One of those rare transcendent pieces of media that has the gravity to pull in people who usually wouldn't be interested in that type of thing. World of Warcraft is up there with the likes of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones in terms of cultural impact. I can't tell you the number of people I met during my time with the game who didn't play video games at all before deciding to play WoW. What was a pretty geeky fantasy game that you expect to be populated by 99% teen boys and men in their 20s ended up drawing in peoples parents, peoples wives, even some peoples grandparents played it. I can't think of many games that had this type of wide spread appeal to non gamers and that has to count for something.

I honestly think this game is wildly overrated. Don't get me wrong, the window dressing is great. Voice acting is well done, the home base is well designed and constantly adding new dialogue to add to the story after each failed run, the characters design is cool and an interesting take on Greek mythology.

However to me the core gameplay loop leaves much to be desired. This isn't to say the game isn't fun, it definitely is. The controls are sharp and the combat is fast paced yet deliberate in nature. The problem is that for a roguelite to really hold your interest there needs to be a wide variance in gameplay on each individual run. This stops the game from getting too repetitive and eventually causing you to lose interest. The problem here is that there are only a handful of weapons and these are really broken down into two categories ranged or melee. All melee weapons play roughly the same and the boons you get during each run don't really change the way that you use them that much besides whether you will be using primarily the special attack, main attack, or dash attack. These boons also don't significantly alter the function of the attack, but rather just add an effect like a dot, pushback, extra damage, chance to crit etc.

There also seem to be a number of "must have' boons for a run to have a realistic chance of being successful. In my experience there is a clear and obvious best build that includes getting divine dash which allows you to reflect projectiles when dashing. This ability is simply a must have for any successful run. You then want an attack that causes doom and the dash ability that automatically procs doom. This to me is by far the best setup in the game. A game like this shouldn't have a clear and obvious best build and no item should be a must when each run is randomized.

Ultimately I didn't dislike this game, but was a little disappointed based on all the hype it got. I mean this game won GOTY awards so I was expecting to play one of the best roguelike/lite games ever and Hades simply didn't live up to that for me, not even sure if it would crack my top 5 roguelike/lites to be honest. Hades had all the extra components that add to a great game like good voice acting and dialogue, cool character design, an interesting narrative, etc. but missed the mark on the core gameplay loop that is simply necessary for a repetitive game like this.

This game is full of beautiful environments brought to life by truly impressive graphics for the time. The world is brimming with little secrets and backstory to uncover that is pretty interesting and adds depth to the characters and locations you are exploring. Where the game truly shines is the optional puzzle tombs where you actually do some tomb raiding and after solving some well designed puzzles, you are rewarded with some upgrades and loot. The combat is decent yet not much has changed from its predecessor but it keeps you engaged for the most part.

The weakness of this game is with it's story which follows the insanely generic story beats of almost every Indiana Jones-esque adventure game where the protagonist finds out about some ancient artifact believed to have magical powers and somehow figures out it's location. In comes evil antagonist backed by an endless army of nameless, faceless goons who finds out the magical McGuffins location either by stealing the research of the protagonist, stealing the map the protagonist found at gunpoint, or by secretly following the protagonist to the secret location. A race against time ensues to see who can find the McGuffin first, and even though you are the one solving all the puzzles and unlocking all the secrets somehow the antagonist gets to it just before you do. Big fight (usually involving QTE of some sort), protagonist wins, roll credits. This formula is so tired I can't even begin to describe how boring it has become to me. Are you telling me there is no other way to format an adventure game than this?

I also found the final act to be a bit ridiculous as well. The big bad that have been hinted at a few times throughout the game finally appear "The Deathless" who's name implies that they can't die... Or at least would be hard to kill. But nope, they die in two or three shots like the regular armored humans, and they don't use guns so they are actually easier to deal with. Even if they were more tanky these encounters are made kindergarten levels of easy due to the comedically large number of explosive pots strewn around the combat areas. Not exaggerating here, there is usually more explosive pots than enemies in each kill room. Also in the final fight Konstantin sneak attacks you and takes your bow and somehow you magically lose all your other guns as well, this was just lazy if you want to disarm me, do it in a way that makes sense. Also during this fight you can literally just run up to Konstantin and spam melee attack over and over and he won't die but is essentially stun locked... just poor design.

Ultimately this is a big step down from the first game of the reboot in my opinion due to a totally generic story and a frankly embarrassingly bad final act full of poorly designed encounters, underwhelming enemies, overly padded content (I'm looking at you trebuchet section), and a terribly designed final boss fight. Hopefully Shadow of the Tomb Raider fixes these issues... On to the next!

I loved the aesthetic and tone of Control. Such a unique idea for a game. For a person who has been playing games for as long as I have, it's rare that I see something genuinely new in a video game. This game had that for me. The combat might not be the best, but it is more than serviceable and feels punchy and impactful. You simply can't put a price on how good it feels to yeet an office printer at an enemies face in this game. But where this game truly shines is that it is steeped in spookiness and mystery. I'm finding it difficult to find the correct words to explain the genre/tone of the game and I think this is precisely what makes it special. If you are a long time gamer who is tired of the risk averse nature of the modern game industry and enjoyed shows like the X-files, Twilight Zone, or Twin Peaks, give this game a shot, you will be happy.

This is an open world game that follows all the tired tropes of most modern open world RPGs that I usually hate but actually quite enjoyed. The concept of the game is just super interesting to me: a world thrown back into the stone age with a new top dog on the food chain, rediscovering the events of the past in hopes of building a better future. It's just a really good idea and I was immediately enthralled by the contrast between the super high tech AI machine animals and the primitive existence of the humans.

The combat is made fresh by adding problem solving elements to each enemy type where you have to find and target weak spots and are encouraged to set up traps and ambush them rather than just running in guns blazing. This sophisticated combat system and some really cool enemy design leads to engrossing gameplay that feels new and fun.

The game is at its best when you are just exploring the open world, delving into the cauldrons which are interesting little mini dungeons that provide backstory, or finding vantage points which show you a glimpse into the past. The main story missions are where this game is lacking, the story is interesting enough but most of the main plot is pretty bland and predictable. Still well worth a try though, plenty to enjoy here.