Vaxzan

Control is a frustrating mess **** with a fantastic premise that leads to nothing. Gameplay A fairly standard TPS with little weapon variety. The one weapon is the service weapon which is a pistol, it does have different forms that will make it similar to a shotgun or hand cannon but this is only in look and as such it still acts as a pistol. There is a modification system with the weapon that can give minor buffs to the gun or to health and such, there are also these mods for yourself for the same thing. Enemies in the game lack variety and are essentially your standard zombie-type enemies present in many games, while some of them do interesting things like throw rubble at you it effectively just serves as a long-range option. The player does have superhero-like abilities which are actually pretty neat, the launch ability, for example, allows you to pick up pretty much anything on the map and throw it at people with a force power, this ability feels great to use and is a whole lot of fun. However a problem with this ability is that it is imprecise as a result of how much can be picked up, it can be hard to pick up a certain item you want which can be extremely frustrating and even lead to death if you were planning to throw a grenade back at the enemy. This problem was especially prevalent in a particular boss fight about halfway through the game. The shield ability is fantastic, I have no issues with this and it is the best of the abilities you get, the ability upgrades for it make it possible to be a weapon as well and offer extra protection and some unique combat options. Evade is a simple dodge. Levitate is a floating ability that should be really cool but it works so strangely that it is oftentimes not a lot of fun. For some reason the game severely limits how high you can go with the levitate, this makes it frustrating to platform as if you are not in the exact right spot when you levitate you won’t get enough height to get to the platform, this is annoying if there is a platform beneath youtube land on and frustrating if there is no floor and doing so will result in death. Difficulty in the game comes from enemies being bullet sponges, as you get further in the game enemies will have more health thus increasing the difficulty. This way of having difficulty increase is not interesting at all and is just painful to play through especially with rather generic combat. Exploration is a big part of the game and how you get lore in the game and for the most part, the exploration is pretty good with some interesting areas. Story The story is one of the worst aspects of Control, it follows Jesse Faden finally arriving at the FBC to hunt for her brother Dylan. The story quickly goes off the rails as a force called The Hiss invades and Jesse becomes The Director. Next, Jesse must help the FBC get the situation under control to unlock more of the building to lead to Dylan. The world is an incredibly interesting SCP-like world with anomalies and strange items, the setup is incredible as it seems that there are limitless possibilities with this set-up, the lore even features the standard redacted documents like on the SCP wiki. This is why it is so disappointing when the story is just a basic zombie story with a corrupting influence, they could’ve done anything and choose the most boring option, the lore of the game is more interesting than the main story. The characters featured in the main story, with some exceptions, are incredibly one-note and boring. Jesse for example has few emotions and a quirk where she will talk to herself essentially to comment on things that are currently happening in the game, these monologues are quite jarring and really take away from the experience as what is said are things easily deduced or completely unnecessary to have explained. Dylan is an even worse offender of this getting absolutely no build-up or connection to the main character. The game tells us we should care for Dylan but doesn’t show us why, a big part of the game’s story revolves around a specific incident from Jesse and Dylan’s childhood but we never see or experience this event as the player, it is only talked about and alluded to mainly in the optional collectibles, it is completely baffling that they would not have this very important incident be something playable or at least in a cutscene. The game attempts to set up a potential twist where The Hiss might actually be a good thing and the FBC might be the evil ones, however, this idea only shows up halfway through the game after you’ve spent hours working with the FBC and having them help you save people and them help you out, it is so jarring and not set up at all that it is completely unbelievable that The Hiss would actually be good. The set-up of the story is so good but the payoff and actually story and how it is presented fall short. Conclusion Control is a game of missed potential, I wouldn’t recommend buying it.

Short little puzzle game that was a bit of fun. Gameplay You walk around and are solving puzzles that involve a little bit of platforming using various skills you obtain throughout the game. There is also a large focus on exploration. Each of the 10 areas has things you need to collect and see in order to get full completion. There are several abilities you unlock, the first is the dash which is self-explanatory and after its acquisition becomes a frequent use in the game. The next one is a skating-like ability that is used for faster traversal, unfortunately, this ability is a bit underused and doesn’t serve much of a purpose outside of faster movement when the areas open up a bit, the increase isn’t that much either. Another ability is teleport, this allows you to teleport to certain points in the areas and also sees frequent use in puzzles after its introduction, it combines with the dash ability to make a nice combination for solving the puzzles. Lastly is a glide ability, this one comes late in the game but does see frequent use and works extremely well with dash and teleport and for this, the last sections of the game are the strongest with the most diverse puzzles and interesting ideas. The game is definitely geared towards younger audiences as the puzzles are quite simple to solve and for the most part, don’t require too much thinking, this does make it a bit boring to play and definitely kills replay value especially with a lacking story. Story There isn’t much of a story but there are glyphs you can get to give some backstory and world-building, it is all textual though, and isn’t very engaging. Graphics The graphics are nice, have a simple art style that is nice to look at and the models are really good looking, each creature is unique and adds great diversity to the game. Soundtrack The soundtrack is alright, not much there but it doesn’t detract and is pretty good towards the conclusion of the game. Conclusion Omno is an ok game, it is rather short and simple with some nice puzzles. However, at the current price point, I don’t really recommend the game.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Wasn’t too fond of it Gameplay The game is essentially a 2d version of Dark Souls featuring metroidvania elements. At the start you can pick from a few classes to decide how you want to play the game. There is a wide variety of combat options in the game of which I tried 2. I started off as a knight but really struggled after about 3 hours so I restarted and switched to a mage where things went much smoother, I was a bit baffled and how big of a difference it was, had their only been the knight class with it’s shield and sword I likely wouldn’t have finished it. There is a pretty good range of enemies that have interesting abilities however some of these can be a big pain to deal with. In an early area in the game there are these poison slime things that can stunlock you and also poison you, they appear very faintly and are quite numerous, as the knight these were a complete pain to kill however as a mage with fire they died in one hit. Another area features these teleporting skeletons which will usually teleport right after you cast a spell, this makes killing them frustrating rather than difficult. Some of the enemies and even some of the bosses have essentially combo’s where you will get knocked down and as you are getting back up during the slow animation you will get knocked down again and likely killed, this can lead to one mistake being much more punishing than intended. As the knight you use heavy armor which means dodging is essentially impossible, and the shield is very weak and uses up a lot of stamina, this made some of the bosses really difficult as the roll was very clunky and felt bad to use and using a shield wasn’t really viable. The flying enemies in this game as well as some of the regular ones frequently fly through walls making them incredibly hard to hit. For the most part the bosses were well done, all of them pretty much had a phase 2 through which involved them getting faster attacks or an additional one after their sets, this got really stale after a while. The final boss of the game has a bug that as a mage with no shield basically ended my life during it, he has this grab move and then throws you but if you are against a wall you will get thrown into the wall and be stuck in their and unable to dodge, sometimes you can cast spells but not often., this has apparently been known for awhile and is still not fixed. There is some basic platformer in the game which for the most part was ok, however in some areas towards the end of the game the platforming becomes a game of trial and error as jumps are often into where you can’t see or require you to use an ability you get that doesn’t always work the way you want, there is one jump in the second to last area that is so difficult I died to that more times than I did to any boss. The game features brands which serve as the abilities in the game however it doesn’t really tell you what these brands do or even how to use them in some cases, this made me incredibly lost in some places and especially towards the end of the game, I probably spent a good few hours just trying to find out where to go and how to use the new brands I got. This problem is especially prevalent as there is no map in the game, this makes navigating it incredibly difficult especially since it is a metroidvania where you unlock new abilities to traverse new areas, this works in a 3d game where the player has a much better sense of location and can physically see areas but in a 2d game it doesn’t really work, a map would be helpful in alleviating much of the confusion with getting around especially late in the game. You have Salt which is used for upgrades and such, it also has a skill tree which is where you spend level ups, there is a lot of diversity in this skill tree and you can build whatever you want on your character, this made for a unique playstyle possible. Story The story follows the main character on a ship to deliver a princess when it is attacked by something, you have to find the princess on the island you crash on. The story is fairly standard and like in Dark Souls games it is hidden behind NPC’s and other such items, this does seem to be a staple of most metroidvanias though so it didn’t really bother me it just wasn’t anything exceptional. Graphics The graphics are alright, many standard looking sprites and backgrounds but it did have some interesting things. In some areas though the background matched the color of the enemies making them difficult to see, I noticed this especially in the first area of the game. Soundtrack The soundtrack is ok, it plays pretty much the same song throughout the entire game except boss fights, boss fights feature the same music for each one except for the final boss. Conclusion Salt and Sanctuary is plagued by clunky controls, some poorly designed areas and bosses and some bugs that make the experience overall not very worth it. I would skip this one.

I Have played this game 5 times and it is my favorite game. Gameplay The game takes the platforming and combat from the previous game and enhances and expands on it perfectly. Many of the similar platforming techniques are followed over as well as new additions. The additions make for great platforming that feels satisfying and controls so well that exploring is something sought after rather than something of tedium. The combat is massively expanded in this game with a plethora of different weapons that can be selected and placed on 3 different ability slots, each weapon has a unique feel that is beneficial in different circumstances. I personally really liked the hammer which felt really great to use even at the trade off of being a bit slower. It also features a really fun upgrade that makes it an even better weapon that works very well. The combat in the game is more traditional of a 2d metroidvania but with much more diversity. There is also the addition of boss fights which test combat and are very unique and well made, these are definite highlights of the game. The exploration is greatly enhanced here as each area is somehow even more beautiful than the first game and will need to be revisited as you unlock more abilities, more so than the previous game and bringing it more inline with a traditional metroidvania. The levels also change as you accomplish certain aspects of the story, you start in the beginning area at night time and during a storm which will completely change after a bit of progress to being during the day, this change makes the world feel more alive and grounds the story in time more, it also makes for a better experience when retraversing the previous areas as is quite common. In complete difference from the first game the sequel features many creatures that you will meet and speak with that populate the world and add to the worldbuilding, many of these creatures will try to help you on your journey and are where you can acquire more weapons and upgrades, some of these characters also have quests you can do to unlock even more things and that each tell their own little story. The characters also serve as a way to tell some exposition as characters give their tale of how they came to be and their world came to be. Another new addition is the shard system, this system is very similar to the charm system from Hollow Knight and allows the player to prioritize different things, many shards will help to increase survivability or will increase your damage dealt in exchange for being dealt increased damage. Certain shards work only at high or low health which leads to strategizing how often to heal and where to be at with health. You start with 3 slots for shards but can increase this number by completing combat shrines which serve as a little arena with a few waves that feature the various enemies found in their respective area. Another new addition is spirit trials, these are mini platforming based speedruns that offer spirit light for completing under a certain time, spirit light is the currency used to purchase abilities and upgrades. Each of these features blends together to create a perfect gameplay experience that keeps the player engaged the entire game and offers a variety of options for how to play the game. Story The story follows Ori in the immediate aftermath of the first game. The new owl has hatched named Ku and struggles with an injured wing to fly, using the feather from the first game Naru, Gumo and Ori fashion Ku a makeshift wing that works to fly. The majority of the story finds Ori searching to be reunited with Ku and eventually to help restore the light to a land that has lost it. Graphics Somehow this game is even more beautiful than the first one. The artwork of the backgrounds is simply insane once again and is even better in this one. Each background could be a painting in its own right. One of my complaints with the first game was that the backgrounds sometimes blocked enemies, in this one that is no longer the case and the backgrounds got even better. A huge improvement of this game is character designs, with much more important story characters there's no shortage of well designed characters and different ones, each of the main ones feels unique and looks great, the Moki’s especially look incredible. Soundtrack The soundtrack simply outdoes itself and right from the prologue, the song Ku’s First Flight is an incredible piece that’s intensity builds in tune with Ku flying that serves as an introduction to the new world. The track from the first area, A Shine Upon Inkwater Marsh is beautiful and my favorite track of the game. The songs from the escape sequences are even more intense than the first game. Boss fight themes are great and fit well with the fight. Conclusion This game is a masterpiece, there is no other way to describe it. If you like metroidvanias or platformers buy it, or play it on gamepass.

Played this on Xbox originally and really enjoyed it. Gameplay Essentially the game blends some platforming and Metroidvania elements with less of a focus on combat and more of a focus on the platforming. The game features various abilities that you unlock to make movement and traversal of the 2d map easier and accessible, this includes going back to areas you’ve previously been through mainly you would do this to get all of the collectibles there are to unlock. The platforming feels very intuitive as the controls are great and work really well, the abilities you unlock feel really good as well. For the most part, the platforming is straightforward with it being clear where you need to go, I was only stuck once or twice. The game is pretty challenging but definitely rewarding and enjoyable, the escape sequences are the most difficult section of the game and can be quite frustrating especially if you aren’t very good at platformers liek myself. The game’s combat is a bit odd as it mainly revolves around clicking the trigger to cause flames to hit the enemy, you can damage them using the charge ability or stomp you get later on but mainly it will be the flames, the combat isn’t very interesting and isn’t the main focus of the game. There are a variety of enemies that each have different attacks but there are only a few enemies in the game, you will largely encounter the same enemy with a harder version. The game is pretty short, I was able to 100% it in about 10 hours on hard though I have played it before, however, the game is only $5 so it is still worth it. Story The story follows Ori as they attempt to bring the forest back after an incident that left it dark and caused their parental figure to starve. Mainly the story is told through cutscenes that play as you progress and deal with restoring three parts of the forest. You encounter a villainous owl with their own very real reasons to be opposed to attempts to restore the light. The story is quite well told and is pack full of emotions. Graphics This game is simply gorgeous, the wonderful backgrounds and characters look stunning and create a unique look for the game. Every area of the game will be beautiful to look at and looks like art in each instance. Each area has a unique background that fits the area incredibly well. If there is one complaint I have about the art it’s that in some cases it is so overwhelming in its beauty it can be hard to see enemies. Soundtrack It has a beautiful soundtrack that has many strong pieces that help to resonate the emotions of the story as well as the intensity of the gameplay. Each is well crafted though largely the soundtrack isn’t insanely memorable. Conclusion Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition is a solid platformer with beautiful art and a great story, for $5 you really can’t go wrong with this game if you like platformers.

First Kojima game. Gameplay Definitely will be the biggest point of contention and the biggest turn-off. The gameplay is mainly focused on walking around delivering packages between different locations. The walking is surprisingly engaging though as you need to keep your balance and pay attention to the environment around you when walking to make sure you don’t fall and that you can have packages in the best condition. There are also vehicles that can speed up walking, the vehicles are a bit difficult to control especially when maneuvering around rocks which there are a lot of. The “strand” elements of the game are definitely the most interesting, you are able to build structures to help you maneuver the environment such as zip lines, bridges or ladders. Those structures can be built by other people and will appear in your world, essentially there is a connection between you and other players through these structures that can help you along in the game, you can subsequently build other structures to help people as well, you receive likes for doing everything in the game and a whole category of likes is getting them from other online players for using your structures or liking them. The connected nature of the gameplay in this element fits in well with the themes of the story which will be discussed later. This is the first game I’ve played that has elements like this built into the game, Dark Souls has this slightly with signs but not on the level that exists here. There are also some minor third-person shooter elements though they are a small part of the game and are definitely the most generic, the shooting isn’t really that satisfying and was my least enjoyable part of the gameplay. Story The story is the best aspect of the game and I will keep it brief as to not spoil it. The story essentially is about going from location to location connecting places to a sort of internet network in order to rebuild America, a huge theme of the story is connection. The story unfolds through a lot of cut scenes and dialogue and overall is fantastically well written and told. There are high emotional moments throughout and fantastic characters that you spend a lot of time with and learn about in full. The story goes very in-depth in explaining this incredible world that has been crafted to give an understanding that is unmatched in many other games. While some of the dialogue isn’t very good it is a minimal amount and overall the story is incredible. The top talented actors and voice actors make the lengthy cutscenes an enjoyable experience that grips you into the story. The theme of connection is tied right into the gameplay with the strand elements that work better than many other games that try to tie elements to the story. This tied with the mystery will keep you wanting to continue the story. Graphics The graphics of the game are stunning as it creates landscapes from Iceland in a beautiful fashion. The character models also all look really great. The models of the BT’s which are the main enemy of the game are unique and creates a great atmosphere. Soundtrack The soundtrack features many really good songs that work very well with the game, the songs will make you yearn for more and can often evoke the adventure-like nature of the game. There is one song towards the conclusion of the game that is so beautiful and emotional that I still listen to it even after finishing the game. Conclusion Death Stranding is a very weird game, it has a fantastic story and soundtrack with good gameplay that I enjoyed. The gameplay will not work for everyone and as such the game is not for everyone. If you can find something in the gameplay and love great single-player stories then this will be one of the best you can choose from. I loved it and am excited for more from Kojima.

The second Metroidvania I’ve played, after Ori and the Will of Wisps on Xbox. I enjoyed Hollow Knight a lot but do prefer Ori. Gameplay Hollow Knight has some really well-polished gameplay. It involves platforming and 2d side-scrolling type combat which feels great and well-controlled. The character hits well and I have no issues with the manner in which it works. As you progress in the game you unlock further movement abilities to enhance the experience and make navigation more enjoyable and creative. You will also gather more spells so that you can diversify content a little bit. The platforming feels good and for the most part, works well. Not being too difficult and overall is well designed to make it clear in the platforming where to go. There is a big focus on exploration in the game which is done with a large open-world map with lots of hidden areas and places to explore, areas have unique enemies and even some environmental hazards. The charms system works well to create a diverse and unique build combination that can play on how you want the game to go. You can enhance the spells or melee combat or focus on sustainability if that’s what you prefer. The charms serve as one of the many collectibles in the game that are common in Metroidvania. While the gameplay in these aspects is quite good it also serves some issues. The combat is rather limited and doesn’t offer many styles of combat at all, you have the one melee weapon that you can make longer or quicker with the charms but other than that there are no options. There are only three spells in the game that have no customization options aside from making them stronger with a charm, each spell has its uses but the lack of options for combat can make it repetitive and offers little in the ways of replayability, you can’t really change combat strategies. The platforming while good is a bit confusing in some later areas of the game (SPOILERS AHEAD) In White Palace which is supposed to be difficult the platforming in parts isn’t clear exactly on where to go and can be confusing, in one part a platform that looks like the background is required to be jumped on and it took me a bit to realize it was a platform and not the background. While the platforming in this section is difficult the design of some of the sections makes it unclear how to proceed, especially with so few areas like this in the game. (END OF SPOILERS) Exploration I will discuss more in the story section. The charms are great but it does feel like a few of them are way more useful than all the others and as such are an almost necessity to have on a build, this is a result of those charms being really good and other charms not being nearly as good so it feels like the diversity can be a bit shallow. Story The story is by far the worst done aspect of the game. It is okay to have little information revealed in a game but Hollow Knight starts you with virtually nothing, you don’t really have a clear objective and just have to wander around in order to find the story which you will several hours in. While I didn’t mind this it can definitely be a big turn-off to players as I several times, in the beginning, was just confused as to why I was doing the things I was doing. The lack of explanation of the objective at the beginning takes away from much of the early game as you mindlessly fight through enemies and bosses for some unknown purpose. The actual story itself is fairly standard and I don’t have any issues with it. Art Style The art in the game is quite gorgeous. Several areas in the game have beautiful and unique backgrounds. Each area features custom-designed enemies as well with unique animations and attacks. The character is well designed and looks great with a good animation set. The one complaint I have about the art is that it is not very diverse, it features a lot of the same colors and some areas also look very similar, while this is in line with the setting of the game it does make traversing some areas not as enjoyable. Soundtrack Great soundtrack with many unique pieces that fit well with the theme of each area or boss, no complaints. Conclusion Hollow Knight is a fantastic game with a lot of great content that is incredibly well made. It does however lack diversity and is unclear in presenting its objectives. That being said I do highly recommend the game, it is difficult in a way similar to dark souls and very enjoyable.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This is my first game in the Divinity, franchise and my first game by Larian. Performance The game runs very well, I have no issues with it at all while playing and very rarely have gotten crashes in my two full playthroughs and half a playthrough in multiplayer. A consistently stable framerate and no stuttering or lag made for a nice experience. Graphics It is a rather gorgeous game, the settings are quite nice and no bad textures either. While it is not the most beautiful game the graphics are still appealing to look at. I came across no graphical glitches or errors during my time playing it. Gameplay The gameplay is phenomenal, it is your very standard turn-based RPG combat but it works very smoothly and flows nicely in between each of the turns and characters. The character creation is very detailed and different from what you expect from RPG’s nowadays, you can customize every stat and even your starting abilities and if you want your character, they also offer a number of premade characters that have their own unique backstories and quest to be undergone during the duration of the game, you can also choose to take these characters as companions if you want your own character. Despite the fact there are “classes” you are not tied into a specific class, after the first act you are able to respec your character whenever you want and can invest in whichever class you want and get their abilities, you just won’t have enough skill points to get all of them. The combat offers several unique ways in which to go about it to all the classes, the environment itself can be a weapon, if there is water you could use a skill to shock it and stun enemies, oil can be ignited into fire and barrels and other things can be broken or used as barricades. The options for the combat are very vast and make it fun to replay as or try out different styles. There also are actual skill checks that can have big impacts on the game and your characters as a whole. One thing is there for many fights have only combat as the option. Story The story follows whomever you choose as a character as you’re being taken to Fort Joy (which is basically a prison) for being a sourcerer, they believe these sourcerers who are people who use the mystical element source, are causing the Voidwoken to appear, a group of evil demonic like creatures that are plaguing Rivellon, you start on a ship to the Fort, after arriving at the Fort you have to escape and try and stop the Voidwoken. The story is much more interesting if you do the many side quests and character quests the game has to offer, these also help to get a more complete picture of the world and get you great loot that can help you in the game. The story lets you do pretty much whatever you want, there is still a certain way it goes but for the most part, you can kill everyone if you really want to and do some really horrible things if you want to, these choices do have a real impact on the world and may even cause some problems with your companions. The game has things built-in for this and has alternate ways to advance the story if you go the more non-traditional route. Overall the story is really great and there are many features of it that make it interesting and different for each person, the ending is seen as a bit of a letdown and I do agree a little but the story is still great. Soundtrack The soundtrack is phenomenal, the music really captures an adventuring vibe and during fights and even the final fight, the music is grand and gets you at the moment. Conclusion Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition is probably my favorite game of all time, the very fun gameplay and combat combined with the majestic music and great storytelling really drive home how amazing it is. When I finished my first playthrough I was sad that I had finished which is why I replayed it, I very rarely replay/watch/read things but this game was so good that I did replay it. I would recommend this game to anyone who loves RPGs and good storytelling as well as fun combat, but beware the game is quite lengthy and will definitely **** you in.