Platform: Xbox Series X
Date Started: May 21st, 2024
Date Finished: May 21st, 2024
Time Played: 6 Hours

"Take your darkness with you."

It would be hard to overstate how incredible Hellblade II's production values are - the near enough photo realistic character models and environments, the impeccable lighting, beautiful reflections and outstanding audio design, this game feels like a truly staggering technical achievement, completely and utterly ahead of the curve in its fidelity, and is a wholly immersive experience.

The game remarkably transitions in and out of game-play and cut-scenes and between different realms and locations, even in combat. The combat is similar to the first game, with one of the biggest differences being that you are never fighting more than one enemy at a time. In Senua's Sacrifice you would get physically surrounded by enemies as the voices in your head wrap around your mind, giving you warnings (or even lying to you) about incoming blows, letting you switch targets and engage foes in different directions - here, you are only ever in 1v1 conflicts, but I can't say that this change was ever once a negative for me. The combat is simple, straight-forward and effective - it feels weighty and purposeful and the animations are all splendid, and while there is an argument to be made that it is less varied and there are less moves than in the first game, I personally have no real complaints here other than perhaps a lack of variety of enemy types. It feels as if every fight is an event, and gruelling task for Senua to just scrape by and survive.

Puzzle-wise we are given a bit more to work with than in the first game in terms of variety. I found the long stretches of repeated puzzle types like putting balls into sockets or lighting torches to be unnecessary, however, and the worst part of my experience - I do wish every puzzle type would have just shown up for a short period of time instead of what felt like things being slightly repetitive, but, that being said, they never removed me from the incredible atmosphere of this game.

The walking and talking sections were much appreciated, although I found some of the suppourting characters a little unmemorable and because of this the story isn't as good as it could have been. It's a very solid story, though, and I liked meeting people along the way on this trek as a contrast to the completely lone travels in the first. The quest itself feels like a wonderful journey, and I was looking forward to each beat and each progression of the story, sometimes marked with breathtaking set pieces that were hugely rewarding.

Overall, then, I found this to be an excellent time. It offers a lot, but at the same time feels stuck in the same place the original was - in some ways better, in some ways worse. In the end, it feels like more of a horizontal step than a forward one, but nevertheless feels like a natural continuation of progression of Senua's Sacrifice.

You know what one of the worst things to happen to gaming is? The internet. It's also arguably one of the worst things to happen to humanity in general, but that's a rant for another day. Between YouTubers and video game journalism sites spewing wildly exaggerated praises or criticisms in their write-ups for views, it’s led to a culture where certain titles either get hyper-glorified or mercilessly crapped on for no real reason and with no room for anyone to safely argue against whatever the general consensus may be for fear of reprisal. The Twin Snakes, a remake of the PS1 classic with mechanics added in from its sequel, hasn’t suffered as much from this as others, but there’s still a pretty vocal group out there actively pretending this is some absolute travesty and I really don’t understand why. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard their complaints. I just think they’re absurdly overblown.

My theory is that it’s all the result of a sort of snowball effect. Where years of people making perfectly reasonable deductions in online forums and comment sections about areas where the game came up short or could have been better has been regurgitated by the likes of video essayists (shout out to ProudLittleSeal for teaching me that term) in an overstated manner; leading to a hive mind cult that believes and is determined to convince everyone this is an insult to the original’s legacy. It’s not. It honestly wouldn’t bother me if they weren’t so unwilling to let anybody think otherwise, but I swear every time I’ve witnessed someone bring TTS up in a positive light one of its detractors goes out of their way to basically tell them how incorrect their opinion apparently is. Ridiculous, and because that annoys me going to be taking what may be a somewhat similarly antagonistic approach for this review as I discuss the various complaints from its critics and put my own two cents on why I disagree with them out there. Which will be interesting to do since it’s not like they’re stating anything explicitly untrue, merely exaggerated in my opinion.

The most common grievance I’ve seen leveled against this is that the variety of newly implemented gameplay features (first-person aiming, hanging off ledges, ect.) and items (tranquilizer gun, PGS1-T,…) actively break the experience by removing any difficulty from the majority of scenarios. Now, they certainly make things easier and there’s a case to be made that the Revolver Ocelot fight was cheapened as a result of the better aiming system, but I feel as though the brighter enemy AI and their ability to replenish their ranks counteracts your increased amount of capabilities a bit. I also think most don’t realize the challenge they remember from the originator was more a factor of its age than anything. The adventure here is less demanding due to the fact that all was introduced modernizes it so you’re no longer fighting (as much) against an aging design. They’ve made the actual act of playing the first Solid more natural, which is exactly what a remake is supposed to do. It’s not that the opposition was neutered, things are simply no longer as dated. Consequently, the whole narrative about these changes being for the worse doesn’t hold any water in my mind.

However, an area of its denigrators’ frustration I can partially agree with is related to the storytelling. Yet, just not for the reason most commonly cited. That stuff about the cutscenes aping the action of the early 2000s movies that were popular at the time somehow ruining the plot? Not buying it. I get the argument that the altered soundtrack robs the writing and world as a whole of some atmosphere, but my guys and gals are we REALLY moaning over an element of a MGS outing being absurd?! For me the more pressing issue (outside of them removing the sexy camera angles focusing on Sniper Wolf’s body in the torture room scenes) is the re-recorded voice acting. They got nearly the entire cast to return, but either through bad direction or a lack of enthusiasm for the project their performances are phoned in, flat, and suffering from a reduced sense of emotion. It’s still the same great tale of memorable twists and fourth wall breaking moments that have been slightly modified to better fit the GameCube, it only no longer hits as hard thanks to that unfortunate flaw.

As significant as the plot was to Solid’s acclaim back in the day, its weaker delivery here isn’t enough to make me to resent this update when the gameplay improvements are so strong. The question then becomes would I recommend this over the previous iteration? That’s where things get a little complicated, since the answer is no I wouldn’t. Not on account of me viewing it as a kind of adulteration, rather concerns with the modern price of entry. On top of the 1998 release’s retro polygonal graphics and clunky mechanics remaining an huge part of why it continues to be incredibly dang charming after all these years, this version is evidently something of a collectors item nowadays. Meaning that secondhand copies can go for stupidly high. You could honestly grab the PS1 discs and the console itself together for cheaper in most instances.

If you truly don’t care what you pay though, this is still a perfectly viable and acceptable way to get your hands on Hideo Kojima’s borderline masterpiece. The hatred and negativity you’ll find for it from a very outspoken portion of the Metal Gear community is unjustified and hyperbolic. Not to mention rapidly becoming harder and harder to take seriously each passing day in our current era of remakes. I mean, I don’t see anyone upset about RE 4 2023 smoothing out the survival-horror classic and enhancing its playability. Perhaps not the most fitting comparison and it’s tough to warrant why this take would prove valuable to those already familiar with the game in its prior format, but is also perhaps more apt than many would care to admit. Regardless, my ultimate goal has been to express why I believe the views of a group that are attempting to strip this title of its merits are excessive and overly pedantic, which if I haven’t been able to do that by now then no amount of further typing or elaboration is going to help me. So in closing, all I have to say is don’t buy into the opprobrium, ‘cause bad this ain’t.

8.5/10

"The Last of Us Parte 2" es una obra maestra que desafía las convenciones de los videojuegos al sumergirte en un viaje emocionalmente intenso y desgarrador. La forma en que la historia se desarrolla, alternando entre diferentes puntos de vista y desafiando nuestras percepciones de quienes son los "buenos" y los "malos", es increíblemente impactante.

Los personajes están magistralmente desarrollados, cada uno con sus propias motivaciones y dilemas morales. A medida que avanzas en la historia, te encuentras cuestionando tus propias creencias y decisiones, lo que crea una conexión única entre el jugador y el juego.

Además, la calidad visual y auditiva del juego es impresionante, sumergiéndote por completo en el mundo postapocalíptico y añadiendo capas adicionales de inmersión a la experiencia.

"The Last of Us Parte 2" es mucho más que un simple videojuego; es una experiencia emocionalmente resonante que deja una marca duradera en aquellos que lo experimentan. Su capacidad para cambiar perspectivas y provocar reflexiones profundas es lo que lo convierte en una obra maestra atemporal.

i cant think of another game that feels the same way as animal well. thick atmosphere, gorgeous environments, and supremely satisfying puzzles, exploration, and items make up an extremely tight and well designed metroidvania that begs you to explore every inch of the map.

teeming with secrets, eerie creatures, and haunting ambiance, animal well had me engaged for its full runtime and past that hunting for little secrets and trying every tool and technique i could to find that next area of collectible. playing on ps5 as well, i love the use of haptics, and the light bar changing with each item as well as being able to scroll the map and fiddle with the environment on the touch pad.

go and explore this beautiful and thought provoking world yourself, and experience the genius design and surprises that await !

Just rolled credits. I usually like to yap a lot with my reviews but I really don't want to spoil anything so I have to keep it a bit vague and short-ish.

This game is just a constant stream of mind-blowing discoveries. Every little nook and cranny that I stumbled upon is just so satisfying. And the same goes for every calculated thought/plan that worked.

The level design overall is absolutely impeccable, I never felt so enthralled in exploring every orifice of the game's world. And it's not just because of the highly varied and consistently top notch puzzles, even the moment-to-moment platforming sections just felt great. Not to mention the mysterious atmosphere that the game's beautiful art style bolsters. Easily one of the, if not the, best pixel art style I've ever seen.

And I have to gush a bit about all the tools you get along the way. Everytime I get a new one I always thought "oh my god this is game changing!", and I'm immediately thinking of areas where it would be useful. That's a good tell of how in sync the item designs are with the level design.

What Animal Well has done is not exactly unique, but the way it approaches its concepts feels so fresh, and it creates this sense of grandeur by condensing it all into an absurdly tight and dense package. The game never misses. It is easily the best game of its ilk, and my favorite game this gen so far.

I still have a ton of secrets to figure out, so I'll do just that. Who knows, it could be a 20 outta 10 game by the time I get the plat.

P.S. Rolled credits for the 2nd time and got the plat, doubled my play time from when I wrote this review first haha (12 hours to 26 hours). Collecting all the eggs was incredibly fun. Very interesting and inventive puzzle designs overall. But I have tasted a bit of the so called "3rd layer puzzles" and they're quite unhinged, haha. This game just keeps on giving. Shout out to the folks at the official AW discord for helping with everything after the 15 hour mark, my brain power wasn't enough to keep up. Also, the last 12-13 hours were in one sitting, and considering I get so easily tired these days, that just speaks to how good the game is. Haven't been enjoying a new game to this level since 2020.

ASS story, ASS characters, ASS VA.

Some Bosses have way too much health, its like they really want you to spam beta moves, skills and Taki mode. Normal attacking just feels like a way to build the beta.

Open world was mid, sidequest give you no motivation to do more, pretty boring.

Combat was good most the time besides the stun lock when u miss 1 parry.

Stellar Blade, to me, felt like a B-movie whose budget was randomly doubled while in production. What I mean by this is: The production quality is top notch, but everything beneath that would be perfectly at home in a lower budget ""AA"" effort. From the sleazyness to the slightly undercooked gameplay to the agressively overconfident story (the story is mostly plot holes), Stellar Blade is highly polished trash. And I think that's very fun! It's not the best thing ever, but I enjoyed my time with it.

There’s a tendency among gamers to attribute good combat to complicated attack combos that require a lot of practice to execute properly, complex and varied enemies that test the player’s skills and etcetera.

Darkwood has these two attributes, but in a completely different shape. The main character’s main attack is slow, weighty, and reliant on stamina, while enemies have a predictable but powerful attack that will stagger the player if they get hit, and to top it all off there’s the weapon durability system, meaning that even if you defeat a enemy, it will come at the cost of your precious weapon, and as it increasingly becomes clear throughout the game’s length, combat is not always the best option, if anything the game gives you enough tools that serve to avoid combat altogether, and in general engaging in battles are only advised in situations where your only choice is to fight.

Yes, you heard me right, choice.

Because combat is merely a branch of a larger tree, one that reveals Darkwood’s true nature.

It’s a game all about choices and its consequences. Everything the player does is a choice, unconscious or not, and, however minor they seem at the time, will have consequences that may be with you for the rest of the game, and because of that, time becomes a very precious resource, one that the player must always pay attention to, as daytime becomes both the time to move further towards escaping the accursed forest and a preparation phase for whatever strange happening occur at night, and coming into the dawn of the night prepared to survive and fend off against whatever attempts to invade your settlement is rewarded, but one could also use daytime to progress through the tasks logged in your journal at the cost of having a harder time fending off against the abominations at night. And every one action, big or small, done at daytime may determine the rest of the day’s length, using healing items earlier on the day means you’ll have to be more careful at dodging enemies during the night, and missing an attack will lead you to take a good amount of damage, which may lead you to using that one healing item that would’ve been so useful later on, or having to carry healing items and weapons for future combat encounters mean you’ll have to sacrifice carrying resources and vice-versa, and even how you choose your abilities at the oven may change how you approach the game, even a choice between giving a key to the Wolfman or the Musician exists to further drive that point home.

But no other moment accentuate this better than when you are about to leave the forest behind to advance into the swamp, while sacrificing every item that isn’t in your inventory, you’ll have to stop and think about what items would be useful to carry into a potentially more hostile environment than the previous one, and it’s at the swamp where your fate will be determined from that points onwards, and choices you made in the past may (and will) come back to bite you in the ass and will pull the rug out of under you if you played your cards poorly by that point.

I don’t want to spoil too much, but all of this above is what truly makes Darkwood scary. Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere is incredibly haunting and oppressive, and its horrifyingly unnerving art style presenting a dark forest where the trees meet beings beyond our comprehension, and even the “friendly” denizens look rotten and and almost falling apart, but the terror Darkwood creates on the player is genuinely effective not simply because of the atmosphere, but because that atmosphere is marred into a similarly oppressive and deliberately brutal gameplay loop. It’s Don’t Starve on steroids, it’s Zdzislaw Beksinski meets Shrek and Hoodwinked Robert Eggers, it’s the horror game every other horror game wishes it was.

The forest is unrelentingly cruel, and will fucking eat you alive if you let your guard down, so please, respect the woods.