SlashWarrior87
Bio
I'm a gamer that loves Sonic, Call of Duty and many more franchises! I have a Ps5, Xbox Series X and Switch! Expect reviews to be posted here and hope you find them to be informative!
I'm a gamer that loves Sonic, Call of Duty and many more franchises! I have a Ps5, Xbox Series X and Switch! Expect reviews to be posted here and hope you find them to be informative!
Badges
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
Favorite Games
005
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
011
Games Backloggd
Recently Reviewed See More
Street Fighter 6 is a triumph in fighting games that I believe sets a new standard for 2D fighters by making it more accessible to players through its comprehensive settings. Capcom did a much better job with the launch of Street Fighter 6 compared to its lacking in substance predecessor Street Fighter 5 by adding World Tour which is a campaign that is like Yakuza in the sense that it does not take itself seriously, an open online battle hub, and the fighting grounds! It's the most amount of content a Street Fighter game has launched with.
World Tour: Like I stated, it's an open world Yakuza like campaign where you travel across the world. Now I make the comparison to Yakuza because it can get pretty wild like that game. You will be fighting refrigerators, cyber robots and many more crazy enemies. World Tour is basically a huge tutorial because it teaches you what Street Fighter is about and how to play the game. The main areas you will mainly be in are Metro City and Old Nyshall. While the art direction is really good its graphical fidelity is a bit dated. It may feel like it's a little too easy at the beginning but it picks up in difficulty and you will have to sharpen your skills. World Tour is what I started with in Street Fighter 6 because I thought it was a good way to help me learn the controls and about its diverse array of characters. However my one major flaw of this mode was I felt that the progression of levelling up your character was pretty fast at first and then it got slow. This ended up feeling like a Ubisoft game where I was just grinding continuously to get more strength by fighting other people on the streets. This is because I was not powerful enough to do the missions easily. I believe a little bit of grinding is okay but it got a bit much by the end of the game. It's also a very repetitive game so I wished there was more mission variety present. This made the length of the game longer then I believe it should have been. My next flaw is minor but I think that there should have been a level recommendation present here for the missions because I went into some of these missions thinking I was powerful enough and then it turns out I was not. For example in Chapter 13 when I went into the The Suval'hal Martial Arts Tournament thinking I was levelled up enough and turns out I was not. This mistake would not have been made if they had a level recommendation for each of the missions like Ubisoft does with Assassin's Creed. While not a big issue it would have been appreciated for me at the very least so then I know when I should initiate into a mission or tournament. The amount of depth the World Tour mode has is impressive and it took me 18 hours to beat the main story. There is a lot of replayability in World Tour because you can not only play around with the different styles from the masters, which I will go more in depth later there are also a lot of side missions even though these missions are very short they can be fun. I tried a few side missions and they were decent, like for example one of them you had to fight Retsu multiple times which was really short but was fun. The base game I already felt was good and these side missions aren’t substantial by any means but I was not expecting them in here so they are a welcome addition. Now the story of the World Tour mode is nothing special but it was engaging enough for me to be curious about the answer to what is strength? It starts off with you going to a master named Luke where you go to his basic training course on how to fight. I liked the concept of Luke being a mentor for you and role playing as a student of one’s training course. What I did like was the rivalry dynamic of your created avatar and Bosch where they are both students for the same master. I found myself engaged in meeting all the masters for them to end up being my mentors that guide me to finding the answer to strength. World Tour is a great addition to Street Fighter because fighting games tend to not have a lot of single player content but this mode added a lot to the single player experience since it took me 18 hours to finish it! That is pretty substantial.
Battle Hub: This is a traversable online battle hub where you take your created character from World Tour and you can either fight with your avatar, fight others online using the standard Street Fighter characters or you can even play classic Capcom games at arcade machines within this open hub which is really cool! For the most part the connection in matches is very good because they use Rollback netcode. It also has cross play as well so you can invite your buddy to a fight regardless of what platform they are on! Within the hub there are also cool callbacks to other Capcom franchises like cut outs of 8 bit Megaman and as well as some of the Street Fighter characters. Doing a Battle Hub in a fighting game is something I have not seen before and Capcom really have done a great job with making sure it's condensed but packed with things to do. They also made it have personality to not make it generic or dull looking but instead pleasing to the eye. Overall, Battle Hub is an excellent addition to Street Fighter because you can battle with your friends or other people with your custom avatar, play a rotating selection of classic Capcom games at arcade machines, and best of all make fun memories.
Gameplay: Now onto the gameplay which impressed me the most with Street Fighter 6 because of how accessible Capcom has managed to make it. Usually fighting games aren’t my thing because of how inaccessible or the amount of button combinations you need to remember in order to pull off really cool combos. Due to how accessible the game is I feel like for the first time in a long time I actually have a decent chance of winning against people and actually have fun! Street Fighter 6 has really raised the bar in accessibility for fighting games because they decided to make a modern control button scheme where instead of each button being assigned to a left punch or a right punch to make things more complicated they simplified it to make it easier for casuals to learn the controls. You can also map the buttons to your liking which adds to how accessible Capcom has made this Street Fighter entry! The classic controls are still there though for the people who prefer that control scheme. I’ve been mainly using Luke because he is on the cover of the box so I felt like maining him! The gameplay in Street Fighter 6 feels amazing because of how good it feels in my hand to play. Two new mechanics were added to Street Fighter 6 which are Drive Impacts and Drive Parries. To start, Drive impacts are hard hitting attacks that your opponent has to hit you multiple times in order for them to stop it from being executed. When your opponent is successful at breaking your drive impact you will get stunned and big damage can be taken so I would suggest pulling a drive impact when they would least expect it! Now onto Drive Parries which are special blocks where you can block your opponents attacks so you do not take significant damage when someone throws a punch or kick at you. When I was pulling off these drive impacts I felt like a badass doing them because of the animation that would happen when I pulled it off. However you do need to use these mechanics wisely because it relies on a meter so you cannot spam it. When your meter runs out you will have to wait for your bar to regenerate in order to use a drive impact or drive parry again. I like how the mechanics rely on a meter because then it cannot be abused by players and it will have to be used strategically. If there was one flaw I had to point out with the gameplay it would be how I feel that the grabs are a bit too overpowered and take too much of your health when they are pulled off. All in all, Street Fighter 6 has the best and most accessible gameplay I have seen in a fighting game because of how accessible it is and how it feels in my hand.
Fighting Grounds: The fighting grounds is the standard fighting mode where you will find all the modes like arcade, training, extreme battles and much more. Furthermore, another way Capcom raised the bar in making Street Fighter 6 accessible is the fighting grounds because it contains a training mode where you can train with any character against AI. It has a bunch of settings like for the parameters, simple training settings where it contains combo practice, anti-air practice and much more! It also has settings in the training mode for the environment, for the dummy AI, recording the practice dummy actions. You are able to save your training settings as well. There are tutorials in case someone does not know how to play the game or wants to learn a control scheme. These tutorials are meant to teach you all the mechanics and the stuff you need to know to be good at Street Fighter 6. The great thing about the tutorials is that they indicate if its difficulty is beginner, intermediate or advanced. It is truly one of the most comprehensive and in-depth training modes I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. Then there are character guides which show you how to do a character’s specific moves and combos. Each character has their own combo trial where you can practise their combos. Combo trials can be helpful for people that want to learn how to pull off those cool and stylish moves! If you don’t wanna go to the battle hub to start a match you can just matchmake from the fighting grounds menu which is nice for convenience. What is new to the Street Fighter series is that there are extreme battles. These have specific rule sets and winning conditions such as reaching a target score of 30 000 points before your opponent does by doing powerful attacks and completing optional challenges during the fight. Gimmicks are present in these fights as well where it can make the battle exciting! For example you can have a bull charging at random times during the fight so when he comes you have to make sure to jump in order to avoid getting run over. Adding dumb things like this makes the offline and online experience of these fighting games fun and enjoyable.
Conclusion: Most of the time fighting games do not tend to win me over but Street Fighter 6 absolutely ended up winning me over! With an incredible level of accessibility that helps new players like myself get into the series, A good world tour mode that taught me what Street Fighter is about, and with a solid amount of content at release this is arguably one of the best fighting game packages I have ever played. It is also the first time in many years that a fighting game has given me this much enjoyment since Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. Those two are absolute classics! Street Fighter 6 feels like Capcom took all that they learned from the failed launch of Street Fighter 5 and made a statement that this series is here to give Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1 a run for its money. I give Street Fighter 6 a kickass 9/10. I absolutely recommend this game if you were wanting to get into this series but felt intimidated by how hard fighting games can be to learn or are a veteran of the series there is something for you here! Street Fighter 6 is One of my favourite game releases of 2023 so far.
World Tour: Like I stated, it's an open world Yakuza like campaign where you travel across the world. Now I make the comparison to Yakuza because it can get pretty wild like that game. You will be fighting refrigerators, cyber robots and many more crazy enemies. World Tour is basically a huge tutorial because it teaches you what Street Fighter is about and how to play the game. The main areas you will mainly be in are Metro City and Old Nyshall. While the art direction is really good its graphical fidelity is a bit dated. It may feel like it's a little too easy at the beginning but it picks up in difficulty and you will have to sharpen your skills. World Tour is what I started with in Street Fighter 6 because I thought it was a good way to help me learn the controls and about its diverse array of characters. However my one major flaw of this mode was I felt that the progression of levelling up your character was pretty fast at first and then it got slow. This ended up feeling like a Ubisoft game where I was just grinding continuously to get more strength by fighting other people on the streets. This is because I was not powerful enough to do the missions easily. I believe a little bit of grinding is okay but it got a bit much by the end of the game. It's also a very repetitive game so I wished there was more mission variety present. This made the length of the game longer then I believe it should have been. My next flaw is minor but I think that there should have been a level recommendation present here for the missions because I went into some of these missions thinking I was powerful enough and then it turns out I was not. For example in Chapter 13 when I went into the The Suval'hal Martial Arts Tournament thinking I was levelled up enough and turns out I was not. This mistake would not have been made if they had a level recommendation for each of the missions like Ubisoft does with Assassin's Creed. While not a big issue it would have been appreciated for me at the very least so then I know when I should initiate into a mission or tournament. The amount of depth the World Tour mode has is impressive and it took me 18 hours to beat the main story. There is a lot of replayability in World Tour because you can not only play around with the different styles from the masters, which I will go more in depth later there are also a lot of side missions even though these missions are very short they can be fun. I tried a few side missions and they were decent, like for example one of them you had to fight Retsu multiple times which was really short but was fun. The base game I already felt was good and these side missions aren’t substantial by any means but I was not expecting them in here so they are a welcome addition. Now the story of the World Tour mode is nothing special but it was engaging enough for me to be curious about the answer to what is strength? It starts off with you going to a master named Luke where you go to his basic training course on how to fight. I liked the concept of Luke being a mentor for you and role playing as a student of one’s training course. What I did like was the rivalry dynamic of your created avatar and Bosch where they are both students for the same master. I found myself engaged in meeting all the masters for them to end up being my mentors that guide me to finding the answer to strength. World Tour is a great addition to Street Fighter because fighting games tend to not have a lot of single player content but this mode added a lot to the single player experience since it took me 18 hours to finish it! That is pretty substantial.
Battle Hub: This is a traversable online battle hub where you take your created character from World Tour and you can either fight with your avatar, fight others online using the standard Street Fighter characters or you can even play classic Capcom games at arcade machines within this open hub which is really cool! For the most part the connection in matches is very good because they use Rollback netcode. It also has cross play as well so you can invite your buddy to a fight regardless of what platform they are on! Within the hub there are also cool callbacks to other Capcom franchises like cut outs of 8 bit Megaman and as well as some of the Street Fighter characters. Doing a Battle Hub in a fighting game is something I have not seen before and Capcom really have done a great job with making sure it's condensed but packed with things to do. They also made it have personality to not make it generic or dull looking but instead pleasing to the eye. Overall, Battle Hub is an excellent addition to Street Fighter because you can battle with your friends or other people with your custom avatar, play a rotating selection of classic Capcom games at arcade machines, and best of all make fun memories.
Gameplay: Now onto the gameplay which impressed me the most with Street Fighter 6 because of how accessible Capcom has managed to make it. Usually fighting games aren’t my thing because of how inaccessible or the amount of button combinations you need to remember in order to pull off really cool combos. Due to how accessible the game is I feel like for the first time in a long time I actually have a decent chance of winning against people and actually have fun! Street Fighter 6 has really raised the bar in accessibility for fighting games because they decided to make a modern control button scheme where instead of each button being assigned to a left punch or a right punch to make things more complicated they simplified it to make it easier for casuals to learn the controls. You can also map the buttons to your liking which adds to how accessible Capcom has made this Street Fighter entry! The classic controls are still there though for the people who prefer that control scheme. I’ve been mainly using Luke because he is on the cover of the box so I felt like maining him! The gameplay in Street Fighter 6 feels amazing because of how good it feels in my hand to play. Two new mechanics were added to Street Fighter 6 which are Drive Impacts and Drive Parries. To start, Drive impacts are hard hitting attacks that your opponent has to hit you multiple times in order for them to stop it from being executed. When your opponent is successful at breaking your drive impact you will get stunned and big damage can be taken so I would suggest pulling a drive impact when they would least expect it! Now onto Drive Parries which are special blocks where you can block your opponents attacks so you do not take significant damage when someone throws a punch or kick at you. When I was pulling off these drive impacts I felt like a badass doing them because of the animation that would happen when I pulled it off. However you do need to use these mechanics wisely because it relies on a meter so you cannot spam it. When your meter runs out you will have to wait for your bar to regenerate in order to use a drive impact or drive parry again. I like how the mechanics rely on a meter because then it cannot be abused by players and it will have to be used strategically. If there was one flaw I had to point out with the gameplay it would be how I feel that the grabs are a bit too overpowered and take too much of your health when they are pulled off. All in all, Street Fighter 6 has the best and most accessible gameplay I have seen in a fighting game because of how accessible it is and how it feels in my hand.
Fighting Grounds: The fighting grounds is the standard fighting mode where you will find all the modes like arcade, training, extreme battles and much more. Furthermore, another way Capcom raised the bar in making Street Fighter 6 accessible is the fighting grounds because it contains a training mode where you can train with any character against AI. It has a bunch of settings like for the parameters, simple training settings where it contains combo practice, anti-air practice and much more! It also has settings in the training mode for the environment, for the dummy AI, recording the practice dummy actions. You are able to save your training settings as well. There are tutorials in case someone does not know how to play the game or wants to learn a control scheme. These tutorials are meant to teach you all the mechanics and the stuff you need to know to be good at Street Fighter 6. The great thing about the tutorials is that they indicate if its difficulty is beginner, intermediate or advanced. It is truly one of the most comprehensive and in-depth training modes I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. Then there are character guides which show you how to do a character’s specific moves and combos. Each character has their own combo trial where you can practise their combos. Combo trials can be helpful for people that want to learn how to pull off those cool and stylish moves! If you don’t wanna go to the battle hub to start a match you can just matchmake from the fighting grounds menu which is nice for convenience. What is new to the Street Fighter series is that there are extreme battles. These have specific rule sets and winning conditions such as reaching a target score of 30 000 points before your opponent does by doing powerful attacks and completing optional challenges during the fight. Gimmicks are present in these fights as well where it can make the battle exciting! For example you can have a bull charging at random times during the fight so when he comes you have to make sure to jump in order to avoid getting run over. Adding dumb things like this makes the offline and online experience of these fighting games fun and enjoyable.
Conclusion: Most of the time fighting games do not tend to win me over but Street Fighter 6 absolutely ended up winning me over! With an incredible level of accessibility that helps new players like myself get into the series, A good world tour mode that taught me what Street Fighter is about, and with a solid amount of content at release this is arguably one of the best fighting game packages I have ever played. It is also the first time in many years that a fighting game has given me this much enjoyment since Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. Those two are absolute classics! Street Fighter 6 feels like Capcom took all that they learned from the failed launch of Street Fighter 5 and made a statement that this series is here to give Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1 a run for its money. I give Street Fighter 6 a kickass 9/10. I absolutely recommend this game if you were wanting to get into this series but felt intimidated by how hard fighting games can be to learn or are a veteran of the series there is something for you here! Street Fighter 6 is One of my favourite game releases of 2023 so far.
Tetris Effect Connected is the most definitive version of Tetris that has something for everyone. It is such an impressive package that expands the Tetris formula in new ways and has so much replayability. If you are a fan of offline content, multiplayer or want an intense challenge it has all that in one package! While it may not be a masterpiece that is revolutionary it nails the ART and everything else so well. This game just feels like meditation when I am playing it since the art is so beautifully well done! Side note: I will not be covering multiplayer in this review!
Journey Mode: This is a single player mode for Tetris Effect Connected that has 27 stages to play from with an Beginner, Normal and Expert difficulty. The difference between these difficulties is that you’ll have to get more lines. Beginner is 30, Normal is 36 and Expert is 48 lines. I had so much fun with this mode because each level provided different art and music to vibe to! It just got me in zen mode. It took me about 10 hours to beat Journey mode, which is not a bad length even though I died a LOT! My favorite level has got to be Metamorphosis which is the final level you encounter. It was such a great level that you can tell they went all out because you have to get 90 lines and the music and art were on another level but all the levels were so good! There is also a theatre mode as well if you just want to look at the art for a level and listen to the music without playing. It is a nice addition if you just want to sit back and relax. The credits in this game were so exceptionally well done as well! I can tell they put lots of effort into that! Overall Journey mode was a blast to play with set pieces and music that will keep you relaxed and engaged!
Gameplay: The gameplay in Tetris Effect feels better then any Tetris game has ever felt! You have a new Zone ability where when you fill it up by completing lines you can make the blocks not move and can take your time. The completed lines will disappear after the zone ability is used which allows you to clear more than 4 lines at once in a Tetris game and get an Ultimatris. An Ultimatris is 20 or more lines cleared so if you get this then you are considered the best of the best! The highest I got was an Octotris which is 8 lines cleared. Zone is such a great addition to Tetris since it spices up the gameplay and allows for spectacular plays! Enhance games have then made it more accessible by showing what your next 4 blocks will be instead of 1 but this can be fine tuned to your liking. Then you can hold a Tetrimino to use for later if you do not get a block you like you can replace it with the one you are holding! There are many more accessibility features to allow people to thrive in Tetris Effect Connected! The gameplay has never felt better before and it is astounding how good it feels with the effects going nuts when you get a completed line. They can bother my eyes and be distracting though. The effects do make when you get a completed line so much more satisfying.
Effect modes: The effect modes are extra game modes in Tetris Effect Connected to add replayability. For example there is a marathon mode where you need to get the best score within a 150-line limit! Then there is Mystery where you try to survive as many random effects where some could be good and some bad! There are more of them than just the ones I mentioned! These effect modes add greatly to the replayability of the game because they are fun and can leave you with a challenge! I like that Enhance tried to give replayabillity to this iteration of Tetris by doing fun and gimmicky modes.
Conclusion: Overall Tetris Effect Connected is Tetris at its very best. Ever since Tetris was on the NES in 1989 it's been an icon in gaming! Enhance did such a great job with nearly everything in this game despite that the effects can be distracting and hurt my eyes! This is the best iteration of Tetris that has ever been made! Enhance did an amazing job with this game and it surprised me since I didn’t think it would be as good as it was! There is no doubt that any Tetris player will be able to find something here that they like! I give Tetris Effect Connected a 10/10! Tetris has been on a roll for me lately because I loved the movie now with Effect Connected being so awesome! The industry needs more calming and relaxing games like this and Enhance games knocked it out of the park! Cannot wait to see their future endeavours.
Journey Mode: This is a single player mode for Tetris Effect Connected that has 27 stages to play from with an Beginner, Normal and Expert difficulty. The difference between these difficulties is that you’ll have to get more lines. Beginner is 30, Normal is 36 and Expert is 48 lines. I had so much fun with this mode because each level provided different art and music to vibe to! It just got me in zen mode. It took me about 10 hours to beat Journey mode, which is not a bad length even though I died a LOT! My favorite level has got to be Metamorphosis which is the final level you encounter. It was such a great level that you can tell they went all out because you have to get 90 lines and the music and art were on another level but all the levels were so good! There is also a theatre mode as well if you just want to look at the art for a level and listen to the music without playing. It is a nice addition if you just want to sit back and relax. The credits in this game were so exceptionally well done as well! I can tell they put lots of effort into that! Overall Journey mode was a blast to play with set pieces and music that will keep you relaxed and engaged!
Gameplay: The gameplay in Tetris Effect feels better then any Tetris game has ever felt! You have a new Zone ability where when you fill it up by completing lines you can make the blocks not move and can take your time. The completed lines will disappear after the zone ability is used which allows you to clear more than 4 lines at once in a Tetris game and get an Ultimatris. An Ultimatris is 20 or more lines cleared so if you get this then you are considered the best of the best! The highest I got was an Octotris which is 8 lines cleared. Zone is such a great addition to Tetris since it spices up the gameplay and allows for spectacular plays! Enhance games have then made it more accessible by showing what your next 4 blocks will be instead of 1 but this can be fine tuned to your liking. Then you can hold a Tetrimino to use for later if you do not get a block you like you can replace it with the one you are holding! There are many more accessibility features to allow people to thrive in Tetris Effect Connected! The gameplay has never felt better before and it is astounding how good it feels with the effects going nuts when you get a completed line. They can bother my eyes and be distracting though. The effects do make when you get a completed line so much more satisfying.
Effect modes: The effect modes are extra game modes in Tetris Effect Connected to add replayability. For example there is a marathon mode where you need to get the best score within a 150-line limit! Then there is Mystery where you try to survive as many random effects where some could be good and some bad! There are more of them than just the ones I mentioned! These effect modes add greatly to the replayability of the game because they are fun and can leave you with a challenge! I like that Enhance tried to give replayabillity to this iteration of Tetris by doing fun and gimmicky modes.
Conclusion: Overall Tetris Effect Connected is Tetris at its very best. Ever since Tetris was on the NES in 1989 it's been an icon in gaming! Enhance did such a great job with nearly everything in this game despite that the effects can be distracting and hurt my eyes! This is the best iteration of Tetris that has ever been made! Enhance did an amazing job with this game and it surprised me since I didn’t think it would be as good as it was! There is no doubt that any Tetris player will be able to find something here that they like! I give Tetris Effect Connected a 10/10! Tetris has been on a roll for me lately because I loved the movie now with Effect Connected being so awesome! The industry needs more calming and relaxing games like this and Enhance games knocked it out of the park! Cannot wait to see their future endeavours.
This review contains spoilers
Atomic Heart is one of the most messed up games I have ever played! It is a game that I really wanted to love but could not due to the problems I had. It is a ride through start to finish. I didn’t hate what it had to offer and it was an interesting game. It took me 12 hours to finish Atomic Heart just to inform how long you could be spending with it. Depending on what you do you could be spending more or less hours.
Gameplay: The gameplay is the typical FPS gameplay you see in most games with melee weapons like axes. It has 7 different skill trees with it consisting of SHOK, Character, Frostbite, Mass Telekinesis, Polymeric Jet, Polymeric Shield, and Energy Management. I personally liked all the different skill trees because it adds an incentive to explore to find neuropolymer to upgrade your abilities. The game doesn’t give you very many bullets but instead mostly having to craft them except at odd times when you explore, it gives you a limited amount. I feel like the game should have given you more bullets for killing enemies or given more bullets. I felt like a lot of the time I was using my bullets then when I ran out which was often I had to use my axe to kill the enemies or wait for energy to regenerate. It would cost me dying a lot of the time due to the game not giving enough bullets. I also did not like that bullets take up a slot in your inventory so you have to remove something when it is full just to put bullets in. Overall the gameplay isn’t special but does the job and adds fun elements to it to make it enjoyable. It was brought down by issues but it did the job. You do have a decent variety of weapons and tools at your disposal.
Puzzles: I felt like the puzzles appeared a little too often and sometimes felt tedious like having to pick a lock for opening most doors which felt repetitive after so many times. Another puzzle I didn’t like was the Ballerina one which felt annoying because it didn’t really say what to do but it was different. Atomic Heart does have some clever ones like the City Maze Puzzle which I had fun with and the Boiler Room one since they were quick and straightforward; those are the types of puzzles I like. I am open to ones that make you think and are creative. The puzzles I felt like added to the gameplay and interrupted it at the same time.
Enemies/Bosses: The enemies in Atomic Heart consisted of robots, mutants which were well designed and unique looking. I felt like it had enough enemy types throughout the game. The bosses however like Plyusch were not fun to fight because they would use up all of my resources then all I would be doing is running with a chicken with its head cut off, shocking, and meleeing it until it died. All the bosses just consisted of shooting them which I felt they needed more variety in, like throwing in some quick time events or something to make them feel more distinct. The designs of the bosses were unique and well done. These bosses were really solid in their set pieces but thought it lacked variety and felt repetitive. The bosses were fine but nothing special. The Twins at the end though was a really good fight with good set pieces!
Checkpoint System: This felt inconsistent because after I was finished with killing enemies once I died then it would send me back to redo a part I finished even though I believe it should have been saved at the part I finished. It is annoying to sometimes have to stop and save the game because it wouldn’t autosave at the part I finished. It feels like a checkpoint system from the old days of gaming where it is unable to save at a part you finished.
World: The world of Atomic Heart was actually really interesting with its Soviet Union setting. I felt incentived to explore the world to see what it had to offer. It was fun exploring the world to see the architecture. It felt like a lot of work was put into the world. The world gave me Bioshock vibes and when it was going down in an elevator that you can see a sea world of bluewater it reminded me of the Rapture in Bioshock. Sometimes you will have to walk for a while which I personally dislike because I just want to get back into the action and not walk for 5 minutes straight.
Story: The story in Atomic Heart was really good for me. It was so messed up that I was intrigued to continue to see what messed up things happen next. Characters turn on you, falling elevators, hallucinations. It was a messed up story and ride but it was what kept me going! It was an interesting story for me personally! I really like crazy stories and this was one of the craziest ones I’ve played. It isn’t a masterpiece in storytelling but it was one for me to remember. I really like that there are multiple endings to Atomic Heart which adds replay value. I also like that it gives you a choice at the end of what you wanna do. The ending sure was messed up! The dialogue felt cringe inducing and the robotic voices eventually got annoying. Also the glove never shuts up!
Music: The OST in Atomic Heart is a heart pumping one! I really enjoyed the OST of Atomic Heart and kept me through playing it. It is a soundtrack that got my adrenaline going and kept me focused on the gameplay!
Technical State: Atomic Heart crashed on me 4 times and I had to load a previous save just for it to stop crashing but the first time I loaded a previous save it crashed when I died! It had a lot of framerate dips in elevators, it froze once in an area with a lot of enemies but unfroze, cutscenes had a lot of framerate dips which was breaking my immersion into them. It is a technically flawed state while not outright unplayable can be annoying.
Conclusion: Atomic Heart is a game I really wanted to love but could not because of how many problems I had with it. I didn’t hate it though. Despite that I would be curious about a sequel that refines the issues and continues the story. I really was looking forward to this one too so it sucks that it didn’t fully stick the landing for me! I give Atomic Heart a 6/10. If you disagree that is okay since everyone will have a different opinion on it! It is such a mixed game that some people will like what it has to offer and some won’t. It is one of those games that is good to have on gamepass for people to try out. I would recommend giving it a shot if you are a gamepass subscriber but would not recommend buying it.
Gameplay: The gameplay is the typical FPS gameplay you see in most games with melee weapons like axes. It has 7 different skill trees with it consisting of SHOK, Character, Frostbite, Mass Telekinesis, Polymeric Jet, Polymeric Shield, and Energy Management. I personally liked all the different skill trees because it adds an incentive to explore to find neuropolymer to upgrade your abilities. The game doesn’t give you very many bullets but instead mostly having to craft them except at odd times when you explore, it gives you a limited amount. I feel like the game should have given you more bullets for killing enemies or given more bullets. I felt like a lot of the time I was using my bullets then when I ran out which was often I had to use my axe to kill the enemies or wait for energy to regenerate. It would cost me dying a lot of the time due to the game not giving enough bullets. I also did not like that bullets take up a slot in your inventory so you have to remove something when it is full just to put bullets in. Overall the gameplay isn’t special but does the job and adds fun elements to it to make it enjoyable. It was brought down by issues but it did the job. You do have a decent variety of weapons and tools at your disposal.
Puzzles: I felt like the puzzles appeared a little too often and sometimes felt tedious like having to pick a lock for opening most doors which felt repetitive after so many times. Another puzzle I didn’t like was the Ballerina one which felt annoying because it didn’t really say what to do but it was different. Atomic Heart does have some clever ones like the City Maze Puzzle which I had fun with and the Boiler Room one since they were quick and straightforward; those are the types of puzzles I like. I am open to ones that make you think and are creative. The puzzles I felt like added to the gameplay and interrupted it at the same time.
Enemies/Bosses: The enemies in Atomic Heart consisted of robots, mutants which were well designed and unique looking. I felt like it had enough enemy types throughout the game. The bosses however like Plyusch were not fun to fight because they would use up all of my resources then all I would be doing is running with a chicken with its head cut off, shocking, and meleeing it until it died. All the bosses just consisted of shooting them which I felt they needed more variety in, like throwing in some quick time events or something to make them feel more distinct. The designs of the bosses were unique and well done. These bosses were really solid in their set pieces but thought it lacked variety and felt repetitive. The bosses were fine but nothing special. The Twins at the end though was a really good fight with good set pieces!
Checkpoint System: This felt inconsistent because after I was finished with killing enemies once I died then it would send me back to redo a part I finished even though I believe it should have been saved at the part I finished. It is annoying to sometimes have to stop and save the game because it wouldn’t autosave at the part I finished. It feels like a checkpoint system from the old days of gaming where it is unable to save at a part you finished.
World: The world of Atomic Heart was actually really interesting with its Soviet Union setting. I felt incentived to explore the world to see what it had to offer. It was fun exploring the world to see the architecture. It felt like a lot of work was put into the world. The world gave me Bioshock vibes and when it was going down in an elevator that you can see a sea world of bluewater it reminded me of the Rapture in Bioshock. Sometimes you will have to walk for a while which I personally dislike because I just want to get back into the action and not walk for 5 minutes straight.
Story: The story in Atomic Heart was really good for me. It was so messed up that I was intrigued to continue to see what messed up things happen next. Characters turn on you, falling elevators, hallucinations. It was a messed up story and ride but it was what kept me going! It was an interesting story for me personally! I really like crazy stories and this was one of the craziest ones I’ve played. It isn’t a masterpiece in storytelling but it was one for me to remember. I really like that there are multiple endings to Atomic Heart which adds replay value. I also like that it gives you a choice at the end of what you wanna do. The ending sure was messed up! The dialogue felt cringe inducing and the robotic voices eventually got annoying. Also the glove never shuts up!
Music: The OST in Atomic Heart is a heart pumping one! I really enjoyed the OST of Atomic Heart and kept me through playing it. It is a soundtrack that got my adrenaline going and kept me focused on the gameplay!
Technical State: Atomic Heart crashed on me 4 times and I had to load a previous save just for it to stop crashing but the first time I loaded a previous save it crashed when I died! It had a lot of framerate dips in elevators, it froze once in an area with a lot of enemies but unfroze, cutscenes had a lot of framerate dips which was breaking my immersion into them. It is a technically flawed state while not outright unplayable can be annoying.
Conclusion: Atomic Heart is a game I really wanted to love but could not because of how many problems I had with it. I didn’t hate it though. Despite that I would be curious about a sequel that refines the issues and continues the story. I really was looking forward to this one too so it sucks that it didn’t fully stick the landing for me! I give Atomic Heart a 6/10. If you disagree that is okay since everyone will have a different opinion on it! It is such a mixed game that some people will like what it has to offer and some won’t. It is one of those games that is good to have on gamepass for people to try out. I would recommend giving it a shot if you are a gamepass subscriber but would not recommend buying it.