Contender for worst AC game. If you like Witcher 3, you *might* like this. If you don't like Witcher 3, you definitely *won't* like this. Eagle vision has returned to the pulse system from Unity. The fact that it's bound to a long press on R3 has me worried about carpal tunnel. Rebinding it isn't straight forward without a full remap of the controller; custom controls are available but they don't cooperate. Enemies highlighted by Odin Sight/eagle vision don't stay highlighted. Equally, the bird friend is now useless, so when combat starts, everyone looks the same - friend and foe alike - and the screen turns into a dark muddy brown colour. Keeping track of the enemies in the combat is near impossible. Added to that confusion is the new (heavily watered-down) Dark Souls-esque stamina system. So if you try and dodge around to stop yourself from dying you eventually run out of stamina and have to wait to get your breath back. "Maybe this guy just ****," I hear you say. But the truth is that there's nothing technical about the combat. It's a hack and slash. While Origins and Odyssey had fun abilities that would make the combat interesting and leave you feeling in control, this is just boring. Without the stamina it would honestly feel like mosou, with a long two handed swing slicing through enemies for the same amount of damage of their hit bars. Nothing visceral or powerful about it. Bird is now useless. It can't find anything other than iron ore, leather, and a few other resources, as well as a general location of some "wealth" (this game's 'good loot') and "mysteries" (side quests). On a positive note, the long winded side quests of Origins and Odyssey are now gone, if you didn't like them. Sadly, the 'mysteries' are now so meaningless that they aren't worth completing, except for the XP you desperately need to progress through the skills tree and make the game a little more bearable. The world is strange and doesn't feel like England. The map is a grid system of rivers, and the land masses are basically big hills. There are some moments or incredible beauty, but the big picture is that the world feels nothing like the England I grew up in. No matter where you are, the topography resembles the Peak District - a region celebrated for it's steep and dense hills. The rolling hills and open valleys of the rest of England are nowhere to be seen. Each area is it's own biome, and the first basically has a colour pallet of green, orange, and a lot of brown and black. It's not pretty. The first few hours of the story amount to (mild spoiler alert), 'Norway blows, let's bounce,' followed by invading England. It's not a reason in and of itself to continue playing. For people who don't like the AC Modern Day storyline, you'll be pleased to know that there is no significant Isu stuff going on, and the whole Assassin/Templar thing is pretty much optional until about the last third of the game. Gear and loot have been stripped right back. While you no longer have to deal with the ludicrous nature of carrying 100 weapons which you sell, you also don't have much to play with, and it takes a lot of the fun out of finding new weapons by spelunking. All you find is iron and leather to boost the stats of your existing weapon with all the originality of a 2006 MMO. This is supposed to reduce the amount of time you spend in menus managing a meaningless inventory. However, in an attempt to get players to 'learn about the world by playing,' or, 'live in the moment,' they've removed anything that looked like a tool to facilitate learning about the world and helping you get your bearings. I ironically spend more time in the menus in the this game that in any other AC. In summary; Combat is hack and slash; the more technical aspects of waiting for an opening in Origins and Odyssey are gone. Abilities take too long to get going. The story is meaningless and a tragically ironically conservative commentary on immigration without integration. There's no real Isu/Modern Day aspect, nor any real Assassin/Templar stuff. The world is muddy and dark. The exploration is infuriating and the player has the tools of a 2010 video game to help them navigate - but without a minimap. There is no real system of rewarding the player for exploring. The side quests are uninspired, contrived, poorly written, and ultimately pointless. The voice acting for the main character is about several steps down from Bayek and Kassandra, and the animations are typical Ubisoft. This game is unfinished from a design perspective, and that's before any mention of the never ending bugs. I didn't even know my PS4 had a 'database', but ACV has managed to break it three times. I've played every AC game, including Liberation HD and the 2.5D platformers. This is by far the worst of them. I have no idea what they were trying to achieve, but assuming it was meant to be something 'positive', they have failed.
Shenmue 3 is an oddity. The art styles are inconsistent, the controls are bizarre, the stamina system will have you pulling your hair out, the combat seems to have limited scope for mastery and feels like a button masher throughout, the voice acting is jank at best. But somehow the game contains a magic and a charm which can’t be denied. There’s something about starting a day in a video game with a part time job before you get down to business that brings the world alive. All you’re doing is playing a timing mini game (sometimes very rudimentary), but it doesn’t feel like that. Somehow, the purpose (making money) underpinned by Ryo’s story (finding his father’s killer) make you think that this is an important activity to help Ryo on his way. Shenmue 3 is full of those kinds of experiences. Getting to know the denizens of the game has never been more satisfying. In the opening village you quickly learn who has what kind of information. The town gossip can tell you where everyone lives, the martial arts experts can tell you where to train, the old man can tell you the history of the place. It all fits together in a coherent way, and before long you will know exactly who to talk to to find things out because you have familiarised yourself with the game’s environment and gotten to know characters who all have their own names are are more fleshed out than the NPCs of pretty much most other games. By no means a perfect game, and struggling with the balancing act of succeeding a 2001 title and a limited budget, Shenmue 3 is nonetheless a fantastic game. And ultimately, that’s what games are about; fantastic experiences. If you can adapt to the controls and allow yourself to get taken on it’s journey, Shenmue 3 is a fantastic experience.
For years I have watched Link take on one enemy at a time. Now I get to see him obliterate entire armies in the blink of an eye. That alone is reason enough to enjoy this game, and yet this is the game that keeps on giving. Not much needs to be said about the mechanics of the game: it is standard musou. However, the sheer wealth of content (with more on the way with DLC claiming to have entire new adventure maps for Adventure Mode) keeps the game novel even if the gameplay is not. This is fan service as it should be done. Watching Ganondorf open up a chest and pull out a heart piece feels so right while being so wrong. It's brilliant. Sadly, the game is not perfect. The rarity of certain items needed to craft the rarer badges does not serve as a solution to repetition, and it can cause the game to drag on and on. You could just play it through once and be done with it, but the completionist is punished with potentially days of grinding. This is a problem. The option should exist to buy items to speed up finishing certain badges. At least that way, if you repeat a level and the boss does not drop the gold-tier item as needed, you can take the money you made from the level and buy it. Maybe in an update.
This game is exactly what I want in an arcade video game. It is fresh, it is novel, it is aesthetically pleasing, it has simple controls, it has simple mechanics, it is easy to pick up, it is impossible to master, it is fun, it is frustrating, it is satisfying when you complete a level, it has a high skill ceiling. This is gaming as I remember from my childhood. The game itself features a cat that rolls around on rails. The levels are almost like sandbox 2D; you can go anywhere in the level, the purpose being to find the missing cats. One is near the exit already, one has to be chased around the level making an interesting obstacle course each time, one only appears after you collect all the 'coins', and the last one only appears after you kill the boss, and that only appears after you kill all the other enemies in the level. Each level is completely packed with stuff to do, and each level will require skill to finish to completion. The movement is novel, making it all the more enjoyable. Combat is reminiscent of old arcade blasters like R-Type. The game is fully recommended. The best indie title I've played in a long time. Easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Bastion and Mark Of The Ninja, even if they do all fill different niches.
