a fun and unique entry in the the monster-taming subgenre of video games, despite being a bunch of random games commingled into one frankenstein.
unfortunetly also surrounded by currently unfair controversy.

it's worth noting the low score and low star reviews are from people who haven't played the game.
not that this game is free from criticism.

full review:

taking elements from games such as ARK, minecraft, pokemon, zelda and potentially more, this game takes the best of all of them, throws them into a blender and hopes it sticks.
and somehow, for me it did.

after 20 hours sunk into this game I can safely say it's a new addiction of a genre I used to hate, the survival genre.
outside of minecraft no survival game has been able to keep my interest for longer than a thirty minute long game session, however with the creature capturing and easy base building this game offers it's a perfect balance for people who want to love survival games but also don't like being overwhelmed

a lot of the designs are unarguably taken from already existing pokemon designs, albeit not the majority.
even if they are taken from pokemon, I quite like them.
it gives me a sense of familiarity while being something new, often why I'm of the few who enjoy when games I love get 100 remakes.
however, it's worth noting there is a massive controversy around this in which the designs are "plagorized" or "AI"
which first, they aren't AI. there's no proof of such and this claim should be ignored.
the plagorism as it stands is more or less, do you think pokemon owns the rights to a certain style? if you say yes then youll most likely think this is plagorism, otherwise I don't really see it as any different than something like temtem which just has monsters. it's also worth mentioning the developers here had never made their own models before so there is a high chance pokemon models were used as reference but again, no proof of such so I can't make a judgement based off that.

the ethical aspects of the game non development aside can rub people the wrong way from clips on twitter but ill be VERY blunt here.
I cry and have mental breakdowns when a cat or dog in minecraft of mine gets killed, and this game I've had no issues with not having any fear of losing or hurting my pals.
when they "die" they don't actually die, similar to pokemon they just get knocked out.
you can sell/buy them on the black market which is basically the GTS on pokemon without the online functionality and all done through an NPC that offer/requesting you gold for the mons
there's also the aspect of being able to capture humans but again, I feel this is more of a criticism of typical monster capturing games where you capture creatures and they have to listen to you from there on out with no other choice.
if you're okay with pokemon, you should be fine here.

there's plenty of bugs to be had, but almost all of the ones I've encountered make the game a more fun expierence.
things like capturing the bosses you fight including the NPC, shooting into the sky (good for traversal), small model glitches and other things.
though there are bugs such as pals getting stuck, getting stuck in buildings, buildings not allowing you to place an object under VERY specific conditions but placing if you do it in a different order.

overall I give this game a 4/5

a great foundation with the potential of being arguably one of the more enjoyable openworld sandbox games to come out in recent years.

it's not a "pokemon" killer like some losers are trying to say on the internet, and it's not "pokemon with guns" since it's nothing like pokemon outside of having "pokeballs" and pokemon esque creatures.
if you enjoy pokemon there's no guarentee you will enjoy this.
id recommend this game more so to people who love base buidling, exploration and survival type games.
minecraft fans would be a better target audience with this one in my personal opinion.

this will be long [and spoiler free]
as the original game is an all time favorite, and I have some rambling thoughts about this one.

first let's get out the obvious, it's a MAJOR improvement from the first game visually & in a gameplay perspective.
seeing elements that were already perfect improved upon is always great, they clearly care about this project.

now to the negatives...
the story to me just doesn't hit like the first one did, it's a great attempt at trying to recreate the magic but misses a few things on what made it so great.
it might be more hard to swallow for me how I'm not perfectly satisfied with this story as the comics also aren't... yeah

the impact of watching someone spiral into madness is attempted here, but it's so rushed that I don't feel anything when it happens. it just happens.
unlike the first game where when it happens, I'm left destroyed, the first game builds up your relationship with doc ock while leaving hints here and there of what's to come in the final battle with his emotions, and very small interactions.
like for example, yelling at peter because his mechanical arm failed is something small but effective.

in this game, you see a spiral but it's over the course of like 2 missions, and arguably my least favorite trope.. flashbacks.
you could argue they weren't going for impact, but I felt emotionless otherwise.

TLDR: story while still great failed to capture what made the original so memorable and falls flat in certain aspects.

there are A LOT and I mean a lot of easter eggs throughout this game, so if you're like me and a diehard spider-man fan you'll have lots of things to go "omg they did the thing!" in this game.
though I do feel these references will be brushed by for people who only watch the movies or play the games.. they made me scream in excitement

overall: great game, held back by story beats lacking impact.