AC4 is one of those "if they gave it one-two more years, it would've been a masterpiece" situations. This is pretty much the best Assassin's Creed game of the pre-Unity generation, combining great story, a lived-in open world and innovation to create a uniquely fun action experience. It's full of pirate's romance, great music and vibrant folliage. Black Flag's bugginess is pretty much deep in it's core, and with how overkill the road to 100%-ing it was, there're a lot of little things that bring the whole game down
If it wasn't for it's forgettable story, I would have no problems calling Unity my favourite of the pre-Origins Assassin's Creed game. Unity builds on everything from the rest of the franchise (barring all the hunting and sea stuff from 3&4), making the assassin fantasy come to life about as well as humanly possible. But the most inspired thing in this game is the world - Paris is crafted with such care that it's truly impossible not to lost yourself it and be fully immersed right until the end
Murdered: Souls Suspect is a great concept with not great everything else. It's seems very unforunate all around, with the story being so forgetable that it's incredible, and the gameplay being unremarkable at best. There's not much to say, except for the fact that I wish someone makes this very game again, but with a bigger budget and more effort and talent put into development
AC Rogue is basically a worse, reskined and down-sized version of Black Flag. And the "reskined" portion is probably the best thing about Rouge - the new (kinda) setting really breathes new life into this game compared to it's older brother. But the thing with AC4 is that all the bad parts of Black Flag were held together by it's narrative and setting, and by perserving the bad of it and replacing the good with a boring lazy narrative, Rogue becomes infinitely worse and less worthy of attention than it's predecessor.
Shadow of War is, quite literally, everything Shadow of Mordor was, exept better, bigger and more in every way possible. The game is a relatively slow burn, which is made more bearable by the fact that the overall loop is so enjoyable and addictive. One of the best open world games ever, dlc was great too
2014
Halo 2 is a bigger, better and more varied and interesting Halo 1. It evolves the sandbox with amazing new weapons like the Energy Sword, there are a lot more sprawling levels like the first maps of CE, and ones that are a bit more tighter feel tense and immersing. The whole Arbitre story line is a brilliant and unexpected addition that fleshes out the world and adds more interest to Halo 2's antagonists. The game is pretty as it is, but the Anniversary edition, unlike the first game's remaster treatment, improves the visuals tenfold. It's issues like the presistant hitscans or annoying boss battles are frustrating, but the whole of Halo 2 is definitely bigger than the sum of it's parts
The pacing can be kinda whack, especially in the latter half with all it's repetition, and Halo 1 has obviously aged in not the best way, but even all these years later the game still manages to feel fresh and provide you with fun and unique experiences. It's still challenging and immersive, and the music is amazing. A classic for sure.
Anniversary is a disgrace though
Anniversary is a disgrace though
2010
With a traditional Remedy zaniness sprinkled through the game's story, Alan Wake is a game with a mediocre and boring gameplay, It's story a cliche-riddled tale of nothing, barely exploring it's themes while being completely uninterested in it's characters. It's not scary, and it's attempts to mix up the gameplay loop are quite stale
This game is an actively frustrating, clunky and poorly thought-out mess, elevating itself through it's style, it's myriad of items that change the way you play and a weird atmosphere, feeling disgustingly dark and hilarious all at once. Since it came out the roguelike/roguelite genre(s) grew far beyond Isaac, but this game is ultimately a fun and unique experience, even if the fun of the game is basically lucking out and becoming a god-killer with a coat hanger sticking out of your head
The best looking game I've ever seen, held together by great combat and traversing mechanics. But the core of Ori 2 is, surprisingly enough, it's story - this is the only 2d platformer about weird fantasy creatures fighting a vague big bad that, simultaneously, filled me with feelings of sorrow, genuine joy for someone else, heroism through overcoming the odds, and awe in sheer emotion of it all
Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautiful game with some fun music and sequences, and it keeps you engaged pretty much from start to finish. Main levels and such are great for the most part, and it's fun and addictive to run around clearing out the map. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of variety, polish (gameplay-wise) and thought put into the story
1995
The game is a classic that wrote a book on fps gun and enemy design so well, that Doom's influence is stil felt in shooters today. That said, it suffers from repetion of levels and enemies, with bosses being underwhelming and the soundtrack, while iconic, being very incosistent. Thy Flesh Consumed is a nice and fairly experimental addition, but it's levels can also be very frustrating and outright stupid
2015
Yakuza 0 is very uneven: the story is great some of the time, while pulling a lot of punches and not developing the characters fully. The gameplay is awesome, fun and challenging, but certain levels create an impossibily frustrating feeling in the player. The progression is wanky, the ending is underwhelming, but the world is so fun to explore and the gameplay is so exciting that you can't help but love this game. It's very good, even if not all of Yakuza 0's is of the highest quaility
2016
While I get the love this game received over the years, Titanfall 2 is the sort of game that lets you down in the worst way possible. Containing several good leveles, extremely fun and rewarding core gameplay loop and a nice focus on Cooper and BT's relationship, the sheer amount of good is very small as is, but it also has to exist within the game riddled with mediocrity - from it's story to it's presentaion, Titanfall 2 is a mixed bag. It's the game I tried to fall in love with, but the core gameplay and like three really memorable and fun levels is mostly all that it has. And these elements are not capable of carrying this game from "alright" to "excellent", even though some aspects of Titanfall 2 are excellent, indeed
With it being free, short and basically serving as a prologue to Life is Strange 2, Captain Spirit is an endearing little story, sure to stay in your mind for a couple of days at least. It's far from perfect or even all that interesting, but I glad i jumped into Chris' shoes for a couple of hours