Nikostallvic
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Fallout: New Vegas
2010
I have a weird tendency to forget how good a lot of games really are.
Like, NV is and always was a near-perfect 10/10 experience for me, but I kind of forgot how good it really is with time.
When I booted this game up again for my recent run, I ended up playing for 8 HOURS STRAIGHT. And it did not feel like that at all. That shit disappeared in an instant, that's how good this game is.
New Vegas takes everything Fallout 3 did and just improves on it to near-perfection. This game is what Vice City is to GTA III. A pure refinement of the formula to near-perfection. It's so funny looking back to see those initial launch reviews call this game a "glorified DLC", because honestly it doesn't feel like that at all. It has all the stuff from 3 sure, the engine and gunplay and such, but it's all just improved here. It takes everything fo3 did, threw away all the stuff that didn't work, and creates something that actually FEELS like a sequel to fallout 1 and 2, both in narrative, and in gameplay. Playing Fallout 1 has honestly given me a bigger appreciation for this game's quest formula and how it handles it's world, because it honestly isn't far off from what the classic games did. It really does feels like Fallout 1/2, but in first person. Hell even the map, for as much as some do complain about it, gave me that vibe too with just how much of fo1 and 2's map was just select named locations with desert plains between them all. Sure, it does mean you do need to go out of your way to find all the actual named locations that are worth exploring (I recommend either picking up the explorer perk or looking up a map online), but even with that this game's map still feels fun to explore and engage with all these years later. There's so much choice, be it in dialogue, how you accomplish quests/objectives, your general gameplay style, and much more. It's as much of a sandbox game as it gets, for this series at least. Every time I beat a quest, I think "man what if I did THIS instead?" and that inevitably becomes what I'll do next time. If you think you can do it, you probably can in NV, and that's the mark of a great RPG. I'm still discovering stuff about this game all these years later, be it stuff about the factions (which are already incredibly fleshed out despite the obvious cuts like with the Legion), quest details, gameplay, companions, and much more.
The only real things that haven't really held up aside from the general Bethesda gamebryo jank that's in basically all of these games is really the vanilla gunplay and specifically, stealth. It's really not a fun playstyle imho with how it's basically just for sneak attacks before inevitably going loud and nothing else and it's so easy to steal items so long as you either have a stealth boy or are out of the general NPC's line of sight (and sure, stealth boys are rare, but with how many you find just from doing come fly with me alone (which you WILL be doing early on) you'll have at least 5+ sitting in your inventory for when you really want it). But again, like before, that's an issue in basically every Bethesda RPG.
Only other real thing is the Karma system is really stupid and especially doesn't belong in this game. At least in 3 you can argue it made SOME kind of sense with just how basically every single evil choice was so painfully obvious with how comedically supervillain it was that you'd have to be stupid to pick it on pure accident, but here it just doesn't make sense. Why do I lose karma when I steal from LITERAL CANNIBALS THAT EAT PEOPLE? What about from the Legion if I DON'T agree with slavery and how they treat women?? Imagine if in Deus Ex you got an alert saying "YOU'RE BEING EVIL!!!" if you decided to follow orders during the first Liberty Island mission and kill all the NSF when you as the player don't know what UNATCO is really up to. It just makes no sense and it doesn't help that in this game it impacts absolutely NOTHING. Give me a red alert when stealing a certain item that if I get caught will gain me infamy sure, but don't pass me with that "stealing is evil no matter WHAT even if you think they're bad" shit. Let me decide for myself whether or not it's justified and let me deal with the consequences.
But even with all that, it's all minor at the end of the day. I can still play this game vanilla and have a great time, something I can't say for Fo3 or even some other Bethesda RPGs. Even on console, Xbox 360 backwards compat at least, I can have a good time. Which I did back when my old PC went under and I had to stick with my Xbone for a while (altho I've heard horror stories about the PS3 version and you should prolly avoid it). Some people'll say this game's overrated, and I can understand that to a certain extent with just how annoying some of the fans can be, but I genuinely do believe that praise is there and is warranted for very good reason. You'd have to be a pure frowning friends ass cynic if you wanna believe this game is truly awful, or at least not above average. New Vegas is just THAT GOOD, nearly 25 years later. It remains to be seen if this series will ever reach this high ever again, but even if it doesn't, I'll be comfortable replaying this for the rest of my life.
Like, NV is and always was a near-perfect 10/10 experience for me, but I kind of forgot how good it really is with time.
When I booted this game up again for my recent run, I ended up playing for 8 HOURS STRAIGHT. And it did not feel like that at all. That shit disappeared in an instant, that's how good this game is.
New Vegas takes everything Fallout 3 did and just improves on it to near-perfection. This game is what Vice City is to GTA III. A pure refinement of the formula to near-perfection. It's so funny looking back to see those initial launch reviews call this game a "glorified DLC", because honestly it doesn't feel like that at all. It has all the stuff from 3 sure, the engine and gunplay and such, but it's all just improved here. It takes everything fo3 did, threw away all the stuff that didn't work, and creates something that actually FEELS like a sequel to fallout 1 and 2, both in narrative, and in gameplay. Playing Fallout 1 has honestly given me a bigger appreciation for this game's quest formula and how it handles it's world, because it honestly isn't far off from what the classic games did. It really does feels like Fallout 1/2, but in first person. Hell even the map, for as much as some do complain about it, gave me that vibe too with just how much of fo1 and 2's map was just select named locations with desert plains between them all. Sure, it does mean you do need to go out of your way to find all the actual named locations that are worth exploring (I recommend either picking up the explorer perk or looking up a map online), but even with that this game's map still feels fun to explore and engage with all these years later. There's so much choice, be it in dialogue, how you accomplish quests/objectives, your general gameplay style, and much more. It's as much of a sandbox game as it gets, for this series at least. Every time I beat a quest, I think "man what if I did THIS instead?" and that inevitably becomes what I'll do next time. If you think you can do it, you probably can in NV, and that's the mark of a great RPG. I'm still discovering stuff about this game all these years later, be it stuff about the factions (which are already incredibly fleshed out despite the obvious cuts like with the Legion), quest details, gameplay, companions, and much more.
The only real things that haven't really held up aside from the general Bethesda gamebryo jank that's in basically all of these games is really the vanilla gunplay and specifically, stealth. It's really not a fun playstyle imho with how it's basically just for sneak attacks before inevitably going loud and nothing else and it's so easy to steal items so long as you either have a stealth boy or are out of the general NPC's line of sight (and sure, stealth boys are rare, but with how many you find just from doing come fly with me alone (which you WILL be doing early on) you'll have at least 5+ sitting in your inventory for when you really want it). But again, like before, that's an issue in basically every Bethesda RPG.
Only other real thing is the Karma system is really stupid and especially doesn't belong in this game. At least in 3 you can argue it made SOME kind of sense with just how basically every single evil choice was so painfully obvious with how comedically supervillain it was that you'd have to be stupid to pick it on pure accident, but here it just doesn't make sense. Why do I lose karma when I steal from LITERAL CANNIBALS THAT EAT PEOPLE? What about from the Legion if I DON'T agree with slavery and how they treat women?? Imagine if in Deus Ex you got an alert saying "YOU'RE BEING EVIL!!!" if you decided to follow orders during the first Liberty Island mission and kill all the NSF when you as the player don't know what UNATCO is really up to. It just makes no sense and it doesn't help that in this game it impacts absolutely NOTHING. Give me a red alert when stealing a certain item that if I get caught will gain me infamy sure, but don't pass me with that "stealing is evil no matter WHAT even if you think they're bad" shit. Let me decide for myself whether or not it's justified and let me deal with the consequences.
But even with all that, it's all minor at the end of the day. I can still play this game vanilla and have a great time, something I can't say for Fo3 or even some other Bethesda RPGs. Even on console, Xbox 360 backwards compat at least, I can have a good time. Which I did back when my old PC went under and I had to stick with my Xbone for a while (altho I've heard horror stories about the PS3 version and you should prolly avoid it). Some people'll say this game's overrated, and I can understand that to a certain extent with just how annoying some of the fans can be, but I genuinely do believe that praise is there and is warranted for very good reason. You'd have to be a pure frowning friends ass cynic if you wanna believe this game is truly awful, or at least not above average. New Vegas is just THAT GOOD, nearly 25 years later. It remains to be seen if this series will ever reach this high ever again, but even if it doesn't, I'll be comfortable replaying this for the rest of my life.
Super Metroid
1994
Thank you to QuentTheSlayer for giving me the final push that made me play through Super Metroid.
The Super Nintendo was probably the ultimate time of refinement for Video Games. So many game series, that are now held up as timeless classics found their definitive formula on Nintendo's second console generation. Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy and of course today's subject: Metroid. Super Metroid is still considered by many to be the peak of the metroidvania genre, and it's admittedly strange to realize that I had never played it. Even as a huge fan of the series, I just always put it off to the side. I'll get around to it eventually. After all: In the same amount of time it would take me to get into Super Metroid, I could just replay Fusion for the 50th time. I haven't played Prime 2 in a hot minute. What's that shiny new Dread game that just came out ? And so on and so on. But then in 2024, I set aside the excuses, committed, and I can now say that I have finally finished Super Metroid.
Its hard to put into words how much of a mindfuck my first playthrough of Super Metroid was. This almost 30-year-old Super Nintendo game has you in a chokehold the moment the title screen appears. The pan across a quiet, dark laboratory. 1994. Nintendo. Presents. Metroid 3. SUPER METROID. Right there, with the bodies of dead scientist strewn across the floor and the baby metroid trapped in a glass tube, the title of the game towers in gigantic, bold letters. It's one of the most striking introductions to a Video Game I have ever seen. A statement, before you even press a single button.
Of course this strong in medias res opening is only possible due to the fact that Super Metroid is the canonical third entry of the series, continuing on from the ending of Metroid 2: Return of Samus. And the game does an excellent job of catching you up to the events of the previous games. In a moody monologue, Samus recounts her fight against Motherbrain in her first adventure, her mission to eradicate the Metroid species for good and her sparing the last baby Metroid at the end. She brings said baby Metroid to the Galactic Research Station Ceres. There, the baby Metroid is supposed to be further studied while Samus is off hunting another bounty. Of course, she barely makes it out the door before receiving the call that Ceres is under attack. Ridley and his space pirates have decimated Ceres in order to capture the last Metroid. It's here where Super Metroid first gives you control over Samus in an action packed and atmospheric opening. She blasts through the invading space pirates and storms into an inevitable confrontation with long time nemesis Ridley. After an early sneak peek at this late game boss fight, Ridley flees with the baby Metroid in his claws. Samus follows in hot pursuit and lands on the planet Zebes. The setting of the original Metroid. This series story telling has always been and would continue to be very subtle, but even this opening stands tall among its peers in terms of how much you can get across just through a quick opening text crawl and pure gameplay. Really, the recap from our badass heroine is the only dialogue you will get across the entire game, and yet it still manages to tell an engaging story as you make your way down through the underground tunnels of Zebes.
Zebes is what all metroidvania maps should aspire to be in my opinion. Isolating, with long, winding corridors and incredibly distinct environments. This map is so well-designed that I rarely felt lost or directionless even when I wasnt exacly sure what my next step was. The map screen is there, but it does the bare minimum to give you any general information on the environment. Because it doesn't have to tell you more. The drive to explore and the invisible hand of the developers guiding you are enough. Very, very rarely did I find myself lost as to where to go next and the few times that the game had me stumped, I can attribute to my general impatients I have been trained on due to modern video games. If I spend more than 30 minutes figuring out the way forward, then it must be bad game design, right ?. Fuck you, David Jaffe. By paying close attention to the game, you can always intuit where your way forward is. It's a masterstroke of game design.
The other side of gameplay besides navigating the game world, is combat and finding upgrades. Because Samus isnt badass enough already. That was Metroids bread and butter from the very beginning really. Super doesn't hugely change the formula, but still excels in teaching you its mechanics naturally. The game has you collect all the now famous Metroid tools like Super Missiles, the Grapple Beam and so on, while always showing you how to use them with a reward that seems just out of reach, right after you got that shiny new upgrade. Again, all without a single interruption or textbox. If somebody had to nitpick any aspects of the gameplay, it would probably have to do with Samus jump and the way you switch through different weapon modes. Firstly: Samus jump arc is a weird one to get used to for sure, since she gets an unusual amount of air time for a 2D platformer. The standard jump, which can also be altered into a summersault forward, seems very stiff as well. It almost feels like the Castlevania 1 jump arc as if some weirdo happend to turn on low gravity. Weird maybe, but those quirks still very much lend themselves to the often tubelike level design of Zebes and I rarely had any problems with jumping up to ledges or across platforms. The second, more annoying nitpick would probably be how you switch weapons via the select button. It's an awkward solution that had me often fumble around when I wanted a specific weapon equipped, but it's not a dealbreaker either, just something I wished was a bit better by default. Oh, and there is a run button. Never forget that you have a run button. It had me stuck for a bit and you will thank me later, fellow non-manual readers. Those minor flaws aside, the gameplay is incredibly rewarding to master and once you do master it, the real meta game of Super Metroid begins. Sequence Breaking.
Again: It's an aspect of the genre that Metroid is already famous for and its the game that popularized it, but Super Metroid does it on a whole other level. This game has one technique in particular, one you unknowingly have access to from the very beginning, that is designed to break the game's intended progression. It's a tricky one to execute, and the game will teach it to you in an organic way at some point. Once you fully master it, you might as well throw all preconceived notions out the window that this game was ever linear to begin with. Already deep into my second playthrough, I feel the effects of playing at a higher level. Upgrades and bosses, that seemed so far away in the beginning, can now be acquired basically as early or as late as you want to. The genius decision of teaching you this high level play during your first trip through Zebes does wonders for replayability. Pay attention and the game will infinitely reward you for it. You might of course go to areas you're not equipped for yet, but if you persevere, you get the best abilities incredibly early. Risk vs Reward, entirely on the player's own terms. Genius.
I honestly didn't expect to sing this game's praises so much, and I still haven't talked about the incredible sprite work or the god tier soundtrack. Two aspects I can not find a single flaw in, and talking about them would have me repeating myself again with only superlatives. The game is one of the most gorgeous games I have ever seen, it's like a immaculate painting. The soundtrack gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, and taking the elevator down the Brinstar for the first time is already one of my top 5 magic moments of all time. There you go.
Saving my credibility for reviewing video games, whatever that is even worth, I should probably still mention my one big rage-quit moment. As no game is perfect, but Super Metroid is damn close. Maridia. Maridia fucking sucks and seems to be the one area where the developers couldn't hold back the urge anymore to design a cryptic hell maze. Not only is getting to Maridia a bullshit ordeal all on its own, actually navigating this oversized fish tank with all its invisible walls is a confusing slog. And god help you if managed to come here without the gravity suit, like i did. Now, try to figure out how to get back to dry land while Samus jogs across the ocean floor in slowmotion. Or hope your most recent save isn't too far away. Hey, there is this giant purple tube you can go up and down through, that is clearly showing you an entirely different area in the middle. Well forget that. Ain't going there yet, no matter how hard the game implies it. Finish off the underwater journey with two really sub-par bosses. Please just end me.
Alright. Despite the grueling stretch through the sludge waters of Maridia, despite every bone in my body telling me that now this supposed all-time classic has finally fallen to the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses of fanboys across the globe, it shinesparked back up like a phoenix and stuck the landing. More than that, it destroyed the landing pad and drilled itself deep into my heart to become one of my favorite games of all time. I already know this will get more than one playthrough in the near future, because Super Metroid fucking rules. Go play Super Metroid you cowards!
The Super Nintendo was probably the ultimate time of refinement for Video Games. So many game series, that are now held up as timeless classics found their definitive formula on Nintendo's second console generation. Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy and of course today's subject: Metroid. Super Metroid is still considered by many to be the peak of the metroidvania genre, and it's admittedly strange to realize that I had never played it. Even as a huge fan of the series, I just always put it off to the side. I'll get around to it eventually. After all: In the same amount of time it would take me to get into Super Metroid, I could just replay Fusion for the 50th time. I haven't played Prime 2 in a hot minute. What's that shiny new Dread game that just came out ? And so on and so on. But then in 2024, I set aside the excuses, committed, and I can now say that I have finally finished Super Metroid.
Its hard to put into words how much of a mindfuck my first playthrough of Super Metroid was. This almost 30-year-old Super Nintendo game has you in a chokehold the moment the title screen appears. The pan across a quiet, dark laboratory. 1994. Nintendo. Presents. Metroid 3. SUPER METROID. Right there, with the bodies of dead scientist strewn across the floor and the baby metroid trapped in a glass tube, the title of the game towers in gigantic, bold letters. It's one of the most striking introductions to a Video Game I have ever seen. A statement, before you even press a single button.
Of course this strong in medias res opening is only possible due to the fact that Super Metroid is the canonical third entry of the series, continuing on from the ending of Metroid 2: Return of Samus. And the game does an excellent job of catching you up to the events of the previous games. In a moody monologue, Samus recounts her fight against Motherbrain in her first adventure, her mission to eradicate the Metroid species for good and her sparing the last baby Metroid at the end. She brings said baby Metroid to the Galactic Research Station Ceres. There, the baby Metroid is supposed to be further studied while Samus is off hunting another bounty. Of course, she barely makes it out the door before receiving the call that Ceres is under attack. Ridley and his space pirates have decimated Ceres in order to capture the last Metroid. It's here where Super Metroid first gives you control over Samus in an action packed and atmospheric opening. She blasts through the invading space pirates and storms into an inevitable confrontation with long time nemesis Ridley. After an early sneak peek at this late game boss fight, Ridley flees with the baby Metroid in his claws. Samus follows in hot pursuit and lands on the planet Zebes. The setting of the original Metroid. This series story telling has always been and would continue to be very subtle, but even this opening stands tall among its peers in terms of how much you can get across just through a quick opening text crawl and pure gameplay. Really, the recap from our badass heroine is the only dialogue you will get across the entire game, and yet it still manages to tell an engaging story as you make your way down through the underground tunnels of Zebes.
Zebes is what all metroidvania maps should aspire to be in my opinion. Isolating, with long, winding corridors and incredibly distinct environments. This map is so well-designed that I rarely felt lost or directionless even when I wasnt exacly sure what my next step was. The map screen is there, but it does the bare minimum to give you any general information on the environment. Because it doesn't have to tell you more. The drive to explore and the invisible hand of the developers guiding you are enough. Very, very rarely did I find myself lost as to where to go next and the few times that the game had me stumped, I can attribute to my general impatients I have been trained on due to modern video games. If I spend more than 30 minutes figuring out the way forward, then it must be bad game design, right ?. Fuck you, David Jaffe. By paying close attention to the game, you can always intuit where your way forward is. It's a masterstroke of game design.
The other side of gameplay besides navigating the game world, is combat and finding upgrades. Because Samus isnt badass enough already. That was Metroids bread and butter from the very beginning really. Super doesn't hugely change the formula, but still excels in teaching you its mechanics naturally. The game has you collect all the now famous Metroid tools like Super Missiles, the Grapple Beam and so on, while always showing you how to use them with a reward that seems just out of reach, right after you got that shiny new upgrade. Again, all without a single interruption or textbox. If somebody had to nitpick any aspects of the gameplay, it would probably have to do with Samus jump and the way you switch through different weapon modes. Firstly: Samus jump arc is a weird one to get used to for sure, since she gets an unusual amount of air time for a 2D platformer. The standard jump, which can also be altered into a summersault forward, seems very stiff as well. It almost feels like the Castlevania 1 jump arc as if some weirdo happend to turn on low gravity. Weird maybe, but those quirks still very much lend themselves to the often tubelike level design of Zebes and I rarely had any problems with jumping up to ledges or across platforms. The second, more annoying nitpick would probably be how you switch weapons via the select button. It's an awkward solution that had me often fumble around when I wanted a specific weapon equipped, but it's not a dealbreaker either, just something I wished was a bit better by default. Oh, and there is a run button. Never forget that you have a run button. It had me stuck for a bit and you will thank me later, fellow non-manual readers. Those minor flaws aside, the gameplay is incredibly rewarding to master and once you do master it, the real meta game of Super Metroid begins. Sequence Breaking.
Again: It's an aspect of the genre that Metroid is already famous for and its the game that popularized it, but Super Metroid does it on a whole other level. This game has one technique in particular, one you unknowingly have access to from the very beginning, that is designed to break the game's intended progression. It's a tricky one to execute, and the game will teach it to you in an organic way at some point. Once you fully master it, you might as well throw all preconceived notions out the window that this game was ever linear to begin with. Already deep into my second playthrough, I feel the effects of playing at a higher level. Upgrades and bosses, that seemed so far away in the beginning, can now be acquired basically as early or as late as you want to. The genius decision of teaching you this high level play during your first trip through Zebes does wonders for replayability. Pay attention and the game will infinitely reward you for it. You might of course go to areas you're not equipped for yet, but if you persevere, you get the best abilities incredibly early. Risk vs Reward, entirely on the player's own terms. Genius.
I honestly didn't expect to sing this game's praises so much, and I still haven't talked about the incredible sprite work or the god tier soundtrack. Two aspects I can not find a single flaw in, and talking about them would have me repeating myself again with only superlatives. The game is one of the most gorgeous games I have ever seen, it's like a immaculate painting. The soundtrack gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, and taking the elevator down the Brinstar for the first time is already one of my top 5 magic moments of all time. There you go.
Saving my credibility for reviewing video games, whatever that is even worth, I should probably still mention my one big rage-quit moment. As no game is perfect, but Super Metroid is damn close. Maridia. Maridia fucking sucks and seems to be the one area where the developers couldn't hold back the urge anymore to design a cryptic hell maze. Not only is getting to Maridia a bullshit ordeal all on its own, actually navigating this oversized fish tank with all its invisible walls is a confusing slog. And god help you if managed to come here without the gravity suit, like i did. Now, try to figure out how to get back to dry land while Samus jogs across the ocean floor in slowmotion. Or hope your most recent save isn't too far away. Hey, there is this giant purple tube you can go up and down through, that is clearly showing you an entirely different area in the middle. Well forget that. Ain't going there yet, no matter how hard the game implies it. Finish off the underwater journey with two really sub-par bosses. Please just end me.
Alright. Despite the grueling stretch through the sludge waters of Maridia, despite every bone in my body telling me that now this supposed all-time classic has finally fallen to the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses of fanboys across the globe, it shinesparked back up like a phoenix and stuck the landing. More than that, it destroyed the landing pad and drilled itself deep into my heart to become one of my favorite games of all time. I already know this will get more than one playthrough in the near future, because Super Metroid fucking rules. Go play Super Metroid you cowards!
Fallout 2
1998
SpongeBobAndPatrickRidingChildrensRollerCoaster.jpeg
This is the stupidest RE installment yet, the Ethan Winters saga is the most homogenically western and cliche-ridden American horror duology literature I've played in years.
VILLAGE writer Anthony Johnston gets lost in his snobbish American lens delivering a portrait of a lost rural village where the most uninspired monsters clumsily assault us. Licantropes riding horses, Vampires, zombies with swords? A guy with magneto abilities that transforms himself into ... A transformer ??? What the Fuck (well at least this one is more creative, even if it causes embarrassment)
Although inspired by RE4, the cliches also devour the approach to action and navigation, with a standard array of weapons and a first-person perspective, the combat does not differ one bit from the rest of survival FPS of the last decade, feeling The regression of the multiple and superior combat options in RE4, and the semi-open level design does not turn out to be as threatening or challenging to navigate as the corridors of RE2 2019, or Union, the city of The Evil Within 2, seems the Little inspiration of VILLAGE turns to the voyeurism of playing hide and seek with Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters (visual delight for otakus) and the grotesque images of Ethan being injured and maimed,.a waste of energy from my point of view. Not a theme park, not a true gender collage.
It is curious that this game makes me appreciate The evil within 2 more since in essence they are the same, a Japanese collage of universal horror with strong American influences, but while VILLAGE takes it in a bland and voyeuristic way, the evil within 2 is more elegant and creative with its context and spatial flow. Oh! and the setting in rural lost towns has to end, the anonymous rural Spain frozen in time with pesetas included from R4 was fun, but .
BTW, if you are going to comment on something like "American through a non-American lens", please save it, the point is not the lens, it is the cliche and voyeurism to which cities and villages are reduced under that vision
VILLAGE writer Anthony Johnston gets lost in his snobbish American lens delivering a portrait of a lost rural village where the most uninspired monsters clumsily assault us. Licantropes riding horses, Vampires, zombies with swords? A guy with magneto abilities that transforms himself into ... A transformer ??? What the Fuck (well at least this one is more creative, even if it causes embarrassment)
Although inspired by RE4, the cliches also devour the approach to action and navigation, with a standard array of weapons and a first-person perspective, the combat does not differ one bit from the rest of survival FPS of the last decade, feeling The regression of the multiple and superior combat options in RE4, and the semi-open level design does not turn out to be as threatening or challenging to navigate as the corridors of RE2 2019, or Union, the city of The Evil Within 2, seems the Little inspiration of VILLAGE turns to the voyeurism of playing hide and seek with Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters (visual delight for otakus) and the grotesque images of Ethan being injured and maimed,.a waste of energy from my point of view. Not a theme park, not a true gender collage.
It is curious that this game makes me appreciate The evil within 2 more since in essence they are the same, a Japanese collage of universal horror with strong American influences, but while VILLAGE takes it in a bland and voyeuristic way, the evil within 2 is more elegant and creative with its context and spatial flow. Oh! and the setting in rural lost towns has to end, the anonymous rural Spain frozen in time with pesetas included from R4 was fun, but .
BTW, if you are going to comment on something like "American through a non-American lens", please save it, the point is not the lens, it is the cliche and voyeurism to which cities and villages are reduced under that vision
NOOOOTHING compares to how much this game formed my personality. Absolutely nothing. I rememebr every section. I rememebr being terrified by the end of the final boss. Like damn bitch why did this slay my pussy so hard
Obsidian did the impossible and turned out one the best rpgs of all time in less than a year. Unlike Bethesdas retcon butchery, that goes on till this day, New Vegas respects its source in both narative and gameplay intention. Yes, it takes a bit of work to get this running on PC, cause its about as polished as a white BMW in a muddy landslide but its more than worth it
Doing a modded fo4 run and I haven't done some of these so I may as well throw a review up
Pretty fun all things considered, better then I heard/anticipated anyways. I think a lot of people, myself included really zoned out on fo4's dlc for most of it's lifecycle since it was pretty split between settlement stuff and the actual quest/map addons most people were used to. This one's somewhere in between if we're to classify it as one or the other.
The quest itself is pretty fun, not too deep, but a fun diversion especially if you do this earlygame. I like the use of fo3 nostalgia with the returning mechanist and the new enemies are pretty fun to fight. Kind of wish most of the quest wasn't just "go to this location and kill this thing to get your next objective" but I enjoy fo4's gameplay loop enough that I can excuse it. The final arena fight at the mechanist's lair is fun too, altho for me at least it felt REALLY bullshit on survival (mind you, with TWEAKED damage values), but also survival in general kind of sucks ass in fo4 so what did I expect.
The workshop addons are really cool. You're basically able to make your own custom companion with all the robot parts we've seen across the game which allows for some really creative combinations that can also be useful in gameplay, on top of giving them the ability to do things like lockpick higher end locks like Valentine can or carry EVEN MORE loot that you can't. I sort of wouldn't recommend going all in on this your first playthrough, since you're gonna be missing out on side quests, but at the same time it's so good that it's damn tempting. Overall, fun for what it is. I think people wouldn't have issue if this was more a free update then the first paid expansion when again, most people were expecting story/quest stuff in them based off of what the last 2 games had (save for the extra weapon DLCs NV had).
Pretty fun all things considered, better then I heard/anticipated anyways. I think a lot of people, myself included really zoned out on fo4's dlc for most of it's lifecycle since it was pretty split between settlement stuff and the actual quest/map addons most people were used to. This one's somewhere in between if we're to classify it as one or the other.
The quest itself is pretty fun, not too deep, but a fun diversion especially if you do this earlygame. I like the use of fo3 nostalgia with the returning mechanist and the new enemies are pretty fun to fight. Kind of wish most of the quest wasn't just "go to this location and kill this thing to get your next objective" but I enjoy fo4's gameplay loop enough that I can excuse it. The final arena fight at the mechanist's lair is fun too, altho for me at least it felt REALLY bullshit on survival (mind you, with TWEAKED damage values), but also survival in general kind of sucks ass in fo4 so what did I expect.
The workshop addons are really cool. You're basically able to make your own custom companion with all the robot parts we've seen across the game which allows for some really creative combinations that can also be useful in gameplay, on top of giving them the ability to do things like lockpick higher end locks like Valentine can or carry EVEN MORE loot that you can't. I sort of wouldn't recommend going all in on this your first playthrough, since you're gonna be missing out on side quests, but at the same time it's so good that it's damn tempting. Overall, fun for what it is. I think people wouldn't have issue if this was more a free update then the first paid expansion when again, most people were expecting story/quest stuff in them based off of what the last 2 games had (save for the extra weapon DLCs NV had).
you're a fake gamer if you hate this
Note: I was a dev. God what to say about this mess. I'm still proud of the side quests, Legion content and Crusaders MQ, but the NCR MQ is just an utter trash fire. The world design is weird in large part because we as a team didn't communicate the best. The companions are generally pretty good. The whole thing is janky as frick. 80% of the lore is a patch job because nothing included was really planned before a few steps in front of us. More should have been cut, and different things (namely more vaults) should have been added. I'm still proud of it, but god it's a mess.
Fallout
1997
Fallout 1 was always one of those games that kinda eluded me for the longest time. It was one of those games that I'd try once, get incredibly confused, and put it down never to pick it up again. Idk exactly where I'm going with this but MAN am I glad I finally decided to give it another shot since it really does hold up well for the most part barring the initial learning curve and some minor issues.
(For context, I played this with the Fallout1in2 mod that basically ports the game over to 2's engine with many of it's QoL enhancements, and I highly recommend you do the same if you do have any interest playing this. It's a little finnicky to set up with resolutions but it's very worth it.)
First off, the atmosphere and visuals are top tier imho, even all these years later. Sure, I already had some exposure to Mark Morgan's unnerving compositions thanks to it being featured in future games such as New Vegas but man is it as great as ever here. It effortlessly manages to get me sucked in every time. And the visuals and talking heads, while obviously dated by today's standards, have this sort of charm to it that persists all these years later I feel, helped even more by basically all of them having probably some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game of this era next to maybe the original Thief games.
In general this game has this sense of liveliness despite the obvious limitedness when you really look at it from a bigger angle. There's only 12 named locations in total, with only about 7 of those having a good deal of side quests you can take on, but even with that each one just feels alive and believable, honestly I'd debate maybe a bit moreso then the best modern Bethesda entries. A part of that is the mind filling in the blanks a bit sure, but even still idk, everything in this game just feels really well thought out on the worldbuilding and writing end.
The way this game handles its pacing and building up the story period holds up so well. Again, even despite the limited amount of locations, you feel this sense of wonder as you find new named locations, and learn more about this world and what happened to it. I love as well how the children of the cathedral are seen here and there, usually offering free healing, lulling you into a sense of false security, only for the truth to become more and more apparent as you do more quests and build your way up to ending their plans.
What I also liked about a lot of this game's quests is that there was always at least 4 or so ways to complete it, really encouraging players to think outside the box in terms of their skills and also encouraging replay value further. I didn't even realize until I was done with the game that you could activate the warhead in the basement and potentially not even have to deal with The Master, which is just so cool to me. Stuff like that or being able to go to Mariposa early if you decide to let yourself get captured by the Mutant in Necropolis is just such cool details that make me wanna see how they play out another time. I admittedly haven't played a whole lot of CRPGs so this is probably commonplace there, but even then I really enjoyed it.
I will say that some aspects of character building aren't perfect- more specifically this game sort of shares the same issue Deus Ex has where some skills are kind of just pointless and useless (I can only think of maybe 2 whole points in the game where the trap skill would be useful) and that if you aren't building high agility for the extra AP in combat then you are really nerfing yourself for when you DO get in combat encounters, which IS mandatory at certain points.
Speaking of, probably my biggest issue with this game has to be the overworld random encounters. They aren't inherently bad per se, especially since you can just run out of them if you've got high agility but the ones you need to deal with on your way to Mariposa can be AWFUL if you don't have a lot of healing items (which even then probably wouldn't help that much). There were so many points where just one minigun super mutant would get a critical and instantly delete me from existence, EVEN WITH HARDENED POWER ARMOR. And if you somehow stumble upon two at once, or one with a flamer? That's a save reload right there. This part of the game alone I can't imagine it being possible to do in just 1 save or without saving period, since you WILL die at least once here unless you decide to grind beforehand. Doesn't help either that it's so far away from the Brotherhood base, and you're gonna be having to make 2 round trips at least; once to complete the "scout to the north objective" (because there's no way in hell you're gonna take it down with just you and your companions), and again to actually initiate the attack with help from the brotherhood. And the mutants don't go away either once you blow up the vats, so you'll still be seeing patrols on your way back. Again, I'm not against random encounters, but the amount of times I got cheesed because of RNG being in the enemy's favor is just too much to count.
Ironically, what I found was the best way to fast travel, was doing caravan jobs, since they don't show the map overworld screen and just fast-foward you to whatever encounters you see on the road (which aren't much, I think you can only get one random encounter per each trip), are easy to deal with AND you get paid even if you decide not to go back to the Hub. Honest to god, my grinding stat before I decided to go to the cathedral was alternating between Crimson Caravan and the Far Go Traders depending on which one had a leave date that was closer, and repeating until I felt I was good.
I think my only other issues is that the water chip time limit early on can be a bit daunting to newcomers (it really isn't, I think I only bought one shipment from the water merchants to extend the timer) but even then it's not hard to get it if you spend your time wisely and do some side quests to level yourself up here and there, and the game really does open up even more after that. That, and the UI does take some learning (I didn't even realize you could unload weapons for more ammo until halfway through the game), but once you do it becomes second nature.
Either way, this game holds up exceptionally well and I feel is worth a play if you're either already into Fallout, or you just like TTRPGs in general. No shit, with how popular games like BG3 were last year I see no reason why anyone who liked that game or general TTRPG systems couldn't get into this one barring the UI learning curve (entirely the point I'm aware, since the systems were based off of GURPS). And from what I'm aware, Fallout 2 is just this game but better and with more content, so I'm really excited to give that a shot once I can. Overall, a great time and one I'm finally happy I picked up.
(For context, I played this with the Fallout1in2 mod that basically ports the game over to 2's engine with many of it's QoL enhancements, and I highly recommend you do the same if you do have any interest playing this. It's a little finnicky to set up with resolutions but it's very worth it.)
First off, the atmosphere and visuals are top tier imho, even all these years later. Sure, I already had some exposure to Mark Morgan's unnerving compositions thanks to it being featured in future games such as New Vegas but man is it as great as ever here. It effortlessly manages to get me sucked in every time. And the visuals and talking heads, while obviously dated by today's standards, have this sort of charm to it that persists all these years later I feel, helped even more by basically all of them having probably some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game of this era next to maybe the original Thief games.
In general this game has this sense of liveliness despite the obvious limitedness when you really look at it from a bigger angle. There's only 12 named locations in total, with only about 7 of those having a good deal of side quests you can take on, but even with that each one just feels alive and believable, honestly I'd debate maybe a bit moreso then the best modern Bethesda entries. A part of that is the mind filling in the blanks a bit sure, but even still idk, everything in this game just feels really well thought out on the worldbuilding and writing end.
The way this game handles its pacing and building up the story period holds up so well. Again, even despite the limited amount of locations, you feel this sense of wonder as you find new named locations, and learn more about this world and what happened to it. I love as well how the children of the cathedral are seen here and there, usually offering free healing, lulling you into a sense of false security, only for the truth to become more and more apparent as you do more quests and build your way up to ending their plans.
What I also liked about a lot of this game's quests is that there was always at least 4 or so ways to complete it, really encouraging players to think outside the box in terms of their skills and also encouraging replay value further. I didn't even realize until I was done with the game that you could activate the warhead in the basement and potentially not even have to deal with The Master, which is just so cool to me. Stuff like that or being able to go to Mariposa early if you decide to let yourself get captured by the Mutant in Necropolis is just such cool details that make me wanna see how they play out another time. I admittedly haven't played a whole lot of CRPGs so this is probably commonplace there, but even then I really enjoyed it.
I will say that some aspects of character building aren't perfect- more specifically this game sort of shares the same issue Deus Ex has where some skills are kind of just pointless and useless (I can only think of maybe 2 whole points in the game where the trap skill would be useful) and that if you aren't building high agility for the extra AP in combat then you are really nerfing yourself for when you DO get in combat encounters, which IS mandatory at certain points.
Speaking of, probably my biggest issue with this game has to be the overworld random encounters. They aren't inherently bad per se, especially since you can just run out of them if you've got high agility but the ones you need to deal with on your way to Mariposa can be AWFUL if you don't have a lot of healing items (which even then probably wouldn't help that much). There were so many points where just one minigun super mutant would get a critical and instantly delete me from existence, EVEN WITH HARDENED POWER ARMOR. And if you somehow stumble upon two at once, or one with a flamer? That's a save reload right there. This part of the game alone I can't imagine it being possible to do in just 1 save or without saving period, since you WILL die at least once here unless you decide to grind beforehand. Doesn't help either that it's so far away from the Brotherhood base, and you're gonna be having to make 2 round trips at least; once to complete the "scout to the north objective" (because there's no way in hell you're gonna take it down with just you and your companions), and again to actually initiate the attack with help from the brotherhood. And the mutants don't go away either once you blow up the vats, so you'll still be seeing patrols on your way back. Again, I'm not against random encounters, but the amount of times I got cheesed because of RNG being in the enemy's favor is just too much to count.
Ironically, what I found was the best way to fast travel, was doing caravan jobs, since they don't show the map overworld screen and just fast-foward you to whatever encounters you see on the road (which aren't much, I think you can only get one random encounter per each trip), are easy to deal with AND you get paid even if you decide not to go back to the Hub. Honest to god, my grinding stat before I decided to go to the cathedral was alternating between Crimson Caravan and the Far Go Traders depending on which one had a leave date that was closer, and repeating until I felt I was good.
I think my only other issues is that the water chip time limit early on can be a bit daunting to newcomers (it really isn't, I think I only bought one shipment from the water merchants to extend the timer) but even then it's not hard to get it if you spend your time wisely and do some side quests to level yourself up here and there, and the game really does open up even more after that. That, and the UI does take some learning (I didn't even realize you could unload weapons for more ammo until halfway through the game), but once you do it becomes second nature.
Either way, this game holds up exceptionally well and I feel is worth a play if you're either already into Fallout, or you just like TTRPGs in general. No shit, with how popular games like BG3 were last year I see no reason why anyone who liked that game or general TTRPG systems couldn't get into this one barring the UI learning curve (entirely the point I'm aware, since the systems were based off of GURPS). And from what I'm aware, Fallout 2 is just this game but better and with more content, so I'm really excited to give that a shot once I can. Overall, a great time and one I'm finally happy I picked up.
I really enjoyed this DLC, as it's not often we get a solid perspective and upbringing of a villian. It answers alot of questions as Final Fantasy XV in my opinion didn't give alot of back story onto Ardyns beliefs, motives and understandings, he seemed like a pompous teasing know-it all with coffee filters for arm sleeves (but he still looks pretty so).
Ardyn already was one of my favroite villains due to his consistent ability to remain level headed, charming yet obviously conniving and sinister. Seeing his upbringing knowing he was originally good, having the ability to heal others before he was tainted was a really good connection point for sympathy towards his charchter and It didn't feel cringe or forceful as that trope often does. The pace for only being a DLC was better then I thought, the progression of his personality and motives slowly changing really felt right on track.
However I bealive this goes for all of the "Episode" DLCs as they really rounded out the characters letting the player feel much more emersed within the personalitie allowing individual connection to each of them espcically with the party companions it was nice to see their purpose, ideals and motvies outside of Noctis.
There isnt much I can say about the mechanics as Ardyns abilities mirrored Noctis's in quite similar ways just instead of warping you can daemonify wich kills off vunerable enimes and it's useful and super cool when utilizing it in certian combos. I think being able to have diffrent hats was kinda dorky but in a cute charming way as whenever you sprint you hold onto the fedora wich was a cute thing to see.
I think with like all of the DLCs it actually made me want to replay certian chapters within the game I could have a better understanding of the charchters motives and personalities. I think a big tip I'd give to new players of FFXV is DONT play the DLCs after your play through, play DURING the game as they all take place within the story and you'll know when to play each one as the charchter will "leave" for a bit. (However I think you should play Ardyns after) The DLCs espcically this one are great editions to the games already rich story line and seriously make the game feel so much more fulfilling.
Ardyn already was one of my favroite villains due to his consistent ability to remain level headed, charming yet obviously conniving and sinister. Seeing his upbringing knowing he was originally good, having the ability to heal others before he was tainted was a really good connection point for sympathy towards his charchter and It didn't feel cringe or forceful as that trope often does. The pace for only being a DLC was better then I thought, the progression of his personality and motives slowly changing really felt right on track.
However I bealive this goes for all of the "Episode" DLCs as they really rounded out the characters letting the player feel much more emersed within the personalitie allowing individual connection to each of them espcically with the party companions it was nice to see their purpose, ideals and motvies outside of Noctis.
There isnt much I can say about the mechanics as Ardyns abilities mirrored Noctis's in quite similar ways just instead of warping you can daemonify wich kills off vunerable enimes and it's useful and super cool when utilizing it in certian combos. I think being able to have diffrent hats was kinda dorky but in a cute charming way as whenever you sprint you hold onto the fedora wich was a cute thing to see.
I think with like all of the DLCs it actually made me want to replay certian chapters within the game I could have a better understanding of the charchters motives and personalities. I think a big tip I'd give to new players of FFXV is DONT play the DLCs after your play through, play DURING the game as they all take place within the story and you'll know when to play each one as the charchter will "leave" for a bit. (However I think you should play Ardyns after) The DLCs espcically this one are great editions to the games already rich story line and seriously make the game feel so much more fulfilling.
Phantom Fury
2024
Where do I even start. Do I talk about how Ion Fury is my single favorite indie fps ever made and a near-perfect experience? Do I talk about the Half-Life series, and how it single-handedly kickstarted my love for FPS games, and how the first one is still my favorite overall game ever all these years later? I don't know. Let's just get this over with.
Phantom Fury is not good. It's a buggy, subpar, amateur, unfinished, unfocused mess of a game that clearly needed another year or two to fix all it's problems, and I truly believe that no amount of patches will fix the underlying design issues. It's not the worst indie FPS I've played, nor do I think it is on par with retail DNF or Blood 2, but some of the comparisons are valid in some aspects.
For starters, I want to emphasize: I did not pay for this game because I refuse to support people who both publicly and privately shit on reviewers that THEY THEMSELVES gave out codes for just because they didn't exactly have nice things to say. Not even full on malicious takedowns of the game mind you, just saying they didn't like it and giving constructive criticism about it. But this is a whole another topic entirely.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Phantom Fury's inspirations are obvious if you've seen that reveal trailer from 2 years back-- mixing together the pre-existing success of Voidpoint's Ion Fury (which to remind you, that team had NOTHING to do with this game), and blending it together with the linear narrative structure seen in games like Half-Life, and more specifically, the early 2000s-era builds of Duke Nukem Forever.
This is NOT a Half-Life game, nor is it anything CLOSE to the older DNF builds. It tries to be, but it's attempts after the first few levels come down to just reminding you of those games and how you could be playing them instead. Half-Life's level design was incredibly linear, with minimal backtracking save for a few chapters (such as HL1's Blast Pit), usually with a clear objective set by the game and you going from point A to B to C. The level design in Phantom Fury instead mostly comprises of standard, labyrinthian keyhunts you'd see in other more DOOM-inspired games, with little to no signposting to speak of save for an objective list. There was one point where I genuinely got lost for 30 minutes because a fucking ladder blended into the environment and I didn't know I had to go back to where I just was AT THE START OF A LEVEL. It's just so bad.
Let's continue with what to most will be a nitpick, but matters a lot when talking about Half-Life inspired games. What immediately comes to mind when you think of HL's presentation and design? An unbroken first-person narrative, with each area seamlessly transitioning to the next. The game does do this during some of the first few levels, but the illusion is immediately broken by forcing a fade to black and a loading screen with just the game's title art. Half-life's loading screens simply just froze on the last thing you saw as you loaded to the next level, making for only a small break and not taking you out of the setting. And even aside from this, the game just stops trying with seamlessly connecting the levels after the halfway point, simply just teleporting you from one area to the next.
Going back to level design, the layouts are painfully boring, and the location variety is nothing you've seen before in other games. I find it so funny how this game is described by 3DR as a "road trip" game, but really thinking about it, how many places did we go in total? 14 of this game's 18 levels take place in either a desert-like location, or a secret lab of some kind. It's only for the game's final two levels that the variety changes, but even with that, Chicago feels nothing more but a bootleg gm_bigcity but with random enemies placed all over the place. You're mostly stuck to the road with being unable to go inside a lot of buildings, and almost no verticality to speak of. And even with that, most of this game's levels just love to replicate HL1/2's big setpieces except done worse in every way. Remember the helicopter fight in surface tension on the cliffside? Here it is again with basically no level design difference! Remember Water Hazard's chase sequence with all the parked combine cars shooting at you? Here it is again except with a bootleg Halo warthog that controls horribly and no risk of death in an already braindead game! Remember HL2's final few chapters as you storm City 17, with Dr. Breen on the TVs in the background scolding you? Here it is again, except in Chicago with worse level and combat design and no AI squadmates!
Combat and enemy encounter design is an actual joke. 90% of the combat encounters in this game boil down to "here's 20 of the same enemies, have fun!" There is no variation here whatsoever, not helped by the AI being dumb as a sack of bricks. This game loves to throw the zombie enemies at you in large groups and they get so tiring to fight fast, and heavier enemies in groups are just pure bullshit. I played on normal difficulty and this game could not find a medium between purely braindead and pure bullshit. This in particular is where I feel some of the B2 comparison is justified, since it's clear this game wants to be as hard as Ion Fury, yet doesn't understand just why that game was still fair in the first place, and by extension, WHY Half-Life's combat was also challenging yet fair. The EDF soldier AI in the DNF 2001 leak is more intelligent and fun to fight, and it wasn't even for a game that was considered finished, for christ's sake. On top of this, no quicksaves. Only checkpoints. This wouldn't be an issue if this was like a modern DOOM game where it made a checkpoint before and after every enemy encounter, but this game does it whenever the hell it feels like it. I've had to replay 10+ minute sections because I died to one bullshit enemy shot and because the game is so fucking stingy with health pickups and how much they actually give you for the first 2/3rds. How the hell hasn't this company learned since the release of ROTT 2013 to put quicksaves in your retro shooters?
If you think anything in this game is new or would expand upon what we saw in that iconic DNF 2001 trailer, just don't. Aside from a bar level obviously alluding to the Slick Willy and a shield powerup that mechanically isn't different from the riot shield we saw in that trailer, there is nothing new here. It really makes me wonder just how much was even pulled from those old builds. WAS there anything new to pull from? The 01 build had better versions that exist out there that 3DR had ownership to, did they have to cut it out?
The weapons do feel better from the demo, but they still don't feel good at all and don't hold a candle to either DNF01, HL or IF's loadout in terms of raw satisfaction. They honestly feel artificially tweaked, since the only real difference I feel now is that the enemies are more prone to gibbing. Seriously, I'll shoot a guy in the head with the shitty BASE PISTOL, and somehow their leg will come off as well alongside exploding their head. The bowling bombs were done so dirty here. What was once a satisfying addition to build engine explosive weapons is now a frustratingly inconsistent thing that cannot snap onto enemies for the life of them. The Ion Bow is... fine, but it feels signifigantly nerfed from how it was in IF since the charged autofire now has a slower fire rate and now the triple-shot alt fire is replaced with... aiming down sights for some reason. Why? I feel like the loverboy had an alright transition, and the motherflakker is probably the most satisfying weapon period in this game, but that's about it. Everything else just feels bad.
The weapon mods you can find through upgrades are just plain useless for the most part. There's a couple of useful ones like the dual welding for the smgs but the rest either wern't fun to use or gave the weapon obvious downsides (Why do BOTH bowling bomb mods REMOVE the tracking???). I didn't even bother with half of them after a certain point since it was clear most of the actually valuable upgrades were for the arm and suit. On top of this, after the halfway point of the game new weapons you get just don't get mods. At all. Even the selection you have in the game as-is feels pitiful, since some guns only have one mod upgrade for them. This is another thing that just SCREAMS "unfinished and rushed out the door".
The story just makes no sense. Ignoring the fact that this supposedly takes place after Aftershock and Shelly is just fine working with the GDF again after they actively funded Heskel's experiments and hunted her down, this game just tries too hard with trying to make me care. IF didn't need a complicated story other then "stop Heskel", and neither was DNF01 if the leak was anything to go by. The deepest it got was the president having issues with how Duke handled the aliens but that was that. Even with that, literally WHAT was the motivation bootleg general graves had for turning on Shelly? Turning people into cyborgs like Heskel? That'd sure be cool IF WE COULD SEE THAT. And if that wasn't enough, this game has the BALLS to throw in ANOTHER TWIST VILLAIN AT IN THE LAST 5 MINUTES FOR THE SAKE OF ONE FINAL BOSS. Christ, and I thought Wrath's twist was hastily revealed and unnecessary. And it's done so stupidly too, seriously, the exact MOMENT mission control lady started babbling on about how Heskel could've saved the world Shelly should've just shot her on the spot. This game has a large emphasis on melodrama period and it's so fucking cringe. Shelly's entire trauma is that she couldn't defuse one bomb but at the end she IS able to defuse it! Just none of this was needed.
This game has no personality period. Unlike IF where it clearly had attitude from the start and actually had some good laughs here and there, this game doesn't even TRY with that. There's no cool locations or memorable lines at all, it's just a slog the whole way through. Shelly's voice actress sounds like she's just phoning it in here, which is insane to me since she was GREAT in aftershock. There's no punch or snarkiness to her voice, she just sounds done with everyone. The only thing I found funny aside from the occasional bugs was a billboard in the Chicago level reading "A vote for Sneed is a vote against Chuck" and that's just because I think sneedposting is still funny. There's nothing else outside of that, or any clever satirical bits like what we saw in the gun shop in Aftershock's Five finger discount level.
I could go on but honestly I'm getting bored just thinking about this game further. I'd say wait for a heavy discount, but just... no, don't even bother. You're not missing out if you skip this, and there's plenty of experiences for either less or the same amount as this game that are more worth your time.
Do you want to see what DNF01 could've been like? Play the restoration project. It's just one chapter, but it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable then this alongside being free.
Do you want a Half-Life campaign that FEELS like a continuation of the games on top of expanding on the gameplay and universe of HL2? Play Entropy Zero 2. It's absolutely free and is made by people who actually understand Half-Life's design philosophy.
Do you want a fun yet challenging retro shooter? Play Ion Fury. It's the exact same price as Phantom Fury yet is a much better experience and feels fresh the whole way through. Even for 10 bucks more the Aftershock bundle is well worth the money.
And yknow, some might look at this game, without looking at all the other shady dev and pr comments, saying "well, it's not THAT bad!", and yknow what, it is playable. But it isn't fun. Playable should be the minimum expected here, and everything I listed above is an experience more worth your time and money.
I am just done with 3DR after this. Unless it's for something like Cultic I'm not bothering with anything Slipgate Ironworks has involvement with. Never again.
At least Core Decay is safe I think.
Phantom Fury is not good. It's a buggy, subpar, amateur, unfinished, unfocused mess of a game that clearly needed another year or two to fix all it's problems, and I truly believe that no amount of patches will fix the underlying design issues. It's not the worst indie FPS I've played, nor do I think it is on par with retail DNF or Blood 2, but some of the comparisons are valid in some aspects.
For starters, I want to emphasize: I did not pay for this game because I refuse to support people who both publicly and privately shit on reviewers that THEY THEMSELVES gave out codes for just because they didn't exactly have nice things to say. Not even full on malicious takedowns of the game mind you, just saying they didn't like it and giving constructive criticism about it. But this is a whole another topic entirely.
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: Phantom Fury's inspirations are obvious if you've seen that reveal trailer from 2 years back-- mixing together the pre-existing success of Voidpoint's Ion Fury (which to remind you, that team had NOTHING to do with this game), and blending it together with the linear narrative structure seen in games like Half-Life, and more specifically, the early 2000s-era builds of Duke Nukem Forever.
This is NOT a Half-Life game, nor is it anything CLOSE to the older DNF builds. It tries to be, but it's attempts after the first few levels come down to just reminding you of those games and how you could be playing them instead. Half-Life's level design was incredibly linear, with minimal backtracking save for a few chapters (such as HL1's Blast Pit), usually with a clear objective set by the game and you going from point A to B to C. The level design in Phantom Fury instead mostly comprises of standard, labyrinthian keyhunts you'd see in other more DOOM-inspired games, with little to no signposting to speak of save for an objective list. There was one point where I genuinely got lost for 30 minutes because a fucking ladder blended into the environment and I didn't know I had to go back to where I just was AT THE START OF A LEVEL. It's just so bad.
Let's continue with what to most will be a nitpick, but matters a lot when talking about Half-Life inspired games. What immediately comes to mind when you think of HL's presentation and design? An unbroken first-person narrative, with each area seamlessly transitioning to the next. The game does do this during some of the first few levels, but the illusion is immediately broken by forcing a fade to black and a loading screen with just the game's title art. Half-life's loading screens simply just froze on the last thing you saw as you loaded to the next level, making for only a small break and not taking you out of the setting. And even aside from this, the game just stops trying with seamlessly connecting the levels after the halfway point, simply just teleporting you from one area to the next.
Going back to level design, the layouts are painfully boring, and the location variety is nothing you've seen before in other games. I find it so funny how this game is described by 3DR as a "road trip" game, but really thinking about it, how many places did we go in total? 14 of this game's 18 levels take place in either a desert-like location, or a secret lab of some kind. It's only for the game's final two levels that the variety changes, but even with that, Chicago feels nothing more but a bootleg gm_bigcity but with random enemies placed all over the place. You're mostly stuck to the road with being unable to go inside a lot of buildings, and almost no verticality to speak of. And even with that, most of this game's levels just love to replicate HL1/2's big setpieces except done worse in every way. Remember the helicopter fight in surface tension on the cliffside? Here it is again with basically no level design difference! Remember Water Hazard's chase sequence with all the parked combine cars shooting at you? Here it is again except with a bootleg Halo warthog that controls horribly and no risk of death in an already braindead game! Remember HL2's final few chapters as you storm City 17, with Dr. Breen on the TVs in the background scolding you? Here it is again, except in Chicago with worse level and combat design and no AI squadmates!
Combat and enemy encounter design is an actual joke. 90% of the combat encounters in this game boil down to "here's 20 of the same enemies, have fun!" There is no variation here whatsoever, not helped by the AI being dumb as a sack of bricks. This game loves to throw the zombie enemies at you in large groups and they get so tiring to fight fast, and heavier enemies in groups are just pure bullshit. I played on normal difficulty and this game could not find a medium between purely braindead and pure bullshit. This in particular is where I feel some of the B2 comparison is justified, since it's clear this game wants to be as hard as Ion Fury, yet doesn't understand just why that game was still fair in the first place, and by extension, WHY Half-Life's combat was also challenging yet fair. The EDF soldier AI in the DNF 2001 leak is more intelligent and fun to fight, and it wasn't even for a game that was considered finished, for christ's sake. On top of this, no quicksaves. Only checkpoints. This wouldn't be an issue if this was like a modern DOOM game where it made a checkpoint before and after every enemy encounter, but this game does it whenever the hell it feels like it. I've had to replay 10+ minute sections because I died to one bullshit enemy shot and because the game is so fucking stingy with health pickups and how much they actually give you for the first 2/3rds. How the hell hasn't this company learned since the release of ROTT 2013 to put quicksaves in your retro shooters?
If you think anything in this game is new or would expand upon what we saw in that iconic DNF 2001 trailer, just don't. Aside from a bar level obviously alluding to the Slick Willy and a shield powerup that mechanically isn't different from the riot shield we saw in that trailer, there is nothing new here. It really makes me wonder just how much was even pulled from those old builds. WAS there anything new to pull from? The 01 build had better versions that exist out there that 3DR had ownership to, did they have to cut it out?
The weapons do feel better from the demo, but they still don't feel good at all and don't hold a candle to either DNF01, HL or IF's loadout in terms of raw satisfaction. They honestly feel artificially tweaked, since the only real difference I feel now is that the enemies are more prone to gibbing. Seriously, I'll shoot a guy in the head with the shitty BASE PISTOL, and somehow their leg will come off as well alongside exploding their head. The bowling bombs were done so dirty here. What was once a satisfying addition to build engine explosive weapons is now a frustratingly inconsistent thing that cannot snap onto enemies for the life of them. The Ion Bow is... fine, but it feels signifigantly nerfed from how it was in IF since the charged autofire now has a slower fire rate and now the triple-shot alt fire is replaced with... aiming down sights for some reason. Why? I feel like the loverboy had an alright transition, and the motherflakker is probably the most satisfying weapon period in this game, but that's about it. Everything else just feels bad.
The weapon mods you can find through upgrades are just plain useless for the most part. There's a couple of useful ones like the dual welding for the smgs but the rest either wern't fun to use or gave the weapon obvious downsides (Why do BOTH bowling bomb mods REMOVE the tracking???). I didn't even bother with half of them after a certain point since it was clear most of the actually valuable upgrades were for the arm and suit. On top of this, after the halfway point of the game new weapons you get just don't get mods. At all. Even the selection you have in the game as-is feels pitiful, since some guns only have one mod upgrade for them. This is another thing that just SCREAMS "unfinished and rushed out the door".
The story just makes no sense. Ignoring the fact that this supposedly takes place after Aftershock and Shelly is just fine working with the GDF again after they actively funded Heskel's experiments and hunted her down, this game just tries too hard with trying to make me care. IF didn't need a complicated story other then "stop Heskel", and neither was DNF01 if the leak was anything to go by. The deepest it got was the president having issues with how Duke handled the aliens but that was that. Even with that, literally WHAT was the motivation bootleg general graves had for turning on Shelly? Turning people into cyborgs like Heskel? That'd sure be cool IF WE COULD SEE THAT. And if that wasn't enough, this game has the BALLS to throw in ANOTHER TWIST VILLAIN AT IN THE LAST 5 MINUTES FOR THE SAKE OF ONE FINAL BOSS. Christ, and I thought Wrath's twist was hastily revealed and unnecessary. And it's done so stupidly too, seriously, the exact MOMENT mission control lady started babbling on about how Heskel could've saved the world Shelly should've just shot her on the spot. This game has a large emphasis on melodrama period and it's so fucking cringe. Shelly's entire trauma is that she couldn't defuse one bomb but at the end she IS able to defuse it! Just none of this was needed.
This game has no personality period. Unlike IF where it clearly had attitude from the start and actually had some good laughs here and there, this game doesn't even TRY with that. There's no cool locations or memorable lines at all, it's just a slog the whole way through. Shelly's voice actress sounds like she's just phoning it in here, which is insane to me since she was GREAT in aftershock. There's no punch or snarkiness to her voice, she just sounds done with everyone. The only thing I found funny aside from the occasional bugs was a billboard in the Chicago level reading "A vote for Sneed is a vote against Chuck" and that's just because I think sneedposting is still funny. There's nothing else outside of that, or any clever satirical bits like what we saw in the gun shop in Aftershock's Five finger discount level.
I could go on but honestly I'm getting bored just thinking about this game further. I'd say wait for a heavy discount, but just... no, don't even bother. You're not missing out if you skip this, and there's plenty of experiences for either less or the same amount as this game that are more worth your time.
Do you want to see what DNF01 could've been like? Play the restoration project. It's just one chapter, but it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable then this alongside being free.
Do you want a Half-Life campaign that FEELS like a continuation of the games on top of expanding on the gameplay and universe of HL2? Play Entropy Zero 2. It's absolutely free and is made by people who actually understand Half-Life's design philosophy.
Do you want a fun yet challenging retro shooter? Play Ion Fury. It's the exact same price as Phantom Fury yet is a much better experience and feels fresh the whole way through. Even for 10 bucks more the Aftershock bundle is well worth the money.
And yknow, some might look at this game, without looking at all the other shady dev and pr comments, saying "well, it's not THAT bad!", and yknow what, it is playable. But it isn't fun. Playable should be the minimum expected here, and everything I listed above is an experience more worth your time and money.
I am just done with 3DR after this. Unless it's for something like Cultic I'm not bothering with anything Slipgate Ironworks has involvement with. Never again.
At least Core Decay is safe I think.
Resident Evil 4
2023
This review contains spoilers
The RE4 remake is one of a kind, and most likely my favroite within the franchise to date. It really did the original justice, keeping some of the things I loved intact while adding a sleeker and more modern feel not only visually (obviously) but with play style, too. I left feeling much more satisfied then I did with other modern RE games (RE7 and RE8).
When it came to difficulty, RE4 remake has adjusted itself to accommodate the modern age; enemy interactions and boss fights are much faster than I remember. However, the enemy movement speed and fast-paced attacks add fluidity; even if frustrating, it felt easier to immerse myself. Nevertheless, the only issue I had with enemy interaction was the loss of an "unsettling feeling", the Regenadors for instance from what I rember didnt "run" at you, they would awkawrldy stalk you and I remeber being terrified of them as a kid and it felt more that I was rushing to get out as theyd run instead of slowly walking to find my way out. The overall note is that there was a consistent wave of enemies, so there was no break to be nervous about what could lie around the corner as something always was.
When it came to boss fights in general, Krauser was probably the most compelling; I really enjoyed the trap-infested ruins and not only having to be vigilant and aware of your surroundings, it tests your reaction time 10-fold. It was well-paced, and having "three" phases really built up some well-deserved tension; it made the stakes feel much higher and really drew attention. It also forced you to use the combat knife and for me I never really used it unless prompted to for finishing kills so it was interesting that it forced players to basically learn a mechanic If they havent already or test the skills if you used parries frequently. Saddler felt underwhelming, to be honest; it was less arduous than I expected it to be, being able to do it on the first try when Krauser took 6 and other bosses took 2 to 3 times. I expected his boss fight to be much more daunting, and throwing one-shot enemies (with fully upgraded power Red9) was boring; it felt more like lackluster quick work than obstacles. The fight reminded me of the RE8 boss fights, as it felt the purpose was more cinematic, allowing time to reflect on how you got to the end rather than the "Epic" end itself.
I really liked the dialogue and narrative. When it came to RE7 and RE8, I never really felt immersed with Ethan; I felt very apathetic whenever important story conflicts arose as Ethan didn't really comment on anything aside from "ew" and "Mia". However, with RE4, it was a complete 180. It stayed true to the unforgettable quips in the original; interactions felt personable, and I could sympathize with these characters much more, so when character deaths or issues would arise, it didn't feel lackluster. Luis and Krauser had a lot more attention than I originally remembered, Luis's dual fights were a lot of fun, the Cabin fight and the Orge fight, really built up relationships that made Luis's death a lot more heartbreaking, if I remeber correctly Saddler kills off Luis in the original so I feel Krauser killing Luis just added to the already existing tension towards the upcoming boss fight.
Overall, I really liked the RE4 remake; I think it did the original justice, great boss fights, great characters, and great narrative, it's a game I highly recommend and will be playing again in the near future for sure.
System Shock
2023
Another game I started off really weird with. I played this on launch, really excited to see a reimagining of what would end up inspiring games like PREY and Bioshock and... man was I disappointed. It wasn't... bad per se, but it felt way too cryptic for its own good and relied too much on being faithful to the original for the sake of the fans. A great thing if you are indeed a fan of the original, but not a good thing if you are a newcomer.
After playing SS2 and falling in love with that game so much to the point where it quickly became an all-time favorite for me, I was interested in revisiting this game again, and the recent patch felt like the best opportunity. Does it click fully for me now?
Yes and no. I appreciate and respect this game a lot more now then I did prior, especially as a remake, but I still largely prefer SS2 and I really feel that you should play that game first if you're at all interested in this franchise. That's a game I think anyone can pick up and enjoy. If you liked SS2 already and want something more challenging to pick at your brain or are incredibly familiar with the original, then this game is for you.
One thing I'll immediately say is PLAY ON MISSION DIFFICULTY 1 IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THIS GAME IN ANY CAPACITY. And if anyone complains at you for doing this, fuck them. This is the big thing that really made me want to revisit this game, since mission skill 1 is supposed to give you waypoints to your objectives on your map and they supposedly didn't work on launch for some reason. And I think save for some of the bugs and jankiness that exist as of writing, this is a great way for people to play this game at first. It's not to say this game is unnavigable outside of it, this game does a good job telling you what to do so long as you listen to audio logs and emails (and the game just gives you the waypoints, no objective list, you still need to put the pieces together to figure out just HOW to do it which I enjoy), but what you have to memorize is way more then in SS2 (a game that actually KEEPS TRACK of your objectives on any skill), and there's no way to take notes in-game save for the steam overlay if you play on there. That and the later half of this game really likes to force you to backtrack to previous floors just to grab one specific item or memorize something for later. At least Abe's head is on the same floor as the door you need to unlock, but if I didn't know I had to memorize the CPU node terminal numbers on my first playthrough to get the self-destruct code, I would've HATED having to go back to write them down again. My only real issue with the waypoints is that sometimes they won't disappear after you did what was tagged in that area which can cause a bit of confusion on what to do next if your brain forgets what you have to do next. As an example, the objective marker on the Cyberspace computer that unlocked the doors to the antennae on engineering didn't clear up even after I destroyed all the locks, which made me second guess myself for a bit since I remember on my first playthrough I forgot one and had to go back to destroy the last one. Again, not a bad thing, and for all I know this'll get fixed soon, but it happened pretty often and it bugged me.
Another thing I'll say off the bat is I really didn't give the combat as much praise as I probably should've back then. Sure, anything is better then the OG's combat, but this game's gunplay is REALLY satisfying. Headshots are meaty and satisfying and slicing a dude with a laser rapier in half and seeing all the blood splash out never gets old. I really appreciated this game's focus on survival period this time around, compared to how frustrated I felt on my first run. When I got into that mindset of vaporizing worthless items for scrap, keeping the ones that were more valuable to recycle later, and playing liberally with ammo and using all my resources everything really clicked with me. At the very least I just wish there was an auto-vaporize function for items that have no as-is recycle value, since it meant after a certain point I focused more on the items that I KNEW had a decent payout, being electronics and broken weapons.
The cyberspace sections aren't bad either imo. I turned them to difficulty 1 on my first playthrough since I remember really hating them in the demo, but idk they were a nice pacebreaker. They aren't exactly complex, but they're fun and simplistic for what they are.
I think timing was what really set this game back for me when it first came out. Comparing this again to something like the RE1 remake, at least RE had so many other games before it that proved to be good starter points. System Shock hasn't had a game since 1999, so in turn more people are inclined to make this their starting point, when it's easily the second least approachable in the series next to the OG, and leading to unfair comparisons (Me wishing this game played more like BioShock 1 was a bad take looking back, since that series plays nothing alike to this one, even compared to SS2). Again, if you want to play this game, either play 2 first or be familiar with the OG, and set that difficulty to 1. Overall a fun time and a great remake, but WILL be make or break for people if you aren't accustomed to this game's specific style of design.
After playing SS2 and falling in love with that game so much to the point where it quickly became an all-time favorite for me, I was interested in revisiting this game again, and the recent patch felt like the best opportunity. Does it click fully for me now?
Yes and no. I appreciate and respect this game a lot more now then I did prior, especially as a remake, but I still largely prefer SS2 and I really feel that you should play that game first if you're at all interested in this franchise. That's a game I think anyone can pick up and enjoy. If you liked SS2 already and want something more challenging to pick at your brain or are incredibly familiar with the original, then this game is for you.
One thing I'll immediately say is PLAY ON MISSION DIFFICULTY 1 IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THIS GAME IN ANY CAPACITY. And if anyone complains at you for doing this, fuck them. This is the big thing that really made me want to revisit this game, since mission skill 1 is supposed to give you waypoints to your objectives on your map and they supposedly didn't work on launch for some reason. And I think save for some of the bugs and jankiness that exist as of writing, this is a great way for people to play this game at first. It's not to say this game is unnavigable outside of it, this game does a good job telling you what to do so long as you listen to audio logs and emails (and the game just gives you the waypoints, no objective list, you still need to put the pieces together to figure out just HOW to do it which I enjoy), but what you have to memorize is way more then in SS2 (a game that actually KEEPS TRACK of your objectives on any skill), and there's no way to take notes in-game save for the steam overlay if you play on there. That and the later half of this game really likes to force you to backtrack to previous floors just to grab one specific item or memorize something for later. At least Abe's head is on the same floor as the door you need to unlock, but if I didn't know I had to memorize the CPU node terminal numbers on my first playthrough to get the self-destruct code, I would've HATED having to go back to write them down again. My only real issue with the waypoints is that sometimes they won't disappear after you did what was tagged in that area which can cause a bit of confusion on what to do next if your brain forgets what you have to do next. As an example, the objective marker on the Cyberspace computer that unlocked the doors to the antennae on engineering didn't clear up even after I destroyed all the locks, which made me second guess myself for a bit since I remember on my first playthrough I forgot one and had to go back to destroy the last one. Again, not a bad thing, and for all I know this'll get fixed soon, but it happened pretty often and it bugged me.
Another thing I'll say off the bat is I really didn't give the combat as much praise as I probably should've back then. Sure, anything is better then the OG's combat, but this game's gunplay is REALLY satisfying. Headshots are meaty and satisfying and slicing a dude with a laser rapier in half and seeing all the blood splash out never gets old. I really appreciated this game's focus on survival period this time around, compared to how frustrated I felt on my first run. When I got into that mindset of vaporizing worthless items for scrap, keeping the ones that were more valuable to recycle later, and playing liberally with ammo and using all my resources everything really clicked with me. At the very least I just wish there was an auto-vaporize function for items that have no as-is recycle value, since it meant after a certain point I focused more on the items that I KNEW had a decent payout, being electronics and broken weapons.
The cyberspace sections aren't bad either imo. I turned them to difficulty 1 on my first playthrough since I remember really hating them in the demo, but idk they were a nice pacebreaker. They aren't exactly complex, but they're fun and simplistic for what they are.
I think timing was what really set this game back for me when it first came out. Comparing this again to something like the RE1 remake, at least RE had so many other games before it that proved to be good starter points. System Shock hasn't had a game since 1999, so in turn more people are inclined to make this their starting point, when it's easily the second least approachable in the series next to the OG, and leading to unfair comparisons (Me wishing this game played more like BioShock 1 was a bad take looking back, since that series plays nothing alike to this one, even compared to SS2). Again, if you want to play this game, either play 2 first or be familiar with the OG, and set that difficulty to 1. Overall a fun time and a great remake, but WILL be make or break for people if you aren't accustomed to this game's specific style of design.
..autism