Flameyboy928
This has got to be around the 5th time I have played this game and I have the same amount of fun with it each time. Batman Arkham Asylum is my favourite of the Arkham franchise and I doubt that it will ever be dethroned.
I think without a doubt it has one of the best atmospheres in gaming. Walking through the empty halls of Arkham Asylum just has this eerie feel to it which makes each segment feel tense and exciting. Being stuck on Arkham island with a great selection of Batman's greatest rogues taunting him just makes for an amazing experience.
Taking a look at the characters, this game of course features the best batman of all time Kevin Conroy(RIP), who will always be the definitive version of batman for me, and pairing him with my favourite Joker of all time Mark Hamill makes these characters amazing off the bat. Of course there are a great cast of side characters most notably Arleen Sorkin(RIP) who played Harley Quinn. As someone who grew up watching the animated series, all these returning actors made me like this game even more. I also really like these renditions of Ivy, Killer Croc and Scarecrow (Even though i much prefer the Knight version).
Gameplay wise it lays out the foundations that each game built upon. I played through the game this time on hard difficulty and I actually found it quite challenging, all it does is increase the damage you take and remove the counter prompt which really makes boss fights more difficult. It of course introduced the free flow combat system and while it definitely is the weakest showing of it, it was ground breaking and lays perfect framework to be improved upon in the next games. Traversal wise, due to the smaller scale of the map there isnt as much focus on it which works in this case luckily. The boss fights/segments in this game are the real standouts of the gameplay loop. The iconic Scarecrow nightmare segments are my personal favourite followed closely by the Killer Croc lair segment, whilst these aren't technically "Boss Fights" they really effectively use the characters without adding a needless beat em up segment. Out of the other boss fights the only real standout is Poison Ivy who has a great fight in this game. The Bane fight is just a tutorial for fighting Titan henchmen and the Titan Joker fight is well known for being disliked as it isn't really a boss fight just a gauntlet of henchmen.
Score and Visual wise this game excels. Obviously this is the Return to Arkham addition which adds a bit more of a polished look to the character models. Whilst i do think the original game looks better, outside of the janky character models this game looks fantastic. The score is perfect mix of creepy and heroic, which is a staple of the games going forward.
Side content wise Asylum lacks any beside the Riddler trophies. Strangely enough in this game only, I actually enjoy the Riddler trophy hunting. Particularly the riddles because they unlock the cool character bios for a wide host of characters that arent in the game. Im definitely glad they decided to go for the more open world feel in later installments so that they could do more with side content because Asylum has no reason to keep playing after beating the main story.
I am going to replay the whole series to see if my ranking has changed since the last time I played them years ago. As of right now Asylum will remain at the top and I dont see it going anywhere. One of my favourite games of all time.
I think without a doubt it has one of the best atmospheres in gaming. Walking through the empty halls of Arkham Asylum just has this eerie feel to it which makes each segment feel tense and exciting. Being stuck on Arkham island with a great selection of Batman's greatest rogues taunting him just makes for an amazing experience.
Taking a look at the characters, this game of course features the best batman of all time Kevin Conroy(RIP), who will always be the definitive version of batman for me, and pairing him with my favourite Joker of all time Mark Hamill makes these characters amazing off the bat. Of course there are a great cast of side characters most notably Arleen Sorkin(RIP) who played Harley Quinn. As someone who grew up watching the animated series, all these returning actors made me like this game even more. I also really like these renditions of Ivy, Killer Croc and Scarecrow (Even though i much prefer the Knight version).
Gameplay wise it lays out the foundations that each game built upon. I played through the game this time on hard difficulty and I actually found it quite challenging, all it does is increase the damage you take and remove the counter prompt which really makes boss fights more difficult. It of course introduced the free flow combat system and while it definitely is the weakest showing of it, it was ground breaking and lays perfect framework to be improved upon in the next games. Traversal wise, due to the smaller scale of the map there isnt as much focus on it which works in this case luckily. The boss fights/segments in this game are the real standouts of the gameplay loop. The iconic Scarecrow nightmare segments are my personal favourite followed closely by the Killer Croc lair segment, whilst these aren't technically "Boss Fights" they really effectively use the characters without adding a needless beat em up segment. Out of the other boss fights the only real standout is Poison Ivy who has a great fight in this game. The Bane fight is just a tutorial for fighting Titan henchmen and the Titan Joker fight is well known for being disliked as it isn't really a boss fight just a gauntlet of henchmen.
Score and Visual wise this game excels. Obviously this is the Return to Arkham addition which adds a bit more of a polished look to the character models. Whilst i do think the original game looks better, outside of the janky character models this game looks fantastic. The score is perfect mix of creepy and heroic, which is a staple of the games going forward.
Side content wise Asylum lacks any beside the Riddler trophies. Strangely enough in this game only, I actually enjoy the Riddler trophy hunting. Particularly the riddles because they unlock the cool character bios for a wide host of characters that arent in the game. Im definitely glad they decided to go for the more open world feel in later installments so that they could do more with side content because Asylum has no reason to keep playing after beating the main story.
I am going to replay the whole series to see if my ranking has changed since the last time I played them years ago. As of right now Asylum will remain at the top and I dont see it going anywhere. One of my favourite games of all time.
1998
Ill prefix before I start that i played this through the new master collection on PS5 however I want to talk about each game individually so ill review each one as I complete them and then ill talk about the master collection later.
Similarly to Max Payne I do not have any nostalgic attachment to this franchise as this is the first time that I have played a metal gear game so I was sceptical going in as I was aware of how highly this game is regarded and I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy this nearly as much. However I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this game.
To again draw a comparison to Max Payne this was one of the first games to really prioritize narrative alongside gameplay and you can tell as this game has a gripping and interesting story paired with enjoyable and really unique boss battles. David Hayter gives an iconic performance as Solid Snake, not to discredit the rest of the cast who also give really good performances. I love how meta all the dialogue is and the parts where the characters comment on your playstyle is a really nice touch. Also have to mention the iconic score which has aged like wine.
The boss battles are where the gameplay shines the most, especially with the level of innovation put into them. The best example is Psycho Mantis in which you have to switch controller ports in order to hit him. The rest of the gameplay shows its age majorly but that is to be expected and I cant really knock a 26 year old game for having janky controls, mainly with the shooting combat.
Couple small issues, I think that the cutscenes can drag on a lot, especially the long codec segments, at least you can skip through them quickly if you need to retry from a save spot. I previously mentioned the janky controls which make this game a bit of a pain to play in the current day but considering its age I dont think its fair to use that as criticism. These next issues are more for the master collection than the game itself. These issues involve two things, Finding Meryl's frequency and switching controller ports during the psycho mantis fight. Since both of these things involved you doing something in the real world, they aren't properly translated to this port. I think that something should of been done to make both of these more organic in the way you access them.
Very surprised by how much i enjoyed this, looking forward to playing 2 & 3.
Similarly to Max Payne I do not have any nostalgic attachment to this franchise as this is the first time that I have played a metal gear game so I was sceptical going in as I was aware of how highly this game is regarded and I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy this nearly as much. However I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this game.
To again draw a comparison to Max Payne this was one of the first games to really prioritize narrative alongside gameplay and you can tell as this game has a gripping and interesting story paired with enjoyable and really unique boss battles. David Hayter gives an iconic performance as Solid Snake, not to discredit the rest of the cast who also give really good performances. I love how meta all the dialogue is and the parts where the characters comment on your playstyle is a really nice touch. Also have to mention the iconic score which has aged like wine.
The boss battles are where the gameplay shines the most, especially with the level of innovation put into them. The best example is Psycho Mantis in which you have to switch controller ports in order to hit him. The rest of the gameplay shows its age majorly but that is to be expected and I cant really knock a 26 year old game for having janky controls, mainly with the shooting combat.
Couple small issues, I think that the cutscenes can drag on a lot, especially the long codec segments, at least you can skip through them quickly if you need to retry from a save spot. I previously mentioned the janky controls which make this game a bit of a pain to play in the current day but considering its age I dont think its fair to use that as criticism. These next issues are more for the master collection than the game itself. These issues involve two things, Finding Meryl's frequency and switching controller ports during the psycho mantis fight. Since both of these things involved you doing something in the real world, they aren't properly translated to this port. I think that something should of been done to make both of these more organic in the way you access them.
Very surprised by how much i enjoyed this, looking forward to playing 2 & 3.
Review contains spoilers
When i first played this years ago I remember not liking it as much as COD 4 and the other modern warfare games, but having replayed it today I can confidently say that this has shot up into my top 5 campaigns. Without a doubt the best WW2 era COD.
The campaign is split into two with the Pacific campaign where you play as Pvt Miller fighting through Japan and the Soviet campaign where you play as Pvt Dmitri Petrenko fighting during the soviet invasion of Germany at the tail end of WW2. Whilst I think that the pacific campaign is amazing with some great missions and serviceable characters the soviet campaign one ups it in almost every way. It has far better set piece missions, introduces Viktor Reznov who is one of the best characters in COD history and has a way better score.
The gunplay is really fun with the WW2 era weapons making gun fights feel way more stressful with the slower rifles compared to blasting through areas with full auto machine guns. Also has two vehicle missions with a tank mission and a plane mission which are a nice change of pace. Great performances as well in particular from Gary Oldman as Reznov. You can really see the blueprint for what they did with Reznov in Black Ops which is a cool thing to keep an eye out for if you have played BO1.
Couple small complaints, one of which will contain spoilers for the pacific campaign. First off I found grenades to be stupid OP in the fact that no matter how far away i was from them i would either take massive damage or die. Small nit pick but it can get annoying as gauntlets of enemies rush you time after time. One other complaint is that the end to the pacific campaign falls a little flat. For those who dont know you are given a choice to save either Sgt Roebuck or Pvt Polonsky. My problem with this is that Pvt Polonsky is literally just a NPC who doesnt have any form of character that is shown through either cutscenes or even in game. Since letting Roebuck die makes a lot more sense for the narrative it leaves you saving a character who isnt much of a character at all. It isnt too much of a problem as this is the last mission in the pacific campaign but i feel like they should of given more character to Polonsky to make that final choice a bit more difficult.
Anyway World at war is an extremely underrated COD with one of the most brutal and dark campaigns and of course introduced zombies mode which has become a staple of COD. Defo worth a revisit it has aged like wine
When i first played this years ago I remember not liking it as much as COD 4 and the other modern warfare games, but having replayed it today I can confidently say that this has shot up into my top 5 campaigns. Without a doubt the best WW2 era COD.
The campaign is split into two with the Pacific campaign where you play as Pvt Miller fighting through Japan and the Soviet campaign where you play as Pvt Dmitri Petrenko fighting during the soviet invasion of Germany at the tail end of WW2. Whilst I think that the pacific campaign is amazing with some great missions and serviceable characters the soviet campaign one ups it in almost every way. It has far better set piece missions, introduces Viktor Reznov who is one of the best characters in COD history and has a way better score.
The gunplay is really fun with the WW2 era weapons making gun fights feel way more stressful with the slower rifles compared to blasting through areas with full auto machine guns. Also has two vehicle missions with a tank mission and a plane mission which are a nice change of pace. Great performances as well in particular from Gary Oldman as Reznov. You can really see the blueprint for what they did with Reznov in Black Ops which is a cool thing to keep an eye out for if you have played BO1.
Couple small complaints, one of which will contain spoilers for the pacific campaign. First off I found grenades to be stupid OP in the fact that no matter how far away i was from them i would either take massive damage or die. Small nit pick but it can get annoying as gauntlets of enemies rush you time after time. One other complaint is that the end to the pacific campaign falls a little flat. For those who dont know you are given a choice to save either Sgt Roebuck or Pvt Polonsky. My problem with this is that Pvt Polonsky is literally just a NPC who doesnt have any form of character that is shown through either cutscenes or even in game. Since letting Roebuck die makes a lot more sense for the narrative it leaves you saving a character who isnt much of a character at all. It isnt too much of a problem as this is the last mission in the pacific campaign but i feel like they should of given more character to Polonsky to make that final choice a bit more difficult.
Anyway World at war is an extremely underrated COD with one of the most brutal and dark campaigns and of course introduced zombies mode which has become a staple of COD. Defo worth a revisit it has aged like wine
2012
Minor story spoilers
For a basic 3rd person shooter this has one of the most brutal stories I have ever played through.
The fact that this game has multiple areas in which a choice has to be made however each and every one of them has the same outcome may seem like bad storytelling but in this case it is the absolute opposite, none of you choices matter, that's the whole point. Nolan North gives a very underrated performance as Captain Walker, through his performance you can see Walker slowly loose his mind. Ill try and stay away from major spoilers but some of the scenes throughout this game are brutal and unfortunately mirror real tragedy's of war, something in which most military games don't do anymore, the white phosphorus scene in particular. An eye opening experience about how even if you think you are a hero, you cant always be one
Gameplay wise its your standard 3rd person shooter. Gun combat is simple but fun and the small bits of directing your squad members around is a nice way to immerse yourself more. Visually it holds up very well for a 2012 game, soundtrack is also very good.
A fun 3rd person shooter with a fantastic story that really delivers. Highly recommend.
For a basic 3rd person shooter this has one of the most brutal stories I have ever played through.
The fact that this game has multiple areas in which a choice has to be made however each and every one of them has the same outcome may seem like bad storytelling but in this case it is the absolute opposite, none of you choices matter, that's the whole point. Nolan North gives a very underrated performance as Captain Walker, through his performance you can see Walker slowly loose his mind. Ill try and stay away from major spoilers but some of the scenes throughout this game are brutal and unfortunately mirror real tragedy's of war, something in which most military games don't do anymore, the white phosphorus scene in particular. An eye opening experience about how even if you think you are a hero, you cant always be one
Gameplay wise its your standard 3rd person shooter. Gun combat is simple but fun and the small bits of directing your squad members around is a nice way to immerse yourself more. Visually it holds up very well for a 2012 game, soundtrack is also very good.
A fun 3rd person shooter with a fantastic story that really delivers. Highly recommend.
2016
A great twist on the normal 3rd person shooter format which continues to propel remedy up as one of my favourite developers.
This games gameplay is so fun and really carries the narrative in this case. The story is very interesting mind you and I think the idea of paring it with a live action series was very unique. I was surprised to see a lot of faces that i recognised most notably Aiden Gillen, Dominic Monaghan and the late great Lance Reddick who all give very good performances.
In terms of a protagonist Jack Joyce is your stereotypical action hero who unfortunately falls under that "Never used a gun before but has no problem gunning his way through hundreds of people" schtick.
The gameplay though is where it's at. The time manipulating abilities make combat sections so fun to play through and make this game so much more enjoyable. The gun combat is pretty good but the enemies are total bullet sponges with unarmoured enemies taking 20 AR bullets to the chest before going down.
The story is very short only consisting of 5 acts with 3 parts each, very easy to blast through and does have some replay value with the different choices which can be made at the end of each act. The overall narrative about time collapsing is very interesting but one complaint I have is that it pushes too much of the narrative onto finable emails/audio logs, and these are normally very long and can completely kill the pacing if you were to stop and read them all. Also i found that characters would appear and disappear throughout the story but im not sure if that was just down to the path i took with the choices. I think they push too much of the story onto optional content and that can leave it very confusing at times. I would recommend for the gameplay alone with the decent story as a nice bonus
This games gameplay is so fun and really carries the narrative in this case. The story is very interesting mind you and I think the idea of paring it with a live action series was very unique. I was surprised to see a lot of faces that i recognised most notably Aiden Gillen, Dominic Monaghan and the late great Lance Reddick who all give very good performances.
In terms of a protagonist Jack Joyce is your stereotypical action hero who unfortunately falls under that "Never used a gun before but has no problem gunning his way through hundreds of people" schtick.
The gameplay though is where it's at. The time manipulating abilities make combat sections so fun to play through and make this game so much more enjoyable. The gun combat is pretty good but the enemies are total bullet sponges with unarmoured enemies taking 20 AR bullets to the chest before going down.
The story is very short only consisting of 5 acts with 3 parts each, very easy to blast through and does have some replay value with the different choices which can be made at the end of each act. The overall narrative about time collapsing is very interesting but one complaint I have is that it pushes too much of the narrative onto finable emails/audio logs, and these are normally very long and can completely kill the pacing if you were to stop and read them all. Also i found that characters would appear and disappear throughout the story but im not sure if that was just down to the path i took with the choices. I think they push too much of the story onto optional content and that can leave it very confusing at times. I would recommend for the gameplay alone with the decent story as a nice bonus
2001
I had only played the third game so I figured i would go back and try the OG's and while I can 100% see why this game is so well revered but unfortunately I did not have a great time playing it.
Firstly I think the narrative is amazing, such a great broody noir detective story. For a 23 year old game it surprisingly has a large focus on its narrative and atmosphere. James McCaffery gives an iconic performance as Max Payne and his snarky delivery adds a decent bit of humour to the still image cutscenes. Speaking of the cutscenes I really like the drawn comic panels, it gives a kind of court room sketch artist vibe and in some cases can look really creepy, way better than polygon character cutscenes.
Unfortunately the game really shows its age in its gameplay/level design. I never really found any problem in parts 1 & 2 but part 3 I regularly found myself getting stuck on levels for a long period of time. A lot of this can be put down to the game trying to do more than it was capable of such as "Platforming". The part 3 prologue is a good example, You have to walk across a really thin line whilst in janky slow motion and have to jump to other really thin lines and pray that you are going in the right way due to their being no direction what so ever. This section alone has killed any desire for me to revisit this game
Now of course this game has its problems because it is 23 years old, and whilst it has a surprisingly engrossing narrative and a really memorable protagonist, I do not think that it is a masterpiece. I still hope for a remake of both this and Max Payne 2 but due to recent events its seeming more and more unlikely. So if this will end up being the only rendition of this game there is then you could do far far worse.
Firstly I think the narrative is amazing, such a great broody noir detective story. For a 23 year old game it surprisingly has a large focus on its narrative and atmosphere. James McCaffery gives an iconic performance as Max Payne and his snarky delivery adds a decent bit of humour to the still image cutscenes. Speaking of the cutscenes I really like the drawn comic panels, it gives a kind of court room sketch artist vibe and in some cases can look really creepy, way better than polygon character cutscenes.
Unfortunately the game really shows its age in its gameplay/level design. I never really found any problem in parts 1 & 2 but part 3 I regularly found myself getting stuck on levels for a long period of time. A lot of this can be put down to the game trying to do more than it was capable of such as "Platforming". The part 3 prologue is a good example, You have to walk across a really thin line whilst in janky slow motion and have to jump to other really thin lines and pray that you are going in the right way due to their being no direction what so ever. This section alone has killed any desire for me to revisit this game
Now of course this game has its problems because it is 23 years old, and whilst it has a surprisingly engrossing narrative and a really memorable protagonist, I do not think that it is a masterpiece. I still hope for a remake of both this and Max Payne 2 but due to recent events its seeming more and more unlikely. So if this will end up being the only rendition of this game there is then you could do far far worse.
This review contains spoilers
This review will contain full story spoilers.
I had been looking for a reason to replay this game and figured this was as good a chance as any. So I am reviewing this as the whole game and I will talk about the "Remaster" at the end. This is undoubtably one of the most divisive games of all time, but as someone who has always liked this game I am happy to see that since its release a lot more people are coming around to it. I want to take a look at the controversial narrative choices that this game made and give my own opinion on them I have a lot to say here so this will be a long one.
I think this should be considered as one of the most over hated games of all time. The vicious backlash that this got upon its release baffles me as when I first played it I found it to be one of the most harrowing and engrossing stories that I had ever seen. This game makes you feel empty by the time it is over. A brutal depiction of what the thirst for revenge can do to people, pair that with an already ruined apocalyptic world and you have yourself one of the most emotionally gut wrenching stories that has ever been seen in a videogame.
Straight away lets talk about one of the biggest controversies, what happened to Joel. Within the first two hours of the story, Joel is killed by the new protagonist Abby. He is killed in a brutal way with Ellie unfortunately forced to watch as Abby beats him to death. This was an incredibly ballsy move to put so early into the game, as far as i can tell most people thought that Joel was going to die in this game but from the hatred poured out online most people were not happy. In my own opinion, I don't have a problem with Joel's death, it is brutal don't get me wrong but it does make a lot of sense, Joel had crossed a lot of people, someone was bound to catch him eventually. It pushes Ellie's character in the direction she needs to go in this game and i think if the ending was handled a bit better this wouldn't be as controversial is it is.
The next and probably biggest controversy is having to play as Abby. Now when i first played this game i had a very similar reaction to most people so this time through i looked at it differently. When you really think about it Ellie and Abby are doing pretty much the same thing. Ellie is hunting down Abby for killing Joel, as Abby hunted down Joel for killing her father. Now i do think that the writers tried to hard to make Abby sympathetic which they should of realised was never going to work but her section of gameplay is just as enjoyable as the first half, so much so that it feels like two completely different games. By day 2 of Abby's section I had it felt like all the stuff with Ellie was part of a different game. While Abby's character in my opinion isn't anywhere close to Ellie's she still has a half decent arc. One complaint i have about Abby's section is having to fight Ellie, The fact that anyone working on this game thought that they had gave Abby enough development for players to like her over Ellie is insane and it is a choice that still boggles my mind.
Lastly, the ending, and this is one i fully agree with. I do believe that the ending was a cop out and should of been handled in a much different way, my biggest problem is that it completely 180's Ellie's motive out of nowhere. When you take control of Ellie during the Santa Barbara section she is obsessed with finding and killing Abby, she gave up everything she had to finish what she started, only at the last second to let her go. This choice makes no sense to me as the writers could of easily had the same ending which i think would of made it hit harder. Going down the whole "Revenge doesn't change anything" route. Having Ellie kill Abby but still being burdened with everything she has done which would still give that "It was all for nothing" ending but at least players would of had the satisfaction of avenging Joel. Instead they go down the forgiveness route, which I originally took for one of those hard pill to swallow endings which make you consider your own morals but this time upon completion i questioned it a lot more because Ellie has killed hundreds of people to get to Abby, but only takes the forgiveness route at the last second. If anyone disagrees feel free to try and explain why this was the right choice but to me this just seems like a strange choice to make, probably due to Druckmann's obsession with Abby and probably wanted to keep her alive to be the protagonist if there is to be a 3rd game.
Besides these moments I think this game is almost perfect. The story is told in strange ways, struggles with pacing at points and has an ending that falls flat, but the game still manages to tell an amazing story. With great characters and performances especially Ashley Johnson as Ellie who gives a spectacular performance. Some side characters of note that i think stood out are Lev, Tommy and Dina who all add a lot to the part of the story they are in. Tommy especially is a fucking terminator in this game.
Gameplay wise it keeps the great resource management paired with realistic shooting. Adding small differences between both characters is a good way to keep it from feeling stale. Like Ellie being able to kill clickers without having to craft shiv's. Each character gets a specific arsenal as well which keeps everything feeling different.
Visually this game is breath-taking. Speaking for both games here as the difference is almost unnoticeable. The attention to detail is phenomenal with stuff like cuts healing across the multiple days. No complaints at all here.
Now to talk about this "Remaster". Did this 4 year old game which was already a spectacle on last gen hardware need a remaster. No. But from what i have played of it, the no return mode is a lot of fun and makes up for the £10 price tag alone for me. Other neat stuff like skins and the lost levels are good editions too. I really think this should of been called Directors cut or something as I couldn't see any difference beside a bit of a better frame rate. Only looking at the remaster its no higher than a 5 out of 10. The No return game mode is good but calling it a remaster is a bit of a strange move considering it really didn't need one. But the £10 price tag is reasonable and at least they aren't charging 70 like they did for the last remake.
Overall, The Last of Us part 2 will forever be controversial, it is one of those games that will no one will share the same opinion of. However in my opinion looking past some poor writing choices and a bit to much forced sympathetically character moments this game is amazing and is one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.
I had been looking for a reason to replay this game and figured this was as good a chance as any. So I am reviewing this as the whole game and I will talk about the "Remaster" at the end. This is undoubtably one of the most divisive games of all time, but as someone who has always liked this game I am happy to see that since its release a lot more people are coming around to it. I want to take a look at the controversial narrative choices that this game made and give my own opinion on them I have a lot to say here so this will be a long one.
I think this should be considered as one of the most over hated games of all time. The vicious backlash that this got upon its release baffles me as when I first played it I found it to be one of the most harrowing and engrossing stories that I had ever seen. This game makes you feel empty by the time it is over. A brutal depiction of what the thirst for revenge can do to people, pair that with an already ruined apocalyptic world and you have yourself one of the most emotionally gut wrenching stories that has ever been seen in a videogame.
Straight away lets talk about one of the biggest controversies, what happened to Joel. Within the first two hours of the story, Joel is killed by the new protagonist Abby. He is killed in a brutal way with Ellie unfortunately forced to watch as Abby beats him to death. This was an incredibly ballsy move to put so early into the game, as far as i can tell most people thought that Joel was going to die in this game but from the hatred poured out online most people were not happy. In my own opinion, I don't have a problem with Joel's death, it is brutal don't get me wrong but it does make a lot of sense, Joel had crossed a lot of people, someone was bound to catch him eventually. It pushes Ellie's character in the direction she needs to go in this game and i think if the ending was handled a bit better this wouldn't be as controversial is it is.
The next and probably biggest controversy is having to play as Abby. Now when i first played this game i had a very similar reaction to most people so this time through i looked at it differently. When you really think about it Ellie and Abby are doing pretty much the same thing. Ellie is hunting down Abby for killing Joel, as Abby hunted down Joel for killing her father. Now i do think that the writers tried to hard to make Abby sympathetic which they should of realised was never going to work but her section of gameplay is just as enjoyable as the first half, so much so that it feels like two completely different games. By day 2 of Abby's section I had it felt like all the stuff with Ellie was part of a different game. While Abby's character in my opinion isn't anywhere close to Ellie's she still has a half decent arc. One complaint i have about Abby's section is having to fight Ellie, The fact that anyone working on this game thought that they had gave Abby enough development for players to like her over Ellie is insane and it is a choice that still boggles my mind.
Lastly, the ending, and this is one i fully agree with. I do believe that the ending was a cop out and should of been handled in a much different way, my biggest problem is that it completely 180's Ellie's motive out of nowhere. When you take control of Ellie during the Santa Barbara section she is obsessed with finding and killing Abby, she gave up everything she had to finish what she started, only at the last second to let her go. This choice makes no sense to me as the writers could of easily had the same ending which i think would of made it hit harder. Going down the whole "Revenge doesn't change anything" route. Having Ellie kill Abby but still being burdened with everything she has done which would still give that "It was all for nothing" ending but at least players would of had the satisfaction of avenging Joel. Instead they go down the forgiveness route, which I originally took for one of those hard pill to swallow endings which make you consider your own morals but this time upon completion i questioned it a lot more because Ellie has killed hundreds of people to get to Abby, but only takes the forgiveness route at the last second. If anyone disagrees feel free to try and explain why this was the right choice but to me this just seems like a strange choice to make, probably due to Druckmann's obsession with Abby and probably wanted to keep her alive to be the protagonist if there is to be a 3rd game.
Besides these moments I think this game is almost perfect. The story is told in strange ways, struggles with pacing at points and has an ending that falls flat, but the game still manages to tell an amazing story. With great characters and performances especially Ashley Johnson as Ellie who gives a spectacular performance. Some side characters of note that i think stood out are Lev, Tommy and Dina who all add a lot to the part of the story they are in. Tommy especially is a fucking terminator in this game.
Gameplay wise it keeps the great resource management paired with realistic shooting. Adding small differences between both characters is a good way to keep it from feeling stale. Like Ellie being able to kill clickers without having to craft shiv's. Each character gets a specific arsenal as well which keeps everything feeling different.
Visually this game is breath-taking. Speaking for both games here as the difference is almost unnoticeable. The attention to detail is phenomenal with stuff like cuts healing across the multiple days. No complaints at all here.
Now to talk about this "Remaster". Did this 4 year old game which was already a spectacle on last gen hardware need a remaster. No. But from what i have played of it, the no return mode is a lot of fun and makes up for the £10 price tag alone for me. Other neat stuff like skins and the lost levels are good editions too. I really think this should of been called Directors cut or something as I couldn't see any difference beside a bit of a better frame rate. Only looking at the remaster its no higher than a 5 out of 10. The No return game mode is good but calling it a remaster is a bit of a strange move considering it really didn't need one. But the £10 price tag is reasonable and at least they aren't charging 70 like they did for the last remake.
Overall, The Last of Us part 2 will forever be controversial, it is one of those games that will no one will share the same opinion of. However in my opinion looking past some poor writing choices and a bit to much forced sympathetically character moments this game is amazing and is one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.
2014
I am of two minds when it comes to this game.
One one hand I really enjoy the narrative/setting. The idea of people living in Metro tunnels after a nuclear war is a really cool idea. The paranormal side is really creepy and adds a good change to the pace so it is not all shooting mutants and bandits. Whilst no characters shine out particularly they are still enjoyable enough. For a game that takes place mostly underground and in train tunnels, no place ever really feels the same which i commend the designers for as the underground portions are decent design wise which cannot be said for the above ground counterparts. I realised that the version i played was a remake which condensed multiple levels into one which i guess helps with the pacing not always being in loading screens.
However the thing that really drags this down for me is the horrible level design. On multiple occasions I had no idea where I was going or what i was meant to do. Even whilst playing on the easiest difficulty i was stretching small amounts of ammo and gas mask filters across multiple levels because of the sparsity of the placements of supplies, so much so i cant even imagine it on the higher difficulties. The enemies take far to many bullets for what you are given and i found multiple sections where i was wasting almost all my ammo before having to fight another room full of mutants without finding any replacement ammunition. I also found the checkpoints to be really weirdly placed any would often have you backtracking a lot of area. Some of the tunnel locations are extremely dark even with the torch and sometimes when the torch/NVG doesn't work for some reason the game doesn't tell you what is wrong with it. Largely the game throws you in doesn't guide you at all which in some cases isnt a bad thing but apply that with poor level design and you get a frustrating experience. Barely giving a tutorial on any of the items you have in your inventory so i never ended up using half of it. Even the simple addition of a waypoint would of made it way more enjoyable going through solo levels which is where this issue is at its worst.
Overall Metro 2033 is a enjoyable narrative experience with decent FPS combat and a few new features to keep it fresh. However the level design and the sparsity of equipment drags it down to be an enjoyable but frustrating experience. I am going to play through the other games as well and i hope that there are improvements made
One one hand I really enjoy the narrative/setting. The idea of people living in Metro tunnels after a nuclear war is a really cool idea. The paranormal side is really creepy and adds a good change to the pace so it is not all shooting mutants and bandits. Whilst no characters shine out particularly they are still enjoyable enough. For a game that takes place mostly underground and in train tunnels, no place ever really feels the same which i commend the designers for as the underground portions are decent design wise which cannot be said for the above ground counterparts. I realised that the version i played was a remake which condensed multiple levels into one which i guess helps with the pacing not always being in loading screens.
However the thing that really drags this down for me is the horrible level design. On multiple occasions I had no idea where I was going or what i was meant to do. Even whilst playing on the easiest difficulty i was stretching small amounts of ammo and gas mask filters across multiple levels because of the sparsity of the placements of supplies, so much so i cant even imagine it on the higher difficulties. The enemies take far to many bullets for what you are given and i found multiple sections where i was wasting almost all my ammo before having to fight another room full of mutants without finding any replacement ammunition. I also found the checkpoints to be really weirdly placed any would often have you backtracking a lot of area. Some of the tunnel locations are extremely dark even with the torch and sometimes when the torch/NVG doesn't work for some reason the game doesn't tell you what is wrong with it. Largely the game throws you in doesn't guide you at all which in some cases isnt a bad thing but apply that with poor level design and you get a frustrating experience. Barely giving a tutorial on any of the items you have in your inventory so i never ended up using half of it. Even the simple addition of a waypoint would of made it way more enjoyable going through solo levels which is where this issue is at its worst.
Overall Metro 2033 is a enjoyable narrative experience with decent FPS combat and a few new features to keep it fresh. However the level design and the sparsity of equipment drags it down to be an enjoyable but frustrating experience. I am going to play through the other games as well and i hope that there are improvements made
2017
This review contains spoilers
This review will contain minor story spoilers
L.A Noire is yet another example of Rockstar making exceptional games that do not fall under the GTA umbrella. A fantastic depiction of 1940's Hollywood, playing as a straight edge detective trying not to be compromised by the corruption around him.
To go over the characters/general narrative first, you play as Cole Phelps who is a WW2 vet who begins to rise up the ranks of the LAPD. Cole is an interesting protagonist, his background in the war gives a lot of depth to his character and helps connect him with some of the cases later on in the game. He never exactly has any great character moments and as far as Rockstar protagonists go he is fairly underdeveloped due to the game not really giving moments where we can learn a lot about him. He is an outwardly good person who is tormented by what he saw/did during the war.
The game lacks an overall narrative for the first half of the game until you start the vice desk. The main point of this is that Cole is caught having an affair with a German singer named Elsa and has his name trashed by the corrupt high ups of the LAPD. Next lets look at each desk individually
To start off, i played this game in two sittings, i started it back in August and played through the Traffic desk and Homicide desk before getting burned out at the start of the Vice desk. Recently i came back to it and finished up the Vice desk and Arson desk. I will detail my thoughts of each.
The traffic desk from what i can remember of it was pretty enjoyable, Cole's partner Stefan Bekowsky is probably my favourite of the partners. By the end of the traffic desk him and Cole seemed like friends and they definitely had the best dynamic.
The homicide desk was by far my favourite. The murder investigation is very intriguing and I had the most fun going through these missions. Your partner Rusty Calloway is pretty good, he starts out as the stereotypical drunk asshole detective but he comes around eventually. The mystery in this set of missions makes it a highlight.
The Vice desk in my opinion is the weakest of the bunch. I wasn't really interested in the drug storyline and your partner Roy Earle is an asshole, which isn't bad because he is kinda one of the main antagonists. This desk ends with Cole being demoted after having his affair outed. Which is a good way to keep the pace flowing with some story beats that aren't to do with any case.
The arson desk is pretty good, i found that it switched up the gameplay loop a lot and dropped the almost episodic cases that the previous desks had. The arson desk is all connected and at points even has you playing as a different character. Your partner Biggs on this desk is probably my second favourite because he doesn't do the thing that all the other partners do where they start out an asshole and treat Cole like shit but then by the time the desk ends they end up liking him. Cole and Biggs are amicable with each other from the start which i was glad to see because i was getting tired of the repetition.
To go on to the gameplay, the crime scene sections are really fun with hunting around for all the clues and having to decipher puzzles. The interrogation sections are really fun to but can be difficult due to the faces of the characters being quite hard to read.
Visual wise this game was a marvel for its time, making massive advances in motion capture and the way faces are recorded. It gives an uncanny valley feeling seeing really fluid facial animations on videogame characters. No complaints on this front.
A couple complaints i have are the previously mentioned repetitiveness of the partners, I kinda wish that maybe there was only two partners so that they could be more unique in character. Also I wish that they put more emphasis on the overall story from the start, instead of having it all come out in the latter half. They spend the first two desks setting up the fact that Cole is having an affair with the singer and wait until late into the game to do anything with it. Gameplay wise i think the pacing can be a bit of a problem especially with checkpoints, i wish that there was a restart from checkpoint option because if you screw up an interview or miss a clue you either need to close and reload the game or play the entire case again which is annoying.
While I do not think that LA Noire is in need of a sequel or even a remake, I would love to see more detective games that can take a lot of what LA Noire put out there with crime scene sections and interviews. This is a Rockstar Classic that everyone should play. Highly Recommended
L.A Noire is yet another example of Rockstar making exceptional games that do not fall under the GTA umbrella. A fantastic depiction of 1940's Hollywood, playing as a straight edge detective trying not to be compromised by the corruption around him.
To go over the characters/general narrative first, you play as Cole Phelps who is a WW2 vet who begins to rise up the ranks of the LAPD. Cole is an interesting protagonist, his background in the war gives a lot of depth to his character and helps connect him with some of the cases later on in the game. He never exactly has any great character moments and as far as Rockstar protagonists go he is fairly underdeveloped due to the game not really giving moments where we can learn a lot about him. He is an outwardly good person who is tormented by what he saw/did during the war.
The game lacks an overall narrative for the first half of the game until you start the vice desk. The main point of this is that Cole is caught having an affair with a German singer named Elsa and has his name trashed by the corrupt high ups of the LAPD. Next lets look at each desk individually
To start off, i played this game in two sittings, i started it back in August and played through the Traffic desk and Homicide desk before getting burned out at the start of the Vice desk. Recently i came back to it and finished up the Vice desk and Arson desk. I will detail my thoughts of each.
The traffic desk from what i can remember of it was pretty enjoyable, Cole's partner Stefan Bekowsky is probably my favourite of the partners. By the end of the traffic desk him and Cole seemed like friends and they definitely had the best dynamic.
The homicide desk was by far my favourite. The murder investigation is very intriguing and I had the most fun going through these missions. Your partner Rusty Calloway is pretty good, he starts out as the stereotypical drunk asshole detective but he comes around eventually. The mystery in this set of missions makes it a highlight.
The Vice desk in my opinion is the weakest of the bunch. I wasn't really interested in the drug storyline and your partner Roy Earle is an asshole, which isn't bad because he is kinda one of the main antagonists. This desk ends with Cole being demoted after having his affair outed. Which is a good way to keep the pace flowing with some story beats that aren't to do with any case.
The arson desk is pretty good, i found that it switched up the gameplay loop a lot and dropped the almost episodic cases that the previous desks had. The arson desk is all connected and at points even has you playing as a different character. Your partner Biggs on this desk is probably my second favourite because he doesn't do the thing that all the other partners do where they start out an asshole and treat Cole like shit but then by the time the desk ends they end up liking him. Cole and Biggs are amicable with each other from the start which i was glad to see because i was getting tired of the repetition.
To go on to the gameplay, the crime scene sections are really fun with hunting around for all the clues and having to decipher puzzles. The interrogation sections are really fun to but can be difficult due to the faces of the characters being quite hard to read.
Visual wise this game was a marvel for its time, making massive advances in motion capture and the way faces are recorded. It gives an uncanny valley feeling seeing really fluid facial animations on videogame characters. No complaints on this front.
A couple complaints i have are the previously mentioned repetitiveness of the partners, I kinda wish that maybe there was only two partners so that they could be more unique in character. Also I wish that they put more emphasis on the overall story from the start, instead of having it all come out in the latter half. They spend the first two desks setting up the fact that Cole is having an affair with the singer and wait until late into the game to do anything with it. Gameplay wise i think the pacing can be a bit of a problem especially with checkpoints, i wish that there was a restart from checkpoint option because if you screw up an interview or miss a clue you either need to close and reload the game or play the entire case again which is annoying.
While I do not think that LA Noire is in need of a sequel or even a remake, I would love to see more detective games that can take a lot of what LA Noire put out there with crime scene sections and interviews. This is a Rockstar Classic that everyone should play. Highly Recommended
This review contains major story spoilers
After playing the original i thought i would come back to this game again since i played it through years ago and remember liking it a lot. However after completing it i am left very torn on my thoughts about it.
Start of with what i liked. I think the parkour is as good as ever. Very fluid, improved from the first game and i had lots of fun running around. The combat is massively improved with it being much more involved in the story, however they did remove being able to use weapons which i do think actually works better in this game due to their only being one ranged enemy. I enjoyed most of the characters but none are anything to write home about. Visuals looks great and it also has a pretty good score.
Now for what I didnt like. This game did not need an open world. Now i think them expanding from a linear gameplay loop would of worked ok if the open world was for anything other than collectables. Also when you are running across the same 4 buildings all the time the open world ends up not feeling like one. I was extremely confused by the story, i originally thought it was a sequel to the original due to the futuristic tech, then i looked at the game info and it mentioned "Faith's origin" so then i thought it was a prequel, then to google it and find out its a reboot. The story also handles major plot points very poorly. There are two major example so SPOILERS AHEAD. My main problem is that they reveal that the main villains daughter is actually Faith's sister, not through a cutscene but through a stray line of dialogue said by one of the side characters, for the reveal of the games largest plot point to just be tossed out there like that seems like a massive waste to me. Secondly they have you believe one of the side characters Noah was killed about a quarter of the way into the game, only to reveal he is alive, to then kill him instantly, just seems a bit pointless.
While i think Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a good gameplay experience, with some amazing parkour and way more forgiving combat encounters than its predecessor. I think its step's to take on a more narrative experience failed handing out a half baked story with nothing that memorable really happening.
After playing the original i thought i would come back to this game again since i played it through years ago and remember liking it a lot. However after completing it i am left very torn on my thoughts about it.
Start of with what i liked. I think the parkour is as good as ever. Very fluid, improved from the first game and i had lots of fun running around. The combat is massively improved with it being much more involved in the story, however they did remove being able to use weapons which i do think actually works better in this game due to their only being one ranged enemy. I enjoyed most of the characters but none are anything to write home about. Visuals looks great and it also has a pretty good score.
Now for what I didnt like. This game did not need an open world. Now i think them expanding from a linear gameplay loop would of worked ok if the open world was for anything other than collectables. Also when you are running across the same 4 buildings all the time the open world ends up not feeling like one. I was extremely confused by the story, i originally thought it was a sequel to the original due to the futuristic tech, then i looked at the game info and it mentioned "Faith's origin" so then i thought it was a prequel, then to google it and find out its a reboot. The story also handles major plot points very poorly. There are two major example so SPOILERS AHEAD. My main problem is that they reveal that the main villains daughter is actually Faith's sister, not through a cutscene but through a stray line of dialogue said by one of the side characters, for the reveal of the games largest plot point to just be tossed out there like that seems like a massive waste to me. Secondly they have you believe one of the side characters Noah was killed about a quarter of the way into the game, only to reveal he is alive, to then kill him instantly, just seems a bit pointless.
While i think Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a good gameplay experience, with some amazing parkour and way more forgiving combat encounters than its predecessor. I think its step's to take on a more narrative experience failed handing out a half baked story with nothing that memorable really happening.
2008
Finally got around to this after months of putting it off. I had played the sequel years ago but was excited to come back to the original. It is a short but sweet parkour epic with some great visuals and a really good soundtrack. The story is very much on the backburner as I never really knew what was going on besides looking for Faith's sister. I really liked the animated cutscenes and they were a nice change in art style. Gameplay wise the parkour has aged pretty well, I found a few areas to be poorly marked on where to go and found myself getting stuck in rooms fairly often. The combat hasnt aged well at all and the areas where you have to fight through enemies are extremely difficult even on the lower difficulties.
Defo gonna replay Mirror's Edge Catalyst after completing this. Great fun for a few hours
Defo gonna replay Mirror's Edge Catalyst after completing this. Great fun for a few hours
Picked it up on sale a while ago and only just got round to playing it after i played the original. For the port it adds nice different surroundings for each ending and adds a couple extra things to do. Same game pretty much but its in VR.
For their first game back after going bust, The Expanse is a decent Telltale experience but fails to reach the highs of their previous work.
Gameplay wise is expands on what TellTale were doing with the last season of the walking dead by adding in more gameplay sections that are basically walking around a sandbox while your character talks to people. Nothing too exciting but the gameplay is never what you play TellTale game for.
The story and characters are quite good, nothing that comes close to Lee, Clementine or Bigby but still a pretty decent cast (I had no idea this was apparently based on a show so idk how any characters hold up). Drummer is a pretty good protagonist, her arc consists of the classic tough army person learns to open up to people which is executed quite well. The side characters are nothing special with a couple of exceptions, I quite like Maya's character and her relationship with Drummer is very involved with the story. As for the other side characters they aren't really that memorable im not sure if this will get any further seasons but if so id like to see them come back because there is a lot more you could do with them.
My main criticism is that this game feels like it lacks a lot of dialogue options, in the few sections that contain dialogue options there are only every positive and negative choices where as in previous games they provided a neutral choice or a silent choice. I think that if they cut down on the gameplay sections and provided more interaction with Drummer and the other side characters then you would of got a more complete game.
Im excited to see where TellTale go now that they are back and i am still eagerly awaiting The Wolf Among Us 2 to finally get a release date. The Expanse was a pretty good first outing for them.
Gameplay wise is expands on what TellTale were doing with the last season of the walking dead by adding in more gameplay sections that are basically walking around a sandbox while your character talks to people. Nothing too exciting but the gameplay is never what you play TellTale game for.
The story and characters are quite good, nothing that comes close to Lee, Clementine or Bigby but still a pretty decent cast (I had no idea this was apparently based on a show so idk how any characters hold up). Drummer is a pretty good protagonist, her arc consists of the classic tough army person learns to open up to people which is executed quite well. The side characters are nothing special with a couple of exceptions, I quite like Maya's character and her relationship with Drummer is very involved with the story. As for the other side characters they aren't really that memorable im not sure if this will get any further seasons but if so id like to see them come back because there is a lot more you could do with them.
My main criticism is that this game feels like it lacks a lot of dialogue options, in the few sections that contain dialogue options there are only every positive and negative choices where as in previous games they provided a neutral choice or a silent choice. I think that if they cut down on the gameplay sections and provided more interaction with Drummer and the other side characters then you would of got a more complete game.
Im excited to see where TellTale go now that they are back and i am still eagerly awaiting The Wolf Among Us 2 to finally get a release date. The Expanse was a pretty good first outing for them.
2016
A Vr classic that has shown its age in recent time. Its a quick fun experience with around 3 hours worth of content if you play at a decent pace. The gun combat is good for its time but is the area of the game that is outdated the most, not being able to interact with your weapons. I experienced quite a few visual bugs but nothing game breaking. Its a VR classic that i would only recommend picking up if its on sale
I always was of the opinion that Black Ops 2 was slightly overrated, I never really had the childhood defining experience with this game like the majority of its fans have. But upon replay this game is fantastic and I can happily say that my mind has been changed. The campaign is one of the best in the series and it has 100% rose up in my personal ranking. I love the mix between the past and future setting, Menendez is the second best COD villain behind Makarov. My favourite part is finding all the hidden details to try and get the better endings, it makes me wish that the developers put this much effort into the campaigns these days. One small thing that i found was that the side characters in this game are a lot less prominent than in previous games. Characters like Harper and Salazar have a fraction of the character and screen time of guys like Price, Woods or even the Reboot trilogy Ghost, It makes me think that they knew that these characters where one off's and wouldn't be reused at all.
Campaign set pieces and missions are amazing and this truly holds up as one of the best campaigns.
Campaign set pieces and missions are amazing and this truly holds up as one of the best campaigns.