Izavid
82 Reviews liked by Izavid
Spec Ops: The Line
2012
This review contains spoilers
you know what? fuck it. spec ops: the line is worth five stars and then some. for a long time i sat on the fence about it, and had it collecting dust, uncommentated, at 4.5 stars - no more.
the fact this game was shuffled out-of-sight by 2k games, that an attempt is being made to erase its existence from the public under dubious pretenses at worst, or that it's been dropped in a double-whammy of corporate greed and convenient timing at best, shows us that this game is just as sorely needed now as it was 12 years ago.
many like to do a little joking about its "look what i made you do"-narrative, but those people are unaware that this precise portrayal of leadership at the hands of a vague authority is part of the point. this is taking down not merely the modern military shooter alone, but the entirety of the military industrial complex and its implications. the game design here is a direct analogue of the military chain of command, and the way it attempts to dissuade individuals and society as a whole from seeking blame in the hands of the actor.
on february 25th 2024, united states airforce member aaron bushnell self-immolated rather than continuing to maintain part in the u.s. military's support of yet another genocide - a genocide funded and fueled by this global force for despicable violence, a genocide committed, in part, with white phosphorous used against a civilian population.
the timing is just a bit TOO on-the-nose. we are supposed to forget that the same thing fuels this propaganda as fuels the systematic dehumanisation and killing of several peoples in asia and africa. spec ops, unlike every single other "modern military shooter", didnt flinch, and didnt lie. and for that, it had to disappear.
this is the only game that had the guts to give the player a gun, and let them shoot at a peaceful civilian population - then stand there with the implications of their actions. no fade-out. no game over. only you and the simulacrum of a dead body.
from the river to the sea, palestine will be free.
the fact this game was shuffled out-of-sight by 2k games, that an attempt is being made to erase its existence from the public under dubious pretenses at worst, or that it's been dropped in a double-whammy of corporate greed and convenient timing at best, shows us that this game is just as sorely needed now as it was 12 years ago.
many like to do a little joking about its "look what i made you do"-narrative, but those people are unaware that this precise portrayal of leadership at the hands of a vague authority is part of the point. this is taking down not merely the modern military shooter alone, but the entirety of the military industrial complex and its implications. the game design here is a direct analogue of the military chain of command, and the way it attempts to dissuade individuals and society as a whole from seeking blame in the hands of the actor.
on february 25th 2024, united states airforce member aaron bushnell self-immolated rather than continuing to maintain part in the u.s. military's support of yet another genocide - a genocide funded and fueled by this global force for despicable violence, a genocide committed, in part, with white phosphorous used against a civilian population.
the timing is just a bit TOO on-the-nose. we are supposed to forget that the same thing fuels this propaganda as fuels the systematic dehumanisation and killing of several peoples in asia and africa. spec ops, unlike every single other "modern military shooter", didnt flinch, and didnt lie. and for that, it had to disappear.
this is the only game that had the guts to give the player a gun, and let them shoot at a peaceful civilian population - then stand there with the implications of their actions. no fade-out. no game over. only you and the simulacrum of a dead body.
from the river to the sea, palestine will be free.
Much better than DLC 1.
Although DLC 1 set the build-up, this delivered the rest.
Overall, the DLC felt more entertaining and engaging in general, not to mention how challenging it was compared to the base game.
The forced doubles format makes it so you can't just go and steamroll through everyone, you have to actually come up with good strategies.
The story was nice, if a bit anticlimatic regarding the BBA arc.
Whereas I didn't care at all for Sword and Shield's DLC 2, I completed this one in two days only
Although DLC 1 set the build-up, this delivered the rest.
Overall, the DLC felt more entertaining and engaging in general, not to mention how challenging it was compared to the base game.
The forced doubles format makes it so you can't just go and steamroll through everyone, you have to actually come up with good strategies.
The story was nice, if a bit anticlimatic regarding the BBA arc.
Whereas I didn't care at all for Sword and Shield's DLC 2, I completed this one in two days only
I definitely wish there was a bit more to do in Kitakami, but I really liked how it felt more like an actual place than the giant theme park that is Paldea. The story was pretty decent, but that's not surprising considering how Scarlet and Violet had surprisingly solid character writing. Carmine and Kieran were cool characters, but I can't really elaborate on them further since I haven't played Indigo Disc yet. I'm also surprised by how much I like Ogerpon. It's such a cute design and its little cloak/hoodie changing color with each mask is a nice touch.
Ogerpon and Bloodmoon Ursaluna are cute
A 3 minute long "horror" game that can hardly be called game as you only need about 5 clicks and pressing left and right to complete it. It isn't scary, it doesn't make sense, but hey, the 20 seconds of voice acting at the end are quite decent.
Die Hard Arcade
1996
the final boss is a cheating little bastard
9.03m
2013
Not alot of games have made me so close to crying quite like this one, such a beautiful and gorgeous way to humanize all the victims of disasters all over the globe, im so glad i played this and i urge everyone to as well
Start Survey?
2019
The only scary part of this game was when it deadnamed me
Other than the fact that it's too easy to accidentally finish the game without finishing all objectives and getting to experience all the cool scenes from Chris' imagination, exploring the little house and its surroundings is really cool as you learn more about the kid and his family, especially the origin of his archnemesis, MantRoid.
Half-Life
1998
I wish I'd enjoyed this more. It goes without saying that playing a 25 year old game isn't exactly going to yield the same experience as a more modern one, and the games of the 90s in particular haven't aged all that well across the board in comparison to say, the mid 2000s, but I was hoping that Half-Life would somehow be an exception.
And it's not like it entirely wasn't. There is still plenty about this thing to enjoy, there's just also a lot of utter dogshit in here as well. It feels mildly sacrilegious to say that about one of the most influential and near-universally beloved games ever made, but I personally don't really subscribe to the notion that old games should be given all that much slack when it comes to critique simply on the basis that their issues didn't seem like issues at the time of their release.
Still, on the topic of that influence, it's definitely what appealed to me most about Half-Life. I've wanted to go back and see the root of the DNA of many games I've loved over the years for a good while now, and it was apparent right from the beginning just how many games of all genres, especially but not limited to shooters, have borrowed from the ground rules that Valve set a quarter of a century ago. Everything from Bioshock to Call of Duty has Half-Life to thank for revolutionizing the medium and paving the way toward greener pastures.
But again, that doesn't necessarily mean it's still good. Movement feels pretty awful, combat feels limp, puzzles are obtuse and uninteresting to solve, I even found the oft-praised narrative to be mostly uninteresting. I don't want to go on for too long about everything that I'd consider less than stellar about Half-Life, as pretty much all its drawbacks can be attributed to its aforementioned age, but I just find it a tad unbelievable how many people look back at this thing through rose-coloured glasses and completely ignore all the aspects that make it a consistently frustrating and annoying game to play through in modern times.
I'm sure it was insane in 1998 to play an FPS where enemies did anything other than just blindly bumrush you, or where you had the freedom to violently murder any random scientist or security guard you come across, etc. And I have to give the game its flowers for opening people's eyes to the possibilities of video games in a way that had never been done prior. But in the year of our lord 2023, it's just not that novel or fun anymore.
And it's not like it entirely wasn't. There is still plenty about this thing to enjoy, there's just also a lot of utter dogshit in here as well. It feels mildly sacrilegious to say that about one of the most influential and near-universally beloved games ever made, but I personally don't really subscribe to the notion that old games should be given all that much slack when it comes to critique simply on the basis that their issues didn't seem like issues at the time of their release.
Still, on the topic of that influence, it's definitely what appealed to me most about Half-Life. I've wanted to go back and see the root of the DNA of many games I've loved over the years for a good while now, and it was apparent right from the beginning just how many games of all genres, especially but not limited to shooters, have borrowed from the ground rules that Valve set a quarter of a century ago. Everything from Bioshock to Call of Duty has Half-Life to thank for revolutionizing the medium and paving the way toward greener pastures.
But again, that doesn't necessarily mean it's still good. Movement feels pretty awful, combat feels limp, puzzles are obtuse and uninteresting to solve, I even found the oft-praised narrative to be mostly uninteresting. I don't want to go on for too long about everything that I'd consider less than stellar about Half-Life, as pretty much all its drawbacks can be attributed to its aforementioned age, but I just find it a tad unbelievable how many people look back at this thing through rose-coloured glasses and completely ignore all the aspects that make it a consistently frustrating and annoying game to play through in modern times.
I'm sure it was insane in 1998 to play an FPS where enemies did anything other than just blindly bumrush you, or where you had the freedom to violently murder any random scientist or security guard you come across, etc. And I have to give the game its flowers for opening people's eyes to the possibilities of video games in a way that had never been done prior. But in the year of our lord 2023, it's just not that novel or fun anymore.
Tokyo Necro
2016
Tokyo Necro is a vn which feels like it's going through the motions; shambling towards the finish line.
It wears the appearance of a VN from the company's glory days -- but its not.
The person who came up with the world, the characters, the general outline, wasn't the one who wrote most of it. That task was left to Vio Shimokura of Totono fame. While I'm going to critique this VN a lot in this review, I still think that Vio did a pretty good job given the way the vn was setup and the fact that he ultimately had to fill in the details for someone else's story. Unfortunately this here is the VN's ultimate weakness. That the person writing the story was incompattible and lacking the excitement to tell the story with justice.
Tokyo Necro is a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk themed story about a group of zombie killing mercenaries hired to discover the past of a bubbly, amnesiac girl named Hogyo Iria while shadowy organizations threaten to upend and destroy everything our heroes old dear.
This setup doesn't sound awfully original, but it sounds like it should at least be entertaining, maybe action-packed; the trailer certainly promises a spectacle with the amount of 3d animated action sequences shown off. The reality is the story is more interested in exploring the way characters deal with death when living in
a world capable of temporarily returning those once dead to how they once were -- emotions and all. The emotions that gave these people their humanity rapidly decay -- only after 2 weeks, most are just a husk, at risk of harming those around them. Conceptually, the game is well-thought out. The characters all have their purpose in the story.
My problem with the game is the execuation of its main elements. Outside of the major characters, most don't grow outside of their basic setup. If the story was more plot-driven, shorter, I would be willing to overlook the other failings the game has. I also think the game not having much different narration with a certain plot critical moment where the route split is a big missed opportunity with how much the game tells you the characters are different.
The most obvious shortcoming was the game aiming to be spectacle driven. Scale-wise, the game has a large amount of backgrounds, cgs, sprites and animations. If you look closer though, outside of the more important story sections, the assets on average look generic, lacking in detail, and in the case of the backgrounds, blurry. In general I think the quality of the assets are mixed.
Finally, I think the prose of the story is lacking. As the story simplifies a lot of elements that would normally be explained through text using the animations, there isn't a lot the story really can work with to make the fight scenes interesting. They're caught in the awkward middle ground as I don't think the animation work is impressive enough to fill the void the flavorless prose leaves.
I think the best way to summarize the game is that its a lot like a seasonal anime that'll be forgotten over time. It doesn't help that the one who conceptualized the story is an anime writer.
It wears the appearance of a VN from the company's glory days -- but its not.
The person who came up with the world, the characters, the general outline, wasn't the one who wrote most of it. That task was left to Vio Shimokura of Totono fame. While I'm going to critique this VN a lot in this review, I still think that Vio did a pretty good job given the way the vn was setup and the fact that he ultimately had to fill in the details for someone else's story. Unfortunately this here is the VN's ultimate weakness. That the person writing the story was incompattible and lacking the excitement to tell the story with justice.
Tokyo Necro is a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk themed story about a group of zombie killing mercenaries hired to discover the past of a bubbly, amnesiac girl named Hogyo Iria while shadowy organizations threaten to upend and destroy everything our heroes old dear.
This setup doesn't sound awfully original, but it sounds like it should at least be entertaining, maybe action-packed; the trailer certainly promises a spectacle with the amount of 3d animated action sequences shown off. The reality is the story is more interested in exploring the way characters deal with death when living in
a world capable of temporarily returning those once dead to how they once were -- emotions and all. The emotions that gave these people their humanity rapidly decay -- only after 2 weeks, most are just a husk, at risk of harming those around them. Conceptually, the game is well-thought out. The characters all have their purpose in the story.
My problem with the game is the execuation of its main elements. Outside of the major characters, most don't grow outside of their basic setup. If the story was more plot-driven, shorter, I would be willing to overlook the other failings the game has. I also think the game not having much different narration with a certain plot critical moment where the route split is a big missed opportunity with how much the game tells you the characters are different.
The most obvious shortcoming was the game aiming to be spectacle driven. Scale-wise, the game has a large amount of backgrounds, cgs, sprites and animations. If you look closer though, outside of the more important story sections, the assets on average look generic, lacking in detail, and in the case of the backgrounds, blurry. In general I think the quality of the assets are mixed.
Finally, I think the prose of the story is lacking. As the story simplifies a lot of elements that would normally be explained through text using the animations, there isn't a lot the story really can work with to make the fight scenes interesting. They're caught in the awkward middle ground as I don't think the animation work is impressive enough to fill the void the flavorless prose leaves.
I think the best way to summarize the game is that its a lot like a seasonal anime that'll be forgotten over time. It doesn't help that the one who conceptualized the story is an anime writer.
Horizon Zero Dawn
2017
How can something this well made and with so much potential and looks fucking amazing be so fucking boring at times?
FUCKING ROBOT DINOSSAURS.
The game is great when you're fighting them but thats it.
Project Zero Dawn is cool to I guess.
How could they fuck this up this game has everything it needs to be solid as fuck but It falls flat on so many surfaces.
forgetable charactes
Weird fucking world design, you have the amazing fucking map filled with cool shit to explore but you also fill it with the most pointless side shit possible.
this is a brain boiler, I'm never playing it again.
FUCKING ROBOT DINOSSAURS.
The game is great when you're fighting them but thats it.
Project Zero Dawn is cool to I guess.
How could they fuck this up this game has everything it needs to be solid as fuck but It falls flat on so many surfaces.
forgetable charactes
Weird fucking world design, you have the amazing fucking map filled with cool shit to explore but you also fill it with the most pointless side shit possible.
this is a brain boiler, I'm never playing it again.
Chained Echoes
2022
I found it funny when I hear "recommended to JRPG fans"
For them it's a no-brainer. Duh.
But I've never gotten very far in any JRPG. Nowhere near the end. Tried. Couldn't.
Couldn't get through all those hurdles. Those brick walls. All those outdated barriers.
Even to inexperienced player of the genre, those are notorious.
None of them pose a problem here. Not in the slightest.
All puzzle pieces of this picture are just in their right places.
And they create a picture they were always meant to create.
It's rare for something to be so good that it transcends your preferences.
I thought I didn't like this genre...Apparently, I do.
I don't really enjoy those grand stories...Yet here I do.
Sometimes, there are things so extraordinary that they transcend the usual.
After finishing Chained Echoes I'm left with a memory of the world that gives home to so many interesting, complex and wonderful characters.
Got to know them. Lived there with them. Wouldn't trade them for anything.
When saying goodbye, I had a heavy feeling somewhere between my throat and heart.
I'll never forget them.
I genuinely think this is one of the best stories out there.
And personally, my favorite.
For them it's a no-brainer. Duh.
But I've never gotten very far in any JRPG. Nowhere near the end. Tried. Couldn't.
Couldn't get through all those hurdles. Those brick walls. All those outdated barriers.
Even to inexperienced player of the genre, those are notorious.
None of them pose a problem here. Not in the slightest.
All puzzle pieces of this picture are just in their right places.
And they create a picture they were always meant to create.
It's rare for something to be so good that it transcends your preferences.
I thought I didn't like this genre...Apparently, I do.
I don't really enjoy those grand stories...Yet here I do.
Sometimes, there are things so extraordinary that they transcend the usual.
After finishing Chained Echoes I'm left with a memory of the world that gives home to so many interesting, complex and wonderful characters.
Got to know them. Lived there with them. Wouldn't trade them for anything.
When saying goodbye, I had a heavy feeling somewhere between my throat and heart.
I'll never forget them.
I genuinely think this is one of the best stories out there.
And personally, my favorite.
Half-Life
1998
its a amazing, influential masterpiece that deserves a spot in the mega hall of fame. its so innovative and even deserves a play to this day, and if you dont like the outdated gameplay, simply play black mesa.
If Found...
2020
Oh hey I made this game
That's pretty cool
That's pretty cool