Three years ago I decided to catch up on all the CoD games I’ve been missing out on since Black Ops II and it turned out that there were some occasional attempts at making a fun single-player campaign. The one I found most enjoyable, despite it’s dumb QTEs and the still infamous “pay respects” scene, was the Advanced Warfare entry as it had both fun gameplay elements to it and an actually good-ish story. It lacked the really creative “choose your own adventure” ideas from Black Ops II, but storytelling was solid and the characters were memorable, so I had somewhat high hopes for WWII, as it was made by the same team at Sledgehammer Games. I was extremely disappointed.
Tag: game review
In love with: DUSK
I’ve always loved the mid-90s FPS titles, especially ones made on the Build engine. They had a perfect mix of exploration in fun levels, cool weapons and enemies to use them on, number of encounters per level balanced just right so action doesn’t get stale and almost always had kickass tunes. My recent revisit of Blood was a wonderful reminder of how fun those games could get. And after years of FPS games, and shooters in general, going in a very linear, very “cinematic” direction we’ve seen a revitalization of that old 90s approach in recent years. Some of them were disappointing, some leaned too heavy into base mechanics, forgetting about the importance of hand crafted levels, some were pretty okay. DUSK, though, ever since the first Early Access builds, attracted exclusively positive buzz around it. So I was understandably curious, yet, due to all those disappointments, still somewhat cautious.
But now I’ve played the game. And holy fucking shit it’s amazing.
Thoughts on: Onimusha: Warlords
While I’ve seen and heard a lot about the Onimusha series, up until now the only game in it that I’ve had a chance to play and complete was the third entry. Despite playing the rather poor PC port of it, I liked the game a lot, yet it took me this long to finally play the original, now in its remastered form with some slight (and couple major) changes. And it’s really cool. Though, more dated than I expected it to be.
Thoughts on: Pilgrims
If I could describe all projects by Amanita Design in a short way, I’d probably use the word “cute”. As varied in style as they often are, they always have some “cuteness” to them, some “playfulness”. And a surprise release Pilgrims is no different. It’s short, cute and is a fun, if passable, little title.
Thoughts on: Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
Unlike so many people, I wasn’t really into Gwent (or, Gwint, as it’s originally known in Polish) when playing The Witcher 3. So I was completely uninterested in a standalone multiplayer focused free to play game when it was launched and has never even tried playing it since. Imagine my surprise when CD Projekt RED decided to make a story-driven title with Gwent as its central mechanic. I wasn’t looking forward to play it, yet couldn’t resist another story-based visit to the world of The Witcher, which I do like. And… it’s fine.
Happy about: Blaster Master Zero
Despite playing Blaster Master on NES (well, NES-clones, as it was all we had) as a kid and distinctly remembering its amazingly catchy soundtrack, I never got particularly far in that game. Actually, I never even fully understood how it worked. So when a remake, Blaster Master Zero, was released on 3DS and Switch, I didn’t care much. As time went, however, I discovered more about the game (via the amazing Digital Foundry episode on the port, for example) and got increasingly more curious. The game had an exploration focus a slight metroidvania vibe and I love that stuff. With the PC release of the game earlier this year I no longer had any excuses to not play it. So, here we are.
Thoughts on: Distance
Nitronic Rush, released about 7 years ago, remains one of the most well known student projects from DigiPen. It was a really curious “survival driving game” that mixed the early 90s arcade racing feel with very Tron-inspired visuals and some crazy car acrobatics as if one were to mix Speed Racer and TrackMania. It was also free as it still is. Fast forward several years and the mostly same team of people releases Distance – a spiritual successor to Nitronic Rush. Though, it’s also a bit of a remake of the original as well, since you can play all of the original tracks here as well. And it’s not really my cup of tea. Yet, also something that I enjoyed playing.
In love with: Katamari Damacy REROLL
Na naaaa nanana nana nanaa…
Katamari Damacy is one of those wonderful joyful toy-like experiences for all ages that don’t appear as often as I’d personally love to see. And my only huge complaint with this remaster would probably only boil down to – why not pack it with We ♥ Katamari for even more bizarre and fun ball rolling goodness?
Thoughts on: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ultimate Edition)
“It’s finally over.” This was the only thought in my head when the last DLC main story quest was done. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t like it either. I was simply tired. Because Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is just too damn long for its own good, even without factoring 2 episodic DLCs in.
Read more“Thoughts on: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ultimate Edition)”
Disapprove: Darksiders III (with DLCs)
While revisiting the first two Darksiders games late last year in their remastered editions I was planning to get into the third title the day of release. I actually had it pre-ordered, something I rarely do, back then and had high hopes for the game. Then the reviews hit and I, for the first time ever, withdrew my pre-order and decided to revisit the title after patches and DLCs hit. Well, that happened and the current version of Darksiders III is supposedly the most complete it will ever get. A game I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.