SomeSchoolKid

If you want an example of a company feeling passionless, look no further than Skull and Bones. AAAA quality they said. The long wanted pirate fantasy they said. The fact you can’t even engage in hand-to-hand combat almost speaks for itself as much as the fact your ship has a stamina bar. No you didn’t misread that, the PIRATE SHIP has a STAMINA BAR. The fact people still trust Ubisoft after creating these hollow, borderline AI generated gameplay loops is ridiculous. Not to mention how butt ugly this game looks and how it’s crammed with live service nonsense. It doesn’t matter that ship combat is halfway decent because they promised much more than that. Here’s to hoping Ubisoft goes out of business.

Even if this game could be described as crimping off the success of ocarina of time, I still think Twilight Princess is one of my personal franchise favorites. I know people hated the dark tone of this game, claiming it makes the game feel weirdly edgy. Personally I loved the dark atmosphere and thought it added an interesting spice to the experience. Story wise this game is the same formula with a delusion twinge. I will note the side kick character is infinitely better in this game than the ones in the other games. She has a full blown backstory that is well explored and even plays a great part in the games narrative. I will say I was absolutely disappointed with what they did with the villains in this story. The new antagonist is pretty creepy and threatening, perfectly matching this games tone; which makes it extremely unfortunate that near the end of the game he gets sidewinded in favor for Gannondorf. To this day I still think they should have had the more interesting villain be the main one. This game is A-grade in its dungeon design with the way you combine item uses to solve puzzles. This is where the atmosphere of the game shines like a bright star, creating excellent environments and memorable moments. The boss fights are an extremely mixed bag unfortunately. Some a really cool, whilst others are painfully forgettable. But if you cut out the cruddy boss fights and re arranged the stories villains, then Twilight Princess could have very well been the perfect 3D Zelda game.

It’s an odd thing really. The Last of Us Part II feels like a game that I should love with a fascinating story that plays into themes of violence and perspective, but on the other hand it manages to also feel bloated, half baked and straight up miserable in a way I don’t think the developers intended. Like I said, I am fascinated by the ideas of how there’s two sides of a coin in context of Ellie and Abby being miserable people. But for some stupid reason Abby’s side of the conflict only gets elaborated out of nowhere in the second half of the game. It’s like the video game story equivalent of getting blue balled, which is not a good thing. This narrative was also in desperate need of character types that aren’t just mean spirited jackasses that are laser fixated on their goals. I understand they did this to reflect the harsh world these characters are in, but it makes interactions between characters feel forgettable. It also would have made the conflict between Ellie and Abby feel more potent. The thing that kills my passion for this game constantly though is the gameplay. I thought the first game was in desperate need of some spice. Around 20% of the gameplay is actual combat encounters and an agonizing 80% consists of what could be described as a “walking simulator” where you press forward and occasionally press a button to pick up an item you might have a use case for. Yeah, the first game could also be classified as this but part 1’s excellent pacing never made it feel like an issue (except for that one Ellie segment.) This game is insanely padded from what they are trying to do with the alternate perspective thing in Abby’s part of the game, and my God does it ****. I wanted to like this game, heck even love this game. I think it’s very unique in terms of what narrative boundaries it pushes. Unfortunately it’s being met by cruddy gameplay and very bad narrative choices.

What I admired about The Last of Us was the way it took the generic soulless zombie craze and tried to breath new life into it. The way Joel’s story of bringing a kid across a mushroom-zombie infested U.S. manages to be compelling and create genuine moments of emotion. Gameplay on the other hand is extremely lukewarm. It doesn’t ruin the game, but in comparison to what other zombie games offer it’s in desperate need of some seasoning. Enemy variety is extremely lacking, which shows in mass when the game has you playing as Ellie. It’s at that point I realized the gameplay doesn’t have enough mileage to put this game in 9 to 10 out of 10 range. It’s fortunate that this game is extremely well paced and doesn’t feel the need to pad out its run time. Overall, The Last of Us is a story that I would recommend checking out.

At the end of the day, I value the games that can get the most emotion out of me or can get me to think on an ambitious level; two things that Outer Wilds nearly perfects. The way the developer creates a planet with a unique idea and runs wild with it is absolutely admirable. I love the way info on planets intertwine and how learning the history of each one is the end goal. The point of outer wilds is to spike curiosity and make you value the things you have in life. In summary, this is one of those games I beg others to at least try. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a game for anyone. But if you want to be wowed, intrigued, or contemplating your place in the universe, then this is a must play.

As much as I could have dunked on this game, I ultimately have a soft spot for Skyward Sword. When the story gets good, it gets really good. The hero’s journey this time around tends to be more emotional and powerful for me personally than the other Zelda titles (which I do plan to review.) The gameplay also tends to be pretty solid as well. I like that you can’t just mash a button to attack enemies. The extra nuance from having to swing your sword in a specific direction is just flat out more entertaining. Unfortunately both gameplay and story are plagued by one glaring flaw: Repetition. From reskinned dungeon themes, to reused boss fights, to recycled plot points, the game suffers immensely from lazy developers. It isn’t enough to kill what I like about this game, but it is enough to absolutely knock this game out of my all time favorites (for both Zelda games and just games in general.) Overall I say play this game. It’s got bad things but it’s also got really good things.

In retrospect, I was probably too harsh on Days Gone. Yeah it isn’t the 10/10 perfect masterpiece some of these idiots are claiming it is, but there are genuinely solid elements that make it tolerable. Fighting this games versions of the zombies was way more engaging than I remember it being. The story is still an absolute embarrassment, but if you are like me and mentally checked out from the plot then you’ll have a much better time. If they had cut out the awful dialogue, then could have very well had a solid formula on their hands.

Honestly, Resident Evil Village has a lot good and a lot bad going for it. However I will say that I’m glad the game carries a unique identity in comparison to the bland remakes. An incredible setting mixed with some brief qualities from the series’s best games. Unfortunately, very similarly to Resident Evil 2 Remake, this game looses a lot of its punch after the first act. It’s not as bland as the sewer/lab segments but it does considerably lose its mind in a tragic, drug addicty way. I loved how RE7 didn’t need to have some elaborate global government conspiracy plot to get out the drama it needed to, it just had a simple plot that worked its magic. RE Village has that facade for the first two thirds of the game, but then egregiously attempts to squeak in RE5 styled nonsense. From manning a giant battle bot to playing a military shooter styled segment as Chris, to the before mentioned global conspiracy plot, it’s an absolute disaster. I am grateful that it only ruined 1/3 of the game, but that’s still 1/3 of the game ruined. smaller matters like combat and spook factor suffice in this game, and the villains are also pretty cool. Overall, Resident Evil Village had the potential to be just as good if not better than 7, but sadly had the misfortune of needing to meet a “worst parts of resident evil” quota.

Mario 3D World isn’t a game that invokes much feeling or magic. I don’t understand why this game even exists. Mario 3D Land was a game created to pad out the 3DS library, so a sequel to that handheld game is illogical. Level design is really boring, given that the game doesn’t have many gimmicks to play around with. Thus leaving levels feeling like they weren’t made to take advantage of anything, but rather making them feel like they were cobbled together in a level editor last minute. The only levels I enjoyed from this game were some of the post game levels, but in my opinion they aren’t enough to carry the game. Now of course the controls are excellent, the visuals are beautiful, and the soundtrack is up to snuff with the other Mario games. But those things are meant to be icing on the cake, not the main supplement. Oh yeah, there’s also the “Bowser’s Fury” game mode which honestly feels incredibly lazy and shoehorned. It’s only there to justify the $60 price tag, but overall 3D World being the exact same price as Mario Odyssey feels absolutely cursed.

Resident Evil 7 probably will never be topped by CapCom. It takes a desperately needed simply approach to a formula that otherwise had completely lost itself. Exploring environments is better here then it ever has been, and the combat is just punchy enough to create excitement without needing to be campy or crammed with action. The only thing that irks me is the severe lack of enemy variety, which is odd for two reasons. Firstly, the resident evil franchise has never fell short on enemy variety, even in the worst of games. Secondly, the game gives you so many guns with their own unique hard to juggle ammo types that I mostly rocked the pistol and never once ran into a problem. Other than that gigantic hiccup I really loved this game and doubt CapCom can recreate its magic.

God of War Ragnarök is overall an improvement over 2018. It’s story conflict feels way better developed and the writers actively take advantage of the games setting. Major plot points are no longer condensed to just Midguard anymore which I greatly appreciate. The story’s focus does tend to get unclear throughout, but overall it manages to be memorable and interesting and feels like it moves characters in a meaningful way. Gameplay wise this game is on God of War autopilot. It makes the typical play it safe improvements without adding anything that wowed me. Better enemy variety, better boss fights, better level design (except Vanahiem, that place can go die in a hole) etc. Still hate the gooey RPG elements, but it is what it is I guess. Overall God of War Ragnarök does what is to be expected from a sequel game.

God of War 2018 teeters between being a genuinely solid reboot and an unfortunate slink into generic AAA Action Adventure game. The story tends to get very annoying with the way it extends run time by incorporating some road block towards the end goal, causing most of the journey to feel like a side quest check list. The relationship between kratos and his kid rarely feels like it develops throughout the story because “until our journey is over one of us must remain focused” which is lame in my opinion. There are occasional moments of interesting growth revolving around Atreus learning the truth about his father, but they are very few moments. The story overall could have been top notch, but a large chunk of the time it feels like the team forgot what they wanted to do with the narrative. Gameplay has me feeling kind of iffy. On one hand I really enjoyed the core elements of the combat. It feels extremely well weighted and manages to walk the line of challenge without being straight BS. On the other hand though I despise the RPG elements. Things like crafting and collecting random resources to upgrade stats in small quantities is not at all what I wanted for a hack and slash game. In my opinion the best of hack and slash games are the ones that don’t try to overcrowd the gameplay and just focus on the very essential elements. Not to mention how painfully lacking the game is in things like level design and enemy variety. The hardest boss fights in the game are the same one enemy with a single unique move given to each. Overall I enjoyed playing God of War 2018 on a surface level, but it’s not what I want the franchise to stay as.

Detroit Become Human’s success really baffles me. It’s story is written by an out of touch millennial whose world views are stuck in the 1900’s and it shows through the game like thin toilet paper. David Cage’s sad attempt at social commentary feels as self aware as a bad family guy joke. Connor’s segments of the game are fun enough, but Markus’s parts of the game are extremely boring and Kara’s segments never contribute to any sort of payoff. Matter of fact, the plot twist surrounding Kara and Alice straight up kills any weight of her segment of the game altogether. The only thing I liked about this game was that unlike something like the walking dead, choices you make actually amount to something. So I’ll give some credit for not falsely advertising. But even then this game is not worth playing more than once, or even putting any extra thoughts towards.

Hi-Fi Rush is an absolute gem among Xbox’s game library. The gameplay consists of DMC game design where you go through levels that sprinkle in hack and slash combat. This game arguably perfected it by balancing in style and challenge that left me feeling welcomed in a way that 90% of AAA games have been struggling for a while to create these days. The only thing about the gameplay that wasn’t good was the in between combat segments where things like platforming tended to get boring and bland. Story is nothing to write home about given that it isn’t the games #1 priority, but for what it's worth things like the characters and world fit the games vision very well. Final thing I will note is the art style, which in simple terms is incredible. This game goes for an borderline comic book animation style and it manages to be cool to watch and fun to play through. In Conclusion, pick this game up. Was absolute fun on my first play through and I still look back on this game extremely fondly today.