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Atomfall, a video game review

THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE

Competing with Fallout-like shooters tend to be derivative and the same hash out ideas that games in that genre tend to convey upon. Now Rebellion who is known for its Sniper Elite which is known for its grotesque execution kills that look like bones snapping from the modern Mortal Kombat series and Zombie Army series which is also a third-person shooter but with zombies went out into the woodworth with Atomfall, a first person survival and sandbox game. Atomfall can be contrived by being a Fallout-like shooter rpg but it’s even more than that. 

The game is inspired by real life events but fictionalized kinda like how the Stalker series was, set in North England where a Windscale Plant erupted in a nuclear disaster prompting government officials to quarantine that area by building tall walls around it. Atomfall starts off with you waking up in a bunker in the quarantine zone, stepping out in a world that isn’t brownish and dull like Fallout 3 was and recovering the truth behind the whole disaster. The game isn't linear at all, it's a short game if you know where to go but the narrative feels impressive as the matter of fact that it got six endings all consolidated upon the anomality known as Oberon which is the pinnacle of the story and the fate that shares through the player.

The graphics are impressive, the world behind the quarantine zone transforms into a land of the beauty of the English countryside. The quarantine zone doesn’t have radiation zones that much unlike Fallout or Stalker but when you see their perspective on the unknown radiation zones inside the plant, it’s just colourful and emulates its style. Like I said, it isn’t brownish or dull like the Fallout series but offers a green and unique landscape filled with mysteries and mutated plants and wildlife. The rat hordes remind me of Dishonored and how annoying you have to take care of them with stomping your feet and squashing them and then finding their nest so that they don’t respawn from it. The enemy designs range from typical bandit raiders, mythical druids that worship in the quarantine zone to rogue government agencies that profit from the zone. In short the enemy variety is unique and their design is good. 

The combat feels like Fallout 3 without the VATS and the percentage of a dice roll that deals damage to enemies. It just feels like a generic shooter with some RPG elements thrown into it. The shooting controls are like a first person shooter, generally shooting your targets and reloading if you are out of bullets. The stealth also seems to be the weak part of the game, the AI generally go on their patrol route and you utilize that to your best advantage by snapping their necks which is most of the game. Your arsenal of weapons after scavenging through the quarantine zone are pretty basic, whether its rifle, machine guns, shotguns and pistol, there is a limited variety of weapons in your disposal.

The ammo scarcity in this game makes it a survival sandbox game, the game requires you to focus and take shots if needed and save the rest and stock up by scavenging around this entire zone in buildings and utilizing a metal detector to find loot that will be beneficial to you. Enabling you to do either melee combat from accessing an array of melee weapons that you have acquired throughout the game. By scavenging through ruined homes, sewers and military bases, you can be able to have sufficient ammunition and crafting parts in the game’s crafting system. The crafting system is really basic, just popping in a menu and finding components by scavenging throughout the land as well as finding recipes of it and crafting things like throwable projectiles like molotov cocktails, grenades and sticky bombs to things that can heal you like bandages, painkillers and combat stims that buff your damage input. 

Another problem is the world in the quarantine zone is sometimes boring, there’s a lack of a immersion and with so little to do there’s not much dialog in this game where the only characters lack a dialog tree, see for instance Wydham the village in the quarantine zone, there's only key characters in that town, you can talk to that gives out hints and objectives and it only feels like its the main mission hints. However, this game, if you complete only the main story, is only like five hours long, there are only a few open-world areas that you can traverse on to loot and find all its secrets and such. While there's no currency in the game, you can barter traders in the main town for items in exchange for different weapons and items. One unique caveat is the puzzles, specifically when you acquire the signal redirector which can switch or redirect power to turrets and powering up doors and lights that is the main focus later on the game.

The main problem that seems to be a “me” problem more than the game is the lack of an objective marker. The HUD of the game only shows your gun and health bar but unlike Fallout games lacks a map marker to where to go next instead of just popping in and out of your map to find where you are which is really frustrating. Just like that, going into and out of the map menu is tedious and the fact you are marking something a marker on your map but the HUD doesn’t even show it feels like a cop out to me. 

At first glance, Atomfall feels like a generic post-apocalyptic game to me, the generic combat and simple crafting systems just feels mediocre but it is overshadowed by its brilliance of a great story, world and graphical presentation. Rebellion really stepped up their game in the sense of providing a new IP to their catalogue and having this game on Game Pass is the next step up from their Sniper Elites and Zombie Army series. It’s not really a competition between Fallouts and Stalker but Atomfall tries to be its own unique game and the game has multiple endings to choose from makes it a nice addition.  

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Carry-on, a film review

THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE

At first I thought this film, Carry-On, was directed by a small-time director but Jaume Collet-Serra who directed such action films as the superhero film, Black Adam (starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and Jungle Cruise which also stars The Rock. The film is kinda similar to Collet-Serra’s previous film, The Commuter in a way of someone not out of the ordinary springing up to be the action-hero all along and it’s just very trying to me how derived it is. However it feels like a Netflix film, kinda out of touch compared to other theatrical releases these days. 

The film is about a rookie TSA agent, a typical stereotype of wanting to be on the spotlight as he wants a promotion, Ethan Kopek (played by Taron Egerton) who’s day is going to be excited when a unknown terrorist or freelancer played by Jason Bateman threatens to kill his wife, Nora (played by Sofia Carson) unless he lets go of a unknown gas bomb inside a luggage carry on at the TSA checkpoint. At first it sounds interesting, the whole cat and mouse routine, the adversary between a rookie and a professional but the later half of the movie felt very obvious the rookie outsmarts the professional. It’s just been done before and the fact that the whole story within this movie is just cliche. 

The acting is decent, I mean that Egerton has an alright American accent seeing that he’s Welsh. Jason Bateman as the unknown professional feels like a strange choice but he kinda redeemed himself on The Ozark (another Netflix show) on the basis of a very serious role. Although, the adversaries between those two feels very dynamic despite being cliche of being cop versus criminal but it is still very entertaining. 

The action scenes are kinda choreographed well, as an action thriller, a rookie like Ethan running across the airport in pursuit of Jason Bateman’s character feels Hollywood to me and the fact that he learns very quickly to dismantle a bomb without duress is very unrealistic. How he handles fighting with a professional is unknown to me but the action hero trait of Egerton’s character quickly learns to outwit a freaking professional. 

It is known that this movie is inaccurate to how the real TSA and law enforcement agencies work and it really shows. The fact that this unknown assailant played by Bateman gets ahold of the most deadliest nerve gas bomb that has no antidote to treat when detonated is unclear aside that he took it from the Russians, maybe the mafia as we see at the start. I don’t understand why they have to develop a fictional nerve gas bomb that is the worst of the worst in human history and just feels unrealistic like those VX nerve gas pearls we see in the Rock.

Overall I thought this film was just decent, nothing special, Collet-Serra’s direction really felt like an action thriller that isn't a summer blockbuster but at least mildly entertaining.  On how derived it is to his previous film, The Commuter it is just a “shut-up and just watch” film and it really shows. Egerton’s performance as well as Bateman’s performance as they are both adversaries are entertaining to watch but that is about it, nothing out of the ordinary of being an exciting action thriller. 

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Bottom Five - Below Top Ten

Here's five games that I really wanted to add to my top ten list but was somewhat convinced by other people that it is either early access or the list has better games than this. This isn't rated by the way just five games that I feel strongly good games.

Manor Lords

This game feels like a real time strategy without the caveats of being, such as it feels like Stronghold. Like Stronghold, it’s a medieval strategy and simulation game which features in-depth city building, can build an army that scales tactical battles and ascertain economic and social simulations. It is also like a city builder wrapped around games like Total War with the combat and Stronghold with the strategy. It is also like Stronghold where you start with an abundance of supplies to get going and a worker camp where you can build residential to economic buildings to better your potential kingdom. Your supplies however just like Stronghold, you need a place for your granary and storehouse earlier so that supplies can funnel through there and not risk getting wet and damaged by the weather. The economic function of the game is gathering resources throughout your region, from chopping trees to make timber which then to be produced to planks for your buildings, building farms to harvest crops then producing them into flour which produce them to bread as well as hunting for animals for food to supplement your populations to mining minerals to forge them to steel to equip them to your armies to defend or attack raiders and the like. There’s many possibilities to playing this game, maintaining your upkeep and economy is the main basis of the game. You can zoom far and close at ease making scrolling across the map more convenient. 

Enshrouded 

Between this and Palworld, it is a better survival, crafting and building game and it has more content than Palworld. The game starts off as you are Flameborn, the last ember of hope as you dive deep into the world of terror and mysterious fogs that are shrouded in mist. It’s also a co-op action RPG with plenty of content, a map with 12 skill trees can be utilized as your best playstyle and give way to numerous possibilities. As for the building, it’s like Valheim where you craft building blocks which can be used to build the foundation of your building/house. There is also a Souls-like based combat where you have a finite amount of stamina and may need to utilize your environment to maneuver against your enemies. The shroud mechanic has its ups and downs though, as you have a limited amount of time to traverse among it and find elixir wells that are giant red mushrooms to destroy and these sources of power will defog the area. 

Dragon’s Dogma II

To be honest, I wasn’t signed up for this sequel; rather I was disappointed because the previous game didn’t interest me one bit and found it very boring with no direction whatsoever. The UI and HUD did change a little bit with the inventory and was less bad than in the previous game, it’s a bit better though it still isn’t better at least. The combat still gains some favours to me such as the starting classes or vocations from Fighter, Archer, Mage and Thief, you can surmount a variety of abilities in the field with your companions or pawns and also can be changed at any time. Pawns can be hired while traveling the world and you can also enlist custom pawns from online users.  Like the previous game, you can climb on giant beasts kinda like Shadow of Colossus and do lethal damage or the killing blow on them and it looks fascinating.  There are a variety of beasts and monsters in the wilds setting into the fantasy setting, from trolls, goblins, harbies’  to minotaurs and other mythical creatures. The Quality of life improvements from the first is impressive but is somewhat overshadowed by the bugs and gank throughout your adventure in this world. 

Hades 2

While not a sequel to the first Hades, Hades 2 promises to be a more fun adventure rogue-like with a new character and antagonist to encounter. The combat is still the same with some caveats but it is still engaging and enjoyable to say it at least. There are many combat options to be utilized while you fight your opponents, unlocking new possibilities. The new features are boons and arcana as well as incantations which can benefit your way while you combat your opponents on the battlefield.  Granted the game is challenging but the patience and virtue will pay out in the end and it is just as great. The bosses in the game like the previous game can be tough to beat through its precision yet being patient and efficient in the battlefield does wonders. There are new types of enemies in this world, a wide range of variety, all with their abilities and what not, it's really advantageous to your potential. The artstyle still looks unique and vibrant, I really admire the look of it through and through every single character in the game. Every run is different bringing a wide range of new narration, story and places to explore on the mend with Chronos at Tartarus. 

Age of Mythology: Retold

I wasn’t a huge Age of Mythology fan back when it came out, I rather like Age of Empires and other RTS. I guess I regretted that decision not to play this game and when this came out, I was willing to start playing. AoM Retold feels like AoE with mythical creatures and beasts, just like God of War but rts.  Retold is a true remaster to AoM as graphics and art look great and unique. The economy and style functions like AoE, there are four resources, food, wood, gold and god blessing to create mythical beings. You build an economy by finding resources for those things while maintaining your upkeep. Much like AoE 4 has limits on how you build buildings, this one limits it as well. To repeat myself again, like AoE and other rts like Starcraft, every unit in the game has strengths and weaknesses to use as an advantage or disadvantage in the battlefield. There are also upgrades and improvements for your buildings and units to turn the tide as well as god powers like lightning bolt that will 1 hit your enemies’ unit or meteor shower which will do an AoE damage and knock enemies around.

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MY Games of the Year 2024

10. Star Wars: Outlaws

Finally an open-world game set in the Star Wars universe, it's what we need all along. The Star Wars franchise tends to have highs and lows with bad games and good games. Outlaws pits you as a Han Solo-like roguish fellow smuggler, Kay Vess exploring the galaxy and its inhabitants along them. The game somewhat relies on stealth sequences where you attempt to hide and dodge your enemies but you can also go guns blazing as the combat is great. There’s a reload sequence like Gears of War where you hit the bar right to reload, there are also minigames out there like opening chests and doors in sequence of the beat by getting in the rhythm of the beat. If you don’t like those games then you can turn it off in the settings to forget about them. You can send your pet pal, Nix much like a companion pet in other games, things such as fetching an item, distracting something to activating a switch somewhere. Flying your ship in this game feels like flying in Starfield to me, just locking in targets, dodging bullets and the like just feels like that game. There’s a reputation system like Fallout New Vegas where if you side with one faction, you will lose reputation for another. There are three factions, Pyke, Crimson Dawn and the Hutts. 

9. Nobody Wants to Die

A dystopian noir story with detective style work sounds very promising and yet it delivers it wholesome. It’s like elements of Condemned’s detective/investigation gameplay aspect mixed in with Heavy Rain and it is rather impressive and that with futuristic tools you acquired to solve murder mysteries. The narrative atmosphere in this game is very dystopian and it really amazes me to the point of the world inside of it proceeds to be magical and it felt like the show, Altered Carbon or Blade Runner or Surrogates with the body swapping. Solving crime scenes where the murder happen is very interesting and it shows how complex this game is describing to the detail of fundamental gameplay, it portrays and really contains a dark take of the world. This is also an interactive game where dialog choices matter and it affects the storyline too having said that choices have consequences and certain dialog choices will unlock new ones if picked.

8. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

The second installment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series continues to impress me, the fact that they stretch more meaningful content than filter is bar none, The game starts where the ending of the previous game left off and while Rebirth covers most of Disc One on the original Final Fantasy 7.  The real time combat system is still excellent, bridging the gap between hack and slash combat and turn-based combat. The switching of the character packs a great punch on giving opportunities to assist your party members to exterminate your enemies. The new combat mechanic is synergy which is a combination between two characters executing a vicious blow to your enemies, it can be unlocked by the folio skill tree. The graphics and animation continues to outshine on the PS5 from the towns and places you venture to places like Junon, Gold Saucer to Cosmo Canyon makes a mark. The minigames are fun and vibrant and improves the enjoyment from the original game especially when you arrive at the Gold Saucer. The Queen’s Blood card game seems to be difficult to me, at first I thought it was the same card game from Final Fantasy 9, I guess it's a learning curve for me. Each open-ended area has a different type of chocobo to ride with and the benefits they are given. However, the fault of the game is the side-content where it shouldn’t be there in the first place, such as the pointless chocobo minigames and among others stuff.

7. Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Another 2-D Zelda game! Sign me up! I always loved the 2-D Zelda games from Link’s Awakening to Between two Worlds, it really hooked me into playing a Zelda game. Having Zelda as the main protagonist this time is great and really wraps the game. The 3-D Zelda games like Tears of the Kingdom really didn’t sell me on their innovative system of combining objects to build something that can be utilized upon. However, this 2-D new feature making echoes and cloning into something or someone to be used in deposing your enemies and objectives is impressive. There are hundreds of thousands possibilities to utilize your echoes ability in the field and many of them may look plain at first but being creative on those decisions would make a mark in the world. For example having armored knights and platboomers are a game changing factor in this game where you can utilize anything, there are a ton of opportunities to surmount on. There are also a blinding feature that can be utilized at enemies and objects and so on that could factor it in so. 

6. Thank Goodness You’re Here!

Look, comedy in video games is hard because it always depends on the timing and delivery of lines. Too many games that tend to be funny fail to do so and deliver awkward lines of dialogue but not this game. Its theme is like 60s rural England with its style, presentation, humour and voices as well as music and it’s delivered well. Few games like this are THAT funny and having a small character that you play as, running around smacking butts and punching is always hilarious. This game is a comedic adventure game set in a fictional town with fictional cartoon characters that look like Bob’s Burgers or something, the interactions in this world are to smack someone and hilarity ensues and often you do meaningful tasks for them as they start to say “Thank goodness you’re here” and so on. Your main objective is to see the mayor of this town but evidently you got pushed into doing tasks such as fetch quests like fetching tools for the mechanic to fix a fryer in a fish and chips shop and such while getting immersed in the world. The only gripe is that it’s too short as it is three hours long as well as utilizing only a few environments but the hilarity never ceases to amuse me.

5. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine II

PURGE THE HERETICS!! Ever since the Dawn of War games, I always loved every single game released in this franchise. I seriously love this 40k universe as I read the books and have a slight fascination with colouring models of Space Marines.  The last game, however, didn't pan out for me since its back then when Gears of War did it better in the third-person shooter sense. Now the sequel, Space Marines II really did not disappoint with breathtaking graphics, immersive atmosphere, a fun and bloody shooter that much like HellDivers 2 can attest to and the co-op modes transition is also great. There is single player co-op mode and there’s also a special co-op campaign and also PvP/PvE modes that pits against other players and the like. that utilizes different and unique classes to combat the xenos hordes. Ranging from Vanguard, Assault, Bulwark, Sniper, and Heavy, each class has its advantages and disadvantages in the battlefield.  As for the fun, bloody third person shooter, you could just imagine a horde of xenos scum from the Tyranids to Chaos charging at you and with your chainsword and bolter mowing down the heretics in the hundreds kinda like Starcraft with Terrans versus Zerg. 

4. Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth

Starting off from the previous Like a Dragon game in Yokohama and then Hawaii, our lovable hero, Ichiban Kasuga is at it again alongside a cadre of characters including Kiryu. Now, Kiryu has three fighting techniques in battle that can be used to your advantage. Ichiban is in Hawaii due to finding his mother who’s supposed to be there after all but things went sideways for Ichiban and was wounded in jail. However Kiryu was able to save him and also needed to find Ichiban’s mother due to a commitment from his faction from The Man who Erased his Name game. Like the previous game, it is turn-based with the combined choice of utilizing moves and special abilities. You have to time your attacks and parries like Super Mario RPGs to effectively damage or prevent damage from yourself against enemies. There are aspects of essences or poundmakers which are summons that range from bizarre to humorous that cost money to summon. As a JRPG, there are classes you can choose to implement your playstyle. When you spend time with your friends, your bond with them will deepen which can benefit you in battle from powerful combo attacks and tag team skills. Other features include an Animal Crossing-like mini game called Dondoko Island where you build and manage an island resort and also Sujimon which are Pokemon-like games where you catch or give gifts to get enemies and do battle with them. 

3. Persona 3 Reload

This remake surprises me, I didn’t know they were going to remake Persona 3 using the modern, Persona 5 Engine. I had only played Persona 3 Portable and remember enjoying it alot on my PSP. Shooting yourself in the head or Evoking your persona is hilarious at first but looks cool. The quality of life features is apparent here and it improves that game immensely from better and sharp graphics to better handling at the gameplay with all the caveats. One major caveat on combat is theurgy which is your ultimate attack where you, depending on what character can do a ton of damage when it’s ready.  A neat small feature is the Social Links where now you don’t have to wonder what level your S.LInks are at when you talk to them and it also tells you from talking to them if you are going to make any progress. Other features such as more voice overs in the dub and the original Japanese voice lines where one is better than the other (the japanese version always is!). The dynamic way of dungeon crawling is nostalgic at best and an enjoyable experience while traversing through Tartarus. The soundtrack or ost is excellent at first but I didn’t like some of them, I couldn’t ascertain one of them but the school theme sounds bad compared to the original version. The game is great but there are some framerate problems specifically when you go to the Paulownia Mall where the frames per second dips and it can be frustrating at times. The UI is slick and the HUD is clean and very impressive for something out of the Unreal Engine. 

2. Balatro

Who would've thought a simple card game with rogue-lite elements could be so addicting, the aspects of big two and poker would make it so enjoyable. Earning chips by combining poker hands from a straight flush, four of a kind to a full house is what is earned to win as per standard in your deck of cards. By combining poker modifiers hands you can multiply more incentives with joker cards which will boost your multiply and produce more chips to your total target. As a rogue-lite, it’s challenging at times when you can’t do any combos and only have a limited amount of hands and discards to reach the total amount of chips. As the chips increase each time you surpass the total, you will end up fighting a “boss” which requires a large amount of chips to beat. 

1 Metaphor: ReFantazio

The name may sound bad but the actual game isn’t, Metaphor is a game coming from the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona team that is indeed the best game to date. At first I wasn’t interested in the game due to its style but when I played the demo, this game is gunning to my GOTY list indeed. Running in the Persona 5 engine, Metaphor bases the gameplay and controls much like those games. The universe around this and the atmosphere as well as the characters and artstyle feels very immersive and quite a great experience to behold, it is a fantasy game wrapped in the Persona engine and boy I love this game. The quality of life within the engine feels solid and makes the gameplay fun and intuitive. The turn-based combat feels fun and like a Persona game, is a definitive win to me. Like the Social Link system from Persona 5, the new Bond system is actually better than that and promises to have an enjoyable experience. To my surprise, everytime you talk to your bonds, you are guaranteed a level up in your bond instead of saying the right things and hope the next Social Link will be in effect rather than a dull scene that will take several tries until you progress further. There are times where you don’t have to go to the turn-based JRPG sequence and just hack and slash enemies without loading in it. Instead of Personas, there’s the Archetype system which builds on the basis of different classes: Warrior, Mage, Healer and so on; this tree can also be leveled and processed further by experience and upgraded or reclass after level 20 of the base level. Although the Archetype feature reminds me of the class system in Fire Emblem: Three Houses where you have your prerequisites of leveling another class in favour of a new upgraded class. 

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Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (Early Access) PC Review

4 STARS OUT OF 5

As one Jeff Gerstmann coined the term, Auto-Shooting Survivor or A.S.S, it really makes some sense to it. To me, these kinds of games often don’t impress me at all, the fact that an auto-shooter doesn’t really ring any bells for me. When Vampire Survivors came out, I really wasn’t interested enough due to its slow and challenging beginnings of just slowly chipping down enemies, you really have to invest some deep hours to maintain a better gameplay experience. Now this game just released early access and I’m somewhat giving it another try to play this game. 

You play one of four dwarves synonymous to the previous game from scout to gunner, engineer  to driller and other stronger characters as you progress through levels, where you select them and their abilities attached to it. Now each dwarf miner has different play styles from ballistic, kinectic to small or assorted weapons to gain any advantage against the bugs below. Each class has its advantages and disadvantages, while you traverse through each level down from the magma core to other mining places. Each weapon you acquire has its pros and cons, whether you choose can affect your playstyle. From medium range weapons, weapons that only target elites to grenades that have an area of effect that can be frost damage to any other elemental damage. 

Modifiers range from move speed, damage, reload speed to critical chance that will challenge whenever you gain a level. Experience points can be earned by walking/running over them and sometimes there’s an ability to suck in all the nearby experience points. Each level has different scenarios whether it's securing a supply drop that will net you a rare to epic modifier to destroying an epic giant bug, all of these will be available as you progress through the level. It’s basically a long bar on the top of your screen, it progresses as you eliminate bugs and objectives pending to the ultimate conclusion where you escape a drop pod which won’t hang around long and it only has thirty seconds before it leaves and you automatically fail the level. Furthermore, these objectives are firstly starting to draw out the elite to destroy bug eggs that are within the level culminating to fighting a giant dreadnought bug that takes some time to kill and maneuver throughout the level. Should you be able to persist and the bug swarm gets harder until you defeat the elite bug and objective. Each bug is unique while they’re not strengths or weaknesses but there is an arcade tier list of enemies from bugs that explode to flying bugs, blue projectile creature turrets and so on. 

As an A.S.S game, when you’re close to rocks, you automatically mine them, these resources are used to acquire not only experience points but modifiers at the end of the level to better suit your playstyle. Resources such as Gold and Nitra are abundant in each level, digging them while auto targeting the enemy bugs or the rocks. There is also Bismor, Croppa, Jadiz, Magnite and Umanite which are resources you permanently upgrade your overall playthrough. These upgrades can be an overall benefit to you over time and could be attained after each death and complete overall level. 

Overall, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is another Vampire Survivors clone, whether it is good or not is something to ascertain to. In fact, it is an excellent A.S.S game that delivers a completely different experience than the previous first game. Where the first game is only a mining and exploration, first person mining game, this is completely off the rails and in a good way. These dwarves that mine each level can be annoying at times with their lame dialogue and such but it’ s all in the appeal of these games. The replayability of this game is wild also, and can be played at any play styles that you could think of. To some extent, yes, I’m slowly but surely into this game as an A.S.S game. 

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My Top 10 Game of the Year List

10. Dredge

Imagine a fishing based game that actually is as fun and immersive as this one but with a horror twist to it. Yes, you fish in this game but there’s more to it, a sinister feeling to it. There’s a minigame involved each time you fish in the vast ocean in this game, its a frogger like game condensed into a circle where you avoid the gaps to retrieve a fish and sometimes get a scary-looking unique fish that looks mutated. Aside from that your inventory plays a role too, it’s reminiscent of Resident Evil 4 where you try to fit pieces whether its fish, valuables or shipwrecked items and try to tetris the whole thing. There’s also upgrades to improve your fishing, your engines to sail faster and implement lights to combat the nighttime. At night, you can catch rare fishes but watch out for evil dwellings that will affect your sanity like Cthlulu like creatures that will wreck your ship.  The music in this game is fantastic, it just fits right in this game and its immersive world.

9. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

Do you enjoy listening to Final Fantasy music? Well this game has it all, in fact all FF titles that are currently released are in this game for you to listen to. Theatrhythm is a rhythm-based game that has some RPG essence to it and it’s just plain fun. The game is like this, you must match the corresponding buttons to the rhythmic moves, it's like a rhythmic highway that scrolls to the right and matching it on time nets you a combo chain. The rpg part of it is each FF title that you start when you unlock it, level up your characters each time you complete a song and can learn abilities/spells that will help you during the song level. You get damage each time you don’t match the right controls to the rhythm note highway and it reflects on your score after you finish it. 

8. Hitman World of Assassination

Freelancer mode just hit Hitman 3 and it’s very addicting. Freelancer mode is, it’s not really a rogue-lite but if you fail in killing your syndicate target, especially the leader showdown then you need to do it again back to the first campaign block and at the cost of losing merces which is currency to purchase weapons from vendors in each map.  Each block starts from easy mode to very hard mode, making it four different blocks where you have to kill your targets which are random in each level and escape. To start with advancing your block, each block tier you need to pick what style of combat you prefer from doing melee kills, to sniper and assault weapon kills and so on, each of them are unique and while it isn’t necessary to do them, you can just kill your target anywhere you want, it offers more currency for you do accomplish it that way. The final block is where you confront the leader of the syndicate. Now, here’s where it gets interesting, this part is like you have to find their leader, and it’s not highlighted red based on the description that Diane says whether they’re wearing earrings, a hat or different coloured hair to being a foodie or a bookworm. You really need to observe and stalk each target in total of six possible suspects that one of them is the leader. To do this you have a camera that displays the description of the person you want to eliminate and you need to match it with what they look like and are doing when in a map. Also after you complete each level whether fail or win, you get a supply crate which contains a useful tool that will help you and when you complete a block, you get another big loot crate that gives you a weapon. This mode overall, is just fun and addicting and seriously a great idea from io interactive.

7. Starfield

The wait is finally over and Starfield is here! The gameplay is mixed with combat like Fallout 4 (without VATs) and space combat and exploration like Freespace 2 and other space combat games. Space exploration kinda feels like Mass Effect and No Man Sky with each system map to explore planets and you can fast travel to other systems and planets. You can commandeer other ships regardless of level and make them your own home ship, provided that you have a higher piloting skill. You can customize your ship to improve the ship's combat. It’s not a Bethesda game without some bugs and there are several.  Persuasion checks are done differently than other games unlike Skyrim, you can turn an entire situation into peaceful means and such. It’s a out of five or more checks depending on the difficulty and you need to accumulate up to five and more to pass the persuasion check. I like that they solved the encumbrance issue by letting you run instead of walking slowly but you still can’t fast travel. Fast travel is improved in this game as now you can fast travel while inside a cave or a installation or inside a building, you can fast travel to different systems and planets. 

6. Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

When this game came out three years ago, I wasn’t interested in it, the game was basically broken and I didn’t get attached to the game with its immersion. Just recently the 2.0 patch came through and fixed and improved the game a bit more. Sure there are still some bugs but this DLC and recent patch enticed me to play. The combat is improved without any issue, choosing an arsenal of different playthroughs to choose from, like from picking a melee loadout or guns, the gameplay is improved since this patch. Night City and with this new DLC, Dogtown has never looked so pretty, the neon lights and graphics impress me and the environment as you dash around the city feels bland at first but gets livelier later on. Sure the driving is still bad, the handling feels less like GTA and more tank controls but it feels like a learning curve to surmount on. The story was at first a hit or miss for me but as it progresses it is more interesting while you interact with a wide arrange of characters and dialogue choices.

5. Resident Evil 4 Remake

Much like the previous iterations of Resident Evil Remakes, this one is terrific. There are subtle changes between the original and this and its just amazing. For those who don’t know about the story or haven’t played the original, you play as Leon S Kennedy who is trying to rescue Ashley Graham, the president’s daughter in rural Spain where something is afoot. It’s such a blast to replay this version of RE4 just like the Dead Space Remake earlier this year. Granted, solving puzzles in this game seems to be challenging and rewarding in the end. The shooting tends to be kinda challenging at first but it gets better throughout the game with new upgrades from that iconic merchant and new weapons that will help you for your troubles. Unlike the original, Ashley, your companion seems to be much better at not being a nuisance and better yet, there’s no health bar for her either. There’s some babysitting her but it’s not really that hard to make sure she’s safe. From the rural village European towns to a medieval castle and then an army base, these locations you traverse with are still not showing its age and fun to wander in. As a horror game, it’s can be intense from running away from las plagas attacking you to being unarmed and just running away from infected knights who will kill you in one hit. It’s just edge-of-the seat stressful to have parts of the game in a horror-action game.

4. Final Fantasy 16

As the developer states that this isn’t an JRPG rather an action, hack and slash game proves to be true.  Elements of the combat are fun, its basically a traditional hack and slash with special dominant powers at your disposal. Your character, Clive, who is a dominant, can absorb each eikon’s essence powers at the end, utilizing its ability from key characters throughout the story. Performing mid-air combos and attacks is satisfying especially having a wide range of abilities. It’s cool and breathtaking to see towering summons from other FF games in this one, from Ramuh, Shiva, Ifrit to Odin and such  You clash against rival eikons like those described and it just feels epic in so many levels. The game draws many parallels to Game of Thrones with a Final Fantasy twist, the settings, story and its medieval political aspects to it.

3. Alan Wake II

Remedy has done it again with the recent release of this game, Alan Wake 2. Like its predecessor, the immersion, atmosphere and story really just sucks you into its world. I don’t remember much of the previous game but there are a few additions to this game and the combat feels a bit better for a change. The use of your flashlight and gun combo to stun your enemies and then whip up your gun to finish them is still satisfying. You first play as FBI agent Saga Anderson who is investigating a string of ritualistic killings by the Cult of the Tree and later finds out that writer, Alan Wake who is missing for ten years suddenly appears near the beginning.  Like Remedy's other games, there are FMV and they are still impressive and interesting to say the least. One of the new features is the investigation mode as FBI agent Saga, you are required to investigate what happen to the killings near Bright Falls, this mode has cases to solve and you need to put pictures and evidence and string it up into a web and there is your intuition mode where you are thinking the killer’s motive and gives you clues where to go to next. The game has jump scares from time to time which can give you stress on your edge of the seat vibes yet not repetitive or annoying at all. Each chapter ends with a song and most notably there’s a chapter all about musicals called “Herald of Darkness” and it is really cool. 

2. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man who Erased His Name

The Kiryu Kazuma’s saga continues as it picks up three years after Yakuza 6 and runs concurrently to Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The combat is still satisfying and the same but you still can’t deny just smacking someone or wielding a weapon to severely injure someone. Just using your combos to never end fists of fury upon those who opposed you and unleashing deadly moves is the bread and butter of a Yakuza game. Kiryu or Joryu gets some cool moves in this game such as flying drones, a grapple spider hook and a cigarette that blows up, many of them are in your arsenal against your opponents. The story is great once again, as you play Kiryu who is believed to have died at the end of Yakuza 6 to bury the secret of Hiroshima and yet there are people who you fight that know you in the first hour of the game. Yet the game starts off as a bodyguard for an agency that protects the outside from knowing Kiryu’s identity and after your first job has gone bust and an attempted kidnapping, Kiryu must find out who this new threat that looms among him.

Baldur's Gate III

Running from the Divinity Original SIN 2 engine, one might say this is another Divinity game with Dungeons and Dragons rules with it yet it is. The influence from D&D is apparent in this game, everything is a persuasion check or any other d20 check, you get to roll the dice to beat the dice to check whether it's successful or not. These checks impact the story, dialogue and the whole game as choices and consequences affect it. The dialogue is essential to the storyline, as you could turn a battle with the wrong choices or get out of one if you have been chosen the right one. The combat is styled like DOS, very tactical role-playing, you take turns moving or attacking as indicated on the top bar. The graphics look impressive, the environment and the detailed areas take my breath away. The characters you encounter are very detailed and the writing for them is very D&D like. 

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Contraband Police Video Game Review (PC/Steam)

THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE

This game is basically Papers, Please plus Grand Theft Auto all wrapped up in a mess of bad controls and handling. They even have a fictional Eastern European bloc of creative naming of countries and living under a communist regime much like Papers, Please with you either siding with the rebels or being a law-abiding citizen in the 1980s. Also the language spoken is a mix of Russian and other made up languages. 

The Papers, Please parts of the game are great. When a person drives by the border, you choose whether or not to accept or reject them from entering your fictional country. Each driver driving into your country must present ID and among other things and you must check everything from the date whether or not it's expired, have the wrong name or passport ID or so on. You also have to methodically search the whole car to see if the driver is smuggling goods by using a UV light to shine on different parts of the car or luggage and items inside the car, indicated by a snake symbol. You then use a melee weapon like a knife to slash that spot and illegal goods will appear out of it. These goods can be exchanged for cash in the police depot. When you catch them red-handed, you can arrest them or in some cases, accept a bribe from them to pass through. There’s a small prison cell in your border post that can only allow a couple of prisoners to be in it. When you reach the limit of prisoners, you must get a police van or truck to transport them to the labour camp at the bottom left of the map. As you progress day to day, each successful inspection gives you more cash and can be used to upgrade your border post. Whether from upgrading your sleeping quarters from a small trailer park to a small and decent sized house, to upgrading your border guards with heavy armor and weapons and preventing your post from getting swarmed by rebels or bandits. 

The driving is frustrating, granted other games featuring driving have its flaws but having old ass cars control poorly, isn’t the exception. Also if you handled poorly on driving and hitting trees and other cars, you must repair your car. Sure there's a 3rd person view when driving but it just feels sluggish when basically there are parts of the game where you need to either trail a suspect vehicle to their hideout or chase down a fugitive who bust through the border post. There are upgrades to improve your vehicle but it makes no difference, the controls on handling your car are bad. What's somewhat frustrating is the lack of a minimap, at certain times there’s an exclamation point that appears while driving to your main objective but you have to memorize the routes without the part where you need to drive a freaking car.  The First person shooting parts of the game is somewhat bad too, it’s pretty much dated weapons in the 80s and the recoil and handling is quite frankly, decent but bad. 

All and all, Contraband Police is somewhat of a mixed bag, its part papers, please part GTA but when you get away from the good parts of the game, it just feels bad especially with the controls. The handling of the car, and somewhat FPS sections of the game is pretty much a downer. I wish I could enjoy this game but it’s just frustrating when the game is part driving to places. 

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My Game of the Year 2022

10. Old World

From the developers of Civilization 4, comes this one which compassess how addictive and fun that game was and multiply the number of hours spent playing this game. It meets Civilization with Crusader Kings with its heritage tree, having some political aspect to it.

9. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Another Pokemon game that I’m interested in, its a shame that the framerate chugs throughout the game, performance wise but man I still love Pokemon. I do find it weird that the mount that they give us looks like a bike with a Pokemon living in it and Pokemon centers are like sizable kiosks that contain a center, a shop where you can buy items and ™ shop where you acquire crafting items from defeated Pokemon and League Points . Anyways, the UI like Archeus is clean and simple and the open world aspect is atmospheric. I do love that you can do gyms at any order since it scales with your level. Titan hunting and raid bases from Team Star is fine, each to its own right. These two new features at the start feels frustrating due to its difficulty with Titans and Raid bosses having life bars and with titans you live to defeat them twice, granted later on it's pretty easy to defeat them.  The terastablize feature is like from Sword which can use to empower your Pokemon but you can only use it once and it recharges when you go to the Pokecenter. 

8. Tunic

Tunic manages to exceed my expectations, the exploration and music does a great job to immerse yourself into this game. Even if there’s not much of a story, it just compels the player on its other aspects of enjoying this game. It may be an insult or compliment to compare this to Zelda or any Souls game but the spirit of this game is really Zelda-like and Tunic was once called “Zelda like a Fox” before the game came out. To that end, this game is a wonderful and enjoyable experience to had by all

7. WoW Wrath of the Lich King Classic

This expansion of a well-loved MMO is considered my favourite, it basically continues where we left off in Warcraft 3 and its expansion, The Frozen Throne and focuses on the Lich King and your journey to Northrend. The leveling can take awhile to cap but the quests and the scenarios as you progress with leveling is interesting and while you still get that same old pop culture reference that Blizzard’s been keen on doing, it is still enjoyable to the very least.

6. Pokemon Legends Arceus

Arceus is still an enjoyable game withstanding its core frustrations, the game is like a open world Safari Zone from its base games but no movement restrictions required. It’s fun trying to catch more Pokemon to achieve more research tasks and getting more stars that your Pokemon will obey you at any level. Being a standalone game, it feels like a breath of fresh air to just catch Pokemons like its slogan.

5. Persona 5 Royal (PC/XBS/X)

This port of a game that came out a few years ago is now on recent consoles is very fun indeed. You play as a character nicknamed Joker, part of the Phantom Thieves which is a group of students who steal hearts or change their ways by staging grand heists and taking their most prized treasures. As a JRPG, much like its previous game is fun, tons of Social Links/Confidants to Max out that will help level your Personas with its interesting parde of characters that you’ll get to love and enjoy.  The palaces where you infiltrate are kinda difficult with a lot of backtracking through simple puzzles tends to be annoying but its satisfying in its own right.

4. God of War Ragnarok

I wasn’t sure to add this on my list since I didn’t complete this game but the hours spent playing this warrant it. It just amazes me how fun this action game really is. I mean, sure there aren't many subtle changes since the previous game but it is still enjoyable with Kratos just hurting a bunch of his enemies. Just beating the living shit out of mythical creatures and Gods is so satisfying when played right.

3. Sifu

Sifu is basically a love-letter to movies featuring martial arts, it’s not intended on its accuracy on what it portrays, it's a kung-fu game that a French studio, Slowmo had made. The story starts as a simple revenge tale, your “sifu” (master) gets killed before your eyes and you get revenge by finding those who killed him. The certain vibe of this game feels cool through the techno beats of the club to the first stage and the museum level where it becomes that scene from “OldBoy”. It is a fun yet challenging beat-them-up that makes you think twice before playing. The combat is difficult and what keeps the momentum coming is how you learn from each mistake, everytime you either age up to giving up and doing it all over again. It sure is a love letter to kung -fu movies but disappointing is the voice acting not being authentic. It was also criticized by its Chinese aesthetic as some complained about its accuracy but it doesn’t seem intended to be it. Each level is unique in its own way and it just gives a vibrant and rich experience. 

2. Weird West

Coming from the makers of Dishonored, raised my eyebrow, as a top-down Wild West fantasy shooter. It was tempting at first to dismiss the game, it felt terrible and the controls and the camera felt flimsy at best but as I continued on playing it, I had a blast. This game is very underrated, few had played this game and talked about it but there’s alot to talk about with this game.

1. Triangle Strategy

Triangle Strategy plays out like a traditional tactics game, it lays out like a grid-based RPG that familiarizes a mix of tactical strategy and role playing aspects into a pretty aesthetic. To call this similar to Final Fantasy Tactics is a disservice to how unique a tactics game this is. To that end, it is nice to play another one of these games and plus its replayability entices you into playing it even after you have beaten the game which is 50 hours long. Fans of the genre should seriously get this game, whether you like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem or any tactics game similar to this, the game mixes a grid, tactical base strategy with great roleplaying aspects provided to its fullest extent. Artdink really outdid themselves with this game, it is just incredible. Withstanding the visual graphics, it is recommended to everyone who is looking for a tactics game or any game at all that contains role-playing elements to it. Plus the game is basically Game of Thrones in a tactical, JRPG.

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Tunic - a Video Game Review

FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE

To much of everyone’s surprise, Tunic plays like Legend of Zelda, the combat, the puzzles and the overhead isometric view and even how it started the game, it calls back to Link’s Awakening. Except that you play as a fox with a “tunic” who first wakes up on a shore in this mysterious land and soon finds what looks like another spectral fox in the afterlife. The whole game afterwards becomes an adventure and to explore the entire island.

The music is one of the key strengths of this game, it just feels immersive and draws you into the adventure. The sounds of music while you travel in this game is just awesome for a fox that likes to explore. Also another aspect is the exploration which is the whole part of the game, you can delve deep into a cave and find many secrets the game has to offer. It’s fun to waste time away exploring somewhere unexpected to end up with treasure at the end. It also echoes back to old adventure games where there is indeed treasure behind most waterfalls and should be done so. I always feel compelled to search everywhere for those secret treasures hidden in those areas. It feels like a completionist nightmare to scour everywhere for treasures or other surprises. These treasures range from finding a sword, to bombs to throw enemies with, along a collection of items that are potions, consumables and other useful items for your fuzzy main character. 

To compare it to Souls’ games could be a disservice but when you die in this game, you will lose “x amount” of coins and also leave a spectral ghost model of yourself, only to return if your ghost regains back the coins that you had lost. Throughout the game, you will encounter pieces of game manuals echoing some nostalgia back then. Each game manual looks very detailed and much like a typical manual, it shows pages like controllers, hints to enemies and bosses, the inventory to the whole map in this world. 

The artwork and visual graphics are adorable and great especially how colourful and detailed the game manuals are whenever you pick them up. It’s just nostalgic to see how they did the artwork in this game with these pages found throughout the game. The environment might look plain at the beginning but the variety of areas traversing throughout the island looks unique and gives it its own flavour to say that at least. 

Overall Tunic manages to exceed my expectations, the exploration and music does a great job to immerse yourself into this game. Even if there’s not much of a story, it just compels the player on its other aspects of enjoying this game. It may be an insult or compliment to compare this to Zelda or any Souls game but the spirit of this game is really Zelda-like and Tunic was once called “Zelda like a Fox” before the game came out. To that end, this game is a wonderful and enjoyable experience to had by all. 

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Triangle Strategy - a Video Game Review

FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE

Triangle Strategy plays out like a traditional tactics game, it lays out like a grid-based RPG that familiarizes a mix of tactical strategy and role playing aspects into a pretty aesthetic. To call this similar to Final Fantasy Tactics is a disservice to how unique a tactics game this is. To that end, it is nice to play another one of these games and plus its replayability entices you into playing it even after you have beaten the game which is 50 hours long.

Much like previous Artdink games (Octopath Traveler), everyone is condensed to look like it felt off from a SNES or an early era PS1 game. The sprites texture on each character and the environments surrounding them is nostalgic although sometimes it feels too pixelated with the facial expressions on a character. The artwork on each character looks just like Octopath Traveler and it just feels anime as hell. However, the voice acting can be a mixed bag whether or not you picked the Japanese voices or English. The english VO isn’t that bad but there are moments that felt kinda cheesy and certain characters sound weird while the Japanese is typically great in its delivery of lines. It is a chore though that this game provides a lot of VO during cutscenes and sometimes it is so irritating that the Switch will almost go to sleep if not focused on it. 

Unlike the Fire Emblem games, it focuses on cycling each individual turn somewhat like chess and the more units that you or the AI has in the field, the more turns for you to order your units into action. In a grid-based area, there is levitated terrain that you can use for advantage such as perched in cliffs and on top of houses where you can use your ranged unit to further increase his/her range in hitting your enemies’ units. The combat takes advantage of sneaking up and hitting enemies from behind and front which is a tactical advantage that happens if you move those units into position. There are also elemental spells that can be used for mage units whether its frost, fire or lightning, these can also affect the environment which can be an advantage or disadvantage to you. For example, if you use electricity in water, it will electrify everyone who is standing on water tiles or using frost that will not only damage you but the tile behind your units will slow down your movement. There are those who are weak to elemental spells and can do more damage inflicted by them.  

Again unlike Fire Emblem, each unit/character is unique and will provide different spells and abilities that can be benefited in the battlefield. Such as the blacksmith that can build ladders and traps, an apothecary that can increase healing/effectiveness from items used in the field to a dancer that can moon jump to higher terrain and afflict poison and fear attacks upon your enemies. These abilities however need TP to use and will require a number of turns to replenish those points. There are common units such as the swordsmen, thief and such that you can promote using a Medal of Bravery/Valor that increases not only your stats but receive additional abilities to date. 

The game features a “Conviction” system which plays primarily on the choices and consequences of your actions throughout the story. The main feature of it is the Scales of Conviction which was introduced early in the game, this mechanic is used to branch out the story through how you choose to implement a branching path. It’s basically a voting system where you have your party agree or disagree at the start, and it’s your choice to convince an undecided voter or the opposition through dialogue and persuade them into joining your side. In addition, to be able to persuade them you will need to gather intel to give prudence on the subject, this can be remedied by talking to people and purchasing books/notes from your encampment. You also gain conviction from combat whether it’s healing your units or successfully completing a mission. 

Fans of the genre should seriously get this game, whether you like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem or any tactics game similar to this, the game mixes a grid, tactical base strategy with great roleplaying aspects provided to its fullest extent. Artdink really outdid themselves with this game, it is just incredible. Withstanding the visual graphics, it is recommended to everyone who is looking for a tactics game or any game at all that contains role-playing elements to it. 

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Sifu - a Video Game Review

FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE

Sifu is basically a love-letter to movies featuring martial arts, it’s not intended on its accuracy on what it portrays, it's a kung-fu game that a French studio, Sloclap had made. The story starts as a simple revenge tale, your “sifu” (master) gets killed before your eyes and you get revenge by finding those who killed him. The certain vibe of this game feels cool through the techno beats of the club to the first stage and the museum level where it becomes that scene from “OldBoy”. 

Each level feels different and distinct with its level of flavour and variety. The soundtrack can be also attributed to how this game rocks, as such levels as the Club brings back memories of Hotline Miami with its soundtrack. What disappoints me is the voice acting, sure it feels fine but I would like it to be in Chinese with subtitles making it more immersive. 

What makes it a rogue-like is the challenging and difficult combat, it’s less of a simple beat-them up and more methodical in terms of fighting your opponents. What makes it methodical is the fighting system, you can’t just mash buttons and expect your opponent to get knocked out, you need to learn from those mistakes and choreograph your moves. It’s a series of executing combos, dodging and parrying attacks and rinse and repeat. You can use things in the environment to knock out your enemy, whether it's a broken bottle, baseball bat to a staff, its durability can be upgraded on the skills screen and can last longer in combat.

Defeating your opponent can net you experience points which can be used by unlocking new moves through jade statues that you will encounter throughout levels. Once you die, you age up, starting from 20 to 75 which is primarily only five tries until game over. That’s where the rogue-like comes in, having five tries before the run is over and it just feels frustrating at first but you will live through those tries and do better. 

Overall, Sifu is a fun yet challenging beat-them-up that makes you think twice before playing. The combat is difficult and what keeps the momentum coming is how you learn from each mistake, everytime you either age up to giving up and doing it all over again. It sure is a love letter to kung -fu movies but disappointing is the voice acting not being authentic. It was also criticized by its Chinese aesthetic as some complained about its accuracy but it doesn’t seem intended to be it. Each level is unique in its own way and it just gives a vibrant and rich experience.

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Dying Light 2: Stay Human - a Video Game Review

THREE STARS OUT OF FIVE

Dying Light 2: Stay Human returns to a similar environment much like the first one but doesn’t seem to improve how the first game manages to do. Much like the first game, the game has parkour in games like Mirror’s Edge and some elements of the Assassin's Creed franchise. It can be fun when you have momentum on jumping and grabbing ledges, especially escaping from zombie chases at night. It is somewhat disappointing that some abilities such as wall jumping, no damage from a high building to the ground to bigger jumps across buildings and such are gated by “parkour skills” which is a separate skill tree that is also gated by how much stamina you have. Granted having those skills much later in the game is enjoyable when traversing across buildings. There are also other amenities that levitate your experience such as grappling hook and paragliding, which are introduced halfway to later on through the game. Similar to doing parkour, paragliding drains your stamina when leaping off a tall building and gliding down but throughout Villedor, there are these blowing air ducts that not only blow you higher but replenish your stamina.  

Aside from “parkour skills”, you also gain “combat skills” from killing zombies and bandits throughout the game. Although, even with a filled up tech tree, it doesn’t warrant any improvements unlike the previous game. The combat in summary derives from the first game, bringing elements of games like Dead Island and Condemned. However one disappointing thing that the first Dying Light game does is having guns, the melee combat just feels clunky and bad when playing almost 20 to 30 hours through the game. Guns in the first game made it feel better, although granted there is a one-shot gun that you can craft in this game but it isn’t that effective when dealing with hordes of different types of zombies. Most of the combat involves dodging or blocking attacks from your enemy and then getting an upper hand taking hits to them and rinse and repeat. It’s basically how I feel the combat is and it is a complete downer. Anyways, like “parkour skills” increasing your stamina, “combat skills” increase your health which can help receive skills from that skill tree. Although you will need three GRE inhibitors to upgrade your health or stamina so you can gain more skills, it also increases your immunity from getting infected during nights or dark places.  

Like the previous game, there is crafting in this one, from improving your weapon through elemental damage like fire, ice and electricity and improving your durability and so on. These can be improved from a craftsman who appears in safe havens though requires components and materials from digging up in environments. The previous game, much like this one, has numerous activities and quests as an open-world game. However, things like GRE stashes and unlocking wind-mills that act like safe houses feels plain and there is nothing fun in accomplishing those tasks. Granted, there are rewards and certain quests and activities are only done by the day and night cycle but it seems like there’s nothing being accomplished here. 

One thing that's disappointing with Dying Light 2 is the graphics, on the PS5 version, it doesn’t look good. The first area, Old Villedor after the tutorials, looks plain and boring with green vegetation blooming on top of buildings. It feels like Fallout 3 with how brown the landscape was and even it doesn’t look that great. Even the lighting from the sun rise as you do parkour around this earlier part of the map doesn’t look impressive. Granted, it does look somewhat better during late-game areas with skyscrapers and tall buildings around the downtown Villedor but there’s no variety other than better games like Last of Us or any detailed post-apocalyptic game. 

Like any open-world games, there are certain amounts of gank and bugs in this game. Sometimes it’s fun to have some but through my playthrough, all I have encountered is invisible npcs and T-Poses from characters that aren’t animating. It is somewhat frustrating trying to enjoy the game despite future patches that might remove those, when you see invisible NPCs and just bad animations. One game breaking bug showed up at the last boss, as he was clipped below me and there is no way to damage him despite clipping in a big object. All of these examples show how dated this game is and the list of bugs that was encountered is purely frustrating.

All and all, Dying Light 2 feels like a mixed bag, the fact that the previous game is way better than this one with a troubling combat and a flimsy parkour system, through the myriad of bugs that had affected my playthrough. It is quite a disappointment that this game was a little the same but did not improve throughout the game. Aiden just feels boring as a generic protagonist who is a botched science experience and by no means better than Crane in this previous game.

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Pokemon Legends: Arceus - a Video Game Review

FOUR STARS OUT OF FIVE

Unlike Pokemon’s main games, Legends: Arceus is a standalone game much like Pokemon Unite and Pokemon Snap, each playing differently. The gameplay might feel like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with its open-worlded aesthetic traversing throughout the wilds or Dark Souls with its punishing difficulties in the wild as there are Pokemon who are hostile and attack you if you come closer, it’s more punishing in terms of when you die or “blackened out”, you will see a certain amount of items and only through online where someone can find your stash and retrieved it. It’s basically the best of both worlds with its comparisons, with it, the open world gameplay feels like Safari hunt like in the base games but expanded.

Throughout the areas of Arceus, you will encounter Pokemon who basically act like wild animals, either they run away from you, remain neutral to you even when you move closer or are territorial and hostile and will hurt you until you retreat somewhere far from them. These behaviours affect your ability to catch Pokemon so basically, catching them unaware is an absolute must if you throw the right Pokeball at them from an unsuspecting tall grass. Stealth or approaching wild Pokemon unsuspectingly can help you obtain, at least have a higher rate of catching them with a certain Pokeball. In any case, when throwing a Pokeball, you need to adjust your throwing arc to catch one whether you aim it and hit a critical spot or from unsuspecting areas, it can be sometimes frustrating to catch at times. This is because there are areas where it's hard to catch Pokemon, unsuspectingly specifically those hostile ones where they can spot you and just alerting them will attack you and be a waste of a Pokeball as you just bonked his/her head. To compare more of other games such as Shin Megami Tensei 5, in certain areas, you will find Alpha Pokemon which are larger than regular ones and can be challenging to catch or defeat as they are levels more ahead of you as you progress throughout the game. 

As the slogan, “Gotta Catch them All”, everytime you catch a new and same old Pokemon, it marks it as a research task that you accomplish, whether it's from catching them undetected, throwing berries to distract them and catching there are many ways to gain research so you can receive a star which acts like a Gym Badge once you completed one and Pokemon at certain levels will respond to you better. It can be a chore or a fun time to catch certain Pokemon like the Alpha ones and get annoyed that your Pokemon will obey you at a certain level. In essence catching and doing those research tasks can help you level up when talking to Professor Laventon. It feels kinda like Pokemon Snap with taking the right picture nets you more experience points.

Throughout the main mission, you will soon unlock certain mounts to traverse the areas better, from each clan in the Hisui region, whether its Wyrdeer galloping around or Basculegion swimming in water areas, it makes catching Pokemon more fun. Some actions further included, Wyrdeer leap ability, jumping across hills and dashing across the field to Basculegion’s ability to leap and jump over small islands in the water. 

Like BotW, there are crafting in this game, whether it’s the right materials for a Pokeball, a healing potion or certain items like smoke bombs and etc to make your pursuit of catching Pokemon more enjoyable. These crafting materials can be found throughout the Hisui region, from trees obtaining apricots and certain berries to ores whether tumblestones or iron chucks sprouting around mountainous areas, your Pokemon can retrieve those materials and be used for it. The crafting stations appear at your base camps which each area will have another unlocked.  Inventory management, when applying to obtain these materials, seems to be a problem as you can only have so much space and more additional space can be unlocked, one by one from a NPC that will charge you additional cost to get more room in your inventory. However, like the crafting stations, your stash appears alongside it to maintain some frustrations. Alongside them are tents that can be used to heal all your injuries and your Pokemon acting like a Pokemon Center in the base games. 

Overall Arceus is still an enjoyable game withstanding its core frustrations, the game is like I said before, a open world Safari Zone from its base games but no movement restrictions required. It’s fun trying to catch more Pokemon to achieve more research tasks and getting more stars that your Pokemon will obey you at any level. Being a standalone game, it feels like a breath of fresh air to just catch Pokemons like its slogan. 

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My Top Ten Games of the Year 2021!

Here are my top ten games that I think are the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year!

1. Hitman 3

The final trilogy comes to a close with Hitman 3 and it feels satisfying finishing Agent 47’s story arc. Granted, there weren't that many changes and improvements like the previous game but the feeling of assassinating your targets through mission stories or environment kills is just enjoyable. The fact that the story is engaging also warrants my attention and it does not disappoint.

2. Lost Judgment

Yagami is at it again, solving crime mysteries and finding the truth behind a conspiracy that goes to the top, in Lost Judgement. Alongside his trusted pal, Kaito, they now go back to school and solve bullying case that led to a suicide. The story overall, wasn’t as good as the previous game but being a Yakuza game, the gameplay is just awesome in its own right.  It’s always satisfying to build up combos and just beat the living shit out of your opponents in the streets of Kamurocho and other notable locations in the Yakuza universe. While the main story isn’t that good, the side missions however are just the same exciting part of the game much like the previous game from the return of a known pervert to trailing suspects in the streets, the investigation portion of the game still is alright!

3. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl

The remake of Diamond and Pearl is here and as a fan of Pokemon games, it did not disappoint. It comes with all the things in the original plus features like the Grand Underground with excavating gems and valuable Pokemon statues and such and wraps a neat bow-tie to this already enjoyable game. 

4. The Forgotten City

At first it looks like Oblivion without the action, from the zoom in conversations to how the game looks. However, it plays like an adventure game that isn’t shy of not being a game that you can brute-force your way into completing the game. The game is dialogue heavy and its writing makes you think and those actions you had picked affect the game. As a matter of fact this game kinda plays like Twelve Minutes and Deathloop with time being a factor as you try to not break the golden rule and find the culprit who is trying to do so. 

5. Powerwash Simulator

As someone who used to do some powerwashing in real life, having a simulator where the object of the game is just powerwashing vehicles to buildings feels just relaxing. It’s a great game to watch or listen to podcasts and tv shows to, there’s no stress in thinking there’s a danger within the game like a time limit, you basically clean out your objective and get paid so you can improve your powerwashing gear to be more potent. 

6. Age of Empires IV

This video shows how awesome this game is. It’s been years since the previous Age of Empires installment was released and despite being somewhat a disappointment, this game however proves to be great. Going back to its Age of Empires 2’s roots, AoE 4 not only succeeds at its base building and massing an army to conquer others but the little audio features, making sounds when an army is moving and all that jazz seems authentic and realistic. Just the audio department alone is memorable.

7. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

At first, I was skeptical about this game, seeing how the Marvel’s Avengers game flopped last year as well as other Marvel games varying from decent to outright garbage. I was wrong when I started playing it and I love it. Everything from the Guardians’ banter in the ship just reminds me of Bioware’s Mass Effect and Dragon Age with how comical the dialogue and moments in the game were to be.

8. Halo Infinite

As Halo as it gets, this game is incredible. I haven’t played the previous two Halo games but judging from the first few hours I played it, it’s just another Halo game and there’s nothing wrong with that statement. I’m not sure if it was open world before but the list of places to capture or acquire new skills seems to be fun, just shooting down the Banished while using your grapple hook to maneuver across the field is fun.

9. The Ascent

Now this is what Cyberpunk 2077 should be. This kinda top down shooter RPG, with strong vibes of cyberpunk is not only exciting to play but graphically and the gameplay is nothing but a blast. It’s just fun shooting innocent bystanders to challenging foes with an arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Plus, the music is just straight out bussin. 

10. Deathloop

As a fan of both Dishonored games, Arkane Studios did not disappoint with Deathloop. Alright, the game was kinda repetitive at times with the time-rewinding and the familiarity of games such as Twelve Minutes, The Forgotten City and Returnal. However, the music and overall gameplay just plain rocks, it plays somewhat like Dishonored games though with limited powers and there’s not really a non-lethal option.

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake: A Video Game Review

FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE! The wait is finally over as fans have been constantly demanding this remake since the first Final Fantasy 7 trailer went live on E3 back then. Sure, it never intended to be released as that trailer was primarily used to show last generation’s Playstation 3 and its graphical capability but nevertheless, fans have finally convinced Square-enix to remake this much beloved classic. And the game is really one of those games that is perfect for a remake since it’s very iconic to the Final Fantasy universe. So far, it has met everyone’s expectations, this is indeed a well-polished game and may I say perfect despite this game being set only in Midgar which barely scratches the first disc back in the classic version.

It is rather say, genius that Square-Enix is going to continue this whole game with numerous installments right to the very end, these games really is intended for Square-enix to make millions thanks to their hardcore fanbase. The fact that this game only covers the first Midgar section which they stretched out with a variety of side quests while containing a linear playthrough seems mundane at first but by stretching and comparing how the original FF7’s Midgar portion which is probably less than say, about ten hours, compare to this game being around forty something hours withholding the limited amount of side quests in this game is quite smart indeed. 

Much like the original FF7 back then looks impressive with its backdrop and cinematics, the remake just looks incredible. It really feels and looks like Advert Children and a better version in terms of graphical prowess from the PS4. It is indeed thanks to being on two discs (data and game disc) that the game really shines its detail. It ranges from the breathtaking cinematic cutscenes the game has and the very graphical, facial animations that Cloud, Tifa, Barrett and Aerith just looks damn impressive. However, it does look weird in some spots like entering a town with other NPCs as the main characters are quite taller than them and how the NPC looks feels like they just transfer the assets from FF15. But this doesn’t hinder the fact that the game looks gorgeous.

It is indeed a breakthrough as Cloud appears in its opus’ bombing mission to take down Shinra’s reactors that is siphoning the earth’s lifeforce alongside terrorist, insurgent group called AVALANCHE that comprises of Barrett, Wedge, Biggs and Jessie alongside a EX-soldier, Cloud that is nothing more than a MERC expecting a paycheck. It is this moment of the game where it stands out, the iconic moment of Cloud jumping down the train is quite mesmerizing from the original and with it including a stretched version of Midgar, it is truly a bittersweet moment once you planted the first bomb on the reactor not realizing it has dire consequences upon Midgar’s population that live close. The fact that it is highly stylize by the reactions after said bombing run, by the general public on the mend on this terrorist group displayed in graphical detail is something worth experiencing. 

The combat system is vastly overhauled, elements of Final Fantasy 15 and Kingdom Hearts 3 have been said to have inspired its battle system called ATB (Active Time Battle). It vastly improves the old turn-based system to a mix between those two Square-Enix games and makes it quite impressive. It is indeed quite satisfying with its hack and slash combat having to dice enemies to the air while TIfa executes uppercuts while Barrett overloads his gatling gun, downing a foe. While each character has it’s heavy and normal attacks, Cloud utilizes two attack styles, operator and punisher which are essentially light and heavy attacks that are used to combo attack power, switching them for use in a battle. Some foes like Shinra’s elite guard are required to be more theoretical with its use, switching them in the right moment to prevent the foe from doing terrible damage upon you. 

In addition, these attacks can stagger or stun the opponent as displayed by the enemies’ bar underneath the HP bar and that is the moment where you go for the kill or inflict massive damage upon them. It does feel good like every hack and slash game when that meter fills up and you stagger an enemy, especially a boss who sometimes can be a real pain, having one of your party members die on you and just out of pure hatred when that stagger meter goes live, to dump some serious damage at them. Speaking of some other frustrations, ATB can sometimes be a pain when in certain situations against bosses, you need to wait (much like the turn-based system in the original) to use abilities, spells and items. So far, there are two actions at most to be utilized in combat and even though it recharges fast, some moments can be fatal when someone is needed to be healed but got killed and you need to revive them with a phoenix down. Aside from that I’m surprised that they introduce Summoning earlier in the game, your first summon is Irfuit which feels overpowered for the start as it tends to be easy early on. Much like the ATB bar, during battle, there’s a meter that initiates a summon provided that you even have two bars of ATB. These summons are very much like FF15 with its own abilities to be casted in battle whether it is beneficial for you and inflict heavy damage upon your opponents. 

The game kept materia to be inserted in your equipment much like the original, these materia range from spells like fire, frost and lightning to cure, barrier and so on from green and yellow materia. These materia can be upgraded much like XP in battle and can change into firaga, curaga and those advanced spells that will help you. You can also improve your attributes with purple materia from HP Up and Magic UP that will increase your input in those categories. As I mentioned, summon materia is separate from your main bars so it's less stressful to have too much materia outing a summon one. 

Also, one new feature is upgrading your individual weapon, within each weapon you get in the game, you can accumulate each time you level up and can be spent upgrading things like more HP, Attack Power, and Magical Attacks and so on. Now, it is fortunate that each weapon you get in the game gets enough points to be upgraded as the game makes upgrading like tiers of planets which can be said as before. The upgrade screen just looks like something out of a Mass Effect game jumping to another system that requires more upgrade points to acquire new and more attributes on your character.  

Lastly, I would say I’m still having a blast from playing this remake, ten hours in and at the beginning of Chapter 8. Square-enix really shines and meets everyone’s expectations with this game and man, does it look and feel amazing and just jaw-dropping to look at. Another nice addition to this game is that the Japanese voice cast from Advert Children came back to voice their perspective roles and it is indeed rather impressive as I’m still pessimistic of the English VO, Aside from that, this really is a great purchase for me, to enjoy the game’s combat, graphics and VO as well as its remastered and improved soundtrack from renown FF composer, Nobuo Uematsu, it’s just fantastic and I must say, early contender for Game of the Year!

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons Video Game Review for the Switch

4 STARS OUT OF FIVE  There’s a charm to playing Animal Crossing games, whether it’s Tom Nook’s great dialogue of getting what he wants or K.K Slider’s smooth musical performance. It’s quite a treat while prancing around your place doing daily chores every single day. It’s a basis for Animal Crossing: New Horizons as well, having a real time clock affect yourself and think about the next day and how to make more bells from fishing and whatnot to customizing your island to its full potential. Granted there is something special of doing these monotonous chores everyday, it’s just fun to get a ton of bells everyday but something it can turn out rotten if you  

New Horizons provides two new features, Nook Phone and Gab Airlines. Nook Phone is given you by Tom Nook at the beginning and features a couple of apps that access many of the game’s mechanics. One such thing is DIY recipes which come in card form and once you learn it, you can craft it in your DIY workbench either from Nook’s tent or yours. These recipes can be found in message bottles that were washed off shores and can be purchased from Timmy in Nook’s Cranny.  These recipes range from cosmetic items for your character to wear, furniture for your house and tools such as the shovel, fishing rod and axe. 

Other apps such as Nook Miles can be accumulated in doing daily tasks such as fishing and catching wild insects and fishes, selling a great number of items and so on. These Miles can then be redeemed in the ATM in Nook’s tent for cosmetic items and an Airline ticket to travel to unknown or known islands where your friends are. There is also Critteropedia which stores info for fish, insects and other fauna species that you have collected and stored in this app.  

What’s new in New Horizons is the Dodo airlines, this new feature allows you to travel to unknown islands looking for plunder or go to your friend’s islands as well as invite your friends into your island. Unknown islands can range from rare to common fauna of fish, insects and many more species that you can catch to net bonus bells or donations for your island. These islands are random and there’s a slim chance that you can get a rare island or whatnot. Even then, it’s a bothersome chore of finding rare fish and insects in those places, although it's worth being patient trying to wait out and find out that you have caught a rare fish like an oarfish or a shark that will net you serious bells. 

Aside from these features, you can customize your island to your heart’s content, whether it is planting a garden full of flowers or fruit trees to digging up bells which can be grown into money bell trees that you can collect everyday without the stress of catching rare fish/insects. Your house itself starts off as a tent and you can upgrade through Tom Nook to be transformed to a house for more space, although much as Nook’s greedy load-sharking, you need to pay off his debt but if you’re in a roll with rare islands, you can paid the loan off in fashion. 

Other than that, your island can acquire new residents as well, as you start with two, these residents each day can either give you items or give you interesting facts when spoken to. You can acquire new residents through unknown islands. Once you have build a bridge, you can further to recruit more residents into your island. Furthermore, you can get new residents by building houses which you will need to craft the essential furniture that each into those residents’ liking. 

Overall, New Horizons can be either a monotonous chore or a blast to play once you accumulate a vast amount of bells. It is quite bothersome for the game to have a real time clock,which people like me get anxiety issues after playing a day’s session and thinking what more possibilities that I can get the next day. However, the thought of traveling to a rare and unknown island filled with rare and exotic species that you can catch and sell is a marvelous thought. That and Tom Nook being quite nicer in this game than its previous games. Don’t mess with the raccoon son!

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An Hour into Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I would not say that I like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I have always taken a step back into not buying these games due to its constant management of farming, catching fish/insects and so on. It can get really boring constantly doing the same thing everyday and I often just rather watch someone play/stream that game or whatever. Heck, it’s not that I hate it, I have played Stardew Valley, a somewhat similar game to this for about 60 hours on Steam and I have gotten bored with it afterwards. 

I’m not sure if it's a new feature but at the start you can get a NookPhone which has a number of apps that could have you either critteropedia which identifies different species that you’ve catched and Nookmiles which can accumulated through doing certain tasks on your island. These can be redeemed at the ATM inside Tom Nook’s tent for rewards such as an airline ticket to mysterious islands or your friend’s islands or cosmetic items to customize you. 

One thing that differs from Stardew Valley and I know, the previous games has it, is the in real time clock which affects your daily routine of catching and doing stuff within your island. It could be such a bore if you really have to constantly wait the next day to do stuff during the day. You can go to mysterious islands or your friend’s island if you acquired an airline ticket that will travel you there and can net you a better chance of catching/fishing stuff and other treasures.

Overall, I may have made a mistake buying this until the impending discount (maybe) rather just buying it full price.