It's really mediocre but the gameplay is really fun, especially if you're playing on Hardened-Realism difficulty, anything below that is just a waste of time and a disservice to how intense the gameplay can be at points, CoD campaigns never go wrong in that department, but, the gameplay and story structure was just really weird for a CoD game. Side quests, a whole stealth mechanic and dialogue options... it felt kind of out of place, but some of these introductions to the franchise are actually pretty welcome instead of recyclying the same gameplay style we've been seen used since 2003. Multiplayer isn't really much to bother with, especially given how each new installment is just the same thing with more emphasis put on Warzone than actually maintaining the integrity of what so many people were drawn to about this franchise... but, in the end, it's a fun passer-by, nothing else more.

"But hear me now... if the Tojo Clan even thinks about laying a hand on my family... I will bury all of you."

RGG made the best descision when they chose to somewhat ground the Yakuza franchise again after constant over the top storylines and twists dating back as far as Yakuza 2. Yakuza 6 almost has an insane amount of whiplash in it's narrative structure compared to previous installments to the point where I almost felt as if it was missing something, but really, it was a good thing and made for possibly the second or maybe even the best narrative in the series, however, it also suffers from some gameplay issues that honestly somehow puts itself just behind Yakuza 3.

The combat in this installment really sucks, as if I didn't already have an issue with Kiwami 2's, 6 is just... way worse. Yakuza 3 is often referred to as blockuza, which I can see where many are coming from, but I honestly think this game might deserve that title a little more, because at least when enemies blocked in 3, it was easy to rack up a combo to break past it... here, it's nigh impossible to even get a two button combo because it is broken every time an enemy blocks. You have to heavily rely on evasion strike to even have a chance at landing a hit, and to get that, you'd have to invest in a considerable amount of grinding. For me, it took me about halfway through the game to acquire that skill, but once you do (along with tiger drop mastery), the combat is a little better and pretty satisfying, but only on bosses as the crowd control is just absolutely awful. Outside of the combat, going from 5 to this was kinda underwhelming... 5 had such a large array of interesting minigames that actually made me 100% every subplot and substory, racking in over 100 hours, but here, all 6 has going for it is darts and karaoke , unfortunately. Even the substories got in the way, were boring and just absolutely annoying whenever they randomly interrupted your gameplay flow. The game introduces these things called trouble missions, essentially you go around resolving issues within like 2 or so minutes and you can fail them pretty easily if you just don't turn up. Quite a few times I was blocked off from a trouble mission because the game decided to randomly throw a substory introduction at me, it was such an annoying gameplay design that just made me completely disregard substories all together.

That said, I did really enjoy the narrative, even if it kinda lost me at some points, it was easy to wrap my head around and get into. The opening was amazing, the title credits themselves made me want to cry... there is so much raw emotion in this game and when you look at how far you've come (if you're like me, who played Yakuza 0 first), it really hits hard how much these characters have grown. When you finish it, it's just depressing, it's like closing the chapter on something you've had with you for such a long time. It is the "end" of the Kiryu saga, it's such a sad but beatiful ending to Kiryu's character arc. Even despite already knowing he returns in later titles, it still was enough to make me cry. I cherished the relationship between Kiryu and Haruka so much, so seeing it end like that was enough... and then Kiryu recognising Daigo as his son, the way everyone talked about Kiryu as a force to be reckoned with and how they all respected and cherished his memory at the end, it was just too much to handle. Such a great ending, possibly the best in the series? Yakuza 0 is hard game to live up to by Yakuza standards, but 6 might just be on par with it in the narrative realm.

Overall, I just really wished the gameplay was better, Dragon Engine is something I really am not that big of a fan of when it comes to combat, it waters it down and makes it feel less than satisfying, making it a chore to even land a hit on a street thug, it's really frustrating... but the narrative somewhat makes up for it in any case.

"Holy shit!"
"You said it, pal!"

Excelled at everything it's predecessor set before it in so many ways, making it a perfect video game sequel and a great game in it's own right. What lacked in the 2016 reboot is completely remedied here, from narrative to gameplay, everything is pretty much exceptionally flawless.

Some of the most intense and fun gameplay in a genre like this, had a lot of fun and it was super satisfying coupled with the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, really made it feel so immersive along with how amazing this game looks, it was insanely photorealistic given it's cartoonish artstyle, makes me excited for what's to come with this console's generation in the future. The level design was pretty straightfoward in a good way, it was easy to navigate and intrigues the player to 100% achieve everything it has to offer, so overall, amazing level design as well as pretty competent boss design, however it gets a bit repetitive in that regard and this is the only aspect where R&C (2016) get's one over.

I was surprised with how well written the narrative was. Insomniac could have very well constructed a great game based off it's gameplay alone and call it a day, but they put some actual effort into telling a wholesome, heartwarming story that's themes hit home and hard, so that completely caught me off guard and I really enjoyed it. It's packed with charm and some very much needed character moments that the reboot did not have and going forward, I really hope (if there are to be any) future Ratchet & Clank games adopt this formula of paying intricate attention to the narratives.

Totally worth playing over the weekend then coming back to, replaying and even platting, which I plan to do soon once I can properly purchase this for myself instead of through PS Plus.

This game started pretty strong, an intriguing introduction coupled with seemingly immersive and breathtaking visuals. It started slow, but the slow burn was worth it... up until a certain point to which the game seems to lose all sense of direction and sort of stumbles all over the place.

This was one of the most hyped up games in years, and of course on it's release, pretty much the whole internet was disappointed with the final product, but this seemed mostly in the realm how bad the game ran. It was packed to the brim with some of the most hilarious bugs in games to date and a lot of the promises made CD Projekt failed to deliver on. Fast forward to 2023 and you have an almost stable game. There are still bugs, unfortunately, but not as many as before. To say the remaining bugs were immersion breaking though is an understatement, because it still very much seems a bit unplayable at points with all these unpolished bugs that remain. The game still crashes quite a few times, NPCs sometimes glitch out, either floating in the air or striking a sudden t-pose, billboards are all blurred to shit, NPC cars sometimes have a mind of their own in cutscenes, even yours will pop up out of nowhere and completely ruin the background of a dialogue dump and then there's just some other unexplainable bugs.

But, these are not primarily the issues I have with Cyberpunk, the issues I have are rooted in both aspects of the gameplay and the narrative itself, which falls absolutely short from CD Projekt's masterpiece The Witcher 3 and in the end leaves more to be desired from Night City.

Like I said before, the game blew me away when I played throygh Act 1 and The Heist was such an adrenaline pumping experience, at that point I felt like I was now completely invested in the game and sort of loved it for a fleeting moment, but then Act 2 happened and it all kind of just fumbled into an absolute mess of an experience, one I probably won't remember for quite some time.

So, there's two gameplay styles when it comes to close quarters combat, pretty much the standard. Go in guns blazing, honestly the preferred, or stealth. Both of these are pretty shit and also broken as fuck if you romance a certain corpo MILF, meaning you can literally floor some hard bosses with a literal vibrating dildo if things get too dicey. I don't know what the fuck CD Projekt was thinking allowing low level players to use a game breaking weapon like that and so early into the game too, it kinda breaks the balancing. But, sure, you could choose not to use it and challenge yourself, but at the expense of your time. You have to grind the absolute shit out of this game sometimes to even have the resources to get some decent weapons and skills required to do most things and it's pretty fucking pathetic. I'm not usually one to spend hundreds of hours on side quests unless I really like the game and unfortunately in this case, I got sick of Night City pretty fast in Act 2, I felt zero obligation to do most of the side quests and the ones that I did do were pretty subpar, I was not interested at all. But, even without the game breaking weapons, you can literally run through areas and not deal with enemies at all. I did this on quite a few occassions, on Normal difficulty too, so it's not like it was purposefully easy. There's just little to no depth at all to the combat mechanics and it's a real shame and honestly quite funny how the only stimulating experience in the whole game was the haptic feedback from the driving mechanics and not the actual RPG elements, but I digress.

I want to open the narrative section with this quote, “We do know the main story run in Cyberpunk 2077 is slightly shorter than The Witcher 3 because we got a lot of complaints about Witcher 3’s main story just being too long." - from this, you can already see the problem. The story is way too fucking short and leaves a lot to be desired. The length of Act 1, which was pretty good, is more or less what I was expecting from every act in the game. I was under the assumption after The Heist that there would be more, over the top, shit hitting the fan moments going on like that, but... that happened like maybe once in the entire middle chunk of the game. Most of Act 2 was fucking around and finding people to help you even achieve the end point of the second act, and both paths in doing so were pretty short in themselves and in some cases made absolutely zero sense or just didn't peak my interest. Take the Pacifica section for example, probably the worst part of the game and also the most pointless, in my playthrough, you go after this construct from Johnny's past life to acquire help, but it's not even utilised at all in the point of no return, so it felt more like a huge waste of time. But, however, I'm pretty aware of the fact that this was probably locked behind some side quests and, here's the thing, telling most of your story through side quests or requiring the player to grind hours to get certain outcomes is an absolutely terrible narrative choice with absolute zero respect for time, as aforementioned, and since I wasn't really enjoying things already, there is zero incentive to even want to spend more time in the world... please stop making games like these. There are other RPGs that handle narratives like this way better, hell, CD Projekt already did this themselves with The Witcher series... what the fuck happened here? Anyways, once you get to Act 3, you're just left with this feeling "is that it?" There's all this build up to Act 2 it ends in a manner that if you blink, you miss it and that goes even tenfold for the final act which is, in most cases, like 1-3 main jobs. So much wasted potential especially with the writing chops this studio has, it just felt like a complete waste and not something I would want to come back to sadly.

In the end, I honestly don't really know what to think about this game. Some mixed feelings here and there, a lack of interest, some admiration for the bits that were good but also disappointment that the rest of the game wasn't like that. It goes without saying, but this is what happens when you rush something, an almost lifeless corpse with a small glimpse of a personality that could have been something so much more had it been given more care.

"Big Boss can go to Hell... I'll make the phantom and his sons stronger to send him there. For that, I'll keep playing my role."

Probably the most theory heavy game out there and, sure, you could say "Well, fans make up the theories to cope for the incomplete story line!! 🤓" But, we're talking about A Hideo Kojima Game here, they are almost made specifically for the fan theories and heavy speculation, given how complex and cryptic this series and Kojima is as a person, half of the fan theories I wouldn't even be surprised if they were actually real, but I digress.

Why I bring up theories is because I feel like they are what complete the game for me, not Konami or Kojima, but the blank spaces that are hinted towards, even in Ground Zeroes, that really makes you think about not just Venom Snake as a character, but the course of events throughout the whole game. There are so many subtle innuendos through the story that if you blink, you almost miss it, in classic Kojima fashion too. But, yeah, sure, Chapter 3 would have been nice, where did Sahelanthropus go? What happened to Eli? To be fair, at least one of these questions can be answered if you have a history with the franchise and where in fact you know that Eli is literally Liquid Snake, I guess you can really make the rest up and come to your own conclusions? Maybe I'm reaching a bit here in an attempt to defend this game for some of it's flaws, but to me, the missing chapter isn't that huge of a deal when you see what it's about, everything else felt like it was somewhat wrapped up and left up for interpretation, so...

But that's what I loved about this game, interpretation and the aforementioned theories, it just makes the game that much more eerie and interesting. For example, I've seen a lot of complaints towards the game's ending twist, people either felt betrayed or thought it was just shock value, where in both cases I can see where those people are coming from, but personally, I think it's one of Kojima's most ambitious twists, up there with Metal Gear Solid 2, and probably one of the most ambitious twists in gaming and to say that it... comes out of nowhere? I really don't understand that take, did we play the same game? Did we not see The Boss' AI pod literally refer to Venom as not Jack??? Why did Volgin back off??? There are SO many subtle references leading up to the twists that any other fan would kind of question themselves about these strange, unexplained occurances, it's like Kojima is almost feeding you the spoilers before you get to them, hiding in plain sight.

In any case, there is one glaring flaw this game does admittely have... where the fuck are the codec calls? Is half of this game's story really told through casette tapes? You will miss out on a lot of things if you don't listen to them, such as Venom literally being responsible for having a village wiped off the face of the map, that's never even mentioned by the characters outside of those tapes, it leads a lot of room for exposition that was needed tremendously, because otherwise, most people wouldn't even understand what the fuck is going on. And, look, I get the reasoning for removing codecs, it does sort of interrupt the flow of gameplay in the older games and to be fair, this game itself has a lot of content already, the story is pretty long, just imagine how much longer it would have been with all those codecs and extended plot exposition? But, it still would have been nice to have a few of the very, very important ones and honestly I see their exclusion more of a "we don't have the budget for this" than "think of the gameplay", very much one of the aspects I agree is incomplete due to either time constraints or Kojima blowing the game's budget on other things.

Gameplay wise, though, this is probably the best in the series. Perfecty blending stealth with action, there is no correct way to go about things (unless absolutely required), you can tackle your objectives with different approaches. Take the classic Metal Gear route or take Venom Snake to his full potential and put that rocket or stun bionic arm to work and fuck their shit up. FOX Engine really was a godsend and it is a shame how hard it is to work with and even moreso that it had to be abandoned, but all these years later, it's aged so well and I'm intrigued to see what they come up with next for the MGS3 Delta remake.

A pretty choppy review, but a revised one in retrospect to how I feel about the game now having played the whole series months later, a new found appreciation for this game and what it's trying to do that just makes it much better.

Sniper Elite V2 felt like it was made by actual people, but then III and 4 came out, gradually descending into lesser quality and genuinely feeling like they had been AI generated (especially 4), but if that is the case, then Sniper Elite 5 is AI generated in story alone but the rest of the game is pretty superb and feels like an actual amount of effort was put into it, a much needed change for this somewhat dwindling series.

Sniper Elite has never really been known for it's narratives, they're pretty pointless, it's impossible to even spoil them, what you set out to do at the start is basically what you get, no twists, no turns, it's pretty hollow and I honestly can't tell if whoever writes these games genuinely cares about that aspect at all because I always find that the gameplay is the main attraction and nothing else, so it's very hard for me to be critical about this game in specific when I had such a great time with it, especially with it being my first title on the PlayStation 5 and with the adaptitive triggers, it just made it an even better experience.

It's like old Sniper Elite again, it takes all the good stuff from V2 and throws it in with the good stuff from III and 4, pretty much making this the definitive Sniper Elite experience and the only one you should really actually be playing. The haptive feedback on the PS5 was orgasmic, the visuals are the best in the series as is the combat and it also brings some of the best maps in the series to the table.

But, as aforementioned, the story is really nothing to gargle about. I actually skipped a majority of the cutscenes and still managed to get a gist of what was happening, it's really underdeveloped paired with some pretty fucking horrible voice acting, even coming from Karl Fairburne's voice actor who for some reason hasn't improved for over a decade??? I mean, I guess that's to be expected when your only role is a dull, generic American hero who always saves the day type of character with absolutely zero personality but talking to himself constantly (the war drives him crazy), but... yeah, just not even subpar, it's whatever is below it.

Overall, as aforementioned, the narrative means nothing, it serves no purpose and does nothing to the game in the long run to dwindle it's replayability and enjoyment.

It's a 3DS port, that pretty much shows throughout the game, the quality is pretty poor, but as far as 3DS games go even, I imagine this doesn't quite make the cut. When you look at other ports from handheld consoles, take Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for example, there is a considerable amount of effort put into both versions of this game, but here and from what I can tell of it's sister port, that is very far from the case and is actually a quite jarring drop in quality to it's predeccessor games.

The narrative was an absolute snoozefest, I did not care one bit at all. The game force feeds you these absolute bumfuck out of nowhere random characters and tries to make you like them in the most cringiest way possible. Take Quint and uh, the other guy, for example... absolute worse characters in gaming, I think. They are so fucking annoying and cringeworthy I think a better alternative to playing through their boring ass sections would have been to just blow my brains out, to be quite honest. The developers try making them "likable" by being quirky and stupid as fuck, but of course it does not work. And then there's Parker, Jessica and Raymond, save for Parker, they're just shock value characters that play towards the most "meh" twists in the game, meanwhile Parker was just kind of there. Someone to have by Jill's side so that the player didn't feel lonely, I guess. And, god, was the dialogue absolutely fucking awful along with the low budget tier voice acting. I've seen someone explain this as the same equalivant as the animated films, and it definitely shows the same amount of low effort with the meh as fuck storylines, but I digress.

The gameplay is some of the absolute worse in the series along with the most horrifc boss fights and not even because of their difficulty, but they are tedious and underwhelming. The enemies themselves that you encounter through the game have almost next to nothing variety, they don't pose much of a challenge at all and I was able to do an A-S run through the whole thing in 5 hours on normal difficutly, that's how ridiculously easy it was.

There is really just nothing to appreciate here, it's literal garbage on top of garbage on top of garbage on top of garbage and a huge waste of potential given it's more horroresque setting in comparison to RE5 and even RE4. In the end, it's just an absolute flop and a disgrace of an experience, a complete waste of the time I put into it and not worth replaying in the slighest.

Pretty much peak Call of Duty even all these years later. Completely stands the test of time and has aged extremely well, looking better than ever than a much deserved fresh coat of paint in a peak remaster. Gameplay is exhilerating and intense, even moreso on Hardened difficulty which offers for a very unique and realistic simulation on a grand scale with some insane set pieces, Wolverines!, Exodus and Whiskey Hotel probably being some of the best in the Call of Duty franchise, if not, the best up there with Pripyat and a handful from MW3.

It's a shame the remasters ended with this, it's like that meme with the dude digging in the mines but before finding the diamonds, he turns around and walks off. Why would they exclude the best game in the trilogy???

It's a great remaster of a timeless classic. Some issues here and there that are carried over from the original, such as friendly AI constanty blocking or pushing you out of cover and as story that hasn't 100% stood the test of time but was respectfully quite groundbreaking in mechanics and spectacle at the time of it's initial release so, overall, a pretty solid memento to one of the greats that pushed the FPS genre forward. Didn't play the multiplayer because I didn't feel obligated too especially given how old this game even is as a remaster, I very much doubt there are even any active servers anymore.

"He was trying to buy more sand for his hour glass. I wasn't selling any."

For hours on end as a kid I used to sit in my aunts room on the PS2 and constantly cycle through the tutorial and first 4 chapters of Max Payne on different occasions, mostly due to the fact that it never had a memory card, but also because it was such a fun, fresh and new experience back then, it was quite literally peak gaming at the time, the best thing I had ever seen. So, I thought it was time to actually sit down years later and much older being more experienced with shooters and actually finish it. It was a super nostalgic experience to say the least.

At the time, Max Payne was a generational breakthrough not long after Metal Gear Solid had already introduced the aspect of 3D cutscenes with the premise of in-depth narratives and introduced the world to the stealth action game genre, Max Payne would solidify what it means to be a third person shooter and would be the pioneer for many inovative shooters to success it in the not too distant future, however as time has passed, by today's standards, it isn't quite as flawless as it used to be and the cracks start to show at the seams...

While the gameplay is an absolute blast and bullet time being one of the best game inventions ever along side with the level crawling that makes you feel like an unstoppable badass, there was however some moments that felt unpolished and these mainly lie in the sense of direction. There was quite a few times in Part 2 I was absolutely lost on where I was supposed to go, the game gives you absolutely no indication towards any specific objectives aside from advance and shoot anything that moves. With the remake almost around the corner, I imagine this would be completely remedied and it remains my only problem with the level design and the gameplay thereafter, so it isn't a huge issue, but definitely something that had me a bit stuck in a few sections.

Narratively, it's very visceral, it felt so good to be playing something so gritty and in roots with it's detective thriller origins PLUS being able to experience a super sense of nostalgia along with it as the icing on the cake. I loved how it was written, the dialogue just went absolutely hard as fuck, Max definitely has a way with words and it fits the grotesque portrayal of what Max describes as "Noir York City" so perfectly. However, I found the developing story near Part III a bit too Hollywoodesque for it's own good. It was a good twist, don't get me wrong, but it kinda pulled away from what it felt like at the start and turned into something you might see in the offshoot Resident Evil films or even The Matrix, which is absolutely fine, I mean... it is 2001 after all, whatever that genre is was in high demand and it still works here regardless but I think with more padding, it could feel a lot more complete and natural, which is something I also expect to be given close attention to in the remake as well, so all's well that end's well.

Overall, a timeless classic absolutely worth spending the weekend on, a really good sense of replayability, too and something I cannot wait to re-experience in a remake.

"A dream... am I dreaming?"
"No... I'm right here with you."

Yakuza 4 was the lowest entry in the series, it was painfully way too convoluted for it's own good and the plot twists for a Yakuza game were insanely over the top, hilarious and predictable. After Yakuza 4, I imagine for most at the time, the future of the series may have seemed bleak regardless of sick character introductions to protagonists like Shun Akiyama, things weren't looking too good. In many instances, a miss like that would be enough to last an eternal blow on the studio and they would live in it's shadow for the rest of the days (point in case; Ubisoft for example.) But what does Ryu Ga Gotoku do...?

...Yakuza 5 becomes a pinnacle of the series, alongside it's successor Yakuza 0 and rightfully earns it's place as one of the most praised entries in the franchise. Every issue from 4 is remedied from insanely good combat to a much more contained and unpredictable plot that, in most cases, keeps you on the edge of your seat, the first instance in the series at the time too. Extremely well thought out, executed with precision with some minor setbacks, however...

This has to be the best gameplay in the series in almost every aspect. The combat is so much more refined than 3 and 4 respectively and even holds it's own above the likes of 0 and Kiwami, which to me were peak Yakuza combat until 5 came along and kicked their asses. While Saejima remains a tank and a slug of a character to play as, Kiryu, Akiyama and Shinada offer some of the smoothest, refined combat styles with a limitless moveset and mechanics that were much needed (and for some reason removed in 0 / Kiwami).

It is over stuffed with content, in the best way possible. There is so much to do from minigames, substories, side stories, all of them were pretty satisfying. I loved the taxi missions, from that moment forward I made it a point to clear every sidestory for each character and while I enjoyed most of them, it fell off in Haruka's section which I wasn't a big fan of in general, refraining me from giving this a full score sadly. However, hunting as Saejima was weirdly actually pretty fun and I enjoyed all of Shinada's batting side missions which I found extremely satisfying. This time around, I also delved into all the substories but was held back from getting the Substory God trophy because of how much of a fucking cockblock Jo Amon is, something I'll have to revise on when I revisit for a possible plat run in the future. But overall, pretty great and peak Yakuza gameplay.

Narratively, not as great as 0 unfortunately, which remains to be dethroned as peak Yakuza story telling, but god, 5 made me cry at the end, which was something I also got from 0 but there's this certain feeling about 5 that I just cannot shake nor can I describe. It's like a sense of uncertainty almost, the seperation of Kiryu and Haruka is truly gut wrencing and you wait the whole game for Haruka or Kiryu to acknowledge each other's existance and when that moment happens, it's just... absolutely beautiful. Kiryu overall had the best parts of the game, but I'd be lying if I said the others weren't as great either. Saejima, admittely, was a bit slow but the pay-off was great in his final chapter, Haruka was where things grinded to a halt sort of but her story was absolutely necessary to advancing the plot and giving context to a lot of things that looking back, it wasn't so bad and I found seeing things through Haruka's eyes pretty interesting. It was a classic coming of age segment, so as can be expected, at some points it felt pretty teen dramaish but it was also depressing and it really needed that to make it feel worth your time. Jumping to Akiyama was great and his section, though not as long as I would have liked it to be, was pretty fun in and of itself. I also didn't expect to like Shinada as much as I did and his associates were all very likabke, specifically Takasugi who I would like to see more of.

It seems as if after the convulted story telling of 4, 5 took it down a notch and actually told a very grounded story akin to 0 and Kiwami. It's still not without it's over the top charm which makes Yakuza what it is, but it felt a lot more contained and clear. It also felt like RGG's first delve into what it really means to tell a meaningful story. A great and unique moral of the story revolving around people's dreams and reality which really hit home hard and with the history of the series up to this point, it all felt very personal. Seeing how far some of the characters had come, it really added an extra layer of emotion that made the whole thing wrap up so perfectly into a gift for the fans of the series and new ones alike, so I'll never understand some of the hate it gets because this is definitely where men cried.

Bravo to RGG from pulling themselves from a dark pit and delivering such a great comeback to the series, well worth the 100+ hours I spent on it. Can't wait to see what's next as I assume it only gets better from here with the reputation of the next few games in the series.

Thought I'd re-review this so as not to deceive those who liked my original review...

It's been awhile since I picked this up and finished it, enough for me to really look back and analyse what I really feel about it and I regret to say... it's not looking as good as it once did before. In retrospect, I think this game does more worse than better than 2018, and there's a lot of reasons why.

For instance, narratively, I didn't feel as captivated by this one. 2018 really hooked you in from the get go, and so does Ragnarok, but Ragnarok sort of loses it's flow after the opening. Things start to settle down and become a lot less certain, we're going all over the place between Kratos and Atreus which offer for some very poor pacing issues, I was not a big fan of the Atreus sections which seemed to slow the plot even more than it had already become. But, overall, things just kinda grinded to a halt. 2018 was really good at it's spectacle and ability to wow the player, seeing new places you had never seen before and exploring them for the first time. In Ragnarok it's just... okay, I've been here before but we've applied a snow skin to everything to make it look brand new? It wasn't nearly as captivating as the first time around, granted, there are some new locations but they lacked the sense of scale and sheer larger than lifeness that 2018 offered.

Sadly, we are also lacking a solid antagonist. I don't know what it was about 2018, but almost everything being shrouded in mystery was such a fucking great atmosphere, I almost wish we never got to see Thor and Odin because (except Thor), Odin honestly didn't peak my interest when I first saw him introduced here. You hear about how much of a vile person this guy is, all the stories Mimir tell you about him preps up an entirely different appearance to what you actually see. And, sure, he's the master of deception, looks are deceiving, blah, blah, blah, I get that and I can gather that his appearance is SUPPOSED to subvert his personality, but, for some reason even then it just doesn't really do it for me.

What can I say about the gameplay, really? Let's compare it to 2018, which to be fair, I remember very little of. But, straight off the bat playing this, for some reason I felt like something was missing. I still can't really decipher what it was, or maybe it was because it was actually the same for the most part, if we exclude the new weapons introduced, but it just... didn't feel as good? I honestly could not tell you why, but I wasn't really feeling it here. Call it fatigue from 2018, maybe, I don't know.

With all the negativity, I should address the things I did like about the game; I thought Heimdall and Thor were pretty solid antagonists and I liked Freya being thrown into the mix for the first half of the narrative, too. Asgard was a nice location, not too much in the way of grandiose spectacle, though, just your average Viking village on a high as fuck peak really. I liked the twist near the end, a moment the game took so fucking long to get to which made it felt rewarding to get through the slog that came before it, but I digress. Pretty decent ending, the new weapons are pretty welcoming, specifically the spear and also pretty great side quests.

In the end, I liked this when I first played it but I also felt a little too forced to like it as well. I wasn't even hyped for this game leading up to it's release, either, so it's not like I had any large expectations for it. Bought it day one because I thought it'd be nice to be involved with a fresh new release for once which was a first time experience I did enjoy regardless, but my grievances don't come out of disappointment at least.