angelknives

Another in a long line of games that I can hardly tell apart. The premise is interesting enough, if unoriginal, but this game never adds anything new. I just finished it this evening and I'm already forgetting it as I type.

It's a fun enough experience, if entirely forgettable, unfortunately. The combat is fun, but it never evolves, so near the end of the game it becomes incredibly tedious. The story is pretty predictable and never really does anything interesting with the few good ideas it has. The game does have one or two interesting characters, unfortunately this doesn't include any of the main or even secondary characters. No, the interesting characters are all NPCs who have about 10 lines throughout the story. There was one NPC I met, who I can only describe as a David Bowie inspired magic assassin spy, I really wish I could've played as instead of the standard bland kid you have to play as. Still, if they continue with this universe and get a bit more creative, I think there could really be something here.

An interesting time loop game I really enjoyed once I got into it. The characters aren't all that interesting but they really are just there to carry the main theme of the story and for that they work well enough. The mystery is intriguing enough to carry the game, even through some of the more tedious parts.

Pretty disappointing overall. The designs of the automats is gorgeous and some parts of the world are beautiful as well, but the game is a drag to play through. The story is boring and told in the worst ways possible, supported by non-characters and some of the most awful voice acting in modern gaming. The combat is fun enough for a while, but it never really evolves and so gets boring pretty quickly. The levels are all designed as frustrating mazes, presumably to hide how small the maps are (not that I mind small maps). This really seems like a step back for a studio that maybe hasn't really delivered anything great yet, but that can certainly do better than this.

The world of this game is fascinating and I loved discovering new obscure things about it. It's also just beautiful. It's one of the few games where I tried to find every little thing I could do, just because I wanted to spend more time in this world. The gameplay is fun and combat is challenging but never feels unfair. It never felt like I got my ass handed to me because the game made it impossible, but rather because I had to rethink my strategy or level up a bit more.

Fun as it is to be a contrarian, I can't help but agree with the universal praise this game is getting. It's been a long time since an RPG scratched all my itches and trust me, I've been looking. The funnest part with any RPG for me is experimenting with the story and choices you get, and that experimentation is (almost) always rewarded in BG3. It's the reason I've put an obscene amount of time in this game. Well, that and the characters. The companions especially feel more alive than in most RPGs out there. (Shown by how passionately some people love or hate them.) But there are also plenty of smaller characters that are just as interesting. This game quickly became my favourite of all time, and I don't see any other surpassing it any time soon.

Just a very fun game. I loved the gameplay and the world. The story is enjoyable enough, even if the protagonist got on my nerves. All in all I can't wait to see how the developers can build on this.

If you gave me this game and Prey to play, I would've bet money on this being the game made first. So much of it feels like a smaller, less thought out game that has mechanics that remind of Prey (and Dishonored), just done much worse. It's fun enough to play, for a while. But just like Prey you end up spending far too much time covering the same areas. Except here it's worse because the gameplay is far less varied and the areas are small and boring. It also doesn't help that the game is incredibly easy and the AI is some of the most braindead I've come across in gaming. As for the story, well, it might as well not be there. It has some nice potential, but that's about all it has. The characters are also nothing to write home about, though at least I thought Colt was entertaining enough as a protagonist. Frankly, I like this game a lot more in the first few hours, but after that it becomes clear you've discovered everything about the gameplay loop and there isn't enough there to justify all the hours you have to put in to reach the ending (that's also very unsatisfying). I can't even imagine replaying this game as the repetition has soured me on it so much. It's a shame but at least I can start playthrough 333 of Prey now and pretend Arkane might make another game like it.

This game is everything I want from an rpg. i thoroughly enjoyed exploring every little nook and cranny in this game to find every bit of content I could. The game looks gorgeous, and there is a lot to explore. You always feel rewarded for exploring more. The story isn't anything especially original, but it is told with a lot of charm. The companion quests are also enjoyable and there are plenty of interesting side quests. Actually, this is one of the few games where I replay all the side quests during every play through. All in all this is absolutely one of my favourite games of all time and I can't wait to start another play through.

This looked like it'd be right up my ally, the design, the concept, it's nothing new, but it is exactly what I enjoy. But Close to the Sun just didn't scratch that itch for me. The story is incredibly predictable, and never lives up to its promising premise. The environments are gorgeous (though on the ps4 the graphics have this strange blurriness to them), and look enticing to explore, but exploration is almost never rewarded. This game completely restricts your movements, meaning you never feel like you're exploring the place, just being shown around by the game. That makes you feel completely disconnected from the main character. Besides exploration, the game has a few action moments, but they all fall flat. The mechanics are janky and the enemies ridiculous. And speaking of ridiculous, the game manages to boil down an interesting mystery about time bleeding throughout the ship to a fight against boring enemies. I think the game would have done better to stay a mystery about time experiments, with no enemies running after you and more to explore.

If you're looking for the best graphics, or the most innovative game play, this isn't the game for you. But if you enjoy the Terminator movies (all 2 of them), and enjoy smaller games, this is perfect for you. The story tries to create a real sequel to the second movie and mostly manages to do so. It's not a perfect game, but it's really enjoyable and clearly the developers pushed it as far as they could. I wish more mid-tier games like this got a fair shake.

Probably the only game where the Tell Tale formula really works. The standard game play and art style works wonderfully for this story. The characters are very compelling and the story is pretty nice. It's a shame this game never got a sequel. If Tell tale had focused more on finding stories that worked for their formula, rather than trying to make every IP work for their games, the studio might have ended up in a better place.

While this is the most beautiful Uncharted has looked, it's the one I enjoyed the least. Mainly because the story felt so incredibly emotionally manipulative. They ignored 3 games worth of getting to know Nathan and his life, just so they could try and wring some emotional reactions out of Nathan's relationship with his never before mentioned brother. This sudden appearance by Sam also made it painfully obvious what was going to happen, because in every story that has a never before mentioned family member show up, the family member will either die or betray the main characters. It's incredibly cliche and predictable. There are some nice improvements on the mechanics, but nothing really groundbreaking. Still, this is an adventure like you'd expect from Uncharted and it is a lot of fun when it just focuses on that and less on the family therapy.

After The Evil Within, I really didn't see myself playing the sequel, but seeing some of the actual game in videos made me give it a shot and I'm glad I did. I love the surreal setting this game plays with and wish more games would take note. Exploring the areas was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the main story and the way it unfolded. i even enjoyed the mini games. I wouldn't say this was a horror experience, more like a slightly disturbing dream, but it works really well.

A small but intriguing cyberpunk game that has a lot of smaller details to discover. I really enjoyed exploring the world and can still find new small stories I hadn't noticed before. The main story is interesting, even if it could've used a bit more content. I also love the art style of the game.

Hard to believe this is made by Bioware. If you had told me this was a studio's first shot at an rpg, I would've believed you. There is definitely things to be enjoyed in this game, but it fails utterly as an rpg. There are no meaningful choices, you do not define anything about your character and the relationships with the companions don't change meaningfully either. The saddest thing is the lack of diversity in the planets. It feels like most of them are just some variation of 'desert', and I don't think it started like that, looking at concept art. Just as bland are the companions, with most of them just being the bargain bin versions of the OT characters. The romances are equally disappointing. A couple of them have some nice scenes, but nothing on the level of other recent Bioware romances. The game play is fine. Just fine. But I can't get over the fact that a game about space exploration has so little to explore. The main story is incredibly shallow and you've seen it all before (in the other ME games!). Near the end they hint at some bigger things to happen (one hidden behind a boring collection quest), but those teases are left for a sequel I don't see happening. Besides these issues, it's painfully obvious this game needed more time or better leadership. From things like the asari all having the same face, to the lack of a personality for Ryder, to the state this game was launched in, all make it clear Bioware was rushing near the end. All in all I can't say I had NO fun with this game, but I couldn't be bothered to replay it and that's never happened to me before with a Bioware game.

A painfully average game. This reboot franchise already wasn't taking any risks, but this one is even more tamer somehow. It's enjoyable at points, but utterly replaceable and forgettable. I have trouble remembering the main story already. Honestly, this one is like a microwave burger. You would never choose it, but if you're really hungry, it'll do.

This might be my favourite Uncharted title to date. I love both Chloe and Nadine, so having them team up in this one felt like a dream come true. And I even enjoyed Sam in this game, even though he felt like a cheap emotional gimmick in Uncharted 4. I think he is perfect as the comic relief character in this game. The story is touching and a nice way to get to know Chloe better. The mechanics are familiar but fun as always and the exploring is pretty great in this instalment. It really is the action adventure you want from Uncharted and I can't help but hope for more Uncharted featuring this cast, unlikely as it is.

Despite being marketed as a stand alone experience I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone who isn't a huge fan of the franchise, otherwise you will have no stake in what happens. This game manages to use three of the most interesting characters in the Dishonored franchise and not do anything with them, or change them so completely you wonder what's the point. Billie - despite being the lead - gets no motivation of her own and no character growth. Nothing she does seems to be her own choice save for the one and only choice the game let's you make and even then her reasoning seems absent. Daud, despite being alive and so having to be low chaos Daud, seems to have regressed to even before Dishonored 1. His reasoning to kill the Outsider makes no sense considering what he says in his own DLCs, and what the story tells you has happened to him since that time makes no sense either. It genuinely seems like the people who wrote this forgot there were other stories that featured him and simply started with a blank character. The few things that happen with him in the rest of this game make little sense either. The Outsider meanwhile has changed from the enigmatic figure he was in Dishonored 1 or the slightly more emotional but still somewhat detached figure he was in Dishonored 2 to an emotional volatile wreck. Perhaps that would have worked if they had spent any time on his character in this game, explored his motivations a little, but they do not. The story itself is very unsatisfying as well. Like I said before, Billie is missing any motivation of her own or character growth, meaning you're left with an empty shell you will only feel attachment to if you played D1 DLC and D2. Nothing you do in the game feels like your accomplishment either because Billie is literally handed everything she needed to succeed. The whole plot goes 'we need to do this, well here's this MacGuffin we suddenly know exists and poof it's in your possession/ reach.' There are strictly speaking targets in the game, they'rejust not mentioned and not part of your mission. You can go after them and some will have minor consequences in the world but really the game does not really focus on that. The only thing it focuses on is getting the next plot (often literal) device. The contracts are extra things you can do, but they really only offer some filler. They have no real consequences, are really bare bones when it comes to plotting and have no choices to be made. "Get this" "kill this person" that kind of thing. I avoided doing the ones that required killing during the first mission because I had managed to avoid all spoilers, meaning I was unaware that this game actually got rid of the main mechanic of the Dishonored games. The Chaos System. I will never understand why they got rid of their defining mechanic. It boggles the mind. I still finished my first playthrough as what would have been low chaos, but it felt a bit hollow. After all succeeding means nothing if there's no chance for failure. The second time around I killed everything in sight and man was it easy. High chaos has always been easier, but in this no chaos playground it was ridiculous. It did make Billie's final morality speech hilarious. The entire plot only has one choice to make - you probably know which one - and you can always unlock both endings. Doesn't matter what you did or didn't do, there's only one dialogue option that determines the outcome. And what a disappointment that was. First off, despite there being hints in the other titles about what the Outsider's end could mean for the universe this takes place in, this game seems to ignore all of that. It fails to explore any of it. It even fails to explain to us why Billie would or wouldn't kill the Outsider. The ending also felt very abrupt, with just two epilogue slides that clearly leave the door open for Arkane to milk this franchise that probably should have stopped after the D1 DLCs rather than repeating plots in D2 and now refusing to stay consistent with their own storytelling in DOTO. The gameplay is fine, though far too easy. The ng+ is badly implemented, still sticking you with preset powers you can't even upgrade. That along with the lack of a Chaos system or choices really kills the replay value. The game also reuses so many assets from Dishonored 2, even a whole level. It even reuses its own levels. If you're interested in this game, I'd wait for a sale because at 30 bucks I felt duped.

I love immersive sims, I love sci-fi and I love art deco, so obviously I am in love with this game! The art style is beautiful, the levels are complex and interesting and a lot of the story beats really hit the right. I just love taking my sweet time to explore every little corner of a level to see if I can find a new best way to reach my goal. I love reading about the crew. Really, it's just a great game to get lost in. But there are a few downsides. The designs of the enemies could've been more diverse. I don't dislike the black oily freaks, but it needs more variation. But the main thing working against this game is how in the latter half of the game you are just going back and forth through the station too much. By this time you will have been to every area a lot already (especially if you're like me and try to do everything you can), so near the end of the game you just get annoyed hearing you have to go back to the place you just came from, where the enemies will have re-spawned as well. That really is the major drag on this game. Oh, and the story could've used a bit more substance and time, especially near the end of the game. Other than that it's a great game.

I'm probably the exact target audience for this game, so of course I enjoyed it. I love the setting, the way it handles vampires, the mystic elements and the story. I also love how you can influence the world and people around you. And they managed to make draining people genuinely creepy and tempting. But the game does fail when it comes to how the few choices you can make regarding the main character's path are implemented. Too often it felt like the game was railroading me into doing things that made no sense for how I was playing the MC outside of the main storyline. And I also think the morality system needed some more tweaking. I just don't think it's very logical that the game just goes 'biting people wrong, not biting people good.' Especially because there are a few characters in the game that are actively hurting their environment. it'd make more sense to make it morally wrong for MC to not intervene when they come across one of those people, rather than pretending it's moral to let (let's say) a murderer roam free. If they flesh out the morality system a bit more, and give the player more true choice when it comes to the path of the main story, a sequel or spiritual sequel would be brilliant.

This game is very stylish and a lot of fun. The game play is high paced and addictive, the art style is gorgeous and it has a nice cyberpunk setting and story going for it. One of the few games I immediately replayed after I finished it.

I love this game so much. I wish more games that are fully open world learned from this game that densely packed hubs are far more interesting than desert planets/planes. The meat of this game is everything around the main story. The main story has some interesting beats, but it's really in the side quests and exploring the hubs that you get the cyberpunk experience in this game. And it's all wonderful. One of the few games where I do ALL the side quests, every time I play it. The DLCs are also enjoyable and offer more of the same quality. The only real downside to this game is that the main story feels incomplete. It feels like it's waiting for a part 3 that we might never see. Which would be a shame because this series still has a lot going for it.

One of those games I just played because I found a really cheap copy in the back of the local game store. It was a great little surprise, a game I had a lot of fun with. I love the time mechanic in the game and that alone makes me sad it never got a sequel. I enjoyed the story as well. In general it's a great game that had a lot of potential left on the table for a sequel.

This is an amazing game. The story is intriguing and disturbing. Its world is monstrously beautiful. Just traveling through this world and discovering what happened, and why you are there, is one of the best journeys I've had in gaming. The existential dread this game left me with afterwards, lingered for weeks, so you know the story was well executed. The only reason I can't give it a 10/10 is because of the monsters. While I love their creepy designs, it would've been better to just have them be passive wanderers, rather than actual threats. Sneaking around them really just takes away from the game. Just encountering them as some kind of mysterious entities would've worked better for this game. Other than that, this game is amazing and one of my absolute favourites.

Here is the thing, bugs are to be expected, a downgrade compared to the PC version as well, but this? This is ridiculous. And CDPR obviously knew this was the state of the game on console, or they wouldn't have hidden this version from reviewers. They shipped this, knowing full well it wasn't anywhere near an acceptable state to be launched in, but they didn't care because their pre-orders were 41% on consoles, so they couldn't resist. It's painfully obvious that this game does not run on PS4, maybe it can't even run on the PS4. Which would be fine if they'd just released this on PC and no other systems. But again, with so many console gamers out there ready to give them money, they couldn't do that. Right now, the game is basically unplayable. Not just because the graphics are blurry and just atrocious. But also because the game freezes, lags and crashes frequently. There are bugs and glitches everywhere, and while I normally find those hilarious, these are often game breaking. I know there will be patches, but let's be honest, nothing bar a full rework of this game will save it on console. And I don't see CDPR putting in an investment like that. After all they've sold their game, they have their money and this launch has shown us that is the main thing they care about.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I'd been looking forward to this game for a long while before it released and it did not disappoint! I loved the story, I loved playing as Aloy, I loved the combat, and I loved this new world Guerrilla Games has created. And I especially love how fresh this felt. It truly felt like they took a risk and that's become a rarity. This is one of the few games where I enjoyed all the sidequests and even ended up playing the 'filler' content like collection quests just to spend some more time in this world. The map isn't the biggest ever, but frankly I am so tired of people bragging about how big the world **** is while hiding how empty it is. This place felt great. It was beautiful, had varied environment, was filled with gorgeous plant life and had real NPCs. By which I mean that they felt alive. They are going about their day, and they all look unique. Sure they reuse some faces, but there is clear effort put into this characters you will literally just see in the background. it also helps a lot that they give each tribe in the game a very distinct look, which just aids in giving them a more real feel. I loved Aloy and all the side characters, I just wish there was more content for all of them because I got exited to talk to all of them. The sidequests are all tied to characters with names and a little bit of story to them (it's sad that isn't the norm for all games but I still remember 'widower' from da:i) and all of them add to the world building. Even the errants (the lesser side quests) can have some interesting content. Even something as 'filler' as 'clear this bandit camp' has an interesting character tied to it who tells you something more about this world as well. Hunting the machines is so much fun. And there are so many of them. And they kind of adapt when you keep attacking them. Really I spent so much extra time in the game just playing a machine hunter. The story has some familiar elements, but it's told in a way to still be very engaging and the end monologue had me genuinely moved. It does have a small sequel tease at the very end, but honestly the story itself is told entirely in this game, including why the machine dinosaurs exist and that is refreshing in a time when many games leave giant threads hanging just to pull you in for a sequel. While this isn't part of the story or the gameplay I also really love the photomode and it has kept me playing longer than I would have. This game is already one of my all time favourites.

It's pretty clear this game ran into a lot of issues in its development, perhaps that should make us more forgiving of its flaws, I don't know. The truth is, this game feels far too familiar. The new galaxy, the new aliens, the new landscapes all feel like they wouldn't look amiss right here; there is nothing truly alien about it. The maps are huge empty places, often some variant of a desert (snow desert or almost barren rock land included) which makes sense I suppose because they clearly want you using the Nomad. Thing is, if you don't enjoy riding the Nomad, you will not enjoy a large chunk of the game. Every quest will require you to spend most time completing it in the Nomad. Even when it makes no sense story wise, the game will direct you from one end of the galaxy to the other. Often with little reward for doing so. The ridiculous amount of sidequests will make you miss linear games, and even the game itself tells you that some are not worth your time (namely tasks but honestly most of the other sidequests can be skipped as well). I know some people are of the idea that sidequest **** does not matter because they're 'optional' but fact of the matter is, time went into creating these. Time now not spent on the real story content. Not to mention how discouraging an overfull journal can be when you can't predict which sidequests might be worth your while. This game also tries to cram in more romance options than any Bioware title before, it's a feature the devs were promoting a lot before release. It doesn't help that all of the characters feel a bit bland - besides Reyes there is no possible conflict there besides one sulky dialogue. These romances are some of the most disappointing once they've written yet, there are really only two that get fleshed out stories (Cora and Jaal) and neither of those felt more content heavy or engaging as some of the older romances did. Other romances seem to be missing scenes (for instance Liam's date cuts off before you see the actual date - this happens several times) and others are almost pointless. The flings should have been cut immediately. Again time wasted on developing those that could have been spent elsewhere. Like designing more aliens. Or making sure that the very few aliens we get to see aren't all literal clones (it's especially glaring with the Asari of course.) Or maybe fleshing out some of the characters more. The Ryders are the most preset PCs of any Bioware game. They have only one personality (a jokester because even if you pick serious options throughout all the autodialogue forces you into that role), often only two option to respond - both of which pretty much identical. Their whole background is set in stone as well, even down to their relationship with their father. Even the way they look, it's been slightly improved now but when playing at launch you literally had to pick a preset and you could only change a few things. The story is boring and rehashes parts of the OT's plot. It is supposed to have the highest stakes yet, but it's told jokingly. There are no meaningful choices, there are no multiple endings possible (well one minor NPC can possibly die), and a major plot thread is only revealed in a fetch quest! Then the story ends with a major cliffhanger that will never be resolved. Something clearly went wrong, the devs were promising things that never happened (just before release they said the CC was like the one in DA:I so clearly something went wrong), and there are some moments in the game that make you think there really was something there once. Of course the bugs are often too distracting to really feel emerged in the game. I've had some game breaking bugs and *still* have the issue that the cursor shoots to the middle of the screen all the time, even during cutscenes and I can't move it away. I still enjoyed parts of my playthrough, the combat could be fun, I enjoyed the Reyes romance, brief as it was, I thought Jaal had a real story arc in the game, I loved Havarl (well the way it looked alien at least). But in the end I haven't been able to start a second playthrough because there just isn't enough replay value there. A shame because Bioware games are always my most replayed games. Too bad we'll never see the series redeem itself.