Short Game Reviews: September 2022

Metal: Hellsinger:

I enjoyed this game a lot more than I was expecting to. I suck at rhtymn games but I do tend to enjoy games inspired by them like Batman Arkham and Ubisoft Prince of Persia platforming so I thought I would enjoy this game and I did.

The thing that took me a while to learn was that I had to fire when the drums started hitting and the game became a lot easier to manage after that. My favorite weapons were the pistols and the boomerangs.

My only major gripes with this game is that the last two levels can be kind of long and draggy, enemies like the acid pukers and shields enemies can be irritating to fight, the latter especially due to how much hits he can take with the boomerang weapons and getting a "glory kill" to the best can be rather challenging for me even by the end, I can do it but not as consistently as I would like

Vigilante 8:

Surprisingly plays better than the PS1 Twisted Metals but I prefer the art style and character of TM. Still, pretty solid game in it's own right.

Toy Story 3: the Game:

Pretty solid Prince of Persia clone, the platforming is a lot more automated and it's more fast paced quick reaction times rather than quickly jumping to platforms but I think the game throws enough to be interesting like collecting batteries, occasional stealth sections, helping the toys and the stuff with soldiers and aliens. Some of the automated ledge detection will not register sometimes. I prefer it over Toy Story 2 the game since it controls better and doesn't have the awkward camera controls of late 90s platformers. The game is nothing remarkable, but I'd say it's a solid enough hidden gem and a decent movie tie in game, everything I wanted Toy Story 2 to be but wasn't.

Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga:

This game was a solid time overall, but I can't help but think this game was stretched out far too much to accommodate for 9 movies. While the game does a good at going over all 9 movies and even does a decent job at going over movies I dislike which is anything past ROTJ, I feel like much of the game feels like it is going through the motions like it has all of the major moments of the movies and having it all playable in coop form. It's the most ambitious Lego game but I feel like the game could take things furthur. I know these games are for kids but I got to wonder how much the shooting and combat would fare better if there was an actual punishment for death. The game has a pretty solid lightsaber combat system but since you can keep dying on the fights and widdle away at the health bars, you never feel like you have to learn the game's mechanics. It's even weirder when you throw in that the mandatory Podrace win from the previous Lego compliation because it's the only part of the game where you actually have to win and not beat widdling at enemy health bars. That and I am not a big fan of the quest markers in this game even though the game was consistent in it's use of them.

The game is pretty solid overall, I just feel like the game is pushing the boundaries of what a Lego game that is easy for children can geniunely be and it felt like they had to strech resources to cover all 9 movies.

My Hero's One Justice:

I am not a big fan of MHA, and I'll be honest and say I wasn't expecting much out of this game and I only got it for less than $10. The game is probably one of the most average games I played in a while, everything about this title feels like a low budget version of what CyberConnect2's games do. There's a lot of load screens and there's hardly any cutscenes and are mostly just comic stills. At least CC2's games have high production values, have different gameplay styles on occasion and have those over the top QTEs to hide the shallow gameplay. This game is what you get if all that was removed and all you have is awkward arena fighting gameplay and that's it. There's also no dub either which annoyed me a lot since I had no idea what the characters were even saying outside of the comic still cutscenes.

A lot of the fighting just consist of running around and hoping you hit the enemy with a special move or keep a combo chain going long enough to widdle down at the enemy's health and some characters have moves so OP that I just want to spam them since they do massive damage and require the least of amount of complexity to pull off. I wouldn't really mind if the arena fighting gameplay is shallow(CC2's anime arena fighters can be boiled down to this afterall) if this game had other things to break it up but it doesn't. I am amazed this game is charged at full price when not discounted since the everything about the game feels like a budget game through and through. I try not to expect much out of these games but the game failed to reach the low expectations I already had for it.

Kirby 64:

It's pretty decent, my only big issue are the controls and that I feel the spike ball powerup felt almost too good to use since every enemy comes in close promixity of you and it gives you invinciblity frames after you press the attack button. I also wish for this game to have Yoshi's Story's controls, I can't even imagine playing this game on an N64 controller. Playing this on a Switch Pro Controller made my hands feel weird.

The game's level design is pretty good all things considered. I am glad they never went full 3D and waited until Forgotten Land to do it. I am pretty sure it would control as awkwardly as Mario 64 if it did that. I also love how this game doesn't make you secret hunt and it is entirely optional, you get a "bad" ending of sorts but I prefer this over playing every stage like a paranoid kleptomaniac.

Overall, I surprisingly enjoyed this for an N64 game.

Disruptor:

I enjoyed this game a lot more than I was expecting to. I did wish it had a modern remaster that balanced the difficulty but the game is pretty fun. Insomniac knew how to make an enjoyable game even they first started. For a game called a "Doom clone" the level design has no key card collecting, it's mostly just switch pulling and it has the psi powers. I can see why even ID Software was impressed with the game at the time, Insomniac really is a talented studio in that their first game is pretty good, they still continue to make good games and their work ethic is unrivaled.

Anyways, the guns all feel pretty good and the psi powers feel decent enough if underpowered in some respects and the level design despite the limited draw distance is still pretty good, it's good old fashioned 90s maze like levels which I like. When it comes to being a shooter, the game ticks all the boxes even if it never manages to be outstanding. So why a 6 rather than a 7?

It's due to the unbalanced difficulty, sometimes you will be rolling with ammo and at other times you will barely have enough and there are psi powers only missions. I feel the game is at it's best when the psi powers are in conjuction with the gunplay, when it's just the psi powers, the game can be painfully dull, since most your psi powers are underpowered against bigger waves which later levels will have in spades. I feel like a remaster with rebalanced difficulty could fix this problem, but otherwise, with cheats, this is a solid hidden gem.

Twisted Metal 2:

The core gameplay is still fun but I can't help but find the difficulty too punishing for it's own good. You get two lives throughout the whole campaign of each character and lose one life and you lose it permanently, and it's easy to get overwhelmed and lose a life very quickly, and health pick ups get harder and harder to find the more you progress. The driving isn't the greatest and the animations can lead to weird collision detection.

I prefer Head On and Black over this game despite me finding some enjoyment in TM2.

From Russia with Love Game Review:

Decent game overall. The game has pretty basic combat with auto aim and enemy weak spots being generally easy to hit, I often blasted an enemy that was carrying a grenade. I never watched the movie so I can't comment on the game being faithful to the movie, however I can say as far as a third person shooter campaign is concerned where you fight enemies using hitscan weapons, the game keeps objectives varied enough where things don't get boring. You will be using gadgets like the laserwatch and the portable helicoptor, planting bombs, disarming bombs, vehicle sections, jetpack sections and so on. The game keeps everything varied enough considering how basic combat is and does a good enough job at feeling like a solid roller coaster ride. As far as movie licensed games go, it's a moderately enjoyable enough time.

Gripes would be that I wished the game had actual overshoulder aiming since the manual aim system in this game I find to be very clunky, the yellow dot doesn't feel as accurate as it should be and the auto aim can be cumbersume at times when it comes targeting an enemy you want to hit. I also wish the stealth segments were better since there is enough of a stealth system to make the sections decent enough like a crouch walk and being able to slow down your movement but the enemy AI notices you far too quickly, the cover system being awkward to use also doesn't lend for quick ways to peak around corners when hidden. The car sections also don't control that great.

For someone not too familar with James Bond outside of the couple Bond games, I have played I consider this title to be good rollar coaster thrill ride kind of game. Something like a CoD campaign.

Kill Switch:

Kill Switch is one of the fucking weirdest games ever, the game isn't even that amazing and is serviceable at best yet the game inspired so much cover based shooting. The funny thing is that even Kill Switch itself knows cover based shooting isn't that interesting which is why it can be beaten in less than 2 hours. The game being 2 hours is actually what prevents me from being harsher on it since if it was any longer, the tedium would really let in.

The weapons sounds punchy enough and the damage animations are pretty good. But other than that for a game so influtential, the game itself isn't that remarkable. Gears of War was more refined since it let you zoom in with over the shoulder, the cover system works a lot better, added active reload and it had more interesting enemy types in some ways but at the end of the day, cover shooting is basically a game of virtual wack a mole.

You get shot, wait for health to regen, shoot, then rinse and repeat, and since you fight human enemies, that just makes this style of gameplay more monotonous. The objectives in Killswitch are varied enough, but the game is nothing really remarkable, it feels like a downloable game from the 7th gen if in terms of value and how much game there is.

Foreclosed:

An interesting Deus Ex styled game, while it is kind of impressive what this small team can put together, the shooting isn't that great since it's dull cover shooting that often consists of waiting for your health to regen after you get hit a couple of times and the stealth mechanics aren't great since enemies tend to notice you too quickly and that it's hard to tell if you can remain in stealth that long since your cover will blown very quickly. The modern Deus Ex games I feel do what a lot of what this game does but better. It's not bad and I think the length complements and it checkpoints well enough so the sub par mechanics don't wear out their welcome. If you want a quick game to beat, then this game does the job well enough, just don't expect anything great or even good.

Poi:

Game was pretty good, I enjoyed the platforming and the controls a lot and while the game is on the nose on how much it borrows from Super Mario 64 gameplay wise, I do prefer this game over it because I prefer the more modern controls and camera, I got to wonder if this is how SM64 would play like if Nintendo ever bothered to remake it.

The level design is solid but I did wish there was more levels since there are only 4 main ones and the game does feel padded in how much it makes you play challenges levels and mini games just to unlock the later levels and I found the game lying to you about getting the stones and then telling you to get more Explorer Medallions to be especially egregious.

Still a solid homage to Mario 64 and I prefer this game due to the modern controls and camera. I'd give this game a higher score if there were more actual levels but for what a small indie team accomplised, my hats go off to them.

Midnight Flight Express:

Very good and satisfying beat em up. This game to me is My Friend Pedro beat em up edition. It's a pretty solid homage to the Batman Arkham combat with it's emphasis on rhytmn and counters and like many beat em ups the advanced moves are more of a chore to pull off but what is here is very well made and fun. Biggest suprise of the year for me. This might be the closest thing to a John Wick and "gun fu" style game out right now.

Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed:

Pretty good remake overall, not as big of a leap as the DAH1 remake but still solid enough. It can be buggy at times. If you never liked DAH2 to begin with, this game will do little to change your mind.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Review

It was decent, I didn't find it super amazing but as a narrative that I "binged" in a couple of hours, it was a solid time. My issues are that without any experience with the Cyberpunk game, I am not sure what this show is tying into. Or any of the stuff it is building towards and refrencing. The ending was super anticlimatic mainly due to the fact that it's a prequel and it's a prequel that is 10 episodes that needs to wrap itself up as quickly as it can. The ending also felt as awkward, rushed and had similar vibes to Blade Runner Black Lotus. Also, not big on the whole main character saving the love interest at the last episode of the show like so many anime that tend to feature action and romance have, I find it so overdone since it feels like the writers really want to find a way to make the final episode impactful and "memorable". Also didn't like how there seemed to be a weird timeskip of sorts when Maine died, felt like one more episode was needed to smoothly transition David's character development.

I have been complaining thus far but I do think the show is solid. The animation, action, soundtrack and characters all make the show engaging enough for it's run time, and for an anime based on a western game, it manages to stand out a lot due to having so much effort put into it. The dub also really does a good job at investing me in the material. This anime has even effected me and makes me want to try out the Cyberpunk 2077 game and if that was the geniune intention, then they succeeded, and I am surprised it worked even on me.

BLACK Game Review

This is going to be a strange review but my experience with was kind of weird, so I will start off with my initial impressions:

I find the game to be decent fun, I also find it to be a "style over substance" game in the purest sense. The game is basically driven by it's over the top action movie feel in the gameplay, it does a good job at making you feel like you are in an over the top Hollywood action movie with explosions and constant destruction and the sound design and damage animations carries much of the game, but at the same time, the enemy encounters and level design mainly just consists of, "point, shoot and kill every enemy in sight".

This isn't bad on it's own, but every level mainly just consists of using every gun the enemy is using and blasting them away with machine guns or shotguns. And it's a human enemies with hitscan weapons game, so combat tends to be the same a lot of the time. Something like FEAR had the slo mo, enemy variety(by comparison to this game), arena like levels, and enemy AI to carry that game. Black is FEAR minus all that.

Black also doesn't have the varied objectives that other hitscan games at the time like Timesplitters and Half Life 2 do. The levels also kind of remind me of Resistance Fall of Man where it's you and a bunch of enemies and you get to the end of the stage with not much fluff inbetween, but Resistance had interesting guns, enemy variety and AI that can catch you off guard. Black doesn't have that either.

The game can be fun but I can see why even when I first played it, I never viewed as the "cult classic" that so many others view it as. The game is also really glitchy to play on an emulator as well. I got stuck in place, teleported to different parts of the map and the screen would have a different orientation. All of this can be done by reloading the last save state but it can be annoying when it happens to me.

But after play a couple hours later, these were my thoughts:

I got my more out of the gameplay in Black by messing around with the different firing options on the assault rifles. I think the high recoil on them actually encourages this. You will be missing shots like crazy if you keep using fully automatic mode but for mid range it's best to use burst fire and for long range, it's best to use single shot. It sucks I discovered this over halfway through the game but I do like to mess around with these things in games that let you do this.

All though I did play on emulator and used save states, I don't think the game is as hard as I remember it, the hard parts of the game is getting randomly ambused from behind and getting hit by rocket launcher enemies and not knowing their location before you kill them, it's a decent to at times good game but I still don't think it's amazing. I remember the ending being terrible at the time and time has only gotten me to dislike it even more with how much of a hard on 00s games had for cliffhangers.

So overall, despite my review being incoherent, I do think Black is a pretty good game but I think that is because the different firing options on the assault rifles adds more depth to the shooting, without this, the game is pretty one note and the game consists of being spray and pray and watching enemies die and killing every enemy in sight. I would give it a 6 if I didn't experiment with the AR's firing modes.

Syphon Filter 2 Review

It's...not that great. My big issue with the game is how scripted it is and how terrible the stealth mechanics are. The first Syphon Filter gave you open or decently sized maps to do objectives or in some levels do the objectives in any order but Syphon Filter 2 drops all that for scripted missions where you must absolutely follow the beaten path and if you do anything outside of what the game wants, the game will count it as a fail state. It doesn't end there either, there is much more stealth and partner the lack of a detection meter with inconsistent and erratic AI and it leads to even more irritation. It can lead to frustration since I am not sure what the guards' sightlines are half the time, one minute they can see me from far away and another minute they can't spot me when I am close, this is a no no when it comes to stealth game design since it makes it hard to tell what and what is or is not is optimal for sneaking. The taser also got nerfed. If it weren't for the save states and rewind on PS5, I would've quit the game a lot sooner, but it helped make the game much more playable.

Some good stuff is that the story is kind of okay if kind typical spy movie fare and the characters are decent, I do still like Gabe Logan, and his voice actor's delivery still makes him. The sound design for the weapons are pretty good. The last 2 missions also felt the most like SF1 as well if still scripted. Overall, a rather unremarkable sequel for a game I quite liked.

Medal of Honor(1999) Review

Pretty solid FPS game on PS1, the game knew it couldn't keep up with PC fps games so it made a control scheme and enemy encounter design centered around that. Enemies will miss you a lot and will take a while to fire, giving you enough time to fire and aim your shots. Guns and enemy damage animations are also very well done and are satisfying. Enemies also move around enough but aren't too fast to the point where you will be missing shots a lot. The enemies can be quite dynamic as well, they will take cover, go prone, kick grenades, and will run away when shot. The level design and objectives also make going through what are otherwise linear levels a lot more engaging. The stealth sections are well done too, it's nothing too complex but they get the job done and break up the pace. And while I do complain about the lack of checkpoints in these games, I do feel this game in before rocket launcher enemies show up to be reasononable be since more if not all levels can be beaten in under 10 minutes. The missions briefings are also very well voiced and are pretty engaging to listen to and has some good voice acting for the time.

So what are the negatives? The aiming can be cumbersome when too many adversaries are on screen and it's easy to get overwhelmed by gunfire when lining up shots, enemies can also randomly ambush you from behind and the slow controls makes dealing with them an grating since they can depelete your health very quickly. The lack of a grenade indicator can also be maddening since you can accidently get killed by one. Also, the rocket launcher enemies can be very tiresome to deal with since they kill you in one hit and they tend to show up when more than one enemy is around, these guys would be a pain in the ass without emulator save states.

Overall, for a first game in a long running series Medal of Honor feels accomplished enough, and I can see why this game has a cult following. I can also see where stuff like Return to Castle Wolfenstein got it's inspiration in terms of level design.

XIII Remake Review

I am playing the recent remake of the remake and I have no knowledge of the original game or the initial release of the remake and while I do think the game is decent, the game has some annoyances about it that does sour my experience.

The good stuff are that the guns are satisfying, the art style is interesting, the story is intriguing enough to make you want to know what happens next. So as a shooter that tries to be an action thriller story, it does it's job well enough. Combat is also pleasing with decent damage animations and headshots feel good pull off especially with the crossbow. The remake also added more checkpoints which is a life saver for what I will describe later.

Now the bad, the stealth is horrible, and while the remake added detection arrows to make it more tolerable, enemies notice you way too quickly, and it feels like the stealth is super scripted and you have to follow it to a tea or else every enemy in the base will know were you are. They added detection arrows but the AI behaviours are still the same. Trying to sneak around for more than a minute is almost impossible due to how quickly enemies will know where you are the moment you try doing any experimentation. Kill a guard, and another one will spot the body and you right away. It makes some of the absolutely mandatory stealth missions a pain in the ass, and in the chance in where it's optional, missions were you are supposed to feel like a stealthy badass feels like a game of elminating every guard loudly before they reach the alarm and get a game over. Also, there is no dedicated takedown button or the ability to a guard out with your hands which is a rather odd omission since you can human shield enemies but you can't choke them?

The AI during the action parts is also really bad enemies will run around like idiots, run into your line of fire and barely have any sense of tactics. I normally don't mind bad AI in shooters but here I found it silly since the devs promised more "enhanced" AI.

Boss fights are also terrible and they will never make any sense in a shooter where all you fight are human enemies.

The cliffhanger ending is also bad, but early 00 to mid 00s games were full of them to the point where I find it very amusing. I know there is a comic book but that just gives this game the, "incomplete anime before the manga was ever finished vibes" which I also dislike since it makes the adaptation a trailer for the souce material rather than something that stands on it's own.

Dave Duchovny's voice acting as the titualar character also feels incredibly phoned in, I am not sure it's because he is supposed to be stoic or because he seems so disinterested in the material, it could be both.

There are also issues I encounter like cutscenes before a start of a level not playing, some of the music not playing and the base camp mission where you plant a bug to have me fail no matter what I did so I had to restart the level.

I do enjoy this game but I feel the bad stealth holds the game back from at least a 7, I am not expecting masterclass stealth game design, just something decent enough that feels playable.

Extermination PS2 Thoughts

Of all the games that need a remake, this is it. The game has a decent enough concept on paper but the game needs an RE4 style camera. Aiming is very disorienting and there is no dedicated dodge roll button which makes fighting a lot of the enemies a pain in the ass, you can't dodge while aiming either which leads to more scenarios of enemies getting cheap hits in and the bigger enemies hit hard too. Smaller enemies can be an irritation due to the lack of a deciated dodge button since they can grab you out of nowhere and acid attack you too. Instead of a weaker melee attack, just give me a dedicated dodge button instead. Bigger enemies hardly react to getting shot, the most you get is them reacting to one shot from your gun and then they keep on attacking you. Those invisible enemies on all 4 deserves an award for being the worst enemy type I have encountered in a while. They hit hard, take forever to die, and they only react to getting hit once when you use the flamethrower on them. That and the automated platforming can lead to frustration since there is no jump button it's hard to be preceise. Syphon Filter handled this sort of thing a lot better.

Don't remake games like Resident Evil 2, remake stuff like this.

Star Wars Bounty Hunter Review

I honestly was quite surprised by this game, it has a number of issues mainly regarding the camera, the controls and the difficulty but the game is solid, I would give this game a 7 but the final 2 levels before the final boss are really terrible and knocks the game's score down to a 6. If it weren't for these 2 levels I would consider this game a hidden gem of sorts.

Let's start with the good, the guns, and the feedback for firing them all feels good. The game is very satisfying in term of combat and mowing down lots of enemies with your dual pistols and the other weapons you get feels good due to the feedback you get from firing all the way to the death animations. That and I like how enemies give you health drops when they die making the combat not feel like a game of memorizing enemy and health locations. The platforming while feeling kind of awkward at times is quite interesting. This is in large part due to the jetpack you get. This game easily has the best use of a jetpack I have ever seen in the game, it allows for interesting level design and treversal, darting around moving from platform to platform feels exciting and exhilarating.The jetpack mostly controls very well if taking a bit getting used to but once you do, you it feels so smooth to fly around everywhere. The platforming and switch pulling level design that was in so many late 90s and early 00s games all feels good here in that every level has an anticipation of what might happen next because you don't know what the switch will activate. I miss this style of design in AAA games. The lock on aiming feels decent enough and rarely did I ever felt it screwed me over too. I feel the lock on, and the jetpack complement each other pretty well since any form of aiming while flying around can feel awkward. The story is shockingly well written here, and it fills in a lot of blanks regarding Janjo in ATOC, the characters and the overarching plot are quite interesting for a spin off game of this type. If you like SW lore, or a good story Bounty Hunter is engaging enough.

Now, on to the bad, I did wish you can dodge with the jetpack since the actual dodge command can feel awkward in both camera movement and the fact that Jango can't shoot during the animation. Some the platforming can feel weird particuarly involving the auto grab, one minute Jango will grab on to a ledge and another minute he can't. The camera isn't that great either and it doesn't give you the ideal angles for platforming since it's doesn't have traditional right stick camera movement. You will get used to it but it can be pretty awkward and hard to tell where to go at points. The game tends to ramp up difficulty by shoving in too many enemies which I am not a fan of since it is the least interesting way of adding challenge since all it does is overhwhelm the player with more enemies than he can handle meaning you will often find cheese methods of widdling down the numbers. They can also be frustrating during platforming sections since the enemies fire so many shots that it leads to a cheap death. Which is where the checkpoint system comes in. It's a weird one, you have lives but the game remembers the progress you made on the level at the checkpoint you collect. I would've prefered a traditional checkpoint system over this since I feel it both makes the game easier yet also harder since you can widdle down enemy numbers but at the same time, lose all your lives which will happen due to vast enemies and awkward camera and it's bad to the start of a 20 minute level. Maybe a better system could've been that you get a hard checkpoint on the level and the lives are the amount of progress like enemies killed and switches pulled but if you lose all your lives, you restart from the hard checkpoint. I also wished Janjo's pistols didn't require you to tap the buttons to actively fire them since I am not a fast button masher and I would've preffered a holding down method, have them fire that fast on default or give me an assault rifle at all times. And then there are the last 2 levels with Bando Gora which are TERRIBLE. I wouldn't mind it so much if the zombies gave you health when they died like regular enemies, they do high damage too, the flamethrower is awkward to use(you can't aim it and it doesn't cover any empty flank if a Gora attacks you from behind) and then they endless spawn. These last 2 levels before the final boss do not feel playtested. If you use a level skip here like I did, I don't blame you.

Overall, this is a weird game, everything that makes for a good game is here and it feels well made but it feels like the game needed more time in oven before releasing, but what is here is interesting. Wish they make a modern Madalorian Bounty Hunter game since this game has no successor at all.