The Hitman reboot trilogy finds its greatest strengths and its greatest flaws in the same quality: The games are exactly what you make of them.

For instance, I was able to run through Hitman 2 in roughly four hours, how much of that was AFK/Alt tabbed? Probably a sizable amount. I was able to sneak and run through most levels and with a well timed silenced shot on necessary targets, clear the targets required of me. Would it have been more "fun" to go for a high score, more objective oriented kills that the way the game had intended? Yeah most likely. However in games where a target or assassination is needed, I often go for the most "efficient" route. I guess it's the way I'm wired, but I find the Hitman games an interesting quandary. Do you go for the long haul, play the game the way that IO intended? You could, that requires a lot of self discovery, following of mini stories and non-important characters, costume changing, reliance on dead drop sites. Most people are likely to do that, finding that the games freedom of movement is enjoyable and that perusing the extra methods of clearing and extraction are enjoyable. I however, could not seperate my goal of the fastest clear from the objectives of the game. I hustled and bustled through each of the maps, aimed, and pulled on the trigger. I was genuinely surprised how easily this worked out given the issues I had trying to play the game with more freedom in the first Hitman (reboot.)

The game is absolutely gorgeous, with maps from Miami to Colombia to Suburban Vermont and more. Running this on high graphics and in top fidelity made the game a treat to run through and experience, especially on the aforementioned Vermont level. Between that and the intricate map design, I felt like I had a good time loading in and (quickly) exploring the areas that each mission had to offer.

Even though I touched on the intended versus efficient dichotomy previously, I think the game's biggest flaw is its presentation. I didn't enjoy the "storytelling" or interweaving of plot in the first game, and I definitely didn't in this. I think it's safe to say that we (almost) all love a good spy thriller, I mean the Bond series (which of course IO is working on) has been a blockbuster for how long? The plot of Hitman COULD be extremely interesting if they chose to present it with more intention, with more emotion. They have a very captivating character in Agent 47 and in the Operator, even Lucas Grey is a piece they could explore. The order they are at odds with COULD be pretty awesome to dive deeper into, however I felt like with the storyboard presentations and stills they use to weave between missions, they missed out heavily. I love the locations you visit in these games, they are so intricate and beautifully designed that some more oomph to the story would aid them superbly.

I, as one might tell in reading this review, am not a fan of the replayability aspect of these games, and that takes away quite a bit of my experience, however I recognize that the feeling there is much so in the minority thus I do not knock the game's score in that regard too hard. The menus are sleekly designed, but are populated largely with things I don't care about. Score, level, missions missed; all were lost on me as a player of single player games almost always only for the "story."

Sidenote, the file size of this game is ginormous. It took a 50-60 gig download on top of a 35 gig post download update to get this game to install.

If you're someone who loves to experiment in sandbox-esque games or games where the tools at your disposal directly shape the way you experience the game, the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy is probably great for you. If you are like me and often seek to complete objectives as promptly as they are given and enjoy games with an enriching narrative, Hitman 2 may not be the go-to game for you.

Reviewed the other one but i played this one…yeah. I’m that kind of guy. The guy who doesn’t look where he’s going, who doesn’t check to see if the seat’s wet before sitting down. I make an ass of myself and I’m here for it — I’m class clown, and my GPA’s 4.0. So I can make mistakes, I can trip over my own shoelaces and hit the dirt — I’ll still make my own success. I’ll still be bigger than you’ll ever fucking be. I’m a sort of the proto-rockstar of the new age. The type of punk rocker that’ll beat the shit out of you and buy you a burger after as some sort of recompense then ditch you to party. I’m fucking crazy. I’m whacked. The shit I do is incomprehensible to a moron like yourself. Look at that stride when you walk — it’s fucking humiliating. Stand up straight and walk like a fucking man, pussy. You’re a fucking sissy. Damn. But I like this game and thinking about it now my only regret with it is not taking my time with it. For whatever reason I felt totally rushed to beat it and skimmed the text and didn’t let many of the game’s bigger moments breathe which is just a total mistake on my part. I don’t feel like replaying it because with games like this I can’t really find the motivation to replay them but I’d like to think if I wiped my memory and took it slower I’d like it more than I do, but for now it’s a solid 4 game. I can totally see why people love it and ideally when I play their next game I’ll play at a bit more relaxed pace enjoy myself 😉

Disco Elysium es titánico. Una auténtica bestia muy compleja a la que, me parece a mí, no voy a poder hacer justicia en una review breve. Pero habrá que intentarlo.

Es seguramente de los guiones mejor escritos que he visto en un videojuego. Y no solo hablo de la trama en sí (eso es tema aparte); hablo de la prosa. Hablo de las expresiones, las conversaciones, el doblaje. Todo resulta tan creíble y encaja tan bien dentro del mundo del juego, que este te acaba atrapando irremediablemente. Y también hablo de un sentido del humor que permea todo el juego, un humor muy agrio unas veces y, directamente, estupidísimo en otras que ha hecho que me ría a carcajadas como con poquitos juegos.

Y la trama en sí, oh, Dios. La forma en la que el caso se va desenredando, en que vas conectando los puntos y todo, poco a poco, va encajando, aunque estés haciendo side quests que no parece que aporten nada al caso. La forma en la que tus decisiones realmente importan, y estás lidiando con sus consecuencias constantemente (programar esto tiene que haber sido un infierno). La forma en la que vas conociendo poco a poco a los habitantes de Martinaise, sin que haya uno solo sin una historia interesante detrás. La forma en la que se tocan temas muy delicados con la misma naturalidad con la que se tomarían si esto fuera el mundo real, sin florituras. Y aun así, no es un juego realista, o no del todo. Es esa mezcla entre realismo y onirismo, entre lo pragmático y lo esotérico, lo que lo hace un juego con un "aura" muy especial. Joder, realmente tú puedes elegir hacia qué lado de ese eje realista-onírico se decanta la historia. Puedes ser un detective cerebrito o un gilipollas esotérico. O un bruto que se da de hostias para resolver cualquier conflicto. O un drogadicto que... En fin, prefiero no destripar todo lo que puedes ser en este juego. Es lo típico que es mejor que lo vivas tú cuando lo juegues.

No es perfecto. Tengo mis peros con el sistema de dados. El comienzo es terriblemente lento. Es un tipo de juego que no gustará demasiado a todo el mundo (mucho texto).

¿Me importan alguna de estas cosas? En absoluto. Ha sido una experiencia maravillosa y no cambiaría nada de lo que este juego ya es. Ciertamente, no es perfecto. Pero es muy especial. Me ha hecho reír a c

[...] The limbed and headed machine of pain and undignified suffering is firing up again. It wants to walk the desert. Hurting. Longing. Dancing to disco music.

— Ancient Reptilian Brain

I knew a lot about this game before playing it. I loved its style and I listened to its music really frequently. Point being, I may have some bias.

Half of the game is combat which is simple enough and repetitive. The other half is some also simple mini-games to grind up cash. Despite me calling the combat repetitive, it never made me reach the point where I was dreading doing more. The closest I ever got to that point was when the game threw too many of a tankier enemy at me at once. As far as money grinding goes, it seems set up so you will never have to do an excess of grinding unless you want to buy everything. I had to do a little extra towards the end and while it was tedious, the end didn't feel too out of reach.

This game has flair and for myself that gives it a huge buff. Some things that in any other game would make me groan end up being tolerable and don't turn me off at all. If you think you are going to enjoy No More Heroes when you see a bit of it, you likely will. Travis is a unique character and the game is pretty funny.

Roguelikes aren’t much my thing since I find losing all the progress you make in a run to be more frustrating than anything, and Hades isn’t really different about that. But it definitely takes an interesting spin on the formula with how it integrates into its story, along with just being a very well polished game.

I really love the art direction and how vibrant the environments are. The character designs are also fantastic, all the gods look dope and really bring the style to life. The music and voice acting’s great too.

It’s definitely not easy, it took me a lot of tries to get through the bosses and reach the end. And after completing a full run there’s even more difficult modifiers you can add for replays. Combat’s based around 6 weapons and a variety of boons that give skills and upgrades to help get through, and it’s really fun when you start putting together builds for your playstyle. I ended up sticking with the shield.

It did start to get a bit tiring the more runs I did, but dying a lot is expected and always lead to new dialogue from the characters, more skills opening up, and better upgrades that slowly make you stronger and more prepared for the next time. So it’s definitely the type of game that’s hard to put down since you’ll want to keep trying over and over.