NovaNiles
2023
I was planning on waxing philosophicaly about a how Zortch feels like a throwback to 90s FPS design and something about Video Game Rentals. Fuck that. Zortch is 5 bucks, its great, go buy Zortch you coward.
2007
Maybe the most missunderstood and wrongfully shamed game of 7th Gen. From the critics who claimed it was a repetitive techdemo with a shallow parcoure system, to the sequel dickriders who retroactivly shunned it: Get fucked. The First Assassins Creed is a game of focus, a clear vision of making a historical spy thriller with a sci fi twist.
It weaves historical fact with fiction excellently and creates a believable world for Gameplay to take place in. Altair is an excelent protagonist, beeing a reflection of the World he lives in. A Land that is beeing grinded down between the waring parties, where your fundamentalist believes and oaths justifie the end to any means. And unlike many of the Sequels: Altair actually changes and earns his arc as he learns the truth about the Holy War. Hes not Ezio who becomes the Holy Prophet of the Creed even after fucking up again, again and then a little bit more for good measure. Assassins Creed 1 considers consequenz and choice important to the narrativ, like it fucking should.
The gameplay consists of parcouring through the distinct cities of the Middle East. Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre all have unique districts, color pallets and Architecture. The devs had so much trust in the level design that they allow the minimap to be turned off and let the player explore based on landmarks and directions given in missions briefings alone. And it works. Having the buro always in the north of a city gives a clear starting point for exploration, making it entirely the players fault if they get lost.
The traversel through the citys is handle by a complex parcoure system allowing complete freedom of movement with side ejects, back jumps, slides and eventually ledge grabs. The later getting acquired to late in the game even though it unlocks a cruchial new layer to the traversal that should have been unlocked after the intro in my opinion. That and a piss poor tutorial, wich the series still suffers from, may have contributed to the lack of engagement players might have fellt toward this first Entrie. Although I would argue the game is open enough to allow experimentation without the need for endlessly forced tutorials. And perhaps that was the point.
The missions that are supposedly so repetitive all tie into the movement and use it well. And to be clear: there are no side missions in AC 1. Its all in service of the story and how much context the player wants to have before killing their assignt target. AC 1 simply prefers to not pull away any focus with random bullshit, just sometimes stoping the plot for present day segments that give further Context and even have their own secrets to discover. Random Flags and Templars to kill are placed in the world, wich I do admit feel very tacked on and unecessary. Their isnt even any reward for doing it.
Combat is not nearly as complex as parcour, but still provides solid fun. Its all about the numbers, giving even more the feeling that your a lonely Assassin send into the lions den. Parry can become a Get Out of Jail Free Card if its mastered sure, but in the late game enemies turn up in such high numbers that the most viable strategie really is the make a quick escape across the rooftopes. To give some credit to the critics: Combat does become repetitive simply due to the fact that by one of the last sections it becomes a litteral Kill Corridor of Enemies with no Stealth or any way to avoid it. It sucks and it reeks of a rushed deadline they had to met.
Still those are minor problems in my eyes for a game that is so unique among it own Series even. It is a shame that Ubisoft kickd the series creator Patrice Desilets to the curb when it came time to make follow ups, just so they could have complete control over milking their new cash cow dry until the heat death of the universe, or more fittingly: Soon the company itself, according to all the reports. I wonder what could have been, but Im also glad AC 1 still exists. Its a game I keep coming back to since I was Tennager and I appreciate it more every time I replay it.
It weaves historical fact with fiction excellently and creates a believable world for Gameplay to take place in. Altair is an excelent protagonist, beeing a reflection of the World he lives in. A Land that is beeing grinded down between the waring parties, where your fundamentalist believes and oaths justifie the end to any means. And unlike many of the Sequels: Altair actually changes and earns his arc as he learns the truth about the Holy War. Hes not Ezio who becomes the Holy Prophet of the Creed even after fucking up again, again and then a little bit more for good measure. Assassins Creed 1 considers consequenz and choice important to the narrativ, like it fucking should.
The gameplay consists of parcouring through the distinct cities of the Middle East. Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre all have unique districts, color pallets and Architecture. The devs had so much trust in the level design that they allow the minimap to be turned off and let the player explore based on landmarks and directions given in missions briefings alone. And it works. Having the buro always in the north of a city gives a clear starting point for exploration, making it entirely the players fault if they get lost.
The traversel through the citys is handle by a complex parcoure system allowing complete freedom of movement with side ejects, back jumps, slides and eventually ledge grabs. The later getting acquired to late in the game even though it unlocks a cruchial new layer to the traversal that should have been unlocked after the intro in my opinion. That and a piss poor tutorial, wich the series still suffers from, may have contributed to the lack of engagement players might have fellt toward this first Entrie. Although I would argue the game is open enough to allow experimentation without the need for endlessly forced tutorials. And perhaps that was the point.
The missions that are supposedly so repetitive all tie into the movement and use it well. And to be clear: there are no side missions in AC 1. Its all in service of the story and how much context the player wants to have before killing their assignt target. AC 1 simply prefers to not pull away any focus with random bullshit, just sometimes stoping the plot for present day segments that give further Context and even have their own secrets to discover. Random Flags and Templars to kill are placed in the world, wich I do admit feel very tacked on and unecessary. Their isnt even any reward for doing it.
Combat is not nearly as complex as parcour, but still provides solid fun. Its all about the numbers, giving even more the feeling that your a lonely Assassin send into the lions den. Parry can become a Get Out of Jail Free Card if its mastered sure, but in the late game enemies turn up in such high numbers that the most viable strategie really is the make a quick escape across the rooftopes. To give some credit to the critics: Combat does become repetitive simply due to the fact that by one of the last sections it becomes a litteral Kill Corridor of Enemies with no Stealth or any way to avoid it. It sucks and it reeks of a rushed deadline they had to met.
Still those are minor problems in my eyes for a game that is so unique among it own Series even. It is a shame that Ubisoft kickd the series creator Patrice Desilets to the curb when it came time to make follow ups, just so they could have complete control over milking their new cash cow dry until the heat death of the universe, or more fittingly: Soon the company itself, according to all the reports. I wonder what could have been, but Im also glad AC 1 still exists. Its a game I keep coming back to since I was Tennager and I appreciate it more every time I replay it.
2018
Another year, Another Update, Another excuse to replay Dusk. Dusk is David Szymanskis bloody FPS remix of games like Quake, Blood and Thief. Its the game that really launched the Boomer Shooter explosion that we are still experiencing today and for good reason.
You play as Dusk Dude, a mute badass with an arsenal of weapons, ready to fight an eldrich cult and its hoard of horrific creatures. The hows and why arent exactly clear or important but the game trickels down enough hints through out its level design for the game to feel like a greater whole and not a collage of unrelated maps. Fun is the main focus of Dusk. You bunny hop, summer sault and slide your way through horror themed levels while picking up power ups and dual wielding shotguns, firing rocketlaunchers or sniping with wallpiercing crossbows.
It all results in a beautiful ballet of bullets and mayhem, that still is my platonic ideal of what a Boomer Shooter is suppose to be. Although as much as I love the game in its entirety, its not a perfect masterpiece.
The best part of Dusk are its open ended levels, with jump pads and all kinds of cover you can slide behind when combat gets too heated. Sadly some it seems to forget that philosophie for about a 1/3 of the game, specifically in Chapter 2. Its basicly swaps the open maps for tight corridors that need to be navigated with a tiny flash light, sometimes even in pitch darkness and that doesnt work at all. Dusks Combat simply isnt build for those kind of sections. Enemies frequently soak up to many bullets, allowing them to push you into a corner until you run out of health. Higher difficultys become especially egrious and for someone like me who doesnt want to play with midlevels saves, its the point where I become so annoyd at its bullshit that I just turn the game off. Shout out to the Cowgirls, who like to come out of nowhere, blasting explosives at you that can kill you in only a couple hits.
Fortunatly Chapter 3 mostly remedys that design flaw, dropping you in shorter but more bizzare campaing that leads you to the endfight with the Ultimate evil. Chapter 3 might be my favorite, having the best level in my opinion when you get to the mindbending map that is Homecoming. And that is ultimatly the reason why I love Dusk so much beyond its flaws. The willingness to be bizzare and experimental in the limited framwork of an 90s FPS. Its what made me fall in love with this new genre in general, even making me go back to older games I didnt know I would love as much as I do now. And with its new HD coat of paint and full mod support finally here, there no better time than to fall in love with Dusk all over again.
You play as Dusk Dude, a mute badass with an arsenal of weapons, ready to fight an eldrich cult and its hoard of horrific creatures. The hows and why arent exactly clear or important but the game trickels down enough hints through out its level design for the game to feel like a greater whole and not a collage of unrelated maps. Fun is the main focus of Dusk. You bunny hop, summer sault and slide your way through horror themed levels while picking up power ups and dual wielding shotguns, firing rocketlaunchers or sniping with wallpiercing crossbows.
It all results in a beautiful ballet of bullets and mayhem, that still is my platonic ideal of what a Boomer Shooter is suppose to be. Although as much as I love the game in its entirety, its not a perfect masterpiece.
The best part of Dusk are its open ended levels, with jump pads and all kinds of cover you can slide behind when combat gets too heated. Sadly some it seems to forget that philosophie for about a 1/3 of the game, specifically in Chapter 2. Its basicly swaps the open maps for tight corridors that need to be navigated with a tiny flash light, sometimes even in pitch darkness and that doesnt work at all. Dusks Combat simply isnt build for those kind of sections. Enemies frequently soak up to many bullets, allowing them to push you into a corner until you run out of health. Higher difficultys become especially egrious and for someone like me who doesnt want to play with midlevels saves, its the point where I become so annoyd at its bullshit that I just turn the game off. Shout out to the Cowgirls, who like to come out of nowhere, blasting explosives at you that can kill you in only a couple hits.
Fortunatly Chapter 3 mostly remedys that design flaw, dropping you in shorter but more bizzare campaing that leads you to the endfight with the Ultimate evil. Chapter 3 might be my favorite, having the best level in my opinion when you get to the mindbending map that is Homecoming. And that is ultimatly the reason why I love Dusk so much beyond its flaws. The willingness to be bizzare and experimental in the limited framwork of an 90s FPS. Its what made me fall in love with this new genre in general, even making me go back to older games I didnt know I would love as much as I do now. And with its new HD coat of paint and full mod support finally here, there no better time than to fall in love with Dusk all over again.
I can not say in good conscience the gameplay is all that good. Its a definitiv improvment over Witcher 1 and 2, but still not great. What carrys Witcher 3 is its world that feels like there was so much love pourred into it. It also has two of the best DLCs of all time somehow, better than the main game.
Born from a Techdemo, soon abandoned by its original Team until it was eventually picked up by a lesser branch of Platinum Games, it is a miracle this even exists the way it does. Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance is the pure spectacle distillation of everything Metal Gear. As a character action itself I can best describe it as flat and shallow. Its mechanics are neither deep, nor do they require much skill beyond mashing X and Y, with the occassional parry. Often combat stears itself into a clunky pit of frustration as the game trys to keep up with its own pace and thumbels what can generously be described as the "handling" of secondary weapons. And those are problems the developers seem to be aware of, as they often resort to showering the player with health items in order to patch any frustration out of the game.
That in turn leads to even more sensless button mashing and the player basicly beeing unable to game over at all. Those problems all casaded into me brezzing through most of the game only for the inevitable late game fight with Jetstream Sam to be a wall made of pur concret. I was basicly expected to learn all the games most vital mechanics during one very late boss fight or else get scrapped of the pavement. Ok now I got all the serious criticism out of the way: Yeah this game fucking rules.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance had one Mission: pur fucking spectacle and it damm nails that. Its one the most badass action games I have ever played. From the opening of you slicing a Metal Gear Ray clean in half to delivering the final blow to Senator Armstrong, its one intense dopamine hit after another. Who needs good enviromental design when you can slice cyborgs in to 500 Meat cubs while Rules of nature assaults your ear drums. It maybe violent and edgy but its the good kind: 100% sincere and commited. I also would do it a disservice not mentioning how well it functions as a Midquel between MGS2 and MGS4. All the themes of a future ruled by digital missinformation are here. A future where the same missinformation leads to a global proxy war, turning innocent people into fooder for the war effort and the dehumanising effects for those on the frontline. I know its basicly not cannon and the clifhanger will never be resolved but damm if Raidens journey isnt a blast I want to recommend to every Metal Gear fan out there.
That in turn leads to even more sensless button mashing and the player basicly beeing unable to game over at all. Those problems all casaded into me brezzing through most of the game only for the inevitable late game fight with Jetstream Sam to be a wall made of pur concret. I was basicly expected to learn all the games most vital mechanics during one very late boss fight or else get scrapped of the pavement. Ok now I got all the serious criticism out of the way: Yeah this game fucking rules.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance had one Mission: pur fucking spectacle and it damm nails that. Its one the most badass action games I have ever played. From the opening of you slicing a Metal Gear Ray clean in half to delivering the final blow to Senator Armstrong, its one intense dopamine hit after another. Who needs good enviromental design when you can slice cyborgs in to 500 Meat cubs while Rules of nature assaults your ear drums. It maybe violent and edgy but its the good kind: 100% sincere and commited. I also would do it a disservice not mentioning how well it functions as a Midquel between MGS2 and MGS4. All the themes of a future ruled by digital missinformation are here. A future where the same missinformation leads to a global proxy war, turning innocent people into fooder for the war effort and the dehumanising effects for those on the frontline. I know its basicly not cannon and the clifhanger will never be resolved but damm if Raidens journey isnt a blast I want to recommend to every Metal Gear fan out there.
Way back in the distant year of 1996, in a time where Mario wasnt so heavily brand protected, Nintendo teamed up with Square to give the Super Nintendo one last late goodbye. What came out of that team up is still beeing described as one of the best rpgs of all time. A timless classic many europeans like me never got to experience due to it never beeing released outside Japan and North America. But now as the christmas time and the remake just came out, I thought I finaly look into what so many describe as their favorite game. Does it hold up or is it just childhood nostalgia ?
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars follows the most basic JRPG story you can get. Mario is fighting Bowser as usuall but suddenly a giant sword falls from the sky, releasing an army of weapon themed badguys that reck havoc upon the World. Thats your evil empire, que the quest to collect the 7 Stars to save the world. Its a formula many old school rpgs used and one Mario RPGs specially would reuse in every game to come. And its a good formula for stringing a lot of fun vignietts together, not so great for a compelling story, but thats not the focus for Mario. The Journey really is the destination and youll be amazed how creative Square got with all the places you get to visit. The great writting and wacky situations keep the game running at an enjoyable jog as you visit Molle people, go up the clouds or fight shark pirates in a sunken ship. All with a party of companiens who arent at all deep, but lovable enough that your gona remember your time with them. Everyone has their little story arc with wich you come to appreciate them.
In terms of pressantation Square chose a isometric 3D Render style. It admitly looks kinda cheap in pictures, but I was seriously amazed of how it looks in motion. Their are so many little animations and different sprites they managed to crame into a tiny Cartridge. Although much like the enviroments, not everything is a hit. Theirs realy neat locations like Boosters Towers and Nimbus Land, while places like the Lands End and Kero Sewers drove me kinda nuts in their saminess. That and the enemie color swaps at the end make the visualls 50/50 for me.
Luckily all the enviroments have very disticnt Musicals tracks. Square really treated this like a reall rpg in all aspects, so you get everything form the big orchestral tracks, upbeat cartoon vibes and the occasional 90s techno midi during boss fights. Its all fantastic except the main battle theme for me. Great at first, but long battle gauntlets had it seriously get on my nerves. And the battle them is sadly the main music track you will hear.
The battles are as one would guess turn based. Each of the face buttons correlate to a specific action. Attack, Magic, Items, Run/Defend. This set up is kinda genius. You really dont have to scroll through any menus and actions are right at your finger tips. The battles managd to hold such a fast past, so they almost never get stale. Mana is also shared between all party members so thats also a lair of complexity you dont have to worrie about. I wouldnt say its a bad system at all, but its very simple. Perfect for beginners tbh.
In addition you get a lot of Luck based bonuses and the now famous action button commands. I personally could never figure out the timing for perfect hits and blocks, mostly because of the perspective. The perspective also snaps the games kneecaps in half whenever theirs a sudden platform segment. For me climbing the beanstocks or platforming across lava is akin to water toture, by far the worst aged part.
In the end I still pushed through and Im glad I did. As the credit music plays and the stars you collected show you little epilogues of the places you traveld to, it all seems so worth it. Beyond its age, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars still delivers a one of a kind adventure. And if Im looking for anything in a JRPG, its that feeling of warmt, that I just completed a journey. I now get why this is so beloved by many and Im excited to someday play the remake.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars follows the most basic JRPG story you can get. Mario is fighting Bowser as usuall but suddenly a giant sword falls from the sky, releasing an army of weapon themed badguys that reck havoc upon the World. Thats your evil empire, que the quest to collect the 7 Stars to save the world. Its a formula many old school rpgs used and one Mario RPGs specially would reuse in every game to come. And its a good formula for stringing a lot of fun vignietts together, not so great for a compelling story, but thats not the focus for Mario. The Journey really is the destination and youll be amazed how creative Square got with all the places you get to visit. The great writting and wacky situations keep the game running at an enjoyable jog as you visit Molle people, go up the clouds or fight shark pirates in a sunken ship. All with a party of companiens who arent at all deep, but lovable enough that your gona remember your time with them. Everyone has their little story arc with wich you come to appreciate them.
In terms of pressantation Square chose a isometric 3D Render style. It admitly looks kinda cheap in pictures, but I was seriously amazed of how it looks in motion. Their are so many little animations and different sprites they managed to crame into a tiny Cartridge. Although much like the enviroments, not everything is a hit. Theirs realy neat locations like Boosters Towers and Nimbus Land, while places like the Lands End and Kero Sewers drove me kinda nuts in their saminess. That and the enemie color swaps at the end make the visualls 50/50 for me.
Luckily all the enviroments have very disticnt Musicals tracks. Square really treated this like a reall rpg in all aspects, so you get everything form the big orchestral tracks, upbeat cartoon vibes and the occasional 90s techno midi during boss fights. Its all fantastic except the main battle theme for me. Great at first, but long battle gauntlets had it seriously get on my nerves. And the battle them is sadly the main music track you will hear.
The battles are as one would guess turn based. Each of the face buttons correlate to a specific action. Attack, Magic, Items, Run/Defend. This set up is kinda genius. You really dont have to scroll through any menus and actions are right at your finger tips. The battles managd to hold such a fast past, so they almost never get stale. Mana is also shared between all party members so thats also a lair of complexity you dont have to worrie about. I wouldnt say its a bad system at all, but its very simple. Perfect for beginners tbh.
In addition you get a lot of Luck based bonuses and the now famous action button commands. I personally could never figure out the timing for perfect hits and blocks, mostly because of the perspective. The perspective also snaps the games kneecaps in half whenever theirs a sudden platform segment. For me climbing the beanstocks or platforming across lava is akin to water toture, by far the worst aged part.
In the end I still pushed through and Im glad I did. As the credit music plays and the stars you collected show you little epilogues of the places you traveld to, it all seems so worth it. Beyond its age, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars still delivers a one of a kind adventure. And if Im looking for anything in a JRPG, its that feeling of warmt, that I just completed a journey. I now get why this is so beloved by many and Im excited to someday play the remake.
A true hidden gem in the gba rpg library. The gameplay becomes so addicting and there are very few rpgs I can honestly say have such a great flow to the narrativ. It constantly surprises you, makes you laugh and throws you into new fun adventures. Doesnt even overstay its welcome and is super fair when it comes to actuall gameplay. One might consider it a minor downside that the game is so damm easy, but I never feel like it gets to the point where it feels unearned. Im going to check out the sequel for sure now.
I love this game. I have a thing for exploring ancient tombs and this gives me exacly what I want from that fantasy. Add to it the really sick movement options and Lara beeing a complete badass. I could have done with less of the repetditiv combat but considering I unlocked everthing by getting collectibales and perfecting the time trials, its a overall very minor issue. The time trials rock btw, as close as I have ever come having a blast speedrunning a game.
2022
Where is the cheese Szymanski?!
2022
God damm, my definitiv game of the year. If you like games like Stalker or just have fun looting the Wasteland in Fallout than this is the Game for you. An incredible, smartly designt immersive Sim FPS that actually gets better the further you get.
It starts off slow with you having to deal with rusty revolvers and relying on Stealth kills, eventually ramping up to having you become a Wild West God blasting heads with bullrifles. I can not stress enough how satisfiying the progression is. By the end youll be stacked with weapons, trinkets and perks that all change your build in really different ways. Ill go as far as to say it does progression better than most traditional rpgs.
In addition to that the enemie varity is incredible. From chapter to chapter Blood West changes it up just enough for you to feel powerful, but it never forgets to challenge you. Every enemie has different tactics for different builds, that youll have to learn and adapt to play well against them. And it all ties into my favorite thing about Blood West: It just lets you go. There is a world and a narrativ to experience for sure, but it never forces itself on you. Already know where objectives and late game weapons are ? Just go there, no strings attachet. I have so many secrets still to discover and Im so ready for another playthrough. Play Blood West, Blood West is fucking awseome.
It starts off slow with you having to deal with rusty revolvers and relying on Stealth kills, eventually ramping up to having you become a Wild West God blasting heads with bullrifles. I can not stress enough how satisfiying the progression is. By the end youll be stacked with weapons, trinkets and perks that all change your build in really different ways. Ill go as far as to say it does progression better than most traditional rpgs.
In addition to that the enemie varity is incredible. From chapter to chapter Blood West changes it up just enough for you to feel powerful, but it never forgets to challenge you. Every enemie has different tactics for different builds, that youll have to learn and adapt to play well against them. And it all ties into my favorite thing about Blood West: It just lets you go. There is a world and a narrativ to experience for sure, but it never forces itself on you. Already know where objectives and late game weapons are ? Just go there, no strings attachet. I have so many secrets still to discover and Im so ready for another playthrough. Play Blood West, Blood West is fucking awseome.
2003
Its really bad. Its buggie and broken with humor so below the bar most people would be embarased to show this to any close friends but man does it satisfie my 13 year old edge lord brain. No nostalgia either, pickt it up for 1 dollar at a Steam sale and its everything your mother ever warned you about. Its fucking great, now sign this petition dammit!
2011
Its THE game of the 2010s that launched a thousand copyie cats. Fully desserves the status as a classic and maybe the best modern action rpg.
1986
Im not sure where all the storys about its difficulty come from, I think this is by far one of the most fair NES games out there. There is a huge difficulty spike in the second to last level but overall its a good as 8-Bit Platformers get with incredible music.
2016
Its the ultimate Harvest Moon game thats not Harvest Moon. Super addicting Gameplay loop and a world that starts super simple but reveals its depths the more you interact with it.
On release this was definitly a dissapointing conclusing. The critique was mostly justified, but with the benifit of heinsight: Man this gameplay slaps so hard. If they didnt force those weird Batmobil puzzle sections on you, this would be the ultimate Batman game and a easy 5/5 Stars.