I really cannot agree that this game is better than the first in all the aspects people claim it is, it's very much far from the truth. This is to me such a downgrade in every sense of the word. I mean, the scares at the start were at least something I thought improved since the first, but everything else fails to save this game.

I mean, just what the hell were they thinking? They took a concept that already worked so well with the first, completely abandoned it and created something so unsatisfying that the exploration ideas and RPG-like mechanics felt like some low tier modern Ubisoft open world RPG title.

The Evil Within was such a great survival horror title, the atmosphere really put you on edge from start to finish and everything was just so viscerally well done so I really struggle to understand why they would take it in this direction. You really don't even have to fight half of the Haunted, you can sprint right past them onto the next objective if you like without paying any thought in mind for the apparent threat of the game. In The Evil Within this was not the case with it's linear gameplay style, you HAD to fight everything you encountered in order to progress, The Evil Within 2 just abandons that idea and dare I say it, feels more Days Gone-esque in it's execution than anything else.

I think the story ideas it did try to play with were somewhat interesting, though, and really some of the scares here were way better than the first but... gameplay can very easily make or break a game and unfortunately in this case it breaks it beyond recognition.

I don't know if I can finish this one, I would have liked to, but maybe some other time... I just don't see myself pushing through 13 hours of this mess, I think I might as well play RE2R at this point.

"You think the world gives two shits if there's a point or not? Keep that up and it'll break you."

I think this game does some things a lot better than 0 could but I also can't help but feel as if 0 holds this one down a little too and it's hard to really imagine if this game would have been as enjoyable if I had played it before 0. It's quite hard to give it a definitive ranking because of this so let me explain why.

I think gameplay wise, this was much better than 0 without even having to feel that different. I just found the styles to be a lot easier to use and cycle between and the combat felt a lot more varied, however the bosses were not as innovative as 0 and a lot of them I felt were poorly made. The few actual bosses we do have do sort of out weigh the "bosses" you encounter every so often, but the impact just doesn't feel as good until you reach the final boss (spoilers.)

There was one boss in particular that I found easy (as was most of these), but the design was just incredibly fucking stupid constantly stunlocking and spamming with grenades + guns, it was the only bosses in the game I got frustrated with because of how much of a boss fight it didn't really feel like. It felt more like I was fighting the two goons that came back from being KO'ed than the actual boss itself, but I digress.

I think what helps elevate the combat here is the Majima Everywhere mechanic. It leaves a lot more room for you to actually pay attention to getting new styles with skill points especially considering you won't be getting rid of much of your bank just to be able to fight more varied. I really enjoyed facing off with Majima so many times and I honestly think he was the highlight of this title which brings me to the narrative...

It's not as good as 0, but it is by no means bad. I quite enjoyed the story but I didn't feel like it was as exhilarating... like, nothing really happened for 6 chapters, which was fine in itself. I didn't mind the character moments and seeing the relationship between Kiryu and Haruka grow, I also quite liked seeing the mini cutscenes before each chapter delving into what happened to Nishki while Kiryu was away, I think those were some of the best story moments here. But, yeah, great story but it just doesn't quite live up to 0. It fails a bit in reusing certain cliches (like dead body decoys) that, given I had already experienced in 0, made me predict certain plot twists. I think what saves the story though is how well written the other parts were. Kazama, Kiryu, Nishki, Haruka, Date... they were all interesting characters still with some returning who were already interesting, but given development here that really made them shine more than their 0 counterparts. One of the main gripes I had with 0 was the fact that I enjoyed Majima more than Kiryu, thankfully here I enjoyed them both equally. I also really enjoyed the latter half of the game and the first few chapters themselves were also pretty good, but in the end it was just missing something and I can't quite put my finger on what.

However, I am willing to acknowledge the fact that this is a remake and at that, not a full rewrite of the original story, so I feel as if the expectations I had for this to be greater than 0 were doomed to fall before they were even put into place because, in certain respects, this is RGG's first try at a Yakuza game... so I have to cut some slack where it's due and on that note acknowledge that it is very much good for what it is.

In the end, it's overall still a great game with some issues that can only really be chalked up to the fact that it's a remake of an entry point to (at the time) an undeveloped franchise. I would still recommend it, especially as a back-to-back experience with Yakuza 0, because this game really benefits quite a bit from it's prequel.

"Again I must face Sparda. Strange fate, isn't it?"
"Strange and ironic that it will end the same way."

Damn, wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. Such a great game for it's time and it has aged substantially well save for a few minor setbacks. Absolutely loved the atmosphere of this game, sometimes I spent a few minutes idling and taking in the retro aesthetic of the castle and the skybox + soundtrack, it was a one of a kind experience really only rivaled by the likes of the original Metal Gear Solid which, in some respects, I found to be a very similar experience here.

This doesn't go without saying that sometimes this game can feel like an absolute chore to get through, even though I only struggled a bit with 3 bosses (Nelo 3, Nightmare 2, Mundus 2), it was still incredibly satisfying clearing missions and proving my worth with some of the hardest bosses I've faced in video games. Amazing combat for it's time too, gave rise to the hack and slash genre as well as the ranking system which would go onto make an appearance in the RE franchise and Metal Gear Solid V respectively.

Definitely recommend this title, great starting point into the series too. Do not skip it, don't know where that narrative came from, but it is completely worth it and I'm sure it pays off at the end of the series.

"If I get out of this alive, I'm never riding in an elevator again."

A pretty solid survival horror with a great visceral atmosphere that really keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is such a harrowing experience (in a good way) that keeps you going back for you, stopping you from really wanting to stop playing... however this game still has some setbacks, because otherwise I would have given it a much higher rating.

The cons about The Evil Within are primarily in it's optimisation to PlayStation 4. There were quite a few noticeable frame drops when I started the game and it made the game feel pretty sluggish, but once you get into the meat of the game say around chapter 4-5, you start to notice it less and it becomes a lot more enjoyable.

Once getting used to it, the gameplay was really satisfying. I loved taking on Haunted even when I didn't need to because it was just so satisfying racking up all these headshots. The boss fights may not have been as innovative as the likes of the Resident Evil series (I assume) but I didn't mind them. Laura and The Keeper will be bosses embedded in my mind for quite some time since they were really interesting and fun concepts.

Narratively, I can see why some people might have some issues. The game doesn't really tell you what's going on until the halfway point and honestly... I love that choice of narrative style. The uncertainty you feel for about 8 or so chapters is enough to get you into this visceral atmosphere that I don't think it needed to be told to you until much later what was going on, otherwise this sense of uncertainty would be lost and it would make the experience a lot less interesting to be honest.

When everything starts to be pieced together, the game still maintains it's momentum and the narrative from that point on is still quite interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the origins of Ruvik and Laura and a lot of the ghost tales told throughout areas that subtly reveal things to you was a nicer touch than having it all dumped in cutscenes.

Overall, such an underrated gem of a survival horror that I recommend to people that really enjoy that genre. Can't wait to play the sequel which is said to be even more of an improvement of an already pretty good game.

"You walk alone in the dark long enough, it starts to feel like the light'll never come. You stop wanting to even take the next step. But there's not a person in this world who knows what's waiting down the road. All we can do is choose. Stand still and cry... or make the choice to take the next step. You pick whichever one feels right to you. I can get you as far as the starting line."

This title is often the one with the most word of mouth in the series and being a newcomer to Yakuza, it seemed like the perfect spot to delve into this world and experience first hand. To say my expectations were exceeded would be a gross understatement. I never thought I would feel so attached to the narrative and it's characters as much as I did. It was an absolute ride from start to finish with some of the most raw emotion and badass moments in a video game I've had the pleasure of experiencing, a rare case where I wish I could experience it for the first time all over again.

There is so much to do in this game to the point I decided to give the substories more of a chance and just generally explore and partake in activities that honestly in some cases makes the explorative activities of Grand Theft Auto V look like absolute child's play in comparison. The world is beautifully crafted and the characters, main or side, are all written exceptionally well and play a pivotal part in what makes this game so great.

The gameplay in itself is deserving of it's own category of praise, excluding the some times tedious navigation involving slow running, bumping into peds, an inverted map and... no waypoints? Which honestly is completely understandable. Neither Kamurocho or Sotenbori are grandiose open world cities, so they don't really need that added depth most open worlds are given and it works out anyway when most of the gameplay is made up of fun minigames and amazingly satisfying combat. The combat is so, so, so good and it gets even better when you invest in abilities for Kiryu and Majima alike. Thug, Brawler and Rush were the stances I mained throughout the game and I had an absolute blast using all three. The boss fights were even more so a thing to look forward to rather than dread, whether it was teaching Kuze a lesson for the 1000th time or taking on a new boss you wanted to fight since the beginning, every boss encounter is fresh with new strategy opportunities.

I can't praise the narrative enough, though. It did so many things right with a large array of plot twists that genuinely surprised me and did a very good job at making me feel for all of these characters it presented all within a story split between two that joined together really well at the end... and the end itself was such a ride as if the entire narrative wasn't already. I felt on edge in almost every cutscene, like some character was about to get whacked or something even after all was said and done. It does a great job and maintaining the tension of it's intense narrative throughout.

All in all, an absolute blast of a game that I totally recommend to anyone else interested in trying out Yakuza. This is the one where you should start and that is generally universally agreed so don't waste anytime thinking about it.

It’s not that bad, but it’s certainly not great, it’s more average than anything. The game looks stunning for its time and the seamless transition between cutscenes and gameplay is some of the best I’ve seen. The gunplay is very fluid, the crown jewel of the experience and never gets old, however some of the gameplay holds it back from being thumbs up all around.

A lot of the “parkour” traversal is pretty sluggish and unresponsive at times which I feel like given its limitations is only as is to pad out the otherwise very short narrative which in itself felt pretty rushed in its second half. I think if it was fleshed out more, the characters given more depth and there being more time to resolve certain loose ends that are never dealt with, this could have really been one of the greats in the PlayStation catalogue, but unfortunately the interesting setting and world building isn’t this title’s saving grace.

I really feel however if a sequel ever was to be conceived and the studio took what they learnt from this, they really could cook up something magnificent, but as it stands that doesn’t seem like a possibility at the moment.

But, yeah, pretty decent game, very fun gunplay would be even better if it had leaned into survival horror elements more though.

"Excellent, Snake. Age hasn't slowed you down one bit."

Came back to this again to replay the first mission and complete all the side ops, left it realising how much this game was better than I remember it being, albeit being a small prologue to the main event, it still manages to stand and shine on its own.

Gameplay elements are a great test trial to Phantom Pain and hold up a lot more than I remember when you spend hours on TPP, making this a much easier experience, the prospect of infiltrating the base countless times with different objectives never gets old and dare I say rescuing Hideo Kojima or accidentally blowing him up is one of the best level designs in the entire series.

"You're not a little wolf anymore. Never forget who you are, never."

I wasn't a big fan of the original LiS, I felt like the narrative was completely restricted by overly careless characters and annoying gameplay, so the prospect of playing it's sequel was a far thought in my mind for a long time, at least until I booted up the first episode.

Life is Strange 2 exceeded my expectations and for once, made me feel respectful of this series, maybe even a tad little bit more respectful for it's predecessor, though I still have major gripes with that game holding back from me giving it anything over maybe 3 and a half stars.

However, this was just a much better experience all around. Better characters, better story, better atmosphere, better gameplay. Everything was pretty well done and got some emotional kicks out of me. I much prefer the narrative style being an adventure rather than contained in one central place, constantly revisiting locations for 5 long episodes. This was a much more welcome change of pace and made it a lot easier to tag along with and enjoy thoroughly.

Sean and Daniel were instantly likable characters and a lot of the twists and turns were completely unpredictable (compared to the glaringly predictable twist in the first game.) I was sad to say goodbye to the characters, and the bitter sweet ending I got left me a little bit depressed too, as the first game should have achieved with it's ideas but cockblocked with it's reckless, unlikable characters who cared about themselves more than anything else... this game offered a new perspective, handled the lesson proper and presented it better. Instead of leaving an off putting taste in my mouth about the morality of the characters, Life is Strange 2 confronts them more naturally and shows just where selfishness can get you.

I strongly recommend this title, more so over the first, especially given the fact you don't really need to know anything about the first game to understand this. Would have been a much better starting point into the series, maybe would have made me like the first game more if I had.

"Mother, help me, there's a head attached to my neck and I'm in it."

A great experience cut a little short because I fucked up with my morale after hours of playtime and had to restart hours before, so I figured I'd leave it there for now until I come back and am ready to go through all my progress again.

Really good in any case though, enjoyed the world and it's characters, loved the detective edge and the lore was very interesting.

A less than interesting narrative made up for with an exhilarating and intense gameplay experience. Some of the best gameplay in the action shooter genre, it's super satisfying and never gets old. The 4 hour run time compliments it due to the underdeveloped story/characters that don't add too much to the game, meaning the gameplay remains as less repetitive as it otherwise would be if it had been any longer.

It's very clear why and how PlatinumGames got the go ahead to enter the Metal Gear genre with Rising given the aesthetics of this game are very adjacent in some aspects to the Metal Gear Solid series, almost doing an impression within the action shooter scene rather than the tactial espionage action Metal Gear is known for.

Although not being too fond of Metal Gear Rising myself, I feel like Vanquish really is an overlooked gem from PlatinumGames that deserves more attention maybe even more than MGR.

As is tradition with PlatinumGames so far though, the narrative leaves a lot more to be desired and does feel very generic hardened war heroes "look how badass I am with these corny phrases" that does let it down a bit. But the gameplay itself was enough to earn this title 4 stars alone.

Yeah, I'm about to dump a nerdy DC fanboy rant...

Overhyped garbage. A stain on characters such as Batman and Superman. An absolute disgrace of an interpretation of beloved DC characters hyped up because of decent gameplay mechanics. The plot reads like some misinformed fanfic, creating the cringiest stereotypes of DC characters, introducing the most overused tropes and single handedly contributing to almost unrepairable damage of Batman and Superman alike.

Yeah, I know what I sound like... I love Batman and the DC universe and seeing such a misrepresentation of these characters just fucking pisses me off. I hate it, I can't stand it. It doesn't help that the creator is a coked up Batfleck stan who doesn't understand any of the characters at all outside of the fact that he think's they're badass and completely misunderstands their concept.

As if it wasn't obvious enough, this game is a real stinker. People only like it because the gameplay is fun I assume, and that's good, if I cared about the gameplay I would have taken it to the end... but what made me stop caring in the first place was the narrative. It's absolute dog water and I just... words cannot describe how I hate these caveman interpretations of Batman. Don't even get me started on Superman just straight up killing Joker.

Pick up a comic book, understand the character before you make something like this. I don't give a fuck if it's an alternate universe, I'm so sick of these "what ifs?". It's not at the characters' core, it shouldn't even be a question to begin with. Honestly, I blame this game entirely for creating this overused evil Superman trope, a trope rooted in bullshit because Superman is honestly not even capable of the slightest cold hearted decision.

I really should get into the gameplay though instead of taking out my anger... and it's okay I guess. I mean, it's not that different really from any other NetherRealm title, it might be one of the less innovative really. Not sure what was going on with the cutscenes, some weird frame drops and bumfuck ugly costume designs. Multiplayer is most likely where it's at, but I'd probably get my ass kicked lmfao.

This one is a mixed bag. I'm not a huge fan of LEGO games, let alone Star Wars in general, so I was a bit skeptical whether I would like this or not when I started it, but as far as LEGO games go, this is pretty good (not that there haven't been any good ones in the past.) Though part of me is left wishing other franchises LEGO has tackled would be given such treatment as Star Wars. I think this new style both suits and doesn't suit the LEGO games, like as if it almost wants to be something else, in most cases kinda doing away with what drew people to the older LEGO games.

As coverage of the Star Wars films, it's pretty average. For someone returning to the franchise, it's fun to see this game's take on certain scenes and to experience a bit of nostalgia, but as a newcomer, it's a pretty awful way to experience them which I'd say is a given in any case, but some of the narrative is just completely skimmed over and even in plots I was familiar with, I didn't know what the fuck was going on. But, as much as it wants to be, this is very much not a narrative driven game for me. By definition, it is, and again, it really wants to be, but it's just not. It tries too hard, rushes things and feels very disconnected between each trilogy.

It's a fun past time, especially with the dumbed down gameplay that doesn't really offer much outside of simplicity. All the boss fights are the same, a few are just added with a few bells and whistles to make it seem different, but there's not much of a variety at all. What really took me back with this game was how it looked and how authentic all the environments were. I was more mesmerized by the atmosphere than I was the actual gameplay/narrative.

But, in general, it's a solid experience. It has it's flaws, but it's not awfully made nor is it expertly crafted, it's just good. A nice experience that is probably even nicer with friends (but I don't have any)

Never have I played a game so agonisingly difficult to the point where both of my thumbs are sore to the bone. Such an unforgiving, painful platformer that's overly difficult for no reason at all. I remember playing the original briefly and from what I remember as a kid, it was never as difficult as this.

I would say it's a fun experience, but that depends on your definition of fun. Do you enjoy hours of work only to have it thrown into your face because of poor camera angles and overly sensitive platforming? This game's for you, otherwise, I would not say that this is "fun." It's... satisfying? It makes you feel accomplished, especially when all is said and done, but the dictionary definition of fun does not apply here because I DEFINIETLY will not be revisiting this game anytime in the near future. I'm sure this game has taken a few years off of my life and I wouldn't be surprised if I start having PTSD flashbacks at any mention of Crash Bandicoot.

The way I talk about this makes it sound like it's a bad game, but in no right is it bad. I'm sure the original release is even better without the unrelenting difficulty, and I can only give this a solid rating because of it's legacy and possible enjoyment otherwise if I had access to the PS1 version, otherwise... it's cool like this, I guess.