One thing that surprised me about this game was the faithfulness to the movies. It has been awhile since I have seen the first 2 films but I pretty much remembered everything as the game played out it was honestly a trip down memory lane. Sadly I wanted to give this a 3 and a half stars but I do have some issues that held it back for me. In addition , this is specifically for the xbox 360 version idk how the other versions fare.

The map is honestly big for its time and was fun to drive around in. For its time I honestly could have imagined that people were pretty impressed with the size of the map. Furthermore, the cars felt good to drive, drifting around the streets was consistently fun. There was a fair amount of guns to choose from but I will leave that for the dislike section. In addition, the gunplay was fun when it wanted to work but as well will get into this more in the dislike section. Everyone you loved and remembered from the movies is here and seeing the scenes playout again was a blast , they genuinely did a good job with the cutscenes with the game.

First and foremost the FPS in this game can go to abysmal levels. I know this was the era of 30FPS but I couldn’t even tell you the amount of times the game would freeze for full seconds while driving. This can be annoying during chase sequences since the enemy AI will literally glue onto you ALL the time even during the frame drops. This will translate into gun fights as things like explosives will make the FPS scatter around. On the topic the AI is extremely annoying with classic pinpoint accuracy, perfection detection and as mentioned will stick to you like glue while being chased in cars. It did hinder the immersion of a lot of sections since you are battling enemies and FPS at the same time on top of the annoying AI. Furthermore , while the map was big there really is not much to do around it. To explain, the content is repeated a lot so once you try most of what the map has to offer you have pretty much done it all. This becomes an issue if you want to 100% the map because to put it simply it's pretty boring to the point where I had to stop because I wasn’t having fun at all anymore. Speaking of not fun , while there are a good amount of guns to choose from the moment you realize the Tommy gun is OP and becomes insanely OP once you level up you literally will never use another weapon again.

In the end

I won’t lie, this game deserves a remake because if they could iron out the issues already present , add more onto the map and have the game run at a crispy 60FPS this game would be amazing. It's a bummer because I did enjoy this game a good amount but I cannot lie to myself that the issues did really hinder my time with it.

I knew absolutely nothing about this past seeing it on Capcom Arcade stadium and deciding to give it a spin. Very glad I decided because I had a very fun time with this game!. Later on we would get this title on the Sega genesis as Mercs and I am now very interested in trying out that version since it seems to have new levels.

This title plays very similar to Commando as you have a top down view , making your way up each map to a boss. It’s very simple but it's so much fun and the variety of weapons was an added bonus. Furthermore, I tried each weapon during my playthrough but ended up sticking with the flamethrower as I found it to be very Effective. Levels were short and bosses got the job done although I wish there was more to this game. In addition I found the difficulty to be fair enough during MOST of the levels but some bosses seemed very unfair to me.

In the end

While not anything game changing or amazing I still ended up having a fun enough time with this game. I am glad I got around to it after having Zero knowledge on its existence lol.

Never played strider before so I decided to change that ! having the capcom Arcade stadium collection I thought It would be a good way to experience this game for the first. With that being said I had a really good time and am excited to dig deeper into the series and play them all!.

The game is very simple but it works very well and will provide you with a good time. There aren’t many power ups besides getting a partner that will shoot orbs , Longer range on your sword swing and the many men strider mode as I like to call it. This isn’t really much of an issue however as each powerup is fun although I wish you had more chances to use many men mode. Furthermore, traversing through each level is fun as the movement feels very open ended since you can latch onto anything and climb your way through segments of each level. In addition , fighting was consistently fun hearing that SHING sound effect never got boring once and is honestly such a classic sound. Having such a short playthrough time there really isn’t much else to talk about with Strider , it is simply a good time that I do recommend if you have yet to dabble into the series.

While I enjoyed my time with the game I do have a few complaints that aren’t game ruining but will hinder certain segments of the game. First off, while the movement can be very fun it can also be VERY awkward as there were times I could clip through the level , miss jump and jump in the direction I did not intend to. Furthermore, there are downhills slopes in which you run fast as you walk down it but this can be annoying since certain points of stages may have enemies at the bottom pretty much making you take a hit for no reason. In addition to this , the boss pool really wasn’t memorable; they were all pretty basic besides the final boss which had a few cool ideas.

I am glad I finally got around to this title and am very excited to play more titles in it ! It's a classic for a reason. I was surprised to see how well the arcade game holds up. It honestly still looks great even in this generation. Highly recommend giving this one a playthrough !

The law always wins

I have always been curious about Judge Dredd for many years and was scrolling through my steam games and decided to boot this game up. For context, I didn’t watch any movies YET so I was just playing the game out of curiosity to see if it was any good. Sadly this game was not good AT all to the point I thought maybe watching the movie would help the experience. Booting up the original 95 film I was excited to finally dive face first into this world and……. It was one of the worst movies I have seen. After pondering to myself I got back to the game and finally finished and still had the same feeling at the end, it is such a boring game and bland game.

To put it simply the gunplay was VERY boring and had no impact as you shot enemies you never really felt like you were doing any damage. Furthermore, the levels give you objectives and side objectives to do each level but you literally don’t have any reason to worry about anything past the main objective so you will skip it. On the subject of skipping unless you are prompted to kill or arrest the enemies you can literally run past everything and get to the goal which made certain parts funny. For being a man of “justice” its side objectives really have no reason to be accomplished so 99% of the time you will skip them unless you accidentally complete a side goal. Hell if you don’t skip anything sometimes the enemies will just skip you as the AI was terrible in this game having allies float mid air, enemies run into walls and NPCs you are supposed to save get stuck in places. Furthermore, the level layouts were very boring until you get to the boss fights , having you do boring objectives never trying to expand on stuff for you to do. To top it off the enemy variety is boring as you only fight about 3 types of enemies not including bosses and like I said above fighting each of these bland types of enemies got very boring very fast.. Combining all these things together it really made for a boring and bland experience that will soon be very forgettable to me. It's a shame because I honestly like the vibe and idea of Judge Dredd. I just don’t think they pulled it off with this game and that makes me wish we got another game. There is potential with this IP but it seems they just don’t care to try anything with it and I am not sure on the reason why so I won’t say much more on that.

Honestly yes there were certain aspects about the game I did enjoy. To explain , I actually really liked the environments and graphics. I think they still look nice to this day and it was fun to just look around each level. While being cheesy I can’t help but to love the dialogue in this game, it is 100% cheesy mcheese and I was here for it. Furthermore, while the enemy pool was extremely dull I actually liked the bosses for the most part and thought a few levels had some great ideas in them. To elaborate, there was a stage where you had to fight against a fire demon who was burning up a smoking lounge and the level had you activate sprinklers to trap it and win. I really thought it was a cool idea even though the level was very short.

It was an interesting game to dive into as I never really heard anything about it and honestly if you are a die hard Dredd fan maybe give it a shot. It's cheap and it's very short with a runtime of about 3 hours so you can knock it out in one night if you really don’t value your time. A shame but it is what is, this game is a weird one.

Small update: watched the 2012 movie and it was awesome !

A once in a lifetime experience.

Killer7 has always been an interesting title for me as I would always see it growing up but never played it. After years went by I finally sat down and started the game but quickly put aside for whatever reason which leads to right now. As a huge suda 51 fan it's truly a mystery to me as to why it took this long to finally play Killer7 BUT it's better late than never and I can wholeheartedly say this is the pinnacle of Suda 51 and a true meaning to the word, masterpiece.

Honestly every aspect from the gameplay , graphics , vibes , characters , world and story is simply masterfully crafted to the point where you really understand that there will never be another game like killer7 EVER. To explain, I have always adored Suda 51 for how crazy , chaotic and out there his games have always been. It always draws me back to every title he released and will be releasing down the line. Killer7 is a game way ahead of its time and really sets the tone for the amazing legacy Suda will continue to create but after playing Killer7 you wonder how in the world can you top this?. Suda 51 himself has stated that he believes Killer7 will never be topped for him and after playing the game myself I can agree. Killer7 is such a meticulously put together game it's astonishing to think that this is only ⅓ of the story Suda was able to put into the game.

Story

Honestly the biggest curveball for me as I was not expecting to get as invested in this story as I did. To explain, Killer7 is not easily understood, the game will in fact be confusing for you for a lot of its run time but by the end things will slowly crack open for you. I will honestly keep this segment short as I believe this story is a masterpiece that should be experienced by everyone without the least amount of knowledge you can have about it. There is a reason as to why this game's story is still analyzed, discussed and even argued to this day because it’s a story with an insane amount of layers that will most likely never be fully understood. Killer7’s story is phenomenal and you should truly play it just for this reason alone.

Another aspect that I really enjoyed was the gameplay and how unique it was to play through. To explain , this game is an on rails shooter where you run on set paths to each destination of the game. Furthermore, because of this style this game is not free roam but do not let that deceive you because you will get stuck at certain segments if you do not look through every nook and cranny of the levels. Taking control of 7 Killers you can swap between each of them at any given moment and this is important for a few reasons. To explain, Each character has their own set of skills which WILL be required to use at very specific moments during each level and these objectives are not doable with anyone else past that one character. This can be a hassle but if you just do a little trial and error you will get by each part after sometime. In addition , the combat has you fighting demon-like monsters where you have to press a button to visibly see them before being able to shoot them. It gets the job done and is fun for the whole runtime. I honestly never got bored with the encounters the game kept throwing at me as you maneuver through each hallway. In addition, I really like how you can pretty much one shot most enemies if you have good aim as most enemies will have glowing yellow orbs on specific parts that you can shoot that will one shot them on top of giving you blood to level and refill on health. The last part does lead me into one thing that didn’t really give me impact in which is the leveling system in killer7. To explain, when you one shot enemies you obtain blood which can be used to level each of your characters but I honestly never really felt a power difference from leveling up anyone so I am not sure what the point of it was. However, this doesn’t honestly affect the game in any shape or form. I just wish the leveling system was more meaningful. In addition to leveling you as well fill up blood vials which can be used to heal your characters or you can use multiple vials to get a charge shot that will destroy enemies. In the end the gameplay is very engaging and fun but can be a bit confusing at times but hey there are always guides online for the confusing parts if needed.

Bosses

As always the bosses are some of my favorite parts of Suda 51 games and Killer7 is no different in delivering unique and insane bosses. As stated in the story segment I will also not go into the bosses as I think it's best to experience them with 0 info but they do not disappoint!

One of the aspects I adore about Killer7 was its character pool as each character is loveable for many reasons. Everyone is Oozing with personality that you really can’t help but to want to learn more and more and more about the cast of killer7. This is a strong part of the game as this HAD to work in order for the story to be as impactful as it was. Like you heard me say I will refrain from saying anymore as I believe you should play this game knowing as least as you can.

There really is a certain feeling you get when you play Suda games. It's such an oddly cozy feeling that is hard to explain. I loved each level's layout and would always take a look around at everything I could, which is weird when you take into account there isn’t a lot of set pieces in each level, it's usually a lot of walls and pictures of walls apart from special segments LOL. It boils down to the color scheme for me as to why I think I kept looking around so much because the colors can be very vibrant and beautiful to look at then very dark and mysterious the next moment. Pair this with an amazing OST and sound effects. It really blends for an oddly cozy , calming experience that I can promise you……. The game is far from Cozy and calming.

Killer7 is a game I went in knowing I was going to enjoy and left being completely in love and enamored by its lore and world. There are very few games that provoke this feeling out of me and that is why I will say this is a MUST play for honestly everyone looking for a truly unique and lore driven experience. There will never be another game like Killer7 but that is okay because we in fact already have the Killer7 we will only ever need.

I won’t say I am the biggest AC fan having played multiple titles but never really diving deep into them. I will say though I really did enjoy my time with AC4 and For Answer so I was excited for 6 to finally release. It is with no shocker that fromsoft has once again knocked it out of the park with AC6 this game was so well made and such a blast to playthrough.

My lord when I say I am appalled by new fans I mean it when I say I am truly baffled by the early reception the game got. On launch I couldn’t go 2 minutes without someone saying “WheRe is EldEn RinG 2??” or “LorD THiS iS Like A sOUlS game” and it was painful. It’s truly amazing to see people realize that yes……… they make more than souls games LOL. On the other hand I see a lot of people complain that this is like a souls game or that this is a hard game which to that I say…… Did you play any other AC games?????????? The series is not a walk in the park lol. Yes this game has challenging bosses but you have to understand you are struggling because you are not changing your loadout and trying new things on top of learning enemy attack patterns. This game was not THAT hard, it does provide a good challenge but do not listen to anyone when they say this is the hardest game ever. Hell, I can’t even beat sekiro to this day and people want to claim this is the hardest game LOL.

As well as new fans I have also seen vets complain about how this isn’t the AC they wanted or how this isn’t a AC game at all. Yes AC6 has some changes like No more maps in missions , a perm stat boost leveling system like an RPG, no radar etc etc. Honestly though, these seem more like nitpicks and forced reasons to hate the game because most of the complaints are really things you can live without in this game. It is still an AC game to its core from its fast paced action to its amazing customization. You all need to just enjoy things more rather than cling to past titles. It is evident they are trying to really change this series up with 6 and honestly I think they really nailed it. Yes there are healthpack like flasks from souls games , checkpoints that allow you to change your whole AC on the fly if you feel stuck and hell you even get a refill on your ammo with checkpoints but is that really bad??? Because they are trying to change the formula it all of the sudden makes the game not AC at all?? Idk this is more of an opinion thing I just don’t really understand why some Veteran players find some of these things an issue if anything I am glad a lot of the stuff has changed.

Finally lets talk about the game

To begin , the story is good enough, I honestly didn’t really find it memorable but tbh I don’t play AC games for the story. What I play the series for is very much still amazing and even more fun now imo. AC6 leans for a more heavy dodge battling system really relying on you to fly mid air and dodge enemy attacks which I have always enjoyed in mech games. I find it more fun and engaging, making me really never stop to breathe during boss fights which are pretty darn challenging. Furthermore , there are so many weapons and armor pieces to choose from giving you an immense amount of builds you can think of to tackle down the content and NG+. To elaborate, I am not the biggest class builder I am usually pretty bad at creating things but I actually spent a good amount of time making my own builds in AC6 and it made me proud. As mentioned before there is a new RPG perm stat system in which you earn a side currency which is pretty much attribute points that you buy upgrades with. In addition, you can buy activation skills that allow you to get hero-like skills. For example, There is a skill that once used throws a bubble AOE around you hitting enemies within range or another skill which grants you a shield for a short amount of time. This system can actually be very crucial as it can heavily upgrade your build depending on what weapons you want to use so you have to really think hard about where you put these points into. Furthermore , you earn these points through a mode called arena which is a 1V1 against a Bot enemy. Honestly the arena was a letdown as there was never any challenge in any of the fights, I breezed through them all once I finished my build. In the end I like this system as it gives even more purpose to specific builds you go for. AC6 is a blast and the combat is consistently engaging and so addicting you will want to keep playing more and more and more.

The hot topic when it comes to AC6 currently are the bosses and more specifically the infamous first chapter boss. Bosses in AC6 provided a good challenge but I still believe people are blowing the difficulty wayyyyy to out of proportion. AC is a series where you need to think about how you want to tackle specific things which in AC6’s case are bosses. This is crucial because you really need to think about what weapons to bring and not only how to dodge stuff. If you understand this it will make the bosses a lot more tolerable and very beatable. Furthermore, the bosses overall are great and all are designed very well besides one specific boss that I won’t get into for the sake of wanting people to experience things as fresh as possible.

One of the things I was most excited about was the PVP in AC6 and sadly it did let me down. While the core PVP gameplay loop is very fun and probably what I will be playing a lot of it feels extremely bare bones. To explain , there isn’t any PVP progression or hell even a Matchmaking system to boot. The only way to play is through custom lobbies which can be a hassle since there are a lot of times where I sit refreshing the room lists because I keep trying to join full rooms. I seriously do not understand why fromsoft always neglect PVP components in their titles even though they are insanely popular with the fanbase. Not having either a matchmaking system or progression system for online will really make a lot of players want to stop playing after a while as there isn’t anything you get out of PVPing in the game. It's a shame because the PVP is EXTREMELY fun and brings the creativity out of people which at times can be toxic as some PVP builds are insanely broken. Giving you the option you can do single or team matches and that is all there is no modes or nothing its either 1v1 or team deathmatches. I can only hope they update the PVP stuff as time goes on like they usually do with souls games but I really wished there was more of an offering because it has SO much potential since the game itself is already amazing.

Graphics
Are people seeing the same game I saw? So many “PS2 graphic” comments have been thrown around for this game and I do get it. The game looks beautiful and the environments are great to look at. I just think people were watching trailers in 480p and not upping the resolution.

Honestly I don’t have many complaints about the game outside of a few things. To begin, I wish there were more enemy variants to battle against throughout the story. There were a few levels that seemed very unfair to me, throwing an insane amount of enemies at you all at once forcing you to beat them all or restart from the beginning. Lastly , this is more a nitpick and personal thing but I do not like the fact you are forced to play through the entire game 3 times to get all the endings. I can understand 2 times but lord playing this game 3 times ON TOP of having to S rank all missions means you have to play 4 playthroughs if you want to 100% the game.

In the end

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with AC6 and it's a game I am very much going to continue to play as I will slowly tackle the trophies down. As stated above I really hope more PVP content gets added because I really want more reasons to continue playing PVP because it is so much fun. If you are on the fence about this game having never played AC I can throughout assure you that this is very much a game you can hop into without having to play the other titles. I wish I could sit here and say you should play the other titles but there is no way to play them on newer gen consoles unless you own a PS2 or Xbox 360/PS3. Either way you can play AC6 without any worries and enjoy your time fully with it not knowing a single thing about past titles.

I highly recommend this game.

I love discovering games it's one of my favorite things to do in gaming and it's a damn good feeling when you feel like you have found a gem hidden deep in the fields. Escape from terror city initially started out as that game but quickly dwindled once its numerous bugs and horrendous camera came into play. Underneath the numerous issues this game has lies a really awesome game that I wish I could recommend to people but sadly can’t.

To begin, Escape from terror city is a run’n’gun game that feels very similar to the base levels from contra. You play in a 3rd person point of view where you move your character from section to section shooting down enemies. With Chunky 3D graphics in similarity to megaman legends I love the look of the game and WANTED to love the game itself. It's very fast past, high action and a very short game that will run you about 40 minutes.

The core gameplay loop is honestly very fun and takes you back to a more simpler time in gaming but that is honestly about it. To begin, there are an insane amount of bugs ranging from funny to literally game breaking. To explain , the camera is horrendous making you move in very tight spots where you sometimes will have the wall blocking your whole view. This is bad due to the fact you are constantly having to move and jump around to dodge bullets so many times you will be thrown off or quite literally will throw yourself off the map and die. Furthermore, there are times when you clip through the level resulting in game overs throwing you back to the checkpoint. In addition, there were moments where the enemies or bosses would bug out and would just sit there shooting nothing at you. The sad part is it doesn’t stop there, During a boss fight what do you do? Focus a lot so you don’t get it and what do you do when you beat a boss? Let out a sigh of relief and relax yourself. Well you cannot do that in this game because you have no invincibility during bosses so if you clutch out a boss with 1HP left and you beat the boss while it was shooting a bullet at you there is a chance you can literally get hit and still die. This actually happened to me but I didn’t even get a game over or anything my game was softlocked forcing me to restart the whole game. To top it off once you finish the game you unlock a hard mode which adds EVEN more issues to the game ranging from terrible FPS drops since enemies throw more at you and even more mid boss fights where bosses bug out and don’t even hit you. Sometimes you don’t even have to worry if a boss bugs out because there are multiple bosses where you can literally stand in a spot and not get hit at all lol. To top off this segment there are sensitivity issues with the mouse where the game will completely make your mouse fling around during certain attacks enemies use which is extremely annoying.

It's a bummer because my initial impressions were good but it quickly fell apart for me and I wanted to beat this game again on hard initially. But after all the issues and annoyances I couldn’t bring myself to deal with doing that task as it would bump the meter of annoyances up to 100%. I would say MAYBE give this game a go on a deep deep sale for a few bucks but otherwise I cannot recommend this game. It has the love and aesthetics behind it but none of the polish.

Randomly got the urge to play COD games on Veteran

After bringing back the MP servers for multiple cod games I randomly got the urge to play through the campaigns on veteran difficulty. I beat all the COD campaigns up until ghost BUT never finished one on veteran so I thought it would be fun and thus COD 2 has been FINISHED.

I was never the biggest fan of COD 2 but I could respect what it did for the genre and I do LOVE some of the moments the game has. In addition it just feels good to play an older style COD game really making me miss the simpler times in gaming where you just booted up a game and have the full experience right in front of your eyes versus dealing with all these DLC , MICROTRANSACTION and becoming Nikki Minaj in warzone. However, while I still think it's a good game, COD 2 does have some issues in terms of how it's aged after all this game. That isn’t to say it's a bad game because noooooo that is far from it , the game is still a solid time if you want to play through a good campaign.

To get this right out of the bag having no sprint feels insanely terrible and makes the game feel so much slower. I can’t tell you the amount of times I wish I had sprint throughout playing the game again after so long and after playing so many CODs since then. Furthermore, some of the later levels were insanely difficult on veteran, really making for a quite simply frustrating experience as I slowly made my way through each level. I know veteran is supposed to be very challenging but when you have moments where you literally are stuck in one spot and will get one shotted the moment you peak from 6 different angles is not fun lol. I bring this very specific situation up because there is a specific level ( if you played this on veteran you most likely know what I am talking about) where you have about 5-6 objectives on the screen at once where you need to take over all these buildings. Imagining running around an open field sometimes or just running from building to building having constant streams of bullets showered at you the moment you try anything. Oh you cleared the streets? Well tough luck you got hit from a window , oh you cleared the house? You better hope there isn’t one last guy upstairs aiming straight at you the moment you walk up. I could go on for a long time about this mission but the layout made for one the worst levels I have played in awhile lol. Furthermore, I also had some bugs and glitches where the game would give me checkpoints , I would randomly die by a nade that wasn’t even marked on my screen and even a weird glitch where my character FLEW backwards very fast which was funny lol. In addition, I really don’t like the weapon pool the game gives you. To explain , most of the time you will be picking up MP40s or Kar98s off enemy bodies since you will run out of ammo from the weapons you start with. This makes for a very depressing pool of weapons since you almost can never refill ammo on the guns you start with unless your AI teammates die.

This needs to get its own little section because if there was one thing that this game really made me appreciate was good AI teammates. My lord when I say playing around your AI teammates is VITAL to winning I really mean it because the AI in COD 2 is honestly very good in the sense that your teammates will actually KILL THE ENEMIES….. Crazy I know right? It really makes you think WHY they made the AI worse as time went on lol.

Even though I have issues with the level design of some levels making for some very frustrating moments I overall still enjoyed my replay of the game. I was amazed by some of the moments the game had really given me a newfound respect for what they were able to accomplish cinematically during this era of gaming. I am not sure how fast I will tackle the other CODs because playing on veteran is truly a mental crushing experience that should probably not be done back to back lol. If you for some reason have not played COD 2 by now I do recommend giving it a playthrough. It's a solid game !

Won’t lie this one hurt after really loving the first title but I cannot wholeheartedly say that the sequel is good. However, I don’t think it's bad which is why this is annoying because beneath all the weird choices lies a great game.

To begin, this game has very odd choices in level design from good to outright literally painful levels that will give you a real life headache. To explain, you probably have heard about the bear chase if you know about the sequel…. Well I forgot about it so getting to that segment was amazing the whole chase was VERY good. Sadly right after that chase the rest of the level become a brainless gun shooter just ruining the overall greatness of its level. For everything condemned 2 does right it does 2 things wrong is what you will notice throughout this review. On the top of weapons let's talk about the combat which imo was a downgrade. In condemned 1 the combat was simple but it was effective and never felt annoying as in 2 the combat was usually frustrating. To explain, they added a combo system which on paper sounds fun but in execution is terrible as you can barely even get a combo off without taking at least 2 hits unless you begin to parry everything perfectly which is as well hard since everything feels slow making parrying hard. It's unfortunate because the idea of adding a combo system SHOULD have made it better but honestly made the combat even worse in this game Hell later on in the game you will almost forget that there is melee combat as there will be numerous guns blazing all out gun war near the end of the game. So yes , the combat was not good and the decision to push for more shooter sections was a terrible choice. To touch upon the guns once more you earn a mode after finishing the game which is an FPS mode where you play throughout the game ONLY using guns with infinite ammo and I do not know who the hell this mode was intended for no one wants guns to be the main focus in these damn games.

One thing that I adored about the first game was the constant feel of dread and anxiety as you walked through the narrow halls in complete silence. Well that is all thrown out of the window in the sequel due to its tone shift and once again level design. To explain, the first game’s story was grounded but had hints of other elements which do get shown in the sequel but to a degree that is almost mind boggling ruining the overall feel of the game that the first title built so well. All the sudden you are dealing with ink monsters , doll babies that blow up and creepy crawlers and it just feels so out of nowhere with how cracked out the story gets. Never once (besides the bear sequence) did I feel an inch of dread , creepiness that the first game consistently produced. It also doesn’t help that you are shown constant reminders you are busting out a combo on screen ruining the immersion as you stare at “COMBOOOOO 3.5X” all the time throughout the game. I

This will be extremely short because I will not dive into spoilers but this game does not finish the biggest plot point I wanted resolved. From what I understood 1-2 more games were planned to be made but sadly never came to be so sadly we are left with an unfinished story. This annoyed me because what we are left with is a CRAZY cliffhanger of an ending with a very good after credit scene but now we will never know what happens next. While I don’t like how the overall story went into really insane, mind boggling territory there was a certain element that was there from the first title that I enjoyed a lot and I WISH we could see it end.

Literal pain

I won’t lie, this game has what is probably one of the worst levels I have played in recent times. Level 5 you see yourself in the SCU building and this level produces some of the worst effects ever. Imagine playing through a level of a game where the game just throws every damn editing effect they can ranging from flashing lights , static everywhere, colors popping in and out , constant blurry effect. It literally got to the point where I felt sick and had to pause the game for a few minutes from how much effect it had on me. I literally do not know what they were thinking of making that level lol. I guess I could add that Ethan being some edgy ass drunk was also painful to me LOL

The new enemies

As mentioned before this game has new enemies that are all mostly….. Terrible?. To explain , the ink monsters are insanely annoying due to them blending into the background since the lighting of this game is terrible. Because of that they can be hard to hit making them get more hits in on you and boy do they hit hard. There are also flaming guys that will run at you and blow up and if they do will also disintegrate your health. Doll babies? Yeah they are the most pointless enemy as they are insanely easy to deal with. However , there are a few very cool new enemies, primarily this big armored enemy you fight in the museum level which was cool. As well this game throws a few bosses your way which are all honestly very cool fights besides the magic man fight which was extremely boring.

It seems from the ranting I have been on I hate this game but I honestly don’t, I still think this is a fine game. As mentioned, the bear chase was a brilliant and genuinely scary moment in the game. There are a few standout bosses from the Museum boss to the doll factory boss. The story while going in insane directions does have some good moments and some interesting lore built upon. I do like how weapons actually break in this game forcing you to use a lot of weapons as in the first title you usually stuck with one weapon each level. In addition , they did add online which I have yet to try but might be able to since I found a discord server and I love weird online modes so I will probably enjoy it. Furthermore, they added some challenges that you can unlock and partake in which were pretty cool.

Overall

I think I touched upon everything I wanted to talk about so I will leave it at this for now and add more if I remember anything. In the end , the game was a big disappointment for me as there was so much room for improvement and so much more they could have fixed and done with this game. I know there are people out there who enjoy the sequel but I am not one of them. I am truly in the middle with this game because for every moment I enjoyed was a moment I didn’t. However, I truly hope we get remasters for these games one day that could potentially lead into a 3rd title because I really think condemned 1 is insanely underrated and deserves more praise.

An underrated Horror Classic

Condemned is truly a classic game in my eyes that doesn’t get nearly enough praise. Having played this game around its release I was a lot younger and had pretty much no patience when it came to gaming so I never finished it. However, getting the urge recently I decided to boot up the game and finally play through it all. In the end I have to say this game was very good which really makes me wonder why it doesn’t get talked about enough.

Monolith are simply masterminds when it comes to environments and knowing how to make a game creepy. To elaborate, the levels are very dark, grotesque and claustrophobic, sometimes really making for a creepy experience through and through. Each level is eerily silent making you feel on edge throughout it as you never know when an enemy will pop out to attack you. It really made for a very high on edge experience as you are constantly looking everywhere as you traverse each level. The game wears its creepiness on its sleeves and it's amazing how it's more creepy then so many modern horror games today. Furthermore, the game has a solid cast of characters, story and okay enough combat to really make for an overall pleasant experience.

Story

Honestly I won’t really get too deep into it as I thought it was interesting but best played for yourself. You play as Ethan who is a detective investigating a crime scene which quickly turns south putting you in a very tricky situation. I will leave it at that as it does have some interesting twists, good moments and an overall Se7en vibe that I enjoyed. However, there are a few things that occur that really don’t get elaborate on more which is a bummer and quite honestly confusing as some of the enemies really made me scratch my head in terms of “how” they exist lol. All in all the story gets the job done and will keep you entertained until the end.

As a first person melee focused horror game condemned was insanely cool for its time. The AI will block , counter attack , run away , hide and sneak attack you and it's honestly really cool even in today's standard even though the AI can act weird at times. The combat is very simple, having you pick up Melee weapons to swing and block with and sometimes giving you guns to use WHICH you can as well use as a Melee weapon when you run out of ammo. Combat overall got the job done and can be pretty engaging as taking hits on medium difficulty or higher can be deadly but some portions of the game were very annoying. Nothing special in the end but it's fun enough and for its time honestly really cool.

While I overall enjoyed the game a lot I did have a few issues with the game which was a bummer. To elaborate, there are quite a few glitches ranging from meh to literally game breaking. To explain, sometimes the enemies will literally do nothing and run in circles trying to hide from you which makes certain sections frustrating. Furthermore, there were times where hits would simply just not connect making for very weird interactions during combat as you would clearly be smack face to face with the enemy and still somehow miss a hit with certain weapons. There were times where the game would checkpoint right before a death, literally putting you in an infinite kill loop forcing you to lose a little bit of progress. To top it off bug wise, there were a couple times where I would load into a segment completely losing my weapon and not being able to pick up anything once again soft locking the game. The investigation scenes were cool but really don’t add much to me in the overall gameplay loop but I could just be overthinking this point. Lastly, the story as mentioned has some twists and turns that simply do not get elaborated on further really making certain parts hard to take seriously which I won’t get into for spoiler sakes.

This was an awesome horror game that more of you should play and enjoy its creepiness in its full glory. While there is a steam version that from what I understand is pretty buggy and even when modded still isn’t good to play. If you have an xbox series s,x or 360 I highly recommend just seeking this game on those consoles as it will overall not give you any issues past the ones I just named. Overall, I have no doubts if this game got remastered or even better remade that it has high potential to be a masterpiece in my eyes if they flushed out the issues I had with the game. Condemned is an underrated gem and we should really change that !

With doom 64 coming to an end comes as well an end to my first playthrough for these classic games. Overall the first 3 doom titles are very fun , peaking with 2 but as well landing with a somewhat goodish landing.

I honestly really loved how the game looked, its colors and enemy models all looked great. Furthermore, the weapons all sounded good and I really liked the edition of the unmaker, it is a very fun weapon to use. The game feels like doom still and that is a good thing since you know you will be getting high action with very tense moments but sadly I do have issues with 64. Overall I enjoyed my time with 64 and feel about the same with this game as I did with 1 which doesn’t really mean that much since I still think both games are good.

What are my issues?

To start the in-game map is horrible, almost making it pointless to look at. To elaborate I loved the map system in doom 1,2 where you would always pop up the map to see where you haven’t gone and where certain color cards would be used.In doom 64 the map just looks terrible and confusing as it doesn’t show these small indications on the map so I barely ended up using it. Furthermore, they took out some enemies which is very disappointing and even more disappointing that they decided to replace them with literal copy cats of other enemies. And just like doom 1 I loved the first half but grew very annoyed with the second half when the game started having stage traps and hell even a final door trap making you just straight up die at the end. In addition the levels of course became more confusing as the levels progressed which I never enjoy lol. All these little nuances were just annoying to deal with but do not overall hinder the experience of the game.

This game felt like Doom 1.5 with better looking graphics and that is 100% okay with me. I still had an overall good time with this title despiste my issues with it and I very much recommend giving it a playthrough as it's very cheap AND even on gamepass if you have it.

I had some issues with doom 1 but at the same time didn’t really hold it too hard against them as they were testing the waters with that title. I am very happy though that they seriously perfected the formula with doom 2 to an insane level honestly. I loved pretty much everything about this game which I am about to get into!.

First off, instead of episodes we simply get 1 big episode which I really like over separate episodes. Furthermore, they really upped the level design as I found myself only disliking a couple levels out of them all which I couldn’t say about Doom 1. As well the additional new enemy types were all very good since they all brought something new to the table alongside a new layer of difficulty. Speaking of difficulty they got it perfect with this title as I was genuinely struggling with some levels. To elaborate, I played on Hurt me plenty and throughout Doom 1 I never once had any issues past the absurd level spike midway through. With doom 2 the difficulty felt very fair for the most part as I saw myself really thinking about how I want to tackle down certain levels as some of the new enemy types are deadly. As well the super shotgun is amazing and a blast to use. I always chose it over the base shotgun unless I was low on ammo. Furthermore the final boss design is awesome and while the boss itself isn’t anything special in today's standard for its time it's honestly amazing. Overall this game is the godfather of its genre and for very good reason it's an action packed great time.

Not much more to say

There really isn’t a lot more to get into with Doom 2 it's more of doom 1 but wayyyyyyyyyy better with a banging OST. You know doom and most likely have already played it but if you haven’t I do recommend checking out the first 2 titles they are very solid and very cheap. Even cheaper if you have gamepass since they are on gamepass.

The enemy designs are rad.

A Rockin good time

This one has been on my radar for awhile now and seeing it on gamepass I finally dove into it!. Overall I had a very good time with Metal Hellsinger to the point where I got every achievement for the title and do not regret doing it.

Honestly it's genius to combine the two genres together because it just blends so well and makes for a hell of a good time. To elaborate this type of game wouldn’t really work if the OST was bad but I am here to say it’s a banging OST. Each song will have its own rhythm in which you really need to listen for as you need to time each shot to the beat of the song playing. Furthermore once you add doom like chaotic action to the mix you will be jamming while shooting from start all the way to the end. Comboing weapons into ultimate finishes and just flying around the map was just such a fulfilling feeling if you kept hitting the notes perfectly. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome being rather short which honestly works in its favor as I could have seen it become repetitive if it dragged on longer.

There are a good variety of weapons in the game to use as you unlock more and more the deeper you get into your playthrough. Furthermore each weapon is honestly a blast to use to the point where it became hard to decide which one I wanted to take on missions. Mowing down hordes of demons never got boring due to this as you can always switch it up each mission and never feel as if you chose the wrong weapon to use. My personal Fav weapons were the dual revolvers and the AOE bow weapon , they were deadly when you used both at once.

For the most part I really enjoyed each level layout and found that each level looked beautiful.

A few issues

While I didn’t have too many issues with the game there were a few bugs and glitches that really were annoying. To begin , achievements were bugged on the xbox side of things which made getting certain achievements very annoying as they didn’t pop, making you do more than what it initially asked for. Furthermore, there were a few times where enemies would clip through the level almost softlocking the game until they popped back in. Finally, Overall I wasn’t a fan of the boss designs as most bosses were exactly the same besides the final boss.

Overall

It's simply a solid title that should 100% be played if you have gamepass or wait for a sale otherwise. I know there are a few more games of this type out there but I do hope more come out in the future because I am now a fan of this genre !

By now you 99.9% know about doom and its legacy that continues on to even this day!. I have played a random selection of doom games like 3, a little bit of 64 and the 2 new ones released and enjoyed them all. Randomly I got an urge to play the original 2 so here we are!

Doom 1 was just a blast to play through and honestly holds up very well to this day. The game has fun level design (for the first half which I will get more into later), a good amount of weapons to choose from, and just overall fun movement with the gunplay. The first 2 episodes of the game I was highly enjoying and really didn’t have many complaints about it past a few bugs. In the end this game was a classic that birthed a lot and still is worth picking up and checking out if you as well have yet to play the originals.

Sadly the later half ruined a good portion for me

As mentioned, Episode 1-2 is a blast but the moment you hit episode 3 it honestly goes downhill in terms of level design and difficulty spike. To elaborate, there are many levels in episode 3-4 that are downright confusing to move around and will spawn an insane amount of bigger enemies and just a lot of smaller enemies making the difficulty bump up considerably. This really made for a frustrating experience as I had to restart levels many many times because of how unfair the game became out of nowhere. However, I don’t really want to knock it down too much because of this since this was a new era but I cannot deny it hindered my experience a bit.

You can find this game dirt cheap on consoles and on PC and if you were thinking about wanting to play I 100% can recommend it to you!.

I really don't have anything good to say about this game it’s truly terrible and it's a shame because the game looks great.

Very simple. Terrible level design and unfair gameplay. Each level somehow gets worse and worse and more unfair to the point where I didn’t know how they would somehow make it worse but I was proven wrong every time. For example, there is a level where you have to jump from platform to platform very similar to the minecart level in DK Country. You have to be extremely precise with each jump because if you miss by even a split second you will die and yes this is one of those “you start from the beginning of the game if you lose all continues.”. This becomes even more of an issue as the levels progress to become even more fair having many enemies throw projectiles and many stage hazards really making it extremely annoying to progress through each level. This game never once felt fun to me and I am glad it's over because this was truly one of the worst games I have played in recent times.

Also the final boss sucked.