NewVegasNick
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I was in a nostalgic mood and felt like re-visiting this one via the remaster.
It's funny how this game has all of the same problems as I remember, yet I still like it. The atmosphere is cozy, Kat is a fun protagonist and the gravity powers are still unique. No game out there plays quite like Gravity Rush. For better and for worse.
The combat stinks. Going up in the air to either launch a special attack or divekick towards pink balls gets old real fast. I would have MUCH rather Gravity Rush omit combat altogether to having this system in place. The story is also just fine I guess. The comic book cutscenes have a lot of personality to them and do help in setting a whimsical tone to the game. The music also helps a ton in this regard. It's a fun world to be in.
The thing I enjoyed doing the most were the gravity obstacle courses throughout the game. They often required I use the gravity powers in creative ways and were a lot of fun.
I platinumed this over the weekend and had a good time. Here's hoping the Gravity Rush 2 PS5 remaster is real. I'd love to revisit that one as well.
It's funny how this game has all of the same problems as I remember, yet I still like it. The atmosphere is cozy, Kat is a fun protagonist and the gravity powers are still unique. No game out there plays quite like Gravity Rush. For better and for worse.
The combat stinks. Going up in the air to either launch a special attack or divekick towards pink balls gets old real fast. I would have MUCH rather Gravity Rush omit combat altogether to having this system in place. The story is also just fine I guess. The comic book cutscenes have a lot of personality to them and do help in setting a whimsical tone to the game. The music also helps a ton in this regard. It's a fun world to be in.
The thing I enjoyed doing the most were the gravity obstacle courses throughout the game. They often required I use the gravity powers in creative ways and were a lot of fun.
I platinumed this over the weekend and had a good time. Here's hoping the Gravity Rush 2 PS5 remaster is real. I'd love to revisit that one as well.
2023
One of the more interesting games I've played a good while.
Worldless is at it's core a turn based rhythm game where you need to master patterns (and how to react to them). When it's good, it's REAL good. Some fights felt downright euphoric once I understood how to tackle them. But god, sometimes it's just such a frustrating combat system to engage with. It's very unforgiving in the sense that it leaves very little room for error. If you fuck up, chances are, the enemy wipes you and you have to start the fight over. Which I'm of two minds of. On one hand, this lends to the hostile nature of the game and makes the highs feel higher. But it also makes the lows feel lower and occasionally felt akin to banging my head against a wall. I do appreciate what it's going for. TLDR; skill issue.
The metroidvania stuff is good. There's are fun platforming puzzle sections sprinkled throughout the map that made it interesting enough to traverse. But overall it's a little unremarkable in that respect.
Graphically, the simply cosmic art style looks great. The animations in combat look especially punchy. I dug it.
So yeah. Worldless is an interesting game. Not really an easy one to recommend but I'm glad I played it.
Worldless is at it's core a turn based rhythm game where you need to master patterns (and how to react to them). When it's good, it's REAL good. Some fights felt downright euphoric once I understood how to tackle them. But god, sometimes it's just such a frustrating combat system to engage with. It's very unforgiving in the sense that it leaves very little room for error. If you fuck up, chances are, the enemy wipes you and you have to start the fight over. Which I'm of two minds of. On one hand, this lends to the hostile nature of the game and makes the highs feel higher. But it also makes the lows feel lower and occasionally felt akin to banging my head against a wall. I do appreciate what it's going for. TLDR; skill issue.
The metroidvania stuff is good. There's are fun platforming puzzle sections sprinkled throughout the map that made it interesting enough to traverse. But overall it's a little unremarkable in that respect.
Graphically, the simply cosmic art style looks great. The animations in combat look especially punchy. I dug it.
So yeah. Worldless is an interesting game. Not really an easy one to recommend but I'm glad I played it.
Easily the best 2D Mario since the NSMB era.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a dramatic increase in quality over the mediocre NSMB games. I feel kind of weird starting this off with such a blunt comparison but I think it's important. Wonder really goes back to basics and rejects everything that the NSMB games stood for and because of that it feels like a new fresh starting point for modern 2D Mario games.
Visually, the game is incredible. The animations are very expressive and so are the characters. Mario feels really alive here and that's great. No complaints. It's awesome.
There's something about the level design here that, while often good, never reaches anything more than that. Take the main gimmicks for example. The first one is Elephant Mario. Visually rad but basically just a Mega Mushroom. The other gimmick is the wonder effects that happen in levels. Some levels will have creative musical moments and other levels, the wonder effect will be the most mundane thing you've ever seen. Another thing that Super Mario Bros Wonder does is add a badge system that lets you alter the gameplay in a bunch of different ways. Most of the badges just end up being a way to get extra air time. It's not exactly a creative renaissance.
I was expecting Super Mario Bros Wonder to do to 2D Mario what Odyssey did to 3D Mario. Which is to reinvent the series for the modern day. It does do that to some extent, but it's just so much tamer than I would have liked it to be. Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, I get that. Maybe the next one will be more than "just" a good 2D Mario game.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a dramatic increase in quality over the mediocre NSMB games. I feel kind of weird starting this off with such a blunt comparison but I think it's important. Wonder really goes back to basics and rejects everything that the NSMB games stood for and because of that it feels like a new fresh starting point for modern 2D Mario games.
Visually, the game is incredible. The animations are very expressive and so are the characters. Mario feels really alive here and that's great. No complaints. It's awesome.
There's something about the level design here that, while often good, never reaches anything more than that. Take the main gimmicks for example. The first one is Elephant Mario. Visually rad but basically just a Mega Mushroom. The other gimmick is the wonder effects that happen in levels. Some levels will have creative musical moments and other levels, the wonder effect will be the most mundane thing you've ever seen. Another thing that Super Mario Bros Wonder does is add a badge system that lets you alter the gameplay in a bunch of different ways. Most of the badges just end up being a way to get extra air time. It's not exactly a creative renaissance.
I was expecting Super Mario Bros Wonder to do to 2D Mario what Odyssey did to 3D Mario. Which is to reinvent the series for the modern day. It does do that to some extent, but it's just so much tamer than I would have liked it to be. Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, I get that. Maybe the next one will be more than "just" a good 2D Mario game.
I've played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth almost every single day during the month of March and boy do I have a lot to say about it and I have no idea where to begin.
First off, I don't usually spend 100+ hours playing games. I did not expect Rebirth to be this vast. I expected it to be bigger than Remake but Rebirth is on a whole other level. It's a massive game. And that's it's biggest strength and also it's biggest weakness.
I really enjoyed the open world aspect of the game for the most part. Listening to the 10/10 soundtrack while riding a Choboco and mowing down fiends was always fun and something I looked forward to doing (except in Cosmo Canyon. All the homies hate Cosmo Canyon). It goes become quite repetitive early on so the variety that new environments brought were always appreciated. So exploring the world was a big thing that I enjoyed. Rebirth instills this massive feeling of adventure from the get-go and I love that about it. I always felt like I was on this epic quest with a fun party.
Speaking of the party, the interactions amongst the core cast are another highlight of the game. They're at their best when they're bickering or being goofballs. Which happens A TON in the side content, which is why it's worth playing as long as you're having fun. Yuffie especially has protagonist energy throughout the game. Her kit is by far the most complex and rewarding to play and the narrative of the game places her front and centre often, as it should. The other newcomers, Red IX and Cait Sith, are good as well, but are nowhere as endearing as Yuffie. Still, they're fun additions to the crew and I enjoyed them.
The gameplay remains as solid as Remake's was. This battle system is so fun and rewarding to play. But Rebirth's main addition is a shit ton of minigames. I lost count how many there are lol. Some are good, some are great, and some are terrible. It's a real mix of a ton of stuff. There's even a card game called Queen's Blood that I got way too into. I think at least 20 hours of my time on Rebirth is playing Queen's Blood. Although, it eventually got pretty easy once I built a deck that I was comfortable with. So yeah lots of minigames.
Too many minigames even. There comes a point in Rebirth where the minigames, the activities, hell, even the story stuff, just become too much. It's an extremely dense and vast game and it's often not to it's benefit. I barely mentioned the overarching story so far because it's basically a whole lot of nothing. The Dinkleberg Sephiroth plot is not very interesting. Even the Nomura stuff here just feels like Kingdom Hearts at home. The game ends up focusing a ton on Aerith who's just not that interesting (and also sucks to play as during her sections).
It's weird because I was never really motivated to keep playing for the story. I was motivated to keep playing to see more moments where my party would do goofy shit together. I was motivated by the exploration and discoveries I'd make during my travelsAnd that's when Rebirth is at it's best. Even though a lot of the open world has Ubisoft design elements to it, it's still really fun to play. Most of the time.
I probably sound quite harsh on the game but I truly had a lot of fun with it. For a whole month, the world of Final Fantasy VII was a world I looked forward to existing in and being a part of. I'm really underwhelmed by the main narrative but I'd still recommend the journey to those who are willing to invest themselves in it. I'm really stuck in between a 3.5/5 and a 4/5 for this one. I can't decide. I'll let myself come back to change it to whatever one sticks with me when I give the game some distance.
First off, I don't usually spend 100+ hours playing games. I did not expect Rebirth to be this vast. I expected it to be bigger than Remake but Rebirth is on a whole other level. It's a massive game. And that's it's biggest strength and also it's biggest weakness.
I really enjoyed the open world aspect of the game for the most part. Listening to the 10/10 soundtrack while riding a Choboco and mowing down fiends was always fun and something I looked forward to doing (except in Cosmo Canyon. All the homies hate Cosmo Canyon). It goes become quite repetitive early on so the variety that new environments brought were always appreciated. So exploring the world was a big thing that I enjoyed. Rebirth instills this massive feeling of adventure from the get-go and I love that about it. I always felt like I was on this epic quest with a fun party.
Speaking of the party, the interactions amongst the core cast are another highlight of the game. They're at their best when they're bickering or being goofballs. Which happens A TON in the side content, which is why it's worth playing as long as you're having fun. Yuffie especially has protagonist energy throughout the game. Her kit is by far the most complex and rewarding to play and the narrative of the game places her front and centre often, as it should. The other newcomers, Red IX and Cait Sith, are good as well, but are nowhere as endearing as Yuffie. Still, they're fun additions to the crew and I enjoyed them.
The gameplay remains as solid as Remake's was. This battle system is so fun and rewarding to play. But Rebirth's main addition is a shit ton of minigames. I lost count how many there are lol. Some are good, some are great, and some are terrible. It's a real mix of a ton of stuff. There's even a card game called Queen's Blood that I got way too into. I think at least 20 hours of my time on Rebirth is playing Queen's Blood. Although, it eventually got pretty easy once I built a deck that I was comfortable with. So yeah lots of minigames.
Too many minigames even. There comes a point in Rebirth where the minigames, the activities, hell, even the story stuff, just become too much. It's an extremely dense and vast game and it's often not to it's benefit. I barely mentioned the overarching story so far because it's basically a whole lot of nothing. The Dinkleberg Sephiroth plot is not very interesting. Even the Nomura stuff here just feels like Kingdom Hearts at home. The game ends up focusing a ton on Aerith who's just not that interesting (and also sucks to play as during her sections).
It's weird because I was never really motivated to keep playing for the story. I was motivated to keep playing to see more moments where my party would do goofy shit together. I was motivated by the exploration and discoveries I'd make during my travelsAnd that's when Rebirth is at it's best. Even though a lot of the open world has Ubisoft design elements to it, it's still really fun to play. Most of the time.
I probably sound quite harsh on the game but I truly had a lot of fun with it. For a whole month, the world of Final Fantasy VII was a world I looked forward to existing in and being a part of. I'm really underwhelmed by the main narrative but I'd still recommend the journey to those who are willing to invest themselves in it. I'm really stuck in between a 3.5/5 and a 4/5 for this one. I can't decide. I'll let myself come back to change it to whatever one sticks with me when I give the game some distance.
This review contains spoilers
I finally played Myst. The more I think about it, this was a pretty glaring omission in terms of important games I haven't played. As a huge fan of The Witness, I really should have played this sooner. This is obviously a very similarly structured game.
First of all, the "vibes". They're immaculate. Something about playing 90s and early 00s games like this just lights up a serotonin receptor in my brain. Myst is so charming in that aspect. The sound design and rendered graphics feel carefully crafted to create this world that I was quickly absorbed in.
I like how non-hand hold-y the game is. From the very beggining the game gives you a piece of paper with your first directive and from there, you have to figure out the rest. Some of this involves reading some (pretty interesting) lore books to find puzzle solutions. Some other puzzles rely on listening to audio cues or paying attention to specific details in the environment. Overall, when this works, Myst feels amazing. Experiencing an "A-HA!" moment in Myst genuinely made me feel like a genius and that's part of what makes the design so good.
The design, however, isn't perfect. One of the visual aspects that felt a bit uneven in Myst is how it's hard to tell when a screen you're on is meant to be for a puzzle or purely for decoration. This causes some busy environments to feel a bit overwhelming. Not because a puzzle is complicated but because from a mechanics POV, it isn't clear what's worth clicking on. For me, this caused a lot of overthinking, especially in the Mechanical Age. Likewise, while most of the puzzles are genuinely great, some are just lame. Dropping down the tree elevator for example, just feels bad to figure out and worse to perform.
I also think that I appreciated how many physical notes I needed to take to get through the game. It enhanced the experience and really had me thoroughly engaged to the point I played this game for 10 hours in a single day and stayed up till 2AM to finish it. Something I rarely do.
Really though, the bad moments in Myst are VERY MUCH worth bearing to experience this singular game. I can't imagine how revelatory this game was in the 90s. It's still great today, if you go in with an open mind and willingness to engage the game on it's terms, not your own.
First of all, the "vibes". They're immaculate. Something about playing 90s and early 00s games like this just lights up a serotonin receptor in my brain. Myst is so charming in that aspect. The sound design and rendered graphics feel carefully crafted to create this world that I was quickly absorbed in.
I like how non-hand hold-y the game is. From the very beggining the game gives you a piece of paper with your first directive and from there, you have to figure out the rest. Some of this involves reading some (pretty interesting) lore books to find puzzle solutions. Some other puzzles rely on listening to audio cues or paying attention to specific details in the environment. Overall, when this works, Myst feels amazing. Experiencing an "A-HA!" moment in Myst genuinely made me feel like a genius and that's part of what makes the design so good.
The design, however, isn't perfect. One of the visual aspects that felt a bit uneven in Myst is how it's hard to tell when a screen you're on is meant to be for a puzzle or purely for decoration. This causes some busy environments to feel a bit overwhelming. Not because a puzzle is complicated but because from a mechanics POV, it isn't clear what's worth clicking on. For me, this caused a lot of overthinking, especially in the Mechanical Age. Likewise, while most of the puzzles are genuinely great, some are just lame. Dropping down the tree elevator for example, just feels bad to figure out and worse to perform.
I also think that I appreciated how many physical notes I needed to take to get through the game. It enhanced the experience and really had me thoroughly engaged to the point I played this game for 10 hours in a single day and stayed up till 2AM to finish it. Something I rarely do.
Really though, the bad moments in Myst are VERY MUCH worth bearing to experience this singular game. I can't imagine how revelatory this game was in the 90s. It's still great today, if you go in with an open mind and willingness to engage the game on it's terms, not your own.
It's Powerwash Simulator for Warhammer stuff. You know what to expect by now with these DLCs.
The very last vehicle was a pain in the ass though. Massive thing.
The very last vehicle was a pain in the ass though. Massive thing.
I will instantly purchase any high quality looking 3D platformer. It's in my blood. I love these kinds of games.
When I started playing Penny's Big Breakaway, I was not immediately impressed. The controls felt a little wacky and Penny herself, when zoomed in during cutscenes, looks like a rejected muppet. Basically, weird vibes.
But the more I played, the better the controls felt and suddenly everything clicked. I started absolutely ZOOMING through levels effortlessly and it felt amazing. The yo-yo abilities really come together to ensure I was able to traverse large areas quickly and in style.
The game feels like it's made for speedrunning since there's a permanent timer at the bottom of the screen. Even the level design goes along with this. There are so many shortcuts and cool ways to navigate the levels. It's rad.
Oh and the soundtrack is a mixed bag, but when it's good, it's REAL GOOD. Got some ps1/dreamcast vibes from a few tracks. The one in the space book levels was especially great.
Penny's Big Breakaway didn't wow me with it's presentation or it's story (although it's simple, clean and colourful graphics grew on me). But that doesn't matter. It's a game that's really fun to play from start to finish. And for that I'm extremely grateful. If you're in the mood for a very mechanical 3D platformer that's clearable in less than 10 hours, you really can't do much better than Penny's Big Breakaway.
When I started playing Penny's Big Breakaway, I was not immediately impressed. The controls felt a little wacky and Penny herself, when zoomed in during cutscenes, looks like a rejected muppet. Basically, weird vibes.
But the more I played, the better the controls felt and suddenly everything clicked. I started absolutely ZOOMING through levels effortlessly and it felt amazing. The yo-yo abilities really come together to ensure I was able to traverse large areas quickly and in style.
The game feels like it's made for speedrunning since there's a permanent timer at the bottom of the screen. Even the level design goes along with this. There are so many shortcuts and cool ways to navigate the levels. It's rad.
Oh and the soundtrack is a mixed bag, but when it's good, it's REAL GOOD. Got some ps1/dreamcast vibes from a few tracks. The one in the space book levels was especially great.
Penny's Big Breakaway didn't wow me with it's presentation or it's story (although it's simple, clean and colourful graphics grew on me). But that doesn't matter. It's a game that's really fun to play from start to finish. And for that I'm extremely grateful. If you're in the mood for a very mechanical 3D platformer that's clearable in less than 10 hours, you really can't do much better than Penny's Big Breakaway.
Like with the first game, there's a degree of finnicki-ness to the timing that makes this game never feel as great as it could.
Also god damn are the tracks in this one not balanced for console play. I have to play on casual/normal just to get through most of the tracks.
Otherwise, the track list is good but I much preferred the Avicii game. I completely skipped the story. A decent time.
Also god damn are the tracks in this one not balanced for console play. I have to play on casual/normal just to get through most of the tracks.
Otherwise, the track list is good but I much preferred the Avicii game. I completely skipped the story. A decent time.
2017
A game fully designed to speedrun is up my alley. I enjoyed getting through Kamiko faster and faster and that's when the game really clicked for me. I think in my best run, I beat the game in 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, the game itself has a lot of minor annoyances that build up. The way enemies respawn drove me up the wall and i hated not being able to shoot diagonally as the archer.
I wouldn't recommend it unless you really want a short speedrun friendly game.
Unfortunately, the game itself has a lot of minor annoyances that build up. The way enemies respawn drove me up the wall and i hated not being able to shoot diagonally as the archer.
I wouldn't recommend it unless you really want a short speedrun friendly game.
Solid introduction to Yuffie. The synergy stuff they added was cool and some neat lil story moments.
But overall feels like a rehash of many elements of the base game. Not a bad thing per se, but not too exciting either.
But overall feels like a rehash of many elements of the base game. Not a bad thing per se, but not too exciting either.
2022
Hard game to gather my thoughts about.
Ultimately it's pretty mediocre but there's a glimmer of a good game here. Ghostwire Tokyo would be better as one of those hidden gem ps3 games that's 5 hours long and trying to be something different (The Darkness fans unite).
Instead, what it ends up being is a bloated checklist game that wears down its already simple mechanics completely thin. The finger hand powers all have fantastic animations but that's no longer novel after you've done them a thousand times. At first, I thought they were a cool variation on what a first person shooter could be. In practice, all they end up being are your standard pistol, shotgun and grenade launcher. Again, the combat is suprisingly dull for such a creative sounding and looking game.
Most of the game is spent doing checklists, as I mentioned earlier. Ghostwire Tokyo is about exploring a map and sucking souls into a phone or whatever. It's dumb. There's some mindless fun to be had in just going through the map and gathering stuff but it doesn't do it any better than it's contemporaries. Maybe if it had a stellar main storyline, it'd be easy to overlook the bland open world stuff, but it doesn't even have that. The story is immediately forgettable and outside of some great monster designs, it doesn't offer anything special.
God, I didn't expect to be this harsh on Ghostwire until I started writing this. I wanted it to be better and I did have some fun exploring the Tokyo they built. It just could have been so much more. Would not recommend this one to most.
Ultimately it's pretty mediocre but there's a glimmer of a good game here. Ghostwire Tokyo would be better as one of those hidden gem ps3 games that's 5 hours long and trying to be something different (The Darkness fans unite).
Instead, what it ends up being is a bloated checklist game that wears down its already simple mechanics completely thin. The finger hand powers all have fantastic animations but that's no longer novel after you've done them a thousand times. At first, I thought they were a cool variation on what a first person shooter could be. In practice, all they end up being are your standard pistol, shotgun and grenade launcher. Again, the combat is suprisingly dull for such a creative sounding and looking game.
Most of the game is spent doing checklists, as I mentioned earlier. Ghostwire Tokyo is about exploring a map and sucking souls into a phone or whatever. It's dumb. There's some mindless fun to be had in just going through the map and gathering stuff but it doesn't do it any better than it's contemporaries. Maybe if it had a stellar main storyline, it'd be easy to overlook the bland open world stuff, but it doesn't even have that. The story is immediately forgettable and outside of some great monster designs, it doesn't offer anything special.
God, I didn't expect to be this harsh on Ghostwire until I started writing this. I wanted it to be better and I did have some fun exploring the Tokyo they built. It just could have been so much more. Would not recommend this one to most.
2013
At first glance, Deadlocked is a full game of the tournaments from other Ratchet games.
And, yeah it's pretty much that. But what it really ends up being is a Ratchet game with a focus on pure chaos. You can upgrade your weapons and modify them more than ever before. You're fighting more enemies on screen than ever before. More bolts. Etc.
Deadlocked nails the core Ratchet gameplay loop so well that even with the lack of platforming, I consider it to be a top tier Ratchet game.
And, yeah it's pretty much that. But what it really ends up being is a Ratchet game with a focus on pure chaos. You can upgrade your weapons and modify them more than ever before. You're fighting more enemies on screen than ever before. More bolts. Etc.
Deadlocked nails the core Ratchet gameplay loop so well that even with the lack of platforming, I consider it to be a top tier Ratchet game.
Played half of this in VR forever ago and decided to finally finish it. I did so in the non-VR version.
Enjoyed than I expected. There's not much to it but it's a fun silly meme game. Better in VR for sure.
Enjoyed than I expected. There's not much to it but it's a fun silly meme game. Better in VR for sure.
Where to even start with this one?
First of all, it's worth mentioning that the game had an embarrassing hate campaign against it for the past year. The part that bothered me the most is the whole "this game is disrespectful to Kevin Conroy" takes I kept seeing (and still do on this website even). It's gross and completely unwarranted. Batman isn't a real person. Grow up. Another portion of the hate campaign was mostly directed at the GaaS aspects of the game. Which is, to be honest, understandable. GaaS games have taken over the industry and it really felt like Suicide Squad was the outlet for the pent-up frustrations many had with that model. I get it.
So a week ago, me and a friend of mine decided to buy Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. We kind of got it to hate-play it to be honest. While I wasn't really onboard with the people irrationally upset about heroes dying, I am very tired with GaaS stuff, so I didn't expect this to be my cup of tea.
My first impression with the game was how incredible the production values are. The character models for the squad are industry best and the facial capture puts recent AAA games like Spider-Man to absolute shame. This is something that really helps the humor. There's a lot of physical humor that comes from seeing a character (usually Boomerang) making very human facial expressions when reacting. It's awesome and something I'm not used to seeing outside of Naughty Dog games. So yeah, all the production stuff, including the genuinely great voice acting really lends a legitimacy to the story campaign.
But how does it play? Again, something that surprised me. It plays really damn well. All four squad members have complimentary playstyles and feel truly completely different from one another. I mostly played as Capatain Boomerang and god was the traversal ever fun with him. Zooming past the environments with a teleporting boomerang is great. The movement is a highlight and it was always fun to get around Metropolis.
Likewise, the shooting mechanics are extremely well thought out. The shield breaking melees mixed in with maybe the best third person shooter mechanics I've used in a decade come together to make the game feel like a spiritual successor to Crackdown and Sunset overdrive. Everything feels punchy and the game throws tons of enemies at you. Especially coop, the campaign shines.
The story is nothing really special but I did appreciate the character moments sprinkled throughout. Not every joke works but it's a game that's frequently funny. Captain Boomerang is my kind of dumb degenerate.
For as great as the core mechanics are, there are parts of this game that just puzzle me. First of all, the map. Metropolis is extremely fleshed out and detailed but there's not much of value to do in it. The artists at Rockstead cooked up a great looking world but it's just there. The amount of detail feels superfluous.
The main issue I have though is the level design. It's really uninspired and almost always uninteresting. It's not to say it can't be fun. It's often very fun because the core mechanics are so great. But like, there's 3-4 mission templates that they just re-use the entire game. They're not that interesting. Sometimes it gets broken up by a cool boss fight (Green Lantern fight is awesome) but otherwise, it's really standard fare.
And then there's endgame stuff which I'm not factoring much into my rating. It's there. It's repetitive. That's what a live service game is. I played this game as a story campaign game and got damn near 40 hours out of it. For me, that's enough. And I think that on those merits, SS succeeds as a fun time.
If the level design was brought up to the standards of the core gameplay loop, I genuinely think this game would be a 4/5 or even higher. I think in today's age, too many devs are trying to strike gold with GaaS and it's hurting the quality of the game. Suicide Squad is nowhere near as bad as internet commenters will try to convince you. There's a good game here, if you approach it with an open mind.
First of all, it's worth mentioning that the game had an embarrassing hate campaign against it for the past year. The part that bothered me the most is the whole "this game is disrespectful to Kevin Conroy" takes I kept seeing (and still do on this website even). It's gross and completely unwarranted. Batman isn't a real person. Grow up. Another portion of the hate campaign was mostly directed at the GaaS aspects of the game. Which is, to be honest, understandable. GaaS games have taken over the industry and it really felt like Suicide Squad was the outlet for the pent-up frustrations many had with that model. I get it.
So a week ago, me and a friend of mine decided to buy Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. We kind of got it to hate-play it to be honest. While I wasn't really onboard with the people irrationally upset about heroes dying, I am very tired with GaaS stuff, so I didn't expect this to be my cup of tea.
My first impression with the game was how incredible the production values are. The character models for the squad are industry best and the facial capture puts recent AAA games like Spider-Man to absolute shame. This is something that really helps the humor. There's a lot of physical humor that comes from seeing a character (usually Boomerang) making very human facial expressions when reacting. It's awesome and something I'm not used to seeing outside of Naughty Dog games. So yeah, all the production stuff, including the genuinely great voice acting really lends a legitimacy to the story campaign.
But how does it play? Again, something that surprised me. It plays really damn well. All four squad members have complimentary playstyles and feel truly completely different from one another. I mostly played as Capatain Boomerang and god was the traversal ever fun with him. Zooming past the environments with a teleporting boomerang is great. The movement is a highlight and it was always fun to get around Metropolis.
Likewise, the shooting mechanics are extremely well thought out. The shield breaking melees mixed in with maybe the best third person shooter mechanics I've used in a decade come together to make the game feel like a spiritual successor to Crackdown and Sunset overdrive. Everything feels punchy and the game throws tons of enemies at you. Especially coop, the campaign shines.
The story is nothing really special but I did appreciate the character moments sprinkled throughout. Not every joke works but it's a game that's frequently funny. Captain Boomerang is my kind of dumb degenerate.
For as great as the core mechanics are, there are parts of this game that just puzzle me. First of all, the map. Metropolis is extremely fleshed out and detailed but there's not much of value to do in it. The artists at Rockstead cooked up a great looking world but it's just there. The amount of detail feels superfluous.
The main issue I have though is the level design. It's really uninspired and almost always uninteresting. It's not to say it can't be fun. It's often very fun because the core mechanics are so great. But like, there's 3-4 mission templates that they just re-use the entire game. They're not that interesting. Sometimes it gets broken up by a cool boss fight (Green Lantern fight is awesome) but otherwise, it's really standard fare.
And then there's endgame stuff which I'm not factoring much into my rating. It's there. It's repetitive. That's what a live service game is. I played this game as a story campaign game and got damn near 40 hours out of it. For me, that's enough. And I think that on those merits, SS succeeds as a fun time.
If the level design was brought up to the standards of the core gameplay loop, I genuinely think this game would be a 4/5 or even higher. I think in today's age, too many devs are trying to strike gold with GaaS and it's hurting the quality of the game. Suicide Squad is nowhere near as bad as internet commenters will try to convince you. There's a good game here, if you approach it with an open mind.
Turns out that making a Metroid Dread coded Prince of Persia game is a fantastic idea.
I was interested in this one until I heard two things: that it's a Metroidvania and that it's from former Rayman Legends developers. Immediately, the movement feels incredible. I'd go as far saying that it's the Prince of Persia game that feels the best to play. Moving Sargon around feels fluid at the start of the game and only gets better and better as more traversal abilities are unlocked.
Platforming is where it's at here. The bigger than expected map is filled to the brim with different platforming obstacle courses or platforming puzzles that feel great to navigate. It's a really fun map and exploring it constantly gave me that "I have to keep playing to see what's up ahead" feeling.
Oh there's also this amazing feature where you press down on the d-pad and the game logs a picture of the area you're in. This is such an incredible quality of life feature for a Metroidvania game. I want them all to have this now.
There's also combat, which for the most part, is serviceable. It's not particularly exciting but it's also not a huge part of the game. Enemies can be skipped or fought to get the in-game currency. Too many shielded enemies though. Maybe I was bad at fighting them, but they block me so much that they started feeling a little tedious by the end. The bosses though, are definitely the highlight of the combat. Learning the boss patterns was fun. God, some of them took me like 20 tries, I swear. It's good stuff though. Almost always feels fair and they telegraph what they're doing in smart ways.
The story and visuals are fine. I won't really comment much on them because I don't think that's why the game is worth playing. If all you care about is cutting edge graphics, move along. That's not to say PoP is ugly or anything. It looks just fine most of the time, and for the kind of game it is, I'm ok with it. The story, likewise, is kind of skippable. They try to go for a neat twist on the Prince of Persia origin but I didn't care much for most of the characters to be honest. Again, not a reason to play the game imo.
Overall, I'm really impressed by Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I ended up liking it much more than expected. A great addition to the stable of great Metroidvania games out there. What a great start to 2024!
I was interested in this one until I heard two things: that it's a Metroidvania and that it's from former Rayman Legends developers. Immediately, the movement feels incredible. I'd go as far saying that it's the Prince of Persia game that feels the best to play. Moving Sargon around feels fluid at the start of the game and only gets better and better as more traversal abilities are unlocked.
Platforming is where it's at here. The bigger than expected map is filled to the brim with different platforming obstacle courses or platforming puzzles that feel great to navigate. It's a really fun map and exploring it constantly gave me that "I have to keep playing to see what's up ahead" feeling.
Oh there's also this amazing feature where you press down on the d-pad and the game logs a picture of the area you're in. This is such an incredible quality of life feature for a Metroidvania game. I want them all to have this now.
There's also combat, which for the most part, is serviceable. It's not particularly exciting but it's also not a huge part of the game. Enemies can be skipped or fought to get the in-game currency. Too many shielded enemies though. Maybe I was bad at fighting them, but they block me so much that they started feeling a little tedious by the end. The bosses though, are definitely the highlight of the combat. Learning the boss patterns was fun. God, some of them took me like 20 tries, I swear. It's good stuff though. Almost always feels fair and they telegraph what they're doing in smart ways.
The story and visuals are fine. I won't really comment much on them because I don't think that's why the game is worth playing. If all you care about is cutting edge graphics, move along. That's not to say PoP is ugly or anything. It looks just fine most of the time, and for the kind of game it is, I'm ok with it. The story, likewise, is kind of skippable. They try to go for a neat twist on the Prince of Persia origin but I didn't care much for most of the characters to be honest. Again, not a reason to play the game imo.
Overall, I'm really impressed by Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I ended up liking it much more than expected. A great addition to the stable of great Metroidvania games out there. What a great start to 2024!