ImMatureTony
2023
Enjoyed the intermittent visual splendor but definitely feels the most undercooked of the Cyan stuff I've played
Probably the most impressive looking game I've yet played on the PS5 - couldn't stop thinking about how EXPENSIVE and lavishly produced it was while playing. My favorite moments were quiet transportive ones, diving into bodies of water as waves realistically rolled in, biological suds forming on top.
Was unfortunately bored for the majority of the experience, though. The sidequests had more character than in the 1st installment but the main quest was less so, in large part because the unfolding mystery of the world and your place in it was already covered in the first. I really think I'm done with open-world games where you predominantly follow prompts to see content, repeat. Combat would have been the saving grace but as fun and flashy as it is, it doesn't have the legs to power a 100 hr. adventure for me the way the combat of a From Soft or Monster Hunter game does.
Burning Shores was pretty dope, tho.
Was unfortunately bored for the majority of the experience, though. The sidequests had more character than in the 1st installment but the main quest was less so, in large part because the unfolding mystery of the world and your place in it was already covered in the first. I really think I'm done with open-world games where you predominantly follow prompts to see content, repeat. Combat would have been the saving grace but as fun and flashy as it is, it doesn't have the legs to power a 100 hr. adventure for me the way the combat of a From Soft or Monster Hunter game does.
Burning Shores was pretty dope, tho.
Actually think the combat is pretty great on replaying, refreshing in that the free-aim of Wiimote controls felt stifled when stapled onto the first two games that never required it by virtue of their original GameCube-controller-based design.
Elysia is peak, and continue to love the detailed eerie environmental design Retro kicks butt at. Centering the game around the idea of your ship being movable/upgrade able is a fun way of making this one distinct, though the heavy militaristic “federation” presence throughout really takes away from the sense of isolation and… Samus being a subversive element in a cutthroat world that I love about the other games. SPOILERS I kept waiting for the federation to be corrupt or to double cross her or something as a crux of the plot but it never got very interesting like that.
Also am not sure the push and pull of “hyper mode” works as well as they want. Feels a bit more confusing whether I’m making a good call to sacrifice the health to use it or not instead of being something where I feel like I’m making smart decisions.
Worst of the Prime trilogy imo but still a blast. Retro rocks.
Elysia is peak, and continue to love the detailed eerie environmental design Retro kicks butt at. Centering the game around the idea of your ship being movable/upgrade able is a fun way of making this one distinct, though the heavy militaristic “federation” presence throughout really takes away from the sense of isolation and… Samus being a subversive element in a cutthroat world that I love about the other games. SPOILERS I kept waiting for the federation to be corrupt or to double cross her or something as a crux of the plot but it never got very interesting like that.
Also am not sure the push and pull of “hyper mode” works as well as they want. Feels a bit more confusing whether I’m making a good call to sacrifice the health to use it or not instead of being something where I feel like I’m making smart decisions.
Worst of the Prime trilogy imo but still a blast. Retro rocks.
2010
Wait so this game actually owns? Never tried it back in its own era because the marketing suggested something a lot more derivative and less confident than what this actually is. A flawed gem to be sure, and the combat did get long in the tooth about halfway through. But still… damn! There’s not much else out there I can think of doing what Remedy is doing with this sort of mindfuck lynchian horror.
And some of the sensory overwhelm they accomplish here with light and shadows tumbling over each other spasmodically is just supremely cool. Watched a bit of play through after finishing on YouTube and feels like the remaster actually took a step back in this regard vs. the original that I played?
With this and Control, Remedy has made a real fan out of me. Can’t wait to play the sequel.
And some of the sensory overwhelm they accomplish here with light and shadows tumbling over each other spasmodically is just supremely cool. Watched a bit of play through after finishing on YouTube and feels like the remaster actually took a step back in this regard vs. the original that I played?
With this and Control, Remedy has made a real fan out of me. Can’t wait to play the sequel.
2021
Came back for a hard mode run and really dug the game more this second time around. Hard mode accentuates the game’s Mega Man X-y strengths.
This is a game that plays better as a propulsive speed run of a pissed off character than as an exploratory moody atmosphere piece. I really love the latter form of Metroid more but this is an incredibly accomplished stab at the former so taking the game on its own terms (easier on a 2nd run), I had a blast. And I do think it makes sense for Samus to have such an attitude given what chapter of the story this game is telling. This ain’t her first rodeo. The moment of the “yell” is an all timer.
Clear Time - 5:16, that I haven’t ruled out going for a sub-4:00 is probably due to how good the schmoovement feels in this.
This is a game that plays better as a propulsive speed run of a pissed off character than as an exploratory moody atmosphere piece. I really love the latter form of Metroid more but this is an incredibly accomplished stab at the former so taking the game on its own terms (easier on a 2nd run), I had a blast. And I do think it makes sense for Samus to have such an attitude given what chapter of the story this game is telling. This ain’t her first rodeo. The moment of the “yell” is an all timer.
Clear Time - 5:16, that I haven’t ruled out going for a sub-4:00 is probably due to how good the schmoovement feels in this.
2023
Wish the whole game was a lot more like “Olimar’s Shipwreck Log” or whatever that thing is called, but still… a treasure trove of lovingly put together Pikminning to get to in this one. Think those who haven’t played Pikmin 2 will get a much bigger kick out of this, as so many bits in it will come as a fun new surprise rather than a callback.
I just had so much fuckin’ fun goofing around with stupid mechanics experiments and the game so frequently rewarded those experiments with humor, wonky success, and reactivity. Perhaps it helped that my wife was frequently playing next to me. This game is great with an audience!
Also cool that this game is so polarizing among people I respect. Feels, for better or worse, like the torch has truly been passed to a new generation of creative at Nintendo with different sensibilities than the people who founded these franchises.
Also cool that this game is so polarizing among people I respect. Feels, for better or worse, like the torch has truly been passed to a new generation of creative at Nintendo with different sensibilities than the people who founded these franchises.
This review contains spoilers
Spends an undue amount of time on mawkish Winters family trauma drama, the only bit that worked for me on that front was the reference in Rose's diary to sweating mucousal mold in elementary school. That's a tough hand to draw, Rose. 😰
But I enjoyed this more than I thought I would as an excuse to run through the most evocative sets from the original game in a new context. Think most will have a better time with this if they go in thinking of it as a remixed "2nd run" mode as opposed to the true next chapter in the story as it seemed sort of pitched to be.
The line-of-sight-responsive "don't let mommy catch you" segment was an inspired horror idea and one I'd love to see explored more at length in a numbered Resident Evil entry, as much as I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.
Also... the decision to hide Ethan's face reached it's most ludicrous results yet in the emotional climax of this, and that was a wonderful thing to see. 🤣
But I enjoyed this more than I thought I would as an excuse to run through the most evocative sets from the original game in a new context. Think most will have a better time with this if they go in thinking of it as a remixed "2nd run" mode as opposed to the true next chapter in the story as it seemed sort of pitched to be.
The line-of-sight-responsive "don't let mommy catch you" segment was an inspired horror idea and one I'd love to see explored more at length in a numbered Resident Evil entry, as much as I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.
Also... the decision to hide Ethan's face reached it's most ludicrous results yet in the emotional climax of this, and that was a wonderful thing to see. 🤣
This was a fun treat, much more charming and considered in style, polish, writing than I expected from a free April Fool's surprise, with a framing that lets each character's personality shine a bit more than they often get the chance to in the mainline Sonic series.
Think it was smart to serialize the story via a linear progression of train cars, too, given the intended audience is Sonic fans more than the sort of die-hard mystery VN fans who might want more freedom in the investigations.
My biggest complaint is the over-reliance on a minigame that feels like it's there to placate fans who demand some form of action in a Sonic game and is asked to prop up a climax that might have been better served by more of the sleuthing and lite-deduction that's more core to the game.
Think it was smart to serialize the story via a linear progression of train cars, too, given the intended audience is Sonic fans more than the sort of die-hard mystery VN fans who might want more freedom in the investigations.
My biggest complaint is the over-reliance on a minigame that feels like it's there to placate fans who demand some form of action in a Sonic game and is asked to prop up a climax that might have been better served by more of the sleuthing and lite-deduction that's more core to the game.
2020
This review contains spoilers
Kind of splits the difference between the Resident Evil 1/2 remake experience and my memories of Resident Evil 4 (on Gamecube), which ends up feeling less sharp and engaging than any of those games, unfortunately.
There's also odd regressions to the crunchy dynamic feel of gunplay with the zombies as compared to Resident Evil 2 Remake, it feels like? Maybe they prioritized allowing for larger hordes of zombies instead and had to limit complexity of interactions as a result, not sure...
But still- a pretty fun B-movie to play through, I've heard the Nemesis is more formidable and dynamic in the original game, but I did really enjoy the indulgent rendering and animation of it and Raccoon City here, really harkened back to 80s action films with lurid colors & reflective dripping monster skin. 🌆
Also found the characterization of Jill & Carlos pretty fun in an intentionally campy but considered way. Jill always came across as pretty buttoned-up to me in the RE1 Remake, so it was nice to see a progression to a version of her where she's seen some shit and not gonna take any more of it.
Best line in the game is if you bring Carlos up to a "Suit of Clubs" puzzle door in the police station main hall, he barks "What a weird fuckin' door".
There's also odd regressions to the crunchy dynamic feel of gunplay with the zombies as compared to Resident Evil 2 Remake, it feels like? Maybe they prioritized allowing for larger hordes of zombies instead and had to limit complexity of interactions as a result, not sure...
But still- a pretty fun B-movie to play through, I've heard the Nemesis is more formidable and dynamic in the original game, but I did really enjoy the indulgent rendering and animation of it and Raccoon City here, really harkened back to 80s action films with lurid colors & reflective dripping monster skin. 🌆
Also found the characterization of Jill & Carlos pretty fun in an intentionally campy but considered way. Jill always came across as pretty buttoned-up to me in the RE1 Remake, so it was nice to see a progression to a version of her where she's seen some shit and not gonna take any more of it.
Best line in the game is if you bring Carlos up to a "Suit of Clubs" puzzle door in the police station main hall, he barks "What a weird fuckin' door".
2022
Not perfect but also ambitious to a pretty insane degree so it's a miracle it achieved everything it set out to do as well as it did. Fell in love with its messy ambition and the multi-layered nature of its plot, themes, and secrets by the end of what became a very exhaustive playthrough (~20 hrs).
The game has this odd effect that's maybe a double-edged sword of hanging together better the more time you put into it. For example: a bit of wooden acting in a particular clip can come off like laziness or lack-of-skill on part of the game's production at first but rewatching hours later can read as an interesting passive-aggressiveness on the part of the "actor" (after you've absorbed a sense that said "actor" was frustrated with the "film's" production at that timestamp).
I found myself thinking on the messiness of the production of the game itself, the game's depiction of the messiness of the fictional production of the films within it, sussing out the progression of those films and their plots, and other layers I won't spoil here - all at once in a way that became endlessly fascinating with overlapping themes sometimes reinforcing each other and sometimes at odds.
Just a super compelling interactable archive object.
The game has this odd effect that's maybe a double-edged sword of hanging together better the more time you put into it. For example: a bit of wooden acting in a particular clip can come off like laziness or lack-of-skill on part of the game's production at first but rewatching hours later can read as an interesting passive-aggressiveness on the part of the "actor" (after you've absorbed a sense that said "actor" was frustrated with the "film's" production at that timestamp).
I found myself thinking on the messiness of the production of the game itself, the game's depiction of the messiness of the fictional production of the films within it, sussing out the progression of those films and their plots, and other layers I won't spoil here - all at once in a way that became endlessly fascinating with overlapping themes sometimes reinforcing each other and sometimes at odds.
Just a super compelling interactable archive object.
2022
This review contains spoilers
2018 God of War was a real special game to me, the poetic "get to the tallest peak to spread the ashes" framing, the incorporation of the original trilogy's narrative as a ghost haunting Kratos' relationship with his son, the terseness of their dynamic with each other evolving messily over the game's hours with curt, subtle writing and body language often weaved into the level design and combat. Having Kratos get tangled up in Freya and Baldur (with all their parallels to Zeus and himself in the original games) led to an ending that was climactic and moving and didn't overplay its hand.
And while I appreciate what a monumental task it was to develop Ragnarok as a follow-up with its elaborated combat system, greater realm count, oodles of subplots and characters... I can't help but feel disappointed in this one, the subtext and focus of 2018 is just not there, I pretty consistently felt like I was being shuffled around to the next area the devs had made with elaborate exposition trying a little too desperately to explain why, characters talk incessantly either because of AAA game design ethos demanding (more and more) a frictionless critical path, or because they're having to bear the weight of forcing more connective tissue between disparate plot sections than there really is. Odin and Sindri's arcs and dialogue, in particular, approach greatness but are dragged down by not having enough room to breathe with everything else the story is trying to achieve, along with the game dropping hours and hours of unrelated sidequests into the laps of characters who have much more urgent things to do. As much as I loved the depictions of the Aesir in a vacuum, the game just really didn't work for me on a story level or reach satisfying conclusions for many of the plots it set up, which is a bummer.
Combat-wise, it starts off a little overcomplicated but around the time I hit the mid-game and got THE SPEAR (hell yeah) it clicked into a higher gear which was a blast paired with a much more diverse set of enemy types than the first game. The optional bosses in the end game really force you to engage with all the equipment upgrade systems and enchantments you can find and thus, make finding those things feel more rewarding in retrospect. Was surprised to find myself enjoying the game a lot more AFTER the main story was over when I could just focus on kinetic combat hijinks.
And while I appreciate what a monumental task it was to develop Ragnarok as a follow-up with its elaborated combat system, greater realm count, oodles of subplots and characters... I can't help but feel disappointed in this one, the subtext and focus of 2018 is just not there, I pretty consistently felt like I was being shuffled around to the next area the devs had made with elaborate exposition trying a little too desperately to explain why, characters talk incessantly either because of AAA game design ethos demanding (more and more) a frictionless critical path, or because they're having to bear the weight of forcing more connective tissue between disparate plot sections than there really is. Odin and Sindri's arcs and dialogue, in particular, approach greatness but are dragged down by not having enough room to breathe with everything else the story is trying to achieve, along with the game dropping hours and hours of unrelated sidequests into the laps of characters who have much more urgent things to do. As much as I loved the depictions of the Aesir in a vacuum, the game just really didn't work for me on a story level or reach satisfying conclusions for many of the plots it set up, which is a bummer.
Combat-wise, it starts off a little overcomplicated but around the time I hit the mid-game and got THE SPEAR (hell yeah) it clicked into a higher gear which was a blast paired with a much more diverse set of enemy types than the first game. The optional bosses in the end game really force you to engage with all the equipment upgrade systems and enchantments you can find and thus, make finding those things feel more rewarding in retrospect. Was surprised to find myself enjoying the game a lot more AFTER the main story was over when I could just focus on kinetic combat hijinks.
Just still an absolute banger, the focus on novel exploration mechanics and scan-visor-based investigation to discover the lore is so much more what I want from a Metroid game than Dread's propulsive angry action (though I did have a pretty great time with that one, too).
I'm not big on remasters usually since there's always something about the ways the original thing was straining to fit within its hardware limitations that feels kinda unique and special, but heck if they didn't do a great job with new lighting and models and textures that still retain the like... rough geometry and vibe of all the spaces. And just happy to see one of my favorite games become more accessible to newcomers.
Only unfulfilled thing on my wish list for this would've been the ability to manually drop map markers on the map to track things to come back to. 🙏
I'm not big on remasters usually since there's always something about the ways the original thing was straining to fit within its hardware limitations that feels kinda unique and special, but heck if they didn't do a great job with new lighting and models and textures that still retain the like... rough geometry and vibe of all the spaces. And just happy to see one of my favorite games become more accessible to newcomers.
Only unfulfilled thing on my wish list for this would've been the ability to manually drop map markers on the map to track things to come back to. 🙏
2018
It's not perfect in the design/mechanics department but my heart says 5 stars - just an astonishing and genuinely affecting resuscitation of the series that grapples with its own past instead of retconning it.
2022
Who knows what I would give this as a single-player experience but playing through twice with a group of four it was a blast other than the sagging pace in the middle. Probably the best acting/writing of Supermassive's stuff I've played in terms of selling the 00s teen horror-comedy stuff.
I do think it suffers a bit from not going full "zero escape" series with the branching path and hidden mysteries stuff - gives you a feeling like there's more beneath the surface than you might expect but doesn't really deliver on that promise? Was still fun to play again making different choices.
I do think it suffers a bit from not going full "zero escape" series with the branching path and hidden mysteries stuff - gives you a feeling like there's more beneath the surface than you might expect but doesn't really deliver on that promise? Was still fun to play again making different choices.