This game is pretty much what Web of Shadows fans think their game is (and if you asked me 2 weeks ago I'd have been no different).

When comparing it to the first game though, Spider-Man 2 lacks the same emotional weight the first game's third act contained, despite the stakes being much higher. Outside of that though, the story and characters that aren't just named Peter Parker are much more consistent and focused than the first, which tried to juggle 6+ villains in the main story and only one of them having the proper development to be remembered in the contents of the game. There's also the ending, which while promising, isn't as satisfying as it could be, and much like Across the Spider-Verse, is kind of the point. But just like that ending its hard to judge the direction taken until the next entry arrives.

Only other gripe is definitely the post game content, or severe lack thereof. Despite the leaps and bounds made for the combat and traversal, despite how much more quality the side missions are while cutting out the fat the first game threw at random, Insomniac seemingly cut way more than intended, leaving post game being way more empty compared to Miles' game, which is rather disappointing, not to mention New Game Plus and Day/Night cycles being absent at launch, though already confirmed for future patches.

Great game for anyone wanting more out of the first two entries, but deserved a few more months of development to surpass the quantity the first game delivered at its base.

As usual I'm just going to be spitballing, but I should make it clear that any game I have under 2 stars is just straight up bad to me. Even with it getting 2 it is just BARELY getting past that point, as to me Shadow is the lowest point this franchise went in every way except polish, because for some reason of all games in the series that one has the least amount of bugs (in terms of 3D games). Outside of that though its just impossible to cook up a tangible reason I would have Shadow over 06 instead of the contrary, but I guess I should actually talk about the game in question, huh?

The story of 06 is something that I'm... admittedly fond of. I say that but Sonic's story is just shit from beginning to end for me, even if his gameplay is the third least bad in the cast. Shadow and Silver's campaigns were pretty fun to sink my teeth into though, and the game somehow delivered my favorite iteration of Shadow in the games thus far. Most of the credit for that goes to Omega and Mephiles though, of whom hard carry whenever they're on screen and it just feels like a waste of time when they aren't. Pacing is definitely the worst problem the story has to offer, and this is most apparent with Sonic/ Silver, who often have downright incomprehensible Point A to Point B transitions, that aren't helped by the (admittedly cool) time travel gimmick in this game. The less I speak of it the better, but the time traveling in this game is possibly the most convoluted shit in any game I've played, and I love it to death. I'd even venture to say this is one of the best 3D Sonic stories in the franchise... but that's not saying much since the best two I can think of are uh, idk probably Unleashed of Frontiers. Black Knight was pretty good if I remember correctly, but story focused Sonic games have rarely worked up to this point, and even past it.

The gameplay speaks for itself: worse Adventure formula with about the same level of automation as SA2 (but not as bad as Shadow because that's impossible until Sonic 4). Its a shame too because I find myself having fun with Shadow, Blaze, and for the most part Sonic for the most part. Even Shadow's stupid vehicle gimmicks are fun despite how broken every section is. It never felt like I was working against the game's with the vehicles outside of White Acropolis. Tails and Omega are fine as well, and the treasure hunting duo are more jank versions of their past selves, but harmless aside from the occasional clipping to a wall. Silver just seems like an afterthought, mainly due to his speed because Jesus Christ why is he that SLOW? I like his psychokinesis too, but what was stopping them from just upping his speed sliders even a little? Amy sucks so I'm gonna ignore her, making for an unremarkable cast, only worse off with the level designs that just aren't built for them. It sucks too because the stages themselves are pretty good, and varied for the most part, which is good to see, its just that half of them don't play well, dependent on which character is being used for that section. For example Sonic is just unplayable in Wave Ocean, like seriously who thought that would work for him as a first stage? But Blaze on the other hand is perfect, kinda like she was the basis for Sonic's movement and arsenal and they just scrapped it midway through and gave it to her instead. Shes less slippery, and easily has the best air control in the entire cast, which is like, required for a platformer. Last but not least are the mach speed sections, and while these are cool in concept, they are waaaay too punishing for how unresponsive the controls are, which lead to the most undeserving deaths in any game I've ever played.

But despite all of that, despite the gimmicks, the automation, that damn ball puzzle, I still can't consider this the worst game in the series. Too many good concepts and enjoyable story beats with Shadow in particular for me to say it is deserving of that judgement. And besides I'd rather the story end with a complete reset here, as the character moments aren't meant to recontextualize the cast in any way, just make their personalities shine more, something I cannot say for Shadow (or most of the series honestly lol). So yeah, this game sucks. But despite that I cannot say my time was wasted. This is a game I can point and laugh at any given moment, and I never found myself bored, more angry or relieved when I got something time consuming done. With Shadow, it all felt hollow, like I was just wasting time because the game said so, aimlessly going stage to stage for an eventual boss encounter that was no different than the last 4 times I played it before. The difference here is that I can explain what went wrong, and that there IS worth in a lot of the problems at hand here, problems and mechanics that would be fully realized and released to the public a decade later with P-06. With Shadow, as much as I can laugh at that story, there isn't anything else I enjoyed or even thought worth salvaging, it truly was doomed from the jump.

What I'm trying to say is that its not THAT bad, but at the same time, it really is THAT bad, y'know?

One would think having this game be their first full experience of a fromsoft title would make it even more encouraging to look back on after finishing the rest the company has to offer. Instead, a year later I'm still stuck wondering what my full thoughts of this game even are. I've already tried writing this multiple times, deleted a previous review before replaying the game the most recent time, so hopefully my thoughts can be put to rest, along with the time I've wasted trying my best to act like I enjoy everything this game has to offer in its final act (until the dlc comes out and hopefully nulls my problems with the game currently).

One of my biggest gripes with Fromsoft is their inability to make dungeons fun, despite the shit ton of rewards given simply for exploring. The opposite can be said for Elden Ring, wherein you have the best designed legacy dungeons to date, with no good loot to compensate for it. Obviously this has to do with the nigh infinite build diversity, however it doesn't change how bad the loot is spread across all dungeons and the open world by extension. For example merchants might as well be pointless outside of rune arcs and stonesword keys, as the buyable armor is often just starting class with little to no perks worth dumping money into. Same goes for the weapons, which makes even less sense to me with how many cool weapons/ ashes of war are locked behind fucking 4% loot drops on the most random enemies possible (i.e Executioner's Greataxe, Halo Scythes, Bandit Curved swords, etc.). It just baffles me how bad this is handled with how good the combat is, in theory at least.

Like all other games in the series, Elden Ring isn't afraid to ask the question "What if we made certain enemy encounters boring?" And like all other games, this situation is present in every level of the game, be it in the form of multiple knights wielding wind and can close the distance to you immediately, while simultaneously making it impossible to escape their frame one wind attack. This extends to bosses like Godrick (who I should mention is still a top 5 boss in this game somehow) who can at any point pause your aggression with the same attack the knights have, even if it is a little slower. This wouldn't and shouldn't be a problem if poise weren't such a huge issue in this game, so big that if it wasn't the most important part about combat for a strength build I would just ignore it because dear god how do you go from sekiro's competence to this. To sum up my problem, a game like Elden Ring requires your reflexes to be at their absolute peak at all times, which is okay, its sort of like meshing sekiro's pattern reading with dark soul's reaction time. It should be a natural evolution of what fromsoft has built up to this point and theoretically results in their most engaging combat system to date. But instead of that, combat is based on how fast you can hit an opponent until they die, and due to the fuck ton of moves every boss has, you will never fully master what they have to offer in all of your runs. You could play for 100 hours and still see a new combo string/ ai response from bosses like Mohg and Malenia (I'll get to her later). Of course that wouldn't be a problem if the player has a coherent and natural way to counter these new moves. The problem is, these bosses aren't built to teach you or test you on what you've learned, but rather a pop quiz that lasts several hours depending on how compatible your build is with the enemy in front of you. In other words: a DPS test.

Now I should stress that every attack in the game COULD be dodged hypothetically, but that means nothing if the attack following it clips you anyway, unless you deliberately try to react to it completely removed from every other attack the boss can string at any given moment. This applies mainly to bosses like margit and his summon sword infinite combo and Radahn's pre-alpha ass hitbox (still a cool fight but the patches haven't made him any more or less good mechanically to me lol). This is ESPECIALLY apparent in every boss during and after Mountaintop of the Giants, as it is the peak of the game's difficulty. Uh but oops looks like fromsoft forgot to turn down the damage modifier after that level and now Farum Azula, Consecrated Snowfield, and the Haligtree are scaled to what feels like ng+2 at the base difficulty. During this point its made apparent fromsoft forgot how to level design and just copy pasted caelid mobs in to mountaintop and snowfields, juxtaposed to farum which does something cool actually, bringing back lone mobs at the very start of the game in the form of the Beastman found in a cave in Limgrave. Oh but don't worry this level still isn't good, here's the 30th crucible knight and some birds with knives on their talons like in Stormveil, wasn't that cool 60 hours ago!!!! Thankfully fromsoft granted us with two cool bosses in Farum, but in two opposite ways. Beast Clergyman/ Maliketh looks annoying to fight and is a treat to learn while Placidusax is the most eye candy fromsoft has every produced but is some of most slow paced slop since DS1. I'm neglecting areas and most bosses in Limgrave, Mountaintop, Caelid, Raya Lucaria, and all of those simply because I couldn't care less after the first playthrough. The first 2/3s of the game become such a cakewalk after first playthrough to the point its almost a void in my mind entirely.

It should come as no surprise that Horah Loux is what I and many other consider to be the peak of this game in difficulty, fairness, and most important of all, fun. I could go on forever about how perfect this boss alone is, from the opening cutscene itself being the most important moment in the entire game to his fucking power bombs in his second phase that instakill you in pretty much every scenario. This fight feels like a mesh of everything fromsoft has done right, while at the same time fixing what they couldn't pre-DS3. His grabs are very well telegraphed, he is highly aggresive but still at a point where punishing him is optimal for any playstyle matching his aggression. His first phase is fine of course, but its just Goldfrey from the first time around through Leyndell, outside of a few changes like a phase 1.5, where he can now create earthquakes at will. All in all, best fight in the game, and one of five bosses I would willingly tangent about in a fromsoft game in the middle of a review (Gael, Midir, Ludwig and Maria being the others, among many other great bosses not immediately coming to mind).

Immediately after this fight is where the game falls apart for me all at once. Radagon was and has been built up from the very first trailer of the game and throughout the course of the game's story itself, and it would make sense to close the game with him, and naturally have a phase 2 incorporate Marika in some way... right? Well Radagon has about 3 phases through the span of his own healthbar, each phase being more boring than the other. The first phase is fine, normal attacks with varying windups like usual, and its made abundantly clear that radagon can close gaps instantly with the swing that carries him across the entire arena basically, not to mention his projectiles he can spam at any point for zoning. Phases 2 and 3 just make this fight unfun with the wrong rng. His attacks are still fine for dodging, and learning how his holy slams worked were pretty fun, the problem comes with his teleports and the mixups paired with it. Radagon can teleport. He can teleport right after a riposte. He can teleport after attacking. He can teleport as a reponse to a jump attack, or any attempt to close distance. HE CAN TELEPORT OUT OF A TELEPORT. There is no way to know Radagon is about to teleport until he initiates it. I am aware of this attack being dodgeable but at the same time there are little to no weaknesses depending on how much fromsoft feels like fucking with you on the given day. This means you must anticipate the attack and play around it instead of interacting with his entire moveset at all times. This isn't fun. I don't think I need to explain why that isn't fun to me so I won't. Instead, how about that final boss huh!

Elden Beast sucks so I'm going to just skip it and talk about Malenia. Surprisingly. Malenia is good actually, start to finish she is somehow one of the more fair Remembrance bosses in the game. Like Radagon, her problem comes in the single form of Waterfowl, which cannot be dodged if locked in an attack animation for even 1 second before she initiates it. There are no other bullshit attacks, so it is just rng until you miraculously brute force a way to dodge it. This isn't my problem with the fight honestly, she is the only demi god in the game that feels like an actual deity in strength, speed and reaction to your attacks, which is because she is a human sized boss, comparable to Maria, Orphan of Kos and Gehrman (I love bb if thats not clear). My problem with Malenia comes with her healing. Seriously I don't understand why this is a thing, it makes no sense for her character and her great rune doesn't even grant the same ability, instead giving you a rally mechanic akin to that of bloodborne or dead cells. A better solution would be to give her a rally mechanic, but a way more potent one that lasts longer than the player's (after getting her great rune). Something like how Thymesia's health bar works but in reverse... if that makes sense. Pretty mixed on this fight but its two hotfixes away from being the best the game has to offer.

This whole thing probably comes off as negative but this is still some of the best this company has to offer, the sales don't lie and for its price it is the best bargain quantity wise in the industry as of right now. Its quality does falter, yes, but it is about the best first attempt at an open world one can ask for.