A huge leap forward for the franchise. An amazing sequel with solid storytelling, world building, and mechanics.

I have to say this has been my favorite of the originals so far. Being my 8th FF game to play (only 5th finished though) I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. It truly feels like they pulled everything that worked from the prior games and utilized the better tech available to create a near perfect game.

The story is not dissimilar from the prior 3, and is nothing to write home about, but the storytelling and worldbuilding are the best yet. It's the same old fated heroes tasked with saving the world from evil, and it involves crystals. This one changes things up a bit though where you start out as a dark knight, on the wrong side of things and makes the decision to leave that path behind. All of the characters feel truly unique with pretty decent dialogue. This one also offers a lot more storytelling through cutscenes (including battle sequences) that truly add to the depth of the game. The story is fairly linear, with an open world, but there are some side quests you can miss out on if you're not paying attention. The end game was a challenge, but was pretty rewarding in my opinion.

Gone are swappable classes (or jobs), and magic is no purchased this time around. You learn new magic at certain levels based on the characters predefined class. Though characters swap out in your party throughout the game, it did not feel like a burden. You had a pretty consistent core of characters with one or two that change periodically. There weren't a whole lot of puzzles, and the dungeons were fairly straightforward, with secret paths throughout.

Combat felt really good and varied. You had to use your characters abilities and specialties more, and it didn't feel forced. Mini-bosses and bosses felt like a proper challenge, and progression made feel like you had to grind too much to continue on in the story.

Exploring the world was pretty straightforward as well but you get an airship much sooner. There were a number of dungeons littered throughout the world, and a couple other zones related to the story (no spoilers).

The game felt cohesive, challenging, interesting, and fun. All of the game systems, story, and world made for a remarkable experience.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me just over 22 hours to complete.

Overall, this is one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. It had awesome storytelling, the progression and combat felt solid, and it was just a fun experience. Highly recommend for any RPG/JRPG fan.

Amazing narrative game giving you more of the story for any fan of The Expanse.

I'm a little biased as I loved the show and Camina Drummer was my favorite character. I have not read the books yet but it is on my to read list and will be interested if my opinion changes after that. This is my first foray into the Telltale games though, and it won't be my last.

The story is set prior to the events of the show, and shows Drummers rise to a more prominent role in the belt. You're faced with a number of tough choices which shape the narrative (as I've heard all Telltale games do). Your choices feel like they have weight and it is awesome to see things play out.

The gameplay was a mix of cutscenes with quick time events, and third person exploration. Being in space and dealing with low/no gravity made the exploration bits pretty enjoyable, and there were enough breaks in the main cutscene/qte content to make it not get boring. I felt it was really balanced all the way through.

The DLC with Avasarala was also quite enjoyable. More of a mystery/puzzle narrative, but felt like they really understood her character to it's core.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 40hz/40fps and didn't feel like it had any issues. Overall the game took me about 6 hours to beat (including the DLC), and I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

I highly recommend this for any fan of The Expanse or Telltale games. It's just long enough to get you invested in the story and characters, and makes you feel the weight of your choices.

A solid sequel that offered some really good mechanics, but felt like too much of an experiment at times.

Continuing to work my way through this franchise has brought a new appreciation for it. I really enjoyed the mechanics and levelling overall, but some of it (including the "jobs" system) felt like an experiment that didn't hit the mark quite right.

The story was more of the same, fated heroes must save the world from dark forces. The world was a bit more unique starting on what looks like a floating island, and expanding to to a bigger overworld. The tie between the story and expansion of explorable world was new and appreciated in this, and there was a thicker plot with dialogue and more interesting NPC's than the prior two entries. There was also more side content you could miss than the earlier ones, making it so you could blow through the game or spend some time getting the last few summons and weapons which I appreciated.

Gameplay overall felt good, but you really need to grind at the end to not be at the mercy of the RNG gods for the final act. I liked the concept of the jobs system (which is essentially classes), but it made it a little too "gamey", since you could just switch your core job at will. It also kind of made choices feel like they didn't matter in regards to your character because you could just change everything at will.

Combat felt a little more tight though with enemies using more varied attacks and strategies, and needing to be more balanced. I honestly felt like I could just go to auto battle for every encounter in the first two games and this one did require a bit more strategy which I liked.

I feel like this game was a branch between the original NES entries and the more story driven games we get later, but it just felt a little too much of an experiment felt a little off.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me just over 21 hours to complete.

Overall I really enjoyed the game. The story and combat felt like a step up, but the jobs/classes didn't feel like they had any weight or reason to choose them other than what the story dictated at different times, and the end game was a bit too grindy. With all that said I still highly recommend it and it is a good time.

A solid conclusion to this rebooted franchise. Decent (though underwhelming at times) story and atmosphere, but not much is new here.

While this game did not wow me, it was a solid conclusion to this new trilogy, albeit not as epic as I was hoping for. I enjoyed the characters, world building, and atmosphere, but something was missing. The mechanics didn't really offer anything new, but were a bit more streamlined.

The game mostly takes place in Peru, so we get a major change of scenery from the frozen lands of Siberia in the second game. It is once again semi open world with numerous zones you can fast travel between. Lara's goal is to stop a Mayan apocalypse that gets set in motion. You travel through Peruvian jungles and villages, as well as numerous Mayan ruins. All of which are a site to see. Making allies along the way you have to solve the mysteries and riddles that will prevent this Mayan apocalypse from occurring.

Gameplay-wise there wasn't really anything new here. You have the main quest line as well as side missions, challenges, and collectibles in most zones. It really is more of the same in a new setting, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but would have been nice to see something new here. Like previous game you start will next to no weapons and gear and must collect them as you go. You can still upgrade your weapons and gear as you with items you collect or purchase along the way. Traversal and the puzzle mechanics are more of the same which are mostly satisfying, but again nothing that wowed me. Combat was again passable like the prior game, but did not feel as engaging. The stealth mechanics were ok, but not really able to be used effectively most of the time. All of this to say the gameplay and mechanics were almost a copy and paste job from the prior game with some updated graphics and a new environment.

I played the game entirely on Steam Deck and it ran pretty well. I set it to high settings with 40hz/40fps. It dipped a little in some of the bigger zones/villages and during some cut scenes, but was by no means impacted gameplay.

Overall, I am glad I played the game, but it was not as good as the first two, and did not have the epic conclusion I was hoping for. Not a bad game by any means, just not quite what I was hoping for. Definitely recommend if you're a Tomb Raider fan and played the prior two.

A decent sequel that offered some interesting mechanics and story, but did not live up to the original.

Working my way through this franchise definitely brings me a new appreciation for them. Having played during the PS1/2 era, this one was a refreshing take, but did feel like it lacked in combat. I still enjoyed my time with it and a looking forward to the rest of the series.

The story was pretty standard for the time ... a big bad takes over the land and you and your crew (a group of nobodies) take it upon yourself to set things right. You have a core team of three characters and a fourth will join your party for different parts of the campaign. This was a nice change of pace and allowed you to experiment with different builds, however there wasn't much incentive to do so.

Gameplay was completely changed up in this one. All of your characters can use any type of magic and there are no character levels. I think the idea was to give the player freedom to build their characters how they wanted, but it really just made everyone feel bland. The one thing I did like was that you levelled up a weapon type or magic by using them. It definitely had a different feel, but I mostly just ended up equipping 2 weapons on each character and only levelling up some starting magic (fire, thunder, blizzard, cure, life, and ensuna). There wasn't really a whole lot of need to do much else. I found focusing on weapon proficiency had the most gains for me, so I didn't need to have any magic specialists. The map was fairly sized, and monsters were "level capped" to different areas. This made it so you could go up against impossible scenarios right out of the gate if you weren't careful, but made it extremely grindy in the beginning to level up any of your weapons.

The overall feel of the game was similar to the prior one, but definitely felt more streamlined. Each section had you travelling to a destination which end in a dungeon (or series of dungeons) with a boss. It got a little repetitive, but the story was engaging enough with some twists and turns to make it worthwhile.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me just over 18 hours to complete.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the game. It had it's ups and downs, but was a net positive. I highly recommend for anyone wanting to experience the entirety of the franchise or someone who wants to see a different take on certain gameplay mechanics in an RPG/JRPG.

A short but decent sequel that streamlined some of the franchise's mechanics, but failed to live up to it's predecessors.

It was fun to be able to play the conclusion of this story, and while I did not enjoy it as much as the first two games it was not a bad game by any means. In this one we play as Billie Lurk (captain of the Dreadful Whale, from Dishonored 2), and we are looking for our mentor who the Outsider had previously given powers to. The scope of the story is pretty narrow and there are only 5 missions. They are all pretty solid, but the game is short in comparison to the previous two.

Gameplay wise all the main mechanics return with sword combat, projectile weapons, traps/grenade, and void powers. They did streamline how the void powers work and took away the skill tree to obtain more powers, but the main ones were still there (blink, foresight?, and semblance). You also don't need to recharge void power with elixers anymore, it restores automatically after a few seconds. I didn't mind the trimmed mechanics but it did feel like a step down. It would have been nice to customize the powers a bit, but the core of the gameplay was still there.

I overall really enjoyed the feel of the game. It felt like a Dishonored where you could approach things in a stealthy or bombastic way. The choice was yours. It was just shorter and leaner on the main mechanics and not quite as good as it's predecessors.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran near flawlessly. I set it to 40hz/40fps with High graphics settings and it only dipped into the 30's a couple times. Overall the game played great from start to finish with 0 crashes. It took me a little over 8.5 hours to complete.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. It ran well, played well, and the story was different enough to keep it fresh. Definitely recommend if you liked the prior two games, but just know it is not as good, is shorter, and progression/mechanics are a bit simplified.

I was not expecting this game to be as good as it was. A truly open world RPG originating on the NES!!! Amazing story, classic gameplay, and a proper remaster done with care.

I got my start in Final Fantasy with FF7 on the PS1, and I played through FFX. Prior to now FF7 was the only one I had beat. I must say it was a joy from start to finish, and am looking forward to playing through the rest of the franchise (all the non-MMO ones anyway).

The story is classic fantasy where you play as a party of heroes (that you get to pick classes for btw), who are tasked with saving the world by restoring the light to the 4 elemental crystals throughout. These have been drained by Fiends that you must defeat.

The map is decently sized with a fair amount of locations to travel to and explore. You find your way to the various towns, villages, and dungeons defeating foes in classic turn based combat. Levelling felt really good to me. I didn't really have to XP farm as I ended the game at level 47, and I just played through the story. I spent some time collecting treasure, and filling out the bestiary but I did not go out of my way too much. There are a lot of items to find in the world and if you take time in the last few dungeons you'll get the most powerful weapons and armor for the final dungeon and boss. Probably not necessary, but felt worthwhile to me. I played as the warrior, black mage, white mage, and thief, and the party felt very well balanced. The only drawback for me personally was it was not always clear where you were supposed to go next or what you were missing. It seemed like the devs wanted you to explore and talk to EVERY NPC to find all the clues for where to go, but it was tedious. I did have to look up what to do a couple times between major locations.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly. 60hz/60fps and didn't break a sweat (not surprising, but still nice). I had 0 crashes or frame dips. The deck is tailored for this kind of experience. It took me about 15.5 hours to complete.

Overall, I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how solid this game was. The story, gameplay, progression, combat, and exploration felt unbelievably balanced and fun. My only real complaint was the lack of direction at times, but as long as you talk to everyone and take note of certain conversations you won't need any guide to complete this one.

A solid but grueling first for me (souls-likes), that was action packed with a solid story, mechanics, and environments.

I've been a Star Wars guy since my childhood. I was really excited when I heard about this game and was finally able to give it a go. The story in this game is pretty fantastic. You play as Cal Kestis and shortly into the game it comes out your a Jedi (in hiding after Emperor Palpatine's Order 66 some years earlier during the Clone Wars). You are helped out of a jam by a small crew who needs the help of a Jedi (or someone who could become one). You travel across star systems and fight all manner of baddies from various beasts to your typical storm troopers, to elite units and other former Jedi/Sith. The gameplay is overall fairly simple but the finesse required in learning how to time attacks and movement is a real art with this genre. It took quite a bit of adjusting for me as my first souls-like, but it was a worthwhile experience. As you progres in the story you gain (remember) different force abilities and movements, and upgrade your lightsaber and droid companion. Using all of these tools together and understanding how to approach and time encounters with enemies is a real skill. In general the game was not overly difficult (though I did make the mistake of going straight to Dathomir after the prologue), but some of the bosses take some real patience and attention to detail to understand and respond to their attack and movement patterns. A skill I have not yet effectively got a handle on.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran fairly well. I set it to medium settings and 40hz/40fps. It would dip into the 30s every so often, but not enough to break immersion though. It took me a little over 28 hours hours to complete the game.

Overall, the game was awesome, but infuriating sometimes (not faulting the devs though). I'm new to souls-likes and I refused to drop the difficulty so I own that. I enjoyed my time in this and am looking forward to playing the sequel as well as the Dark Souls games and Elden Ring (I may regret that decision later though).

An excellent sequel continuing Laura Croft's rise in another atmospheric narrative driven adventure game.

Having played through most of the original games and the first game in this reboot series, I can say this was an excellent followup and continuation of the young Laura Croft's adventure. I enjoyed the story and mechanics from start to finish. This one is in a semi-open world setting again that mostly takes place in Siberia. You'll travel this frozen land in another epic adventure. Some of the collectibles/challenges can be a bit tedious and grindy but does not deter from the experience. The game takes place a while after your expedition in the first game. You are seeking a treasure that had harmed the family name to show your dad wasn't crazy. There is the typical deep conspiracy with a secret organization that is also after the artifact and it's a race against time to get there before they do. Although this plot is nothing new the story it tells is unique enough with mostly believable characters. Gameplay wise you'll be traversing around the map running, climbing, and swinging to get to where you need to go. The movement feels solid and is a bit forgiving. Exploring the challenge content like tombs and crypts reward you with new gear and skills as well. Combat was passable and definitely favors a more stealthy approach. All of this together made for a solid experience.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran nearly flawless. I set it to medium settings and 40hz/40fps. It had a few hiccups here and there but was very stable throughout. It took me exactly 20 hours to compelte the game.

Overall, I appreciate what the devs have done with the reboot series thus far. This game had a solid story, really solid gameplay mechanics, and ok combat with a bit of jank at times. If you are a Tomb Raider fan I highly recommend.

A fresh take on the series set in an amazing environment, but gets a little grindy.

This was a great follow up to Syndicate. Ubisoft really stepped it up a notch with this game and tried something new. The game is more RPG and action focused and isn't without it's fair share of oddities. Story-wise the game is pretty solid. You play as Bayek who is on a revenge mission against a secret organization that killed his son. You travel all across Egypt (in a HUGE map) hunting them down and meeting interesting characters along the way. You periodically play as Bayek's wife Aya as well which are more story driven missions, but the gameplay feel kind of flat for me there. The mission narratives for her were great, but you lose some of you abilities when you switch to her. The out of animus activities are very limited which was nice. Gameplay-wise this one is very solid. With the RPG direction you have a fairly deep skill tree to customize to your playstyle and loot is CRUCIAL. You can loot weapons, gear, crafting items, etc. from various sources including chests/containers, enemies and animals. The leveling is fairly well paced as long as you do some side activities in each area. I had not problem with this as the activities were fun. Towards the end it can feel a bit grindy though and is required to get to the end game. The game progressed well and had solid pacing overall though.

I played entirely on Steam Deck and it played near flawlessly. I had it set to medium graphics, and locked it to 45fps and 45hz refresh rate (also set this in the game settings). I found adaptive resolution to help stabilize the frame-rate in larger cities as well. It took me a little over 38 hours to complete the main campaign. I did not venture into the DLC at this point.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game and the new RPG mechanics and more sandbox style of gameplay. It definitely gets grindy at the end, but is not excessive. Highly recommend for any AC enthusiasts or even if you are newer tot he franchise.

A continuation in the more action oriented games in the franchise that had a solid story but sometimes frustrating controls and mobility.

As a follow up to RE4 this game changes up the scenery and moves to a more action-centric style of gameplay. The story is solid, and gets more over-the-top, with a few twists and turns. Having even smarter zombies then in RE4 was fun, but some of the movement and gun mechanics were super frustrating. The fact that you cant move while reloading or aiming got me a few times. Once you get used to it, it's not so bad. I just haven't played as many games lately with that style of movement/gun play. Also was not a fan of all the QTEs, but it's a remnant of that time in gaming. The inventory system could be a bit frustrating at times since you can only "store" or buy things when you die or are in between chapters. I definitely preferred the item box and merchant from RE4. Minor gripe though. The game is split into 6 chapters. Several of these felt a bit long, but not too bad. The environment changes with each chapter giving you some new scenery and baddies to deal with. The game is solid and enjoyable, but modern gamers may have some frustrations with some of the mechanics.

I played entirely on the Steam Deck and it played near flawlessly (it crashed once during a cutscene). I had it set to high graphics and locked to 60fps and 60hz refresh rate. It took me about 16.5 hours to complete.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the more action oriented gameplay. My only real gripe had to do with some of the movement and gun mechanics. Definitely recommended for anyone who is a fan of the series.

A decent "pre-sequel" with a solid story, but subpar gameplay.

This game lands between RE4 and RE5. It explains the events in between the two which I thought was pretty cool. Originally a Nintendo 3DS game, this version was ported to PC a year. It's overall a decent game and I enjoyed the overall story. Some aspects were a little campy, but serviceable. The gameplay felt a bit overly simplified (probably form being designed for the 3DS), but was serviceable. Combat felt clunky and the dodge mechanic was inconsistent for me. The game plays out in 12 episodes where you switch between characters. It was kind of nice being able to play several sets of characters to get the whole story. Felt more like a movie or TV show which was a nice change of pace.

I played entirely on Steam Deck and it played flawlessly. I had it set to medium graphics, and locked it to 60fps and 60hz refresh rate. It took me a little under 10 hours to complete.

Overall, it was a decent game but a subpar port. The mechanics were overly simplified but serviceable. I recommend for anyone wanting to get the whole RE story, and the shorter length and episodic nature makes it not so much of a slog.

An amazing, over-the-top sequel that takes a risk by changing the formula and nails it.

This game is oozing with atmosphere and story. I was not a fan of the controls at first when starting out in the village, but they grow on you (mostly). This game plays more like an action horror with survival elements. The limited resources keeps the survival elements alive. The story is ridiculous and top-notch. Leon reprises his role in this one and you are tasked with rescuing the president's daughter who has been kidnaped. You don't know much about what happened or who is behind it, but you learn as the story progresses. The story is pretty linear, and the puzzles are more straightforward. They really wanted you to experience the story and scratch your head less. The characters are all pretty solid, and the performances are amazing (for the time). The combat felt off, but I understand it was done to accommodate the GameCube controls. Once you get used to it, you're good. The monsters are varied in this one requiring you to use different mechanics. Not just for bosses but event for standard enemies, which is kind of nice. All of this comes together to create a really solid experience.

I played entirely on Steam Deck and it played flawlessly. I had it set to high graphics, and locked it to 60fps and 60hz refresh rate. It took me a little over 18 hours to complete.

Overall, the evolution the franchise took in this entry was thoroughly enjoyable. The monsters and action are more over-the-top and the story drives this game to make it a top tier experience.

A fast paced, atmospheric, and action laden survival horror game, with one of the most terrifying bosses I've every experienced.

I played a demo of this with my friends growing up and Nemesis scared the every-loving crap out of us. I have always wanted to play through this story and while I have still never played the original fully, I thoroughly enjoyed this remake. I know it has been divisive with the cuts they made, but someone summed it up pretty well. They removed elements that were not directly related to our protagonists story and slowed down the pace of the action. This feels like an action game first. I still enjoyed the breaks you got in between encounters and the puzzles, but shorter more focused story was pretty nice. We got even more enemy variety this time and the ability to dodge was really handy (while not always effective ... lol). Nemesis still scared the pants off me when he would barge in like the Kool-Aid man, and I enjoyed the hell out of running from him. Combat mechanics felt a bit more enhanced with being able to use the environment to your advantage (generators and flammable barrels). There were also several combat set pieces that were kind of puzzle-like that you had to figure out, and added to the variety which I enjoyed. You mainly play through this as Jill Valentine but switch over to Carlos (an Umbrella combat specialist) several times as well. Seeing things from both perspectives at different times in the story was pretty nice, and added to the overall experience in my opinion.

I played entirely on Steam Deck and it played flawlessly. I had it set to high/medium mix graphics, and locked it to 40fps and 40hz refresh rate. It took me a little under 8.5 hours to complete.

Overall, a solid entry in the franchise and definitely one I enjoyed. Highly recommend if you haven't played, just know it is more action focused.