tgrfawcett
Bio
Numerical ratings are incredibly subjective and don't mean as much as folks say they do. Way I see it ratings for me are always subject to mood at the time something was experienced and then once more at the time when that feeling was recorded.
5 out of 5 -- exceptional regardless of its flaws
4 out of 5 -- quite good overall
3 out of 5 -- still liked it, but have issues on the whole
2 out of 5 -- hampered by design or concept
1 out of 5 -- avoid even for free
Numerical ratings are incredibly subjective and don't mean as much as folks say they do. Way I see it ratings for me are always subject to mood at the time something was experienced and then once more at the time when that feeling was recorded.
5 out of 5 -- exceptional regardless of its flaws
4 out of 5 -- quite good overall
3 out of 5 -- still liked it, but have issues on the whole
2 out of 5 -- hampered by design or concept
1 out of 5 -- avoid even for free
Badges
Early Access
Submitted feedback for a beta feature
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
Well Written
Gained 10+ likes on a single review
Gone Gold
Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
2 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Favorite Games
063
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
012
Games Backloggd
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Redfall at this point is an anomaly. Critical and public reception has been abysmal marking it as the first big miss for Arkane. Failure seems to bring out the worst folks and has drawn away from more important conversations to be had. Redfall is not the game I wanted it to be. It is not the game that the downbeat zeitgeist has made it out to be. It is a mess, but at the end of a twenty-hour playtime it was a mostly good time leaving one question, am I so out of touch?
It isn’t that hard to make excuses when you can see the stumbling blocks a mile away. No studio can change their engine or design, let alone both, without facing hurdles. Add to that some early mandates for a game as a service, a pandemic, staff attrition, and an acquisition and you just get the sense that Redfall was built on an insecure foundation.
There are plenty who will say that there is nothing here. A rotten package at the core. An exaggeration at best and certainly a byproduct of the greater fervor surrounding the game. The core is respectable enough. It is simply that there are asterisks attached to a lot of the compliments you might be able to give the game. Take for instance combat. It feels good and there is enough variety in the characters to have something good here, but the enemy design and placement is so poor that there is hardly ever a real engaging combat loop. To make things worse, any trademark complex level design of Arkane is gone too. Most buildings are empty—one way in or out. It is a game of simple environments and simple enemies to shoot at.
The real shame is a small town during the fall harvest caught up in spooky shenanigans is the setting of most great Halloween stories, but the town must have people in it to feel real and Redfall is barren. there are no people to connect with out in the open world. There just isn’t any real connection between the player and Redfall. NPC interaction is limited to the safe houses and itself is limited. Where most games rely on game loops or engaging characters Redfall can’t even provide proper cutscenes. After an initial animated cutscene and a proper in-game cinematic setting up the scenario the entire rest of the game is poorly color graded still images with vague narration. This is not effective storytelling. Arkane is capable of great diegetic and cinematic storytelling. Redfall has glimmers of an interesting story within the game world hinting at something more than the still image slog ever does. You have to really dig for that, and it is just so disheartening.
Playing through the game it felt as though some adjustments to the enemy design—placement, AI, variety, and consistent difficulty—would do wonders in setting the game right. Is it ever going to be a masterpiece with just some general improvements? No, but that doesn’t mean people should hold this over Arkane and the industry at-large for the rest of time. There are some real issues here. Some not so easily fixed. You can’t just make cutscenes for an entire game for free. You can’t just populate the world with neat things to find. You can’t just make the characters feel more present with a few weeks of dev time from a reduced team. Hell, even if the team does tweak its enemy design that won’t fix the games greater structural weaknesses. It is no exaggeration to say that Redfall has one of the worst final boss encounters in a game. Honest, the final boss is just holding X at three points, and you win. There is no fighting if you are quick enough. Twenty hours later and the bottom falls out and you just have to hold X.
Still, even after everything I can’t say Redfall is wholly a failure. Sure, the game is a mess, but it is an enjoyable mess. There is a good time here and I honestly wouldn’t mind playing more of it, even if they don’t fix it. It would be a wonderful Halloween game, but what will really captivate anyone back to this by October?
Arkane is just stuck at a crossroads. Either they pump more money in for a course correction and after a few years the game has its cult audience that never really justifies the cost but maybe makes folks more kind to Arkane for doing right by the final product or it is dropped and left to haunt the memories of the people who hold onto this stuff as ammunition in any gamer debate for years to come. A dire fate for any game.
I don’t think Arkane wanted to release Redfall like this. There clearly is a story here that echoes the halls of famous “game development is hard” stories because game development is hard. It remains a miracle that any game ever ships and sometimes a developer just ships a bad game.
It isn’t that hard to make excuses when you can see the stumbling blocks a mile away. No studio can change their engine or design, let alone both, without facing hurdles. Add to that some early mandates for a game as a service, a pandemic, staff attrition, and an acquisition and you just get the sense that Redfall was built on an insecure foundation.
There are plenty who will say that there is nothing here. A rotten package at the core. An exaggeration at best and certainly a byproduct of the greater fervor surrounding the game. The core is respectable enough. It is simply that there are asterisks attached to a lot of the compliments you might be able to give the game. Take for instance combat. It feels good and there is enough variety in the characters to have something good here, but the enemy design and placement is so poor that there is hardly ever a real engaging combat loop. To make things worse, any trademark complex level design of Arkane is gone too. Most buildings are empty—one way in or out. It is a game of simple environments and simple enemies to shoot at.
The real shame is a small town during the fall harvest caught up in spooky shenanigans is the setting of most great Halloween stories, but the town must have people in it to feel real and Redfall is barren. there are no people to connect with out in the open world. There just isn’t any real connection between the player and Redfall. NPC interaction is limited to the safe houses and itself is limited. Where most games rely on game loops or engaging characters Redfall can’t even provide proper cutscenes. After an initial animated cutscene and a proper in-game cinematic setting up the scenario the entire rest of the game is poorly color graded still images with vague narration. This is not effective storytelling. Arkane is capable of great diegetic and cinematic storytelling. Redfall has glimmers of an interesting story within the game world hinting at something more than the still image slog ever does. You have to really dig for that, and it is just so disheartening.
Playing through the game it felt as though some adjustments to the enemy design—placement, AI, variety, and consistent difficulty—would do wonders in setting the game right. Is it ever going to be a masterpiece with just some general improvements? No, but that doesn’t mean people should hold this over Arkane and the industry at-large for the rest of time. There are some real issues here. Some not so easily fixed. You can’t just make cutscenes for an entire game for free. You can’t just populate the world with neat things to find. You can’t just make the characters feel more present with a few weeks of dev time from a reduced team. Hell, even if the team does tweak its enemy design that won’t fix the games greater structural weaknesses. It is no exaggeration to say that Redfall has one of the worst final boss encounters in a game. Honest, the final boss is just holding X at three points, and you win. There is no fighting if you are quick enough. Twenty hours later and the bottom falls out and you just have to hold X.
Still, even after everything I can’t say Redfall is wholly a failure. Sure, the game is a mess, but it is an enjoyable mess. There is a good time here and I honestly wouldn’t mind playing more of it, even if they don’t fix it. It would be a wonderful Halloween game, but what will really captivate anyone back to this by October?
Arkane is just stuck at a crossroads. Either they pump more money in for a course correction and after a few years the game has its cult audience that never really justifies the cost but maybe makes folks more kind to Arkane for doing right by the final product or it is dropped and left to haunt the memories of the people who hold onto this stuff as ammunition in any gamer debate for years to come. A dire fate for any game.
I don’t think Arkane wanted to release Redfall like this. There clearly is a story here that echoes the halls of famous “game development is hard” stories because game development is hard. It remains a miracle that any game ever ships and sometimes a developer just ships a bad game.
This is going to be a brief one. After years of hearing about Resident Evil 4 as a genre defining title—not simply for survival horror but all third person shooters—expectations were set high for the remake, and it did not disappoint. What more can I really add to twenty years of praise? It echoes all the things that have been great about recent Resi games and brings the camp and charm in full.
There is just something inherently satisfying about the gameplay loop of Resident Evil that fulfills the tension of a horror game while fueling a power fantasy that any monster can be overcome. The level design mixes tight corridors with semi-open spaces that you can really learn every corner of. Your power growth isn’t just weapon enhancements, but the knowledge you are gathering of the world and the gameplay elements. Each puzzle another opportunity to feel smart. Each fight another opportunity to prove mastery. It is just a really smart game design.
Capcom has perfected the pairing of narrative camp and charm with the grim tone of the world that just offers a really accomplished product overall. The characters can be goofy caricatures (one-liners and all) in this dire scenario because at no point does the sincerity of the presentation wear thin.
Resident Evil 4—like near every other Resi game I have played—is one of the strongest titles in the genre. Even when this series wavers, the games are always able to hold onto their charm to compensate. Resident Evil 4 is no misstep though, it brings a genre definer to a modern audience who can still embrace it as an all-timer.
There is just something inherently satisfying about the gameplay loop of Resident Evil that fulfills the tension of a horror game while fueling a power fantasy that any monster can be overcome. The level design mixes tight corridors with semi-open spaces that you can really learn every corner of. Your power growth isn’t just weapon enhancements, but the knowledge you are gathering of the world and the gameplay elements. Each puzzle another opportunity to feel smart. Each fight another opportunity to prove mastery. It is just a really smart game design.
Capcom has perfected the pairing of narrative camp and charm with the grim tone of the world that just offers a really accomplished product overall. The characters can be goofy caricatures (one-liners and all) in this dire scenario because at no point does the sincerity of the presentation wear thin.
Resident Evil 4—like near every other Resi game I have played—is one of the strongest titles in the genre. Even when this series wavers, the games are always able to hold onto their charm to compensate. Resident Evil 4 is no misstep though, it brings a genre definer to a modern audience who can still embrace it as an all-timer.
This review contains spoilers
There is a lot to like about Spider-Man 2. It is wonderful to play, looks visually stunning, and carries on with wonderfully realized versions of Spider-Man and company. Still, there is also something missing at the core of Spider-Man 2 that weakens it on the whole. It is a game bursting with ambition, but without the space to let that ambition hit new heights.
From the top-down Spider-Man 2’s narrative is juggling three major narratives. First is Harry and Peter’s friendship, second is Kraven’s last hunt, and third is the symbiote. While they all do come together none are given the time they deserve. That lack of time tears away at the core of what made Insomniac’s previous Spider-Man games work so well—their sincerity.
Peter and Miles are at this inflection point struggling with their personal troubles while also being Spider-Man. Peter’s arc is focused on his own personal fulfillment. He is struggling to make the mortgage, to keep a job, to find that purpose outside of being Spider-Man. Yet, he is never really on the ground long enough to face those struggles. Instead, they seem to resolve unnaturally around him by the credits. Big ideas like the Emily-May Foundation are wonderful in concept, but in practice they are fully formed off screen. By the time Peter comes to interact with them there isn’t really anything for him to really do. His arc, about setting aside his heroics, doesn’t land because we don’t see the weight of his personal life on him.
Miles gets more of a chance to see his arc through as it is all about his grief and hatred of Mister Negative which ties directly into play time as Spider-Man. His personal struggles are directly about his life as a hero. It works much better and makes Miles a much more compelling character in a game where he is still “in training”. His supporting cast and ties to the city work better because they seem more earnest. Peter is caught up in the messy main story while Miles is allowed to be a real person in the side content. The problem comes in that it is all still off to the side. Miles is supposed to be the Spider-Man by the end of the game, but the runway to that moment is brief at best.
There are so many strong points to Insomniac’s approach, but at the heart of its Spider-Man 2 doesn’t give its characters the airtime they need. Kraven is a fantastic villain, but the dangers he poses aren’t delivered well. He kills Scorpion early on and then at some unspecified other point kills Shocker, Vulture, and Electro off-screen. By the time the story has started to elaborate on his purpose he is already shuffled off to the side in favor of the symbiote. And well, the symbiote stuff is not good. It transforms Peter (and later Harry) into these insufferable people who hurt those they love without a second thought. It is so out of character for Peter especially because there is no natural friction between him and his loved ones otherwise. He is so kind and affable that the black suit’s bitterness feels completely inorganic to who he has shown us to be in this title.
In 2018’s Spider-Man Peter has a moment where he wants to be selfish, he wants to save Aunt May and forsake the city. But he can’t. That’s who Peter Parker is. He is a man struggling between his personal responsibilities and his heroics. Spider-Man 2 seems to want to forget that those personal struggles need to be made manifest throughout the story for that selfishness to mean anything. The heroic struggle should mean something to the personal one. It does for Miles, but for Peter by the time the black suit is off it is all water under the bridge. Now it’s time to fight black ooze monsters. It is dramatic and grand in scope, but it feels so off the rails that it is difficult to meaningfully connect back to these characters as people.
At the end of this title Peter is in his garage starting the Emily-May foundation over again. (Norman must have pulled funding on the multi-billion-dollar facility.) There is an FNSM alert, and he hesitates, but Miles steps in to save the day. He lets Peter be Peter for once. It is a nice moment, but far from earned and undercut by moments later being dropped back into the world as Peter in his suit ready to swing off into the city. Spider-Man 2 hints at the personal struggle, but it is secondary this time around to the bombast of being Spider-Man.
Don’t mistake this as a fully negative teardown. Spider-Man 2 does a lot right. Spider-Man 2 does well to highlight a wide variety of peoples and centers a message about service throughout. Hailey Cooper’s FNSM mission in particular is a great start towards making strides in highlighting the deaf community through gameplay in the AAA space. Acts of service–like those from the FNSM app and beyond–feel important. Spider-Man 2 (and its predecessors) do well to highlight that helping one person helps everyone. Further, the time given to highlighting the cultural legacy of Black musicians from Harlem is wonderful. It fleshes out history, this world, and gives Miles a deeper emotional core.
The story does a lot well too. Harry and Peter’s relationship starts strong. The scenes of them and Mary Jane at the carnival are wonderful. It is a moment that allows you to see how good of friends these three used to be. Peter’s later rejection of the black suit and his efforts to save Harry from it are genuine because of these early scenes. The efforts to save Kurt Connors are also nice because they reflect Miles’ ability to see the best in people as he does with Mysterio and later Martin Lee. The fundamental idea of the Emily-May foundation is great. It allows Peter to be the scientist and I hope to see it really grounded as something he built in the next game.
These are still great renditions of these characters. Peter, Miles, Mary Jane, Rio, Ganke, and so on feel right. They echo the best versions of these characters. More than anything they also earnestly push for positivity. Each of these characters expresses some doubts throughout the story, but at the end of the day they still push for a positive outlook. They think about others and try to lift others up. It can be easy to forget that those kinds of things are still virtues that need to be on display whenever possible.
Gameplay additions are also great. Fighting is quick and weighty with new abilities that make it more fluid than previously. The wingsuit adds a speedy traversal option on top of the already excellent swinging mechanics. Plus, the city is stunning and full of life. It is a better realization of New York than I have seen anywhere else. You could spend a lot of time in this New York and as long as the characters are strong the game will be as well.
No, Spider-Man 2 is not a bad game. It is far from it. It is an ambitious title that seeks to share this version of Spidey canon. It just doesn’t do what it can with a weaker narrative that amounts to a weaker experience than Insomniac’s previous goes with these characters. Spider-Man 2 won’t stay with me like 2018 or Miles Morales. It also is hard for me to see where they take characters like Venom, Peter, Harry, or Norman after this. There is a lot to like about Spider-Man 2, but with great ambition comes great risk. Spider-Man 2 doesn’t hit the homerun it is aiming for, but it doesn’t miss completely either.
From the top-down Spider-Man 2’s narrative is juggling three major narratives. First is Harry and Peter’s friendship, second is Kraven’s last hunt, and third is the symbiote. While they all do come together none are given the time they deserve. That lack of time tears away at the core of what made Insomniac’s previous Spider-Man games work so well—their sincerity.
Peter and Miles are at this inflection point struggling with their personal troubles while also being Spider-Man. Peter’s arc is focused on his own personal fulfillment. He is struggling to make the mortgage, to keep a job, to find that purpose outside of being Spider-Man. Yet, he is never really on the ground long enough to face those struggles. Instead, they seem to resolve unnaturally around him by the credits. Big ideas like the Emily-May Foundation are wonderful in concept, but in practice they are fully formed off screen. By the time Peter comes to interact with them there isn’t really anything for him to really do. His arc, about setting aside his heroics, doesn’t land because we don’t see the weight of his personal life on him.
Miles gets more of a chance to see his arc through as it is all about his grief and hatred of Mister Negative which ties directly into play time as Spider-Man. His personal struggles are directly about his life as a hero. It works much better and makes Miles a much more compelling character in a game where he is still “in training”. His supporting cast and ties to the city work better because they seem more earnest. Peter is caught up in the messy main story while Miles is allowed to be a real person in the side content. The problem comes in that it is all still off to the side. Miles is supposed to be the Spider-Man by the end of the game, but the runway to that moment is brief at best.
There are so many strong points to Insomniac’s approach, but at the heart of its Spider-Man 2 doesn’t give its characters the airtime they need. Kraven is a fantastic villain, but the dangers he poses aren’t delivered well. He kills Scorpion early on and then at some unspecified other point kills Shocker, Vulture, and Electro off-screen. By the time the story has started to elaborate on his purpose he is already shuffled off to the side in favor of the symbiote. And well, the symbiote stuff is not good. It transforms Peter (and later Harry) into these insufferable people who hurt those they love without a second thought. It is so out of character for Peter especially because there is no natural friction between him and his loved ones otherwise. He is so kind and affable that the black suit’s bitterness feels completely inorganic to who he has shown us to be in this title.
In 2018’s Spider-Man Peter has a moment where he wants to be selfish, he wants to save Aunt May and forsake the city. But he can’t. That’s who Peter Parker is. He is a man struggling between his personal responsibilities and his heroics. Spider-Man 2 seems to want to forget that those personal struggles need to be made manifest throughout the story for that selfishness to mean anything. The heroic struggle should mean something to the personal one. It does for Miles, but for Peter by the time the black suit is off it is all water under the bridge. Now it’s time to fight black ooze monsters. It is dramatic and grand in scope, but it feels so off the rails that it is difficult to meaningfully connect back to these characters as people.
At the end of this title Peter is in his garage starting the Emily-May foundation over again. (Norman must have pulled funding on the multi-billion-dollar facility.) There is an FNSM alert, and he hesitates, but Miles steps in to save the day. He lets Peter be Peter for once. It is a nice moment, but far from earned and undercut by moments later being dropped back into the world as Peter in his suit ready to swing off into the city. Spider-Man 2 hints at the personal struggle, but it is secondary this time around to the bombast of being Spider-Man.
Don’t mistake this as a fully negative teardown. Spider-Man 2 does a lot right. Spider-Man 2 does well to highlight a wide variety of peoples and centers a message about service throughout. Hailey Cooper’s FNSM mission in particular is a great start towards making strides in highlighting the deaf community through gameplay in the AAA space. Acts of service–like those from the FNSM app and beyond–feel important. Spider-Man 2 (and its predecessors) do well to highlight that helping one person helps everyone. Further, the time given to highlighting the cultural legacy of Black musicians from Harlem is wonderful. It fleshes out history, this world, and gives Miles a deeper emotional core.
The story does a lot well too. Harry and Peter’s relationship starts strong. The scenes of them and Mary Jane at the carnival are wonderful. It is a moment that allows you to see how good of friends these three used to be. Peter’s later rejection of the black suit and his efforts to save Harry from it are genuine because of these early scenes. The efforts to save Kurt Connors are also nice because they reflect Miles’ ability to see the best in people as he does with Mysterio and later Martin Lee. The fundamental idea of the Emily-May foundation is great. It allows Peter to be the scientist and I hope to see it really grounded as something he built in the next game.
These are still great renditions of these characters. Peter, Miles, Mary Jane, Rio, Ganke, and so on feel right. They echo the best versions of these characters. More than anything they also earnestly push for positivity. Each of these characters expresses some doubts throughout the story, but at the end of the day they still push for a positive outlook. They think about others and try to lift others up. It can be easy to forget that those kinds of things are still virtues that need to be on display whenever possible.
Gameplay additions are also great. Fighting is quick and weighty with new abilities that make it more fluid than previously. The wingsuit adds a speedy traversal option on top of the already excellent swinging mechanics. Plus, the city is stunning and full of life. It is a better realization of New York than I have seen anywhere else. You could spend a lot of time in this New York and as long as the characters are strong the game will be as well.
No, Spider-Man 2 is not a bad game. It is far from it. It is an ambitious title that seeks to share this version of Spidey canon. It just doesn’t do what it can with a weaker narrative that amounts to a weaker experience than Insomniac’s previous goes with these characters. Spider-Man 2 won’t stay with me like 2018 or Miles Morales. It also is hard for me to see where they take characters like Venom, Peter, Harry, or Norman after this. There is a lot to like about Spider-Man 2, but with great ambition comes great risk. Spider-Man 2 doesn’t hit the homerun it is aiming for, but it doesn’t miss completely either.