The game has a very satisfying initial hook - an incredibly dark and gory intro cinematic, and the first 30 minutes of the game tease a nuanced storyline. After that point, the game is the same repetitive gameplay until the very end. None of the enemies require any adjustment to tactics or strategy - every encounter is "run towards enemy and mash buttons until everything dies". You could spend time trying to determine the best order for your abilities, but once that's solved, there's nothing left to do but plug ahead until you beat the game. After that, you continue doing the same thing in the endgame, just with higher numbers swirling around your head as you improve your gear. It's not my thing. Also, I want to comment on how complicated this game has become - there are so many systems in play now (crafting, potions, currencies, gems, enchantments, aspects, strongholds, seasonal play, etc), that it really dilutes what's supposed to be front-and-center - gameplay mechanics. And while the mechanics are strong, they're so darn repetitive that I don't see myself playing this game much longer.
It's not XCOM-level depth of gameplay, but it's still a fun tactical shooter with a Mario-twist. It's got a strong enough gameplay loop that I was engaged throughout the whole campaign, and am looking forward to playing the sequel at some point.
My first game of this type - I struggled at first, but eventually got better and better at the game until I was able to achieve what I thought I never would and beat the final boss. It was such a thrill, and the game encouraged me to continue to find new ways of fighting through the levels. The combat was such a blast that I heartily indulged, and played the game until I'd gotten an 8 game winstreak - again, I never thought I could beat the game once, let alone 8 times in a row. There was more endgame content I could have attempted, but at that point, I decided to retire, but I definitely can't deny the satisfaction this game brought me.
One of my favorite tactical games and now it's portable. The game ran exactly as it should on the Switch - or it may have even beat my expectations. This was my first time playing the War of the Chosen expansion, and it really added to my enjoyment- there were new enemies, but also new weapons, abilities, and factions. Some of them became some of my favorite features of the game, like the new grappling-hook soldier, or the blade-wielder. I managed to set up some fun combos that really helped me enjoy the game.
You get what you're looking for - this is a fast-paced shooter that requires some balance in the flow of combat. Kill from afar, or get up close and personal to recover some life. The levels are great, the pacing is great, the levels are great. There's some opportunity for upgrades to weapons and core skills by completing challenges, which encourage you to perfect your playstyle in order to max out your character. Pretty much everything you could ask for in this genre.
Great game - provides the typical Fire Emblem tactical challenge, but mixes in some new systems. Some of these are more welcome than others; the main thing to understand is that you will have significantly more downtime in the game in comparison to other Fire Emblem games. One of my biggest complaints is the lack of diversity for the highest levels of character classes - seemingly all of them are horse-riding, lance-wielding tanks or spell-casters. Not a lot of options for swords-wielders, axe-wielders, pegasus knights, or archers, etc.
A great game for me to play with my kids - my five year-old son can float alongside me, eat some bad guys, collect some coins, and have a blast. It's not terribly challenging until the last few levels (and the bonus levels in the post-game are particularly tough), but this is definitely intended to be a leisurely romp through some colorful and creative levels. I like how the game mixed things up every once in a while and provided levels where you play as a Kaiju-type Yoshi that demolishes buildings, fly through the air like an airplane, or other zany kinds of minigames.
I respect how much other people love this game and the time that they've put into adapting the game to their playstyle, but this game is not for me. In my opinion, there's too many systems in play here - you have an extensive quest log to manage, crafting materials to acquire, cooking recipes to learn and implement, gear to constantly manage and replace, pictures to investigate, etc etc etc. I respect that that's how some people want to play the game, but I wanted something more *focused*. With that said, I wasn't super keen on the "go anywhere and find your adventure" sort of game direction - I walked into one area and was instantly killed by lightning. I walked into another area and came face-to-face with a super powerful boss. The constant "die and try again" may be appealing to some, but not to me, especially when done for dozens of hours on end.
A true joy to play - the open world invites exploration and finding new challenges. You can take a linear path and complete the game, or you can take your time to explore and build up your moon count. Either way works, and the diversity of worlds that you encounter keeps things from getting stale. Not to mention, the New Donk City victory celebration adds an emotional tribute to Mario's extensive history - very fun.
You run, you shoot, and that's about it. Maybe that's all you need from this kind of game, but I was hoping for a little more depth. The storyline is okay, the villains are okay, but there's a lot of downtime between missions as you rummage about this submarine you're on.
While not as tactically deep as a game like XCOM, this game allows for you to express your tactics by picking superhero teams and specializing your heroes' decks. The story is surprisingly well told, especially the final mission (I was surprised for sure!). I was also surprised at how much time I spent outside of missions - for the first few missions of the game, you spend more time outside of combat than it it. Granted, it is a nice change of pace, but I wish more of the time spent in the abbey was stretched out over the course of the game, rather than having so much of it compressed into the beginning. Overall, an underrated and underappreciated game - I would love a sequel with more characters and more teamup options.
My first "Souls-like" game, and I found it to be really fun. When I first started out, I was bad at the game and died a lot. I persevered and got good, and then was able to take on most enemies with ease, but had to really struggle with the bosses. The animations are beautiful, the characters and story are good and well expressed. I didn't care for the amount of cosmetics in the game, as that's really one of the only forms of "loot" you can acquire (no upgrading your lightsaber or anything). The combat is fun and dynamic; it grows over the course of the game (especially as you get better at it). I will admit that the levels were pretty daunting - there were so many elevators and branching paths and locked doors that I found myself intimidated. Luckily, the game has some features that help, specifically when the map shows you that a door is locked or you don't have the requisite ability to progress in an area, so it's forgiving in that sense. Overall, great Star Wars game.
Game runs surprisingly well on the Switch. The framerate was consistent throughout my playthrough. I loved the gameplay, although the additions to the game gave it almost a rock-scissors-paper feel, in that if you see an enemy, you know "ok this weapon is designed to defeat them". But that doesn't detract too much from the rampaging fun.I will say that the story was a complete miss for me. I couldn't understand what was going on - it was too ambiguous, with lots of words with Capital Letters that clearly had some Meaning that I couldn't intuit.
These games are great for nostalgia, but they're clearly not meant for a modern audience. The plotlines, writing, and characters are rather childish, although character design is overall positive. The combat system is still as ingenious and fun as ever, although it does feel like the chip collection system could use an overhaul. This kind of game screams to me for a modern remake or glowup.
The game has great visuals and voice acting, and the game's presentation is interesting. The story is Joel and Ellie and their many adventures as they cross the U.S., so the game touches on different parts of their journey. Plot lines are introduced and closed, and the stories are generally good, although some of them could've been explored more (and maybe in a more interesting fashion). What really gets me about the game is how much it drags. You spend ~60% of your time just looking for loot, and Joel's default 'walk' is so slow that I had to scam the game by walking at a diagonal for the whole game so that he'd actually jog. The gameplay itself is nothing to write home about - it reminded me of Dead Space and made me wish, at times, that I was just playing Dead Space. By the end of the game, you become kind of a weapon powerhouse, which distracts a bit from the survival aspect of the game. Overall - it's rather overrated, but still a reasonable game, especially in consideration of its cast and production values.
This DLC is longer than the others and tells a more complete, believable, and exciting story. It’s one part Deus Ex and two parts Prison Break (the first season... the good one). I can’t say enough about how much I loved the story coming together the way it did. You feel like you know what’s going on, but gradually things get more and more violent and chaotic, right up until the end. This is easily the best DLC for this game or the prequel.
This is a Fire Emblem game, through and through. If you've played one before, you know what to expect. The best part is being able to flip open my 3DS and resume from right where I left off. The game is slightly easier than I expected, but it has a lot of depth and replay value. I'm having fun finishing new challenges even after having beaten the game and max leveled most of my characters. Now I need to explore strategies that will strengthen them even further through the Second Seals. This game is fantastic.
This game delivers on what it sets out to do - there's a rich background to your fairly-straightforward story of betrayal and revenge, and each mission is executed according to your tastes and skills. Similar to Deus Ex, you have options of how you wish to engage your enemies. However, whereas Deus Ex promised three avenues of choice (guns, stealth, or hacking), this game only offers two (guns or stealth). This game delivers much more though in terms of creativity, design, and depth. Choosing the stealth route, you have plenty of exploration options and Blink to help you evade detection. Choosing violence, there are a lot of creative ways to dispatch your enemies. The game suffers a bit in this regard, as killing your enemies is not terribly challenging; it's a matter of making your own fun in doing it. For example, during one part of my playthrough, I opted not to stealth through a section and instead dispatched each guard in the area with a shot to the head with the crossbow from long range. That wasn't terribly fun - instead, I recommend mixing traps, takedowns, and various gadgets to make things more interesting. I was challenged enough by a stealth playthrough that I found that style to be rewarding enough by itself, but I can understand if others (probably more skilled than me) are turned off by the redundant gameplay.
Playing this game years after its release, I can say that this game has held up relatively well. It based itself on combat, not on graphics, which means that there's still a fun brawler here. The fun of the game comes from determining how you will obliterate your next set of victims - swapping between ranged and melee attacks is easy enough that you'll find yourself headshotting one orc just before placing your axe into the brains of the rest. I was disappointed in the reliance on executing enemies for health because you make yourself vulnerable while the animation plays, so it's very possible that you will die in an attempt to gain health. You also can't execute enemies from range, so certain enemies at the end of the game take a lot of bullets to put down since multiple headshots will stun them, rather than kill them. Lastly, the game requires that you have the pistol and bolter (assault rifle) the entire game, limiting your choices of weapons to just two - and typically you'll want one of those weapons to be the sniper rifle, meaning you really only get to choose one weapon from the variety that they give you. They also let you choose melee weapons, but never really explain how they're varied from each other (i.e. after I got the power axe, I never went back to the Chainsword because I thought the axe was more powerful, but I was still given the opportunity multiple times to switch back to the chainsword. I don't know why). Inside of the game, while the plotline is fairly mundane, the writing deserves a bit of credit because the entire human faction maintains a strong stoic, Roman-esque aura that lends credibility to the idea that the Ultramarines are basically gods among soldiers. They're treated with reverance and they speak like thespians. I wouldn't have paid full price for this game on release, but even at this point in time, it's worth putting some time and money into if you're curious about what this blood-soaked game contains and feel like bashing in some ork skulls.
I came into this expecting a combination of XCOM and Baldur's Gate. Unfortunately, between the two, I would've preferred more XCOM and less Baldur's Gate. The battles in this game are extremely straight forward and hardly tactical. In fact, I felt like taking cover or flanking enemy positions was secondary to just "select your most powerful weapon/spell" and "select the enemy you want to kill the most". That's about as tactical as the battles get. I'm glad I chose the street samurai for my playthrough since I feel that I would've been bored or underpowered had I tried some of the other classes. The game doesn't really start to get interesting until about 4 hours in, and then it ends at 10 hours or so - I guess that means I enjoyed a solid 60% of the game. Beyond that, I would really just recommend that you pick up XCOM.
Playing this game so many years after release, I can honestly say that it hasn't aged well. While the core gameplay remains the same, there's a fierce level of unpolish that you wouldn't hope to find in a modern shooter. The environmental collision is bad- you feel quite restrained, even when outdoors. Your character feels agile while on the ground, but there's no jumping to speak of, so don't think about ever hurtling over cover. The weapons in the game are interesting enough, especially with the various types of ammo. The only problem is that the enemies aren't terribly interesting - a lot of the later enemies become veritable bullet sponges that soak up a cartridge or more of ammunition from your guns, making them feel less than useful. The story is not great and slowly paced. It reminds me a lot of Borderlands in a lot of ways. You spend about 15% of the game in your first little outpost, doing quests for John Goodman, when you then move to a larger town where you spend about 65% of the game, doing very similar quests - unfortunately, about half of your quests involve you visiting the same areas you already cleared out in order to perform a secondary objective. It's hardly interesting. Then you spend the last 20% of the game in a final town, where you don't really interact with anyone and the game comes to an underwhelming close. So, all in all, solid shooting mechanics with boring plots and boring enemies. I'm sure this was great when it was first released, but I can imagine that a game like Doom 4 has surpassed it in every imaginable way.
I don't believe this game to be the franchise killer that many make it out to be, but while there are many steps forward in this game, there are plenty of steps back. The changes to combat are great, in that you feel more versatile, agile, and height adds a third dimension to combat that was mostly missing in previous games. However, while the combat is a step forward, I see the skill system as a step back. Only three active abilities at a time? I don't find myself switching profiles that often during combat, so I'm frequently stuck with the same three abilities on repeat for most of the game. I found that to be a frustrating downgrade from the previous series. Not to mention that you're no longer in control of your allies abilities - who should I take into battle with me? It doesn't matter in the slightest! The universe that's presented is large and varied, but it's also quite empty. Traveling from system to system is more of a chore than anything else because you can only land on a few planets to begin with (not that I would want to land on all of them anyways). Once you start on each planet, you have your typical quest hubs that send you out into the unknown to do the same old things over and over again - go out to a navigation point, fight a few guys, scan a thing, follow a trail of bread crumbs to another point, do the same thing, etc. The quests were so repetitive that it got on my nerves and I wished for the more linear style that we got in the previous games. That's where Mass Effect shined the best in the previous games and in this one, in my opinion. Send me on a mission, give me a beginning and an endpoint, and put some bad guys for me to shoot in between. Make me feel like I'm doing something. Too many quests result in simple skirmishes that are ended easily, not to mention the frequent respawns of enemies that pop out of nowhere like "Oh my gosh! I have to kill these guys!", except that you can just keep driving in your car and you can avoid them entirely. In the year since release, I can say that the animations have been improved - I didn't see much of the laughable bad facial animations that were such a joke early on, but there were many bugs that caused me to either have to reload a save or wait for something to trigger on the computer's end. It made it frustrating because sometimes when I couldn't advance in a level I wasn't sure if it was me or the computer. Ugh- so many things I want to say about this game, but it's really not worth it to put it all into words - basically, they made some things more complex than they needed to be, and should have done a better job.
I don't play many multiplayer shooters, so I strictly rate this game based on its campaign. With that said, if you have the opportunity to pick up this game, I highly recommend it - it's full of amazing scripted (and unscripted) moments. Each level presents a unique combination of enemies, weapons, and (most importantly) environments, which allow you to be creative and selective in your methods of getting to the end. The production quality is high in terms of acting, visuals, music, and sound. The game ends up being more emotionally impactful than it has any right to. For your money, you also get the multiplayer segment, which offers loads of content, but I got the game at a discount and certainly got my money's worth just out of the campaign.
A good game, although less genius than the previous two. With 999, I was impressed with the complexity of the game's layout and premise, but a bit burned by the game's ending. Virtue's Last Reward was slightly less complicated, but it indulged itself far too much in the multiple paths and endings, which proved more tedious than exciting. That games ending itself was also a let-down, given that it led to an inexplicable cliffhanger. Finally, with this game, we get the most satisfying ending of them all, but at a cost. First, the cliffhanger ending of the previous entry is hardly mentioned. Second, the "good ending" that we get at the end comes at the expense of the whole moral discussion that was had previously, regarding the ethics of dimension shifting. Third, the game has the same faults as the previous one wherein it has way too many branching paths to remain interesting for the duration of a playthrough. Finally, the game's premise itself ("The Decision Game") is such a letdown compared to the games played in 999 and Virtue's Last Reward. The simple binary choices you make are far less complicated than the mathematical branching paths of 999 or the drama of allying/betraying in Virtue's Last Reward. Disappointing, to say the least. And again, it remains difficult to recommend this "game" because it's not really a game at all. At what point did I have fun playing this? It's fun in the same way that reading a book or watching a movie is fun. The puzzles within the game are more of just a speed bump to having the story actually progress. Luckily, I found the puzzles to be more straight-forward than in the previous entry. So, if you're a fan of the series, it's a must-have, but I don't expect it to be creating any new fans.
Metroid isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I still find it to be highly enjoyable. The combat in the game is simplistic (minus a couple of the boss fights near the end- the final boss fight proved to be challenging and had me using almost every power at my disposal to win, which is exactly how a boss fight should be!), given that all you have is either missiles or lasers. When I first logged into the game, I was thrilled at the free aim system, and I loved destroying my first few enemies. After a time, the novelty wore off, but there was only a few points throughout the game where I actually grew weary of the all the fighting. As some people have mentioned, monsters tend to respawn pretty quickly, which I did find irritating, and I was also impressed/surprised at the scale of the maps that Samus has to roam. I would not have minded if things had been shrunk down- I don't think I would have missed out much. The game seems repetitive after a couple of levels, but by then, I'd gotten used to the style of the game, so I found myself much more effectively traversing the levels and finding secrets. Speaking of secrets, one of the features of this game is a new ability that allows you to reveal sections of the map and terrain that you can interact with. I'm no Metroid purist, so I took advantage of this ability as often as my pride would allow- all it did was save me the humility of having to bomb every single nook and cranny to find which way to go, which I did not want to do. Also, the ability is a MUST if you want to 100% the game, in my opinion. Other powers came fast and furious throughout the game- in my mind, I always compare this series with Zelda, in that your character develops new powers/items that allow him/her to traverse new obstacles, but I feel like those powers come faster in this game. Probably because Zelda is more story-based and longer, whereas Metroid is seemingly developed for speedruns. In that sense you've barely acquired one power before you find yourself in need of another in order to progress. It seemed fast to me, but maybe it's all for the better. I've only played one other Metroid game (Fusion), so its' the only one that I can really compare this to, but it really does compare very favorably. The combat is smoother, and the animations are solid. I can't get over how beautiful Samus's movements are (and I'm not just saying that because she's a girl). Looking at still images of the game, I don't find the visuals impressive- as soon as things start moving though, everything looks great. I also found the 3D to be very impressive in this game- normally i don't turn it on, but for this game, it really made the animation "pop" and the game came to life. This was a great buy.
I played this game 6 years ago when I bought a 3DS. I decided to replay it in anticipation of the new Metroid game coming out this weekend. I've not played any Metroid game other than this one, and while I anticipated the plot to be light, I didn't realize it would result in the game being only about 10 hours long (4:45 on my playthrough- I guess I died a lot?). A lot of the game seems to be involved in finding secrets, but I found this to be more tedious than enjoyable- basically, I found myself throwing bombs at every wall and floor in hopes of finding a secret, or a place to advance the level. In fact, it seems that at least once every level you have to bomb an inconspicuous part of the wall in order to advance, or find a secret corridor as a ball. It didn't make me like the game any more, which made me wish it had been more straightforward and less frustrating. I found the combat to be pretty enjoyable, although one-sided. Samus is a killing machine, but she takes a lot of damage when she gets hit. Luckily, most of the enemies don't have ranged attacks, so it's easy to avoid most damage. Boss fights were slightly more challenging- basically, I would spend one life in order to find the bosses weakness, die, load my save, and then abuse the weakness through brute force. Not too difficult, until the final boss, which provided a real challenge. Overall, I enjoyed the game and its mechanics (due to the quick pace of the game, upgrades came fast and furious, which was enjoyable), but I hope that the new 3DS game coming out introduces something a little beyond what we see here.
I've got mixed feelings about this game- on the one hand, it's got a lot of very similar stealth and combat moves from the Arkham series, which I love in the LOTR setting. I like the story, and a few of the characters even stood out to me (I really loved the dwarf, even if the rest of the 2nd act characters were forgettable). I liked the interplay between Talion and the wraith, which made for some interesting contrasting sequences. I liked that the game started off challenging (although, a bit too challenging- I died a lot very quickly and some of the captains got really powerful, and I found myself running from many, many battles early on). I dlisked that the game got too easy once you gained the ability to Brand the orcs- every battle from that point on became a war of attrition, where I simply attacked until I could Brand, then I Branded over and over again until my orcs overwhelmed the enemy. In the last half of the game, I died only once, compared to the 20+ times in the 1st act. I additionally disliked some of the tedium of the side quests, fetching, and challenges- I felt like they added very little to the game overall, so their scope should have been reduced. As has probably been mentioned, the best part of the game is the Nemesis system wherein orcs fight each other and develop, thereby becoming stronger and adapting. While I thought that controlling orcs in individual skirmishes made the game too easy, controlling captains made the game into a fun pokemon-style level-up system wherein you babysit your pet captains, making them grow stronger and have achievements and rank advances. That was fun. Overall, the game achieves more successes than failures, and I appreciate the use of the license. Makes me want to re-watch some of the movies.
This game is a Zelda game, which means you should know what you're getting into even before you start- there will be lots of fetch quests and temples to complete, all of which will test your brain a bit (and sometimes your patience), but it's all done quite beautifully and feels very rewarding. This game has all the positives of your typical Zelda game, but a couple of disappointing negatives, namely: -The open water didn't give me the feeling that I was exploring- it just served as a reminder to me that it takes even longer to get places than it normally should in a Zelda game, with lots and lots of open space filled with nothing useful. Luckily, I was told by a friend to pick up the Fast Sail early on, and I can't even imagine how dreadful the travel would be in this game without it. -The combat attempts to give you depth, but it's really quite shallow. A review I read said that "the combat in this game is my favorite of any action RPG". I can't support that statement at all- it's the same button-mashing that each other game in the series has had. It's not that it's a negative, but it's certainly not a positive. -The final boss was frustrating and anti-climactic. I struggled with fighting the final boss- his third stage was infuriating in how simple it was to tell what you needed to do, but how difficult it was to actually execute. The actual final boss fight was really fun (I actually felt like I was sword fighting for the first time in the game!), but it turns out that none of that really mattered because he's just going to get hit by arrows anyways. I was sad when I learned that- I wish there had been more of the sword-fighting type fights instead of just typical button-mashing against the typical henchmen. -The additional features in the game (mail system, pictograph, treasure charts, etc.) don't add anything to the game, as far as I can tell. It didn't seem fun to do or worthwhile; the game already had enough side quests that I didn't want to bother myself trying to heap even more onto my plate. There you have it- in spite of these negatives, the game is pretty enjoyable, but if only because it imitates its rich heritage in the right way. I have to say that I probably won't play this game again; I'd rather just replay Ocarina of Time.
I went back and forth throughout my playthrough regarding whether or not I liked the on-rails idea behind this game. It made it unique in the Dead Space universe, and made for some interesting gameplay (once I didn't have to worry about my footing). At the same time, I didn't like that I couldn't loot certain items because I didn't look at the area long enough. I appreciated that the game wasn't overly long, but has replayability in the form of repeatable challenges, which cut out the cutscenes of the game and get you right into the action. So, there's a little something for everyone in this game.
The entire time I played XCOM 2, I told myself "If I could only play one video game for the rest of my life, it would probably be this one". Not because it is the funnest game I have ever played, but because it combines depth, replayability, and "wow" factor in more ways than any other game that I've played. Throughout my entire playthrough, I kept thinking about how my decisions were impacting the future of the game, and the procedurely-created maps kept every engagement fresh. I never knew where the pods of enemies would spawn, but I really enjoyed seeing the listing of enemies on the map beforehand, which allowed me to prepare my troops accordingly. People have been complaining about the mission timers- I find this totally unwarranted. In my playthrough, I had more than enough time to defuse a bomb, recover research, or rescue a VIP, without hardly an exception. You have the option of bringing specialists to the engagement, and they can complete most of these objectives at range- why not use them? Overall, I find this game to be a fun and exciting step forward for a franchise that was already seemingly well-rounded.
It truly means something when this is what people will defend as a good mobile game. There are people out there saying that you shouldn't compare this at all with the handheld Fire Emblem games- but why shouldn't we? I have a 3DS with both of the newer iterations of the series, so why should I bother to play this? It's simpler in every respect. There are some benefits to this game- there's the ease and speed of battles as well as the thrill of randomly receiving a powerful hero. At higher levels (from what I can tell) you have the option to choose your character's abilities and go in to battle. I've enjoyed the times when I've actually hand-picked a team to directly counter my enemy's army. But that's it- everything else about the game feels too dumbed-down to actually be more than passably enjoyable. Is the game terrible? No, but it's not worth me putting down a dedicated handheld console to pick up a free-to-play app on my phone.
I wrote a lengthy review on Revelation's page, and I won't reiterate the pros and cons here. Needless to say, there are enjoyable things about the changes they made to this version of Fire Emblem (removing weapon durability in favor of having more diverse weapon choices, for example), but they also added some superfluous activities (everything related to My Castle). I don't wish they had made the game into 3 games because the story didn't deserve it, but it's still a Fire Emblem game.
To be sure, there were some mild disappointments with regards to the closing entry in the Fire Emblem Fates series. First of all, I don't think the overall storyline needed to be told throughout three games- having just spent the last six months of my life playing Fire Emblem games, I ask myself if they were really all that different- Birthright and Revelation are so similar that I feel like I shouldn't have spent time on both. Second, I didn't like the way that you were able to get the entire roster of both games in this one game. Given that you're almost guaranteed to use all the royal families from both sides in this game, it means that you have very little room for anyone else in your party- so why even bother giving us these characters? I felt bad knowing that characters I liked from the prior games were just going to be entirely ignored during my playthrough. Not to mention, you spend several levels getting the crew from Birthright together before you even start on Conquest- I was hoping you would get some of each. Then, all at once, the entire Conquest crew joins you in a single level. It was dramatically imbalanced and was something of a shock to my roster. I did not like that. Third, the game's difficulty level is very skewed. The first few levels provide something of a challenge, but then I found myself hideously over-leveled by only the 4th or 5th level, and this was playing on Hard. I played a few of the Skirmish maps just to develop the relationships and weapon skills of some of my characters, but not to level up. Still, I found myself breezing through most of the game without a hitch until the very last level, when the only real challenge showed up. Even then, I beat it on my first try. So, the challenge of the game just isn't there. With that said, I still really like the Fates franchise for the changes that it made to the game- I like the way they revamped the Support/Pair UP system, the way that they removed weapon durability in favor of having more diverse weapon options, the way that you collect and forge weapons and the introduction of ninjas and debuffs. I do not like how the reclass system does not reset your level, meaning that you would have to grind out gold to buy seals to increase your max level if you desired to obtain other special abilities or weapon proficiencies, and I didn't even bother with this feature. I also did not like many of the My Castle features, particularly levelling up Lilith (because it took a lot of unskippable time and didn't serve a purpose outside of the Invasion levels) and inviting others to your home (that also took a lot of unskippable time and offered only a minor bonus). I also didn't like that you accumulated lots of vegetables that you could never really put to good use, outside of buying outfits. That doesn't make any sense. So, overall, I'm pleased with the franchise, but I wish they could've made the story worth being told across three games- then again, this is Fire Emblem. You're not here for the story- in which case, one game would have sufficed.
You'll notice the negative reviews due to censorship- while I disagree with the concept of censorship, I'm glad they did it in this case. The scenes that you spend with your spouse are awkward enough as it is- I'm glad that they removed the minigame that was in the Japanese version. It would have been terribly cringe-worthy. I know next to nothing about the missing dialogue (and I can vouch for the fact that the voice acting is absolutely minimalist), but the writing that is present in the game is on par with that from Awakening- no better, no less. With that said, the actual game is one of the most exciting things to happen to Fire Emblem since I've been a fan. The game retains its strong strategic/RPG roots, but it also mixes up its strategic balance to make things seem fresh. You no longer have weapon durability, but now you have to determine which weapon is best for each situation. You now auto-attack with neighboring units, unless you decide to pair up with another unit to increase your stats. Do you want damage, or survivability? I love the inclusion of shurikens/throwing knives, which are designed to weaken your opponents. Soften them up with a ninja attack and then finish them off with a coordinated follow-up. These kinds of strategies mix up everything that I implemented in Awakening. I loved how this game was also very challenging- I started off on Hard, and about 2/3 the way through I had to tone down the difficulty. That last bit of the game was very easy, but I'd had enough of a challenge by that point. The beautiful animated cutscenes return (although I will always wish they had more of these), but I felt like the fan-service given by Camilla was absolutely over-the-top and unnecessary. I have to be wary of playing this game around my wife.
Maybe I didn't have the endurance necessary for this game. After putting 35-40 hours into it, it seemed like the game was still just trying to gain its footing. After having dealt with the repetitive combat for hours and hours, I decided that it wasn't worth doubling my investment in order to finish the game off. One thing that really surprised me (and also intimidated me) was the number of different quests and side projects there were to do in the game. There are seemingly hundreds (thousands?) of quests, but almost all of them are meaningless. Go to a place, find a glowing orb or kill a certain number of creatures. There is no efficient way of tracking these quests either- you have to simply remember when and where you're supposed to perform the quests, or you're forced into searching for them in your menu, which can be tedious. Additionally, there are too many side features in this game that can be very distracting. There's a crafting system, a unit relationship system, conversations unlocked by returning to points in the game once certain conditions have been met, far too many different types of loot, a system for tracking relationships between NPCs, all of which opens up so so so many things to do, but yet none of it feels rewarding. Why should I bother to figure out how to unlock new conversations between my characters? Why would I bother paying attention to how unit synergy builds up between my characters when the buffs they receive are so small? How can I possibly figure out the all of the different debuffs that there are in this game? Frankly, it became far too complicated for me, and I got tired of it. I made it roughly halfway through, and decided I would have more fun playing Fire Emblem or Smash Brothers instead.
I preferred the original Dark Forces- it had a better, longer story, and I found myself frequently frustrated with battling the other Jedi in the game.
Having played 999, I knew what I was in for when I got started. I was not disappointed in the sense that I knew it would not be an action-packed game (despite the frantic trailer that is associated with the game). The new features of the game (more endings, being able to jump between points quickly, more "memory segments" whereas 999 only had 1) are fantastic improvements, but the outrageous story (yes, more outrageous than 999) was well written and structured, but frankly too outrageous to be believable. Additionally, there was no sense of closure whatsoever (I'm only pretty sure I got all the endings), so I feel like that was a flaw in finalizing the game. The story has more endings this time around, but you'll find that about half of them are pretty generic, similar to how many of the endings in 999 simply involved you dying. There are a handful of meaningful and shocking moments, but not enough to give the game a 10. If 999 would have had the same features that this game did, it would have been superior to this one.
Hitman GO provides a fun, challenging, but never really frustrating puzzle experience. I found that some of the ways I managed to beat levels boiled down to a trial and error approach, but I was still excited each time I finished a puzzle. I burned through the game in a matter of days, which may not have been the best approach, because I feel like the game is best enjoyed over an extended period of time. I recommend it as a nice, casual diversion.
I've never jumped on the MOBA bandwagon before, so I wasn't expecting to like this game very much. My brother mentioned to me that it has a number of features that are good for casuals, like a shared experience system, certain comeback mechanics, and not to mention the highly recognizable faces from Blizzard lore. I was pretty entertained at first, playing only against bots, but once that became less challenging, I decided to face off against other human opponents. I have yet to delve too deeply into that aspect of the game, but I decided that the game has enough depth to make the game diverse and interesting. I've decided to play this one much more thoroughly.
This game is a solid mario game, although the gimmick regarding the number of coins in the game is never explained, nor is it really fully realized. There's not really any point to collecting all these coins (you're obviously going to have far more extra lives than you could possible need), but yet you do it anyway and it is kinda fun. At the same time, the game is just very standard- nothing too exceptional about it. The multiplayer is fun to play with other people, and my wife and I beat it all the way through together. It does take some getting used to because you have two people on the screen and you have to watch out for each other, and the camera only follows one of you at a time, so one of you is just kinda there for support. I'm incredibly grateful that they included local multiplayer as a feature at all though because it was fun actually being able to play a videogame together that my wife enjoys. Overall, a good buy but nothing to get super ecstatic about.
I love tactical RPG's, and I was pleasantly surprised to find so many of my itches scratched by this one game. Can I level up my party? Check. Collect loot? Check. Intriguing card collection? Check. Interesting visuals? Check. I get all of this from this one free-to-play game. I enjoy creating decks based on a cohesive strategy, one that I link between all my characters. For example, I started off playing a poison mage that would combo with my priest who would use those debuffs to deal extra damage to enemies, but I soon transitioned to a high damage single-target fire mage that would combo with my AoE specced, super tanky warrior, while the priest would bring the heals. These strategies can fluctuate based on each engagement, and it's even recommended that you frequently alter your character's loadouts just to address the issue at hand. My one complaint is that as a free-to-play game, you are missing out on a fair amount of rare loot by not giving in to their paid option plan. I get one good piece of loot about every five or six chests, whereas it would be about one in two chests if you're part of their Loot Club. I guess I shouldn't complain about being able to play for free- maybe I would pay for a version of the game that came with the Loot Club as a natural part of the game, instead of feeling like I need to refresh it every so often.
Right from the onset, it was let on that this was not a kind of modern RPG. It's an old-fashioned one. That's fine. But it wasn't my cup of tea. Fair warning- I only got about halfway through the game before I decided I was done with it. Most of the game seems to revolve around pushing switches and figuring out what they do in order to get past locked doors. There's combat intermittently spaced throughout, and it's fun- it feels at first like some kind of Final Fantasy initiative-based system, but this is not that kind of RPG. Eventually it turns into a dance where you hit the enemy with everything you got and then dance around them until your cooldowns are finished, and you do it again. It was fine and could be fun, but I didn't see any depth to it. I initially picked up and held on to every item that I could see in the game, wondering if there would be some kind of reward for it. This is not that kind of RPG- you don't want to pick up spare spears and shields from enemies if you're not going to use them. I felt cool and special when I managed to find secrets, but these rarely contained loot upgrades for my team. This is not that kind of RPG- I found myself only rarely replacing my armor and weapons with upgrades. Maybe loot would have become a more important aspect later in the game. I quit playing because I was tired of hitting dead ends and trying to run around and see what hidden switches I had missed or what items I had failed to pick up and use correctly. The lack of loot reward, plot, or rewarding combat failed to compel me to want to go down to the next level, and I've decided not to pursue it further.
I haven't played any of the other Infinity Blade games, and the only impression that I'd ever had of them is that they are beautiful sword-fighting games that require lots of swiping. When I finally got to play this one for myself, I was at first intrigued by the various combat options that the game presented, but then surprised by a couple of facts: 1. This game has a storyline- I didn't realize there were characters in this game. That's not a bad thing, except for the fact that I feel like this game doesn't allow for a newcomer to come in and understand what's going on. I don't know who these characters are or what they're doing. 2. All enemies are functionally identical - large, armored brutes that telegraph the same attacks over and over again, which you then counter in the same methods as well. 3. You can dodge, block, and parry attacks - however, as far as I can tell, you can only block so many times, you can only dodge so many times, but you can parry as many times as you want. Parrying is also much easier than dodging because it requires no guesswork. Why wouldn't you just parry every time (granted, sometimes the enemies attack you with brute force, which I don't believe you can parry, but this is rare)? It removes strategy from the game when one option is consistently easier and better than others. 4. There are in-app purchases that allow you to get better gear - I'm fine with IAPs as long as we can also buy stuff with money from the game. However, there are certain resources that I have no idea how to recover, as well as a multitude of items that I have recovered that I don't know what to do with. The game simply has no means of a tutorial explaining how to do anything outside of combat. I got the game for free, and I've put 3-4 hours into it, but the repetitive combat means that I won't be turning the app back on anytime soon.
I spent a long time researching apps and games that aren't cheesy free-to-play, pay-to-win games. This game caught my eye because I read an interview where the makers made the comment that this game wasn't a $1 game; it wasn't going to marketed to a cheap audience. They wanted people to know this was a serious game. And this IS a serious game. What I got from this game was a deep, tactical strategy game with a great (if maybe a little too cryptic) storyline. I really enjoyed the blend of Oregon Trail-meets-classic tactics gameplay. The system of armor and strength (when you injure a character, they actually get weaker! No way?!) made for interesting tactical battles where you sometimes make choices that don't seem to make sense- for example, you can choose to either kill a unit, or just cripple him so that the enemy has one more useless unit taking up turns on their side of the board. This kind of thinking really deepens the game. The caravan style of play adds to the game, but only so long as you feel involved in the wellbeing of your subjects. I say this because it turns out that it doesn't really matter how much of your caravan survives; you can really just let them starve and it doesn't have a dramatic impact on the state of your party- you're just a little weaker in battles. Otherwise, you can ignore your caravan entirely. But if you're engaged and feel an innate responsibility to them, it provides a challenging aspect of balancing the strength of your heroes with the lives of your followers. I played this game on an original iPad mini, which had issues with the loading screens. Some of them took upwards of 2 minutes to load, which was mildly frustrating, given the frequency of battles and cutscenes that would cue such a loading screen. Overall though the gameplay experience was more than enough to make up for this one shortcoming. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a serious gaming experience on a handheld device.
Framed has a novel idea and implements it pretty well, but after the 5th or 6th frame, the excitement dies off and it feels more like any other puzzler- luckily, the game doesn't overstay its welcome and its general aesthetics keep it from being dull. I enjoyed the atmosphere, art style, and music; I just wish there was a bit more variety of content.
Monument Valley did far more with its style and aesthetics than I would have thought possible. The game did not outlive its interest by any sense; when I beat the game after about 2 hours, I thought "Wow, that was short, but I'm not sure that I would have needed it to go on any longer". I enjoyed it for its aesthetics, its presentation, and the way it turned Escher paintings into a puzzle. The puzzles are pretty simple and easy enough for a child, but it felt good nevertheless to see the princess traversing what should have been impossible terrain. My only wish was that the game had some way of enhancing its replayability.
This is an example **** that has not aged all that well. I'm sure that when it came out in 2002 that it was solid and lots of fun. These days, the mechanics are pretty aged. I didn't like the way that the crosshairs on the guns would shift based on where they thought I wanted to shoot. The lightsaber mechanics are miles ahead of where they were in Jedi Knight, but I was a bit intimidated by the complexity of the moves. I couldn't quite figure out how to get my lightsaber to swing the way I wanted it to. I also found the storyline to be very straight forward and not too interesting. The character animations and voice acting were pretty bad by modern standards as well. I found the levels to be a little too nitpicky, similar to Jedi Knight. Too often, you find yourself backtracking and trying to find switches that you overlooked. When the action gets going in a straightforward manner, the game is at its best. When you're annoyed because you don't know what the game wants you to do is when the game struggles.
In my opinion, this is one of the best star wars games of all time. I played this game on the PS3 in 2009, and now I played it on the PC in 2015, albeit with an XBOX 360 controller. I just got off a run of playing through all the Dark Forces games, and as I was playing through Jedi Outcast, I realized that I would rather play a game with real force powers and didn't involve running around looking for switches to flip instead of actually fighting. So I stopped playing Outcast and switched to this game. It was much more exciting and much more fast-paced. The plot is definitely the strongest point of the game- a few of the negative reviews mention a forced romance with the main character, which I feel is a legitimate complaint, but I think the story excels in every other area. The game is decently paced, although it could even stand to be a bit longer (which I rarely say about games because they generally have so little to say but try to say it in the longest way possible). Even though the targeting on some of the Force powers is clunky, I feel like the game does the best it can by trying to auto-aim a bit whenever you throw items. It does work most of the time, but it does have its misses. I do enjoy using it to take out AT-ST's while behind cover using the homing on Force throw. The biggest appeal of the game for me was being able to walk into a fight and decide one-by-one how I wanted each enemy to die in the coming battle: impaled by a lightsaber? Hacked into pieces? Collateral damage in a Force throw? That was the true enjoyment of the game for me. Once the last levels came around and the enemies were tougher and resistant to Force powers and lightsabers, I did feel more helpless and wish they had a more consistent way to deal with powerful enemies. Overall, the game does give a great impression of what it feels like to be a powerful Jedi. Sometimes it feels like the lightsaber is relegated to being a baseball bat, but overall the impression is strong as you fight through hordes of stormtroopers without a scratch.
Platformers are not my thing, but I was still blown away by how impressive this game is. The level design is fantastic as each level feels unique and challenging in its own right. Plus, with only a few game mechanics, I couldn't believe the different number of ways that game designers were able to exploit DK's few moves to make new and exciting obstacles in every level. To beat this game, I died well over 300 times, but I only got frustrated a few times, and I could only be frustrated with myself. The game is challenging, but fair. Plus, if you're really having trouble beating a level, there are all kinds of power ups you can use to help yourself get through it (and I'm not talking about the great white ape who beats the level for you- there's no reason to go there). If I were the platforming type, there's no reason not to give this game a 10- it's practically flawless. To me, a more action-oriented gamer, I still found the game to be highly entertaining.
