A triumphant return for our favorite bounty hunter

In 2021, the year of long overdue sequels we had a lot of sequels that were over a decade between titles. Psychonauts 2 being 16 years apart from the first title, NEO: The World Ends with You being 14 years apart, No More Heroes 3 being 11 years apart from the second title (though you can argue that TSA also fulfilled the fan's urges during the time here for a full fledged numbered title from Suda51 here) and each one of them as surprisingly delivered considering the climate of bringing back these series and hoping some of the magic is still there for what people want after so long. Metroid Dread is almost a whopping 19 years apart from Fusion which was Metroid 4 and probably the game people have the most eyes on. A lot of eyes were on seeing if MercurySteam can do the series justice and after what seems like a decent showing for Samus Returns, it seems like they learned a lot from the last 4 years and delivered a title that has lived up to the title that is Metroid Dread.

Samus has never felt this flexible and smooth bringing her into the 2.5D space with several options that make traversing through ZDR a much more seamless experience. The addition of a slide feels like a small addition but it actually brings a lot to how Samus interacts with the world and reduces the downtime of going into Morph Ball for a small space that isn't long. The traditional tools of the trade are here such as Space Jump and Speed Boosting but there are also some new tools that bring even more movement options for Samus and bring a much more fluid combat flow with Flash Shift that make dodging attack much more manageable. The bosses in Dread are honestly the most fun I've had in Metroid bosses period. Each boss truly feels like an ordeal and hit pretty hard in a Normal playthrough but the best part is that they are never bullshit considering "No attack is unavoidable shows up as a tool tip during loading after you die to a boss and that couldn't be even more true. Each attempt never felt long and you always feel like you make progress during each attempt to the point sometimes you might be untouchable for a while until you finally beat a difficult boss. There are also specific moments that reward you with a action cutscene of Samus doing some action movie stunts and you can fire missiles/beam shots during this that actually feels rewarding and almost a power fantasy with how flashy and cool these cutscenes make her look. Level design is surprisingly great here since it feels like you're never stuck while still giving you the feeling that you're actually exploring things at your own pace. It's sort of a mix between Fusion being extremely linear to the point of locking doors in specific areas for no reason and Zero Mission where the game is pretty open but you sort of have a clear and cut case on what to do here. In Dread, you will give a hint on what to do next but you won't get any indicator on the map showing you specifically where to go which feels like essentially "go do this and figure out the rest yourself" feeling. The backgrounds themselves are actually full of detail such as animals scurrying about, specific machinery working in the back, detailed environment of ruins in a specific area and even what looks like different pathways that go into the background itself. I feel like the atmosphere is really understated in this game, I personally think Fusion and Super Metroid had it better, credit where credit is due here as there is a lot of moments that add what the game is named after being "Dread". The EMMI sections do a wonderful job of this from an audiovisual standpoint as the muted black and white, the lighting going on and off with various beeps coming from the machines and the EMMI itself. While the initial difficulty of these EMMIs progressing do get harder as they each get a unique tool, if you're good with platforming and have really great reflexes then the "Dread" will eventually get lost on you but fortunately these segments never last long and aren't really punishing as a death will just put you back right before entering the zone. The music is alright here but there are some pretty good mood setting themes such as each visit to the Network Station playing a electronical yet mysterious tune or the Save Station sounding omnious with the background of two chozos in the background. The puzzles themselves for gathering the upgrades are mostly just using a resource to get an upgrade while there are some elaborate puzzles that give you a feeling of satisfaction of pulling it off considering it's a combination of reaction, knowledge about the abilities you have and technique to do it properly.

There are some questionable decisions that I came to think of that I felt like the game added a few too many abilities and didn't put them out properly. You essentially get weaker versions of two iconic abilities you don't get until the end of the game and you rarely really use them since they essentially get phased out pretty quickly. The final item you get sort of feels like a waste considering you don't really use them other than to backtrack for 100% and gathering what feels like pointless upgrades considering you essentially get them at the end of the game. A nitpick is that when you get a specific power up for defeating EMMIs, the whole process is pretty repetitive despite only doing it a few times the whole playthrough and never really changes other than one instance where you have to run and make the perfect amount of space to pull off the damage you needed.

After playing through several games of the series this year (Metroid, Super Metroid, Fusion, Zero Mission in that order), I can understand why fans wanted a new game for so long. A series that created "Metroidvania" along with Castlevania unfortunately being in the background for the last 2 decades. The previous games have made me interested in the series and Metroid Dread has now made me a fan and excited to see what is to come next.

See you next mission, Lady.

Despite never playing one, I used to always be turned off by the Metroidvania genre for no good reason. A genre that based itself around backtracking sounded like a nightmare. As I've aged I have become more open-minded to all genres, and metroidvanias were no different. About a month after Dread's announcement at E3, I gave the genre a shot for the first time with Super Metroid. After being blown away by how amazing that was, Dread instantly became my most anticipated game of the year. I thought there was no way that Dread would surpass Super Metroid but Mercury Steam definitively proved me wrong. Dread is a game with amazing exploration, a fantastic movement system, and a surprisingly good story. The exploration feels extremely authentic for the most part. Progression through Dread is anything but hand-holding, but it is very hard to get lost in this game. Unlike Super Metroid, there aren't areas of the game where you have to hit a random, unlabeled block in the wall to continue. The progression manages to be smooth and authentic, without being one-directional. My biggest complaint about the progression is it can feel a little crunchy in the end. There is a point where you are collecting ability after ability in a short amount of time which briefly ruins the natural feel the progression aims for. The EMMI's were great for the most part. It kept me at the edge of my seat during various circumstances. It fell short near the end when the EMMI's started to feel more like a roadblock than a genuine threat. Overall though the EMMI's were great. I could gush about the gameplay all day but it is definitely one of the most satisfying controlling games I have ever played. The movement system is top-notch. When I play some of the other titles It will definitely take me a while to adjust to their movement because of how fire Dread's is. I can't really describe how perfect it is, so I'd recommend you just try it for yourself. The story was really good but I won't get into that to avoid spoilers. Overall an amazing game and a new top 5 addition. I would've never expected a game from a genre I used to dread to show up in my top 5.

Feels good to truly adore another 2D Metroid besides Super. And while Dread isn't quite as cohesive as the former, everything that makes the series great is on full display. The progression, intuitive level design and minimalistic approach to storytelling are especially phenomenal, and this is by far and away the best Samus has ever felt to play.

Playing all the previous 2D Metroids before it was also deeply rewarding, and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting the optimal experience with this game, despite not being a requirement.

While I still believe Super Metroid is my ideal 2D Metroid due to how incredible its atmosphere, this game is a fantastic new direction for the series. It takes all of the interesting, if oddly-executed introductions of Samus Returns and puts them to fantastic use, while having some of my favorite action to come out of these games. It did take a while to really love it as there were some elements I found fairly annoying at multiple corners, but some point in the late-game, everything just... clicked. It builds up to a fantastic-feeling experience that really shows the power Metroid has as a series.

And that final boss... OH, THAT FINAL BOSS HOLY SHIT METROID ROCKS.

One of the best open world games I've ever experienced. There is a lot to love about this game. The combat is so good, it's basic light and medium attack are the base but this is built upon by weapon switching stances, staggering, parrying, dodging and special moves like the heaven strike and blade dance, with all these options combat feels interesting and intense. Parrying feels especially fun. Stealth is lame though, wind chimes feel mediocre to use, enemy ai isn't very adaptive or smart, the layouts don't feel well designed for stealth. But this is fine, I rarely did stealth and it rarely forced you to do stealth so this was ignored. Sometimes with combat the camera can interfere, and sometimes Jin can get stuck occasionally, feels slightly rough around the edges, but it's still amazing. Open world activities are very run of the mill sort of. Enemy camps, and stuff to collect. A lot of the activities like the hot springs or the honour monuments dont offer much besides just going to them and collecting your reward. However other activities like the bamboo strike or shrines offer more, especially the shrines as they offer platforming challenges. The side quests are pretty fantastic, most if not all of them have proper stories, all fully voice acted with unique characters and stakes. Some side quests are ongoing throughout the game like Masakos story. These side quests feel very well designed and high effort, they are very good. The graphics are insane like most Sony exclusives, except it has very beutiful Japanese scenery to look at and it's open world, unlike something like TLOU2 where that game is linear so it's not as technically impressive as this game. However the downside is the framerate is way more inconsistent, this only happens during overworld traversal, during combat it's a non issue, the framerate is serviceable. The story is pretty damn excellent, a game about sacrificing honour to save the land, using poison and dishonourable strategies to win, and how Jin deals with this and accepts it over the course of the game and how other characters react like his uncle and Yuna. Overall, this is one of the best Sony exclusives ever made and definitely 2020's best game not including rereleases. Raw game.

Although it wasn’t until recently that Ghost of Tsushima became a “day one” title for me, I’ve had my eye on it for what feels like four years now. Ah, okay. Looks like it actually was four years. Here’s the headline — worth it.

Ghost of Tsushima puts the player in the shoes of Jin Sakai, the last samurai left standing after the Battle at Komoda Beach, marking the beginning of the Mongol invasion of Japan. The fictional Khoutun Khan, cousin of Kublai Khan, sails 8,000 Mongols to Tsushima in November of 1274. His forces decimate the samurai, killing all 80 of them in minutes and leaving only Jin and his uncle, the Jito, alive. Ghost of Tsushima is pretty explicitly historical fiction, but if you’re interested in seeing what really happened I’ve made a cool video about just that (https://youtu.be/gE7YzTdtDbU) ! Nevertheless, the fiction of Ghost of Tsushima places Jin in a very perilous position — he is the last one that can protect his home island of Tsushima, and by extension all of Japan, from becoming part of the Mongol Empire.

The open world of Ghost of Tsushima is, in the most non-memey way possible, breathtaking. I will state with confidence that it is the best open world map I’ve seen since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. There are occasionally open world games that lean on being open world as a buzzword, and not due to the design of the game necessitating it (Sucker Punch’s own Infamous: Second Son immediately comes to mind) but Ghost of Tsushima could not possibly exist in another state. The flowing winds, the blooming flowers, the herds of wild animals, the quiet stare of the sunset over the marshes… it is the apex of beauty.

I do not say this lightly: Ghost of Tsushima is the most beautiful video game ever made. I don’t mean that it has the best graphics, or the most powerful lighting engine, or the most realistic faces — it has none of those things. Instead, the artists at Sucker Punch have stumbled onto the perfect balance of contrast, saturation and variety in their coloring to provide a more wondrous landscape than I’ve ever seen put to screen. The piercing moonlight reflects over the quiet black ponds. The stoic stone monuments to ancestors long forgotten. The hum of a shakuhachi flute from around the bend, the clacking of wooden sandals clacking against a stone path. The sights, sounds, and feelings of Tsushima come together to make the most gorgeous map in video games to date. Take a close look at a field of flowers, the skeletons of the sakura trees, the vivid greens of the hills and the ardent blues of the sky. The foxes scurry to their hidden shrines and the songbirds flee to secret gardens constantly enticing the player to just explore. I can do nothing to describe the beauty of the music except to entice you to listen to the soundtrack. It will speak for itself as the unquestioned best score of 2020. Ghost of Tsushima is beautiful beyond compare.

I want to avoid spoilers, but I found the main story to be enthralling. Jin’s struggle externally is with both his uncle, Lord Shimura, and Khoutun Khan. These external struggles are the b-plot — the real story is Jin’s fight against himself. The struggle for who Jin was vs. who he must become is engaging enough to keep you going right up until the end, even when tired tropes are used to drive the external conflicts. Honor takes front and center stage here, as Jin fights to balance the mandates of the Bushido code with the ever-looming truth — the only way to defeat the Mongols is to follow the way of the ninja.

Jin is accompanied by his faithful partner in crime, Yuna, an archer who saves him from the Mongols and helps him build his legend as the Ghost. After seemingly rising from the dead on the beach where the samurai were eradicated, she helps turn Jin into a living legend. Serfs whisper stories round the campfire of the 10-foot tall demon-faced Ghost who can cut down Mongols with a glance, who walks from the fire and cuts down armies unharmed. Yuna’s place in building the morale for the Japanese and creating a deity out of a man cannot be understated, and besides being moral support (and Jin’s only real friend through this), her blunt and forceful nature serves as a perfect juxtaposition to Jin’s calm, calculative nature. Jin and Yuna are well-supported by a cast of other colorful characters, including but not limited to Taka (your #1 fan), Norio the Warrior Monk, Masako the Killer Grandma, Ishekawa the Grumpy Grandpa and Kenji the Drunken Idiot.

Ghost of Tsushima’s gameplay is smooth and variable all at once. There are two fighting styles — samurai and ghost (ninja). One thing that Ghost of Tsushima might have been more upfront about is that you are required to use a combination of those two styles, rather than focusing on which way you want to play, to fight. This keeps the combat from getting stale. One moment you’re having a 1v1 Kursoawa-style samurai showdown and the next you’re throwing sticky bombs and shooting poison darts at Mongols. Flipping between sneaking around and honorable duels does cause some dissonance in continuity, but it’s meant to work in tandem with Jin’s own dissonance with his dual identities as a samurai and as the Ghost. There are four stances available, each made to fight against a different weapon type, so during combat with groups you’ll be constantly firing arrows, switching stances, throwing kunai, dodging and parrying all at once. It is, in a word, electrifying.

Jin will rely on his trusty steed (who you pick out and name at the beginning) to traverse the gorgeous terrain, as well as grappling, climbing and parkour straight out of the newer Assassin’s Creed games. This may not be as hot a take as I’d like, but Ghost of Tsushima is the best Assassin’s Creed game by a mile. The overworld is not overloaded with icons, the UI when battling is minimal (I suggest you turn it off entirely) and every element of the menus is designed specifically to get you through them quickly and back into the world as quickly as possible. There are several skill trees accompanied by gear and sword upgrades from crafting, so Jin will constantly be learning new skills and combos.

There are four types of quests; main quests that advance the story, character quests that develop the supporting cast, side quests that usually involve tracking down and killing mongols, and Mythic quests to retrieve legendary weapons and armor. One of my only negatives about Ghost of Tsushima is a big one — the side quests are mostly uninspired “go here, kill this, come back”, although they’re occasionally broken up with something really interesting. The character quests, while much more interesting, mostly lead to anticlimactic endings. The Mythic quests are essentially parkour courses, and I highly recommend getting into them. This leaves the main story, which is excellently written and provides just the right amount of urgency to motivate while allowing for side quests. I will mention that one of the character quests left me in actual tears.

This is all to say that the best way to play this game is simply by walking in a direction and doing things you come upon. Don’t keep checking the map to unfog areas and check off boxes. Turn off the HUD. Use the ridiculously robust photo mode (with which I took all of the above pictures) and make your own samurai story. Sucker Punch has magnificently crafted a set of variable tools. Do not be afraid to use them. Find the freedom that Ghost of Tsushima offers; it’s in that freedom that the heart of the game lies. Simply ride your horse through the plains, the forest, over the hills, wherever you desire — the world is your sandbox. Somewhere along the way, Ghost of Tsushima became my favorite Playstation exclusive ever, narrowly beating Spider-Man, and will almost certainly be my 2020 Game of the Year.

Ghost of Tsushima brings harnesses the true strength of its open world in encouraging traversal, freedom and a wide variety of tools and weapons. The entire game is built to encourage the player to explore. The main story is well-written and engaging; Khoutun Khan provides a charismatic and compelling antagonist while Lord Shimura represents the dying age of the samurai in contrast to Jin’s determination to do whatever it takes. Supporting characters provide compelling quest lines, albeit with ultimately anticlimactic endings. There’s only one word for the feeling evoked by fighting 1v1 Kurosawa-style duels in black and white with the ronin, getting the kill, and then wiping and sheathing your blade: badass. Find your fighting style, hone it to mastery, defeat the Mongol hordes and save Japan from the threat of certain destruction. Forsake honor and fight for peace. There is no place left in Tsushima for a samurai — this island belongs to The Ghost.

Sucker Punch succeeds in making a better Assassin's Creed than Ubisoft...
As an Assassin's Creed fan, I've always wanted an AC game set in Japan. Well, we finally got it, and it's leagues better than any actual AC game we've gotten in years.

Sucker Punch takes the open world checklist formula and absolutely streamlines it in a way that makes it feel like you're never actually doing a checklist. Every collectible has value and is actually fun to get. Fast travel is the easiest it's been in any other open world game, so jumping around to get a missed collectible is quick. The world design is what encourages exploration, not just the need to find the next question mark on the map.

I've played over a dozen games with photo modes in them and have never really cared much for them. I'll usually open it once to look at it and snap one obligatory photo, and then never touch it again.
In Ghost of Tsushima, I spent almost as much time taking photos as I did actually playing the game. That's due to a combination of the most insanely robust photo mode I've ever seen in a game, and a very photogenic gorgeous world.

Playing through Act 1, the story felt like it took the back seat to the world. I was enjoying running around, exploring, and fighting off the invaders.
That quickly took a turn in Act 2 and I became fully invested in not only Jin's story, but the stories of all of his companions.
After a slight lull in the beginning of Act 3, it finishes strong.

Really the only negative I have on the game is that it doesn't really do anything new. It truly does feel like they set out to make a better Assassin's Creed than Ubisoft - and that's exactly what they did. The world is gorgeous, it's fun to explore, getting collectibles isn't boring, the combat is fun, and the story is great, but it all feels incredibly safe.
It's a solid 4-star game that I wish took a couple more risks.

Although I loved Death Stranding when I played it through on release, I didn't really consider it a contender for my game of the year in The Year of Endless Bangers. I let three years slip by, not even booting it back up on the release of the Director's Cut, before ultimately using my new PS5 as an excuse to transfer the save and bang out a few more deliveries.

So much has changed for me in the intervening three years. Others have written at length about the pandemic and its thematic parallels with the game, so suffice it to say that for me (still largely housebound and isolated, increasingly alienated by the fever-pitch denial of the world at large) being able to enact a world where real people work together to build infrastructure and thereby heal the world has been personally healing in a way I couldn't have imagined in 2019.

My tastes as someone who thinks critically about games have changed as well. Death Stranding's preoccupation with the texture of play—from asking you to viscerally feel the geometry of the ground you walk on to showing painstakingly mocapped cutscenes of every little action in your private room—hits much harder now that I've played through the FromSoft canon which is itself texture-obsessed in a different direction. Coming directly off playing some AAA shlock, I also found myself with a renewed appreciation of this game's dialectic approach to a cinematic aesthetic, with carefully choreographed moments that nevertheless always emphasize play as the distinguishing factor that makes this decidedly not a movie.

I'm setting this down again not because I'm finished with it for good, but because I'm inducting it into the tier of games I intend to return to over and over again. I could happily finish out the DC plots and call it "finished", but what I really want is to create a kind of personal infrastructure I can use to bring myself back to this world, this textural landscape, whenever I need to feel that connection with people that this game so masterfully evokes.

More like NieR: Auto[play]a.
Desolate in every sense! Combat is purely numerical and exists solely as power gates - simply upgrade your units, weapons and companions, then breeze through this battery vampire of a .apk for a few more missions before you need to upgrade again. OR u can Pay a humble fee for a chance to win epic units for you to also waste upgrade resources on :)
I just feel so wise and numb to the Twisted Mind of Yoko Taro. Grim "tragedy first" writing that passionlessly beelines towards an arc's desired sad outcome, a soundtrack that is essentially just spacy yoga music, vast post-post-magical-apoc environments that serve absolutely nothing. Sad to see Akihiko Yoshida designs wasted on this.