Gigantic fantasy creatures are my kryptonite

An incredibly unique one-of-a-kind game that, upon release, showed me just how impactful video games can be and gave me a completely new perspective on them.

Trico is nothing short of a wonderful programming achievement and I can’t even begin to imagine what a pain he was for the crew. He truly feels like a living breathing creature and is undoubtedly the heart and soul of the game. He is also no where near as difficult to control as people claim he is. Just don’t spam 20 different commands and then expect him to know what you want him to do.

The only thing stopping my from giving this 5 stars is, like with all of Ueda’s games; the camera and controls are fucking ass sometimes. There’s so much grandiose in this game to look at; huge, towering architecture and majestic beasts, but most of the time you can’t cause you’re busy having a fight with the wandering camera. I at least understand the camera complications since big portions of this game take place in narrow corridors with a big ass dog-bird obstructing 80% of your view, so I can see why they struggled with this. The controls though I feel definitely could have had some quick reworking before release that would have made the experience a little smoother.

Overall a brilliant game that overcame development hell, with a truly emotional centre elevated by it’s outstandingly grand soundtrack, and an ending that is as heart wrenching as it is memorable. All these years later, it stays with me and still makes me weep. People were too hard on this.

Makes Breath of the Wild look like a tech demo.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of how the main story was presented with memories from the past, much like how Breath of the Wild did it. One of my biggest gripes with Botw was how 90% of the admittedly bare bones story has happened before you even press start. It’s not quite as prominent here, as there IS a lot more going on, but I was hoping for some of these events to be more present as you progress to make me feel more connected with the story. A few of the dungeons were a little disappointing as well. Better than the Divine Beasts, but still a bit lacking. I think these segments of the game would be greatly benefited by, ironically, being more restricted in layout like classic Zelda dungeons. Not everything has to be completely open. You can still have your cake and eat it by having a massive open world with limitless opportunities and then some BIG linear brain teaser temples that can’t be solved by cheesing your way around a puzzle. There’s definitely fun in that, but it does destroy any sense of difficulty. Linearity is good sometimes.

Other than that, this is a complete god damn marvel and is what video games should strive to be. Serene visuals, an intriguing story enveloped in mystery, a stunning soundtrack, packed to the brim with side quests of all kinds, and endless possibilities with incredibly fun and innovative gameplay. You’re only limited by your imagination. I feel that quite a few games get so caught up by their own obsession to craft a sophisticated story with complicated themes, that they almost lose their sense of direction and forget the core reason as to why we play games. It’s a nice change of pace to play something that is so purely and simply fun. For that is always what Nintendo priorities. Fun.

Falls short in some aspects for me presentation wise, but this is still utterly incredible and as along time Zelda fan, I had so, SO much fun with it. I don’t know if I’ll ever pick up Breath of the Wild again though with this game existing.

My 11 year old dragon-obsessed self would have lost their fucking mind over the final boss.

I wanted to love this so bad, but I just don’t. Which really frustrates me because I love Miles Morales’ as a character.

As awe inspiring as the visuals are, I really couldn’t get into the story this time and just felt uninterested by it. The villain, who’s name I forget so we’ll call him Troy Baker, was particularly boring when compared to the likes of Doc Ock from the previous game, who’s conflict with Peter was far more personal. Troy’s just some rich shill wanting to make money. As for the Tinkerer, who is a much more personal villain for Miles, it still didn’t really click with me, and I was left feeling close to nothing during her sacrifice at the end, which, again, frustrated me because I really wanted to like this. The writing feels different to the first, and not in a good way. I don’t know if they had a different team on this or what, but a lot of lines from characters feel unnatural and, I assume, unintentionally cheesy. Part of me feels that the first game almost doomed this one for failure from the get go due to how surprisingly great it was, so no matter what this game decided to do, I don’t think it could have really topped the previous.

The Christmas vibe is very cozy however and the web swinging does feel unparalleled with help from the PS5’s adaptive triggers. It’s so much more fluid than the previous game and Miles’ inexperienced flailing in the air makes it feel super fun and alive. I’d play this again just to swing around New York and take in the winter atmosphere if nothing else, and the inclusion of the low frame rate Spider-Verse suit is a very welcome addition as a massive fan of the movies.

An overdue return to form for the series. The story doesn’t really have that air of finality due to the way telltale panic-wrote their way through their games, but they definitely made the most with what they could afford here.

Character writing is really on point and the voice acting (as always with Telltale) is really great, with Violet’s VA being a highlight to the point where her voice is so rawly charged at times, her character model literally cannot match the energy.

The overarching plot is decent with some interesting twists here and there (even if you can see them coming, which you probably will) and it definitely feels more concrete that Season Two’s story, which felt very stitched together. Everything wraps up in a way that feels emotional and satisfying for long time fans who love Clementine, and to a lesser degree, AJ. Tears were shed. A nice soft bed end to a rocky ride.