i originally found this game just in the midst of looking up upcoming games a year ago and now i finally got to play it. all i can really say much about it is how as much as its flashy and shows off with the vibrant colors and plenty of great music it just felt not right, like the first thing that just stuck out to me a bit was the length of it all for being the game itself and a minor nitpick of mine which comes to the voice acting from the characters in where it at times comes off cringy or much like that one saturday morning cartoon you wish you didn't remember watching.

Bounced off this hard when it first came out because the pivot to a more Dark Souls inspired adventure just didn't really click with me.

Revisited it years later and there's an option to select a more action-focused, more traditionally Darksiders style combat system that has a greater lean towards last minute dodges and faster-paced fighting and instead of feeling like a Poundland Dark Souls it now plays like a Bloodborne you bought off Wish.com. Ultimately, I much prefer this.

Some good bosses, great design work and that tweak to the combat had me really enjoying my time spent with this one. Another game I recommend in this consistently good series.

Going to put this first because fuck it.
TL;DR - Game brimming with potential that just doesn't quite capture me like the games it emulates does.

I probably played about half of this game before I just felt burnt out on it. To be honest, I was kind of excited and interested in this before it came out; and I'm still super into the idea of the game in general. I just couldn't find the motivation to finish the game - I guess I'm glad I got it for "free" from PS+ for that reason. Maybe I'll come back to this at a later date, but the combat felt like it wanted to be Bloodborne but was too lacking and the RPG elements felt like they want to be New Vegas but were too shallow. If it had committed more fully to one side of the game, I think this could have been great. Maybe it deserves a 2 star for that reason to be honest, but I love the atmosphere and would love to see more games of this nature; so I guess I'll settle on calling this game mediocre. Hope the studio continues to do something similar; because even with my qualms with this game, I enjoy what I see so I plan to support any future endeavors - which is funny to say because I said the same thing after Remember Me too so here's to hoping Tell Me Why and Twin Mirror are better since I couldn't give less of a shit about Life is Strange after watching a friend play through the first one.
Side-Note: Setting an arbitrary date of completion for my own records even though I never actually beat the game.

El mas redondo y completo de la saga con amplia diferencia, la sensación de disparo es lo que mas se nota en comparación con el resto, muy accesible en cuanto a dificultad (no tanto para lo demás lol).

Si que es cierto que intentan darle un poco mas de bombo a la historia, pero se queda en una tipica historia alternativa un poco mas compleja que en tramas anteriores, aunque si que es cierto que lo juntan todo bastante mejor con lo que es la segunda guerra mundial que en entregas anteriores.

El mundo "abierto" se asemeja mas a lo que hace MGSV y eso esta genial porque te da muchísima libertad de actuación a la hora de planificar estrategias para afrontar las diferentes misiones, todo esto acompañado de unos maravillosos prismaticos mágicos al mas puro estilo MGSV o al águila de los últimos assassins creed.

En definitiva, un juego muy muy divertido para jugar sin pensar y simplemente pasarlo bien, si lo veis por 15 euros mas o menos ya es un buen precio.

The best thing about this game (aside from gratuitously blasting Nazis through the testicles from half a mile away, obvs)? It made me relearn several decades worth of FPS muscle memory and strategy. And this is a result of the excellent mapping and interesting game mechanics that made SE4 a real joy to play.

On the surface, there are several things that make SE4 rather unappealing. It's certainly not the best looking game out there - the character models in particular are a bit ropey and wouldn't look out of place on the 360. The lighting effects are pretty good though, but overall it's not winning any awards for the graphical content. Also, the protagonist appears about as 2 dimensional and stereotypical as it's possible to be.... but by the end, there's actually a pretty decent little story that compliments the strong gameplay.

And it's the gameplay where SE4 really does shine - it's very impressive. The main highlights are definitely the superbly structured maps - plenty of variety over the 8 levels, each of them huge with various ways to tackle them. Each level has at least one major objective, but there are always a few other secondary missions which are always worth doing and stretch out the playing time. The more you have to do, the more you have to think about what methods to use, what route through the level is best, what order to do things in etc etc.

At the start, I mentioned relearning old FPS habits and it's true - my gut instinct when I was discovered was to hide in the bushes and stay still, but that's not the best option here. Whilst stealth is obviously a key aspect of the game, remaining on the move also has its advantage and the best tactic is a mixture of both. When you've spent the best part of half an hour tagging bad guys and gradually working your way round the map to line up a perfect vantage point, it makes all that hard work and strategy feel very worthwhile and is the absolute highlight of the game. Using the plethora of environmental hazards (exploding barrels, vehicles which can be disabled, even cargo which can be dumped on unsuspecting Nazis if you aim and time it correctly) to your advantage is tremendous. These can also act as distractions, allowing you to blindside the confused enemy to line up an easy, unobstructed kill. Eat that, dumbasses. Lolz.

The sniping mechanics themselves are beautifully done. Although I played through the game on the default normal difficulty, for those who want a proper, more realistic challenge, the harder difficulties also consider wind direction, bullet drop etc meaning those long range headshots feel all the more satisfying. I went back and played a few levels on a higher difficulty and it was a very different game. But there's still a very good challenge to be had even in the easier mode - the bullet time kills etc still feel great to pull off. The other weapons (SMGs, pistols etc) are nowhere near as fun to use and I only resorted to these when my cover was blown and I had to shoot my way out of tight situations. I suppose the title is a bit of a clue in that regard though.

Whilst the volume of different weapons is decidedly meagre (I never saw the need to deviate from the default rifle), the use of various traps does go some way to make up for it. Rigging a dead body with a trip mine is intensely satisfying. I even dragged a body next to a jeep and booby trapped the body with a teller mine. Another soldier saw this, ran towards the body triggering the trap which in turn created a chain reaction by exploding the jeep - killing several other soldiers who were standing next to it. My fiancee thought I was losing the plot when she heard my cackling of glee coming from the other room.

Sniper Elite 4 is a really fun game to play - the level design and sniping mechanics are magnificent, and it's a game that always keeps you thinking. Whilst the dodgy character models and lack of weapon variety mean it's not without its faults, there's still a really good game to enjoy here. Once you've spent 90 minutes on each level, you'll want to revisit it once you know the intricate layout meaning multiple playthroughs are definitely worthwhile. I never got to play this co-op, but I imagine it adds another layer of enjoyment to what is already a very fun experience.

Additional: once I completed the campaign, and had earned various upgrades to my weapons, I wondered if my increased rifle zoom and enhanced power would be enough to take out the Nazi officer on the very first level from near the starting point, as he's out in the open on the other side of the map. Yep. It's enough. How incredibly satisfying.

I enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 7. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten all the initial achievements. Though, to be completely honest, I only played the game out of obligation, and while I did find it entertaining enough, I wouldn't say I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Resident Evil 4, 5, and even 6. I still have my gripes with each and every one of those games as a fan of where this series started, but I don't see myself ever going back to Resident Evil 7 for some casual fun like I would any other game in this series.

I'm just not much of a fan of the current direction of this series. I can't stress it enough, but the first-person perspective is so unlike the series. Yes, Resident Evil 4 shifted to over the shoulder, but it was still in a third person view, and the gameplay was identical to the previous games with added adjustments and improvements. That's not to say that the game itself is bad because of first-person, it works really well in its own right, but it just isn't what I and many other people want or ever expected from this series. (Oh, and having similarities to spin-offs or a concept that didn't happen, isn't a valid argument because 1. this is a main entry, and 2. the series has already defined itself way passed initial conceptions.)

Resident Evil 7 just feels far too distant from the rest of the series. A couple of vague files and that dumb twist ending doesn't change that either. That's Resident Evil 7's biggest flaw. It's part of an on-going series, yet, doesn't properly continue the story, focuses on brand new pointless characters, and just overall lacks the charm, heart, and soul of the series. It's so ashamed of what it was that it had to alter itself so drastically to capture a new audience, while artificially presenting itself as a return to the series' roots to pull in old fans. And yes, the same argument can be made for the likes of Resident Evil 4, but that doesn't justify Resident Evil 7's faults nor does it excuse Resident Evil 4's shortcomings as a Resident Evil game either. However, Resident Evil 4 was still consistent in 2 major areas, being gameplay and character.

The very fact that Resident Evil 4 is telling the story of a major character in the series, makes it very relevant. People underestimate how important something as trivial as an avatar really is to a franchise. That's why there's plenty of fans out there who don't care whether Resident Evil is survival horror or action oriented. They just care that the games continue to tell the story they've invested so much time into with the characters they love. The change in gameplay coupled with the lack of series connection through both story and character are pretty major blows to this game already.

But let's back track here a bit. When I said that Resident Evil 7 artificially presented itself as a return to the series' roots, I'm not denying the call backs and the similarities it shares with the original games. However, the same can be said about the Revelations series, which as much as I enjoyed them, are still very far from being a return to the series' roots because it did exactly what Resident Evil 7 did. It mimicked the original game just enough to make us nostalgic, but the overall execution was poor.

I'll give credit where credit is due, and that's in the visuals, atmosphere, and sound. Ever since Resident Evil 4, the series went for linear progression, meaning you were constantly traversing through new environments. None of which were ever as interesting or as beautiful as the pre-rendered backgrounds in REmake and Zero. Resident Evil 7 on the other hand, brought back that artistic quality to the environment with its photo-realistic visuals. The atmosphere was genuinely creepy and the sound was on point and even kept me on edge from time to time. I also greatly appreciated the return of a single player focus, adventure style progression, and save rooms. Unfortunately, everything else feels watered down and half-assed. I swear, the game feels more like a tech demo or proof of concept than an actual installment in the series.

For example, the level design was very reminiscent of the original games, yet still felt simplistic due to the smaller scale of the Baker house. Then they throw it all away halfway through the game and make it a linear experience. Their attempts at jump scares are just awful too. In the original Resident Evil, when the Cerberus jumps through the window, it catches you off guard and sends you into a frenzy because now there's danger that you weren't prepared for. In that split second, you have 2 options: Save your bullets and avoid taking damage by running, or waste your ammo and risk taking damage by staying to fight the Cerberus. Resident Evil 7 however, presents most of its jump scares through safe cinematics. I mean, was I really supposed to be scared of a stupid little girl with poorly animated hair laughing in my face when I've lost control of the character? Then when they have the opportunity to do them right, they come up short because you're well prepared and your only option is to fight, with the exception of a few Jack Baker encounters which have nothing on Nemesis because he's laughably easy to avoid.

Which brings up another issue I had with this game. On my first run, I was not touched during Mia's first boss encounter and I didn't give her much to do as she was just getting stunned by the constant head shots, and I was still able to successfully rush her with the axe without taking any damage. You're also not given many options when hiding from Jack in the beginning, so avoiding him in the kitchen or anywhere for that matter never really felt tense. The garage fight was barely a fight either. I didn't even waste a single bullet on Jack throughout his portion in the house or even get touched until the chainsaw fight, and even then, that totaled to about 2 bullets and one hit from Jack. This game was just extremely easy on my first run which was on normal difficulty. In that sense, I feel it has a lot more in common with the modern Resident Evil games. What to do and where to go always felt obvious with little exploration needed and you're given tons of ammo and health.

As I've already stated, most of the boss encounters were pretty weak. Marguerite by far had the best design and could have been the best fight in the game, but unfortunately, you spend a lot of time waiting around until she randomly appears, which makes the fight tedious. The only satisfying boss fight is Jack's final form, which felt a lot more in line with the rest of the series than any of the other bosses. Even the final boss is a complete joke. You might as well have been doing quick time events. Then there's the tapes, which are redundant walking simulators. The birthday party tape was the only effective one. However, they're completely useless during subsequent playthroughs and are luckily skippable. Except for the last tape on the ship though, which you're forced to play through and it's a total drag. I get that it was important to the story, but why have us explore the same area twice, back to back? I can't help but feel like the tapes were a completely missed opportunity. I thought there would be more of a cause and effect aspect to them, but that was very minimal.

And I know people try to excuse how easy the game is by bringing up Madhouse difficulty, which only offers a slight challenge compared to normal. Especially since you'll have already been through the game once and know what to expect. There's differences here and there, but they're easily adaptable. Even so, they're missing the point. I shouldn't have to play the game again to feel challenged. Tension and difficulty is what makes horror effective in video games, and Resident Evil 7 lacks both. Resident Evil games usually become easier after multiple playthroughs, not on your first. The only time I started to lose most of my ammo was during the Marguerite battle but you'll also get a lot of it back once she's dead and you're free to pick everything up. Jack isn't exactly harder either, they just made him a lot cheaper since he now magically catches you a whole lot faster, but he hardly does damage as you can still block his attack and get a good amount of distance between you and him. You also get less chances to save and checkpoints are mostly removed which isn't as bad as it sounds if you know what you're doing. Honestly, this should have been the standard difficulty.

In another disappointing turn of events, this game is also sorely lacking in enemy variety. When Regenaradors were introduced in Resident Evil 4, they were really effective. We were nearing the end of the game and still the game gave us something we hadn't seen before. They were tall, wobbly, seemingly invincible, and were used sparingly so that each encounter was memorable. But then Revelations comes along and now we have Oozes who look and move strangely similar, and are reduced to being a common enemy. Then comes Resident Evil 6 with the Rasklapanjes who were once again used effectively but now another variation comes along in Revelations 2 and act as primary enemies in Barry's story. Suddenly, those few special encounters you had in 4 and 6 aren't so special since you're going to be facing them again and again. So what does Capcom do? Feature them exclusively in Resident Evil 7 in the form of molded, duh! Enough with the tall and wobbly creatures already! Honestly, would it have been so hard to come up with a more traditional standard enemy type? Possessed people like Mia would have been perfect as a standard enemy, making molded a lot more threatening whenever you do encounter them as they'll require more strategy to kill and actually make the player dread facing them, instead of becoming numb to killing them.

Everything about Resident Evil 7 seems like it wasn't fully realized. This game should have honestly spent another year or so in development because there really isn't much here other than production value. Considering the similarities this has with the Revelations series in terms of "going back to its roots," I'm surprised many people actually believed it with Resident Evil 7. It's still just a poor man's Resident Evil. But hey, at least the Bakers were good for a laugh.

Definitely Remedy's weakest game in terms of the bit where you play it. Shooting and movement are fiddly, which the game is mostly aware of as they don't really put it to the test until the final boss fight - but damn, that fight is really annoying. I'm still glad I played it though simply because of its ambition. The TV series in it isn't great (though as usual Lance Reddick lifts the whole thing) but come on, it's a miniseries in a game! The time effects are extremely impressive at times, too. It stretched my PC a lot but it's pretty clear why when you see some of the things they have going on in the realtime part of the game.

Apprezzato:
-Il mondo di gioco. Molto variegato e molto carino nello stile artistico che è stato deciso di utilizzare nella sua realizzazione, originale e fresco, dal tono spiccatamente fiabesco.
-L'esplorazione. Controllare Ori è davvero un piacere, il gameplay è davvero fluido e divertente, e muoversi all'interno della mappa per fare backtracking non risulta mai pesante. Molto belle le sezioni in cui è essenziale il parry dei colpi a distanza dei nemici per muoversi.
-Gli inseguimenti. Ci sono sezioni di gioco in cui Ori viene inseguito da nemici di dimensioni molto maggiori alla sua. Trovo che queste parti del gioco siano probabilmente le migliori, sono molto frenetiche e cinematografiche, spingono ad utilizzare tutte le tecniche ottenute nel gioco per essere superate.
-La colonna sonora. Davvero maestosa e molto spirituale nello stile, si incastra perfettamente con il mood del gioco andando a sviluppare un immaginario molto personale.

Non Apprezzato:
-La narrazione, che ho trovato un po' troppo lineare. Non c'è un evoluzione particolare degli eventi se non giusto nel finale e si ha un po' l'impressione che la storia sia un po' un pretesto per mettere in scena il mondo di gioco e la sua lore.
-La sensazione di star giocando un qualcosa di embrionale. Vuoi per la longevità o vuoi per la narrazione il gioco alla fine dà abbastanza l'impressione di essere un banco di prova per il futuro.

Conclusioni:
Un bel metroidvania da recuperare per gli amanti del genere, non essenziale se preso singolarmente ma lo diventa se si vuole giocare il seguito -che reputo un must- in quanto c'è un filo narrativo che unisce i due titoli. Mi ha divertito molto e non mi è mai pesato, essendo anche effettivamente poco longevo (8h circa).

Apprezzato:
-Mondo di gioco. Il Kyrat è davvero variegato come mondo, si passa da zone montuose a cittadine ai piedi delle montagne. L'ho trovato molto suggestivo, complice anche in questo capitolo i veicoli che permettono di esplorarlo interamente, anche volando.
-Pagan Min. La scelta di Ubisoft di focalizzarsi interamente sui villain del gioco ha dato i suoi frutti. La nemesi del protagonista in Far Cry 4 è un dittatore snob in completo rosa, ben caratterizzato e legato al protagonista da un forte background che viene fuori man mano che il gioco procede. Il gioco funziona in buona parte grazie a lui.

Non apprezzato:
-More of the same. Far Cry 4 sembra più che un gioco a sé una specie di DLC del terzo capitolo. Le aggiunte a livello di gameplay sono praticamente inesistenti, anzi, alcune cose interessanti che erano presenti nel gioco precedente vengono rimosse in questo.
-Se dalla parte dei cattivi c'è Pagan Min, dalla parte dei buoni purtroppo non ci sono personaggi capaci di essere interessanti o anche solo a stimolare una curiosità verso la narrazione. Ho trovato la trama di Far Cry 4 nettamente meno ispirata rispetto a quella del 3.

Conclusioni:
Un gioco che tutto sommato ritengo giocabile ed apprezzabile da tutti quelli che hanno giocato Far Cry 3 e vorrebbero qualcosa di simile (troppo simile). Ubisoft fa un po' una furbata e segue alla lettera il detto "squadra che vince non si cambia". Si salva perché per fortuna Far Cry 3 era molto divertente.