Assassin's Creed: Unity Review

I played Assassin's Creed Unity back in 2015 and I absolutely hated my time with it. Both this along with Watch Dogs 2 made me question how Ubisoft made games with well made stealth mechanics like Splinter Cell went on to made stealth system that never felt nearly as refined by comparison. Playing SC Blacklist a few years before playing Unity made me question how Ubisoft ever managed to reach such a whole new low even it's cover mechanics felt inferior to something like the first Watch Dogs game.

After recently playing Mirage and Syndicate, I started to slowly warm up to the series more and I decided to return to the game that caused my near 10 year long hate boner for AC. I always heard Unity was better than both and especially after the recent cult following Unity got, is it?

Kind of. ACU really could've been the best game in the series by a large country mile but it fumbles when it comes to moment to moment polish and mechanics that it is hard not to be frustrated by the game while also getting enjoyment at the same time.

The good things about ACU is that the story is surprisingly decent, I always prefered when Assassin's Creed aimed for grey morality compared to the boring edgy 80s cartoons of the Ezio games, and Unity is the former, I like Arno as a protagonist who unlike Ezio, the inciding incident that starts Arno's story is actually his fault as opposed to things being out of his control like with Ezio. Him and Elise share an endearing bond of being on opposite sides and them trying to do the right thing from their own points of view. Bellac steals much of the show and I really wished he got more screen time since I found him to be really interesting with his cynism.

ACU much like AC1 has Arno reveal more of an overarching conspiracy the more the plot goes on and Arno starts questioning a lot of it much like Altair.

This leads me to my next positive, you actually feel like a stealthy assassin in ACU instead of some generic action movie hero like many ACs. All the missions are either about gathering intel and performing assassinations which more akin to what AC1 tried to but didn't have the stealth reinforcement, mechanics or design to fully realize it. Combat in ACU isn't outright terrible and is doable but feels like you are better off doing thing steathily as opposed to how easy everything was in the Ezio and the Americas games.

The parkour and stealth kill animations look very nice and the latter I love for how fast they are, they aren't as stylish as Tenchu's kills but it fits the idea that you are supposed to be an assassin that moves quickly, gracefully and swiftly. It feels very satisfying to go into a room and quickly kill 3 guards while their backs are turned.

The Phatom Blade is a very satisfying weapon to get headshots and kill multiple unaware guards with.

The city feels more quick and easier to traverse than in Syndicate and unlike ACS, you can just do main story missions and the game doesn't drag itself out with pointless mandatory side quests. Unity also never crashed once on PS5 unlike Syndicate.

With all this said, why I did I say I kind of prefer it over Syndicate and Mirage? With ACU, it felt like Ubisoft figured out the Tenchu meets Hitman power fantasy that the series has been floundering on since it's inception.

There is two big issues: the AI and lack of polish.

I'll get two smaller issues out of the way first, the cover system and lack of toggle crouch can be quite bothersome but I got used to them both all though Syndicate and Mirage would improve upon them both. I also wish ACU had the whistle feature that Syndicate and Mirage had since it's a game with predator stealth and encourages you do corner kills but yet you can't.

The animations are fine at their best and get in the way at their worst. Arno doesn't always move with the most smooth of elegance. Sometimes, he'll get stuck sometimes, he'll like through buildings and at other times he will be confused on where to move while also getting stuck. Good luck trying to get him through a window since that is a 50-50 guessing on if he will go in or not. Some of the assassinations were hard to do since my target would run and the running assassination would not play.

The AI is really bad and is super inconsistent and not in an exploitable way like in ACS. In that game when I got caught it felt like it was my fault most of the time where in Unity, they can see me from super far away, randomly detect me, and the suspicion would just go up and down at random. I even got spotted while in a hiding spot just for the guard not to pull me out of it. One guard was just running up to a wall and refused to move. Other times I would get spotted instantly shortly after I resetted the alert. It's hard to tell what their line of sight and what would get an alert even was half the time. This aspect made ACU frustrating even though the game can be enjoyable but there was lots of screams throughout my playthrough.

Overall, ACU is what happened if a game had a few more months or a year to cook in the oven, it could've been good, but as it stands, the game can be equal parts frustating as it can be fun. 

Dead Kings:

Nothing special DLC, it's mostly the same as the main game but now there is the addition of being able to kill high level enemies that will scare off lower level goons and it's pretty underdeveloped stuff, since now you can get spotted by the former, kill him and every enemy nearby will run away. Combat as well as mission rewards are as brainlessly easy as the Ezio games since now missions will grant you so much money and the mortar gun is so powerful that it makes short work of most enemies.

Not a big fan of the lantern gameplay since it just adds a tacked on resource mangement aspect to the game and I don't recall many instances where I ran out of oil and I thought it was going to be like a Plague Tale where you need to do puzzle to get past bug swarms or you die but it just won't let you parkour. The addition of puzzles just slowed down the pace for me, then again I could be very impatient.

The story is okay and not as good as the main game since it's short but it works as an okay epilogue, not that it really matters since every victory in the past sections of AC games are ultimately hollow ones that don't lead to anything.

It's not a terrible DLC and I was looking for something short and easy to beat and this fit the bill pretty well but outside of fuffling that basic need, the DLC didn't do much for me. Good thing it was free too which is yet another reason why I tried it out at all. I'd be harsher on it if it wasn't.

Resistance Retribution Review

Resistance Retribution was a game I played almost a decade ago back when it came out on the PSP, I was big into Resistance at the time and still am. However, Retribution was a game I played I got around to a certain point of and then dropped. I tried to emulate it over a decade later and it crashed on first checkpoint, so I was waiting for the PS Premium version of the game for some time. I finally played it and got to the end and what do I think of it?

I enjoyed it, however it feels like my enjoyment of the game mostly came from me being a fan of the series more so than because the game itself in terms of design and story standing out on it's own.

The PS5 version of Retribution does feel different from the PSP in some ways, the control layout is similar to Fall of Man's on PS3 and the aim assist is noticeably subdued.

I'll start with what I liked, the game being a cover based shooter does sound like a bad thing and sound like it would annoy me but at the same time, this game has the novelty is a cover based shooter in the Resistance universe and it's design template is more like Fall of Man than 2. Which means you get a bunch of wacky and over the top guns but unlike the latter game you get to hold all of them. There isn't many cover based shooters that I can think of that let's you hold all your guns, sure games like Watch Dogs and Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5 lets you do it, but you don't get the wacky sci fi guns of Resistance. Sure the lack of hedgehog and air fuel grenades are disappointing but I can forgive Retribution for this.

So for the fact that Retribution is a game that gives you a gun that can shoot through walls, a gun that can attack enemies behind cover, a chaingun with a shield, a sniper that can slow down time, an assault rifle with under barrel grenade launcher and you can hold all of them does intitially gave me more fun than games like Uncharted and Gears of War do. I love experimenting and trying out different tactics, like throwing and firing grenades at 2-3 enemies, firing the Auger on turret users and deploying the shield on the when fighting the Titans, using the Bulleseye's alt fire to take out multiple enemies at once, using the chaingun and LAARK on tougher enemies or using the Fareye on far away Hybrids. Resistance's guns are some of the best in gaming and this carries much of Retribution.

The story is decent here too, James Grayson is the best protagonist in the series and he has is a lot more memorable than Nathan Hale in R2 and Joeseph Capelli in 3. He talks during gameplay and cutscenes and he's esstentially a cross between Dick Marcinko from Rogue Warrior, Gabe Logan from Syphon Filter and a 90s fps protagonist, he acts so sincere and over the top that it is hard not to dislike him. Also read the load screens since it also helps furthur expand and characterize him.

Cartwright is in character here too, he's still just as pragmatic and likeable here as he was in RFOM.

Now this is where my issues come in. The hitboxes for the Fareye can be pretty inconsistent, there are times I scored a headshot and times where I didn't despite the crosshair being aimed there.

The game is too ambitious for a PSP game, where Chapters 1-4 felt reasonably designed with the lack of a dodge, sprint and dedicated cover and melee attack buttons. Chapters 5 and 6 feel far too demanding to what the PSP can do with it's controls.

Chapter 5 especially with how much it loves to spawn Leapers with their poorly telegraphed grabs and how much damage they do feels especially unreasonable. It's hard to know when a grab will even happen and they just happen almost at random, sometimes, they will lunge and hit you and at other times it will be a grab. The lack of a dedicated dodge and cover buttons are be missed here since there are is a higher enemy count and James has a knack for being magnetically attached to waist high walls. I got my issues with R2 but at least Nathan Hale can sprint and isn't magnetically connected to cover.

Chapter 6 shoves in too many enemies that don't compenstate for the PSP's controls as well as the Syphon Filter games and Killzone Liberation do. There is more Chimera Titan killing than the entire game of Fall of Man and the game will shove in many tough enemies like them before a checkpoint, the penultimate level in particular tested my patience since you had to fight two mini boss enemies and the game still kept on going. I am amazed some beat this using the PSP analog nub.

Overall, while I do enjoy this game, it is far too ambitious for a PSP title and was probably better off being a console spin off. Me liking Resistance as much as I did added to my enjoyment factor but I can't deny if I wasn't then the game would be a harder sell. 

Infected Mode:

I thought I wasn't going to play the game again since I don't like playing games twice within in close proxmity after beating them, but I decided to make an exception for Infected Mode. After all there isn't many if any games that offer the ability to change between having finite health and regen health.

I do like Infected Mode and I do say this is probably the way to play Retribution for the first time since now you don't have to worry about finding health and now it will just regen on it's own and this makes the later parts of the game MUCH easier since now you don't have to worry about avoiding damage nearly as much since you will heal up after every fight. The Leapers that constantly pop up in Chapter 5 are a bit more bearable now but you will still have to contend with the lack of a dodge or dedicated melee attack button or how during the section that bookends Chapter 5, Grayson's slow movement speed isn't going to make fighting those Titans easier since you will probably die before his light jog can even let you relocate to the next piece of cover. The game still throws more than the limited controls of the PSP can even handle. 

The fact that Resistance 2's Magnum is in the game is also a big selling point, I would've liked to at least seen the Splicer show up but then that could've broken the game's balance. The Magnum honestly is a good weapon to have since it has arguably more power than the LAARK does and it's a good weapon to use when taking on Chimeran Titans or many of the tougher enemies that appear later in the game. 

I also like some of the different dialogue with Infected Mode, particularly a line where Racheal Parker mentions Nathan Hale, the character you controlled in Fall of Man. I wish there was more but what's here feels welcome since it felt like Bend didn't have to go out their way at all.

Overall, I say if you are play Retribution for the first time, even with the slight dialogue differences, play on Infected Mode, it's going to make the later parts of Retribution especially much less grating. 

Yakuza: Dead Souls Review

I bought this game out of curosity more than anything, I got this because I wanted to get Ratchet and Clank Full Frontal Assault and the only other games I wanted off the PS3 store at the time that I could get were this and Twisted Metal 2012. That was 2 years ago and I was hesistant towards playing because of the bad rep the game got, plus me not playing a Yakuza game in a long while and having finally played Dead Souls, what do I think of it?

It's not bad but definately not a great game or even a very good one but I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be. At the same time the thing that will make or break your enjoyment of Yakuza Dead Souls is the camera and controls. I am willing to bet the difference between people who enjoy and did not enjoy Dead Souls was this aspect.

The best way of describing the shooting mechanics and controls in Yakuza Dead Souls and since the game seems to be heavily inspired by the Resident Evil games is that what if you had the character relative aiming from the older games in the series like RE1-3 and the stationary turret aiming from RE4? That's Dead Souls' aiming and controls in a nutshell. You aim in DS using two buttons with two different aiming methods through L1 and L2. The L1 button is where you aim without the reticle, the auto aim kicks in and you can strafe left to right, where with L2 you can't move while aiming but a targeting reticle does appear much like RE4. Remember, the game does still use character relative aiming than camera relative so depending on where your character is facing, he will aim there, not where the camera is faced.

At first, when I played the game it felt pretty awkward and I already was glad I was playing on easy mode but eventually I understood that instead of adopting the universal aiming system that so many third person shooters at the time did, the game has two different aiming methods, I used the auto aim for the hordes of zombies and used the manual camera aim on the tougher enemies and killed them faster with headshots. Some enemies like the meatheads require you to shoot them in the head and there will be some weak point targetting on bosses especially so that can be a turn off.

It felt like the whole system could've been fixed if L1 or L2 was used for both strafing and aiming like every other shooter at the time and almost all the immediate problems with the game could've been avoided.

Once you get past everything I described, the game is mildly enjoyable if nothing special. The weapons have decent amount of kick when firing them and the damage animations when you pop zombies' heads off especially can feel pretty good. Ryuji's gattling gun, Kazuma's anti tank rifle, Majima's shotgun and Akiyama's hand canon can all feel very good to use.

I am glad they do because there is a lot of zombie killing in this game, and I know complaining about that in a game like this is weird. But there is a lot of it, so many of the scenerios you partake involve killing hordes of them, I like games like Serious Sam and Doom but those games are much shorter and have far more enemies than Dead Souls does by comparison. I did enjoy the act of shooting in DS but I really wish the game changed things up after a point. Maybe it's because I am not big on the zombie genre as a whole, so this could play a part.

The story...is okay, it's primarily carried by the premise and the character interactions more than anything. It was fun seeing characters like Majima in a story like this and seeing Ryuji Goda with mechanical arm is pretty cool but what holds back the story is the amount of padding there is. It takes a while to get from A to B in this game. For example, Majima's chapter has Ryuji sighted at the batting center and you don't even get there and meet up with the latter until the end of the former's section, all of it is spent doing tasks that had nothing to do with the main plot.

Another example, Goda has to find the whereabouts of a character who might give him the information he needs, before that he needs to save 3 groups of survivors before he can advance the plot, there is another point where Goda needs to get somewhere but before he can do that he save some random old man from dying.

The game is full of padding like this and it can detract from an otherwise decently presented story, the devs put a surprising amount of production value in a spinoff game like this, and their love does show in some ways especially in an area where they could've pulled punches. The final boss was also great in how much of a Resident Evil homage it was. They could've made a lesser game in terms of production values since it's a non canon spinoff but they chose not to and it benefits the game all the more for it. 

Also, be warned there a lot of load times in the game. 

Overall, Dead Souls isn't a terrible game but at the same time, its controls takes getting used to and even then once you get past that, the game still doesn't rise above being serviceable. I could imagine the game benefitting with some kind of remake, the Yakuza series has been no stranger to that. 

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System Review

I always heard about Metal Arms and how it was an underrated gem of sorts and while I was hesistant at playing at first, I slowly started to like and warm up to it. My initial experience playing the Gamecube version on normal mode was a miserable experience, I was dying left and right and I could barely take any damage at all before restarting from checkpoint but the I restarted the PS2 version on easy mode and I was having a much much better time.

I'll start with what I liked it. If you ever wanted a game that gave the ability for the player to hold all your guns, health upgrades and weapon upgrades from the Ratchet and Clank series while combining elements like melee attacks, throwing grenades, and vehicle sections from the Halo series, while the whole game is primarily about fighting robots, you get Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. There isn't many games that play like this. Resistance Fall of Man is similar in some ways where that game combines the old school and the new school but that game would do it 3 years later, Transformers War for Cybertron is similar in that you fight primarily robots but that game gave you a two weapon limit and the weapons don't tear into the enemies by comparison.

So in a lot of ways despite some games doing what Metal Arms did later on, it still has it's own unique feel, this isn't even including the theathering mechanic where it allows Glitch to take possesion of the enemies and lets you control them until you decide to leave the bot or run out of health.

Just for all this alone, Metal Arms is a game I enjoyed. Add to this how fast and frantic the action is much like a Halo and Ratchet game and how weapons all have great sound design as well the game having great damage animations with the robots where they slowly take damage and they how you can rip them to shreds until only their legs remain gives the game amazing feedback that you wish you weren't fighting enemies that can bleed.

The game in the first half does a good job at steadily introducing new enemies, you fight weaker smaller robots, then robots that can break apart then reattach themselves and needing two explosions to kill, robots that are fast and agile and can shoot lasers out their staffs, robots that can fly, robots that can leap high distances and robots that are big and bulky and can take a lot of damage. These enemies get mixed up a good amount throughout the game making fire fights note as one note as they could be...for the first half.

The first half of the game was a lot of fun, the part where Glitch was storming the enemy base in the desert and how you are slowly making your way through it was some of the epic and engaging fun I had playing a shooter like this, it felt like I was slowly making my way tearing through the enemy.

To add on top of this easy mode is forgiving enough to play as a run and gun third person shooter, and you don't need to rely on theathering as much and shockingingly for an older game like this, it's checkpoint system isn't completely terrible, it's up there with stuff like Timespiltters Future Perfect and Socom 3 in that regard.

After all this what are the major issues that hold the game from being one of my favorites of all time? The vehicle controls are awful, while at first they weren't bad, they were slowly starting to annoy with how turning and steering didn't feel as tight and precise as I wanted and the vehicle phsyics felt off. These aren't very smooth controls but there aren't too many sections like this.

Some of the weapons like the Ripper and Flamethrower are useless with the latter taking too long to kill an enemy while also doing damage to you.

What does really hold the game back is how long it is and it's lack of a more involving story. The game loses steam and stops introducing new enemies and weapons around the half way point and it felt like longer than any Ratchet or Halo game because of this.

Where the game really starts to lose steam is the story, I don't complain about stories in games but Metal Arms' plot is super bare bones while well acted and presented, the actual story has Glitch do errands and tasks for the resistance with barely any plot progression. The main villain General Corrosive never does a whole lot of despicable actions to make you dislike him or react to what you do throughout the game. If the story was better, the game was shorter, or had more ideas after you reach the half way point, this could've been one of my favorite games.

Overall, Metal Arms despite it's problems is a very good game and is worth checking out if you like Ratchet or Halo. It's a shame it's planned sequels got cancelled because with the hindsight learned from this game, an improved sequel could've been an all time great. Still, this first game despite it's problems makes me understand why it got it's cult following over the years.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Review

I really should've played this game closely after I originally beat original FF7 back in 2018 since everything about me purchasing this game at all back in that time was because of how much I recall initally liking the former. Dirge of Cerberus was lying around on my shelf for so long and I also recently finished the Crisis Core remake and FF7 Rebirth is around the corner and also hopefully me eventually getting to the FF7 remake soon, I decided to finally play Dirge of Cerberus. I know its also a sequel to FF7 Advent Children which is yet another aspect that doesn't work in DoC's favor. 

With all that said, in spite of me playing DoC without a whole lot of attachment towards the FF7 brand, what did I think of it?

It's a mediocre game, a textbook definition of one. I don't mind this since I feel I need to try these kinds of games out every once and a while in order to appreciate the good to great stuff. DoC is not the epicly bad game that I was lead to believe for so many years but it's no misundersood masterpiece by any means. 

Here's the thing with this game, almost everything regarding the presentation of DoC is top notch, Square Enix were always the kind of developers to have cutting edge production values for their games and this game is no exception. The CGI cutscenes still look amazing to this day and the in engine cutscenes are nice to look at it even if it never matches how the CGI cutscenes look. The character models do look sharp and they have a nice stylized look without looking too realistic to the point of hitting the uncanny valley. The music is also great and has a lot of memorable tracks the tutorial music is great and the boss theme is also great stuff. The english voice acting is pretty solid and I like Steve Blum as Vincent Valentine even if the material he is given is kind of dull but everyone does a good job with the material they are given. 

This almost has me feel sorry for everyone involved in the production aspect value of DoC so much hard work and effort put into a mediocre game that looks and sounds nice but is in a "serviceable at best" third person shooter. 

I'll get into the negatives, the story, my memory of the original game isn't as great as it once was and the most I can do is mention how much Crisis Core uses "prequel tropes" for it's story but even CC had more things to about it's story I can be attached to. There was Zack's character development and his relationship with Angeal and it was sort of interesting seeing Sephiroth as a good guy before he goes full on villain. 

DoC on the other hand it's hard to get attached to anything, the game has multiple long cutscenes, borderline Metal Gear Solid levels and a lot of the dialogue and character interactions feels like you have to be an FF7 diehard just to understand or get any investment out of. The villains are also as crazy and over the top as they are in an MGS game, Azul feels like so much like Vulcan Raven. The chaingun, the big muscular build, the fact that he gets killed somewhere below ground. 

It also feels weird to see Cloud Strife get sidelined for Vincent after being the lead in FF7 and Advent Children. The late game reveal feels like you have to really be into FF7 lore to really get any kind of emotional reaction out of. I did sort of find it interesting, and it almost makes it seem like Hojo was more of the main villain of FF7 than Sephiroth was. 

Story aside, how is the gameplay? It's functional but none of the game rarely ever goes beyond being serviceable. The guns except for the pistol sound beefy and powerful and enemy reactions to getting shot feel decent, at the very least enemies do react to getting shot in DoC. 

You have a jump button but there is rarely ever any platforming, and it's unreliable when it comes to dodging enemy projectiles since it's slightly more reliable than the actual dodge command but it the camera tends to track Vincent as he is jumping so it doesn't do a good job at giving the player the proper cue to move out of the way last minute. The actual dodge or dash is too slow and the reticle disappears when doing it which is why jumping is better since the reticle is shown when doing the latter. The game should've just combined both into one and have Vincent roll around whenever the auto aim is tracking a target. 

The game has Vincent doing this awesome acrobatic movement in cutscenes but gameplay is him being a tank where this is very much a hitscan shooter. It can feel jarring since gameplay and cutscene Vincent are two completely different characters. 

Difficulty of the game is weird, while the game can be easy, it can be hard at times due to the game not explaining itself well. You can put points into gil or your level. At first I did the latter but then I realized that the former was far more important since you can buy items more and weapon upgrades are tied to gil. You need those weapon upgrades since fights will last much longer if you don't put upgrades into them. 

The game also has a weird system where gil and xp will be awarded to you after a chapter is completed and they can be quite lengthy, but if you die you cash in the points you gained, I didn't die that much but at the same time, you'll need that gil. Bosses and many tough encounters which are bosses tend to have vending machines right next to them and this tells me SE knew their design was flawed so they tried to come up with a way for players to see the story of their game through to the end. 

Enemy variety and level design is "okay" but it's only the bare minimum. The level progression can get rather montonous since it's just killing enemies until you get the keycard to progress and sometimes it's not always clear what is a side objective and what is the beaten path. But generally I had a clue where I was going, I did kind of use the map which is something I am not big on using in games. 

Enemies mainly consist of Shinra soldiers, drones, snipers, animal enemies, bigger goons with rocket launchers, and melee enemies, it's just enough to not have the game not be too dull but nothing really stands out, like I said before it's the bare minimum since the game has all the basic enemy archetypes but nothing that can't be done by shooting them and occasionally using materia. The auto aim tends to trivialize most enemy encounters since you just need to aim in the general direction of them and hit fire while strafing and healing yourself and it's enough to get by most encounters, and generally speaking there is always a good number of shops close to each other when playing the game except for the chapter that takes place after Kalm. 

The game does throw gargolyes and Shinra soldiers who can only be damaged through magic and melee but they show up too late in the game especially in a game that has the same enemies for so long from the 4th chapter onwards.

Materia and melee are both kind of just "there". I didn't upgrade materia much since it was only really needed for a late game boss with Azul and melee has the same issue as dodging where Vincent will unholster his gun when he is punching something and his melee attacks are super weak meaning you are better off not using them much. 

Overall, Dirge of Cerberus FF7 is a mediocre game based on a game and it's mythology, I have a passing interest in. It's by no means "terrible" but I wouldn't call good or great game. If I was more invested in the story or if the gameplay had more going on, I would've enjoyed it much more. 

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Review

Resident Evil 2(1998) is one my favorite sequels and games of all time, the game added so many refinements to what was already a solid foundation and then added more with the A and B scenarios.

Now enter Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, it has to follow up a game I consider to be a masterpiece and it already has a lot to live up to.

How was it? I'd say RE3 is a "good game" but it just isn't as big of a leap forward as RE2(1998) was to RE1(1996). That is by far the biggest issue with the game, at best it's still the same enjoyable RE gameplay you have come to expect but at the same time, RE3 never feels like it ever gets out of the realm of being an experimental expansion pack to RE2 than a full fledged sequel.

I'll start with what I liked, everything I liked about RE1 and 2 is in 3. The inventory management, the powerful feeling guns, the backtracking, and the interconnected maps are all here, and just feels as good as ever.

I do like at least on paper RE3 offers some innovation with the exploration where you explore an entire city as opposed to an isolated location or multiple isolated locations like in RE2. So if you wanted an RE game with an even bigger map then before, the Raccon City portions of the game might be something you like.

The guns in some ways I do think in some ways is better than RE2, if you defeat Nemesis twice or get two handgun parts from him, you'll get a handgun that is even more satisfying is even better than the base handgun you get at the start of the game. The shotgun still feels as awesome as ever, and since RE3 has even more enemies on screen by comparison to RE1 and 2, that means more satisfying headshots when killing zombies.

The ammo creator is an idea that is a rather mixed bag for me, on the one hand I love how I get to fire more shots for my cool new guns and it helps counteracts the increased enemy count RE3 has but at the same time, I was rolling in so much ammo even by the late game that it almost feels it's impossible that I am barely scrapping by with ammo. RE2 you could argue suffers from this but in RE3, I had hundreds of handgun rounds and it makes me wonder if I did somehow found the series "scary", wouldn't this just break the tension in half?

The stuff I don't like is that while I like the idea of an open city map on paper, I dislike how there is much more to keep track of now, and where in RE1 and 2, I didn't mind the lack of a REmake style map where it marked areas of interest, now since RE3's Raccon City portion is much bigger, I want this since there is more to keep track of. If your memory is better than mine you might not mind, but I did have to look up a guide a big more by comparison to RE1 and 2. Then you got the later parts of the game which are much more linear and small compared to how big Raccon City was so if you liked the Raccon City sections more than me, it won't last throughout the game.

I dislike the procedural generation and by extension the "choices" the player makes too. The prodedural generation just feels like a gimmick where it barely adds much since you are getting a slightly different experience than someone else, but then there are times where the game will spawn some snake leeches or full on Hunters, which is weird, one enemy I can avoid while the other is harder and might require ammo.

The choices effect the narrative very little and just feels pointless, some of them have you fight Nemesis or some of them have you defeat him outright, if you have a guide, this doesn't add much to the game then slightly different scenarios.

The dodge is welcome but it's too contextual and unpredictable to be consistently reliable, either give me or dedicated command or don't bother.

Now my biggest issue with the game, Nemesis himself. Tank controls are the biggest point of contention regarding older RE, and while in RE1 and 2, I didn't mind, Nemesis is where it gets pushed too far. Simpily put, Nemesis is too fast for the tank controls, best comparison is that you are Robocop and Nemesis is the Flash. Nemesis moves fasts, hits hard, can grab and can kill you super quickly. My hands started to hurt with how much mashing to break out of Nemesis's grips, and the fixed camera can make you lose your sense of direction. Nemesis can pick you up in one camera angle and send you flying to another. Predicting when Nemesis will hit you and or if he will miss is a 50-50 guessing game. So when he did pop up it was an exercise in frustration.

But contary to popular belief and to the game's credit, Nemesis does start lay off for certain parts of the game and thanks to this I was able to beat it at all. If it wasn't for this I would've dropped the game sooner.

Overall, I complained a lot, I do think RE3: Nemesis is a good game, but at the same time, I am not sure if the game really benefitted from being called "Resident Evil 3" and is more a "Resident Evil 2.5" or an expansion, a decently made an expansion but one that shouldn't be a full sequel.

Splatoon 3 Review

After me not liking Splatoon 2's single player that much to the point where I didn't even finish it, Splatoon 3's campaign was a pleasant surprise.

What I liked about is that first, I am glad they finally dropped that awful continue system where you get kicked out of a level if you die 3 times, now if you reach a checkpoint you can retry as much as you want, I am glad this is here since this is one of the biggest reasons why I was able to beat the game especially when the final area did somewhat start to ramp up in challenge. The Mr. Grizz fight in particular would've made me rage quit the game if I had to restart the entire fight from the begginning since the final stage has a number can have you get instantly killed by accidentally failing two jumps before you have to collect a certain number of orbs to get closer.

The levels themselves have a decent amount of variety and unlike Splatoon 2, the game mostly lets you choose what loadout you want to have before starting a level where in Splatoon 2, only some levels gave you different weapons.

The hub world is much less of an annoying pain to traverse and it's overall much easier to get around it and get to the different levels, less annoying mini puzzles to get to the individual stages, I dislike hub worlds in a lot of games so Splatoon 3 letting me get to the stages faster was welcome.

While this was in Splatoon 2, gyro aiming feels great and from what I experienced gyro aiming on the Switch feels a lot better than it does on PS5. Precision weapons don't feel like a game of constantly nudging the analog stick to line up my shots and the best part is, I don't have to crank up aim assist to feel like I am competent at hitting things from a distance.

The last area in the rocket ship was great and it feels like a Nintendo level where it introduces ideas and then slowly eases you through them as you go through the level.

One example is where you get different finishing moves to wipe out a huge array of enemies and another is having a "gooey grappling hook" of sorts and you have to line up your grapples to get a certain number of orbs to progress further.

The aforementioned final boss is decent stuff and has for the most part, has just enough challenge to back up the specticle, the smallfry campanion you gets great use and while the final phase of Mr. Grizz can get pretty aggrevating for those who haven't master Splatoon's squid jump mechanics, the checkpoint system cancels it out.

After all this praise, what holds this campaign back? The enemy variety could be better, it's decent as a whole but here could've been more enemies than constantly shoving squids, bigger squids and squids behind turrets. The game throws in some newer enemies like a moving rocket, enemies with the same moveset as you and metal sponges who can only be damaged after attacking you and their weak spot shows.

Then again for all I know there is probably some enemies I missed and there are some great moments where all of them get combined but this leads to my biggest issue, you don't even have to do all the levels to get to the final boss. While the sheer number of levels of Splatoon 3 is impressive, I would've prefered a traditional stage by stage platforming affair instead of this pseudo collectathon. This might really be helpful for people who want to get better at the multiplayer, this structure is null and void for people who just want to get to the end of the game like I do. Splatoon 3 has some levels I couldn't beat but it didn't matter since I go to random easier ones and get the points needed to progress to the main bosses and the final level.

As a result, I might skipped a lot of content, this is a shame since Splatoon 3 makes a lot of steps forward but this detrimental flaw is what prevents me from recommending Splatoon 3 for the single player unless if you are going to 100% the game, you are better off getting the game on a sale and that's if you can easily find Nintendo games going for cheap, if you can then try out the campaign, if you are going to 100% the single player or play for the multiplayer then maybe it's worth it at full price.

Robocop: Rogue City Review

While I did get some enjoyment out of Terminator Resistance, if I wasn't a Terminator fan, I would be much more harsh on it. Now the same developer has made a similar style of game but for the Robocop IP and for the most part I would say this is an improvement over Resistance. All though not without some occasional issues along the way. I was looking forward to the game when it got announced since the idea of playing a hitscan shooter where you play as a slow moving tank fits the idea of a Robocop shooter more than many games that attempt the idea.

I'll start with what I liked. If you are one of those people who are tired of boomer shooters in the indie space and AAA big budget open world games when it comes to FPS games coming out now. Outside of Trepang2, Rogue City is a shooter that harkens back to the shooters of the 00s like Soldier of Fortune and FEAR. The gore and over the top violence is especially remiscent of SoF especially if you use the .50 cal magnum and get headshots with it, the amount of over the top gore and violence when shoot enemies adds great verserial feedback to combat and it fits the Robocop series like a glove.

You also have environment destruction with bullets shredding through everything and if you choose to spend points on it, a slo mo ability that is like FEAR's. So if you like either of these two games, and are looking for something akin to those games, Rogue City is worth checking out for that alone. Just don't expect enemy AI as good as FEAR's with that said.

The comparisons to other games don't stop there either, the game can also be compared to the recent Deus Ex games but instead of being, "good guy" or "bad guy", you get Murphy to either act more human or act more like a robot that is owned by OCP. It makes for a fascinating a dilemma that the character has to deal with on a day to day basis and it makes for an interesting, "a day in the life of Robocop" that the player gets to act out. Some of the side quests are interesting too even though I didn't do all of them since side quests in games are kind of like filler to me.

The story overall is pretty well written for a midquel. It does a good job at exploring Murphy's humanity as well as having some decent villains like Wendell Antonosky and despite his limited screen time the Old Man. The other characters like Anne Lewis and Sergeant Reed are in character despite being written by different writers. New characters like Ulysses Washington are pretty engaging too with how he slowly starts to earn the police force and by extension Murphy's trust. Olivia Blanche is also decently written and she does a good job at making the player by extension reflect on what the character does at the end of every chapter as well as tying into a twist later in the game. Peter Weller's voice acting is also quite good and he was directed pretty well. He's both stoic and robotic but also endearing at the same time much like in the first two Robocop movies.

On to the stuff I didn't like, the cutscenes are very stifly animated and don't look very good even by comparison to PS2 and 3 games. All the characters move and are animated like they have a hard time even taking a step, they are almost like cyborgs like the titular character except they are humans which doesn't really work that well. This can be pretty distracting especially in a story driven game driven by cutscenes and dialogue like this game is.

The AI is pretty dumb, almost to comical degrees, you could argue like the enemies standing around or just moving around occasionally and stuff like the ED 209 fights being beaten by hiding behind vans and walls is fitting of the franchise but it doesn't really make for consistently interesting combat encounters.

This leads me to my final big issue is that the game can feel a little too long. The game at first does a good job at throwing in different enemy types like armoured enemies, snipers, motorbike enemies, drones, grenade launcher enemies, the game at around the halfway point looses steam and basically just has enemies be challenging because they can take a significent amount of bullets to kill. There isn't much to fights other than to hide behind cover, pop out, shoot, wait for health to regen(this is especially made easier if you unlock the ability to regen 75% health), but the game suffers from many shooters of this type suffer from in that, there is no reliable way to avoid enemy fire outside of hiding behind cover, and there isn't a whole lot of ways of dispatching them outside of shooting them later in the game. The slo mo ability kind of helps but enemies take way too much damage to kill them consistently with.

Overall, Rogue City is a good game is worth checking out for people who love gory over the top shooters and especially Robocop fans. I was expecting the game to be a flawed but good time and I got just that.

Short Game Reviews: Febuary 2024

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe:

Game is solid and controls well and I like the addition of Nabbit since I suck at 2D Mario's 1 HP system but at the same time, it really feels like if you played Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World, you played almost every 2D Mario game ever made. I haven't played many of them but I feel like if I did, I would be much more lukewarm on this particular title. Not bad, but it is a very iterative game.

However the save system in this game is absolutely terrible and is just unacceptable even at the time of the Wii U's release of the game instead of autosaving after completing each stage, it insteads doesn't save until you beat a boss so if you lose all your lives at any point, you restart at the last boss you beat, so if it wasn't for me using Nabbit and me relying on the infinite lives exploits, this game would be borderline unbeatable for me. So was antiquated even back then considering Rayman Origins autosaved after each stage beaten, it's an antiquated save system that I am amazed still persisted even in the Switch re release of the game. I know apparently for some that lives comes plenty but I suck at 2D Mario so this save system felt like it wanted me to cheese the levels with Nabbit.

Overall, not a bad game but I can see why I prefer 3D Mario since those games tend to be more experimental and don't play so similarly to each other.

HROT:

Pretty solid and enjoyable boomer shooter. It can be pretty challenging especially with how fast projectiles can move, how there are so many enemies on screen and they can do a lot of damage to they land a blow on you even once, it got so challenging that I lowered to easy. You get the beer bottles that allow you to restore some of your health with every sip and I did wish these were around in Episode 1 instead of being in more plentiful supply in around the half way point of Episode 2.

Episode 1 suffers from the issues many shooters of these types suffer from when the devs are making the game as they are going along so as a result, while I did like the idea of barely scrapping by with ammo for my guns at first, towards the later parts of Episode 1, I had so little ammo to take on the enemies that I offically lowered to easy.

Episode 2 started off better but it has the issues of too little ammo, enemies hitting hard and depleting hp quick started to annoy me and I lowered to easy. Then I got to the halfway point of Episode 2 and I was at the halfway point of Episode 2.

That's another thing, the game didn't get more consistently enjoyable for me until getting halfway through Episode 2. The level design got more consistently enjoyable for me to traverse and it got more creative too like for example you get to visit a castle, drive a motorcycle to go to a farm and going to a hospital to name some examples. All though at times the electric boxes used to progress through the levels were a little hard to see for me especially in one level where it was so high up that I couldn't even see it but I didn't mind it that much.

Other than those, and while I enjoy this style of game and I did have fun with it, and this is a style of game that is inherently fun for me, I can't deny that there just isn't enough new here. The game just feels like Dusk in a lot of ways but not as consistently good. Amidevil had the the supercharged attacks, Project Warlock had the upgrade tree, Forgive Me Father had the abilties. The game reminding me so much of Dusk with the art style, models, enviroment design and damage animations that it is hard not to see that game when playing this one.

Once again, I had a solid time and it's good but it's because I have a bias towards these style of games, if you aren't and are one of the people who getting sick of the retro shooter revival, I suggest you skip this or if you haven't played this style of game in a while. 

Quake 2: Ground Zero:

I don't think this expansion is as bad as others make out and this could be because I played on easy but at the same time, this is nothing remarkable either. It's just more Quake 2 and if you didn't like the base game, why would you even play this? But if you did like the base game there is nothing new here to make it worth going through. Going to be honest, I only played this at all because you get a Platinum trophy for beating the Q2 base game and expansions on any difficulty and I wanted to get through this game before I eventually play Call of the Machine.

With all that said, I will admit I did use the waypoint marker on the remaster Q2 a lot more and that along with playing the game on easy probably reduced a good amount of frustration I otherwise could've had with the expansion. The level design does seem to be inferior to the base game. I was able to play the base Q2 without ever needing it, could be because I played the original game years before the remaster came out but I could still navigate the levels pretty well. Ground Zero, I had a harder time telling where to go and while at times I was able to figure out where to go on my own, I became a lot more reliant on the waypoint marker. Levels relied on backtracking a lot more and the objectives just sounded too vague for me at times.

Other than that the enemies are the same all though being able to take more damage probably helped me enjoy this expansion a lot more. I would be infuriated if I didn't. It's easy to get randomly ambushed and this time around the way to avoid an attack by the railgun enemies is to move so fast that he had a hard time hitting me. There is those enemies that resurrect dead enemies you kill, and this seems to annoy many and while I get it, me playing on easy probably lowered the frustration I otherwise could've had with them especially how in Quake 2, you are basically a tank and you can only take so much damage until you can recharge on energy with health packs, finding some in the levels allievates this since on easy, they are scattered all over the levels but overall, its easy to see how you can lose health slowly to weaker enemies as you try to take out the enemy that resurrect dead ones.

There is a "stealth section" late in the game that lasts about less than 5 minutes and I wonder why that was even in the game. It barely had enough going on to be nothing more than a pointless gimmick.

One thing that is interesting about this expansion that could be bad or good depending on who you ask is the amount of weapons you get. You have the plasma beam, ETF Rifle, the Proxmity mines, and many more. I will admit, not all the guns got use, the proxmity mines makes the grenade launcher useless since you don't have to keep track on when they will explode, the plasma beam is a more powerful technoblaster, and ETF rifle I kind of like, sort of makes the chaingun and machine useless. I like this idea on paper I just wish the game added more new enemies and different style of levels to make the new weapons and the old worthwhile.

Overall, while I don't dislike this expansion as much as others, I consider it to be middle of the road and just seems to be more Quake 2 content for the sake of making more content which is what a lot of "DLC/expansions sequels" can be a lot of the time.

Silent Hill: The Short Message:

I only played this at all because it was free, if it weren't for that, I wouldn't be even be typing my thoughts on this game since I stopped playing and dropping money on games in the style of this a while ago.

With that said, I'll give the Short Message credit in that like many "walking simulators", it knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to sugarcoat anything like say Alan Wake 2 does, Short Message knows it's a narrative driven "experience" game with some occasional moments of challenge where you have to run away from a monster, and say for the last monster chase, these sequences don't require too much thought or effort to get past.

Short Message also puts itself "walking sim" genre in other ways by being entirely free. Where the publishers of games like Gone Home and Dear Esther charges a $20 asking price for their games, Short Message is a download from the PSN store and it's also by bigger company so they could've charged people money to play it but chose not to.

The game has a lot of effort put into it's production values for a game that is free too. You got high fidelity visuals, lots of voice acting, a fair amount of cutscenes and returning long time composer of the franchise Akria Yamaoka providing the music. This is by far the most remarkable thing about the game. It's a free game that has a lot of money put into it where they didn't have to.

As for the game itself, I found the writing to be not that great and a lot of the female teenage angst and themes like cyberbulling and trying to live in a world with self loathing are things I had a hard time connecting to one in part due to me not being the game's target demographic and the writing itself just being too and I dislike using the term "on the nose" for me to be engaged.

The world building was interesting but these are just reserved for notes you read.

SH the Short Message is a strange game, the actual game aspect isn't anything special and the writing is too in your face and aimed at a target audience that I don't think are even long time fans of the series but I can't deny that it has a lot of heart put into it. If I paid money for this, I would be much more harsh but at the same time, I didn't so it's hard to hold the game in contempt. J

Jusant:

Got to give this game a load of credit, it's a game that attempts climbing especially in today's gaming industry where the climbing aspect of the game isn't heavily automated just for this novelty alone, I'd say the game is worth checking out.

With that said, many could be put away by the fact that Jusant has no fail states and you can't get any game overs but at the same time, I argue, you don't need fail states for a game to be good. You just need to feel like you are overcoming some kind of challenge or obsticle and Jusant does do that much like games like the Pathless and Prince of Persia 2008.

With all that said, what exactly will you be doing in Jusant, to be put it simpily, you are basically a mountain climber and what you will primarily be doing is climbing things. Sure other games attempted the idea but like I mentioned before, Jusant isn't as automated by comparison, the climbing where you move the analog stick while pressing and holding the right and left triggers. This by comparison to games like Uncharted, Survivor Tomb Raider, and the Horizon games is where Jusant feels like you are solving a puzzle of how and where to climb next as opposed to watching the character do death defying climbing feats, this game feels like you are actually doing them due to the fact that ledges and handholds aren't magnetized to the players hands. There is also a stamina meter but the thing is, you never really need to worry about it depeleting since and falling to your death since you can always regenerate it by holding R3. This could be an issue for some but I didn't mind so much.

Just for this all I mentioned alone, I enjoyed Jusant a good deal. The game also throws in new ideas every chapter for example Chapter 2 introduces your companion to extend plants to create new hand holds, Chapter 3 has disappearing hand holds, Chapter 4 has spirits that give you and extra boost when double jumping, Chapter 5 has wind shafts that can affect your direction where you jump and Chapter 6 has you climb a tower in a specific way so the game never gets montonous.

With all that said, it felt like the game could've had more, like the disappearing hand holds from Chapter 3 coming back combined with the spirits from Chapter 4 along with the wind shafts from Chapter 5, this isn't an outright deal breaker but it felt like the game could've combined all the previously introduced mehanics more.

The moment to moment walking movement can also feel awkward and stilted and it's easy to get stuck behind certain walls.

Overall, Jusant is an interesting take on video game climbing that has a solid execution that I do hope future developers try to borrow from. I enjoyed it a lot due to how much of a breath of fresh air it was from automated climbing in games. 

Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge:

This such is such a tedious game. The combat isn't very good, the level design is super obtuse and it's full of padding. Its shocking Capcom even made a game like this. DMC1 never felt this problematic to play, Oogie's Revenge doesn't even a have a jump button. It feels like a combination of Onimusha 3 where you play as Jacques and DMC while being worse than both. In the former, you get a whip and a grapple ability and you can't jump. I would forgive the combat flaws but the game is padded beyond belief. Want to rescue Sally? Rescue 5 people and lift up tombstones to progress which both take up their own level. Want to get to Dr. Fricklestein? Give Igor a bone, before you do that, do a pointless quiz, destroy a generator and THEN you can reach him. Doing major damage to bosses also hinges on a rhythmn game that is divorced from the actual combat. The lock on is awful since it auto locks to random targets and you can't cycle between targets as well Jack's whip throw ability being hard to aim precisely where you want it since he will throw things based on when the game feels like it, and despite having a dedicated dodge button, it's useless since you can't cancel out of a combo. The game gives you a map but it's pointless since it gives you a vague idea of where you are and the objectives are vague.

It's shocking that this was even made by Capcom, the Van Helsing game played better than this and even something like Legacy of Kain Defiance is better. This feels like something an inexperienced game dev who really like the DMC games would create.

Astro Boy: Omega Force:

Astro Boy Omega Factor makes a good first impression, the controls are solid where you don't need to keep track of too many inputs just do there is a punch button, a jump, jets, a laser beam, a super laser beam and so on.

The visuals also look very nice and looks very vibrant and colorful. I also love how there are no lives and the game checkpoints pretty well especially for a portable game released in the early 00s.

I thought this was going to be purely be a 2D platformer but instead it's basically a 2D beat em up with very light platforming elements.

The combat is pretty enjoyable at first, do some punches at close range and hitting enemies with the laser beam and supers from far away all though once I learned super moves can stack up to 99 times, and even respawning sets me with 30, it was almost easy to take down regular grunts with them and there wasn't much in the way of challenge since the game is primarily a beat em up and combat gets one note due to this.

The bosses are pretty decent and provide slightly more challenge and the final boss ross on the World's Strongest Robot section is a decent yet fair enough challenge since your health refills and you respawn at the boss if you die. It feels very forgiving for a game like this.

However, the thing that holds the game back from being something I geniunely reccomend is the content and structure or should say lack there of any. Bascially, the campaign of all 7 stages takes you about an hour to beat but the game will give you doom and gloom world is screwed fake out ending and then you have to do all 7 stages again with the same enemies and bosses as the first time but with slightly different story outcomes then you also need to do some really obtuse things just to finally get to the "final stage" and by that point, I just gave up.

Either the story of Astro Boy only lasted long enough for the developers to make a 1 hour game, the devs could only make up to an hour long campaign with the budget they had or the publisher wanted the devs to have a game release at retail that can be beaten in an hour. Maybe it's all 3. Hard to tell but thanks to the lack of actual content and a good portion of the length if you choose to want to obtain even with the ability to Youtube search it is where the length comes from.

However despite all my criticism, this is one of the better licensed anime games you can find, all though if you want a 2d beat em up based on an established anime franchise that also happens to be on the GBA, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure has Omega Force beat.