I thought the motion comic art style/ animation was a unique attempt but it isn’t good compared to real animation. The story itself is interesting in the early chapters but becomes less good as it progresses. Also, it has a very annoying cliffhanger ending which gives it a bad aftertaste since Book 3 is not confirmed.

The decisions did feel good with some being impactful whilst others being very minor. However, the quick time events were incredibly dull and basic that I wish it weren’t included. Also, I know this originally released on XBOX but it would’ve been nice to have haptic feedback for more immersion on the PS5 release.

Overall, I enjoyed it simply because I like these types of narrative focused games but this was just fine, not good or great.

An exceptional co-op shooter.

Helldivers II is a great game. Personally, I like singleplayer narrative-driven games but this game is wonderful. Its lore and humour is so funny yet wholly patriotic. A great combo for any co-op shooter.

The gameplay is fantastic. Every gun feels unique and you have the ability to shoot in 3rd person or 1st person. I love the way the game does recoil and its ammo system as it doesn’t feel like a generic copy and paste from other shooters but actually innovating to make gunplay more realistic, strategic and fun. Plus, it has this D&D inspired storytelling where your victories in missions impact the overall war against the automatons (robots) and terminids (bugs) on the galactic map. Additionally, it’s progression system is really nice even if you didn’t buy the deluxe edition or season pass.

Also, the graphics are jaw-dropping especially for a multiplayer game. The shadows, lighting, smoke and everything all look like its from a movie. Every planet feels unique and has its own effects that impact the gameplay. The game design of the ships, helldivers and enemies are top-tier as it borrows the best elements from things like Warhammer 40k but puts it in its own lore.

The only downside to Helldivers II is that the developers didn’t anticipate its popularity. This means that servers can be at capacity when launching into the game. Also, quick matchmaking and matchmaking in general is an issue but it is known to the developers who are working on improving and fixing it.

Overall, Helldivers II sets a new benchmark of quality and ethics for co-op shooters but multiplayer live service games in general. I highly recommend this.

JRPG in 2.5D beauty.

Octopath Traveller II took me by surprise when I first played its demo, as I remember disliking Octopath Traveller I's demo. This led me to purchasing the game and it was pretty good. The score and graphics are very pretty with nice game direction.

The gameplay is very much traditional JRPG turn-based combat but its own unique spin. This is in the form of enemy shield points where you have to break them down with the correct weakness of a certain weapon type or spell type. It also has a few other systems where you can power-up your attacks and have unique abilities to each character, which help make the game more strategic at times, especially with boss battles. Plus, the exploration is fun and you can interact with NPCs differently based on the characters' unique abilities. Also, the secret jobs were pretty cool to discover and to play with during battles. However for the most part, the game is quite easy with decent pacing as I never had to grind once during the character stories. The only time I had to grind was the final chapter of the game and the final chapter didn't have great guidance towards what your suppose to do which left me quite lost.

Story-wise it was pretty good for having 8 different stories in one game. Each story I found to be good and it had a mix of genre and themes, which allowed it to be a refreshing change of pace at times. Although, it did feel weird that party never really interacted with each other properly in each others main stories, outside the side stories. The only bad writing was the final chapter which felt like it was trying too hard to involve all 8 characters in a rushed way.

All in all, Octopath Traveller II is a very good and well-made JRPG due to the lack of grinding, good story, score and graphics but suffered from a lacklustre final chapter.

Top Games of 2023: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Aj_Waran/list/top-games-of-2023/