Reviews

Concise Review:

The combat is simple but satisfactory. The enemies are repetitive, but it’s still enjoyable to hack and slash ratmen and orcs. The lack of mission variety and a boring loot and progression system makes it fun for a little while when trying out new characters and weapons, but once that initial experimentation was done I quickly lost interest.

Final Score: B

Journal Style Review:

The opening trailer and tone of the game was pretty cool but very quickly I realized that’s about all there is for the story and atmosphere. 

The combat is very hack and slash. It has an alright feel but not as good as I expected based on some reviews I saw. Its semi satisfying chopping up rat people because the gore is reasonable and the weapons look cool but it’s still just mashing attack. It probably requires more “skill” at higher levels but it seems repetitive and looks like it will get boring pretty fast. It’s also worth noting that it was pretty laggy and enemies and teammates occasionally jumped around or were on a half second delay so that was a big hindrance. The classes seem alright and I am interested to try out new weapons but I don’t like the loot box system for new gear. It just seems lazy. I also find the coop annoying and wish I could play solo. I don’t think I’m going to play this one for very long. 

Too few maps/missions. On my first night I played 5 missions and already had duplicates. That’s going to kill the vibe for me very quickly.

The second night was way more fun. The games were less laggy. Still not great but better. But the biggest improvement was the missions and environments were better, and the difficulty was much more appropriate at the next level. The initial training mode difficulty sucks. I still don’t love the destiny format of loot and hero power but hey, at least the combat was fun today. 

It’s not as bad as I originally thought. It’s still not good, but it is fun trying out new weapons and characters and when the game isn’t laggy then the combat does have a decent feel to it. The probables is when it’s laggy you cant tell where enemies actually are so it’s very button mashy. 

I was too harsh originally. This game has something to it. The combat does feel good when it isn’t laggy. Some of my favourite games were with bots so there was no lag. I am having fun trying out the different heroes and weapons. I’ve beaten all the missions now and there are some decent ones. It is all the same tasks and enemies but the environment and layout has some variety. Currently it’s at a high B.

I’ve tried out all the hero’s but 1 and I’ve beaten all the missions but 1. There was a brief moment I thought it might make the jump to a B+ but it isn’t there. I enjoyed messing around with the different characters and weapons and beating each mission once was enjoyable but it doesn’t leave a lasting impression and my motivation to keep playing is falling fast. Might play another night or two but that’s it.

Final Score: B

If you like exploration in games, then I highly encourage you to stop reading and/or watching reviews and play Outer Wilds.for yourself as it is best done with little to no knowledge about it. If you want just a small overview of it, read the store page and nothing more. If after reading that store page you are still unsure if you’d enjoy Outer Wilds or not, here are a few things that can hopefully help you make up your mind:

A big part of what you’ll be doing in Outer Wilds is wandering in space and on the several planets. The experience of being in space and different planets feels very genuine. Gravity changes from planet to planet, making it harder to move about in some, and easier to move in others, and while in space, there isn’t any gravity at all. You will have to adapt not only to the weight of your character when travelling to a different planet, you’ll also have to observe the weather and other aspects of the planets that shift.
 
The other thing that you’ll probably do in Outer Wilds is gaining access to different areas. In this aspect, Outer Wilds is very much like a metroidvania. Though instead of the equipment checks commonly used in metroidvanias, Outer Wilds blocks off those next areas with knowledge checks. In your usual metroidvania game, the next area is probably blocked off because you need a certain item. For example, an area is atop a cliff. You can probably infer that you need to climb this cliff to go there but you can’t go there quite yet because your character does not have the items or tools to climb yet. You might have to fight a boss to get that item that you need. Outer Wilds does the opposite of this, you are given all of the tools from the start and areas are blocked off not because you cannot get through but because you probably won’t know how to get through. If that makes any sense.
 
Lastly, the time loop. You are given a set amount of time to explore the solar system, once your time has run out. This may seem like an arbitrary decision but it is not. While it may be frustrating when you discover a new place just as your time runs out especially because you will be reading a bit in Outer Wilds, by using this time loop, the devs were able to be creative in the designs and features of the different places you’ll be visiting. Outer Wilds is a game that you really should play and experience yourself as it is one that you can really only play once. After doing so myself, I want nothing more but to play it for the first time once again.

I first caught wind of Horizon Zero Dawn from a friend I believe way back when the game wasn’t even released yet. My first reaction to Horizon was that I wanted to play it; the game looked like it combined things that I really liked in games: mostly exploration and good combat against a variety of enemies. But what made Horizon stand out to me was that the machines you fight were made out of different parts and tearing them off could change the battle significantly. I had high expectations for the game, the only thing that really kept me from playing it was its exclusivity, which wasn’t addressed up until recently, 3+ years after the game came out initially. Waiting for the game to release really put out all the hype I had for it and having played it now, even without said expectations, the game was still disappointing to me and I can’t really recommend it.

Let's start with the things that Horizon does best in my opinion: the world and the story. In many games, there are things that we accept although they don't really make sense in the game's world, things like: enemies respawning infinitely, enemies specific to one level or region in the map, enemies dropping just one or two pieces of an item. Many games do not have answers to those questions but Horizon does, it's not always a satisfying answer though I appreciate how Horizon gives those inexplicable aspects in games an actual explanation.

As for the actual story of the game, I didn’t think highly of it. This is because of one major issue: the story is too predictable. I already knew what was going to happen by the time the story revealed its big twist. The game drops some big hints right at the start of the main quest and that took out the mystery in the story for me. If you like a story that keeps you guessing, this isn’t it.

Let’s get into the combat of Horizon. The combat in Horizon starts off great but goes downhill once you have already seen every enemy. The first time you see an enemy, you scan it to learn more about it. What does each component do, what is the best way to initiate combat, etc. The difficulty curve of Horizon, at least at the start, is made by introducing tougher and tougher enemies to fight though after this, the game doesn’t really know how to ramp up the difficulty from there after you see the last enemy in the list. The difficulty curve of Horizon at that point comes from increasing the number of enemies you fight at a time. The difference between midgame and endgame encounters is the number of enemies you have to keep track of. If you hate combat against groups of enemies in games, you will probably dislike Horizon’s combat too. Also, there aren’t really any bosses in Horizon; once you see every enemy, you have pretty much seen every enemy the game has. On the player’s side, there are a lot of weapons to use but you are restricted to having only four at any given time. This means that you either have to just use your favorites or to navigate the menu every time you want to use a specific weapon. I did the former.

Next is the exploration. The world of Horizon Zero Dawn is gorgeous. The machines are very lifelike and have very natural movements, the stylized lighting and level of detail in the game are a sight to behold, and the various locations you go through are varied and are twisted enough to feel familiar yet mysterious. Though the world itself is beautiful, exploring it isn’t. There isn’t really much to do out in the world aside from combat, sightseeing, and story. Moving around in Horizon is just average. You ‘climb’ mountains, cliffs, towers, etc. by following a predetermined path while looking at the pretty visuals. You swim through rivers and lakes, watching the reflections on the water while waiting for your character to get to land. And when you’re on land, you walk/sprint to the next quest marker while basking in the beauty of the world. I wouldn’t call this bad but I wouldn’t call it good either.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on Horizon Zero Dawn. I think that the above is enough for you to gauge whether you will like this game or not without getting too deep into it. While it has some amazing visuals and a good enough story, the combat and the open-world exploration has many flaws that make me not recommend it outright. But if you think that what I’ve been saying sounds awesome, then go ahead and buy it. I hope you’ll have a good time.

Celeste is like a jigsaw puzzle. That may seem obvious because Celeste is a puzzle-platformer but that is the best way I can think of that summarizes the entire game. Half of the battle is finding out how to fit pieces together, and the other is to actually fit them together. In real puzzles, these parts aren’t really that difficult, you grab a piece, see where it fits maybe by looking at the picture on the box, and attach it to the other pieces. In Celeste, both of these parts are more complex.

Not only does Celeste have more complex pieces: jumping, moving left and right, dashing in eight directions, climbing walls, and many level gimmicks; fitting them together requires precise timing and execution.

 While I think anyone who is interested in platformers should give Celeste a try, there are some things that could prevent some from enjoying it. The base moveset that the player has could possibly be too simple to keep your attention for the game’s whole runtime. I think that the level gimmicks make up for this but you may think the opposite. The game is difficult, especially towards the endgame. It is guaranteed that you will die over and over again, maybe even on the same screen. The story is one that I wouldn’t call stellar and I don’t think you should play Celeste just for the story. And the game doesn’t really have a reward for finishing its most difficult tasks, it rewards you with more challenges.

Though the biggest problem I have with Celeste, and the only reason I can’t recommend it to everyone is that it doesn't teach some mechanics to the player, and when it does teach you mechanics through its level design, it is not always clear. Continuing with the puzzle analogy, it's like someone taking some of the pieces when you weren't looking, you’d probably have to try out every piece to see if it fits before you realize that one piece is missing. Since Celeste requires careful execution to do this, it could lead to frustrating times for some players.

But when all of the pieces are laid out, Celeste becomes very rewarding, it does so not by giving the player more abilities or skills to play with but with even more challenges to overcome. It gets extremely difficult, but it is still a game that wants you to beat it. Celeste’s best moments really come from beating what at first seemed like insurmountable tasks. If you like that sort of thing in video games and are into platformers, then I highly recommend giving Celeste a shot.