soyka
2024
This review contains spoilers
A breath of fresh air for Sony's catalog this generation. A game that takes cues from many sources and makes it all it's own thing in a very compelling and polished package.
The success here mostly stems from the gameplay inspirations. The game likes throwing curveballs at you. I can't be the only one to notice the levoire sections that play like straight out of dead space. Nier is likely the biggest inspiration here, but with the expanded gunplay and more reactive combat akin to souls/MGR, Stellar Blade manages to stand on its own.
The combat opens up in a big way, requiring high awareness from you by the end of the game with 3 different meters to manage and diverse utility to spend the meter on. While you wont be launching enemies and juggling them in this game, this is far from your soulslike affair where your primary and almost only concern is parrying/dodging. Strong usage of combos and meter moves can stun lock enemies and might as well be identical in utility to air juggles in other action games. You have access to many moves, and with how most of the damage you deal/meter you gain is back loaded in combos, you have to carefully consider what opening allows for shorter or longer combos.
That is not to say defense is neglected, far from it. You have parries and dodges as well as two specific counters depending on telegraph similar to the Mikiri counter in Sekiro. What makes these options more interesting in this game is that you can commit to immediate counters after a parry/perfect dodge and spend meter to increase damage output from the counter. This opens you up to getting clipped by fairly slow followups, It's a nice way to incentivise taking risks for a more damaging punish. I'd say the only thing missing here to get the full character action game label is unlocking different weapons, but the variety on offer here does make me inclined to put it up there with them.
It's kind of a shame that both open world sections are themed the same, as the areas are relatively well put together otherwise. A design reminiscent from Nier, it avoids that "checklisty" feel many other open worlds have. Landmarks are very obvious and accepting side quests naturally makes you explore most of the relevant points on the map, minimizing pointless wandering. I do take issue with the constant use of "push the box" type puzzles. Once or twice is fine, but when I have to push a box very slowly like 5 times per map, youre starting to lose me. When you start throwing enemies at me as I push the box, Im just gonna get more annoyed especially with how long it takes to let go of the box for some reason.
There are some UX issues which drag the experience on these open world maps down. For one, I dont get why it's not possible to teleport to a checkpoint from any point on the map, so much wasted time having to run back to a nearby telephone. On top of that, some of the camps dont show up as teleport points for god knows what reason. While I generally enjoyed the open world sections, Im not gonna make a secret of the fact that I preferred the linear maps much more. The on rails and set piece driven progression of these maps makes for a better paced experience. Though the actual variance of these maps is appreciated as well, having to go through 2 open world deserts gets tiring.
Where this game truly falters is in its shitty story. The main trio speak to each other like dead fish, the sporadic attempts at banter fall completely flat with how dry the voice direction is.
All the plot threads are predictable here, this isnt necessarily a bad thing but the execution here is uninteresting, mainly held back by the awful character writing again. The final reveal ended up being unintentionally hilarious. This dude Adam has spent the entire game being a lame nerd side kick with barely any personality to speak of, but now the game is trying to pull the "dear friend was actually the final boss all along" type lol. There was absolutely 0 reason given for you to care about this development, the dialog was completely embarrassing to boot.
I still want to comment on the audiovisual experience. The soundtrack is phenomenal, I know im blaspheming here for some but I actually prefer the ost in Stellar blade to most of keiichi Okabe's work on Yoko Taro's games. The mostly vocal tracks really stand out, usually this type of song is not featured in games so frequently due to how vocal tracks can often distract from actual gameplay. It takes tremendous skill to pull off vocal tracks so consistently within a game, but going for it does ensure you will stand out.
Something also has to be said for Day 1 performance. Locked 60 frames with upsampling, decently attractive models, standard baked lighting and no fear of letting the art design do the talking. The restraint and polish shown here is commendable, especially in todays reality where devs are more concerned with implementing the latest features without consideration for how it will look or run in end product. My only wish is of course a pc version, as I'd be able to clean up the image further and run at higher frame rate. Eh, guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer for the inevitable port.
The success here mostly stems from the gameplay inspirations. The game likes throwing curveballs at you. I can't be the only one to notice the levoire sections that play like straight out of dead space. Nier is likely the biggest inspiration here, but with the expanded gunplay and more reactive combat akin to souls/MGR, Stellar Blade manages to stand on its own.
The combat opens up in a big way, requiring high awareness from you by the end of the game with 3 different meters to manage and diverse utility to spend the meter on. While you wont be launching enemies and juggling them in this game, this is far from your soulslike affair where your primary and almost only concern is parrying/dodging. Strong usage of combos and meter moves can stun lock enemies and might as well be identical in utility to air juggles in other action games. You have access to many moves, and with how most of the damage you deal/meter you gain is back loaded in combos, you have to carefully consider what opening allows for shorter or longer combos.
That is not to say defense is neglected, far from it. You have parries and dodges as well as two specific counters depending on telegraph similar to the Mikiri counter in Sekiro. What makes these options more interesting in this game is that you can commit to immediate counters after a parry/perfect dodge and spend meter to increase damage output from the counter. This opens you up to getting clipped by fairly slow followups, It's a nice way to incentivise taking risks for a more damaging punish. I'd say the only thing missing here to get the full character action game label is unlocking different weapons, but the variety on offer here does make me inclined to put it up there with them.
It's kind of a shame that both open world sections are themed the same, as the areas are relatively well put together otherwise. A design reminiscent from Nier, it avoids that "checklisty" feel many other open worlds have. Landmarks are very obvious and accepting side quests naturally makes you explore most of the relevant points on the map, minimizing pointless wandering. I do take issue with the constant use of "push the box" type puzzles. Once or twice is fine, but when I have to push a box very slowly like 5 times per map, youre starting to lose me. When you start throwing enemies at me as I push the box, Im just gonna get more annoyed especially with how long it takes to let go of the box for some reason.
There are some UX issues which drag the experience on these open world maps down. For one, I dont get why it's not possible to teleport to a checkpoint from any point on the map, so much wasted time having to run back to a nearby telephone. On top of that, some of the camps dont show up as teleport points for god knows what reason. While I generally enjoyed the open world sections, Im not gonna make a secret of the fact that I preferred the linear maps much more. The on rails and set piece driven progression of these maps makes for a better paced experience. Though the actual variance of these maps is appreciated as well, having to go through 2 open world deserts gets tiring.
Where this game truly falters is in its shitty story. The main trio speak to each other like dead fish, the sporadic attempts at banter fall completely flat with how dry the voice direction is.
All the plot threads are predictable here, this isnt necessarily a bad thing but the execution here is uninteresting, mainly held back by the awful character writing again. The final reveal ended up being unintentionally hilarious. This dude Adam has spent the entire game being a lame nerd side kick with barely any personality to speak of, but now the game is trying to pull the "dear friend was actually the final boss all along" type lol. There was absolutely 0 reason given for you to care about this development, the dialog was completely embarrassing to boot.
I still want to comment on the audiovisual experience. The soundtrack is phenomenal, I know im blaspheming here for some but I actually prefer the ost in Stellar blade to most of keiichi Okabe's work on Yoko Taro's games. The mostly vocal tracks really stand out, usually this type of song is not featured in games so frequently due to how vocal tracks can often distract from actual gameplay. It takes tremendous skill to pull off vocal tracks so consistently within a game, but going for it does ensure you will stand out.
Something also has to be said for Day 1 performance. Locked 60 frames with upsampling, decently attractive models, standard baked lighting and no fear of letting the art design do the talking. The restraint and polish shown here is commendable, especially in todays reality where devs are more concerned with implementing the latest features without consideration for how it will look or run in end product. My only wish is of course a pc version, as I'd be able to clean up the image further and run at higher frame rate. Eh, guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer for the inevitable port.
High g turns and variable weather conditions = cool as fuck.
A shame that the missions are hardly built around those really cool things and are more concerned with staying consistent with the shitty story, especially toward the end. Having to identify every enemy before being allowed to shoot is the lamest shit mechanic ever in an ac game.
A shame that the missions are hardly built around those really cool things and are more concerned with staying consistent with the shitty story, especially toward the end. Having to identify every enemy before being allowed to shoot is the lamest shit mechanic ever in an ac game.
Peak AC, it's not even funny how much better this is than ac5
1997
Ost goes hard
2023
Not terribly interesting, you take a fromsoft game and strip it down to nothing but the combat, you get this game. Walking from boss to boss in Lies of P has got to be the most empty I've felt playing any soulslike to my memory. Combat is fine, though for this kind of hard locked focus on it to actually work you'd need the consistency of Sekiro, which Lies of P doesnt even come close to.
The fresh ideas and feeling of exploration of demon's souls and dark souls 1 seem so distant now when you realize this type of slop defines the current "soulslike" genre, though fromsoft's recent output is also partly to blame. Well, at least Laxasia was a fun boss.
The fresh ideas and feeling of exploration of demon's souls and dark souls 1 seem so distant now when you realize this type of slop defines the current "soulslike" genre, though fromsoft's recent output is also partly to blame. Well, at least Laxasia was a fun boss.
2024
A return to form for Tekken after the lacklustre Tekken 7, graphically impressive and packed with content that casuals love.
Competitively it's kind of a mess. Youre getting a vanilla arcade experience with all the insane amount of bullshit balancing and bugs except as a worldwide release. Itll take a few patches to make this presentable at tournaments. I can also write a whole essay about heat burst being the most retarded mechanic ever but I'll spare you the details.
Netcode can feel wonky, it's marginally better than t7 but still not amazing, get someone with wifi and a shit pc and the experience turns into a slideshow.
Competitively it's kind of a mess. Youre getting a vanilla arcade experience with all the insane amount of bullshit balancing and bugs except as a worldwide release. Itll take a few patches to make this presentable at tournaments. I can also write a whole essay about heat burst being the most retarded mechanic ever but I'll spare you the details.
Netcode can feel wonky, it's marginally better than t7 but still not amazing, get someone with wifi and a shit pc and the experience turns into a slideshow.
2023
I appreciate some things that this game does, otherwise I would've dropped it like every other Remedy game I tried. I finished it thinking that in the end I would've rather watched an Alan Wake tv series.
When you make a narrative that strives to be very out there and meta, you should ensure that the gameplay matches the weirdness or you end up with a disconnect. That's exactly what I felt whenever the shift happens from story to gameplay.
There's nothing interesting about Remedy's approach to survival horror, in fact they watered it down in many aspects. The levels are mostly designed around linear progression, puzzles are rehashed more often than not, enemy variety is very lacking and the resource gathering is made boring by the amount of powerups that are utterly useless and the dynamic drops. There's just no flavour to the design here, nothing about the gameplay makes me recommend Alan Wake II alongside genre staples like RE or Silent Hill.
It's quite a shame, since when it comes to the storytelling I really fuck with their inspirations and I won't deny their great taste in music and visual direction. I wish I could just watch a film or series that is just an expanded version of whatever that finnish fever dream movie was in the cinema level.
Maybe one day Remedy will be brave enough to not only make their narrative weird and meta, but also the gameplay.
When you make a narrative that strives to be very out there and meta, you should ensure that the gameplay matches the weirdness or you end up with a disconnect. That's exactly what I felt whenever the shift happens from story to gameplay.
There's nothing interesting about Remedy's approach to survival horror, in fact they watered it down in many aspects. The levels are mostly designed around linear progression, puzzles are rehashed more often than not, enemy variety is very lacking and the resource gathering is made boring by the amount of powerups that are utterly useless and the dynamic drops. There's just no flavour to the design here, nothing about the gameplay makes me recommend Alan Wake II alongside genre staples like RE or Silent Hill.
It's quite a shame, since when it comes to the storytelling I really fuck with their inspirations and I won't deny their great taste in music and visual direction. I wish I could just watch a film or series that is just an expanded version of whatever that finnish fever dream movie was in the cinema level.
Maybe one day Remedy will be brave enough to not only make their narrative weird and meta, but also the gameplay.
2023
I enjoyed the first game and was willing to look past the pc performance issues as a "first attempt" kind of thing, which in retrospect I really shouldnt have. Now there's a sequel and all the same terrible issues are present like intrusive shader and traversal stutter as well as baffling cpu limitations. I cba anymore.
Ship a functioning unreal engine PC game in 2023 challenge (impossible).
Ship a functioning unreal engine PC game in 2023 challenge (impossible).
2020
I fail to see any value provided in making this game open world. A desperate attempt at aping a Kurosawa movie within game format, with none of the great characterisation that his movies are known for.
It's the first game but with more polish. Melee combat and character animations are improved, but it largely has all the same problems the first game had. If you took issue with all the open world AAA Sony first party bloat of the first game and the general awful writing, this game won't turn you into a devout fan either. Personally I had my fill of fun shooting robots, mainly due to this being the only "third person shooter" that has implemented GOOD gyro controls on PS5 for some reason.
2017
Against all odds I managed to finish this game. Unlike other open world games I think this one has a little more meat to its combat, so it manages to stay interesting enough to finish the main quest at least. Unfortunately the whole experience is dragged down by unnecessary busywork and tacked on mechanics that are just there to cross off the obligatory AAA open world game checklist, it makes the experience much more annoying and tedious than it should be.
It also features by far the worst character writing in a Sony first party title - that is no small feat.
It also features by far the worst character writing in a Sony first party title - that is no small feat.
2008
No idea how to rate this really since i played a couple of werehog levels in emulation and thought they were pretty inoffensive but not interesting enough to power through the incessant crashes. So - I just installed unleashed project and had a great time.
Everything after the mansion sucks so hard it completely invalidates the first half being a pretty decent classic re game.
2021
This conversion is in first person and it lets me run and gun, so it's infinitely better than the original as far as im concerned. I originally intended to finish the pc hd project mod first but that felt like trash to play so I naturally bounced off. Finished this one in pretty much 2 sittings, motion sickness is a foreign concept to me.
2017
Did they HAVE to bring back hydrocity?