At first glance, I thought this was more or less budget Hypnospace Outlaw, with the old internet/Geocities inspiration replaced by some amalgamation of Miiverse, Swapnote, and MSN Messenger. That wouldn't be giving enough credit to Videoverse however; instead of focusing on the mystique of the deep web, Videoverse tackles the intricacies of navigating a dying social network tied to increasingly redundant technology and highlights the relationships within. The game forgoes Hypnospace Outlaw's discovery puzzles, and cuts right to the core of interacting with the community itself, instinctively conveying the fragility of maintaining such relationships. You're constantly scouring the same forums over and over for new comments and any changes, trying to decipher exactly what this particular user meant with just one sentence while playing the simulations in your head about how particular responses (or not responding at all) could make their day a little bit better or potentially upset another member due to unintended consequences.

It's a surprisingly gripping experience despite its limitations: sometimes there are certain responses that the game forbids you from picking because you're not "lawful/cocky" enough even if the responses feel more blunt than out of character, and browsing the same posts repeatedly can feel a bit plodding when the trigger to proceed requires you to leave more comments but the system itself can only mark whether a post is left read/unread. Despite that, the payoff makes the occasional tedium worthwhile; marking down "top posts" in a notebook lets you reiterate those statements to others later on, and the game really comes together when you're using small tidbits of wisdom to brighten an online friend's day. If you're looking for an cathartic blast to the past that depicts the ephemerality of online spaces while thoughtfully forcing players to confront the ambiguity of the interactions stemming within, then Videoverse may be just what you're looking for.

Hi-Fi Rush is a new addition to Xbox's franchises. After years without a significant console exclusive, Microsoft released this game out of nowhere and caught everyone off guard. Is it good enough to achieve everything the fans dreamed?

Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm-focused game, a hack n' slash that encourages players to attack, jump, and perform in sync with the beat constantly playing. To be honest, the concept is cool, but in my opinion, it didn't work. You can perform actions out of rhythm, and it won't impact your gameplay.

Analyzing it as a pure hack n' slash, it's fun to play. Not outstanding, but it has its moments. The combat is enjoyable, but it's the only significant activity during gameplay.

One remarkable aspect of the game is its ambiance. The art is beautiful and colorful. It's impressive how they synchronized all objects on the screen with the beat mentioned earlier.

The downside of the game, for me, is the soundtrack. As a game focused on music, it should feature an unforgettable soundtrack. Unfortunately, the music in this game is disappointing.

The story is not that compelling, but the characters are charismatic. There is room for more development for them, and I'm excited to see what they could do in a sequel.

In conclusion, Hi-Fi Rush is a valuable addition to the Game Pass catalog. It may not be the blockbuster Microsoft needed, but overall, it's a good game.

"Don't doubt. Don't be afraid. And know.
Knowledge will save all".

Gnosia presents us with a very interesting premise. Social-Deduction RPG which is basically what it meants, deduce who is the enemy or lie your way to victory. Main objective is to eliminate all threats upon our way to victory, we can either play as the "Threat" (Gnosia, Bug, AC Follower) or "Human" (Crew, Doctor, Guardian Angel, Engineer, Guard Duty). Each class has their own tutorial while going progressing through the game and each is explained in detail. I won't go much in detail for the mechanics here, they are explained very well in the game.

You take the role of an unknown crewmate in the ship. Again, your main objective is to survive discussions in the ship, alongside the Gnosia threat, depending the class you choose to take part in. As an RPG, you'll start as a pretty tame individual, my recommendation for first time players is to not take much part in disscourses and limit yourself only to vote what people think is the real enemy. As you progress more, you'll level up and learn more abilities to add to the set discussion making surviving much more easier, even being to 180° most situation.

You can say there is a story here, but is underneath layers and layers of "special events" throughout the game. These events let you progress through the story and slowly start to piece all together. Yeah, which means there is no linear story here. I was in a loss at first, events kept occurring seemingly in no particular order, and that's a given. You won't experience the same events in the same order as myself, it's RNG most of the time.

It's really lighthearted in tone, and I'm use to visual novels to go absolutely hogwild at some point, but this isn't much the case. It feels very honest about what it wants to tell. And I'm very thankful for it since, in my opinion this game doesn't need to go that far and touches most topics again, in a very innocent way with it's characters. Talking about characters, they're really charming. Everyone is different from one another, not just in aspect but in personality and this is reflected in all sort of places; during disccusions, during events and even their stats. Everyone has their own stats, some are better than others at disscusions and some have abilites others simply don't. Though, I wanted to know more about the them. This is strictly tied to events as I said before and every characters has more than 4 events to explore from 14 characters in total, not including the main character which we know close to nothing about.

The presentation in this game is wonderful and full of life. If I'd had to give it a name it would be something like: "Alien, but welcoming" and that's knowing you're in a ship with a bunch of alien and humans. Muisc is like goofy-esque silly drama most of the time and calm and weirdly sentimental when it needs to, that I thought suits this game very well alongside the visuals. Every character is separated by a color palette wich makes each one standout more from the rest and is easier to recognize everyone as soon as you see their portrait on screen. I don't personally have a favourite but if I have to choose, I'll go with Shigemichi. He's a pretty funny fella.

My favorite moment of this game when I decided to trust a certain crew member while Gnosia just to cover mysef of any suspicion since she was against me and picking on me constantly on discussions. The idea was to make her support me on the debates trusting each other on the act. An event triggered after finishing that day, then she asked me if I was lying this whole time to again, cover myself as Gnosia. Said yes, but she didn't mind as a Human and even knowing I was Gnosia she decided to support me on those debates just because I was honest with her. It was honestly surprising. Then "Aster" starts playing in the background, one of the very few vocal songs in the game only reserved for moments as special as this one.

After Loop 30 or so you're free to do whatever you want. I'm a bit sad to say this is where this game starts to get worse. Before each gane a menu is presented, you're able to choose everything; from the amount of people that are in the ship and gnosia quantity and the class you want to take part in. You main objective now is to search for these events to advance through the story. Some are really difficult to trigger and activate and some require very specific instances to then activate.

Personally I probably would never have found some if it wasn't for a quick internet search and I'm quite sad for it because I loved this game before it forced me to stay as away as possible for it. And it gets worse, I started to not care about the characters and only focus myself on getting these events activated. Remember the RPG aspects? You'll start to level up like crazy after each loop and become untouchable for the most part by level 100. Days and days, searching for these events to trigger. Some didn't, some randomly appear and some luckly were triggered as well. And I hate to say this, but you better off watching the ending(s) on Youtube.

Wish this game gets a sequel soon, with a new row set of characters because I feel there is a lot of potential wasted here. Mainly to fix how you progress through the story. I'm quite sad seeing how things turned up for Gnosia because I really liked it at first but then my love for it started to go downhill as loops went on and on, until the very end. If these things gets fix in the future, I'm sure this game will recieve more international praise and not be just relegated to be only known by some people. I'm sure of it.

Gave up on this after getting to the final boss. Combat is reasonably fun against most of the regular enemies, but basically all the bosses are essentially uncomboable. With the surprising exception of Shredder in the penultimate level, they basically rotate through simple invulnerable-vulnerable phases, with generally unengaging attack patterns. Only a few are interesting in their own right. Most are boring, made aggravating by the presence of adds.

Strongest point in its favour is the story mode basically acting as a chapter select for the arcade mode. That's undermined by including a level system. "Level your favourite turtles up to level 10 so you get full access to supermoves" oh yeah no thank you.

At least it's pretty.

Picked up this game with Gotham Knights last year during Black Friday and thought this was some souls like type of game, but came to find out it was a DMC clone which in my opinion was a sigh of relief considering that I have several soulslikes already to get to in my gigantic backlog.

Loved the designs of the characters and the bleak world they made for the environments until everything in the game nearly looked so similar with not much variety. The first half of the game for the most part was just screaming out mediocrity as I was on the verge of feeling like I made a mistake until the story started to get more interesting. Seeing the Berserk and Claymore heavy inspirations also made me more interested and the fact I absolutely loved Lute she was such a great character, pretty cool sister dynamic there.

The rapture form was like a typical type of rage mode, but the cool part was the different finishers you can do based on which of Lutes skills you decide to purchase and can change from time to time, also Lute in combat was so damn helpful too not like other AI that don't do much, she was there helping and saving me in dangerous fights from time to time which helped a lot since I decided to play the game on a harder difficulty. The berserk mode was such a cool concept and I really like how it was your kind of anime-style going insane and nearly uncontrollable unless you master it, which in turn had major consequences and could actually kill you.

Some bigger fights with the elite enemies can feel like a chore as you can't fight the way you want and have to constantly switch these two ethereal rifts to damage certain enemies. Its a conflicting beast as the more you learn the abilities and weapons switching it can be really fun, but sometimes it can be frustrating at times. The amount of depth the combat system has is unique and some fights can destroy you and cause you to use all consumables based on your mistakes which increase the initiative to not screw up as much and try different weapons and combos since some work better against certain enemy types compared to others.

One of the coolest powerups you get is like Devil trigger, but unfortunately for story reasons you do not receive it until the last few chapters in the game. Story has some cliche types of situations, but also its on spin with the world building and setting it creates with an unexpected ending that leaves on a cliff-hanger. I feel like they have something really special here and a good bit of things to improve on. I would love to play the sequel if it gets made, but a good chunk of things could use some work like making some fights more engaging and more diverse locations to look at and not so much blue everything. This game certainly won't be for everyone, but for the most part I came out liking it more in the end. The Soulstice does have some "Soul" in it that's for sure.

I really should get to watching Claymore one of these days..

Much like taking a dead corpse and putting puppet strings on it and making it flop around, Diablo IV is a shadow of its former self.

We are once again witnessing the Greed of AAA game companies destroying great games on banking on peoples love and nostalgia for once great game series that just don't give the same experience they should bring. My great friends introduced me to Diablo 3 back in Highschool and I was instantly hooked with it and became a fan and like many others was excited for Diablo 2 remaster and this. It was unreal how despite the areas and gigantic open world to explore and many different enemy types and stuff like that I was practically bored the entire time playing through it hence why it took me literal months to finally finish it. Literally played and started with several friends on several occasions and everyone lost interest and even one friend couldn't even last after just one session of playing this snorefest. It just gives such a lifeless experience with monotonous and worthless repeating side quests and the legendary drops that used to bring excitement and joy have lost any kind of meaning with all the same abilities and very limited designs to them, and I would literally get the same two looking helmets the whole experience. Oh! No fear, because they made sure to get more unique designs of armor and weapons through the expensive store with ridiculous microtransactions. No matter how unfinished this demonic turd of a game is they will always make sure there microtransaction is open on launch of a albeit 70$ fucking game.

They couldn't even let you use your first character once the first season came up for it you had to start all over. Repeating all the same side quests and exploring everything again is just another classic case of "Hey! We want you to stay and play our game and only our game forever!" They did add an update to fix it between all characters, but with the experience the game initially gives you its not that big of a game changer since regardless you still have to hit all the fast travel points again in each town. I like to explore and I get the game revolves around fighting shitloads of enemies, but barely taking two steps and constantly having to stop to fight a horde makes the experience grow old pretty quick.

I'm grateful that I have the first Diablo left to play and I am sure it will give me a better experience then this did. Much like how I felt with DOOM 3 the best looking part and section of the whole campaign is when you finally actually are able to go to hell and its very aesthetically pleasing and just really cool to see, but its literally at the last point of the game and you are there for not long at all then the game ends. Thank god they recently introduced a new class for the mobile game and made sure to let everyone know that its not coming to this game. Atleast, we get the season that pretty much goes side by side with the class we are not getting and a battle pass for us to buy! Never would of imagined that a game where you fight the hordes of hell would be so boring. I'm tired boss, tired of these companies sucking the life out of these series and giving us a lifeless shell of what's left.

In a 1999 developer interview. Keiichiro Toyama says “What is it that sets Silent Hill apart from other games? If I had to answer that question in a nutshell, it would be the atmosphere, which I suppose is vague and ambiguous. However, if you play the game, I think you will understand. Silent Hill is an orthodox game with no outlandish or innovative gameplay mechanics, but it is suffused with a unique atmosphere and mood, not only in its appearance but also in the story and sound.” - Director of Silent Hill 1(SH1).

I couldn’t help but come to the same conclusion as Toyama’s answer of ‘atmosphere’ as the final credits rolled in my blind playthrough of Silent Hill 1. The atmosphere permeates throughout my time running through the titular town full of dense fog. As I controlled the main character. Harry Mason. An everyman who has no special titles, or special powers, is neither rich nor an individual who has super connections of note. He is simply a regular dad desperately searching every house and street for any clue, to recover his missing daughter Cheryl after a car crash gone wrong. And so begins our journey, as he battles/evades otherworldly creatures all while unknowingly trying to survive in this horror-filled place.

Storywise, I found his journey to be a cross between safe storytelling mixed with a jigsaw puzzle. Looking back I can construct how the narrative is achieved by effectively omitting key details. By the time I had all the pieces, I could complete the ‘puzzle’ so to speak. In doing so I was treated to a relatively safe journey in regards to not throwing my suspension of disbelief into smithereens while spreading the plot breadcrumbs interesting enough to lure me further into the mystery. In spite of the slow threads in the beginning. Be that as it may, once I hit my stride in schools and hospitals my will to continue deepened further. Enabling me to question everything and everyone within the bounds of not delving too outside the box to conjure. The regular who, what, where, when, why whodunit. Kept my brain tingling for morsels of information to seek the answer to my relentless inquiries. And thankfully the ending I received satisfied me to a measure I cannot help but applaud for. Well at least for receiving the ‘G+’ ending. And while there are other endings I’ve seen on YouTube. The overarching narrative felt uncommonly used amongst the other horror games I've played thus far. I wish I could give more concrete examples, but that would inadvertently lose the magic and surprise.

The atmosphere toes the line between the unknown and frightening to an absurd, but realistic degree. As I traveled deeper into the mist surrounding the locations of Silent Hill. Taking inspiration from Stephen King's The Mist among other influences. And to its credit, the close draw distance to maximize fog nearly in our faces works cleverly to hide the technical limitations of the PS1 era. The missing inhabitants while replicating a small town out in the country oozes with mystery in a sort of “Will there be something?” is teased mercilessly. I enjoyed exploring to my delight and wasn’t scared too much despite the oppressive silence and lack of inhabitants. Instead, I found otherworldly creatures prowling the dead of the day. Hairless malformed dogs prowling the streets, as winged creatures fly indiscriminately above Mason’s head to claw at him. To the nurses and doctors who are out of their freaking mind looking like a zombie at times. I admit to being scared and simply ran away from these ghastly enemies. The dense fog adds to the intrigue with incessant questions in the back of my mind. “What's happening? Where is Cheryl? What should I do? Why is this happening? How can I survive? Am I dreaming? Is this real?” These questions and more will inevitably pop up as you stumble & struggle.

The struggle is real. As I cautiously checked for enemies in rotten corridors, clean hallways, and entering empty rooms splitting the real and unreal. Confusing me, yet a handy map can be found nearby upon entering a new location. Making backtracking painless. Allowing me to easily strengthen my will, admire the presentation and reference what I had already been to. The map updates as you explore making it a vital tool to utilize. Reinforced by how simple the mechanics are. Mason can run, walk, use guns, and melee weapons, and interact with objects in the environment. The radio too helps as a sort of sound radar for nearby enemies. Helping us to prepare for what's to come. As a result, no gimmicks or very innovative systems at work as Toyama stated above. Focusing on other elements brings the core strengths to the front and center for players to devour. Grayish mist compliments well with the dead air of the soundtrack while feeding breadcrumbs to the player early on to piece and make their deductions. It is fascinating if not slightly stressful since I am playing a survival horror game. Yet I wasn’t all too bothered by the gameplay formula.

Puzzles felt adequate without being too complex. The simple systems lend themselves again and again. Becoming cyclical as you progress further in new buildings without feeling like a drag. Encounter a mysterious item? Maybe we can use this later to open a door or slot into a mechanism to open a path. Hmm, bottle? Must be some liquid I need. Keys? Oh, a locked door I couldn’t enter before surely will this time. Every puzzle I found difficult had a nearby solution to help players give off clues to solve their current dilemma. And usually, they may connect to another component, solving a dilemma could be a key to finally removing an obstacle. Out of all the puzzles I encountered. Only one of them is incredibly difficult. This was the only time I felt compelled to check a walkthrough and once I found the solution I couldn’t help but smack myself silly. So here’s a helpful tip. Check your surroundings to make sure of any missing pieces, having a separate monitor or paper on hand to visualize text hints can offer a different point of view. There are puzzles here without a hint so visuals and any patterns as delicately as I can vaguely say will prove invaluable to the naked eye. Don’t overthink, sometimes the easiest and most gut feeling may prove to be the right one.

Combat I wasn't fighting every step of the way like tank controls. Instead I embraced the simple fighting system and abused them to my advantage. Harry can equip one weapon at a time. Utilizes a multitude of melee and ranged weaponry. From pipes to knives to a pistol, shotguns, etc. The armaments helped tremendously like a hammer and the shooting mechanics aren’t all too complicated due to the absence of a reticle. As long as you focus in the direction of the enemy. You can shoot them with extreme prejudice. And man does it feel good to lay them out on the floor and kick em when they're down. Go close to an enemy? Eat a full round from my shotgun. Enemy closing in? NOPE. Time to run in a zigzag and not look back. Dying in about one blow? Excuse me while I chug a kit and some bottles without a required animation to take effect. See several mobs? Yeah forget that, Ima run past them. Pick your battles, don’t fight everything, to conserve ammo.

Felt the resource collection and using my stockpile satisfactory. Supplies are spread throughout the town so you’ll have to do some exploring off the beaten path to see any health kits or bottles to replenish your vitality. I had a surplus of bullets and avoided combat where I could to save ammo. Didn’t need to heal every time, only when I needed to. I wasn’t hindered by any inventory limit, nor was there any sort of stamina meter. He does have a health meter once you enter the menu with a press of the button. Making the lack of any real user interface where you would traditionally see one noticeable, albeit not necessary to see. I didn’t find any major issues with finding resources.

I’ll talk more about this later, but for now, I'll praise the tank controls. The mechanic where you move the player is similar to the process of how a tank moves. And this is a process you’ll need to contend with throughout the entirety of a playthrough. Nevertheless, as I became more familiar with tank life(This was my first time experiencing the phenomenon.) I found it weirdly satisfying to look at the element from a different angle. The controls accentuate certain camera angles to invoke a sense of anxiety and unease. The combat adds to this which I didn’t mind at all considering the game doesn’t shout to the high heavens to play for the fighting module. This in turn creates anticipation and tension adding to the already unsettling atmosphere. So I like it. For adding depth to the combat and fleeing.

Honestly, this emphasizes cutscenes when they play by displaying different camera angles while the dialogue occurs. And boy do I have some good news. I’m surprised by how little text there is in the conversations. Thereby not slobbering players with text logs or lore logs. Though as a lore nut, I firmly believe as long as you have enough relative lore in hand it could prove beneficial. But that is neither here nor there. Words and phrases are used sparingly as if to uphold a sacred tenet that fewer words equals good. SH1 for example follows this rule to a T. I did not see any wasted text. Puzzles and hints are included. It's like a subtly minimalist Chekhov's gun here. And oddly enough I am praising the usage of short conversations between Harry and whoever is speaking to him to excellent effect. Why? This adds mystery and intrigue to the central locations while increasing tension, fear, etc. Reinforcing the enigmatic atmosphere Toyama envisions. Seriously this is great stuff preserving minimal, but essential text to have players piece their own conclusions. Showing us, but not telling us.

In a 2015 interview from Factmag Akira Yamaoka(composer of a majority of the Silent Hill series) talks about the franchise's soundtracks and why it continues to be as influential as ever. “One of the greatest ways that Yamaoka enhanced Silent Hill’s fear building is by using music and effects in ways that run against what you’re expecting. “I wanted it to be unpredictable: maybe during a big scare I cut everything out, and maybe if nothing was happening at all there would be a lot of sound.” You have an empty hallway? Layer a few sirens and mix it in the red. You have an establishing moment with a villain or environment? Use only the sound of a sharpening knife.”

This unpredictability by Yamaoka works to an impressive degree throughout the entire soundscape. Where I felt the absence of regular conventional instruments in favor of creepy silence, air vibrations, the beating of unconventional items like banging of doors, the scrapping of blades, and the heart-pumping scratches and fluctuating radio frequencies awakens dread. Some examples I’ll pull from the OST have silence integrated well such as: ‘Downtime, never end, never end, never end, alive, nothing else, justice for you, heaven give me say, far.’ These tracks accompany many of the gameplay segments and cutscenes in a congenial manner yet interlaced wonderfully facilitating differences from the usual effects we often hear. Creating an unsettling tone to repeat for days on end as you boot up the game. Not to the point of over-use since a lot of tracks differ in tempo, rhythm, and how untraditional sound works. Seriously listen to any of those tracks and see how it differs from classical instruments. The names of these tracks also share similar connotations. Giving off a break if you will. Or time of rest. By comparison, there is another layer. And that is the panic tracks. Imagine low drums combined with a background of haunting wails or cries of ghastly echoes.

While the foreground is immersed with a layer of banging utensils harshly being hit on steel walls in a pattern that evokes slow encroaching terror. Yeah, terrifying isn’t it? Try listening to these tracks: Die, ain't gonna rain, half day, dead end, ill kill you, bitter season, don’t cry, for all, devil’s lyric, over, until death. I had to stomach through the OST again and it is incredible if not spooky. Yet thankfully enough here’s a secret to lessen the tension and anxiety. Lower the volume, no shame in doing so. I admit to doing so! The naming sense also is interesting to note again, with most of the tracks I chose from a small sample conveying notions of death, threats, and bittersweetness. I could’ve added more, but you can see the rest here and suit the tracks in other patterns. Regardless, I want to focus on a pattern. The silence tracks and panic tracks from the ones I listed earlier follow a theme, eh? The former inhabits an eerie vibe throughout yet doesn’t go to the steep lengths of making the player run to the hills. In my ears, I felt they were used to excellent effect, conveying a tingle of mystery as I ran to new rooms and buildings. By comparison. The latter displays the rush, the unbearing suspense mixed with a persistent rhythm forming an incessant need to get out. Run faster and get the hell out of traps and dead-ends. As a result, the panic tracks I think work in its favor and complement the silence to a proportion, I find myself fascinated by the two accompanying themes.

However, a third and smaller portion of tracks not of the two kinds emerges. And this brings to the forefront the classical tracks to a shotgun-filled bar full of emotions and relief. These tracks finally make use of classical instruments like the guitar strings. For example in the track ‘She’ I felt they provide a profound degree of closure. Some may see this as an abrupt slap of whiplash, on the other hand, I found it comforting. In the near silence and panic-filled corridors of ambiance. I found at the end of my main character’s journey and to my great satisfaction a longing feeling of contentment and tranquility. It is apt and so powerful to hear classical instruments shine so bloody hard. I am amazed how different Yamaoka's style conveys so uniquely and so beautifully to listen to. Granted, the effects on the unused may be perceived as annoying to hear repetitive noise effects. Although, I think it works to its benefit. Complementing the game to magically transport the player into the Yamaoka’s soundscape. Like a puppet master controlling how we feel. Just wow. Very different from other Japanese composers I'm familiar with listening such as Nobou Uematsu, Keiichi Okabe, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masashi Hamauzu, Masayoshi Soken, Keiki Kobayashi, Kota Hoshino, Falcom Sound Team jdk, and Xenoblade composers. The OST manages to ride the fine line of not being either bombastic or slamming us with gentility. Filling the player with enough suspense to not overflow in sheer terror while giving enough intrigue to the limit of genuine courage. It is as Yamaoka talks about earlier. Unpredictable in building fear.

As much as I could continue praising and analyzing every morsel. I must talk about my mixed feelings. These are neither positive nor negative, but simply some things that gave me pause, could be better and perhaps a hot take down below.

First tank controls for the unused can make it difficult to achieve the right balance in the beginning. When Harry moves in a single direction, turning becomes difficult. So you’ll have to swerve to the right or left before coming around. Takes some getting used to. I was never familiar with these types of old movements and considering it was my first foray into it. My first 15 minutes were clashing onto walls. I understand it's a product of its time. And while some may say it adds tension and anxiety, which I agree to a certain extent. More often than not I crashed into walls and wished it controlled better. Could be a dealbreaker for some. I’ve heard the newest entries after the first have better controls. Though for a first entry, it's not something I'll judge too harshly. Once an hour passed by I became used to them. To help, quick-turn using L1+R1. Helped immensely for my playthrough and thankfully the game’s runtime isn’t too long or medium to deal with. HLTB estimates put this at a short length.

Second, this might be a hot take. But I think going into the game blind completely would be a mistake. I tried playing blind for 95% of my experience and while I did have a good time, once I removed some tips to know beforehand along with some of my friend's advice I would’ve unknowingly struggled. Please check out some tips. I'll put some links further below to help newcomers. Therefore to prevent further suffering. Not required, but it doesn’t hurt to know ya know? For example, Running away from enemy mobs in the streets to conserve ammo. Quickturn if you hit a dead-end and I abused the hell out of that to counter the rough tank controls. Furthermore, going blind may inadvertently cause players more trouble when trying to achieve certain endings. They can be strict. Without going into concrete details of spoiler territory. To get the G+ ending, players need to somehow pick up a liquid in a hospital and use it in a boss fight. Not the last one. There’s a bit more, but I'll let Before I play handle that. Highly recommend referencing that in hand while you play. I hope that’s vague enough to say. I am not advocating for everyone to achieve that outcome, rather I think it would help in the long run when thinking about the game as a whole. It is simply a suggestion.

Third, boss fights I think could’ve been improved a little more to induce more puzzley in design without reverting into too gimmicky territory. As vaguely as I can say. I usually evaded their attacks, then shot bullets during appropriate moments. I’m torn on this point since I think this ties into the combat not being a true highlight to look forward to. I didn’t come to SH1 to be amazed by fighting. Yet unironically Toyama in another interview back in 1999 echoes similar sentiments by saying how “The action part of the game is really just something to create the horror.” A medium to enhance the horror if you will. Although, I still can’t help but add my suggestions on how this could be remedied to make boss fights more horrory. Off the top of my head: More on escaping, instead of traditional fights. Destroying objects in surrounding environments then switching to a different weapon like melee. Surprise me with dialogue maybe and if I answer wrong, game over. Taunt me while chasing me. I wouldn’t say they're bad by any means. The first, second to last boss and final boss do a decent job.

Fourth, I wish there was more interaction in the environment instead of literal observations anyone can make. When exploring anything of relative interest in his surroundings. Harry will make a direct, blunt phrase. “No useful books.” “Nothing unusual.” “Drugs? Better leave it.” “Just a wall.” Granted, there are plenty of notes, diaries, letters, and documents to give some relevant lore or plot hooks so it’s not all bad. Feels weird though. Why not have him say different lines like “Cheryl would’ve loved this book.” or “Ah I remember this drug from long ago my wife used to use.” See how those suggestions would’ve changed some of the stale observations? Makes me wonder if the other installments made some changes to his inspection.

Ultimately I found Silent Hill 1 to be largely a leap of faith as one Ubisoft franchise likes to say. While it does have some dated mechanics like the tank controls which may vary from person to person. And the story may not resonate with everyone. Along with my other mixed feelings. In the end, hidden beneath these varying qualities I found the everyman plot to be equally as satisfying as my time in Signalis. I can only leave pretty positive after my ten hour playthrough. And oddly enough, I regret not playing this title back then in my childhood. Never played any other entries in the series either. And yet for a PSX title released in 1999, I am pretty impressed how much it holds up. Stands tall amongst the other horror games I played. Sure the title doesn’t boast the Lovecraftian edge Bloodborne grasps. The excellent pacing of The Last of Us. Great lessons from Omori or hitting the fine balance of horror and action in the Evil Within series and Metro 2033. Nor does it provide richly diverse cast to the gills like Shadow Heart and Koudelka.

Rather, Harry Mason’s troubled venture to recover his daughter is a powerful incentive to keep in mind. And the feelings of “annoyance, anger and incredible kind of powerlessness” evoked by the protaganists voice actor Michael Guinn moved me enough to see what happens in the end. Strong to witness amongst the clever backtracking, colliding with interesting and well-thought-out puzzles. Constant showing, not telling, and remarkable use of minimal dialogue I found in contrast to Parasite Eve. Demonstrating how much this little gem can achieve in a concise manner without padding. I wasn’t bombarded by useless cutscenes or tearing my suspension of disbelief a new one. Beyond the palpable unique atmosphere, intriguing everyman story and excellent sound design lies something special to anyone who has never played Silent Hill 1. I’d even go as far as to say the game has made me appreciate horror much more than I thought.

8.5/10

References & Additional Material:
1st interview - Shmuplations translated the 1999 interview with Toyama and others
Wiki links - Everyman - Inspirational works of Silent Hill - Tank Controls - Chekhov’s Gun - SH1 OST - Soundscape
2nd interview - Akira Yamaoka interview
3rd interview - Another interview with Toyama back in 1999. Different from 1st.
4th interview - a 2018 interview with none other than the original Silent Hill voice actor for Harry Mason. Michael Guinn. Fair warning does contain spoilers for SH1 & SH3. I only read the SH1 portions.
Silent Hill 1 Before I Play Tips
Silent Hill 1 manual
A short history article on the origin of Tank Controls - Cool TIL tidbits.
My spoiler thoughts on Silent Hill 1 - Heavy spoilers from beginning to end of the game

Maybe this is just my perspective as a Nintendo child speaking, but the games catalogue of Insomniac Games always fascinated me from a distance for how...underdiscussed their games seemed to be, despite being regarded as classics. There's absolutely a vocal fanbase for Spyro, and an even more vocal fanbase for their later hit series, yet it was never quite one I was able to get a grasp on the consensus of - there was an understood agreement of quality yet never one true point to really anchor it down. And I hate to be part of the problem, but now with first-hand experience under my belt, I think I get what they mean: The original Ratchet & Clank manages to be a great game despite never truly excelling in any one area of design.

I try, with any game I play, to understand the objective and intent of the designers and artists behind the game during my time playing it - to reach a sort of agreement upon which to draw my analysis. This is part of why platformers are some of my all-time favorite games - their intent is usually immediately understandable as soon as you're given control. Mario is a toybox - games with a character able to do many things, with levels often made purely around the lowest common denominator, yet with a moveset sparkling with potential for freedom of expression. Sonic is a training ground - a set of mechanics that oft feel unwiedly and difficult to use properly, yet one with boundless potential for faster, yet faster times, with a ranking system always at the ready to push you to your absolute limits. Donkey Kong and Crash are an obstacle course - characters with dead-simple mechanics placed in contexts that ask the utmost of your capabilities as a player, of your mastery of every little interaction between the character and their world, with bountiful rewards given to those who can go the extra mile. Yet in my time demoing the original Spyro the Dragon, this sort of distillation felt damn near impossible to get done. Spyro could move fast, yet his levels lacked incentive to utilize it to its fullest. He could breathe fire, jump and glide, yet there's rarely more asked of you to do than those basic actions in isolation. And as I was playing, trying to think of yet one more think to note down...the level I was in had already ended.

And that's when it clicked for me - the secret ingredient.

The absolute greatest achievement of Ratchet & Clank, beyond its distinct art design, immaculate music, charming character writing and thematic core, is that a fast, steady pace is prioritized above all else. Ratchet & Clank, much like its dragonic ancenstor, doesn't truly push the envelope in any one particular area of its gameplay - its gunplay is simple, its jumps and platforming are not much more than fit-for-purpose, and its mobility is never one to truly let the player run freely about. Yet none of what Ratchet & Clank tasks its players with accomplishing ever takes long enough to where one would begin longing for more. Enemies can be defeated as quickly as they appear, and their deaths are punctuated with the oh-so-satisfying sounds of bolts - hard cash in the Ratchetverse - whizzing into the lombax's pockets. Atop every hill lays a new visually distinct, breathtaking vista - and after just four or five of those, you've circled back to your ship, seen a funny cutscene with entertaining dialogue, and gotten a new weapon or mobility upgrade. Particularly with the weapons, there's always something to draw your attention - "maybe I could try the Visibomb here?" "These enemies are all bunched together, maybe the Walloper would be funny to use here?" "Ooh, if I use the Mine Glove and then Taunter, I can draw enemies into the mines!" It's not so much that these creative options for combat are required nor rewarding to solve, but that it all adds to the feeling of the game always having stimulus of some sort at the ready.

It's easy to liken its constant sense of progression to a Metroidvania or RPG, but it althesame feels immensely befitting of the narrative the original Ratchet & Clank tells. The duo are an odd pair in this one, going from somewhat neutral on one another to bickering to becoming more genuinely trusting of one another, yet the everpresent constant that drives the dynamic is Ratchet's own hot-headedness, not in any way moronic yet always leading thoughts with the trigger rather than the brain. The easy comparison to make here would be toward Sonic the Hedgehog, yet for as much of a go-getter as he is, I've always had the impression that he's fully capable and willing to slow down and assess situations inbetween sprints: he's never been restrained in his life and knows when its okay to take it slow. Ratchet, meanwhile, is excited to finally be off his home, finally getting to see the world and let it guide his ship on his first real adventure - he never stops to chat or befriend anyone for longer than what's needed. It feels like a reflection of the game's own pace and structure, as if the environments we explore aren't necessarily seen in their entirety, but only in the pieces that Ratchet himself is willing to go through before being ready to hop off to the next fun world. The persona of a determined delinquent scrapyard mechanic also obviously lends itself further to the combat, as it never stops feeling exciting to mow down fools with the arsenal at your disposal.

If Ratchet is emblematic of the sheer sense of tempo, aggression and power given to the player throughout the game, then I suppose Clank represents the opposite aspects - the details that are easily missed, almost asking one to slow down to be fully appreciated. The absolute scale, atmosphere and visual detail of a world like Metropolis, the effects and animations of every gun and enemy, the differing architecture and sense of culture from planet to planet...though its a world that you can easily and quite enjoyably breeze through, its also one that doesn't shy away from letting the player smell the roses at their own leisure. I feel like this balance seeps into upholding just about every part of the game - the cutscenes are both funny because of the snappy and outright excellent dialogue, yet watching attentively can alert the player to so many little intricacies of how the universe and its people operate. How much a character like Captain Qwark says about the status, importance and exploitation of celebrities, how full-scale warfare sort of just happens in the background in several of the game's planets without any true sense of panic or surprise expressed by its inhabitants - as if its just part of their everyday lives to expect the world to turn upside down at the whims of their rulers. And crucially how, despite being a mechanic and a rebel in spirit, Ratchet remains subservient to a capitalist system - his collected scrap isn't material to craft weapons on his own accord, but currency for purchasing weapons as goods. Like your average punk-rock song, Ratchet & Clank knows, criticizes and shouts about the system that's restraining them, yet relishes in that rebelliousness as an aesthetic moreso than committing to serious discussion on the topics raised. It has important things to say and messages to be dissected by its players, yet the aforementioned Ratchet half of the game sees to ensures that such discussion never bogs down the game's pure intentions of being a fun video game for too long - what fun is punk-rock if you can't enjoy listening to it?

Put rather bluntly, Ratchet & Clank can often feel like a game of many half-measures: much like Spyro its influences are clear to see yet its commitment lays uncertain. Yet all of it is wrapped in an aesthetic, structure and pace that sparks of confidence, a pair of voices shouting at you to always keep going fast yet to also always appreciate the detail and care of the world. And though there are times where those two voices feel thoroughly at odds with one another, for a surprising amount of the runtime they truly do harmonize into an experience that kept me hooked.

Though I may not love Ratchet & Clank, the game feels as if it is truly in love with itself, and I can't help but find that admirable.

[Playtime: 14 Hours]
[Key Word: Rapidfire]

+amazing draw distance for a game of this era, with flying cars and far-off buildings filling out the backgrounds of each stage.
+there's a couple stage designs I thought were pretty fun: one of the later game ones that I can't remember at the moment, and the second stealth section right at the end of the game was pretty well planned.
+bosses are fine across the board, not very many of them tho.

-without a doubt the biggest thing that kills this game is the controls. I understand not having over-the-shoulder aiming in a 2002 game but there's no strafing for 75% of the game, and the strafing that does exist is cumbersome and doesn't allow you to jump. this means aiming manually is usually impossible while moving, especially if the enemy is above your elevation. there's an auto-aim mechanic that works well for the throwable weapons but is impossibly finicky for weapons like the blaster. all of this is compounded by how sluggish the camera moves, even on the fastest setting. most of the encounters in this game boil down to shooting in first-person at a distance and slowly progressing through each of the levels.
-the level design is bland overall. each planet generally only uses a handful of different enemies, each of which gets thrown at you in waves as you progress through each area. a few areas have more interesting design than this but this is generally the room structure for every planet in the game. combat design rarely extends beyond "we put a bunch of this one enemy in front of you and now deal with them all at once". this is interleaved with surface level puzzles (ie the water ones) and the occasional shooting or clank segments.
-both the rails and the hoverboard sections are so slow... there's ways to maintain speed but it doesn't feel very fluid tbh
-a lot of the presentation feels lazy, as in a lot of abrupt cuts, flavorless text (the transition slides that are black with basic text on them before cutscenes looks bizarrely cheap), and static menus that pop up with no flair
-checkpoints are at a severe premium sometimes in this game. if this game could move a lot faster ie had a better aiming system then it wouldn't be bad, but considering how plodding the pace is it feels like a huge chore to get sent back.
-for whatever the game is annoyingly dark, I don't know if this is a ps3 ver problem or not tho.
-speaking of which, the ps3 version chugs a lot near the end, especially during the final boss fight. as if the game didn't already feel sluggish enough
-ratchet also has too much inertia for a character in this genre, and it makes the game feel like an ice level the whole time. the clank additions to his platforming arsenal improve the movement somewhat, but then at points you're not allowed to use them, limiting movement options in a game that desperately needs them.

probably the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I remember playing tools of destruction as a kid and enjoying it, so I think it's just a matter of how ancient this entry is and the blueprint for third-person shooters having not been laid out yet. regardless, I enjoyed maybe an hour of the total time I spent with this game, and was completely miserable the rest of the time. it's odd to find a game that's so outwardly competant but feels so poor to actually play.

This is most likely the most infuriatingly bad platformer I have ever played and I'm here to explain why.

First of all, I'd like to point out the obvious good of the game and that would be the humor, it's really really good the cutscenes feel like some early 2000 nickelodeon cartoon it's great! But other than the humor it has nothing else to distincts itself in terms of gameplay.

The stages themselves are alright, the only issue is the random spam of strong enemies, the lack of health because 4 just isn't enough and the most infuriating one is the lack of checkpoints. I have died so many times and had to redo the same boring obstacle course just because they hate checkpoints in this game! Like come on this is a platformer game made for young players this isn't supposed to be complicated, I'm supposed to lay back and relax not fear if I'm in a zone with a checkpoint (because the few checkpoints are invisible), and just waste my time doing the same platforming, wasting my ammo, buying them again for 12 hours!

And you know what? I dropped this fucking game at the last boss because it sucked so much I was out of ammo and I'm guessing I'm supposed to have a ton of weapons by the end of the game BECAUSE I guess I'm supposed to grind for bolts because that's fun right? No, it's fucking not!

This game makes me really angry.
I really hope the sequel picks things up and actually be a good game and not just a good Nickelodeon show.

Also, the designs are really good I love how Drek looks like Penn Jillette.

Before I begin, I do want to point out that Pangburn and poyfuh also discuss most of the mechanical problems that I go over in this review. Man... this was rough. Maybe it's partly my fault because I felt the need to rush through it for the final stint of L2AGO, but I didn't think it would be this bad. A quick note here: I played through the first level of the original Ratchet & Clank many years ago but never progressed past that for some reason (I think I just forgot to go back to it), and so the first Ratchet & Clank game I ever cleared was Rift Apart. My experience is definitely colored from 100%ing the newest game in the series first, so keep that in mind.

The original Ratchet & Clank in my mind suffers from two glaring problems. The first is that combat, to put it bluntly, does not work. One of the main draws of Ratchet & Clank is that you have a bunch of cool weaponized gadgets to work with to systematically eliminate hordes of different enemies, and combat comprises of both hack and slash (using the wrench) and 3D platform based aiming/shooting. There's no way to block damage; you have to dodge attacks by strafing or jumping out of the way. But you don't get strafing to begin with (and strafing's implementation is not amazing either, I'll get to that in a bit), so as a result, most of combat involves turning to face enemies to shoot with auto aim, then turning around to dodge attacks, and then turning back around to shoot again. You can't just jump in place to dodge attacks either because most enemies will fire enough shots (or there will be enough enemies near you) to where lasting/lingering hitboxes will end up damaging you anyways. It's for this reason that abusing jump + wrench slam isn't 100% foolproof either. There are often just too many enemies, and targeting them while trying to dodge attacks is a nightmare. Also, trying to hack and slash all your enemies with the wrench alone becomes unreliable as soon as enemies start taking more than one hit to kill; you'll get swarmed within seconds and will probably take damage. So, you've got your pick between auto-aim on the run ranged combat, unreliable long lasting end-lag hack and slash combat, or cheesing combat altogether by playing the game like some kind of first person shooter and outranging enemies to begin with and taking them out with first person scope blaster/missile launcher/remote rockets. The latter option is your most reliable combat option unfortunately (and you can't do this too up close, otherwise the enemies get privy and will interrupt you while you're in first person scope; remember that it gets quite unwieldy having to switch back and forth between the perspectives and dodging/positioning vs aiming, so bypassing this by sniping enemies is the safest way to go), and this turns combat into somewhat of a tedious exercise. This is further exacerbated when you start fighting commandos in the final few chapters that will somehow figure out your location no matter how far away you were when you shot them down with remote rockets, so you have to spend two cycles dodging bullets from them before resuming your attack. And finally, you may end up doing this more often anyways for aerial opponents because auto-aim doesn't always lock onto them while you're on the ground. Perhaps I may sound a little anachronistic saying this, but compare this to Rift Apart, where the game instantly locks you into a 3rd person over the shoulder shooter perspective as soon as you press the trigger, so you can easily strafe and aim adjust at the same time. It's just a much cleaner solution; you'll eventually get strafing by double tapping the right trigger and holding down L2 or R2 (but at the cost of constantly hovering) but with no lock strafing, and that definitely did not click with me unlike the newer games.

The other big issue with the original Ratchet & Clank is the pacing. The checkpoints are by far the biggest culprit here; it's often quite hard to tell where the checkpoints are located and how far you'll be sent back if you die. Sometimes I lost 5 minutes of progress when I died, and sometimes I lost 20 minutes or more. Keep in mind that the enemies will respawn if you die, but your ammo (and your money, if you spent any via PDA/vending boxes before dying) will not. This, as well as the general lack of respawning boxes unless you fly off the planet, means that you'll often be at a deficit of funds to even purchase all the guns, much less buy more ammo for certain enemies, and money grinding itself becomes even more of a slog. I also felt that there was a certain lock & key element to the enemies and some of the weapons that's somewhat emphasized; for example, the floating mine enemies on Gaspar have to be taken out with the Walloper (you could try and kill them with the Bomb Glove or Pyrociter, but aiming at them up close is pretty hard), and the Walloper I feel is not worth one of your eight slots otherwise when the wrench handles more or less the same function outside of that one enemy. Similarly, most flying enemies are best taken out with the missile launcher/remote rockets, and the giant blimps that spawn commandos could only be taken out with remote rockets from my experience. So there's this awkward glut of enemies that I felt had to be taken out with specific weapons, and this resulted in a lot of my weapons feeling kind of redundant while I constantly ran out of ammo for the weapons I needed. I'd like to say that you'll get what you need from the ammo crates to make up for the reliance upon certain weapons, but the number of times I got Pyrociter or Repeater ammo when I really needed more missiles has led me to believe otherwise.

The final boss is emblematic of everything that I think has gone horribly wrong with the game. Essentially, you fight this giant flying robot that is launching missiles and mines at you; your best weapon here is the Devastator (the missile launcher), which you can mostly get away with by occasionally looking at the flying robot and shooting before having to jump/run away to dodge. You won't have enough time to stop and aim with most of your other weapons. Because there are multiple phases here, I had to stop inbetween phases to buy more weapons using the PDA, which is an optional collectible found before the boss fight that also charges extra as a "surcharge" for convenience. (If you haven't found the PDA by then, you're basically locked into the final boss and won't be able to gather additional ammo for the Destructor... oof.) Now, because the developers must have noticed that there was a pretty big possibility that you would run out of money by/during the final phase (which I absolutely did), there's another form of dealing damage by using the Suck Cannon to inhale the mines/drones that are sent your way and shoot them towards the damage spongy boss. But this actually further complicates things, because you not only have to find openings to switch your weapons from the hotbar if you don't want to go into the menu every time (Rift Apart slows down time as you switch weapons from the hotbar, but not here), you also have to deal with the presence of mines and drones acting as targets for auto aim. So if you were trying to bypass this altogether and just invest in rockets to shoot down the boss (because hit and run combat with the suck cannon is not incredible without aiming), today's your unlucky day because the game can't distinguish between the giant floating boss robot and the numerous mines/drones that are spawned and will often divert rockets to hit those instead of the boss! All of this by the way, is creating tons of objects on screen, so my game lagged constantly until the final boss decided it was time to wipe out all the extraneous enemies with his own attack, since I didn't have time to focus and pick off every single minion. And if you die, you get spawned back to right before the final phase of the boss, but without any money or extra ammo to use! Needless to say, this was the worst final boss that I had fought in a hot minute, and I had to further lower my score just for this boss alone.

I sincerely do not mean to be needlessly disparaging towards this childhood classic for many; most of the elements for a great game are here! The visuals and soundtrack still hold up, there's some pretty witty dialogue between all the characters with a simple yet solid evolution of Ratchet & Clank's relationship, the movement isn't great at first but with the stretch jump, becomes much more satisfying, and for once, the minigames/side modes are all pretty fun! (Except for the turret section... seriously, why does every 3D platformer feel the need to have some kind of rail shooter/turret section?) But this is nevertheless one of the most disappointing experiences I have had with a 3D platformer recently, especially when compared to future entries in the series. Ratchet & Clank felt like it was constantly demanding perfection from me, prioritizing health as a key resource when enemies were abound and crowd control aiming was nigh upon difficult, and dying felt like a punishment due to both how much progress I lost and how much money and ammo I could not easily regain. I can't in good faith recommend this to most 3D platformer enthusiasts who are looking for a polished and well rounded game due to how time-consuming and strenuous combat felt; hopefully Going Commando proves my misgivings of the early franchise outings wrong, as I've heard it fixes many of the flaws found here.