Kalinag12
2023
When I first heard about Chants of Sennaar, I wasn't really interested in playing a puzzle game, but the idea of a game about translating languages sounded intriguing. Since I was in need of a break from my Batman Arkham saga playthrough and had it promptly available, I decided to give it a shot after hearing some positive feedback from people. I'm glad I did so, because this was a very fun experience, more enjoyable than I expected, and that hooked me within its first 30 minutes.
The concept for this game is simple: Inspired by the story of the Tower of Babel, you must translate the languages of the people living in the tower to solve their problems, reconnect them with their neighbors, and to solve puzzles to keep moving upwards. I've never heard of a game like this before, and as someone that enjoys learning and understanding how languages work (Even if I only really know two 😅), it was an easy sell. And sure enough, this idea is what moves the entire gameplay and "plot" forward.
As expected from a puzzle game, the gameplay mechanics by themselves are very simple, you just walk and interact with objects. There are a few stealth sections throughout the game, they're fairly easy but sometimes annoying. It all comes down to the puzzle solving (Duh), and I believe this game has some very well made and intuitive puzzles, hard enough to make you think, but not too hard so you'll give up or resort to trial and error. It all revolves around gathering contextual clues found through searching the environments and interacting with the people of the tower, and then after translating their languages, to use this knowledge to solve more traditional puzzles to open the path forward. It's not completely flawless, some of the clues for the words feel a little arbitrary and there's a lot of backtracking required, which can be tiresome and sometimes a little annoying if you don't know your way around, as there is no map. But thankfully, the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.
At first, it's hard to know if there's even a plot going on besides learning the culture from each of the peoples of the tower, but as you climb and learn about them, you come across nuggets of lore through environmental storytelling. It's all very carefully built to not only give you a better understanding of each society in there, but also how they interact with each other (Both before and after you intervene) and how the dynamics between them changes once you help them find common ground. And with the true ending (No spoilers), the environmental storytelling pays off greatly. Very interesting to see how a game with technically almost no narrative was capable of building a world so interesting, and that made me want to learn as much as possible.
I will admit, at first (As in first half an hour or so) I was unsure if I liked the art style, I can't pinpoint why (Possibly because of the slightly visible lines on screen and cel shading). But as I kept playing, the environments changed my opinion, from the vastness of the desert surrounding the tower, to the towering buildings and old halls, there's quite a few "wow" moments. Characters still look a bit off, but that's probably a byproduct of the simple animations, but it didn't bother me because my attention was on how they dress. Each society has different clothing standards, some of them even denoting hierarchy through them. It makes every person from every people of the tower more unique.
As for the audio parts of this game, in terms of quality there isn't much to say, it's good with nothing annoying sounding. But the way it was used deserves some proper credit; while the people of the tower unfortunately don't actually use spoken words for us players (Not a critique! The devs already went above and beyond by making multiple written languages), they do make noises while communicating, and how they sound can be a clue to what they're trying to say or how they react to things. Sound is also used as an audio cue for when you solve a mystery, find a secret or for when there's a hidden object nearby, helping on keeping the flow of the game. Also, quick shout-out to the "not always present but lovely when it is" soundtrack, the music in this game is great, even if not super frequent, and it really helped elevate some moments, besides being a core component of the culture of the tower.
Overall, I deem Chants of Sennaar yet another hidden "indie" (It's published by Focus Entertainment) gem, and with the 9 hours or so that it took me to beat it with every language fully translated and getting the true ending, I could have easily played at least twice as much. It's not a perfect game, and I'm not sure if it qualifies as one of the best puzzle games ever, but it does qualify as one of my favorite puzzle games. A one-of-a-kind experience that I am not aware there's anything similar to it, so the best I can do is hope for a sequel. If you like puzzle games, art games, or even just learning languages and different cultures, Chants of Sennaar is the game you were looking for, and I can't recommend it enough.
SCORE: 8.5/10
The concept for this game is simple: Inspired by the story of the Tower of Babel, you must translate the languages of the people living in the tower to solve their problems, reconnect them with their neighbors, and to solve puzzles to keep moving upwards. I've never heard of a game like this before, and as someone that enjoys learning and understanding how languages work (Even if I only really know two 😅), it was an easy sell. And sure enough, this idea is what moves the entire gameplay and "plot" forward.
As expected from a puzzle game, the gameplay mechanics by themselves are very simple, you just walk and interact with objects. There are a few stealth sections throughout the game, they're fairly easy but sometimes annoying. It all comes down to the puzzle solving (Duh), and I believe this game has some very well made and intuitive puzzles, hard enough to make you think, but not too hard so you'll give up or resort to trial and error. It all revolves around gathering contextual clues found through searching the environments and interacting with the people of the tower, and then after translating their languages, to use this knowledge to solve more traditional puzzles to open the path forward. It's not completely flawless, some of the clues for the words feel a little arbitrary and there's a lot of backtracking required, which can be tiresome and sometimes a little annoying if you don't know your way around, as there is no map. But thankfully, the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.
At first, it's hard to know if there's even a plot going on besides learning the culture from each of the peoples of the tower, but as you climb and learn about them, you come across nuggets of lore through environmental storytelling. It's all very carefully built to not only give you a better understanding of each society in there, but also how they interact with each other (Both before and after you intervene) and how the dynamics between them changes once you help them find common ground. And with the true ending (No spoilers), the environmental storytelling pays off greatly. Very interesting to see how a game with technically almost no narrative was capable of building a world so interesting, and that made me want to learn as much as possible.
I will admit, at first (As in first half an hour or so) I was unsure if I liked the art style, I can't pinpoint why (Possibly because of the slightly visible lines on screen and cel shading). But as I kept playing, the environments changed my opinion, from the vastness of the desert surrounding the tower, to the towering buildings and old halls, there's quite a few "wow" moments. Characters still look a bit off, but that's probably a byproduct of the simple animations, but it didn't bother me because my attention was on how they dress. Each society has different clothing standards, some of them even denoting hierarchy through them. It makes every person from every people of the tower more unique.
As for the audio parts of this game, in terms of quality there isn't much to say, it's good with nothing annoying sounding. But the way it was used deserves some proper credit; while the people of the tower unfortunately don't actually use spoken words for us players (Not a critique! The devs already went above and beyond by making multiple written languages), they do make noises while communicating, and how they sound can be a clue to what they're trying to say or how they react to things. Sound is also used as an audio cue for when you solve a mystery, find a secret or for when there's a hidden object nearby, helping on keeping the flow of the game. Also, quick shout-out to the "not always present but lovely when it is" soundtrack, the music in this game is great, even if not super frequent, and it really helped elevate some moments, besides being a core component of the culture of the tower.
Overall, I deem Chants of Sennaar yet another hidden "indie" (It's published by Focus Entertainment) gem, and with the 9 hours or so that it took me to beat it with every language fully translated and getting the true ending, I could have easily played at least twice as much. It's not a perfect game, and I'm not sure if it qualifies as one of the best puzzle games ever, but it does qualify as one of my favorite puzzle games. A one-of-a-kind experience that I am not aware there's anything similar to it, so the best I can do is hope for a sequel. If you like puzzle games, art games, or even just learning languages and different cultures, Chants of Sennaar is the game you were looking for, and I can't recommend it enough.
SCORE: 8.5/10
Ever since I started my Arkham series playthrough, this has been the moment I anticipated the most. Arkham Origins was my first Batman Arkham game ever, and one of my favorite 7th gen games, and the last time I had played it was back in 2019. And now, many years later, with renewed critical thinking for my reviews compared to how I was back then, and after getting more knowledge about Batman as a character, I've come to the conclusion that this game is... just as good as I remember. Sure, there might be some bias involved, but who cares, it's great!
This game is unfortunately very underrated, with much more lower end scores than it deserves, and there's a couple of reasons for that. First, this wasn't made by Rocksteady, but instead Warner Montreal. They also recycled some things from Arkham City, which is understandable in its short development time from a studio that had not made a proper game before. Other reasons are the inclusion of the rather unnecessary multiplayer mode, a change in Batman and Joker's voice actors, and in rarer instances the change of pace and tone of the story compared to the previous entries. And yet almost none of that was a problem to me.
This game plays very similarly to its predecessor. The combat feels pretty much the same, although with slight improvements in fluidity, and with the addition of the shock gloves. The stealth gameplay is similar but has some new options thanks to new gadgets. Speaking of which, the gadgets are probably the best of the series up to this point. It's funny how in a story set very early on Bruce's career as the Bat it's where Batman feels the strongest he's ever been, and with all his might and versatile arsenal, I dare say this is the most fun game gameplay-wise from the franchise so far.
And for a bigger and better toy box, there must be a bigger sandbox. This game more than doubles the map size from Arkham City, but at the same time it's a little less "dense" than City is, activities and collectibles are more spread out. Speaking of collectibles, which were one of my few complaints about City due to sheer volume, Origins turns the dial down a bit in both difficulty to obtain them and to find them. With that, I made sure to get every one of them. The other world activities such as murder investigations (More on them below), crimes in progress and sidequests were great too, also made sure to do them all.
One of Batman's many aliases is "the world's greatest detective", but previous games barely did justice to that. In Asylum, you would - at most - follow a trail of something around the asylum. In City, there were some very simple deductions Batman would make, like following a bullet trail. In Origins however, Batman is a proper detective. You analyze a crime scene step by step to discover the truth, and reconstruct the crime to help with deduction. After determining the killer's ID, you go after them to bring them to justice. This is one of my favorite aspects of this game, which I greatly missed in Asylum and City.
As for the story, it is not better or worse than City's (Though I believe both Origins and City are superior to Asylum in that regard), but a sidestep. City had a grand spanning, super high stakes adventure, with all the most dangerous enemies from Batman's rogue gallery. Meanwhile Origins is slower paced, as Batman unfolds a scheme that is putting him and Gotham in danger, and he must stop it. It also serves - as expected from an origin story - as the introduction to Batman for some of his most well known nemeses, such as the Riddler, the Penguin, Bane, Harley, and of course the Joker (More on some of them later), and his initial relationship with his biggest allies, like Alfred, Captain Gordon and his daughter. Not only that, but it introduces to the Arkham series some of the missing (And for some of them, lesser known) villains, such as Anarky, Shiva, Deathstroke and Firefly. This is my personal favorite story from the series so far, but that is down to personal preference, as City's narrative is also great and on par in terms of quality. I just love the more grounded feel compared to Asylum and City, having gangsters and a few supercriminals as antagonists instead of superhuman threats (Like Ivy or Ra's Al Ghul in Asylum and City respectively).
From the entire cast of villains in this game, some of them absolutely shine bright above the rest, in no specific order. First one is the most obvious of them, the Joker, but he also was a highlight in the previous games, and as a character that very much has a soul on itself, it's no surprise that he's great here too (A wonderful performance from Troy Baker in Mark Hamill's place). Second one is Enigma, the first moniker to the man who would become the Riddler. Here, instead of riddle addicted sociopath, Enigma is a highly skilled egomaniac hacker that wishes to uproot Gotham's institutions through blackmail and data theft. I really like this version of him, it has all of the defining characteristics from the Riddler proper while also adding some new flavor to him as a character and to the gameplay loop in the form of radio towers and network relays. And last but not least, Bane. This is one of the best renditions of Bane, it really shows he's much more than just a meathead, he's a master tactician that coordinated moving an entire mercenary band into Gotham and managed to do what almost no other character could (No spoilers!).
Visually, keep in mind that this is a 2013 game, so a very late but still 7th gen game. Either way, it looks pretty good even to this day (Except for facial animations), and it's a very impressive work considering the consoles it was made for (Quick sidenote, but it's unfortunate how this game is stuck in the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U), the character models and their clothing are great, especially Batman's suit. The art style in this game is grayer, less colorful than the previous game. This is not necessarily a negative, it's down to preference, and I think it fits with the darker tone of the game overall. Other than that, not much to add. As for the soundtrack and sound design, it's just as good as its predecessor, maybe a tiny bit crispier, but overall very similar.
Batman: Arkham Origins remains - rather controversially - as my favorite Arkham game. It plays better than City, has a more grounded story which shows how the current dynamic of Gotham's heroes and villains came to be, and it is better in the technical aspects. I also played the DLC for the first time, I didn't even know this game had DLC, and in my opinion it is MUCH better than Harley's Revenge in every aspect. I don't think Origins is enough of a jump in quality to justify giving a different score than City, but whether City or Origins is better is down to preference in my opinion. Once again, a must play for Batman fans, and a very good offering if you like action adventure games.
SCORE: 9/10
This game is unfortunately very underrated, with much more lower end scores than it deserves, and there's a couple of reasons for that. First, this wasn't made by Rocksteady, but instead Warner Montreal. They also recycled some things from Arkham City, which is understandable in its short development time from a studio that had not made a proper game before. Other reasons are the inclusion of the rather unnecessary multiplayer mode, a change in Batman and Joker's voice actors, and in rarer instances the change of pace and tone of the story compared to the previous entries. And yet almost none of that was a problem to me.
This game plays very similarly to its predecessor. The combat feels pretty much the same, although with slight improvements in fluidity, and with the addition of the shock gloves. The stealth gameplay is similar but has some new options thanks to new gadgets. Speaking of which, the gadgets are probably the best of the series up to this point. It's funny how in a story set very early on Bruce's career as the Bat it's where Batman feels the strongest he's ever been, and with all his might and versatile arsenal, I dare say this is the most fun game gameplay-wise from the franchise so far.
And for a bigger and better toy box, there must be a bigger sandbox. This game more than doubles the map size from Arkham City, but at the same time it's a little less "dense" than City is, activities and collectibles are more spread out. Speaking of collectibles, which were one of my few complaints about City due to sheer volume, Origins turns the dial down a bit in both difficulty to obtain them and to find them. With that, I made sure to get every one of them. The other world activities such as murder investigations (More on them below), crimes in progress and sidequests were great too, also made sure to do them all.
One of Batman's many aliases is "the world's greatest detective", but previous games barely did justice to that. In Asylum, you would - at most - follow a trail of something around the asylum. In City, there were some very simple deductions Batman would make, like following a bullet trail. In Origins however, Batman is a proper detective. You analyze a crime scene step by step to discover the truth, and reconstruct the crime to help with deduction. After determining the killer's ID, you go after them to bring them to justice. This is one of my favorite aspects of this game, which I greatly missed in Asylum and City.
As for the story, it is not better or worse than City's (Though I believe both Origins and City are superior to Asylum in that regard), but a sidestep. City had a grand spanning, super high stakes adventure, with all the most dangerous enemies from Batman's rogue gallery. Meanwhile Origins is slower paced, as Batman unfolds a scheme that is putting him and Gotham in danger, and he must stop it. It also serves - as expected from an origin story - as the introduction to Batman for some of his most well known nemeses, such as the Riddler, the Penguin, Bane, Harley, and of course the Joker (More on some of them later), and his initial relationship with his biggest allies, like Alfred, Captain Gordon and his daughter. Not only that, but it introduces to the Arkham series some of the missing (And for some of them, lesser known) villains, such as Anarky, Shiva, Deathstroke and Firefly. This is my personal favorite story from the series so far, but that is down to personal preference, as City's narrative is also great and on par in terms of quality. I just love the more grounded feel compared to Asylum and City, having gangsters and a few supercriminals as antagonists instead of superhuman threats (Like Ivy or Ra's Al Ghul in Asylum and City respectively).
From the entire cast of villains in this game, some of them absolutely shine bright above the rest, in no specific order. First one is the most obvious of them, the Joker, but he also was a highlight in the previous games, and as a character that very much has a soul on itself, it's no surprise that he's great here too (A wonderful performance from Troy Baker in Mark Hamill's place). Second one is Enigma, the first moniker to the man who would become the Riddler. Here, instead of riddle addicted sociopath, Enigma is a highly skilled egomaniac hacker that wishes to uproot Gotham's institutions through blackmail and data theft. I really like this version of him, it has all of the defining characteristics from the Riddler proper while also adding some new flavor to him as a character and to the gameplay loop in the form of radio towers and network relays. And last but not least, Bane. This is one of the best renditions of Bane, it really shows he's much more than just a meathead, he's a master tactician that coordinated moving an entire mercenary band into Gotham and managed to do what almost no other character could (No spoilers!).
Visually, keep in mind that this is a 2013 game, so a very late but still 7th gen game. Either way, it looks pretty good even to this day (Except for facial animations), and it's a very impressive work considering the consoles it was made for (Quick sidenote, but it's unfortunate how this game is stuck in the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U), the character models and their clothing are great, especially Batman's suit. The art style in this game is grayer, less colorful than the previous game. This is not necessarily a negative, it's down to preference, and I think it fits with the darker tone of the game overall. Other than that, not much to add. As for the soundtrack and sound design, it's just as good as its predecessor, maybe a tiny bit crispier, but overall very similar.
Batman: Arkham Origins remains - rather controversially - as my favorite Arkham game. It plays better than City, has a more grounded story which shows how the current dynamic of Gotham's heroes and villains came to be, and it is better in the technical aspects. I also played the DLC for the first time, I didn't even know this game had DLC, and in my opinion it is MUCH better than Harley's Revenge in every aspect. I don't think Origins is enough of a jump in quality to justify giving a different score than City, but whether City or Origins is better is down to preference in my opinion. Once again, a must play for Batman fans, and a very good offering if you like action adventure games.
SCORE: 9/10
I do recall finishing this game, but other than that I don't remember much of anything besides the premise. It's a pretty game with a nice soundtrack, to that I can attest. I also remember enjoying it, but since I can't give a proper review, I won't be giving a score to this
As a Batman enjoyer, I always wanted to play this game, seeing how much praise it got. Finally, after getting my hands on every Batman Arkham game (With the exception of Blackgate), I had the chance. But I chose to play them in release order, starting with Arkham Asylum, which put Rocksteady on the map as a studio to keep an eye on and was a very cool game in my opinion. And only 2 years later they would put out a game to rival Skyrim as the game with the most accolades of 2011, and even after almost 13 years it's very easy to see why: This is one of the best superhero games ever made, and with the exception of visuals, it hasn't aged a day.
Asylum had an open-ish map, which was mostly used for traversal between the asylum's buildings. It was cool to see it evolve as the events of the story unfolded, but it wasn't really meant to be explored in detail. This time however, a whole section of Gotham City has been converted into a super-prision, Arkham City, giving the player an actual open world this time. The map is full of challenges and secrets, being a step up from the "means to an end" asylum. Mechanically, it plays almost exactly like its predecessor: The combat feels very similar (General feel has improved as systems got more refined) with some new moves, there's a couple of new gadgets, there's still collectibles and riddles all around the place (More on that later)... But that's only if we're talking about Batman, because this game introduces new playable characters: Catwoman in the main story, and Robin in the DLC. In terms of combat, they basically play the same as Batman, with different animations of course to reflect their respective fighting styles, but they have their own unique tricks up their sleeves, adding new flavor to the game. I feel like they could've been used more, but it's a Batman game, of course we'll be Batman for most of the time.
Part of what adds so much to this game are the things you can do between story missions, the two main activities being collecting riddles/trophies, and sidequests. This time, Riddler is much more proactive and made sure to spread hundreds of collectibles all over the map, each one with a challenge related to your gadgets, skills, and deduction abilities. This is a logical step up from the first game, and they're pretty cool, however I believe there's a little too many of them, I don't think I got even close to half of it. On the other hand, I couldn't get enough of the sidequests. Each one of them will have you facing or sometimes helping villains from the rogue gallery, be it by tracking their positions, stealth engagements, search & destroy missions, and more. If not for these, it would've been a pretty short game, maybe even like an hour or so shorter than Asylum, and they're one of the best parts of this game.
But it's not like the main story isn't good, on the contrary, it's better than Asylum's. This time, the stakes are much higher, and it's not just Joker that Batman has to worry about. Here, as part of the main story, you'll deal with many villains that didn't show up in the previous game, and also some returning ones. I dare say that, at least in video games, it's Batman's most dangerous and high stakes adventure, Bruce's own life is on the line, and as a race against time it makes sense that the story never slowed down, and never got boring. It still follows that same comic book vibe from Asylum, and mixes the most scientific aspects of Batman with the more mystical ones. For people that like Batman stories, this will be fantastic.
Visually, this game looks quite a lot better than Asylum, which is kind of impressive considering they were released only two years apart and within the same console generation. Of course, it's dated by today's standards graphically, it's not fair to judge it based on that. But the art style and the general vibe they went with is part of why I said it didn't age a day, Rocksteady captured the essence of how a Batman story of this type should be like, dark and gloomy but with lots of colors in contrast with it all.
As for the sound design, I'd say it's better (Or at least I like it more) than in Asylum. The soundtrack is perfect at every moment, it adds so much to the experience and Batman feel that I can't imagine myself playing this game on mute. Stalking henchmen from gargoyles and having the music ramp up when you take them down is a feeling that hasn't been replicated in other superhero games other than the ones from the Arkham series. Even the more minor sound effects will probably stick with you just like they did to me, like batarangs, the batclaw, opening vents, etc.
Batman: Arkham City was a massive achievement for Rocksteady, for Batman, and for superhero video games in general, one that would inevitably be very hard to follow up on (Although, controversially, I do believe the next Arkham game did it justice). It's not flawless, but I had a great time with it, and it just made me even more hyped for my Arkham Origins replay, my first in about 4 or 5 years. Just like Arkham Asylum, if you like action adventure games and is a Batman fan, this is a must play.
SCORE: 9/10
Asylum had an open-ish map, which was mostly used for traversal between the asylum's buildings. It was cool to see it evolve as the events of the story unfolded, but it wasn't really meant to be explored in detail. This time however, a whole section of Gotham City has been converted into a super-prision, Arkham City, giving the player an actual open world this time. The map is full of challenges and secrets, being a step up from the "means to an end" asylum. Mechanically, it plays almost exactly like its predecessor: The combat feels very similar (General feel has improved as systems got more refined) with some new moves, there's a couple of new gadgets, there's still collectibles and riddles all around the place (More on that later)... But that's only if we're talking about Batman, because this game introduces new playable characters: Catwoman in the main story, and Robin in the DLC. In terms of combat, they basically play the same as Batman, with different animations of course to reflect their respective fighting styles, but they have their own unique tricks up their sleeves, adding new flavor to the game. I feel like they could've been used more, but it's a Batman game, of course we'll be Batman for most of the time.
Part of what adds so much to this game are the things you can do between story missions, the two main activities being collecting riddles/trophies, and sidequests. This time, Riddler is much more proactive and made sure to spread hundreds of collectibles all over the map, each one with a challenge related to your gadgets, skills, and deduction abilities. This is a logical step up from the first game, and they're pretty cool, however I believe there's a little too many of them, I don't think I got even close to half of it. On the other hand, I couldn't get enough of the sidequests. Each one of them will have you facing or sometimes helping villains from the rogue gallery, be it by tracking their positions, stealth engagements, search & destroy missions, and more. If not for these, it would've been a pretty short game, maybe even like an hour or so shorter than Asylum, and they're one of the best parts of this game.
But it's not like the main story isn't good, on the contrary, it's better than Asylum's. This time, the stakes are much higher, and it's not just Joker that Batman has to worry about. Here, as part of the main story, you'll deal with many villains that didn't show up in the previous game, and also some returning ones. I dare say that, at least in video games, it's Batman's most dangerous and high stakes adventure, Bruce's own life is on the line, and as a race against time it makes sense that the story never slowed down, and never got boring. It still follows that same comic book vibe from Asylum, and mixes the most scientific aspects of Batman with the more mystical ones. For people that like Batman stories, this will be fantastic.
Visually, this game looks quite a lot better than Asylum, which is kind of impressive considering they were released only two years apart and within the same console generation. Of course, it's dated by today's standards graphically, it's not fair to judge it based on that. But the art style and the general vibe they went with is part of why I said it didn't age a day, Rocksteady captured the essence of how a Batman story of this type should be like, dark and gloomy but with lots of colors in contrast with it all.
As for the sound design, I'd say it's better (Or at least I like it more) than in Asylum. The soundtrack is perfect at every moment, it adds so much to the experience and Batman feel that I can't imagine myself playing this game on mute. Stalking henchmen from gargoyles and having the music ramp up when you take them down is a feeling that hasn't been replicated in other superhero games other than the ones from the Arkham series. Even the more minor sound effects will probably stick with you just like they did to me, like batarangs, the batclaw, opening vents, etc.
Batman: Arkham City was a massive achievement for Rocksteady, for Batman, and for superhero video games in general, one that would inevitably be very hard to follow up on (Although, controversially, I do believe the next Arkham game did it justice). It's not flawless, but I had a great time with it, and it just made me even more hyped for my Arkham Origins replay, my first in about 4 or 5 years. Just like Arkham Asylum, if you like action adventure games and is a Batman fan, this is a must play.
SCORE: 9/10
Hellblade 2 is probably one of the most divisive games in recent years, rivaling Death Stranding (A fitting comparison in more ways than just reception). There is an almost equal proportion of scores above 9 and below 7.5 if you check review aggregates, and not that many scores between 8 and 9. And after finishing this game, I can understand why things are like that, and I have picked my side: I love it!
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea about anything Hellblade related. I knew the trailers looked gorgeous and that Senua had voices in her head, that's about it. Then I played the first game, which was a big positive surprise for me, as I'm a very gameplay inclined person over story and narrative. With everything fresh in my mind and tempered expectations (Expectations are part of why I think it's a very divisive game), I had a wonderful time with this game, and it hit me much harder than the first one.
Starting with one of the biggest reasons I've seen people complaining: The gameplay. Outside of combat, it plays exactly like its predecessor, it's not an exaggeration to call it a "walking simulator" (People like to use that with a negative connotation, which it isn't). This time however there is better puzzle variety, which was one of my complaints for the first game. The rune perspective puzzles are still here, but there's also light puzzles and reality shift puzzles. They are overall easier than in the first game, which is not really a problem, just a fact (Actually, the whole game is easier including combat, more on that later). There are more collectibles too besides the lorestones, which encourages you to pay more attention to the environment.
The combat in this game is not exactly the same as in the first game, but also not really a downgrade or upgrade. It's a sidestep, a change in direction, it serves a different purpose than it did in Senua's Sacrifice. For example, this time there won't be multiple enemies attacking you at once, but each duel feels much more involved. That, along with visual and story aspects, makes it evident that Ninja Theory's vision for this game was a cinematic masterpiece, with presentation above all else. In comparison to the first game, HB2 has better enemy variety (Another one of my complaints with the original), and each one of them has more attack patterns. The animations are fantastic, and you can see each face expression in detail. It's harder to make perfect parries (Which was very easy in the original), but windows to hit enemies are more generous. Most important of all, in my opinion, is that the hits and impacts are even more noticeable. For as simple mechanically as the combat is, it feels amazing, you could make an entire game with duels like these.
I can understand why some people don't like it, for the same reasons as some people wouldn't like the combat in the original: It's not flashy, there's no move variety or skills, and now you only fight one enemy at a time. Add that with unrealistic expectations, and you'll understand the disappointment. But that's not the point of this game or this combat system, this is a narrative game first and foremost, and the combat is meant to support that. Hellblade 2, and Senua's Sacrifice for that matter, are better paired with games from Telltale or QuanticDream, they're interactive narrative experiences, it just so happens that Hellblade is more interactive than games from these studios, falling in an uncanny valley between a full action game and a full story game. To me, that's a positive, I consider it a full story game but more involved gameplay-wise (Which is great as a gameplay-centric gamer), but I understand why people wouldn't like or know where to place their expectations.
But what is a narrative game without its story? It seems that even this has become a reason for disagreement, but it's easy to explain why. Senua's Sacrifice story was almost entirely laid out for the player, with not a whole lot left for interpretation. It was also much more personal, it was all about Senua. Hellblade 2, however, is a much more allegorical game, the player must think and interpret what each aspect of it means, and what are the messages Ninja Theory wanted to send. There's also the fact that, contrary to the original, Senua isn't physically alone this time (Metaphorically, she's never truly "alone"), we have companion NPCs that will share Senua's journey.
By leaving a lot of the story and set pieces up for the player to figure their meaning, it's not only possible but likely that many things flew right past these players. Without them, this game would be an incohesive dark fantasy, a weird sequel for Hellblade, but that's not what this game is. By the end, I was a lot more invested than in the original, because while Senua's Sacrifice was a very personal story about grief, acceptance and internal darkness, none of it really resonated with me, I couldn't relate to any of that. To me, Hellblade 2 was much more relatable and beautiful, and while I think it would've benefited from having an extra hour or so, Ninja Theory was able to craft a logical sequel in terms of meaning and message for Senua's Sacrifice.
As mentioned, Senua isn't alone this time, three other people are following her. I won't go into much detail to avoid spoilers, but while they're all good, only one of them really shines besides Senua. The other two clearly have more going on for them than what we know, based on a specific section of the game, but not a lot is shown (We're playing from Senua's POV after all), their purpose is mostly to help push the message of the game by how Senua interacts with them. It makes them feel a little disconnected from things, but thankfully not enough to be a major narrative issue. As for the character that does match well, he's fantastic, and to me one of the main vehicles for the narrative, can't say more without spoiling. The acting from these characters is superb, no matter how fitting characters are or not, with Melina Juergens once again showing unbelievable talent, especially from someone without an acting background.
The only indisputable, and probably best aspect of this game, is the technical quality. This game is a technical masterpiece. Visually, this may be the best looking (As in photorealistic) game so far, it uses everything Unreal Engine 5 has to offer to a masterful degree. It's almost as if the entire game is a top tier CGI, some parts bordering live action. They also implemented a robust Photo Mode, which is a feature I rarely engage with in other games, but I couldn't avoid it this time, even if it was mostly just to check textures and characters from up close. The lighting is also impeccable, and it adds a lot to the set pieces. But it's not just about textures and lighting, the art direction is amazing, and a big improvement compared to the grayscale of the first game. Couple that with the top tier animations and cinematic camera, and the presentation becomes the strongest I've seen in a game in years.
And even with all that, somehow they made it perform very smoothly. My PC is a mid range build, and even at max settings with DLSS Balanced I was able to play one of the best looking games ever with over 60fps, and the effects of DLSS were barely noticeable. At its worst, there was a moment in which the frames dropped to 45fps, and I didn't notice it, it felt equally as smooth and responsive. I even tested it at 30fps to see how it'd be, and it was probably the smoothest 30fps I've ever seen. It's the kind of black magic I'd expect from The Coalition, and now Ninja Theory has proved that they are as competent.
And just like in the original, you cannot mention the technical aspects of Hellblade without mentioning the sound design, and the sequel managed to be even more of an achievement in that regard. The quality of individual sound effects, ambience, the Furies and mixing is unbelievable. Examples being hearing Senua's sword scrape the walls as she crawls, or when at a certain point of the game I heard steps moving behind me, and I actually turned around in real life to see what was there. The soundtrack is also a lot more noticeable and relevant this time around, carrying a heavier emotional weight and sometimes being synchronized to the set piece.
Both Hellblade games, the sequel more than the original, are not the kind of games to be appreciated by everyone. It is, at its core, a very hit or miss experience, dependent on your appreciation of the gameplay and understanding/personal impact of the story. If it hits, which for me it did, Hellblade 2 is nothing short of a masterpiece. If it doesn't, then it'll be a decent experience at best. And you can only gauge your enjoyment by playing it, which is why I recommend playing the first game to see if this is the kind of game for you. Knowing my own tastes, I thought there was no way I'd enjoy something like Hellblade, and yet it hooked me. I wish this game was longer, it took me a little less than 7 hours to finish it (Got about 75% of collectibles), the ending is a little sudden but also a decent setup for a sequel. If you liked Senua's Sacrifice, chances are you'll like Hellblade 2, but it's important to keep in mind that it's a cinematic game above all else, and not a God of War-like as some people expected (And then went on to call this a disappointment, or in the most egregious cases, "A Make-A-Wish kid that wanted to be in GoW"). Regardless of the weirdly negative reception of some parties, I believe this game is a massive achievement for Ninja Theory, Xbox - and when it comes to technical aspects - the games industry in general, and even though it's been only a couple of days since I've finished it, I already want to play it again, and to discuss my interpretations and feelings about the story.
SCORE: 9.5/10
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea about anything Hellblade related. I knew the trailers looked gorgeous and that Senua had voices in her head, that's about it. Then I played the first game, which was a big positive surprise for me, as I'm a very gameplay inclined person over story and narrative. With everything fresh in my mind and tempered expectations (Expectations are part of why I think it's a very divisive game), I had a wonderful time with this game, and it hit me much harder than the first one.
Starting with one of the biggest reasons I've seen people complaining: The gameplay. Outside of combat, it plays exactly like its predecessor, it's not an exaggeration to call it a "walking simulator" (People like to use that with a negative connotation, which it isn't). This time however there is better puzzle variety, which was one of my complaints for the first game. The rune perspective puzzles are still here, but there's also light puzzles and reality shift puzzles. They are overall easier than in the first game, which is not really a problem, just a fact (Actually, the whole game is easier including combat, more on that later). There are more collectibles too besides the lorestones, which encourages you to pay more attention to the environment.
The combat in this game is not exactly the same as in the first game, but also not really a downgrade or upgrade. It's a sidestep, a change in direction, it serves a different purpose than it did in Senua's Sacrifice. For example, this time there won't be multiple enemies attacking you at once, but each duel feels much more involved. That, along with visual and story aspects, makes it evident that Ninja Theory's vision for this game was a cinematic masterpiece, with presentation above all else. In comparison to the first game, HB2 has better enemy variety (Another one of my complaints with the original), and each one of them has more attack patterns. The animations are fantastic, and you can see each face expression in detail. It's harder to make perfect parries (Which was very easy in the original), but windows to hit enemies are more generous. Most important of all, in my opinion, is that the hits and impacts are even more noticeable. For as simple mechanically as the combat is, it feels amazing, you could make an entire game with duels like these.
I can understand why some people don't like it, for the same reasons as some people wouldn't like the combat in the original: It's not flashy, there's no move variety or skills, and now you only fight one enemy at a time. Add that with unrealistic expectations, and you'll understand the disappointment. But that's not the point of this game or this combat system, this is a narrative game first and foremost, and the combat is meant to support that. Hellblade 2, and Senua's Sacrifice for that matter, are better paired with games from Telltale or QuanticDream, they're interactive narrative experiences, it just so happens that Hellblade is more interactive than games from these studios, falling in an uncanny valley between a full action game and a full story game. To me, that's a positive, I consider it a full story game but more involved gameplay-wise (Which is great as a gameplay-centric gamer), but I understand why people wouldn't like or know where to place their expectations.
But what is a narrative game without its story? It seems that even this has become a reason for disagreement, but it's easy to explain why. Senua's Sacrifice story was almost entirely laid out for the player, with not a whole lot left for interpretation. It was also much more personal, it was all about Senua. Hellblade 2, however, is a much more allegorical game, the player must think and interpret what each aspect of it means, and what are the messages Ninja Theory wanted to send. There's also the fact that, contrary to the original, Senua isn't physically alone this time (Metaphorically, she's never truly "alone"), we have companion NPCs that will share Senua's journey.
By leaving a lot of the story and set pieces up for the player to figure their meaning, it's not only possible but likely that many things flew right past these players. Without them, this game would be an incohesive dark fantasy, a weird sequel for Hellblade, but that's not what this game is. By the end, I was a lot more invested than in the original, because while Senua's Sacrifice was a very personal story about grief, acceptance and internal darkness, none of it really resonated with me, I couldn't relate to any of that. To me, Hellblade 2 was much more relatable and beautiful, and while I think it would've benefited from having an extra hour or so, Ninja Theory was able to craft a logical sequel in terms of meaning and message for Senua's Sacrifice.
As mentioned, Senua isn't alone this time, three other people are following her. I won't go into much detail to avoid spoilers, but while they're all good, only one of them really shines besides Senua. The other two clearly have more going on for them than what we know, based on a specific section of the game, but not a lot is shown (We're playing from Senua's POV after all), their purpose is mostly to help push the message of the game by how Senua interacts with them. It makes them feel a little disconnected from things, but thankfully not enough to be a major narrative issue. As for the character that does match well, he's fantastic, and to me one of the main vehicles for the narrative, can't say more without spoiling. The acting from these characters is superb, no matter how fitting characters are or not, with Melina Juergens once again showing unbelievable talent, especially from someone without an acting background.
The only indisputable, and probably best aspect of this game, is the technical quality. This game is a technical masterpiece. Visually, this may be the best looking (As in photorealistic) game so far, it uses everything Unreal Engine 5 has to offer to a masterful degree. It's almost as if the entire game is a top tier CGI, some parts bordering live action. They also implemented a robust Photo Mode, which is a feature I rarely engage with in other games, but I couldn't avoid it this time, even if it was mostly just to check textures and characters from up close. The lighting is also impeccable, and it adds a lot to the set pieces. But it's not just about textures and lighting, the art direction is amazing, and a big improvement compared to the grayscale of the first game. Couple that with the top tier animations and cinematic camera, and the presentation becomes the strongest I've seen in a game in years.
And even with all that, somehow they made it perform very smoothly. My PC is a mid range build, and even at max settings with DLSS Balanced I was able to play one of the best looking games ever with over 60fps, and the effects of DLSS were barely noticeable. At its worst, there was a moment in which the frames dropped to 45fps, and I didn't notice it, it felt equally as smooth and responsive. I even tested it at 30fps to see how it'd be, and it was probably the smoothest 30fps I've ever seen. It's the kind of black magic I'd expect from The Coalition, and now Ninja Theory has proved that they are as competent.
And just like in the original, you cannot mention the technical aspects of Hellblade without mentioning the sound design, and the sequel managed to be even more of an achievement in that regard. The quality of individual sound effects, ambience, the Furies and mixing is unbelievable. Examples being hearing Senua's sword scrape the walls as she crawls, or when at a certain point of the game I heard steps moving behind me, and I actually turned around in real life to see what was there. The soundtrack is also a lot more noticeable and relevant this time around, carrying a heavier emotional weight and sometimes being synchronized to the set piece.
Both Hellblade games, the sequel more than the original, are not the kind of games to be appreciated by everyone. It is, at its core, a very hit or miss experience, dependent on your appreciation of the gameplay and understanding/personal impact of the story. If it hits, which for me it did, Hellblade 2 is nothing short of a masterpiece. If it doesn't, then it'll be a decent experience at best. And you can only gauge your enjoyment by playing it, which is why I recommend playing the first game to see if this is the kind of game for you. Knowing my own tastes, I thought there was no way I'd enjoy something like Hellblade, and yet it hooked me. I wish this game was longer, it took me a little less than 7 hours to finish it (Got about 75% of collectibles), the ending is a little sudden but also a decent setup for a sequel. If you liked Senua's Sacrifice, chances are you'll like Hellblade 2, but it's important to keep in mind that it's a cinematic game above all else, and not a God of War-like as some people expected (And then went on to call this a disappointment, or in the most egregious cases, "A Make-A-Wish kid that wanted to be in GoW"). Regardless of the weirdly negative reception of some parties, I believe this game is a massive achievement for Ninja Theory, Xbox - and when it comes to technical aspects - the games industry in general, and even though it's been only a couple of days since I've finished it, I already want to play it again, and to discuss my interpretations and feelings about the story.
SCORE: 9.5/10
I've been pushing this game back further into my backlog for years now. I thought it wouldn't be to my liking, and I had heard that combat wasn't very good. But with Hellblade 2 on the horizon, I decided to give it a shot, both because I was already due for it and as a test to see if I should play the sequel. And as I found out, Ninja Theory had actually made something way beyond my expectations.
Reading comments from people online and hearing from some friends, I was expecting to dislike the gameplay, and as a "gameplay first" kind of guy, I wasn't looking forward to it. But once again, just as with ME: Andromeda, I have learned that the only way to get an accurate opinion about something is experiencing it yourself. Outside of the combat, the gameplay itself is very simple: You just move, look at and interact with things. The loop is also predictable for most of the game, most puzzles involve looking at runes from a certain angle. These puzzles are cool and not very difficult, but it gets a little repetitive by the end. If this was the entirety of the experience, while understandable considering it's a narrative focused game, I probably would've gotten bored eventually. Thankfully, the combat is good, much better than I thought, which I guess makes sense considering Ninja Theory's heritage as an action game studio.
I can understand why people wouldn't like it: It's not flashy, there's no move variety besides the basic action game stuff, and enemy variety is also a little lacking (If it had 3 or 4 other enemies it would've been perfect)... But it feels great. You can feel each hit landing, the weight behind the movements, the impact of a successful block, and so on. This all adds up to brutal encounters, which fits the theme for the series, as it was said in a recent documentary about Hellblade 2, "Senua isn't winning, she's surviving", and it's very engaging. The first time the Furies yelled at me saying "behind you!", it didn't occur to me that enemies could flank me, and all I had time to do was do a short quickstep to the right and watch as a sword barely missed Senua's head; it was after this encounter that this game hooked me for good, and it was a great use of what is probably the main gimmick of Hellblade.
Senua is a troubled individual. She suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, and has gone through deeply traumatic events throughout her life. She's not alone, but not in a good way; the Furies - voices in her head - are there in every step of the way, whispering into your ears. They often try to make Senua doubt herself, try to hurt her with their words, or make noise in general. Their presence are a highlight, not only are they useful for gameplay purposes, they add a lot to the immersion. With all of her troubles, Senua goes on a journey against her own darkness, and to save the soul of her lover. The story and especially the narrative are phenomenal, and it progresses steadily all the way to the end, it never drags. There's not much else to say besides giving it more praise.
Even as a 2018 game, and with some noticeable blurry textures here and there, Hellblade is still a looker. Both the graphics (I used ray tracing) and the art direction are great. It's a little "gray-ish" in most parts, but this ties into Senua's perception of the world, as colors get a lot more vibrant in flashback moments. Fantastic job for a relatively small studio before they were acquired by Microsoft. Visually, from promotional material, the sequel looks insanely good, let's see how that goes.
Given the nature of the gimmicks and combat, it's no surprise that this game has outstanding audio design. When it comes to music, it's fairly simple, it's there to serve as the background noise, but it's not bad. What really shines here are the sound effects and voice acting, the main example for both being the previously mentioned Furies. Ninja Theory used binaural audio to have them whispering and talking and screaming in your ears. Senua's performance is also scarily good, it's not every day that you see someone do such an impressive and probably realistic rendition of a character with issues such as Senua's.
It's unfortunate for such an experience to end soon, but its relative short size (9 hours to beat getting every Lorestone) worked to its favor, the story and puzzles probably would've felt dragged if it was longer. But what matters is that I loved this game. It's lacking in enemy and puzzle variety, but it makes up for it with everything else. If you enjoy narrative heavy games, this is perfect for you, and I cannot wait to put my hands on the sequel.
SCORE: 9/10
Reading comments from people online and hearing from some friends, I was expecting to dislike the gameplay, and as a "gameplay first" kind of guy, I wasn't looking forward to it. But once again, just as with ME: Andromeda, I have learned that the only way to get an accurate opinion about something is experiencing it yourself. Outside of the combat, the gameplay itself is very simple: You just move, look at and interact with things. The loop is also predictable for most of the game, most puzzles involve looking at runes from a certain angle. These puzzles are cool and not very difficult, but it gets a little repetitive by the end. If this was the entirety of the experience, while understandable considering it's a narrative focused game, I probably would've gotten bored eventually. Thankfully, the combat is good, much better than I thought, which I guess makes sense considering Ninja Theory's heritage as an action game studio.
I can understand why people wouldn't like it: It's not flashy, there's no move variety besides the basic action game stuff, and enemy variety is also a little lacking (If it had 3 or 4 other enemies it would've been perfect)... But it feels great. You can feel each hit landing, the weight behind the movements, the impact of a successful block, and so on. This all adds up to brutal encounters, which fits the theme for the series, as it was said in a recent documentary about Hellblade 2, "Senua isn't winning, she's surviving", and it's very engaging. The first time the Furies yelled at me saying "behind you!", it didn't occur to me that enemies could flank me, and all I had time to do was do a short quickstep to the right and watch as a sword barely missed Senua's head; it was after this encounter that this game hooked me for good, and it was a great use of what is probably the main gimmick of Hellblade.
Senua is a troubled individual. She suffers with schizophrenia and psychosis, and has gone through deeply traumatic events throughout her life. She's not alone, but not in a good way; the Furies - voices in her head - are there in every step of the way, whispering into your ears. They often try to make Senua doubt herself, try to hurt her with their words, or make noise in general. Their presence are a highlight, not only are they useful for gameplay purposes, they add a lot to the immersion. With all of her troubles, Senua goes on a journey against her own darkness, and to save the soul of her lover. The story and especially the narrative are phenomenal, and it progresses steadily all the way to the end, it never drags. There's not much else to say besides giving it more praise.
Even as a 2018 game, and with some noticeable blurry textures here and there, Hellblade is still a looker. Both the graphics (I used ray tracing) and the art direction are great. It's a little "gray-ish" in most parts, but this ties into Senua's perception of the world, as colors get a lot more vibrant in flashback moments. Fantastic job for a relatively small studio before they were acquired by Microsoft. Visually, from promotional material, the sequel looks insanely good, let's see how that goes.
Given the nature of the gimmicks and combat, it's no surprise that this game has outstanding audio design. When it comes to music, it's fairly simple, it's there to serve as the background noise, but it's not bad. What really shines here are the sound effects and voice acting, the main example for both being the previously mentioned Furies. Ninja Theory used binaural audio to have them whispering and talking and screaming in your ears. Senua's performance is also scarily good, it's not every day that you see someone do such an impressive and probably realistic rendition of a character with issues such as Senua's.
It's unfortunate for such an experience to end soon, but its relative short size (9 hours to beat getting every Lorestone) worked to its favor, the story and puzzles probably would've felt dragged if it was longer. But what matters is that I loved this game. It's lacking in enemy and puzzle variety, but it makes up for it with everything else. If you enjoy narrative heavy games, this is perfect for you, and I cannot wait to put my hands on the sequel.
SCORE: 9/10
It took me longer than I wanted to finally get my hands on all of the Batman Arkham games. Before this, I had only played Arkham Origins, so my only comparison point was a game that released years later and which I believe is fantastic, and I was afraid the whiplash would've been too big. Fortunately that wasn't the case.
Before I review the game itself however, I need to address technical issues. This is a 2009 (This version specifically from 2010) 7th gen game, and my experience with PC ports of games from that era - especially coming from not PC centric devs - is usually poor, and it was no different this time. After launching the game and getting to the "press start" menu, the game refused to recognize my controller. After extensive research, troubleshooting, messing with Steam controller settings, and a painful whole hour without any solutions, I saw a random comment in a 14 years old GameFAQs forum page that said it would only would only work for that user if he plugged his controller only after getting to the "press start" screen. It seemed so simple and stupid, but I was desperate and had nothing to lose. Lo and behold, it worked, and I had to unplug and reconnect my controller every time I launch the game. Troubleshooting took me so long I only had time to play 30 minutes that night. I also came across a softlocking bug, thankfully I didn't lose more than 10 minutes of progress as it was close to a checkpoint. I won't weigh these issues much on the final score because they're less related to the game itself and more so to the port itself, but they're still unfortunate and noteworthy.
You can very clearly see how this game is the blueprint for every other Arkham game, it's impressive how much mechanically was already here coming from Origins, so much so that right when the action and stealth started I immediately knew what to do. You got the freeflow combat, the flight, the stealth takedowns, and more. Sure, it's missing some moves and gadgets that came later, but it was familiar from the get go, which goes to show just how well made every system is for them to be used in every subsequent game. I did find the camera to be weird at times, especially during the Scarecrow sequences, it was hard to correctly determine depth. Boss fights, with some exceptions, were repetitive, they copied the Bane fight and sprinkled it around. Animations are a bit stiff, but that's probably a problem of its time rather than lack of polish, as it can be seen in future games. Overall, it's a little dated, but it's not even close to unplayable.
The gameplay loop is simple: Go from A to B, hide from enemies, fight enemies, boss fights every now and then, rinse and repeat. It sounds bad when I oversimplify it, but it works, it's exactly how I imagine Batman's MO to be. And beyond that, there are also collectibles and riddles to solve, but I never went out of my way for them, only getting the ones that I could find where I needed to be. Of course, some more variation would be welcome, like Killer Croc's lair or Scarecrow nightmares. But overall, I never got bored, and things never stalled.
As for the story and narrative, characters and writing, I don't know if they consulted with external sources for it, but they nailed it. It feels exactly how a Batman story should, I could totally see this being a movie or animated show. Characters are all well written, especially the Joker (Hot take, I know), with a great dynamic with "B-Man". They managed to expand on Arkham Asylum's lore (As in the institution), and give us a tour through the facility. Another detail I liked was how the environment changed as you progressed, not only is it great environmental storytelling but also makes the world feel alive. I have nothing to complain here, it's a good Batman tale.
It's hard to judge this game by its visuals considering it's a 15 years old game. It never looked graphically bad, but it is dated. It probably looked good at the time, but I can't judge it properly. What I can judge is the art style and details, such as Batman's suit getting more damaged as the night progresses. The Asylum is a gloomy and sometimes creepy looking place, mixing high tech with an early 1900s architecture, and the infamous "piss filter" from 7th gen games is much less prevalent. Character designs are inspired by the originals, but manage to change them in ways that are still very fitting (Such as Harley, using something else instead of her skin suit).
The music is a little "shy", only making its presence known (Other than simply as background noise) at times, but it does its job. Sound effects are good, and the best way to describe them is "fitting", they sound on point for a superhero game, and most of them were the same (Or similar) to the ones in Origins, with them sounding a bit crispier in the latter as expected from a game that came 4 years later, but it goes to show how well they worked. Something weird with the audio however was specifically Batman's voice acting, as if the mic they used wasn't as good as the other characters.
It's easy to see why this was called "the best licensed (Or superhero) game ever" when it first released. Batman, Superman and Spider-Man are the biggest superheroes ever, and making a game worthy of these characters is no easy task, and yet this new studio, which had only made a riot response game beforehand, managed to make a better job than most studios at the time could dream of, they nailed it. I still prefer Origins, and it's not without its flaws, as I have made clear, but the positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot, even if a little dated. If you're a Batman fan, or simply a gamer that hasn't tried this yet, it's a must-play.
SCORE: 8.5/10
Before I review the game itself however, I need to address technical issues. This is a 2009 (This version specifically from 2010) 7th gen game, and my experience with PC ports of games from that era - especially coming from not PC centric devs - is usually poor, and it was no different this time. After launching the game and getting to the "press start" menu, the game refused to recognize my controller. After extensive research, troubleshooting, messing with Steam controller settings, and a painful whole hour without any solutions, I saw a random comment in a 14 years old GameFAQs forum page that said it would only would only work for that user if he plugged his controller only after getting to the "press start" screen. It seemed so simple and stupid, but I was desperate and had nothing to lose. Lo and behold, it worked, and I had to unplug and reconnect my controller every time I launch the game. Troubleshooting took me so long I only had time to play 30 minutes that night. I also came across a softlocking bug, thankfully I didn't lose more than 10 minutes of progress as it was close to a checkpoint. I won't weigh these issues much on the final score because they're less related to the game itself and more so to the port itself, but they're still unfortunate and noteworthy.
You can very clearly see how this game is the blueprint for every other Arkham game, it's impressive how much mechanically was already here coming from Origins, so much so that right when the action and stealth started I immediately knew what to do. You got the freeflow combat, the flight, the stealth takedowns, and more. Sure, it's missing some moves and gadgets that came later, but it was familiar from the get go, which goes to show just how well made every system is for them to be used in every subsequent game. I did find the camera to be weird at times, especially during the Scarecrow sequences, it was hard to correctly determine depth. Boss fights, with some exceptions, were repetitive, they copied the Bane fight and sprinkled it around. Animations are a bit stiff, but that's probably a problem of its time rather than lack of polish, as it can be seen in future games. Overall, it's a little dated, but it's not even close to unplayable.
The gameplay loop is simple: Go from A to B, hide from enemies, fight enemies, boss fights every now and then, rinse and repeat. It sounds bad when I oversimplify it, but it works, it's exactly how I imagine Batman's MO to be. And beyond that, there are also collectibles and riddles to solve, but I never went out of my way for them, only getting the ones that I could find where I needed to be. Of course, some more variation would be welcome, like Killer Croc's lair or Scarecrow nightmares. But overall, I never got bored, and things never stalled.
As for the story and narrative, characters and writing, I don't know if they consulted with external sources for it, but they nailed it. It feels exactly how a Batman story should, I could totally see this being a movie or animated show. Characters are all well written, especially the Joker (Hot take, I know), with a great dynamic with "B-Man". They managed to expand on Arkham Asylum's lore (As in the institution), and give us a tour through the facility. Another detail I liked was how the environment changed as you progressed, not only is it great environmental storytelling but also makes the world feel alive. I have nothing to complain here, it's a good Batman tale.
It's hard to judge this game by its visuals considering it's a 15 years old game. It never looked graphically bad, but it is dated. It probably looked good at the time, but I can't judge it properly. What I can judge is the art style and details, such as Batman's suit getting more damaged as the night progresses. The Asylum is a gloomy and sometimes creepy looking place, mixing high tech with an early 1900s architecture, and the infamous "piss filter" from 7th gen games is much less prevalent. Character designs are inspired by the originals, but manage to change them in ways that are still very fitting (Such as Harley, using something else instead of her skin suit).
The music is a little "shy", only making its presence known (Other than simply as background noise) at times, but it does its job. Sound effects are good, and the best way to describe them is "fitting", they sound on point for a superhero game, and most of them were the same (Or similar) to the ones in Origins, with them sounding a bit crispier in the latter as expected from a game that came 4 years later, but it goes to show how well they worked. Something weird with the audio however was specifically Batman's voice acting, as if the mic they used wasn't as good as the other characters.
It's easy to see why this was called "the best licensed (Or superhero) game ever" when it first released. Batman, Superman and Spider-Man are the biggest superheroes ever, and making a game worthy of these characters is no easy task, and yet this new studio, which had only made a riot response game beforehand, managed to make a better job than most studios at the time could dream of, they nailed it. I still prefer Origins, and it's not without its flaws, as I have made clear, but the positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot, even if a little dated. If you're a Batman fan, or simply a gamer that hasn't tried this yet, it's a must-play.
SCORE: 8.5/10
Keeping it short, I was enjoying it a lot, and it's a visual treat. But after finishing the first game - which was good but a little dragged out - and playing this at launch straight after, I was burned out and couldn't go on. I needed a break and ended up never returning, and I'm not sure I ever will, as I have other things to play. Very unfortunate, as it was great up until where I played, therefore I will not be making a review or giving it a score.
When I first saw this game, I knew I was gonna end up playing and enjoying it, and just as expected I did not fool myself. Little Kitty, Big City will most likely go down as 2024's cutest and most adorable game (And also totally the most realistic cat simulator ever made) if nothing else better comes, and I quite liked it!
The game is very simple in all aspects, including the premise: You're a little kitty napping in your home's window, when you suddenly slip off and tumble down into the city below, now you must find your way home... eventually! Since you're down here, why not explore the neighborhood and meet the animals that live there? As you can see, there's not really a narrative behind the story, only the final objective of returning home, and you can theoretically finish this as fast as you want to (Glitchless speedrun WR as of writing is a little over 6 minutes!), but then you'd miss out on all the fun parts of this game.
The gameplay loop's concept is something akin to Untitled Goose Game, but much more innocent and harmless. Geese are hellspawn craving for death, destruction and despair, a chaotic evil entity. In this, you just wanna help your animal friends and get back home... and maybe break a vase or twenty. This game is a 3D platformer, there's lots of climbing and jumping (As expected of a cat game), and I've seen people describe the controls as clunky but I'm not sure I'd call it that, it plays like I expected a cat game to play, and never had any issues. The map isn't very big, but there's a decent verticality to it, and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to explore completely.
As mentioned, there's only one real objective for the story: To go back home. But in your explorations, you'll meet other animals that will need your help, and these little sidequests are great motivators for you to explore and make mischief. In fact, if not for them and the achievements you can get while going around town, there would be no reason to play this game for more than an hour. Every character has their quirks, and just as expected they're also cute. Some people have said that they talk too much, but that honestly came as a surprise to me, most interactions were nice and never felt dragged out. Humans are present too, but you don't interact with them much, you can get some pets, make them angry, get the things they're carrying by tripping them, so on and so forth.
The more technical aspects of this game, such as visuals and sounds, are basic and do their job just fine. I like the art style, everything is colorful with no complex textures or geometry, the music is like elevator music/bossa nova to compliment the cozy vibes, and the sound effects/jingles have the same purpose. There were a couple of bugs though (One that stood out was chopped audio and sound artifacts when trying to use any audio setting that wasn't stereo), which is kinda weird for a game that seems so simple technically speaking.
This game is no GOTY contender. It takes some time to get used to the controls, it's a little too short even thoroughly exploring, and even more so if you don't feel like doing it (I explored as much as I could and was done in 5 hours), and can get a little grindy if you wanna get all achievements. But it does what it proposes very well: It is a chill, fun and cute experience, a perfectly cozy comfort game, and a great pick for when you need a break. I feel like people will generally rate this between a 7 and an 8, and I thought about giving it a middle of the road 7.5 given my enjoyment despite its shortcomings, but it's been nice enough for me to bump it up to the upper end of the scale.
SCORE: 8/10
The game is very simple in all aspects, including the premise: You're a little kitty napping in your home's window, when you suddenly slip off and tumble down into the city below, now you must find your way home... eventually! Since you're down here, why not explore the neighborhood and meet the animals that live there? As you can see, there's not really a narrative behind the story, only the final objective of returning home, and you can theoretically finish this as fast as you want to (Glitchless speedrun WR as of writing is a little over 6 minutes!), but then you'd miss out on all the fun parts of this game.
The gameplay loop's concept is something akin to Untitled Goose Game, but much more innocent and harmless. Geese are hellspawn craving for death, destruction and despair, a chaotic evil entity. In this, you just wanna help your animal friends and get back home... and maybe break a vase or twenty. This game is a 3D platformer, there's lots of climbing and jumping (As expected of a cat game), and I've seen people describe the controls as clunky but I'm not sure I'd call it that, it plays like I expected a cat game to play, and never had any issues. The map isn't very big, but there's a decent verticality to it, and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to explore completely.
As mentioned, there's only one real objective for the story: To go back home. But in your explorations, you'll meet other animals that will need your help, and these little sidequests are great motivators for you to explore and make mischief. In fact, if not for them and the achievements you can get while going around town, there would be no reason to play this game for more than an hour. Every character has their quirks, and just as expected they're also cute. Some people have said that they talk too much, but that honestly came as a surprise to me, most interactions were nice and never felt dragged out. Humans are present too, but you don't interact with them much, you can get some pets, make them angry, get the things they're carrying by tripping them, so on and so forth.
The more technical aspects of this game, such as visuals and sounds, are basic and do their job just fine. I like the art style, everything is colorful with no complex textures or geometry, the music is like elevator music/bossa nova to compliment the cozy vibes, and the sound effects/jingles have the same purpose. There were a couple of bugs though (One that stood out was chopped audio and sound artifacts when trying to use any audio setting that wasn't stereo), which is kinda weird for a game that seems so simple technically speaking.
This game is no GOTY contender. It takes some time to get used to the controls, it's a little too short even thoroughly exploring, and even more so if you don't feel like doing it (I explored as much as I could and was done in 5 hours), and can get a little grindy if you wanna get all achievements. But it does what it proposes very well: It is a chill, fun and cute experience, a perfectly cozy comfort game, and a great pick for when you need a break. I feel like people will generally rate this between a 7 and an 8, and I thought about giving it a middle of the road 7.5 given my enjoyment despite its shortcomings, but it's been nice enough for me to bump it up to the upper end of the scale.
SCORE: 8/10
2024
Dragon's Dogma 2 was one of my most awaited games ever. Being a massive fan of the original, I couldn't wait to see what they would bring back, what would stay behind, and what would change. Itsuno said this is what he envisioned when making DD1 but couldn't accomplish due to hardware, budget and time constraints. And after putting 101 hours in my first playthrough, I can safely say it's DD1 2.0, even the title screen only says "Dragon's Dogma" without a "2" for most of the time. Some people didn't like this at all, but it was just as expected for me, so I didn't mind. Let's break this game down.
Starting with the franchise's most important aspect, the thing that made DD1 stand the test of time: Gameplay. This entails not just the combat but also the enemies, mechanics, exploration, movement and etc. In summary, DD2 plays amazingly well, but there are some core changes compared to DD1. In the original, each class (With the exception of the Warrior) had access to 6 skills at a time, now everyone only has 4. Some classes aren't present, but new ones take their place. Enemy variety here is better than vanilla DD1 (May be hard to notice given how much more prevalent they are throughout the map), but worse than Dark Arisen. I could go on with the examples, but you get the idea.
The combat is very smooth, it manages to still feel like Dragon's Dogma while being different. For example, you can't be as brash while attacking as in DD1, as enemies may knock you out of your feet and stunlock you. A more careful and well thought approach is needed, besides quick reflexes. Most skills are useful and most classes are very fun (Some of them more than others, as expected), and they all offer different combat and tactics experiences from one another.
But most of the time you won't be fighting by yourself. Pawns, a staple feature from the first game, are back and better than ever, it's impressive how smart they are and how much they learn from your actions. Sure, they still yap a lot and there's still a lot of repetitive dialogue, but I found them more helpful in this game than they ever were in DD1. Everything else pertaining to them is also an improvement: Their voices are better, their actions and reactions when something happens to you, them talking amongst themselves, and more. All the trials and tribulations we went through made me get closer and care a lot more about them, and parting ways with pawns I liked was always a bummer. But even then, my main pawn never left my side, and became the character I liked the most in this game (Especially after the True Ending).
Part of what made grow closer to my pawns was the exploration, and not only is it a massive improvement over DD1, I'd argue it's this game's strongest aspect. The map is massive, full of secrets and little wonders, caves to explore, and amazing views. There are no loading screens during exploration (There's actually very little loading screens in general), so everything is seamless. There's also some environmental storytelling and warnings that make this all the more enjoyable. I will say, however, that it's a valid complaint to mention that rarely do you get good pieces of equipment from exploring, the best equipment in the game is bought from stores/vendors. But that didn't matter for me, because I liked the exploration itself, to see what was out there (Or in cases of caves, in there), and Seeker's Tokens were incentive enough for me (Got 106). Compared to DD1, there's more vegetation, settlements, dungeons, bodies of water, and more biome variety. You can even climb mountains with some careful movement.
And how did the movement change. The only thing both games kept mostly the same mechanically is the enemy climbing. Other than that, DD2 movement is much more impressive both from an animation and mechanical standpoint. Moments like a cyclops tripping and hanging on to a cliff like a bridge, or getting knocked back and falling over after hitting the back of your head on a wall are very cool. Some people took issue with sliding off slippery surfaces, but it was never annoying to me. And not only does everything look cool, but the controls are tight, and the movement tech for some classes (Mainly Thief and Mystic Spearhand) is crazy.
If you played DD1, you know how its story isn't exactly peak gaming. To me, it was mostly incoherent for the first half, and there's little buildup for the second half (Dark Arisen is pretty good though in that regard). I know this is because DD1 is unfinished, but it is what it is. DD2 overall was in my opinion (And this is apparently controversial) better, but not without compromises. Marketing for the game was misleading about what characters really matter, which created incorrect expectations to some people. Without spoilers, but I also feel like sidequests are MUCH more important if you want to enjoy and sometimes even care about the main quest and its characters, and some sidequests are also sometimes complicated and weird in regards to how to acquire them. The Dragon battle is also a lot less epic, in DD1 it was a massive setpiece and now it's merely a means to get to the endgame. The endgame area is great, not a huge fan of the time limit but it's good otherwise, feels like what vanilla DD1 wanted to achieve but actually realized, and as opposed to the rest of the game you can get some valuable equipment by exploring. I just wish it had more exclusive bosses and enemies, and an actual final boss setpiece instead of what is pretty much an interactive cutscene, but it's still a great finale in my opinion.
Expanding on the sidequests, overall they're better made than in DD1, but as mentioned some of them have weird conditions for you to get them. For example, having to visit a place two or three times after certain events, or eavesdropping a rumor but you need to hear it first before talking to the NPC it's related to otherwise you can't get it. But besides that, I think they provide great worldbuilding, and made me care about certain NPCs a lot more, which made the main quest itself better.
There's not a lot to say about the soundtrack and sound design other than it's great. The music in this game is very good, much like it was in the first one (However, I did miss having some vocal tracks like in DD1), and the sound design for effects, ambience, combat, enemies and everything else is fantastic. Voice acting is also better, especially from pawns.
Now onto the visuals. DD2 may not have the best graphics in the industry, but it still looks very good. The graphics and lighting are great but the game still retains the DD feel, which might be because of the art direction. Ray tracing in this game is very good, but unless if you have a beefy PC, I wouldn't recommend using it for your performance's sake. Of course designs in general would be better than the predecessor, but armor and enemy designs were impressive to me, especially from the returning pieces and fiends.
For as much as I enjoyed this game, it's not without flaws, beyond the already mentioned ones. First, there's the elephant in the room: Performance. It's not as bad as people said, but it's definitely below par, and should've been much better. The MTX issue was overblown and a lot of misinformation was spread, it's bad for single player games to have them, but pretty much every Capcom game has them, including the much beloved RE4 Remake. While I didn't experience any gameplay bugs, some quests did have weird bugs that, if not for weirder workarounds, could've become softlocked. The UI, both for gameplay and menus, are a downgrade from DD1, they look better but are functionally worse, and I miss things like a dedicated button for the items menu. The save system kinda sucks, even more than in DD1, and may put you in a tough spot. The story, while better, can end very suddenly if you rush the main quest, and you probably won't care or understand half of what's happening. Caves can be repetitive and not really offer treasure or thrills, realistically only about half of them are worth exploring for some reason or the other. Not sure if it's a major problem but there's no online boss like the Ur-Dragon, I kinda miss it. And lastly, not really an issue per se but I've seen some people that disliked the plague mechanic, and others that did like it, but I accidentally managed to avoid it entirely, I wouldn't know it existed if I hadn't found out about it online. There are other smaller things, but I don't think they're worth mentioning, and you get the point: It's a flawed game, much like the original, carried by how fun it is.
Dragon's Dogma 2 will go down as another personal favorite, which I'll surely replay eventually (It's a much bigger game than DD1, so I can't do yearly replays like with it), especially whenever its inevitable DLC releases. And comparing the two games, DD2 still feels like it's missing some things, and isn't really the fully idealized concept from Itsuno. I'd say it's better than vanilla DD1 by a long shot, but a little inferior to Dark Arisen, which only makes me more excited to see what they'll cook with the DLC. Do not be fooled, this isn't a game for everyone, I'd say it's probably easier to get someone into Elden Ring than this, but if it clicks for you, then it's going to be a whole lot of fun. A friend called this "the best 8.5/10 of all time", and he's not exactly wrong, it's a fantastic diamond in the rough, but personally my score is slightly higher.
SCORE: 9/10
Starting with the franchise's most important aspect, the thing that made DD1 stand the test of time: Gameplay. This entails not just the combat but also the enemies, mechanics, exploration, movement and etc. In summary, DD2 plays amazingly well, but there are some core changes compared to DD1. In the original, each class (With the exception of the Warrior) had access to 6 skills at a time, now everyone only has 4. Some classes aren't present, but new ones take their place. Enemy variety here is better than vanilla DD1 (May be hard to notice given how much more prevalent they are throughout the map), but worse than Dark Arisen. I could go on with the examples, but you get the idea.
The combat is very smooth, it manages to still feel like Dragon's Dogma while being different. For example, you can't be as brash while attacking as in DD1, as enemies may knock you out of your feet and stunlock you. A more careful and well thought approach is needed, besides quick reflexes. Most skills are useful and most classes are very fun (Some of them more than others, as expected), and they all offer different combat and tactics experiences from one another.
But most of the time you won't be fighting by yourself. Pawns, a staple feature from the first game, are back and better than ever, it's impressive how smart they are and how much they learn from your actions. Sure, they still yap a lot and there's still a lot of repetitive dialogue, but I found them more helpful in this game than they ever were in DD1. Everything else pertaining to them is also an improvement: Their voices are better, their actions and reactions when something happens to you, them talking amongst themselves, and more. All the trials and tribulations we went through made me get closer and care a lot more about them, and parting ways with pawns I liked was always a bummer. But even then, my main pawn never left my side, and became the character I liked the most in this game (Especially after the True Ending).
Part of what made grow closer to my pawns was the exploration, and not only is it a massive improvement over DD1, I'd argue it's this game's strongest aspect. The map is massive, full of secrets and little wonders, caves to explore, and amazing views. There are no loading screens during exploration (There's actually very little loading screens in general), so everything is seamless. There's also some environmental storytelling and warnings that make this all the more enjoyable. I will say, however, that it's a valid complaint to mention that rarely do you get good pieces of equipment from exploring, the best equipment in the game is bought from stores/vendors. But that didn't matter for me, because I liked the exploration itself, to see what was out there (Or in cases of caves, in there), and Seeker's Tokens were incentive enough for me (Got 106). Compared to DD1, there's more vegetation, settlements, dungeons, bodies of water, and more biome variety. You can even climb mountains with some careful movement.
And how did the movement change. The only thing both games kept mostly the same mechanically is the enemy climbing. Other than that, DD2 movement is much more impressive both from an animation and mechanical standpoint. Moments like a cyclops tripping and hanging on to a cliff like a bridge, or getting knocked back and falling over after hitting the back of your head on a wall are very cool. Some people took issue with sliding off slippery surfaces, but it was never annoying to me. And not only does everything look cool, but the controls are tight, and the movement tech for some classes (Mainly Thief and Mystic Spearhand) is crazy.
If you played DD1, you know how its story isn't exactly peak gaming. To me, it was mostly incoherent for the first half, and there's little buildup for the second half (Dark Arisen is pretty good though in that regard). I know this is because DD1 is unfinished, but it is what it is. DD2 overall was in my opinion (And this is apparently controversial) better, but not without compromises. Marketing for the game was misleading about what characters really matter, which created incorrect expectations to some people. Without spoilers, but I also feel like sidequests are MUCH more important if you want to enjoy and sometimes even care about the main quest and its characters, and some sidequests are also sometimes complicated and weird in regards to how to acquire them. The Dragon battle is also a lot less epic, in DD1 it was a massive setpiece and now it's merely a means to get to the endgame. The endgame area is great, not a huge fan of the time limit but it's good otherwise, feels like what vanilla DD1 wanted to achieve but actually realized, and as opposed to the rest of the game you can get some valuable equipment by exploring. I just wish it had more exclusive bosses and enemies, and an actual final boss setpiece instead of what is pretty much an interactive cutscene, but it's still a great finale in my opinion.
Expanding on the sidequests, overall they're better made than in DD1, but as mentioned some of them have weird conditions for you to get them. For example, having to visit a place two or three times after certain events, or eavesdropping a rumor but you need to hear it first before talking to the NPC it's related to otherwise you can't get it. But besides that, I think they provide great worldbuilding, and made me care about certain NPCs a lot more, which made the main quest itself better.
There's not a lot to say about the soundtrack and sound design other than it's great. The music in this game is very good, much like it was in the first one (However, I did miss having some vocal tracks like in DD1), and the sound design for effects, ambience, combat, enemies and everything else is fantastic. Voice acting is also better, especially from pawns.
Now onto the visuals. DD2 may not have the best graphics in the industry, but it still looks very good. The graphics and lighting are great but the game still retains the DD feel, which might be because of the art direction. Ray tracing in this game is very good, but unless if you have a beefy PC, I wouldn't recommend using it for your performance's sake. Of course designs in general would be better than the predecessor, but armor and enemy designs were impressive to me, especially from the returning pieces and fiends.
For as much as I enjoyed this game, it's not without flaws, beyond the already mentioned ones. First, there's the elephant in the room: Performance. It's not as bad as people said, but it's definitely below par, and should've been much better. The MTX issue was overblown and a lot of misinformation was spread, it's bad for single player games to have them, but pretty much every Capcom game has them, including the much beloved RE4 Remake. While I didn't experience any gameplay bugs, some quests did have weird bugs that, if not for weirder workarounds, could've become softlocked. The UI, both for gameplay and menus, are a downgrade from DD1, they look better but are functionally worse, and I miss things like a dedicated button for the items menu. The save system kinda sucks, even more than in DD1, and may put you in a tough spot. The story, while better, can end very suddenly if you rush the main quest, and you probably won't care or understand half of what's happening. Caves can be repetitive and not really offer treasure or thrills, realistically only about half of them are worth exploring for some reason or the other. Not sure if it's a major problem but there's no online boss like the Ur-Dragon, I kinda miss it. And lastly, not really an issue per se but I've seen some people that disliked the plague mechanic, and others that did like it, but I accidentally managed to avoid it entirely, I wouldn't know it existed if I hadn't found out about it online. There are other smaller things, but I don't think they're worth mentioning, and you get the point: It's a flawed game, much like the original, carried by how fun it is.
Dragon's Dogma 2 will go down as another personal favorite, which I'll surely replay eventually (It's a much bigger game than DD1, so I can't do yearly replays like with it), especially whenever its inevitable DLC releases. And comparing the two games, DD2 still feels like it's missing some things, and isn't really the fully idealized concept from Itsuno. I'd say it's better than vanilla DD1 by a long shot, but a little inferior to Dark Arisen, which only makes me more excited to see what they'll cook with the DLC. Do not be fooled, this isn't a game for everyone, I'd say it's probably easier to get someone into Elden Ring than this, but if it clicks for you, then it's going to be a whole lot of fun. A friend called this "the best 8.5/10 of all time", and he's not exactly wrong, it's a fantastic diamond in the rough, but personally my score is slightly higher.
SCORE: 9/10
For the first time since I've built my PC, I give up on playing a game I liked because of technical issues (I'm surprised it took this long). I can't give this a poor score because there's a pretty fun game here, but I also can't give it a good score because it's borderline unplayable, due to extremely long (Or infinite) loading screens, which for some reason require an internet connection, and even with a good connection they take forever so not on my end. With that in mind, I won't give this a score at all, but it's sad because I was enjoying it, probably would've given an 8/10 by the end.
2018
This game has done irreparable damage to the internet, but at least it's understandable why. Despite launching in 2018, it only really caught the internet off-guard in the following year. The fact that it was mostly free and available on mobile made it even more popular. As such, it was inevitable that everyone would try it at least once, and it was no different for me.
This is a social deception game, and as such, I very much recommend playing it with friends over random people. I won't explain how the gameplay goes, everyone knows it. There's no story too so that makes it even easier. The whole gameplay loop is fun but can get repetitive very quick, especially with the low amount of maps and extra gimmicks they've added over the years. Even then, while not as popular as it once was, this game is still played a lot and is still relevant to internet culture.
It's a good game, that's undeniable. But it gets samey, and a lot of times you won't have a good time playing it with randoms. It's still a go-to pick for a game to play with friends every now and then, but I think I had enough.
SCORE: 7/10
This is a social deception game, and as such, I very much recommend playing it with friends over random people. I won't explain how the gameplay goes, everyone knows it. There's no story too so that makes it even easier. The whole gameplay loop is fun but can get repetitive very quick, especially with the low amount of maps and extra gimmicks they've added over the years. Even then, while not as popular as it once was, this game is still played a lot and is still relevant to internet culture.
It's a good game, that's undeniable. But it gets samey, and a lot of times you won't have a good time playing it with randoms. It's still a go-to pick for a game to play with friends every now and then, but I think I had enough.
SCORE: 7/10
2022
I only played it for about 4 hours, but I think it's enough. I first learned of this game through Youtubers playing it on early access, then later it showed up at a couple of gaming events. Sometime after it came out of early access, Epic gave it away, so me and a few friends decided to give it a shot.
It's a simple but tried and true premise: Prop Hunt. However, with a Ghostbusters coat over it, as the hiders are ghosts with strange powers possessing objects to hide until midnight, when they get strong enough to attack the seekers, which are ghost hunters equipped to capture or destroy ghosts that must get them before midnight, lest hunter becomes prey.
I had fun playing it with friends, not so much solo. The skills and equipment are interesting, but sometimes things are too hard for ghost hunters, even with the gimmick that makes ghosts easier to detect if they stay put for too long (Ectoplasm meter building up, and automatic taunts every 30 or so seconds). For example, when playing as a ghost I used a skill that allowed me to see hunters in close proximity through walls, and whenever there wasn't anyone close I'd spam jump to lower the ectoplasm, and they couldn't find me even with the taunts since the meter was always low.
Despite the balancing, it's still a fun game with friends, and getting it for free made it even better, as I'm not sure I'd have paid for it. If you can get some people together to play it, it's a great "game night weekend" title, as long as you avoid getting or playing with sweaty players.
SCORE: 7/10
It's a simple but tried and true premise: Prop Hunt. However, with a Ghostbusters coat over it, as the hiders are ghosts with strange powers possessing objects to hide until midnight, when they get strong enough to attack the seekers, which are ghost hunters equipped to capture or destroy ghosts that must get them before midnight, lest hunter becomes prey.
I had fun playing it with friends, not so much solo. The skills and equipment are interesting, but sometimes things are too hard for ghost hunters, even with the gimmick that makes ghosts easier to detect if they stay put for too long (Ectoplasm meter building up, and automatic taunts every 30 or so seconds). For example, when playing as a ghost I used a skill that allowed me to see hunters in close proximity through walls, and whenever there wasn't anyone close I'd spam jump to lower the ectoplasm, and they couldn't find me even with the taunts since the meter was always low.
Despite the balancing, it's still a fun game with friends, and getting it for free made it even better, as I'm not sure I'd have paid for it. If you can get some people together to play it, it's a great "game night weekend" title, as long as you avoid getting or playing with sweaty players.
SCORE: 7/10
Velocity X was never my favorite Hot Wheels game. The driving feels kinda weird, the maps aren't all that interesting, and there are some weird elements in it that I'm not sure belong to a Hot Wheels game. Despite that, I still played it, and I still had a decent time.
Compared to other Hot Wheels games, this one has a more well-defined story. Not that I remember the details, but I recall there being an actual story, as simple as it may have been. I also remember thinking the last level and story conclusion were unsatisfying, but you'll have to play for yourself to check that for the story (As for the level, it's a simple and short sewers level, that's probably why I was disappointed). This story will take you to different places with multiple objectives, challenges and collectibles, and doing these will unlock new cars and weapons (Yes, there's weapons, that's what I meant about things I'm not sure belong to Hot Wheels games).
This game can be entertaining, but I never really thought of it as very fun, especially compared to the other Hot Wheels games I've played, and I deem this the weakest of them all. If you're specifically interested in Hot Wheels though, maybe play it for a while, it's not bad but also not great.
SCORE: 6/10
Compared to other Hot Wheels games, this one has a more well-defined story. Not that I remember the details, but I recall there being an actual story, as simple as it may have been. I also remember thinking the last level and story conclusion were unsatisfying, but you'll have to play for yourself to check that for the story (As for the level, it's a simple and short sewers level, that's probably why I was disappointed). This story will take you to different places with multiple objectives, challenges and collectibles, and doing these will unlock new cars and weapons (Yes, there's weapons, that's what I meant about things I'm not sure belong to Hot Wheels games).
This game can be entertaining, but I never really thought of it as very fun, especially compared to the other Hot Wheels games I've played, and I deem this the weakest of them all. If you're specifically interested in Hot Wheels though, maybe play it for a while, it's not bad but also not great.
SCORE: 6/10
Nostalgia can often cloud people's judgement and memory with rose-tinted glasses, and with this being a childhood game of mine, maybe I'm a little biased. Yet I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one that thinks that, compared to the many others cheap movie tie-in games from the early and mid 2000s, this is pretty decent and fun.
Sure, it has barely any connection to the Hot Wheels World Race movie gameplay-wise, the race tracks - although fun - are mostly from places that aren't even mentioned being part of Highway 35. But the teams, pilots and their cars are here, and the "story" (No cutscenes or anything, just a reason for progression) is under the same pretext of a race worth a million dollars and the title of best racer in the world, but without Gellorum, Racing Drone and Hot Wheels City. I know budget, scope and hardware wouldn't allow for more faithful recreations, but it's still weird to make a tie-in so loosely connected to the original product.
But as I said, it's fun. The tracks are cool (There's even alternate routes), the driving isn't bad, and they use music from the movie's soundtrack. It's a game meant for older kids, but still decently fun for a weekend. Don't think of this game as shovelware, it's worth some of your time.
SCORE: 6.5/10
Sure, it has barely any connection to the Hot Wheels World Race movie gameplay-wise, the race tracks - although fun - are mostly from places that aren't even mentioned being part of Highway 35. But the teams, pilots and their cars are here, and the "story" (No cutscenes or anything, just a reason for progression) is under the same pretext of a race worth a million dollars and the title of best racer in the world, but without Gellorum, Racing Drone and Hot Wheels City. I know budget, scope and hardware wouldn't allow for more faithful recreations, but it's still weird to make a tie-in so loosely connected to the original product.
But as I said, it's fun. The tracks are cool (There's even alternate routes), the driving isn't bad, and they use music from the movie's soundtrack. It's a game meant for older kids, but still decently fun for a weekend. Don't think of this game as shovelware, it's worth some of your time.
SCORE: 6.5/10