cjfelty3396
BACKER
2021
Alan Wake was one of my favorite games when I first played it on Xbox 360, so I was thrilled when the remaster was announced for multi-platform release. Since buying it on Day 1, I have tried to play the remaster 3 separate times and gave up every time before finishing Episode 3. Until the fourth time… For some reason, on my fourth attempt, this game absolutely clicked for me again, and I fell in love with this weird Remedy world. The gameplay is still very repetitive (how many groups of three bad guys can they send at me???), but the narrative interaction between the playable world and the in-game documents is unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere. As a narrative-first gamer, this game ticks all the boxes. Playing this has also convinced me to (1) Platinum Alan Wake Remastered and (2) give Control another shot after I fell off of it on my first attempt.
This review contains spoilers
I have never played a Kirby game before, but hearing the praise for this game being a significant move in a new direction for the pink creature, I decided to pick it up. Most of this game is best thought of as a museum piece, and by those standards, there are many interesting sights to see, mechanics to explore, and secrets to discover. For most of the game, the main missions were fun only when I tried to complete them without using guides--they never presented any real challenge, but the clever ways the creators hid passageways throughout the diverse environments kept me looking in every corner. I have to admit I was disappointed to arrive at the sixth world after the fifth world gave hints that the game may be coming to an end. I was ready for that end. However, the final world, and especially the couple of boss rush levels at the end, were by far the most fun I had with the game as I got a final go with each of the game's mechanics. This game gets far more intense narratively and conceptually than it has any business being, and the colorful imagination for the major plot twists at the end was truly a sight to behold. Finally, I adored the final boss fight and the challenge it presented! I was not expecting to commit so hard to learning a boss' moveset in a Kirby game, but it was such a joy to die a few times until I could figure out the best tools for the battle. When all is said and done, I'm glad this was my first Kirby game.
2022
This review contains spoilers
WOW! When this game hits, it hits. My jaw was dropped for the last three hours of the main storyline... Unfortunately, that journey was also marked by long breaks from the game due to poor pacing. Most notably, I stepped away from this game nearly every time I switched to controlling Atreus -- his combat style was just not engaging and he did not have nearly enough customizability hooks for me. But that's my only complaint.
It was a wonder-filled path through the nine realms for most of the way, and somehow, they made me care about such a broad cast of characters, returning and new. The most special thing about the actual Ragnarok sequence was seeing the little cameos of every character I had seen throughout the game, and EVERY TIME, grinning like a child and feeling a kind of empathetic gratitude for each of their contributions. I want to give a special shout-out to Freya in this game -- her journey is perhaps the strongest in the game, and she absolutely chews every scene she gets in her extended treatment.
I think this game also did a really good job with the extra content. I'll admit that I was shocked every time they added a new collectible throughout the story, but at every turn, I was able to find those collectibles in the course of exploration and they opened up new storylines with the core characters.
I walk away from this game with a strange mix of memories -- I think the positive regard wins out, but I'll never forget that it took me 6 months to beat this game because of some of the meandering parts.
It was a wonder-filled path through the nine realms for most of the way, and somehow, they made me care about such a broad cast of characters, returning and new. The most special thing about the actual Ragnarok sequence was seeing the little cameos of every character I had seen throughout the game, and EVERY TIME, grinning like a child and feeling a kind of empathetic gratitude for each of their contributions. I want to give a special shout-out to Freya in this game -- her journey is perhaps the strongest in the game, and she absolutely chews every scene she gets in her extended treatment.
I think this game also did a really good job with the extra content. I'll admit that I was shocked every time they added a new collectible throughout the story, but at every turn, I was able to find those collectibles in the course of exploration and they opened up new storylines with the core characters.
I walk away from this game with a strange mix of memories -- I think the positive regard wins out, but I'll never forget that it took me 6 months to beat this game because of some of the meandering parts.
Guns, Love and Tentacles now stands as my all-time favorite Borderlands DLC (two DLCs into Borderlands 3). First, the story is built around two of my favorite characters in the series, but that’s only the beginning! This DLC contains visually distinct maps, loads of new enemy types with new combat mechanics, and a fair amount of funny and interesting side quests. Inarguably the best Borderlands 3 Content through the main game and 2 DLC packs!
2016
This game was a great co-op experience! With the same satisfying gameplay from the original trilogy, I found myself often wishing I could be playing the game in between my friend and my weekly play-time. I really enjoyed seeing familiar faces in the story, but I felt like the game leaned more into nostalgia than it did try to develop the new characters in a way that I cared about. I will happily continue on to Gears 5 with my friend, but it’s more based on gameplay than narrative at this point.
2013
Contrast is a fine stab at a really interesting concept, allowing for the combination of 2D and 3D plat forming through a unique plot device of phasing between the real world and the shadow world. There is even a cute family story at the center which offered several moving and entertaining moments! Still, there is something about the game that just fails to fully grab the player, and the shadow mechanics are often glitchy and prone to clipping.
2019
Playing the game through a second time, I am raising my personal score on the game. When I accepted that this story was nothing compared to Borderlands 2 and just committed to playing this with a friend to unwind, the gunplay and skill trees really showed through. After my PS5 died, and my friend’s profile was not saved to the cloud, I got to experience the magic of my friend playing alongside me at level 1 and being fully competitive in the game. What a wonderful time with a game that knows what it is, feels obligated to be something else, and so is consigned to mediocrity in most people’s minds.
This review contains spoilers
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II feels like a massive disappointment after Modern Warfare (2019) got me excited for the new direction of this reimagining of my favorite COD series. Even worse, the original MW2 is my all-time favorite COD. So, I was disappointed when this game failed to do anything more than incorporate brief environmental echoes of the old game. Instead of the tight and twisty narrative of the original, this game tells a story with far too many characters, far too many villains, and terrible payoffs with the final act. This game opts repeatedly for spectacle and experimentation over the tried and true corridor shooting that made the old campaigns memorable. Also, they keep bringing back my least favorite mechanic--running away from enemies who fire on you... this HAS NEVER BEEN FUN on Veteran difficulty, and that is no different now.
Some of the especially bad mechanics included in this game include:
1) A FAR TOO LONG driving mission in which I died jumping between vehicles for no apparent reason.
2) Crafting and weaponless sections.
3) a Hitman-style level that is super clunky.
On the multiplayer front, I appreciate this game because my closest friend and I get to play it on a weekly basis, but a month and a half into the game's cycle, the spawns continue to be miserable, and several maps are broken for specific game modes. There is at least a 50/50 chance my friend and I are displeased with the map/game mode combination with a mixed bag quick play playlist.
Some of the especially bad mechanics included in this game include:
1) A FAR TOO LONG driving mission in which I died jumping between vehicles for no apparent reason.
2) Crafting and weaponless sections.
3) a Hitman-style level that is super clunky.
On the multiplayer front, I appreciate this game because my closest friend and I get to play it on a weekly basis, but a month and a half into the game's cycle, the spawns continue to be miserable, and several maps are broken for specific game modes. There is at least a 50/50 chance my friend and I are displeased with the map/game mode combination with a mixed bag quick play playlist.
2021
Returning to this game after a simple 5 months, I found myself so much more appreciative of the game's relaxed vibes! I also appreciated playing on Playstation, where trophies pushed me to complete all aspects of the game and discover all the fun secrets hidden away by the dev team. Finally, the addition of Basto was a wonderful reason to dive back in, and it made it so that I didn't know the answers to every puzzle in the game. I'm grateful for this small game providing a break from academic rigor as the semester comes to a close, and so I raise it from a 7/10 to an 8/10
2012
This game is so broken—the number of times I’d randomly gain a massive score boost, only for my regular earning to go away. Not to mention that the story just ended abruptly, and there isn’t anymore designed content except the endless cycle of seasonal leaderboard challenges. Do not recommend
2007
This review contains spoilers
Assassin’s Creed is the first video game series of which I am setting out to play the entirety, because it is a deeply formative, comfortable, and meaningful series in my gaming biography. That being said, returning to the very roots of the series (which isn’t even where I got into it) was an interesting, oft-frustrating, yet gratifying experience.
Let me start with the positives—I really do think the first Assassin’s Creed shines in its narrative department. Setting the initial assassin-templar conflict in the Holy Land during the Crusades feels so natural, but the narrative twists and the constant uncovering of the mysterious nature of Altair’s mission really did keep me engaged throughout the nearly 20 hour run-time. The 9 targets you are tasked with killing are genuinely interesting, diverse, and at times, comedic, yet there is always a sense that something ties these men together. Beyond narrative, this game really does get more right than wrong in the moment-to-moment gameplay. Traversal really does feel miraculous for this game’s time, and the drip feed of new abilities and weapons allows time to master each ability as it comes. Finally, there are some truly stunning visuals when this game is played on an Xbox Series X with enhancements. These moments occur most often when entering cities, or climbing the most unique towers of each city.
With all that praise, you’re probably wondering how this game can possibly get a 2.5 from me. Well, all the nooks and crannies between those cornerstone moments I’ve listed contain ugly, unforgettably bad mechanics that sound good in theory and are executed with absolutely no distinctiveness. This game requires 9 investigation cycles, each cycle requiring that you complete tasks (pickpocketing, interrogating, eavesdropping, or informant challenges) that are literally copy-pasted onto the map with indistinct NPCs saying a few meaningless words as your reward for each of them. Literally every single pickpocket challenge in the game followed the exact same route of pausing for 10 seconds, then walking perfectly in your path to pickpocket them. Essentially, this map is a series of checkpoints on the map where you need to make short 30-45 second stops in order to progress. Speaking of traversal, this game has far too many high points—between 25 and 30 in each of the game’s 3 major cities! In case traversal wasn’t slow enough trying to complete all these map markers, there are 100 unmarked flags hidden in each city!!! Finally, on the gameplay front, combat is ultimately more frustrating than fun as chains of enemies just keep running at you for you to slowly kill by parry.
My final critique is that Altair is a really unsatisfying playable character, having no personality like any voiceless stand-in for the player, but speaking so many lines of dialogue that you never feel totally aligned with him. As someone who played ACII first, I always thought Altair must be the most badass assassin in the world because of the reverence Ezio discovers for him; however, in practice, this often feels like its the opposite of the truth because the game’s mechanics are more primitive, resulting in Altair leaping in every wrong direction possible and climbing walls the same way a toddler learns to walk—slowly, bringing the trailing hand to rest with the leading hand (and rinse and repeat). It’s so disappointing that the teams at Ubisoft have not returned to Altair’s story to fill in the gaps between this lackluster showing and the Altair of legend in the rest of the series.
Am I glad I returned to this game all these years later? Absolutely, especially on the Series X. Can I heartily recommend you spend more than $5 on it? Heck no!
Let me start with the positives—I really do think the first Assassin’s Creed shines in its narrative department. Setting the initial assassin-templar conflict in the Holy Land during the Crusades feels so natural, but the narrative twists and the constant uncovering of the mysterious nature of Altair’s mission really did keep me engaged throughout the nearly 20 hour run-time. The 9 targets you are tasked with killing are genuinely interesting, diverse, and at times, comedic, yet there is always a sense that something ties these men together. Beyond narrative, this game really does get more right than wrong in the moment-to-moment gameplay. Traversal really does feel miraculous for this game’s time, and the drip feed of new abilities and weapons allows time to master each ability as it comes. Finally, there are some truly stunning visuals when this game is played on an Xbox Series X with enhancements. These moments occur most often when entering cities, or climbing the most unique towers of each city.
With all that praise, you’re probably wondering how this game can possibly get a 2.5 from me. Well, all the nooks and crannies between those cornerstone moments I’ve listed contain ugly, unforgettably bad mechanics that sound good in theory and are executed with absolutely no distinctiveness. This game requires 9 investigation cycles, each cycle requiring that you complete tasks (pickpocketing, interrogating, eavesdropping, or informant challenges) that are literally copy-pasted onto the map with indistinct NPCs saying a few meaningless words as your reward for each of them. Literally every single pickpocket challenge in the game followed the exact same route of pausing for 10 seconds, then walking perfectly in your path to pickpocket them. Essentially, this map is a series of checkpoints on the map where you need to make short 30-45 second stops in order to progress. Speaking of traversal, this game has far too many high points—between 25 and 30 in each of the game’s 3 major cities! In case traversal wasn’t slow enough trying to complete all these map markers, there are 100 unmarked flags hidden in each city!!! Finally, on the gameplay front, combat is ultimately more frustrating than fun as chains of enemies just keep running at you for you to slowly kill by parry.
My final critique is that Altair is a really unsatisfying playable character, having no personality like any voiceless stand-in for the player, but speaking so many lines of dialogue that you never feel totally aligned with him. As someone who played ACII first, I always thought Altair must be the most badass assassin in the world because of the reverence Ezio discovers for him; however, in practice, this often feels like its the opposite of the truth because the game’s mechanics are more primitive, resulting in Altair leaping in every wrong direction possible and climbing walls the same way a toddler learns to walk—slowly, bringing the trailing hand to rest with the leading hand (and rinse and repeat). It’s so disappointing that the teams at Ubisoft have not returned to Altair’s story to fill in the gaps between this lackluster showing and the Altair of legend in the rest of the series.
Am I glad I returned to this game all these years later? Absolutely, especially on the Series X. Can I heartily recommend you spend more than $5 on it? Heck no!
2022
This is one of those great GamePass stories, where a game I didn’t even know existed before Wednesday quickly became one of my personal favorites of 2022, as Escape Academy oozes over with the kind of Escape Room charm I once thought could only be achieved in a physical space. The premise of this game is simple—you are training to become a great escape artist, and find yourself in increasingly violent scenarios from which you must escape during your training. The characters and story are not what this game is about, but they were fun and had some clever contrasts in their characterization. However, this game shines most in its puzzle design. This game was actually created by Escape Room designers who feared for their future when COVID hit, so the puzzles all have that unique interconnectedness that I’ve only experienced in physical escape rooms. I loved finding out which element of the room was necessary to solve the next sequence, and I always felt clever when I found the solution that the game clearly had designed for me to find. The only thing this game lacked was the maneuverability of objects in real space… You don’t even have the ability to to rotate items to find hidden crevices or anything, which means the puzzle solutions must present themselves to you a bit more obviously from the first glance at an item. Still, I’m so glad this game came to GamePass, because I probably would have never heard of it otherwise.
2017
I have written Cuphead off as a game I’d never beat 4 previous times, but it only took the release of DLC to make me fall in love with the animation again, enough to pick it up! This time, though, I was equipped with the encouragement of a friend from my primary Discord community, and it helped me push through 2 or 3 of the bosses that were giving me trouble in my farthest playthroughs.
I have to say, this game is absolutely brilliant in its tone, art, music, and gameplay mechanics! Every time I’d catch a glimpse of the inspired artwork floating by in the background of a boss fight, I’d be amazed at the small elements of visual storytelling that deepen the game’s existence beyond just being a fun boss rush. This is only accentuated by the brilliant, stylized soundtrack that works synergistically with the whole visual language to really make you feel like you’re playing an old cartoon. And none of this even gets to the real place this game shines—the boss design! Every boss is so thoughtfully put together with a cogent theme and amazingly creative phase transformations. Overall, I think the lustre of the game wears off somewhere in the middle of Isle II, so that the later bosses somehow feel less creative; however, I think that effect only occurs because of the time being devoted to the game that has such a coherent visual language.
My three “complaints” about this game are small, but not insignificant. First, I was so troubled that I couldn’t take in every last detail of the bosses because they were so difficult! In order to succeed, I had to fully enter a flow state, which meant that most of the boss arenas still have tiny details I may never see because of the projectiles flying at me. Second, I think the game would be improved with a re-imagining of the flying levels, and an elimination of the Run-n-gun levels. The feeling of having Cuphead or Mugman (my choice) on their two feet is so good, and so many of my greatest frustrations came through these levels. Finally, while this game stands out for having 14-15 stellar boss fights that are well-balanced and fair, there are a few that just feel frustrating because basic rules of the game don’t seem to be working. Whether I was falling through the edge of platforms when I shouldn’t have been, or bosses were hitting me with untelegraphed attacks, I just wish they had changed up a few of the bosses to be a bit more fair (which is not the same thing as making them easier).
Overall, I am SO GLAD(!!!) that I finally saw everything Cuphead has to offer, and I do hope to dive into the Delicious Last Course some day!
I have to say, this game is absolutely brilliant in its tone, art, music, and gameplay mechanics! Every time I’d catch a glimpse of the inspired artwork floating by in the background of a boss fight, I’d be amazed at the small elements of visual storytelling that deepen the game’s existence beyond just being a fun boss rush. This is only accentuated by the brilliant, stylized soundtrack that works synergistically with the whole visual language to really make you feel like you’re playing an old cartoon. And none of this even gets to the real place this game shines—the boss design! Every boss is so thoughtfully put together with a cogent theme and amazingly creative phase transformations. Overall, I think the lustre of the game wears off somewhere in the middle of Isle II, so that the later bosses somehow feel less creative; however, I think that effect only occurs because of the time being devoted to the game that has such a coherent visual language.
My three “complaints” about this game are small, but not insignificant. First, I was so troubled that I couldn’t take in every last detail of the bosses because they were so difficult! In order to succeed, I had to fully enter a flow state, which meant that most of the boss arenas still have tiny details I may never see because of the projectiles flying at me. Second, I think the game would be improved with a re-imagining of the flying levels, and an elimination of the Run-n-gun levels. The feeling of having Cuphead or Mugman (my choice) on their two feet is so good, and so many of my greatest frustrations came through these levels. Finally, while this game stands out for having 14-15 stellar boss fights that are well-balanced and fair, there are a few that just feel frustrating because basic rules of the game don’t seem to be working. Whether I was falling through the edge of platforms when I shouldn’t have been, or bosses were hitting me with untelegraphed attacks, I just wish they had changed up a few of the bosses to be a bit more fair (which is not the same thing as making them easier).
Overall, I am SO GLAD(!!!) that I finally saw everything Cuphead has to offer, and I do hope to dive into the Delicious Last Course some day!
A tiny Zelda-like with a sense of humor, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion turns conventional manners on their head in a fun and forgettable journey through Veggieville. The game opens with Turnip Boy tearing up the overdue tax notice from Mayor Onion, and you’ll spend the next hour and a half running around town completing small fetch quests for the inhabitants. While I enjoyed the writing well enough, the gameplay itself lacks the fun combat and clever puzzles of other Zelda-likes. I also experienced many technical problems on the Xbox Series build of the game, including unpopped achievements and multiple crashes in two hours. If it weren’t for the technical problems, this would be a 3/5!
2022
Until Dawn was a game made perfectly for me—I love the engrossing nature of SuperMassive’s teen, horror-comedy, B-movie, limited-gameplay stories, and I remember falling in love with those characters only to witness their brutal deaths. Since Until Dawn, I have avoided the Dark Pictures Anthology because of poor reviews, but I knew from the moment The Quarry was announced that I’d pick it up Week 1.
I am so incredibly pleased to say that The Quarry is a return-to-form for the developer, with another twisty horror mystery overflowing with character and charm. I think this game does so many things right, showing what the team learned from Until Dawn! For starters, this game feels much less like there is one main character that the player is supposed to identify with—I honestly wanted every single character to make it through the night (or to die at exactly the right moment) in a way that I didn’t feel with Until Dawn. Second, this game is gorgeous, with eery lighting and high-fidelity character models that feel less wooden than the character rigs in Until Dawn. Third, this game changed some of the worst QTE moments from their first outing so that everything feels fair, and character deaths always feel like they occur because of player fault. Finally, I think this is a better, more consistent story from beginning to end; I feared that the game showed its hand a bit too early, but the continuing plot developments kept me invested and the environments in which the game placed me were always incredibly interesting. I loved that I was able to make several decisions based on my emotional reactions to the characters and what I honestly wanted to do at each moment in the game, rather than just trying to game the system for the sake of killing or saving a certain character.
With all this praise, I do need to share a few problems I had with this game, and most of them are directly related to some of the strengths I addressed above. While the story here is better front to back than the story in Until Dawn, I never felt the same level of mystery as I did in the first 3-4 chapters of that game. I think this game would benefit from more obfuscation in the early chapters, as character motivations are a bit too transparent or easily guessable from too early on. Second, the breathing mini game seems kind of pointless—I never once felt like I was at any risk of losing the mini-game, and the game never even raised the interesting question of what would happen if I ran out of breath. Finally, what in the world was going on with the visuals when a character was wet???
I never expected to love The Quarry as much as I did, and I honestly didn’t expect Supermassive to re-capture the heart of their breakout hit, but this game has won me over and has made me far more interested in replaying it soon than prior games of its kind.
I am so incredibly pleased to say that The Quarry is a return-to-form for the developer, with another twisty horror mystery overflowing with character and charm. I think this game does so many things right, showing what the team learned from Until Dawn! For starters, this game feels much less like there is one main character that the player is supposed to identify with—I honestly wanted every single character to make it through the night (or to die at exactly the right moment) in a way that I didn’t feel with Until Dawn. Second, this game is gorgeous, with eery lighting and high-fidelity character models that feel less wooden than the character rigs in Until Dawn. Third, this game changed some of the worst QTE moments from their first outing so that everything feels fair, and character deaths always feel like they occur because of player fault. Finally, I think this is a better, more consistent story from beginning to end; I feared that the game showed its hand a bit too early, but the continuing plot developments kept me invested and the environments in which the game placed me were always incredibly interesting. I loved that I was able to make several decisions based on my emotional reactions to the characters and what I honestly wanted to do at each moment in the game, rather than just trying to game the system for the sake of killing or saving a certain character.
With all this praise, I do need to share a few problems I had with this game, and most of them are directly related to some of the strengths I addressed above. While the story here is better front to back than the story in Until Dawn, I never felt the same level of mystery as I did in the first 3-4 chapters of that game. I think this game would benefit from more obfuscation in the early chapters, as character motivations are a bit too transparent or easily guessable from too early on. Second, the breathing mini game seems kind of pointless—I never once felt like I was at any risk of losing the mini-game, and the game never even raised the interesting question of what would happen if I ran out of breath. Finally, what in the world was going on with the visuals when a character was wet???
I never expected to love The Quarry as much as I did, and I honestly didn’t expect Supermassive to re-capture the heart of their breakout hit, but this game has won me over and has made me far more interested in replaying it soon than prior games of its kind.