out of place for me. I didn't really connect more with anything nor was I satisfied with the outcome, I was just left a little disappointed and less able to relate to the main character. I'm not sure this was handled well, and it's not making me jump with excitement to check out Episode 2 immediately.
I maybe bitched a lot but overall I think the time I spent on this was worth it, and despite some areas falling flat for me, I appreciate they had a vision with potential. Not the most excited to see the rest of it, but I probably will eventually and hopefully it manages to win me over where this one didn't if the time comes for it.
Gameplay wise, it is even more basic as you only get to mix 3 ingredients per drink, and not all combinations are possible. As a twist, however, most drinks are unknown in the menu and you must make them first before they get added. This ends up in the puzzle elements coming in occasionally, when a client will ask for a drink with certain characteristics and you must think of how to make them. Sometimes it's fairly fun, but a couple of times the clues given are not great and I'm not sure of how you're supposed to figure it out without trial and error.
Now, in terms of presentation I have a couple of issues. The music fits, but it doesn't stay in my head nor am I excited to put the soundtrack on when not playing. And the artwork has some problems, often with weird anatomy or uneven parts (Look at Freya's eyes). I know this is nitpicky, but it's hard to unsee when these things present themselves. That aside, I appreciate how animated the bodies are at times, and also that there's actually animation for the characters drinking after you serve them, just a nice touch to connect to them more that VA-11 Hall-A didn't have.
But on to the big thing about games like this: the writing. I like most of the characters and the only ones I don't are the ones that appear little (except for Hyde), but I was still able to empathize with all of them. They're all people who live in a world similar to ours, in what was basically current day at the time of release, but pretty fantastical in many ways, yet they have problems we could consider ordinary which is what's supposed to draw us in there. Nothing wrong with the concept there but the allusions to our world are often corny and lacking in giving context a few times, which ultimately makes me wish some more thought was put into presenting it alongside the characters.
There is an exception to what I qualified the characters as for me though, which is the main character, the Barista. I am pretty conflicted on them as they're both a "Link" and their own character themself, but not fully either.
At the start of the game you're asked to name the Barista, and my biggest mistake was giving them my name. They are not a blank slate and have ruined some of the connection I had to the other characters by saying things I would not have said. This isn't something that would bother me normally, but the Barista isn't a fully fledged character either, not having much to their character asides from their words. We don't know what they look like, what they do outside the coffee shop, what their life is like outside of the nights when clients come in.
By comparison, and I don't mean to say copy VA-11 Hall-A, but it has an example of a main character who's her own person and really effective at connecting you to her world, as half the fun is understanding her as much as you understand everyone else.
Now all this is for a reason, and that reason is why this review has spoilers: The twist is that they're a time traveler. We are supposed to wonder and get intrigued by how this comes to happen and what they're doing, but the way this just sort of turns up when you finish the game once and then replaying parts of it reveal a little more dialogue which just ends in Freya going "I know what you are :)" makes this felt out of place for me. I didn't really connect more with anything nor was I satisfied with the outcome, I was just left a little disappointed and less able to relate to the main character. I'm not sure this was handled well, and it's not making me jump with excitement to check out Episode 2 immediately.
I maybe bitched a lot but overall I think the time I spent on this was worth it, and despite some areas falling flat for me, I appreciate they had a vision with potential. Not the most excited to see the rest of it, but I probably will eventually and hopefully it manages to win me over where this one didn't if the time comes for it.
Surprisingly decent for what it is. The game is all about building speed as you try to take down opponents who are always on their way to overtake you. There's not many modes and the tracks and characters are fairly samey, but it's a decent way to kill time.
The car fu mechanic is something I'd like to see more widely adapted, I will have to check out the main console version at some point.
The car fu mechanic is something I'd like to see more widely adapted, I will have to check out the main console version at some point.
2013
No reason to play if you didn't already play for years it seems
2007
More than decent for what it is. I can't imagine what it must be like to get a fully open world Spider-Man game comparable to the home console version of Spider-Man 2 at the time on a portable console.
Morbius is there too, so that's a bonus.
Morbius is there too, so that's a bonus.
2009
One of those solid 6 games, it's fairly enjoyable despite being extremely generic with a boring plot. The Wii controls are great, much better than what I've seen from Call of Duty and GoldenEye, they're the highlight of the experience along with the weapons and impressive visuals.
Recommend it to those curious about it, worth at least the novelty of "hardcore third party Wii exclusive".
Recommend it to those curious about it, worth at least the novelty of "hardcore third party Wii exclusive".
It works
2018
Excellent game, so excellent that I only have this to say: must play for side scrolling platforming enjoyers. The metroidvania twist makes the pacing a little rough, but I find it hard to complain about when the highs are really high.
Take one look at the game and you'll know if you'd like it, play it now!!!
Take one look at the game and you'll know if you'd like it, play it now!!!
2016
7 years late, but that only made this game impress me much harder. It lives up to the hype and more.
This goes beyond the core gameplay and music, it is rare for me to actually want to commit to 100%ing a game full of tidbits of side content, but secret hunting and beating challenges in this game was so fun that I did it immediately, singeplayer wise at least.
Near perfect.
This goes beyond the core gameplay and music, it is rare for me to actually want to commit to 100%ing a game full of tidbits of side content, but secret hunting and beating challenges in this game was so fun that I did it immediately, singeplayer wise at least.
Near perfect.
2020
Out of all the games with roguelite/like mechanics I played, this one is probably the best one. The gunplay is amazing, the soundtrack gets me pumped without fail, the upgrades don't make me feel like I'm just waiting to get better and RNG doesn't feel like it's run ruining.
Even as it gets repetitive, the core of the game is strong, and I feel like dying is my own fault for not being good enough in skill yet, unlike with so many other games in this genre.
Play the demo.
Even as it gets repetitive, the core of the game is strong, and I feel like dying is my own fault for not being good enough in skill yet, unlike with so many other games in this genre.
Play the demo.