TheWhat13
2017
HOW DO I EVEN REVIEW THIS IT'S LITTERALY MARIO KART 8 BUT BETTER
Mario Kart 8 was a critical success. Of course, it was stranded on the Wii U, so no one played it. This kinda brewed a perfect storm, as when the Switch launched, Nintendo could bring along a better version of a game that they already knew would be appreciated by the public (because it had already existed for 3 years at that point), all while insuring very good sales because the game would feel fresh to most players. It was a no-risk/huge reward situation.
As someone who played the original MK8 on the Wii U, I can say: I have no reason to go back to play it now that I finally bought Deluxe. The latter is better, it's as simple as that.
Let me just say I mainly played the single player modes on Deluxe, so I won't talk about the online. I also won't say that the track selection is amazing, the OST is a collection of bangers, that antigravity adds a lot to the track design and that the star cup is the best thing Nintendo has ever done, because all of the above is obvious and isn't new to this version of the game.
Only two major gameplay tweak were made : the addition of the ultra mini-boost (dumb name i know), which is just an extra level to drifting after the red boost, and the addition of a second item slot.
This second item slots make the game feel completely fresh. It's very simple: there are now more items into play: so there's more chaos, and more strategy.
Imagine for one second you're in the lead, and you have a defensive item (banana/shell/super horn) in your current slot, but a coin in your second slot. This may seem like an ok situation, but in reality, it's terrible: what if the guy behinds you has two offensive items ? He can just destroy your devensive item and get you again afterwards ! So, arriving at a double item box, you really ask yourself, do you try your luck and expose yourself for a few seconds while the items roll to try and get two defensive items, or do you prefer to stay as is, and risk that the guy behind you gets new offensive items to break through your defense ?
This new item strategy really made the game more difficult than on the Wii U. I actually didn't win every race against the CPU this time, even though I'm way better at holding good racing lines than before, simply because I could get f'ed over by items because of poor strategy.
200 CC is very fun, and really makes you think about your car setup. It really makes the cups competitive, because even the CPUs struggle with their speed. This leads to insane cups, where you may be fighting for the win with 4 or 5 CPUs. There was one cup where after me and Dry Bones taking an early championship lead, we were beaten in the last race by Daisy, who had been third this whole time, without me even noticing that she could still win the cup, because tipically, whichever CPU wins or finishes second in the first race will be the only one able to challenge you for first place in the standings. 200 CC was very refreshing in that sense, but also because it did feel way more skill-based than Mario kart usually is. You can more than make-up for bad item luck by gaining time by not crashing into the walls like the competition does. Sometimes, being hit by an item before a tight curve can even be an advantage, as it allows you to not gain too much speed heading into said-curve. 200 CC is very different than the rest of the game, but I wouldn't recomment playing exclusively in it, because heavens above that would get tiring.
Of course, the battle mode was changed in this, and it is leagues better. Cops and robbers is for short sessions, shine thief is my favourite, ballon-battle is always amazing and coin runners is ok.
If you were like me and said "I don't need MK8 deluxe, I've got MK8", shut up. This is way better. It makes MK8 defunct by comparison, and you can play it on the go, and nothign is better than playing Star Cup for the 100th time, but this time in your bed.
Mario Kart 8 was a critical success. Of course, it was stranded on the Wii U, so no one played it. This kinda brewed a perfect storm, as when the Switch launched, Nintendo could bring along a better version of a game that they already knew would be appreciated by the public (because it had already existed for 3 years at that point), all while insuring very good sales because the game would feel fresh to most players. It was a no-risk/huge reward situation.
As someone who played the original MK8 on the Wii U, I can say: I have no reason to go back to play it now that I finally bought Deluxe. The latter is better, it's as simple as that.
Let me just say I mainly played the single player modes on Deluxe, so I won't talk about the online. I also won't say that the track selection is amazing, the OST is a collection of bangers, that antigravity adds a lot to the track design and that the star cup is the best thing Nintendo has ever done, because all of the above is obvious and isn't new to this version of the game.
Only two major gameplay tweak were made : the addition of the ultra mini-boost (dumb name i know), which is just an extra level to drifting after the red boost, and the addition of a second item slot.
This second item slots make the game feel completely fresh. It's very simple: there are now more items into play: so there's more chaos, and more strategy.
Imagine for one second you're in the lead, and you have a defensive item (banana/shell/super horn) in your current slot, but a coin in your second slot. This may seem like an ok situation, but in reality, it's terrible: what if the guy behinds you has two offensive items ? He can just destroy your devensive item and get you again afterwards ! So, arriving at a double item box, you really ask yourself, do you try your luck and expose yourself for a few seconds while the items roll to try and get two defensive items, or do you prefer to stay as is, and risk that the guy behind you gets new offensive items to break through your defense ?
This new item strategy really made the game more difficult than on the Wii U. I actually didn't win every race against the CPU this time, even though I'm way better at holding good racing lines than before, simply because I could get f'ed over by items because of poor strategy.
200 CC is very fun, and really makes you think about your car setup. It really makes the cups competitive, because even the CPUs struggle with their speed. This leads to insane cups, where you may be fighting for the win with 4 or 5 CPUs. There was one cup where after me and Dry Bones taking an early championship lead, we were beaten in the last race by Daisy, who had been third this whole time, without me even noticing that she could still win the cup, because tipically, whichever CPU wins or finishes second in the first race will be the only one able to challenge you for first place in the standings. 200 CC was very refreshing in that sense, but also because it did feel way more skill-based than Mario kart usually is. You can more than make-up for bad item luck by gaining time by not crashing into the walls like the competition does. Sometimes, being hit by an item before a tight curve can even be an advantage, as it allows you to not gain too much speed heading into said-curve. 200 CC is very different than the rest of the game, but I wouldn't recomment playing exclusively in it, because heavens above that would get tiring.
Of course, the battle mode was changed in this, and it is leagues better. Cops and robbers is for short sessions, shine thief is my favourite, ballon-battle is always amazing and coin runners is ok.
If you were like me and said "I don't need MK8 deluxe, I've got MK8", shut up. This is way better. It makes MK8 defunct by comparison, and you can play it on the go, and nothign is better than playing Star Cup for the 100th time, but this time in your bed.
2010
Sadly, my Wii Remote died three quarters of the way through the game, so I couldn't finish it. I do feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the game though, sufficient to write a decent review.
Super Mario Galaxy was a revolution in the mario world. It was totally different than any other 3D mario game, or any other mario game for that matter. It's focus on atmosphere rather than gameplay made it unique. Revisiting it was a bit of a challenge for me, as I feel the gameplay has aged and isn't the most riveting Mario has been.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 places the focus beck on gameplay. This game is extremely fun, with amazing gimmicks for every level. No level is a chore, the platforming is tight, Yoshi is a great addition and the powerups are creative.
However, I do have to say, this game feels like it lacks personality. It's probably because its predecessor has so much of it, but Super Mario Galaxy 2 really reminded me of Super Mario 3D Land or 3D world in the sense that feels very... safe. The levels are great but don't feel nearly as memorable as the ones from the first game. The music is very good, but feels like Mario Music, and is nowhere near as good as the symphony that is super mario galaxy. Starship Mario is a great hub, its small size is benefitial to it as it makes getting to where you want to be really easy and effortless, but it isn't the comet observatory.
If I had to describe this game, I would say it's Super Mario 3D world with a Super Mario Galaxy skin. This isn't a dig: I loved my time with the game. But I do have to say, I do feel like the 3D World and Galaxy are better games because they are focused : one is an amazing obstacle course type game with very few thrills, the other is an atmospheric mario game with subpar level design (when compared to other mario games of course, it's way above average when you compare it to the broader video game landscape). Super Mario Galaxy 2 doesn't achieve the picture-perfect level-design of 3D World or the picture-perfect atmosphere of the original, so, to me, it feels like the worst of the three, as it is competent, even good, in every department, but excells in none.
Super Mario Galaxy was a revolution in the mario world. It was totally different than any other 3D mario game, or any other mario game for that matter. It's focus on atmosphere rather than gameplay made it unique. Revisiting it was a bit of a challenge for me, as I feel the gameplay has aged and isn't the most riveting Mario has been.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 places the focus beck on gameplay. This game is extremely fun, with amazing gimmicks for every level. No level is a chore, the platforming is tight, Yoshi is a great addition and the powerups are creative.
However, I do have to say, this game feels like it lacks personality. It's probably because its predecessor has so much of it, but Super Mario Galaxy 2 really reminded me of Super Mario 3D Land or 3D world in the sense that feels very... safe. The levels are great but don't feel nearly as memorable as the ones from the first game. The music is very good, but feels like Mario Music, and is nowhere near as good as the symphony that is super mario galaxy. Starship Mario is a great hub, its small size is benefitial to it as it makes getting to where you want to be really easy and effortless, but it isn't the comet observatory.
If I had to describe this game, I would say it's Super Mario 3D world with a Super Mario Galaxy skin. This isn't a dig: I loved my time with the game. But I do have to say, I do feel like the 3D World and Galaxy are better games because they are focused : one is an amazing obstacle course type game with very few thrills, the other is an atmospheric mario game with subpar level design (when compared to other mario games of course, it's way above average when you compare it to the broader video game landscape). Super Mario Galaxy 2 doesn't achieve the picture-perfect level-design of 3D World or the picture-perfect atmosphere of the original, so, to me, it feels like the worst of the three, as it is competent, even good, in every department, but excells in none.
2013
Papers Please is a cult classic, and it's easy to understand why. It has very simple gameplay mechanics and is relatively easy, but it brilliantly tackles themes that aren't simple or easy, that being an authoritarian regime. Corruption, xenophobic laws, heartbreaking separations between family members are all featured in the game. The extraordinary feat this game pulls off though is that the game still comes off as light-hearted. Thanks to the great humour it can produce. Weither it be the guy that comes every two days, never has the right papers, and eventually comes with contraband and is 100% honest about it because he feels like your his friend, or all the times I just accepted a bribe and then refused to let the person enter because they were a real douchebag, situations can be very funny, and aren't necessarily as heavy as when you need to choose if you're going to be able to afford eating and heating the place that evening.
The gameplay is simple though, perhaps a bit too much so. It isn't easy, but it isn't hard either. It's just that at some point, it becomes very monotone. They add new mechanics every day (new documents you need to check, a new procedure) but they don't make the game ahrder once you've gotten the jist of the game. At that point, no matter how many documents there are, you'll just zoom past them. And yes, I know, the difficulty of the game isn't to make you commit mistakes, it's to slow you down so that you can't win as much money as before and therefore, struggle keeping your family alive more. The difficulty is to force you to get better at your jib. Thing is, the difficulty curve isn't steep enough I feel like. I was always able to win more money than what I lost once I had gotten the hang of the game. This led to me putting the game down, as its very charming presentation, characters and interedting themes just weren't enough, in my eyes, to justify playing through the gameplay for another 30 in game months or something like that.
Does this game deserve its praise ? Sure. Is it overhyped ? Probably. Will you enjoy it a lot if you don't get bored as quickly as I do buy gameplay loops ? That's for certain.
The gameplay is simple though, perhaps a bit too much so. It isn't easy, but it isn't hard either. It's just that at some point, it becomes very monotone. They add new mechanics every day (new documents you need to check, a new procedure) but they don't make the game ahrder once you've gotten the jist of the game. At that point, no matter how many documents there are, you'll just zoom past them. And yes, I know, the difficulty of the game isn't to make you commit mistakes, it's to slow you down so that you can't win as much money as before and therefore, struggle keeping your family alive more. The difficulty is to force you to get better at your jib. Thing is, the difficulty curve isn't steep enough I feel like. I was always able to win more money than what I lost once I had gotten the hang of the game. This led to me putting the game down, as its very charming presentation, characters and interedting themes just weren't enough, in my eyes, to justify playing through the gameplay for another 30 in game months or something like that.
Does this game deserve its praise ? Sure. Is it overhyped ? Probably. Will you enjoy it a lot if you don't get bored as quickly as I do buy gameplay loops ? That's for certain.
This review contains spoilers
I played about 40% of the game before giving up on it. It's not bad at all, but simply put: it felt like déjà vu. If you've played the N.Sane Trilogy, you've played this. Since I didn't play all the way I don't really feel like writing a full review, so I'll just list off a thew things.
- Aesthetically the game is pleasing, and the skins look good (it's a shame that there such a chore to unlock). Animations are pretty good, with the wall run being a particularly good one.
- Gameplay wise: it's Crash Bandicoot, nothing new here, which explains why I just kinda gave up on it: I played the N.Sane trilogy two years ago, and this is just more of that.
- The game is full of gimmicks. The quantum masks are gimmicks, the extra characters are gimmicks, N.Verted levels are a gimmick... This feels like a marketing department's dream more than a passion project. Also, surprisingly, the gimmicks really don't freshen up the game that much. I tried two quantum masks, two characters, and three N.verted levels. The latter are just the same stages you play during the base campain but inverted and with a filter (at least the three I did were just that), the quantum masks aren't really interesting and out of the two extra characters I played, only one felt like a different character, that being Dingodile. Thing is, Dingodile is cool, but he feels so out of place ! It feels like a different game ! I think this approach really hurt the game, and made it quantity over quality, because the base platforming really isn't anything special.
- The level design is okay. The settings the stages take place in are okay, with the Bayou being a great idea. It's a shame there's only one level that really stuck with me, thanks to its amazing ambiance (the level in question being "Off Beat").
Overall, I was dissapointed. N.Sane trilogy was a great remake of classic games, this is a dissapointing, gimmick-filled sequel.
- Aesthetically the game is pleasing, and the skins look good (it's a shame that there such a chore to unlock). Animations are pretty good, with the wall run being a particularly good one.
- Gameplay wise: it's Crash Bandicoot, nothing new here, which explains why I just kinda gave up on it: I played the N.Sane trilogy two years ago, and this is just more of that.
- The game is full of gimmicks. The quantum masks are gimmicks, the extra characters are gimmicks, N.Verted levels are a gimmick... This feels like a marketing department's dream more than a passion project. Also, surprisingly, the gimmicks really don't freshen up the game that much. I tried two quantum masks, two characters, and three N.verted levels. The latter are just the same stages you play during the base campain but inverted and with a filter (at least the three I did were just that), the quantum masks aren't really interesting and out of the two extra characters I played, only one felt like a different character, that being Dingodile. Thing is, Dingodile is cool, but he feels so out of place ! It feels like a different game ! I think this approach really hurt the game, and made it quantity over quality, because the base platforming really isn't anything special.
- The level design is okay. The settings the stages take place in are okay, with the Bayou being a great idea. It's a shame there's only one level that really stuck with me, thanks to its amazing ambiance (the level in question being "Off Beat").
Overall, I was dissapointed. N.Sane trilogy was a great remake of classic games, this is a dissapointing, gimmick-filled sequel.
2022
I like to write long, detailed reviews, but given tthat I have no idea how to review this since I haven't played an F1 game since F1 2012, and I played so little of it I haven't even logged it, I'm just going to write down my thoughts.
The core gameplay is addicting, satisfying to master and very fun, so this deserves at least 3 stars. BUT this is an EA game, so this has a lot of suckiness to it.
- A season pass that A/sucks because it's a season pass B/ sucks because it doesn't even have anything interesting in it
- Menus that feel really lacking
-No tutorial even though watching formula 1 is super hard to understang, let alone actually BEING in a Formula 1 car (I had to look up how to not oversteer during lights out because of how specific it is, yet nothing is there to help you in game)
- An "F1 Life" menu that is really useless and generic.
- Splitscreen is unplayable because the screen is so crunched it can't even show you the UI indicating your speed and, most importantly, WHICH GEAR YOU'RE IN
But again, the core gameplay is fun, feels realistic (from what I can tell) and the career mode has a bit too much content (why should I, a driver, be the one deciding about R&D ? thankfully you can turn that to automated) but is overall enjoyable. It ain't no masterpiece, but I'm happy I bought it. If you don't like formula One though, pass this one.
The core gameplay is addicting, satisfying to master and very fun, so this deserves at least 3 stars. BUT this is an EA game, so this has a lot of suckiness to it.
- A season pass that A/sucks because it's a season pass B/ sucks because it doesn't even have anything interesting in it
- Menus that feel really lacking
-No tutorial even though watching formula 1 is super hard to understang, let alone actually BEING in a Formula 1 car (I had to look up how to not oversteer during lights out because of how specific it is, yet nothing is there to help you in game)
- An "F1 Life" menu that is really useless and generic.
- Splitscreen is unplayable because the screen is so crunched it can't even show you the UI indicating your speed and, most importantly, WHICH GEAR YOU'RE IN
But again, the core gameplay is fun, feels realistic (from what I can tell) and the career mode has a bit too much content (why should I, a driver, be the one deciding about R&D ? thankfully you can turn that to automated) but is overall enjoyable. It ain't no masterpiece, but I'm happy I bought it. If you don't like formula One though, pass this one.
2021
This review contains spoilers
It was hard to not blink given I had tears in my eyes the whole time.
Yes this game is a gimmick, that gimmick being "blinking makes the time pass". But, the story it tells about accepting death, the wish to relive past memories and to forget others is gripping. I tried my hardest not to blink in certain memories, because they were beautiful, happy memories, and on the other hand I'd blink non-stop during others because of how horrible they felt.
Before Your Eyes is an experience more than a game, I almost want to call it an interactive movie. Please play this. Even if, like me, you have a macbook pro that sounded more like an airplane taking off than a computer cooling down while playing this. It is worth your time.
Yes this game is a gimmick, that gimmick being "blinking makes the time pass". But, the story it tells about accepting death, the wish to relive past memories and to forget others is gripping. I tried my hardest not to blink in certain memories, because they were beautiful, happy memories, and on the other hand I'd blink non-stop during others because of how horrible they felt.
Before Your Eyes is an experience more than a game, I almost want to call it an interactive movie. Please play this. Even if, like me, you have a macbook pro that sounded more like an airplane taking off than a computer cooling down while playing this. It is worth your time.
Summary: The Last of Us has better gampelay than you remember, is basically a two-game-in-one packacge because of how different Grounded mode feels, and has the best story ever told in a video-game, aided in no small-part by amazing world-building that helps you realise than 2020 wasn't so bad after all.
On the day of my 18th birthday, back in 2020, I woke up, and before having to go to uni, I turned on my PS4 to do what I had waited 18 years to do : play a PEGI 18 game. It was litteraly the first thing I did: I had waited years for this moment, and I was not going to wait any longer. That game was The Last of Us.
And my first experience with the game was... good. It became one of my favourite games of all-time, sure, but a lot of that had to do with the sentimental attachment I had to it due to it being the first PEGI 18 game I ever played. I loved the story, the characters, the looting/crafting system, but thought that apart from that, the gameplay wasn't anything phenomenal or revolutionary. I then played Part II the following summer, and absolutely loved it. I thought it absolutely pummeled Part I in terms of gameplay.
I was very interested in replaying the first game, firstly to see if my appreciation for the story would be unchanegd on a second playthrough, and secondly to see if the gameplay really was nothing more than good. I saw a guy on Twitter say that he didn't understand why The Last of Us was so reverred, because it was "a 10/10 story and a 8/10 gameplay", and I agreed with him. My replay changed my mind on that : it's at least a 9/10 gameplay.
First off: my replay was done on Grounded difficulty, which completely changes the game. I found myself looting way less, because it felt useless. I'm pretty sure I only found 2 firefly pendants, and I never found the flame-thrower somehow. I must've crafted 7 things in my 15 hours with the game.
I don't know if I would play on Grounded again or not. Simply put, it does strip the game of a lot of fun mechanics and items. I love throwing molotovs or nail bombs, so not getting those often made the game a bit more dull, but at the same time it did make the few instances where I got to actually use those items way more satisfying, so it evens out in the end. I will say this though: it forces you to be stealthy, against clickers especially, since you now have to sneak past them because you can't just shiv your way to victory. On my first playthrough, stealth felt like a helping hand: if I got detected, it wasn't the end of the world. In this playthrough, being detected sucked. The encounters that you can't stealth your way past are some of the hardest because of how limited your ammo and ressources are. It almost felt like a "die and retry" type game on occasions.
My conclusion for Grounded mode: play the game on hard first, then on Grounded, as the latter totally changes the game.
(This is the part where I discuss the story, I don't spoil anything except the last word of the script, which, if you haven't played the game yet, won't spoil anything for you ebcause of how out of context it is) I won't talk about the story extensively, because there is nothing I can say that will do it justice, or that hasn't already be said before. It's the best story a videogame has ever told, it's miles clear of Red Dead 2 (and that isn't a dig at Red Dead 2 as I love that story) or any other game. There's a reason most Sony exclusives nowadays are story-driven and it's The Last of Us. I do feel like people don't insist enough on how amazong the fact that this game has one of the best endings in any video game, due in no small part ot the last word being pronounced is "okay". I find that amazing.
I do want to talk more about the world-building though. Firstly, the music. I don't know if it's a guitar or a banjo or a weird string instrument, but it fits perfectly with the broken world of The Last of Us.
Secondly, the world design. The world being this mesh of nature and synthetic human constructions is visually pleasing, and a testament to how fragile our legacy is. Humans are merely a drop in Earth's sea of history, and the designers perfectly understood this. Also, it's a pretty cool parralel: humanity is being decimated by a mushroom, and the buildings we built are being decimated by vegetation. It's almost like mother nature is reclaiming her rights on Earth after leaving it to humans.
Thirdly: reading the documents, or just paying attention to the world design, really shows how sudden the apocalypse was. There is a zone you traverse through where you can see that the day the infection hit that town, there was a graduation ceremony going on. People were partyign and suddenly: world's end. It kinda reminded me of our own pandemic. When it was announced that all non-essential businesses were closing, I was at my friend's house, like every other saturday before that, and every other saturday after that, we assumed. But suddenly, our lives were changed. Suddenly, we asked the question "when will be our next saturday evening together?" rather than "whose house are we going to next saturday ?"
Finally: the realism. To quote videogamedunkey "getting anywhere is a major pain in the ass". I am sure that The Last of Us TV show will fail if it doesn't understand that the reason for which this game is so good is because the gameplay and the story mesh together perfectly. You grow attached to Ellie and Joel because you feel their struggle, you understand how monumental a feat it is to stay alive because YOU struggle to stay alive in this game, where a lot of enemies just oneshot you. You grow attached to the characters because they struggle to survive like you would struggle to survive, because they take a lot of time to get anywhere like you would: their struggle is realistic, so you empathize with them more than with anyone else. It's why people empathize with Athreus more than with Kratos: Atreus is still a normal boy, while Kratos is litteraly the God of War. People are more attached to Joel and Ellie than any other character because they feel more human than any other character (which is especially true on grounded mode where two bullets kill you).
But, that realism is also why this doesn't get the full five stars. This game is so realistic in every department... except the AI, wether that be companion AI or enemy AI. It's hard to feel immersed when Tess is running in front of a clicker that's supposed to be hyper-sensitive to sound, or when Ellie is stepping in front of me, blocking my path to cover, or she's shooting at nothing, or the clickers are only targetting me.
Also, this game is slow. I know it's a design choice, and it doesn't feel like an accident, but walking around is slow, carrying a ladder or a plank is slow, sneaking around is slow. That's not an objectively bad thing, but I do have to admit that I prefer Part II's faster pace, and think that this game could've done with a faster animations.
These are minor gripes though, the game still is phenomenal. It is however a shame that Naughty Dog didn't fix these issues (especially the AI) in this remastered version of the game.
On the day of my 18th birthday, back in 2020, I woke up, and before having to go to uni, I turned on my PS4 to do what I had waited 18 years to do : play a PEGI 18 game. It was litteraly the first thing I did: I had waited years for this moment, and I was not going to wait any longer. That game was The Last of Us.
And my first experience with the game was... good. It became one of my favourite games of all-time, sure, but a lot of that had to do with the sentimental attachment I had to it due to it being the first PEGI 18 game I ever played. I loved the story, the characters, the looting/crafting system, but thought that apart from that, the gameplay wasn't anything phenomenal or revolutionary. I then played Part II the following summer, and absolutely loved it. I thought it absolutely pummeled Part I in terms of gameplay.
I was very interested in replaying the first game, firstly to see if my appreciation for the story would be unchanegd on a second playthrough, and secondly to see if the gameplay really was nothing more than good. I saw a guy on Twitter say that he didn't understand why The Last of Us was so reverred, because it was "a 10/10 story and a 8/10 gameplay", and I agreed with him. My replay changed my mind on that : it's at least a 9/10 gameplay.
First off: my replay was done on Grounded difficulty, which completely changes the game. I found myself looting way less, because it felt useless. I'm pretty sure I only found 2 firefly pendants, and I never found the flame-thrower somehow. I must've crafted 7 things in my 15 hours with the game.
I don't know if I would play on Grounded again or not. Simply put, it does strip the game of a lot of fun mechanics and items. I love throwing molotovs or nail bombs, so not getting those often made the game a bit more dull, but at the same time it did make the few instances where I got to actually use those items way more satisfying, so it evens out in the end. I will say this though: it forces you to be stealthy, against clickers especially, since you now have to sneak past them because you can't just shiv your way to victory. On my first playthrough, stealth felt like a helping hand: if I got detected, it wasn't the end of the world. In this playthrough, being detected sucked. The encounters that you can't stealth your way past are some of the hardest because of how limited your ammo and ressources are. It almost felt like a "die and retry" type game on occasions.
My conclusion for Grounded mode: play the game on hard first, then on Grounded, as the latter totally changes the game.
(This is the part where I discuss the story, I don't spoil anything except the last word of the script, which, if you haven't played the game yet, won't spoil anything for you ebcause of how out of context it is) I won't talk about the story extensively, because there is nothing I can say that will do it justice, or that hasn't already be said before. It's the best story a videogame has ever told, it's miles clear of Red Dead 2 (and that isn't a dig at Red Dead 2 as I love that story) or any other game. There's a reason most Sony exclusives nowadays are story-driven and it's The Last of Us. I do feel like people don't insist enough on how amazong the fact that this game has one of the best endings in any video game, due in no small part ot the last word being pronounced is "okay". I find that amazing.
I do want to talk more about the world-building though. Firstly, the music. I don't know if it's a guitar or a banjo or a weird string instrument, but it fits perfectly with the broken world of The Last of Us.
Secondly, the world design. The world being this mesh of nature and synthetic human constructions is visually pleasing, and a testament to how fragile our legacy is. Humans are merely a drop in Earth's sea of history, and the designers perfectly understood this. Also, it's a pretty cool parralel: humanity is being decimated by a mushroom, and the buildings we built are being decimated by vegetation. It's almost like mother nature is reclaiming her rights on Earth after leaving it to humans.
Thirdly: reading the documents, or just paying attention to the world design, really shows how sudden the apocalypse was. There is a zone you traverse through where you can see that the day the infection hit that town, there was a graduation ceremony going on. People were partyign and suddenly: world's end. It kinda reminded me of our own pandemic. When it was announced that all non-essential businesses were closing, I was at my friend's house, like every other saturday before that, and every other saturday after that, we assumed. But suddenly, our lives were changed. Suddenly, we asked the question "when will be our next saturday evening together?" rather than "whose house are we going to next saturday ?"
Finally: the realism. To quote videogamedunkey "getting anywhere is a major pain in the ass". I am sure that The Last of Us TV show will fail if it doesn't understand that the reason for which this game is so good is because the gameplay and the story mesh together perfectly. You grow attached to Ellie and Joel because you feel their struggle, you understand how monumental a feat it is to stay alive because YOU struggle to stay alive in this game, where a lot of enemies just oneshot you. You grow attached to the characters because they struggle to survive like you would struggle to survive, because they take a lot of time to get anywhere like you would: their struggle is realistic, so you empathize with them more than with anyone else. It's why people empathize with Athreus more than with Kratos: Atreus is still a normal boy, while Kratos is litteraly the God of War. People are more attached to Joel and Ellie than any other character because they feel more human than any other character (which is especially true on grounded mode where two bullets kill you).
But, that realism is also why this doesn't get the full five stars. This game is so realistic in every department... except the AI, wether that be companion AI or enemy AI. It's hard to feel immersed when Tess is running in front of a clicker that's supposed to be hyper-sensitive to sound, or when Ellie is stepping in front of me, blocking my path to cover, or she's shooting at nothing, or the clickers are only targetting me.
Also, this game is slow. I know it's a design choice, and it doesn't feel like an accident, but walking around is slow, carrying a ladder or a plank is slow, sneaking around is slow. That's not an objectively bad thing, but I do have to admit that I prefer Part II's faster pace, and think that this game could've done with a faster animations.
These are minor gripes though, the game still is phenomenal. It is however a shame that Naughty Dog didn't fix these issues (especially the AI) in this remastered version of the game.
Summary: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze features level-design so perfect it makes you forget about the very few, small by comparison problems it has.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze nails everything a 2D platformer should nail: the level design and the music. These two components of the game are close-to-perfect. There's only one level in the whole game that was, in my opinion, bad. The rest of the game levels range from decent enough to absolutely amazing. This game is pretty slow-paced for a 2D platformer, and really emphasizes collecting everything you can see on screen. It's a very different pace to other 2D platformers, but it's by no means worse, far from it. The vehicle and rhino levels aren't the best, but they're good enough. It's just a shame that these nice changes of pace aren't as good as the usual gameplay. The rhino just controls awkwardly and the vehicle levels aren't anything amazing.
However, the game does fail with everything that surrounds the level-to-level gameplay sadly. There are only three different Kong companions: Dixie, Diddy and Cranky. Sadly, Diddy is pretty much useless as he's just a worse version of Dixxie. Dixxie allows you to float and gain a bit of height (Diddy only allows you to float). Cranky allows you to pogo off his stick. Dixxie is by far the best, for most levels, but sometimes Cranky is useful.
As for the shop, it doesn't offer anything exciting. You can buy Kong companions, hearts, ballons to save you from different hazards, mystery boxes that give you figurines (that don't look too hot)... It really isn't a very exciting way to spend the ton of banana coins you get. Also, the fact you need to equip the items you bought in the shop before the level really discouraged me from using my items, ad I didn't know what type of item would be useful.
The boss fights can be very good or quite poor. I would say they're all too long, and that the final boss is unnecessarily annoying, because of how ridiculously small his hitbox is.
Overall, I would sum up every one of my complaonts under the umbrella that the game feels rushed. The UI outside of the levels looks cheap, the shop feels like it was tacked on... I don't know if it was rushed, but the Switch re-release could've brought a few improvements with it, but it didn't sadly.
Overall, you may not understand the high grade for this game given how many things I've complained about, but with level-design this good, and a game this fun and easy to breeze through, Tropical Freeze is a masterpiece at heart, but with a few cheap aspects that stop him from being perfect.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze nails everything a 2D platformer should nail: the level design and the music. These two components of the game are close-to-perfect. There's only one level in the whole game that was, in my opinion, bad. The rest of the game levels range from decent enough to absolutely amazing. This game is pretty slow-paced for a 2D platformer, and really emphasizes collecting everything you can see on screen. It's a very different pace to other 2D platformers, but it's by no means worse, far from it. The vehicle and rhino levels aren't the best, but they're good enough. It's just a shame that these nice changes of pace aren't as good as the usual gameplay. The rhino just controls awkwardly and the vehicle levels aren't anything amazing.
However, the game does fail with everything that surrounds the level-to-level gameplay sadly. There are only three different Kong companions: Dixie, Diddy and Cranky. Sadly, Diddy is pretty much useless as he's just a worse version of Dixxie. Dixxie allows you to float and gain a bit of height (Diddy only allows you to float). Cranky allows you to pogo off his stick. Dixxie is by far the best, for most levels, but sometimes Cranky is useful.
As for the shop, it doesn't offer anything exciting. You can buy Kong companions, hearts, ballons to save you from different hazards, mystery boxes that give you figurines (that don't look too hot)... It really isn't a very exciting way to spend the ton of banana coins you get. Also, the fact you need to equip the items you bought in the shop before the level really discouraged me from using my items, ad I didn't know what type of item would be useful.
The boss fights can be very good or quite poor. I would say they're all too long, and that the final boss is unnecessarily annoying, because of how ridiculously small his hitbox is.
Overall, I would sum up every one of my complaonts under the umbrella that the game feels rushed. The UI outside of the levels looks cheap, the shop feels like it was tacked on... I don't know if it was rushed, but the Switch re-release could've brought a few improvements with it, but it didn't sadly.
Overall, you may not understand the high grade for this game given how many things I've complained about, but with level-design this good, and a game this fun and easy to breeze through, Tropical Freeze is a masterpiece at heart, but with a few cheap aspects that stop him from being perfect.
2019
This game tries something different, but for once I didn't come out of it saying "good ideas, a lot of potential, would be intrigued by a sequel" They hit a home run on the first try.
It reminded me a lot of Breath of the Wild, in the sense that it feels like *I* did everything. In Breath of the Wild, that sense of freedom makes exploring enjoyable, in this game, it makes revealing the secrets of the world immensely satisfying.
I loved this, I don't want to talk about it extensively, because I feel like that would ruin the experience for potential other players. Just know: if you're frustrated because you're feeling stuck, stick with this game, I didn't regret it. The ending is amazingly simple, it's nevertheless one of the best endings in video games ever.
Also the soundtrack is amazing.
It reminded me a lot of Breath of the Wild, in the sense that it feels like *I* did everything. In Breath of the Wild, that sense of freedom makes exploring enjoyable, in this game, it makes revealing the secrets of the world immensely satisfying.
I loved this, I don't want to talk about it extensively, because I feel like that would ruin the experience for potential other players. Just know: if you're frustrated because you're feeling stuck, stick with this game, I didn't regret it. The ending is amazingly simple, it's nevertheless one of the best endings in video games ever.
Also the soundtrack is amazing.
2013
This review contains spoilers
It cannot be stressed enough : GTA V is Rockstar's magnum opus, and one of the most impressive and immersive game ever. The radio stations are an example of this: so much licenced music, and in my 30 hours with the game, I didn't hear a single repeat radio talk-show segment. There was so much voice acting done for this game, it's very impressive.
On the gameplay side of things, GTA V is, once again, very impressive because of how much stuff there is. You can play tennis, you can go to see your therapist, you can run a triathlon, you can fly a plane, ride a boat, shoot, make stuff explode, fist fight... It doesn't do anything amazingly well (even though the flying is quite impressive honestly), but the sheer diversity of things that there are to do more than makes up for the average gameplay of everything. I do need to talk about the driving though: it is insanely fun. Thankfully, Rockstar remembered that this game is called Grand Theft AUTO, and they really made the driving very good. Every car feels different, it's fun to try and go at high speeds without crashing into other drivers. I would've liked the CPU to put a turning indicator when it switches lanes, because it happened quite often for me to drive on the back of a car that was switching lanes abruptly, but apart from that, the driving is perfect. A big difference between this game and Red Dead Redemption II is that I actually didn't mind coing to the other side of the map for a side-quest, because getting there is fun, and I just can't say the same for Red Dead, where horse-riding is not fun at all.
The shooting isn't fun though. The auto-aim is a bit too powerfull (you just need to flick your stick up to get a headshot, because you'll automatically aim for the chest of the enemy), and I honestly can't tell the difference between most weapons. The shotgun doesn't feel like a traditional video-game shotgun because of its range for example.
You may think that the underwhelming shooting makes the missions dissapointing, but that isn't quite true. The missiosn focused on shooting are a bit boring. I noticed this during Trevor's first missions, where all you do is shoot stuff, which is pretty in line with Trevor's character, but underwhelming from the gameplay perspective. However, most missions focus on other things, or at least have other things in them (driving, flying a plane/helicopter) or put the shooting in an interesting context (a heist, an infiltration...). Often, there is a "drive to this point on the map" part to the mission, which is used to dump exposition dialogue, but these are fine because, again, the driving is terrific. These travel sequences are way worse in Red Dead Redemption II (I do prefer Red Dead II to GTA V but let's just say my love for that game comes from other places than the story missions).
Furthermore, the stories these missions tell are often quite good, so you're encouraged to complete them. They're often wacky, funny, crazy, featuring good dialogue. This game doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good. The overarching story however isn't bad, but it is held back by a lot of pacing issues. This game does not know how to end itself. Just when you're about to get the big heist going, which gets you excited, Trevor decides to go back to North Yankton, and shit just hits the fan, both for the characters, and for this game's pacing. Before you get to that Heist you really want to do, and that you've already started to plan by the way, you need to : save Michael, do another completely different Heist for the Bureau, end the bureau ark (which gets Trevor back in the story), end Michael's family ark, save Lamar (who gets completely forgotten for half the story) and then you get to do the Heist. Don't get me wrong, I like those arks individually, but they should've ended sooner to not clutter the end of the story. This game simply does not know when to end its different arks. And the actual endind to the game is... dissapointing. They force a multiple endind story, which really doesn't make sense, or feel earned. You can guess that getting Trevor killed is still on the mind of the Bureau, but the "kill Michael" option just comes out of left-field and comes out as just an option to make this a three-way choice rather than a binary one. But even then, the first option doesn't feel all that deserved: the game doesn't do a great job at making it clear that the Bureau still wants Trevor dead. So that option to kill Trevor is weird, because it feels like the end to a storyline that started before the game's main action takes place, and isn't really developed throughout the game.
So, you can either kill Trevor, kill Michael, or save both. Clearly, the way Rockstar wants you to pick is the third option. Killing Michael makes no sense for Franklin's character, and Michael is pretty much the main character of this game. Killing Trevor is a bit more plausible, because he is clearly the principle antagonistic force of the game, but why would the player stop himself from using him in the future by killing him ? Furthermore, why would Franklin, a character who is known to be loyal to a fault, kill a guy who helped him multiple times ?? The multiple choice ending is forced, and the Rockstar-intented ending isn't very good. You just kill every antagonist in the game, and all your problems are solved somhow. So firstly, why did no one do that before if it were that easy ?? Secondly, the game doesn't really have a main antagonist, so the tail-end to the game, which doesn't even see you kill the most unlikable antagonist of the game, is a bit meh.
I do have to end on what GTA V is most known for: the free-roaming. It is excellent. Everything is fun, the web browser was a great idea, full of fun little things to do. The stock markets are a really underrated part of the game in my opinion. You can't make tons of money with them, but they're fun to fuddle around with, and see the stocks of comanies you interact with fluctuate depending on your actions in the game. Getting in trouble is fun, even though losing the police is a tad too easy in my opinion. There are so many activities that I won't even start to talk about them here, I'll just list a few I liked : street races, triathlon, plane trials, shooting range. The side quests, entitled Strangers, are fun. They highlight gameplay elements you don't necessarily see in the main story, and develop everyone's characters quite well, through interactions with fun characters. The towing missions aren't amazing gameplay-wise, but they really show how loyal to a fault Franklin is, which make him even more likable to me.
GTA V is an amazing game, and is a fun version of Red Dead II. That game is amazing in its own right (again, I prefer Red Dead II to GTA even though I think GTA is the better game), but the gameplay wasn't that fun, because it tries so hard to be immersive that it becomes realistic, which isn't the same at all. I can feel immersed in a game without having to sit through a 3 second animation every time I want to loot someone. GTA V is immersive becaus eof how varied it is in its gameplay, because of its presentation, but it doesn't sacrifice fun. However, the story, while it is fun when looked at mission-by-mission, is terribly paced, and it really kills the enjoyment I had of the game in the last few hours, and made me put the controller down immediatly after I was done with the last mission, which is a shame.
On the gameplay side of things, GTA V is, once again, very impressive because of how much stuff there is. You can play tennis, you can go to see your therapist, you can run a triathlon, you can fly a plane, ride a boat, shoot, make stuff explode, fist fight... It doesn't do anything amazingly well (even though the flying is quite impressive honestly), but the sheer diversity of things that there are to do more than makes up for the average gameplay of everything. I do need to talk about the driving though: it is insanely fun. Thankfully, Rockstar remembered that this game is called Grand Theft AUTO, and they really made the driving very good. Every car feels different, it's fun to try and go at high speeds without crashing into other drivers. I would've liked the CPU to put a turning indicator when it switches lanes, because it happened quite often for me to drive on the back of a car that was switching lanes abruptly, but apart from that, the driving is perfect. A big difference between this game and Red Dead Redemption II is that I actually didn't mind coing to the other side of the map for a side-quest, because getting there is fun, and I just can't say the same for Red Dead, where horse-riding is not fun at all.
The shooting isn't fun though. The auto-aim is a bit too powerfull (you just need to flick your stick up to get a headshot, because you'll automatically aim for the chest of the enemy), and I honestly can't tell the difference between most weapons. The shotgun doesn't feel like a traditional video-game shotgun because of its range for example.
You may think that the underwhelming shooting makes the missions dissapointing, but that isn't quite true. The missiosn focused on shooting are a bit boring. I noticed this during Trevor's first missions, where all you do is shoot stuff, which is pretty in line with Trevor's character, but underwhelming from the gameplay perspective. However, most missions focus on other things, or at least have other things in them (driving, flying a plane/helicopter) or put the shooting in an interesting context (a heist, an infiltration...). Often, there is a "drive to this point on the map" part to the mission, which is used to dump exposition dialogue, but these are fine because, again, the driving is terrific. These travel sequences are way worse in Red Dead Redemption II (I do prefer Red Dead II to GTA V but let's just say my love for that game comes from other places than the story missions).
Furthermore, the stories these missions tell are often quite good, so you're encouraged to complete them. They're often wacky, funny, crazy, featuring good dialogue. This game doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good. The overarching story however isn't bad, but it is held back by a lot of pacing issues. This game does not know how to end itself. Just when you're about to get the big heist going, which gets you excited, Trevor decides to go back to North Yankton, and shit just hits the fan, both for the characters, and for this game's pacing. Before you get to that Heist you really want to do, and that you've already started to plan by the way, you need to : save Michael, do another completely different Heist for the Bureau, end the bureau ark (which gets Trevor back in the story), end Michael's family ark, save Lamar (who gets completely forgotten for half the story) and then you get to do the Heist. Don't get me wrong, I like those arks individually, but they should've ended sooner to not clutter the end of the story. This game simply does not know when to end its different arks. And the actual endind to the game is... dissapointing. They force a multiple endind story, which really doesn't make sense, or feel earned. You can guess that getting Trevor killed is still on the mind of the Bureau, but the "kill Michael" option just comes out of left-field and comes out as just an option to make this a three-way choice rather than a binary one. But even then, the first option doesn't feel all that deserved: the game doesn't do a great job at making it clear that the Bureau still wants Trevor dead. So that option to kill Trevor is weird, because it feels like the end to a storyline that started before the game's main action takes place, and isn't really developed throughout the game.
So, you can either kill Trevor, kill Michael, or save both. Clearly, the way Rockstar wants you to pick is the third option. Killing Michael makes no sense for Franklin's character, and Michael is pretty much the main character of this game. Killing Trevor is a bit more plausible, because he is clearly the principle antagonistic force of the game, but why would the player stop himself from using him in the future by killing him ? Furthermore, why would Franklin, a character who is known to be loyal to a fault, kill a guy who helped him multiple times ?? The multiple choice ending is forced, and the Rockstar-intented ending isn't very good. You just kill every antagonist in the game, and all your problems are solved somhow. So firstly, why did no one do that before if it were that easy ?? Secondly, the game doesn't really have a main antagonist, so the tail-end to the game, which doesn't even see you kill the most unlikable antagonist of the game, is a bit meh.
I do have to end on what GTA V is most known for: the free-roaming. It is excellent. Everything is fun, the web browser was a great idea, full of fun little things to do. The stock markets are a really underrated part of the game in my opinion. You can't make tons of money with them, but they're fun to fuddle around with, and see the stocks of comanies you interact with fluctuate depending on your actions in the game. Getting in trouble is fun, even though losing the police is a tad too easy in my opinion. There are so many activities that I won't even start to talk about them here, I'll just list a few I liked : street races, triathlon, plane trials, shooting range. The side quests, entitled Strangers, are fun. They highlight gameplay elements you don't necessarily see in the main story, and develop everyone's characters quite well, through interactions with fun characters. The towing missions aren't amazing gameplay-wise, but they really show how loyal to a fault Franklin is, which make him even more likable to me.
GTA V is an amazing game, and is a fun version of Red Dead II. That game is amazing in its own right (again, I prefer Red Dead II to GTA even though I think GTA is the better game), but the gameplay wasn't that fun, because it tries so hard to be immersive that it becomes realistic, which isn't the same at all. I can feel immersed in a game without having to sit through a 3 second animation every time I want to loot someone. GTA V is immersive becaus eof how varied it is in its gameplay, because of its presentation, but it doesn't sacrifice fun. However, the story, while it is fun when looked at mission-by-mission, is terribly paced, and it really kills the enjoyment I had of the game in the last few hours, and made me put the controller down immediatly after I was done with the last mission, which is a shame.
2018
A Way Out is very unique. I'd call it both a callback to older video games, and a testament to how far games have come in the past decade.
I say this because it's pitch is simple: a modern, story-driven game, combined to an old-school, couch multiplayer game. That is a very interesting pitch, and in the most part, it's executed quite well.
First off, the game has good ideas. For example, I thought playing the whole game in split-screen was really dumb at first. Then I realised it was a very good idea, as it really gives you the impression of being on the same couch as your friend. There's one instance where splitscreen is super dumb though as it directly contradicts gameplay, a moment which I won't spoil. But overall, this is the kind of really good idea A Way Out has. Hell, the pitch itself is a great idea: escaping prison with a friend ? That sounds cool !
The story is really good. It's a bit basic, but the characters are very enjoyable, their backstories are interesting, their dynamic is good... There's more to it than just "get out of prison". There are a few interesting plots in here as well, making the story the best part of this multiplayer game, which feels weird, but is what the game aims for.
As for gameplay, A Way Out focuses on variety more than quality. The game isn't that great in this department. a lot of the game is just a QTE basically, but the context of those QTEs are what make it interesting. It's also great that the game changes up its gameplay so often, because it would get really boring really quickly if not. The little minigames you can face your partner in are probably the best parts of this game apart from teh story.
However, this game does have its problems. As I said, the gameplay isn't the best thing out there. I've heard that It Takes Two does a way better job at this.
Also, the shooting sucks. It isn't enjoyable at all. You could say the same thing about stealth. For 90% of the game, this isn't a problem. However, the last 10% is mostly gunfighting, and those final 10% are easily the worst part of the game. See, every variation in the gameplay is fun because you only get to do it occasionaly. The first time we got a gun, I was really jealous of my friend because he was the one with it. My friend told me it wasn't the most enjoyable shooting he'd done, but who cares ? After all, this was just a one off. Like I said earlier, the gameplay isn't the greatest, but the context, the scarcity of the different phases of gameplay is what makes them enjoyable. So, when the game showers you in its terrible shooting, the fact that it isn't good isn't an excuse anymore, since you're not ecstatic about finally getting a weapon anymore.
And finally: the whole thing feels cheap. The animations are stiff, the cutscences often have robot-faces, the art-style feels like they tried to hide the fact that they couldn't do the best job at making the game look good, and so they decided to make it a cartoony, simplistic artstyle, which doesn't really fit the tone of the game, and that simply makes everything look like it's made of plastic.
This was however a very enjoyable time, maybe a bit too long, especially during the previously mentioned final 10%, but a good story, enjoyable enough, varied gameplay should make for a great time with a friend. A Way Out manages to fulfill its ambitious vision, without perfectly executing it sure, but for a first try at what I would call a new genre of games, this is very promising.
I say this because it's pitch is simple: a modern, story-driven game, combined to an old-school, couch multiplayer game. That is a very interesting pitch, and in the most part, it's executed quite well.
First off, the game has good ideas. For example, I thought playing the whole game in split-screen was really dumb at first. Then I realised it was a very good idea, as it really gives you the impression of being on the same couch as your friend. There's one instance where splitscreen is super dumb though as it directly contradicts gameplay, a moment which I won't spoil. But overall, this is the kind of really good idea A Way Out has. Hell, the pitch itself is a great idea: escaping prison with a friend ? That sounds cool !
The story is really good. It's a bit basic, but the characters are very enjoyable, their backstories are interesting, their dynamic is good... There's more to it than just "get out of prison". There are a few interesting plots in here as well, making the story the best part of this multiplayer game, which feels weird, but is what the game aims for.
As for gameplay, A Way Out focuses on variety more than quality. The game isn't that great in this department. a lot of the game is just a QTE basically, but the context of those QTEs are what make it interesting. It's also great that the game changes up its gameplay so often, because it would get really boring really quickly if not. The little minigames you can face your partner in are probably the best parts of this game apart from teh story.
However, this game does have its problems. As I said, the gameplay isn't the best thing out there. I've heard that It Takes Two does a way better job at this.
Also, the shooting sucks. It isn't enjoyable at all. You could say the same thing about stealth. For 90% of the game, this isn't a problem. However, the last 10% is mostly gunfighting, and those final 10% are easily the worst part of the game. See, every variation in the gameplay is fun because you only get to do it occasionaly. The first time we got a gun, I was really jealous of my friend because he was the one with it. My friend told me it wasn't the most enjoyable shooting he'd done, but who cares ? After all, this was just a one off. Like I said earlier, the gameplay isn't the greatest, but the context, the scarcity of the different phases of gameplay is what makes them enjoyable. So, when the game showers you in its terrible shooting, the fact that it isn't good isn't an excuse anymore, since you're not ecstatic about finally getting a weapon anymore.
And finally: the whole thing feels cheap. The animations are stiff, the cutscences often have robot-faces, the art-style feels like they tried to hide the fact that they couldn't do the best job at making the game look good, and so they decided to make it a cartoony, simplistic artstyle, which doesn't really fit the tone of the game, and that simply makes everything look like it's made of plastic.
This was however a very enjoyable time, maybe a bit too long, especially during the previously mentioned final 10%, but a good story, enjoyable enough, varied gameplay should make for a great time with a friend. A Way Out manages to fulfill its ambitious vision, without perfectly executing it sure, but for a first try at what I would call a new genre of games, this is very promising.
2010
An indy classic, Super Meat Boy is one of those games every gamer has heard of, says "oh yeah I'll check it out eventually". Well, I checked it out, after litteral years of saying that I'd buy it next time it was on sale.
Honestly, this game isn't insanely hard. It's challenging yeah, but the main batch of levels isn't that hard. I stopped playing dark world levels three worlds in, because I kinda wanted to be done with the game, but they were definitely more challenging. Also, the bonus world looked like hell, but again, I didn't try it out.
This game is hella satisfying though I'll be honest. It's challenging, rarely getting frustrating, so it makes you really enjoy progressing through it, and completing a tough level makes you feel like a total god. This is due to very good level design, striking a perfect balance between giving a challenge and being fair.
However, I do feel like the game's level design, while good, isn't varied enough to justify nearly every world having 20 levels in them, to which you can add 20 dark world levels. I feel like less levels would've benefited this game, as some of the levels felt a bit samey, because new gimmicks weren't introduced regularly enough. Comparing this to Super Mario 3D World, where every stage has a new gimmick, really highlights the problem (even though that is a tough comaprison given that Super Mario 3D World is one of the best platformers ever). So you already have 20 stages in a single world, without much variation of game play between those stages, and you then have to add 20 dark world stages, which are litteraly the same levels but harder, and the lack of varety really shines, and that may explain why I lost interest in the dark world pretty quickly.
Also, on the technical side of things, there was one part of the moveset that really annoyed me, and that is that sometimes, you need to wait a quarter of a second after landing to be able to jump again. This may not seem like much, but it can be a bit annoying when you're trying to go fast. You may say "slow down then", but the game encourages you to go fast by giving you an A+ grade on the level if you can beat it quickly enough. So yeah, a bit of a contradictory design decision there, but nothing major.
I'd recomend this, but don't binge play it. Play it while playing through another game at the same time, so that you don't get burnt out by it.
Honestly, this game isn't insanely hard. It's challenging yeah, but the main batch of levels isn't that hard. I stopped playing dark world levels three worlds in, because I kinda wanted to be done with the game, but they were definitely more challenging. Also, the bonus world looked like hell, but again, I didn't try it out.
This game is hella satisfying though I'll be honest. It's challenging, rarely getting frustrating, so it makes you really enjoy progressing through it, and completing a tough level makes you feel like a total god. This is due to very good level design, striking a perfect balance between giving a challenge and being fair.
However, I do feel like the game's level design, while good, isn't varied enough to justify nearly every world having 20 levels in them, to which you can add 20 dark world levels. I feel like less levels would've benefited this game, as some of the levels felt a bit samey, because new gimmicks weren't introduced regularly enough. Comparing this to Super Mario 3D World, where every stage has a new gimmick, really highlights the problem (even though that is a tough comaprison given that Super Mario 3D World is one of the best platformers ever). So you already have 20 stages in a single world, without much variation of game play between those stages, and you then have to add 20 dark world stages, which are litteraly the same levels but harder, and the lack of varety really shines, and that may explain why I lost interest in the dark world pretty quickly.
Also, on the technical side of things, there was one part of the moveset that really annoyed me, and that is that sometimes, you need to wait a quarter of a second after landing to be able to jump again. This may not seem like much, but it can be a bit annoying when you're trying to go fast. You may say "slow down then", but the game encourages you to go fast by giving you an A+ grade on the level if you can beat it quickly enough. So yeah, a bit of a contradictory design decision there, but nothing major.
I'd recomend this, but don't binge play it. Play it while playing through another game at the same time, so that you don't get burnt out by it.
Summary : Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was an ambitious project, maybe too ambitious. A Lego Star Wars Open World game, giving you the possibility to explore every planet seen in the movies (except for Kijimi), and relive the events of the movies with that classic Lego charm ?? Sign me up !! However, the game wants too much, throwing countless meaningless objectives at you, which makes the game feel quite boring after a while. The story levels aren't great, playing through them in quick play is a catastrophe. However, the open-world, the vast roster of characters and ships, the humor, and the attention to detail make this a very good game for Lego Star Wars fans ( even though you should not try to 100% it) and a very average game for non-Lego Star Wars fans.
This game is not a game for kids, it's a game for those who grew up with The Complete Saga, like me. To accomplish this objective of aiming for a more mature audience, the game isn't designed as the other Lego games. It's a third person action game, with different character classes, and a ton of young adult humor. You'll find plenty of Star Wars memes exploited by the writers, but also references to the real world. This game doesn't hide its target audience. The exploitation of the memes is so good that I don't regret the good old days of Lego mumble anymore.
The gameplay varies wildly in quality, to a point where I need to split this up in multiple parts to get every thought organised.
The open world is great. Exploration is fun. This game clearly has inspiration from Super Mario Odyssey with its collectathon style gameplay. The quality of the planets you explore changes a lot from planet to planet. Endor is terrible, being a maze of small claustrophobic platforms on multiple floors, while Yavin 4 was way more enjoyable. There is no doubt that the game really overdoes it though. There are more than 1100 kyberbricks to collect. You'll find 270 in levels, sure, but the rest are in the open world, just waiting to be found. If you thought Super Mario Odyssey had filler moons, wait until you see this game. This isn't a terrible problem, but it's one of the factors that made me quit my 100% playthrough after I was something like 65% in.
We need to talk about the side quests, because they are some of the worst ever. They are all the same: either an NPC will ask you to protect them on their way, or they'll ask you to go fetch X amount of a certain item (which can be on a different planet of course), or they'll ask you to fight a space battle. The only one that sticks out that I can think about on the 15 planets I completed the exploration of was on Exegol, where I was charged with fighting 5 short boss fights, with every boss being very different from the other personality wise. But even then, the fights themselves were pretty much identical. What's really bad is that there are 140 of them. Even if every one of them was unique, that would already be too much. Breath of the Wild has like 75. Just to add insult to injury, the game only rewards you with either kyber bricks (lame), characters that you mostly don't care about (like a variant of a stormtrooper for example), or a capital ship. The capital ships are really cool, basically unlocking them allows you to call a huge ship, like the Death Star, and explore it. It's a shame you can't pilot them though, and that they're pretty small, and that the side quests to unlock them SUCK. I only did two out of the 6, but both were simply "we need you to go get this". What a shame.
Space exploration now: it's surprisingly good. The races in space are fun, they were really well layed out, and really made me feel the speed of the ships I was flying. The shooting challenges are pretty good as well. The space battles are fun the first couple of times, but get pretty tiring pretty quick.
The levels now. Oh boy what a flop. They suck. The worslt levels in any Lego game ever. I just wanted to be done with them and move on to the exploration to be honest. The boss fights are cool, it's a shame they force feed you unnecessary QTEs. Free Play is a complete miss, as it often makes certain side objectives hard to get. Side objectives, as an idea, aren't bad. But, in this game, they most often come down to just "do this funny thing haha" and sometimes don't even work. They feel like more of a chore than anything.
Controls aren't the best either. You often end up doing an action by pressing the circle button that you didn't want to do. How many times, as a Jedi, did I break apart a protocol droid instead of force lifting something. Why is breaking apart a protocol droid an option, if you're not playing as the protocol droid ?? It's totally useless and gets in the way.
The game's pacing is pretty slow. Like they sometimes show you something during a level, but for some reason the camerajust lingers there. For example, a group of enemis will appear, and the camera will show them. The enemies will start firing at you, and the camera will just stay there. Sure the enemies can't damage you as you're still in a cutscene, but it just slows the game down so much. Also, the UI sucks. Like badly. The hologram isn't bad, but some of the menu placements are weird (why are the level side objectives not placed with the levels themselves ???) and the HUD is sooooo slow. Often, when I unlocked a ship for example, it would show me the ship once, and not have time to finish its animation before I entered a room or collected something else. Because it didn't have time to finish, the game just decided to show the ship unlock again. If the animation was shorter, like 2 seconds instead of the 5 or 6 it actually takes, this problem wouldn't exist.
So, you may be asking, why am I giving it a 3.5/5, which is the third highest score I give games, if it's so flawed ?? Well, simply, this game is magical for a Star Wars game. If you aren't a Star Wars/ Lego Star Wars fan, don't play this game. It's pretty unremarkable for an average gamer. But, as a young adult who grew up with The Complete Saga, who discovered vide games through Lego Star Wars, and discovered Star Wars through Lego, this game was amazing. It's very funny, the character interactions in free play are funny, the exploration is amazing if you consume it in small doses. Never did I think I would say this about a Lego Star Wars game, but this game made me realise just how subjective a critic of a video game is. This game really asks the question of how we should critique a game that is made for a specific part of the population. Objectively, this game isn't great, but it isn't meant to be amazing for everyone, it's meant to be an hommage to Star Wars and to Lego Star Wars, it's meant to be a "fan service game". If you like Lego Star Wars, buy this. If you don't, don't buy this.
This game is not a game for kids, it's a game for those who grew up with The Complete Saga, like me. To accomplish this objective of aiming for a more mature audience, the game isn't designed as the other Lego games. It's a third person action game, with different character classes, and a ton of young adult humor. You'll find plenty of Star Wars memes exploited by the writers, but also references to the real world. This game doesn't hide its target audience. The exploitation of the memes is so good that I don't regret the good old days of Lego mumble anymore.
The gameplay varies wildly in quality, to a point where I need to split this up in multiple parts to get every thought organised.
The open world is great. Exploration is fun. This game clearly has inspiration from Super Mario Odyssey with its collectathon style gameplay. The quality of the planets you explore changes a lot from planet to planet. Endor is terrible, being a maze of small claustrophobic platforms on multiple floors, while Yavin 4 was way more enjoyable. There is no doubt that the game really overdoes it though. There are more than 1100 kyberbricks to collect. You'll find 270 in levels, sure, but the rest are in the open world, just waiting to be found. If you thought Super Mario Odyssey had filler moons, wait until you see this game. This isn't a terrible problem, but it's one of the factors that made me quit my 100% playthrough after I was something like 65% in.
We need to talk about the side quests, because they are some of the worst ever. They are all the same: either an NPC will ask you to protect them on their way, or they'll ask you to go fetch X amount of a certain item (which can be on a different planet of course), or they'll ask you to fight a space battle. The only one that sticks out that I can think about on the 15 planets I completed the exploration of was on Exegol, where I was charged with fighting 5 short boss fights, with every boss being very different from the other personality wise. But even then, the fights themselves were pretty much identical. What's really bad is that there are 140 of them. Even if every one of them was unique, that would already be too much. Breath of the Wild has like 75. Just to add insult to injury, the game only rewards you with either kyber bricks (lame), characters that you mostly don't care about (like a variant of a stormtrooper for example), or a capital ship. The capital ships are really cool, basically unlocking them allows you to call a huge ship, like the Death Star, and explore it. It's a shame you can't pilot them though, and that they're pretty small, and that the side quests to unlock them SUCK. I only did two out of the 6, but both were simply "we need you to go get this". What a shame.
Space exploration now: it's surprisingly good. The races in space are fun, they were really well layed out, and really made me feel the speed of the ships I was flying. The shooting challenges are pretty good as well. The space battles are fun the first couple of times, but get pretty tiring pretty quick.
The levels now. Oh boy what a flop. They suck. The worslt levels in any Lego game ever. I just wanted to be done with them and move on to the exploration to be honest. The boss fights are cool, it's a shame they force feed you unnecessary QTEs. Free Play is a complete miss, as it often makes certain side objectives hard to get. Side objectives, as an idea, aren't bad. But, in this game, they most often come down to just "do this funny thing haha" and sometimes don't even work. They feel like more of a chore than anything.
Controls aren't the best either. You often end up doing an action by pressing the circle button that you didn't want to do. How many times, as a Jedi, did I break apart a protocol droid instead of force lifting something. Why is breaking apart a protocol droid an option, if you're not playing as the protocol droid ?? It's totally useless and gets in the way.
The game's pacing is pretty slow. Like they sometimes show you something during a level, but for some reason the camerajust lingers there. For example, a group of enemis will appear, and the camera will show them. The enemies will start firing at you, and the camera will just stay there. Sure the enemies can't damage you as you're still in a cutscene, but it just slows the game down so much. Also, the UI sucks. Like badly. The hologram isn't bad, but some of the menu placements are weird (why are the level side objectives not placed with the levels themselves ???) and the HUD is sooooo slow. Often, when I unlocked a ship for example, it would show me the ship once, and not have time to finish its animation before I entered a room or collected something else. Because it didn't have time to finish, the game just decided to show the ship unlock again. If the animation was shorter, like 2 seconds instead of the 5 or 6 it actually takes, this problem wouldn't exist.
So, you may be asking, why am I giving it a 3.5/5, which is the third highest score I give games, if it's so flawed ?? Well, simply, this game is magical for a Star Wars game. If you aren't a Star Wars/ Lego Star Wars fan, don't play this game. It's pretty unremarkable for an average gamer. But, as a young adult who grew up with The Complete Saga, who discovered vide games through Lego Star Wars, and discovered Star Wars through Lego, this game was amazing. It's very funny, the character interactions in free play are funny, the exploration is amazing if you consume it in small doses. Never did I think I would say this about a Lego Star Wars game, but this game made me realise just how subjective a critic of a video game is. This game really asks the question of how we should critique a game that is made for a specific part of the population. Objectively, this game isn't great, but it isn't meant to be amazing for everyone, it's meant to be an hommage to Star Wars and to Lego Star Wars, it's meant to be a "fan service game". If you like Lego Star Wars, buy this. If you don't, don't buy this.
2019
A Short Hike is a very small game, that costs 7 euros. Yet it is the best emulation of life I have seen in video games.
Simply put, no game has ever come this close to emulating what a summer day feels like. You just wander around the island, talking to neighbors, with very simple yet charming dialogue, going from little activity to little activity, discovering a thousand very small things.
I could talk about the gameplay, or go more in depth about why this is fun. But really, I don't want to. Firstly, because if I described the gameplay, you'd think this game sucks because it's very basic and is basically a mash-up of Animal Crossing and BOTW/Celeste. But most importantly, this game is an experience, one of the few games where I wasn't constantmy judging it, critiquing it in my brain. I just got immersed. Play this, because no review will ever translate how perfect it is.
I'm holding back a star because I just feel like I can't give 5 stars to a game this short, even though its short length is one of its strongest assets.
Simply put, no game has ever come this close to emulating what a summer day feels like. You just wander around the island, talking to neighbors, with very simple yet charming dialogue, going from little activity to little activity, discovering a thousand very small things.
I could talk about the gameplay, or go more in depth about why this is fun. But really, I don't want to. Firstly, because if I described the gameplay, you'd think this game sucks because it's very basic and is basically a mash-up of Animal Crossing and BOTW/Celeste. But most importantly, this game is an experience, one of the few games where I wasn't constantmy judging it, critiquing it in my brain. I just got immersed. Play this, because no review will ever translate how perfect it is.
I'm holding back a star because I just feel like I can't give 5 stars to a game this short, even though its short length is one of its strongest assets.
This had no right to be this good, but the sandbox is really fun, you really feel like a kid playing with his toybox. Also, the main levels offer more than decent platforming fun.