2007
An all encompassing fun experience.
The orchestral soundtrack elevates the game right from the start. The game oozes charm. It’s a visual treat. And the gameplay and mechanics are oh so satisfying.
It’s not a full 5-star game because of the unnecessary motion controls even for /the freaking menus/. It’s not enough that the actual gameplay should not require motion controls, but that even for selecting your save file you need motion stuff with no options for better accessibility is frankly horrendous. The only taint on this otherwise fantastic game.
The orchestral soundtrack elevates the game right from the start. The game oozes charm. It’s a visual treat. And the gameplay and mechanics are oh so satisfying.
It’s not a full 5-star game because of the unnecessary motion controls even for /the freaking menus/. It’s not enough that the actual gameplay should not require motion controls, but that even for selecting your save file you need motion stuff with no options for better accessibility is frankly horrendous. The only taint on this otherwise fantastic game.
2018
This game freaking shreds. What an achievement, truly.
Hades has cemented Supergiant Games as one the finest independent development companies around, and surely my favourite.
There’s so much style in here. The visuals are beautiful and uniquely Supergiant, as is the amazing, heavy, and fusion-induced soundtrack - all hail Darren Korb.
Rogue-likes have never been appealing to me, and I only gave Hades a chance because it was a Supergiant one. And I love it. The way it’s all deeply integrated into the setting and the story - it’s satisfying and never a bad thing to “die” and go back to the beginning- to the house full of amazing characters to talk to and further develop their relationship and move the story forward.
And those characters. Their monologues and their dialogues are so well written and excellently acted - the voice acting is superb and it perfectly elevated each character’s personality and mood at any given moment.
And the fact that you never experience the same comment or the same conversations with them is just nuts. Remarkable work there.
Having gotten the game’s credits now, I’m absolutely satisfied with Hades. But what’s so much better as that there’s still lots and lots of stories to see through and so much game mechanics to be explored.
Supremely excellent.
Hades has cemented Supergiant Games as one the finest independent development companies around, and surely my favourite.
There’s so much style in here. The visuals are beautiful and uniquely Supergiant, as is the amazing, heavy, and fusion-induced soundtrack - all hail Darren Korb.
Rogue-likes have never been appealing to me, and I only gave Hades a chance because it was a Supergiant one. And I love it. The way it’s all deeply integrated into the setting and the story - it’s satisfying and never a bad thing to “die” and go back to the beginning- to the house full of amazing characters to talk to and further develop their relationship and move the story forward.
And those characters. Their monologues and their dialogues are so well written and excellently acted - the voice acting is superb and it perfectly elevated each character’s personality and mood at any given moment.
And the fact that you never experience the same comment or the same conversations with them is just nuts. Remarkable work there.
Having gotten the game’s credits now, I’m absolutely satisfied with Hades. But what’s so much better as that there’s still lots and lots of stories to see through and so much game mechanics to be explored.
Supremely excellent.
Just as the first one, the story grabs you right from the start. And just like the first one, it’s visually stunning and its music is truly wonderful.
The fluidity of movement feels great, and the combat is super satisfying. When those set pieces where you have to quickly and acrobatically escape some big danger happen, the swiftness and precision of the controls shine the most, it’s satisfying to both play it and watch it.
It took me a little while to get used to assigning the different abilities to 3 buttons at a time, but it ended up being a great way to quickly change actions and strategies, even during battles.
And those boss battles - what a spectacle. Challenging, stunning and so gratifying.
One time for a little while it felt like there was some randomly longer-than-usual loading times for even opening the inventory or the pause menus, as well as visual hiccups where I’d see environments and characters slowly popup, which was very grating given the sheer fluidness of the game otherwise. And the I got an error and the game shut down entirely. Very strange but it was one time.
One of the new things I really love about this one is the large roster of friendly characters in the world. They’re all wonderfully designed, voiced, and animated. Tokk, Opher, Lupo, Kworok, Lewin, and the others.
The story, all the way to the conclusion impresses with its little reliance on dialogue, favoring beautiful animations and the fantastic music score to elevate the highly emotional beats of the bittersweet tale.
The excellent combination of satisfying movement, tight platforming, fun combat, incredible set pieces, beautiful music, and stunning visuals and animation makes Ori one of my favorite games of 2020, and indeed of the Switch in general.
The fluidity of movement feels great, and the combat is super satisfying. When those set pieces where you have to quickly and acrobatically escape some big danger happen, the swiftness and precision of the controls shine the most, it’s satisfying to both play it and watch it.
It took me a little while to get used to assigning the different abilities to 3 buttons at a time, but it ended up being a great way to quickly change actions and strategies, even during battles.
And those boss battles - what a spectacle. Challenging, stunning and so gratifying.
One time for a little while it felt like there was some randomly longer-than-usual loading times for even opening the inventory or the pause menus, as well as visual hiccups where I’d see environments and characters slowly popup, which was very grating given the sheer fluidness of the game otherwise. And the I got an error and the game shut down entirely. Very strange but it was one time.
One of the new things I really love about this one is the large roster of friendly characters in the world. They’re all wonderfully designed, voiced, and animated. Tokk, Opher, Lupo, Kworok, Lewin, and the others.
The story, all the way to the conclusion impresses with its little reliance on dialogue, favoring beautiful animations and the fantastic music score to elevate the highly emotional beats of the bittersweet tale.
The excellent combination of satisfying movement, tight platforming, fun combat, incredible set pieces, beautiful music, and stunning visuals and animation makes Ori one of my favorite games of 2020, and indeed of the Switch in general.
It is a shame that some emotional and important story moments and revelations are dealt with in a cheap and shallow way, some of them barely relegated to an off-screen conversation. It makes the game feel rushed in an unpleasant way.
The more I played the more it became clear that this is indeed an iteration of the original game.
The closest similar case I can remember is Infamous Second Son and First Light, where the latter is an expansion of the former, but the main character of First Light actually plays and feels different from the main character of Second Son. Which makes sense since they have very different powers, whereas Miles and Peter do have essentially the same powers, obviously. The problem is, in the game, while it looks like Miles is still getting the hang of being Spider-Man (some of his animations when swinging indicate as much, and the story deals with this) when it’s time to play, Miles actually plays just like ‘Peter with extra powers’. It would have been interesting to explore Miles’ limitations of “just starting to become Spider-Man” through gameplay, like not having all the physical abilities Peter does or being less effective at some of them. But so far, he just has some different gadgets, the same abilities, and actually more powers than Peter!
The core game is fun, although not very challenging. I love swinging through NYC and Miles animations make it all that much more enjoyable.
Most importantly, I love these characters, and while some of the story beats are not as nicely executed as I would have liked, the overall story and the treatment of these beloved characters is ultimately very satisfying.
The more I played the more it became clear that this is indeed an iteration of the original game.
The closest similar case I can remember is Infamous Second Son and First Light, where the latter is an expansion of the former, but the main character of First Light actually plays and feels different from the main character of Second Son. Which makes sense since they have very different powers, whereas Miles and Peter do have essentially the same powers, obviously. The problem is, in the game, while it looks like Miles is still getting the hang of being Spider-Man (some of his animations when swinging indicate as much, and the story deals with this) when it’s time to play, Miles actually plays just like ‘Peter with extra powers’. It would have been interesting to explore Miles’ limitations of “just starting to become Spider-Man” through gameplay, like not having all the physical abilities Peter does or being less effective at some of them. But so far, he just has some different gadgets, the same abilities, and actually more powers than Peter!
The core game is fun, although not very challenging. I love swinging through NYC and Miles animations make it all that much more enjoyable.
Most importantly, I love these characters, and while some of the story beats are not as nicely executed as I would have liked, the overall story and the treatment of these beloved characters is ultimately very satisfying.
Admittedly one of the reasons I got this game, besides the prospect of a good single-player Star Wars game-story, was the comparisons to a Souls-like that the game kept getting. Being recently obsessed with Bloodborne, those comparisons made Fallen Order very appealing to me. And I gotta say, a lot of the characteristics of those games are present here indeed, albeit on a more accessible fashion. However, in order to get a similar level of challenge/difficulty you have to play on the Jedi Grand Master difficulty level. I also remapped some buttons so the main attacks were done on the right triggers.
On a technical level, the game feels somewhat unpolished; noticeably long loading times that still don’t prevent from very bad character models pop-ins (sometimes they even pop in t-poses) and late texture loads as well and regular frame rate jankiness all add up to an less than great experience that I’m honestly not used to, coming from mostly playing Playstation Studio’s games.
The worse thing are these desperately long loading times after you’re killed. It feels like a punishment and a (bad and unintentional) incentive for really striving to stay alive. And while dying at this highest difficulty level, just like on the Souls games, is expected to be a regular thing, the horrible loading times makes it really frustrating overall.
Those were not the only technical issue I’ve found with the game, I’m afraid; on one cutscene, whenever there was a camera switch there was full 1-second pause of the scene, and there were a lot of switches. It was pretty jarring. Elsewhere, after respawning (which again, takes close to a minute of loading) the enemies were not shown for a good 3 seconds and then suddenly they’d just pop up; what the hell was all that previous loading time for?! The very first time this happened, I assumed the area no longer had enemies, went forward, and then suddenly I was surrounded by a bunch of troopers. It was bad.
It’s a shame the game is plagued with so many technical hiccups. But I guess I’m patient and also a sucker for Star Wars, so I got over those problems and manage to enjoy everything else the game offers, which happens to be great (it also helped that I got the game on a very good PSN sale at most than half the normal price).
Everything else the game has to offer is excellent.
The characters are fantastic; funny, charming, and are well-developed throughout the story. Cal is a great protagonist, and BD-1 is super lovely - quickly becoming my favourite Star Wars droid. Greez, even a secondary character, is also great.
The story is full is of nice turn and great, emotional surprises, and it keeps escalating in excitement and stakes all the way to the end - oh and what an ending.
Overall it’s a deeply well written Star Wars story that respects and expands the mythos in interesting and rewarding ways.
Finally, the gameplay is fun and challenging. It’s a combination of metroidvanias - with level design where paths are blocked by yet-unlocked-abilities and rewarding of inquisitive exploration - and Soulsborne games - tight, parry-based combat; respawning enemies, and challenging but satisfying enemy gauntlets and boss fights - which works very nicely when put all together.
There’s a couple of things design-wise that didn’t feel right to me, however; first is that every time you ‘rest’ in a meditation spot to fully heal, all the enemies in the world are respawned. Although this might make sense from a gameplay point of view, it just doesn’t make any sense from a lore perspective; it might be fine for the Souls-game but it doesn’t particularly fit within Star Wars. Second was that the Force bar gets depleted and only way to recover it is by perfect-parrying, and later on perfect-dodging or healing. This also feels wrong within Star Wars becase Jedi don’t just run out of “force-juice”, and it’s even weirder because Cal can force-push, pull, and slow things as much as he likes, but the moment it does it on an enemy, there’s suddenly a limit to it. It would have made more sense to at least treat it as stamina somehow. Admittedly these are all minor, maybe nitpicky things, though.
All in all, Jedi: Fallen Order is a great Star Wars game, with an excellent and emotional story, memorable characters, stunning worlds, and gameplay that does an fantastic job at giving you the powers of a Jedi. But it’s ultimately bogged down by some egregious lack of technical polish.
Still, looking forward to the sequel and seeing more of BD-1!
On a technical level, the game feels somewhat unpolished; noticeably long loading times that still don’t prevent from very bad character models pop-ins (sometimes they even pop in t-poses) and late texture loads as well and regular frame rate jankiness all add up to an less than great experience that I’m honestly not used to, coming from mostly playing Playstation Studio’s games.
The worse thing are these desperately long loading times after you’re killed. It feels like a punishment and a (bad and unintentional) incentive for really striving to stay alive. And while dying at this highest difficulty level, just like on the Souls games, is expected to be a regular thing, the horrible loading times makes it really frustrating overall.
Those were not the only technical issue I’ve found with the game, I’m afraid; on one cutscene, whenever there was a camera switch there was full 1-second pause of the scene, and there were a lot of switches. It was pretty jarring. Elsewhere, after respawning (which again, takes close to a minute of loading) the enemies were not shown for a good 3 seconds and then suddenly they’d just pop up; what the hell was all that previous loading time for?! The very first time this happened, I assumed the area no longer had enemies, went forward, and then suddenly I was surrounded by a bunch of troopers. It was bad.
It’s a shame the game is plagued with so many technical hiccups. But I guess I’m patient and also a sucker for Star Wars, so I got over those problems and manage to enjoy everything else the game offers, which happens to be great (it also helped that I got the game on a very good PSN sale at most than half the normal price).
Everything else the game has to offer is excellent.
The characters are fantastic; funny, charming, and are well-developed throughout the story. Cal is a great protagonist, and BD-1 is super lovely - quickly becoming my favourite Star Wars droid. Greez, even a secondary character, is also great.
The story is full is of nice turn and great, emotional surprises, and it keeps escalating in excitement and stakes all the way to the end - oh and what an ending.
Overall it’s a deeply well written Star Wars story that respects and expands the mythos in interesting and rewarding ways.
Finally, the gameplay is fun and challenging. It’s a combination of metroidvanias - with level design where paths are blocked by yet-unlocked-abilities and rewarding of inquisitive exploration - and Soulsborne games - tight, parry-based combat; respawning enemies, and challenging but satisfying enemy gauntlets and boss fights - which works very nicely when put all together.
There’s a couple of things design-wise that didn’t feel right to me, however; first is that every time you ‘rest’ in a meditation spot to fully heal, all the enemies in the world are respawned. Although this might make sense from a gameplay point of view, it just doesn’t make any sense from a lore perspective; it might be fine for the Souls-game but it doesn’t particularly fit within Star Wars. Second was that the Force bar gets depleted and only way to recover it is by perfect-parrying, and later on perfect-dodging or healing. This also feels wrong within Star Wars becase Jedi don’t just run out of “force-juice”, and it’s even weirder because Cal can force-push, pull, and slow things as much as he likes, but the moment it does it on an enemy, there’s suddenly a limit to it. It would have made more sense to at least treat it as stamina somehow. Admittedly these are all minor, maybe nitpicky things, though.
All in all, Jedi: Fallen Order is a great Star Wars game, with an excellent and emotional story, memorable characters, stunning worlds, and gameplay that does an fantastic job at giving you the powers of a Jedi. But it’s ultimately bogged down by some egregious lack of technical polish.
Still, looking forward to the sequel and seeing more of BD-1!
2015
This was my first experience with FromSoftware’s 'Souls-like' games, so there’s a lot of new literacy and things I had to unlearn about “action” games. It’s been fascinating and rewarding.
I think the most impactful difference in gameplay here is the stamina bar. Having to essentially manage the amount of "action" you can do in short bursts is a massive change in the rhythm, pacing, and approach to battles. And it's genius. It makes every single encounter meaningful; you cannot just mindlessly attack until the enemy is gone. You must be more strategic, plan better the amount of attacks you can try, when to retrieve, and generally be more observant of the enemies. It results in a highly engaging combat system.
The game world is fantastically realized. It’s always a bit impressive when you’re exploring deep into an area and then you reach a gate or ladder that takes you back to an early part of the world, and you realize how intricate and connected the whole thing is.
I love the setting and the architecture.
The atmosphere is dark, tense, sometimes hopeless and eventually terrifying. For me, playing this in online mode is essential, as reading notes, seeing the white ghosts of other players right there you with you makes the whole journey much less tense and endurable.
The story is vague and has to be discovered and dug out by the player, which is very different and more engaging. Relying on notes scarcely scattered all over the game, short monologues from the characters you encounter, and item descriptions for storytelling results in a story open for ample interpretations and mystery, but it also encourages for inquisitiveness during exploration.
The second biggest impactful difference in the game’s design is the lack of any sort of map. I love this; every game that offers a map should always provide an option to disable it, and I always do disable them on the ones that do. Not having a map makes for a more immersive exploration of the world, and it works to great effects in Bloodborne. You get to know and familiarize with every single corner of this world.
Having said that, I didn’t enjoy the areas that are not set in the cities or more “civilized” settings (like the Forbidden Woods) - they felt less engrossing and a bit cheap.
And yes, the game is very challenging, and strangely, it feels specially difficult at the beginning. But I do believe that in order to overcome the initial spike, you need mostly to be patient and receptive of what the game is trying to teach you through its mechanics instead of expecting a traditional over-expository tutorial. Everything has to be discovered on your own, but every discovery is rewarding and worthwhile.
While I don’t have a big problem with the frame-rate in general, it does sometimes feel a bit sluggish, which is a shame. But considering its age - it’s a 5-year-old game - I find it technically ok. Having said that, it is very weird how there’s no lip or mouth movements when characters speak - it feels very outdated.
Ultimately, Bloodborne was a remarkable and different experience that I overall am very glad with having completed.
I think the most impactful difference in gameplay here is the stamina bar. Having to essentially manage the amount of "action" you can do in short bursts is a massive change in the rhythm, pacing, and approach to battles. And it's genius. It makes every single encounter meaningful; you cannot just mindlessly attack until the enemy is gone. You must be more strategic, plan better the amount of attacks you can try, when to retrieve, and generally be more observant of the enemies. It results in a highly engaging combat system.
The game world is fantastically realized. It’s always a bit impressive when you’re exploring deep into an area and then you reach a gate or ladder that takes you back to an early part of the world, and you realize how intricate and connected the whole thing is.
I love the setting and the architecture.
The atmosphere is dark, tense, sometimes hopeless and eventually terrifying. For me, playing this in online mode is essential, as reading notes, seeing the white ghosts of other players right there you with you makes the whole journey much less tense and endurable.
The story is vague and has to be discovered and dug out by the player, which is very different and more engaging. Relying on notes scarcely scattered all over the game, short monologues from the characters you encounter, and item descriptions for storytelling results in a story open for ample interpretations and mystery, but it also encourages for inquisitiveness during exploration.
The second biggest impactful difference in the game’s design is the lack of any sort of map. I love this; every game that offers a map should always provide an option to disable it, and I always do disable them on the ones that do. Not having a map makes for a more immersive exploration of the world, and it works to great effects in Bloodborne. You get to know and familiarize with every single corner of this world.
Having said that, I didn’t enjoy the areas that are not set in the cities or more “civilized” settings (like the Forbidden Woods) - they felt less engrossing and a bit cheap.
And yes, the game is very challenging, and strangely, it feels specially difficult at the beginning. But I do believe that in order to overcome the initial spike, you need mostly to be patient and receptive of what the game is trying to teach you through its mechanics instead of expecting a traditional over-expository tutorial. Everything has to be discovered on your own, but every discovery is rewarding and worthwhile.
While I don’t have a big problem with the frame-rate in general, it does sometimes feel a bit sluggish, which is a shame. But considering its age - it’s a 5-year-old game - I find it technically ok. Having said that, it is very weird how there’s no lip or mouth movements when characters speak - it feels very outdated.
Ultimately, Bloodborne was a remarkable and different experience that I overall am very glad with having completed.
2022
my game of the year, so far
perfect atmosphere and a wonderful combination of cats shenanigans in a post-apocalyptic cyber-world
the locations are incredibly detailed and it was a delight to explore every reachable corner of them
the cherry on top is the game’s length; it’s perfect - just perfect
perfect atmosphere and a wonderful combination of cats shenanigans in a post-apocalyptic cyber-world
the locations are incredibly detailed and it was a delight to explore every reachable corner of them
the cherry on top is the game’s length; it’s perfect - just perfect
2016
From the moment it started, with its mysterious presentation and aesthetics, I was hooked.
The mechanics feel super fresh and fun. It really is a puzzle game disguised as a shooter.
It’s so rewarding to finish a level and then see it replayed in normal speed - looks so badass.
The “story”s length is great - short and sweet. If you want more game, lots of modes are unlocked after you finish the story.
I was expecting the game to explore and play a bit more with verticality in the levels. Having a more fleshed-out story would have been nice, too - but it’s still interesting as it attempts to break the 4th wall.
Overall, an awesome experience. The most innovative shooter I’ve played in years.
The mechanics feel super fresh and fun. It really is a puzzle game disguised as a shooter.
It’s so rewarding to finish a level and then see it replayed in normal speed - looks so badass.
The “story”s length is great - short and sweet. If you want more game, lots of modes are unlocked after you finish the story.
I was expecting the game to explore and play a bit more with verticality in the levels. Having a more fleshed-out story would have been nice, too - but it’s still interesting as it attempts to break the 4th wall.
Overall, an awesome experience. The most innovative shooter I’ve played in years.
2007
First game I played and finished on the Steam Deck! Also, first time I played this game at all.
So much fun! A brilliant concept executed wonderfully. Certified classic.
So much fun! A brilliant concept executed wonderfully. Certified classic.
2022
This is the first game I bought after getting my Steam Deck; it seemed like a good one to play portably (feels weird marking Platform as Windows PC in this review, since there's no Steam Deck option).
In short, Tunic is an isometric 2D-Zelda-meets-Fez, with a nostalgia-inspired twist.
I spent 3 quarters of the game totally in love; the art style is gorgeous and impressive and the fantastic music creates a unique atmosphere. Gameplay-wise, I loved the world and the focus on exploration. The combat was fine; I mostly enjoyed it during the Overworld and dungeons explorations, but it bordered on frustrating during the Boss fights.
Most importantly, the instructions manual. The unequivocal core mechanic of the game and center of its story. It's brilliant. Having to figure out the game's mechanics, skills, locations, and secrets, all by finding pages of this booklet that looks and /feels/ like the instruction manuals from the old-school games was both nostalgic and wonderful. Finding each page - all of them scattered throughout the world - is a reward on its own, and they each will reveal something that will make you understand the game, its mechanics and story more and more.
Yet, there's a lot of mysteries and secrets. A lot of them. And the explanations on the manual are not always straightforward and are a puzzle on themselves. You might either find fun in that or feel frustrated by the seeming obscurity of it. This was the last quarter of the game that I enjoyed less.
The game's average length is perfect. I came out around 12 hours and I took my time on some of the puzzles and one very rage-inducing boss. If you have the patience and openness to enjoy carefully reading and analysing the clues in the manual, you'll probably spend more time. For me, after a long while, it started to feel overwhelming, and ended up searching for hints online.
Overall, Tunic is a very memorable piece of work. I will definitely go back to the soundtrack, and would love to have a real, physical version of the instructions manual.
In short, Tunic is an isometric 2D-Zelda-meets-Fez, with a nostalgia-inspired twist.
I spent 3 quarters of the game totally in love; the art style is gorgeous and impressive and the fantastic music creates a unique atmosphere. Gameplay-wise, I loved the world and the focus on exploration. The combat was fine; I mostly enjoyed it during the Overworld and dungeons explorations, but it bordered on frustrating during the Boss fights.
Most importantly, the instructions manual. The unequivocal core mechanic of the game and center of its story. It's brilliant. Having to figure out the game's mechanics, skills, locations, and secrets, all by finding pages of this booklet that looks and /feels/ like the instruction manuals from the old-school games was both nostalgic and wonderful. Finding each page - all of them scattered throughout the world - is a reward on its own, and they each will reveal something that will make you understand the game, its mechanics and story more and more.
Yet, there's a lot of mysteries and secrets. A lot of them. And the explanations on the manual are not always straightforward and are a puzzle on themselves. You might either find fun in that or feel frustrated by the seeming obscurity of it. This was the last quarter of the game that I enjoyed less.
The game's average length is perfect. I came out around 12 hours and I took my time on some of the puzzles and one very rage-inducing boss. If you have the patience and openness to enjoy carefully reading and analysing the clues in the manual, you'll probably spend more time. For me, after a long while, it started to feel overwhelming, and ended up searching for hints online.
Overall, Tunic is a very memorable piece of work. I will definitely go back to the soundtrack, and would love to have a real, physical version of the instructions manual.
2022
This really is a proper continuation of 2018’s God Of War and - given that GOW ‘18 might be my favourite game ever - this is a good thing.
It’s also a production that very much feels rushed as it reaches its conclusion. It does feel like it was meant to be the middle chapter of a trilogy but that halfway through it was decided it would be the conclusion, and that conclusion was then tacked-in - with less care, polish, and attention to details than what was put at the previous 80% of the game.
A technical quirk that bothered me was that showing/hiding the HUD by swiping would randomly stop working, so the HUD would stay visible or hidden without being able to swap. Given that I love the immersion of hiding all the HUD most of the time while being able to show it on demand, having this feature break regularly was a tad frustrating. It’s still a minor thing, however, and surely will be fixed sooner than later.
Mechanically, the game is very much a continuation of 2018’s - so much so that I think if you put GOW ’18 and Ragnarok next to each other and show it to someone without context they wouldn’t be able to tell which one is which. Of course, Ragnarok does add new mechanics on top of the previous ones, and they’re all truly welcome.
One truly annoying thing that carries over from the previous game is how close the gameplay camera is to Kratos! I wish there was an option to set the camera a bit further away from the character; both because it’d be nicer to see the whole character all the time and also because it’d be easier to see attacks coming from behind.
There were also a few sections that felt way too long and overstayed their welcome, therefore harming the overall pacing a bit.
But none of these things manage to sour the overall experience, however.
This is a powerful and wonderful story, driven by the characters and their personal struggles and the tensions between them, and yet full of spectacle and stunning set-pieces. A much larger cast filled with engaging and charming characters, all well-developed as the story progresses. It’s ultimately a rewarding journey.
There’s a lot of love put into the details as well. Kratos and his companions having lots of meaningful and important conversations while traversing the world always makes the moment-to-moment fun and engaging. The codex, which includes sections written by Kratos is a very nice way to get into his mind and the way he writes about other people around him is just fun and funny. The post-game is also surprisingly full of great moments.
In the end I’m happy with what I got; from the moment this sequel was announced I realised it would be very difficult for this game to surpass the magic and accomplishments achieved in 2018, so I had my expectations accordingly set, and Ragnarok met them for the most part.
It’s a complete package: a great foundation from the previous game, expanded and improved. Added mechanics - better and more fun gameplay; an already wonderful setting - expanded and evolved; a fantastic story - exciting and intriguing although clearly rushed at the end; more enemy variety, way more boss-fights, and most importantly a great cast of memorable characters all wonderfully developed.
One of the greats.
It’s also a production that very much feels rushed as it reaches its conclusion. It does feel like it was meant to be the middle chapter of a trilogy but that halfway through it was decided it would be the conclusion, and that conclusion was then tacked-in - with less care, polish, and attention to details than what was put at the previous 80% of the game.
A technical quirk that bothered me was that showing/hiding the HUD by swiping would randomly stop working, so the HUD would stay visible or hidden without being able to swap. Given that I love the immersion of hiding all the HUD most of the time while being able to show it on demand, having this feature break regularly was a tad frustrating. It’s still a minor thing, however, and surely will be fixed sooner than later.
Mechanically, the game is very much a continuation of 2018’s - so much so that I think if you put GOW ’18 and Ragnarok next to each other and show it to someone without context they wouldn’t be able to tell which one is which. Of course, Ragnarok does add new mechanics on top of the previous ones, and they’re all truly welcome.
One truly annoying thing that carries over from the previous game is how close the gameplay camera is to Kratos! I wish there was an option to set the camera a bit further away from the character; both because it’d be nicer to see the whole character all the time and also because it’d be easier to see attacks coming from behind.
There were also a few sections that felt way too long and overstayed their welcome, therefore harming the overall pacing a bit.
But none of these things manage to sour the overall experience, however.
This is a powerful and wonderful story, driven by the characters and their personal struggles and the tensions between them, and yet full of spectacle and stunning set-pieces. A much larger cast filled with engaging and charming characters, all well-developed as the story progresses. It’s ultimately a rewarding journey.
There’s a lot of love put into the details as well. Kratos and his companions having lots of meaningful and important conversations while traversing the world always makes the moment-to-moment fun and engaging. The codex, which includes sections written by Kratos is a very nice way to get into his mind and the way he writes about other people around him is just fun and funny. The post-game is also surprisingly full of great moments.
In the end I’m happy with what I got; from the moment this sequel was announced I realised it would be very difficult for this game to surpass the magic and accomplishments achieved in 2018, so I had my expectations accordingly set, and Ragnarok met them for the most part.
It’s a complete package: a great foundation from the previous game, expanded and improved. Added mechanics - better and more fun gameplay; an already wonderful setting - expanded and evolved; a fantastic story - exciting and intriguing although clearly rushed at the end; more enemy variety, way more boss-fights, and most importantly a great cast of memorable characters all wonderfully developed.
One of the greats.
As a fan of the original PS One Crash Bandicoot trilogy, I was super excited when this was announced. Then it was offered as part of PlayStation Plus monthly games so I happily started playing it.
The game has an insane amount of content; if you really enjoy what it has to offer, you can spend a long, long time on it. There's lots of creativity and variations on each level and they feel big in scale. On top of Crash and Coco's regular levels - which are the required ones to finish the game - you have a handful of levels where you play as 3 other characters, each with a different set of movements and skills.
Each regular level can also be replayed in "reverse" or "mirrored" with a few differences from the original and a distinct visual "filter" applied to it.
All in all, you get a big amount of different ways to enjoy the game.
But the more I continued playing the more frustrated I got with the game. By the time I reached around the last 5 levels I was just rushing to finish it to get it over with.
Every level is just. too. looooong - frustratingly so, and there are too few checkpoints in them. So you spend a long time on each section of a level and when you die, you're set back a huge distance, and given that the game is very challenging overall, this happens a lot. By the time you finish a level, any sense of accomplishment has been drained by the frustration of the lack of checkpoints and the ridiculous lengths.
Now I honestly want to replay Crash 3 to verify that those levels were not as difficult, frustrating or long as these ones. Maybe they were I just don't have the time and patience for it anymore.
But I do think Crash 4 is unfortunately just too much.
The game has an insane amount of content; if you really enjoy what it has to offer, you can spend a long, long time on it. There's lots of creativity and variations on each level and they feel big in scale. On top of Crash and Coco's regular levels - which are the required ones to finish the game - you have a handful of levels where you play as 3 other characters, each with a different set of movements and skills.
Each regular level can also be replayed in "reverse" or "mirrored" with a few differences from the original and a distinct visual "filter" applied to it.
All in all, you get a big amount of different ways to enjoy the game.
But the more I continued playing the more frustrated I got with the game. By the time I reached around the last 5 levels I was just rushing to finish it to get it over with.
Every level is just. too. looooong - frustratingly so, and there are too few checkpoints in them. So you spend a long time on each section of a level and when you die, you're set back a huge distance, and given that the game is very challenging overall, this happens a lot. By the time you finish a level, any sense of accomplishment has been drained by the frustration of the lack of checkpoints and the ridiculous lengths.
Now I honestly want to replay Crash 3 to verify that those levels were not as difficult, frustrating or long as these ones. Maybe they were I just don't have the time and patience for it anymore.
But I do think Crash 4 is unfortunately just too much.
Right from the start, I was captivated by the writing. The characters, the setting, the world-building – it all feels unique and textured masterfully.
One of the very few games where I knew I wanted to replay it after I would finish it the first time.
Also, Kim is king.
One of the very few games where I knew I wanted to replay it after I would finish it the first time.
Also, Kim is king.
played it on the Steam Deck
totally crazy plot but fun characters that i wish were more fleshed out
the gameplay clicked with me right from the start and felt very rewarding all the way through
the set pieces are wildly fun and visually fantastic
there were only a couple of occasions where the camera positioned in a way that was frustrating because the timing was critical - they were a minor nuisance, however and the only issue i found in the game
a very straightforward, super fun game
totally crazy plot but fun characters that i wish were more fleshed out
the gameplay clicked with me right from the start and felt very rewarding all the way through
the set pieces are wildly fun and visually fantastic
there were only a couple of occasions where the camera positioned in a way that was frustrating because the timing was critical - they were a minor nuisance, however and the only issue i found in the game
a very straightforward, super fun game
2019
Full of charm.
The open-ended exploration is super fun - like having almost-full access to an expansive theme park as soon as you go in.
The controls are fluid and the music is wonderful.
A short, chill, and lovely experience.
Played on SteamDeck.
The open-ended exploration is super fun - like having almost-full access to an expansive theme park as soon as you go in.
The controls are fluid and the music is wonderful.
A short, chill, and lovely experience.
Played on SteamDeck.