Sar4h
1997
Fallout 1's age is hard to overlook. I couldn't even start the game at first and then once I got the game running in compatibility mode, selecting my monitor resolution would instantly crash the game. I won't blame the original devs for this, but I will criticize the now Microsoft owned Bethesda for marketing and selling a game in this state.
Luckily, there exists a mod that ports the entirety of Fallout 1 into 2, which I used for my playthrough. It includes a number of quality of life features, like having more than 10 save slots and easier inventory management. The ui is still not very intuitive and also fairly clunky, but you can get used to it, even though some elements must've already been confusing in 1997.
Fallout 1 shines when exploring the world. Everything feels cohesive, there's simply a great sense of place and realism. The wasteland feels brutal and the game mechanics emphasize that, although it certainly takes some getting used to. While the Bethesda games are always build so that a player going into the exact opposite direction of the main quest will stumble upon something interesting, players venturing into the wrong direction at the start of Fallout 1 will most likely be instakilled by a random encounter with super mutants.
Even later on and equipped with better gear, a single critical hit can instantly kill the player character. It's annoying, sure, but it also makes the world believable. The lack of quest direction works similarly: it's confusing when compared to later games, but then again, why would anyone know where to find a working water chip in a radioactive desert? The only time I was actually disappointed by the game's logic was when I encountered a second time limit, which unlike the earlier water chip deadline was hidden from the player.
While I did immensely enjoy the writing, characters, story, and possible quest outcomes, I found the combat pretty boring. It's turn based, but positioning is pretty much irrelevant since everyone uses ranged weapons anyway and there's no cover. All players can do is shoot at enemies and occasionally reload or use a stim pack. Other turn based RPGs offer deep mechanics and choices while Fallout 1's combat only made me wish for a speed up option.
All in all, playing through Fallout 1 was still a worthwhile experience. I don't think that I'll ever play it again, but getting to play it myself and finally see where the whole franchise started was great. Hopefully Bethesda will eventually release a version with better compatibility with modern systems, so others can experience the game without having to install mandatory mods.
Luckily, there exists a mod that ports the entirety of Fallout 1 into 2, which I used for my playthrough. It includes a number of quality of life features, like having more than 10 save slots and easier inventory management. The ui is still not very intuitive and also fairly clunky, but you can get used to it, even though some elements must've already been confusing in 1997.
Fallout 1 shines when exploring the world. Everything feels cohesive, there's simply a great sense of place and realism. The wasteland feels brutal and the game mechanics emphasize that, although it certainly takes some getting used to. While the Bethesda games are always build so that a player going into the exact opposite direction of the main quest will stumble upon something interesting, players venturing into the wrong direction at the start of Fallout 1 will most likely be instakilled by a random encounter with super mutants.
Even later on and equipped with better gear, a single critical hit can instantly kill the player character. It's annoying, sure, but it also makes the world believable. The lack of quest direction works similarly: it's confusing when compared to later games, but then again, why would anyone know where to find a working water chip in a radioactive desert? The only time I was actually disappointed by the game's logic was when I encountered a second time limit, which unlike the earlier water chip deadline was hidden from the player.
While I did immensely enjoy the writing, characters, story, and possible quest outcomes, I found the combat pretty boring. It's turn based, but positioning is pretty much irrelevant since everyone uses ranged weapons anyway and there's no cover. All players can do is shoot at enemies and occasionally reload or use a stim pack. Other turn based RPGs offer deep mechanics and choices while Fallout 1's combat only made me wish for a speed up option.
All in all, playing through Fallout 1 was still a worthwhile experience. I don't think that I'll ever play it again, but getting to play it myself and finally see where the whole franchise started was great. Hopefully Bethesda will eventually release a version with better compatibility with modern systems, so others can experience the game without having to install mandatory mods.
2016
The Xbox One's focus on TV over classical video games is widely accepted as one of the key factors that cost Microsofts the last console generation. Quantum Break almost feels like the embodiment of every weird idea Microsoft executives came up prior to the console's launch: It's a third-person-shooter that periodically interrupts its gameplay with TV show episodes detailing what the story's villains were up to.
In my opinion, the concept doesn't even sound that good on paper, and the execution is severely flawed. The live-action parts barely hide the lack of budget, with scenes often taking place in hallways, stairwells, and warehouses. The first episode is the worst offender in that regard, presenting the viewer with boring locations and offensively uncharismatic characters. Later episodes improve somewhat and the high profile actors manage to deliver on the acting side of things, but that doesn't change the fact that I only continued watching because the game expected me to.
Weirdly enough, the ingame parts look way better than the TV show. Setpieces are bigger and even lighting is improved. The TV show parts feel claustrophobic and held back in comparison. The game also already has a lot of slower paced narrative segments in its ingame parts, with lots of slow walking while listening to exposition and rooms upon rooms filled with text, video, and audio collectibles.
Unfortunately, Quantum Break doesn't manage to use all those narrative tools to create a compelling story. Things are happening, but between all the clichés and tropes (an evil corporation secretly plotting and taking over a city, never heard that one before) it's hard to find a reason to actually care about what's going on. Even worse, a lot of plot points have appeared in movies like Back to the Future or Terminator before, but where handled much better. Plus, the atmosphere is not nearly as thick as in other Remedy titles.
That leaves us with the actual gameplay. Puzzles are even easier than those in Life is Strange, consisting mainly of holding down a button or following a yellow cable. Platforming feels terrible. Jack will try to climb pretty much anything when you press the corresponding button, I'll give him credit for that, but a lot of the time he gets stuck on environmental objects or fails jumps necessary to progress.
Fortunately, combat is pretty fun. Jack doesn't have a lot of health, so relying on his powers is necessary to win. Those supernatural powers are all very loosely related to time (it's not a bomb or shield, it's time bomb and time shield) and feel powerful, especially when used against standard enemies. Mechanics never get too complex, but they don't need to for such a short game. There's very heavy auto aim, and since the game is clearly optimized for a controller, I'd recommend using one.
With the good and bad mentioned, that leaves us with the ugly: the game is not in a state that I would consider polished. The Windows Store version never received the latest updates, and even the patched Steam version still has major animation bugs. Reload animations dont even remove the magazine, and weapons teleport in and out of hands in cutscenes. Annoyingly, the final boss fight is an incomprehensible mess that covers everything in effects and even focuses the camera on areas players should run away from (making you run towards the screen).
By default, the game also uses horrible upscaling, rendering at two thirds of the display resolution with terrible results. While upscaling can be disabled in the settings, many of the other heavily featured post processing effect are mandatory, meaning the game often looks worse than it would without. Colors are washed out and greyish, it's just not pleasant to look at. The streaming quality of the cutscenes is also debatable. Aiming for streaming in a high resolution is great, but the stream starts buffering even on fast connections, with no option to download the TV show episodes. I also wonder how long the servers for this game will remain online - in a worst case scenario, half of the product will be missing in a couple of years.
Out of all the Remedy games I've played, Quantum Break was clearly the worst, and I doubt it'll ever get the sequel its ending set up. There's still Remedy DNA in here, but I have a hard time recommending the game over the studios' other works or other third-person-shooters like Max Payne 3 or Uncharted.
In my opinion, the concept doesn't even sound that good on paper, and the execution is severely flawed. The live-action parts barely hide the lack of budget, with scenes often taking place in hallways, stairwells, and warehouses. The first episode is the worst offender in that regard, presenting the viewer with boring locations and offensively uncharismatic characters. Later episodes improve somewhat and the high profile actors manage to deliver on the acting side of things, but that doesn't change the fact that I only continued watching because the game expected me to.
Weirdly enough, the ingame parts look way better than the TV show. Setpieces are bigger and even lighting is improved. The TV show parts feel claustrophobic and held back in comparison. The game also already has a lot of slower paced narrative segments in its ingame parts, with lots of slow walking while listening to exposition and rooms upon rooms filled with text, video, and audio collectibles.
Unfortunately, Quantum Break doesn't manage to use all those narrative tools to create a compelling story. Things are happening, but between all the clichés and tropes (an evil corporation secretly plotting and taking over a city, never heard that one before) it's hard to find a reason to actually care about what's going on. Even worse, a lot of plot points have appeared in movies like Back to the Future or Terminator before, but where handled much better. Plus, the atmosphere is not nearly as thick as in other Remedy titles.
That leaves us with the actual gameplay. Puzzles are even easier than those in Life is Strange, consisting mainly of holding down a button or following a yellow cable. Platforming feels terrible. Jack will try to climb pretty much anything when you press the corresponding button, I'll give him credit for that, but a lot of the time he gets stuck on environmental objects or fails jumps necessary to progress.
Fortunately, combat is pretty fun. Jack doesn't have a lot of health, so relying on his powers is necessary to win. Those supernatural powers are all very loosely related to time (it's not a bomb or shield, it's time bomb and time shield) and feel powerful, especially when used against standard enemies. Mechanics never get too complex, but they don't need to for such a short game. There's very heavy auto aim, and since the game is clearly optimized for a controller, I'd recommend using one.
With the good and bad mentioned, that leaves us with the ugly: the game is not in a state that I would consider polished. The Windows Store version never received the latest updates, and even the patched Steam version still has major animation bugs. Reload animations dont even remove the magazine, and weapons teleport in and out of hands in cutscenes. Annoyingly, the final boss fight is an incomprehensible mess that covers everything in effects and even focuses the camera on areas players should run away from (making you run towards the screen).
By default, the game also uses horrible upscaling, rendering at two thirds of the display resolution with terrible results. While upscaling can be disabled in the settings, many of the other heavily featured post processing effect are mandatory, meaning the game often looks worse than it would without. Colors are washed out and greyish, it's just not pleasant to look at. The streaming quality of the cutscenes is also debatable. Aiming for streaming in a high resolution is great, but the stream starts buffering even on fast connections, with no option to download the TV show episodes. I also wonder how long the servers for this game will remain online - in a worst case scenario, half of the product will be missing in a couple of years.
Out of all the Remedy games I've played, Quantum Break was clearly the worst, and I doubt it'll ever get the sequel its ending set up. There's still Remedy DNA in here, but I have a hard time recommending the game over the studios' other works or other third-person-shooters like Max Payne 3 or Uncharted.
The original version of the first Uncharted game was the first game I ever played on my PS3, back in 2017. I was fairly late to the party, having only played PC games before finally got a PS3 to check out all the exclusives I kept hearing about. As a fan of Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider, Uncharted was the natural starting point.
I'd love to say that I instantly fell in love with the series - except I didn't. I was under the impression that I'd get to experience a globe trotting adventure, but the game mostly took place on a single island with repetitive environments. The jungle Drake traversed didn't even look that great, didn't this come out the same year as the first Crysis?! The game's atrocious performance didn't help it's case either.
In hindsight, I was perhaps too harsh on the game. Knowing more about the PS3's particular architecture, I can now recognize Uncharted as the impressive game that it was. It's also a noticeable step towards the cinematic presentation Naughty Dog games are known for today, although still fairly reliant on video game tropes.
That's not to say the writing is bad, the opposite is the case. All three leads feel like fully formed characters, and none of them are stereotypically "good guys". Elena suprised me again and again on my second playthrough, for example when she remarked that she wishes she had her camera with her after finding the body of an impaled soldier. She even pushes Drake to continue the hunt for the treasure when he's about to give up, a very welcome reversal of the role women often have in these adventure stories.
The story is campy at times, which I quite enjoyed. Some plot points border on the supernatural, and I wish the insanity of fighting off zombie-like creatures with Nazi machine guns had carried on into some of the later sequels. I'm genuinely suprised the game still carries a Teen rating considering some of the content in the game.
Combat is much more enjoyable in this remastered version, mainly because of the jump to a more stable 60 fps (the original often struggled with reaching 30). It's perhaps not as polished as Gears of Wars' combat loop was on the competing 360, but still a lot of fun. Guns feel powerful, especially the shotgun and Desert Eagle. Both send enemies flying backwards in a hilariously over the top fashion. Melee combat feels underdeveloped in comparison, but is thankfully optional.
It is worth mentioning that Uncharted can be a pretty brutal game at times. I opted for the second lowest difficulty ("easy") and found the challenge mostly enjoyable, but I can imagine that on normal or higher, things look different. Enemies with laser targeting always kill in a single hit, and enemies carrying a grenade launcher also occasionally one shot me.
Climbing, the other half of the core gameplay, is fairly simplistic and linear. Some of the climbable ledges can be a bit hard to spot due to the heightened detail of the remaster, but it's almost impossible to get stuck due to the hint system. Nate's jump distance seems to vary depending on the set piece and it often feels like he's dragged towards ledges during jumps, making it occasionally difficult to judge whether he can reach certain spots. I've also had the game bug out on me at one point, with Nate repeatedly not grabbing a ledge.
Boosts in resolution and frame rate aside, the most obvious improvements of the remaster have to be the reworked environments. There are more plants, making the jungle seem more densely grown, and textures see resolution boosts. As for the negatives, the game's lighting is often flat, especially noticeable in cutscenes. Faces often lack self-shadows and seem almost waxen at times. The game does certainly look better when compared to the original, but it's far removed from from the likes of Uncharted 4.
All in all, I've had a fun time with this remastered version. The game is fairly short and the writing and shooting mechanics kept me engaged throughout. At the same time, the series has come a long way and the novelty the game had in 2007 has worn off over time, making its flaws more visible.
I'd love to say that I instantly fell in love with the series - except I didn't. I was under the impression that I'd get to experience a globe trotting adventure, but the game mostly took place on a single island with repetitive environments. The jungle Drake traversed didn't even look that great, didn't this come out the same year as the first Crysis?! The game's atrocious performance didn't help it's case either.
In hindsight, I was perhaps too harsh on the game. Knowing more about the PS3's particular architecture, I can now recognize Uncharted as the impressive game that it was. It's also a noticeable step towards the cinematic presentation Naughty Dog games are known for today, although still fairly reliant on video game tropes.
That's not to say the writing is bad, the opposite is the case. All three leads feel like fully formed characters, and none of them are stereotypically "good guys". Elena suprised me again and again on my second playthrough, for example when she remarked that she wishes she had her camera with her after finding the body of an impaled soldier. She even pushes Drake to continue the hunt for the treasure when he's about to give up, a very welcome reversal of the role women often have in these adventure stories.
The story is campy at times, which I quite enjoyed. Some plot points border on the supernatural, and I wish the insanity of fighting off zombie-like creatures with Nazi machine guns had carried on into some of the later sequels. I'm genuinely suprised the game still carries a Teen rating considering some of the content in the game.
Combat is much more enjoyable in this remastered version, mainly because of the jump to a more stable 60 fps (the original often struggled with reaching 30). It's perhaps not as polished as Gears of Wars' combat loop was on the competing 360, but still a lot of fun. Guns feel powerful, especially the shotgun and Desert Eagle. Both send enemies flying backwards in a hilariously over the top fashion. Melee combat feels underdeveloped in comparison, but is thankfully optional.
It is worth mentioning that Uncharted can be a pretty brutal game at times. I opted for the second lowest difficulty ("easy") and found the challenge mostly enjoyable, but I can imagine that on normal or higher, things look different. Enemies with laser targeting always kill in a single hit, and enemies carrying a grenade launcher also occasionally one shot me.
Climbing, the other half of the core gameplay, is fairly simplistic and linear. Some of the climbable ledges can be a bit hard to spot due to the heightened detail of the remaster, but it's almost impossible to get stuck due to the hint system. Nate's jump distance seems to vary depending on the set piece and it often feels like he's dragged towards ledges during jumps, making it occasionally difficult to judge whether he can reach certain spots. I've also had the game bug out on me at one point, with Nate repeatedly not grabbing a ledge.
Boosts in resolution and frame rate aside, the most obvious improvements of the remaster have to be the reworked environments. There are more plants, making the jungle seem more densely grown, and textures see resolution boosts. As for the negatives, the game's lighting is often flat, especially noticeable in cutscenes. Faces often lack self-shadows and seem almost waxen at times. The game does certainly look better when compared to the original, but it's far removed from from the likes of Uncharted 4.
All in all, I've had a fun time with this remastered version. The game is fairly short and the writing and shooting mechanics kept me engaged throughout. At the same time, the series has come a long way and the novelty the game had in 2007 has worn off over time, making its flaws more visible.
I didn't have a great time with Remake, so I was very surprised when I realized how much I was actually enjoying this Yuffie focused DLC. It fixes pretty much every single issue I had with the main game! Pacing is improved, the story feels more focused, and Yuffie's moveset is just so much fun. Even movement outside of combat felt greatly improved, and destroying chests with throwable shurikens was satisfying all the way through.
I didn't mind the removal of controllable party members, mostly because I didn't really enjoy playing as them anyway. Yuffie having a broad range of melee and ranged options from the start felt great, and only having one companion made the battles much easier to read, as the abundance of particle effects became a thing of the past.
Even though the DLC isn't overly long, it still managed to make me fall in love with Yuffie and her companion Sonon. Don't get me wrong, Cloud is a great character, but after 20 hours of him grunting, shrugging and acting disinterested I was happy to play as the more cheerful Yuffie. I even got pretty emotional towards the end, something the main game didn't really accomplish outside of one or two scenes. The soundtrack is incredible too and felt much more varied in terms of genre than the OST of the main game did, excellently complementing Yuffie's personality.
There are also a couple of side quests, but none of them managed to really grab my attention. Other players might have a better time with the RTS Fort Condor minigame, but I found myself quickly overwhelmed and the tutorial wasn't that great. Even tho I won matches, I wasn't sure what I did right, so eventually I just stopped bothering with it.
My only other point of criticism concerns the graphics. Don't get me wrong, the DLC looks great, but texture and model quality seemed to be slightly lower than in the main game. Considering that this piece of content was never released for the PS4 version of the game, I kept looking for areas or setpieces that graphically set Episode Intermission apart from the main game, and I just couldn't find anything that'd be impossible on the older generation. Even though I only played Remake on the PS5, this release strategy felt scummy to me.
I didn't mind the removal of controllable party members, mostly because I didn't really enjoy playing as them anyway. Yuffie having a broad range of melee and ranged options from the start felt great, and only having one companion made the battles much easier to read, as the abundance of particle effects became a thing of the past.
Even though the DLC isn't overly long, it still managed to make me fall in love with Yuffie and her companion Sonon. Don't get me wrong, Cloud is a great character, but after 20 hours of him grunting, shrugging and acting disinterested I was happy to play as the more cheerful Yuffie. I even got pretty emotional towards the end, something the main game didn't really accomplish outside of one or two scenes. The soundtrack is incredible too and felt much more varied in terms of genre than the OST of the main game did, excellently complementing Yuffie's personality.
There are also a couple of side quests, but none of them managed to really grab my attention. Other players might have a better time with the RTS Fort Condor minigame, but I found myself quickly overwhelmed and the tutorial wasn't that great. Even tho I won matches, I wasn't sure what I did right, so eventually I just stopped bothering with it.
My only other point of criticism concerns the graphics. Don't get me wrong, the DLC looks great, but texture and model quality seemed to be slightly lower than in the main game. Considering that this piece of content was never released for the PS4 version of the game, I kept looking for areas or setpieces that graphically set Episode Intermission apart from the main game, and I just couldn't find anything that'd be impossible on the older generation. Even though I only played Remake on the PS5, this release strategy felt scummy to me.
Despite not having played the original, I was still aware of the overall structure and a few important plot points. I also knew that Remake wouldn't be a 1 for 1 remake of the original, and is rather a mix of remake, reboot, and sequel centered around the first 4-5 hours of VII; in that regard, it's perhaps best compared to the Evangelion Rebuild movies. The game's storyline has been extended and another very meta plot thread has been added as well. Essentially, you're not getting Final Fantasy VII, you're getting something completely new.
Now, judging the quality of what you're getting is surprisingly difficult. Starting off with the positives, the presentation is one of the best you'll find in the entire RPG genre. Cutscenes have a movie like quality to them, and in-engine cutscenes are near indistinguishable from the few pre-rendered ones. Character models look incredible, particle effects are beautiful, and the world design is on point as well. Some low resolution textures have made their way into the ps5 version, but they're so rare mentioning them feels like nitpicking.
It's when the beautiful character models start talking that issues arise. The localization is surprisingly weak and suffers from what I can only describe as "dubbed anime syndrome": Lots of gasps, "huh"s, and "you guys". It doesn't help that the story is moving pretty slowly a lot of the time, mostly due to being being stretched out. A couple of nice additions can't hide that a lot of what's here is pure and simple filler. There's a lengthy section set in a sewer system, followed by a abandoned warehouse/junkyard section. Both have to be some of the most boring settings you can put in a video game, and you have to return to the same sewer section a second time later in the game.
I'm also not really fond of the additional story content centered around the whispers. I always found that everything about them was way less interesting than what was going on with the actual plot of the game. They also make the Remake, ironically, a bad starting place for newcomers, as some familiarity with the original's story is necessary to fully understand this meta storyline. I'm more fond of the other, more character focused, extensions. VII has always been beloved for its characters, so spending more time with them and getting to know them better was great.
Less great is the core gameplay loop itself. Ignoring a few inconsequential side quests that take place across slightly more open hubs, the bulk of the game is incredibly linear. In the game's best moments, the presentation and momentum of the story easily covers this up. In its worst moments you're running through a sewer and quickly realize that what you're actually doing is: beat up a few rats, walk down a corridor, climb a ladder, walk down another corridor, beat up a few more rats, climb down a ladder, go down another corridor. It's not just that it's boring, it's also that a lot of those sections take place in generic looking areas. Midgar as a setting offers so much, but too often Cloud and his companions end up on metal walkways or in linear hallways in concrete filled environments.
Combat keeps things from getting too dry, but there's still room for improvement here. The camera struggles occasionally, flying enemies are hard to track, and it's never quite as responsive as you'd want it to be. The amount of particle effects also makes it hard to see what's actually going on. Especially when fighting human bosses, sparks, lightning, and fire effects tend to cover up Cloud and his opponent, making players more or less guess who is currently beating up who. A lot of the enemies also have attacks that freeze or paralyze Cloud and while I can see that this was most likely supposed to encourage switching to other characters, it's not a fun mechanic in my eyes. Combining action gameplay with a tactical ATB like system was a great idea, but especially after playing Final Fantasy XVI the action side just feels lacking.
I know that my review sounds rather negative, but that doesn't mean that I hate Remake. I'm infuriated by it, but not because it's bad, rather because there's so much good here that I hate to see it dragged down by the bad. Most of my criticisms are more or less based on the decision to only remake the Midgar part of the game. Little is resolved here, almost nobody dies (because you're technically only 20% into the story), everything feels stretched and repeated. This game desperately needed to be cut down, and I don't think anyone would complain if the sewer parts were shortened or if Sephiroth had less of his cryptic but ultimately meaningless appearances.
Still, Remake got me hooked. I don't want to play it again any time soon, but I'm not done with Final Fantasy VII. I want to play the original game and once I'm done with that, I also want to play Rebirth. Remake made me fall in love with the characters, and by extension also the universe they inhabit. So even if I never touch Remake again, that's something I'll always be thankful for.
Now, judging the quality of what you're getting is surprisingly difficult. Starting off with the positives, the presentation is one of the best you'll find in the entire RPG genre. Cutscenes have a movie like quality to them, and in-engine cutscenes are near indistinguishable from the few pre-rendered ones. Character models look incredible, particle effects are beautiful, and the world design is on point as well. Some low resolution textures have made their way into the ps5 version, but they're so rare mentioning them feels like nitpicking.
It's when the beautiful character models start talking that issues arise. The localization is surprisingly weak and suffers from what I can only describe as "dubbed anime syndrome": Lots of gasps, "huh"s, and "you guys". It doesn't help that the story is moving pretty slowly a lot of the time, mostly due to being being stretched out. A couple of nice additions can't hide that a lot of what's here is pure and simple filler. There's a lengthy section set in a sewer system, followed by a abandoned warehouse/junkyard section. Both have to be some of the most boring settings you can put in a video game, and you have to return to the same sewer section a second time later in the game.
I'm also not really fond of the additional story content centered around the whispers. I always found that everything about them was way less interesting than what was going on with the actual plot of the game. They also make the Remake, ironically, a bad starting place for newcomers, as some familiarity with the original's story is necessary to fully understand this meta storyline. I'm more fond of the other, more character focused, extensions. VII has always been beloved for its characters, so spending more time with them and getting to know them better was great.
Less great is the core gameplay loop itself. Ignoring a few inconsequential side quests that take place across slightly more open hubs, the bulk of the game is incredibly linear. In the game's best moments, the presentation and momentum of the story easily covers this up. In its worst moments you're running through a sewer and quickly realize that what you're actually doing is: beat up a few rats, walk down a corridor, climb a ladder, walk down another corridor, beat up a few more rats, climb down a ladder, go down another corridor. It's not just that it's boring, it's also that a lot of those sections take place in generic looking areas. Midgar as a setting offers so much, but too often Cloud and his companions end up on metal walkways or in linear hallways in concrete filled environments.
Combat keeps things from getting too dry, but there's still room for improvement here. The camera struggles occasionally, flying enemies are hard to track, and it's never quite as responsive as you'd want it to be. The amount of particle effects also makes it hard to see what's actually going on. Especially when fighting human bosses, sparks, lightning, and fire effects tend to cover up Cloud and his opponent, making players more or less guess who is currently beating up who. A lot of the enemies also have attacks that freeze or paralyze Cloud and while I can see that this was most likely supposed to encourage switching to other characters, it's not a fun mechanic in my eyes. Combining action gameplay with a tactical ATB like system was a great idea, but especially after playing Final Fantasy XVI the action side just feels lacking.
I know that my review sounds rather negative, but that doesn't mean that I hate Remake. I'm infuriated by it, but not because it's bad, rather because there's so much good here that I hate to see it dragged down by the bad. Most of my criticisms are more or less based on the decision to only remake the Midgar part of the game. Little is resolved here, almost nobody dies (because you're technically only 20% into the story), everything feels stretched and repeated. This game desperately needed to be cut down, and I don't think anyone would complain if the sewer parts were shortened or if Sephiroth had less of his cryptic but ultimately meaningless appearances.
Still, Remake got me hooked. I don't want to play it again any time soon, but I'm not done with Final Fantasy VII. I want to play the original game and once I'm done with that, I also want to play Rebirth. Remake made me fall in love with the characters, and by extension also the universe they inhabit. So even if I never touch Remake again, that's something I'll always be thankful for.
A terrible release all around. The core gameplay is still fun, but that's due to the work Pandemic did 20+ years ago. All Aspyr did was AI upscale the textures, add a few reflections to surfaces, and port former Xbox exclusive content to PC. Unfortunately, they screwed up nearly all of this. Thanks to the new textures, the game now requires 60 GB of storage space - that's 10 GB more than the 2015 Battlefront with all DLCs requires! Additionally, the new reflections look weirldy out of place in most locations.
Battlefront 2 now uses the menus of the console versions which look better, but also cut some of the more advanced functions of the original PC version. Multiplayer is straight up awful, even before you get to the gameplay part. The quick match functionality tries to connect you to password protected servers, meanwhile the server browser tended to not load at all for me most of the time.
There are bugs and issues no matter where you look - keep in mind I found everything I list here in less than an hour of playtime. Certain guns clip through the screen, cutscenes show heavy artifacting, even the movie clips that loop in the menu backgrounds are compressed to hell and back. Oh, and sometimes the game will just produce an ear shattering audio error sound - hope you're not playing with headphones!
I have seen this called a cashgrab and I disagree, because a cashgrab would actually make Aspyr money. I have refunded my copy, and I'm assuming others will do the same. As of right now, I see no point in playing this over the originals. Both are available on PC with functioning multiplayer support and tons of mods. In a year or so, this Collection might be patched to a point where it's worth buying, but considering the blatent lack of competence Aspyr has displayed time and time again, I wouldn't bet on it.
Battlefront 2 now uses the menus of the console versions which look better, but also cut some of the more advanced functions of the original PC version. Multiplayer is straight up awful, even before you get to the gameplay part. The quick match functionality tries to connect you to password protected servers, meanwhile the server browser tended to not load at all for me most of the time.
There are bugs and issues no matter where you look - keep in mind I found everything I list here in less than an hour of playtime. Certain guns clip through the screen, cutscenes show heavy artifacting, even the movie clips that loop in the menu backgrounds are compressed to hell and back. Oh, and sometimes the game will just produce an ear shattering audio error sound - hope you're not playing with headphones!
I have seen this called a cashgrab and I disagree, because a cashgrab would actually make Aspyr money. I have refunded my copy, and I'm assuming others will do the same. As of right now, I see no point in playing this over the originals. Both are available on PC with functioning multiplayer support and tons of mods. In a year or so, this Collection might be patched to a point where it's worth buying, but considering the blatent lack of competence Aspyr has displayed time and time again, I wouldn't bet on it.
Metroid Prime Remastered is a perfect remaster of a very flawed game. It's one of the best looking games on the Switch, with gorgeous environmental design and beautifully reworked lighting and effects. The low texture resolution is pretty much the only complaint to make at this point, and it's a very minor one. Overall image quality is sharp and the game runs without any fps drops. Compared to the original, Prime now has a 16:9 widescreen resolution and a variety of reworked control option. I chose the default control scheme with gyro aiming and had a serviceable experience, although swapping between beams (essentially the different weapons in Prime) felt somewhat clunky and unresponsive at times.
I mentioned above that I consider this to be a flawed game, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad experience. There's much to enjoy here, and it's unfortunate that Metroid Prime never became as genre defining as the 2D Metroids were. Excluding the other Prime games, there are simply no shooters like this. Metroid Prime values exploration and atmosphere over combat and quick reflexes. You can go through entire areas without encountering the default humanoid shooty enemies that are the standard throughout the shooter genre. When you eventually end up in a confrontation with either the local wildlife or space pirates, positioning and choice of beam type are always more important than the act of aiming.
The moment I felt the game was truly special was when I unlocked a new weapon and, instead of contemplating its effectiveness against enemies, I thought about all the areas I could now access. As cliché as it might sound, the game truly makes you feel like it's you alone, tasked with exploring this alien planet with its ruined civilization.
Unfortunately, the game does have a few issues. On the one hand, I think the developers choosing not to implement too many quality of life changes is commendable. For example, implementing fast travel would have destroyed the feeling of an interconnected world without loading screens. On the other hand, I'd hoped for at least some kind of autosave. Some might argue that autosaves would hurt the game's intended difficulty, but I think a one time continue point similar to the Dark Souls save system would've worked well here. The Switch is a portable console, and losing up to 30 minutes because you had to stop your play session or decided to play something else can be frustrating.
Even worse are the games final 2-3 hours. Space pirates and Metroids become the primary enemy type to fight, and neither are especially fun to face off against. Players will also encounter more and more platforming segments, which aren't the games strongest mechanic either. And then, just when you're about ready to face the final bosses with all your upgrades, you need to backtrack through all the game's areas to collect 12 artefacts, grinding the games pacing to a screeching halt. At this point, a lot of players will feel compelled to pick up a guide, which isn't exactly great for a game focused on exploration.
My frustration culminated in a room right before the final boss. The room consisted of a platforming section players had to traverse whilst being attacked by flying enemies. If you miss a platform, you fall down and have to start over again. If you collide with one of the flying enemies, you most likely fall down and have to start over again. If one of the enemies latches onto you, your screen gets distorted, you most likely miss your platform, fall down, and have to start over again. Now for the real fun part: even if you somehow manage to not fall down when an enemy latches on to you, the only way to get rid of them is to turn into a ball and detonate a bomb (it makes more sense in context, bear with me). However, detonating said bomb does not only get rid of the enemy, it will also catapult you in the air, and can easily make you roll of the platform once you fall down, leading to you having to restart all over again.
I know, this sounds like complaining for the sake of complaining, but I just had less and less fun the longer I played, and those last 2-3 hours were the one point pretty much everyone criticized the original game for. Before those, I had considered the game to be essentially perfect, and I'm somewhat sad that I can't fully recommend Prime Remastered because of it. That being said, I still believe that every fan of the fps genre should at least try the game for themselves, if only to see what the genre is truly capable of.
I mentioned above that I consider this to be a flawed game, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad experience. There's much to enjoy here, and it's unfortunate that Metroid Prime never became as genre defining as the 2D Metroids were. Excluding the other Prime games, there are simply no shooters like this. Metroid Prime values exploration and atmosphere over combat and quick reflexes. You can go through entire areas without encountering the default humanoid shooty enemies that are the standard throughout the shooter genre. When you eventually end up in a confrontation with either the local wildlife or space pirates, positioning and choice of beam type are always more important than the act of aiming.
The moment I felt the game was truly special was when I unlocked a new weapon and, instead of contemplating its effectiveness against enemies, I thought about all the areas I could now access. As cliché as it might sound, the game truly makes you feel like it's you alone, tasked with exploring this alien planet with its ruined civilization.
Unfortunately, the game does have a few issues. On the one hand, I think the developers choosing not to implement too many quality of life changes is commendable. For example, implementing fast travel would have destroyed the feeling of an interconnected world without loading screens. On the other hand, I'd hoped for at least some kind of autosave. Some might argue that autosaves would hurt the game's intended difficulty, but I think a one time continue point similar to the Dark Souls save system would've worked well here. The Switch is a portable console, and losing up to 30 minutes because you had to stop your play session or decided to play something else can be frustrating.
Even worse are the games final 2-3 hours. Space pirates and Metroids become the primary enemy type to fight, and neither are especially fun to face off against. Players will also encounter more and more platforming segments, which aren't the games strongest mechanic either. And then, just when you're about ready to face the final bosses with all your upgrades, you need to backtrack through all the game's areas to collect 12 artefacts, grinding the games pacing to a screeching halt. At this point, a lot of players will feel compelled to pick up a guide, which isn't exactly great for a game focused on exploration.
My frustration culminated in a room right before the final boss. The room consisted of a platforming section players had to traverse whilst being attacked by flying enemies. If you miss a platform, you fall down and have to start over again. If you collide with one of the flying enemies, you most likely fall down and have to start over again. If one of the enemies latches onto you, your screen gets distorted, you most likely miss your platform, fall down, and have to start over again. Now for the real fun part: even if you somehow manage to not fall down when an enemy latches on to you, the only way to get rid of them is to turn into a ball and detonate a bomb (it makes more sense in context, bear with me). However, detonating said bomb does not only get rid of the enemy, it will also catapult you in the air, and can easily make you roll of the platform once you fall down, leading to you having to restart all over again.
I know, this sounds like complaining for the sake of complaining, but I just had less and less fun the longer I played, and those last 2-3 hours were the one point pretty much everyone criticized the original game for. Before those, I had considered the game to be essentially perfect, and I'm somewhat sad that I can't fully recommend Prime Remastered because of it. That being said, I still believe that every fan of the fps genre should at least try the game for themselves, if only to see what the genre is truly capable of.
2017
Sweetest Monster is probably the most disturbing game I've ever played. It's fairly light on nudity and despite what its Steam store page says, there's also not a lot of actual "fan service" here. It's more of a deconstruction of Visual Novel tropes, but it's also very much concerned with the way men often view women. Because of that, what might be considered fan service in other VNs just made me really uncomfortable here, and I'm fairly certain that's precisely what the author intended.
It's a fairly short game (2-3 hours depending on how fast you read) and I believe that discussions of the plot would only stray into spoiler territory, something a lot of other reviews here and on Steam seem to do. It's a compelling story that quickly pulled me in and it's best experienced blind, although I recommend to perhaps check trigger warnings since this game certainly requires a lot of them. There are no decisions to make in this one, but I didn't miss them at all and think the game is better off without them.
If I had to criticize anything, it'd be that some of the characters sound a bit unnatural when talking. I especially noticed this with the protagonist's wife, whose dialogue is just to sophisticated to pass as everyday speech. This gets noticeably better after the first 10-15 minutes, so I'm not deducting to much from the score. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this for fans of darker and more mature Visual Novels.
Edit: In the days following this review I have also completed the game's sequel, Sweetest Monster Refrain. Refrain is probably the most niche game I've ever played, with not a single walkthrough on YouTube, no discussions on it anywhere, and not even a page on backloggd (which is why I'm writing about it here).
Refrain starts out almost painfully slow, but picks up after the first third. From there on the game gets better and better, building up to a single brutal decision. Due to the initial slow pacing I'd rate it around 4 stars, so slightly lower than the first one. Nevertheless, everyone who liked Sweetest Monster (and can stomach more of the game's heavy subjects) should check out Refrain.
It's a fairly short game (2-3 hours depending on how fast you read) and I believe that discussions of the plot would only stray into spoiler territory, something a lot of other reviews here and on Steam seem to do. It's a compelling story that quickly pulled me in and it's best experienced blind, although I recommend to perhaps check trigger warnings since this game certainly requires a lot of them. There are no decisions to make in this one, but I didn't miss them at all and think the game is better off without them.
If I had to criticize anything, it'd be that some of the characters sound a bit unnatural when talking. I especially noticed this with the protagonist's wife, whose dialogue is just to sophisticated to pass as everyday speech. This gets noticeably better after the first 10-15 minutes, so I'm not deducting to much from the score. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this for fans of darker and more mature Visual Novels.
Edit: In the days following this review I have also completed the game's sequel, Sweetest Monster Refrain. Refrain is probably the most niche game I've ever played, with not a single walkthrough on YouTube, no discussions on it anywhere, and not even a page on backloggd (which is why I'm writing about it here).
Refrain starts out almost painfully slow, but picks up after the first third. From there on the game gets better and better, building up to a single brutal decision. Due to the initial slow pacing I'd rate it around 4 stars, so slightly lower than the first one. Nevertheless, everyone who liked Sweetest Monster (and can stomach more of the game's heavy subjects) should check out Refrain.
Look, I know what you're about to say: "Sarah, why would you play the switch port of a mediocre 10 year old mobile fps?" To be perfectly honest, I have a weak spot for bad fps campaigns; the kind of singleplayer that tries to copy Call of Duty and horrendously fails at it, creating a product so bad it starts to become entertaining again.
Modern Combat 5 is one of those games. It's sort of like a SpaceX rocket: you hope for the best, but you also know it's going to crash and burn. Modern Combat 5 includes every single fps cliché that the ps360 generation has produced: stupid AI, a nonsensical plot about stopping terrorists (that heavily borrows from Modern Warfare 2), and of course slow motion door breaches. All of this is accompanied by generic side characters and even more generic guns. There's also a multiplayer mode that resembles a more janky version of Modern Warfare's multiplayer, although I'm fairly certain that even in 2007 Call of Duty had more than two modes.
While I was generally entertained by the utter stupidity of the game's mission design and story, the technically aspects made finishing the game a chore. The Switch port has removed the pay2win mechanics, which doesn't make the game better, it just makes it less predatory. The frame rate is simply unacceptable for a console that can run the modern Doom games, and the game is filled with bugs. Even worse, the games difficulty curve looks less like a curve, and more like what a seismograph would produce during an earthquake.
I bought this game for 2€, hoping for a bad but entertaining game. While I did have some fun, due to the games technical issues, I unfortunately can't recommend this one to even the most hardcore fans of bad games.
Modern Combat 5 is one of those games. It's sort of like a SpaceX rocket: you hope for the best, but you also know it's going to crash and burn. Modern Combat 5 includes every single fps cliché that the ps360 generation has produced: stupid AI, a nonsensical plot about stopping terrorists (that heavily borrows from Modern Warfare 2), and of course slow motion door breaches. All of this is accompanied by generic side characters and even more generic guns. There's also a multiplayer mode that resembles a more janky version of Modern Warfare's multiplayer, although I'm fairly certain that even in 2007 Call of Duty had more than two modes.
While I was generally entertained by the utter stupidity of the game's mission design and story, the technically aspects made finishing the game a chore. The Switch port has removed the pay2win mechanics, which doesn't make the game better, it just makes it less predatory. The frame rate is simply unacceptable for a console that can run the modern Doom games, and the game is filled with bugs. Even worse, the games difficulty curve looks less like a curve, and more like what a seismograph would produce during an earthquake.
I bought this game for 2€, hoping for a bad but entertaining game. While I did have some fun, due to the games technical issues, I unfortunately can't recommend this one to even the most hardcore fans of bad games.
2024
I've been following David Szymanski's work since Dusk, and have since bought pretty much all of his games on or around release day. Looking at his work, it quickly becomes apparent that he has a knack for both horror and shooter design. The Pony Factory leans more into the horror side, although it still includes fps elements.
Pony Factory feels like a love letter to Doom 3. Back when Doom 3 first released, players could not equip a weapon and a flashlight at the same time, meaning they had to choose between being able to see or being able to shoot. The BFG re-release would eventually change that, but Szymanski seemingly enjoyed this dynamic so much that he made it the core mechanic of Pony Factory. The game's sharp shadows and heavily stylized lighting lend themselves well to this sort of gameplay, and some of the scares definitely caught me off guard.
However, it's important to remember that Pony Factory is not a big release. This is a 4€ game that regularly goes on sale and can be completed in less than an hour. There are some alternative gameplay modes, but nothing to keep players hooked for hours on end. The game reusing some of its levels has been criticized but I personally didn't mind it, especially since making a level that works well no matter from what direction you approach it is incredibly impressive. Ultimately, Pony Factory is a very good bite sized horror fps, and a must play for every fan of Doom 3.
Pony Factory feels like a love letter to Doom 3. Back when Doom 3 first released, players could not equip a weapon and a flashlight at the same time, meaning they had to choose between being able to see or being able to shoot. The BFG re-release would eventually change that, but Szymanski seemingly enjoyed this dynamic so much that he made it the core mechanic of Pony Factory. The game's sharp shadows and heavily stylized lighting lend themselves well to this sort of gameplay, and some of the scares definitely caught me off guard.
However, it's important to remember that Pony Factory is not a big release. This is a 4€ game that regularly goes on sale and can be completed in less than an hour. There are some alternative gameplay modes, but nothing to keep players hooked for hours on end. The game reusing some of its levels has been criticized but I personally didn't mind it, especially since making a level that works well no matter from what direction you approach it is incredibly impressive. Ultimately, Pony Factory is a very good bite sized horror fps, and a must play for every fan of Doom 3.
Considering all the games in the New Super Mario Bros. series we have today, Nintendo going 14 years without releasing a traditional 2D Mario game seems almost hard to believe. New Super Mario Bros. successfully introduces a 2.5D look to the series and despite the DS's relatively weak hardware, this style works surprisingly well. The game makes excellent use of color, leading to an easily readable game, even at the low resolution it shipped with.
NSMB manages to introduce new gameplay elements throughout the entire game, up to and including the final world. A lot of those are reused from earlier Mario titles, but that doesn't make them any less fun. Even 18 years after its release, the platforming holds up surprisingly well.
While I can only praise the core gameplay loop, I do have some minor points of criticism: Firstly, the game's difficulty is all over the place - during some worlds I was showered with extra lives, only to lose them all in the final world. In fact, it got so bad I even had to go back to earlier worlds to grind additional lives. The tiny controls of the DS line of hardware certainly don't help with the precise platforming the game often requires, making me wish for a re-release on modern platforms.
All of my criticisms might sound like nitpicking, but that only speaks for the overall quality of NSMB. Even though I struggled with the final levels, I got so captivated that I stayed awake until 4 am so I could finally finish the game. All things considered, I wouldn't call the first NSMB a must play, mainly because of its sequels existing on newer consoles. That doesn't change the fact that NSMB is one of, if not the best platformer on the original DS.
NSMB manages to introduce new gameplay elements throughout the entire game, up to and including the final world. A lot of those are reused from earlier Mario titles, but that doesn't make them any less fun. Even 18 years after its release, the platforming holds up surprisingly well.
While I can only praise the core gameplay loop, I do have some minor points of criticism: Firstly, the game's difficulty is all over the place - during some worlds I was showered with extra lives, only to lose them all in the final world. In fact, it got so bad I even had to go back to earlier worlds to grind additional lives. The tiny controls of the DS line of hardware certainly don't help with the precise platforming the game often requires, making me wish for a re-release on modern platforms.
All of my criticisms might sound like nitpicking, but that only speaks for the overall quality of NSMB. Even though I struggled with the final levels, I got so captivated that I stayed awake until 4 am so I could finally finish the game. All things considered, I wouldn't call the first NSMB a must play, mainly because of its sequels existing on newer consoles. That doesn't change the fact that NSMB is one of, if not the best platformer on the original DS.
1988
The first actual sequel to Super Mario Bros. is a bigger and more creative game. Every new world brings new gameplay mechanics with it and while boss fights are still repeated quite often, at least there's more than one now.
However, I'm not a big fan of the game's difficulty. How hard a game is is of course subjective and some players might enjoy the challenge, but some levels almost require memorization. The issue is that with the side scrolling perspective, enemies and traps often pop up too late to realistically react to, making some deaths feel very cheap. This can be somewhat mitigated on modern emulators with save states or rewinds.
I also have some complaints about the NES emulator included with the Nintendo Online subscription. I know that the quality of an emulator isn't the games fault, but as this is a paid service offered by the same company that published the game in the first place, I'm making an exception. The NES emulator heavily distorts the right border of the image, showing blocks that just enter the screen in the wrong color. This can affect gameplay as it makes reacting to dangers harder, and it's also just kind of embarrassing - the game deserves better.
If you have the chance to play this game on original hardware or on another emulator, you can easily add an additional star to my rating. Overall, it's an enjoyable game, but only for those willing to deal with it's brutal difficulty.
However, I'm not a big fan of the game's difficulty. How hard a game is is of course subjective and some players might enjoy the challenge, but some levels almost require memorization. The issue is that with the side scrolling perspective, enemies and traps often pop up too late to realistically react to, making some deaths feel very cheap. This can be somewhat mitigated on modern emulators with save states or rewinds.
I also have some complaints about the NES emulator included with the Nintendo Online subscription. I know that the quality of an emulator isn't the games fault, but as this is a paid service offered by the same company that published the game in the first place, I'm making an exception. The NES emulator heavily distorts the right border of the image, showing blocks that just enter the screen in the wrong color. This can affect gameplay as it makes reacting to dangers harder, and it's also just kind of embarrassing - the game deserves better.
If you have the chance to play this game on original hardware or on another emulator, you can easily add an additional star to my rating. Overall, it's an enjoyable game, but only for those willing to deal with it's brutal difficulty.
2011
Killzone 2's graphics had already pushed the PS3 to its limit, and while the result was impressive, the game had horrible input lag and a framerate that often dropped into the low 20s. When it came to developing Killzone 3, it seems like Guerilla Games prioritized performance and latency; if you know where to look, you'll quickly notice that some effects were visibly reduced. Concrete no longer dynamically crumbles under fire, and muzzle flash shadows are similarly pared back, to name two examples.
That's not to say that Killzone 3 looks bad, the opposite is the case. In some areas, like the sheer amount of environmental destruction, Killzone 3 might even be superior to some modern shooters. Most players won't even notice the reduced effects in the heat of battle, and the shift in technical resources lead to a significantly improved shooting experience. Thanks to the reworked controls, new aim assist, and absence of input lag, the combat feels better than ever. It might not be the Halo killer that Sony had hoped for, but it's still an excellent combat loop.
Killzone 3's campaign is fairly short, but makes up for it with the sheer number of unique setpieces and levels. Missions see players sneak through a jungle filled with strange alien plants, drive several vehicles, and even use a jetpack to fight in the air above arctic offshore rigs - and that's just part of what happens in the game's first half. The campaign feels like a playable sci-fi action movie, and I mean that in the best way possible.
While the gameplay is fun and diverse, Killzone 3 unfortunately falls short as the conclusion to the Killzone trilogy. All the Killzone games are fairly different in terms of writing, style, and overall themes. Killzone 3 doesn't feel like a natural follow-up to the second game, especially considering how the game immediately introduces two very important Helghast commanders that were never mentioned before, even though one of them is apparently responsible for basically every advanced piece of weaponry the Helghast use. The game ends with another cliffhanger, similarly to Killzone 2. The difference is that while the ending of Killzone 2 was built up throughout the game and felt like a subversion of shooter tropes, the cliffhanger in 3 felt like the second half of the ending cutscene was just missing. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't play this one for the story.
That's not to say that Killzone 3 looks bad, the opposite is the case. In some areas, like the sheer amount of environmental destruction, Killzone 3 might even be superior to some modern shooters. Most players won't even notice the reduced effects in the heat of battle, and the shift in technical resources lead to a significantly improved shooting experience. Thanks to the reworked controls, new aim assist, and absence of input lag, the combat feels better than ever. It might not be the Halo killer that Sony had hoped for, but it's still an excellent combat loop.
Killzone 3's campaign is fairly short, but makes up for it with the sheer number of unique setpieces and levels. Missions see players sneak through a jungle filled with strange alien plants, drive several vehicles, and even use a jetpack to fight in the air above arctic offshore rigs - and that's just part of what happens in the game's first half. The campaign feels like a playable sci-fi action movie, and I mean that in the best way possible.
While the gameplay is fun and diverse, Killzone 3 unfortunately falls short as the conclusion to the Killzone trilogy. All the Killzone games are fairly different in terms of writing, style, and overall themes. Killzone 3 doesn't feel like a natural follow-up to the second game, especially considering how the game immediately introduces two very important Helghast commanders that were never mentioned before, even though one of them is apparently responsible for basically every advanced piece of weaponry the Helghast use. The game ends with another cliffhanger, similarly to Killzone 2. The difference is that while the ending of Killzone 2 was built up throughout the game and felt like a subversion of shooter tropes, the cliffhanger in 3 felt like the second half of the ending cutscene was just missing. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't play this one for the story.
1985
Firing up Super Mario Bros. for the first time in 2024 feels less like playing a game and more like looking at a museum exhibit. Every few minutes, another now iconic piece of music, scenery, or enemy will pop up to remind you of the cultural impact this game had.
Unfortunately, the gameplay didn't really grab me. Mario's moveset feels fairly restrictive compared to modern titles, and the game seemingly tries to make up for that with its extreme difficulty. Perhaps it works better on an NES controller, but playing it with joycons on a Switch made me rely on the rewind feature to make it through a lot of the stages. While games like Celeste have the decency to respawn players at the beginning of a screen, Super Mario Bros. will completely reset the player's progress after a few deaths.
All in all, I recommend at least trying the game to see why it has its place in gaming history, but I suspect only hardcore gamers will make it through it without relying on save states or cheats.
Unfortunately, the gameplay didn't really grab me. Mario's moveset feels fairly restrictive compared to modern titles, and the game seemingly tries to make up for that with its extreme difficulty. Perhaps it works better on an NES controller, but playing it with joycons on a Switch made me rely on the rewind feature to make it through a lot of the stages. While games like Celeste have the decency to respawn players at the beginning of a screen, Super Mario Bros. will completely reset the player's progress after a few deaths.
All in all, I recommend at least trying the game to see why it has its place in gaming history, but I suspect only hardcore gamers will make it through it without relying on save states or cheats.
2009
God of War 2 improves upon its predecessor in nearly every department: cinematics are more detailed, setpieces are bigger, and combat and general controls were improved as well. Thankfully, there are way less platforming sections and box shoving puzzles this time around, and the QTEs no longer feel like they were designed to make you destroy your controller's circle button.
Unfortunately, the game suffers heavily from being the second installment in a trilogy. Concluding the story on the more powerful ps3 was the right call to make, but it also left God of War 2 with very little plot development to work with. Most of Kratos' backstory was already explored in the first game, so his character doesn't develop and he starts to feel like a one dimensional revenge machine. There's also a solid two hours in the middle of the game that feel like inconsequential filler and while the level design is never truly bad, it's also not engaging enough to keep players from getting bored.
Luckily, the game ends on a high note, with several impressive boss fights and an excellent setup for the third game. I just really wish it was shorter, as I don't see myself slogging through that middle part again anytime soon.
Lastly, a note on the ps3 port: as with the first game, the GoW collection presents the game in 16:9 widescreen, cutting off the top and bottom of the original 4:3 image in the process. I've encountered some minor glitches and a lot of performance issues (mostly due to fire and particle effects) during my time with the game. None of that is really game breaking, as the game is mostly running at 60 fps, but there are certainly better remasters out there.
Unfortunately, the game suffers heavily from being the second installment in a trilogy. Concluding the story on the more powerful ps3 was the right call to make, but it also left God of War 2 with very little plot development to work with. Most of Kratos' backstory was already explored in the first game, so his character doesn't develop and he starts to feel like a one dimensional revenge machine. There's also a solid two hours in the middle of the game that feel like inconsequential filler and while the level design is never truly bad, it's also not engaging enough to keep players from getting bored.
Luckily, the game ends on a high note, with several impressive boss fights and an excellent setup for the third game. I just really wish it was shorter, as I don't see myself slogging through that middle part again anytime soon.
Lastly, a note on the ps3 port: as with the first game, the GoW collection presents the game in 16:9 widescreen, cutting off the top and bottom of the original 4:3 image in the process. I've encountered some minor glitches and a lot of performance issues (mostly due to fire and particle effects) during my time with the game. None of that is really game breaking, as the game is mostly running at 60 fps, but there are certainly better remasters out there.