This game is still my favourite. From start to finish it's an absolute pleasure to play, which is something that I can't say about many games. I'm sitting here trying to think of things that I don't like about it but I'm stumped. So here's the things I like about it; Setting, story, characters, music, gameplay, game mechanics, items, replay value, innovations, quests, open-world exploration, levelling system (or lack of), abilities. There's probably more but you get the point. I could write pages and pages about this game but there's no point. I've played hundreds and hundreds of games over the course of several decades and I still love this game. And this isn't just nostalgia - I've revisited the game multiple times since my original playthrough in 1998 and it still is THAT good. This is something I've tried with other games but sadly they have not withstood the test of time anywhere near as well. There are aspects to this game that developers should be using for their games today - an example of this is the levelling system. No need to for XP bars, skill trees or any of that nonsense. Just keep it simple. You're health goes up slowly as you make progress but doubly as you explore more areas and find secrets. You find new items which reward you with new abilities. It's all you need. Levelling shouldn't be a big deal and should basically be invisible to the player. Anyways, there's only a few reasons why you would be reading my review; 1. You've played the game and like it - hello (see '2' if you're looking to play it again). 2. You haven't played the game - then I suggest you get the 3DS version. It's the best legitimate version available. If you don't want that then you can get it on the Wii eShop. I'll also remind you that the WiiU has a Wii inside it [not everyone knows this]. So yes, you can play OoT on your WiiU but you'll need an old controller. 3. You've played the game and don't like it - thanks for reading anyway. I probably could have left this blank and just let the date of my review say everything I need. It's 17 years later and I'm still talking about it.
I'll explain my perspective first. I played Metal Gear Solid [PS game] back in the day and loved it. Until recently I hadn't played any of the other games due to the consoles I owned. I then got the HD collection for Xbox 360 and I'm currently playing through that in preparation for the upcoming MGS:5 release. I've completed Snake Eater prior to playing this. If you read my review on Snake Eater you'll see I rated that game quite low simply because I found it's gameplay to be extremely lacking mainly due to poor controls. This game does not have this problem as not only does it allow you a choice of control schemes, but they're also customisable. I appreciate that it was originally a handheld game and so I expect a certain degree of watering down. But to it's credit I think they actually made a really solid (no pun intended) game here. The only aspect of watering down that doesn't sit right with me is the way boss fights are handled. Without spoiling it - you don't need to prepare for boss fights in any way. I also expect some people to kick off with regards to things that aren't present such as crawling and moving whilst against walls. At first it was a bit of a shock to me but after a while I realised that it isn't a problem. I actually like the use of lying flat in this - you do it just to hide, and not to crawl through the entire area to the exit. The ability to move between cover whilst crouched is a must, something that Snake Eater failed at. That's not to say you should spend the entire game crouched. That said, I did find the walk/run sensitivity quite fiddly which led to me using crouch more than I would normally. I won't go too much into the story but I do think it was somewhat weaker in this compared to Snake Eater. I somewhat moaned about fan service in Snake Eater and I realise that it's part of MGS. This game wasn't anywhere near as bad as Snake Eater for it and I wouldn't even mention it if it wasn't for the two things; firstly who is Cécile? And secondly, the other observation, if you can call it that, was Extra Ops 67. I'll be honest, it made me feel uncomfortable. I'm sure a bunch of people reading this are laughing at me, but whatever your stance is on the subject, Snake is pushing 40 and Paz is 16. Maybe it's me, maybe I should think that's normal but I don't. I don't object to this being in computer games altogether, just don't put it in MGS games. This is already far too long now so in essence, I really enjoyed the game and I think that by itself it's pretty decent - it just felt a bit too casual for me and the story wasn't great. It's a good game but not a great one.
*My review is for the HD collection version but as that is a bundled game I'll write it here in stead.* As a lot of people have already said: the controls are so horrible that I gave up with trying to play this game properly. I love sneaking games and really wanted to enjoy this also but I couldn't. I literally spent hours at the start trying to figure out how to interact with the cover. The camera interaction, inverting controls, and dodgy object clipping simply ruined the experience for me. Everyone around me is saying "Snake, remember this is a sneaking mission". I know this, I'm trying my darndest to hide. It's just that I like to stand up when my elbow clips a tree and I also enjoy running out from cover because the controls have inverted on me. I honestly don't think this aspect could have been worse if they tried. Something else that bugs me is Hideo Kojima's obsession with fan service. A little is fine and can actually improve the experience especially when it's subtle. Half naked women jumping out every 5 minutes and throwing themselves over Snake destroys all immersion for me, but then again, I'm 30 years old and not an adolescent pervert. The game does look really nice and the character model interactions are also very good e.g. the punching, carrying bodies and alike. A great story just awful game play.
This game was a much needed breath of fresh air into the gaming industry. It's not perfect and I did find that most of the difficulty is down to figuring out the game instead to player skill which is still fun but severely lowers replay difficulty. The setting, story and characters all come together to give this deep sense of hopelessness that will stay with you long after you finish the game. One of the let downs for me was the PvP. There's really no sense of balance whatsoever. All in all this game has some really cool uniqueness about it and rewards the players hard efforts.
At the time this was one of my favourites and guess what, it still sits with me as one of the best games I've ever played. I just thought I'd bother myself to rate this game on here and give it the score it deserves.
One of my select few 10/10 games. Gameplay, music, level design, and story are all great. Admittedly I haven't played it in some years now but I'd wager that it's still playable even today, something that can't be said about most old games.
I won't sit here and say that you're going to love this game simply because RTS games aren't for everyone. I on the other hand love this game. It's one of my all time favourites and sits amongst a select few that I believe deserve a 10/10. The visuals, music, gameplay and story are all top notch. Buy the remastered version.
Part of me wants to rate this game higher, but another wants to rate it less. When I completed DS1 I had a genuine sense of relief. When I completed DS2 I was left thinking 'so is that it?'. I found the game far too easy - this might be due to spending so much time playing the first game but I'm not convinced. Even after completing DS1 seven times there are areas/bosses that I still find difficult. However, in contrast, I beat most DS2 bosses first try and most of the remainder second try. There were only a few that took more than 2 attempts. And this is with no soul farming - I just played through the game. I played mainly sword and shield and didn't use any magic of any kind. I was never a fan of the PvP in DS1 and so I was hoping there would be an improvement here. There isn't. After a few hours of the game I started playing it offline which I enjoyed more - as I was avoiding reading player messages anyway to add to the challenge. Improvements: -Smoother gameplay eg no more running on the spot trying to step over rocks. -Frame rate. -Controls. -Item/player menus. It was alright overall but just didn't feel like the same experience as the first game and nowhere near as rewarding.
