Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition(Playstation 5) Review

I originally bought this game on PS4 without even knowing there would be a PS5 version directly afterwards. It's been a few years and I wanted a quick game to finish before the year ends. As a whole, the game is still really good and it's my favorite Shadow Warrior game. There are things about it that don't hold up now mainly just playing on higher diffculties. Other than that, it's the very fun and enjoyable game I remember despite not being long since I first played.

There's a surprising amount of story in these Shadow Warrior reboot games. The story here does a decent job at keeping the action going. I was surprised they brought Hoji back when he was absent in the last game. He is my favorite character due to him being so insecure and stuck up and his banter with Lo Wang has an antagonistic friendship going on. One aspect I did like was him fearing losing god status in order to kill the Dragon. It was interesting seeing going as far to lie to Lo Wang in order to keep it since he doesn't want to get depowered and lose what makes him special.

Was weird seeing the post apocalypse suddenly happen after things being fine in the last game. Also how Lo Wang lost multiple times to the Dragon before the game starts but I'm forgiving here since I'm here for the gameplay.

The gameplay is of course the star of the show. SW3 borrows from both Doom 2016 and Titanfall 2 and both of them being inspired by the grand daddy of them all Quake at least when it comes to movement. There's also comparisons to be drawn to Doom Eternal like dashing and weapon switching. To be fair to SW3, the 2013 reboot game also had dashing before Doom Eternal did.

There is one major issue I want to bring up before I start decribing the gameplay is that playing on difficulties higher than normal at least for me is a massive pain. For one bosses take a lot long due to lowered player HP and health packs so far apart the arena meaning if you get hit, lose a lot of HP and die, you got to do it all again. The final boss in particular has tenticle swipes that can be hard to judge due to the first person perspective and erratic and hard to dodge moves. One aspect I did like about it was that it had a Prince of Persia The Two Thrones style finish where you need to platform up and land the finishing blow to kill it. There's only two bosses so it's no big deal.

What is a bigger deal are the Mogura Twins enemy. On normal? These guys are doable. On anything higher? They are infuriating due to the fact that they hit the player while on the ground in many parts of the various arenas and the only way to reliably damage them is wait for them to get out of the ground then fire a weapon like say the Basilisk. They take so much damage while doing so much to you that it makes hard mode infuriating. I did wish your grapple hook could pull them out of the ground like Kratos' blades can in older God of War with underground attack enemies.

It's a shame without them, hard mode can be intense and really feels like I'm scraping by.

With that out of the way, the game on normal is still very gratifying to play.

The guns are much more punchier and detailed gore effects on enemies.

One major thing I love is how reloading is handled. In any other shooter like this, reloading is a hinderance that you have to put up with...until you learn reload cancelling. By pressing sword swipe before the reload animation finishes, it will be done automatically. So close range combat especially with say the Riot Gun can be you unloading all 4 shots than sword slash and firing again afterwards.

There's also added uses for the weapons too. The Outlaw can be used for quick precision shots and I love activating traps with it since it's reliable for switches as well as platforming challenges. Sidekicks can be used for quickly gaining health back due to health drops when Shogai are hit. Crimson Bull is used for massive stun and area of effect damage. Shuirken Splitter is great for inflicting stunning on individual enemies. Basilisk is awesome for long range enemies and it's long time to fire reminds me of the Spartan Laser from Halo which is a weapon I love.

I love fighting the Hattori since it's awesome to shoot their shields down with the Basilisk, then stunning them with Shuriken Splitter and then finishing them off with the Riot Gun.

You also have different level finishing moves too. One on fodders, two on higher level enemies, three on the strongest. Sometimes the waves can overwhelm me that I use level 1 and 2 finishers just to get a quick turn of the tables on the enemies. You also get unique weapons depending on the finisher. My favorite is the Gassy Obaryion due to going to down with it's lasers.

The platforming is mostly fine but have bizarrely unpolished parts or can get too fast to get the bearings due to the first person perspective but it's fine. It's downtime in between combat encounters and does it's job.

Overall, SW3 is still great minus higher difficulties.

Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner Mars Review

Finally, oh finally. I trudged through the first Zone of the Enders game so I can touch it's superior sequel. Upon replaying for the 3rd time, it very much is that. It's an improvement upon the first game in just about every way. It's why I even play ZOE1 so it makes ZOE2's leap feel that much better. The Second Runner is one of my favorite game sequels of all time. I thought time would make me harsher on it but I still love it just as much. The only big issue I can level towards it is it's short length but this could in part in that I enjoy so much that I wished it was a little longer. Instead of 5-6 hours, perhaps 7-8.

Anyways the first improvement right away is the story. Yes, the awkward voice acting and dialogue are still there but in terms of everything else? It's a vast improvement. I also think the aforementioned issues adds to the game's charm at least for me. Where the Metal Gear Solid series can whiffs of being a bizarre 90s OVA, ZOE takes that and makes it part of it's identity also due to it being a cult franchise compared to it's more mainstream cousin. The bizarre translations and acting does give more of a vibe that it was a side project at Kojima Productions.

That aside, Dingo Egret is a far better and more realized character than Leo Stenbunk in the first game. You have a far better idea of his backstory and he has an actual connection with the main antagonist, Nohman. You learn bits and pieces of it throughout the game. His weird one liners and dialogue sort of adds to wannabe tough guy persona. He also has some interesting connections to my favorite character Viola. Leo himself is a lot more independant and compelling here. Ken Marinaris on paper should be a destestable damsel in distress character but she does hold her own and doesn't constantly screw over Dingo.

Nohman is a surprisingly fun to hate villain. Kickstarts the game by "killing" Dingo. He defeats the player and Dingo multiple times. Kills Inhert then worf effects Leo towards as well as trick Dingo into thinking the Anubis Ken was in was actually him. As far as being a villain I want to defeat in an action game he does his job very well.

This leads to the biggest star of the the show: the gameplay. The first Zone of the Enders had a solid controls and a good foundation for a great combat system. Key word is "foundation". ZOE2 takes all that and improves by over a hundred. The game feels much faster and more responsive. Lock on missiles actually have a better chance at hitting their target. You can now grab enemies and man throwing enemies into each other feels so damn awesome. I try to do it whenever I have the chance or smash robots into each other. Grabbing weapons can feel great as well as smashing them into other enemies.

Sub weapons even with the default controls feels much faster and responsive to switch between. In terms of game feel and controls. 2nd Runner is a massive improvement.

It doesn't end there. ZOE1 had about only 3 enemies and bosses. Now in the 2nd Runner, there are Naritas, Commanders, and Clods. All 3 do a good job at changing up combat Naritas move very quickly and you have to to heavily prioritize Commanders since enemies fight better with them around. Breaking out of Clod grabs does feel like RNG however.

Bosses like Nepthis, Inhert and Aumaan Anubis can really test the player skills and can really hurt my hand. Inhert's 2nd phase can be a very intense game of Simon Says.

Aumaan Anubis does an incredible job at replicating a fast paced fight you'd find in a fighting shonen anime better than a lot of if not al the licensed games based on them due to how fast everything is moving and of course, the Zero Shift ability.

It's easily one of the coolest abilties in a game in how you can instantly teleport, attack and wipe out enemies by it's use. It can be overpowered but it is a late game ability.

One issue is that the action can move so fast that it can be hard to keep up at times.

Another issue is the campaign sturucture due it's short length. Sub weapons and abilites keeps getting add to the arsenal without the player being familiar with it. Many of the regular combat arenas can be over very quickly and there's a good number of bizarre protect missions and one off levels. Some ideas like wall stuns and using makeshift weapons can feel like they go away as soon as they introduced. Commanders only show up 3 times maybe.

Due to the short length and quick pacing. The protect missions and the infamous mission where Ken directs you through a minefield can be over before you know it.

However I would've liked a couple of more combat areas. Maybe a few more that slowly introduces Zakat before you fight him since he can feel very out of nowhere when he shows up in the campaign.

Overall, my criticisms are that I like the game so much that I want more but it is indication of how good ZOE2 is that my main criticism is that I want more out of what's already excellent. Still an amazing sequel.

My Friend Pedro Review

I've beaten this game multiple times over the years. I played it on PC where it first came out then twice on PS4 and now again on PS5. My Friend Pedro is no doubt a short game but it is so fuffling and enjoyable during those few hours that it lasts. It has become one of if my go to short game to play if I want a quick and super fun to play every few years. It manages to get moment to moment game design down so well during it's short run time.

My Friend Pedro is to bullet time shooters like Max Payne and FEAR what Mark of the Ninja is to stealth games like Tenchu, Splinter Cell and Thief.

It takes a genre that is strongly established in 3D and brilliantly translates them into 2D. It's something that shouldn't work but does almost too well.

There's the aspects that you associate the aforementioned Max Payne and FEAR with like slo mo, lots of real world firearms like pistols, shotguns, smgs, as well as dual wielding them. The very satisfying damage animations as you are on your slo mo ballet blood baths. There are also aspects not in those games one being a 3 block health system where each bar can regen and enemies dropping health and dodging in the middle of using bullet time.It also has a similar system to Last Man Standing from Max Payne 3 where you quickly save yourself from a close call. There's also gameplay ideas exclusive to Pedro due it being in 2D. 

The opening level does a good job at establishing the controls and how core mechanics like shooting, jumping, diving, rolling, dodging and kicking works. It can take a little bit of getting used to but by the first few levels I eventually got used to them and chained together the aforementioned moves like if it was second nature.

It starts off simple with small hordes but then starts adding a number of reoccuring ideas. There richoheting bullets, swinging off ropes, lots of jumping off walls, rolling under platforms, switch pulling or shooting switching to move and activate platforms.

There's also explosive barrels and optional stuff like riding off skate boards or having bullets ricocheting off pans.

Each world also introduces new weapons like World 2 introduces the Shotgun, World 4 introduces the Assault Rifle, World 5 introduces the Sniper. There is also weird one off ideas like World 3 taking place in a dream like environment where you have disappearing platforms as you jump off of them.

Enemies also change too with first fighting mobsters then fighting close range enemies who use swords, turrets then armed cammandos late game. The final enemy type can can gun you down quickly if you don't get used to dodging.

The final world takes you in a weird Cyberpunk internet area where you not only have to kill enemies but dodge and shoot lasers, activating switches and time wall jump movements too.

Point I'm making is that while My Friend Pedro is a short game, the amount of new ideas and scenarios that it throws at the player in it's said short run time makes feel very exciting and exhilarating in the moment. It also helps you rarely if ever have to repeat a whole of content upon death which makes it yet another reason why the game is my go to short title.

You'll be gunning down enemies, jumping off walls, swinging off ropes, diving into walls, slamming through doors, zip lining, rolling under parts of the level as you are hearing the excellent soundtrack playing.

I would think I'd get tired of playing it every few years but I never do.

There are some issues but they are minor. Bosses aren't that great and only the penultimate boss being somewhat challenging due to her having the same moves as the player. Like the rest of the game they go by very quickly so it's not a big deal.

I did wish there was an audio cue or a better visual indicator when the aforementioned Last Man Standing mechanic kicks in since it can feel like cheating when the game just stop in it's tracks and has the dodge button prompt pop in to avoid dying. It isn't as reliable later on in the game however but I did wish there was a better system for this. 

World 4 which is basically a Sewer level can go on for a quite a while. The game also jokes about how sewer levels are disliked but it is an interesting designed one nonetheless due to close range enemies and the aforementioned gameplay loop. The game also jokingly brings up how long the level was going on for. It concludes in a pretty enjoyable train level.

So even at it's lowest points, there is always something to look forward to after.

Overall, playing My Friend Pedro now reminds me of how great short games can be when executed, designed and paced really well. It's my 4th time playing the game but I still don't get tired of it.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves(Playstation 5) Review

Sly 2 is one of if not the biggest anaomly of a game sequel ever made. This is my 3rd time beating it and I enjoy just as ever now. The weird part is, I shouldn't really like it as much as I do. On paper, Band of Thieves has everything I dislike in game sequels. It doesn't improve on the core mechanics, it adds in a bunch of different mechanics and ideas that has nothing to do with those said core mechanics, and it focuses a lot more on specticle this time around. Upon replaying the first game, this all becomes more evident now. This should be a recipe for disaster or lead to yet another instance where it's a seemingly acclaimed game sequel where I'm lukewarm if not outright apathetic towards. I've had my fair share of those like with Assassin's Creed 2, Uncharted 2 and Mass Effect 2. Sly 2 also follows the same logic that the Jak series would head towards with a heavier emphasis on mini games and an open world as well. By all intents and purposes, Band of Theives should be a game where I describe how lukewarm I felt but it rises above that.

The story keeps what was good about Thievous Raccoonous which is the Paul Dini inspired tone. The story is presented as kids tale with it's asethetics and general look but it will deal with more darker subject matter illegal drug shipping and corrupt prison insitutions. The best part about this game and the series by extension is that it never gets overly indulgent about it. The story has them but never brags about it or has it be in your face like say Conker's Bad Fur Day and the aforementioned Jak sequels do especially with 2.

It also keeps the interesting villains with standouts being the Rajaan, Jean Bison and especially The Contessa with the exception of Dimitri and Arpeggo, you'll have to face off against them twice before they can finally be defeated. You still have their backstories shown before the level starts but now that you have to face them twice means, you can dislike them more before finally defeating him. It's also a clever to reuse level assets too. A highlight is when Rajaan calls Murray fat and useless and then defeats him in his boss fight.

A minor issue is that Murray is retroactively written as the "muscle" of the group with a pro wrestling persona known as "The Murray" as opposed to being just the getaway driver. He's so compelling here I don't mind.

Where the story faulters is with the main villains. Neyla at first feels like something interesting is going to happen but she wants immortal because...reasons? Arpeggo is revealed to be the ringleader of the Klaww Gang but dies in his introduction scene. You have Neyla pretend to the leader and work for Interpol and it would've accomplished the same thing.

However the real star of the show and the Sly sequels by extension is how the story is told. Sly 2 is basically a playable heist movie. The mini games and endless deviations from the core gameplay may appear to be filler but what it does is that it establishes that the Cooper Gang needs to work as a unit to get by. This is shown in the missions where each set of missions has Bentley slowly put together the puzzle pieces. The open world also plays a role where each job is the player and the Cooper Gang by extension learning the lay of the land as they are both doing the missions. The waypoint markers just give a vague idea where the mission is. 

Bentley is the brains so Sly needs to gather recon. Sly is the stealth and the most agile so any job that requires either or both needs him. Murray is the muscle so any job that requires brute or lots of punching will have him.

This is shown in how each character plays. Bentley is more towards stealth. His crossbow can put enemies to sleep but you need to get close and plant a bomb to finish off enemies. Sly has moves faster, can reach places and can pick pocket. Murray is the tank. He can do and take the most damage.

Individually, none of these characters play super well but combined together with the theme of a playable heist movie and teamwork to get by, it's a beautiful example of gameplay and narrative harmonizing.

It also has the best pacing in the series since the narrative updates as well as the episodes themselves aren't overly long.

There are issues and that the core gameplay with Sly has not been improved. Sly series is often said to be a stealth platformer but it's not good as either. Platforming is just mainly "press circle to do everything". All of his moves are contextual meaning there will be times where you can press the button and he will not grab it or do the action you didn't want him to do. Sometimes he grabs the rail other times he will spire jump. The best move is the paraglider since it doesn't require context sensitivity and there's some skill in it's use.

Stealth also isn't better. There is an auto crouch and a stealth slam. The latter is also contextual meaning you will attack the enemy instead of slamming them which can happen on more than one occasion. Taking cover is also contextual too.

Guard sightlines are shown with the flashlights with bigger guards but smaller guards will not have this and it's guessing game if you are in the sightline. There is a good chance where you run into it by accident and they tend to attract a lot of nearby enemies. Combat also isn't good. Since it's mashing attack and then enemies have I frames then they kick up. If it weren't for the frequent health drops these would add frustration. 

Overall, Sly 2 on paper is a game sequel that on paper should be something I strongly dislike but the game manages to rise above all of that due to it's harmony with story and gameplay as well as it's endearing tone. 

Severed Steel(Playstation 5) Review

There was quite a lot of buzz surronding this game at the time it was about to come out. I played around then mainly shocked that my aging PC was able to run it at all. I also paid more attention to the fact that my PC was whirling like a jet engine when I played. Not the case when replaying on PS5 which is one thing I love about about it. I do like the game a lot more now but 3 levels in the final chapter of the campaign did put a sour taste in my mouth due to aggrevating they can be when playing in the moment.

Severed Steel is a combination of a lot different games it has the looks and asethetics of Superhot. As well being able to throw your gun at an enemy after ammo is depleted. The more advanced maneveurs of FEAR. The first Max Payne's bullet time where you slow down time and enemies recharge your use of it. A late level in Call of Duty Advanced Warfare where your character only has one arm due to this can't reload and need to constantly pick up weapons. There of course Titanfall's movement with it's wall runs and double jumping.

It's obviously a combining a lot of games but due to how unusual some of these inspirations can be, it does carve a unique identity all to it's own.

Moves like the melee kick and slide were just moves you could just so happen to use in FEAR but in Severed Steel it's a core and reliable part of combat. CoD AW only did the character with one arm for a single level, Max Payne's bullet time of killing enemies to replenish it as well as empty ammo gun throwing and Titanfall's movement gives Severed Steel it's own spin on combat.

Every level is an intense ballet of slo mo, wall running, melee attacks, shooting, switching or throwing weapons, sliding, diving. Later in the game you get a robotic handcannon that can melt through walls.

Combine all this with the insanely satisfying gunplay and the sound the hit markers make when getting a kill on an enemy and combat can feel very gratifying for the short length the campaign lasts.

Enemy variety is solid with regular mooks, shield users, armoured enemies and later enemies with flamethrowers. Shield enemies encourage slide use. Amoured enemies also makes sure that the player is careful and not mindlessly running around.

Level design is mostly solid with a lot of vertical space, places to wall run and platforms to jump to and then get the drop on enemies. Objectives are mostly simple and are highlighted in red but it's there to help keep the momentum of the level going for new players.

This now leads to some issues where it's easy to get blindsided by enemies especially when you aren't over using slo mo to get the edge. Not abusing it can often lead to getting shot at from behind. Then when you combine that in that player HP is very low and it can lead to some very cheap and to hard see coming game overs. This is counteracted with levels being short and late levels having checkpoints.

It can also be annoying to stand still as the arm canon needs to recharge when carving through walls but levels with mandatory use of it are very few luckily.

However levels during Chapter 6 can put a bad taste in my mouth. When level has you buring a building just to have you kill everyone anyway. You have to pick up the flamethrower to get anywhere here and it's easy to get blindsighted and die.

Remember the aforementioned issue of getting attacked from blindspots? They are now tenfold in two late game levels. One where you need to kill enemies to get a super handcanon and kill them as they are spawning in while fighting them in a boxed in arena. You can't stand still and ambush them due to low health.

The penultimate level where you need to destroy a shield and it's designed like a more traditional FPS arena and not the vertical design of past levels where all the enemies have a sightline on you and that means your aforemented blind areas. I lowered the difficulty to the 2nd easiest during this due to how much frustration I was having. The level left a sour taste in my mouth even though the following level was a lot better.

Overall, I enjoyed Severed Steel a lot more this time around. Most of the campaign is solid and a lot of fun outside of 3 terrible levels during Chapter 6. It succeeds in it's own take on the FPS while borrowing from many other games which is great in my book.

Assassin's Creed: Mirage Review(Updated)

I played AC Mirage back when it came out and if I was apathetic towards the game. My apathy towards the fandom of the franchise combined with me not feeling in the mood to play it in the moment made me much harsher on the game. Having played most of the non RPG games again, Shadows and other Ubisoft open world games by extension, I've come to appreciate Mirage a lot more than I did originally. By no means would I consider the game great but as far as dumb and enjoyable moment to moment fun, Mirage is better than many of the games in the series. The free DLC, the updates the game got plus me strongly disliking Shadows made me go like, "ah let's play Mirage again".

The story is mostly "fine". Nothing good but nothing outright bad. The story shines in the early hours all the way up to the death of Al Ghul since Basim's growth and the plot is at it's most prominent. Later in the game after his death it turns into a series of 3 not so related standalone stories and then it all culminates with the final assassination followed up with an underwhelming stealth gaunlet and a dull soulslike boss. There is a Fight Club style twist in the story and while parts of it is foreshadowed decently, others parts is where I start to raise questions. It's not the worst twist but considering how the story after the death of Al Ghul already lost so much of it's momentum, it was hard to get invested.

Basim at least has a fun personality of being playful and polite but can get annoyed and angered from time to time. This is all me being aware of the fact that this game is also a prequel to a title I have no interest in trying out. Then there is the overarching AC story which at this point just seems to something everyone wonder how it's gone on for this long with no plot progression.

Gameplay is quite interesting. You may hear many on the internet and how this narrative even started of AC once being a stealth series but here is the kicker: this AC is one of two games in the series with decent stealth mechanics and enemy AI. The other being Syndicate. I've come to realize that the series never has and probably never will live up to it's original pitch of "social stealth". At the same time, if you view AC Mirage as a stealth killing murder simulator that just so happens to feature combat and the ability to climb, it's easy to have fun with it in the moment. In a weird way, AC Mirage was Aragami 2 minus the darkness system and extremely repetitive levels.

The climbing is much improved from the base release. There's an attempt to have ejects and parkour up and down. It's impressive that there's even an attempt to have both in the game considering this started off life as Vahalla DLC. With that said, while it's certainly better, it can still feel unrefined and unwieldly. Where the animations in Unity at least felt like they were built in with the movement Mirage's implementation can feel like the devs pushing their limitations. It's hard to tell what's the arc and direction Basim will go next. It's at it's worst when he's hanging on a pole and freerun down and circle will not have him jump down. I also dislike the fact that parkour down and crouch are mapped to the same command but I got used to it.

Where the game shines or could detract for some is the various areas you will go to and importantly how many ways you can mess around with how dumb the guard AI is. The biggest and most important rule is that guards will never see Basim kill a guard when it's in a bush even if the kill in their line of sight. Bushes is their kryptonite. Combine that and you can abuse the whistle ability and the fun comes from the ways you infiltrate and watch Basim stealth kill guards.

Get spotted? It might be game over but it's just fun to run away from guards and see how long the chase can be maintained especially with how much better parkour is better now. Combat is pointless since Basim runs out of stamina on one enemy and they take many hits.

There is also another major issue that due to the mission structure after Al Ghul's death where you can be beat it out of order, it's harder to steadily introudce new ideas or enemies. There are marksmans that can scare aware Enkidu but you just need to kill one and never more than that. Enemies and npcs won't react to what you did in another questline so there is nothing dynamic going on. I can ignore this issue more on this playthrough but it's one of many things the series to this day never managed to at least attempt. 

I do love that tagged enemies remain that way after death. The chain assassination is kind of fun to do during emergency or just to mess around with due to the density of them in every stealth area.

The investigations are more involving than AC1 even if they just revolve around activating eagle vision and pressing items of interesting.

The Black Box assassinations in this fixes an issue in the aforementioned game is that the act of assassinating is over quickly. In AC Mirage, it's more puzzle solving and findind clues so you get close and get the kill. It's reminscent of Hitman World of Assassination but nice change of pace from the traditional infiltrations.

The DLC unfortunately has the worst level with the jail breakout but then easily has the best mission in the series with the Black Box kill. The guard density and the work needed to get there makes it rewarding to finish. This was all in a free update.

Overall, I'm kinder on Mirage it has it's problems but it's consistently fun.

Watchmen: The End is Nigh: Complete Review(Playstation 3)

How much I really wanted to enjoy this game. I recently bought the Watchmen "Complete" experience that came in bundled with the PS3 version with both parts and the movie as a weird excuse to see the latter again. I viewed this game as an a fun bonus. To put it simpily, I enjoyed the movie a lot more. The sad thing is, this game isn't even a title I consider awful. What annoys me is that the DNA of a solid game is here. It's just held back by a lot of monotony and half baked ideas. At first when I played this, I was wondering, "where's the cult following for this like with Spider-Man 2(2004) or X-Men Origins: Wolverine?" I was even surprised that there's even a game based on a DC property at all not featuring Batman that seemed decent. The more I played, the more I realized why it wasn't the case.

At first, everything seemed like it was on the right track. The cutscenes have the same art style as Dave Gibbons' art work in the graphic novel which was a charming way of bypassing the lack of in engine cutscenes. Rorschach and Nite Owl are both voiced by their actors in the movie and both do a solid job. They also have great banter with each other during the down time sections where there's no fighting. It's one of the better aspects of the game's story. Pretty much everything that shares connections to the various source materials like with the movie or comic is where the game shines.

Everything outside of that is where things get muddy. It's a prequel to everything that happens before the events of either version of the story with having it take place before the Keene Act. It also has Dr. Manhatten conveniently written out to avoid not having a game at all. Outside of the aforementioned banter, it's really just an excuse for Rorshach and Nite Owl to go beat up various criminals and cops. Despite not really knowing much about the various villians the characters of the Watchmen universe go up against before the Keene Act both in the graphic novel and movie. This could be a decent excuse to develop and make interesting or at the very least memorably detestable villains out of Underboss and Twilight Lady.

Not really, they are just kind of there until you get to the final levels of both parts and the levels drag on where all you do is chase them around. Doubly and obnoxiously so for Twilight Lady. With how Rorschach's ending plays out in Part 2, it's a little hard to believe that Daniel doesn't outright detest the latter when they first meet in both the movie and comic.

The cutscenes and voice acting does do much of the heavy lifting and this is a game where most time is spent playing.

Gameplay is where once again there's some cool ideas here but it gets more monotonous and one note the more it goes on.

End is Nigh is basically Streets of Rage and Final Fight in 3D which there aren't an over abundance of those in of themselves. Like the story, first impressions are good. You can do various combos attacks and dodging can get take a little getting used to but I eventually got the hang of. Countering is where the main bulk of defense lies. The counter window is very generous and isn't overly strict. The camera is also zoomed out during combat. Both would pop in Batman Arkham Asylum which would release the same year. Rorschach has a charge attack and a rage mode as well scripted finishing moves when an enemy is at critical health.

There are some weird and cool naunces one major example being that when successfully countering an enemy holding a weapon, you can disarm him and take the weapon for yourself and attack enemies with it. The second is that you can keep Rorschach's rage mode going when performing takedowns on enemies.

At first, I was annoyed by regen health but then using the charge, rage mode, and countering, I was able to have it regen very quickly after being put to critical. I do wonder why takedowns don't get back health, it's the same idea.

Takedowns animations do look nice even if they can really get samey and how samey the game can be. It almost reaches a point where they are ingrained into my head due to how much I see them play.

This is where the problems lie. Enemy variety despite fighting cops, mercenaries, hookers and different gang members are just reskins of each other and don't require any different tactics to defeat them. Levels can also look copy pasted and samey too.

With Part 1, this isn't too bad since at least the levels aren't overly long and due to this, you can write the game off as brainless fun.

Part 2, however is where I was getting more apathetic. There are 3 levels but are much longer, dragged out and have even less story. The more I was going through Twilight Lady's masion, the more I wanted the game to end and my hand was getting more and more tired from playing it. I had to take a break when fighting Nite Owl due to how much combat there was prior to that. My patience was being tested here.

Overall, there's a solid foundation here held back by monotony.