This game is masterful I don’t have any complaints on it. It has some of the best platforming and gunplay in gaming. It fr has better platforming than a lot of Mario games! I just wanna say that I disagree with the two common complaints about this game, the first being that it’s somehow not good on controller. I played 2016 on joycons and loved it. I played this game on an Xbox controller and it was even more amazing. Thinking this game is bad on controller is lowkey a skill issue. It’s amazing regardless of how you play it. Another common complaint I disagree with is that this game overstays it’s welcome. I thought the length of the game was great and I honestly wouldn’t have minded if it was longer. I guess that’s what the dlc is for. Amazing game 9/10 😁

My first Arkham game was Asylum and I enjoyed that game for what it was. I was intrigued how they could translate that into the open world format and honestly they seem to have done it quite well in my books. It's pretty freeing to glide around and grapple anywhere in Gotham. There are a lot of collectibles and busy work I skipped on but I did some side quests which were actually really great and didnt feel lazy and copy and pasted. Within the open world is the main quest which basically felt the same as Arkham Asylums gameplay with linear level design with a focus on using gadgets to progress, stealth encounters and combat. All of which were balanced pretty perfectly. The combat isnt super deep but it was satisfying. The only thing Asylum has over this game is the story and tone. This games story just wasnt that good in my opinion, part of it was Batmans voice actor change which I wasnt a big fan of due to it sounding "forced" if I can describe it but also his characterisation. And some plotpoints that confused me like Bane entering the bat lair, causing the tiniest, miniscule amount of damage and leaving without a word. Not even leaking Bruce' identity anywhere before he forgets his identity. The plot could've been better but it was serviceable to the gameplay. Overall while the plot and tone let me down, ultimately the most important aspect, the gameplay was pretty good.

I loved my time with this game. Everything about the characters and side quests was so damn good. It reminded me once again that Bethesda understands its audience when given the backing and resources to do so. When the acquisition was announced I was skeptical about the future of BGS, but it’s clear to me now that this was the best-case scenario from all ends.

The storytelling was tremendous. Starting as a know-nothing miner on the verge of greatness was a unique perspective to begin from. The stakes built nice and slowly but when the pieces were finally linked together, it all made perfect sense. I don’t want to spoil the game in any way but the story was well done and very enjoyable. Being able to participate in questlines involving every single available faction was a blessing. Having the option to side with multiple groups throughout the Settled Systems was a blast because you would hear NPCs in all corners discussing your choices and spreading their opinion, and it gave much more freedom than being forced to choose one group over the others. Even in the final moments, the choices made during those quests were expanded on sufficiently. Each faction wraps up in the finale and I was glad to see that they were not forgotten.

Constellation is full of unique characters and I would have loved to journey with each and every member, but Sarah was the only companion that I utilized from start to finish. There have been very good things said about Sam and Andreja, but maybe I will hear their stories in future playthroughs.

Despite my enjoyment, there are some issues with the game. Space in general is such an expansive space but the traversal is abysmal. You spend very little time exploring space and are essentially spending time shuffling through menus rather than exploring. The concept is there and the mindset is there, but it seems they skipped a step in making the space-exploration aspect worthwhile. Most of the time outside of planetary ventures is spent boosting through the sky and fast traveling to the next destination. There is no real purpose for having an amazing vessel because it is utilized very infrequently. If not for choosing the bounty hunter perk, I feel as though there would be little to do in space once you’ve seen the views a couple of times. Yes, the storytelling, choices, and factions take centerstage, but it would’ve been much more interesting if there was more to do out there. Personally, this did not take away from my experience too much because I wasn’t expecting this to be a Star Wars adventure, however, if they can take this weakness and turn it around in the DLC for a future game, it would be the perfect package.

From a technical standpoint, the game ran atrociously on my Xbox Series S. Things looked beautiful and I never ran into as many bugs as I did playing Fallout 4, but the lack of overall optimization for this version was very noticeable. My game crashed way too often which forced me to restart segments on multiple occasions. At one point my save file would not load at all which forced me to load an older save file just to return to the game. Surprisingly there haven’t been any updates since launch which would have been greatly appreciated.

Here’s hoping the game is ironed out by the time the DLC expansions arrive because I would hate for anyone to experience the number of crashes that plagued my first run with the game.

Despite being an inconsistent experience from start to finish it is an experience worth playing and has gameplay systems that are both innovative and genre defining. I just wish the the Sky Islands, Depths and Caves were actually good along with the temples. And I wished they fixed the healing system. This was definetly not worth the wait at all, as it didnt change enough along with having compromises that shouldnt exist for a wait this long, but I still had a load of fun and I dont regret playing this at all. The abilities and shrines are peak, the physics system is fun to mess around with and exploit. It was a blast overall! Especially the final boss. Thats how you do a final boss Nintendo.

The good: Story, cast, gunplay, worlds, space combat, immense sense of freedom

The bad: Space feels like a glorified level select screen, no flying from planet to planet, no spacewalks, no taking off from planet to space, npcs are dumb

Great game overall can’t wait for the dlc next year and future titles in this franchise. I expect many of my issues to be inevitably fixed in a sequel. Would recommend to anybody who is subscribed to gamepass!

What a game! Hi-Fi Rush is a short, linear action game, aka my type of video game. The cast, combat, music, platforming and level design is perfect. The cast interactions are so charming and the dialogue fits the pleasing to look at art style perfectly. The story feels like a cartoon which I love. The platforming is consistently great and constantly introduces new mechanics to keep itself fresh. The levels also stay fresh as every level has a different theme. The combat is the strength of this game. The rhythm aspect of the combat is mostly optional, but I don’t recommend ignoring the beat. My only issue with this game is the lack of a lot enemy variety but the game is so short it almost isn’t noticeable. Outside of that Hi-Fi Rush is masterful. Tango Gameworks shadow dropped an all timer 💯