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The last <really> good Mega Man X game. I didn't hate X5 and X6 as much as everybody else seems too (keep in mind the last time I played either of those was 2012 so my memory is a bit hazy). X and Zero obviously have most of the same levels but they both play so differently that they feel like completely different games within themselves. Obviously with X using his Buster and Zero using his Sabre, Zero is much, MUCH harder (the General, and I say this in the most disrespectful way possible, can fuck himself) but overall, this is an exceptionally great Mega Man X game.
The bad voice acting makes it even better tbh.
The bad voice acting makes it even better tbh.
I'll start with the positives.
The visuals are amazing. It's just so vibrant with colour and personality. Rayman really does have an identity to call its own. Not to mention the soundtrack being some top quality shit! The boss levels are a load of fun too with loads of creative ideas. It's easy to see how this game did as well as it did!
Now, a lot of people remember this game when Rayman is brought up. Yes, the sequels are better but this one is obviously more recognisable. However, this has aged SO poorly.
Rayman isn't exactly the most fun to control. He's a very stiff character to manoeuvre, not to mention he isn't exactly the most agile character either. Now I don't think Ubisoft knew that because the difficulty takes a MASSIVE slope upwards. Some of the platforming here is just way too tight for a game like this with, at times, platforms that you can just barely reach. There's one level in the Band World where you have to jump around a bunch of slippery platforms that get extremely short. In fact, the later levels play like a fucking ROM hack in places. The amount of trial and error on here is ridiculous!
I find this hard to recommend sadly. I know a lot of people consider this a PlayStation classic but I this doesn't really grab my attention.
This game was also never play-tested. Figures...
The visuals are amazing. It's just so vibrant with colour and personality. Rayman really does have an identity to call its own. Not to mention the soundtrack being some top quality shit! The boss levels are a load of fun too with loads of creative ideas. It's easy to see how this game did as well as it did!
Now, a lot of people remember this game when Rayman is brought up. Yes, the sequels are better but this one is obviously more recognisable. However, this has aged SO poorly.
Rayman isn't exactly the most fun to control. He's a very stiff character to manoeuvre, not to mention he isn't exactly the most agile character either. Now I don't think Ubisoft knew that because the difficulty takes a MASSIVE slope upwards. Some of the platforming here is just way too tight for a game like this with, at times, platforms that you can just barely reach. There's one level in the Band World where you have to jump around a bunch of slippery platforms that get extremely short. In fact, the later levels play like a fucking ROM hack in places. The amount of trial and error on here is ridiculous!
I find this hard to recommend sadly. I know a lot of people consider this a PlayStation classic but I this doesn't really grab my attention.
This game was also never play-tested. Figures...
[NOTE: This is a review for the SH2 HD in the "infamous" collection, since is not listed as an individual game this will do it for now, it has some technical issues that will not affect my score but I will talk about them a little, so I will try to be as objectively possible]
Silent Hill 2 is one of those games that have a lot of fame almost legendary and mythic, is easily to see why, from the very moment you start the game and you're on your own wandering a fogy woods with a creepy and unsettling music and ambiance you know you're for such a ride.
Let me start with my favorite thing so far from this game, the narrative, I love how SH2 doesn't shy away for being cryptic and almost "non-sensical" at times, you start with a simple premise of looking for your dead wife, but things are more complex than that, instead of giving you heavy exposition scenes (which maybe you sometimes get) you have blurry character development and some notes of paper, or diaries here and there which adds tons to the dreamy and oppressing atmosphere. You have a superb balance of cutscenes and gameplay, and for the most part you're on your own on the somewhat scripted openness of the map, which I like it quite a lot.
The combat is serviceable, its clunkiness adds to the theme of feeling underpowered by these unknown monsters, although at my first hours I was so stressed with my bullets and health management, once you understand the mechanics it will be hard to get a game over screen onwards, that's not to say that you feel safe whatsoever, the game manages to never truly let go your throat till the credits roll.
The primary horror aspect from a superficial point of view may be its enemy and environment design, the enemies if few are quite creative and gruesome, the locations are super creepy, they may look generic at first but certain details like lighting, enemy position, etc. make to stand out from the rest, although for me, the one that truly took me to the uncanny valley was the sound design and its music, there's a lot of noise and apparent empty music but you never feel like: "here's the normal enemy music" "now the boss music is playing", is deliciously stylish, even the more conventional music which plays to fit some dramatic scenes is beautiful, Akira Yamaoka is truly a genius.
The script, although is not a masterpiece, it fits perfectly with the tone of the game, at one moment you have a character acting cool and the next moment they're acting super crazy, but it fits, it has aged too good and better than other games of that era. At times the game can turn a little cartoony but again, being a horror game and as a lot of great movies of the genre it knows when to give you a break and be a little silly.
As for the negative aspects, I think that once you grasp all the mechanics the game can turn a little in the easy side, at least combat wise, at the start of the game you will find a couple of puzzles that may feel somewhat cheap, for example, you'll find a 6 pack of juice that to me looked like a health item so I saved it and didn't pretend to use till I really need it, turns out it was a key item that had to be used in an unnatural way to obtain other item, there are like a couple of instances of similar matter that didn't broke my experience that much but they were more annoying than challenging. Lastly, every time you open and close the map, everything around you i.e the monsters, will be moving but the screen will be black for at least 1 solid second, this is pretty annoying since it gives you a tremendous disadvantage in some corridors, and more often than not you'll be rewarded by an enemy hit, maybe this is an issue of the HD collection so I don't counting it to the score.
Speaking of the issues with the HD collection, overall the game looks OK, the fog effect is bad and some characters look a little soulless but is not that bad, the game has the option to play with the new or original voices, I played with both and as someone that is not tainted by nostalgia and is trying to be the more objectively possible I find that both are somewhat bad, although the new ones sound a little better and with more depth (not by that much mind you), definitely would prefer that this was in Japanese tho.
In general I loved my time with SH2 it was stress-full and filled with emotions to the very end, which by the way I didn't expect the ending to be this good, at least the one that I get, definitely recommended for every horror fan, it doesn't have cheap scares and its themes will have you thinking a lot.
_____________________________
Born from a wish [Review]
Born from a wish is a pseudo prequel to the main game, is a nice compliment if you need more SH2 and also want to make a little more sense or to understand the main story.
You play as María, and similarly, as the main campaign you start the game with zero context and little info that you the player must unveil in the lapse of 1 or 2 hours, the story is as cryptic as ever for the most part at least, at some point you have some "direct hints" that are not so expositional but it sure gives you a lot of understanding to the character and the overall story of SH2.
Expect more or less the same kind of rhythm as the main campaign but in shorter bursts, if you like the original game you'll certainly like this extra slice, but don't think you'll find a lot, is just an extra slice of a good cake. You play mainly in a new location that by the way is creepy and nice-looking, remind me more of Resident Evil.
At some point towards the end, there's a puzzle that took me quite a bit of time, its clumsy execution made me re-do it with paper, a thing that I liked btw, but I can see how someone else would find it annoying and maybe cheap.
Overall, this side campaign is good, at some point even gave me an emotional punch which I didn't expect to give me, I say if you want more SH2 give it a go since is more or less a similar experience albeit an extremely condensed one, just make sure that you play it after beating the game not before, it sure is a "prequel" but it also hints you information about the main game that you're supposed to find towards the ending.
Silent Hill 2 is one of those games that have a lot of fame almost legendary and mythic, is easily to see why, from the very moment you start the game and you're on your own wandering a fogy woods with a creepy and unsettling music and ambiance you know you're for such a ride.
Let me start with my favorite thing so far from this game, the narrative, I love how SH2 doesn't shy away for being cryptic and almost "non-sensical" at times, you start with a simple premise of looking for your dead wife, but things are more complex than that, instead of giving you heavy exposition scenes (which maybe you sometimes get) you have blurry character development and some notes of paper, or diaries here and there which adds tons to the dreamy and oppressing atmosphere. You have a superb balance of cutscenes and gameplay, and for the most part you're on your own on the somewhat scripted openness of the map, which I like it quite a lot.
The combat is serviceable, its clunkiness adds to the theme of feeling underpowered by these unknown monsters, although at my first hours I was so stressed with my bullets and health management, once you understand the mechanics it will be hard to get a game over screen onwards, that's not to say that you feel safe whatsoever, the game manages to never truly let go your throat till the credits roll.
The primary horror aspect from a superficial point of view may be its enemy and environment design, the enemies if few are quite creative and gruesome, the locations are super creepy, they may look generic at first but certain details like lighting, enemy position, etc. make to stand out from the rest, although for me, the one that truly took me to the uncanny valley was the sound design and its music, there's a lot of noise and apparent empty music but you never feel like: "here's the normal enemy music" "now the boss music is playing", is deliciously stylish, even the more conventional music which plays to fit some dramatic scenes is beautiful, Akira Yamaoka is truly a genius.
The script, although is not a masterpiece, it fits perfectly with the tone of the game, at one moment you have a character acting cool and the next moment they're acting super crazy, but it fits, it has aged too good and better than other games of that era. At times the game can turn a little cartoony but again, being a horror game and as a lot of great movies of the genre it knows when to give you a break and be a little silly.
As for the negative aspects, I think that once you grasp all the mechanics the game can turn a little in the easy side, at least combat wise, at the start of the game you will find a couple of puzzles that may feel somewhat cheap, for example, you'll find a 6 pack of juice that to me looked like a health item so I saved it and didn't pretend to use till I really need it, turns out it was a key item that had to be used in an unnatural way to obtain other item, there are like a couple of instances of similar matter that didn't broke my experience that much but they were more annoying than challenging. Lastly, every time you open and close the map, everything around you i.e the monsters, will be moving but the screen will be black for at least 1 solid second, this is pretty annoying since it gives you a tremendous disadvantage in some corridors, and more often than not you'll be rewarded by an enemy hit, maybe this is an issue of the HD collection so I don't counting it to the score.
Speaking of the issues with the HD collection, overall the game looks OK, the fog effect is bad and some characters look a little soulless but is not that bad, the game has the option to play with the new or original voices, I played with both and as someone that is not tainted by nostalgia and is trying to be the more objectively possible I find that both are somewhat bad, although the new ones sound a little better and with more depth (not by that much mind you), definitely would prefer that this was in Japanese tho.
In general I loved my time with SH2 it was stress-full and filled with emotions to the very end, which by the way I didn't expect the ending to be this good, at least the one that I get, definitely recommended for every horror fan, it doesn't have cheap scares and its themes will have you thinking a lot.
_____________________________
Born from a wish [Review]
Born from a wish is a pseudo prequel to the main game, is a nice compliment if you need more SH2 and also want to make a little more sense or to understand the main story.
You play as María, and similarly, as the main campaign you start the game with zero context and little info that you the player must unveil in the lapse of 1 or 2 hours, the story is as cryptic as ever for the most part at least, at some point you have some "direct hints" that are not so expositional but it sure gives you a lot of understanding to the character and the overall story of SH2.
Expect more or less the same kind of rhythm as the main campaign but in shorter bursts, if you like the original game you'll certainly like this extra slice, but don't think you'll find a lot, is just an extra slice of a good cake. You play mainly in a new location that by the way is creepy and nice-looking, remind me more of Resident Evil.
At some point towards the end, there's a puzzle that took me quite a bit of time, its clumsy execution made me re-do it with paper, a thing that I liked btw, but I can see how someone else would find it annoying and maybe cheap.
Overall, this side campaign is good, at some point even gave me an emotional punch which I didn't expect to give me, I say if you want more SH2 give it a go since is more or less a similar experience albeit an extremely condensed one, just make sure that you play it after beating the game not before, it sure is a "prequel" but it also hints you information about the main game that you're supposed to find towards the ending.
«Blew my mind»
«Can’t stop playing»
Despite the new coat of paint, this is still the highly flawed Halo 2 underneath. Encounter design is occasionally interesting, but generally relies on bizarre, retired tropes like enemies spawning behind you, or coming in wave after wave. Levels are still composed of nearly identical rooms, often placed right next to each other, which make it difficult to know if you're going in the right direction or backtracking. Most frustrating of all, levels are not designed with clear paths, so you'll often spend a few minutes looking around only to realize that you need to stand on some random purple circle in order to progress.
If you're playing just for the multiplayer, it might be kind of alright. If you're a newcomer the adjustment period is not pleasant, and you'll spend a lot of time getting absolutely annihilated by people who have been playing for over 10 years.
If you're playing just for the multiplayer, it might be kind of alright. If you're a newcomer the adjustment period is not pleasant, and you'll spend a lot of time getting absolutely annihilated by people who have been playing for over 10 years.
«Oh God i managed it»
Extremely repetitive, combat is kinda good parcore is jankey
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was one of the first games i played on the next gen console (PS4). Black Flag is sort of a prequel to Assassin's Creed 3, but chronologically the "modern day" setting (2013) takes place after the events of Assassin's Creed 3. Black Flag, Rogue, Syndicate, Origins and Odyssey have hands down the worst "modern day" stories out of the whole Assassin's Creed series. You take on the role of a nameless, genderless, formless protagonist who works at Abstergo Entertainment. The giant mega corporation has hands in all aspects of the world including entertainment. So Ubisoft tried to go full meta, and failed, by having Abstergo use Animus technology to study stored memories and create movies, comics, books, tv shows, and video games based on the stored memories. The stored memories you interact with are the memories of Desmond Miles, specifically those of his ancestor Edward Kenway (the father of Haythem and the grandfather of Connor Kenway). Edward was a pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy (1650s-1730s) and falls into the Assassins-Templar war, while also trying to maintain his own goals and desires as he tries to stand with other famous pirates and create a pirate nation. The graphics still hold up fairly well, with some minor technical issues still present. The sailing and naval mechanics from Assassin's Creed are improved and make up a sizable portion of the gameplay (it is a pirate themed game after all). The world is pretty massive and integrates some new and familiar elements of this franchise surprisingly well. The story is very good and is seemingly focused (appropriately) on Edward and his decisions, failings and struggles. I do think there is a lot of narrative fat that could be trimmed, but I will praise the focus on Edward and his relationships that evolve and shape the game. The voice acting is wonderful. The gameplay is good, but very repetitive. The time period is a nice change of pace. At the end of the day, Black Flag is another solid entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise. After this game, however, the series falls on some rather uneasy grounds.
Rating: 4/5
Rating: 4/5
While the game itself is very solid, it offers little incentive to play other than the potential feeling of victory. Seems like a great way to pass time on the train though, so I eagerly await a release on iOS/Android.
«Beaten more than once»
Having gone through The Last of Us for the now 3rd time after not playing it since about the time it came out originally and because of excitement for 2's release. I love this game with all of my heart.
While I think gameplay wise it starts pretty rough honestly though with a great story and story setup, the gameplay sections get and feel so much better once you hit the end of summer/beginning of fall.
The characters feel like living breathing people, the gameplay feels aggressive and heavy, making sure every bullet you have counts to the very end. The violence is brutal and attention grabbing in a pretty disturbing way.
Winter especially being the gameplay highlight.
The music is haunting in its own way, never dominating the situation more then it needs to but there when appropriate for the scene and extremely fitting.
The acting is top notch and everyone brings their a-game to this thing.
And the ambiguity of the ending is so good, leaving the player with a lot to process and chew on as the credits roll.
Just such a phenomonal game and I can't wait for 2.
While I think gameplay wise it starts pretty rough honestly though with a great story and story setup, the gameplay sections get and feel so much better once you hit the end of summer/beginning of fall.
The characters feel like living breathing people, the gameplay feels aggressive and heavy, making sure every bullet you have counts to the very end. The violence is brutal and attention grabbing in a pretty disturbing way.
Winter especially being the gameplay highlight.
The music is haunting in its own way, never dominating the situation more then it needs to but there when appropriate for the scene and extremely fitting.
The acting is top notch and everyone brings their a-game to this thing.
And the ambiguity of the ending is so good, leaving the player with a lot to process and chew on as the credits roll.
Just such a phenomonal game and I can't wait for 2.
«Blew my mind»
«That ending!»
Extremely cheap one-hit kill traps and "retry until memorized" mechanic just isnt fun.
Graphics are cool but can't see the lasers from the enemy to even dodge.
Should be longer
Lots of potential but needs controller support.
Could have had a lot of potential to be a good rage game.
I'm sure this has a pretty lovely message, and everyone involved did their best. But this is beyond unplayable. It's SUPER buggy, the lag is unbearable, the controls are unresponsive, and the story makes no sense.
I'm perfectly aware that they wanted to go for something surreal and dream-like, but the story still needs to make sense, to keep players engaged. The cut scenes jump from one scene to the other without any explanation, you get rewards for doing things you don't understand.
I felt like a grandma trying to play Darksouls.
«Buggy as hell»
More people need to play this game! Surprisingly great multiplayer value here for a itch.io game
The fact that Nintendo hasn't thought to make a Switch one on launch, let alone TO THIS DAY is fucking mind-boggling.
«Blew my mind»
«Time-tested»
Code Vein just shows its hands in all of its anime gothic style and cool edgy presentation with some pretty fun if kinda one dimensional characters but while I do adore this game quite a bit especially with its wonderful character customization it really lacks in some areas of game design especially around some of the later ichor ability focused bosses. Some of them have really poor telegraphing on their attack patterns and it's really hard to feel exactly why you died to them or something. Playing this game alone honestly feels kinda meh so bringing along a friend is in my opinion absolutely essential though playing with just the AI is also perfectly fine and doable. Otherwise things just feel a little tedious. It's trying really hard to do well what thee souls games do but unfortunately it doesn't fully hit the mark.
But even with all of this criticism I have towards it I genuinely really enjoy Code Vein. I like its goofy overly edgy anime aesthetic, I love the little worldbuilding flourishes, I love the shit it kinda just blatantly steals from souls outright. Even if the story sorta just falls apart and isn't that interesting in the end I still had a lot of fun with it and its characters. And I still really love how character builds work and how strong you genuinely feel by the end of the game. It feels nice just to be able to rip through these horrors even if I wish some of the progression and abilities were a little better designed/more fun to use then they honestly were. If a Code Vein 2 is made and its allowed a bit more of a consistent budget and probably more time I think they could really knock it out of the park or at the very least make a much better game for sure. Oh yeah and the music slaps. It's real good.
But even with all of this criticism I have towards it I genuinely really enjoy Code Vein. I like its goofy overly edgy anime aesthetic, I love the little worldbuilding flourishes, I love the shit it kinda just blatantly steals from souls outright. Even if the story sorta just falls apart and isn't that interesting in the end I still had a lot of fun with it and its characters. And I still really love how character builds work and how strong you genuinely feel by the end of the game. It feels nice just to be able to rip through these horrors even if I wish some of the progression and abilities were a little better designed/more fun to use then they honestly were. If a Code Vein 2 is made and its allowed a bit more of a consistent budget and probably more time I think they could really knock it out of the park or at the very least make a much better game for sure. Oh yeah and the music slaps. It's real good.
«Better with friends»
«OST on repeat»