Short Game Reviews: November 2022

Lego Batman 2:

Lego Batman 2's writing is really not very good at all. It might even have worse writing than TT's Marvel games. 70% of the game is chasing Lex Luthor and Joker's giant mech. You have multiple chapters dedicated to fighting it and there's barely any plot progression. And I am just asking the questions, how come Joker and Luthor couldn't put two and two together and connect Bruce Wayne to Batman after attacking the batcave? How was Luthor even supposed to use a hyponosis gas with a giant mech where it is clearly visible? What was Robin doing when Superman and Batman where chasing down the mech? Why did the Justice League need Luthor's broadcast to actually start doing anything? Honestly, this game might be a precursor to Arkham Knight in how you barely fight any supervillains and they are all their own side quest. Most of this game is Luthor and Joker mech chasing. It feels like a DCAU show like Superman or Batman TAS but dragged out to be 10 hours rather than a 48 minute 2 parter. The voice acting saves it but overall this plot is a mess. I get that this was TT's first time writing a serial original story not based on a movie or established stories but they could've done a much better job.

Also not a fan of the LEGO open worlds that this game introduced and it gets in the way of the pacing of the story since so much of the game is a mech chase and the breaks in the open world feels like Superman and Batman get into roadblocks every 10 seconds.

Linear LEGO gameplay is still pretty solid and that pushes this game to a 6, the story and voice acting do and this game is pretty good for the first Lego game with voice acting.

Overall, still a decent game but the story is not very good.

Lego Batman:

Pretty solid Lego game that is a decent enough homage to the Burton and animated series. Same Lego gameplay as TT's Star Wars games but executed well enough. I like the suit gameplay here since I find to be the hardest part of Lego games is forgetting certain characters have certain abilities and there are so many of them which I can find to keep track of it all. Since the gameplay is just Batman and Robin, that means you only get two characters and you swap abilty sets when the levels requires it, I like this approach since it's easier to keep track of which character can do what and which character has which suit.

I also thought the episodic storytelling with the Lego characters grunts and mumbles to be charming enough even though this is an original story heavily inspired by the before mentioned Burton and TAS.

Overall solid Lego game.

Trials of the Blood Dragon:

I never played a Trials game before and I only played this because it was a free game on PS Premium but I got to say this game especially for being a modern Ubisoft game post 2014 was a solid time. The motorcycle levels while having physics that take some getting used to feels generally solid. Doing a run through multiple checkpoints without following while managing the phsyics of the bike can feel pretty damn rewarding. The platforming levels do a good job at breaking up the pace and feel fast paced enough where they don't get in the way of the overll motorcycle riding. Death is fast but load times are quick and enemies die quick so it's not too frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating, the game could potentially be that but the frequent checkpoints, quick pace of the levels and the fact that the game never gives you a game over after the time limit is up mitigates much potential frustration and makes the game challenging but mostly fair.

One level where you are in low gravity escourting a bomb was easily the worst part of the game but if you are patient enough you will eventually get past it, if you have enough patience.

There was more story than I was expecting and it's okay, nothing too special, but nothing terrible either.

Overall, if you liked Far Cry Blood Dragon and was turned off by the change in gameplay for this sequel don't fret, it's a good enough time even if you never played a Trials game before like me.

Motorstorm Apocalypse:

Overall, if you liked Far Cry Blood Dragon and was turned off by the change in gameplay for this sequel don't fret, it's a good enough time even if you never played a Trials game before like me.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Video Game:

This game was half baked in every respect. A lot of the gameplay felt like the devs wanted to make a great game but they didn't have enough time to flesh it out due to the movie coming out. It has a lot of the stuff that Insomniac Spider-Man game would do like similar stealth mechanics and takedowns, sympathetic villains, criminal hideouts, the ability to pin point parts on the map to jump off while you are swinging, a multi contextual web throw attack, quick taps of a face button to use web balls, having the city go under martial law and having a military "task force", random Peter Parker sections, and a quick dodge to flip around and dodge bullets with, brute enemies that need to be stunned to get hit AND enemies that can use firearms that can be disarmed. The difference is that the Insomniac game felt a lot more fleshed out by comparison.

Enemies can be beaten very easily by pressing attack and counter, you have different web attacks but they just consist of holding circle and letting go. Web swinging with either hand feels like a gimmick where all you do is just web swing with the right hand and that's it. The reputation system feels like a gimmick since the beaten path will always make lower your rep, if it gets too negative. The bosses aren't the greatest and often consist of avoiding enemies and obsticles rather than actually fighting them. There is a ton of load screens which ruins the pacing of the game. Also the "optional" dialogue in the Peter Parker sections is a gimmick since they might as well be said in all it once without pressing any buttons.

I will give the game some credit, when the story is not abridiging the events of the movie it's based on, the writing particularly with Kingpin, Kraven and Carnage CAN be pretty decent which I think helps with the mandatory Peter Park sections since you get their perspective on things. When the writing is abriding the movie, it's absolutely terrible since Electro and Green Goblin literally pop up out of nowhere and feel out of place in the narrative the game is trying to tell. Voice acting is okay too.

Overall, despite being the final AAA movie tie in game on consoles that I can recall, TASM2 didn't really do a whole to sway people into thinking these kinds of games can be good or end the whole idea of movie tie in games off with a bang.

Infamous: Festival of Blood

Infamous with vampires, it sounds like a winning idea but the end result is incredibly half baked. I remember feeling that way when I first played and I feel it now. The whole game felt like it was Sucker Punch cashing in off the Undead Nightmare expansion Rockstar did for Red Dead Redemption.

I'll start with the good, the characters, writing and voice acting are all solid and do a decent enough job at getting you invested for the 1 hour this whole "expansion" of sorts lasts. Cole and Zeke are charming here and Bloody Mary has a decent amount of characterization to kind of make me interested in what she will do next, and the backstory is spread out well especially for a game that lasts an hour.

Now the bad, this game is basically just Infamous 2 with flying powers. There really isn't enough innovation to warrant being a full on expansion. The vampire enemies this "expansion" brings in are just reskinned Infamous 2 enemies. You got the teleporters, the tanky monsters and normal fodder. For a game being Infamous with vampires, there isn't a whole lot here to deviate it from Infamous 2 outside of the flying ability. The missions are okay if nothing too memorable but the short length is what I find offputting, I don't mind games being short but what you do in Festival of Blood isn't really all that interesting. You just go to a few arenas, do a few chases and basically do everything you did in Infamous 2 but now with the ability to fly which I will admit one mission made a decent use out of, but it's not worth being a standalone expansion over.

Overall, if you want a good Infamous DLC/Expansion First Light is much better than this, I guess it's worth playing if you are curious about since it's not the worst 1 hour of gameplay you could spend your time on.

Quantum Theory:

The game is painfully average but I did get a kick out of adequte enough gamefeel. The gore and enemies getting destroyed and exploding upon death does give weapons decent feedback. The weapon sounds do their job and the sound for Syd's main gun sounds beefy enough. I am not sure if it deserves the horrible reviews it got but it's definately on the forgettable side.

Syd in general looks like the weird love child of Marcus Fenix and Guts, and Filena who is all over the game's marketing isn't even actively with you throughout the adventure. One improvement it does have over Gears is that roll has it's own button and it's seperated from sprint and cover. The platforming and scripted sequences are also not that great and is easy to die if you don't know what exactly you are doing. The checkpoint system is not as bad as some people made it out to be but I played on the easiest setting so that could've helped but I still feel the "bad" checkpointing of this game is greatly exagerrated. The contextual platforming is not good much like the scripted sequences mainly because you have to roll to the next platform when the game wants you to. Filena herself when she is actually with you doesn't do a whole lot to add to combat, the combo attacks are timing based and will miss a lot of the time making it not worth doing at all. Throwing her doesn't do much overall either since shooting is just as if not more effective than relying on a throw that is on a cooldown. She is okay against bosses but that is mainly due to the game requing you to use her to damage them.

The game is very much in a lot of ways the Gears knock off that it is infamous for being for. It's an okay knock off and nothing more.

Super Stardust Portable(Playstation 5):

Pretty solid game but the controls for the PSP version just isn't as precise as the game wants you to be with them. Using the face buttons to aim in multiple directions is just too slow for how fast the game demands you to be and just isn't going to replace right stick at all. The game is solid otherwise, but it'd be nightmare without the rewind feature.

Rad Rodgers:

Decent enough game but could be better overall. I played it on easy and I am glad I did because a game like this with the issues I have with would be infuriating with limited continues.

I'll start with the good, shoot and jumping generally feel fine and feedback from killing enemies and firing your gun is satisfying. The level design outside of level 3 is mostly fine all though I wish the game just had you get to the end of the stage rather than collect 4 shards, but it's still works well.

Now on to the bad, the controls are not that great, while generally fine when it comes to precise aiming the game can be cumbersome since there is no button to shoot diagonally but you can do it but with the analog stick, you will be moving forward while aiming in that direction. The puzzles can get samey and while it does an okay job at breaking up the pace, the game just tends to do it too much and I would rather jump and shoot. That and the blue energy connecting mini game can get infuriating since I found them to be overly complicated for this kind of game. Enemies can also take way too many shots to die even on easy mode. The writing is also really terrible and obnoxious, I am guessing it is aiming for a late 90s and early 00s platformer with the whole "hip with older kids" vibe by with 4th wall breaks, swearing, and one liners and movie and game refrences but so much of it just feels like the developers are trying too hard to be funny, that or I am not the target demographic for this game's humor.

Overall, I had a decent enough time for the short length it lasted.

SUPERHOT:

Pretty good game overall and probably the best Matrix game ever created. The shooting feels good enough for a game where you aren't killing enemies can spirt blood and gore. The before mentioned comparisons to the Matrix can be seen with the slo motion gameplay and even the story and feel too, you can even take over bodies later in the game like Neo does at the end of that movie, the way enemies act and move kind of feel like agents too. The game is also less of a full on shooter and kind of more of a puzzle game where you are focusing on what order to kill enemies and anticpating the projectile bullets to land on them to get a kill. The gameplay is satisfying for the 2 hours it lasts.

My only issue is getting randomly ambused from behind and getting a game over, it's probably part of the design of the game but it can get annoying killing a bunch of enemies and then randomly getting jumped from behind, it not bad but it can ruin the flow and take me out of the power fantasy I was feeling.

It's a good game overall and I don't have a whole lot to really write about.

Saints Row 2 Review

It's pretty good, but it really start to wear thin after a while but I feel that way with so many open world games. Playing this game reminds me why I prefer this series over Grand Theft Auto despite SR having similar tropes that I dislike. One thing I like about Saints Row 2 is the writing and cutscene direction, the cutscenes are pretty well directed and the writing is actually really solid, it feels grounded enough but not way too overly silly. And I even found engaging for the fact that the plot was "episodic" which is something I can't stand Grand Theft Auto 5 for.

The gameplay overall is pretty solid if samey and kind of loses steam after a point. The shooting and damage animations feel decent but nothing outstanding, however the AI in the game is really stupid, all they do is either stand around or move with no sense of preservation or tactics, I know a lot of game AI tend to be like this but I found it really distracting when I was playing this game. The driving feels good and despite the fact that on PS3 you have to cross to accelerate and sqaure to reverse instead of the trigger buttons, I eventually got used to it.

The main missions are pretty good, if a little montonous sometimes especially when so many of the objectives can revolve around the same stuff like chase this guy and shoot his car, go here, shoot x number of guys, timed missions, protect missions, escourt missions and so on. It does a good enough job at breaking up the pace while being a crime open world game that is grounded even if by the 10 hour mark, it can start to wear thin and this is where the next section comes in. Another issue I have with the game is that that all devs know how to do to ramp up challenge is by shoving lots of enemies, having enemies randomly crash into you and have the police setting up roadblocks, the game does this so much that it started to get grating after a point and I kept asking myself, "is this the only way the devs can add more challenge?" I am glad I set the difficulty to "Casual" simpily because I can take a lot more damage rather than dying and reloading a lot or just waiting for long periods of time for my health to regen. I do like that you can carry all your guns to any mission allowing for some degree of choice and using a rocket launcher to easily bypass boss fights and chases sequences was hilarious. The game even gives you some degree of choice to handle the missions like in the Assault on Precint 31 missions where I have the option to escape by car or helicoptor.

Now this aspect might divide people on the game but the "respect" system while interesting on paper and I feel is a decent enough incentive to go looking around the open world instead belining it for the next story mission, and this system is pretty flexible too but at the same time, my big issue is that the "respect" system is more of a progression roadblock then it feels like it naturally ties into the overall story. I eventually reached a point where I grinded for more "respect" to do more story and stronghold missions, and another reason why I played on causal difficulty is that I can take more damage and get more headshots, heavy ordance kills and eventually rack up so many points doing this where I can get respect points inbetween. I eventually started doing this for the Brotherhood and Ultor missions. The story missions have scripted cutscenes and all of them tell a very different story than trying to earn "respect" and get "street cred", it feels so disconnected from the episodic narratives of the main game that I wonder if the devs could've tried making them harmonize better. I don't like using this term but it feels like what Clint Hocking originally tried to bring up with the concept of "ludonarrative dissonace".

Overall, Saints Row 2 is a good game and while I get to some degree why it's considered the best in the series, and I do have my issues with this kind of game in general, but SR2 is a good time regardless.

Lost Planet 2 Review

Lost Planet 2 is a strange sequel, while I get people having their fair share of issues with it and it being a coop game probably felt like a jarring change compared to the first game's single player focus, I really had a good time with this game even when playing solo, I think out of all the coop games that I have played, this is one of the better games to play in single player.

I'll start with the good, due it being a coop game, the sense of scale is dramtically larger than how it was in Lost Planet 1, there is just so much carnage and so many things happening on screen, there's lots of enemies, lots of VSes, lots of guns you can pick up and so many smaller things happening on screen, it's impressive what Capcom managed to pull off here. It's one of the most hectic if not the most hectic third person shooter released that gen. The guns all feel solid and satisfying enough to shoot, and the death animations feel adequte enough. I also like about this and by extension the first game is the health system and the grappling hook, the health system feels completely different from a lot of the shooters released in the 7th gen is that it's not really regenerating health but more you finding health pickups that you can store and then use for later, it's rather underrated and I prefer this is over the regen health system so many of the games that gen adopted. The grappling hook is also impressive for the fact that it's one of the few grappling hooks in games up there with Just Cause, Tenchu, and Halo Infinite where it's not contextual. I did wish the grapple had more reach and you can use it horizontally like in Just Cause but other than that, it adds a nice vertical layer to the levels. Taking down multiple VSes on foot without dying can also feel really pleasing too. The level in space was a nice change of pace with low gravity and I wished it was a bit longer since chaining thrusts and landing on a platform can give you a surprising sense of freedom. The cutscenes despite lacking in a lot of plot are also well produced but that is to be expected from Capcom.

So what are the negatives, in spite of me saying it's a coop game and one of the better ones, it's still better off being played with other people, don't get me wrong you can still play it along but coop was still the intent at end of the day, and it's a far better single player experience than Capcom's other efforts like Resident Evil 5, but try to find people if you can, if you can't it's not a big deal. Other issues is that there is just so much stuff happening on screen that it can be hard to keep track of it all, and it's easy to get randomly one shotted by some enemies which can occasionally add to frustration. Episode 3 and 5 can both be kind of dull and it felt like Capcom was trying to avoid spending too much money creating new levels so they decided to make two desert levels on a big tram twice. Episode 5 really felt like it dragged. That and the biggest issue while you can also view as a stregnth depending on how you view is the Battle Guage, on normal difficulty for the most part you will never run out and get a game over, the only time you will is possibly during Episode 3 and 5. I got one on the final boss but that is because I was overthinking it and couldn't pause the game. So the Battle Guage kind of feels like a red herring, and while it fits the coop nature, a better system could've been used. Final issue is that the save system is weird in that you can't redo specific areas which can be annoying if you randomly get disconnected especially when playing online. Also, while the cutscenes are well produced, the story could be better, I like the idea but it could be better executed, it won't get in the way too much since heavy story in a coop game wouldn't make much sense.

Overall, despite LP2 being the same game visually and mechancially from the first one and having a coop focus, it's still worth trying out, it's easier than your usual coop games as far as single player is concerned and it's worth giving a shot despite some issues I have with it.

Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 Review

This game is very much the sub par game I beat 11 years ago. I am glad I played it on my remaining days with the PS Premium because buying this game at a con for 5 bucks still wouldn't be worth it. The story is just terrible and everything about the plot feels like a terrible straight to DVD sequel. The writing in the game is just terrible. TFU1 was already hard to make a sequel out of since it had a definitive conclusion but Vader making a fucking clone and never installing any fail safes in case if he turned is just stupid. People bash the mind control chips in TCW but it makes sense why they would be installed. Kota has barely anything to do, Proxy randomly shows up after getting killed by Vader, and all Starkiller wants to do is go after Juno. That Yoda cameo is just laughably bad, he doesn't even take any interest in Starkiller despite being stong in the force. And why would Vader resort to cloning instead of just recruiting someone else for the Rule of Two especially after so many failed attempts? Everyone thinks it's the real Starkiller even though they clearly saw him die. And what exactly made clone Starkiller want to throw away everything and wants to go after Juno to the point where he is willing to give up his life for it? Was it the Yoda cameo? That is really not good enough for me. Everything clone Starkiller wants is Juno and that's it. These plot threads are loose enough as is to make a sequel around. Kota, Juno and Proxy are given nothing to do and all Kota does is scream at cloned Starkiller for the whole game and bark orders at him.

Now the gameplay, while it isn't *that* bad, it's still not good. It's painfully average. TFU2 is more polished but the enemy variety is lacking and while it looks nice and it's cool that dismemberment is in the game, it's just window dressing. And while this game is infamous for it's short length I argue what you do in those 4-5 hours isn't very interesting. The game's campaign just feels undercooked from the lack of enemies to the game's simplistic upgrade tree all the way to the fact that game barely has much going on mechanically and most of the encounters are fighting the same enemies and then a setpiece. The funny thing is that even the setpieces start to become less and less common the more the game goes on after Cato Neimodia there isn't much in the way of any scripted sequences that isn't just a QTE. That and the only way the game ever ramps up any challenge is by shoving in lots of "darkside users" and mech enemies. I had to lower the difficulty to easy because the mechs do so much damage to you and they require you to either actively dodge or wait for you to reflect attacks while other enemies are attacking you from all sides. The combat encounters simpily became more tolerable because I could take more damage. You could say that for the first game too but that game at least had more varied enemies and more interesting enviroments and scenarios by comparison. There is a lock on now, but it can't be toggled and it's useless considering how much the game's combat consist of you getting surronded. So much of the game just feels like the same the opening level on Kamino. The final boss is also Vader and a bunch of defective clones, even that is a downgrade of stakes compared to you fighting Palaptine in the first game.

Good things about the game is the voice acting is solid and Sam Witwer does a good job with the material he is given, the visuals are a massive set up over the first game and the music especially hearing Prequel tracks was also nice.

Overall, not a very good sequel to a game I was just lukewarm on. Not a very good Star Wars game or a very good God of War clone.

Star Wars the Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition Review

Originally, I was going to give the game a 5 out of 10 mainly because this has to be one of the most unpolished big budget AAA games coming from the 7th gen. This game has you staggering around like a bumbling idiot. You will get knocked down, barrels will explode and enemies will break out of your combo out of nowhere. So much of the game on Normal Difficulty is stagger, stagger and more stagger. The game's enemies have firearms and add the staggering animations to that and you get a God of War clone that is sub standard. Some enemies are not really fun to fight like any giant enemies like the monsters, AT STs due to their area of effect stop attacks. Many of the enemies fire guns at you so that means it often consists of spamming lighting because it's the most effective projectile attack in the game. Force grip and the much anticipated physics engine is mostly useless since the novelty of being able to lift things with the force serves no geniune purpose in combat and you are often better off using saber strikes or anything that can be chained into a ligthing or force push combo. That and aiming the force throws feel awkward, inadequte and imprecise for what the game demands for you to do them which is why the destroying the Star Destroyer towards the end of the game felt like such a tedious sequence. The lack of an evade command makes melee combat not as robust as it could be since enemies like before I mentioned will break out of your combos a lot and will relentless attack you close range. Breaking shields and blocks seem to happen at random, and I am not a big fan of the game's auto targeting and I think manually targeting enemies would've worked better for the game since I can pin point which enemies I can attack with my saber, lightning and even possibly try to use force throws with.

Lowering the difficulty to easy however did mitigate much of the frustration I intitally got from the game mainly because getting staggered a lot less and taking more damage really improves the game. The lack of polish becomes less of an issue. You will still get hit by random explosions, enemies breaking out of your combo, and projectile enemies hitting you and for some god unknown reason reflecting blaster fire is tied behind a skill tree but being able to take more damage does help you feel like the awesome Jedi that the game marketed itself for being. Also, even though the game had annoying QTEs, it was nice that during bosses it kept looping until you got it right which is better than widdling down the health bar to do it again. Lowering the game to easy turned a 5 out of 10 game to a 6 out of 10.

The story and music however are the best things about the game. Hearing John Williams' Prequel music especially from Revenge of the Sith was great and it fit the scenes of the game really well. The story while having some issues overall was decent enough too and it fit the Star Wars universe pretty well especially how it brought in the "Rule of Two" regarding Darth Vader and Palpatine, and something I just find poetic about Palpatine and Vader indirectly creating the very alliance that would cause their downfall later on. Aspects of it can feel rushed due it being a game but it's a solid Star Wars story.

Ultimate Sith Edition came with a bunch of DLC bonus missions and here are my reviews of those.

Jedi Temple:

This felt like it should've been in the main game since it seems to be an important part of Starkiller's development but it's a decent add on, if it didn't come with Ultimate Sith Edition, I would've skipped this entirely. All the issues in the main game still apply here all though the platforming and force puzzles were more on the grating side than being enjoyable. The final boss of the level was weird in that he drained my health than I respawned and he never did it again. Overall, a decent mission that should've been in the main game, worth checking out if you have the Ultimate Sith Edition.

Tatooine:

This DLC was a huge step up over Jedi Temple. I have a soft spot for "what if" stories in long running fiction like Star Wars and me being an SW pre Disney era fan of the franchise, this DLC was fan service delight getting to see Jabba fighting through all the iconic locations of the Tatoonie portions of the OT like the Dune Sea, Jabba's Palace, and Mos Eisley. Boss fights with Boba Fett and Obi Wan were also pretty nice too, and the Obi Wan fight felt like a somewhat unoffical conclusion to the amount of times Starkiller fought Obi Wan with the character of Proxy.

Same gameplay, same stuff with a much worse frame rate in some portions but if you are a Star Wars fan, this is worth checking out for the fan service, if not a fan of the franchise or the base game, you can skip this. This was worth going through since it came with Ultimate Sith Edition.

I might give this a 7 for the cool fan service but with all that gone, it's the same 6 that is only that because of easy mode.

Hoth:

This DLC was honestly kind of boring. There isn't really much interesting stakes in Starkiller beating up an untrained Luke and so much of the DLC as a result is just arena fight after arena fight. The Tatoonie DLC was fun in that it had characters like Boba and Obi Wan to fight but Luke pre ROTJ just wasn't really that engaging for me. The gameplay is the same old TFU at this point and not much is improved, I wasn't expecting much and it was average, definately the weakest DLC out of the 3 in the Ultimate Sith Edition.

Resident Evil: Director's Cut Review

Honestly from a guy whose never played the original game and only played REmake. This game was a surprisingly good time. It's easy to see where REmake improved upon this game but the original I feel is still a good time. As overly milked Resident Evil is today and how much I dislike the discourse of the series overall, by playing this game it's easy to see why RE is the franchise it is. Certain aspects of the game you could argue are dated from the visuals and the so bad it's good voice acting and dialogue but other aspects of it still stand the test of time.

What this game does super well is the level design particularly the level design of the Spencer Mansion. It is so interconnected where it feels like you are solving mini puzzles on top of an even bigger one. It's easy to be filled with wonder trying to figure out what unlocks next and what item does which function. Exploring and backtracking through this location is so satisfying to do as you build a mental checklist of what you found and every locked door and every area of interest. The game rewards you for constantly keep track of all these things with items, puzzle solutions, ammo or new weapons. The item management while tedious at times does add a layer of decision making of what to take with you and what not to. You always need at least two slots open to carry items but if you know the game super well, you can just carry one weapon and just carry a bunch of items. The controls work well even if I am not the world's biggest fan of tank controls but they work for this game. The combat is also really satisfying something that people often overlook and what games like REmake 2 and 3 also overlook is that while this game doesn't require you to fire away at enemies like a shooter, however firing the weapons feel pretty satisfying and gives you great feedback. Shotgunning an enemy in the head, firing a magnum or using the grenade launcher gives such great fullfilment in doing and it's an aspect of the franchise the sequels would start to focus more on. The combat in this feels tame too where other fixed camera angled games have an issue of relying on auto aim that often makes you guess if a shot will land and enemies hitting you offscreen, in this game, enemies die so quickly that those issues aren't even much of an annoyance. The voice acting and dialogue is also hilariously bad and adds to cheesy late 90s charm of the game and admittedly where REmake doesn't improve on. In REmake it feels more dry and dull compared to how hilariously awful it is in this game. It made me wish I got to unlock more Barry scenes in my playthrough since I am not sure what I was supposed to do to unlock them but his voice acting and dialogue in particular is so bad, that he makes me want to unlock those scenes.

The negatives is that the map in the game really sucks, REmake would greatly improve this by marking all the places you haven't been to, locked doors and all the items you haven't picked up where in this game the map is more of a rough guideline of where you are rather than being geniunely helpful. It's why I often had to rely on pure muscle memory a lot of the time, it's an aspect that does hold the game back for and makes me appreciate REmake more. The inventory management while good most of the time can get tedious with how many treks back to the save rooms you got to do. This is an aspect where RE7 and even REmake 2 is improvement over where you unlock more item slots the more you play the game, it makes it so you don't have to backtrack every 5 minutes and it rewards you for playing the game more.

Overall, for a first game in a long running series, this game is pretty good if dated in some aspects but it's easy to see with this game why RE took off to begin with in spite of me and the fandom not seeing eye to eye on many things about the franchise as a whole.

Eat Lead the Return of Matt Hazard Review

Eat Lead is a game that isn't really misunderstood or a game I even remotely consider to be a hidden gem. It's very much an average game through and through. It's basically an average game with celebrity voice talent which the game was known for.

I'll start with the good, the voice acting and writing is pretty decent and the voice actors do a decent enough job at selling the material all though the game is not as funny as it wants to be but I will admit the overall premise of the game is a rather fascinating one in that it's a parody of video games and Matt Hazard is basically a game character who had the career of a movie star. And the game acknowleding the fact that the player character can't jump is rather amusing, and it constantly pokes fun at video games and gaming culture. The story isn't super well written but I do think the ideas and premise of the game was enough to carry it for me. Seeing stuff like Mario, Halo, Final Fantasy, and 90s fps like Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein was rather fun to see.

Now, the bad which is a lot. I played on easy since cover shooters tend to be the most enjoyable on that difficulty since you can take way more damage and it can allow for more aggressive playstyle with more agency to combat rather than hide behind wall, wait until head to pop up, shoot, take damage, and hide rinse repeat. There is still that in this game but easy mode does noticeably tone down the tedium and I wanted to play the game for the story and premise, but even on easy, the combat is still not good. Weapons for both gun sounds and damage animations don't hit the satisfactory mark at all. At best it's just functional but there is no geniune feedback that makes the game's combat feel stimulating. Gears of War got this down and I am not even a big fan of the first game of that series. Then there is the fact that combat gives you less options in games like Gears and Uncharted and that pains me to say since I am not big either of those games especially Uncharted. A big reason is that you can't throw grenades or do any dodge rolling and I argue the fun part of those game was dodging rolling like a mad man and darting around doing that. Matt Hazard doesn't have this and as a result there is no reliable way to evade enemies and there is no way to quickly move around on the battefield outside of a painfully slow sprint button. Grenade throwing could've given the player more options in combat too since you can kill groups of enemies faster with a well timed grenade throw. The bosses are terrible and the tentacle boss goes into the difficulty spike hall of shame for how bad it is. If you quit on this part of the game, I don't blame you, having insta kill tentacles covering your every flank while learning their patterns as you get attacked by weaker enemies and constantly dying and reloading was a very frustrating experience. The rest of the bosses aren't much better. Enemies who use the one hit kill energy rifle weapons can also be really grating since you don't have a dodge roll or any actual form of evasion.

Now the next part is while the combat isn't good, there actually are some interesting ideas here that I wish the game did more with. The enemy variety for a cover shooter is actually rather impressive. You got zombies that need to be killed with head shots, space marines that only take major damage with energy weapons, 2d Nazi sprites, cowboys, regular goons, and robot women who can't be killed unless you stun them and do a melee takedown. If you added rolling, grenades and if the game mixed up these enemies types more, the game could've actually been a stand out cover shooter but instead so much of the game is hiding behind cover and waiting for your health to regen. Imagine if the game actively had zombies, robot women, space marines and the game kept mixing up enemy types, the combat encounters would be much better. Another missed oppourtunity is the melee and power ups. Melee is weird in this game since I played on easy and melee attacks give you invinciblity frames, you could potentially play this game as a lower budget Doom 2016 or a way worse Dead to Rights Retribution, since the I frames from melee attacks lets you recover your health. As a result, you can melee enemies you a good amount of this game. The attack animations lack variety meaning not even this is that exciting and the dumb AI just makes it more easy to exploit. I don't mind dumb AI in games but partnered this with the terrible game feel and polish and even this gets old. The power ups were also a missed opportunity since you rarely get them and can't hold them either meaning there is no strategic element on when to use the power ups.

Overall, I feel this game could've been much much much better with the premise it has. At best, watch the cutscenes on Youtube because the actual game aspect of the game isn't very well made, and honestly isn't worth a playthrough, it's an average game carried by an interesting premise.

God of War 2018 Review

When I played this game when it first came out, I wasn't really a big fan of it, and I found it hard to get to gripes with the new style of gameplay that this game established but after playing through the whole series and especially after playing Ascension, I get why Santa Monica changed the gameplay of the series so drastically and why they changed the story and tone so noticeably too. The series was in a dire need of a change.

After playing the game this time around, I enjoyed it a lot more than I did originally did. It's a solid reinvention of the series and a decent enough soft reboot even though I am coming to dislike the idea of them strongly. The story and writing is solid and engaging, I did like the first GoW's story but the plots of the sequels only amped up the silliness and despite them having interesting ideas and the character of Kratos being the most naunced and interesting thing about them, they ultimately collapsed in on themselves, however this game's story basically uses those games as a backdrop for Kratos' character in this game and after playing those games, the PSP games and seeing Kratos in this one, it is easy to see why Kratos is the way he is. His interactions with his son Atreus are pretty well done and they geniunely feel like a family where Atreus and Kratos get into constant arguments, Kratos holding in anger, Atreus constantly looking down on Kratos for his cold distance and how Faye was the very thing that kept the family together. Freya and Baldur are decent enough foils to Kratos and Atreus where they do a good at constasting how the latter could've ended up. A scene later in the game does a great job at tying Kratos' journey in the older games with this game. While I don't agree with the narrative that some made that Kratos became a "good" character with this game, I do enjoy the story here. My only big gripes is that that it is never shown how Kratos was able to control his anger from GoW3 to 2018 and the character of Faye despite being a very important character is someone the player never actually sees their isn't much flashbacks showing the relationship between her, Kratos, and Atreus which gives me less of an understanding why Atreus and Kratos value her so much, her character is not shown enough to give me a better perspective. Still, a solid tale overall.

Gameplay wise, it's also pretty good if different. The feel of combat feels much more weighty and impactful and killing enemies have has a good "oofmph" to it, and this is a big improvement over the older games. I didn't like that light and heavy attacks where mapped to R1 and R2 when I originally played but when I played it again, I switched it to sqaure and triange and it was much better for me. I didn't really mind the lack of a jump button as other people did, there were some moments I did with some of the area of effect attacks where I thought I can jump over them like in previous games but I got used to used the shield. I feel like platforming with over the shoulder perspective wouldn't really work all that well and there isn't really many over the shoulder platformers to begin with and the only one I can think of is Batman Arkham but the platforming in that is already automated in that as it is in this game. The camera is mostly fine but I can occasionally find it hard to judge the right distance when to avoid attacks, the knights when they lunge at you with swords is a good example of this, and enemies hitting me from beind from time to time, but I did eventually get used to this. The enemies that reduce your vision when getting hit can go screw themselves however since the overshoulder camera's vision being obscured doesn't make it reliable enough to dodge enemy attacks. However what I didn't like was that healing stones and rage stones had to be activated with a button press rather than them being magnetized to come to you like in previous games. Most games ever that do this tend to healing pickups float over to you but in this game, you must run over to them which can be rather frustrating since you have to avoid attacks just to replenish health and you have to watch for enemies and they could land a hit while you press circle to activate the healing or rage stone. My idea for this is just have rage and healing stones be magnetic while loot is not. The RPG elements are okay even though I am not a big fan of them a lot of games, it's nothing too intrusive but like many games with these systems most of it just becomes a boring game of checking for high stats and upgrading loot with high stats than it is about pure skill. It's not the worst example of it in a game. I also like the level design in this game, while didn't care for the "open world" aspect of the game, I did like how this one kept the previous games' interconnected world by going back to previous locations with new abilities like with the mountain or Tyre's Temple.

Overall, GoW 2018 is a solid reinvention of the series.

Haze Review

This going to sound weird considering how much of a bad rep this game has but I think Haze has a pretty good story. Free Radical's writing is still pretty good in a game as mediocre as this. The game is surprisingly committed to keep the player in first person at all times. I wasn't expecting that in a game with such a bad rep. That and the writing is solid. And the game makes good points and the twists are foreshadowed well. I actually think Duvall is a good villain despite him no showing for a good amount of the game. Merino being an asshole was also foreshadowed well even the protagonist is decent.

The gameplay however is mediocre and I get Free Radical went through a number of development issues when making the game but the end result feels half baked. I'll start with when you play as the Mantle Soliders, these parts are decent if pretty standard, what makes these sections stand out is the Nector mechanic and the game does a decent job at making you rely on in tone with the story of the game. Enemies are really hard to see without Nector and they can get the drop on you if you don't actively use it, and it's pretty interesting how the game encourages you to get kills to sustain your Nector bar, and funnily enough in a 7th gen regen health shooter actually encourages you to be aggressive to keep the meter full. The enemies and weapons are nothing to write home about and are typical human enemies with hitscan guns fare meaning you will be using the same weapons the enemies will be using, and more so in this game because the basic assault rifles can kill your usual grunts with ease in this game and the shotgun feels awkward to use and it's better to have a weapon that you can keep firing when enemies are shooting you which is more so for the rebel sections and now let's move on to that. While I get what Free Radical was trying to do here in that they wanted to created to change up the gameplay and even have the player be in sync with player character in that they take away the very mechanic you were using and now the player and the player character needs to adapt and this could potentially elevate the game but the problem is everything about these sections feels underdeveloped, the game throws in mechanics like knives, disarming, playing dead, Nector Grenades and hitting Mantle soldiers in the back but of all this is pointless due to two big issues: the terrible AI and how enemies take little damage to die from the basic assault rifles. You know why Halo had the shield and flesh system and that enemies took a lot of damage in those games? It was to show more of their "intelligent" AI behavour like running away, jumping away from grenades and moving out of the way from your shots. Haze has none of this and the mantle soldiers just move on occasion rarely ever flank and rush your position. They never show any signs of intelligence to the point where you even can use the above mentioned mechanics. That and since the basic ARs can kill them in a few hits means that most combat encounters just end in you press ADS, and firing with little depth to the shooting.

There are other issues with the game like the scripted sequenced not being that great, and the driving while not terrible aren't as refined as they should be and have weird quirks like vehicles being on seperate health which is why I get why Bungie dropped that system after Halo CE. Weapon feedback both with the sounds and damage animations are average and the melee attack being inconsistent.

Overall, Haze is a game I get why is considered mediocre. The story I got more enjoyment out of than I thought I was going to but the gameplay especially the half baked rebel gameplay made me rate a game that was a potential 6 out of 10 to a 5 out of 10. I feel bad for Free Radical, they were just consumed by over ambition and the changing industry landscape at the time and it lead to them being shut down.

Turok(2008) Thoughts

Turok 2008 is not a very good game. I wanted to enjoy it, I really did but the game keeps shooting itself in the foot every 10 seconds.

Regen health sucks and always will fucking suck. Every 10 a game with this system adds challenge its because you get shot at from all sides and the game refuses to let you recover your health. If you are getting actively flanked you might as well not even try to fight back. Its about being lucky that the enemy finally stops shooting or hitting you. This game you get attacked from all sides so much that the regen health won't regen and you die. The hitscan guns only add to this since you can't dodge the attacks. Dinosaur fighting is barely any better, they are damage sponges, attack you from all sides and scripted animations play constantly from getting hit from behind to getting from the front. You either have little ammo or barely enough. Weapons feel barely on the adequate level and feedback isn't as good as it should be. The hint system is inconsistent when one minute the game will tell you where to go and another minute it doesn't. Checkpoints are super inconsistent and I probably wouldn't mind this if the game's combat wasn't so damn flawed. They don't even place them after cutscenes. I also hate how the dinosaurs grab you and you have to mash the trigger buttons like crazy.

Honestly, this game is not misunderstood, its simpily not a very good game. I guess a good thing about the game is that I kind of like the voice acting. But the game rips off Halo and Aliens while not being as good as either of them. The opening cutscene wants to be Aliens so bad that its painful. It kind of says something when I didn't like playing the demo of this game even as a kid and I remember why kid me disliked the game.

If there is one impressive thing about this game is how many celebrity VAs made it into the game. Maybe that's where the money went.

Ghost Rider Game Review

The Ghost Rider game being too easy actually detracts from the overall game. The game is also short but I wouldn't mind it so much if the game didn't feel as easy it was. When there is any challenge, it's due to cheap high damage projectile attacks that you can't reliable dodge all that well and that is more artifically difficult than it is geniune. I can see why me playing the game years ago I was initally lukewarm on it. Like a lot of licensed games by extension movie tie in games of the era that rise above being terrible, you can tell the devs wanted to make a good game here.

The game nails the combat and game feel, the animations and combos all look over the top and flashy to carry the game, and there is some interesting ideas here like the barrier where you reach a certain style rank in order to break it and then damage the enemy, and there is a number of cool offensive attacks like the shotgun, link attacks and an area of effect attack that does a lot of damage, some of this is deriative sure, but on paper it could make for an engaging combat system on it's own merit.

So where does everything fall apart? This is where the laughably easy difficulty comes in. The game is super easy to break in half. Early levels give you so many experience points to the point where you can unlock so many combos and max out so many stats early in the game making all the enemies into a joke early on. And when you max out your "Devil Trigger" of sorts(which will happen because the motorcycle levels give shitloads of XP), you can destroy all the enemies with ease. Stuff like the shotgun and the area of effect attack can kill enemies with ease too. I praised the game for the style meter barriers earlier and while it is a great idea I wished Devil May Cry and games like it ripped off wholesale, the execution of it in this game leaves a lot to be desired. Trying to get into high enough combo can be cumbersume since doing a combo will stop filling up the guage after it is used once and the meter reaches down to zero when hit once. But then you can break this by getting the meter high enough and then have the area of effect attack get you high enough to break the shield with ease without much input. There IS a good combat system here but the poor enemy balancing in general makes this game super easy to break in half.

The Hell Cycle levels are okay but nothing too special and they do a decent enough job at breaking up the combat. The level design and overall combat feels like what you get if stuff like the original Devil May Cry and God of War games didn't have platforming and puzzle solving. As a result, the combat is the only thing the game has during the on foot sections and the combat isn't good enough on it's own. The game's overall structure can be rather repetitive, all it consists of is going to a level finding the elemental soul and then breaking the barrier then progressing. There is not much in the way of anything else to cleanse the repetition. The music is pretty great, that is one thing I want to mention regarding the good, and the game developers seems to really like the character but overall like every movie tie in game that rises above being terrible, you can tell the devs wanted to make a good game but didn't have the time to make the game they wanted.

I will say if you are new to Devil May Cry or God of War style action games, this isn't a bad one to start with due it's easy difficulty.

Ghost of Tsushima Review

The story really does carry the game, despite not being familar with Samurai movies, the game's story is surprisingly enjoyable. Well, the main plot is characters like Jin, Yuna, Taka, Shimura, and Ryuzo are, and I did like Jin's slow disillusion of the Samurai Code of Honor. The main vilain is underwhelming, not terrible but just kind of there even though he started out strongly enough. I didn't like how some of the characters' plots like Ishikawa and Masako were relegated to side missions and not part of the main plot even though they are main characters and that gave me major Mass Effect 2 vibes which isn't a good thing since, I would rather have internal conflicts and the main plot being interconnected in stories. The writing is solid and the story carried me through much of the game, that and I also like the "homage" of sorts to Infamous 2 where Jin and Yuna drink while sitting next to each before a major battle happens like Cole and Zeke at end of Infamous 2.

The gameplay? While I kind of like the combat, it's just not that refined, it's better than combat like Witcher 3 but that is a pretty low bar. My big issue is the autotargeting and how you can't manually choose you want to attack and this can bother me since the game requires you to switch stances a lot and you can hit the enemy with the wrong stance and then you got to pause the screen to change stances. The roll is also imprecise as fuck and I often got myself rolling into an attack that the enemy was doing and the damn stagger fall animation by a brute and getting bitten by animals was so maddening after a point since I got to watch Jin wait and slowly get out of the animation with no way to speed up the recovery time. This game also has a serious archer fetish and they are annoying in every game they are in. I dislike getting into melee combat then switching to over the shoulder view to shoot arrows since it can lead to me being disoriented. The stealth is also super generic stay crouched, hide in tall grass shit and avoid line of shit that has been done a thousand other times in other open world games and this game does very little to stand out from the pack, but to complement it, the stealth itself isn't "horrible" and the mandatory stealth sections do work decently enoughly and aren't too tiresome since they never overstay their welcome. I also played the game on easy since I found the combat while feeling decent enough since the blood and sword strikes feel weighty just felt it clashed with the button combos and the sword feeling lethal. For example, the game looks so realistic yet enemies will be tanking multiple sword strikes to the stomach, and as result the sword doesn't feel as badass and lethal as something like a Jedi Knight game. Playing on easy meant I can enjoy the story more and the sword would feel more lethal. That and so much of the combat of this game consists of you breaking enemy blocks and easy mode means I get to guard break faster and I have to wait less for the enemy's guard to be broken and I don't have to do the open world activates and exploration which are both generic as hell in this game I don't like to use that word but the game has all the boxes of what you find in these games, bandit camps, skill trees, finding ingredients on the overworld to improve stats, it's all been there, done that.

Overall, if it wasn't for Sucker Punch and them being solid storytellers, I would've dropped this game but I went through because I like them as a dev and their writing.

Tenchu 2 Review

Tenchu 2 is a game where I want to play more out of to unlock more of the story and appreciate the fact that the developers took time to make a game with multiple characters and the story isn't one of them in a jail cell while the actual story with the character you play as does all the work but at the same time, the game has so many problems that prevents me from at least doing a 2nd run. I start playing think it's not too bad then play more and the just start to really get aggrevated while playing.

Alright, I'll start with the good, the stealth kills are back and they are great and even more brutal than before but due to issues I will mention later, it's hard to fully appreciate this. The story, voice acting and presentation are much improved from the first game and is an aspect that actually is a true step up over the first game. The story has an actual overarching plot this time around and it's generally interesting enough where I want to know more about the different perspective of the characters. The presentation of the cutscenes is much improved too, and it's incredible how the characters' mouths actually move in a PS1 game. The cutscenes have better cinematography and many of them are in engine too, and it's quite fascinating what the devs pulled off, only the first Metal Gear Solid game really rivals this game in terms of in engine cutscene production values. The level design is generally solid if it reuses some levels here and there, and it keeps that feel of the first Tenchu of it being a linear game but you have a wide array of angled to approach from with enemies to stealth kill to prevent it from being a run to the finish line. The levels are more varied compared to Tenchu Stealth Assassins as well. The last level in particular is quite good where every mechanic is like long jumping, swimming, and grappling hook all get used and it's a nice way to cap off the game even with the issues I will mention later on.

Now what are the issues that ruin the game for me? The grappling hook and collison detection is awful, so many times where it felt like I was able to reach a ledge and it either ends in me fall like an oaf, it won't register the grab, or I miss but the falling animation doesn't happen. So every time there is a grappling hook heavy mission, it's a complete chore. Sheathing your weapon has to be one of the most pointless additions to the game. Your weapon will always be drawn when you do a stealth kill even when your weapon is holstered so every time you stealth kill an enemy, you have to tap the circle button twice, every...single...time. Underwater stealth doesn't much to the overall gameplay since the water is basically a glorified bush and getting out of the water is a game of hoping you are quiet and not raise a sound that alerts an enemy when you get out. And the camera when using the bamboo tube isn't good and sometimes doesn't give you the angle you need. The stealth kills are super buggy, they will activate and the camera will bug out and won't show the kill or I press the stealth kill button and it doesn't do the kill and instead unholsters the weapon. The body dragging feature is also both useless and hard to pull off since I would press crouch next to a body and the character will either register the grab or he won't and it feels out of place in a game like this since guards have short attention spans and will resume patrols after a minute or two, there is no long term reprecussions for moving bodies like there is in Splinter Cell. The lack of music really saps out of getting into the power fantasy of killing enemies, and just makes gameplay a rather dry affair compared to the first game's soundtrack. Combat still sucks and the unsheathing means enemies can get free hits on you and the 3 hit combo your character can do is now contextual. That and the pop during day time levels just looks weird and lacks the proper context to justify the existence of it being there.

I really wish this game got a remake because while I am anti remake, this game is sub par and ambitious enough but didn't reach it's potential. I am convinced while Wrath of Heaven has it's problems, it's better than this game. Give me the same story but with WoH gameplay and polish and I would already enjoy this game more.

Ghost in the Shell 1997 Game Review

Okay, when I first beat this game years ago, I found the game to be pretty good but after replaying it again, I am not so sure how to feel. It's not terrible but it feels rough around the edges in so many areas. I'll start with the good, the anime cutscenes are pretty well done and are charming and in some ways the most faithful adaptation to the original manga of Ghost in the Shell from it's character designs all the way to the tone. The story is okay and does a decent job at giving enough context for the levels even if it feels something like cliffnotes version of something like GITS SAC would offer. The fujikomas were also a nice precursor to the tachikoma from the very same series. The voice acting is okay and I felt Mimi Woods kind of did a better job in this game then she does in the dub of the 1995 movie. The in game visuals have an interesting late 90s look to it and the music is fantastic and is a super high point of this game. The overal controls feel decent enough, the feel of combat gets the job done and sticking to walls is a unique style of gameplay not really replicated to this day. Also, the level where you have to chase a therm optic camoflague user through the level and you have to use the water to detect his movements was a nice piece of GITS fan service in gameplay form. The game also isn't overly long, and the length fits the kind of gameplay this game has.

Now, the negatives, the difficulty is all over the place, one minute it's manageable then another minute the difficulty spikes like crazy. When you are fighting enemies, the controls are okay but sometimes the enemies shoot projectiles in a way thay isn't always easy to evade and the controls to strafe left and right while not the worst isn't as quick as what the game wants out of me. The timed mission on "Firecracker" was really bad in that the game expects you to disable explosives much faster than your character can move, while enemies are shooting at you and you have to memorize the bomb locations in order to quickly dispatch within the time limit. The "hold down square to shoot multiple lock on missiles" also doesn't work as consistently as I would like. It locks on then doesn't and I keep holding sqaure then it either does or doesn't. The rest of the game is fine but the above mentioned issues can sap the fun out of the combat. Some of the bosses can be pretty awful too, the one where you are on a timer while you have to shoot the cores is especially ergregious since you have to shoot cores that take a while to destory while the enemies is reigning all kinds of attacks on you. The final level is especially awful in which you have to do awkward 3D platforming in a game that didn't really require you to do up until that point, I was kind of just getting sick of the game's bs by that point, and it is good that the platforming didn't last overly long because my patience was being tested.

Also, I ran this game on the Duckstation emulator and while it ran generally fine, there were weird parts. Like a glitch in Mission 8 where there was always one target remaining to progress to the next area even though I killed everyone, and weird visual flickering in the penultimate mission.

Overall, a decent game and maybe in some ways the best offical GITS game ever made but I felt the game still could've been better.

Medal of Honor Underground Review

While the first game was pretty solid, this game was more of the same, not bad but it didn't have many innovations over the first game. It feels like more like an expansion than a sequel, not bad but I don't see much of a point in making this it's own game outside of the fact that consoles in the late 90s never did expansions to games that much if ever.

The game has some memorable missions like the part where you invade the house of a crazy Nazi leader, going to Africa, and liberating France, the level design is as solid as ever and the guns still feel solid to use. And I like how each major section feels like it is slowly escalating the stakes and the Nazis are out in full force when you are done. Like sending tanks on you or riding a bike while you shoot them as you put explosives on rockets.

But the controlling issues and aiming are still an issue and it stands out more in this game since it's longer. That and getting randomly ambused by enemies can get very grating and the new enemies like motorbike enemies are just a terrible addition to the roster since they move faster than you can aim your gun. The framerate can also really chug when lots of enemies are on screen and my gun would randomly not pop up and the movement still isn't as smooth as it could be.

Overall, more of the same, if you didn't like the first game then you won't like this one. In fact, play Allied Assault if you want any hope for this series appealing to you if you don't like the first one, this game or Frontline.

Dragon Ball Z Kai Review

 Dragon Ball Z, a series that I have a number of fond memories yet oddly hard to recall memories for. I played the fighting games in the 00s a lot more than watching the anime and while I did watch the original anime, it was only random episodes here and there since it would air on one day only and I remember not being able to watch it consistently. The original DB, Z and GT all aired at the same time and the whole thing was a disjointed experience. Over time, I would keep playing the fighting games but I would slowly start to get sick of the same story being told over and over to the point where I would get sick of the overall DBZ story and I went on to criticize it for many years mainly due to the whole "main character or GTFO" criticism that anime fans would often do and I eventually fell for that lousy excuse for a criticism myself. Recently, I have come to respect DBZ's writing a lot and get why the series' creator Akria Toriyama made the choices he did at least from Sayain Saga to Cell. Watching Kai and finally being able to properly experience the DBZ story from start to finish from Sayain to Cell reminded me why this series hooked me even as a kid. After not being exposed to it for so long, I finally understood why I liked it to begin with. Long intro out of the way, this will be like my original Dragon Ball review where I will rate each Saga individually and then give my overall thoughts.

Sayain Saga - 8 out of 10. DBZ starts off in a rather strange way, it might seem to be a sequel to the original DB at first but I argue Z was a soft reboot of the series before those really started to take off in other franchises. But the difference is DBZ does it better than a lot that has come before and after. The thing with Z is that it retcons Goku's backstory and while retcon is a dirty word on the internet, I think it depends on the execution more than anything and Z executes it really well. Goku's retconned backstory of him being part of a bloodthristy group of alien space pirates in many ways raises the stakes of the overall Dragon Ball story and since Z introduces at the start, it means you don't even have to watch the original series, I reccomend you do but if you start with Z first, it's not that bad of a decision due to the inclusion of this retcon. Z also names Goku's son after his adopted father and never mentions his adopted father ever again, Piccolo who was called "Junior" at around the end of the original series is now just called "Piccolo" and his father is rarely mentioned. From the start, it's easy to see how much Toriyama has improved as a writer from the original series particularly with his foreshadowing, he is often infamous for the fact that he made up much of the story as he went along but I argue with the Sayain all the way to Freiza and to varying degrees even the Cell Saga all have Toriyama improve his foreshadowing skills from the original series. Where in the original DB, stuff like the Red Ribbon army, and Demon King Piccolo would all just come out of nowhere and every arc existed in a small contained vaccum but with Z from the start Raditz is already mentioning Nappa and Vegeta, and that he sells worlds to the highest bidder which will get mentioned later. Gohan's power which will be mentioned later also bares fruit here. Raditz despite being Goku's brother which is the only thing this saga does wrong is never mentioned again and the series makes it sounds like he is an important character but really isn't but in spite of that Raditz is still a memorable character, and this where Toriyama loves to use his favorite trope: the worf effect. Raditz makes Piccolo scared as all hell and this is where if you watch the original series can greatly add to it because Piccolo gave Goku a run for his money in the final arc of the original series and the fact that Piccolo barely lays a scratch on Raditz when the latter lands on earth does a great job at selling him and him beating up Goku and Krillin so despite Raditz's personal connection to Goku being a missed opportunity he still manages to be a memorable character and he's the weakest villain in the series next to the Saibamen. And the fact that Goku gave up his life to beat Raditz just sells you on how powerful the Sayains are. DBZ often gets made fun of for death "not mattering" but I argue killing Goku off the first time made sense for the story considering if Goku lived and 2 stronger Sayains from Raditz showed up, where would Goku train? Kami's training didn't have him last a chance against Raditz and who were they going to find to train Goku? This where the afterlife actually works since it gives Goku next level training without needing to search for someone else to train Goku. Piccolo and his relationship with Gohan is also foreshadowed really well too. Since in the original series, the viewer nevers sees Piccolo murdering innocent people which makes his "face turn" easy to buy since the series already foreshadowed that Piccolo wasn't always evil, he saved a kid and his mom in the original series from rubble, so despite DBZ being a "soft reboot" watching at least the final torunament arc of that show only adds to Z. Nappa is another good example of how Toriyama is good at making one off villains memorable. He kills 3(arguably 4 if you count Yamcha) core memembers of the original Dragon Ball with Choitzu, Tien and Piccolo which does a good job at establishing that even with Kami's training, the Sayains are still a huge threat and what makes Nappa even more impressive is how he establishes multiple ideas in a short amount of time. First, he establishes the power gap between Goku's friends and the Sayains, then he establishes how powerful Goku has gotten since the fight with Raditz, sets up the Namek arc by him killing Piccolo, establishes the limitations of the Kaioken technique with Goku needing to strain himself, AND he establishes how ruthless Vegeta is. The final fight with Vegeta is fantastic with how it reincoporates the rules of full moons and great apes into the series and it does a good job at redeeming Gohan for how useless he was when he was Piccolo and Krillin for how useless he also was. The fight with Vegeta with great, in how Vegeta is stronger than Goku but Goku has to strain himself to reach his level, keeping the stakes and tension high. Honestly, this Saga gets a lot right, my only big gripes is the before mentioned thrown aside personal connection between Goku and Raditz and some of Gohan's training being rushed. That the retconning of Launch and the lack of mentioning "Grandpa Gohan" was a bit grating.

Frieza Saga - 9 out of 10. What can I say? This saga is great. All the foreshadowing where Raditz he was selling planets to the highest bidder pays off here. All though the existence of Frieza retcons what "Demon King" Piccolo said where he fought warriors from the universe and said Goku was the strongest. Only furthur proves my point that DBZ is a soft reboot. But yeah, the stakes feel high in this Saga, the villains are portrayed very dominently and even smaller villains like Zarbon and the Ginyu Force are memorable due to how much Toriyama uses the worf effect. Vegeta being an "x factor" adds to much more since you don't know Vegeta can be trusted or not. Frieza really is shown off as a powerful threat here and while DBZ is infamous for having a fight take many episodes, I argue, when done well, it does a good job at showing off how important and powerful a villain is so it makes sense for the final fight with Freiza being as long as it is even if stuff like, "the planet will blow up in 5 minutes" makes more sense in manga form than fully animating it. Having Goku get taken out a lot while a Z overall has a habbit was a rather smart choice since it gives Goku's friends the ability to surpass him and it shows how big the threats are. And a nice touch and what makes me respect Toriyama as a creator is that the guy turned Dragon Ball which was just a straight forward adventure story homage to Journey to the West and turned into a weird alien Skeasperen tradegy of sorts witht chracter of Frieza, it's really quite fascinating in that Frieza saw how powerful the Sayains were becoming and feared his own death so he tries to take action and prevent that from happening but by doing so, he sealed his doom. I never expected something like this for a show that is often known for having a simple plot. The character of Bardock was introduced so well into the series too, no need for prequels that establish him later, he was in the original series of Z. That and the alien prophecy was handled well too and does a good job at showing just how much Goku stands out from the other memembers of his race in that while he fights for the thrill, he isn't a bloodthirsty killer. Honestly, my only big gripes with this saga is how annoying Bulma can especially when they touch down to Namek, the before mentioned 5 minutes issues, Vegeta making killing those Namekian villagers making his eventual face turn a little harder to buy since he is seen killing innocent people, and how many different rules the series tries to come up with regarding the dragon balls which kind of makes the rules of them getting increasingly harder to follow. Overall, despite my problems I really enjoyed it.

Cell Saga - 7 out of 10. Okay, this Saga is weird in that there are many great moments and lots of parts that stick with me, there are a number of issues I have with it that prevent me from ranking it higher. I'll get them out of the way first. This Saga is where the power scaling of the series gets broken in half, before it was generally straight forward but now with the addition of earth androids made with the basis of aveage people being way stronger than a Cyberized Frieza and even a Cyberized Mercenary Tao, it makes me wonder where on earth did Dr. Gero and the Red Ribbon army find the technology and money to pull stuff like this off considering in the original series, General Red and Black were beaten by a child. And speaking of Dr. Gero, this is yet another example of how much of a soft reboot Z is. Dr. Gero never showed up in the original DB and Toriyama has forgotten and is expecting the viewer not to remember either. Trunks also comes out of nowhere too, it felt like Toriyama needed an excuse to ramp up the stakes by having another Super Sayain and needed to get Frieza and his crew out of the way fast so they don't have to wait for Goku to awkwardly show up. Was Android 17 and 18 abducted or did the volunteer? It's confusing because when they kill Gero, it wasn't out of revenge but more because they could. The time travel doesn't make a whole lot of sense either and it feels like it was only thrown together because Toriyama really liked the Terminator movies. It's going to take too long to describe the time travel but I am not a big fan when multiple time lines are involves, and it's weird how different Trunks' timeline is compared to the time line of the series. Finally, the biggest issue I have and is the biggest plot hole in the whole series: the Hyberbolic Time Chamber while it is cool concept, it just felt like Toriyama just needed to find ways for Goku and the gang to have new forms of training. Where Other World and King Kai made sense, here it just raises questions on why none of the characters ever bothered to use it from the Sayain Saga or before the androids showed up. It's both a Deus Ex Machina and a massive plot hole. So with my issues out of the way, I stille enjoy this Saga, mostly due to the characters. Toriyama does it yet again with the antagonists. With the exceptions of 19 and 20, all the villains in the Cell Saga are enjoyable. 17 and 18 are interesting in that they aren't pure evil which makes them intriguing to watch since they don't seem to want to kill Goku really badly, Android 16 as well in that he is a very peaceful being whose only directive is to kill Goku but despite all 3 of these characters wanting to kill Goku, they are people that aren't really people you want to see get killed due to them just being a bunch of weird misfits than murders which Goku's friends later in the story question. Cell on the other hand is pure evil and outside of Semi Perfect Cell, he is also a very despicable villain. Imperfect Cell feels like what you get if the DB universe had a weird serial killer and Perfect Cell just has that over the top smugness arrogance for a guy who loves to talk about how "Perfect" he is. Perfect Cell's motivations are strange in that he wants to throw a fighting tournament all of a sudden but he is so entertaining to watch that I don't mind. He is like an over the top villain you'd find in dumb action movie which works well for DB. What also really makes this Saga is Gohan. Throughout the whole series, it was slowly building up that he had potential and the Cell Saga is where that pay off happens and its really satisfying to see it happen. The final fight between Gohan and Cell does a good job at showing how different Gohan is from his father. And you know what? Despite my problems with this Saga, Goku giving Cell a Senzu Bean is not one of them. When Goku got out of the Time Chamber Goku is already said to be weaker than Cell and all of his friends question why he doesn't show any fear and it all comes full circle where Goku realizes that Gohan despite being powerful is not the ace in the hole that he was expecting so Goku pays for it...with his life. It was foreshadowed wonderfully which is why I can't dislike this Saga. Also Piccolo vs. 17 and Goku vs. Cell is some of the better action in the series.

Overall, DBZ is a show I have come to understand again why I like it. I even wrote a super long review about it. If DBZ just ended at Cell, it'd be my absolute favorite fighting shonen but there is stuff that comes after that this section of Kai doesn't cover. Honestly, I tend to be critical of a lot of mainstream anime but DBZ is surprisingly a show I get a lot of enjoyment out of. I may have over exposed myself to the story in the past but I understand why I did in the first place.

Also, here is a review on the final episode of Kai:

Pretty good final episode that should've been the end of the series, weird how it's a seperate entry from the other episodes of Kai but it does a good job at wrapping everything up.

Trunks gets a satisfying victory over the much more evil Androids and Cell and it really geniunely does feel like the series could've ended here but it kept going. There is overall not much to say on that I really enjoyed this and the fact that they included the Other World Tournament arc while creating confusion on what is considered "canon" in Dragon Ball was a nice piece of fan service since that arc was one of DBZ's more memorable filler arcs would've been nice if they showed Frieza, Cell and the gang getting beat up since it did a good job at selling Pikkon as a memorable character but the fact they did this at all was cool enough on it's own.

Not much to say that it was a solid ending just wish it actually was the ending.