Akimbot Review

I randomly heard about this game when seeing a trailer for it on the Playstation Youtube channel a few months ago and it was marketed as a game "like" Ratchet and Clank and since that series is going to be on ice for a while. I decided to play this but what I also didn't know that the game was also being sold for $20 and for a price that is surprisingly under $50 and for a game that is charged at the former price, I'm going to be a bit softer on it as a result. Also if you are one of those people who don't want to pay full price for a game that is around 10-13 hours and don't want to wait for a sale, here is something to look into.

Anyways, Akimbot is marketed as a game like Ratchet and Clank but really it's not so much like Ratchet all though it can somewhat bare a resemblance, it has more of an emphasis on 3D platforming with some shooting and some mini games thrown in for good measure unlike a game like Smurfs 2 Prisoner of Greenstone, I'd say Akimbot does a better job at differentiating itself from the Ratchet series where Smurfs was just a knock off of Rift Apart.

Before I describe the gameplay the first thing I will mention is that the main characters Exe and Chipset are not really like Ratchet and Clank, they are more like how Jak and Daxter are in the sequels. Exe's voice actor in particular feels like he is channeling Mike Erwin's performance in Jaks 2 and 3 than feeling like any version of Ratchet. Chipset is more talkative than Clank is and speaks, acts hyperactive, and jokes around as much Daxter does.

The story overall is decent but nothing really going to make you change your mind on platformer stories, it's moderately engaging enough for the kind of story that it is, even if Exe and Chipset still feel like they don't get along that much even by the end of the game.

The gameplay like I mentioned before is a combination of 3D platforming, shooting and mini games. The platforming in Akimbot and the game in general can be much more challenging than the Ratchet games, and there's much more platforming in it by comparison. There's lots of lasers to dodge, moving platforms, lots of wall running segments that has more challenge than Rift Apart's does(this game even requires you to shoot targets to activate wall run platforms which is something I don't think RA does), there's much more stage hazards like water and lava, and even some sections that require you to avoid camaers and lasers while jumping, which Ratchet doesn't really make you engage with.

The shooting and combat is also much more challenging than R&C too where you don't get XP to level up health and weapons. Exe's health remains the same throughout and he only gets 5 weapons, 1 of which you can choose from 4 and have to stick with since upgrading those weapons are rare. Enemies even in smaller waves can rip Exe's health to shreds within seconds and they don't drop health either, you need to shoot down health picks ups that are around the battlefield. There are also some enemies specific to rocket launchers and chaingun in order to kill.

However what prevents this game from being overly frustrating is that the game checkpoints pretty frequently and there's never a moment in the game that overly wastes your time in terms of redoing content upon failure, and load times to respawn are quick so the game as a whole can be challenging but I'd say it's "fair".

With all that said, there are things that Akimbot does worse than Ratchet particularly the weapons, Ratchet gives you lots of wacky over the top and crazy weapons to use where Akimbot you can choose between 4 main guns and a special wacky weapon. I only stuck with the laser since upgrading one gun requires lots of resources and the assault rifle becomes useless once you get the chaingun, I mainly used the rockets to disable shields so the guns I often used where the sniper and chaingun, the sniper was main for it's long range and aim assist when aiming down sights.

Then there is other aspect of the game like how some parts of the game can feel padded and drawn out like when you were with the Processor and had to go on multiple fetch quests, Chipset makes jokes about it but it's still pretty obnoxious. The dream sequence in Exe's head can be cut out entirely since they don't add much to the game.

Some of the mini games can be a little overbearing, like the car and space ship shoot em up sections go on for a little too long for my liking since I prefer these parts to be 5-8 minutes at the most but they seem to go on for 20.

Lastly, the final section of the game is way too drawn out, you do so many mini games and smaller sections before you get to the end. You stuff like a Flappy Bird clone, a fighting game, a laser dino turret section, a racing game and by the shoot em up section that lasted over 20 minutes, I just wanted the game to end and get to the final boss. It was testing my patience at times.

Overall, for a $20 game, it's a pretty good value even if it can be padded

Homefront Review

Homefront was a game I was expecting to be terrible going in, I was expecting myself to play and dislike it as much as the campaigns to Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 4, Medal of Honor 2010, Medal of Honor Warfighter and Ace Combat Assault Horizon but surprisingly, I got some enjoyment out of it, sure the game is a CoD clone to the point if you put a screenshot side by side of this and a CoD game from that gen, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference. Yes, games like Freedom Fighters are much more realized and better executed game with a similar premise. And yes, this game isn't going to win over the people who don't like these style of scripted military shooters but I'd say Homefront is an acceptable CoD clone than an insufferably bad one like the aforementioned games. I'd say it's a CoD clone on par with the James Bond games from the Activision era.

Two of the big reasons as to why is that for one, it checkpoints well, rarely if ever has moments where the scripting becomes so obvious that it breaks the illusion like say prison to ski lift shootout in Battlefield 4 or that building sniper section in Medal of Honor Warfighter and the game is pretty short and goes by quickly like a movie does. Another good thing it does, and this could be as a negative for some but the game tells you during it's more scripted sections who to kill and what precisely to do during them meaning there be less restarts because of ambiguity of not being able to tell what to do during scripted sections.

The gunplay is pretty similar to CoD especially the CoDs in the 7th gen, you got the two weapon limit, grenades that will rarely be used since all you fight are human infantry soldiers, lots of interchangeable hitscan weapons where reliable aiming is through ADS and the difference between them being the various attachments, but it does replicate CoD's combat decently enough, at least weapons have decent firing sounds and damage animations to enemies have decent feedback.

However one thing I do like is that using the sniper does not require you to hold your breath and you can fire away with it which makes it a weapon I want to use. I also like that weapons run out of ammo pretty often even on easy meaning I have to use guns enemies use from time to time which makes combat slightly more dynamic.

There are some cool moments like battling on the San Franciso bridge, escourting multiple trucks while riding a helicoptor(this never got as obnxious as the protect missions in Ace Combat Assault Horizon), and fighting through a store where the infamous white posphorous scene happens.

Some negatives is that easy mode doesn't make a difference since your player character's health is pretty low even on that difficulty. CoD's easy modes does at the very least give you more HP.

The story also isn't that good but at the same time, I'm more annoyed by the silent protagonist since the characters talk to him a lot and he never says a word. I find the concept to be wildely outdated especially in games where the story involves characters interacting with each other.

There was glitch where an NPC was supposed to open a door but it wouldn't causing me to restart the mission and then have it happen when getting to that part again.

Overall, for a game I was expecting to be completely garbage, I kind of liked it, is it something you should go out of your way to play? No but if you want something to beat in an afternoon or weekend, you could do worse than this.

El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron Review

This was a weird one, I played on PS3 a few years ago and I recall dropping it pretty quickly, I might've learned that the game was one of the PS3's most expensive games at the time or later, but that doesn't really matter since the game now has a Nintendo Switch remaster while getting a PC remaster beforehand, and after beating it? My thoughts are pretty much the same, I can see why myself from a few years ago did drop the game and the only reason I was able to get to the end at all was because it checkpoints well and for the combat, you restart exactly where you died from pressing the L, R, and A buttons at the same time, more on that later. Outside of that, I find the game to be painfully mediocre in almost every respect. I intially played it at all because some called it an "underrated" game while terms like that are nebulous at best, I still don't think it's a good game or a game deserving of that reputation.

The good thing about El Shaddai or at the very least is the visuals, it might be the only thing about the game that geniunely stands out. If you are one the seemingly many people who love to complain about 7th gen games being "brown", "grey" and having "ugly" color palletes, this might be a game from that gen to capture your interest since everything is vibrant, colorful and has a nice cel shaded look to it. The environments have a dreamlike design to them and some of the visuals are so bizarre yet awfully eerie. If you are the kind of guy who really wants a game to look very nice and care about that more so than the gameplay or love to go on and on about how a game looks visually then check the game out because now I transition to the negative and not so good things about El Shaddai.

Before I do that, I'll also say music and voice acting is passable enough if nothing standout.

I'll start with the combat, and it's interesting on paper, the game apparently uses a rock, paper, scissors system of enemies being weak certain weapons but the problem I noticed right away was even back when I first played is that enemies are massive damage sponges, they take forever to die and taking them down just takes way too long, and btw, I played on easy and this is still an issue.

Veil was by far the best weapon since it does the best job at staggering enemies and it has a dodge command that is somewhat reliable, it's esstentially the Nemen Cestus from God of War 3 in that it's a pair of magical boxing gloves and it allows the character to move like a boxer but due to the enemies being damage sponges, it never feels as awesome or empowering as GOW3's Cestus.

Arch and Gale never really feel that great and just feel weak, especially the latter, I just whailed on the attack button with Gale and it chips away at enemy HP very slowly and it felt like what was supposed to be a 5 minute fight went on for 10 minutes. Arch just feels like a typical sword with not much standing out from it.

The enemy roster is also pretty weak, outside of the fact that the game stops introducing new enemies after you get Veil, their only threat to the player is how hp spongey they are. I wonder if having the ability to switch between the 3 weapons could make the combat more dynamic and enjoyable but I'm not sure.

So with all these issues, what helped me get through the game? Well, it's the fact that during combat Enoch can't get a traditional game over, like I said before just press L, R, X and A and you can keep respawning without redoing any content, this also works on bosses. They are also HP sponges and some are required to lose in order to progress the story but it doesn't really matter since you can keep respawning with no consequences.

However there is one problem, you can keep respawning after death during combat but not during the platforming, and this leads me into my second big issue with El Shaddai is that the 3D platforming is really terrible. There is 2D platforming as well, and these parts are okay, if nothing special but it does make the game feel confused on what it tries to be since the 2D platforming can feel jarring compared to the 3D sections and they go away entirely over halfway into the game.

The 3D platforming is just awful, some of the worst 3D platforming I can even recall, there are late 90s 3D platformers that control better than this. The best way of describing it is that what if Devil May Cry 1, had more platforming? This is what you get, the camera doesn't do the greatest of job giving you an angle on where to jump and the jumping physics never feel precise, half the time if I want to make it to a platform, it's a 30-50 guessing game, sometimes I'll land and at other times I'll fall off if I nudge the analog stick a little too much, and the game doesn't just have you jump to platforms, no, you got to dodge traps and moving platforms as well and it takes what was already bad and makes it worse since these controls weren't even good for the 3D platforming in the game without hazards. The game does checkpoint mostly well to make this bearable all though before a combat section with some of them and getting back to the platforming section can be tedious since combat is long due to the aforementioned issues of enemies being damage sponges. 

Old God of War also had 3D platforming with a follow cam but Kratos' jump arc actually feels like I can predict where I'm supposed to land and it doesn't feel like 30-50 guessing of whether or not Kratos will land on the platform or not. 

Overall, El Shaddai could've been so okay, it's average but the platforming just makes me dread playing it. Remove these sections and it could've been just that. 

Ratchet and Clank Size Matters Review(Updated)

I decided to play Size Matters again at all because it got added to the Playstation Premium Classics service and I heard the PSP version was better than the PS2 so it got me curious in playing the game again. I also have a soft spot for it since it was the first Ratchet game I ever played

As the game is, I wouldn't call the "bad game" so many hype it up as but it's not a great game either. It's pretty much middle of the road all though it's a middle of the road game that I had a moderate amount of enjoyment out of.

The best way of describing Size Matters is that it's an amalgamation of the 2002 game and it's sequels.

You have Ratchet being more self centered and dawning his 2002 look, you got the PDA, and you respawn with the amount of ammo and bolts you had before you died instead of at a checkpoint. It also has the nanotech health upgrades, the weapon upgrades, armour and strafe from 2 and 3. It almost feels like Ratchet and Clank 1.5 at times.

In the PS2 version what held the game back however is the awful camera, it zooms in too close and it jerks around too much when moving and when in tight spaces, and when too many enemies get on screen it becomes frustrating to dodge the attacks since enemies hit as hard. I'm not sure how difficulty in the older Ratchet games worked but it seems the more well you do the harder enemies hit and more ammo they take to die, if anything I'm glad this system was dropped in later games.

The PS5 version which is an emulated PSP version is interesting in that it comes with right stick movement and since the PS5 version lets you customize the controls through the emulator, it meant I can make Ratchet moved like he did in Deadlocked where left stick lets you strafe left and right. It's the way to play the game for me. The auto aim and by extension camera isn't that great since the autoaim follows the enemies and the camera moves along with him on top of being spazzy in tight spaces and with many enemies. So the PS5 version somewhat fixes a prominent issue but at the same time not really.

The mandatory races especially the first while have David Bergeard's awesome music, controls really awkwardly especially with how movement with the analog stick works. Boosting will send you flying upwards instead of on the race track. There's only 2 mandatory races which is fine.

The aforementioned difficulty can be an issue since enemies get so spongey by late game that that I just used the shield, rocket launcher and PDA combo to get past everything. This is towards the end of the game but things just got so unbearably difficult that I stopped using the other weapons. I do disagree with the common sentiment that enemies don't react to getting shot because they do, but they just take so many shots from non rocket launcher weapons that it isn't worth the effort. That and bosses are also spongey and some weapons just won't be able to effectively do damage so PDA spamming becomes prominent after a point.

However the biggest issue with Size Matters is that the game just feels the same game as the console Ratchets, it doesn't offer much you can't find from the PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5 games. The game's selling point at the time might've been that it was, "Ratchet and Clank on the go" but when playing it on a console, the novelty wears offs. Games like Daxter offered more platforming than the Jak sequels did and the God of War PSP games offered a remaped controls like pressing L and R to dodge and magic shortcuts. Ratchet Size Matters on the other hand doesn't have much you can't find in other games in the series even the PS3 spin offs like Full Frontal Assault and All 4 One have more of an indentity.

There is some good with Size Matters with all this said, the story and character interactions are moderately entertaining and it got some laughs out of me, the game seemingly is an interquel between the first game or and any of the PS2 sequels despite apparently not being that.

The setpieces while cumbersome and possibly frustrating on the PSP analog nub are pretty decent and have more going on than the games Uncharted games do since you can't just hold forward while cool stuff is happening around you.

While it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary for the series the attempt at emulating the series is solid enough. The game really is carried by how much of a series fan I am and how this game was the very first I played.

Overall, I like Size Matters slighty more than I did when I replayed it 2 years ago but rewind and custom controls played a big role in this. I still wouldn't call this game "bad" in a million years since I played worse games but at the same time, its a fun game all though I'm biased towards the series which is another reason. I'm still bummed there won't be another game for years and Insomniac is the "Marvel Studio" now but that is a topic for a different time.

Helldivers 2 Thoughts

Helldivers 2 is a weird one, I've been a Sony first party games fan for a while and one thing I've always seen is that every time they would attempt a multiplayer game whether it would be only that or have a single player, they would never get the audience that they were looking for and never really broke out to mainstream success. They would have cult followings but never become mainstream. Enter Helldivers 2, the first game I ever recall where Sony published a multiplayer game that is apart of the Playstation brand where it broke out into the big leagues, I've seen people cosplay as Helldivers 2 characters at conventions and that was the final nudge to make me play this game. I had PS Plus for one month so I might as well jump in even though I still can't help but hold a grudge at the Xbox 360 for popularizing online paywalls for console multiplayer. That was a big hurdle to get past to play this game since PS Plus I didn't have much use for outside of the occasional sale.

With all that out of the way, what did I think? I wanted to like this game, I really do but despite having a lot going for it, the game to me is just okay at best.

What I liked about Helldivers 2 is the gunplay and weapon feedback. Weapons have decent punch and killing hordes of enemies felt gratifying to do. I like the look and designs of the game even if it can be derivative of franchises like Starship Troopers and Halo, everything in terms of moment to moment shooting and the aesthestics, the game nails. I also like that it even uses Metal Gear Solid 5's movement system like being able to crouch, go prone, dive, dive into prone, and shoot while knocked down, the fact that there is even a game that uses that uses MGS5's moveset in the context of a third person shooter is pretty cool. It was another thing that piqued my interest regarding the game.

However there is one thing that held the game back for me and that is the fact that it's a multiplayer live service game without a traditional campaign. I know me being the introverted gamer that I am I was better off playing a dedicated single player game but I'd argue that even games like the Sqaure Enix Avengers game did try to have a single player, it wasn't very good, but it could've been implemented to some degree with this game.

As it is without one, I just play with random people randomly through matchmaking and while I do get some fun out of it, I just get bored after extended hours since there is no story or campaign mode. I'm not the kind of guy to condemn a game for having a bad story but I tend to like games even gameplay driven ones to have some narrative.

So much of Helldivers 2 mainly just consists of doing of objectives on a map where it's "do x" or "destroy y" while fighting hordes of enemies and then waiting for a chopper extraction when done. It starts to get so one note and samey, maybe this is what live service games are all about, I don't know, I only ever played the aforementioned Avengers game when it comes to those kinds of titles.

The more I was playing Helldivers 2, the more I felt like playing 2 hours of the game felt like I have seen everything. Leveling up takes far too long if playing on medium difficulty or below which is worse for me since anything higher than medium doesn't even make me an effective helping gun or meat shield since I die so quickly.

Overall, I wanted to really enjoy Helldivers 2 for how popular it is and for being the first multiplayer Sony 1st party game with mainstream success but live service games really aren't my thing. Maybe if they ever add a campaign I could try to play it again which is doubtful, but as it stands, I certainly won't be touching live service titles, and at the same time since I won't be, it means I won't be one of those guys on the internet who whines about all the time knowing that those games aren't aimed at them and aren't their thing.