I think the most memorable thing I can ever pull away from a video game is the passion I can find behind it. I am not talking about time-based passion, where the developers take years to publish a game - all for the sake of taking their time. I am also not talking about mechanic-based passion, where the developers layer mechanics on one another to create complex feature systems the player can interact with.
 
 Specifically, I am talking about an explosive, yet focused passion for video games - the kind that leaves you thinking about a game several days, weeks, months, or even years after you have played it. I can compare it more to seeing a really good movie; sometimes, you cannot help but applaud the team behind it for all the hard work they dedicated to making a great film.
 
 In other words, I look for heart in a game, and the best part about that is you can find it practically anywhere within a title, because it usually is the aspect making everything else better. Take SIGNALIS for example, a top-down, survival-horror project that was meant to replicate the 32-bit design of old PlayStation and Sega Saturn games. That game was made by a two-person studio called rose-engine, which is based in Hamburg, Germany.

SABLE, another game I like to highlight, was made by another two-person studio based out of North London called Shedworks. It is a game that utilizes its beautiful soundtrack by Japanese Breakfast to reel you into a calm, mysterious world that mimics the artistic design of French painter Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius.

Both these games are passion projects in their own right. SIGNALIS grew from a simple, university-related project into a fully realized indie game reflecting fan-favorite aesthetics of older games within the genre like Silent Hill (1999) and Resident Evil (1996). In terms of SABLE's development, it was made by two individuals with backgrounds in architecture and literature, which you can see through the various map locations you visit, as well as the dialect of all the characters you can interact with.
 
 It just goes to show that if a game team has a concept and sets the goal to see it visualized for themselves, there are some amazing things that can be created out of that passion, whether or not the team members have any experience in programming. And, when it comes to Tunic, this is exactly the case.


[-|-]  AGAIN THE SAME BATTLE  [-|-]

I started my initial review of the game talking about how Tunic reminded me of all the times I went out exploring the hiking trails around my house as a kid. I said that it gave me the sense of adventure I wanted to find for myself in the real world and not just in titles like The Legend of Zelda or Uncharted.

The same sentiment can still be shared here, but I want to dive deeper into how it correlates with why I appreciate the passion and design choices behind Tunic.

According to a Wikipedia article about the game, Tunic's designer, Andrew Shouldice, began Tunic's development in 2015 after working with Silverback Productions on a number of small-scale video games. The initial title was Secret Legends, and Shouldice used his developer experience to create the foundation of Tunic within a new Unity project window. After fiddling with character designs, game objectives, and visual and sound choices, Shouldice met with Terence Lee and Kevin Regamey at the March 2015 Game Developers Conference to begin developing the game further. Eventually, the publishing studio FINJI joined the team and later released the announcement of Tunic at the E3 2017 showcase.
 
 Shouldice wanted Tunic to have a balance between the game's challenging gameplay and calming visuals - the audio design also played a key role in this balance. The combat design was inspired by games like Bloodborne, where the game required the player to time their attacks between fast enemy strikes. When it came to exploration and camera control, Metroid II: Return of Samus and Monument Valley were both heavy influencers, as Shouldice enjoyed the isometric viewpoint and style of Monument Valley’s camera,and he fondly remembered the perplexing layout of the levels within Metroid II. Shouldice even formatted the colorful and low-poly art design of Tunic to reflect titles like The Legend of Zelda, which he used to play on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

This bundle of information about the Shouldice is my first reason why I appreciate Tunic. Rather than committing to a scale Shouldice knew he could not achieve on his own, he refined the game's scope and recruited people who could help get him what he wanted. Furthermore, Shouldice pulled features from other popular titles and created a new, unique iteration of them for Tunic. So, rather than expanding production and repolishing mechanics for a profit, everything Shouldice incorporated had a purpose, as well as sentimental value. There was a very clear level of care I found etched in each design choice that allowed him to design the intimate version of Tunic I know and love.
 
 If I am being honest, Tunic is a tremendous breath of fresh air in comparison to the games published by other modern game studios. It reflects the joy and desire for adventure I had as a kid through a simple blend of low-poly graphics, enchanting music, playful map design, as well as well-constructed user interfaces.
 
 
 
 [-|-]  FOR A SHORTCUT, FLIP TO PAGE 9  [-|-]
 
 The user interface, also known as the "game manual", is a wonderful implementation of a feature that not only acts as another immersion tool, but also a respectful nod to the era of games Shouldice was inspired by.
 
 The manual is divided into 56 pages, which are scattered all throughout the world of Tunic. As the player, the more you explore the world, the more pages you can collect. This, in turn, reveals more about the game's visible and hidden mechanics. Now, it should be noted that, as the game beings, you begin to learn these mechanics on your own. So, by the time you receive a page, you might think it is useless, since you already memorized map layouts, combat mechanics, as well as inventory items the manual page may be describing.

However, much like physical game manuals back in the day, Tunic’s manual also reveals the many secrets of Tunic that will enhance your gameplay even further. For example, if you collect a specific page of the manual in one of the game's areas, there will be a secret to solving the cryptic language Tunic uses, allowing you to decipher all the text boxes around the world.
 
 On a side note, this puzzle was actually inspired by another game called Fez, which I have reviewed before. It was really cool to actually see that Shouldice was inspired by that game, as there are many quality puzzle designs hidden within that title.

Anyway, another example I would like to mention is the manual page you can find in the Old House area at the beginning of the game. This page highlights an answer to one of the various input puzzles you can find hidden around the game's world. It should be noted that some of these puzzles are even hiding in plain sight!

After going back on this recent playthrough to collect all the pages, I found I really appreciated the design and purpose of Tunic's game manual. After hearing that Shouldice and his team spent actual time illustrating a real, physical game manual to digitize for Tunic makes me love it so much more, as it made the objective of collecting pages so foreign, yet unbelievably familiar. See, as a kid, I would go and collect game guide magazines at GameStop and Barnes & Noble so that I could find secrets to the games I played. Every magazine I read, I would get lost in their designs, their secrets, and all the cool facts I could find about games I loved playing.
 
 Tunic recreated that feeling perfectly, and the secret message left on the final page of Tunic's manual was truly worth the time spent within the game collecting them.
 
 
 
 [-|-]  SIEGE ENGINES & CROSSROADS  [-|-]

Outside of interfaces, the game's combat was just as fun as unraveling the story. Each area of the game's world has its own set of enemies, pathways, boss fights, and even secret rooms. Every portion of the map is covered by, at the very least, one to two enemies, so you are always fighting in between the exploration segments of your journey.

I did mentioned earlier that the combat resembled that of Bloodborne, wherein you land your attacks in between the onslaught of enemy strikes. This is true, but I feel the combat was lacking in this recent playthrough in contrast to my first one. For one, there were times when I was swarmed by a wave of enemies, which ultimately killed me. There were also times where the combat felt really unsatisfying; either I did not deal enough damage as I thought I was going to, or the damage I received did not justify the risk I took to engage the enemy mob.

Either way, I was a little disappointed with the combat, as the variation in enemy difficulty, numbers, as well as combat strength were all aspects I could clearly notice when I stopped paying attention to the game completely. That being said, I cannot gripe too much about the system. For you see, I just finished developing a game of my own for my senior capstone course, and the combat system was actually one of the most difficult features my team and I had to implement. So, after having to develop my own combat system, I would say Tunic's development team did a great job with theirs - some tweaks here and there would do nicely, though.
 
 Exploration was also a lot of fun but also carried a few setbacks of its own. Since puzzles are hidden all throughout the game, and enemies roam the many areas of the game, there is a lot to keep a player occupied. During both my first and most recent playthroughs, there were not many dull moments. If I did find myself getting bored, I would rest at one of the many statues Tunic has scattered throughout the world. These are similar to the bonfires you find throughout the Dark Souls franchise - they replenish your health and mana, but also respawn any enemies you defeated since your previous visit.
 
 There are also a ton of these black, ominous-looking obelisks you can interact with throughout the game. These obelisks can actually power different areas of the game if activated, but the method of activation is a secret that can only be revealed through a game manual page.
 
 My main issue with the exploration, however, is the exact same issue I have with the first Dark Souls game. Shouldice makes it very clear that the game will not be hands on. So, when you start the game, there are many pathways you can take, but it is through trial and error that you actually find the correct path you should be taking. So, that means a lot of time will be navigating areas that you possibly should not be exploring just yet. Obviously, this was not an issue on my recent playthrough, but I can see new players having issues with this, especially since the combat can be super unforgiving at times.
 
 
 
 [-|-]  STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS REAL QUICK  [-|-]
 
That all being said, Shouldice did a phenomenal job balancing the stress of exploration and combat with moments of reprieve. The color scheme of this game is so nice, and it is wonderfully complemented with a soundtrack full of soothing music that dynamically changes depending on where you explore.
 
The environments are also super mysterious, and yet so calming; they are almost dream-like in some instances. One moment, for example, you are in a large cave, and the warm sunlight peers through the rocks above you and trickles down to the green grass at your feet. Then, almost in the same breath, you enter another section of the cave - the music gets deep and ominous. You cannot see anything in front of you, but you can hear the sound of a mysterious waterfall in the distance.

The level of immersion Tunic creates through its various design choices is definitely something everyone should experience, and I am very happy that I went back to experience it all again. While I feel I will not necessarily change the score from what I gave it originally, I do think that everyone should check out this game whenever they can. It is truly one of my favorite games of all-time - it perfectly blends what I love about the older titles and remasters them into a new work of art that reminds me of fond childhood memories. Maybe that is what Shouldice set out to do, seeing that so much inspiration came from a variety of titles he used to play, but what do I know?

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading the review. I know it has taken me forever to get this out; I deeply apologize for that. Once again, thank you for your patience, as well as for taking the time to read my review.
 
 If you want to check out the game yourself, it is available on Steam, the Nintendo eShop, the Microsoft store, as well as the PlayStation store - prices vary.
 
 If you all enjoyed the review, please share with your friends - I would love to keep the discussion going! If you have an opinion you would like to share, follow me on Instagram or Patreon and send me a message! You can find links to those two accounts on the "About Me" page of this website.
  
 Also, if you want to further support my work, please consider sending a donation via the "Donations" page of this website. You can do that, or you can become a member on my Patreon!
  
 Anyway, thank you all again for reading. As always, I am Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next one.
  
 PEACE OUT!!!
 
 
 
 I give the Golden Coin an 8 out of 10

I have said it before in prior reviews, but I feel game companies have a fairly contorted idea of their audience's interests.
 
 What do I mean by that?
 
 Well, for example, Nintendo owns the rights to the F-Zero intellectual property (IP), and Hasbro owns the IP rights to Transformers. The F-Zero series eventually received a title called F-Zero 99, which came out in 2023, and Transformers received a racing-combat game called Transformers: Galactic Trials around a year later.
 However, when you exclude the latest release from both franchises and look at each series' release history, you would find that F-Zero's last major title was published back in 2004, and Transformers had their last major release back in 2015. That is a 19- and nine-year period - respectively - where the fan base received no modern media for a genre of games they enjoy playing.
 
 Now, take a look at Nintendo again. As of March 28, of this year, it has been noted by credible Nintendo insider, NateTheHate, that Nintendo is currently working on a remaster for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And, while I will always be happy for a new Zelda release, I could not help but ask myself: who really wanted this?

Who really needs a remake of this game in particular? Why, in this - arguably mediocre - era of remakes and remasters, are we not pushing to revive older IP's or create new ones?

If you look online, or if you converse with your friends about it, there might be a lot of answers to this question. And, while it is not my goal to choose one and discuss it within this review, the topic in and of itself is something I do want to discuss.

Because, as of February 26 of this year, a new rhythm game has been announced by RedOctane, a team made up of game developers who worked on the old Guitar Hero games. The new title is called Stage Tour, and it is supposed to be the spiritual successor to games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.



|R G Y B O|  A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE RHYTHM GAME GENRE  |R G Y B O|
 
 I feel that every game I have played throughout my life has, in one way or the other, shaped who I am in terms of my interests and passions. Luigi's Mansion, for example, is the first game in my life that helped me develop an appreciation for horror.
I am not sure if I can tie a game to every genre I have played, but I know - for certain - that Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the reasons I fell in love with music, as well as the rhythm game genre.
 
 If you do not know the genre very well, it is essentially filled with titles which require you to time your controls to a specific beat, or to specific queues. It was a really popular genre during the 1990's and early 2000's, with games like Dance Dance Revolution, PaRappa the Rapper, and even Beatmania getting their own console releases, as well as their own machines set up in malls and arcades.
 
 Guitar Hero eventually made its debut in 2005; the game required the player to press down on color-coded keys located on the neck of the guitar, while simultaneously strumming the "strum bar" located in the center of the guitar's body. Depending on the difficulty and song the player chose, different key combinations would appear on the screen, and it was on the player to input the correct code and flick the strum bar when the symbols reached the bottom of the screen. The game consisted of popular music tracks spanning from the 1970's to the early 2000's.
 
 Rock Band also joined the scene – granted, a little later (2007) and with a similar design. The main difference, however, was, should you not want to play the guitar, you were able to play as your band's singer, drummer, or bassist - the controls varied depending on what you chose.

The genre was carried by these two franchises up until 2015 - during such period, other companies made their own kind of rhythm games. Bringing Nintendo back up again, they created their own rhythm game for the Nintendo GameCube called Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. There was also AudioSurf and Geometry Dash, which released on the Steam store in 2008 and 2013, respectively. And, after a brief period of no releases, the genre eventually received Beat Saber, which released for virtual reality systems in 2018.

The genre is still around today, just not as popular as it once was. Modern titles like Cadence of Hyrule, Synth Riders, and even Trombone Champ continue to carry the genre's legacy in their own ways, but while I enjoy those games, I am personally excited to see a return to form with the coming release of Stage Tour. After all, the game's predecessors were what helped me fall in love with the genre, so I am hoping this new release helps me fall in love with the category all over again.



|R G Y B O|  STAGE TOUR'S SIGNIFICANCE  |R G Y B O|

Now, that all being said, I found out about Stage Tour's development back in February of this year, and I was very excited about it. In contrast, I found out yesterday about the Ocarina of Time remake, and I was upset. Why is that?
 
 Well, this brings me back to what I wanted to discuss: which IP's deserve development? In this day and age, it seems like a lot of companies are focused more on remastering familiar content, rather than expanding on genres and titles that have been, for the most part, forgotten.
 Which, in a lot of ways, is fair - they are not in the business solely to make games, they also want to make a profit. And, what better way to make money than creating an $80, AAA game for a franchise that appeals to a large demographic of players?
 
 I can understand that way of thinking, but that does not mean I agree with it.

I think, if companies really want to push for this camp that is: "If we just remake [familiar thing], people will like it because it has [familiar thing] in it," they should also acknowledge that they are adherently running the risk of losing their fan base by doing so.
 
 Activision did this exact thing when they remastered the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy, and I would argue that Game Freak continues to drop the - metaphorical - ball with their Pokémon franchise. Another company I have been looking at is Naughty Dog, which has dedicated its team to remastering The Last of Us for the past few years, rather than polishing any other series in the company's massive catalogue.
 
 There are exceptions to this, obviously. For example, Capcom made a faithful remake of Resident Evil 4, and Motive Studio did a phenomenal job with their Dead Space remake. Regardless, though, I firmly believe that those kinds of games should not be reoccurring projects for their development teams.
 
 This is why I appreciate the announcement for Stage Tour and not for Ocarina of Time. RedOctane is taking elements from a genre that has been - somewhat - forgotten, and they are trying to make a new game out of them.

Ocarina of Time is not a new title, and it is not a part of any lost or forgotten genre. It has been in one of Nintendo's most-renown franchises since 1998, and there are modern, de-compiled versions of it you can download on your computer. Even if we ignore what I just said, the game was already solid to begin with, so I highly doubt that Nintendo will be adding anything remotely interesting to the remake, save for a few graphic and feature enhancements.

One can argue that Resident Evil 4, or Dead Space, or any other modern remake has done the same, but I would disagree. There narrative and gameplay in those games have been completely re-designed, and I cannot see Nintendo’s ability to do the same with Ocarina of Time. Maybe they will, but I have my doubts.



|R G Y B O|  THE BEAUTY OF GUITAR HERO & ROCK BAND  |R G Y B O|

Anyway, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, outside of being titles I have nostalgia for, were two memorable franchises within a genre that is fairly repetitive with its mechanics and gameplay. Furthermore, they were titles that marked an era of creativity and unique game design. I absolutely love these two franchises, and I will always recommend them to anyone looking for a new game to play. They have introduced me to my favorite bands and music, and they have given me many fond memories when playing with my family.

I know I am harping on Nintendo a lot during this review, but it is not solely them that I have a problem with. I am not happy knowing that Halo Studios is remaking Halo: Combat Evolved; I did not see the need for the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater remake; and, while I enjoyed playing a polished version of the game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was not necessary, because I can still play the original with mods to enhance it.
 
 I do not want to come off as a cynic - I will always be excited to see a new game come out. And, when push comes to shove, sometimes I will enjoy a remake, even if it just has enhanced graphics and re-polished features.
 
 That being said, especially in today's time, I want game companies to strive for more than just making a modernized version of the original IP they own. It is nice to see a game being remade but add more to its character - make it stand out amongst the others, especially the original version. Everyone fell in love with Guitar Hero and Rock Band because they did something new within the genre they were placed in, and everyone loved Resident Evil 2's remake because it expanded on the characters and story of the original.
 
 That is what I want, and I hope I have conveyed that well enough in this review. In the end, I hope that Stage Tour, the Ocarina of Time remake, the Yakuza 3 remake, and even the new Tomb Raider game can be titles that bring a breath of fresh air not only to their franchises, but to the genres those franchises helped establish. And, with their inclusion, hopefully it can inspire the game companies to revive other fan-favorite IP's rather than re-use the select few they are known for.



|R G Y B O|  ENCORE  |R G B Y O|

Thank you all so much for reading the review. I know it was a lot to take in; and, quite honestly, my focus might have been scattered all over the place in some segments. Regardless, thank you for taking the time to read my review.

If you want to know, I give the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises each a solid 10 out of 10; and, like I mentioned before, I highly recommend them to any of you interested in checking them out. There is a computer adaptation called Clone Hero, should you do not have access to the original games and their equipment. I highly recommend checking that out, as that version has all of the same tracks, with the added feature of customized models and backgrounds for the game!
 
If you all enjoyed the review, please share with your friends - I would love to keep the discussion going! If you have an opinion you would like to share, follow me on Instagram or Patreon and send me a message! You can find links to those two accounts on the "About Me" page of this website.
 
Also, if you want to further support my work, please consider sending a donation via the "Donations" page of this website. You can do that, or you can become a member on my Patreon!
 
Anyway, thank you all again for reading. As always, I am Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next one.
 
PEACE OUT!!!

If you ever see me out in this busting world of ours, and you ask me what my favorite movie is, I will instantly say in reply: Blade Runner or Blade Runner 2049.

These are two incredibly special films that I hold near and dear to my heart. Apart from their melancholy, dreamlike soundtracks; and aside from the obtuse, thought-provoking narratives that they deliver; truly, I have not had a greater love for cinema than when I experienced these two films for the first time.

Both have a wonderful cast - in the first film alone, you have Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, accompanied by Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, Sean Young as Rachel, and Daryl Hannah as Pris. Then, in the sequel that released 35 years later, you have Ryan Gosling as Officer K, Ana de Armas as Joi, Harrison Ford once more as Deckard, Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, Jared Leto as Niander Wallace, and even Dave Bautista in the small role of Sapper Morton.

I could go on, because every actor and actress should be recognized for their phenomenal work. Though, I would digress, and I believe it is about time I mention the two directors responsible for the two cult classics: Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve. Furthermore, all the musicians responsible for the music, such as Hanz Zimmer and Vangelis, deserve their praises for working hard to bring these movies to life.

As you can see, there is much I love - from the cast and the music, to the gritty, noir aesthetic of Blade Runner's dystopic world. Even the writing, some of which was improvised by the actors, makes the movies better off, in my opinion. Whether they are together or apart, every piece of both films is absolutely wonderful, and some just might fascinate you as much as they fascinate me.
 
 Since I am speaking so highly of the films, you might consider me a die-hard fan, and you would be correct. I even love short story written by Phillip K. Dick that inspired the two films.
 
 However, you may be shocked to know that, until as recent as last March, I was unaware of the 1997, point-and-click computer game adaptation of my two favorite films, specifically the first Blade Runner (1982).

That's right, until about March 15 of last year, I had no idea that there was a video game based off one of my most beloved science-fiction stories ever. Needless to say, I purchased the game for the cheap price of $2, and I sat down to play through it. And, now that I'm finished, I want to talk about it.



=| |=  YOU'RE IN A DESERT, WALKING ALONG IN THE SAND  =| |=
 
 Before I being my review, I just want to preface with this: as much as I love the game, it cannot be more different from the movie in terms of tone.
 
 In the movie, as well as in the novel, the story is very slow and methodical. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter that is sent to hunt down a group of replicants that are trying to find refuge in the post-apocalyptic setting of Los Angeles. During the film and the book, Deckard slowly reveals where the replicants are hiding, and manages to retire all of them before the story ends.
 
 There's also a moment in the film and the book where Rachel has a romantic rendezvous with Rick Deckard; and, yes, both moments are very awkward, but I won't get into that...
 
 The point is, the game does absolutely none of that. In fact, the game makes an entirely new story, and it just so happens to be based in the same universe.
 
 Blade Runner (1997) takes place during the same period as Blade Runner (1982). While Deckard is off chasing Roy Batty and his cronies through the streets of Los Angeles, we are introduced to Ray McCoy, another blade runner hired by Lieutenant Edison Guzza, Captain Bryant's temporary replacement.
 
Beginning the game, you play as McCoy, who is investigating a murder that took place at a prestigious animal sanctuary. Since most animal species have gone extinct, the crime committed at the sanctuary gains the attention of the entire Los Angeles Police Department, specifically the blade runner division. This is why we find McCoy gathering evidence, and although it isn't revealed until later that replicants murdered the animals, McCoy has enough evidence to form two key suspects: a man named Clovis, and a young girl named Lucy.
 
As the case unfolds through the player's point-and-click investigations and fast-paced shootouts, McCoy finds himself at the center of the investigation. Now on the run from his backstabbing comrades, and still being hunted by the group of replicants he has been tasked with retiring, McCoy dances with death as he attempts to find a new way to clear his name and bring these replicants to justice.
 
Overall, the story is pretty good. It plays out like a traditional detective narrative – there are lots of plot twists, McCoy dances with death a couple of times, and in the end, McCoy is able to squeeze his way out of being falsely imprisoned, or dead.

While it does have similar elements to the story in Blade Runner (1982), I find it dives further into the universe a lot more than the movie does and is more action oriented. Playing Blade Runner (1997) gives you a better understanding of the world McCoy and Deckard live in, and it also allows you to meet new characters in the world, as well as find recurring characters from the film that have a bit more added to their personalities.
 
 The story unfolds through dynamic storytelling - the game keeps track of your choices throughout the game, then allows you to access a select number of endings based off those choices. As McCoy, you can beat the game by killing all the replicants, saving all the replicants, or even disappearing with one of the replicants and leaving whatever allies you had to fend for themselves. There are a lot more endings, but those were some of the ones I wanted to highlight, as I feel they had the most entertaining gameplay out of the other conclusions.

As for the plot progression, I personally enjoyed the design; it reminded me of those old "choose your old adventure" books I would read as a kid, and I appreciate that the game kept track of my choices. It added to the immersion quite a bit during my playthroughs.
 
 Now, with all that being said, there is one important question that has yet to be asked: how is the gameplay?
 
 
 
 =| |=  YOU'VE DONE A MAN'S JOB, SIR!  =| |=
 
 Well, the gameplay isn't the best in terms of today's standards, but it is very unique, and I like it for that reason. There are very few titles I have played where you have a "point-and-click" feature as your main source of interacting with the game. Furthermore, despite the game having a variety of shootout segments, there is an equal amount dedicated to being a detective. That means you need to be looking for clues, questioning suspects, and analyzing photos and videos while chasing down your targets.
 
 It's a lot of fun, and I find the gameplay to be very sophisticated compared to other titles that released that year.
 
 That being said, I have a few complaints. For one, the "enhanced edition" I bought on Steam did not make a difference in graphics quality. If I'm being honest, it was super difficult for me to comprehend anything I was looking at on my computer screen - most of the time, I resorted to hovering my cursor over a bunch of discolored pixels and waiting to see whether or not I could interact with something.
 
 My next complaint would be directed toward the order in which some of these puzzles need to be solved. There were moments within the game where I was genuinely lost, and I had no idea what I needed to do to progress the story. If I'm being completely honest, I relied very heavily on a guide in order to find my way around the game, and I didn't really like that I had to do that.
 
 But, despite my issues, the game was still a lot of fun, and it managed to keep me immersed long enough to find seven of the 13 possible endings the game has to offer. I would go back and look for the other six, but this game takes a long time to play, which is another complaint I have – sometimes, the game just plays super slow, and there is no way to skip those segments.
 
 Overall, though, this was worth the time and money I spent to play it, and I'm sure it will be worth your time and money, should you want to give the game a chance. The game is available on Steam for $9.99, but it is currently on sale for $2.49 until March 13, so get it cheap while you can!
 
 Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you enjoyed what you read, please share the site with your friends - I would love to keep the discussion going.

  Also, you all are feeling generous, please feel free to donate through the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is appreciated, and Patreon members will be given a shoutout on any future work that I do.
  
 Lastly, if you would like to check out my other work, you can use the YouTube link located on the "About Me" page of this website. I post some playthrough videos there, as well as animated videos from time to time. Feel free to take a look - the latest video should have been posted earlier!
  
  Anyways, thank you all again for reading. As always, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all for the next review.
  
  PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
 I give the ESPER System a 7 out of 10

I think my earliest memory of playing StarCraft was probably when I was around seven or eight years old. I was visiting my grandparents over the summer, and after going to the nearby pool with my grandmother and siblings, I went back to my grandparent's house for a quiet afternoon of sandwiches and board games.

As I came back from the bathroom, now back in my sun-toasted t-shirt and shorts, I walk past my grandfather, who was - like always - sitting at his computer.
For my entire life, my grandfather has always been a quiet, stern man. After a life spent in catholic schools. the United States military, and financial offices, my grandfather did not fool around much. But, one thing that he loved to do, and something he did every day for a few hours, was down and play computer games.

While he may not know it, my grandfather helped form my initial love for video games. I have talked about his influence before - my Age of Empires and Diablo reviews highlight a similar experience to the one I have just told.
Regardless, I do not think I can ever convey my love for certain titles without accentuating the man behind such an admiration. My grandfather may not have shown love in traditional manners, but he certainly had love to give. And, through summer afternoons, in front of a computer that could barely run Windows XP, my grandfather shared it with me through dungeon crawlers, strategy games; and, most important, StarCraft.



++  STRAP YOURSELVES IN BOYS  ++

For those of you who don't know the science-fiction video game franchise, StarCraft is a real-time strategy game set in the late 25th and early 26th century. At this point in time, humanity has spread its influence across the galaxy, but at a cost.
You see, humanity was originally under a system of government known as the "United Powers League". Under this order, a scientist by the name of Doran Routhe created a secret experiment to send humanity out to the rest of the Milky Way. The experiment involved four space shuttles, each equipped with their own warp drive and intelligence system, which was eventually coined: ATLAS. Routhe utilized ATLAS to select 40,000 individuals from various prisons across Earth - they eventually became the individuals used in Routhe's project, as ATLAS found them biologically capable of surviving the trip.

As the ships took off and achieved warp-speed, at some point in their mission, a major malfunction occurred within the ATLAS auto-pilot system. Each ship not only lost connection to the others, but they also lost the planet coordinates they were traveling to. Due to this, the four ships began aimlessly traveling across the galaxy until their warp drives were exhausted. This became known as "The Long Sleep", wherein the prisoners aboard the four ships were contained in cryo-sleep for over 28 years. Once the engines and life-support systems began to fail on the ships, all four began emergency landing procedures; all but one landed safely on three distinct planets: Tarsonis, Moria, and Umoja.

The Koprulu Sector, where the prisoners landed, is approximately 60,000 lightyears away from Earth, located on the galactic fringe of the Milky Way. The prisoners who were aboard these ships eventually became known as "Terrans", and without the influence of the United Powers League, the three planets eventually established their own governments.
I won't get too much into detail with these governments, all you really need to know is the Terrans on Tarsonis created a system of government known as the "Terran Confederacy", or the "Confederacy of Man". Once the Terrans developed their warp drive technology, the three planets connected with each other, and The Confederacy eventually became the ruling government across the entire Koprulu Sector.

However, as the Terrans continued their galactic expansion, tensions rose among the citizens. This eventually led to the planet Korhal seceding from the Confederacy, an act that blossomed into a civil war. This war is known as the "Guild Wars", and it gave way to a new faction known as the "Sons of Korhal", which included individuals like Sarah Kerrigan, Marshal Jim Raynor, and Arcturus Mengsk. Together, these three defeated the Confederacy, and eventually stumbled across two alien species: one known as the "Zerg", and other known as the "Protoss".
Through this unexpected introduction, the Terrans eventually become caught in the ongoing conflict between the two alien factions. This is known as the "Great War", and it is within this galactic conflict that the events of StarCraft take place.

++  JACKED UP AND GOOD TO GO  ++

The game is divided into three campaigns: the Terran campaign, the Zerg campaign, and the Protoss campaign. As the commander of each faction, you have access to specific technology and military units, but the two constants across the campaigns that you need to be mindful of are the mineral and gas deposits, which are scattered around the mission maps.
For these resources, you need to build gatherers and refineries to collect them. The game has tutorial missions at the beginning of each campaign, so you can get used to the controls, the new buildings and units, as well as the general gameplay loop. Once you are comfortable with controlling units, organizing your base, and managing your resources, you can then build your army and head out toward undiscovered areas of the map to complete objectives, find new resource deposits, and recruit military units that can aid you in your conquest.

What I like most about StarCraft is how diverse the gameplay is, despite the majority of the game relying on only a few features. While most of your time is spent building troops and gathering resources, each level is unique from one another. This varying level design allows you to alternate your base designs, your defensive strategies, as well as any technological developments you want to give your troops for a strategic edge.

Each level also comes with a rundown of basic mission information - objective details are provided through entertaining cinematics that introduce you to key characters, which you will interact with during the mission. These movies also tell you about the planet you're fighting on, what enemies you should possibly expect, as well as any other plot points the game wants to share for narrative purposes.

And, above all, the whole game has the retro-2.5D aesthetic, which was an animation style used in titles like Age of Empires, Resident Evil (1996), Blade Runner (1997), and Diablo. In comparison to today's animations, it is very janky, and it is probably not worth spending too much time discussing. However, it is a style that I grew up with, and it is one of the many reasons I continue to appreciate StarCraft's unique graphic design.

Another characteristic that I really like is the voice acting for all the military units within the Protoss and Terran factions. Each military unit has their own set of quips and responses for when you order them around. The Protoss are highly-advanced alien warriors; so a lot of their lines are stoic, wise, and professional. Each line nicely reflects the lifestyle and philosophies they have adopted, kind of like how Japan is partly renowned for their samurai, which followed Bushido (also known as the "way of the warrior").

One thing that I dislike, however, is how long everything takes. It is an issue in every strategy game I play, but it is most prevalent in StarCraft. Building your base just takes so... much... time. It can get annoying at times. And, although there are actual methods to speed the process up, sometimes I find myself using the "show me the money" cheat code, just so I can start completing mission objectives sooner. That being said, in comparison to everything the game does well, this complaint should not be taken very seriously.

For being almost 30 years old, StarCraft's control layout, its combat, as well as its base building are all really well-crafted. It still holds up with other strategy games that are coming out today - sometimes it does things better!



++  "SCV GOOD TO GO, SIR"  ++

Overall, StarCraft is a great video game. If you ignore my nostalgia and personal bias for the game, you would still find a phenomenal title, which was built by a group of passionate people. While it is unfortunate to hear about the work environment Blizzard has nutured, I am glad that, at one point, they were a good company full of passionate people. People who, in turn, developed a great game, and gave me something to bond with my grandpa over.

I recommend checking out the game yourself, should you be interested in RTS games. It is only available on computers, unfortunately, but it is still a great title to pick up and try out yourself. I also recommend checking out the sequel: StarCraft II, should you enjoy this game - the franchise rarely misses.

Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you enjoyed what you read, please share the site with your friends - I would love to keep the discussion going.
If you all are feeling generous, please feel free to donate to my work through the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is appreciated, and Patreon members will be given a shoutout on any future work that I do.
Also, if you would like to check out my other work, you can use the YouTube link located on the "About Me" page of this website. I post some playthrough videos there, as well as animated videos from time to time. Feel free to take a look!
 
Anyways, thank you all again for reading. As always, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all for the next review.
 
PEACE OUT!



I give the Stimpack a 9 out of 10

When taking a quick glance at the video game industry, it is always hard for me to sit with the fact that there is so much unused potential.
Does anyone else notice that unfortunate fact? Like, rather than innovating, or creating something new, developers are following trends - kind of like how people follow pop culture.

Take a look at Fortnite; a very popular battle-royale game that ties other famous media into its battle-pass, its game market, and even its gameplay when you are fighting other players. With that example in mind, how are other modern multiplayers structured?

Like Call of Duty, for example? Well, if you have played the recent titles, you would know they have a battle-royale game mode, a battle-pass, and content that comes from celebrity and media collaborations - very similar to Fortnite.
Another example could be Five Nights at Freddy's and all the mascot-horror parodies that stemmed from that franchise - Garten of Banban and Poppy Playtime to name a few.

The point is, the industry has been sticking to specific formats (or themes) for money, and I do not doubt the developers doing this will move on to other formats once their current ones are considered "overused". I mean, society did it with zombies back in the late 2000's and early 2010's, so this is not - necessarily - a new revelation, to say the least.
That being said, though, I genuinely think there is a staggering lack of video games that actually innovate on previously-established genres. More specifically, I think the concepts behind classical horror have been lost within the industry, and I think it would benefit us to see their return to the limelight.

Now, I just want to state that this is, by no means, a critique on the creative minds within the entire video game industry. It is pretty difficult to come up with any original idea in the year 2025 and then go make a game out of it. And, after all, there are many people out in the world still delivering fun, unique, and innovative titles, regardless of whether or not their idea is something "never seen before".

And when it comes to the horror genre, fear is incredibly subjective. You know, not everyone prefers getting scared the same way. That being said, though, it would be amazing to see some variety back in games - horror titles specifically. I, personally, want to see more titles with cryptic puzzles, strategic inventory management, and suspense when the game is trying to scare me. And, funny enough, these are all qualities Resident Evil: Zero has.



||  THE DOOR TO SAFETY IS SHUT  ||

The first time I played Resident Evil: Zero was back in April, 2020. I was playing through the entire series in preparation for the 2021 release of Resident Evil: Village. It was, actually the first-ever review I wrote, back when I was still on Instagram!

And, after my first playthrough of Resident Evil: Zero, I thought the game was alright.

It played very similar to Resident Evil (2002): the tank controls were the same, there was a collection of confusing puzzles, a strict inventory system, and even tense combat scenarios that you could avoid if given the chance.
All of those aspects had their strengths and weaknesses, and it was nice seeing all the new mechanics blend with my use of the old ones. Overall, I thought it was good title.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Resident Evil: Zero focuses on "bravo team", a group from Raccoon City Police Department's "Special Tactics And Rescue Service" (or STARS) division. You might think you have seen STARS members before, and you probably have!
STARS's alpha team members make an appearance in the franchise's other titles like Resident Evil (2002), Resident Evil 3, as well as Resident Evil: 5. In those games, you play as members like Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine.

Anyway, the main character that is part of bravo team, and one of the characters you play as in Resident Evil: Zero, is Rebecca Chambers. Rebecca is a rookie medic for her team, and was sent into the Arklay mountains to investigate a series of murders and disappearances. Once she and her team arrives, Rebecca finds an overturned police vehicle, with paperwork detailing the transfer of the war criminal known as Billy Coen.

Billy is the second playable character of the game. He was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. During one of his deployments, though, he was framed for murder and arrested. As a playable character in Resident Evil: Zero, there is a mechanic available that allows you to swap controls between him and Rebecca. In addition to the player-swap mechanic, the game also allows you to swap inventory items between the two. This led to some great puzzle designs, and I was really happy to see the frequent use of such clever mechanics; but, I digress.

After finding the overturned police vehicle, the mission starts to go wrong. The team divides itself, leaving many of the members vulnerable to the zombies roaming the woods. This leads to two members of bravo team taking serious injuries and eventually dying. To make things worse, Rebecca finds herself trapped on a train with zombies, and must put her trust in Billy Coen so that she can escape.



||  INK RIBBONS & TYPEWRITERS  ||

The entirety of Resident Evil: Zero is divided into four main sections: the train, the Umbrella Training Facility, the training facility's basement laboratory, and then the factory. The first section is the train, which allows you to get accustom to the tank controls, the player-swap mechanic, as well as the fixed camera angles for your game's perspective. Funny enough, the fixed camera was actually my first complaint about the game.

Now, before I say anything else, I just want to preface my statement by saying this was not a major complaint. I understand how rendering worked back then when it came to limitations for a game's graphics. It makes sense that, in order for Resident Evil: Zero to look the way it does, there were some sacrifices that had to be made.

I understand that much; but, after my most-recent playthrough, I feel the game could have probably benefitted from updated controls and camera angles. After all, the game was still using what was essentially controls and camera mechanics from 1996.

Regardless of that issue, the train segment is probably my favorite part of the game. The hallways are cramped, so your movement is limited; there are usually only two directions you can travel; and, on top of everything I just said, you have a variety of enemies that are on the train with you. The train section also separates Rebecca and Billy at some point, and the game requires you to swap between them in order to solve a puzzle, which was a lot of fun.

In my opinion, the train segment of Resident Evil: Zero captures everything I like within a horror game. The train is eerie, there is very little space for movement and fighting, and there is always a sense of dread to everywhere you go. I also love how, even though you have weapons capable of killing the enemies, it does not change the fact that you are weak.

Disempowerment is a concept that is not necessarily new to the horror genre, but I feel that it is a tool very few developers have managed to use correctly. Silent Hill is the prime example that comes to mind; the developers knew how to balance the player's strength without taking anything away from the game's other features. The game is built with combat in mind, but it is not the main aspect defining the player's experience.
The main feature is the environment, and it should be for a lot of these games. It is the main focus in Resident Evil: Zero, and it is one of my favorite aspects about the game.

This is a slight tangent, but I loved how the environment was so crucial to how you played in Resident Evil (2002). The game's map displays what rooms are available to explore, but there are various side entrances and shortcuts scattered throughout the entire mansion. Finding these shortcuts, and memorizing routes is one of the most important aspects of the game.
Because, when the game eventually requires the player to fetch an antidote, but they accessed a certain door too many times, the door is now broken and the player now needs to use a longer route through the mansion to complete their objective.
Memorization and familiarization of the game's environment is key, because the player actively changes their outcome (not just the fates of the other characters) with how they play the game.

This is what I loved about Resident Evil: Zero during my revisit. Rather than put the player on a pedestal, the game makes a change to the environment and forces the player to adapt to it. The game trains its player to view map memorization and item utilization as effective means of survival. The game's collection of enemies teach the player combat, but also teach the player that it is unmaintainable and running can sometimes be as effective as fighting.
And, rather than put emphasis on jump-scares and loud noises, the game highlights the player's inability to truly dominate the world and its enemies, and I love that. After all, what is more terrifying than knowing, no matter what you do, and no matter what weapon you use, you cannot kill the things that are actively hunting you?

It is after this train section that Billy and Rebecca find themselves in the Umbrella Training Facility, which is similar in style to the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil (2002). Here, Billy and Rebecca solve a variety of puzzles, fight some enemies, and collect keys to unlock new areas. There is even a boss fight where Billy and Rebecca need to fight a mutated centipede, and it is pretty cool.
Overall, I liked the manor for what it was. It had more puzzles and combat encounters than the train, which is always a nice thing to see in a horror game. My only issue is I never had the same level of fear after completing the train segment - most of the time, I was ambivalent to how I was supposed to be feeling. The game was suspenseful, do not get me wrong, but it was not... scary.

After the facility, the game plays out similar to Resident Evil (2002): you access a laboratory, find out what Umbrella has been developing, set their facility to self-destruct, and then fight a massive final boss to end the game.
I like that the game ends on an open note for Billy and Rebecca. After all, this is a prequel to the events of Resident Evil (2002), so it makes sense that Rebecca eventually finds her way to the Spencer Mansion. As for Billy, though, I like to imagine that he was able to find his way out of the woods and enjoy his freedom, but I could be wrong - who knows?
My only issue with how the game ends is the gameplay leading up to the credits. It felt rushed, and it did not feel very original like the rest of the game did. Like I (somewhat) said before, it felt like a copy of the ending experience to Resident Evil (2002), where there was a secret lab you needed to destroy and a final boss you needed to fight. It would have been cooler to have more puzzles or tense combat encounters in the factory than what was actually developed. But, I cannot say much about that - Resident Evil: Zero released literally 8 months after CAPCOM made Resident Evil (2002) for the Nintendo GameCube, so maybe they just did not have time.



||  WELL DONE, THAT RUN DESERVES AN S+  ||

In the end, I had a great time revisiting Resident Evil: Zero. I ended up finding new reasons why I like the game, and new reasons to why I dislike it. But, most importantly, I found what I enjoy in games - horror titles specifically. I also found, what I believe, is missing in our modern game industry.

I find that, in comparison to modern horror titles, Resident Evil: Zero has its focus set on traditional, classic horror elements, and they emphasize those through a new and creative setting. Rather than be another jump-scare simulator, the game takes its time to tell a story; and, more importantly, the game takes its time to build fear. It allows the player to imagine what may be waiting for them, rather than outright showing them through a cheap scare. Furthermore, rather than being its own, separate feature, the story uses its characters and plot points to build the combat and fear elements, all of which help connect the player to the game a little bit more.

I cannot recommend this game enough. If you can look past the archaic controls, the fixed camera angles, and mediocre voice acting, you will find a horror game worth your time. You can find Resident Evil: Zero on the Nintendo eShop, Steam, the PlayStation store, as well as the Xbox store.

 Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you enjoyed what you read, please share the site with your friends - I would love to keep the discussion going.
 If you all are feeling generous, please feel free to donate to my work through the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is appreciated, and Patreon members will be given a shoutout on any future work that I do.
 Also, if you would like to check out my other work, you can use the YouTube link located on the "About Me" page of this website. I post some playthrough videos there, as well as animated videos from time to time. Feel free to take a look!
 
 Anyways, thank you all again for reading. As always, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all for the next review.
 
 PEACE OUT!



I give Albert Wesker an 8 out of 10

A few years ago, there was a TikTok trend created by the user, Saskia Cort. The point of the trend was for girls to ask their boyfriends how often they thought about the Roman Empire, and the trend itself was fairly popular for a couple years after its debut on social media back in 2022. After a while, people would even start defining the various hyper-fixations they had as the "Roman Empire" of their lives, and I am certainly no exception.
 
 I am not one to consider myself very... focused, for the lack of a better term? Half of the day, I am usually daydreaming about a movie I watched, or a video game I played, or even a rebuttal to an argument I was in eleven years ago. But that does not stop me from having my own interests. Furthermore, it certainly does not stop me from dropping everything in my life to pursue one, distinct piece of media for an unhealthy amount of time.
 
 For example, I distinctly remember watching Predator, the Arnold Schwarzenegger one, for nearly three years of my life, and literally nothing else...

Why did I do that? Who knows! Why am I telling you all this? You got me, partner...
Anyway, despite my many fixations throughout the 20-plus years I have been alive, there has always been one that has stuck with me since I was a mere child. And, rather than fade away over the years like any other interest I have had, it has stayed in the back of my mind and waited for me to pursue it again.

That piece of media I am talking about - my personal "Roman Empire", it is none other than Age of Empires, specifically Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.



♖  THE BEGINNING OF AN ADDICTION  ♖

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a game originally developed by Ensemble Studios back in 1999. The game focused on real-time strategy and city building elements, similar to games like Command & Conquer and Starcraft. In the game, you (the player) are in charge of building your kingdom from scratch, and then using your army to defeat your opponent, which could be another player or an AI bot. The game has a variety of settings you can use to customize your matches, such as technology limitations, population caps, as well as a resource prohibitor for when you are designing your own world maps.

The series also comes with a variety of combat campaigns based off historic kingdoms and dynasties. My personal favorite is the William Wallace campaign, which requires you to lead the Scottish through a fierce battle against British troops.

It is a wonderful game filled with entertaining gameplay, catchy music, and amazing graphics. The story behind Age of Empires II's development is also super interesting, should you ever want to read into it yourself.
 Apparently, the programming team made it a point to code the whole thing in Assembly to achieve high performance, which just sounds like hell to me. I had to program a swamp cooler in Assembly for a computer science course, and it took me 16 weeks of agonizing pain and sorrow. These guys programmed a whole game with that language in 2-3 years.
 
 Truly, old programmers were built different.

Anyway, the team also delayed the game for an entire year. Apparently, this was because they added in way too many features to the base game, and they didn't have time to polish them all. So, to get funding for the extension, they just ported all their unfinished features into a completely new expansion pack called The Rise of Rome.

If the mention of that expansion pack is not a subtle shade of irony for the entire point of this review, then I do not know what is.

Uh, anyway, the game is really fun, and I've been playing it since I was five or six years old. I did not even want to play the game originally; my grandpa just sat me down and taught me how to play because he was tired of me watching him every time I came over to visit.

Little did he know that I would end up with a massive addiction to the game. I guess, after dumping literal years of my life into the game, I can understand why he plays it for 18 out of the 24 hours he has within a day.



♖  THE AGE OF KINGS vs. ALL THE OTHER ONES  ♖

Now, I know that what I am about to say is going to sound controversial. I also know that, when comparing my opinion to what the audience says about the series, I am going to sound like an insane man.

But, if I am being completely honest, I do not enjoy any of the other Age of Empires games outside of the first two.
 
 The reason being is because there is such a steep learning curve you need to acclimate to in Age of Empires III and IV, and it makes learning the games so much more tedious and irritating to me. I have talked to people online about the latter games in the series, and they compare their game systems to ones that can be found in titles like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis. Which, to a certain point, I agree, and I guess that is why I do not really play those games either.

I am not saying Age of Empires III and IV are bad, by any means, but they certainly do not capture my interest the way the simplicity of Age of Empires II does, and it kind of bums me out. That is because the gameplay of Age of Empires III and IV are very unique, which is something I can say for all the installments of the series. None of them play the same, for the most part. However, if you are going to bog down my experience with minute detail, the least you can do is make it a little more interesting.
Like, I want to make a wall of bombardment towers that kill literally anything that steps into their aggression radii. That sounds cool. You know what else sounds cool? Using 50 villagers to farm materials so that I can re-create the D-Day landings with musketeers and ironclads against the game's AI, which has not really been improved on at all in terms of intelligence and performance.

What I do not want is to learn the economic features of the game solely for the purpose of micromanaging the society I am building. That is not where my enjoyment ultimately lies.

But hey, everyone is different. If you like the features found in Age of Empires III and IV, more power to you - I am happy you are enjoying yourself. As for me, I am sticking with my tried and true, and I'm comfortable recommending it to anyone who wants to step into the RTS genre for themselves.



♖  YOU ARE VICTORIOUS  ♖

Overall, Age of Empires is a classic RTS series that has a large list of strengths and weaknesses for each of its titles. Some are intricate in nature, while others are simply a city-builder simulation with a few standard RTS elements mixed in for fun.
 
 That being said, the fact that each game is so unique in terms of their graphic, sound, and feature design, it would be improper of me to put any sort of bias toward one over the other in terms of recommendation. I feel that, when discussing the series to interested parties, the most important part about a game is that you have fun.
 
 So, if you are interested in Age of Empires after reading this little review, please take your time and find the installment that satisfies you the most. For me, I love Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, but I have a friend who really loves Age of Empires IV, specifically the Knights of Cross and Rose expansion pack.
 
I am pretty sure you can get all the games on Steam, as well as any DLC that they might have. If you guys find an alternative source, feel free to text me about it, because it is getting really difficult trying to find these games nowadays, and I feel weird that my childhood games are now on online retro shops.
 
Anyway, thank you all so much for reading the review today! If you enjoyed the review, please share with your friends so we can keep the discussion going.
 
If you would like to see more content, I have a YouTube and an Instagram account that I publish work to, so feel free to use the links on the "About Me" page of this website to check them out.
 
Also, if you would like to show your support for my work, I have a PayPal and a Patreon account you can donate to. Donating not only gives you a shoutout on the next upload I make (for the month you donate in), but it also gives you a spot of recognition on the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is greatly appreciated!
 
I think that is all that I want to say for now. Again, thank you all for joining me today. Until next time, I am Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next review.
 
PEACE OUT!!
 
 
 
I give the "Cheese Steak Jimmy's" a 9 out of 10

It is always a wonderful feeling when you get to experience a uniquely beautiful work of art. Whether it be a melody, or a book, or even a film; whatever the case may be, sometimes the experience can become an endearing memory.
 
 That is something I can relate to - in many ways. Sable, for example, is a video game that I first played during my freshman year of college. The whole game is about finding your own path, and to step out into the world unafraid of what will come. For a kid who thought he was never going to go to college, and therefore didn't really have a plan for his life, it really stuck with me. It made me think about the bigger picture, and eventually, it helped me find my own purpose.
 
 And that is the point of all art, right? It is meant to challenge your perspective and make you think - if not about yourself, then everything surrounding you. Sometimes it can make you feel for people you haven't even met, and it can make you feel a certain way that is, well, indescribable.
 
 This is exactly how I felt after I completed Ghost of Tsushima for the first time. For those of you who don't know what it is, Ghost of Tsushima is a 2020 action-adventure title created by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game focuses on the Jin Sakai, the sole heir to Clan Sakai, and a samurai sent to defend his home. After experiencing defeat at Komoda Beach, Jin travels across the island of Tsushima to rescue his uncle, Lord Shimura, from the invading Mongols. The game focuses on Jin's psyche, and how his notions of honor, justice, and family can turn his black-and-white perspective of the world to a murky grey of doing what is right at the expense of one's morals.

Overall, I loved the game. I thought the combat mechanics we're well designed, the world was incredibly detailed, and the story was compelling enough to keep me invested all the way through. Some gripes I had involved the absence of a skip feature for the cinematics that play, and I also complained that exploration can be a bit slow at times.

And, while I maintain my stance on those initial claims, my recent playthrough has made me want to revisit this game and talk about it a little bit more. So, without further ado, let's get into it.



❖  THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI  ❖

One element that I loved seeing again was the conflict inside Jin Sakai's conscience. On one hand, he was raised to obey law and to deliver justice face-to-face. However, as he befriends Yuna, a thief from Yarikawa village, he slowly begins adopting combat strategies that his childhood mentors would denounce - his uncle, especially.
So, he tries to excuse the behavior. Constantly, when you do a sneak attack, or if you assassinate someone, you can hear Jin trying to rationalize it to himself. Even as you fight alongside your allies, they inquire about these new methods Yuna taught you, showing that Jin has broken his code as a samurai. Eventually, when you save Lord Shimura, you must choose what path you will follow: the way of the samurai, or the way of the ghost.

I absolutely loved seeing this character progression a second time around, especially when playing on lethal mode. Since I could now die in two hits or less on lethal difficulty, I was at a disadvantage when I met my opponents face-to-face. Therefore, it would be smarter to use the stealth abilities Yuna taught me. But now I'm conflicted, because I'm breaking my code as a samurai, as well as my promise to Lord Shimura. So, what am I supposed to do?

This aspect of Ghost of Tsushima is such a wonderful narrative element to have, especially in the video game. It not only adds to the story, but it also immerses the player into the characters and their dilemmas. If the player doesn't care about your conflict, they are going to get bored of the game, especially if the open world is so repetitive.

This leads me to my next point, which happens to be my first complaint in this review.



❖  JIN SAKAI: THE COLLECTOR OF TSUSHIMA  ❖

One main element of the game that I found to be a persistent issue in both my playthroughs is how tedious exploration can be sometimes. If you do not know already, I like to try my best to find everything in a game to 100% it. And, as much as I enjoy Ghost of Tsushima, the collectibles (outside of the hot springs, the bamboo stands, and the fox statues) are not worth going through another round of exploring all three parts of the island. A lot of the stuff in this game is meant for customization; and to be honest, customizing Jin Sakai's outfit is fun. However, it was not worth going through hours of exploration again, especially since I was able to die faster with the increased difficulty.

That's the main issue I found on the higher difficulty settings. While I ended up using the ghost tools a lot more often, I ended up not exploring as much, and I would just try my luck at collecting upgrade materials in the various camps you can annex from the Mongols. I didn't want to risk having to sitting through a death animation and then a black loading screen just to collect twenty linen from two ronin. To me, the game has a balancing issue, and it is a lot more prevalent in returning playthroughs than it is during your first experience.

Another issue that I found was the non-skippable cutscenes. Most of the cinematics are just exposition-dumping, and it is really hard to sit through when you've gone through every mission once before. It really opened my eyes to the fact that a lot of this game is a movie, and gameplay is broken quite often when completing main missions. While I did not hate the fact that I couldn't skip a cinematic, it would have been nice to have a feature for that.

And it is not all bad. Having no skip option made me appreciate the other moments of dialogue you can find throughout the game. I especially enjoyed the moments where you choose conversation topics during gameplay, like when you're riding your horse with Lady Masako and trying to comfort her, or when you are consoling Sensei Ishikawa during your pursuit for Tomoe.
The one thing I found about Ghost of Tsushima is it can always divert your attention to another well-polished gameplay element if one specific element is getting stale. I sometimes overlook the fact that some games do something similar, so I'm happy that I caught it on this second playthrough.
 
 
 
 ❖  THE GHOST OF TSUSHIMA  ❖
 
 My favorite part about the entire game is the ending duel between Jin and Lord Shimura. After defeating Shimura in the duel, you have the choice to give him an honorable death, or to spare him. And, personally, I chose to spare him in both of my playthroughs.
 
 And this exact moment in the game, this choice that I decided to make, is why Ghost of Tsushima is a brilliant work of art. The entire game, you see a tug-of-war between two competing personalities within Jin Sakai. Both, however, are aiming to achieve the same goal: to rescue Lord Shimura, and to save the island of Tsushima from Khotun Khan and his Mongol forces. The only difference is what honor means to you, the player.
 Does honor mean upholding tradition and maintaining the established order for justice to ensue; or does it mean to take justice into your own hands and fight for others using unconventional methods?
 
 It not only challenges Jin's beliefs, but also your own as you begin to empathize with the characters of the game. Each narrative is compelling enough to convince you that either side is right, but only one choice can be made. And that decision the game leaves you with, that feeling of whether you did the right thing; that is why I will always come back to play Ghost of Tsushima, and why I will always consider it to be one of the best pieces of modern interactive art.
 
Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you enjoyed what you read, please share the site with your friends - I'd love to keep the discussion going.
If you would like to check out the game yourself, there is a version of the game on Steam that you can get for $60, and there are PlayStation copies that sell for $70 apiece. Keep in mind that both include the new DLC islands, because both are the "Director's Cut" versions of the original game. If you decide to play it, let me know what you think!
If you all are feeling generous, please feel free to donate to my work through the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is appreciated, and Patreon members will be given a shoutout on any future work that I do.
Also, if you would like to check out my other work, you can use the YouTube link located on the "About Me" page of this website. I post some playthrough videos there, and I'm also making another animated video, so keep your ears open for more information on that!
 
Anyways, thank you all again for reading. As always, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all for the next review.
 
PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
I give Kage/Nobu an 8 out of 10 

The first time I played Uncharted was sometime during November back in 2011. In a Walmart a few minutes from my house, I'm helping my mom get the weekly groceries. Along for the ride is my older sister, as well as my younger brother - both are helping push the cart, while also calculating whether or not we went over our weekly grocery budget. As we walk around the store, we pass the electronics section. On this particular day, inside one of the game aisles was a playable demo for the PlayStation 3. Curious, I broke away from my mom and siblings to take a look. Walking up to the console, that's when I saw it.

There, loaded on the screen, was a demo of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.

Now, I'm sure it's no secret that I love video games. But, before I ever wanted to become a game developer, did you know that I wanted to be a treasure hunter? As a kid, I was entranced by stories like Treasure Island, Atlantis, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones, and Jewel of The Nile. Something about them - the hidden treasure, the action, the betrayal, and just the thought of exploring new places enveloped me in an intoxicating desire to become an explorer.

So, as I stood in front of the Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception booth in my bustling Walmart, I'm immediately entranced. And, with no hesitation, I pick up the controller, and I click "start."

 ≋  SIC PARVIS MAGNA  ≋

Now, I'd like to make it clear that, after playing the demo, I was not able to experience the Uncharted series until much later in my life. In reality, it was only until I was in college that I began the journey of Nathan Drake, a young treasure hunter exploring the coast of Panama with the American journalist, Elena Fisher.

Using a fishing boat, Nathan retrieves the sea-buried coffin of Sir Francis Drake, and reveals to Elena the coffin holds no body, but rather the privateer's journal. Finding this, Nathan explains that they are now one step closer to finding Drake's lost treasure, which just so happens to be El Dorado. Not the city, though; in fact, it's revealed later in the game that El Dorado is a statue made of cursed Aztec gold, which also happens to turn people into monsters if they are near it for too long.
Anyway, the moment is short-lived, because soon after, pirates hired by the game's antagonist, Gabriel Roman, begin to attack the fishing boat. After successfully fighting them off, Nathan, Elena, and Nathan's long-time friend, Sully, find themselves in a race against time and Gabriel as they take to the jungles of the Amazon, trying to find the treasure Sir Francis Drake left buried hundreds of years ago.

I won't say Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is my favorite game out of the series, but I will praise the game for being a great title for its time.

At its release in 2007, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune provided an experience complete with fun action sequences, fantastic music and sound design, as well as an innovative third-person narrative for players to enjoy. To be honest, I'm surprised it became so successful, because if you look at the list of games released during that year, you'd find that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune released alongside games like: Bioshock, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Halo 3, and even Super Mario Galaxy.

To have that kind of competition and still managing to come out as one of the best action-adventure games in the industry is a marvelous feat in and of itself.

But, what I really want to highlight about the game isn't its success against other industry giants. Rather, what I want to talk about next is where Uncharted: Drake's Fortune took the series afterward. After the first game's success, Naughty Dog took to their lab again and began working on their 2009 title: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.



≋  THE SECRETS OF SHAMBHALA & THE SAND  ≋

While not being my favorite of the series either, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is pretty special to me. You see, when I first got my PlayStation, I went over to a friend's house during finals week, and we ended up playing through the entire game in one, 13-hour stretch.

While it didn't stray far from the original formula, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves managed to tell an equally-compelling story, while also introducing a small cast of new characters. The story focuses on Nathan Drake, who has gotten back into treasure hunting through the influence of an old friend, Harry Flynn, as well as a former lover, Chloe Frazer. After breaking into the Istanbul Palace Museum, Nathan finds a map to Shangri-La, a mythical city in Tibet's Kunlun mountains that is known to hold the secret of immortality. However, after being double-crossed by Harry, Nathan is sent to a Turkish prison, where he spends the next few months before Chloe and Sully free him. Free at last, Nathan, Chloe, Sully, and eventually Elena all make their way to the Kunlun mountains, where they begin the fight against Harry for the secret of immortality.

In all, it was nice to see a change in the game's setting and sound design, which is something I appreciate seeing in all the titles. And, while the story doesn't stray far from being an action-packed, treasure-hunting escapade following a rag-tag group of explorers, each game has its own style to it, giving the player a unique experience throughout each adventure. Also, all of the voice actors absolutely crush their roles - it's one of my favorite parts of each game.

Anyway, after completing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, I finally came back to the third game. In this title, Nathan and Sully face another treasure hunter known as Katherine Marlow, who is attempting to find the "Atlantis of the Sands". This city is known as Ubar, and Nathan follows Katherine to the ancient city to stop her from finding a powerful hallucinogen that she'll use for global domination. With the help of Sully and Elena, Nathan is able to stop Katherine by the end of the game, and is even able to propose to Elena after many years of being off-and-on.

In my humble opinion, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception ties with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy as being the weakest installment in the series. While I didn't hate the game, and even though its story was in a different setting with different characters, I felt like the formula was getting old. Aside from the killer soundtrack, there was not much else to the game, and I'm sure Naughty Dog felt the same. Because, after the third installment, Naughty Dog developed Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

 
≋  A MAN OF FORTUNE  ≋

The fourth title picks up years after the third installment. After the proposal in Yemen, Elena and Nathan retire from treasure hunting and get married. Now, as an underwater salvage employee, Nathan leads a normal life with Elena in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. However, after finishing up some paperwork at the office, Nathan receives an unexpected visitor: his older brother Sam. Surprised by his appearance, because Sam is supposed to be dead, the two catch up, and it is revealed to Nathan that Sam needs a large sum of money to pay off a South-American gangster, Hector Alcázar.
Teaming up with his long-lost brother, Nathan, Sam, and Sully take to Madagascar to find the lost treasure of Henry Avery, a legendary pirate from the 17th century. It is through their efforts that they find Libertalia, a secret pirate colony located on a small island off the coast of Madagascar. Now, in a frantic race against their old associate, Rafe Adler, the two brothers attempt to find Avery's treasure, or die trying.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End isn't my favorite in the series simply for being the final chapter of Nathan's story. Rather, the game was able to take an old formula and give it life again. Through a new narrative, along with a cast of new and returning characters, Naughty Dog was able to tell one final story. Not just a story of hidden gold, but also a story of action, adventure, romance, and betrayal. Combined with the game's impeccable graphics design, fluid gameplay, and a fantastic soundtrack by Henry Jackman, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a game that will go down as one of the best action-adventure titles in gaming history.

≋  THAT'S WHAT HISTORY TELLS US  ≋

Overall, the Uncharted series is a wonderful collection of games, and I strongly recommend it. The games are not only technical works of art, but they are also a compilation of experiences that remind me of stories that made me want to pursue treasure hunting in the first place. It is a wonderful thing to have such a fantastic set of games in my library, because each title will never grow old, no matter how much time passes.

If you have not experienced any of the Uncharted games yourself, I highly recommend finding a copy of the Nathan Drake Collection, which is the first three games remastered for the PlayStation 4. There is also a copy of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy on Steam if you do not have access to a PlayStation that can run the first three titles. If you decide to play them, let me know what you think - I'd love to keep the discussion going.

Thank you all so much for reading the review. Sorry that I did not dive too much into the games - this review would have been way too long if I did a breakdown of each title. While I have complaints with the difficulty system, as well as the clunky movement and combat mechanics in each game, I don't think they should hinder your choice to play the games - they certainly didn't stop me. In all, each game was great, and I'm glad I was able to briefly cover what I liked about each one without feeling like I was rambling.

If you would like to see more of my work, I have a YouTube channel that I post gameplay videos to. You can access that, as well as my Instagram account using the links on the "About Me" page of this website.

Also, if you are feeling generous and would like to show your support, you can use the two links on the "Donations" page of this website to contribute to my work. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

Anyways, thank you all again for reading. As always, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next review.

PEACE OUT!



I give the Pistole an 8 out of 10

The history of platformers spans back quite a while.
 
 Though a lot of people like to credit Donkey Kong (1981) as the first-ever platformer, not a lot of people know about the 1980 arcade cabinet: Space Panic, which revolved around you, the player, moving up and down ladders in order to trap enemies in small holes.

You see Space Panic was the first platformer game; and, with games like Crazy Climber, Elevator Action, and Lode Runner being added to the group around the same time, the genre eventually became known as "climbing games."
 
 However, when Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, the genre was renamed to "platformers." Now, instead of a static screen full of ladders, games became dynamic - their enemy placements and platform designs changing in real time as the player runs across the screen.
 
 While this innovation gave way to a wide variety of titles, there is one specific category that, I believe, took heavy inspiration from those early games I briefly mentioned: the Metroidvania genre.
 The gameplay of the genre mainly focuses on you, the player, navigating through various rooms; each one having its own obstacles, enemies, etc. While there may be other mechanics involved, such as combat, the main idea is to navigate the room's platforms to unlock new rooms.
While I'm not a hugefan of platformer games, I can respect them. After all, Mario is still one of the top best-selling franchises within the video game industry to this day. There are also times where I have enjoyed a platformer title; and one that I would like to discuss today is Animal Well, which took me by surprise.




❤︎  TELL ME ABOUT THE RABBITS  ❤︎

I think the best part about Animal Well is that it is deceptively simple. From the moment you start the game, you are jumping and climbing across various platforms to collect items. As you explore and unlock new rooms with these items, your venture displays to a map, which expands further with every new room, or area of the well, that you find.

To have my exploration efforts reveal an endless array of rooms, each one with its own unique design and puzzle, made me draw even closer to my computer screen as I played. Items that I found in the depths of one area allowed me to further explore areas in a completely different area. Zooming out to see a large grid of caves, pits, elevators, and ladders had me feverishly looking for hidden pathways that I could add to the already-stunning collection of rooms that I had visited.

I personally love when games make their areas interconnected, despite each area having its own design. Games like Dark Souls and Castlevania make their world feel more alive and vaster in comparison to games like Starfield, which has a massive collection of planets with nothing on them. Even when I finished exploring every part of the map in Animal Well, there were still so many puzzles within each room that uncovered another layer of the game for me to experience.

In all honesty, I find it laughably ironic that my experience was that of tumbling down a rabbit hole, especially given the fact that the game's protagonist is a rabbit. I met each new discovery with a smile, and I explored the game with a child-like whimsicality a lot of titles do not evoke in their own gameplay. For example, I like exploring the island of Tsushima as Jin Sakai because the reward I will get, if nothing else, is uncovering previously-hidden territory; I don't like exploring the sky islands (or depths) of Hyrule as Link because, outside of being a cheap repetition of the first game, it only serves to make certain parts of the world feel incredibly irrelevant an unnecessary.

You never feel like your time is wasted with Animal Well. And, aside from the design aspects, the game also does a phenomenal job with its various gameplay features, and I think it is time we discuss them thoroughly.
 
 
 
 ❤︎  A FEW SURPRISE TOOLS THAT WILL HELP US LATER  ❤︎
 
 Unlike other platformer games, Animal Well does not have any combat mechanics. Instead, the game supplies a variety of tools that you can easily switch between using the inventory system the game offers. One of these tools is a flute, and if you are careful, you could find hidden codes to play on said flute. One of these codes takes you to the game's fast-travel hub, which allows you to travel between the game's primary areas whenever you want. The flute also acts as a light source, as well as a lure to attract other animals.
 
 As for the other tools, there is a frisbee that can flip switches, as well as carry you across large gaps. There is also a bubble wand, which you can use to reach high and low places. If there are colorful bricks blocking your path, there's a rubber ball you can use to destroy them like in Breakout (1976). Lastly, if there are ghosts blocking a platform, you can pull out a lantern and make them fade away.

The possibilities are endless, and the game kept reminding me of that fact the more I played. If I were to give another reason for why I love this game, it would be the game's clever attempts to subvert my boredom through its gameplay. While traversal can still be annoying, it was wonderful to explore the world using multiple playstyles rather than using one specific tool repeatedly.

While I can't say much about the music, I absolutely love the sound and character designs. There are four main animals that you will need to trick to unlock the final part of the game, and each one has such a creative spin to their design. For example, the chameleon uses its camouflage to hide, then uses its tongue to grab and eat you. Another example could be the dogs, which are distracted by your frisbee if you throw it to them. Each animal has its own strengths and weakness, including you. So, I was happy to see that the developers blended the tools with the other gameplay features, which made a fun experience for the player to enjoy.




  ❤︎  WOULD YOU LIKE A NICE EGG IN THIS TRYING TIME?  ❤︎

Another aspect of Animal Well that really took my experience to the next level was the optional quest to find all the collectibles. As you go through the game, you will eventually stumble across chests, which have various eggs inside of them. Finding them will unlock new tools as you progress through the game; and, if you are able to find all of them, you are then able to achieve the true ending to the game.
 
 Now, while some of these eggs were in easy places, some of the late-game eggs were incredibly well hidden, and I loved it. It not only reinforced the importance of all your utilities, but it also allowed you to improvise the process of obtaining the egg. One of my favorite moments was when I didn't have the frisbee tool, which could carry me across a gap to reach an egg chest. So, I used the bubble wand instead. Overall, it was refreshing to play a game that didn't handhold me or restrict me from playing the game a certain way. I hate when titles do that, which is another reason I love Animal Well so much.

 
 
  ❤︎  CONCLUSION  ❤︎
 
 Overall, I had a lot of fun with Animal Well. I know it took me a while to sit down and play it, but I'm glad I eventually did. It was a fantastic experience, one that supplied a fun escape back to a simpler time in the game industry. A time where we climbed ladders and explored rooms to get a high score, without the fear of ever getting bored.
 
While I had a few issues with the controls, my complaints weren't enough to break my immersion, and I'm happy they didn't. In the end, I can't think of a reason not to check this game out and try it yourself. I highly recommend seeking this game out on Steam, the Nintendo eShop, Xbox, or on PlayStation. If you decide to play it, send me a message over Instagram and let me know what you think!
 
Thank you all so much for reading this review. Now that school is back in session, I'm a little strapped for time, so I'm sorry if this review seems a little short. Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoyed it, and I hope you share the site with your friends so we can keep the conversation going!
 
If you want to check out my other work, I have a YouTube channel that I post videos to. You can access it through the hyperlink on the "About Me" page of this website if you're curious. Feel free to subscribe and share that account as well to help support this hobby of mine!
 
Also, as another way of showing support, you can donate to my work using the hyperlinks on the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is appreciated!
 
Anyway, that is all for today. Thank you all so much again for reading. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next review.
 
PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
I give the Kangaroo a 10 out of 10

This is just my opinion, but the most important part of every story is the execution of its narrative.

 When we write an argumentative piece, like which flavor of ice cream is the best, we structure our stance around factual statements the audience can potentially relate to. Another example could be when we tell a story, or a joke to friends and family; we construct a standard plot structure that leads us back to a punchline or initial topic of conversation.
 
 The point is, there is always a message we are trying to deliver to our audience. The "meaning" is what we structure our narratives around; and, with skillful writing, all the other elements within our story will serve a purposeful role in delivering that message.
 
 But, it is not really the message that makes a story great. What separates the "greats" from other works is the factor of immersion - specifically the author's skill in tailoring an experience the audience can invest into. Sure, you have a point, but it is how you deliver it that makes your work memorable.
 
 This was a point I often thought about as I played through Heart Machine's 2016 title: Hyper Light Drifter. Created by Alex Preston, the game is a platforming-ARPG that takes heavy inspiration from games like The Legend of Zelda and Diablo. Furthermore, the game is also inspired by Alex Preston's personal experience with congenital heart disease, which is an important note on the story itself, but I will talk about that later in the review.

In all honesty, there is a lot to say about this game, especially when it comes to the narrative. So, because I want to dissect the game for this review, I will be leaving a SPOILER WARNING right here for you all. If you have not seen or played the game before, please stop reading and check it out yourself. I genuinely think the best way you can experience this game is by going in knowing nothing. I will leave some links to the game down below in the CONCLUSION section so you all can check it out, should you want to pause here and experience it yourself.

 Anyway, with all that being said, let us finally start talking about Hyper Light Drifter.
 
 

 ⟐  THE BEGINNING OF AN ADVENTURE  ⟐
 
 The game begins with a long cinematic, which presents a beautiful planet to the player. On the surface, there is a large city with a large crown of light overhanging from the troposphere. This planet is known as the "World of Light," and is the main setting the game's story takes place in.
 
 As the cinematic continues, a relief sculpture highlighting four animals is shown, each one with a block of light that is being offered to a dog figure in the center of the sculpture. As the sculpture is illuminated, the cinematic cuts back to the planet, which is now surrounded by an ominous red hue. The city once underneath a glistening crown of light, is now replaced by a bright square underneath a fragmented crown. As the cinematic continues, a surge of light grows from the city, and it soon blossoms into a magnificent explosion that covers the whole screen.
 
 The cinematic now cuts to a desert void of life. It is only in a drying pool of blood and corpses that we see a living figure: the protagonist of our story, known as the "Drifter." As the bodies fade away, the drifter begins to uncontrollably cough up blood. As the drifter falls to the floor, the puddle of blood underneath grows dark, morphing into a brooding entity known as "Judgement."
 
 The drifter quickly unsheathes their sword, slicing Judgment in two, but it is pointless. Judgment metastasizes, growing larger and nearly surrounding them with its sludge. The drifter runs away, each step turning into a dark pool of Judgment's mass. As the drifter rushes up a flight of stairs on to a platform, a dark storm can be seen on the horizon. Suddenly, a flash of lightning crosses the screen, revealing three massive beings known as "Titans."
 
 Staring in awe at these colossal figures, the drifter stands ready for combat, but there is no need. As a bright flash crosses the screen again, the titans are killed, and their corpses begin to slowly decay in the wind. The drifter, confused, stares at the corpses of these titans before another flash of light takes the cinematic to a new scene. This time, the dog figure from the relief is shown standing with the drifter in an endless valley. As pillars begin to rise from the earth, one of them rises in front of the two, and opens a doorway to the unknown.
 
 The dog beckons the drifter to follow, and they do so. As the drifter enters the darkness, a magnificent crystal known as the "Immortal Cell" rests on a stand in front of them. Slowly, the drifter reaches out, but they are stopped by Judgement, who finally surrounds the drifter and consumes them in its sludge.

The screen goes dark for a moment before opening to a small coastline, where the drifter rests next to a fire. It is here that the game begins, and the drifter sets off to go explore the world of light.
 
 
 
 ⟐  THE WORLD OF LIGHT  ⟐
 
 Now, I'm not going to lie, I had to play through the game multiple times before I was able to understand the story. What I love most about this game is that there is a certain level of deciphering the player must do to understand more about the story.
 
 Sure, there are characters within the game that reveal plot points to the player, but most of the narrative lies within the game's secret rooms, encoded monoliths, as well as area design. If you do not want to go beyond interacting with the characters, and if you are oblivious to the atmospheric storytelling the game has to offer, you might feel very confused about the game when you finish it for the first time.
 
 And I would not blame you, because that's exactly how I felt after my initial experience beating the game. I did not put much thought into decoding the monoliths you can find throughout the game, and I was (somewhat) aware of the plot that unfolded through the NPC stories, as well as the area design. However, I was not putting two-and-two together, and so my awareness amounted to nothing.
 
 However, as I started another playthrough of the game, I was a lot more focused on remembering the various story elements the game presented.
 
 For one, I had a notepad so I could write down notable scenes the game placed throughout the world. Also, I kept track of the secret monoliths, and eventually learned the game's alphabet to decrypt them. And, while I did not need to, I interacted with the game's NPC's so that I could learn their stories again.
 
 I am not joking, this game can go WAY over your head if you are not careful. The closest game I can compare it to is Dark Souls, a game requiring you to read item descriptions to reveal more of the story. It is a little cryptic, but if you are like me and enjoy those kinds of puzzles, it adds a lot more to the experience and immersion. And to be honest, the game's story is worth seeking out in its entire.
 
As I stated at the beginning of this review, the game takes place in the world of light. The world has become a ruin that individuals travel to learn lost knowledge, find advanced technology, and even learn about the world’s history. These travelers are known as "drifters," hence the name of the protagonist. However, there is one drifter that is different from the others in terms of importance, and they are known as the "Librarian." The librarian was once a drifter cursed with the same illness the protagonist has; only, instead of coming to the world of light to find a cure, the librarian spent their time learning the world's lost history.
 
It is through decoding the various monoliths you can find within hidden rooms that you are able to learn the story of the game. While you cannot reveal the whole narrative through these monoliths, there are several main plot points uncovered that can bring sense to the world you explore many years later as the drifter.
 
As it turns out, there were once four clans that inhabited the world of light. There was a lizard tribe that lived in the southern deserts, a raccoon tribe that lived in a forest to the west, an otter tribe living in the wetlands to the east, and a bird tribe living in the northern mountains. At the center of the world lies a vault, which I will get into soon.
 
Each tribe had their own culture and technology, but it was their unified belief in an immortal deity known as the "Jackal" that brought them together, which explains the dog during the game's starting cutscene. Working together to find immortality, the four clans eventually created the immortal cell. However, this creation spawned Judgement, and using the titans, Judgement laid waste to the four clans.
 
It is important to note that the clans did fight back, which explains all the fallen titans you can find scattered throughout the world. Despite this, however, the clans were destroyed. You see, after the war against Judgement and its titans, the four clans sealed Judgement and the immortal cell away far below the city in the vault I mentioned earlier. While Judgement was no longer a present threat, the damage was done, and the oncoming struggles the weakened clans were about to face were too great to recover from.
 
I should note that it is here in the game's lore that the monoliths are not much help, and the job of exploring the ruined world of light for clues falls to the player. As you explore, there are small tidbits of information you can piece together to understand the unfortunate demise of each clan.
 
Going into the crystal forest, for example, you will find the area ridden with green crystals. Some of these crystals even have blue soldiers and raccoons trapped within them. Following the game's atmospheric storytelling, you find out the crystals were used by the raccoons to create guns and melee weapons, which helped destroy the titans. However, after the titans were defeated, an army of blue creatures invaded the woods, forcing the raccoons to engage in another war. As the raccoons made further use of their weapons, the crystals within them became dangerous, resulting in crystalized raccoons whenever a weapon backfired. And, since there are blue soldiers crystalized as well, it is safe to assume they attempted to use the raccoon clan's weapons, not knowing of the fatal design flaw.
 
Another example of storytelling through the game's area design could be found when researching the lizard clan. As it turns out, the lizards were invested into research, specifically on the titans they defeated. Upon entering the desert, you can learn from an NPC's story that the new, primitive lizard inhabitants do not venture into the old research facilities around the desert. Through their story, it is revealed that dangerous creatures live in the facilities, and that they are extremely aggressive. This, combined with exploring the facilities yourself, reveals that the original lizard clan was conducting genetic experiments on the titans to make new creatures and defense tools. However, it was through the experiments that the lizards created incredibly dangerous monsters, which eventually escaped their containment units and killed them all.
 
Now, to me, it is the subtle hints I have just mentioned through both examples that make the story so much more compelling. I have not even mentioned the fact that when you eventually reveal the whole story, it adds further context to the random cutscenes you experience throughout the game. Because, if you pay close attention, you realize those cutscenes are flashbacks to how the world ended, and how the clans sealed Judgement away in the vault after the war.

I just find it amazing how much more detailed the world can get if you decide to invest just a little bit more time into your experience. While it's understandable how irritating it can be to overcome the various hurdles the story has in place, the reward of knowing the game a bit more intimately is satisfying enough to excuse the multiple playthroughs.
 
 
 
 ⟐  COMBAT & EXPLORATION  ⟐
 
 Anyway, aside from the story, I felt the game excelled in quite a few areas.
 
 The soundtrack, first and foremost, is a fantastic portion of this game. Each area and boss have its own music tracks, which transition to other tracks using dynamic music blending. The game has a variety of combat and exploration music, but most of the soundtrack caters to the exploration side of the game - like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Furthermore, the soundtrack was composed by Disasterpeace, the same artist who did the soundtrack for FEZ, which I reviewed a while back if you want to look at my other work.
 
Aside from the music, the game also has a beautifully designed world. Each area of the game, aside from the depths you can access using elevators, has its own design and game mechanics. For example, the mountains in the northern part of the game world are snow-capped, and there is a series of teleportation blocks you can use to navigate the area. Compare that to the crystal forest, which is a large, green area that requires the use of weapons to access secret areas and disable traps.
 
Both elements, combined with the fast-paced combat, merge to create a riveting adventure with sprinkles of combat mixed in to keep things interesting. I personally did not have many complaints with the game - it was easy to understand the game's combat, so no death really felt unfair. I have heard from many people online that searching for secret rooms was a hassle, and that combat would drop their frame rate, and I personally did not have those issues. There are symbols on the floor that highlight a secret room path, and there was a patch made for the game that keeps the FPS at a constant rate of sixty, even on the lowest settings.
 
One thing I would have liked to see a little bit more development on is the underground areas you access. These areas are your main method of transportation when you are trying to unlock the final area of the game, and there are some areas that are locked until you collect a tool later in the game. I think, because of how ambiguous everything could be in the game, it was a little hard to keep track of missed locations, but I found that using a notepad to keep track of your progress really helped with backtracking, especially since the game’s scale can seem big at times.
 
Furthermore, I found the upgrades to be a little disappointing. The only real upgrades I would get were for my guns, which just allowed me to shoot more. So, I would have liked to see a few more upgrades that would have felt more beneficial rather than feeling like I wasted my upgrade points.

Other than that, another thing that I really liked about the game was its enemy design. I liked that each area of the game had its own series of enemies unique to the area. And, yeah, while there were mobs that could be found in every part of the game, it was nice to see a difference when it came to tougher enemies like the bosses.

 
 
 ⟐  THE IMMORTAL CELL & JUDGEMENT  ⟐
 
 The final part of this game that I want to talk about, and my personal favorite part of the game, is the ending. It is known at the start of the game that the drifter is suffering from an illness and is trying to find a cure by locating the immortal cell. However, as you progress through the game, the drifter's illness gets worse, and they soon start seeing illusions of Judgement killing them. Furthermore, as you explore the world, you can take new tools and weapons from the corpses of other drifters, including the librarian.
 
 There is also another drifter who helps you throughout the game. Eventually, you come to find that Judgement killed their spouse and child using the illness, and now they are soon going to die from the same thing. However, in their final act, they give you information about the vault, and how to stop Judgement.
 
 It is by piecing these moments together with the game's story that you realize Judgement has continued to destroy things, even though it's locked in the vault with the immortal cell. In the end, Judgement has been the cause of your illness, just like it has been the cause of every other drifter's illness and death. And, while the drifter could find a cure through the immortal cell, it also means Judgement will potentially stay alive. It is only by destroying the drifter's only hope at a cure that will allow the world to recover and prosper.
 
 It is for that reason that I love this game so much. There is such a tragic irony in realizing the drifter’s death is inevitable, and even though the drifter may find a way to evade the death that awaits him in the present, a new one will find its way to them in the future. In the end, the only thing the drifter can do is accept their fate, and that is what they do. After destroying Judgement, and therefore the immortal cell, the vault begins to collapse, and the drifter passes away resting by a fire, just like how the game started. There is a few ways the ending can be interpreted – I personally like to think the drifter sacrificed themselves for the greater good, giving something better for others in the future to enjoy that they might not have the chance to experience.
 
 
 
 ⟐  CONCLUSION  ⟐
 
 In the end, Hyper Light Drifter isn't what I remember it being, but I was really happy with it regardless.
 
 I find it very moving that, despite never knowing when he could pass away, Alex Preston decided to spend his time making an experience for players that mimicked his acceptance with that fact. The experience, while showing how scary it can be to face death, also shows how acceptance can make the rest of one's remaining time meaningful. And it reveals the bittersweet fact that the actions of those passed allow the present to heal and grow into something beautiful tomorrow.
 
 In the end, I cannot recommend a more compelling game for you all to enjoy. You can buy the game through Steam using the link HERE, or you can check out my playthrough of the game using the link right HERE. Please do so if you have not played the game yet, it is worth every minute.
 
Thank you all so much for reading this review. If you liked what you read, share the site with your friends – I would love to keep the discussion going. Also, if you would like to see more of my work, you can check out my YouTube channel, where I play games and make video essays on topics that I find interesting. You can use the YouTube link I posted above, or you can use the link on the "About Me" page of this website.
 
If you would like to help support this hobby of mine, feel free to use the donation links on the "Donations" page of this website. Any amount is appreciated.
 
Anyway, that is all for today. Until next time, I am Zlink Plays, and I'll see you all in the next one.
 
PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
I give the SyCom Companion a 9 out of 10

The Legend of Zelda has been a consistent pipeline of entertainment for nearly 40 years, and I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss how personal the series is to me. Not only has it provided me with endless hours of entertainment through titles like Windwaker and Skyward Sword, but it has also inspired me to take on various hobbies such as game development, drawing and creative writing.

The franchise is a wonderful thing, and I love that the primary inspiration for the series came from Shigeru Miyamoto's childhood experiences of exploring the various caves, hillsides, and forests surrounding his house.

However, as much as I love praising this series for all it has provided me, I do admit that the games are not perfect.

For example, the gaming community remarks the linear game design and the Wii's clunky motion controls within Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess as flaws. Going even further back, with titles released on Nintendo's earlier consoles, the same community has also highlighted cryptic navigation, limited item management, as well as outdated graphics/controls as major issues.

Fortunately, Miyamoto and his developing team have done a fantastic job with the latest releases. Another example I always like mentioning is Link's Awakening (2019), a game I've reviewed in the past. For being one of the earlier games in the Nintendo Switch's massive catalogue, I found it to be beautifully retrofitted; new graphics, smoother controls, as well as a better User Interface (UI) all worked in favor of player experience.
Furthermore, despite my personal issues with both games, I found that the franchise's initial problems with quest navigation and exploration have been, if not completely, then substantially removed in titles like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

With that all being said, I just recently finished The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the latest title in the series that premiered in September, 2024. And, while I - ultimately - had an enjoyable experience (and have many compliments to give), I unfortunately have many notes on the game's various aspects, which I would like to discuss in further henceforth.



Now, I'm going to be honest, I love the history of Hyrule. I think it's phenomenal that a simple, 8-bit game from the 1980's spawned such an intricate timeline of history - a timeline that gets expanded on with every release.
Furthermore, I adore how invested the fanbase is into the game's history; and, while there is an official timeline of events, I always love seeing theories from fans that attempt to clarify some of the timeline's more "murky" portions - A Hero's Purpose being one of my favorite examples of such work.

Anyways, the reason I'm rambling about the game's lore is because, despite what the series is titled, you play as Link in most of the installments. In fact, Echoes of Wisdom is the first Zelda game where you actually play as Zelda, and I really enjoyed how different the playstyle was in comparison to the other games.

Where Link's adventures and puzzles focus on his combat abilities and physical strength, Zelda's adventure in this new release focuses more on stealth and platforming segments. As Zelda, you inherit a magical staff that allows you to collect "echoes" of various mobs and objects found throughout the world. These echoes can help you fight enemies, traverse difficult terrain, and even help you find secret rooms and items throughout the world.

You also have Link's sword, which gives you access to all his combat abilites for a limited time. You can upgrade all of Link's gear, as well as the power of the sword so that you can use his abilities for longer periods of time.

Overall, I really enjoyed using the echoes. Very rarely did I rely on Link's powers in the game - I found that I could defeat most mobs with a select set of echoes once I found them in the massive land of Hyrule.

Speaking of Hyrule, I was really happy to see a return of the old map layout found in the SNES titles like A Link to the Past. I also loved the design choices for the mobs, NPC's, terrain and the dungeons. I personally feel that the game did a phenomenal job playing off the various mechanics and design choices that I liked seeing in Link's Awakening (2019). And, while I wasn't invested in the story all that much, I really liked all the boss fights, and consider them to be some of the best fights in the modern Zelda titles.

With that all being said, I do want to discuss a complaint I have. It's something I noticed with the inventory system, specifically when you're filtering through your various echoes. This is an issue I had with Tears of the Kingdom, where you'd have to sort through your inventory in order to find what you're looking for. It was very tedious, and it brought me out of the experience quite a bit everytime I interacted with it.

The same problem is prevelant in Echoes of Wisdom. Since there's a total of 127 echoes, it becomes arduous having to sort through all the echoes you collected. And, while they did have a "most used" filter option, I still found it irritating, and it made me wonder how to implement the system a little bit better.

Personally, I really liked the use of the D-Pad for certain mechanics within the game, but I feel the four buttons could have been used to support the echo mechanic. Instead of searching through your list for one echo, you can just have four hotkeys that are assigned to four different echoes, which you can then spawn at any time. And, instead of the horizontal list that you bring up, I figured it would be smarter to have a page in the inventory menu that catalogs all your echoes, just like how the game's smoothie ingredients are organized.

Speaking of smoothies, the smoothie shops are another way the game excells at providing a different experience to Link's adventures. As Link, you collect hearts and fairies to recover lost hit poits; as Zelda, though, you collect smoothie ingredients. You can then go to any smoothie shop in the game and combine any two together to make a smoothie recipe. The effects vary depending on the recipe you use - some smoothies offer heart recovery, while others offer ability boosts, and some even offer a glowing ability so that you don't need to waste any echoes when traversing dark caves.

In my opinion, this was the best part of the game, because there are so many ingredients you can collect throughout your playthrough. It not only gave futher purpose to exploration, but it also provided a satisfying reward for all your efforts. There are also rings you can collect and wear, each one giving you the ability to find more rupees or smoothie ingredits, which also provides further purpose to exploring Hyrule.



Now, moving on from the mechanical side of the game, how does the rest of it hold up? Well, fortunately, the game excells in a lot of other aspects, its dungeons being a main higlight of mine.

I've made it clear in my recent reviews regarding this series that the dungeons have been a bit of a let-down. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, while introducing new dungeon designs, kind of missed the mark, in my opinion. I don't really consider those "Zelda Dungeons," despite them working as a gameplay aspect.

So, I'm really happy to report that Echoes of Wisdom did well with their dungeon designs. They reminded me a lot of the older titles, especially when it came to the puzzles you needed to solve and the mobs you had to fight. Overall, I had fun. However, I do think some quests could have been executed a bit better. The reason I say that is because, for the majority of the game, you need to access the "Still World" with the objective of rescuing your companion's friends, all so that they may ultimately restore the segment of Hyrule in the real world.
This quest objective gets repetitive very fast, and it was kind of a bummer to see just how many times the game relied on it for additional padding. While I didn't hate it, I definitely think the game suffered from its prominent use.

Speaking of padding, I also took issue with how long the game was. It may seem like a hot-take, but I really think this game could have ended after you completed one of the later-game objectives. But, instead, it takes you through a whole other segment of the game, which is more linear and tedious than the previous segments you already completed. While the final boss was a great payoff to my patience, I do believe Nintendo should have worked on this game's pacing a bit more.



In short, I had fun with Echoes of Wisdom, and I strongly encourage everyone else to play it. I didn't want to get into too much spoilers in this review, because I do think everyone should give it a chance before making their opinion. While did I take issue with a few of its main aspects, I do want to point out that the game maintained enough of my enjoyment and immersion to get me to beat the game. Which, all things considered, is a thumbs-up in my book. Overall, this was very pretty game, and I enjoyed turning my brain off and exploring it whenver I had the chance to do so.

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading. Sorry this review is shorter in comparison to my other works. Like I said, I didn't want to spoil the whole thing, but hopefully I higlighted enough to get you interested, at the very least. You can buy a digital or physical copy of the game through Nintendo's eShop for only $60, which I recommend doing. I had a lot of fun, despite my complaints, and I hope you all have fun playing it as well.

If you want to check out my other work, I do have a YouTube channel that I post to. You can find the link to it on the "About Me" page of this website. Also, if you'd like to support this hobby of mine, feel free to donate through the "Donations" page of this wesbite. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

Anyway, thank you all again for reading. To all you newcomers, welcome, and hopefully you enjoy my work! To everyone returning, thank you all for your continued support. I'm so happy that I can continue making content for you all.

Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays; and, as always, I'll see you all in the next one.

PEACE OUT!



I give the Golden Egg a 7 out of 10

I have many thoughts that go through my head on a daily basis. Some of them focus on my daily routine, some of them focus on my friends and family, and some of them simply focus on daydreaming about whatever I may find interesting at the time.
 
 As of late, one daydream I have had in particular has been solely focused on Blasphemous, a 2019 metroidvania title that I played back in the early months of 2024. At the time, I thought it was fun; and as of late, I figured it was a game deserving of a revisit.

I figured that since I enjoyed it the first time, I would enjoy it even more the second time - and I was somewhat right.

Safe for that last bit, Blasphemous is, in my mind, incredibly well-structured. For The Game Kitchen, Blasphemous's developing team, this is the first large-scale title they've attempted to create, and I think they did a really good job. Obviously, there are some issues I take with the game, but they'll be explained later in the review.

For now, what I really want to start discussing, aside from the game mechanics, are the influences that inspired the art direction and level design of the game.



/\  TRIAL 1: RISE, PENITENT ONE  /\

For those of you who don't know, The Game Kitchen (TGK) is a Spanish developing team that is stationed in Seville, Spain. They were founded in 2010, and Blasphemous was their first title they published alongside Team 17, which is a publisher that has helped release games such as Hell Let Loose, The Escapists, WORMS, Overcooked, and even a game I just completed called CONSCRIPT.

Anyways, the reason I bring up TGK and their origins is because Blasphemous is severely-influenced by a lot of Spanish culture, and the most prominent feature of said culture is Catholicism.

Now, I'm not going to lie, the catholic influence on this game is very strong, but it is phenomenal. Being a big fan of games like Castlevania and movies like Constantine, which have heavy use of religious themes, I really love when media decides to take religion or mythology and form a new take.

In Blasphemous, you play as a character known as the "Penitent One." In short, you're goal is to endure three trials, which will grant you access to a mega-church, wherein you can finally fulfil your purpose and sacrifice yourself to save the world from a cyclical fate of suffering.

Throughout the game, you will find an unlimited set of references to popular catholic traditions, figures, and even architecture. Also, the game takes a lot of DNA from Dark Souls when it comes to worldbuilding and story design.

Similar to how Dark Souls is a depressing, decaying land filled with corruption and death, Blasphemous amplifies those aspects as much as possible. The world is filled with death and disease, which is immediately noticeable when you first enter the main hub of the game: the town of Albero. A lot of the NPC's you come across are either dying or punishing themselves as a way to serve penance. In addition, a lot of the enemies in the game are noted (through dialogue and item descriptions) to once be people, similar to how the "Hollow" were once people in Dark Souls before they lost their humanity.

It's depressing, to put it lightly. There's not really a clean idea of "hope" or "salvation" in this universe, like there is in the religion that inspired this variation. Rather, the idea of repentance is to just brutally torture yourself... forever.

In my opinion, that is the difference that makes Blasphemous so compelling as a video game. While it doesn't reinvent anything about the genre its classified under, its narrative does a fantastic job hitting the minute details that make games like Metroid, Dark Souls and Castlevania so memorable and distinct from one another.
 
 
 
 /\  TRIAL 2: MORS MEA CULPA  /\
 
 Anyway, aside from what the worldbuilding provides, the game's mechanics should also be held in high regard.
 
 Similar to other games in the genre, there are mission items hidden throughout the massive world of Blasphemous. To add on to that, there are also secret rooms scattered throughout the game areas. These rooms contain collectibles that enhance your combat skills, health and magic abilities, as well as your methods for map traversal. There's also a parry feature that adds some strategic value to the combat, which is always nice to see in games like this. And lastly, but certainly not least, there's a ledge-grab mechanic that's also included in the game.

Now, if I'm being honest, the ledge-grab helps tremendously with the various platforming segments the game has to offer; but, it's not perfect and I'll dive into my issues on it later. Anyway, what I want to discuss more is the combat, which is - arguably - the most important part of this game.

Just like other metroidvania-type games, Blasphemous has a variety of enemies that range in their fighting styles. Like you would with the enemies in Dark Souls or Castlevania, it's important to study each individual enemy so that it's easier for you to fight them. This is especially important when it comes to the bosses. Each boss in this game has their own weakness, and so it's really easy to defeat them if you simply dedicate a small portion of the battle to study their attack patterns.

That being said, while it works for the majority of the boss encounters, there are a few exceptions to this combat strategy. One boss I'd like to mention is "Expósito: Scion of Abjuration," whose boss fight - quite literally - goes completely against the combat system the game is built around, and it's my first complaint about the game that I want to highlight. Since the boss fight doesn't give efficient room for a lot of combat abilities like parrying, it turns into a long, repetitive process of dodging projectiles, then attacking the boss head-on until it dies.

Compared to other fights, where the combat is more of a dance rather than brute-force, it's a bit of a letdown. Fortunately, this is just one small moment within the game, and it's only one boss out of a massive group you will encounter.

In all, I think TGK did a great job designing and implementing their fighting mechanics. Adding on, I believe that the inclusion of item abilities really helped with the gameplay.

What I like about Blasphemous, and something that I like seeing in the Metroid franchise, is the ability to interchange your attacks and abilities through the inventory menu. The way it works is once you have found an ability somewhere in the game's world, an item that grants the ability will be placed in your inventory. Once that's done, you can switch out any current equipment and abilities with the ones you just collected.
 
 There are a select few items in the game that can't be equipped anywhere, though. The "Mea Culpa Hearts," for example, can only be equipped at Prie-Dieu (save) locations. There is also a group of items you can find that are solely meant for side missions, but the game will separate those from the rest of your inventory so that there's no confusion.
 
 
 
 /\  TRIAL 3: CVSTODIA & THE MOUNTAIN OF ASH  /\
 
 Now, moving away from the game's combat and enemies, I want to mention the world of Blasphemous; it is wonderfully detailed.

Combined with the religious aspects the game offers through its narrative and art design, each area of the game is strikingly distinct from one another. The sprite designs, as well as the animations, are top-notch when it comes to quality - I love them.

Furthermore, the save stations, which also act as fast-travel points, are placed around the maps in a simple but very efficient manner.

Going off topic for a little bit, this was my favorite aspect about the game. With any metroidvania-type game, it can be really easy to mess up save stations. A lot of the games that I have played in this genre usually have too little of them throughout the game's world, which can get a little frustrating when you have to repeat segments after dying. So, it was nice to see an adequate amount of Prie-Dieu locations throughout the game that allowed me to progress through the game without making any exploration feel arduous or repetitive.

However, one thing I will say about the game's exploration is that the platforming can be incredibly frustrating at times. I mentioned the ledge-grab mechanic earlier in the review, and I feel that now is a good time to finally talk about it.

You see, the mechanic only works on stationary platforms. So, if you try to grab onto a moving tile, you'll fall to your death. This was pretty infuriating, because I had muscle memory making me believe that I could make a jump, but then I fell to my death. It not only was infuriating, but felt incredibly unfair, and it simply left a bad taste in my mouth every time it happened.

In addition to this issue, there are different obstacle designs for each section of the game's world. For example, there's a mountain area with a bunch of walls you can climb on. While sounding easy, the caveat is a wind mechanic that you have to time your jumps with. If you jump too early, or too late, you'll have to repeat the - often - long segment of platforming to get back where you left off.

This drastically slowed the game's pacing, and it often felt boring rather than entertaining, especially when I died from the aforementioned ledge-grab issue I highlighted earlier.

I also mentioned that the game took a lot of ideas from Dark Souls, which is fine, but it also means the game brought on the same issues. Traversal on the first playthrough, for example, while feeling linear at the beginning, immediately became a confusing mess of interconnecting pathways that take you to different parts of the map. This means you could spend time in a section of the game that you shouldn't be exploring yet, like you might do when playing Dark Souls.

I get that it's difficult to lead the player in a game like this, but I think Blasphemous, just like Dark Souls, would have benefitted from just a tiny bit more handholding, rather than dump you at an intersection and leave you to - potentially - waste time.



/\  THE PATH OF THE BELIEVER  /\

Don't get me wrong, despite its flaws, I genuinely adore Blasphemous. As a kid who grew up playing Super Metroid and Castlevania, I truly think that TGK did a great job designing a title worthy of being considered one of the best metroidvania games in the world. While it doesn't innovate on anything, it polishes and expertly presents mechanics the genre is known to include. And, in the end, that's all you can really ask from a game: for it to be well-designed and entertaining.
 
I highly recommend this game to anyone interested. While it does go pretty heavy on gore and brutality, it has a lot more to it if you're able to look past those aspects. You can currently find Blasphemous on Steam, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox store, the Nintendo eShop, and surprisingly on android devices.
 
Thank you all so much for reading. If you enjoyed the review, let me know what you think of the game, and be sure to share the website with your friends - I'd love to keep the discussion going. Also, if you would like to see more, feel free to donate using the provided services at the bottom of the "Donations" page of this website; any amount is greatly appreciated!
 
Lastly, if you would like to check out some other work of mine, I have a YouTube channel that I upload to every couple of weeks. So, if that interests you, be sure to check it out using the link at the bottom of the "About Me" page of this website.
 
Anyways, thank you all again for tuning in. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next one.
 
PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
I give the Tres Angustias a 9 out of 10 

I know I don't talk about it much in my reviews, but the RPG genre has been very influential in my life. Elements like world-building and character creation inspired me to write my own stories. Adding on to that, the genre has always involved a diverse range of themes, inspiring me to read, write, and draw various narratives within a fantasy, or sci-fi, or even horror universe.
I can go on a tangent about this, but the point I am trying to make is that the genre has done more than just provide me with a catalogue of entertaining titles. In short, it has given me a chance to develop my imagination.

Now, I know the genre is not everyone's cup of tea, and that's totally fine. But, it is certainly mine, and has been for nearly two decades.

But how long has the genre really been around, and where is it going in our modern time? Furthermore, what titles within the broad collection of games are considered the "pillars" of the genre?

Well, like the genre itself, the answers are a bit nuanced. There's no clear-cut answer among gamers, and I'm surely not an expert on the subject. Regardless, I want to discuss the genre's roadmap - where it has been, and where it is going. I also want to talk about the "successes" and "failures" of the genre; at least, ones we can all agree upon.

One game in particular, which has been widely regarded as the most influential title within the genre, is the 1997 computer game: Diablo.



\\//  SAVE SLOT 1: DnD & PEDIT5  \\//

If you were born after January, 1974, you probably know of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, or "DnD" for short.

Originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the game set out to immerse its players in a fantasy-themed world filled with a variety of races, classes and other details commonly found within that theme. The game's design was - and still is - entirely up to the player who creates it, and everyone involved in the "campaign" can create their own character.
Unlike the various wargames that were popular at the time, Dungeons & Dragons was a turn-based strategy game that focused more on controlling individual characters rather than an entire army. Furthermore, the game required a lot of improvisation and role-play, which are - arguably - two of its most prominent features.

I don't need to tell you that Dungeons & Dragons was an immediate success, and I also don't need to say that like many other famous works, there was a lot of criticism around it. Regardless, it had a large effect on the gaming community, and after nearly two years since its release, a man by the name of Reginald "Rusty" Rutherford made the CRPG title: PEDIT5.

Otherwise known as The Dungeon, PEDIT5 was a "Computer Role-Playing game" that set out to provide a similar experience to Dungeons & Dragons. Built for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's PLATO network, Rutherford created a single-level dungeon crawler that contained randomized treasure and monster encounters. There was no real "end goal" to the game - all you could really do is accumulate treasure and kill monsters. However, you could also create and save characters, which would have their own unique, individual dungeon layouts that you could load.

Although it was very generic in nature, The Dungeon was very successful. And, although it was constantly deleted by the PLATO's system administrators, Rutherford continued to restore it for others to play. But, I digress.

The point is, The Dungeon isn't important because it was simply a "good game." It is important because it introduced the idea of combat mechanics, exploration, as well as randomized map design and monster encounters to the video game industry during its infancy.
Honestly, without Rutherford's creation, I don't think we would have seen the creation of another famous RPG: Rogue.



\\//  SAVE SLOT 2: ROGUE & DAVID BREVIK  \\//

Funny enough, aside from RPG's like NetHack, Gauntlet and Dungeon Master, Rogue was what initially got me into the genre.

 Designed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman in 1980, Rogue was a top-down, ASCII-format dungeon crawler that was mainly played by Toy and Wichman's classmates at UCB. It was created for Unix-based systems and, overall, it was a pretty big hit.

Not only did the game improve on the basic format found in Rutherford's The Dungeon, but it also added a lot of new mechanics that brought more dynamic gameplay to each experience.

While Rutherford's design was a single-level dungeon complete with procedurally generated monster and treasure locations, Rogue included a multi-level dungeon with randomly generated items, monsters, treasure troves, and pathways. The items you could collect throughout your adventure varied between weapons, gold, armor, and even healing items.

Also, one unique trait about Rogue's design was the exclusion of the "perma-death" mechanic, which was very popular for other RPG's at the time.
Instead of restarting the game in its entire, Toy and Wichman utilized the use of save files, allowing their players to reload their previous save to progress through the increasingly-difficult levels of the game.

Now, I know it doesn't seem like it, but this little design change was incredibly important. It not only innovated on the already solid gameplay, but it also revolutionized the concept and implementation of save files within the gameplay itself.

Unlike its predecessors, Rogue started to develop one of the most important tools in the genre: reloadable save files. This was not only implemented by other developers later down the line, but it was also one of the many evolutions in game development that gave David Brevik the ability to publish Diablo, which I'll talk more about later.

Speaking of Brevik, how did he come about making Diablo in the first place?

Well, like Rutherford, Toy and Wichman before him, Brevik was a really big fan of Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, in an EBSCO article from 2023 (which you can find HERE), Brevik was found to be an avid player of the tabletop game. Not only that, but his own campaigns were noted to contain numerous elements that he ended up bringing into Blizzard's Diablo franchise.

Like the various developers we have discussed before him, Brevik eventually set out to develop his own take of Dungeons & Dragons under a company named Condor. And, with the help of Blizzard, he was eventually able to release what we now know as Diablo.



\\//  SAVE FILE 3: TRISTRAM & HELL'S GATE  \\//

Released in January of 1997, Diablo was immediately deemed one of the best games of the year, and even received critical acclaim by numerous publications within the gaming industry.

Taking all the successful tools from prior games, Diablo became known for its procedurally generated dungeons, its randomized items and weapons, as well as its graphics and music. I know it sounds like I am over-exaggerating, but I'm not; it was just that good, especially when it initially released.

But, I think the question on all our minds is whether or not it holds up today? And, while I do have some gripes with the game, I am very happy to report that it does - undoubtedly - still stand as one of the best ARPG's in the world.

My first-ever interaction with the game was through my grandfather, who allowed me to play it with him on his old computer. Just like him, I chose the rogue, a female archer who could kill her targets from far away. And, like everyone else who has played it, I began my descent into the church.

Now, I would be exaggerating if I said I immediately fell in love with the game, but I wouldn't be too far off. Everything about Diablo mesmerized me. From the moment I booted up the menu screen and heard Diablo's menacing cackle, to the moment I watched the ending cutscene, I was completely immersed within the game.

I love the town of Tristram - a sad and decrepit place filled with various characters like Deckard Cain, Griswold the Blacksmith, Pepin the Healer, and even Farnham the Drunk. The NPC's not only gave me a comforting respite from the dark, demonic hellscape of the dungeons, but they also gave me a way to equip new items, identify mysterious objects, and even purchase health potions.

Not only that, but Tristram was also my storage box, and I was able to drop all my gold and valuables off before going further down into the dungeons in search of more treasure. In short, while Tristram was the game's "hub," there was more to the town than simply its purpose of being a gateway to the rest of the game.

And the game doesn't just stop at Tristram with its detail; the entire game is meticulously-crafted so that every part feels like it is important and belongs.
Each dungeon floor, while being randomly generated, has its own set of monsters, items, treasure troves, secret rooms, and boss fights that you can find. When you get to level 13, you cross into hell, and all the shrines and enemies you fight are not only different, but incredibly random in nature.

I can keep going on about how intricate this game is, but I feel I have already made my point. Furthermore, while I love to praise this game for all it does right, I still have some issues with it. My first complaint being the varying difficulty between classes and dungeon levels.

While it makes sense that each class will have their own play-style, and will therefore be vulnerable to different attacks, I really hate how much damage this game can deal sometimes. If I'm being completely honest, Diablo is absolutely-merciless when it comes to enemy numbers and damage.

There is a large variety of traps, monsters, and world objects that can deal an unreasonable amount of damage to you, and it can be very difficult to find time to heal when exploring. I mentioned that the dungeon levels are procedurally generated, and in my opinion, that is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can have a level that is simply full of items and equipment, but you can also have another level that is completely filled with traps and monsters.

It can be a nightmare, to say the least. Adding on, the monsters get increasingly more difficult the further you progress, which makes it all the more harder to recover from small mistakes. Sure, you have your save file in case you ever need to reload the game, but that is also where I take issue. Should you die, and are forced to reload a save file, you have to replay everything you just went through, and it still doesn't guarantee a successful run if you return to your last progress point.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about the save features for the game, I'm talking about the repetitiveness that dying within the game can bring. While Diablo is a wonderful take on the tabletop RPG that inspired it, a lot of the gameplay feels the exact same, and most of the mechanics have aged poorly.

Take the "stun" mechanic, for example. If you have the proper stats, as well as the proper weapon, you have the ability to stun certain enemies. However, if you are hit, the monsters have that same ability to use against you. This can potentially lead to situations where you are soft-locked against a group of enemies, those of which will either kill you, or wait for you to go through the long and arduous process of beating them to death.

It's monotonous as hell, and it really bothers me. And, for the record, it isn't an issue because it's tedious (which it is, by the way); rather, it is an issue because it feels poorly designed. When the game has the level of detail it has, and then the combat fails, I'm not going to be inclined to re-experience that. At that point, a lot of my immersion dies, and the momentum that has kept me going instantly dissipates.

I know it sounds like I'm being incredibly hypercritical with the game, and you're not wrong. But, if you're going to excel at designing every other part of your game, I don't understand the sudden disconnect when designing, what is arguably, the most fundamental aspect of the player's experience. To me, it just seems lazy, which is clearly not a description you would like to have defining your game.



\\//  SAVE FILE 4: THE END  \\//

Overall, I still love Diablo, and I will gladly recommend it to anyone who may be interested in trying it out. While it does have its flaws, it is clearly a work of art that had a lot of thought and care put into it, which is solely meant to entertain us: the player. Furthermore, while modern RPG's continue to flounder, the genre is definitely heading in a good direction, and it continues to receive some wonderful titles to its category - Omori and Baldur's Gate 3 being two modern examples.

While you can't really find a physical copy of Diablo in today's time, there are several websites that allow you to download the game files for free. And, while the legality of downloading the game off a random website is... questionable, to say the least, I'm not going to lie to you. Truthfully, the installation process is not that much of a hassle, and the game runs just as well as if you used the game disc. Also, the other installments in the franchise are pretty good; Diablo II is another favorite of mine that I highly recommend.

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading the review. I apologize for how long it took me to publish it. If I'm being honest, my personal life has been incredibly busy, and it has been hard to do this hobby as frequent as I want to. Also, apologies for how long the review is. This is a really important game to me, and I really wanted to shed some light on the genre as a whole, rather than focus on one game in particular.

With that all being said, thank you all again for reading. If you like what you saw, feel free to share the website with your friends - I'd love to keep the discussion going. Also, if you're feeling generous, please feel free to donate to my work through the "Donations" tab of this website - any amount is greatly appreciated.

To all of you newcomers, welcome! I'm glad to have you here. If you'd like to see more of my work, please feel free to check out my YouTube channel, where I post play-throughs of various video games. You can find the link within the "About Me" page of this website.

Anyway, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next one.

PEACE OUT!



I give Prince Aidan a 9 out of 10

Over the past 17 years that I've been playing video games, there have been very few genres capable of consistently capturing my interest - horror being one of them.
 I'm not saying that every release within that genre has piqued my curiosity. If I'm being real, horror has arguably been - and continues to be - one of the most subjective genres of media out there. That being said, there is enough work within the genre that, if you really want to go look, you'll find a niche that works for you.
 
 Why am I talking about this right now?
 Well, as you all might know by this point, I'm a big horror fan; and, while I enjoy watching horror movies and reading horror novels just as much as another fan, my main love for the genre lies in the video games that I've played.
 Games like Eternal Darkness, Dead Space, Resident Evil and Silent Hill were all major influences for me when I was starting out in the genre. And, not just because I'll be talking about the series today, but the Amnesia titles by Frictional Games were super important to me, and they still are.

So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that when Amnesia: The Bunker finally released in 2023, I immediately purchased it.
 Obviously, it took me a while to finally play it. If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out my playthrough, which is posted to my YouTube channel. You can actually find a link to the channel at the bottom of the "About Me" page on this website.
 
 Anyway, even though it took me almost two years to finally play it in full, it was still one of the best horror experiences I've had in a very long time, and I'd like to talk about it with you all.
 
 
 
 \|/  FRICITONAL GAMES & SURVIVAL HORROR  \|/

Firstly, if there's one thing I can praise Frictional Games for doing, it would be designing games that can properly execute as survival horror titles.

Why do I say that?

Well, at the time of Amnesia: The Dark Descent's release, most other horror titles focused on their action-adventure aspect, favoring combat and intense first-person shooter gameplay rather than slow, methodical strategy and puzzle segments.
Alongside Amnesia: The Dark Descent, games like Dead Rising 2, Metro 2033, Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies, and Alien vs. Predator were incredibly popular titles.

In fact, even the years leading up to 2010 show a similar pattern when it comes to game design. Starting as far back as 2001, games like F.E.A.R., DOOM, Stalker, Bioshock and, although I already mentioned it, Dead Space were all popular action-adventure horror games.
 And, while these game are technically "survival horror" titles, the developers heavily leaned on the "action-adventure" aspect of them. Don't get me wrong, the games are great, but that emphasis on player strength within the game design is why I find Frictional Games' approach so appealing when it comes to defining how survival horror games should be made.
 
 If you're not familiar with Frictional Games at all, they're a Swedish game studio that was established back in 2007. While many people might know them for their Amnesia series, not many people know them for their original trilogy that released before 2010.
I'm talking about the Penumbra trilogy, which was the predecessor to Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In short, it was a three-game series that put Frictional Games in the public eye, and it allowed them to polish their world-building skills and game mechanic designs for future releases.

To keep it brief, I love the Penumbra games, despite how clunky they are. They have some, if not just as much, dynamic gameplay to them that allows for a great playthrough. While there are weapons in the three games, confrontation is not really recommended, and you need to use your intellect and environment to progress through the story rather than your own strength.
 
 And this leads me to explain my next point: improvisation. While it is nice to have weapons in a survival horror game, you can't allow those same weapons to have the capability of killing the main antagonist. Adding on, while it's nice to have access to every game location, it's important to allow the player to experiment and use the game's mechanics in order to access those locations on their own.
 
 Fighting your way through a game's story should always be a last-resort option, just like knowing where to hide and setting distractions should always be a main priority, especially if the game is set in a subgenre of horror meant to keep you at a constant disadvantage.
 To me, that's what Frictional Games attempts to do in their titles, and they do it pretty well, for the most part. Furthermore, it's why I believe their games stand alongside titles such as Alien: Isolation and Resident Evil as some of the greatest works of survival horror.
 
 
 
 \|/  AMNESIA: THE BUNKER & PENUMBRA  \|/

As I was researching for this review, I stumbled across a YouTube video from a user called Painticus. In his video, which you can watch HERE, he states that Amnesia: The Bunker plays more like Penumbra than it does the previous Amnesia games, and even SOMA.
I didn't really realize it until after playing, but Painticus is pretty dead-on with this statement. It was, honestly, really nice to see so many original ideas and mechanics from Frictional Games be polished and redesigned for a modern game. Furthermore, the dark, dirty, claustrophobic design of Amnesia: The Bunker was incredibly similar to the area design for Penumbra: Overture.
Overall, while I highly recommend playing Amnesia: The Bunker, I also suggest taking a look at the Penumbra games, since it's clear that Frictional Games pulled so much from them when designing this 2023 title.
 
 Now, that all being said, how does the game hold up on its own without comparisons to other works?
 
 Fortunately, Amnesia: The Bunker is still a wonderful game. The new installment to the series adds a large blend of puzzles, improvisation, tension, action, and even parkour. While I was a bit upset that I saw no return of the sanity meter from Amnesia: The Dark Descent, I believe Frictional Games did an incredible job innovating on other mechanics for me to enjoy.

The soundtrack is filled with various tracks that range in tone, and they all do a brilliant job immersing you in the gameplay. In the save room, for example, you hear a calm, soothing tune that allows you some peaceful respite from the monster, which has a tense and frightening melody that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Adding on to the sound design, there is an absence of music as soon as you unlock the save room doors, which forces the player back into a state of heightened awareness.
This little detail was, quite possibly, my favorite aspect of the game. Every time I wanted to go back out to explore, I had to unlock the safety latch. When I did this, all music immediately stopped playing, leaving me with the chilling stillness of the bunker, and the loud whirring of my wind-up flashlight.

Now, aside from the sound design, the area design was also top-notch. Bringing back the gloomy, dirty, claustrophobic atmosphere of Penumbra and Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a very good move. While I enjoyed the Scorn-like design of the "other-world" found in Amnesia: Rebirth, it wasn't as immersive or scary as the cramp, rat-infested hallways of the bunker. In fact, I feel that the restricted confines of the corridors within Amnesia: The Bunker deepened the level fear and paranoia I had whenever I needed to explore new areas.
While you can use the generator to prolong the monster's emergence, you need to find fuel in order to keep it going. And, since you already have a flashlight, the game gives you a choice on how you want to experience the game. Though I tried using the generator any chance I got, I do remember having to use my flashlight for some segments, forcing me to make noise that the monster could come investigate.

Speaking of the monster, this was the most terrifying, and most intelligent, monster that Frictional Games has designed so far. Depending on the difficulty you play on, the monster's presence out of the hole, as well as its unpredictability, will vary.
Furthermore, resources, notes, and items used to progress throughout the game will be randomized every playthrough, therefore eliminating your chances of finding the same item, or the same code, in the exact same spot as your last playthrough. If you make too much noise, or if you anger the monster, its unpredictability can increase, which can allow for segments of the game where it’s actively hunting you and won't go back into the walls. This can use up precious resources, such as gas for the generator, and I liked that it added an entirely new level of strategy and fear to the game's already complex design.

While some of the game mechanics have not changed, such as the sprinting, jumping and inspection mechanics, there are a variety of new ones to enjoy. The first mechanic I'd like to discuss is the healing mechanic. Now, although this is implemented in previous titles, healing in Amnesia: The Bunker added new rules, which ultimately benefitted my playthrough.
 If you are wounded, you will need to find bandages or first aid kits to heal yourself. If you can't find a healing item throughout the bunker, you can also combine items in your limited inventory to make them. However, should you continue without healing yourself, you are at risk of attracting rats, as well as the monster. The more damage you take, the more blood you spill, which can be used by the monster or the rats to track you down.
 In addition to the bleed-out rule, you also have the chance to get the monster's attention by using a healing item. If you use a bandage while the monster's near you, the noise can attract the monster to your location, forcing you to either bleed while finding a safer location, or die to the monster because it spotted you while you were healing.
 
 Another mechanic I'd like to discuss is the weapon mechanic. If you've seen, or have played the game already, you would know that you are given a revolver. Apart from the sidearm, you can also find gas and fragmentation grenades, flares, chunks of meat, a shotgun, as well as ammunition. You can use this ammunition to not only shoot explosive barrels, but also locks and other traps set up around the different wings of the bunker.
 Also, you can use grenades to kill rats, open locked areas, or even scare the monster away. However, the more noise you make with these items, the easier it will be for the monster to find you. And, while your guns can harm the monster, they cannot kill it, and actively hunting the monster makes it more unpredictable. So, you must use these weapons wisely, and although you can fight the monster and rats, that should be the last option when it comes to exploration and escaping a tight situation.
 
 I also want to briefly mention the flashlight. I absolutely love that it's a wind-up light and not just a lantern like in the other titles. It not only forces you to walk in darkness if the monster's near you, but it also forces me to maintain a level of dread and paranoia that something might have heard me whenever I wind it up for light.
 
 Some other praises I have, I liked the story, and consider it better than the one told in A Machine for Pigs and Rebirth. I didn't find it to be as immersive as the story told in The Dark Descent, and that's kind of a let-down. Don't get me wrong, I loved being able to find notes and photos that unfolded the story of this game; but, ultimately, this story wasn't anything special when it comes to some of the other titles Frictional Games has developed.



\|/  FREEDOM?  \|/

On the whole, Amnesia: The Bunker was an excellent game, and I truly enjoyed playing it from beginning to end. While I was a little disappointed in a few minor aspects when it comes to the mechanics and story, the parts of the game that excel completely minimize those complaints that I have. I highly recommend this game to anyone who is interested, or has been interested, in playing it. You can currently get the game on Steam, the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation Store, as well as the Xbox store.
 
 Thank you all so much for reading this review. If you like what you read, feel free to share this website with your friends, and maybe take a minute to donate to the site through the "Donations" page on this website.
 If you are interested in my other work, I also post my game playthroughs on my YouTube channel, as I stated earlier.
 
 Anyway, that's all for today. Thank you all so much again for tuning in. As always, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next review.
 
 PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
 I give Toussaint a 9 out of 10

It has been a while since I have done a revisit to an older game review of mine. Looking back at all the games in this website's archive, and seeing what I wrote when I first finished my playthroughs; I will say, there has definitely been a change in style over the years. That being said, it is nice to see that I have kept some elements of my old writing techniques within my more-recent reviews.
 
 In other words: I have grown, but it is nice to see there are still parts of me that show themselves that can remind me of where I started.
 
 Why am I opening the review this way? Well, there is a series I have played in the past known as The Walking Dead. If you scroll far enough through my past reviews, eventually you will come across a review about the third game. Overall, I liked the series; I thought it was a good take on the television show that started it all.

Just recently, I replayed the last installment in the franchise, and I would like to talk about it. While I still think it is a terrific game, I want to go over some more things I have found about the game that I didn't really notice in my first playthrough.

So, with that, let us begin.



>||<  THE BEGINNING: BECOMING LEE  >||<

The first time I ever played a The Walking Dead game was back in 2018. For those of you who have never played the game, The Walking Dead: Season 1 is the first of four installments Telltale Games created for the popular television show.
 In the game, you play as Lee, a man on his way to prison for killing a state senator who was having an affair with his wife. As you make your way down the Georgia highway in the back of a police car, the cop crashes the vehicle. After crawling out, you find yourself in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, and you must now kill the zombified cop and head toward safety before you're eaten by the gathering horde.
 
 After getting off the road, you arrive in a suburb. Crawling inside a house, you come across a zombie that has been trapped inside, and with the help from a little girl named Clementine, you're able to defeat it. After a brief introduction, you now take on the role of a guardian; and, for the remainder of the game, you must protect Clementine as you take her to Savannah to reunite her with her biological parents.
 
 Spoiler alert: you make it to Savannah, but Clem's parents are zombies. Not only that, but Lee got bit, and is slowly turning into a zombie as well. So, with no other choice, you ask Clementine to do one of two options: kill you, or let you turn.
 
 [Just as a side note: this choice is really important for how the events will unfold in the fourth game, so choose carefully]
 
 Firstly, I want to discuss Lee and his role as the protagonist in this game. When you meet him at the start, it is very obvious that Lee is a flawed character. Unlike a lot of other narratives set within a zombie apocalypse, Lee is - basically - an ordinary Joe. He doesn't have all the right answers, and there are times in the game where he might make a bad decision, which always carries a heavy consequence. The effect of these poor choices are amplified, not only because he is the leader of his group of survivors, but also because he is the surrogate father of Clementine. Everyone is looking to him for guidance; so, when he leads people astray, very bad things happen to the group.
 
 In my opinion, for the same reason I love Joel from The Last of Us, this dilemma the game presents is why I love Lee so much as a protagonist. The Walking Dead games are all about relationships, and so most of the tension will come from Lee, who you play as, doing morally-questionable acts that can affect the group's dynamic toward you - for better or worse. Even more so, your acts will shape Clementine's perspective on how to survive in this new world.
 
 Overall, I really enjoyed the first game in this series. When it comes to Season 2 , I felt it to be a lot shallower than the first game. While it was nice being Clementine, it was weird that all the other characters relied on her to make the tough decisions.
 Seriously, imagine experiencing your previous life get overturned by this zombie apocalypse. People are crazy and want to kill you left and right; and, when you're not dealing with them, you're continuously on the run from the horde of zombies that are pursuing you. After living so long, surviving off your gut instinct, imagine dropping that to put your faith in a 12 year old child.
  Don’t get me wrong, the story was still engaging, and I liked the characters, but it didn't make sense for Clementine to take on Lee's role at such a young age. As for the third game, I didn't like the story at all. I thought the character interaction was bad, the story was bad, and there were very few consequences for plot points that - I felt - should have had a tremendous amount of weight attached to them.
 
 As for the fourth game, though, I thought Telltale Games made an excellent return to form.
 
 
 
 >||<  THE END: BECOMING AJ  >||<
 
 Okay, so, there is some exposition we need to discuss before getting into this video game.
 
 In The Walking Dead: Season 2, you take on the role of Clementine. You eventually find a new group of survivors to live with, and one of the members eventually has a baby named “Alvin Jr.” - or "AJ" for short. In The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, you are still Clementine, and you are hunting down the people who stole AJ from you so that you can get him back.
After reuniting with AJ, a few years pass before Clementine begins a new story, which takes place in The Walking Dead: The Final Season. In this finale, you play as Clementine, who is now an adult. And, as an adult, you are responsible for protecting AJ, who looks to you for guidance in order to survive this new era of the apocalypse.

When I said Telltale Games made a nice return to form, I was referencing this specific part about the story. In the first game, I played as Lee, who was the guardian - and role model - for Clementine. Now, I am Clem, who is the surrogate mother of AJ, as well as the leader of a group of kids living deep in the woods.

Now, while it may seem cheap to copy-and-paste a narrative that has already been done, I don't find much issue with it. Aside from the roles AJ and Clem take within the overarching story, the game's world is significantly different than the world you explored as Lee in the first game. Furthermore, there's a new, natural cast of characters that interact well with one another without making the logic of their loyalty, their beliefs, and their actions feel out of place.
In short, The Final Season does what Season 2, and A New Frontier, fails at and it innovates on the world-building techniques that made Season 1 so memorable.

The art direction and sound design for the game is fantastic, and the soundtrack is - quite possibly - one of my all-time favorites. Not only that, but it also includes collectibles throughout the episodes, which allow you to grow your understanding of the world and the characters you are surrounded with.

In addition, Telltale Games carried over the combat mechanics they designed for Season 2 and A New Frontier, which gave the game some depth to its - otherwise shallow - mechanics. And, while I was upset at the absence of a "skip" option for cutscenes, I do believe that every line of dialogue in this game didn't feel wasted.

However, the most important part about this game, for me, was the relationship mechanic between Clementine and AJ.

Just like the first game when you play as Lee, Clementine's actions will shape how AJ acts throughout the story, and how he perceives the definition of "survival." At the end of the game, you're able to see all the lessons AJ has learned from your playstyle, as well as the effect they have had on his character.

In my opinion, this is the best part about the game. It not only allowed me to see how the other characters felt by my actions, but it also allowed me to reflect on my own personal morals and beliefs. Just like looking through my old game reviews, The Walking Dead: The Final Season allowed me to take a glimpse at my past self, and I got to see how much I have matured over the years since I first played this game. Some beliefs I have kept as-is, while my stance on other beliefs has changed by the wisdom that came from time. And, overall, that's really all I can ask a work of art to do. Simply allow me to think about it, and have it connect to my life in a meaningful way.



>||<  TAKE US BACK  >||<

In the end, The Walking Dead video game series by Telltale Games is one of the most memorable franchises I have experienced. It made me laugh, it made me angry, and it made me cry. Most of all, though, it provided a conversation to discuss what is most important: words and actions. And, maybe if we all put a little more thought into what we say and do, then maybe the world can grow to become a better place.
 
 I highly recommend this game to anyone who might be interested. If you fell off with the series after Season 2 or A New Frontier, I highly recommend getting back into this game and finishing out Clementine's story. You can purchase this game on the PlayStation Store, the Xbox Store, Steam, and the Nintendo shop.
 
Thank you all so much for reading. If you like what you read, feel free to share my work with your friends. If you would like to help support this hobby of mine, feel free to head to the "Donations" page of this website. If you would like to check out my other work, I post videos to my YouTube channel, which can be found on the "About Me" page of this website.
 
Anyway, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next one.
 
PEACE OUT!
 
 
 
I give Rosie a 9 out of 10

When Luigi's Mansion 3 was initially announced as a 2019 title for the Nintendo Switch, I was pretty surprised to hear so.

Don't get me wrong, I was very excited for the game, as it was a clear sign that Nintendo wanted to continue a series I genuinely adore. However, after seeing the - almost - complete redesign of the franchise in their 2013, title Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, I was wondering what else Nintendo was going to innovate so that the title stood out amongst the others.

And, for the first time, I'm really happy to say they didn't improve on much.

I think it's agreed that when the general audience goes to watch, read, or play a new installment to any franchise, there's a bit of an expectation that it needs to be different than what came before it.
I agree with that belief. If you've been around the blog long enough, you would know that I often criticize games for their lack of innovation. I even criticized The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for basically being an empty replica of Breath of the Wild.
That being said, I also believe there is a finite amount of times you can tell a story. One of my favorite movie franchises, Terminator, is just one example of a narrative that has been told too many times, and it would be better to just retire it.

So, where does Luigi's Mansion stand when it comes to my personal opinions? Should Nintendo have made this third game? Has the game's story gotten old and boring?

Well, let's take a closer look.



||  YOU'VE COME BACK... AND WE'VE BEEN WAITING   ||

Luigi's Mansion 3 opens up with the main cast of Mario characters aboard a bus heading toward a large, golden hotel. Luigi and his companion, the Poulterpup, take their belongings and head into the main lobby, which is set with food, music, and decorations for the arrival of Mario, Peach, Luigi, and the Toads. After inspecting the hall, Luigi is introduced to Hellen Gravely, the owner of the hotel. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, she shows the group to their rooms, and Luigi immediately passes out when he rests in his bed.

Suddenly, Luigi awakes from his slumber to Peach screaming down the hall. Going to investigate, Luigi soon discovers that Hellen Gravely is a ghost, and she is a servant to none other than King Boo, who has been resurrected!
Both King Boo and Gravely have trapped Professor E. Gadd and all of Luigi's friends in a painting, and they plan to soon have Luigi in their clutches as well. Now, after successfully escaping King Boo's trap, Luigi must find a way to save his brother Mario, Princess Peach, Professor E. Gadd and the Toads before he suffers the same fate.

The story is a combination of old characters and new plot points. Obviously, having King Boo return was nothing revolutionary, but it was nice to see him, as well as his new assistant, be the main antagonists to this title.

When it comes to the gameplay, Luigi's Mansion 3 plays very similar to Dark Moon. You need to flash ghosts with the flashlight mechanic to stun them, and each floor of the hotel has a unique boss that you will need to fight. In addition, each boss ghost has their own design and personality, which was a good callback to how Nintendo designed the portrait ghosts in the first game.

One more thing about the game's design, each floor of the hotel has its own unique style and layout, allowing for more dynamic gameplay that still utilizes various gameplay mechanics, old and new. One example could be the new addition of pipes and gutters on some of the floors; these inclusions allowed players to use the new "Goo-igi" mechanic, as well as the traditional "vacuum" mechanic Luigi has at his disposal.



||  USE THE C-STICK!!  ||

When it comes to the game mechanics, Luigi's Mansion 3 is the best out of the three.

While I really love the ghost-catching mechanics found in the first game, I really love the design Nintendo went with for this third game. Instead of using tools like the first game's "elemental coins," you now have your upgraded vacuum. After stunning the ghosts, Luigi is now able to do a variety of actions, such as a "slam," which will allow the player to slam ghosts around the arena, which could stun and damage other ghosts.

In addition to the slam mechanic, both Luigi and Goo-igi are capable of the "plunger" and "boost" mechanic, which allow them pull objects around, as well as reach new areas. All of these tools allow the player to solve puzzles, find hidden rooms and fight ghosts.
Speaking of ghosts, there are new strategies to learn in this latest release. In addition to stunning the ghosts, Luigi will need to remove any shields, sunglasses, or helmets the ghosts wear to withstand Luigi's flash.

Outside of it's combat, Luigi's Mansion 3 has a variety of collectibles scattered on every floor. Honestly, I really enjoyed seeing all the collectibles in this game. It reminded me of the mansion ranks you could collect in the first game depending on how much money you accumulated. Furthermore, the game also had new items to collect like golden dog bones, which revive Luigi after a death. This was also nice to see, as I felt it was a lot easier to keep playing after a death compared to the second and first game.



||  THIS SONG WAS FEATURED IN A GAME? DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE?  ||

If there is one thing that I can really love in a video game, it would be the music. If composed well, the music can make a video game incredibly memorable. Take the Borderlands opening cinematic, for example; a game nearly 16 years old is still remembered today because of Cage the Elephant's Ain't No Rest for the Wicked.
Or, for another example, Fallout's iconic radio soundtracks, which capture the unique landscapes and narratives presented to the player throughout all the games.

All the Luigi's Mansion games have a pretty memorable soundtrack, and I find my personal favorite being the second game's. While I have already praised Luigi's Mansion 3 a lot during this review, this is another aspect that I really enjoyed about the game during my playthrough. Combined with the atmosphere, the music creates a wonderful experience for the player to explore and fight in.



||  THE END?  ||

Overall, Luigi's Mansion 3 was a wonderful combination of old and new. The new mechanics, designs, and narratives blended well with other mechanics from previous titles. In other words, Nintendo did a great job implementing new ideas, while also delivering on older aspects veteran fans can appreciate.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who has an interest in playing it. If you've played the prior titles, you will definitely enjoy this one. You can purchase it for the Nintendo Switch for $60 if you would like to check it out for yourself.

Thank you all so much for tuning in and reading this latest review. If you enjoyed what you read, please share with your friends. Also, If you've played the game before, send me your opinions - I'd love to keep these discussions going with you all!

If you'd like to check out my other work, I also upload gameplays to my YouTube channel. If you're interested, feel free to check out the YouTube link located on the "About Me" page of this website.

Anyway, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I'll see you all in the next review.

Peace out!!



I give the Disco-Ghost an 8 out of 10

If you asked me what game took me the longest to finish, I would easily say The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Don't get me wrong, we all have that game we started and either: never finished it, or spent forever finishing it completely. Funny enough, mine just happened to, arguably, be one of the best Zelda games in the franchise.
The first time I played A Link to the Past was back in 2008 on the GameBoy Advance SP. It was a double-feature cartridge, where you could play A Link to the Past, or if you had a GameBoy connector cable, you could play Four Swords with your friends.
It was a great cartridge, and mine still works to this day, and I was finally able to beat it this past December so that I could talk about it with you all.



-|-  LONG AGO, IN THE BEAUTIFUL KINGDOM OF HYRULE...  -|-

Before we begin, I always want to acknowledge the contrast between older titles and new ones when discussing massive franchises like Zelda. When you think of Zelda now, you might think of words like open world, third-person sandbox, and puzzle-solving gameplay. And while those words can still define the older titles in some ways, there's a certain feeling to them that I feel you can only get on those older consoles.

Like, you can't really recreate the original The Legend of Zelda on a modern console, because the design of that game coincided with the generation it was created in. It's similar to how CD's and video cameras were technology that could only really be utilized by Millennials and early Gen Z kids, because the iPhone released in 2007, ultimately replacing them.

While game remasters like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening somewhat muddle my point, I argue those remakes feel more like a complete overhaul of the original game's previous mechanics, animations, and design.
So, when I booted up my GameBoy to continue my 16 year old game file for A Link to the Past, I realized that I couldn't approach it like the newer titles that I've been revisiting, such as Windwaker, Skyward Sword, and even Tears of the Kingdom.

And, despite this change in playstyle, I still had a lot of fun.

I don't know what it is about retro games that I love so much. More specifically, I don't know what it is that makes me appreciate A Link to the Past as much as I do. There's something about the simple, top-down, 16-bit design of the world that completely immerses me when I decide to start up another save file. In addition, the music, the dialogue of the NPC's, and even the color palette Nintendo decided to use for the game are all perfect in their design.
The world is filled with all these little secrets, each one giving you a different kind of reward that will enhance the gameplay in one way or the other. Not only that, but the dungeons are really well-designed - each one different from the last in terms of layout, and how you will go about exploring it.

If there's nothing more to say about the gameplay, then there's much more to discuss in terms of the tools you're given to play the game. There are magic rods, fairy bottles, bug nets, power gloves, shields, bows, arrows, and even classic items like the iconic Master Sword and the Hookshot. Furthermore, the tools at your disposal define the effort that you put into playing the game, making every playthrough unique from the last.

And this, everyone, is what separates the old games from the newer ones. While they are similar elements, there is a distinction in how Nintendo provides you with those experiences - I feel that the older ones are a lot more "hands off" in that regard.

However, with that being said, there is a lot of problems with that kind of design that I take issue with, and I like to discuss a few points.



-|-  GAME OVER... CONTINUE?  -|-

There's a common stereotype shared among the gaming community that frames old video games as "too hard" or "broken," and I wholeheartedly agree.

A Link to the Past is not an easy game to play, especially after 16 years of trial and error. The mobs are just... complete assholes, and fighting them is even more arduous when you're exploring dungeons.

Even more so are the traps, spikes, bumpers, floating tiles, death pits, and turrets that the game throws at you randomly. As you progress throughout the game, the number of them in any designated room grows, making it harder to fight the actual threats; and, what's even more irritating is the fact that these dangers are enhanced even more in the later game by dealing more damage to you. Even some of the boss fights are annoying if you don't know how to fight them, which you won't unless you've looked at a guide, or have completed the game before.

That reminds me, exploration can also be a hassle in this game, and some of the puzzles to unlock certain tools are confusing as hell. You will, very rarely, complete a side quest in a linear fashion. Most of this game requires you to backtrack to previous areas so that you can find an objective that will unlock the next part of the quest - a part which, by the way, you won't be able to complete until even later in the game.

While this is fun in some respects, it's hard to keep track of all the quests you're given. Most of the time, I would find myself writing down quests that I agreed to, and I would update my status on them as I continued playing the game. While this was an efficient workaround to that issue, I really wish A Link to the Past had a quest catalog that newer Zelda games have.



-|-  THANKS FOR PLAYING  -|-

Just like every other game, A Link to the Past has a variety of good and bad elements. However, I want to say that the game is still a wonderful work of art. Despite its issues here and there, the game manages to captivate you from beginning to end, and if you get stuck, there is always the option of using a guide.

While a copy of this game can be hard to find these days, I highly recommend playing it yourself. I'm pretty sure the Nintendo eShop has a Super Nintendo subscription that can give you access to the game for however long you want it.

Thank you all so much for tuning in to read the latest review. If you like what you see, please share the blog with your friends - I'd love to keep the discussion going!

If you want to see more of my work, I have a YouTube channel I post gameplays to. Currently, I'm playing through Amnesia: The Bunker, so feel free to take a look if you're interested!

Also, if you'd like to support my work, please feel free to head to the "Donations" page on this website - any amount is greatly appreciated!

Anyway, that's all for the day. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I'll see you all in the next review.

Peace out!



I give the lantern an 8 out of 10

If there is one fact of life that I have - recently - been reminded of, it's that you can't change your past.
While there are many moments in my life that I would much rather go without, I can't change what has happened; and, as unfortunate as that is, it doesn't mean I forfeit the opportunity to move forward with the lessons I learn.
Quite honestly, I find that to be the most important silver lining of life. Despite the troubles in our individual lives that cause us to fall, we all still have the chance to get back up and make our future better.

I know this opening is... different - for those of you who have been around for a while, you know I don't usually write these kinds of introductions. However, I feel that it's necessary for us to sometimes acknowledge the less-elegant parts of ourselves, because it allows us to know each other - and ourselves - a bit better.
Furthermore, the reason I'm starting the review this way is simply because I recently finished playing a game called Citizen Sleeper, which touched on a lot of these human elements I'm discussing now.



|_|  WAKE UP, SLEEPER  |_|

For those of you who don't know, Citizen Sleeper is a 2022 TTRPG game developed by the game studio: Jump Over The Age. It's a game revolving around you, an android, who is fleeing from their creators, and is desperately trying to find refuge on a decaying space station in the far reaches of the galaxy. The game is, ultimately, a visual novel, and it uses a choose-your-own-adventure narrative to give you a choice on how the story progresses.

I just want to get it out of the way now, this game is phenomenal. Despite being part of a genre I'm not very familiar with, I thought the developers did a wonderful job crafting the universe, as well as its inhabitants. I genuinely enjoyed every second of playing this game, and I highly recommend it to all of you once you're done reading this review.

Anyway, the main element that I really want to discuss is the game's story, as it is the focal point of all your gameplay throughout your entire experience.
As I stated before, you are an android that has escaped from the control of your owners. Manufactured by the corporate powerhouses of this futuristic universe, your initial purpose is to do slave labor on various planets throughout the galaxy.
However, after finding a cargo ship willing to take you and your robotic friends away, you enter cryosleep and attempt to reach the far reaches of the galaxy, where you - hopefully - won't be found again.

To begin the game, you navigate through the home screen and select the "New Game" option. Upon starting a new journey, the game introduces you to a class selection sequence. Since Citizen Sleeper has numerous RNG mechanics, this portion presents you with three class types that specialize in certain checks, which you will complete throughout the game.

For example, there is a "Machinist" class type that will give you better chances when conducting "engineering" or "intuition" checks, but the same class can negatively affect your chances of passing an "engagement" check when you're trying to bond with new characters.

After selecting the class you would like to play as, the game begins, and you are soon surrounded by a black void. Unsure of where you are, and who you are, the game gives you options to explore, while continuing its exposition dump with every choice you make.
As you progress far enough through the dialogue, your character awakes, and you find that your ship has been destroyed, along with all your friends. A scrapper by the name of Dragos pulls you from the wreckage, and soon becomes your first acquaintance on the decommissioned space station known as the "Eye".

Now, as a castaway, you must find a way to keep yourself alive, as well as find a way to avoid the bounty hunters coming to terminate you.



|_|  PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE  |_|

Throughout the game, you are limited to a number of actions based on your "condition". The number of actions you receive varies on how well you have been taking care of yourself throughout the game, and the success rate of these actions depend on the proficiencies your character class starts with.
If you make enough successful checks throughout your gameplay, or if you complete a quest for an NPC, you're able to level up, and boost your skills and strengths. However, if you fail a check, your condition can be lowered, and you run the risk of losing an action.

When it comes to the RNG mechanics of the game, you are randomly given a set of check types for your character. These checks can guarantee success and failure rates, and they can be strengthened using your class' proficiencies. These check types not only give you items, but can also be used to unlock new missions, characters, and even new areas for you to explore.
Aside from the check types, there are also unique abilities given to all the classes as well. They can be unlocked through the skill tree, which will be important in unlocking new missions and checks.

If you level up enough, for example, you are able to make home remedies for yourself, which allows you to repair your condition using scrap metal rather than the expensive medicine, which you have to purchase from the game's pharmacy. In addition to this mechanic, there is also a "hunger" mechanic, which will worsen your condition if left unchecked.
To ensure your survival, and to allow yourself multiple checks every day, the game gives you numerous options to keep your hunger low - these options include sun-bathing (unlocked through the skill tree), drinking at the various bars, or even working shifts at certain locations in exchange for food. This will allow your condition to decrease at the normal rate, and will retain checks for you to spend on other activities.

I know it can be a lot to take in, but trust me. Citizen Sleeper is a lot simpler when you're playing it - I am only providing a crash-course to the game's functionality.
In fact, one of the main reasons why I enjoyed the game so much is how easy it is to pick up. Unlike other games that will put you through tutorial pop-up windows, Citizen Sleeper unravels the game mechanics through your gameplay, which feels a lot more natural. Don't get me wrong, there are certain moments where you need to read a pop-up window; but, for the most part, you learn how to play the game solely through progressing at your own pace, and this can help you retain mechanics a lot easier than just reading about them.

Now, I'll admit, there is not a whole lot of variety when it comes to the gameplay of Citizen Sleeper. The majority of your experience will be reading through dialogue, clicking one choice or doing a check, and then reading more dialogue and exposition. That being said, the art and music makes up for all of that.

If you know me, you know that I tend to ignore certain gameplay elements if there is something else that picks up what is lacking. In this case, Citizen Sleeper has an amazing art style to it, and when paired with the Blade Runner-esque soundtrack Amos Roddy created for the game, it is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

Based on my own experience, there were many moments where I would find myself bobbing my head along to the soundtrack, and I would hum along to some of the tracks as I went around the Eye completing different objectives. In addition, I bought the artbook, and so it was always a wonderful time for me when I could just listen to the soundtrack and flip through the various drafts of set designs and character models.



|_|  FREE SPIRIT  |_|

Aside from all the other praises I have for this game, the characters are my favorite part.

The game isn't long, and there are many characters that you are introduced to in the very little time you play. That being said, Jump Over The Age did a fantastic job writing these characters for Citizen Sleeper.

It is amazing that, in such a small amount of time, I came to care for - mostly - all the characters, and the passions they pursue. Aki, Ankhita, Castor, Dragos, Feng, Lem, Mina, Moritz, Sol, Tala - and that's not even scratching the surface when it comes to the amount of people you end up interacting with throughout the game.
Each character had their own story and their own reason for being on the Eye. They had relationships they had to leave behind, and so the lives they live are inspired by their unrelenting determination to return to their homes, which have been left shaken by the cruel universe this game is set in.

Speaking of the universe, I think the one element that makes Citizen Sleeper so compelling is how depressing it is. The world you explore is a dying one, and very few people are able to make a living without working themselves to death, especially on the Eye.
I guess that's why I find each character so inspiring, and why I can relate to all of them one way or another. Despite having their past ruined by time, and though they continue receiving the short end of the - metaphorical - stick, each character has a profound sense of hope, and a desire to keep going.

In short, they're very inspiring individuals, and certainly ones that I can resonate with and find motivation from. It's very comforting to find such a wonderful cast, especially one that allows me to continue living my own life with hope and determination. Overall, the writing was brilliant work, and I am super grateful to have been table to experience this level of depth when it came to fictional characters.



|_|  CONCLUSION  |_|

Citizen Sleeper, in a lot of ways, was a game I didn't know I needed to play until I actually sat down and did so. It was wonderful being able to experience a blend of hopeful and melancholic elements. All those moments you find yourself in when you arrive on the Eye are trumped, in hindsight, by the overwhelming urge to move forward, because maybe the next day could be a little bit better than the last.

If I'm being completely honest, the closest game I can really compare it to is Sable, a game that explores the idea of growing up and learning who you are, and what you want to be in the world. Not just that, but triumphing over difficulty when you face it.

To be real, I can't find anything else to say about the game, because I feel it would tarnish the beauty this game offers.
Some works of art are just too beautiful to analyze in a review, so now, I would like to just acknowledge the game in silence; even though no more words can be said, the silent appreciation of this work of art can still be a truly beautiful statement about the game itself.

I truly hope all of you give this game a chance. If you would like to try it out, the game can be purchased and enjoyed on all platforms. I purchased my copy on Steam for $20, but you can purchase it for $6 right now until January 2, 2025 due to Steam's "Winter Sale" event.



Well, I think that's all for today. Thank you all so much for tuning in and reading this review. If you like what you read, please share it with your friends and keep the discussion going!

Also, if you would like to donate to my work, please feel free to head to the "Donations" page on this site. Any amount is much appreciated.

Lastly, I also have a YouTube channel where I post gameplay videos. I just recently uploaded a video covering Resident Evil (2002), which is the latest game I've been playing. You can access the YouTube channel through the "About Me" page on this website.

Anyways, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm Zlink Plays, and I will see you all in the next review.

PEACE OUT!



I give the Sidereal Horizon a 10 out of 10

For those of you who don't know, Armored Core is a mech-fighting series started by FromSoftware back in 1997. It was originally published by Sony and released as an exclusive for the original PlayStation. Overall, it was well-received by game critics and gamers alike. The only real complaint that I could find online was about the camera rotation, which everyone agreed was "too slow" during combat.

Armored Core went on to define the mech-fighting genre, and after 26 years since the series' initial startup, FromSoftware released Armored Core VI for the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Now, I was familiar with Armored Core, but I never played a title in the series until well-after it was established. In fact, it was only through one of my close friends from high school that I was finally able to play the third Armored Core game, as well as FromSoftware's King's Field IV: The Ancient City.
Honestly, I appreciate how far Armored Core has gone. Despite being a simple mech-fighting game with not much else to it, I certainly don't regret playing the games - especially the latest title: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon.



-|- "YOUR CALLSIGN IS RAVEN" -|-

When FromSoftware released the teaser trailer for Armored Core VI back in December of 2022, I was a little confused about its development. If I'm being completely honest, I was stoked to see the series being renewed, but I was also wondering why FromSoftware decided to reboot the series in the first place. Armored Core was a very influential series for its time, but I honestly felt like it would be a relic in the video game climate of 2022.

Reminiscing on the game releases during 2022, there's one I specifically want to mention: Elden Ring. that game was developed by FromSoftware and released in February of 2022, just ten months before they released the Armored Core teaser.
Fortunately, Elden Ring was a very successful game; however, it just made me beg the question: after making one of their most well-known titles, why was FromSoftware going back to older IP's?

Don't get me wrong, I love Armored Core, but it felt odd that FromSoftware wanted to develop an action-shooter, mech-fighting video game that wouldn't capitalize on the industry fad at the time: third-person narratives.
I guess it just boils down to what they wanted to work on, especially after having to develop Elden Ring for five years. It would honestly make sense that FromSoftware was just tired of the fantasy genre, and they wanted to spice things up a bit for the team. I tend to do that when I write my own short stories. But, that's just an assumption. Truth is, I have no idea why they wanted to make another Armored Core title.

The one thing I knew, which made me concerned in the first place, was the fact that when developers usually do something like this, the end result is... bad.

Take the Assassins Creed franchise, for example, or Call of Duty, or even the Mass Effect series. In FromSoftware's case, they were running the risk of bringing back a mech-fighting game, a genre that has been out of style for well over a decade, and expecting it to sell well among consumers.

And, fortunately for Miyazaki and his team, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon blew it out of the park.

Armored Core VI is still, very much, a simple, mech-fighting game like its predecessors. That being said, the game is amazing, and certainly a breath of fresh air from the numerous dark-fantasy titles FromSoftware created throughout the previous eight years.

As soon as you enter the game, you're immediately immersed in the apocalyptic landscape of Rubicon 3, a dying industrial planet that has been besieged by corporations. Engaged in a bloody and costly conflict, the corporations recruit you and several other mercenaries to wipe out the competition.
As you make your way down to the planet as a low-level mercenary, you begin to fight other mercenaries and, more importantly, find Coral. For those not familiar with the game's lore, Coral is a resource that has been used by humanity to further technological development, but it has been assumed that all Coral in the galaxy was annihilated from the Rubicon system fifty years prior to your introduction.
Now, as you come to this terrific discovery, you and your handler "Walter" are now hunted by the corporations, who begin to send their high-ranking mercenaries after you in an attempt to steal the Coral and kill you.



-|- "GET THEIR ATTENTION, 621" -|-

If there's one thing that this game does right, it would be creating a spectacle.

Throughout the entire game, I really appreciated how pretty it looked, especially during combat. Shooting your cannons, or firing your mini-guns not only provide the intense, action-packed feeling of warfare, but also provided a mesmerizing display of colors and sounds that leave you wanting more.

Speaking of combat, being able to customize your character with different weapons, boosters, shields, and processors to give you an advantage on the battlefield is something that never really gets old for me. I love being able to experiment with all the items a game has to offer, especially if it's one of the main mechanics present throughout your entire playthrough.

As for the game difficulty, it's fairly easy. Compared to the souls games, FromSoftware really lowered the bar when it came to this game's difficulty, which I feel was intended. If I remember correctly, the older Armored Core games were also really welcoming, and difficulty wasn't really an issue in them.

Overall, I really liked all the boss and mob types that you fight throughout the game. There are a few that have some pretty crazy attacks, but none of the fights are at a level of difficulty that will halt your progress. During my playthrough, I would have to repeat a boss fight, at most, three times before I would beat them and move on.
If I'm being honest, it really helped that the game had a strong library of customizations you can choose from, because not only did it help me find a build I was comfortable with, but also showed me that I could make an over-powered mech and steamroll the game if I really wanted to.



-|- "RETURN TO BASE, 621" -|-

In short, the game is fun, thoughtless, run-and-gun action that is still able to impress me, to this day. While it doesn't have much to critique on, this game series has never really been one meant for reviewing, and that's totally okay.
Despite having nothing much to its story or its gameplay besides fighting, it still doesn't stop the voice actors, the visuals, and the mechanics from taking the spotlight and giving the player something fond to remember. After all, it's a game about giant mechs fighting each other - what's not to like about Gundam-style narratives?

If you're short on entertainment recently, I highly recommend checking this game out and playing it yourself. It's definitely one of those comfort games I wouldn't mind picking up and goofing around in after a long, busy day. You can buy the game on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox if you're interested.


Thank you all so much for reading this review. Truly, I really appreciate all of you, and the continued support you all have for the site, as well as all my other projects. Sorry it's been so long since the last post, life has been pretty busy - lots of ups and downs have had to be endured.
Anyways, if you liked what you read, please share with your friends - I love to keep the discussion going!

Also, if you're looking for anything new by me when waiting for a review, I'm uploading to my YouTube channel now - I'm currently playing through Resident Evil (2002). You can find a link to the channel through the "About Me" page on this website.
In addition, if you're looking to support my work, I highly recommend taking a look at the "Donations" page on this website and submitting whatever money you would like to give. Any amount is appreciated, and there's no pressure if you don't want to.

Anyway, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I will see you all in the next review.

Peace out!



I give the GOU-CHEN grenade launcher a 7 out of 10 

If there's one word to describe the 90's and early 2000's, I would probably say "different."
I'm not sure how to describe it, but everything was just... different. It felt like the push for nonconformity caused by past generations finally formed its effect on society in the 1990's, which lead to an innovation in art, music, and individual expression.

You all can have your own opinions on this topic, but I personally believe that the era we saw in the 90's and early 2000's was directly influenced by the dramatic shift American culture underwent throughout the five decades succeeding the 1950's.

Things in the 90's and 2000's were edgy, things were weird; individuality was formed for the sake of new media wanting to be different than what came before, and I feel a lot of the work that came out of that era really pushed the societal norms of the time.

Looking back on the media I grew up with, a lot of that shit was very revolutionary. In the music industry, you had the rise of hip-hop and grunge rock groups. On the other side of the pond, in the entertainment industry, you had media such as American Pie, Pulp Fiction, Clerks, South Park, Jackass, MTV Cribs, and Tony Hawk playing 24/7 on your television sets. The 90's also had the techno-boom, and the introduction of the World-Wide-Web domain ("www").

The 90's threw the culture ball, and the 2000's caught it and ran with it. So, why am I talking about all of this? What's my point?
I guess, what I'm trying to say, is this was the generation of media I grew up with. More importantly, though, it was also the generation Nintendo chose to release their revolutionary title: Luigi's Mansion.



~ LUIGI'S WON A MANSION ~

For those of you new to my work, I love Luigi's Mansion. I consider it to be my favorite game of all time, and the best title in the series so far. Maybe it's because I have so much nostalgia for that era of games, but I'm not sure. What I do know, though, is that I love this game.
I can't remember a time growing up that I wasn't playing this game. Everything about it: the atmosphere, the treasure-hunting, the secrets, and the ghosts were all so captivating. Furthermore, my cousin played it, and I consider that to be most important reason for why I love this game so much.

You see, my cousin was my role model for a really long time; and, quite honestly, he still is in some ways.
There wasn't a time where I didn't want to be like him. I remember taking up skateboarding because he, my uncle, and my aunt used to do it. I started drinking Dr. Pepper, reading GameInformer, studying computers, playing RuneScape, and collecting video games because I knew those were things my cousin liked doing.

Honestly, without my cousin, I don't think I would have gotten into games like Minecraft, The Legend of Zelda, and even online games like Counter Strike or World of Warcraft. Most of all, however, I don't think I would have gotten into Luigi's Mansion, which, if my memory serves me right, was the first game he and I bonded over.
My favorite memory was when I woke up early to play the game after getting it for my birthday the previous day, and there was a part I was stuck on that was preventing me from catching a ghost. So, like a complete idiot, I called my cousin at 6 in the morning and left, like, 20 voicemails asking him for help.

[Alejo, if you're reading this, sorry for doing that]

Nonetheless, I was obsessed with the game, and I managed to beat it shortly after receiving it on my birthday. After a few years passed, I started researching if a new game was in the works. Fortunately, there was, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was eventually released for the Nintendo 3DS on March 20, 2013.



~ THE DARK MOON ~

When I initially started writing this review, I wanted to state that I'm not a big fan of the second title. However, after careful consideration, I want to pause on my final opinion of the game, and just talk about it with you all. So, with that, let's start talking about the story.

* ahem *

Professor E. Gadd has continued his ghost research after successfully stopping King Boo from resurrecting Bowser in the first game. Using the power of the Dark Moon, E. Gadd was able to recruit a group of ghosts to assist him in his research, and all seemed to be going well.
However, when E. Gadd and his ghosts were working one night, the Dark Moon was attacked and shattered. In an instant, the friendly ghosts turned feral, and began destroying E. Gadd's lab, and started attacking him.
In a panic, E. Gadd retreated to his emergency bunker, and called for Luigi's help. After successfully drafting Luigi into salvaging his research, E. Gadd tasked him with the goal of gathering the Dark Moon pieces, so that they can be cleaned and pieced back together.

Now, with the new Poltergust 5000 ghost catcher, Luigi must travel to the abandoned buildings where E. Gadd conducted his research. There, he must fight ghosts, find the Dark Moon pieces, and attempt to bring order back to the chaotic landscape before it's too late.



~ CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE GHOSTLY KIND ~

The game adds a lot more variety to the universe's exploration, art design, combat, and puzzle solving. In addition, because it was released on the 3DS, players would be able to play the game in 3D, which brought a fun, innovating addition to the game's UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) aspects.
While the game strays away from the eerie music, set, and character designs found in the first game, the same features found in Dark Moon are not hindered in the slightest.
In fact, the music and sound design is probably the best in the series, in my opinion. Furthermore, there are more areas to explore, more puzzles to complete, more collectibles to find, and even more ghosts to fight - each having their own strengths and weaknesses that you can study to gain an advantage during combat.

The element mechanic that was present in the first one is unfortunately missing in the second, but it's replaced with two equally-fulfilling features: the "stun" and "dark light" mechanics. The "stun" feature for Luigi's flashlights allow you to catch ghosts, and adds more strategy to the combat in comparison to just dragging your light over ghosts in the first title. As for the "dark light" feature, it's a lens Luigi can attach to his flashlight that can reveal hidden doors, pathways, and treasure chests.

There is also a larger variety of boss fights. Unlike collecting the portrait ghosts in the first game, you have to standard exploration rooms to collect keys, which will then unlock a door or pathway to the boss arenas found throughout the game's multiple sections.
The boss fights are fun, but my two personal favorites are the spider and glacier boss fights, which involve fun obstacle courses and fight mechanics. If you've played the game before, you know the fights I'm talking about.

As for the other minor quirks I noticed, I liked most of them - keyword: "most".
I think the first game does a great job with how it utilizes its mechanics to unlock more for the player to experience, and I believe the second game continues that perfect execution. In addition, Dark Moon has a very memorable final boss fight, which is something I enjoyed seeing after playing the boss fight in the original game.
My one complaint, however, is how much back-tracking is present in this game. If you're attempting to 100% Dark Moon, you're going to have to sit through a lot of transition screens, whether it be Luigi being teleported to the area you need to explore, or Luigi traveling slowly through a door. It was also a little annoying seeing that they put in cutscenes for every time Luigi opened a door, which is something I also didn't like experiencing in the original. Sure, the cutscene is skippable, but it would have been much better if they didn't cut away from the game to show a skippable movie to the player in the first place.



~ CONCLUSION ~

Overall, I really enjoyed the game, because it did exactly what the first game did all those years ago: it innovated what a game could accomplish.

In the first game, I could use elements to fight certain ghosts, I could explore a creepy mansion and find weird treasures and collectibles. I could contact E. Gadd on the "Game Boy Horror," and I could take photos with it like I could with a flip phone.

My point is, Luigi's Mansion encapsulates the things I enjoy and remember fondly from my childhood, and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon does the same for the younger generation it was released to.
I may not have to like the changes to some of the designs or mechanics, but I can appreciate that Nintendo has created another solid game within a series I hold close to my heart. Not only that, but I can also respect Nintendo's efforts to implement the world I'm growing up with into their games.
In a way, each release in the series caters to a generation, and why would I want to prevent people from falling in love with their own fresh, new, innovating title - one that captures the good things from their own childhood?

In short, I highly recommend the game to anyone who is interested in playing it for themselves, and I highly recommend a second playthrough to those of you who have played the game before.

Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you enjoyed what you saw, share it with your friends - I'd love to keep the conversation going!
If you would like to see more of my work, I have a YouTube channel that I post playthrough videos to - I'm currently playing through Resident Evil (2002). The link to my channel is on the "About Me" page of this website!
Also, if you're feeling generous and want to donate, feel free to head to the "Donations" page of this website - I'd love to gather more support so we can grow this hobby of mine into something greater!

Anyways, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I will see you all in the next one.
Peace out!



I give Polterpup an 8 out of 10

If there's one plethora of games I feel I have barely touched, it would have to be "city-building/strategy" games. If I'm being completely honest, I don't go out of my way to explore much of what this genre has to offer. I have a small, select set of games from this category that I particularly enjoy - Age of Empires, Animal Crossing, Kingdom Two Crowns, and Minecraft to name a few - and I'm fine with that.

That being said, I've also played some other games in this category, such as Tropico, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Clash of Clans. These are some other titles I'm familiar with, but I don't really enjoy them as much as the others I've previously mentioned. The main reason for this being found solely in the wait times these games require you to sit through.
In Animal Crossing, you have to wait literal seasons to change until new content is released. With Clash of Clans, you're waiting hours - sometimes weeks - to update your town's defenses and production buildings. It's hard for me to keep my attention focused on a game that requires me to stay committed for months on end, because there is no real reason for me to do so in the first place.

Why would I want to wait hours, days, weeks, or even months for a game to release new content, when I have other games that give me the same experience or satisfaction in less time?

I find that I'm always asking this question to myself when I go shopping for another game in this genre. And, more often than not, I end up buying nothing.
However, there are moments when I decide to take a gamble, and I purchase a game that I'm not totally familiar, nor on board, with. If you read my Kingdom Two Crowns review, I ruminated on how I made this type of decision when I purchased that game, simply because all it had going for it was my friend constantly telling me how good it is.
And I must say, after dumping almost 67 hours into Kingdom Two Crowns, I concur that it's phenomenal.

With all that being said, that's the main reason why I want to talk about STACKLANDS today. Funny enough, this game was sitting in my library after my brother purchased it a while back, and I just didn't have any interest in playing it then. However, just recently, I finally decided to sit down and try it out myself, and now I want to talk about it.



~ HUMBLE BEGINNINGS ~

My first impression of the game was that it was really confusing. Back before the auto-craft mechanic was released in Minecraft, you found recipes just by forming different combinations. Similar in nature to that approach, you unlock recipes in STACKLANDS by grouping different cards together. In total, there are 496 cards to collect in STACKLANDS, with most of them being inaccessible on your first playthrough until you find the recipe on your own.

It wasn't until after the first few in-game days passed that I started getting used to the general gameplay, and I started to focus on what I enjoyed about it.

Fortunately, this game manages to do a lot right.

While it's really unfortunate you have to essentially brute-force recipes, there are so many of them that it gives a lot of content to the game.  STACKLANDS also has a series of card packs that you're able to purchase with coins, the in-game currency. These card packs give you tools, food sources, building materials, and weapons for your villagers, which can be really helpful once enemies show up.
Aside from the various material, building, enemy, and weapon cards, there are also a number of exploration cards that can potentially give you new items to use, as well as food to feed your villagers. 

Aside from that, the wait time for upgrades was something I also appreciated. One game I've mentioned already, Kingdom Two Crowns, requires you to wait, at most, a few minutes to upgrade your town. The same can be said about STACKLANDS - it's really nice that the game keeps its pace constant throughout your playthrough rather than pausing everything until whatever you're building is constructed.

Overall, the best part I found about this whole game was the card collecting mechanic. There are so many to gather in one playthrough, so you just start another one. Once I finally found all the cards, I managed to play about 5 whole games, each utilizing different sets of cards in comparison to the last playthrough.

While what I'm about to say can be considered a caveat to the card collecting, it's also something I really enjoyed seeing in the game. You see, the starting card limit is 20 cards, but you can use your materials to create sheds and warehouses, which increases your card limit and available build-space. Honestly, I really liked how much strategy it added to the game. Sure, you can have multiple buildings, but you also need villagers to protect those buildings when enemies come.
Furthermore, materials, food, weapons, and items all count toward your total cards, so you need to be careful what you're leaving on your board; otherwise, you'll have to discard them at the end of a day.
The game strikes a critical balance between tending to your people's needs and the defense of your town, and I was really happy with the amount of opportunity the game gives you to better your odds at survival.



~ "WOLF HEAD: PERFECT FOR FURRIES" ~

When it comes to the game's combat design, it's actually pretty simple, but a lot of fun.

There are magic, melee, and ranged weapons you can use to upgrade your villagers and give them combat buffs. When not in combat, you're free to upgrade buildings, grow food, and stack your villagers on exploration cards to find more loot.
The game has a day-night cycle, and after every day, you are required to feed your villagers. After a certain number of days, a strange portal will appear, which can spawn enemies. You could either use this portal to go fight one of the final bosses, or you can wait until the enemies arrive and fight them in your own village.

During combat, you are able to arrange your villagers to take advantage of their combat buffs. For example, magic users are strong against ranged fighters, but are weak against melee characters. If you don't arrange your villagers correctly based off their attributes, your villagers could be in danger of taking more damage in a fight, and this is important to remember when you decide to start fighting the game's bosses.

In order to heal your villagers, you have to feed them food at the end of each day, and each item has its own set of uses before being completely consumed. One item I really liked creating was the fruit salad, because it was easy to make and could be used three times. One strategy I found early on was to create a hotpot to store the food in, as well as farms that could grow the items necessary to create the fruit salad dish. Aside from that, there are tons of other dishes you can make, and multiple ways to store them on your board. For example, the hotpot card I mentioned earlier is used before other food sources are consumed, which helped me regulate the consumption of my food cards throughout my playthroughs.

With all that being said, one thing I want to criticize when it comes to the combat is how difficult it can get. The majority of the time, you're fighting several mobs with a few of your villagers. For one final boss, the max amount of villagers you can bring into the fight is seven, which can be difficult to manage if you don't have the proper equipment to fight the higher-level enemies.
This issue also feeds into my disdain for the day-night cycle, as well as how you heal your villagers. While there is an option to adjust the cycle speed, the normal spsetting for your days and nights is fairly quick. This means that you're regularly fighting enemies; and, since you can only heal 2 points of health every day for your villagers, it can be hard to keep them alive for another fight.
Fortunately, to counter this, there are healing items outside of food that you can equip your villagers with. However, I found it a little difficult to manage my civilization and the wellbeing of my citizens while trying to fight off mobs every few days, especially when I started my following attempts on higher difficulties.



~ THE END? ~

In short, I had a lot more fun than I was expecting to have with STACKLANDS. It ended up being a fairly simple title that gave me weeks of fun and enjoyable gameplay. It was nice being able to sit down and play the game when I wasn't in the mood to play any other title in my library.

If you're into city-building games with a little bit of combat and strategy to them, I highly encourage you to check out this game yourself. Apart from everything I just mentioned, there's also a bit of comedy to the game, which is also entertaining to see.
There's also some DLC for the game that was released a while back, and though I haven't played it myself, I heard really good things about it from my friends who have played this game alongside me.

I think that's pretty much all I wanted to say. Sorry the review was short in comparison to my other work; nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed it. Furthermore, I also hope it piqued your interest for STACKLANDS.

If you enjoy reading my reviews, please share the website with your friends. If you're also looking for other content from me, I just started uploading to my YouTube channel, and I highly encourage checking that out as well. You can find the link in the "About Me" section of this website, which also has links to my social media and gaming accounts.
One last thing, if you're feeling generous, please head to the "Donations" page. It would be awesome to see this hobby of mine grow into something even greater than it is now.

Thank you all so much for reading. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I will see you all in the next one!



I give the Trained Monkey a 7/10

A long time ago on this website, I reviewed a 2017 title called Prey. For those of you who don't remember, Prey is a science-fiction, first-person shooter with an emphasis on action, puzzle solving, and platforming.
It's the second major evolution in Arkane Studios' game design - it fixes problems and level design issues apparent in the two Dishonored games released prior to Prey's debut. In Dishonored 1 & 2, your victory lies within utilizing its stealth mechanics, as well as learning the game's world, which pulls heavily from Victorian themes and architect.
Aside from being two wonderful works of art, both games in the series are incredibly fun, and I highly recommend playing them whenever you have the chance.

While not the main topics for today's discussion, I still would like to analyze the first two titles of the Dishonored series. It will be so we can derive lessons Arkane Studios learned, all so they could create - what I sincerely believe is - their magnum opus: Prey.



= THE MAKING OF A GIANT =

Published during October 2012 by Bethesda Softworks, Dishonored set out to be a stealth-based, action game that tells a story of revenge. You play as Corvo Attano, a bodyguard framed for killing his client: the Empress of the Isles. When he is forced to leave his old life, Corvo becomes an assassin in hopes he can get vengeance against those who wronged him.
 
 As you progress through the story, the game unlocks new mechanics and tools, which you are free to use at your own discretion. Should you like to kill everyone, Dishonored has specific skill trees that favor that playstyle. In contrast, if you would like to do something such as a pacifist run, the game includes features catering to that desired experience too.
 
 I certainly appreciate the lengths Arkane Studios went to when designing the two Dishonored games. Their support for alternate playstyles, all the while offering various skills to progress those individual experiences, was truly a wonderful touch.
 It not only inspired me to play the games more than once, but allowed me the time to test and enjoy the various mechanics Arkane Studios took the time to develop. Even more so, I enjoy how the two Dishonored games blend their stories into the gameplay, similar to how the Bioshock franchise is recognized for blending their narrative into player action.

Affecting the story through personal action is a strategy used, surprisingly, very often in video games. It's a concept commonly known as "Ludo-Narrative Dissonance," or "Resonance." In short, the term describes the relationship between a player's actions, and their effect on the game's characters and story progression. There are many games that use this strategy: Red Dead Redemption 2, Undertale, Outer Wilds; and, not just because we're discussing it today, but Prey, are some great examples.
 
 YouTuber, NakeyJakey, does a great job discussing this topic in his videos, which I highly recommend watching after you finish reading this review.
 
 Overall, I enjoy the stories both Dishonored games tell, and I like that Arkane Studios took additional measures to innovate on their designed experience simply to support the player's enjoyment.
 That being said, the game is not perfect, and both games suffer from various, small mistakes that I want to talk about.
 
 One minor setback to my satisfaction in both games was the lack of a skip button. While some people don't mind, I personally took issue with the lack of a skip feature during cutscenes that, I felt, provided no satisfactory value to the game's story.
 Furthermore, I felt that some crucial moments in the story were favored over others, which led to a noticeable dip in the game's quality when it came to character dialogue, performance, and exposition.
 
 Another issue that drastically affected my opinion of the series was found in Dishonored 2. During my playthrough, I noticed Arkane has failed in implementing a proper quick selection wheel, which was perfectly executed in the previous title.
Adding on to the mechanical problems, both games don't have a noticeable "kill" feature, which informs the player whether or not they killed someone. This oversight can ruin playthroughs, especially because the game's ending relies on how many people you save or assassinate. So, it would have been nice to see those mechanics polished a bit more. It would have also been nice to see further development on implementations Arkane Studios made - the hitboxes, fall damage, and user interface are just a few examples.

Despite all these issues, though, Dishonored is still highly regarded among the gaming community, and I also have a strong admiration for the series.
While it is unfortunate Arkane Studios failed at developing their latest game, Redfall, and that they have officially been shut down as of May 2024, I firmly believe they managed to instill themselves as one of the best modern-game developers. I also strongly believe that, without the mistakes I mentioned above, the beauty of Prey's gameplay and story wouldn't have become as prominent of a praise as it is among the current player-base.



= PROJECT DANIELLE =
 
 The first time I ever saw Prey was back in January 2017 - about four months before the game was released. As I was purchasing a game from my local GameStop, the cashier reaches underneath the counter and hands me the newest issue of GameInformer, a magazine that contains articles covering video games, events, art, and other news throughout the video game industry.
On the cover of the issue was a man with "M. Yu" written on a nametag. He was holding a futuristic tool, and his suit looked like one out of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The subtle, sci-fi themes of the cover piqued my interest, and at the very bottom of the page was the game's title:

PREY
 A DISTORTED REALITY WHERE YOU ARE THE WEAPON

I was hooked. As soon as I got home, I began thumbing through the issue, trying to find an article about this mystery game. Finally, in the center of the magazine, I found a 14-page article covering the development, storyline, and artistic direction of Arkane Studios' 2017 release.

I didn't know this until way later, but the initial idea for Prey was conceived back in 2013, just after Arkane Studios finished the first Dishonored game and its DLC.
 The original concept was to have the game be a successor to the System Shock series, and have it named Project Danielle. While Arkane Studios was brainstorming, Human Head Studios was in the process of developing a sequel to their 2006 title Prey. However, after Human Head Studios failed at creating their sequel, Bethesda, who owned the IP, gave Arkane Studios permission to use the name for their upcoming game.
By the time 2016 rolls around, Project Danielle is now titled Prey, and a teaser trailer is provided to the public at E3 later that year.

Prey released on Xbox,  PlayStation 4, and PC on May 5, 2017. It not only went on to sell over one-million copies, but was also nominated for the 2017 Game Awards. Furthermore, it received fairly-high scores among game critics such as Metacritic and IGN - the average score being an 8.3 out of 10.
A lot of people who experienced the game also agree that the game is fantastic; approximately 43,700 out of the 48,000 players on Steam recommend the game, giving praise to its story, character and enemy designs, and various game mechanics.

That being said, although Prey is fondly remembered by everyone who has played it, the majority of the internet agrees that it was, overall, a commercial flop.
 Unfortunately for Prey, a lot of the marketing material failed to capture any strong elements the game has to offer. In addition, Arkane Studios released a demo for the game a week before its debut, but they only released copies for Xbox and PlayStation 4 players. These two major decisions not only turned people off to pursuing and purchasing the game, but also locked a lot of PC players out from experiencing it that could have potentially spread the game through word-of-mouth.
Personally, I couldn't agree more with the score, why it ultimately became a flop, and what makes the game so great. I think Prey is a phenomenal game, I've played over 75 hours of it, and I have found all the different endings it has to offer.

That being said, I acknowledge that the game struggled with its release, and I believe that the poor marketing was the stone that killed this Goliath. The game is a wonderful sci-fi tale that pairs multiple tones and styles with its gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, Arkane Studios' failure to capture one - or all - of them in an interesting promotional trailer and demo overshadowed all the fantastic work they did.



= TALOS I =

The story of Prey starts during the 1960's in an alternate universe. In this universe, the United States and Soviet Union ban together during the Cold War to fight off an alien species known as the "Typhon." Under this alliance, the two nations create the "Kletka Program," which consisted of building a research station that orbits the moon.
 The project was meant to study the Typhon without causing panic among the general public, but it was eventually abandoned over time. However, approximately 70 years later, a company known as TranStar purchased the space station, and remodeled it into the "TALOS I Research Station." It was there that TranStar employees would continue experimenting with the Typhon so that they could continue further development on their most-notable invention: the "Neuromod."
 
 The game starts in 2032, where you play as the main character, Morgan Yu. You awake on March 15 inside your apartment on Earth. After getting used to the game's controls, you read some personal logs on your apartment's computer detailing your upcoming job as a researcher aboard TALOS I. However, before leaving Earth, your first mission is to head to TranStar's headquarters to complete a psychological evaluation.
 
 The opening title sequence to Prey is still one of my favorite openings to a video game. As you leave your apartment via helicopter, the opening credits are posted throughout the San Francisco skyline. Meanwhile, the beautiful scenery is paired with a fantastic soundtrack composed entirely by Mick Gordon. If there is any reason you should experience this game, this small portion of the prologue is certainly one of them.
 
 Anyway, upon arriving at the clinic where the test is being conducted, you're greeted by your brother Alex, who wishes you the best of luck before you enter the exam rooms. Entering the first room, you find the doctors are studying you from the other side of a reinforced window pane, and are asking you to complete arbitrary tasks such as: running across the room, hiding behind objects, and answering questions revolving around death.
 Disregarding the obscurity of these prompts, you finish three of the tests, and are about to start the fourth. However, before you start the fourth test, a Tyhpon alien attacks the doctors. The test is immediately shut down, and you are knocked unconscious by gas filling the examination room.
 
 When you wake up in your apartment the second time, you find that everything is the same. The day, the time; even all of your equipment has been completely reset to how it was when you woke up the first time. As you dress yourself and exit your apartment for the second time, you see a janitor dead in the hallway. Grabbing their wrench, you head back into your apartment to investigate. As you look at your apartment windows that reveal San Francisco below, you raise your wrench, and you swing. It's at this moment when you find that everything has been a simulation. As it turns out, the year is 2035, and you are already aboard TALOS I. Even worse, the Typhon have breached their containment, and they are beginning to spread across the entire station.
 With this dawning realization, your phone rings. Picking it up, you find yourself listening to an alternate version of yourself known as "January." January will be your guide for the majority of the game, and they’re the person that tasks you with your first real mission: getting to your office located in the TALOS I Lobby.
 Now, equipped with nothing but a wrench, and guided by an artificial replica of yourself, you charge into the depths of the TALOS I station, hoping that you can fix the mess you seem to have woken up to.
 
 
 
 = "WE'RE GOING TO SHAKE THINGS UP, LIKE OLD TIMES" = 

The most consistent thing about Prey is its inconsistency. Just to name a few examples: the tone gradually changes throughout the main questline, gameplay is paused by loading screens throughout your playthrough, and the Typhon spreading across the station will completely change how you go about accessing areas as the game progresses. Nothing stays stagnant in this game, and what does is eventually formed into something completely new for you to explore or interact with.
 
 While this statement is true, so is this: the most beautiful thing about Prey isn't its rendition of a sci-fi narrative - it's its capability of becoming a wonderful tribute to the work Arkane Studios put into their Dishonored titles. 

 The game has a variety of endings you can choose to achieve. Furthermore, the progression system, the inventory, the platforming, and puzzle solving are all made to be as dynamic as possible with the world. Everything and everywhere in this game can be accessed in more ways than one - just like how the Dishonored titles were designed.
 You can upgrade your character with alien or human skills, which alter the way Typhon and security bots react to you. You can collect items to store somewhere else, or disassemble them in a "Material Recycler" to create new items.
 Every major section of TALOS I has a variety of entrances and exits, and the rooms within those sections have their own set of various ventilation routes, doorways, and glass panels you can throw things in-between, or outright break to unlock a room. You can sneak, kill, melee, sprint, repair drones, control characters, hack data terminals; the list goes on.
 
 What's even more of a feat is the game's user interface, which articulates your inventory, maps, objectives, upgrades, and weapon wheel into a set of coherent, comprehensive lists. Arkane Studios took their initial concepts and have developed them into fully fleshed mechanics - almost all of them without flaw.
 
 Now, the reason I say "almost all" is because there are still many small mistakes Prey makes that can break the immersion of your playthrough.
For one, loading screens are extremely common in this game. While the game looks and sounds beautiful, it came at the cost of rendering power. To counter an overload, Arkane Studios broke the map up, and forced the player into loading screens whenever they wanted to travel to another area of TALOS I. Like the door cutscenes in Resident Evil, this can pull you out from the experience, and it something to endure, rather than a strategic feature that enhances your experience.
Another small issue is the game's engine: the CryEngine. I can recollect many times when the game's physics broke, causing me to become locked behind obstacles, or a quest item to no-clip through the world and become unreachable. In addition, some things would de-spawn, or would be located in a place I didn't leave it, which caused confusion.
Moving also felt difficult, specifically in zero-gravity. I know it can be difficult to program zero-gravity movement, but not taking the time to polish it becomes a glaring issue when the game restricts you to that movement for select missions.

It's important to remember that mechanics are mean to benefit the game and, in turn, the player. Therefore, it was disappointing to see Arkane Studios succeed in fixing their past failures, but ultimately fail when implementing new ones. However, if you push past all the minor inconveniences this game has to offer, you are sure to see a lot of polish and care when it comes to the game's overall design.



= "YOU'LL HAVE TO INVENT YOUR OWN PURPOSE" =
 
 The narrative of Prey is an interesting one. For the entire game, you are given orders. Whether they're provided by your compatriot, January, or from the various cast of surviving characters you meet across the station.
 However, upon reaching the final set of missions, the game's objective shifts. At a time where you can save the station; instead of giving you a series of instructions, the game asks you to make your own. Whether your course of actions save the station, and its inhabitants, is unknown - the game simply asks you to do what you think is right. And, so you do.
 
 I think now is the perfect time to say what I enjoy most about this game. My favorite part about Prey isn't its design, its mechanics, or even its soundtrack. Every time I play the game, I fall in love with Prey's story, because it's a reflection of you on a personal level.

Prey is a game of consciousness. The enemy you face is a species built off a collective mind, which builds its understanding and characteristics off the memories of its various hosts.
The test you take in the prologue, and encountering people during your missions, are moments that reveal your emotional response to different situations.
Items you use to upgrade character traits are literally called "Neuromods," which - according to the item description - completely reprogram the brain to behave a specific way, so that one can complete a task.

And herein lies why I consider Prey to be a masterpiece. From the moment you take the test in the prologue, to the moment you decide the fate of TALOS I, your experience is created entirely by you, and the actions you took to get your conclusion.
The story is unique, it's messy - it's the culmination of your exuberant, or lacking, mindfulness. It's a story only you could have created; and, when the credits roll, it leaves you with a desire to experience it all again. This time, with a newfound cognizance and understanding of yourself, which leads the way to an entirely new and unique experience.



=  CONCLUDING THOUGHTS =
 
 Prey was everything I wanted it to be, and more. From the moment I read through its article in the GameInformer magazine, to the moment I completed my first-ever playthrough, I knew I had witnessed a severely underrated gem.
 The combat, the music, the exploration, the graphics, and the story all combined to form one of the best sci-fi games ever released. Despite being a commercial flop, Arkane Studios should be proud of this game, and we should all give respect to the games they developed beforehand to make Prey so unbelievably special.
 
 If it wasn't noticeable in this review, I highly encourage everyone to check out this game, and make their own story. You can purchase the game, as well as its DLC Prey: Mooncrash, on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. If you decide to try it out, please let me know what you think - I'd love to hear about your experience with the game.

Thank you all so much for reading this review. Because I am changing my uploading schedule, I wanted this one to be a long, personal sendoff that we all could enjoy. I truly hope you all enjoyed reading this review, and I hope you share the website with friends and family so we can keep these discussions going.
If you're feeling generous, feel free to head to the "Donations" page, where you can support the site even further.
Also, if you would like to join me during my playthroughs, I am now starting to post content to my YouTube channel: zlinkplays. If you'd like to check it out, you can visit the channel using the link on the "About Me" page. I'm currently playing through the first Resident Evil, should that be something you're interested in watching.
 
Anyway, that's all for today. Thank you all again for reading and supporting the site, and I hope all of you are well this Labor Day weekend.
Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I will see you all in the next one!
 
 
 
I give the GLOO Cannon a 9 out of 10

Very recently, I uploaded a review to this game thinking that I have stated my thoughts in a proper and understandable way. It's only after reviewing it many times, and communicating with a close friend who has also played the game, that I realize I extremely dislike what I previously wrote, and I would like to revise it.

I still don't deny that I'm a major fan of the science-fiction genre. I love everything there is to come out of that field of imagination and creativity. And, just because that genre entails stories involving intangible concepts, it does not mean that it cannot, in one way or another, attempt to ask the question: what does it mean to exist?
With all that being said, I believe my fascination with answering that question has allowed me to appreciate FEZ in a very thoughtful, personal way.



- X: "TODAY IS A SPECIAL DAY" -

The first thing I would like to say is this: FEZ is an extremely complicated game. To this day, some of the puzzles still have no answer to them, and it's only through brute force that they have been solved. The game is a series of experiences stacked on to one another that invite the player to delve into a new world that is waiting to be explored.
FEZ starts in a little village with Gomez, the playable main character, and his neighbors that inhabit a floating island in the sky. The beginning of the game has the world set in 2D, allowing you to only move in the along the x- and y-axis.
After exploring the island, opening up new rooms, and talking with a few of the villagers, you make your way to the top of the island to find the elder of the village, Geezer. He informs you that an important event is about to happen- sure enough, there is, and you're slowly transported to a new area. This area is ancient in design, and above the pillars and statues lies a floating cube known as the Hexahedron.

The Hexahedron speaks to Gomez in a different language known as "Zuish". It is impossible to translate what is being said in this new language right now, so after the Hexahedron is done speaking, a fez hat is lowered from the sky and given to Gomez.
After dawning the fez, the game prompts you to press the "A" and "D" keys on your keyboard - or the "RT" and "LT" buttons on your controller - to change perspectives. This, in turn, gives Gomez access to new perspectives of his world, ultimately unlocking the third dimension to him.
As you change your perspective around, the Hexahedron rotates faster and faster. Eventually, it breaks into dozens of bits, and the game crashes. After a few seconds, a bootup menu is displayed before the opening title card is presented. When you press start for the second time, you find Gomez in his bed sleeping with a fez on his head.

Stepping outside after this series of events reveals the 3D environment the Hexahedron prompted you to practice using when you were in its presence. As you set out to explore again, an entity named Dot confronts you, saying they will be your guide into fixing your world.
Now acquainted with Dot, you set out to collect the cube bits, which are scattered across the game's known universe. Not knowing what lies ahead, you charge forward as Gomez - now, with the goal of piecing the Hexahedron back together before your universe is destroyed.

I stated in the previous version of this review that the plot of FEZ isn't brand new to me. I have played numerous games where you play as the hero who is responsible for saving their world from total annihilation.

That being said, I still believe that FEZ communicates its story very effectively, to the point that the concept feels brand new.
Coupled with the game's mechanics, the beautiful soundtrack, and the cryptic narrative, FEZ becomes more than what other games set out to be.
It's a rabbit hole that invites you to immerse yourself into the perplexing details of the game. It doesn't push you to explore any further unless you want to, and your reward for completing more puzzles is essentially more information about the game and its world's history.

I still believe Dark Souls is a very close comparison to how this game presents its lore. It's very cryptic in how you explore and learn the history of the world and inhabitants. If you want to know more, the game requires you to take an extra step if you want to find what else the game has to offer.
Although FEZ doesn't share a lot of other characteristics to Miyazaki's work, it doesn't fail to be equally subjective. It doesn't fail to have a meaning, and at the same time, no meaning at all. Most importantly, its effect is never fleeting; its beauty continues on in your mind, even long after you finished playing it.



- Y: "PREPARE TO HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN" -

I discussed in my earlier review of FEZ that I don't like to complete games for certain reasons. While that is still true, I also said that FEZ is a game that made the most sense when I completed the whole game, which was wrong.

I said earlier that the game is a series of experiences layered on one another to immerse the player into experiencing the world of FEZ. This is true.
Should you decide to continue the game after your first playthrough, you are provided an entirely new experience. Each following playthrough is different from the last in one way or another.

On your first playthrough, FEZ is a platformer that tasks you with collecting the bits to repair the Hexahedron. On your second playthrough, FEZ turns in to a puzzle game, with an emphasis on revealing clues, deciphering messages, and solving codes to unlock the true ending. On your third playthrough, and on the following ones after, FEZ becomes a game of hypotheticals, allowing you time to solve puzzles you weren't able to understand - or solve - on previous attempts.

With that being said, although FEZ doesn't have the same level of variety when it comes to its overall tone, I appreciate that the game stays consistent in its atmosphere.

FEZ is a very lonely game, one that has almost no characters to interact with for the majority of your playthroughs. This feeling of isolation is expanded on by the melancholy, yet beautiful score composed by Rich Vreeland. When you eventually find someone to talk to, they can only speak using the Zuish language that you can't translate. Or, they spout cryptic phrases that are part of a larger, more difficult puzzle that you might not have solved - or even started - yet.
You feel hopeless after failing to communicate with the first characters you've seen since the start of the game, and I think that was a brilliant design choice on the developer's end. What better way to make a player feel more alone than surrounding them with people they can't necessarily talk to? 

Moving on from specific gameplay moments, there are multiple ways to traverse the world of FEZ. You have doors that lead to new areas, and gateways that transport you to the numerous hub-worlds. There are five main hub-worlds you can teleport to: the Industrial Zone, the Graveyard, the Island, the Zu Ruins, and the Sewers.
There is no exact way of exploring FEZ, you kind of just pick a doorway, and then keep walking through the worlds until you find the end of that path. When you travel through an area, it will generate on your world map, and will be outlined with a white - or golden - box, signifying whether or not there are still secrets to be discovered in that area.
By the end of the game, your map is this giant tree of game areas called "nodes" branching up, down, left, and right.

The map is a bit of an eye-sore, but it is nothing compared to the series of puzzles that are sprinkled throughout the game.
When discussing the game with my friend, he stated that cryptographing - also known as "puzzle solving" - is a large part of FEZ, and I couldn't agree more. The whole game is filled with puzzles that you will solve on one playthrough or another. They are equally complex as they are abundant. I truly enjoyed the puzzle designs of this game, and playing FEZ was the first time I saw multiple puzzle-design strategies combined into one game, and used with each other to create more intricate puzzles.
However, there was a fair share of puzzles that were incredibly difficult, and took many hours of brute-forcing to solve. This is my one complaint, because the average time it takes people to solve them is very long. These were puzzles that required codes to be found, maps to be collected, and even locations within specific rooms to be searched using various codes that you input into the game using your keyboard or controller.

As much as I love this game for being so obtuse, and for having amazing puzzle designs, I still can't disregard how annoyed I felt when playing through it at some points. Although brute-forcing a puzzle for several hours helped me complete the game faster than others, I wouldn't want to do that for the other areas this game allows me to explore - spoiler alert, there are 138 individual areas.

However, I would like to say that solving all the puzzles eventually unlocks the true ending, which I personally feel provides so much more meaning to everything you just endured in comparison to the alternate ending you get after your first playthrough.

Once again, this upcoming portion is a large spoiler for the game, so please skip to the next part of the review if you don't want to read it. I know I usually try to leave this stuff out of my reviews, but I want to discuss the true ending of this game again, because I feel it's important.

When you finish the game after finding all the cubes and anti-cubes, the Hexahedron is put back together, and the universe is saved. As the game ends, the camera slowly pans out of your universe and reveals an infinite series of universes. Each one appears different from the other, but make no mistake; your universe is parallel to an infinite number of similar universes, and each one has its own ending.
In a way, you saving your universe, in regard to the grander scale of things, was meaningless. Aside from being incredibly depressing, it's also a slap in the face to all your hard work. Personally, it left me wondering why I even bothered clearing the whole game in the first place.
But, like I said in my previous take, I found myself reflecting on the media I consumed as a kid. The media that always begged the question: what's the point in living an existence that could potentially have little to no meaning whatsoever?
And now, again, here in this dimly-lit room of mine, I’m reviewing a game that, in a way, asks me the same exact question.

I don't think this game means to have one specific takeaway for its players, and so I find comfort in the fact that I gave my experience meaning by playing FEZ the way I did.
In the end, the lesson and perspective I took from the game makes my actions all the more unique and meaningful, despite witnessing an ending that depicts otherwise.



- Z: "I'M TIRED. PLUS, THERE'S THE EYE THING" -

FEZ wasn't a puzzle game I was expecting, but I can still appreciate it for what it is. Although some of the puzzles can be a headache to get through, the accomplishment of solving them gives a profound sense of satisfaction, as well as excitement for what can potentially come later in the game. Apart from the beautiful art design and outstanding soundtrack, FEZ manages to be an extremely entertaining puzzle game with a few portions of fun, easy platforming.
 
While I managed to reveal all the game's secrets and puzzles through two playthroughs, that doesn't mean this game should be played that way. I strongly encourage multiple playthroughs, because there are many moving parts in FEZ that are incredibly difficult to keep track of within a few playthroughs.

That being said, I understand puzzle games are not for everyone, especially if they have such a high level of complexity to them like FEZ does. Nonetheless, I implore all of you reading this review to try the game out for yourself. The game is available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and the Nintendo Switch - the prices will vary.

Thank you all so much for reading. If you enjoyed what you just read, please share the review with your friends and family - I love to keep these discussions going. If you're feeling generous, please feel free to leave some money through the links on the "Donations" page of this site.
Also, if you want to see some more content from me, please subscribe to my new YouTube channel - the link is on the "About Me" page of this site.

That's all for today. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one!



I give the talking owls an 8/10 

Few games come to mind when considering which can be considered the pinnacle of gaming. Don't get me wrong, every game is entertaining to an individual in one way or another. However, it's important to highlight the few titles that manage to transcend its appeal to the targeted fan-base, and provide memorable enjoyment for everyone.

The game industry has evolved quite a bit over its lifetime, and it's safe to say the quality of games has done so too. Not just the quality, but the depth, design, and artistic expression game developers implement in their games has varied as well.
Going from arcade cabinet hits such as Pac Man to high-budget, home-entertainment games like Halo: Combat Evolved within the span of two decades is unbelievable, and it's all thanks to the development of technology.
It's honestly really hard for me to comprehend the massive leaps we've managed to make in such a short amount of time when it comes to computers, but it's also very interesting to see how much change we've managed to produce from it.

This is kind of a weird segue, but I always see the progression in technology and how we use it to influence our society similar to how we've evolved our cultures in a way that reflects the modernism of our world.

However, there is one culture that I'd like to take time to appreciate in this review. Unlike many cultures found in the world, the one found on the Japanese archipelago is very unique in many different ways, and has stayed pretty stagnant in its traditions for a very long time. It can be considered beautiful as much as it can be considered conservative or strict to individuals not familiar with the societal norms the Japanese nation has upheld during its existence.

Not only that, but the Japanese nation and its people has some of the craziest pieces of world history I have studied. One event I'd like to highlight, in particular, is the war Japan fought against Mongolian invaders during the Kamakura period of Japan.
The initial Mongol invasion plans focused on invading the Japanese island of Iki, as well as the island of Tsushima so that they could be used as staging grounds for a future invasion of mainland Japan.

This bloody and chaotic invasion of Tsushima is what I would like to discuss, because this is the invasion depicted in Sucker Punch's 2020 title: Ghost of Tsushima.



- ACT 1: THE ORIGIN OF THE GHOST -

I know I like to praise the story of every game I review - if there is one present - more than anything else. Personally, a game's story is always my favorite part, mainly because it helps me as a writer hone my skills, build my own stories, and strengthen my characters.
The last game I played that genuinely left me wanting more was the indie title OneShot. I wrote the review a while ago, so feel free to go and read that. If you haven't, though, I'll give you the SparkNotes version.

Oneshot is an indie game developed by Future Cat LLC that released back in 2016. The premise of the game is you are the guardian of Niko, a little cat boy that is chosen to bring life back to a world that is slowly being destroyed by literal darkness. As the game progresses, you grow close to not only Niko, but all the inhabitants of the world. By the time you arrive at the end, no matter what path you choose, you have to part with Niko, as well as the world that you just spent saving for several hours. It's heartbreaking, to say the least, and the beauty of the game is enhanced further by the simple, yet brilliant art and sound design.

While the role you take in Ghost of Tsushima isn't a guardian angel, or anything of the sort, the game tells an equally-moving story about family, breaking traditions, and sacrificing one's life in order to save others from a sinister threat.
The story entails the character Jin, the lord of Clan Sakai. He is a samurai that was trained by his uncle and surrogate father, Lord Shimura, from a young age after the unfortunate passing of both his parents.
The game opens with an older Jin overlooking Komoda beach, where Lord Shimura, and the other clan lords have rendezvoused with their armies to attack the Mongol invaders. After the Mongol leader, Khotun Khan, kills a clan lord during a duel, the signal to attack is raised, and the samurai begin to charge the Mongol beachhead.
Within a few hours of battle, the samurai are utterly annihilated, and Shimura is taken hostage while Jin bleeds out. Things look bleak as Jin closes his eyes for what seems to be the last time. However, in a stroke of luck, Jin wakes up to find that a woman named Yuna has bandaged his wounds, therefore allowing him to continue his fight against the Mongols and save his uncle.
Yuna is not a samurai, she's a thief who plans to leave the island with her brother Taka, so that they can start a new life on the main island of Japan. After evading enemy patrols, and having to assassinate a Mongol invader to stay alive, Jin must make the choice to abandon the samurai code, and adopt a method of combat that he has been trained to see by his uncle as dishonorable.

The story is conflicting, and I really appreciate how Sucker Punch was able to attach a sense of weight to every action Jin takes throughout Ghost of Tsushima's campaign. I find it's really hard to successfully pull a writing strategy like that off without making the player feel like they're being force-fed a particular idea or belief.
Some games did it extremely well, in my opinion. Undertale, or Detroit: Become Human, or even Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater are just a few examples that did a fantastic job using the player's actions to affect the future plot of the story.
On the other hand, though, I feel some games attempt it, but ultimately fail in the process - some games I'd like to mention are Amnesia: Rebirth and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. These are two games that alter the plot based on how the player completes the game; and yet, in the end, very little of the story, or how characters interact with you, is changed.

Though the story is well-written, I like that it's not the only well-designed aspect of Ghost of Tsushima. Side missions give insight to other main characters and their goals throughout the game. Saving civilians from Mongolian patrols will reward you with Mongolian outposts that you can attack, which reveal more of the world map after you take control of them. Exploring the world gives you the ability to collect flowers and animal hides, which you can use to unlock new gear and upgrade combat tools. Even after you free a portion of Tsushima, the game repopulates the area with more quests and collectibles for you to find.

In a time where top-dog game developers are sacrificing content for short-term financial gain, I find it refreshing to see a game do the exact opposite. There's a lot in the base game of Ghost of Tsushima that could have very well been included in a DLC pack, like outfits and weapon skins. But, they're not, and it's a breath of fresh air to experience a game in its entire without having to exchange content for money.



- ACT 2: ADMIRING TSUSHIMA -

One thing I also recognized about Ghost of Tsushima was the graphics - this game looks absolutely amazing.

Every part of the world has such an immaculate scenery to it. Whether you're in the snowscapes of Kamiagata, the swamplands of Toyotama, or even in the grass fields of Izuhara. It doesn't matter, Ghost of Tsushima has been so meticulously detailed that every single location in the game looks like a painting.

To compliment the landscapes is a wonderful music score composed by Shigeru Umebayashi and Ilan Eshkeri. Every track in this game has such a beautiful sound to it, especially the combat tracks. Every time you enter combat, this bombastic music slowly creeps in and adds an emphasis to all your swings and movements. If you're even able to time it right, you're able to swing your katana with the beat of the song, then stagger or kill enemies on another beat, adding to the thrill of combat.
The soundtrack does a wonderful job blending Japanese instruments and playstyles with Mongolian vocals, and I appreciate the decision to use such forms of music. The best track, in my opinion, is the end credits song. It's the main menu track with singer, Clare Uchima, providing beautiful, heart-tugging lyrics and vocals. If you have played the game before, you know what I'm talking about.

With everything coming together to form such a wonderful experience, you start to ask yourself: "What else can this game do right?"
And then you experience the combat.

For real, the combat in Ghost of Tsushima is some of the best I have ever experienced in a video game, period. The only other game where I found endless fun in combat was Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and that came out in 2017.
The Mongols have spearmen, shield-men; large, hulking figures with claymores will charge you while swordmen ambush you from behind. Each enemy has their own unique style of fighting and specialty moves.
Your adversaries also have ranks like in an actual army, which makes combat encounters more dangerous as the game progresses. To counter these impossible odds and numbers, you have multiple fighting types that stagger enemies easier. You have tools that can stun or burn enemies, forcing them out of an attack. You have charms, weapon buffs, and outfits for your character that give you unique exploration and combat abilities throughout the game.
Even when you want to more of a challenge, the game provides you with harder difficulties, which grants you the ability to kill enemies faster, and allows your enemies to do the same to you.

By the end of the game, if you have practiced using all the fighting types and combat tools, you're capable of executing these incredibly-fluid combat dances, those of which produce some of the most cinematic shit ever. It is astounding just how perfect they managed to capture combat in this game, especially with how many stances and techniques they used, which reflect actual Japanese hand-to-hand combat techniques from the time period this game is based in.

My only gripe with this game is how unbelievably slow exploration can be at times. Backtracking is also an issue, especially if you're trying to 100% the game by collecting everything.
The one thing I hated the most, though, was the absence of a skip option during some of the cutscenes. This game has a lot of cutscenes, and most of them are just characters talking to one another. It would have been really nice to have a skip button for cutscenes that added no value to the story whatsoever.



- ACT 3: THIS IS WHERE WE PART -

Ghost of Tsushima is a special kind of game. It's a game that sets out to provide the player with many things, then manages to deliver on all of it, and then some. It's a AAA title that I feel other companies strive to replicate, but only leaves them looking at each other and asking: "What are we even doing here?"

It's a game that not only pays respect to the actual defenders of Tsushima during the battle, but also acts as a love letter to aspiring writers, animators, musicians, actors, and most of all: the Japanese history and culture, which continues to thrive and change every day.

It's a shame that games such as this one are released so far and few in between; but, I guess that's why I enjoy playing them so much when they are eventually published. They remind me that video games are what they've always been: works of art, and it's important to remember that some works of art are more than pieces on display. Some are stories crafted with an immeasurable level of love and attention to detail, and are meant to be experienced and felt to the deepest of levels. I cannot recommend this game enough to anyone wanting to play it for themselves. It's thrilling, it's happy, it's sad, and it's funny. By the end of the game, you will be at the edge of your seat wanting more - I guarantee it.

Thank you all so much for reading the review today. If you enjoyed this review, please share the website with your friends and family - I love to keep the discussion going. If you're feeling generous, please consider heading over to the "Donations" page to show your support for the website. If you want to see a review for a game I haven't played yet, feel free to message any social media account located on the "About Me" page of the website.

Anyway, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one!



I give the fox dens a 9/10 

If there's one core memory most of us might share, it's playing the Nintendo Wii with our friends and family.

Growing up, the only console my family and I really had was the Nintendo Wii. We did have a PlayStation 2 (slim) at one point, but we didn't have a memory card for it, so we always had to restart the games we played - the main one being Shadow of the Colossus.

However, since the Wii was the console we had most games for, and because that was the only console I could play Luigi's Mansion on, most of my childhood was spent playing Nintendo games. Two games I specifically want to highlight are the titles: Wii: Sports and Wii: Play.



- WII: SPORTS, A SIMPLE GAME FOR A NOT-SO-SIMPLE TIME -

I've been thinking about my life a lot recently, and one thing I always say to myself is "times were much simpler back then."
Which, yeah, I guess; maybe if you were under the age of 10. As a kid growing up in the 2000's, all I really needed to worry about was getting my reading logs done, and whether or not I had enough money to buy cool merch at the Scholastic Book Fair.
I was pretty oblivious to a lot of global conflicts at the time; events such as the Iraq War, or the housing crisis of 2008. In a way, it was nice to be blissfully unaware, and despite the world being so hectic at the time, the Nintendo Wii was always something my family and I could use to relax and have some fun.

The first game I remember playing on the Wii was Wii: Sports, and it was the best thing ever. Competing against my siblings in sports like boxing, golf, bowling, baseball, and tennis not only began my appreciation and interest for video games, but it also brought a lot of entertainment and fun competition to my household.
Another good part about Wii: Sports was the fact that you could play on your own. The game offered a computer bot to play against you if others around you didn't want to play. Not only that, the game had personal fitness challenges you could complete on your own, which provided new mini-games and trainings for you to enjoy.

Now, although the motion controls were kind of ass on the Wii, the introduction of the concept was pretty genius, especially for a game focusing around sports. Sure, it was annoying losing calibration in your controller so you couldn't land punches during a boxing match, but that didn't undermine why the game was so special to me.
When the game registered my swings in baseball, or when the game registered my bowling tosses so I could get a strike - the satisfaction brought from those moments always overshadowed the moments the game didn't do that. Even when playing games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the calibration problem with the motion controls never became such a problem that I stopped playing.



- WII: PLAY, TANKS AND BILLARDS ARE KINDA COOL -

The second game that was plated a lot by my family was Wii: Play, and I want to say our favorite mini-game was probably "Tanks". Though we practically got nowhere when we played co-op, we did really well on our own. I think the highest level one of us was ever able to get in that game was level 62 before dying.

If we didn't want to play that, though, there were a few other games that we could choose from. Based of the title of this section, there was obviously a billiards game, but there was also an air hockey game too that was a lot of fun.
You could fish, compete in a cattle race, play Mii-matching, try your aim at a shooting gallery mini-game, and there was even a game where you had to change your Mii's stance in order to pop bubbles before they reached the bottom of the screen.

This game also included motion controls, but it wasn't implemented as much as it was in Wii: Sports. The most you got for motion control was yanking the wii-mote back when you caught a fish during the fishing mini-game, which was pretty fun and easy to do.

Overall, I prefer Wii: Play over Wii: Sports, simply because I have a lot of fond memories playing it with my siblings. It was nice having both options, mainly because if you were bored of one, you'd most likely would want to play the other.



- CONCLUSION -

Overall, there's not much else to talk about with these games, other than my experience with them. They brought a lot of joy to my family and I, and I hope that you all who've played them also found some entertainment with them.
I would say you could find this game somewhere, but the Wii is a retro console now, so I wish you all the best of luck trying to find a cheap one with a copy of these games.

That's all for today for me. Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you liked what you read, please share the website with your friends and family! Also, if you're feeling generous, feel free to donate to the site using the "Donations" tab.

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one!



I give Matt a 9/10

My first-ever experience with the "First-Person Shooter" genre was Return to Castle Wolfenstein on my grandpa's old, 2000 Windows PC. Being 8 years old, as well as a huge world history nerd at the time, the only thing I took away from playing that game was killing Nazis was... kind of fun! Also, I should mention that it took me around 10 years to actually beat the whole game, simply because I was too scared to complete any mission after entering the crypt as a kid.
But anyway, the idea of being a total badass that fights bad guys intrigued me, and that interest led to me to seek out other shooters - one other title being Valve's Counter Strike, which my cousin Alejo introduced me to, and another being DOOM.

However, as I was sitting at my family's old computer one day, I look up at the desk cabinets to see my Dad's collection of computer games stashed inside. He had quite a few titles I knew, such as Warcraft III, Total War: Shogun, and Atari's Axis & Allies (2004). One of them, though, was one I had never heard of before, and it was Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear.

Now, I knew who Tom Clancy was - in fact, my grandpa had almost all his novels on display in one of the bedrooms. I also knew there were Tom Clancy games on PC, the one I knew being Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Phantoms, which is still my all-time favorite multiplayer shooter.

(Rest in peace, Ghost Recon: Phantoms, you were gone too soon)

Anyway, I didn't know there was a whole series revolving around an elite strike-force called "Rainbow Six". This led me to researching other potential games I could play, and that's how I ended up finding the game I want to talk about today, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (2001).

- TASK 1: INNOVATION OF GAMEPLAY -

There are a few things that I keep in mind when playing older titles such as this one. For one, I know the difficulty of older titles are usually... difficult. So, I tend to pretty lenient when it comes to critiquing that aspect of those kinds of games - and, more often than not, I like the challenge the difficulty brings.

Another thing I'm thinking when playing is I know the game might not be "10 out of 10" when it comes to its gameplay, story, or other aspects. Games are not developed equally, and so some are designed better than others. That being said, just because the game is limited by the technology and skill of the develop team at the time doesn't mean I'm going to punish the game for it.
It's like going to a restaurant - I know some joints won't give 5-star experiences, and I'm okay with that as long as the food tastes good.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (2001) is not a perfect, 10 out of 10 by any means. In my opinion, I don't even think it reaches an 8 out of 10. However, there's a lot to appreciate about the game, one thing being the way it completely innovates the "First-Person Shooter" and "Real-Time Strategy" game genres.

Compared to its competition at the time, this game gives tons of freedom to you when playing the campaign missions. For every mission, you can select the number, skillset, and organization of your team members. Each mission allows a certain number of fireteams, and you can design them accordingly in order to successfully complete the mission objective, which is usually neutralizing an enemy force.

You can form offensive strategies, set defensive positions, toggle your weapon's firing modes, and dictate each fireteam's mode of movement and firing technique. When team members are wounded, you can toggle them to stay behind while the rest of their team continues on. And, on top of all of this, team members can be carried into later missions, and they gain experience with each operation they complete, so long as they don't die.

Each mission, though lacking in a variety of objectives, is designed with different enemies, defensive coverage, and available entrances your team has access to. Personally, I absolutely loved the city missions where you had to neutralized mechanized infantry units, or the ones where you had to rescue a person of interest without attracting the overwhelming enemy forces surrounding the city.
To me, those missions brought a fun challenge in comparison to the forest missions. When I would have three fireteams and an abundance of coverage to move discretely in the forests, I would be limited to one fireteam and exposing city blocks in the cities, and I loved it.



- TASK 2: MECHANICS & CHALLENGES -

This game isn't much to look at, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Being able to have so much control over my characters and loadouts was something I didn't know I needed, but I'm glad I received it regardless. For those of you who don't know, I love dynamic gameplay; I think it's something all games should strive to achieve one way or another if they can.

Being able to control how every mission played out to a "T" was the best part of this game for me. That aspect, paired with the game's "quick-save" feature, made every mission fun and enjoyable, regardless of difficulty. The reason being is it allowed room for experimentation without the hassle of having to restart the entire mission over again, and it gave me the opportunity to learn each level's strengths and weakness without punishing me too harshly if I made a mistake.

That being said, with as much control you have, the game can get stale if you're not willing to play it yourself. Since you're able to command your fireteams through the HUD menu, it allows you to sit comfortably at the start of the mission without ever doing anything.
The first playthrough is a lot of fun, and this issue I'm highlighting isn't really prevalent; but, if you decided to do another playthrough, you know the maps, as well as where the enemy positions are. This allows you to just sit back and use the command menu to send out your other team members, essentially giving you access to beat the game without doing anything.
It sucks, but it'd be wrong for me not to mention this issue, especially since I actually used this strategy on my second and third play-throughs. Time is a factor in most of the missions, so commanding others was a lot easier than switching between the command menu, then back to your character repetitively.

Another thing that I should also mention about the game is how quickly you can die, especially on the higher difficulties. Some of your deaths will not feel earned during your playthrough, and they mostly happen when you slip up clearing out some of the enemy positions.
Most of my team's deaths happened on the city missions, simply because there were so many enemy fighters, and I had zero coverage for defense. I also found the enemy's algorithm to have almost no limit to its line of sight. There were some missions where my team and I would be concealed, and yet an enemy patrol hundreds of yards away would recognize me, alert the rest of the enemy patrols, and then hunt my team and I down. I'm not sure if it was just faulty programming, or because the higher difficulties would buff the enemy troops; either way, it pissed me off at times.



- TASK 3: EVAC -

On one hand, this game is one of my favorite strategy games. Even though there's not a lot to say about its level, character, or sound designs, it still does a great job delivering a fun, tense, and challenging experience. On the other hand, there are some annoying-ass problems in this game that a lot of these older titles have. It sucks that there's no work-around for them, but I guess it's the tradeoff you accept when starting a new save file on these older titles.

Overall, I'd recommend this game to anyone who has played other Tom Clancy games, or games similar in nature. I especially recommend it to people who have heard about, or played the game Doorkickers, which is a top-down, SWAT team simulator that is similar to this game, and one I also recommend checking out. You can purchase Ghost Recon (2001) on Steam, and you could probably find copies of it for the Xbox, PlayStation, and even some Nintendo consoles.

Anyway, that's all for today. Thank you all so much for tuning in to another review. If you liked what you read, please share the website with your friends and family who are interested in video games as well - I'd love to keep the discussion going.
If you're also feeling generous and want to support the site, head to the "Donations" page!

Thank you all again for reading the review. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one!



I give the Colt M4A1 Carbine a 6/10

I'm going to tell the truth: I've never been familiar with Battle for Bikini Bottom. That being said, I have played multiple SpongeBob games. Truth or Square, Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, Attack of the Toybots, Globs of Doom - I even have SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie on the Gameboy.

But we're not talking about those other games, we're discussing Battle for Bikini Bottom, a PlayStation 2 release that came out in October of 2003. Funnily enough, I had no idea this game existed until I saw its remaster on the Steam store back in 2020. Furthermore, the video game journal, GameInformer, also had an entire article covering the remaster, which also piqued my interest. After recently playing Purple Lamp's Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated), as well as looking at gameplay footage of the original, I am extremely happy with how the remaster turned out.

There are very few games that I consider "well-rounded" in their design, and these are the same games that I attempt to 100% after I initially play them. I believe if I'm going to dedicate more time to a game, the gameplay or story must have something more to it that can keep my interest. Some of the well-rounded games I've played are Mario: Odyssey, Sable, Dead Space (2023), and even Breath of the Wild. I absolutely love all of those game, and I think Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated) deserves to be added to the list.

For how large the game is, you can beat Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated) fairly quickly, which is one thing I love about the game. The length of the game depends on how much you want to get out of it, so every playthrough can be unique from the previous one.
Another thing that I appreciated was how little handholding there was outside of the tutorials, and even though I'm not one to like them, I still appreciate how the game teaches fun, unique mechanics for each playable character.
Additionally, when playing certain main characters from the franchise, side characters can be found in parts of the game, and can give you special missions. On top of that, there are collectibles throughout the game that allow you to collect more spatulas, which are used to unlock more areas of the game.

Overall, there's a lot to the game to appreciate, but I especially love how well the developers designed the areas of the game. Most parts of the game have multiple, interconnecting pathways you could travel in order to reach an objective. So, it was fun being able to experiment with different characters and figure out how to complete a mission faster using certain characters and skills.

One thing I would change about the game, though, is the way you can swap characters. It was pretty inconvenient that I had to find a bus stop in order to change my character, mainly because the bus stops were sometimes in locations I already cleared. If anything, they could have put in more bus stops throughout the levels, or just allowed us to switch characters using hotkeys.

Other than that minor issue, I would keep the game exactly as-is. The music and art design was great. I also loved all the subtle references to older episodes, one of the references literally being a whole section of the game you can complete. In short, I feel that Purple Lamp did and incredible job with this remaster, and I had tons of fun playing through the whole thing!

I would talk more about the game, but there's not much left to scrutinize. I know this review was pretty short, but I've said all I wanted to cover.
And I think that's why I like the game so much - its simplicity. Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated) was a game I could put it down and pick back up whenever I felt like it. There were no mechanics I needed to memorize, no maps I needed to study. The game had one objective the whole game, and provided everything for you to complete that objective in the easiest way possible.
The game was something I could always come back to and play for quick entertainment, which I really liked, because I feel other games don't have that ability.
In my opinion, it's hard to put down a Persona game, or something like Resident Evil, for more than a week. There's just too many moving parts to those kinds of games - too many things to remember. So, when I do take a long hiatus from those kinds of games, I end up feeling that it'd just be better if I started another save file.
It's nice to know that Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated) doesn't deal with that issue. You can complete anything at any time you want - there's no real pressure to finish the game as quickly as possible.

In all, I really enjoyed the game, and I highly encourage you all to pick it up if you haven't had the chance to yet. It's available on pretty much everything, the prices do vary, though.
Thank you all so much for reading the review, and sorry it took so long to publish a new one. It's been an eventful year so far, but I'm glad everything has slowed down now that I'm on summer vacation.
If you liked what you read, feel free to share with your friends and family - I'd love to keep these game discussions going! If you're also feeling generous, please feel free to donate to the website on the "DONATIONS" page!
Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next review!



I give Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy a 7/10

I've said it before, but I want to reiterate just how important this fact really is: the hardest part about developing video games is being able to develop interesting characters.

The fact that you have to create an entire world from scratch, only to then create every person in that world, each with their own personality and backstory, is mind-blowing to me.
Being a writer in my downtime, I'm familiar with how difficult it can be to create a strong narrative, backed by a good cast of individuals that furthers the plot. So, in a way, I can appreciate the lengths developers will go to in order to write well-rounded characters.

With all that being said, I really want to talk about Eastward. It's the latest game I played, and it was recommended to me by a friend a while ago. After finally sitting down to play it, I found it wasn't at all what I was expecting.
Originally, I played it for a few minutes before stopping, setting down the controller, and then moving on to other projects I was developing at the time. However, after completing the first few missions of the game, I was hooked.



- PART 1: WAKE UP, JOHN! -

Upon booting up Eastward, you're introduced to a small cinematic, which provides a small animation of events that eventually transpire throughout the game.
The film also references various characters you'll meet, as well as game areas you'll explore during your playthrough. There is also a brief scene within the movie depicting the origin of one of the main characters, which ends up being an important plot point later in the game.

After watching the movie, and navigating through the main menu to start your game, you're introduced to John and a young girl named Sam. John is a broke, middle-aged prospector, while Sam is John's surrogate daughter. Both characters live in the small town called "Potrock Isle" in a mobile trailer home that is well past it's prime. The town is fairly small, filled with other run-down trailer homes and surrounded by various ruins and mineshafts.

The main occupation of most the residents of Potrock Isle is prospecting for salt, which is the game's currency. A select few, however, are ranch hands on the family farm located east of the town center. Many of the inhabitants are also destitute, leaving them no other choice but to work long shifts in the poorly maintained salt mines with John, or on the depreciating family farm that's slowly going under.

The social hierarchy of Potrock Isle just as bad - the money collected by the town's people is taken by characters in governing positions, such as the school principal and the town mayor, and used to oppress the town's people even further. The mayor separates himself from the town in a mansion, and uses the police to protect his property and other assets. The school principal also does something similar; she lives in her school, and spends her time expelling and accepting students she sees fit. The rest of the residents in the town don't have a lot of power, and this is one of the main plot points the game explores when you first start the game.

Originally, Potrock Isle used to be a part of a multi-leveled city, which was built over the ruins of a society that died a long time ago. However, at some point in time, Potrock Isle was cut off from the rest of the world by a cataclysmic event caused by a deathly fog known as the "MIASMA". The event left the whole world in total disrepair, and those that survived were left to rebuild civilization from scratch.
You can see the MIASMA's effect when exploring the ruins throughout the game. In Potrock Isle, the ruins are abandoned shopping malls and subway stations, with a lot of the mobs being slugs and rats.
In New Dam City, though, the surrounding ruins are old neighborhoods and houses, with many of the monsters being idle zombies that are abandoned in the homes they used to live in.
Throughout the game, almost every town is surrounded by ruins and monsters. Even though the townsfolk can leave their homes, it's strongly discouraged, and those who decide to stay behind continue to rebuild their society.



- PART 2: WELCOME BACK, MOTHER -

The ruins, aside from being an explorable area, are also an area of the world where John initially found Sam sealed in an underground tank. Each character is playable, and can progress through the game using their own unique mechanics that will allow you to fight mobs and solve puzzles.

While John is a normal human and uses his physical strength, Sam has powers that allow her to solve puzzles and remove obstacles from her path. These powers are slowly learned through an alternate version of herself, who appears throughout the game to further the narrative, as well as act as a guide for certain game mechanics. This alteration of Sam appears throughout the game in the real Sam's head, guiding her through the different areas of the game, and slowly teaching her how to properly use her powers that can defeat the MIASMA.

The introduction of the alternate Sam isn't much of an original concept - movies such as the 1990 film Total Recall, as well as games like Bioshock and Amnesia: The Dark Decent, both use a similar plot point to progress their story.
However, the game uses this idea, while also using the character of alternate Sam, incredibly well. It was genuinely surprising to see how much of an impact the alternate Sam left on the story, as well as the development of the main characters. It was also really nice to see how strong of a force she was on the plot, even though her design and appearance felt more like a side character.

The first few missions almost feel like they come out of Animal Crossing by how calm and simple they are. It's not until alternate Sam makes an appearance that you actually begin to unravel a lot of the game's lore, and you start to ask some questions that give the game a lot of definition.
Why are there shopping mall and subway ruins around Potrock Isle? Why are there underground labs with incubation chambers filled with clones of certain characters? Why do people call simple weather patterns "gods", or an old camera the "shadow box"? What happened to the other civilizations that are mentioned in books and snippets of articles you can find?

Paying attention to all these minute details in the dialogue and background helps visualize just how many civilizations the game's world is potentially built upon. Furthermore, it begs the question: just how many MIASMA-like events have happened, where everybody died, and only a select few were able to carry on the torch of humanity?
Pretty much all of these questions are eventually answered at the very end of the game, but they're still such an immersive set of questions to start scrutinizing the game over.

Knowing there is something underneath all the rubble that could give you more context on the world and its inhabitants was one of the main reasons I kept playing. It gave a lot of my exploration and gameplay purpose.
If I weren't fighting mobs, I was helping Princess Alva start up wind turbines to fight off the MIASMA, so that New Dam City and its history could be preserved. If I weren't helping Sam deliver packages as John in Esther city, I was trying to figure out how to end the time loop that encircled the city.



- PART 3: FISH, POTS, AND TOMATOES -

Moments like the ones I just mentioned definitely kept me immersed throughout my playthrough, but I'd like to point out the other components of this wonderful game don't fall short at all.

The graphics, for one, are something I'd like to address. For the amount of development-hell this game went through before it was released, the level of detail that went into the sprite animations, the character and item designs, and even the user interface, is phenomenal. There were idle animations Sam would do that were always fun to watch. There was the cooking animation that made it fun to test new recipes, and the item-collecting animation John and Sam would do when you collect a key or an important item also felt rewarding in its own way.

I also loved the cooking mechanic for this game, which allowed you to cook multiple recipes and buff them with different stats boosts. I was surprised at how much I used it rather than shop at the vending machines throughout the game. Personally, I felt that both were a good inclusion in the game - if you ran out of cooked meals, you could always rely on a vending machine to be nearby so you could get a few health packs.
I didn't have a favorite meal in particular - practically all of them were fun to make and experiment with. There were so many to make, and you were able to buy ingredients to make them in most of the towns. I think that's one of its drawbacks, however, since it's pretty difficult to mix and match recipes to create new ones, especially when you already have so many recipes memorized already.

There's not much to say about the combat. If I'm being honest, it was more irritating than it was fun. The final boss fight had a cool mechanic you needed to use in order to dodge its attacks; but, aside from that fight, combat was either very easy, or very irritating.

What never missed, though, was the soundtrack. There are very few game soundtracks that I go back and listen to repeatedly, and Eastward is definitely one of them. I especially love the track to the final boss fight - literally called "Final Boss". I feel that it perfectly captures the style of the game, highlighting all the aspects I enjoyed throughout the rest of the songs on the soundtrack. If you have the chance, I highly recommend listening to it.

As for the puzzles and Sam's powers, there's nothing in particular I want to say, only that some of the puzzles felt like filler in some areas. The boring, game-pausing puzzles, combined with a lack of a fast-travel mechanic in some game areas, was pretty annoying to deal with, especially since those parts of the game were already dragging on.



- PART 4: YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO SAY GOODBYE? -

In the end, I find a lot about Eastward that I thoroughly enjoyed, and parts that I felt they could have left out. The narrative, though confusing at times, wrapped itself up as best it could, and left me satisfied at the end of the game. The combat, though fun in certain boss fights, was also lacking in some areas.

Overall, it was a fantastic indie game, and I'm glad I took the time to sit down and enjoy it as much as possible.
I would recommend it to anyone who is currently looking for a relaxing, exploration-type game to play in their downtime. I would also recommend taking a look at the DLC: Eastward Octopia, which is basically just Animal Crossing meets Farming Simulator. You can find this game on Steam, the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Mac OS if you would like to try the game out yourself.

If you do end up playing it, let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts and keep the conversation going!

Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you liked what you read, please feel free to share the website with your friends, and how about heading over to the donation page while you're at it? I'd love to grow this website into something even greater!

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and read you for thanking!



I give Uva an 8/10

You know, I've always found the study of linguistics to be a fascinating topic to learn. The fact that we are all able to communicate with such complex language systems, and the fact that we find ways to translate certain phrases between these systems to talk with each other, is a pretty amazing feat our species has accomplished during our tenure on this chunk of dirt we call home.

Honestly, one can only wonder just how destructive it would be if all the translations of today suddenly stopped working for us - and, wouldn't you know it, I just played a game that focuses around this concept!

Chants of Sennaar wasn't a game I was expecting to enjoy as much as I did. The whole game revolves around you scaling a large tower, with each floor containing a tribe of people that you will need to study in order to translate and understand their language.
Your job is to ultimately rebuild a connection between the floors using the translations you make throughout the game. It's a pretty fascinating narrative for any story, and I'm quite surprised at just how well it was able to translate into actual gameplay.



- PARTE UNO: NO HABLO Y NO COMPRENDE NADA IDIOMA -

You first wake up in a tomb located deep down in the earth. You have no name, no identity; the only items you have are your clothes, as well as a journal. As you exit the tomb you wake up in, you step through a sizable crack in the wall and enter the first portion of the game. This is the tutorial area, and before I start talking about it, I just wanted to say it was really nice seeing how well the developers handled the pace of the game.
Like some games, you might have to read a pop-up menu, or pause your progress to learn about a mechanic. What Chants of Sennaar did that I thought was fun and engaging was provide me with fun puzzles and environmental storytelling. This way, my immersion wasn't ruined, and I was able to grow accustomed to the game's various mechanics and objectives. without pausing.

The only description I can really give to this tutorial area is that it's built like a dam. Rivers of water are moving all-throughout this colossal structure, allowing for the use of barriers and lock mechanisms powered by the water. Both of what I just mentioned are designed as puzzles for the player to work through, and they slowly introduce you to the gameplay you'll be experiencing for the rest of the game.

It doesn't take long after solving these puzzles until you're introduced to the first NPC of the game. Interacting with the characters in every area of the game is extremely important when you're trying to decipher an area's language. Every level of the game has its own theme, and the included dialogue provided through interacting with NPC's will help streamline the translation process.
In addition to themes, environmental storytelling, and character interaction, your character will also draw illustrations in your journal, which will give you the ability to connect certain symbols to actions or objects.

I personally found the "brute-force" method the best way to translate. You only have access to the symbols you find throughout the game, which means you'll always have a limited set of symbols that potentially match the image you're trying to decipher.
With this in mind, you only have a set amount of combinations to decipher the images. Obviously, this shouldn't be how you play the game. It's a lot more fun to just go around studying the actions of the NPC's, and connect the symbols with the actions they perform when providing that specific dialogue. However, I personally found this way to be the most effective.



TEIL ZWEI – KUNST, MUSIK, UND STIL

When it comes to the overall design of the game, it reminds me a lot of another game I played called SABLE. You may have read my review on it, I revisited the game quite a while ago.
The game had an intricate, detailed design, which took inspiration from Jean Giraud's illustrations in the sci-fi comic, Moebius. It was pretty look at, and I appreciated the art style throughout my entire gameplay.
Furthermore, I was surprised at how much the design enhanced the rather shallow gameplay, and I was happy that I was able to see this similar strategy development strategy when playing Chants of Sennaar.

Both titles have an aesthetically pleasing design, which enhances major parts of the game that would, more or less, be disregarded and potentially criticized for their lack of, well, anything. If you look at the gameplay alone for both games, you'll often find yourself exploring previous locations and talking to NPC's. Aside from some puzzles, as well as the numerous collectibles both games have, there's not much else to really do.
Bringing it back to the art style, the gameplay issues one could have when playing is never really brought to fruition. That's due to the creative design of the world, which is so good that it makes even the most mundane tasks seem fun.

In Chants of Sennaar, each floor has its own color palette and theme. Even the music varies depending on the floor you're on, which gives way to a lot of creative room layouts, character designs, puzzles, and soundscapes. In a way, the direction this game took with its design ultimately acted like a foundation, which covered up a lot of flaws and other blemishes the developers could have been judged for.

Aside from the style of the game, the music is very atmospheric. The sound design feels much more like ambiance or natural soundscapes of the floors rather than an actual music pieces you might hear in, say, an adventure game like Skyrim.
It honestly pairs extremely well with the gameplay, because most of your experience will involve you studying your surroundings, and listening for certain sounds in order to solve puzzles or unlock new areas.

The one thing I have to complain about, however, is the lack of genuine tracks in this game. It would have been nice to hear actual pieces of music here and there instead of your character's never-ending footsteps.
Another thing I would have loved to see more of is the translation puzzles. In the game, there are 10 terminals you can access. On a few of them, there's a puzzle you can solve, which involves you translating the speech of one floor's tribe to another floor's. Solving these puzzles not only grants you access to new areas, but you can build relationships between the floors to unlock new dialogue options and character interactions. The puzzles are also super fun, because they require you to use all the symbols and translations you have made throughout the game in order to make a proper translation.
It was really disappointing to see the developers not expand on these kinds of puzzles, because they were honestly the best ones throughout the game. There are environmental puzzles, and a few stealth sections in the game, but I didn't enjoy the game as much during those sections - if anything, I got angry at the game because I kept having to restart.



MAHELE 'EKOLU - KA HOPENA

By the end of Chants of Sennaar, I felt pretty satisfied with what I experienced. Over the nearly-ten hours I spent playing the game, I was pretty happy with the ending, and I even considered starting a new game again a few minutes after I played it.
Overall, I walked away feeling exactly how I felt after playing SABLE: accomplished. Both games did an incredible job taking what is basically Death Stranding gameplay, and then making it into something new with a unique art and sound design. You can appreciate these games for what they are - they're great in their own right. However, that doesn't mean they don't have drawbacks, and there certainly are several I found throughout my play-through.
Nonetheless, the game is very fun and entertaining throughout its entire runtime, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in playing it. It's available on Xbox, PlayStation, the Nintendo Switch, and Steam if you would like to try the game out yourself.

If you decide to play it, let me know what you thought of it after you beat the game! I'd love to keep the discussion going after this review.

Anyway, that's all for today. Thank you all so much for reading, I know it's been quite a bit since my last post. College and my personal life have been pretty busy, but it hasn't stopped me from playing some games and wanting to review them.
I hope you all enjoyed the review - if you're feeling generous, feel free to share the website with your friends. While you're doing that, why not head over to the "Donations" page too? It would be greatly appreciated, and I'd love to see this page grow into something that more people could find and enjoy.

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one!



I give the alchemists a 9/10

Growing up in Reno during the early 2000's was a surreal experience. Even though I didn't grow up with a lot of money, my parents did a great job making my childhood one I can fondly look back on.

My parents worked multiple jobs, went to school; and, if that weren't already enough, they also raised my siblings and I. My parents made just enough money to get by, so it was always a special occasion when we went out to eat, or got toys on Christmas and birthdays. More importantly, because we didn't have enough money to spend on entertainment, and because my parents were gone a lot of the time, a lot of my childhood was spent using my imagination.

I would explore the backroads and hills around my house. I'd do talent shows and video skits with my siblings using the old family video camera we had. I would read, write, paint, and because I started forming an interest in them, I'd study computers.

When I imagined, I was able to make my own world and puzzles. I was able to disconnect from myself and be the people I read in my books that I thought were cool. This fascination with world building is one of the main reasons why I loved playing HeroQuest with my dad and Dungeons & Dragons with my friends for a really long time. It provided me with an escape from the boredom I found my self dealing with all-too often.

Life felt more like an adventure when I was able to daydream, even though all I really did was walk hiking trails behind my house with my parents and siblings, all the while carrying a giant stick in my hand that just barely resembled a sword.

Looking back on those times in my life, I can see why games such as The Legend of Zelda and, not just because I'm reviewing it, but Tunic, appeal to me.



- BEGINNING YOUR ADVENTURE -

The best part about playing a video game is having the chance to immerse yourself within a new world. Narrative-driven games are my absolute favorite. The characters you can meet, the situations you might find yourself in; whether or not the game has a linear story path, you're able to see the world and its inhabitants through the perspective of your character.

Take The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, for example. Waking up on an island full of people and animals that you haven't met before in the series gives you that original motivation to start exploring. By the time you reach the end of the game, you've immersed yourself into the game's story and characters, and it feels accomplishing after you realize you started the game not knowing anything.

Tunic starts off very much like Link's Awakening. Instead of Link, however, you're a fox who's known through the game manual as the "chosen hero". You wake up with nothing, and the task of exploring the world and eventually saving it falls to you.
Your mission isn't immediately recognizable. In order to make it more difficult for you to know where you are, or why you're there in the first place, the game delivers your objectives through puzzles, and also hides important content through "Trunic".

Trunic is the primary language of the whole game. NPC's, locations, and even the manual that teaches you about the game is almost completely written in the language. It adds to the puzzles and mystique of the world, and one of the game's optional puzzles uses it pretty heavily in the latter half of your playthrough.

Just a side note, Trunic is a really neat language, and I was trying to include it in this review because I like it so much. Unfortunately, the website creator I use doesn't allow for custom fonts, so I'll wait until I'm finished building my own review website from scratch before adding cool details like that into my reviews. 

Anyway, the game's charm isn't just buried under a small layer of linguistics. The world you blindly explore for 90% of your first playthrough is riddled with puzzles and secret passageways you can find if you're willing to search a little harder.

The game manual is also a puzzle in and of itself, which was one of my favorite parts about the game, but I'll talk more about it later in the review.

Exploring the low-poly environments of the game reminded me a lot of taking the hiking trails behind my house as a kid. Just like in real life, I didn't know where I was going - all I knew was where I've been, and that was enough to keep me going forward.
In Tunic, you're always going to know what's behind you, but you're never going to know what's ahead, and that thought can be terrifying as much as it is captivating. Don't get me wrong, it's comforting to slowly build this familiarity with the world as you progress, but the feeling of danger never goes away from an area, even on the playthroughs you complete following your first.
It can be an incredibly-slow process to get through this game, I should know; my first playthrough took me something like 12 hours to complete. That being said, don't feel discouraged to keep exploring - and even though you barely know how to play the game, don't worry about it. The game will reveal more of itself to you as it progresses.



- AGAIN THE SAME BATTLE, FOUGHT UNCOUNTABLE TIMES -

The hardest part when talking about this game is trying to capture everything it does well in just a few words. That being said, out of all the things I enjoyed, I liked the story the most.

The way the narrative is told reminds me of how FromSoftware tells a story in their games. The Dark Souls franchise, for example, requires you to read item descriptions in order to learn more about the world the game takes place in, as well as the people who live in it.
It's a similar approach in Tunic, where you collect pages of a game manual throughout the world in order to reveal more about certain areas, bosses, and the world's lore. Since you also collect pages up until the final boss fight, you will always have snippets of the game that still won't make sense, which keeps its players invested.

Second to the story is the art design of the game. The low-polygon design, which I mentioned previously, combined with the diverse color palette the game has, provides the player with a beautiful spectacle throughout the entire game. Coupling the graphics with the game's phenomenal soundtrack was also a fantastic idea. The laid-back, almost lo-fi style of the music adds to the coziness of the game's aesthetic, and I enjoyed every minute.

Another fantastic thing about the game is its manual. When you open your menu to look at the map, or look for a mechanic tutorial, the game reduces to a retro game that's played on a CRT television in the background. It's such an amazing and minute detail that I always loved seeing when I opened my menu.

But that's not why I love the manual so much. I grew up collecting game manuals for my video games - it was my way of finding secret rooms, collecting items, and finding checkpoints I couldn't find in my first playthroughs.
That's why I love the menu for this game, because it captures the feeling I got when glossing through my physical manuals as a kid. Even if you didn't collect manuals like I did, it's still an incredibly satisfying feeling to flip through the pages you collect throughout Tunic, and be able to flip through all the artwork, tutorials, and puzzle designs the developers included.

With my praises out of the way, though, there was one issue I had that lasted the entire game: the combat. It is absurd how unforgiving this game is when it comes to its damage, as well as checkpoint placements. It would have been a good idea for combat to be implemented in this game if there was more of an emphasis to it.
The game, however, was built around puzzles and exploration. Therefore, it feels as if combat was added on without adding any real polish to it. Granted, there are bosses, and there are moments that require you to attacks mobs, and they're fun moments; but, the game does not have enough of those situations to make combat feel fulfilling or important.



- ENDING THE CYCLE -

In short, Tunic is an all-around fantastic game. My frustration from combat aside, the puzzles, the sound design, the art design, and the small details the developers included in the game allow for a satisfying playthrough.
The game's U.I. feels a lot more dynamic - yet simple - compared to other adventure games I have played, and that was a welcoming feature to see. I felt the game was more of a conversation, in which I would do one thing, and the game would respond to my actions in an unexpected but engaging way.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys any kind of game. It's a game you can play at any time and immediately become engrossed in for a few hours. If you decide to purchase it, I would also recommend doing multiple playthroughs. The map may stay the same, but the game changes quite a bit to help with replay-ability.
You can find this game on Xbox, PlayStation, the Nintendo Switch, Windows, and even MAC, should you want to try it out yourself.

Anyway, that's all for today. Thank you all so much for reading my review. If you liked what you read, feel free to send the website to your friends - I'd love to keep the discussion growing. If you're also feeling generous, feel free to head to the "Donations" page - your donations are always greatly appreciated.

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one!



I give the Fire Wand an 8/10

In 2023, I played and reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Before I published my original take on the game, I removed several segments that - I personally felt - didn't contribute anything to the overall discussion.
After a couple of months of stewing over my review, I thought to myself that maybe I treated the poor thing too harshly.

So I played the game again, and now I want to talk about it...

For those of you who still haven't played the game, uh... geez. I'm sorry man, let's go buy you a copy so you can finally play it. But also, you probably shouldn't be reading this - there's going to be a lot of spoilers.
If you don't care, or if you've played the game before, well then please, take a seat around my campfire and watch me lose my goddamn mind over this game.

And with all that being said, let's get started.



- I HOPE YOU'RE HUNGRY... FOR NOTHING... AGAIN -

I have a question: have you ever tried something in your life, something that was just so mediocre that after experiencing it, you say to yourself: “That could have been better."
I remember saying that after playing The Callisto Protocol. When the credits rolled. To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with the game Glen Schofield ended up making. If you read my review about it, you know this already.

You would also know by now, if you read another review of mine, that I didn't like Tears of the Kingdom either.
And, wouldn't you know it? I still don't think it's very good.

I don't know where game developers go wrong when they make a bad game, especially after promising so much to the public during its development. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example of a recent title that promised a lot, and practically delivered on none of it when it launched. If you want to see an even-more recent example, The Day Before developers promised one thing, and then provided something completely different.

Now, this isn't me saying Nintendo didn't deliver on any gameplay aspects, mechanics, or even set pieces they promised. What I'm saying is once you take away all the spectacle Tears of the Kingdom has, you end up realizing everything "new" Nintendo put in is incredibly shallow.

You traverse the same Hyrule map that has no discernable difference in its style compared to Breath of the Wild. The world has the same stupid shrines and koroks you need to collect in order to upgrade your character, which I found to be much more tedious than before. The tutorial area is an exact replica of The Great Plateau in Breath of the Wild, only it's now in the sky, and King Rauru is the one guiding you to the first four shrines.

The map also includes several copy-and-paste sky islands, and a massive depths section right below the surface world. It sounds fun, until you actually explore both sections, and you find out they are completely useless for your whole playthrough.
The sky islands have nothing on them; whatever items that made the islands unique from the rest of the world can be found on the surface of Hyrule. The Depths is literally an inverted version of the surface, only now you’re stumbling around in the dark. The Depths are pointless unless you're trying to farm zonaite, or find items you already found in Breath of the Wild. Basically, you only explore the islands and depths if you want to take a break from the main quests, or if you're trying to upgrade your energy cells, which allow you pilot Zonai devices for longer periods of time.

Speaking of Zonai, let's talks about some lore.



- IN A HYRULE FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAAAAAAAAAAAR AWAY -

The Zonai Tribe - oh boy... talk about a waste of new material.

The Zonai are apparently an ancient civilization that descended from the heavens and lived amongst the ancient Hylians. They worshiped a water dragon, and used the Triforce as a symbol of their tribe. King Rauru, the leader of the Zonai, married a Hylian named Sonia, and they became the first royal family of Hyrule. Then, Ganon attacked, and Rauru sealed him away. A castle was put above Gabon’s tomb, so that he could be sealed away forever. Then, thousands of years later, the events of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom happen.

Okay, now that you know the new lore for the series, let me tell you what was originally written by Nintendo.

A long time ago, three Golden Goddesses came down from the sky and used their powers to create the land of Hyrule. Their names were Din, Nayru, and Farore, and after finishing their creation, they left behind the Triforce. The Triforce was entrusted to the Goddess Hylia, and it was only a matter of time before the Demon King, Demise, decided to take over the world and kill Hylia in the process.
Before her death, Hylia sent all the remaining Hylians to the sky, and made the Master Sword for her chosen hero, who would one day return with her descendant to stop Demise. Thousands of years later, the events of Skyward Sword happen, and the rest of the series pretty much follows after that.

Now, I understand if you like the introduction of the Zonai - everyone has the right to like what they prefer. But when comparing the new material to the original lore, it just sounds like a lazy attempt to tell the same exact story we all knew prior to this game’s release. And what sucks even more is I prefer the original lore, because it sounds more interesting as a narrative.

I didn't even know about this next bit until I was researching it, but according to the director of the Zelda games, the original lore I just mentioned isn't the actual lore. His excuse was that it's been thousands of years since the original events of the series, so all of what I just mentioned has apparently faded into myth. This was so players could have more creative freedom and less restrictions when they look at the timeline.

I mean, sure? I guess that's an excuse. However, all this action really did was make me question the timeline’s authenticity. At this point, I feel like that one SpongeBob episode, where SpongeBob accidentally forgets his name, and his brain just lights on fire.

Why did Nintendo feel the need to do this? All it does is make more inconsistencies within the timeline, which is already a dumpster fire.
If the original events are too old for Breath of the Wild, because they’re technically thousands of years old, then why are the events so prominent and presented to the player in other Zelda titles?
Ocarina of Time is, chronologically, thousands of years after the events of Skyward Sword. Yet, the creation of Hyrule, and the Royal Family hiding the Triforce, is a major plot point to that game's narrative. If we’re saying the original lore is too old for one game, then why is it referenced so often in others?

I don't get it, but I guess I don't need to. I don't work on these games.



- USE THE FORCE, LINK -

In Breath of the Wild, you have stasis, bombs, an object-moving tool, and a camera. And I have to admit, Tears of the Kingdom blows those tools out of the water.

It's no contest, Tears of the Kingdom has some awesome mechanics. The fuse mechanic, the "ascend" ability, Ultrahand; there are some solid tools at your disposal to make some pretty cool gameplay moments.
If Breath of the Wild was like Garry's Mod, then Tears of the Kingdom is Zelda-Lego. You can make airplanes, different types of weapons and arrows, cool shields you can sled on, off-roading vehicles, and you can even reverse time to get to whatever was originally unreachable.

Whatever dumb idea comes to mind, I'm pretty sure you can build it in this game. This helps keep the gameplay fun, and make exploring a lot easier now. Even though the game still has shrines you need to go complete, they're pretty easy to spot, and since you have a bunch of items at your disposal, you don't need to spend minutes running in one direction, watching your stamina bar slowly rise and fall like in the previous game.
The game also has these towers, which is your way to unlock parts of the map, and reach the sky islands. They're pretty fun, and there are some towers where you need to do a little puzzle solving before you can use them.

The dungeons and mob encampments allow you to practice using your tools; stables and safe havens allow you to resupply and recover; and the new enemies introduced spice up the boring, in-between moments you will inevitably come across.
I think my favorite two new mobs were the Ganon hands and the fake trees. They always attacked me when I was least-expecting them, and I really enjoy that. It not only forced me to find new ways to explore the world, it also made me use the mechanics the game offers a lot more than I did in my first playthrough.

All of that being said, the satisfaction of this game only lasts for a brief period of time, and some of the mechanics aren't even useful.
That's right, I'm looking at you auto-builder... You useless piece of junk.

I said earlier that if you take away this game's spectacle, you're left with shallow gameplay. That's still true - the mechanics only enhance your gameplay for the first few times you use them, and then they just get boring and tedious. The fuse mechanic is especially bad, because you have to constantly re-organize your inventory to find the item you want to drop, and then you need to fuse it to your weapon. The whole process and the game's U.I. is very obscure.

The new dungeons, towers, caves, side missions - all of it is just poorly implemented. A normal mission entails you talking to one person, who will tell you to talk to another person, who will tell you to kill some mobs. Then, after you kill the mobs, you go back to that person, and they tell you to go talk to another person, who will send you on a fetch quest. Then, once that's all done, you get like 20 rupees.
I shit you not, that type of mission pops up constantly, and it's not even the worst part about the game. What I hate the most, out of everything, is the dungeons.
I don't know what Nintendo's perspective of a dungeon is, but it definitely doesn't match mine. The developers basically made glorified-Divine Beasts. There's something like five dungeons in the game, and each of them play out the same way; you go around the map and activate four or five keys to unlock the boss room. Then, you fight the boss, get a heart container, and proceed to watch a series of cutscenes which, by the way, are apart of every... single... dungeon...

You watch the same damn cutscenes five separate times. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?

Don't get me wrong, I like the voice acting in this game, and the animation is fine. Compared to the other Zelda games who have both these aspects, well... uh, let's just say this game does it a lot better.
That being said, if I am hearing the same line of dialogue repeatedly, and it's being spoken as slow as humanly possible, that is not fun.
By the end my playthrough, I could practically recite the whole story of the game back to my television, because it was told to me so goddamn often. It would have been better if the game had short, but personal cutscenes like Breath of the Wild did once you freed each Divine Beast, but it doesn't have that.

The game does, however, have an awesome look and sound to it.



- THIS GAME MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE... BATMAN... -

When Breath of the Wild released, it blew my mind. The art style, the sound quality, and the physics of the world were all very impressive. There were moments where I just enjoyed sitting on a mountaintop to watch the day-night cycle while the music played. I'm very happy Nintendo decided to build on all of those aspects, because Tears of the Kingdom looks and sounds even prettier.
I'm really surprised Nintendo has managed to make the game look and sound as good as it does, especially on a console that is way past its prime. Even when you compare it to the tech Sony and Microsoft are using, the console is old. Yet, the game looks fantastic, and runs fairly smoothly. Very rarely did I get framerate drops or optimization problems during my recent playthrough, which was good to see.

I also like the updated designs for some of the items in the game, especially the food. I loved cooking all the meals in this game and just looking at the tiny photo of it in my inventory. Who knew animated cooking could be so aesthetically pleasing?

The soundtrack is, without a doubt, the best part of this game. The final boss track is my personal favorite - it captures everything good about the game so perfectly.

Speaking of the final boss, and just the fights in general, combat is pretty fun in this game. The final boss has a scale to it that matches a boss fight in Shadow of the Colossus, which is awesome. I can't really say the same for the rest of the bosses though. In my opinion, the fights are extremely easy - I first-tried all of them. I liked their designs, but it was really disappointing to realize how easy it was to defeat them.
However, that doesn't mean all the combat is a piece of cake. It was nice to see a good balance of easy and difficult mobs throughout the game, because I always felt motivated to practice my parries and dodges when I eventually had to fight more difficult mobs.



- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS -

In short, I still don't like this game. For being a sequel to Breath of the Wild, which was a revolutionizing title that took the Zelda series somewhere new, Tears of the Kingdom fails to be a worthy successor. The payoff doesn't seem to match the wait all the fans had to endure. Honestly, it almost feels as though Tears of the Kingdom is a scrapped version of what Nintendo was originally going to put in Breath of the Wild, and I am not happy with the state which any of it turned out.

Sure, it's fun, but what else is there when you take away the five things Nintendo added? Unfortunately, there's nothing. I'm basically playing the same game that got released in 2017.

Though the game has some good aspects, it doesn't have enough to be considered the next "big Zelda game", or even "Game of the Year". What was expected to be a big leap forward by many, ended up being a baby step; and, what sucks even more, is that the step may have been taken in the wrong direction.

I didn't know about this next bit either until my brother told me, but when interviewed about the game, the director of Tears of the Kingdom basically confirmed that the team didn't want anything to do with the world going into development. In other words, the team had no desire to continue this world's story, and it clearly shows in the end product.

I understand if you like the game, you're entitled to that opinion. Even though I already said I didn't like the game, I still want to recommend it to those of you who haven't played it yet. The game is really good in its own right, and I don't want my opinion to persuade you into not giving it a chance. So please, try the game out, check out Matt Mercer's performance as Ganon. Maybe commit some war crimes against the Koroks while you're at it.

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading my review. If you found something about the game I didn't talk about, feel free to hit me up on my social media - I'd love to keep the conversation going. Also, if you're feeling generous and want to see the website grow, share with friends and donate to the website!

Anyway, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one.



I give Tulin 5 repeated cutscenes out of 10

A couple weeks ago, I made a review discussing Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, which I considered to be one of my favorite shooters. I appreciated the attempt MachineGames took to capture the essence of the older Wolfenstein titles, while also modernizing the franchise for a new generation of gamers.
Not long after playing The Old Blood, I started another playthrough of Wolfenstein: The New Order, which launched as the initial reboot by MachineGames back in May, 2014. The game was fantastic, and after coming in with the backstory from The Old Blood, I was able to have a stronger connection to the narrative being told, as well as the characters throughout the game.

After finishing The New Order, I finally decided to give Wolfenstein: The New Colossus another chance. And After playing through it once more, I can confirm that I do not enjoy The New Colossus as much as the first two titles...
 
You all know that I love this series, even the lesser-known titles that don't get the limelight often. I especially love this latest trilogy - the titles encapsulate my opinion on what a good, first-person shooter should have for the player to enjoy. With all that said, I hope you don't think I'm just trying to play devil's advocate with what I'm unfortunately about to say.

I think, compared to the other two titles in the new trilogy, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus fails to innovate on the same, satisfying elements MachineGames already delivered in their prior releases. I found the game to be a lot more more tedious and unenjoyable, with a lot of the fun mechanics I enjoyed from The Old Blood and The New Order needlessly restructured in this one.
The narrative, although having some fantastic plot points, feels cartoonish at times. The game's U.I. feels incomplete, and it panders to a specific playstyle that, in the end, feels alienating to a specific group of players - PC gamers being the prime example I will cover later in this review.
Adding on, the game's upgrade - or perk - system feels a lot more convoluted compared to the previous two games.

Looking at these clear issues I have with the game, it only lets me ask myself one question: where did Wolfenstein: The New Colossus go wrong?



- DEATH AT THE GATES AGAIN -

My favorite part about this entire game is its story. I want to take a moment to commemorate all the writers, voice actors, and animators who worked on all three games, because they did a fantastic job, and this game truly shows the skill and care they put into their work.
I found that MachineGames does a good job when it comes to their characters and settings. Castle Wolfenstein and Rudi Jager in The Old Blood; Caroline and the London base in The New Order; and, in this latest installment, Horton Boone in Louisiana and Grace Walker in New York. Each game has a place and character that I enjoyed a lot, and the developers did a good job taking the time to develop these characters for the roles they play throughout the game.

What I also loved about this game's story is the developers gave BJ Blazkowicz, the main character, a backstory. Those cutscenes and dialogue pieces throughout the game that give the player insight to BJ's childhood were my favorite parts of the while game.
Humanizing a character is incredibly difficult in storytelling, and I'm really happy MachineGames did it in such a clever and meaningful way.

That being said, I mentioned earlier that the story for this game can feel cartoonish at times, and that's still true. There are moments and character developments throughout the game that - I feel - don't need to be there. Playing through those sections took me out of the experience more than they piqued my interest.

There's one part in particular that I want to discuss, so spoiler warning now. In the game, BJ gets caught by the Nazis and is decapitated. Then, his head is caught by his friends through a drone, and his head is immediately flown back to their lab. At the lab, BJ's friends end up resuscitating him, and BJ ends up getting a new body.
I personally think the developers could have handled that better, because the whole situation just feels incredibly corny and cartoonish, which steps away from the serious tones the prior titles have been building around.



- UPGRADES, PEOPLE. UPGRADES -

The one thing I enjoyed in my recent playthroughs of this trilogy was the perk system. If you get a certain number of kills, or do a certain skill a number of times, you're able to upgrade BJ's abilities and stats. For example, if you use a certain number of health and armor pick-ups, you'll be able to upgrade your maximum health and armor. You can also collect weapon attachments, as well as upgrade the amount of items you can carry, through this perk system. I personally love the way it's implemented - it keeps combat fun and engaging since it allows you to switch up your strategies without the fear of missing out on any reward or satisfaction.

There is a problem, however, in the way Wolfenstein: The New Colossus does the perk tree. In The Old Blood, you're allowed you to play the game the way you wanted to, and would upgrade your character based on how you played.
The New Colossus is a lot more like your common RPG's, where you grind for a few hours and upgrade your character to develop a certain build. For example, Dark Souls has many builds: strength, dexterity, intelligence, mage, etc.
The New Colossus essentially does that; you have all these perks and weapons you can upgrade, but you end up only using two or three of them for one playthrough.

There are so many perks and upgrades in the game, but not enough resources or enemies to collect them all on one playthrough. I liked The Old Blood and The New Order, because you could unlock almost all the perks in one playthrough, and then complete a new game+ using those perks. There was a clear change in the power and strength I had in the second playthrough, and it made want to sit down and play the whole game again.
In The New Colossus, I feel like I'm starting from scratch every time, because I essentially am. The perks and weapons I upgraded aren't the ones I'm using on the new playthrough, so I'm back using weapons in their default state. I felt like I haven't done anything - I feel like I'm in the same spot I was in when I originally started the game, and it sucks.



- INTERFACE LABYRINTH: STARRING DAVID BOWIE -

If there's one thing that I found I consistently hated throughout my whole playthrough of The New Colossus, it would be the user interface (UI). Every time I had to interact with it, whether it was to upgrade my weapons/stats, look at the map, journal entries; whatever it was, I would end up spending nearly ten minutes navigating through all the menus.
It was outrageous, and it sucked having to literally pause my game just so I could look for something that ended up not being the thing I needed to look for.

What was worse is the introduction of a weapon wheel. The previous two games were perfectly designed to suit players on PC and console - they even had a weapon wheel included that worked just fine. Now, The New Colossus feels like it's trying to take mechanics from DOOM (2016), and implement them for the Wolfenstein series. The game feels like it's meant to be played solely on console, and it's infuriating. I don't appreciate how games feel different on various platforms, because it affects my experience. I know tons of games that are on consoles they shouldn't be on, and The New Colossus is one of them, which is unfortunate.



- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS -

In short, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus didn't live up to the hype its reveal trailer brought. It blows that the game isn't as good as the other two in the trilogy, because MachineGames, for the most part, did a fantastic job. I'm not sure what happened, all I know is I wouldn't recommend this game, and I'm not planning on playing it anytime soon.
That being said, I still highly recommend you check it out yourself. Maybe get it on Steam or Xbox for free, or on a discount. If you end up liking it, let me know your thoughts! I love to keep these conversations going.



That's all for today. Thank you so much for reading my review, and apologies for taking so long to upload it. I hope it was worth the wait!
Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next review!

I give the Dieselkraftwerk a 5/10

I love when I get to see new developers join the game industry. It's inspiring to see random individuals, like myself, with a passion to develop games for the entertainment of others. I love when I get to play and appreciate the labor of love that they've tirelessly worked on over months - sometimes years.
These people motivate me to work on projects of my own, and they push me to transcend the medium of video games, so that I may be able to revolutionize the game industry - or even just a genre of games.

Some of my favorite games have been indie titles, and I can say they've all made a profound impact on my life. Games such as Undertale, One Shot, SIGNALIS, and Sable - I love all of them, and the emotional connection I have to each of their stories has made me the reviewer I am today.

With all that being said, I want to take a little bit of your time today to talk about RETURN, an indie game I followed for quite some time before its release, and a game I can't seem to stop playing now that it's out.



- A GREAT 2-D RPG -

My first impression upon playing the game was thinking it was like a sci-fi Dark Souls. Trapped on a now uninhabitable planet you once called home, you venture out to various places in order to collect parts for your space shuttle. During your exploration, you come across multiple enemies, as well as a various collection of bosses that you must defeat to complete your objective.

The world, though a highly-detailed dystopia brimming with collectibles and lore tidbits, is really depressing. Many of the remaining survivors you come across are soldiers or refugees trying to evade the ongoing wars amongst the handful of clans, as well as the numerous monsters that roam around. Even when completing side missions, or exploring the regions of the game, your findings shed some light on the grim fate of the world.

One side mission in particular has you go to an old shipwreck, which is the gravesite to thousands of civilians who tried escaping the planet before disaster struck. Your goal is to find a journal that belonged to one of the victims, and can be found at the back of the ship after the boss room. The diary is filled with a depressing narrative, and it depicts just how desperate and hopeless the situation was for the remaining populous on the world.

The game does a fantastic job conveying humanity and emotion through its creative storytelling, it's atmosphere, and many interactable NPC's. I love how detailed the world is, and how much care the developer dedicated to its backstory. I'm also glad the developer is continuing to update the game with new content, which unlocks more areas, monsters, and bosses for you to experience.



- COMBAT & UPGRADES -

The reason I felt the game was very souls-like was due to his strategic, fast-paced combat, as well as it's upgrade system. Throughout the game, you can obtain a variety of firearms and melee weapons, which can be upgraded as you level up. You also have health, defense, and combat perks that make your chances of survival a lot better, especially at the end of the game with the difficult mobs. All of it is implemented fairly well, and it's pretty easy to grind for experience if you want to upgrade your character a bit more before continuing your journey.

I think the only complaint I would have is the reload mechanic. Reloading obviously replaces your firearm's current ammo count with it's full capacity. However, it also will remove the bullets you have not fired in your current magazine. That means, if you're not careful, you will lose your ammo significantly fast. Since ammo is hard to come by in the game, it's becomes a little difficult to ration your ammo wisely.

I'm not going to lie, there was definitely a learning curve when it came to using the game's firearms, and I eventually got the hang of it. Nonetheless, I really wish the developer spent a little more time polishing that mechanic in particular.

As for everything else, it's pretty solid gameplay. You have a health and stamina bar, which can be grown over time by leveling up. The animations and control inputs are spot-on - very rarely did I find myself upset at the game for not completing an animation fast enough, or not recognizing one of my desired actions during combat.

Just to briefly touch on it, I thought the game's UI and HUD were also fine. They weren't the best I've ever seen, but it was good enough to not bother me during my playthroughs.



- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS -

Overall, I thought this game was fantastic. You can beat the game in three hours or less, which seems a little short for... well... any kind of game.

Trust me when I say this, though, all of that time is filled with solid gameplay, good music, engaging combat, and interesting storytelling/exploration.
I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys playing video games. It's definitely one of those titles you can play at any time if you're bored or just want to play a game. After playing it nearly six times, I can say it doesn't seem to get old, and with new content always being added, it provides an excuse to complete another playthrough.
You can buy the game on Steam for $20. If you don't have that, you can also buy it on your Mac, or your Nintendo Switch. You can also check out the developer's website for the game through the link below, should you be interested.

RETURN by DEAD UNICORN

If you want to take a look at the developer's other projects, check out the other link, which is below this.

OTHER PROJECTS



Anyways, that's all for today. Thank you all so much for reading the review. If you feel generous and want to see this site grow into something bigger, why not share with your friends, and maybe even head to the donations page? I'd love to keep the discussion going, and receiving any amount from you all will be very-much appreciated.

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you in the next review.



I give MOTHER a 10/10

The hardest part about reviewing video games is ensuring the game is maintaining a general sense of balance.

When a game is able to build on its mechanics throughout the game, there's a clear innovation in the game's formatting. A great example would be The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom's "fuse" mechanic. It allows you to forge new and powerful weapons with the game's various items, which are revealed to you through your progressed exploration of the world.
Even though it's a major part of the game, the emphasis of this function doesn't hinder the other ideas this game offers for the players entertainment - hence, there's a noticeable balance when it comes to the game's design overall.
 

However, if you play a game that does not properly utilize its mechanics, all you'll be left with is an experience filled with dull moments and repetitive gameplay.
There has been a small handful of games I found that have struggled with this exact issue, Bioshock: Infinite being the most recent example, which I covered on this website previously.

However, this is why I want to talk about the 2010 release, Alan Wake.

In all, this game doesn't have a lot to it when you look closely.
The gameplay boils down to traveling to a specific location, fighting some mobs, then heading to another location to do the exact same thing.
It's a repetitive shooting gallery, filled completely with an overuse of mobs and mechanics throughout the game. The firefights happen in different locations, but the gameplay remains constant, without any needed evolution or randomization.

Now, you might be asking: "If there's nothing to the game, why are you reviewing it?"

Well, even though the game suffers from a lot of gameplay issues, I found the story to be extremely compelling. If you haven't noticed by now, I love the story of a game more than anything. The story, in my opinion, is the main driving force behind a player's enjoyment and progression through a game - all the mechanics do is help move the story forward through interactive gameplay.
Alan Wake, though lacking in a variety of mechanics and gameplay design choices, compensates for this vacancy with a well-made story and cast of characters.

So, with all that being said, let's start the review of Alan Wake.



- STEPHEN KING & THE NARRATIVE -

For those of you who don't know, I'm a big fan of Stephen King. I love his ability to create supernatural horror through fairly simple settings. It could be deadly aliens roaming the remote woods of Maine, or a maniac kidnapping her favorite author so she can torture him into finishing his book. Whatever King decides to write about, you always find that the setting in which everything takes place is very isolated from other places within the narrative.

Alan Wake's approach to storytelling could not be more similar. The game takes place in the forests of Washington, far away from civilization. Inspired by the real-life Crater Late in Oregon, Cauldron Lake is the location Alan and his wife, Alice, head to, which is a large lake accompanied by a small town on the shoreline.
It's actually really funny how involved Stephen King is to this game; the main character, Alan, is an author, and the game even mentions Stephen King at the very beginning of the game. It kind of feels as if the game is a love letter to him, and I have to say, it's a pretty good letter.

I genuinely enjoyed the plot to the game; Alan's wife Alice is taken by an unknown character, and Alan must then find a way to get her back. It's a very simple story, but it has a twist - the town is altered by fictional storytelling, and since Alan is an author, he is able to write a new ending to save the town and get his wife back.

The story is interesting, and it's completed with a cast of characters that play well-defined and important roles to the story. Even though some of the characters don't have a lot of screen time, they play significant roles in the story's progressing, and the game gives valid excuses as to why they haven't been around helping out.
That was a very subtle detail that I didn't know I would enjoy so much. In a lot of games, characters will go off screen, then reappear out of nowhere as if they've never been gone. It was nice to see Alan Wake go into the level of detail it did when the characters would ask questions like: "Why didn't you help us out?"

The villains to the story are a bit... lacking, but I don't really care. The story focuses on Alan Wake's perspective, and seeing him grow as a character in order to fight the bad is the best part of the game. I also love Alan's friend, Barry, who is able to give the game a splash of humor at well-timed points throughout the game.



- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS -

In short, I genuinely liked the game. Even though the gameplay is very repetitive, and there isn't much to talk about, the story is charming enough to keep you invested until the end. I saw recently that the sequel, Alan Wake II, is out now on the PlayStation 5, so I'm going to buy a copy soon and see how it is.
As for Alan Wake, you can buy it on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. For being a 13 year old game, it still holds up for the most part. I recommend that you check it out and try it at least once. If you end up liking something about the game you didn't see in the review, send me a message - I always love to keep the discussions going.

Well, that's all for today. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and thank you all so much for reading the review!


I give the Energizer Batteries and Verizon Billboards a 7/10 

Few games come to mind when I think about their affect on my interests. Looking at my massive game library, there are only a select few that have truly surpassed my expectations. Not only that, they've changed the way I critique and appreciate the game industry as a whole.
Games such as Portal, Shadow of the Colossus, and Grand Theft Auto III, I feel that games are a work of art -  published as a means to sometimes challenge the status quo of the gaming industry, and to sometimes get the player to think deeper about their in-game actions.

And none have been more influential to me than Bioshock.

It took me nearly 14 years after the original release to play Bioshock (2007), and I loved every single minute of it.
I fell in love with Rapture, an underwater city with a style and attitude suited for the swing-type themes the game pushed through its designs. The city was mesmerizing, enhanced by the environmental storytelling it had, as well as the main narrative you unravel throughout the game.
Bioshock wasn't an original concept, by any means. There are many stories published with a similar premise and setting. Yet, I like to argue the Bioshock is the best rendition of all those stories. There are obvious flaws in the game, such as the final boss fight; but, it was, overall, an incredibly fascinating and well-rounded title for the time it was released.
The second game in the series: Bioshock 2, was a nice return to the city of Rapture, only the story was now told from the perspective of Big Daddy - one of the numerous mobs you have to fight in the first game. It had a similar story to the first title, which was nice to see. Writing stories are incredibly difficult, so if you have something that works as a strong narrative, why not use it?
And that's exactly what Bioshock 2 did.
Overall, it didn't feel as entertaining or innovative as the original. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my experience with it, and I continue to recommend others to give it a chance as well.



And this is where we finally talk about the third installment: Bioshock: Infinite.

Published in 2013 by 2K Games, Bioshock: Infinite was supposed to be the rebirth of the series. The developers were excited to be taking the series to new places, with a new story to come along with it, as well as new enemies and mechanics.
Unlike the first two games in the series, Bioshock: Infinite takes place in the sky-city "Columbia". As the main protagonist, you play as Brooker DeWitt, a veteran of the U.S. Calvary division and former Pinkerton agent. Now out of the Pinkerton gang, Brooker is a private investigator, who travels to Columbia to rescue Elizabeth, a girl who is originally portrayed as Brookers one and only ticket to wiping his slate clean so that he can start a new life.

It's an interesting concept, packed between moments of intense, run-and-gun action sequences and cutscenes. The new mechanics and gameplay options were fun to use and experiment with, and the twist at the end of the game was a nice surprise.
However, this game is far from perfect in comparison to the other two. Compared to the gameplay of the original Bioshock, this game felt incredibly streamlined and restricting. Unlike the first two installments, where every weapon felt useful to some degree, some mechanics and weapons in this game felt absolutely useless compared to others.
By the time I finished the game, I had a small selection of weapons I would use, because I knew they would end up being the most practical and convenient during the combat encounters.

As for the story, the narrative falls short in a lot of areas. Some characters feel out of place and one-dimensional. Plot points in the game feel disjointed from the others and don't really serve a purpose to the overarching story. Areas in the game, though creative in their own right, end up being used for fetch-quests and other boring missions. Villains and some of the lore behind Columbia felt convoluted and random compared to the rest of the game as well.

By the time the credits rolled, I felt extremely unsatisfied. I hated all the characters, and I especially hated the muddled and poorly-written story, which didn't resonate with me at all.

It was the kind of game that made me ask myself: "Why did I play this in the first place?"

There are obviously some good things about the game, such as its combat, its exploration, and even the plot point where you travel between realities to get to your objectives. But the lows go incredibly low, and, more often than not, outshine what little the game does right.

Usually with all my games, I try to do multiple playthroughs, but I couldn't for this one. I felt that Bioshock: Infinite was very monochrome when it came to showing which of its implemented ideas were good, and which of them were bad - and there were a lot of bad ones.

I felt, even though it didn't benefit the game, Bioshock: Infinite masked itself with mechanics. I'm not going to lie, I'm okay with that approach. I know some games that did the same thing and were still successful. Some of them are even in my game library.
But it's kind of hard to feel entertained with all the mechanics this game introduces if all of them are bad. I cycled through all of them and got straight to the core of the game, and found it was just as rotten as everything surrounding it.



In short, I can't recommend this game. There's nothing to it that lingers with you after playing it, and compared to the other two games in the series, it's just disappointing.
If you want to still try it out yourself, feel free to - I won't stop you. You can buy the game for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, and PC, should you want to try it out. If you end up enjoying it, hit me up on one of my social media accounts - they're located on the "About Me" page on the website. I'd love to hear your opinions and keep the discussion going.



Thank you all so much for reading. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next one.

I give the Sky-Hook a 4/10

The Wolfenstein franchise has always been one of my favorites, with the first game I played being Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a 2003 title developed by ID Software. Playing hours of that game my grandpa's old-ass computer is still one of my favorite memories, simply because it was my first ever "M"-rated video game experience, and my grandpa eventually gifted me the game when I got older.
It's still one of my favorite games, beautifully blending its action and horror elements with the classic spy-adventure themes the series originally founded itself on.

I was originally going to have this review cover the entire series, but the review ended up being way too long. In addition, since the license to the series was traded throughout the years, there's a visible difference in creative approach between the titles.

So, instead of talking about all the games, I'll focus primarily on MachineGames' most recent trilogy.
With that all said and done, let's take a look at Wolfenstein: The Old Blood.



- UP & AT 'EM, BILLY-BOY -

I love that the series has now flourished into one of the best first-person shooters on the market - specifically this new trilogy developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks.

Originally released on the Atari Commodore 64 in 1981, Wolfenstein set out to make the player become Captain BJ Blazkowicz, a United States operative sent behind enemy lines to thwart the German Army's progress in World War 2.
All the games do a fantastic job with their narratives, even the titles that didn't sell as well as the others. The later games in the series even add collectibles and secret areas for the player to explore, giving the player the opportunity to collect letters and lore tidbits so they can learn more about the universe.

In The Old Blood, you're Captain BJ Blazkowicz, who has been sent to Castle Wolfenstein with operative, Richard Wesley, to steal a folder detailing the location of German scientist, Wilhelm Strasse.
The year is 1946, and the German Army has been able to win against the allies due to their superior technology and weaponry. The allies last attempt at victory lies solely in Wesley and Blazkowicz successfully locating Strasse's lab, which is detailed in the classified folder.

Unlike the other titles, this trilogy does a great job developing emotional narratives and characters you can invest in, and I personally feel that Wolfenstein: The Old Blood does it best.

Even though the narrative is cliché, the stakes are incredibly high. Having the fate of the world rest on your shoulders gives every character death and plot point a massive amount of weight. The setting of the story is depressing: the good guys are losing, and every attempt at fighting back solidifies their defeat.
It's not an underdog story like other games usually tell; it's melancholy, portraying a survivor's struggle to complete a suicide mission that will only delay his inevitable defeat.



- A GREAT GAME WITH GREAT QUALITIES -

The characters, the dialogue, the voice acting, and the story are all written to perfection - everything about this game perfectly captures the essence found in the previous titles. The old-school spy narrative, combined with all the well-made characters, makes the narrative feel fresh and original compared to its predecessors. The Old Blood also came out after Doom (2016), as well as the reboot title for the Wolfenstein franchise, Wolfenstein - The New Order. So, I think it's amazing that Bethesda Softworks didn't drop the ball with this title, because they potentially could have.

I also love the soundtrack Mick Gordon made for this game. For those of you who don't know him, Mick Gordon is the one responsible for the DOOM (2016) and DOOM: Eternal soundtracks. If you're into heavy metal, I highly recommend looking at his work, it's phenomenal.

There's a nice balance in the game's music between the slow orchestral pieces and the high-paced metal music. It keeps the pacing of the game in check, and adds another level of emotion to the action sequences, as well as the numerous in-game cutscenes. 

There's no other example to perfectly encapsulate this balance than the final song on the game's soundtrack, which is called "The Partisan".

This song, in particular, is my favorite for many reasons, but the main one being it perfectly captures the pace and tone of the game.
Starting with a slow and doleful tune on an acoustic guitar, followed by a smooth transition into Mick Gordon's iconic metal guitar riffs, the song does a fantastic job capturing the many somber moments, as well as the intense, action-packed sequences sprinkled throughout the game.

In addition, stacked on top all the instrumentals, is a blues-style melody sung by musician, Tex Perkins, who is - in my humble opinion - the best part of the track. If you haven't listened to the soundtrack already, I highly recommend you do. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there is definitely something to appreciate within every song.

I'm genuinely impressed with the care and polish MachineGames put into the game's designs and combat mechanics for the game. They're phenomenal, adding to the already stunning visuals, level layouts, and character animations found throughout the game.
The combat Bethesda Softworks implements is also incredibly fun and engaging. It complements the large, arena-style combat zones you fight in throughout the game, while not feeling overused or unoriginal in the slightest.
The programming for the German soldiers is also well done. Throughout combat, they can flank, call in reinforcements, and even throw grenades to flush you out of cover. Even though there is only a small variety of enemies you fight, they all work together incredibly well, providing you with fun and strategic combat encounters throughout the game.

- "LOOK AT THAT, IT'S RAINING   N̶A̶Z̶I̶S̶    PROBLEMS" -

I wouldn't be honest if I said this game doesn't have any underlying issues. There are quite a few problems, the most prominent one being the climbing mechanic for me.
Climbing in the game requires you to interact with a wall, then press/release the left/right control triggers or mouse buttons. It's really tedious, and it takes you out of the experience every instance in the game after it's introduced in the first chapter.

Another issue I have is the in-game cutscenes. Attempting a 100% completion for the game took a lot longer than it needed to, mainly because there are so many cutscenes you can't skip during the game. I love the game, I think the story is amazing, but I really started to dislike having to sit through a cutscene I've watched over ten times.

My last issue lies within the final boss fight as well. I loved the game going from a classic spy-adventure game to a zombie-horror halfway through. It captured the supernatural themes found in the early 2000 titles pretty well, and I liked how random the switch was.
But, the final boss... it's just not good. The final boss is merely a run-and-gun in a small arena space, and it's fairly easy too. It's upsetting - I would've appreciated it if MachineGames added more actions to the boss' move set on top of the ones they've already included.

But, that's not the case, and even though the ending is satisfying because it ties into the beginning of Wolfenstein - The New Order, you can't help but be left wanting more.



- CONCLUSION -

Overall, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is one of my favorite shooters. Published as a reboot title by Bethesda Softworks, I'm really happy someone in the game industry decided to continue with the franchise. I wasn't expecting to come back and enjoy the game as much as I did, but I'm very glad it defied my expectations.
Being able to return to new and noteworthy aspects about the game not only makes me appreciate the time and energy MachineGames took to develop the game, but it also makes me appreciate and enjoy the game and its world a whole-lot more.
I truly think MachineGames did a fantastic job modernizing the game for their audience, and I'm really happy they decided to stay true to elements found in the older titles so that veteran fans can pick it up and enjoy it as well.

I think everyone should take a chance on this game, I cannot recommend it highly enough through this review. The game is available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, should you be interested in purchasing the game and trying it yourself.
Also, I usually don't say this about games, but Wolfenstein: The Old Blood feels great on both: controller, and mouse and keyboard. It was really nice having no change in quality when I wanted to switch between the two playstyles during my playthroughs, and I hope you enjoy that little aspect too.

Thank you all so much for reading my review. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you in the next one.



I give the Double-Barrel Shotgun a 9/10

The problem with franchises is that, at some point in time, their design becomes stagnant. Whether the narrative gets stale, or the characters become one-dimensional - eventually, almost all beloved franchises run out of creative ideas.

There is, however, a small few that manage to reinvent themselves, even decades after they originally made a name for themselves. Super Mario Bros. is definitely apart of that few.

It's genuinely amazing just how consistent Nintendo has been with the quality of their Mario games. Since its launch in 1983, the franchise has had nothing but fun and entertaining games for people to enjoy.
And it blows my mind just how influential Mario has been on the gaming industry. Even forty years after, Mario is still coming up with new and creative ideas to keep their players invested in the franchise, and I think that's awesome.

That being said, Super Mario: Wonder just recently came out, and to honor the game's release, I decided to go back and play some Mario games in preparation.

With all the greats already established in this franchise, it was hard for me to choose which ones to play. I finally rested on playing the three included in the Mario 3D: All Stars game pack, as well as the highly-regarded, 2016 release: Super Mario: Odyssey.
Based off the title of this review, I bet you can guess what game we'll be talking about today, so I'll just ask the question now: is Super Mario: Odyssey worth playing in 2023?
Well, let's take a look.



- PLATFORMERS & SONIC -

I'm just going to get it out of the way now: I usually don't like platformers. The first platformer I played was Lode Runner on my Dad’s Nintendo Entertainment System, and I played the absolute-hell out of Super Mario: Galaxy on my family’s Wii back in 2007.
As for the other various platformers available, I find it difficult for me to genuinely enjoy every part of them like I do with the two I mentioned previously.

The main issue I find in many platforming games lies in their designs. Random enemy-spawn locations, poor checkpoint placements, platforms are too far apart or too close together. I know how difficult it is to develop video game levels, especially ones that can be considered “perfect” to the public. However, it’s still an achievable goal.

The franchise that has always surprised me with its level design is Sonic. Specifically in Sonic: Mania, I think the developers did an incredible job implementing detailed, and interconnected - yet massive - levels in the game. Each obstacle, mob, platform, and launch-pad is conveniently placed throughout the zones, allowing an unbreakable joyride as Sonic bolts through the level, collecting rings.
There’s not just one exact path to take, there are multiple, which allows for more replay-ability. Even though the time commitment is less than what you might expect in comparison to other Sonic games, the designs of each level allow for a new and fresh play-through every time.

Super Mario: Odyssey is very much like Sonic Mania in its design. The game has well-placed checkpoints and designated safe zones. Mobs aren't too easy or too difficult to fight and are sprinkled generously across the map. In addition to what I’ve mentioned, every single level has multiple paths, which are interconnected with each other, and the game even allows the player to interchange which path they're taking.
It’s amazing how dynamic and open the levels actually are despite the compact and, sometimes, linear level designs.

The main narrative is nearly 15 hours long, but there's is an additional 60 hours of extra content to explore if you take your time playing the game. Super Mario: Odyssey has also taken game mechanics to another level by having each world you travel to contain their own unique and fun mechanisms to keep gameplay fresh and entertaining. Each world has its own theme, which reflects itself in the mechanics, mobs, and characters inhabiting the world.

It's like a buffet of new mechanics, art, music, and graphics for every area you visit and explore, and I have to say: it's absolutely fantastic.



- EVOLUTION & INNOVATION -

When it comes to Mario, Super Mario: Galaxy takes the cake. I think it's a fantastic game, one that revolutionized the franchise and allowed Mario to go places that were originally impossible to develop mechanically.
Even 16 years after its release, the game is still a fantastic work of art, programming, and music design.
With all that being said, it may seem far-fetched to say, but I feel Super Mario: Odyssey is the next evolution of Mario. Just like Super Mario: Galaxy was for the franchise back in 2007, I believe Super Mario: Odyssey is a much needed installment for the series. It not only polishes overlooked and poorly adapted mechanics from the previous releases, but it perfectly encapsulates over a decade's worth of creative and fun ideas Nintendo has made for the series.

Super Mario: Odyssey helped me better-appreciate the previous work Nintendo published, since a lot of the mechanics and designs present in Super Mario: Odyssey are similar - or exactly the same - in comparison to prior releases.
The amount of detail Nintendo put into every idea, whether new or re-imagined, within the game is commendable. Every part of the game has the perfect amount of screen time; nothing feels overused or minimized, rather the exact opposite.
Even the music doesn't get old, which is a common problem I find in these types of games. Every single track has it's own style and rhythm, each one complimenting the unique design and theme of each world. There are almost no repeated tracks, which also help each fight or boss encounter feel fresh. Even when you have found everything in the game, there are still numerous sounds and music pieces that you can stumble upon every now and then.

It's genuinely surprising how Nintendo continues to elevate the gameplay in their Mario games with nearly every new title they release. I guess the only downside to this enjoyment would be the wait time you'll need to endure.
It's crazy that this is the only complaint I have about the game, but I feel it's a valid one. The con about almost every masterpiece is they take time to develop. Whether you're painting a canvas, producing a song, or developing a video game, it takes a lot of time, energy, and money into making something people will enjoy for years after the product is released.
The Mario franchise is no exception to this problem; usually, the time separation between Nintendo's well-received Mario titles is about five to six years, with smaller titles such as Captain Toad or Bowser's Fury published in between that time frame.
Not saying those smaller titles are bad, of course not. I'm just saying you'll be playing a long waiting game before you get your hands on a new, innovative Mario game, which if unfortunate.



- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS -

Super Mario: Odyssey is a fantastic work that's still enjoyable, even seven years after its release. The amount of time and dedication Nintendo committed to developing the game shows in the final product, and I thoroughly enjoy every second of it.
As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy platformers, I could definitely see why people enjoy games from this genre. Super Mario: Odyssey surpassed all expectations I had for it, and proceeded to give me a long, fun, and entertaining playthrough. On the surface level, game was surprisingly short, but there was so much more to the game when I decided to look deeper.

I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who is interested in picking it up. The game can be bought for the Nintendo Switch for $40 to $50 at Walmart or Target, or you can purchase a digital copy for $60 on the Nintendo eshop. It's still costs a pretty penny, but I find it was definitely worth the investment.

Thank you all so much for reading. Apologies for the uploading schedule - my school and personal life have been incredibly busy these past few months. When I'm not busy with school, I'm with family, and when I'm free from both, I'm playing video games.
I have been playing tons of new games, the most recent one I've completed was Aliens: Fireteam Elite. the only downside is I have yet to review any of them. I'm planning on publishing one review a week starting now, that way you all can have something to read rather than me just randomly pushing fifteen reviews one night and asking you all to read it. It'll be nice to have some consistency, if not for me, then for you.

So, yeah, thank you again to everyone who has read this far, and apologies again. Until next time, I am ZlinkPlays, and I'll see you all in the next review.

I give New Donk City a 9/10

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of the biggest surprises to me back when it released in 2017. Having The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds being the most recent-published Zelda title at the time, I thought it was awesome that Nintendo finally released a new game after four years of practically nothing.

Seeing the franchise shed itself from its linear formatting to adopt a large-scale, open world style impressed me, especially since Breath of the Wild was able to do it so well. The game was also optimized for the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U, which was an impressive feat in its own right just for how massive the game is, as well as how much is in it.

Dusting off my pro controller recently, I decided to sit down and play it once more. I had a few more shrines to find, as well as a few more side missions to complete. And, I have to be honest, for being a six-year old game, Breath of the Wild is still fantastic.

Taking a step away from dungeons and tools to progress through the narrative, Breath of the Wild decides to divide its gameplay and scatter it across its massive landscape. Health and stamina upgrades are now collected through shrines, which are hidden puzzle rooms that can be found throughout the world. Weapons, shields and bows are now designed to fit the five unique geographical areas of the world they spawn in, and can be collected and used interchangeably. Instead of collecting hearts, you can collect food and monster items to restore hearts, deal more damage, receive better defense, and even become more quiet if you want to be stealthy.
Fairy Fountains, villages, monster fortresses, stables, beach villages; there's a lot to explore and find throughout the game from previous titles that has been revamped and polished. And it doesn't just apply to the basic mechanics and buildings you'll interact with throughout the game, the polish and design choices for the world are phenomenal. Snow-capped mountains; hot, dry desserts with sand dunes; large, green forests with lakes and ponds; The Lost Woods - practically all the locations you can find throughout the Zelda series are back and carefully crafted to fit the themes that best suit the flora and fauna of that region. The developers did a great job taking good aspects from the older games and implementing them in this one with a fresh coat of paint.

Speaking of the old games, there are even collectibles and side missions that reference some of the older titles. You can find these all throughout the world, and can even scan some in using amiibo cards. It was really cool seeing the remnants of the Twilight Mirror, or scanning in the Skyward Sword armor set for Link to wear throughout the game.
I have to say my favorite collectible, out of all of them, was probably Majora's Mask, or the Phantom armor set. I personally adore Majora's Mask  and Phantom Hourglass - I wouldn't call them my favorite Zelda games, but they're definitely up there on my list.

As for the new dungeon design, I actually really enjoyed them. They're known as "Divine Beasts", and their concept was interesting and fresh. I personally saw them as larger shrine puzzles, which was kind of upsetting, but I loved all the unique puzzles and boss fights for the four of them nonetheless.

The story was also a neat one. Very rarely in the Zelda franchise is there a game where Link technically "loses". So it was awesome to see this one bring back a similar narrative, and even include some more lore tidbits so it stands out from the older titles and feels like a new story.
The story is also divided and spread out across the world, and I really liked how link had to go exploring for the locations in order to regain his memory and, therefore, reveal to the player all the events that unfolded before Link lost to Gannon. I don't really have any complaints for the story, since it's not the main focus of the game. My main complaints lie within the gameplay itself.

When it comes to this game, I'm on the fence with how much I enjoy it. The game is fantastic, there's no denying that, but I feel it falls short in a lot of areas when it comes to its play-ability, especially when you're trying to fully complete the game.
If you've played the game before, I bet you already know what I'm going to reference, but for those who haven't played, I'm talking about the shrines and koroks.

As I've stated earlier, the shrines are your main source of health and stamina upgrades. There are 120 shrines in total, not including the DLC ones, which can be found and completed throughout the game. Furthermore, there are about 900 koroks that are peppered across the world. Finding these koroks will grant you the use of korok seeds, which can be collected and used to increase your weapon, shield, and bow inventory slots. They're neat mechanics, and they add to the importance of exploration.
However, when you reach late-game, it becomes a lot more tedious to locate and find the shrines and koroks. At the beginning, it's a lot of fun to just go out and walk aimlessly throughout the world, because more often than not, you'll eventually stumble across something important, such as a shrine or a korok. But, when you eventually have the majority of the shrines and koroks already found, it becomes a lot more difficult and boring to search the massive world.

I don't know, I just found it really lame how the game falls short at the very end when it came to keeping my interest. It also really sucks that some of the shrines and koroks are in the most random places, so finding them can be a total pain in the butt. I like to binge this game, so when I have to carefully search every nook and cranny in the game after playing for five hours, I know for certain that I'm going to miss a couple of spots.

As for the combat and dynamic gameplay, I had so much fun. This game can be incredibly immersive and interactive if you want it to, and I love that it's up to the player to decide that.
With that being said, though, I also think it's a double-edge sword. On one hand, you can give the player the freedom of exploring every aspect about your game. On the other, however, you run the risk of making your player feel that the gameplay is incredibly shallow.
There is a lot to do in this game, and very little of it is explained. So, it just makes me wonder how many special moments and mechanics did people potentially miss when playing the game, and how many did I miss?
I bet some people went throughout the entire game not knowing moblins could interact with their surroundings sometimes, like taking a drink from a river and even bathe themselves for example. And I even bet some people didn't know they could interact with some of the mobs in clever ways, like put a banana down in front of a Yiga member and watch them comedically pick them up. It's amazing how many little things are present in the game, and yet, they can be so easily missed.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild wasn't even on my radar when it came out, yet it blew me away and quickly became one of my favorite games of all time when I played it. Now that Tears of the Kingdom is finally out, I finally found an excuse to go back and play this game, and I'm glad I did. After six years after I originally played it, I found that it could still deliver an excellent experience.
I recommend this game to anyone who loves video games. Like IGN always says: "It has a little something for everyone."

Thank you all so much for reading this far, and to all you new peeps out there, welcome to the site! If you liked what you read here, don't shy away from sharing the site with others. I'd love to keep the discussion going with more people.

Thank you all again. Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and reading you for thanking.



I give Tarrey Town a 9/10

Space Chimps, Muppets in Space, "your mom" jokes; eventually, all good things go to space. So it makes sense that Mario, the most iconic video game character ever, would eventually go as well.

And, wouldn't you know it, he did!

Some of the best platformers belong to the Mario franchise. But, when you look at the release dates of those amazing titles, they're far and few between each other.
Super Mario World, that game came out in 1992, while Super Mario: 64 came out in 1996 - that's a four year gap between two amazing games. Then, you look at the gap between 64 and Super Mario: Sunshine, which is six years. Finally, after five years, Super Mario Galaxy finally made an appearance in 2007.

This is the reason why I have a love-hate relationship with the Mario franchise. On one hand, I get awesome games that I'll enjoy long after their released. On the other hand, I know I'll have to wait for the next big Mario title to come out, which can potentially take up to four-five years.
It's unfortunate that we all have to wait such a long time to get anything new, fresh, and enjoyable. But, if you know me, I always say game developers and movie directors should take their time to do their craft, because more time means more care and passion put into every part of the media I will eventually consume.

And I'll say the same thing to Nintendo: take your time. Even though it took five years for Super Mario Galaxy to come out after Sunshine, the game is fantastic, and I'm able to play and enjoy it 16 years after it's initial release. It's a game I can always go back to while I'm waiting for the next big Mario game.

Recently, I completed Super Mario Galaxy for the first time in forever. I just randomly picked it up one day and started playing it again.
The reason was simple, I wanted to see just how well it held up throughout the years, and I wanted to see if I would enjoy it as much as I did when I played it on the Wii back in 2007. And I'm happy to announce the game still hasn't lost its charm.

I like to believe Super Mario Galaxy completely reinvented the franchise.
Like Super Mario: 64 did before, Super Mario Galaxy gives you a tutorial planet to get used to the new mechanics and movement.  Then, immediately, the game throws you into a Smörgåsbord of new mechanics. Star launchers, bumble bee power-ups, planets, gravity fields and switches, along with all the other mechanics and characters found throughout the series from previous titles.
The game took the franchise and slam-dunked it into a pool full of new and creative mechanics - each one building off the other. And there's no stop, the game just builds idea after idea, after idea, after idea, after idea, and every single one of them is fantastic.

Everything about the game is phenomenal, its soundtrack being no exception. Every single track is carefully composed to fit the world it's representing, performed with such passion and enthusiasm by Nintendo's symphony.
The hub world, for example - its background music starts off with just a simple xylophone, but as you collect more stars and unlock more areas of the world, more and more instruments join the song. By the end of the game, you have this beautiful melody that you'll hum long after you're finished playing the game.
Another example is the "Gusty Gardens Galaxy" track. It's one of the most recognized tracks from the game, and for good reason. The song is such a treat to listen to, and proves how outstanding the musicians for this game really are.

Even though the game feels so linear compared to the other Mario titles, there are tons of stars to collect on each world, with some being challenge stars. The movement for Super Mario Galaxy looks restricting on paper, yet the new mechanics and level designs allow you to navigate Mario through the game worlds with an omnidirectional movement style, just like Mario's preceding releases.

Playing this game on the Nintendo Switch with a controller felt so much better than playing it with a Wii remote and nun-chuck, which was a nice surprise. I found I was able to pull off a lot more moves when I just needed to press a controller button rather than having to shake the dumbass Wii remote. On another note, the camera was still a major issue, and I was really hoping I was able to get full camera control with the 3D All Stars collection for the Nintendo Switch.

Overall, this game is just wonderful. When you thought Mario couldn't get any better, he came back and reclaimed his throne. Everything about the game is just spilling with creativity, and I had so much fun going back through the game and experiencing it all over again.
I cannot recommend this game enough to everyone. It's available for the Wii, Wii U, and, if you got the 3D All-Stars collection, the Nintendo Switch.

That's all for today. Thank you all so much for reading this far, and to all you newbies, welcome! If you like what you read, please share the website with your friends. I'd love to grow the discussion and hear what others think about these games.

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and thanks again for reading.



I give the Purple Coins a 10/10

Any of you who have been on this site long enough know that, from time to time, I like to dabble in the RPG genre. I've played Elden Ring, Skyrim, Borderlands, Middle Earth, Mass Effect; you get the idea, the genre has some bangers, and every now and then, I like to enjoy those bangers.
But, with the massive RPG library we have available to us, there are countless others alongside the good ones I mentioned that tend to fall short of our expectations. And that's fine, you know? Every game doesn't need to be this masterpiece - it just needs to have enough in it so we don't feel like we're wasting our time.

And that's why I want to talk about Cyberpunk 2077

In 2012, the developers, CD Projekt RED, announced Cyberpunk 2077 at E3. The game was described as a sci-fi role playing game, where you go around completing missions as one of three characters: a corporate executive, a nomad, or a street kid. The developers were also hyping up how massive in scale it was going to be in comparison to the other RPG games coming out at the time.
About a year after it's original announcement, CD Projekt RED released the first-ever trailer for the game at the 2013 E3. Time would pass, and whispers about the game would kind of fizzle out, until CD Projekt RED released yet another set of trailers at the 2018 and 2019 E3's. These trailers showed a little more about what the game's narrative will have, and one of them even had Keanu Reeves as a character.

Fast forward to December of 2020, the game finally releases on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. And, after eight years of development, the game still wasn't finished.

If any of you were following news about the game, you would know that Cyberpunk 2077's launch was far from majestic.
To this day, I cannot think of a triple-A game that flopped as hard as this one did. People were being issued refunds, and PlayStation even took it off their online store, which is freaking insane.
The original reaction from the gaming community was pretty harsh, and for good reason. The state of the game at launch was terrible. You couldn't really play it on any of the platforms the game was announced on, especially the PlayStation 4, which would just crash if you launched the game.

But, time can be a blessing, and after almost three years after it's original release, the game has gotten a lot of updates, and even has a DLC coming out, which looks promising.
Being fashionably late to the party, I decided to sit down myself and play it recently. And I bet the question you all have right now is the same one I had when I pressed start, which is: is this game really worth it?

Well, let's take a closer look.



PART 1 - WAKE UP SAMURAI

The story focuses on V, who lives in the dystopic future trying to make a living in Night City. Depending on whatever character path you chose at the beginning of the game, V is given a backstory pertaining to that path.
The story stays divided among the character paths until V meets Jackie Welles, a gangster who finds V and eventually teams up with him. Now friends with Jackie through a quick montage, V agrees to follow him on a heist against one of the most powerful corporations in the game's world: Arasaka. The mission is simple: steal a data-chip and sell it for a lot of money; if the mission is successful, Jackie and V will go down as legends in Night City, and if it isn't, they will be dead and forgotten.
Things go smoothly until the data-chip is stolen by Jackie and V, which triggers the Arasaka building to go into lockdown. Barely escaping with the chip installed in him, V makes it out of the building with Jackie, who unfortunately dies shortly after the escape in their getaway car.
The next day, V finds that the data-chip installed in his brain is unique from others: it has another being downloaded on to it. And, to make matters worse, this being is trying to overwrite V's body so it can take over.
This being is Keanu Reeves' character, Johnny Silverhand, an old rebel who died in a terrorist attack against Arasaka back in 2023. Now in a race against time, V attempts to track down the creator of the chip in hopes they can help save his life before Johnny Silverhand ends it.

The story is, without a doubt, the best part. The game is mostly carried by it's story, and I was really happy too see just how well the writing and voice acting were done. I was also really happy to find missions that explore the backstories of certain characters, which just added another layer of depth to the game's universe. You can find and complete these stories through side missions throughout the game, and I highly recommend you do.

Also, speaking of voice acting, this game has an awesome cast for its characters. You have Keanu Reeves, Michael-Leon Wooley, Carla Tassara, Martin McDougall; it was so cool watching these voice actors and actresses perform, because I remember enjoying their performances in other movies and video games.

Just another quick side note, seeing Cyberpunk: Edgerunners references tucked away in the world for you to find was, by far, my favorite thing to find in this game. For those of you who don't know, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is an anime that released in 2022, and it's one of my all-time favorites. It was awesome finding little easter eggs and clothing throughout the world, and I'm really happy CD Projeckt RED decided to put something in to recognize that show.

In all honesty, I love this game's story so much. Like some of Rockstar's games, Cyberpunk 2077 has a theatric style to it's storytelling, and with such a flushed-out cast and storyline, it's really hard not to enjoy the tale CD Projekt RED is trying to share.

With all that being said, however, I feel the game's story can feel pretty disjointed at times, especially in the beginning. The game will cater dialogue options that correlate to whatever character path you chose at the beginning, but it only convolutes the sequence and importance of events you experience. For example, the backstory montage of when you abandoned your old life and became friends with Jackie was great.
But, after experiencing it, I was wondering why I even bothered playing through the backstory in the first place. If the backstory of V is only meant to give me unique dialogue options throughout the game, what's the purpose of playing through it? I probably could have just been told V's origin story through a journal entry, or something even more clever, like character remarks when I'm talking to NPC's or other main characters.
The developers already spent loads of time making this game as detailed and immersive as possible, so it felt weird they were leaning on contrivance a little too hard for this backstory. I understand knowing who you're playing as is important to a video game, but I'm just saying, it could have been done better.



PART 2 - WELCOME TO NIGHT CITY

Night City has a lot to offer, and it's probably the best-looking city I have ever seen in a video game. There are districts you travel through, each with their own themes and leading gangs. There are also side missions available, along with apartments and cars you can purchase once you collect enough money. You also have the Night City Police Department sending out alerts of active crimes over your phone, which you can do in order to gain some street credit, and even some new clothing and firepower.

The amount of detail that went into the city is astounding, and I love how interactive everything is. But, with all that being said, there are definitely some drawbacks.

For one, the map doesn't discern any of the main story missions from the copy-and-paste side missions or collectibles. When looking for something in particular, it's nearly impossible to determine what you need to look for using the basic map. The world is massive, and if you don't do all the gigs or side missions, the map can feel cluttered. My favorite mission involves you locating a Buddhist to learn how to meditate, but those missions are all over the map, and it can be difficult to find where you need to go next. Granted, you can use a filtered map, and even track missions through the quest tab in your menu to make it more convenient, but it's still a hassle.
To make things worse, you don't have a map to look at any building you enter. The only real "map" you have is on your HUD, and it's not a very good one; it can lead you to miss certain collectibles, which I certainly did, and it's upsetting.
I'm not sure why the developers made only one map overlooking the entire world, and not a mechanic that changes map layouts whenever you enter and leave buildings.

Don't get me wrong, there are ways around this issue, and it didn't really take away from my experience, but it was a problem nonetheless.

Going back to the generalization between mission types, some of the side missions really are copy-and-paste. They were all fun, don't get me wrong, but it would have been a lot better to see more variety in mission types. It would have been cool to have a mission that takes place in a futuristic zoo or skate park, rather than a prostitute alleyway.
I understand it's a dystopic world, but having the majority of the advertisements and interactive buildings you enter involve pornographic themes and illustrations, or the advocation of drugs and violence, is kind of a buzzkill.
The world already has a diverse set of colors and themes divided amongst the districts and their inhabitants; some that you find are pretty wholesome, like the rollercoaster mission. So why can't advertisements and buildings share the same concept; some can be more alluring, while others can share some more tame aspects about the world?



PART 3 - FUNKY CONTROLS

The controls for the game, I found, were very hit-or-miss. When the game wants to work, your movement, driving, climbing, and fighting mechanics can work perfectly, and it can be pretty satisfying.
But that rarely happens. Most of the time, you're climbing mechanic doesn't work. Driving feels slippery and difficult to control, especially in cars. Running and sliding can feel janky. And the fighting just feels bad.
All of these are a lot better now than they were at launch day, but I still think they're an issue. Tailing missions can be hard if you can't control your vehicle; stealth missions are difficult to execute because the controls are rigid and the combat mainly resorts to firefights; and using different paths to reach the same objective can be hard if the game doesn't recognize you want to climb a building. It sucks that these mechanics are just sub-par, because as a mercenary, I want to feel like a badass that can use all types of weapons and scale all types of buildings, not just a shotgun maniac that one-taps enemies as soon as I burst through the front door.
I eventually upgraded my skill tree so that melee weapons dealt more damage than firearms, which was a lot of fun, and it even mixed up the strategies I would use to conduct combat. But, for the most part, when I would want to do something, the game wouldn't respond and prevent me from doing it, which got irritating.



CLOSING THOUGHTS

I know this was a pretty critical review for the game, especially at the very end. But don't be mistaken, I genuinely adore this game. Everything about it has a charm that keeps you playing and wanting to explore - and, at the end of the day, that's all I can ask from a video game: to make me want to play it more.
I highly recommend giving the game a shot yourself. You can buy it on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, and I highly recommend the latter of the three. With PC's, you have a much greater control on how the game will run, and I've heard the game tends to stay at a pretty low render and frame rate on consoles.

Thank you all so much for reading, and if you're new to the site, welcome! If you all liked what you read, go out and share the site with some friends. It would be rad to see more people join the discussion.

Until next time, I'm ZlinkPlays, and thanks again for reading!



I give Skippy the A.I. an 8/10

In 2010, Rockstar Games published one of their most well-known titles: Red Dead Redemption. The game is set in the twilight years of the wild west - following father and retired outlaw, John Marston. Approached and eventually threatened by two government agents, John Marston sets out to arrest the surviving members of the Van der Linde Gang, a group he associated himself with several years back, in exchange for his family's freedom.
Eventually hunting down all the members, including his surrogate father, Dutch Van der Linde, John Marston saves his wife and son from the agents, and eventually retires back to his ranch again. Unfortunately, John's bounties haven't disappeared just because he retired, and so the agents eventually come back looking to collect. John protects his wife and son as they make their escape, and soon after they leave, he stands outside his barn and makes one final stand-off against the fifty-or-so agents.
John eventually dies to his wounds from the fight, and the game ends with you playing as his son, Jack Marston, who hunts down one of the agents responsible for killing John. After killing the agent in cold blood, Jack walks away, and the game ends.

Aside from being one of the best games in Rockstar's library, the game is also important to game history for a number of reasons.
For one, it showed that spaghetti-western stories could still be enjoyed by a very large audience. Two, it not only defined open-world games for its time and was used as inspiration for later games, but it was also one of the top-selling games of 2010, which is actually pretty impressive.
The 2008 financial crisis was still prevalent during this game's release in 2010, yet the video game industry was still popping off. It's actually really cool to see just how many game developers made a name for themselves during this time with the games they published. Games like, I don't know, Amnesia: The Dark Decent, Dante's Inferno, Halo: Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Epic Mickey, Mass Effect 2 - the list goes on, but I'm just trying to say there was some fierce competition at the time of Red Dead Redemption's release.
Thirdly, and lastly, the game is just outright amazing. Even though the purpose of John's story is super cliché, it's written in such a way that it feels like you're experiencing this type of narrative for the first time.
Furthermore, the characters are so well written and acted, that you often find yourself immersed in the world with the characters rather than feeling like you're watching a movie.
When the game pairs its strong story with its wonderful cast, it makes the game out to be this incredible and thrilling tale of revenge, family, and redemption.

So, when I finally sat down to play through Red Dead Redemption 2, I found myself constantly comparing it to what I experienced and felt while playing the first game. And, for the most part, I really enjoyed most of what the second game had to offer.

For those of you who don't know, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to the events in the first game. You play as Arthur Morgan, an on-the-run outlaw who is also the surrogate son to Dutch Van der Linde and Hosea Matthews. While also being a friend to John Marston, Arthur's role in the Van der Linde Gang is to be the right-hand man of Dutch, supporting him and Hosea in all the heists they plan in order to further escape the law, and hopefully retire their lives of crime for something more sustainable.

The game starts in the snow-capped mountains of mid-west America. After a failed heist in the town of Blackwater, Arthur and the others are forced to pack up their camp and move east. With most of the gang's members arrested or killed at the start of the game, things look really bleak.

Immediately at the start of the game, I love how humanized every character is. Having been introduced to new characters like Hosea and Arthur for only a few minutes, I immediately invested myself into their stories and fight for survival. In an ever-changing world that doesn't have a place for outlaws, it felt like I was cheering on the underdogs - and with Dutch's charismatic enthusiasm and optimism, I was sure Arthur and the others would be able to eventually overcome all their problems.

And the gang eventually does solve some of their problems, but it doesn't really last, leading to one of the most bittersweet endings to a game I have experienced to this day. I won't spoil the story for you - this is another game I feel you should go into blind. But, believe me when I say this game is phenomenal, and I recommend you play it.

So, apart from the story, what else does this game offer that is worth taking your time to enjoy? Well, let's take a look.



PART 1 - YEE HAW SKYRIM

A long time ago I saw a meme saying Red Dead Redemption is just "yee-haw Skyrim", and I couldn't agree more. The scale of this game's world is absurdly massive, with tons of side missions, collectibles, and random interactions sprinkled throughout it. Characters have schedules and routines they follow, Arthur and his horse need to be cleaned and fed - you get the idea, there are tons and tons of mechanics poured into this game to make it as close to a cowboy simulator as possible.
Speaking of the characters, every character, including every NPC, is amazing, and I think all the voice actors did a terrific job capturing the attitudes of each one throughout the entire game, even if their character didn't have a lot of screen time.

But, with all of that being said, there are definitely a number of issues I found. Like Skyrim, I think Red Dead Redemption 2 does a lot of things well to keep me immersed and happy, but I also think it's far from perfect.

Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't broken in the literal sense - the game runs and looks amazing, especially for being a 5-year old game.
The reason I say it's broken is simple: the game has introduced so many mechanics that a lot of them, at some point during the playthrough, just seemed incredibly shallow to me. Mechanics that seemed crucial to the game's story didn't really have much depth to them. Once you've played around with them for a bit, you have seen everything they have to offer, which sucks.
If I have all these options and mechanics at my disposal, I want to make sure they stay useful throughout the game. It sucks when game developers do this, because at the end of the day, everything looks half-baked. I'd much rather have a game with few, but solid mechanics that are used repeatedly throughout the game, rather than a sampling platter of shallow, unfinished ideas that will most likely take me out of the experience.

I just want to briefly state that the cover system for this game absolutely sucks before talking about what I really have a problem with: the camp mechanic. As Arthur, you're responsible for donating goods and money to the camp in order to keep morale up. Donating to the camp will not only increase your honor, but it will also unlock access to new ammunition types and health items.  You can also buy some extra hitches, which allow you to keep more horses, and you can even buy boats, tools, and chicken pens to keep the camp better maintained. 

 The camp mechanic is interesting. On one hand, it allowed me to get a lot more out of my play-through, but on the other, there came a point where there was nothing else I could do with it.  The game's story missions give you a lot of money, and if you dump it all into the camp, by mid-game, the camp is fully upgraded. Once everything is purchased, all that’s left to do is just purchase new items to restock the camps materials, which become pointless if you can just pick them up at a general store, or off the people you loot in the open world.

What sucks even more about the camp is you don’t even need to interact with its mechanic at all to continue the story. On paper, the mechanic is a great idea, and if you’re open to the concept of donating and contributing to your gang, there’s some satisfaction in the mechanic to give you good gameplay for a short period. However, because there's no extra depth to it, it feels so shallow and unnecessary.

As I was doing research about this, I stumbled on to a review video I really like from the YouTuber, NakeyJakey. In his video, he talked a lot about this same mechanic issue, and at one point, he talked about how if the rules for the game's mechanics stayed consistent, then he'd be fine with the game. But, like me, he found that the mechanics aren't consistent at all, and, like me, he was taken out of the experience because of it.



PART 2 - FRACTURED STORYTELLING
 
The hype around this game was pretty big, and a lot of what Rockstar was selling during development was the promise of immersion and hyper-detailed gameplay. And although, yes, Rockstar did deliver on an incredibly detailed and wonderful game, they also made a lot of this game out to be just smoke and mirrors. The reason I say this is because even though there are a ton of mechanics that offer the player a variety of dynamic gameplay options, a lot of them are extremely shallow and don’t really work in execution.
Acknowledging the camp mechanic again, the camp is supposed to be the main motivation for the player to complete a lot of the open-world activities. It’s great when you do contribute to the camp, it gives your actions in the game a lot more meaning and satisfaction. But, if you don’t want to donate anything, there’s nothing stopping you. The game's story will just keep going as intended, and it really bummed me the hell out. Because now, immersion, and dynamic actions, and non-linearity are the last words that are going through my head in that moment.
If there is no consequence to not donating, and if donating is only applicable for a short period of the game before you max out the camp, what on earth is stopping me from avoiding the camp mechanic entirely? And, since I’m not interacting with the camp, the main motivation to explore and interact with the open world, what’s stopping me from just avoiding the numerous activities such as fishing and hunting? At that point, they would have no purpose being in the game, because there is nothing besides my general interest motivating me to do them.
Granted, the game has a bunch of random interactions to keep the open world fresh, where you can either give or refuse service to NPC’s in need. However, they repeat themselves, so they get old after the second or third time encountering them anyway.
I found this same issue during the honeymoon phase of playing this game, where the open world is this massive, detailed landscape, but it has nothing in it at the exact same time. Meanwhile, the events that take place in the open world don't blend with the extremely linear and controlled storyline. It’s like Rockstar wanted to make a linear game first, and then made the game open-world at the last second. It’s upsetting how they went about their design for the game, because it feels as though neither portion of the game is able to really reach its full potential.
And it's even more upsetting to be so limited in how you go about doing any of the story missions. In almost every mission, it was as if Rockstar kept interrupting to make sure I was playing the game how they wanted me to play it. If I didn't have the correct weapons, and then I died, I respawned with different weapons and ammunition types. When I dropped a collectible on the ground, then died right after, I lost the collectible, even though it was stored on my person.
Having all these things happen to me while playing the story didn't make me feel like a badass outlaw, it made me feel like a dumb, little kid, and Rockstar was just babying me when it came to how I wanted to play the game.



PART 3 - CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Despite having a lot of flaws, Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the greatest third-person shooters I've played in a while. The acting, the music, the designs, the shootouts, the story - everything about this game that works is able to carry it when the player hits those inevitable moments of disappointment.
I know this review was very short and critical, but I hope you all know I still loved the game. Despite it's obvious problems, at the end of the day, I think the developers did a fantastic job carefully crafting the origin story for the game's predecessor, which came out 13 years ago.

I definitely think everyone should take the time to play this game and give it a chance. It's a long, methodical story, with an ending that will leave you satisfied. I promise, after finishing the game, most of the game's flaws won't seem so prominent, and you'll most likely only remember the great parts, which this game has a lot of.

You can buy the game on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation if you want to give it a shot, which I recommend you do.

Thank you all for reading this far, and to any newcomers, welcome to the website. If you all liked what you see here, share the website with some of your friends. It'd would be really cool to see more people join the site and weigh in with their opinions on some of the games I play. If you don't want to share, hey, that's cool too.

Thank you all again, and I'll see you in the next one.



I give Guarma a 7/10

 There are a lot of games that I have reviewed previously on this site, and though I am proud of most of them, I've realized I didn't give some justice when I spoke about them the first time. Omori is a part of that small minority of games, so before settle on an opinion about the game, I would like to discuss the game further with you all; find out where the game excels and where it hinders.


So with that, let's begin.


Published by Omocat in 2020, Omori is a cartoon, turn-based combat game that tells a heartfelt story of friendship, loss, and consequences.
Omori has two sides to its story. One side focuses on fun and youthful themes, painting the world in a colorful, almost childlike manner. Meanwhile, the other side is dark, touching on sensitive subjects such as depression, loss, and suicide.
Both sides are unique in their own way. They allow the game to swing between moods whenever it needs to further the plot, while also maintaining the player's interest and immersion.
By the end of the game, I was surprised to see just how well both sides of the narrative were able to combine to make such a fantastic game.
There have been other games that have tried a similar approach to storytelling, Kingdom Hearts being an example with it's dark, emo-anime story, which is told utilizing the fun and mesmerizing Disney universe.

Before I go any further, I just need to say that I adore this game. I believe with the Earthbound graphics, combined with an incredible balance of the game's mechanics, Omori is a game most turn-based, role playing games strive to be.
Each of the game's characters, bosses, music pieces, and game areas feel like they're meant to be where they are in the game. If there happens to be something out of place in the game, it makes a joke out of it through the characters or NPC's. The game is self-aware enough that it can be enjoyable purely for that, while also having a fun, turn-based game behind all of it.

But, the main thing I find really cool is that it's entirely up to you on how the story will play out.

The story revolves around Omori, a young boy who goes on an adventure with his three friends: Aubrey, Hero and Kel, to save their mutual friend, Basil. Guided by Omori's older sister, Mari, the four explore the many lands of White Space, a dream world Omori lives in while his actual self, Sunny, lies asleep in the real world. The whole objective of the game is to find Basil in White Space before four days end, which by the fourth day, Sunny will wake up and move out of town with his mom, leaving White Space and his friends behind.
The game is divided into two sections: the dream world portion and the real world portion. White Space is where most of the story and exploration takes place, while the real world is mostly used as a transition segment to develop certain relationships and characters. Both worlds have their own purposes, with quests and items hidden in them that evermore reflect the present, childlike nature of the game. And they blend well enough together, allowing the story to not feel broken whenever your shifting between playing as Omori and Sunny.
Despite the childish appearance the game has, there are dark undertones throughout the game. Even more, the contrast in tone between White Space and the real world almost acts as a duel narrative to the same story, which I personally love. It's clever to have Omori and his friends incredibly close when you play in White Space, and then have their actual selves despise one another in the real world.
It just nails home that White Space, even though it feels real, is simply just the imaginative creation of Sunny, which contrasts the real world in every way. Having the game be designed this way, I thought it was a great way to show the player just how much depth each character had to them, which is incredibly hard to pull off in writing.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers in this review. I truly think the best way to experience the game is if you go in blind. So please, forgive me if I can't speak on a lot of what this game has to offer. Nonetheless, take it on good faith the game is worth your time, even if it's only for the story.

Aside from the story and characters, the game's art design is fantastic. Throughout the game, you're constantly introduced to new designs, colors, and patterns. Each game area has a different design and theme around it, making each section unique from its connected counterparts. I genuinely loved seeing all the explorable areas in White Space. They were different from each other, yet connected, so you could move and explore through all of them in any order you wanted to.
Being able to go from a junkyard on the moon to an underwater casino is insane, and I love it. It truly felt like a dream space, where movement doesn't make any sense, and the plot progression from place to place feels disconnected.
The animations are also spot-on. I personally love all the boss designs and their animations in the game, mostly because they add a level of fun and immersion to the combat. When you do your ultimate attack, it plays this fun little animation before absolutely decimating the mob. When you're characters are hit, their little portraits wince and change emotions. It's really cool how many little details are in the game, especially in the combat encounters.

Speaking of the combat; this is really my one and only complaint, it's pretty stale. Playing Omori, you're pretty much just spamming the same attack moves fifty times over until the mob dies.

I wish I could say the combat is great, because the game excels at pretty much everything else. But I can't - the combat is just meh. And that's the problem with turn-based combat games: it's really hard to make combat different from other games in the genre, because there are only a few formulas you can pull from that actually work and are enjoyable for the player to use.
The combat's still good, mind you - just not original, which is what I was looking for after seeing everything else the game offered in regards to mechanics and gameplay.

For the main roles in your party, you have your usual setup: a support class, strength class, specialty class, and of course, the main character, you.
You can change out weapons, skills and outfits for better ones outside of combat, which will give you better attack strength and defense. During combat, you can use items to regain health and mana, and, if you develop your support class enough, they can receive an ability to replenish those two stats.
There's also an emotion mechanic to combat, where mobs or your party members can get angry, happy, or sad, which will have effect how much damage they deal and receive.

For the most part, the combat is pretty fun, just not anything revolutionizing. I liked the idea of the emotion mechanic, but it's so easily avoidable, because they give you items to neutralize mobs or players that have one. 
It's kind of a bummer, but oh well. You can't have everything, and I'm just glad Omocat tried to do something new rather than try to copy something else.

Moving on from the combat, I just want to talk about the music. I cannot reiterate just how many songs on this soundtrack are absolutely amazing, with "Duet" being by-far my favorite one. There are some that are sad, and some soothing ones that make you want to relax. There are songs on the soundtrack that make you want to dance to, and then are ones that are just demented for no reason whatsoever.

It's great the amount of range and impact the music has in this game, especially the last few tracks. I'm telling you guys, those tracks? Absolute tear-jerkers when they're paired with the game's cutscenes and animations.

I don't want to spoil more of the story, so I won't say anything else about it, other than it can be a great, heartfelt story, or an incredibly dark one.
I mentioned earlier the story can play out the way you want it to, and that's true to some extent. Based on your actions, the world can either deteriorate or re-grow. The same thing can happen to your relationships throughout the game, and I argue effecting the dynamic between your friends changes the world a lot more than interacting with the world itself. It's really cool the developers added in this effect-mechanic, because I always love seeing them in games. Spec Ops: The Line, Doki Doki Literature Club, Detroit: Become Human, Undertale; there are some amazing games that have a similar mechanic, so I'm glad I can add Omori to that list.

I wish I could say more about this game, but I do not want to spoil it for any of you. If I continue on at this point, I'd just be repeating myself. So, let me just close out with this: Omori is fantastic, from start to finish. The pacing, the story, the music, the animation; everything was beautifully crafted and combined to make a spectacular experience.
Even after three years, the game is definitely worth experiencing, especially through multiple playthroughs. There are so many things to this game that even I still haven't found, and I implore all of you to check them out.
I cannot recommend getting this game enough if you have the opportunity to purchase and play it yourself. Even if you don't like turn-based, role playing games, I highly recommend playing this one. It's definitely worth your time. You can find this game everywhere. I played on PC using a controller, but it's also available on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and even Mac computers.

Thank you all so much for reading this review, and if you're new to the site, welcome! If you like what you read here, please share the site, I'd love to grow the discussion and hear what all of you think about the games I review.

Thank you all again, and I'll see you in the next one.



I give the piece of toast a 9/10 

Knowing what you want to be in life is always a hard decision to make. It's an even harder decision to make when you're really young. I remember throughout my primary education, I always hated when my teachers asked me the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question.
Being a bullied, obese kid at the time, I didn't dedicate any thought to my future. My efforts went more into blending in with a crowd that didn't want me. I became a people pleaser, which further kept me from thinking about what I really wanted for myself. I didn't need to choose anything, because I constantly had people around deciding for me.
When relatives asked what I was thinking of doing after high school, I would give a half-assed response to pacify them until the next time they asked. It was really sad what I did just to fit in, and it led me into a pretty bad depression.

Thankfully, I had - and still have - a strong support system: my friends and family, who pushed me to finish high school, and motivated me to pursue things I'm passionate about, such as this website and programming. And, to be completely honest, I'm incredibly grateful for it.
At one point, I genuinely didn't see myself being in the position I'm in today. I'm super fortunate to have/had people who care/cared about me, and I'm even more fortunate to have the opportunity to do what I want, such as go to college and pursue my passions.

Going out into the world is terrifying, and not knowing what's going to happen to you, as well as not knowing who you're going to become, just adds another layer of fear to it all. Leaving behind the comfort of your home to make a life of your own is hard, but it's necessary in order for all of us to grow into amazing people.

And that's why I want to talk about one of my favorite games: SABLE.

SABLE is a 2022 indie platform and puzzle game developed by Shedworks, with a large emphasis on exploration and adventure. The game's story revolves around Sable, a young girl who is coming of age, and must leave behind the life she made within her tribe to search the world for a new life she wants to live forever. It's a story about self-discovery told brilliantly through fun and calming gameplay, as well as beautiful and complex world designs inspired by French artist, Jean Giraud's work.
The game goes at any pace you want to go. You can beat it in an hour or two after you finish the tutorial, or you can take your time, getting fully invested into the wonderful world and its characters before returning to your tribe to finish the game.
In a way, Sable's journey across the massive world is also yours to experience and enjoy, and it gives you the proper time you need to make a story of your own before ending the game.

The world has seven distinct regions, each one with its own unique color palette, wildlife, and characters you can interact with. Each region also has its own community campsite, where Sable can rest, craft new masks, interact with people, and customize her hoverbike.
The goal of the game is to collect masks throughout the world, which can be obtained through exploration, collectibles, and character missions. There are only a few mission types the game offers, the main two being exploration and collectible missions. Nonetheless, this lack of variety rarely takes away anything from the game.
The regions are so unique from one another, and the characters that assign missions are so far apart from each other, that you barely notice you're playing the same type of mission for the third or fourth time. All you recognize is the distinct beauty and difference of every region.
And, for a world that looks very barren, there's actually a lot to appreciate and find within all the regions, such as the crashed space ships, random characters and animals, and ancient ruins.

Aside from the aesthetically pleasing artwork and graphics, the soundtrack from Japanese Breakfast is amazing. There are night and day versions of every song on the album, and they're all so pleasing to the ears. I personally consider this game's soundtrack to be one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever. I find it's always nice to put it on and listen to it for absolutely any reason.
To further add to the distinction between the regions, Japanese Breakfast used different instruments for every piece, and they even changed up the tempo and sound design for every day and night track. Just like the game's diverse set of styles, the soundtrack is equally complex and detailed, with each track being different from one another, yet still a wonderful work of art.

I cannot explain in words just how much I love this game. When I do game reviews, I try to find at least one aspect that needs improvement. I feel that criticism is important for anything, because you want the things you love to be the best they can be. Criticism also keeps me neutral during my reviews, allowing me to develop a strong sense of what is fair in a game versus what is broken and needs improvement.

And, for the life of me, I can't find anything about this game that I hated, or thought needed improvement. I enjoyed every minute playing this game, and didn't feel like anything took away from my experience in particular. The music, the designs, the gameplay, the traversal and exploration. Everything was spot-on, and I can't find any reason to tarnish the game besides just being an asshole.

SABLE is a wonderful game, full of great aesthetics, mechanics, and music. It's really hard not to like the game, because every inch of it is created with such pristine detail and care.
The game obviously won't be for everyone, but for those who enjoy a more laid-back game, I highly recommend picking this game up and playing it yourself. You can buy it on Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation if you really want to give it a go.

Thank you all for reading this far, and if you're a newcomer, welcome. I'm super happy you're all here and taking an interest to my reviews. If you liked what you read, please consider sharing my website with your friends. I'd love to see more people come to the website and tell me what they think. After all, I write these reviews to be more of a discussion rather than a persuasion piece.

Anyway, that's all I have for today. Thanks for reading this review, and I'll see you in the next one.



I give the hoverbike a 10/10 

Oh hey! Good to see you again. It's been a while...

Yeah, I'm just doing some spring cleaning on the website. I meant to do it back when, you know, it was actually spring, but better late than never, I guess. There's so much junk in here I've been meaning to clear out and revise.

Like this Silent Hill 2 review. You know, reading it entirely, after all the edits have been made, and after it's been published, I feel it could have been written better.

So, that's why I'm going to re-write this entire review right now. Maybe grab a chair and some snacks if you plan on listening, because this time around, I'm going to try digging a little deeper into why I love this game so much.

Alright, here we go.

Around the start of 2023, I downloaded an emulator on my laptop, and proceeded to play Silent Hill 2 for the first time in years. About two months after starting it, I finished the game, and then I eventually wrote the review. In my old review, I didn't really touch on anything; all I really did was call out a journalist for making a poor article, and then went on an unhinged rant about nothing for 9 more paragraphs. What was I even trying to say? Surely, I could have written my thoughts about the game more cohesively for you all?

Well, I'm not really sure what I was trying to say... like, at all. So, instead of trying to piece my words together, how about I just start off fresh with this: Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic game that touches on multiple themes - from loss and denial, to even more serious themes like depression. It's not everybody's cup of tea, mind you, but it does an incredible job telling an incredible story. Everyone in my family besides my dad and I hates horror, yet they were all invested into the game's story every time I mentioned I was playing it.

Everything about the game has held up wonderfully, even today in 2023. The movement is still fluid and smooth, even though it uses the infamous "tank controls" from the early days of 3D game development. The combat is clunky but satisfying, whether you're using a firearm or a melee weapon. The game may not look pretty now, sure; but, at the time, the game's graphics were superb. Even with the software limitations of the PlayStation 2, Konami's "Team Silent" managed to produce a horror masterpiece. They used numerous, well-known horror mediums, which complimented the game's horrific designs made by lead art director, Masahiro Ito, as well as the beautifully-crafted 3D models and animations made by CGI director, Takayoshi Sato.

But what else about this game makes it so memorable? I admit, it's pretty crazy this game has held up for 22 years. But, also, it's not that big of a surprise to anyone who's played it. Apart from the game's design, Silent Hill 2 was one of my first introductions to horror - the other media being Dead Space. Before, I had no idea a story revolving around the human psyche could be so compelling - and, since it's a horror game, absolutely terrifying. Off the top of my head, another game I feel that tells as good of a narrative as Silent Hill 2 does is Visage, but that game's nowhere near re-playable or memorable as this game. Sure, it's scary, but it's not Silent Hill 2 scary, if that makes any sense.

The game's story is about a widower named James Sunderland. After getting a letter from his late wife, Mary, telling him she's in the town of Silent Hill waiting for him, James heads out to go look for her. As he searches for her throughout the game, he descends into a nightmare, full of terrifying creatures and hellish landscapes. It's only until the very end that he's able to escape this purgatory and move on with his life.

It's a pretty simple horror story told in a complex manner, with a lot of the interactions James has throughout the game appearing fictitious and dream-like to add on to the weirdness of it all. It's not like any of the popular horror media you see now-a-days, the game uses specific horror elements to add to its authenticity. Honestly, that's probably why the Silent Hill fan base is still considered a cult-following, it's a very unique game with an untraditional plot development. It's crazy not a lot of people know about the series today, even though the series has been around for 24 years now, and has had like 20 games published under its name.

I'm serious, this series can contend with Call of Duty by how many games and spinoffs developers have made about it.

But we're not talking about all the games, we're talking Silent Hill 2. And, for the life of me, I can't reiterate just how amazing this game is, even 22 years after its initial release. I understand if you're not a horror person, or if you've never played it because you or your friends never owned a PlayStation. And, to that, I say: shame on you. Piracy is still a thing, and it's called Emulation. So get your eyepatch on and start plundering some download websites for the game files. Trust me, this game is worth playing at 60 frames, and in HD. If you're a scaredy-cat, just have someone play it for you while you watch.



PART 1 - PATH OF NO RETURN

The game opens up with James in a dirty, roadside bathroom checking himself out in the mirror. He runs a hand over his face before letting out a long, tired sigh. He then goes out to view Toluca Lake, while Mary's letter is read in the background. After the letter is finished being read, James inquires about the absurdity of it all. His wife has been dead for three years now, yet he got a letter from her recently saying she's in Silent Hill. What's even crazier, and something James even touches on during his monologue, is that he knows she's dead, but he's going to Silent Hill anyway to see if she's somehow alive.

Already, in the first ten minutes of the game, you come to realize James is depressed about his wife's passing, and he's not only wrestling with denial, but desperation to get her back. As he walks down the path to Silent Hill, you as the player realize the path to the town is incredibly long and drawn out.

A lot of people had, and still have, problems with this segment, but I personally love the symbolism. With only the beginning dialogue as a background to James' character, you realize James is in a terrible mental state, and therefore, he doesn't really care how long he walks, or what he leaves behind to see if Mary's really in Silent Hill. He walks down the long, dirt path, while the exit back to the the known world disappears, almost like the door back to his life has been closed.
Continuing the walk down the road, you start to hear weird and ominous sounds in the nearby shrubs, but it's too foggy to see anything. You can't go back to the car at this point, and you don't have any weapons. So what else can you do besides keep moving forward? It's moments like this one in the game that do a phenomenal job using sound and atmosphere to keep you progressing further into the game. I love when games do things like this. It's a great way to keep the player from lingering too long in game areas. The only other horror game comparison I can think of is Mr. X from Resident Evil 2, a large, intimidating figure that constantly pursues you through the police station, forcing you to move further into the unknown. You hear his footsteps, but you have no idea where he is.

Anyway, once you finally find the end to the dirt path, you're introduced to a woman named Angela, who is found looking at tombstones in a cemetery. During the exchange of dialogue, it's impossible to not notice the body movements, the facial expressions, and the tones both characters have toward one another. Everything about the interaction just adds to the dream-like uncertainty of the game. Just off their conversation, you can't help but feel unsettled. Everything doesn't feel right, and though it's blatantly obvious, it's hard to pin down just why it feels that way.

Nonetheless, after the conversation ends, and a few words of caution from Angela about Silent Hill, James exits through the main gate, and heads down the main road to the town.

Looking at the letter, Mary mentions she is waiting for James in their "special spot", wherever that is. Blindly running forward, James eventually stumbles upon a pool of blood in the street. The pools seems to veer off down a different road, and once followed, James notices a strange figure walk down the road into the fog. Pursuing the figure, James eventually finds himself at the entrance of a tunnel. Upon entering, static from a nearby pocket radio can be heard, which James goes to inspect. As James attempts to get the radio working, the figure appears further in the tunnel, and starts to walk toward James.

This is where you get your first melee weapon: the wooden stick, as well as your first taste of the game's combat. The monster you face is the most common type throughout the game, known as a "Lying Figure". It has no face, and its body is stitched up from the waist-up, making it look like a walking blob of rotting flesh. If anyone has played Silent Hill 2 before, you could theorize this could possibly represent Mary's sickness. She got sick, and therefore was left bedridden, wreathing in pain, and coughing up phlegm and blood. I've always loved how Masahiro Ito used symbolism in all his designs, whether it was for a game area, or for a monster.

Anyway, after dealing with the monster the radio goes silent, and you are allowed to leave the tunnel. Now, If you're a giga-brain gamer like me, you could finally piece together that the radio is a tool to portray danger wherever you are. The louder the static, the closer the enemy is. I love when games do things like this instead of opting out for the easier option of giving you a HUD or map. I feel like subtle mechanics in any game, such as the radio, add to the immersion aspect, and I genuinely love it when I can use them thoroughly throughout the game.

After the monster is killed, James exits the tunnel and gets a message from Mary over the radio. The message is broken, but just enough gets through to point James to the next area of the game: the apartments.



PART 2 - THE GLUTTON, THE INNOCENT, AND THE EXECUTIONER

Making your way down the streets of Silent Hill, you come to find the town is completely desolate. All the shops and houses are closed or abandoned; the roads leading out of town are completely destroyed; and, the town is completely divided, forcing you to find your way around the barricades through ominous alleyways and decrepit buildings. It's an extremely repressive and contorted environment, something that makes you feel unsafe. Because there is no rest area for a good portion of the early game, you're forced you to constantly check your map for orientation, while also keeping an eye on the numerous roaming monsters in the area.
The stark contrast between this place and the real world is really interesting to observe, and it continues to  build a large amount of uneasiness in the player throughout the game. Wherever James is, he's not in the real world anymore, and though everything looks normal, it isn't.

On another note, throughout the game, you'll be moving from one end of the town to another, and there's almost always a puzzle you'll need to solve when doing so. It's pretty degrading when first starting the game, going from one end to the other. It's mainly because Silent Hill is a pretty large town, and it can get tedious to travel around once you've explored what little there is to find. Once you've collected everything, all you're doing is just running around empty space, dodging monsters and such. The exploration can get a little stale.

Speaking of exploration, I noticed this game has a major problem with that aspect.

Silent Hill 2 doesn't give instructions on how to find your next objective. The most it provides is a series of maps, which when found, give you the layout of the area, as well as general regions you can explore to potentially find something. At the start of the game, your map is completely blank; so, when you've made it to the town, the game doesn't give you any clue on what to do next. It's kind of like those trial and error experiments you had to do in science class, but instead of testing to see which trial succeeded, you're testing which street isn't broken and which buildings you can enter.
This whole procedure of running down the roads gets old so quickly, especially because it prevents you from progressing through the story quicker. By the end of that segment, it just felt like worthless padding for more time. I understand a lot of games do this, intentionally or not, but it's still annoying either way.

Aside from running around, at some point in the game, you'll eventually find a broken down trailer parked on a random road. Not only that, but if you look inside, you can find a conveniently placed note that gives you the next step for getting into the apartment complex. It's honestly really funny how you come across the note too, because visiting the trailer is such a vital part of your progression, yet the game does nothing to highlight its significance. I'm serious. It's laughably absurd how superfluous the trailer feels, which sucks, because if you don't find it, you won't be able to continue the game at all.

Anyway, once James finds the trailer, he finds a note inside from one of the town's surviving citizens. The stranger suggested to meet at Neely's Bar, which finally gives James a solution to his aimless wandering. With nothing else to go off of, James makes his way to the bar, which is - like everything else - completely empty. The wood counter is weathered and depleted of beverages, and the windows are covered in papers. If James looks close enough, he's able to find an ominous, and rather morbid, note on the window, as well as another map on the counter, which has a region of interest scribbled on to it over one of the alleyways.
Leaving the bar and heading to the alley, James eventually discovers a corpse surrounded by blood at the end. The corpse looks eerily like James himself, even wearing the same clothes. What's even more creepy is it's holding the apartment gate key in its hand. So, after uncurling the hand and snagging the key, James leaves the scene and finally enters the apartment complex.

Upon entering the front door, on the wall next to James is a map of the building, which reveals three floors of apartments he can explore. Across from the map is a save station, and further ahead is a staircase with a health drink sitting beside it. For most of this segment, you're just going from floor to floor, checking all the rooms and seeing how you can cross the building far enough to bi-pass the street blockades and get to Mary. After entering a few floors, you find your first firearm: the handgun. And shortly after that, you find the pocket flashlight, as well as a new monster.

The new monster is known as a mannequin; they're two legs grafted on to each other from the waist, and they're pretty freaky. Fun fact about the mannequins; apparently, if you don't shine light on them, they'll stay dormant for a longer amount of time before attacking you.

Anyway, they're pretty simple creatures, and are used throughout the game pretty frequently. After James kills the mannequin in the room, he leaves and continues exploring the apartment building, now having to avoid monsters that are now roaming the hallways and hiding in the rooms. Going to the third floor, James manages to spot a key behind a set of iron bars. In an attempt to grab them, James stretches his hands out, when a little girl stomps on his hand and kicks the key away. Stunned and in pain, James attempts to find a way to the other side of the iron bars, but it's hopeless. It doesn't take very long for the situation to go from bad to worse, because as James is looking for a way out, a cry is heard from somewhere in the apartment.

Going to investigate, James walks through the hallways, which are illuminated by his pocket flashlight. As he nears the source of the scream, his radio turns on.

Uh oh... this isn't looking good. Want to know what's even worse? Something is watching James from the end of the hallway. As James nears another set of iron bars, he notices a large, red figure with a metal helm staring at him. This monster is known as "The Executioner", or more commonly known as "Pyramid Head".

Personally, I love Pyramid Head as a concept and monster. As a concept, Pyramid Head is supposed be James' inner guilt and self-punishment manifested into a singular form. As a monster, Pyramid Head is just supposed to be this frightening being. I love how he's specifically James' torturer in the game, which is a stark contrast to what he represents in the movies and some of the later game installments.
Rather than make him a generic demon to represent the town, the developers made him a major figure in the overarching narrative, that being the inner struggle James has with himself. This whole game is about James coming to terms with his wife's passing, so it makes sense the main antagonist of the story is a figure that represents his unhealthy and destructive conscience.

Anyway, back to the game.

James manages to make his way through the apartments, and he even manages to find some keys to complete some puzzles that allow him to traverse a whole new section of the apartment building. After another run in with Pyramid Head, James finds himself in a random room, where he meets a kid named Eddie. Out of all the characters in the game, Eddie is my least favorite. Maybe it's because he's the least developed out of the three or four side characters the game has? I'm not really sure.
What I am sure about, though, is if we're looking at him from a strictly-gameplay perspective, he's alright. He eventually becomes a boss you have to kill later in the game, which is cool - and, personally, I actually like his boss fight quite a bit. But for a character? It's hard for me to give an answer as to why he's there, apart from being a psychotic lunatic who, like James and Angela, is battling his horrible conscience.

After talking with Eddie, James snoops around the apartment building a bit more and eventually finds Angela in a room all alone with a knife. Angela is looking pretty miserable at this point, staring deep into the knife as she responds dismissively to James. After talking her off the preverbal ledge, Angela asks James to take the knife from her, but during his attempt to do so, she freaks out. After realizing what she's done, she apologizes, drops the knife, and runs out of the room, leaving James all alone.
In the room, there's a coin resting on a desk. The coin is important; it's an item James has been trying to find in order to unlock a cabinet. Taking the final coin, then going back and opening the cabinet, James finally has a key to the fire escape stairwell, which will lead him out of the apartment building. Finally finding his exit, James immediately heads off to the stairs, but as he attempts to leave, Pyramid Head intercepts him at the top of the stairs. Trying to flee, James realizes the door he entered through is locked, and now there's no escape. With no other alternative, James fights him.
The fight against Pyramid Head here is just... meh, in my opinion. It's a timed battle, so you can just run around the room for 5 minutes, all the while dodging his attacks. The room is pretty big, so there's no real tension or stress before the battle just abruptly ends. If you want to take some hotshots at Pyramid Head during the fight, the game lets you do that too. When you shoot at Pyramid Head, you'll reduce time on the battle clock. So it can be a shorter battle if you want it to, but at the cost of ammunition. Overall, the fight's pretty easy. Just, you know, avoid the giant monster in the middle of the room, and you'll be fine.

After the fight, Pyramid Head dips, and the stairwell becomes usable. James heads down, finally able to escape the apartments and head to Rosewater Park, where Mary could potentially be waiting for him. Heading down the stairs and out to the main road, James catches the girl who stepped on his hand. She's playing atop a brick wall surrounding the apartment building, having not a care in the world.

The girl's name is Laura, and for a kid, she's kind of a dick. Trying to get some answers out of her, James asks her what she's doing in Silent Hill. After all, there are monsters everywhere in the town, there's no way Laura has been able to avoid them all this time. As a response, she asks if James is blind, practically calling him an idiot.

Words cannot describe how much I hate this kid.

A lot of fans have theorized what Laura's purpose in the game is, and they've also tried theorizing why she can't see any of the monsters. Aside from knowing Mary, there's no real reason she should be here - it's simple as that. And as for why she thinks James is nuts for believing in monsters, fans have proposed it's because of her childhood innocence. Because she hasn't done anything wrong in her life, fans believe she's protected by the town, therefore nothing can hurt her. I'm not really sure what to believe in when it comes to Laura's existence, all I know is the kid bugs the hell out of me.

Anyway, after trying to continue the conversation, Laura cuts James' off by running away away, telling James he never really loved Mary anyway. James, surprised she knew Mary, attempts to chase down Laura in search for answers. Unfortunately, it goes nowhere, and James is left outside Rosewater Park's main entrance alone.
At first glance, the place seems completely empty. It's not until James takes a walk along the pier that he sees a woman standing by a telescope stand, looking out to the lake. James, assuming it's Mary, runs up and greets her, but he's met with disbelief as the girl turns around, and is someone else entirely.

This character is Maria, an augmented version of Mary. She's an interesting character in the game. She can change what ending you get for the game depending on how much time you spend with her, and her design appears more sexual and flirtatious, which contrasts Mary's more conservative appearance and attitude. I like how the directors made Maria rather than another Mary to torture James. She's a physical being that constantly reminds James of  deep-rooted trauma of losing his wife. Even though he thinks it's Mary, and no matter how hard he believes it, Maria just isn't her. It's like the town gave him Mary; but, at the same time, not at all. It's like the town is constantly taking her away to remind him just how alone and broken he is without her.

After meeting Maria, James partners up with her and decides to head toward another part of town to look for Mary. As they walk along the road, James and Maria stop outside a bowling alley. James heads in to see if anyone's there, while Maria decides to stay outside.
Upon entering the place, you get a cutscene with Laura and Eddie talking at one of the lane tables. Laura is making fun of Eddie because of his obese stature and voracious appetite, while Eddie just continues eating a stack of pizzas. When James enters the bowling alley to talk with them, Laura leaves. As James tries to get Eddie to help him chase after Laura, Eddie doesn't care and continues eating.
Irritated, James leaves Eddie alone and chases after Laura with Maria. They manage to keep on her for some time before losing her in an alleyway. Trying not to get too far behind, Maria and James take a detour through a gentleman's club.

Just a quick fun fact about this segment, if you look closely at the ads in the bathrooms, you can find that Maria has previously worked there as a dancer. I love when game developers add those little details players can find if they're determined enough.

Unfortunately, James and Maria end up losing Laura, but they run so far after her that they're able to track her down to the Silent Hill Hospital.



PART 3 - GET WELL SOON

The hospital, aside from the prison, is probably my favorite segment of the entire game. Hospitals have always been a cool concept for scary stories, they're a great place to use in any horror media. A lot of games I enjoy usually have a segment in a hospital, such as the medical bay chapters in Dead Space, the asylum in Outlast, and even the psychiatric ward in one of Visage's chapters. As both characters find their way through the hospital, James manages to find some door keys, as well as a shotgun to make his way through the first few rooms of the hospital. It isn't long before Maria starts to get really sick, though, and she is forced to look for a place to rest. James eventually finds an empty patient room and lies Maria down. After getting Maria settled, James heads back out to find Laura.
At this point in the game, James decides to head up to the roof of the hospital. On the rooftop, he's is able to find a note from a suicide victim found on the ground. After inspecting it, there's nothing else to find. Given this, James decides to head back down into the Pyramid Head rounds the corner, cutting James off from the exit.
Thrown over the edge, James falls and lands in the special treatment room on the third floor. Getting up and exploring, James eventually finds materials to fish an elevator key out from a shower drain. After taking the elevator down to the first floor patient wing, James finally runs into Laura again, who's playing with dolls in one of the rooms. Convincing her to come out, James finally gets her to stick with him.
It's not for long, though, because Laura panics and gets James to help her find a letter from Mary somewhere in the hospital. Unfortunately, it's a trick, and Laura locks James in the room. Losing his temper, James shouts at Laura to let him out, but she won't. James' attitude quickly turns from anger to fear, however, as he soon realizes that he's locked in the room with a hideous monster.

This boss is known as "Flesh Lips", and is actually pretty intense. The boss is divided into three figures that hang from the ceiling. To attack, they float toward James, and if you're not careful, James will be picked up and strangled. As James in this battle, you have to carefully move around the small room and take shots at the creature using whatever ammunition you have. Eventually, after enough shots, the boss will die, and James will pass out.

Waking up in the garden, James quickly returns to his senses and heads back to Maria. As he's traveling through the hospital again, Maria finds him first, and scolds him for leaving her behind. Now together, both of them look for an exit out of the hospital. As they look around, however, they find the hospital's different. During this segment, anyone who knows anything about Silent Hill will know that this is the otherworld, a nightmare version of the real world that effects the human world as well. Later in the game series, the otherworld is more compared more to a spiritual realm, so we'll just classify it as that for now.

James and Maria make their way through the nightmare hospital and eventually find an escape route through the hospital's basement. As they head toward the end of a maze-like set of corridors, Pyramid Head appears behind them and takes chase. James and Maria sprint to the elevator, but there's a problem. James gets in the elevator, but the door closes behind him, trapping Maria with Pyramid Head.
Trying desperately to get the door open, James starts to panic as Maria starts screaming for help. James struggles, but it's too late; Pyramid Head catches up with Maria and stabs her in the back. The doors close, leaving Maria and Pyramid behind, and James traumatized by the death he just witnessed.

Walking back to the park, it's nighttime, and having nowhere else to go but forward, James starts searching for clues. Walking around Rosewater Park, James eventually finds his next step: going to the Silent Hill Historical Society.

Before going to the museum, it's at this point in the game you can go explore previous segments. I personally recommend doing it. There are a couple changes to the area that have been made, so it's always nice to see how much they differ from when you were last there. The main one I want to mention is the tunnel where you first fought a creature. When you go back, instead of there being an accessway, the entire area has been sealed off by police tape. This is pretty cool because it's painting James' self defense as a crime scene.
In a way, it plants the thought in your head that maybe the monster was just an illusion, and maybe James really did kill an innocent stranger. This pairs well with the fact that, if you watch carefully, the monster at the beginning of the game doesn't attack you in the tunnel. I find it really interesting how the town changes based on James' interactions with it, because then it gets you to start second-guessing your actions, as well as the morality of what James is doing.

Anyway, when you get back to the main story, James makes it to the museum and finds a giant hole in the ground. Jumping in, James finds himself at the bottom of the well, which he can destroy to enter the prison cafeteria.



PART 4 - LIFE SENTENCE

James enters the prison cafeteria and finds Eddie holding a revolver and sitting next to a dead body. When James asks him what happened, Eddie tries playing it off like the man asked to be killed. He then followed it up with saying that he deserved it. You can tell that Eddie is starting to lose it, as well as show his true colors as a psychopath. After Eddie leaves, James collects a slab that's going to be used for a later puzzle.

The entire prison is extremely unsettling. When it comes to sound design for the game, there is no contest against this segment. The dynamic use of sound and silence between the rooms in the prison is amazing. The right amount of audible sound is always given, no matter what room you enter, The sounds are mechanical and demonic, and are mostly found throughout the prison. In contrast, the silence is nearly deafening in certain rooms, adding another layer of fear and uneasiness to the player as they're forced to continue onward.
This part of the game also focuses more on monsters and combat, so there are a lot more jump-scares and encounters James has to go through, all the while completing puzzles to find an escape. One thing about this segment that I didn't notice my last time around is that this place has so many holes. Compared to the rest of the game, it's like every other room has a hole in it that you need to jump into while exploring the prison.

After jumping down all the holes and completing all the puzzles, James eventually makes it to a cell. To James' and the player's surprise, Maria's sitting alive and well inside it. When James asks how she's alive, Maria calls him silly, stating he's never been good with remembering things. She then brings up a video tape James recorded that got left behind at the Lakeview Hotel. Confused on how she knows about this personal memory, James asks her if she really is Mary.
This goes nowhere, only solidifying that Maria is just another way for the town to torture James, but it's still interesting nonetheless.

Determined to get Maria out, James immediately sets off to unlock her cell. After navigating through a portion of the maze, James hears Angela crying from another room. As he opens it, he finds Angela tucked away in fear in the corner of the room, while a repulsive, flesh-beast hovers over her. This boss is known as Abstract Daddy, and it's meant to represent Angela's trauma caused by the terrible acts from her abusive father. After James kills it, Angela pulls a complete 180, scolding James and accusing him of murdering his wife. As she leaves, James stands in the room dumbfounded, wondering why Angela would think he murdered Mary.

Anyways, after the boss, James leaves the room to continue exploring. Once James is able to solve a couple more puzzles and navigate the maze-like prison, he's finally able to rescue Maria. However, it's too late. As James enters the room, Maria is found lying on the bed dead, covered in blood. This could be another way the town messes with James; it gives him Maria, an augmented version of his late wife, then kills her in a similar fashion to how Mary died. However you want to interpret her death, it leaves James utterly destitute. Seeing no other reason to stick around, James locates the exit. As he's leaving, he's forced down an incredibly long staircase, and into a freezer, where Eddie's waiting for him.

When James enters the freezer, Eddie is found standing with a gun over two dead bodies. By this point, he's gone completely mad, admitting to James that he murdered people and a dog for. As Eddie's being told calm him down, he starts gunning for James, arguing he is just like all the others that have been killed. This starts Eddie's boss battle, and by the end of it, Eddie dies and James is left with the trauma of killing a human. Not wanting to be around Eddie anymore, James leaves and arrives at the prison's dock. Taking a rowboat, he makes his way to Lakeview Hotel, the final portion of the game.



PART 5 - IN MY RESTLESS DREAMS

James docks at the hotel's port and walks up to the front doors. Entering, he's greeted with a map of the place, with a note over the room 312 saying: "Waiting for you". While you explore the hotel at this point, you'll find that it looks clean and kept. Unlike all the other places, the hotel doesn't have any monsters, and actually looks pretty nice, like people still visit the hotel and perform upkeep for it.

As James is exploring a dining room, a familiar face scares him from behind the piano. It's Laura again, the little bastard, back at it to find Mary. At this point in the game, Laura is actually super cooperative, giving James a letter written by Mary, and even running away to go try and find her. James reads the note from Mary and realizes it's addressed to Laura. In the note, James finds out that Laura is only eight years old, and knows Mary because they were hospital buddies, taken care of by the same nurse. This entire letter calls reality into question. If the letter was written when Mary was still in the hospital, and Laura's 8th birthday was last week, then there is no possible way Mary could have died three years ago, right?
This realization confuses the hell out of James, and it even allows the player to start asking questions of their own.

As James leaves the dining room, he continues on through the hotel, searching all the rooms and even going to different floors to eventually get the video tape Maria mentioned in the prison. After getting the tape, and also finishing a few puzzles, James finally gets the key to room 312. Entering the room, James finds a VHS player and a TV. Seeing no other option, James puts in the tape and watches its contents.

The video shows Mary lying in bed, sick and not looking too well. All of a sudden, James comes into frame, and kisses her on the head. After this act, James violently puts a pillow to her face and strangles her to death.
At the time, this was considered a crazy plot-twist, and I still consider it to be a massive one even today. Up until this point during my playthroughs, I always find myself cheering for James, hoping he'll be able to win in the end. However, after watching the tape, it's hard to see James as a hero, or anything other than a monster for that matter.

As James sits on the couch, completely broken by what he just witnessed, along comes Laura, asking him if he's found Mary yet. James breaks the unfortunate news to her, which sets her off, telling James how horrible he is and that he needs to give her back that instant. After a few minutes of Laura screaming into his ear, she walks out of the room, leaving James to contemplate with his buried trauma and actions. A few more minutes pass by before James stands and leaves. When he exits the room, he finds the hotel to now be weathered and decayed. As he attempts to find an exit, he enters a stairwell and happens to find Angela, who is surrounded by fire.

It's at this point that Angela has also lost it, and has given up her search for acceptance and resolution. As James tries to talk her out of going further up the stairs, it's no use. Shortly after his entrance, James watches as Angela is slowly engulfed in flames, becoming yet another victim of the town.

Exiting the stairwell, James heads down some hallways and enters a large room. Above him on the opposite ends lies Maria, strapped to a contraption and surrounded by two Pyramid Heads. As James attempts to get the Pyramid Heads to leave, they don't listen, and execute Maria in front of James again. Seeing Maria die for the third time became the final straw, leading James to accept his actions and faults, and finally challenge the two Pyramid Heads to a battle.

The battle is pretty easy, all you have to do is run along the outside of the room and take some shots at the Pyramid Heads with whatever you have in your inventory. After enough shots, the two Pyramid Heads walk to the center of the room and kill themselves, signifying that James has accepted reality, and therefore, they don't need to punish him anymore.
In each hand of the Pyramid Heads is a colored egg, which is sued to unlock the doors leading out of the hotel. As James exits the room, he eventually makes his way up to a rainy platform, where Maria is waiting for him, and disguised as Mary.

As James tells her he's come to terms with Mary's passing, as well as the nature of it, Maria looses her mind and transforms into the final boss. The final boss is basically a re-design of Flesh Lips' boss fight, where you have to run around the room shooting at a floating bed that "Mary" is attached to. Once you shoot her enough times, you can land the final blow, and the battle is over.

After the battle, the player is given a certain ending to watch depending on how they played the game. There are five or six endings, the one I got was called "Leaving", which I personally think is the best one.

In the "Leaving" ending, James and Mary are sitting in a hotel room after the battle, with Mary lying in bed while James is sitting beside her in a chair. When she asks him why he killed her, he tells her the truth: that he wanted his old life back, and she was in the way. Even though it's a selfish and painful truth, James can't help but feel regret and sadness. Mary even points out that he's sad, even though he told the truth to her.
Before she dies, she tells James to live for himself now, and gives him one final letter. The ending shows an overlook of the cemetery, while James and Laura walk off back to the real world, free from Silent Hill at last. The letter is read by Mary's voice actor in the background, and it's an absolute tear-jerker of a letter. After everything you experienced as James, the kind and caring words of Mary in this final letter hit you like a truck, and can't help but hope James manages to live a better life as he returns to the real world.



CLOSING THOUGHTS

Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and for good reason. The passion that was clearly put into making every part of this game is something you rarely find in the gaming industry, especially today. From the story, to the designs, to the sound; everything was absolutely fantastic. Obviously, this game has its flaws, but it does an incredible job covering them up and preventing them from taking away from your experience. I even found the more I play this game, the more I enjoy it. I also found that I enjoy the multiple endings simply because they can make so many dynamic playstyles, which you can choose to use.

Silent Hill 2 is not for everyone, but it's something everyone should experience at least once in their life. The game can be emulated on PC, there's a really nice PC version out there that, I say, is the best way to experience the game. The other way to play this game is to just get a PlayStation and buy a copy of it for the PlayStation 2. I would recommend the HD collection, but it's so bad that I wouldn't want to force anyone to play that version.

Sorry this review was so long. I've been thinking about making a YouTube channel recently, mainly because deep analysis reviews like this one take forever to write, and can possibly be a chore to read as the audience. Nonetheless, I thank you so much for reading all of this, it means a lot to me. Hopefully, I did the game justice through this review, because I genuinely care about this game a lot, and I'd hate to see my review turn people away before they give it a chance.
If I have convinced you, I'd love to hear what you think of the game. You can always contact me through my social media, found on the "About Me" page on this website, and tell me about your experience. If not, hey, thanks for still reading my reviews and checking out the game.



I give the health drink a 10/10 

The video game industry is pretty neat. You have all these companies pumping out games left-and-right to be consumed by the masses. I think that's amazing, especially since the majority of these games look, sound, and play amazingly!
When I think of this industry, I relate it to eating food. You see, buying video games is similar to eating at a buffet; there's an assortment of foods - or in this case, video games - that you can peruse and consume until you're satisfied. Some of the marketed goods can be enjoyable, others can be bad, and there are the few that are just "okay".

And that's what I want to talk about. See, I just got done playing Persona 5: Royal. It's a 2019 JRPG made by ATLUS, a Japanese game-developing company responsible for the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona video games. Now, I'm not new to the RPG/JRPG genre. I've played Dark Souls, The Elder Scrolls, Hyperdimension Neptunia; I've played quite a bit of games that belong in this category.

That being said, I only enjoy a very small amount once I play them. There are a lot of reasons for this, but for simplicity-sake, the main problems I find these games have revolve around balancing issues, character development, and story-pacing. And, unfortunately, Persona 5: Royal is victim to these same problems.

So, with that, is Persona 5: Royal worth playing? Well, let's take a look.



- Persona 5: Royale, A Confused Game -

Persona 5: Royal follows you, a character nicknamed "Joker", that has been falsely deemed a criminal and sent on probation to another city in Japan. While you're in this city, everyone assumes you are trouble, and you continue your academic career and private life as an outcast. It's not until you meet the other characters in the game that you find friends, and eventually start a new life as a "Phantom Thief". As a Phantom Thief, you go into a cognitive world and change the hearts of corrupt people who are hurting others or taking advantage of people in the real world. As time goes on, you meet more people - who become your friends - and change the hearts of more influential and powerful people. By the end of the game, you have solidified your place as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, and you make the world a better place.

The first thing I noticed about the game was its design and music choice. Overall, they both stay pretty consistent in quality throughout the game. Persona 5: Royal is visually appealing in a lot of ways, and the soundtrack is absolutely terrific. Fighting, exploration, and dungeon-mapping are all well done too. Each dungeon - or "palace" - in the game is different from the others, which adds to the already diverse palette of colors and design choices the game already has. It's safe to say this game knocked these portions out of the park, which really helped itself in the long run. Even though the story would get boring in some places, the art and music kept me invested in the game.

The time it took for me to complete the game, from start to finish, clocked in at around 86 hours. It's a pretty lengthy game, with a lot of things inside to keep the gameplay new and exciting, as well as the player immersed. I genuinely loved how dynamic I could be when playing this game. There's tons of stuff one can do playing, but, with that, there are some drawbacks.

The game delivers a large amount of mechanics and options for the player to use end enjoy; it's to the point where it feels like there's too much, especially with the day/night mechanic the game gives you. You can go to school, hang out with friends, build relationships, buy items, work out, meditate; the list goes on. But, since there is so little time to complete all of these activities, the game can feel pretty overwhelming. Generally, you can do up to two activities throughout each day of the week before the day ends and a new one begins. For six of the seven days, you have to go to school and answer questions and take exams. When exams start, the exam days take an entire day, therefore rendering you from doing anything else.

Giving the player all these activities, but not allotting them proper time to truly enjoy and experience them, is something this game constantly does, and it's infuriating. This game's world is so incredibly detailed, but since the day/night cycle is so strict, you can't really gain any enjoyment out of anything. It almost feels as if the game is rushing you through itself just so you can start the next dungeon.
What's worse is completing more of the game grants you access to more areas you can explore and side missions you can complete. But, since the game doesn't provide any extra time to actually experience them, you usually have to skip over it. At the end of the game, you feel a lot of what you started and explored is still incomplete. Maybe this was meant to encourage second playthroughs, but I personally don't think the game is worth another 86 hours just to see what I missed.

What adds more salt to the wound are the characters. Out of the 30 or-so characters this game introduces you to, I only enjoyed close to 10 of them. That means nearly two-thirds of the cast I had to constantly interact with annoyed me and took me out of the game. A lot of RPG's tend to have this problem when it comes to voice acting and dialogue. Overall, this game's voice acting was just alright and the dialogue was the same. At some points in the story, there was too much being said or done, while at other points, nothing was happening and the game got boring.

Don't get me wrong, the game's story has a lot of strong moments to pull you back in, and the characters you enjoy interacting with are still there. But, for the most part, the previous persona games did a better job developing their characters and their stories. When I got nearly three-quarters into the game, I felt as if the story dipped in quality. The ending was fine, but that last quarter of the game took me out of the experience a lot. I liked everything the game had leading up to that point, so it was really weird seeing ATLUS figuratively "fumble the ball" on something they've done well at before: making a good story and a supporting cast.

I know it sounds like I'm trashing the game and saying I didn't like it, but that's not the case. Overall the game was great. The art, music, combat, and exploration were all really enjoyable and satisfying. I loved upgrading my equipment and finding new items to strengthen my characters and their personas. In the open world, you can develop relationships that allow you to use new strategies when you enter dungeons and fight mobs. When I fought tougher enemies, the game became strategic and tense. And after defeating them, the rewards I received from those battles always felt earned and fair. Even during boss fights where I was clearly under-leveled, the game was balanced enough to where I still stood a chance at winning.

You're probable thinking: "But Sam, you just said this game has balancing issues. Why are you contradicting yourself?"
True, I did say that, and it's still prevalent in the game. The mid-game boss is a great example of this issue.

The mid-game boss has seven phases you need to fight through before ultimately defeating them, each phase harder than the last. Adding on, you need to defeat these seven phases within thirty minutes. The phases are composed of four enemies that can attack, defend, and even run away if you spend too many rounds fighting them. If they run away, you need to restart the phase with four of the same mobs, but now they have full health again. To say it was challenging would be an understatement. This was definitely a breaking moment for me when playing the game, because it wasn't that the boss was hard, it was the parameters that you had to fight them with that made it difficult. After 20 deaths against the boss, I nearly gave up, until I looked up a guide and managed to find a strategy that worked best for me.

After defeating the boss and moving to the next dungeon, I found that the game never really recovered from that improper balancing. Every mob and boss you fight from then on required you to spend almost half an hour exchanging blows until either you or the enemy died. At the very end of the game, you need to complete a boss rush before taking on the final boss. If you're not careful, or if you're under-leveled, this entire segment can be a pain to get  through. And even if you are at a good enough level to fight the bosses, you still have to sit there dealing damage for more than 20 minutes. That probably wasn't a problem for some, but it was for me.



- Closing Thoughts -

Persona 5: Royal is a hard game to review. On one hand, I commemorate this game for being one of the most aesthetically pleasing games I have played in quite some time. Given its size and detail, this game did an incredible job allowing the player to interact with everything in the world.

On the other hand, the game constantly went against itself and set mechanics in place that took away from the overall enjoyment. Whether it was a poorly-balanced boss, strict time cycle, or boring story beats, it seems as while the game was excelling in some places, it was also severely lacking in others.

Overall, I would recommend playing through it at least once. It's still a game worth sitting down and spending time playing. You can get it on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Nintendo Switch if you want to give it a shot. But, after beating it once, I can say that I don't want to go back and play it again.



I give Jack Frost a solid 7/10 

The Silent Hill franchise has been near-and-dear to my heart for a pretty long time. I think the storytelling done through each game's design - or theme - is probably some of the best I have had the privilege to experience in any horror game I have ever played.  Each game in the franchise, whether they were good or bad, is distinctly unique from one another. So, though the setting is the same, you're playing a new story; it's like the games are always foreign, yet familiar to fans of the series, and I love that.

So, why in the hell am I talking so much about Silent Hill? Well, it's because just got done playing a game directly inspired by that franchise.

The game is called Lost in Vivo. It's a 2018 indie, first-person horror game created by the developing team, KIRA. If that name sounds familiar, it's because KIRA is partnered with LAG Studios, who is responsible for making Spooky's House of Jumpscares, which is another game I've reviewed.

But we're not talking about Spooky, we're talking about Lost in Vivo, which is an amazing game in its own right. But, because the game was so heavily inspired by the Silent Hill franchise, it almost feels as if you're playing a different version of the first Silent Hill.

So, is it really worth my time to thoroughly review this game for what it is, or should I just tell you to go and play the Silent Hill games? Well, I don't really know. I wasted over 7 hours playing this game, so I obviously would want to tell you all how good it is. But, at the same time, the Silent Hill games are amazing, and I want to recommend you play those as well.

Well... screw it. I can't find a way to properly Segway this into my next segment, so let's just get on with talking about Lost in Vivo.


-- Lost in Vito: The Perfect Re-Telling of an Old Story --

In 1999, Konami released Silent Hill as a survival-horror title on the original PlayStation console. The story of Silent Hill revolves around Harry Mason, a father to his adopted daughter, Cheryl, who is making his way with her to Silent Hill for vacation. After barely missing a girl in the road, Harry is knocked unconscious and crashes. When he wakes up, he finds that Cheryl is missing, and that prompts him to start looking for her in the foggy, abandoned town of Silent Hill. As the game unfolds, Harry finds the town is infested with monsters, and also has a connection to a place called the "Otherworld". The Otherworld is basically a type of purgatory, and it preys on Harry as he looks for his daughter. The plot gets a lot more convoluted than this as the game progresses, so for simplicity-sake, let's just leave it at that: you're a father, looking for his daughter, in a town with monsters manifested to reflect your biggest fears and guilts.

Now, let's talk about Lost in Vivo's story.

You start off with dialogue between two people; one seems to be a therapist, while the other is you. The doctor explains there is a new treatment option for PTSD called "In Vivo", and recommends you check it out.

After these lines of dialogue are traded, you find yourself walking your emotional support dog down the road. As you're walking, a rainstorm appears, and washes your dog down the sewer. Attempting to save them, you quickly find a nearby manhole, and crawl down into the sewer to rescue your dog. As you go further and further into the sewers, the environment changes around you into a gross, hellish landscape, with eerie music and terrifying monsters lurking about, waiting for you.

So, take a look at both stories. You are a character trying to find something of value, and you need to fight manifestations of your fears and guilts not only to become stronger, but to also get closer to finding your kid - or, in Lost in Vivo's case, your dog. It's a very simple story, told effectively not only in Silent Hill, but also in Lost in Vivo.

Despite being an ordinary search-and-rescue plot, if you look hard enough, you find each story touches on some really harsh topics. In Lost in Vivo's case, the main character suffers from a lot of trauma. The story isn't told to you directly, obviously, so you have to go and find logs hidden throughout the game to find the deeper meaning of what you're seeing. If you do this, you find out the main character of Lost in Vivo suffers from a form of anorexia and has a terrible image of herself. Because of this, you also find she invested in a poor relationship, and later had - and aborted - a baby she never wanted for herself. It's a very depressing story, to say the least, but the way it's told, and the way the game goes about you fixing that trauma and hurt allows for a fulfilling horror experience.

And that's what I loved specifically about this game. Since the real story and reasoning behind the game's design is hidden, every player has their own personal experience. One player could have just experienced the game as a rescue mission to save their dog, and they needed to fight through hell in order to do so. Meanwhile, another player, like myself, could have experienced a story of healing, and the dog was just a tool used to start the process for the main character. I think that is fantastic storytelling, with the support of some amazing use of creepy set pieces, monsters and music.


-- The Good and the Bad --

Lost in Vivo is really good, despite being heavily influenced by Silent Hill. The game takes on a graphic design similar to one you would have seen in games from the 90's and early 2000's. Not only that, but the audio and visual elements of the game are well made, and add to the games terrifying and tense gameplay.

The re-introduction of transition screens when you go from room to room add a sense of uneasiness, because now, you have to wait to see what's on the other side of the door. Adding on, the cramped corridors and hallways you need to walk through also are unnerving, as now you're paths of movement are limited to either forwards or backwards. The game never pushed a specific aspect or mechanic, but rather used multiple and balanced them to make a terrifying experience that left me wanting more.

As for the bad, there's nothing really bad to say about this game. I loved every single second of playing it, and am thinking of going back to play it again.


-- Final Thoughts --

Overall, Lost in Vivo is an incredible game. Inspired by my favorite franchise ever, Lost In Vivo perfectly delivers an old-school, first-person,  survival horror experience that will make you play on the edge of your seat. For all my people that love horror, I cannot recommend playing this game enough. You can buy this game on Steam for $12.00, and it's a great investment.

Anyway, thank you all so much for reading, and I'll see you in the next review.

I give the purple cat a 10/10

The publisher, Raw Fury, has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. For those of you who don't know, Raw Fury is the company who published my two personal favorites: Kingdom Two Crowns and Dome Keeper. I've reviewed Kingdom Two Crowns before, and there will definitely be a review on Dome Keeper in the future. But they're not what I want to talk about today. Instead, I would like to introduce you all to another game Raw Fury published called: Bad North.

Bad North is a 2018 roguelite developed by Plausible Concept and Oskar Stålberg. It's a real time strategy game that puts the player in tower-defense scenarios throughout its campaign. The goal of the game is to rally an army and defend islands from viking units, which arrive on boats. Each campaign randomly generates about 50-80 islands to defend, each with new units or items the player can use to strengthen their army. If an island is successfully defended, the houses on the island will provide the player with a set number of coins, which can be used to strengthen units and give them unique skills depending on their class.

The game is set with an easy, normal, and hard difficulty. I chose to play all three to see how the game differed in strategy, tension, and - obviously - difficulty. During my playthroughs, I found the speed at which the enemy boats arrive, as well as the number of units on each boat, increase significantly the harder the difficulty you choose. This not only led me to alter my strategies, but also taught me to invest in class skills and better equipment for a specific set of units rather than equally distribute upgrades among all my units.

Furthermore, I also found the strength and health of each enemy also increased as I upped the difficulty. This not only taught me to protect my units, but to also form them in certain patterns along the shoreline in order to deal maximum damage.

In short, it's fair to say the game does a nice job balancing its enemy's strength, health and speed with each difficulty.

I personally recommend playing the game on hard. Don't get me wrong, the normal and easy modes are fine, but they give you a lot of checkpoint islands, whereas hard only gives you one at the halfway point. Because of this, there's a larger sense of high-risk, high reward on the hard difficulty, so it feels as if you have to do your best in each battle. Not only that, but hard also forces you to develop your strategies and teaches you to be resourceful with your funds, which will feel rewarding after you successfully defend an island with units you carefully created. It's kind of like getting a pat on the back, because it shows the investments you made were good ones.

There are multiple mob types throughout the game, each one being more difficult to defend against than the last. In addition to this, you have a variety of set pieces used for the islands. Some islands may be flat with walls set up, and others may be islands with mountains, valleys, and tunnel systems. The complexity of each island varied from the others, and I personally enjoyed seeing the dynamic array of island designs, as it would often force me to alter my strategies and deployable units.

Another thing I also enjoyed was the subtle detail of the islands. Each island would have certain spaces that had little designs to them. Some islands would include cemeteries, others would have ponds, and some would have archipelagoes or cliff faces to them. This diversified the game in a good way, as it made me feel that every island was unique, and fighting wasn't going to be the same for each one. It also made me want to explore more of the game once I was capable to defend multiple islands in one turn, not just beeline it straight to the final island. 

Overall, the game is a very simple, but fun strategy game. Even though the game's designs, mechanics, and gameplay are simplistic, there's enough variation in them that motivates the player to play again, which I definitely did.

I've played about 18.6 hours of this game, so each campaign was about 6.2 hours in length. I definitely recommend picking this game up and trying it yourself. You can buy it on PC, iPhone/tablet, PlayStation, Xbox, or the Nintendo Switch if you're interested.

Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you all in the next review.

I give the archer class a 9/10

Hey guys,

You know, you probably don't know this, but I love racing games. I think playing Rad Racer on my Dad's N.E.S. played a big role in developing that passion. As I've grown up, I've seen - and played - multiple racing games. A lot of them fall short for me, mind you; but there are definitely some in the litter of games that I remember quite fondly.

I'm talking about Burnout, Forza, Gran Turismo, Need for Speed, and, of course, Hot Wheels.

These are all great games, but they're not what I want to talk about. No, today, I'll be talking about the retro-style racing game known as Slipstream.

Slipstream is an 80's-90's, street race-style game that was released back in May, 2018. I found out about it through a friend, who was coincidentally streaming it on a discord call one day. Interested in the art design, the music, and the gameplay itself,  I decided to take a look into it. Looking it up on Steam, I saw it was on sale for only five dollars. So, I decided to buy it and test it out.

And now, your buddy Sam has a crippling addiction to this game...

But that's not important. What is important is Slipstream has a lot going for it, and writing this review is proving difficult with how much I want to talk about. So, how about I just spin a wheel and talk about... eh, I don't know... the art first. Yeah, let's talk about the art for this game.

The art direction for this game is great. It's a combination between the old-school pixel games and synthwave aesthetics. The sprites are beautifully animated, and the race tracks are all very appealing to look at while you race. The game has a very specific color scheme, and though it might not be everyone's cup of tea, it most certainly is mine. The car and character designs are also on-point. Their designs resemble popular styles/media from the 80's and 90's, which allow them to blend well with the rest of the game's themes and colors.

Aside from the art, the music is probably the best out of everything I want to talk about. I can't really describe how wonderful this soundtrack is, only that I have been listening to it on repeat as I write this review. Every song is different from the other, but it maintains the 80's-90's feel to it, if that makes any sense. During your races, you can select songs you want to play, which come up as cassette tapes in the pop-up menu. I highly recommend looking up the soundtrack on YouTube and giving it a listen. My favorite song is a tie between Gonna Get It and Out of Town; but the entire soundtrack is good, so no need to worry about looking for a favorite.

The gameplay is nice; I mean... it's just racing. However, there are multiple game modes you can choose from in the game menu. If you want to explore the tracks and race through traffic, you can do Grand Tour. Want a quick game full of hard-racing bots? Try the Cannonball game mode.
There's Grand Prix, Single Race, Time Trial, and even Battle Royale in the game. So, yeah, there's definitely a wide selection to choose from. And that's not even including the five cars you can choose between, each with three color schemes and their own specific specifications such as handling, speed and acceleration.

"Zlink, that's all well and good," you say. "But what in the hell is 'slipstream'?"

Well, for those of you who aren't a racing buff, slipstream is a term used to describe the air and water passing a moving object by a current. Slipstream is used in racing, but it can also be found in nature. Wonder why geese fly in a "V" shape? That's because they're all creating a slipstream for their fellow geese, allowing for easier movement.
I won't get into the physics of it or anything; basically, slipstream means the tailing car will go faster than the leading car. It's a strategy used in racing all the time, and is a mechanic used in, you guessed it, the game Slipstream. As you race behind a car, you eventually catch a slipstream, allowing you to pick up tremendous speed. This is really helpful in all the game modes, and it's recommended you learn how to race using the mechanic to your advantage.
Apart from that mechanic, you're also able to drift, which will be pretty important to racing, as a lot of the tracks have tight turns and switchbacks.

So, overall, this game is pretty fantastic. I highly recommend everyone check out the game for themselves and play it with friends. The Steam version allows for remote play, which means you can share an invite to your friends who don't have the game and they can play on controller. Personally, I like playing on keyboard, but this game is available on console too. So it's just personal preference at that point. Either way, it's definitely a good use of money.

I give the Lynx a 10/10

Hey kids. Today, we're going to be talking about the Resident Evil 4: Remake. It released back in March of this year, and I just recently finished it. I meant to play it sooner and then write a review for you all. But, unfortunately, your pal Sam is a broke college kid, so I had to wait a while before I could buy a copy and play it.
Anyway, before I start spouting off about my thoughts on this remake, I have to learn you all a thing or two about the original. You see, like all remakes, Resident Evil 4 (2023) has an original version. It released back in 2005, and quickly became one of the most iconic video games in history.
The original was kind of a big deal, mainly because it revolutionized the survival horror genre, as well as any third-person shooter mechanics video game publishers had at the time. It also became one of the best-selling titles in the Resident Evil franchise, and also won a ton of game awards. So yeah, pretty big deal.

"But Sam," you might say. "Why was it so iconic for its time?"

Well, there are a lot of reasons. I was originally going to write about them all, but the review ended up being way too long. So instead, I'll just focus on like the top three.

So, for starters, third-person shooters before Resident Evil 4 kind of blew. Before 2005, the third-person shooter genre was pretty slim on games worth your time and money.  Don't get me wrong, there were definitely some amazing games. I'd be lying if I said games like Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Splinter Cell, Tomb Raider, and Hitman were terrible. What I mean is a quality, third-person shooter was pretty hard to come by, especially in the horror genre.

My second point focuses on that last part I just mentioned. You see, the only major titles the survival horror genre really had going for itself was Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Both are fantastic series, but their games definitely have failed to withstand the test of time. See, before 2005, programming 3D spaces in video games was more of an experimental venture rather than the quick-and-easy process publishers have today. The poor, tedious movement within these 3D spaces gave way to the term "tank controls".
Unlike the smooth, 360-degree motion we have in our 3D games today, the user needed to control their direction and movement with two separate joysticks. You would move forward and backward with one stick, and turn your character left and right with the other. This would be difficult for any person to master, requiring tons of practice from an individual before they got the hang of it. And, wouldn't you know it, the old Resident Evil games based your entire movement off these so called tank controls.
So… yeah… that’s fun.
Furthermore, the game had "fixed camera angels". These are basically multiple shots of a specific room you enter. As you explore a room, the perspective is altered based on their character's position. Some rooms have up to nearly 6 camera angles the game switches between as you're exploring the area, which could be confusing and complicated to play with.
In short, the poor movement, combined with the severely limited camera control, was quite the recipe for disaster as video game technology and funding got better over time.

So, what’s the big deal about all these facts? Well, just like this is the third and most important reason for Resident Evil 4's success, so was it that these facts were what helped the developers of Resident Evil 4 break away from the previous titles. The new-age rendering technology, along with the inclusion of cutscenes, allowed for a more seamless, cinematic experience for players. The control scheme was also re-programmed, making the tank controls feel a lot smoother and manageable compared to the previous titles.
Looking between its predecessors and competitors, it was clear Resident Evil 4 was a knockout upon its release, revolutionizing the game industry forever. The impact was so large, in fact, that it is my firm belief beloved third-person shooters like Star Wars: Battle Front and Dead Space would not be the iconic games they are today if it weren't for Resident Evil 4.

Alright, now that we got all that out of the way, let me actually talk about the remake. I don't really know what to say about it, so maybe I'll just say the remake is awesome, in every sense of that word.
Staying true to the original, the Resident Evil 4: Remake expands on ideas that made the original so memorable.
The closest thing I can really compare it to is the Dead Space remake, since that was also a game that re-captured the horror, and also built new ideas while polishing old ones that worked to the original's advantage. As for how good the Resident Evil 4: Remake is, I don't think the remake will ever replace the original for me. Don't get me wrong, the remake was great; it allowed me to experience one of my favorite games in a new way. But it's just not the original, if you know what I mean.

It's like the movie Overboard. You know the one; it has Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Anyway, that movie got a remake back in 2018, and it had the exact same plot as the original, just with a different cast. It's in the exact same situation as this remake. Sure, you get a modern version of the same story, but something about the original will always make it your favorite.

"Alright, you got some points, Sam." You might say. "But you haven't even told us anything about the remake yet. What did you like about the game? What made it bad?"

That's an excellent question. You see, when it comes to the individual aspects, the game practically nailed everything. The story, art direction, tone/mood, combat, voice acting; everything was pretty much better than the original. In fact, now that I said that, it seems like I'm contradicting my previous statements. Here, let me dig a little deeper into what I mean.

The remake's story was fine. I mean, it wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't downright terrible either. The story was literally the same as the original's, with only a few creative differences in the writing and pacing. The changes to the story weren't too drastic, and being someone who has played the original, I still found enjoyment in the story.
The major plot points were still there, from what I could tell, and all the characters were also there. Some of the characters from the original were also more developed, which was neat to see.

As for the voice acting, it was pretty well done. For the voice actors and actresses, I think they did a great job with their roles. I didn't really find dips in acting quality, which was good. I mean, I was a little upset that the original voice actors were replaced, but the new voice actors brought the familiar characters to life, and it was nice to see good performances.

If there's one thing I particularly enjoy about the game is its design. From start to finish, this game looked and sounded fantastic. The set designs, the character models, and the monsters all looked great. There were definitely times I got scared, which, you know, good on Capcom for making their horror game scary.

Anyway, if I had to choose another aspect from the game that I enjoyed, it would have to be the length. I'm not going to lie, the Resident Evil 3: Remake was kind of a let down. Not because it was bad, it was just too short. Fortunately, this game was nearly 22 hours long for me, and had multiple areas, just like the original. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with how much material I was able to get out of this game.

As for replay ability, the game isn't lacking in that regard either. In fact, I'm planning on doing another playthrough soon for achievement hunting. The game has tons of side missions and mini games you can play during the main story, all of which keep the gameplay fresh and entertaining.

I guess the only complaint I have for this game is... well.. actually, there was more than just one complaint, so bear with me.

For one, the game takes itself too seriously. You know how I said I prefer the original over the remake? Well, here's why.
See, the original was a campy, B-movie horror experience. Although it was comical, the original managed to build terror effectively, so that it would keep the player tense and alert. In the remake, the opposite is happening; it's taking itself way too seriously, therefore making the entire game goofy. Don't get me wrong, there were still moments that scared me, but those moments happened a lot less and didn't scare me as much compared to the original.

Another complaint I have is the new mechanic for Ashely. For those of you who haven't played the remake yet, Ashely has no more health bar. That was nice at first, as the original Ashley just died a bunch of times and took all your medical items.
Where things get a little broken, however, is when Ashley gets stuck in between monsters and AOE attacks. Since she doesn't have a health bar anymore, the caveat Capcom came up with was that she can be downed in one hit, and killed in two.
On top of that, Ashley follows you everywhere now, and the game doesn't supply a lot of hiding spots for her to take cover in. So, you basically have to stock up as much as you can during the moments in between the Ashley segments, in order to get through the escort parts faster. This is all to not lose Ashley, mind you, because if you lose Ashley, you'll potentially have to restart the whole segment you just went through.
I'm not going to lie, I died a lot having to do this, especially in Salazar's castle. For those of you who don't know, Salazar's castle segment opens up with trebuchets and enemies that throw projectiles at you. If you're not careful, you can easily get hit by them, and Ashley can quickly die. It kind of blows, and can get stale quickly.

So... yeah. Apart from those little hiccups, I say this game is a pretty solid remake. Just a warning, it's a lot more grotesque and violent than the original. So if you don't like gore and stuff, you should probably not play this. If not, go at it; have a blast in fact. I had a great time playing this game, and I definitely recommend it to anyone interested.

I give the golden egg a 9/10

The year 2016 was a major year for gamers. Looking back at the releases from that year, it's safe to say almost all gamers received a game for their favorite genre.
For the RPG-players, Dark Souls III and Persona 5 were released. For action fans, Gears of War 4 and Battlefield I were published. Even for those who enjoy narratives and strategy, Naughty Dog released Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

But, there was another game that released, made by Electronic Arts (E.A.) and Respawn Entertainment.
This game was Titanfall 2.

Titanfall 2 is in a very peculiar place for me. I've always been "meh" about it. I knew it came out, but I never had the console - or money - to play it. So, I watched gameplay, and just went: "Meh, it's alright."
My friends at the time were in a similar stance; they knew it came out, and also thought to themselves: "Meh."
Eventually, enough time passed, and I ultimately forgot about the game. Fast forward to 2018, my friend has the game, and invites me over to play it, which I did. After beating it, I went, "Meh, it's alright", and that was the last time I ever touched it.
However, in January of this year (2023), my close friend invited me over to play it, which we did. In fact, we replayed the entire game.

Overall, it was better than I remember. I mean, I still go: "Meh, it's alright", but now I can actually tell you what I liked/disliked about the game, and in more detail too. Honestly, I kind of understand why the game went unnoticed, for the most part. It's nothing special, mind you, but it's definitely a game worth playing and enjoying at least once.
I actually went online before writing this review to see if I could find any people who have played and reviewed the game; unsurprisingly, there weren't many reviews to look at.

Seeing this, it made me beg the question: is Titanfall 2 worth explaining now, nearly 7 years after its release?
Well, let's take a look.


*--*-- WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD --*--*

Titanfall 2 is set during the war between two factions known as the Frontier Militia and the I.M.C. By the time the game starts, humanity has expanded throughout space, colonizing new, habitable planets. These planets became known as "The Frontier", and eventually caught the eye of the I.M.C., an industrialist group that threatens to destroy the planets and take their natural resources.
As the main character, you play as Titan Pilot, Jack Cooper, who fights for the Frontier Militia. With his mentor, as well as the combat mech, BT-7274, Cooper lands on a planet to destroy an I.M.C. army. Unfortunately, as Cooper lands on the planet, he realizes the Militia's intelligence has failed, and has dropped Cooper, BT, and Cooper's mentor in a meat-grinder.
Things instantly go from bad to worse as the Militia's capital ship is blown out of the sky, leaving the Militia's army scattered across the planet without weapons and reinforcements. Barely surviving the landing, Cooper is saved by his mentor, who sacrifices himself soon after to keep Cooper safe. The next morning, Cooper's mentor transfers command of BT to Cooper before taking his last breath.
Once in command, Cooper's objective is to find batteries around the wrecked capital ship for BT. Fighting through the I.M.C.-infested jungle, Cooper eventually arrives at two crash sites and retrieves the batteries. Powering up BT again, the game introduces you, the player, to the Titan mechanics.

Overall, the combat is one of the game's best aspects. There's a strategy to approaching every combat scenario, because fighting as Cooper and BT is different. When fighting as Cooper, I can honestly compare the game to DOOM. The combat is fast, it's a little strategic, and it's satisfying. Meanwhile, fighting as BT, it's slow, it's clunky, but it's powerful. You can't really run-and-gun as BT; you need to take your time, move around carefully, and make your shots count.
Throughout the game, you're constantly taking advantage of the weapons and skillsets Cooper and BT have, allowing you to level the playing field, and sometimes just outright demolish the enemy.
On harder difficulties, the combat is more fun and tense, but it can also get more frustrating. After playing on hard, I will admit that the combat can get annoying in some instances. Cheap kills seem to happen more often on the higher difficulties, and it's kind of lame. If I'm being honest, I died a lot, mainly to cheap kills; they did nothing but pull me out of the game, almost every time.

Anyways, after fending off enemy reinforcements, BT and Cooper set off to complete the mission Cooper's mentor was given before his death: Special Operation 217. The operation ordered Cooper's mentor to rendezvous with Titan Pilot, Eli Anderson, who is located at an abandoned laboratory on the planet. To arrive at this lab, BT plans a route through a water treatment facility and manufacturing plant. Though it's a shortcut, BT and Cooper are intercepted by two mercenaries who work for the I.M.C.
After fighting off I.M.C. forces, along with the two mercenaries, Cooper and BT make it to the lab.

I just want to take another break for a moment here and talk about the boss fights, as well as the characters in general.
In short, I had a lot of fun with the boss fights, but I genuinely couldn't care less about some of the characters in this game.
Aside from BT, Cooper, Cooper's mentor, and some of the antagonists to the game's story, the characters were just really shallow to me. It seemed like they were made to just fill a roll the game needed filled for the sake of plot development, and it was really boring to talk with them.
Some of the writing in the game is just... okay? I would have rather enjoyed a small group of characters, ones who are more flushed-out and that I could emotionally connect/react to, than what I actually got in the game.

Anyways, back to the game.
Arriving at the lab, Cooper and BT find it totally destroyed. The planet's wildlife has taken over the buildings, and the I.M.C. forces who once guarded the place lie dead in the street.
The security droids there to protect the laboratory all sit idle within the crumbling buildings, rusting away with nothing to do.
Cooper spelunks through the buildings, eventually finding Anderson's dead body. Anderson is stuck in the ceiling, half his body on the upper floor, which Cooper can't get to yet. Aside from the material in Anderson's helmet, Cooper also finds a time alternator, which he uses to traverse closed areas of the laboratory in order to complete his mission objectives.

I would honestly say this segment was my favorite part of the game. Traveling back and forth through time, it's clear Cooper has an effect on the present state of the laboratory. You could enter a security room in the present time, for example, and there would be a few bodies lying around. But, if you go back in time, and not kill anyone, then travel back to the present, the bodies are gone.
I don't know if that's cool to you guys, but it was a pretty cool detail to me.

Traveling further into the facility, Cooper and BT stumble upon a secret weapon project. As it turns out, the I.M.C. was developing a weapon at the laboratory; one that would be able to wipe out the entire home planet of the Frontier Militia. Upon discovering this information, BT and Cooper head toward a communication station to contact Militia forces about the I.M.C.'s plans.
Arriving at the station, Cooper and BT find that it's under siege by I.M.C. droids, and the Militia forces are barely holding out.
After intervening, the Militia invite Cooper and BT inside and tell them some bad news. When inside, Cooper and BT are  informed by the Militia force that the communications array has been broken, and the terminal's circuits have been fried. To fix this, Cooper ventures down into the station's storage area too look for materials that can fix the array.
Once delivering the parts, rebooting the power to the station, and heading up to the station's dish to repair it, Cooper and BT are stopped by another mercenary.
After a brief confrontation, BT and Cooper dispose of the mercenary, and transfer the data from the secret weapon project to the main militia forces.
The command of the forces responds, acknowledging the data transfer, and immediately begins planning an all-out assault on the I.M.C. forces who are delivering the weapon to another I.M.C. facility.
Storming the facility, Cooper, BT, and the militia find they are too late. The weapon has been loaded on to a ship and is taken away. Not giving up, Cooper and BT hop on one of the Militia's planes and chase after the ship.
Finally catching up to the I.M.C., BT and Cooper face one of the last few mercenaries still helping the I.M.C. forces. Taking care of the mercenary, as well as commandeering the ship, Cooper and BT finally are able to capture the weapon.
This celebration only lasts for a minute, though, because the ship eventually loses power, and crash lands back on to the planet.
After being captured, BT surrenders the secret weapon to the remaining mercenaries working for the I.M.C., and is subsequently destroyed.
Before pursuing the mercenaries for a final time, Cooper takes BT's data and heads out to face the mercenaries. Arriving at the I.M.C. facility, Cooper calls down another Titan and installs BT's data. In one final push, Cooper and BT charge the facility to secure the secret weapon and destroy it once and for all.
Destroying all the I.M.C. Titans and human forces, BT and Cooper face off against the final mercenary of the game. The battle is fierce, and BT is in a terrible state. Once defeated, however, Cooper and BT arrive next to the secret weapon and attempt to destroy it.
It's at this point, BT sacrifices himself and throws Cooper to safety. The secret weapon and BT are destroyed, and the I.M.C. is ultimately defeated.

*--*-- END OF SPOILERS --*--*

Aside form some pacing issues, the game was fun. I had a good time playing this game not only with close friends, but also by myself.
Though there was some issues with combat balancing and character development, Titanfall 2 provides a solid narrative with enjoyable combat. I say it's a well-made game, for the most part. It definitely deserves more attention than what it already has gotten.
Personally, I enjoyed it, but I feel it's a one-and-done game. I'll probably pick it up again in the future, once I forget about it. But, until then, I recommend others to check it out, and give it a go if you're interested.

I give Matt Mercer a 7/10 

I find that remakes and remasters seem to be more commonplace than they have been in the past. In 2019, we received a remaster of Resident Evil 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Then, 2021 rolls around; we get the remaster for Alan Wake, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Super Monkey Ball. I'm not going to lie, all of these games flipping slapped. There are like 2 other people I know that have played Alan Wake, and when they played the remaster, even they went: "Damn!"

But just because these remakes are incredible, doesn't mean all remasters turn out well. Take Resident Evil 3 and the Silent Hill: Collector’s Bundle, for example. Other people who play and enjoy Silent Hill can agree the bundle was very bad; arguably a simple cash grab.
Resident Evil 3 did have the new graphics and character/story design, but the game was short and shallow. It’s a two hour long game if you speed-run through it. It’s ridiculous, in my opinion.
I give Resident Evil 3 some leeway, though, mainly because the time crunch the developers faced to make the game was absurd. Nonetheless, it still fell short for me; I was expecting a lot more, especially after playing and enjoying Resident Evil 2's remaster.

Thinking about these two examples just remind me how hard it is to make a remaster. When a developing team has the ability to go back and remaster their games, they have an opportunity to make the game feel brand new. They have the ability to give the game a brand new look, without trampling over the original material that made the game so memorable. It can be a difficult challenge, especially when you have to cater for old-school fans, as well as the new players.

With all this being said, though, I can say that Dead Space (2023) is undoubtedly one of the best remasters of all time.
 
Dead Space originally released in 2008 as a Survival Horror title. At the time, the game was widely praised, particularly for its Heads Up Display (H.U.D.), User Interface (U.I.), and sound design. The metallic and cramped design of the spaceship, the terrifying monsters, and the ever-eerie feeling of isolation all combined to create one of the most innovative and memorable video games in history.
Playing the original is still a great experience today, even though it's nearly 15 years old! The game, even for its age, stands triumphant among the majority of its competitors, and has been the main inspiration for video games after it. Personally, it has influenced me to study and pursue a career in game design.


Before we begin discussing the game and its story, I want to give a warning for you: there are major spoilers ahead. If you haven't played the game, or haven't watched a playthrough on it yet, I highly recommend you do before reading. I wouldn’t want to sway you a certain way and potentially build/destroy your expectations before you’ve been able to experience it yourself.
With that, let's get into it.


—————————————


The story is the same as the original, with some major changes to the plot, ship layout, and game mechanics. The story begins with Isaac Clarke, an engineer aboard the USG Kellion with Zach Hammond, Aiden Chen, Hailey Johnston, and Kendra Daniels. The five are a repair team, responding to a distress signal sent out by planet cracker, USG Ishimura, which is in the restricted space system, Aegis VII.
Apart from repairing the Ishimura, Isaac is also traveling to the Ishimura to reconnect with his estranged girlfriend, Senior Medical Officer Nicole Brennan. As the player, you play the role of Isaac.

Before I continue, I just want to point out something that caught me by surprise. In the original Dead Space, Isaac doesn't speak. This was on purpose, because Glen Schofield, the original game’s creator and director, didn't want any immersion potentially being broken.
He believed if Isaac couldn’t speak, the video calls and audio messages will be directed toward the player, allowing for a more immersive playthrough.
When the developing team for the remaster announced they were giving Isaac a voice, I was a bit skeptical. I was happy they were bringing back the original voice actor for Isaac, but voice acting can really make-or-break a game. With voice actors, you either have The Last of Us-level voice acting, or you have two robots talking to each other. It’s a difficult portion of a game to get right.
Fortunately, the actors and actresses smacked their performances out of the park in this remake. The writers for the story made sure not to stray too far away from the original's overall themes and story beats, and the voice actors made sure to add a wide variety of emotion to their lines.
Overall, I shouldn't have worried so much about it, because I ended up having a wonderful time listening to the characters, especially Isaac. It was surprising - and a bit funny - to hear Isaac’s reaction to the game’s monsters and story elements.

Anyway, as you exit hyperspace with your team and prepare to board the Ishimura, the Kellion breaks down, forcing you to crash land inside the Ishimura's Hangar. Upon exiting the ship, nobody welcomes you; the ship feels like an eerie ghost town, and what’s worse is everything on the ship is broken in some minor or major way. Traveling further into the Ishimura, veteran and new players are met with the notorious Waiting Room, which looks absolutely gorgeous with the new-age graphics.

Pulling away for another brief moment, I really want to talk about how great this game looks. I mean just for its graphics, the game immediately deserves a 10 out of 10. The developing team, E.A. MOTIVE, did and incredible job redesigning every bit of this game in order to make it feel familiar, yet brand new. I would also love to praise MOTIVE for the level of detail they gave each character, animation, area, necromorph, and weapon. Honestly, the work speaks for itself; brilliant work on their end.

Moving back to the story, after the Kellion crew finds no one in the Waiting Room, Hammond orders Isaac to get a status report on the ship by accessing the room’s security terminal. When entering the security room, there is a streak of blood covering the floor and leading up to one of the desks. Before Isaac can process what he‘s seeing, Hammond yells at him to get to the terminal.
When Isaac retrieves the report, the Ishimura’s quarantine system is tripped, and within minutes, the team is subsequently ambushed by the game’s monster: the “necromorph”. Chen is killed, leaving Hammond and Daniels to hastily override a nearby door. Isaac make his way through another door in the security room, barely escaping a horde that pops out the ship's ventilation system. Taking an elevator down to the cargo bay, Isaac eventually finds himself alone with the game’s iconic weapon: the plasma cutter.

Like in the original game, the developers invested a lot into dismemberment and combat mechanics. Similar to the original’s combat, this remake’s combat is gritty, tense, and bloody. On higher difficulties, you're constantly watching your ammo and keeping yourself from being backed into a corner. Going down a long, cramped hallway with necromorphs on your tail, only to have one burst through a vent in front of you adds a lot of stress to situations and combat. Even on the lower difficulties, the number of mobs attacking you all at once can feel overwhelming, and you have to be strategic in how you go about attacking each monster type.
Shooting off the limbs of necromorphs is a classic rule in the series, and the developers took it a step further by allowing you to tear off limbs you've done enough damage to. Furthermore, the necromorphs make gurgled screams and cries when you shoot at them, adding some discomfort. Even though the monster in front of you is far from human, part of their past self is trapped behind their hideous form, and can feel everything you do to it.
Even though the combat is practically similar to the original's, the developers added a lot more detail, which makes it feel fresh, scary, and fun throughout the entire game.

Returning to the story, Isaac finds his way through the Ishimura's corridors and enters the tram control room. On the other side of the tram tunnel, Daniels and Hammond enter the station and start a video call with Isaac. Hacking into a nearby terminal, Daniels informs Isaac the tram system is in need of repair. Having no access on their side, the repair job falls to Isaac, who sets out through the tram tunnels toward the repair station. On his way there, Isaac grabs a stasis module off a severed arm, a tool used throughout the game to slow down obstacles and enemies. using it on a malfunctioning door, Isaac continues through the corridors, experiencing some small, paranormal events along the way.
Once finding the repair station, Isaac initiates the repair procedure. It's at this point that Isaac is suddenly attacked by a group of necromorphs. Taking care of them and placing a new tram in the tunnel, Isaac makes his way back through the door he entered from and down another path that leads him to the Hangar's tram station. Before being able to rendezvous with his team, Hammond and Daniels hop the tram and head to the Bridge. Meanwhile, Isaac takes the connecting corridors to the Medical Bay in order to find Nicole.
The Medical Bay is a slaughterhouse. Upon entering, Isaac stumbles across the aftermath of a firefight between the crew and the necromorphs. Waiting for him, a security guard sits with her back against the wall; her chest impaled by a necromorph's claw. Slowly bleeding out, she mumbles about the firefight she was apart of, explaining how the necromorphs caught her team by surprise and slaughtered them. As she dies, she drops her weapon: the Pulse Rifle, which Isaac takes.
Entering the waiting room of the Medical Bay, the floor is covered in blood. The morgue has been blocked off by poorly welded metal and pipes, and loose wires hang from the caved-in ceiling. A sign rests on the window pain of the security booth, reading: "EVACUATE THIS AREA IMMEDIATELY." Making matters worse, Nicole is nowhere to be found.
Figuring out where to head next, Isaac receives a video call from Hammond and Daniels, who find more information about the Ishimura's crew, and what transpired on the ship before their arrival.
Through some more digging, Hammond and Daniels find that some of the Ishimura's command features are locked down, which leads them to asking Isaac to find and take the RIG of the Ishimura's Captain, Benjamin Mathius. As the three are talking, Hammond and Daniels are attacked by a necromorph, who you later find is the mutated version of your teammate, Chen.
Isaac makes his way around the Medical Bay, fighting off necromorphs and finding material to blow the blockade to the morgue, where Captain Mathius rests. Once finding all the materials to make a bomb, Isaac detonates the bulwark, and promptly makes his way into the morgue.
Once he tracks down and starts the process of retrieving Mathius' rig, an infector suddenly appears and turns Mathius' corpse into a mutated necromorph. Isaac, having fended off and finishing Mathius and the infector, grabs the captain's RIG and heads to the Bridge to meet with Hammond, who apparently lost Daniels during their flee from Chen.

Breaking away from the game again, I was really happy to see the developers added this subtle detail to the game. Infectors mutate corpses into necromorphs, and I think it's great the developers added the notion that after Chen died in the Waiting Room, an infector got to him and turned him into a monster. I wasn't expecting Chen to be an important character throughout the game, but it was a good surprise nonetheless.

Moving on, after taking the connecting hallways to the Bridge and unlocking the tram station, you meet Hammond in the Captain's Nest. Hammond stands next to an escape pod with Chen trapped inside. After discussing the matter of Chen's unfortunate turning, Hammond sends the escape pod out into space, then heads into the captain’s nest to give you your next objective.
According to the report retrieved in the Waiting Room, the engines and Asteroid Defense System (ADS) cannons are inactive. In turn, the ship tethering the 40 kiloton load of planet is now being dragged down to the planet itself, with the asteroids from the broken rock smashing into the Ishimura's hull. Hammond orders Isaac to reactivate the ADS Cannons, as well as the engines, before total annihilation happens.

Before continuing, I feel the need to discuss the Ishimura as a whole. Compared to the original, the Ishimura feels gigantic in this remake. Not only that, but the developers added the flying mechanic from the later games, and included outer space sequences in the game. This creates a variety of paths you can take in order to get to your next objective, which increases replay ability. The tram in this version, rather being the object signifying the end - and start - of every chapter, is now used for fast travel, giving you the option to explore previous areas for weapon upgrades and collectibles.
It's fantastic, to say the least. The best part for me was how it enhances the immersion and replay ability. I talk a lot about those two key details in my reviews, because it's something important to me. Like a movie, novel, or board game, I always want to walk away satisfied; and if I ever want to give it another go, all I have to do is pick it up. To me, that's the best part of a video game: the ability to just replay a story, yet walk away satisfied just like the first time.
If you don't want to collect everything on one playthrough, it's fine! You have the option to go back and explore any time. There's no rush or pressure forcing you to choose one way or another.
Personally, I explored every bit of this game. I'm currently in the process of 100% completing the game, because it is definitely a game worth exploring. The developers included more content in a New Game+, which entices the player to play the game more than once. Honestly, I'm not a fan of hiding content in a game. But, then again, I wouldn't mind exploring this entire game all over again to see what's new.

Returning back to the story, Isaac travels to the Engineering Deck, where he activates the engines. Using the tram to head back to the bridge, Isaac then takes an elevator up to the ship's hull to reactivate the ADS Cannons. Once the Ishimura is in the clear, Isaac heads back down to the tram station, when Daniels calls them regarding the ship’s oxygen levels. They are dropping, and the source is coming from another part of the ship: Hydroponics. Since Isaac is free to take on the job, he makes his way to Medical Bay to find some Liquid Nitrogen.
While inside the Medical Bay, a distress call is picked up by Isaac from his girlfriend, Nicole. The signal is coming from the Chemical Lab, and Isaac doesn't hesitate to move for a second.
Making his way through Diagnostics and into the Chemical Lab, Isaac finds the distress call is just a repeating recording. Shutting down the signal, Isaac is suddenly ambushed by another survivor: Dr. Mercer.
Mercer is a brutal bastard in this game, and is one of the main antagonists in the story. Ambushing Isaac in the lab, he then releases one of his experiments known as the "Hunter", and instructs it to kill Isaac. Shooting at it, it's revealed to Isaac the Hunter can regenerate its limbs. Getting help from Daniels to escape it, Isaac gets to take a short breather before he's instructed by Daniels to make his way to cryogenics, where the Liquid Nitrogen is.
Arriving in the freezer, Isaac takes the Liquid Nitrogen, and is again ambushed by the Hunter and Mercer. Locking the Hunter in a Cryopod, Isaac freezes the Hunter, and is able to finally head to Hydroponics in order to resolve the oxygen issue.
Arriving at Hydroponics, Isaac finds a repeated recording of a woman named Elizabeth Cross, who is one of the Hydroponics workers aboard the Ishimura. The recording is a warning to all survivors, telling them to turn back. But, having no other option, Isaac heads into Hydroponics to start a solution on how to increase the oxygen levels.
During his contemplation, Elizabeth video calls Isaac, explaining that she too is currently attempting to solve the oxygen issue. Once finding a commonality in their efforts, Isaac and Elizabeth temporarily team up to solve the problem. As Isaac ventures around Hydroponics, he finds that Cross' crew has been mutated, and are the ones creating a toxin that is spreading across the ship. After locating and destroying all of them, Cross directs Isaac toward Food Storage, where Isaac fights one of the game's first major bosses: The Leviathan.

On a very brief side note, the remastered version of this fight was awesome. The introduction to this fight, the fight itself, and the design was a lot more tense, fun, and difficult than what I remember in the original.

Once defeating the Leviathan, and restoring the oxygen to the ship, Isaac makes it back to the tram station, where his next objective is heading to the Mining Deck to find an S.O.S. beacon. Somewhere in the Mining Deck, Cross' boyfriend, Jacob Temple, built an S.O.S. beacon, and it's up to Isaac to figure out where he kept it. Taking the tram to the Mining Deck, Isaac clears the 4 floors of the area, and eventually finds the S.O.S. beacon.
Isaac then attaches it to an asteroid being mined for resources, then sends it out in to deep space. After a brief moment of waiting, Daniels reports that another ship, the USM Valor, is in orbit responding to the S.O.S. beacon Isaac sent out. They report to Isaac and Daniels that they have rescued the escape pod Hammond ejected with Chen inside, and are awaiting a response.
Isaac and Daniels attempt to warn the Valor not to open the pod, but the communications array is broken. Racing against time, Isaac now rushes to Communications in order to send the message. After fixing the array, Daniels inform Isaac the long-range antenna is being blocked on the exterior of the ship. Isaac attempts to manually extend the array, when he finds the Leviathan has managed to clutch on to the ship and block the antenna. Having no other option, Isaac heads out to face the Leviathan one last time on the hull of the Ishimura.
Finally defeating the Leviathan, the antenna extends, and Daniels sends out a response to the USM Valor.
They're too late, though, and the next message Isaac and Daniels receive from the USM Valor is a video call showing Chen brutally slaughtering the personnel aboard. Within seconds, things go from bad to worse, as the Valor is now on a direct collision course toward the Ishimura. The Valor eventually crashes into the Ishimura, almost killing Isaac in the process.
As Isaac and Daniels recover, they receive a video call from Hammond, who has been sneaking around the Ishimura and into the Crew Deck. Hiding in a vent, Hammond tells Isaac and Daniels he's found a private transport ship on the Ishimura, but the remaining, maniacal crew are guarding it alongside the necromorphs. On top of that, the ship has no singularity core, which prevents it from having power. To fix this, Hammond states he's boarding the Valor in order to salvage the ship's singularity core.
Ordering Isaac aboard, Isaac makes his way outside the ship and toward the Valor to meet up with Hammond.
Similar to arriving at the Medical Bay for the first time, Isaac finds the Valor in a terrible state. Between the time Chen was picked up to when the Valor made contact with the Ishimura, the entire crew of the Valor was destroyed and transformed into necromorphs. The remaining crew are slowly being killed, and the ship's condition is critical.
When Isaac finally meets Hammond at the singularity core, Chen is there too. A lockdown initiates, locking Hammond in with Chen. As Chen drives his claws into Hammond, Hammond uses his last ounce of strength to drive both of them into the singularity core. Upon contact with the core, both Hammond and Chen explode. After the lockdown ends, Isaac takes the singularity core and somberly makes his way back to the Ishimura to the ship.
As Isaac and Daniels plan the final steps to their escape, another survivor, Ishimura's Chief Scientist: Dr. Terrence Kyne, opens up a video call between them all.
Kyne informs Isaac and Daniels about the ship's cargo, saying they will need to send it back down to the planet. The cargo in question is known as a "Marker", which is the main cause of the necromorph and hysteria outbreak among the Ishimura's crew. With no other option, Isaac and Daniels end up helping Kyne; Isaac is charged with locating the Marker, then delivering it safely to the ship for transport.
Once Isaac finds the marker, Mercer stops him with the Hunter, forcing Isaac to fight his way through the Crew Deck and Cargo Bay to retrieve the marker. After fighting off the necromorphs, and killing the Hunter once and for all, Isaac transports the Marker to the ship and prepares for takeoff with Kyne and Daniels.
As Isaac makes it to the Hangar, he is double-crossed by Daniels, who shoots Dr. Kyne and leaves Isaac for dead on the Ishimura. Isaac attempts to find another way off the ship, and is granted a solution through Nicole, who makes an appearance, and helps him call the transport back to the Hangar.
Realizing the ship is being called back, Daniels uses an escape pod and flies down to the Ishimura's established colony on the planet. After a few minutes, Isaac and Nicole then fly the transport down to the planet, where Isaac can leave the marker and fly away with Nicole.
Arriving at the colony, Isaac is met with more corpses. All of the colonists are dead or mutated, and the colony is completely destroyed. Restoring power, and fighting through waves of mutated colonists, Isaac finally places the marker back on its pedestal, and makes a break for the ship.
As he's leaving, though, he is stopped by Daniels, who reveals to him that Nicole has been dead the whole time, and that the Marker has been creating an illusion for Isaac. The person who Isaac thought was Nicole, was no other than Elizabeth Cross. After losing everything, he quickly makes it back to the ship in order to leave.
However, when Isaac approaches the ship, Daniels keeps him at a distance with her gun. It's chaos as this is all happening; the gravity tethers of the Ishimura are holding the planet chunk above the planet, but they're failing. Asteroids fall from the sky, and the final boss awakes. Daniels and Isaac see its tentacles rise from the large pit, and as Daniels attempts to make an escape, the tentacle swats at her and kills her.
Being surrounded, and with no other option, Isaac fights the final boss of the game, known as "The Hive Mind".
After its defeat, Isaac makes it to the ship and just barely escapes the planet before everything comes crashing down on him. Once out of range, Isaac takes off his helmet and reclines in the pilot's seat. After everything, he's finally able to catch a break, or so he thinks...


* — *— *


Aside from what I mentioned when breaking down the story, there were some small changes the remaster included that are worth mentioning. One of the changes I’d like to discuss is the game’s use of an item called “Power Nodes”.
For those of you who have never played Dead Space, Power Nodes are Isaac’s way to upgrade his weapons and engineering suit.
In the original game, they are also used as keys to unlock doors throughout the game. You can find these doors throughout the original, as well as power nodes, which are stored in blue wall lockers. Power Nodes can also be purchased at the store for a large sum of money.
Needless to say, they’re a valuable resource, and you will need to carefully choose how you use them throughout your playthrough.
Playing the remake, I was surprised to see that the Power Nodes were now being used for upgrades only. Replacing their ability to unlock doors was a collection of side quests and mission objectives Isaac receives throughout the game. Some are apart of the main mission story lines and are impossible to avoid, but the others are totally optional
This new mechanic was actually really cool. At the beginning of the remake, the Kellion crew needs to add themselves to the Ishimura’s personnel list in order to start their repair mission. Isaac and the others are given basic security clearance, and would need to contact Ishimura superiors in order to upgrade their clearance, should they ever need to. I find it super neat that the developers decided to include this small story element, because it adds a lot to the immersion, as well as the story of the Kellion crew.
Forcing the player to explore the Ishimura and track down certain individuals for their clearance just nails home the fact that Isaac is a simple engineer, sent to the Ishimura for what was supposed to be a simple repair job.
Had the crew still been alive and suffered only a communication malfunction, there would be no need for Isaac to seek out master override keys or the RIG’s of the Ishimura's chief officers. It's a very cool subplot to the overall narrative. It just nails home the fact that Isaac wasn't trained for this situation at all, and will need to figure out a quick solution in order to survive

The other thing I want to talk about briefly is weapon upgrades, as well as the use of the store.
If you decide to increase your security access and unlock some of the doors/lockers on the Ishimura, eventually, you will come across new weapons, as well as their specified weapon parts. Taking these to a game’s “Bench”, you’re able to extend each weapon’s upgrade tree. Each weapon has their own tree and special upgrades, which make them unique from one another and changes your combat strategy.
The stores aboard the Ishimura sell a few weapon upgrades, including better suits. Upgrading and finding weapons is kind of a pain, though. The amount of backtracking you’ll have to do will, at some point in your playthrough, just get tedious. However, I think it’s all worth it, since exploring and unlocking all this tech provided me with a larger sense of progression.


One last thing I want to talk about is the inclusion of two new game mechanics. To be honest, the original game was very linear. As soon as you finished the first chapter, Isaac would hop on the tram, which would end and start the chapters of the game. What was worse was there was no going back to previous areas unless the game wanted you to, which was not often.
Meanwhile, the remake provides you with multiple routes to each segment of the Ishimura. Not only that, the tram is now a fast travel between each of them. The developers did this to make the ship feel more connected, and they also did it to allow further exploration. Honestly, it was a great inclusion. I knew this was going to be added, since they discussed it in one of their updates for the game, but it was still a nice surprise to see it so well-executed in the game. Bravo to the MOTIVE team.
However, there's a catch. Unlike the Resident Evil 2 remake, where once you clear an area, it stays empty, Dead Space (2023) added a mechanic that changes an area every time you leave it. This change can vary from the lights now being off in that area, to more fog buildup so it's hard to see, or even a new group of mobs that have appeared from the vents.
Adding on, there are now circuit breakers throughout the ship, giving the player an opportunity to reroute power to other locations or doors at the cost of whatever is being powered at that moment.
In all honesty, the circuit breaker and area change mechanics both play out the same in every playthrough.
Yet, even though you might familiarize yourself on how the two mechanics function, they’re still able to randomize your playthroughs just enough to maintain an unsettling and tense atmosphere throughout the game. Just like how the original never made me feel safe, the remake accomplishes the exact same goal, while adding more detail and mechanics to the mix.
In truth, the new mechanics even managed to catch me off guard on some occasions. I can recall a couple of times where I forgot an area changes, so I would feel my heart dropping when I realize the lights were now off, or the corpses that used to be along the wall are now missing.
It’s simple, but effective, mechanics like these two that just add more character to the game, and I genuinely adore it.

Overall, this game is incredible. From start to finish, I was captivated by everything MOTIVE had to offer. It was fantastic. Aside from what I mentioned, which aren't even major problems, the game was phenomenal. Every idea implemented in this game by MOTIVE was executed and developed to perfection, and I was 100% there for it.
A lot of people were throwing tantrums on the internet, saying this game is poorly optimized and all that. But, I don't know why they were complaining so much; my computer doesn't have the latest specs, but ran this game perfectly. Even my laptop ran the game at 60 frames and higher, with the graphics set to "Ultra".

To be honest, the original Dead Space is my favorite game of all time. A close second has to be SIGNALIS. Dead Space has a special place in my heart, since it was the first ever horror game I was introduced to in my life. The story, the characters, the creepy atmosphere, the terrifying monsters; I grew up with all of it. Everything about the original Dead Space is perfect to me.
So, being able to see the original the way I've always seen it was and amazing experience. MOTIVE did an incredible job capturing the 2008 masterpiece in a modern-light.
Dead Space (2023) was a passion project, just like the original. It was made by Dead Space fans, for the Dead Space fans of the world. It's phenomenal; it's a testament to truly amazing the Survival Horror Genre can be at time. It's everything a horror fan would want and more, and I cannot recommend this game highly enough. If you have the money and a console/PC that can run this game, I highly recommend you pick it up and play it yourself. Your money will not be wasted on this game, trust me.

So now, it's 2023. The top-dog video game developers have announced an incredible lineup for this year. I mean, the gaming community just got confirmation that remakes of Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 4, Like a Dragon, Risk of Rain, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and potentially Splinter Cell are underway.
It is insane how many remakes and remasters the gaming community is getting these upcoming years, and I can only hope for the best. If anything, I hope the developers can look at MOTIVE's work on this game, and possibly learn a thing or two.

I give the Baby Doll a 10/10

I feel that video games today tend to blur the line between the Action and Survival Horror genre. The Callisto Protocol, or The Last of Us II, even the most recent CAPCOM remaster: Resident Evil III. When I look at these games, I see there's a big emphasis on combat.
Don't get me wrong, I like action in my video games as much as the next person, and the games I just mentioned are enjoyable in their own light. Some of them are even worth a replay when you finish.
Given all this, however, I feel there's a disconnect between the horror and the large amounts of combat found in these games. The best reasoning I have for this standpoint is found when observing the scripted - and player invoked - combat scenarios within all three games I mentioned above.
In each game, you're forced into action sequences in order to continue the plot. When you're not playing through these sequences, the game's areas spawn with numerous enemies, ultimately forcing you into a firefight. Granted, these situations can bring a tense feeling of anxiety, but it tends to only last as long as the firefight does. When you finish fighting, the game gets you to revert back to a calm state, because it's horror elements are not strong enough on their own. This is the main problem I have with Survival Horror games today: they are unable to provoke a continuous sense of dread throughout the game.

And that problem is why I look at games from my past. Personally, I have to pay homage to the games I grew up with: Resident Evil and Silent Hill. They're not only the games that defined the Survival Horror genre, but they're also games that continue to influence how I play, review, and enjoy video games today.
Survival Horror games are arguably my favorite type to play, and over this past decade or so, I've played some amazing games from this genre. Some honorable mentions include: Alien Isolation, Darkwood, Soma, Outlast, and one of my personal favorites: Visage.

I originally found SIGNALIS through an advertisement on YouTube. I later learned that a 2-person indie-developer team started working on this project as far back as 2014.
The game released in October of this year, and it wasn't until a month ago that I received a copy of the game from a friend. After I received the game, however, it wasn't until just a couple days ago that I played the game and beat it.
With all this being said, I am happy to report that SIGNALIS has earned its place next to all those amazing games. I can also say that SIGNALIS is - without a doubt - my game of the year. This is truly one of the best Survival Horror games I have ever played.

Just from the menu, you're immediately immersed. The game takes on this simple, minimalistic design, while - at the same time - also bringing an incredible amount of detail to itself.
The analogue-style visuals, complete with the retro graphics and audio, creates an incredibly-immersive experience that is similar to the PlayStation 1 games SIGNALIS is inspired by.


1: REFERENCES

Throughout the entire game, SIGNALIS uses a wide variety of sources to develop its story, atmosphere, and characters. As lazy as that may sound by a creative standpoint, the developers did an amazing job when choosing what famous works they want to represent.
The many references used within the game are pulled from pieces within the horror genre, and they're used mainly to make SIGNALIS feel familiar, yet unique from its many predecessors. The most common reference you see throughout the game are from a piece titled The King in Yellow, a compilation of horror-themed short stories by Robert W. Chambers that was published in 1895.
There are also multiple connections to the work of H.P. Lovecraft, and I was quite surprised to even see a few subtle themes found in Neon Genesis: Evangelion, a popular Japanese anime I enjoy.
In addition to these sources, SIGNALIS is heavily inspired by the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series. There are many similarities between this game's aspects when compared to the aspects of the other two games it is based off of.
For the most part, all of these references were fantastically woven into the design of the game. I never found myself rolling my eyes at a reference, because the game takes caution not to overstep its similarity to the inspiration.
There was a segment of this game where I said, "they just ripped this right out of Silent Hill 2". Nonetheless, the segment was still amazing, and I didn't dwell on that comment for very long before being immersed yet again by the game's authenticity.


2: STORY

The story, in my opinion, is the best part of this entire game. The game uses documents, NPCs, and beautifully-animated cutscenes to slowly build the story up. The story is a slow-burner, so it can be pretty boring to some people, but I really enjoyed it.
This specific portion of the game is where I actually saw a lot of references to Lovecraft's style of storytelling. There's a lot of mystery and confusion surrounding the story until it's all revealed in the end for you.
The story revolves around Elster, which is you. Elster is known as a "Replika". If you've seen the Blade Runner movies, think of yourself like a more-controlled replicant; you have a purpose, and people can keep you from rebelling or losing your mind better than the humans did in Blade Runner.
Anyways, as Elster, you awake on a strange planet by someone or something. Your ship has crashed, and your main objective is to wake up and "keep your promise". As the game continues, you find out that you were assigned as a companion robot for a girl named Arianne, the captain of your crashed spaceship, and she asked you to keep a promise some time before you awoke from cryosleep.
As you complete the tutorial and step outside the ship, you find yourself hovering over a large, red hole with steps leading down below. Venturing down and crawling through a small tunnel, you enter a tiny office full of someone's belongings. And, after inspecting a copy of Chambers' The King in Yellow, conveniently left on the desk, you begin the actual story of SIGNALIS.
I have no words to describe just how well this game's story is. The notes and NPCs are helpful in understanding the game's story. However, like a corrupted file, the story is revealed in obtuse and random pieces. The story is mainly told through cutscenes, which are just big collages of flashing images and videos; each one providing only a few answers, but double the questions.
This was the main aspect that kept me immersed; the game did a great job pacing its story. For every story piece I questioned, there was another alongside it I could default to once I found an answer to the other. For every main plot reveal within the overarching story, there was a layer of questions I had that kept me wanting more. This cycle of asked-then-received continued until everything was finally revealed to me at the end of the game.


3 - COMBAT , PUZZLES, AND MECHANICS:

The combat and inventory management is very much like Resident Evil's, for better and worse. Your inventory screen has the Silent Hill design, but has the inventory space and mechanic found in Resident Evil 1. They aren't just taped on to the game though, the developers took time to develop lore as to why you're only allowed to carry 6 items. I love that about this game, but the inventory management came to be quite an issue by the end of the game.
The combat is similar to Resident Evil's as well, where you stand and fire at the enemies. They brought in the stomp mechanic from Silent Hill, and also brought in a mechanic similar to the "Crimson Zombie" mechanic from Resident Evil, which I thought was pretty neat. There are modules you use such as a flashlight, which is important for exploration and puzzles; I thought that mechanic was well-implemented and used.
As for the puzzles, I really enjoyed them. They were the perfect level of difficulty, and gave you a reason to read all the documents found in the game. The puzzles also played into which ending you get, as well as the weapons and amount of equipment you find.

4 - CLOSING

I already mentioned that the visuals, music, and the animations were amazing, and they definitely are. Overall, this game was an amazing work of art. I loved every single bit of this game, because it reminded me of the games, books, and movies that I grew up with as a kid. I highly recommend this game to anyone, especially Survival Horror fans. You are not going to be disappointed with this game.

I give the Blank Keycard a 10/10

The fact I didn’t want to even grace this game with a review will tell you just how much I enjoyed this game.

Before I begin, I want to give Steve Blum a 10/10. Absolutely love that guy. As for the game, it… uh… it kind of sucks ass.

Metro: Exodus is the third installment in the Metro video game series. If you read my previous review on the other two, you know that I enjoy this series a lot. The scarcity and filtration mechanics were something I hadn’t seen in a game before playing Metro. Adding on, I think the stories are intriguing, the characters are well written,  the monster designs are terrifying, and the overall atmosphere is incredibly immersive.
If you haven’t played the two games, I highly recommend playing them; they’re fun and keep you invested for the duration of the game.

As for this game; yeah, uh, don’t even bother.

The hardest part about reviewing this game is that I can’t mention an aspect in its entirety. The game never fully developed an aspect to the point where I’d want to mention it in a review, so it’s hard.
Within my 14 hours of playing, I could only find certain characteristics of aspects to enjoy rather than the aspect as a whole. The story is a great example; it’s interesting, and hooks you early-on in the game.
There are tense and creepy situations you have to fight your way out of, such as the “cannibal fortress” or the “Spider Bunker” segment. You’re constantly checking your ammo and searching corpses for materials because you never know when you’ll have the chance to make more at a workstation.
There are subtle details and mechanics that act as a silver lining for this game. But, other than what I just mentioned, the game isn’t fun.

You see, the game made a whoopsie. It thought I play game to kill time, but that’s not true. I play games to have fun, and this game sucked balls.

The previous installments are simple First-Person Shooters with an emphasis on horror. They have compelling narratives, simple but tense combat, as well as interesting characters. You’re constantly given choices by the game to further the plot, and the choices you make will determine whether you get either a good, bad, or neutral ending.
Metro: Exodus takes a regressive step backwards in design compared to the other two. The game is now open world, for some stupid reason. You have unenjoyable side quests loosely stapled on to the game that don’t have any significant reward to them. Characters are shallow and boring, which makes sitting through their stupid-ass dialogue and un-skippable cutscenes a chore. Combat becomes stale and tedious, shooting galleries become repetitive. The complaints go on and on; and I wish I could stop, but I can’t because the game has so many problems is absurd.

It’s like the game took every enjoyable aspect from the previous two and just… threw them out the window, because why the hell not?

The multiple antagonists - besides the cannibalistic doctor - are all boring, and their purposes are comically retarded. I don’t know why the developers fumbled so badly with the antagonists in this game, since they’ve already shown they could make good ones.
Each open-world segment has some idiotic cult you have to fight to further the plot. The open world is big and buggy because the game’s physics are broken. The game now requires you to clean your weapons, so you need to find materials in the open world to clean them.
The mechanic wasn’t in the previous game, and for good reason. The mechanic is shallow, and is the main reason for the stupid-ass workbenches rather than the gunsmiths you go to in the other two games.

The game has basically boiled down to this:
Go from point “a” to point “b”, shoot some mobs on your way there, shoot more mobs when you reach the destination, capture a mission item, then walk back to your base. I hate it so fucking much.

There are like 9 mobs in the entire game, but only three of them have a neat design and are fun to fight. There’s environmental storytelling, but the game doesn’t give you room to assume what happened. You just walk through the scene to meet another character so they could tell you what happened. Everything mysterious this game has to it gets thrown away for mediocrity, and it’s annoying.

Overall, the game is missing the charm the other two games had. This game was in the oven for 6 years and came out only half-baked. Everything about the game has no meat to its mechanics and story. It’s like the game was made in patches but can’t hold itself together when you look at it in its entire.
Part of me wants to blame PLAION, a game company that helped work on this one. For those of you who don’t know, PLAION helped make the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. For those of you also don’t know, I hate the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series; everything about it is janky, bland, and just outrageously stupid.
It’s probably not PLAION’s fault, but I have a feeling it is since most of their games are broken and boring as hell.

I can’t recommend this game to anyone. Literally waited six years for the game, only to have it suck major ass, and have no correlation to the previous stories that I wanted to see progressed.

I give Guil a 4/10

Let me take you back to 2020; it’s December, I just got done with my first semester of my senior year in high school. I’m chilling in my house, enjoying some hot chocolate while watching the snow fall from the sky.
It was then when I decided to peruse the infinite entertainment of YouTube, which is also when I stumbled across the teaser trailer for this game.

I was stoked to play this game, to say the least. The fact that Glen Schofield, the guy who made Dead Space, my favorite game of all time; the fact that he came back to make another horror game was unreal.

So I started the waiting game. Months started to go by, and new trailers/video-game footage was released, which made the game look incredibly promising. Schofield would also post development updates on his twitter, which made me happy.
I appreciated the transparency the developers had with the fanbase, because it allowed me to trust that they were developing the game smoothly, and they were listening to the fanbase's recommendations whenever they showed new gameplay footage.

Finally, after pretty much two whole years, the game releases on December 2, 2022, and it was met with disappointment.

To say this game just had a poor launch would be sugarcoating the actual chaotic mess this game went through.
The main issue was performance on PC; it was terrible at launch. Apparently, the performance on console was fine, but not on PC. It was a stuttering mess, which sent everyone and their mom to the internet to review the game.



Topic 1 - Focus

Seeing these idiots rant about this game was the main issue I've had since day 1. Seeing that everyone was complaining about the performance in their reviews, but not discussing any other aspect about the game, really pissed me off. The majority of these people literally got 30 minutes into the game, then called it quits and wrote a biased review. I mean, wh- what the fuck.
Now I'm not saying I don't do the same thing. For those of you who've been around for a while, you know that I sometimes prefer some aspects over others when it comes to the video-games I review.
The only difference is I actually discuss the other aspects, and explain why they fall short for me. Adding on, I actually make sure to play the whole game before reviewing it.
I ensure to give every game a fair shot, and I review them with the same level of fairness, despite not enjoying some of them.
I can't describe how angry I got after seeing these reviews, because it showed me just how hypocritical the gaming industry can be at times.
There are people defending Pokémon: Scarlet and Violet, literal copy-and-paste garbage that can barely function, while also giving God of War: Ragnarök a 1 out of 5 for being "a game with terrible characters and storytelling".
That's why focus is so important when playing a game or writing a review. It's important to focus on a game's good qualities, but don't focus on a single aspect when looking for them. It's like making a plate of food: you have to have a nice balance of veggies, meat, and carbs. Otherwise, you aren't going to have a fun time eating the meal.
Fortunately, within 24 hours of launch, the developers sent out a patch for the game, which fixed all of the performance issues for PC. I was happy to see the developers started working on fixing the game immediately after launch, but I still felt bad people didn't give the game a chance.



Topic 2 - Story and Characters

With my little rant aside, let's talk about the main part of this game: its story and characters. Overall, I really enjoyed the story.
The story revolves around Jacob Lee, a pilot who makes shipments with his partner Max, and Dani Nakamura, an individual working for a terrorist organization. Jacob and Max are taking a shipment from Callisto, one of Jupiter's moons, when they are boarded by Dani and her team. Things go awry, and it leads to both Dani and Jacob being found by Black Iron Prison security and imprisoned.
You play as Jacob in this game, and are immediately thrown into the intense chaos that envelops inside the prison. Not long after the opening, you are trying to find a way out of Black Iron Prison, while avoiding the infected inmates and deadly security bots throughout your journey.
Eventually, a larger plot in the story unfolds, which is a bit cliché, but I don't mind it at all. The ending of this game is a cliffhanger, which a lot of people had issue with, but I thought was fine. To be honest, I can't wait for the next installment in this series; the universe is very interesting, and the lore I found through audio logs throughout the game brought more questions and peaked my interest even more.

As for the characters, I would have loved to see the game round them out a little bit more than they did. I think the game's pacing played a part in how the characters were written. I personally think the game would have been well off it was more of a slow-burner with deep, thoughtful characters, rather than the action-packed thriller it turned out to be.
Like I said, I really enjoy the game's universe and lore. I think the characters are interesting too, but I would have loved to see more. The audio logs I mentioned earlier, they're incredibly well-made, and they're your only real source of lore throughout the game. There's a lot of environmental storytelling, but I fell that if we were given more text and audio logs explaining more of the universe, the game would be a lot more immersive and interesting.
A lot of people are comparing this game's writing to Dead Space, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. Dead Space is a classic, and practically re-defined the horror genre, it's my favorite game of all time.
The Callisto Protocol, although greatly inspired from Dead Space, is different and unique in its own right. It's not supposed to be another Dead Space, and I'm glad it didn't turn out that way.



Topic 3 - Monsters, Weapons, and Exploration

Aside from the graphics and voice acting, the designs were spot-on in this game. I really enjoyed the minimalistic, multi-tool design of the weapons.  You have a lot of shotguns and pistols in your inventory, which compliments the game’s focus on hand-to-hand combat, as well as the close-quarters combat you’ll experience a few times in the game. The FORGE stations you find to upgrade your equipment are neat and are conveniently placed throughout the game as well.
Exploring the station is rewarding, yet feels rushed. The prison is this giant, detailed complex, but is designed to get you in and out, if that makes any sense.
There’s a lot to see and explore, but once you actually look around, you realize there’s very few areas of the giant prison you actually go into.
That was a big complaint of mine when playing the game; the game was linear at times, and didn’t allow you to go back to explore parts of the prison. The game was basically a giant gondola ride, where you were constantly pushed forward and weren’t able to go back to double-check anything you may have missed.
This is going into wishlist territory, but I genuinely wish the prison was more interconnected, and had a lot more areas you could explore. I feel that it would immerse the player a lot more, because I would occasionally feel myself being pulled out of the experience when I realized I couldn’t explore more of an area, like the medical bay for example.

The monsters are really cool. I appreciate how much detail went into the environment and monster designs. Even though there’s only like… 7 or 8 mobs in this entire game, each one is unique and terrifying.
The game didn’t hold back on the gore either, so the monsters look gross, and combat is very up-close and dirty.
This is when I found another issue with the game. The fact that this game re-used the same mini-boss almost 4 times was kind of lame. It would have been super cool to see a lot more mobs or bosses in this game, especially because the virus that makes the monsters can mutate the host into gross, horrific mutants indefinitely.



Topic 4 - Other Mechanics and U.I.

Now, I know I said not to compare this game to Dead Space, but I can’t talk about this game without mentioning some similarities. For one, the HUD and U.I. are practically identical to Dead Space. They don’t have the same design, but it’s pretty close in comparison. Adding on, there is a stomping and kinesics mechanic, which are also similar. However, the kinesics mechanic, or the “GRP”, is different than the one in Dead Space.
The GRP is designed to be a security tool for the guards in the prison. It’s used by the main antagonist, and takes on the roll of a riot-control tool. Due to this purpose, it allows you to lift up monsters and throw them against walls, and it can grab collectibles or explosive materials from unreachable places. It’s super cool, and it was a very helpful tool during combat.
Speaking of combat, I mentioned this game focused heavily on hand-to-hand combat. You have a melee weapon that you use for the entire game, the GRP tool I discussed earlier, and the weapons you find and construct at FORGE machines throughout the game. A lot of people had a problem with this combat; a lot of people argue that it was too imprecise and clunky.
I personally didn’t see an issue, other than the combat scenarios can become repetitive by the end of the game. The combat reminded me a lot of The Last of Us and Doom, both of which require you to use multiple tools and objects in your surrounding to whittle down the large packs of mobs that approach you.
Both games still hold up today so… I don’t know why people have such an issue with this game, even though the combat is very similar to the other two.
There is a dodge and quick-draw mechanic in this game, and I could understand why people don’t like them (mainly because they just make the game’s combat easy). However, I enjoyed experimenting with the combat tools and mechanics; I never stuck with one specific routine when it came to fighting the monsters, so combat remained fun and strategic for me.
Furthermore, there is a stealth mechanic that is also included in the game. I’m usually not one for stealth mechanics, but the game included and entire segment requiring it, which was pretty fun and tense to play through.
Overall, the game’s mechanics were well-made, and I didn’t have much problem with any of them, unlike a lot of other people.



Topic 6 - Other Notes

There were a lot of things I didn’t really understand playing this game. For one, there was no map, so I was constantly wandering around the game, wondering where my next objective was. Adding on, Jacob is a pilot, yet knows how to access a lot of the prison terminals, which is weird. I figured an engineer or security officer would know how to navigate everything, not a pilot that deals in weapon-shipments.
Jacob also knows how to fight, apparently. This is where character development comes into play, because all I know about Jacob is he’s a pilot. I don’t know Jacob’s combat experience, nor do I know his technical and weapon skills, which is pretty important if you’re trying to sympathize and play as the character.
The final thing I want to discuss is the inventory management. Even on the hardest difficulty, the game is giving you a lot of ammo and materials you could sell for credits, but no inventory space. The first half of the game, you have 6 inventory slots, which is increased to 12 for the latter half. Throughout all of this, you’re constantly balancing ammo and material, which gets tedious after some time playing the game.
These were just a few things I found in the game that were kind of puzzling, and I just thought I’d highlight them for you all as well.



Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with The Callisto Protocol. I feel that the mechanics, the HUD, the U.I., the sound/environment/character designs, and the voice acting all came together to make a unique and enjoyable experience. The gore and deaths were over-the-top and brutal as hell. The combat was fun, and the monsters were scary and intense.
I highly recommend playing this game, but I don’t recommend going into it thinking it will be like another Dead Space. This may not be as horrifying and revolutionizing as Schofield’s original work, but it’s still a great game on its own, and an amazing experience every horror-game fan should go through.

I give Elias an 8/10

The word "retro" is so simple, and yet, it defined an entire era that I partially grew up with and loved. If you know me personally, you know that I enjoy a lot of retro things; I have a Walkman, for example, and I prefer going to arcades over playing games at home. I especially enjoy the colors and aesthetics of the era. But, more importantly, I love the video games.
I have so many fond memories of going over to my grandparent's house and playing classics such as Elevator Action, Sky Kid, Marble Madness, Duck Hunt, Contra and, of course, Mario Bros. I love the box art, the 8-bit music, and the simplistic gameplay of those games, and they heavily influenced how I play and enjoy games.

When it comes to Faith, I had no idea the game existed.
I first stumbled across Faith through a Markiplier video on YouTube. Although I didn't think it was scary, I thought that the game was incredibly well made, given the aged graphics, voice acting, and gameplay. I specifically enjoyed how the developers used Atari-style level design and 8-bit music, because those elements were in a lot of the games I grew up with and enjoyed.
Just from the cover art for this game, you can tell the developers looked back and made it a goal to bring that retro feel to the gameplay and its presentation. It feels like you're looking at the cover of an 80's thriller, and it's awesome.
When you play the game, the controls are simple: you move and raise your cross to fend off demons. You can search for notes that reveal more of the story to you, there are special demons you need to avoid, and there are pixel-animated cutscenes in between gameplay to increase the immersion and tension of the game.

There are multiple endings, the puzzles are fun and challenging, and the music/ambience is creepy and subtle. When you finish the game, you want to go back and play it again because it is just so addicting.

There's definitely some dark elements to the game, even though it plays like an Atari game. It's all about you, a catholic priest, performing exorcisms; there's definitely going to be some dark animations, story elements, and themes when you play. So, if you don't like messing or involving yourself with this kind of stuff, I recommend that you don't play the game.
For those of you who aren't phased by any of what I just said, go right ahead. This is a great three-part, indie-thriller game that even hardcore horror fans would enjoy. It's definitely not my favorite game, but I had an enjoyable experience playing it, and I would love to see another chapter be installed to this series.

I give Gary an 8/10

For a lot of my childhood, Minecraft was the main video game I played. I remember getting an account one Christmas from my parents, and would proceed to spend the next five years growing with the game. Minecraft was a major influence in developing my creativity and imagination, and it also had a major impact on what I wanted to do when I grew up. Other kids wanted to be firefighters and doctors and police officers, but not me; I wanted to be the next Notch. I wanted to go and make Minecraft 2.0 and sell a couple of books on how to play my game at scholastic book fairs. That was my dream... and it still is if I'm being honest.

So, when I saw Subnautica launch as a big-budget, AA video game back in 2014, I was kind of suspicious that it was ripping off of Minecraft, my most beloved game at the time.
Spoiler alert, it TOTALLY ripped off Minecraft... but it's still a really fun game! :)

I think what I could really connect with Subnautica on was the overwhelming mystery presented by the game. Like Minecraft, the game spawns you on to a vast, open planet with nothing besides a health bar and your excitement to explore the world. The game doesn't tell you where to steer clear of, it allows you to explore at your own pace. Slowly, you being to familiarize yourself with the game's mechanics. You start to build tools, construct buildings, research the wildlife; in a matter of hours, you're exploring the depths of the ocean planet and constructing a rocket to take you home.

Subnautica's atmosphere is so deep and fascinating. Every inch of this world is covered in mystery and beauty. When you receive S.O.S. signals from other life-pods and venture to their crash site, you can find audio logs that tell their story. There are islands with old homes built by other stranded humans overtaken by nature. There are alien structures underneath the water that are like massive laboratories.
The more you explore, the more interesting the world becomes. The mystery fades away and reveals a deep and methodical dilemma the world faces.
Your exploration will always reveal something new about the world, or it will reveal a new tool you can use to explore more.
There were very few moments during my playthrough where I got bored because I had nothing to do, and I feel that's the point I'm trying to get across: you'll always have a problem to fix, or a task to complete. You're a survivor stranded on this strange, oceanic world, and you're trying to find a solution to the problem this world faces, as well as to find a way home before you potentially die. It's a complex story, told brilliantly through simple gameplay.

All parts of the game are really nice to look at. The islands, the alien architecture, your buildings; everything has a really cool design to it, and the graphics really help the beauty of the game stand out.
Apart from visuals and mechanics, the music is probably the best part of this game. The menu music and the exploration music are all so calming and catchy. After playing the game, I would usually listen to the soundtrack on YouTube to help me study.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. From the gameplay, to the visuals, to the experience; it was all extremely well done. If you would like to play this game yourself, I recommend you do. It's definitely worth the time and money you'll put into it.

I give the bladderfish a 10/10

Playing Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light was like playing a better developed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series. Both series revolve around you, the player, venturing through a post-apocalyptic Russia and trying to instill order and life among the regions, as well as the people of the world.
The only difference between S.T.A.L.K.E.R.  and Metro is - in my opinion - the Metro series has a more compelling story, and the gameplay is a lot more fluid and fun.
The world of Metro is so fascinating; the human raced has been reduced down to a few survivors after World War III. After the war, the surface became uninhabitable, and was sent into an endless winter. Not long after, an alien race appeared on earth, and the remaining humans have now been forced down into the metro tunnel systems.
The metro system has now become this complex, interconnected environment full of monsters, cultists, and rival clans that inhabit the tunnels. The human race continues to fight each other, while also fighting the aliens that constantly break through their defenses. The world is so grim and hopeless, yet, at the same time, so lively. Every city in the metro is unique from the other; civilians living in them have their own routine and stories you can listen to when you visit; the only similar theme found between them is their large investment in security teams and armies.

You, Artyom, are a part of one of these security teams. There’s only a small amount of time before you eventually find yourself locked in a major battle between the rival human clans, and the aliens that inhabit the surface and abandoned metro tunnels.
The game demands strategic use of your supplies and weapons. When I usually play apocalyptic games, I always find myself pulled out of the experience because there’s no real danger outside of the enemies in the game. Areas always seem abundant in resources and medicine when I play, and it doesn’t give off an apocalyptic feel at all. So, given my experience with this genre, I was very happy, and quite surprised to see how well Metro: 2033 implemented a theme of scarcity.

You do not get ammo or medicine very often in this game, and the checkpoints between each level are far and few between, making saving your progress pretty rare. Adding on, the enemies in this game are bullet sponges, so engaging in combat will drain a lot of precious resources you’ll need later in the game.
Going through the world, you’re constantly searching bodies and drawers for any extra ammo, spare parts, and medical kits in order to keep your character prepared for the intense, close-quarters combat throughout the game.

Honestly, there’s nothing I have to complain about besides dealing with the world’s physics and terrain. Adding on, the world is so interesting, but the game is very linear.
The physics of the world is pretty broken, which is annoying to deal with. Having to fight a boss or multiple enemies in parts of the world that aren’t properly made is difficult. I already have to deal with one problem, I don’t need another, you get me?
On top of that, the world is so small, which is kind of sad. This is a very beautiful looking game, and the world is extremely interesting. I liked the game, but it would have been great to see more of the world in addition to what I traveled through.

The story has multiple endings to it, and I got all of them. The story was very interesting, and all the endings were pretty satisfying.
Overall, the game was very fun to play. There is another installment called Exodus that I’m going to play. I don’t know if it’s a direct sequel to Last Light, but I can’t wait to play it.

If you have a console or a PC capable of playing this series, I highly recommend playing it. It’s a great First-Person Shooter with horror elements.

I give the Spiderbug an 8/10

Where do I even begin with this review?

I think the best word to describe Elden Ring is "big". You have a big world to explore, big weapons to yield, and big bosses to defeat. When you travel, the massive Erdtree at the center of the map looms over the horizon, always reminding you how little and insignificant you are in this colossal world. There are demigods, dragons, giants,  giant wolves, giant bears…

They even have giant ants, ladies and gentlemen. I mean come on, how in the hell can you not be playing this game right now?

A word that could describe your existence in this game is pretty simple: “insignificant”. As you progress and get stronger, the game constantly reminds you that you’re not the strongest being in the game, and that you’ll never will be. Most of the time playing the game, you’ll be met with an outrageous boss, which the game will then ask you to leave in order to go find a weapon big enough to kill it. This perpetual cycle of building a stronger character, or finding a stronger weapon is how the game reflects your progress. It’s a simple trick performed perfectly by FromSoftware to keep players invested into the game

It’s a constant balancing act of keeping your character at a decent level while implementing your new skills/weapons efficiently in combat.

I kept thinking about all this as I played the game. Having to maintain that balance determined how my character was leveled up, and it determined how I went about playing the game. Since I wanted to make a strength-build, I knew I needed to explore as much of the world as possible. Exploring more of the world meant more XP, and also meant more weapons and crafting materials for me. I did all this work so that I can yield larger weapons, which in turn would deal more damage. This was a repeating cycle throughout the game, and it has been the cycle used by FromSoftware in almost all their games.

This constant effort into exploration led me to finding not only really good gear, but also new materials and mobs that carried more XP.  It, most of all, it led me to finding lore about the world, which is the first point I want to talk about.



1 - The Lands Between

Elden Ring’s plot essentially boils down to its creation. The world is known as “The Lands Between”, which was formed by an unknown entity known as "The Greater Will". This entity created the world and charged Marika, a queen, to keep the world from falling into chaos.
To maintain order, and to continue the royal line, The Greater Will chose people would be deemed "pure". These people lived on the surface world, mainly in Leyndell, the royal capital. Meanwhile, those who were deemed unfit were known as the "tarnished", which is just Elden Ring’s version of the word "outcast".
Basically, The Greater Will didn’t see tarnished as people and thought that they weren’t good enough, so she threw them away. What an amazing creator, huh?
Anyway, The Greater Will eventually entrusted similar, god-like powers (given by the Erdtree) to Marika. Needless to say, Marika abused her power, and the world eventually fell into destruction and war. The demigods (or children) of Marika divided up the lands and waged war against themselves. Many of their wars ended in stalemate, the cost being the complete destruction of their territories.
All of these events happen many years prior to the story told in the game. When Elden Ring starts, the story  revolves around you, a tarnished, arrive with the goal of becoming the next Elden Lord. Remember, you're tarnished, you're a nobody. You have the entire world against you, and you want to become the single most-powerful person in the world. Quite the dream for someone who technically doesn’t even exist to the rest of the world.
Like all the other souls games, it's a pretty depressing story. You’re a nobody who eventually succeeds at a task many have failed, and that’s what makes you special. This story, and its social hierarchy, was what I kept thinking about during my play-through.
I kept thinking how I'm just a man who’s attempting the impossible, as so many before me have tried to do, and ultimately failed.
Overall, the game's story is pretty cliché, since it's just the original story told in Dark Souls but rebranded. Nonetheless, FromSoftware did a nice job of telling it. One feature they used really well for their tale was world-building.



2 - A Decaying World

Rather than discuss every part of the game all at once, FromSoftware takes advantage of their massive landscape and scatters pieces of information over it.
A lot of Elden Ring’s story comes from the design and atmosphere of the game’s regions. Throughout the game, you are constantly traveling through destroyed villages, manors, churches, and castles. Caelid is a great example of how FromSoftware uses the environment to tell a story. Caelid is a region of Elden Ring you begin exploring mid-to-late game. It is a nasty, chaotic cesspool of death and plague.
You see, when “The Shattering” (the war between the demigods) started, two of the most powerful demigods, Melenia and Radahn, fought within the territory of Caelid.
Radahn eventually won the war, and banished Melenia from the region. Unfortunately, Melenia poisoned and destroyed the entire region of Caelid with a nasty plague called “Scarlet Rot”. Even though Radahn won, the land is now desolate. Due to this, the war’s conclusion is considered a stalemate.
What I love about this game is it doesn’t give all of this away originally. So, for every region of the world - not just Caelid - there is a story behind it, and it’s up to you to to find documents in order to piece the story together yourself. When you finally figure out what happened, it makes the destruction you see around you that more profound. You realize the wars had a devastating effect on the regions and their respected flora and fauna.
Castle Morne is another great example of environmental storytelling. The way to the castle is guarded by stone giants and soldiers, but when you approach the front entrance and take the lift up to the castle, there are bodies and rubble scattered everywhere. Soldiers hang from ropes hundreds of feet in the air, bodies and equipment lay in piles that have been ignited, and the remaining soldiers are fighting a massive horde of enemies. Seeing this, you slowly piece together there was a revolt, which is even confirmed by the castle commander, Edgar.
These are just a few examples that I wanted to mention, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones. Elden Ring’s world is filled with multiple areas just like Caelid and Castle Morne. Adding on, Elden Ring’s world is so meticulously crafted, when you play it, it feels like you’re there yourself.
The world is massive, which is even more impressive that FromSoftware went in and made every part of this map super polished and detailed, and that’s what I want to talk about in my next point.



3 - Exploration

Like I said before, this is a big game. There are caves, castles, ruins, villages, churches, catacombs, islands, cities, mountains, and lakes that you can explore. Each area has its own set of interesting NPC’s, cool mobs, helpful collectibles, and fun side missions.
This specific aspect of the game reminded me of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, mainly because there was so much to discover. I remember playing Breath of the Wild and thinking how full the world is, and I kept thinking the same thing when I played Elden Ring.
There are people to find and talk to, items to collect, buildings that require a puzzle to be solved in order to enter them, creatures and mini-bosses to fight. The list goes on and on, and I always caught myself saying, “Damn, when do the layers to this game end?”, only to realize they don’t. It’s just idea, idea, idea, idea, and you get to experiment with all of them.
One of my favorite areas was the Altus Plateau; it was filled with so many things, and it was the main area for mid-to-late-game content. This game has scattered all its content over the entire world, but I’d like to mention this area in particular. You’re never walking into a landscape and getting bored because there is nothing to collect, or there are no boss fights. You’d probably get bored of traveling through the open world and exploring in this game; but even then, the game throws in mini-arenas (known as Evergaols) and other environments where you can fight mini-bosses. It not only allows the game to be filled with more content, but it also keeps you invested and immersed with the world and its story.
There are definitely moments where I would get bored of exploring the open world, the secret cities, the dungeons/catacombs, and the mini-boss fights; but, if that was the case, I would always have the option to continue the main objectives.
In my opinion, FromSoftware did a fantastic job with the open world and story for this game. The flora and fauna are all different from each other, but also unique to the region of the world they inhabit. There is always something to discover, whether you already went through an area or not. Even on other play-throughs, I’m still finding things I didn’t find previously, which goes to truly show how massive and detailed this game is.



4 - Animals, Mobs, and Bosses

When it comes to detail, the inhabitants in this game take the cake. The inclusion of a large variety of animals allows for a more immersive world. Adding on, the design of the mobs and bosses are absolutely amazing. I’ve previously mentioned how Elden Ring has made flora and fauna for each region in order to make them feel more specific; the same goes for the bosses of the regions.
The mini-bosses and main bosses can vary within each region. You can be on a large plateau and you’d have to fight a cavalry knight, and then go to a volcano and fight a giant lizard that spits lava.
The main bosses are all unique in their design and attack strategies. My favorite boss fight had to be the final boss fight, or the boss fight against Godfrey, the first Elden Lord. Both had some crazy attack moves, and their concept designs were really interesting. Godfrey has an insane grab attack that can deal a lot of damage if you’re not careful fighting him, which was… a learning experience.



5 - Damage and the Progression System

Speaking of damage, let’s talk about my first complaint about the game. If you read my reviews for other FromSoftware games, you would know that I have had a problem with their progression systems and damage inflation. Whether it be reinforcing your weapon, or leveling up your character, the older games did it pretty poorly. Of course, these mechanics were reformed and got better in ever release after the original Dark Souls.
Fortunately, FromSoftware did a tremendous job with the level system in this game. It helped me maintain the balance of leveling up my character and practicing fighting with my new skills, which was the balance I mentioned earlier in the review.
The only progression system I believe still needs some improvement is the weapons progression system. I think having the more simple titanite chips, chunks, and slabs was a lot easier to memorize than learning what weapons need what smithing stone. Don’t get me wrong, you come across smithing stones pretty frequently, but having to find 16 separate versions of smithing stones is not my ideal way of upgrading my weapons.
Another complaint I had for this game was the damage. I like challenging games, but attacks that take half your health (or all of it when you hit late game) for damage is not challenging, it’s complete bull. This was a problem people had on the game’s launch, and it still is a problem. You figured FromSoftware wouldn’t fumble the ball with this function after nailing it so many times with their other releases. It basically made the game hours longer because you didn't have a lot of chances to mess up; so, when you did, you had to restart the boss fight.



6 - Collectables

Collectables are key to expanding your inventory and finding better gear to get you through the game. Exploration and combat plays a big part in finding collectables, because the mobs and corpses you find in the game drop weapons, materials, and neat weapon skills called “Ashes of War”.
Ashes of War are collectables found throughout the world. They can be dropped by little beetles that scamper around certain areas within all the regions of the world, they can be found in chests and secret areas, or they can be dropped by bosses after you defeat them. You can equip them on to your weapons to deal more damage and use a skill associated with the ash.
Personally, I used fire and blood-type ashes of war. There were two in particular: Flame of the Redmanes and Bloody Slash. Both allowed me to do massive damage, and also gave me the chance to stun some enemies during combat.
Overall, the collectables were a nice addition to the game. When I didn’t feel like exploring or fighting, I would just go and wander the map and try to find random collectables.



7 - Graphics and Music

This game is absolutely amazing to look at, no doubt about it. I loved taking a break from the story and riding on my horse around the world. My favorite place to wander around has got to be Limgrave, the starting region of the world. It was a very peaceful region of the game when you rode on horseback. Overall though, I always loved to just go out and explore the entire world. Everything in the game looked so beautiful, especially Nokron: The Eternal City. That place was awesome.
What was even better than the game itself was the soundtrack. Every boss fight, every encounter, and every region of the land had its own had an outstanding song to it. There were even times I would catch myself humming the main menu theme when I wasn’t playing the game.
The boss fight music, specifically, is my favorite part of this game’s soundtrack. The bombastic drums and brass, combined with the orchestra was absolutely amazing to listen to. Out of all the parts of the game, this one was my favorite.



Final Thoughts

Overall, this was an incredibly well-made game. Great combat, great music, great combat, great everything.
I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, but it’s definitely one of my top 10 favorites now that I finished it. I’m actually going through another run right now to see if I missed anything (which I probably did). Steam says I have like 70 hours into the game; I’m going to bump those numbers up.
I cannot recommend playing this game enough. If you have a computer or a console capable of playing this game, I recommend you do so, and I hope you guys enjoy!

I give Alexander a 9/10

About 9 times out of 10, nostalgia is an emotional byproduct when we remember something we value. Sometimes, when I'm sitting down with friends, the "do you remember” question pops up in conversation. And more often than not, it sends us on a trip down memory lane, and we eventually find ourselves talking about topics we consider nostalgic.
Looking back on my own childhood, there's a lot there I hold near-and-dear to my heart.
I remember the large, one-story house my siblings and I lived in.
I remember my dad coming home from the University of Nevada, Reno with a box of dry-ice so we could make dry-ice bombs.
I remember my parents, who helped build pillow forts that would take up the entire living room.

But, most of all, I remember video games.

I didn't grow up rich; I never got the newest consoles or video games. On top of that, I was bullied, so I never really made any friends. The only "friends" I had were just close relatives: my aunt Morgan, my uncle Matthew, and my cousin Alejo. These three were in middle school/high school when I was growing up. In short, they were my main connection to the popular media, movies, and video games at the time until I started middle school.

My cousin, specifically, is the main reason I have such a passion for playing, reviewing, and designing video games. I cannot begin to describe his effect on my life, so I’ll just say he was a pretty big role model for me growing up. He and my aunt Morgan introduced me to a lot of the games I still consider personal favorites, and they both showed me how beautiful video games can truly be.

So, why am I talking about them? Well, because they were the first people to introduce me to The Legend of Zelda. Im not sure if any of them are Zelda fans still, but I definitely am. And my passion for the franchise all started when I played Ocarina of Time.

It would go without saying my nostalgia for this game is through the roof, since it was one of my first video games I played. It’s 2022 now, and this has been the first time in like a decade I've sat down and played this game all the way through.
Playing through this game again, I found a lot of things I enjoyed, as well as an equal amount of things I didn't like.
I'll dive into all that later in the review, but let's focus on the plot for now.

Ocarina of Time, like every other Zelda game, focuses around the story of Link saving Princess Zelda and the world from Ganondorf, an evil warlock with an army that has the Triforce of Power to lend them strength in their battle against good. Unlike the previous Zelda titles, Link has been taken to the Lost Woods by his dying mother. Her hope being the Great Deku Tree would go on in her place to raise her Hylian son as a child of the forest. The Deku Tree grants the mother's request, and takes Link under his wing.
Unfortunately, as Link ages, he becomes riddled with nightmares about Princess Zelda and Ganondorf. When the time comes, the Deku Tree confronts Link, telling him the nightmares he's been having are visions of the future, and tells young Link that he is the prophesized "Hero of Hyrule".

Now that we have the basic story, let’s take a break from the narrative, and start breaking down the game by its layers.

First, let's talk about the controls and the camera. This is a Nintendo GameCube version of the game, but it has the same button mapping as you would have on a Nintendo 64 controller. The controls, lock on system, and camera weren't modified in any way, making it play exactly like the Nintendo 64 version. In fact, I can say that nothing - the U.I., the graphics, and the sound design - were improved on for this version of the game. The only noteworthy difference I will mention is the "Master-Quest" edition, which is a harder version of the original game that comes with the GameCube version.

The speed of your movements, from the turn speed to the acceleration of Link across the game-space, is incredibly fast. I would often find myself over-correcting myself on a turn during exploration and boss fights, which would negatively affect my defensive strength.
The camera doesn't stay behind Link either, which is a weird issue, I know, but hear me out.
In Breath of the Wild, you have total control of the camera, and Link's movement speeds do not feel too slow or too fast. Ocarina of Time has the opposite: you cannot control the camera at all with the "C-Stick" on your controller, because it’s used for your items/tools. That means you're constantly pressing the "L-Trigger" on the top of the controller in order to reset your camera behind Link. This would often get annoying, especially when having to fight multiple mobs, or a boss, in confined spaces.

It's kind of unfair of me to compare this game to newer Zelda releases. After all, Ocarina of Time came out in 1998 on the Nintendo 64. However, I do feel that these mechanics could have been improved and implemented a lot better than how they are in this version of the game.

Another topic I would like to discuss is the U.I.
For another brief moment, I'd like to compare this to Breath of the Wild. The inventory, storage, and equipment menus are practically identical, with respected differences here and there. However, I do not feel Breath of the Wild's U.I. is as tedious as the U.I. found in Ocarina of Time. Throughout the game, I was constantly changing equipment, managing my stored inventory items, and checking my overall progress. This is a similar chain of actions I would take when playing Breath of the Wild.

So, why do they look the same, yet feel completely different?

I have a few ideas; one of them is being the time it takes to load the menus, which can be the most-likely reason.
Breath of the Wild is near-instantaneous with its loading in all aspects; mainly, its U.I.  You can easily maneuver around the several inventory tabs to find what you need.  It quick, and it’s efficient.
Ocarina of Time has a 2-second delay before you are able to see the menu. Adding on, the time it takes to rotate between menus is also about 2-3 seconds, and you will need to painstakingly assign each piece of equipment to their respected place on your "C-Pad".
Now, imagine doing that almost 50 times within one dungeon; you’re spending almost 15-30 seconds on the menu screen alone before exiting and continuing your journey.

Although I think the U.I. is bad, I still enjoy the U.I. in the game. I like to think that Eiji Aonuma, the developer of the Zelda series, went back to this game and redesigned the U.I. to be more efficient, then put it into the 3-DS remake of this game, as well as Breath of the Wild. It would make sense, since both Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild are similar in function and style. Granted, Ocarina of Time's U.I. does have an old-school with its formatting; but, other than that, they’re similar.

When it comes down to the story, I have no issues, whatsoever. Ocarina of Time's story is still my most favorite one in the entire series, with The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword being close-seconds.

I feel that the sound design for every tool, item, dungeon, and segment of the game fits perfectly. As young Link, you always have an uplifting tune playing in the background when exploring Hyrule Town or Hyrule Field. When venturing to Eldin Volcano, it becomes tribal, which fits the Goron personality. Lake Hylia and Zora's Domain are mysterious and pretty, so they have a hint of mystique to their respected tracks in the soundtrack.
The same can be said when you switch to adult Link halfway through the game. As a kid, everything is innocent and friendly. Then, Link turns into an adult, and everything is lifeless or destroyed. You have a eerie silence in a desolate Hyrule Town, which is usually bustling with people and merchants. Going to the temples as an adult, you understand that you are treading on mythical, sacred ground, and must be careful as you explore further.
I'm genuinely impressed at how well the story, soundtrack, atmosphere, and characters have held up over the many, many years since I've played this game. Aside from how it looked and played, this game still felt brand new, and I was so excited to sit down and play it again.

Now that we're done discussing the main parts of the game, let's turn to collectibles and side-missions. Again, I really want to compare this game to Breath of the Wild. In both games, you have the option to explore the world for collectibles that could increase your heart count, item bags, inventory, etc.
As much as I enjoyed this aspect in both games, I can't help but feel irritated by it since exploration can usually be a daunting task, especially in a more linearized game such as Ocarina of Time.
Exploration is key to bettering your odds in the dungeons and open world. Exploring allows you to find more equipment, fairy fountains, and money. I'd say the only reason it sucks is because it puts a stop to all your progression. The concept alone is interesting, but when implemented, it's just another RPG, where you're stuck for hours and hours until you level up your character enough to progress through the next dungeon with a fighting chance.

The mobs were not an issue alone either; it was when they were implemented with the poor controls, the washed-out graphics, and U.I. that they became a problem. Like in every other Zelda game, there are certain weapons you use to kill certain mobs easier. This means, however, that you will be constantly rotating through equipment in the U.I. throughout combat, which gets pretty annoying.
On top of that, some of the mobs deal a ton of damage, which is detrimental if you don't have enough hearts and if you didn't bring any fairies/heart-potions with you. Like I said before, it's a neat idea that has been used in many other Zelda games, but the implementation of both ideas was fumbled in Ocarina of Time. The mob damage became a major problem in the last stretch of the game, because the final stretch is practically all boss fights.
I wouldn’t say it devalued my experience, but it definitely irritated me enough that I noticed, and wanted to see something different.

An another note, side-missions are a good way to get equipment upgrades and pieces of heart. There are even some side-missions that, once completed, give you tools to make exploration and collecting a whole lot easier. I didn't have any problems with the side missions really. There's no set time you need to complete any of them by, you just need to make sure you're in the correct time of day/night in the game.

The final thing I wanted to discuss was the game in general. I usually look up guides to Zelda games, since they're sometimes difficult to navigate through. So, I looked up a walkthrough guide on Ocarina of Time and used that to find my collectibles and equipment.
This was a minor inconvenience, mainly because I still *vaguely* remembered where items were, but I couldn't imagine playing this game without a guide on my first playthrough.
There were definitely some moments in the game where I became completely lost, and it took forever to figure out how to move on to the next area without looking at a guide. If this was my first time playing, I'd take off major points for this small but very crucial part of the game.
I understand how hard it can be to get invested into a game, and realizing you don't know where you're going and what you're doing in the first place isn't much help to the cause.

I know this is a lot of criticism, but despite its obvious shortcomings and flaws, Ocarina of Time is still an amazing game. And remember, I played the GameCube version, so not all versions of this game play the same way.
The 3-DS version of this game, for example, is absolutely amazing. I personally recommend playing that version over any other one.

Also, there has been a group of people who finally de-compiled the original code and remastered the game for PC’s, which is pretty cool.

Overall, I feel that my nostalgia glasses were on too tight when playing the game again. I remember it being awesome and fun, and I still do. But now, I also think of it as a difficult and confusing game. Even though I feel this way, Ocarina of Time still managed to surprise me and capture my interest until the end.

Playing through Ocarina of Time again allowed me to see how impactful a lot of its mechanics and ideas were on the series as a whole, and it was really cool to see how many ideas were taken from the game and reformed to make a better experience in the newer titles. Ocarina of Time totally deserves to be considered one of the best games of all time, and I'd be more than happy to go back and play through it one more time.

If you haven't played this game yet, I highly recommend you do so using an emulator, a 3-DS, or a GameCube like me.

I give Dampe the Gravedigger a 7/10, and a big ol' shovel.

Out of all the Call of Duty games, I keep the Modern Warfare games close to my heart. Modern Warfare was the game my cousin and I mainly played and bonded over when I grew up. My cousin was a major role model for me, and the Call of Duty games were some that he played frequently.

Revisiting Modern Warfare 3 after playing all the other games in the franchise, I feel that this game still holds up.
It's a pretty brutal story since so many people die, but the campaign is put together well. I feel that the story was similar to Borderlands 3's story, where it's retiring a lot of its old characters and introducing new ones for a new story. And, the ending to this game was satisfying, so kudos to that.

There's really not much to say about this game other than what I've already said: it still holds up. It's a 2011, First-Person Shooter game with massive and intense combat encounters. It's fun, it's engaging, and the missions are well-made. The missions are a pretty good length, and the checkpoints are fairly placed within them.

I think the only complaint I have with this game is how mindless it all is. I play Call of Duty games if I ever want to just play a game I don't need to pay attention to; something that would keep me busy if I have nothing else to really do, or if I don't want to play the other games I have to review.

As much as I want to take the Call of Duty games seriously and actually review them, I feel that I can't with how many games I've already played in the series. They follow the same format, and it just gets a little irritating that nothing new is really added to the table with each new installment.

So, yeah, it's not a great game, but it's not a terrible game. It's enjoyable to the end, but I wouldn't put it on my top-10 list of favorite games, you know? Overall, I'd recommend playing it. If you don't want to, I don't blame you. I don't think you're really missing out on anything massive.

I give Soap an 6/10

 I've held the Borderlands series close to my heart ever since it came out. To this day, I believe the opening for Borderlands is the best opening to a video game I have ever seen.
Something about being a gunslinging bounty-hunter who goes across the chaotic territories of an alien planet was such a fascinating idea to me as a kid. Talking to unique and well-written NPC's, fighting leveling up, collecting loot; these aspects reminded me of the old-school Dungeon Crawlers I used to play as a little kid, and I fell in love with this series.

After playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands II, I figured this installment was going to be another game that leaned heavily on its co-op mechanic, and wouldn't give solo players an enjoyable experience.

Guys and Gals... Let me tell you... That I was COMPLETELY WRONG.

Borderlands 3 is a towering achievement for the Adventure and First-Person Shooter genres. Everything; from the graphics and writing, to the combat and character skills have been totally revamped to create an amazing finale to a story that started back in 2009.

Now I know some of you might not know the story to the series, so I'll learn you a thing or two about it!
The story starts in the first game, which launched in 2009. You are introduced to a futuristic humanity, which has traveled to the farthest reaches of space. One of the planets in particular, Pandora has been known to have alien artifacts, and treasures beyond anyone's wildest dreams. One of the artifacts are known as "Vaults", and they have created a group of treasure hunters known as "Vault-Hunters".
The original group of Vault-Hunters you play as are as follows: Mordecai the Hunter, Brick as Himself, Lilith the Siren, and Roland the Soldier. Each character has their own abilities, and each character is super fun to play as. My favorite character to play in the first game has to be Roland the Soldier, because he has a turret that replenishes your health and ammo when you deploy it. Anyways, as the original Vault-Hunters make their way to a known vault on Pandora, they fight through cannibalistic maniacs, wanted criminals, and clan warlords.
Eventually they make their way to the vault, and instead of finding treasure and other loot, they find an alien powerful enough to destroy the universe. After destroying the alien, the Vault-Hunters make a vow to never open another vault, and to also protect them from others wanting to open the vaults.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 2 kick off after the first game. The original crew formed the Crimson Raiders, a clan that protects the vaults, while the player is able to choose another Vault-Hunter to play as.
The main antagonist is the same in the two games: Handsome Jack. The story  eventually makes its way to another ending, but it came at a price. When Handsome Jack bit the dust, he took Roland and the mechanic, Scooter, with him. Lilith and the surviving Vault-Hunters eventually grouped together and found a map containing the locations to all the vaults in the galaxy. The Crimson Raiders and Vault Hunters eventually go across the galaxy to destroy the vaults, protecting humanity for another couple of years.

Borderlands 3 starts off years after the events from Borderlands 2. The story revolves around a new group of Vault-Hunters, who are dragged into the fight between Lilith's Crimson Raiders, and the Calypso Twins. The Calypso Twins are sirens, like Lilith, and are bringing their cult of maniacs to all the vaults to harness the power of the aliens within them and become gods.

Are we all caught up now? Yes? Cool beans!

To be honest, I have no idea where to start with this game. So, how about we just start with the introduction.
I loved the original's introduction scene, but this one is a very close second. It took the best aspects from the first and second game introductions and combined them to make a very entertaining and kick-ass opening.

The graphics and animation in this game were top-notch. This game has the best graphics, character designs, and voice-acting out of all the games. I didn't have to deal with any framerate or mechanical issues from the game, so that's always a bonus. The game also allows for a lot of exploring, meaning the game's world borders are super lenient, and you're able to climb/crawl to pretty much anywhere.

Overall, the story was well-written. The Calypso Twins were terrible people, but that just added to how good of villains they were written as. Their boss fights were really fun; in fact, every combat encounter was a lot of fun. The combat reminded me a lot of Doom: Eternal and Halo: Infinite; it was very fast-paced, but it was also very strategic. The guns you were able to get from this game were awesome, especially the late-game, "Jakobs" firearms. I think I used Jakobs firearms throughout the entire game because they were so broken and would just one-shot everything.

Characters, missions, and audio-logs all gave a unique spin on the Borderlands universe, and developed the story/atmosphere of this game. I also saw that there were more females and people of color present in this game. It's a small detail, but seeing females and people of color in leading-roles, as well as regular mobs was really cool. After playing the previous games, and seeing that they mainly had white-male characters, it was a nice change of pace to see a diverse set of people rather than the one-note set of characters from the original games.
There were also characters who could be apart of the LGBTQ+ community, and they were extremely well-written. Usually in movies and games, LGBTQ+ people have a very stereotypical character design and attitude; however, in this game, you don't really know they're gay or whatever until you are basically at the end of the game. I want to argue that they were my favorite characters in this game just because of how well they were written and voiced by their respected voice actors/actresses.
I also loved seeing returning characters, and I liked the majority of the new characters/villains.

Adding on to that last bit, the returning items, easter eggs, and references in this series have always been great, but I've finally noticed the majority of them in this game due to the amount of exploring and fighting I was doing. One reference I really liked was Penn & Teller, who voice acted for their bosses, Pain & Terror. That was awesome.
I also found a grenade mod that referenced Major League, which is one of my favorite movies. There was a mini-boss names Sloth and Captain Thunk...
You can just sum it up and say that this game took everything from my childhood and made references, items, or easter-eggs out of them. It was flipping awesome.

This game had really a good selection of Vault-Hunters you were able to play as; I chose Moze, and she was awesome. I like Flak and Zane, two other playable characters, but Moze has to be my favorite. Moze was the "Gunner" class, so she has a deployable mech as her special ability. When you level up as her, you are also able to increase your weapon and mech damage. It's super rad, and late-game Moze is an absolute beast.

Playing co-op was a lot of fun, but so was playing solo. This game plays a lot like the first one, which I really appreciate. The game is never too hard or too easy, whether you play solo or co-op. There are some difficulty bumps, but you easily pass over them after killing a couple of mobs, or completing a few side missions.

The only downside to this game that I had in my notes was that you need to have a Shift account to play it. There are a bunch of games where I've needed to create an account in order to play online with friends, but I don't like doing it.

Other than that, I had no real problems with this game. Borderlands 3 was a masterpiece of a game, and I definitely recommend you all pick it up and play it sometime.

I give Vaughn a 10/10 

 As a kid who grew up poor, with parents who didn’t like violence, my library of games was pretty limited. While people played Halo on their Xbox 360, I was playing NickToons: Attack of the Toybots on my Wii. While people were raving about GTA V, I was raving about getting to level 55 in Wii Play: Tanks.

Some of you might be thinking: “Damn, his childhood must have sucked balls.”
Well, let me tell you; I will gladly take Wii Play over any other game, okay? Who needs GTA V when you can play billiards and cow racing? Cow racing, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyway, as much as I loved the games I had, I still wanted to play games my friends were playing. It wasn’t until middle school where I actually started collecting games on my Steam account.
You know, I now know why I have a such a profound love for old-school games today. It's because I never got to experience a lot of them growing up.

Who would have thought, huh?

The first souls game I ever played was Dark Souls III; you all know this. I played multiplayer, and got my ass handed to me by other people playing online, while my older cousin sat beside me being a guide.
Eventually, I went on to beat all three games, but around the same time I was introduced to Dark Souls, I started playing the original Demon’s Souls. At the time, I didn’t think much of it; all I remember was that it was super difficult, and most of the bosses just one-shot me. I think I only got through about… 20% of the game before I passed the controller over to my friend and let him finish it for me.

Playing this new remastered was… interesting, for the lack of a better word. On one hand, this remaster is probably my most-favorite souls-like game. On the other hand, I can’t help but feel the same way I felt after playing the original.

In the story, you are a knight in a world where soul-arts exist. Think of the arts as weapons, and the souls are used to make you more powerful. Because of this power, mankind fell into a major war with Demons, who arrived through a dense cloud of fog. Needless to say, the humans lost, and the demons ended up taking over the world and started consuming souls for power.
You, the knight, try and kill one of these demons, but die. Before going to the afterlife, you are saved by the Maiden in Black, a sorcerer who recruits people to go and kill the demon lords.
So, yeah, your whole goal in this game is to kill demons, gather their soul power, and eventually drive the demons back into the fog, so humanity can prosper.

It’s basically the same story as the other souls-games, the only difference being you now have an actual enemy your pursuing, and it's not about prolonging an age or anything like that.

Starting out in any souls-like game is a major pain in the butt. You have no heavy-hitting weapons, no good armor, and your stamina and health bars are very low.
Not only does this game have those fun little characteristics, but it also has a mechanic for when you die. When you die in the game in human form, you will turn into a phantom and lose half of your health bar permanently until you defeat the next boss. You can use a “stone of ephemeral eyes”, which restores your body, and in turn, your health. However, there are few in the world, so it would be stupid to waste them every time you died.

The first few things I want to talk about are problems and solutions. Throughout this entire game, I questioned the game's mechanics. Why are healing items so expensive? Where can I farm/buy ores to upgrade my weapons and shields? Where can I go to farm souls so I can level up easily? Why does the heavy attack take so long when I'm using my freaking FISTS?!
All my problems had the same issue: difficulty. This game is very challenging, and it wasn’t going to give me anything easily. I knew that going in, yet somehow forgot, and thought this game was going to be a piece of cake.

I had to work my way through the game and explore every bit in order to progress. Every problem I had, I eventually found the solution. This took a lot longer than anticipated, but I ultimately really liked going through the process when playing this game.
It gave me a sense of progression, even though I wouldn’t have really gone anywhere in the game. Being able to solve my problems, while letting me experiment with items, weapons, and magic gave me a strong sense of progress and success, it helped me learn how to maximize the pro's of my character, since I was making a specific build.

For that reason, my first big praise about this game has to be the U.I. System, and the level-progression system. Both are really in-favor of the player's needs, which give way to easy level-building and easy weapon swapping.
Out of all the games, this game is the most lenient when it comes to leveling up your character and providing sufficient means to farm souls.
Usually in the souls-like games, it takes only a couple of level-ups before you will have to start farming tens of thousands of souls for the next level. It has been, and still is, a mechanic I despise.
In this remaster, the developers made it so that acquiring souls and leveling up was extremely easy, you just needed to find the right world and spot to start farming them (Spoiler alert - go to the shrine of storms and farm the skeletons and grim reapers there. They drop thousands of souls, and it's an easy way to level up quickly).
Adding on, the U.I. has also been changed.
Instead of having to press "Home" and navigating through another menu before being able to equip new armor and weapons, you press "Home" on your controller and are immediately able to start changing your character's equipment. I really enjoyed this, and I was even able to change my loadout during some boss battles.
I think the only thing I don't like is how it never shows your resistance bars. For example, there's an area completely covered in poison, and you have to walk through it. You never know how much time you have before your resistance gives out and you are officially "poisoned". It's not that big of a deal, but there were times when I was fighting, and then I'd get the plague status. It got on my nerves.

The area and monster designs were spectacular, and the PlayStation 5 graphics really helped them pop-out and give this game a whole new level of atmosphere and in-game storytelling. I liked it a lot.
The combat was fulfilling and a lot slower than FromSoftware's newer releases such as Elden Ring. This gave me a lot of time to heal and study attacks a lot easier, leading to a lot of easy victories. The remaster also had that glitch from the original, where you can just shoot at the boss/mob and it won't really do anything, and then die. That was funny, and it helped me beat the game a lot faster than the first time I tried it.

Honestly, I had a great time with this remaster. I haven't played it in a long time, so it was like playing it for the first time again.
Some things I have to point out though: NPC's are really difficult to come by, for some reason. The merchants have outrageous pricing for some items, and some of the checkpoints are absolutely stupid.
There were times where I died to a boss, had to respawn at the checkpoint, and run through and entire area before attempting the boss again. It was kind of stupid, but then again, it wasn't that much of an issue.

As much as I enjoyed it, I felt the same sense of want like I did after watching my friend beat the original. I wanted more boss fights, more areas, more puzzles, etc.
The problems I had with this remaster didn't take away from the experience, but I just remember them during my first playthrough with my friend all those years back. It made me believe that all the developers did was make the game look prettier, while doing nothing to develop the actual game.

I don't know though, the game was fun in its original form, and it's still fun to play now, remastered. So, I guess the developers didn't really need to work on the game's mechanics after all?

This game also helped me appreciate the other souls games a lot more. The other games are already unique in their own way, but small aspects from them are all taken from this game. It's like Demon's Souls was the original outline, and FromSoftware took parts and made individual games for them.
An example could be the ephemeral eyes from this game; it acts similarly to the embers you can use in Dark Souls III.
Another example could be the grass jelly, and how it acts similar to the LifeGems you can find and use in Dark Souls II.
In a way, I guess I could call Demon's Souls the Half Life of the souls-game genre, since it revolutionized how games can be played and enjoyed. Furthermore, both are games that had installments afterward, bringing more to the table creatively and technically.

Anyway, yeah, that's my little spiel on Demon's Souls: Remastered. It was a polished version of the original - with a few distinct differences - that was as entertaining and as fun to play. I might go through and play it again, and I highly recommend you all to pick it up yourselves.
I know that there are like... zero available PlayStation 5's to play this game on, so it might be tough to play it.
If you find a P.S. 5, though, and you play it; tell me what you think. I'd love to hear your experience with the game.

I give the Dirt Merchant a 10/10 

Prep your garbage cans, because I'm going to tell you about a video game that's such a super-stinker that it should have never been released... ever.

Let's just get something cleared out of the way: I am not a Call of Duty fan. I think the games are just mindless shooters, and there's not much depth to them besides that. A lot of people like Call of Duty, so sorry for trashing on your franchise. I, personally, really like Call of Duty: World At War, just because it was my first Call of Duty game I've ever played. But, yeah, other than that, I think the series is kind of lame.
And what better way can Activision show how lame they are than making another World War II, First Person Shooter, and calling it Call of Duty: Vanguard.

I also need to point out that I despise Activision as a company, I think most of the people there are awful and just don't care about making quality games anymore, or treating their coworkers with respect; especially women. The only reason why I played this one was because you guys wanted a review, and I wasn't going to back out of playing it like a coward.
No, I put my big-boy pants on and bravely stepped foot into the Thunderdome with this shit-storm of a game. And let me tell you, I hated almost every single thing about it. I don't even know where to start when explaining how terrible this game is. I've played a lot of stupid and boring-ass games in the past, but this one takes the cake. It astounds me how Activision dumped so much money into making a video game on World War II, one of the most famous history topics discussed today, and made it boring. I've never seen a gaming company drop the ball so hard, even though they practically had it in the bag.

I'm going to be brutally honest, everything just sucked about the game. The characters were dumb, the combat was tedious, the dialogue between characters was cringe as hell, the music didn't match with the vibe of the combat or campaign mission, the overall story was stupid. I mean, you can sum it up and just say Activision tripped over itself HARD with this game. I really enjoyed the mission in the pacific, I think you played as the pilot in that mission. But, yeah, everything else was just total horseshit. It took all the bad aspects from previous Call of Duty installments, and made them into the shortest, most arduous and unamusing video game I have played in a while.

For real, screw this game. I cannot recommend anyone purchase and play this game. If you have game-pass for the Xbox or PlayStation, just play it through that if you want to check the game out. I do not recommend buying this game. If you want to kill Nazis, play Wolfenstein. The new trilogy, The Old Blood through The New Colossus, is really fun.

I give Project Phoenix a 1/10, that point being for the 1 mission I actually enjoyed.

Since the release of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, the Halo franchise has had an astounding influence and impact on the First Person Shooter (F.P.S.) genre. With every new Halo release, the developers aimed to push the graphics and mechanics of their video game so that it stood out amongst the other best-sellers of that time. This constant push for the best has ultimately made Halo a strong and beautiful franchise, which has been, and still is, supported by a large fanbase.

Before starting Halo: Infinite, I made sure to play through all of the other Halo games in the Master Chief Collection on Steam, as well as Halo 5: Guardians. And, to be honest, I though Halo 4 was just okay, and I thought Halo 5: Guardians was terrible. I won’t go into details, I’ll just give you a plot-summary of the two games.
In Halo 4, you, the Master Chief, and your A.I. companion, Cortana, destroy an evil alien known as the "Didact", who wanted to wipe out the human race. You can Cortana stop him, and buy humanity some more time to live in the universe and fight the Covenant, another alien race introduced in the previous installments that has been the main antagonist for the first three main titles. However, in order to destroy the  Didact, Cortana had to sacrifice herself, therefore saving you. By the end of the game, you find that this was her ultimate goal, since throughout the game, she tells you that she’s dying - you find out in multiple cutscenes throughout the game. So, you, the Master Chief, are heartbroken that you lost your long-time companion, yet continue the fight against the Covenant. You also continue to keep the halo-rings across the universe from firing so that all life in the universe doesn’t not cease to exist.
Halo 4 had an interesting story, one that kept me intrigued for the entirety of my play-through. Though I didn’t like the combat or the enemies, and I thought the characters were weak and shallow, I thought it was an okay game overall.

Halo 5: Guardians kicks off a little while after the events of the 4th game. I won't go too much into detail, but what you need to know is that Cortana is back from the dead, somehow, and she's now evil and wants to take over the universe. Master Chief in Guardians is apparently going rogue to save Cortana, so he’s wanted by the U.N.S.C. It’s all really confusing, and all the characters, and story overall, end up being really lame.

Personally, Halo 4's story was interesting enough to keep me playing until the end, but the only interesting part of Halo 5: Guardians was the opening cutscene; the rest was just garbage, and the game ultimately added nothing to the universe except a bridge for the next installment.
So, yeah, if I could simplify Halo 4 and 5 into one word, I might go with "clusterfuck"; it's not a nice word to use, I'll give you that, but it sums up 4 and 5 really well. Both of those games were just confusing, messy piles of garbage, and after finishing Halo: Infinite, I found that they weren't really important to the universe in the end of it all.

Why do I say this? I mean, I know a lot of people who like 4 and 5; why would I talk shit about them? Well, the reason why I say all that is because of Halo: Infinite's story.
It's like the developers of Infinite saw 4 and 5 and just re-wrote a story that practically bi-passes both of them. Of course, Infinite does include some aspects from both games so that the story is fluid and understandable, but it doesn’t include a lot. There are only like 1 or 2 plot points taken from 4 and 5, and the rest is new material.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, what do I think of Halo: Infinite? Is it as great at the first three in the series? Is the game a revolutionizing piece of entertainment for the franchise?

Well… No, but it is fun.

To be honest, I feel like it's on both sides of a fence. Although visually/technically impressive, and made with an interesting and compelling story, Halo: Infinite made a lot of small mistakes that ultimately added up and took away from my experience.

In Infinite's story, Cortana died offscreen, again, and Master Chief was beaten by Donkey Kong - Atriox - then thrown into space. When starting the game as Master Chief, you find out that you have been in space for six months, and the U.N.S.C. has been holding back Atriox's army on a halo ring you were sailing to before you got attacked. Your ship, the "Infinity", is basically destroyed and stuck on the partially-destroyed halo-ring, and you are woken up by a stranded pilot, Fernando Esparza.
As you play, you find that the U.N.S.C. have been losing the war on the ring for those six months you were out, and they are now few in number with little ammo and with no real commander. A lot of people had a problem with this. I’m the old games, soldiers would follow you into combat, but now they don’t in this game. However, I thought it fit the theme of the game; the U.N.S.C. has been losing a war, and most of the soldiers have been taken prisoner. It makes send that you, the Master Chief, go throughout the game alone, saving troubled squads and imprisoned marines. I thought it was cool that I was saving stranded squads, and they could go back to F.O.B.'s I captured in order to regroup and strengthen the territory’s defenses.

Throughout the game, you're finding audio logs that detail the time the U.N.S.C. has spent on the halo-ring. I usually don’t look for audio logs in games, but this game was an exception. An entire game could be made just off the audio logs you find, because there is so much information and story-telling found in each one. I really enjoyed how the developers made it so that you’ve been out for six months, and you need to rely on audio logs in order to catch yourself up on what has been happening. On top of that, you find Cortana 2.0, known as the "Weapon", and she helps you fight the Banished and ultimately keep the ring from being repaired and fired. She kind of gives insight to what has happened, but usually she just hammers home that you’ve been in a coma for six months, and she’s been waiting for you to delete her.

That was a really rough summary of the game's story and its important collectibles, but that's all you really need to know. This game ends on a cliffhanger, and I'm glad it does. To be truthful, I really enjoyed the story to this game; I thought it was a major step in the right direction after the mess from Halo 4 and 5. I also feel that this was a good "part 1" to a larger, more interesting story that we might see in the next Halo game.
The story in this game is really sad overall, and I was all for it. I mean, Cortana died, Master Chief lost to a heavy-breathing monkey, and humanity is just barely getting by on the halo-ring. It's a very desperate situation, and you begin to realize that the more you explore and play.
You stumble across dead marines, Spartans, and crashed transportation vehicles. There are even pillars Atriox and his men put up which have the equipment of fallen marines, showing that humanity has been taking some pretty heavy tolls the past six months on the halo-ring. It's really depressing, but it added that much depth to the story and the universe.
So, yeah, I felt that the developers made the right call making this game's story feel so depressing, and I'm glad that the ending ended on an optimistic note. After you beat the game, the game lets you feel like you've brought the U.N.S.C. back from the edge of total annihilation, and you've done something good-hearted. It might just be me, but I liked that aspect a lot.

There are no pre-rendered cutscenes, so the animation quality is a bit low; but, 343 Industries made this game look very beautiful, so I didn't mind the cutscenes that much. I have to say, the opening cutscene to this game is amazing.
I also really want to point out that this is an incredible-looking game. The story, the combat, the graphics, and the exploration all combine together with the open-world style to make an innovating and unique gameplay we haven't seen in the Halo franchise yet.
That being said, the game is open world, so there are a lot of copy and past missions. Honestly, though, I didn't mind the missions at all; I compared this game a lot to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a lot when I played it. I mean, am I wrong to do so? There is a big emphasis on exploration, which yields upgrades, better equipment, and more fast-travel locations. There are squads of monsters you can fight or sneak past, and the game looks beautiful.

Although there is only one real biome in the game, and not the diverse set you see in the other games, I kind of get it. This is part one to a larger story, and the story told in Infinite focused primarily in one area of the entire halo-ring; so, I understood why I was only walking through forests, climbing mountains, and traveling through multiple alien structures that looked practically identical. I just hope that in the next game, we have more biomes; it would be really cool to see a desert, or a snow field, especially with the graphics this game has.

The music in this game is also amazing. The characters, enemies, and combat also play into this a little, making this game action-packed and very fun. I would - most of the time - fly around in a "Wasp" and just listen to the game's music while I searched for audio logs.
Focusing more on the combat, I felt like this game has the best combat in the entire series. The amount of weapons, special abilities, and vehicles you have at your disposal, as well as the game being an open-world sandbox; the game's combat is just fantastic, and I loved all of it. I especially loved the inclusion of ammo crates now. Instead of having to find a similar gun on the ground, you can just walk up to an ammo crate and replenish your ammo. It was very nice to have, and I hope the developers keep them in the next game.

The only gripe I have with this game is the antagonists. The developers kept introducing enemies to you as the game progressed, but never really took the time to develop any of them. They usually just taunted you for the entire game until you killed them, which I thought was kind of lame. In the old Halo games, every major character had a backstory that you knew, so you were more invested in the story.
In this game, it was kind of hard to really be angry at the antagonist, or see them as the true villain since they never really did anything besides talk to Master Chief through a hologram, and then die to him later in the game.

Overall, I had a great time playing this game. I'm thinking of going back and beating it on all the other difficulties, and I'm also thinking about going back to collect all the audio logs and skulls. I definitely recommend playing this game if you have the chance. It's not as good as the old games, but it's definitely up there with them. Like I explained in this review, 343 Industries did a lot of stuff right, especially after the previous two games, but they need to stop making those small mistakes that make the game boring or dumb. In all, I feel that 343 Industries has something really good here with Infinite, they just need to improve on what they did well in this game, and add even better stuff to the next one.

I give the grappling hook a 9/10

 For those of you who don't know, Shadow of the Colossus was a staple in my family as I was growing up. I remember getting a Play Station 2 as a kid, and one of the games I would play was the original, 2005 version of this game. My siblings and I would always fight the first 2 colossi because our Play Station 2 didn't have a memory card, and it was great.
Even though I could only completed about 12% of the game every time before having to get off, I never lost interest in the game. To me, Shadow of the Colossus was such a bold, thrilling title. Though there wasn't much to look at - aesthetically speaking - due to the graphic limitations of the time, the game delivered an emotional story with fun traversal sections and challenging combat.

Shadow of the Colossus: Remastered is a 2018 remake of the 2005 original. The story revolves around you, an ordinary man taking a deceased girl to the sacred land of his world in hopes of resurrecting her. You make a deal with the gods to go out across the sacred ground and slay 16 colossi in order to resurrect her spirit. It is a simple story told very effectively; and, I have to say, the twist at the end is well executed.

The visuals in this game are amazing, to say the least. The developers really did go above and beyond trying to make this game look so aesthetically pleasing. The massive scale of the sacred ground allows for multiple areas such as forests, canyons, lakes, beaches, deserts, and mountainsides to be created within them. As you head from colossi to colossi, you're always traveling through multiple biomes, and as you continue playing the game, the locations of the colossi get further and further away from the starting area. The game therefore forces you to travel longer and longer distances, but gives you more and more areas to explore on your way to the next fight.
I felt that including multiple zones was a smart move on the developers' end, since it reduced the possible disconnect the player might have when traversing what is essentially empty and boring terrain.
The world always has this sense of gloom and decay to it. As you go and extinguish what little life the world has left, you're constantly stumbling across ruins, small animals, and plants. The ruins are always empty and are partially taken over by nature. The small animals are mainly birds and lizards, which scurry away if you get too close. The plants can be flowers, trees, and bushes, but they're far and few in between; the main kind of plant-life is just grass or moss.
When you even kill colossi and then go back to their corpse, you find they have been taken over by nature, and are now large piles of dirt, grass, and rock.

The whole point of the game is to kill colossi, and I feel that the scaling of your character, the creatures, and the world can emphasize a feeling of insignificance. Throughout the game, you travel across these massive landscapes, full of large ruins and canyons, in order to reach these massive battle arenas where the mountainous colossi await you. Loud, thunderous music plays as you fight, which instills a feeling of greatness and importance in the battle that is taking place, even though your opponent is a hundred-times larger than you are. It's these moments, where everything comes together, and you're fighting the colossi; it's these moments where the game is an untouchable masterpiece.

The only problems I have with the game, however, is that for all the work the developers put into making this game look and feel like a modern-day, triple-A game, it feels like they only spent 10 seconds working on a better button configuration and feel to the movement.
Throughout this entire game, your character is constantly tripping over himself, falling off ledges, and going in directions you didn't want to go. Though the waypoint system works better in this remaster, the controls and movement feel the exact same as they did in the 2005 version: clunky and tedious. The camera wasn't redesigned either, so half the time, the camera is zooming in an out, and it never rests in a comfortable position, especially when you're fighting colossi.
When riding the horse, you're always fighting against it, because the developers programmed the horse to follow a specific route.. Instead of being able to ride on the horse on a straight path, you're zig-zagging, and it gets really frustrating when you also have to deal with a bad camera angle.
Another minor issue I had with this game was the collectibles. In my opinion, I don't see a reason why they had to be in this game. The game is way too big and empty to have such a small amount of collectibles. I went out of my way to find some of them when I would ride from colossi to colossi, and there were some easter eggs I enjoyed seeing, like the barrel from another game called The Last Guardian; but, overall, I think it was a bad decision to include them.

I feel kind of bad; on one hand, I feel like every gamer has to experience this game at least once. On the other hand, however, in order to get the reason why this game is so good, and why it has endured so long, you have to deal with really annoying mechanics the developers didn't update with the rest of the game.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed this game a lot. I definitely recommend giving this game a shot. If you can, try and get the remastered version; the original version just doesn't look as pretty.

I give the sand serpent a 7/10 

Playing this game on the Wii as a kid, I thought it was the greatest game in the world. I didn't understand the story, so I always just sat on my couch like, "this game sucks." Nonetheless, I kept playing the game for the combat since the Wii's motion controls were awesome at the time.
Now that I'm an adult, and can actually play video games, I realized that my reasons for loving this game were kind of stupid. I didn't put a lot of thought into this game when I was young, and I waved it off as some game that was only cool because it's a Wii-Zelda game.
To be honest, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a masterpiece of story and game design. Every part of this game is filled to the brim with interesting, action-packed moments that keep you on the edge of your seat.
I loved how the game developers brought so many ideas from its predecessors, such as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, and completely repolished them into a new, unique, and interesting video game.

I played this game on the Dolphin Emulator, and to be honest, I should have just gotten a Wii U and played the HD-Remaster.
Don't get me wrong, the game looked amazing, and the story, combat, soundtrack, and mechanics are all great. However, this was the GameCube version of the game, so there were some things in this game that I had problems with. There was also problems with the emulator I had to troubleshoot, so the game's overall file-integrity was the main issue.

The story is the same as all the other Zelda games: you're Link and are tasked with saving the world by defeating Ganon. This game's atmosphere, music, and characters, I believe, have taken inspiration from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask; everything and everyone is so weird and "over-the-top" in this game. As weird as this game is, it's still a really fun game.
This game's art design, soundtrack, story, mechanics, combat, and mobs are phenomenal. I loved the majority of the areas in this game, the puzzle design, the dungeon layouts, and the bosses. The game looks amazing, but that's probably because I played it on an emulator.
Overall, this game is fantastic, and it's one of the longer Zelda games, so your going to be playing this game for a while.

I had a few problems with this game, and even though they were far and few in-between, they really screwed up how I feel about the game.
For one, since this game was a GameCube game, the movement was incredibly clunky. Having to configure a super-sensitive controller, and play this clunky GameCube game at 60 frames per second led to a lot of times where I would just jump off the ledge.
Another reason this game was bad was the camera. There is no 360-degree camera, you can either pan left or right. You do not know how pissed I got every time I was fighting a boss, and I accidentally switched to first-person view because I tapped the right joystick forward by accident. It sucked...

Those are the reasons I have for this game. On one hand, you experience one of the best Zelda stories in the franchise; but, on the other hand, you have to deal with some really stupid shit in order to experience what this game has to offer.
I recommend getting the Wii U version of this game, it's an HD remaster of the GameCube version, so you get the best of both worlds: the great story and the modern controls/camera-angles.
If you don't have a Wii U, or no money, play the emulated version, it's still great.

I give Midna a 9/10

Kingdom Two Crowns is a game that was recommended to me by a close friend. I was on the fence buying this game, to be honest. I watched the trailer, as well as a bit of gameplay, and yet, I thought I wasn't going to like it.

But holy shit, was I wrong...

Kingdom Two Crowns has been one of the best games I have played in a while.
Everything about the game is so laid-back. The sprites for all the game objects are wonderfully animated. The four seasons of the year provide you with beautiful and unique landscapes you can ride through on your horse and interact with. The different nations you can play as provide you with different characters and world designs, and even different challenges. Throughout all of this, you're given an amazing soundtrack to listen to; multiple soundtracks I might add, each one respectful to their specific game mode.
There are four game modes you can play: the Nordic, the Shogun, the Medieval (actual game), or the DLC. You have three save slots, and you can play cooperatively, which is awesome. So, you can play a game mode with your friend, and also play a different game mode on your own in a different save slot.
Each game mode has the same parameters: six islands, each with "Greed Portals" you can destroy, and power-ups/upgrades you can collect to make your kingdom stronger.

The premise is you're a kingdom that is fighting a war against an alien species called "The Greed". You are a king, or queen, and you collect gold coins to build an empire. Basically, the game is a more laid-back take on the famous strategy game Age of Empires, with an emphasis on a 2-Dimensional, pixel-art perspective, with elements of fantasy.
Now, I enjoy Age of Empires, it's one of my favorite strategy games to play; but, there's only so much of that game I can play before I don't want to play it anymore.


Kingdom Two Crowns never gets old for me. It's such a simple game, and yet it has so much in it. Even though you hit a point early on where the gameplay gets consistent, you never feel that it gets boring, or that there's nothing to do. It reminds me of the mobile game Clash of Clans, because the more you expand and fight "The Greed", the larger your kingdom becomes, and the more powerful you'll be.
There are nights when "The Greed" attack that are easy to defend, and then are are nights when their attacks are extremely powerful, and you are set back a couple of days on your progress. You're always hiring new workers, saving money, upgrading defenses, and exploring the land to find better upgrades. It's insane how much detail and attention the developers had when creating this game.
And there's not a lot of mechanics the game is built off of. You move left and right, walk over gold coins, and then purchase upgrades with said gold coins. It's such a simple game, and yet there is so much to do and explore that the game feels like you're experiencing something no matter how long you play.
 
I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed playing this game. I found myself playing this game for like a week straight every time I had downtime.
In other words: it's a masterpiece of a game, and I cannot recommend enough that you go out, buy this game, and play it yourself. Trust me, you will not regret it.

I give the griffin a 10/10

Labyrinthine was a game I got into after watching Markiplier play it with his friends on YouTube. This is an early-access game, but it surprisingly has a lot of content within it. It has 5 chapters as of right now, all of them about 1-2 hours long, and they're all pretty good.
The game allows for solo-play and co-op, and I think the latter option is the best way to go with this game. I played it with a couple of my friends, and we just had a blast messing with each other and solving the puzzles together. You still get the horror-aspect of the game playing cooperatively, only now you also get to play with friends. I don't really think you should play this solo, just because it probably won't be as fun.

Moving on, the game is incredibly fun. I'm surprised at how much detail and work was put into the first five chapters of the game, and I hope the developers continue to keep up the effort with the next chapters they're wanting to install. The sound, monster, and map designs of each chapter are creative and well-made, distinguishing the chapters from one another.
I only had a few problems with the game. For one, the monster A.I. would break constantly, so you either never saw it, or it would be endlessly killing you every time you got within its vicinity. Another problem I had was how slow the sprinting was; your walking speed is super slow, and the sprint speed is equivalent to fast-walking.
The final thing I had a problem with was the final two chapters of this early-access. The fourth chapter was a dark, underground crypt with wandering monsters in it. It has a great atmosphere, and the map would change the longer you stayed in it. On top of all that, it was a huge map; so, if you've played this game solo and beat that level, respect to you.
The fifth chapter was really nice, but it kind of had the same problems as the fourth chapter. That being: lots of backtracking, huge map, a lot of wandering monsters that could kill you easily, and a lot of the mission "objectives" or "items" were spread out pretty far away from each other, which got irritating.

Overall, this was a really good game, even though it's still in early-access. It's scary, it's challenging; and at the same time, very enjoyable, especially with friends. I definitely recommend checking this game out and giving it a shot. I don't know when the next chapters are coming, but the five chapters they have as of right now are long, fun, and worth a shot.

I give the big crocodile an 8/10

I feel that when it comes to video game choices, the majority of developers struggle with giving the player good ultimatums.
I know that it's kind of a weird opinion to have, but more often than not, it's true.

You look at games like Far Cry 3, where you have the option to kill your girlfriend, or spare her, ultimately getting you a specific ending. You also have Red Dead Redemption 2 on the same hand, where you can have high or low honor within your party, and the story just continues on like nothing happens.
Now, don't get me wrong, these games are amazing, and I think they are very good games on their own.
However, aside from changing the ending you receive, there's really no point to either game's ultimatum. You kill/save your friends as Jason, or you be the best/worst human being in your posse as Arthur; both ultimatums rely on how you feel when playing the game. If you want to be a stone-cold killer, go ahead; or, if you want to be a saint and save everyone, you can do that too.
You can change anytime you want after that decision, and nothing would be affected besides the ending.

I guess what I'm getting at is that there's no real consequence for your actions that affects you, the player, on an emotional level.
There are games out there like Undertale, Metal Gear Solid 3, and The Walking Dead: The Final Season that get you to understand that even in a fictitious, video game world, your actions have consequences, for better or worse. In my opinion, these games have done a fantastic job getting the player to emotionally invest in the game.
 I'd like you to keep all this in mind when I talk about One Shot.

This was an incredible game to say the least.
The story is about Niko, a young cat-boy that wakes up in a dying world. As you explore and stumble across abandoned first part of the world, you come across NPC's that explain to you Niko is "The Messiah" of this world, and his purpose is to bring a giant lightbulb (A.K.A. - The world's sun) to the tower in the center of the world, so that the light can come back, and everyone can be saved.
You're job, as the player, is to guide Niko through this land and give him advice to help him. The only catch is this: you only have one shot to do it.
As you progress through the game, you start to take your objective seriously, and the decision to save the world Niko is in, or send Niko back home, gets more and more difficult to decide.
I really enjoyed how this game has an autosave feature in it. Every time your progress further into the game, it saves your progress, and you can't go back to change what you've done. It's such a small aspect of the game that adds that much depth and meaning to the world and your specific playthrough. It was the main reason why I kept playing the game.

To say this game broke the 4th wall would be an understatement; this game was the 4th wall, and you, the player, would be talking directly to Niko throughout his journey to the tower.
Literally at the beginning of the game, you're dubbed the responsibility of being this game's "God". The game knows your real name, and puts it in the dialogue for Niko and other NPC's during conversations. It's really cool, but freaky at the same time.
Niko talks to you, the player, and you're able to respond to him throughout the entire game. This was another reason why I kept playing, and why I got invested into this game so much.
 
There are some other moments in this game that also further your relationship with Niko. For example, every time you exit the game manually, Niko knows what happened, and gets scared. So, the next time you open up the game, Niko is there trying to contact you, and he's scared, saying "everything went black for a second" and stuff like that.
Another example is the dreams Niko has throughout the game, and when he wakes up, he tells you about them, and you two connect on an even deeper level.

This game reacts to everything you do, and I thought that was a brilliant move on the developers end. It got me to invest further into the game's world, story, and characters. By the end of this game, I realized that finishing the game meant I had say goodbye to Niko and all the other characters I fell in love with, and that was heart breaking. I wanted to help Niko get through this dying world, and when I was finally able to send him home and save the world, I realized it came at the cost of having to say goodbye to all the characters, and accept the fact that I will never see them again. After all, I only had one shot to do all of this, right?

It's such a wonderful game, full of wonderful music, characters, worlds, and puzzles. This is a dying world, there is a lot of sadness and decay happening around you and Niko. But, you always have hope that putting the sun back in the tower would stop the destruction from continuing, and this world can be saved. Even the characters that you meet are so cheery and up-beat, that it becomes your motivation to keep going and save the world.

Then, you finally reach the end, and you're standing at the placement for the lightbulb, you have one last choice to make for Niko. Either way, once you find a way to come back, and you play through the game again, you're left with one of the most satisfying endings to a video game I have had the pleasure to experience.
Now, obviously, I'm talking about the true ending, and like this game, the way to get it is extremely obtuse. However, you can look up a walkthrough and follow that if you get stuck.

I don't want to spoil anything in this review, because this is definitely a game you have to go into blind. It's a game that when you finish it, you wish you could erase your memory, just so you can experience for the first time again.
I cannot recommend this game enough. One Shot is such an amazing work of storytelling that is combined with amazing music, beautiful worlds, creative puzzles, and interesting characters. If you have not played this game yet, pick it up and play it yourself. I promise you, you won't be disappointed.

I give Alula a 10/10

The older I get, the more I come to appreciate the challenging game of this world.
The first "challenging" game I ever played was Dark Souls III, and it was with my older cousin. I would vibe at his house and play video games with him all day, and one that we liked in particular was Dark Souls. For some reason, though, I didn't want to play the campaign, I just wanted to fight people that were online. Obviously, that was a stupid move, because I would just die over and over again.
As I grew up, I would buy and play more challenging games, and I would even go back and play the entire Dark Souls franchise. Upon beating Dark Souls III, I kind of stopped playing those kind of games overall. Elden Ring was out already, but I didn't want to play it; I had my fill of challenging games.
Then, I was on a Discord call with my friend, Alex, and he suggested that I download a PS2 emulator and play King's Field IV: The Ancient City.

The Ancient City is one of From Software's earlier works; like, this is before Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. It is an old game.
Fortunately, it is still a lot of fun.

The story of King's Field IV is similar in theme to all of From Software's other works, where there's a "chosen one" that needs to go on this impossible mission to save the world from darkness. What's interesting about this story, however, is just how brutal it really is.
In the end, you're the hero; but in the beginning, you're practically a nobody. You're given this idol and are told to take it to the "Ancient City" and destroy it. As you go through the game, there are soldiers, merchants, and others stranded among the ruins of the ancient city that are lost and completely alone. Some of them do help, but all of them have this overwhelming sense of gloom and despair over them, which really thickens the atmosphere of the game and gets you further immersed.

One thing you have to know before playing this game is this: you will die... a lot...
I'm not exaggerating, you can die within the first 2 minutes of playing the game. The enemies, and the terrain in this game are complete dick-heads, and the odds are always stacked against you.
I think most of my deaths have to be due to the poor button configurations of this game, but they were deaths nonetheless.

There is a wide variety of enemies in this game, ranging from slow, poisonous blobs, to large, piss-off spiders that will slow you and kill you instantly if you're not prepared. Everything in this game is trying to kill you, and what sucks about that is sometimes, the enemies land a lucky blow, therefore killing you and forcing you to restart hours of gameplay.
There was one mob that I didn't like, in particular. They were lizard-folk, but they looked like the xenomorph from the movie Alien, and these guys were just complete assholes. They moved faster and could attack faster than you, and they always attacked in packs. There would be times where I'm exploring an area, and then I stumble across five of them in one room, and then instantly die. Whoever was responsible for the damage and design of some of the mobs, screw you.

The main reason I'm trashing the enemies and the combat so much is because of the poor controls. I don't know why this game is so bad, but it is. The left joystick moves you forward and backwards, and turns you to the left and right. The right joystick only controls moving your head up or down; and, it's also inverted, so up is down and down is up. The controls are so backwards that they were a constant problem from me all the way up until late-game, when I finally got the hang of them.

I have to give this game credit for its design, because... wow. Some of the areas in this game are really well made. There was one area that sucked balls, but you don't need to worry about it until you're like 3/4 of the way through the game.
Something else I really liked about the areas was how connected they all were. This is a really big game, and you'll be back-tracking quite a bit. This game is really easy to navigate, and you never feel like you are lost. There's a clear distinction between areas you already went through, and places you haven't, and that would be the mobs present. If you cleared an area already, there wouldn't be any mobs. You would also know you're progressing further into the game, because as long as you are going down, you're going the right direction.
So, yeah, if you need to backtrack, look for staircases leading upwards and empty rooms.

I also loved the soundtrack to this game. Whoever made the soundtrack, god bless you; the 1st and 2nd floor theme was, by far, my favorite song to listen to.

Another thing I have to give this game credit for is its progression and weapons system. As you progress through the game, you're getting better and better equipment. They even added in a blacksmith midway through the game, so you can upgrade your stuff. However, that blacksmith is basically useless, mainly because you're constantly getting better and better equipment until the end of the game.
The progression system is really nice. You're always leveling up at a constant pace due to: a) the mobs dropping better XP throughout the game, and b) there are a lot of mobs throughout this game that you'll be killing. So, there's no real need to grind XP at any point in this game, unless you want to get to a super high level and want to have a bunch of H.P. and M.P.

There were some things that might make this game sound terrible, but I actually had a lot of fun playing this game. I've played the Diablo games and some other dungeon crawlers before, but I feel that this game is, by far, the best one I've played. It was so memorable, and the reward was always fulfilling at the end of every challenge, that I honestly want to go back and play through it all again, despite it being a pretty linear game.

So, yeah, that's what I think about this game. I'd recommend it, but you definitely should prepare yourself. Like I said, the controls are pretty bad in this game, and this game is pretty challenging pretty much all the way through. Nonetheless, it's a great game, so check it out when you have the chance. It's a PlayStation 2 game, so you can get an original copy, or download a PS2 emulator and play it that way. I played it on an emulator, and it looked, sounded, and played pretty decently.

I give the King's Door a 10/10. Just see how wise I can truly be, once I put on this ring...
(When you play the game, you'll know what I'm talking about)

There's a lot I have to say about this game, so let's begin.

Honestly, I hate JRPG's. Literally throw any JRPG at me, and I'll go play Minecraft instead. But, things I hate more than JRPG's are anime and turn-based combat. Unless we're talking A Silent Voice or Your Name, you need to get that shit out of my game.

I've played Undertale, Persona, and Paper Mario, and they did great job including anime, turn-based combat, and anime in their games; but, those don't count.
So, when I say that Hyperdimension Neptunia: ReBirth 1, an anime, turn-based combat, JRPG video game; when I say that I enjoyed playing this game, you should go, "Damn. Okay, maybe I should check this out."

The one thing I can compare this game to is Dark Souls II. Both games felt like sandbox games, where there were a bunch of ideas and mechanics within the game, and you were able to experiment with them and make your own unique experience. Overall, a lot of the ideas just sucked, and it took quite a bit of enjoyment out of my experience.

The story revolves around the main character, Neptune, who is sent down to Earth with amnesia, and needs to recover her memory and save the world. The world and the characters are set up to be generic JRPG NPC's, and they're pretty funny. The only difference with these characters is that everyone is aware you're the controller of Neptune, and so they talk to you sometimes within parts of the dialogue. Seriously, there are times where you're playing the game, and it will just break the 4th wall and the characters just start talking to you.

I honestly loved reading some of the dialogue in this game. Some times I would just be blowing through the dialogue, and then the game would say something like, "why did the player make us fight that guy?" or, "I don't know why you're bothering trying to talk, the players just skipping through this dialogue anyway." Most of the dialogue is boring, but there are some moments in this game that are pretty funny and entertaining.

The one thing this game exceeds at is its combat. In other games like Pokémon, the combat gets stale quickly. In this one, you have a lot of areas to explore, and each area is filled with its own unique enemies. Early-game is pretty challenging, since you're at a low level and have crappy equipment. The mobs you fight in this game are weird, in every sense of the word. One minute, you're fighting a dragon, then you're fighting an assortment of blocks called "Tetritz". Even though this is a JRPG, it doesn't take itself too seriously, and I really enjoy that fact about the game.

The only problems I have with this game are major details. For one, the checkpoints in this game are pretty broken. Most of the boss fights have two parts to them, and they're really difficult. If you die in the boss fights, you have to restart everything you've done, and it sucks. There have been countless times where I didn't save, and I had to restart hours and hours of progress.
Another problem I have with this game is the difficulty of some of the mobs. These mobs are called "Risky Foes", and you can't fight them until mid/late-game. For real, I would try and fight these guys at a really early start, and I would always die. It sucked, and I felt that the developers could have done a better job introducing them into the game.

There are some little things I didn't like as well, like common difficulty spikes and having to reset my settings every freaking time I opened the game.

Was it a fun game? Yes, and it was a pretty lengthy game full of a lot of stuff that kept me interested from the beginning to end.
Would I recommend it? Uh... Maybe??? It was a good game, but the other installments are better, or so I've heard. I thought this one is okay, and I'm definitely going to check out the other ones when I can.

So, yeah, that's what I think about this game.

I give Ran-Ran a 7/10

The horror genre is a cesspool of ideas, mechanics, and stories. A lot of horror games today, in my opinion, fail to really scare me in a respectful or creative way. I find that a lot of games today such as Poppy Playtime, Summer of '58, and especially Five Nights at Freddy's focus a lot on cheap scares to freak you out. Not only is Iron Lung an indie horror game, but it also creates fear through the most minute mechanics of the game.

The story of Iron Lung is a unique one. The solar system, Earth included, has suddenly disappeared, and humanity is hanging on by a thread. The event has been named "The Quiet Rapture". The survivors still in space have begun to search for a new home, and have stumbled across an alien moon with an ocean of blood. You play as a convict, who is tasked with going into "The Iron Lung", a crudely-made submarine made to explore the depths of the ocean. The problem is, since the pressure of the ocean is so intense, you are being sealed into the submarine, and the only visibility you have comes from a poorly-made map, and a camera that only takes grainy pictures.

The game starts, and you're immediately having to plot your way on this crappy map, through an ocean of blood, toward a location where you need to take photos. You have a set amount of oxygen that steadily depletes, and the submarine continues to groan as the pressure continues to increase around you. The more locations you go to, the more sounds you hear outside the submarine, and the more problems you have to deal with in the submarine.

For a quick moment, I have to talk about the sound design, because it is freaking great. Already, there is a small amount of fear in not being able to see. Then, there is an even greater fear produced through the sound. The sound from the sub is fine, but it's the sounds and groans from the outside that are eerie and terrifying.

The photo mechanic, coupled with the sound design, is what makes this game so good. You're in an alien ocean, full of blood, and you go to locations in order to take photos of... something. The photos are, half the time, indiscernible, and the claustrophobia starts to settle in.

This game is like 20 minutes long, but it was such an amazing work of horror. I highly recommend checking it out if you have the chance. It's super cheap on Steam, so go and get it while you still have the chance.

I give the big fish a 9/10

When it comes to the Modern Warfare series, I remember enjoying Modern Warfare 2 the most. The story of Soap and Captain Price against Colonel Sheppard, in my opinion, is a really good story. I loved the flow of the combat and the missions, I thought they also did a great job with the dialogue.

Usually in Call of Duty games, the dialogue sucks, and the combat is kind of garbage. The dialogue and story is the main reason I hold the Modern Warfare games in high regard compared to the other Call of Duty games.

Overall there's really nothing to talk about aside from the good story, combat, and missions. This is a pretty solid game, and I heard that they're remastering it, which is pretty cool. I recommend playing it at least once.

I give Price a 7/10

Borderlands 2 is the second installment in the Borderlands series. The story kicks off right after the events of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, so you have a lot of returning characters, and a small amount of new ones.

Overall, this game plays and looks just like the other games, the only difference being the story. This game is easier when playing cooperatively, but if you like a challenge, I'd recommend playing this solo.
I played it solo and thought it was just okay. The fights in this game are set up for cooperative play, so they're big and challenging when you play solo.
I also recommend playing cooperatively just because of the skills and abilities the heroes have. I played as the "Commando", and I really liked him. Of course, you can choose to play as the "Siren", the "Gunzerker", or an "Assassin". I just chose to play as the "Commando" mainly because he has a deployable turret, and he has perks that buff his assault-rifle damage.

There's really nothing to complain about, the game plays just like its predecessors, and it has a good story. The only thing I would complain about is how difficult playing solo is, but this game isn't meant to be played alone really.

I recommend this game, but get some friends to play it with you. It's a lot more fun that way.

I give Claptrap an 8/10 

If you ask me what my favorite video game of all time is, I will probably respond with Luigi's Mansion. For real, I have beaten this game about 11 times now, and it still slaps.

For those of you who don't know, I got into video games through my older cousin. This was one of the many game he had at his house that I would play, and I would argue that it's one of the first Nintendo games I played growing up. Immediately, I fell in love with it, and I continue to love it to this day.

You would figure that since this game is pretty linear, I'd get tired of it, kind of like how I got tired of playing Dead Space 2, but that's not the case.
In this game, you're Luigi, who wins a mansion in a contest he didn't enter. Pretty soon, you find out the mansion is haunted, and it's on you to capture the ghosts and save your brother, Mario, who has been kidnapped.

This mansion is full of treasure, ranging from coins, to pearls, to diamonds. The ghosts you capture will drop pearls, but everything else you can find by interacting with the objects and sucking up mobs. Your goal is to collect as much money as you can, because at the end of the game, you rebuild a mansion with that money. When you rebuild your mansion, you have certain ranks you receive; "Rank A" is the best one, and it's technically the mansion you receive for the "True Ending".

The mansion's difficulty is also randomized. There would be times where I'd basically make the "perfect run", and then there were other times where the ghosts would be super difficult and I wouldn't be able to capture them in one shot. It's a really small detail, but it honestly makes the game super fun, because you never know if the game is going to be easy or hard.

There are also elemental tokens in this game. There's a fire, water, and ice token that you receive, and they're really fun to use. After capturing a fire orb, for example, you'll be able to spew fire from your Poltergust 3000 like a flamethrower.
The ghosts will even have elements to them as like a defense, so you'll have to counter their element and then suck them up. The tokens also allow you to find treasure. For example, you can water plants and they'll give you emeralds or rupees. It's really unique and creative, and I always have a lot of fun playing this game and using those tokens.

The ghosts in this game, as well as the soundtrack, are my favorite in the series. People like Luigi's Mansion 2 and 3, and they have every right to; they're good games. However, the ghosts and mechanics are just not the same as the first one.
The first game is really simple, and its replay ability is very high because of its fun exploration and combat. The second and third games have weaker combat, in my opinion. The stories are good, but the combat mechanics and exploration, the mechanics that got me to fall in love with the series in the first place, weren't well-developed.

Overall, I love Luigi's Mansion, and I feel that it's the best in the series. I highly recommend playing this game if you have the chance. The emulator version is really good, but the GameCube is as good of a game.

I give Professor E. Gadd a 10/10