outputdevice
2022
Aside from the last handful of levels, which I just wasn't up to par with the standard the game expected of me, 80% of this game is a joyous, beautiful, well-soundtracked hybrid of a platformer and an extreme sports game. But there is a serious difficulty spike at the back end, which may suit people better equipped with lightning reflexes and adaptive muscle memory.
2022
2021
2021
2020
2022
This review contains spoilers
I really, really wanted to like this. Death's Door was one of my favourites last year, and all this had to be to get me excited was just exactly that again but worse. Despite the obvious aesthetic similarities - isometric view, animal protagonist, Zelda-like, Souls influenced, semi-open world etc. etc. - they're different enough to irk me in all the wrong ways, but not too much as to disinvite comparison.
There's a lot of praise due for the vibe in Tunic, as it does look and sound gorgeous, and the meta layer of finding the game's manual within the game is a cool touch, and well executed.
However, it's entirely let down for me by a few key factors. The most notable is the combat, which is genuinely the worst I've experienced in a modern game in recent memory. It apes a lot from older Zelda games, with the targeting, and one button for attack and one to defend. You pick the equipment on the face buttons like a Zelda game too, though I didn't find much to add beyond the sword and the stick, save for an ice spell. And what a colossal pain it is to find this stuff! It took me about half an hour to find the sword, and maybe another hour on from that to find the shield. And there was so, so much bad combat in that time too that even dipping down to the perma-life setting didn't make it more palatable.
Level design and general traversal also riled me but at this point I'm growing tired of my own written voice.
For context, I've played about four hours and got out of the first major area when I decided to put this down. Reading through everyone else's thoughts on this has me almost second guessing myself, and I may well come back at some point in the future to try again, as I do feel like I'm missing out. If anyone reads this and decides I'm utterly wrong and can help me enjoy this, then by all means correct me.
There's a lot of praise due for the vibe in Tunic, as it does look and sound gorgeous, and the meta layer of finding the game's manual within the game is a cool touch, and well executed.
However, it's entirely let down for me by a few key factors. The most notable is the combat, which is genuinely the worst I've experienced in a modern game in recent memory. It apes a lot from older Zelda games, with the targeting, and one button for attack and one to defend. You pick the equipment on the face buttons like a Zelda game too, though I didn't find much to add beyond the sword and the stick, save for an ice spell. And what a colossal pain it is to find this stuff! It took me about half an hour to find the sword, and maybe another hour on from that to find the shield. And there was so, so much bad combat in that time too that even dipping down to the perma-life setting didn't make it more palatable.
Level design and general traversal also riled me but at this point I'm growing tired of my own written voice.
For context, I've played about four hours and got out of the first major area when I decided to put this down. Reading through everyone else's thoughts on this has me almost second guessing myself, and I may well come back at some point in the future to try again, as I do feel like I'm missing out. If anyone reads this and decides I'm utterly wrong and can help me enjoy this, then by all means correct me.
2018
2020
I didn't expect at all to find myself chasing down all the endings for cyberpunk this week, but here we are. I abandoned my save just before the point of no return (though I didn't actually realise this til now) playing the PS4 version on PS5 at launch due to the endless crashing and bugs which I won't talk about here because you already know the score.
I almost love this game, despite all the frustration and missing features and being royally mugged off as a console player for over a year. The story is great, if padded with edginess for edginess' sake, and Night City is almost a world-beating setting, if experienced when the game is holding your hand and dragging you through it. Which, shockingly enough for an open-world game, is when it's at its best.
Even with patch 1.5, there's still no traffic on the roads, and barely any pedestrians - the city just does not feel lived in when seen outside of a scripted event.
This is already too long (ignoring some glaring issues too like the skill tree, progression, and the awful glut of pointless side content) so for the benefit of anyone that hasn't played this through yet, there's a great game in here if you almost treat it as a linear experience and do away with the illusion of choice presented to you.
I almost love this game, despite all the frustration and missing features and being royally mugged off as a console player for over a year. The story is great, if padded with edginess for edginess' sake, and Night City is almost a world-beating setting, if experienced when the game is holding your hand and dragging you through it. Which, shockingly enough for an open-world game, is when it's at its best.
Even with patch 1.5, there's still no traffic on the roads, and barely any pedestrians - the city just does not feel lived in when seen outside of a scripted event.
This is already too long (ignoring some glaring issues too like the skill tree, progression, and the awful glut of pointless side content) so for the benefit of anyone that hasn't played this through yet, there's a great game in here if you almost treat it as a linear experience and do away with the illusion of choice presented to you.
2015
I platinumed this some time shortly after launch but with Elden Ring looming, me and a friend that hadn't played it before (or any other From game besides Sekiro) decided to blast through it together. It's still the best Souls game made as of writing this (yes, it's a Souls game, fight me, whatever. In my twisted classifications Sekiro isn't a Souls game however, and is the best thing From have done to date. Fight me again).
Every single thing about this game apart from Micolash just slaps start to finish. Read the huge lore essay by that reddit geezer too.
This town's finished
Every single thing about this game apart from Micolash just slaps start to finish. Read the huge lore essay by that reddit geezer too.
This town's finished
2021
2021
2017