When it comes to the current boomer shooter scene, and really any movement that preys on nostalgia, a lot of the projects that come out tend to label themselves as a retro throwback made to emulate the feel of those old games people enjoyed, but oftentimes that is where they stop. Some choose to wear the guise of an older game in order to subvert expectations and do something new, while others settle with simple imitation of the classics; sadly the latter is more common than the former. Games like Prodeus, Warhammer 40k: Boltgun, and Slayers X, while having merit in somethings, ultimately just feel like hollow echoes of their influences. Ion Fury, at first, looks like it is going to be in a similar situation; a game that is trying emulate the likes of the Build Engine trinity, with Shelly Bombshell formerly being a Duke Nukem character, and the fact that the game is actually built in a heavily modified version of the original Build Engine. But, throughout the game's run time, it slowly unveils itself as something more; it is a direct evolution and improvement over its inspirations, it keeps the same feel but without the clunkiness and outdated design tropes.

The importance of the Build Engine games, that being Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, was their intricacy. The levels that make the worlds that these games take place in had a level of detail and openness that other FPS games just didn’t have; Duke Nukem’s levels were chalked full of air vents that acted as alternate routes and consumable items, like jet packs and steroids, that could lead to complete sequence breaks and level skips if used properly. Blood also had this, but added onto it with much more in depth combat and brutal combat, asking the player not just to aim and shoot, but to actively engage with the 3D environment by using crouch and jump to dodge fire, rather than just finding cover. In a modern context, these innovations aren’t anything unique, they have been integrated into the standards of game design, and as such, are just expected. This is the trapping that the boomer shooters mentioned earlier fall into, they replicate the innovation without improvement, creating a flat circle of design. Ion Fury sets itself apart by going beyond this; it uses the design tropes set up by its forefathers and fully explores them. Levels don’t just have one or two ways to approach, they have a hundred; there could be two different sets of air vents that lead to different positions that flank a group of enemies, there could be an explosive wall that kills the enemies on the other side, there could be a series of banisters or edges that can be jumped across in order to gain the high ground, and so on and so forth. Once the first one of these alternate routes is found, the player's brain starts to seek them out and begins to notice more of them as the game progresses; it keeps the player engaged and gives them a sense of freedom in a linearly structured game. It's not just the physical level geometry that keeps the player engaged, the way the enemies and the player interact also has a level of depth to them not seen in other games. The most blunt example of this is how the robot headcrab enemies overload and explode when hit with the electric baton, offering an ammo free alternative to taking out these smaller enemies. My favorite though is the centipede enemies; these guys break apart into shorter and shorter versions of themselves if you hit their body, but will die in one go if you get a perfect headshot, encouraging the player to slow down for a second so that the encounter won’t get out of hand. Additionally, much like blood before it, the enemies that fire projectiles, particularly the grenade grunts and bow grunts, really keep the player on their toes. If the player just runs around standing straight up like they would in any other game, the will get blown to bits; but, if they utilize the crouch and jump as not just platforming mechanics, but also ways to juke out enemies, these types of enemies become some of the easiest in the game. But, of course, these enemies wouldn’t be nearly as fun to fight if the arsenal of weapons wasn’t up to snuff, and they very much are.

I really appreciate the balancing and utility of the weapons in Ion Fury. Most FPS games that feature weapons with alternate fire mechanics make the mistake of either making the alt fires way too good, to the point that they overshadow the base fire, or they are way too gimmicky and not worth using. Ion Fury strikes the perfect balance between these two sides by having the alt fires be not too drastically different from the base fires, but different enough to where scenarios in which one would be better than the other can be differentiated. The Ion Bow is the weapon that I think first demonstrates this. The single bolt base fire is great for taking out the group of enemies right before the first boss because of how precise it is, giving clean head shots to all the singular enemies in that wave. But, the overload alt fire where it shoots out dozens of groups of bolts in quick succession proves to be extremely useful for both the boss and its accompanying flying drones that move sporadically. My favorite weapon in the game, the bowling bombs, do a similar thing, just on a much more subtle scale. The alt fire acts like a traditional grenade, Shelly lights the wick and lobs it in a general direction, and then it explodes, badabing badaboom, simple and reliant. But the base fire is a bit more tricky; it can either be rolled along the ground immediately to hit long range targets, or held a bit longer to activate a homing feature that can hit enemies from around corners, making it an extremely versatile weapon. The only weapon that doesn’t really fit this mold is the Loverboy, the starting pistol. The Loverboy’s alt fire lets Shelly pull a Clint Eastwood and auto headshot up to three enemies at a time, which is objectively better than its single shot base fire. Although, I think this is fine because it is the starting pistol, and it grants it relevance even into the final level of the game; as well it's not the easiest thing to get the hang of, so there is a bit of a skill gap. All the other weapons are great too, I just don’t really want to mention all of them here. That being said though, there are a couple of gripes I have with Ion Fury, but they are mostly to do with the porting job to the Nintendo Switch.

As mentioned, the version of this game that I played was the port released for the switch back in 2020, this is the version I bought years ago when it first came out, and I didn’t feel like buying it again on Steam or Xbox. This port of the game is pretty good all things considered; the frame rate does dip, and sometimes slows to a crawl, when big explosions happen or lots of enemies are on screen, but these instances are few and far between. My main issues come in the form of accessibility and options, there are very few of them. Firstly, there is no button mapping, just two alternate control methods, which is better than nothing, but these alternate options don’t change the things I wanted. The game has bumper jumper set to the right bumper and makes the player use the D-pad to toggle between weapons. The first of these is an issue because it means the player can not shoot and jump at the same time, which I am used to as a console FPS fan, but it still sucks regardless as it was so close to being functional, it just needed to be moved to the left bumper. The second issue is bad because having weapon selection mapped to the D-pad means that the player can't move and select weapons at the same time, which is a big issue. The game tries to mitigate this by having the shotgun’s grenade alt fire be a shortcut to the other side of the selection wheel, but I would have rather had a proper weapon wheel like in Dusk or Doom Eternal. Additionally, the games draw distance can be a little low, leaving things far off in the distance hard to see, this is only really bad in some of the levels set in the open streets or subway tunnels, otherwise it is not that big of a deal.

Ion Fury stands proud as one of the originators of this boomer shooter phenomena, standing alongside both Dusk and Amid Evil. It is a prime example of how to take what was set up by its influences, and improve upon them in order to unleash the full potential of those ideas. As this new genre continues to grow, and more and more games come out that simply want to be like the classics and nothing more, I hope more games look to what Ion Fury has done, to see how to properly create a meaningful homage to the past.

Games as an art form is a modern concept, it wasn't until the seventh console generation that the technology that was being offered met the needs of developers that had high artistic ambitions; as well, many of the design trends that are associated with high budget, AAA games began in this generation. So, because of this, the general mass's perception of what is considered retro video games, is that of primitive, outdated experiences; games that were good for their time, but are archaic in comparison to the standards of today. Shadow Man, and games of its ilk, stand in direct opposition to this narrative; proving that games not only always had the capacity to be art, but also that these older games are often more ambitious than the games that are coming out today.

Shadow Man's presentation is its main weapon of allure, so is the nature of the cinematic platformer. The game finds itself in the lineage of juggernauts like Tomb Raider and The Legacy of Kain, but were as Tomb Raider drew the player in with it's Indiana Jones parody, and Legacy of Kain with its enriching dialogue and characters, Shadow Man opts to do it with it's world. Being directly based off of a 1990's comic book series, the game's world is appropriately dark and edgy, but in a more sophisticated way that stops it from being too pulpy. The hellish landscapes of Deadside are full of jagged cliffs, winding and warping tunnels, bridges that seem to lead into expansive nothingness, and rivers of blood that flow through the land; but combined with a more mute color pallet, it all feels grounded and real, while still giving off the vibe of something otherworldly. The asylum that stands erect in the center of the map; it is imposing. It offers a kind of grand scale and volume that wouldn't be popular in the medium until Half-Life 2's citadel would make it a trope. The inner contents of the asylum too strengthen this notion, with the inside being a sprawling labyrinth of gothic architecture and brutal torture chambers, all connected, all intertwined. This all serves the purpose of creating a type of world that was rarely seen in video games at the time, if at all; it even rivals some of the greats from today like Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls (appropriately enough). This isn’t all just for show, I would like to add; the world Shadow Man creates plays directly into its core design as a game.

Despite what I said earlier about Shadow Man being a cinematic platformer, the gameplay more resembles that of a Metroid-vania, with the gigantic, sprawling, interconnected areas that feed into one another. The game is designed for the player to constantly loop back, and re-explore previous areas once they have acquired new abilities, in fact, the game out right requires you to do so in order to progress; needing the games big collectable, the Dark Souls, in order to level up and break through gates to reach new areas. This is where the world design overlaps with the gameplay; as the player explores the macabre environments of Deadside, they are constantly asking questions and being left in the dark, but as they explore deeper more and more information is recontextualized. The player remembers weird quirks about the different areas that at first fit right in with the alien and twisted nature of Deadside, but when equipped with new knowledge and new abilities, these areas start to make more sense and begin to open the players mind to more possibilities. Environmental hazards and decorations that may first seem like simple set dressings and obstacles that were meant to seemingly just fade into the players subconscious, are eventually brought back to the forefront of the players mind once they gather new abilities. Compare this to how games, up until this point, would make locked gates and secret areas obvious by having jarring textures or by just straight up telling the player they need a new ability. Even newer games have this problem, with the running industry joke of putting yellow spray paint over anything and everything that can be interacted with. As well, the game offers a refreshing amount of nonlinearity that newer games are too scared to allow, in fear of disrupting the “carefully crafted” narrative. There were times in my play through where I swear I did things and got to areas way before or way after it seemed like I was initially supposed to; but nothing was broken, that is just how the world is structured. Many games nowadays offer worlds that, on the surface, halt the player from progressing farther than the story allows them too; but in Shadow Man, the narrative is open and mysterious enough to allow for the player to get things done in the order they come across them, or however they feel like doing it.

That being said though, there are still some things that haven’t aged the best, or at least they have in the original 1999 release of the game. The controls, while actually pretty intuitive and well done for a pre-Halo video game, are very choppy and require a lot of starting and stopping just to round a corner, the combat is not very good, the ability to dual wield any combinations of items is really fun, but trying to reliably hit any flying enemy is near impossible, and the lack of autosave is really infuriating when my N64 gets nudged and can’t read the cart anymore, making me lose two and a half hours of progress. But thankfully, the good ole boys over at Nightdive Studios have worked their magic and more than faithfully remastered this game for modern systems a couple years ago. So consider these complaints void if you decide to play the remaster.

Shadow Man is a game that was ahead of its time, and even after its time, it still proves itself comparable to even the best of what modern gaming has to offer. It is ambitious, meticulously crafted, and I think stands as a timeless testament to the stance that games are, and have always been, art.

Before playing through Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, I was led to believe by years of watching videos and reading information about the game, that it was an unbearable broken mess that is one of the worst experiences in gaming. I am happy to report that it is, in fact, not that bad. At worst, it is a slightly glitchy, kind of annoying basic platformer; and at best it is a little distracting romp through an otherwise barebones Spyro game. Don’t get me wrong, the game still isn’t very good, it is littered with half baked ideas, technical glitches, and just some of the weirdest aesthetic choices I have ever seen in a game; and from what I can tell, a lot of these bad design choices are the result of a troubled development. But I think the overall experience is ultimately fine, definitely not as dreadful as most people make it out to be.

The big elephant in the room with the entirety of this game is its lack of anything interesting. Nothing stands out, it is all just standard Spyro structure really. The player goes through a linear stage, even more linear for this game's case, collect gems, gather the special items, here they are dragonflies, and the player is done. The Insomniac trilogy, for the most part, proved that this was a winning formula, but what made it so much fun was those slight deviations and changes to the status quo that shook up the players' train of thought. Think of obstacles like the egg thieves, or the entirety of Tree Tops, that recontextualized the environment and the players abilities and asks them to think outside of the box. Enter the Dragonfly does not do that, at all. It is a shallow, hollow imitation of what came before. The game tries to do this; Spyro has a handful of new elemental breath types in conjunction with his fire breath, but nothing is ever done with them. At the most, there will be a section that requires hitting certain objects with different breaths; put out the fire with the ice breath, burn the scarecrows with the fire breath, and electrocute the poles to turn on the power. These breath types would be so much more interesting if, lets say, the player could create platforms on water or lava with the ice breath, or melt metal doors/ice barriers with the fire breath, or maybe even have to electrocute watery areas in order to turn the power on in a level, thus creating a new hazard in the process. But no, the new abilities stop at very surface level challenges that require very little brain power. As well, if it was not clear with my description of what this game considered to be a puzzle, the stages themselves are severely lacking.

Something I really appreciated from the first Spyro game is the abstract sense of nostalgia its set of levels gave me, it was like a happier version of the whole liminal spaces phenomena, like I had been there long ago in a dream I had when I was younger. All of Enter the Dragonflies levels are the exact opposite of this feeling, I have never been to these places before and I would really like to leave. The range of aesthetics this game goes for are just boring as all be; there is a dojo, an island with a luau theme going on, two separate farm levels, a very basic ice level, and a jungle temple. These themes are extremely basic and uninteresting and offer no real intrigue beyond the initial concept; they are quite actually just linear straight shots from the beginning to the end of the level; no alternate paths, no secret hideaways, and barely any of the now standard mini game side missions. Although, I am rather grateful for that last part, but I want to cover that later. The only level that doesn’t follow this structure is the Thieves Hideout, a level where all the egg thieves in the dragon world hoard their treasure, and is themed after The Thousand and One Nights. Not only does it have probably the most interesting concept for a level in the whole game, maybe series (so far at least), but the Arabian theming makes it stand out amongst the much more boring levels in this game; and, of course, there are many winding pathways to traverse and secret areas to find in this level, because what kind of thieves hideout would this be if it didn’t have those. But sadly, this is the only level in the game of this caliber, everything else is just fine. Actually, they might be worse than fine because of just how buggy this game is. There is a decently high likelihood that whenever the player enters a stage, something is going to glitch the hell out; I think I can recall a moment from each of the game's nine levels where some glitch made itself apparent. In some of them, gems would just fall through the floor and be unobtainable unless the level is restarted, others had problems with collision, where some platforms Spyro would just fall right though like he was a ghost, and in one instance in Honey Marshes, the level just refused to load in, leaving me walking on invisible ground unsure of where to go because I couldn't see anything. So, on top of already being rather boring levels, there is a good chance the level is just going to be broken whenever the player hops into them. But, all of this aside, I do think there is some good that this game has, albeit very minimal.

During the games development, one of the bigger issues the developers faced was building the game from the ground up, as they did not have access to any of the original source code or assets from the original trilogy. It is unclear whether or not the publishers, Universal Interactive, had denied them access to those original files, or if they simply didn’t have them on record to use, but either way, this led to many of the games shortcomings. Specifically, the one I want to point out is the change to how Spyro controls, here he is much stiffer, or tighter, depending on your perspective. Spyro in the original trilogy was much more floaty and less precise, which helped those games achieve the more free and dreamlike atmosphere they were going for, but it didn’t work so well in the more critical platforming sections. Which is why I was very happy to find out that Spyro is much more predictable to control here, making the few difficult platforming sections present more palatable. Additionally, like I mentioned earlier, the side mini game missions that plagued the last two games have had their presence greatly reduced; as well, I think they are better designed too. There are now two special gates in every level that lead the player to their respective side mission, these missions vary from piloting vehicles like tanks and UFOs, to sliding down giant mountain sides toboggan style. I like this implementation better than how 2 and YOTD did it because there being two per level doesn’t take away from the level itself, and the new mini games are based on the player’s abilities rather than having their own independent rules and control schemes, allowing them to flow much better into the pacing of each level. On top of this, the bugs that I mentioned earlier aren’t as bad as I made them out to seem, a simple restart of the level will likely fix whatever problems arise, this leaves the levels to be their ok sleeves; they aren’t bad levels, just not all that interesting, distracting for a little while than anything, which I will take a million times over having to a stupid trolley minigame over and over again.

Truly, I don’t think this game is that bad, it has problems, no doubt, but the overall game is fine. I understand why people scream to the high heavens that this game is an abomination, but I just can’t get behind that sentiment, especially when I have played games far far worse than this.

I feel like a bit of a broken record talking about Hitman: Blood Money, because what I have to say about it is very similar to what I had to say about every previous entry in this series, save for Codename 47. It is a direct improvement over its predecessor, expanding on ideas introduced in the previous entry, and bringing new innovations to the table that make the experience even better than before. Again, broken record, I feel like I’ve said this about each game since Silent Assassin. But, it is true. In fact, I would go as far as to say this is the best game in the series so far, maybe period. I am aware that the World of Assassination trilogy greatly shifts the focus of the series, and so I would argue that Blood Money is the finale and peak of the classic Hitman formula, giving the player the tools to create their own path.

The big step that each game in this series has taken is the expansion of depth, and Blood Money dives even further into this by giving the player near total freedom on how to approach missions. I know I have said this with every game in this series, but it rings most true here. In the previous games, the player could be considered an invasive species; each level functions as its own little ecosystem that the player picks apart piece by piece, exploiting its natural systems and patterns. Blood Money’s approach to this is similar, but different in the fact the player is more of a terraformer, sculpting and curating each mission rather than dismantling it. The opening mission serves as a very direct, but efficient tutorial, introducing the player to a sample of the greater scope the game has, and sowing the seeds of creativity for the more complex missions. It takes time to demonstrate that player is in much more control than they were before; items like the coin show that reliance on AI pathfinding and preset routes isn't the only way to get the jump on enemies, and the use of more unique kill methods like from above strangulation and using a chandelier to kill a target make it clear to the player that there are now better, more interesting ways to take out hits than just using a bullet or sneaking up behind them. I particularly loved the remote bomb and used it quite frequently; dropping it in a place I new a target would be stopping at, going and completing an entirely different objective, and then detonating the bomb from halfway across the map, and subsequently making the death look like an accident, just never got old no matter how many times I did it. Additionally, the before mission loadout selection is a great feature, letting the player bring weapons into the mission that better suit their desired play style; I personally am a big sniper guy, so I would bring a rifle into almost every single mission and try to use it, creating so really funny and creative kills in the process. As well, I think the level design plays a big factor in facilitating this level of player freedom and control.

Blood Money’s set of levels are wholly unique unto themselves, and are not only some of the best in the series, but I think some of my favorites in gaming period. On a purely aesthetic perspective, each of the game's twelve-ish missions are fantastic. The game will have 47 traveling across the good old US of A, going from the grimy docks of Baltimore, to the hedonistic casinos of Las Vegas, and everywhere in between, except Texas sadly. This means that the player gets a good look at all the different environments and landscapes that the US has to offer, and serves as a nice breath of fresh air from the usual rainy streets of Hong Kong or snowy government buildings of Russia. From a mechanical perspective, this game's set of levels blow everything else this series has done out of the water. Blood Money adds a new feature that lets 47 volts over small ledges and climb up certain walls, this creates a level of verticality that the previous games just did not have, and lets the player get really creative with mapping out different routes. Sure, missions like “Traditions of the Trade” and “Basement Killing” took place in big, multilevel buildings, but that is not comparable to figuring out that you can bypass a security checkpoint in “Death of the Mississippi” by climbing up one of the support banisters, or doing a similar thing in “A Vintage Year” by shimmying up a drainage pipe to get the drop on the target without having to take out one of the guards. Elevators too have been recontextualized because of this. Every elevator now has a hatch that 47 can climb through, meaning that if the player studies a target's routes well enough, or lures them into an elevator, the player can execute the aforementioned above ground strangulation that not only kills the target, but also hides the body in the process. No spoilers, but I made a great use of this in the penultimate mission. This level of verticality and level complexity opens the door for some of the most absurd and fun ways to complete missions that I have ever seen. But, of course, the game is not without its faults, even if they are few and far between.

I really don’t think any of Blood Money’s missteps are detrimental to the overall experience, if anything they are just ideas that weren’t fully fleshed out. The new notoriety meter is interesting on paper; if the player is too reckless in a mission and is spotted doing suspicious things by NPCs or security cameras, then guards are more likely to take notice of and be more suspicious of the player in the following missions. In theory, this would make the player want to be more cautious with their playstyle, but the game has an option to just pay off witnesses with bribes at the end of each mission, effectively negating any meaning the notoriety meter had. Mind you, though, unless the player decides to go totally postal in a level, they will only gather a small amount of notoriety, even if they are a little bit reckless; I think I only gained a total of thirty points on the meter during my playtime, and that was easily paid off with what was practically pocket change in comparison to what the game gives you for completing a hit. It is neat that it's there, and it definitely had a small amount of influence on how I played, but overall it could be missing from the game and nothing would be lost. Similarly, the story is a feature that has very little presence. I will say that Blood Money is the most ambitious entry when it comes to its story. The premise of 47 being hunted down by a rival agency, and that same agency trying to bring down the ICA from the inside is really intriguing, and the moral commentary of the nature and regulation of cloning rings a bit close to home with the current political climate. But it runs into the same problem that the other games had where the missions and overarching plot don’t feel connected, it feels like a series of unrelated missions that are intersected by a vaguely intriguing story. There are subtle foreshadowing moments that I really appreciate from diegetic NPC dialogue and columns in the end of mission newspaper, but those are only minor things, the overall series of events just feels disjointed. Even the prequel mission to Contracts feels shoehorned in, with it randomly being the third mission, and its fallout only being vaguely mentioned. The story is somewhat interesting at best, and completely missable at worst.

I think I mentioned in my Contracts review that the Hitman formula finally clicked with me, that I was finally beginning to understand the inner workings of this series. If that is the case, then Blood Money is the game that has made me fall in love with it. By simply giving the tools to the player, the developers at Io Interactive created an experience that encourages creativity, and really asks the player to think outside of the box. The linear nature of Codename 47 has been completely shed, and from its cocoon comes some of the best sandbox design ever seen. Not only do I think this is my favorite Hitman game, I think this might be one of my new favorite games of all time.

Fantastic game. The art style really holds up and makes it stand out among it's 6th gen shooter peers. The gun play all of the guns feel great to use, especially the crossbows and shot guns. The one exception I found to that, however, is the AR and Uzi stand in. both weapons sound and look great, just are not accurate in the slightest, pretty much having to be point blank to get any real damage in. The levels are also really fun; taking elements from the likes of Goldeneye/Time Splitters, albeit slightly more linear. The bosses are probably the worst parts of the game by far. The first is fine enough, it just asks you to avoid the doctors projectile syringes like that one Wolfenstein 3D boss. But the others are all just hitscan shoot em till they die, and are also somehow way more accurate than you with the same guns. The only other complaint I have is the lack of auto save; there are checkpoints throughout the levels, but the player has to manually save in the menu in order to save progress. Which is fine on paper, but unlike other games that use a similar method, the game never prompts you to save at the end of a level. So, if your game crashes once or twice like mine did, you're sent back to your last save like six missions back. Overall, though, XIII is a great game with fun gun play, an intriguing story, and an aesthetic that looks great even today.

To start off the year I decided to begin my backlog goals by playing through the first Hitman game, I originally wanted the original Metal Gear to be the first game I played this year but due to circumstances outside of my control, I decided to go ahead and start on Hitman. As well, I would like to preface this review with the knowledge that this is my first venture in to the stealth game genre, so take what I say with a grain of salt as this is all new to me.
The best way I can describe Codename 47 is that it seems like the framework for something greater. There are defiantly good ideas and mechanics, like the iconic disguise mechanic and the impressive AI pathfinding, but it is all bogged down by a severe case of linearity. The missions are not sandboxes; you are given your objective and there are specific steps you must take to get those objectives done, and any deviation results in mission failure. There are only about two levels that I can think of that offer the player some creative freedom. "Traditions of the Trade" and "Plutonium Runs Loose" are said two levels; the prior is a great example of what this game does right, and the latter an example of the worst it has to offer. "Traditions" takes place in a big multilevel hotel where you need to explore, learn NPC patterns, and gather information in order to complete the objectives. The level operates on it's own time and really gives the player opportunity to try out different routes. This is in direct contrast with "Plutonium" where it is extremely binary; there are only two choices and both are infuriating to no end. You either have to navigate through enemy patrol routes so that you can go to the other side of the map from where you spawn to grab a car bomb, after which the enemies stop patrolling and become stationary, which means you have to kill them in order to progress leaving a chance that your target might escape; or you go straight to the ship and try to complete all the objectives in one swift go, which doesn't go well because as soon as you take out the target all the guards come running towards you to turn you into swiss cheese. I will also take this time to mention that the gun play is dog water, it was clearly not designed with intense gun fights in mine, but it still asks you requires you to do so in some instances. But those two levels are extreme examples, most fall somewhere in-between and are generally enjoyable.
Overall, Codename 47 is ok, levels are fun albeit sometimes cryptic and infuriating; the story is non existent and not all that interesting, but both the story and gameplay offer a great base for future games to build off of.

I am very torn on how I feel about Metal Gear Solid. I know deep down that it is a good game, and I can recognize a lot of the great and innovative design choices that set it apart from both games of its time, and even games of today. But, I also can’t help but feel disappointed with it .While it very well might be the game’s monumental legacy overshadowing the actual game and thus overinflating expectations, I don’t think it is that. I think it is more of being indecisive on what it wants to be; it is trying to be both an evolution of the exploration and stealth based gameplay of the first two games, and a more cinematic, set pieces based, boss rush style game, with a much heavier emphasis on the narrative. As a result, it fails in both categories, these two styles don’t mix well. There are many good ideas and mechanics sprinkled throughout the entire game, but they end up feeling either half baked or void of their full potential. It ended up leaving a taste in my mouth that made me wish it would have fully embraced one or the other, instead of trying to have its cake and eat it too.

The stealth and general moment to moment gameplay has been greatly improved and innovated on from Metal Gear 2, which is to be expected with the eight year long gap in between games. Guards' patrol patterns are much less rigid now, they still follow pre-made routes, but they are much more aware than they ever were in the original duology. They will follow Snake’s footprint trails in the snow when in the outside areas, if Snake so much as lightly grazes a metal grate they will immediately become suspicious, and now they have the ability to look up because of the game being fully 3D. As well, the player’s abilities have been ever so slightly tweaked to make sneaking around more interesting. No longer can Snake just pixel perfect take out enemies with a couple of punches, if the player tries to melee an enemy, they will only knock them on the ground for a short time before they get up and trigger an alarm. As well, the player has access to gear such as flash and chaff grenades that can stun enemies and security cameras/turrets respectively, making the planning process of how to get around obstacles much more interesting and dynamic. On the flip side of the design docket, this game features many, many more linear action sequences and set pieces. From scaling down the side of a tower while being shot at by a HIN-D, to running up a million flights of stairs while being chased by a ceaseless amount of guards, this game really makes the player feel like they are in a big budget action movie. I particularly love how over the top the boss fights are, with fights like the HIND-D and and REX fights being sheer spectacles, and Psycho Mantis really challenging the idea of what a boss fight can be by making the player use real world things to gain the advantage. My problem, though, with both of these design styles is that they don’t compliment each other, at least not in the way they are implemented here.

I think the main problem is that these two styles don’t play into each other. Metal Gear Solid is not the first game to have bosses, nor is it the first to have set pieces, but what other games do right is that they build off of the normal gameplay so that those skills translate to whatever those special segments require of the player. Tomb Raiders traps require the same precision and platforming skills that the ordinary gameplay teaches, and a game like Resident Evils bosses usually has some kind of puzzle aspect because that is what comprises the rest of the game. Here though, each boss fight and action sequence has its own little one off mechanics and gimmicks that are found nowhere else in the entire game; the Sniper Rifle and stabilization meds are only really used during the Sniper Wolf fight, the rope climbing mechanic is only utilized in the HIND-D fight, and the Psycho Mantis fight is the only time the games asks the player to really think outside of the box in that manner. The only boss that doesn’t feel weirdly detached from the rest of the game is the fight with Raven, because it has Snake sneaking around setting up traps and taking potch shots at Raven while trying to get spotted by him. It just feels very jarring going from a small stealth segment that plays like the previous games, into a near 30 minute long cutscene that is then followed up by an equally as long boss fight that nowhere near reflects the gameplay of the rest of the game. It's a complete whiplash in design, and creates a disjointed experience, at least for me.

Outside of that very specific criticism, I do have a couple other critiques that are probably a bit more understandable. Firstly, I'm not a big fan of how so many elements from Metal Gear 2 were just reused in this game with very little changes. Stuff like the temperature sensitive key card, the long chase up the stairwell to the roof, Snake getting jumped by four guards in the elevator, and even the final fight with Metal Gear and Liquid being almost identical to how the fight with Metal Gear and Gray Fox just kind of stuck me as a bit lazy. Though it could be that Kojima included these bits as a way to spiritually remake Metal Gear 2 in a way, but who am I to say? As well, Kojima’s writing style is a bit strange, he is very blunt and doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, and for whatever reason is very horny every time a female character is included in a scene. Lastly, the Sniper Wolf fight sucks, it just sucks, nothing more. Overall, I think Metal Gear Solid is an absolute spectacle of a game, it is a wild ride from start to finish. My only complaint is that it feels a little disjointed going from new idea to new idea, but I do think its greater than the sum of its parts.

Absolutely incredible game, the peak of the Meto games. The guns have been improved from Last Light, not as drastically as from 2033 to LL, but still great quality of life improvements. The pool of weapons has been decreased to around five to six guns, each filling in your basic FPS archetypes: semi-autos, shotguns, snipers, and pistols. But to accommodate for this, each of the guns have a frame that the player can customize to their liking; a simple Kalashnikov semi-auto can turn long distance hunting rifle, or the shotgun can be outfitted with two to four barrels for maximum fire power. The audio and visual design for these weapons are great too, the shotgun especially got an upgrade, becoming my most used gun almost solely on how satisfying it is to unload the chamber after firing. As well, Exodus does away with the currency system of the prior entries, and instead uses a new crafting system in order to make ammo, med packs, and mask filters. The system is very simple and can be done at any point during gameplay, though I would not recommend doing so during a fire fight. As long as you have the resources you can craft anything you made need, and said resources can be found all around the new semi open world. For this entry, Artyom leaves the cramped walls of the titular metro and goes with a gang of fellow soldiers to find a safe place to live on the surface. This means the player gets to explore the lands of post nuclear war Russia, but not in the traditional way you think. Each chapter takes you to a different, bite sized map that the player can explore through out that part of the story, and each location has a unique aesthetic and story that makes them standout. None of these maps are to overwhelmingly big, or disappointingly small, they are a great middle ground between the two. The staple morality system also makes its return in Exodus, but this time a little easier to navigate. Instead of being extremely vague like in 2033 and Last Light, the actions you must do to gain the good ending are, almost, told directly to you. Often times it is "don't kill anyone" or "free the slaves", which is very apricated, but there are still some unspoken objectives that the player must find on their own in order to get the good ending. I personally liked this much more because I didn't exactly in control with my choices in the previous entries. Overall, Metro Exodus is a fantastic game that is worth any players time, highly recommend.

A short review for an even shorter game. Dead Space: Ignition is a short prologue to the events of Dead Space 2, and is entirely made up of small puzzle sections, segmented by a motion comic that tells a somewhat intriguing story. There are three puzzles in total: a pipedreams type light puzzle, a reverse tower defense game, and a racing one. The light puzzle is definitely the best and has the most variety with its challenges, the tower defense game is neat but can really just be brute forced every time and that will get the job done, and the racing one is bad because the controls for it suck, they are way to clunky and slow for how fast the player icon is going. They are serviceable and are mostly fun for the games short run time, which the same can be said for the story. The motion comic segments are, again, intriguing, and nothing more really. I have yet to play Dead Space 2, but I can say that this game has got me a little excited to see what happens; but that's all this game is really good for, set up for the next big Dead Space game. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, the game was free with pre-orders and is free on Gamepass, so I don’t think anyone was really expecting much out of it. That being said though, it's still enjoyable, and at the very least doesn’t overstay its welcome

Normally, when I play through a game, I will accumulate about two and a half pages worth of notes on whatever game I am playing. These couple of pages are usually filled with things about the game that I find interesting, as well as any meaningful ideas I find interesting; I find that writing down interesting findings helps me remember the games better later on, as well as help me better write the reviews for them. Spyro: Year of the Dragon has barely a page for its entry. This is not because I think it is a bad game, not by any means; it is honestly a great improvement over Spyro 2. But, that improvement doesn’t necessarily come from a place of innovation, rather a correcting step backwards; a step that was definitely needed, but in the process, creates an experience that is very much more of the same.

What I have come to realize is that Spyro suffers from what I like to call the Tomb Raider dilemma. This is a dilemma where the first game in the series comes out the gate near perfect, and it leaves the developer in a situation where they don’t really know where to go. Either, they do more of what works and risk being criticized as derivative, or they try new stuff and risk alienating the players. Spyro 2 attempted the latter and, for the most part, failed; it ended up being an experience that just lacks the sense of flow and progression that the first game had, and replaced with boring and infuriatingly bad mini games and side quests. Conversely, Year of the Dragon corrects the additions made by Spyro 2 by having its side quests function within the realm of the games core mechanics, rather than them having their own proprietary controls and mechanics. The primary form of these changes comes from the new playable characters; there are five of them in total, and while each of them do play differently from Spyro, they aren’t too dissimilar and the objectives of their stages/quests are the same as the rest of the levels, that being to collect gems and save dragon eggs. Compare this to the mini games from Spyro 2 like the ice hockey and or crystal popcorn section that don’t follow the core gameplay loop and are really jarring in conjunction with the rest of the game. Though there are still a couple of mini game type challenges that made their way into Year of the Dragon, they control way better than the predecessors and are overall more fun; the skate boarding challenges are a great example of this. But, these improvements are not without drawbacks.

Year of the Dragon is a big game, it is bigger than Spyro 2, and it is much bigger than the first game; and because of how this game streamlines and uses the Spyro gameplay loop, it is really noticeable just how big this one is. Spyro 2, despite its bad game design choices, still distracts you from its increased run time by having you do different tasks; but here in this one, it is very much noticeable. The new characters do help slightly with variety, but their sections are so few and far in between, it feels like an eternity before you get to play as one of them again. Because of this, and the prior mentioned streamlining, a lot of this game’s levels kind of overstay their welcome. Personally, I felt really burned out by the end of the game because I felt like I just played a longer version of Spyro 1, which isn’t a bad thing per se, but nonetheless that's how I felt. Additionally, none of the levels reach the peak that they should, there is no real crescendo if you will. Spyro retains all the abilities he gained in Spyro 2, yet there is no level that pushes the player to utilize those abilities in interesting and creative ways; the game is just content with giving the player easy as all get out levels throughout the entire game until it is just over. There is a slight difficulty spike in the final world that I enjoyed, but still nothing stands out. I don’t think I could name a level from this game that isn’t one of the new characters' home world missions. It all just adds up to a game that just doesn't do a whole lot

I know the general fan consensus is that this is the best game in the trilogy, and I can understand that, but for me it's just ok. I think overall Year of the Dragon is a good game, not quite as good as Spyro 1, but definitely better than Spyro 2. It just doesn’t do anything that hasn’t already been seen in the previous games, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetic. It is more of the same, albeit a good more of the same.

Spyro is a deceptively simple game, or at least its mechanics are. The story, if can call it that, abruptly starts and abruptly ends. Gnasty Gnorc is the main antagonist, but I would forgive you for not knowing that as he only appears twice throughout the entire runtime, once during the opening cutscene and then and then again when you get to his boss fight; this leaves Gnorc feeeling like a non threat during your playtime cause you just never see or hear from him. As well, Spyro has absolutely zero character growth, he is the same when the credits roll as he was when the player hits start. But I am willing to let all of this slide because the story was clearly not the primary focus here.

Like I said, Spyro is simple, the dragon has only a handful of abilities, he can run, jump, glide, charge dash, and breathe fire. These moves are all static; he gains no new ones, nor do they inherently change. But what does change is the environment and how these abilities interact with it. The game starts with levels that are intended to let you get your bearings with the controls and physics of it all, then the next set of levels asks you to start performing more daring jumps and glides, then the next makes you master super dashing, and before you know it you're having to juggle and combine all of theses abilities in order to get 100 percent in each of the levels. But the amazing thing is how natural it all feels, there is no sudden spike in difficulty, and the levels are ordered in such a way that it gentle guides you into certain trains of thought; the pacing really is just incredible. And even if you do get stumped on one section or puzzle, one of the many dragons you need to save in order to progress will likely have a hint to help you out. I think the best demonstration of what I am talking about is the level "Tree Tops"; the whole levels is this big open area with lots of winding paths and dash ramps, and in order to get all the collectables you have to experiment with all the paths and chain dashes together to reach maximum speed.

Despite this praise however, I do still have some critiques. The camera is just bad, not as bad as other games from around the same time, but still not good. In the options menu there are two modes for the camera: Active; where the camera moves almost entirely on its own, and Passive; which lets you control the camera, while still moving on its own when needed. I would recommend playing with the passive setting, it causes the camera to spaz out less in enclosed areas. As well, the jumping and gliding can feel a bit too punishing at times, some of the jumps need to be near pixel perfect in order to connect which was slightly annoying. Though I don't want to knock it to bad for this because these types of jumps were usually relegated to optional areas for 100 percent completion.

I think I can confidently say that Spyro the Dragon has stood strong through the test of time. Its mechanics and worlds are timeless and easily accessible, while still providing a challenge for those who want it. I would say it is definitely worth you time.

Firstly, I am aware that the SNES port of Prince of Persia is not a one to one translation, there are eight new levels, the levels that were already there have been remixed, and the game now gives a whole two hours to save the princess. But, from what I can tell, the original design and feel has been brought over gracefully; the weight in the prince's movement is still there, and the core design philosophy is intact, if not improved. But even with that, I understand if some consider this to be a wholly original entry in the Prince of Persia series; but for me, I am gonna treat this the same as the original, albeit slightly upgraded. Now with that out of the way, here is my review of the original Prince of Persia.

There is a level of detail and precision that comes from a game designed by an individual person. In most modern, big budget releases it is highly likely that each aspect of a game is worked on by different teams of people who all have different concepts that they want to pursue, and when all these ideas are combined they can sometimes stagnant and conflict with each other, take a look at the modern Wolfenstein games if you want an example. Here, though, there is none of that; there is a consistent and coherent pacing that shows through every element of the game. Jumping starts out as just a means to get over a gap, but it soon evolves into tool for spacing; killing an enemy is introduced as a simple obstacle to get through, but it is later implemented into the puzzle solving by having the dead bodies land on switches to keep gates open; the trap floors that fall from away from under the player are used to negate obstacles that you otherwise couldn't pass by letting them fall on top of them. Hell, on a grander scale, the entire game revolves around time, specifically, wasting time. The reason the player stutters when he falls is not just to show the impact of the fall, but to also punish you for making a mistake by wasting your time; rewards like health vials are purposely place out of the way in order to make the player question if they want more time or more health; and sword duels aren't just there as a challenge, but to also stop the player in there tracks so that they lose more time. This type of interconnected, multilayered design can truly be achieved when one person is allowed to be creative and fully understand each and every facet of their ideas.

To close out, while I did really like the first Prince of Persia, I still have a few criticism. I think the combat can be a little cheap, like if your timing isn't perfect the opponent can get like four hits in and you just can't do a whole lot about it. The inputs had a bit of lag with them, like I would press forward and jump, and then after I competed the jump the prince would just run forward again, sometimes into a trap. I don't know if this was the games fault, the emulator, or my brain going faster than the game can process. Other than that I think it is a fantastic game that holds up very well. Highly recommend.

What Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun lacks in substance it makes up for sheer, unadulterated viscera; it is a boomer shooter to its very core. Nothing else matters other than painting the walls of each of the game's 24 chapters crimson with the blood of the heretics that dare stand against you. The game asks you not to think, just kill without discrimination.

The weapons appropriately match this sentiment; the guns are blunt, with disregard to any sense of utility in exchange for raw fire power. Not to say they all do the same thing though; there are of course situations where the shotgun is going to be better than the titular boltgun, and the plasma guns splash damage is particularly handy in some scenarios, but really just holding down the trigger and letting bullets and blood fly is often the best way to approach encounters. As well, the sound design of the guns play into this play style; all the weapons just have a punch and power that makes them unendingly satisfying to fire in long bursts, to the point where I would often use a gun because I just wanted hear the sound of the projectile shooting out of the barrel and the shell hitting the floor. The game also provides copious amounts of ammo to ensure that you can fulfill this desire, there was never a single time where I didn’t have a sufficient amount of ammo, say for the game's BFG equivalent. The level design also encourages this run and gun strategy. The levels vary from being linear hallways where enemies are lined up like bowling pins for the marine to knock down in absurdly bloody fashion, and gigantic open maps where, to open the exit door, you run around and kill everything in sight, and sometimes then some. As well, health packs, armor (called contempt here), ammo, and secret power ups are all scattered around these arenas; so if you want to live you are going to have to run, jump, and pile drive through the environment.

However, as fun and cathartic as running through enemies with the force of god, it inevitably loses its luster after a while; and that is where the core flaw of this game lies. The game has no nuance. Like I mentioned, the guns only exist to do damage, they have no utility outside of that, which makes deciding which one to use for a given situation a matter of which one do I have the most ammo for. The enemies are also just as blunt as the weapons, they only exist to do damage and offer no other way of inconveniencing the player; the only real determining factors on which enemy should be dealt with first is how big their health bar is and how fast they can take yours. Compare this to the likes of Doom Eternal where the game constantly asks to understand the abilities of your guns beyond just damage and to apply them to dynamic combat encounters where enemies are designated to affect the players actions and train of thought in different ways, serving almost like a puzzle that is repeatedly un-solving itself.

Warhammer 40k: Boltgun is still a good game, don't get me wrong, and it will certainly make a name for itself in the ever growing pantheon of retro boomer shooters. But I still feel like it doesn’t fully understand what makes for engaging design in this genre, and instead decides to fully engross itself with a lot of the surface level concepts that people think about when discussing the retro first person shooter scene.

This review is gonna be a little short because there isn't I don't have a whole lot to say about the original Metal Gear. I appreciate the ambition this one has, there are ideas here that you wouldn't really expect from a game of it's time; the radio frequency specifically is an aspect I didn't think would be as heavily used as it is. It is not implemented the best, the game flat out doesn't tell you one of the main frequencies you need to progress, but I still think it is cool and an immersive way of giving the player information that was ahead of its time. Other than that the game is pretty simple, stay out of guards literal line of sight, gather items to progress, and fight a couple bosses; it's simple but fun. I would suggest playing with a map, maybe not one that tells you where items are, but one that at least shows you what doors need what key card.