DriverPayne
2012
I can't get my microphone to work.
2002
Overall just a generic first person shooter. Most of the story is told through the terminals you save at, I didn't realize this until later in the game so a lot of the story is lost on me. I remember the flame thrower and sniper being my main weapons, the automatic guns were typically too inaccurate. The boss fight was really annoying because it wasn't clear what actually hurt him.
2006
This is my favorite zombie game of all time. I was kind of worried going into it due to the constantly moving clock and people saying how frustrating it is due to the time management. But I'm glad I gave it a chance because I found out that I liked the game for those very reasons.
I think the game would be a lot less fun for me if it didn't have the clock. It forces you to think ahead and be proactive with your resources. You have to decide "do I have enough time to save these survivors or should I go straight to the mission" or "should I make a detour to get some more weapons or should I take my chances and see if I find anything useful on my way there''. I feel like forcing the player into decisions like these is really what elevates this game to me.
I think that's what the later games were missing. They tried to make the games more broadly appealing by removing that stress and it ended up making the games not resemble Dead Rising anymore.
If you plan on getting into this game, don't go into it expecting a typical sandbox zombie game. Expect having to manage your time and make sacrifices in the game to continue the story. This game is definitely not for everyone, but I don't think that's a negative thing. It's better than a game that tries to appeal to everyone and ending up appealing to nobody in the process.
I think the game would be a lot less fun for me if it didn't have the clock. It forces you to think ahead and be proactive with your resources. You have to decide "do I have enough time to save these survivors or should I go straight to the mission" or "should I make a detour to get some more weapons or should I take my chances and see if I find anything useful on my way there''. I feel like forcing the player into decisions like these is really what elevates this game to me.
I think that's what the later games were missing. They tried to make the games more broadly appealing by removing that stress and it ended up making the games not resemble Dead Rising anymore.
If you plan on getting into this game, don't go into it expecting a typical sandbox zombie game. Expect having to manage your time and make sacrifices in the game to continue the story. This game is definitely not for everyone, but I don't think that's a negative thing. It's better than a game that tries to appeal to everyone and ending up appealing to nobody in the process.
2016
This review contains spoilers
I really really don't like how you have to do hours of Majima everywhere to unlock the full moveset from the original game. Majima everywhere is funny at first but on repeat playthroughs it feels like a total slog. Also, I do think it flanderizes his character just a little. In the original, Majima was much more of an antagonist. He was still silly at times, but he was less playful and more psychotic. I think the new scenes with Majima kind of clash with the original scenes for this reason.
A lot of the boss movesets are reused from other yakuza games. The series is known for reusing a lot of content from previous games and usually isn't a huge issue, but when a majority of this game's boss fights have repeated movesets it makes the fights a lot less memorable. A big example of this is the first Shimano fight. He reuses Mr. Shakedown's moveset but does a fraction of the damage and no matter what difficulty you play on you just slowly chip away at his health. It is not a difficult bossfight, its just tedious as he just does the same 3 moves over and over.
I do like the added Nishiki scenes and Nishiki's boss fight is probably the best one in this game. (mostly because he has a unique moveset)
I have a few more grievances but overall I don't think this game is awful.
It is definitely my least favorite yakuza game and I don't see myself going back to it anytime soon. But it does have its moments and I think it's worth playing, I don't know if I would recommend the ps2 version over this mostly this version is a lot more accessible to most people. But I think you should try to play both versions if you have the time.
A lot of the boss movesets are reused from other yakuza games. The series is known for reusing a lot of content from previous games and usually isn't a huge issue, but when a majority of this game's boss fights have repeated movesets it makes the fights a lot less memorable. A big example of this is the first Shimano fight. He reuses Mr. Shakedown's moveset but does a fraction of the damage and no matter what difficulty you play on you just slowly chip away at his health. It is not a difficult bossfight, its just tedious as he just does the same 3 moves over and over.
I do like the added Nishiki scenes and Nishiki's boss fight is probably the best one in this game. (mostly because he has a unique moveset)
I have a few more grievances but overall I don't think this game is awful.
It is definitely my least favorite yakuza game and I don't see myself going back to it anytime soon. But it does have its moments and I think it's worth playing, I don't know if I would recommend the ps2 version over this mostly this version is a lot more accessible to most people. But I think you should try to play both versions if you have the time.