Marlow Briggs is to God Of War as Assault Spy is to Devil May Cry: An indie-developed, low budget take on a hugely popular action title with all the established gameplay kinks and quirks. Light-heavy dial combos, multiple flavours of AOE magic, right-stick rolling, guarding, executions, it's as God Of War as a God Of War knockoff can be, just fuelled off a budget of cup noodles and a dream.

That's as much a blessing as it is a curse; as satisfying yet monotonous as Marlow Briggs' combat can get, it's got issues that I recall experiencing with God Of War 1 way back when I played it in 2018. A hit or miss lineup of bosses, a lot of the downtime between combat being crammed with fairly annoying platforming sections, where one wrong move will instantly kill you, and being just a bit long. In the case of Marlow, it was mostly the jungle and back end of the game that I felt could've been cut down some.

But hey, if you like the OG GOW titles, and always wanted to see a low budget take on the series handled by an indie team? Marlow Briggs is probably right up your alley. It only goes on sale for dirt cheap, so you've really not got much of anything to lose!

Also I had to watch the ending on YouTube, because, despite the game being verified for the Steam Deck, both ending cutscenes refused to play, lmao.

Some thoughts from a competitive player perspective, this was the first game I entered a tournament for:

Makes me sad that we won't ever see Brawl get revisited or refined, even with all the flaws it's my favourite Smash game (Melee shares that spot too). Smash 4 and Ultimate were made with competitive play in mind, at least a little bit, so the magic of Melee and Brawl where everything was discovered, developed and fleshed out by the community was lost over time.

In the newer games, what works and what doesn't is almost inmediately apparent and a lot more consistent by design, which is healthier for newer players and the competitive scene but makes the games feel more limited and scripted in comparison.
Even though Smash4 and Ult are games that borrow a lot more from Brawl than Melee, they will never replicate what made Brawl special for me (slower pace, focus on single hit interactions, obscure advanced techniques for most of the cast...), because it's impossible to get a game like that if you actually try making it a solid, polished and consistent experience for everyone.

The roughness and disregard for competitive play of both Brawl and Melee are what made them what they are today, not the balance. And 2 "accidents" like that won't ever happen with today's standards.

Brawl is, by no measure, the best Smash game from a technical, competitive, or content standpoint. Ultimate has it beat in all three, and Melee certainly beats it in a competitive setting.

That said, this was my first Smash game, so nostalgia definitely plays a part in my enjoyment of it. That said, this game has something the other two don't: Subspace Emissary.

While not a perfect campaign, the fact that they created a world to tell an epic crossover narrative where Link and Mario are fighting each other and Snake and Lucario are working together on the Halberd is such a magical experience. Obviously Smash isn't a "platformer," so the platforming levels aren't the best thing I've ever seen. But it's certainly more than what we would get in future titles.

The way the campaign works in unlocking characters is also genius, and I do wish that the series had continued using this idea.

The Metro series has always been one of those franchises I consider glorified cult classics -- they sell tons of copies, but whenever you ask their admirers what exactly they do right, it always comes down to something shallow: atmosphere, immersion, atmosphere, visuals, and did I mention AT-MO-SPHERE? No seriously, read the comments on any review and that’s what 90% of them are raving about.

Don’t get me wrong, atmosphere is important, especially for post-apocalyptic titles like Metro, but it’s arguably the least vital aspect behind things like, oh I don’t know, story, optimization, and gameplay, all of which 2033 has major deficits in. The premise is a nuclear war wiped out most of humanity, leaving mutants on top and the remaining Russians underground where several factions, including neo-Nazis, have formed. There are a lot of holes in this concept that, while I’m sure were addressed in the source material, aren’t even touched upon here (at least so far as I didn’t catch them). For starters, how exactly did the Moscow Metro protect against radiation when much of it is exposed? In Fallout, the bunkers were hermetically sealed; now I may not be a scientist, but in the game, you’ll find so many mask-free hypogean spaces, it seems illogical that airborne ionizing rays magically avoided them. Secondly, what exactly are the mutants? Wikipedia claims they’re transmogrified animals, however, nothing in the actual story indicates such, and given how absurd some of these monstrosities look, it seems like a giant stretch, even by sci-fi standards. Thirdly, how are there so many dang Nazis? The nuclear winter emerged in 2013, well after World War II, and you’re only ever in Russia, so where did an army of them come from? Out of all the states in history, I sincerely doubt a Slavic country would house a bastion of Nazi sympathizers given the atrocities of the second Great War.

I’m sure I could come up with more, and I certainly don’t mean to be nitpicky, but you guys need to understand dystopian video games are highly dependent on their lore: if you don’t understand how things came to be, it results in the world becoming generic to a fault. And that’s kind of the case here- the metro is a cliche dilapidated hub, the mutants indifferent from your standard vampires/zombies, and the Nazis another run-of-the-mill evil faction in the same vein as other hostile survivalists. And it’s a shame because I doubt the author of the book (Dmitry Glukhovsky) or the writers here intended for that. But without in-game descriptions, or at the very least optional data files, 2033 ultimately fails to be indistinguishable from its calamitous brethren.

All cards on the table, I doubt I’d be criticizing the setting this much had the narrative been up-to-par, but it’s honestly pretty bland. You play as Artyom, a young soldier tasked with delivering a message to the metro capital about a new threat called the Dark Ones. If you guys have ever seen the phenomenal movie 1917, Metro’s story is basically that minus the personality and impetus. Arytom’s journey takes him to many decrepit sections of the subway, but it never feels like you’re doing anything grand or important, namely because of two reasons: one, the Dark Ones are even duller than the mutants, their essence obscured for sequel purposes; and two, Artyom joins a long line of pointlessly mute protagonists, sapping him of any humanity he may have had. I’ve never understood the rationale behind narrative-driven games opting for silent heroes; it’s one thing if your product is gameplay-directed, but for titles like the original Dead Space, certain Call of Duties, and even Half-Life, I find it to be a fundamentally dumb decision, and 2033 joins those infamous ranks. By leaving the relative safety of his compound, Artyom is theoretically undergoing a nerve-wracking experience (as he literally conveys via diary entries in and in-between scenes [more on that later]), yet illogically shuts his trap when in the midst of this very madness! It’s genuinely anti-immersive, especially when you see how conveniently hackneyed the script is in its attempts at working around this lack of dialogue. Real-time observations about the state of affairs around you, whether by inner monologue or general discourse, could have also gone a long way towards imparting a sense of history to the slums you stumble about, slums that otherwise suffer from a severe lack of environmental storytelling. Don’t mistake me, each location you travel to is technically distinct from its brethren, however, the developers didn’t do much in the way of visually conveying that- everywhere you look it’s the same basic rusted metal grating contorted around shoddy marketplaces lit up by oil drums, their NPCs donning similar apparel regardless of their age or gender. The few times you head to the surface don’t bear greater fruit as the everlasting Russian winter poorly masks what is effectively a standard post-nuketown metropolis we’ve seen a million times over: you know, the leveled buildings with blown out windows, smooshed vehicles, broken down signposts, and scraggly foliage.

I get it, there’s only so much variation you can do with this archetypal setting, and I doubt the real life Moscow Metro would’ve been substantially altered in just 30-years of crude maintenance. But considering this is a game with psychic attacks and flying wing demons, a little artistic licensing wouldn’t have hurt. As it stands, it rarely feels like you’re progressing towards a grand marker when the lion’s share of milestone camps are optically indistinct from the place you just came from. There was an area later in the game that I swear induced an overwhelming sense of déjà vu in me due to its eerie similarity to a prior stage.

I don’t mean to sound completely whiny as Metro’s story isn’t bad by any means. In fact, it’s a perfectly solid entry in the standard man vs. monster conflict we’ve had since the dawn of humanity. I only bring up these criticisms to caution against those aforementioned praises coasting on atmosphere relishment: it’s vastly overstated, the subterranean tunnels being more detrimental than ambient.

Then again, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking 2033’s plot would be epic given the stunningness of the graphics. Playing the Redux version, I don’t know what upticks were done, but the final remaster is definitely breathtaking: cracked walling, razed concrete, the sleek green tint of a radiated pool, worn out textiles, and the natural disbursement of snow on corrugated surfaces; all are superb exhibitions of the monster that is 4A’s proprietary engine. From the splatter of blood on your visor to the flying of casings as you discharge weapons, tons upon tons of smaller details have been coded that I’m sure warrant multiple playthroughs to catch in their entirety. Yet even these pale in comparison to the grand feat that is the lighting. Conducting a bit of research (that is, browsing Wikipedia), I wasn’t surprised to learn that 4A’s software specializes in subsurface scattering as 2033 might have the best lighting I have ever seen in a video game. As you can imagine, you’ll be underground for the majority of your playthrough, meaning most of the effulgence derives from improvised ignition sources stuck in stationary poses: gas barrels, torches, and lanterns all make their presence known between levels, sending orange and gold shadows radiating along walls. And while an inherent baked overlay exists to prevent overwhelming darkness, the fact that you can discern a blaze fount from a distance speaks wonders about the overarching quality of the lighting.

Like most AAA games, these praises are unfortunately capped by foibles in the craft. First and foremost, 2033 has not been optimized well for PCs- I experienced numerous crashes that were only absolved by turning off certain settings (I’ve read other players have had to outright tone down the resolution). Secondly, shortcuts were effected with Artyom’s model as he is essentially an exaggerated first person camera: taking a gander down will reveal the absence of legs, while his uncovered hands look uncanny as heck (thankfully he wears gloves in the final act). Thirdly, and most noticeably, are the mutant responses to damage- 2033 may very well hold the worst paired animation schema I’ve witnessed in a video game as these motions are jarring. Whenever you slay a monstrosity, there’s no transition between the last bullet and death call -- they just up-and-initiate their pre-programmed collapse. It reminded me a lot of that defect in the Civil War FPS “A Nation Divided” wherein allies would spontaneously die on the spot without reason.

Shooting, in general, is pretty poor largely because of the inconsistent damage threshold. Every weapon feels great, but you won’t have much fun using them courtesy of the mutants varying in fatality margins: some go down consistently with headshots, others can tank an entire assault rifle clip (this being particularly irksome if you play on the harder difficulties with scarce ammunition, though more on that later). It’d be fine if 2033 made combat encounters intermittent or outright optional, but as it stands you’ll be in mandatory firefights for a good chunk of your playthrough and have to witness this incongruity.

Human enemies are luckily more stable in their faltering, and even against monsters, you’re occasionally provided allied AI that actually do a solid job mowing them down, so it isn’t all bad. On the flipside, 2033 has compulsory stealth sections which are underdeveloped, though in a twist of faith, this tends to be in your favor. See, the game hypothetically operates on the basis of shading- light sources can be destroyed or switched off, wherein you’re provided a veil of darkness to meander in and one-shot bad guys. The problem, based on my experience at least, is that lighting is ultimately irrelevant due to enemy vision cones being inherently impaired- I’ve literally had goons walk right by me while I was crouched, or see me as I peaked around corners, and not get alerted. I’ve heard the Redux version attempted to revamp the stealth, but these alterations have clearly resulted in coding errors which, combined with long-range silencers and throwing knives, honestly make the stealth a bit of a cakewalk. I’m not saying you’ll never have to redo a section, but chances are it’ll derive from accidentally springing a booby trap than a hoard catching you.

Unfortunately, these positives are negated by a baffling game design decision that frustrated me to the point of not having fun. What it comes down to is the same problem I had with Mirror’s Edge, which is this disparate juxtaposition between pure linear pathways against a free roam blueprint. When you begin a level, 7 times out of 10 the spaces before you look open-ended, seemingly promoting this idea that you can approach such obstacles in more ways than one. Sadly, though, what you’ll quickly realize is that this isn’t the case at all, and not only is it not the case, it’s downright insulting. See, 4A wasn’t interested in creating playpens for gamers to meander around in- they want you to do things exactly the way they intended, and if you try to deviate, be prepared to hit the reload button again and again and again. A group of guards blocking your way? Well, don’t bother sneaking around because you NEED to climb the ladder instead. Want to save a prisoner on the verge of execution? Don’t even think about it cause that’ll put you in sight of the snipers above. Want to take your chances fighting a giant mutant guarding a doorway? You’re wasting your time cause, plot twist, that entrance was blocked off anyway!

It does get better in the second half (one chapter set in a rundown library, in particular, is absolutely brilliant in composition), but the fact that you have to meander through 50 percent of the game dealing with this pseudo-sandbox is aggravating to a fault. Yes, you do have a compass which shows the right way; however, it more often points in the general direction of the next objective over the exact method you are obliged to utilize.

On the topic of the compass, much has been made about 2033’s HUD (or lack thereof), and while I’ve always felt animosity towards gaudier HUDs to be a bit silly, I can’t deny the numerous benefits that come from a clearer screen. That said, 2033 has a needlessly complicated tool interface that I believe could’ve been alleviated had the developers not gone tabula rasa with the display- you can only equip one ranged armament at a time (swapping requiring you to go through two different menus), certain gear like the night vision goggles need to be periodically recharged, and your watch (which reportedly indicates your oxygen level and hidden status) must be manually prompted to be viewed. These may appear like small potatoes, but when you’re in the heat of a battle and have to quickly toss a molotov grenade, or cowering from monsters and have your specs deplete, it can be pointlessly vexing.

Now the counterpoint to these grievances may be that 2033 is part-survival horror, meaning the extraneous elements are meant to deliberately induce stress in you. To this I respond maybe? I’m not huge into the genre, but my understanding is that it’s more about inventory management and maneuvering around conflicts than haggling with menus. And to be honest, after my playthrough, I don’t really consider 2033 to be survival horror- vendors for recuperating gear are a dime a dozen, there’s a lot of mandatory combat (including one scene that straight up feels like a CoD set piece), and the game is ultimately not scary. Granted, I did beat 2033 on the easiest difficulty (namely due to aforementioned annoyances with the mutants), so these facets could very well be amplified on the harder modes. But when I see titles like Dead Space and Black Flag master the interface in both a minimal and ergonomic way, it encroaches on 2033 a little.

Soundwise, I have no complaints. This is a firmly crafted enterprise that accounts for the differences between the occlusion of a sunken city and the wide berth of an exposed surface: plangent gunshots boom in the tunnels whilst gusts dampen your footsteps above. And while there isn’t much enemy diversity, mutants are capable of being individually identified by way of their unique gait (it’s saying something when the flap of wings can induce a heartbeat skip!).

When it comes to the voice acting, I’ve seen much debate online about whether to go with the Russian or English dub. To clarify, my philosophy has always been to adopt the version most culturally appropriate- if a work of fiction is rooted in a particular country, chances are the voices from that state will better infuse the story with that indescribable factor we call authenticity. Under these circumstances, 2033 is theoretically better suited with Slavic dialogue- it was made by a Russian studio, is set in Russia, and reportedly incorporates some Russian Orthodoxy. However, despite such notations, I actually recommend playing in English for a couple of reasons: one, subtitles are NOT present for the numerous side NPCs you hear conversing in the background (who tend to make interesting remarks about the world), and two, during shootouts, it’s too risky to glance at your comrades words whilst dodging creatures. Contrary to what some russophiles will tell you, the English voice acting is well-cast. No, they’re not as good as their Eastern counterparts, but at least they speak with accents (unlike a certain “acclaimed” miniseries). Plus, 4A has redone the lip-syncing, meaning you’re not dealing with any poor ADR.

The score by Alexei Omelchuk and Georgiy Beloglazov is good enough. There are times where they weirdly indulge in old-timey radio tunes that take you out of the game, but the majority of the music is what you’d expect from an action horror title- ambient beats without a particularly formative structure. Basically, they get the job done.

In the end, Metro 2033 is a fine enough FPS hampered by boneheaded mapping and a forgettable story. I won’t degrade other people’s experiences, but for me, the atmosphere truly wasn’t that great, at least not enough to supersede the game’s many problems.


NOTES
-There is an alternate ending, however the way to get it is a little contrived and not worth pursuing, especially since it isn’t canon for Last Light.

-I wasn't able to fit it in organically in the review, but facial animations are extremely well-done here, the Redux version putting them in the same camp as contemporary eighth generation releases. One of the cooler things 2033 does is have certain characters actually look directly and say something to you whenever you get up in their face (compared to most other titles where it's like you don't exist).

-Certain levels have a volatile autosave wherein it will either behave normally or force you to restart some portion back, so be warned.

-Being able to wipe off blood and soot from your mask is pretty cool, but not seeing any of it on Aryom’s palm is an example of two steps forward, one step back.

-Flies populating the face shield appear indifferently animated than flies populating your regular face.

This game is truly incredible, my favorite of all time as of right now. The best way I'd describe it is that while the specific story it's telling is somewhat standard yet perfectly adequate, the way it tells that story is where it's truly master class. For 2004, this must've been unbelievable, but it's still highly impressive all these years later. Masterful at both visual storytelling and interactive storytelling.

It's an FPS campaign on a tier that I rarely see any competitors. The graphics are dated but visually this is still unbelievably gorgeous. The facial animations especially are very well-done. The voice acting, especially for characters like Breen and Alyx, is quite good. The level design and conveyance are spectacularly masterful, and the game combines its typical sci-fi action feel with a bit of horror-esque atmosphere at times to keep it more interesting. I love all the different weapons, and the game does well to cater to however you want to approach it. The game does a fantastic job of making a mostly linear campaign feel like you're traversing all through this sprawling landscape. And I love how it all looks, the aesthetic style of the game, while going for realism, has some great Eastern European settings and tone with some really picturesque locations and great designs. New mechanics and ideas are introduced at just the right pace, and there's just the right balance of old and new in each level so that there's not too much new things being thrown at you to overwhelm you, but not too much of the same that it all becomes monotonous.

Personally I feel the pacing is amazing in the game. There's plenty of variety in the gameplay, from survival horror and physics puzzles to vehicular segments and more stealth-based portions, and it balances long segments of the game where you get to breathe and sort of relax a little more with story beats and heightened action when the slow pacing feels like it might start to get boring. It feels like the pacing changes at the right moments to avoid the game becoming too laidback or too strenuous. It ties great into the story progression, allowing enough time for Gordon to be himself and not rushing through the plot points. Aside from me wanting the ending in the citadel to be a little more drawn out and challenging, I feel it's spaced out very well at a good length. Maybe there could've been slightly less vehicle stuff and a little more at the end in the citadel, but it's not too big of a problem and I still haven't played the episodes. And while I used to not care for the soundtrack, it's really grown on me.

There are some problems with the game. Your AI companions can get in the way, sometimes characters deliver their lines too early (and some other slight acting quirks that I'm sure were part of this being very new stuff to work with in game design at the time), occasionally it's unclear what to do, there are a few brief segments that become too suddenly hard (and it can be a bit easy sometimes), and some places and props look better than others, but overall I'd say most of the flaws are minor or understandable. The ending felt a bit anti-climactic, too easy and all of a sudden, but like I said I haven't played the follow-up episodes, so maybe that too will become more forgivable.

But in summary, Half Life 2 is a classic FPS that everyone should play. It's still very impressive all these years later and has aged very well. Through every single level I found myself aware of what the designers were trying to accomplish, and you could really feel the mastery of game design, progression, and innovation in visual interactive storytelling they wanted to get across. Go play it.

It's been almost 14 years since I played the game, but the game still manages to feel indie-modern, of course, it depends on the console you play. The game has been released on more platforms than I can't count. I bought the experience in Snes because thanks to the Snes sound system, this music, which was created by blending classical music with electro music, sounds more pleasant to the ear, as in Genesis. It doesn't sound like the sound of Genesis. Although the sound of the gun effect sounds like the sound of wood in Genesis, the character responds with a unique dialogue when you get life. They added extra background in the episode and you get a better experience thanks to the improved resolution of Snes, but if you want the original genesise and its unique style like the 90s cartoon look, I recommend you to play Genesis. Not to mention the lack of animation makes the game, which has an already chaotic structure that you can't see, from a chaotic to a chaotic one, not to mention the lack of animation. The latest HD Remake has been made and in this version, there are extra levels, extra chapters within the level, and extra bosses.

We play a character named Jim, who has superpowers that he gets when a suit falls on a worm living in the world. Character Princess "Whatever his name is" (Yes "Whatever his name is"), his twin Queen Bug spawner I don't know what (Longer official name) and Rescuing his assistants from Psy-Crow, Evil the cat,Bob the Killer Goldfish etc.

Playmates Toys took a different approach to continue its success by transferring cartoons and movies to games, and this time they wanted to transfer a series from a game to a cartoon for the first time. As a result, Earthworm Jim was born. The game was a game with a cynical crazy atmosphere overlooking the cartoon industry. The game is 2D but it is a platform game based on avoiding obstacles by hitting the enemies and avoiding obstacles with a space gun that does not have a linear level design like mario and where we can use our head as a whip, as well as a diverse game where we can do Bungee Jumping and escort an alien dog. In addition, lynching the game and the character just because of the political views of its creator is an outdated attitude.

Although it perfectly reflects its unique, random chaotic humorous style, it has a style that does not appeal to everyone. I did not like the drawings of the platfrom designs in the level. It is not clear where the platfrom is where it is thorn. It is not clear where the platfrom is. Moreover, each section also varies with different enemy models, on top of that, these models have really extraordinary drawings. The enemies have their own attack mechanics, but the game presents it to you by experiencing it without showing it, and as a result, it adds an unnecessary extra difficulty to the game. They could have solved it by adding a Tutorial. you can get lost in the levels or you can't know what to do and watch the walkthrough. It is not clear where you will hit with the gun and whip, which makes it difficult to hit the enemy in the track system and this is the biggest deficiency in my opinion. After each episode, we enter the asteroid race with Psy-Crow. Being able to benefit from the bonuses in Crow, just like you, is a very fine and nice detail. Although it is fun at first, it can be annoying because it is too much later on. Waiting for the gun to be filled can be annoying from time to time, and the bullet is not enough because it is not clear where the bullet goes. It's a real Groovy! It offers mobile gameplay with climbing mechanics swinging your head like a Helicopter.

Leaving the suite and entering the suite again in the sections allowed by the game is a small but nice detail. In the underwater section, submarine control can be very difficult and annoying. It works completely with the logic of translation and it is difficult to get used to it because it does not provide acceleration. Although escorting a dog that has become more difficult looks good, it's bad in practice. (Hint, if you whip it in the air, it can double jump.) The bosses in the beginning are very fun. In the last episode, I don't understand why, you fight another boss before the final boss. While waiting for the final more epic fight Your dreams can be crushed. The biggest problem is that they can be collected and the lack of bonuses makes you play just to pass the level, and when the few collectable lives and the difficulty of the game combine, it makes you mad. As a result, Earthworm Jim presents you with beautiful mechanics more than once and with an average platform, it is surreally fun but hard time lets you pass.

((DISCLAIMER - This review(like all reviews) is biased and is entirely my opinion based on my own gaming preferences.))
Definitely an interesting 2D Zelda-like. I went in completely blind and had no clue what to expect. I got the game on sale but I feel that there was definitely a substantial amount of playtime for an indie adventure title at around 8 hours for my personal completion.

PROS -
- The gameplay is very open and leaves a lot of room for exploring and discovering new things.
- Dungeons all feel unique and filled with combat, puzzles, and exploration, each with a unique and fairly challenging boss.
- The artwork is definitely well done and very reminiscent of 16bit video games like ALTTP with perhaps even a bit more detail.
- There were a few characters who had funny moments and I definitely enjoyed some of the humorous writing.
- Mitra is hands-down my favorite part of the game and the most helpful person in the game. I genuinely looked forward to talking to her and appreciated the little hints she would give.
- Without giving spoilers, there is more exploring to do after completing the game with a very unique method of interacting with the game world. I honestly began having even more fun with the post-game than I had with everything that led up to it.

CRITICISMS -
- The atmosphere was so melancholy that it often times became unsettling in a not fun way for me personally.
- The writing and themes seemed to hit both extremes. At times I would chuckle at a light hearted, sarcastic character line one moment and then walk over to an area that was extremely dark in a sickening way.
- I often found myself lost and with no direction, having to backtrack through area after area just trying to clear the map in hopes that something might happen. Eventually, I realized that all the exploration amounted to was finding little art cards all over the place. The cards function like power stars in a Mario game, letting you enter the final area once you acquire them all. In the end it felt more like a chore to me, searching every inch of the map and dungeons just to get the game to move forward rather than a satisfying or useful collectible that gave any sense of progression.
- There were moments where characters using foul language, seemingly out of the blue, completely broke immersion for me, often during lines that seemed overly meta. While most dialogue in the game is entirely optional, there isn't much more to the writing and characters.
- The story... Honestly, I feel that this game was lacking much direction when it comes to plot, motivation, and character development. It seemed like it was more of a joke that the story is nearly non-existent with names being very much like placeholders rather than parts of a fictional world. In the end, I was left wondering why any of the game was even taking place or even what at all was taking place with seemingly no answers.

I know nothing about the developers or the development of this game, but in the end, I look at games as what they are. As a game, it delivers on some pretty solid Zelda-like exploration, dungeon crawling, boss fights, with the last one being challenging in a satisfying way, and some beautiful pixel-art, varied biomes and creative puzzle-solving. I was not very satisfied by the lack of story, and the atmosphere was not something I personally enjoyed all the time. Overall, Definitely a unique experience that scratches the Zelda itch pretty well, though I would have enjoyed a bit more on the story side of things.

Fun with a few frustrations.
1. The amount of dialogue. Holy crap. I felt like I was going to develop carpal tunnel syndrome from all the times I had to press A to advance the dialogue. Any replay value for this game is murdered by how long you have to just sit there pressing A while the NPCs just don't be quiet. To be fair, this is a problem that is becoming increasingly bad with any Pokemon game. Scarlet and Violet are the worst offenders by far, but this game still suffers from it. Half of your gameplay time is just spent advancing dialogue screens.
2. I wish your Pokemon got abilities that hit multiple targets at once. KOing Pokemon one-by-one when 4 are attacking you gets real frustrating real quick and makes farming some outbreaks a pain.
3. Abra. By the time the game tells me he is shiny, he has already seen me and is despawning.
4. Similar note to the above, but stealthing is pretty pointless. They will see you.
5. All that work to get the shiny charm. By the time you get it, the game has become stale because you have already dumped probably 100 hours into it.
6. The research tasks themselves are also pretty lame. Why the heck would anyone need to have watched a Pokemon use Shadow Ball 70 times?
7. The lock-on system really just doesn't work all that well. It constantly locked onto a Pokemon super far away by default instead of the Pokemon currently launching attacks at me from 6 inches away.
8. The Braviary you get to ride around. The fact that it is constantly going down is frustrating. It is a bird. Let it fly.
9. Crafting is a waste of time in the endgame. You can get far more stuff from the vendors in far less time than you can from crafting. You just need to seek out the 3 bandits and sell the nuggets they drop and you will be swimming in ultra balls.
10. The distortions are not fun in their current implementation. Their spawn rates should not be that abysmal. I shouldn't need to be doing other things IRL to wait on a distortion. Plus, in the endgame, you are usually never in an area long enough to have one spawn.
But, like I said, it isn't a bad game. The core gameplay is fun, when the game is not getting in it's own way.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition: I had been sort of 'tricked' into playing this as I'd heard it was better than the movie, but I haven't seen the movie. I've come to learn that doesn't necessarily mean the game is worth your time, it merely means the movie is really bad.

This game is basically a lousy God of War (PS2) clone in both gameplay and tone, though fortunately far fewer QTEs. Similar to how Kratos may fly from beast to beast in battles, cutscenes will have Logan flying from one helicopter to another, swiping at their engines, tail rotors, or the pilots themselves. Think “over-the-top action movie” vibes throughout. It's sort of enjoyable, but there's not a lot of accompanying charm, here.
The gameplay runs into that same issue the recent Jedi games ran into where the only way to make it a good “game” is to weaken the character and their weapons a bit. Logan probably should be cutting every single enemy in half with a single swipe, just as a lightsaber should, but he has been weakened so he's barely a level above random grunts dual-wielding machetes. But if you really love the character and hearing him say “School's in, bub,” then congrats: you've got your game, bub.

The game looks okay (except for Logan's model, which I think looks very good for the time), though you'll run into resolution issues should you want to play it on 1440p. Some .ini changes can help you with that, in addition to other graphical settings not offered in the game's options menu. You can't change the mouse sensitivity, which sucks. But you'll probably be impressed by 2009's real-time healing of Logan's wounds: bullet holes amassing in his body as you're fired upon, explosions taking out chunks of flesh so you see distinct muscle or even bones. It's kind of neat.
Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber are here reprising their roles, unfortunately. I mean it's a paycheck, but at what cost, fellas? Neither one sounds especially thrilled to be in the booth. Will.i.am is here too but nobody, including him, cares.

The game plays simply: Logan heals automatically and you will very rarely even come close to death, you'll learn simple combos of light and heavy attacks, and most importantly you can grab and throw enemies. If you play this game (which I don't recommend), throw every single enemy you can off of cliffs. This game is too long and repetitive to waste time on the lame combos and doesn't give you enough rage to spam the cooler attacks, so trust me: it's tossin' time.
There are collectibles in the campaign which are pretty nice. They'll give experience bonuses, mutagens (stat boosters you can choose between and equip), or figurines that'll give you experience and help unlock challenges in the main menu. These challenges are insanely easy and when you complete them, you get a new costume. None of the costumes look very good, but I applaud the effort.

Unless you're a die-hard Wolverine fan, I don't think anybody should be checking this game out. Doesn't help that you can't get it anywhere digitally and you have to buy a disc (which I totally did, of course, officer). Other than some cutscenes looking extremely good for the time (not all of them, though), I'd say you're better off playing God of War (PS2). It'll do a better job of scratching your hack-and-slash itch than this could.

An artfully done little puzzle adventure game, that does a lot with a little. Its biggest strength is how the mechanics help to prop up the story, especially in the back half. This helps a pretty simple story to hit harder than it would otherwise, despite some of its more predictable and cliche moments.

While the puzzles are easy for the most part, the challenge comes in controlling both of the brothers at once. You can often get away with focusing on one at once, but there's enough puzzles that test your co-ordination a little. It's not the most fun game play, but it's at least appropriate for the story. Any repetition of certain puzzle types is also alleviated by how short the game is. It certainly doesn't overstay its welcome.

I also strongly appreciate the detail put into the environments. All the characters have a little something in their animations to give them some personality, in lieu of the lack of dialogue. Special highlight to the music as well, there's some bangers in there.

Death Stranding is a breath of fresh air in the AAA open-world genre whether it clicks with you or not. Me personally, I loved planning out how to get from point A to B, focusing on traversal and inventory management, as there were so many ways that any delivery could go wrong. Rough terrain, massive amounts of cargo, enemy placement, all the focus of the gameplay is on getting to a new place. I especially loved the asynchronous multiplayer of this world, where once you've gotten to a new place and hooked it up to the 'chiral network,' you can now see a lot of other players' structures, decreasing a lot of stress in future trips.

The story isn't as focused or sensical as it could be, but I still found myself tearing up towards the end, especially with the exceptional performances by Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen. Troy Baker's performance was the stand out for me though, he chewed the scenery as the campy yet still scary terrorist. It's also just a beautiful game, especially on PS5.

Death Stranding isn't going to work for everyone, which is fair enough, but I do think it is a game that everyone should play. Far more interesting to think about than the universally loved open-world games like Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring, Death Stranding doesn't make the open-world feel exciting and filled with content like those games, but instead turns the genre inside out by making the very act of walking the focus. Give it a try, stick it out until chapter 3 when the world really opens up, and experience a game truly unlike anything before it.

Although I usually only write reviews for games I'm currently playing, I thought it was a good time to review this game, since it's sequel is coming in only 6 days and I'm really hyped.

I first played Breath of the Wild back in 2020, during the pandemic, I've never finished a Zelda game before (I've only played a bit of Wind Waker on my Wii U before that) and I actually wasn't that interested in BoTW, not even when the sequel was announced in 2019, however one day I was talking to a friend and he told me about the mad theories people were making about the sequel (which at the time only had one teaser), and it got me interested, I bought Breath of the Wild and... I did not really like it that much when I first played it.
Yeah, the sense of freedom and exploration was good, and I thought it was a good game but nothing more than that.

Some time later, my friend shared his Switch account with me and he had the DLC for BoTW, I downloaded it and gave another shot for this game, and, after playing the DLC and replaying most of this game, I fell in love with it, but why? What made my second playthrough so different? Especially when many people say that Breath of the Wild loses it's charm after the first playthrough? Well, I think I know the answer.

When I played Breath of the Wild for the first time, I only cared about the main objectives, freeing the Divine Beasts, getting back your memories and defeating Ganon, I never cared much about the world of Hyrule itself and that was my greatest mistake, the world design of this game is phenomenal, the way you can manipulate the physics of the game using the runes is just some of the most fun I've had with a video game and it's combat, while simple, is really enjoyable, many people complain about the breakable weapons, but I kind of like that system, it makes every weapon feel valuable even against the strongest of enemies, I also like the clever ways you can find to defeat enemies, after playing both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask I can say that stealth sections in Zelda were never the most complex things ever, they were fun, sure, I love the Pirate Fortress in Majora's, but it's really simple and not that much thought-provoking, in this game however, while not Metal Gear levels of deep and complex, it's just really fun.
The story while not the best written thing in the world, I like it for what it is, the feeling of a natural disaster Calamity Ganon gives is really cool.

Also, I know it's a kind of controversial topic but I really like Breath of the Wild's music, yeah, it's not as memorable as soundtracks like Ocarina of Time's, but I think the more minimalistic soundtrack really serves this game well, and the Hyrule Castle theme is my absolute favorite song in the entire franchise.

This game still has it's flaws tho, don't get me wrong, while many mini-bosses are cool, the bosses itself are forgettable, the shrines too are kind of forgettable, save for a few really good ones, and that's the biggest issue with this game, while there are many things to do, the variety in some areas like enemies, boss fights and dungeons is really lacking, is it enough to make me not love this game? Hell no, however those are things that need to be fixed in the sequel.

Overall, I regret playing Breath of the Wild the way I did when I first played it, however, while my first time playing it wasn't very good, I learned to love this game, and now it stands on my top 5 favorite games ever, but who knows for how much long? As I said in the beginning, it's sequel is coming in only 6 days as of the writing of this review, I'm really curious to see how much they changed the world of Hyrule from the first game and how much Link's new abilities change the flow of the gameplay.

The Horizon series is comfort food. They are the omelette of video games, never the best meal that you have ever had, but consistently good, sometimes even great, and endlessly customizable to suit your taste. Hate onions? Leave them off! Don’t like drift challenges? You never have to touch them! Here’s a bottle of Sriracha and a difficulty slider so you can incrementally decide the challenge for tonight. No matter your preferences, there is probably a configuration you can find to like.

Horizon 5 follows in this tried and true and growing tired formula with noticeable, but modest, improvements. Visuals have taken a leap. Mexico is more interesting than Great Britain. And everything that has been fun in the past is just as (if not more) fun now.

But 5 hasn’t perfected the formula. Choosing between quality and performance modes feels like a legitimate lose/lose. There is still no meaningful progression path in the game. And the tone of the writing still makes Steve Buscemi dressed as a 14 year old seem positively on the pulse of culture.

However, perhaps the hardest part of the game to critique is the nagging feeling that it is just more of the same. Because while that might be somewhat true, no one else seems to have a better idea. Since the first Horizon game in 2012, no one has come close to Playground’s crown and hold over the open world/sandbox racing game.

Because the omelette is still really good! Driving fast, flying off a mountain, and juicing cars is good, dumb fun. It’s just that maybe the kitchen should try their hand at Eggs Benedict next time. But until then come on over, take a load off, and enjoy some comfort food.

so many reviews of this game (going beyond just this site) read like a shopping list of grating SFX, because in the moment it's very fucking hard to feel like you ever fully have a grasp on the situation. your brain is being force-fed new stimuli constantly, and the game makes no effort to actually help you decipher any of it, so you resort to isolating individual contributors to the chaos in the hopes that it'll help you ground yourself. almost constantly guns are going off, and if bullets are being sprayed then you're probably taking damage, even if you're in cover. whether that's the result of enemies being much better shots than Lynch or their desperate attempts to constantly flank you changes by the minute, and the fact that you can never really get a fix on how many bullets kill this guy at this range means that the player is probably too busy determining if everyone from the first wave is dead to notice that waves 2 and 3 are entering the room. at that point you've lost whatever control you may have had - you don't have the time or ammo to figure out if the enemies are finite or if they'll just pour into this room endlessly. if you've ever played a shooter where you can be "suppressed" by enemy fire, this is every shootout in K&L2 - sitting there as bullets and debris fly past you faster than you can process, hunkered behind cover that won't last forever, waiting for your chance to make something happen while these two losers mutter to themselves and scream at each other. sometimes it's important screaming. it's usually not.

not to suggest that the misery stops when the shooting stops. if you, a hypothetical non-player of K&L 2, were under the impression that this game might ask you to walk up to someone and talk to them to progress the plot, i am sorry to be the one who tells you otherwise. all of kane and lynch's quiet moments are quickly upended by gunfire in a way that feels less like a clever surprise and more like a message from the developers: what else did you think could happen? what else exists for these two, how could they possibly outrun this forever? shooting and screaming is all they know how to do, and they still manage to fuck that up despite their assurances that "things could've been alright if not for this, if not for you". sure, they've ruined each others' lives, but in truth, i don't know if either of them needed the help.

i probably wouldn't argue with someone saying the game is hateful. it doesn't really seem to hate the player, though, which i think is what a lot of people who have never played it take away from these reviews. no, all of the ways in which it inconveniences the player set the tone, making the game feel more like a playable LiveLeak video. there's the association with LiveLeak's classic subject matter, of course, but also with the sense that you're getting a dispassionate look at something as it exists in the real world. watch these two destroy a city, their bodies, their relationships, and know that it's not being scrubbed or retouched for you - this is what's out there for men like this.