Because my family always owned XBoxes (my brother started with the original XBox when it came out) and I never liked the old Playstation controllers (but love the XBox one), there wasn't any thought I needed to waste on which console to get, when I picked up my first.

Since then, however I've been looking for story games, and a lot of friends have convinced me that I needed to try out a couple of titles that where all Playstation exclusives (The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War, Death Stranding, etc.), so I decided to get one, once the next console gets released - that was the Playstation 5, and when it came out I was still busy playing the Assassin's Creed games, so I decided to get a PS5 when it was on sale... however that never happened, as it was scarce and only got more and more expensive.

But this Easter there was an sale, where I got the new version of the Playstation 5 for ~100€ cheaper, so I had to buy it.

Only having one game (Syndicate) I was delighted to find, that there was already something pre-installed, and I thought that it was just a simple game with not much to offer (similar to those VR games), but turns out, I was totally mistaken.

Astro's Playroom is "mostly" a 3D platformer, where you control this sweet little robot in a "robotic" world, through different "hardware themed" rooms that consists of 4 levels to pass through. Each of these levels features slightly different play styles, sometimes the game turns into a 2D game, sometimes you need to fly through an area, sometimes it becomes a jump and run game. Each of these play styles comes with its own set of controls, utilizing the full potential of the controller; including the integrated mic, the gyroscope, the different triggers (with and without resistance), and even the touch pad.

And I have to say, this controller is actually quite impressive, to the point that it's a shame that most games will probably never utilize 80% of its capabilities (at least all those games that will strive to be cross-platform).

Besides that, the game is really fun, you get to hunt for a lot of cleverly hidden collectables that will keep you engaged, it is full of cute little ideas that are fun to explore, and (last but not least), it is full of references throughout the history of Playstation and gaming. I - being someone that was never really involved with the Playstation - recognized some artifacts and games, and had a lot of fun, identifying and remembering them. I cannot start to imagine how much fun and nostalgia this is for someone who was playing with this platform for decades.

It took me about 4 hours to play through the "main story", and additional 3 hours to find all the gimmicks and gadgets and do all the races once, etc., which again is quite impressive for a game that is completely free to play, and basically a tech demo. And to not get bored, there are 10 races you can do afterwards, where you can try to improve your performance for yourself, or compared to the rest of the world in speed-running some of the passages that you already played in the game (I scored every race around place 200.000; with the top players needing half to a quarter of the time I needed).

Who would have thought, that a free and basically tech-demo game could be so much fun? And who would have thought that a company making money with selling a console (for which they don't even really need any marketing anymore), would put so much love and energy in something that is basically a tech-demo? Heck even the credits where fun! How could I give anything else than 5 Stars? I've paid money for worse!

I played and reviewed this game already once - though I now came to learn, that I chose the wrong "version" of the game (the XBox actually came with the Deluxe Edition that has some additional content, though I am not quite sure what that is). However, it has been more than 3 years now, since I played this, and for the review I couldn't even think about all the details anymore, but remembered having fun with it. Plus, I just came to know that there was a sequel released - so I planed to play this one once more, and so I did. Last time I also didn't go for the 100% and did miss a couple of things (it was my first ever XBox, Star Wars and Story game in a very long time).

This game is a great Star Wars story and one of the better Star Wars games out there. I tried a lot of them, and never was happy - except for the old Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy; but those are two decades old now. Fallen Order is in many ways similar to the old Jedi Outcast story - instead of Kyle Katarn, we play Cal Kastis (is this name similarity really coincidental?), a former Jedi in hiding that has to re-learn all the tools and traded of becoming a Jedi - which, also for him, happens not by choosing, but by chance. Different to Kyle Katarn, we don't get to play the first half with normal weapons, but start with out light saber right away and never even are allowed to pick up another weapon. But, as with Kyle, Cal has a ship and a crew and gets sent on a mission; a mission that could potentially change the galaxy forever...

All in all, this is a great game; its fun to play, the settings are great, it feels like a perfect Star Wars game - Cal travels the Galaxy on the trails of an old Jedi, tracing his steps to learn a secret that could potentially change the balance of the Galaxy again, after the Emperor took over control just a couple of years ago and formed the Galactic Empire into an Empire. While we do so, we have to solve a lot of puzzles, fight some ancient and natural enemies and are hunted by the Empires typical troops, as well as some highly trained Jedi hunting Inquisitors. On the way we learn some new tricks, and make some new (unusual) friends and see both beautiful and cute creatures, as well as terrible and frightening ones.

Game play and story wise this game is mostly great fun; but it does some things rather unusually and here's where my critizism starts:

1.) This game will force us to visit places we've already seen over and over again; this is part of the concept. Sometimes the story takes us back, other times we just learned some new tricks that will allow us to access places that where previously inaccessible. This is both a unusual and in some ways great idea, as well as a horrible idea. On the plus side, it lets us explore the galaxy - and the designers put some thought into a lot of places, that are actually fun to explore - sometimes there are even story elements that link to things you can explore in the world; also some of the secrets are hidden really well - and if you find them you'd be both amazed by the clever hiding place, but also a bit angry at the designers for hiding it so well :D My biggest criticism is that after you visit a planet a second or third time and have to visit it again, because now you finally have that new ability - it gets a bit stale and boring. Especially because there are now fast travel points, or anything. You always land at the same spot, you always need to walk the entire way, and of course you'd probably forgotten half the places where you actually knew something was hidden, but couldn't reach it. So what starts out as a great idea soon turns into an annoying one, especially if you try to reach those sweet 100%.

2.) This somehow adds to the 1. point and only gets really annoying once you try to reach those 100% and try to walk through the same parts the second or third time: The map feature is a mess. I appreciate what they try to do and had to accomplish - the world desing is beautiful and clever and you really appreciate all those details that you could make out from afar turn into something you'll get to traverse - on different levels. For the first time - you always know where you've been and are only interested in where to go next which is clearly mapped on your map. But that second time, when everything is explored and there are no more markers, this map actually seems more like a handicap than an aid: Trying to figure out how to get form A to B on Dathomir or Zaffo is a real pain, and the map does more bad than actually help. Which is a shame.

3.) Power levels. This is probably my biggest issue with the game. The Game offers:
- Story Mode
- Jedi Knight
- Jedi Master
- Jedi Grandmaster

According to the games own description, "Jedi Knight" is for beginners, "Jedi Master" for people who have played similar games, and "Grandmaster" for people who want a challenge. So I thought to myself: "Jedi Master it is" - I had played this game once, I've also played myself through Batman and the entire Assassins Creed series, which are all pretty similar, and just finished Hellblade so I should be fine, right?

Well... nope. Especially in the beginning with Cal not having much power and life, Jedi Master is rather hard; manageable for most parts, yes, but there are parts that seem impossible, and for the end bosses I did not make any damage at all. So after constantly switching between "Jedi Master" and "Jedi Knight", I ended up sticking to "Jedi Knight" - which was okey for 80% of the time - but there are those few instances (Kashyyyk, where all of the sudden you face 4 giant spiders and two horned slugs, that all beat you up at once), where even Knight is so challenging that it'll ask all of you - which is fine except that your life resource is really limited and stim packs cannot be recharged etc., so you'll probably fail if you use them up all at once just after leaving that meditation point 100m ago.

Story Mode on the other hand is really boring for 80% of the time. So yeah, I feel that the balancing is way off, and this is actually adding to a lot of frustration. Story Mode is too easy and not fun, Knight works for most parts, Master is unplayable, and I didn't dare trying Grandmaster. Reading up on this I heard a lot of people comparing it to Dark Souls but more frustrating. So yeah, this is a shame.

And last but not least, it's all in all a really short game, which also offers not much after finishing it. But all in all it is still a really great game, even though I had a lot of points I criticized I'd say its a fun game worth playing, especially now, with prices being at an all time low and with Jedi Survivor as its successor that will continue the story started here.

After needing 35h the first time around (and being new to the X-Box), this time it took me 42h, but not only did I finish the story once more, but this time also got every chest, every secret, every entry on the database, and after seeing that I only missed 4 XBox trophies, I even went as far and did all of them as well. Plus I found a bonus area I totally missed the first time around (Venator Wreckage) and after maxing out every item on the skill tree I stumbled upon some additional fighting challenges I also didn't know existed before - and did all of them as well, scoring 1-2 Stars for each of them as well. So yeah, something you'd finish in 1-2 weeks time (max).

Wow. What an incredible game!

Its an independant AAA game, set in the viking age, with a girl traveling to Hel to ask back the soul of her loved one. This game is just incredible and absolutely insane in what it tries you to experience, and I feel the less you know, the better. It's a really short game, but with great graphics and an incredible fighting system - gruesome and scary.

Just give it a try. I downloaded it when it was for free on Gamepass (it still might be), but I'd even pay for this one (and considering getting a physical copy for my collection).

Incredible game.