Resident Evil: Re3 (08/60$)
I wanted to Draw Mr. X but this made more sense
I think I’m getting better at this
It took me four hours and thirty minutes to beat Resident Evil 3 on hard. I think that fact alone makes it not worth the money. Capcom knows it and everyone else that got trolled by this game knows it. So Capcom decided to bundle Resident Evil: Resistance with it. Resistance is a games as a service asymmetrical horror shooter which is slightly less disappointing than Resident Evil 3. To sum it up now, don’t buy either of these until they are less than 10$. It might look good on the outside. The world is as captivating as always and Carlos & Jill are easy on the eyes so you are entertained for those few hours that the game lasts for. Yet, compared to every other Resident Evil I have played. This game is the worst.
The best things about Resident Evil 3 are carried over from Resident Evil 2. The graphics are amazing, which I normally try to look past but for a game with horror roots, the better the graphics the better the scare. Not that there are any scares in this game. Instead it is an action movie format. This game takes place on the streets of Raccoon City and moves away from the puzzle filled estates from the previous games. The effect is a much faster paced game that focuses on moving the player through the city instead of getting to know the ins and outs of each area. Which works well in a few parts of this game, specifically in the first area when the game is focused on Jill’s fight for survival against the Nemesis.
After that portion, the game goes completely downhill in an odd way because, at its core, the game play feels great to play. It is just that everything else feels like it tries to overshadow Resident Evil 2 in terms of outrageousness, but fails because it feels too forced. The best examples are the two bioweapons that stalk you throughout both games. In Resident Evil 3, they wanted to make the Nemesis more threatening than Mr. X so they made it uglier, stronger, and nearly unkillable. Throughout each of Jill Valentine’s scenes you do feel like the Nemesis could burst out at any time, but it’s not threatening because these are clearly scripted happenings that are surprising the first few times.Then you realize you have no effect on these moments and the game begins to feel more like an interactive cutscene. Whereas Mr. X was slower and had very few scripted moments. So when he caught you or you spotted him coming towards you, you felt pressured to get out of danger and when you did you breathed a sigh of relief that felt good because you saved yourself. In Resident Evil 3, most of the time a random set or plot piece comes to the rescue. By trying to make the game more tense it now feels less tense.
This is a massive problem for Resident Evil because it is a series that lives off it’s tension. Resident Evil 2 played up this tension by setting their stories in large metroidvania inspired levels that constantly changed. Despite going in a room 10 times, you were never sure of what was going to happen each time you went in. The areas were dark and subtle, and they made the player want to learn more about the settings. Resident Evil 3 spends so much time moving through Racoon City that you don’t get to learn more about the setting. Infact, the only world building that happens is related to filling the backstory of Resident Evil 2. Which is frustrating because it makes you miss those small moments of story in Resident Evil 2. They try to fix this by leaning into the absurd. At one point Nemesis dons a flamethrower and then at another he uses a rocket launcher. Mr. X did not need over the top anime weapons to be a threat, he already was one.
So you are left with a game that is decent in gameplay but poor in everything else. Everyone knows it too and that is why they include the Resistance with Resident Evil 3. Only Resistance is not that good of a game either. It clearly pushes players towards loot boxes. Playing as the survivors does give a great Resident Evil feel but playing as the mastermind trying to kill the survivors is hard and unrewarding. Sure you get to control Mr. X, but the game would be much better with a basic horde mode. That being said, it is meant to be a games as a service game. Updates with new features could make it better, and it does do some good things like melee weapons and good character/game design. Plus it does have AI masterminds, so if you and your friends don’t want to worry about finding a lobby or being the dick who makes zombies, then you will have a pretty good time when playing through some of the harder levels. Yet, I will need to spend more time with the multiplayer to give a good score. So how do I go about scoring the base game? I normally do the set MSRP at the time of my review, convert the games length using a dollar per hour ratio. Then add up the positives and negatives to see if they affect that dollar amount. But Resident Evil Resistance is not sold separately only bundled with the Resident Evil 3 and the Raccoon City collection that includes Resident Evil 2 and 3 for 80$. Resident Evil 3 is 60$ by itself and Resident Evil 2 is 40$ standalone. I’ll just use the MSRP for Resident Evil 3. Because ultimately the addition of Resident Evil Resistance doesn’t stop this game from being an absolutely terrible value. 8/60$
Metro Exodus (45$/60$)
This is a gas mask
Hardest thing I’ve drawn yet.
Metro Exodus is a good game. It is an all around heavy hitter in terms of length, replayability, and most impressively the atmosphere (50/60$). Exodus is the third game in the Metro series and based off of a best selling Russian Novel about living in the metros of Moscow after a nuclear armageddon situation. The setting is pretty basic, but Metro sets itself apart from other nuclear apocalypse shooters by pulling away from action and open world and opting for linear survival horror gameplay. Crawling through a pitch back Metro being hunted by ghostly superhumans, bandits, and mutant spiders feels different from its peers because of incredible attention to detail the developers put into the world.
Now it is important to note that this game is story focused. It hails from classic first person shooters where you play a badass hero who is the strong silent type who is making the most out of the bomb out ruins that surround him. You have to put a level of effort and maintenance into just living in the world around you and it does not feel like a chore. These systems are so easy to master without complex menus and huds, that the game encourages you to play without a classic hud.. I strongly recommend that you play these modes when playing Metro because the game is pretty easy due to its three shot kill system that applies to both the player and to enemies. It rewards being healthy and careful, and punishes reckless actions. That being said, hardcore I never fought anything that gave me too much trouble and I never ran out of ammo. Which isn’t a problem, but it made me miss the old Metro games where bullets could be used as money, or to kill. It’s a shame that the system didn’t make it back, but it’s expected when the story moves away from the makeshift society in the Moscow tunnels. The main plot is not that great, even the writing associated with it almost feels like a story copied from other sci-fi titles but it serves as a platform for the small character building moments that are optional, but completely worth it. Throughout the game you will be invited to take an in game seat and watch/listen to the characters you travel with. It is most comparable to the camping system in Red Dead Redemption 2, but slightly more interesting because it can happen at random moments to flesh out stories in the various areas you visit. My personal favorite was when I had a drink of radiation tea with a crippled pirate and his two, now dead, crew mates. Watching him use their bodies as puppets was as horrifying as it was hilarious, but it also added depth to the world and a sad end to the story of the zone I was in. This is incredibly fitting for the places that you will visit, because the four or so areas you travel too are incredibly detailed, well throughout, and vary greatly from one another. They also vary greatly in gameplay styles bouncing back and forth between small open worlds and linear more on the rails levels.
As great as the gameplay variance is, the game does have a hard time shedding it’s linear roots during the open world levels. There is always a best way to go through the level and the game encourages the player to take the laid out path. Most of the time, these recommended ways have a player avoiding all combat with the enemy. This is partly due to the simplistic stealth system that could do with more refinement in a hyper realistic game like Metro Exodus. It’s not the worst I’ve encountered. But some buildings can be cleared by simply walking through them at a brisk pace. The game even rewards this by having custom animations and story bits set along the path it has laid out. Yet, it doesn’t feel awful sneaking through an entire level because the world is so immersive to explore. But it sort of makes one scratch their head and ask if going in guns blazing would be worth it. And the shooting is pretty solid in Metro, I would compare it to the heavy hitting Killzone series. Also, most of the enemies have a headlamp that goes out in a satisfying burst that acts as a kill marker that most games reduce to a hud notification. So it’s odd that the game really pulls the player away from shootouts. Not entirely though, there is one level in a bunker that is incredibly fun and involves running and gunning like Mad Max. In most of these areas there are good and bad routes to take, which offer some replayability. But there are only two possible endings so there is not a huge replayability factor, yet the bad ending is sort of amazon albeit obviously not canon.
I think that Metro is a great antithesis to these broad and aimless open world games the market is drowning in.. It doesn’t overwhelm the player with choices, instead it puts them on a clear path that overwhelms them with gameplay to make them feel like they are a part of the world. I love patching my visior, wiping off blood from my mask, or seeing spiders crawl across the screen when I walk through a web. I love seeing the detail on the animations of both enemies and the scripted encounters with my allies. Even if it means I don’t have complete control over my character, or the world around me. The true perfect game would be one as immersive as Metro with a more interactable world. *SPOILERS* You end up building a little base at the end of this game. It would be nice to include a base building mechanic and one large open world. I think that sort of design might break some of those almost too intended cinematic moments that slightly took away from the raw feel that Exodus has. Also, I know the team would do a good job of including interaction between the base and the world around it, that other titles like Fallout 4 lack. Each Metro game gets better and I am excited to see what they can do with the next generation of consoles.
Deus Ex: Man Kind Divided (30/60$)
Chadum Jensen
It’s not the worst I’ve done
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has some huge shoes to fill both on it’s launch and it only filled them halfway out. Like a runner who would be that much faster if he could just fill the rest of this mis-sized shoe. The shoe being a metaphor for the original 2000 release of Dues ex being a legitimate legend in PC gaming. That being said, the series has gone through a much needed reboot and re lift in terms of quality and gameplay. The gameplay is amazing and the environments fit the tone. I’m not sure I would like to live in a futuristic Prague, but I can say for sure that it would look like it does in this game. The game takes its world building to another level by having the police stop you for ID, and at one point insulting a curfew that you have to work around while traversing the open world. However, one of the main problems with that game is that the open world might be deep and filled with neat stuff, but it really doesn’t matter. Like getting told you are a nice person after being dumped. Mankind Divided is 20 hours long if you just do the main mission, and around 30 hours if you do the side missions. This would all be forgivable if the game offered you solid reasons to replay the game, but it doesn’t sweeten the pot enough for multiple playthroughs, especially when you already know how unfulfilling the story ends.
That is not to say it is a bad story. It’s just basic. A stone cold secret agent with amnesia taking on a shadow organization in a multichapter fight against a tyrannical cabal who control the world. With cliche characters like a misunderstood activist and a mean Russian man, and a ball buster who’s got a heart of gold. The actual plot is good too, after being set up by shadow agents, Adam Jensen is nearly killed by a terrorist bombing and when he recovers he is tasked with bringing the bastards responsible to justice. It does sound a little to cliche but what sells the plot is the world that it is told in. Through reading emails and phone messages, you learn so much more about nearly every character. From coworkers to unnamed guards that you need to knock out quietly. Which is an absolute treasure to do. The game does not pussy foot around the fact that Adam Jensen is a cybernetic badass and you will feel like it as you tear through this game. Even playing a no kill run, I was able to avoid enemies or knock them out quickly from the start of the game to final level, the only thing that changed was how quickly I could do it. If I wanted too, I could have done a kill run and the gameplay would have been entirely different, but the game clearly is meant to be played with a stealth approach, proved through the background details of the world, the excellent cover system, and the fact that there is a nonviolent way around just about every problem. Which is refreshing for a shooter. So many games might give players binary choices like lethal or non lethal. Or good, bad, or middle. But Deus ex blurs those lines in both gameplay and story. You can tackle rooms through stealth shooting, hacking, takedowns, round about pathways, or a combination of all of them and the game shines brightest when that is the approach the player takes.
But the problem is that playing the game as a cover shooter is awful. Using certain perks, you will quickly become an unstoppable god no matter what style of play but the main shooting mechanic just doesn’t feel good. Which is a pretty big flaw in a first person shooter. The game definitely tries to steer players away from shooting gallery gameplay by letting players figure out their own way around puzzles through skill and environment manipulation but even on my stealth no kill run, I found myself popping a smoke grenade and sadly tranquilizing my targets with little satisfaction. I would even venture to say that Fallout 4 has better gun play than this game. So even though the stealth gameplay is fun, it will get boring after a while. Especially when the majority feels like the same setting and the same objective. Some of the side missions are more unique in task, but no matter what you will stealth through them and they follow the same structure of gathering intel about the target, knocking out or getting an item, bring it back to the quest giver. The writing for them is good though, but it is just not enough when the mean quest is only 20 hours. This game could have been on the same scope as the Witcher 3, but since the main story is short to the point where it relies on these sidequests to make it feel more varied and there are not enough of them to do that.
But all of these problems don’t take anything away from what the game does right. If you are looking to lose yourself in a world for a few hours, then this is the game for you. The level of care that has gone into building the atmosphere in this game evokes thoughts of the movie Her (2013), but directed by a french Christopher Nolan because this game does get dark and gritty. You might think the characters are cliche, but they are so well done that you will support their struggles against oppression. The stealth game play is clean and the freedom it gives the player to solve it’s challenges rivals games like Breath of the Wild. But the problem is those challenges are almost always: go hack this computer, go take out this bad guy, go talk to your boss to get the next assignment. That’s it. But you don’t really notice those faults, because it is such a joy to do those assignments. The true problem comes when the game ends on it’s clear halfway point in the story they must have wanted to tell. It makes you look back at the game you just played and think, “is that it?”
But fortunately for the patient gamers out there, this game is only 30$ now and it is totally worth that price, maybe even a little more. But if I got this game at 60$ and saw those end credits role when they did, I would’ve been peeved. 30$/30$.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (30/60$)
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle 30$/15$. Grant Kirkhope is one of my favorite composers in the video game industry and when I heard he was scoring a Mario Rabbid crossover game I began to watch it closely, but was skeptical of a tactics style game with Mario being good. Then I heard about the heart warming design process. How the team at Ubisoft brought the idea to Nintendo in the form of a board game for the executives to play. It is this focus on the core gameplay loop that gives the game the meat of it’s wonderful experience that falls short of its original 60$ asking price, but is an amazing deal at its current price.
The two best parts of this game is the writing and the battles, just about everything else is pretty shitty. But Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has probably the best battle system of any tactics style game I’ve played. What makes the gameplay stand out is the distinct lack of phases for actions. Each character on your team can shoot, move, and use a power in any order. This simple change to the formula, coupled with the melee movement abilities/jumps make the gameplay truly standout. It also has a bit of depth to it as well. Each weapon has a critical effect that changes the roles of the characters on your team. Not by much, but it allows for crazy move combinations during one character's turn. For example: Luigi is a sniper who has an ability that causes him to shoot at the first enemy to cross his line of sight. This is a great move because it shuts down enemy movement, but since the enemy can only move on their turn it doesn’t have an offensive use. Unless it is paired with Luigi's main weapon that has a bounce effect if it hits critically. So now the pressure is on to get the critical, whereas in other games the pressure would be on to make the shot based on character accuracy. M+R gets around it by either using 100%-50%-0%, which streamlines fights and saves players from those moments of missing a 99% chance shot that Xcom and tactic games are famous for. Now this feels great to pull off, but it is definitely overpowered. The enemy AI is good, but not God tier, and as a player masters the gameplay they will be able to beat almost every fight with ease. The real challenge will come from seeking out the fewest moves in order to get the best score. But I often beat the highest rank requirement by one or two turns. Some bosses gave me trouble, but I did not mind the majority of the fights. That is not to say they aren’t fun to play, they are amazing. Each one takes full advantage of the wild world that Mario + Rabbids created. One of the rare games that will guinely make you laugh. Rabbid Peach and her phone obsessed life is hilarious and surprisingly not cringe inducing. The game never takes itself seriously. The world around you is filled with Rabbid being very stupid and terrorizing everything they can when they are not fighting you. If this game was nothing but the story and the battles I would love it. It would be perfect. But unfortunately, the game makes logistical failures that give it a classic, nintendo feel. Like they almost made the game less than they could on purpose in the misguided attempt to adhere to their vision.
The best example of this is in the team customization. There are no clear cut classes, but every character has something that they excel in like healing, taking damage, or giving it. The problem is the perk trees for each character can and will be maxed out. This makes each character an all around powerhouse regardless of their class. The next level of customization is the weapon choice. Each character has a main weapon and a secondary (normally AOE) weapon like Mario’s hammer or Yoshi’s Rocket Launcher. Each of these weapons has an effect but some of the effects are garbage. The Bounce effect launches enemies into the air and allows you to deal so much damage in one turn through abilities that it is downright comical. It’s cool to see Luigi take a guy out on his own, it’s hilarious to watch your entire team literally juggle some poor rabid back and forth between each other before it has a chance to die. You could use the honey effect that roots enemies in place, the burn effect that might damage you, or the ink effect that blocks enemies abilities, but why would you do that when you can kill an enemy squad in one turn while also healing your team for full health using the bounce and vampire abilities because it is clearly the best gameplay option. It's a great experience to find the optimal turn but more classed based gameplay allows for replayability and/or players spending more time tweaking their characters.
The game world which is gorgeous with set pieces that fit the atmosphere perfectly, but lacks any game play outside of really shitty block puzzles that don’t do anything new, rarely result in game changing rewards, and feel the same on the first level as they do on the final level: a cheap attempt to confuse children into putting more hours into the game. They should have focused less on adding 80 different puzzles and more on things like more stats, more party customization, and more focus on CO-OP/versus modes. Which are fun, and some of my friends were keen to try the new Mario game like they had with soccer, rpgs, and iphone games. All of those games may have flaws, but they are easy to play. Like a fighting game, there is a learning curve to C+M that takes the fun of two players away quickly. It’s not deep enough to keep the sole experience fresh, but just deep enough to scare off new players.
M+R has me excited for the sequel. That is something that not many games can do. I played the DLC, it was neat but there needs to be entire game systems changed in order to fully flesh out this experience. Ideally with a massive overhaul to customization and the over world. The Rabbids franchise spawned from Rayman and he is due for another 3D platformer of some kind. The team behind these games clearly has a vision and a care for their work that could bring a more Rayman inspired Mushroom Kingdom to life. Hell the OST for this game and the cutscenes are worth 15$ to watch by themselves, despite not having voice acting and relying on slapstick humor. The combat idea is another 15$. But the game is lacking in every department outside of charm and a good set of gameplay bones. You can buy it for 15$ now though, and I encourage you to not let this one go.
Risk of Rain 2 (40$/20$)
This is something I drew
I think it’s not bad at all
So far Risk of Rain 2 is the best 20$ I have spent this year: 40$/20$. Indie developer Hopoo games pulled out all of the stops when creating the sequel to their 2D indie hit. They did something that very few games have tried and even fewer have pulled off. They changed from a 2D format to a 3D format and they did it masterfully. The concept of the game is simple. You and your friends are dropped off in an alien realm filled with monsters and chests. You kill the monsters to get money to buy chests to gain loot to kill monsters. To beat a level you activate a teleporter that summons the boss monster of that map. You kill that with your friends and go to the next realm. Rinse and repeat 8 times and you beat the game. The variance comes with the classes and the items. The items are distributed randomly and are all positive for your character no matter which class you play. Also no two classes play alike in this game, and all of the classes feel original yet pull some of the best gameplay ideas from other classic heroes we know and love as gamers. This is the game and it is no bullshit one of the best I have played.
See in most games when a character gets an item or ability that enhances their skills it normally changes the stats of that character in some way. Sometimes it will give a healing effect or increase damage. Regardless of what you get, it has a direct and noticeable impact on gameplay that forces you to play each run differently even if you are playing as the same character. That is what makes a basic game engaging for 30 plus hours of repeating the same gameplay loop nonstop. But not only do the items keep the game fresh, but they are incredibly satisfying to collect as each item gets added onto the physical model of the character you are playing, and the effect of the item is also something you can see in combat. When you get an item that shocks enemies if they attack you, you see the lighting jump from you to them. When you get an item that summons a fire storm on hit you can see the fire storm after your attacks. When you get a shield generator the shield wraps a blue glow around your character that disappears as the shields do. It is those little acts of care that makes Risk of Rain 2 amazing to play.
The only criticism would be lack of content. Online always has a lobby available, but the game is honestly best with friends alibet much harder. If you don’t have friends who can buy this game, then maybe wait and get it for them as a present or something because if you don’t have friends to play with this 40$/20$ game quickly drops to 15$/20$. Solo is still fun though. You become a god with all of the items and you will always be unlocking characters, abilities, outfits, and modifiers that will give you a real goal with a real reward. Yet, unless you are a completionist you will drop it after a few hours regardless of how much there is to do. The benefit of the game being early access is the developers don’t suck and will add more to the game with time.
All and all the game is great. You can jump into a game with your friends in just a few clicks and you will be so locked into your computer for at least the next 35 minutes to the point you would rather pee your pants instead of lose the run. The way the dopamine hits as you unlock a chest and see you got a red rare item will keep you coming back for more. Then seeing that item on your beast of a character as you bring the pain to swarms of aliens that want you and your friends dead is a blast and worth every penny. (40$/20$ with friends)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (30$/60$)
This is a drawing I did on my phone
Wowza is it bad
Animal Crossing is a game that gets by on it’s charm and it’s unique real time game world that syncs with your real life, but under that cool and cute concept is a game with poor systems that is basically a massive time sink with no real point. But I can not argue that the game works. It’s fun. I would say it is like gardening. Slow, boring, and with little material pay off but still brings incredible joy when it does (30$/60$).
The game does an amazing job of relaxing the player. While mindlessly chopping at trees you lose yourself in the sound of the wind that comes accompanied by a polite soundtrack that seems to constantly be inviting you to play just a little bit longer. Catch another fish, pick another fruit, talk to that anamorphic animal that gave you a cool shirt. You want to do these things because the atmosphere within the game can not be beat. Even the seediest characters are genuine and nice enough to make you want to hang out with them outside of the game, but that is impossible. With it’s newest release, Nintendo struck a perfect balance between adding new things to do without changing the core gameplay. The biggest addition is the new crafting system which is as standard as they come, and allows for a good bit of farming that is tied to daily cycles. I never came to a point where there wasn’t something I could be doing to get the materials I needed to make the item that I wanted and that is great game design. In past Animal Crossing titles there really was no set objective. New Horizons does a good job nudging the player in the direction of new gameplay and that alone makes putting time into the game feel more rewarding. Mastering the turnip market makes you feel like Jordan Belfort. Collecting items to put in the museum has always been fun, and it’s even better in this game because of the wonderful museum redesign. Visiting friends is a blast and the new ability to terraform islands and change outdoor scenery allows people to create islands that are built around a core theme. But because these game systems are very deep and very hidden, that can feel frustrating more than fun.
For example we will look at the turnip market. It’s basically a simulated stock market where you buy turnips one day a week and then try to sell them later in the week for a profit, or they will spoil and you’ll lose your investment. It seems like a fun risk reward system. But the real game is exploiting it. Using data mining and third party apps you can calculate what your turnip prices may be and use that system to make the millions you NEED in order to do a total customization of your island. I wish that the calculator was built into the game, or the game gave you more tools to make more money in shorter amounts of time. Players have come up with their own solutions to this problem by inviting other players to sell turnips on their max cost island, but even that is a chore to do. To visit a friends island they need to be on your friends list which means you need their friend code. Then they have to go to their airport and open the port, then you connect to them which takes three menus to do and then you watch a loading screen and then you are on an island with your friend only able to communicate with text bubbles and expressions. I know Nintendo online sucks, but the steps it takes to have a friend come to your island are silly when compared even to bad online systems like Pokemons recent abomination. The game struggles with common sense issues such as user interface problems that make inventory management and selling things a pain in the ass. Collecting a full inventory of fish to sell for pennies takes a lot longer when a forced display animation plays for each catch with no way to skip it. It doesn’t take long but since the main gameplay is grinding for more money that grind gets boring fast. It might pay off in the end but some days it doesn’t feel like you will never see that end.
I play animal crossing like I water plants. I do it every morning to make sure nothing terrible happens because I neglect it the rest of the day. Sometimes I might do an extra bit of work, but it’s rare. The plan is to put my faith in the game that it will pay off when I look back at what I started with. Also like watering plants, some people will get way too crazy with it and build green houses before my plants even flower. Those are the type of people that will get more than their money's worth from Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s not bad, it’s just not for me and I don’t think I will put a lot of time into it. 30$/60$
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (50$/60$)
This is another drawing I did
It’s very bad
Fire Emblem three houses is the best game in the Harry Potter franchise. As you may have already heard, this is a large departure from the original anime style tactics games that past Fire Emblem games were. So the developers said screw it and made a dating simulator the main game and then added in the RPG story based gameplay as a sort of bonus game within the game. But as we all know a Harry Potter dating sim is doomed because forging life like romantic relationships with anime teens is normally something that will get you on a watch list. So they made it so you were the same age as the students, you're still their professor so you can bone faculty too.
All jokes aside, the game is great. The combat is fun. The relationship side game is unfortunately very addictive. It is long, entertaining, and has a large amount of replay value. Just like my new anime waifu Petra. She is a goddess. 50$ out of 60$.
So the thing I like most about this game is the combat. Fire Emblem has a history of having some of the best tactics style combat, unit composition, and inventory management even amongst peers like XCOM 2 and Mario Vs. Rabbids. If you want to get into the systems than you can and you will feel stronger and cooler than any other anime teen out there. However, if you don’t love it you don’t have to do deep dives of keeping your characters probably outfitted and prepped for battle. I was not a fan at first. But after losing a few fights I found myself getting more and more into the system. But that was not the only reason I became more enveloped. The story and characters are good however it must be said that it is full of anime tropes. But the characters are solid if albeit stereotypical and the story has enough choices that it keeps you entertained for the entire game. But not only that, there are four different endings to the game with the nearly 2/3rds of the game being completely different based on the choices that you make. It took me 47 hours to get to the final battle, and that was just one play through. A full completionist can get over 100 hours of content with minimal rehashing of gameplay. The combination of the fun stories and great combat make getting to know the characters of Hogwarts a side effect of playing your way through the main story until it gets to the point where you legitimately feel bad when your anime crush gets hurt by an enemy in combat, or your tank boy who is your ace in the hole, dies to some magic bullshit. It’s cheesy, it’s corny, but it all works together very well and I’m ashamed I enjoy it as much as I do.
The reason I am ashamed of my joy is because they do lay on the anime bullshit really thick to the point where you will have to push past it if you are not into that weeb shit. In addition to that, the game drags in between the story missions that come after every three other missions. In Between those story missions you will flirt with the students and faculty and explore the monasteries' open world. The problem is this open world is god awful. There is almost nothing to do outside of talk with the students who pick static locations to stand while doing nothing. This might be excusable, but they keep these positions until the next story mission. The result is the monastery feels like a snapshot in time instead of a living and breathing world. It honestly feels like it could be replaced with menus and for the most part, it is if the player chooses to use the menus instead. Everything that needs done outside of the menus, which is not much, can be fast traveled to in seconds and sped through even faster. Compared to a world like Yakuza’s which is filled with minigames to play and master, it makes you wonder why they included the open world. The answer is to give you a place to date your biggie titties anime goth GF. Only those dates really just amount to asking them on a tea time that lets you choose tea and conversations. Only the tea choice doesn’t matter, and the conversation is a timed selection between three canned topics that are supposed to vibe differently with each character you are talking too but sometimes it feels completely random. Not only that but the reward is just being able to take pictures of them doing a unique tea drinking animation. That is what love is in Fire Emblem. And did I fall in love with Petra? Ya. Does it detract from the main game? No. But if you are making a dating sim make a damn dating sim with legit activities or minigames. Every other date outside of tea is a cutscene with no interaction and therefore no gameplay. It does take away from the game’s gameplay loop which can lose it’s draw after 50 hours since the open world and date system are half assed.
But if that is enough for you, then holyshit this game is going to be one of the best games you ever played. You get to know and customize your classroom of heroes on a deep level. You fight with them in battle and you might even feel for them if you can look past the anime exterior. And again if they gameplay loop can keep you entertained for the 50 hours or so it will take you to beat one campaign, then you can literally get 100 hours of gameplay from this game of fresh content unlike a game like Skyrim which may give over 100 hours of gameplay if you replay the majority of the same missions. So according to my 1$=1 hour, this game should get 100/60$. But I’m not a weeb. I might die for Petra and she may be my phone wall paper because she is fit as fuck, but the shallow overworld, story, and date system drops it’s score to a 50/60$.
Far Cry 5 (20$/60$)
This is a drawing. I did this.
Being the fifth game of a popular franchise is like being the youngest son of a billionaire dad. You got big shoes to fill and the world is going to shower you in piss if you are even close to a failure. Far Cry 1 I never played but was it said to be good for the time. Far Cry 2 was one of the first games and currently few games with a great fire engine. It had many annoying features but things like hang gliding, burning people and animals alike in a savanna wildfire, and the large and well populated open world gave the series something to live up to. Four years later Far Cry 3 made a splash at E3 with it’s teaser trailer that set a new bar for game trailers. Micheal Mando absolutely kills the voice acting in a monologue that shows they really up the insanity from Far Cry 2, and Far Cry 3 delivered on the promise the teaser made. This game had everything; Ubisoft style tower system, a half baked stealth system, a bow and arrow before Call of Duty did, hunting, wingsuits, marijuana burning, and a Skrillex/Damien Marley collab that put the dub in dubstep. Go and play the mission where you burn down the pot farm with a flame thrower and try not to smile when the game sounds cut away and it hits you with Damien’s deep Jamica voice and Skrillex’s sick Wubz. It is one of my favorite missions of all time. But on top of all of those things they had great writing. You truly don’t see Jason becoming a monster and they were able to humanize Vas so well that you could only help but feel sorry for the guy that has been killing your video game friends. Far Cry 4 took the series away from jungles and set it in a mountainous region in Asia and was not a bad game either but sadly fell short of the bar set by Far Cry 3 due to not making enough advances beyond co-op and a worse story all around. Then the time came for Far Cry 5 to test itself against 3’s great writing and one of a kind missions, and it failed to deliver. It’s not all bad though, the game is polished to hell. Sure it has a shitty story but driving around on an ATV throwing C4 at bears then launching off a cliff into a wingsuit flight is stupid fun that will last you and a friend dozens of hours of enjoyment.
In a world full of open world shooters it is hard to stand out and at a first glance Far Cry 5 doesn’t have anything new to offer other than it’s setting. The game is set in rural Montana and features crazy cultists who are so clearly an allegory for crazy white supremacist Christians. Their cross even looks like a Nazi iron cross. The setting is cool sure, but the game does not directly say they are christian or racist or anything like that. They instead play it safe with the theme so it works, but doesn’t have anything new to say. The combat isn’t that special either, but just because it is nothing new does not mean it is not fun. The opposite is true. Being the fifth main line game in a AAA series means that they game-play loop is fun and so clean every head shot feels just as smooth to pull off as taking out an entire base with a shovel and some knives. There are more vehicles than ever with the addition of planes and helicopters in this game as well as ATV and four wheelers that are perfect for quickly moving up Montana’s many mountains. Wing suiting through trees is a breeze to pull off but you feel like a bad ass every time you do. Also there is no real jank or glitches in this game. The menus of the game are simple and sweet. There's options for creating arcade maps that are so in depth they allow for recreations of classic gaming maps or things like The Joker stairs. The developers also take steps to make the game world be full of NPC activity so that the player never has to run far to encounter something to shoot or loot. The first ten hours or so exploring this game is simply magical.
Then you realize the polish has a price. The simple menus that are great for quickly buying and customizing weapons are simple and quick because every gun has the same customization options. By the end of your game just about every you have will be outfitted with a scope, extended mag, and a silencer. This pushes you to use the stealth system which is basic enough to let you feel cool clearing a outpost without being seen, but this is not a stealth system that will have you hiding bodies or scared of a firefight. In fact the only mission in this game that is hard, is the first story mission where you are in the passenger seat of a truck fighting off cultists. After that you are a god that simply can not be killed unless it is due to your own stick of dynamite. The problem with the game-play is that it doesn’t encourage different game-play styles. It is always stealth mode until you get spotted and then blow everything to bits with your silences Browning light machine gun that has armor piercing ammo. They should have had more weapon customization and perk customization that closes out certain other perks. Essentially create a loose class system ala Metal Gear Solid 5 or Assassin's Creed Odyssey that changes the way you tackle outposts in story missions. Not that silenced shotguns don’t feel great to use. The missions themselves are almost at Far Cry 3 level but the game is a little too afraid to remove player freedom from the missions. Almost every mission can be started and stopped mid mission, and almost none of the missions have interesting stories behind them. Yet, they are not even mindless fun like a pot burning mission. There are a few missions that would have been amazing to have the pop songs playing on nearby radios take over the game audio for a cinematic few moments. Disco Inferno plays while a redneck with a flamethrower burns crazed drug addicts alive in his trailer park. They have the license to Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Barracuda by Heart, Slowride by Foghat, Sexual Healing by Marvin Gay, and many many many great songs that are even playing on the radio during some specific missions. But for some reason they don’t use this music to create these game-play moments that so few games have dared to do. Not to say the soundtrack is bad. The pause music has been in constant rotation when I smoke weed and think of a simple outdoor life.
In most ways this game is an escape into the outdoors. You can do things in this game that feel exhilarating and you can experience landscapes that can only be described as majestic. It takes you into a modern lawless western and just like other westerns it features a fair share of cliches that you let slide because that pistol looks cool and that man just wrestled a bear. The game does not have the shitty feel of a repetitive Ubisoft game. It pokes fun at itself more than any game I’ve seen. But this is not a game that will go down in history as anything more than a stepping stone to the next great Far Cry game. It’s worth your money with friends, worth your money if it is on sale for 15$ but anything higher than 20$ and this game is not worth it. 20$/15$