OneTrooBloo
Rayman Legends is a great 2D platformer. It has smooth controls, fun mechanics, and excellent level design. It's also packed with tons of side content. I've played through this game twice now, both on the base version and the definitive version, and each time was very enjoyable, though there are some small things that still irk me.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer, and it never strays far from that. However, it throws in a lot of extra mechanics to play with. Your base moveset consists of a jump, run, glide, punch, wall jump, ground pound, swinging from vines/ropes, and an ability to run up sloped surfaces. Levels complement this moveset well by placing obstacles in strategic locations to give the game a nice flow at times. Sometimes in levels, you'll unlock the ability to press an extra button that moves objects or toggles certain actions. It's used in moments of fast-paced or tricky platforming, or in some light puzzle-solving, and it's a welcome addition that adds a lot to keeping things fresh.
Throughout the game, you'll mostly be playing through pretty standard platforming levels with their own challenges and whatnot. Their level of challenge is pretty decent, and they have their own hidden areas to find the get collectibles. At the end of each level, the amount of the main collectible, called lums, is tallied up, and you get rewarded for finding enough through trophies and a scratch card. These scratch cards can net you more lums, a pet which produces lums every day, or it unlocks a level from Rayman Origins for you to play. There's 40 Rayman Origins levels to unlock with their own collectibles and everything! It's honestly awesome and someone who never got too far into Origins as a kid. At the end of each of the main Legends worlds, you get to play through a level where you run nonstop and platform through obstacles with the beat of the music. These are easily the highlight of the game, in my opinion.
As you play through the main levels, you unlock new side levels. You'll mainly unlock time challenge levels where you have to run through with a time limit in order to unlock all the collectibles. These can be CRAZY difficult and can sometimes feel like too much, but they're usually a good test of skill. The other thing you'll unlock in this version of the game is version of levels where, instead of pressing a button to activate something, you do so with the touch controls on the Switch screen while an AI driven character does the platforming. These can sometimes be dull, and AI can give you some pain, but generally, it's fun for what it is. It's definitely preferable to trying to use the touchscreen while being the one who's also doing the platforming. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the scratch cards you earn in these extra levels since they weren't in the original, meaning you won't get rewards from them and they sit in your inventory giving you a notification endlessly. This is highly annoying and a major oversight that really annoys me (it's annoying). By late in the game, you'll also unlock bonus versions of the music levels that add some weird screen effects to make things trickier, and make things trickier it certainly does. The artificial difficulty is kind of dumb, but you can luckily still rely on the music. HOWEVER, the bonus version of the second music level is actually atrocious, and although I beat it on my first try, the screen effects they used were a legitimate epilepsy hazard and I want to throw hands with whoever thought it was a good idea.
As for the other parts of side content I haven't mentioned yet, there's daily challenges to play through which is neat. You'll earn lums for participating, and you need a lot of those in order to unlock the various characters you can play as. There's tons of characters to unlock and swap through. They're mainly just variations of the same four models, and their movesets are identical, but it's a cool addition nonetheless. However, the million lum milestone to unlock all of them is absolutely ludicrous and I would not recommend going for it. You have better things to do with your life, I promise.
Music and visuals:
The music in this game is pretty good. The aforementioned music levels use charming covers of licensed music which is tons of fun.
The visuals are very awesome with a creative art style and great animation. Characters and environments are varied and dynamic. It's all very polished.
Conclusion:
Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer that sticks to its core but isn't afraid to expand on it in some fun ways. It's got tons of great levels, a good amount of challenge (usually), and well-made presentation. I'd definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of platformers and/or looking for something to play with friends. It's a simple, good time.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer, and it never strays far from that. However, it throws in a lot of extra mechanics to play with. Your base moveset consists of a jump, run, glide, punch, wall jump, ground pound, swinging from vines/ropes, and an ability to run up sloped surfaces. Levels complement this moveset well by placing obstacles in strategic locations to give the game a nice flow at times. Sometimes in levels, you'll unlock the ability to press an extra button that moves objects or toggles certain actions. It's used in moments of fast-paced or tricky platforming, or in some light puzzle-solving, and it's a welcome addition that adds a lot to keeping things fresh.
Throughout the game, you'll mostly be playing through pretty standard platforming levels with their own challenges and whatnot. Their level of challenge is pretty decent, and they have their own hidden areas to find the get collectibles. At the end of each level, the amount of the main collectible, called lums, is tallied up, and you get rewarded for finding enough through trophies and a scratch card. These scratch cards can net you more lums, a pet which produces lums every day, or it unlocks a level from Rayman Origins for you to play. There's 40 Rayman Origins levels to unlock with their own collectibles and everything! It's honestly awesome and someone who never got too far into Origins as a kid. At the end of each of the main Legends worlds, you get to play through a level where you run nonstop and platform through obstacles with the beat of the music. These are easily the highlight of the game, in my opinion.
As you play through the main levels, you unlock new side levels. You'll mainly unlock time challenge levels where you have to run through with a time limit in order to unlock all the collectibles. These can be CRAZY difficult and can sometimes feel like too much, but they're usually a good test of skill. The other thing you'll unlock in this version of the game is version of levels where, instead of pressing a button to activate something, you do so with the touch controls on the Switch screen while an AI driven character does the platforming. These can sometimes be dull, and AI can give you some pain, but generally, it's fun for what it is. It's definitely preferable to trying to use the touchscreen while being the one who's also doing the platforming. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the scratch cards you earn in these extra levels since they weren't in the original, meaning you won't get rewards from them and they sit in your inventory giving you a notification endlessly. This is highly annoying and a major oversight that really annoys me (it's annoying). By late in the game, you'll also unlock bonus versions of the music levels that add some weird screen effects to make things trickier, and make things trickier it certainly does. The artificial difficulty is kind of dumb, but you can luckily still rely on the music. HOWEVER, the bonus version of the second music level is actually atrocious, and although I beat it on my first try, the screen effects they used were a legitimate epilepsy hazard and I want to throw hands with whoever thought it was a good idea.
As for the other parts of side content I haven't mentioned yet, there's daily challenges to play through which is neat. You'll earn lums for participating, and you need a lot of those in order to unlock the various characters you can play as. There's tons of characters to unlock and swap through. They're mainly just variations of the same four models, and their movesets are identical, but it's a cool addition nonetheless. However, the million lum milestone to unlock all of them is absolutely ludicrous and I would not recommend going for it. You have better things to do with your life, I promise.
Music and visuals:
The music in this game is pretty good. The aforementioned music levels use charming covers of licensed music which is tons of fun.
The visuals are very awesome with a creative art style and great animation. Characters and environments are varied and dynamic. It's all very polished.
Conclusion:
Rayman Legends is a 2D platformer that sticks to its core but isn't afraid to expand on it in some fun ways. It's got tons of great levels, a good amount of challenge (usually), and well-made presentation. I'd definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of platformers and/or looking for something to play with friends. It's a simple, good time.
2015
Fallout 4 is a game that is very dear to me. The experience I had with it was extremely unique, and it’s really shaped my perspective on the game. I played it as a young teenager, and it was like nothing I had ever seen before. However, you’re not here to read a memoir. Even despite my nostalgia, I’ve always known this game was flawed. It took me 3-4 years to even officially beat it because of an awful game-breaking bug that soft-locked my main save file. Now that I’m an adult, I can see even more problems beyond the glitches. Though, despite its issues, I still think there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had with it at the end of the day.
Gameplay:
Fallout 4 is an open-world RPG with a large emphasis on FPS/TPS gameplay. You play as a former soldier (or the wife of a former soldier) from before the Great War and the sole survivor of an experiment involving cryogenic freezing in Vault 111. You wake up 200 years later and are tasked with navigating the wasteland and finding your kidnapped son… or screwing around… you can definitely do a lot of screwing around. The over 200 hours on my soft-locked save file is certainly a testament to that fact. This game has a lot of content.
Exploration is probably the best place to start discussing things, as it’s what shapes the gameplay loop. Fallout 4 features an expansive world packed with landmarks. There’s no shortage of interesting places to see, so going off the beaten path is always encouraged. If you just play the game for the main story, you’ll definitely miss out on what makes the game special. Even all these years later, the game still has one of my favorite open world maps. There’s interesting and unique items to collect, weird yet memorable side quests to do, and cool optional companions to find, to reasonably sum things up. However, I do have one big critique for the interior layout of buildings, and it’s that they can be so dang CONFUSING. I mean SERIOUSLY it is so easy to either get turned around or just flat-out lost due to their size and weird layouts. It’s such a pain, and it doesn’t help that they can sometimes feel super cramped too.
Combat is solid. Fallout 4 has definitely got it down in both the weapon and enemy variety departments. You’re seriously spoiled for choice with the weapons. You got pistols, rifles, baseball bats, snipers, rocket launchers, wooden boards, machine guns, shotguns, chainsaws, you name it. There’s a weapon for every occasion and tons of ways to modify them. If I had to give one substantial critique for it, it would be that there’s a bit too many ammo types, and it’s easy to run out of a certain type fast because it’s simply impossible to find. Nonetheless, it's an expansive and fairly impressive system. Armor is in a similar boat as well. Both normal armor and the series’ iconic Power Armor can be modified to your heart’s content. As for actually engaging with enemies, it’s pretty standard FPS/TPS stuff. You point at the things and click the buttons. There is the VATS mechanic, though, which will basically automatically shoot things for you if RNG deems you worthy. I never really used this mechanic as I had really bad luck with it, but it can be useful if you have the stats for it. Fights in Fallout 4 can be really intense. The game likes to overwhelm you or put you in situations where there’s an enemy who can kill you really quick if you don’t stay on your toes. I have my own mixed feelings about this, but generally, I think it can be pretty fun and leads to some exciting moments.
Throughout the world, you can find places to turn into settlements, which you can build on and make your own. This mechanic has both its upsides and downsides, but I’d say I have a positive opinion of it overall. As you explore and kill enemies, you can pick up junk to break down into material to use in modifying weapons or building up settlements. There's tons of customization options for settlements in the base game, and each of the DLC’s add even more. Settlements can hold your companions, grow food, contain a collection of workbenches, store your stuff, and generally just serve to be a safe place to hang out and make your own. They can be quite fun, but sadly, it does have its flaws. The happiness mechanic for your settlers is so finicky, and I’m sure achievement hunters all have nightmares about it. There’s also maybe a bit too many settlements around the map, and populating all of them can be a bit annoying so it’s better to ignore some completely. Each settlement you own also becomes a bit of a burden, as they can often be attacked by raiders or creatures while you’re away, and while you can totally ignore it, it can lead to some things being damaged and needing repair.
And finally, the stats and perks. Everytime you level up, you gain a point which you can spend on a skill tree. You can either spend that point in a stat to gain access to more perks associated with it, or you can spend it to actually unlock a perk. Perks are generally pretty useful, so it’s hard to go wrong with where you spend. However, points can quickly become sparse, making it a slog to unlock certain things and really be able to explore the range of abilities the game offers. Possibly the worst offender of this is the perks associated with building and modifying, since if you didn’t already invest points into the stats they’re associated with at the beginning, it can take forever to get to them and effectively level them up while also investing in other perks you need. It can lock you out of exploring a lot of the interesting weapons and armor modifications the game has to offer. But, as a whole, I’d say the skill system isn’t too bad. It’s fine for what it is.
Sadly, the game is quite buggy. There's loads of minor glitches littered throughout, and if you're unlucky like me, you can even get soft-locked! Yay! It is 2024, so things might have been ironed out by now, but who knows. It's a Bethesda game.
Story and Characters: (Spoiler Warning)
My main save file soft-locking really saved my perception of this game’s story for a long time. I got soft-locked a few missions before the protag actually finds their child, so the rest of the game lived in my mind for a long time as this mythical, epic story of choice and conflict. I built this picture in my head from the things I heard from my friends and family. However, when I finally actually beat the game… yeaaah, it’s uhhh… just kinda meh. I have a lot to say about this game’s writing, both good and bad, so I’ll start by explaining the plot in its entirety.
You start off with an opening monologue from Nate, a former soldier living in Massachusetts, talking about the horrors of war before cutting to him in his house in front of a mirror. This is where you modify your character’s appearance and/or swap to Nora, Nate’s wife who works as a lawyer. After that, you just vibe in your house for a while with your baby son, Shaun, and your robot butler, Codsworth. Eventually, a nervous Vault-Tec rep comes to your door and gets you to register for a spot at the nearby Vault 111. This is where you’ll pick out your starting stats. You do more vibing then OOPS sudden nuclear war. Nate and Nora take Shaun, head to the vault, and are seemingly safe while the world outside is annihilated. However, everyone in the vault is immediately thrown into cryopods to be awoken at a later date. After who-knows-how-long passes, you wake up, but are not completely unfrozen. You see scientists surrounding your spouse who’s holding Shaun, trying to take the baby from them. After your spouse resists, they are shot and killed by a rough looking man who’s assisting the scientists in this kidnapping. You get frozen again, wake up several years later, and vow to avenge your spouse and save your son. However, it seems that the vault had gone derelict a long time ago, with you being the only sole survivor in the cryopods. You get out of the vault alone and venture into the wasteland. (Side note: I experienced this entire opening for the first time while secretly watching my dad play it from a distance. I was still young at the time so it freaked me out. I remember being especially startled when the spouse got shot. I don’t know how impactful this opening is for adults, but I know it definitely imprinted into the mind of child me.) From there, you meet up with Codsworth in the ruins of your neighborhood and learn that it’s been 200 years since the bombs fell. You can choose to go do whatever at this point, but otherwise, the game naturally leads you further down the road where you find a shootout at the town of Concord. Clear the enemies and you’ll meet the Minutemen. The Minutemen are a real ragtag group, and their mission is to protect the settlements of the Commonwealth, which is the name for the Massachusetts wasteland. They give you your first set of Power Armor, and while you can stay and do quests for them, they point you to a place called Diamond City as a starting point for the search for your son. On your way there, you get a distress signal from the Brotherhood of Steel which you can investigate if you so choose. Once you actually arrive at Diamond City, you quickly get a tip relating to an organization called the Railroad, which you can also pursue. Otherwise, stuff happens and you meet a detective named Nick Valentine. You learn that Shaun was taken by the Institute, a mysterious organization that kidnaps people to replace them with androids called Synths. They've been causing conflict in the Commonwealth for quite some time. You specifically follow the trail of a mercenary named Kellogg, who is the same person who killed your spouse. You find him, kill him, take his brain matter, search through his memories, and learn the secret to getting into the Institute is teleportation. Stuff happens and you can eventually build a teleporter. You can now enter and explore the Institute, a super advanced place of science and technology, and meet Shaun. You find out that he is now actually an old man and the child you saw in Kellogg's memories was actually a Synth recreation of himself. Shaun goes by the Father now and is the Institute's leader. After this, you have a choice to make. Side with the Institute, Brotherhood, Railroad, or Minutemen to decide the Commonwealth's fate. Each faction has their own ideas for its future. The Brotherhood wants to eradicate the Synths and the Institute, as well as other Brotherhood of Steely things. The Railroad wants to destroy the Institute but save Synths by integrating them into society. The Institute wants to save the Commonwealth with its revolutionary technology or something like that. The Minutemen… I actually don't know what the Minutemen want… I think they just want to homestead... Anyway, siding with the Institute will see you becoming its leader and destroying the competition. Siding with the Railroad or Brotherhood will also have you beating up the competition, and the Minutemen will simply blow up the Institute while remaining relatively friendly with the others. And that is the story of Fallout 4 :)
Now, you may be wondering, “OneTrooBloo, why did you write an 800 word summary of the game's plot?” and that's because I need it to effectively discuss my problems with it. First of all, Nate and Nora stink as RPG protagonists. Nate is too defined. He's supposed to be an honorable soldier who loves his wife, yet he can go out into the wasteland, do crimes, and form a harem. Nora is more of a blank slate, but it doesn't really make sense that she can just wield a gun right off the bat. Both of them are dead-set on finding Shaun according to their dialogue, yet you can just do whatever and even ignore him if you want. The freedom to choose your faction at the end just feels so weird for the characters too. At every turn, the game feels like it wants to give you freedom to be who you want to be, but the narrative is constantly fighting it and losing. As a result, I don't really know who my character is as a person, making it kind of hard to really connect with them. Second of all, the faction stuff. The factions are cool on an individual level, but they really harm the story by sending it in all kinds of different directions that just sort of have the same result. You just kill everybody and they're gone, and for what? It's frankly more of a detriment to the world, because now you've just made enemies and limited some of the places you can go. Not to mention that the factions are unbalanced. The Minutemen seem like dweebs. The Railroad is OVERHATED. LOOK, I KNOW THEY LIKE THE COLOR BROWN TOO MUCH BUT I THINK THEY HAVE A NOBLE GOAL... The Institute has sci-fi stuff. And then there's the Brotherhood of Steel. Almost everyone I knew who played the game sided with them. Who wouldn't want to have cool airships and metal army people on your side? I'm a Railroad advocate, but I cannot deny the BoS's absurd level of coolness. It sort of defeats the point of having pickable factions. I will admit though, their philosophical dynamic is pretty cool. The conflict in regards to Synths is legitimately interesting. I think with better writing and more hands-off characterization for the protagonist, it could have made for a seriously good centerpiece of a story.
A big issue that plagues the game and definitely brings down the story is the dialogue. It can be really hit or miss, and often when it misses, it MISSES. For the positives, a lot of its best moments come from the game's good character writing, which I'll get more into later. Another thing I like is how it usually considers context. There's loads of different variations for dialogue exchanges based on events that have happened or who is in your party. The voice acting is also generally pretty solid. As for the negatives, persuasion checks are absolutely awful. Characters will just change their minds in completely unnatural ways like you're using mind control on them, and it's unfortunate because persuasion checks usually happen at the most pivotal moments. The protagonist's dialogue is also just generally bad. Their writing can be quite bland, and the options are far too vague and sometimes too extreme. It's very easy to come off as way too nice or way too mean on accident. While NPC dialogue is more consistently decent, they are definitely prone to exposition tangents which can get old fast.
The main character may suck, but luckily, Fallout 4 has a legitimately good supporting cast. It's not the craziest thing in the world and you don't have to look hard to find a game with better, but still. I cannot deny my love for this game's characters, especially the companions. Codsworth is a super charming first companion and a good friend. Dogmeat may just be a dog, but his interactions are so cute. Piper is a determined journalist and my personal favorite character, and her connections to Diamond City are interesting. Nick Valentine is also awesome with his cool voice and super intriguing backstory. Danse is a stoic BoS soldier who is more than meets the eye. Then there's Cait, Curie, Hancock, MacCready, Preston, and I could go on and on. The companions are just so memorable and they all have their fans for a reason. You can grow your friendship and even romance some of them to learn more of their stories. They really do feel like friends. They'll even react to each other as well as the world around them on your travels together. Their characterization is amazing. There's lots of memorable NPCs too, with inhabitants of the various towns and factions having notable personalities and even sometimes charming dialogue or interesting side quests.
Sound and Visuals:
The sound design is pretty dang good, though audio glitches weren't uncommon (no surprise there). The music is quite nice too. There's of course the trademark mid-1900's licensed music the series loves, but there's also some original songs with the same vibe composed for the character Magnolia to sing. They're pretty good. Alongside that, there's the main soundtrack that'll play when you don't have the radio on. It's honestly beautiful and fits the vibes of walking through the wasteland so well.
Fallout 4's graphics haven't aged as bad as I thought they would, but it certainly hasn't been graceful. I remember feeling pretty mixed about them even at the time. The overall visual style is very dirty and bleak with muted colors, which works great since this is a game about an apocalyptic wasteland. The environment design can look pretty samey at times, but there's plenty of creativity on display too. Character/creature design is also good, as should be expected from the series. The character models themselves are solid too, but their animations can be super janky. The facial animation is especially stiff, which doesn't help with the presentation of the already iffy dialogue. There's lots of effort poured into other areas of the visual presentation though, like the animated intro cutscenes when you boot up the game or all the art on the magazine covers and whatnot. Overall, I'd say that the graphics are still competent even if aged.
Conclusion:
Fallout 4 is a really cool open world game that I don't think people give enough credit to. While the story has big problems, the game offers so much more than that. It provides an awesome world to explore with good mechanics and loads of side content to back it up. Sure, those parts of it aren't spotless either, but if nothing else, they have loads of charm that make them worthwhile. This game goes on sale for pretty cheap nowadays so give it a chance if you're a fan of the genre, though do definitely brace yourself for the potential glitches.
DLC:
Decided to include a quick breakdown of the DLC because why not.
Automatron is cool. The story is a bit of a nothing-burger, but the robot building mechanic it introduces is nothing to sneeze at. Has a few other neat features too.
Wasteland Workshop features cool new buildable stuff for settlements, but the main gimmick of trapping creatures doesn't work very well.
Far Harbor is the best DLC by far. It has a large new map with its own neat locations, new enemies, and even a genuinely interesting main story. There's lots of cool stuff to check out with this one.
I've actually never owned Contraption Workshop, but it seems kinda pointless.
Vault-Tec Workshop lets you build your own vault! It's kinda cool and gives you lots of useful new things to use on your settlements. The quest behind it kind of sucks though, so I wouldn't call it a must-have.
Nuka World kinda sucks. While the new map is pretty cool, its story is bland and the questline that follows it is downright grueling. I'm the only person I know in the large circle of Fallout 4-playing people in my life that has actually completed this DLC because it's just that long and painful. It at least offers a lot of content if nothing else.
Gameplay:
Fallout 4 is an open-world RPG with a large emphasis on FPS/TPS gameplay. You play as a former soldier (or the wife of a former soldier) from before the Great War and the sole survivor of an experiment involving cryogenic freezing in Vault 111. You wake up 200 years later and are tasked with navigating the wasteland and finding your kidnapped son… or screwing around… you can definitely do a lot of screwing around. The over 200 hours on my soft-locked save file is certainly a testament to that fact. This game has a lot of content.
Exploration is probably the best place to start discussing things, as it’s what shapes the gameplay loop. Fallout 4 features an expansive world packed with landmarks. There’s no shortage of interesting places to see, so going off the beaten path is always encouraged. If you just play the game for the main story, you’ll definitely miss out on what makes the game special. Even all these years later, the game still has one of my favorite open world maps. There’s interesting and unique items to collect, weird yet memorable side quests to do, and cool optional companions to find, to reasonably sum things up. However, I do have one big critique for the interior layout of buildings, and it’s that they can be so dang CONFUSING. I mean SERIOUSLY it is so easy to either get turned around or just flat-out lost due to their size and weird layouts. It’s such a pain, and it doesn’t help that they can sometimes feel super cramped too.
Combat is solid. Fallout 4 has definitely got it down in both the weapon and enemy variety departments. You’re seriously spoiled for choice with the weapons. You got pistols, rifles, baseball bats, snipers, rocket launchers, wooden boards, machine guns, shotguns, chainsaws, you name it. There’s a weapon for every occasion and tons of ways to modify them. If I had to give one substantial critique for it, it would be that there’s a bit too many ammo types, and it’s easy to run out of a certain type fast because it’s simply impossible to find. Nonetheless, it's an expansive and fairly impressive system. Armor is in a similar boat as well. Both normal armor and the series’ iconic Power Armor can be modified to your heart’s content. As for actually engaging with enemies, it’s pretty standard FPS/TPS stuff. You point at the things and click the buttons. There is the VATS mechanic, though, which will basically automatically shoot things for you if RNG deems you worthy. I never really used this mechanic as I had really bad luck with it, but it can be useful if you have the stats for it. Fights in Fallout 4 can be really intense. The game likes to overwhelm you or put you in situations where there’s an enemy who can kill you really quick if you don’t stay on your toes. I have my own mixed feelings about this, but generally, I think it can be pretty fun and leads to some exciting moments.
Throughout the world, you can find places to turn into settlements, which you can build on and make your own. This mechanic has both its upsides and downsides, but I’d say I have a positive opinion of it overall. As you explore and kill enemies, you can pick up junk to break down into material to use in modifying weapons or building up settlements. There's tons of customization options for settlements in the base game, and each of the DLC’s add even more. Settlements can hold your companions, grow food, contain a collection of workbenches, store your stuff, and generally just serve to be a safe place to hang out and make your own. They can be quite fun, but sadly, it does have its flaws. The happiness mechanic for your settlers is so finicky, and I’m sure achievement hunters all have nightmares about it. There’s also maybe a bit too many settlements around the map, and populating all of them can be a bit annoying so it’s better to ignore some completely. Each settlement you own also becomes a bit of a burden, as they can often be attacked by raiders or creatures while you’re away, and while you can totally ignore it, it can lead to some things being damaged and needing repair.
And finally, the stats and perks. Everytime you level up, you gain a point which you can spend on a skill tree. You can either spend that point in a stat to gain access to more perks associated with it, or you can spend it to actually unlock a perk. Perks are generally pretty useful, so it’s hard to go wrong with where you spend. However, points can quickly become sparse, making it a slog to unlock certain things and really be able to explore the range of abilities the game offers. Possibly the worst offender of this is the perks associated with building and modifying, since if you didn’t already invest points into the stats they’re associated with at the beginning, it can take forever to get to them and effectively level them up while also investing in other perks you need. It can lock you out of exploring a lot of the interesting weapons and armor modifications the game has to offer. But, as a whole, I’d say the skill system isn’t too bad. It’s fine for what it is.
Sadly, the game is quite buggy. There's loads of minor glitches littered throughout, and if you're unlucky like me, you can even get soft-locked! Yay! It is 2024, so things might have been ironed out by now, but who knows. It's a Bethesda game.
Story and Characters: (Spoiler Warning)
My main save file soft-locking really saved my perception of this game’s story for a long time. I got soft-locked a few missions before the protag actually finds their child, so the rest of the game lived in my mind for a long time as this mythical, epic story of choice and conflict. I built this picture in my head from the things I heard from my friends and family. However, when I finally actually beat the game… yeaaah, it’s uhhh… just kinda meh. I have a lot to say about this game’s writing, both good and bad, so I’ll start by explaining the plot in its entirety.
You start off with an opening monologue from Nate, a former soldier living in Massachusetts, talking about the horrors of war before cutting to him in his house in front of a mirror. This is where you modify your character’s appearance and/or swap to Nora, Nate’s wife who works as a lawyer. After that, you just vibe in your house for a while with your baby son, Shaun, and your robot butler, Codsworth. Eventually, a nervous Vault-Tec rep comes to your door and gets you to register for a spot at the nearby Vault 111. This is where you’ll pick out your starting stats. You do more vibing then OOPS sudden nuclear war. Nate and Nora take Shaun, head to the vault, and are seemingly safe while the world outside is annihilated. However, everyone in the vault is immediately thrown into cryopods to be awoken at a later date. After who-knows-how-long passes, you wake up, but are not completely unfrozen. You see scientists surrounding your spouse who’s holding Shaun, trying to take the baby from them. After your spouse resists, they are shot and killed by a rough looking man who’s assisting the scientists in this kidnapping. You get frozen again, wake up several years later, and vow to avenge your spouse and save your son. However, it seems that the vault had gone derelict a long time ago, with you being the only sole survivor in the cryopods. You get out of the vault alone and venture into the wasteland. (Side note: I experienced this entire opening for the first time while secretly watching my dad play it from a distance. I was still young at the time so it freaked me out. I remember being especially startled when the spouse got shot. I don’t know how impactful this opening is for adults, but I know it definitely imprinted into the mind of child me.) From there, you meet up with Codsworth in the ruins of your neighborhood and learn that it’s been 200 years since the bombs fell. You can choose to go do whatever at this point, but otherwise, the game naturally leads you further down the road where you find a shootout at the town of Concord. Clear the enemies and you’ll meet the Minutemen. The Minutemen are a real ragtag group, and their mission is to protect the settlements of the Commonwealth, which is the name for the Massachusetts wasteland. They give you your first set of Power Armor, and while you can stay and do quests for them, they point you to a place called Diamond City as a starting point for the search for your son. On your way there, you get a distress signal from the Brotherhood of Steel which you can investigate if you so choose. Once you actually arrive at Diamond City, you quickly get a tip relating to an organization called the Railroad, which you can also pursue. Otherwise, stuff happens and you meet a detective named Nick Valentine. You learn that Shaun was taken by the Institute, a mysterious organization that kidnaps people to replace them with androids called Synths. They've been causing conflict in the Commonwealth for quite some time. You specifically follow the trail of a mercenary named Kellogg, who is the same person who killed your spouse. You find him, kill him, take his brain matter, search through his memories, and learn the secret to getting into the Institute is teleportation. Stuff happens and you can eventually build a teleporter. You can now enter and explore the Institute, a super advanced place of science and technology, and meet Shaun. You find out that he is now actually an old man and the child you saw in Kellogg's memories was actually a Synth recreation of himself. Shaun goes by the Father now and is the Institute's leader. After this, you have a choice to make. Side with the Institute, Brotherhood, Railroad, or Minutemen to decide the Commonwealth's fate. Each faction has their own ideas for its future. The Brotherhood wants to eradicate the Synths and the Institute, as well as other Brotherhood of Steely things. The Railroad wants to destroy the Institute but save Synths by integrating them into society. The Institute wants to save the Commonwealth with its revolutionary technology or something like that. The Minutemen… I actually don't know what the Minutemen want… I think they just want to homestead... Anyway, siding with the Institute will see you becoming its leader and destroying the competition. Siding with the Railroad or Brotherhood will also have you beating up the competition, and the Minutemen will simply blow up the Institute while remaining relatively friendly with the others. And that is the story of Fallout 4 :)
Now, you may be wondering, “OneTrooBloo, why did you write an 800 word summary of the game's plot?” and that's because I need it to effectively discuss my problems with it. First of all, Nate and Nora stink as RPG protagonists. Nate is too defined. He's supposed to be an honorable soldier who loves his wife, yet he can go out into the wasteland, do crimes, and form a harem. Nora is more of a blank slate, but it doesn't really make sense that she can just wield a gun right off the bat. Both of them are dead-set on finding Shaun according to their dialogue, yet you can just do whatever and even ignore him if you want. The freedom to choose your faction at the end just feels so weird for the characters too. At every turn, the game feels like it wants to give you freedom to be who you want to be, but the narrative is constantly fighting it and losing. As a result, I don't really know who my character is as a person, making it kind of hard to really connect with them. Second of all, the faction stuff. The factions are cool on an individual level, but they really harm the story by sending it in all kinds of different directions that just sort of have the same result. You just kill everybody and they're gone, and for what? It's frankly more of a detriment to the world, because now you've just made enemies and limited some of the places you can go. Not to mention that the factions are unbalanced. The Minutemen seem like dweebs. The Railroad is OVERHATED. LOOK, I KNOW THEY LIKE THE COLOR BROWN TOO MUCH BUT I THINK THEY HAVE A NOBLE GOAL... The Institute has sci-fi stuff. And then there's the Brotherhood of Steel. Almost everyone I knew who played the game sided with them. Who wouldn't want to have cool airships and metal army people on your side? I'm a Railroad advocate, but I cannot deny the BoS's absurd level of coolness. It sort of defeats the point of having pickable factions. I will admit though, their philosophical dynamic is pretty cool. The conflict in regards to Synths is legitimately interesting. I think with better writing and more hands-off characterization for the protagonist, it could have made for a seriously good centerpiece of a story.
A big issue that plagues the game and definitely brings down the story is the dialogue. It can be really hit or miss, and often when it misses, it MISSES. For the positives, a lot of its best moments come from the game's good character writing, which I'll get more into later. Another thing I like is how it usually considers context. There's loads of different variations for dialogue exchanges based on events that have happened or who is in your party. The voice acting is also generally pretty solid. As for the negatives, persuasion checks are absolutely awful. Characters will just change their minds in completely unnatural ways like you're using mind control on them, and it's unfortunate because persuasion checks usually happen at the most pivotal moments. The protagonist's dialogue is also just generally bad. Their writing can be quite bland, and the options are far too vague and sometimes too extreme. It's very easy to come off as way too nice or way too mean on accident. While NPC dialogue is more consistently decent, they are definitely prone to exposition tangents which can get old fast.
The main character may suck, but luckily, Fallout 4 has a legitimately good supporting cast. It's not the craziest thing in the world and you don't have to look hard to find a game with better, but still. I cannot deny my love for this game's characters, especially the companions. Codsworth is a super charming first companion and a good friend. Dogmeat may just be a dog, but his interactions are so cute. Piper is a determined journalist and my personal favorite character, and her connections to Diamond City are interesting. Nick Valentine is also awesome with his cool voice and super intriguing backstory. Danse is a stoic BoS soldier who is more than meets the eye. Then there's Cait, Curie, Hancock, MacCready, Preston, and I could go on and on. The companions are just so memorable and they all have their fans for a reason. You can grow your friendship and even romance some of them to learn more of their stories. They really do feel like friends. They'll even react to each other as well as the world around them on your travels together. Their characterization is amazing. There's lots of memorable NPCs too, with inhabitants of the various towns and factions having notable personalities and even sometimes charming dialogue or interesting side quests.
Sound and Visuals:
The sound design is pretty dang good, though audio glitches weren't uncommon (no surprise there). The music is quite nice too. There's of course the trademark mid-1900's licensed music the series loves, but there's also some original songs with the same vibe composed for the character Magnolia to sing. They're pretty good. Alongside that, there's the main soundtrack that'll play when you don't have the radio on. It's honestly beautiful and fits the vibes of walking through the wasteland so well.
Fallout 4's graphics haven't aged as bad as I thought they would, but it certainly hasn't been graceful. I remember feeling pretty mixed about them even at the time. The overall visual style is very dirty and bleak with muted colors, which works great since this is a game about an apocalyptic wasteland. The environment design can look pretty samey at times, but there's plenty of creativity on display too. Character/creature design is also good, as should be expected from the series. The character models themselves are solid too, but their animations can be super janky. The facial animation is especially stiff, which doesn't help with the presentation of the already iffy dialogue. There's lots of effort poured into other areas of the visual presentation though, like the animated intro cutscenes when you boot up the game or all the art on the magazine covers and whatnot. Overall, I'd say that the graphics are still competent even if aged.
Conclusion:
Fallout 4 is a really cool open world game that I don't think people give enough credit to. While the story has big problems, the game offers so much more than that. It provides an awesome world to explore with good mechanics and loads of side content to back it up. Sure, those parts of it aren't spotless either, but if nothing else, they have loads of charm that make them worthwhile. This game goes on sale for pretty cheap nowadays so give it a chance if you're a fan of the genre, though do definitely brace yourself for the potential glitches.
DLC:
Decided to include a quick breakdown of the DLC because why not.
Automatron is cool. The story is a bit of a nothing-burger, but the robot building mechanic it introduces is nothing to sneeze at. Has a few other neat features too.
Wasteland Workshop features cool new buildable stuff for settlements, but the main gimmick of trapping creatures doesn't work very well.
Far Harbor is the best DLC by far. It has a large new map with its own neat locations, new enemies, and even a genuinely interesting main story. There's lots of cool stuff to check out with this one.
I've actually never owned Contraption Workshop, but it seems kinda pointless.
Vault-Tec Workshop lets you build your own vault! It's kinda cool and gives you lots of useful new things to use on your settlements. The quest behind it kind of sucks though, so I wouldn't call it a must-have.
Nuka World kinda sucks. While the new map is pretty cool, its story is bland and the questline that follows it is downright grueling. I'm the only person I know in the large circle of Fallout 4-playing people in my life that has actually completed this DLC because it's just that long and painful. It at least offers a lot of content if nothing else.
2023
I bought the base version of this game before eventually upgrading to Plus, both at default price. Was it worth it? Weirdly enough, yes, at least for me personally. Your mileage is definitely gonna vary with this collection. It has lots of great features but also some problems that might weigh it down for some people.
Pros:
There's four main games to play through with several ways to do so. Anniversary mode allows the player to pick from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy on all of the games, and it trades the lives system for coins, which can be used in a few ways. I definitely appreciate the lack of a lives system, especially on Sonic 1 and CD. Anniversary mode also gives Sonic his drop dash move from Mania, which is without a doubt my favorite addition. If you do wanna play with lives though, Classic mode has got you covered. There is also Mirror mode which just flips the stages. It's not exciting, but it's a harmless addition that simply adds a new way to play. There's also a boss rush mode that is exactly what it sounds like.
As for the coins, you can use them to retry special stages in Anniversary mode. This use is absolutely more amazing than I thought it would be, because I would NOT in a million years have ever figured out how to beat some of the special stages without it. Look, Blue Sphere levels are stupid easy once you know what you're doing, but your first time around? Basically Dark Souls. Anyway, you can also spend coins to unlock new music tracks and images in the gallery.
Speaking of the gallery, there's a big catalogue with all the music from the games and then some, as well as a huge collection of concept art, promotional material, and even some videos, including full episodes of Sonic Mania Adventures. It's actually really cool!
There's some other neat miscellaneous features. There's time trails for all the games with associated leaderboards. There's cool little 3D backgrounds on the main menu. There's new animated beginning and ending cutscenes for all of the games. There's mini challenges for each of the games too, which are kind of eh, but they're still nice bits of extra content and a fast way to earn coins (maybe too fast, in all honesty). There is also a collection of Sonic Game Gear games to check out. They're uh... not great. They range from okay to quite literally unplayable. I am glad they added them though, as I probably would have never played them otherwise, and it's fun to at least say I did it. They also have save states for them which definitely help ease the pain. Lastly, in the main games, save points are created at each checkpoint, meaning you can leave a game and come back later and not have to restart the level. It's another feature I absolutely adore, especially with how mentally draining certain levels can be.
Cons:
I'm no Sonic expert so I'm sure there's more than the ones I'll list, but here's the problems I noticed. Classic mode on Sonic 1 fails to take out the spindash. Sonic 3&K has a bit of jank in the port. It's barely noticeable and I never had it effect gameplay, but it does show an unfortunate lack of polish for a game that desperately needed a good modern port. Though having a brand new playable character in the form of Amy is awesome in concept, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, and she's without a doubt the least interesting character to play as. There's also sadly not a way to costumize which Anniversary mode features you do and don't want, so if you want to play a game with the drop dash while also having lives, you're out of luck.
Possibly the biggest sin, though, is the changed music in Sonic 3&K. Look, I get why it had to be done, and if it's the price that had to be paid in order for me to play Sonic 3&K then I will accept it... but come ON couldn't they have composed better songs? Ice Cap's replacement is at least pretty decent, but Launch Base's is kind of whatever, and Carnival Night's is hilariously bad. I was never a fan of the original Carnival Night song, but I'd take it any day over the weak instruments and the generic stock clapping sound effects that they thought would be an okay replacement. Being funny is the only thing it does right. As I mentioned, Sonic 3&K was desperate for a good modern port, and to have this happen to it is just so sad.
Games:
Thought I'd also include mini reviews for the games themselves, since those are the main attractions of this collection.
Sonic 1 hardly delivers on the promise of a fast paced game, but I think it's still decent enough as a platformer. It's got its moments, but it's also got a lot of frustrating sections that turn the game into a slog. Not to mention it contains possibly the most infamous bad level in all of gaming. The anniversary mode changes do WONDERS to mitigate these issues though, especially with the lack of lives. 2.5/5 stars
Sonic CD is one of the most polarizing games in the series, and I lean on the side that doesn't like it. The game is really short and bland if you play it straight through, yet the level design feels like it fights you at every turn if you want to go for the true objective. It's got good concepts, but the execution sucks. At least the soundtracks are total bangers. 2/5 stars
Sonic 2 is a large step up from its predecessor and where the gameplay really finds its identity. It's got fast-paced and fun levels that are always a joy to replay. It's not perfect though, and it does have some moments that feel like complete duds, but overall, it's a solid game. 3.5/5 stars
Sonic 3 & Knuckles isn't considered one of the best games in the series for nothing. The levels are fantastic and more varied than ever before. There's great replay value thanks to a number of factors, and the little bits of story sprinkled throughout make it feel like a very complete experience. The side objective in the form of collecting the chaos emeralds is also actually fun to pursue this time. It does have its meh moments, but it's thankfully great most of the time. 4.5/5 stars
Conclusion:
I personally love this collection and have put over 80 hours into it over the past 2 or so years. Though I had Sonic 1 and 2, I didn't have a reliable way to play them, and I've certainly never owned CD or 3&K. I loved having ways to play all 4 games with all the fancy features Origins offers. I especially loved having them on my Switch to play on the go. If you're like me, then this collection could definitely be worth picking up. I would generally recommend getting it on sale though.
Pros:
There's four main games to play through with several ways to do so. Anniversary mode allows the player to pick from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy on all of the games, and it trades the lives system for coins, which can be used in a few ways. I definitely appreciate the lack of a lives system, especially on Sonic 1 and CD. Anniversary mode also gives Sonic his drop dash move from Mania, which is without a doubt my favorite addition. If you do wanna play with lives though, Classic mode has got you covered. There is also Mirror mode which just flips the stages. It's not exciting, but it's a harmless addition that simply adds a new way to play. There's also a boss rush mode that is exactly what it sounds like.
As for the coins, you can use them to retry special stages in Anniversary mode. This use is absolutely more amazing than I thought it would be, because I would NOT in a million years have ever figured out how to beat some of the special stages without it. Look, Blue Sphere levels are stupid easy once you know what you're doing, but your first time around? Basically Dark Souls. Anyway, you can also spend coins to unlock new music tracks and images in the gallery.
Speaking of the gallery, there's a big catalogue with all the music from the games and then some, as well as a huge collection of concept art, promotional material, and even some videos, including full episodes of Sonic Mania Adventures. It's actually really cool!
There's some other neat miscellaneous features. There's time trails for all the games with associated leaderboards. There's cool little 3D backgrounds on the main menu. There's new animated beginning and ending cutscenes for all of the games. There's mini challenges for each of the games too, which are kind of eh, but they're still nice bits of extra content and a fast way to earn coins (maybe too fast, in all honesty). There is also a collection of Sonic Game Gear games to check out. They're uh... not great. They range from okay to quite literally unplayable. I am glad they added them though, as I probably would have never played them otherwise, and it's fun to at least say I did it. They also have save states for them which definitely help ease the pain. Lastly, in the main games, save points are created at each checkpoint, meaning you can leave a game and come back later and not have to restart the level. It's another feature I absolutely adore, especially with how mentally draining certain levels can be.
Cons:
I'm no Sonic expert so I'm sure there's more than the ones I'll list, but here's the problems I noticed. Classic mode on Sonic 1 fails to take out the spindash. Sonic 3&K has a bit of jank in the port. It's barely noticeable and I never had it effect gameplay, but it does show an unfortunate lack of polish for a game that desperately needed a good modern port. Though having a brand new playable character in the form of Amy is awesome in concept, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, and she's without a doubt the least interesting character to play as. There's also sadly not a way to costumize which Anniversary mode features you do and don't want, so if you want to play a game with the drop dash while also having lives, you're out of luck.
Possibly the biggest sin, though, is the changed music in Sonic 3&K. Look, I get why it had to be done, and if it's the price that had to be paid in order for me to play Sonic 3&K then I will accept it... but come ON couldn't they have composed better songs? Ice Cap's replacement is at least pretty decent, but Launch Base's is kind of whatever, and Carnival Night's is hilariously bad. I was never a fan of the original Carnival Night song, but I'd take it any day over the weak instruments and the generic stock clapping sound effects that they thought would be an okay replacement. Being funny is the only thing it does right. As I mentioned, Sonic 3&K was desperate for a good modern port, and to have this happen to it is just so sad.
Games:
Thought I'd also include mini reviews for the games themselves, since those are the main attractions of this collection.
Sonic 1 hardly delivers on the promise of a fast paced game, but I think it's still decent enough as a platformer. It's got its moments, but it's also got a lot of frustrating sections that turn the game into a slog. Not to mention it contains possibly the most infamous bad level in all of gaming. The anniversary mode changes do WONDERS to mitigate these issues though, especially with the lack of lives. 2.5/5 stars
Sonic CD is one of the most polarizing games in the series, and I lean on the side that doesn't like it. The game is really short and bland if you play it straight through, yet the level design feels like it fights you at every turn if you want to go for the true objective. It's got good concepts, but the execution sucks. At least the soundtracks are total bangers. 2/5 stars
Sonic 2 is a large step up from its predecessor and where the gameplay really finds its identity. It's got fast-paced and fun levels that are always a joy to replay. It's not perfect though, and it does have some moments that feel like complete duds, but overall, it's a solid game. 3.5/5 stars
Sonic 3 & Knuckles isn't considered one of the best games in the series for nothing. The levels are fantastic and more varied than ever before. There's great replay value thanks to a number of factors, and the little bits of story sprinkled throughout make it feel like a very complete experience. The side objective in the form of collecting the chaos emeralds is also actually fun to pursue this time. It does have its meh moments, but it's thankfully great most of the time. 4.5/5 stars
Conclusion:
I personally love this collection and have put over 80 hours into it over the past 2 or so years. Though I had Sonic 1 and 2, I didn't have a reliable way to play them, and I've certainly never owned CD or 3&K. I loved having ways to play all 4 games with all the fancy features Origins offers. I especially loved having them on my Switch to play on the go. If you're like me, then this collection could definitely be worth picking up. I would generally recommend getting it on sale though.
2023
It all started with the Herald of Darkness performance at The Game Awards. I loved Remedy's other game, Control, but I never had much interest in the Alan Wake series. That all changed on that fateful day when I heard that song and realized what I was sleeping on. I played both Alan Wake 1 and Control's AWE DLC in preparation to play this game, and when I finally got to it, I was not disappointed one bit. Alan Wake 2 has quickly become my favorite game of all time. From its impressive presentation to its excellent narrative, it is an awesomely crafted experience.
Gameplay:
In this game, you play as two characters, Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. They each have slightly different playstyles with their own interesting mechanics. Their segments can be played at whichever pace the player wishes, though the game nudges the player to switch between them at certain intervals by places spots to do so at strategic points. I quite liked this fact as I felt like I was getting both a nice balance of gameplay styles and a steady flow of information from the story.
As for the playstyles themselves, you start the game off as Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a ritualistic murder outside the town of Bright Falls. Her playstyle is most similar to the gameplay in the first Alan Wake, though with some much needed improvements and extra mechanics thrown in. The combat is the same "shine light at enemy then shoot" system as the last game, but the time it takes to make an enemy vulnerable has been drastically reduced, and the flashlight no longer automatically recharges. There's actually a real element of resource management in this game for both characters, as batteries and bullets are in serious short supply. It can create some intense moments of paranoia, and sometimes frustration, as the game can get really stingy with the resources it gives out at certain sections. Luckily, enemies are somewhat rare to compensate. It makes the moments they do appear even more intense, and it's a HUUUUGE improvement over the first game where it would barely let you breath before another enemy encounter. Granted, that game was more action-adventure while this is more survival-horror, but still, it's a considerable step up. For Saga, some enemies also have weak points in unpredictable locations that reward a player's accuracy. Her combat does contain one of my bigger complaints for the game though, as the bosses she faces are really meh. The first boss is whatever, the second boss is somewhat decent, but the third ate so many bullets and had attacks that felt nearly impossible to dodge. It's not bad enough to bring the game down by any notable degree, but it's worth mentioning.
The other half of Saga's gameplay sees her doing detective work in her "Mind Place", which is an interesting element in itself. At the press of a button, Saga is sent to a room that acts as the game's inventory system. I thought this was super impressive, as it's a room full of detail that appears in an instant without any loading or stutter. The room contains the game's maps, collectibles, and Saga's mental case board. Every piece of information Saga learns is sent to the case board. Technically, the case board is optional to use, but it is extreme helpful in solving a good number of puzzles. Outside of compiling information for puzzles, the case board is also useful for the player's understanding of the story. As the player matches clues to relevant pieces of the case, they are able to process information in an engaging and immersive way. I always felt compelled to interact with it.
Meanwhile, Alan Wake is stuck in a weird dimension called the Dark Place, trying to write his way out by collecting plot points for his story... or uh... something like that. It's a little weird. His playstyle shakes the combat up a bit by adding some extra strategy to the ol' flashlight and shooting. In the Dark Place, shadow figures stand everywhere. Some are safe, but some will attack. It can be hard to tell at times, creating a constant sense of anxiety (For most of the game I actually thought you were supposed to get rid of all of the shadows and didn't know there were specific dangerous ones. I uh... wasted a lot of batteries...). The enemies seriously freaked me out at times, especially later on when they become more numerous. However, I didn't really like how frequently hostile ones could respawn. I ended up wasting a lot of resources in places where I became confused due to the sometimes obtuse level design, creating unneeded frustration. It's still luckily not enough to substantially drag the game down.
Alan Wake has something similar to Saga's Mind Place where he can go his Writer's Room. It offers many of the same features, but instead of the case board, there is the plot board. When I first used it, my socks flew off. As Alan finds plot points, he can use them to transform various locations (called scenes) in a level. Each scene has a transformation for each plot point whether it is actually useful or not. It is an awesome system that added so much when it came to puzzle-solving and exploration. Sure, this isn't the first time something like this has been done in a game (the Gloria's Theater level from Psychonauts comes to mind), but the extent to which it is done in this game is so impressive. There's also a portible light Alan can carry and place down which can alter locations in a similar way, and it's also a great tool for exploration. All of this combined with the awesome surreal environments Alan explores unfortunately leaves Saga as the weaker half of the game, but if the weaker half of a game is still phenomenal, then it speaks volumes to its overall quality.
Story and Characters:
It was a bold move to start the game off with a pale naked guy getting stabbed in the woods but I respect it. The story of Alan Wake 2 picks up 13 years after the first game. I already mentioned its basic premise(s), but there's so much more beneath the surface, and the story is so complex and interesting. There's amazing twists that still have me thinking long after I beat the game. There's so much mystery, so much drama, so many intriguing concepts, so many fascinating characters. There's funny moments, heartbreaking moments, scary moments... It's just awesome! The story is amazing! I loved it so much! I also loved its connections to Control, as a massive fan of that game. I would recommend playing Alan Wake 1 and Control (and probably also Alan Wake's Amercian Nightmare... I didn't play that one, but from what I've heard, it sounds kind of important) if you can before Alan Wake 2, but it doesn't seem entirely necessary. I mean, I forgot half of the characters from the first game before playing the second two weeks later so take that for what you will LOL. Though, back on the topic of the pale naked guy, you uhh... might wanna enable the nudity filter in the settings before starting the game if you don't wanna see that... Just saying... That "naked" part was not hyperbole.
As for the characters, they were GREAT. The majority of the important characters left some kind of an impression on me, and it was fascinating to learn more about them as the game went on through either dialogue or context clues. Saga and her partner, Alex Casey, did have me a bit sceptical at first, as I didn't think they'd end up being super interesting. BOY was I wrong. Saga is a really cool character. She feels incredibly real, even despite her seemingly supernatural investigation skills. A section near the end of the game involving her had me in tears. I was that invested in her character. Alan Wake himself was, of course, excellent as well. His arc from the first game was expanded upon in some really interesting ways, and his half of the story was full of endless intrigue. As for the other characters, Alex Casey's involvement was definitely more than I could have ever expected. Mr. Door was a fascinating character that added a lot to the mystery. Tor and Odin, the band members of Old Gods of Asgard, were reused in great ways. Agent Esteves was kind of... odd, but given the organization she works for, I suppose it's to be expected. Overall, it's a fantasticly written cast with equally great actors portraying them.
Sound and Visuals:
I was blessed with the ability to play this game on my dad's fancy sound system and ohhh my gosh. It was a great experience. This game's sound design is so good. It's so atmospheric and complements the game's many creepy moments perfectly. There were so many moments that had me spooked out of my mind, and the sound design played a big part in that. As for the music, it was expectedly mindblowing. Not only were the Old Gods of Asgard songs great, but there was also a collection of songs composed just for the chapter endings. I almost missed how great they were as I skipped many right away, wanting to eagerly continue things. It's so easy to ignore them, which is unfortunate because they're pretty good! I'd highly recommend giving them a listen, whether it be inside or outside the game.
I could write a novel on this game's visual presentation. Thinking about it makes me internally scream in a good way. It takes everything awesome about Control and kicks it up to a whole other level. The detailed and creative environments are back and more detailed and creative than ever. This game pushes modern graphics to the limits with the most immersive and realistic environments I have ever experienced outside of... uh... real life, I guess. The variety of settings is also a colossal improvement over the first game, and the use of lighting throughout is to die for. Not only are the environments detailed, but so are the character designs. They're a great example of how you can still create awesome and distinctive designs in hyper-realism. Another welcome return is the use of live action segments, and boy, are they more prevalent than ever. They are used to great effect, and it can feel like watching a real TV show at times. I cannot stress enough how much effort was put into these. To give a vague spoiler as an example, they literally made a twenty minute short film just to put in the game. A twenty minute short film which you can totally ignore the existence of, might I add. It's kind of insane.
Conclusion:
I hope this super long review has made it obvious as to why this is my favorite game of all time. It is an experience like no other out there. The things that irk me about it are nothing compared to the endless evidence of effort and talent that went into making this masterpiece. I love the gameplay. I love the story. I love the characters. I love the music. I love the visuals. I love this game. It is horror and there's some gorey and creepy and dark moments, but if you can stomach it, then I'd highly recommend checking it out.
Gameplay:
In this game, you play as two characters, Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. They each have slightly different playstyles with their own interesting mechanics. Their segments can be played at whichever pace the player wishes, though the game nudges the player to switch between them at certain intervals by places spots to do so at strategic points. I quite liked this fact as I felt like I was getting both a nice balance of gameplay styles and a steady flow of information from the story.
As for the playstyles themselves, you start the game off as Saga Anderson, an FBI agent investigating a ritualistic murder outside the town of Bright Falls. Her playstyle is most similar to the gameplay in the first Alan Wake, though with some much needed improvements and extra mechanics thrown in. The combat is the same "shine light at enemy then shoot" system as the last game, but the time it takes to make an enemy vulnerable has been drastically reduced, and the flashlight no longer automatically recharges. There's actually a real element of resource management in this game for both characters, as batteries and bullets are in serious short supply. It can create some intense moments of paranoia, and sometimes frustration, as the game can get really stingy with the resources it gives out at certain sections. Luckily, enemies are somewhat rare to compensate. It makes the moments they do appear even more intense, and it's a HUUUUGE improvement over the first game where it would barely let you breath before another enemy encounter. Granted, that game was more action-adventure while this is more survival-horror, but still, it's a considerable step up. For Saga, some enemies also have weak points in unpredictable locations that reward a player's accuracy. Her combat does contain one of my bigger complaints for the game though, as the bosses she faces are really meh. The first boss is whatever, the second boss is somewhat decent, but the third ate so many bullets and had attacks that felt nearly impossible to dodge. It's not bad enough to bring the game down by any notable degree, but it's worth mentioning.
The other half of Saga's gameplay sees her doing detective work in her "Mind Place", which is an interesting element in itself. At the press of a button, Saga is sent to a room that acts as the game's inventory system. I thought this was super impressive, as it's a room full of detail that appears in an instant without any loading or stutter. The room contains the game's maps, collectibles, and Saga's mental case board. Every piece of information Saga learns is sent to the case board. Technically, the case board is optional to use, but it is extreme helpful in solving a good number of puzzles. Outside of compiling information for puzzles, the case board is also useful for the player's understanding of the story. As the player matches clues to relevant pieces of the case, they are able to process information in an engaging and immersive way. I always felt compelled to interact with it.
Meanwhile, Alan Wake is stuck in a weird dimension called the Dark Place, trying to write his way out by collecting plot points for his story... or uh... something like that. It's a little weird. His playstyle shakes the combat up a bit by adding some extra strategy to the ol' flashlight and shooting. In the Dark Place, shadow figures stand everywhere. Some are safe, but some will attack. It can be hard to tell at times, creating a constant sense of anxiety (For most of the game I actually thought you were supposed to get rid of all of the shadows and didn't know there were specific dangerous ones. I uh... wasted a lot of batteries...). The enemies seriously freaked me out at times, especially later on when they become more numerous. However, I didn't really like how frequently hostile ones could respawn. I ended up wasting a lot of resources in places where I became confused due to the sometimes obtuse level design, creating unneeded frustration. It's still luckily not enough to substantially drag the game down.
Alan Wake has something similar to Saga's Mind Place where he can go his Writer's Room. It offers many of the same features, but instead of the case board, there is the plot board. When I first used it, my socks flew off. As Alan finds plot points, he can use them to transform various locations (called scenes) in a level. Each scene has a transformation for each plot point whether it is actually useful or not. It is an awesome system that added so much when it came to puzzle-solving and exploration. Sure, this isn't the first time something like this has been done in a game (the Gloria's Theater level from Psychonauts comes to mind), but the extent to which it is done in this game is so impressive. There's also a portible light Alan can carry and place down which can alter locations in a similar way, and it's also a great tool for exploration. All of this combined with the awesome surreal environments Alan explores unfortunately leaves Saga as the weaker half of the game, but if the weaker half of a game is still phenomenal, then it speaks volumes to its overall quality.
Story and Characters:
It was a bold move to start the game off with a pale naked guy getting stabbed in the woods but I respect it. The story of Alan Wake 2 picks up 13 years after the first game. I already mentioned its basic premise(s), but there's so much more beneath the surface, and the story is so complex and interesting. There's amazing twists that still have me thinking long after I beat the game. There's so much mystery, so much drama, so many intriguing concepts, so many fascinating characters. There's funny moments, heartbreaking moments, scary moments... It's just awesome! The story is amazing! I loved it so much! I also loved its connections to Control, as a massive fan of that game. I would recommend playing Alan Wake 1 and Control (and probably also Alan Wake's Amercian Nightmare... I didn't play that one, but from what I've heard, it sounds kind of important) if you can before Alan Wake 2, but it doesn't seem entirely necessary. I mean, I forgot half of the characters from the first game before playing the second two weeks later so take that for what you will LOL. Though, back on the topic of the pale naked guy, you uhh... might wanna enable the nudity filter in the settings before starting the game if you don't wanna see that... Just saying... That "naked" part was not hyperbole.
As for the characters, they were GREAT. The majority of the important characters left some kind of an impression on me, and it was fascinating to learn more about them as the game went on through either dialogue or context clues. Saga and her partner, Alex Casey, did have me a bit sceptical at first, as I didn't think they'd end up being super interesting. BOY was I wrong. Saga is a really cool character. She feels incredibly real, even despite her seemingly supernatural investigation skills. A section near the end of the game involving her had me in tears. I was that invested in her character. Alan Wake himself was, of course, excellent as well. His arc from the first game was expanded upon in some really interesting ways, and his half of the story was full of endless intrigue. As for the other characters, Alex Casey's involvement was definitely more than I could have ever expected. Mr. Door was a fascinating character that added a lot to the mystery. Tor and Odin, the band members of Old Gods of Asgard, were reused in great ways. Agent Esteves was kind of... odd, but given the organization she works for, I suppose it's to be expected. Overall, it's a fantasticly written cast with equally great actors portraying them.
Sound and Visuals:
I was blessed with the ability to play this game on my dad's fancy sound system and ohhh my gosh. It was a great experience. This game's sound design is so good. It's so atmospheric and complements the game's many creepy moments perfectly. There were so many moments that had me spooked out of my mind, and the sound design played a big part in that. As for the music, it was expectedly mindblowing. Not only were the Old Gods of Asgard songs great, but there was also a collection of songs composed just for the chapter endings. I almost missed how great they were as I skipped many right away, wanting to eagerly continue things. It's so easy to ignore them, which is unfortunate because they're pretty good! I'd highly recommend giving them a listen, whether it be inside or outside the game.
I could write a novel on this game's visual presentation. Thinking about it makes me internally scream in a good way. It takes everything awesome about Control and kicks it up to a whole other level. The detailed and creative environments are back and more detailed and creative than ever. This game pushes modern graphics to the limits with the most immersive and realistic environments I have ever experienced outside of... uh... real life, I guess. The variety of settings is also a colossal improvement over the first game, and the use of lighting throughout is to die for. Not only are the environments detailed, but so are the character designs. They're a great example of how you can still create awesome and distinctive designs in hyper-realism. Another welcome return is the use of live action segments, and boy, are they more prevalent than ever. They are used to great effect, and it can feel like watching a real TV show at times. I cannot stress enough how much effort was put into these. To give a vague spoiler as an example, they literally made a twenty minute short film just to put in the game. A twenty minute short film which you can totally ignore the existence of, might I add. It's kind of insane.
Conclusion:
I hope this super long review has made it obvious as to why this is my favorite game of all time. It is an experience like no other out there. The things that irk me about it are nothing compared to the endless evidence of effort and talent that went into making this masterpiece. I love the gameplay. I love the story. I love the characters. I love the music. I love the visuals. I love this game. It is horror and there's some gorey and creepy and dark moments, but if you can stomach it, then I'd highly recommend checking it out.
2021
This is a game I had heard mixed opinions on for many years, so I adjusted my expectations accordingly going in. I enjoyed it a ton at first, but as the game went on... yeaaaaah, I could see where all of the criticisms came from. The first Alan Wake is an okay experience, and I'm glad I played it, but I don't think I'll ever come back to it.
Gameplay:
Alan Wake's gameplay loop is pretty simple. There are a few non-combat moments where you'll be walking through some areas, but for the most part, it's non-stop third-person shooting. To defeat an enemy, you must first shine your flashlight at it for a moment before taking it out with your gun. Your flashlight has limited battery that recharges on its own, though you can use batteries to restore it in a pinch. There's also a dodge button to avoid enemy attacks, which is honestly something I didn't expect from a game like this, but I thought it was a cool addition. I really liked the gameplay loop at first. I felt like there was a good combination of decent level design and neat scenarios to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, this feeling faded quickly. As the game goes on, it runs out of good ideas. It throws these flying objects at you that you need to destroy with your light, but dodging them is annoying. It also sometimes makes you fight these flocks of birds, but doing so is just boring as you have to wait for them to attack to do anything. Worst of all, it does nothing to change up the encounters with normal enemies, as there is very little enemy variety. The final stretch of the game is a relentless slog, and I was BEGGING for it to be over.
Story and Characters:
The story is the highlight of Alan Wake, and it is unfortunately also not the best. It certainly has its moments though. The premise is as follows: Alan Wake, a famous author, is on vacation with his wife, Alice, amidst a two year long period of writer's block. They travel to a town in mountains of the state of Washington, Bright Falls, where things are immediately not as they seem. After some weird occurances, Alan and Alice go to their cabin. However, the two get into an argument after Alan discovers Alice's plan to get him to write, spurred on by a shady local psychiatrist. In the middle of the argument, something strange happens. Alan finds himself in a crashed car and learns that the cabin has vanished from reality. It's an intriguing start to an intriguing mystery, and that's barely scratching the surface of the plot. Alan Wake has the tone and look of a horror game, but it's a thriller at most. The story is told episodically with 6 episodes to play through that are about over an hour in length. While the story did hold me for most chapters with some fascinating moments and steady reveal of locations and information, it really lost me near the end. I had already put the pieces together long before that point and was just kind of waiting around for the game to be over.
The characters didn't impress me much. Alan Wake is a decent protagonist. I felt like he was kind of a goober most of the time, but he does have his standout moments. I'm mixed on the side characters. Barry is the GOAT even though I have no idea how he got to Bright Falls so quickly. Sheriff Sarah Breaker is not especially memorable, but she is a valuable asset during the story. The other characters sort of just come and go. You think they're important and then you only see them for 5 minutes if even that. I actually think that fact is kind of funny because said characters go on to play much bigger roles in future Remedy Entertainment games (mainly Alan Wake 2 obviously but also in Control's AWE DLC). Cynthia Weaver is probably the most bizarre one, as she's built up as this super vital character only for her to show up near the end and only have a small though still fairly important role. I will say, the worldbuilding is pretty great. It's nothing compared to what Remedy would go on to do, but it's easily the best part of this game's narrative.
Sound and Visuals:
I didn't really remember this game's music or sound effects that well. There was one song that stuck out of course (if you know, you know), and the FREAKING SOUND EFFECT FOR THE ENEMIES APPEARING DROVE ME NUTS AAAAAAAAAAAA... So as a whole, nothing remarkable. However, I would say the voice acting was pretty good so I'll give them credit there.
As for the graphics, well, this is the remastered version of Alan Wake so I'd say decent enough, at least during gameplay. The cutscenes are pre-rendered so they still got that PS3 era swag... they uh... have not aged well. They at least do a good job at giving the game a TV show-esqe feel, which I have to imagine was quite innovative for the time. The character and environment designs are all very solid as far as 2010 hyper-realism goes too. I really loved the looks of a lot of the smaller areas that just had you walking around. Unfortunately, there is a serious issue with variation for the actual levels. Sure, sometimes you get log mills and dams and whatever else, but almost all the time it's just a forest at night, forest at night, forest at night, forest at night, more forests at night, and did I forget to mention a forest at night. It's not just the gameplay that loves repetition, sadly. I do want to shoutout the few uses of live-action though, which is something that I already mentioned I think is really cool in my Control review.
Conclusion:
Alan Wake is quite rough around the edges, but its interesting elements still make it a game worth remembering. You might like it. You might not. I fall into the latter category. Again, I am glad I played it, especially before going into the second game, but yeah, I've gotta admit it's not the best. The gameplay sucks and everything else can be a mixed bag. I'm unsure if I'd recommend it or not. Maybe check it out if you're really curious.
Gameplay:
Alan Wake's gameplay loop is pretty simple. There are a few non-combat moments where you'll be walking through some areas, but for the most part, it's non-stop third-person shooting. To defeat an enemy, you must first shine your flashlight at it for a moment before taking it out with your gun. Your flashlight has limited battery that recharges on its own, though you can use batteries to restore it in a pinch. There's also a dodge button to avoid enemy attacks, which is honestly something I didn't expect from a game like this, but I thought it was a cool addition. I really liked the gameplay loop at first. I felt like there was a good combination of decent level design and neat scenarios to keep it interesting. Unfortunately, this feeling faded quickly. As the game goes on, it runs out of good ideas. It throws these flying objects at you that you need to destroy with your light, but dodging them is annoying. It also sometimes makes you fight these flocks of birds, but doing so is just boring as you have to wait for them to attack to do anything. Worst of all, it does nothing to change up the encounters with normal enemies, as there is very little enemy variety. The final stretch of the game is a relentless slog, and I was BEGGING for it to be over.
Story and Characters:
The story is the highlight of Alan Wake, and it is unfortunately also not the best. It certainly has its moments though. The premise is as follows: Alan Wake, a famous author, is on vacation with his wife, Alice, amidst a two year long period of writer's block. They travel to a town in mountains of the state of Washington, Bright Falls, where things are immediately not as they seem. After some weird occurances, Alan and Alice go to their cabin. However, the two get into an argument after Alan discovers Alice's plan to get him to write, spurred on by a shady local psychiatrist. In the middle of the argument, something strange happens. Alan finds himself in a crashed car and learns that the cabin has vanished from reality. It's an intriguing start to an intriguing mystery, and that's barely scratching the surface of the plot. Alan Wake has the tone and look of a horror game, but it's a thriller at most. The story is told episodically with 6 episodes to play through that are about over an hour in length. While the story did hold me for most chapters with some fascinating moments and steady reveal of locations and information, it really lost me near the end. I had already put the pieces together long before that point and was just kind of waiting around for the game to be over.
The characters didn't impress me much. Alan Wake is a decent protagonist. I felt like he was kind of a goober most of the time, but he does have his standout moments. I'm mixed on the side characters. Barry is the GOAT even though I have no idea how he got to Bright Falls so quickly. Sheriff Sarah Breaker is not especially memorable, but she is a valuable asset during the story. The other characters sort of just come and go. You think they're important and then you only see them for 5 minutes if even that. I actually think that fact is kind of funny because said characters go on to play much bigger roles in future Remedy Entertainment games (mainly Alan Wake 2 obviously but also in Control's AWE DLC). Cynthia Weaver is probably the most bizarre one, as she's built up as this super vital character only for her to show up near the end and only have a small though still fairly important role. I will say, the worldbuilding is pretty great. It's nothing compared to what Remedy would go on to do, but it's easily the best part of this game's narrative.
Sound and Visuals:
I didn't really remember this game's music or sound effects that well. There was one song that stuck out of course (if you know, you know), and the FREAKING SOUND EFFECT FOR THE ENEMIES APPEARING DROVE ME NUTS AAAAAAAAAAAA... So as a whole, nothing remarkable. However, I would say the voice acting was pretty good so I'll give them credit there.
As for the graphics, well, this is the remastered version of Alan Wake so I'd say decent enough, at least during gameplay. The cutscenes are pre-rendered so they still got that PS3 era swag... they uh... have not aged well. They at least do a good job at giving the game a TV show-esqe feel, which I have to imagine was quite innovative for the time. The character and environment designs are all very solid as far as 2010 hyper-realism goes too. I really loved the looks of a lot of the smaller areas that just had you walking around. Unfortunately, there is a serious issue with variation for the actual levels. Sure, sometimes you get log mills and dams and whatever else, but almost all the time it's just a forest at night, forest at night, forest at night, forest at night, more forests at night, and did I forget to mention a forest at night. It's not just the gameplay that loves repetition, sadly. I do want to shoutout the few uses of live-action though, which is something that I already mentioned I think is really cool in my Control review.
Conclusion:
Alan Wake is quite rough around the edges, but its interesting elements still make it a game worth remembering. You might like it. You might not. I fall into the latter category. Again, I am glad I played it, especially before going into the second game, but yeah, I've gotta admit it's not the best. The gameplay sucks and everything else can be a mixed bag. I'm unsure if I'd recommend it or not. Maybe check it out if you're really curious.
2019
Control is my Roman Empire. Not a day goes by where I don't think about this game and all of its concrete and weirdness. It has had such a colossal impact on my life. I love it so, so much. However, it is not my favorite game. I hate to say it, but there's a few big issues I have with Control that drag it down and keep it from being an all-time masterpiece in my eyes.
Gameplay:
Control is a third-person shooter that takes place in a government building that is not as it seems, to say the least. You play as Jesse Faden, a woman with supernatural powers on a mission to find her brother. However, upon entering his place of captivity, Jesse finds herself among a devastating outbreak of a force known as the "Hiss", and she is promptly tasked with eliminating the threat after unknowingly accepting the position as director of the Federal Bureau of Control. This premise forms the gameplay loop, as you'll be venturing through this impossibly large and ever-shifting building while eliminating the threats possessed by the Hiss.
Your primary weapon is a pistol that is just as weird as the environment around you. The pistol can be upgraded to take different shapes, becoming a shotgun or a machine gun or a heavy, armor piercing gun that fires slowly. It's a neat concept and gives the player different ways to approach combat. Each mode has different amounts of ammo that refills on its own, which is pretty unique from a lot of other games. As the game goes on, Jesse unlocks new supernatural powers to use in combat. The most useful is her telekinesis, which can be used to throw objects at enemies and other things. It's a great addition, that adds nice variation to combat. There's also other abilities like a dash, a shield, a short-ranged telekinetic blast, mind control, levitation. Your mileage may definitely vary on the use you get out of these abilities (except for levitation because it is like... the second most useful thing), but they're cool to have around. All of this combined with the decent enemy variety makes for a pretty good gunplay experience that I was certainly impressed with when I first played the game. Though, for as good as the gunplay is, I do find that the combat gets quite repetitive after a while. There's only so many times I can spam R2 and L1 on the same handful of enemy types before I'm over it. I'm not sure what they could have done to remedy this without destroying the tone of the game (no pun intended), but MAN, it just gets stale.
Control takes place in the Oldest House, a seemingly generic government building full of concrete, concrete, and more concrete. You wouldn't initially think it would be a compelling place to explore, but you'd be wrong. The Oldest House's supernatural nature leads to some endlessly fascinating level design. There's something to find or fight in every office space, containment room, or quarry in another dimension. The most notable thing to find are the documents or recordings laying around. Again, your mileage my vary, but I personally found them to be really neat. I usually hate these kinds of collectibles in games, but the documents and voice recordings in Control are genuinely interesting. Sometimes they're just charming notes, but other times they're fascinating records that provide context to the Oldest House and its weirdness. Either way, they help to really flesh out the world. Another thing you can find by going off the beaten path is side quests. Side quests can range from dull to really interesting. I unfortunately found a lot to be on the dull side, which initially made me hesitant to pursue them, but you can miss some really cool moments by not doing so. They (and the main quests too) will also reward you with points to upgrade Jesse's supernatural abilities. The guns can be strengthened too with materials you find my defeating enemies or checking containers. Both abilities and weapons can be modified with... sigh... mods. This is an issue I have with more games than just Control, but I hate the way mods were handled. They are so annoying. For one, you have limited inventory space for them. Two, you can only equip a couple at a time, which would be okay if you didn't literally find hundreds throughout the game. The effects they give are so small that they're barely even worth caring about to begin with. They're at least not integral to your gameplay experience (unlike some other game with the exact same issues... I am looking at you, Horizon Zero Dawn), but it is irritating nonetheless since they are items you find literally everywhere. Another thing I really don't like is the alert missions! They pop up at random once you get to a certain point in the game, but you never really get to do them because they usually show up while you're doing something else.
Overall, I find Control's gameplay to be kind of weak. Whenever I think about the game, I never find myself looking back on the combat or side content very fondly. It's just not as compelling as I feel like it could be. The elements fail to come together and make for a progression system that's truly fun to pursue. But, regardless of its shortcomings, Control still provides some unforgettable battles in some amazing set pieces, and it uses its level design to help tell a story and build a world that is really cool.
Story, Characters, and Setting:
I already went over the game's basic premise, but there's a bit more to it. As you progress through the game, meeting new characters and coming closer to finding Jesse's brother, you'll uncover the truth behind the Hiss's existence. Uhhh I'll admit, this is kind of where the plot's details get fuzzy to me. Jesse's motivations and backstory are clear, but I'm not really sure I completely understand the power struggle that is supposed to frame the events of the story. There was like this thing going on with the previous director, Zachariah Trench, and the main scientist guy, Dr. Darling, and I think they were debating on whether or not they should prepare for the Hiss because I guess they knew it was coming. The people who followed Darling survived and those who followed Trench didn't, but also both Trench and Darling are dead??? I DON'T KNOW. Maybe I should have read up on it before I wrote this, but I also think it's important to express my genuine confusion about what this game is actually about, because I've played through it twice and I still don't really get it. The story unfortunately feels really unsatisfying by the end because of this. It's certainly not helped by the fact that the game lacks a real final boss.
Luckily, the characters do more heavy lifting than the plot. Jesse Faden isn't the craziest protagonist in the world, in fact she's a bit of a wet sandwich at times, but her clear motivations and inner monologue make her easy to connect to. Getting to hear her thoughts directly made for some interesting moments, especially in relation to her friendship with the entity that provides her with her powers, Polaris. Throughout the game you get to learn a lot about Jesse, and you come to find that she really is just a lady with superpowers who's just trying to find closure. I personally really like Jesse. There's just a compelling relatability to her character that I think is neat. I will say once again though, your mileage may vary.
The supporting cast is definitely an interesting bunch. The surviving employees you meet throughout the game aren't exactly the most dynamic or memorable, but they serve their purpose in fleshing out the world and progressing the story. They paint a picture of what working for the Bureau is like and... boy, it sure is weird. There's also Ahti, a janitor that directs Jesse on her journey through the Oldest House. He's quite the interesting character, though not for the reasons you might initially expect. Another character you'll run into often is the Board, which appears as an upside down triangle and speaks to Jesse occasionally through weird, cryptic subtitles. It's frankly barely a character, but it's interesting and has enough of a personality to deserve a mention. Another character that likes to show up and be cryptic is the previous director, Trench, communicating from beyond the grave. Though his primary function seems to just be to give exposition through short, fragmented sentences, he actually gives much longer optional monologues that can give the player a lot more context and insight, should they choose to listen to them. The last but certainly not least character I want to talk about is Dr. Darling. He shows up throughout the game in entertaining little training videos on topics you definitely don't want to miss. His personality is charming, and the way the videos are directed is fun, which is good because they are valuable resources when it comes to making sense of the weird world of the Oldest House.
I usually don't bother to dedicate space to discussing the settings of the games I review, but frankly, Control deserves it. The Oldest House might be my favorite setting of any video game. Control might not be a horror game, but this place horrifies me on a visceral level. It feels like walking through a museum or office building but there is something deeply wrong. The lighting is cold. The hallways are empty. The previously living inhabitants are now hovering limp near the ceiling. It is a disturbing, uncanny environment, but it is absolutely brilliant. The Oldest House itself is an ever-expanding building that is far bigger than it looks on the outside. It has the anomalous trait of being unable to be acknowledged unless it wants to... which makes me wonder how anyone ever consistently shows up to work there... But anyway, it is home to the Federal Bureau of Control, a branch of government dedicated to researching and containing anomalous objects and phenomenon. It's practically the SCP Foundation, and no that is not hyperbole. It really just feels like Remedy Entertainment wanted to make their own version of the SCP Foundation. They've got their own version of SCPs and everything. That's not to say that the FBC feels unoriginal though, as it's got plenty of its own interesting stuff going on.
Sound and Visuals:
D-does Control have music..? I mean, I know there's the obvious stuff (if you've played the game, you'll know what I mean), but does Control have music in regular gameplay? runs to Youtube ...Oh my gosh it does. It's all very subtle stuff that blends in with the atmosphere though. For that reason, and others that I don't want to spoil, I'd say the soundtrack is pretty dope. Speaking of atmosphere, the sound design is drowning in it. This game freaks me out for a lot of reasons, but I'd say the sound design is one of the biggest ones. So much of it is stained into my brain, it is so good. The most notable example is the sound of the Hiss possessed people quietly babbling nonsense almost everywhere you go. It's a noise that gives me chills every time.
There was a crazy amount of effort put into this game's presentation. Control has a phenomenal visual style. Though the graphics lean heavily into hyperrealism, there is absolutely no shortage of creativity in the art direction. The brutalist environments are loaded with attention to detail. The mixture of darkness and harsh lighting creates an atmosphere that is as ominous as it is beautiful. There's so many really cool set pieces that are permanently etched into my brain because of how well they were set up visually. Another thing that adds to the presentation is the common use of live action segments. It's really cool and not something I had seen done in a video game before at the time I first played Control.
Conclusion:
This is probably the most arbitrarily long review I've ever written or will ever write, but hey, it's been good to finally get all of my thoughts about this game out. I love Control. Though I find its gameplay and plot to be rather weak, its storytelling and presentation transcends anything I've experienced in the vast majority of games I've played, only being truly topped recently by Alan Wake 2. If the cool parts of this game sound appealing to you, then I'd definitely recommend it. It's a weird, creepy, surreal, and unique experience.
Gameplay:
Control is a third-person shooter that takes place in a government building that is not as it seems, to say the least. You play as Jesse Faden, a woman with supernatural powers on a mission to find her brother. However, upon entering his place of captivity, Jesse finds herself among a devastating outbreak of a force known as the "Hiss", and she is promptly tasked with eliminating the threat after unknowingly accepting the position as director of the Federal Bureau of Control. This premise forms the gameplay loop, as you'll be venturing through this impossibly large and ever-shifting building while eliminating the threats possessed by the Hiss.
Your primary weapon is a pistol that is just as weird as the environment around you. The pistol can be upgraded to take different shapes, becoming a shotgun or a machine gun or a heavy, armor piercing gun that fires slowly. It's a neat concept and gives the player different ways to approach combat. Each mode has different amounts of ammo that refills on its own, which is pretty unique from a lot of other games. As the game goes on, Jesse unlocks new supernatural powers to use in combat. The most useful is her telekinesis, which can be used to throw objects at enemies and other things. It's a great addition, that adds nice variation to combat. There's also other abilities like a dash, a shield, a short-ranged telekinetic blast, mind control, levitation. Your mileage may definitely vary on the use you get out of these abilities (except for levitation because it is like... the second most useful thing), but they're cool to have around. All of this combined with the decent enemy variety makes for a pretty good gunplay experience that I was certainly impressed with when I first played the game. Though, for as good as the gunplay is, I do find that the combat gets quite repetitive after a while. There's only so many times I can spam R2 and L1 on the same handful of enemy types before I'm over it. I'm not sure what they could have done to remedy this without destroying the tone of the game (no pun intended), but MAN, it just gets stale.
Control takes place in the Oldest House, a seemingly generic government building full of concrete, concrete, and more concrete. You wouldn't initially think it would be a compelling place to explore, but you'd be wrong. The Oldest House's supernatural nature leads to some endlessly fascinating level design. There's something to find or fight in every office space, containment room, or quarry in another dimension. The most notable thing to find are the documents or recordings laying around. Again, your mileage my vary, but I personally found them to be really neat. I usually hate these kinds of collectibles in games, but the documents and voice recordings in Control are genuinely interesting. Sometimes they're just charming notes, but other times they're fascinating records that provide context to the Oldest House and its weirdness. Either way, they help to really flesh out the world. Another thing you can find by going off the beaten path is side quests. Side quests can range from dull to really interesting. I unfortunately found a lot to be on the dull side, which initially made me hesitant to pursue them, but you can miss some really cool moments by not doing so. They (and the main quests too) will also reward you with points to upgrade Jesse's supernatural abilities. The guns can be strengthened too with materials you find my defeating enemies or checking containers. Both abilities and weapons can be modified with... sigh... mods. This is an issue I have with more games than just Control, but I hate the way mods were handled. They are so annoying. For one, you have limited inventory space for them. Two, you can only equip a couple at a time, which would be okay if you didn't literally find hundreds throughout the game. The effects they give are so small that they're barely even worth caring about to begin with. They're at least not integral to your gameplay experience (unlike some other game with the exact same issues... I am looking at you, Horizon Zero Dawn), but it is irritating nonetheless since they are items you find literally everywhere. Another thing I really don't like is the alert missions! They pop up at random once you get to a certain point in the game, but you never really get to do them because they usually show up while you're doing something else.
Overall, I find Control's gameplay to be kind of weak. Whenever I think about the game, I never find myself looking back on the combat or side content very fondly. It's just not as compelling as I feel like it could be. The elements fail to come together and make for a progression system that's truly fun to pursue. But, regardless of its shortcomings, Control still provides some unforgettable battles in some amazing set pieces, and it uses its level design to help tell a story and build a world that is really cool.
Story, Characters, and Setting:
I already went over the game's basic premise, but there's a bit more to it. As you progress through the game, meeting new characters and coming closer to finding Jesse's brother, you'll uncover the truth behind the Hiss's existence. Uhhh I'll admit, this is kind of where the plot's details get fuzzy to me. Jesse's motivations and backstory are clear, but I'm not really sure I completely understand the power struggle that is supposed to frame the events of the story. There was like this thing going on with the previous director, Zachariah Trench, and the main scientist guy, Dr. Darling, and I think they were debating on whether or not they should prepare for the Hiss because I guess they knew it was coming. The people who followed Darling survived and those who followed Trench didn't, but also both Trench and Darling are dead??? I DON'T KNOW. Maybe I should have read up on it before I wrote this, but I also think it's important to express my genuine confusion about what this game is actually about, because I've played through it twice and I still don't really get it. The story unfortunately feels really unsatisfying by the end because of this. It's certainly not helped by the fact that the game lacks a real final boss.
Luckily, the characters do more heavy lifting than the plot. Jesse Faden isn't the craziest protagonist in the world, in fact she's a bit of a wet sandwich at times, but her clear motivations and inner monologue make her easy to connect to. Getting to hear her thoughts directly made for some interesting moments, especially in relation to her friendship with the entity that provides her with her powers, Polaris. Throughout the game you get to learn a lot about Jesse, and you come to find that she really is just a lady with superpowers who's just trying to find closure. I personally really like Jesse. There's just a compelling relatability to her character that I think is neat. I will say once again though, your mileage may vary.
The supporting cast is definitely an interesting bunch. The surviving employees you meet throughout the game aren't exactly the most dynamic or memorable, but they serve their purpose in fleshing out the world and progressing the story. They paint a picture of what working for the Bureau is like and... boy, it sure is weird. There's also Ahti, a janitor that directs Jesse on her journey through the Oldest House. He's quite the interesting character, though not for the reasons you might initially expect. Another character you'll run into often is the Board, which appears as an upside down triangle and speaks to Jesse occasionally through weird, cryptic subtitles. It's frankly barely a character, but it's interesting and has enough of a personality to deserve a mention. Another character that likes to show up and be cryptic is the previous director, Trench, communicating from beyond the grave. Though his primary function seems to just be to give exposition through short, fragmented sentences, he actually gives much longer optional monologues that can give the player a lot more context and insight, should they choose to listen to them. The last but certainly not least character I want to talk about is Dr. Darling. He shows up throughout the game in entertaining little training videos on topics you definitely don't want to miss. His personality is charming, and the way the videos are directed is fun, which is good because they are valuable resources when it comes to making sense of the weird world of the Oldest House.
I usually don't bother to dedicate space to discussing the settings of the games I review, but frankly, Control deserves it. The Oldest House might be my favorite setting of any video game. Control might not be a horror game, but this place horrifies me on a visceral level. It feels like walking through a museum or office building but there is something deeply wrong. The lighting is cold. The hallways are empty. The previously living inhabitants are now hovering limp near the ceiling. It is a disturbing, uncanny environment, but it is absolutely brilliant. The Oldest House itself is an ever-expanding building that is far bigger than it looks on the outside. It has the anomalous trait of being unable to be acknowledged unless it wants to... which makes me wonder how anyone ever consistently shows up to work there... But anyway, it is home to the Federal Bureau of Control, a branch of government dedicated to researching and containing anomalous objects and phenomenon. It's practically the SCP Foundation, and no that is not hyperbole. It really just feels like Remedy Entertainment wanted to make their own version of the SCP Foundation. They've got their own version of SCPs and everything. That's not to say that the FBC feels unoriginal though, as it's got plenty of its own interesting stuff going on.
Sound and Visuals:
D-does Control have music..? I mean, I know there's the obvious stuff (if you've played the game, you'll know what I mean), but does Control have music in regular gameplay? runs to Youtube ...Oh my gosh it does. It's all very subtle stuff that blends in with the atmosphere though. For that reason, and others that I don't want to spoil, I'd say the soundtrack is pretty dope. Speaking of atmosphere, the sound design is drowning in it. This game freaks me out for a lot of reasons, but I'd say the sound design is one of the biggest ones. So much of it is stained into my brain, it is so good. The most notable example is the sound of the Hiss possessed people quietly babbling nonsense almost everywhere you go. It's a noise that gives me chills every time.
There was a crazy amount of effort put into this game's presentation. Control has a phenomenal visual style. Though the graphics lean heavily into hyperrealism, there is absolutely no shortage of creativity in the art direction. The brutalist environments are loaded with attention to detail. The mixture of darkness and harsh lighting creates an atmosphere that is as ominous as it is beautiful. There's so many really cool set pieces that are permanently etched into my brain because of how well they were set up visually. Another thing that adds to the presentation is the common use of live action segments. It's really cool and not something I had seen done in a video game before at the time I first played Control.
Conclusion:
This is probably the most arbitrarily long review I've ever written or will ever write, but hey, it's been good to finally get all of my thoughts about this game out. I love Control. Though I find its gameplay and plot to be rather weak, its storytelling and presentation transcends anything I've experienced in the vast majority of games I've played, only being truly topped recently by Alan Wake 2. If the cool parts of this game sound appealing to you, then I'd definitely recommend it. It's a weird, creepy, surreal, and unique experience.
I had a lot of fun with this game! I went in expecting something along the lines of a 3D Classic Sonic game, given its Sonic Mania pedigree, but what I got was something unique and cool! It does definitely have its glaring flaws, but despite that, I really liked it.
Gameplay:
Penny's Big Breakaway is a platformer that's all about its movement. There's lots of cool moves to utilize when getting around, and there's even an element of momentum to them. While I wouldn't call the game especially fast-paced, it does certainly have a nice flow to it, and it's very satisfying to chain together jumps, throws, dashes, swings, and rolls. All of these moves are mapped to only three buttons, which does take a bit of getting used to. I didn't mind it so much, especially since I went with the "simple" control style before the game even began (cutting out the otherwise superfluous button mapping), but there were definitely moments where I accidentally dashed when I didn't mean to. There's also is some jankiness in the moveset. The ledge grab move was EXTREMELY inconsistent, and I still don't understand how to get it to work. The roll move was inconsistent too, especially on water. The throw sometimes struggled to pick up items as well, which was especially annoying when it came to time objectives. These issues were luckily not enough to ruin my experience, though they were certainly annoying.
The levels in this game are great! Their good design complements the flow of the moveset with challenging set pieces and interesting mechanics to play with. There's even some fun power-ups to use. Throughout levels, there's a few things to collect. Firstly, there's coins. However, they're basically worthless. There is a shop, but the items are only temporary and not very useful at all. Secondly, you can build up score by doing combos. If you have enough score at the end of each level, you unlock bonus art. However, You cannot look at this art in full screen, and you can legitimately not make out any of the details if you're looking at the art on the Switch's screen. It's almost comedic. Almost. Thirdly, there's small objectives to pursue in different portions of a level. Sometimes you'll be getting somewhere on a time limit. Sometimes you're transporting something. Sometimes both. They don't reward the player with anything besides completion and a neat extra challenge throughout the levels. Lastly, the big hexagon coin thingies hidden throughout. Collecting enough allows the player to purchase special levels that challenge the player in specific ways. They're definitely the best collectible reward and add some good extra content to the game. The amount of levels is already decent as is, as there's 11 worlds to play through! Their length is inconsistent though, but still, you definitely won't be short on content.
Some worlds have bosses, and overall, they're pretty good. Their wildly inconsistent lengths and difficulties are a bit disappointing though. The bits of jank can also make them far more frustrating than they need to be. The first boss is a great example, though I actually thought I was softlocked on the boss with the 8 Ball head that I don't remember the name of. I got very unlucky with where the last hole was placed and thought I'd never be able to knock the ball into it. Seriously, I was stuck on that final phase for like 8 minutes. Other than those issues, the bosses are decently designed with good variety between them.
Story:
There's a simple but fun story going on in this game. It starts off with Penny going to audition to perform at a big gala. On the way, she finds a cosmic string that causes her yo-yo to become sentient. At the auditions, her yo-yo eats the clothes off of one of the judges, and she is deemed a felon. She is now on the run from the law and is constantly chased down by penguins throughout the levels. It's very silly and light-hearted, though there is some mild twists and fun character introductions throughout to keep things interesting.
Music and visuals:
The music is pretty dang good, which is no shock, given who it was composed by. They complement the pace of the game well. There are some weaker tracks, but the great ones are GREAT.
The visuals are fantastic overall. The environment designs are especially gorgeous. There's a great use of color throughout the game's style that makes it pop. I loved all of the character designs too, for the most part. They look stellar in the illustrated cutscenes, but their 3D models can sometimes do them a disservice. Penny herself is the biggest victim of this. Certain facial expressions could look seriously awkward in 3D, and whenever she took her hat off, I'd take 5 points of psychic damage. Please keep your hat on, Penny, please... Her design is fantastic for the readability of her movement though, and there was a lot of effort put into her animations.
Conclusion:
Penny's Big Breakaway has problems, but there's still a lot to love! There's fun movement, plenty of good levels, great presentation, and lots of charm. It feels like something straight out of the Gamecube era of platformers, to be honest. If you're a lover of 3D platformers, then I'd highly recommend checking this out (maybe on sale if you're paranoid about the issues). It gave me an enjoyable and unique experience, and it'll probably give you one too.
Gameplay:
Penny's Big Breakaway is a platformer that's all about its movement. There's lots of cool moves to utilize when getting around, and there's even an element of momentum to them. While I wouldn't call the game especially fast-paced, it does certainly have a nice flow to it, and it's very satisfying to chain together jumps, throws, dashes, swings, and rolls. All of these moves are mapped to only three buttons, which does take a bit of getting used to. I didn't mind it so much, especially since I went with the "simple" control style before the game even began (cutting out the otherwise superfluous button mapping), but there were definitely moments where I accidentally dashed when I didn't mean to. There's also is some jankiness in the moveset. The ledge grab move was EXTREMELY inconsistent, and I still don't understand how to get it to work. The roll move was inconsistent too, especially on water. The throw sometimes struggled to pick up items as well, which was especially annoying when it came to time objectives. These issues were luckily not enough to ruin my experience, though they were certainly annoying.
The levels in this game are great! Their good design complements the flow of the moveset with challenging set pieces and interesting mechanics to play with. There's even some fun power-ups to use. Throughout levels, there's a few things to collect. Firstly, there's coins. However, they're basically worthless. There is a shop, but the items are only temporary and not very useful at all. Secondly, you can build up score by doing combos. If you have enough score at the end of each level, you unlock bonus art. However, You cannot look at this art in full screen, and you can legitimately not make out any of the details if you're looking at the art on the Switch's screen. It's almost comedic. Almost. Thirdly, there's small objectives to pursue in different portions of a level. Sometimes you'll be getting somewhere on a time limit. Sometimes you're transporting something. Sometimes both. They don't reward the player with anything besides completion and a neat extra challenge throughout the levels. Lastly, the big hexagon coin thingies hidden throughout. Collecting enough allows the player to purchase special levels that challenge the player in specific ways. They're definitely the best collectible reward and add some good extra content to the game. The amount of levels is already decent as is, as there's 11 worlds to play through! Their length is inconsistent though, but still, you definitely won't be short on content.
Some worlds have bosses, and overall, they're pretty good. Their wildly inconsistent lengths and difficulties are a bit disappointing though. The bits of jank can also make them far more frustrating than they need to be. The first boss is a great example, though I actually thought I was softlocked on the boss with the 8 Ball head that I don't remember the name of. I got very unlucky with where the last hole was placed and thought I'd never be able to knock the ball into it. Seriously, I was stuck on that final phase for like 8 minutes. Other than those issues, the bosses are decently designed with good variety between them.
Story:
There's a simple but fun story going on in this game. It starts off with Penny going to audition to perform at a big gala. On the way, she finds a cosmic string that causes her yo-yo to become sentient. At the auditions, her yo-yo eats the clothes off of one of the judges, and she is deemed a felon. She is now on the run from the law and is constantly chased down by penguins throughout the levels. It's very silly and light-hearted, though there is some mild twists and fun character introductions throughout to keep things interesting.
Music and visuals:
The music is pretty dang good, which is no shock, given who it was composed by. They complement the pace of the game well. There are some weaker tracks, but the great ones are GREAT.
The visuals are fantastic overall. The environment designs are especially gorgeous. There's a great use of color throughout the game's style that makes it pop. I loved all of the character designs too, for the most part. They look stellar in the illustrated cutscenes, but their 3D models can sometimes do them a disservice. Penny herself is the biggest victim of this. Certain facial expressions could look seriously awkward in 3D, and whenever she took her hat off, I'd take 5 points of psychic damage. Please keep your hat on, Penny, please... Her design is fantastic for the readability of her movement though, and there was a lot of effort put into her animations.
Conclusion:
Penny's Big Breakaway has problems, but there's still a lot to love! There's fun movement, plenty of good levels, great presentation, and lots of charm. It feels like something straight out of the Gamecube era of platformers, to be honest. If you're a lover of 3D platformers, then I'd highly recommend checking this out (maybe on sale if you're paranoid about the issues). It gave me an enjoyable and unique experience, and it'll probably give you one too.
I'm no Sonic stickler. I appreciate the hedgehog and his endeavors... but MAN, if it was a competition, this game would kick Sonic's butt. As far as fast-paced 3D platformers go, Spark the Electric Jester 3 is, while not perfect, certainly awesome. It has both speed and spectacle without sacrificing engaging gameplay.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, Spark the Electric Jester 3 is a fast-paced 3D platformer. I haven't played the previous games in the series, but it does play a lot like Sonic Adventure 2's Sonic and Shadow levels with some modern Sonic game design philosophy sprinkled in. This game borrows a lot from Sonic. You got homing attacks, speed boosters, a spindash knock-off, bounce pads, grind rails, and probably something else I'm forgetting. Sure, it's derivative, but the game adds onto these things to make them its own. Platforming is very smooth thanks to a momentum system that feels natural and a moveset that is useful. I always felt in control of my movement, even in the fastest sections of the game. It's good stuff, and combined with the level design, I had tons of fun.
Most levels have you running from point A to point B with some really fun and creative obstacles to overcome. Some levels have cool gimmicks while others have you on a time limit, or both. The level design is also pretty open, so there's tons of different paths to travel on. Reaching a goal isn't the only type of objective in the levels though. There's a few that have you running around, finding enough medals before time runs out. They sound like they'd be boring in concept, but in reality, I found them to be pretty neat levels that focused on platforming and exploration. There's vehicles levels too which are ehhh. The car was nearly unusable at times. The ship was more consistant but still not great. There's also combat focused levels that have you defeating waves of enemies or fighting bosses. Combat is scattered throughout normal levels too. The combat system is alright. It's kind of arbitrary, but it at least does enough to not feel like a slog. Throughout the levels, there's a currency to collect which you can spend to upgrade your abilities. There's not a whole lot that's done with this, but it's still significant enough to mention.
Story:
I honestly do not know how to reasonably sum up this game's story. It is actually wild. I don't know why a game with a fast yellow guy in a Marx hat had to fly off the rails and into outer space, but it did. It got so cheesy at times that I actually skipped a couple of the cutscenes. There's some crazy moments that feel like they come out of nowhere. It's uhh... an experience. I assume the story's tone might make more sense if you've played the previous games.
Sound and Visuals:
I really liked the sound design. There was some fun sound effects. The soundtrack was also pretty sweet. I'd probably listen to some of the songs on their own.
The visuals were pretty great overall! The aesthetic is colorful with some great stylization. The environments looked totally awe-inspiring at times. There's quite a few fully animated cutscenes, and even some that switch up the art style. I also thought the character designs were pretty cool, though there were some that were weird enough to make me laugh. As a whole, this game's visual style is very distinct and well done. I liked it.
Conclusion:
If you want more Sonic Adventure-esqe gameplay in your life, then Spark the Electric Jester 3 is a must-play. With its well-crafted levels, great sense of momentum, and polished presentation, you'll probably have a good time. I know I certainly did. It's an easy recommendation from me.
Gameplay:
As mentioned, Spark the Electric Jester 3 is a fast-paced 3D platformer. I haven't played the previous games in the series, but it does play a lot like Sonic Adventure 2's Sonic and Shadow levels with some modern Sonic game design philosophy sprinkled in. This game borrows a lot from Sonic. You got homing attacks, speed boosters, a spindash knock-off, bounce pads, grind rails, and probably something else I'm forgetting. Sure, it's derivative, but the game adds onto these things to make them its own. Platforming is very smooth thanks to a momentum system that feels natural and a moveset that is useful. I always felt in control of my movement, even in the fastest sections of the game. It's good stuff, and combined with the level design, I had tons of fun.
Most levels have you running from point A to point B with some really fun and creative obstacles to overcome. Some levels have cool gimmicks while others have you on a time limit, or both. The level design is also pretty open, so there's tons of different paths to travel on. Reaching a goal isn't the only type of objective in the levels though. There's a few that have you running around, finding enough medals before time runs out. They sound like they'd be boring in concept, but in reality, I found them to be pretty neat levels that focused on platforming and exploration. There's vehicles levels too which are ehhh. The car was nearly unusable at times. The ship was more consistant but still not great. There's also combat focused levels that have you defeating waves of enemies or fighting bosses. Combat is scattered throughout normal levels too. The combat system is alright. It's kind of arbitrary, but it at least does enough to not feel like a slog. Throughout the levels, there's a currency to collect which you can spend to upgrade your abilities. There's not a whole lot that's done with this, but it's still significant enough to mention.
Story:
I honestly do not know how to reasonably sum up this game's story. It is actually wild. I don't know why a game with a fast yellow guy in a Marx hat had to fly off the rails and into outer space, but it did. It got so cheesy at times that I actually skipped a couple of the cutscenes. There's some crazy moments that feel like they come out of nowhere. It's uhh... an experience. I assume the story's tone might make more sense if you've played the previous games.
Sound and Visuals:
I really liked the sound design. There was some fun sound effects. The soundtrack was also pretty sweet. I'd probably listen to some of the songs on their own.
The visuals were pretty great overall! The aesthetic is colorful with some great stylization. The environments looked totally awe-inspiring at times. There's quite a few fully animated cutscenes, and even some that switch up the art style. I also thought the character designs were pretty cool, though there were some that were weird enough to make me laugh. As a whole, this game's visual style is very distinct and well done. I liked it.
Conclusion:
If you want more Sonic Adventure-esqe gameplay in your life, then Spark the Electric Jester 3 is a must-play. With its well-crafted levels, great sense of momentum, and polished presentation, you'll probably have a good time. I know I certainly did. It's an easy recommendation from me.
1997
Mega Man X4 is one of the most beloved MMX games, and it's not hard to see why. It takes the usual MMX formula and slightly expands upon it really well with an extra playable character in the form of Zero. I do have some problems with the game, but I can't deny that it's still a really solid entry to the MMX series.
Gameplay:
Mega Man X4 is pretty much structured like a typical X game. You got your starting stage, then the main 8 stages, then the final stages. You platform, shoot stuff, fight bosses, and get collectibles to grow stronger. Pretty typical. However, there are some deviations. First of all, X4 has a heavier emphasis on story than in previous titles, so you'll be seeing more dialogue, cutscenes, and extra bosses between stages. Secondly, stages are now split into two halves, so if you game over in the second half, you won't have to start at the beginning. X4 is probably the easiest game in the series because of this, so it's not a bad starting point if you want to get into the MMX games. Thirdly, and the most obvious thing, Zero as a playable character! While X has a ranged weapon and can collect armor pieces, Zero has a melee weapon and can only expand his moveset and strength through defeating bosses and collecting heart tanks. He's definitely the hard mode of the game, but still fun to play as nonetheless. He even gets a slightly different (and more interesting) story to play through. It's a definite upgrade from his nothing-burger inclusion in X3.
As for the level design, it's pretty good overall. Emphasis on "overall". There's a good variety of levels that provides a nice amount of challenge, but there's one that doesn't. One of the 8 main stages is a level where you're riding on a hoverbike the entire time, constantly moving forward with little time to react to obstacles. This level is a nightmare, as one mistake can mean starting it all over, and it's even worse when you're going for all the items. To make it even MORE worse, it ends with an annoying boss fight that sucks no matter which character you're playing as. It's easily the weakest link in an otherwise strong chain. Some of the other bosses can feel pretty stupid to fight against as well, whether they be too hard or too weak. X4 still has some great ones though. Magma Dragoon and his Street Fighter references are a ton of fun, and I always enjoy doing Storm Owl's fight without his weakness.
Story:
I'll be honest, this game's story always leaves my brain two seconds after I play it. I think it's about an army of Reploids called Repliforce trying to overthrow something or other, and of course Sigma is behind it. Zero beefs with another robot because he likes his sister. There's bad voice acting. Yeah. It's not very good, but hey, the gameplay is so I suppose it doesn't need to be. Despite the quality of the story, there's at least some good effort put into how it's presented (minus the voice acting), as the major cutscenes are all fully animated. So that's cool.
Sound and visuals:
The music is great, but that should be no surprise. The sound design is good too, except for the voice acting, as mentioned before. While it is funny to hear in the cutscenes, X and Zero have voices during gameplay, and X's is just the worst. He sounds like a 5 year old, and I just can't take it seriously at all. I play on the Japanese version of the game whenever I play as X for that reason.
As for the visuals, they're quite good. They're colorful, clear, and have aged fairly well, which is something I can't totally say about future games in the MMX series. I especially love the animations for the bosses in this game. The bigger playable sprites with all their extra frames of animation do take a bit of getting used to, though, if you're going from the SNES games to this one.
Conclusion:
If you like any of the SNES Mega Man X games and somehow haven't played X4 yet, then you gotta. It's more of the same goodness with a bit of extra, not to mention the whole new graphical style. It's easily accessible to play through the Mega Man X Legacy Collection.
Gameplay:
Mega Man X4 is pretty much structured like a typical X game. You got your starting stage, then the main 8 stages, then the final stages. You platform, shoot stuff, fight bosses, and get collectibles to grow stronger. Pretty typical. However, there are some deviations. First of all, X4 has a heavier emphasis on story than in previous titles, so you'll be seeing more dialogue, cutscenes, and extra bosses between stages. Secondly, stages are now split into two halves, so if you game over in the second half, you won't have to start at the beginning. X4 is probably the easiest game in the series because of this, so it's not a bad starting point if you want to get into the MMX games. Thirdly, and the most obvious thing, Zero as a playable character! While X has a ranged weapon and can collect armor pieces, Zero has a melee weapon and can only expand his moveset and strength through defeating bosses and collecting heart tanks. He's definitely the hard mode of the game, but still fun to play as nonetheless. He even gets a slightly different (and more interesting) story to play through. It's a definite upgrade from his nothing-burger inclusion in X3.
As for the level design, it's pretty good overall. Emphasis on "overall". There's a good variety of levels that provides a nice amount of challenge, but there's one that doesn't. One of the 8 main stages is a level where you're riding on a hoverbike the entire time, constantly moving forward with little time to react to obstacles. This level is a nightmare, as one mistake can mean starting it all over, and it's even worse when you're going for all the items. To make it even MORE worse, it ends with an annoying boss fight that sucks no matter which character you're playing as. It's easily the weakest link in an otherwise strong chain. Some of the other bosses can feel pretty stupid to fight against as well, whether they be too hard or too weak. X4 still has some great ones though. Magma Dragoon and his Street Fighter references are a ton of fun, and I always enjoy doing Storm Owl's fight without his weakness.
Story:
I'll be honest, this game's story always leaves my brain two seconds after I play it. I think it's about an army of Reploids called Repliforce trying to overthrow something or other, and of course Sigma is behind it. Zero beefs with another robot because he likes his sister. There's bad voice acting. Yeah. It's not very good, but hey, the gameplay is so I suppose it doesn't need to be. Despite the quality of the story, there's at least some good effort put into how it's presented (minus the voice acting), as the major cutscenes are all fully animated. So that's cool.
Sound and visuals:
The music is great, but that should be no surprise. The sound design is good too, except for the voice acting, as mentioned before. While it is funny to hear in the cutscenes, X and Zero have voices during gameplay, and X's is just the worst. He sounds like a 5 year old, and I just can't take it seriously at all. I play on the Japanese version of the game whenever I play as X for that reason.
As for the visuals, they're quite good. They're colorful, clear, and have aged fairly well, which is something I can't totally say about future games in the MMX series. I especially love the animations for the bosses in this game. The bigger playable sprites with all their extra frames of animation do take a bit of getting used to, though, if you're going from the SNES games to this one.
Conclusion:
If you like any of the SNES Mega Man X games and somehow haven't played X4 yet, then you gotta. It's more of the same goodness with a bit of extra, not to mention the whole new graphical style. It's easily accessible to play through the Mega Man X Legacy Collection.
1993
Mega Man X is one of those games that I love so much that I've basically bought it on every console that can play it. It's an awesome evolution of the classic Mega Man formula. It's not perfect, but it's definitely really fun and replayable. I like to revisit it at least once a year.
Gameplay:
Mega Man X is an action platformer where you jump, shoot, and unlock new weapons by beating bosses. Typical Mega Man stuff. However, MMX shakes things up with a new roster of collectibles. After the opening level, you are presented with 8 levels that you can play in any order you like (though Chill Penguin is the best first choice, let's be honest). These 8 levels are all solid and provide a good variety of challenges without ever feeling too unfair like other Mega Man games could. They can even feel a bit too easy at times, especially since completing certain levels before others can change the way other levels function to your benefit. It's a cool mechanic though, and can even open up new paths to collectibles. In each level there is a "heart tank" to collect, which will increase your maximum health. In some levels there are "sub tanks", which will store extra health and can be used at any time from the weapons menu. There is also a set of armor to collect throughout four of the levels which will enhance your abilities. The way each collectible is gotten is varied, sometimes requiring a certain weapon or upgrade. Some methods are more obvious than others, but it all makes for some interesting exploration and a system that promotes creativity and experimentation in order to make item collection as efficient is possible, and it has the bonus of making you stronger! By the end of it all, you're ready to take on the final levels with an extensive roster of great weapons and cool upgrades, some better than others, of course.
Bosses are a big part of Mega Man, and they're pretty great in this game... for the most part. For every fun challenge like Chill Penguin or Boomer Kuwanger, there's a Launch Octopus and Armored Armadillo. They're all still good, just lacking in one way or another. Spark Mandrill is too easy to stunlock with his weakness. Armored Armadillo is virtually impossible to take out without his weakness. Launch Octopus's weakness is practically useless against him! It's just some iffy balancing that feels counter-intuitive to the game's design.
Story:
The story's nothing crazy, but it's worth mentioning. The game's about X, a robot with free called a Reploid. He battles against other other Reploids that have gone rogue, called Mavericks. A Maverick named Sigma has risen up to destroy the world, and it's up to X and his far stronger companion, Zero to take him and his followers down. However, X is beaten by one of Sigma's henchmen, Vile, and he realized he needs to grow stronger before he can face Sigma. It's a neat element that ties the story to the collectibles and helps you feel more awesome when you finally collect all the armor parts and heart tanks. In short, Mega Man X's story is simple but effective, and a fair upgrade from the stories in previous Mega Man games... Well... in the first game it's simple, anyway... Uhhh the series gets more complex as it goes on, for better or for worse.
Music and visuals:
Mega Man X has a soundtrack that needs no introduction. It has some absolutely awesome, iconic songs that I love listening to from time to time. There's really not much else to say. It's just really dang good.
The visuals are also excellent. They are colorful, clear, and have aged quite well. There are some parts, mostly in the more mechanical looking levels, that can look fairly dull, but it's far from anything bad, especially for the time. The character designs are worth noting too, as they're an awesome upgrade from the type of designs found in previous Mega Man games. Not that classic Mega Man ever had subpar designs, Mega Man X is just a really good evolution, adding more detail to an already solid foundation. Heck, it's even inspired my own art.
Conclusion:
Mega Man X is a really neat game. It offers the player lots of freedom to play and explore how they want. The level design is solid, and the presentation is great. It's aged decently well too, so I'd definitely recommend it to any fans of 2D action-platformers who haven't checked it out yet. It doesn't have a proper save system though, so keep that in mind for whichever platform you decide to play it on. The game's easily available to buy through the Mega Man X Legacy Collection, and it's the only game in the entire collection where the "Rookie Hunter" mode is actually balanced. Amazing.
Gameplay:
Mega Man X is an action platformer where you jump, shoot, and unlock new weapons by beating bosses. Typical Mega Man stuff. However, MMX shakes things up with a new roster of collectibles. After the opening level, you are presented with 8 levels that you can play in any order you like (though Chill Penguin is the best first choice, let's be honest). These 8 levels are all solid and provide a good variety of challenges without ever feeling too unfair like other Mega Man games could. They can even feel a bit too easy at times, especially since completing certain levels before others can change the way other levels function to your benefit. It's a cool mechanic though, and can even open up new paths to collectibles. In each level there is a "heart tank" to collect, which will increase your maximum health. In some levels there are "sub tanks", which will store extra health and can be used at any time from the weapons menu. There is also a set of armor to collect throughout four of the levels which will enhance your abilities. The way each collectible is gotten is varied, sometimes requiring a certain weapon or upgrade. Some methods are more obvious than others, but it all makes for some interesting exploration and a system that promotes creativity and experimentation in order to make item collection as efficient is possible, and it has the bonus of making you stronger! By the end of it all, you're ready to take on the final levels with an extensive roster of great weapons and cool upgrades, some better than others, of course.
Bosses are a big part of Mega Man, and they're pretty great in this game... for the most part. For every fun challenge like Chill Penguin or Boomer Kuwanger, there's a Launch Octopus and Armored Armadillo. They're all still good, just lacking in one way or another. Spark Mandrill is too easy to stunlock with his weakness. Armored Armadillo is virtually impossible to take out without his weakness. Launch Octopus's weakness is practically useless against him! It's just some iffy balancing that feels counter-intuitive to the game's design.
Story:
The story's nothing crazy, but it's worth mentioning. The game's about X, a robot with free called a Reploid. He battles against other other Reploids that have gone rogue, called Mavericks. A Maverick named Sigma has risen up to destroy the world, and it's up to X and his far stronger companion, Zero to take him and his followers down. However, X is beaten by one of Sigma's henchmen, Vile, and he realized he needs to grow stronger before he can face Sigma. It's a neat element that ties the story to the collectibles and helps you feel more awesome when you finally collect all the armor parts and heart tanks. In short, Mega Man X's story is simple but effective, and a fair upgrade from the stories in previous Mega Man games... Well... in the first game it's simple, anyway... Uhhh the series gets more complex as it goes on, for better or for worse.
Music and visuals:
Mega Man X has a soundtrack that needs no introduction. It has some absolutely awesome, iconic songs that I love listening to from time to time. There's really not much else to say. It's just really dang good.
The visuals are also excellent. They are colorful, clear, and have aged quite well. There are some parts, mostly in the more mechanical looking levels, that can look fairly dull, but it's far from anything bad, especially for the time. The character designs are worth noting too, as they're an awesome upgrade from the type of designs found in previous Mega Man games. Not that classic Mega Man ever had subpar designs, Mega Man X is just a really good evolution, adding more detail to an already solid foundation. Heck, it's even inspired my own art.
Conclusion:
Mega Man X is a really neat game. It offers the player lots of freedom to play and explore how they want. The level design is solid, and the presentation is great. It's aged decently well too, so I'd definitely recommend it to any fans of 2D action-platformers who haven't checked it out yet. It doesn't have a proper save system though, so keep that in mind for whichever platform you decide to play it on. The game's easily available to buy through the Mega Man X Legacy Collection, and it's the only game in the entire collection where the "Rookie Hunter" mode is actually balanced. Amazing.
2023
This is literally my dream video game. I'm a 00's kid that grew up playing Jet Set Radio, Modnation Racers, and SSX so a love for graffiti, extreme sports, and Hideki Naganuma is embedded in my DNA. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk absolutely delivers all three. It's everything I could have asked for from a JSR successor and more, and I had so much fun during my time with it.
Gameplay:
Did you ever play Jet Set Radio and think "Man, I love the concept of the gameplay, but I just wish it didn't control like my controller was smothered in honey"? Um... probably not, but I know I did. Luckily, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a vast improvement on JSR's foundation. First off, the movement is fantastic. The controls are incredibly smooth and responsive. It's very easy to seamlessly leap from platforms to walls to grindrails. It's made all the more satisfying by the jetpack you have on you at all times, which you can use to either boost long distances or give yourself a quick push in any direction. Secondly, the graffiti system is very cool. When you find a spot to do graffiti, you are presented with a series of dots. Connect those dots in any order you wish, and you can make all kinds of different designs, assuming you have the pattern unlocked. It's a seriously neat system that feels awesome to do everytime... assuming you don't get stuck making the same design over and over again... I keep accidentally doing that :(. Thirdly, the options to choose from. Just like in JSR, you can choose to play as a bunch of different characters, both unlockable through story progression or by finding them hidden throughout the map. The change is mostly only cosmetic, but still pretty sweet. Speaking of cosmetics, those add to your amount of options. Each character has 4 alternate colors, and they can pick between a bunch of unlockable skateboards, bikes, and rollerskates. Yup, that's right. There's something for every enjoyer of half-pipes in this game.
Though Bomb Rush Cyberfunk borrows a lot from Jet Set Radio, it also introduces plenty of its own ideas... I think (Now is a good time to mention I've never played JSR Future so if any of these elements are in that game, I apologize). Firstly, the level design is very open, and there's a lot of secrets to discover. There's a really fun layer of exploration to the game, and I always loved going into an area, seeing something weird and saying "I wonder how to get over there". It can make long-distance traversal a bit of a hastle though, and the game's odd fast travel system doesn't help. At least the movement system is fun, so I can only complain so much. Secondly, the combo and trick system is simple but extremely effective. The game gives you three buttons for tricks, and a button for a manual. There's not much you can do to tweak them, but what matters is how you combine them with your boosts, wallrides, and rail grinds. Grinds are especially important for combos, as holding in the direction of a sharp turn will build up a multiplier and provide a small speed boost (as well as filling your boost meter). Holding a manual will allow for a combo and its multipiers to persist even after you hit the ground. The trick system combined with the level design allows for some seriously cool and satisfying combos. Thirdly, this game has actual combat, however, it kind of sucks. It was so close to being cool with some stylish moves, but the weight of the attacks is just so... meh. Simple enemies take too long to go down while bigger ones can be dealt with in 2 seconds. The way enemy presence ramps up is also frustrating. Do even the smallest graffiti, and the police will show up, preventing you from switching characters until you visit a place to get them off of you. Do a little more and it keeps ramping up and up and up. It's very annoying, and certain enemy types can be frustrating to exist around. It's the only bad part of an otherwise really fun game. The last unique thing I want to mention is the phone. It's a small mechanic, but it's cool. You can have it open while you run around, allowing you to look at the map, see your graffiti patterns, and change the music, all while never pausing the action... I guess I can also mention the fact that you can dance to perform various tasks. That's kind of funny.
Story:
I was a lot more invested in the story than I thought I would be going in. It's nothing mindblowing, but it definitely grabbed my attention, and I was really excited to see how it ended. The premise is this: You start the game off as Faux, escaping a prison with a dude named Tryce. Just as you manage to escape, Faux's head is cut off by a mysterious figure you find out is the current top-dog of the graffiti world. Tryce has Faux's head replaced with a robotic one, and it is now your mission to play as this new character, Red, and the rest of Tryce's Bomb Rush Crew to take over all the territories and get Faux's head back. It sounds simple enough, but there's actually some crazy twists and turns that make the story fairly engaging. It serves as more than enough motivation to do graffiti, fight the police, and get big combos. I enjoyed it.
Sound and visuals:
The sound design is good but OH MY GOSH THE MUSIC?????? I freaking adore it. The fact that they got Hideki Naganuma to compose some of the songs is poetic. Even the songs he didn't work on are pure jams. They really put an awesome soundtrack together for this game. There are a couple songs that I really did not like personally, but luckily the game gives you the option to change them on the fly.
The visuals freaking nail Jet Set Radio's aesthetic. It seriously feels like a game straight out of the early ps2 era... but like... made for 1080p, obviously. It's a seriously nice looking game. The colors are vibrant, the graffiti is awesome, and most of the characters designs go hard. The environments especially are super neat. There's some seriously interesting places to explore. I literally could not stop thinking about how cool Pyramid Island was for like an entire 24 hours.
Conclusion:
I freaking LOVE Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Cool music, cool gameplay, cool level design, cool vibes, cool EVERYTHING. It's COOL. It's GREAT. If you're a fellow Jet Set Radio appreciator, then you've gotta check it out. I'd also recommend this to anyone out there looking for an interesting take on a platformer, because this has definitely become one of my favorites in the genre.
Also it took me getting a third of the way through the game to realize it was called "Bomb Rush Cyberfunk" and not "Bomb Rush Cyberpunk". I am still recovering from that realization.
Gameplay:
Did you ever play Jet Set Radio and think "Man, I love the concept of the gameplay, but I just wish it didn't control like my controller was smothered in honey"? Um... probably not, but I know I did. Luckily, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a vast improvement on JSR's foundation. First off, the movement is fantastic. The controls are incredibly smooth and responsive. It's very easy to seamlessly leap from platforms to walls to grindrails. It's made all the more satisfying by the jetpack you have on you at all times, which you can use to either boost long distances or give yourself a quick push in any direction. Secondly, the graffiti system is very cool. When you find a spot to do graffiti, you are presented with a series of dots. Connect those dots in any order you wish, and you can make all kinds of different designs, assuming you have the pattern unlocked. It's a seriously neat system that feels awesome to do everytime... assuming you don't get stuck making the same design over and over again... I keep accidentally doing that :(. Thirdly, the options to choose from. Just like in JSR, you can choose to play as a bunch of different characters, both unlockable through story progression or by finding them hidden throughout the map. The change is mostly only cosmetic, but still pretty sweet. Speaking of cosmetics, those add to your amount of options. Each character has 4 alternate colors, and they can pick between a bunch of unlockable skateboards, bikes, and rollerskates. Yup, that's right. There's something for every enjoyer of half-pipes in this game.
Though Bomb Rush Cyberfunk borrows a lot from Jet Set Radio, it also introduces plenty of its own ideas... I think (Now is a good time to mention I've never played JSR Future so if any of these elements are in that game, I apologize). Firstly, the level design is very open, and there's a lot of secrets to discover. There's a really fun layer of exploration to the game, and I always loved going into an area, seeing something weird and saying "I wonder how to get over there". It can make long-distance traversal a bit of a hastle though, and the game's odd fast travel system doesn't help. At least the movement system is fun, so I can only complain so much. Secondly, the combo and trick system is simple but extremely effective. The game gives you three buttons for tricks, and a button for a manual. There's not much you can do to tweak them, but what matters is how you combine them with your boosts, wallrides, and rail grinds. Grinds are especially important for combos, as holding in the direction of a sharp turn will build up a multiplier and provide a small speed boost (as well as filling your boost meter). Holding a manual will allow for a combo and its multipiers to persist even after you hit the ground. The trick system combined with the level design allows for some seriously cool and satisfying combos. Thirdly, this game has actual combat, however, it kind of sucks. It was so close to being cool with some stylish moves, but the weight of the attacks is just so... meh. Simple enemies take too long to go down while bigger ones can be dealt with in 2 seconds. The way enemy presence ramps up is also frustrating. Do even the smallest graffiti, and the police will show up, preventing you from switching characters until you visit a place to get them off of you. Do a little more and it keeps ramping up and up and up. It's very annoying, and certain enemy types can be frustrating to exist around. It's the only bad part of an otherwise really fun game. The last unique thing I want to mention is the phone. It's a small mechanic, but it's cool. You can have it open while you run around, allowing you to look at the map, see your graffiti patterns, and change the music, all while never pausing the action... I guess I can also mention the fact that you can dance to perform various tasks. That's kind of funny.
Story:
I was a lot more invested in the story than I thought I would be going in. It's nothing mindblowing, but it definitely grabbed my attention, and I was really excited to see how it ended. The premise is this: You start the game off as Faux, escaping a prison with a dude named Tryce. Just as you manage to escape, Faux's head is cut off by a mysterious figure you find out is the current top-dog of the graffiti world. Tryce has Faux's head replaced with a robotic one, and it is now your mission to play as this new character, Red, and the rest of Tryce's Bomb Rush Crew to take over all the territories and get Faux's head back. It sounds simple enough, but there's actually some crazy twists and turns that make the story fairly engaging. It serves as more than enough motivation to do graffiti, fight the police, and get big combos. I enjoyed it.
Sound and visuals:
The sound design is good but OH MY GOSH THE MUSIC?????? I freaking adore it. The fact that they got Hideki Naganuma to compose some of the songs is poetic. Even the songs he didn't work on are pure jams. They really put an awesome soundtrack together for this game. There are a couple songs that I really did not like personally, but luckily the game gives you the option to change them on the fly.
The visuals freaking nail Jet Set Radio's aesthetic. It seriously feels like a game straight out of the early ps2 era... but like... made for 1080p, obviously. It's a seriously nice looking game. The colors are vibrant, the graffiti is awesome, and most of the characters designs go hard. The environments especially are super neat. There's some seriously interesting places to explore. I literally could not stop thinking about how cool Pyramid Island was for like an entire 24 hours.
Conclusion:
I freaking LOVE Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Cool music, cool gameplay, cool level design, cool vibes, cool EVERYTHING. It's COOL. It's GREAT. If you're a fellow Jet Set Radio appreciator, then you've gotta check it out. I'd also recommend this to anyone out there looking for an interesting take on a platformer, because this has definitely become one of my favorites in the genre.
Also it took me getting a third of the way through the game to realize it was called "Bomb Rush Cyberfunk" and not "Bomb Rush Cyberpunk". I am still recovering from that realization.
2022
I decided to check this game out several months ago on a day when I was really sick and... um... yeah, this is certainly one of the games I've ever played. It definitely gets the award for shortest game I own, as I think I 100% it in an hour. It is dirt cheap and a fairly okay experience, but would I ever recommend it? Ehhhh...
Gameplay:
Super Kiwi 64 is a game inspired by Banjo Kazooie in both its graphics and gameplay. It's a 3D collectathon platformer where you play as a Kiwi with a backpack that can sprout wings for gliding and a propeller to run faster. You can also do a quick dash forward to attack things or grab onto walls. It's all pretty good. I enjoyed the movement mechanics quite a bit.
Though levels are very short, they are designed okay enough with nice variation and a good amount of collectibles in each. There's some really weird sections that had me downright confused though. Overall, the levels are fine but not really worth writing home about.
Presentation:
This is where this game gets interesting. As said before, this game's graphics borrow a lot from Banjo Kazooie. However, the visuals and atmosphere moreso seek to capture the off-putting vibes N64 era games could have. Do I think it succeeds? No. It tries way too hard. There's skeletons in corners. Weird glyphs on the walls. Strange... fetus orb things. Weird towering enemies with black armor. It's all so strange, and there's a huge dissonance between that and the way the game is marketed. It doesn't feel like the game was trying to do some sort of bait-and-switch "kids game but it's actually scary oOoOoOoOoOo" type of thing either. It just lacks subtlety. It almost gave me bad 2010 creepypasta vibes with how weirdly integrated it was. Maybe I'm missing something, I dunno. The only impression the presentation made on me was how much I really did not like it. In short, interesting idea, odd execution.
Conclusion:
Super Kiwi 64 is kind of just a whatever game. Fun controls but meh everything else. It's okay for the price, I guess. I don't think I'd ever strongly recommend it though.
Gameplay:
Super Kiwi 64 is a game inspired by Banjo Kazooie in both its graphics and gameplay. It's a 3D collectathon platformer where you play as a Kiwi with a backpack that can sprout wings for gliding and a propeller to run faster. You can also do a quick dash forward to attack things or grab onto walls. It's all pretty good. I enjoyed the movement mechanics quite a bit.
Though levels are very short, they are designed okay enough with nice variation and a good amount of collectibles in each. There's some really weird sections that had me downright confused though. Overall, the levels are fine but not really worth writing home about.
Presentation:
This is where this game gets interesting. As said before, this game's graphics borrow a lot from Banjo Kazooie. However, the visuals and atmosphere moreso seek to capture the off-putting vibes N64 era games could have. Do I think it succeeds? No. It tries way too hard. There's skeletons in corners. Weird glyphs on the walls. Strange... fetus orb things. Weird towering enemies with black armor. It's all so strange, and there's a huge dissonance between that and the way the game is marketed. It doesn't feel like the game was trying to do some sort of bait-and-switch "kids game but it's actually scary oOoOoOoOoOo" type of thing either. It just lacks subtlety. It almost gave me bad 2010 creepypasta vibes with how weirdly integrated it was. Maybe I'm missing something, I dunno. The only impression the presentation made on me was how much I really did not like it. In short, interesting idea, odd execution.
Conclusion:
Super Kiwi 64 is kind of just a whatever game. Fun controls but meh everything else. It's okay for the price, I guess. I don't think I'd ever strongly recommend it though.
2023
Pikmin 4 wasn't a game that was initially on my radar, but after seeing how fun it looked in the trailers and doing some replaying of Pikmin 3, my interest was piqued. I did end up having a lot of fun with the game, but after reflecting on it over a month after I beat it, I realized the experience was kind of hollow. Also, shoutout to my sister for letting me borrow her copy so I wouldn't have to spend money.
Gameplay:
Pikmin 4 is a real-time strategy game where you build an army of funny little guys called pikmin to throw at your enemies and carry things around for you. There's multiple kinds of pikmin with different functions, and the game is filled with small puzzles designed around that fact. This game also gives you a dog companion named Oatchi who can also fight and carry things, but can also be ridden on to traverse terrain that can't be navigated on foot. He can be played on his own as well, able to command pikmin just like the player character. The gameplay loop sees you navigating a large area, searching for treasure, fighting enemies, and exploring dungeons in order to collect enough "sparklium" or rescue enough people to move on in the game. The player has limited time in each day to do this, as when the night comes, all pikmin left outside the base will perish. Time doesn't pass in dungeons though, which is where most of the player's time will be spent. There also isn't a limit on how many days can be spent in an area. It can make the day cycle feel arbitrary, but luckily, at the start of every new day, you begin in an area where you can stock up on items, upgrade Oatchi, and gather side quests.
Level and creature design is pretty good in Pikmin 4. It was amazing to get to explore these creative and sprawling open areas with full control over the camera for the first time in the series. There's lots of neat places to find, cool enemies to fight, and certainly no shortage of collectibles. However, despite all the game has to offer, I found it to be kind of boring. While the game's not mindlessly easy, I still find that it lacks a lot of challenge and actual need for strategy. The lack of any real time pressure is part of this, but the easiness comes mostly from Oatchi, the items/upgrades, and the rewind feature. Oatchi can carry pikmin on his back, jump over ledges, and swim. This takes basically all challenge out of environmental navigation, because Oatchi can ease through any terrain. Oatchi can also "rush" things, which sends all of your pikmin at an enemy or object at once, taking care of it in less than a second. The upgrades also trivialize things, as they are cheap to buy and grant immunity to elements for the player and Oatchi. Items are also extremely powerful, as bombs are dirt cheap and can take things down with ease. The rewind feature is an option in the pause menu that can be activated at any point in time that will take the player back to a point in time. The game encourages the player to use this, and it is good for when tons of pikmin die in mass, but it kind of takes away the whole point of growing pikmin to begin with. Granted, these things can just be ignored if you choose, but it's still weird game design.
While this game is packed with content, taking 25-30 hours to fully complete, I don't know if I could call all that content good. The main areas are pretty good, as stated before, but the dungeons where you spend most of your time are not so much. They're still decent and throw some interesting design at the player, but I'd be lying if I said nearly every single one didn't meld together in my mind. There's rarely any set pieces that stick out, with the exception being boss arenas. The Dandori Battles and Dandori Challenges weren't something I cared much for either, but the former is definitely better than the ladder. Dandori Battles are challenges where you face off against an AI player to earn more points in a set amount of time. They can be quite fun, and there's even a multiplayer mode where you can face off with another person. Dandori Challenges on the other hand are more hit and miss. They require you to earn a lot of points in a short amount of time, and the later ones can be strict as heck with their requirements. While this does technically deliver the difficulty the normal gameplay is missing, the rest of the game doesn't exactly prepare the player for these strict challenges, leading to frustration more than a fair challenge. I have a similar complaint for the nighttime missions where you face off against enemies while trying to protect various locations. The later of these missions give the player a colossal difficulty spike with the sudden introduction of a tough boss enemy to deal with on top of the tough normal enemies. While easy game design is not necessarily an issue, it becomes one when it utterly fails to prepare a player for a game's harder challenges.
OKAY ENOUGH NEGATIVE OVERANALYZING, I need to talk about something cool, like the collectibles. Pikmin 4 has three types of collectibles. Throughout the dungeons and Dandori Battles/Challenges, you find people who need to be rescued. You can bring them back to your main headquarters and they'll slowly fill up the area. They'll also give the player side quests, which mostly just grant currency as a reward for hitting certain milestones. Something else you'll find throughout the map are objects which will grant "sparklium" once acquired. These objects are super charming, as you can find everything from rubber ducks to GameCube controllers (shoutout to the Wave Race: Blue Storm reference they put in the game). The game even gives the player a catalogue of these items and allows them to examine and interact with them. It's seriously cool. The game has a similar system for its creatures, which I'd say is the third collectible. Defeating a creature will put them in the "Piklopedia", which the player can go back to and use to interact with the creature however they want, whether it be through observation or battle.
Story and Characters:
Pikmin 4 has a simple yet neat story. I won't mention too much about it since it's best left up to discovery, but you play as a member of a rescue team and set out to a planet that is totally not earth in search for castaways. However, there is something slightly sinister under the surface of things, all of which has interesting implications for the overall Pikmin lore.
As for the characters, they definitely went for quantity over quality with this game. I didn't find any of the new ones all that charming or memorable, and their unwhelming character designs certainly didn't help. However, I'd weirdly enough say the quantity makes up for the quality, as I did enjoy getting to see all the tons of new faces, and it is something fresh for the series. Olimar and Louis are still Olimar and Louis at least, and while the dogs are just dogs, I still thoroughly enjoyed Oatchi and Moss's presence. They were adorable.
Sound and Visuals:
The music quite good with some memorable tracks. The sound design is the real highlight though, in my opinion. It's just really well done, and there's a ton of sounds that are instantly iconic.
The visuals are great too. The environment design is excellent, the textures are good, and, as should be expected from the series, the creature design is top notch. As mentioned before though, I did find the character designs for the new characters to be disappointing. They were built off the game's character creation system's assets, and it just feels lazy, at least for the major characters.
Conclusion:
Though I think Pikmin 4 has some flaws in its game design, I didn't at any point find myself actually hating it while playing. These aren't flaws that every player is going to feel strongly about, and heck, they could even go unnoticed. Pikmin 4 is ultimately a fine game with plenty of good going for it. You'll especially have a great time with it if you're looking for a more chilled out experience... okay, maybe "chilled out" isn't the right word for a Pikmin game... but still. I'd recommend checking it out if it sounds fun.
Gameplay:
Pikmin 4 is a real-time strategy game where you build an army of funny little guys called pikmin to throw at your enemies and carry things around for you. There's multiple kinds of pikmin with different functions, and the game is filled with small puzzles designed around that fact. This game also gives you a dog companion named Oatchi who can also fight and carry things, but can also be ridden on to traverse terrain that can't be navigated on foot. He can be played on his own as well, able to command pikmin just like the player character. The gameplay loop sees you navigating a large area, searching for treasure, fighting enemies, and exploring dungeons in order to collect enough "sparklium" or rescue enough people to move on in the game. The player has limited time in each day to do this, as when the night comes, all pikmin left outside the base will perish. Time doesn't pass in dungeons though, which is where most of the player's time will be spent. There also isn't a limit on how many days can be spent in an area. It can make the day cycle feel arbitrary, but luckily, at the start of every new day, you begin in an area where you can stock up on items, upgrade Oatchi, and gather side quests.
Level and creature design is pretty good in Pikmin 4. It was amazing to get to explore these creative and sprawling open areas with full control over the camera for the first time in the series. There's lots of neat places to find, cool enemies to fight, and certainly no shortage of collectibles. However, despite all the game has to offer, I found it to be kind of boring. While the game's not mindlessly easy, I still find that it lacks a lot of challenge and actual need for strategy. The lack of any real time pressure is part of this, but the easiness comes mostly from Oatchi, the items/upgrades, and the rewind feature. Oatchi can carry pikmin on his back, jump over ledges, and swim. This takes basically all challenge out of environmental navigation, because Oatchi can ease through any terrain. Oatchi can also "rush" things, which sends all of your pikmin at an enemy or object at once, taking care of it in less than a second. The upgrades also trivialize things, as they are cheap to buy and grant immunity to elements for the player and Oatchi. Items are also extremely powerful, as bombs are dirt cheap and can take things down with ease. The rewind feature is an option in the pause menu that can be activated at any point in time that will take the player back to a point in time. The game encourages the player to use this, and it is good for when tons of pikmin die in mass, but it kind of takes away the whole point of growing pikmin to begin with. Granted, these things can just be ignored if you choose, but it's still weird game design.
While this game is packed with content, taking 25-30 hours to fully complete, I don't know if I could call all that content good. The main areas are pretty good, as stated before, but the dungeons where you spend most of your time are not so much. They're still decent and throw some interesting design at the player, but I'd be lying if I said nearly every single one didn't meld together in my mind. There's rarely any set pieces that stick out, with the exception being boss arenas. The Dandori Battles and Dandori Challenges weren't something I cared much for either, but the former is definitely better than the ladder. Dandori Battles are challenges where you face off against an AI player to earn more points in a set amount of time. They can be quite fun, and there's even a multiplayer mode where you can face off with another person. Dandori Challenges on the other hand are more hit and miss. They require you to earn a lot of points in a short amount of time, and the later ones can be strict as heck with their requirements. While this does technically deliver the difficulty the normal gameplay is missing, the rest of the game doesn't exactly prepare the player for these strict challenges, leading to frustration more than a fair challenge. I have a similar complaint for the nighttime missions where you face off against enemies while trying to protect various locations. The later of these missions give the player a colossal difficulty spike with the sudden introduction of a tough boss enemy to deal with on top of the tough normal enemies. While easy game design is not necessarily an issue, it becomes one when it utterly fails to prepare a player for a game's harder challenges.
OKAY ENOUGH NEGATIVE OVERANALYZING, I need to talk about something cool, like the collectibles. Pikmin 4 has three types of collectibles. Throughout the dungeons and Dandori Battles/Challenges, you find people who need to be rescued. You can bring them back to your main headquarters and they'll slowly fill up the area. They'll also give the player side quests, which mostly just grant currency as a reward for hitting certain milestones. Something else you'll find throughout the map are objects which will grant "sparklium" once acquired. These objects are super charming, as you can find everything from rubber ducks to GameCube controllers (shoutout to the Wave Race: Blue Storm reference they put in the game). The game even gives the player a catalogue of these items and allows them to examine and interact with them. It's seriously cool. The game has a similar system for its creatures, which I'd say is the third collectible. Defeating a creature will put them in the "Piklopedia", which the player can go back to and use to interact with the creature however they want, whether it be through observation or battle.
Story and Characters:
Pikmin 4 has a simple yet neat story. I won't mention too much about it since it's best left up to discovery, but you play as a member of a rescue team and set out to a planet that is totally not earth in search for castaways. However, there is something slightly sinister under the surface of things, all of which has interesting implications for the overall Pikmin lore.
As for the characters, they definitely went for quantity over quality with this game. I didn't find any of the new ones all that charming or memorable, and their unwhelming character designs certainly didn't help. However, I'd weirdly enough say the quantity makes up for the quality, as I did enjoy getting to see all the tons of new faces, and it is something fresh for the series. Olimar and Louis are still Olimar and Louis at least, and while the dogs are just dogs, I still thoroughly enjoyed Oatchi and Moss's presence. They were adorable.
Sound and Visuals:
The music quite good with some memorable tracks. The sound design is the real highlight though, in my opinion. It's just really well done, and there's a ton of sounds that are instantly iconic.
The visuals are great too. The environment design is excellent, the textures are good, and, as should be expected from the series, the creature design is top notch. As mentioned before though, I did find the character designs for the new characters to be disappointing. They were built off the game's character creation system's assets, and it just feels lazy, at least for the major characters.
Conclusion:
Though I think Pikmin 4 has some flaws in its game design, I didn't at any point find myself actually hating it while playing. These aren't flaws that every player is going to feel strongly about, and heck, they could even go unnoticed. Pikmin 4 is ultimately a fine game with plenty of good going for it. You'll especially have a great time with it if you're looking for a more chilled out experience... okay, maybe "chilled out" isn't the right word for a Pikmin game... but still. I'd recommend checking it out if it sounds fun.
2017
Arms was my most anticipated game for the Switch back in the day, and I think that's pretty funny in retrospect because it's currently collecting dust in my game catalogue. I did really like the game, don't get me wrong, but it never had much staying power in my headspace, and that seems to be a pretty common sentiment.
Gameplay:
Arms is a unique 3D fighting game where you fight using really long springy, arms. The combat sees you and your opponent facing off at long distances, throwing punches back and forth and maneuvering around attacks. It's all a fun concept backed up by mechanics that lead to exciting battles.
Firstly, the control scheme is pretty good. Admittedly, I've never played much with the traditional controls, but the game allows you to take advantage of the Switch's motion controls and it is, in my opinion, the best way to play the game. It's like boxing in Wii Sports after drinking two cans of Gfuel. Secondly, the moveset is simple but expanded upon in interesting ways. Punching and grabbing are your only real offensive options, but there's a lot to them. Punches/grabs can be shot straight forward or in a curve, allowing for maneuverability around objects. There's also a plethora of different kinds of fists to choose from that will effect the range and damage of punches. It allows for experimentation, but more than likely a player will find what they like a stick to it. Thirdly, the variety in stage design gives the players some interesting things to work with. Whether it be something like jump pads or just weird layouts, the stages keep players on their toes by making them adjust their approaches to punching and dodging. Lastly, the characters. There's a decent variety of characters to choose from that have their own attributes you can take advantage of. They each start with their own unique set of fists too, though each character's arsenal can be expanded through a mini game.
While the mechanics are solid, there's unfortunately some issues that hold back Arms's staying power. Firstly, while I've never touched the online aspect of the game, I'd have to imagine that the lack of updates and new content being added had to really hurt the replayability in that regard. Secondly, I felt like the game had a low skill ceiling. Despite the attempt to add variety and experimentation through stage layouts, fist types, and character abilities, things get repetitive quick. There's just not enough keeping battles from playing out the same way every time. The game really could have used something extra in its combat, whether that be more moves, more environmental interactions, or maybe even the addition of items that could be picked up, I dunno. Thirdly, the arcade mode is disappointing. Arms gives hints of some really cool world-building through its characters and presentation, but the game's main singleplayer mode is just a standard series of matches with nothing interesting going on. I cannot imagine how much more I would love the game if it had something as simple as an ending for each character.
Sound and visuals:
Sound design is good. Music is probably also good. Admittedly, I don't remember too much in the audio department. But hey, it's solid and that's what matters.
Arm's art direction is probably the objectively best part. The visuals are wonderfully vibrant and stylized. Stage designs are well-done and memorable, and the character designs are even moreso. I've had a Kid Cobra icon on my Switch profile for years and I have no plans to change it anytime soon (even if I rarely even acknowledge the game that it is from). This game still brings happiness to my artist heart even all these years later.
Conclusion:
Is Arms a game worth picking up in 2023 when so many good Switch exclusive games have come out? No. Absolutely not. Go play Splatoon or something. However, I do think it's worth remembering because it did have some pretty cool things about it. It probably won't ever happen, but I hope Nintendo will give this game a second shot someday because the concept is awesome and has a lot of potential. It was just missing that bit of extra effort in its mechanics and content to really give it that "wow" factor.
Gameplay:
Arms is a unique 3D fighting game where you fight using really long springy, arms. The combat sees you and your opponent facing off at long distances, throwing punches back and forth and maneuvering around attacks. It's all a fun concept backed up by mechanics that lead to exciting battles.
Firstly, the control scheme is pretty good. Admittedly, I've never played much with the traditional controls, but the game allows you to take advantage of the Switch's motion controls and it is, in my opinion, the best way to play the game. It's like boxing in Wii Sports after drinking two cans of Gfuel. Secondly, the moveset is simple but expanded upon in interesting ways. Punching and grabbing are your only real offensive options, but there's a lot to them. Punches/grabs can be shot straight forward or in a curve, allowing for maneuverability around objects. There's also a plethora of different kinds of fists to choose from that will effect the range and damage of punches. It allows for experimentation, but more than likely a player will find what they like a stick to it. Thirdly, the variety in stage design gives the players some interesting things to work with. Whether it be something like jump pads or just weird layouts, the stages keep players on their toes by making them adjust their approaches to punching and dodging. Lastly, the characters. There's a decent variety of characters to choose from that have their own attributes you can take advantage of. They each start with their own unique set of fists too, though each character's arsenal can be expanded through a mini game.
While the mechanics are solid, there's unfortunately some issues that hold back Arms's staying power. Firstly, while I've never touched the online aspect of the game, I'd have to imagine that the lack of updates and new content being added had to really hurt the replayability in that regard. Secondly, I felt like the game had a low skill ceiling. Despite the attempt to add variety and experimentation through stage layouts, fist types, and character abilities, things get repetitive quick. There's just not enough keeping battles from playing out the same way every time. The game really could have used something extra in its combat, whether that be more moves, more environmental interactions, or maybe even the addition of items that could be picked up, I dunno. Thirdly, the arcade mode is disappointing. Arms gives hints of some really cool world-building through its characters and presentation, but the game's main singleplayer mode is just a standard series of matches with nothing interesting going on. I cannot imagine how much more I would love the game if it had something as simple as an ending for each character.
Sound and visuals:
Sound design is good. Music is probably also good. Admittedly, I don't remember too much in the audio department. But hey, it's solid and that's what matters.
Arm's art direction is probably the objectively best part. The visuals are wonderfully vibrant and stylized. Stage designs are well-done and memorable, and the character designs are even moreso. I've had a Kid Cobra icon on my Switch profile for years and I have no plans to change it anytime soon (even if I rarely even acknowledge the game that it is from). This game still brings happiness to my artist heart even all these years later.
Conclusion:
Is Arms a game worth picking up in 2023 when so many good Switch exclusive games have come out? No. Absolutely not. Go play Splatoon or something. However, I do think it's worth remembering because it did have some pretty cool things about it. It probably won't ever happen, but I hope Nintendo will give this game a second shot someday because the concept is awesome and has a lot of potential. It was just missing that bit of extra effort in its mechanics and content to really give it that "wow" factor.
2010
Costume Quest is somewhere in my top 10 favorite childhood games, and I still really like it to this day. It's a game that captured my imagination as a kid, and I always found its atmosphere and tone to be cozy and fun. I used to have a tradition where I'd play it to 100% completion every October. It's one of my favorite games ever, and I think it holds up to this day.
Gameplay:
Costume Quest is a turn-based RPG with adventure game elements that takes place at Halloween. You play as one of two siblings, Reynold or Wren, and go on a mission to save the other after they are mistaken for a piece of candy by a candy-stealing army of monsters. You team up with two other kids and use the powers of your costumes to fight your way through the game's many encounters.
Your primary objective is to trick-or-treat at every house before you can move on, either encountering a normal person at the door or a monster which you must take down. I always loved (and slightly feared) the trick-or-treating aspect as a kid, as there's a tense build-up to the door being opened, leaving you to wonder if you're in for a trick or a treat. There's lot of things to do off the beaten path though. There's tons of hidden areas to find and side objectives to do. The main form of currency in the game is candy, which you can get by trick-or-treating or collecting in other ways. You mainly use it to buy stamps which give you special benefits to help you in combat. Stamps are also reward through side objectives. The main motivation for exploring, however, is the costumes. There's a good variety of costumes to collect and wear throughout the game. Some have certain applications for progression and puzzle-solving, but all have their own niches in combat that make them worth collecting and using. Costumes are constructed by finding three of their pieces scattered throughout an area. Once you get the pieces, the costume is yours and can be equipped onto any of your three party members at any time.
Combat is fun yet simple enough for a kid to understand. You can definitely call it "baby's first RPG", because it was certainly mine. It's a good system though. Everything is pretty straight-forward. Time that would otherwise be spent looking at stats and equipping gear is replaced with focus on team composition through swapping around costumes and equipping a stamp that would benefit a certain costume's niche. As for the battles themselves, they see your characters transforming into giant versions of what their costumes represent. For example: you wear a knight costume, you turn into a giant knight. The enemies do the same. For most of the battle, you'll be pressing a single button to initiate an attack and some extra buttons to boost its damage. After a couple turns, a meter will build up and allow a costume to use its special abilities. Some costumes unleash a powerful attack on a single enemy, some can hit multiple enemies, some will give buffs, and some will heal. This is where the team composition element comes in. There isn't much to do outside of that in battles though. Luckily, the combat stays entertaining through its enemy variety and set amount of battles. The game's also pretty short too, so you can rest assured that nothing will be overstaying its welcome.
Story:
The story isn't too crazy, obviously, but I do find it quite fun for what it is. Like I said before, it's basically about one sibling saving another sibling who has been kidnapped and also it's Halloween. There's a few fun twists though and some interesting characters here and there. I especially love the writing. It's very charming and I appreciated it even as a kid. There's uh... not too much to say outside of that.
Sound and visuals:
The sound design and music is pretty dang good, though the mixing can be a little weird at times.
As for the visuals, they're also pretty dang good. The characters in the overworld are cartoony and cute, which is humorously contrasted by the more detailed art style that the battles switch to. The environments are full of warm colors that really help to see the fall vibes. There's a nice variety in the settings as well. There's some really fun and creative designs all-around. I did always find the UI to be a bit underwhelming, but it's still fairly solid.
Conclusion:
Costume Quest is simply a really fun and charming game. Though it may be short, taking about only 5-7 hours to fully complete, it still manages to feel like a fulfilling experience thanks to its focused progression and meaningful side content. I don't think any other piece of media captures the fun of Halloween for a kid quite like this does. It is definitely a game I'd recommend, especially since it goes on sale for very cheap on Steam.
Gameplay:
Costume Quest is a turn-based RPG with adventure game elements that takes place at Halloween. You play as one of two siblings, Reynold or Wren, and go on a mission to save the other after they are mistaken for a piece of candy by a candy-stealing army of monsters. You team up with two other kids and use the powers of your costumes to fight your way through the game's many encounters.
Your primary objective is to trick-or-treat at every house before you can move on, either encountering a normal person at the door or a monster which you must take down. I always loved (and slightly feared) the trick-or-treating aspect as a kid, as there's a tense build-up to the door being opened, leaving you to wonder if you're in for a trick or a treat. There's lot of things to do off the beaten path though. There's tons of hidden areas to find and side objectives to do. The main form of currency in the game is candy, which you can get by trick-or-treating or collecting in other ways. You mainly use it to buy stamps which give you special benefits to help you in combat. Stamps are also reward through side objectives. The main motivation for exploring, however, is the costumes. There's a good variety of costumes to collect and wear throughout the game. Some have certain applications for progression and puzzle-solving, but all have their own niches in combat that make them worth collecting and using. Costumes are constructed by finding three of their pieces scattered throughout an area. Once you get the pieces, the costume is yours and can be equipped onto any of your three party members at any time.
Combat is fun yet simple enough for a kid to understand. You can definitely call it "baby's first RPG", because it was certainly mine. It's a good system though. Everything is pretty straight-forward. Time that would otherwise be spent looking at stats and equipping gear is replaced with focus on team composition through swapping around costumes and equipping a stamp that would benefit a certain costume's niche. As for the battles themselves, they see your characters transforming into giant versions of what their costumes represent. For example: you wear a knight costume, you turn into a giant knight. The enemies do the same. For most of the battle, you'll be pressing a single button to initiate an attack and some extra buttons to boost its damage. After a couple turns, a meter will build up and allow a costume to use its special abilities. Some costumes unleash a powerful attack on a single enemy, some can hit multiple enemies, some will give buffs, and some will heal. This is where the team composition element comes in. There isn't much to do outside of that in battles though. Luckily, the combat stays entertaining through its enemy variety and set amount of battles. The game's also pretty short too, so you can rest assured that nothing will be overstaying its welcome.
Story:
The story isn't too crazy, obviously, but I do find it quite fun for what it is. Like I said before, it's basically about one sibling saving another sibling who has been kidnapped and also it's Halloween. There's a few fun twists though and some interesting characters here and there. I especially love the writing. It's very charming and I appreciated it even as a kid. There's uh... not too much to say outside of that.
Sound and visuals:
The sound design and music is pretty dang good, though the mixing can be a little weird at times.
As for the visuals, they're also pretty dang good. The characters in the overworld are cartoony and cute, which is humorously contrasted by the more detailed art style that the battles switch to. The environments are full of warm colors that really help to see the fall vibes. There's a nice variety in the settings as well. There's some really fun and creative designs all-around. I did always find the UI to be a bit underwhelming, but it's still fairly solid.
Conclusion:
Costume Quest is simply a really fun and charming game. Though it may be short, taking about only 5-7 hours to fully complete, it still manages to feel like a fulfilling experience thanks to its focused progression and meaningful side content. I don't think any other piece of media captures the fun of Halloween for a kid quite like this does. It is definitely a game I'd recommend, especially since it goes on sale for very cheap on Steam.