Lego Batman 2:
Lego Batman 2's writing is really not very good at all. It might even have worse writing than TT's Marvel games. 70% of the game is chasing Lex Luthor and Joker's giant mech. You have multiple chapters dedicated to fighting it and there's barely any plot progression. And I am just asking the questions, how come Joker and Luthor couldn't put two and two together and connect Bruce Wayne to Batman after attacking the batcave? How was Luthor even supposed to use a hyponosis gas with a giant mech where it is clearly visible? What was Robin doing when Superman and Batman where chasing down the mech? Why did the Justice League need Luthor's broadcast to actually start doing anything? Honestly, this game might be a precursor to Arkham Knight in how you barely fight any supervillains and they are all their own side quest. Most of this game is Luthor and Joker mech chasing. It feels like a DCAU show like Superman or Batman TAS but dragged out to be 10 hours rather than a 48 minute 2 parter. The voice acting saves it but overall this plot is a mess. I get that this was TT's first time writing a serial original story not based on a movie or established stories but they could've done a much better job.
Also not a fan of the LEGO open worlds that this game introduced and it gets in the way of the pacing of the story since so much of the game is a mech chase and the breaks in the open world feels like Superman and Batman get into roadblocks every 10 seconds.
Linear LEGO gameplay is still pretty solid and that pushes this game to a 6, the story and voice acting do and this game is pretty good for the first Lego game with voice acting.
Overall, still a decent game but the story is not very good.
Lego Batman:
Pretty solid Lego game that is a decent enough homage to the Burton and animated series. Same Lego gameplay as TT's Star Wars games but executed well enough. I like the suit gameplay here since I find to be the hardest part of Lego games is forgetting certain characters have certain abilities and there are so many of them which I can find to keep track of it all. Since the gameplay is just Batman and Robin, that means you only get two characters and you swap abilty sets when the levels requires it, I like this approach since it's easier to keep track of which character can do what and which character has which suit.
I also thought the episodic storytelling with the Lego characters grunts and mumbles to be charming enough even though this is an original story heavily inspired by the before mentioned Burton and TAS.
Overall solid Lego game.
Trials of the Blood Dragon:
I never played a Trials game before and I only played this because it was a free game on PS Premium but I got to say this game especially for being a modern Ubisoft game post 2014 was a solid time. The motorcycle levels while having physics that take some getting used to feels generally solid. Doing a run through multiple checkpoints without following while managing the phsyics of the bike can feel pretty damn rewarding. The platforming levels do a good job at breaking up the pace and feel fast paced enough where they don't get in the way of the overll motorcycle riding. Death is fast but load times are quick and enemies die quick so it's not too frustrating.
Speaking of frustrating, the game could potentially be that but the frequent checkpoints, quick pace of the levels and the fact that the game never gives you a game over after the time limit is up mitigates much potential frustration and makes the game challenging but mostly fair.
One level where you are in low gravity escourting a bomb was easily the worst part of the game but if you are patient enough you will eventually get past it, if you have enough patience.
There was more story than I was expecting and it's okay, nothing too special, but nothing terrible either.
Overall, if you liked Far Cry Blood Dragon and was turned off by the change in gameplay for this sequel don't fret, it's a good enough time even if you never played a Trials game before like me.
Motorstorm Apocalypse:
Overall, if you liked Far Cry Blood Dragon and was turned off by the change in gameplay for this sequel don't fret, it's a good enough time even if you never played a Trials game before like me.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 Video Game:
This game was half baked in every respect. A lot of the gameplay felt like the devs wanted to make a great game but they didn't have enough time to flesh it out due to the movie coming out. It has a lot of the stuff that Insomniac Spider-Man game would do like similar stealth mechanics and takedowns, sympathetic villains, criminal hideouts, the ability to pin point parts on the map to jump off while you are swinging, a multi contextual web throw attack, quick taps of a face button to use web balls, having the city go under martial law and having a military "task force", random Peter Parker sections, and a quick dodge to flip around and dodge bullets with, brute enemies that need to be stunned to get hit AND enemies that can use firearms that can be disarmed. The difference is that the Insomniac game felt a lot more fleshed out by comparison.
Enemies can be beaten very easily by pressing attack and counter, you have different web attacks but they just consist of holding circle and letting go. Web swinging with either hand feels like a gimmick where all you do is just web swing with the right hand and that's it. The reputation system feels like a gimmick since the beaten path will always make lower your rep, if it gets too negative. The bosses aren't the greatest and often consist of avoiding enemies and obsticles rather than actually fighting them. There is a ton of load screens which ruins the pacing of the game. Also the "optional" dialogue in the Peter Parker sections is a gimmick since they might as well be said in all it once without pressing any buttons.
I will give the game some credit, when the story is not abridiging the events of the movie it's based on, the writing particularly with Kingpin, Kraven and Carnage CAN be pretty decent which I think helps with the mandatory Peter Park sections since you get their perspective on things. When the writing is abriding the movie, it's absolutely terrible since Electro and Green Goblin literally pop up out of nowhere and feel out of place in the narrative the game is trying to tell. Voice acting is okay too.
Overall, despite being the final AAA movie tie in game on consoles that I can recall, TASM2 didn't really do a whole to sway people into thinking these kinds of games can be good or end the whole idea of movie tie in games off with a bang.
Infamous: Festival of Blood
Infamous with vampires, it sounds like a winning idea but the end result is incredibly half baked. I remember feeling that way when I first played and I feel it now. The whole game felt like it was Sucker Punch cashing in off the Undead Nightmare expansion Rockstar did for Red Dead Redemption.
I'll start with the good, the characters, writing and voice acting are all solid and do a decent enough job at getting you invested for the 1 hour this whole "expansion" of sorts lasts. Cole and Zeke are charming here and Bloody Mary has a decent amount of characterization to kind of make me interested in what she will do next, and the backstory is spread out well especially for a game that lasts an hour.
Now the bad, this game is basically just Infamous 2 with flying powers. There really isn't enough innovation to warrant being a full on expansion. The vampire enemies this "expansion" brings in are just reskinned Infamous 2 enemies. You got the teleporters, the tanky monsters and normal fodder. For a game being Infamous with vampires, there isn't a whole lot here to deviate it from Infamous 2 outside of the flying ability. The missions are okay if nothing too memorable but the short length is what I find offputting, I don't mind games being short but what you do in Festival of Blood isn't really all that interesting. You just go to a few arenas, do a few chases and basically do everything you did in Infamous 2 but now with the ability to fly which I will admit one mission made a decent use out of, but it's not worth being a standalone expansion over.
Overall, if you want a good Infamous DLC/Expansion First Light is much better than this, I guess it's worth playing if you are curious about since it's not the worst 1 hour of gameplay you could spend your time on.
Quantum Theory:
The game is painfully average but I did get a kick out of adequte enough gamefeel. The gore and enemies getting destroyed and exploding upon death does give weapons decent feedback. The weapon sounds do their job and the sound for Syd's main gun sounds beefy enough. I am not sure if it deserves the horrible reviews it got but it's definately on the forgettable side.
Syd in general looks like the weird love child of Marcus Fenix and Guts, and Filena who is all over the game's marketing isn't even actively with you throughout the adventure. One improvement it does have over Gears is that roll has it's own button and it's seperated from sprint and cover. The platforming and scripted sequences are also not that great and is easy to die if you don't know what exactly you are doing. The checkpoint system is not as bad as some people made it out to be but I played on the easiest setting so that could've helped but I still feel the "bad" checkpointing of this game is greatly exagerrated. The contextual platforming is not good much like the scripted sequences mainly because you have to roll to the next platform when the game wants you to. Filena herself when she is actually with you doesn't do a whole lot to add to combat, the combo attacks are timing based and will miss a lot of the time making it not worth doing at all. Throwing her doesn't do much overall either since shooting is just as if not more effective than relying on a throw that is on a cooldown. She is okay against bosses but that is mainly due to the game requing you to use her to damage them.
The game is very much in a lot of ways the Gears knock off that it is infamous for being for. It's an okay knock off and nothing more.
Super Stardust Portable(Playstation 5):
Pretty solid game but the controls for the PSP version just isn't as precise as the game wants you to be with them. Using the face buttons to aim in multiple directions is just too slow for how fast the game demands you to be and just isn't going to replace right stick at all. The game is solid otherwise, but it'd be nightmare without the rewind feature.
Rad Rodgers:
Decent enough game but could be better overall. I played it on easy and I am glad I did because a game like this with the issues I have with would be infuriating with limited continues.
I'll start with the good, shoot and jumping generally feel fine and feedback from killing enemies and firing your gun is satisfying. The level design outside of level 3 is mostly fine all though I wish the game just had you get to the end of the stage rather than collect 4 shards, but it's still works well.
Now on to the bad, the controls are not that great, while generally fine when it comes to precise aiming the game can be cumbersome since there is no button to shoot diagonally but you can do it but with the analog stick, you will be moving forward while aiming in that direction. The puzzles can get samey and while it does an okay job at breaking up the pace, the game just tends to do it too much and I would rather jump and shoot. That and the blue energy connecting mini game can get infuriating since I found them to be overly complicated for this kind of game. Enemies can also take way too many shots to die even on easy mode. The writing is also really terrible and obnoxious, I am guessing it is aiming for a late 90s and early 00s platformer with the whole "hip with older kids" vibe by with 4th wall breaks, swearing, and one liners and movie and game refrences but so much of it just feels like the developers are trying too hard to be funny, that or I am not the target demographic for this game's humor.
Overall, I had a decent enough time for the short length it lasted.
SUPERHOT:
Pretty good game overall and probably the best Matrix game ever created. The shooting feels good enough for a game where you aren't killing enemies can spirt blood and gore. The before mentioned comparisons to the Matrix can be seen with the slo motion gameplay and even the story and feel too, you can even take over bodies later in the game like Neo does at the end of that movie, the way enemies act and move kind of feel like agents too. The game is also less of a full on shooter and kind of more of a puzzle game where you are focusing on what order to kill enemies and anticpating the projectile bullets to land on them to get a kill. The gameplay is satisfying for the 2 hours it lasts.
My only issue is getting randomly ambused from behind and getting a game over, it's probably part of the design of the game but it can get annoying killing a bunch of enemies and then randomly getting jumped from behind, it not bad but it can ruin the flow and take me out of the power fantasy I was feeling.
It's a good game overall and I don't have a whole lot to really write about.
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