sairam71
Note: This game was played via PSNow streaming. Overall I have a wired connection felt no impact on responsiveness and overall a testament to how great PSNow was! This game pretty much felt like i was playing local.
🎮 Platform: PS5 - PSNow Streaming
⌚ Time to finish - 10h
🏆Trophy completion - 67%
🤬Difficulty - felt easy. I played on normal.
🌄Graphics – It is ps3 graphics I believe so it wasn't bad but also not amazing. I did not find it to be distracting or much of an issue. Still felt very immersive.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Up to par with all the other GOW 1&2 games but I did just come from GOW3, and does not beat GOW3.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I was a little disappointed here. I wanted to learn more about his backstory. I got some glimpses of things I already knew, just in a little more detail.
🤺 Combat – The boss fights were great. However, regulary trash mob combat was repetitive. Considering gow3 wasnt repetetive this was a let down. I felt I was hitting the same 3-4 buttons even though i was trying to switch it up. I also felt the mob+wave composition was not creative or varied enouhg but the basic formula is still here, so it still makes for great combat.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – did not do the collection trophies and the hard mode run. The ones I did collect were fun and some of them required skill so I had to try a few times. Pick and choose what you think is fun and go for it.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Fluid, awesome. On par with all other GOW games.
📣 Voice acting – On par with all other GOW games.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Combat and Kratos!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - The puzzles. Some them were straight up dumb and found it very hard to figure out without looking it up. Not enough visual clues.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
If you are a GOW fan there is no reason not to play this. It starts off A+ level and then goes down to an A- level. I felt it needed more boss battles and varied tactics to take down monsters. Of course they fixed all this in GOW3 so they must have learnt from this.
🎮 Platform: PS5 - PSNow Streaming
⌚ Time to finish - 10h
🏆Trophy completion - 67%
🤬Difficulty - felt easy. I played on normal.
🌄Graphics – It is ps3 graphics I believe so it wasn't bad but also not amazing. I did not find it to be distracting or much of an issue. Still felt very immersive.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Up to par with all the other GOW 1&2 games but I did just come from GOW3, and does not beat GOW3.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I was a little disappointed here. I wanted to learn more about his backstory. I got some glimpses of things I already knew, just in a little more detail.
🤺 Combat – The boss fights were great. However, regulary trash mob combat was repetitive. Considering gow3 wasnt repetetive this was a let down. I felt I was hitting the same 3-4 buttons even though i was trying to switch it up. I also felt the mob+wave composition was not creative or varied enouhg but the basic formula is still here, so it still makes for great combat.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – did not do the collection trophies and the hard mode run. The ones I did collect were fun and some of them required skill so I had to try a few times. Pick and choose what you think is fun and go for it.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Fluid, awesome. On par with all other GOW games.
📣 Voice acting – On par with all other GOW games.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Combat and Kratos!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - The puzzles. Some them were straight up dumb and found it very hard to figure out without looking it up. Not enough visual clues.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
If you are a GOW fan there is no reason not to play this. It starts off A+ level and then goes down to an A- level. I felt it needed more boss battles and varied tactics to take down monsters. Of course they fixed all this in GOW3 so they must have learnt from this.
🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 5h
🏆Trophy completion - 100%
🤬Difficulty - Hard! I suck at these kinds of games and gathering clues in this game is a chore.
🌄Graphics – Horrible. It was so distracting and tough to look at.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – dead bodies everywhere on a ship, i guess I felt like an investigator with a time warp machine?
📚 Main Story / Characters – As you uncover how people died, they die in some interesting ways. it was cool but whatever.
🤺 Combat – none
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – had to do couple dumb things to get the 100% trophy, I don't know why. Those dumb things go against the theme of the game. Just give the 100% if you solve the case!
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine
📣 Voice acting – none
🥇 Best thing about the game - not a game for me
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - The look. The forced tracking to the same position 2 times, before a clue is revealed. First you follow a trail of smoke, then once you get there, it throws you back and you walk again to the same damn place. WHY!?
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
I like puzzle and deduction games but in general is not my favorite genre. It has to really stand out. However, this game is not for me. The graphics made everything so hard to see, the pixilation was too much, the forced walking to same place 2 times was annoying. I did not mind ambiguous information, because that forces my brain to think, however the gathering of clues itself was a chore and a PITA. As expected for a game like this its very pedantic. Speared vs Stabbed vs Impaled... I don't know! I have to go back to the scene and examine it again.... damit where was that scene again... ugh i forgot. when will this game end? How can someone give this a 1 when the average score is 4 :)
⌚ Time to finish - 5h
🏆Trophy completion - 100%
🤬Difficulty - Hard! I suck at these kinds of games and gathering clues in this game is a chore.
🌄Graphics – Horrible. It was so distracting and tough to look at.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – dead bodies everywhere on a ship, i guess I felt like an investigator with a time warp machine?
📚 Main Story / Characters – As you uncover how people died, they die in some interesting ways. it was cool but whatever.
🤺 Combat – none
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – had to do couple dumb things to get the 100% trophy, I don't know why. Those dumb things go against the theme of the game. Just give the 100% if you solve the case!
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine
📣 Voice acting – none
🥇 Best thing about the game - not a game for me
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - The look. The forced tracking to the same position 2 times, before a clue is revealed. First you follow a trail of smoke, then once you get there, it throws you back and you walk again to the same damn place. WHY!?
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
I like puzzle and deduction games but in general is not my favorite genre. It has to really stand out. However, this game is not for me. The graphics made everything so hard to see, the pixilation was too much, the forced walking to same place 2 times was annoying. I did not mind ambiguous information, because that forces my brain to think, however the gathering of clues itself was a chore and a PITA. As expected for a game like this its very pedantic. Speared vs Stabbed vs Impaled... I don't know! I have to go back to the scene and examine it again.... damit where was that scene again... ugh i forgot. when will this game end? How can someone give this a 1 when the average score is 4 :)
2016
🎮 Platform: PC
⌚ Time to finish - 5h
🏆Trophy completion - 54% - 2 trophies bugged out so I should be more like 75%
🤬Difficulty - Hard! Would have taken HOURS more had I not used a guide. I was stuck so much and the game gives very little clues and no map. I was always lost. I hate being lost in games...
🌄Graphics – fine its pixel art.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Enjoyed the music and the characters in game saying quirky things. The game has a unique atmosphere as it breaks the "4th wall".
📚 Main Story / Characters – Story was typical world ending, robots becoming sentient, main char on a save the world mission... sorry did not connect.... but there are some interesting 4th wall things they do that are completely atypical. Those were pretty cool. Really the game is about experiencing those. I wish I wasn't always so lost that it took forever to get to those moments.
🤺 Combat – none
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – buggy. I did not get 2 trophies that i did.
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine
📣 Voice acting – none
🥇 Best thing about the game - 4th wall things they do. Haven't seen other games do it.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - being lost and not enough clues given. For a puzzle, exploration game, they lack some basic things to point you in the right direction.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
I guess if you enjoy being lost and trial and error on what to do next, you are probably fine with this game. If you hate being lost, this game is not for you. I only gave it a 2 stars because I used a guide to get me past. If I did not use a guide this would have been a 1 star game.
I think people are Overweighting the 4th wall stuff, and the emotional connection you build to the main character Niko, which does happen. IMO game play itself is not very interesting, run around in circles everywhere, trial and error things, run around some more and hope story moves forward since you have no CLUE what to do next. Sure sometimes subtle cues are given but its not enough. The map is dark a lot so its hard to see where you are going.
I can't help think if this game should have been made the way Limbo/Inside were made, it would have been a much better way to tell their story. I get RPG maker probably has some limitations.
⌚ Time to finish - 5h
🏆Trophy completion - 54% - 2 trophies bugged out so I should be more like 75%
🤬Difficulty - Hard! Would have taken HOURS more had I not used a guide. I was stuck so much and the game gives very little clues and no map. I was always lost. I hate being lost in games...
🌄Graphics – fine its pixel art.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Enjoyed the music and the characters in game saying quirky things. The game has a unique atmosphere as it breaks the "4th wall".
📚 Main Story / Characters – Story was typical world ending, robots becoming sentient, main char on a save the world mission... sorry did not connect.... but there are some interesting 4th wall things they do that are completely atypical. Those were pretty cool. Really the game is about experiencing those. I wish I wasn't always so lost that it took forever to get to those moments.
🤺 Combat – none
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – buggy. I did not get 2 trophies that i did.
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine
📣 Voice acting – none
🥇 Best thing about the game - 4th wall things they do. Haven't seen other games do it.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - being lost and not enough clues given. For a puzzle, exploration game, they lack some basic things to point you in the right direction.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
I guess if you enjoy being lost and trial and error on what to do next, you are probably fine with this game. If you hate being lost, this game is not for you. I only gave it a 2 stars because I used a guide to get me past. If I did not use a guide this would have been a 1 star game.
I think people are Overweighting the 4th wall stuff, and the emotional connection you build to the main character Niko, which does happen. IMO game play itself is not very interesting, run around in circles everywhere, trial and error things, run around some more and hope story moves forward since you have no CLUE what to do next. Sure sometimes subtle cues are given but its not enough. The map is dark a lot so its hard to see where you are going.
I can't help think if this game should have been made the way Limbo/Inside were made, it would have been a much better way to tell their story. I get RPG maker probably has some limitations.
🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 6h story (15 total with 100% trophy)
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - 85% of it is easy. 15% of it is super frustrating because there are certain jumps you have to do with exploding a slug which are completely random and even off by a pixel you miss the target. SUPER frustrating but I had to do it because i was so close. I think one jump took me 30 minutes? If you are going for 100% go in knowing this.
🤬Difficulty - easy - medium. Apart from the 15% in trophy completion.
🌄Graphics – Pretty and nice to look at!
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – really enjoyed the music it fits the theme but nothing stood out. It gave a fun and relevant vibe to the game.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Story was simple. I really liked the Beetle pushing his pinball around the world. Its a very unique setting and take on pinball metroidvania.
🤺 Combat – Unique, you fight with your pinball. In general combat light, but i enjoyed the boss battles. I wish the next version has more of those boss battles because it changes up the gameplay.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – The game is one of the easier metroidvania to navigate on your own. Its clear when a flipper takes u up or down a map.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great apart from the trophy caveat i said.
📣 Voice acting – none
🥇 Best thing about the game - Its super unique. A metroidvania pinball that is easy to navigate!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Nothing really. Its missing something to make it a 4+ game. But i hope a 2nd version comes out since the foundation of the game can lead to something even more creative.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Super unique game. I never really played pinball games but i got pretty good at getting the ball where i want in a relatively short time. The game also gives some markers to give you an idea of where to go. The map is pretty easy to navigate, and that is coming from someone who gets lost easily in games. Definitely play it since its a short experience. There was one obscure flipper hidden behind a wall (only time its used) that you must activate for a key ability. I wish this was more visible as i was lost for a bit till i looked it up. Then I realized it was so hard to see.
⌚ Time to finish - 6h story (15 total with 100% trophy)
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - 85% of it is easy. 15% of it is super frustrating because there are certain jumps you have to do with exploding a slug which are completely random and even off by a pixel you miss the target. SUPER frustrating but I had to do it because i was so close. I think one jump took me 30 minutes? If you are going for 100% go in knowing this.
🤬Difficulty - easy - medium. Apart from the 15% in trophy completion.
🌄Graphics – Pretty and nice to look at!
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – really enjoyed the music it fits the theme but nothing stood out. It gave a fun and relevant vibe to the game.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Story was simple. I really liked the Beetle pushing his pinball around the world. Its a very unique setting and take on pinball metroidvania.
🤺 Combat – Unique, you fight with your pinball. In general combat light, but i enjoyed the boss battles. I wish the next version has more of those boss battles because it changes up the gameplay.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – The game is one of the easier metroidvania to navigate on your own. Its clear when a flipper takes u up or down a map.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great apart from the trophy caveat i said.
📣 Voice acting – none
🥇 Best thing about the game - Its super unique. A metroidvania pinball that is easy to navigate!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Nothing really. Its missing something to make it a 4+ game. But i hope a 2nd version comes out since the foundation of the game can lead to something even more creative.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Super unique game. I never really played pinball games but i got pretty good at getting the ball where i want in a relatively short time. The game also gives some markers to give you an idea of where to go. The map is pretty easy to navigate, and that is coming from someone who gets lost easily in games. Definitely play it since its a short experience. There was one obscure flipper hidden behind a wall (only time its used) that you must activate for a key ability. I wish this was more visible as i was lost for a bit till i looked it up. Then I realized it was so hard to see.
🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 19h story (27h total with 100% trophy)
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Really enjoyed the trophy list. This is the first collection game that i did not mind collection trophy. Most of the time they are so tedious I do not do them. I used a youtube video side by side and just play along collecting with the youtube creator. It was easy and it made me appreciate the level design, which during regular play is very hard to navigate.
🤬Difficulty - medium - It starts off hard, as you dont have abilities and death will reset you to your previous rest point like a souls game. You also loose your experience which you have to hit (kill optional) the monster that killed you to get it back.
🌄Graphics – Modern, nice to look at.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Great sound track feels like you are in star wars!
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story is nothing out of the ordinary. Typical heroes journey story but the stand out is that damn cute robot, BD-1. I found his companions and the main character annoying. He doesn't grow much in the game until much later on. That is also when the game gets more interesting. The game overall starts strong (4/5), for a few chapters looses the punch (3/5), picks up again towards last 40% (4.5/5). Thankfully.
🤺 Combat – Definitely has challenge. You cannot blindly swing your saber. You need to be deliberate about what you are doing. I appreciated that.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Very very easy to get lost. The map is so hard to read! I think universally people hate the map.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Fine. He runs weird, his roll leaves him extremely vulnerable so use it sparingly. There are SOME EXTREMELY frustrating rope grabs in this game. There was one rope i died 10 times on and there is no reason for this in an action adventure game. It should just be forgiving and let you grab.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.
🥇 Best thing about the game - I enjoyed the action adventure and combat especially toward the last few chapters. I hate collection trophies but this game was unique in that i did not mind it.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Some parcour is finnicky. VERY easy to get lost and gets frustrating.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Really enjoyed the game. Get through the boring middle part. If you get lost look it up, there is no need to bang your head going in circles. it takes the fun away. Will recommend anyone play this game. I think its honestly the best intro to souls like game.
⌚ Time to finish - 19h story (27h total with 100% trophy)
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Really enjoyed the trophy list. This is the first collection game that i did not mind collection trophy. Most of the time they are so tedious I do not do them. I used a youtube video side by side and just play along collecting with the youtube creator. It was easy and it made me appreciate the level design, which during regular play is very hard to navigate.
🤬Difficulty - medium - It starts off hard, as you dont have abilities and death will reset you to your previous rest point like a souls game. You also loose your experience which you have to hit (kill optional) the monster that killed you to get it back.
🌄Graphics – Modern, nice to look at.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Great sound track feels like you are in star wars!
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story is nothing out of the ordinary. Typical heroes journey story but the stand out is that damn cute robot, BD-1. I found his companions and the main character annoying. He doesn't grow much in the game until much later on. That is also when the game gets more interesting. The game overall starts strong (4/5), for a few chapters looses the punch (3/5), picks up again towards last 40% (4.5/5). Thankfully.
🤺 Combat – Definitely has challenge. You cannot blindly swing your saber. You need to be deliberate about what you are doing. I appreciated that.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Very very easy to get lost. The map is so hard to read! I think universally people hate the map.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Fine. He runs weird, his roll leaves him extremely vulnerable so use it sparingly. There are SOME EXTREMELY frustrating rope grabs in this game. There was one rope i died 10 times on and there is no reason for this in an action adventure game. It should just be forgiving and let you grab.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.
🥇 Best thing about the game - I enjoyed the action adventure and combat especially toward the last few chapters. I hate collection trophies but this game was unique in that i did not mind it.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Some parcour is finnicky. VERY easy to get lost and gets frustrating.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Really enjoyed the game. Get through the boring middle part. If you get lost look it up, there is no need to bang your head going in circles. it takes the fun away. Will recommend anyone play this game. I think its honestly the best intro to souls like game.
2016
🎮 Platform: PC with M+B (the only way to play this game :))
⌚ Time to finish - 12h story
🏆Trophy completion - Not sure. I didn't want to ruin my experience so i went from one bad ass arena to another. I did not want ANY slowdown in this.
🤬Difficulty - As expected - I did not play ultra hard thought I have enough experience with FPS that I probably could have. I played the hurt me plenty and it was a perfect balance.
🌄Graphics – Was nice but I am not a huge fan of metallic things. But its exactly what we expect in doom game.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – AMAZING sound track!!!!!! Reminds me of the good ol days where i use to deatmach on quake and doom for hours on end.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Whatever.... i didn't pay much attention to it and honestly not much there except for an excuse for you to kill bunch of creatures from hell. Who cares its doom!
🤺 Combat – AWESOMEEEEEEEEE! Apart from the end when it was wave after wave, I loved the combat. Part of it is nostalgia. It reminded me of my carefree younger days where i death-matched with my friends. I played quake 3 competitively at my uni, so i used all the weapons, zipping around and blowing up stuff. I loved it!
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Didn't do any. I didnt want to ruin my experience looking for collectibles.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Excellent. This is one of the MOST important things about FPS and doom gets it right. I am mixed on whether i am happy with the execution (kick in face) mechanism. I think it forces people to be IN the action, but i feel for someone as experienced as me, i do not need to be forced to be in action. I will go in and out as i need.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.
🥇 Best thing about the game - DEATMATCH AND MUSIC!!!!! YEAAA!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - none
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
I loved this game. It brought me back to my younger days. The speed of the game, the waves of enemies, the music, everything was a banger. I don't understand how people are playing this with controller. I was switching guns fast, doing 180 turns, twitch rail gun shots as if i was still in my 20s :) I cannot do this that fluidly with a controller. Amazing game and cant wait to play doom eternal.
⌚ Time to finish - 12h story
🏆Trophy completion - Not sure. I didn't want to ruin my experience so i went from one bad ass arena to another. I did not want ANY slowdown in this.
🤬Difficulty - As expected - I did not play ultra hard thought I have enough experience with FPS that I probably could have. I played the hurt me plenty and it was a perfect balance.
🌄Graphics – Was nice but I am not a huge fan of metallic things. But its exactly what we expect in doom game.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – AMAZING sound track!!!!!! Reminds me of the good ol days where i use to deatmach on quake and doom for hours on end.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Whatever.... i didn't pay much attention to it and honestly not much there except for an excuse for you to kill bunch of creatures from hell. Who cares its doom!
🤺 Combat – AWESOMEEEEEEEEE! Apart from the end when it was wave after wave, I loved the combat. Part of it is nostalgia. It reminded me of my carefree younger days where i death-matched with my friends. I played quake 3 competitively at my uni, so i used all the weapons, zipping around and blowing up stuff. I loved it!
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Didn't do any. I didnt want to ruin my experience looking for collectibles.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Excellent. This is one of the MOST important things about FPS and doom gets it right. I am mixed on whether i am happy with the execution (kick in face) mechanism. I think it forces people to be IN the action, but i feel for someone as experienced as me, i do not need to be forced to be in action. I will go in and out as i need.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.
🥇 Best thing about the game - DEATMATCH AND MUSIC!!!!! YEAAA!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - none
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
I loved this game. It brought me back to my younger days. The speed of the game, the waves of enemies, the music, everything was a banger. I don't understand how people are playing this with controller. I was switching guns fast, doing 180 turns, twitch rail gun shots as if i was still in my 20s :) I cannot do this that fluidly with a controller. Amazing game and cant wait to play doom eternal.
🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 7.5h Story (9.5 with trophy clean up. I missed one collectible and had to replay story up to that. C'mon chapter select....). I also looked up most solutions since i HATED the puzzles in this game.
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Really enjoyed collecting the lore stones and hearing the stories. I love norse mythology and this was stories from their mythology.
🤬Difficulty - its not a difficult game but the puzzles are tedious.
🌄Graphics – Very nice. Rivals AAA games. In general i like vibrant colors in games and this doesn't have that. But its very fitting.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – AMAZING! This has some of the best sound design of any game i played. You Really feel like you are in the character's shoes and get a glimpes into her mental disorder. Its really well done. It reminded me of a better version of alan wake sound design.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I really liked all the main characters. They are complex. Senua is great. I really felt for every character in the game even if they were the "Bad" guy. There are only a few and they are very nuanced. There are things they tell you and things that are inferred. It made me feel for characters like top oscar nominated movies usually do.
🤺 Combat – Challenging and engaging and not too many brawls. I am not sure why so much negative criticism for combat. I actually liked it.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – I hated the puzzles in this game. They are all environmental puzzles and boils down to finding objects on the world, and look at them with a certain angle. I hated it. I looked up answers to most of them because it was really taking away from the game, and things were getting to a dead halt. Lorestones were great!
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great. Camera sometimes gets in the way during combat... which was annoying.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent. Some of the best if not the best in any game i played.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Story telling, sound design, characters. Everything about the story is 5/5 from the start to end. Its gripping. It will stick with you for a long time.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - puzzles. I hated the puzzles here (1/5) as much as I loved the story. No chapter select for trophy hunters. This one level where everything is pitch dark seriously....
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Amazing game. If you find that you are getting stuck with puzzles, do yourself a favor and look it up. Do not let the puzzles get in the way of enjoying the game. I started looking up solutions after the 4th chapter and the game went to a 5/5 from a 3/5 experience. The story flows and it feels like i am in senua's head. I wish I could give this a 5/5 but i cannot because of the shitty puzzles.
I wish they picked somethign else between the story beats. Even more combat would have been better. Story and story telling was amazing, gameplay especially puzzles left alot to be desired.
I missed one lorestone and had to replay about 4 chapters. Honestly i thought this would be bad but it went by fast, and also because I knew the ending, I had alot more understanding about some of the motivation of characters in the beginning. You can only know this after you watch the ending.
Amazing game. play it!
⌚ Time to finish - 7.5h Story (9.5 with trophy clean up. I missed one collectible and had to replay story up to that. C'mon chapter select....). I also looked up most solutions since i HATED the puzzles in this game.
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Really enjoyed collecting the lore stones and hearing the stories. I love norse mythology and this was stories from their mythology.
🤬Difficulty - its not a difficult game but the puzzles are tedious.
🌄Graphics – Very nice. Rivals AAA games. In general i like vibrant colors in games and this doesn't have that. But its very fitting.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – AMAZING! This has some of the best sound design of any game i played. You Really feel like you are in the character's shoes and get a glimpes into her mental disorder. Its really well done. It reminded me of a better version of alan wake sound design.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I really liked all the main characters. They are complex. Senua is great. I really felt for every character in the game even if they were the "Bad" guy. There are only a few and they are very nuanced. There are things they tell you and things that are inferred. It made me feel for characters like top oscar nominated movies usually do.
🤺 Combat – Challenging and engaging and not too many brawls. I am not sure why so much negative criticism for combat. I actually liked it.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – I hated the puzzles in this game. They are all environmental puzzles and boils down to finding objects on the world, and look at them with a certain angle. I hated it. I looked up answers to most of them because it was really taking away from the game, and things were getting to a dead halt. Lorestones were great!
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great. Camera sometimes gets in the way during combat... which was annoying.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent. Some of the best if not the best in any game i played.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Story telling, sound design, characters. Everything about the story is 5/5 from the start to end. Its gripping. It will stick with you for a long time.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - puzzles. I hated the puzzles here (1/5) as much as I loved the story. No chapter select for trophy hunters. This one level where everything is pitch dark seriously....
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Amazing game. If you find that you are getting stuck with puzzles, do yourself a favor and look it up. Do not let the puzzles get in the way of enjoying the game. I started looking up solutions after the 4th chapter and the game went to a 5/5 from a 3/5 experience. The story flows and it feels like i am in senua's head. I wish I could give this a 5/5 but i cannot because of the shitty puzzles.
I wish they picked somethign else between the story beats. Even more combat would have been better. Story and story telling was amazing, gameplay especially puzzles left alot to be desired.
I missed one lorestone and had to replay about 4 chapters. Honestly i thought this would be bad but it went by fast, and also because I knew the ending, I had alot more understanding about some of the motivation of characters in the beginning. You can only know this after you watch the ending.
Amazing game. play it!
2009
🎮 Platform: Geforce NOW - PC - Ran amazing. I was in most optimal wired + <20ms ping.
⌚ Time to finish - 15.5h Story
🏆Trophy completion - did not bother. The activities are already repetitive going through the 15h story I had 0 motivation for trophies.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Very nice and still holds up. I did have GFN 3080 tier which is the best. I believe since I got it recently I believe graphics were remastered since original release.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Nice. The music was great and reminded me of my trop to Italy a decade ago. A nostalgic feeling. :)
📚 Main Story / Characters – I liked ALL the characters in this game and there were a few of them. They make all the interactions meaningful. I really like Ezio. He is fun. I overall liked the story, though nothing ground breaking it was fun and adventurous.
🤺 Combat – Boring. Way better than 1, but still boring. I found myself just parry and 1 shotting everyone over and over and over again. ugh.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Movement is much more improved over 1, but still you run up randomly on walls, camera still swings when you didn't want it to. Side activities are repetitive and boring. The best side activity was upgrading your villa and making a shit ton of money! that was the best. :)
🚗 Movement/Physics – manageable but has issues. Can be frustrating because he randomly climbs up a wall, doesn't grab what he should.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Just a fun sense to Ezio personality and voice acting. I really liked the voice acting of Ezio its awesome with his italian accent. Upgrading your villa.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - The game play itself. After half way point its repetitive.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
If this is the best game in the Creed series I am surprised how so many games after this were released and still milking the $$. I played brotherhood but after that thankfully i feel I do not need to touch this series again. This game is a fine game but after the half way mark its repetitive and gets boring. The story is what keeps it going. The integrated DLC really drags the game and doesn't add anything. The fundamental issue with this game is that the activities in the game are just boring over time.
1) Combat - how much can you hold parry and kill over and over again?
2) Follow - How many times can you follow people in clunky stealth mechanics?
3) pickpocket - really?
4) Climb towers - the cracks of parcour start to show.
Modern games iterated on this so I appreciate this for being a fine game and really improving on the unplayable AC 1. This did spawn a lot of games but I think maybe Prince of Persia deserves that credit and not this game.
⌚ Time to finish - 15.5h Story
🏆Trophy completion - did not bother. The activities are already repetitive going through the 15h story I had 0 motivation for trophies.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Very nice and still holds up. I did have GFN 3080 tier which is the best. I believe since I got it recently I believe graphics were remastered since original release.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Nice. The music was great and reminded me of my trop to Italy a decade ago. A nostalgic feeling. :)
📚 Main Story / Characters – I liked ALL the characters in this game and there were a few of them. They make all the interactions meaningful. I really like Ezio. He is fun. I overall liked the story, though nothing ground breaking it was fun and adventurous.
🤺 Combat – Boring. Way better than 1, but still boring. I found myself just parry and 1 shotting everyone over and over and over again. ugh.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Movement is much more improved over 1, but still you run up randomly on walls, camera still swings when you didn't want it to. Side activities are repetitive and boring. The best side activity was upgrading your villa and making a shit ton of money! that was the best. :)
🚗 Movement/Physics – manageable but has issues. Can be frustrating because he randomly climbs up a wall, doesn't grab what he should.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Just a fun sense to Ezio personality and voice acting. I really liked the voice acting of Ezio its awesome with his italian accent. Upgrading your villa.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - The game play itself. After half way point its repetitive.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
If this is the best game in the Creed series I am surprised how so many games after this were released and still milking the $$. I played brotherhood but after that thankfully i feel I do not need to touch this series again. This game is a fine game but after the half way mark its repetitive and gets boring. The story is what keeps it going. The integrated DLC really drags the game and doesn't add anything. The fundamental issue with this game is that the activities in the game are just boring over time.
1) Combat - how much can you hold parry and kill over and over again?
2) Follow - How many times can you follow people in clunky stealth mechanics?
3) pickpocket - really?
4) Climb towers - the cracks of parcour start to show.
Modern games iterated on this so I appreciate this for being a fine game and really improving on the unplayable AC 1. This did spawn a lot of games but I think maybe Prince of Persia deserves that credit and not this game.
🎮 Platform: PC - (Bug on GFNow so I could not play it there :( )
⌚ Time to finish - 11h
🏆Trophy completion - did not bother. The activities are already repetitive, and coming off AC2 its EVEN more repetetive.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Very nice and still holds up.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Nice.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I hated everything here. The story was boring, all the characters in AC2 i found interesting had no character development. The decision that is made at the end of AC2 was made to sound so mindblowing but its completely trivialized here. Ezio was way more boring here. Characters i wanted to see of more were missing.
🤺 Combat – Boring. More of ac2...
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Boring. My most fav thing about ac2 the villa upgrade they took it a damn step too far. Now you are an entrepreneur opening tons of shops all over the place. Was hard to track, and made me not want to participate. They took one of my fav things away and unnecessarily changed it.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Same as AC2
📣 Voice acting – Good but step down from ac2. They took out Ezio's expositions on death. WHY!? those were cool to hear.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Nothing
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - They took everything away that was fun and I enjoyed about ac2. All the stealth missions were badly designed and full of bugs. For a stealth game this is atrocious. I hated those finnicky missions especially the mission where you chase people and play in the roman play (not spoiler)
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Disappointing game. I had high hopes for this as this is suppose to be one of the best ac games. I liked AC2 enough to try this and they took away everything I liked in AC2 and changed it for the sake of doing something different. Sometimes we just want more of the same! So net is they took away everything I enjoyed in ac2, and left all the repetitive bits. Removed some of my fav mechanisms, and characters. So disappointing. Well good news is that I don't have to hit any AC games after this and therefore reduce my backlog and focus on other games. :)
⌚ Time to finish - 11h
🏆Trophy completion - did not bother. The activities are already repetitive, and coming off AC2 its EVEN more repetetive.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Very nice and still holds up.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Nice.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I hated everything here. The story was boring, all the characters in AC2 i found interesting had no character development. The decision that is made at the end of AC2 was made to sound so mindblowing but its completely trivialized here. Ezio was way more boring here. Characters i wanted to see of more were missing.
🤺 Combat – Boring. More of ac2...
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Boring. My most fav thing about ac2 the villa upgrade they took it a damn step too far. Now you are an entrepreneur opening tons of shops all over the place. Was hard to track, and made me not want to participate. They took one of my fav things away and unnecessarily changed it.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Same as AC2
📣 Voice acting – Good but step down from ac2. They took out Ezio's expositions on death. WHY!? those were cool to hear.
🥇 Best thing about the game - Nothing
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - They took everything away that was fun and I enjoyed about ac2. All the stealth missions were badly designed and full of bugs. For a stealth game this is atrocious. I hated those finnicky missions especially the mission where you chase people and play in the roman play (not spoiler)
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Disappointing game. I had high hopes for this as this is suppose to be one of the best ac games. I liked AC2 enough to try this and they took away everything I liked in AC2 and changed it for the sake of doing something different. Sometimes we just want more of the same! So net is they took away everything I enjoyed in ac2, and left all the repetitive bits. Removed some of my fav mechanisms, and characters. So disappointing. Well good news is that I don't have to hit any AC games after this and therefore reduce my backlog and focus on other games. :)
🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 9h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Easy trophy, offers some additional info but didn't add much. I wish it added more to the story.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Good but definitely not optimized. You have a game like horizon at 60fps and then you have this game which is super choppy on pan. Its very jarring at 30fps and feels more like 10fps. At 60fps it feels like 30 fps. Anyway game is beautiful engine needs work.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Great. Visuals and music add alot. I wanted to visit this mountain town.
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story is cliche. The interactions among the characters are cliche. There were enough characters and i routinely got confused with those characters that got less screen time. This is because the cliched interactions didn't leave an impression of the characters and their names when they were introduced. This entire game is about character interactions and overall I felt it was run of the mill and was just going through the motions with occasional wow moment. Don't get me wrong there are definitely twists and wow moments, but you have to wait an hour or 2 till the end of the episode to get there, the rest of it is routine. I liked them overall but nothing out of the ordinary. For example (not spoiler) you play larp for almost an entire episode! Sure its meant for relationship building, but I already Role played in Life is strange 2, and in wavelengths, do I really need to do it a 3rd time? I did not care much for most of the characters so I did not feel like it was fun building relationships with them, it felt more about pressing buttons. This is a shame because there are so few characters and the potential is there! But again they are cliche so hard to care for them.
🤺 Combat – None
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Not much to explore. Trophy allows you to explore some but overall exploration didn't add much.
🚗 Movement/Physics – SLOW! Can she move faster please!!!
📣 Voice acting – Excellent. Facial expressions are awesome.
🥇 Best thing about the game - MUSIC!! Wish there was more. It explores emotions, since I am already a little "woke" i got it. But It always helps people to go through stories that are about emotional intelligence.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Nothing. Its a fine game.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Did I use the word cliche enough? Life is strange 1 is the best of the series. I had high hopes for this game. Her power is cool but not that interesting. What you do in the game is not too interesting. You get to know all the characters but no one really that deep. The ending is wrapped up in a very cliche style. Things that happen to main character are not explored deeply. She ends up being a therapist for other people, when probably she should be the one getting support. Sure this can be seen has her being strong, but we don't get to explore her mental state. Maybe I am spoiled by games like Last of us 1/2/Drake/life is strange 1 etc.
⌚ Time to finish - 9h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - Easy trophy, offers some additional info but didn't add much. I wish it added more to the story.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Good but definitely not optimized. You have a game like horizon at 60fps and then you have this game which is super choppy on pan. Its very jarring at 30fps and feels more like 10fps. At 60fps it feels like 30 fps. Anyway game is beautiful engine needs work.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Great. Visuals and music add alot. I wanted to visit this mountain town.
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story is cliche. The interactions among the characters are cliche. There were enough characters and i routinely got confused with those characters that got less screen time. This is because the cliched interactions didn't leave an impression of the characters and their names when they were introduced. This entire game is about character interactions and overall I felt it was run of the mill and was just going through the motions with occasional wow moment. Don't get me wrong there are definitely twists and wow moments, but you have to wait an hour or 2 till the end of the episode to get there, the rest of it is routine. I liked them overall but nothing out of the ordinary. For example (not spoiler) you play larp for almost an entire episode! Sure its meant for relationship building, but I already Role played in Life is strange 2, and in wavelengths, do I really need to do it a 3rd time? I did not care much for most of the characters so I did not feel like it was fun building relationships with them, it felt more about pressing buttons. This is a shame because there are so few characters and the potential is there! But again they are cliche so hard to care for them.
🤺 Combat – None
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Not much to explore. Trophy allows you to explore some but overall exploration didn't add much.
🚗 Movement/Physics – SLOW! Can she move faster please!!!
📣 Voice acting – Excellent. Facial expressions are awesome.
🥇 Best thing about the game - MUSIC!! Wish there was more. It explores emotions, since I am already a little "woke" i got it. But It always helps people to go through stories that are about emotional intelligence.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Nothing. Its a fine game.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Did I use the word cliche enough? Life is strange 1 is the best of the series. I had high hopes for this game. Her power is cool but not that interesting. What you do in the game is not too interesting. You get to know all the characters but no one really that deep. The ending is wrapped up in a very cliche style. Things that happen to main character are not explored deeply. She ends up being a therapist for other people, when probably she should be the one getting support. Sure this can be seen has her being strong, but we don't get to explore her mental state. Maybe I am spoiled by games like Last of us 1/2/Drake/life is strange 1 etc.
2015
🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time to finish - 9h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - easy and definitely worth completing. I overall enjoyed them and felt it helped me immerse myself in the game. Not a must as no story beats in it.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Up to par.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Life is strange is known for its music and atmosphere. This has amazing songs which I added to my outside of game listening! I definitely felt like I was Max and very much invested in her story and friends.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I liked all the characters however her friend, Chole, was pretty annoying in the beginning. Very cliche bad girl attitude. Also there is something very strange with the dialog, they misuse the word "hella" and english slangs in strange ways. It gets a lot better 2nd half when the story gets going and they aren't trying to character build with slang phrases.
The main story was really fun. Max's time reverse power is used in interesting ways not only to solve puzzles but also as a interesting device to move story forward. It explores issues around what happens when she reverses time and her motivations for it. Time travel stories are a dime a dozen and most aren't done right. This one gets it right and its super engaging. I really enjoyed my experience with this game! The story is very touching and I really was invested in what is going on in the screen.
🤺 Combat – None
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Easy, worth it. Get 100%.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great. For some reason I did not feel she moves slowly like Alex in LiS:TC. But thats because I was lot more immersed in this story.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Time travel story done well and engaging story telling and narration. The last 2-3 chapters are just a blast.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Some puzzles are just so obscure. There was a puzzle where you have a board of clues... there are so many combinations and somehow you are suppose to hook up the right 3 items to move story forward, multiple times. this was frustrating. Also in some places, it asks you for door codes that you saw a chapter or 2 ago on a random paper. This was annoying since I could not pull up those notes, I had no choice but to look it up. Get through these parts fast and don't linger on it.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Excellent game and not to be missed. Its my fav of Life is strange series though I haven't played 2, which is generally regarded as ok game. I think this is way better than TC. The story and story telling was fun as were the characters and Max's special power. Must play.
⌚ Time to finish - 9h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - easy and definitely worth completing. I overall enjoyed them and felt it helped me immerse myself in the game. Not a must as no story beats in it.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Up to par.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Life is strange is known for its music and atmosphere. This has amazing songs which I added to my outside of game listening! I definitely felt like I was Max and very much invested in her story and friends.
📚 Main Story / Characters – I liked all the characters however her friend, Chole, was pretty annoying in the beginning. Very cliche bad girl attitude. Also there is something very strange with the dialog, they misuse the word "hella" and english slangs in strange ways. It gets a lot better 2nd half when the story gets going and they aren't trying to character build with slang phrases.
The main story was really fun. Max's time reverse power is used in interesting ways not only to solve puzzles but also as a interesting device to move story forward. It explores issues around what happens when she reverses time and her motivations for it. Time travel stories are a dime a dozen and most aren't done right. This one gets it right and its super engaging. I really enjoyed my experience with this game! The story is very touching and I really was invested in what is going on in the screen.
🤺 Combat – None
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Easy, worth it. Get 100%.
🚗 Movement/Physics – Great. For some reason I did not feel she moves slowly like Alex in LiS:TC. But thats because I was lot more immersed in this story.
📣 Voice acting – Excellent!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Time travel story done well and engaging story telling and narration. The last 2-3 chapters are just a blast.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Some puzzles are just so obscure. There was a puzzle where you have a board of clues... there are so many combinations and somehow you are suppose to hook up the right 3 items to move story forward, multiple times. this was frustrating. Also in some places, it asks you for door codes that you saw a chapter or 2 ago on a random paper. This was annoying since I could not pull up those notes, I had no choice but to look it up. Get through these parts fast and don't linger on it.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Excellent game and not to be missed. Its my fav of Life is strange series though I haven't played 2, which is generally regarded as ok game. I think this is way better than TC. The story and story telling was fun as were the characters and Max's special power. Must play.
🎮 Platform: Geforce Now
⌚ Time to finish - 8h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - easy but I didn't feel it did anything to the story. She graffitis everywhere and in places she shouldn't be graffitiying not only because its socially wrong but also because she is going on an investigation mission... and graffitis their desk.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Up to par.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Awesome sound track still.
📚 Main Story / Characters – This story tries to explore the background between Chloe and Rachel, a character we hear about in LiS 1 but never see. Unfortunately because of its choose your own adventure nature and the story telling is not as good as LOS 1, they never make a statement about what is really going on with them because they want you to decide... so you kinda are left hanging about what the story tellers are trying to tell you. But wasn't the point of this game to tell us whats going on between the 2? Sometimes there are super touching scenes, other times they look like they went back to being friends.
The story also suffers from lack of focus. They explore so many things, rachel's relationship, rachel's dad, drug dealers, Rachel's mom, wanting to escape their life without a real motive set, and more. Well the issue here is that you are playing as CHLOE! And most of the time she is doing things on behalf of Rachel, and literally feels like a super nosy friend, and they find random ways to take Rachel out of the picture, or Rachel asks Chloe to do things like break into her Dad the DA's office for her... huh? There are more like this but I won't spoil the story. When i played this game I was thinking this suffers from some of the same issues as LiS:TC and it became clear to me why... they are both developed by Deck9 and LIS was not. DonTnoD did a much better job.
Had they just focused on Chloe and Rachel's relationship and told the story through Chloe's eyes and feelings and their evolution it would have been better. But I felt they just tried to jam the typical hero problem solves story.
🤺 Combat – None
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Easy, but not interesting.
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine
📣 Voice acting – Excellent!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Some very touching scenes and story telling bits but unfortunately mixed with mediocore story.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Nothing stands out except how the characters walk. Geez they couldn't fix that? It looks like their hips are dislocated or something strange...
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Skip it if you want to unless you are a true fan. Passable story and story telling with some very touching moments and music thrown in to keep you going.
⌚ Time to finish - 8h
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - easy but I didn't feel it did anything to the story. She graffitis everywhere and in places she shouldn't be graffitiying not only because its socially wrong but also because she is going on an investigation mission... and graffitis their desk.
🤬Difficulty - easy
🌄Graphics – Up to par.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Awesome sound track still.
📚 Main Story / Characters – This story tries to explore the background between Chloe and Rachel, a character we hear about in LiS 1 but never see. Unfortunately because of its choose your own adventure nature and the story telling is not as good as LOS 1, they never make a statement about what is really going on with them because they want you to decide... so you kinda are left hanging about what the story tellers are trying to tell you. But wasn't the point of this game to tell us whats going on between the 2? Sometimes there are super touching scenes, other times they look like they went back to being friends.
The story also suffers from lack of focus. They explore so many things, rachel's relationship, rachel's dad, drug dealers, Rachel's mom, wanting to escape their life without a real motive set, and more. Well the issue here is that you are playing as CHLOE! And most of the time she is doing things on behalf of Rachel, and literally feels like a super nosy friend, and they find random ways to take Rachel out of the picture, or Rachel asks Chloe to do things like break into her Dad the DA's office for her... huh? There are more like this but I won't spoil the story. When i played this game I was thinking this suffers from some of the same issues as LiS:TC and it became clear to me why... they are both developed by Deck9 and LIS was not. DonTnoD did a much better job.
Had they just focused on Chloe and Rachel's relationship and told the story through Chloe's eyes and feelings and their evolution it would have been better. But I felt they just tried to jam the typical hero problem solves story.
🤺 Combat – None
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – Easy, but not interesting.
🚗 Movement/Physics – fine
📣 Voice acting – Excellent!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Some very touching scenes and story telling bits but unfortunately mixed with mediocore story.
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - Nothing stands out except how the characters walk. Geez they couldn't fix that? It looks like their hips are dislocated or something strange...
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Skip it if you want to unless you are a true fan. Passable story and story telling with some very touching moments and music thrown in to keep you going.
Note: Not writing my usual thorough reviews because I abandoned the game.
Status: Abandoned
Played: 3.5 hrs
Platform: Switch
I played about 3 hours of this game and what I saw as fine and interesting. I loved the music and the mechanic of moving to the beat which i never saw anywhere else. Initially the combat has a bit of learning curve you are severely limited in what you do and will die all the time. In addition you need to reprogram your hack and slash habits to study and understand enemy patterns and move. This was really cool and slowly an hour in and some tips from veteran players i started clearing levels. It felt great because I got visibly better at something.
I cleared about 15 screens or so, and then everytime i died everything respawned. I understand its rouge-lite so they will come back and I can avoid them. Ultimately I don't know what the goal of this game is, maybe you are suppose to find the goal as you go on? I heard something about defeating 4 bosses, and then you taken on the final boss? Or is it to clear all the levels, if so they respawn so it seems pointless. Anyway because I had no clear goal or aim setup front, I did not have the motivation to tackle the harder stages even if i figured out the combat.
I have too many games in backlog and in general have very little patience for games that don't make some basic goals clear. For example in death's door, Yoku island, there are subtle goals but the goals are still clear. Here I am not exactly sure when this game will end and what I have to do to get it to end. This maybe a me problem.
Overall its worth trying, and if you enjoy finding a path in uncertainty through exploration you will have no issues. I personally need a little bit more goal setting.
Status: Abandoned
Played: 3.5 hrs
Platform: Switch
I played about 3 hours of this game and what I saw as fine and interesting. I loved the music and the mechanic of moving to the beat which i never saw anywhere else. Initially the combat has a bit of learning curve you are severely limited in what you do and will die all the time. In addition you need to reprogram your hack and slash habits to study and understand enemy patterns and move. This was really cool and slowly an hour in and some tips from veteran players i started clearing levels. It felt great because I got visibly better at something.
I cleared about 15 screens or so, and then everytime i died everything respawned. I understand its rouge-lite so they will come back and I can avoid them. Ultimately I don't know what the goal of this game is, maybe you are suppose to find the goal as you go on? I heard something about defeating 4 bosses, and then you taken on the final boss? Or is it to clear all the levels, if so they respawn so it seems pointless. Anyway because I had no clear goal or aim setup front, I did not have the motivation to tackle the harder stages even if i figured out the combat.
I have too many games in backlog and in general have very little patience for games that don't make some basic goals clear. For example in death's door, Yoku island, there are subtle goals but the goals are still clear. Here I am not exactly sure when this game will end and what I have to do to get it to end. This maybe a me problem.
Overall its worth trying, and if you enjoy finding a path in uncertainty through exploration you will have no issues. I personally need a little bit more goal setting.
2000
🎮 Platform: Emulation
⌚ Time to finish - 24h (used a guide and explored a bit for badges)
🏆Trophy completion - 60% - Retroachivements list. I just did the story ones and a few side trophies.
🤬Difficulty - easy, if you don't get the proper badges early prepare to die a lot. If you get the badges I was really stun locking everything and it became pretty repetitive after a certain point. There were stretches of battles i took 0 damage.
🌄Graphics – pretty bad. It hasn't aged well at all. I found a texture pack and it made it so much more pleasant. please use it!
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – 2001 MIDI music. Not up to par with music I come to expect from Mario but its fine.
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story has the typical Mario charm. Silly characters, silly bowser, same story as every mario game. Go collect something, meet a few friends, wack silly bowser and save peach. Story was nothing remarkable however, I liked a lot of the companions you get. They have interesting powers, that you use in the overworld and in dungeons. I had a badge that allowed me to switch characters without a penalty so i was constantly using all of them to mop the floor with everything. Get that badge!
🤺 Combat – The combat starts of really great in the beginning, you are engaged in the entire combat process. You select a ability, press/spam the right sequences to make sure you do the best damage, on enemies attack you can try to defend. This works about 40% of the time. Some enemies telegraph and can easily defend, most enemies don't so most of the time i will just defend for the sake of it, but the game doesn't want you to be able to defend everything. I don't know why, even when i defend it only shaves of 1 damage. So just make it easy guys! As you discover and get new badges combat evolves, and keeps things interesting. however at about chapter 4, it gets repetitive when you have your favorite badges, except once in a while you rotate them around. The game does thrown in variety of enemies and often you have to stop for a second and think about your approach, however with my build where I can make everything zzz, i didn't have to worry too much. After about chapter 7 i started skipping most battles, in chapter 8 i did my best to skip EVERY battle except boss.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – I used a guide because i kept getting stuck. Its in that era of games where there is little to no clue where to go and going the wrong way will get you back to square 1. THere are a fair share of these and for me who gets lost easily in games they are NOT fun. There are some very tricky levels in the forest, mirror rooms in a castle, and more. These have to be done in the right order, or else you can get lost for a long time. I think my play time easily would have been 30h without a guide. I also used the guide to find power ups and badges which was fun and made the game approachable. So I definitely suggest some amount of exploration and badge collection so you can be viable in this game. If you do none you will have severely underpowered characters and abilities. Good luck getting through the game with that.
🚗 Movement/Physics – super slow!!!!!! because I was on an emulator i just sped it up when it was getting slow at 2x.
📣 Voice acting – none!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Engaging turn based combat, boss battles were fun!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - getting lost
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Overall its a fine game and I am glad to have tried something unique. It was not a compelling enough experience for me to want to rush out and try the thousand year door. But i know that game is soooo well regarded, so I will research more. But if its more of the same then I will skip it. I wish this game was half the length and it gets repetitive quickly. Chapters can be long especially if you are lost. I enjoyed the last bowser battle the most as its probably the only battle I died and had to restart from checkpoint. Honestly this because i didnt stock up on health shrooms, if you do you just brute force through it. I enjoyed doing it with no mushrooms. The game can thrust you into boss battles unprepared if you aren't paying attention. Look for save block and health block and you know there is a big battle comingup.
I say at least play a couple chapters to experience the unique combat but if you stop enjoying at around ch4, it doesn't get better. Play if you are curious and want to experience something different.
----- Combat Tips (don't read if you don't want spoilers and answers that will help you breeze the game) -----
So how do you stun lock everything/take minimal to no damage?
1) Start the battle off with a spin badge that stuns enemies when you spin into them
2) if you have 3 enemies, use the badge to make one of the enemies sleep when mario jumps on it
3) if you have more than 3 use koopers ability to put eveyone to zzzz
4) in boss battles you can use boo to hide on enemies turn taking 0 damage
You get the idea
⌚ Time to finish - 24h (used a guide and explored a bit for badges)
🏆Trophy completion - 60% - Retroachivements list. I just did the story ones and a few side trophies.
🤬Difficulty - easy, if you don't get the proper badges early prepare to die a lot. If you get the badges I was really stun locking everything and it became pretty repetitive after a certain point. There were stretches of battles i took 0 damage.
🌄Graphics – pretty bad. It hasn't aged well at all. I found a texture pack and it made it so much more pleasant. please use it!
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – 2001 MIDI music. Not up to par with music I come to expect from Mario but its fine.
📚 Main Story / Characters – The story has the typical Mario charm. Silly characters, silly bowser, same story as every mario game. Go collect something, meet a few friends, wack silly bowser and save peach. Story was nothing remarkable however, I liked a lot of the companions you get. They have interesting powers, that you use in the overworld and in dungeons. I had a badge that allowed me to switch characters without a penalty so i was constantly using all of them to mop the floor with everything. Get that badge!
🤺 Combat – The combat starts of really great in the beginning, you are engaged in the entire combat process. You select a ability, press/spam the right sequences to make sure you do the best damage, on enemies attack you can try to defend. This works about 40% of the time. Some enemies telegraph and can easily defend, most enemies don't so most of the time i will just defend for the sake of it, but the game doesn't want you to be able to defend everything. I don't know why, even when i defend it only shaves of 1 damage. So just make it easy guys! As you discover and get new badges combat evolves, and keeps things interesting. however at about chapter 4, it gets repetitive when you have your favorite badges, except once in a while you rotate them around. The game does thrown in variety of enemies and often you have to stop for a second and think about your approach, however with my build where I can make everything zzz, i didn't have to worry too much. After about chapter 7 i started skipping most battles, in chapter 8 i did my best to skip EVERY battle except boss.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – I used a guide because i kept getting stuck. Its in that era of games where there is little to no clue where to go and going the wrong way will get you back to square 1. THere are a fair share of these and for me who gets lost easily in games they are NOT fun. There are some very tricky levels in the forest, mirror rooms in a castle, and more. These have to be done in the right order, or else you can get lost for a long time. I think my play time easily would have been 30h without a guide. I also used the guide to find power ups and badges which was fun and made the game approachable. So I definitely suggest some amount of exploration and badge collection so you can be viable in this game. If you do none you will have severely underpowered characters and abilities. Good luck getting through the game with that.
🚗 Movement/Physics – super slow!!!!!! because I was on an emulator i just sped it up when it was getting slow at 2x.
📣 Voice acting – none!
🥇 Best thing about the game - Engaging turn based combat, boss battles were fun!
đź‘Ž Worst thing about the game - getting lost
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Overall its a fine game and I am glad to have tried something unique. It was not a compelling enough experience for me to want to rush out and try the thousand year door. But i know that game is soooo well regarded, so I will research more. But if its more of the same then I will skip it. I wish this game was half the length and it gets repetitive quickly. Chapters can be long especially if you are lost. I enjoyed the last bowser battle the most as its probably the only battle I died and had to restart from checkpoint. Honestly this because i didnt stock up on health shrooms, if you do you just brute force through it. I enjoyed doing it with no mushrooms. The game can thrust you into boss battles unprepared if you aren't paying attention. Look for save block and health block and you know there is a big battle comingup.
I say at least play a couple chapters to experience the unique combat but if you stop enjoying at around ch4, it doesn't get better. Play if you are curious and want to experience something different.
----- Combat Tips (don't read if you don't want spoilers and answers that will help you breeze the game) -----
So how do you stun lock everything/take minimal to no damage?
1) Start the battle off with a spin badge that stuns enemies when you spin into them
2) if you have 3 enemies, use the badge to make one of the enemies sleep when mario jumps on it
3) if you have more than 3 use koopers ability to put eveyone to zzzz
4) in boss battles you can use boo to hide on enemies turn taking 0 damage
You get the idea
2017
🎮 Platform: Switch
⌚ Time to finish - 62h (100% completion)
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - I completed everything in this game except for buying half a dozen costumes that cost money. I didn’t want to grind more money though one day I may do it just for fun. I figured out a very efficient coin farm so it won’t be too hard, after 62h I need a break. Game does not count this as 100% anyway unless you are super hardcore and have your own definition. So I completed everything: all 999 moons, all red coins, all music tracks, all checkpoint captures, all souvenirs, all post, post-post game levels.
🤬Difficulty -The beauty of this game is how it layers difficulty of all types on a single experience and gives you varying amount of help depending on what you need. Do you need just a little help? Go buy the 50c 6hp mushroom, do you need to just try again? It's ok… we will save your progress so you don’t have to recollect the 2nd star/moon, do you need major help? Turn on assistance mode. Are you frigging bad ass speed runner? No problem we will let you triple cappy jump and reach places no one thought possible. Mind blowing!
So there is no simple answer to this question. If you just do bare minimum it's an easy game. If you are like me and go for 999 moons with no help, then i would break it down as:
55% moons - easy
35% - medium
8% - hard
2% - absolutely down right frustrating and added about 6 hours of play time just to get a handful of moons. I had to use all sorts of tricks to get these. The most frustrating ones were anything to do with Jaxi, volleyball, jump rope, frog jump level, and some koopa races. However I did them as I love a good challenge.
🌄Graphics – Amazing. Astonishing…. How did they get a switch game to look like this? Vibrant colors, it rivals some of the most beautiful ps5 games. I wish every switch game looked like this. The bowser castle and the dragon are absolutely breathtaking. I stared at it for a while wondering how they did this.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Amazing music, love the charm of mario and his troop. I was fully engrossed in the world and platforming.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Typical mario story. I always find it funny. It's the same story over and over again but I never get sick of it. I loved every character in this game but the MVP is cappy. It's amazing what he brings to the game and in capable hands like speedrunners, wow….. I fully explored cappy’s capabilities trying to get koopa races done. I got much better at movement, cappy jumps and more. They are just so fun…. I am wondering how I can go back to a world without cappy. He will be permanently missed. Crappy single handedly reinvents this formula.
🤺 Combat – Simple combat but fun. Cappy brings some very interesting boss take down mechanics. I liked it overall.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – As mentioned earlier, exploration is fun in this game mainly because cappy and how he allows you to move in advanced levels is awesome. I was spending the whole game trying to master it and I am still only ok at it. The best part of the game is the main story levels. The side activities and exploration do get repetitive. How many times can I chase the bunny? How many times can I slam the ground for a star. But it's ok, they are a break from some of the much harder moons. Like koopa races, timed trials, and more. I enjoyed collecting all the moons. The game is long….
🚗 Movement/Physics – The levels are all great though I would say SM:Galaxy was much more creative with its use of gravity and size. As I said a few times by now, movement is one of the most fun aspects of this game. I always had to stop and think how to approach a level and try a few times on some of the medium ones.
📣 Voice acting – typical mario stuff!
🥇 Best thing about the game - How mario moves with practice, the levels and platforming, the visuals.
👎 Worst thing about the game - Down right broken moons. Fix this god… so frustrating.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Absolutely a must play and amazing game. I had a 15 year hiatus from gaming so the last mario game i played was galaxy. I still remember to this day some of its levels and how they bend gravity, and size. Here I did not feel it was as creative so I docked 0.5 points. But this is an amazing game and everyone should play it and get as many moons as you can. Get to as close to 100% as you can. I know everyone may not be like me with the 10% frustrating stuff. But do yourself a favor and do as much as you can of this game you find fun. How do they maintain this level for 30 years of making mario!?!? Kudos!
⌚ Time to finish - 62h (100% completion)
🏆Trophy completion - 100% - I completed everything in this game except for buying half a dozen costumes that cost money. I didn’t want to grind more money though one day I may do it just for fun. I figured out a very efficient coin farm so it won’t be too hard, after 62h I need a break. Game does not count this as 100% anyway unless you are super hardcore and have your own definition. So I completed everything: all 999 moons, all red coins, all music tracks, all checkpoint captures, all souvenirs, all post, post-post game levels.
🤬Difficulty -The beauty of this game is how it layers difficulty of all types on a single experience and gives you varying amount of help depending on what you need. Do you need just a little help? Go buy the 50c 6hp mushroom, do you need to just try again? It's ok… we will save your progress so you don’t have to recollect the 2nd star/moon, do you need major help? Turn on assistance mode. Are you frigging bad ass speed runner? No problem we will let you triple cappy jump and reach places no one thought possible. Mind blowing!
So there is no simple answer to this question. If you just do bare minimum it's an easy game. If you are like me and go for 999 moons with no help, then i would break it down as:
55% moons - easy
35% - medium
8% - hard
2% - absolutely down right frustrating and added about 6 hours of play time just to get a handful of moons. I had to use all sorts of tricks to get these. The most frustrating ones were anything to do with Jaxi, volleyball, jump rope, frog jump level, and some koopa races. However I did them as I love a good challenge.
🌄Graphics – Amazing. Astonishing…. How did they get a switch game to look like this? Vibrant colors, it rivals some of the most beautiful ps5 games. I wish every switch game looked like this. The bowser castle and the dragon are absolutely breathtaking. I stared at it for a while wondering how they did this.
🌦 Atmosphere/Music – Amazing music, love the charm of mario and his troop. I was fully engrossed in the world and platforming.
📚 Main Story / Characters – Typical mario story. I always find it funny. It's the same story over and over again but I never get sick of it. I loved every character in this game but the MVP is cappy. It's amazing what he brings to the game and in capable hands like speedrunners, wow….. I fully explored cappy’s capabilities trying to get koopa races done. I got much better at movement, cappy jumps and more. They are just so fun…. I am wondering how I can go back to a world without cappy. He will be permanently missed. Crappy single handedly reinvents this formula.
🤺 Combat – Simple combat but fun. Cappy brings some very interesting boss take down mechanics. I liked it overall.
🧠Side Activities / Exploration – As mentioned earlier, exploration is fun in this game mainly because cappy and how he allows you to move in advanced levels is awesome. I was spending the whole game trying to master it and I am still only ok at it. The best part of the game is the main story levels. The side activities and exploration do get repetitive. How many times can I chase the bunny? How many times can I slam the ground for a star. But it's ok, they are a break from some of the much harder moons. Like koopa races, timed trials, and more. I enjoyed collecting all the moons. The game is long….
🚗 Movement/Physics – The levels are all great though I would say SM:Galaxy was much more creative with its use of gravity and size. As I said a few times by now, movement is one of the most fun aspects of this game. I always had to stop and think how to approach a level and try a few times on some of the medium ones.
📣 Voice acting – typical mario stuff!
🥇 Best thing about the game - How mario moves with practice, the levels and platforming, the visuals.
👎 Worst thing about the game - Down right broken moons. Fix this god… so frustrating.
đź’ˇFinal Thoughts:
Absolutely a must play and amazing game. I had a 15 year hiatus from gaming so the last mario game i played was galaxy. I still remember to this day some of its levels and how they bend gravity, and size. Here I did not feel it was as creative so I docked 0.5 points. But this is an amazing game and everyone should play it and get as many moons as you can. Get to as close to 100% as you can. I know everyone may not be like me with the 10% frustrating stuff. But do yourself a favor and do as much as you can of this game you find fun. How do they maintain this level for 30 years of making mario!?!? Kudos!