Ever since I bought my first issue of GamePro in 1992 I've been addicted to reading about video games. I was obsessed with reading about upcoming games as a ten year old. I'd look at screenshots for games like X-Men: Children of the Atom and Mega Man X and imagine how they'd look in real life. I actually read about most Neo Geo fighting games for years before ever seeing one in action, there was nothing else that piqued my imagination more than video games in the 90's. What made this reasonable to me as a developing young man was that, much like Playboy, I'd also read the articles and reviews. Those reviews would ultimately help me decide what choice I would make once Christmas and birthday wishlists were made. Nothing was more satisfying than reading about games like Fatal Fury 2 (Sega Genesis version) or Super Metroid and having the game completely live up to the hype. Of course I fully contributed to the decline of print magazines by completely switching to online publications around 1997 when sites like GameSpot and IGN began to push out more content. While my lust for screenshots didn't officially die until 2001, when I could actually watch trailer videos for games, I made sure to basically read every single review ever published on both sites. GameSpot almost always had the edge on other websites solely because the ratio of good writers to poor ones was ace. It was there that discovered reviewers like Alex, Jeff, Greg and Brad (among others) before ever seeing them on video. They were writing in a less pompous style than a lot of IGN or PC Gamer reviewers, and the shift from the systematic review machine towards a more editorial style helped me stay interested in game reviews as I became a smarter, older human being. It might seem stupid now, but reviews weren't pure opinion and personal testimony back in the day and functioned more like tech reviews with a little squeeze of opinion over the top. Essentially the flipside of what they are now.

Gallery

Anyhow, after reading Brad's review of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (2017) the idea came to me to write a bit about several games that Brad's reviews have convinced me to buy and try over the many years I've been reading his opinions. Why him? It is meant as encouragement for him to write more reviews. They're always great. Plus you'll see I've had a pretty high rate of success when taking his opinions into account over the years... Although I will say that my adventures with DOTA 2 were a horrible mistake and I blame Daily Dota for the everyday horror that is my now in remission DOTA addiction... but that is a blog for another time. I was going to make this a list but whatever. Brad wrote 147 reviews for GameSpot and so far 142 reviews on Giant Bomb. I chose the games that I liked the most, or the ones where I felt like he really hit the nail on the head.

Breath of Fire IV (PSX, 2000)

"Nice presentation, an interesting story line, satisfying RPG-style gameplay, and above-average visuals combine to make it a good game for the RPG junkie who's already plowed through all of this year's other excellent role-playing games."

I was on the fence with this one at the time due mostly to my mixed feelings after Breath of Fire III, which was kind of ugly, slow paced and over-complicated despite how fun it was. What convinced me was the final line I've quoted, it appealed to me as someone who was obsessed with Playstation JRPGs and ripping through them. I loved this game. It was slow-paced but the art style, great writing, oddball skill learning system, and standard turn-based battle style with made it good fun.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/breath-of-fire-iv-review/1900-2592198/

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Dragon Warrior VII (PSX, 2001)

"Fortunately for people who mean to play the game instead of just look at it, Dragon Warrior VII has an RPG core so dense that few current examples of the genre can rival it. How many RPGs--ones that you've played lately--make you fight slimes with your bare hands for half an hour before you can afford a single sword?"

Brad's review of this hot JRPG slab of scary-long ugliness convinced me to buy the game after realizing how stupid it was for me to overlook the game because it was ugly and slow. I didn't realize how incredibly slow the game was, despite having read his review, and I put very nearly 150 hours into the game before realizing I'd made some mistakes with the job system, had a short tantrum, and eventually beat the game. I'd never really played a Dragon Warrior/Quest game before and this was probably the worst possible introduction to the series for how obtuse it was. But I always appreciated Brad's encouragement to give the game a chance and his advice was totally warranted for how much value I got from the purchase.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dragon-warrior-vii-review/1900-2826206/

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Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PSX, 2001)

"Lunar 2's translation is unusually divergent from the original source, which is par for the course for Working Designs; consequently, it's far livelier than most English RPG texts. Lunar 2's characters are made endearing by their words, and though many would criticize the company for taking such brazen creative liberty, the textual changes are truly effective in the end."

This was an important detail for me as a fan of the first Lunar game on Sega CD versions who wasn't sure what to think of the Silver Star Story remake. I had not played Eternal Blue on Sega CD, as it was like $100, impossible to find used and reportedly harder than the first game... but thankfully Brad's reserved appraisal of the game convinced me to buy it. Beyond the endless grinding required to beat the game it tells a really cool story using bad anime tropes. This is one of those games I go back to for the battle system and music rather than the story anyhow. This is another game that impressed me without being so focused on the graphics, which was so popular at the time while JRPGs became more flashy and less interested in evolving turn-based battle systems. I really didn't need every game to be as pretty as Final Fantasy VIII.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/lunar-2-eternal-blue-review/1900-2670150/

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Dark Cloud 2 (PS2, 2003)

"Dark Cloud 2 is simply a class act all the way. Every element of the game, from the georama system to the weapon upgrading to the interaction with a large cast of characters, displays a polish and attention to quality that you find only in real classics."

Eh, the first Dark Cloud game looked pretty great but it wasn't that good. I mean the idea of the georama system was just OK but the controls and combat were boring as hell. It was essentially Legend of Mana made fully 3D, which is great, but the tutorializing in the game was so bare bones that I never got anywhere in it. Brad's review of the sequel not only helped explain the basic things you needed to know to succeed in the game but it put to rest my reservations for trying it out. This was one of those rare RPGs where I didn't really care how it ended or finished because I had so much fun with the loop of the gameplay. Finding weapons and upgrading them and being able to explore more and more became very addictive and the cel-shaded graphics were pretty novel at the time. Level 5 has done better going forward for sure but I think I might have overlooked amazing games like Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy if I hadn't already been in love with their work on this second Dark Cloud game. Curious that they never went forward with other games.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dark-cloud-2-review/1900-2911113/

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Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2, 2003)

"Final Fantasy X's combat had a measured, deliberate pace, but the active-time battle system in FFX-2 is the most active in the series' history. The game's battles flow at an extremely quick rate, almost so quick that it can be hard to keep track of everything (though config options allow you to slow things down to suit your tastes)."

No greater atrocity has ever been committed. The only thing worse than the terrible anime garbage that is Final Fantasy X is its much maligned suicide-note of a sequel. This is the worst filth ever made and the true beginning of Square's decline into japanime nightmare sad-senpai, girly-puff nonsensical drivel. The worst Barbie style makeover ever done to a mainstream JRPG and the worst part is that the horrifying soundtrack exists alongside the extinction-level abomination that is this game. Forget the awful cult of mutants that we call Kingdom Hearts fans, Final Fantasy X-2 fans are literally the worst human beings since Nazis. The annoying frump dweeb hogs from FFX are back and they're fucking pop stars?!?! No, I hate this. I HATE it. Kill everything. Nuke the goddamn planet. Burn it all forever. Oh, but Brad liked it in his review. I dunno I wasn't convinced that it would be good... but I did buy it after reading the review. All of his talk about the battle system and job-changing dresses had me interested in the combat. I have never regretted purchasing a game as much as I regret buying FFX-2. A pestilence upon all who enjoy this deranged J-pop nightmare scenario.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/final-fantasy-x-2-review/1900-6083743/

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Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (GCN, 2004)

"Much ballyhoo has been made about Crystal Chronicles' rather unique multiplayer setup, which (as you may have heard) requires all players to use a Game Boy Advance and link cable to play the game. That's right--you cannot play this game's multiplayer mode without every player owning and using a game system other than the one the game is running on."

Brad's lengthy description of both the mechanics of the single player and the complexity of the multi-player setup was really valuable when I was assessing whether or not I should buy the game. I had a GBA and a link cable, but the game didn't make it clear that you needed one for EVERY player, so a GCN controller wouldn't work. I bought it all the same because I had a friend who had a GBA as well. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to try this game because what I'd seen was kind of ugly and looked like one of those shoddy Shining Force related action games for PS2 but Brad's comparisons to Diablo and Baldur's Gate gave a good sense of what the gameplay was like. I never finished the game, primarily because my friend lost interest and playing the game single-player becomes a real slog. It was also kind of twee even for a GCN game.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles-review/1900-6089013/

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Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GCN, 2004)

"If you've played Metroid Prime, you've essentially played Metroid Prime 2. Retro hasn't mucked with the original, winning formula, so veterans of the first game will feel quite at home resuming their position behind Samus' computer-enhanced visor."

This is my favorite GameCube game next to the first Metroid Prime and Brad's review was more in-depth than most others at the time. One of the few games I literally restarted the moment it finished so I could go back and try a 100% run. In his review, Brad goes in great detail with the changes to gameplay in the sequel and generally just sells the damn thing. I mean beyond "Hey, it's more Metroid Prime, what the hell dude? Play this game." I bought it day one because this review hyped me for it so much. There are few games where I actually seek out the written exposition and general world building found in data logs and the Prime series was just mystifying for me.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/metroid-prime-2-echoes-review/1900-6112996/

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The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA, 2005)

"Another interesting new mechanic that harks back to last year's Four Swords Adventures allows you to create identical copies of Link using glowing tiles on the floor. These copies will attack when you attack and maintain their formation based on which tiles you activated them on, and again this mechanic is used extensively in some of the game's puzzles to create some interesting brainteasers."

The description of these sort of mechanics reminded me of how much fun it was to play Oracle of the Ages, which I think Brad also reviewed, and motivated me to try again with Zelda after Majora's Mask had me wondering why I ever liked Ocarina of time. I didn't really play through Wind Waker in full until it it was on Wii U so some of the references to that game were lost on me. For what it's worth, as I know many people mark this as their least favorite Zelda game, this is an amazing trip of a game. It is the most storybook psychedelic (not creep-core WTF-vision like M's M) of Zelda games, or would be until the more recent 3DS game. I had fun with it and I never felt the need to diminish HE HE HE the value of the game despite it being relatively short. The play with the Minish cap and Link's size changes made for fun dungeon challenges and the controls felt just as nice as ye olde SNES days. Go play it on an emulator, nobody will mind.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-legend-of-zelda-the-minish-cap-review/1900-6116162/

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Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (PC, 2005)

"Rounding out your arsenal is the very artifact that started this whole mess. As you play through the game, the artifact will grant you powers you can activate at will. At first, you'll be able to slow down time for a few seconds, giving you a speed advantage over your enemies. Later on, the berserk power will be added to the artifact, enabling you to punch anything to death with one hit. Finally, toward the end of the game, you'll become invincible when you invoke the artifact... "

Artifact powers and new weapons were definitely something id had communicated previously but it wasn't until I read Brad's review that they actually sounded interesting in the context of a single player expansion. One of the reasons I fell off of Doom 3 after finishing it was the lack of multi-player options and the frustrating final area and boss battle. I love the original game but the first half of it was remarkably better than the second and Resurrection of Evil fully made up for that flaw. I felt like I got a better version of Doom 3 with the expansion and some more combat options. I'd just played through Deus Ex for the first time before playing this and it was nice to at least do more than flip between flashlight and whatever weapon I had ammo for. There is still a need for the flashlight and honestly I loved that you needed it in the original game, it adds a tension to the game that is good fun. Kinda weird that they let you mount the flashlight in that complete doom collection thing for PS3/Xbox a few years back. Brad's continued interest in Doom has repeatedly reminded me that I like those games a whole lot too.

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/doom-3-resurrection-of-evil-review/1900-6121555/

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Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005)

"If all this sounds like a series of massive boss fights that make up an entire game, it's more or less what it is. The designers could have doubled or even tripled the length of the adventure by placing hundreds of lesser foes between you and your ultimate objectives. But that would have only diluted the experience of fighting these beasts that tower hundreds of feet above you and shake the very earth with their footsteps. In other words, don't mistake Shadow of the Colossus' purity of focus for a thin or potentially unsatisfying adventure."

This paragraph went a long way to convince me to give the game a chance despite being turned off by the idea that I would be paying a game without enemies, without leveling up, and without townspeople to talk to. Damnit, this game was the most incredible thing I'd seen on the Playstation 2 at the time. The way the game used the scale of Colossi made the world feel so much bigger than anything else in video games at the time. The horse's flittering mane and tail, smooth animations and headstrong behavior felt like the Ocarina of Time of the future, I was transfixed. I spent countless hours wandering around the world no knowing what to do, fighting the controls for days, and eventually decided this wasn't a game I could rush through. I did eventually need to hit up GameFAQs to help me through to the grand finale though. I never replayed this on the HD remaster and I generally don't like anything else Team ICO has done, but I might try out the full remake once it comes out. A game that definitely made me think twice when recoiling at the idea that games can be "artistic statements".

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/shadow-of-the-colossus-review/1900-6135831/

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Prince of Persia (PS3, 2008)

"Even if the platforming was really tough in a demanding, skill-based way, you'd have no penalty and little frustration due to the game's wildly forgiving death mechanic. In short, you can't die. Every time you miss a jump, Elika teleports in with her fancy magical powers and delivers you back to the last solid ground you stood on. In combat, she pulls you back for a minute to rest while the enemy regains a little health."

This part where Brad describes the platforming and combat mechanics kinda blew my mind. I'd seen screenshots and I'd read about the game a little bit but I had no clue as to how they'd changed the combat mechanics. At first I felt like it was a stupid baby game for babies who didn't like to die but it turns out the game's mechanics actually made it one of the most engrossing adventures I've ever had in a video game. Truth be told this is one of my top ten video games of all time. The controls feel more natural as you play, like any video game, but I was able to get into such a state of flow as I parkour'd and purified my way through the webbed together metroidvania-ish stages. The verticality of the game was impressive and the reward for completing any section of the game was almost always an incredible view. So what if you fall off? There was never any reason to get red-faced and screaming with frustration because I couldn't see where to go next and trial-by-error was actually half of the fun in experimenting ways to traverse hidden spots in stages. I felt this was an important, if not kind of overlooked, entry towards games becoming both "easier" (less punishing?) and more artistic in presentation. It might just be me who loves this game more than your average gamer, but it is still a very bright spot for me in a very crowded last-gen catalog.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/prince-of-persia-review/1900-94/

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Dead Space (PS3, 2008)

"Most of the game's grotesquely mutated enemies have spindly arms, legs, tentacles, and other appendages that you can shoot off with a well-placed shot or two, and you get these satisfyingly meaty snapping sounds and a jet of blood every time you separate another body part."

Games like Dead Space always seem really stupid the same way your typical Summer blockbuster movie does. It looks flashy in the trailers and there are some fun gimmicks to be had, but the experience typically ends up being kind of shallow and pointless once you're done with it. I wasn't going to buy Dead Space until I read Brad's review here and found his descriptions of the fun of the gore-splattering and some comparisons to some other games I liked. Plus the zero gravity stuff was really compelling. His mention of needing a big HD TV to take in the game rang a bell in my head, too as I'd just gotten a large TV and felt the early years of the PS3 were kind of bland. The game itself was just OK, I preferred Dead Space 2 for many reasons and this one felt short and highly repetitive with a few frustrating mechanics. There is something about aiming for a moving target as it runs towards me that just makes me freak out, and it honestly stems from Resident Evil 4, a game I could never finish because I was always too slow and wasted too much ammo missing. I did finish this game once, though.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/dead-space-review/1900-68/

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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3, 2010)

"The game's dramatic scenes are among the most convincing in the business, utilizing Serkis' obvious flair for the dramatic, and the "performance capture" process made famous by Avatar, to fill Monkey, Trip, and the game's one other meaningful speaking character with more lifelike personality and pathos than a dozen text-heavy role-playing games."

Oh man, Enslaved was one of those games that nobody played but the ones that did were generally blown away by it. Brad's review did a lot to emphasize the cinematic value of the game, its expert level cut-scene integration, and creative combat mechanics. Maybe I'm too much of a fan of the game to be saying this, but I always felt like Uncharted 2 wasn't half as good as this game in both presentation and gameplay. This review was important in convincing me to give a game a chance that I honestly would have ignored and written off because I thought Heavenly Sword was kinda bunk-ass garbage that wanted to be Ninja Gaiden. I've liked everything else Ninja Theory has done since, though. If you have this in your backlog I'd highly recommend playing through it, one of the best of its kind.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/enslaved-odyssey-to-the-west-review/1900-320/

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Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (2010)

"What follows from this brief intro is around 10 hours of the series' trademark acrobatic obstacles punctuated by staccato moments of large-scale melee combat. If you played any of those POP games on last-generation consoles, you're already well acquainted with this formula; Forgotten Sands adheres to it so strictly that you still get that broad camera pan across each new environment showing you exactly what combination of pillars, poles, ledges and sheer walls you're expected to nimbly navigate to get to the next section of the castle"

Again Brad steered me back towards a game I was going to write off. I thought it was going to be a cheap movie tie-in but it was actually just a continuation of the trilogy from the previous generation. I loved those games and have probably played through each one two or three times at the least. He was right, though, that this was too much of a throwback to the previous games and didn't necessarily take anything from Assassin's Creed's open world murdering. Had a blast with this game either way, almost got the platinum trophy but the final challenge was essentially "never die, never get hit and beat the last boss on the hardest difficulty" and fuck that I guess. It might look like a B-game to most, but this is another game I can go back to and still be really happy with the look of it and the gameplay itself.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-review/1900-285/

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Mass Effect 2 (PS3, 2010)

"But Mass Effect always had great characters and story. On the most-improved list, however, the combat sits right at the top. The basic movement, aiming, and shooting feel much tighter here, and I'll put them right up alongside any pure third-person shooter on the market. Honestly, I didn't know BioWare had it in them."

There are very few third person shooter/RPG hybrids out there that are any fun to play and Mass Effect 2 is probably the best one I've ever played. While I actually enjoyed the Mako, the inventory management, and the jank of the first game the changes made in the sequel really did serve the story and the moment to moment gameplay in leaps and bounds. As much time as I spent in all three Mass Effect games this is the only one I bothered to play twice to see how other decisions affected the games plot. Is it the best game of that generation? No, but it is one of the best "RPGs that is basically Star Trek" of all time. This is one of the first games I can remember providing DLC that was actually worth paying for as I wanted to see every bit of story and explore every piece of space that I could.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/mass-effect-2-review/1900-254/

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Outland (PS3, 2011)

"Finnish developer Housemarque is back on the right track with Outland, an eye-popping 2D platformer that owes equal debts to Metroid and--of all things--Ikaruga. That odd combination results in a tightly designed downloadable game bursting with demanding traversal, surprisingly deep combat, and lush visual design."

I mean he'd said all he needed to in the first paragraph. Outland was a game that you couldn't lazily scorch your way through due to the aforementioned Ikaruga style mechanics. Every new area felt like a new platforming puzzle rather than a collection of floating sprites to swish a whip at. It got pretty damn challenging towards the end of the game and I never fully beat the game before having a screeching hissy fit and tossing my controller. Was great fun while I was playing it, though and remains one of the better downloadable games that I have on my PS3.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/outland-review/1900-378/

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Rage (PS3, 2011)

"Nearly all of id's games have just been shooters--run forward, blast everything that gets in your way, repeat in next level--and that sequence of events still forms the backbone of Rage. But instead of merely presenting a linear chain of levels joined end to end with loading screens, those levels are now connected more dynamically with a wasteland hub environment that you traverse in your Mad Max-style dilapidated vehicles."

I was going to skip on Rage because it looked like just a stupid post-apocalyptic shooter and Doom 3 had rubbed me the wrong way anytime I went back to it. Brad's review subverted my expectations by describing Mad Max: Shoots up Thunderdome (aka Rage) in the most necessarily straight forward way. It did turn out to be a strange beast that reminded me of Borderlands with it's quirky-but-gory presentation. Rage is an awesome game, though, and once I picked it up I didn't put it down until I finished it. Exploring areas using a quest/objective structure felt like an RPG. I was building an arsenal by traveling to dungeons and killing off everything in sight. The game was lightly cinematic but lets you focus on shooting waves of pretty smart AI bad guys. To this day few things are a cool as tossing one of those silly fan-blade boomerangs at an enemies head and seeing it explode. The vehicle stuff didn't throw me off as much as a lot of other people, once you know the map and understand where enemies spawn you get the hang of it. Also having the multi-player in the game be customizable Twisted Metal was lame, but there was fun to be had if you stuck with it. If you'd played machinegames' Wolfenstein: The New Order you should go back to Rage sometime, you'll find a lot of very similar things happening between the two games and it might make you appreciate Rage more than you did before.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/rage-review/1900-426/

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Mark of the Ninja (PC, 2012)

"You know that feeling in a stealth game when everything feels like it goes just your way, and you clear a whole room of witless guards without so much as a sound? I haven't gotten that feeling since Arkham Asylum, but Mark of the Ninja has it. That's the highest praise I can think to give this game."

Yes, I know that feeling. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter sir, thank you. I love stealth games and have since discovering I could stealth my way through the original Deus Ex. I have no love for Metal Gear Solid, though, which is more of an anime cartoon than a stealth game (much less a "video game"). *spits on the table* Mark of the Ninja is a game I can just replay over and over and still have fun. There is something very satisfying about outsmarting the AI puzzles and making progress through the game that I haven't gotten from any other Klei game. I always like when a reviewer comments on the overall design of a game's stages, I know this is fairly commonplace in written reviews but video reviews and podcast 'hot takes' don't always go into enough depth when it comes to meta-structures of experiences. When I thought about Mark of the Ninja from the perspective of a designer it became even more impressive that the game never drags with the objectives and challenges it gives you, despite being a relatively gameplay experience.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/mark-of-the-ninja-review/1900-525/

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Far Cry 3 (PS3, 2012)

"Enemy-held checkpoints--one of the weakest points of Far Cry 2, due to their neverending stream of respawning enemies--become maybe the best part of Far Cry 3, since they're now a formal type of side mission. The enemy-tagging mechanic of the original Far Cry, and Crytek's subsequent efforts with the Crysis series, is especially useful here since you can now tag an enemy on the fly just by aiming at him for a second, and once he's tagged, you can see his movements clearly through walls."

When I'm envisioning the gameplay experience I might have with a game I'm considering purchasing it is these sort of details that can tip me towards getting the game. Far Cry 2 was such a stupid and frustrating mess of a game, but for all of its frustrations it did reward the player for progress in a way that kept me coming back for more. At this point I was so ingratiated with Crysis and it's expansion that I was rabid with enthusiasm to try a game that looked to be essentially Crysis' earlier island sections combined with an Assassin's Creed style experience. I played this game so much that I literally ran out of things to do. I did every challenge, every quest, explored every part of everything possible. Sure, the story fell on it's ass toward the end but damn if Far Cry 3 wasn't fun as hell to play. In fact I found myself avoiding vehicles altogether so I could take my time exploring and getting surprised by tigers left and right. It's a damn shame I couldn't care less about Far Cry 4, who knows why. That reminds me, I really need to play Crysis again...

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/far-cry-3-review/1900-552/

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Tomb Raider (PS3, 2013)

"In its efforts to paint Lara as a vulnerable but resilient heroine, the game suffers an identity crisis of sorts. It swings wildly between quiet character moments, where you feel every bit of the physical pain and emotional anguish her grueling situation entails, and the sort of ludicrous, over-the-top action this medium just can't get enough of. The contrast is only so irksome because the game goes to such great lengths to legitimize Lara's struggle in the first place..."

Ludo-narrative dissonance was something I hadn't really thought about until reading this review, and it is a good example of a video game protagonist being both the 'lamb' and the 'lion'. It is a great review that re-introduced me to Tomb Raider, a series that I hated because of the controls and stupid as hell movies, as a legitimate sort of game I might play. The fact that it was essentially a Arkham Asylum-ish metroidvania thingy helped too, although I did get sick of pinging to get secrets to show up on my detective vision. I played the hell out of this game and didn't start to think it was stupid until the later areas where encounters increased and the stunts got more and more death defying. It was like when Con-Air goes full off the rails but Tomb Raider just keeps going until the weird ending. I similarly liked Rise of the Tomb Raider, and had trouble forcing my way through the last few chapters due to being fatigued with shit to do and silly gimmick areas meant to halt the rush towards the story's conclusion.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/tomb-raider-review/1900-561/

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Doom (2016)

"In short, new Doom plays like classic Doom, but with some modern twists. The big one is the "glory kill," a feature that lets you stagger any monster after putting a certain amount of damage into them, and then launch into a canned execution move that one-hit-kills them. Half an hour with the game allayed my fears that this feature was a concession to mainstream accessibility, for the simple reason that glory kills generate small amounts of health and armor."

Click-click-click, the sound of my analog stick repeatedly clicking in as I glory killed everything possible. hadn't been interested in Doom when it was first announced. It was just kind of 'out' all of the sudden and I didn't really care because it essentially looked like more Doom 3 but prettier. The years of postponed release and comparisons to Call of Duty had me full uninterested. Though Brad's talk of it on the bombcast and this review convinced me to check it out. While it wasn't as good as Wolfenstein that came before it, Doom (2016) was a hell of a lot of fun to play through. For all of the waxing Brad did in this review I actually found the game's promising early levels and easy-breezy traversal pretty incredible compared to the second half of the game. It started to feel like playing a horde mode in an Unreal Tournament game as I was locked into monster closet after monster closet and exploration for collectibles was the only really redeeming part of the conclusory half of the game. Still, I don't regret beating the game and spending well over 30 hours in the multi-player and snap map portions of the game.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/doom-review/1900-745/

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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC, 2017)

"Hellblade's robust bag of psychological tricks and the sheer fact of Senua's distressing reality result in the game's uncommon ability to capture the feelings of worthlessness, lack of control, of being misunderstood and shunned, the strange mix of hope and despair that can accompany a debilitating mental illness. Much of the credit for this authenticity has to go to the performances, chiefly Senua herself, played improbably but with a piercing intensity by one of Ninja Theory's video editors..."

This is a great review in general as Brad illustrates the narrative audio-visual experience above the gameplay itself. I was weary of what this game actually was after seeing Game Informer's coverage of it, which made it look like shitty third person Infinity Blade. While I was initially disappointed that the action wasn't deeper, this was one of the most harrowing game experiences I've had in a long time. It is deeply disturbing, especially because I can relate to post-traumatic depression and self-doubt. Would not have chosen to experience this game without the review, the Quick Look made it look very frustrating, and I'm grateful that reviews are still happening on Giant Bomb because they're still one of the best ways to convey the gameplay experience before playing the game myself.

https://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice-review/1900-765/

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Well, thanks for jogging down memory lane with me. I thought it'd be interesting to see how one game journalists body of work had influenced my video game choices here and there over the years. I feel like I've had a lot of simpatico with certain games journalist's taste and coverage-lean over the years, that is one reason why I hopped on the Giant Bomb train in the first place.