I'm outing myself as a zoomer here, but i played it back when i was 13-14 because it was one of the few modern games my parent's shitty computer could decently run and i had no better concept of what AAA games at the time were like, and that certainly gave me a pinch of rose tinted glasses for it. Back in the day i just dismissed all the criticisms of it online as jaded contrarianism, but even back then i could tell some things were off the more i played this game and i consider it my first "redpill" to bad game design. The overarching civil war questline where both sides pretty much play the same and which changes basically nothing, 80% of the dungeons being Draugr caves that loop back into the entrances, the kindergarten-level puzzles, the lack of any class system at all favoring just being a spellsword with some stealth on the side for those sweet instant kills, the destruction spells all feeling the same, being able to kill the fucking final boss with Mehrune's Razor, and the list goes on. At the very least i thought it was a big step up from Fallout 3 in terms of fun and holding up, but yeah, i find myself agreeing with a lot of the criticism looking back at it now. I would have simply told myself to stop being stubborn about beating the game vanilla and install some argonian sex mods instead lol

You know some of those franchises during the PS1 era that tried to transition to 3D, but came off awkward and clunky due to still having plenty of gameplay quirks and mechanics you'd expect from a 2D game? This basically feels one of those, except as a cutting edge game that came out in the PS3 era long after everyone figured out how to make decent first person RPGs.

It just feels like the awkward middle child of Fallout. The RPG mechanics are barebones compared to those of Fallout 1 or 2 and the FPS ones are pretty weak and unsatisfying unlike FONV or 4. It's a damn shame because there's a few things about it i like over NV, such as the weapon crafting or the more interesting urban setting.
PD: 666th review lol

It's the Pokémon Stadium of Digimon... or at least so i expected. This game essentially lets you transform your PocketStation into a v-pet that can hold 6 digimon at a time. I've never really owned a v-pet and i must say this one is rather nice, being able to talk to your mon, battle or Jogress evolve with another pocketstation v-pet, and go in a small RPG mode of sorts where you move across File Island and fight wild mons to unlock Museum unlockables, but there's not much to do on the game itself. Just look at unlockables like FMVs or Digital World lore, manage your v-pets at Jijimon's House, or a Pokemon Stadium style arena mode either against CPU or another player with a pocketstation. Despite the name it's certainly not like a Digimon World game.

It's worth mentioning that around this time, Bandai was implementing a lot of interconnectivity between Digimon gadgets and games. You could actually use your Pocketstation with your V-Pet data to transfer it to some Digimon game in the Wonderswan through the infrared sensor, and also apparently for D-1 Grand Prix in Digimon World 2. You can also use your Pocketstation data from PDW in Digimon Tamers: Pocket Culumon to unlock every single museum item, but then it kinda feels like cheating and defeats the whole point of the adventure mode here.
It's nothing too noteworthy unless you're some sort of veteran hardcore Digimon collector, as in owning a Wonderswan and having played saturn "Digital Monster Ver. S" hardcore.

Good game with good ideas, such as the bomb boost which is basically like a racing game rocket jump, but it's all buried under a storm of jank that i couldn't bear. 10FPS framerate, unforgiving walljumps and cliff jumps (see: Bakuzan Ski Course) that can place you 47 seconds behind and cost you the race if you miss, slippery turning designed with the digital controllers in mind, and laughably broken troll powerups like one that freezes you for five seconds so your Louie/Tirra takes a shit and another one that's basically MK lightning on steroids and timestops every other player in place. Much like those Pipeworks godzilla games, this is one of those games which are the bomb to play with friends but can give you an aneurysm if playing solo

As much as part of me wants to say that this is the superior game solely for the presence of the level editor (which is honestly half-cooked and will never be updated) as well as the character abilities, i feel a lot of gameplay mechanics were pretty watered down compared to HM1's, such as the fewer and more basic weapons, slower movement speed or the smaller view range. Still, it's really fun and satisfying when you manage to Rambo across a large room in this game, and the story definitely makes me think a bit higher of HM2.

Jake and Richter's levels imo were the most fun and the closest to that classic franctic HM1 gameplay.

This is Syphon Filter. A game where you play as Superman 64 Clark Kent lookalike Gabe Logan in a stealth suit, in a mission to stop terrorist warlord Eric Rhoemer and eliminate all traces of a new, Nazi wet dream chemical weapon: Syphon Filter, a virus that can target and wipe out any specific genetic group at choice.

I don't really have much to say about this game that some other reviews haven't said already. I don't consider the gameplay to have aged that badly as everyone says. On the contrary, the strafing, dodging and leaning from walls coupled with the "danger meter" where enemy bullets can only hit you if you stay as an easy target in the open for too long, all make me think they knew there would be some inherent clunkiness to the combat in a game like this on the PS1 with hitscan bullet physics and digital controls (the game does have dualshock support but it's very unreliable, you might as well aim with the dpad), so these were some pretty functional workarounds they came up with. Being able to run and roll past enemies who miss all their shots for a few seconds also gives it another pinch of 'playable 90's action spy flick'. It honestly makes me wonder how a modern TPS with a similar mechanic would play like or experiment with it.

Moreover, i think the real flaws in the game are found in the missions themselves. As other reviews have mentioned, yes, the first level gives a good, yet very misleading first impression with it's massive size, with most of the other levels in the game being linear and more of what you'd expect from your other PS1 TPS. Although Washington Park being basically a MGS stage and Pharcom Warehouses with the infighting enemies and underground tunnels came close to replicating that. The Stronghold levels in the Cathedral were also neat, along with the plot twist that follows.
Many of the latter levels, though, just feel like the game repeating itself. "Rhoemer's Base" is basically the park level except with planting explosives instead of defusing them, and with stealth where if you get caught too early you might as well restart as enemies will spawn infinitely once that happens, The Stronghold Catacombs level is just a worse version of the Expo Center level with a mix of trailing and stealth, now followed by an escort mission, which makes me think this game was probably patient zero for all those escort levels in 6th gen games.
And Mission 19 might just be the worst mission in the whole game as it's just an endurance test with no real checkpoints through a long, pitch-black tunnel so dark that even your flashlight is useless so your best way to see what's ahead is to use the Viral Scanner you got from Pharcom Warehouses every few steps, and you have to inch your way through and slowly pick out enemies with Nightvision Sniper Rifle headshots, or else you'll be quickly killed or lose a lot of health because there's barely any cover until your reach the end of the stage. Oh, and there's also a few blind pitfalls just for funsies.

The game also ends on a very anticlimactic note. Basically, a missile carrying the Syphon Filter virus is complete and about to launch, you climb some ledges leading to a computer by the missile that conveniently contains the self-destruction codes you were looking for all along, Markinson pops out of nowhere and goes "everything according to Keikaku" and affirms that he was indeed working for Rhoemer, who then appears and shoots him before he can reveal his intentions for the Syphon Filter virus, whatever they were. Then there's a really hype timed sequence where you race through the facility to reach the mainframe and detonate the Syphon Filter missile, and then it's followed by the really anticlimactic Rhoemer bossfight. I thought you'd have to do something smart like shooting at his grenade launcher or hide behind pillars for him to blow them up and make the base collapse on top of him... but nah, just throw a gas grenade at him and he's out.

All in all, i would say the game has decent mechanics and a very great presentation but the more i kept playing it after the 14th mission or so the more i wanted to get over with it. It does make me want to give it's sequels a try though, and see how the story and gameplay build up from here. I can definitely see why this was successful enough to save the studio after the disaster that was Bubsy 3d.

Such a comfy game. Maybe i'm alone in this but I like the blocky, top-down map perspective far more than the isometric style from 2000 and found it kinda sad it never got used more often both in the series and in city builders in general. Plus I also really kinda just like the simplicity of it, the map builder and all those graphics sets. I remember once making a weird ass scenario based on the Dust Bowl, and trying to recreate Springfield from The Simpsons
That said, the SNES version and mayyybe SimCity Enhanced (has some goofy ahh fmvs) are the versions to go with.