sadbear
it's a competent, if extremely derivative mob story in the shoes of an also competent if extremely derivative 3rd person cover shooter that fulfills the potential of the source material while abandoning the mechanics that've made the original release stick out to people for over twenty years
this is not a game developed by army sim devs, it's a game that's aping mafia 2
that's probably the best perspective to have when going into why this remake (reimagining, whatever) changes what it does
mafia 2 itself was a way to streamline and take advantage of its predecessor's narrative potential, smoothing out the rough simulationist gameplay into something that played like an intensely focused gta
hangar 13 chose to do the same, and it definitely succeeds in that regard
if people who have played the original and didn't outright dislike this watering down of a very unique experience are to be believed
i haven't played that game so my frame of reference are the other mafia games
speaking of watered down, the moment to moment feels a lot like diet mafia 3
it maintains 3's flaws while removing the speed and brutality that made 3 compelling
however, because it plays perfectly Fine and it completely lacks the structure that made 3 a complete slog i don't really have a big problem with it
it's clear that this was done intentionally as well, given that there's a greater focus on making the player less a sheer unstoppable force of power and more like a regular human being
elements like medkit style health recovery and "classic" difficulty making any fight extremely lethal make that obvious
though i think that these elements are out of place in this game - i gave it a whirl but had a much better time when i turned the difficulty down
i normally like very lethal shooters (i can't play metro on anything other than ranger hardcore it doesn't feel right at all) so take that as you will
driving is hit or miss - it nails the sluggish handling that the original game specifically wanted to recreate in its simulation setting, but because this game has a much more modern approach to set pieces and the sort i found that
much like the aforementioned combat
it was more frustrating than immersive when i was actually meant to put my skills to the test
the best example is this game's attempt at addressing The Race, the part of the 2002 release that was so fucking infamous that it was later patched to allow the player to skip it
i really disliked it, it's what made me take the game from the moderate difficulty and simulation handling i was using and turn everything to its easiest setting until i was done with it
and i kept the driving there until the car chase in the rain when i decided to make that regular handling as well
i like the day to day mundanity that the game is striving for - which is why i kept the police response on simulation - but i suck at driving in a lot of games and i'd rather have a good time than just be mad at a video game
difficulty selection exists for a reason
because of that i'm not gonna really critique it much though, you'll probably dig it as it's a lot of the point
but this is all to say that i don't think the game loses much thematically in the translation between the hardcore and the streamlined
that's because the narrative is incredibly strong and maintains what made games previous as engaging as they were
it's less about the telling and more about the material and its context that's given to you
much of what makes mafia an interesting series is the thematic detail that the game is never subtle about but also never draws a ton of attention to
it forces the player to put two and two together while putting two and two right in front of your face
the end result is a game that's easy to interpret but takes a little bit of legwork to truly appreciate and i respect that about these games
that despite having "i've definitely seen goodfellas" energy it still manages to feel unique and fresh
that it maintains a focus on this narrative instead of capitulating to the trends of open world contemporaries results in a condensed and evocative crime story that is greater than the sum of its parts, lacking in any of the bullshit that a game like mafia 3 had
this is not an open world game, it is a game that uses an open world style hub to emphasize time and place
the commute is the point, the lack of anything to do outside of the objective you are given is the point, it's all the shit that mafia 2 did and it does it fairly well
but it isn't nearly as compelling
its story is a lot simpler, its protagonist is a lot less nuanced, its gameplay isn't q u i t e as good in spite of being the same on paper (the melee combat is better i'll give it that lol)
it's not as cohesive with its themes as even the original game could be (while i haven't played it i know what happens in the narrative)
but the end result is a very competent and enjoyable game that is a lot more interesting to talk about than the overwhelming majority of its AAA contemporaries
but i have a feeling that the legacy of the original mafia will overshadow this release the more time goes on just because of how unique it still is
i can't name another gta style game that goes as hard as that one does in immersing you in the world you're progressively making worse
which is a reality that i think hangar 13 would be okay with
it's clear that with all the changes made, there was a deep love for what the original game was able to capture
you gotta respect that with a AAA remake, we're kinda spoiled with the REmakes and we might not remember just how bad we normally have it with remakes
this is not a game developed by army sim devs, it's a game that's aping mafia 2
that's probably the best perspective to have when going into why this remake (reimagining, whatever) changes what it does
mafia 2 itself was a way to streamline and take advantage of its predecessor's narrative potential, smoothing out the rough simulationist gameplay into something that played like an intensely focused gta
hangar 13 chose to do the same, and it definitely succeeds in that regard
if people who have played the original and didn't outright dislike this watering down of a very unique experience are to be believed
i haven't played that game so my frame of reference are the other mafia games
speaking of watered down, the moment to moment feels a lot like diet mafia 3
it maintains 3's flaws while removing the speed and brutality that made 3 compelling
however, because it plays perfectly Fine and it completely lacks the structure that made 3 a complete slog i don't really have a big problem with it
it's clear that this was done intentionally as well, given that there's a greater focus on making the player less a sheer unstoppable force of power and more like a regular human being
elements like medkit style health recovery and "classic" difficulty making any fight extremely lethal make that obvious
though i think that these elements are out of place in this game - i gave it a whirl but had a much better time when i turned the difficulty down
i normally like very lethal shooters (i can't play metro on anything other than ranger hardcore it doesn't feel right at all) so take that as you will
driving is hit or miss - it nails the sluggish handling that the original game specifically wanted to recreate in its simulation setting, but because this game has a much more modern approach to set pieces and the sort i found that
much like the aforementioned combat
it was more frustrating than immersive when i was actually meant to put my skills to the test
the best example is this game's attempt at addressing The Race, the part of the 2002 release that was so fucking infamous that it was later patched to allow the player to skip it
i really disliked it, it's what made me take the game from the moderate difficulty and simulation handling i was using and turn everything to its easiest setting until i was done with it
and i kept the driving there until the car chase in the rain when i decided to make that regular handling as well
i like the day to day mundanity that the game is striving for - which is why i kept the police response on simulation - but i suck at driving in a lot of games and i'd rather have a good time than just be mad at a video game
difficulty selection exists for a reason
because of that i'm not gonna really critique it much though, you'll probably dig it as it's a lot of the point
but this is all to say that i don't think the game loses much thematically in the translation between the hardcore and the streamlined
that's because the narrative is incredibly strong and maintains what made games previous as engaging as they were
it's less about the telling and more about the material and its context that's given to you
much of what makes mafia an interesting series is the thematic detail that the game is never subtle about but also never draws a ton of attention to
it forces the player to put two and two together while putting two and two right in front of your face
the end result is a game that's easy to interpret but takes a little bit of legwork to truly appreciate and i respect that about these games
that despite having "i've definitely seen goodfellas" energy it still manages to feel unique and fresh
that it maintains a focus on this narrative instead of capitulating to the trends of open world contemporaries results in a condensed and evocative crime story that is greater than the sum of its parts, lacking in any of the bullshit that a game like mafia 3 had
this is not an open world game, it is a game that uses an open world style hub to emphasize time and place
the commute is the point, the lack of anything to do outside of the objective you are given is the point, it's all the shit that mafia 2 did and it does it fairly well
but it isn't nearly as compelling
its story is a lot simpler, its protagonist is a lot less nuanced, its gameplay isn't q u i t e as good in spite of being the same on paper (the melee combat is better i'll give it that lol)
it's not as cohesive with its themes as even the original game could be (while i haven't played it i know what happens in the narrative)
but the end result is a very competent and enjoyable game that is a lot more interesting to talk about than the overwhelming majority of its AAA contemporaries
but i have a feeling that the legacy of the original mafia will overshadow this release the more time goes on just because of how unique it still is
i can't name another gta style game that goes as hard as that one does in immersing you in the world you're progressively making worse
which is a reality that i think hangar 13 would be okay with
it's clear that with all the changes made, there was a deep love for what the original game was able to capture
you gotta respect that with a AAA remake, we're kinda spoiled with the REmakes and we might not remember just how bad we normally have it with remakes
a narrative whose political boldness in the AAA space is only matched by the machinegames wolfensteins that you might not wanna see all of if the safest of checklist gameplay loops gets on your nerves
i dropped this game the first time i tried it
i had played through the reimagining of the first and the definitive release of the second mafia games before giving this a proper shot back when they were all put out
i was hooked by the narrative and how focused it was for the first few hours or so, but once what you're actually gonna be doing for the majority of your playthrough revealed itself to me
combined with it running like shit on my system of the time
i bid farewell to this and figured i'd finish it later when i had a better machine and some mods that helped the game out
fast forward three years and i did just that
the mods were very basic and i only implemented them after giving the vanilla experience another shot
things like improving the crosshair and adding a few more immersive elements (that i later began to dislike but i will not blame the game for that or account for it here, this game isn't built to play with rules that the other mafia games have and that's what i was trying to go for)
and hey, the game was butter smooth on my current system which is relatively mid range these days
but what wasn't smooth was the game's general technical polish
because there were enough times that i had to reload checkpoints or reset the game entirely (when the game wasn't doing it for me - this thankfully didn't happen often but it was more than a couple) that i felt like even noting it here
the game generally doesn't look very good for the time it came out either and i don't mean the graphical fidelity itself
the anti aliasing solution is incredibly frustrating and as a fan of the newer resident evil games that's saying something
the colors are also very washed out, an issue that the definitive edition made worse
thankfully, one of the mods i implemented was a reshade that is the most downloaded mod for this game on nexusmods
this is as someone who normally doesn't like most reshade presets you'll find online
but that really isn't the core issue with this game - i have played and greatly enjoyed games with far worse technical issues
this game is a fucking slog to get through
the moment to moment gameplay is great, i do not have an issue with any of the actual gunplay
the driving is so-so, it's vastly improved when you have access to better vehicles and it doesn't take long to get there
the actual blueprint for what you do makes sense, this game would not have been as effective if it was linear in the same way the other games were considering what it is trying to go for
no, what sucks is that there's so fucking much of it to do and it's all the same simple bullshit
talk to a dude who knows something about a district's racket, go around the district and hit up locations to fuck shit up and cause a lot of damage
get the runners of these rackets pissed so they show up at a place that you've probably already been to
and go end their shit (or not, you can spare people in this game but i can't comment on whether it's worth it or not because i killed all these dudes)
assign the racket to your chosen buddy and move on
do that twice in a district, get the story missions that actually have effort put into their structure
and move on until you've cleared the map
then end the game
it's really that simple
there is no big mechanical twist, there is no massive upgrade to your arsenal that makes the gameplay suddenly exciting
you just get incrementally better at doing what was already pretty easy to do in the first place
it's barebones as hell and by god is that a shame
this is some of my favorite writing in AAA gaming and its solely because of its bluntness
america being a racist shithole that will chew up and spit out every black body it can is a given
there is no question, no counter point to rebuke the evil that is the american empire
lincoln clay is a monster of america's creation
a black boy shipped out to vietnam and taught to do far worse than kill who comes back and is immediately taken advantage of by a white man that sees an opportunity
a man motivated by his deep pockets that sees clay and his family as nothing more than slurs to be used
a crime boss, a businessman, an owner of capital that fails to tie up that one loose end
and every bit of pain, rage and cunning that the state gave clay is what that man will get in return
and new bordeaux becomes yet another battlefield where non combatants are hurt the most
the characters are fairly consistent in that nuance, though it falls short of the highs that previous titles could hit
i think it makes up for that in its boldness and frame - taking down the racist cunts that think spewing slurs is a personality is very cathartic
rarely is this challenged - it's often egged on, and one can't really blame anybody for wanting this
but the game's best character comes in the form of the sole voice of dissent
watching a few clips of father james is all you really need to see what i'm getting at when i say just how utterly disappointing it is to play through all this slop
because the folks over at hangar 13 were capable of creating a character whose emotional ressonance alone completely makes this game
he is one of the reasons to go through this - i love every scene this man is in (in the main game - the dlcs suck and you should only do faster baby, that is my review of the dlcs)
he completely grounds the games events, primarily through the game's novel framing of being a documentary about the events that take place within the game itself
it's him talking about lincoln, expressing all of his sadness and regret of enabling lincoln to do what he does
shit like that, the nuance in what is on the surface pretty straight forward writing is what elevates the mafia games and seperates them from the muck that this game specifically would otherwise be
i think you should definitely play this, there's a LOT of stuff that i did not talk about because of that, but install mods that either half the racket damage or completely disable it (do the former, it's the main way you get a decent chunk of your money in the game but you also really don't need it if you just rush faster baby and get the silenced mac 10 lol)
because this game is, again, a slog and it's very frustrating given how excellent this game's writing tends to be
this is the rebuttal to every shit head that said mafia should be an open world game first and foremost
i dropped this game the first time i tried it
i had played through the reimagining of the first and the definitive release of the second mafia games before giving this a proper shot back when they were all put out
i was hooked by the narrative and how focused it was for the first few hours or so, but once what you're actually gonna be doing for the majority of your playthrough revealed itself to me
combined with it running like shit on my system of the time
i bid farewell to this and figured i'd finish it later when i had a better machine and some mods that helped the game out
fast forward three years and i did just that
the mods were very basic and i only implemented them after giving the vanilla experience another shot
things like improving the crosshair and adding a few more immersive elements (that i later began to dislike but i will not blame the game for that or account for it here, this game isn't built to play with rules that the other mafia games have and that's what i was trying to go for)
and hey, the game was butter smooth on my current system which is relatively mid range these days
but what wasn't smooth was the game's general technical polish
because there were enough times that i had to reload checkpoints or reset the game entirely (when the game wasn't doing it for me - this thankfully didn't happen often but it was more than a couple) that i felt like even noting it here
the game generally doesn't look very good for the time it came out either and i don't mean the graphical fidelity itself
the anti aliasing solution is incredibly frustrating and as a fan of the newer resident evil games that's saying something
the colors are also very washed out, an issue that the definitive edition made worse
thankfully, one of the mods i implemented was a reshade that is the most downloaded mod for this game on nexusmods
this is as someone who normally doesn't like most reshade presets you'll find online
but that really isn't the core issue with this game - i have played and greatly enjoyed games with far worse technical issues
this game is a fucking slog to get through
the moment to moment gameplay is great, i do not have an issue with any of the actual gunplay
the driving is so-so, it's vastly improved when you have access to better vehicles and it doesn't take long to get there
the actual blueprint for what you do makes sense, this game would not have been as effective if it was linear in the same way the other games were considering what it is trying to go for
no, what sucks is that there's so fucking much of it to do and it's all the same simple bullshit
talk to a dude who knows something about a district's racket, go around the district and hit up locations to fuck shit up and cause a lot of damage
get the runners of these rackets pissed so they show up at a place that you've probably already been to
and go end their shit (or not, you can spare people in this game but i can't comment on whether it's worth it or not because i killed all these dudes)
assign the racket to your chosen buddy and move on
do that twice in a district, get the story missions that actually have effort put into their structure
and move on until you've cleared the map
then end the game
it's really that simple
there is no big mechanical twist, there is no massive upgrade to your arsenal that makes the gameplay suddenly exciting
you just get incrementally better at doing what was already pretty easy to do in the first place
it's barebones as hell and by god is that a shame
this is some of my favorite writing in AAA gaming and its solely because of its bluntness
america being a racist shithole that will chew up and spit out every black body it can is a given
there is no question, no counter point to rebuke the evil that is the american empire
lincoln clay is a monster of america's creation
a black boy shipped out to vietnam and taught to do far worse than kill who comes back and is immediately taken advantage of by a white man that sees an opportunity
a man motivated by his deep pockets that sees clay and his family as nothing more than slurs to be used
a crime boss, a businessman, an owner of capital that fails to tie up that one loose end
and every bit of pain, rage and cunning that the state gave clay is what that man will get in return
and new bordeaux becomes yet another battlefield where non combatants are hurt the most
the characters are fairly consistent in that nuance, though it falls short of the highs that previous titles could hit
i think it makes up for that in its boldness and frame - taking down the racist cunts that think spewing slurs is a personality is very cathartic
rarely is this challenged - it's often egged on, and one can't really blame anybody for wanting this
but the game's best character comes in the form of the sole voice of dissent
watching a few clips of father james is all you really need to see what i'm getting at when i say just how utterly disappointing it is to play through all this slop
because the folks over at hangar 13 were capable of creating a character whose emotional ressonance alone completely makes this game
he is one of the reasons to go through this - i love every scene this man is in (in the main game - the dlcs suck and you should only do faster baby, that is my review of the dlcs)
he completely grounds the games events, primarily through the game's novel framing of being a documentary about the events that take place within the game itself
it's him talking about lincoln, expressing all of his sadness and regret of enabling lincoln to do what he does
shit like that, the nuance in what is on the surface pretty straight forward writing is what elevates the mafia games and seperates them from the muck that this game specifically would otherwise be
i think you should definitely play this, there's a LOT of stuff that i did not talk about because of that, but install mods that either half the racket damage or completely disable it (do the former, it's the main way you get a decent chunk of your money in the game but you also really don't need it if you just rush faster baby and get the silenced mac 10 lol)
because this game is, again, a slog and it's very frustrating given how excellent this game's writing tends to be
this is the rebuttal to every shit head that said mafia should be an open world game first and foremost
a solid cinematic platformer which replicates all the strengths and weaknesses of its chosen subgenre
the overal story is directly inspired by several bits of nordic folklore, a subject that i know basically nothing about so i'm judging this entirely based upon what's put right in front of my eyes
and what i'm mostly seeing is a lot of really inspired imagery that was clearly made on a budget
you can see that primarily in how the children are made of plastic, and you can hear it in some of the sound design
which is fine because the art design is generally pretty fucking stellar - that's especially so with the game's story book illustrations
and i did mean some, earlier, because for the most part the game sounds fantastic
overall the score is great, the track used for the game's last segment is especially noteworthy and i won't spoil it here
i normally don't like shit like that but i came around in the end
the rating is kept down mostly because there are only a few moments that i can describe as "holy shit" and the rest i was kinda coasting
when it wants to scare you it's pretty good at it, the village segment has some of the darkest (as in you can't see shit) segments in the game and it takes full advantage of it by practically jumpscaring you with enemies that react to your light
the boss fight capping the village off (really that entire fucking set up) is probably the best bit of horror in the game
evoked memories of getting scared shitless by the abyss in dark souls one
your mileage may vary though, for the most part this game was vibe central both in terms of its spookiness being up my ally but also in that it didn't really challenge me at all
which is wild to say given how absurdly dark (tonally this time) the game can be at times
excellent addition to the "child has the absolute worst experience of their life and somehow survives it" genre of this kind of platformer
which is also basically all of them lol
but frankly, i wish this story had a bit more confidence
it suffers from the biggest pitfall that having a narrator can have which is that it'll show up at times when you really don't want it to adding fluff to something that did not need it and generally lessing the strength of some of the game's more powerful moments
the counter to this is that there is a discreet option to turn it off, but i didn't want to do that
there were moments where i appreciated its presence, especially as someone with absolutely no knowledge of the game's inspirations
and there are plenty of parts when the game knows that it should shut the fuck up and let you soak in what's going on
but overall i feel like the narrator was a net negative addition if what it's primarily there for is to story-book-ify a narrative that, while fitting, would be best experienced without it if given the choice
thankfully you are - if you haven't played this game and you're like me when it comes to absolutely abhoring when something just cannot accept the possibility that you may not know what the fuck is going on then i highly recommend toying around with that
go through it and then maybe skim through a playthrough and see the differences
i would hope it doesn't turn off the narrator for the literal story book segments because that's where the concept was best utilized but idk!
this game would benefit from a mod where somebody took a fine tooth comb and cut out all the fluff because i really want to like the idea
it fits! it makes sense!
i'm just picky with this shit nowadays i guess, who knows
the general gameplay is very bog standard
usage of specifically arranged camera angles that flow from one shot to the next while you do a thing that generally involves not getting absolutely obliterated by something that's horrific even in games like this that are meant for kids (which this absolutely isn't)
this isn't a bad thing
there are checkpoints that were mildly frustrating and the "i was supposed to jump there?" problem happened more than once
generally speaking these things didn't happen a lot though
the final boss, however, is chief bitch in this regard
and it stuck out like a sore thumb because it's the most bombastic set piece in the game in both what you're doing and the music being played
this is gonna be my go to example for "fuck fuck fuck don't die this moment is good don't die it'll ruin the vibe and pace do not fucking die" and then you die, are taken out of it, and then proceed to die several more times just to make sure the moment's ruined
it's not that the fight is hard
it's the most challenging part of the game but the fight is relatively easy and the checkpoints are very generous
it's just that the fight is driven by a specific choice of score (i've mentioned this already) and when you hear that, die, fade to black, fade from black, and the part you're at starts blaring again it's comical at best
i'm harping on about that because it would've been really, really cool if i hadn't died at all during this part but you can't win everything
but besides all that shit the game's cool, i like it
fuck with it, even
i wanna see what these guys do next
their last game was a vr exclusive called A Writer And His Daughter from 2017 that has a whopping seventeen reviews so when i get a headset in the year 2035 i'll play that in the year eventually and see if that's also cool
it also looks neat
the overal story is directly inspired by several bits of nordic folklore, a subject that i know basically nothing about so i'm judging this entirely based upon what's put right in front of my eyes
and what i'm mostly seeing is a lot of really inspired imagery that was clearly made on a budget
you can see that primarily in how the children are made of plastic, and you can hear it in some of the sound design
which is fine because the art design is generally pretty fucking stellar - that's especially so with the game's story book illustrations
and i did mean some, earlier, because for the most part the game sounds fantastic
overall the score is great, the track used for the game's last segment is especially noteworthy and i won't spoil it here
i normally don't like shit like that but i came around in the end
the rating is kept down mostly because there are only a few moments that i can describe as "holy shit" and the rest i was kinda coasting
when it wants to scare you it's pretty good at it, the village segment has some of the darkest (as in you can't see shit) segments in the game and it takes full advantage of it by practically jumpscaring you with enemies that react to your light
the boss fight capping the village off (really that entire fucking set up) is probably the best bit of horror in the game
evoked memories of getting scared shitless by the abyss in dark souls one
your mileage may vary though, for the most part this game was vibe central both in terms of its spookiness being up my ally but also in that it didn't really challenge me at all
which is wild to say given how absurdly dark (tonally this time) the game can be at times
excellent addition to the "child has the absolute worst experience of their life and somehow survives it" genre of this kind of platformer
which is also basically all of them lol
but frankly, i wish this story had a bit more confidence
it suffers from the biggest pitfall that having a narrator can have which is that it'll show up at times when you really don't want it to adding fluff to something that did not need it and generally lessing the strength of some of the game's more powerful moments
the counter to this is that there is a discreet option to turn it off, but i didn't want to do that
there were moments where i appreciated its presence, especially as someone with absolutely no knowledge of the game's inspirations
and there are plenty of parts when the game knows that it should shut the fuck up and let you soak in what's going on
but overall i feel like the narrator was a net negative addition if what it's primarily there for is to story-book-ify a narrative that, while fitting, would be best experienced without it if given the choice
thankfully you are - if you haven't played this game and you're like me when it comes to absolutely abhoring when something just cannot accept the possibility that you may not know what the fuck is going on then i highly recommend toying around with that
go through it and then maybe skim through a playthrough and see the differences
i would hope it doesn't turn off the narrator for the literal story book segments because that's where the concept was best utilized but idk!
this game would benefit from a mod where somebody took a fine tooth comb and cut out all the fluff because i really want to like the idea
it fits! it makes sense!
i'm just picky with this shit nowadays i guess, who knows
the general gameplay is very bog standard
usage of specifically arranged camera angles that flow from one shot to the next while you do a thing that generally involves not getting absolutely obliterated by something that's horrific even in games like this that are meant for kids (which this absolutely isn't)
this isn't a bad thing
there are checkpoints that were mildly frustrating and the "i was supposed to jump there?" problem happened more than once
generally speaking these things didn't happen a lot though
the final boss, however, is chief bitch in this regard
and it stuck out like a sore thumb because it's the most bombastic set piece in the game in both what you're doing and the music being played
this is gonna be my go to example for "fuck fuck fuck don't die this moment is good don't die it'll ruin the vibe and pace do not fucking die" and then you die, are taken out of it, and then proceed to die several more times just to make sure the moment's ruined
it's not that the fight is hard
it's the most challenging part of the game but the fight is relatively easy and the checkpoints are very generous
it's just that the fight is driven by a specific choice of score (i've mentioned this already) and when you hear that, die, fade to black, fade from black, and the part you're at starts blaring again it's comical at best
i'm harping on about that because it would've been really, really cool if i hadn't died at all during this part but you can't win everything
but besides all that shit the game's cool, i like it
fuck with it, even
i wanna see what these guys do next
their last game was a vr exclusive called A Writer And His Daughter from 2017 that has a whopping seventeen reviews so when i get a headset in the year 2035 i'll play that in the year eventually and see if that's also cool
it also looks neat
this is a from the ground up remake of the original 2014 release with a focus on accuracy, quality of life changes and content additions that flesh things out just a bit more
on all those fronts this was a success
it's been a minute since i've went through this game completely, but with the exception of the, frankly, butchered rendition of Work Harder (it's not the sample, it's a remade song now and it sounds significantly worse) i didn't notice a singular thing out of place
i've read about people noticing the combat was somewhat slower due to some minor animation changes but as someone who is incredibly impatient at times and doesn't dig turn based rpg combat most of the time i had no issues here
the core game is retained, the content alterations are extremely minimal and no one is gonna notice it or care
quite literally a singular bit of a sprite alteration (a black character in a flashback joke scene had his lip color altered to not resemble a minstrel caricature), some punching sounds that i never noticed and another singular sound effect (there's a power ranger riff group that appears, and while they're making poses and doing their intros the sound of a monkey plays over the black ranger's dialogue which was changed to a goofy elephant sound)
which are at bare minimum whatever changes and at best (the ones with these little marks next to them) worthwhile changes that maintain what was funny about their contexts without the out of place racist elements
so don't feel like you're missing out if you buy this
it includes the legacy versions of the game if you're dying to see what they're like
but new content like extra campfire conversations that really flesh out your party members are things you'd be missing by making that decision
if you owned this before, you get the definitive version for free
which was a good excuse for me to revisit this absolute fucking masterpiece of a game
classic example of something that has a lot to talk about, but because it's something that is still relatively obscure i really don't want to
you really should just fucking play it
the power this narrative has still stands strong, it's an oppressively bleak treaty on the cyclical effects of abuse
it's also mad max meets mother 3 with a soundtrack that sounds like literally nothing else
the game happens to be mechanically deep and compelling on its own, but as the best games do the narrative and gameplay cannot be separated
few games avoid ludonarrative dissonance as well as this game does
extremely absurd, very funny, and really fucking painful
one of my favorite youtube videos is hbomberguy's essay on this game and its dlc sequel, which to me is the defacto "i wanna know what is going on with this fucker" bit of content i'd throw anybody's way
at some point he says something along the lines of "this game will directly inspire a future 'best game ever'" and i fully agree
it is a must play, and with it on all platforms you cunts have no excuse anymore
on all those fronts this was a success
it's been a minute since i've went through this game completely, but with the exception of the, frankly, butchered rendition of Work Harder (it's not the sample, it's a remade song now and it sounds significantly worse) i didn't notice a singular thing out of place
i've read about people noticing the combat was somewhat slower due to some minor animation changes but as someone who is incredibly impatient at times and doesn't dig turn based rpg combat most of the time i had no issues here
the core game is retained, the content alterations are extremely minimal and no one is gonna notice it or care
quite literally a singular bit of a sprite alteration (a black character in a flashback joke scene had his lip color altered to not resemble a minstrel caricature), some punching sounds that i never noticed and another singular sound effect (there's a power ranger riff group that appears, and while they're making poses and doing their intros the sound of a monkey plays over the black ranger's dialogue which was changed to a goofy elephant sound)
which are at bare minimum whatever changes and at best (the ones with these little marks next to them) worthwhile changes that maintain what was funny about their contexts without the out of place racist elements
so don't feel like you're missing out if you buy this
it includes the legacy versions of the game if you're dying to see what they're like
but new content like extra campfire conversations that really flesh out your party members are things you'd be missing by making that decision
if you owned this before, you get the definitive version for free
which was a good excuse for me to revisit this absolute fucking masterpiece of a game
classic example of something that has a lot to talk about, but because it's something that is still relatively obscure i really don't want to
you really should just fucking play it
the power this narrative has still stands strong, it's an oppressively bleak treaty on the cyclical effects of abuse
it's also mad max meets mother 3 with a soundtrack that sounds like literally nothing else
the game happens to be mechanically deep and compelling on its own, but as the best games do the narrative and gameplay cannot be separated
few games avoid ludonarrative dissonance as well as this game does
extremely absurd, very funny, and really fucking painful
one of my favorite youtube videos is hbomberguy's essay on this game and its dlc sequel, which to me is the defacto "i wanna know what is going on with this fucker" bit of content i'd throw anybody's way
at some point he says something along the lines of "this game will directly inspire a future 'best game ever'" and i fully agree
it is a must play, and with it on all platforms you cunts have no excuse anymore
alright, i fucked with the idea of a 2d platformer that takes advantage of fighting game mechanics
even something jank like this that controls the way it does
the closest thing i can think of is the subspace emmisary mode from ssbb but i'm sure something else does this idea justice too
i hope so mainly because this game is fucking trash
like i said, it's not really the controls
but they aren't good either
this feels exactly like taking the movement of mk3 and putting it into a 2d platformer because that is what it is
there are a few obvious flaws, two of which being that you can't really do fine control of your jumping (because this is mk style controls and not a more modern anime fighter or what have you that would feel better) and there's not a great solution for locking onto targets
the latter of which the game tries to solve with a button that manually chooses which direciton you face
except your inputs aren't consistently responsive when it comes to anything other than punching something, so not only do you not always turn when you want
but you have enemies that can and will take advantage of you fucking around with just turning
i was playing on very easy (i knew this game's reputation) and the first level was me dying over and over just trying to figure out how this game was gonna opperate
but hey, i did! after that the controls honestly weren't that big of an issue
it's jank but whether it was me being better at doing it or the game mysteriously getting better at auto rotating your guy to kick a dude in the face, something clicked and i got over it
so yeah, that isn't the issue
nah it's everything else
this is one of the cheapest games i've ever played
we're running with a lives and continue system which inherently there is nothing wrong with
in the game's options you can give yourself up to six lives and four continues iirc, idk i'm not booting it up to check again
point is you get a decent amount
this will go by very quickly
now, i've said before that i suck at fighting games - platformers however are my shit
so when i say that if i didn't have save states i'd probably still be on the second level i mean i'd be hard stuck
this game kills you so god damn fast
enemies (again, i was playing on very easy) can easily cheap you out with sweep spamming and other annoying bullshit that isn't so much hard to counter as it is just really annoying to deal with
once you start getting abilities this is less of an issue, but it never quite goes away
you can spam freeze somebody (even bosses sometimes), which IS funny
but what isn't is when the moment you open a fucking door they just rock your shit for no good reason
sometimes they do, sometimes they don't! it seems to me we're working with input reading ai here which isn't out of character for mk but it is absolutely fucking abysmal in a single player action platformer
this is glaringly obvious with the bosses which seem designed specifically around you abusing this fact
the second level boss's primary method of killing you is tossing you off the stage and killing you instantly
did i mention that if you continue you will restart the level
and you'll never guess what happens when you run out of continues, i won't either because i didn't find out
i used savestates and if you play this you should too, i'm not risking the chance of this bullshit ass game taking me back to the very fucking beginning of it or making me reload a save that has a fucking password system despite saving to the memory card in the year of our lord 1997
maybe it does just let you reload the game! that would make sense, but like i said
i'll never know
because again, this game kills you so fucking fast
every hazard can kill you and it can kill you very quickly
the second level is entirely about putting you in situations where if you fuck up once you are sent back to a checkpoint
checkpoints are seemingly reasonable given level lengths (it shouldn't shock you to know that this is a relatively short game) but again
death is inevitable, it is quick and swift but the pain lingers
you know that boss i mentioned? if you drain his health bar he goes into a last attack mode that will kill you instantly if it lands
you have three options of recourse:
run, run and run but not too hard so you don't fall off the stage
spam your slide move if you have it (you should)
but those two methods are very inconsistent, no see what you're meant to do is go to the ledge of the stage and grab onto it
how? i have no idea, i did the former on accident
i KNEW what the game wanted me to do before hand and i went exactly where i needed to go but it didn't work
i feel like it was luck that i survived but it might not have been
the game conditions the player to expect deaths and expect them quick so i just assume most shit will kill me
which isn't always the case! the third level has pits that sometimes has goodies
and you'll never know unless you jump into one
but if you guess wrong you just die
so why the fuck would you ever try it without savestates or something
and listen, i like hard games, but i fucking hate bullshit ones like this
and the level design isn't even inspired enough to make it enjoyable
the reason i stopped playing wasn't because i got too frustrated, it's because i got really bored
by the time i hit the fourth level (water temple LOL) i noticed that it was a series of what looked like sewer pipes that all looked exactly the same
so i looked up a gameplay walkthrough, skimmed through it to see if i was missing anything, realized i wasn't and stopped playing
except there is ONE saving grace, one little nugget of cool that is worth this game's existence
the cutscenes are funny
it's cheap camp that hits, it's basic as hell and there isn't a lot of it but that means you can just look them up on youtube and not have to play this thing
which is absolutely the best way to go about things
this is a weirdly ambitious project that didn't even commit to its ambitions enough to make a game that was interesting to go through and i think that's the game's biggest flaw
ninja gaiden for the nes is bullshit but i like it and still consider it a good game
it feels good to control and it's not just the same closed off corridor over and over again
i am easy to please and i can handle unfair games
this is a bullshit arcade game in sheep's clothing, but instead of your money all your gonna wast is your time and that's significantly more valuable in the long term
even something jank like this that controls the way it does
the closest thing i can think of is the subspace emmisary mode from ssbb but i'm sure something else does this idea justice too
i hope so mainly because this game is fucking trash
like i said, it's not really the controls
but they aren't good either
this feels exactly like taking the movement of mk3 and putting it into a 2d platformer because that is what it is
there are a few obvious flaws, two of which being that you can't really do fine control of your jumping (because this is mk style controls and not a more modern anime fighter or what have you that would feel better) and there's not a great solution for locking onto targets
the latter of which the game tries to solve with a button that manually chooses which direciton you face
except your inputs aren't consistently responsive when it comes to anything other than punching something, so not only do you not always turn when you want
but you have enemies that can and will take advantage of you fucking around with just turning
i was playing on very easy (i knew this game's reputation) and the first level was me dying over and over just trying to figure out how this game was gonna opperate
but hey, i did! after that the controls honestly weren't that big of an issue
it's jank but whether it was me being better at doing it or the game mysteriously getting better at auto rotating your guy to kick a dude in the face, something clicked and i got over it
so yeah, that isn't the issue
nah it's everything else
this is one of the cheapest games i've ever played
we're running with a lives and continue system which inherently there is nothing wrong with
in the game's options you can give yourself up to six lives and four continues iirc, idk i'm not booting it up to check again
point is you get a decent amount
this will go by very quickly
now, i've said before that i suck at fighting games - platformers however are my shit
so when i say that if i didn't have save states i'd probably still be on the second level i mean i'd be hard stuck
this game kills you so god damn fast
enemies (again, i was playing on very easy) can easily cheap you out with sweep spamming and other annoying bullshit that isn't so much hard to counter as it is just really annoying to deal with
once you start getting abilities this is less of an issue, but it never quite goes away
you can spam freeze somebody (even bosses sometimes), which IS funny
but what isn't is when the moment you open a fucking door they just rock your shit for no good reason
sometimes they do, sometimes they don't! it seems to me we're working with input reading ai here which isn't out of character for mk but it is absolutely fucking abysmal in a single player action platformer
this is glaringly obvious with the bosses which seem designed specifically around you abusing this fact
the second level boss's primary method of killing you is tossing you off the stage and killing you instantly
did i mention that if you continue you will restart the level
and you'll never guess what happens when you run out of continues, i won't either because i didn't find out
i used savestates and if you play this you should too, i'm not risking the chance of this bullshit ass game taking me back to the very fucking beginning of it or making me reload a save that has a fucking password system despite saving to the memory card in the year of our lord 1997
maybe it does just let you reload the game! that would make sense, but like i said
i'll never know
because again, this game kills you so fucking fast
every hazard can kill you and it can kill you very quickly
the second level is entirely about putting you in situations where if you fuck up once you are sent back to a checkpoint
checkpoints are seemingly reasonable given level lengths (it shouldn't shock you to know that this is a relatively short game) but again
death is inevitable, it is quick and swift but the pain lingers
you know that boss i mentioned? if you drain his health bar he goes into a last attack mode that will kill you instantly if it lands
you have three options of recourse:
run, run and run but not too hard so you don't fall off the stage
spam your slide move if you have it (you should)
but those two methods are very inconsistent, no see what you're meant to do is go to the ledge of the stage and grab onto it
how? i have no idea, i did the former on accident
i KNEW what the game wanted me to do before hand and i went exactly where i needed to go but it didn't work
i feel like it was luck that i survived but it might not have been
the game conditions the player to expect deaths and expect them quick so i just assume most shit will kill me
which isn't always the case! the third level has pits that sometimes has goodies
and you'll never know unless you jump into one
but if you guess wrong you just die
so why the fuck would you ever try it without savestates or something
and listen, i like hard games, but i fucking hate bullshit ones like this
and the level design isn't even inspired enough to make it enjoyable
the reason i stopped playing wasn't because i got too frustrated, it's because i got really bored
by the time i hit the fourth level (water temple LOL) i noticed that it was a series of what looked like sewer pipes that all looked exactly the same
so i looked up a gameplay walkthrough, skimmed through it to see if i was missing anything, realized i wasn't and stopped playing
except there is ONE saving grace, one little nugget of cool that is worth this game's existence
the cutscenes are funny
it's cheap camp that hits, it's basic as hell and there isn't a lot of it but that means you can just look them up on youtube and not have to play this thing
which is absolutely the best way to go about things
this is a weirdly ambitious project that didn't even commit to its ambitions enough to make a game that was interesting to go through and i think that's the game's biggest flaw
ninja gaiden for the nes is bullshit but i like it and still consider it a good game
it feels good to control and it's not just the same closed off corridor over and over again
i am easy to please and i can handle unfair games
this is a bullshit arcade game in sheep's clothing, but instead of your money all your gonna wast is your time and that's significantly more valuable in the long term
1992
i suck at mortal kombat
i suck at fighting games in general but i really, really suck at mk
which is hilarious because this series is easily the one i've put the most time into, especially mk trilogy (lol)
and i feel like i'm especially unequipped to rate and talk about a fighting game in general just because my primary method of interacting with all games is to play them by myself
which, you know
not really what these are known for, especially arcade fighting games which only really have the arcade ladder and then the actual part of the game that people are there for
so i guess i'll just tackle it like that, be aware of the pitfalls that my approach has but also having enough history to be able to say that the game is still good
og mk is very simple, you can do some wacky shit but it's very much a beta for mk2
which is evidenced by that game coming out just about a year later and it fundamentally just being the same game
but better
so this makes this title not mandatory but a recommended play regardless
in '92 it was this or sf2, and while i would much
much rather be playing the latter, this game's still good
but only that
i suck at fighting games in general but i really, really suck at mk
which is hilarious because this series is easily the one i've put the most time into, especially mk trilogy (lol)
and i feel like i'm especially unequipped to rate and talk about a fighting game in general just because my primary method of interacting with all games is to play them by myself
which, you know
not really what these are known for, especially arcade fighting games which only really have the arcade ladder and then the actual part of the game that people are there for
so i guess i'll just tackle it like that, be aware of the pitfalls that my approach has but also having enough history to be able to say that the game is still good
og mk is very simple, you can do some wacky shit but it's very much a beta for mk2
which is evidenced by that game coming out just about a year later and it fundamentally just being the same game
but better
so this makes this title not mandatory but a recommended play regardless
in '92 it was this or sf2, and while i would much
much rather be playing the latter, this game's still good
but only that
1993
this game is fucking sick
it's a direct and unarguable improvement upon its predecessor that still remains a playable fighter both casually and competetively
not that i know anything about the latter, i'm terrible at this game
and i'm also dogshit at this game's arcade ladder but i know i'm not alone in that regard
as somebody playing this game on my own, the thing that really sticks out is the tone
it's martial arts b movie horror and it fucking nails it
there's a genuine sense of camp combined with legitimately impressive technical prowress (for the time, this was a looker) that makes it all come together
that's definitely what stuck out to me as a kid
it's very, very easy to spot that these games are primarily made by white people (i don't think i have to explain why that's worth pointing out) but i have a hard time paying attention to that when the games are so brazenly stupid and not at all knowing it
i'm sure the devs did, not that it matters
great game, you're probably better at it than me
and unfortunately that's all i really have to say about it
like i'm gonna talk about the mechanics go watch PNDK&M
it's a direct and unarguable improvement upon its predecessor that still remains a playable fighter both casually and competetively
not that i know anything about the latter, i'm terrible at this game
and i'm also dogshit at this game's arcade ladder but i know i'm not alone in that regard
as somebody playing this game on my own, the thing that really sticks out is the tone
it's martial arts b movie horror and it fucking nails it
there's a genuine sense of camp combined with legitimately impressive technical prowress (for the time, this was a looker) that makes it all come together
that's definitely what stuck out to me as a kid
it's very, very easy to spot that these games are primarily made by white people (i don't think i have to explain why that's worth pointing out) but i have a hard time paying attention to that when the games are so brazenly stupid and not at all knowing it
i'm sure the devs did, not that it matters
great game, you're probably better at it than me
and unfortunately that's all i really have to say about it
like i'm gonna talk about the mechanics go watch PNDK&M
this is probably my favorite mortal kombat but we'll see
thus far with my ratings of these games i've ignored talking about the mechanics simply because i'm bad at these games and i would rather you go look up how wild these games are on youtube than read me talk about them
i'm shit, my critiques are probably shit
and i'm gonna mostly continue to do that, but as we're ending the era of these games having basically nothing single player wise outside of the arcade ladder i guess we can talk about that here
simply because i don't really care for them
it's not why these games are great, and it's hard for me to talk about that because i'm not playing them with anybody these times around
every enemy is just an input mirror
they react to what you do and nothing else
a decent chunk of the time, if you just stand still they won't do anything
and when they do shit they're spamming the most optimal shit that makes you feel like you're playing a pro at this game
it's ai, and it can be cheesed, but not by me lol
so why is this and 2 highly rated for me? i've played them with people before lol
i played this and trilogy to death with my cousin, but i've played a fair bit of 2 as well
a lot of the snes ports of both of these
pissing people off with the sheva ground pound was klassic gamer shit my dude
the vibe is still just as good as it was before, that schlock that my head goop cavern truly craves
but a lot of my love for this game is nostalgia
look up comp footage this game is rad
thus far with my ratings of these games i've ignored talking about the mechanics simply because i'm bad at these games and i would rather you go look up how wild these games are on youtube than read me talk about them
i'm shit, my critiques are probably shit
and i'm gonna mostly continue to do that, but as we're ending the era of these games having basically nothing single player wise outside of the arcade ladder i guess we can talk about that here
simply because i don't really care for them
it's not why these games are great, and it's hard for me to talk about that because i'm not playing them with anybody these times around
every enemy is just an input mirror
they react to what you do and nothing else
a decent chunk of the time, if you just stand still they won't do anything
and when they do shit they're spamming the most optimal shit that makes you feel like you're playing a pro at this game
it's ai, and it can be cheesed, but not by me lol
so why is this and 2 highly rated for me? i've played them with people before lol
i played this and trilogy to death with my cousin, but i've played a fair bit of 2 as well
a lot of the snes ports of both of these
pissing people off with the sheva ground pound was klassic gamer shit my dude
the vibe is still just as good as it was before, that schlock that my head goop cavern truly craves
but a lot of my love for this game is nostalgia
look up comp footage this game is rad
look man it's umk3 but even more stupid, i love that shit
the roster is expansive and very dumb, it feels like you're playing mugen sometimes but mugen is one of the best things ever
i played the every loving hell out of this game as a child who was probably too young to be playing it but that's neither here nor there
it's just a lot of fun and it has all the pros and cons of the game it followed up except more cons but i don't really care about them
the game looks like shit in comparison to the arcade ports but that's just the nature of ports at the time
speaking of, i played the GOG release which is probably the best way to play it outside of n64 on original hardware
native xinput support baby
you probably have an opinion on this game and it's likely that umk3 is better, which it is but my favorite smash game is project m and this game being my foundational fighting game is probably part of why that is
the roster is expansive and very dumb, it feels like you're playing mugen sometimes but mugen is one of the best things ever
i played the every loving hell out of this game as a child who was probably too young to be playing it but that's neither here nor there
it's just a lot of fun and it has all the pros and cons of the game it followed up except more cons but i don't really care about them
the game looks like shit in comparison to the arcade ports but that's just the nature of ports at the time
speaking of, i played the GOG release which is probably the best way to play it outside of n64 on original hardware
native xinput support baby
you probably have an opinion on this game and it's likely that umk3 is better, which it is but my favorite smash game is project m and this game being my foundational fighting game is probably part of why that is
this is the first armored core that i've played to completion, and it's the first time in a while i've played a game and felt compelled to squeeze every last drop out of it that i could
50 hours and 100% completion and i still want more
what i hoped for amidst the hype of this release was for it to capture what made armored core as a franchise compelling while testing what fromsoft has learned during their years of making the same great game over and over
the end result is what most people are going to consider the best entry in the franchise, but it's likely not gonna replace anybody's fervor for games like 4A
in many ways it is exactly what the franchise probably needed if it were to exist within the current gaming landscape
it is very accessible in more ways than just difficulty
the control scheme is intuitive and doesn't really recquire any commitment to mastery, but you can fully rebind it if it doesn't suit your needs
there's a great balance between speed and weight while making even the heaviest of ACs feel smooth to control
there are auto saves, missions have checkpoints, there's allotted repair kits
the majority of missions that warrant it have resupply points
dying and not immediately using the pause menu to restart from checkpoint lets you change your assembly mid mission
there are explanations for what stats mean what (which are generally reliable) and videos that show how a part that does a thing is gonna function
the only thing failure costs is score, and even so it's very hard to not profit enough to buy something after a success
it's impossible to go into debt even if you manage that
this game isn't the first to do some shit i mentioned here, but the general approach to just being as accessible as possible is great
because, while i did not have a particularly difficult time with a lot of this game, a lot of people have and i can see why
this is still armored core, it has everything that makes the series appealing while having very little of what could keep people away from it
there's a lot of build variety and the visual customization is fucking amazing (especially with things like uploaded emblems, paint jobs and build presets)
and you'll need to customize in order to figure out what works, especially for late game and getting s ranks
there's mutliple story paths and each are worth playing through, which isn't a massive investment since missions are universally under ten minutes and overwhelmingly under five
but the game is demanding in the exact ways it should be
while mastery is not required for completion you'll need to know how to fuck around proper so you don't find out when chasing s ranks
and there's enough of a skill ceiling that the pvp is a LOT of fun
the story is also pretty fucking great
like classic fromsoftware, the potency of this narrative comes from the details that the game never really throws in your face
it's derivative, i don't think this does anything i haven't seen before
nor do i think it's elevated pastiche in the same way as something like Bloodborne is
but it's just really fucking good, and it shows that the writers at fromsoft are still at the top of their game
this is an overall fantastic experience that never felt like a chore or that it was bullshit
frustration is very minimal, only a couple missions i can actively think of (and it was really only when s ranking lol)
and i feel exactly how a great game should make me feel
i want MORE, i want more of THIS specifically
but this is not the pinnacle, not yet
a 6A or 7 could be that, and i hope it is because this series deserves to flourish
but while i think it brought everything from the older games that made them appealing, this isn't the greatest example of what makes an armored core fan foam at the mouth for these games
the build variety is pretty damn expansive but you'll mainly excperience how much you can do in pvp
which is to be expected, but even in pvp there is a dominant strategy
stagger and punish
there are a bunch of ways to get there but your success, especially when you're going for s ranks, is to embrace this strategy and act accordingly
if you need to be fast: dual zimmermans, songbirds and some kind of high punishment melee weapon (pilebunker or double trouble, probably) and a lightweight ac build otherwise
if you need to tank hits: dual gatlin guns, dual stun needles (if you don't have them songbirds work fine) and the heaviest motherfucker you can muster
i've made a bunch of custom builds with custom color themes in this game because it was fun to do that, but nearly all of them revolved around this
and when they weren't that, there are clearly parts that are better than others
what this game has is an unfortunate amount of redundancy
there are a lot of missile parts, a lot of plasma/laser rifles, etc but there are few that you probably wanna use outside of testing pvp stuff
and while i do think there's a pretty high skill cieling, it doesn't hold a candle to something like the movement or part selection of 4A
which is partly a good thing, i'm the cunt AC6 was designed for because i feel like on all levels it appeals specifically to me
my tastes and my sensibilities
but it doesn't fulfill all of my wants with this series
i not only want more because i loved this game as much as i did, but i want more of the potential of what the next game(s) in this franchise could be
i'm in love with this game, but it's tempered
i know what fromsoft is capable of, i think the people who make games there are extremely talented
and while i think they need a fucking break (Elden Ring came out last year dude)
i have high hopes that whatever comes next for this franchise has the potential to be THE Armored Core
the one that everyone can certifiably, without any doubts, call the best one
but for the time being, it's my favorite one
at least until i stop getting filtered by 4A, that game feels so fucking good but tracking NEXTS is a big bitch lol
50 hours and 100% completion and i still want more
what i hoped for amidst the hype of this release was for it to capture what made armored core as a franchise compelling while testing what fromsoft has learned during their years of making the same great game over and over
the end result is what most people are going to consider the best entry in the franchise, but it's likely not gonna replace anybody's fervor for games like 4A
in many ways it is exactly what the franchise probably needed if it were to exist within the current gaming landscape
it is very accessible in more ways than just difficulty
the control scheme is intuitive and doesn't really recquire any commitment to mastery, but you can fully rebind it if it doesn't suit your needs
there's a great balance between speed and weight while making even the heaviest of ACs feel smooth to control
there are auto saves, missions have checkpoints, there's allotted repair kits
the majority of missions that warrant it have resupply points
dying and not immediately using the pause menu to restart from checkpoint lets you change your assembly mid mission
there are explanations for what stats mean what (which are generally reliable) and videos that show how a part that does a thing is gonna function
the only thing failure costs is score, and even so it's very hard to not profit enough to buy something after a success
it's impossible to go into debt even if you manage that
this game isn't the first to do some shit i mentioned here, but the general approach to just being as accessible as possible is great
because, while i did not have a particularly difficult time with a lot of this game, a lot of people have and i can see why
this is still armored core, it has everything that makes the series appealing while having very little of what could keep people away from it
there's a lot of build variety and the visual customization is fucking amazing (especially with things like uploaded emblems, paint jobs and build presets)
and you'll need to customize in order to figure out what works, especially for late game and getting s ranks
there's mutliple story paths and each are worth playing through, which isn't a massive investment since missions are universally under ten minutes and overwhelmingly under five
but the game is demanding in the exact ways it should be
while mastery is not required for completion you'll need to know how to fuck around proper so you don't find out when chasing s ranks
and there's enough of a skill ceiling that the pvp is a LOT of fun
the story is also pretty fucking great
like classic fromsoftware, the potency of this narrative comes from the details that the game never really throws in your face
it's derivative, i don't think this does anything i haven't seen before
nor do i think it's elevated pastiche in the same way as something like Bloodborne is
but it's just really fucking good, and it shows that the writers at fromsoft are still at the top of their game
this is an overall fantastic experience that never felt like a chore or that it was bullshit
frustration is very minimal, only a couple missions i can actively think of (and it was really only when s ranking lol)
and i feel exactly how a great game should make me feel
i want MORE, i want more of THIS specifically
but this is not the pinnacle, not yet
a 6A or 7 could be that, and i hope it is because this series deserves to flourish
but while i think it brought everything from the older games that made them appealing, this isn't the greatest example of what makes an armored core fan foam at the mouth for these games
the build variety is pretty damn expansive but you'll mainly excperience how much you can do in pvp
which is to be expected, but even in pvp there is a dominant strategy
stagger and punish
there are a bunch of ways to get there but your success, especially when you're going for s ranks, is to embrace this strategy and act accordingly
if you need to be fast: dual zimmermans, songbirds and some kind of high punishment melee weapon (pilebunker or double trouble, probably) and a lightweight ac build otherwise
if you need to tank hits: dual gatlin guns, dual stun needles (if you don't have them songbirds work fine) and the heaviest motherfucker you can muster
i've made a bunch of custom builds with custom color themes in this game because it was fun to do that, but nearly all of them revolved around this
and when they weren't that, there are clearly parts that are better than others
what this game has is an unfortunate amount of redundancy
there are a lot of missile parts, a lot of plasma/laser rifles, etc but there are few that you probably wanna use outside of testing pvp stuff
and while i do think there's a pretty high skill cieling, it doesn't hold a candle to something like the movement or part selection of 4A
which is partly a good thing, i'm the cunt AC6 was designed for because i feel like on all levels it appeals specifically to me
my tastes and my sensibilities
but it doesn't fulfill all of my wants with this series
i not only want more because i loved this game as much as i did, but i want more of the potential of what the next game(s) in this franchise could be
i'm in love with this game, but it's tempered
i know what fromsoft is capable of, i think the people who make games there are extremely talented
and while i think they need a fucking break (Elden Ring came out last year dude)
i have high hopes that whatever comes next for this franchise has the potential to be THE Armored Core
the one that everyone can certifiably, without any doubts, call the best one
but for the time being, it's my favorite one
at least until i stop getting filtered by 4A, that game feels so fucking good but tracking NEXTS is a big bitch lol
2022
this is one of the best survival horror games period
resident evil's tight level design and strict inventory management
silent hill's puzzles, abstraction, sadness and brutal soundscape
dead space's utilitarian blood and steel
all wrapped in an art style that evokes the snes as much as it does the ps1
its influences reach much further than video games, however, being allusions and direct references to shit that requires homework (an important symbol is a copy of the king in yellow)
but also things that don't: ghost in the shell looms very, very heavily over this project
signalis represents the strength of the phrase "old but new," being a take on many different established properties that coalesce into something truly unique
it being so artistically cohesive, so polished and having absolutely no filler in anything it does is the result of an impressive effort by just two amazing devs and their musical collaborators
i have basically nothing but praise for this game
it eludes my all time favorites: actively playing it moment to moment is absolutely great but with most survival horror games encouraging replays it's somewhat disappointing that the best one released since re2make has me playing it twice and having my fill
but this is a very specific complaint because i'm autistic and like me some residence bad
it's also really gay
you will play this game, this is a threat
resident evil's tight level design and strict inventory management
silent hill's puzzles, abstraction, sadness and brutal soundscape
dead space's utilitarian blood and steel
all wrapped in an art style that evokes the snes as much as it does the ps1
its influences reach much further than video games, however, being allusions and direct references to shit that requires homework (an important symbol is a copy of the king in yellow)
but also things that don't: ghost in the shell looms very, very heavily over this project
signalis represents the strength of the phrase "old but new," being a take on many different established properties that coalesce into something truly unique
it being so artistically cohesive, so polished and having absolutely no filler in anything it does is the result of an impressive effort by just two amazing devs and their musical collaborators
i have basically nothing but praise for this game
it eludes my all time favorites: actively playing it moment to moment is absolutely great but with most survival horror games encouraging replays it's somewhat disappointing that the best one released since re2make has me playing it twice and having my fill
but this is a very specific complaint because i'm autistic and like me some residence bad
it's also really gay
you will play this game, this is a threat
this game's only real weakness is that the gameplay is mostly alright and i think the song that leads into the credits sounds like shit, but even so i dig the game's combat in spite of its jank
in every other category the game is firing on all cylinders
this game looks amazing, so damn good that low quality animations, assets clipping in some cutscenes and a l o t of low quality textures don't really dent any of it
the achievement that is senua's face has only been topped by cutscenes in the last of us part 2 for me and this came out six years ago
the game sounds even better
i complained about the credits song but that is quite literally the only sound element i can think of that isn't a total ten
when it says "play with headphones" you really do need to play the game that way - a lot of work was done to make this game's soundscape be the way it is and i'd argue it's mandatory
speaking of
i think it's difficult to make a game where your primary character is straight suffering from something like psychosis and it not feel at least somewhat exploitative, but i have a very
very hard time believing anybody on staff had a bad bone in their body about it
i am not someone who has to deal with psychosis so my voice here doesn't matter, but since i'm giving this game a star rating
so by the nature of this textual exchange, you are asking my opinion on it
this feels incredibly tasteful and at least indicative enough of the symptoms of the condition that i've seen well more than a couple people who do deal with it and say "i really relate to this shit"
while the game's disturbing elements specifically relate to psychosis and how that can fuck with the brain
the game never says that psychosis itself is a nightmare
it's more just that the world senua lives in, how traumatized she is has made her condition as severe as it is
and the game's never 100% clear that the things happening on screen are completely non-literal, which is a very good thing since it gives the devs a little wiggle room in how they gamified this
intent would not have saved ninja theory if they botched the execution but i don't think they did at all
the game's commitment to single takes and never breaking from senua's perspective, how mixed media elements are incorporated, the fucking s o u n d s c a p e dude, it all just works
it'd really, really suck if this was a shitty showcase of the condition because what's on screen is so consistently creative and impressive
something so confident and cohesive with its tone while being so technically exemplary is the kind of shit only studios like ninja theory could make
all thirteen devs that made this should definitely be proud, and so should melina jeurgens even if i'm sure she didn't have the best time playing this role
considering she was a fucking video editor and not an actress (nor did she want to be one, things kinda fell into place that way and you should look up some behind the scenes for this it's neat) before doing this, one of the more intense performances in video games
this is definitely a must play, something that's carried less by the game you're playing and more by the crafted experience you're in for
but at the same time there are some stellar game bits in this (the blindness challenge, fuck)
in every other category the game is firing on all cylinders
this game looks amazing, so damn good that low quality animations, assets clipping in some cutscenes and a l o t of low quality textures don't really dent any of it
the achievement that is senua's face has only been topped by cutscenes in the last of us part 2 for me and this came out six years ago
the game sounds even better
i complained about the credits song but that is quite literally the only sound element i can think of that isn't a total ten
when it says "play with headphones" you really do need to play the game that way - a lot of work was done to make this game's soundscape be the way it is and i'd argue it's mandatory
speaking of
i think it's difficult to make a game where your primary character is straight suffering from something like psychosis and it not feel at least somewhat exploitative, but i have a very
very hard time believing anybody on staff had a bad bone in their body about it
i am not someone who has to deal with psychosis so my voice here doesn't matter, but since i'm giving this game a star rating
so by the nature of this textual exchange, you are asking my opinion on it
this feels incredibly tasteful and at least indicative enough of the symptoms of the condition that i've seen well more than a couple people who do deal with it and say "i really relate to this shit"
while the game's disturbing elements specifically relate to psychosis and how that can fuck with the brain
the game never says that psychosis itself is a nightmare
it's more just that the world senua lives in, how traumatized she is has made her condition as severe as it is
and the game's never 100% clear that the things happening on screen are completely non-literal, which is a very good thing since it gives the devs a little wiggle room in how they gamified this
intent would not have saved ninja theory if they botched the execution but i don't think they did at all
the game's commitment to single takes and never breaking from senua's perspective, how mixed media elements are incorporated, the fucking s o u n d s c a p e dude, it all just works
it'd really, really suck if this was a shitty showcase of the condition because what's on screen is so consistently creative and impressive
something so confident and cohesive with its tone while being so technically exemplary is the kind of shit only studios like ninja theory could make
all thirteen devs that made this should definitely be proud, and so should melina jeurgens even if i'm sure she didn't have the best time playing this role
considering she was a fucking video editor and not an actress (nor did she want to be one, things kinda fell into place that way and you should look up some behind the scenes for this it's neat) before doing this, one of the more intense performances in video games
this is definitely a must play, something that's carried less by the game you're playing and more by the crafted experience you're in for
but at the same time there are some stellar game bits in this (the blindness challenge, fuck)
2015
all my ratings on here have been positive and will probably tend to be since i don't make a habit of playing pieces of shit but allow me to rectify that now since the experience of playing this is still fresh in my head
really unfortunate the way this turned out
a studio responsible for the pretty alright but technically very impressive god of war psp games ends up making a steampunk victorian era shooter with werewolves in it and failed so hard it came out the same year bloodborne did so its strongest element (its aesthetic) didn't even have a chance to fill a proper niche without getting surpassed
this game is still a looker, it's showing its age a little bit but being eight years old it's still extremely impressive
but i can't even say the entire presentation is all together because a lot of the guns sound weak as fuck
and the rest of the soundscape, voice acting included, suffers from what the rest of the game does
an overwhelming lack of creativity
i'm very okay with basic third person cover shooters if they can at least have satisfying gunplay, i'm extremely easy to please in this regard
i've 100%ed spec ops: the line of all video games, which at that point is just ignoring the best part of the game
this game just doesn't play well
none of the guns really were all that fun to use save for the ones that game lets you use the least
your arsenal is very basic and at best fulfills their stock-ness
which would, again, be fine if it FELT good which you think it would if you just see the game played and have the sound off but it really doesn't
for the most part guns lack weight and you're actively incentifized to just stay in one spot and be a passive little bitch so you can't even be dumb and risky for funsies
and the cover you take isn't even consistently reliable, there were enough times where i got shot when behind a piece of cover that i was basically stuck with that i thought to mention it here
again, easy to please, other times i wouldn't care that much
people use gears of war as a pejorative when it comes to cover shooters when that's an example of how to do this shit right, because in gears your incentives are to be constantly rotating between different pieces of cover and actually using strategy to get by (in high difficulties, which is how i played this game)
in reality this is what you should be thinking of when you hear third person cover shooter and wanna snear a little
the story is
i don't remember the details all that well, which would be because it's been a minute and i might have forgotten them if it weren't for the fact that they really, really don't matter
it starts kinda strong as a lot of in medias res do but when the game haze has a stronger plot than you there's an issue
it's basically that, but if you haven't played that also bad game it's the "i'm a military man but... huh, the military is kinda... bad... i'm a rebel now!" thing
you've seen it before
which is wild, right? this game is a steampunk shooter with fucking werewolves in it (you're playing as knights of the round table by the way, it's king arthur shit with guns) and both the most forgettable part and the worst part of the game is indeed what should be the coolest part
the werewolf fights are straight ass
when you're not knifing one you're playing the most boring kind of cat and mouse with a shotgun (hopefully) as they run at you
you shoot
you dodge their move that can obliterate you if you fuck up
you shoot again
and they fuck off
and you do that a few times before they die
the knife fights with werewolves are worse, which again what the fuck?
this is a remnant of qte boss fight season and boy howdy do i not miss that shit
it's as boring as it looks in a clip on youtube
there's not really anything more to say about this game, i don't really care about the whole cinematic video game stuff that this thing got muddied in at launch
and a game being a comfortable four hours is a selling point to me nowadays
i really didn't have high hopes for this game, i spent $10 on it at a gameshop because i had heard it was mediocre and was personally curious
and those curiosities have been rewarded before
but surprise everybody was right!
really unfortunate the way this turned out
a studio responsible for the pretty alright but technically very impressive god of war psp games ends up making a steampunk victorian era shooter with werewolves in it and failed so hard it came out the same year bloodborne did so its strongest element (its aesthetic) didn't even have a chance to fill a proper niche without getting surpassed
this game is still a looker, it's showing its age a little bit but being eight years old it's still extremely impressive
but i can't even say the entire presentation is all together because a lot of the guns sound weak as fuck
and the rest of the soundscape, voice acting included, suffers from what the rest of the game does
an overwhelming lack of creativity
i'm very okay with basic third person cover shooters if they can at least have satisfying gunplay, i'm extremely easy to please in this regard
i've 100%ed spec ops: the line of all video games, which at that point is just ignoring the best part of the game
this game just doesn't play well
none of the guns really were all that fun to use save for the ones that game lets you use the least
your arsenal is very basic and at best fulfills their stock-ness
which would, again, be fine if it FELT good which you think it would if you just see the game played and have the sound off but it really doesn't
for the most part guns lack weight and you're actively incentifized to just stay in one spot and be a passive little bitch so you can't even be dumb and risky for funsies
and the cover you take isn't even consistently reliable, there were enough times where i got shot when behind a piece of cover that i was basically stuck with that i thought to mention it here
again, easy to please, other times i wouldn't care that much
people use gears of war as a pejorative when it comes to cover shooters when that's an example of how to do this shit right, because in gears your incentives are to be constantly rotating between different pieces of cover and actually using strategy to get by (in high difficulties, which is how i played this game)
in reality this is what you should be thinking of when you hear third person cover shooter and wanna snear a little
the story is
i don't remember the details all that well, which would be because it's been a minute and i might have forgotten them if it weren't for the fact that they really, really don't matter
it starts kinda strong as a lot of in medias res do but when the game haze has a stronger plot than you there's an issue
it's basically that, but if you haven't played that also bad game it's the "i'm a military man but... huh, the military is kinda... bad... i'm a rebel now!" thing
you've seen it before
which is wild, right? this game is a steampunk shooter with fucking werewolves in it (you're playing as knights of the round table by the way, it's king arthur shit with guns) and both the most forgettable part and the worst part of the game is indeed what should be the coolest part
the werewolf fights are straight ass
when you're not knifing one you're playing the most boring kind of cat and mouse with a shotgun (hopefully) as they run at you
you shoot
you dodge their move that can obliterate you if you fuck up
you shoot again
and they fuck off
and you do that a few times before they die
the knife fights with werewolves are worse, which again what the fuck?
this is a remnant of qte boss fight season and boy howdy do i not miss that shit
it's as boring as it looks in a clip on youtube
there's not really anything more to say about this game, i don't really care about the whole cinematic video game stuff that this thing got muddied in at launch
and a game being a comfortable four hours is a selling point to me nowadays
i really didn't have high hopes for this game, i spent $10 on it at a gameshop because i had heard it was mediocre and was personally curious
and those curiosities have been rewarded before
but surprise everybody was right!
2016
"hey buddy did you like dark souls i fucking loved dark souls bloodborne too man that game's great what if we just like did that again wouldn't it be a great game?"
i mean yeah it's a pretty good game all things considered, as a certified long time souls fan i adored this game at launch
but as the years go on man has it easily aged the worst in my opinion
most areas feel like a slog to get through because enemies feel like they're bloodborne enemies and the cool thing about bloodborne was that you had a lot more movement options and more ways to actually recover from making a mistake
which in these games, mistakes are very easy to make - it's the name of the game, it's the reason these games get referred to as some of the most difficult ever
when in reality they just play by a different ruleset than most games and they really expect you to play by those rules
in this game, you're still operating on the rules set by ds1 but the enemies aren't
as a result you're gonna get fucked up more
it's hard to say that this game is explicitly harder than the other ones as much as it's just more annoying to deal with the way this game is difficult
see, what if we just had like the most punishing form of health regression upon death in the series?
like yeah demon's souls halved your hp but the game was kinda built around it, if you never turned human you could still do fine in that game
and yeah you can get to lower health values in ds2 but the chance of that happening is a lot less likely than the chance of you getting stuck in an area or on a boss and just having no more embers to use in this game
and the game is comical with its bonfire placement, there are areas where i was actively thinking "man i wish there was a bonfire closer to this fucking fog wall" meanwhile i kill the exact boss i'm thinking that with, rest at the bonfire, and walk a few yards before hitting yet another bonfire
the interconnectedness is definitely in swing here, it's better than ds2 in that regard, but the end result is that sometimes boss runs are really fucking annoying just because of how easy it is to get merced by some of the enemies in the game
because yes, just like bloodborne these enemies will often take significantly more hits than their counterparts in ds1 and ds2
it's just more of a slog to get through this game
and i'd give the areas here more grace if they weren't, for the most part, just boring to navigate
the only areas i really like are the first couple
and i've SEEN all of this before, sometimes literally, which is a shame to say given how much detail is in this game's assets
that repetition appropriate, but in moment to moment gameplay the only thing i really look forward to when playing this game are the boss fights
for the most part the bosses in this are great, i think this has some of the best fights in the series
it's the reason to ever really go back to this game for me
gael is my favorite souls fight period, i love everything about him - espcially thematically
this carries the series tradition of not being perfect in that regard either, but even in the element of the game that's its strongest i still take issue with how this game specifically handles it
because MAN do they love bosses having multiple phases, even if it's not necessary
why the fuck does nameless king have this stupid fucking dragon i gotta kill every time to get to the good part that's really hard so you're gonna die a lot and have to repeat this first part a billion times and get annoyed to shit because it's slow and hard to hit sometimes?
are you noticing the pattern of this game just having more annoying gameplay choices than the others? that's saying something since ds2 isn't exactly a saint in this regard
but hey, this is still a soulsbourne game, so it's still got from's attention to detail and, frankly, bold story telling choices
i say bold because in the face of easily the most derivative game they've made in all the years of making this kind of game
including how it circles back on itself and ignores the interesting elements of ds2's narrative
they make that narratively important, this world being a cyclical nightmare that just really needs to fucking end is front and center
the final boss of the entire souls series ends with absolutely no fan fare, you kill him and he dies leaving you trapped in the wastelands at the end of the world
loitering on top of ash dunes that've buried a world whose end was collapsing in on itself
that's just the souls way baby
even in the most boring and, frankly, consistently annoying to play game in this series you're still left with a very solid action rpg that's thematically potent if you give it the time of day
the three stars is just because it really, really got on my nerves
i mean yeah it's a pretty good game all things considered, as a certified long time souls fan i adored this game at launch
but as the years go on man has it easily aged the worst in my opinion
most areas feel like a slog to get through because enemies feel like they're bloodborne enemies and the cool thing about bloodborne was that you had a lot more movement options and more ways to actually recover from making a mistake
which in these games, mistakes are very easy to make - it's the name of the game, it's the reason these games get referred to as some of the most difficult ever
when in reality they just play by a different ruleset than most games and they really expect you to play by those rules
in this game, you're still operating on the rules set by ds1 but the enemies aren't
as a result you're gonna get fucked up more
it's hard to say that this game is explicitly harder than the other ones as much as it's just more annoying to deal with the way this game is difficult
see, what if we just had like the most punishing form of health regression upon death in the series?
like yeah demon's souls halved your hp but the game was kinda built around it, if you never turned human you could still do fine in that game
and yeah you can get to lower health values in ds2 but the chance of that happening is a lot less likely than the chance of you getting stuck in an area or on a boss and just having no more embers to use in this game
and the game is comical with its bonfire placement, there are areas where i was actively thinking "man i wish there was a bonfire closer to this fucking fog wall" meanwhile i kill the exact boss i'm thinking that with, rest at the bonfire, and walk a few yards before hitting yet another bonfire
the interconnectedness is definitely in swing here, it's better than ds2 in that regard, but the end result is that sometimes boss runs are really fucking annoying just because of how easy it is to get merced by some of the enemies in the game
because yes, just like bloodborne these enemies will often take significantly more hits than their counterparts in ds1 and ds2
it's just more of a slog to get through this game
and i'd give the areas here more grace if they weren't, for the most part, just boring to navigate
the only areas i really like are the first couple
and i've SEEN all of this before, sometimes literally, which is a shame to say given how much detail is in this game's assets
that repetition appropriate, but in moment to moment gameplay the only thing i really look forward to when playing this game are the boss fights
for the most part the bosses in this are great, i think this has some of the best fights in the series
it's the reason to ever really go back to this game for me
gael is my favorite souls fight period, i love everything about him - espcially thematically
this carries the series tradition of not being perfect in that regard either, but even in the element of the game that's its strongest i still take issue with how this game specifically handles it
because MAN do they love bosses having multiple phases, even if it's not necessary
why the fuck does nameless king have this stupid fucking dragon i gotta kill every time to get to the good part that's really hard so you're gonna die a lot and have to repeat this first part a billion times and get annoyed to shit because it's slow and hard to hit sometimes?
are you noticing the pattern of this game just having more annoying gameplay choices than the others? that's saying something since ds2 isn't exactly a saint in this regard
but hey, this is still a soulsbourne game, so it's still got from's attention to detail and, frankly, bold story telling choices
i say bold because in the face of easily the most derivative game they've made in all the years of making this kind of game
including how it circles back on itself and ignores the interesting elements of ds2's narrative
they make that narratively important, this world being a cyclical nightmare that just really needs to fucking end is front and center
the final boss of the entire souls series ends with absolutely no fan fare, you kill him and he dies leaving you trapped in the wastelands at the end of the world
loitering on top of ash dunes that've buried a world whose end was collapsing in on itself
that's just the souls way baby
even in the most boring and, frankly, consistently annoying to play game in this series you're still left with a very solid action rpg that's thematically potent if you give it the time of day
the three stars is just because it really, really got on my nerves
2011
tons of content, really fun to play, full of jank charm and b movie shlock
just as mk should be
its violence is still visceral but we're not to "we're trying to rival terrifier" levels yet, so it ends up feeling a bit quaint in comparison
something that i like in spite of being the exact kind of sicko that mk has always appealed to
the art style isn't quite to the uncanny valley yet, looking more comic book in a way that fits the overall saturday morning cartoon for adults vibe
the gameplay is expressive and broken in the good way, not that i could take advantage of any of that
this is a very fun game to watch people break i know that at least
the story mode is mostly well done with a narrative that's actually coherent even if it is still incredibly stupid - don't take this lightly it's a pretty big compliment
character designs look pretty damn great all around, though this game is exceptionally horny with its women
an mk staple, let alone a fighting game staple, but kof and sf feel tame in comparison to some of the designs in this
being mostly gay, i can appreciate this, but sonya blade continuing to get the quiet treatment is incredibly annoying
at least mileena revels in it
and shao kahn is just as bullshit as ever in 2d mk, as much as i fucking abhor the cunt and am glad that he's bad in mk11
yeah yeah i suck i don't give a shit fuck him, i know he's exploitable but i don't like having to do that kind of shit
oh and raiden still fucks up a lot
so yeah it's mk all the way baby, play it
just as mk should be
its violence is still visceral but we're not to "we're trying to rival terrifier" levels yet, so it ends up feeling a bit quaint in comparison
something that i like in spite of being the exact kind of sicko that mk has always appealed to
the art style isn't quite to the uncanny valley yet, looking more comic book in a way that fits the overall saturday morning cartoon for adults vibe
the gameplay is expressive and broken in the good way, not that i could take advantage of any of that
this is a very fun game to watch people break i know that at least
the story mode is mostly well done with a narrative that's actually coherent even if it is still incredibly stupid - don't take this lightly it's a pretty big compliment
character designs look pretty damn great all around, though this game is exceptionally horny with its women
an mk staple, let alone a fighting game staple, but kof and sf feel tame in comparison to some of the designs in this
being mostly gay, i can appreciate this, but sonya blade continuing to get the quiet treatment is incredibly annoying
at least mileena revels in it
and shao kahn is just as bullshit as ever in 2d mk, as much as i fucking abhor the cunt and am glad that he's bad in mk11
yeah yeah i suck i don't give a shit fuck him, i know he's exploitable but i don't like having to do that kind of shit
oh and raiden still fucks up a lot
so yeah it's mk all the way baby, play it