What Tetris is to the droves that played it, is what Bubble Bobble is to me. Nothing but bubbly feelings (haha) arise from playing or thinking back on this game. Not being one for reminiscing, rather wanting make what I have right now count, I can’t help but look back on playing this game and Bust-A-Move with my mom back when we were in San Juan and feeling melancholic about it; will I ever recapture that feeling again? Likely not, but I’d like to think so.

The series itself is just unbelievably fun and addictive too, and just like Tetris, deceptively simple in its inner workings. Sure, being the proponent of games as an art form that can remold over time, and being the votary of storytelling that I am, I usually need more out of games than just the fun factor, and am even open to games defying what fun is, but this type of game is just untouchable. The mold had to come from somewhere, and games of this ilk, like Galaga, Defenders, Space Invaders, and so on are the mold. The industry wouldn’t be where it is now, for better or worse, without these games.

Looking back on them, they may be considered primitive, philistines whomever does consider them such, and change was bound to happen, as change is the constant of the universe, but greatness comes from small beginnings. Sic Parvis Magna baby. Classic games being the way they are and coming from the time they did brings greater appreciation for the games we have now and seeing how far the medium has come. Bubble Bobble forever.

For every reason this game is dragged, it picks itself up for me. It having constraint, giving you little control in the first half, deemphasized exploration, with points of no return and frequent save points. These parts of the game are considered flaws, but they are deliberate design choices that make it so the game gradually opening up closer to the end feels more earned. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Stay with me here, but it abides by the ludic contract it signs. Striking the gauge of player engagement in ways that games from turn of the century and the sensibilities that came from it don’t live up to. Metroid Fusion is masterful at utilizing gameplay to tell the story, as well as enriching it.

Whether it’s the best Metroid game or not is up in the air, every Metroid game shares enough to make it so any one of them could be the linchpin of the day. Being as consistent as the series is, that is if we don’t talk about Federation Force or Other M… cough, that means that no one game toughs the other out. They all have merit and are of equal footing even if they do things slightly better than the others. Metroid (1986) setting motion what we would come to know now. Metroid II: Return of Samus underpinning the baseline for what makes Metroid what it is. Super Metroid revolutionizing the industry. Metroid Fusion interlocking each one of its strands and offering the most cohesive narrative experience. Metroid Dread doing literally everything right the rest did, but I guess it has the weakest soundtrack and atmosphere or something. That is patently incorrect but those happen to be recurring points against it for some reason. They are all masterpieces basically.

Metroid Fusion is, or wait no, it was my favorite because of the above. Metroid Dread came and cleaned house but Metroid Fusion still reserved its special place in my heart. Outdoing the active threat that is the SA-X, which packs the same arsenal that you do, coming across all manner of grotesqueries, uncovering the secrets of the B.S.L. Research Station, and coming out the other end saving the galaxy once again. It was an unforgettable experience. Oh, and it only came in underpowered pocket form when technical advancements in the console space were the craze, on the SAME DAY AS METROID PRIME! It’s like they wanted to kill 2D Metroid man what the hell.

Nothing short of consummate, or considered, does Metroid Dread showcase itself. Regarding all pillars of game design, this game holds up one staunch vision. Nothing feels out of place, it stays its hand when it needs to and knows when it should go all out, and it makes for the most cohesive and pin-point precise experience you can have in any game in the aptly named Metroid-vania genre.

Taking the unilateralist direction of Metroid Fusion where, while still allowing you to go off the beaten path, still funnels you in the end, and the open ended Super Metroid, Metroid Dread finds the right balance. It guides you but not in a way that feels demeaning, and it options you with numerous objectives, and allows you to sequence break like it’s dictated that Metroid-vanias should, but within the bounds the game lets you rather than in ways that can outright break it. It makes for a gratifying sense of exploration, that makes you feel like you uncover things on your own terms, when in actuality the game is just really clever in its approach to guiding the player, hiding things from you and dangling things in front of you that you’ll end up falling for. It’s like a sleight of hand made game, if that makes sense.

Some have argued that this game, and by extension the rest of the Metroid series doesn’t give enough incentive to cover the map like other games do because the rewards (missile/energy tanks strewn about that you can find in the open or tucked away past breakable blocks and locked doors), aren’t worth it. To that I argue that, just like other games like Hollow Knight and Ori, with their own mechanics that interlock in their own ways, Metroid works just the same. Progression may be incremental, it may not feel worthwhile in the moment but it builds you up and facilitates the strong combat tech and gameplay loop. Not to mention the tool kit at your disposal once you attain each of the twenty-five equipment pieces. Opening up more ways to engage with enemies and go about levels make the gameplay constantly feel fresh.

Stringing together the things the game gives you, gives the gameplay the dynamism that lets it rival the other titans in the genre, in a way previous Metroid games didn’t, whether they felt antiquated compared to their peers or just busted like the first two games, which I disagree with but that’s another topic. With that the game still manages to keep you on your toes, never to rest on your laurels, with the newly introduced E.M.M.I. These guys were hyped up enough so I won’t talk about them at length, but it was for good reason. They serve the same purpose the SA-X did in Fusion, taking from the relentless stalker playbook of the Resident Evil games. It lends to the DREAD you can feel as the player, no I’m not taking that back.

Now for the story. Far be it from me to say what should and shouldn’t be true, I know nintendo games aren’t known or renowned for their stories, but that doesn’t matter to me. If there is a story a critic worth their salt should properly evaluate it rather than leave it by the bayside. This reason is why other nintendo games that are propped up as some of the greatest games of all time just didn’t do it for me like they did for the vast majority of people.

For the Mario games yeah it makes sense, story is by no means the focus and, exempting the Paper Mario games and Super Mario RPG, they barely have any, substituting one being the simple goal driving the player to engage with the game’s systems. But for games like Zelda that doesn’t really apply. Yes, the set-up is still simple, there’s still a clear goal for the player to strive toward meeting, and it serves the gameplay, but there are actual structured stories in the Zelda games to engage with, ones that you can choose to ignore but that are still there. Same goes for the Metroid series, at least everything after Super Metroid. Metroid Dread may not differ from those games in that gameplay is the driving force, and it may not be as compelling to some of y’all as more narrative-driven games like Xenoblade Chronicles or Fire Emblem, but that in no way signifies that its story is not worthwhile. Metroid Dread has an excellent story that follows up on and pays off what previous games established, and wraps up the arc Samus went through in an awesome way whilst leaving room for new arcs come time.

Before closing thoughts, there’s also the rest that comprises any good Metroid game. Two-fold, the music and atmosphere are harped on, which makes no cents to me. Each biome you get to parole is distinctive; the E.M.M.I. Zones are meant to be starkly oppressive for the player, Ghavoran has its lush verdancy, Ferenia, Hanubis, the cast off Elun, and the lair of Raven Beak Itorash, have their respective sacramental and regal inspirations, and so on. As for the music, sure it may be more understated than previous games, but it repurposes great motifs to greater effect as well as making its own, even if it is more ambient. Similar to Pathologic 2 having and its low-key shamanic soundtrack compared to the first game with its funky beats, they rock in their own ways.

Mercury Steam has gracefully carried on the legacy of Metroid, taking what they did on Samus Returns and cultivating the formula to its definitive form. Metroid Dread feels like the penultimate Metroid game, as if there is no real way for Metroid to evolve further, and I know it was worth the nineteen year wait, even if I was spared it since I’m too young to have seen the series blossom. Surely there will be more Metroid games, given that it is legacy. At the time of writing we’re still on the back burner as Retro Studios continues to figure out what they want to do with Metroid Prime 4, but I can’t think of any way this game can be topped. Metroid Prime 4 won’t because, well first off they are different, and second, even with that in mind, 2D Metroid > Prime. Sorry…

Contrary to what it says on the entry, I have in fact, NOT finished the game at the time of writing. It just felt appropriate to talk about the game at this rate. I’m on day six now, making steady track, but the main save file got corrupted and I held off playing it for weeks to figure out what to do.

From what I can glean it was probably that the XML file for the game was missing the root element. I can’t use console commands to find out though, and even if I could I’m not well versed enough in coding language to do that on my own. This forced me to just delete it and load a save from two days prior, which set me back.

This port sucks, and I really need to invest in new parts for my PC soon to play on that instead. But now it’s kinda okay, as if nothing happened or will happen again, hopefully. The game itself is essentially the original refined with quality of life and I’m loving every minute of it. Just as thought-provoking and enrapturing.

Talking about this game is like poking a hornet’s nest with a crooked stick, at least it would be if I had a bigger platform (charming). But what the hell! So too do I like this game, not as much as Part I, but I do like it. With that said though, there is still plenty of room for scrutiny here.

Deigned to follow the perspectives of Ellie and Abby, the sequence of events the player is thrusted upon takes place over three consecutive days as our heroines go through their own trials and tribulations in the long downtrodden and war ravaged Seattle. Being conceptually sound, it can still feel uneven, given that some days are longer than others and have their own gimmicks when it comes to encounter design. On the climax of the narrative, the one in the theater on day three, when the turn is taken and the audience is meant to get catharsis after hours of watching the winds and gulches, they cut it in half to tell us another side to the story, which puts a grinding halt to it, having to build that momentum up again over the course of roughly ten hours. Actual lunacy at display there. No kidding that so many people dropped the game at the halfway point when they were told they had to play more of it with a character they dislike.

Not to mention the epilogue in Santa Barbara, while being paramount to the story, still felt out of place what with the time jump, the new slaver faction in the Rattlers, and what trailed off it during the fight in the theater. Brazen is what I would use to describe the narrative structure of this game. Never have I seen a game before with the gusto to do something like pulling the proverbial rug from under you right before you think the game is about to end, only for it to not even be close. On top of that, you have to play as the goddamn VILLAIN of the story, which you come to learn really isn’t one and is just another flawed person with method to their madness. That’s where the brazen part comes into play, because it still serves its purpose despite being as confounding as it is.

The framework for gameplay is the same as the first game with layers stacked on it that makes it multi-faceted, that while not to the same degree of complexity as something like The Phantom Pain or Chaos Theory, is still on the same spectrum. Exploration actually feels like exploration now, and with the difficulty modifiers you can make the experience as grueling as you want. Despite the gameplay being, quite frankly phenomenal, and the narrative what it is whether you take to it or not, which I did, and have my own arguments as to its internal logic and how it's sturdier than some make it out to be, one thing that sticks out is that they don’t quite mesh like the team intended.

Just as other media can use its language to elevate itself and get itself across to whoever engages with it clearer, so too can video games. Whether visual, auditory, literary, or otherwise, just like other mediums have those facets, video games have interactivity as theirs. Plenty of games do this right, just on the principle of them being games, by mere accident. Even games people dismiss or deride for how they don’t use the medium’s strengths to their advantage, or lack story despite not being true at all, are true to that; The Last of Us Part I, God of Norse, Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding, or stuff like Dark Souls, Metroid, or the Warhammer 40K franchise on the other side of the pond. Each one of these games makes the act of “play” an intrinsic part of the experience that forces you to engage with it at another level than how you normally would, rather than just something with an extrinsic goal, enhancing the stories they tell.

Yes, the notion that games should be “fun” has for the longest time made up the discourse, and it will continue to, but it’s okay for games to challenge that notion and do something beyond the pale of game design. There are games that are unconventional in their design philosophies, or downright frustrating, that still succeed at what they set out to do for those reasons. Exemplar of this is Pathologic, Fear & Hunger, and Darkest Dungeon, games which derive from and even explore surrealism, or more closely, the Theater of Cruelty, as proposed by French playwright Antonin Artaud.

The Last of Us Part II, despite being the rock solid video game that it is, who's story is better than people give it credit for, for as audacious as it is, tries to do this but ultimately comes up short. I feel like the success of a game doesn’t have to hinge on this but it would be better off that way, and while it is overblown in cases like Uncharted or Bioshock, which are punching bags for the crowd that upholds ludic narrative, The Last of Us Part II still ends up contradicting itself when those two games really don’t. Does that have to nullify the effect of what it’s trying to get across? No, that’s up to you, but it still fails to cross story and gameplay in key ways. That’s not to say they didn’t try though, they most certainly did, and the effort is commendable.

Let’s take Uncharted for one. Those games balance story and gameplay yes, but they don’t try to make them coincide. They are relatively divorced from each other and only serve to propel each other to make for the most bombastic, pudding in your pants, set-piece laden action romp. Sure, Uncharted 4 and the Lost Legacy took some strides took make gameplay inform the actions of the character, but even then, you could contend that death doesn’t carry the same weight in the Uncharted universe as it does in other games. It's okay for Nathan to kill droves of nondescript baddies because that's all they are. There is no real ludic narrative to speak of, therefore there really is no dissonance.

As for Bioshock, I can kind of see where it comes from. The point of the game is that Jack was strung along, with the player and Jack simultaneously learning he was just a sleeper agent. But apparently, for some this makes the binary system to harvest or spare little sisters and the directives from Atlas you have to follow go against the themes of the game. However, while the game doesn't establish that Jack wouldn't be able to deem things worth doing on his own, it also doesn't show us he has a strong sense of expressed self-interest. What triggers him is the key phrase "Would you kindly?" It's not like Atlas ever said, or had any reason to say that phrase to Jack in the event he meddled with things that conflicted with the objective, because none of what you do as the player does.

If anything, as basic as that system is, and the fact that you can't break the sequence of the story despite the central theme of the game being objectivism, they actually ADD to the story, showing that despite the proverbial shackles Jack has, he can break them and still has the capacity to tread his own path, whether that means acting on his own accord or on the behalf of others; it becomes his will to which side he takes, and not the will of a higher power. This is further solidified by one of the two endings you can get. It’s crazy to me that for the longest time Bioshock has been regarded as dissonant of all things for how it handles the development of the main character, when it’s the exact opposite, and only proves the story works.

Going back on track though, Ellie and Abby have distinct play styles, animations, load-outs, and upgrade trees. There is enough room to play the hard way and avoid combat altogether, even if it is necessary for progression at points. A lot of the best storytelling comes from gameplay too, being diegetic, opening up dialogue prompts with companions, and of course, spreading details you can miss around every crevice.

Being particular, some character defining details that are communicated strictly in gameplay also enrich the game. Details like Abby and her overcoming of her acrophobia, or Ellie progressively getting more unhinged as per the day the game takes place, make the potentiality for the player connecting to the characters ever stronger. They also solidify things the game set thematically, like othering, indoctrination, group think, and what can come of said aspects of humanity and how we can give them up, not be despondent about our conditions and work to improve them, and open up to things we once were closed off to and resentful of.

It has an effective through-line and makes with these as best it can but it still doesn’t reach its true potential, especially pared with Part I. It still works in the face of it, but that is something to pay heed to if you plan to play it, or already played it but didn’t jive with it. There will be things that go against what you’re used to, characters will make decisions you don’t agree with, but if you take the time to shift your perspective and engage with the game differently you can come to compromise and enjoy the game for what it is rather than hold scorn for it for going against what you thought it would be. Same as it is for Ellie and Abby and the hate they harbor for each other, a shift in perspective goes a long way.

Does the story have its fair share of “deus ex machinas” as the long men call them? Yes, but do they bring it down for me? No, not only because none of them are egregious and you can easily hand wave them, but because the game still manages to be internally consistent. Even if they did, I STILL wouldn’t lump this game next to the likes of the Star Wars ST, which I regret seeing, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which I regret playing, Borderlands 3, which was really fun but still had a dog water story apparently (I haven’t finished it), or Game of Thrones S8, which I haven’t seen and don’t want to.

It respects its characters and it respects the audience to draw their own conclusions, take the story for what it is, which evidently, seems like the opposite of what happened. Despite the droplets that slipped through the faint cracks, the exterior is stock and the interior is unsullied. This story generally works, what with the misgivings you might have with it or what stumbles it makes along the way to greatness.

As for the remaster in question:

No Return only underpinned what we laid out. A mode revolving around the, admittedly, robust combat system, with incremental rewards during every run with mods accenting them. It comes off as somewhat tone deaf, at least it can. It didn’t for me necessarily because I believe a game can have a point and still be fun despite it, but it can and will for many who play it.

The Lost Levels were what I was looking forward to the most. Once I got to play them, it turned out that the three vertical slice levels weren’t the rendering exclusions I’d hoped for. For stuff that was left at the cutting room floor, especially how it was advertised, I came in expecting there to be revelations that gave the creative decisions context, but no, they were rather inutile, with just the boar hunt giving Ellie more proper characterization. That’s fine, but still.

Is it evocative? Does it seem like shock value for the sake of it? For the some it may, but it has something to say, and it leaves the door open for a Part III to be more satisfying for everyone. I think this game was an experiment that paid off in some ways and didn’t in others, but was worth taking part in. I love this game. You may hate it, be indifferent to it, or love it just the same, and that’s okay. One thing is for sure and that’s how nuance has left the chat altogether when it comes to media discourse, at least on like, Twitter… maybe I just need to disconnect. On its own terms, it does end up working when held up to measured criticism for most part. Many people are letting their feelings cloud their judgement, hampering their ability to properly evaluate this game. It’s not something I believe, it’s something that is. On our terms, it may be flawed, even compromised in small ways, but it worked for me, and if you haven’t played it yet, I hope it works for you too.

Just for good measure, since I’m two for two on covering songs in games that aren’t part of the soundtrack, let’s bump that up to three. As follows is how I’d rank the covers and rarities EP.

1. True Faith - Inspired by Lotte Kesner’s cover
2. Wayfaring Stranger
3. Through the valley
4. Future Days
5. Take on Me

Elden Ring is the most frustrating game I’ve ever played in my life. No, it’s not because of the difficulty curve, at this point I’ve already gotten the hang of it, and I’m still only just decent at these games. Never has there been something that’s felt like an event that’s once in a lifetime, but at the same time so dime-a-dozen. Assimilation-Contrast theory at full force.

Boss design, encounter design, world design, content distribution, you name it, none of these elements come together how they were probably supposed to, at least I feel. So much goddamn recycling, so much goose chasing to try to find the most optimal build for you and not getting anywhere with it, so much stunted progress. It hurts to think about.

It goes as far as to, depending on what kind of player you are, backing you into many corners and forcing you to give into the norm. This game has the strongest metas of any souls game which you can, and usually will, just fall back on because of how the game is designed. It doesn’t help that movement pathing and tracking is still scuffed because of the engine limitations, making for some combat encounters that feel like absolute bullshit. Some of these issues aren’t exclusive to this game, but they are definitely accented.

None of this is to say the game doesn’t succeed on the face of it. It is quality, you can find many things here worth your time. I understand why this game, to many people, was magical, at least in their first play-through. There are plenty of moments that make the game at the very least stand out too: Going down those LONG elevators and bearing witness to and exploring the depths of the lost cities. Seeing through to the fates of the people you meet along your journey like the crabbed but still obliging Blackguard Big Bogart, who’s your main source for boiled prawn and crabs (get it?), or the insecure Boc, the Seamster who tends to your armor and improves it.

There is no shortage of things to discover and moments that if you let them, are able to stick with you for as long as your brain can handle. Those things I listed are nothing compared to some other stuff in the game you should just see for yourself. The Radahn Festival, the Volcano Manor quest-line, the curve-balls thrown at you when you enter new biomes, the palpable atmosphere of Raya Lucaria Academy, or reaching what was probably my favorite location in not just this game, but any souls game, in the Leyndell Royal Capital.

But I’m sorry it just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny if we’re merely talking how its design philosophy works in conjunction with the new layout and structure, despite how much surrounding it does. Part of me feels like this game, even if it does lose the novelty of its sheer scale, would have been better off if each legacy dungeon and subterranean area were just linked together and the rest of the null space with repeated content and bosses with frugal rewards would be trimmed away.

It would, in essence, be the true culmination of all of the previous work at FS, not an amalgamation of everyone else’s work. I’ve played literally every (post-souls) FS game. Bloodborne is my favorite fucking piece of fiction ever, flaws and all, as meager as they are like Bloodborne is as close to perfection as any game can come. I don’t understand how this is the next step for this, admittedly, played out sub-genre of games. They can do better. Bloodborne II can do better. Pls give me Bloodborne II, pls Daddy Miyazaki I beg you.

Despite all that, I’m somehow still willing to bend and give this game like, a 9/10. That is less indicative of the game and more of me. I tend to take games as they are, not as I want/expect them to be, nor as what I happen to feel while I’m playing them. Elden Ring is deeply flawed and I feel like people are gassing it up a bit hard, but at the same time, it felt special to me, in a similar way to how it was for many. It didn’t resonate with me as much as the other games in this loose franchise, I much prefer Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Dark Souls 3, but it is an impressive feat in open world game design, despite the trappings it falls under and mishaps that occur.

Elden Ring is a really good game, but it’s not the best show of the talent at FS. Every convention you come to expect from other games is here with minimal change besides the souls blood that courses through this game’s proverbial veins. You want a truly game changing open world? Look at Metro Exodus, or hell, for something more understated, Arkham City and Origins. Bigger doesn’t always equal better. Elden Ring doesn’t feel like the final form of the franchise that established its own mold, but rather an attempt to fit into the wider mold, which is disappointing.

Given the touchy subject matter I find it hard to review this game without having proper experience. But it is worth the try. There is room in this for a dialogue to ensue, at length, about mental illness and the role social networks play in how the youth comes up. This is pertinent, it affects us all to varying degrees. We all have our own problems, and the fair share of us can probably relate to having friends or loved ones who’ve gone through so much. Contact information and resources for the suicide prevention lifeline are provided, in the event anyone plans to play this and happens to need it or know someone who does.

As for the game, I’m on the fence about it. On one hand, it is novel, and the fact that there is no entry fee is admirable. It has a strong sense of direction, at least in its artistic intent. The pair in Akira Yamaoka and Masahiro Ito returned and they worked it hard here. The cherry blossom motif that pervades the game is stark and lends to the rest of it, thematically and aesthetically. In the end credits sequence we get to hear “My Heroine,” which is an excellent bookend to the game.

On the other hand, there are parts of this game that actively bring it down. It doesn't try to be subtle about anything it brings up and honestly, it is poorly written at times. I don't know if this is a lost in translation sort of thing, but maybe that wouldn't make much of a difference. Summing it up, this game is worth playing. It may not resonate, it may even make you uncomfortable, but it is an earnest game, it was made with the best intentions in mind and there is enough here that someone out there can take something positive away from it.

Set aside the pre-release conundrum, and the daily server maintenance checks that had you kicked out of the game while you were in the middle of a fucking cutscene, (like c’mon rocksteady y’all said it was optimized), this game was enjoyable. Contrary to what some are being led to believe for… reasons, it works out the gate and is a quality product. At least by code.

I’m not one to entertain the reactionaries, you know the type, or maybe you ARE the type if anyone cares to read this; the culture warriors, beset on both sides of the petty exchange/flavor of the day, with something to prove but nothing to truly stand for. Discourse matters but sometimes it’s better to take it down two notches no?

We’re better off being cordial about the things we have hardline stances on, and constructive about the things we care about, whether we like them or not. This stuff has gotten out of hand, at least on the internet. There is an uncompromising, unbridled, unrepentant tick we share as the common, and we release it for some of the most menial shit.

But, with all that stuff this game has been subjected to, even though I did enjoy it, I can’t help but acknowledge the pit it left in me. Some of that stuff rings somewhat true, if not with the vitriol and hyperbole. This game isn’t up to par with the bar rocksteady set in the superhero genre. In fact, this game stands for everything wrong with the video game industry, which profusely hurts to say.

While sporting an investing gameplay loop, being somewhat skill-based given the movement tech and give-or-take mechanics, topped off with resource recoup akin to Doom Eternal changing the flow of gameplay, and having some intricate sandbox world design, the actual content is lacking, even mind-numbing. Same goes for every other element. It’s this big mixed bag of things good and bad.

Whatever world they tried to build here is shoddy. Faulty mechanics that go against things that were established and should carry over from other media, ridiculous story beats meant to get the squad from one place to the next without real hardship, and some of the worst treatment of legacy characters I’ve ever seen quite frankly. Batman had it easy with his send-off, shit has nothing on Green Lantern, Superman, or Flash. Creative license can be good but this was baffling creative decision after another. The Last of Us Part II holds no dice, that game’s story albeit flawed, was still good overall and did right where it counts, and I will die on that hill. SS:KTJL’s story was bad, with fun moments and dynamics, but bad nonetheless.

Based on the credits, the outline was done by Sefton Hill and Ian Ball, one of which of course departed rocksteady. What reasons they were I’m in the dark about but presumably it wasn’t for the best. So it stands that whatever principal scriptwriters and editors that were tasked to take over, including those of the dreadnaught SweetBaby Inc, shudders in fear, took gold writ ink and wore it down. Let me address the whole SweetBaby schtick real quick:

Looking over their mission statement and rap sheet, you derive that the end goal for their involvement in the creative process of games you see them in is to broaden the appeal of said games. Make them more inclusive, woke you could say, (which is a played out term, god I hate fucking hate it). That goal in and of itself isn’t inherently bad, in fact it’s noble.

Not to mention they had hands in the development of God of War: Ragnarök and Alan Wake II, which are all-timers, and Spider-Man 2, which while not reaching the heights of the first game, was not too shabby itself and had some effective moments and did the core of the main characters justice. SweetBaby is not the real problem, as much as some would like to believe it to justify to themselves that gaming is going sour. The real problem is rocksteady and their misguided attempts to try to turn what they made before on its head, and failing tremendously.

The Arkham games, including and especially Origins, fight me, were genre defining. Master strokes in game design with an outlet unlike any other to live out the Batman fantasy. Defining the character and the mythos surrounding him, working as arguably the best adaptations of Batman bar none. So to see them go from that, to this, is bemusing.

Having finished the main story, checked all of the riddler boxes, gathered all the character bios/audio logs/A.R.G.U.S. tapes, and specked out all three talent trees and made the most out of my Dead-shot, having the endgame and post-launch roadmap left, I can confidently say that rocksteady did not cook with this one. Its shelf life ain’t looking too long from here either, even though I am willing to jump back in with some buddies if they’re down. Shame that, it could have been so much more but ended up being less than the sum of its parts.

Taking the sharpest 180° around the road of disappointments. Merging lanes and going the route of the true bangers. Cutting off other clunkers in the freeway like RedFall and Fallout 76. This analogy isn’t going anywhere. Point is CDPR has gone through their redemption arc. Cyberpunk 2077, while not perfect, is now damn close to what was promised, and then some I’d say. The groundwork laid here has room for much, much more come the future.

One thing it’s lacking in is any real choice and consequence. It’s not that it has none whatsoever, it does, but not quite enough. Dialogue choices, more often than not, are binary, and don’t have long reaching story implications. They usually entail you getting or missing out on iconic weapons or some €$ and quick-hack components, or seeing a character return at a later point, even if their role isn’t significant. When it comes to elements of player choice like build making, the game certainly succeeds, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t less than it could be.

Bar the introduction and the occasional stat check that’s only there to serve as flavor text, life-paths and dialogue choices specific to your skills don’t change much of anything at all. Whatever class you decide to spec into, it’ll invariably be about combat proficiency over anything else. This game wants you to engage in the combat, you rarely get to rig against the systems to your favor. No kill any% runs are no-go here. But despite that stuff, this game is still remarkable in plenty other facets, and has an identity, and heart, like none other. Oh, and Samurai is runner-up for best fictional bands, budding heads with Old Gods of Asgard. Two of a kind them, not that there’s much competition. If I’d have to put all their songs in an arbitrary ranking:

1. Never Fade Away (Samurai)
2. Never Fade Away (P.T. Adamczyk, Olga Jankowska)
3. Down (RandBox, cover by Kerry Eurodyne)
4. Archangel
5. Chippin’ In
6. Black Dog
7. The Ballad of Buck Ravers
8. A Like Supreme

Look man, don’t get me wrong, this game is good… but it’s not THAT good, I’m sorry. Just getting it out there for clarification, I’m not one to derogate or bring something down for another thing that it’s not at fault for, and I feel like calling things “overrated” or something along those lines is overdone and not real criticism, but never has that been more fitting for something in my eyes than this game.

This game’s dev cycle was tumultuous to say the least. It went through multiple testing phases before Capcom decided to lay down the track once and for all. Stagnancy is very real and it falls on the lap of plenty franchises, including RE, so trying something new was well worth it. However, I just disagree with the notion that RE had to be redone from the ground up to fit the (at the time) current mold.

There was nothing inherently wrong with fixed camera angles, pre-rendered backgrounds, or tank controls. Those game design conventions worked within the constraints at the time and lent to the identity of the RE trilogy. Moving the franchise toward more action and less survival horror wasn’t necessarily bad but Christ, the common consensus makes it seem as if that’s the ideal when it’s not. It’s not like that changed anything because RE has been chugging along for over two decades trying to recapture the success of RE4 and failing. If anything RE4 made things worse.

Let alone the industry-wide influence of the game and its ramifications, the game itself has its own trifles too. Opting for an even item distribution that rewards the player for engaging in the combat system, it makes for an engaging gameplay loop, but at the same time it trivializes the attaché case. Why have an item management system if you’re inundated with so many resources? You almost never have to think about what to use and when, even in Professional runs.

On top of that, the game’s sense of progression is kind of slipshod. If you know what you’re doing you can clear every room without weapon mods or upgrades on your first play-through. Hell, you can beat the whole game using exploits with the knife or silver ghost and not once visiting the merchant. There can be roadblocks but it’s doable, which you can’t really say for the previous RE games unless you’ve studied their ins and outs and gotten intimately familiar with their structure.

As the cherry on the sundae, the strides this game took to make itself stand out from the other RE games make it worse. I’m probably the only person that gives a shit about RE stories on the planet, which checks out sure, but RE4 does not pay heed to anything established before. Canon be damned. As a result you get a game who’s story is just a fatuous nothing burger with funny one-liners being the only thing holding it up. RE2 laid the groundwork for a duo-logy about a man learning to overcome his survivor guilt and RE4 was just like fuck that, ballistics and right hands coming off. Shit irks me.

Part of me wishes 3.5, or the hook man demo, was the game we actually got and RE took an indefinite break from then on, but that’s not how the cookie crumbles I suppose. A lot of people put this game on an unreasonably high pedestal and future games in the genre to an impossibly high standard, and I never really understood why. But just as I have the right to my feelings, they have the right to theirs, and there’s no taking away how something makes you feel. If something is special to you, more power to you, that’s great.

But I dunno, this game disregards something else that’s special to me and everyone likes it precisely because of that, which is a bit frustrating. But at the end of the day the game we have is still a well made, tight package that came just at the nick of time to send waves through the channel, and that’s alright. I’m not a fan of how popular the game is, but the game itself is still cool despite that.

This is the version of RE4 I’ve always wanted and workshopped in my head since I first played it, having come to pass. Capcom didn’t just skimp out on this game because they knew it would sell like the Bible. Even if we, or at least I, didn’t get to see this much love and care given to the remakes of 2 and 3, it’s good to see it happen when it does.

An overhaul to the furthest it can go, even if at first it feels kind of off after having gotten used to the original and how it plays, as funny as that sounds, is what it turned out to be. Since you have full input, the enemies have, accordingly, been made more aggressive, but even then the game still feels very fair. Hardcore isn’t for players of the original game Capcom, get real.

Also that parry mechanic, damn that was so genius. Parrying the melee attack of a ganado and seeing their arm being severed is so raw. Ammo seems noticeably scarcer while somehow still keeping in line with the flow state of the original RE4, where combat is encouraged rather than meant to be avoided like the original trilogy. Adding crafting with gunpowder and resources makes for a slightly different but equally investing gameplay loop that’s more in-keeping with classic RE too.

Capcom was also flexible enough as to add rudimentary stealth in the game, and somehow, it doesn’t feel out of place. The original’s mine thrower was replaced with the bolt thrower, which serves the same general purpose, while also being an optional stealth weapon to thin out the herd. Best of all, bolts are retrievable, so they work kind of like the arrows in The Last of Us, where as long as you use them efficiently, you can reuse them as much as you want. It finds ways to keep you changing up your play-style every once in a while.

Sound tweaks and changes aplenty. A lot of these are the types of things I wish we could’ve seen the first time, and none of them are concessions like in the RE2 and RE3 remakes. Yes, set-pieces were changed, the QTEs are gone (thankfully), and U-3 is absent in the base game, but that’s as far as it goes. Any cuts that were made were REPLACED, as in the gaps were filled. Either way, the good stuff doesn’t just apply to gameplay, but to the rest of the aspects that make up the game too, whether it’s important to you or not, which for me, it most certainly is.

It finally has a story that’s worth a damn and ACTUALLY acknowledges the events of RE2. Ashley, Luis, Leon, and the rogues gallery have gotten heightened, arguably improved roles in the story. There’s a pay-off I won’t talk about here that makes one moment from the original game feel MUCH more earned this time around, and that goes for a lot of other moments in the game.

I’m only really iffy about the new voice for Ada. Jolene Andersen, following up her role from RE2, did not reprise it in RE4, with Lily Gao’s from the Welcome to Raccoon City movie taking over. But the new blood did a fine enough job with what she was given. Not to get too serious here but it’s sickening to watch people online harass her, it always sucks to see and it’s never justified. Constructive criticism is one thing, but you should never take it that far.

Anyway, dog bless the peeps over at Capcom Division 1. In the end, they did it. They made an excellent remake that not only lives up to the original, but honestly exceeds it in literally every way, while leaving room for some of the OG fans to be happy in spurts. I can’t wait to see what they do with RE5, and hopefully, Code Veronica as well! This has been me with an impromptu word salad, never to be repeated, signing out, have a good one.

Speaking on thematics, this game is pretty deplorable. Its implementation of ARG elements, taking advantage of the haptic features on your smart phone, using text scrawls and push notifications to cox you into getting back in, is admirable. Everything to do with the UI/UX design is good as far as I’m concerned, even great, and the sound design and music are pretty top notch too.

However, for as novel as the game is, none of that matters if the point of the game contradicts the actual game. The themes it attempts to convey are diametrically opposed by the way they’re delivered. Not to mention how tone deaf it feels for Ice-Pick Lodge to put this out, no matter how well-intentioned, after the outing of the company lead’s unsolicited behavior towards minors. Fucked up, and quite frankly disappointing for a studio I otherwise respect.

Context matters and while I wholeheartedly believe that art doesn’t have to reflect the actions or worldviews of the artist behind it, sometimes they can overlap, and this is one such case where it does. Also AI art? Really? C’mon man… Resources pertaining to the subject at hand, if anyone reading wants to know more:

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.resetera.com/threads/nikolay-dybowski-pathologic-2-the-void-has-been-accused-of-preying-on-underage-girls-and-having-relationships-with-students.413229/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjWw9zg892EAxU5g4QIHSjLAGUQFnoECBkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3AntHHh9PxEzEcEBNqLMGZ