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titannull completed Helldivers

1 day ago


titannull completed Metroid Dread
The robot sections are just kinda dull mostly because they're so easily defeated by walking out a door.
Biggest shame though is just how dull the presentation is, the music is forgettable and each zone lacks a strong visual identity like previous games, things you usually count on with Metroid games. It's occasionally a fun platformer/action game though I feel like it felt less tight as more abilities were introduced.

2 days ago






titannull finished Animal Well
Pretty decent! Didn't really entice me to continue looking for secrets after doing the final area, but I ended with around 20 eggs found. The item abilities are pretty cool and each have at least a couple different ways to use them.
I think the minimal art style and almost entirely absent soundtrack kinda works against itself a bit because everything feels very samey (outside of the final area really). That would be less of a problem if the game didn't require so much backtracking and tedium, if you die (sometimes either from exhausting your HP or otherwise there are one hit instant deaths) you will be warped back to the place you last saved and then have to trek back across several rooms to get to where you were. That does often mean having to redo platforming or puzzle challenges, over and over, since most really don't seem to unlock shortcuts or means to circumvent. There is a fast travel hub but it's a secret unlocked after finding some number of secret eggs, and there's then a secret that will teleport you to the fast travel hub you can use once you collect more secret eggs (I did not know about this until I beat it).
Another art issue is the use of spikes as obstacles, they're very often not clearly presented as being dangerous and background elements can also look like spikes but aren't. Often times found myself trying to avoid something that wasn't harmful, or thinking something was safe when it wasn't. On the positive side the lighting and smoke effects can be very impressive, though honestly set me up thinking they'd be more present.
The controls have some issues too, primarily around abilities. Rather than them each being mapped to different buttons, you cycle through them individually using the shoulder buttons. It makes things feel slower than they should and sorta impedes creating a rhythm. They give a lot of leeway on your character falling off of edges, but that can work against you when you need to quickly (like being chased) fall down. There's a few times where you have to fall into holes about the width of the player and it would refuse to have me go down.
I played it through PS+ so can't complain there, but the $25 asking price is way steep. It's pretty well a 2 hour long game but with all the backtracking and repeated rooms to clear that can about double. It seems like a decent enough recommendation for $5-10 but man $25 is rough, there's just not enough meat here and no real Wowing X Factor to latch onto. Ultros seems like a more compelling recent metroidvania that could use some more eyes on it.

4 days ago


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