List items
-
7/10
A game that's carried primarily by its atmosphere. You play a barista who owns and runs a cafe that only opens at midnight; serving the strange customers that come in so late at night. Its fantastical world of demons, vampires, werewolves, and more is interesting to learn about while the cast grapples with relatable issues like romance, racism, and the stress of life. The characters are fun, with every member having complete and satisfying arcs. Making coffee is fun as well, though it almost seems tacked on to the rest of the game. Making drinks serves mostly as a minigame that occurs a few times per chapter and serves no real challenge. People will make their order and if you get them wrong there aren't any repercussions. Otherwise, it's a relatively straightforward visual novel that comes to a confusing and unsatisfying end which is most of the reason why I'm giving it the score that I am. Fun if you like coffee, cozy atmospheres, and lo-fi beats to watch couples quarrel to.
-
10/10
This game absolutely has issues; getting around is largely boring and feels like driving a sled through a mud pile. It presents itself as an open world and yet doesn't offer you any kind of freedom when it comes to approaching missions. The online is a clunky mess of twelve-year-olds perched on rooftops ready to scalp you. Missions are largely "go to _______ and kill 60 heavily armed men with ease" and I can probably think of a few other problems as well. When it comes to brass tax, though, this game is amazing. It has some of the best and most memorable characters and story beats I've experienced in all of the videogames. A story with real depth, emotion, and character growth. I laughed a lot, I cried a lot and I felt like a badass outlaw putting rotten sumabitches in shallow graves. The world is massive and beautiful with interesting side quests allowing you to engage with a plethora of people, solve mysteries and hand out justice as you see fit. It's a pleasure to play and an experience I would recommend to most anyone. One of the best games of all time.
-
10/10
It took me a long time to beat Sekiro. I started it, started to figure things out a little, hit a wall and completely lost motivation despite enjoying what the game had offered me so far. It is a very different beast than Dark Souls or Bloodborne, and it'll punish you for trying to treat it as such. Once you understand what it wants from you, though, it's probably the most rewarding From Software game made yet. Understand and perfect the four main concepts (deflect, jump, counter, and attack) and the game opens up in an entirely new way. The lore that From is renowned for is so refreshing with the feudal Japan setting involved, it presents settings and characters that are unlike any you've ever seen before and likely will ever see again. From Software is untouchable and Sekiro is another notch in their belt.
-
8/10
Remedy is definitely one of the more interesting game companies out there at the moment. From Alan Wake to Quantum Break to this; they're really pushing the envelope in terms of making both story and gameplay equally important. That and their tenacity to include live-action video into all their work makes it immediately recognizable when you're playing one of their games. That they managed to go from Alan Wakes slow and methodical combat to this superhero third-person shooter is impressive in its own right. By the end of the game, I was flying into rooms, grabbing the nearest sectional couch out of the corner and driving it through a gang of otherworldly zombies before they could even react. It feels great and looks amazing. Remedy has provided you with a slew of powers to use in combat and navigate their massive ever-shifting Government building called The Oldest House. The walls shift and bend away at impossible angles, it's rooms are endless and it goes against any sense. The story is equally as complicated, X-Files if directed by James Gunn but still just as smart. The main character, Jesse Fayden, finds herself being brought to this building to find out what happened to her brother who disappeared when they were young. She's met with dimension/time/space shifting monsters wreaking havoc on those who work inside and has no choice but to go in deeper for answers. The characters feel real, and the acting both in-game and live-action is some of the best I've seen in a while. It has enough interesting ideas to keep things feeling fresh all the way through and the set pieces and locations are awe-inspiring.
Its soundtrack is great for the most part with shredding rock segments and originally written songs for the game itself. It falls short in some of the more low-energy areas, however; one song sounding very similar to a young child running around drunk and barefoot one apartment above you kept playing over and over to the point where it was audibly distracting and took me out of the experience. Other gripes would be the games navigation or lack thereof. The Oldest House is massive and complicated, side missions would take me minutes to reach while I'd backtrack through a room for the tenth time, fighting respawning mobs again and again because I didn't realize there was a floor several feet up that I needed have to fly to, and the minimap they provide shopping mall-esque in terms of design and helpfulness. I also found awkward the system that they employed for leveling up your character and weaponry. Enemies would drop random upgrades and materials to craft with. It ends up being rather similar to looting in an MMO and I felt that didn't compliment the rest of the game. It feels clunky and isn't even in-depth enough to do interesting things with your loadout. A Jesse with totally different perks and upgrades performs almost identically to a totally different one.
Control is a really original game: its characters are fun and memorable, it's level design is impressive and mind-bending, the design of this world invaded by strange monsters and possessed objects is visually striking unlike anything I've seen before. It looks fantastic with hyper-realistic faces and animations, crumbling walls and furniture, and great effects on the powers and alien-gun. It falls short in a few, largely ignorable ways. but don't let that keep you away from an extremely impressive example of what a strong story-based game can look like.
-
7/10
-
6/10
-
8/10
Every one of these games is given a score but I'll only be talking about this one. If you had to buy one of these games then undoubtedly get this one. It has the most polish and presents its puzzles and story in the best way. It also looks the best where the other two seem like they could still be in beta. Overall, We Were Here is a fun coop based puzzle game reminiscent of Portal. There are no crazy physics puzzles but the game loves to split you up in two rooms and get you to try and convey strange and fantastical concepts to each other in order to progress. From potion brewing to matching armor and sigils to suits of armor. The game is great for a fun afternoon of puzzling if that's your thing. I picked these up on sale and I don't regret it at all. It really requires you to use your brain and doesn't spell things out too much which I really appreciate in a puzzle game nowadays. There were times where I thought I had thought of every possible solution and that the game was maybe broken but we always solved our way out in the end. If you and a buddy are looking for a challenge on the cheap then go for it.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
7/10
Connor carried this game on his back like an abused pack mule but it's also one of David Cage's best games. Also, the graphics were really impressive, whatever facial tech they're using is great.
-
8/10
pear-sonar
-
4/10
-
9/10
-
8/10
-
8/10
Load Comments