Trailtext
2023
I haven’t played the original RE4 just because I never really wanted to, so I was the perfect target demographic for this one. What I got was a well paced, excellent 3rd person shooter that I could not put down. The gunplay is excellent, the puzzles are good but not annoying, and the inventory management was in and of itself very enjoyable. But it wasn’t the best survival horror remake I’ve played this year. My biggest problem with this game is the general player expression feeling pretty limited. Compared to a game like the Dead Space remake, in which the original’s biggest inspiration was the original RE4, the tools that game gives you to take care of enemies are way more varied, and just more fun to play with than RE4R’s pretty standard selection of weapons. While RE4’s gameplay is something I never really got tired of, 90% of my gameplay was lining up headshots. I played using gyro aim, and I guarantee this was one of the reasons it never got boring. For what it’s worth, playing through this was probably the most fun I’ve had with gyro ever. I heard the implementation is bad on PS5 but you should give it a shot anyway.
Anyways, great game, worth your money, you gotta play it. But play Dead Space too.
Anyways, great game, worth your money, you gotta play it. But play Dead Space too.
2003
A jump into the more cult-y side of the series that I really didn't have experience on, but really had fun with nonetheless. Half of the game takes place outside of Silent Hill, But every level inside and outside of the location was a clever, disorienting labyrinth that I never got tired of running through.
Art direction is a little more confident this time around, really pushing the fear factor up to 11. Silent Hill 2 had a more muted color palette, especially in the hell world sections that followed the regular looking areas. 3's hell sections are blood red, vibrant, and terrifying. I never wanted to get through areas faster, and not because they were bad or boring. They made me feel genuinely unsafe, and I loved every second of it.
Honestly, I didn't care about the plot too much, I found it way less interesting than what 2 had going on, apart from the fact that it was nice reading things that helped me learn more about the inner workings of the town. Heather is a great protagonist though. Not a quip machine, really, but she does have a lot of sass and has great genuine character moments. I liked the idea of her hatred for the person who wronged her being sustenance for the antichrist she was pregnant with, but I don't think they really stuck the landing with that particular plot thread. Would've been a great throughline but they spend too much time on shit that wasn't very important.
They're probably not going to remake this one, and it's not the most accessible game ever. With the PC port being pretty annoying to get working even with fan patches, and the general struggle of emulation, I can't really recommend playing this unofficially. But to my knowledge there really aren't a lot of options. So, it's really up to you.
Art direction is a little more confident this time around, really pushing the fear factor up to 11. Silent Hill 2 had a more muted color palette, especially in the hell world sections that followed the regular looking areas. 3's hell sections are blood red, vibrant, and terrifying. I never wanted to get through areas faster, and not because they were bad or boring. They made me feel genuinely unsafe, and I loved every second of it.
Honestly, I didn't care about the plot too much, I found it way less interesting than what 2 had going on, apart from the fact that it was nice reading things that helped me learn more about the inner workings of the town. Heather is a great protagonist though. Not a quip machine, really, but she does have a lot of sass and has great genuine character moments. I liked the idea of her hatred for the person who wronged her being sustenance for the antichrist she was pregnant with, but I don't think they really stuck the landing with that particular plot thread. Would've been a great throughline but they spend too much time on shit that wasn't very important.
They're probably not going to remake this one, and it's not the most accessible game ever. With the PC port being pretty annoying to get working even with fan patches, and the general struggle of emulation, I can't really recommend playing this unofficially. But to my knowledge there really aren't a lot of options. So, it's really up to you.
2002
Fusion is fine. It thrives on its creative and weird enemies, the art direction, which is a fun amalgamation of organic and sci-fi settings, and it’s genuinely clever story that pulls the narrative string loosely holding the previous games together nice and tight. I should love it. Fusion should be my favorite in the series, and for a while it was. I haven’t played it in a few years, and it made me forget how frustrating the moment to moment actually is. I think most of its problems stem from a team trying to extend the runtime of a very short game using its portable nature as a crutch. A normal playthrough is around 4 hours, but I swear if it wasn’t for the absurd amount of “Metroid moments” and insane difficulty it’d probably be an hour shorter. I’ve played through it a few times, but it’s been a while, and while I can remember most of how the game goes, I forget the details, and that made getting stuck in rooms or areas with no visible way out annoying. And I’m not one to be scared of a challenge, but this shit was ridiculous. So many bosses take up so much space in an arena and move in such a way that it’s impossible to avoid damage, and that damage is a nice 2 of your 10 or 11 E-tanks, instantly gone. Ripping my fucking hair out. Who’s idea was this
2022
One of the best games Nintendo has made, one of the best multiplayer shooters ever made, and the last bastion of traditionally monetized AAA multiplayer games. In my circle of real life and online friends I’ve found this game to be pretty unpopular for whatever reason. To vehemently disagree, I’ve found Splatoon 3 to be unbelievably fun and exciting. The gameplay is tighter than ever, the modes, from turf war, to ranked to Salmon Run all feel fresh off the second game and the skill ceiling has been raised even higher with new movement mechanics that are hard to master, but not too difficult to execute meaningfully or counter. The campaign is lackluster, minus the genuinely great final stretch that I wish extended to the rest of it. It’s easy to overlook though, after I take into account that it was around five hours of my 110 total, with dozens and perhaps even hundreds to go. I love this game so much
2023
A game made with such genuine love and passion for the medium of video games and palpable nostalgia for the era it’s trying to capture. Hi-Fi Rush is very deceptive, demanding way more from me as a player than the average action game with the rhythm mechanics, they frustrated me a lot at first but I came to really understand and appreciate how well it actually works. A huge emphasis on parries and patience in combo execution to get high ranks is the most Alek shit ever and it was such a good challenge to take on. It’s all held together by a pretty simple, but enjoyable story and cast of characters. I really believe a sequel with a more diverse use of music genres and more open level design could be an actual for real masterpiece.
2021
Returnal is a rogue-like in every way, except for the fact that it's missing the best part of most of them. It's a great third person shooter and bullet hell game, with great enemy and weapon variety, and a genius difficulty curve that's hard enough to knock me on my ass, but not hard enough to frustrate and turn me away. Movement mechanics are so tight, the grapple hook and dash dodge are as good as I could ask for. What's tripping me up is how it omits the most important part of a roguelike, that being the insane, damn near broken late-run power gap that forms between you and the enemies that games like Isaac give you. Between that and one of the most underwhelming final boss fights I've ever experienced, It's hard for me to say I wasn't a little disappointed. I definitely recommend it, but wait for a sale.
Not exactly how I thought Metroid Prime would look under these circumstances but I couldn't have asked for a better way to revisit it. The game itself is probably my least favorite of the trilogy but that doesn't mean it isn't great. I've played the original half a dozen times throughout my life and after finishing it for the first time in a couple years, It's crazy how well I remember the entirety of the game. Gets better with every playthrough.
2023
The Dead Space game of my dreams
2022
Kicks ass
2022
👍👍👍
2021
I dont wanna spend too long writing this so I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
There were so many things that made this game for me, but above all I have to give it to the press turn combat system. Figuring out an enemy's weakness and exploiting it to give yourself more turns was where a lot of the fun came from. Coming up with the perfect team to maximize damage during longer fights was also a big highlight for me. Everything this game does, from the combat and RPG mechanics to the overworld itself is always teetering just over the line of comfortability. It's just enough to be a little overwhelming, but not scary. I dove headfirst into everything the game threw at me without a second thought. Demon fusions, miracles, essences, every single part of this rpg gave me a reason to learn and improve my chances at coming out the other end of a tough fight alive. And these fights are TOUGH. I'm by no means a turn based master but even after 60+ hours I still ran into fights that I had to be really careful with. If I made one wrong decision my whole team would get wiped. Nevertheless I really liked it. This entire game is really doom and gloom so it would've been thematically jarring to play through it without any challenge.
There really is no story in this game, which really, really sucks. It sucks because SMTV has every possible foundation for an incredible one. The art direction is incredible, The music is atmospheric and even haunting, and the interactions you have with demons can be really interesting. It's a shame they didn't capitalize on everything they has, especially after hearing how other games in its own series have great stories. Either way I can't be too bothered by it because everything else is so top notch.
There was a leak a while back saying that this would come to other platforms, and if it did, I'd probably buy it again to see what it would look like. This is easily one of the best looking games on Switch and for all the framerate problems it has, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind playing this on a system that can actually run it. Either way, this is a fantastic rpg and I wholly recommend it.
There were so many things that made this game for me, but above all I have to give it to the press turn combat system. Figuring out an enemy's weakness and exploiting it to give yourself more turns was where a lot of the fun came from. Coming up with the perfect team to maximize damage during longer fights was also a big highlight for me. Everything this game does, from the combat and RPG mechanics to the overworld itself is always teetering just over the line of comfortability. It's just enough to be a little overwhelming, but not scary. I dove headfirst into everything the game threw at me without a second thought. Demon fusions, miracles, essences, every single part of this rpg gave me a reason to learn and improve my chances at coming out the other end of a tough fight alive. And these fights are TOUGH. I'm by no means a turn based master but even after 60+ hours I still ran into fights that I had to be really careful with. If I made one wrong decision my whole team would get wiped. Nevertheless I really liked it. This entire game is really doom and gloom so it would've been thematically jarring to play through it without any challenge.
There really is no story in this game, which really, really sucks. It sucks because SMTV has every possible foundation for an incredible one. The art direction is incredible, The music is atmospheric and even haunting, and the interactions you have with demons can be really interesting. It's a shame they didn't capitalize on everything they has, especially after hearing how other games in its own series have great stories. Either way I can't be too bothered by it because everything else is so top notch.
There was a leak a while back saying that this would come to other platforms, and if it did, I'd probably buy it again to see what it would look like. This is easily one of the best looking games on Switch and for all the framerate problems it has, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind playing this on a system that can actually run it. Either way, this is a fantastic rpg and I wholly recommend it.
This review contains spoilers
The Last of Us embodies the heart and soul of modern PlayStation, for better or worse. Some people may think God of War, Ratchet and Clank, or maybe even Persona, depending on how much of a loser you are. But when I think of PlayStation, I think of The Last of Us. PlayStation games have always been known for their polish and overall high quality presentation, and I think The Last of Us is the highest of the high. I don't think It's particularly the best looking game I've ever played but It's really close. For how grounded this game is in reality, there has been so much time and effort put into every single inch of this world and it's characters. Apart from the pure visual detail, the gamefeel, animations, sound effects, everything; It's all so god damn good I can't complain about anything. I did run into one glitch where a waterfall flashed a bright yellow color, but other than that it was flawless. I know a lot of people say graphics don't matter but I wholeheartedly believe that this game wouldn't be nearly the same if everything wasn't as polished as it was. Everything comes together so well and as a result you have an extremely fluid and cinematic VIDEO GAME experience.
The gameplay itself is just as high quality as the rest of the package. I wasn't expecting this game to be a straight up survival horror game on harder difficulties, so I was surprised to find myself often stuck, with a dozen enemies between me and my goal and 2 bullets to my name. Most enemies are static until they're alerted to your presence, which means that they'll usually follow a set path at the beginning of every encounter. When they're in combat mode, however, you can try to predict where the enemies are going to go, but it's hard. Most of my fun was derived from planning out and executing encounters perfectly. Taking out enemies in the most fun and efficient way possible. I rarely ever went full stealth mode. Getting a clean shot off with your sniper, dashing through a building for a quick stealth kill, diving behind a small wall while the enemies rally towards you, crafting bombs and silencers mid fight and using what little ammo you have to win. Fighting tooth and nail to make it out alive is what makes this game so fun to play. Coming out of an encounter alive with all odds stacked against you is a rewarding feeling.
There's a lot of fun to be had outside of gameplay too. I didn't follow this game too closely when it released, other than Joel's death. Nobody could really escape that discourse. So I don't really know the public consensus on the open area section of Seattle. Personally, I loved it. By this point, I knew ammo was going to be a pretty valuable resource. So I explored everything. Explored every building, followed every clue. Marked off every point on the map, and every second was worth it. I ended up getting a lot of good stuff that helped me through the next few hours of the game. And beyond that, it was just fun to do. I liked reading notes of people long gone, either left or dead, whether it was a lead on some valuable resources or simply a heartbreaking letter of someone who had nothing left. Finding all these letters around is inherently video-gamey, and I really enjoyed it. Stuff like this still exists during the rest of your playthrough, but it's on a smaller, more linear scale. A part of me wishes they went a little further in on this kind of non-linearity.
One last thing I want to touch on gameplay wise is the Gyro-aim. At the beginning, I really thought Naughty Dog had given me the worst gyro aim implementation I'd ever seen. It was wobbly, inaccurate, and generally just hard to use. ESPECIALLY at long range. Eventually I made my way over to a workbench where I was able to use resources I've collected to upgrade my weapons, and I see there's a stability section for each gun. Upgrading that, along with personal upgrades you can give yourself anytime with supplements, slowly but surely made the aim more stable, and the gyro aim became one of the better implementations I've personally used. I was really surprised to see how far they went with something that was completely optional and added in post-launch. I definitely recommend playing this way.
I wanna get this out of the way right now to be completely clear. I haven't played the first Last of Us. I've been exposed to this game for years now though, so I'm pretty keen on a lot of the things that happen in the game. But I don't know the finer details. I know that Joel made the choice to kill those doctors to save Ellie's life. And contrary to what a lot of people online were saying when it comes out, I think it was a really narratively interesting and bold choice to kill off Joel in the beginning of part 2. What I'm not a fan of is HOW it decides to tell this story. The game will build up and up to these really great, climactic moments. I'm glued to the screen, waiting for what comes next. and what usually comes next is a flashback sequence of something that I really don't care about in that moment, at all. It's Naughty Dog's way of blueballing me and I really dont appreciate it. Putting the entire story together at the end, I do think they told a great one that I really enjoyed but I think the non-linear storytelling wasn't executed very well. The biggest offender for me was after Ellie gets back to the theater after killing Mel and Owen. Ellie wakes up to commotion out in the lobby and bursts through the door with Jesse. Jesse immediately gets shot in the head and dies. Abby is there, gun now pointed at Tommy's head, ready to kill him too. Ellie is forced to give up her weapons, and at the height of this scene, it cuts to black, and you're now playing as Abby, 3 days in the past. You play as Abby for so long.
There's nothing wrong with Abby. I actually liked playing as her, with her similar, but new style of fighting, upgrade paths, and weapons. I also really like getting to know the people I killed as Ellie. The duality of Ellie and Abby was a good road to tread and by the end it was very satisfying. But for most of the time I was playing as Abby I couldn't help but think about what was going to happen at that theater when I got back to day 3. It really kept me going, and when I finally did get back to that theater, the payoff was great. Again, everything pays off in the end, but the execution is questionable. This applies to a lot of parts in the game. Most climactic moments end up cutting to black, followed by an hour long flashback scene that I really didn't care about in that moment.
This game is obviously commenting on the nonsensical cycle of violence that humans put themselves through every day. I've seen a lot of takes about ludonarrative dissonance, and how what you do in the gameplay doesn't line up or pay off in the story. And I'll be honest, I have a hard time agreeing and disagreeing with this. Ellie kills dozens upon dozens of innocent people just to get to the person she has been meaning to kill this entire time, only for her to let up and let Abby live in the final minutes. At the same time, there's plenty of moments where the game shines and shows the themes of the game making sense in the world. Abby does a better job breaking the cycle of violence than Ellie does by going out of her way and risking her life to save Lev and his sister rather than killing them for being in a tribe that she's supposed to hate. So truthfully, I'm conflicted on it. All in all though, the gameplay is so fun I could never take a second look and be fine with it.
Like I said before, I think this game embodies PlayStation for better or for worse. By for the better, I mean top notch polish and gamefeel. By for the worse, I mean having the flow interrupted by shit you don't care about. Overall it's a great game, and I think Part 3 has the potential to be an actual masterpiece, if Naughty Dog takes the valid criticism to heart and improves on what they need to.
The gameplay itself is just as high quality as the rest of the package. I wasn't expecting this game to be a straight up survival horror game on harder difficulties, so I was surprised to find myself often stuck, with a dozen enemies between me and my goal and 2 bullets to my name. Most enemies are static until they're alerted to your presence, which means that they'll usually follow a set path at the beginning of every encounter. When they're in combat mode, however, you can try to predict where the enemies are going to go, but it's hard. Most of my fun was derived from planning out and executing encounters perfectly. Taking out enemies in the most fun and efficient way possible. I rarely ever went full stealth mode. Getting a clean shot off with your sniper, dashing through a building for a quick stealth kill, diving behind a small wall while the enemies rally towards you, crafting bombs and silencers mid fight and using what little ammo you have to win. Fighting tooth and nail to make it out alive is what makes this game so fun to play. Coming out of an encounter alive with all odds stacked against you is a rewarding feeling.
There's a lot of fun to be had outside of gameplay too. I didn't follow this game too closely when it released, other than Joel's death. Nobody could really escape that discourse. So I don't really know the public consensus on the open area section of Seattle. Personally, I loved it. By this point, I knew ammo was going to be a pretty valuable resource. So I explored everything. Explored every building, followed every clue. Marked off every point on the map, and every second was worth it. I ended up getting a lot of good stuff that helped me through the next few hours of the game. And beyond that, it was just fun to do. I liked reading notes of people long gone, either left or dead, whether it was a lead on some valuable resources or simply a heartbreaking letter of someone who had nothing left. Finding all these letters around is inherently video-gamey, and I really enjoyed it. Stuff like this still exists during the rest of your playthrough, but it's on a smaller, more linear scale. A part of me wishes they went a little further in on this kind of non-linearity.
One last thing I want to touch on gameplay wise is the Gyro-aim. At the beginning, I really thought Naughty Dog had given me the worst gyro aim implementation I'd ever seen. It was wobbly, inaccurate, and generally just hard to use. ESPECIALLY at long range. Eventually I made my way over to a workbench where I was able to use resources I've collected to upgrade my weapons, and I see there's a stability section for each gun. Upgrading that, along with personal upgrades you can give yourself anytime with supplements, slowly but surely made the aim more stable, and the gyro aim became one of the better implementations I've personally used. I was really surprised to see how far they went with something that was completely optional and added in post-launch. I definitely recommend playing this way.
I wanna get this out of the way right now to be completely clear. I haven't played the first Last of Us. I've been exposed to this game for years now though, so I'm pretty keen on a lot of the things that happen in the game. But I don't know the finer details. I know that Joel made the choice to kill those doctors to save Ellie's life. And contrary to what a lot of people online were saying when it comes out, I think it was a really narratively interesting and bold choice to kill off Joel in the beginning of part 2. What I'm not a fan of is HOW it decides to tell this story. The game will build up and up to these really great, climactic moments. I'm glued to the screen, waiting for what comes next. and what usually comes next is a flashback sequence of something that I really don't care about in that moment, at all. It's Naughty Dog's way of blueballing me and I really dont appreciate it. Putting the entire story together at the end, I do think they told a great one that I really enjoyed but I think the non-linear storytelling wasn't executed very well. The biggest offender for me was after Ellie gets back to the theater after killing Mel and Owen. Ellie wakes up to commotion out in the lobby and bursts through the door with Jesse. Jesse immediately gets shot in the head and dies. Abby is there, gun now pointed at Tommy's head, ready to kill him too. Ellie is forced to give up her weapons, and at the height of this scene, it cuts to black, and you're now playing as Abby, 3 days in the past. You play as Abby for so long.
There's nothing wrong with Abby. I actually liked playing as her, with her similar, but new style of fighting, upgrade paths, and weapons. I also really like getting to know the people I killed as Ellie. The duality of Ellie and Abby was a good road to tread and by the end it was very satisfying. But for most of the time I was playing as Abby I couldn't help but think about what was going to happen at that theater when I got back to day 3. It really kept me going, and when I finally did get back to that theater, the payoff was great. Again, everything pays off in the end, but the execution is questionable. This applies to a lot of parts in the game. Most climactic moments end up cutting to black, followed by an hour long flashback scene that I really didn't care about in that moment.
This game is obviously commenting on the nonsensical cycle of violence that humans put themselves through every day. I've seen a lot of takes about ludonarrative dissonance, and how what you do in the gameplay doesn't line up or pay off in the story. And I'll be honest, I have a hard time agreeing and disagreeing with this. Ellie kills dozens upon dozens of innocent people just to get to the person she has been meaning to kill this entire time, only for her to let up and let Abby live in the final minutes. At the same time, there's plenty of moments where the game shines and shows the themes of the game making sense in the world. Abby does a better job breaking the cycle of violence than Ellie does by going out of her way and risking her life to save Lev and his sister rather than killing them for being in a tribe that she's supposed to hate. So truthfully, I'm conflicted on it. All in all though, the gameplay is so fun I could never take a second look and be fine with it.
Like I said before, I think this game embodies PlayStation for better or for worse. By for the better, I mean top notch polish and gamefeel. By for the worse, I mean having the flow interrupted by shit you don't care about. Overall it's a great game, and I think Part 3 has the potential to be an actual masterpiece, if Naughty Dog takes the valid criticism to heart and improves on what they need to.
This is the first game I've beaten on the PS5 and before I get to anything else, I really want to mention how cool this fucking console is. Spider-Man looked and ran fantastic on it, and the adaptive trigger implementation was subtle but fun. The game itself? The great stuff was great, but at the end of the day, I'm a little mixed on it. The beginning was strong. Taking Kingpin down was a great introductory mission, and I think a good amount of the world building and character setups were well done. The game took it's time building up it's main villains, Martin Li and Otto, as characters and I appreciated that. I never thought I would be emotionally invested when it came to finally taking them down, but in the moment I got that rising feeling in my chest and that intense focus I get when something really fucking hype is happening in a game. I'm not going to go too deep into it, but I think the game accomplished what it set out to do with the emotional core of it's story.
My biggest problem is the pacing and how it affected the gameplay. By now, everyone knows that the Mary Jane and Miles stealth sections are awful so I won't go on about that too much, but they did bring down my enjoyment a lot. Every time one of these sections came up I genuinely shut the game off and came back later. Other than that though, there were a lot of Spider-Man missions that got really boring and reminded me of Red Dead Redemption 2's painfully repetitive mission design. Spider-Man's combat and traversal is way more fun than Red Dead's will ever be, but when almost every mission involved "go here, fight off enemy wave, go here, solve shitty puzzle" rinse and repeat for 10 hours, there wasn't enough there to really keep me invested. At least at the beginning.
The Prison mission really changed it for me. A high octane mission with a dizzying amount of enemies to take on. It kept me on my toes because now, there was always somebody trying to hit me or shoot me with a rocket, unlike the smaller waves the earlier mission threw at me. And It all ended with the Sinister Six beating the absolute shit out of Spider-Man, and seeing protagonists in trouble like that no matter the game always gets me pumped. From there on out, It's all kino. I haven't played too many Spider-Man games, but one of my favorite parts of them is watching the city fall apart while you scramble to put it back together. There are snipers and rocket launchers on every building trying to take you out as you swing by, criminal bases on every block, and there's no time for rest. This game especially really sold me on how fucked the city was and I was into it. Tracking down the Sinister Six and taking them down one by one is a ton of fun, and like I mentioned earlier, the buildup that Li and Otto get throughout the whole game really pays off in the end.
Overall I think it's a pretty solid game. I think the sequels have a great foundation to build on. with better pacing and more creative mission design, I think Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2 could be fantastic games.
My biggest problem is the pacing and how it affected the gameplay. By now, everyone knows that the Mary Jane and Miles stealth sections are awful so I won't go on about that too much, but they did bring down my enjoyment a lot. Every time one of these sections came up I genuinely shut the game off and came back later. Other than that though, there were a lot of Spider-Man missions that got really boring and reminded me of Red Dead Redemption 2's painfully repetitive mission design. Spider-Man's combat and traversal is way more fun than Red Dead's will ever be, but when almost every mission involved "go here, fight off enemy wave, go here, solve shitty puzzle" rinse and repeat for 10 hours, there wasn't enough there to really keep me invested. At least at the beginning.
The Prison mission really changed it for me. A high octane mission with a dizzying amount of enemies to take on. It kept me on my toes because now, there was always somebody trying to hit me or shoot me with a rocket, unlike the smaller waves the earlier mission threw at me. And It all ended with the Sinister Six beating the absolute shit out of Spider-Man, and seeing protagonists in trouble like that no matter the game always gets me pumped. From there on out, It's all kino. I haven't played too many Spider-Man games, but one of my favorite parts of them is watching the city fall apart while you scramble to put it back together. There are snipers and rocket launchers on every building trying to take you out as you swing by, criminal bases on every block, and there's no time for rest. This game especially really sold me on how fucked the city was and I was into it. Tracking down the Sinister Six and taking them down one by one is a ton of fun, and like I mentioned earlier, the buildup that Li and Otto get throughout the whole game really pays off in the end.
Overall I think it's a pretty solid game. I think the sequels have a great foundation to build on. with better pacing and more creative mission design, I think Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2 could be fantastic games.
I had no intention of buying this game when it was revealed back at E3. The showing was genuinely terrible and I immediately wrote it off. And then I saw a gameplay demo a few weeks before it came out, and I was surprised to see that it didn't look half bad. After I finished it, I'm happy to say that this is easily one of the best games I've played all year. And I've played a LOT of games.
I can't look at many games these days and confidently say that they're made with a lot of passion and heart. The 20 hours I spent with the Guardians easily put the game in that category. The game itself has a lot of problems. From a pure design standpoint it's nothing special. Lots of walking and talking sections, especially at the beginning, followed by battles from big room to big room. Commanding teammates in and out of combat for really easy puzzle solving. On the surface, it actually sounds pretty boring. But once you throw in the staples of this series, like it's excellent characters, dialogue, locales, classic rock soundtrack, and everything else that Guardians is known and loved for, you get a formula that doesn't get old throughout the entire run of the game.
Guardians of The Galaxy is one of the prettiest games I've ever looked at. You travel to so many places in such a short time and every single one of them is jaw dropping. Character models have so much detail on every inch of them, and the effect work is really well done too. Animations can be a bit wonky sometimes, especially outside of custcenes, but the hand animated cutscenes that play during important story beats are really impressive.
Like I said before, from a pure game design perspective, the game can be kinda boring, but the banter between the Guardians that is constantly happening makes everything worth it. The only character I didn't think was up to par was Star-Lord himself, but he wasn't bad at all, and he really shines in the last couple chapters. Anyways, when the game hits it's stride, everything flows so well. Combat sequences are especially fun when the guardians are working together and yelling shit at the enemies and each other while they fight. It's really endearing.
The plot itself is really good, and it takes it's time setting up stakes that you can really find yourself personally invested in. I won't say much about it because spoilers, but I really loved seeing the villain give the story a way to delve into each guardian's trauma and problems. I've never read the comics, but the game did a much better job of communicating how fucked up this ragtag group of criminals is than the MCU ever could, given the opportunities of this medium. Addressing each character's trauma and past mistakes with a unique villain that opened the door to a TON of good storytelling opportunities that the dev team took advantage of. They could've gone further with it, but I think this was a great first attempt.
It's a little clunky, and it's no masterpiece, but it's easy to tell that Guardians was had a lot of talent behind it, and that the people who worked on it love this series and wanted to do it justice. Highly recommend.
I can't look at many games these days and confidently say that they're made with a lot of passion and heart. The 20 hours I spent with the Guardians easily put the game in that category. The game itself has a lot of problems. From a pure design standpoint it's nothing special. Lots of walking and talking sections, especially at the beginning, followed by battles from big room to big room. Commanding teammates in and out of combat for really easy puzzle solving. On the surface, it actually sounds pretty boring. But once you throw in the staples of this series, like it's excellent characters, dialogue, locales, classic rock soundtrack, and everything else that Guardians is known and loved for, you get a formula that doesn't get old throughout the entire run of the game.
Guardians of The Galaxy is one of the prettiest games I've ever looked at. You travel to so many places in such a short time and every single one of them is jaw dropping. Character models have so much detail on every inch of them, and the effect work is really well done too. Animations can be a bit wonky sometimes, especially outside of custcenes, but the hand animated cutscenes that play during important story beats are really impressive.
Like I said before, from a pure game design perspective, the game can be kinda boring, but the banter between the Guardians that is constantly happening makes everything worth it. The only character I didn't think was up to par was Star-Lord himself, but he wasn't bad at all, and he really shines in the last couple chapters. Anyways, when the game hits it's stride, everything flows so well. Combat sequences are especially fun when the guardians are working together and yelling shit at the enemies and each other while they fight. It's really endearing.
The plot itself is really good, and it takes it's time setting up stakes that you can really find yourself personally invested in. I won't say much about it because spoilers, but I really loved seeing the villain give the story a way to delve into each guardian's trauma and problems. I've never read the comics, but the game did a much better job of communicating how fucked up this ragtag group of criminals is than the MCU ever could, given the opportunities of this medium. Addressing each character's trauma and past mistakes with a unique villain that opened the door to a TON of good storytelling opportunities that the dev team took advantage of. They could've gone further with it, but I think this was a great first attempt.
It's a little clunky, and it's no masterpiece, but it's easy to tell that Guardians was had a lot of talent behind it, and that the people who worked on it love this series and wanted to do it justice. Highly recommend.
2018
Over the past month or so, Hades has easily become my favorite roguelike game, taking Binding of Isaac's spot at the top. There's so much to love about it. Gameplay and story working together is the best thing this medium has to offer to me, and Hades is one of those games I get to play only once or twice a year that really hits that specific spot. The execution didn't shatter my expectations of the medium like other games that weave story and gameplay together, but it was very solid. I enjoyed coming back to the house of Hades after every frustrating death and talking to all the side characters. Win or lose, every run progresses the story in some way, and I gotta give it to Supergiant for making me want to jump right back into another run after a disappointing death with that kind of progression, because it's really hard to pull off in this genre.
This might be the only game I've ever played where I've enjoyed using every single weapon and upgrade at my disposal. The six weapons you unlock throughout the game are all very different from each other and every single one is satisfying to use. There are some I preferred to others, but with a challenge-increasing mechanic that unlocks after your first successful run, Hades tries it's best to incentivize using the other weapons, and it works.
The upgrades you get in and outside of runs are good fun too. You have standard stuff you can upgrade back at home, and then you have the boons given to you by the Olympians that go away after you die. slowly figuring out your favorite build is never tiring, and because you never get the exact same stuff two runs in a row, you're always being forced to experiment with new boons and abilities. There's so much more I could talk about but I'm going to leave it here. Personally, I wouldn't have picked this as my GOTY last year even as someone who didn't play The Last of Us Part 2, the widely-agreed contender. But I definitely understand why people do. This game is definitely worth your time and money, and another addition to the slowly growing library of fantastic indie games.
Every character in this game is hot.
This might be the only game I've ever played where I've enjoyed using every single weapon and upgrade at my disposal. The six weapons you unlock throughout the game are all very different from each other and every single one is satisfying to use. There are some I preferred to others, but with a challenge-increasing mechanic that unlocks after your first successful run, Hades tries it's best to incentivize using the other weapons, and it works.
The upgrades you get in and outside of runs are good fun too. You have standard stuff you can upgrade back at home, and then you have the boons given to you by the Olympians that go away after you die. slowly figuring out your favorite build is never tiring, and because you never get the exact same stuff two runs in a row, you're always being forced to experiment with new boons and abilities. There's so much more I could talk about but I'm going to leave it here. Personally, I wouldn't have picked this as my GOTY last year even as someone who didn't play The Last of Us Part 2, the widely-agreed contender. But I definitely understand why people do. This game is definitely worth your time and money, and another addition to the slowly growing library of fantastic indie games.
Every character in this game is hot.