This game is just absolutely terrible. The single-player is a chore to get through with very little level variety. All levels play exactly the same: awkward switch hunting, arena style combat, endless waves between arenas that are annoying, and terrible platforming with poor implementations. The shooting feels off and doesn't quite hit 'this is a nerf foam blaster' but more like that are horrible laser beams. The nerf guns themselves actually look pretty decent and have unlockable skins that I enjoy, but the reloading animations are awkward. Every enemy feels generic and boring, and the combat is so easy because almost everything dies in one shot and, when you die, there is no penalty. Enemies' health doesn't even reset! The bosses are a joke too and don't really do anything to challenge you or play differently, and often got stuck when going against them. The customization for perks and weapons is barely noticeable and are subtle stat changes, rather than changing the guns interesting ways or allowing you to do things like build as a glass cannon or tank. Plus, it easily softlocks. I got one ten seconds before the end of a level and had to do the ENTIRE THING over. There are about three songs used too, and are only used in combat. Meaning you get these instand, awkward starts and stops between combat status and every time you get into combat the song resets, so you can hear the same loop every ten seconds if the enemies are spread out far enough. And if you wanna play the multiplayer? Nope. It is literally non-functional. Not only is there absolutely no one (and I mean not one singly person) looking for a match, but on multiple platforms it straight up is impossible to boot up and find a game even if you try. And there is no cross-platform, so the less than ten people that play this at once are spread out. So you can't even play this as a multiplayer game. And while I don't normally mention the price **** in my review because it can date it, this was sold as a fifty dollar game. This wouldn't be worth ten dollars. At the start of the launch it listed this game as version 0.1 instead of 1.0 and I thought this was a mistake. Nope, that was exactly what this is. Even if this was a beta or alpha or early access or whatever it wouldn't be up to the very low standards of this, and I recommend you avoid this at all costs even if you can play it for free. Other than some small moments of enjoyment with the shooting, the fun of using well-modeled and good looking nerf guns, and some not terrible graphics this game has nothing to offer.
I'm not really a fan of Bloober Games. I find their games boring without any actual gameplay, condescending stories that focus on the extremely negative stereotypes and aspects of mental illness, and a cheap attempt to capture nostalgia basing their games on 'Silent Hill' vibes with Amensia-like gameplay, failing at both. The Medium is just barely an exception, offering a slightly better story than usual, some great music (albeit again, basing it on nostalgia of Silent Hill), and is a very pretty game. But it still has those Bloober flaws. Mediocre puzzles, barely any gameplay, terrible gameplay when it has stealth, and overall just doesn't have a lot. The plot is straight forward and other than the graphics and music there isn't anything that is 'good' about this game. I don't get why people love them when the experiences they go for are executed far better than almost anyone making horror games right now. I didn't hate my experience with this game, but considering this is the fourth main title I've heard from them and how much they toted how it required new hardware to run, I expected better.
This is absolutely one of my favorite games of all time. This has an amazing gameplay, wonderful graphics that still hold up today, a large variety of level designs and a story that is genuinely one of the best every created in the gaming genre. It has interesting characters, a coherent plot, and some brutality mixed together with love. Having a focus on the relationship between Joel and Ellie makes up for the generic plot, and that is where the story is amazing. The gameplay is solid, with a 'hide-and-seek' style of combat that does get a little repetitive towards the end, but everything else about this game doesn't make you notice until the second or third playthrough. The music as well is wonderfully scored and just makes those scenes even more rememberable. The DLC as well is a gut-punch and offers more insight into the backstory of Ellie's character, since this game very much focused on Joel for the most part. Overall a fantastic game and playing it at 60 FPS makes it an excellent pickup for the PS4/PS5.
I think this game is given a "cult-like" status for its rarity and price, and makes people think it is this revolutionary amazing hidden gem. In reality it is a relatively mediocre game with some great scares. The jumpscares in this game are well-designed and punish players for running through without a care, and has some genuinely tense and creepy moments, but the story is a mess that makes it hard to follow. The two phases follow different protagonists and go for different tones which makes it awkward. The Yin Phase is closer to Silent Hill compared to the Yang Phase which is more like Resident Evil. The gameplay is, well, meh. The melee combat is absolutely terrible for all of the characters and the spells, while interesting, don't really do enough. You have basically two attacks: variances of a fireball attack and variances of a minion summon attack. But it has little depth and doesn't really pace how much stuff it gives you so you really end up with way too many spells by the end. The story again, is a mess, and it makes it really hard to follow if you consider both characters to be one-hundred percent canon which the game implies, unlike Resident Evil. Overall, I'd recommend watching a playthrough if you're curious but it generally isn't worth trying to play yourself, at least on official hardware.
I was seriously surprised with how good this game was. I expected to enjoy it more than my little time with Marvel's Avengers but not this much. Guardians of the Galaxy oozes with personality, sticking with that merry band of misfits well and creating amazing connections between all of them. All the team members are important in the writing, gameplay, and story. Nothing was lacking in these regards and they all synced well. The combat is a little simplistic as well as the upgrade system, but it really starts to pick up the more abilities you upgrade, and it was insanely fun to combine all of the Guardian's abilities, syncing them together with the correct items to do large amounts of damage to one heavy enemy of lay waste to a bunch of smaller enemies. The level design is excellent and the soundtrack, while horrendous for streamers with all the copyrighted music, has great choices. I think the biggest flaw of the game is that the mechanics of the game are really too simple, and there isn't a whole lot of depth despite the almost DMC-style of ranking system after every battle. You don't really get combos with melee or your guns, and the main way of showing style is how you combine and use your team's abilities. Overall you can tell this game had much more flavor and personality in comparison to Avengers, and doens't feel nearly as generic. It is fresh and fun, and I'm happy because there is probably going to be young kids playing this game and absolutely loving it. That, and no microtransactions plus a NG+ mode means I'll probably do another playthrough soon.
I'll admit I only played through this game in preperation for an event, so maybe I couldn't appreciate it too much. I like the graphics but they are very much a product of the time. Elena and Same were the best parts of the game, and both characters felt well-written. The rest though were either cannon fodder soldiers, boring villains, or Gears of War ripoffs. The gameplay was somewhat enjoyable, but it wasn't intuitive and even with the whole playthrough I felt like I never got a good grasp on it which feels like the design, as the arcade styling of points and such implied it wanted multiple playthroughs but really I had no interest in that. The mechanics were fun and it was enjoyable to slide around and go into slow-motion but the cover-based shooting and the output enemies did for damage made it really feel awkward unless you wanted to pump dozens of hours into the game. Overally not really that great of an experience and I don't think it is worth it unless you REALLY need more third-person shooters in your life.
Honestly? This is probably the best way to play Resident Evil 4. The graphics at the time made it the best version, the game itself is fantastic with a good story and wonderful gameplay that makes it insanely enjoyable for one playthrough or a hundred, and the combat is tight and feels good to do. However, the Wii version has the best use of motion controls I've seen. Not even the PC version with a mouse can match it, and really it is baffling how good this game feels for a control system it wasn't designed for. The motion controls make this version so fun to play and come back to, and the controls feel crisp and tight with the gameplay. If you have this version I would highly recommend it, because to me it is the best game on the Wii and the best version of the best game ever, at least in terms of the SD consoles.
Resident Evil 4 on the Playstation 2 is how I grew up with this game, and this was my childhood favorite and is still my favorite game of all time. This game is amazing: it has extremely wonderful gameplay mechanics that are satisfying and fun to play through all the time, with varied enemies and weapons seriously offering dozens of playthroughs worth for replayability. The story is cheesy but doesn't feel cheesier than a good action movie, and the graphics at the time were stylish and really helped create a blend of horror and action. The sections are rememberable and you can tell this game was perfectly crafted. Unfortunately, this port is really just not the most amazing version of the game with long loads, poorer graphics than the Gamecube version, and slowdown on the framerates but of course, I didn't notice this stuff until I actually grew up. If you are looking to play this game and get that retro feel I would recommend the Gamecube version, but this is still an amazing game. The PS2 version though is definitely the worst version with again, horrendous graphics and visual quality, really long loads for simply the inventory, and choppy framerates that hinder the gameplay quite a bit on this version.
Wow. This game. Fatal Frame 2 was a great sequel in almost all aspects. The story was infinitely better and created a real depth that the first one desperately needed. The graphics were improved and the location offered a lot of variances as it was an entire village rather than one mansion, so you had more indoor and outdoor locations and not nearly as much backtracking. The ghost design was more haunting, and having other characters/survivors around created a lot more tension. The bond between the two main characters was great and really connected them to the story and what happened before you arrived rather than seeing the aftermath through a window. But my god, the gameplay. The gameplay was absolutely horrendous. In the first game, you would aim your camera at ghosts and the longer you stared at them, the more damage you did. There were also 'fatal frame' moves that acted like a parry, and if you shot your camera right as you were about to be hit you got essentially a critical hit. They COMPLETELY changed it in Fatal Frame 2, and severely downgraded it. The combat was now trying to be more complicated and totally failed, as now it was based more on the range. No matter how long you had your camera on an enemy, you had to get close to them. The problem was that unless you got a Fatal Frame shot, you simply didn't do damage. Even strong film against the weakest enemies didn't do much, and really made you want to just run past as many enemies as possible out of annoyance rather than fear or lack of resources. It is such a shame because really, this is a great game in every other way but the core gameplay is so bad that it doesn't make me want to return back to it. Great story, great graphics, horrendous gameplay. If this game had the same gameplay and camera mechanics as the first game, it would probably be one of my favorite games of all time and would bump it up to an eight or nine, maybe even a ten.
Fatal Frame is a very good entry into the survival horror world during a time where Silent Hill and Resident Evil reigned. It features a young girl searching for her brother in a haunted mansion, fighting enemies with only a special ghost camera to defend herself. The story is good albeit simple, with a focus on what happened before you arrived in the Himuro Mansion. The gameplay was a good change of pace, focusing on first-person camera shooting to defend yourself from ghosts, and incentivizing you to stare at your horror while fighting it rather than running away. All the ghosts are relatively unique characters and you can even find out their background and how they died. The puzzles are decent as well, but they really don't do much or involve any unique mechanics. Usuaully to unlock doors you don't get keys but rather find a blue zone, aim your camera at the blue zone, and that unlocks it. You have an upgrade system as well but it is very basic, and it is more making you more powerful rather than changing how you play and creating unique playstyles. The NG+ content is good as well, but the location being only one place that you've already gone through multiple times in one playthrough makes it seem like it simply wasn't big enough for what they wanted, and that shows. For a first game though they created really good bones, and it certainly did a good job sneaking its way into the third-place survival horror spot on the PS2, beating out Obscure, Siren, and more.
There isn't much to say about The Legend of Zelda. To me, it is the perfect open world game. It is ripe with exploration where it really feels like you can do whatever you want however you want, and it truly rewards this experience with such a variety of content that it is impossible to come across it all without sinking hundreds of hours into the game. The combat and collecting is excellent and well-made and the story fits the theme and settings perfectly. Everything has so much character and charm that it really feels like everything single thing in the game was maticuously crafted. Combat rewards you by trying multiple things or just the standard slice-and-dice, meaning you never really feel like you are forced into doing one thing or going one place. The soundtrack is fantastically scored and really helps set the mood for combat while acting as a gameplay indicator for when you are spotted and by what. Playing this on the Switch even the graphics are still great, and the art style pops extremely well on the OLED Switch. In fact, I am doing a full playthrough again on it just to experience it once more.There is pretty much nothing that I can objectively that is wrong with the game... But I will admit personally my time had a few frustrating areas. I prefer linear games because I like to be guided, and prefer to have choices limited in where to go and what to do with my combat options being freeform and open. An example **** that I felt did this well was The Last of Us 2. And for me, personally, Breath of the Wild was too open for me. I ended up abandoning a lot of important stuff and side quests because I simply didn't know what to do or how to approach it, and I wandered a lot and got lost quite often which was more frustrating for me. Even the cooking was overwhelming for me trying to figure out ingredients and I kept hoarding items the entire game I never got use out of because I didn't know what to do. Now that I've beaten the game I feel with a guide I will enjoy trying to 100% this game or at least do a lot more, but I can't say I had that fascination and wonder that everyone else had because this isn't my type of game. But that doesn't mean I can't see how good it is. Like a movie critic who hates romanctic comedies, they can still appreciate the talent, hard effort, and skill even if they don't like the genre. Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is the perfect open-world game, and even if it wasn't a game for me, I still enjoy purely for the skill that it took to make it and I look forward to beating the second one with eager delight.
Borderlands, the original looter shooter, has aged pretty decently. It has a lot of positives from the looting, enemy design, and the gunplay. The characters and abilities you are able to use are relatively simple but satisfying and all have different styles. This, along with the multiple playthroughs really helps with replayability. That being said there were some aspects that didn't age well. The level design can be very confusing to navigate and not that interesting with a focus on drab, boring desert areas or trashpiles that make it difficult to navigate and fails to give unqiue feelings to a good majority of the levels. A lot of the side quests feel like padding as well that don't offer anything interesting, with some being so simple you can basically walk over, press a button without fighting, and leave. Along with that, going through multiples times **** to get a maxed character can be frustrating for completionists, and the skill trees of characters don't really let you create a unique playstyle within or any alternative **** DLC helped boosting this rating up by one, with Zed's being my favorite. I didn't love the General Knoxx DLC because of the driving, but I liked the other aspects and especially the story stuff. The Claptrap one was really good too, and I think all around it is a solid attempt. I didn't do Moxxi's but it is just enemy wave fighting, but it is good because it has the bank to store items which is extremely helpful. Definitely boosted this game up. Still, a very fun game that I would recommend to people before they jump into Borderlands 2.
Dead Space is the classic action horror along with Resident Evil 4 and is a very good one at that. Even now horror games struggle to have interesting and challenging mechanics and will usually forgo combat because of it, or it will be completely lackluster. Dead Space does a great balance of this, not leaning towards horror game or action with the combat. It has a great idea regarding aiming for limbs and that really was something that was fascinating. Unfortunately, this game isn't as good as everyone says. The level design doesn't leave that much room for creativity except for a few interesting areas, and the gimmicks get real old real quick for how much they are used. The constant wondering in anti-gravity situations, the two turret sections, and the awkwardness of Isaac being a silent protagonist hurts the game more than helps. I feel that the remake might address these issues, but the original definitely isn't better than the later entry, Dead Space 2. I feel that the pacing was terrible because it was constant 'to escape we just need to do this one thing' and the moment you finish that task you immediately have another issue again, and this is repeated over and over almost until the very ending of the game. It kept pulling me under the run and really made Isaac look like a loser who has no agency over himself. He is just told 'do this and this' and doesn't show any emotion until the end. Along with that, I feel that a lot of the xenomorphs are great and very fun to fight except the babies with the tentacles that pop out that show up way too often. Fighting in the anti-gravity also wasn't fun either, and it was really janky to actually do. Still, these complaints are my own, and I know a lot of the hallway level design of the shop is what made people like this game but to me, I would've preferred open worlds for xenomorphs to hide in and attack from the shadows as well as easily encircle you, rather than only being able to come from two different ways. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who likes horror and the lore is great, but the cracks have shown through the age. While I didn't originally think a remake was necessary, after replaying the game I have to disagree with that idea now, and I'm excited to see what they'll change with it and hopefully they are good ideas that carry the series forward.
Deathloop is a great amalgimation of Arkane Studio's ideas over the years. You can find a little of something from all their games in this title. You have Dishonored's stealth mechanics, abilities and unique style, Wolfenstein's excellent gunplay, Prey's storytelling with themes of memory and consequences. It all boils together into an impressive and unique title that really makes you feel like a detective as you try to break the loop. Colt and Julianna's back and forth is amazing and natural, and really pits them as quite impressive rivals of each other with different goals. My favorite part is they both make excellent points to support both of their arguments, leaving it up to the player as to who is right. Solving the loop and figuring out the puzzle of how to kill all of the Visionaries is fantastic, and the infusion system making it so you don't have to completely start over from scratch like in Returnal makes the formulaic looping not get boring or frustrating. My main issue with the game though is the levels themselves. There are only four with differences between the same levels depending on the day which isn't too bad, however I feel that when it comes to this type of game they need to be REALLY interesting. Arkane has amazing level design and that didn't change here, but it didn't show to be exemplary. They are intricate, but other than Updaam they didn't really feel unique or crazy. Dishonored 2 had amazingly unique levels like The Clockwerk Mansion or Jindosh's Mansion where you were jumping between two worlds in time or you would pull a switch to change the entire layout of a room. That just didn't happen with a lot of areas in this game. As for the multiplayer component I will admit I didn't really have an interest in using it, and so the AI Julianna I ran into was either too difficult and killed you immediately or too easy and didn't offer the scary challenge it should be. That is my decision for playing single-player but it should've been developed so she didn't feel like any other NPC. Another issue I had was that I didn't really feel like I had the 'choice' to go in guns blazing like they implied. It isn't as 'play-your-own-way' as they imply. You need to play into the stealth a little bit because NPC's mow you down. And while there are health drinks and stations around, you don't actually have any medkits to heal on the fly so you can take damage and stay in the fight. That would've been something to look into including, since health regeneration only does so much. Having to connect to Bethesda's Launcher, I did find it annoying because I connected the wrong account and there is no way to easily unlink it sothat is fun, but it didn't count against my score. Playing as Julianna is fun too, especially if you go into it as a long-play and don't try to just kill Colt immediately head-on a few times. It emphasizes you playing Julianna as stealthy as you can rather than fighting Colt head-on, and offering outfits for ranking up instead of forcing microtransactions was a nice change of pace, especially with how nice they all look. Overall though this is a very creative and unique stealth game with good gameplay and some issues going on regarding the level design and AI but has a lot of fantastic redeeming qualities.
Returnal has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time. It is a third-person sci-shooter that borrows from and combines bullet hell shmups and rogue-lite mechanics to create a unique experience, wrapped in a fantastic sci-fi story to add to it. You play as Selene, an astronaut who ends up stranded on a mysterious, hostile, alien planet where every death she experiences brings her back to the initial crash, leaving her stuck effectively in a timeloop. This story also ties into the gameplay, as every death brings you back to the beginning. While this can sound tedious there are certain aspects of the game that make this tolerable but difficult, as you will need to pass through six biomes to complete the game. The game also removes a majority of your gear, and you will need to refind weapons, artifacts, and parasites once again. The enemies are designed off bullet-hell enemies which Housemarque is famous for, with colorful projectiles absolutely swarming your screen at times. Thankfully, the movement and shooting is fluid and fun, making it so you can navigate the world easily and dodge projectiles. A majority of the deaths feel like they are on you and not the game, which is important and borrows from other difficult games like Dark Souls. The setting is fantastic and could rival Alien in many ways. A big draw to the mystery is connecting the puzzle pieces together, and the house sequences you occasionally experience remind me of PT. It does a nice blend of many genres, but it does have some negatives. If you are a hardcore fan of rogue-likes you will be disappointed in build options, as this game doesn't really have that. You can't exactly find items to turn you into a slow, powerful tank or a dangerous glass cannon, and that is a key aspect that is missing from the game. It is also incredibly difficult for most and the difficulty is front-loaded on, meaning that as you progress it gets easier. I would say Biome 2 is the hardest one in the game for many reasons, and I feel many players will get stuck here and quit. Another issue is if you close the game at any time, your run gets reset, so you will be hesitant to join your buddy in another game if you're on a good run. But, these complaints I have are very dependent on your preferences, and for me, these weren't a bother. I would recommend if you play this to look up guides and tips, as many people have put out amazing tips on how to beat this game. I also want to praise the voice acting, with logs being on par with Andrew Ryan's from Bioshock. The voice actor for Selene, Jane Perry, does an excellent job of conveying a wide variety of emotions throughout both playing as her and the mysterious logs you will find as well. Another cool thing is the usage of the controller and 3D audio, making this feel like a game that only works on the PS5. With each weapon, you get an 'alt-fire which is activated by fully pressing down on the left trigger, where normal aiming is done by only pressing it down halfway. And with DualSense this feels very natural and rarely did I accidentally press down too hard when I didn't mean to. I would say this is a must-have for PS5 owners and I hope that the game's format allows for updates to introduce new DLC, new items and weapons, and much more. This isn't a casual experience ****, unfortunately, but for people who are looking for a challenge and love games with excellent mechanics, this is it for you.
It baffles and eludes me the reason for this game to actually be on the PS5 and the PS5 only, especially when the box shows a Nintendo Switch controller on the back. With only two levels, a cowboy town and green hills, you can fully complete the game in less than a half-hour. The graphics are slightly better than a flash game, it makes no use of the controller, and is essentially moving GIFs over a PNG. Even the only aspect of gameplay it has, the shooting, is revolting and you'd have more fun clicking with a mouse on your desktop. Somehow, they've already released the worse PS5 game of the decade. This game has zero artistic value or entertainment and I'm pretty sure this is part of a money-laundering scheme. I would say this is the worst game I've ever played, but almost doesn't even qualify as a game. This is worse than a bargain bin Walmart game, do not buy this for your new, extremely difficult-to-find console. Please.
This game is absolutely amazing. The world is vibrant and alive with so much to do and explore with great music and adventure. It has an extremely unique level design and really takes advantage of the 'going into other's minds' concept that worked so well in the first game. The characters are extremely unique and interesting and have that awesome Tim Schafer quirk and amazing comedy. The combat has been smoothed out and is actually challenging compared to the original where you can't just melee stun the enemies in one chain. It forces you to be diverse with your arsenal and use all of your powers, something the first game didn't try as much. This, along with all the new enemies, infinitely improves the combat. Along with that, there is just so much to do and explore. You have all these collectibles, a fun upgrade system, and an interesting story. The art style is amazing and Psychonauts 2 is an improvement of every single core concept from the first game that made it so good in the first place. It is breathtaking and relieving to get a sequel that is just... Better, in every single way, compared to the original which was already amazing. I have no idea what the other reviews are talking about and why they are review-bombing it for no reason. This doesn't feel like an old game at all and I think many of the reviews are people so extremely upset the game wasn't localized to every single language in the world that they give it a 0/10. Ignore those reviews, this game is an absolutely wonderous masterpiece and is one of the best games I've played. By far it is the Game of the Year for me. Period.
