I got this game for fun, it was on sale, and I like the cover of the mask, I even have the Gameinformer magazine of it.

I'm not into dark and gritty games or even stealth but this was fun. It's kind of what you make it, you play how you feel, if you play recklessly though, you'll have to face the consequences, whether that's the ending or a band of guards after you, it adds a sense of paranoia which really bothers me at times "Was I too violent?" luckily it's split up into missions and you get a report card at the end of each of them saying how chaotic you were or weren't. A good thing about the mission setup is that it's pretty open yet contained enough that there's always stuff to do and things to find inside cool and diverse areas, there's quite a bit of exploration and not much backtracking, something I've come to love about the modern Deus Ex games.

That's not to say the 'pacifist' route isn't hard or have its own consequences, y'know how many times I went back to an old save because I was spotted or misclicked and killed a guard?! All to get that ending, always having to wait out enemies and avoid contact (kinda like real life...) but to see that report card just makes you feel like you've accomplished something, I consider myself a bit of a baby when it comes to difficulty it made me feel like I was good at the game or something, it's rewarding, just takes a bit to get used to it.

Will I be playing the other games in this franchise? No, I've tried the demo for Dishonored 2 and it still really stresses me out with the good and bad endings hanging over my head but don't let that hamper this review or the game at all. I'll probably look up the stories for them, they seem more like a companion piece anyway (if you got the good ending) this could've been just one game all the same.

I bought it because one, it was on sale, and two, I found a mod where someone made an obstacle course using the physics and it looked like a legit parkour game. The physics are indeed very fun, especially the jumping, side flips, front flips, back flips, you name it!

My favorite Star Wars game is Lego Star Wars: the Complete Saga, I’m sure most can agree. This would have to be in my top three though, it's really that good, it (overused saying but for lack of something better..) makes you feel like this jedi with crazy amounts of power.

The lightsaber stuff is some that I’ve never seen before, not even in Fallen Order, this game was ambitious for its time, you can slice certain body parts and they’ll go flying off then it will count everything you did by the end of the level (like how many times you threw your lightsaber, body parts taken out, number of times force powers were used, etc.). The lightsaber throwing is better than Fallen Order, I probably did that more than anything. You can also use guns which switches your perspective to FPS, I like that, it adds some variety. Sometimes your lightsaber will leave your hands because a “sith” used the force on it while you threw it so it ends up on the floor and you have to pick it up. I still can’t over that the first level has you cut down a tree to make a bridge.

With Kotor, I had trouble with the audio, this one has it too but it’s a lot better, if the audio is mute upon startup then just go into your game settings and turn EAX either on or off (opposite of what it's at) and it should just turn back to normal. It did crash and sometimes it wouldn’t open but it wasn’t anything unmanageable, I didn’t install any mods ( at the time of making this ) but if you go into your Program Files x86 and open the exe file then it will bring up the install page, you click it, close it out and then right click the program on your desktop and hit open. Seems to always work for me.

Story is pretty simple but not the best, they make it seem like certain planets have more force than others like Hoth since Obi Wan’s ghost was there and Dagobah since Yoda was there which is an excuse to visit some of the more popular places and for that I’m grateful but I don’t think that’s a canon explanation. However, I started it and got super excited because I didn’t know it took place after Rotj, you see this is LUKE’s training academy and I love that idea, not to mention a character that looks like Darth Talon called Alora, I thought maybe it would be the episode 7 we never got from George but I stand corrected.

This has better gameplay than Kotor but Kotor has better story and world building. The story here actually reminds me of something out of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. And not only does this game have Luke in it but it also has Jason Marsden, I'd like to see his character in Jedi Outcast which I will probably buy and play next in my Star Wars lineup. Jaden (the main) tries to quip an awful lot but his voice sounds too serious about it, I get that it's a game so cringy dialogue is more or less a must but still. However, it can be funny, there's a certain enemy that screams when he's dying that sounds like the Tobey Maguire scream, I laugh every time.

One of the cool things is that there is a light and dark ending but it’s not affected by the powers you use, it’s by a certain decision towards the end so you can use force lightning all you want, in fact there’s this level where there are pools of water where you have to fight some sith, fall in the water and you can get shocked really bad but that doubles for them. The last level is kind of dumb because from what I can see and what I did was get that door open and then have to backtrack through most of the level to get back to the door, no shortcut or anything to the next area. Also one more complaint is that the green things are for refilling energy, I don’t think it ever explained that so just a heads up for those who want to get into it.

All in all, I was impressed with this game and it exceeded my expectations. That’s all for the main game, I might cover one of the bigger mods though like MBII.

I've wanted to play a good Batman game for a long time, heck even a good DC game. The last good Batman game I played was the Lego Batman series, which I loved, but I could never bring myself to play the Arkham series despite hearing that it was incredible. I've seen gameplay and things of all sort but naturally I would want to start with the first game, Asylum, but I never had the system for it since I was team Nintendo so I tried the demo on my old laptop...it couldn't run decently enough to be comfortable with, my laptop was old and non-beefy and I wasn't even too big of a fan of what I played in that demo.

Arkham Knight came out and I had a PS4, along with that came ‘Return to Arkham’ but I didn't have enough interest to pursue either. Spider-Man for PS4 comes out and people compared it to Batman. I loved that game but I wouldn't care to see the same gameplay put into a different game. So, what made me break down and get Arkham City then? Well I can confirm that you play as Bruce Wayne. This very much interested me because I like playing both parts, I like the little bubble of ordinary inside of an unordinary world. I thought we might get a slice of life out of Bruce Wayne...but in reality, it’s just one scene at the beginning of the game and it’s a good sequence but not the Bruce Wayne I was hoping for (kind of representative of the game if I’m honest). I tried the demo out and it grew on me.

Not only do you play as Bruce Wayne but you play as Catwoman and with this Game of the Year edition, it comes with added costumes (which is kind of just a bonus since I wouldn't normally care about that) but I particularly like using the Dark Knight Returns outfit because it makes me feel like I'm Ben Affleck's Batman. I would use either the 70's or Animated one more but I can't help but feel they look out of place, it's not the game's fault though, I felt that way with some of the Spider-Man costumes. With that, this game has a pretty big cast of villains especially if you count the side missions.

Catwoman isn’t as involved as I would have liked. I remember seeing promos for this game and being like "Catwoman and Batman working together!" Well not really, you save Catwoman then you play as her to save Batman. Then after the credits roll Catwoman comes back? Why did the credits roll if the game wasn't over? Well Catwoman is apparently DLC. I'd be disappointed if I paid to get 4 episodes (missions) of playing as Catwoman, it's not even a proper cohesive story and barely ties into Batman's at all, I played the ending and didn't even know it was the ending of her story, I had to look it up because you just pick up the stuff and it’s over.

For the console version, you can pick specific episodes and pick the costumes through that but with the PC version (might just be GOTY edition, I don't know) you have to change it as if you would Batman's and the two extra suits (Halloween and Animated) you have to pick either Year One or Animated Batman and it automatically switches to her alternate costume, which is kind of lame that she doesn't even get her own menu. As for the challenges, you get a menu for all of them and even Harley Quinn's Revenge so I don’t know what to think. I'm not usually one for challenges but you can play as Nightwing and see (some of) Wayne Manor, which is pretty cool.

The gameplay is pretty much what a beat-em-up would be like in a 3D environment. They focus a lot on combat and for good reason. One thing I've known before I even played the game and kind of respected was that you know an enemy is down for the count when you hear that crack and then the slow motion for the final enemy in the group, if I didn't know better that Batman is a ‘pacifist’ of sorts, I would’ve mistaken him for a killer because there are some brutal take-downs and Batman is cold and merciless with his personality like he's fed up with your b.s. (Poor Tim though). The take-downs stay fresh, showing me combos I haven't seen before, so yeah it's kind of just button mashing but I'm okay with that, it has a lot of thought, care and effort put into every move on the developer's end and they don't really make it so easy either. I feel like Spider-Man made it more balanced but it doesn't feel like Spider-Man to me so I almost can't compare it. That could be because I played Spider-Man on PS4 and this on PC but I doubt it, I notice a lot of different things that Spider-Man did differently, maybe it just used some elements, so that inital concern is out of the window.

This seems like a very short game, the credits started rolling and I was like "Really?" I would've done more side-quests but I figured I still had a while, plus it doesn't always let you do them when some main missions have urgency. Speaking of, Batman just leaves some of the victims there, like the nurses and the scientists, he's like "Wait here" and then comes back late in the game and is like "You're good at hiding...so keep doing it." Like dude, you just abandoned these guys the whole game, I get the urgency and stuff but they're desperate and we never really even got them out (unless that's a side mission I don't know about but I really doubt it)

Now Harley Quinn's Revenge.

It made me realize that people play this game very differently, maybe they have a different difficulty set, the console version is very different or maybe they unlocked something I don't know about but I see them knocking out 3 enemies at a time then KO’ing each and every one, I'm not sure how they knocked that many out at once and I'm not sure how they got them to stay down long enough to take them down one after the other, not to mention mastering the Critical Hit meter. It's not a very long story though, I've seen videos that finish it in an hour, for me it took maybe 2 and I didn't even do the final boss, I just got fed up because I would do a part so many times, get to the end then not be able to take out the last guy, I just looked the cutscene up on YouTube.But I like Batman most for Stealth and Robin for combat. Maybe I'll play Arkham Knight some day, I don't know, I imagine it improves a whole lot. As I was saying, it’s a good game just not what I expected.

I've bought Resi 4 on Steam, after the first level of playing it, I realized that it wasn't for me, all the enemies looked the same and it looked repetitive, zombies kept spawning and there was no way to get rid of them all, I ran out of ammo, it was a mess. I knew that the genre did that, I know that that’s the point, but I didn’t like it. Plus, I couldn't even really get the gunplay to work right. I heard that it was at its best on the Gamecube but I haven't given it another shot since then. However I saw that Resi2 got a demo, so I played it when it released and I kind of liked it, I was sold on the game and asked for it for Christmas (or maybe even my birthday, so yeah it’s been a long time but I was busy with other games) Now, the RE3 remake is already out...wow, time to play RE2 then, huh? So, you can consider this my "first" RE game.

Right out of the gate, visuals are stunning, almost needless to say and the level of accuracy is immense. I mean I didn't expect there to be a gas station at the beginning but it even had the lighters and beef jerky towards the front and stuff, they really went all out.

I can't imagine seeing this game when the original came out with PS1 graphics, it's ambitious, this is clearly the way it belongs. I thought a bug flew on screen but then I realized it was in-game, it's immersive, I don't normally read all the little tidbits and notes and stuff but it was generally interesting to read on the lore along with the VHS tapes and get some clues as to what to do next. I tried to play through it as if it were 1998 so I didn't look much up, I usually tried to do it myself with a few small exceptions. I felt accomplished by the end of each session like "Wow, I did that. I'm smart." It's rewarding. Now I played through each campaign so both Leon and Claire (starting with Leon) Claire on the other hand I was more lenient with, I looked up a decent amount because I was already in the station doing the same puzzles as Leon. It makes me wonder how they got the same items story-wise though, I mean we see Leon leaving her notes but you can't blow up the same wall twice in reality, that's nitpicking the game a little bit though. I will say that I felt like it was a wild goose chase when I did look it up because every thing I looked up was giving me different information "The portable safe is in this room." "No it's in this room." "This is the combination for the unicorn statue" "No it isn't, this is." Because it varies when you're playing on standard vs hardcore and whether it's your first or second run. So, I got my punishments for looking it up I guess.

But with that said, I know some of these types of older games have a tendency to make it really confusing and difficult without a guide so I was kind of worried about not knowing what to do or where to go. While I will say I had had to look a few things up, it became cut and dry once I figured out the pattern, most of the things I looked up were things I was going to do anyway but wanted to make sure before I somehow unleashed a hoard of zombies that I certainly didn't want. Same goes for story too, I knew close to nothing about it. But you basically just have to make it to the next area, think of it as that Chowder episode where he loses his hat and Chestnut has it so he has to go around doing odd jobs one by one in order to progress. The overall goal is to get out of the police station and kind of just find a way to survive but you have to focus on the smaller goals / getting to the next room. I looked pretty thoroughly through everything and managed to find everything I needed without even trying or knowing what it was for half the time like "Well this should come in handy later." puts it in storage chest Speaking of, I like how each chest is like an Ender Chest and is interchangeable as if it was the same one chest in every location, that makes things much easier rather than some hardcore game of "where did I put my keys?" that I'm not into. But you learn to find your destination a lot easier than I thought. That was always something I hated about Resident Evil games while watching them, that there was a lot of backtracking but actually playing the game hits differently, it's not what I expected, it's actually kind of fun, like I mentioned saying "I know where that is!"

Maybe it's just the setting of a police station that did that for me or maybe seeing speedrunners doing it with the old games and paying no mind made me scared or maybe the fixed camera angle of the old games (so that each side of the room had the clip as if it were just a picture) along with the idea that the originals are dated rather than PS4 but regardless, it's just surprisingly not annoying like I thought.

Games can easily stress me out but I actually found myself cruising and feeling good about it despite all these zombies...then I met Mr. X. He chases you EVERYWHERE throughout the game. Thing of nightmares. I will probably hear footsteps in my sleep now. I knew he was coming but I didn't know his presence wasn't always scripted, it's just a game of cat and mouse...and he's the cat! It gets me paranoid because I'll stop and hear footsteps then stand still for a good 5 minutes and he's still tromping around. I walk down a hall. BOOM! Crashes through the wall, making ME screech. There's no way to get rid of him and it kind of ruins the atmosphere to be honest, I know it's trying to be scary but it's more annoying than scary because every time I move I'm like "Ok stop" and I'll stand around for a minute, checking the map, to check the fastest route to where I need to go, just to make sure and then continue... only to turn the next corner and then repeat. I couldn't even move comfortably anymore, it's space invading. The tension is high because he can come into the main hall which I liked to use to save but alas, I had to memorize where all the other save points were or check the map again.

So, you get to play as Claire, which I like, but with Leon's story it's kind of just like "Well I'm going to do my own thing and if she survives, she survives." I understand each step is essential to progressing and getting closer but for all he knows, she's just out in the rain, waiting for him to unlock the door. And I also know that she said that she can handle herself (before Leon had to point out the zombie behind her! lmao) and he has survival on the forefront of his mind too but still. They flirt every time they're on screen together but the thing is that I love it, I ship it, it's cheesy but I don't care, that’s half of what I’m even here for.

As for the rest of the story, you're telling me that they made not just one movie but a SERIES of movies and it wasn't this?! This is great, this is a master-craft in its work. I'm not a big fan of zombie movies, I'm sure there's one out there that I like but I can't think of any off the top of my head but this? This is it! (Jennifer Lawrence would make a good Claire tbh) Let alone the horror genre in general, I'm not even frightened all that easily, I just think a lot of the plots and decisions are stupid in horror, this goes against all that. Speaking of spooky, I know making the screen brightness balanced is normal for games but I don't think it's mattered more than here, brighten that baby up because sometimes it's pitch black, immersive but still hard to see.

Boss fights are something I didn't think a whole lot about until I actually got to it. Doing the first boss fight with G was really memorable for me because I could cower away all I wanted in that gridded pit of a machine room and just launch grenades at him but it wasn't until the bosses in the sewer that I really started to like it. First was that Crash Bandicoot type running sequence, then we had G-2. I had actually ran out of ammo at that point, I used it all on the sewage monsters (I didn't get the flamethrower, I didn't know how, as I said, I did this more or less blind) so I just kept running, and clicked X every time the option came up, hoping to pick up something good. All I got was a combat knife and a flash grenade, then I started messing with the buttons on the control panel, in hopes of cheesing it and just going to the next section but then I realized what I was actually doing. I was using those buttons to move a crate and using that crate to slam G into a pit. I love the classic boss style, I haven't played a boss like that in a long time. One where it doesn't matter how much ammo you have, but just using the environment to your advantage without it explicitly telling you (except the death screen giving you hints). That was until the later boss fights, you basically just keep unloading your belt until they die, kinda lame but whatever.

This actually made me rethink the genre and also about giving one of the other games a shot (PLEASE REMAKE CODE VERONICA, I BEG!) it might be right time, right place (PS4 with modern graphics and modern gunplay) that made me actually interested. The “true ending” is unlocked by playing through one of the two’s campaign and then playing through the other, which is basically the same game but with different cutscenes and context (some new areas too) so it’s definitely worth it, you could even just speedrun the second run if you’d like, you even unlock a secret boss and for those who have already seen the true ending, know that I liked it based off of what I said earlier, no spoilers.

For this review I'm going to be referring to this game as "ReRe".

Let's get one thing out of the way, this was a game made for the 3DS then was ported over to other systems so it's obviously going to be smaller scale making a lot of the stuff not really something to blame it on, it's the core that I'll be judging as if I were playing it in its intended way.

I really only have Resident Evil 2 Remake and a little bit of Resident Evil 4 to go off of for reference but this was one of the ones that I was most interested in, which is kind of ironic but oh well. I finished RE2 and was craving more RE and I found the demo for ReRe on Steam. Imagine my surprise when I heard Michelle Ruff as Jill, I was already sold on the game, the question was "What platform?" Because I could get the ReRe 1 & 2 bundle on Switch, but I tried the RE5 demo on there and I didn't like the control scheme and I really don't like the control scheme for it on Steam, it was the same with RE4, I even tried plugging in my PS4 controller and it thought left was up and up was left, I couldn't change any of it in the settings either, just the keyboard and mouse ones, so here I am with a PS4 copy.

As you probably know, this game is split up into episodes, similar to that of Alan Wake. Each episode has its own levels, so you could start as Jill then go over as Chris for example in order to display different sides of the stories. I actually kind of like this because with RE2, I always felt like I NEEDED to do the next thing in order to save, it works for a game like this, better than Alan Wake especially considering that you only played as Alan and it was only one side of the story. But it's not so split up that it resets your inventory, you keep your herbs and your ammo (or lack thereof).

A lot of people complain about the scanner and how it gets repetitive and that it should've just stayed on the 3DS but let me say that I love when a game uses the controller, whenever you use it, the controller makes little robotic sounds, same with when Parker calls you on the com, I adore it. It makes me feel motivation to try and get that S rank at the end of each mission because it's basically the same as taking pictures. On top of that, it's night vision, so you can just use it to look around, sometimes you find hidden handprints, it's really neat. And the stuff that you scan, nets you percentage points so whenever you scan a specific type of enemy, it'll register it and once it reaches 100 then you get a herb! Which is a cool system, different from previous games with the mixing and such, here, there is just one type of herb and you can still pick it up on its own if need be.

Let's talk about the setting. The idea that this is "Resident Evil on a ship!" sounds intriguing but limited, given the background of the early games but I beg to differ. I really like the idea of a ship being your environment, there are chapters where you play in other places at different times too so it never feels too familiar. It isn't just aimlessly walking, trying to get in the next room either, there are set objectives and it shows you where to go (not that it's all that hard to find anyway) because it's split up into sections, normally you'll only explore one or a few sections per episode so yeah it is easier in that sense but I'm fine with that. It goes away from the formula but the elements are still there, just not as much, there are still keys to rooms that you have to unlock and then you have to backtrack. I really like the ship itself too, I was in awe when I got to the Clock room, I love it, I'm a bit of a nerd for pirates and stuff so it's right up my alley (apparently there are even pirate skins you can unlock!). Just look at the way the helm spins whenever the next door unlocks and takes you down that elevator.

They even have a solid level just dedicated to swimming, which sounds pretty bad but the swimming controls are actually good and I found myself immersed and tilting with the camera. Now those pirate skins are unlocked using Raid Mode. What is that? Well, you go around various stages of the game just shooting, take out as many enemies as you can, balls to the wall. The bonus stage unlocked after beating the campaign is the "Ghost Ship" which is basically the entire ship that you speedrun in order to unlock the pirate skins I mentioned (why is it always so difficult...) In a way, I have to appreciate this mode because while I might not be as handy aiming with a PS4 controller versus a mouse, it's kind of fun to run around, choosing your own weapons, infinite ammo and just wailing on enemies (I don't like that for any campaign but for a bonus mode it's fine.)

Now some of the characters because you can actually play as a lot of them here.

I've never got the chance to play as Chris before but now I'm really glad I did, I completely understand. I always hear that he's the butt end of a joke but people still like it. He's a muscle-headed Chad, that only thinks about the mission, he's not a character, he's a tool but dang does that make him likable. At one point, he’s trying to unlock a door through a computer and I’m like “You sure HE’S the one that should be doing that?) I think Jill ends up doing it anyway, Jessica is well aware of his obliviousness though, it actually makes for an interesting dynamic.

Parker isn't my favorite. He's there to be there really, sometimes I need support and he'll shoot that last zombie but that's about it. Raymond...for some reason, I like Raymond?? I mean, he's like a red-haired Casey Neistat.

Jessica is kinda funny because she's half and half like Chris. I thought she'd be super serious but "Parker better get me dinner!" Also speaking of half and half, she has one pant leg, the other one is bare?? Ok? The characters are cheesy, much like a tv show but I love them. I would've liked a little more Rachel though.

The final boss is actually pretty dumb, he has a weak point but he lasts way longer than he should, the previous chapter's boss was much more fun. As for the alignment of a survival horror game versus an action game, this one is more closely aligned with an action game but I would beg that it's more connected to survival horror than others such as RE5 or 6. The game isn't terribly long, my play-through was a little over 5 hours but I enjoyed it for what it was and again, it's a 3DS game.

I want to be clear about what type of game this is. It's very story driven, so it's pretty linear. The walking is kind of stiff but if you can learn to look past all that...
It has a polygon like style, semi-cyberpunk with its 2048 setting, reminding me of things like "i, Robot" and even Half-Life without the wasteland vibe. Except you don't have guns, you don't jump around the map, it's more like room to room interactions over action.

You play as Adam and Richard, two people in very similar situations (those are the mains, you play as some others along the way as well). They are two sides of the same coin, they've both been in a car accident and are recovering their memory so you're learning along with them. One has a good relationship with his family, the other doesn't. You do however get multiple choice answers, which I'm sure lead to different dialogue options. You can either be a jerk or slightly less of a jerk. I tried to do all the extra stuff which really made this game more interesting for me. There aren't side-quests but just little things here and there that feel very achievement based, whether they truly are or not. For example, you can give a homeless man some spare change or spend time with the kid before his bed time, the little stuff like that make me feel good about myself.
The linearity is pretty annoying because underneath this game's story, I see a lot of layers that could be picked if you were given the option. I won't complain too much about it though because I'm not against linear games.

As for story, Adam is kind of like Roxas but Richard, as I mentioned and hence his name, is a jerk and when you don't like your protagonist, it's hard to like the story. Remember that Mars mission that's supposedly going to happen in the years to come? Well that's in here too. I kind of went into this game blind, but I saw Mars talked about somewhere when I was researching it and became very interested as I've been looking for a Mars game for a good while. You don't actually explore Mars though, it's just this futuristic city. (sometimes Berlin or City5 as they call it) There are some posters on the wall in various clubs and stuff that I really hope that they'll make real as merch for the game, though I doubt it (they do have an artbook though).

I was put off by the ending because it had the potential to be good but it left too many holes. It didn't feel definitive. The ending is the one exception where your choices matter, there are two decisions in particular (the last two and you'll know when you see it), I did the 'best' ending and the 'worst' ending, though, that's kind of objective. The other two endings are basically the same just with the scenes interchangeable. There are certain characters that we never really get an answer as to what happened to them and then the place they decide to go...like they just forgot about Richard's 'status'.

When I paid for this, it was on sale for about 2$ so I'm not going to complain but it's just an average game, I wouldn't pay the normal 30$ for it.

The music is pretty brilliant as well as fitting.

I expected something like Tomb Raider Legend mixed with some photography and for the most part, that's what I got but I didn't expect as much combat as it has and it's not half bad. I didn't think I would even like the photo taking aspect especially with a GC controller but I ended up using it immensely (it's not always required).

There isn't really platforming or even a jump button unfortunately but I can tell that the people who put this together are gamers and put care into it because it's gleaming with personality and doesn't fall into common traps a lot of other games do. Take sidestepping for example, normally you can easily fall off the edge and many deaths in general are unjustified due to poor controls or poor execution. I never felt that with this game, sidestepping along an edge is literally just holding forward on the control stick, you don't get stuck, it's not insanely slow, and the puzzle like nature is actually pretty nice.

The vehicle controls are actually pretty accurate, I was easing through a minefield without breaking a sweat, the problem is the jumping and shooting. There's a certain boss you have to beat with the hovercraft (a few times) and it's hard to shoot at because you have to keep everything under control at once while keeping up with the boss.

Perhaps one of the defining features of this game is its tone. I would consider it an "inbetweener" it seems kid friendly for the most part but it's rated T for Teen, it has a dark side, which is mainly saved for the end but it's sprinkled throughout and not something I would expect to see in an average game style like this with its cartoony nature. Coming from the same guy who made Rayman, it starts to piece itself together, I can see why it's a cult-classic but I feel like you'd have to play it in order to see fully, especially with the sequel looking vastly different from this one.

For a good amount, I felt on top of the game because I had so many units, yet I never felt "underchallenged". Now, let's talk about the title. I'm not sure, why it's called that, I had a few fears with this game such as it being too edgy or raunchy for its own good but I don't believe any of those initial fears came to fruition. I would even play the sequel if it ever comes out. That ending boss was also pretty cool gameplay-wise.

Welcome to a japanese 'The Game Plan', the video game adaptation. (Kind of)
I wanted to start this review with a first impressions, so I'm writing this after playing the first few chapters of the game.

First off, I like the atmosphere, the town is nice, I like learning the street names and seeing all the people on the road and talking to them. There are even drunks running about (more like stumble about) which is such an odd little feature.

There are plenty of battles, including street fights and each one increases your experience, however if there's a person who wants to pick a fight, they will chase you down at times until they can get close enough to talk to you, you "can" outrun them and cheese it by walking in a nearby store or something then walking back out. I'm not going to complain because it's a remake of a game on the PS2 (which I try to take into account for this review) but some of the models are janky at times with the way the models jerk but again, no big deal. There's a sprint system but he'll get tired and stop to catch his breath but you can reuse it right after, no bar to refill or anything but I will say that the health bar doesn't refill itself unless you die or get something to eat, so be wary if you're going into a fight.

There's a pretty decent skill tree like stuff to increase your health, tech, etc. I'm sure you already know that you can pick up random items like chairs, motorcycles, traffic cones and such to fight with but it really is fun to mess around with, just adds to the world building. It also has a play-style system with Brawler, Beast, Rush, and Dragon to fit however you like to play (I like Brawler best). If you played FF7 Remake, it kind of reminds me of the Operator vs Punisher mode, I wonder if they were inspired by this game. I know I'm going to offend some people here but this is what the Arkham franchise's combat wishes it was (as far as Asylum and City go, I never played the other ones) I just like this more.

Now the story is pretty simple but pretty decent, I still can't believe this is the same guy who made Super Monkey Ball. I could see where it might build for the future games, I wanted to start with Yakuza 5 because I hear that's the best besides 0 and I don't normally care for continuity and do it with plenty of game series and don't have any trouble for the most part but the 5th entry in the saga seems a little more steep than say the 2nd or 3rd so I'm happy to settle on the first.

First impressions over, let's get into the thick of it.
The story is pretty cutscene heavy. Goofy at times but I still dig it, especially seeing Kiryu and Haruka interact.

How are the bosses? Well, the first proper boss is Shimano. There are some mini bosses before it but he's the big one. In the first Kingdom Hearts game, if a boss has a good amount of health, they'll stack the health bars into different colors, such as green, yellow, and orange, this is very similar to that. Shimano isn't what you should base the bosses on because he's a tough first boss, he's very strong and drawn out, but in a way kind of reflective because Kiryu is meant to be a bit rusty after all that time and this dude is huge on top of it so of course he's going to have a rough time with him. Narrative-wise, it makes sense but it's still a hard, kind of unforgiving and annoying boss battle. (also why didn't Kiryu just point out the hole in the window or have Kazama say otherwise??) Just know that they aren't normally like that.

I will say that the Akai break-dancing trash of the bloody eye were also super annoying though. You can't even approach the older brother, one is fine, but two? And a buncha goons?

My actual worst enemy is falling over though...

Majima is more of a rival but you fight him frequently. He reminds me of somebody I know, and that's what makes him funny but I don't like him, you're not really supposed to like him. He does have one of the best fights of the game though and if you’re dedicated then you can upgrade your dragon abilities through him.

One thing that I know may put people off from this game is the localization because for one, "Yakuza Kiwami" actually sounds kinda cool but it's very japanese which means, there is no dubbing, which is kind of rare for big games such as this, you just rely on subtitles. If it doesn't bother you with anime then it's fine. It's actually really fun. Now I have the PC edition but that's mainly because it was on sale (then it was on sale on the PS store a few weeks later which made me pretty salty) but I easily just plugged in my PS4 controller and it was all good, especially since "Real Yakuza use a gamepad". I personally wouldn't recommend the keyboard and mouse setup though as it can seem kind of tedious.

Random Section! Each dude has a name so I know who I'm trash talking. You ask Shinji for money early on but never pay him back and that really bothers me. I will say that the weapons and items you buy should have a stats chart so that you can tell if an item is stronger than one you have (how is an umbrella stronger than a revolver??) you kind of just have to take a shot in the dark based on price. Now once does Kiryu place the blame on anybody even after his 10 years and everything he's been through, it's really honorable, mad respect but it might've saved some hassle at certain points...

One thing that surprised me is just how easy it is to get a lot. I mean it makes sense because you're a yakuza, but I'm not used to getting so much CP after just a few fights and money out the wazooh (not always through fights, but sell a few things and see where you get). There are side missions but are they interesting? I mentioned the random people wanting to beat you up, but there are those that chase you and the ones that are beating on somebody else where you can choose to intervene, like how you would do basic stuff like taking someone to the hospital or stopping a robbery in Spider-Man. But then there are the ones with more context. A homeless man that needs a coat, a girl being harassed by men but then she takes you for a drink, none of them stand out a whole lot or lasts too long (because there are so many) but they're interesting little side things. There’s obviously lots to do, so I know I haven’t even experienced everything.

I mentioned atmosphere and how I liked exploring, you can take a cab, but I would say at least learn the area first, you find tons of little stuff like locker keys.

Was it worth losing Super Monkey Ball over this? Not really but you can get an AiAi plush in the claw machine! Was it a good game though? Yeah, I'd have to say so, I'll be moving on to more in the series, Kiwami 2 seems like the next logical approach.

The games I wish I grew up with.

"Oh, so you didn't have a PS1?" Oh no, I did, just didn't have any games for it. I've always loved the mascot of Spyro (Crash too) and I can't really think of anybody else who thinks otherwise, whether it's the game or just appreciation for the character in some form or another and Enter the Dragonfly was my first (not even kidding) and it is considered one of the worst, I only played it that once then returned it because it felt stupid to me.

I didn't fall out of it with Spyro though, I always intended to give it another chance but it just got farther and farther. Then Skylanders came out and would you believe it? I was into it. It's not a whole lot of Spyro (but the game itself and voice of Spyro were good) I just consider it a different game. Since then, I've tried A New Beginning, and it was fun at times but still not the experience I wanted and I do plan on continuing the Legend of Spyro but in the mean time...

I have a soft spot for platformers so when Reignited was announced, it was right up my alley...so what stopped me? Well, I heard the complaint that it's a collect-a-thon and that it might not have aged well for fans that haven't played and enjoyed the originals. That shot my expectations in the water then I saw some speed-running and it made me want to give it a try so here I am, finally trying this game out for size. I'll split it up game by game though and look at them on a modern level since it's technically a modern game now.

I love the little pitter-patter of his feet while he's dashing and the little prance he does when you jump and dash at the same time. Make sure you use the D-Pad while you dash though because for some reason, the control stick just doesn't cut tight turns, like at all.

This game adds cool little flips and flaps to the loading screens and I get that it's a redone PS1 game but there's a lot of them, luckily they aren't too long (I imagine having a PS5 may help a lot in that department). I appreciate the transitions from zone to zone as well with that little flip he does before landing. And I don't know who's idea it was to have an installation after the Artisanal area but it's really stupid because apparently there was a demo from preordering it that was just that area and you could upgrade to the full game after that point but I don't see why they didn't just make it a separate file for the people who aren't upgrading from a demo. Now if you're thinking that I played this right after downloading, the answer is no, I didn't. I downloaded it days prior and it was well past finished when I arrived, not to mention I got it digitally, I doubt it's like that on Switch but unfortunately it is for PS4.

I like how the barriers are stone pillars with gems in them which activate a forcefield to keep you from going out of bounds. I love little gameplay explanations like that. I also like the level design, including the hub worlds. There are a lot of things that I miss about older games but a lot of things that I don't. I believe I've seen some people bring this up but the dialogues for the rescued dragons are pretty bland at times, I love seeing just how different each one looks versus just the cookie cutter ones of the original but they'll often just say "I'd like to chat but I have to go." or just a small throwaway line. I know that there are too many to really do much with and how the original game had that dialogue but just a little thing I feel they could've changed if they wanted.

Now that I have more of a grasp on the game, I can say that I enjoy more than I thought I would. I don't get bored just walking around, all the landscapes are different, I love the atmosphere, I like collecting and actually feel compelled to 100% every level, the "aging" problem I originally had before I bought it is gone, I feel like just watching gameplay doesn't cut it, you have to give it your own shot.

Now there are normal stages, boss stages, and flight stages. Flight stages are easily my least favorite, good luck trying to get me to "All-in-One" those because they have a time limit. I expected a simple little game out of it but I got a lot more meat than I expected. I feel like you can just dash through it if you want (which makes for good speedrunning) but I felt compelled to collect, felt compelled to save the dragons, you only need a certain minimum but I almost don't care, I searched every nook and cranny. Boss stages are barely even recognizable as that, they're a breeze for the most part but I like them and I don't feel like it subtracts from the experience not having bosses the way other games would because it's not necessarily combat focused like the latter-day Spyro games.

Now the one boss that I hate is Gnorc and it's for that same reason, he's not a boss, you chase him around. It's not even that I dislike that though, what bugs me is the level because first you have to chase one of those egg thieves because it has a key, you use that key to unlock another door to another egg thief with another key, chase them then use the key to unlock Gnorc. Why is this so terrible? Because if you die on the Gnorc level, you have to start all over and chase those egg thieves again and you do get used to it but it's annoying as heck, give me a checkpoint! There's challenging and then there's annoying, that's annoying, just leave Gnorc on his own because you basically have to memorize the course so you know every which way to go or else you die and when you die, you lose a life and you only have so many in this game. I went the whole thing easily having around 10 lives on hand but this level made me break out the 99 lives cheat because this was the last level! I'm not going back to farm for lives when I'm in Gnorc's realm doing the same level over and over again, trial and error. I felt that for some of the jumps you have to make with the boost pad like in Tree Tops.

Overall it's a nice precursor for Insomniac, I didn't know Spyro did those news sessions like Ratchet and Clank, it's a nice game overall but it left me wanting just a bit more out of it which is why there are 3 in the trilogy that I suppose would build on that as well as a new Spyro probably on the way that should deliver on that even further.

I read the synopsis but I was never really clear on what the game was until I bought it. Sure, it's a visual novel but were there interactive elements to it? Were there choices?

Lemme start by describing it. This is a visual novel about an AI called 'Eliza', it's like a therapist type chatbot similar to the real life app 'Woebot' but the 'proxy' or host is a real person and they're basically reading a script based off of what Eliza thinks is the right thing to say and they can't break away. You play as an ex developer for Eliza, Evelyn, you don't move around or anything, the situations are fixed, the thing that you can interact with are some of the choices which are mainly attitude based. You interview clients and they tell you about their problems. The problem with that is that Eliza is a chatbot so it has a set formula, it's more just there to listen than to actually have a conversation with, they describe it as "someone talking who thinks you're way more interested than you actually are" which is where they start to talk about corruption.

Eliza is the new and big thing, which means higher ups want to profit off of that, it's not necessarily about mental health to them, to Evelyn, however, she has a bit more personal ties where the story grows deeper. I won't spoil too much though, but I will say that it's nice to see these clients come back and you learn more about them and their story and how they're being affected, I liked Maya and Darren the most because I could relate to them, and somewhat Evelyn too, we barely see Damien but I appreciate him as well. You also level up after every session and get ratings and tips since you're technically a contractor, but those seem fixed, it's not really anything.

One choices question about 'choices' for me is "are there alternate endings?" The quick answer is yes, but you don't make that decision until the end, it saves you the stress of having it based on a compilation of all of your choices, I personally picked the last one and I liked it but I thought there might've been something else so I checked them all out and I would say either the last one or the third one was best. It's not a bad game, I like some of the points it brings up especially for a visual novel but I felt it could've had more interactivity like having you choose to go off script more. The game is about 5 hours long give or take, right now my Steam says my playtime is 1.6 hours for some reason but hopefully that gets ironed out, I also found some stuttering here and there but I'm not sure if it's a game thing or a performance thing.

If you're playing this on Steam, make sure you opt out of beta on your account because for some people it doesn't launch the first time around (including me) and that's the way to fix it.

I gotta say, you start out as a police officer and it looks like it's going to be a crime to crime basis, you do one mission after the other in succession with no real overarching story or anything but then once the first few are over, you get promoted to a detective and the cases become fuller with more story and just content overall in them.

Sometimes you'll fail a mission only to have to rewatch the cutscene again, as far as I know, those are unskippable. I reached the infamous "Are they lying?" sections and I now understand because sometimes the voice and acting doesn't match the facial expressions they're making and some will be so bland that it's hard to tell. It's like that in real life but hard to put into a game. I can't really complain though because you can look up from your pad and see their face and 9/10 it's hilarious to look at, I wouldn't even call it a gameplay negative especially for a PS3 game. I look at it as "If just the eyes are moving, doubt. If their face or jaw contorts too then they're lying. And straight face is truth." That's not 100% of the time but it's what I go by. Sometimes they'll just be stating something which makes it a bit odd to categorize it and Phelps will say things differently than you might have wanted him to but I kind of understand why it's like that. Instinct points help too which act as your 50/50 and lifeline like in 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. I've been playing the OG version, the remastered version does things a bit differently but I don't think I would like it any better.

The car is fun to play around in, I've had so many laughs with it, leaving my partner then stopping for him to run up to the door then drive away from him, teasing over and over, it's so much fun. You can hop in any idle car or bump someone to make them get out then take their car, it might take from your score some but it's not too big of a deal unless you want the 5 star ranking only to get an achievement, you ARE the police afterall and do you play a GTA game to not abuse the system? Now, you can't just walk in anywhere or do anything quite like GTA, there are limits and you don't spend as much time roaming the streets. Each door with a golden knob or golden bar can be opened, the others cannot. You can actually run into people and knock them over leaving a blood streak on the sidewalk. A lot of them will be carrying flowers, you can knock that out of their hands, that's something I always liked in Spider-Man 2 for the Gamecube along with the dialogue "I'm walking here!" The world is great though. The little details I see and hear throughout the game just make all the difference and make it feel like a Noire experience. From the jazz music playing every now and then to the visual style, to the black and white mode and even me running into a pole and Bekowsky yelling at me "Do you think this is a tank!?", the way these people talk just feels classic and witty, like it has a vintage feel to it on top of everybody seeming like a bumhole that doesn't want to give any more info than asked, which makes your judgements on characters a lot easier, the faces can be goofy at times but the roles they're given are interesting and makes me want to either side with them or call them out for lying, it's one thing to make that a game feature, it's another to make me WANT to use it and this succeeds.

If you've played previous Rockstar games then it might be a bit of a different experience for you but in my case, this is my first, normally you play as a villain with Rockstar, this one, you don't and that interests me. As for actual story, it doesn't really matter how you play, you might be able to bag some of the crooks faster or easier or get achievements but it's all a pretty relative end goal, sometimes something will happen to the suspect but it's kind of rare but I feel like most of the gameplay makes up for the story.

A lot of the side missions are chase sequences and I did a majority of them but it's fun every now and then because you can shoot their feet or legs and they'll stop (shoot too much and it kills them though) you can fire warning shots, you can tackle, you can brawl, sometimes they'll take a hostage and you'll have to prevent them from shooting, it has a wide range of ways that you can handle it to either nip it in the bud or play with the chase. It could use a little more control to defuse the situation easier, like a melee button, because you don't control whether your gun is in hand or not, you can't brawl if there's a gun in your hand, but you can beat them over the head with it, the problem is that it's triggered, there's no melee button, so you kind of just have to guess where the hitbox is and hover around them until something happens and you arrest them (if they don't shoot you first). There isn't really a peaceful route though because most of the time, they'll be shooting at you so you don't have a choice but to take them out. You can hover the reticle over certain targets and they'll give in but I did it maybe once or twice, it didn't give me an option any other time, so I know they could've made it more peaceful.

The game is split up into sections where you get promoted to new types of cases, now I know that there are different people who specialize in different things so it's accurate but it's just odd to see it in a game because it's car after car mission and then it's homicide after homicide, I never felt too wore out on any of them, so they don't really overstay their welcome, it's just doing them all in succession rather than a car case then a homicide then an arson, it's a minor nitpick. You also get different partners with each department. Phelps himself is kind of milquetoast but he's probably the most levelheaded of the game, I kinda like him (except for that turning point). Brekowsky is funny. Galloway is a bumhole, I didn't mind driving away without him, he normally just sits there anyway. Roy is a racist meatlug, I didn't like him even when he wasn't the partner. And Biggs is tolerable and cooperative for the most part.

Make sure you collect at least some of the newspapers because luckily I did (all but 1, I was so peeved when found out though) and I saw the payoff during the major turn of the story for Phelps, it would've been pretty crappy without them, same with the ending. Now the ending itself isn't a "good" one in my opinion, I think it takes some things too fast and didn't really build up for certain parts of it but the game is long enough so it really could've. I do think it 'could' be a good ending with what it was implying, it's a bit bitter but a bit too subtle to really realize and understand it, I didn't even get the full perspective until I looked it up and thought "yeah, that makes sense".

This is the one I was looking forward to most out of the trilogy. After I finished the first game, I made a list of hopes that I want for the future of the franchise. This game delivered that on almost all fronts, I didn't even expect it until a brand new game came out but no this is just one of the best sequels ever. Needless to say that I already hold this highly and even higher than the last.

Let's start with that. First off, there's a better use for flight, using superflight which works similar to supercharge and you just have a limit to using your flight wherever whenever instead of just gliding. On top of that, gliding adds the ability to 'hover' which helps with banging into walls when you're oh so close to reaching the ledge, you just hold (in my case triangle) to hop up an extra step, which brings me to my next topic.

New abilities! You no longer die when you're in the water, you can even swim underwater and guess what? No breath meter! (unless it's a flight level (Man I wish those would go extinct!)) How do you get this? Glad you asked, yet another thing I asked for, gems. The gems are used for something this time around, Moneybags. He's a new character that basically acts as the Tom Nook of the franchise and deprives you of things then taxes it, asking for a certain amount of gems to obtain it. Gems also compile now so you can use gems from anywhere to use for Moneybags but can still look in the menu to see how many are left in the level.

Now the thing about abilities like that is that it prevents you from getting 100% on stuff right off the bat unless you already have the right abilities. (such as sometimes needing to dive underwater for gems) You don't need them to finish the level, just 100% it (just to be clear). I guess that adds replayability though, I'm alright with that, I'll make an exception.

This goes for the last game too but I failed to mention it because I didn't know about it. Motion blur...why is it there? It's subtle but when you move the camera around so much then it starts to suck, I thought it was the vibrant colors making my head hurt the whole time so I only played in small doses but no, I think it was the motion blur, so if you're like me and get headaches from just about anything, turn it off in the menu.

I will add that there are actual bosses this time around at the end of each realm. Ripto as an end boss makes up for having Gnorc at the end of the last game, I was really satisfied. Also is this where Dark Souls got its inspiration? Because you essentially collect 'souls' every time you defeat an enemy and you use them to unlock gates, it's really spooky to think about and I think it'd be funny if they acknowledged it.

I asked for more story and we got it, plenty of cutscenes and I love every bit. The world of Avalar is just as good as the Dragon Realm in the original game, if not better. The one thing I might ask more of is to make some of it a bit darker, I get it's for kids, but I just mean Legend type of dark, maybe add Cynder in there wink wink. There's plenty to FAWN over here and not to mention how much it improves on the system overall. I felt like it needed an extra gameplay element to it in the last game, well the new story boosts that concept and doesn't make it as simple as saving dragons, this time you're collecting Talismen from each of the leaders of the worlds so that you can gain enough power to beat Ripto. With every few worlds, there will be a little side mission that you can do and get some other items in the process which sometimes in turn unlock new levels entirely.

These missions comprise of little tasks, such as a new gameplay mechanic...spitting! You can pick up rocks and stuff and spit it either into a specific spot or at enemies, it's pretty sweet and you also have an aiming function. I won't spoil all the gameplay nooks and crannies but dang does this game improve on the last.

Inside opens and drops you right into the game, no cutscenes, no backstory, nothing but the title and a kid falling to the ground. The only thing left to do is to walk forward. It's a very cold and bleak night but there are some nice elements to it, the grass, the mud, some trees, leaves, this game looks better than it has to. That's when you start to climb over some things, such as hazards and gates, maybe this kid is trespassing.

There's a truck up ahead, there are a bunch of people loaded in the back, the first people we've seen, they must be moving house. Some metal objects in the background, maybe we're in a dystopian future, it's desolate. There are some more people, must be security with their flashlights, maybe they shouldn't see him.

We reach a concrete wall, barbed wire on top, let's knock over this fridge and hop over it, maybe this is a prison break. More people, more trucks, more fences. A Doberman barking, chasing him through the water, definitely a prison break. RUN. There's a gap, a ledge, we're hanging by tree roots, the dog can't reach us there. SAFE (for now). More people searching, chasing after the kid, people in front of him, what do we do? HIDE. They're shooting, they have weapons. More dogs. JUMP. Land in the water. That kid just keeps running. More strange things happen. This was just the beginning.

There isn't a gameplay scene that got me to play this, it looked simple and edgy but it was as easy as people saying that it was one of the best puzzle games to actually get me on board. I didn't know that I would be mesmerized by it and want to finish the game in one go, because once you start, it only gets harder to stop. I did however finish it in two-goes, it's not a very long game but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I want the soundtrack, it's great, not many games can pull that off but I wish more did. It can be played with one hand, only five buttons and I beat this without looking any of it up, it was a personal mission for me and I'm so glad I succeeded. (Though, I was tempted by the hook part) This is a must try.