Short Game Reviews: July 2022

Stray:

Pretty decent action adventure game, all though I would preferred the game to have more of the stealth based puzzles overall. They were the most enjoyable parts for me.

Industria:

Overall, it's a decent game. I actually think it works well as a Steampunk Half Life but my big issue with this game is the length. The puzzles, exploration and shooting all feel satisfying enough and the weapon sound effects are great but it being a 2 hour game really feels like the game ends super anticlimatically. The ending just comes out of nowhere. It's weird how these 2 hour fps games exist like Severed Steel, Bright Memory Infinite and this game. It's worth checking out but at a sale price.

Klonoa(Phantasy Revive Remake): 

Pretty good game overall, it has a lot of solid jumping puzzles and the story is more engaging than your usual platformer but a lot of frustration comes from actually trying to aim your grabs. In fact so much of it, comes from a lack of actual precesion. Still a solid game, and I am glad the recent remaster gave you unlimited lives because those later levels can be really annoying.

Spider-Man Miles Morales:

Worse than the base game in terms of story but it's still good enough in it's own right. It did the whole, "protagonist starting out as a superhero" better than the Avengers game did. I also think stealth and combat are improved overall. Mainly because this game doesn't have anything as overpowered as double finishers in the base game. I also find stealth an interesting blend of Crysis(when you unlock cloaking) and Tenchu. I did wish the game pushed you into it more because I didn't notice the stealth improvments until I started to use the stealth mechanics more at my own volition. 

Now I just wonder why I ever want to play as Peter Parker since Miles is way more fun to play as. Got to wonder how Insomniac will solve this but overall, as an expansion sequel, the game is solid.

Burnout 3: Takedown:

I enjoy the game, the driving is satisfying, takedowns feel awesome and the risk reward system is great and I love how fast and reckless you can be but there are a number of thing that hold the game back.

First, I am not an avid racing game player but the lack of a story more so the lack of a trational campaign I found bothersome, it felt like I was barely making any progress. This might not be an issue for some but the way I consume games I prefer a tradional campaign structure.

First, I am not an avid racing game player but the lack of a story more so the lack of a trational campaign I found bothersome, it felt like I was barely making any progress. This might not be an issue for some but the way I consume games I prefer a tradional campaign structure.

Lord of the Rings Return of the King Game Review:

For being scripted brawlers based on a movie, there is some enjoyment to be found. Combat is janky but it is decent and is actually better than some WRPGs that I played. I am kind of interested in playing some musou games now after playing this, I am not even sure why, I guess there is a weird power fantasy in killing hundreds of moronic enemies. The protect missions are as bad but there are less of them in Return of the King.

I do like that in Return of the King, you can buy moves and health upgrades for multiple characters so you won't be "underleveled" when you play as characters like Aagorn and Sam. The boss fights are awkward. I did find the scenarios where you played as Sam to be pretty cool. Like throwing spears at a shielded orc to break his defense or setting traps to kill a number of orcs or avoiding the Nazgul's line of sight while he is patrolling around the castle. Using fire to fend off the spiders was interesting too.

It's weird playing LOTR Two Towers and Return of the King tie in games. I heard they were hidden gems for a long time and they are pretty solid but all they really did was make me want to watch the LOTR movies again, so in a sense they are trailers for the movies so I am not sure if it's a good or bad thing if they are that. As games they are decent for being movie tied to a movie and as trailers, they work extremely well.

Overall, some of the better movie licensed games.

Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex PS2 Review

It's...alright. The game is decent but it feels half baked in so many ways. Might as well say the good things are that the voice cast from the dub all reprise their roles and they all do a good job. The look, sound and feel of the SAC TV series are replicated pretty well here. The game's production values overall is of high quality. The music is pretty good and is better than the music of Arise and 2045, surprisingly. The guns feel nice and the damage animations have a solid feedback to them. The game also checkpoints really well and gives you a health refill at the start of each checkpoint after death, I also think the partially regen health is nice since I prefer an inbetween of regen and finite rather than have it be on either extreme. This is where my praise ends.

The game isn't horrible but it isn't good either. The game has a number of half baked ideas that isn't really fleshed out that well. To name examples, hacking into people is only ever mandatory for one part of the game, and that is in the first level with the snipers, you control a jameson cyborg only once, you play as Tachikoma only once and the level is less than 5 minutes, it makes me wonder why they even bother adding in a Tachikoma level if it's not even going to be that long nor does it feel that empowering. It certainly doesn't feel on par with riding a caragoor in the Middle Earth games where you get to wreck havoc and have an empowering theme playing. There is the melee system which can allow you to chain into multiple enemies which you never need. Stuff like throwing knives are useless with the Major since they do little damage and the wind up animation is so long, grenades and other throwable are useful and they fortunately have nice feedback to them.

Speaking of the Major, the platforming levels with her are really awkward, and while a part of me finds charming because of their early 00s platforming jank but they just don't feel that enjoyable to control or play and they tend to feel unpolished, precise jumps can be difficult and the ledge grab doesn't always work when you want it to. I tend to prefer Batou's levels mainly in that they tend to be more focused on shooting and have very little platforming. All though the heavy shooting parts leads into another problem I have with the game in that the game not just only finds a way of upping challenge by throwing in lots of enemies at you and them being hitscan at that and having your evade command be useless because the camera is out of your control when the animation plays, but you can bypass a good number of the shootouts by running to the next waypoint since the game throws in so many enemies and shotgunners and grenade launcher enemies tend to stagger you pretty badly up close, it's often better to bypass challenging shootouts entirely. The game tells you where to go too, so you can just run past everyone and shoot the occasional enemy. This aspect of the game feels like another aspect where the game was rushed out the door. Snipers can also be grating since they kill you in one hit and it often revolves around know where he is located and killing him before he gets a lock on you.

Now the story itself is kind of okay, it feels more like a lost episode of SAC than a geniune anime filler episode, it even introduces enemy tanks which 2nd Gig would feature heavily and it has stuff involving mirco machines, and you learn about a previous case Togusa was on before joining Section 9 but the way the story is delivered however is...questionable. Cutscenes are fine but when the the game uses in game voices lines to deliver information, it can get irritating. Getting shot at while characters are saying plot vital information at you and having the game take away control from the player and having the characters say their lines and the continuing on with the levels makes me wonder if the game was better off not being a third person shooter. There is a reason why codec calls in Metal Gear Solid games take control away from the player and have the player character be in a "safe zone" when the conversation is going on, it makes it easier to pay attention to the story. It was teetering on the edge of super silly when Motoko was getting into an argument with a goddamn tank while the player has to avoid getting shot at and getting a game over. How am I supposed to pay attention to what is going on while this is happening?

Overall, games like GITS SAC on PS2 is the reason why I tend to be lukewarm on licensed anime games, they tend to be made for people who are fans of the license rather than being a good game first and foremost, if people want to bash an adaptation of a media franchise for not being "faithful" enough and not being made by "fans", despite being okay this game and anime licensed games in general is what I point at to show that belief is super flawed. It's worth trying out if you are a GITS SAC fan and have a curosity for it, for people who want a good game? Skip.

Ghost in the Shell 1995 Review

Ghost in the Shell is an interesting movie to talk about. It was one of the earliest examples of anime in the west along with Akira and Ninja Scroll. It was also one of the earliest examples of "prolific" anime dealing with more abstract philophical themes along with something like Neon Genesis Evangelion all though unlike the latter, I actually do tolerate this movie more by comparison.

Let's get to the good, the animation and Kenji Kawaii's music are absolutely breathtaking. I think these 2 aspects are worth checking the music movie out for alone. I feel like some of the most memorable aspects of Mamoru Oshii movies is just having him montage his visuals and have Kawaii's music play in the background. I always find it memsmerizing whenever it happens. The opening sequence "Creation of a Cyborg" was just beautiful to watch. The action is also very good, it feels grounded enough and gritty. The fight scene with ghost hacked criminals and the tank being highlights. Also, I do find the themes of the story interesting with it's themes of identity and questioning your own memories to be interesting enough.

Now, on to the bad or should i say, the more lukewarm aspects of the movie. While the themes of the movie are interesting, the actual plot feels like a smaller part of a bigger story. I did read the GITS manga and while it is a difficult manga to adapt to a movie, it felt like Oshii and the writers took the couple of the later chapters of the manga and adapted other parts from it and turned it into a movie narrative. It kind of feels like the Spriggan movie from the 90s in how that movie adapted one arc of the manga and turned into a movie narrative. Due to this, some things feel half baked. For example, the movie goes out of it's way to describe the character of Togusa but he doesn't really play that big of a role in the grand scheme of the overarching plot outside of planting a tracker on a vehicle and solving a weird issue 2 people entering a door and it taking 3 seconds longer to get in. Then there is also Batou's attachment towards the Major and also Major's backstory and history while it is easy to blame this on being a movie, I also find it because they tried to adapt a manga that mainly told it's story in stand alone cases that eventually started to link together. Due to all this, the characters can feel rather dull due to how underdeveloped they can feel. Also, while I get the ending for being "open ended", it feels like it an end of a chapter and more was going to happen.

Overall, if you want an interesting philosophical anime movie with great visuals and music, you can't go wrong with this one but if you want a story with a more of an exapnded world, story and characters, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is the better anime to go with. Watch that series, after you watch this movie. Just a disclaimer, they are both in different continuities but are based on the same manga

Level Design Analysis Series #2: Splinter Cell franchise

 

It's been a while since I did one of these and I do want to keep this series alive, so here is another level design analysis but now on the Splinter Cell franchise. Before I get started, I would like to give a disclaimer that I am covering Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Splinter Cell Double Agent "V2", and Splinter Cell Blacklist. So let's go:

Splinter Cell is a rather fascinating franchise in that basically combined aspects of 3 stealth game franchises. It has the verticality of Tenchu, the themes and setting of Metal Gear Solid and most importantly it took the sound design and light and dark mechanics from the Thief franchise. By combing aspects of all 3 franchises Splinter Cell stood out from many games at the time.

Now what else that makes Splinter Cell stand out? It's how the levels are put together. Here is the thing with Splinter Cell, compared to Thief and even stuff like the Hitman games and the first Deus Ex game, Splinter Cell at its heart has always been more "linear" compared to those games even Chaos Theory, the most "open" game in the series. The word "linear" tends to get a really bad reputation but I argue being linear on its own is not a bad thing, it's the level of challenge and the amount moment to moment decision making the player does in those levels is what makes or break level design in any game, regardless of it being "linear".

So with that out of the way, how does Splinter Cell handle being more "linear" compared to Thief 1 and 2, some of the Hitmans and Deus Ex? The thing is, those games I mentioned gives you one massive level to explore and you can do your assigned objectives in any order you want or have a number of ways of tackling your objectives. Splinter Cell adheres to the latter, but not the former. Splinter Cell is what I like to call it "open stealth room challenges". The original game and Pandora Tomorrow are this but are much more strict in how you can do it. You do have another way of solving the stealth room in both games. For example, in both games you can either, knock everyone in the room(as long as it's not people who need to stay conscious for the mission), you can shoot everyone in the head using the pistol or the 40K as long as no one spots you and the mission gives you the "Fifth Freedom", you can use the various gadgets like Sticky Shockers, Airfoil Rounds, Stick Cameras, you can find an alternate hidden route where you can bypass guards entirely, or you can use the guard AI to lure them over to you and you can knock them out or "ghost" past them after destroying the lights easier in Pandora Tomorrow since it introduces the "whistle" feature. Splinter Cell for me, tends to be at its most fun when you combine all of these tactics in every level. The only issue with these 2 games is that guard AI is spotty, guards are very trigger happy and can kill you super quickly, and some of these tactics requires you to hide bodies a lot or else you can trigger an alarm since 3 alarms in these games and game oven even if you are far in a mission. This is where Chaos Theory and Double Agent V2 comes in. Where in the first game and PT, you had open stealth rooms but you had to be careful at all times when playing them due to the issues I mentioned, CT and DA V2 are much less strict and give you more options how to tackle each stealth room challenge. For example, they give you much more open space to move around to avoid guards and add more alternate pathways to avoid guards. It doesn't end there, both games you a light disruptor called the "OCP" which means you can mess with more nuanced guard AI and don't have to worry about possible alerts when shooting out lights like in the first game and PT. Sam Fisher's movement options are improved and his animations feel better. You also get more opportunities for stealth takedowns from ledges, pipes, and from the water as well as a quick tap of the knock out or kill button to quickly takedown alerted guards, you can also find codes or hack into keypads as well. Also there is various shortcuts like crawl spaces and cutting cloth for an alternate path.

So what am I saying with all this? The core philosophy of the 1st two Splinter Cells remain but are vastly expanded upon and have much more options within the stealth rooms themselves. CT and DA V2 are more of interconnected stealth rooms rather than just a straight line each featuring a stealth room.

Here is the thing with CT's level design, it is very much a linear game like I said, all the objectives the player has to do in every mission must be completed in a certain order and backtracking is minimal compared to Thief 1 and 2. There are bottlenecks in the levels, especially if you look try to find them but I argue this level design is more like Timesplitters 2, Syphon Filter and the earlier Medal of Honor games, where the objectives have to be done in a specific order and the player will complete them as they go through them, the only major difference is that in CT, the do "x amount of stuff" is optional where in the above mentioned games they are mandatory.

To give an 2 examples in how the levels in CT is ultimately linear, I will use the levels where Douglas Shetland pops up. In the mission "Hokkaido". There is a wooden spiked door at the start of the level that the player can't open or access that leads you to the end of the level where Shetland kills Zherkezhi, if the player tries to backtrack during the level, before Shetland does the kill, he won't be able to go through that door, when Shetland does kill him, then the player is allowed to go through that door from the other side. The second example: "The Bathhouse". The player can go through all the rooms where he is eventually going to confront Shetland and his goons, but if you try to get to Shetland before going to the registry, Lambert will tell you to go to the registry and until you look it up, you can't confront Shetland.

I am not saying any of this is bad, I just find it fascinating how CT disguises it's linearity compared to other games that attempt stealth.

Now, I will get to the next game, Splinter Cell Blacklist. It's rather surprising how Blacklist stays true to the level design philosophy of the previous Splinter Cells before Conviction. In a sense, it combines Conviction's stealth system with level design of SC1, PT, CT and DA V2. In Blacklist, you have all the options that were removed in Conviction like knock outs, gadgets, luring guards to you but you now have Conviction's climbing mechanics and cover system. In Blacklist, it is very much the open stealth room challenges of the games before Conviction but much more modernized. Blacklist has open stealth rooms that the player can traverse and you can do it either by the use of Sam's agility, lure guards to you, use gadgets, or use the cover system to slip past guards. Now giving the player much more enemy awareness due to the detection arrows returning from Conviction. Now the games gives you 3 play styles, guns blazing, ghost, or killing guards using stealth. I feel like Blacklist in many ways was a pretty high note to end the series on, minus some of the forced action parts which might be a carryover from SC1 and PT.

In conclusion, Splinter Cell is very much one of my go to examples on how to do linear game design and was a rather clever way to modernize the stealth genre on consoles where games like Thief Deadly Shadows and Deus Ex Invisible War struggled a great deal due to no longer being PC exclusives. Splinter Cell in many ways was the stealth genre for a console audience done right. 

Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex Review

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, an anime I have a huge soft spot for. It's one of the anime back 10 years ago that got me into the medium again after having a weird hiatus from it back in 2008. I always did like the show even though teenage me might've not have 100% grasped what is going on, but watching it now, I feel like this show is even better than I remembered when I watched it the first time and the second time.

Honestly, many have praised this show a lot and it's anime that actively rewards the viewer for paying attention to it especially when I try to spot little details in all my favorite works. I knew this series was something special when at the end first episode Kubota asked the Geisha who was hit in the head of the start of the first episode if she was alright after botching the job he had at embassy early in the episode. I knew from then on that, "yeah this show is something". It was a detail they honestly didn't have to really add but they did and it felt rewarding to spot. Other details include Section 9 having access to the US statallite after the Jungle Cruise episode or the former Prime Minister Kanzaki tipping off Aramaki about Yakushima and his naval contacts after resuing his daughter from the Northern Terrorities. You even see Motoko hiding her watch to Batou after she hack into him at the end of the "Missing Hearts" episode. A plot point that comes up later. Stuff like this is why I really like this show.

On top of all that the characters are really well written too. Togusa doesn't get enough credit if you ask me. He's one of if not the most underrated underdog character ever. You often feel the tension regarding scenes centering him because he is not fully cyberized, has a family, and isn't as experienced as memebers on the team like Batou and the Major is. He is however a good shot with his handgun, and is a great investigator. Batou is one of my favorite characters in anime. The guy is such a joy to listen to and be around. He is short tempered and serious but also has a loveable goofball side to him which can bring in levity to the show. Chief Aramaki is stoic and is very good at pulling strings for Section 9 and tend to pry valueable information when the time comes for it. Pazu is often secretive and never talks much but I do like his man of a few words kind of characters. There is also the Tachikomas who are of course the mascot of the show but are also a clever way to bring in a younger character in an adult oriented show like this one without feeling it feeling out of place. There is also the Major who is a pretty good character in her own right being the leader that keeps everyone on the ground together. Overall, it's easily the one of the best cast of characters in anime.

Then there is also Yoko Kanno's fantastic music, it's easily one of the greatest anime OSTs ever, it fits the show really well and the also "stand alone" really well. The show has a lot of talking that is made clear but the music draws you in and enhances the scenes so well and does a great job at setting the mood every time it plays.

Then there is also Yoko Kanno's fantastic music, it's easily one of the greatest anime OSTs ever, it fits the show really well and the also "stand alone" really well. The show has a lot of talking that is made clear but the music draws you in and enhances the scenes so well and does a great job at setting the mood every time it plays.

The overarching plot of the Laughing Man is quite interesting but I always felt that way when I watched it but I do think the "stand alone" episodes are no slouches either my favorite episodes being "Testation" and "Jungle Cruise". The rest are also pretty solid too and are pretty engaging crime thriller stories. "Escape From" being the only weak link here because it felt like a weird family movie escapade in the first half of the episode but the Kenji Kamiyama has to shove in his love for movies in the 2nd half of the episode by shoving in a cyber crime involving a film maker. It felt the most out of place but still not terrible.

After all that praise, here are some negatives. While the Laughing Man episodes are a great story about intrigue and corporate warfare, I felt the actual main villain Yakushima was really underwhelming. He isn't revealed until late in the series and you never feel his influence on the greater story or feel his prescence. He just kinds of pops up, maybe that was the point but I felt he could've had more character than he actually had. Also, the ending with Serano was weird and I think was supposed to be an opening ending but it felt weird and confusing to me, mainly in that I am not sure who that guy that attacked Serano was. It still confuses me to this day, maybe it's the point, but I am not big on the lack of a clear explanation. And finally, the series can get into it's share of techno babble regarding the name sake of the show. While I get it, the show can get a little too convoluted for it's own good but this is sort of an issue I have with the ending conversation with the Major and Aoi in the last episode.

Overall, of course this show is great, but I just wanted to view what makes it so intriguing watching it a 3rd time.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Review

It's still great but most people have said that already. It easily has the best level design in the series, and a reason for this is because while the game is still ultimately linear, the individual "stealth rooms" gives you way more options to tackle your objectives. For example, a stealth challenge can present different ways to deal with guards, you could whistle a guard over to you and try to bypass them, use the OCP and temporaily disrupt a light source, shoot out a light and risk a guard being much more aware of your prescence, knock out or kill enemies with an instant tap of the bumper, grab them and then human shield and shoot them in the head with the pistol, use the 40K and the gadgets, or find an alternate stealth path with Sam's climbing and there are much more of them compared to the first 2 Splinter Cells. Another aspect this game does well is the AI, this might be the closest thing to a stealth game having "unscripted" patrols while giving you leeway of predictablity to make the game playable. The game makes you feel like an actual ghost more than anyother stealth game ever made. Guards are scared out of their mind to even want to search for you and when you are alerted, they just fire like crazy and hope you die fast, it's a nice change of pace compared to the trigger happy bloodthirsty guards of the first 2 games. The mechanics are as great as they have ever been and the addition of a noise meter plus the way Sam animates is unrivaled in 3rd person stealth games. Sam has a variety of movements in his crouching animations and Sam will move even slower when close to guards.

The story is the best in the SC series up until that point mainly in that it's an interesting enough conspiracy that makes you interested how it will unfold when you get through level after level. The banter between Sam and his team are great and it does have a weird subtext of Sam getting too old in the age digital warfare. The music is also really good and fits the game as well as being one of my favorite OSTs in gaming.

Now, on to the bad, the map is horrible, really bad, it's laid out in a way that is too confusing to be of any geniune help, maybe that is the point but it makes me wonder why does it have a map. I tend to use it whenever I get close to an objective. Another strange thing about the game is that the game gives ledge, pipe, and from water kills but barely gives you any opportunities to use them, it feels weird that they are in the game when they barely even pop up. And while the story is the best SC was up until that point, the villains like Shetland and Otomo basically just monologue their whole character before something dramatic happens which I find to be rather irrating in games like this because it just feels like they are revealing their characters last minute. There isn't a really surefire way to fix this outside of long cutscenes and we got another series to play if you want that, but at the same time, it isn't super compelling. Some of the level bottlenecks can be annoying but overall, great game, it's a must play.

Medal of Honor: Frontline Review

Decent enough game in the series but I can't help but feel like Allied Assault overshadows this game. AA controls better, let's you save anywhere built into the game and let's you reload manually.

I do enjoy this game but mainly because I like the level design, weapon feel and enemy damage animations. They are as solid as ever but the game still controls awkwardly and due to the other above mentioned issues. I also played on easy since I feel this game is a hitscan game that has no checkpoints in the levels at all means the game is more fun when you can take more hits and you don't need to memorize the level and know every single enemy and medkit location to beat them. I get the appeal that can have but I am not really into that style of combat, I just prefer to blast my way through without needing to memorize everything. The last level was annoying due to how stingy the game was when it came to medkits, rocket enemies are cumbersome since they do high damage and you have to hope you can move fast enough to avoid it.

Also, the port of this game on 7th gen systems is a rather lazy one, it's just Frontline with iron sights and that's it, nothing else.

Worth playing, if you like the series but if you never were into it or this style of shooter in general, just pass.

Dawn of the Monsters Review

I enjoyed the game a lot more than I thought I was going to. The combat was pretty solid, it controlled pretty well for a game where you played as a slower giant sized character on a 2D plane.

I don't normally talk about this but the game looked amazing. The animations, the art style, the location variety all really stood out and looked eye popping. The story is pretty decent too, I was engaged with it a lot more than I thought I was going to be, and I am not overly familar with media it draws from. The characters and their interactions did a good enough job at selling the narrative.

Another thing I was surprised by is that for a coop game, the game actually feels doable in solo mode. You get these New Doom style executions that replenish health, special attacks for each character, and dodging which feels pretty smooth and reliable, perfect dodging comes in handy as well. Tempest Gallahad was my favorite character due to her long range attacks as well as her area of effect attacks. I will admit, I didn't engage with stuff like parrying and I did rely on Tempest's stacking up super area of effect attacks late game due to the amount of enemies the late game throws at you but I am glad they were there since I would've just been frustrated by how I keep dying to the late game's enemy waves.

As far as 2D brawlers and Kaiju themed games are concerned, it was a solid enough experience despite combo based brawlers is something I get more of a casual enjoyment out of.

Demon Turf Review

The game is good overall but I think this might be the first 3D platformer that is over 20 hours I ever played, and I was really starting to feel it by the end. It's cool that the game has so much content but man I was really starting to get worn out by the time I beat the Turf 4 boss. I get the return trip levels as an idea on paper, by the time I got done all of the return trip levels on Turf 2, I was starting to get more and more irritated that after every boss, I have to do the remixed levels. That and the amount of times I missed a platform by a few inches because Beebz can't ledge grab started to aggravate the shit out of me. That and the slo mo power really feels super imprecise. You want to aim at specific spot but the bubble will just go where ever it feels like. I also don't get why on earth movement deadzone is so high as the default option.

I also like the checkpoint system, but at the same time, it feels like during the harder levels you really need foresight because you could waste all them early on and not even knowing what lies ahead. I still think it's a cool concept, I might prefer a traditional checkpoint system but this system beats the crap out of lives.

Might as well transition to the good, a lot of the levels are pretty good, and a very enjoyable to get through. The Return Trip levels despite somewhat feeling like padding, I do think was a cool way of reusing content and it was nice to use your new power after beating a boss on the remixed levels. The bosses and combat are pretty decent even if I do think the 3D Raymans do what this game does combat wise but better. I also think the moveset you have is pretty cool too even if I mainly just used 3 because I am a noob and not a speedrunner which this game is aimed towards. Overall, if you want a good 3D platformer to play, try this one out. I'd give this an 8 but the length lowers it to a 7 because some of the flaws became more apparent the more I played it. It's great that Crash 4 started this crazy as hell 3D platforming revival. Looking forward to more.

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction Review

I still like the game but not quite as much as I used to. I'll start with the good. The combat feels great and is so in line with the character of the Hulk while also being a very good combat system in it's own right. I'd say it's one of the better combat systems in an open world game. There's a lot of options to choose from like creating boxing gloves out of cars, shields from buses, throwing stuff, using enviromental objects as makeshift weapons, doing highly powerful air attacks like a super punch later a cannonball and an elbow drop, there's also more "weaponizations" like a ball and chain and missile packs(very useful but can be a nuisance to keep in your hand). There's a lot of decision making here for a combat in an open world game and I commend it for that.

The traversal is also very good, chaining jumps, climbing and running up walls, doing air dashes, this feels like the basis for Prototype's movement system and it feels good in this game. I also like the music as well, I tend to like Bill Brown as a composer.

The story surprsingly is good, it could be because I am a fan of the Hulk character but the whole story feels like a Hulk comic in video game form. The voice acting does a good job at selling the material, and the characters are interesting enough. I quite like this version of Emil Blondsky, he feels like a darker reflection of Bruce Banner which is a sign of a good villain to me. The Blondsky files did reveal more info on the story and I did like that they were voiced and you didn't have to read the text.

So all the praise out of the way, let's talk negatives, there's TOOOO many loading screens way too many. One to get back into gameplay, one to get to the open world, one to start a mission, one to end a mission and one to save your game, a good time is spent looking at loading screens. That and the missions themselves are...not great, there are good ones but the ones that are good tend to involve the combat system and just punching destroying things, the bosses are enjoyable, the CTF style missions however are horrible because they limit movement, can't let you hit anything and a have health bar on them so if it depletes, it's game over.

This combined with the difficulty spikes in the Badlands area is where the frustration can come from. That area has lots of enemies with heat seeking missles which are such a horribly designed aspect of the game because they do high damage, send you flying and could stunlock and plus the high enemy counts in the Badlands missions can be very frustrating. That and I also dislike this in Team Ninja games as well, but if an enemy grabs me, just let me break out of it, it's a fighting game mechanic clearly and those games let you do it. So it's dumb to me and just adds cheapness.

Another problem with the Badlands is that they don't have nearly as many walls for you to climb up from and do super air punches and elbow drops from. The game also has a habbit of overwhelming the player with enemies and if you don't have a critical mass ability lined up, fighting those large numbers can feel hopeless. It just feels weird considering it's a game where you play as the Hulk. I feel like playing the game in free roam where you fight nothing but Strike Teams might be the more fun way to play the game because it's nothing but combat. Now final compliant is that the open world just feels kind of tacked on. Side missions barely give you any Smash Points and most of those come from how many Strike Teams you destroy rather than doing side missions which makes wonder side missions where there. Also, Story Missions don't give you enough Smash Points to unlock a lot of the moves so you may to go to free roam and destroy strike teams anyway.

Overall, Hulk Ultimate Destruction is a good game but it has a number of flaws that hold it back from being great, still worth checking out but it's rough around the edges. Must play for those who like the Hulk or even just Marvel comics in general.

Syphon Filter Review

It would be nice if the game had over the shoulder aiming and dare I am even saying I wish it had a cover system because those flak jacket enemies can be super annoying. The aiming mechanics the game does have aren't great, lock on aiming is rather unreliable due to how the camera while moving can act erratic and it stays locked on after you killed an enemy and first person aiming requires way to much precesion to get headshots consistently while not getting riddled with bullets. I also wish for an ability to lean and and an actual way to reliably avoid fire. The danger meter is interesting on paper but it fills up really quickly even when constantly moving or behind cover when in first person mode and leaning to the side. If you can get past these issues there is a good game here.

The level design is still really good, it feels like a Rare game or Medal of Honor with it's objectives system. One big issue I have with it like all games with this system is that you can miss an objective on your first run and then make it to the level exit and the game is like, "NOPE, YOU GOT TO FIND THAT ONE CRATE TO PLANT A BOMB ON". It was also interesting to see Gabe reach places so high up for a realistic shooter game protagonist.

I do miss this kind of level design, it's all but gone now. And shit, the rewinding and save states on PS5 really comes in handy, there's a number of bullshit parts in the game, but I do enjoy it but if I played it without the save states and rewind????? Not sure. The above mentioned issues would make the game without save states and rewind to be a pain,

Gungrave Overdose Review

Gungrave Overdose is a strange TPS game. Overall, it's mostly the same as the original game but it does give you more options in combat, my big issue with this and while I do like that the game adds more is that the game never really teaches the different options to you properly. You can also spend most of the game never using these options which makes me wonder why they are even there. You also don't even know what the different weapons and unlocks you get even do. It's not even clear how you unlock these different abilites either.

It's weird because the game has a rather basic combat system similar to the first game along with these new options.

Other big issues I have with the game is that the camera controls aren't that great and I feel a camera system similar to Max Payne 1 and 2 could've helped it in that the camera position isn't slanted heavily towards the left or right side. That and when you go flying, the camera can lead to disorientation. The game also tends make combat encounters artifically challenging by throwing in lots of enemies and damage sponge enemies at you, and since you got to remain very still in order for your shield to regen and it's easy to get overwhelmed meaning that it can lead to frustration waiting the shield to finally kick in after hopefully avoiding enemy attacks long enough while standing still.

I also wish the game had more weapon variety, I am not sure if you can unlock them but I really wished for some shotguns and sub machine guns, it would've added some more spice to the combat and shotguns would've made the tougher damage spongier enemies more bearable to deal with.

The game does checkpoint well enough at least, and I like it for that, Grave's animations are still very good to look at. What did honestly get me through the game was the story. For a shooter, I feel the story in this game is pretty engaging. The story throws a lot like cloning, aliens, reanimated corpses, crime families, ghosts and so much more, it's craziness as well as characters like Juji Kabane and the overall voice acting being so good that I was more attached to the story here than I usually am to these kinds of games. It was like watching a pretty solid anime series. I do think the game is worth looking into for the story, not sure if you can get past the awkward shooting gameplay even it is okay.

Klonoa 2 Remake Review

This will be mainly cover Klonoa 2 since I already went over the first game's remake on the Wii on that page.

Klonoa 2 is a very good game and it's superior to the first where Klonoa 1 was a solid foundation, 2 just ups the ante and stuff to throw at the player. There's bigger jumps, more puzzle gimmicks, different types of enemies to grab and more. It does a great job at expanding on everything the first game did even the story is pretty decent too even though the remake would've been better if it just let's you press x to skip through the dialogue faster after reading it. I guess it's because I am faster at reading and I read the subtitles faster than the characters can act out the words and I just want the character to hurry up already. It's an issue I have with anime subtitled but that's a different topic.

Also the last couple of levels especially the Ark Revisited and onwards can be pretty challenging mainly due to how long they are, it's weird Klonoa 2 before that level felt balanced around the lives system but the levels before the final snowboarding section feels like you are just wasting your time with the lives and the unlimited continues on easy comes in handy, the Ark Revisited is a pretty good level without the stress of dying and losing all your lives and doing an half an hour of content. The level after is also good.

There are issues both games have like when you use the Wind Bullet and you swore you grabbed on to to the post or threw the enemy and it should've landed but it didn't register, stuff like that can be very irritating and can lead to occasional frustration but I think it's an issue you can look past with the easy mode and lives disabled.

Overall, I am glad that both Klonoa games are easily avaliable and Klonoa 2 especially is no longer that rare collector's item that is also a bitch to run on emulator. The easy mode helps with the longer and harder levels too. 1 is worth playing but 2 is a sequel that improves upon it in every way.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Game Review

At first I enjoyed this game but the more it went on the more I started to get more and more sick of it. I could see why I could never get far into back when I first played it. It's a typical movie tie in game where it's action scenes from the movie dragged out to be a video game level. It also shoves in scenes from the movie and expects the person who is playing to know what is happening which is typical of the tie in games from the era. It's also so weird seeing scenes from ROTS without any of the context leading up to them and the lack of music from the movie was greatly disappointing since ROTS has the best score in the series. Also the lack of checkpoints meant I had to use the save states on the emulator a lot since the game really can be punishing.

Other issues include playing as Anakin sucks and there is so many difficulty spikes and the game has so many moves and systems it never bothers to teach you properly. The whole game feels like well you know a typical movie tie in game and was rushed to meet the date of the movie. The game is super buggy and some of the Anakin levels caused the emulator to crash so I am glad the game has a level skip cheat in the game, and on top of that the crashes happen on the hardest of levels. That and while playing as Obi Wan does feel better and more fun to play due to his slo mo combos and that he fights weaker driods and clone troopers instead of super durable melee enemies like Anakin, the game tends to feel a lot easier when playing as him to the point where I'd rather play as Obi Wan instead of Anakin. Just to give another example of how obviously rushed this game is, the Clone Assassins enemy only shows up once, and maybe that is for the better since fighting them isn't very fun.

I can sort of see why this was never re released as other PS2 era SW games despite it being decent enough at times. I feel like the 2 player dueling mode might be better than the base campaign in that the feeling of competition actually lets the player learn the mechanics better. There is a decent combat system here and the animations do look nice but everything is poorly presented to the point where it can come off as a traditional brawler but the buggy nature of the game, the difficulty spikes in the campaign, the awful checkpoint system and the game poorly presenting it's mechanics and and systems holds it back a great deal.

It's worth checking out as a Star Wars fan, a Prequels fan and a fan of Star Wars games but if you aren't a fan of any of those things, skip this, and if you want a lightsaber combat game that trancends being a licensed game, Jedi Outcast and Academy are far better.

Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne Review

Watching this series for the first time and I can say I have seen enough edge to last me a looooong while. It's decent enough but man the sex scenes, people getting tied up and all the kinky shit going on, it starts to get grating after a point.

I get that it's an OVA and they tend to be much edgier than series due to not being on TV but this really pushed it. Not bad, and I normally tend to stay quiet on stuff I find decently enjoyable but this show really makes say this regarding "fan service" in anything if you are proud of how your character looks and you have someone that looks attractive in your movie or show, fine by me, I won't tell you what to do, but when you start shoving in how sexy they look every 5 - 10 minutes I am just going to be like, "I get the damn point already". It's like showing off your new shoes or car and keep reminding people of it, like shut up man, I get the point. I get being proud of something but just say it don't spray it.

I am convinced that Apos got beaten the way he did because Rin wasn't a good fighter and they didn't how to make a compelling fight scene and they were written into a corner.

It's also weird how Apos gets defeated at the last minute considering he spent most if not the whole series making Rin look like a chump and then out of nowhere Rin learns about some revelation and then wins.

So despite all my complaining, why so I give this series a 6 then? Well because I do enjoy things about it. I do enjoy characters like Rin and Mimi and the first half of the series was solid enough of it being supernatural detective thriller. I liked the mystery aspect of the first half and the idea of following a detective who is immortal is an interesting concept and was executed decently enough and it can even be thought provoking particularly in the first 3 episodes of how Rin tries to stay sane despite all the crazy stuff happening to her, everyone around her and the crazy psychos she meets.

All though the series starts to lose me in the 2nd half especially the more that said 2nd half goes on. I am not a big fan of them introuducing all that weird sci fi stuff. It really should've kept the supernatrual aspects while keeping in the modern day setting mainly because I feel it makes for a more consistent story, and I found the detective aspect more interesting than the cyberpunk aspects they introduce later. I know the series had sci fi stuff in it's first half but it was more interesting due to how it played a part in the whole mystery aspect of that part. It loses it's intrigue when you change it from a detective thriller to a cyberpunk story about corporations and the frequent timeskips don't help either since there is no smooth transition to any of this stuff. This OVA should've been like the first Highlander movie and had it take place in the past and then slowly have it reveal to the modern day since Rin's backstory only get glimsped at in this series.

Another big criticism is the lack of compelling fights or at least how they try to excuse the lack of action by having immortal women getting turned on by weird vampric angel things, it almost feels like to me the animators didn't know how to make any compelling action since the few we do get are nothing to write home about so the writers put this plot point in so they won't have to animate as much when raising the stakes, as weird as that sounds.

Alright show overall, but you could make a drinking game out of the amount of times someone is tied up, have someone completely naked, and they shove in a gratuitous sex scene or a just scene that is suggestive. Rin gets her clothes ripped more than Bruce Banner does. It sounds like I didn't like it but I do, but it has a number of problems for it to be consistently enjoyable for me.

Medal of Honor: European Assault Review

MoH European Assault is a rather strange game. It came around the same time as Call of Duty 2 and around a time where WW2 shooters were dime a dozen. While I did enjoy my time with the game, I can't help but find this game to be a weird amalgamation of CoD and previous MoH games like Allied Assault. You have the scripted roller coaster feel of the former but also the objective system of looking around and doing random taks like sabatoging various weapons, calling in air strikes, destorying tanks, killing officers and rescuing prisoners, but the thing with all this is that all of this stuff is entirely optional, and while the game having a live system might encourage you to do these side tasks, I feel like it generally isn't worth the risk a lot of the time, sure I played the game on the lowest difficulty setting but at the same time, you get bombared with so many enemies and the game using hitscan weapons and no way to reliably avoid damage just makes me rather play on that setting since I can take more damage and have more revives and medkits, it's an interesting system but it's execution feels more like busywork that could potentially have you run out of lives early on. The squad system is also pretty pointless since the game has you feel like a one man army like previous MoH games and the AI for your squad is pretty dumb, they really aren't worth babysitting. A positive of this game is that at the very least, you do not get a game over if they get killed which is a very good thing.

With all that said, I do enjoy the game as far as being a typical WW2 "realistic" fps campaign is concerned. The guns feel decent enough, the damage animations feel adequate for the job, and the actual missions do have that epic feel that these games give you of slowly chipping away at enemy odds. As far as these kinds of campaigns are concerned, I prefer this over CoD3 and United Offensive and many of the Battlefield campaigns that got made.

European Assault is a typical WW2 fps but it's does it's job decently enough.