Something went wrong. Try again later

slax

This user has not updated recently.

1229 1281 31 18
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

Slax's 2022 GoTY in Progress List

Wow, 2022 and still COVID, how exciting.

2021 was a strange year for gaming for me personally. At the beginning of the year I set out to discover what made a game personally worth playing. After a lot of rumination and thought I think I have the inkling of an idea, but I'm still not sure how that will affect what games I choose to play, or fully understand why some games stick and others don't. I will say, that keeping this list does encourage me to finish games, even if only at the beginning of the year.

New rating scale this year, because, why not!

  1. Bad
  2. Meh/OK
  3. Good
  4. Great
  5. Exemplary

We'll see how we like it. I think it does a better job at accounting for the biases we have when selecting a game (i.e. we mostly will only pick games to play that we think we will enjoy) and flattens the bottom of the scale, as in the past what is the difference between a 1 and 2 star game, or on a 10 point scale, a 1 through a 4.

This list will once will again act as a bit of a journal of games I played in a year. Games I finish will obviously appear, but so will games that I have started, put some time into, and decided to be done with them. The truncated scale might have trouble with these games depending on why I put them down, but too be fair, this is how I enjoy a game, so maybe it'll just be a low score and that is that.

Also, these are not reviews, as much as thoughts that give my feeling on a game. The writing is going to be...rough. Sorry!! :D

November Update - So far this year has really made clear how difficult it is to have too many "life-style games". I can't really keep up with FFXIV and play other stuff, the monthly fee makes me feel guilty. And, while early on I saw the appeal, having too many Battle Passes is a sure way to stop enjoying every game you are playing. In a year where I wanted to play my backlog of JRPGs, I haven't really done that and that's largely thanks to these games that suck up hours each day just trying to keep up on dailies, or in FFXIV play a never-ending JRPG, which kinda counts?

I also played a fair amount of Valorant, OW2 and now Gunfire Reborn again.

List items

  • *****

    Got the 100% achievement, #49 Global Leaderboard as of 7/22

    I've never been a time-trial type person until this game. Something about having gameplay that is so instantly familiar, yet with so much depth to learn, just made it click so instantly. I'm decent at an FPS, so why not use those skills to climb the leaderboard. And it was so fun! I gotta thank the GB community and a little bit Jeff Grubb, for filling out the friends leaderboard which gave me something to shoot for. And before too long I was like, ohh, I can climb on the global leaderboard too, this is great!

    I'm basically cutting myself off of this game. I could keep grinding times, try to go for the Heaven and Hell rushes (although that isn't what I like about this game), but it's perfect to me right now.

    I've put almost 75 hours into this game, and no matter what Grubb may say, while that's a lot of time, not nearly as much as I would need to go for WR times or get good at the rushes. But that's okay! I had a top 10 time for a while, and felt invincible!

    The story is cool, the much maligned writing is good actually. Nothing about the story and characters is transcendent, but it's enjoyable! And the gameplay is transcendent, which really keeps pulling the strings.

    I don't know, this is 100% ramble, stream of consciousness, feeling the high of both getting high on the overall Global leaderboard and also, being free? Like, I can play other games now? That'll be fun.

  • *****

    All Endings/Achievements: 3/29

    This is my favorite Souls game (I haven't played Bloodborne yet, so it's not a definitive ranking) and my second favorite FROM game behind Sekiro. Elden Ring felt like the map and some of the design philosophy of BoTW done in all the right ways for me that clicked in a way that BotW hasn't yet. It's such a great example of what an open-world game can do and feel like. I really enjoyed exploring it and it's just such a huge game. I loved nearly everything about it.

    I truly can't wait until the lore videos all come out and explain what seems like a really cool story!

    My three minor knocks against this game are:

    The combat will still never be as good as Sekiro. I don't think it can be, so it's not really this games fault, but playing this game made me miss Sekiro.

    Co-op in these games need to be overhauled especially with the open-world design in mind. I should be able to summon someone anytime (whether or not the area boss is alive) and we should be able to stick together until we decide to be done. I'm fine if the host dies everyone goes back to the bonefire and has to move from there, but stopping the flow of the game to resummon everyone and try again, and not be able to be as aggressive since you are scared you'll ruin the co-op experience, is a pretty big bummer.

    Finally, they broke new game plus. I think Dark Souls 2 did it best, where there was actually changes in new game plus, but at least the other games had better versions of rings/talismans and other things to collect. It doesn't seem like that is true in Elden Ring, which means that just like Sekiro, while it's cool to feel powerful, it drains a bit of life out of the game once you've finished your first playthrough. And since the game is so large restarting feels daunting. I almost wish they added a mode that some other RPGs did, where there is new game plus, game gets harder you keep all your stuff. And a reincarnation mode or something, where your stats and Runes all reset, but maybe you can keep all your items, it just takes all your weapons back to +0 or something. That might be ideal, but also, just don't be dumb like me and start over and have fun, at some point. This is a long-ass game.

    Otherwise I adored this game. The ending open areas are not quite as great as Limgrave, but who can blame them, Limgrave is divine. I spent just over 100 hours on my main character doing everything I could find and had a great time.

  • *****

    Lots of playtime, still going strong.

    Snap does so much so well, that any short-comings, while glaring, are often easy to overlook. The core loop of very quick games of small decks that you can see 75% at least every game create a satisfying approach to trial and error as you slightly tweak decks to make them hum. The locations being the random element is what stops games from being stale and adds to your strategy on how you let them help or stop them from hindering your gameplan.

    Plus leveling up cards, which just makes them look cooler, is real fun! Like the whole collection level system, where, even if you don't spend money, as long as you are doing quests and playing games you will get all the cards (although pool 3 gets a bit hairy there for a bit) is real rewarding.

    The season pass could reward you a bit more, for sure, but overall I think this game is real smart and fun. I hope it keeps evolving and continues being enjoyable for months to come.

  • *****

    Finished 3.0 August 15th

    Turns out FFXIV has its hooks in me again. What an absolute banger of a game, although I suppose some of this rating has to do with Red Mage being my new main and simply being a delight to play. So fair enough Stormblood.

    I fell off this game in early 2020, which is wild, since I had the most amount of time to play then. My job became work from home, and going out wasn't something I was willing to risk. But alas, it took getting a new job and loads of vaccines I guess to bring me back, and I'm glad I am. I don't know that the story hits as much as I think it should, but I have so much fun with the game and the spectacle, and some of the moments are just so cool. It's like Advent Children (am I gonna get shot) the story is just a bunch of people talking nonsense, but then the power of friendship throws someone into the sky defying physics, hell yeah!

    Anyway, I'm gonna keep playing this game, and try to keep taking my time and enjoying the journey!

    October Update (The in-between expansions feel so much harder to get through, I don't know what it is, they are still story and stuff still happens, but the motivation just gets sucked out of me)

  • *****

    100% one playthrough, maybe newgame + probably not 6/17

    This is a vast improvement over the original game in so many ways, and makes me excited to see where they take the sequel.

    The first thing I noticed was the way that Miles swung, it was a little more haphazard and that made it feel better I guess. The trick system was way more enjoyable, and the combat was a huge step up. Turns out losing half the gadgets to have cool electricity moves is a great trade. Not only that, though, decoupling the finishers from the healing was also a great choice. The combat feels way more fluid and fun, the game can throw more enemies at you and it still feels manageable thanks to all the new toys.

    The story is good here, there is a little too much TV talk at the end, where you wish people would just communicate, and when you get into situations like that, it seems like you could've made some choices to really make the story sing. But overall the characters are great, and the game was just about the right length!

    This is all extra surprising to me coming directly off playing a lot of the original game. I figured burn out may dampen my enjoyment of the game, but really seeing the differences so clearly, really made this game feel even better.

  • ****

    All achievements as of 2/13

    It's really hard to say anything negative about a $3 game like this that has so much going on. Such a simple and fun concept. The fact that runs are limited to around 30 minutes at the most makes this game feel more contained than other games like this, making it easier to play 1 more.

    Big fan!

    Ed. - HoloCure, the free hololive version of vampire survivors is also good!

  • ****

    Finished 12/30

    What a lovely little game! I decided to organize my entire steam library as it was getting out of control, and found this well received game and figured I'd give it a shot and had such a good time. It's cute, the mechanics of tacking pictures is fun and for the most part the puzzles are pretty breezy which I enjoyed.

    The only mark against this game, is that the game was pretty particular about specific puzzle solutions, meaning you really need the guide on to see if the game sees what you are seeing (which I totally understand from a game developer perspective) but it meant when I took a picture of the man with a mustache and the game was like nahhh, I figured I took the wrong picture and went elsewhere. Only to later find out, I had to zoom in more so the mustache registered as it's own entity and then it worked. This just meant that some of the puzzles didn't feel as fun to solve because I was second guessing if I had the solution wrong, or just needed to take a "better" picture.

    But that was such a small gripe, it was fun traveling around, taking people's pictures and the ending was gorgeous!

    I know there is some post-credit stuff that was added, but I may be ready to be done with the game now. It was such a specific and perfect vibe, I'd hate for it to wear out its welcome.

  • ****

    I found someone to play fighting games with and am having a real good time. I knew I was always on the edge of just jumping into one of these games, and I think I'm more on the edge than ever! It still hasn't made me want to lab combos a lot or grind the online so much, but I will play and have a great time. This game is easy enough to pick up and do cool stuff with, and learning more and more what can be done is super rewarding.

    The lobbies are fine, and I haven't really figured out if I care about the single player, but all of this has made me v excited to maybe deep dive into SFVI.

  • ****

    Played 50+ hours 12/18

    Played this mostly co-op with a friend across the country, and having a co-op Slay the Spire (but more finicky, get to that later) is great! Having someone to teach you the ropes though almost feels vital, as the game doesn't really onboard you as much as just show you a bunch of options and sends you on your way.

    This game also suffers from triggers on cards having slightly confusing definitions (could use a consistency pass all throughout it's text) but overall this is a real fun deck building game. And it is totally enhanced with friends. I want to jump more into the more random Obelisk mode, because I think that seems even more fun.

  • ****

    Finished: 1/2

    So close to getting this finished in time to put it on my 2021 list, I mean I suppose I still could, but this seems more fun.

    I had a bit of trouble with the beginning of this game, not the fault of the game, just having a moment of overwhelming amount of things to do and not really understanding how the game was going to help facilitate it. Honestly the game does it really well, helping track quests, having Skyrim (I mean it makes sense) dialogue trees greyed out when you have exhausted the dialogue, and having things that guide you along the way, it isn't as daunting as it might first seem. Honestly it is a rather small game, it just takes a bit to fully grasp what it may look like.

    Once I got passed that first hump, I enjoyed my time! The story is interesting in how it unfolds, some of the characters are compelling, and some of the dialogue really impressed me allowing me to select options in a way that represented how I felt. It's a fun world to explore and the world building they do, while not wholly new, is done really well.

    On the other hand, some of the philosophizing doesn't feel as deep as the game wants you to believe, and over half the characters just have once problem for you to resolve and then aren't really characters beyond that. I'll also say that the game probably didn't need to have "action elements". They allow you to skip most of them maybe, but in an attempt to see everything the game had to offer I jumped in. They are easy and probably not worth it? The "horror' that is also a part of this section, while not scary, I think is well done.

    Overall had a wonderful time with this game, and am always excited to play a game in a couple of sittings that really clicks.

  • ****

    15+ Hours Played

    What a relaxing delightful game. It is a great podcast game and a great task list game. Will continue playing, and thoroughly enjoying my time.

  • ****

    Finished (You get it) - 5/28

    PoE is the middle ground between Diablos II and III. While at its core, it is much more complex than Diablo 2, because of that, the community has spent so much time creating all of these wonderful tools, that once you get used to (this game has quite the ramp up to setting it all up) it actually simplifies it a lot making it feel slightly more approachable than a Diablo 2. That is, if you are fine following a guide, which you probably should be in this game. It combines that with the speed and variety of a Diablo 3. So, it's a perfect game, yes?

    Well, kinda. It's a lot of fun, and you can, like me, get through the entire story of the game into the end-game without spending any money. But then, stash tabs, you are gonna wanna buy stash tabs. Which is fine, but it does mean this game can't keep being free unless you have the patience of a saint.

    There are some design limitations that I don't love in this game. Respec is an item that can be hard to get early, so not following a guide, or experimenting (like Diablo 2) is frowned upon. Trading is back to being in person, I'd love some sort of auction house, or hybrid solution to not have to do that. And not integrating a lot of those external tools directly into the game does mean that the setup process is a bit like getting a minecraft server up and running. A lot of work downloading other tools and getting them all working before playing the game, which you may love or loathe.

    But there is just so much content in this game. The 10 Act story to get to the end-game. So many different activities to do in end-game. They aren't all winners, but if you don't like 'em you can just skip! I really found myself enjoying my 2 weeks of playing 72 hours or so. And then, as is inevitable in a game like this, I find myself wondering what I'm still gearing up for. PoE has a lot of end-game bosses and harder versions of them, which makes it feel like it has more going on than Diablo 3. But did I care anymore? Maybe the numbers weren't going up fast enough (also trying to figure out how to make the "number" actually go up in this game is a research project by itself)? Maybe all of the items I "needed" for my build to get better are super rare drops and therefore expensive to trade for. Maybe I had too many nights where I kinda thought about playing something else, only to get sucked in and realize I spent a lot of time not accomplishing much.

    It's a great game. I'm glad I finally got into it. And now, I think I'm good for a while.

  • ****

    Normal Finished: 1/5

    Let me start by saying fire Bobby Kotick. Simple, no?

    I did not purchase this game when it came out, one, because Acti/Blizz is hard to support and two, because while I had a lot of nostalgia for D2, playing from like 6th grade off and on all the way until D3 came out, I wasn't sure after years of playing D3, the slow pace would be for me. Turns out, it's great! It hits a very different spot than D3, Yellows feel real great to get, and you don't have an end-game build a few hours into the season. I was so pleasantly surprised that I could go back to this game and just really enjoy my time.

    With that said, I think D3 handles difficulty levels better these days, and has Adventure mode and Rifts, which are way more appealing to me than playing through the story multiple times. With nothing but beating Baal better but this time on Hell in my future, I feel kinda content just stopping after running through the game once. Maybe I'll go back to it, or play another character, but I don't think I will right away.

    I also might jump in when they do the release of Ladder with all the class re-balances, but on the other hand, while a new Season of D3 is my favorite part, I don't think I will want to play through the story of D2:R again so soon. Who knows!

    I had a really fun time though, and I'm glad this game holds up so well.

    I came back and played through Act IV in ladder and was having a pretty good time, but something wasn't quite clicking. There had to be a middle ground, a game that still was complex, but more fun to play? Enter PoE

  • ***

    Finished: 12/19

    This game lives and dies by it's "everything is cards" mantra. It's a fun if simplistic JRPG with a fine story that tries some emotional beats that only kind of work, because...well everything is cards. Moving around is okay for most of it, but kinda slow unless you use the teleport feature, which gets turned off in some rooms, so it's okay, because everything is cards. I think I had the DLC that made everything Nier music, so that was great.

    The simplicity is a driving factor though, if it was much more complicated, it would be very easy to drop this game, but because everything flows into the next thing, and it's not toooo far away, most of the time, this game has momentum to get to its end. I don't know if I want to play any more of these, but I think a lot of what it is trying to do works. It's just when it doesn't it gets to be a bit of a slog.

  • ****

    Finished 7/23

    I got a Steam Deck in early July and am honestly surprised that it doesn't seem to remind you this game exists. I remember people talking about it back in March, and it is kind of a tutorial for the deck, but it wasn't until a few days ago that I just happened to remember that this might be a thing I should check out.

    And you know! It's short, lets you learn some controls, and is pretty funny! Is it the best thing Valve has ever put out? No, of course not, but it isn't trying to be, it's just a little hour long experience, and honestly, having a target like that and nailing it is something to be excited about.

    Check this out! It's free. 1 hour. And JK Simmons. And Nate Bargatze (who is also pretty funny and hopefully also not problematic).

  • ***

    I played a lot of this game in late September Early October

    This game is good, bordering on Great, if only it could have a single-player campaign with big robots, and maybe a multiplayer that isn't a BR and has a different TTK. Hmmm, if only.

    I played this game for like 40 hours over a few weeks and I really love the shooting and movement in it, but the BR part, and monetization etc, is hard to get behind. So much of this game is cool, just wish I liked the game modes more.

  • ***

    True Neutral Ending - 10/2

    It took me almost a year to beat this game, huh? Let's get this out of the way first, I had a better time with this game than SMTIV, but in a lot of ways it falls into the same traps.

    In my SMT4 summary on last years list, I hoped that this game would have more QoL improvements to make it fun. And, it kind of does! The running around the 3d environment for most of it, instead of using that dumb map (there still is a little bit of that, but it's fine) made the game feel much better. There was even some stuff to search out, which was cool.

    But, oh boy, was the story just another nothing. I mean the game clearly has characters and those characters have stilted arcs, but it would've been so much better, and probably more motivating if you got to spend any real amount of time with them.

    It is interesting, right, because Destiny was lambasted for not having a well defined story for a long time and having all the good stuff hiding in a Codex (which was not even in the game right?). But Dark Souls, probably presents less of a story, but people love that shit and can read item descriptions and watch videos all day long. All that to say, this feels more like the Destiny issue. I don't think having a more well fleshed out story with characters you get to interact with would make it too "Persona" for people scared about that. It doesn't need a calendar, you don't need to level up social links, just give me side quests. Explain to me what's going on.

    Anyway, my feelings are complicated. I'll continue to play mainline atlus RPGs, because at least the systems are fun. (Am I gonna play Soul Hackers 2? I guess that's what I just said).

    This game just kind of bummed me out. I liked a lot of what it had to offer. The world was cool, the gameplay was exactly what I was looking for, but the story really couldn't pull it all together.

  • ***

    100% all content 6/5

    I really enjoyed playing through this game in 2018, and decided to replay the Remastered version on my PS5 before jumping into Miles Morales (which I'm still very excited about).

    Much of what I liked back then I still like now. The game is beautiful (now even more so, and those faster loading times too!), the swinging if fun, the combat is more than serviceable (although the DLC showed it was far from perfect), and the acting is great!

    I think the biggest drops in my opinion of this game came from the story, which I know has been litigated to death at this point, but just being a cop's errand boy, and really digging into the justice system by way of cops always doing good in the DLC was rough. I found the DLC, which this was my first time playing through it, mostly fine! Getting more conversations with Miles was nice. I also didn't mind the stealth my first time through, but now that you've seen it, it's a real slog just having to go through all the motions again. Plus a lot of the side-content isn't great.

    Overall, I still think this is a good game, and it is doing a lot of good things. It's gone down in my estimation partially from already having played it, and partially because the story which was questionable in 2018, has just continued to be more and more challenged in the years since.

  • ***

    May 15th I won the World Series

    It's cool that this game streams on PC Gamepass. The Road to the Show is mostly okay! I like hitting and pitching and not much else. Good Podcast game.

    Edit - I knocked this down a star because of the rampant number of bugs and weird situations I found myself in. There were times where the game would decide I was a two-way player again and not allow me to use all the perks I had gained. I once was celebrated for breaking the hitstreak record but the screen said, had a 0-game hitstreak. The management just handling two-way players and honestly 1 way players atrociously (If you are slashing .600/.610/1.5 in AA they should probably call you up.

    Anyway, still a dumb fun game, but baseball games have gotten so much better, and this one kinda stumbles.

  • ***

    Finished: 5/28

    The new content about the nature of reviews and listening to feedback was kinda fun! They should have more checkpoints in this game, it seems to break easily meaning you have to listen to the same stuff again just to get to something new.

    Listen, it's an inventive game, we've known that for a long time. I don't know that it's discussion/criticism of game design holds up, not because it's wrong, but because it is all part of discussions we've been having for over a decade. The narrator has a really nice voice.

  • ***

    Stopped after 50 or so hours mid Feb

    If you like Collectible Card Games, but don't like the monetization, then you, like myself, might be drawn to the single-player RPG iterations of CCGs, And this one is good? Great?

    I put like 12 hours into the demo before deciding to keep my progress and buy the game, so if any of that sounds interesting give it a try.

    CCG RPGs do fall into a little trap of not having the same mechanics to level yourself out of a bad situation. While I had fun building and altering decks more in this game than I ever have in real life, once you get all the cards, that is kind of it. If you find a broken deck that may last you for a bit, but the enemies get new cards before you do and those can tip the scale. And then once you are all on an even playing field, then it not just about building one good deck (at least I couldn't make this work) but instead about building decks that counter other archtypes.

    All this to say, I had a great time playing cards and making friends (Persona-lite style) but decided to get out before I burned out. Really happy with my time, but the grind started to get real, and it was just replaying matches over and over until I got a great draw and the opponent didn't.

    Fun game, maybe too much stuff to do, and maybe add some RPG or special mechanics for the main character that you can unlock for an edge. ALSO, the card game itself is fine, but you can definitely feel some balance issues inherent in the system. Fine for a single-player game but not something I'd want to continue in their mainline game.

  • ***

    Finished 8/25

    I wanted a simple turn off your brain, ignore the story, and punch the enemies game while listening to a podcast. And you know what? This is mostly that! In a year where I've been playing (although apparently not really finishing) a bunch of long RPGs, I needed a bit of a pallet cleanser, and remembered that this game has been sitting in its box for months.

    I think this game could easily be better, but it is cool unlocking a bunch of heroes and messing around. I think the combat system (blocks and dodge rolls mostly) doesn't really respond super well to some of the scenarios the game throws at you. Especially if your team is not super synergistic, you may run into encounters that suck the joy out of you.

    But overall, it's dumb, you punch and have some fun! I bought the DLC because I really liked unlocking characters, and I think I would've been really disappointed waiting for them one-by-one as they came out. The first two are just repeatable gauntlets that you fight through, but the fantastic 4 one actually had content and it was chill!

    Overall, it's a good little nostalgia hit, looking at all these cartoon-ass heroes, remembering playing that X-Men one of these back in the day with my family. Won't change the world, but really isn't too bad. Glowing review, I know.

  • ***

    Stopped on March 1.

    This game, much like Borderlands 3 last year, is a fun looting-tooting-shooting game that has a boring story to match. Great co-op fun with friends, and a co-op system that mostly works, which is appreciated. Not really much to say except pretty good game!

    I don't think I care about finishing it, but I did have a good time with it when I played it.

  • **

    ~15 hour-ish playtime

    Maybe people saying this is like Pokemon BotW should have scared me away more than it did. But I just keep buying Pokemon games, I just can't help myself.

    There is some cool stuff here, but it is greatly overshadowed by the story, pacing, and open world that wants you to do a bunch of fetch quests and catch the same pokemon over and over. I think maybe that's why I don't love the Let's Go series either. I don't want to catch 50 pidgey's for the pidgey bonus. I wanna catch one, name it like Big Dunkin' Jr. and move on.

    This is one where I get why people like this game, but without something semi-compelling or even familiar (Elite 4 etc) I just...didn't want to play this anymore. I kept feeling like I should go back, and then felt such relief when I saw that I'd put in this much time and could just, be done.

    I probably "played it wrong" and should've just stuck more to the main story, but I didn't and I paid the price. Gotta break myself of that completionist streak.

  • **

    Finished: 4/4

    Maybe I'm the wrong one. Maybe it is that I didn't have a history with Playstation that made all of the collectibles a trip down memory lane. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe, coming to it a few years later, the fact that the control didn't seem to revolutionize much, means that struggling with controls isn't a fun experiment to see what other developers might do, it's just not fun. Maybe that last sentence was too long.

    Who can know.

    I think this game even soured a bit since I finished it a few days ago. Some of it feels great, and a lot of the tactile touches with the controller are wonderful. But boy did I hate that frog suit. Maybe if the frog suit wasn't my first world I would've felt different about this game. I think I liked it. I just didn't love it, or even like it sometimes. Some of the checkpoints sucked... I did like the monkey suit though, those levels were kind of fun! And anything where you were running around was pretty good, except for the one hit death thing, that was surprisingly punishing in a few spots (not in like a, ooo let's get better kind of way, but like this took a few too many tries and loads kind of way).

    Anyway, from a value perspective it is either a great value (free with PS5) or it's horrible since it's the cost of a PS5.

    Edit - I did drop this a star. I think it's the epitome of OK. Some really cool set-dressing for a game that I couldn't really get into.

  • **

    Finished: 4/13

    I did not like this game at the beginning at all. It felt like the story was a tie in to the movie I was never going to watch, instead of actually retelling/rebooting the story itself. The gameplay at the beginning is slow and not enjoyable.

    Eventually you unlock enough weapons and maneuverability options that it gets kinda fun, and it isn't too long, so I just kinda stuck with it. I think the overall package is not worth it if you aren't nostalgic for the OG ratchet and clank.

    I hope this isn't an ill tiding of my feelings on Rift Apart.

  • **

    Mass Effect 1

    Finished: 1/16

    Mass Effect is a perfect distillation of games in the 360 era. They weren't quite as advanced as what games had done on the PC for years prior except maybe in the graphics department? I used to love this game and going back it is clear that the characters start out fairly one-dimensional, the Paragon/Renegade system is not only painfully simple, but also isn't as good as the Jedi/Sith decisions and effects from KotR1/2. The map is bad, the quest markers are bad, which would be forgivable if the journal was more specific, but it isn't.

    I mainlined this game to move on towards games that I hope hold up better. I think this game is okay, and still might be worth playing for the first time. But as someone with a lot of nostalgia, I just couldn't get over how old it felt. My replay of KotR 2 a few years ago did not feel that aged for a point of comparison, but also that game slaps, so maybe it is a bad comparison.
Load Comments