Short Game Reviews: February 2022

Ratchet and Clank(2016):

Really good game, and is way more fun to play than the original but due to it being a pseudo movie tie in game, a lot of the game can feel empty at times. It's just a padded out version of the movie in order to fit the length of a game. Everything looks and feels great and the quick select is a great addition to the series but so much of it can feel vacant because it wasn't an original game in the series made for the ground up. A lot of the levels in the game have a "come and go" feel as a result because they were movie scenes that needed to have gameplay sections shoved in. The upgrade system also felt like of weird and awkward but it's not too bad. 

Some of the story ideas are interesting like Ratchet trying to be a good person despite having a criminal past but it's never fleshed out enough to be substantial and Clank being a "defect" yet again the same issue applies. Quark does much of the story's heavy lifting. Drek also feels pathetic to the original, I don't know what was really the point in making Dr. Nefarious the main bad guy, he already was in a number of games until this point. 

Still, it's a lot of fun and if you want some really solid shooting and platforming, it's a good time.

Super Mario World:

The game is really good minus the mandatory secret world exits and Ghost Stages.

Severed Steel:

Campaign was a lot of fun and the objectives felt nice and varied enough. The weapons sort of felt like Dead to Rights 1 and 2 where you just use all the ammo and then can't use the weapon unless if picked up again. Combat was very satisfying and the length of the campaign fit the game well enough mainly because I can picture these objectives getting very dull if done for 6 hours on repeat.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure:

It's pretty solid overall. My only big issue with the game is the Dreamer Orbs and how they pad out the game. It got annoying later on where I just couldn't simpily enjoy the levels and I was always concerned with getting most of the Dreamer Orbs. Still, it's a nice and varied platformer. The voice acting is also really good too. Vex's actor was a lot of fun.

Necromunda: Hired Gun:

I am not sure if it was the recent patch or that it runs better on PS5 but in any case, the PS5 version ran WAY better than PS4. I kept getting crashes so many times on PS4 while PS5 I never got a single one. I am glad that I got a PS5 if multiplat games are going to run like shit on PS4 now. But overall, Necroumunda is a fun time, if I played this on PS5 first, I probably wouldn't have had such a sour taste in my mouth. Basically it's a weird combination of Titanfall 2 and New Doom. It's much jankier than both of them but for a AA game managing to pull off this kind of fast paced gameplay is an impressive feat. The Penultimate boss really does suck a lot, and once you get to him, the game starts getting lame but overall, it's an enjoyable time. It's health system is rather unique too. I can picture the Halo series benefitting from the health system this game has.