game review – Page 27

O tempora: Final Fantasy (Pixel Remaster)

12/11/2021 12/11/2021

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

How many times have I tried to play the original Final Fantasy… I’ve tried the original NES game, the Final Fantasy Origins version on PS1, Dawn of Souls on GBA… But I’ve never actually finished it until the Pixel Remaster release. It’s strange to finally play the very first game in such a huge and influential franchise to completion. And it’s especially strange to realize that despite being so quaint by modern standards, even with so many improvements Pixel Remaster version brings, there’s still a place for a title like this.

Happy about: The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

08/11/2021 08/11/2021

After the first two entries in The Dark Pictures Anthology I was skeptical, but still hopeful about the whole concept. Sure, I don’t particularly like games which heavily rely on QTEs, but that wasn’t my problem with the first games. Rather, they suffered from poor narrative and storytelling decisions, which is pretty important in an “interactive movie”-type game. I’m happy to say that third time’s a charm and House of Ashes is a genuinely entertaining horror themed interactive story.

Happy about: Battlefield 1 and V Story Campaigns (and a few words on Battlefield 4)

04/11/2021 04/11/2021

As someone who almost never plays multiplayer, I’ve barely ever played a Battlefield title. There have been story-driven singleplayer campaigns since Battlefield 3, but I’ve played that one and it was a really generic “modern military shooter”, so I’ve ignored them since then. However, I’ve heard good things about the stories in Battlefield 1 and have been meaning to check them some day. Now that I’ve played them in 1 and V, I have to say that they are indeed very good. I’ve also made a mistake to check Battlefield 4, so I’ll write a few words on it as well.

Thoughts on: Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered

01/11/2021 01/11/2021

Twelve years ago Terminal Reality still existed as a game development company and were probably best known for their BloodRayne franchise. It was still a few years before Kinect Star Wars and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct would become the final nails in their coffin, but even then they weren’t known to make good games. Often curious titles with some neat ideas, yes. But not what you’d call “good”. And Ghostbusters: The Video Game, originally released in 2009, wasn’t “good” either. But it wasn’t terrible and had some cool things about it. The Remastered version of the game doesn’t get better.

Happy about: Lucifer Within Us

28/10/2021 28/10/2021

Probably, the last time I’ve seen a tech demo/pitch project turned into a commercial release was in 2007 when wonderful Penumbra: Overture got released. It was an unfinished and relatively short adventure with lots of promise, and Frictional Games have gotten a chance to deliver on that promise later with their future titles. I can only hope that, Lucifer Within Us, that is also for all intents and purposes a proof of concept turned commercial game project, will be a sign of things to come. Because despite its short length and and abrupt story, it shows a lot of promise.

Happy about: GRIS

24/10/2021 24/10/2021

GRIS is a wonderful example of when a game doesn’t do anything extraordinary or anything new, yet what it does it does really well. It looked so “seen it all before” in trailers and bits of gameplay, that I didn’t consider playing it myself. And now that I have played, it’s not like my expectations were completely off. Yet, I enjoyed this game quite a lot.

Thoughts on: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

19/10/2021 19/10/2021

Well, this is it. Now I’ve played all of the main Yakuza game available as of now. All of them are on PC and all of the ports are solid. Was the final entry in the series (prior to refocusing the story and gameplay in Like a Dragon) good? It was fine. I enjoyed it more than 5, honestly.

Happy about: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…

12/10/2021 12/10/2021

I’ve tried playing NieR (Gestalt) when it first came out years ago, but just like it happened with Drakengard even earlier, I got bored with the game. So it wasn’t until slightly later that I’ve learned about how inventive the storytelling in NieR becomes, how the game twists your perceptions with the second playthrough and just how intentional a lot of the boredom I’ve felt was. Years later, NieR: Automata came out and was absolutely fantastic, doing a lot of the same concepts, but in a much more fun way. And given its success, I expected that it was only a matter of time NieR will get a modern re-release. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… turned out to be much more than a simple re-release.

Thoughts on: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope

06/10/2021 06/10/2021

With the first game in the Anthology out of the way, I was curious if Little Hope is going to be any better. I still liked the concept, after all, and the fact that every story can be completely separate was promising. Overall, I liked Little Hope far more. Yet, I feel, not everyone will feel the same.

Happy about: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Singleplayer)

01/10/2021 01/10/2021

Unlike the rest of the sub-series in Call of Duty, Black Ops entries have been the most creative in terms of gameplay over the past 10 years. Original Black Ops had some curious gameplay ideas to enhance the narrative, the sequel is probably still the most choice/consequence heavy entry in the franchise and even the third game had some curious ideas, including the fact that your player character was fully customizable. So after the pretty and curious, but rather uneventful Modern Warfare (2019), I expected the singleplayer of Black Ops Cold War to be more exciting. And even more stupid. It delivered on both.