Resident Evil 2(2019) Review

I remembered being so hyped by the very idea of this remake. Back in a time period where I was against tank controls and thought, "this remake will give what the original game had but with better controls". Little did I know, it didn't really give me that. The changes like the tougher zombies, camera shaking when grabbed, Mr. X no longer being scripted and especially A and B games being heavily gutted caused me to have a strong dislike for years to come. This was one of the games that did teach me to never get overly hyped for anything. I have bashed this game many times in my past write ups too. I decided to replay the PS5 version years later. I was dreading that I was going to have a miserable time but surprisingly I enjoyed it much more this time around. It still has the problems I mentioned but a lot of them aren't as big of deal breakers except the A and B scenarios being a red herring now. The best comparison I can make is that this is something along the lines of Tomb Raider Anniversary, a flawed but enjoyable remake.

REmake 2 keeps mostly everything that makes the original game great but what makes it stand out is how it plays with your expectations. If you never played the original, you'll of course get a new experience but if you did, there's lots new to find where it doesn't like you are playing the same game in a different perspective and controls.

RPD Police Station has been redesigned but the general layout remains the same. You still got the Main Hall that connects to a West and East side but the rooms are all fully rendered in 3D rather than the prerendered backgrounds of yester year. The order in which visit iconic places in the story changes too. For example, Kendo's gunshop doesn't appear until late game, you go through the RPD again but with Mr. X stalking you, or even a puzzle where you need different number keys to unlock certain doors in a weapons locker.

The spirit of the original game and the RE of old before 2005 is kept intact. You got inventory space and you have to make a concious decision of what to take with you. What do you prefer? Lots of healing items or ammo? Do you take lots of puzzle items instead? Do you try to try to fit in a few of each? A new addition this time around is that you can get hip pouches to add more space to your inventory.

You will backtrack, fight enemies, solve puzzles some being smaller ones within a giant puzzle.

This is the part where I address the combat and when I first played the game, I was annoyed by many of REmake 2's "quirks". The first major one being how the zombies take multiple hits and especially multiple headshots before dying. I discovered this time around that the game has a dismemeberment system especially when you shoot them in the legs. A common tactic was to immobilize them and then finish them off with either a knife or a few headshots. They weren't as annoying as I once thought.

Camera jerking became less of a problem because I got grabbed much less due to this said tactic. It does become a problem when surronded by many zombies by those scenarios are too few to even notice. Lickers do take a lot of damage but they don't pop up too much either and you'll be decked out with firepower to take them down easily. Surprisingly dogs were easier to run away from than to fight since the survival horror decision making of, "take some hits so you can save bullets" popped into my mind.

Mr. X? This was the biggest surprise, if you keep moving througout the map like you have a purpose, you won't really encounter him that much. Maybe at the library at the most but that seems to be his most common spawn point. It's rather surprising that what was once something I strongly dislike about this remake is barely an issue now.

With that said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The parts where you play as Ada aren't particularly interesting since they are mainly just scripted sequences that have nothing to do with the core gameplay. That and I'm not a big fan of the much longer and expanded on sewer section. The layouts can get very confusing and at times even labythrine. The map also isn't as helpful here as it should be do to the disjointed presentation of it. You also fight a lot of damage spongey enemies and super padded out plug puzzle.

Luckily the Labratory is where things wrap up and isn't as dragged out.

The biggest issue is how the A and B scenarios are red herrings this time around. Capcom added them due to fan backlash when they should've just stuck to their guns since there's this weird inbetween. The true ending is unlocked after you do Claire's run. This isn't worth it due to the contradictions in the story and how everything is mostly remixed as opposed to being, "what Claire was up to while Leon was on his adventure". I know I would get annoyed and looked up the final boss and ending on Youtube.

Overall, I'm much kinder on REmake 2 but the botched zapping system holds it back from being on par with the original.

Titanfall 2 Campaign Review

There isn't many if any games where I have played 4 times and I still enjoy playing it even now. Usually there'd be things I'd be more critical on or aspects about the game that just annoys me now. Maybe there's parts of the game I dislike or portions of the game I feel is underdeveloped but no. Everytime I replay the Titanfall 2 campaign every few years and every time I play it, I still find the same level and enjoyment and awe I do when I originally played. Sure there are some issues but every piece media has problems but they are minor in the grand scheme of things.

One major aspect I like about the game is the story but especially on how it's told. Titanfall 2 follows the Half Life logic of the player getting to play out the journey with no major cuts happening unless if it's a load screen. With Titanfall 2, it's more of the bond between Jack Cooper and BT-7274. As the game's opening cutscene eloquantly puts it, "what truly separates the pilot from all the grunts and machines on the battlefield is the bond between a Pilot and his Titan". The story is ultimately about Jack and BT as they are reluctantly paired up together to deliver a distress signal about doomsday weapon that can destroy Harmony. It's a simple set up but it's told very well with Jack and BT's banter and how it's interspliced at the right time.

What also helps is how the game forgoes the issues that many FPS games had where the player character talks during cutscenes but never speaks during gameplay or just not have the character talk at all. Here, Jack talks and while the dialogue options seem pointless, it keeps the player in the moment of wanting to participate but without taking control away from the player and it adds small talk during the down time sections especially.

Jack and BT go through so much together through their banter and with them learning to become efficient together as the game foreshadowed with the quote I mentioned, it's hard for me not to get teary eyed at the ending of "The Beacon" mission.

Gameplay of course carries everything. Right off the bat, Titanfall 2's gunplay feels snappy and punchy and the weapons feel and sound great. You also get a cloaking ability but considering how large the enemy count is and how quickly enemies can put you down, you can use it as a quick way to break line of sight and then relocate to get the drop on the enemy.

What also helps is the movement system since for one you can double jump and you can wall run. What helps the wall runs in this game is that they are easy to do and they can be endlessly chained as well. Double jump is a good to carry the fast paced momentum. There's also the slide which can be fun to use when chained into a sprint and get some quick kills.

Okay, gunplay is good, it's mechanically sound and movement controls are great. What about the levels? They also don't pull punches either. First you have a solid tutorial known as the "pilot's guanlet" that goes over gunplay and movement. Then you got the a rather simple but elegant tutorial as you do 3 of something to restore BT. After that you go to well a made sewer level which is a great series obstacle challenges as you fight soldiers and suicide bombing robots. There's a level where you go through an assembly line that tests your platforming ability as you fight off hordes of enemies towards the end. Effect and Cause being the amazing level where you traverse through 2 different timelines and learn about the doomsday experiement. What's cool here in that it even encourages you switch when there's stage hazards too so what could kill you could help you progress through a level. The Beacon is a great downtime level where it is foreshadowed where you need to be at the start of a level as you slowly progress doing shootouts, puzzles platforming to get to that part. "Trial by Fire" a titan only level. The Ark where you have to platform through moving ships as you kill enemies and having BT do the throw again. It all culminates in The Fold Weapon where you get reign fire with the smart pistol.

Best part of all this? While this is no doubt a short game it never FEELS that way due to how amazing all these levels and everything is in the moment. The weakest level here is Trial by Fire and it's not because it's bad but because it's a Titan only level.

Might as well go to the negatives. The Titan parts while empowering can get boring during extended periods due to how simple it can feel compared to on foot combat. Bosses aren't that great while more going on that a lot of bosses in the genre, they suffer from the weak framework Titan gameplay has. The AI can also be rather stupid too constantly having them run into things or have no idea where they even are. I also find it disappointing that the grapple hook can't be used during single player.

Overall, these issues are minor in the grand scheme of things. Considering how much TF2 is a killer no filler campaign that I enjoy after beating 4 times is surprising.

Shadow of the Colossus(2018) Review

Shadow of the Colossus is a rather strange game to review. Not because it's terrible but because a lot of the games I tend to play multiple times and write reviews on tend to not lean so heavily to the "artsy" side of gaming. Playing SotC feels like a game you are meant to play once or twice at the most but a third time can enter into the realm of diminishing returns. You play it the first time back on either PS2 or the PS3 HD version and then a 2nd time with the Bluepoint's remake of it and then stop there. It can be said for a lot of games but it feels most apparent for me here. There is still a lot of enjoyment and thrills to be had from SotC, it's just not the kind of game you play because of how "fun" it feels to play.

The story is interesting in that not much of it is told through cutscenes. What cutscenes are here are very brief and the storytelling itself is either inferred through details with the sparse dialogue or in the environment. If you are one of those, "every storytelling medium should use the strengths of it's medium" people, I got a feeling you would no doubt champion SotC and Team ICO's games by extension.

What the story can be boiled down to is that you play as a nameless Wanderer and ride his horse Agro as you traverse a forbidden and empty land as you kill monsters who have done nothing to you to resurrect a dead girl. Is she your girlfriend, your sister or an innocent woman he helps out of reluctance? Up to intrepretation. It's an interesting way to tell a story over multiple hours without overly relying on cutscenes and dialogue by extension. It can be an intriguing story to ponder on.

Gameplay is what carries any game and I respect SotC in a lot of ways. Remember those overly long and drawn out enemy waves that plagued ICO? Gone. There's no combat to be found here which to me is the developer realizing their limitations. They know making another game with poor combat wouldn't cut it so they made a boss rush title instead.

I also respect the game for how much it carries itself on these boss battles since outside of these moments, you'll be spent traversing a large, barren and empty world with barely anything to do or even find.

So no enemy waves and no explorable world. The game is ultimately a boss rush game broken up with long horse back rides. Your time is mostly spent fighting these super large "colossal" giants and gameplay is spent trying to find their weak spots and performing the most painful acupunture on both the giants and yourself.

There are two aspects that help sell you on how epic it all feels: music and controls.

The music is almost a character in of itself. I'd say without this soundtrack, the game would fall apart almost immediately. Hearing the haunting music pieces as you are trying to get on to the collosi but then when you get on, these super heroic and triuphant songs start playing and it gives the player the feeling that he is barely hanging on to dear life. It adds so much to the thrill.

How Wanderer controls also plays a role and this divides many. You of course got the grip guage but the way Wanderer platforms around or how unpredictably he can move creates a sense of unpredictablity to the gameplay. Wanderer could struggle to move the way you want him to, he'll fall when you least expect it or the him refusing to grab on to a ledge the way you intended him to.

I argue unlike ICO's terrible combat that there is some delibrate aspects to this since it's supposed to create a feeling that Wanderer is this small insignificant being climbing on a creature that is way bigger than him. It makes the title feel less "gamey" and makes the act of climbing more tension. I dislike using either of them as defenses but considering how SotC has no explorable world and no enemy waves, might as well try to something dynamic to the gameplay.

As a result even if the gameplay does become diminishing returns after a 2nd time, it can still feel amazing to defeat a collosi with the gripe guage almost depleted and with that music playing.

The game isn't absolved of issues. For one using the light sword can be cumbersome since there's a lot of dark areas and the sword is useless when the player is under them making these empty horse rides last a little longer than expected.

Wanderer takes forever to get back up after getting knocked down. It could take about a minute and if you are fighting smaller collosi, you could get hit again and repeat the process.

Since SotC is a puzzle game, you'll get more out of it if you're a speedrunner since if you already know the collosi weaknesses beforehand much of the boss fight gameplay is cut in half. You are meant to slowly think and ponder on how to beat them.

The final collosi is the weakest since by that point, SotC becomes an actual platformer and the collosi itself can feel gamey in how scripted it can add plus the controls needing you to be precise now.

Overall, SotC is still enjoyable but can run into issues

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resyncned Review

This remake is a rather fascinating one on paper. You could say the idea of a Black Flag remake sounds "pointless" since one could argue that it plays "well" even know but I'm not sure if you could really say that about the original game. The story is good and is easily one of the series' better tales, many aspects of it's gameplay especially combat and stealth weren't that great even back then. A modernized version of the game does sound it could help make an okay game, a solid one.

Since I already praised it, the story especially for a franchise that has some characters I geniunely loathe(Ezio Auditore and his entire cast of characters) is surprisingly good. It was rather obvious that Ubisoft was trying to make a more "likeable" lead character again after the divisive if not outright negative reception Connor had at the time of Assassin's Creed 3's release. It worked here since while Edward Kennway is a charismatic lead, he isn't so likeable to the point where he can come off as someone who could never do any wrong or is always right like Ezio was.

For one, Edward starts off the game as someone whose broke and down on his luck and the interesting part is that his wife Caroline doesn't really seem to mind as long as he has him. Edward wants to change his down on his luck status and become more of a made man. He resorts to piracy and throughout the story, that slowly starts to become less of a viable option. He's becomes obessesed with the "Observatory" and he thinks that will get him out of that status. What really sells me on the story is how it can almost at times come off as a deconstruction of the AC series. Where Edward like the audience doubts the significance of the Creed but the more the story goes on, he becomes more accepting of it and views it more of a guide to help him out in life.

It's how all this happens throughout the game and how it feels like a journey is what sells me on the story. How Edward starts off as a no good greedy pirate to trying to make amends for all the wrong doing he did. It's kind of like the first Assassin's Creed with Altair but Edward Kennway has more of a clearly defined backstory this time.

The gameplay itself while certainly an improvement over the original game is nothing overly exemplary. With that said, an improvement is still an improvement.

You have an actual crouch button now instead of the stalking zones of the original game. So now, stealth feels like something that is actually possible. That does depend however since much of it can a game of getting to bush to bush and especially abusing the whistle feature and having enemies getting close enough to you to those said bushes to kill them. The only real way to be caught during these sections is if Edward kills a guard but he doesn't conceal himself and the dead body in the bush right away.

Since stealth in the original game wasn't really a high standard even for it's time with games like Splinter Cell Blacklist releasing the same year, this can be overlooked. I would prefer to have easy but doable stealth than having no crouching button and sprinting to bushes.

The frequent tailing missions are thankfully gone now. I don't mind a few tailing missions but the main story missions of the original game relied on them a little too much.

Combat is also better and arguably seen the most improvement. For one it's counter based and it's not nearly as easy to go on a chain killing spree and wipe out an entire small army. You need to parry and also guard break into order to effienciently kill enemies now. You can guard break through sweeping, kicking into walls, using Edward's guns, smoke bombs can help thin out the herd too. The only issue with combat is that the counter window can be very finicky and some bosses like Roberts can take an insane amount of damage to kill. I had to lower the difficulty here.

I'm describing the on foot combat a lot here but why is it that? For all of Black Flag's reputation of being a "great pirate, bad Assassin's Creed" game tends to be. That can be rather false. Many of the main story missions tend to be the on foot AC affair. Only a couple of the story missions at the most tend to involve the Jackdaw or anything sailing the high seas. Since this is the case, I'd rather put ship combat to easy and occasional get materials to loot to upgrade the ship due to infrequency of story missions that involve the Jackdaw.

Another massive boon this remake brings is that the modern day portions have been completely removed. So no more annoying pace breakers or reimagining plot points that never went anywhere like Juno dying in a comic book.

Overall, this remake did what it set out to do. Pick the AC game that isn't too fundamentally difficult to overhaul and refine that game. It's a decent game, now more of a solid one and is one of the couple games in the series I enjoy.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Review

When this game was first announced and it was said to be a Lego game based on Batman movies, it was going to be like the Arkham games and Rocksteady was co developing it, I said to myself, "this is Batman Arkham: The Force Awakens". After playing through it, that's exactly what the game was. By no means is it something I consider "bad", if you ignore it as an "apology letter" for games like Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it greatly loses it's luster for me. It also serves as sort of a "back to basics" reboot since Lego Batman 3 was going overboard with the greater DC Universe and it might've rubbed off the Batman only people the wrong way.

The narrative is kind of interesting on paper where it combines various aspects of Batman's on screen appreances like the live action movies, 90s animated series and the aforementioned Arkham Games into one narrative. It does kind of feel more interesting in concept than execution. You'll start the campaign doing Bruce's training in Batman Begins and Talia's there at the start this time unlike in the Nolan Trilogy. After that, you'll go through the Burton films and surprisingly even the Joel Schumacher Batman movies are featured here. You'll get into some run ins with some of Batman's comic villains but were in the Arkham games like Firefly and Black Mask. It all culminates with a homage to the following the Joker sequence in Arkham Asylum and one big homage to the Dark Knight Rises. There's also a shot for shot sequence of the Batman TAS intro too.

It can all feel very haphazardly put together since it combines various different Batman media with different tones and styles all into one narrative. Sure Talia is at the start this time but then she no shows for a while and you'll have different side kicks like Gordon and the Bat Family along for the ride. You also got Jack Nicolson Joker just out of nowhere turning into Heath Ledger Joker and there's even a weird tie in to the Killing Joke prior to the former.

The game's story can almost feel like a Batman history highlight reel than something fresh featuring Batman. This was definitely the point but it also goes back to my comparison to the Force Awakens I made earlier.

Gameplay itself is interesting in that it was more or less what the advertising entailed in that it was "Batman Arkhamlite" which while is true for aspects like on foot city traversal and the Batmobile.

Surprisingly, the actual combat and stealth shares a striking resemblance to the Spider-Man games by Insomniac. It was hard to unsee it. For one, remember how in the Arkham games of yester year required the player to use stealth with some degree of profiency in order to avoid Bruce getting pummeled by hitscan machine guns? Now, it's just large enemy waves where you can't even clear a room using stealth and it's just there to thin out the herd, like the Insomniac Spider-Man games. Enemies now give health drops in the middle of combat even on the highest difficulty. Health regain did work differently in Insomniac Spidey but the fact that you can get back health mid combat is something you couldn't do in past Arkham games. You had to clear out an enemy wave to get health back. There's also area of effect attacks that are marked with a circle or an enemy having a line of sight to shoot you to get out of the way. Enemies will also have try to shoot you from a higher vantage point too like in those games.

As easy as it is for me to throw in a "gotcha" moment for all the years when Insomniac Spider-Man was said to be an Arkham "ripoff". It just tells me that when Legacy of The Dark Knight isn't borrowing from past Batman media, it's borrowing from the very games that borrowed from the Arkham series itself. It can give the game the feeling of being "souless" especially if you don't hold care for or hold games like Gotham Knights or Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League with an extreme level of contempt.

Dark Knight difficulty feels quite superfluous in the grand scheme of things since you'll have to try hard to get an actual game over or if you die to the buggy platforming or misunderstand the solution needed to damage a boss. Not that I'm demanding challenge out of a Lego game but I thought this whole thing would amount to more.

The puzzles are just kind of there. You just activate detective mode, look at what's highlighted and then break the lego items to build them. Lego games of the past at least had you just keep smashing things to find what you need to build the level progressing item or choose a character who had the right skill set to build them but that's streamlined now too.

Overall, I don't dislike Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight, it's a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable game in the moment but it's existence and how it's made is hard for me to not look back upon my time with it an immense cynicism. I can say it's more consistent as a whole than Skywalker Saga was which is a complement I'll give.

Halo: Campaign Evolved(Playstation 5) Review

When this remake was announced and it being on put on Playstation no less I was like, "you could've just ported the Master Chief Collection instead". A remake like this does sound redundant on paper since the original Halo CE is often cited as an old shooter especially on consoles that still holds up today. With that said, while the existence of this game is rather questionable, playing it in the moment is "fine" at least for the for the first half of the game. It's not as nearly as much of a souless remake as the Metal Gear Solid Delta is. There's some interesting cutscene changes and some fun bonus missions here.

The best way of describing "Campaign Evolved" is that what if you had "Combat Evolved" but with the gamefeel of the 343's Halos and modern additions like sprinting, vehicle jacking and Halo 2's regen health. You also have the quest markers be there at all times rather than having them pop up at random points instead.

Story is much of the same but there is newly recorded voice acting and some cutscene changes. For one Miranda Keyes gets established early on as opposed to coming out of nowhere like in Halo 2. There is one hilarious cutscene change of two Hunters getting crushed by a Covenant ship at the end of the Truth and Reconcilation. Fohammer's model is actually shown and a really cool one of Chief fighting off Covenant before boarding the ship to get off Halo at the end of the game among others.

It's much of the same as a whole so it's basically just an excuse plot where it has slightly more going on than games like old Doom and Duke Nukem. It can be summed up like this: Covenant find Pillar of Autumn, Chief and Cortana crashland on Halo, find Captain Keyes, they find 343 Guilty Spark, there's a the flood, Halo is a doomsday weapon meant to kill them, blow up the Autumn and get off. It's as simple as I described similar to the vein as the original Star Wars before being retractively called a New Hope. There's not much in the way of interesting characterization and themeatic richness to be found here. It's as simple as I described it.

It's "fine" in the moment but it can be very simplistic and barebones compared to the multimedia franchise and expanded universe the series ultimately ended up spawning. The fact that much of the story was in a tie in novel would no doubt get scruntized if Halo was a brand new IP released today. World building without needing supplementary material was something even A New Hope had. There's no fun, destable or interesting villain here either.

Halo is an FPS after all and you came here for gameplay and for the first half of the game is quite good. Aspects of the game compared FPS of yester year is how streamlined everything is. No need to collect ammo since you just need to pick up weapons already on the ground or off dead enemies. Health management? No longer needed since your health regens so no need to worry about health pick ups.

Enemies are a lot smarter by comparison to those games where Covenant Elites will flank, move out of the way or will try to come up and ambush you if there shield isn't depleted. There's also the shield and flesh system where bullets drain flesh and plasma drains shields.

Vehicle sections are here too to break up the pace all though it's awkward to see the controls changed here since it now controls like a vehicle in anyother game

The environments are a mixed bag on the positive side, they are a lot bigger compared to the corridors and round circles and squares of shooters prior to this but at the same time so much of the design is copy and pasted which can lead to samey areas and bloated maps. You can tell that the devs of this remake are aware of this so they added nav points at all times now.

Some aspects I appreciate more now like how during the one section with no gun, it's there so the player can get used to controlling the camera. The first level is also meant to train you for the larger maps like Halo and also with higher enemy count and stronger enemies like in Truth and Reconcilation.

Assault on Control room is going through the same triagular areas 3 times and from then on the campaign gets weaker.

The 2nd half of the game is still very weak. If you didn't like the first half the game, then stop at 343 Guilty Spark because after the Library it's just the first half in reverse. You fight the Flood and all they are is that they swarm you and that's it. You point, you shoot, get hit, regen health, reload and then throw grenade every once and a while.

There are people who boil down FPS and shooters to "point and shoot". That's what these Flood sections are. They are very dull. The addition of sprint means that these sections are over faster and you could run past them on lower difficulties. The inconsistent checkpoint system is still very annoying but that is a Halo staple at this point. 

I did enjoy the extra campaign missions but they have more environment variety than the 2nd half of the game and there's no Flood battles.

Overall, questionable remake but still fun in the moment for the 1st half.

Metal Gear Solid 4(Playstation 5) Review

The common joke when discussing MGS4 for the longest time was whether or not it would ever leave the PS3. It finally did and with a solid functioning port too. I have a weird relationship with this title. I have beaten the game multiple times over the years but the more I start to play it, the more I start to realize that the game's strengths in terms of gameplay and even story comes Acts 1 and 2. Everything after the Act 3 tailing mission is where the game become diminishing returns and that's what sums up MGS4. It's the personfication of that very term.

I often start these write ups with story first but I have to here since you'll be engaging with that more than any other aspect of this game. It's been said and mocked to death how you'll spending more time watching cutscenes than actually playing the game. This has always been the case with the prior Solid games but MGS4 really wants to sell you on it's story.

It's easy to point out the issues like exposition that go on for ages, characters constantly reminding the audience of things they already know, the overuse of nostalgia baiting or mention of characters who weren't in the Solid games like Dr. Madnar, the constant retconning especially with many of them involving nanmachines, the rewrites or nothing changing for established characters, the open ended ideas MGS2 established being barely touched on or contradicted or how characters taking an excuriatingly long time trying to figuring things out. Two eregious examples is Meryl taking a long time to figure out that Johnny wasn't hooked on nanomachines or Otacon taking a few minutes to figure out Liquid Ocelot needed Rex even though it was already mentioned in the MK2 recording before getting destroyed.

What destroyed the story fundamentally was just how much of a disinterested and lifeless bore Old Snake is. The story never feels like you are going on a self discovering journey with him. Most of it is hearing other characters talk on and on and Snake just listens to them even him taking what someone just said and turning it into a question is gone. Now it's just replaced with awkward silence and cold indifference as characters around him keep on talking. Solid Snake at least showed enthusiasim in MGS1 and 2 but here he just wants to kill Liquid Ocelot and stop his insurrection because Campbell told him too.

Speaking of Campbell, this transitions me to the good. He and Raiden are some of the better characters in the game. Campbell in this game is in line with MGS1 where he witholds information from his friends and loved ones even if it means he'll hurt them for the greater good. Raiden also is one of the few characters Old Snake cares about and shows any conviction in saving. Him bringing out the best in Old Snake makes the former one of the better characters by proxy.

The cutscenes are beautifully rendered and are mostly very directed and the music, man the music it does so much of the heavy lifting where the story is unable to. It's a good thing these two aspects are top notch since without them, the game would be very insufferable to go through especially the ending that is as long as a feature length film.

This now transitions to gameplay and well thing is there's aspects about it I do enjoy. Act 1 and 2 feel like a streamlined version of MGS3. Octocamo is far better than the camo system in that game. The environments are more open and the psyche meter keeps the surivival system of that game without adding needless bloat. The controls are better now with crouch walking and there's actual third person grass crawling animations. CQC is more refined although it didn't get much use this playthrough.

There is also an encouragement to use the tranq pistol since in Act 1 and 2 it's about all out avoidance or you could help either side. Enemy gunfire can also tear thorough Snake's health quick on Solid Normal and it goes back to the ration system and no very slow regen health from MGS3.

If MGS4's was just this with occasional shakeups(notable one in Act 2 when tracking Naomi), I would be much more positive on the game but it isn't. Remember when I said it was diminishing returns? This is what I meant. Act 3 at the start has a decent tailing mission but it's divorced from the kind of stealth earlier. After that? It's just set pieces, boss fights and the stealth gameplay itself starts to dwindle the more the game goes on. You go back to Shadow Moses in Act 4 but since it is that level it has that more linear cramped block designs of MGS1 with annoying enemy placements for the Dwarf Gekko. You could cheese these with chaff grenades and I wouldn't blame you then it's setpieces and boss fights.

Act 5 has one very brief sneaking section and it's bosses and long cutscenes after.

Overall, MGS4 is mostly cutscenes and the story isn't very good with only Act 1 and 2 having decent writing. Same can be said for the gameplay. It can be easy to dislike despite not being bad on a technical level.