MathiasBS

Either you’ll get it or you won’t - but if you grew up in the 90s, and were one of the odd teens, you’ll probably feel like this is watching your life play out before you. The game made me feel so many thing, I had completely forgotten about, and how I used to feel. For me, it’s my best gaming experience this year so far, even if there’s very little gameplay. Also, don’t underestimate how much a visual feat this is - by far the best looking game I’ve seen in years.

If you grew up with Banjo-Kazooie, you NEED to play this. Yooka-Replaylee finally manages to fix the squandered potential of the original Yooka-Laylee, and the result is an amazing, beautiful homage the to ideas introduced by the Banjo-series, but modernized with a dash of Super Mario Odyssey. The game not only fixes the gameplay however; the visuals and music have been completely overhauled, and tons of new content has been added, which essentially makes it feel like a brand new game, set in the same worlds as the original. I highly recommend you check it out!

I’s fine. It captures some of the magic of the original Little Nightmares, with a couple of very disturbing scenes, with unique, haunting imagery; but unfortunately roughly 70% of the game lends itself to cliche horror tropes, that does little to move the needle. A few of the monsters are very inspiring though, but most of them also plays it very safe and leans a little too heavy into LN, for Reanimal to define it’s own identity and aesthetic. Also, a certain combat-focused chapter of the game, is frankly quite awful, and kills any and all suspense for a good while, which is a shame given the game is just a few hours long If you can enjoy the game for what it is though, there’s some beautiful visuals, interesting settings and amazing audio to enjoy here - just don’t go in, expecting to have the rug swept away from underneath you, like LN for so many of years almost ten years ago.

Have you ever played a AAA open world game? Then you’ve played this. While GOY is incredibly beautiful, sounds amazing and extremely adapt at what it does, it doesn’t have a single new idea. Everything’s been done before, and better in other games, even their own Ghost of Tsushima. Even the story is one we’ve heard many times before. If you like these Hollywood-level productions, and just want cinematic action and great visuals, this is for you. If you’re looking for a new experience however, look elsewhere.

One of the best platformers ever made. This is Nintendo at it’s best; challenging the genre, and injecting genuine creativity into the industry once again. If you’re tired of the endless stream of “cinematic”, boring games and want to get back to the roots of video games, this is for you. It’s pure, unadulterated fun.

If you didn’t like the first one, don’t buy into the hype; it’s more of the same. It’s still just as boring… in a way, it’s actually even more boring this time because of all the new tools, that makes the traversal a bit pointless - simply put, it’s very, very easy. They’ve sort of removed the only thing the gameplay loop had going for it, in the first game, where the traversal required more planning and strategy; this time, it’s a legit walking simulator. The story is also very much what you’d expect. If you’re into the storytelling of Kojima, you’ll love this - but if you’re like me, and find him a bit… pretentious, you’ll find the game is trying so hard to be weird and quirky, while also techy and cool, that the story really looses all meaning. It’s just an endless stream of thoughts, from a guy whose ideas peaked in the 90s. It’s oversatured nonsense, drowning in forced metaphors that personally, for me, doesn’t do anything. Whatever it is trying to say, it says it very clunky. I don’t understand Sam or any of his motivations; he’s just a puppet doing whatever the people around him tell him to do. Who is he, as a person? Why does he just agree to traveling half the world, doing impossible work for nothing? Most of the other characters are equally flat and without depth, with most of their personalities being centered around their mission and adding more convolution to the lore. Everyone just talks about tech and science 24/7, and nothing else really, and given the game is about 50% cutscenes, you’ll quickly know if this will click with you or not. For me, it most certainly doesn’t. I keep waiting for that big, awesome moment, that will make me like the game, but it just never happened. All this being said, if you love it you will love it. It’s a technical masterpiece, has amazing production value and music, but it’s a boring, slow experience, that will steal way too much of your life, trying to seem clever while actually just being a confusing mess.

For the first time ever, I feel very disappointed with a FromSoft title. I love almost they’ve put out; from Armored Core to Deraciné; but I especially love every single take on their souls-formular. Elden Ring: Nightreign however, is in my opinion, their first huge misstep within this genre. It is basically an extremely fast-paced version of the original, but stripped of any of the depth, exploration, sense of adventure of mastery that made it an instant classic. Instead, you’re expected to be a master of every single weapon in the game, while simultaneously being forced to team up with people in a battlefield that’s constantly shrinking. It’s an incredibly stressful experience, especially since the difficulty has been amped up to unfair levels, and if a single person in your team does not know EXACTLY what to do, you will fail, and you’ll not have fun. On top of that, runs are unfairly balanced by randomizing items, and some bosses requiring certain weapons to be beaten - if you don’t find those weapons, well, you’re outta luck. The gameplay ends up being a confusing mess, where you have little to no time for learning what the hell is going on, with new weapons and fighting styles being thrown at you constantly, in a sea of boss battles every 2 minutes. It’s disorienting, it’s stressful as hell and it’s simply not fun to play, and also very hostile towards new players in general. The game punishes you so hard for not knowing everything, while explaining very little to you at the same time. Usually the “figuring it out part” is the most fun, but not when other people’s enjoyment rely on you, and they also put a timer on you. If you have someone to play with it, it might be okay-ish though, even if I think the core loop will become boring quickly. I only played online 5-6 times, and it was just not for me. I then tried it solo, which was even worse (extremely poorly balanced, next to impossible to play). I just wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed any of their previous games in this genre, but if you’re speed-running fanatic, it might be up your alley. I mean, mechanically it works I guess - just don’t go in expecting to have fun.

Yeah, this game is all it’s cracked up to be. While you can argue that the character-design is a tad unimaginative and the music is kind of generic, the actual game is just an absolute joy to play, filled to the brim with original, intriguing ideas, combined with some of the smoothest platforming gameplay since Mario Odyssey. PlayStation now has its own flagship platforming franchise again!

An impressive, super creative playable cartoon, with some extraordinary artwork, sound design and music. However, as a game, it’s kind of boring. It’s pretty much an interactive movie, with little gameplay. There are “puzzles”, but most of them are solved by slapping everything in sight. It’s gets repetitive quickly, but you keep on playing to see all the weird scenarios - and let me tell you, in that regard, the game doesn’t disappointed. It’s truly one of the weirdest games I’ve ever played, but in a good way. What it all comes down to though, is the humor, which will be hit or miss with many people. It’s British, yes, but that doesn’t make it inherently funny. For me, it’s a bit too superficially “random”; it’s basically a never ending series of parodies on British stereotypes and culture, with very little context, and a few strong zingers here and there. It’s bold though, I’ll give it that, and sometime there’s some clever comedy, but other times the game resorts to childish humor, like slapping butt cheeks or even slapstick. Personally, it didn’t make me laugh, but it did make me chuckle occasionally. Maybe you’ll like it more than I did. No matter what, it deserves praise for trying something different; just don’t go in expecting a good “game”, but rather just a good experience.

For the most part, this game is great. It’s addictive and deceptively simple with a lot of depth. The core gameplay loop keeps throwing new stuff at you which is great, and there’s a surprising number of side activities that are all executed very well… But! This game far overstays it’s welcome, and become increasingly repetitive and boring as it goes on. The length doesn’t feel artificial though; there’s new stuff all the way through; but eventually, you’ll be like “okay, it would be nice if this could end soon”, and then it goes on for another 10 hours. This is of course a pretty common trend in todays market, because games wants an hour of gameplay per dollar spent, but still, they game would’ve left me with a much better impression if it had ended waaaaay before. All that being said, when it’s good, it’s REALLY good.

I absolutely loved the first Spider-Man game, Miles Morales was also great but very similar to the first game, but this sequel… I mean, it’s not bad by any means. It’s just that it’s exactly the same. It’s formulaic to a tee, and the formula is starting to become too obvious. It’s an open world beat ‘em up essentially, but, as was also a bit of an issue in the first two games, this time you feel even more underpowered. Enemies takes way too many punches to go down. It looks cool, combat is engaging and fluid, but when all you do is fight the samehandful of enemies for 20 hours, it becomes quite dull. The open world crimes has seemingly also taken a step back, becoming even more simplified and with less variety, and the horrible stealth missions from the first game are back as well. From a gameplay standpoint, this is unfortunately pretty much all the game has to offer, besides the amazing open world traversal which is still just as fun. The story is great though, but executed exactly as every other Spider-Man story. If you’re like me, that formula is also starting to wear thin because it’s so predictable. Plot twists are even becoming predictable. So I guess, if you like more of the same, cinematic, polished AAA stuff that so many companies do, then you’ll also like this. If you’re a bit more tired of the usual Hollywood experiences like me however, Spider-Man does nothing you haven’t seen before.

Yes, the performance is kinda ridiculous, and it does ruin a lot of cinematic moments, but besides this, Jedi: Survivor is also just a pretty “meh”-kinda game. It plays everything safe, and does nothing new. Sure, there’s a decent story here for Stare Wars fanatics, but this is a video game and not a movie, and the gameplay is just ok at best. Combat feels a bit wonky and like a very unpolished version of Dark Souls. The world design is big and pretty, but also very confusing (I don’t think I’ve ever been stuck this many times in a game, simply because finding the correct path to take is a pain). Rewards for doing anything optional in the game, are kind of meaningless. Sure, they listened and made your character and lightsaber more customizable, but… what’s the point? It’s all cosmetic, and there are no gear, weapons or anything that affects gameplay besides stances. When am I ever gonna stop to look at which one of the many similar looking components, I’m using on my lightsaber?! It’s meaningless, unnecessary fluff. But besides these gripes, it’s still a functional, playable video game - it just doesn’t do anything you haven’t already played a million times before, but what it does, it does well enough. Definitely not the worst offender in terms of playing it safe, but not a game that has a unique voice either. Am I alone in being fed up with the standard AAA-formulas we keep being served? I miss the days of creativity in AAA game design. Seems like the indie scene is where all the interesting stuff keeps happening.

I haven’t finished the game yet, so this score is based on my impressions some 7 hours in. In my experience, the best cinematic games are the ones that feels like a movie - but this game, feels like a movie that wants to be a game. The story and acting is great, but the actual game is not very fun to play. You play mostly just to advance the story, which is probably great for some players out there, but personally, I’ll take awesome gameplay over story any day - but the freshness and amazement of the previous entry has now worn off, and so the gameplay feels somewhat lackluster and predictable. The game is constantly split up into very cookie cutter sections, in a not so elegant way; you either have to solve a puzzle (with way too many hints), watch a cutscene, a combat scenario, traversal or a quick time event. The amount of combat sequences in-between the other elements also quickly becomes tiring, as the order usually goes; cutscene, combat, puzzle, combat, walk/boat, combat, cutscene, combat, puzzle, combat etc. The combat is somewhat decent, but is held back by the cinematic animations that often make it feel a bit stiff and clunky. The same enemies are also used way too frequently, and many of them feels as unnecessary filler. The puzzles are also pretty good at times, but after less than ten seconds a very obvious hint will be given, whether you like it or not. This kind of handholding is unbearable, and makes the puzzles way too easy. My biggest gripe though is that the PS5 version is definitely held back by the previous generation. Don’t get me wrong, it looks great, but it doesn’t look very much better than the previous entry, which is a big deal for a game where facial expressions and scenery is 40% of the experience. Also, what’s up with that stale water? When you spend most of the game sailing around, why didn’t they update these animations at least? As said, I haven’t finished it yet, and given this is a story driven game my opinion might change, but looking at it purely from a gameplay-perspective, I’d say Ragnarok plays it waaaaay too safe; so much so, that actually playing it becomes a bit tedious already. It’s a game that prioritizes story over gameplay, but if you’re into that then you’ll probably have a great time. If you want to have game that’s actually fun to play as well though, Ragnarok definitely has its moments but they’re few and far in between.

I’m an avid From Software player, having beaten all their previous Soulsborne games. I’m currently 8 hours into Elden Ring, and I think it’s great. It’s basically Dark Souls with some Sekiro and Bloodborne elements, set in an open world. However, as some of the more critical people are stating, I agree that the open world is actually TOO big for it’s own good. Even though the dungeons are super neat, I feel like I spend too much time riding around aimlessly on horseback looking for secrets. There is a lot of secrets to find though, but there’s also plenty of big empty areas littered with ruins that look like they could be explorable, but they are not. The horse combat also holds it back a little; when riding a horse, many of the bosses and enemies in the open world becomes very easy and requires little skill, which I think is a shame. Having just finished Sekiro before this, I also feel like that combat is a step back in terms of clunkyness. That being said, it’s still really good and the sense of discovery and wonder is amazing. Not a 10/10 in my book (so far), but still a damn good game.

This is the kinda game you’ll love, if you like Hollywood movies or you’re not necessarily craving anything new. It’s pretty much the exact same game as the original, but with some upgrades to graphics and gameplay. If you don’t expect anything but more Horizon, you’ll be happy with the game; but if you’re looking for something you haven’t seen before, you’re not gonna find it here (or in any other recent AAA-games). Check out some indies for real creativity.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]