RefinedInsights

Wolverine is a good time. The visuals are stunning, with plenty of cutscenes and some of the most impressive graphics I've seen on the console. The combat is excellent, and the upgrades keep things fresh. The move set isn't as varied as Spider-Man's, but it's still fun and borderline addictive. The story is where it falls short. It starts strong but loses steam in the third act, trying to do too much without making it all come together. The more complicated parts feel forced and ask the player to overlook too much for the story to work. There's also too much filler between missions, with mundane tasks dragging down the **** you're mainly here for the visuals and gameplay, there's a lot to enjoy. If you're expecting a masterclass in storytelling, you won't find it here. Overall, it's a decent game from Insomniac. Not their best, but still better than most.

007 First Light is a gorgeous Bond fantasy wrapped around a game that never quite earns its license to **** first hour is the best pitch a Bond game has made in years. It looks fantastic. The suits are sharp, the world feels lived-in, the gadgets are toys you actually want to play with, and the flirtatious banter lands more often than it misses. There's a confidence to the opening that says this team knows exactly what Bond is supposed to feel **** also has the good sense not to just re-film a movie. This is an original spin on the character, and for a series that has spent decades recycling the same reels, that alone buys a lot of goodwill. For a while, it works.Then you keep **** deeper you get, the more the fantasy thins out and the busywork shows through. So much of First Light is fetch quests dressed up in a tuxedo. Go here. Find the thing. Come back. In between, you spend an enormous amount of time creeping along walls and scanning the environment for the one object the game has decided you're allowed to touch. The Hitman DNA is obvious, but Hitman earns that fiddling with sandboxes that reward experimentation. Here it mostly just slows you down.Compare it to GoldenEye, which this game clearly wants to be measured against. GoldenEye wasn't perfect either. But it knew what it was. It was a shooter, and it committed. First Light is a spectacle machine. Cutscenes, set pieces, one-liners, flash. When the camera hands control back to you, the fundamentals underneath aren't strong enough to hold it **** melee is the worst offender. It's stiff and clunky, and it feels like it wandered in from a much older generation of games. Bond should be dangerous in close quarters. Instead, hand-to-hand exchanges land with all the impact of two mannequins bumping into each **** gunplay fares better, though better isn't the same as good. It's serviceable. Guns fire, enemies fall, nothing is broken. But shooters have been refined for decades, and this feels like it skipped most of them. There's no weight, no snap, nothing that makes you want to replay an encounter just to run it **** gadgets are genuinely fun, and they're the closest the game comes to a real personality of its own. But fun toys can't paper over combat that doesn't feel good. Once the novelty wears off, you're still stuck with the same stiff punches and the same flat **** story doesn't rescue it either. Every Bond trope is present and accounted for, checked off one by one, and almost none of them build to anything satisfying. The characters are flat. Nobody in the supporting cast gives you a reason to care whether they make it to the credits. It's Bond-shaped, but it's hollow.What's left is a game with real charm in flashes. There are entertaining stretches. There's a genuinely great opening. There's a version of this that, with tighter combat and a story worth following, could have been the definitive Bond game.This isn't it. VERDICT: 007 First Light is a beautiful, well-produced Bond fantasy built on a foundation that can't support it. The presentation is excellent, the gadgets are a good time, and the original take on the character is a welcome swing. But clunky melee, dated gunplay, endless fetch quests, and a forgettable story keep pulling you out of the tuxedo. If you're a die-hard Bond fan, there's enough here to enjoy. If you came looking for a great game first and a Bond game second, you're going to leave disappointed. A lot of flash, a bit of charm, and not much underneath.

Its a generally enjoyable game, the story modes are lackluster and repetitive, there is are no 3D in game cutscenes just 2d comic book art. The gameplay is not very deep its good for inexperienced gamers who want to button mash instead of play strategically. The graphics are very nice the visuals too but apart from that its somewhat mediocre. If you are a fan of the Marvel Vs Capcom series you will probably like the fast paced chaotic style of this game.

One of the worst mario games, annoying world and animations, tedious level design.

A decent shooter, better than most, some boss battles become overly difficult, the story is average, the design is good too but nothing special overall at times its very entertaining at other times it gets repetitive.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Not as bad as people say. I never finished the original campaign. Halo always felt overrated to me. The shooting was fine, the missions dragged. The remake finally got me to see it through, and the visuals are most of the reason why. The campaign is a decent time. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to warn people off either. The gunplay is average. The driving hasn't aged a day past 2001. The Warthog still handles like a shopping cart on ice. And the game runs choppy in stretches. A good-looking remake **** I was never in love with. Worth playing. Not worth defending.

Groundbreaking for its time, but hasn't aged well. Play it as a legacy total war.

Overrated total war game, the battles look nice but there is nothing truly memorable about this game.

The original Gothic was brutally difficult at first, but eventually rewarded your suffering by letting you become powerful. The remake removes that second part. From beginning to end, it is a parade of tedious fetch quests, clunky combat, overpowered enemies, and surprise one-hit kills. Even as a level-six mage wearing the best gear in the game, I felt less like a legendary hero and more like a delivery driver who had wandered into the wrong forest. The inventory system is a nightmare, the controls feel stiff, and the PS5 version regularly lags, crashes, and generally behaves like the console is running outdated hardware. The revised story includes a few decent additions, but much of the new content ranges from mildly interesting to aggressively boring. The game also seems desperate to imitate Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, especially the parts where difficulty stops feeling immersive and starts feeling like someone just did it to mess with you. There is enough good here to keep it from being terrible, but nearly everything else drags a potentially great remake down into mediocrity. After 40–50 hours, I did not feel rewarded. I felt like I had completed an unpaid internship in carrying packages and being murdered by just about anything you could imagine. The original was one of my favorite games when I was 13. This remake feels like a lost opportunity and has me seriously reconsidering whether I want a Gothic 2 remake at all.

Considering all the bad reviews, I thought I'd dislike this game, but in reality, it's a decent remake. I played the original back in the day and never finished it. I played this on Game Pass, and on max graphical settings, it looked and played nicely and was a great way to complete the campaign. I didn't play online and encountered only minor bugs.

This is probably the worst wrestling game in a long time. The game is rife with microtransactions — everything feels monetized and transactional, with not a single redeeming game mode to justify it. MyRise features arguably the weakest storyline the series has produced. The gameplay itself is solid, but that's about all there is to hold onto, and even that becomes meaningless when the story, music, and persistent bugs strip away any reason to keep playing. The character creation is also among the worst I've seen in a wrestling game. Gone are the days when you could model a character after yourself — now you either paste your face onto a preset or customize a generic-looking shell. Virtually all creative freedom has been gutted in what amounts to a hyper-monetized, watered-down experience. MyRise ranks near the bottom of the series, with the only worse entry being the disaster that launched during COVID, which was so riddled with bugs it was nearly unplayable. The match types are uneventful, grindy affairs with no variety or interesting twists — staples like Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank are missing entirely from the story mode. Take it from a longtime wrestling game fan: save your money and skip this one.

Hades II is the sequel to one of the greatest roguelikes ever made. That's both its greatest asset and its heaviest ****'s get this out of the way. The game is good. The loop is dangerously addictive, the art direction is jaw dropping, and Supergiant clearly poured their souls into this. But "good" hits different when your older brother is a **** combat swaps Zagreus's visceral, in your face aggression for Melinoë's spellcasting heavy kit, and honestly? It's a downgrade. Hades 1 made you feel like a weapon. Hades II makes you feel like you're managing a weapon. The flow isn't there. The synergies between boons and builds, the secret sauce that made the first game's theorycrafting so intoxicating, feel muddier, less intuitive, like the pieces almost fit but never quite snap together.Then there's Melinoë herself. She's fine. And "fine" is the problem. Zagreus was defiant, self deprecating, layered, a protagonist you'd actually want to grab a drink with after he crawled out of a river of blood for the fortieth time. Melinoë is dutiful, determined, and... that's kind of it. She carries the weight of the narrative without much of the **** the real sin? The dialogue. Supergiant, the studio famous for making every single line of NPC conversation feel like a gift, somehow buried this game under a mountain of words that say remarkably little. In Hades, I would literally die on purpose just to go home and talk to everyone. In Hades II, I'm mashing through conversations like I'm clearing pop up ads. The writing mistakes volume for depth, and for a studio with this pedigree, that **** bosses will humble you. The atmosphere will haunt you. The "one more run" pull is absolutely real. It's a great roguelike that just happens to be a disappointing sequel, and there's a strange, bittersweet space between those two truths.Worth every penny. Just don't expect lightning to strike the same place twice.

Metroid Prime 4 struggles to justify its long development cycle. The moment-to-moment gameplay loop feels stale — puzzles offer occasional sparks of cleverness but never sustain momentum, and the combat is dragged down by aiming mechanics that feel like relics of a bygone era. Boss encounters, rather than serving as highlights, become endurance tests that reward patience over **** narrative fails to deliver anything compelling enough to pull you through the weaker stretches, and those stretches are plentiful. Excessive backtracking through an overworld that recalls the empty expanses of Hyrule Field circa 1998 — with no meaningful fast travel to offset it — turns exploration into a slog rather than a **** you're a devoted Metroid fan, there's enough franchise DNA here to warrant a look. For everyone else, this is largely a missed opportunity that coasts on nostalgia rather than earning its place alongside the original trilogy.

Played this in 2026 after playing Red Dead 2 back when it dropped, and honestly it feels pretty similar. The story starts off strong but loses steam about halfway through, I found myself just pushing to finish rather than being pulled in. The visuals are still gorgeous in 4K, no complaints there, but pretty graphics weren't enough to make me want to stick around after the credits rolled. Combat feels good but it's way too easy. I barely died the whole game, which surprised me coming from Rockstar. Also the animal skinning and collecting is tedious. Bottom line: If you haven't played it, it's still a good game and worth checking out if you liked RDR2. Just don't go in expecting it to blow you away in 2026.

This game is a ton of fun, it offers unlimited customization options is reminiscent of games like hades and has the addictive factor. If you dont care about graphics and story and just want a game that delivers on the fun factor than this game is for you!

A crappie Rick and Morty inspired world with no depth, low brow charm, and pseudo intellectual tropes left and right.

It's a fun time, a throwback to the old SNES days of gaming, don't expect anything more than just an entertaining experience.

Mafia: The Old Country makes a strong first impression. Its narrative pulls you into the sun-scorched tension of early 20th-century Sicily with confidence, building atmosphere through sharp dialogue and characters who feel genuinely desperate. For the first few hours, you're hooked. But that hook loosens. The story, while well-acted and emotionally grounded, telegraphs its beats early. Seasoned players—or anyone familiar with the genre—will see the twists coming long before the credits roll. Where the game stumbles harder is in the moment-to-moment gameplay. Combat feels dated, lacking the weight and responsiveness modern players expect. Firefights get the job done but never thrill. Driving, a staple of the franchise, suffers from stiff handling that makes every car feel like it's fighting you rather than the road. Visually, The Old Country is competent. Lighting and environmental design create mood effectively, but it never reaches the visual fidelity that would make you stop and stare. Overall The Old Country leans hard on its immersive setting and narrative ambition and in those areas, it delivers. But outdated mechanics hold it back from greatness. If you're already invested in this world, you'll find enough to enjoy. Everyone else may leave wanting more.

Dead franchise that doesnt even have the decency to make sub par single player modes anymore. Multiplayer is tedious and boring with almost no skill needed just blind shooting and running around, the graphics look dated, the guns are bland and there is nothing noteworthy about this altogether.

I’m surprised the ratings are so low for this game, the gameplay is legendary, it has a phenomenal flow that is difficult but fair. Other than the camera, I would give the gameplay a 10/10 in terms of combat. Now there is a lot wrong with the game, which brings the score down significantly. The navigation mechanics are horrible, which is likely why the future entries had the sense that the path mechanic added. The camera during combat is horrific, some of the boss sequences are a chore since you have to memorize their patterns, something it doesn’t train you for. The storyline is not bad, the character designs are very imaginative and have charm. I will give this game a 9 simply because of the fact that they don’t make games like this anymore and it's extremely difficult to find a combat system like this that is both challenging and rewarding.

Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 were famously difficult but always felt fair—a rare and rewarding balance that few games achieve. Unfortunately, this latest entry abandons that philosophy. Instead, it follows the modern trend of creating artificial difficulty by inflating enemy and boss damage while diminishing the player’s. The result is a less satisfying challenge, more frustrating imbalance. The camera is one of the biggest issues. It constantly works against the player, often obscuring your view of the action—something that feels straight out of the early 2000s. Combat, while fast-paced, lacks the flow and precision that defined Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 and 2. There are simply too many combo options, most of which are impractical in real encounters. While it plays better than Ninja Gaiden 3, that’s faint praise. Traversal elements like wall-running and railing sections are clunky and bug-ridden. The controls feel inconsistent, breaking immersion in moments that should feel fluid and exciting. The environments are uninspired, repetitive, and dated. Even on the highest settings, the graphics look like they belong to a much older title. On the bright side, the game supports 120 FPS, which complements the fast-paced combat and helps the action feel smoother. The new protagonist is bland, cliché, and completely forgettable. It’s baffling that the developers didn’t simply continue with Ryu Hayabusa—especially since Ninja Gaiden was never about its story. The attempt to add deeper character drama feels hollow and unnecessary, as the narrative contributes little to the overall experience. Boss fights, traditionally a weak spot for the series, have somehow gotten worse. They feel scripted, tedious, and more about memorizing patterns than reacting dynamically. Fighting groups of enemies remains far more engaging and rewarding than slogging through these drawn-out encounters. True Ninja Gaiden fans will likely be disappointed by this change in direction. The game tries to modernize the formula but loses the essence that made the originals special. Fast action and high frame rates can’t hide the uninspired design and lack of polish that permeate nearly every aspect.

This was my first time playing Gears of War, I thought the gameplay was enjoyable, the graphics make it look very modern especially on 4k. The story is average, some of the levels are boring or tedious involving trial and error mechanics that detract from the overall experience. The combat is the best part, smooth fast paced and enjoyable especially during certain sequences. Overall I would say its an above average game that has aged well but falls short of being a masterpiece in 2025.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A mostly boring Dark Souls Clone with pretty visuals but far from an entertaining gaming experience.

It’s not the most entertaining game, relying heavily on sneaking without offering many tools to make stealth feel smooth or engaging. Where series like Batman: Arkham made stealth intuitive and fun, this feels more like an outdated, clunky system with a fresh coat of paint. The storyline is decent but far from memorable, imagine a mix of Tom Clancy and anime: decent, but hardly groundbreaking. The visuals are impressive, and a few boss encounters manage to deliver some excitement, but overall the experience never rises above “good enough.”In the end, this is a slightly above-average game in 2025—competent in places, but lacking the innovation or polish to stand out.

This game should be titled Indiana Jones and the Lost Opportunity. After decades of yearning for Indy’s triumphant return to gaming, I dove into this newest installment with high expectations, fueled by glowing previews, promises of adventure, and claims that it might finally be the definitive Indiana Jones game. What I found instead is a gorgeous, ambitious misstep that proves that presentation alone can’t mask hollow design. The first Act's opening hours tease greatness. Egypt is dripping with atmosphere: clever puzzles, intricately designed temples, and a sense of mystery that nails Indy’s trademark balance of brains and brawn. The visuals dazzle, the music soars, and for a moment, it feels like you’ve stepped into a forgotten LucasArts classic wrapped in modern polish, but like an ancient relic that turns out to be a fake, the game loses its shine the deeper you go. Traversal, Tedium, and Tears Beyond that strong opening, the adventure stumbles. Traversal sections drag on endlessly, padded with puzzles that lack the charm or payoff of the opening act. Where Infernal Machine and Emperor’s Tomb had rough edges but never forgot the fun, this game mistakes "busywork" for depth. Instead of whipping across gaps with a grin, I found myself sighing through tedious climbing sequences and puzzle-solving that became more chore than thrill. Combat: A Blast from the Past (And Not in a Good Way) Here’s where things truly fail. Combat feels clunky, dated, and deeply unsatisfying. Stealth is supposedly rewarded, but in practice it feels like a throwback to the awkward trial-and-error stealth of the early 2000s. Enemies spot you unfairly, takedowns lack precision, and the whole system makes "aggressive" play styles nearly impossible. Indy’s whip might crack, but combat overall? It’s broken. Story: Critics have called the story one of Indy’s best outside Raiders and Last Crusade. I wish I agreed. What we actually get is a bland, predictable, and often confusing narrative strung together by forgettable characters. While earlier Jones titles thrived on pulpy, Saturday-matinee energy, this one leans too hard into cinematic mimicry feeling more like an Uncharted knock-off with the Indiana Jones logo slapped on for good measure. Cutscenes are gorgeous and plentiful, but they can’t hide the absence of depth and heart. Bugs: Even technical polish isn’t safe from critique. On PS5, lighting issues forced me to tinker with settings just to be able to see. Worse, I ran into frustrating weapon bugs, Indy’s revolver flat-out stopped working at one point. When a game already struggles to engage, bugs only amplify the frustration. Verdict: This Indiana Jones game is a whip crack that echoes… and fades. It’s stunning to look at, and its first act offers a tantalizing glimpse of the Indy adventure we’ve always wanted. But beyond that, it devolves into tedious traversal, lackluster puzzles, abysmal combat, and a forgettable story. Flashy? Yes. Fun? Rarely. The older games may not have had today’s spectacle, but they remembered the most important artifact of all: fun.

This was a surprisingly good game, with a lot of attention to detail and fun action. The storyline is true to the source material, so if you were a fan back in the day, you will likely enjoy it. The action is enjoyable but far from perfect, with choppy action sequences. Overall, it's above average and has the potential to be a great game, maybe if the studio puts a little more effort into it in the future it will be considered one of the greats.

Never played the original, the graphics are not great, the action is boring and repetitive, the story seems interesting, the mechanics though inventive for their time are a bit clunky and stale. Not a great remake and boring to play in 2025.

Its a fun time, but as you upgrade your skill tree, it gets boring real fast so overall its above average as a game but the fun doesnt last.

Not a good game, it has the Halflife title but is a very mediocre game that is simply not up to scratch.

A great game with a fantastic story, great gameplay, and memorable characters, one of the best in the series.

This game had some notable moments, generally in the first half, in the second half it begins to drag and becomes a chore to complete, so I can give it an average score at best.

Don't waste your time, it's yet another generic Dark Souls clone that sprinkles in some Chinese mythology for good measure. If you want something better, play Dynasty Warriors; at least it has a better story.

Simply Astounding: Gaming Magic Reborn. I don’t even know where to begin. Back in the winter of 1998, I was 8 years old when I played Ocarina of Time on the N64, my very first video game. It was pure magic: the storytelling, the sense of adventure, the music that stuck in your soul. For decades, nothing has come close to that feeling… until now. Fast forward to 2025. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has landed, and somehow it’s done the impossible. This game isn’t just good, it’s unreal. The visuals are jaw dropping. The story? Unlike anything I’ve ever seen, bold, original, revolutionary. The music is enchanting, the gameplay is so inventive and addictive that hours vanish without realizing it. The worldbuilding and lore are next level. Every single aspect of this game screams passion and artistry. For years we’ve been told only the biggest studios like Rockstar or Ubisoft could create something industry shaking. Expedition 33 proves that’s dead wrong. This game doesn’t just reinvent turn based combat; it makes it feel fresh, powerful, and honestly better than most real time systems out there. This is the kind of game that comes along only once in a lifetime. It’s the spark that first made us fall in love with gaming, the flame that still burns today, and the light that shows us where it’s headed tomorrow. Play this game. Experience it. Let it remind you why you fell in love with gaming in the first place.

Having played the original Mafia, I approached this remake with a fair amount of skepticism. What I discovered, however, was a remaster that not only pays homage to the classic but, in many ways, surpasses it. The visuals are nothing short of breathtaking. This is easily one of the best-looking remakes in recent memory, with cinematic cutscenes that rival even big-budget films. Characters that once felt static and subdued are now full of life, personality, and nuance. The performances elevate the emotional weight of the story, adding depth that the original only hinted at.Speaking of story—this is where Mafia: Definitive Edition truly shines. The narrative is gripping, its pacing tight, and the dialogue sharp. It rivals, and at times surpasses, some of the best mob films ever made. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Mafia tells a better story than most movies released in the last decade.Unfortunately, where the game falters is in its gameplay. The mechanics are serviceable but uninspired. Gunplay feels stiff and dated, and the weapon variety is limited—most players will likely stick with the Tommy gun, which at least offers that iconic, Prohibition-era feel. It's not bad, but it rarely rises above average. Additionally, the experience is occasionally marred by minor bugs that detract from the otherwise polished presentation. Despite these shortcomings, Mafia: Definitive Edition remains an outstanding remake. The visual overhaul and storytelling elevate it far beyond a simple nostalgia trip. With tighter gameplay, it could have been a masterpiece. As it stands, it's a very good game—and one that fans of narrative-driven experiences shouldn't miss.

Crap like every other entry in this franchise, its a lifeless sci fi game with little motivation to keep playing, the maps all look the same the enemies look horrible and cartoony, and master chief has no personality.

The worst My Rise version ever, character creation was shallow and the worst of the bunch. The story was horrible, with horrible match types and nothing to keep you hooked. The visuals were decent but not enough to recommend this game.

A Hell of a Misstep – When Doom Forgot It Was Doom. As someone who became a Doom fan thanks to the brilliant reinventions that were Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, I came into this latest installment with blood-pumping excitement and sky-high expectations. What I got instead felt less like a trip to hell and more like a frustrating detour into a mini-game convention with a Doom skin. Gone are the heart-pounding arenas, the exhilarating freedom of movement, and that delicious, visceral gunplay that defined the last two titles. In their place? A puzzling mix of parry timing, pattern recognition, and forced melee combat that often felt more like a rhythm game than a shooter. I came to rip and tear—not to parry and memorize attack patterns like I’m prepping for a fighting game tournament. Now, don’t get me wrong—it’s not a bad game. It’s just not Doom. At best, it’s an average shooter with a confused identity; at worst, it’s a tedious slog through repetitive mechanics that dilute everything that made the franchise’s recent revival so **** weapons lacked impact and variety, the progression system never hooked me, and the overreliance on shield mechanics and melee attacks felt less empowering and more like busywork. It stripped away the joyful chaos and turned it into a chore. Doom (2016) remains, in my eyes, a genre-defining masterpiece. Eternal came close with its more complex systems, but still captured the essence. This entry? A baffling sidestep that left me wondering: who asked for this? Final verdict? It's not a trip to hell—it's a purgatory of design decisions. Not unplayable, but unquestionably a step backwards for the franchise.

There is way too much hype about this game; it starts out strong with a nice narrative and attention to detail, then it becomes an almost unplayable medieval simulator where you literally have a mundane life and have to lug around sacks or get killed with a toothpick and have the strength of a dustmite. There are simply too many minigames, pointless sidequests, lots of bugs, and an artificially high difficulty curve that makes Dark Souls look like child's play. The caveat is that if you want to make the game easy, you have to do a series of cheap hacks, like getting a sword move that makes the game redundant, and that defeats the purpose of making it realistic. The combos are useless; the dialogue is decent but far from perfect. Overall, I can see where the developers were going with this, and I appreciate medieval history more than most, but I think it misses the mark quite a bit.

IGN is bought and paid for, and this game is proof. I picked up this game due to the perfect 10/10 score on IGN. What I got was a worthless FPS with some of the clunkiest weapons and gameplay I have ever seen, no enemy variety, maps that were repetitive, and a silly premise that felt mildly funny at best and gut-wrenchingly annoying at worst. I don't recommend this game for any reason and strongly advise that you disregard the critics' reviews as they have no basis in reality and obviously appeal to some kind of forced agenda.

It was a fresh concept and a visually appealing game, but the gameplay was stiff, boring, and overly difficult. Navigating and orienting yourself to the world was a chore. The world, although beautiful, felt hollow and, after a few hours, not interesting.

GTA goes 3d, that's about it, the game as a whole is pretty forgettable and not very playable by today's standards.

Not much better than the N version, just a new coat of paint, the gameplay is fun, but overall it's far from a perfect Zelda game, most dungeons are forgettable, the 3 days system is annoying, the side quests are tedious, and the storyline is bizarre at best and downright silly at worst.

This game had potential but the story is ridiculous, the action is very inconsistent its borderline enjoyable and then makes you do a bunch of arbitrary side quests that feel like a chore. The driving mechanic was painful and the mindless navigating back and forth made it incredibly tedious. I don't recommend this game unless you like childish goofy storytelling with choppy gameplay.

Don't play its a waste of time. The action is boring, cliched the quests mean nothing.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This game had potential but it basically blew it, the combat is either super hard or super easy and not fluid like its predecessors. The story is ridiculous and boring. The boss battles are tedious and don't rely on the old Ninja Gaiden system but rather something that is new and not so improved. Overall its the weakest of the all the console Ninja Gaiden games but some sequences are still fun and addictive which brings the final grade to something average.

This game was enjoyable overall but had a lot of rough edges that kept it from being a genuinely great game. The game forces you into scenarios, unlike previous AOE games where you pick a faction and try to outmaneuver your opponent. The historical footage was not compelling, and that's coming from a hardcore history buff. The Mongol campaign I thought was going to be fun, but it was the least enjoyable due to lots of new mechanics, which neither felt intuitive nor fun. The constant shuffling of different objectives took away from the game's enjoyability. What I love about previous AOE games is how you can grind and max out your civilization and go ravage your opponent and feel satisfied, in this game, the objectives and rules would constantly change, and it just felt like one long tutorial from start to finish. Lastly, the factions weren't to my liking. I don't care much for the Brits, French, Mongols, and Russians, but that's my personal preference based on the history I enjoy. Overall it's a solid game with hours of enjoyment, but don't expect it to blow you away.

This game was good for its time but not the best in the series and not very repayable. After finishing it the first time, I had no desire to go back and play it.