MoeGreenSpecial
A good looking, fun, distillation of the original Spider-Man game. I appreciated how this game was more focused than the original, with less filler content (no more doing 5 crimes in each neighborhood for instance). The combat takes a bit to get used to, but it is fun. My style was to play more stealthy, slowly taking the enemies out, although the trophy design on this one is clearly aimed at players who are doing more direct combat.
The game is gorgeous, and the Manhattan map as fun to move around as the last one (although with the curious omission of the Chrystler building).
The game is gorgeous, and the Manhattan map as fun to move around as the last one (although with the curious omission of the Chrystler building).
This game was very fun - it's my second in the Ratchet & Clank series, and it maintained the same fun game mechanics as I experienced in the first one I played. Good weapon variety, good incentives to try different weapons, fun platforming, and great overall feel.
Rivet was fun to play as well, although she did feel very much the same as clank.
Overall a very fun experience.
Rivet was fun to play as well, although she did feel very much the same as clank.
Overall a very fun experience.
2023
This took a bit to get its teeth into me, but once I (somewhat ironically) got past the point where I needed to be actively fishing, it really grew on me. Once money came from crab pots and nets, and I was able to focus on the mood of the different areas of the game and on doing the various quests I found it got a bit more fun. The standard video game loop of upgrading the ship in order to be more powerful and be able to accomplish things that you couldn't previously have done was very well done here and quite satisfying.
I did find the "find me this fish" "now find me this fish" style of quests to be a bit repetitive and less fun, but there wasn't really much padding here. The game got in and got out, did what it wanted to do, and did it well.
I did find the "find me this fish" "now find me this fish" style of quests to be a bit repetitive and less fun, but there wasn't really much padding here. The game got in and got out, did what it wanted to do, and did it well.
2023
I'd never played a Pikmin game before, but I enjoyed Tinykin last year, so I was keen to try this one out. It was a very fun chill game, while I enjoyed the occasional Dandori challenge I found just gathering things in the overworld to be relaxing and fun.
I completed the extra two levels, but wound up bailing out when I got to Olimar's challenge because that was much more focused on the Dandori style challenge of doing things as optimally as possible. While I can see the fun in that, it ran counter to the more relaxed way I was enjoying the game.
My understanding is that the Olimar story is more like how the first 3 Pikmin games were, so I'm not totally inclined to go pick those up at the moment.
I completed the extra two levels, but wound up bailing out when I got to Olimar's challenge because that was much more focused on the Dandori style challenge of doing things as optimally as possible. While I can see the fun in that, it ran counter to the more relaxed way I was enjoying the game.
My understanding is that the Olimar story is more like how the first 3 Pikmin games were, so I'm not totally inclined to go pick those up at the moment.
The core gameplay of this game is so strong that I'm giving it 5 stars, even though there are obvious areas for improvement. Going into this, I had heard that the card combat was solid, but that 2/3 of the game was Persona style conversations with your teammates. Superficially, that's true. However, the loop of:
1. Mornings: prep for the upcoming battle - gather new cards, strengthen existing cards, train with one of your teammates.
2. Combat: turn based, deck-building, sublime.
3. Evenings: activities that strengthen the team to help you level up for the next day.
Really worked well for me. To the point where more than once I decided to play "just one more day" even though the time on the clock told me I would regret that decision in the morning.
Sure, the graphics aren't great, there were quite a few bugs (including one that made the Clean Sweep task impossible to finish), some of the DLC achievements won't unlock, the actual Abby grounds tasks felt underdeveloped, the fact that the missions level with you neutered that feeling of progression, there's a lot to improve. But that core gameplay was so fun, that it really overcame the parts that were lacking for me.
Normally I would say that this means it sets up really well for a sequel where the team at Firaxis could expand upon what they did well here and improve on the areas that need help. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that this game did very well so my hopes for that are muted.
There seemed to be a lot of praise for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope while this one got burried. For my money, Sparks of Hope was fine but wore out its welcome, while Midnight Suns kept growing stronger as it went on.
1. Mornings: prep for the upcoming battle - gather new cards, strengthen existing cards, train with one of your teammates.
2. Combat: turn based, deck-building, sublime.
3. Evenings: activities that strengthen the team to help you level up for the next day.
Really worked well for me. To the point where more than once I decided to play "just one more day" even though the time on the clock told me I would regret that decision in the morning.
Sure, the graphics aren't great, there were quite a few bugs (including one that made the Clean Sweep task impossible to finish), some of the DLC achievements won't unlock, the actual Abby grounds tasks felt underdeveloped, the fact that the missions level with you neutered that feeling of progression, there's a lot to improve. But that core gameplay was so fun, that it really overcame the parts that were lacking for me.
Normally I would say that this means it sets up really well for a sequel where the team at Firaxis could expand upon what they did well here and improve on the areas that need help. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that this game did very well so my hopes for that are muted.
There seemed to be a lot of praise for Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope while this one got burried. For my money, Sparks of Hope was fine but wore out its welcome, while Midnight Suns kept growing stronger as it went on.
2022
Cute BOTW-like that knows what it wants to be, delivers that through gameplay and story, and then leaves before overstaying its welcome. Also, quite thankfully, provides post-game assists for mopping up collectibles if you are so inclined.
This is very much a Yakuza game, so it's baseline is "good". All that you would expect - serious main story, goofy side stories, mahjong, is here.
It definitely shows that this is a remake of an older PS3 era game - it's a bit clunkier than you would expect from a more modern game (lots of loading when going into buildings just as one example). I was also not in love with the gun combat styles (either the straight out gun one or the Wild Dancer one), but Brawler and especially Swordsman were good fun.
I found the plot a bit hard to follow, but that's also because I am used to these characters from other games, and I didn't do a great job of associating familiar faces with new names.
Overall, a solid game, just not one of my favorites in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series.
It definitely shows that this is a remake of an older PS3 era game - it's a bit clunkier than you would expect from a more modern game (lots of loading when going into buildings just as one example). I was also not in love with the gun combat styles (either the straight out gun one or the Wild Dancer one), but Brawler and especially Swordsman were good fun.
I found the plot a bit hard to follow, but that's also because I am used to these characters from other games, and I didn't do a great job of associating familiar faces with new names.
Overall, a solid game, just not one of my favorites in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series.
Insomniac has taken the formula from the first two games and honed it down to near perfection here. Despite increasing the map size, this actually feels much less Ubisoft open-world-checklist than the first Spider-Man game did. Traversal continues to be tremendous fun, and the addition of the ability to fly makes moving around the larger map fun all unto itself. Despite how impressive the fast travel system is, I rarely wanted to use it. (And, I must say, having the map zoom in to an arbitrary location in the city - no matter how far from where you are it is - and morph into the actual playable city is incredibly impressive).
The combat is similar from the previous entries, and switching between Miles and Peter and using their different abilities kept things fresh and prevented the minute-to-minute action from getting stale. The best way I can think of to describe the combat is that it is techincal, but you get into a flow state with it, moving between your different targets and abilities. In fact, typically when I felt like I was falling out of that flow state is when I would then find myself losing the fight. In general the difficulty was right on point as well, with only the Unidentified Target missions feeling like they were a bit too tricky.
The story was decent, and I appreciate the way that it integrated several ongoing plot lines for other villains through the game (similar to how the first two games did it).
Boss fights did feel a bit same-y, all of them basically taking two phases to get through, and I didn't have as much fun fighting the final type of enemies the game introduces -- but aside from that, I really enjoyed this game.
The combat is similar from the previous entries, and switching between Miles and Peter and using their different abilities kept things fresh and prevented the minute-to-minute action from getting stale. The best way I can think of to describe the combat is that it is techincal, but you get into a flow state with it, moving between your different targets and abilities. In fact, typically when I felt like I was falling out of that flow state is when I would then find myself losing the fight. In general the difficulty was right on point as well, with only the Unidentified Target missions feeling like they were a bit too tricky.
The story was decent, and I appreciate the way that it integrated several ongoing plot lines for other villains through the game (similar to how the first two games did it).
Boss fights did feel a bit same-y, all of them basically taking two phases to get through, and I didn't have as much fun fighting the final type of enemies the game introduces -- but aside from that, I really enjoyed this game.
Most of what comes before the final chapter was so-so, but that last chapter really did a great job of tying this game into the larger Like a Dragon storyline.
I liked that this was a fair bit shorter than previous games, and I very much enjoyed the new agent fighting style. Akame stands out as a new character in the series. However, I could do without so many of the stroll and patrol mini-quests.
I liked that this was a fair bit shorter than previous games, and I very much enjoyed the new agent fighting style. Akame stands out as a new character in the series. However, I could do without so many of the stroll and patrol mini-quests.
This game is really the complete package for me. It's got compelling story and characters, engaging gameplay, and beautiful graphics. It does all of that without falling into some of the traps that other games do in these areas.
The story is told in a variety of ways. There are of course cut scenes, and those are all handled very well - and never get too long to make you feel more like you're watching the TV show than playing the game. A ton of the story also comes from the optional conversations with characters and the various artifacts you find. Whole substories, for instance the one that plays out in the sewers section of the suburbs, are told entirely through the environment and these artifacts. This made me quite happy that Naughty Dog included the ability to see which chapters of the game had missed artifacts in them after finishing so that I could jump back and go get them.
The gameplay was very good - it is a bit reliant on stealth, but I always found it satisfying to find a way to sneak up on enemies and take them out silently. This stealth focus also means that combat encounters tend to be a bit more puzzle focused -- each enemy is strong, and while you can typically handle one or two of them in direct combat, when there are more than that you need to use your head to figure out the best strategy. The enemies being relatively strong meant that the combat encounters didn't rely on overpowering you with huge numbers of enemies, which further allows puzzling out solutions to the encounters rather than just treating the game like a third person shooter.
The technical aspects, especially the graphics, were very good as well.
My main two complaints about the game are:
the last combat encounter in the Left Behind DLC felt significantly more difficult than any other encounter in the game (perhaps because it involves a much larger number of enemies and with fewer tools at your disposal).
when mopping up collectables after finishing, the game effectively starts a new save at whatever section you are jumping into to get the collectibles from. This, in turn, locks you out of all future chapters until you reload the completed save game. I suppose you could solve this by mopping up collectibles in reverse order, from late game back to early, but it felt odd to not be able to choose any chapter I wanted once I had finished the game and started doing this mop up.
Those are two very minor quibbles though. I had never played this until I watched the HBO show, and I am very happy I did. Even knowing the plot beats (and the game and show are very close to each other there), this was compelling and fun throughout. I just need to decide now if I jump straight away into Part II or if I wait for the second season of the show first.
The story is told in a variety of ways. There are of course cut scenes, and those are all handled very well - and never get too long to make you feel more like you're watching the TV show than playing the game. A ton of the story also comes from the optional conversations with characters and the various artifacts you find. Whole substories, for instance the one that plays out in the sewers section of the suburbs, are told entirely through the environment and these artifacts. This made me quite happy that Naughty Dog included the ability to see which chapters of the game had missed artifacts in them after finishing so that I could jump back and go get them.
The gameplay was very good - it is a bit reliant on stealth, but I always found it satisfying to find a way to sneak up on enemies and take them out silently. This stealth focus also means that combat encounters tend to be a bit more puzzle focused -- each enemy is strong, and while you can typically handle one or two of them in direct combat, when there are more than that you need to use your head to figure out the best strategy. The enemies being relatively strong meant that the combat encounters didn't rely on overpowering you with huge numbers of enemies, which further allows puzzling out solutions to the encounters rather than just treating the game like a third person shooter.
The technical aspects, especially the graphics, were very good as well.
My main two complaints about the game are:
the last combat encounter in the Left Behind DLC felt significantly more difficult than any other encounter in the game (perhaps because it involves a much larger number of enemies and with fewer tools at your disposal).
when mopping up collectables after finishing, the game effectively starts a new save at whatever section you are jumping into to get the collectibles from. This, in turn, locks you out of all future chapters until you reload the completed save game. I suppose you could solve this by mopping up collectibles in reverse order, from late game back to early, but it felt odd to not be able to choose any chapter I wanted once I had finished the game and started doing this mop up.
Those are two very minor quibbles though. I had never played this until I watched the HBO show, and I am very happy I did. Even knowing the plot beats (and the game and show are very close to each other there), this was compelling and fun throughout. I just need to decide now if I jump straight away into Part II or if I wait for the second season of the show first.
2017
Truly excellent. Bioshock with some horror elements, good narrative, well balanced gameplay, side quests that felt meaningful, and interesting non-obvious choices to make throughout.
This review contains spoilers
This was absolutely phenomenal - it hit everything for me from story to gameplay.
I really enjoyed the way that it focused on the widespread fallout of Joel's choice at the end of the first game - it would have been easy to either go very micro scale and show the fallout on Joel and Ellie specifically, or to go broad and show the worldwide effects of the lack of vaccine. Instead, focusing on several smaller, personal, stories about the results of this decision making really hammered home the ripple effects.
Gameplay wise, it's very similar to the other Naughty Dog games I've played - and in particular it does a great job of enabling very satisfying stealth gameplay without being overly punishing if you break stealth and need to fight head on / get back into hiding.
Naughty Dog level design remains incredible, their use of collectibles to build side stories is a highlight, and the way that all the spaces feel like you would expect for a ruined city is stellar.
Story wise, this was somehow bleaker than the first one. Perhaps it's because I didn't already know the ending going in (whereas I did know what was going to happen in the first before playing it), but this hit a bit harder than that. I very much appreciated the switch from Ellie's perspective (where we really are rooting for her as the part of the team of perspective characters for 1.5 games) to the hard cut over to Abby's story. That magic here is in not only making you understand her perspective, but also to empathize with her by the time she is finished in Seattle. This puts into a cold light exactly how Ellie's revenge drive is ruining her, in a way that was an undercurrent in the first part but is really the main thrust of the final bit of the story.
I do see complaints where people are upset at having to play out decisions that they don't agree with - about how you have to go on a revenge tour with Ellie instead of staying on the farm, etc. But I think that misses the point of this game. It's not an RPG post-apocalyptic simulator. It's a narrative game where you are participating in the story. The fact that you disagree with the decisions being made yet have to watch them play out anyway is part of what makes it hit so hard IMO. You know that this is not the right path, yet you are forced to watch characters you've spent significant time with go down it and suffer the consequences as a result.
It felt absolutely awful both times you are forced to play Abby and Ellie's confrontations, which I think highlights what a great job Naughty Dog did in developing the Abby character in this game - it would be easy to be very easy to have the players be full Team Ellie and the fact that I was in no way in that bucket by the end speaks to the way story was told here.
I really enjoyed the way that it focused on the widespread fallout of Joel's choice at the end of the first game - it would have been easy to either go very micro scale and show the fallout on Joel and Ellie specifically, or to go broad and show the worldwide effects of the lack of vaccine. Instead, focusing on several smaller, personal, stories about the results of this decision making really hammered home the ripple effects.
Gameplay wise, it's very similar to the other Naughty Dog games I've played - and in particular it does a great job of enabling very satisfying stealth gameplay without being overly punishing if you break stealth and need to fight head on / get back into hiding.
Naughty Dog level design remains incredible, their use of collectibles to build side stories is a highlight, and the way that all the spaces feel like you would expect for a ruined city is stellar.
Story wise, this was somehow bleaker than the first one. Perhaps it's because I didn't already know the ending going in (whereas I did know what was going to happen in the first before playing it), but this hit a bit harder than that. I very much appreciated the switch from Ellie's perspective (where we really are rooting for her as the part of the team of perspective characters for 1.5 games) to the hard cut over to Abby's story. That magic here is in not only making you understand her perspective, but also to empathize with her by the time she is finished in Seattle. This puts into a cold light exactly how Ellie's revenge drive is ruining her, in a way that was an undercurrent in the first part but is really the main thrust of the final bit of the story.
I do see complaints where people are upset at having to play out decisions that they don't agree with - about how you have to go on a revenge tour with Ellie instead of staying on the farm, etc. But I think that misses the point of this game. It's not an RPG post-apocalyptic simulator. It's a narrative game where you are participating in the story. The fact that you disagree with the decisions being made yet have to watch them play out anyway is part of what makes it hit so hard IMO. You know that this is not the right path, yet you are forced to watch characters you've spent significant time with go down it and suffer the consequences as a result.
It felt absolutely awful both times you are forced to play Abby and Ellie's confrontations, which I think highlights what a great job Naughty Dog did in developing the Abby character in this game - it would be easy to be very easy to have the players be full Team Ellie and the fact that I was in no way in that bucket by the end speaks to the way story was told here.
2020
The RPG bits were a bit repetitive given the rougelike nature of the game, but I did enjoy the deckbuilding aspects - specifically having to manage two decks for negotiation and combat. I finished with 2 of the 3 characters.
2022
This was generally fine - the core gunplay didn't feel great, but by the time many of the mobility options were unlocked it got more fun. The game seemed somewhat buggy to me, but I could see how this would form the basis for a more solid sequel. As it was, it wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either.
2022
A fun enough auto-shooter, although I wish there was a bit more variety and perhaps some meta-progression to work toward. It was great how each character has very different rules - which forces you to change up your strategy for each one. I also liked how the RNG biases toward decisions you've already made, so you can influence what kinds of build you would like to have while still retaining some level of randomness.
I do wish that there was more variety in terms of the map - both the physical map and the types and waves of enemies that spawn. As it is, you play each character on the same map and the enemy waves are the same each time, which creates a feeling of repetitiveness. I also wish there was some sort of meta-progression. While each character you win with typically unlocks a new weapon, that wasn't enough to make it feel like I was growing with each run as is common in rouge-lites.
This is the kind of game that is best played if you have 30 minutes here or 30 minutes there to put in a run, rather than playing it straight all the way through. It's quite fun in short bursts, but rather grindy when played in longer sessions.
I do wish that there was more variety in terms of the map - both the physical map and the types and waves of enemies that spawn. As it is, you play each character on the same map and the enemy waves are the same each time, which creates a feeling of repetitiveness. I also wish there was some sort of meta-progression. While each character you win with typically unlocks a new weapon, that wasn't enough to make it feel like I was growing with each run as is common in rouge-lites.
This is the kind of game that is best played if you have 30 minutes here or 30 minutes there to put in a run, rather than playing it straight all the way through. It's quite fun in short bursts, but rather grindy when played in longer sessions.