Trippixn
6 reviews liked by Trippixn
Caliber
2023
Another F2P game strongly held back by being a F2P game.
Caliber is a character-based 3rd person shooter heavily influenced by SOCOM, there is PVE and PVP, and while PVE has some merits the real meat and potatoes of this game is the PVP.
So, it's your standard 4v4 elimination rounds, and I personally love elimination round style multiplayer games, I find it much more engaging and intense than a death-match, but much better paced than a battle-royale. Minus some feelings of jank and lag at times, the gun-fights in this game are quite good. Coordinating strategies with your 3 teammates feel awesome and outsmarting your enemy unironically feels tacticool. This phenomenal feeling of tactics, quick reactions, teamwork, and quick deaths create a very enthralling game that I'd easily recommend, but it's the things surrounding this excellent game that bring this down to a 3.
There are an insane amount of characters, or operators, to choose from. They're all based off of real factions and some are pretty sick, they have solid character design and unique abilities, the amount of operators and all the different perks/abilities can feel very overwhelming, but the larger problem arises with upgrading and unlocking them.
I am not a fan of the upgrading system, it puts veteran players at a MAJOR advantage over everyone else, think star cards from SWBF2 2017, where you can grind to unlock perks and stats that just flat out make you better than previously. It is an unfair system and I am not a fan, though admittedly this wouldn't be such a detrimental deal if upgrading and unlocking operators didn't take such a long time.
No really, the grind in this game is absolutely absurd, it takes serious time to upgrade and unlock operators. You must first get the XP to even have the option to upgrade, which can take forever, then you must pay credits to actually upgrade. These credits are either earned through a very harsh grind or with a pretty absurd amount of real money, which sucks.
With so many choices for operators and perks/upgrading being an extremely important advantage, a player must decide what operator they want and stick with that pick for a very long time. Choosing an operator can be very difficult, even going into training and testing out their abilities wont give a proper feel for how they are in-game, so you are basically taking a calculated guess on if this operator will suit you or not, and regardless of the result you are stuck with the operator for, again, a very long time.
I think I've harped on about the F2P woes enough, it just saddens me that such an extremely fun 4v4 SOCOM-like game is stuck with such horrible progression and monetization systems.
I'd still recommend Caliber just expect the F2P nonsense and try to look past it, for the actual game is, to my knowledge, currently the best SOCOM game right now.
Caliber is a character-based 3rd person shooter heavily influenced by SOCOM, there is PVE and PVP, and while PVE has some merits the real meat and potatoes of this game is the PVP.
So, it's your standard 4v4 elimination rounds, and I personally love elimination round style multiplayer games, I find it much more engaging and intense than a death-match, but much better paced than a battle-royale. Minus some feelings of jank and lag at times, the gun-fights in this game are quite good. Coordinating strategies with your 3 teammates feel awesome and outsmarting your enemy unironically feels tacticool. This phenomenal feeling of tactics, quick reactions, teamwork, and quick deaths create a very enthralling game that I'd easily recommend, but it's the things surrounding this excellent game that bring this down to a 3.
There are an insane amount of characters, or operators, to choose from. They're all based off of real factions and some are pretty sick, they have solid character design and unique abilities, the amount of operators and all the different perks/abilities can feel very overwhelming, but the larger problem arises with upgrading and unlocking them.
I am not a fan of the upgrading system, it puts veteran players at a MAJOR advantage over everyone else, think star cards from SWBF2 2017, where you can grind to unlock perks and stats that just flat out make you better than previously. It is an unfair system and I am not a fan, though admittedly this wouldn't be such a detrimental deal if upgrading and unlocking operators didn't take such a long time.
No really, the grind in this game is absolutely absurd, it takes serious time to upgrade and unlock operators. You must first get the XP to even have the option to upgrade, which can take forever, then you must pay credits to actually upgrade. These credits are either earned through a very harsh grind or with a pretty absurd amount of real money, which sucks.
With so many choices for operators and perks/upgrading being an extremely important advantage, a player must decide what operator they want and stick with that pick for a very long time. Choosing an operator can be very difficult, even going into training and testing out their abilities wont give a proper feel for how they are in-game, so you are basically taking a calculated guess on if this operator will suit you or not, and regardless of the result you are stuck with the operator for, again, a very long time.
I think I've harped on about the F2P woes enough, it just saddens me that such an extremely fun 4v4 SOCOM-like game is stuck with such horrible progression and monetization systems.
I'd still recommend Caliber just expect the F2P nonsense and try to look past it, for the actual game is, to my knowledge, currently the best SOCOM game right now.
Far Cry 6
2021
Unfortunately this is gonna be a bit of a negative one
Farcry 6 is just Farcry 3 for like the 4th or 5th time, yet I'd actually consider this a big downgrade from Farcry 3 and previous games in almost every way.
Starting off with the story, it's pretty much nothing! The big actor man from Breaking Bad is here and he's barely here, it's just a basic evil dictator man who you must kill. You play as Dani, the most obnoxious character in the game, you use silly animals as companions, and your allies are forgettable or just dis-likable. So yeah the story sucks, but does anyone play these games for that?
Moving onto the open world, it is completely void of any cool interactions or anything interesting happening. It is a dead open world, a world that is insanely large for no apparent reason. The humans and animals that fill this open world don't react to anything you do and are completely basic, they all just have like 2 actions which is to ignore you or attack you. Traversing the world is annoying because of how large and empty it is, I mean you'll just have to ride around on a horse, boat, car, helicopter or SOMETHING and there is just large spans of nothing on vehicles that feel like nothing, it's mindless and boring. The open world check-marking stuff off such as towers or whatever doesn't save the open world because of the sheer repetitiveness of it, every outpost feels the same, and with how fucking large the map is doing the same thing over and over is, as Vass would say, truly insanity.
Guns genuinely feel like garbage, there is no satisfaction factor and the player benefits from just standing still (not that the enemies will kill you anyways), so most gunfights boil down to just standing still and clicking on heads until you win. All the abilities and powers they give you only worsen this feeling, as there are rarely moments you'd ever need to use these tools because the point and click strategy is the most efficient. When faced with a helicopter or tank you can just pull out ur super rocket backpack and blow it up, making the hardest challenge in the game just another effortless victory. Combat flat out blows, the novelty of it all from previous Farcry 3's are gone and there's just nothing doing it for me here.
The big reason why combat and the open world are so boring is because there is NO CHALLENGE. Even on the hardest difficulty, you will feel like John Wick shooting at cavemen. I shit you not this is probably some of the worst Ai I have ever seen in a triple A title. They have zero awareness, zero tactics, I mean there is just nothing going on here. The enemies in this game are simply just target dummies that walk in a straight line towards you, and the civilians don't even react to anything, the lack of interactivity in this game is just shocking.
So actual game aside, another bit that sinks this game down is the micro-transactions. Like many other Ubisoft games feature as of late, Farcry 6 has such egregious micro-transactions that it feels like a mobile game. I mean there are people out there that paid the full 60 dollars for this game, and they are greeted with menus where they could pay more money to skip content and spend less time with the game, it is fucking absurd.
There are almost no redeeming factors here, I suppose being able to fully play the game in Coop is nice, but progression for your partner is messed up, so even that isn't the best.
Some bonus nitpicks, why is the FOV so fucked up on horses and other vehicles, and why does this game run so poorly? This game is horribly optimized on PC, my 4080 struggled with this game, even on the lowest settings it chugs, really unbelievable stuff here.
It is seriously tragic that such a large dev team with so many talented people put out a complete waste of time. They wasted their time making this and we wasted our time playing this.
Farcry 6 is just Farcry 3 for like the 4th or 5th time, yet I'd actually consider this a big downgrade from Farcry 3 and previous games in almost every way.
Starting off with the story, it's pretty much nothing! The big actor man from Breaking Bad is here and he's barely here, it's just a basic evil dictator man who you must kill. You play as Dani, the most obnoxious character in the game, you use silly animals as companions, and your allies are forgettable or just dis-likable. So yeah the story sucks, but does anyone play these games for that?
Moving onto the open world, it is completely void of any cool interactions or anything interesting happening. It is a dead open world, a world that is insanely large for no apparent reason. The humans and animals that fill this open world don't react to anything you do and are completely basic, they all just have like 2 actions which is to ignore you or attack you. Traversing the world is annoying because of how large and empty it is, I mean you'll just have to ride around on a horse, boat, car, helicopter or SOMETHING and there is just large spans of nothing on vehicles that feel like nothing, it's mindless and boring. The open world check-marking stuff off such as towers or whatever doesn't save the open world because of the sheer repetitiveness of it, every outpost feels the same, and with how fucking large the map is doing the same thing over and over is, as Vass would say, truly insanity.
Guns genuinely feel like garbage, there is no satisfaction factor and the player benefits from just standing still (not that the enemies will kill you anyways), so most gunfights boil down to just standing still and clicking on heads until you win. All the abilities and powers they give you only worsen this feeling, as there are rarely moments you'd ever need to use these tools because the point and click strategy is the most efficient. When faced with a helicopter or tank you can just pull out ur super rocket backpack and blow it up, making the hardest challenge in the game just another effortless victory. Combat flat out blows, the novelty of it all from previous Farcry 3's are gone and there's just nothing doing it for me here.
The big reason why combat and the open world are so boring is because there is NO CHALLENGE. Even on the hardest difficulty, you will feel like John Wick shooting at cavemen. I shit you not this is probably some of the worst Ai I have ever seen in a triple A title. They have zero awareness, zero tactics, I mean there is just nothing going on here. The enemies in this game are simply just target dummies that walk in a straight line towards you, and the civilians don't even react to anything, the lack of interactivity in this game is just shocking.
So actual game aside, another bit that sinks this game down is the micro-transactions. Like many other Ubisoft games feature as of late, Farcry 6 has such egregious micro-transactions that it feels like a mobile game. I mean there are people out there that paid the full 60 dollars for this game, and they are greeted with menus where they could pay more money to skip content and spend less time with the game, it is fucking absurd.
There are almost no redeeming factors here, I suppose being able to fully play the game in Coop is nice, but progression for your partner is messed up, so even that isn't the best.
Some bonus nitpicks, why is the FOV so fucked up on horses and other vehicles, and why does this game run so poorly? This game is horribly optimized on PC, my 4080 struggled with this game, even on the lowest settings it chugs, really unbelievable stuff here.
It is seriously tragic that such a large dev team with so many talented people put out a complete waste of time. They wasted their time making this and we wasted our time playing this.
High on Life
2022
Justin Roiland and its consecuences have been a disaster for mankind
This review contains spoilers
There have been a lot of critically acclaimed games over the years. Like every single year definitely has one very well liked game from reviewers from all around the world. However, some don’t always stand the test of time. Games like bioshock infinite, the original legend of Zelda, and even some original RPGs don’t get the acclaim they once did. I find it almost admirable if a game can somehow stand the test of time and still be respected even now. One of these games, that I believe aged very well and stood the test of time, was the last of us. Released in 2013 as the ps3 era was slowly coming to an end, naughty dog wanted to expand on the ideas they had pushed in the uncharted games. An all round more serious adventure with some dark themes. Even if the uncharted games scraped on these themes they never fully dived into them, but the last of us was where that changed. They went full in with a darker and more horrific world. A world with almost no hope left. So why do people find this game to be overrated?
The last of us:
You play as Joel. A standard guy who, after losing his only daughter, has been forced into a rough and violent world full of zombies. Your job is to take care of Ellie, who you find out to be immune to the virus that infected so many people and created the zombies. But this isn’t just some cakewalk, oh no, we all know how teenagers act when they want to be controlled, and as one I should know. Your journey takes you throughout America as you try to find a group called the fireflies who will hopefully create a cure using Ellie’s immunity. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. We haven’t even talked about the gameplay!
Compared to something like uncharted where you’re basically handed guns whenever you need them, the last of us takes a very different approach. You have the ability to craft items such as shivs, Molotov cocktails (make as many as you can), nail bombs, smoke bombs, and even melee weapons. These all require certain crafting items, and they don’t come up all the time. Weapon ammo is also not as wildly available as it is in the uncharted games. You feel as though every shot counts and believe me, it does. Stealth gameplay is encouraged but not necessary as you could shoot your way through fights but risk having barely any ammo left for the next fight. It makes you take consideration of what you should do with everything you have. The whole idea is that ‘this is a lot more hardcore than uncharted’ and it works. Unlike something like bioshock infinite where you’re killing really innocent people and get no reparations for it, the last of us definitely paints it more as you’re killing people who are just as bad as you are.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Back to the story, as I was saying about the story, you will meet a cool cast of characters. Tess, Bill (the best one), Tommy, Henry and his younger brother Sam. You’ll also find some villains like David and Marlene. The characters are all excellently written and almost show how the world is affecting other people. For example Bill has become almost rude to others that meddle with his stuff because he hasn’t had much interaction with others in a long time and there’s an almost quiet sadness that’s he’s desperate to be with people. Henry and Sam are two characters that were dealt a very bad hand and in the end they ended up both succumbing to the world they were forced into. Even David is written excellently well. Someone who is painted to be quite friendly ends up becoming a very dark and evil person who tries to manipulate Ellie into getting what he wants.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive at Salt Lake City. After so much, they’ve finally arrived to find the fireflies. However, it isn’t as great as Joel first thought. To get the vaccine they need to kill Ellie.
The whole story has been you going along the journey of these unlikely strangers who were brought together. They seemed to hate each other but eventually they became extremely close. At the start of the game Ellie was the one talking a lot about her life and her passion for certain things, but nearing the end, joel was able to open up about his life. It’s a beautiful journey of how, if you can move on from your past and truly find the light, you’ll be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Joel ends up saving Ellie, not because it’s being selfish as such, but because he felt like Ellie had almost become his daughter. But it does make you think…
…Can you really blame him?
Left behind:
A year later, a dlc known as ‘left behind’ would release. The story is set during the part where Joel gets fatally hurt and is forced to rest. However, just before this, Ellie was forced to find some medicine for Joel so he could survive, so she came to an abandoned shopping centre (I’m not calling it a mall because I’m British and I think mall is kind of weird for a word). As she wanders through, she remembers a friend of hers named Riley.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the base game, only this time you’re playing as Ellie instead of Joel. For the shopping centre sections, it plays almost like the base game, though you do have the new funky feature of getting hunters and infected to fight each other so uhh…that’s cool. You’ve also got to work with Ellie’s lack of that much manoeuvrability unlike Joel. The Riley sections are pretty much linear lines with optional fun things to do. For a dlc it’s not the most mind blowing but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story ends with Ellie and Riley kissing each other and then getting chased by a horde of infected. They both get bit and the tragedy is that they promise to stay with each other until they turn…but we all know Ellie is immune. It’s kind of heartbreaking when you think about it and it only makes more sense why Ellie still, even in the main game, talks about her and cares about her. Back to Joel, Ellie finds something to treat Joel’s injury and then that ends the dlc!
There can’t possibly be anything else…oh wait…THIS GAME HAS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER???
Factions:
Out of every single multiplayer game I’ve played, how the fuck is this one the most addicting and fun?
‘Factions mp’ is the multiplayer mode in the last of us and believe me, it’s excellent. You have the job of surviving 12 weeks either as the fireflies or the hunters. You go into matches to get supplies so you can keep your clan healthy and even get more members. There are even some nice boosters you can get if you do well and complete some challenges.
You have three modes: supply raid, survivors (you will likely not win in this mode), and interrogation (the best one). Supply raid is just a standard game where you have 4 on each team. If you die then you’ll be revived as long as you have a respawn. Each team gets 20 and they can run out very fast if you’re really shit. Survivors is basically like supply raid but you get no respawns but get better rewards. And finally there’s interrogation, if you get a player from the opposing team in a ‘downed’ state then you can interrogate them. If you interrogate 5 then you’ll be able to gain access to their lockbox. But be warned. The opposing team will set traps around it and guard it with their lives.
The mechanics also carry over from the base game with you even being able to spend ‘parts’ on things like armour and upgrades to your guns and even ammo. There are even some abilities that you can have which help you out in certain places during the matches.
Conclusion:
The last of us definitely isn’t for everyone. And I can see why some people have begun to not like it as much as they once did. There are definitely many other games that people can have fun times with but that’s not what the last of us is asking you to do, unless you play the multiplayer. The last of us isn’t about the payoff, it’s more about the journey. You either like it or you don’t, there’s no in between. But I think we should all respect how excellently written the game is and even now, it has aged a lot better than some games during its time…looking at you bioshock infinite.
Masterpiece, excellent music, great gameplay, really really good story, well written story and characters, decent dlc, multiplayer is excellent, I miss Bill so much
The last of us:
You play as Joel. A standard guy who, after losing his only daughter, has been forced into a rough and violent world full of zombies. Your job is to take care of Ellie, who you find out to be immune to the virus that infected so many people and created the zombies. But this isn’t just some cakewalk, oh no, we all know how teenagers act when they want to be controlled, and as one I should know. Your journey takes you throughout America as you try to find a group called the fireflies who will hopefully create a cure using Ellie’s immunity. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. We haven’t even talked about the gameplay!
Compared to something like uncharted where you’re basically handed guns whenever you need them, the last of us takes a very different approach. You have the ability to craft items such as shivs, Molotov cocktails (make as many as you can), nail bombs, smoke bombs, and even melee weapons. These all require certain crafting items, and they don’t come up all the time. Weapon ammo is also not as wildly available as it is in the uncharted games. You feel as though every shot counts and believe me, it does. Stealth gameplay is encouraged but not necessary as you could shoot your way through fights but risk having barely any ammo left for the next fight. It makes you take consideration of what you should do with everything you have. The whole idea is that ‘this is a lot more hardcore than uncharted’ and it works. Unlike something like bioshock infinite where you’re killing really innocent people and get no reparations for it, the last of us definitely paints it more as you’re killing people who are just as bad as you are.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Back to the story, as I was saying about the story, you will meet a cool cast of characters. Tess, Bill (the best one), Tommy, Henry and his younger brother Sam. You’ll also find some villains like David and Marlene. The characters are all excellently written and almost show how the world is affecting other people. For example Bill has become almost rude to others that meddle with his stuff because he hasn’t had much interaction with others in a long time and there’s an almost quiet sadness that’s he’s desperate to be with people. Henry and Sam are two characters that were dealt a very bad hand and in the end they ended up both succumbing to the world they were forced into. Even David is written excellently well. Someone who is painted to be quite friendly ends up becoming a very dark and evil person who tries to manipulate Ellie into getting what he wants.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive at Salt Lake City. After so much, they’ve finally arrived to find the fireflies. However, it isn’t as great as Joel first thought. To get the vaccine they need to kill Ellie.
The whole story has been you going along the journey of these unlikely strangers who were brought together. They seemed to hate each other but eventually they became extremely close. At the start of the game Ellie was the one talking a lot about her life and her passion for certain things, but nearing the end, joel was able to open up about his life. It’s a beautiful journey of how, if you can move on from your past and truly find the light, you’ll be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Joel ends up saving Ellie, not because it’s being selfish as such, but because he felt like Ellie had almost become his daughter. But it does make you think…
…Can you really blame him?
Left behind:
A year later, a dlc known as ‘left behind’ would release. The story is set during the part where Joel gets fatally hurt and is forced to rest. However, just before this, Ellie was forced to find some medicine for Joel so he could survive, so she came to an abandoned shopping centre (I’m not calling it a mall because I’m British and I think mall is kind of weird for a word). As she wanders through, she remembers a friend of hers named Riley.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the base game, only this time you’re playing as Ellie instead of Joel. For the shopping centre sections, it plays almost like the base game, though you do have the new funky feature of getting hunters and infected to fight each other so uhh…that’s cool. You’ve also got to work with Ellie’s lack of that much manoeuvrability unlike Joel. The Riley sections are pretty much linear lines with optional fun things to do. For a dlc it’s not the most mind blowing but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story ends with Ellie and Riley kissing each other and then getting chased by a horde of infected. They both get bit and the tragedy is that they promise to stay with each other until they turn…but we all know Ellie is immune. It’s kind of heartbreaking when you think about it and it only makes more sense why Ellie still, even in the main game, talks about her and cares about her. Back to Joel, Ellie finds something to treat Joel’s injury and then that ends the dlc!
There can’t possibly be anything else…oh wait…THIS GAME HAS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER???
Factions:
Out of every single multiplayer game I’ve played, how the fuck is this one the most addicting and fun?
‘Factions mp’ is the multiplayer mode in the last of us and believe me, it’s excellent. You have the job of surviving 12 weeks either as the fireflies or the hunters. You go into matches to get supplies so you can keep your clan healthy and even get more members. There are even some nice boosters you can get if you do well and complete some challenges.
You have three modes: supply raid, survivors (you will likely not win in this mode), and interrogation (the best one). Supply raid is just a standard game where you have 4 on each team. If you die then you’ll be revived as long as you have a respawn. Each team gets 20 and they can run out very fast if you’re really shit. Survivors is basically like supply raid but you get no respawns but get better rewards. And finally there’s interrogation, if you get a player from the opposing team in a ‘downed’ state then you can interrogate them. If you interrogate 5 then you’ll be able to gain access to their lockbox. But be warned. The opposing team will set traps around it and guard it with their lives.
The mechanics also carry over from the base game with you even being able to spend ‘parts’ on things like armour and upgrades to your guns and even ammo. There are even some abilities that you can have which help you out in certain places during the matches.
Conclusion:
The last of us definitely isn’t for everyone. And I can see why some people have begun to not like it as much as they once did. There are definitely many other games that people can have fun times with but that’s not what the last of us is asking you to do, unless you play the multiplayer. The last of us isn’t about the payoff, it’s more about the journey. You either like it or you don’t, there’s no in between. But I think we should all respect how excellently written the game is and even now, it has aged a lot better than some games during its time…looking at you bioshock infinite.
Masterpiece, excellent music, great gameplay, really really good story, well written story and characters, decent dlc, multiplayer is excellent, I miss Bill so much
some of the fellas here are in DIRE need of reeducation
total blast from start to finish - even after the third playthrough. narratively it's just the right amount of explanation vs interpretation with a compelling cast whose voices are so well spoken that you'll remember the mains (especially walter and rusty) in full color even without putting a single name to face
they lend an incredible amount of authenticity to the story, which is pretty subtle overall and relies on foreshadowing and tension more so than big twists. i'll keep it vague and just say that when it comes to solidifying the routes, megaten ain't got shit
as far as combat goes, it feels great and build variety is top notch. there's something to be said about how some playstyles can outshine others in terms of efficiency/simplicity, but the biggest strength of the AC customization is that you're ultimately able to use whatever you enjoy (within the compromises of weight/energy restrictions, anyway). 100% buy/sell rates ensure you can always experiment and try new things too
some would claim this stops being the case with the "big bosses", which the same people tend to compare towards sekiro and dark souls, but i'd argue that's a case of what we in the biz refer to as a "skill issue" and nothing less. simply put - you can beat balteus with whatever the hell you want - i used two shitty assault rifles because i didn't want to restart the mission and it worked just fine (sure it took four hours of trial and error, but still - i got really good after that!)
also: this game's fucking gorgeous. and it only ramps up progressively more on that front as it goes on. i swear each chapter has at least 3 wallpaper worthy shots in cutscenes alone. music's killer too - more subdued than what you'd probably expect from hoshino (most of the time) but i dig the reznor vibes just as much as the autotuned dog barks, y'know?
at first i didn't really want to write a long review here, but it felt wrong just submitting a vague joke that only certain people would understand. so instead i decided to write that exact same joke anyway, but sandwich this review between it so i'd feel like i still did justice on one of my favorite games in the past ten years. now i'm the freelancer who has it all
main system: activating combat mode
total blast from start to finish - even after the third playthrough. narratively it's just the right amount of explanation vs interpretation with a compelling cast whose voices are so well spoken that you'll remember the mains (especially walter and rusty) in full color even without putting a single name to face
they lend an incredible amount of authenticity to the story, which is pretty subtle overall and relies on foreshadowing and tension more so than big twists. i'll keep it vague and just say that when it comes to solidifying the routes, megaten ain't got shit
as far as combat goes, it feels great and build variety is top notch. there's something to be said about how some playstyles can outshine others in terms of efficiency/simplicity, but the biggest strength of the AC customization is that you're ultimately able to use whatever you enjoy (within the compromises of weight/energy restrictions, anyway). 100% buy/sell rates ensure you can always experiment and try new things too
some would claim this stops being the case with the "big bosses", which the same people tend to compare towards sekiro and dark souls, but i'd argue that's a case of what we in the biz refer to as a "skill issue" and nothing less. simply put - you can beat balteus with whatever the hell you want - i used two shitty assault rifles because i didn't want to restart the mission and it worked just fine (sure it took four hours of trial and error, but still - i got really good after that!)
also: this game's fucking gorgeous. and it only ramps up progressively more on that front as it goes on. i swear each chapter has at least 3 wallpaper worthy shots in cutscenes alone. music's killer too - more subdued than what you'd probably expect from hoshino (most of the time) but i dig the reznor vibes just as much as the autotuned dog barks, y'know?
at first i didn't really want to write a long review here, but it felt wrong just submitting a vague joke that only certain people would understand. so instead i decided to write that exact same joke anyway, but sandwich this review between it so i'd feel like i still did justice on one of my favorite games in the past ten years. now i'm the freelancer who has it all
main system: activating combat mode
Black
2006
Anytime FPS games are discussed for the PS2, BLACK will always come to mind.
This game does exactly what it wants to do. It's a no nonsense, down to the grit FPS game.
The game runs around a total of 7 hours, and I think the pacing is pretty good. It offers some stealth but generally this is full on action and explosions from the start to the end. The stealth feels half-baked and just not really put in with much development on it.
The levels are mostly unique and have their own feeling, and the design is pretty damn good, it just flows so well. People always talk about the guns of this game but the levels themselves are really well done and amplify this game.
Now, on the guns, yep, it's awesome. Every gun feels and sounds distinct, they sound visceral and impactful. I think almost every gun I used was fun to play around with. gunfights fill the room with smoke and havoc, it feels exciting. The gunfights are just excellent here.
Now the story, as you may expect from a PS2 FPS game, is bad. It is hard to follow and overall very forgettable, it also ends on a cliffhanger for a sequel that doesn't exist sadly. But y'know, the story isn't really important here.
Also a minor complaint, the friendly soldiers you travel with feel pretty useless, they kill an enemy here and there but generally this feels like a one man army game, you vs a million Russians.
If you're into the FPS genre I'd say give it a try.
This game does exactly what it wants to do. It's a no nonsense, down to the grit FPS game.
The game runs around a total of 7 hours, and I think the pacing is pretty good. It offers some stealth but generally this is full on action and explosions from the start to the end. The stealth feels half-baked and just not really put in with much development on it.
The levels are mostly unique and have their own feeling, and the design is pretty damn good, it just flows so well. People always talk about the guns of this game but the levels themselves are really well done and amplify this game.
Now, on the guns, yep, it's awesome. Every gun feels and sounds distinct, they sound visceral and impactful. I think almost every gun I used was fun to play around with. gunfights fill the room with smoke and havoc, it feels exciting. The gunfights are just excellent here.
Now the story, as you may expect from a PS2 FPS game, is bad. It is hard to follow and overall very forgettable, it also ends on a cliffhanger for a sequel that doesn't exist sadly. But y'know, the story isn't really important here.
Also a minor complaint, the friendly soldiers you travel with feel pretty useless, they kill an enemy here and there but generally this feels like a one man army game, you vs a million Russians.
If you're into the FPS genre I'd say give it a try.