mugimugi
Since the newest trailer for the 2nd game looked kind of neat from a directing and editing standpoint, I was curious to finally try this out.
This is exactly what I cannot stand about a lot modern video games. Just full on blast pretentious "we aren't like those other video games, we are... Hollywood. And video game systems are cringe".
The concept itself, great idea. Execution is insanely annoying and falls flat.
Combat is horrendously simple for a game that genuinely does not offer any other interactivity than its combat. It reminds me of licensed games that usually just slap the most straight forward combat system they can think of, while not engaging the player with anything else. Enemy variety essentially does not exist.
The whole game is just making you walk forward while being blasted with voices, the novelty of this wears off instantly. Then stopping you at obvious doors to spawn the same enemies over and over or gracing you with a "puzzle", which makes you look at surrounding garbage.
Literally just looking around with your camera, to form rune shapes by aligning objects like twigs or fences to match the shape superimposed on your screen. It will also tell you when you are near such matching objects through visual and audio cues, essentially removing even the tiniest bit of player agency in the only section of players interacting with the game.
Fuck "games" like this.
This is exactly what I cannot stand about a lot modern video games. Just full on blast pretentious "we aren't like those other video games, we are... Hollywood. And video game systems are cringe".
The concept itself, great idea. Execution is insanely annoying and falls flat.
Combat is horrendously simple for a game that genuinely does not offer any other interactivity than its combat. It reminds me of licensed games that usually just slap the most straight forward combat system they can think of, while not engaging the player with anything else. Enemy variety essentially does not exist.
The whole game is just making you walk forward while being blasted with voices, the novelty of this wears off instantly. Then stopping you at obvious doors to spawn the same enemies over and over or gracing you with a "puzzle", which makes you look at surrounding garbage.
Literally just looking around with your camera, to form rune shapes by aligning objects like twigs or fences to match the shape superimposed on your screen. It will also tell you when you are near such matching objects through visual and audio cues, essentially removing even the tiniest bit of player agency in the only section of players interacting with the game.
Fuck "games" like this.
1994
Using this for both versions, the Floppy Disk MS-Dos and CD. The former I believe has even lower resolution and no audio logs and whatnot but I think it has its charms but the audio added, especially SHODAN's voice, are obviously great and iconic. I much prefer the visuals in this over the Enhanced Edition remaster but that has some decent QoL from what I saw, so I'll give it a try someday.
The music and crunchy audio quality in this original are amazing and add a lot. I like the UI and all the colors in the levels. The 2D sprite enemies are great too although for some objects not so much, only due to how they interact with the 3D camera rotating sometimes.
This original feels a lot more like a mix between Doom and a survival horror/exploration game than the remake. Which leans more into the latter, because in this original the music + enemy amount feel more pressuring especially at the end. I like both takes though.
The Engineering level is more sufferable in the Remake and I guess technically the Cyberspace is more appealing looking there but the actual objective and purpose of the Cyberspace in the original are better, and the presentation of them feels more apt to the setting.
I saw people complain about various stuff in the Remake as usual, and some parts I agree but it's more of a taste thing rather than good vs bad like the "writing" of the logs or voice performances. SHODAN is voiced by Terri in both versions, both are good but different. The random audio logs go either way as well, in the original they are obviously voiced by just some people they could grab and sound like amateurs reading their lines, but that kind of fits since the people are just random employees of the station. Diego is kind of worse in the Remake though. It would have been nice if the Remake came with a setting for original voices and music separately or at all, like Star Ocean 2 Remake.
Controls are hyper giga jank but it's okay and it's part of the charm of these games. I suppose this is why the first game already got called immersive sim, since you interact a lot more with the game through the controls and UI. While in the Remake you have smoother actions, WASD, etc, which then makes the UI less part of the game and focuses more on the shooter/survival aspect. That also highlights the lack of elements you would otherwise associate in game interactions with immersive Sims, that feel more present in the original due to the jank controls, more cumbersome processes and UI importance.
On top of that, you really needed Pen & Paper to progress parts of the game, which made you much more involved in exploration and getting lost into the game. Now you can just take a screenshot of what you need (if you know beforehand) or google cuck yourself.
I think getting lost and confused about what to do is probably a lot more fun and acceptable to most new players in the Remake. I could see a lot of people, including myself, getting more frustrated with it in the original if it happened there the first time. Hard to tell hindsight.
Both are good takes on the game in their own rights, in my opinion, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. But the original gets away with more just due to being the original form 1994 that turned out to be what it is due to intentions, limitations and Zeitgeist. I think people should play any version of 1994 and Remake if they are into it, they a both worth and fun. Remake is obviously smoother and more digestable to most MoDeRn gAmErS.
After the rough start I had with the Remake I'm surprised, SHOCKED even, how much I got into System Shock 1. I really love it, all the versions. It's generally not a genre is get super into.
The music and crunchy audio quality in this original are amazing and add a lot. I like the UI and all the colors in the levels. The 2D sprite enemies are great too although for some objects not so much, only due to how they interact with the 3D camera rotating sometimes.
This original feels a lot more like a mix between Doom and a survival horror/exploration game than the remake. Which leans more into the latter, because in this original the music + enemy amount feel more pressuring especially at the end. I like both takes though.
The Engineering level is more sufferable in the Remake and I guess technically the Cyberspace is more appealing looking there but the actual objective and purpose of the Cyberspace in the original are better, and the presentation of them feels more apt to the setting.
I saw people complain about various stuff in the Remake as usual, and some parts I agree but it's more of a taste thing rather than good vs bad like the "writing" of the logs or voice performances. SHODAN is voiced by Terri in both versions, both are good but different. The random audio logs go either way as well, in the original they are obviously voiced by just some people they could grab and sound like amateurs reading their lines, but that kind of fits since the people are just random employees of the station. Diego is kind of worse in the Remake though. It would have been nice if the Remake came with a setting for original voices and music separately or at all, like Star Ocean 2 Remake.
Controls are hyper giga jank but it's okay and it's part of the charm of these games. I suppose this is why the first game already got called immersive sim, since you interact a lot more with the game through the controls and UI. While in the Remake you have smoother actions, WASD, etc, which then makes the UI less part of the game and focuses more on the shooter/survival aspect. That also highlights the lack of elements you would otherwise associate in game interactions with immersive Sims, that feel more present in the original due to the jank controls, more cumbersome processes and UI importance.
On top of that, you really needed Pen & Paper to progress parts of the game, which made you much more involved in exploration and getting lost into the game. Now you can just take a screenshot of what you need (if you know beforehand) or google cuck yourself.
I think getting lost and confused about what to do is probably a lot more fun and acceptable to most new players in the Remake. I could see a lot of people, including myself, getting more frustrated with it in the original if it happened there the first time. Hard to tell hindsight.
Both are good takes on the game in their own rights, in my opinion, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. But the original gets away with more just due to being the original form 1994 that turned out to be what it is due to intentions, limitations and Zeitgeist. I think people should play any version of 1994 and Remake if they are into it, they a both worth and fun. Remake is obviously smoother and more digestable to most MoDeRn gAmErS.
After the rough start I had with the Remake I'm surprised, SHOCKED even, how much I got into System Shock 1. I really love it, all the versions. It's generally not a genre is get super into.
2022
Content wise, the game is disappointing since the MMO should be a blueprint for what you can do with the game, just add a Tekken 3 force mode or whatever Granblue has.
There are also so many classes that should be there on top of them being just the base classes. There is no actual awakening system or skins for the characters.
Visuals and combat are great, the combo system easy and insanely fun with noob friendly input system which allow you to play with friends who usually don't play fighting games and have no interest in learning.
DLC character release is way too slow and we don't know if they even bother with a season 2 at this point since fighting game "fans" nowadays need weekly updates and only play games with high steam stats, because that really mattered for fighting games the past 30 years. Netcode is proper modern Arcsys quality. Crossplay would probably help with matchups but even then just consider it a discord fightan. And I doubt Nexon will support this any further since they just want to advertise their MMO cashcow.
Still one of my favorite fighting games in recent years just in terms of mindless fun, but I am a DFO MMO player so I have the fandom bias. The character tuning is close to kusoge status with many having half screen normals (think Yuzuriha from UNI). Although this really is just an anime fighter with no IAD. Everyone is busted. Strive babies get filtered.
There are also so many classes that should be there on top of them being just the base classes. There is no actual awakening system or skins for the characters.
Visuals and combat are great, the combo system easy and insanely fun with noob friendly input system which allow you to play with friends who usually don't play fighting games and have no interest in learning.
DLC character release is way too slow and we don't know if they even bother with a season 2 at this point since fighting game "fans" nowadays need weekly updates and only play games with high steam stats, because that really mattered for fighting games the past 30 years. Netcode is proper modern Arcsys quality. Crossplay would probably help with matchups but even then just consider it a discord fightan. And I doubt Nexon will support this any further since they just want to advertise their MMO cashcow.
Still one of my favorite fighting games in recent years just in terms of mindless fun, but I am a DFO MMO player so I have the fandom bias. The character tuning is close to kusoge status with many having half screen normals (think Yuzuriha from UNI). Although this really is just an anime fighter with no IAD. Everyone is busted. Strive babies get filtered.
PSO2 died for this poor excuse to sell the same or worse costume gacha again. It's fucking funny how everything is worse, but they made a point in making the new costume releases more frequent than in PSO2 while also tampering with the trade and market ability of the playerbase.
The western playerbase is awful, a freakshow doing nothing than ERP and weird ass drama.
Granted, there isn't anything else to do but maybe SEGA would have gotten the message if these self-insert psychos would stop paypigging hundreds of dollars per month on this bad version of a dress up game.
Compared to the final version of PSO2 the combat is worse, classes are worse, mechanics are worse, costumes are worse, story is worse, characters are worse, interactivity is worse, events are worse, random SEGA jank charm is gone, experimental and random content is gone. Character creation is worse and the new graphics style makes everyone look ugly as shit, especially the faces. Some sliders are just garbage compared to before and some clothing interacts the wrong way making everyone look like they wear pregnancy clothing.
I remember the constant cope of "PSO2 also started this way", and here we are. 3 years later and it still the same nothing from launch.
Also I won't forget how the servers actually can't handle more than 10.000 players. They just waited until it dropped and claimed the servers were fixed.
And I won't forget them pushing new costumes and even certain support banners for gear affixing right before this game launched, claiming everything will carry over.
PSO2 costumes look better, but will clog your inventory space, which you have to spend money on to expand, and look lower poly/res. Although most of them still look better, they also disable NGS body models, which also look worse to be fair.
The gear that you could carry over and was very complicated and hard to obtain and affix in PSO2 was made obsolete within 1 hour of playing of NGS.
And they knew this game was coming way before this. In fact PSO2 was only brought global knowing they are releasing and announcing NGS about 1 year later. So they just milked the shit out of it.
PSO2 still exists within the game but it's obviously dead. They also "updated" the engine and it looks worse now.
The cherry on top was SEGA putting the guy who brought us the worst content in PSO2 in charge of NGS and in recent interviews made it pretty evident how little ambition and passion he has for this game.
The western playerbase is awful, a freakshow doing nothing than ERP and weird ass drama.
Granted, there isn't anything else to do but maybe SEGA would have gotten the message if these self-insert psychos would stop paypigging hundreds of dollars per month on this bad version of a dress up game.
Compared to the final version of PSO2 the combat is worse, classes are worse, mechanics are worse, costumes are worse, story is worse, characters are worse, interactivity is worse, events are worse, random SEGA jank charm is gone, experimental and random content is gone. Character creation is worse and the new graphics style makes everyone look ugly as shit, especially the faces. Some sliders are just garbage compared to before and some clothing interacts the wrong way making everyone look like they wear pregnancy clothing.
I remember the constant cope of "PSO2 also started this way", and here we are. 3 years later and it still the same nothing from launch.
Also I won't forget how the servers actually can't handle more than 10.000 players. They just waited until it dropped and claimed the servers were fixed.
And I won't forget them pushing new costumes and even certain support banners for gear affixing right before this game launched, claiming everything will carry over.
PSO2 costumes look better, but will clog your inventory space, which you have to spend money on to expand, and look lower poly/res. Although most of them still look better, they also disable NGS body models, which also look worse to be fair.
The gear that you could carry over and was very complicated and hard to obtain and affix in PSO2 was made obsolete within 1 hour of playing of NGS.
And they knew this game was coming way before this. In fact PSO2 was only brought global knowing they are releasing and announcing NGS about 1 year later. So they just milked the shit out of it.
PSO2 still exists within the game but it's obviously dead. They also "updated" the engine and it looks worse now.
The cherry on top was SEGA putting the guy who brought us the worst content in PSO2 in charge of NGS and in recent interviews made it pretty evident how little ambition and passion he has for this game.
A lot of this is pretty fun and feels a bit more like a better execution of what Bethesda tried to do for decades. But the combat brings it down a lot on top of the economy kind of ruining the quasi-simulation aspect by just giving you way too much gold from vendors. Henry is kind of an interesting main character. He can be a lovable, naive dork most of the time which you don't see a lot. Just a manchild being forced into the mud.
The game is insanely polished. It's rare to get a full JRPG experience like this nowadays. Fairly unique as well. The is an ever increasing spectacle with great set pieces but avoiding to fall into the trap of making it not interactive or filling it with QTEs. Post game is a mix between PSO, Monster Hunter and a bit of Dragon's Crown with a similar look as the old original gacha game. Just more streamlined and 0 micro transactions.
My only issue with this is the roster choice again, forcing the entire fujo knight squad and randos like Ghanda instead of Ilsa, Bea, Aliza, Naoise or the infinite number of great characters they have, instead of Lance and Vane again.
Another small annoying thing is the utter pointless censorship. And with pointless I mean they cover like 1% more of someone's skin which you usually see in ports to china or SEA. New players that aren't familiar with the franchise might be a bit lost at the start because all the characters and such are already established and I doubt people will read journal lore to catch up.
My only issue with this is the roster choice again, forcing the entire fujo knight squad and randos like Ghanda instead of Ilsa, Bea, Aliza, Naoise or the infinite number of great characters they have, instead of Lance and Vane again.
Another small annoying thing is the utter pointless censorship. And with pointless I mean they cover like 1% more of someone's skin which you usually see in ports to china or SEA. New players that aren't familiar with the franchise might be a bit lost at the start because all the characters and such are already established and I doubt people will read journal lore to catch up.
2023
One of the best fighting games made. Only music is lacking and slow character release schedule.
After not being a fan of the last decade of Capcom fighting games, this one made it in my top 3-5 maybe, possibly even number 1. Even though my heart is with games Blazblue, +R and KoF. Since 3S and Alpha games Street Fighter hasn't gripped me anymore until this one. I even like the newest Tekken after being uninterested outside of casual play of the old games as a kid. Fighting games are peaking right now, but this is still my favorite of the new ones. Just need more characters for variety.
After not being a fan of the last decade of Capcom fighting games, this one made it in my top 3-5 maybe, possibly even number 1. Even though my heart is with games Blazblue, +R and KoF. Since 3S and Alpha games Street Fighter hasn't gripped me anymore until this one. I even like the newest Tekken after being uninterested outside of casual play of the old games as a kid. Fighting games are peaking right now, but this is still my favorite of the new ones. Just need more characters for variety.
2010
Not giving it an actual minus for Father Nier but I think it's slightly revolting that a change happened like this just out of the thought that westerners need to be catered to. And I'm not blaming the devs, especially since there is a meme aspect to it with Yoko Taro having funky ideas, but just a sad reminder of the perceiption of JRPG/Japanese games and content in the west and also how this is perceived in japan, leading to the decline of a lot of JRPGs later.
Great characters, story, setting, variety in storytelling, fun sidequesting (for me), farming, fishing, great atmosphere and music. I picked this up on a whim back then when I was frustrated with the state of the games, especially JRPGs on the PS3 and this instantly became not only my favorite on that console but in general.
Great characters, story, setting, variety in storytelling, fun sidequesting (for me), farming, fishing, great atmosphere and music. I picked this up on a whim back then when I was frustrated with the state of the games, especially JRPGs on the PS3 and this instantly became not only my favorite on that console but in general.
2021
Cool setting, music, fun enough combat with some jank and frustration things before unlocking extra movement and combo options in the skill tree. Wish there was a little bit more to interactivity or side stuff to do in the town, but it's a pretty good game for the price, especially with the huge discount they keep having on Steam.
TXAA has ghosting issue on PC but can be fixed through .ini file editing (just download the one on nexus mods).
TXAA has ghosting issue on PC but can be fixed through .ini file editing (just download the one on nexus mods).
2023
Didn't really like it for the first hour but then got hooked.
I'm not really into survival horror besides Signalis, which was also the first I really played and finished, but the setting in System Shock is way more up my alley than just zombies and whatnot in RE games or Silent Hill (although the basic mutants are just zombies).
Overall I ended up genuinely loving the exploration, wandering around not knowing what to do, enemy encounters, level interactions, progression and weapons. Except for melee, which feels ass and lacks feedback still. The drug + melee combo is fun though. The modern WASD smooth FPS controls make it a lot of fun engaging with enemies and exploring the station, even when you're lost. Which I think is part of the core gameplay.
Running around not knowing what to do for while until you get the clues or the right spot, I think is fun. It's not part of the game, it is the game to an extend. People getting irritated by that or inclined to beg for waypoints, Google gamers, need to probably unlearn this "play to for the sake of finishing" mentality. Because that's where a lot of unnecessary complaints about "wasting time" come from, or people dropping a game when they don't know what to do, since their only aim to check another game off their list to simply have it finished.
While some game interaction, and maybe even immersiveness gets lots with the modern UI and controls, they added a bit more back by being able to just interact with things and buttons via mouseclick directly in the environment.
The junk and coin machine system is neat and adds back a bit more interactivity which got lost from improving the controls over the original but at the end I just ignored it due to inventory space, and generally I had loads of ammo, weapons and drugs. You can also fairly quickly just backtrack to one of the few and rare healing stations if you really wanted to. It makes sort of sense if you create loot stashes on different floors, since inventory is very limited and the cross-floor storage is even smaller.
I wish the music was more present in the remake, aside from the intro song, it's difficult to even remember it compared to the original. I do not have an issue with the difference in style of the music though and like both, but I prefer when Remakes add something new to warrant them. As always I wish there were options to use the original soundtrack or even voice lines (they would have to change the written text back to match the logs too). But even if they don't, the Remake soundtrack really needed to be more present but the actual new soundtrack is really good too. The ambient parts of the soundtrack lend themselves more to exploring while you're lost or looting compared to the original. Which probably makes the Remake a better experience for getting lost and exploring for a first time playthrough than the original.
The new intro sequence/cutscene is also kinda lame and clashes with the rest of how the game is presented.
Worst part are probably the Cyberspace sequences in the endgame. At first they were kinda fun but then they just turn into overly long detours with rooms spawning bullet sponges that you have to kill to remove barriers.
Lowkey, they feel Nier Automata hacking inspired now but the later ones in game drag a s s and the shooting isn't very fun. The getting lost, especially in the Engineering floor one, is the bad kind of getting lost too and I don't the objective of slowly floating and bumping into walls to kill bullet sponge enemies works too well. In Nier they were quick and the presentation and quirkyness of them made more sense with the style of just random stuff Taro puts into his games to clash with conventions.
Cyberspace sequences aren't god awful but in both games kinda whack for different reasons, at least this version is a bit more digestable visually, but in the same process just looks a bit more corny compared to the older aesthetic that fits the retro hacking mythos more.
There are still some bugs I encountered, like drifting mouse with controllers plugged in (even without once) and some smaller stuff I already forgot but it was rare.
The only thing missing in the Remake, is like I said, options for original soundtrack and logs and honestly I would just redesign the Cyberspace sequences again.
Would have been nice to have more implementations of hijinks via cyber enhancements, like the drug induced illusions but it's fine and considering a lot of it is straight out of a 1994 game, it's pretty impressive. Most of the pros and cons apply to all versions of the game and some things I prefer or don't like in each version a well.
I'm not really into survival horror besides Signalis, which was also the first I really played and finished, but the setting in System Shock is way more up my alley than just zombies and whatnot in RE games or Silent Hill (although the basic mutants are just zombies).
Overall I ended up genuinely loving the exploration, wandering around not knowing what to do, enemy encounters, level interactions, progression and weapons. Except for melee, which feels ass and lacks feedback still. The drug + melee combo is fun though. The modern WASD smooth FPS controls make it a lot of fun engaging with enemies and exploring the station, even when you're lost. Which I think is part of the core gameplay.
Running around not knowing what to do for while until you get the clues or the right spot, I think is fun. It's not part of the game, it is the game to an extend. People getting irritated by that or inclined to beg for waypoints, Google gamers, need to probably unlearn this "play to for the sake of finishing" mentality. Because that's where a lot of unnecessary complaints about "wasting time" come from, or people dropping a game when they don't know what to do, since their only aim to check another game off their list to simply have it finished.
While some game interaction, and maybe even immersiveness gets lots with the modern UI and controls, they added a bit more back by being able to just interact with things and buttons via mouseclick directly in the environment.
The junk and coin machine system is neat and adds back a bit more interactivity which got lost from improving the controls over the original but at the end I just ignored it due to inventory space, and generally I had loads of ammo, weapons and drugs. You can also fairly quickly just backtrack to one of the few and rare healing stations if you really wanted to. It makes sort of sense if you create loot stashes on different floors, since inventory is very limited and the cross-floor storage is even smaller.
I wish the music was more present in the remake, aside from the intro song, it's difficult to even remember it compared to the original. I do not have an issue with the difference in style of the music though and like both, but I prefer when Remakes add something new to warrant them. As always I wish there were options to use the original soundtrack or even voice lines (they would have to change the written text back to match the logs too). But even if they don't, the Remake soundtrack really needed to be more present but the actual new soundtrack is really good too. The ambient parts of the soundtrack lend themselves more to exploring while you're lost or looting compared to the original. Which probably makes the Remake a better experience for getting lost and exploring for a first time playthrough than the original.
The new intro sequence/cutscene is also kinda lame and clashes with the rest of how the game is presented.
Worst part are probably the Cyberspace sequences in the endgame. At first they were kinda fun but then they just turn into overly long detours with rooms spawning bullet sponges that you have to kill to remove barriers.
Lowkey, they feel Nier Automata hacking inspired now but the later ones in game drag a s s and the shooting isn't very fun. The getting lost, especially in the Engineering floor one, is the bad kind of getting lost too and I don't the objective of slowly floating and bumping into walls to kill bullet sponge enemies works too well. In Nier they were quick and the presentation and quirkyness of them made more sense with the style of just random stuff Taro puts into his games to clash with conventions.
Cyberspace sequences aren't god awful but in both games kinda whack for different reasons, at least this version is a bit more digestable visually, but in the same process just looks a bit more corny compared to the older aesthetic that fits the retro hacking mythos more.
There are still some bugs I encountered, like drifting mouse with controllers plugged in (even without once) and some smaller stuff I already forgot but it was rare.
The only thing missing in the Remake, is like I said, options for original soundtrack and logs and honestly I would just redesign the Cyberspace sequences again.
Would have been nice to have more implementations of hijinks via cyber enhancements, like the drug induced illusions but it's fine and considering a lot of it is straight out of a 1994 game, it's pretty impressive. Most of the pros and cons apply to all versions of the game and some things I prefer or don't like in each version a well.
2003
Only got into it recently but on the right server that doesn't punish new players that don't know shit and light RP, this might the perfect MMO experience that isn't a RPG (which would be Ragnarok Online). The amount of systems and interactivity is insane, and with the right people there is a constant stream of funny and novel situations. Took me a whole session to learn just how to do my job as botanist, meanwhile the whole station around me was in chaos with demonic rituals taking place in the hospital.
2001
Honestly this is good. Corny as fuck characters and story but it's a fun niche JRPG, with a fun combo based, turn-based combat system but the internet will tell you the game sucked because some youtube essays that nooticed how it's not the first game again. Didn't play EN dub of course. If anyone does and uses that as a metric against any game it's honking time.
Underrated, especially considering the absolute drought of proper JRPGs that started with this console gen but WKC I and II are basically just a 2 disc game. And the biggest problem there is that disc 2 starts off with quite literally walking the entire journey from the first game in reverse. Every single map. All the other Level-5 JRPGisms save the concept for me though. Not a fan of the player created character and the Georama being basically just some online thing. Which is basically gone now but could be the blueprint for Granblue Relink, as JRPG that added some Monster Hunter-esque online function as bonus.
Better than Gestalt, just for the fact that this features the intended MC. The remaster aspects are fine. The game feels good, looks alright although it didn't need a visual change, as per usual with remasters and remakes. Song rearrangements are nice too but again, should have come with the options to use the original OST. Good way of selling the game again after Automata, because most people didn't know the original or said it's shit until the Automata revisionism kicked it. Everything that is great in the original is still there pretty much and it's one of the more acceptable instances of remaster/remakes.