madeinheathen
Going into Marvel’s Spider-man 2 I already knew this was going to be another excellent entry into this series (besides the dlc of the first game…) and that is precisely what I got.
Every aspect from the previous games has been built and improved upon in my opinion although the story is up for debate - I feel 2018 and Miles Morales handled character development so much better than 2, sometimes in 2 it seems characters are focused on 1 thing for seemingly no proper reason for large chunks of the story - at least that’s what I gather, it isn’t a problem, but it’s just strange. Cinematically 2 is phenomenal, though the other games already were, so i’m not surprised in the slightest, though 2 makes great use of the PS5s controller, the new QTE inputs are SO satisfying, especially that final L2 and R2!
Gameplay is the biggest step up in my opinion, the first 2 games felt flawed in the combat area in my opinion, it got stale at times with annoying brute style enemies taking forever to defeat - especially in Miles Morales… Brutes still do exist in 2 but they are not bad at all, rather I found them fun to defeat - especially the ones with health bars, wiping them out with symbiote powers was great! Speaking of which, Peter’s new symbiote powers slap so hard and are extremely fun to use, especially in the full force mode, you feel unstoppable and that’s exactly how Peter feels when consumed y by the symbiote. I found myself playing as Peter the most simply because how much of a powerhouse he is, though Miles certainly does have his merits but his powers seemed hardly as effective to Peter in my opinion. There is a certain segment in the game where you play as a new character and it’s perhaps some of the most exhilarating enjoyment I’ve had whilst playing the game, gosh, having them in dlc would not make sense story wise but an extra mode with them in would be killer, litterally. Mary Jane missions are still present in the game, I didn’t mind them in the first game really, the death system was so bad though, as soon as you were spotted boom game over, thankfully that is not the case here in 2, MJ has new weapons and movement at her disposal and it makes these missions from a sometimes slog into a watered down The Last Of Us Part 2 which is still a good thing in my opinion, control isn’t all that but everything else is great.
Visuals and performance here are outstanding, it is crazy how the game runs flawlessly 99% of the time without the need for any load times, I’m surprised my PS5 didn’t make a sound quite honestly, especially in that last 2 hours. I suppose this is related - the game does have a few bugs, but 95% of the time you have to actively go out of your way to find these and even if so - they don’t present a problem. Some soft locks are present but thankfully the pause screen always works and you can return to the last checkpoint, which I found was never too far away.
I didn’t really want to cover anything else here as I don’t feel qualified enough to do so (side content - I didn’t do an awful lot, game systems - basic but great, music - its obviously great). It’s going to be hard to go back to 2018 and MM on replays (that’s a good thing and a bad thing) - I’m so excited for what is to come with this set of games, the post credits were phenomenal…
Every aspect from the previous games has been built and improved upon in my opinion although the story is up for debate - I feel 2018 and Miles Morales handled character development so much better than 2, sometimes in 2 it seems characters are focused on 1 thing for seemingly no proper reason for large chunks of the story - at least that’s what I gather, it isn’t a problem, but it’s just strange. Cinematically 2 is phenomenal, though the other games already were, so i’m not surprised in the slightest, though 2 makes great use of the PS5s controller, the new QTE inputs are SO satisfying, especially that final L2 and R2!
Gameplay is the biggest step up in my opinion, the first 2 games felt flawed in the combat area in my opinion, it got stale at times with annoying brute style enemies taking forever to defeat - especially in Miles Morales… Brutes still do exist in 2 but they are not bad at all, rather I found them fun to defeat - especially the ones with health bars, wiping them out with symbiote powers was great! Speaking of which, Peter’s new symbiote powers slap so hard and are extremely fun to use, especially in the full force mode, you feel unstoppable and that’s exactly how Peter feels when consumed y by the symbiote. I found myself playing as Peter the most simply because how much of a powerhouse he is, though Miles certainly does have his merits but his powers seemed hardly as effective to Peter in my opinion. There is a certain segment in the game where you play as a new character and it’s perhaps some of the most exhilarating enjoyment I’ve had whilst playing the game, gosh, having them in dlc would not make sense story wise but an extra mode with them in would be killer, litterally. Mary Jane missions are still present in the game, I didn’t mind them in the first game really, the death system was so bad though, as soon as you were spotted boom game over, thankfully that is not the case here in 2, MJ has new weapons and movement at her disposal and it makes these missions from a sometimes slog into a watered down The Last Of Us Part 2 which is still a good thing in my opinion, control isn’t all that but everything else is great.
Visuals and performance here are outstanding, it is crazy how the game runs flawlessly 99% of the time without the need for any load times, I’m surprised my PS5 didn’t make a sound quite honestly, especially in that last 2 hours. I suppose this is related - the game does have a few bugs, but 95% of the time you have to actively go out of your way to find these and even if so - they don’t present a problem. Some soft locks are present but thankfully the pause screen always works and you can return to the last checkpoint, which I found was never too far away.
I didn’t really want to cover anything else here as I don’t feel qualified enough to do so (side content - I didn’t do an awful lot, game systems - basic but great, music - its obviously great). It’s going to be hard to go back to 2018 and MM on replays (that’s a good thing and a bad thing) - I’m so excited for what is to come with this set of games, the post credits were phenomenal…
This is literally just a joke videogame how does this exist
Infinite Wealth (RGG8), the follow-up to one of my favourite games (Yakuza: Like A Dragon), is huge. That’s the best way to describe this game in basic terms and hence it will be extremely difficult to make a coherent review after first playthrough. Anyways I shall run through what I loved, liked and disliked in a bullet point format… (+ = positive, • = neutral, - = dislike)
+ Gameplay is exceptional, a giant step up from the already great gameplay of it’s predecessor. The strategy involved in the turn based combat is really fun and really rewarding! All the party members are great to play as, especially Kiryu, the way he breaks the turn based format is really good and very in character for himself and the series. You’ll also find yourself using items and poundmates a lot, really cool systems and way better than 7s versions.
+ The Dondoko Island minigame is actually fantastic, I heavily prefer it to business management from 7 and I LOVED that too, I did it in a few chunks completely seperate from doing story stuff. I loved it. Yeah.
+ The direction is excellent (performances, cutscenes, all that jazz), certainly the best in the series tied with the highs you find in Judgement (2018).
+ The maps you play on are really good, especially Hawaii as it is the main focus after all. The addition of Segways makes traversing these huge maps really nice! Kiryu’s Bucket List side story makes exploring the maps really fun too and it was quite emotional at times too.
+ I didn’t play all the minigames but the ones I did were really cool, especially Crazy Delivery and Miss Match!
+ The world always feels alive, even in the barren (at times) Yokohama, the new systems to engage the player with the world are very well rounded and never feel forced!
+ I loved the dual narrative split halfway through the game, but the pacing was really off in those sections which was quite annoying, regardless there is more than enough content to play with on both sides of the story.
• The narrative is great for the most part but it’s certainly hindered by the recent Gaiden game being written during or after Infinite Wealth’s narrative. Some plot holes can be found and at times it’s like Gaiden never existed, which is very disappointing for myself as I feel Gaiden has one of the strongest narratives in the series and was really looking forward to it’s meaning in Infinite Wealth, but oh well the overall narrative was amazing, that is why this is a neutral point.
- The game constantly set up ‘cameos’ on Kiryu’s side of the story but never seemed to commit to them even when it made NO SENSE not to in the narrative. This was really disappointing to me.
Overall, fantastic game and HOLY SHIT that final scene!! I feel I’ve only scratched the surface here too. What a game.
+ Gameplay is exceptional, a giant step up from the already great gameplay of it’s predecessor. The strategy involved in the turn based combat is really fun and really rewarding! All the party members are great to play as, especially Kiryu, the way he breaks the turn based format is really good and very in character for himself and the series. You’ll also find yourself using items and poundmates a lot, really cool systems and way better than 7s versions.
+ The Dondoko Island minigame is actually fantastic, I heavily prefer it to business management from 7 and I LOVED that too, I did it in a few chunks completely seperate from doing story stuff. I loved it. Yeah.
+ The direction is excellent (performances, cutscenes, all that jazz), certainly the best in the series tied with the highs you find in Judgement (2018).
+ The maps you play on are really good, especially Hawaii as it is the main focus after all. The addition of Segways makes traversing these huge maps really nice! Kiryu’s Bucket List side story makes exploring the maps really fun too and it was quite emotional at times too.
+ I didn’t play all the minigames but the ones I did were really cool, especially Crazy Delivery and Miss Match!
+ The world always feels alive, even in the barren (at times) Yokohama, the new systems to engage the player with the world are very well rounded and never feel forced!
+ I loved the dual narrative split halfway through the game, but the pacing was really off in those sections which was quite annoying, regardless there is more than enough content to play with on both sides of the story.
• The narrative is great for the most part but it’s certainly hindered by the recent Gaiden game being written during or after Infinite Wealth’s narrative. Some plot holes can be found and at times it’s like Gaiden never existed, which is very disappointing for myself as I feel Gaiden has one of the strongest narratives in the series and was really looking forward to it’s meaning in Infinite Wealth, but oh well the overall narrative was amazing, that is why this is a neutral point.
- The game constantly set up ‘cameos’ on Kiryu’s side of the story but never seemed to commit to them even when it made NO SENSE not to in the narrative. This was really disappointing to me.
Overall, fantastic game and HOLY SHIT that final scene!! I feel I’ve only scratched the surface here too. What a game.
I absolutely love games like this where you can just switch your brain off and have some mindless fun which also happen to be accompanied by a fun story! I loved the 5ish hours I spent with this and will definitely be checking the rest of the series out at some point! It’s not perfect it has its fair share of bugs and glitches which can be annoying but mindless fun so hey I don’t care.
congrats nintendo on creating an open world game.
2009
RESIDENT EVIL 5 is overall a strong and enjoyable multiplayer experience held down by occasional flaws, with a consistent flaw being how long some enemies take to kill its honestly crazy.
Some of the occasional flaws come in the form of bad puzzle design (specifically the lasers…), quick time events being scattered randomly throughout the game with no prior warning, bosses can be really confusing and have no obvious way to defeat them (especially the final boss, the correct method is not clear at all).
I definitely feel this game can wildly vary depending on who you’re playing with and if you are playing with AI or not so it makes sense why I’ve always heard a big difference in opinions with this game. But I’m glad I played it, was very enjoyable multiplayer and also made for a good first mainline Resident Evil game! I hope this gets a remake at some point in the style of how It Takes Two or Wolfenstein Youngblood work where you only need 1 player to purchase the game in order to play, it would probably be a hit.
Elijah’s review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/liquidddingle/review/1513245/
Some of the occasional flaws come in the form of bad puzzle design (specifically the lasers…), quick time events being scattered randomly throughout the game with no prior warning, bosses can be really confusing and have no obvious way to defeat them (especially the final boss, the correct method is not clear at all).
I definitely feel this game can wildly vary depending on who you’re playing with and if you are playing with AI or not so it makes sense why I’ve always heard a big difference in opinions with this game. But I’m glad I played it, was very enjoyable multiplayer and also made for a good first mainline Resident Evil game! I hope this gets a remake at some point in the style of how It Takes Two or Wolfenstein Youngblood work where you only need 1 player to purchase the game in order to play, it would probably be a hit.
Elijah’s review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/liquidddingle/review/1513245/
1996
Was fun. Played it within Lost Judgement.
The Kaito Files is a story expansion to the fabulous Lost Judgement game. This story expansion was not needed in the slightest but the fact that it is a thing is amazing! Following the story of Masaharu Kaito, ex-yakuza turned detective & sidekick of Takayuki Yagami, he finds himself alone in Kamurucho whilst Yagami runs errands elsewhere and gets wrapped up in a huge case regarding his ex partner, morals and abuse. Saying any more story would be saying ‘too’ much… But believe me, it’s amazing and absolutely essential you have played both Judgement games prior.
The gameplay here is outstanding, playing as Kaito he has 2 fighting styles which act in a similar way to Yagami’s Tiger and Crane styles, they are built to tackle different hoards of enemies and are both extremely fun to use, especially when the skill trees have been upgraded. When you reach max completion on all the skills it becomes a whole other game, I must say this definitely has my favourite action combat in any game ever, the next Judgement game (if there is one) will top it even further if it includes Yagami’s 4 styles and Kaito’s 2 styles.
Side content wise, there is no side cases, but it makes sense, this is a story expansion focused on a singular large case, though there are other forms of side content. Namely in Kaito’s forms of discovery with his Primal senses, these are Sight, Smell and Hearing and have challenges scattered round Kamurucho to interact with and hence building skills and bonds further. I really enjoyed going for the 100% here.
The final act of The Kaito Files is phenomenal, the last dungeon and fight was really an execution of how well everything culminated across this short-ish adventure with a runtime of just 5 hours for the average player just going for the story. The final few cutscenes in Ijincho really gave me goosebumps, it was extremely intense… OH and that secret fight for completing the skill tree is perhaps the best fight i’ve done in any game!
This was a relatively short review but believe me I could go on much much further, I thoroughly enjoyed this and in my opinion it’s flawless, peak Ryu Go Gotaku right here. I hope Judgement goes on to the level of the main Yakuza series.
The gameplay here is outstanding, playing as Kaito he has 2 fighting styles which act in a similar way to Yagami’s Tiger and Crane styles, they are built to tackle different hoards of enemies and are both extremely fun to use, especially when the skill trees have been upgraded. When you reach max completion on all the skills it becomes a whole other game, I must say this definitely has my favourite action combat in any game ever, the next Judgement game (if there is one) will top it even further if it includes Yagami’s 4 styles and Kaito’s 2 styles.
Side content wise, there is no side cases, but it makes sense, this is a story expansion focused on a singular large case, though there are other forms of side content. Namely in Kaito’s forms of discovery with his Primal senses, these are Sight, Smell and Hearing and have challenges scattered round Kamurucho to interact with and hence building skills and bonds further. I really enjoyed going for the 100% here.
The final act of The Kaito Files is phenomenal, the last dungeon and fight was really an execution of how well everything culminated across this short-ish adventure with a runtime of just 5 hours for the average player just going for the story. The final few cutscenes in Ijincho really gave me goosebumps, it was extremely intense… OH and that secret fight for completing the skill tree is perhaps the best fight i’ve done in any game!
This was a relatively short review but believe me I could go on much much further, I thoroughly enjoyed this and in my opinion it’s flawless, peak Ryu Go Gotaku right here. I hope Judgement goes on to the level of the main Yakuza series.
The structure to this game is really weird, why is it split into 4 difficulties you have to beat individually, with the world themes being the same? Eh anyways, I did enjoy the challenge mode to this and will probably check out the other modes! It would definitely be nice to see this get a port as being locked to the PSVita is something I wish on no game at all. I imagine playing this with motion controls makes this a 1/5 game but I played with joysticks and it was enjoyable! Definitely not perfect, especially the Advanced levels but a well worth game for any Monkey Ball fan to try, if they can that is.
This review contains spoilers
An amazing story expansion for XC3 bringing every single Xeno game to an ‘endgame’ style game. That post credits with what i presume is Kosmos or a Xenoblade X ship is INSANE!!
Fundamentally the ideas of Sonic Frontiers and it’s free expansion ‘The Final Horizon’ are what make the game excel, but those are just ideas and are hardly ever executed well within the game.
This stands very true in this expansion, design choices in this are actually baffling at points and none of the platforming segments are fun, they’re just painstakingly annoying and poorly designed, maybe for another platformer they could be good, but definitely not for Sonic.
The format of the game consists of playing as (mainly) Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Tails and retrieving Chaos Emeralds (for like the 6th time in the game?) in order for Sonic to take down the true final boss ‘The End’ (very original name). Trials also need to be completed for some reason and they consist around platforming up a tall tower and battling an enemy at the end. None of this is fun which is unfortunate as I actually feel all the characters in the game besides Amy play really well and I enjoyed my brief time with them. I didn’t do any of the new cyberspace levels as frankly I don’t care and the game doesn’t even HINT at you that they exist which is strange?
The final segment of the expansion is what truly baffles me, who thought it was remotely ok to do a boss rush of bosses from the main game with level restrictions and no extra rings which quickly drain? Final boss was not good either, though the music slaps all around in the expansion though none of it is memorable which is a big issue compared to the likes of Open Your Heart, Live And Learn, Sonic Heroes, His World etc etc, hell even Sonic Forces had memorable songs.
Only positives I can really give this are the characters being fun though nothing compliments that.
(wow that was a bad expansion.)
This stands very true in this expansion, design choices in this are actually baffling at points and none of the platforming segments are fun, they’re just painstakingly annoying and poorly designed, maybe for another platformer they could be good, but definitely not for Sonic.
The format of the game consists of playing as (mainly) Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Tails and retrieving Chaos Emeralds (for like the 6th time in the game?) in order for Sonic to take down the true final boss ‘The End’ (very original name). Trials also need to be completed for some reason and they consist around platforming up a tall tower and battling an enemy at the end. None of this is fun which is unfortunate as I actually feel all the characters in the game besides Amy play really well and I enjoyed my brief time with them. I didn’t do any of the new cyberspace levels as frankly I don’t care and the game doesn’t even HINT at you that they exist which is strange?
The final segment of the expansion is what truly baffles me, who thought it was remotely ok to do a boss rush of bosses from the main game with level restrictions and no extra rings which quickly drain? Final boss was not good either, though the music slaps all around in the expansion though none of it is memorable which is a big issue compared to the likes of Open Your Heart, Live And Learn, Sonic Heroes, His World etc etc, hell even Sonic Forces had memorable songs.
Only positives I can really give this are the characters being fun though nothing compliments that.
(wow that was a bad expansion.)
Can’t rate this, it’s not fair. Absolutely stunning ‘game’, it baffles me how this idea even came about let alone into fruition.
2023
A step in the right direction’ is what Sonic seems to have been having for the past decade is what it seems, and that stands true with Sonic Superstars (🙄) but I would rather say this is ‘a flawed step in the right direction’ I suppose?
Sonic Superstars is acting as an entry to the classic Sonic series and that’s okay because that is what it is, just modernised. It is the run of the mill formula, couple acts per zone and a boss or two, that’s good, but it really isn’t much to speak on as we already know that works.
The game starts off strong with Bridge Island Zone, a fresh take on the first level in a similar style to Green Hill, Emerald Hill, Angel Isle, you name it, the act themes slap but that isn’t true with most other zones unfortunately… Those weak zone themes happen to be the artists that aren’t Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania ost) and that is really disappointing, why switch artists for the areas? All the other zones besides Cyber Station Zone are very unoriginal, but they are mostly fun. I was impressed by the final zone and what it did in Act 2, a really nice and unique idea.
Gameplay is the strongest aspect of Superstars, the chaos emerald powers are very fun though some feel pointless and very situational, the best ones were easily Red Burst, Yellow Time and Blue Clones, they’re essentially wisps really. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows here though, level design often doesn’t compliment the gameplay and would more-so feel at home in Mario, gosh Sega has really gone backwards here making Superstars almost like Sonic 1 in the regard that speed is a rarity. All in all, great gameplay just levels don’t match it sometimes.
Bosses are either copied from other games or just bafflingly terrible, I think that speaks for itself, the final boss was terrible, a Death Egg robot with many phases of which moves that could instantly kill you even with rings, how it made it to the final game is wild, it almost made me cut my playthrough short.
Story is nothing really, the cutscenes are nice even when acted out in game, yet it is nowhere near as charming as Mania.
Visuals are uninspired, it looks fine, but nothing here really says ‘sonic’. The animated cutscenes scream ‘sonic’ though, trying to translate that to a 3D environment is what the team here needs to do if they make another game amongst a bunch of other stuff.
Don’t really think there is anything else I want to address really… All in all, it’s an okay game, would wait for a sale though ha.
Sonic Superstars is acting as an entry to the classic Sonic series and that’s okay because that is what it is, just modernised. It is the run of the mill formula, couple acts per zone and a boss or two, that’s good, but it really isn’t much to speak on as we already know that works.
The game starts off strong with Bridge Island Zone, a fresh take on the first level in a similar style to Green Hill, Emerald Hill, Angel Isle, you name it, the act themes slap but that isn’t true with most other zones unfortunately… Those weak zone themes happen to be the artists that aren’t Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania ost) and that is really disappointing, why switch artists for the areas? All the other zones besides Cyber Station Zone are very unoriginal, but they are mostly fun. I was impressed by the final zone and what it did in Act 2, a really nice and unique idea.
Gameplay is the strongest aspect of Superstars, the chaos emerald powers are very fun though some feel pointless and very situational, the best ones were easily Red Burst, Yellow Time and Blue Clones, they’re essentially wisps really. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows here though, level design often doesn’t compliment the gameplay and would more-so feel at home in Mario, gosh Sega has really gone backwards here making Superstars almost like Sonic 1 in the regard that speed is a rarity. All in all, great gameplay just levels don’t match it sometimes.
Bosses are either copied from other games or just bafflingly terrible, I think that speaks for itself, the final boss was terrible, a Death Egg robot with many phases of which moves that could instantly kill you even with rings, how it made it to the final game is wild, it almost made me cut my playthrough short.
Story is nothing really, the cutscenes are nice even when acted out in game, yet it is nowhere near as charming as Mania.
Visuals are uninspired, it looks fine, but nothing here really says ‘sonic’. The animated cutscenes scream ‘sonic’ though, trying to translate that to a 3D environment is what the team here needs to do if they make another game amongst a bunch of other stuff.
Don’t really think there is anything else I want to address really… All in all, it’s an okay game, would wait for a sale though ha.
I don’t feel I can write a full enough review here, but Marvel’s Spider-man is excellent in nearly every aspect. Such a fun, powerful and well rounded game, I think i’ll start a replay of Miles Morales now while I wait for 2.
2011
This is genuinely an insult to the Super Monkey Ball series it’s insane. Such souless and easy level design with no substance whatsoever. This isn’t even a good portable game it’s just flat out bad. Uh, i can say the level themes are cool though.