game review – Page 32

Happy about: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

21/08/2020 21/08/2020

Despite hearing a lot about the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series for years, and frankly how couldn’t you hear about it with how popular it has become, I’ve not played a single entry up until this point. Most of the world has met Phoenix in a localized version back in 2005-2006 when the original GBA title was ported to Nintendo DS and released worldwide. This original trilogy of games was already out in Japan, having been released in 2001, 2002 and 2004 on GBA, but it was at this point that the famous “Objection!” really took off elsewhere. And after years of popularity, different related media, sequels, crossover games and many direct and indirect imitators the original trilogy has finally landed on PC, worldwide (there were Japan-only PC ports of several previous titles) in its newest updated iteration. I was very excited to finally check it out.

Revisiting Dead Space 3 (+Awakened)

16/08/2020 16/08/2020

I’ve been dreading revisiting Dead Space 3. Back when it first launched, I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t necessarily outright hate it, but I found it insufferably boring. Yet, I felt that this journey had to be completed and besides, I’ve never played the only story DLC this game had, which remains (and probably will remain) the very last bit of Dead Space ever. So I’ve taken this dive and… I think I like the game a little bit more? I mean it’s still terrible, but this time, I think I’ve found some appeal to it.

Revisiting Dead Space 2

14/08/2020 14/08/2020

If Dead Space is a game that I get to love and respect more with each replay, its sequel seems to be the opposite. When I first played it, I liked it a lot. Yet, with each next replay, while my respect for it remains, I find more and more reasons to dislike it. Thankfully, they tend to be minor and most of them lie in the exact same problems that I’ve had with the game during my very first playthrough. More than anything, it’s the understanding that those exist as huge blemishes upon the game that make them more frustrating to re-experience each time.

But let’s get one thing out of the way first – I liked revisiting Dead Space 2 a lot and it’s still a good game worth revisiting. And all of the things it does are still incredibly smart and amazing. I just get wowed by them far less by now.

Revisiting Dead Space: Extraction

12/08/2020 12/08/2020

Dead Space was a well deserved success and remains one of the most amazing titles in videogame history. But it was an EA game and horror themed or not, niche however it might be, they were going to make a gigantic expensive franchise out of it. At the time of the Dead Space’s original release – “Dead Space”, the prequel comic book series in 6 issues and Dead Space: Downfall, the animated prequel movie were out as well. And Dead Space: Extraction, the prequel on-rails shooter for Wii, was already about a year in development. Oh, EA…

Yet, perhaps due to the passion behind the franchise and competent writing teams, this didn’t lead to some terrible disgusting shovelware. Dead Space: Extraction, which sadly remains exclusive to Wii and PS3 with Move controls, turned out to be a really fun on-rails shooter. Perhaps the only one of the kind that I’ve experienced that has a proper serious story and good storytelling.

O tempora: Dead Space

10/08/2020 24/01/2025

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

I have quite a few games I love to replay. It doesn’t happen as often as it used to, simply because nowadays we get more games that could be potentially interesting, but I can still sometimes get back to something reliable, something that will be a joy to replay. Usually, games like this simply don’t get old with replays. In some cases, I learn to appreciate them a bit more each time I replay, notice new details. And among games like these Dead Space is a bit of an oddity. I replayed it few times before, and I like doing that. But at the same time, it was never my “go to” game for replays either. Yet, every single time I replay it, my respect for it grows far more than with any other game I replay. And this time was no different. It’s like Dead Space is aging backwards and gets better with each year.

Thoughts on: The Banner Saga 3

05/08/2020 05/08/2020

My relationship with The Banner Saga has always been weird. I liked the world and the story, yet I never cared much about the gameplay at all. So, every time I’ve played one, it was considerably late and after serious self-motivation. After all, I did want to learn how this Saga ends. And sadly, just like with previous entries, I’m left conflicted after playing the game.

Happy about: CARRION

01/08/2020 01/08/2020

CARRION made a lot of noise with its gameplay reveal. A “reverse horror-themed game” where you play as a monster sounded novel. Except for that Paradise Lost: First Contact game that has been Kickstarted years ago and hasn’t come out yet which had a very similar look and premise, if not the exact same gameplay. Either way, it looked curious, but not that exciting to me so I was planning to wait for the other people’s reactions before deciding on if I want to try it out myself. Now that it has come out and had lots of positive reviews, I decided to take the plunge. And yeah, my assumptions were spot on. It’s curious and fun, but not that exciting.

Thoughts on: Creaks

28/07/2020 28/07/2020

While I was never a huge fan of Amanita Design, some of their titles have been and still remain among my favorite games. What I always admired about their projects is the playfulness and unpredictability, with the art and music coming close second. And pretty much every time they wanted to do something more puzzle oriented, I was far less interested with their critical darling Machinarium being my least favorite of the titles. Yet, I was curious about what Creaks would turn out to be – a puzzle platformer from the studio is a new direction after all. The results are not as fun as I hoped they would be.

Thoughts on: Observation

22/07/2020 22/07/2020

I have a soft spot for weird sci-fi, something that mixes very realistic hard science elements with stories about facing something completely beyond human comprehension. So when I stumbled upon Observation, I got highly interested. And now that the game has been made available on more distribution platforms, I couldn’t miss my chance to try it out. It… wasn’t as exciting as I was hoping it would be.

Thoughts on: 428: Shibuya Scramble

16/07/2020 16/07/2020

When I’ve first learnt of 428: Shibuya Scramble, which wasn’t too long ago, I got incredibly interested. While I’m not a huge fan of visual novels as a genre, there have been many great examples of how to build an engaging interactive narrative among these games. And this title seemed like it had many curious concepts of its own. Multiple characters with converging storylines, similarity to the good old (actually often really bad) FMV titles from the 90s, several story genres in one game telling different sides of the story… It was only later that I’ve learnt that the game was actually originally released back in 2008 on Wii and this new port was the first non-Japan exclusive version of the game. During the first several hours I didn’t even consider this, since the game felt really smart about how it used its own mechanics and how high quality the visual side of the game was.

I was thoroughly enjoying this title for hours, fully expecting to end up praising it a lot and calling it a gem that needed everyone’s attention. But that was only halfway through the game. Then the rest of the game happened.