game review – Page 31

Happy about: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

01/08/2021 29/06/2023

Finally, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is available internationally and on PC. I’ve not missed a single Ys release since my first experience with Ys Origin seven years ago, as even though the games aren’t always amazing, they never fail to be fun and entertaining. And the previous entry in the series, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, was easily one of the best action RPGs I’ve ever played. Despite the fact that the PC port of the game was at the time very flawed.

Yet, my hopes for Monstrum Nox weren’t as high as from it’s original announcement trailers it looked to be going for much bigger and more open, yet empty feeling locations. So I was afraid, that the tight and exciting hack and slash action and really fun exploration mechanics would get lost with this move. Luckily, I was mostly wrong and Ys IX turned out to be really fun.

In love with: Yakuza 4 Remastered

25/07/2021 25/07/2021

As I was going through all of the Yakuza titles, I was getting less hopeful that another one will get me as excited as 0 did back at the start of this journey. None of the games I’ve played this far were bad, even 3 had lots of strong elements despite being the game I’ve enjoyed the least. But then along comes Yakuza 4 in its remastered form on PC and I’m happy again.

In love with: Mass Effect Legendary Edition

19/07/2021 29/06/2023

When I sat down to play all three original Mass Effect trilogy games 3 years ago, I did not expect EA to join on the idea of remasters, especially for such a complex series made on Unreal Engine 3, at the tail end of the previous console generation. They seemed perfectly content with selling original releases and all of the DLCs separately for a juicy price, without even attempting to fix any serious issues that plagued the PC releases for years. So the announcement of Mass Effect Legendary Edition came as a complete surprise to me.

After having spent another 90 hours, playing through the trilogy with a fresh new Shepard, I’m happy to say that while it’s not exactly perfect and definitely not as thorough as some might’ve wanted, Legendary Edition is the best way to play the original Mass Effect trilogy. And play it you must.

Thoughts on: Strangeland

14/07/2021 19/07/2021

When I’ve played Primordia a few years ago, quite late for the game originally from 2012, I liked it quite a lot, yet it remained a title that I was hesitant to outright recommend. Check out, pay attention to, maybe get it if you’re in the mood, sure. But not drop everything and get it. With Strangeland I was hoping to have a more definite “heck yeah, get it” recommendation. Yet, while I did have a more enjoyable experience with the title overall, and did really like it, I still didn’t like it quite enough.

Happy about: Maneater

09/07/2021 01/09/2021

I like a good stupid game. Something with a simple silly premise, easy to get into gameplay, good length. Something to just sit down, play, enjoy and move on, maybe replaying it again a few years later. And Maneater turned out to be a pretty good example of a game like that. Less than 10 hours of simple gameplay loops of swimming and chomping fish and people, upgrading the shark to be more ridiculous and finding secrets.

Disapprove: LEGO Builder’s Journey

04/07/2021 04/07/2021

When I first saw LEGO Builder’s Journey, it looked very interesting. A narrative driven puzzle game mixing the Hitman/Lara Croft GO ideas with Lego bricks was a refreshing change after Traveller’s Tales spent the past fifteen years making the exactly same LEGO-themed game over and over again. And the fact that the PC version of the game (this was originally an Apple Arcade exclusive from 2019) uses the ray traced visuals made it me even more curious to play it for myself. What an annoying game it turned out to be.

Quick thoughts on: Ynglet

29/06/2021 29/06/2021

I really like games by Nifflas (Nicklas Nygren) even when I don’t like to play them. Truth be told, apart from the wonderful Knytt games, I never finished any of the other titles he designed or worked on. So when I saw Ynglet, my memory went to the really tough platforming parts of Knytt Underground, which were my least liked part of that wonderful game, and I considered skipping this game. Luckily I didn’t.

Read more“Quick thoughts on: Ynglet”

Quick thoughts on: Emily is Away <3

20/06/2021 20/06/2021

Emily is Away <3 is the third entry in the visual novel/social media simulation interactive story adventure thing series about relationships. It’s bigger, it’s… somewhat better and it’s quite different with its move from simulating AIM/ICQ to Facebook. And I kinda liked it.

Disapprove: Call of the Sea

16/06/2021 16/06/2021

I remember when Portal came out and first person adventure/puzzle games exploded and there were so many interesting takes on the subgenre. Some evolved the traditional Myst-like gameplay, some started mixing mechanics and ideas from other genres, some played with physics objects a lot… But for the past 5 or so years, I’ve been mostly ignoring these types of games. There are way too many of them and yet, vast majority of the games seems to fall into two main types: either story driven games with almost pointless adventure elements slapped on top or incredibly complicated puzzle games that make Myst look like an obvious and easy game for children.

Call of the Sea got my attention because it seemed like it could be at least slightly more engaging than a typical “slapped on top” type of adventure. And for the first hour or two, that’s almost what it was. But then it turned into one of the most tedious and poorly designed first person adventure games I’ve played in a while.

Read more“Disapprove: Call of the Sea”

Quick thoughts on: Adios

12/06/2021 12/06/2021

Sometimes some ~~crimes~~ small games get a lot of buzz happening around them, praising the storytelling or the mood of the game or what not. Adios was one of these games for me as since its release a couple of months ago, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the game, with lots of “even if it’s 90 minutes long”. And I like short and succinct story driven games, as they are a rarity and are very hard to do well. Having played the game, I must say that while I can understand someone liking it, it didn’t really do it for me.