Destroy All Humans(2020) Review

Randomly decided to boot this up again since I consider to be one of the best and most admirable game remakes ever created. After playing the game years after release, I'd still it is. It definitely goes beyond, "same gameplay, different visuals" but never quite enters into the realm of "different game, same name". This balancing act is part of the DAH remake's charm since it keeps the game's unique premise but adding some noticeable gameplay changes. Some of which shows the game was never meant to be played that way but others are geniune improves like the additions of checkpoints during missions.

When it comes to story, everything from the original game is retained except the reworked character models and cutscenes. I'm not a big fan of the way human characters particularly the female characters looking far too plastic but the overall reworked cutscenes get the job done.

This aspect is where the "same game, different visuals" comes in because it's the same as the 2005 game. Considering it was a unique premise back in 2005 all the way to 2020 and even now upon replaying it.

What is the premise? It's of course an alien invasion story but unique twist is that YOU are the alien invaders. It's not about defending earth from the alien threat but it's about taking it over for the furons and by extension you the player.

It helps that the furons are an alien race that aren't capable of reproducing and have relied on cloning throughout the ages to stay alive so it humanizes them and it helps sets the underdog story of taking over humanity from the very paranoid yet also very guillible civilization of America.

What sells everything so well is the interactions between Crypto and Pox. The former sounds like Jack Nicholson if he was constantly cutting wrestling promos and the latter is quirky brains of the operation. How the two conflict with each other. Crypto wants to blow up everything while Pox wants to wait for the right time for everything to be destroyed and taken over.

Everything is help sold by the fact that the Furons and Majestic are in a race to see who can control the American populace faster. All the missions are brillantly bookended with newspaper cover ups of what you did explaining your impact on the world. The fact that it's in the 60s and everything is often blamed on Communists makes the satire even more amusing.

The gameplay is where the differences show. There are many additions like the aforementioned checkpoints. There's also mechanical changes like using telekinesis in combat, a dash, weapon wheel, using the jetpack in conjunction to firearms and TK, and a lock on, the ability to deflect missiles back while in the saucer and the biggest improvement being the stealth.

Stealth in the original game was often a game of luck but since the Holobob would randomly deactivate where in the remake there's more a visual cue and a timing window of when the Holobob disguise will unequip itself. This partnered with mission checkpoints makes these sections much more bearable.

Bosses have multiple phases and have a more going on before you kill them.

With all these improvements in place, it does expose how rather simplistic these systems are. Use the jetpack along with the firearms and enemies will have a hard time even actively hitting you. The furon enemies introduced in the story missions never show up again but when causing reckless abandon in the open world.

Weapons both the original and this remake are rather and I hate to use this term, "uninspired". For a game where you play as aliens the most unique weapon you get is the probe launcher but it serves no real purpose than helping on a late game grind. The Zapomatic is awesome but it's the only weapon that feels somewhat unique and fund to use.

Stealth is also on the simplistic side too and the most challenging it gets is doing the objectional objectives. It also exposes why original game had no checkpoints since it makes for a rather simple and breezy game.

The saucer gameplay is still rather fun simply due to the unique idea of riding a saucer and wreking havoc on cities and miltiaries from above.

DAH does actively switch between these gameplay styles so while all of them on their own is simplistic, it never gets dull due to not having an overwhelming amount of each style of play.

There is bizarre defend mission where you could've done it in the saucer but aspects like that can be forgiven.

What can sour the game for many is the final mission. The dreaded progression roadblocks to unlock later missions gave you enough upgrades for your flying saucer, since no mission prior with it was difficult. It indirectly makes for a late game grind where you need to uprade the saucer in order to get the second phase of the boss. The second on foot phase is hard but you get a checkpoint here unlike the original game.

Overall, the remake pushes the idea of how far you can change and keep the same but is an improvement on the whole.

007: First Light Review

AAA gaming has been getting quite a bit of a pushback in recent times by certain vocal minorites. I say this because 007 First Light is the kind of game that they are rebelling against. As for me I do enjoy the game had an enjoyable time with it but throughout my entire playthrough, it was hard not to think of games like The Last of Us and especially Uncharted 4. Yes, it's been said many times that First Light resembles Uncharted but I'd argue the former has the most in common with the latter's 4th game.

I mostly enjoyed First Light's story even if it is carried by characters like Greenway, Q and Moneypenney especially the former. Greenway was especially a character I liked. I have a soft spot for archetypes like him and First Light does it well enough. How's initially distrusting of Bond due to his reckless and unelegant way of following protocal but then the latter slowly starts to earn his respect throughout the story. His backstory involving 009 was compelling he was once first with him and thought he was traitor but turns it out things aren't what they seem.

Q's interaction with Bond are also really fun in how the latter learns the ropes with his gadgets and bizarre antics. He also won't just hand all the information over to Bond.

Moneypenny's interactions with Bond are pretty fun and how she choosed to help him in spite of detriments in her own personal life or the way she reacts to what the former does during gameplay and in the field.

It was also fun to see the whole idea of the Bond mythos be reimagined in the modern age. Seemingly borrowing from the latest Mission Impossible movies regarding AI and computer algorithms in how it coincides with spycraft.

The game is also committed to being an origin story for Bond considering he doesn't start doing actual secret agent stuff until 3 levels in.

The only two big negatives is that the actor who plays Bond tend to make that same smile a lot the scenes he is in. Also Damien Webb somehow surviving Bond smashing him with construction equipment and later getting cyberized was when the story lost me. It felt like he only survived so we can have a final boss and Damien was the only in the story who knew how.

Gameplay in First Light is mostly good but it comprises of multiple different components. You got shooting, fist fighting, stealth, Hitman style puzzle rooms, car chases, and escape puzzles.

Stealth is similar to the recent Splinter Cells and Hitman Absolution. It's nothing standout. You got the bare minimum like decently wide open levels, cover system, reasonable guard detection rates, distractions, lures a guard over to you and a bluffing system similar to Instinct from the latter game.

What helps enforce stealth and I doubt this was intentional but fist fighting feels awful. Enemies have stupid amounts of health, Bond can only take two hits before dying, parrying and dodging feels stiff and awkward, you want to throw something at an enemy but Bond will throw them instead. It's all around not a very empowering system compared to the Batman Arkham, Insomniac Spider-Man or the Middle Earth games.

This is fine during stealth when you get caught and you want to quickly takedown 2 nearby alerted enemies. During mandatory boss encounters, the awkward stiffness reers it's ugly head and fights are infuriating partnered that with the long loading times which makes these sequences more frustrating.

Car driving and Hitman style levels while simplistic for the latter do a great job at being pseudo establishing shots when all hell breaks loose later on in the levels. Great example are Beyond the Grave and Wave of the Future.

Combat is the game's strong suit. I'm not used to an IO game having geniunely great combat but they should make a John Wick game. You have to cycle between two fire arms but ammo is scarce for both so you need to close the distance and get melee kills to pick up an enemy's gun. You can shoot an enemy's hands and legs stagger or use gadgets for distractions instead of wasting ammo, you can get a quick finisher kill on them. You got bullet time to help land some fast headshots. Destructible cover and grenades has you be on the move and you can get killed fast on normal so combine melee, shooting and bullet time for effective play.

You could possibly stealth when you get licensed to kill but gunplay is more far more fun than fist fighting.

With that said, combat might be maybe 30% of the game at most. You are better off playing Tactical Operations than the main campaign.

Remember the Uncharted 4 comparison? There's an excessive amount downtime. The reason why First light can be around 20 hours is due to this. I do like the story but it makes playing the campaign a rather uneven experience. I'm not someone who actively replays but these sections can be on the dull side even in the moment due to grinding the agency to a halt.

Overall, First Light is good but uneven in places.

Doom 64 Review

What I remember about this game was that it came free if you pre ordered Doom Eternal. Come to think, with the combine packaged of both this and Eternal, it might be the greatest pre order I ever did. Back on topic and spoiler alert, I mostly really enjoyed this. What was once a game that was considered "just an N64 port" turned out to be a "lost game" in the series.

Before I start with this review, the PS4 version of the save game menu is not very good. Yes, you can save anywhere but the menu itself never tells you the date and time you saved so when you die, you'll have to cycle through your saves to find the right one. It also doesn't organize the save games by latest adding more to the confusion. I still really enjoy this game but this save menu quirk can getting in the way from time to time. Might not be the case with other platforms. There is also no faster way to select weapons either.

First thing that is noticeable about Doom 64 is that it can have more of an emphasis on an oppressive atmoshphere rather than the upbeat, high octane, heavy metal feeling of the first two games. It can add to the idea of Doom 64 being a "lost" game since Doom 3 would later be focused on a darker atmosphere.

At times Doom 64 can feel like the original Quake with it's horror vibes. The redesigned enemies look a lot more intimidating by comparison to the past games.

I do love the redone weapons, I know the super shotgun reload has it's critics but it's clicking sound upon relading still sounds awesome that I don't mind the lack of an animation.

It does have my favorite reditition of the chaingun. Firing this version while taking out hordes and seeing cacodemons in so much pain upon landing shots along with the sound design makes it so such an awesome weapon to use.

The shotgun can feel like Quake's in that there's no pump time inbetween but it can kill basic enemies a lot better than it did in that.

One mistake this game makes that Doom 2 avoided was to have enemies of higher sightlines and elevation so you can actively switch between the two shotguns. Doom 64 goes back to more cramped mazelike rooms of the first game but with the addition of the super shotgun, it just makes the one shotgun that will actively be used.

The rest of the weapons behave exactly as you expect. There's a new weapon known as the "unmaker" but it was hard to use this over the BFG.

Rest of the game is typical classic Doom fare. Go through mazes, kill enemies, find keys, dodge traps, pick up ammo and health kits. It can be easy to see why at the time of release that this game can be viewed as "derivative" especially when Goldeneye came out the same year on the same system. However, I still liked the formula enough that I can take another familar romp. It's that kind of combination of corridors, lightning, enemies, and weapon line up that makes classic Doom timeless. There are a lot more Barons of Hell and Hell Knights this time around which makes the lack of a faster weapon switch all the more aggrevating. You can say switching to only super shotgun helps since it makes the close range decision making process faster.

There are some more puzzle like sections here and there. My favorite being "Unholy Temple" where you need to not only collect the keycards but then have multiple different orders of the colored switches in order to unlock other switches to open up the bars to the level exit.

Issues within the context of this game are that there are some switches that need to be shot at in order to progress. Duke Nukem 3D had something similar but I'd argue that game was more consistent with it and actively made sure to shoot switches to get anywhere. In Doom 64, you could go multiple levels without even shooting switch to progress furthur.

Other issues is that some parts of the level you can interact while others you can. There are some bars that Doomguy can lower by pressing interact and others he can only lower by pressing a switch in another part of the level. It can make for weird inconsistencies.

The final issue is that the final boss sucks. If you didn't do the optional levels, the best you can hope for is that you kamikaze it with the BFG and hope the credits roll a few seconds later. This is so terrible it makes the Icon of Sin look good and that was a terrible final boss in it's own right.

Overall, I played Doom 64 and really enjoyed and still do now. Out of the "mainline" classic games, 64 is my least favorite but that's like being the worst out of predescesors that were already excellent. Being the "worst" is just makes you least great but come on, you are still great.

YS X: Proud Nordics Review

I played both YS VIII and IX prior to this and while I do enjoy them and X. The quality did start to dwindle with each subsequent installment. I do enjoy YS X and definitely think it has the best combat system and in some ways the best traversal, there are aspects of the game that knaw at me and really get in the way of my overall enjoyment.

I'll begin with story and it's mostly just on the "fine" side. Nothing amazing but things that I didn't mind before like with Adol not having a defined personality starts to really grind my gears here. Karja is an interesting character in that she's balancing the life of being a viking while also reclutantly leading a crew of people who just got their home destroyed but that's the issue here. Many of the characters on the crew you have to go out of your way to learn about. Adol and Karja are mostly driving the story so the fact that Adol is just a silent protagonist where you choose the responses and Karja is the one going through the real growth makes the whole "player avatar" role hard to accept. Adol is with her at all times, there might as well be some geniune character interactions between the two.

There's also the whole twist at the game. I'm not complaining that it's "predictable". I'm more so criticizing that the twist doesn't get revealed until the very end of the game. I had this issue with YS IX that it took far too long for the twist to be revealed but here it's worse since here it gets revealed at the very end. The way everything is drip feed to the player that eventually even someone who isn't the well versed in media tropes could figure out. At least YS IX's twist was insane and crazy here, it's tame and eventually it's easy to put the blocks together.

It's still not a terrible story since Karja and the character interactions as a whole are decent enough to carry it but it's on "average" side. The villains are also kind of just there but that's just going to me going on for another couple of setenaces.

Gameplay is interesting since combat might be the best in the series. For one dodge and guard are no longer mapped to the same button. On top of that there are perfect parries and dodges with enemies and bosses having their own specific timings. There's also blue outlines for dodging and red for blocking. I often like to test my abilities with the latter and see if I can get "perfect parry". It makes combat more dynamic. The team up attacks also have a lot of visual specticle to them and do a lot of damage. It did make me want to use regular skills a lot less.

Traversal is pretty enjoyable here with you swinging off of automated grapple points and using the surfboard. The dungeons are also enjoyable with the occasional section of Adol and Karja needing to separate and you need to switch between them in order to progress through the level. Despite the game telling you were to go, there is some legwork in trying to get from point A to B in finding what switch pulls what or timing the grapple points to get across.

There are two aspects that do detract from the gameplay. One being the ship gameplay which if you beeline it to the main story felt like a rather pointless edition to the game. Main story ship battles are minimal and you'll always have enough upgrades needed to get by what little mandatory battles there are. They often just feel like dull downtime in between dungeons and plot progressing islands. It also makes the ending of the game feel less emotional since you were stranded or trapped and it leaves with you finally going but now you've on a ship the whole time.

Second major aspect are the bosses. I do think the bosses being challenging is fine on paper, it's just that no matter how many levels I gain with the gear and loot, they just take stupid amounts of health. I have to lower difficulty and retry a lot more than VIII and IX because of this. Don't be ashamed of using this because the game would be impossible to get to the end of without it. The bosses are challenging even using this feature 3-4 times. A big reason for this is because the bosses don't have health bars but armor you have to destroy BEFORE you damage their real health bar and taking this down will take minutes on end. The final boss also regenerates his armor after damaging his health bar at least 3-4 if not 5 times. Bosses can take a long while depending on how well aqquainted you are with the game's mechanics.

Overall, that's YS X, it's an action RPG that has the potential to be really enjoyable gameplay wise but is held back by damage sponge bosses and dull down time on the ship. Adol not being a properly defined protagonist also detracted from the game too. Still if you beeline it's not even that long of a game so by the time I got to to end, the annoying parts didn't feel like a "I can't believe I put with that" upon reflection.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Review(Playstation 3) Review

My thoughts on CoD can range from apathy due to it's discourse online, being lukewarm on a title in question or it being that cool friend I haven't hung around with for awhile. Any piece media franchise especially long running popular ones can be this but CoD personifies that better than most. The first Blops for me is the last one. I remember back in around in the Fall of 2010 how I much I wanted this due to the craze the series had. I did enjoy the campaign but I was sick of the way the multiplayers were designed and it would end my run with the series by that point. With that said, I'm going to be reviewing the campaign since it's the part I remember liking.

While the story is definitely memed now with the whole line involving "numbers". In terms of storytelling for the series at the time, it was a breathe of fresh air. In the game prior to this, I was getting sick and tired of the series' tradition of always sticking to a silent protagonist. When the player character established he could already talk like Soap MacTavish, the story just magically forgets that he was speaking prior to controlling him.

Not the case with Alex Mason and the character player characters you control, they actually speak now. To top off all of this, the former is also an unreliable narrator which and it's also a framing story which were also two extra surprised thrown in.

I did complain in my MW2(2009) review about how the story can't decide if it wants to take itself seriously or be a parody on American propaganda and the war on terror. Blops on the other hand is very much a popcorn action movie first and foremost. It's not even trying to be anything than an over the top action film where it's about the characters trying to avoid a doomsday scenario.

It's very committed to this with the background music, the macho characters and with towards the end with Hudson putting on his shades.

The twist was mostly well foreshadowed too with how characters are questioning whether or not Mason's even there in the head or how no one even noticed that Reznov is even there. It adds to playing the game again in some ways to notice what other ways the question Mason losing it.

If there is one major weak link outside of one late game twist involving JFK is that Alex Mason's performance can get weirdly bizarre in places. Particularly the Bowman death scene where he tries to sound shocked and the way he threatnens the guy who killed felt more funny than menacing.

The villains can also feel on the underdeveloped side but it's with many of the series' villains and the mystery box nature of the story makes me more forgiving of this.

As for the gameplay, it's the same the series has been since CoD2(2005). You got the regenerating health where it's fine during easier parts but aggrevating when the challenge starts to amp up due to how much time is spent waiting for the regen health to kick in.

Reloading can be more of a hinderance since what if enemies catch line of sight of you and starts firing away and you are in the middle of reloading? Might as well hit the checkpoint restart button from there.

The hitscanners can also kill you from places where you can't even see them.

These have been issues with a lot of these games. What a CoD campaign lives and dies by are it's missions and how many interesting ones there are a good number of them in Black Ops.

You got missions like like "The Defector" where you get the iconic incendiary shotgun. "Numbers" where it's going through a series of rooftop fire fights. "Project Nova" which is kind of heart breaking for the CoD World at War fan in me seeing the protagonist "cheating" death just to see him finaly sccumb to it. "Vorkuta" with the prison break as you are going through it with Reznov. "WMD' where you have the snowy backdrop as where you are infilrating an enemy with the help of a fighter plane. "Payback" with the crazy part where you are shooting down from afar with the helicoptor that you fought to get. "Execute Order" with the another iconic weapon with the explosive tip arrows.

This could just be chocked up to me playing the campaign a lot but when it comes to sheer number of memorable missions in Blops, there's a lot here to go down. I could make a top 10 with this game. In spite of my issues with the combat, the missions in their specticle and gimmicks makes almost forgiving of them. The sound design and gory combat from WaW is best and it's just as good if not more memorable here. Treyarchs CoD did always nail it when it came to that and the music.

The only big stinker here is the 2nd half of Rebirth where you play as Hudson and you don't have regen health but finite health but with no way to replenish it. Combine that with the hitscanners and the prevelant smoke and this mission would be impossible without the frequent checkpointing.

Overall, CoD Blops while having the issues the series has had manages to be entertaining in spite of them.

Pragmata Review

Pragmata turned out to be quite the surprise. It's the first new IP Capcom has made in over a decade and despite Lost Planet being dead and Vanquish never getting a sequel, it manages to carry the torch those game did. There are major issues with it but when it comes to moment to moment gameplay it still manages to still feel fun even if it is easy to be an autopilot for much of the game after a point.

The story is a fine popcorn narrative. The interaction between Hugh and Diana do carry much of it. Seeing the latter's interest in humanity and how she wants to see the earth for herself. It sort of brings back a childlike wonder for things I used to have. Hugh in some ways representing the jaded adult I am now. I did always try to make small talk with Diana inbetween missions on the Shelter since her childlike wonder and curosity I found to be geniunely endearing.

Villains like Eight do an okay job at fuffling the role of the villain even if she can feel underdeveloped and never does much of anything interesting throughout the story.

My big gripes with the story is that Hugh can feel like there's pieces missing regarding his character. He worked with his crew at the start of the game for seemingly a while and yet he seems indifferent towards them when they die. This could be explained in a note but I argue a cutscene or even some line of dialogue should explain this.

Also I got no idea where in his characterization why he didn't just tell Diana that he was dying. Once again, it feels like there's pieces missing. Something to give me an idea on why he would keep it a secret. Maybe not wanting to worry her so she can focus on the mission? Maybe out of stocism to not show weakness? To be a stronger makeshift parental figure to Diana? It's all hard to tell within the way it's presented in the game.

Despite the premise, it's still ultimately a popcorn movie at the end of the day. Many of Capcom's game try to be this and this is one of their better efforts. It's still nothing amazing.

The combat is very interesting and it worked a lot better than I thought it would've when viewing it on paper. If you think "AAA gaming" these past years are lacking innovating ideas then give this title a look.

Enemies can't be damaged or even stunned unless you do a hacking minigame for the weakspots to be revealed. You aim your gun and the there is a screen right next to it where you do a puzzle with the face buttons. There is some depth to this system where you can find different nodes that stack damage effects upon a mini game completion. These might take longer and it's worth asking, "do I finish the mini game quick or hit different nodes to stack up the damage effects?"

There's different gimmicks thrown in like enemies having shields in the hacking mini game so you have to shoot them to make it easier. Nodes that can interrupt the hacking process or damage her or nodes that have to be avoided in order for the hack to continue. You can also equip different damage buffs in the Shelter too.

You have carry up to 4 weapons early game but then 6 later on. Some weapons can be charged like the Rail Gun. There area of effect like the grenade launcher. Devastating upclose weapons like the shotgun. Weapons that can also do accumulated heat damage like the assault rifle.

The way I'm describing this combat system makes it really sound like it could be one of the all time greats and well it's just missing one thing: difficulty that really brings out the heavy decision making. No, I'm not asking games to be extremely hard but Pragmata can have too many get out of jail free cards.

One of them being the defensive weapons. You in a tough spot? Use a decoy or later a shield and enemies won't really be able to gang up on you nearly as much. These weapons also have ammo replenish for them constantly.

Wait?! Are you in even more of one? Here's an overdrive like rage mode ability that freezes enemies and boost damage output.

Due to this, it can feel like much of the difficulty through much of the campaign can feel like you are going on autopilot. Get the slo mo dodge and it adds to that even more. It becomes a game of build heat with assault rifle, do mini game, then damage upclose. The enemy count, the enemy variety and the enemy behavior never really pushes you into getting out of this autopilot trance.

It might be a little hard early game due to the lack of upgrades and getting used to combat but then it turns into the autopilot state I described.

Bosses are also pretty easy too. I hadn't played the game in days on the 2nd boss and I beat it in my first try. The rest of the bosses is a game of effiectively remembering major damage dealing moves then using defense weapons and overdrive.

The final boss was the hardest part due to her extremely annoying chained tentacle swipes. It was a surprising jump in difficulty compared to the rest of the game.

Overall, Pragmata is solid but the combat has potential to be more

Terminator: Salvation(Playstation 3) Review

To of no surprise of anyone, the movie tie in game that never got a "vocal" cult following who enjoys it ironically or unironcally is not good at all. I was supposed to play this and then play Binary Domain after but I got a damaged disc and I was in no hurry to get a better one. If you want to play a third person shooter where you fight robots, go play Binary Domain or Vanquish instead. However, I do like to play some geniunely bad games from time to time and due to how short and cheap this game is, it was a right candidate for me to try out. The short length really is a blessing because if it went on any longer either I wouldn't beat it or my dislike for the game would be even bigger. The frequent checkpoints also help make everything bearable.

This is a rather popular game due to how short and easy it is to get the Platinum trophy and I tried to get that but the game on hard during the on rails section during Chapter 1 is almost borderline bugged on what's needed to not immediately get a game over.

I eventually lowered to easy but there will still be some cheap deaths here and there since Terminators up close can kill you in one hit even on that mode. You also need to get up close since you'll be able to take out enemies with granades more efficiently or be close enough to hit them in the back. Fighting from afar will drain ammo faster.

There's only 3 enemy types: the HKs, T-600s and a bipedal enemy. These are the main enemies you'll fight. Two you can beat the same way. There's also a bigger drone mini boss you fight and win by firing rockets at it.

An example of just how rushed out the door this game is how in Chapter 4 there's a large building and one load screen later, John and the Resistance are magically already on top fighting a drone mini boss which is the same as the one you fought in Chapter 1.

Two of the hardest parts are in Chapter 7 doing a defend mission where either the enemies will kill you or they will kill the npc you are defending. You also get to pilot a massive HK but due to the aiming and how enemies will slowly overwhelm you, it's easy to die a lot during this section.

There is no final boss and you just fight the same T-600s you've been fighting for the rest of the game.

Story? I guess it's a prequel. I haven't seen Salvation in full in over a decade but the cutscenes are awkward and stifly presented. The whole story is a filler arc since the developers can't mess with the canon in anyway. John Connor is on some mission to help the Resistance but this won't matter since it does't really play a role in the movie. It's not even as charming as setting up the Kashyyyk invasion in Star Wars Republic Commando.

Overall, I came for a geniunely bad game that was tolerable because it was short and got just that. With that said, it's certainly no Rogue Warrior or the Bouncer in terms of being memorably bad.