This game was my introduction to the Borderlands world and its characters and story. I had no clue about anything going in and I really loved the game, its settings, and all the unique characters. I wanted to know who the hell this Bossonova, or zer0 were! This game has some of my favorite characters I met in any game, Loader Bot is so awesome, as is Scooter. My favorite chars in this whole game were the bots! The whole story is funny, engaging, quirky, has some cliché moments, and overall a must play game! A bunch of misfits knee deep in things they shouldn't be in! lol! This is in my top 3-4 of tell tale games with Walking dead s1, life is strange, wolf among us!

🎮 Platform: Xbox
⌚ Time to finish - 10h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - easy just play the game and most are story unmissable.

🌄Graphics – A huge step up from previous tell tale titles. really pretty to look at!

🌦 Atmosphere/Music – The world is unique, and though its a tell tale game, its OOZING with atmosphere. This game made me feel part of another world and I wanted to go play other borderlands games! They really did a good job setting the world very quickly and engrossing you in it. Especially for a brand new comer like me, I was up and running in no time.

📚 Main Story / Characters – I loved the story and I loved all the characters. They are so memorable. They kept me going! Sometimes the story would turn cliché, or take extreme liberties with plot points to move the story forward, that was my only gripe, but its fine, i think the world is meant to be a little over the top sometimes. Its meant to be a fun story. I never found anything boring, and I was always gripped to see what this team of misfits would do next!

📣 Voice acting – Amazing performances. Especially the robots! omg they are awesome!

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Playtime: 2.5h
Completion: 100% (easy, just do it )
Platform: Xbox
Verdict: Play it!

If you played Katamari Damacy you will know what you are getting yourself into here. Its much simpler , shorter, and overall was an enjoyable game. I liked some of the creative things they did around not just sucking up items but solving some very very light puzzles by spitting things out of the sink hole as well. The dialog is quirky. I enjoyed it and did not overstay. I do wish they got even more creative with the puzzle solving. Because its like this is a perfect kids game too! Nothing stood out about this game and nothing was bad about the game. It was over all fine game and concept to experience.

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The story was touching at moments and par for the course of an adventure rpg. But my god the combat, the graphics, the music are unparalleled. This is a masterpiece. I wanted to dock it .5 just because I think the characters could be a little more interesting and have a little more personality. I am spoiled by the characters we see in things like Mass Effect, Baldur's gate etc. Anyway. AMAZING game. play it! 5/5


Play time 7.5 hours
97% completion

This game reminded me of a typical Hollywood movie. Everything has been done before and is predictable. It’s a game that doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s what you play between some heavy games or when you don’t want to think too much everything is straightforward. However fun nonetheless. Worth at least one play just to have a fun and see the story and their personalities unfold. I plan to play the rest of the series.

2010

⌚ Time to finish - 3 hours 48 minutes
🤬Difficulty - easy - medium

🔊 Soundtrack - not much sound
🌄Graphics – Didn't think black and white can look so pretty. Very unique looking.
🌦 Atmosphere – Nice. Basic sound cues and environmental sounds
📚 Main Story / Characters – No story, had to look it up to figure out he was searching for his sister
🤺 Combat – None
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – None
🚗 Movement/Physics – Good, overall made sense and responded how i think it should have which is saying a lot for platformers.
📣 Voice acting – None

📝 Review:

I have been focus on platformers as its a genre I suck pretty badly at. I went straight to Ori and boy was that a trial by fire introduction to platformers. I think this is a great early platformer. I am playing this in the middle of taking a break from the escape stage of Ori and the blind forest. Its refreshing to tackle an easier platformer with puzzles, which is refreshing since constant platforming can be frustrating. Apart from 1-2 WTF puzzles at the very end puzzles that I had to look up most were intuitive or made sense and enough subtle clues (sound, visual, etc) were given to self solve. Definitely worth a play!

💡Final Thoughts:

Play it! well worth the short time it takes! Will definitely be playing the sequel.

⌚ Time to finish - 4 hours 00 minutes
🤬Difficulty - easy

🌄Graphics – Fluid animation, awesome lighting!
🔊 Soundtrack/Atmosphere - Game has soundtrack where appropriate especially towards the end of the game stared at the screen for 5 minutes reflecting on the past 4 hours. Amazing atmosphere. Really well done!
📚 Main Story / Characters – I loved the story, you are never sure what's going on. But it gives you enough clues to piece together your own story. I am sure if I talk to someone else they may have a different view of what is happening. I love how the story is told with no words and just actions in the background.
🤺 Combat – None
🚗 Movement/Physics – Excellent. I loved how so much is going on in the 3d background, but the character is in a 2d plane
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – None
📣 Voice acting – None

📝 Review:

The best thing about this game is every frame is a masterpiece in graphics, lighting, and story telling. The story is told through subtle foreground and background queues allowing you to through the entire game have theories on what maybe going on. Honestly, I still don't know and I don't think that's the point, its the journey that counts in this game. Oh yes I really also liked the puzzles but they were easier than the 1st game but to me I am really here for the atmosphere and the creativity that oozes out of this game.

💡Final Thoughts:

Must play! unique game and surpasses its already high bar set by its predecessor. This game is for you if you are into appreciating artistic nature of games, if you just want a hard puzzle/platformer and don't care about anything else this is not for you.

⌚ Time to finish - 11 hours 00 mins
🤬Difficulty - easy (Not much console shooter experience, but played TONs on PC)

🔊 Soundtrack - Great soundtrack! I know the cultures represented here so I could see the cultural queues they took in making the music. Great touch!
🌄Graphics – Great! I played the trilogy version (Nathan Drake Collection) on ps5 and it was great with updated graphics! Sure its not going to hold up for modern standards but I still liked it a lot.
🌦 Atmosphere – Excellent. Loved the music and atmosphere. I really did feel like a raider.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Great story (expected plot holes)! I felt like i was in a summer action blockbuster movie. I thought the characters were all great and fit the typical action movie tropes.
🤺 Combat – Sometimes repetitive gunfights but I always enjoyed them as they did mix up here and there instead of cover and fire. I wish stealth was done better but its Drake so, no need for that. :)
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – No side activities or exploration.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Good, overall made sense and responded. Sometimes the roll to find another cover was clunky but rarely.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent!

📝 Review:

I overall LOVED this game. I love games that really transport me to another world and make me feel something. In this game I felt a sense of adventure, a bad ass against all odds, an action hero! From second 1 to the end it was tense. My wife also enjoyed watching a bit of the game because its like watching a movie.

The stand out to me was the AMAZING set pieces and escape sequences. Wow I will never forget in the middle of the game climbing some amazing structures. Sometimes i will stop and pan the camera to enjoy the views.

💡Final Thoughts:

Must play! This game is for everyone and everyone needs to experience it. On my quest to finish the Uncharted series, I have 2 more to go and if it keeps it to this level I will be such a happy camper and will go down in history as one of the best series of games behind God of War for me :)

2018

⌚ Time to finish - 4 hours 00 mins
🤬Difficulty - easy
♾ Replayability - I would play every so often to Re-experience. Especially after playing a game where I found it challenging and died a lot. Refreshing this game has no deaths and beautiful.

🔊 Soundtrack - Great soundtrack!
🌦 Atmosphere – Excellent. Loved the music and atmosphere. It just felt very peaceful and sort of meditative.
🌄Graphics – Great! Very unique art style. Very relaxing palette. The game is just in general feels very relaxing.

📚 Main Story / Characters – Story is very metaphorical. So interpret it how you will, but I believe its about loss and rising up from loss presented in a very artistic way.
🤺 Combat – none
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – Some, I got a few extras but didn't 100% for the extra ending.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Good ,only clunky part was the boost you get jumping out of water. I couldn't always get the timing right. There were a few times I had to redo some jumping sequences but nothing frustrating.
📣 Voice acting – none!

📝 Review:

I liked this game overall. Its short and very artistic and peaceful. The game itself isn't hard so you are here for the music, atmosphere, and the feeling it invokes. All the puzzles were interesting and I always kept wondering what's next and stayed fully engaged all 4 hours it took to play. The levels are well designed and flow super smooth. Kudos to the team!

This game is complete opposite of Ori, where i died over 1200+ times to finish the game. This game has no death. So it was great to see how this game approached failure, where in Ori they really punish you over and over and over again for failing, this game has no death. This is very fitting of the theme of the game, which is about growing from loss and pain.

💡Final Thoughts:

Short game that everyone should experience. There is no death in this game. Its relaxing and well worth experiencing compared to all the action packed titles. That is what makes it unique.

⌚ Time to finish - 13 hours 32 mins (New to platforms on normal mode so no checkpoints in escape sequences)
🤬 Difficulty - Death Incarnate! 💀 (died a symmetric 1331 times) - platforming is hard, not very puzzly.
♾ Replay-ability - I would play this every so often to benchmark if i am getting better at platformers over time. Very replayable to test your skills.

🔊 Soundtrack - Great soundtrack! One of the best I heard in any game. I would listen to it outside of the game.
🌦 Atmosphere – Excellent. Amazing sound!
🌄Graphics – So beautiful. One of the best I seen in any game.

📚 Main Story / Characters – Story is touching though some things are ambiguous. But it doesn't matter. There is enough there to tug at your heart strings.
🤺 Combat – Passable. Button mash one button, but it didn't bother me that is not point of the game.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – Definitive edition has 2 extra levels they were nice.
🚗 Movement/Physics – BAD! This is going to be controversial statement. Ori moves a little loosely so precision is hard which causes a lot of deaths. They do things simply to make the game harder. Bash technique is horrible on controller and fundamental to game.
📣 Voice acting – minimal but great.


📝 Review:

This is a tough game to review. I am not an expert on platformers so I learnt so much playing this game that made me a better gamer. I also played on normal so had no checkpoints. Definitely suggest easy if you are new for the auto checkpoints. Game does have a generous save system. But the escape sequences on normal do not and those are hard.

The music is amazing, the story is touching, the visuals are amazing, and because this game provides me a unique experience and difficulty I have not seen anywhere I loved the game. I love games that make me feel things, This game made me feel frustrated, ecstatic, tested my patience, and more. Ups and Downs... but one thing i was sure of. I WILL FINISH THIS GAME!

However, i have some qualms with the design of this game. The game is already hard enough and the designers did things that were unnecessary, and IMO simply to make it harder. I guess in a way i feel that it added to the sense of accomplishment but it also makes it less accessible. These things should have been maybe added in hard rather than just changing enemy health.

1. Flipping directions when you are upside down. Why? I had to flip my controller to play upside down levels.
2. Bash skill aiming is completely screwed up on gamepads. Its slow and inaccurate and in time trials its certain death. Its just easier and quicker to use mouse to aim it.
3. Its clear the designers looked at common movement patterns and put traps to just kill you. Some of these are VERY hard to see. You are walking down a long path, oh shit there was a hard to see lava... dead.
4. Unless you are amazing with controllers, I cannot see how this game was even properly certified for controllers. THe precision i got with my mechanical keyboard and mouse cannot be matched on a controller and the game needs it. I switched between controller and keyboard.

💡Final Thoughts:

If you want to call yourself a hardcore gamer, this is a right of passage. Everyone should play it just to set the bar high and see how far you can get. I can't wait to play the sequel to this, as I hear they improved a lot of things. If you completed this game either you are skilled or in my case persistent and hate giving up. :)

⌚ Time to finish - 8 hours 00 mins
🤬Difficulty - easy

🔊 Soundtrack - Great soundtrack! On par with trilogy.
🌄Graphics – Great! On par with trilogy. Some set pieces are still awesome and hold up to today.
🌦 Atmosphere – It was ok. I wasn't as invested in this as the 2nd game.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Weak. Hard to follow main story. Really took any life out of Chole which I really liked in the 2nd game. Overall the story and characters were very weak. Story was ALL over the place! Sometimes its complicated, sometimes its simple, sometimes you feel like you are wandering purposeless.
🤺 Combat – A step down in fun due to forced fist fights. Little harder than other 2, but as expected combat here. Nothing new.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – No side activities or exploration apart from collectibles.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Good, overall made sense and responded.
📣 Voice acting – Good! Just as expected in the drake series. Chole lost all personality so that i am going to dock this from excellent to good.

📝 Review:

This is to me an up and down roller coaster. The highs are high the lows are lows. I think overall its better than 1, but not as good as 2. 2 set a high bar. They should have just repeated that formula.

I really disliked the hard to follow story and that Chole lost all personality. Characters come in and out for no real reason apart from making sure fans got to see all the characters at some point in the story.

Set pieces are AMAZING as always. There are some VERY memorable set pieces here and up to par with others. But the pace of the game is up and down. The 2nd game hits you punch after punch. Here after a bang, it slows down hard through wandering sequences that last longer than they should, then picks up again.

💡Final Thoughts:

Not the best but still should play. They got the formula right in 2. They should have just stuck to it. They tried to unnecessarily reinvent things and change things up.

⌚ Time to finish - 3 hours 45 minutes
🤬Difficulty - easy

🔊 Soundtrack - There isn't too much music. But the sounds they have creates an excellent atmosphere. One of the strengths of this game.
🌄Graphics – pleasant to look at.
🌦 Atmosphere – Excellent atmosphere. Tense at times, mysterious, made me feel all kinds of feelings like fear, disgust, startled etc. But nothing to give me a heart attack, or cheap scare tactics.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Light on story but what was there created a sense of mystery. I liked it.
🤺 Combat –None
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – None apart from collectibles etc. I didn't even know these existed till half way through the game when i randomly stumbled on them. Wish it was clearer so i could have collected more from the beginning.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Ok. There are some clunky controls. I don't understand why, there is a grab button for ledges, ladders. Should just auto grab those w/jump, while grab is for environmental objects like boxes. Some jumps felt imprecise. Expect a few deaths from clunky controls.
📣 Voice acting – Not much

📝 Review:

This was a good game. The puzzles weren't too hard but the atmosphere and story is what made me want to keep playing it. It did feel like it ended abruptly but that's fine its a short game. There is DLC and part 2 to go through which I will go through. I feel in these sort of games, Inside was far better.

💡Final Thoughts:

No reason not to play this game if you are into things like Limbo/Inside/Gris etc.

Definitely worth playing even if its not topping its genre. It provides enough here to make you feel involved, gripped, and generally not a chore to continue and finish.

I enjoyed it enough want to play the DLC and sequel.

⌚ Time to finish - 4 hours 45 minutes
🤬Difficulty - easy - medium

🔊 Soundtrack - Great sound track.
🌄Graphics – Step above 1, excellent.
🌦 Atmosphere – Excellent atmosphere. Tense at times. Great choice of music to really get you into it.
📚 Main Story / Characters – With the DLC, LN1, and now LN2, there is a ton of story to piece together here. We still don't know what's really going on but its becoming clearer its some sort of a complicated matrixy timeloop with some important characters. I am excited to see where this story goes in LN3, if they make it.
🤺 Combat – wack people with a hammer. timing on this is frustrating.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – None apart from collectibles etc.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Ok. There are some clunky controls. It really soured the otherwise awesome game.
📣 Voice acting – Not much

📝 Review:

This was a great game. Having a 2nd character in game really added to a sense of mystery and attachment to the story and their relationship. Also seeing how this story tied in with LN1 + DLC and theorizing was great. Most of the puzzles were great. There were some (3-4) VERY frustrating parts where the game physics just didn't let me do what I wanted and kept dying. This really soured my experience and I wanted to quit this game, but the story and mystery brought me back. There was no reason why the devs should have allowed for this.

💡Final Thoughts:

Definitely play it. Go in knowing there are some frustrating parts due to lack of polish but stick to it and get past it. Its worth it. I thought it was better than the first mainly because the story got more fleshed out and engaged me more.

⌚ Time to finish - 10 hours 30 minutes
🤬Difficulty - easy

🔊 Soundtrack - Great sound track and fitting. Nothing that stood out especially.
🌄Graphics – Remastered was great but not really much to gawk at in a post apocalyptical world. Nothing really creative here. Just what you would expect, broken buildings, destroyed cars.
🌦 Atmosphere – Excellent atmosphere. Tense at times. I really felt part of the world.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Story telling, narration, and the cast of characters is the strength. The story itself is not that creative and predictable. If it weren't for the characters and how the story is told this game would have been a major flop.
🤺 Combat – Fair. Combat is not the strength of this game. Combat seems pretty half baked but gets better as the game goes on. Fights vs humans is just stealth and choke. Fights vs infected gets interesting but still easy. However it wasn't boring. Because bullets are scarce you don't really use any weapons you get. I think 90% of my kills were stealth.
🤖 AI: AI is pretty dumb. Sometimes they don't even see you crouched next to you. Clear their focus was story and not combat.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – None apart from collectibles etc. Did I even find any?
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine. Some parts of traversing the game like finding ladders and moving them, floaty devices, opening gates, was slow and completely unnecessary.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.

📝 Review:

Definitely coming to it later than everyone. I came into it very hyped as one of the greatest games ever made. For such title I expect everything to be perfect and have depth. I felt the story telling was great, touching, on par with Drake 2 and some of the best in any game. But pretty much every other aspect was mediocre. Combat with humans was simple stealth take downs, tension was created fighting infected clickers but once you know how to use Molotov bottles they aren’t hard.

The crafting system was bleh. Story itself was standard though the characters and how the story was told was great . I certainly enjoyed the game , atmosphere , emotional connection and will play LOU 2. But certainly not one of the best games ever made.

Certain aspects of the game are a chore. Gate openings finding ladders and moving them. Looking for floaty stuff since Elle can’t swim. Really unnecessary and pointless. I think it added 30 minutes to game without any real value.

Because of how powerful stealth is and how overwhelmed you get if you make noise… most of the time I never used any guns expect when it was like 1 or 2 left and I wanted to use guns I been collecting lol so they don’t get wasted.

💡Final Thoughts:

Definitely play it but don't go in expecting best game ever. Expect one of the best examples of story telling and know there are some mundane things thrown in between. Just get past it. The characters grow, you get attached to them, and you also see the connection between them all. Definitely an emotional tale, which is what kept me going past all the ladder sequences :)

⌚ Time to finish - 1 hours 40 minutes (Got half achievements)
🤬Difficulty - easy

🔊 Soundtrack - Great sound track.
🌄Graphics – nice to look at
🌦 Atmosphere – great atmosphere, feels like i am in nature :)
📚 Main Story / Characters – This is just simple exploration game. It was fun to explore with a simple premise. The characters are all nice. It just a feel good game.
🤺 Combat – none
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – A bit to explore but once i kept going into same loops I stopped playing. I didn't want to look up guides. I got half the achievements so I am happy to stop here. There were some fun side games like race, boating, beach ball, etc.
🚗 Movement/Physics – No issues
📣 Voice acting – Not much

💡Final Thoughts:

I was playing this in the middle of deaths door and that was refreshing as death's door was brutal for me. The game is short, as the name implies. It was fun to meet the characters and generally just have a relaxing time exploring the woods. I think people should play it. You can probably beat the game in 45-1hr if even. But some may decide to stay longer as they like the atmosphere and explore. For me i got a good sense of that after 1.5hrs and i was ready to move on. Cute little game. :)

It might be unfair to ask this since it’s a short exploration game. But I would have loved a map to easily find all the activities I missed. My back log is too long for me run around till I stumble on things.

⌚ Time to finish - 18 hours (80% completion - main story (16h) + bunch of side activities on my way to 100%). With experience and focus people seem to be completing main story in 8-10hrs.

🤬Difficulty - Ori's little brother. One of the most difficult games I played. Mainly because I am new to precise action combat oriented games. However, I think its perfect difficulty. Though frustrating at times due to my own skill, i wanted to go over and over again till i won. I never once felt like it was unfair as I did in Ori. The boss fights are a masterpiece. Every fight is unique and flows like butter.

🔊 Soundtrack - Great sound track.
🌄Graphics – Excellent.
🌦 Atmosphere – great atmosphere.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I loved all the characters. the Crow is such a bad ass how he walks through the levels. The characters are so funny. I want to 100% this game and see what it has to offer.
🤺 Combat – Amazing. Its precise its punishing. Its creative. The boss battles are so good and have so much personality. When you see a boss for the 1st time you have absolutely no idea how you even plan to tackle it but after dying to it 10 times you start seeing the cracks. And then finally after the 20th time you defeat the boss. What a journey it is and so rewarding. I want more games like this that found the perfect balance. The game rewards you for coming up with creative plans and timing things. Sure you can slash the boss, but if you it right you can throw a projectile into a boss mouth for a very different effect! There are so many little things like this hidden everywhere to reward creativity.
🧭 Side Activities / Exploration – I only have one gripe with this game, no map!!!! However, I am going to 100% this game which I would never do. There is so much in this game that is fun and not repetitive. The epilogue is as well crafted as the actual game and is lengthy. There are so many things to discover as you 100% the game that I want to see it all. The only issue I have is planting the life seeds. I didn't know at the beginning of the game i needed that for 100% so that will now be tedious to walk through the whole map finding places to plant seeds. Rest of the stuff is great!
🚗 Movement/Physics – Pretty much perfect. I do feel that on some bosses when they back hand you, i dodge but somehow it doesnt always register in time. I assume this is my skill level as I don't see better players suffering this.
📣 Voice acting – Not much

💡Final Thoughts:

This game is a near masterpiece. The devs looked at everything with a fine tooth and added creativity to everything.

Not only is the game great, but it challenged me and I learnt a lot as the game progressed. I think I can play hades and the likes thanks to this game. I am going to 100% this game as I want to see everything and that is telling a lot.

I wanted to give this a 5 but settled on 4.5 because of no map, and having to look up some guides on the 100% achievement because there is no direction at all in the game or clues put in place to discover it on your own. I hate looking up guides.

This is a must play game. And one day I hope to beat this game with 0 deaths :) but that isnt going to happen until I get a thousand hours playing games like this. :) For a game this length there is almost no sense of repetition, re-use content, which alot of games do. Masterpiece!