schlittyloggd
2021
I liked a lot of what Returnal offered. And I loved my final run. But it was more often than not an off putting experience for me. A lot of that is on me and my motivations and skill early on. But I feel some of it had to do with the way they approached the roguelike/lite/whatever details.
Your first run is out and out a tutorial. But the entire first world and your runs leading up to beating the first boss that follow feel very staged. This is because you have no freedom to do anything yet. Which is well and good, every game needs its learning curve and early goings. But those early futile runs ended up two thirds of my play time. And well, they weren't fun.
Again, a lot of that came down to my efforts but it took me 20+ runs and ~7 or so tries at the first boss. Then things started snowballing. FAST. I dunno if my early failures "grinded" my RNG luck up, or if I just got the roll of rolls. But three runs later; I beat the game. It took me three tries to beat boss 2, and when I did; I beat everything else on that run.
When you get to the later areas and unlock more cool items and weapons the game gets spectacularly fun. But I hardly got to experience it. The first area where I couldn't do anything yet and the sparse second zone I spent 12 hours in. Those first two bosses were daunting challenges. The cool areas and more unique bosses that followed I only got to blink at.
But my weird, and hopefully unique, experience aside there was some other stuff I really liked about Returnal. I'm a controller nerd and the Dualsense details used here got my juices flowing. The two stage L2 was chef kiss. The 3D sound design was exceptional. And the graphics didn't blow my mind but the art direction was pretty darn neat. I just wish I got to enjoy it as a game more.
Ultimately it was a wise choice for Sony to have this one of the PS5 exclusives made available on PS+ Premium. Can't say I'd revisit it ever again, or peak at it on PC. But it is definitely worth a playthrough. If anything for the Dualsense fun.
Your first run is out and out a tutorial. But the entire first world and your runs leading up to beating the first boss that follow feel very staged. This is because you have no freedom to do anything yet. Which is well and good, every game needs its learning curve and early goings. But those early futile runs ended up two thirds of my play time. And well, they weren't fun.
Again, a lot of that came down to my efforts but it took me 20+ runs and ~7 or so tries at the first boss. Then things started snowballing. FAST. I dunno if my early failures "grinded" my RNG luck up, or if I just got the roll of rolls. But three runs later; I beat the game. It took me three tries to beat boss 2, and when I did; I beat everything else on that run.
When you get to the later areas and unlock more cool items and weapons the game gets spectacularly fun. But I hardly got to experience it. The first area where I couldn't do anything yet and the sparse second zone I spent 12 hours in. Those first two bosses were daunting challenges. The cool areas and more unique bosses that followed I only got to blink at.
But my weird, and hopefully unique, experience aside there was some other stuff I really liked about Returnal. I'm a controller nerd and the Dualsense details used here got my juices flowing. The two stage L2 was chef kiss. The 3D sound design was exceptional. And the graphics didn't blow my mind but the art direction was pretty darn neat. I just wish I got to enjoy it as a game more.
Ultimately it was a wise choice for Sony to have this one of the PS5 exclusives made available on PS+ Premium. Can't say I'd revisit it ever again, or peak at it on PC. But it is definitely worth a playthrough. If anything for the Dualsense fun.
Captain Toad is a truly great game that is polished thoroughly. The seemingly simple self contained levels get surprisingly deep the deeper you get. And the sheer amount of levels is impressive, and very much appreciated! This is a perfect pick up and play handheld game. You can play one level in the time it takes your leftovers to finish warming up or you can play it for hours in bed when you should be sleeping.
The levels are a great combination of puzzles and action. You aren't gonna get stumped or scratch your head too hard by any means but the level design is very clever. Some of the action actually ends up harder than the puzzles honestly, but it's all balanced well. Everything is tightly designed and makes sense. There's tons of extra "completionist" stuff to do and collect too. It really is a robust and full game that is peak Nintendo.
Toad's the best. Wholehearted recommendation.
The levels are a great combination of puzzles and action. You aren't gonna get stumped or scratch your head too hard by any means but the level design is very clever. Some of the action actually ends up harder than the puzzles honestly, but it's all balanced well. Everything is tightly designed and makes sense. There's tons of extra "completionist" stuff to do and collect too. It really is a robust and full game that is peak Nintendo.
Toad's the best. Wholehearted recommendation.