Not totally sold on this "GOTY" nominee, but not disappointed with it. It's sad that with a few tweaks, this probably could be the next generation's Portal or some other adventure game, but the pacing and jokes are horrendously bad, appealing to the lowest common denominator humor even for modern AAA standards.
Now, one thing you won't hear me complaining about is the gameplay. This game is super fun. Rail switching, heading over environments, each character taking turns using a weapon to help the other person with their weapon, it's flawless core game design that elevates the genre to new heights.
Sadly, it sucks that most of the activities are locked to character, AKA, May will only get one type of gun, and Cody will only get the other type of gun, also activities, etc. This can suck because most activities shouldn't really be locked by character, and maybe it would be more fun to have each person decide which weapon/activity they'd be better at, giving players more choice and less forcefulness. This often led to bickering between my friend who played this game with me, as it feels like there are hours where the game just favors May over Cody doing cool shit. This could be supplemented with more player choice, all I'm saying.
Next, the level designs are...okay? But if you ask me, some start to stretch on for way too long, considering the last 4 of the 7 levels are your characters searching for McGuffin puzzle pieces and not doing anything to really help Rose, your daughter who this game is centered around. This idea for the narrative is just, stupid. It really builds more hatred towards Dr Hakeem, now making him out to be more of a villain than the already annoying Cody and May.
And that's where this game really falls off to me, is just narrative choice and themes. Whereas this game had a good starting plot, Dr. Hakeem going to punish Cody and May for basically being parents who fight a lot, within 3 hours, you already feel like Cody and May have resolved their issues, and now you're just watching torture p**n for the rest of the game of Cody and May going through mementos of their relationship, forced by Dr. Hakeem for more player tears.
I'm sure this game works better for a relationship, but I often feel similarly the way I feel about GOW 2018. In the same way reviewers walked away giving it 10's for "giving good parenting advice", I find it rings just as hollow as anyone who plays this game for "relationship advice". It's a hollow narrative that doesn't really reflect a relationship, it's more meant to be a forced narrative in which you don't watch characters grow as much as you do watch them to forcibly commit mistakes due to the writers of the game.
Along with this, humor's terrible. Fart jokes, fat jokes even though Cody's not fat, just, stop.
Not a bad game, but it's sad that we've already forgotten it seems about co-op experiences that do this as well, if not better, years ago. I would much rather play Portal 2.
Now, one thing you won't hear me complaining about is the gameplay. This game is super fun. Rail switching, heading over environments, each character taking turns using a weapon to help the other person with their weapon, it's flawless core game design that elevates the genre to new heights.
Sadly, it sucks that most of the activities are locked to character, AKA, May will only get one type of gun, and Cody will only get the other type of gun, also activities, etc. This can suck because most activities shouldn't really be locked by character, and maybe it would be more fun to have each person decide which weapon/activity they'd be better at, giving players more choice and less forcefulness. This often led to bickering between my friend who played this game with me, as it feels like there are hours where the game just favors May over Cody doing cool shit. This could be supplemented with more player choice, all I'm saying.
Next, the level designs are...okay? But if you ask me, some start to stretch on for way too long, considering the last 4 of the 7 levels are your characters searching for McGuffin puzzle pieces and not doing anything to really help Rose, your daughter who this game is centered around. This idea for the narrative is just, stupid. It really builds more hatred towards Dr Hakeem, now making him out to be more of a villain than the already annoying Cody and May.
And that's where this game really falls off to me, is just narrative choice and themes. Whereas this game had a good starting plot, Dr. Hakeem going to punish Cody and May for basically being parents who fight a lot, within 3 hours, you already feel like Cody and May have resolved their issues, and now you're just watching torture p**n for the rest of the game of Cody and May going through mementos of their relationship, forced by Dr. Hakeem for more player tears.
I'm sure this game works better for a relationship, but I often feel similarly the way I feel about GOW 2018. In the same way reviewers walked away giving it 10's for "giving good parenting advice", I find it rings just as hollow as anyone who plays this game for "relationship advice". It's a hollow narrative that doesn't really reflect a relationship, it's more meant to be a forced narrative in which you don't watch characters grow as much as you do watch them to forcibly commit mistakes due to the writers of the game.
Along with this, humor's terrible. Fart jokes, fat jokes even though Cody's not fat, just, stop.
Not a bad game, but it's sad that we've already forgotten it seems about co-op experiences that do this as well, if not better, years ago. I would much rather play Portal 2.