2017
I’d like to advise against buying this game, but the only complain I could use to uphold such an opinion is to admit that I’m terrible at it. The reason I stopped playing is because I got tired of the unforgiving combat system and the amount of dedication required to master it enough to succeeds in every mission, which is something that many other players instead may find worth the effort (or easier than the agony it was for me). Should they manage to resist, they’d be hugely rewarded.
Nioh is stunning as an action title, fast paced, complex, with a very inspired design behind enemies and main characters, most of them colourful revivals of historical Japanese figures, and a level design complex but self-contained enough to never let the players feel lost. The plot was kind of a let-down, not because it was bad but because it was poorly narrated: the storytelling alternates between cutscenes, ADV segments and most of the explanations being done in the missions’ briefings and the game encyclopaedia. It’s a mess.
Yet you are not playing to be the best buddy of Oda Nobunaga, although that would’ve been absolutely groovy, you are playing to slay demons bigger than a house with some stylish sick blade combo and tons of hard to master but hugely rewarding abilities. Much like an ordinary RPG, building a character compromise between different weapons and side arts (in this case omnyo and ninjutsu) that grant the players to experiment with any sort of preferred combat style. The upgrade and enhance mechanics are really easy and intuitive to understand albeit quite expensive in the long run if you plan to stick to certain pieces of equipment. The one thing I cannot justify or appreciate no matter what is the loot system, more akin to a MMO where you’ll often discard your preferred gear five minutes after building it because the enemies drop better stuff at an absurd rate. Considering how every piece of equipment relies on individual stats, you could hold in your inventory ten swords with the same name but very different effects that not always conciliate with what you were trying or hoping to receive: RNG plays the major role in it and frankly, for the kind of game it is, it really felt unnecessary complex and arbitrary.
Edit: Yup, tried it again, I definitely hate this game.
Edit2: Hayabusa can go seppuku himself.
Nioh is stunning as an action title, fast paced, complex, with a very inspired design behind enemies and main characters, most of them colourful revivals of historical Japanese figures, and a level design complex but self-contained enough to never let the players feel lost. The plot was kind of a let-down, not because it was bad but because it was poorly narrated: the storytelling alternates between cutscenes, ADV segments and most of the explanations being done in the missions’ briefings and the game encyclopaedia. It’s a mess.
Yet you are not playing to be the best buddy of Oda Nobunaga, although that would’ve been absolutely groovy, you are playing to slay demons bigger than a house with some stylish sick blade combo and tons of hard to master but hugely rewarding abilities. Much like an ordinary RPG, building a character compromise between different weapons and side arts (in this case omnyo and ninjutsu) that grant the players to experiment with any sort of preferred combat style. The upgrade and enhance mechanics are really easy and intuitive to understand albeit quite expensive in the long run if you plan to stick to certain pieces of equipment. The one thing I cannot justify or appreciate no matter what is the loot system, more akin to a MMO where you’ll often discard your preferred gear five minutes after building it because the enemies drop better stuff at an absurd rate. Considering how every piece of equipment relies on individual stats, you could hold in your inventory ten swords with the same name but very different effects that not always conciliate with what you were trying or hoping to receive: RNG plays the major role in it and frankly, for the kind of game it is, it really felt unnecessary complex and arbitrary.
Edit: Yup, tried it again, I definitely hate this game.
Edit2: Hayabusa can go seppuku himself.
2015
Sail. Sink. Repeat.
The most frustrating aspect of Sunless Sea, which is bound to have players abandoning the game before achieving anything noteworthy, is the terrible amount of repetitions one is going to face of the early stages in any new playthrough. Also, the grinding wasn’t really well thought out, too much resources wasted too quickly, so that instead of being nervous for the unknown threats awaiting in the most obscure corners of the Unterzee the players will mostly find themselves rushing to the nearest port for a mere barrel of gasoline.
That being said, if you are able to counter these two problems and focus of the explorative side of the game, one is going to be immensely rewarded: Sunless Sea has one of the best writing ever seen in a game. It is immersive, gripping, terrifying and even humorous at times. In contrast with the slow pace of the player’s ship traveling discovering new isles and hidden stories, the sense of anticipation for a new menace or an unpredictable event is ever so present as long as the map has undiscovered bits left.
The game in fact shouldn’t end as one completes a main quest or surrenders to their inevitable death: the allure of the game is present as long as there are still mysteries left unsolved and new stories to adventure through (which, thanks to the dedication of Failbetter games, get regular updates and additions). The world itself displays incredible charm thanks to the art design and the simple, yet striking game engine, all the more emphasized by an atmospheric score fitting for the most diversified events.
Should you surrender to the chore that grinding is in the beginning of the game none shall blame you, be only aware that beside the game limitations what you are going to miss is a story worth of rivalling Melville and Conrad’s sea tales of descent into the abyss of human madness.
The most frustrating aspect of Sunless Sea, which is bound to have players abandoning the game before achieving anything noteworthy, is the terrible amount of repetitions one is going to face of the early stages in any new playthrough. Also, the grinding wasn’t really well thought out, too much resources wasted too quickly, so that instead of being nervous for the unknown threats awaiting in the most obscure corners of the Unterzee the players will mostly find themselves rushing to the nearest port for a mere barrel of gasoline.
That being said, if you are able to counter these two problems and focus of the explorative side of the game, one is going to be immensely rewarded: Sunless Sea has one of the best writing ever seen in a game. It is immersive, gripping, terrifying and even humorous at times. In contrast with the slow pace of the player’s ship traveling discovering new isles and hidden stories, the sense of anticipation for a new menace or an unpredictable event is ever so present as long as the map has undiscovered bits left.
The game in fact shouldn’t end as one completes a main quest or surrenders to their inevitable death: the allure of the game is present as long as there are still mysteries left unsolved and new stories to adventure through (which, thanks to the dedication of Failbetter games, get regular updates and additions). The world itself displays incredible charm thanks to the art design and the simple, yet striking game engine, all the more emphasized by an atmospheric score fitting for the most diversified events.
Should you surrender to the chore that grinding is in the beginning of the game none shall blame you, be only aware that beside the game limitations what you are going to miss is a story worth of rivalling Melville and Conrad’s sea tales of descent into the abyss of human madness.
2007
I think it is impossible to discuss the value of Little Busters! without focusing on how it achieves to be a successful emotional ride. Did I cry or was I moved? Yeah, I did, something like seven years ago when I first read it. This time around, after the Steam release, I found myself much less impressed by some portions of drama which, admittedly, oftentimes feel just thrown around for the sake of exasperating the melodrama. Also, the plot is mostly goofy and juvenile, some nice spins are given here and there, while the prose does its job it is largely mediocre, and if you won’t find the humour and the chemistry between the characters compelling you’re in for a tour de force rather than a pleasant tale about friendships.
However, the thing about the power of Little Busters! is how being aware of all of its shortcomings doesn’t affect my appreciation of the work Visual Art’s did here, at all. Maybe Little Busters! wouldn’t work magnificently as a story, but it sure is impressive as a visual novel: whilst many similar works would limit themselves to introduce characters and let you focus on a fixated path following which one interested you the most, Little Busters! add far more branch and choices, sometimes seemingly pointless, to let the player experience a bountiful of side contents, comedic or lore-related vignettes, and secrets hidden all over the place that just ask to be found. There’s also the gameplay, in the form of several quick mini-games which range from baseball practice to a fighting tournament, from hunting down mysterious creatures (which give a pretty hilarious insight on the character of Kyousuke) to serving in a cafeteria. And the impressive thing is how all of these are plot related, not because how the gameplay fits into the story but how because how much they reciprocally influence each other. I can’t emphasize enough how I adore the way this novel build around its theme by slightly changing, after each playthrough, some minor bits of it to give a more concrete idea of the characters changing and developing after major events, and the more obvious way to notice this would be, in fact, to check the protagonists’ stats at the beginning of each tournament.
As the story is in its surface state, I wouldn’t think much of it beside it being a heart-warming bildungsroman focused on friendship, but the care put into its every detail, from the immense content hidden in it to the game direction heavily helping the narrative with a pretty fitting musical score and spot-on CG events, raised it to being of my favourite product of its medium.
However, the thing about the power of Little Busters! is how being aware of all of its shortcomings doesn’t affect my appreciation of the work Visual Art’s did here, at all. Maybe Little Busters! wouldn’t work magnificently as a story, but it sure is impressive as a visual novel: whilst many similar works would limit themselves to introduce characters and let you focus on a fixated path following which one interested you the most, Little Busters! add far more branch and choices, sometimes seemingly pointless, to let the player experience a bountiful of side contents, comedic or lore-related vignettes, and secrets hidden all over the place that just ask to be found. There’s also the gameplay, in the form of several quick mini-games which range from baseball practice to a fighting tournament, from hunting down mysterious creatures (which give a pretty hilarious insight on the character of Kyousuke) to serving in a cafeteria. And the impressive thing is how all of these are plot related, not because how the gameplay fits into the story but how because how much they reciprocally influence each other. I can’t emphasize enough how I adore the way this novel build around its theme by slightly changing, after each playthrough, some minor bits of it to give a more concrete idea of the characters changing and developing after major events, and the more obvious way to notice this would be, in fact, to check the protagonists’ stats at the beginning of each tournament.
As the story is in its surface state, I wouldn’t think much of it beside it being a heart-warming bildungsroman focused on friendship, but the care put into its every detail, from the immense content hidden in it to the game direction heavily helping the narrative with a pretty fitting musical score and spot-on CG events, raised it to being of my favourite product of its medium.
“Come, gather and bear witness to my opera, now in the making. Its script is the height of cliché, I am forced to admit. And yet its actors are of the finest fold; beyond exquisite. Thus, I believe you will find it enthralling.”
This is a line from a pretty late stage of the game, yet it is for understandable reasons being often quoted to express many of the things that make Dies Irae impressive. For one, the prose is absolutely stellar: if the incredible amount of care put into every line from the English localization team mirrored the quality of the original Japanese release, we are in front of a work that transcends the limit of games directed to a young audience and leads into the realm of actual literature. Each character expresses themselves with fitting and recognizable verbal quirks, their voice acting is nothing short of superb, the insight given to their personalities is of the most eloquent and beguiling kind, certainly if one had to read Dies Irae for one purpose it would be for how well narrated are its characters.
As the translation team discussed, what appears to be a regular plot of bad villains (Nazis, moreover) threating the world hides a deeper layer of meaning where are discussed the fundamentals of its own genre, being so subtlety hidden that, even when the dialogues are close to be so metafictional you could hear the fourth wall shattering, the plot still doesn’t cease its adrenaline rush, nor loses focus. When you think you finally reached the climax, the game goes beyond and a new, more impressive climax is just around the corner, you’ll find yourself jaw dropping while reading some of the most superb over-the-top scenes ever conceived. Whenever ‘Ω Ewigkeit’ starts playing, since its first usage as the title menu theme, you can’t help but feel the blood rushing, the thrill, the awe, being swarmed by whatever is bound next to subvert your every expectation.
Dies Irae is a crescendo that can’t, or rather shouldn’t, be halted, ever, not until the reader has enough understanding of its core content to properly decide if it was impressive or tedious, charming and elegant or uselessly over bombastic. It also the hope for many more similar remarkable visual novels to receive a western release so that, even if it has still a niche of fans, many can rejoice for the wonderful possibilities of the medium.
This is a line from a pretty late stage of the game, yet it is for understandable reasons being often quoted to express many of the things that make Dies Irae impressive. For one, the prose is absolutely stellar: if the incredible amount of care put into every line from the English localization team mirrored the quality of the original Japanese release, we are in front of a work that transcends the limit of games directed to a young audience and leads into the realm of actual literature. Each character expresses themselves with fitting and recognizable verbal quirks, their voice acting is nothing short of superb, the insight given to their personalities is of the most eloquent and beguiling kind, certainly if one had to read Dies Irae for one purpose it would be for how well narrated are its characters.
As the translation team discussed, what appears to be a regular plot of bad villains (Nazis, moreover) threating the world hides a deeper layer of meaning where are discussed the fundamentals of its own genre, being so subtlety hidden that, even when the dialogues are close to be so metafictional you could hear the fourth wall shattering, the plot still doesn’t cease its adrenaline rush, nor loses focus. When you think you finally reached the climax, the game goes beyond and a new, more impressive climax is just around the corner, you’ll find yourself jaw dropping while reading some of the most superb over-the-top scenes ever conceived. Whenever ‘Ω Ewigkeit’ starts playing, since its first usage as the title menu theme, you can’t help but feel the blood rushing, the thrill, the awe, being swarmed by whatever is bound next to subvert your every expectation.
Dies Irae is a crescendo that can’t, or rather shouldn’t, be halted, ever, not until the reader has enough understanding of its core content to properly decide if it was impressive or tedious, charming and elegant or uselessly over bombastic. It also the hope for many more similar remarkable visual novels to receive a western release so that, even if it has still a niche of fans, many can rejoice for the wonderful possibilities of the medium.
Whilst The Elder Scroll: Skyrim succeeds in putting the player inside an immersive, fabulous world, it fails at giving it any sort of depth or interesting content. I didn’t complete the game, I just stopped going around once I visited every location of the map.
I really think one couldn’t be blamed for doing so: the mods add some sort of fun content but not so much you’d stick with the wooden narration, the terrible combat and the general feeling that no one around you is acting like more than a few millions of soulless pixels put together.
The plot is abysmal, dull and predictable but without charismatic characters or an interesting lore to redeem it: you are given orders by random strangers with no reason or rhyme and almost every quest can in some sort boil down to “Fetch me this”, “Kill some of those”, without anything gripping enough to let the players feel like they are accomplishing something noteworthy. Even the Dragons, supposedly the main appeal of the game, after a while feel repetitive, predictable, lose their mysterious charm because you quickly realize where they usually nest and how to kill them since there are never new mechanics added to the fights.
Skyrim is a chore, and endless shopping list of tedious checks which expands in every new city full of cardboards giving you empty missions for empty rewards and empty felling of accomplishment. You’d better be playing Dragon Age Origins or The Witcher if you wanted both a more compelling narrative and a more interesting world to explore.
I really think one couldn’t be blamed for doing so: the mods add some sort of fun content but not so much you’d stick with the wooden narration, the terrible combat and the general feeling that no one around you is acting like more than a few millions of soulless pixels put together.
The plot is abysmal, dull and predictable but without charismatic characters or an interesting lore to redeem it: you are given orders by random strangers with no reason or rhyme and almost every quest can in some sort boil down to “Fetch me this”, “Kill some of those”, without anything gripping enough to let the players feel like they are accomplishing something noteworthy. Even the Dragons, supposedly the main appeal of the game, after a while feel repetitive, predictable, lose their mysterious charm because you quickly realize where they usually nest and how to kill them since there are never new mechanics added to the fights.
Skyrim is a chore, and endless shopping list of tedious checks which expands in every new city full of cardboards giving you empty missions for empty rewards and empty felling of accomplishment. You’d better be playing Dragon Age Origins or The Witcher if you wanted both a more compelling narrative and a more interesting world to explore.
2013
If you were truly searching for the most standard of the JRPGs, something that has everything the medium already did but didn’t try even a little to put our something new or memorable, a title where the protagonist would be your average lovable goofball, the side characters the most basic standard heroines and stock personalities, you’d probably be happy to get Fairy Fencer F. It’s not that it is inherently a bad title, rather if you bought a Neptunia game you’d get the same combat system with some sort of substance put into it.
What Idea Factory did with this game was releasing just the bare minimum: the dungeons are linear and uninspired, ever more than Neptunia I mean; the characters never bother to be surprising or entertaining; the plot plays exactly like you imagine from start to finish; the combat is also pretty bare. Everything gives the feeling that this game was made out of obligation rather than because a team of creatives had and idea and came together to release this idea to the world.
I enjoyed my time in Fairy Fencer F, but I can’t help but think that despite being light-hearted, mindless fun I could’ve gotten better from similar titles.
What Idea Factory did with this game was releasing just the bare minimum: the dungeons are linear and uninspired, ever more than Neptunia I mean; the characters never bother to be surprising or entertaining; the plot plays exactly like you imagine from start to finish; the combat is also pretty bare. Everything gives the feeling that this game was made out of obligation rather than because a team of creatives had and idea and came together to release this idea to the world.
I enjoyed my time in Fairy Fencer F, but I can’t help but think that despite being light-hearted, mindless fun I could’ve gotten better from similar titles.
Dark Souls 2 plays very, very good. It has probably the worst hitboxes of the series, but that doesn’t undermine a combat system that expanded on what were already some pretty solid foundations and vastly improved each aspect. You can even wear four rings now, thank the Lord for that.
Unfortunately, if I had to recommend a Dark Souls game, I’d rather emphasize how much better the previous and the later chapter did every thing this game did well: Dark Souls 2 suffers from a lore which, overall, always feel more like a spin-off than a main chapter. Nothing major is added or explained regarding the Cycles except the fact that they exist, the characters inhabiting the world receive mostly the same build-up and contextualization of the first game but their feats and their importance is much less impressive compared to the first title; the environment shows some pretty variegated dungeons, especially in the DLCs, but still not as well thought and designed as the other two titles. Even the combat, the one thing it undoubtedly does better than the previous title, still doesn’t hold up to what came next in Dark Souls 3.
Dark Souls 2 doesn’t suffer for being an uninspired rehash of discarded idea for the first title (which is the only conceivable explanation for some pretty abhorrent encounter in the game), it still is a good game on its own but as a Dark Souls title it is unavoidable to compare make a comparison with the other iterations of the series and notice how it comes out utterly defeated. Those who want to play the game for the sake of completeness though should probably go for the Scholar of the First Sin, it has some improvement over the base game and it already includes the three DLCs, which by far had way more thought put into them than the main locations, in regards of bosses, maps, exploration and story.
Unfortunately, if I had to recommend a Dark Souls game, I’d rather emphasize how much better the previous and the later chapter did every thing this game did well: Dark Souls 2 suffers from a lore which, overall, always feel more like a spin-off than a main chapter. Nothing major is added or explained regarding the Cycles except the fact that they exist, the characters inhabiting the world receive mostly the same build-up and contextualization of the first game but their feats and their importance is much less impressive compared to the first title; the environment shows some pretty variegated dungeons, especially in the DLCs, but still not as well thought and designed as the other two titles. Even the combat, the one thing it undoubtedly does better than the previous title, still doesn’t hold up to what came next in Dark Souls 3.
Dark Souls 2 doesn’t suffer for being an uninspired rehash of discarded idea for the first title (which is the only conceivable explanation for some pretty abhorrent encounter in the game), it still is a good game on its own but as a Dark Souls title it is unavoidable to compare make a comparison with the other iterations of the series and notice how it comes out utterly defeated. Those who want to play the game for the sake of completeness though should probably go for the Scholar of the First Sin, it has some improvement over the base game and it already includes the three DLCs, which by far had way more thought put into them than the main locations, in regards of bosses, maps, exploration and story.
2014
Dark Souls 2 plays very, very good. It has probably the worst hitboxes of the series, but that doesn’t undermine a combat system that expanded on what were already some pretty solid foundations and vastly improved each aspect. You can even wear four rings now, thank the Lord for that.
Unfortunately, if I had to recommend a Dark Souls game, I’d rather emphasize how much better the previous and the later chapter did every thing this game did well: Dark Souls 2 suffers from a lore which, overall, always feel more like a spin-off than a main chapter. Nothing major is added or explained regarding the Cycles except the fact that they exist, the characters inhabiting the world receive mostly the same build-up and contextualization of the first game but their feats and their importance is much less impressive compared to the first title; the environment shows some pretty variegated dungeons, especially in the DLCs, but still not as well thought and designed as the other two titles. Even the combat, the one thing it undoubtedly does better than the previous title, still doesn’t hold up to what came next in Dark Souls 3.
Dark Souls 2 doesn’t suffer for being an uninspired rehash of discarded idea for the first title (which is the only conceivable explanation for some pretty abhorrent encounter in the game), it still is a good game on its own but as a Dark Souls title it is unavoidable to compare make a comparison with the other iterations of the series and notice how it comes out utterly defeated. Those who want to play the game for the sake of completeness though should probably go for the Scholar of the First Sin, it has some improvement over the base game and it already includes the three DLCs, which by far had way more thought put into them than the main locations, in regards of bosses, maps, exploration and story.
Unfortunately, if I had to recommend a Dark Souls game, I’d rather emphasize how much better the previous and the later chapter did every thing this game did well: Dark Souls 2 suffers from a lore which, overall, always feel more like a spin-off than a main chapter. Nothing major is added or explained regarding the Cycles except the fact that they exist, the characters inhabiting the world receive mostly the same build-up and contextualization of the first game but their feats and their importance is much less impressive compared to the first title; the environment shows some pretty variegated dungeons, especially in the DLCs, but still not as well thought and designed as the other two titles. Even the combat, the one thing it undoubtedly does better than the previous title, still doesn’t hold up to what came next in Dark Souls 3.
Dark Souls 2 doesn’t suffer for being an uninspired rehash of discarded idea for the first title (which is the only conceivable explanation for some pretty abhorrent encounter in the game), it still is a good game on its own but as a Dark Souls title it is unavoidable to compare make a comparison with the other iterations of the series and notice how it comes out utterly defeated. Those who want to play the game for the sake of completeness though should probably go for the Scholar of the First Sin, it has some improvement over the base game and it already includes the three DLCs, which by far had way more thought put into them than the main locations, in regards of bosses, maps, exploration and story.
2007
This is going to be an impression for the whole first Mass Effect Trilogy, and I say first because yeah, Andromeda did happen after all, didn’t it…? I’m also going to address the elephant in the room right from the beginning so those of you strongly opposed to my viewpoint can avoid wasting their time: I like Mass Effect 3, a lot, in fact is probably my favourite chapter of the series. Now that that’s out the way, let’s begin, I’m going to split my opinion in two different trances, Mass Effect as a game and Mass Effect as a story, for the sake of order.
Mass Effect as a game became in 2007, as a kind of tactical cover shooter RPG by BioWare and, to be completely fair, the first time I played it I didn’t really like it. In fact, even on later playthroughs, where I wanted to get as much score as possible to start the second game with a decent character, I’ve never been charmed by it: as a game, it was just clunky, Shepard’s movement where so damn rigid, the weapons worked poorly for my liking and exploring planets was such a chore, with a vehicle that loved getting stuck everywhere, a giant random worm able to one-shot my crew, buildings, mines and enemies were copied and pasted on different environments. Let’s not forget about infinite elevators loading screens, a plot that was mostly a prologue with 10% actual story and the rest badly written infodumping about the galaxy, the events and the different alien species. For once I would've not minded having to read an encyclopaedia about this information if that would’ve meant a better plot but still, this chapter is just a sort of prologue after all.
Mass Effect 2, a couple years later, took what we already knew of the galaxy and the characters and, since any explanation was already dealt with and out of the way, we kick right into the plot. The game is fast-paced, the action and the cover system smoother, the weapons works better and there are more choices to be made about the arsenal. The mining is annoying, I know, but if you take the simplest effort of spending a total of two to three hours mining for playthrough you’ll get for the rest of a 40 plus hours game all the upgrades. The environments are more inspired, there’s more variety in the side missions, the characters work better in context and now seem to be able to act and think without you holding their hands. Also, the main quest is definitely the high point of the series, a huge, meticulous build-up to one of the most thrilling finale ever seen in a game (despite being a cliff-hanger).
Mass Effect 3 had many issues, I won’t deny that for a second. The combat is now a complete action game but considering the mechanics and the pacing is definitely better this way, weapons’ customization is lacking but functional, same as for the different armours. Mining and space exploration are less of a chore but still busy work, environments and fighting arena are a mixed bag between beautiful inspired locations and some open area with random covers. The choice system now is barebone, the war resource system is pointless, everyone makes jokes on the ending since 2012, there’s plenty to dislike. The reason I so liked this chapter, first and foremost, is because after some ‘emergency’ DLC and expansion BioWare managed to make the story and the finale make more sense, and albeit many still think it’s unsatisfactory I found the reasoning behind the Reapers’ plot acceptable. Not that I was much into the Reapers’ menace in the first place, the whole ‘Big evil things coming to destroy us all’ tale is too old and in this case done too stereotypically to intrigue me. What always sold me about the series since its beginnings were the characters, which brings me to the Mass Effect story part.
The plot behind Mass Effect is pretty standard fare but still effective: after humanity opened its borders to space exploration, met and had sporadic fight with alien races, took part in the council governing the galaxy and making a name for themselves in the universe, everything seems to be peachy and peaceful. That’s why you play as an elite trained soldier, to maintain this peace, kind of. Of course, everything goes wrong because suddenly a mysterious menace threatens the galaxy, you are the only one who knows and your teammates the only ones who believe you. You meet and recruit new people, you can have sexy times with some of them, then you defeat the agent of the evil guys and cliff-hanger, pay for the sequel. The plot up to now had some pretty decent moment, Noveria, Virmire and Ilos were nice, but nothing really stood out.
Now, when the plot kicks in during the sequel, the juicy stuff happens: now the scale is bigger, the galaxy you explore is bigger, every character that was tolerable in the previous title now has developed a great personality and new characters are pretty fascinating themselves: no names are needed but I can’t imagine my experience with this game would’ve been the same without charismatic companions such as Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex when he shows up, Jack, Thane, Legion, Zaheed, Kasumi, and why not, even the remaining ones are pretty cool. The stakes are now clearer, you know what and why you are fighting, you have a precise objective and despite traversing through many tangents (mostly to spend some quality time helping your squad mates) and the final suicide mission is pure gold.
The third chapter does not do what everyone expected, which is to solve the galaxy crisis and give a personal, satisfying conclusion depending on your playstyle, yet it does what I expected, or rather what I wanted: it wrapped up my teammates side stories, that’s what it was for me. As Shepard said while discussing his motivations for fighting the Reapers (and definitely not because the dialogue option I chose), he does all of this for the people he cares for, and in my opinion those people received plenty of justice from this game. They are treated and left as friends, they gave him a hand and in return he held all of them close, the final salutes to them were when I realized how much epic the journey with them was. I mean, if you really played through Tuchanka and felt nothing of it, you are wrong, period. Not to mention all the nice little quirks and things BioWare put into this just for the fans: the Citadel DLC was absolutely hilarious and a long, spot on reference to the series highlights.
Mass Effect for me meant the thrill ride I got from missions and characters interactions, like watching a really long action movie with spectacular production values and where the events and the protagonist go exactly how you want them too. I loved playing times and times again and every time my choices would be almost the same because how immersive the campaign was for me, and I’m sure even in the future I’d replicate for the nth time the same, identical, long play of Shepard, the kind of a prick Jesus of the galaxy.
Mass Effect as a game became in 2007, as a kind of tactical cover shooter RPG by BioWare and, to be completely fair, the first time I played it I didn’t really like it. In fact, even on later playthroughs, where I wanted to get as much score as possible to start the second game with a decent character, I’ve never been charmed by it: as a game, it was just clunky, Shepard’s movement where so damn rigid, the weapons worked poorly for my liking and exploring planets was such a chore, with a vehicle that loved getting stuck everywhere, a giant random worm able to one-shot my crew, buildings, mines and enemies were copied and pasted on different environments. Let’s not forget about infinite elevators loading screens, a plot that was mostly a prologue with 10% actual story and the rest badly written infodumping about the galaxy, the events and the different alien species. For once I would've not minded having to read an encyclopaedia about this information if that would’ve meant a better plot but still, this chapter is just a sort of prologue after all.
Mass Effect 2, a couple years later, took what we already knew of the galaxy and the characters and, since any explanation was already dealt with and out of the way, we kick right into the plot. The game is fast-paced, the action and the cover system smoother, the weapons works better and there are more choices to be made about the arsenal. The mining is annoying, I know, but if you take the simplest effort of spending a total of two to three hours mining for playthrough you’ll get for the rest of a 40 plus hours game all the upgrades. The environments are more inspired, there’s more variety in the side missions, the characters work better in context and now seem to be able to act and think without you holding their hands. Also, the main quest is definitely the high point of the series, a huge, meticulous build-up to one of the most thrilling finale ever seen in a game (despite being a cliff-hanger).
Mass Effect 3 had many issues, I won’t deny that for a second. The combat is now a complete action game but considering the mechanics and the pacing is definitely better this way, weapons’ customization is lacking but functional, same as for the different armours. Mining and space exploration are less of a chore but still busy work, environments and fighting arena are a mixed bag between beautiful inspired locations and some open area with random covers. The choice system now is barebone, the war resource system is pointless, everyone makes jokes on the ending since 2012, there’s plenty to dislike. The reason I so liked this chapter, first and foremost, is because after some ‘emergency’ DLC and expansion BioWare managed to make the story and the finale make more sense, and albeit many still think it’s unsatisfactory I found the reasoning behind the Reapers’ plot acceptable. Not that I was much into the Reapers’ menace in the first place, the whole ‘Big evil things coming to destroy us all’ tale is too old and in this case done too stereotypically to intrigue me. What always sold me about the series since its beginnings were the characters, which brings me to the Mass Effect story part.
The plot behind Mass Effect is pretty standard fare but still effective: after humanity opened its borders to space exploration, met and had sporadic fight with alien races, took part in the council governing the galaxy and making a name for themselves in the universe, everything seems to be peachy and peaceful. That’s why you play as an elite trained soldier, to maintain this peace, kind of. Of course, everything goes wrong because suddenly a mysterious menace threatens the galaxy, you are the only one who knows and your teammates the only ones who believe you. You meet and recruit new people, you can have sexy times with some of them, then you defeat the agent of the evil guys and cliff-hanger, pay for the sequel. The plot up to now had some pretty decent moment, Noveria, Virmire and Ilos were nice, but nothing really stood out.
Now, when the plot kicks in during the sequel, the juicy stuff happens: now the scale is bigger, the galaxy you explore is bigger, every character that was tolerable in the previous title now has developed a great personality and new characters are pretty fascinating themselves: no names are needed but I can’t imagine my experience with this game would’ve been the same without charismatic companions such as Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex when he shows up, Jack, Thane, Legion, Zaheed, Kasumi, and why not, even the remaining ones are pretty cool. The stakes are now clearer, you know what and why you are fighting, you have a precise objective and despite traversing through many tangents (mostly to spend some quality time helping your squad mates) and the final suicide mission is pure gold.
The third chapter does not do what everyone expected, which is to solve the galaxy crisis and give a personal, satisfying conclusion depending on your playstyle, yet it does what I expected, or rather what I wanted: it wrapped up my teammates side stories, that’s what it was for me. As Shepard said while discussing his motivations for fighting the Reapers (and definitely not because the dialogue option I chose), he does all of this for the people he cares for, and in my opinion those people received plenty of justice from this game. They are treated and left as friends, they gave him a hand and in return he held all of them close, the final salutes to them were when I realized how much epic the journey with them was. I mean, if you really played through Tuchanka and felt nothing of it, you are wrong, period. Not to mention all the nice little quirks and things BioWare put into this just for the fans: the Citadel DLC was absolutely hilarious and a long, spot on reference to the series highlights.
Mass Effect for me meant the thrill ride I got from missions and characters interactions, like watching a really long action movie with spectacular production values and where the events and the protagonist go exactly how you want them too. I loved playing times and times again and every time my choices would be almost the same because how immersive the campaign was for me, and I’m sure even in the future I’d replicate for the nth time the same, identical, long play of Shepard, the kind of a prick Jesus of the galaxy.
2010
This is going to be an impression for the whole first Mass Effect Trilogy, and I say first because yeah, Andromeda did happen after all, didn’t it…? I’m also going to address the elephant in the room right from the beginning so those of you strongly opposed to my viewpoint can avoid wasting their time: I like Mass Effect 3, a lot, in fact is probably my favourite chapter of the series. Now that that’s out the way, let’s begin, I’m going to split my opinion in two different trances, Mass Effect as a game and Mass Effect as a story, for the sake of order.
Mass Effect as a game became in 2007, as a kind of tactical cover shooter RPG by BioWare and, to be completely fair, the first time I played it I didn’t really like it. In fact, even on later playthroughs, where I wanted to get as much score as possible to start the second game with a decent character, I’ve never been charmed by it: as a game, it was just clunky, Shepard’s movement where so damn rigid, the weapons worked poorly for my liking and exploring planets was such a chore, with a vehicle that loved getting stuck everywhere, a giant random worm able to one-shot my crew, buildings, mines and enemies were copied and pasted on different environments. Let’s not forget about infinite elevators loading screens, a plot that was mostly a prologue with 10% actual story and the rest badly written infodumping about the galaxy, the events and the different alien species. For once I would've not minded having to read an encyclopaedia about this information if that would’ve meant a better plot but still, this chapter is just a sort of prologue after all.
Mass Effect 2, a couple years later, took what we already knew of the galaxy and the characters and, since any explanation was already dealt with and out of the way, we kick right into the plot. The game is fast-paced, the action and the cover system smoother, the weapons works better and there are more choices to be made about the arsenal. The mining is annoying, I know, but if you take the simplest effort of spending a total of two to three hours mining for playthrough you’ll get for the rest of a 40 plus hours game all the upgrades. The environments are more inspired, there’s more variety in the side missions, the characters work better in context and now seem to be able to act and think without you holding their hands. Also, the main quest is definitely the high point of the series, a huge, meticulous build-up to one of the most thrilling finale ever seen in a game (despite being a cliff-hanger).
Mass Effect 3 had many issues, I won’t deny that for a second. The combat is now a complete action game but considering the mechanics and the pacing is definitely better this way, weapons’ customization is lacking but functional, same as for the different armours. Mining and space exploration are less of a chore but still busy work, environments and fighting arena are a mixed bag between beautiful inspired locations and some open area with random covers. The choice system now is barebone, the war resource system is pointless, everyone makes jokes on the ending since 2012, there’s plenty to dislike. The reason I so liked this chapter, first and foremost, is because after some ‘emergency’ DLC and expansion BioWare managed to make the story and the finale make more sense, and albeit many still think it’s unsatisfactory I found the reasoning behind the Reapers’ plot acceptable. Not that I was much into the Reapers’ menace in the first place, the whole ‘Big evil things coming to destroy us all’ tale is too old and in this case done too stereotypically to intrigue me. What always sold me about the series since its beginnings were the characters, which brings me to the Mass Effect story part.
The plot behind Mass Effect is pretty standard fare but still effective: after humanity opened its borders to space exploration, met and had sporadic fight with alien races, took part in the council governing the galaxy and making a name for themselves in the universe, everything seems to be peachy and peaceful. That’s why you play as an elite trained soldier, to maintain this peace, kind of. Of course, everything goes wrong because suddenly a mysterious menace threatens the galaxy, you are the only one who knows and your teammates the only ones who believe you. You meet and recruit new people, you can have sexy times with some of them, then you defeat the agent of the evil guys and cliff-hanger, pay for the sequel. The plot up to now had some pretty decent moment, Noveria, Virmire and Ilos were nice, but nothing really stood out.
Now, when the plot kicks in during the sequel, the juicy stuff happens: now the scale is bigger, the galaxy you explore is bigger, every character that was tolerable in the previous title now has developed a great personality and new characters are pretty fascinating themselves: no names are needed but I can’t imagine my experience with this game would’ve been the same without charismatic companions such as Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex when he shows up, Jack, Thane, Legion, Zaheed, Kasumi, and why not, even the remaining ones are pretty cool. The stakes are now clearer, you know what and why you are fighting, you have a precise objective and despite traversing through many tangents (mostly to spend some quality time helping your squad mates) and the final suicide mission is pure gold.
The third chapter does not do what everyone expected, which is to solve the galaxy crisis and give a personal, satisfying conclusion depending on your playstyle, yet it does what I expected, or rather what I wanted: it wrapped up my teammates side stories, that’s what it was for me. As Shepard said while discussing his motivations for fighting the Reapers (and definitely not because the dialogue option I chose), he does all of this for the people he cares for, and in my opinion those people received plenty of justice from this game. They are treated and left as friends, they gave him a hand and in return he held all of them close, the final salutes to them were when I realized how much epic the journey with them was. I mean, if you really played through Tuchanka and felt nothing of it, you are wrong, period. Not to mention all the nice little quirks and things BioWare put into this just for the fans: the Citadel DLC was absolutely hilarious and a long, spot on reference to the series highlights.
Mass Effect for me meant the thrill ride I got from missions and characters interactions, like watching a really long action movie with spectacular production values and where the events and the protagonist go exactly how you want them too. I loved playing times and times again and every time my choices would be almost the same because how immersive the campaign was for me, and I’m sure even in the future I’d replicate for the nth time the same, identical, long play of Shepard, the kind of a prick Jesus of the galaxy.
Mass Effect as a game became in 2007, as a kind of tactical cover shooter RPG by BioWare and, to be completely fair, the first time I played it I didn’t really like it. In fact, even on later playthroughs, where I wanted to get as much score as possible to start the second game with a decent character, I’ve never been charmed by it: as a game, it was just clunky, Shepard’s movement where so damn rigid, the weapons worked poorly for my liking and exploring planets was such a chore, with a vehicle that loved getting stuck everywhere, a giant random worm able to one-shot my crew, buildings, mines and enemies were copied and pasted on different environments. Let’s not forget about infinite elevators loading screens, a plot that was mostly a prologue with 10% actual story and the rest badly written infodumping about the galaxy, the events and the different alien species. For once I would've not minded having to read an encyclopaedia about this information if that would’ve meant a better plot but still, this chapter is just a sort of prologue after all.
Mass Effect 2, a couple years later, took what we already knew of the galaxy and the characters and, since any explanation was already dealt with and out of the way, we kick right into the plot. The game is fast-paced, the action and the cover system smoother, the weapons works better and there are more choices to be made about the arsenal. The mining is annoying, I know, but if you take the simplest effort of spending a total of two to three hours mining for playthrough you’ll get for the rest of a 40 plus hours game all the upgrades. The environments are more inspired, there’s more variety in the side missions, the characters work better in context and now seem to be able to act and think without you holding their hands. Also, the main quest is definitely the high point of the series, a huge, meticulous build-up to one of the most thrilling finale ever seen in a game (despite being a cliff-hanger).
Mass Effect 3 had many issues, I won’t deny that for a second. The combat is now a complete action game but considering the mechanics and the pacing is definitely better this way, weapons’ customization is lacking but functional, same as for the different armours. Mining and space exploration are less of a chore but still busy work, environments and fighting arena are a mixed bag between beautiful inspired locations and some open area with random covers. The choice system now is barebone, the war resource system is pointless, everyone makes jokes on the ending since 2012, there’s plenty to dislike. The reason I so liked this chapter, first and foremost, is because after some ‘emergency’ DLC and expansion BioWare managed to make the story and the finale make more sense, and albeit many still think it’s unsatisfactory I found the reasoning behind the Reapers’ plot acceptable. Not that I was much into the Reapers’ menace in the first place, the whole ‘Big evil things coming to destroy us all’ tale is too old and in this case done too stereotypically to intrigue me. What always sold me about the series since its beginnings were the characters, which brings me to the Mass Effect story part.
The plot behind Mass Effect is pretty standard fare but still effective: after humanity opened its borders to space exploration, met and had sporadic fight with alien races, took part in the council governing the galaxy and making a name for themselves in the universe, everything seems to be peachy and peaceful. That’s why you play as an elite trained soldier, to maintain this peace, kind of. Of course, everything goes wrong because suddenly a mysterious menace threatens the galaxy, you are the only one who knows and your teammates the only ones who believe you. You meet and recruit new people, you can have sexy times with some of them, then you defeat the agent of the evil guys and cliff-hanger, pay for the sequel. The plot up to now had some pretty decent moment, Noveria, Virmire and Ilos were nice, but nothing really stood out.
Now, when the plot kicks in during the sequel, the juicy stuff happens: now the scale is bigger, the galaxy you explore is bigger, every character that was tolerable in the previous title now has developed a great personality and new characters are pretty fascinating themselves: no names are needed but I can’t imagine my experience with this game would’ve been the same without charismatic companions such as Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex when he shows up, Jack, Thane, Legion, Zaheed, Kasumi, and why not, even the remaining ones are pretty cool. The stakes are now clearer, you know what and why you are fighting, you have a precise objective and despite traversing through many tangents (mostly to spend some quality time helping your squad mates) and the final suicide mission is pure gold.
The third chapter does not do what everyone expected, which is to solve the galaxy crisis and give a personal, satisfying conclusion depending on your playstyle, yet it does what I expected, or rather what I wanted: it wrapped up my teammates side stories, that’s what it was for me. As Shepard said while discussing his motivations for fighting the Reapers (and definitely not because the dialogue option I chose), he does all of this for the people he cares for, and in my opinion those people received plenty of justice from this game. They are treated and left as friends, they gave him a hand and in return he held all of them close, the final salutes to them were when I realized how much epic the journey with them was. I mean, if you really played through Tuchanka and felt nothing of it, you are wrong, period. Not to mention all the nice little quirks and things BioWare put into this just for the fans: the Citadel DLC was absolutely hilarious and a long, spot on reference to the series highlights.
Mass Effect for me meant the thrill ride I got from missions and characters interactions, like watching a really long action movie with spectacular production values and where the events and the protagonist go exactly how you want them too. I loved playing times and times again and every time my choices would be almost the same because how immersive the campaign was for me, and I’m sure even in the future I’d replicate for the nth time the same, identical, long play of Shepard, the kind of a prick Jesus of the galaxy.
2012
This is going to be an impression for the whole first Mass Effect Trilogy, and I say first because yeah, Andromeda did happen after all, didn’t it…? I’m also going to address the elephant in the room right from the beginning so those of you strongly opposed to my viewpoint can avoid wasting their time: I like Mass Effect 3, a lot, in fact is probably my favourite chapter of the series. Now that that’s out the way, let’s begin, I’m going to split my opinion in two different trances, Mass Effect as a game and Mass Effect as a story, for the sake of order.
Mass Effect as a game became in 2007, as a kind of tactical cover shooter RPG by BioWare and, to be completely fair, the first time I played it I didn’t really like it. In fact, even on later playthroughs, where I wanted to get as much score as possible to start the second game with a decent character, I’ve never been charmed by it: as a game, it was just clunky, Shepard’s movement where so damn rigid, the weapons worked poorly for my liking and exploring planets was such a chore, with a vehicle that loved getting stuck everywhere, a giant random worm able to one-shot my crew, buildings, mines and enemies were copied and pasted on different environments. Let’s not forget about infinite elevators loading screens, a plot that was mostly a prologue with 10% actual story and the rest badly written infodumping about the galaxy, the events and the different alien species. For once I would've not minded having to read an encyclopaedia about this information if that would’ve meant a better plot but still, this chapter is just a sort of prologue after all.
Mass Effect 2, a couple years later, took what we already knew of the galaxy and the characters and, since any explanation was already dealt with and out of the way, we kick right into the plot. The game is fast-paced, the action and the cover system smoother, the weapons works better and there are more choices to be made about the arsenal. The mining is annoying, I know, but if you take the simplest effort of spending a total of two to three hours mining for playthrough you’ll get for the rest of a 40 plus hours game all the upgrades. The environments are more inspired, there’s more variety in the side missions, the characters work better in context and now seem to be able to act and think without you holding their hands. Also, the main quest is definitely the high point of the series, a huge, meticulous build-up to one of the most thrilling finale ever seen in a game (despite being a cliff-hanger).
Mass Effect 3 had many issues, I won’t deny that for a second. The combat is now a complete action game but considering the mechanics and the pacing is definitely better this way, weapons’ customization is lacking but functional, same as for the different armours. Mining and space exploration are less of a chore but still busy work, environments and fighting arena are a mixed bag between beautiful inspired locations and some open area with random covers. The choice system now is barebone, the war resource system is pointless, everyone makes jokes on the ending since 2012, there’s plenty to dislike. The reason I so liked this chapter, first and foremost, is because after some ‘emergency’ DLC and expansion BioWare managed to make the story and the finale make more sense, and albeit many still think it’s unsatisfactory I found the reasoning behind the Reapers’ plot acceptable. Not that I was much into the Reapers’ menace in the first place, the whole ‘Big evil things coming to destroy us all’ tale is too old and in this case done too stereotypically to intrigue me. What always sold me about the series since its beginnings were the characters, which brings me to the Mass Effect story part.
The plot behind Mass Effect is pretty standard fare but still effective: after humanity opened its borders to space exploration, met and had sporadic fight with alien races, took part in the council governing the galaxy and making a name for themselves in the universe, everything seems to be peachy and peaceful. That’s why you play as an elite trained soldier, to maintain this peace, kind of. Of course, everything goes wrong because suddenly a mysterious menace threatens the galaxy, you are the only one who knows and your teammates the only ones who believe you. You meet and recruit new people, you can have sexy times with some of them, then you defeat the agent of the evil guys and cliff-hanger, pay for the sequel. The plot up to now had some pretty decent moment, Noveria, Virmire and Ilos were nice, but nothing really stood out.
Now, when the plot kicks in during the sequel, the juicy stuff happens: now the scale is bigger, the galaxy you explore is bigger, every character that was tolerable in the previous title now has developed a great personality and new characters are pretty fascinating themselves: no names are needed but I can’t imagine my experience with this game would’ve been the same without charismatic companions such as Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex when he shows up, Jack, Thane, Legion, Zaheed, Kasumi, and why not, even the remaining ones are pretty cool. The stakes are now clearer, you know what and why you are fighting, you have a precise objective and despite traversing through many tangents (mostly to spend some quality time helping your squad mates) and the final suicide mission is pure gold.
The third chapter does not do what everyone expected, which is to solve the galaxy crisis and give a personal, satisfying conclusion depending on your playstyle, yet it does what I expected, or rather what I wanted: it wrapped up my teammates side stories, that’s what it was for me. As Shepard said while discussing his motivations for fighting the Reapers (and definitely not because the dialogue option I chose), he does all of this for the people he cares for, and in my opinion those people received plenty of justice from this game. They are treated and left as friends, they gave him a hand and in return he held all of them close, the final salutes to them were when I realized how much epic the journey with them was. I mean, if you really played through Tuchanka and felt nothing of it, you are wrong, period. Not to mention all the nice little quirks and things BioWare put into this just for the fans: the Citadel DLC was absolutely hilarious and a long, spot on reference to the series highlights.
Mass Effect for me meant the thrill ride I got from missions and characters interactions, like watching a really long action movie with spectacular production values and where the events and the protagonist go exactly how you want them too. I loved playing times and times again and every time my choices would be almost the same because how immersive the campaign was for me, and I’m sure even in the future I’d replicate for the nth time the same, identical, long play of Shepard, the kind of a prick Jesus of the galaxy.
Mass Effect as a game became in 2007, as a kind of tactical cover shooter RPG by BioWare and, to be completely fair, the first time I played it I didn’t really like it. In fact, even on later playthroughs, where I wanted to get as much score as possible to start the second game with a decent character, I’ve never been charmed by it: as a game, it was just clunky, Shepard’s movement where so damn rigid, the weapons worked poorly for my liking and exploring planets was such a chore, with a vehicle that loved getting stuck everywhere, a giant random worm able to one-shot my crew, buildings, mines and enemies were copied and pasted on different environments. Let’s not forget about infinite elevators loading screens, a plot that was mostly a prologue with 10% actual story and the rest badly written infodumping about the galaxy, the events and the different alien species. For once I would've not minded having to read an encyclopaedia about this information if that would’ve meant a better plot but still, this chapter is just a sort of prologue after all.
Mass Effect 2, a couple years later, took what we already knew of the galaxy and the characters and, since any explanation was already dealt with and out of the way, we kick right into the plot. The game is fast-paced, the action and the cover system smoother, the weapons works better and there are more choices to be made about the arsenal. The mining is annoying, I know, but if you take the simplest effort of spending a total of two to three hours mining for playthrough you’ll get for the rest of a 40 plus hours game all the upgrades. The environments are more inspired, there’s more variety in the side missions, the characters work better in context and now seem to be able to act and think without you holding their hands. Also, the main quest is definitely the high point of the series, a huge, meticulous build-up to one of the most thrilling finale ever seen in a game (despite being a cliff-hanger).
Mass Effect 3 had many issues, I won’t deny that for a second. The combat is now a complete action game but considering the mechanics and the pacing is definitely better this way, weapons’ customization is lacking but functional, same as for the different armours. Mining and space exploration are less of a chore but still busy work, environments and fighting arena are a mixed bag between beautiful inspired locations and some open area with random covers. The choice system now is barebone, the war resource system is pointless, everyone makes jokes on the ending since 2012, there’s plenty to dislike. The reason I so liked this chapter, first and foremost, is because after some ‘emergency’ DLC and expansion BioWare managed to make the story and the finale make more sense, and albeit many still think it’s unsatisfactory I found the reasoning behind the Reapers’ plot acceptable. Not that I was much into the Reapers’ menace in the first place, the whole ‘Big evil things coming to destroy us all’ tale is too old and in this case done too stereotypically to intrigue me. What always sold me about the series since its beginnings were the characters, which brings me to the Mass Effect story part.
The plot behind Mass Effect is pretty standard fare but still effective: after humanity opened its borders to space exploration, met and had sporadic fight with alien races, took part in the council governing the galaxy and making a name for themselves in the universe, everything seems to be peachy and peaceful. That’s why you play as an elite trained soldier, to maintain this peace, kind of. Of course, everything goes wrong because suddenly a mysterious menace threatens the galaxy, you are the only one who knows and your teammates the only ones who believe you. You meet and recruit new people, you can have sexy times with some of them, then you defeat the agent of the evil guys and cliff-hanger, pay for the sequel. The plot up to now had some pretty decent moment, Noveria, Virmire and Ilos were nice, but nothing really stood out.
Now, when the plot kicks in during the sequel, the juicy stuff happens: now the scale is bigger, the galaxy you explore is bigger, every character that was tolerable in the previous title now has developed a great personality and new characters are pretty fascinating themselves: no names are needed but I can’t imagine my experience with this game would’ve been the same without charismatic companions such as Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Grunt, Wrex when he shows up, Jack, Thane, Legion, Zaheed, Kasumi, and why not, even the remaining ones are pretty cool. The stakes are now clearer, you know what and why you are fighting, you have a precise objective and despite traversing through many tangents (mostly to spend some quality time helping your squad mates) and the final suicide mission is pure gold.
The third chapter does not do what everyone expected, which is to solve the galaxy crisis and give a personal, satisfying conclusion depending on your playstyle, yet it does what I expected, or rather what I wanted: it wrapped up my teammates side stories, that’s what it was for me. As Shepard said while discussing his motivations for fighting the Reapers (and definitely not because the dialogue option I chose), he does all of this for the people he cares for, and in my opinion those people received plenty of justice from this game. They are treated and left as friends, they gave him a hand and in return he held all of them close, the final salutes to them were when I realized how much epic the journey with them was. I mean, if you really played through Tuchanka and felt nothing of it, you are wrong, period. Not to mention all the nice little quirks and things BioWare put into this just for the fans: the Citadel DLC was absolutely hilarious and a long, spot on reference to the series highlights.
Mass Effect for me meant the thrill ride I got from missions and characters interactions, like watching a really long action movie with spectacular production values and where the events and the protagonist go exactly how you want them too. I loved playing times and times again and every time my choices would be almost the same because how immersive the campaign was for me, and I’m sure even in the future I’d replicate for the nth time the same, identical, long play of Shepard, the kind of a prick Jesus of the galaxy.
2009
Mother of all recent D&D High Fantasy, Dragon Age Origins is what made me discover the genre years ago and by this day I still haven’t found something similar to it that could impress me in the same way. The campaign story is familiar but functional, you play as a warrior who has to recruit multiple companions and armies to deal with the evil hordes threatening the world at large. There are elves, dwarves, orcs, dogs, mages and brothels. Welcome to writing cliched fantasy 101.
What made the predictable story interesting is how Origins has the last and probably one the best choices and consequences system of any BioWare game, or RPG game in general for that matter. Dialogues are interesting because you are often given many possible lines to choose from to expand your character and your relationships just like in more retro games and, even if the world is pretty bland and the lore is too huge to properly understand without taking a week off to study every tome you find, the companions are funny and compelling enough to make you want to explore more, hear more banters and deal some more deathblows to giant Ogres by gouging their heads with your sword.
The combat is a nice mix of CRPG tactics with a third person visual that makes you feel more ‘inside’ the action rather than an almighty but detatched God witnessing it all from the ceiling. The chance to change the camera from isometric to third person was hugely helpful both for strategic and for cinematic reasons: have you ever wanted to ride a Dragon head while dealing multiple blows to it? Boy, who wouldn't.
The world is composed by a huge overall map of the region, called Ferelden, and multiple icons composing the explorable locations. There is no open world to speak of and my most sincere thanks for it, it sure helps never getting side tracked or lost. In fact, going from north to south, from east to west, meeting different people and different races the game provides you with a diversified, multicoloured land to explore and discover, with beautiful landscapes and average looking cities, but never giving you the feeling of being completely lost as per where to go. It’s never going to take the effort to do anything original with the setting though, you might as well change the name to Middle-Earth and everything would still make perfect sense as a Lord of the Rings game.
Dragon Age Origins, as the most memorable efforts from BioWare, is better to be remembered for the incredible cast of memorable and loveable characters: Morrigan, Oghren, Shale, Sten, Leliana even if she was a skank sometimes, Alistair and so on. This is a Fellowship of the ring I would’ve loved to be part of.
What made the predictable story interesting is how Origins has the last and probably one the best choices and consequences system of any BioWare game, or RPG game in general for that matter. Dialogues are interesting because you are often given many possible lines to choose from to expand your character and your relationships just like in more retro games and, even if the world is pretty bland and the lore is too huge to properly understand without taking a week off to study every tome you find, the companions are funny and compelling enough to make you want to explore more, hear more banters and deal some more deathblows to giant Ogres by gouging their heads with your sword.
The combat is a nice mix of CRPG tactics with a third person visual that makes you feel more ‘inside’ the action rather than an almighty but detatched God witnessing it all from the ceiling. The chance to change the camera from isometric to third person was hugely helpful both for strategic and for cinematic reasons: have you ever wanted to ride a Dragon head while dealing multiple blows to it? Boy, who wouldn't.
The world is composed by a huge overall map of the region, called Ferelden, and multiple icons composing the explorable locations. There is no open world to speak of and my most sincere thanks for it, it sure helps never getting side tracked or lost. In fact, going from north to south, from east to west, meeting different people and different races the game provides you with a diversified, multicoloured land to explore and discover, with beautiful landscapes and average looking cities, but never giving you the feeling of being completely lost as per where to go. It’s never going to take the effort to do anything original with the setting though, you might as well change the name to Middle-Earth and everything would still make perfect sense as a Lord of the Rings game.
Dragon Age Origins, as the most memorable efforts from BioWare, is better to be remembered for the incredible cast of memorable and loveable characters: Morrigan, Oghren, Shale, Sten, Leliana even if she was a skank sometimes, Alistair and so on. This is a Fellowship of the ring I would’ve loved to be part of.
2012
When you complete a game marketed mainly as a co-op game in solo, three times, DLCs included, you know that game did something right. For me, the good thing was the hilariousness.
Borderlands 2 plays as few First-person shooter did in my life, because it tried to give its world and campaign the huge plot of a modern AAA video game but while retaining all the weird self-irony of retro shooters like Quake and Doom: the bad guy is planning to use an ancient power to conquer the world and make a huge profit out of it and, to prove how evil he is, he calls you over the phone and starts calling you names. Your reward for a quest is a, predictable but underwhelming, gun? Ok, sorry, how about we make it a gun which shoots swords? Still not enough? Fine, then a gun that shoots swords exploding on impact, and then split in multiple swords that again explode on impact. Are you not entertained yet?
When I started to die because my hands were trembling too much from laughter, Borderlands 2 became a great video game.
The plot and the characters are cliché and stupid, but they make fun of their own clichés and stupidity. They make jokes on the silent protagonist trope, which is you by the way, seemingly there is not a single thing important enough that the game won’t find some way to make fun of itself, and it never ceases even in the expansions, which might have even more quality content than the main game regarding the script writing.
Whilst, regarding the gameplay, you have an endless arsenal of colourful, powerful weapons to choose from. Shoots from the distance, shoots from decent range, shoots from point-blank for maximum blood and comedic effect, just remember to shoot and everything else will take care of itself, probably by cracking a joke after the fight. Enjoy yourself as you are obliterated by super Bosses that drop the ultimate loot, invincible guns with hilariously broken effects, and have fun getting nothing useful because the drop rates are atrocious. MMO-like loot systems are fun, aren’t they?
The game gets tiring after playing the same scenarios and killing the same monsters time and time again, yet for the time it will take you to reach that stage the ride is going to be absolutely worthy the ticket price.
Borderlands 2 plays as few First-person shooter did in my life, because it tried to give its world and campaign the huge plot of a modern AAA video game but while retaining all the weird self-irony of retro shooters like Quake and Doom: the bad guy is planning to use an ancient power to conquer the world and make a huge profit out of it and, to prove how evil he is, he calls you over the phone and starts calling you names. Your reward for a quest is a, predictable but underwhelming, gun? Ok, sorry, how about we make it a gun which shoots swords? Still not enough? Fine, then a gun that shoots swords exploding on impact, and then split in multiple swords that again explode on impact. Are you not entertained yet?
When I started to die because my hands were trembling too much from laughter, Borderlands 2 became a great video game.
The plot and the characters are cliché and stupid, but they make fun of their own clichés and stupidity. They make jokes on the silent protagonist trope, which is you by the way, seemingly there is not a single thing important enough that the game won’t find some way to make fun of itself, and it never ceases even in the expansions, which might have even more quality content than the main game regarding the script writing.
Whilst, regarding the gameplay, you have an endless arsenal of colourful, powerful weapons to choose from. Shoots from the distance, shoots from decent range, shoots from point-blank for maximum blood and comedic effect, just remember to shoot and everything else will take care of itself, probably by cracking a joke after the fight. Enjoy yourself as you are obliterated by super Bosses that drop the ultimate loot, invincible guns with hilariously broken effects, and have fun getting nothing useful because the drop rates are atrocious. MMO-like loot systems are fun, aren’t they?
The game gets tiring after playing the same scenarios and killing the same monsters time and time again, yet for the time it will take you to reach that stage the ride is going to be absolutely worthy the ticket price.
When you complete a game marketed mainly as a co-op game in solo, three times, DLCs included, you know that game did something right. For me, the good thing was the hilariousness.
Borderlands 2 plays as few First-person shooter did in my life, because it tried to give its world and campaign the huge plot of a modern AAA video game but while retaining all the weird self-irony of retro shooters like Quake and Doom: the bad guy is planning to use an ancient power to conquer the world and make a huge profit out of it and, to prove how evil he is, he calls you over the phone and starts calling you names. Your reward for a quest is a, predictable but underwhelming, gun? Ok, sorry, how about we make it a gun which shoots swords? Still not enough? Fine, then a gun that shoots swords exploding on impact, and then split in multiple swords that again explode on impact. Are you not entertained yet?
When I started to die because my hands were trembling too much from laughter, Borderlands 2 became a great video game.
The plot and the characters are cliché and stupid, but they make fun of their own clichés and stupidity. They make jokes on the silent protagonist trope, which is you by the way, seemingly there is not a single thing important enough that the game won’t find some way to make fun of itself, and it never ceases even in the expansions, which might have even more quality content than the main game regarding the script writing.
Whilst, regarding the gameplay, you have an endless arsenal of colourful, powerful weapons to choose from. Shoots from the distance, shoots from decent range, shoots from point-blank for maximum blood and comedic effect, just remember to shoot and everything else will take care of itself, probably by cracking a joke after the fight. Enjoy yourself as you are obliterated by super Bosses that drop the ultimate loot, invincible guns with hilariously broken effects, and have fun getting nothing useful because the drop rates are atrocious. MMO-like loot systems are fun, aren’t they?
The game gets tiring after playing the same scenarios and killing the same monsters time and time again, yet for the time it will take you to reach that stage the ride is going to be absolutely worthy the ticket price.
Borderlands 2 plays as few First-person shooter did in my life, because it tried to give its world and campaign the huge plot of a modern AAA video game but while retaining all the weird self-irony of retro shooters like Quake and Doom: the bad guy is planning to use an ancient power to conquer the world and make a huge profit out of it and, to prove how evil he is, he calls you over the phone and starts calling you names. Your reward for a quest is a, predictable but underwhelming, gun? Ok, sorry, how about we make it a gun which shoots swords? Still not enough? Fine, then a gun that shoots swords exploding on impact, and then split in multiple swords that again explode on impact. Are you not entertained yet?
When I started to die because my hands were trembling too much from laughter, Borderlands 2 became a great video game.
The plot and the characters are cliché and stupid, but they make fun of their own clichés and stupidity. They make jokes on the silent protagonist trope, which is you by the way, seemingly there is not a single thing important enough that the game won’t find some way to make fun of itself, and it never ceases even in the expansions, which might have even more quality content than the main game regarding the script writing.
Whilst, regarding the gameplay, you have an endless arsenal of colourful, powerful weapons to choose from. Shoots from the distance, shoots from decent range, shoots from point-blank for maximum blood and comedic effect, just remember to shoot and everything else will take care of itself, probably by cracking a joke after the fight. Enjoy yourself as you are obliterated by super Bosses that drop the ultimate loot, invincible guns with hilariously broken effects, and have fun getting nothing useful because the drop rates are atrocious. MMO-like loot systems are fun, aren’t they?
The game gets tiring after playing the same scenarios and killing the same monsters time and time again, yet for the time it will take you to reach that stage the ride is going to be absolutely worthy the ticket price.
2016
The conclusion to the Dark Souls trilogy is, in itself, a grey, emotionless, void travel where everything you learned from the previous games is now more dead and hopeless than ever. This time you are put again into a Cycle where you either choose the delay the unavoidable, to erase everything once and for all and put a stop to the madness which begun with the demise of the Ancient Dragons or even more possibilities that, as per usual, resolve in you not being able to change much into the matters of the world and the time. Feels good to be completely useless.
Generally speaking, the combat has vastly improved both on the mechanic side and the bug haunting it since forever (I personally had pretty much no problem with hitboxes in this chapter) and it is in its most complete state. Tons of weapons, tons of armours, tons of sorceries and miracles to play with; gear up and be ready to be brutally ploughed, again.
My main issue with a game that is probably the most beautiful and visually stunning in the series is that it’s still lacking on giving you the weight and greater sense of scope behind your quest: as I was exploring and traveling to deal with the same problems of the first game, with a slightly different spin on it this time, even if the intro portrayed the incoming doom of the world and who’s got a part in it (aka the guys you got to buttf*ck with a sword) I didn’t feel the “Oh, so that’s him, finally, that’s where you were” vibe of the first game. Famous characters lacked the build-up that made them intriguing and seemingly unreachable and impossible to understand in Lordran.
You are wandering around a castle, learning subtle clues about its Lord, but it never has the same atmosphere as, for example, strolling through the Duke Archives in the first Dark Souls and be swarmed by subtle visual clues and lore about Seath and what’s behind the madness which permeates his giant palace as well as his mind. I reached Archdragon Peak with no idea regarding what awaited me at the end, so even if I was surprised by the revelation I still didn’t feel the huge payoff of a more complex build-up in a more unknown but understandable domain.
Admittedly, in some cases it was a feeling you could hardly avoid: the build-up to Aldritch and the locations before reaching him were top-notch in terms of lore and revelations, the final boss was worth of the conclusion of the series and, speaking of personal favourites, Gael was the time of my life, both for how the fight was choreographed and for what he stood for as a character.
Also, the online is finally not-broken enough to have a jolly good time with your pals or just getting a helping hand if you have failed fifty times in a row trying to deal the first blow to certain sons of mothers I remember all too well for my first playthrough.
Generally speaking, the combat has vastly improved both on the mechanic side and the bug haunting it since forever (I personally had pretty much no problem with hitboxes in this chapter) and it is in its most complete state. Tons of weapons, tons of armours, tons of sorceries and miracles to play with; gear up and be ready to be brutally ploughed, again.
My main issue with a game that is probably the most beautiful and visually stunning in the series is that it’s still lacking on giving you the weight and greater sense of scope behind your quest: as I was exploring and traveling to deal with the same problems of the first game, with a slightly different spin on it this time, even if the intro portrayed the incoming doom of the world and who’s got a part in it (aka the guys you got to buttf*ck with a sword) I didn’t feel the “Oh, so that’s him, finally, that’s where you were” vibe of the first game. Famous characters lacked the build-up that made them intriguing and seemingly unreachable and impossible to understand in Lordran.
You are wandering around a castle, learning subtle clues about its Lord, but it never has the same atmosphere as, for example, strolling through the Duke Archives in the first Dark Souls and be swarmed by subtle visual clues and lore about Seath and what’s behind the madness which permeates his giant palace as well as his mind. I reached Archdragon Peak with no idea regarding what awaited me at the end, so even if I was surprised by the revelation I still didn’t feel the huge payoff of a more complex build-up in a more unknown but understandable domain.
Admittedly, in some cases it was a feeling you could hardly avoid: the build-up to Aldritch and the locations before reaching him were top-notch in terms of lore and revelations, the final boss was worth of the conclusion of the series and, speaking of personal favourites, Gael was the time of my life, both for how the fight was choreographed and for what he stood for as a character.
Also, the online is finally not-broken enough to have a jolly good time with your pals or just getting a helping hand if you have failed fifty times in a row trying to deal the first blow to certain sons of mothers I remember all too well for my first playthrough.