rottweilersmile
2007
This review contains spoilers
i can't say i loved everything about this, but it has a lot of charm and satisfying combat on a base level. i know the story is meant to be ironic or satire or whatever. it was fun, but there wasn't too much that necessarily stuck with me (the painting ending was funny). i can see why I would play more suda51 stuff tho, it's nice to play something that has its own charm, kind of like auteurs in movies
there are some gameplay choices that just don't work here. for one, grinding is annoying. more annoying is navigating an open world that is not even close to having its existence justified. I respect the ambition, but this is the wii. from what I remember 2 doesn't have this open world, so they made the smart decision not to attempt something that had a very low chance of success
also, I beat this on mild (was not going to replay the entire game just to experience bitter mode). imo, once you learn how to "darkstep" the game gets a lot easier. ranked 8 boss was actually the hardest boss in the whole game for me because I didn't understand that
there are some gameplay choices that just don't work here. for one, grinding is annoying. more annoying is navigating an open world that is not even close to having its existence justified. I respect the ambition, but this is the wii. from what I remember 2 doesn't have this open world, so they made the smart decision not to attempt something that had a very low chance of success
also, I beat this on mild (was not going to replay the entire game just to experience bitter mode). imo, once you learn how to "darkstep" the game gets a lot easier. ranked 8 boss was actually the hardest boss in the whole game for me because I didn't understand that
ok, but not as charming or fun as the other steamworld games I’ve played. I’m shit at card and strategy games, but even I can tell the gameplay is too simple. will probably never come back to
beat 3d world including champions road bc i am a fucking god gamer. may come back to bowsers fury in the future, it was fun
2015
fun time waster
2015
might go back and get into this again. the gameplay is pretty satisfying, wish there was more to do in terms of story or unlocks tho
This review contains spoilers
They really nailed the feeling of swinging in this game. That is the highest compliment I can give, because it does really feel fun. In fact, I actually did feel like Spider-Man! A hell of a lot more than I felt like Batman in the Arkham games. Because of that fact alone, I enjoyed my time playing. But I have a lot more to say.
The mythos in the game generally feels like they took a bunch of different ideas from different Spider-Man runs and mashed it together. For the most part, this works well. I like that Miles is in this, I like using a relatively new character for most fans (Mr. Negative), I really like how they make you care about Dr. Octopus (who's often seen more as a joke character). Not everything works though, this version of Mary Jane isn't very interesting to me. Some parts of the story are also really obvious while playing - even a casual Spider-Man fan knows that Dr. Octopus is a villain. Not that Spider-Man stories need to be subversive to be good (we certainly don't need a Matt Reeves version where we dick around with the possibility of Uncle Ben and Aunt May being bad guys before it's revealed they were still saints), but I wish we could have seen what it looked like if Peter had cured or helped Dr. Ock. Instead this version of finding out he's evil lands in a lukewarm way, it's neither surprising nor that interesting. I hope they eventually adapt the Superior Spider-Man story, at least that would salvage it a bit and make me care more about Dr. Ock once he heel turns. Also, I don't think they came up with this idea but making Jonah have a podcast was a pretty brilliant decision, one of the rare times where modernizing a character makes perfect sense and doesn't feel like a hamfisted political statement.
Another thing I liked about the game is that it made it more believable why Peter would still live as Peter, as opposed to being Spider-Man full time. This is one thing I really didn't like about the MCU movies: the drama with Peter and his friends not getting into university because of his ties to Spider-Man just felt silly. Dude, you're Spider-Man and you have connections with Tony Stark, who the fuck cares about university??? You're wasting your time going there. Here, we see that Peter is motivated to work with Dr. Octavius to build technology that could possibly improve more lives as a whole than what he could do as Spider-Man - that makes sense.
However, there were some questionable gameplay choices made during development. The sections in the game where you play as other characters are baffling, particularly the Mary Jane parts. I don't think playing as other characters was a bad idea, but who the fuck decided to make several parts of the story require the player to wade through that slogfest? Playing as a defenseless character who does little in terms of gameplay is the exact opposite of what I want to do in a Spider-Man game. That's like if the Batman game had mandatory Alfred gameplay where you wash the dishes and prepare Bruce's meals. Maybe this could have worked if the sections were actually interesting to play, but instead you have to deal with janky, laughably easy stealth areas. It's too boring to be fun, and yet not nearly interesting enough to be subversive or make some sort of statement. To add insult to injury, there's a part in the DLC where you can ask Black Cat to take down enemies for you, but you can't play as her. Let me play as Black Cat! That would have been way cooler than playing as watered down MJ with her magic stun gun that knocks out even the strongest men in one hit. To be honest, MJ's characterization in this game at times felt like it was written to try to piss off the anti-SJW crowds of a few years ago. In the main campaign, she has an argument with Peter about not being treated as equals after he gets worried and warns MJ not to try to defuse a bomb in a situation where terrorists have taken people hostage. Could they not have come up with a better scenario? He's fucking Spider-Man! He has super-powers! You have a Bachelor's in Arts. It would be crazy if he just let you go try to defuse a bomb!
The issues with AI in the game are not only related to stealth though. Like most open-world games, the world doesn't fully feel alive. Swinging across Manhattan is great, but I don't feel like the NPC citizens are really... people. It's a game where the AI is designed around the assumption that the player is always adhering to the missions and getting from point A to point B. If you stand in traffic for 10 minutes, the AI will not move their cars. This is a pretty hard thing to get right in games (GTA V is the only one that comes to my mind as having made a world full of NPCs feel real), so it's hard to get too mad at them. I think that's a running theme in the game, where it would have been really good if they had many more layers of complexity that probably weren't realistic for development. I saw a good YouTube video by TheGamingBritShow where he says that he wished the player could have chosen which tasks to prioritize in the story and received the consequences, such as choosing to go on a date with MJ over stopping a crime or whatnot and facing issues as a result. While that would definitely have made me feel more like Spider-Man, that would probably be too unfun for too many players.
One of the worst aspects is how crimes or side-side-missions are handled in this game. It says a lot about how much I initially loved the game that I actually did a bunch of these crimes and didn't even get annoyed until several hours in. You stop the same crimes over and over, and they repeat this with different gangs about 4 times in the main campaign. By the time the prisoner and sable crimes started, I stopped caring, which is a shame, because that seemed to be the most impactful use of them in the story - the city becomes so crime-heavy that it actually does feel like there was a prison break.
The combat in this game gets more boring as the game continues. It's your Arkham style combat where you lock on enemies, press B to avoid hits, and stack combos and use gadgets. I will say though, at least it makes sense why the player sees that warning appear when an enemy is about to hit Spider-Man, since he has the spidey sense and all. But it just doesn't make for very skilled combat, and it gets old quick, since the enemy variety in the main story stops innovating like, halfway into the story (something the DLC improves on). They really need to make a superhero game with more rewarding combat for skilled players, something like Platinum Games style combat. A soulslike game would be awesome, but probably something that would only be done with a more niche character.
The lack of difficulty or interesting decisions in combat extends to the boss missions. Each boss is fairly boring to play, because they're too formulaic. You dodge an obviously choreographed attack, throw something or web the guy, go in for some hits, and repeat until they're down. I understand this is still something kids should be able to beat, but I think kids aren't that stupid. When you make bosses this easy, there's not much of a feeling of accomplishment.
The Arkham games have probably been a large net-negative to gaming overall.
Nitpicks
It's fucking bullshit that when you reflect rockets with your webs they hit back like NERF pellets. Was reflecting rockets too much against Spider-Man's code or something? You can throw people off buildings!
The decision to redo Peter's face to make it look more like Tom Holland is stupid. They can say it was to look like the voice actor, but c'mon. It's clearly Tom Holland. Which just makes more problems for the story because he looks notably younger, more like a high schooler than a university graduate. This makes the parts with Black Cat particularly awkward since she almost looks like a predator in comparison, and also makes it harder to believe that this Peter had the Kingpin on the ropes. This must be how comic fans feel whenever they rework a character to look like the movie adaptation.
The mythos in the game generally feels like they took a bunch of different ideas from different Spider-Man runs and mashed it together. For the most part, this works well. I like that Miles is in this, I like using a relatively new character for most fans (Mr. Negative), I really like how they make you care about Dr. Octopus (who's often seen more as a joke character). Not everything works though, this version of Mary Jane isn't very interesting to me. Some parts of the story are also really obvious while playing - even a casual Spider-Man fan knows that Dr. Octopus is a villain. Not that Spider-Man stories need to be subversive to be good (we certainly don't need a Matt Reeves version where we dick around with the possibility of Uncle Ben and Aunt May being bad guys before it's revealed they were still saints), but I wish we could have seen what it looked like if Peter had cured or helped Dr. Ock. Instead this version of finding out he's evil lands in a lukewarm way, it's neither surprising nor that interesting. I hope they eventually adapt the Superior Spider-Man story, at least that would salvage it a bit and make me care more about Dr. Ock once he heel turns. Also, I don't think they came up with this idea but making Jonah have a podcast was a pretty brilliant decision, one of the rare times where modernizing a character makes perfect sense and doesn't feel like a hamfisted political statement.
Another thing I liked about the game is that it made it more believable why Peter would still live as Peter, as opposed to being Spider-Man full time. This is one thing I really didn't like about the MCU movies: the drama with Peter and his friends not getting into university because of his ties to Spider-Man just felt silly. Dude, you're Spider-Man and you have connections with Tony Stark, who the fuck cares about university??? You're wasting your time going there. Here, we see that Peter is motivated to work with Dr. Octavius to build technology that could possibly improve more lives as a whole than what he could do as Spider-Man - that makes sense.
However, there were some questionable gameplay choices made during development. The sections in the game where you play as other characters are baffling, particularly the Mary Jane parts. I don't think playing as other characters was a bad idea, but who the fuck decided to make several parts of the story require the player to wade through that slogfest? Playing as a defenseless character who does little in terms of gameplay is the exact opposite of what I want to do in a Spider-Man game. That's like if the Batman game had mandatory Alfred gameplay where you wash the dishes and prepare Bruce's meals. Maybe this could have worked if the sections were actually interesting to play, but instead you have to deal with janky, laughably easy stealth areas. It's too boring to be fun, and yet not nearly interesting enough to be subversive or make some sort of statement. To add insult to injury, there's a part in the DLC where you can ask Black Cat to take down enemies for you, but you can't play as her. Let me play as Black Cat! That would have been way cooler than playing as watered down MJ with her magic stun gun that knocks out even the strongest men in one hit. To be honest, MJ's characterization in this game at times felt like it was written to try to piss off the anti-SJW crowds of a few years ago. In the main campaign, she has an argument with Peter about not being treated as equals after he gets worried and warns MJ not to try to defuse a bomb in a situation where terrorists have taken people hostage. Could they not have come up with a better scenario? He's fucking Spider-Man! He has super-powers! You have a Bachelor's in Arts. It would be crazy if he just let you go try to defuse a bomb!
The issues with AI in the game are not only related to stealth though. Like most open-world games, the world doesn't fully feel alive. Swinging across Manhattan is great, but I don't feel like the NPC citizens are really... people. It's a game where the AI is designed around the assumption that the player is always adhering to the missions and getting from point A to point B. If you stand in traffic for 10 minutes, the AI will not move their cars. This is a pretty hard thing to get right in games (GTA V is the only one that comes to my mind as having made a world full of NPCs feel real), so it's hard to get too mad at them. I think that's a running theme in the game, where it would have been really good if they had many more layers of complexity that probably weren't realistic for development. I saw a good YouTube video by TheGamingBritShow where he says that he wished the player could have chosen which tasks to prioritize in the story and received the consequences, such as choosing to go on a date with MJ over stopping a crime or whatnot and facing issues as a result. While that would definitely have made me feel more like Spider-Man, that would probably be too unfun for too many players.
One of the worst aspects is how crimes or side-side-missions are handled in this game. It says a lot about how much I initially loved the game that I actually did a bunch of these crimes and didn't even get annoyed until several hours in. You stop the same crimes over and over, and they repeat this with different gangs about 4 times in the main campaign. By the time the prisoner and sable crimes started, I stopped caring, which is a shame, because that seemed to be the most impactful use of them in the story - the city becomes so crime-heavy that it actually does feel like there was a prison break.
The combat in this game gets more boring as the game continues. It's your Arkham style combat where you lock on enemies, press B to avoid hits, and stack combos and use gadgets. I will say though, at least it makes sense why the player sees that warning appear when an enemy is about to hit Spider-Man, since he has the spidey sense and all. But it just doesn't make for very skilled combat, and it gets old quick, since the enemy variety in the main story stops innovating like, halfway into the story (something the DLC improves on). They really need to make a superhero game with more rewarding combat for skilled players, something like Platinum Games style combat. A soulslike game would be awesome, but probably something that would only be done with a more niche character.
The lack of difficulty or interesting decisions in combat extends to the boss missions. Each boss is fairly boring to play, because they're too formulaic. You dodge an obviously choreographed attack, throw something or web the guy, go in for some hits, and repeat until they're down. I understand this is still something kids should be able to beat, but I think kids aren't that stupid. When you make bosses this easy, there's not much of a feeling of accomplishment.
The Arkham games have probably been a large net-negative to gaming overall.
Nitpicks
It's fucking bullshit that when you reflect rockets with your webs they hit back like NERF pellets. Was reflecting rockets too much against Spider-Man's code or something? You can throw people off buildings!
The decision to redo Peter's face to make it look more like Tom Holland is stupid. They can say it was to look like the voice actor, but c'mon. It's clearly Tom Holland. Which just makes more problems for the story because he looks notably younger, more like a high schooler than a university graduate. This makes the parts with Black Cat particularly awkward since she almost looks like a predator in comparison, and also makes it harder to believe that this Peter had the Kingpin on the ropes. This must be how comic fans feel whenever they rework a character to look like the movie adaptation.
maintains the impressive quality of the base game with difficult but satisfying to beat bosses.
really liked the parry bosses and prefer them as an alternative to the run and gun levels. there was a bit of stutter on switch but not anything game breaking. cuphead remains one of the most impressive and difficult games i've played
really liked the parry bosses and prefer them as an alternative to the run and gun levels. there was a bit of stutter on switch but not anything game breaking. cuphead remains one of the most impressive and difficult games i've played
2018
coming back to this after nostalgia for the other games, and this is pretty great. love the addition of heroes and new towers. the artstyle took a while to get used to, but it's grown on me.
i will say i don't agree with some of the balance changes, because the game has a pretty good spot of making you feel like many builds are viable and there is no need to adhere to meta, outside of expert maps and races. so they need to buff more and nerf less, imo. they also need to rework some paths (cough alchemist top, druid top, etc)
i think the fact that you can play it for hours without ever feeling a need to compete makes the incremental progression feel more rewarding and less p2w - you can pay and get everything asap, but why? it's not like there's a pro bloons league or anything
i will say i don't agree with some of the balance changes, because the game has a pretty good spot of making you feel like many builds are viable and there is no need to adhere to meta, outside of expert maps and races. so they need to buff more and nerf less, imo. they also need to rework some paths (cough alchemist top, druid top, etc)
i think the fact that you can play it for hours without ever feeling a need to compete makes the incremental progression feel more rewarding and less p2w - you can pay and get everything asap, but why? it's not like there's a pro bloons league or anything
Lot of respect for this game. In an age where you’re constantly handheld or force-fed victories, it’s easy to see why the more punishing, more rewarding souls-formula was such a big deal. The core gameplay is satisfying, the world feels fairly unique with cool lore, and you really do experience that sense of progression throughout the game. Going from begging for my life against the Bell Gargoyle to killing late game bosses with ease is pretty dope. Same thing with going back to earlier parts of the map and easily navigating sections that were once confusing mazes. I will be going back and playing the other Souls games for sure, but slowly (so I can appreciate what makes them different from other games, instead of a fatiguing marathon).
I do have a number of minor complaints with the game. The movement controls can feel clunky (who thought jump should go on the same button as run?), some parts are cryptic to a fault (e.g. the path to the Artorias DLC), and there are some bosses that I think need rebalancing (though this is pretty hard given the variety of builds you can do and the somewhat open nature of the game). However, these mostly feel like understandable mistakes that can easily be ironed out in later games. They should have solved the control issues in this version, but whatever.
I do have a number of minor complaints with the game. The movement controls can feel clunky (who thought jump should go on the same button as run?), some parts are cryptic to a fault (e.g. the path to the Artorias DLC), and there are some bosses that I think need rebalancing (though this is pretty hard given the variety of builds you can do and the somewhat open nature of the game). However, these mostly feel like understandable mistakes that can easily be ironed out in later games. They should have solved the control issues in this version, but whatever.
not as fun or creative as superstar saga or inside story and with the same linear trappings, but still fun and comforting
had fun, especially playing as the different justice league characters. nowhere close to the original since nostalgia + the flying controls in the over world are just dogshit…. Play Lego marvel super heroes 1 if you don’t have personal attachment to this franchise, it’s much better. Also this is poorly optimized and lags even on a good PC
really liked this as a big scott pilgrim fan. gameplay was mostly fun but stupidly janky in a few sections (did anyone test the shops?? why is it so slow??). definitely recommend if you’re a scott pilgrim fan, skippable otherwise
2013
one of the few games where i think watching it loses little compared to playing. enjoyed the experience and ideas but it needs polish - it feels annoying to manoeuvre the papers and files. maybe that's on purpose, but it's silly to have an optional upgrade of adding hotkeys when i got used to the mouse controls to the point where it was faster to just stick to them
had fun with this. wish there were more transformations and more gameplay mechanics to discover - no issues with the difficulty, but it felt like they had more levels than original ideas for levels. but its cute fun.
2016
This review contains spoilers
it's not that i don't like the themes of this game or i felt blueballed - i like the lessons that we shouldn't run away from our responsibilities, and that sometimes there aren't these grand conspiracies out there against you. my issue with firewatch is more how those themes were told, and that the game seemed to often just hinder my experience and get in the way of that.
my favourite part of this game was the first half, where i settle into my role as a lookout and develop chemistry with delilah. having fun conversations with deliliah and exploring the world was legitimately enjoyable! Even learning the small gameplay mechanics we get introduced to (e.g. camera, rope) was cool
But in the later half, the gameplay starts to feel like it's just restricting my progression in the story. hiking across the map to find where i need to go so the plot continues gets tedious, even with this mysterious plot looming over me. i encountered several bugs that required restarting the day or reloading saves, which can be really immersion-breaking in a walking simulator where you really feel like you're hiking. i get that the hiking is an intentional choice, but it did start to feel like i was just being led where to go each time, waiting for plot breadcrumbs. it's to the point where you wonder why this even is a game and not just a movie
also, halfway through the game it becomes obvious you basically won't see anyone's face. this is obviously a developer choice, but it doesn't really come off as thought-provoking, it's more like "oh yeah, that's what the game's going to do" as the game finds new reasons for you not to see anyone's face. it's a cool idea that could be executed better
speaking of better execution, i feel that the game actually would have benefited from more moments of bonding with delilah, and other characters (probably julia). the game skips over those assumed moments of continued chemistry-building once we went past the first week or so, which is understandable, but those are the best parts of the game, especially in a story game where all you do is bond with one person! maybe more tidbits from your real life too - more "protrusions" of this life you've placed your feet into
i wanted to like firewatch more than i did, especially as someone who would agree with the lessons heavily. i think at the core and the first half we have a great experience that could have really led to something more
my favourite part of this game was the first half, where i settle into my role as a lookout and develop chemistry with delilah. having fun conversations with deliliah and exploring the world was legitimately enjoyable! Even learning the small gameplay mechanics we get introduced to (e.g. camera, rope) was cool
But in the later half, the gameplay starts to feel like it's just restricting my progression in the story. hiking across the map to find where i need to go so the plot continues gets tedious, even with this mysterious plot looming over me. i encountered several bugs that required restarting the day or reloading saves, which can be really immersion-breaking in a walking simulator where you really feel like you're hiking. i get that the hiking is an intentional choice, but it did start to feel like i was just being led where to go each time, waiting for plot breadcrumbs. it's to the point where you wonder why this even is a game and not just a movie
also, halfway through the game it becomes obvious you basically won't see anyone's face. this is obviously a developer choice, but it doesn't really come off as thought-provoking, it's more like "oh yeah, that's what the game's going to do" as the game finds new reasons for you not to see anyone's face. it's a cool idea that could be executed better
speaking of better execution, i feel that the game actually would have benefited from more moments of bonding with delilah, and other characters (probably julia). the game skips over those assumed moments of continued chemistry-building once we went past the first week or so, which is understandable, but those are the best parts of the game, especially in a story game where all you do is bond with one person! maybe more tidbits from your real life too - more "protrusions" of this life you've placed your feet into
i wanted to like firewatch more than i did, especially as someone who would agree with the lessons heavily. i think at the core and the first half we have a great experience that could have really led to something more