I am so torn on what rating to give this game.

Let’s start on by singing its praises. This game has everything I want in a Metroidvania. Great boss fights, amazing world building and setting, expansive combat system… you get the idea. I also loved how long it takes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a 6-10 hour metroidvania, but I also appreciate the 15+ ones like this.

The combat steals the show here, as it is the main focus of your abilities. You get a few traversal upgrades along the way, but most of your time is spent unlocking new combos and fighting methods.

I also love how the devs pay homage to the greats that come before it(Metroid, hollowknight, etc..) and even shout out other works that I guess they just like(Akira, Dark souls, etc..)? Pretty cool stuff.

The things I don’t care for in this game are more nitpicky.. but they stand out quite a bit in my opinion. For starters, one of the weapon choices you have(there are three in total) I didn’t use unless I had to. I’m sure some people actually like it and dislike my favorite, but in my opinion it just felt bad to use. Honestly I used the last option you get pretty much the whole time once I unlocked it, so while there is variety, not all of them are created equal.

I also didn’t love the enemy variety. Don’t get me wrong, they introduce a ton of new enemies in this game, but I got pretty bored of the “grunts” by the end. They are the bulk of what you fight and most of them stay the same or vary slightly all the way up until the end.

The voice acting in this game is rough. I’m not sure if it’s because of the way the mouths on the animals are animated, because of the choppy cutscenes, or if it’s just bad. But it’s hard to sit and watch through the forced story cutscenes. Speaking of, this game really tried to force feed you a story, and even more so a backstory that is pretty… tired and boring.

Last negative I’ll talk about is two-fold.. there are some trophies in this game that are absolute slogs to get. This is not helped by the fast travel options that you are presented with. I think they would have be fitted from adding a few more spots throughout the map.

There is a lot to love about this game, and also a ton of ehhh. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to play constantly. I guess that’s the best thing I can say, I really didn’t want to put this game down.

I wanted to wait awhile to rate this game because I wanted to see if and how the devs would continue to support and update it, and now I am ready to say: Helldivers 2 is one of the greatest co-op shooters I have ever played.

It’s hard to put into words what makes this game so damn special, but I’ll do my best.

First things first, this game got me and my buddies into online gaming again. We haven’t played anything together regularly since Overwatch(the good version) and I was honestly starting to miss the nights where we all got on and played together. We tried a few games here and there, but none of them seemed to capture the online multiplayer magic we were missing. Until now. We are constantly laughing, yelling, communicating, and messing around each and every night we dive, and I don’t see us stopping anytime soon.

The game is just downright fun. I get that shooters aren’t for everyone, but I really got into gaming because of shooters. While they aren’t even close to my favorite genre, I still hold them near and dear to my heart, especially when I find one as fun as this. Even @DVince89, who doesn’t love a lot of shooters, is having a ton of fun with this one. There are so many ways to play because of all the options you have available, from guns and airstrikes, to turrets and different armor perks. Everyone is a bit different and you can really create a good strategy when you are all carrying unique items. Each mission type comes with its own challenges and makes you change your approach each time you drop in, and it even depends on which enemy type you are fighting! I know I’m not doing a great job of selling how fun this game is, but just trust me on this. Get a friend or 2 or 3 and dive in, you’ll have a blast.

I’m so happy to see how Arrowhead is breathing fresh air into the live service genre of games. They are updating this game constantly, not with just bug fixes and QoL improvements, but with hoards of new items, weapons, missions, etc! And the best part, you don’t have to spend a dime for any of it. A lot of the updates come free of charge, but even the Warbonds(think battle pass from Fortnite or similar) can be obtained by just playing the game, because you can collect the in game currency in missions! I spent the original 40 dollars on the game(STEAL by the way) and haven’t spent anymore on it, yet I have every warbond that has been released! Which is another awesome thing about these devs and their continued support. They are releasing a new warbond with weapons, armor, etc.. every month for the foreseeable future, which means I always have something I am working towards!

Last thing I am going to talk about for now, because I could talk about this game for hours. I am typically a person that likes more challenging games. Sure I take a break from that to enjoy a peaceful, slow paced game, but overall I am looking for difficulty. But in this game, it doesn’t matter if you like easy, somewhat challenging, or insanely difficult gameplay because this game offers it all! There are difficulty levels 1-9, so you can truly play at whatever level makes your experience the best. It’s just an awesome feature that a lot of games lack, and I’m here for it!

This game was truly an amazing surprise. It came out of nowhere and now it’s capturing the hearts of soooo many. And the community around it is pretty awesome! I have joined randoms many times and had great experiences with them. I am so excited to see where they take the game from here, and I can’t wait until my next dive into hell.

*this review is sponsored by Super Earth, and paid by its citizens. FOR DEMOCRACY!!

There’s a lot to enjoy about potion permit, but it wears on you pretty quickly.

At first, crafting new potions and discovering more of the island are super fun and exciting, just as developing relationships with the residents and upgrading the town are. You are eager to try and mend the strained relationship between moonbury and chemists from an accident that happened before your time, and that’s exciting!

But before too long, you enter the soul crushing farming in this game. You get stuck in a cycle of go out, farm as much as you can in the short day cycles, talk to as many people and do as many quests as you can, and repeat. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t really go beyond this. It is very linear in progression and gameplay, whereas a game it gets compared to a lot, stardew valley, there are seemingly endless possibilities on what you want to accomplish.

There’s a ton of potential here, and I did have a good time, I just have a sour spot for how the mid to late game left me feeling, with no true good ending for all my hard work.

Man I needed this game! I haven’t played much over the past couple months for a variety of reasons keeping me busy, but there also hasn’t been anything that has really captured me. I’ve picked up some games here and there, only to set them back down. But the rebirth of Prince of Persia was something I never wanted to put down!

Really good metroidvania, one of the best I’ve played. Great movement, combat, boss battles, exploration, etc.. I really fell in love with this game and the environment it created.

There are some issues, like bugs and some honestly disappointing graphics, but overall I had an amazing time playing this game and discovering everything it had to offer, literally.

I hope Ubisoft continues in this direction for the series, because I will buy every Prince of Persia metroidvania for the rest of time!

One of my most anticipated games in quite awhile, Spiderman 2 was well worth the wait.

While the first half of the game wasn’t wowing me as much as I had hoped, the second half comes on strong in all aspects, gameplay and fanfare being the two strongest points.

At first, I didn’t like how the Spidermen controlled as much as I did in each of their respective games. But, as you unlock more and more of their new abilities it becomes an absolute blast creating combos and using each and every ability in your arsenal. By the end of the game, both Miles and Peter feel better to control than both the other games.

I can’t wait to see what they do next and the story that they manage to tell. Obviously, I knew a lot of what was going to happen during the games story, but that doesn’t stop them from throwing twists and turns and keeping me on my toes. It’ll be a long wait but I’m excited for the future of this series!

What a fantastic little metroidvania!

And boy I do mean little, going for 100% on my first play through took a little more than 3 hours, but what a fun 3 hours it was! Everything including the collectibles, movement, enemy variety, and music was absolutely awesome. While not a huge fan over the art style, the collectible palettes that let you change the the games two-toned colors to a different variety were an awesome and welcoming touch!

Though not many, the boss fights were very well designed but not difficult as long as you took time to learn the patterns, and varied greatly!

This game reminds me so much of Metroid: Zero Mission, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they took inspiration from that game. The sections where you must go without your mech is so similar to the zero suit section from that game, and though frustrating at some points, left me with a smile on my face.

The only downside to this game besides it being so short is the ending, which goes so quickly I was wondering if there were multiple endings and I somehow got the bad one. Even so, what can I expect from a game where you are a saw cat who is controlling a mech suit?

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes metroidvanias, anyone who wants to get into them, and really anyone that enjoys 2D platformers!

I’m so disappointed that I spent a gift card on this game. The only reason it is getting more than a one star is because the art and music are pretty good. That’s the only good things I can say about this game.

The negatives vastly outweigh these things. Frame rate issues, boring gameplay, infuriating movement and controls, and the fact that this game is 15 dollars are just a few major issues for me.

The thing that made me most mad about the entire game is that the coolest section, or what would’ve been the coolest section, is just an auto scrolling chase sequence in which you have literally no control. It would’ve been fun to escape yourself during this section, but instead you just watch it happen, and it sucks.

I don’t recommend anyone buy this game unless it’s price is heavily discounted to 3 dollars or less.

Game number 350!!! I knew I had to do something big/special for this occasion, so why not play my first ever Castlevania, half of the namesake of my favorite genre.

There’s so much going for this game, and also a bit going against it. But I don’t want to be negative at all on my 350th completed game so I will stick to what I loved about it.

The RPG elements work so well here! Leveling up, designing your own load out to play how you want to play, and all the upgrades are awesome to find. Many of the weapons I really enjoyed using, and exploring the castle, both normal and inverted, was super fun.

The art, combat, and music are superb!! I have been humming various tracks from this game for the past week! On top of that, although the voice acting is not good at all, I found it hilarious so that’s a plus!!

Although it is not and will never been as good as my beloved Metroid games, I can see why people love this series so much.

Here’s to the next 350!

I have so much to say about this game, good and bad.

Let’s start with the good. The story parts are beautiful. This game shows so many aspects of life and death like love, loss, anger, and grief. Each of the huge and colorful cast of characters deals with their own issues and comes to terms with their death in their own meaningful way. Seriously, a couple of these characters were tugging on my heartstrings by the time to say goodbye.

The gameplay has some really fun aspects as well! The map is HUGE and everytime I found a new island I was excited to explore it. I would get a rush of determination everytime I found a new material and thought about all I could use it for once I got back to my ship! Speaking of, discovering new blueprints and designing your ship to your own preference is also super fun!

Now comes to bad. If you decide to do everything in this game get ready for a grindddd, literally. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “grinding” in the traditional gaming sense, but there is so much back and forth traveling for each and every thing you want to do and build. I was very careful to collect every resource I could every time I saw them, and there were many times I was still very short on some of them, which was very frustrating.
Especially if that particular item only had a few places it could be, then you would have to wait for it to respawn which takes a fair bit of time. Somewhere, a little bit past the halfway mark of the game, I just felt like I was completing endless tasks just for the hell of it, and it wasn’t near as satisfying as the beginning.

I also felt like some of the quests pacing was a bit off? My very last quest of the entire game was one where you had to wait 2 in game days before you could continue, so I was left with nothing to do except wait for the time to slowly tick away.

Also, some of the “mini game” building that were used to process your materials were flat out non enjoyable from the jump, whereas most of the lost their charm as I kept returning to them time after time.

I really think I screwed myself by going for 100%. If it weren’t for that, most of my issues would have been greatly diminished, and I would have rated the game higher. If I just stuck to the story bits, not worrying about every little detail and side quest, I would’ve got more enjoyment out of the parts that make this game so damn charming.

Spiritfarer is beautiful, and for those who have dealt with death up close know how many ways people cope with it. At the end of the day, we are here to help each other along the way.