Neon Inferno Review

For a game I randomly heard about and saw some trailers for. It turned out to be really fun and quite innovating. Thought it was just just going to be a fun Contra and Metal Slug style shooter featuring a male playable character who looks like Jin Kazama from Tekken and it was that plus throwing in it's own cool ideas.

While Neon Inferno is like the above mentioned games. There is also aspects that those games don't do. This is where the game will turn into Wild Guns where it sort of becomes a shooter where enemies are attacking you in the background while also being attacked from the foreground. It can create for a rather dynamic style of gameplay that this style of game hasn't seen that often.

One minute you might have enemies coming at you in the foreground but then you need to switch to aim mode and attack enemies in firing at you in the background while using cover.

You can shoot, duck and cover of course but there is also a melee attack that works double as a parry with green projectiles. You also have a double jump as well as a dedicated dodge roll making combat even more fast paced and dynamic.

Combat can feel very fast paced and intense due to enemies attack from the background and foreground, dealing with hazards, death pits, timing jumps as well melee attacks close by enemies and parrying projectiles.

One disappointing aspect of Neon Inferno is that the main weapon you'll get is the base pistol. No powerups of getting weapons like shotguns, rocket launchers, electricity guns or flamethrowers. It would've been nice if the game got me to wreck havoc with some powerful weapons from time to time and can help widdle away at the health of bosses or get past certain enemy hordes to get to them faster. You do get powerups at the shop inbetween missions but the best on is a shield that doubles HP and they can only be used once per level.

This leads to the difficulty and it's rather bizarre. For 4 out of the 6 levels, it feels well balanced and a solid challenge. Not having you do too much content upon death. However, this changes when doing the 4th level Baptism by Fire where there is are long enemy waves, bosses and dogs that will slowly but surely chip away at health and then doing it all again when dying since the checkpoints are so far apart. There is a lengthy phased boss fight that can take a lot of damage. You might've used your power up before fighting her too.

Level 6 is where you don't get access to the shop so no shield power up at the start and it ends with yet another phased boss fight that has double HP on normal.

I lowered to easy on both these levels. It's a shame the game couldn't get the "just right" feeling for the all the levels instead of 4 out of 6. Still, I'm glad they got it for most of the game.

Overall, I had a fun time with Neon Inferno, it brought some interesting innovation to the 2D run and gun style game with good controls and combat with multiple factors to account for. Just wished it had more weapons to use and less difficulty spikes on normal difficulty.

Heretic(Playstation 5) Review

Nightdive recently remastered both this game and Hexen. It was a surprise shadow drop and I'm looking for another excuse to play through Heretic again and this remaster was a great excuse to do it. As a whole it still holds up and in ways differentiates itself from Doom in ways I didn't notice when I played it the first time.

The first big difference of course is that you can look up or down.

Another one is with the weapons. Sure, it's all based on archetypes found in Doom but they have their own little quirks. The Elven Wand is the pistol but it's far more reliable and does more damage than the former. The ammo for it is all over the various maps making a much more reliable fallback weapon. The Etheral Crossbow is the shotgun but it's a projectile weapon with a far wider reach at long range. It can also be almost as deadly as Doom 2's double barrel shotgun at close range. The Hellstafe is like the Plasma Rifle but with a faster fire rate. The Phoenix Rod is a much faster firing rocket launcher. The Gaunlets is the Chainsaw.

There is also quirky weapons unique to Heretic like the Firemace and Dragan Claw. The latter might be the earliest example of having an assault rifle or machine gun in an FPS despite being a magic based weapon.

The death animations are also far superior and satisfying when compared to Doom's. The enemies blow up into chunks upon killing them which makes for far more visercal feedback.

Another way it can feel different in that even on the normal difficulty, it is very easy to be low on ammo especially in the early episodes. Getting overwhelmed here can happen pretty often. With that said because of this I experimented with the various items much more a lot. I used the Tomb of Power on large hordes especially during the boss fight episodes. Morphs Ovums to get some kills when low or too many enemies. Mystic Urns to restore health. Shadow Sphere to occasional sneak by. Ring of Invincibilty can especially be deadly with the Gaunlets. It helped out a lot the River of Fire level when low on ammo.

When high on ammo, I did often run away especially if I knew where the level exit was since it was better to save it all for the next level. Felt oddly surivival horror for an FPS game like this.

Level design is also great especially in Episode 2 onwards. The game always gives you a good sightline on where you are supposed to go or shows you where the different colored key doors are located. You can see them through a window but they are locked off and you need to find them. The levels themselves already have the different colored doors right at the start at the level or somewhere a little latter so there isn't much time spent being lost trying to find them. The levels themselves are pretty large medieval landscapes too fitting the fantasy theme well.

The remastered soundtrack is also well made and fits the game in the moment pretty well.

Some issues are that the game can rely on the fire floors that can damage you way too much. It can be grating when you might try to find the next key or door but you keep taking damage when trying to retrace your steps or trying to find different routes you might've overlooked.

While I did praise the high count of enemies, being low on ammo and picking and choosing fights. At other times it can feel cheap to get randomly attacked from behind or a far away enemy. There are points where you are going through a level can just suddenly get ambushed with no clear or distinct enemy sound cue alerting you to their presence. Sometimes they might even be behind a wall texture.

The Wings of Wrath as far as the first 3 episode are concerned only needed to be used on the final boss of Episode 3. It can feel jarring since they were optional prior to that.

Overall, Heretic still holds up. There's some problems here and there but for a game that could be considered a "Doom clone". There's enough differences here that calling it that can be a disservice.

Tales of Xillia Remastered Review

If there was any game that came close to being a "nostalgic" JRPG for me, Tales of Xillia would be it. I played it around 10 years ago and it's already crazy that it's been that long since I originally beat it. I decided to buy the remaster since it really has been that long and to maybe see if I can get my foot into the door regarding getting into the genre. It was supposed to be that way 10 years ago but it never amounted to much. After playing the game again, I can say the story and writing certainly holds up but the gameplay can be on the iffy side.

The story and writing is easily and by far the best part of the game. Parts of me was a little skeptical if it would hold up and another part of me knew it would since I beat it 10 years ago. If I didn't like it back then especially for a game that took me over 40 hours to beat, I wouldn't finished it in the first place.

As a whole, it mostly certainly does. I chose to play as Jude Mathis this time and what shocked me about his writing in that while he is naive, he is not an idiot. Characters who have traits of naive idealism can run the risk of being insufferable and obnoxious and thankfully, Jude avoids this. He has his moments of helping out the cast when Presa shows up early game and he notices something wrong in the rock formation and tells Alvin to shoot it. He also starts to slowly mature and grow out of his naivety as well.

The rest of the cast of characters are all equally as well layered and likeable too. Milla's interactions with various cast members can be entertaining due to being an all knowing spirit but she only watched humanity but never truly interacted with them which can lead to some entertaining observations and misunderstandings.

Characters like Alivn and Rowan are also entertaining. The former being a charming and sharp tongued mercenary who has a good heart but can often question who's side he's on. Rowan being a famous war general who was also a deserter but slowly starts becomes proactive and changes the world for the better.

Elise is a child character that manages to avoid being annoying, useless and slowly develops throughout the game. The ending in particular with her felt very touching.

What also greatly helps with all this is the skit system. It's something about this particular series I always liked since even when characters in your party aren't being used during gameplay, they still get speak and interact with the cast and aren't invisible until key story moments.

The story also tends to play with your expectations regarding who the real overarching villain is but when he does show himself, he is the most honorable and noble of the bunch. It's easy to see people do root for him and you almost want him not want to him.

It does get a little hard to follow due to a twist that happens late game but it doesn't get too convoluted.

Issues with the story is that the villains before the one I described can feel a bit underdeveloped. Natichal being chief among them. We learn so much about him and has one cool moment of easily defeating Millia then it's all over and doesn't do much of anything. There is also the fact that due to this, the subplot where fixing Millia's legs can really start to drag due to how long the main cast is seperated.

With all this said, while I'm not big on the gameplay. The sense of being on a journey this game created can feel impeccable. Beating the game felt like I just ended a relationship with a group of buddies I hung around with for a while. That is something I don't think a movie, book, TV show animated or live action can even create.

I'm describing the story so much because it's the main reason to play the game. Combat while fine for a few hours can start to get very, very montonous. With the party of Jude and Millia and using Elise for healing can often consist of fighting the same enemies beating them the same enemies over and over. Flame Sphere is a linked arte that can instantly end regular enemy encounters. Much of the game is this.

Bosses can be more challenging due to having more HP and later arcane artes but due to the monotonous enemy encounters, I lowered to easy because the former are more manageable and the latter is over much quicker.

Level design is also not very good and suffer from Castlevania Curse of Darkness problem where everything looks so similar and if you don't have the map screen at all times, it's easy to get lost. Doubly so if the levels have verticality. Not even the waypoint markers in the remaster alleviates this. It can almost be a guessing game if you are even going the right way. Finding the proper path felt like a game of luck half the time.

The shop system is admittedly kind of interesting in that it gave me something to look forward to after killing so many enemies to get money and materials to upgrade the shop. This aspect did prevent the gameplay from getting overly montonous.

Overall, story holds up but gameplay is on the weaker side.

Chaos Legion Review

The best way of describing Chaos Legion is that it's a complete mess. There's some interesting ideas here. You'd see it's gameplay mechanics pop up in Devil May Cry 5. Astral Chain would use them. The upcoming Tides of Annhilation is seemingly using the ideas brought forth by this game. It being made by Capcom during the 6th gen made finally decide to decide to play it and well to put it simpily, it is such a bizzarely put together title that it could've only have released in that era.

The story, oh man the story. To put it simpily there certainly is a story here, a very badly told and put together story. It starts you off in the middle of the action expecting you to know what's going on. Sieg and Delecriox were once friends but the death of a woman important to them drives the latter to turn heel. There's a girl that appears later that shares a striking resemblance to the dead girl named Arcia.

It doesn't help that most if not all of the character interactions are either non stop exposition dumps or just characters showing the only character trait of constantly showing angst. This goes double for Delecriox which seems to be the only thing he knows how to do or talk about how the death Siela has ruined him.

The plot mainly consists of Sieg and Arcia wondering around, fight Delecroix and then do some more wandering. There is some world building about an order of some kind but it's all so badly presented through title crawls that it's hard to really get attached. Sieg and Delecroix seem to be the only active members and that's it.

There is a scene later in the game where Arcia dies after being shot in the head but ha not really fake out.

It is fascinating in how bad this story is even for Capcom action game standards.

Gameplay is where things get interesting and where it's ideas get borrowed from. In Chaos Legion, you don't fight alone, you do what the title implies fight with a Legion of familars.

It's about using your familars effectively to get through battles rather than be effecient on your own. Sieg can summon them using his as long as his Soul guage is filled. Legions taking damage drains them but hitting enemies will get it back up and do a little damage to the enemies themselves.

This is sound on paper however the gameplay problems start rushing in quickly. The awkward controls, design and structure reer in their ugly head fast.

Enemies are damage sponges even on easy. The thing that made this tolerable was that larger foes dropped health upon health. In order to lock on you need to hit them with lightning which can be problematic since bigger enemies and bosses can level your health bar very quickly. Since stages are very long, it can be infuriated to get far into a level, spend minutes trying to lower a larger enemies' health bar, get hit by them once or twice and you could be killed even before you can press start to use a healing item. This is worse for bosses because they can level your health super fast, destroy you soul gauge within seconds on top of being damage sponges. The Legion AI will also prioritze enemies around the boss rather than the boss himself. Force attacks are the only way to do major attacks to the bosses.

To add to all this, Sieg has no real dodge command since all he can do is a backflip. I didn't know after beating you had to use lighting to lock on which you can see why this never got adopted since adds needless busywork when you can just hold a button to lock on.

You can equip two Legions at a time but there is a lot of stop and go. In order to activate your equipped Legion, you need to press L1 to switch press L2 to switch to the next one. There is no seemless switching, you need to press L1 to turn on or off, press L2 to switch and then wait again to press L1 to activate the next Legion. Certain Legion being strong against flesh and others against metal. You want to attack a flesh enemy but then a metallic one? You have to do that tedious switching process I described.

On top of this, you get XP and new Legions but never get a chance to practice the new ones until you get into the levels but by that point you want to just stick with the ones since only two can be equipped at a time. Using new Legions are a risk and a waste of time.

There's also a pointless shooting section with Arcia later in the game where it's only one level for that run of the campaign. Her healing items never transfer over to Sieg making it pointless since you could've played that whole level as him and nothing would be lost.

Save states on emulator and the health drops greatly helped me here.

One amazing thing about the game is the music. It is by far the best thing about it. You might be familar with some songs while not knowing the game itself. There's choirs and electric guitars that do a great job at making the player feel empowered during gameplay. The intermission songs are also fantastic.

Overall, messy game but it's worth checking out of curosity.

Pac-Man World 2: Re-PAC Review

This game was quite the surprise considering how much I disliked the first game. They fixed most of the issues I had with it. A new easy difficulty known as "Theory Mode" was added this time around where the lives system was removed, you can't take damage and extra platforms were also added. I like the first change but dislike the latter two. I would've prefered no lives but keeping everything the same.

There is some major improvements this time around like the camera controls being more intuitive and having less of that bizarre inbetween of being 2D and 3D. Now it's completely 3D. The double jump which I found really weirdly implemented in the first game is the same but with "butt bounce" you have to time where when done correctly can get you to jump even higher sort of feeling a precursor to Hulk being able to leap massive distances in Hulk Ultimate Destruction. The regular jump is more along the lines of Mario's jump arc in his 3D outings.

The speed boosters feel better to use here than in the first game due to the better controlling camera and not awkwardly being into 2D and 3D.

Level design is mostly solid with World 2 making great use of the Butt Bounce ability later parts of the game don't do as much.

The most challeging parts even on Theory Mode are the bosses. World 2, 5 and the final boss. World 2 due to camera and how it moves after you land a blow on the boss. World 4 due it to not using the base game's mechanics and being a very dragged out shump section. I'm glad I played on easy here due to how long this boss lasts. Spooky and 3 phases and the hardest part is that now you have to master the Butt Bounce even though you never needed to be good with it after World 2.

There is a challenging Crash Bandicot boulder chase in World 3 but those are generally hard due to not seeing what's in front of you. It is weird how this is the only time a sequence like this pops up.

Story is okay, just a usual platfomer story with an over the top bad guy. I do like Spooky for how over the top he is.

The remake does add a lot of improvements and reduced difficulty as a whole compared to the original which I never played.

Overall, Re Pac 2 is a solid game considering how much I couldn't stand playing the original title. This was a solid improvement.

Splinter Cell: Essentials Review

Playing Splinter Cell Esstentials now really does hit differently. Back when I originally played it was easy to see why I didn't get very far and I dropped after a few missions. When I orginally played it, the series still had entries coming out for it and didn't become the dormant franchise it is now. Conviction was out for a little while and Blacklist was around the corner. This was all before Sam Fisher was relegated to being a crossover character in other Ubisoft franchises or had it's mechanics or ideas pop in other franchises by the company. It'll be a miracle if that remake ever comes out. However due to me watching Splinter Cell Deathwatch a few months ago with no SC game on a modern platform and I also randomly got interested in playing portable spinoffs for franchises I liked, I decided to jump into Esstentials again and beat it this time.

Upon beating the game, it is very easy to see why the game got the lukewarm reception it did. Controls are awkward even when playing on a controller with the PPSSPP emulator. Where you need to press down on the d pad to switch between camera controls and regular actions Sam Fisher can do leading to lots of "stop and go" with the movement. For example, you want to crouch and then turn the camera? Press down, switch to camera mode to turn it, then press again and press circle to crouch. Climbing on a pipe or want to fully climb on then get off? Press triangle, tap it twice, then press down to view the camera position yourself and press down again and hit circle to get off. There was no way into emulator configuration to have right stick controls at all times.

The contextual command menu now pauses every time you activate it, creating a bizarre dissonace between the player and the game world. The movement controls can feel awkward and unresponsive even when not playing on the PSP analog nub.

Many of the levels are reused from past titles or are themed after them. With the only big standouts in the main campaign being Colombia, Steel Factory and NSA HQ. Colombia being the first real mission and by far the longest. Every mission after isn't as long. NSA HQ being an incredible mission where it feels like a playable interactive thriller where Sam has to infiltrate his home turf with only Grim being his geniune lifeline.

The story is also very incoherently presented and requires you to play Double Agent even if you play either version, it's almost impossible to decipher what is going due to how quickly every plot point is being thrown at the player.

In spite of all this, I still got more enjoyment out the game then I thought I would. It's like watching a decent adaptation of a source material that hasn't gotten updated in years if not decades even if it is sub par, the things I liked about Splinter Cell is still there. The darkness system which is stealth game design that the industry especially in bigger budget games have all but forgotten now.

Sam being very agile and nimble like being able to climb and interact with very ledges and handholds just gives him and the player of feeling like a super cool sneaky ninja.

There is also other interesting aspects like how it feels like an inbetween of the first two games and Chaos Theory. You got the look of the older games and much of the same movement but you have Chaos Theory's knife and some it's animations like the instant knockout and kill as well as the grab. Door bash from CT manages to pop up. Double Agent's hacking mini game would also pop up here.

The devs were smart in that taking out enemies from the front when they alerted causes Sam to get hit by their bullets so you can't spam this. It's only effective when guards are unaware.

The guard interrogations are also really fun and entertaining too.

That is pretty much Splinter Cell Essentials in a nutshell much of what I find endearing about the game is stuff that is done better in other games in the series but me being a fan searching for a new experience made me tolerate all this stuff. It comes back to what I said about how it's like a decent but sub par adaptation or a brand new entry to dormant or obscure series. Me already being a fan makes me put up with this stuff a lot more than someone who doesn't have an already established attachment.

Overall, it's worth checking out for if you are curious fan of the series like myself. It's functional enough to get to the end if nothing remarkable.

Hitman Absolution(Playstation 3) Review

This was a game when I originally played, I couldn't help but be so disappointed and aggrevated at. I played Blood Money prior to it and like many, Absolution can feel very appalling to play by comparison. However upon playing it again over a decade later, there are aspects of about the game that can be endearing. It ultimately depends on what difficulty you play on and how much you can put up with the game and level design changes from Blood Money.

One thing that is undeniable about Absolution is that the graphically from both an art and technical standpoint, it looks incredible. From the densely packed streets of Chinatown and the crowded subway later in the game to neon lit buildings and western movie style of the South Dakota levels. Every mission from the hospital being invaded by criminals to the more mechanical and industry look of Dexter Industry to the rainy, darker and brooding Blackwater Park. It's some of the best technical and art direction the 7th gen had to offer.

The only gripe with visuals is how character models look when they are wet or are covered in liquid. They tend to look very oily which is the only bad thing I can say.

Speaking of the bad, the story is terrible. The voice acting and solid cutscene cinematics might fool some into thinking there is a well written story here but most if not all of the narrative consists of contrived writing, one note characters, and a poorly presented plot.

Everything involving Absolution's story almost feels like a parody of the series. The entire story proposes the idea of, "how does a bald guy with bar code on the back of his head get anywhere as a profesional killer?" The story is written in a way that wants to be tongue and check but it is presented entirely with a straight face.

You got characters like Birde who is called that because he is an informant who likes to be around birds. You got a crazy psychotic business tycoon who wants more money than already has because reasons? There is a genetically engineered teenage girl clone assassin who is very efficient at killing but take a USB drive off her and she is harmless if not outright useless. There are nun assassins who just pop up just for 47 to kill them. That is just some of the characters that are just dumb and one note for the sake of it.

It doesn't help that much of the writing is very contrived. There is of course the infamous scene of Blake Dexter killing the housemaid to frame an unconcious 47 who got incapacited seconds prior to then just blowing up the hotel building. There is a scene later in the game where Dexter doesn't give Victoria to Benjamin Travis after getting the money because if Dexter to give her to the latter, 47 would have no idea where Victoria would be since no informant and Dexter needs to die for the payoff. Dexter in general is trying to be a "love to hate" villain but he acts so illogical that he comes off as a self indulgent moron.

47 also infiltrates a courthouse just for him to get captured in a cutscene. 47 randomly hangs around and takes a relaxation break just for the assassin nuns to randomly find him.

It doesn't help that Victoria is a macguffin that 47 never speaks to or interact and spends most of the game kidnapped by Blake Dexter. The npc dialogue and conversations are decent at least. 

This is what I mean. The only way for the story to go anywhere in Absolution either the villains act illogical or 47 acts incompetent in a cutscene. It sounds like a parody of Hitman but it is just played too straight to be interesting.

Gameplay however fares better but it does depend on what difficulty you play on. Before I describe that, when it comes to the controls and mechanics. Absolution is the best the series ever felt at that point. Crouch speed is faster than prior games, you can create distractions, fiber wire kill from behind can be chained into a body drag, there is a smooth cover system, swat turning and the inventory is easy to use. Shooting feels decent and fist fights are QTEs to get out of a quick jam.

If I judged Absolution entirely on this then it might be the best game in the series. However there are two things that prevent that. First is the instinct meter. Every guard in the level can see through your disguise if it's similar to yours which can be silly. The level design is a mixed bag since the game is at it's best when it's traditional open sneaking levels where it's about sightline evasion rather walking out in the open. When it tries to be like prior games, you need to use instinct more and some areas have too many guards clumped together where if you run out, the level becomes much harder to play stealth. The checkpoint system doesn't help either.

A large part in my enjoyment is that I played on easy. Meaning I had lots instinct, hardly ever died and put up with the checkpoint system, and you got away with more mistakes. Play it on higher modes and this all falls apart.

Overall, Absolution is decent but very messy.