Well, this is it. Three months of free Game Pass PC, and I've beaten as many games as I could. For now, this shall mark the end. I'll talk more about Game Pass as a service in a separate blog entry. BACKGROUND:
I haven't heard of this game until I saw it on the Game Pass catalog. The art style was sufficient enough to interest me. PLOT: The events of CrossCode are set within a fictional video game (the game within a game, if you will) called CrossWorlds, a super advanced MMORPG players all over the world play. It's so advanced, it uses futuristic augmented reality tech where game elements actually exist in physical space. The game itself is styled like most traditional MMOs, with character classes, party systems, dungeons, raids, and all the usual trappings, but with a more sci-fi flair. CrossCode focuses on a girl named Lea, an avatar within CrossWorlds who has no memory of her real life, and lacks the ability to speak. Aided by a man named Sergey, she plays through the main campaign of CrossWorlds in search of answers. Along the way, she makes some friends, and she gradually uncovers her past, and how it connects to CrossWorlds itself. I found the story super interesting, not only because the entire mystery surrounding Lea was quite intriguing, but how CrossWorlds itself figures into the whole plot. Funny enough, CrossWorlds has its own lore, and while it's a basic RPG plot, it actually has little to do with the main tale of finding out who Lea is. Rather, the more important thing about CrossWorlds are the behind-the-scenes aspects of the game, like the game studio behind it, real-life events that influenced the game's development, and the real-world people involved. The story takes quite a while to get going, and the pacing is quite uneven at points (Chapter 8 in particular was a dead stop, which I found quite glaring), but seeing how all those outside elements relate to Lea's past ended up being a fascinating tale. Despite not being able to communicate verbally, Lea is a solid protagonist, able to fully express her emotions (and communicate her kind, caring personality) nonverbally. Seeing her attempts at communicating with the other players she encounters is both charming and a bit heartbreaking to see. The big reveal about her past (and how she handles regaining her memories) makes Lea all the more compelling, and I really wanted to see what would happen next after I got to that point. The other characters aren't as fleshed out, but they have distinct personalities and serve their function as the foil to Lea's silence (and the source of exposition) well. Some of them are a bit over-the-top, but when you think about how these are real-life players turning up their personality in-game, it kind of makes sense. I enjoyed a lot of the interactions between the supporting cast and Lea; there's a good amount of humor, but there are also more serious emotional moments on occasion. PRESENTATION: CrossCode's visuals feel like they were ripped straight out of the mid-'90s, sporting a 16-bit aesthetic that reminds me of games like Breath of Fire. The game's sprites have significantly more detail and depth than the era the visuals are inspired by, and the polish is quite evident with the character portraits and the fluid animations. A lot of the game's designs are pretty inspired. The characters have a clear sci-fi look to them, there's a good amount of variety to the environments, and a lot of the enemy designs are weird in a good way. The music isn't as much of a nostalgia trip as the graphics, but nonetheless, I thought the soundtrack was great. There's a good mix of more somber tracks for emotional moments, upbeat battle themes, and ambient tracks for the dungeons, and I enjoyed listening to a lot of them. GAMEPLAY: As a whole, CrossCode is top-down action RPG (kinda like classic Zelda), but its gameplay can be split up into a few distinct parts: exploration, combat, and puzzles. Exploration is pretty straightforward. You get to explore a pretty large, interconnected world, where you can encounter enemies in the overworld, find secret chests, and get item drops by chopping down plants. Per usual, you'll find shops and trading areas, talk to NPCs who can give you quests, and even solve mini-puzzles to unlock other sections of the overworld. Though you'll mainly be walking around, there are plenty of opportunities to jump to and fro to explore the world. Unlike most games where jump is a dedicated button, you auto-jump onto low enough ledges and across small gaps. It's quite fun to explore the game this way, and there are plenty of platforming sections that take full advantage of the jumping, as well as areas with a surprising amount of verticality. Plus, a lot of the game's secrets are found by jumping about, so there's incentive to get on top of things. Lea's combat abilities consist of a swift, three-hit melee combo, a projectile that can be aimed with the right stick, a charged version of the projectile that can ricochet off surfaces, a front-facing shield that can block a certain amount of damage, and a quick dash/evade. It's pretty straightforward, but beneath the simple surface of the mechanics hides surprisingly deep combat. There are plenty of enemies to fight within CrossWorlds, and unless you're criminally overleveled, mindlessly mashing buttons isn't gonna cut it. Even the earliest enemies require a bit of thinking to take down, as many have quick attacks that can shred your health, or can only be attacked during brief windows or under certain conditions. Others still require you to inflict Break (basically a brief stun state) on them before you can hurt them. The conditions for inflicting Break also vary from enemy to enemy, giving you more things to think about in the heat of battle. Overall, the combat is the furthest thing from a pushover, and shit only escalates once you encounter gauntlets where you have to clear an entire room of enemies, or the game's assortment of bosses (more on that later). Progression is straightforward as well, with XP earned via battles or through completing side quests. Not only do your stats increase when you level up, but you also earn what's called CP, which you can spend on your skill tree. In the skill tree, you can unlock all sorts of things, like stat increases, passive buffs, and new abilities called Combat Arts. There are four Combat Arts, one for each basic ability (Melee, Guard, Dash, and Throw AKA projectile). These are usually powerful attacks that require SP and a lengthy charge-up to use, and they are quite helpful in fights. There are also multiple levels of Combat Arts, with higher levels requiring more SP to use. Another standard RPG element that exists in this game is gear. Lea has five equipment slots, and you'll be able to buy stuff for all five slots in the game's many shops. Alternatively, you can trade in item drops you get from plants or enemies and get gear that way, but with how the item drop system works, you'll be grinding a lot for the good gear. The game has a mechanic where you are more likely to get rarer drops the more enemies you kill in quick succession, but that obviously requires you to seek out a lot of fights. You can also acquire consumables the same way you get gear. Again, it's mostly standard stuff, like healing and temporary buffs. Given how challenging the combat in this game can be, you definitely want to consider having some of these handy. I say this because I'm a stubborn asshole who usually refrains from using such items, and that mentality only got me so far. As this is an MMO (in-universe), you have opportunities to party up with the supporting characters in the story. This mechanic is largely inconsequential and is only really helpful when exploring (as they can take aggro away from you in fights), but I thought it was a neat touch that you could team up with people. In order to progress the story, you have to take on the game's seven main dungeons. Not only do the dungeons give you the keys to unlock new areas, but they also unlock new sections of your skill tree. More importantly, you acquire what is perhaps the game's most interesting mechanic: elemental abilities. By default, Lea has a "neutral" mode (i.e. no elements), but once you clear dungeons and acquire the elemental modes, you'll be able to switch between the Heat, Cold, Shock, and Wave Modes. Most enemies have elemental weaknesses and resistances, and if you want to be effective in combat, you'll want to take full advantage of this. In addition, staying in one element mode leaves you vulnerable to an opposite element (e.g. you take extra damage from Heat-type attacks when you're in Cold Mode), so that's another thing to worry about during combat. While it sounds appealing to stay in a particular element mode, the game has a mechanic called Element Overload that prevents you from sticking to an element. As you perform attacks while in an element mode, a meter fills up. If it fills all the way, you enter Element Overload, and you are forced back into neutral mode. You won't be able to switch back to another element mode until the cooldown expires. It's an interesting way to balance the elements, but in practice, I found it to be a bit much given how quickly the Overload meter fills up. Each element mode also has its own separate skill tree, each with its own set of Combat Arts and such. There are plenty of unique Arts across all four elements, and the best part is that you can switch up the Arts you want to currently use freely. The elements aren't just used in combat; they're your primary puzzle-solving tool in the game's many dungeons. Each dungeon is absolutely massive and filled with challenging puzzles, and they all feature a ton of mechanics that have all sorts of unique interactions with your elemental powers. You have sliding block puzzles, angling projectile shots into switches, freezing or evaporating water, activating circuits with Shock... there's an impressive amount of variety here, and I am quite delighted by it. I was also astounded by both the amount of and the difficulty level of the puzzles in each dungeon, to the point that I felt overwhelmed at times. I can see this aspect causing a considerable amount of fatigue for many players, especially those who aren't really into puzzles. I feel like they could have paced the dungeons better and cut down on the amount of puzzles in the game, as even I (a person who is all about puzzles) got quite exhausted by the tail end of a lot of the dungeons. It's particularly bad in Chapter 8, which, for some reason, makes you go through three full dungeons pretty much in a row. If the puzzles aren't enough, each dungeon also has a bunch of tough combat-related challenges for you to contend with. Some of the fights are puzzles in themselves, integrating puzzle mechanics you've learned throughout the dungeon and using them as the enemy's kryptonite. I found this aspect both quite engaging and frustrating; on one hand, combat is made super interesting, but on the other, these types of fights really push one's multitasking abilities. Of course, it's not a dungeon without a boss at the end, and holy shit, a lot of these bosses will kick your ass. In true Zelda fashion, many of the fights will require you to use your newly-acquired knowledge and abilities in order to take the bastards down. The fights can get a bit frustrating, but if I learned anything from 120+ hours of playing Hollow Knight, it's how to be patient and learn boss patterns. The bosses are tough, but they're not unbeatable. It definitely helps to have good gear or to have a high level, though. If all my talk of difficulty or challenge has you worried, fret not, as CrossCode has an Assist Mode that allows you to lower certain aspects of the difficulty. In terms of combat, you can lower enemy damage and enemy attack frequency; from what I can tell, these do make a difference, but they don't outright trivialize fights, as you still need to make the effort to damage the enemies. You can also lower the speed of timing-based puzzle elements, and oh boy, it is a godsend. Many of the puzzles in the dungeons are timing-based, and some of the timing windows can be downright cruel. You should definitely lower this at the start; it doesn't make the puzzles easier (you still have to actually figure out the puzzle), but it makes them more lenient. Though I mainly focused on the story, there's some optional stuff you can tackle, like a smorgasbord of side quests, the Arena (a combat-focused challenge mode), finding secrets in the overworld, or just the traditional "minmax the shit out of your gear and stats." And if the main game isn't enough, you can try New Game Plus. VERDICT: While certain aspects of the game like its pacing don't sit well with me, I thought CrossCode was a fantastic experience overall. The story was fascinating, and the combination of the deep combat, fun exploration, and complex puzzles provided a solid amount of variety and a hefty amount of challenge. This game pretty much flew under the radar last year, and given how it excels in many departments, it's kind of a shame that it's not more known. I highly recommend this game for people who want an action RPG experience that both scratches the SNES-era nostalgia itch and the aforementioned challenge and variety in both combat and puzzles. I can see elements like the difficulty of combat and the amount of puzzles being a reasonable point of frustration from some players, however, so take that into consideration if that's a personal concern of yours. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it, as CrossCode has a free demo! Find out for yourself if it's a game for you and download the demo via the Steam store page: CrossCode on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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Something something rip and tear. BACKGROUND:
At this point, I'm pretty well-versed in the Doom series, having played 1 and 2 on the Switch, and getting into both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal (I talked about that one here). I still have two main series titles to play, and this is one of them. PLOT: The game doesn't explicitly push the narrative along, but the basic idea is that the demons on one of the UAC bases (which Doomguy cleared out in the previous two games) have been resurrected, and it's up to Doomguy to make sure these motherfuckers stay dead. It's not as in-depth as the reboot series, but it's the same concept: Doomguy shows up, rip and tear, big demon shows up. You know the drill. PRESENTATION: Doom 64's look is pretty much the same as its predecessors: 3D environment done with 2D sprites (though the style looks slightly different from Doom 1 or 2). It looks dated by today's standard, but I think it still retains a certain amount of charm, and I still remain impressed that people were able to make something like this work back in the '90s. The music is more on the ambient side, which really weirded me out because I was used to the more upbeat tracks of the earlier Doom games and the absolute face-melting pandemonium of Doom 2016. It's not a big deal, but I found it notable enough to bring up. GAMEPLAY: Like everything that came before and since, Doom 64 is a first person shooter. It plays the way you'd expect, but since this is an older game, you'll notice that you actually can't aim vertically. It's a little weird if you've never played classic Doom before, but you'll quickly notice that the game auto-aims at enemies regardless of height, as long as they're directly in front of you. Once you get past that initial quirk, you'll get by just fine. The weapon selection is largely the same as Doom 2, with the standard melee, the chainsaw, a pistol, a standard shotgun, the Super Shotgun, the chaingun, a rocket launcher, the plasma rifle, and the iconic BFG. They're just as fun as they were in the previous games, even if they're pretty standard as far as arsenals go. I also found particular joy in the chainsaw, as unlike the newer games, you have unlimited uses of the thing. You do get one new weapon known as the Unmaker, and it's a freaky-looking gun that shoots a barrage of lasers. It's potent on its own, but you can find three demon keys hidden in the levels to make it stronger, and if you find them all, it rivals the BFG in terms of sheer damage output. Enemies are also mostly taken from previous games, with Doom 1 classics like the Imps, Barons of Hell, and the Pinkies. You also have a bunch of enemies making a return from Doom 2, like the Pain Elemental, the Mancubus, and the Arachnotron. The Cyberdemon even shows up at some point. There are a few odd omissions (like the Revenant), but pretty much everyone is back. As always, ripping and tearing these bastards is still a lot of fun, and there are plenty of opportunities for fast-paced demon-killing action. The game has a good amount of levels, with large layouts and lots of secret areas to find. It's a lot of fun exploring the place and killing everything you see, but I experienced the same frustrations I had with Doom 1 and 2 where actually progressing through the level felt tedious. I'm pretty OK with looking around or backtracking to find what I need to progress, but the way this game goes about it isn't as fun. Progressing usually involves finding switches or keys to unlock the next areas, but a lot of the times, the switches are a pain in the ass to find, and some of those switches don't indicate exactly what they open or open something from a faraway room (and you have to wander around hoping something has opened up somewhere). I spent more time aimlessly wandering than I did fighting demons, and I found that mildly vexing at points. It's a bit of a shame because I liked the more puzzle-oriented level design they seemed to be going for. VERDICT: Doom 64 is on par with its classic predecessors when it comes to the core shooter gameplay, but aspects of its level design got in the way of my enjoyment of it. Outside of that, I still had fun ripping and tearing demons, and that's good enough for me. I think there's merit in playing Doom 64, as it's likely the one Doom game most people weren't able to play back in the day (as the name implies, it was an N64 exclusive and was never on PC until last year). That said, if you're new to the Doom franchise, or are diving into classic Doom after checking out Doom 2016/Eternal, I think you're better served playing Doom 1 and 2 first. You'll get pretty much the same gameplay regardless. Play Doom 64 on Steam: DOOM 64 on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda has resulted in a bunch of the latter's games being added to Game Pass, and seeing that made me quite tempted to extend my subscription. BACKGROUND:
As far as classic shooters go, I never really got into Wolfenstein. All I know about the series is the historical significance of Wolfenstein 3D as one of the pioneers of first person shooters. Also, that game had Mecha-Hitler, one of gaming most notorious final bosses. I'm pretty much going in with no prior knowledge. PLOT: Wolfenstein is set in a universe where the Nazis win World War II through ridiculously advanced technology, and the entire world has been all but conquered. Resistance has pretty much fizzled out, until William "BJ" Blazkowicz, a former soldier in the war, resurfaces and takes the fight to General Deathshead, a high-ranking Nazi scientist who created most of the advanced weaponry the Nazis use (through horrific, inhumane means). "What if Axis won WWII" is a classic alternate history question, and the game explores the question in a fascinating way while also adding a sci-fi spin on it. The game only briefly explores how the Nazis came about developing their technology, but their arsenal perfectly conveys their nigh insurmountable power in this timeline. The efforts of Blazkowicz and the Resistance to fight against them feel even more impressive because of it. I was mostly expecting Blazkowicz to be a silent protagonist, but as it turns out, he has quite a bit of character in this game. You get a real sense of all the shit he's been through because of the Nazis (his hatred of them is quite overt), you learn of his hopes of living in peace with his love (but recognizes that he will never have), and you get to explore a bit of his trauma. FPS protagonists tend to be not the most fleshed out, so Blazkowicz was a pleasant surprise on that front. The other supporting characters aren't as fleshed out, but they have pretty distinct personalities and have interesting backgrounds. The villains are pretty much unequivocally evil with zero redeeming qualities, and while that doesn't really make them interesting, the fact that they're as one-dimensional as they are works just fine for this game. The game does not hold back depicting the Nazi regime as reprehensible as it was in reality. The Nazis you run into are incredibly prejudiced, terribly obsessed with "genetic purity," viciously torture and slaughter people in their way, and enforce their rule with an iron fist. I was concerned that the game would either make light of or glorify the Nazis in any way, but based on what I played, it doesn't come off like that. This is my first Wolfenstein game, so I can't say for certain that this is the best entry point into the series, but as a newcomer, I found the story easy to get into. There were some elements that clearly require prerequisite knowledge of the older games, but overall, the story is standalone enough that I could easily get into it. PRESENTATION: Wolfenstein boasts polished AAA-level graphics, and it looks pretty great even on medium settings. The realistic style makes the abundance of gore in the game look extra gruesome, so a word of warning to the squeamish. The designs of the Nazi tech and infrastructure look and feel soulless, having industrial and Brutalist aesthetics respectively. The Nazis have everything from mechs, giant robots, advanced vehicles, laser guns, and even a lunar base, and the designs are pretty cool (the only thing that isn't cool is that Nazis made them). The music of the game was composed by Mick Gordon, and having heard his work elsewhere, I wasn't surprised at all to find that the rock/metal-leaning soundtrack is quite good. It doesn't go as hard as the Doom 2016/Eternal soundtrack, but the tracks that play during action sequences still makes playing through the game more exciting. GAMEPLAY: As you may have already figured out, Wolfenstein is a first person shooter. Point the gun, shoot the Nazis, don't die. You know how this goes. Blazkowicz's arsenal is pretty standard FPS fare. You have a pistol, a shotgun, an assault rifle, an SMG, an automatic sniper rifle, Tesla grenades (essentially EMPs), and a knife as your melee. It seems pretty basic, but most of them have fun alternate fire options. The pistol has a silencer, the shotgun has ricochet rounds, the assault rifle has a rocket launcher, the sniper rifle can switch to laser shots, and you can throw knives for an instant kill if you find extras. You can also dual wield most of the weapons I listed, which is as fun as it sounds. The most interesting weapon in the bunch is the Laserkraftwerk, which, as the name suggests, shoots lasers. It's incredibly effective against armored enemies, and it also doubles as a laser cutter, which can be used to cut openings in specific steel plates and fences, allowing you to walk through. I thought the idea of using the laser cutter to open up new paths was a cool mechanic. Throughout the game, you'll need to look around the levels for health, armor, and ammo to keep yourself in good condition. Armor is straightforward, but health has an interesting mechanic where you can overheal and go over 100 HP; doing so naturally gives you more HP, but it decays slowly back to 100 over time. It's an interesting mechanic that gets you to weigh the choice of saving health drops until you really need it vs. consuming all the drops now and tank the damage with the extra HP. Your HP also has a limited regen, where your HP goes back up to the nearest multiple of 20 if you go long enough without getting hit. For example, if you're at 85, you go back up to 100 over time, but if you get hit and your HP drops to 67, it regens back to 80. It's an interesting system that combines the leniency of more modern shooters while also retaining the more challenging aspects of older FPS games. You'll mostly pick up ammo from the guns your enemies drop, but there are ammo stashes in various places, too. The Laserkraftwerk doesn't take traditional ammo, but rather requires charging at a charging station, which are in mostly convenient locations. You can also rely on the occasional turret for extra firepower, and you can even detach them Halo-style if need be. There are a good amount of levels in the main campaign, and you explore a good variety of locations like a concentration camp, a high-security prison, the aforementioned lunar base, a castle, and even the interior of a U-Boat. Although the game is mostly linear, there's a bit of room to explore and find various secrets, which are mostly just collectibles. The enemy variety isn't the most impressive, as you'll be mostly fighting Nazi soldiers throughout the campaign. That said, you do face off against more interesting enemies on many occasions, like the armored Supersoldaten, giant robots, drones, and even vicious attack hounds. You can go full Rambo on many of these enemies, but a few enemies (like some of the game's few bosses) require you to target weak points. For the most part, the challenge is managing large waves of enemies, or dealing with annoyingly tanky enemies. The game has a number of opportunities where it encourages you to use stealth, and I found them quite fun. If you manage to slip by undetected, you can perform a silent assassination on enemies without alerting anybody. It's worth doing most of the time, especially in areas that have commanders (who can call reinforcements if you are detected). The AI is admittedly idiotic when it comes to this aspect, but I still found enjoyment in clearing an entire room without being spotted. As you play, you can also unlock perks that give you buffs and new abilities. You unlock these by performing certain tasks (usually "kill x enemies with y weapon" or something of that nature). Not many of them are that game-changing, but some of them are definitely worth the effort of unlocking. In terms of collectibles, you have various lore-related items (letters and audio recordings), as well as concept art and character models. The most interesting of these collectibles are the Enigma Codes, which you need to solve the Enigma Code puzzle. Solving the puzzle unlocks alternate modes, such as a mode where all pickups have been removed. They're certainly worth finding if you're interested in playing the campaign in different ways. I played the game on the equivalent of Normal, and while it isn't particularly punishing, it is not quite a pushover. You have the choice to pick easier modes if you want to enjoy the game casually, or harder modes if you want a substantial challenge. VERDICT: Wolfenstein: The New Order is a solid shooter that has you navigate an interesting alternate history with sci-fi elements, and I had fun blasting the shit out of Nazis while learning the game's story and listening to the soundtrack. It has its issues and elements that I didn't really care for, but I think the good outweighs the bad, and my interest was piqued enough that I'll probably play the sequels of this game at some point in the future. If you're looking for a decently challenging single player shooter to get into, this game is a pretty good choice. Shredding Nazis with bullets is bound to be a fun time for most people, and if you're into sci-fi and alternate history stories, you may get extra enjoyment out of the plot. Get the game on Steam here: Wolfenstein: The New Order on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - I'm only around six or seven years late to the party. BACKGROUND:
FNAF was pretty much everywhere in the mid-2010s. Many YouTubers were playing the game, a bunch of sequels were churned out in incredibly quick succession, and an entire community was built purely out of dissecting its esoteric lore. I was along for the ride for most of the initial craze, watching folks like Markiplier and Achievement Hunter shit themselves over the scares, and even dabbled in the lore side through MatPat's Game Theory videos. All that said, I'd never played any of the games, and I wouldn't consider my consumption of FNAF-related content to be anything beyond casual curiosity. For the sake of posterity, I decided to at least play the very first one. PLOT: The basic premise of FNAF is that you're a graveyard shift security guard tasked to watch over Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. The pizzeria's main attraction is a group of animatronic animals, but at night, they apparently wander aimlessly, and they don't take kindly to humans (AKA you). Across five nights, you watch over the pizzeria as you try to avoid animatronic-related casualties. In the game itself, the storytelling is surface-level, conveyed through the narration of the notorious Phone Guy. But if online communities and Game Theory videos are any indication, FNAF's lore runs much, much deeper, but the first game in particular doesn't give you too many pieces for you to speculate upon. However, I could never really get into FNAF's lore; it hints at some fascinating supernatural elements, but the way it's presented makes it seem like it's trying too hard to be mysterious. Don't get me wrong, I like theorycrafting as much as the next guy, but FNAF as a whole seems to take it to a point that it feels like too much work to figure out what's going on (and that fact appears to be deliberate for the sake of it). PRESENTATION: FNAF doesn't boast the prettiest graphics, with its backgrounds and models looking relatively simple. However, since you view the game mostly through shitty '80s security cameras, it's not really a big deal, and the fact that the threats you need to watch out for can only be seen through choppy video feeds adds a certain amount of unease to the experience. On top of that, the animatronics look proper creepy, which is par for the course, I suppose. The game relies heavily on audio cues, so there's pretty much no music. The sound design is sufficiently creepy, and things like volume and direction are done well enough such that you can mostly figure out how close the animatronics are. GAMEPLAY: Five Nights at Freddy's is a survival horror game where you have to survive until 6AM without an animatronic ripping you apart. However, its main gameplay is a bit unique, as you're stuck sitting in an office, and you can't move. Instead, you have to use the equipment available to you in the office to keep the animatronics at bay. In the office, you have access to a number of things. You can close the doors on either side of you (which is your only line of defense), check the lights at each door (to see if there are any nearby threats), and view the several rooms in the pizzeria through the security camera feed to track the animatronics. All this is controlled with simple point-and-click. To make things tougher, the office has a power meter that decays over time. The more of the resources you use, the faster the power drains, and if you reach 0%, everything blacks out and you're completely vulnerable. Most of the challenge in the game is conserving as much as power as possible, and that means using resources only when necessary. Each of the four animatronics have their own behaviors, and while the actions they take during a game are mostly random, you only really need to watch out for certain tells to succeed. Juggling four animatronics at the same time is tough, but if you take the time to watch their movements, listen for audio cues, and check critical points, the game is actually manageable for the most part. The game is split to five levels (the eponymous nights), with each succeeding level increasing in difficulty. Nothing really changes across the five nights apart from the aggression of the animatronic AI, so once you have a general strategy down, you pretty much just repeat the same actions over and over. Randomness does throw a wrench into the formula now and again, but for the most part, there isn't a lot of variety in terms of the gameplay. Naturally, this game has jump scares (cheap ones at that), and while jump scares in general aren't the most effective approach to horror in my view, the way the game handles them actually makes them rather potent. Instead of being a random thing you'll spend your playthrough being paranoid about, you know exactly when jump scares show up: they only pop up when you fail. As such, the tension isn't so much watching out for the scare as it is stressing about getting things right so you don't get jump scared. In short, if you don't want to get spooked, get good. Outside of the main game, there's also a bonus Night 6 (which is just a harder level), and a Custom Night that allows you to adjust the AI of each animatronic. It's not really any different, but they're there in case the five nights aren't enough for you. VERDICT: Five Nights at Freddy's does a lot with a little, and is able to deliver a tense survival horror experience with simple mechanics and a clever approach to its jump scares. The game itself doesn't really offer much variety, and the story is a tad esoteric, but playing FNAF was still a fun experience for me. That said, I feel like I'm content not exploring any more of the series. There are arguably more atmospheric and more complex horror games, but I think there's merit in checking out FNAF at least once, if only for its significance as a modern classic (I think it's earned that distinction, though many arguments can be made to the contrary). It's also a fun game to play with others; I streamed my playthrough for my friends, and as someone who doesn't really get spooked, hearing my friends brace themselves or get startled was entertaining. Here's FNAF on a number of different platforms: - end - I'd save this for April Fool's Day, but I felt like playing it now. BACKGROUND:
Goat Simulator was all over YouTube all the way back in 2014, and like many, I had a laugh watching various content creators fuck around in the game. Until now, I actually haven't played the game for myself. PLOT: If this game has a plot, I wanna hear about it. PRESENTATION: Goat Simulator isn't really anything special in this department. The visuals look like slightly dated PS3 graphics (maybe older), and the soundtrack, while upbeat and goofy, isn't anything remarkable. Most of the spectacle in this game (if you could call it that) is the absolute jank you'll encounter while playing, like object and character models spazzing out, or the goat clipping out of bounds. GAMEPLAY: Goat Simulator is a sandbox game where, as expected, you run around in a 3D environment as a goat. The goat can jump, lick objects, headbutt, bleat, and toggle a ragdoll state. That's... mostly it, and it's all you really need. This game is probably most remembered for pioneering (or at least being one of the pioneers) what is often referred to as "wacky physics games." If you're used to games that have very responsive controls, or anything remotely resembling the laws of physics, there's a good chance you'll find this game insufferable to control. Along with the intentional jank of the game, it all comes together for a fucking weird experience. What is there to do in the game's small area? Well, cause mayhem, of course. Using a combination of all your abilities, you can wreak havoc on the town by accosting people, hurling objects around, getting run over by vehicles, launching yourself off of rooftops, and even causing explosions. The game also has a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater-style scoring system where you can rack up combos of all these shenanigans, and while the score itself means practically nothing, I guess it's just fun to see the number go up. The game gives you quests to nudge you along and give you something to do, but there's no real reward for doing them; they serve merely as a suggestion for what to do. Otherwise, it's kind of up to you to make your own fun here. I know many folks that don't care for sandbox games because they don't like not having any direction on what to do, so if you're one of those people, this game may not be for you. Although normal-looking on the surface, the starting town you explore hides some hilarious secrets, like trophies that give you mutators (which are essentially in-game mods that give you ridiculous abilities or change aspects of the game), or secret objectives that defy common sense (like the ability to transform yourself into a demon goat). Finding these things is worth it, as the payoff is usually the further escalation of the already monumental absurdity that is this game. If the original level isn't enough content for you, the game has DLC expansions that put you in different scenarios. There's one that puts you in space, one that parodies an MMORPG, and a couple that are crossovers (Payday 2, I am Bread, etc.). I didn't mess around with any of these too much, but a few of these expansions are free, and from what I've watched on YouTube, they're just as full of nonsensical hijinks as the base game. VERDICT: Goat Simulator is a mess of a game, but that is a deliberate choice; the fact that it's glitchy as hell is the very core of what makes it entertaining. The game itself doesn't give you much to do, and it's up to the player to just mess around and amuse themselves. For me, that was enough. The gameplay videos made me laugh then, and playing the game for myself made me laugh now. That said, the novelty wore off after a couple of hours, and outside of showing friends who've never seen it before how fucking ridiculous it is, I am content shelving this game indefinitely. If you're looking for a goofy time-killer that will keep you occupied for an hour, or want something to play with your friends or an audience to amuse them, Goat Simulator is a fun pick. If you're looking for anything more complex than that, this isn't really a game for you, but if you get the chance, play it for a couple of minutes and just have fun with it. Goat Simulator is available on a number of different platforms:
- end - Two weeks is unfortunately not enough to play everything I want to play on Game Pass, but I'll do my best to make the most of it. BACKGROUND:
Yakuza is yet another one of those game series that I only ever hear about in name, so I never really knew anything about it. It wasn't until very recently that I started getting a sense of what it is, as one of my favorite streamers got into the series and played most of the mainline Yakuza games. As Game Pass looked to be the only opportunity where I'd be able to dip my toes into the series, I made it a point to add a Yakuza game to my to-play list. I wasn't starved for choice, either, as there were multiple Yakuza games on the service, but I chose Kiwami as it is apparently a remake of the first game. PLOT: The story begins in 1995 in the fictional district of Kamurocho, Tokyo, and follows the journey of yakuza lieutenant Kazuma Kiryu. After a harrowing incident involving his childhood friends Yumi and Nishikiyama, he takes the fall for a murder he didn't commit, and he is sent to jail and is essentially expelled from the crime family. Ten years later, Kiryu is granted parole, and he finds that Nishikiyama has ascended the ranks of the Tojo Clan (the yakuza organization Kiryu used to serve under), Yumi has gone missing, and a conspiracy that involves a girl named Haruka threatens to send the Tojo Clan into complete civil war. Overall, the story is a good mix of soap opera melodrama and over-the-top action movie. You have double crosses up the ass, mostly straightforward characters, tension caused by fractured relationships, and gratuitous amounts of ass-beatings. The game takes itself quite seriously when it comes to the main story, and while I personally didn't mind how dramatic it was, some players might find aspects of the story corny or campy. The game has quite the cast of characters. Many of them are pretty one-dimensional, but a few do have their nuances. Kiryu himself comes off as the typical "man of few words" badass with a sense of honor, but once you get to the point where he interacts with other prominent characters, he is better fleshed out as a character. Outside of Kiryu, you also get to see Nishikiyama's transformation across the decade, and it's a pretty tragic tale. In contrast, the game's side stories lean heavily into the goofy comedy, and it sees Kiryu get into all sorts of ridiculous hijinks. The most prominent of these is his strange rivalry with fellow yakuza Goro Majima, who is this maniacal weirdo who's constantly trying to start shit. Though I only did a few side quests, the levity they provided makes for a good buffer after playing through the darker main chapters. The Majima side quests in particular are hilarious, and it immediately made me like Majima. PRESENTATION: I haven't seen the original Yakuza (which is a PS2 game), so I'm not qualified to speak on how Kiwami holds up compared to it. All I can say is that the visuals are solid, leaning towards a realistic style and boasting rather polished models and textures. It's not on the level of the latest graphics juggernauts that come to mind, but it still looks great. The music leans more towards an intense sound, which perfectly complements the high-octane action of the gameplay. There are tracks that lean towards other styles, but the tracks that stand out to me personally are the various battle themes. This game is voice acted entirely in Japanese, which was a cool approach. It certainly adds a sense of immersion to the whole story; I feel like having English voice acting for this game would sound bizarre. GAMEPLAY: Yakuza Kiwami is a third person action game where you explore the streets of Kamurocho and get into beat-'em-up-style brawls against groups of enemies. As such, I'll split my discussion into these two main aspects. Combat is like a traditional beat-'em-up, except in 3D. You have light attacks, which you can combo into heavy attacks, and you also have a grab that can transition into throws or pummels. You can also pick up various weapons to wallop motherfuckers with, and these also have light and heavy attacks (plus the option to throw). In addition, you have a block and a sidestep for your defensive maneuvers. The combat is pretty easy to grasp, but once you start encountering tougher enemies, you'll quickly realize that it's harder to master than it looks. You can get by mashing buttons on regular jobbers, but when it comes to bosses, you'll actually have to use defensive maneuvers to give yourself openings. I played on Normal, which was a sufficiently challenging, but you can adjust the difficulty of the combat depending on your skill level. Whether you just want to enjoy mashing buttons or actually want to strategize in combat, the game can be set to fit your play style. Kiryu is able to switch between four combat stances, each with their own specialties. Brawler is the jack-of-all-trades, balancing power and speed, Rush focuses on mobility and rapid strikes, Beast is slow, but hard-hitting, and Dragon is a special style with unique moves. Again, sticking to one style will get you past most normal encounters, but in tougher fights, there is definitely merit in switching in and out of styles. It's a cool system that gives you a bit of freedom to fight your way, but it also offers a good amount of depth in terms of strategy. In addition, you also have something called a Heat Meter, which, when full, allows you to perform Heat Actions when certain conditions are met. These Heat Actions are brutal finisher-style cinematic attacks that do a lot of damage, so it's well worth charging your meter by hitting enemies or using items. Defeating enemies gives you XP. Every time you fill up the XP bar, you get one Ability Point which can be spent in the three skill trees available on the pause menu. The skills range from new moves for each style, passive buffs like more health and damage, and enhancements to the Heat Meter (like easier charging and unique Heat Actions). Surprisingly, you can unlock a lot of the skills just by playing through the required fights, which means you don't really have to grind unless you want to unlock everything 100%. The game also has light RPG elements, like various consumables that heal you up or buff you, as well as equippable gear that give passive buffs and increase your defense. The consumables are pretty useful, while I felt like the gear only makes an impact if you manage to find good items. Overall, I enjoyed beating the piss out of jabronis in this game, but certain aspects or encounters definitely feel frustrating at times. Many bosses can regenerate health (which is fucking tedious), some enemies counter you too hard with excessive dodging or blocking, the quick-time events come out of nowhere, and some of the fights have way too many assholes that you can get easily overwhelmed. I highly recommend setting the game to Easy unless you actually intend to become skilled at the combat, as the frustration could get in the way of you experiencing the story. When you're not in the middle of a story mission, you can explore the streets of Kamurocho at your leisure. You can shop for and sell items at various stores, get into side quests (which are unfortunately just 31 flavors of "talk to NPC, beat people up"), play various minigames and participate in fun activities (like mahjong, gambling, and even karaoke), and even fight random assholes who chase you or harass people. There's a surprising amount of things to do in the city, and while you can blast through the story in short order, it's worth checking out at least some of these side activities at least once. As mentioned, the most prominent side missions involve Goro Majima, and not only is there a lot to do and a lot of laughs to be had, there's actually a pretty big reward tied to beating these quests. You have a skill tree dedicated to enhancing the Dragon stance, and the only way to unlock the skills on it is to complete the Majima side quests. It's an interesting way to handle progression, and there's an added bonus of encountering Majima in increasingly absurd situations. The tradeoff is that you have to go out of your way to complete some of these side quests, and the fact that a few of the fights required to progress actually come out of nowhere add a somewhat unnerving sense of paranoia to exploring. VERDICT: I have my issues with Yakuza Kiwami, but I came out of the experience mostly enjoying the game. Delivering fresh ass-whoopings to throngs of people was mostly fun, the main story was interesting, some of the characters were cool, some of the side quests were hilarious, and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of optional content you can get into. While I can't quite say that I'm a Yakuza fan at this point, I'm certainly intrigued enough to check out the other games in the future, should I have an opportunity to play them. As this is my first Yakuza game, I cannot say if this is the best starting point for people new to the series, but if you're just looking for a fun brawler with both serious and humorous story elements, plus a ton of side content, you should consider checking it out. Yakuza Kiwami is on Steam. Here, have a link: Yakuza Kiwami on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - A romance story I actually kinda liked? Who knew? BACKGROUND:
This was another one of those games that I didn't know anything about and just played out of curiosity. Something something new experiences. PLOT: Haven is the story of two lovers who escaped to an abandoned planet in order to be together. Kay and Yu have fled their homes in defiance of the powers that be, making their home on the planet known as Source. They do their best to carve out a life for themselves, and together, they brave the unknown perils of this strange world. On paper, it sounds like the classic "lovers run away in order to be together" thing, which is a story I've heard told a dozen different ways. But instead on focusing on Kay and Yu's efforts to run away together, the game takes place after they succeeded. I found that to be an interesting twist, and it works well because you get to focus on what is easily the strongest aspect of this game's story: Kay and Yu's bond. Their dialogue (and their relationship in general) feels completely organic: they banter, they flirt, they bicker, and they do menial tasks together. You see grandiose displays of affection from both Kay and Yu, but the bulk of the game is seeing them show affection and intimacy in the smallest, yet meaningful of ways. It's honestly quite cheesy in a lot of instances, but I somehow don't hate it. Although the dialogue does the most heavy lifting in establishing Kay and Yu's relationship, the game builds upon it in more subtle ways. During gameplay, performing certain actions (even idling) can cause Kay and Yu to kiss or hold hands. Doing certain tasks like cooking or sleeping has the two working together or cuddling respectively. Hell, even the loading screen animations have the couple act out silly things, and it's charming. Kay and Yu are pretty likeable characters overall, though if you find copious amounts of banter to be annoying, you may feel differently about them. They're generally silly and fun-loving, but when things get serious, they can really show how much they care for their partner. Plus, Kay's a clever biologist and Yu's a brilliant engineer; I'm always into science-y characters. As you play through the game, you learn about the circumstances that led to Kay and Yu eloping: their homeworld of Apiary has someone (or something) called the Matchmaker that decides who gets married to who. It's... not a groundbreaking concept, but I suppose it sets the stage and provides ample context for Kay and Yu's actions. You'll also piece together a bit of Kay and Yu's respective pasts. Some of the things the two mention about the Apiary and their backstories certainly piqued my interest, but the game never really bothers to flesh anything out unless the main plot calls for it. All the potential lore is basically an afterthought, and considering that Kay and Yu left all that shit behind so that they could have a new start together, it makes sense thematically. You'll also be able to piece together the mystery of what Source actually is, and I'd say that's the more interesting subplot. Again, it takes a backseat to the romance, but learning the true nature of Source and how it ties into the Apiary was still satisfying. This subplot also builds upon the concept of Flow, which is this sort of energy source that can be harnessed and also connects two points of space together. At some point, you encounter the closest thing the game has to a conflict, which is the impending threat of the Apiary coming over to Source in an attempt to capture the couple. I'm not gonna go into specifics, but you are eventually thrown into a point where you have to decide the ending. One is explicitly the "good" ending and the other is ostensibly "bad". PRESENTATION: The game boasts a beautiful cel-shaded art style, and everything about Source looks gorgeous. The only real shame in this department is that they didn't do enough to make Source's locales look diverse; there are only a few distinct-looking biomes to speak of. The alien creatures, on the other hand, all look pretty distinct from one another, which is great. Other aspects of the game's visuals are also great, like the still art in menus and the loading screens. The loading screens are perhaps the standout here, as they depict Kay and Yu's relationship in a way that even the game doesn't show. The game's opening cinematic and the animation during the credits are also wonderful to watch. If you can help it, don't skip those. The soundtrack was a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting upbeat electronic-style music to accompany the game, but it works really well, and some of the tracks are pretty catchy to boot. GAMEPLAY: Haven is more of a story-driven game, so a lot of it is a visual novel-style experience (complete with different dialogue options for both Kay and Yu), but there is definitely some other gameplay outside of that. Primarily, you'll be exploring Source's surface, which is split into islets. You'll glide around gathering resources and other useful items that will come in handy for all sorts of things. The gliding feels really good, though the fact that the areas aren't that large kind of get in the way of how fun it is to zoom around. Very early in the story, the Nest (Yu's ship, as well as the couple's shelter) takes quite a tumble, and you'll need to gather materials to repair it. You'll have to search the island for salvageable parts, as well as gather a resource known as Rust, a mysterious yet versatile substance that's polluting Source. Though not a strict requirement, you can clean up Source's many islets of Rust by charging your boots with Flow and gliding over them. Flow is the main source of energy in the game, and you can gather some by gliding through paths known as Flow Threads scattered about the world. Apart from clearing out Rust, you can also use Flow to charge a Flow Burst, which can be used to unlock doors (among other things). Aside from being a source of Flow, the aforementioned Flow Threads can take you to otherwise inaccessible areas if you fly through specific ones. You don't really use Flow for anything else, but I do like how the gathering of it is tied to the fun movement mechanic. In addition to Flow and Rust, you can also gather various fruit and medicinal herbs. You use these to cook food and make healing items. The latter is straightforward, but food has a couple more uses. Aside from also being a source of healing, there's also a hunger meter to manage, and eating together builds Kay and Yu's relationship (more on that later). Source is a relatively peaceful place, but it isn't devoid of enemies. On occasion, you'll run into wildlife infected by Rust, and in order to help them out, you'll have to fight them first. Initiating an encounter throws you into a simple real-time battle system where you control both Kay and Yu simultaneously. They both have access to the same commands: Impact (a melee attack), Blast (a ranged attack), Shield (self-explanatory), Pacify (used on downed enemies to free them of Rust), and Charge (which allows you to use battle items), and each character acts independently of one another. Battles tend to be a matter of timing your commands right (as you have to hold the button until the meter is full to execute the command), and beating enemies is a matter of figuring out their weakness. It's not complex by any means, but it is trickier than it looks. Despite the simplicity, I found the battles to be somewhat engaging. Figuring out the perfect rhythm of when to execute your moves is a fun exercise, and while the variety of ways to hurt enemies is sadly limited, it's satisfying to discover their weaknesses and build your game plan around it. At some point, you're able to execute Duo moves, which require Kay and Yu to use the same command at the same time. In addition to taking the time to charge the move, you'll also have to time when to let go of the button, making it slightly more challenging to use. It's generally worth using because it does decent damage, but it comes with the drawback that you're pretty vulnerable while charging since neither character can use Shield. If either Kay or Yu go down, you have the ability to use the Help command, which can revive the downed character with a little bit of health. If both Kay and Yu are knocked out, they simply travel back to the Nest, where you have the opportunity to lick your wounds. In rare instances, you can get a game over, but saves happen at every area transition, so it's not really punishing either way. Speaking of the Nest, that serves as your base of operations. This is the primary place where you can craft battle items, cook food, prepare healing items, and sleep (staying out at night is a bad idea). You can camp at certain areas outside, but the actions you can perform there are more limited, so it's generally better to go back to the Nest whenever you can. The crafting itself is pretty limited, as there are only a handful of components in the game, and there are only so many combinations you can make. It would have been neat if there were a bit more diversity to the resource selection, but it's not a big deal overall. Exploring is a bit cumbersome at first, but you'll eventually unlock a map (which is only sort of helpful because it's not really a full map) and a fast travel system in form of a friendly flying creature. The fast travel can only be accessed at certain points, requires cooked food in order to activate, and you can only travel to points that are clear of rust. These limitations aren't that big a hurdle in the grand scheme, and the fast travel is so convenient that it's usually worth the trouble of using. Whether you're eating food, winning battles, or encountering special cutscenes, Kay and Yu's relationship will deepen, and this is tracked with its very own bar. Once it fills up, you get a special cutscene, and after that, both Kay and Yu's stats will increase. It's basically this game's take on experience points, and I like that it's tied to the game's main focus. To be honest, the gameplay gets kind of repetitive after a while, as it's the same loop of gather shit, craft shit, eat, sleep, repeat, with the occasional battle sprinkled in. I kind of wish there were more to do and more to explore, but despite the repetition, I still got some enjoyment out of doing these things. If you prefer a wider variety of things to do, there's sadly not a whole lot you can do, as even the optional stuff is more of the same. Haven can be definitely played solo, but it also has a co-op feature that lets one player control Kay, while the other controls Yu. Not that I would know anything about it, but this seems like a perfect game for players to enjoy with their significant others. VERDICT: Against all odds, Haven is a romance story I actually somewhat enjoy. Kay and Yu are both endearing characters with an intimate and honestly sweet relationship, and I actually quite liked watching that relationship grow and change with what they encounter on Source. Though I would have preferred the RPG-style gameplay to be more complex, I still enjoyed the bit of exploring you can do and found the battle system interesting. If you like story-driven games, and if you're particularly big on romance tales, you should definitely check out Haven. The game itself is easy to get into and is more on the casual side, so you can focus on the story no problem. Plus, if you have a significant other you can pass the controller to, you can enjoy the game that way. On the other hand, if you have a particular distaste for romance, you may end up finding this game insufferable. Here's Haven on Steam: Haven on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - It's March as I publish this, which means I'm down to my last couple of weeks of that free Game Pass PC sub. Let's make it count. BACKGROUND:
I didn't know this game existed until I saw it while browsing the Game Pass library. I then looked it up, saw that it had a nice art style, and learned it won a bunch of awards. That was enough to pique my interest. PLOT: The game is set in 1934, and sees Norah Everhart embark on a voyage to an island close to Tahiti in search of her husband Harry. Harry had gone to search for a cure for Norah's mysterious illness (the same illness that led to her mother's death), but he hasn't written back to Norah in over a month. Deeply concerned, Norah follows his lead after receiving an anonymous package that has Harry's last known whereabouts, and arrives on the island not long after. Once there, she explores the island to piece together what happened to her husband and his expedition, unravel the mysteries of the island, and discover how it all ties to her and her illness. The true nature of the island ends up being pretty interesting, leaning towards a lot of supernatural Lovecraftian element. However, this game is by no means a horror game. Some things are left unexplained or feel out of left field, and a few connecting threads kind of feel like a stretch at points, but I thought they built an inspired world that has surprising connections with Norah's main quest. Next, you have the mystery of what happened to Harry's expedition. As you play, Norah will find clues as to the events that transpired when Harry and his companions first explore the island. Without giving too much away, it's a tale wrought with tragedy, and the harrowing events tie in well with the supernatural goings-on within the island. What I think is the strongest element of the story is the connection between Norah and Harry. You spend the entire game with Norah and only know of Harry through the bits of lore you pick up on your journey, but through Norah's narration, it is well established how much the two love each other. The premise shows that pretty effectively already (husband goes on a dangerous journey to save his wife's life; wife follows husband into danger to find him), but everything from the little anecdotes Norah recalls to herself and the deep concern she shows when she starts learning about what happened to Harry on the island further reinforce that bond. The latter half (especially the very end) gets super emotional, and the game builds up to those moments effectively. I've gone on record multiple times to say that I'm not really one to go for romance stories, but I liked this particular love story a lot because it was able to convey Norah and Harry's bond without having to have the two together. As she is really the only character you interact with in the game, you'll get to know Norah the most. She's a pretty charming woman with a can-do attitude despite her illness, and she's got a bit of a sense of humor to boot. The only thing that could be perceived as annoying is her constant narration of things that are obvious, but I personally didn't mind it. You only get to know the other characters through Norah's lens, but she (and the game in general) does a decent job of establishing enough such that you have a real sense of what kind of people those other characters were. There are two endings in the game (which you decide at the very end). I obviously can't say what they are, but all I can say is I really loved one ending, and I didn't like the other one as much. I would have preferred if they had stuck with their guns and gone with the ending I liked, not just because I liked it, but it felt like a perfectly bittersweet note to end the game on. The other ending was bittersweet in a different way, but I didn't find it as satisfying. PRESENTATION: As mentioned, this game's art style grabbed my attention, and it is quite pretty. The 3D environments are vivid and colorful, leaning towards a somewhat cartoony look but still having a tinge of realism to its designs. The more supernatural elements have appropriately mystical designs, and they look quite alien next to the lush, natural landscapes that the island has to offer. Even the loading screens are pretty, as they feature painterly 2D art that depicts the setting of the current chapter. The music is equally beautiful, providing a good mix of both melodic and atmospheric tracks that go along well with exploration and big story moments. Norah's voice acting is also great, and there's some good sound design, too (the underwater segments in particular are well done). GAMEPLAY: Call of the Sea is a first person game where you explore the island and solve puzzles to progress. Most of the game boils down to getting to an area, taking a look around and interacting with everything, and using everything you've learned to solve any puzzles in order to open up the next thing. It's nothing particularly demanding. You'll be interacting with a lot of objects (and hearing what Norah has to say about them), and while some of them are interactables just for the sake of it, most of them do have some sort of purpose. It's through majority of these objects that you learn what happened to Harry's expedition, so if you care about the story, you want to get as much information as you can through these objects. Secondly, some of these objects are actually clues to the game's many puzzles, which means you'll have to keep track of a bunch of them in case they end up being part of a puzzle. Some objects and interactions within the game are recorded in Norah's journal, which is split into two parts. The Logs section is essentially the actual "journal" part of the journal, containing Norah's account and thoughts on what she's experienced so far, as well as her effort in piecing together everything that happened to Harry. The other part of the journal is called Notes, and these contain all information pertinent to puzzles. This is a pretty convenient feature that keeps track of things that may be part of the solution to many puzzles, eliminating the need to go back and forth to check certain objects. It almost feels like cheating given how incredibly helpful it is (I did my best to avoid using it for this reason), but if you're having trouble remembering specific parts of a puzzle, this is definitely worth using. Interestingly, individual entries in both the Logs and the Notes are technically collectibles, and some of them can be missed if you're just blazing past the game. If you care about completing the game 100%, there is thankfully a convenient chapter select that allows you to go back for anything you've missed. And if that isn't helpful enough, the game even tracks completion percentage. The puzzles themselves aren't that hard (I didn't think so, anyway), but there's a good variety of them, and I liked how many of them require you to explore as much of an area as possible to gather the necessary information needed to solve it. Some of them are pretty tricky, and require you to be particularly observant of your surroundings, but I don't think any of them require advanced neural net processing to solve. I'd say the only thing I don't like about this game is the movement. I get that Norah's sick, but from a gameplay perspective, I'm not sure making her walk speed painfully slow was the best idea. Even her "sprint" isn't that fast. It makes exploring an otherwise beautiful environment feel more tedious than it should, and I think that bumping up that movement speed a bit would do wonders. Same goes for swimming, which is a shame given that swimming actually controls nice otherwise. VERDICT: Call of the Sea was a delightful adventure puzzler, with captivating visuals, an enjoyable protagonist, a Lovecraft-inspired tale mixed with a love story that I actually like a lot, and decently engaging puzzles. I have my minor qualms about it, but overall, I really enjoyed this game. If you're looking for a somewhat short story-driven game that's more on the casual side, you should definitely consider this one. Steam link for the game below: Call of the Sea on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - Again, I get to play a freshly-released game (for a current-gen console, no less) for basically free thanks to Game Pass. Neat! BACKGROUND:
I didn't know this game existed at all until I saw it was coming to Game Pass a couple of weeks back. Out of curiosity, I watched some promotional material and was intrigued enough to try it. PLOT: The Medium is set in Poland in the year 1999, just after the country's transition from communism. It focuses on a woman named Marianne, who is the titular medium. After a personal tragedy, she is contacted by a mysterious man named Thomas, who somehow knows her name and her powers. Thomas instructs Marianne to find him in Niwa Resort, a vacation spot from the communist era that's been abandoned due to a massacre that took place in the area. Once there, Marianne explores the place, and with the help of her powers, she discovers exactly what happened at Niwa, and how this ties in with her own history. Marianne's abilities are interesting, to say the least. As a medium, you expect the usual things, like conversing with spirits of the dead, seeing all sorts of visions, and being able to parse through someone's thoughts and emotions. She does all that, but she's also able to straight up see and traverse the spirit realm. Now, the spirit realm isn't exactly the afterlife, and feels more like the boundary between it and the physical world. In here, Marianne can interact with certain objects and spirits, and that can alter reality in the real world. The reverse can also occur; interacting with specific objects in the material realm can alter the spirit realm. Through Marianne's ability to see fragments of the past and interact with spirits, you learn about the people who were at Niwa during the massacre, and eventually, you'll also uncover the truth behind all those murders. As you may expect, there is a supernatural element involved, but a lot of what transpired was spurred on by people being horrible. You get an up close and personal look of how people felt as the nightmare unfolded thanks to how Marianne's powers work, and it really helped me get invested in the story and the characters. Real-life events that transpired during Poland (like the German invasion at the start of WWII) are referenced to flesh out certain characters and provide context to their histories. One particularly impactful example is the reveal that one of the characters suffered a tragic loss because one of the people they cared about was Jewish. In terms of characters, you'll be spending your time with Marianne the most. She's an interesting character who's been through a lot, and despite the scary nature of her powers, she's unfazed when shit happens. She also shows compassion for many of the spirits she interacts with, helping them move on to the afterlife most of the time, and she's got a little bit of a sense of humor to her too. I like her a lot, but if you don't like constant narration, you might feel differently. As for the other characters, you don't spend as much time with them, as you mostly learn about them through Marianne's perspective (as opposed to directly interacting with them). Despite this, the game does a decent job giving you enough pieces to get a sense of who they are and what they experienced during the Niwa Massacre. Many of these pieces are unfortunately optional content that you have to go out of your way for, but if you're interested at all in figuring out what happened, they are worth collecting. Overall, I enjoyed the story. I liked the spin on Marianne's psychic abilities, I thought their take on the spirit realm was interesting, learning about Niwa was more than worthwhile, and most of the story threads were wrapped up pretty neatly. There are probably aspects that could have used some improvement, but I came out of it liking the plot. Although this is marketed as a horror game, I don't really think it's particularly scary. There are a few moments that will make you jump, and the overall vibe of the derelict Niwa Resort is quite eerie, but it's nothing on the level of more well-known horror titles like Resident Evil where there's danger at every corner, or Five Nights at Freddy's (which is itching to jump scare you). It's more unsettling than it is actively trying to scare you. That said, the game deals with some particularly sensitive and disturbing subject matters, ones that are tied to severe emotional trauma. To expound would be to give away too much of the story, but it's imperative to put a trigger warning out there in case the one the game has at the beginning isn't enough. PRESENTATION: The Medium is another in a long line of games that boast AAA-level graphics. I wouldn't call it the most realistic-looking game out there, but it's pretty close in terms of its visual fidelity. It looks pretty great for the most part, and the visuals shine when you're in the spirit realm. The spirit realm and its inhabitants have a rather run-down, almost grotesque style to its appearance, and it makes for quite the contrast against the physical realm. Of course, the graphics come at a great cost, and you'll definitely need a Series X or a more powerful PC to run it in its best state. Because of a particular aspect of its gameplay (that I'll get into later), this game will give any standard GPU a workout, and it's intense to the point that even the game's performance drops in quality no matter what you do. I'm normally not a stickler for this, but it doesn't seem like this game is particularly well optimized (at least not on PC). It could just be a consequence of my machine not having the best components, but it seems that no matter what I change in terms of settings, I can't really get it to run at a consistent quality (even low settings still have frame rate issues, for instance). There are also weird hiccups like texture flickering (which was annoyingly rampant) that lends credence to the notion that the game isn't optimized as well as it could be. As I may have already established, I'm not at all fastidious about graphics and performance, but the issues of this game were evident enough for me to take notice. If you are particular about those aspects of a game, I would be quite wary about purchasing this game at its current state, or buying it knowing you don't have a powerful processor or GPU. Outside of that, the haunting soundtrack is solid, there's some decent sound design in terms of effects (a must in any atmospheric horror-style game), and good voice acting. GAMEPLAY: The best way I can describe The Medium's gameplay is that it's Resident Evil but minus the action. You move around in third person, the camera angles are fixed (like classic RE), and you solve a ton of puzzles in order to progress. Depending on how much you enjoy action-style horror games, you may find this game boring or find it significantly less stressful. I can see the fixed camera being a big sticking point for most people. If you've never played something like the old RE games before, you will likely find the inability to move the camera around incredibly annoying. Since I have experience with 3D games with fixed camera angles, I didn't mind it as much, but there were definitely instances where the camera changes between areas weren't smooth, or times when the angle they went for in certain areas doesn't help you at all get a sense of the place. Most of the game is walking around, listening to Marianne's narration, and exploring areas to find items that are either important for solving puzzles or help piece together the story. People like to throw the term "walking simulator" around for games like this, and while I think that label is mean-spirited in general, it's not entirely inaccurate. If you want something a little more engaging, I'm not sure this game will be for you. Puzzles are aplenty in the game, and next to exploring, you'll be doing this the most. Most boil down to "look around to find the right item to place into this other item," so it's nothing that will hurt your brain. There are a few that involve a bit more thinking (like moving water around with pumps to unlock flooded areas), but I didn't find those to be difficult, either. What makes the puzzles interesting in my view is how they make full use of Marianne's ability to interact with the two worlds. As I mentioned, interacting with things in the spirit world can affect the physical world (and vice versa), and majority of the puzzles take advantage of that. For instance, charging up an electrical outlet in the spirit world activates the real-world device. For the reverse, interacting with something like a clock can cause secret passages to appear in the spirit world. If you know me, I'm pretty big on games with the two dimensions concept (see: A Link to the Past, Guacamelee, Metroid Prime 2, and various other examples I can't think of right now), and The Medium executes it quite well. The way you traverse between worlds varies, from scripted sequences that lock you into one world for a little bit, or through interactable mirrors that let you cross over at will. However, the main way the game has you interact with both worlds is through a split-screen that sees Marianne explore the real world and the spirit realm at the exact same time. I thought that this was an awesome way to present the game; you get to immediately see how your actions in one world affects the other, and the game constantly has you shift your focus to solve puzzles. Even if the puzzles themselves aren't the most complex, the split-screen perspective helps set up some cool scenarios. The cutscenes even take advantage of this, showing you different angles of the same scene, but with obvious differences (e.g. the spirit Marianne is talking to will only be visible in the spirit world side, naturally). The split-screen comes with a big drawback: since the game is essentially fully rendering two instances of the game at the same time, the performance will suffer for it. This is what I meant in the previous section; it seemed that regardless of what I do to improve performance, the game's frame rate still suffers and the resolution still dips. I can see why this game had to be on an advanced machine like the Series X. Apart from the two worlds stuff, you have access to a few other abilities. You have both a Spirit Blast and a Spirit Shield, and despite what the names imply, they're not so much combat abilities as they are glorified keys in order to progress. These abilities are limited in use as well, as you need to charge up at a Spirit Well to use them, and unlocking Spirit Wells tend to be a puzzle in themselves. I think they could have made an action-oriented game with these mechanics, but in this case, it's mostly just for puzzle solving. I'm cool with that, but again, if you're looking to fight a bitch in this game, you'll probably end up disappointed. You also have something called an Out of Body Experience, which allows you to move around in the spirit world freely while your physical body stays in place. This ability unfortunately has a time limit, but it's an otherwise cool ability that makes the split-screen experience more interesting since you can move around in the spirit world without the barriers of the physical realm impeding you. On top of that, you have a sprint, sneak, and the ability to hold your breath. I know I said this game isn't particularly scary, but that doesn't mean there isn't any danger in it. In a few sections, you'll have to haul ass to avoid a supernatural ass-whooping, and in others, you'll have to use stealth instead. You'll encounter a bunch of collectibles, all of which add a new piece to the puzzle that is the game's story. You can definitely miss a few of them, but given how the areas aren't that massive, it won't be too much trouble looking around to collect them all. Some of them are your typical written documents, but others involve using Marianne's powers in order to uncover strong emotions and memories from items that radiate a powerful aura (something I thought was really cool). There's also no manual save, which means I had to get far enough to where the autosave icon would pop up so I can stop playing and go to bed. Kinda wish there were a manual save, but the autosave seemed pretty generous based on my experience. Not a big deal since this is a short game (that you can probably beat in one weekend), but I think it's worth pointing out since the game doesn't indicate that you can't save manually (it only tells you that there's an autosave). VERDICT: The Medium is a particularly ambitious game with an intriguing (and disturbing) story, a somewhat fresh take on classic supernatural elements, and decent puzzle gameplay that makes great use of the two worlds concept. Although it's not quite the horror game I thought it would be, and several aspects (like improving performance) could have really used some time in the oven, I still liked the game enough to see it through to the end. If you're looking for an experience that's somewhat similar to classics like RE or Silent Hill, but with less of the panic-inducing action or out-of-nowhere scare, and a lot more puzzles, you might like this game. But as I have stated numerous times, the graphics optimization may not be to your liking, and if you're more an action-oriented player, this is unfortunately more on the slower-paced, story-driven side. Keep all those in mind before considering a purchase. You can get the Steam version of The Medium here: The Medium on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - In the interest of time, I have avoided grinding for Xbox achievements during the course of my Game Pass sub. Today, I said, "fuck it, let's go for the 100%." BACKGROUND:
I know nothing of this franchise (or if this is even a franchise), but I have seen this game be announced for the Switch. Never really paid it any mind, but for whatever reason, I felt compelled to check it out one day. PLOT: The evil cat sorcerer Jinx and his nefarious Kitty Litter have stolen the Book of Ages, a powerful artifact which houses various different realms and people within. Opposing them are the Guardian Order, a group of individuals tasked to defend the book. Amidst all the chaos, the Book of Ages retaliates against Jinx's magic, transporting him and his children within the worlds of the book. Dragged along is none other than Lucky, younger brother to the Guardian Lyra Swiftail. As Lucky finds himself in a completely unfamiliar realm, it falls to him to restore the Book of Ages and defeat Jinx. All of this is dumped in one opening cutscene, and that is the only place you really hear about the seemingly intense story. The game itself is just a fun romp that sees Lucky explore various worlds with all sorts of silly characters, and there isn't any particular emotional weight given to his encounters with Jinx and his children. It's kinda jarring because that opening cutscene feels like a somewhat serious story, but Lucky's adventures in the game are something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. I would have much preferred if they leaned into the latter bit and just set up a more light-hearted premise to go along with the game, but I will say that despite the zero world-building, the story they were setting up at a beginning had potential to be interesting. Though this game is clearly aimed at children, the cartoony bits of the game are rather charming. Lucky's journey will see him travel through various worlds and helping the locals ward off the members of the Kitty Litter, who are out causing mischief as opposed to spreading ruin or despair. Again, it's something out of kids' cartoons and won't catch most adults' fancy, but some of the scenarios they set up are pretty amusing. Plus, many of the characters, especially most of the villains, are super goofy and have a ton of personality. The only sticking point in this department is Lucky himself; despite his overall enthusiastic demeanor, he actually doesn't get to show much of a character given all he has are generic lines of dialogue. Despite most of the humor being more of the silly, child-like variety, there are some pretty clever jokes that are definitely directed at any adults who may be playing this with their kid. There are a number of good examples, but my favorites were all the old-school pro wrestling references. PRESENTATION: Super Lucky's Tale captures the whimsy of the 3D mascot platformers of the N64 era (the genre it is clearly trying to emulate) quite well, with adorable anthropomorphic animal characters, a vibrant, cartoony art style, fantastical locations, goofy voices, and cheery music that complements all the frolicking you'll be doing. It's a delight to look at and listen to, and if you're a kid at heart who still enjoys cartoons, you may find it delightful as well. GAMEPLAY: Super Lucky's Tale is a 3D platformer in the style of classics like Banjo-Kazooie, Mario 64, and Spyro the Dragon. You'll be controlling Lucky, and you'll explore the game's various levels, navigate platforming sections, solve simple puzzles, and even fight a few enemies. Lucky himself has standard controls, with a jump (plus a midair jump), a tail swipe (which works as both a melee attack and a Dixie Kong-style twirl that briefly slows your midair descent), and a burrow which allows you to dig through certain terrain. Everything else is pretty standard, but I found the burrow to be the standout mechanic. They build plenty of interesting challenges around this mechanic, but I feel like they could make a completely standalone game where this was the main mobility tool. The game's levels are divided in the same vein as Spyro games: you navigate an assortment of decently-sized hub areas, and the hub area contains doors to a couple of small standalone levels. It's not quite the massive sandbox in the style of something like Mario Odyssey, but the segmented nature of the game works perfectly fine with the smaller scale of the levels. And despite their relatively smaller size, there are still a surprisingly good amount of secrets and hidden things to find. As you'd expect from most 3D platformers of this style, you'll be collecting a bunch of shit. For this game, the main collectible is the Clover Page. Each regular level has four of these to acquire: one for completing the main objective (usually some sort of simple quest or a variation of "get to the end"), one for collecting 300 coins (kinda like how Mario 64 gives you a star for collecting 100 coins), one for finding all the letters that spell out "Lucky" (same deal as Donkey Kong Country), and a bonus "hidden page" that's often acquired by an optional secret challenge or by finding a secret interactable. It's not a lot to find per level, but finding the hidden pages and/or the Lucky letters is a decent challenge, and the variety of the main missions are pretty unique. The variety of the levels is pretty impressive, both in terms of aesthetic and in terms of gameplay. You have your standard 3D areas where you can explore at your own pace, 2D-style levels where platforming is the name of the game, quests that can range from helping folks with funny chores or fighting enemies, and even things like autoscroller challenge rooms and stealth sections. A big reason behind my enjoyment of 3D platformers is the variety of ways you can acquire collectibles, and Lucky's Tale does a solid job at keeping things fresh. In addition to the regular levels, Clover Pages can be acquired by finding minigame rooms in each of the game's hub areas. The variety of minigames isn't as impressive, but one of the more prominent ones is a variation of the slide puzzle, and I like those a lot. These Clover Pages are needed to unlock the boss fight in each hub world (again, another thing you may recognize from Mario 64 et al.). Each fight has a set number of pages you need before you can take them on, and they're pretty lenient. In addition, most of the pages are pretty easy to get with minimal effort, so you'll easily have more than you need before you know it. Very few challenges in the game are particularly demanding, and I think even younger children playing this game can get a close to 100% completion rate without breaking a sweat. Speaking of the difficulty, I found most of the game incredibly easy. Of course, it helps that I have spent too much of my life playing the shit out of games like these, but various aspects of the design certainly lean towards the easy side. Most enemies aren't too tough to dispatch (with only the bosses posing a decent challenge), it is incredibly easy to rack up extra lives (because it's extremely easy to collect a lot of coins), most of the puzzles are simple, and very few of the demanding platforming sections are intended to be challenging. It's definitely meant to be a game that children can beat easily (while still having a bit of a challenge), and as somebody who plays plenty of difficult games, the change in scenery was nice. Aside from earning 1-Ups, coins are used to buy costumes for Lucky. Costumes are unlocked based on your completion progress on each world, and you can mix and match headgear items and outfits to your liking. It's purely cosmetic and doesn't affect gameplay at all, but hey, it's something to use coins on. VERDICT: New Super Lucky's Tale isn't the most challenging or content-packed 3D platformer out there, but I still had fun to the point that I went and 100% everything (including achievements). It looks like a happy time, the game feels good to play, and it offers enough interesting elements that I could see being expanded upon in other games. Did it blow my mind? Not really. But I had fun, and that's what matters. The only thing that really bugs me is how short it is, though I suppose that speaks to how much I enjoyed playing it (as here I am wishing I could play a bit more of it). If you're looking for a super casual game that won't take long to beat, or you have children in your life you want to introduce to 3D platformers, this is an excellent game to start with. I think younger kids will get a kick out of this one, and they won't have much trouble playing through it. Get New Super Lucky's Tale on Steam. Do note that there exists a game called Super Lucky's Tale, and New Super Lucky's Tale is simply an enhanced version of that game. New Super Lucky's Tale on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - As I write this, I'm down to the last four weeks of my free Game Pass PC sub. It's time to go into maximum overdrive. BACKGROUND:
This game made a bit of headlines right when it came out, but I never really looked into what it was. A few months ago, a cloud version of this game was released on Switch, and it also gave you a demo that allows you to check if the game runs well for you. Obviously, it did not perform well on my Switch (because the Internet in this godforsaken country is utter garbage), but I was able to play enough of the game that I wanted to play more. PLOT: Control follows the story of Jesse Faden, a woman who's searching for her long lost brother Dylan. Her search takes her to the Federal Bureau of Control, a fictional agency tasked to investigate supernatural phenomena. As Jesse enters, the entire building goes into a full lockdown, and now she must deal with the cause of the chaos along with her own personal mission. Right off the bat, the game gets absolutely fucking weird and throws most conventional logic out of the window. The sci-fi weirdness is cranked up to 11, distorting everything from the FBC building, the people inside, and even Jesse's perception of reality. It can reach Christopher Nolan levels of "what the fuck is going on" at times, so you might wanna steel yourself if you're not used to reality-warping shenanigans or unorthodox storytelling structure. Once I got over the initial shock of all the wacky bullshit going on, I gradually got a sense of what kind of world the game was building, and I thought it was interesting overall (even if some things feel a bit contrived or go unexplained). Most of the weirdness in the game is tied to alternate dimensions, the most important of which is the Astral Plane. The forces that reside in the Astral Plane can cause what are known as Altered World Events, which, as the name implies, are events that defy conventional logic. One of the most prominent effects of AWEs is the creation of Objects of Power, which are everyday objects imbued with "paranatural" effects (e.g. causing objects to float, blasting objects several feet away, etc.). The Bureau's job is to study and contain these Objects of Power, but a select few (including our protagonists) can actually interact with Objects of Power and gain supernatural abilities by doing so. Although the main plot does an adequate job of filling you in on some of what's going on, a lot of the meat to the game's lore is found in the game's optional collectibles. These can range from a bit of text you can read, to audio recordings, and even short videos that clue you in on certain aspects of the story. If you're the least bit intrigued by the game's strange story, these are worth seeking out. The main threat of the game is dubbed The Hiss, a mysterious entity that possesses people and causes untold havoc everywhere in the facility. Throughout the story, Jesse will slowly uncover where The Hiss came from, and how she and her brother tie into its origins. It's not much of a character and more of a "force" that everyone else fights against, so apart from the mystique surrounding its nature and origin, I didn't find it to be an engaging antagonist. Naturally, you get to know Jesse the most in the game, and she's a decent character for the most part. You get a sense of all she's been through and how badly she wants to find her brother, and you get to be confused alongside her as weird shit starts happening and she attempts to figure it out. In contrast, you don't really get to know the other characters Jesse meets, but many of them have pretty distinct personalities. PRESENTATION: Control goes for the full AAA approach for its graphics, with a style that leans very close to realism and impressive polish when it comes to its models and environments. This is definitely one of those games that will give lower-end PCs a workout, but if you have the means to enjoy this game at its highest display settings, you will definitely see how well of a job they did with the visuals. To go along with that, there are a few cutscenes filmed in live action, which don't look out of place at all next to the actual game. Though not the most eye-popping game in terms of a distinct art style, it actually works well in Control's favor, as the reality-distorting shit will actually feel out of place alongside the game's otherwise realistic look. To go along with that, the Oldest House (which is what the Bureau's headquarters is known as) feels like any large office space you've may have seen, and the juxtaposition of the mundane setting along with all the weird shit that happens makes for a striking contrast. The music is more on the subtle side, but there were some particularly awesome tracks sprinkled in there. The clear standout for me was Take Control, a rock track that plays during what I feel is the game's best action sequence. The voice acting is also quite outstanding, with great voices across the board. The motion capture and the facial expressions are also pretty good to go along with that. GAMEPLAY: Control is a third person shooter, which means blasting the shit out of enemies in a third person perspective. If you've played one of these before, it'll feel familiar, but you will soon discover that it's more than just another shooter. In terms of the actual gunplay, Control is pretty standard. Instead of a full arsenal of weapons, you only actually wield one gun known as the Service Weapon. As you progress, you're able to change up the Service Weapon's form, and each form is essentially another gun. You have your standard pistol, a shotgun-type weapon, an assault rifle/SMG equivalent, a powerful charge shot (my personal favorite), and a grenade launcher. It's nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to a loadout, but I was quite entertained by the concept of the gun simply altering its appearance in order to function as these distinct weapons. You don't have to think about collecting ammo, as the weapons work more like overheating weapons in other games (where you just kind of have to wait it out until you can fire again). Where most of the game's fun lies is in Jesse's abilities. As you play, you'll run into Objects of Power that give you all sorts of powers, and they're all pretty fun. You can use telekinesis to hurl objects at enemies (extra fun since the game's environments are pretty destructible), levitate and dash to move around, throw up a barrier of debris to defend yourself, and even mind control weakened enemies to fight for you. These abilities were so much fun, I found myself using them more than the gun, though the gameplay encourages you to alternate between them, as your powers are tied to an energy meter that has to recharge after a while. Enemy variety isn't that remarkable in terms of both combat or appearance, but it's fun to decimate them Jean Grey-style with telekinesis that I didn't really care. The only real issues here for me are how some of them can be real damage sponges, and how dealing with hordes of them can feel tedious after a while. There isn't much in the way of bosses, either, which is a shame given that there are a few interesting fights in the game. What's more, a lot of those more interesting fights are optional, while the story bosses aren't as fun. As you explore and fight, you'll collect various materials which you can use to craft new forms for your Service Weapon (or upgrade forms you already own), as well as acquire things called Mods. These Mods are equippable items that you attach to either yourself or your weapons, and they give you all sorts of helpful buffs. Many of these Mods are worthwhile, but I found it odd that you can only carry a limited amount of them at a time. That seems unnecessary. Moreover, while the crafting aspect works fine, I feel as if they introduced way too many items for you to collect. I think the game's currency would have sufficed as the material you need to make things. Everything else feels extraneous, but in the grand scheme, this particular issue wasn't really a big deal. In addition to Mods, you also have a skill tree where you spend Ability Points to improve your powers. You have standard stuff like more health and more energy, but the most worthwhile skills expand upon and improve your powers. For example, you can upgrade your telekinesis throw to also hurl weakened enemies, which means you can enjoy throwing a motherfucker at another motherfucker. For the entirety of the game, you'll be exploring the Oldest House, which is much larger on the inside than it is on the outside. You'll be navigating through interconnected areas like the Executive Section (the offices), the Research Area (the labs), Maintenance, and Containment (which is where most of the weird shit is). Despite mostly being a mundane-looking government building, there are some interesting-looking locations, and you also get to wander areas that have been distorted and even traverse briefly through other dimensions. Exploration is structured like a Dark Souls game, where you go through the areas in a mostly linear manner, but are free to backtrack and roam once you start unlocking pathways and acquiring keys to doors. There's actually quite a bit to find, from the game's collectibles (most of which are story-related and build on the game's lore), helpful items like crafting materials and Mods, and even optional fights with tough enemies. My only issue is the map, which is rarely helpful (especially in terms of figuring out where you are relative to elevation). It would have also been helpful if there were indicators on the map that pointed out where points of interest are, but all you get is a marker that tells you which section something is in. The game has fast travel points in the form of Control Points, but you must activate them first before you can use them as such. These Control Points are also where you do things like upgrade and spend Ability Points, and they also serve as a checkpoint should you die. Dying itself isn't that bad (the penalty is simply lose some of your currency), but the fact that (barring very few exceptions) you can only respawn at Control Points makes certain missions a pain in the ass due to all the backtracking. Along with the main story and all the exploration, the game also gives you a bunch of side quests you can do. You'll run into many of these with little effort, as you'll probably talk to the NPC/find the collectible that triggers the quest on your way to the next main quest. A few (called Bureau Alerts) appear at random and have to be completed before the time elapses, and you can choose to make a detour to the designated area if you wish. The quest themselves range from simple puzzles, challenge rooms against waves of enemies, and even the occasional boss fight, and you can tackle them whenever you want, at your own pace. There's also something called Board Countermeasures, which I equate to the daily quests you see in many a mobile game. These are small tasks (usually some variation of kill x enemies) that reward you with helpful items like Mods or crafting materials. You have to pick out which ones you activate at Control Points (and you also have to cash in completed quests at Control Points), but it's often just best to just activate everything since you're bound to complete a bunch of them without even thinking about it. Once the game ends, you're dropped back into the Oldest House, allowing you to continue exploring, completing quests, and rounding up collectibles. In case the stuff I detailed somehow wasn't enough to get it across, there is a good amount of extra content to this game. There's even a challenge mode called Expeditions you can get into, and you can get a couple of additional DLC story campaigns if you want more story. VERDICT: Despite a few issues, I really enjoyed Control. Playing as basically Jean Grey with a gun was a blast, I enjoyed piecing together the game's bizarre sci-fi mystery story, and I liked that there was plenty to do and explore outside of the main campaign. Though not perfect, I can see why it got plenty of accolades in 2019, and I'd say that all that acclaim is deserved. If you're looking for a complex story to sink your teeth into, or you want an unorthodox shooter experience, Control is definitely a game you should check out. The story isn't for everyone, and the shooter gameplay suffers a bit when it comes to enemy variety, but if you're interested in either one of these aspects of the game, I think you should play it. Here's a Steam link to the Ultimate Edition of Control, which comes with the DLC expansions: Control Ultimate Edition on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - Are you sick of all these posts yet? BACKGROUND:
Momodora is one of those niche series whose name I've heard of before, but I don't know anything beyond that. That's usually enough for me to take a closer look. PLOT: A young priestess named Kaho ventures from her home village of Lun in an effort to stop the spread of a curse. She journeys to the eastern kingdom of Karst to ask for the queen's help, but she finds the place overrun by said curse. Kaho's journey at this point sees her explore the kingdom and the surrounding areas in order to find the source of the curse and seal it away once and for all. There's not much to the story apart from the main premise, you don't really spend much time at all getting to know any of the characters, and you don't really spend any time learning about the world or anything that's going on in it. It's kind of a shame since I think there are elements of a potentially interesting story in the game, but you kind of just go through the game without learning much. PRESENTATION: Momodora goes the retro route with its visuals, with the game taking on the midway point between an 8-bit and 16-bit aesthetic. Despite the graphics calling back to the games of yesteryear, the modern polish is still evident in the impressive detail of backgrounds (of which there is a good variety), the fluidity of the animations, and there's a well-defined, cutesy anime art style to boot (featuring adorable-looking characters and neat enemy designs). There are a handful of decent tracks to accompany you on your journey, although they're more on the ambient side. This game is mostly quiet throughout, so the music certainly makes an impact when the tracks kick in. GAMEPLAY: Momodora is a Metroidvania, so expect some 2D action platforming action with plenty of exploration, backtracking, and secrets. In terms of platforming, the mechanics are simple, and the game controls mostly well. As Kaho, you have a decent jump and midair jump, a slow but strong melee attack, a weak but useful ranged attack in the bow (which can be charged), and a dodge roll. There aren't any particularly intense platforming sections, and combat can be boiled down to dodge-stunlock-attack, but performing these actions feels good. The map isn't large compared to other Metroidvanias, but there are more than a few well-placed secrets for you to find. You also have a bit of freedom in terms of what order to tackle some of the main quests, which is nice. For the most part, however, you'll have very little trouble finding everything, and 100% exploration won't take long at all. There aren't many permanent upgrades to find, but the ones you do run into are pretty significant. You have a Morph Ball equivalent in the cat transformation, an air dash, a fast travel mechanic, and upgrades to your weapons. You'll also run into health upgrades, as well as active items (which are like consumables), and passive items (which give you persistent buffs when equipped). The active items are pretty basic (you have the usual stuff like healing items, but you can also cast spells), but the passive items do provide a surprising amount of experimentation. For instance, I was able to put together a poison build by equipping an item that healed HP when poisoned and modified my bow damage to poison (which I can inflict on myself). Like I said before, combat can be boiled down into a simple flowchart, making regular enemies pretty trivial to dispatch. Most of the fun in combat is in the game's assortment of bosses, and despite being just as easy to beat (it just takes a while to kill them), it felt good to evade their patterns and kick their asses. A cool thing this game does is that you get bonus rewards for taking down a boss without taking damage. None of the items are particularly game-changing or necessary, but it's pretty satisfying to be rewarded for your skills. This game is rather short, but there are things like harder difficulty settings and a New Game Plus to spice up subsequent playthroughs. There are also two endings to the game, but getting the true ending isn't too troublesome to set up. VERDICT: Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight didn't really blow me away with its story or capture me with innovative gameplay elements, but its main gameplay was enjoyable enough that I went out of my way to 100% the game. I had fun with the simple combat, enjoyed exploring the relatively small world, and liked the visual style. It's not the most life-changing game experience out there, but it did a lot of things well, and that's good enough for me. If you're looking for a short but sweet Metroidvania experience with a cute aesthetic, this might be a game for you. It doesn't take long at all to beat, and I didn't think it was particularly tough on Normal, so I think it's a pretty casual-friendly title. Obligatory Steam link: Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - Technically, I'm revisiting this game, but I also technically never played it. Does that make sense? BACKGROUND:
I know this game because I watched a friend of mine play through most of it during one of those long breaks we'd have between classes. It's been years since then, however, so I've forgotten a lot of what takes place, and with the game available on Game Pass, I had a good opportunity to actually play it for myself. PLOT: The game follows a group of friends getting together for an overnight beach party. You mainly control Alex, and you'll be joining her friend Ren and her stepbrother Jonas on their trip to Edwards Island. It starts out as your typical "teens hanging out" story until Ren tells Alex about supernatural weirdness in the island's caves that can be interacted with using a radio. Alex tunes the radio to the strange objects in the cave, and unwittingly unleashes a truly bizarre force on the island. On the surface, the game's story is structured kinda like one of those horror films you've probably seen: a bunch of teens hanging out stumble upon something that defies explanation and it starts fucking with them. It's by no means a typical horror story filled with jumpscares and such, but the nature of how everyone's (especially Alex) perception of reality is being warped and the occasional creepy or disturbing imagery that follows makes it unsettling. Moreover, the gang aren't fighting against a malevolent force per se, but are more struggling against the fact that the fabric of reality has been torn. It's an interesting tale that feels familiar, but does enough unique stuff to stand out on its own. Right from the beginning, the game sets the stage for the mystery surrounding Edwards Island, and as you go along, you'll discover how the island's past ties in with the freaky bullshit that's happening. A lot of it is optional stuff, and the main story will only tell you so much, but I like that there's a fairly interesting explanation to everything. You'll be spending the most time with Alex, but throughout the game, you'll be conversing with Ren, Jonas, Nona, and Clarissa. I wouldn't call any of them particularly groundbreaking in terms of personality or character, but their interactions with one another and what you learn about them make them feel like real people. Most notably, this game has a Teltalle-style dialogue system that allows you to choose how to interact with the other characters. The end result isn't a pronounced butterfly effect, and there are only a max of three choices at one given time, but there's enough variety to warrant multiple playthroughs. There are multiple endings to this game, each tied to the main cast. Depending on your actions and dialogue towards each character, Alex and her friends will have different endings that detail what they do after the events of the game. Without giving anything away, the New Game Plus of this game is particularly interesting, as your actions in a past playthrough can affect some of the choices you can make in the present. I don't want to spoil anything, but there were a couple of things here that could have used a massive trigger warning. It's nothing overly graphic, but it's disturbing enough that I can see some players being really upset by it. Also, I didn't really see the point in those scenes story-wise; the game was unsettling enough without them, I think. PRESENTATION: The game has a sort of 2.5D look, with 3D character models against a 2D environment. Overall, the art style feels like a watercolor painting, and combined with the moody atmosphere, it comes together to provide a distinct vibe that not many horror/thriller-style games have. Shit gets really weird once the game's plot kicks off, with all sorts of trippy distortions to the game's visuals to indicate that reality is fucked up. It's nothing outright scary, but some of this stuff is certainly startling. For the most part, however, the creepiness is more subtle. The music complements the atmosphere, with more subdued tracks that lend itself to the unsettling vibe of the game's events. What I found notable is the abundance of discordant sounds that play along with the music; it introduces an additional element of uneasiness to the game, though I occasionally found it to be distracting. Other aspects of the sound design are equally creepy, with the standout being all the radio sounds. With the radio being a central part of the game's story and gameplay, it makes perfect sense that they ensured it's also a big part of the audio. I'm already unsettled by radio static, but the amount of weird sounds you hear and seemingly random broadcasts you encounter while tuning makes everything that much more uncomfortable. GAMEPLAY: Oxenfree is a story-driven graphic adventure game in the same vein as titles like Life is Strange, or any of Telltale's offerings. The main difference is that Oxenfree plays a bit like a side-scrolling platformer, but apart from that, most of the focus is walking around and pushing the story forward. Dialogue happens naturally as you move around, with the occasional prompts appearing as you walk and talk. You have a limited time to make a choice, and each one results in different interactions. I like how it feels seamless (as opposed to "stop, bring up text box, select choice"), as it makes it feel like I'm actually taking part in a human conversation. My only issues are how the time limit of choices feel way too short, and the frequency of some dialogue choices abruptly interrupting other conversations. Many of these prompts also don't really have an impact on what's currently happening, but I think I can forgive that on the account that it makes the conversations feel natural. As mentioned, the radio is a central mechanic in the gameplay, and it's your primary tool for interacting with the world. When you encounter specific objects, you can tune your radio around them, and if you find the right frequency, you'll alter elements of the area. It's honestly not much of a puzzle (just turn the dial a little bit at a time and you'll find the right frequency eventually), but I thought it was a unique mechanic. Gets kinda old after a while, though. The game takes you through the island's various locations in a linear fashion, but there's a bit of room to explore the place freely. You can find a good amount of secrets and optional bits of lore for your trouble, so if you like the story, exploring is a worthwhile thing to do. The island itself isn't that large to begin with, so it wouldn't take long to see everything. The only thing really holding this back is how slow Alex seems to move; it would have been nice to have some sort of sprint function. Apart from that, there isn't much to say. This is very much a game where story is the main focus, so you won't have to think about any execution-heavy mechanics. There are also no game overs, and none of the "puzzles" are hard, making this pretty casual-friendly from a gameplay perspective. VERDICT: Though it doesn't offer much in the way of gameplay, I found Oxenfree to be an engaging thriller built around an intriguing mystery. Along with the novel radio mechanic, the believable cast of characters, and the game's distinct art style, I was hooked to the point that I beat the game in one sitting. Granted, it's a pretty short game, but it does offer some replay value with a few different endings and some optional collectibles. If you're in the mood for a thriller-type story-driven game that's more on the casual side, I recommend this game. Again, it's on the short side and the gameplay isn't in-depth, but I think it's worth checking out if you like games that focus more on narratives. Oxenfree is available on a number of platforms. Choose your destiny: - end - I only have around a month of Game Pass PC left and here I am sinking all my time into one RPG. BACKGROUND:
I've already explained my background on the Dragon Quest series before when Hero was added to Smash Ultimate, so just read that here. I played the DQ XI S demo on Switch a while back (more on that here) and liked the game enough to consider buying it. I never got around to it (mostly because until recently, it was a $60 game), but as luck would have it, it's on Game Pass. I decided to play it there while I still have an opportunity to do so for free. PLOT: Dragon Quest XI is set in the world of Erdrea, a place with filled with magic, kingdoms, and monsters. The game begins in the kingdom of Dundrasil, which is being attacked by monsters. A mother is seen fleeing from the danger with her infant son, but after all the chaos, the child is found floating down the river by a man named Chalky. The child (AKA the protagonist) grows up in the village of Cobblestone, and when he comes of age, he learns who he really is. As it turns out, he is the Luminary, a hero chosen by Yggdrasil (the World Tree) to vanquish the darkness. Our hero sets out on a journey to fulfill their destiny and defeat the big bad of Erdrea, and along the way, he meets a colorful cast of interesting companions who aid him in his quest. The game's first half is standard RPG fare: young person discovers they're the chosen one destined to save the world, they meet companions, they go to collect some form of magic bullshit to help them on their journey, and they go confront the bad guy whose motivation is pretty much just "fuck all of you, I want to rule everything". Along the way, you get mini-stories in each new locale that flesh out the game's world and are generally pretty interesting, but for the most part, it's nothing you haven't already seen. If you're like me and you've seen way too many stories like this, you could probably see some of the twists coming from a mile away. Despite the somewhat basic nature of the plot, I did find a good amount of enjoyment from the game's first half. However, it's the second half that really got me hooked. Without giving anything away, the end of the first half sends the story in a completely different direction, and in so doing, it raised the stakes in a meaningful way. Up to this point, the game has done a decent job getting you invested in the characters, and the events that transpire here help make each of them feel more compelling, going as far as having you play the other party members in their own solo sections. The game still has the usual trappings here (there's more scouring the world for magic bullshit, for instance), but given what happens at the end of Part 1, there's more weight to what you're doing. The finale itself is standard as well, but it still feels satisfying because of what all the characters have been through. Now, if you think that's all, you're sorely mistaken. After you beat the second half of the main story, the game actually has an entire third act with a brand new quest for you to take part in. Again, I can't give anything away, but it reveals a completely different side of the story that is otherwise only hinted at in the main game. I'm of two minds about this third act; I thought for the most part that it was an interesting continuation of the story that expands on the lore, but I feel like it throws away a lot of the character development that happens in the second act. From what I can tell, reception to Act 3 is rather divisive, so it may be up to you to evaluate whether it was a worthwhile addition to the story or not. Although the Luminary is pretty much a silent protagonist, you do get a few brief glimpses at a personality, though most of what makes him interesting or compelling is set up by the people around him. In contrast, everyone else in your party is a decently well-rounded character; you get a good amount of time to learn about who they are and what they're about, and they all get to grow in significant ways throughout the story. Another thing that impressed me about this game is how well it paid off seemingly dangling plot threads. Often, I'd find myself at a point where I'd question what the point of a certain object/location is, or I'd wonder when I'd learn more about a specific character. Though it may take a while for certain things, the game did a great job of answering pretty much all of my questions. There are still a few contrivances and a couple of things that are left unexplained, but overall, I think the game did well in this respect. Erdrea is a massive world with all sorts of places, people, and magic bullshit to learn about, but despite the sheer volume of world-building that takes place, I rarely ever felt lost or overwhelmed by what the game's setting up. Naturally, one can expect the occasional exposition dump, and as mentioned, there are some unexplained elements that you kinda just have to accept, but I think the game did adequately when it came to building a rich world with an expansive mythos to it. There are also optional bits of lore you can read if you want, and while they aren't required to enjoy the game's story, they do flesh out certain things about specific characters or places. Despite the seriousness of many story elements (which are tackled quite well and have emotional impact), the game has plenty of light-hearted moments. The only thing I'm not really into is some of the game's suggestive or sexual stuff; it's nothing explicit, but it's kinda clear where they're going with some of that shit. Don't get me wrong, I don't really mind sexual stuff, but some of the things in this game that fall into that category aren't exactly the most tasteful. PRESENTATION: Graphically, this game is stunning: the 3D models and environments are incredibly polished, and the characters still retain Akira Toriyama's signature art style despite the added dimension. All the areas have a distinct aesthetic, and all the visual effects (like spell animations) are dazzling. This is definitely a game you want to play on a nice monitor or TV. Speaking of Akira Toriyama, his designs are as incredible as ever, with all the main characters having a memorable look, and all the monsters having such inspired designs. You have your classics like the Slimes, Drackies (Drackys?), and Golems, but along with that, you have all sorts of new monsters, too (well, they're new to me; they might be in older games). Side note: I love a lot of the silly monster names, like Sham Hatwich. The music is equally phenomenal, with a fully orchestrated soundtrack to go along with the breathtaking visuals. There are some particularly amazing tracks in this game (including one that's a brand new rendition of one of the most iconic Dragon Quest tracks of all time), and I found myself wishing that an album of some sort was available on Spotify. Other aspects of sound design are well done, too. The voice acting is solid for the most part, and a lot of the sound effects are reminiscent of old-school chiptune sounds you'd hear in older games. Interestingly, this game gives you the option to switch between the regular 3D gameplay or to play the game in a retro 16-bit style. Since I haven't played any of the SNES Dragon Quest games (that's a task for future me), I can't speak to how well this feature captures a sense of nostalgia, but I think it looks great, and I like the fact that the option exists. GAMEPLAY: Dragon Quest XI is a turn-based RPG, much like its grandfather DQ I (I talk about that here). It's got a lot of the things you may expect from an RPG, and I'll go through as much of it as I can. The battle system is pretty simple: your party members and the enemies each take a turn to act, you each have regular attacks, spells, and abilities (which are honestly just spells that are unlocked differently), and everyone has corresponding stats that affect things like damage output or turn order. It's rather straightforward, and if you're used to more modern RPGs that have 7 million things to worry about, this game may seem a tad too simple for you. You and your party members fall in line with a lot of the usual RPG classes (e.g. Veronica's the mage, Serena's the healer, Erik's the thief, etc.), and they each have their own unique spell learnsets, stat spreads, and weapon types that fall in line with their roles. Again, it's pretty standard stuff, so you won't be doing any particularly complex strategies, but there's a bit of room for you to experiment with party lineups so you can try different approaches to battle. Depending on the situation, going all out on offense may not be the best idea, and the game gives you alternatives with various buffs, debuffs, or moves that inflict status effects. Each party member has their own skill tree, where you spend points to unlock the aforementioned abilities, as well as add passive buffs. A lot of the more interesting "spells" are found here, so it's certainly worthwhile to unlock as much of each character's skill tree as soon as you can. Like with most other RPGs, luck is a factor in Dragon Quest, and I'd say it's a significant factor at that. There are many ways a fight can go wrong in this game, from your spell missing, to a surprise crit from an enemy. Of course, the reverse is entirely possible, but from my experience, it was more likely for me to get blasted with unfortunate status effects than it was for me to hit a crit that matters. Perhaps the most interesting battle mechanic in the game is called Pep. The best way I can describe it is a sort of Limit Break state your characters enter when things get rough, and in this state, they get buffs to their stats that last until the Pep runs out. When multiple characters are in this Pep state, you may have the opportunity to cast Pep Powers, which are super moves that can range from powerful attacks to useful buffs. This mechanic is interesting, and a lot of the Pep Powers have their uses, but I found that Pep itself seems to activate whenever it pleases, so you can't really rely on it. Weapons, armor, and accessories are all straightforward as well. Everyone has restrictions on what type of weapons and gear they can equip, and most things have useful passive buffs (like elemental resistance). Outside of that, equipping the item with the biggest number is more than sufficient to get you through. You also have access to an assortment of consumable items, but the game wants you to equip them to a party member before you can use them in a battle. I don't like this at all, as it adds a completely unnecessary step in preparing for battles. I was rarely in a situation where items were a necessity, but the fact that the game is designed this way put me off from using some of the more interesting consumables altogether. Modern RPGs don't do this; just let me use things out of the bag. There's quite the variety of enemies, and unlike Dragon Quest I (which is my only frame of reference for this series, so apologies), you get into encounters with them in the overworld as opposed to the traditional random encounters. Enemies can do all sorts of incredibly annoying bullshit to you (with a few having abilities that teeter into the "infuriating" category), but many of them can be overcome with certain types of spells, brute force, or cheesy bullshit of your own. Bosses are another tier of rage-inducing, with a lot of punishing moves that will demolish you if you don't have a counter/don't kill it fast enough. Other than that, I don't see this being particularly difficult for most players (especially seasoned RPG veterans). There are difficulty options you can mess around with if Normal doesn't cut it, or if you want to tone things down and just experience the story. Though it's not quite an open world, Erdrea is a large place, with lots of space to run around (in some areas, anyway) and a good amount of secrets or optional areas to find. Exploration doesn't feel too cumbersome thanks to the option of riding on horseback, as well as various fast travel options unlocked throughout your journey. You're also able to ride on certain monsters after you kill them, and doing so allows you to reach previously inaccessible areas. From my experience, these sections aren't common, but I like the concept of using monsters as mounts. Towns have your usual stuff, like inns (a reliable way to restore everyone's HP and magic), various shops, and churches (AKA save points). You'll also meet random NPCs who give you side quests, and those reward you with fairly useful items like weapons. Outside of towns, you'll run into statues that serve the same purpose as churches, as well as campsites, a cheaper alternative to inns. Speaking of save points, there are a lot of them to go around (and even if there isn't one nearby, fast traveling to one is easy), so ending my game session was hassle-free. There's also an autosave that is pretty hit-or-miss in terms of usefulness (it saves during area transitions, which is nice, but it doesn't save right before a boss, which I found annoying during resets). And even if you stop playing, loading up the game gives you a recap of the story so far, and you can just as easily open the map to view your current objective. This game also has a crafting mechanic in the form of the Fun-Size Forge. Here, you play a minigame where you try to hammer a part of the object until you reach the correct point threshold, and the better you do, the better the gear that comes out. The minigame itself is trickier than it looks, and the mechanic as a whole is a wonderful alternative to simply buying gear. The forge uses all the item drops you'll scavenge on your journey, but what's cool is that for some items, you can simply pay gold to acquire any of what you're missing. There are items that you can't buy and absolutely have to scavenge, but they're usually reserved for the better gear. The only issue with the forge is that you have to find the crafting recipes throughout the world, but if you're a player who likes to find everything in an area before moving on, you'll acquire most of the recipes with little effort. If you're a diehard RPG player who wants all the content this game has to offer, Dragon Quest XI will provide. Outside of the main story and the side quests, you have a sizable post game with all sorts of optional fights on top of the third act I mentioned. There's also Tickington, a place where you can play through special missions set in what I assume are pivotal moments in previous Dragon Quest games, all in the retro 16-bit style. You also have more minor things like finding the mini medals (this game's collectible), and even a full-on casino (which feels rigged in the player's favor, something I found hilarious and enjoyable). There's a ton of shit you can do in this game, which is astounding given the main story clocks in at around 50 hours (more if you play through the third act). VERDICT: Dragon Quest XI doesn't reinvent the wheel with its story or its gameplay, but it does what it does amazingly well. There's still room for experimentation and wacky shenanigans with the simple combat, the otherwise standard story is improved by great characters and a neat twist, the world is fun to explore despite not being truly open world, and the game boasts amazing visuals and music to complete the package. Although there are things about this game that I didn't enjoy, I still loved this game overall. Now I feel even more compelled to play more Dragon Quest! Speaking as someone who is new to the series themselves, I think this is the perfect starting point for anyone looking to get into Dragon Quest. The gameplay being your standard turn-based RPG is easy to get into but still has a bit of depth, the story can be enjoyed with zero prerequisite knowledge, and all the things Dragon Quest is known for (like Toriyama's art or the great music) are still very much present here. If you're looking for something more complex in terms of narrative or gameplay, you might not like this game as much, but if you're simply curious about the legendary series, you should definitely play this one first. Get Dragon Quest XI S on Steam here: DRAGON QUEST® XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age™ - Definitive Edition on Steam (steampowered.com) - end - This is it. The final game of the Master Chief Collection. Time to finish the fight. BACKGROUND:
The only thing I know about this game going into it is it's the first game developed by 343 Industries, who took over the Halo franchise after Bungie's exit. I'm curious to see in what direction they take the series. PLOT: Four years after the events of Halo 3, Master Chief reawakens to find himself and Cortana adrift towards a mysterious planet. They discover that it's a Forerunner installation called Requiem, and they also find that another Covenant faction has arrived to investigate the area. To make things worse, a new threat emerges known as the Prometheans, and a new big bad known as the Didact makes his presence known. I found the shift in focus for the series interesting, as it finally puts the focus on the Forerunners. Throughout the series, the most you learned about the Forerunners was their involvement with the Halo installations and their attempts at containing the Flood. Now, they actually get to be a central part of the story as opposed to just a piece of lore for world-building. Having the focus be on them is a good way to take the series in a new direction while still also building upon the foundation established by the previous games. What I found notable about this game is the greater focus on character development. This game leans heavily into the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana, who have had a unique bond throughout the series. Cortana is deteriorating as an AI, and they use her increasingly frequent malfunctions to build upon both her character and Master Chief's apparent attachment to her. I found their dynamic in this game to be the strongest in the series yet, and it helped make Master Chief a more relatable character compared to previous titles. Speaking of Master Chief, I'm sure fans were thrilled to see him finally return to the series after two games without him. He's still a man of few words, but he does get to talk a lot more than he used to, which is great since he gets to show off a bit more of his character. There are still some things I found peculiar about the story, like what the point of the Covenant's presence in the game is (other than to give you things to shoot at), why Elites are among their ranks when a truce was clearly established during Halo 2 and 3 (I'm just going to assume this is a different faction who defied the Arbiter), and why the Forerunners have another fucking superweapon. Other than that, I thought the story was serviceable, if a bit convoluted and exposition-heavy. It's only brief, but they actually give you a peek into the origins of Master Chief by explaining the nature of the Spartan program. The mastermind behind it (Dr. Halsey) debuted in Halo: Reach, but her role is finally expanded upon in the opening cutscene. Although I still have some questions about certain things, and would have liked some sort of subplot that built upon this, I thought this additional bit of lore was great. PRESENTATION: Given how polished the game's visuals are, it's hard to believe that both this game and Halo 3 are both Xbox 360 games. Halo 3 still looks good, but next to Halo 4, the contrast is stark. The music has a different style (which makes sense given there's a new composer), but it still captures the epic feel of previous Halo games. That said, the classic motifs are missing, and I found myself missing the iconic theme. The game features some new designs, like the Prometheans (which look like cool cyber-monsters), the look of Requiem (which looks slightly more interesting than the interior of the Halo installations), Forerunner weapons (which have cool effects but look kinda bland in terms of color), and what's perhaps the best Master Chief armor design so far. GAMEPLAY: Halo 4 goes in new directions for its story, characters, and presentation, but it retains much of the FPS gameplay that the series is known for. There are more than a few changes, however, so we'll talk about those. This game continues the recent trend of no dual wielding, which I miss a little, but its omission ultimately doesn't make a difference. Master Chief can also sprint now, and it isn't a power-up this time; he can just do it at will. Many of the weapons in this game are back from previous games, with some notable omissions (the Plasma Rifle being one of them). There are a good amount of new weapons to make up for it, like all the Promethean weapons (from the Suppressor to the Incineration Cannon), a new Covenant weapon in the Storm Rifle, and a bunch of new UNSC weapons (like the Saw LMG, the Rail Gun, and the Sticky Detonator). I enjoyed most of the new weapons (even if some of them did terrible damage), and the older ones still feel good to use. The power-ups are back, and they work similar to Reach in that they aren't single-use and have a cooldown. The power-up selection is different from Reach, however, with new offerings such as a riot shield-type defensive power-up, a Predator vision-type power-up that reveals hidden enemies, and an autosentry. Stuff like active camo and the jetpack also make a return. I kinda miss Armor Lock, but all the other abilities are pretty useful. Along with the classic Covenant enemies (sans Brutes), you'll be fighting the Prometheans, a new type of enemy within Requiem. There are a few varieties, ranging from annoying Crawlers, the teleporting Knights, and the annoying-as-fuck Watchers that fly around like assholes. Getting to face off against new enemies does a lot to freshen things up, but they feel like The Flood in that they seem to take a ton of hits and that their numbers can be sometimes hard to manage. Much like the weapons, most of the vehicles are back from previous titles, with a bunch not making the cut (the Revenant doesn't get to appear outside of Reach, for example). The biggest addition is the Mantis (which is an ED-209-looking mech that you can pilot), and there's also the Mammoth, a giant mobile base that you don't actually drive, but escort in one of the missions. Most notably, they revisit the one section of Reach where you pilot a spacecraft and give you two flying missions. One has you finally pilot a Pelican, and another has you go on a Star Wars-style trench run on the Broadsword (which is functionally similar to Reach's Sabre). Though the game has better readability with its helpful UI and level structure, the locations you go through tend to bleed together since you're inside the Forerunner facilities for most of the campaign. It's kind of the same problem Halo 1 had (which had way too many same-looking corridors), albeit with the consolation that it's easier to find your way around. VERDICT: 343's first go with Halo 4 was a bold new direction for the series: a shift in focus that builds upon the Forerunner mythos, a stronger focus on Master Chief and Cortana's character dynamic, and new gameplay elements like the Prometheans and their weapons. Despite all the new, the game still retains a sense of familiarity by keeping the classic shooter gameplay mostly as-is and having the story build upon already established plot points. As someone who played through most of the Halo series in relatively quick succession, Halo 4 felt like it fit right in with the rest of the franchise, while also feeling like the start of a completely new saga. Now that I've beaten every campaign in the Master Chief Collection, I think a brief reflection on the series is in order. Overall, I found Halo to be an enjoyable game series. Its FPS gameplay felt great, there were all sorts of fun weapons, vehicles, and abilities to play around with, the story built an interesting sci-fi universe despite its contrivances, and Master Chief ended up being a cool protagonist despite being a mostly silent character. There's a lot to like about this series even with its flaws, and I now understand why it's so beloved. I hope I get a chance to play Halo 5 and Infinite (whenever that comes out), and I think I'll look into checking out Halo stories told through other media. If you're particularly attentive, you'll notice that all my blog posts don't cover a crucial aspect of Halo's gameplay: the multiplayer. The reason I've held off on talking about it is because I want to play the multiplayer with my friend. If the stars align, hopefully we can set up a session soon, and then I can talk about the multiplayer in its own blog entry. Lastly, huge shoutout to my good friend Poch, not only because he's been a fantastic friend for the past 15 years, but his passion for the Halo franchise inspired me to blast through the Master Chief Collection. His insight was also valuable in my approach to tackling this series, as I heeded his recommendations on certain things (like what order to play the games in). Hopefully we get to check out that multiplayer soon. Before I go, here's the link to the Master Chief Collection on Steam. Also, I'll add links to the blog posts on the previous Halo games, in case you missed them: - end - |
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June 2024
Derryck
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