sleepytitan
2022
$4.99 is a steal for this short yet slick, PS1-influenced animal 3D Platformer with some challenge and a decent amount of replayability. Level 4 killed me more than I’m willing to admit.
2014
Pain
I honestly think this game does many things way better than the first game such as the levels and environmental design, no qtes or highly egregious gimmick levels, way more enemy variety, no forced ‘no item’ clause on normal difficulty, way better art direction than the other two entries, improved combat challenges, new weapons, and various other quality of life updates that smooth out the overall experience compared to Bayo 1. The prologue kicks ass and is my favorite out of the series and I love Bayonetta's and Jeanne's designs here. Unfortunately, the combat has been tweaked in the most baffling ways possible that, while being way more approachable to pick up and play, ruined the smart design of the series.
Yeah yeah Umbran Climax is broken and destroys the already easy difficulty, but what killed me the most were the knock on effects brought on by this new mechanic and how everything is balanced around it. Bayonetta is devastatingly weak and has less combos than before while the enemies have ballooned in health quantity, which encourages using climax to finish up enemies quickly rather than being stylish and doing sick combos, also not helping with enemies being able to block and evade to stop the flow of combat. Witch Time is even more necessary, but it's a complete joke here compared to Bayo 1 and 3. Telegraphing felt slightly off with even more stuff happening on the screen at once, especially during the boss fights in air, that usually ended up with me getting hit randomly or witch time not triggering or triggering for only a second. The new enemies are so aesthetically cool, but are an absolute chore to fight against on harder difficulties with higher pools of health and stronger attacks. It's so disappointing coming off of Bayo 1's strong and rewarding execution of combat and difficulty.
Bayo 2 still felt like a good overall package with necessary additions, but those felt heavily outweighed at times because of the terrible combat tweaks. It seems so easy to one up the predecessor by just having those new parts added in while keeping the combat as strong as before, but Platinum still managed to fuck it up. Still superior to Bayonetta 3 though, even if I won't be returning much to this one again.
I honestly think this game does many things way better than the first game such as the levels and environmental design, no qtes or highly egregious gimmick levels, way more enemy variety, no forced ‘no item’ clause on normal difficulty, way better art direction than the other two entries, improved combat challenges, new weapons, and various other quality of life updates that smooth out the overall experience compared to Bayo 1. The prologue kicks ass and is my favorite out of the series and I love Bayonetta's and Jeanne's designs here. Unfortunately, the combat has been tweaked in the most baffling ways possible that, while being way more approachable to pick up and play, ruined the smart design of the series.
Yeah yeah Umbran Climax is broken and destroys the already easy difficulty, but what killed me the most were the knock on effects brought on by this new mechanic and how everything is balanced around it. Bayonetta is devastatingly weak and has less combos than before while the enemies have ballooned in health quantity, which encourages using climax to finish up enemies quickly rather than being stylish and doing sick combos, also not helping with enemies being able to block and evade to stop the flow of combat. Witch Time is even more necessary, but it's a complete joke here compared to Bayo 1 and 3. Telegraphing felt slightly off with even more stuff happening on the screen at once, especially during the boss fights in air, that usually ended up with me getting hit randomly or witch time not triggering or triggering for only a second. The new enemies are so aesthetically cool, but are an absolute chore to fight against on harder difficulties with higher pools of health and stronger attacks. It's so disappointing coming off of Bayo 1's strong and rewarding execution of combat and difficulty.
Bayo 2 still felt like a good overall package with necessary additions, but those felt heavily outweighed at times because of the terrible combat tweaks. It seems so easy to one up the predecessor by just having those new parts added in while keeping the combat as strong as before, but Platinum still managed to fuck it up. Still superior to Bayonetta 3 though, even if I won't be returning much to this one again.
2009
Platinum peaked with this game and it’s been downhill ever since.
————————————————————
Okay quick proper review below since I went through both this and Bayo 2 again now:
Bayonetta 1 was my first taste of the character action/spectacle fighter/hack-and-slash/stylish action game genre many years ago when I picked up a switch and at the time I finished it for the first time, along with the second game, I fell in love with the series. So much that I ended up playing the second one more than this one for... obvious reasons. Bayo's design appealed to me more in 2 than 1 but also I liked 2 at the time more for various reasons like better levels and more weapon options, though today I can say the first game makes a better long term impression overall, especially with the combat.
The combat in Bayonetta 1 to me stands as the best in the series as it is not weighed down by unnecessary gimmicks/mechanics added in the later two games. Just focusing on pulling off quick and stylishly sick combos with dodge offsets, wicked weaves, and witch-timing to make the score go brrrr. This exercise can be very thrilling in most of the regular enemy encounters as they provide a good amount of challenge without going too far, sometimes. Telegraphing is pretty smooth with light flashes and sounds indicating when an attack is about to connect, though the camera can still be a pain in keeping an eye out on everyone. This wasn't an issue with the boss fights except Jeanne's sometimes, but I also think the boss fights aren't too thrilling outside of Jeanne's and I didn't feel that kinetic energy of the combat when taking them on. They're incredible as set pieces and spectacle, but I never really connected to them, which is mostly something I feel towards the series in general and not just Bayo 1.
Even with that said, the first attempt at the combat here is excellent and opens up to so much variety with weapons throughout further replays and playing the game on harder difficulties if you like pain. Normal kicked my ass originally and still does on some stages but it becomes very manageable after finishing the game for the first time and accessing more gear and having all the health and magic upgrades. While I don't think it succeeds the heights of its obvious genre influence of DMC, the combat in Bayonetta is so damn fun and enticing that I kinda prefer it more than the other at times. If the game was mostly only the combat and the characters, it would be a perfect game, and yet there is quite a lot of things attached to it that slightly bring the game down to me.
So this game can be brutal. Enemies launch attacks right at the end of cutscenes, numerous instant death qtes plague the beginning of the game, enemies are hyper aggressive and hit hard while still coming to grips with the controls, the drab environment itself is fucking deadly to you, two levels in particular are notorious for awful gimmick sections that do not belong at all here, you get points off in normal difficulty if you use any sort of items even with the game being stingy with healing, and Bayonetta 1 in general is very rough around the edges with its platforming and design in general, except for the combat. Even when used to all of this, it can still be pretty aggravating when the game randomly throws these curveballs that fuck up my score or health, and having to restart all the way from the beginning every single time. It's not the worst but considering how much this game apparently was taking influence from DMC4 during its development, the lack of polish in some areas of Bayonetta come off a little bizarre.
Even with these gripes, I still can't knock this game too hard as it introduced me to a genre I know and love today. I love the Bayonetta series and still really enjoy the first entry and some of the later two to certain degrees. Looking back retrospectively, it is a bit sad that the first game still remains the best in the series as the later games add many elements that fundamentally improve and smooth out the experience, and even make it more exciting and fun to play without being interrupted with some of the shit Bayo 1 pulls. Yet, Bayo 1 to me still feels like the only game where the combat mechanics, enemy design, and (sometimes fair) difficulty coalescence so neatly together even when other areas fall apart a bit. Bayo 1 is no DMC 3 or 5 and I'm still hoping the series finally gets a game of that quality, especially after the catastrophe that is Bayo 3, but even if it doesn't I can say the series stands tall with a wonderful entry in the action game genre.
————————————————————
Okay quick proper review below since I went through both this and Bayo 2 again now:
Bayonetta 1 was my first taste of the character action/spectacle fighter/hack-and-slash/stylish action game genre many years ago when I picked up a switch and at the time I finished it for the first time, along with the second game, I fell in love with the series. So much that I ended up playing the second one more than this one for... obvious reasons. Bayo's design appealed to me more in 2 than 1 but also I liked 2 at the time more for various reasons like better levels and more weapon options, though today I can say the first game makes a better long term impression overall, especially with the combat.
The combat in Bayonetta 1 to me stands as the best in the series as it is not weighed down by unnecessary gimmicks/mechanics added in the later two games. Just focusing on pulling off quick and stylishly sick combos with dodge offsets, wicked weaves, and witch-timing to make the score go brrrr. This exercise can be very thrilling in most of the regular enemy encounters as they provide a good amount of challenge without going too far, sometimes. Telegraphing is pretty smooth with light flashes and sounds indicating when an attack is about to connect, though the camera can still be a pain in keeping an eye out on everyone. This wasn't an issue with the boss fights except Jeanne's sometimes, but I also think the boss fights aren't too thrilling outside of Jeanne's and I didn't feel that kinetic energy of the combat when taking them on. They're incredible as set pieces and spectacle, but I never really connected to them, which is mostly something I feel towards the series in general and not just Bayo 1.
Even with that said, the first attempt at the combat here is excellent and opens up to so much variety with weapons throughout further replays and playing the game on harder difficulties if you like pain. Normal kicked my ass originally and still does on some stages but it becomes very manageable after finishing the game for the first time and accessing more gear and having all the health and magic upgrades. While I don't think it succeeds the heights of its obvious genre influence of DMC, the combat in Bayonetta is so damn fun and enticing that I kinda prefer it more than the other at times. If the game was mostly only the combat and the characters, it would be a perfect game, and yet there is quite a lot of things attached to it that slightly bring the game down to me.
So this game can be brutal. Enemies launch attacks right at the end of cutscenes, numerous instant death qtes plague the beginning of the game, enemies are hyper aggressive and hit hard while still coming to grips with the controls, the drab environment itself is fucking deadly to you, two levels in particular are notorious for awful gimmick sections that do not belong at all here, you get points off in normal difficulty if you use any sort of items even with the game being stingy with healing, and Bayonetta 1 in general is very rough around the edges with its platforming and design in general, except for the combat. Even when used to all of this, it can still be pretty aggravating when the game randomly throws these curveballs that fuck up my score or health, and having to restart all the way from the beginning every single time. It's not the worst but considering how much this game apparently was taking influence from DMC4 during its development, the lack of polish in some areas of Bayonetta come off a little bizarre.
Even with these gripes, I still can't knock this game too hard as it introduced me to a genre I know and love today. I love the Bayonetta series and still really enjoy the first entry and some of the later two to certain degrees. Looking back retrospectively, it is a bit sad that the first game still remains the best in the series as the later games add many elements that fundamentally improve and smooth out the experience, and even make it more exciting and fun to play without being interrupted with some of the shit Bayo 1 pulls. Yet, Bayo 1 to me still feels like the only game where the combat mechanics, enemy design, and (sometimes fair) difficulty coalescence so neatly together even when other areas fall apart a bit. Bayo 1 is no DMC 3 or 5 and I'm still hoping the series finally gets a game of that quality, especially after the catastrophe that is Bayo 3, but even if it doesn't I can say the series stands tall with a wonderful entry in the action game genre.
2012
So after the pain fest that was Resident Evil 5 for me, surely I thought RE6 could not be worse. You can actually evade, do flips, slide under enemies, and execute sick melee attacks on zombies on top of shooting and it's genuinely fun and Capcom shouldn't be ashamed of this aspect of the game and bring it back to the modern entries more. Uh, unfortunately that's the only thing I enjoyed outside of like two other things because this was ROUGH.
Everyone knows about Resident Evil 6 and its notoriety considered to be the worst Resident Evil entry, which I'd argue still goes to Code Veronica or Zero. Watching this game from afar in playthroughs and retrospectives gave me the sense that surely it can't be that bad and despite my rating here, I think this game has some things going for it like the aforementioned combat, the character models still look nice to this day, and mercenaries mode, but everything else is absolutely baffling and infuriating.
Can't name everything that bothered me, but these aspects drove me mad especially: the controls are insanely unwieldy with a terrible tutorial section in the prologue, the QTEs are god awful and too excessive even for this genre, this game's confusion on being a wacky, Michael Bay-esque, high octane action game while still shoving in survival horror elements haphazardly thrown around that actively conflict with and limited most of the campaigns and gameplay, shooting is so floaty, the soulless skillpoints system, HEALING BLOWS, the puzzles suck ass, this game's way too stingy as fuck with ammo and health, THE VEHICLES CONTROL LIKE SHIT AND ESPECIALLY THE SNOWMOBILE SECTION.
RE6 was actively painful to play and I croaked during Jake's campaign, not like I'm missing much since the overall narrative SUCKS across each campaign. I get why people call this an ambitious mess but so many of this game's ideas were downright terrible and should have been laughed out of the room at the time, but this was a different era of Capcom as they chased the western shooter trend all the way down the drain like many other popular horror developers at the time. Playing this makes me appreciate RE7 a bit more but I still feel like that was too much of a course correction. Regardless, this game sucks and I'd eject it into the vacuum of space immediately if I had the chance. Fuck this game.
Everyone knows about Resident Evil 6 and its notoriety considered to be the worst Resident Evil entry, which I'd argue still goes to Code Veronica or Zero. Watching this game from afar in playthroughs and retrospectives gave me the sense that surely it can't be that bad and despite my rating here, I think this game has some things going for it like the aforementioned combat, the character models still look nice to this day, and mercenaries mode, but everything else is absolutely baffling and infuriating.
Can't name everything that bothered me, but these aspects drove me mad especially: the controls are insanely unwieldy with a terrible tutorial section in the prologue, the QTEs are god awful and too excessive even for this genre, this game's confusion on being a wacky, Michael Bay-esque, high octane action game while still shoving in survival horror elements haphazardly thrown around that actively conflict with and limited most of the campaigns and gameplay, shooting is so floaty, the soulless skillpoints system, HEALING BLOWS, the puzzles suck ass, this game's way too stingy as fuck with ammo and health, THE VEHICLES CONTROL LIKE SHIT AND ESPECIALLY THE SNOWMOBILE SECTION.
RE6 was actively painful to play and I croaked during Jake's campaign, not like I'm missing much since the overall narrative SUCKS across each campaign. I get why people call this an ambitious mess but so many of this game's ideas were downright terrible and should have been laughed out of the room at the time, but this was a different era of Capcom as they chased the western shooter trend all the way down the drain like many other popular horror developers at the time. Playing this makes me appreciate RE7 a bit more but I still feel like that was too much of a course correction. Regardless, this game sucks and I'd eject it into the vacuum of space immediately if I had the chance. Fuck this game.
Watching the tmnt movie unlocked a hidden memory deep in the crawl spaces of my brain where I thought this was a fun game as a kid on my ps2. I was very wrong, and the TMNT tie in video game also blows but the movie is still some fun at least !
2009
Resident Evil graduates to goopy, vapid slop of popular coop shooters of its time. Complete global saturation.
RE5 is a putrid game in both aesthetics and design. Many of the levels feel too similar to one another with a disgusting yellow and brown haze smeared all over the image. Boss fights are obnoxious and egregiously long for no reason. The mind-boggling approach to the UI and inventory system as it operates in real time like the outbreak games and it's all just so...bland and strict for a game leaning so hard on action. In these aspects, RE5 is a significant regression from not just RE4, but even the games that came before it. Resident Evil 5 is UGLY from start to finish and lacking the atmosphere and artful style that defined the previous entries, which killed me as this game dragged on and on.
The few saving graces is Chris getting a nice and hot redesign, Wesker's matrix-esque characterization, and the absolute cheese on the surface. But at the same time, the game tries to unnecessarily cobble together so many previous threads of prior entries and introduce other bizarre story beats that by the end, the entry just falls hard on its face. Why is the Spencer Mansion stuff resurrected here again that even the latest mainline entries can't help but nudge back to for a connection? Why is Jill brainwashed and blond while doing flips in one of the series most absurd boss battles? Why does the entirety of the last act in the volcano exist?
I get why people like this game as it continues in the footsteps of RE4's fun action gameplay to an even less impressive standard, but I truly hated this and find so much of what it does to be very poor. Considering this is up next in the remake treatment (or Code Veronica because that game is also yikes and deserves way more of another try), hopefully a new take on it can inject some of the personality back in the game because there's no way Capcom can fuck up remaking this. Capcom can also do the easiest and most funniest thing ever with the eventual remake: by not making it comically racist.
RE5 is a putrid game in both aesthetics and design. Many of the levels feel too similar to one another with a disgusting yellow and brown haze smeared all over the image. Boss fights are obnoxious and egregiously long for no reason. The mind-boggling approach to the UI and inventory system as it operates in real time like the outbreak games and it's all just so...bland and strict for a game leaning so hard on action. In these aspects, RE5 is a significant regression from not just RE4, but even the games that came before it. Resident Evil 5 is UGLY from start to finish and lacking the atmosphere and artful style that defined the previous entries, which killed me as this game dragged on and on.
The few saving graces is Chris getting a nice and hot redesign, Wesker's matrix-esque characterization, and the absolute cheese on the surface. But at the same time, the game tries to unnecessarily cobble together so many previous threads of prior entries and introduce other bizarre story beats that by the end, the entry just falls hard on its face. Why is the Spencer Mansion stuff resurrected here again that even the latest mainline entries can't help but nudge back to for a connection? Why is Jill brainwashed and blond while doing flips in one of the series most absurd boss battles? Why does the entirety of the last act in the volcano exist?
I get why people like this game as it continues in the footsteps of RE4's fun action gameplay to an even less impressive standard, but I truly hated this and find so much of what it does to be very poor. Considering this is up next in the remake treatment (or Code Veronica because that game is also yikes and deserves way more of another try), hopefully a new take on it can inject some of the personality back in the game because there's no way Capcom can fuck up remaking this. Capcom can also do the easiest and most funniest thing ever with the eventual remake: by not making it comically racist.
2022
Mediocre 2000's DMC-likes and GOW-likes are back baby.
Took a slight detour from Sora's adventures in Disney worlds to check out this game that apparently takes a lot of inspiration from Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and old God of War, three franchises invoked that would more than turn my head in the direction of the source. The spectacle/stylish/character action genre desperately needs more games and bigger names today that aren't the dominant first two names that define the genre. And God of War is busy doing less interesting things now and on a break, not to mention Platinum is imploding on itself at this rate. Regardless, I checked this out today and...yeah.
So this really does feel like DMC, the design philosophies are flying all over the place: the hyper zoom in at the conclusion of fights, the almost exact same button combos but the controls are downright mad here, basic weapon variety/switching, a devil trigger that most games have shoe horned in today, and other details. It's cool to have some familiarity and it's not bad to take some ideas from the action giants as they are bursting with a lot of great ones, yet the execution of all of this is very messy and rough around the edges.
As Briar, you fight enemies with a long sword while also having your ghost sister Lute help by countering attacks when prompted by the circle button when enemies are about to attack. One major issue I noticed from this is the inconsistency in which counter attacks are executed as sometimes enemies become frozen, sometimes their attacks are interrupted, or sometimes their attack actually gets parried/countered back. Even after hours of doing this, the system never really seemed to work that well and countering felt more of hassle to do while attacking and I ended up doing more attacking and then just dodging to avoid this issue. The fights themselves were fine but became very repetitive even with the later weapon choices opened up down the road. I don't hate the combat, but it lacks polish and constantly feels off as hitting enemies and parrying never felt fluid or smooth and fighting just became miserable as time went on. Briar is so ungodly sluggish with a piss poor stinger and lock on, and lacking other quick movement options, alongside the very slow moving enemies too. This game also does the very cool but actually terrible thing of color coding enemies that you can only attack if Lute is projecting a red aura or a blue aura, but only for a limited amount of time before she quickly becomes overwhelmed. The basic combat itself is competent, but never really rises into anything unique or original, and wore out its welcome quickly.
Levels and gameplay outside of battling is similarly very dismal. The environments are real grayish and drab looking, living up to the "soulslike" name plastered on the game, and follows a completely linear route with no path diversions or difference in environmental design to bring life to the world. I guess you could say there are puzzles but they are all braindead. There's platforming yes, and it is both dull and so awkward given the camera moves in different angles while progressing and cannot be moved in a sizeable way to determine how far or close you are to platforms. It tries to take the approach of the God of War trilogy with the camera/perspective, but instead making it painful and missing so much style and composition to emphasize the scale and detail of the levels. These levels are so damn long too, almost Sonic Unleashed levels of horror with 20-30 minute treks through dreary, uninspired, hazy, goopy stages.
I've been real negative but at least Lute and Briar are decent characters with competent voice acting performances. There's really not much to them and they're about as deep and interesting as a puddle like the overall story is here, but they made the journey less mind numbing I guess. The graphics look okay for a indie action game. Uh, not sure I can really say anything else positive about this game though.
Soulstice is not an absolute trainwreck and I honestly want to see the developers of this make a sequel that builds up significantly from the very bare bones and generic stuff here. The game here is dreadfully bland, but it does capture that early aughts edgy and "cool" charm that many action games of the time lived and breathed. This game could definitely work for people craving some character action fun outside of the big names and who don't take too much issue with the combat and world, but I couldn't do it and there isn't a ton of things redeeming to even bring me back to playing this. Soulstice makes the Darksiders games look like masterpieces and I might even return to the first game I put down in January and finish it before moving to the second entry, well all of this after Kingdom Hearts 3 at least. The gummi ships are calling me.
Took a slight detour from Sora's adventures in Disney worlds to check out this game that apparently takes a lot of inspiration from Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and old God of War, three franchises invoked that would more than turn my head in the direction of the source. The spectacle/stylish/character action genre desperately needs more games and bigger names today that aren't the dominant first two names that define the genre. And God of War is busy doing less interesting things now and on a break, not to mention Platinum is imploding on itself at this rate. Regardless, I checked this out today and...yeah.
So this really does feel like DMC, the design philosophies are flying all over the place: the hyper zoom in at the conclusion of fights, the almost exact same button combos but the controls are downright mad here, basic weapon variety/switching, a devil trigger that most games have shoe horned in today, and other details. It's cool to have some familiarity and it's not bad to take some ideas from the action giants as they are bursting with a lot of great ones, yet the execution of all of this is very messy and rough around the edges.
As Briar, you fight enemies with a long sword while also having your ghost sister Lute help by countering attacks when prompted by the circle button when enemies are about to attack. One major issue I noticed from this is the inconsistency in which counter attacks are executed as sometimes enemies become frozen, sometimes their attacks are interrupted, or sometimes their attack actually gets parried/countered back. Even after hours of doing this, the system never really seemed to work that well and countering felt more of hassle to do while attacking and I ended up doing more attacking and then just dodging to avoid this issue. The fights themselves were fine but became very repetitive even with the later weapon choices opened up down the road. I don't hate the combat, but it lacks polish and constantly feels off as hitting enemies and parrying never felt fluid or smooth and fighting just became miserable as time went on. Briar is so ungodly sluggish with a piss poor stinger and lock on, and lacking other quick movement options, alongside the very slow moving enemies too. This game also does the very cool but actually terrible thing of color coding enemies that you can only attack if Lute is projecting a red aura or a blue aura, but only for a limited amount of time before she quickly becomes overwhelmed. The basic combat itself is competent, but never really rises into anything unique or original, and wore out its welcome quickly.
Levels and gameplay outside of battling is similarly very dismal. The environments are real grayish and drab looking, living up to the "soulslike" name plastered on the game, and follows a completely linear route with no path diversions or difference in environmental design to bring life to the world. I guess you could say there are puzzles but they are all braindead. There's platforming yes, and it is both dull and so awkward given the camera moves in different angles while progressing and cannot be moved in a sizeable way to determine how far or close you are to platforms. It tries to take the approach of the God of War trilogy with the camera/perspective, but instead making it painful and missing so much style and composition to emphasize the scale and detail of the levels. These levels are so damn long too, almost Sonic Unleashed levels of horror with 20-30 minute treks through dreary, uninspired, hazy, goopy stages.
I've been real negative but at least Lute and Briar are decent characters with competent voice acting performances. There's really not much to them and they're about as deep and interesting as a puddle like the overall story is here, but they made the journey less mind numbing I guess. The graphics look okay for a indie action game. Uh, not sure I can really say anything else positive about this game though.
Soulstice is not an absolute trainwreck and I honestly want to see the developers of this make a sequel that builds up significantly from the very bare bones and generic stuff here. The game here is dreadfully bland, but it does capture that early aughts edgy and "cool" charm that many action games of the time lived and breathed. This game could definitely work for people craving some character action fun outside of the big names and who don't take too much issue with the combat and world, but I couldn't do it and there isn't a ton of things redeeming to even bring me back to playing this. Soulstice makes the Darksiders games look like masterpieces and I might even return to the first game I put down in January and finish it before moving to the second entry, well all of this after Kingdom Hearts 3 at least. The gummi ships are calling me.
A bigger and slightly better game than KH1, except for the story. Sora flipping around everything and everywhere on the screen is awesome and kept me engaged even though the Disney worlds are still a bit boring. Critical mode is a must play though.
This game goes surprisingly hard for a weird multiplayer survival horror experiment and probably was real impressive in 2003/2004, especially the crazy good intro cinematics for both this entry and the last. Maybe Capcom should remaster or make another one of these instead of their current wretched online, live servicey entries that don't feel as fun as this.
The cheesiest and most low budget RE game to ever exist: so awful it's good voice acting with bizarre fluctuations in accents, cgi cutscenes with creaky animations and way too much slow mo effects, subtitles not matching at all with what the characters are saying in scene, knock off Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong protagonists, goofy low poly models with Bruce getting hit the worst with a hilariously unpolished model sporting a giraffe neck in every cutscene, Bruce's cringy one liner after taking down Morpheus, the literal J-rap rock theme song of the game "Gun-Shot". How does this game even exist and was actually released by Capcom?
Most of what this game tries to execute ends up being pretty mediocre but I can't say it's a complete trainwreck; the synth-heavy music and dark atmosphere is strangely unique for the series and added a tinge of haunting vibes to the ship "exploration", something I can't really say about the later entries that also have ship levels. The save room theme surprised me with how much I loved it despite how little it is encountered during the campaign.
Movement and gameplay is a mess. The tank controls were fine, but the moving and shooting just felt off and clunky the entire time and especially in transition from one to another and vice versa. The sneak mechanic is pretty underutilized for how much it can change zombie encounters, and I never really used or even knew about it till I was close to the end of the game. Also underutilized is the dodge/block mechanic that's similar to RE3 Nemesis and it's just vastly superior to it and it just breaks all encounters???? What is this game??
Anyways, Dead Aim has absolutely no replay value after finishing it and the gameplay is a little too janky for me to return to it, but it was cool to have finally checked out this bizarre RE spin off. Capcom should do more of these today, along with a new outbreak game.
Also did not play with a guncon, unfortunately.
Most of what this game tries to execute ends up being pretty mediocre but I can't say it's a complete trainwreck; the synth-heavy music and dark atmosphere is strangely unique for the series and added a tinge of haunting vibes to the ship "exploration", something I can't really say about the later entries that also have ship levels. The save room theme surprised me with how much I loved it despite how little it is encountered during the campaign.
Movement and gameplay is a mess. The tank controls were fine, but the moving and shooting just felt off and clunky the entire time and especially in transition from one to another and vice versa. The sneak mechanic is pretty underutilized for how much it can change zombie encounters, and I never really used or even knew about it till I was close to the end of the game. Also underutilized is the dodge/block mechanic that's similar to RE3 Nemesis and it's just vastly superior to it and it just breaks all encounters???? What is this game??
Anyways, Dead Aim has absolutely no replay value after finishing it and the gameplay is a little too janky for me to return to it, but it was cool to have finally checked out this bizarre RE spin off. Capcom should do more of these today, along with a new outbreak game.
Also did not play with a guncon, unfortunately.
2002
The coolest fucking scarf on a ninja but surrounded by some pretty by-the-numbers levels, combat, enemies and bosses. This game's schtick of killing enemies as fast as possible for huge damage was cool I guess, if I didn't have to fight with the camera so much. May check out the sequel this game has though
Very dull and shockingly lifeless. Couldn’t last more than a few hours before I dropped it and watched the rest of the story in a compilation. Keep it far away from me.
Me pointing at the screen like a maniac whenever the final fantasy characters appear
Crazy how progressive this game is in terms of diversity, representation and actually having more depth to the diverse cast rather than just being npcs plastered with different shades to gesture towards diversity. It's not all perfect and the writing sometimes can come off as corny and written by a not Black perspective, but most times it's a success and it feels good to have a Black lead in a video game with so much care put into him, the cast, and the world.
Hopefully the next game this year cooled down on the copaganda because it feels especially egregious here and was bad in 2018's Spider-Man. It's jarring given this game's commitment to a Black and highly diverse setting with mentions of harm caused by the police and other institutions, yet it's still pretty defensive of the hypermilitarized (nypd) police force and handwaves this problem to villainize Phin rightfully trying to take down Krieger and Roxxon that caused the death of her brother and is actively poisoning and disposing of Miles' community. It feels like the writers didn't really want to go all the way with these very relevant and important social issues or simply sees these issues from a both sides are bad angle, which both are pretty disappointing but not surprising given most superhero media propagates these ideas too.
It would have been cool if the story centered Krieger (and the police lol) as the antagonistic forces and went more in depth on this relation between the police and corporations and also having Phin be there in taking down Roxxon since she has valid reasons to do so rather than randomly finding reasons to make her a villain for Miles to fight. I get taking that angle would piss people off more, but what they did here lacks so much bite. The spider-verse movies have more backbone than this game.
All of that said though, it's still a fun time and I prefer this to 2018 since I really like Miles and relate to him more than Peter. I really felt like Spider-ManTM as I web-slinged through all of Harlem and completed this game again in a single day. Don't buy this at full price though lol.
Hopefully the next game this year cooled down on the copaganda because it feels especially egregious here and was bad in 2018's Spider-Man. It's jarring given this game's commitment to a Black and highly diverse setting with mentions of harm caused by the police and other institutions, yet it's still pretty defensive of the hypermilitarized (nypd) police force and handwaves this problem to villainize Phin rightfully trying to take down Krieger and Roxxon that caused the death of her brother and is actively poisoning and disposing of Miles' community. It feels like the writers didn't really want to go all the way with these very relevant and important social issues or simply sees these issues from a both sides are bad angle, which both are pretty disappointing but not surprising given most superhero media propagates these ideas too.
It would have been cool if the story centered Krieger (and the police lol) as the antagonistic forces and went more in depth on this relation between the police and corporations and also having Phin be there in taking down Roxxon since she has valid reasons to do so rather than randomly finding reasons to make her a villain for Miles to fight. I get taking that angle would piss people off more, but what they did here lacks so much bite. The spider-verse movies have more backbone than this game.
All of that said though, it's still a fun time and I prefer this to 2018 since I really like Miles and relate to him more than Peter. I really felt like Spider-ManTM as I web-slinged through all of Harlem and completed this game again in a single day. Don't buy this at full price though lol.
2020
This game is piss easy, these bosses are a joke. I never played the original and don’t have much reverence for many of the souls games besides Sekiro and Elden Ring to an extent, so I can’t speak on what Bluepoint changed or kept the same from the original. Everyone mentions that the game looks stellar graphically which I agree, but I feel like the atmosphere lacks the kind of punch and crypticness that usually is associated with the souls game. Gameplay is still solid with really nice animations and the Nexus is a dope hub with interesting personalities. World tendency is really unique as a system that adds more depth to the levels but it feels underdeveloped here. The levels and worlds themselves felt fun to traverse through and make progresss in, though the trek back to bosses even with shortcuts unlocked still feel a little too long. DeS 2020 is still pretty enjoyable even though I do wish the original was made available in addition to or even bundled with this remake.