CptCaleb

I’m a big metroid fan and have played all the games but other m. This is not a metroid game. I’m not sure what it is, and I’m pretty sure neither do the developers. Enough has been said about the NPCs (except it’s clear now that they are a major part of the game), so I’ll leave that be. The real issue is the soul of the game. It’s as much a metroidvania as mario odyssey or breath of the wild. It just has no depth. The level design is shallow and each zone/dungeon is essentially a single long hallway. Worst of all is the aggressive handholding shoved in your face. Every time you enter the desert/hub area you’re immediately told where to go and prompted to open the map to show you the destination. At one point I had the navigator npc come on comms twice within a minute to make sure I know where to go and “if you ever need directions on where to go, you can always reach me on comms.“ The gameplay is, at its core, unchanged from the previous games, which is great, and the bosses are quite good. But don’t expect any interesting powerups. Overall, I think they should have left the Prime series alone. This game feels like they were just trying to put something together enough to ship and nothing more. Nowhere near as much love went into it as its predecessors. Update: I actually had to come back to adjust my score because the ending is just outright terrible. Totally out of place and against all of Samus’ character. Wow. At this point I’m hoping they don’t make a Prime 5.

Didn’t even experience major bugs and still didn’t like it. It just wasn’t fun. Huge areas looked they were made by a freshman game design student as part of a term project. There’s nothing worth seeing here. Wouldn’t have been able to finish it if I hadn’t had covid at the time and needed something to do in quarantine. I had low expectations from the reports about poor performance, but was way more disappointed by how low quality the underlying game actually is. Conspiracy theory: the bugs were put in to distract from how bad the game is!

Not sure why they thought the combat mechanics needed to be simplified so much. They eliminated all secondary weapons, the skill trees are small and not very unique for each character, with no variety of weapons (only 9 weapons in the game). Each character functions so similarly now that it just feels stale. I loved the first one, so I was really excited about getting a sequel but this is pretty disappointing to the point I might not get thru it. Can’t for the life of me imagine how anyone feels this is an upgrade on the original in every way. Seems exactly the opposite. Humor and environments are nowhere near as good as the original either.

After about 120hrs, Elden Ring is definitely good, but I’d hardly call it revolutionary. Either soulsbourne games are for you or they aren’t, so I think it’s unfair for anyone to rate this game based on just being in that genre with its tropes of difficulty and all that (which seems to be precisely what’s happening). So aside from that this game has benefited from From Soft’s reputation and critical praise. I heard a lot of praise about how this game has changed open world games forever and raised the bar. Don’t get me wrong, Elden Ring is good, but I can’t for the life of me imagine what everyone thinks is new here? Or maybe not new but far better than any other game has done it? It definitely meets the bar, but I think it’s a stretch to say it sets it. In that regard, I’m not a fan of the omission of some basic open world elements (like a quest log). Even this sort of thing has received praise—which again I don’t think would have happened if it wasn’t a From game. It’s definitely a good game, but if you’re not already a superfan of the developer then I wouldn’t go into it expecting it to be this life-changing experience it’s been built up to be. It took me well over 30 hrs to get into it *at all*, and even then I never had an “oh wow, this is awesome” moment with it. But plenty of “ah this is interesting; let’s check this out.”

Painfully slow. The game is beautiful to look at and the combat is good, but it feels like a loooooooong slog between fights/events of interest. The story moves slowly, which isn’t that big of a deal, but there’s just so much agonizingly slow movement and dialog that I don’t think I can go any further than the 10 hrs I’ve already put into it. A huge chunk of the game is spent walking slower than real life and maneuvering around npcs while feeling like you’re walking through thick, deep molasses. I get that some of the slow movement is to mask loading screens, but I don’t think that’s true in most cases. And upgrading this for PS5, loading times shouldn’t be any issue. I never played the original so maybe I just don’t have enough nostalgia for this game, but it’s the most painfully slow game I think I’ve ever played. When it shines it does so splendidly though!

Maybe the best Metroid ever! I’m a huge fan of the series, but this new iteration is something special. They truly nailed it! It’s not as much of a reinvention of the franchise as I had suspected it would be, for better or worse. Mechanics: the controls here are maybe the tightest I’ve seen in any game. Everything feels responsive and exact. I only really found myself fumbling with the controls when during puzzles requiring very quick execution of the more advanced actions, which is fine because it’s intentional so. Overall, I was extremely pleased with how precisely and immediately Samus’ movements responds to input. The animations for Samus are fluid and much appreciated! Upgrades: We saw the return of the series’ staples, as well as some really nice new gear. There were a few upgrades that I found lackluster, but still a very strong set. I appreciated that the very last major upgrade was the item that it was, rather than stacking the coolest gear at the end (as Prime 3 did). Emmis: I really loved these things! They were genuinely thrilling to deal with, but didn’t feel totally unreasonable either. I did find on my second playthrough (switched to hard) that avoiding them had become too easy. It’s difficult to implement such an enemy, and still have them feel threatening, given how extremely maneuverable Samus is. So, given that, I don’t know how they could have improved them without compromising on making it cheap/unfair. Environments: This is truly a beautiful game; the lighting and aesthetics are splendid. The water effects in particular stand out. Overall the mood and atmosphere of the environments are well developed and full, which is common in Metroid games. I did find that I never wondered where to go/what to do next, which was a bit disappointing, but probably necessary to aid newcomers to the series. Music is also very fitting. Story: I quite liked it, although some of the choices made went against the grain for me as a long time fan. Overall an excellent entry in a series that has set a very high bar! I’ve honestly never played a more flawless game: they got everything just right! Highly recommend.

This is a perfect game. Sometimes we say that as an exaggeration, but here it’s fully earned. There’s not even some minor detail to nitpick. The story is probably the best I’ve come across in any game, which I certainly won’t spoil here. But I was very glad that I played through this game without any knowledge beforehand about it. Aloy is a great character. She has depth and personality with the full range of emotions (which is to say she’s multifaceted and not at all a 1 dimensional character). She’s strong but compassionate and real. The rest of the cast is also memorable and each has their own distinct personality, making the whole narrative feel complete and immersive, instead of having each NPC feel cut and pasted. Graphically this is definitely the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how they were able to pull it off. There’s some much detail in everything and the environments are beautifully lit. The machines themselves are really impressive to examine because of how detailed they are. The gameplay here really shines brightly. I found it to be highly dynamic and felt like I had options for how I would approach each fight. This made combat never feel stale, even with familiar enemies. I’m a big fan of upgrade systems, and this game definitely satisfies in that regard. Overall, this is an essential game. Highly recommend it.

A must-play for any ps4 owner of course. This was the first Uncharted game I played, and I wish I had done them in order. This one starts off pretty slow and I didn’t find myself really getting into it until about chapter 5. However, once I got into it, I REALLY got into it. A common complaint is that the third act goes on too long. Nonsense! I say. Uncharted 4 is a great game with great mechanics and some insanely beautiful vistas. Truly spectacular things to see here. The villains are also probably the best of the series. Excellent.

This might be the best game ever made. There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said. Total epic masterpiece.

Each game in this trilogy is an absolute masterpiece, but Prime 2 is my favorite Metroid of all, having played a version of all the games. As with all these games, Prime 2 has excellent environments and the combat mechanics are essentially perfect (I play the trilogy version with motion controls, which is a night and day difference for aiming). While there are some cooler upgrades in the other games, this one I think has the most compelling sense of exploration, which is obviously what Metroid games are known for. Prime 1 might just edge this one out of the number one spot, but it’s a close call. This is a must-play for anyone who enjoys the genre. Total work of art.

Just wasn’t for me. Other people clearly love it. I played several hours trying to learn to love it, but always felt like things were either too easy or way too hard. The controls are simple to understand, but I couldn’t master them and it wasn’t fun trying. The grind was unpleasant against beefed up cpus that do much more damage than you and combo lock you. But it’s probably pretty fun with other people (so long as they’re near your level. I hear the online matches are insanely difficult). It’s probably just me, but I was hoping for some customization of characters, like picking a load out if moves or whatever, or some kind of progression system. To be fair, there is a progression system in the story mode. But it’s bare bones and didn’t do it for me. Again, lots of people love this game so it’s doing something right. The matches are fast paced and have a good intense feeling

Really disappointing. I bought it on sale for $10 and that’s the most you should pay for it. Totally crazy to charge anything more for this. The battle mode works well, but lacks some needed customization / options, like changing which cpus you play against or the power ups. Seems to be a lot of unlockable stages, but it’s a major grind that’s just not worth it to unlock each. Haven’t tried online play though. But the graphics, controls, and overall presentation are honestly just above what you’d expect a game design student to turn in for a term project in school—just really simplistic and cookie cutter. The story mode is basic and forgettable, with bosses that just aren’t fun. Bottomline is that the battle mode is alright. Wouldn’t buy again, though. You might enjoy it more than I did: it’s not unplayable or anything like that.