I have heard that many people say that survival horror and the roleplaying game genres don't mix. I heavily disagree. Sweet Home, arguably the first ever survival horror, was also an RPG. These two genres have been married since the beginning, but few manage to capture the best aspects of both genres the way Parasite Eve does.

Set in December 1997, the plot, which is a direct sequel to the novel of the same name, follows NYPD officer Aya Brea and her partner Daniel as they try solve the case of Melissa, a woman possessed by a mitochondrial entity known as Eve, who burns the audience of the New York Metropolitan Opera on Christmas Eve. What follows is a twisting tale that is one part hard science fiction, one part David Cronenberg horror, one part buddy cop film, one part kaiju monster film, and one part stat grinding RPG. It's a wonderful amalgamation the likes of which would never be made in today's video game climate.

Graphically, this game still holds up when it's upscaled. Character models, while low poly, have a certain charm and liveliness to them, in no small part thanks to Tetsuya Nomura's art style. Nomura, in my opinion, has always been a good character designer, despite his quirks, and Parasite Eve as a series is easily some of his best work. This is also some of Yoko Shimomura's best work as a composer. This was one of the first times she had access to disc based media for composition, and she made an extra effort to craft something special.

In terms of gameplay, it's a real time system where you pause and issue commands. It's very similar to a Final Fantasy game, but unlike the Final Fantasies of the era, all combat takes place on the field. It might seem basic at first, but there's a shocking amount of depth, especially when one gets into the gun modification aspect of the combat.

It was also one of the the first horror games to ditch tank controls. It proved that you didn't need tank controls to make a horror game. If I had a few complaints, it's that the game can a be a little unfair in its final segments. In particular, escaping the final boss after you defeat it is annoying, especially because if it captures you, it's game over, and you have to fight him all over, and this is from the era that you can't skip cutscenes. The translation of the game isn't the best either at times, but it's still better than what Capcom was doing with Resident Evil at the time.

There is no other game like Parasite Eve. Even its sequels play nothing like this game. If you like horror games, RPG games, or just sci-fi horror, you owe it to yourself to at least try it. I say pick it up off PSN before the PS3 store is taken down permanently, whenever that may be.

Side note, every time they said "mitochondria", I thought "It's the powerhouse of the cell" like I was some kind of sleeper agent and that was my killphrase. Thanks, American Public School System.

What a treat this was. I didn't think it was possible, but Capcom did it again. In my opinion, Resident Evil 2 Remake makes the original game obsolete. Immaculate controls, superb puzzle design, and graphics that hold up amazingly well, even 5 years after its release. What really impressed though was that it was able to take the plot of Resident Evil 2 and really got me to care about the characters in a way the original could not. It took the premise of the original and really built on it.

On top of that, the game is legitimately scary, which I know is a very subjective thing. While the scariest game in the series, in my opinion, is Resident Evil 7, this is a very close second. It's even better on a second playthrough. After beating Clair's campaign, I cleared Leon's in just one weekend, which is lightening fast for me. I can't recommend this game enough.

I have been playing this game off and on since 2011, and it's finally finished. What a great game. It's like Ocarina of Time mixed with the exploration of Metroid. A really interesting story about the illusion of free choice and fate. It was written and directed by Amy Hennig, and in my opinion, her prose here, while flowery, is way more interesting than what she penned for the Uncharted series. Graphics were unparalleled for the time. It technically shouldn't even be possible to have these graphics on the original Playstation, but they were able to push past the limitations of the console. I played on Dreamcast though, and in my opinion, it's the definitive version, at least until the PC port comes back to Steam and GOG. The soundtrack is incredible. One listen to the game's theme song "Ozar Midrashim", and it will be in your head for the rest of your life.

So if I liked it so much, why only 4 and a half stars? Well, there's no in-game map, and in a Metroidvania, that makes it really easy to get lost. Super Metroid figured that out in 1994, so there is no excuse. The combat, while fun at first, lacks depth, as once you've figured it out, it stops being engaging and becomes more of an annoyance. Outside of the bosses, which are more like puzzles than actual fights, the combat does nothing of real note to add variety to its encounters. The game relies far, far too much on block puzzles for its own good. And lastly, there's the matter of the ending, or lack thereof. Anyone that's beaten this game can tell you Soul Reaver doesn't end so much as stop, with all of the payoff reserved for the second game. The narrative was nothing but buildup for a climax that just isn't there. Thankfully, it was good buildup. Perhaps, if Soul Raver 2 manages to stick the landing, I might come back and revise this to a perfect score.

As it stands now though, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a solid action/adventure game with an engaging story, well-rounded, tragic characters, a gothic setting and world that is fun to explore, both in-game, and with analyzing the lore, fine combat and puzzles, and music that will keep you coming back for more. Play it on Dreamcast, Playstation, or PC. Play it any way you can, but just play it.

The remaster is fine. It's the first three tomb raider games bundled together in one easy to navigate and use package. So why am I giving this such a low rating, then? The EULA. I recommend you read it. Two things stood out. They reserve the right to own and sell any mods made by fans and they can terminate the agreement without any warning including taking away our right to play the game. Buying this game means you don't own it. So I suggest pirating it. Since you don't own it when you buy it, pirating it isn't stealing it.

I have a question for you: Do you have a "happy place" game? When you have had a bad day, nothing's gone right, and you feel dead to the world, do you have a game that you just turn on and suddenly everything suddenly feels like it's going to be okay? Donkey Kong Country is that game to me. Every Donkey Kong Country has that effect on me, but it's most keenly felt with this one.

The story is pretty simple. One dark and stormy night, King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong's banana hoard and locked Diddy Kong in a barrel. It's your job to save Diddy and the banana hoard. It is admittedly light on story, but most of the game's emotions are carried in the moment to moment gameplay. This is an incredibly challenging game for first-timers. Sure, I can beat it now no problem, but that's because I have over 20 years of experience playing it. Its difficulty actually enhances the quest. With how high stakes the atmosphere of the levels make it, combined with David Wise's frankly haunting soundtrack, it really feels like a quest into danger more than a simple platforming romp. Some nights, I will just put on Aquatic Ambience from the soundtrack and just contemplate my place in the world. The music and atmosphere of this game make me feel wonderful things that I am not sure I can even put into words.

The platforming itself is a ton of fun. An incredibly high skill ceiling means that it is always engaging, and there is enough mechanical variation to keep you entertained through the whole journey. The same can arguably not be said about the stage variety. They could have called this game "Donkey Kong Cave" for how much time you spend in them. This is one aspect where its sequels have it beat admittedly, but it never really bothered me personally. The same can be said of the bosses. Of all the various bosses in the game, only King K. Rool himself stands out as memorable. Fortunately, the final fight with him is arguably one of the best the Super Nintendo has to offer.

It should also be noted that this game arguably saved the Super Nintendo from losing to the Genesis in North America. While the Sega Genesis did still beat the Super Nintendo in sales in 1994 and 1995, it would prove to be the years that a Sega console would ever be on top in the region. Sega would move on to the Saturn in 1995 in America, more or less abandoning the Genesis, allowing the Super Nintendo to catch up and eventually surpass it in sales globally. The Donkey Kong Country games were a major reason why, and it all began with this one. This game would prove to be the second best-selling game for the SNES, with Donkey Kong, for a few years at least, supplanting Mario as Nintendo's most popular character. A lot of that had to do with the graphics. No one had ever seen graphics like this before. When you play this game on a CRT TV now, they still hold up. With the right filters on an emulator, you can get a similar effect.

This game was a risk that paid off. I am not sure modern Nintendo would trust a third party to handle one of their biggest IPs in such a way. Perhaps they should. With its colorful graphics, interesting and challenging platofrming, excellent animation, and amazing soundtrack that elevates the whole experience into something that is emotional and poignant, Donkey Kong Country is simply one of the finest platforming games ever made, and my "happy place" game. Give it a shot and who knows? It just might become your "happy place" game, too.

Everything people remember Goldeneye for being, Perfect Dark actually is. There's an intriguing mix of cyberpunk and X-Files alien espionage in the story, and the weapons are a lot of fun to use. The sound and music are excellent. Between this game and Banjo Tooie, Grant Kirkhope had a career defining year in 2000. Graphically, this pushes the Nintendo 64 to its absolute limits, and it shows. Even with the expansion pak, sub 20 FPS is common when there's a lot of action on the screen.

If you can get past that though, this game is feature rich. The campaign is long and engaging, and sadistic in its difficulty when you're playing on harder settings. The campaign can be played in co-op, or you can have up to 4 bots in co-op with you as well. It has a pvp campaign mode as well called counter-operative, where player 2 takes control of an enemy character. Even modern games don't do that. Combine that with a multiplayer mode that can be played with bots or up to four players across multiple different match types, and you have a total package of a game, and about as much fun as you could have with a first-person shooter in 2000. I wouldn't recommend playing this on a Nintendo 64 though. While I'm used to first-person shooter controls on the console, I also grew up with it. I know it's a tall order for most people, especially with those previously mentioned frame rate issues. I would instead point you to the remake Rare did for the Xbox 360 in 2010. That version fixes the frame rate issues and it's also compatible with the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X. If you don't have an Xbox console, some nice people did an unofficial PC port in 2023 that you can play instead. I will link the github at the end of the review for you to download it.

I feel like this game is incredibly slept on, given how much hype Goldeneye gets even now. This is better in every single way than Goldeneye and is the real best console FPS of the era.

Github for the unofficial PC port:
https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark

Dare I say it: best racing game ever? Though the Metacritic score doesn't reflect its quality, this is the most fun I have ever had with a racing game.

Variety is the word of the day Setting a racing game in Australia was an inspired choice. We got beach racing, desert tracks, city street racing, racing towns, racing in rainforests, racing in industrial parks, and if you get the DLC, racing in snow and in fantasy Hot Wheels tracks.

There's over 500 cars to choose from, and the difficulty, control, and feel are all just right and completely adjustable if you are struggling. The graphics are incredibly beautiful. The team apparently spent some time in Australia taking reference photos just to make sure the skyboxes were right. The effort did not go to waste.

The soundtrack is an eclectic blend of genres, and you can always use your own music. The aforementioned variety is on display with the kind of racing you can do, too. You got high speed racing, truck racing, dune buggies, you name it, this game probably has it. Depending on how you adjust the settings, you can play it like an arcade racer or make it as simulationist as you want.

Other Forza Horizon games have come and gone since this one, but for its variety in setting and race types, its perfect difficulty curve, and just how fun it is to control, I think this is the best racing video game ever made. Give it a shot!

This was an excellent an influential game. Its combat proved to eb very influential. Combine that with the environmental puzzle solving and metroidvania exploration, and you've got a game I would much rather return to than say Arkham City's open world.

Graphically, it holds up pretty well thanks to its slightly stylized art. It really nails the look and feel of a Batman comic circa 2009. Its atmosphere is also unparalleled in the series. It borders on a horror game at times, especially if the Scarecrow sequences haven't been spoiled for you. The only thing preventing it from being a perfect game in my opinion are the bosses. All of them are very basic, and the final boss is so obnoxious that it sort of hindered my enjoyment of the ending. Still, this is the best comic book game ever made, in my opinion, and well worth your time even now.

This was a journey. I think it's possibly my new favorite action game. The combat relies more on reflexes than memorizing combos. Playing it was invigorating, but I was also reminded that games like this were a dying breed.by 2005. Having a simple story of revenge was quickly becoming passe'. Contemporary to Ninja Gaiden Black were games like Devil May Cry 3 and Shadow of the Colossus, both of which released in 2005, as well Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3, which released a year prior to Black (The base game Ninja Gaiden released the same year as Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3). All of them were doing more interesting things with how stories could be told in games. Ninja Gaiden's story isn't bad, mind. It's just simple, with plenty of worldbuilding, llore, ambient music, and atmosphere to soak in if one is so inclined.

And the game gives you plenty of time to take in the sights. The map is sprawling, with lots of collectibles to find, secrets to uncover, and puzzles to solve. It reminds me of a Resident Evil game or a Zelda game from the Nintendo 64 era in terms of level design, while also having a foot firmly planted in the glories of the NES. You have a Ninja that travels to an evil empire by airship, fights, using primarily a sword, bad guys with guns, other ninjas, zombies, demons, and dinosaurs, with the help of a beautiful woman. It's all stuff you would have seen in the 8-bit days. The aesthetics, plot, and gameplay would fit right in with that era, especially given how hard the game is to finish.

i won't try to sugarcoat it, folks: this game is hard. To the point where it might seem unfair. It has mobs, enemies that respawn, and even classic NES knockback into lava pits. This version of the game does have an easy mode, and it makes fun of you for using it. So naturally, I played on Normal, learned the moveset, got better, and had the time of my life doing so. Every weapon in the game has a use (except for the nunchuks, which are basically a worse version of the flail). In addition, the game is very generous with healing items, so make sure to stock up if you get stuck, and don't be afraid to use your magic. This game does have a ranking system, but the rankings don't seem to do much. Which is a good thing, as that means all the bonuses, costumes, and extra missions can be unlocked and earned simply by playing the game at your own pace.

In summary, this is a perfect reboot of an old franchise. Fun story, immaculate level design, a combat system that will really put a player's reflexes to the test, an interesting world to explore, and lots of bonuses to unlock make this an amazing game that could potentially keep a player busy for months. Probably the best Xbox exclusive not published by Microsoft themselves. Don't miss it. But ignore the remake of this game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Sigma eliminates a lot of the puzzle elements that made this game so interesting to explore, in my opinion. Sigma is a fine game on its own, but it is not a substitute for Black. There is no other game like Ninja Gaiden Black. And given the nature of video games now, there never will be.

When your vehicles controls are not the best, maybe don't have a mandatory escape scene in them to end the game. Call it a skill issue if you want, but I was stuck here for about an hour trying to just get through the last part of the last level. Spent three hours on Two Betrayals as well getting one-shotted by enemies I didn't have time to see because I'm playing on original hardware. Good thing the rest of the game is solid from a gunplay perspective, or I would be really soured on it. Keep in mind I was playing on the equivalent of the Hard Mode, so that could be the source of my problems.

Also, why is this game held up for its storytelling? Compared to what was being done with other games at the time (Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X, Ico, Max Payne 1, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Silent Hill 2 all also came out in 2001), Halo's story is nothing special.

Graphically speaking and from a sound perspective, this did set a bar that has yet to really be beaten. And the gameplay and story improve exponentially, beginning with Halo 2. I'd say play it, but you likely already have. If you haven't, there's a good game to be had here. Just on the easier difficulties.

This game is everything I love about computer roleplaying games. Deep, meaningful choices, fun characters, good music, crunchy, tactical combat, solid multiplayer if you wish it, and a compelling narrative. While the storytelling is not as interesting, in my opinion, as its predecessor, Baldur's Gate II, or Planescape: Torment, what is? This easily stands as the premiere gold standard for video games going forward. Any bugs and blatantly unfair combat sections that this game might have, I can easily forgive. Because when this game fires on all cylinders, there is nothing else like it. God bless you, Larian Studios. May you build on this into your next game and beyond. I'll be waiting with eager and bated breath.

All I have to say is wow. This game was created in the 1980s by a Caribbean French black woman named Muriel Tramis. You play as a slave on a Caribbean plantation in the 1700s. It is your job to rally your fellow slaves and stage a successful slave rebellion and escape to freedom. It combines strategy, combat from Sid Meier's Pirates, and a hint of RPG. It is also brutal in difficulty, and it does not shy away from the horrific realities that were faced by slaves. Given how this game deftly handles its subject matter with respect to history, I can't but feel like we might have regressed a bit in terms of narrative. in video games. Try it, play it in a DOS or Amiga emulator that has the option for save states, and experience one of the single greatest artistic expressions in gaming.