adamhoptonvo
2019
This comes so close to capturing the magic of the original two games.
It was pretty jarring to go straight into this after playing I & II, as the controls have been given a more modern feel to them. Combat is much more fluid rather than cramming the Virtua Fighter system into it like the previous two. Modern players might find Shenmue III a struggle to get on with immediately, as it doesn’t have all of the same quality of life features that other action RPGs do. But I think if it did have these features, it would take away more of that Shenmue magic.
Combat is much more welcoming to newcomers in this entry. As mentioned, the control scheme has been drastically changed and, should you want to, you can just button mash your way through fights. However it’s strongly recommended you take the time to train, because if you don’t, all your button mashing will be for naught.
It also looks fantastic. Especially when you consider it's from last gen and was a Kickstarter project. Some of the choices on the character model designs are questionable to say the least, but when this game shines it really shines. There's a particular QTE where you chase someone across some tables that I failed because I was in awe of how good it looked.
As with the other Shenmue games, there’s plenty of things to do to pass the time. In Shenmue III however, I felt that the extra curricular activities all meant something and led somewhere. Take the herb collecting. A very mundane activity (that desperately needs some sort of interactive map so you know where you have already collected them from) that reaps massive benefits. Herbs can be exchanged for skill books to learn new moves and increase your kung fu levels and also be sold as sets for quite a nice chunk of change. While practising horse stance might feel like the dullest thing possible, it’s really worth your time as it will increase your endurance and health. It’s all these little activities that seem pointless on the surface but actually help you massively that make Shenmue what it is.
Obviously a massive gripe is that the story finishes on yet another cliffhanger (and at the time of writing, Shenmue IV doesn’t look like it’s happening) but another problem I had is that there isn’t enough threat from the big bads. The story is paced well and balances the low stakes of the moment to moment beats with the overall higher stakes nicely. It’s just that you always feel as though the bad guys aren’t bad enough. No spoilers, but two of the main bad guys that show up towards the end come across as a bit too little, too late. On the plus side, Shenmue III has leaned more into its ‘wackiness’ and embraced what was considered cheesy in the previous games. Failing some of the quick time events yields great slapstick moments and Ryo seems more aware of some of the more ridiculous NPCs and their dialogue, mirroring what we as the audience are probably thinking.
I’m so glad we got this game. The first two were so important to me, and still are. All these years later, and with the help of the fans, we finally got Shenmue III. I’ll still keep hoping for IV.
It was pretty jarring to go straight into this after playing I & II, as the controls have been given a more modern feel to them. Combat is much more fluid rather than cramming the Virtua Fighter system into it like the previous two. Modern players might find Shenmue III a struggle to get on with immediately, as it doesn’t have all of the same quality of life features that other action RPGs do. But I think if it did have these features, it would take away more of that Shenmue magic.
Combat is much more welcoming to newcomers in this entry. As mentioned, the control scheme has been drastically changed and, should you want to, you can just button mash your way through fights. However it’s strongly recommended you take the time to train, because if you don’t, all your button mashing will be for naught.
It also looks fantastic. Especially when you consider it's from last gen and was a Kickstarter project. Some of the choices on the character model designs are questionable to say the least, but when this game shines it really shines. There's a particular QTE where you chase someone across some tables that I failed because I was in awe of how good it looked.
As with the other Shenmue games, there’s plenty of things to do to pass the time. In Shenmue III however, I felt that the extra curricular activities all meant something and led somewhere. Take the herb collecting. A very mundane activity (that desperately needs some sort of interactive map so you know where you have already collected them from) that reaps massive benefits. Herbs can be exchanged for skill books to learn new moves and increase your kung fu levels and also be sold as sets for quite a nice chunk of change. While practising horse stance might feel like the dullest thing possible, it’s really worth your time as it will increase your endurance and health. It’s all these little activities that seem pointless on the surface but actually help you massively that make Shenmue what it is.
Obviously a massive gripe is that the story finishes on yet another cliffhanger (and at the time of writing, Shenmue IV doesn’t look like it’s happening) but another problem I had is that there isn’t enough threat from the big bads. The story is paced well and balances the low stakes of the moment to moment beats with the overall higher stakes nicely. It’s just that you always feel as though the bad guys aren’t bad enough. No spoilers, but two of the main bad guys that show up towards the end come across as a bit too little, too late. On the plus side, Shenmue III has leaned more into its ‘wackiness’ and embraced what was considered cheesy in the previous games. Failing some of the quick time events yields great slapstick moments and Ryo seems more aware of some of the more ridiculous NPCs and their dialogue, mirroring what we as the audience are probably thinking.
I’m so glad we got this game. The first two were so important to me, and still are. All these years later, and with the help of the fans, we finally got Shenmue III. I’ll still keep hoping for IV.
2010
Lovely little game. Strikes the right balance of moody/atmospheric and taxing puzzles.
I preferred the vibe when it was all woodlands rather than when it became a factory/industrial type setting. The black and white visuals and minimalist audio made it really creepy, especially when dealing with the giant spider (which isn't a spoiler because it's right there on the thumbnail/box art). I feel like when you progress to the industrial part the game loses some of that creepiness. Instead the fear is in the form of some really tough puzzles instead.
I'm not sure if this was by design or not, but I found when the protagonist died to be really funny. Collision with dangerous objects results in them rag dolling to the ground or being skewered and going limp. Later on you can actually get blown to pieces. It all sounds quite graphic, which it is, but for some reason it comes across quite slapstick.
The only major complaint is I found the jump to be a bit unresponsive. I got used to it after a while but every time I came back to the game I had to remind myself that there's a delay on it.
Other than that, this is a great way to spend a few hours.
I preferred the vibe when it was all woodlands rather than when it became a factory/industrial type setting. The black and white visuals and minimalist audio made it really creepy, especially when dealing with the giant spider (which isn't a spoiler because it's right there on the thumbnail/box art). I feel like when you progress to the industrial part the game loses some of that creepiness. Instead the fear is in the form of some really tough puzzles instead.
I'm not sure if this was by design or not, but I found when the protagonist died to be really funny. Collision with dangerous objects results in them rag dolling to the ground or being skewered and going limp. Later on you can actually get blown to pieces. It all sounds quite graphic, which it is, but for some reason it comes across quite slapstick.
The only major complaint is I found the jump to be a bit unresponsive. I got used to it after a while but every time I came back to the game I had to remind myself that there's a delay on it.
Other than that, this is a great way to spend a few hours.
1994
I don't know where to start with this. It's both very of its era and simultaneously ahead of its time.
I'm not too familiar with RPGs from the 16 bit gen, but from what I'm aware, this seems fairly typical on the surface. But once it gets going it becomes so meta and self aware it really feels like it could have come out today.
It's tough going in the begining until your get your first party member. If you can make it to that part you're in for a treat. It does seem to plateau difficulty-wise until the very end game so make sure you do a bit of grinding and choose your items wisely.
Unfortunately the game doesn't do a great job of telling you what items do until you've bought them and checked. So it's a bit of curiosity and trial and error.
It's got great Goonies/Stranger Things/Americana vibes. Check it out if you can.
I'm not too familiar with RPGs from the 16 bit gen, but from what I'm aware, this seems fairly typical on the surface. But once it gets going it becomes so meta and self aware it really feels like it could have come out today.
It's tough going in the begining until your get your first party member. If you can make it to that part you're in for a treat. It does seem to plateau difficulty-wise until the very end game so make sure you do a bit of grinding and choose your items wisely.
Unfortunately the game doesn't do a great job of telling you what items do until you've bought them and checked. So it's a bit of curiosity and trial and error.
It's got great Goonies/Stranger Things/Americana vibes. Check it out if you can.
2018
I'm super biased because I adored these games when they first came out on the Dreamcast, but my god I love these two games!
The controls are clunky, the voice acting is a bit wooden, there's no quality of life features that are commonplace these days, but it just works. Go back to when these games originally came out and it's a miracle what the developers were able to achieve. Games that have come out since have arguably done this better, but they're standing on the shoulders of Shenmue.
At times the pace is glacial. But the whole point is to take each day as it comes and make the most of your time. Shenmue is a living, breathing world and its inhabitants all have their schedules to keep to. Need to ask at an antique shop about the old scroll you found in your basement? You can only do it when the shop is open. It can feel frustrating from a 2024 perspective that you can't just do whatever you want whenever you wish, but again, that's the point of Shenmue. The sequel does add a 'wait' feature if need to be at a certain place at a specific time you can whiz the clock forward. It's a handy implementation but does take away some of the fun of filling your day.
If you've not played these before, it's difficult to recommend them because they are showing their age now. If you're level-headed enough to appreciate that they are old games, you might be surprised at how much enjoyment you'll get out of them.
Again, I'm biased, but these are two of the best games of all time.
Also I just noticed that I finished my last play-through on 6th May and finished this time on 5th May! Spooky!
The controls are clunky, the voice acting is a bit wooden, there's no quality of life features that are commonplace these days, but it just works. Go back to when these games originally came out and it's a miracle what the developers were able to achieve. Games that have come out since have arguably done this better, but they're standing on the shoulders of Shenmue.
At times the pace is glacial. But the whole point is to take each day as it comes and make the most of your time. Shenmue is a living, breathing world and its inhabitants all have their schedules to keep to. Need to ask at an antique shop about the old scroll you found in your basement? You can only do it when the shop is open. It can feel frustrating from a 2024 perspective that you can't just do whatever you want whenever you wish, but again, that's the point of Shenmue. The sequel does add a 'wait' feature if need to be at a certain place at a specific time you can whiz the clock forward. It's a handy implementation but does take away some of the fun of filling your day.
If you've not played these before, it's difficult to recommend them because they are showing their age now. If you're level-headed enough to appreciate that they are old games, you might be surprised at how much enjoyment you'll get out of them.
Again, I'm biased, but these are two of the best games of all time.
Also I just noticed that I finished my last play-through on 6th May and finished this time on 5th May! Spooky!
1999
I wasn't expecting Pokemon Snap to have as much depth as it does! I always imagined this just to be a generic on-rails shooter under the guise of a family friendly cash in.
On the surface, that's exactly what it is. But where Pokemon Snap differs is that there are extra objectives to achieve other than just taking as many pictures of Pokemon as you can in each level. Sometimes the game will require you to take a certain number of photos of different species before progressing. Other times you will need to trigger a certain event to open a different pathway.
Snap doesn't do a brilliant job of signposting exactly what it is you have to do to open these pathways. Bear in mind that this game comes from a pre-googling-the-answer era. This creates a bit of a fork in the road for my lasting impression.
On the one hand, the game is incredibly brief and despite enjoying myself, I don't think there's much replay value unless I really wanted to snap every 'Mon that I could. On the other hand, viewed through a 1999 lens, I wouldn't have been able to google how to progress to the next level and therefore the game's lifespan would've increased.
As I've played this via NSO, I land more on the side of it being too brief although any longer and it would run the risk of being too repetitive. Definitely worth checking out even if you've only got a slight curiosity in Pikachu and pals.
On the surface, that's exactly what it is. But where Pokemon Snap differs is that there are extra objectives to achieve other than just taking as many pictures of Pokemon as you can in each level. Sometimes the game will require you to take a certain number of photos of different species before progressing. Other times you will need to trigger a certain event to open a different pathway.
Snap doesn't do a brilliant job of signposting exactly what it is you have to do to open these pathways. Bear in mind that this game comes from a pre-googling-the-answer era. This creates a bit of a fork in the road for my lasting impression.
On the one hand, the game is incredibly brief and despite enjoying myself, I don't think there's much replay value unless I really wanted to snap every 'Mon that I could. On the other hand, viewed through a 1999 lens, I wouldn't have been able to google how to progress to the next level and therefore the game's lifespan would've increased.
As I've played this via NSO, I land more on the side of it being too brief although any longer and it would run the risk of being too repetitive. Definitely worth checking out even if you've only got a slight curiosity in Pikachu and pals.
1997
Some good clean fun.
Played as part of the Switch N64 collection of games. Despite its age, it doesn't look half bad. The enemies are mostly indistinguishable but that's more of an "of it's time" kind of thing.
I was a Sega kid through and through growing up, but I did manage to play tiny bits of this at a friend's house. It's great to play it in full and experience the complete game. The mechanics are simple to pick up but there's definitely a degree of skill involved with mastering them to get through the hard route.
There's a lot of replay value thanks to the short length and the increasingly difficult routes. It's just not enough to keep me coming back. At least for a while anyway.
Played as part of the Switch N64 collection of games. Despite its age, it doesn't look half bad. The enemies are mostly indistinguishable but that's more of an "of it's time" kind of thing.
I was a Sega kid through and through growing up, but I did manage to play tiny bits of this at a friend's house. It's great to play it in full and experience the complete game. The mechanics are simple to pick up but there's definitely a degree of skill involved with mastering them to get through the hard route.
There's a lot of replay value thanks to the short length and the increasingly difficult routes. It's just not enough to keep me coming back. At least for a while anyway.
2018
I'm not big on Roguelikes in general but I had a really good time with Hades. Playing on Switch allowed me to get in a good run attempt during my commute to/from work and it lends itself perfectly to a 30-45 minute burst of play.
Hades looks fantastic. It runs super smooth even on Switch. The colours of each environment pop off the screen and it's always a delight to look at. The voice acting is top notch as is the score.
Depending on how you feel about this genre, Hades can be an incredibly frustrating game. It's hard on purpose, but you're able to get stronger on each attempt to escape from the Underworld, helping you get that little bit further each time. You’ll unlock different weapons to use where you will inevitably find favourites or ones you tend to perform better with. The further you get on escape attempts, the more resources you’ll have to upgrade the weapons and your abilities, and therefore helping you get that little bit further next time.
Very minor spoilers here: After I managed to escape the Underworld, I expected a bit of an epilogue and the credits. But after the narrative plays out you’re returned to the starting point. A quick google told me that to get the ending you need to escape 10 times in total. Initially I thought “challenge accepted” but after 5 successful attempts I feel that I’ve gotten all I can get out of Hades. As I said, this isn’t my genre of choice, so despite having a blast with the game, I’m not going to get any more enjoyment out of it by persevering for the sake of it.
Definitely check Hades out if you’re curious about Roguelikes, but seeing the credits is only for dedicated fans of the genre.
Hades looks fantastic. It runs super smooth even on Switch. The colours of each environment pop off the screen and it's always a delight to look at. The voice acting is top notch as is the score.
Depending on how you feel about this genre, Hades can be an incredibly frustrating game. It's hard on purpose, but you're able to get stronger on each attempt to escape from the Underworld, helping you get that little bit further each time. You’ll unlock different weapons to use where you will inevitably find favourites or ones you tend to perform better with. The further you get on escape attempts, the more resources you’ll have to upgrade the weapons and your abilities, and therefore helping you get that little bit further next time.
Very minor spoilers here: After I managed to escape the Underworld, I expected a bit of an epilogue and the credits. But after the narrative plays out you’re returned to the starting point. A quick google told me that to get the ending you need to escape 10 times in total. Initially I thought “challenge accepted” but after 5 successful attempts I feel that I’ve gotten all I can get out of Hades. As I said, this isn’t my genre of choice, so despite having a blast with the game, I’m not going to get any more enjoyment out of it by persevering for the sake of it.
Definitely check Hades out if you’re curious about Roguelikes, but seeing the credits is only for dedicated fans of the genre.
2021
Briefly started this but I've cancelled my PS Plus and it just expired so I can't play it anymore. It seemed ok but I'm not going to lose sleep on not finishing it.
2021
"Fun" isn't the right word, but I had a good time with this. It's a good creepy story but it doesn't quite live up to its potential.
It's difficult to explain but the gameplay loop is very repetitive and verges on becoming boring though somehow, it's still an enjoyable experience.
It obviously doesn't look the best being a remaster from the 7th generation although that's not to say it looks bad. The remaster team have done a great job and it's only in the cutscenes where the game shows it's age.
I don't want to say too much about this because I think you should go in as blind as you can. I'm sure you can pick this up cheap in a sale right now and there's plenty worse ways to spend 12ish hours.
It's difficult to explain but the gameplay loop is very repetitive and verges on becoming boring though somehow, it's still an enjoyable experience.
It obviously doesn't look the best being a remaster from the 7th generation although that's not to say it looks bad. The remaster team have done a great job and it's only in the cutscenes where the game shows it's age.
I don't want to say too much about this because I think you should go in as blind as you can. I'm sure you can pick this up cheap in a sale right now and there's plenty worse ways to spend 12ish hours.
All the way through this game I couldn't decide whether to stick to the story or invest loads of my time into it. I think I landed more on the latter side and that's where Ni No Kuni 2 shines brightest.
Overall I think it's a slight step back from the previous game. The world didn't seem as whimsical or endearing. Ni No Kuni 2 deals with slightly more mature themes (it's still pretty childish) so I guess whimsy had to make way for this to work. There's plenty of other changes from the previous game too. Gone is the Pokemon-lite creature mechanics and combat is now more action orientated. You can switch to other party members at the press of a button but frankly, you rarely need to. I pretty much completed the game using just Evan and giving everyone the best weapons and equipment.
Traditional RPG-wise, there's nothing new here. The main story is a bit rinse and repeat as you travel to different countries in the world with the aim of unifying them. Arrive, the leader's corrupt, sort it out, fight with a monster, move on. Despite the repetitiveness, the game still manages to be enjoyable but mainly through the extra curricular activities.
The part of Ni No Kuni 2 that sucked me in the most was upgrading my kingdom. It's essentially like Simpsons Tapped Out and other similar games except you're not getting ads in your face or being asked to fork over more money. I think I spent the most amount of my time tracking down new citizens to populate my kingdom, setting up research tasks (these grant you extra skills/rewards for the rest of the game like better weapons etc) and developing new buildings. It was seriously addictive.
At times the game looks like one of the best on the Switch. It runs super smooth and really is gorgeous. Not being a frame rate buff I couldn't tell you what it runs at, but sometimes it looks fantastic. Unfortunately when the screen starts to get a bit busy it will stutter from time to time but what can you do?
Top it all off with a score by Joe Hisaishi and you've got a great RPG if you pick it up in a sale.
Overall I think it's a slight step back from the previous game. The world didn't seem as whimsical or endearing. Ni No Kuni 2 deals with slightly more mature themes (it's still pretty childish) so I guess whimsy had to make way for this to work. There's plenty of other changes from the previous game too. Gone is the Pokemon-lite creature mechanics and combat is now more action orientated. You can switch to other party members at the press of a button but frankly, you rarely need to. I pretty much completed the game using just Evan and giving everyone the best weapons and equipment.
Traditional RPG-wise, there's nothing new here. The main story is a bit rinse and repeat as you travel to different countries in the world with the aim of unifying them. Arrive, the leader's corrupt, sort it out, fight with a monster, move on. Despite the repetitiveness, the game still manages to be enjoyable but mainly through the extra curricular activities.
The part of Ni No Kuni 2 that sucked me in the most was upgrading my kingdom. It's essentially like Simpsons Tapped Out and other similar games except you're not getting ads in your face or being asked to fork over more money. I think I spent the most amount of my time tracking down new citizens to populate my kingdom, setting up research tasks (these grant you extra skills/rewards for the rest of the game like better weapons etc) and developing new buildings. It was seriously addictive.
At times the game looks like one of the best on the Switch. It runs super smooth and really is gorgeous. Not being a frame rate buff I couldn't tell you what it runs at, but sometimes it looks fantastic. Unfortunately when the screen starts to get a bit busy it will stutter from time to time but what can you do?
Top it all off with a score by Joe Hisaishi and you've got a great RPG if you pick it up in a sale.
2021
Unfortunately, I'm going to have give up on Sable.
From the first moment I saw a trailer for this game, with a cloaked figure riding a hoverbike across sand dunes in cell-shaded graphics and a synth soundtrack I was 100% sold. This was supposed to be my jam.
I'm not a framerate snob at all. Far from it. Higher framerates definitely make games look better, but it's near the bottom of my priorities when buying a game. However Sable has such an inconsistent framerate even I couldn't carry on.
It doesn't help that there's been (I assume) an artistic choice to restrict the frames of animation on the main character, Sable. As for the environments, they will either look fantastic or will splutter and flicker. Add in the character movement animations and it's either super jarring or headache inducing.
It's a real shame because there's definitely a good game underneath this. The freedom to explore the world in whatever order you like, the fantastic dialogue and (taken in little snapshots) it really is beautiful.
From what I've read, it's just a two-person development team so I don't mean any ill-will or maliciousness to them and can only imagine how hard it must be to actually make a game. I hope there's patch at some point so I can revisit.
Incomplete so no score.
From the first moment I saw a trailer for this game, with a cloaked figure riding a hoverbike across sand dunes in cell-shaded graphics and a synth soundtrack I was 100% sold. This was supposed to be my jam.
I'm not a framerate snob at all. Far from it. Higher framerates definitely make games look better, but it's near the bottom of my priorities when buying a game. However Sable has such an inconsistent framerate even I couldn't carry on.
It doesn't help that there's been (I assume) an artistic choice to restrict the frames of animation on the main character, Sable. As for the environments, they will either look fantastic or will splutter and flicker. Add in the character movement animations and it's either super jarring or headache inducing.
It's a real shame because there's definitely a good game underneath this. The freedom to explore the world in whatever order you like, the fantastic dialogue and (taken in little snapshots) it really is beautiful.
From what I've read, it's just a two-person development team so I don't mean any ill-will or maliciousness to them and can only imagine how hard it must be to actually make a game. I hope there's patch at some point so I can revisit.
Incomplete so no score.
2022
A not-too-distant-future, dystopian death sport heavily influenced by films like Rollerball and The Running Man.
Rollerdrome has an awesome 70s/80s future vibe to it complete with a synth-heavy soundtrack that oozes cool. I'm hesitant to use such a reductive statement, but in basic terms the game plays like Tony Hawk with guns. The way Kara (who you play as) moves around the arenas, up halfpipes and along rails is exactly like the Neversoft classics, but there are enough modifications and additions to the gameplay to give Rollerdrome its own identity.
Rollerdrome's core loop has you eliminating a set amount of enemies from an arena with your guns as you skate around performing tricks in order to reload. As you can imagine, there are several enemy types each with their own attacks you need to learn how to avoid and weaknesses to exploit. There are a handful of guns at your disposal (these unlock as you progress through the game) with different properties that work better/worse against the various enemies. Rollerdrome isn't exactly rewriting the rulebook, but it's certainly putting its own stamp on it.
There is a loose narrative you can choose to explore or ignore but doing so certainly adds weight to your actions in the game. Essentially, Rollerdrome is the world's most popular sport, you play as a rookie and work your way through the preliminaries to the grand finals while dystopian corruption happens around you. The game inserts first-person sections between levels every now and again allowing you to explore backstage of the arenas or in-transit to your next match that provide objects to interact with and absorb the lore.
I had a great time with Rollerdrome and now I've completed the main chunk of levels I fully intend to go back and complete the additional challenges I couldn't quite get on my first time through. It won't take you long to finish but these additional challenges plus an extra hard mode that unlocks on after the credits will keep completionists/masochists busy for a while.
Rollerdrome has an awesome 70s/80s future vibe to it complete with a synth-heavy soundtrack that oozes cool. I'm hesitant to use such a reductive statement, but in basic terms the game plays like Tony Hawk with guns. The way Kara (who you play as) moves around the arenas, up halfpipes and along rails is exactly like the Neversoft classics, but there are enough modifications and additions to the gameplay to give Rollerdrome its own identity.
Rollerdrome's core loop has you eliminating a set amount of enemies from an arena with your guns as you skate around performing tricks in order to reload. As you can imagine, there are several enemy types each with their own attacks you need to learn how to avoid and weaknesses to exploit. There are a handful of guns at your disposal (these unlock as you progress through the game) with different properties that work better/worse against the various enemies. Rollerdrome isn't exactly rewriting the rulebook, but it's certainly putting its own stamp on it.
There is a loose narrative you can choose to explore or ignore but doing so certainly adds weight to your actions in the game. Essentially, Rollerdrome is the world's most popular sport, you play as a rookie and work your way through the preliminaries to the grand finals while dystopian corruption happens around you. The game inserts first-person sections between levels every now and again allowing you to explore backstage of the arenas or in-transit to your next match that provide objects to interact with and absorb the lore.
I had a great time with Rollerdrome and now I've completed the main chunk of levels I fully intend to go back and complete the additional challenges I couldn't quite get on my first time through. It won't take you long to finish but these additional challenges plus an extra hard mode that unlocks on after the credits will keep completionists/masochists busy for a while.
2018
Hitman 2 is essentially a glorified score attack game loosely tied together by a vague plot. But that is by no means a bad thing.
What you have is a handful of scenarios, each in a wildly different setting from the last, with a new target or targets to kill and linked together by a threadbare plot about uncovering Agent 47's past. Feel free to ignore any and all plot points (although there's no judgement from me if you indulge in them) and fully sink your teeth into each scenario treating them as standalone missions. You can see how this was developed with an episodic nature in mind before Warner Bros pivoted to releasing the game in full from it's disjointed flow from mission to mission.
The missions themselves offer you a multitude of ways to off your targets and the game kindly provides you with 'story missions' to follow, which are recommended for a first pass of the level. They give the player a handy checklist of events that culminate in a specific demise for a target. You can then replay the level and try a different 'story mission' for a different outcome or completely freestyle it and take them down as you see fit.
The game scores and ranks you on your efficiency for completing the mission and there's dozens of challenges to conquer to further unlock tools to use in the mission, boosting the game's replay factor.
The NPCs within each mission seem overly jumpy and get suspicious of you at a moment's notice, but then again, I'd be suspicious if a guy walked around town with my erratic playstyle. This means you really have to be patient at times to wait for a perfectly clear route so you can proceed without alerting anyone. So if you're more of an 'all-guns-blazing' type of player, this might not be for you.
What you have is a handful of scenarios, each in a wildly different setting from the last, with a new target or targets to kill and linked together by a threadbare plot about uncovering Agent 47's past. Feel free to ignore any and all plot points (although there's no judgement from me if you indulge in them) and fully sink your teeth into each scenario treating them as standalone missions. You can see how this was developed with an episodic nature in mind before Warner Bros pivoted to releasing the game in full from it's disjointed flow from mission to mission.
The missions themselves offer you a multitude of ways to off your targets and the game kindly provides you with 'story missions' to follow, which are recommended for a first pass of the level. They give the player a handy checklist of events that culminate in a specific demise for a target. You can then replay the level and try a different 'story mission' for a different outcome or completely freestyle it and take them down as you see fit.
The game scores and ranks you on your efficiency for completing the mission and there's dozens of challenges to conquer to further unlock tools to use in the mission, boosting the game's replay factor.
The NPCs within each mission seem overly jumpy and get suspicious of you at a moment's notice, but then again, I'd be suspicious if a guy walked around town with my erratic playstyle. This means you really have to be patient at times to wait for a perfectly clear route so you can proceed without alerting anyone. So if you're more of an 'all-guns-blazing' type of player, this might not be for you.
2016
Seems like a really good and fun experience if this is your sort of thing, but after finishing the first series of levels I wasn't really connecting with it so put it aside.
This was a lot of fun but made me swear probably more than any other game ever!
It's a great evolution of the series from the original trilogy (especially following up from the remasters) by keeping the fundamentals of what makes Crash 'Crash', but also adding new mechanics that freshen things up without detracting from that core essence.
There's some insanely tricky platforming on offer here (hence the aforementioned swearing) that is immensely rewarding once you've pulled it off but some of it requires extremely high skill levels to do so.
There's not a hell of a lot to say really, it's a Crash game. If you love the originals or the remasters you'll love this. If not, I'd still recommend giving it a try but don't expect too much.
It's a great evolution of the series from the original trilogy (especially following up from the remasters) by keeping the fundamentals of what makes Crash 'Crash', but also adding new mechanics that freshen things up without detracting from that core essence.
There's some insanely tricky platforming on offer here (hence the aforementioned swearing) that is immensely rewarding once you've pulled it off but some of it requires extremely high skill levels to do so.
There's not a hell of a lot to say really, it's a Crash game. If you love the originals or the remasters you'll love this. If not, I'd still recommend giving it a try but don't expect too much.