Playing Scarlet Nexus was a bit of a rollercoaster. It looks great, it has nice tunes and its combat system looks stylish and fun. But then, the more of it I’ve played, the more I grew frustrated and bored. And in the end, even though I’m a huge fan of games where you have two playable characters going through two parallel storylines, I couldn’t keep on playing with the second character. I just didn’t have it in me to play more of it. Yet, what a fascinating project this is.
Tag: game review
Disapprove: Wasteland 3 (with DLCs)
Even though I’ve still never gotten in the mood to try and conquer the original Wasteland, as with many other cRPGs of that era, I did enjoy Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut quite a lot. Back then I said that it didn’t feel like a Fallout game not because it couldn’t be one, but because it didn’t want to be one. It had its own take on a post-apocalyptic tactical turn-based RPG that still remains enjoyable today despite some flaws.
Wasteland 3 aims to be… different? Frankly, I’m not sure what it aims to be, but the result is not great.
Thoughts on: Firework
Ever since its original release, which was Chinese-only, Firework has received a lot of praise. And with the official English translation finally out, I was interested to see what’s all the buzz about. And, well, it’s a good game. Not anything special, but good.
Quick thoughts on: Terminator: Resistance – DLCs
Slightly over a year ago I’ve played Terminator: Resistance, which in itself was released a year prior to that. And I liked this surprisingly good movie license videogame. It knew what made the original two movies work and managed to translate that experience to a videogame. Later that year a free DLC allowing you to play as a Terminator was released, to coincide with the next-gen release of the game. And recently a new paid DLC campaign was also added, telling a story that happens in-between the chapters of the main game.
Happy about: Blasphemous
I’ve played Blasphemous about 2 years ago, just a few months after its initial release, and decided to stop my playthrough. As a fan of more exploration focused metroidvania titles, I didn’t gel well with the action focus of the game, especially since it was also going for the “Dark Souls inspired” challenge, seemingly. But a few months ago I’ve seen other people play it on streams and realized, that the game wasn’t exactly what I first thought it would be. So I decided to give it another go.
Thoughts on: Heaven Dust 2
In 2020 a surprisingly good “Resident Evil knock-off” called Heaven Dust got released. And by “knock-off” I don’t mean “a classic survival horror game”, I mean a game that actually used some of the assets of the original Resident Evil games. Except it was done in an isometric perspective and had a few ideas of its own. I liked it despite its flaws and questionable “borrowing” from the inspirations and wondered what would be next for the developers. A direct sequel, as it turned out to be. Which clearly aims to be a full on improvement but in reality is more of a mixed bag.
O tempora: Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Back when I was going on my Final Fantasy spree in the early 00s, trying to play all of the titles in the series, being late to the party myself, FF V left me conflicted. On one hand, I remember enjoying the vast majority of the game and the way the Jobs (character classes of FF series) were handled. On the other, I also remember serious difficulty bumps, most notable one being the final boss that I simply could not defeat no matter how hard I’ve tried, which lead to a long and exhausting grinding session, before I was finally able to finish the game. Yet, with recent years Final Fantasy V has become a very popular entry, leading to really cool charity events like Final Fantasy Four Job Fiesta, and I was curious about replaying the game myself.
Now with the Pixel Remaster version available, I was happy to see that my opinion on the game became more positive.
Happy about: Psychonauts 2
Ah yes, Psychonauts 2. The game that no one expected to happen, but many hoped. Psychonauts, the very first project of Double Fine as a studio (even though a lot of its talent had prior industry experience), was a game released in 2005 and despite positive reception it was a big commercial failure. Yet, as years went by, more and more people came to love and praise it so when the studio was able to purchase back the rights for the game, the first rumors of a potential sequel started circulating. But it wasn’t until 2015, when the crowdfunding for the project was announced. And after 6 years, with a VR-only mid-equel Rhombus of Ruin released released in 2017, the game was released.
Was it worth the wait? Well, only if you’ve been among those who’ve waited.
In love with: God of War (2018)
Given my previous experience with the God of War series, I didn’t really care about the announcement of the series return. Not that I didn’t like the games, but I only truly enjoyed the second game and since the third entry haven’t even bothered with the Ascension or the PSP titles. But then the game got released on PS4 and everyone praised… the story? In a God of War game? That piqued my interest, but the lack of a PS4 of my own (and the abundance of games I could play anyway) led me to safely wait until some later re-release or a port of the game will allow me to check it out.
Now with the exceptional PC port available, I was finally able to play and enjoy the game myself.
O tempora: Syberia I & II
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Twenty years ago in 2002 when Syberia was released, the point and click adventures were on a decline. It wasn’t like the genre didn’t have any recent fantastic examples, The Longest Journey being from a few years before. But otherwise, it felt as if nobody really knew at the time what to do with the genre and how to approach it. And to be absolutely frank, Syberia itself oftentimes felt like it didn’t really know how to approach the genre either, yet it so elegantly stumbled through its beautiful locations with its wonderful magic realist story that it pretty soon became a critical darling at least in some circles. And also started a short, but pretty decent run of adventure titles made by Microïds that ended around the time of the Sinking Island.
While I have played both Syberia and its sequel when they were new, and did enjoy them (the original more than the second game), I haven’t replayed them ever since until now.