@Kidfried It sounds like the game is one big rebellion against the idea of less being more.
I do intend to get around to it someday, but I'll confess, hearing about the terrible controls and weighty movement really put me off of it. I like my video game movements to be snappy.
Guacamelee 2 - I loved the first one - which I replayed last summer - so very much looked forward to playing this. Like the first game it is a Metroidvania luchador inspired beat-em-up and plays extremely similarly, even retaining the same moves (which are gradually unlocked as you progress through the game).
Despite the familiarity there are a lot of new ideas and the gameplay is considerably more complex - particularly in its often elaborate level design. At times I thought "wow this is clever", but others I swore repeatedly at the TV. Some of the platforming sections are difficult if not downright frustrating, giving the impression that the developers assumed players will have completed the first game beforehand. There is quite a lot of satisfaction in eventually completing a difficult section.
The biggest criticism I have is that controls are a little slow, with a slight delay when using certain moves. In a game that often requires moves to be used in quick succession, it's something that could be a little tighter.
Aside from level design the area that has seen the most improvement is the "chicken transformation". In the first game it was largely a gag and used to move through small paths, but here the chicken has its own moveset and is very effective in combat.
Like the first game there are a lot of "optional" rooms and areas where after completing a particularly difficult platforming challenge you are rewarded with a prize (typically coins, heart or stamina pieces). One late game "chicken illuminati" dungeon is perhaps the most difficult platforming I have ever done in any game.
On the subject of chicken illuminati (yes, a chicken cult), the game has a rather offbeat script that is infused quite a lot of humour.
The game has a pleasing visual style that has been embellished since its predecessor. The vast majority of the music is the same as the first game, however, which I found a little disappointing.
Overall, despite its often high difficulty I enjoyed Guacamelee 2 a lot.
@Ralizah The controls and the game's length, make it impossible for me to recommend it to anyone without hesitation.
I'm now playing Assassin's Creed Origins, and it's so satisfying in contrast. Within just a few minutes I experienced a level of being comfortable with its controls, something I hardly ever had in Red Dead.
But those things have been well documented already of course. Still a very extraordinary game regardless.
@mookysam So uh, you mentioned a delay on the controls. I remember the fighting in the first one also had that a bit. Is it worse now in this game, or largely the same?
@Kidfried It's about the same, though I thought dodging was slightly off at times - particularly with enemy projectiles. However, because many of the platforming sections are a lot more intricate - requiring lots of different moves to be used in quick succession - the slight delay is sometimes more of an issue there.
How bad does a console port need to be when it doesn't even bother to include the CGI story cutscenes that are supposed to be shown between missions?
Turns out, very bad indeed. And that's Splinter Cell: Double Agent on PS3 all over.
After writing about my initial disappointment earlier in the week, I soldiered on and completed it, post-credits epilogue mission and all. A big part of me wishes I hadn't. This single, poorly-optimised mess of a game has taken all of the goodwill I have towards the Splinter Cell series and dragged it into the shadows, knife at throat. I'm not even sure I'd want the franchise to return, and my disappointment at E3's silence on the Sam Fisher front has kinda been replaced by relief... because whilst great Splinter Cell is indeed great, I don't think my love of the franchise could take another average-to-bad hit like this.
To the credit of Double Agent, the fresh ideas kinda held firm throughout. There were good, solid decisions to be made, right up to the end. Stripping away the story meant that some of them had zero context; for example, I had absolutely no qualms about setting up one of the terrorists to take the blame (and subsequently a bullet to the head) for my duplicity, only to discover she was supposed to be Sam's major love interest. Not that I'd have made a different decision (it was tactically the best outcome), but it would've made me stop and think for a moment, and given the betrayal more weight and context for Sam. Then again, I didn't even know why Sam was on a self-destructive undercover assignment to begin with, because the game neglected to show me the important post-prologue cutscene where his daughter is killed in a hit-and-run. I only discovered this last night, by complete chance, whilst browsing around on YouTube. As a result, I feel like I've read a novel in German; sure, I was able to pick up a few key words, but I couldn't accurately describe the plot to you.
What's worse is that none of this moral hand-wringing had any payoff. There's a frustrating anticlimax to the final couple missions, the most generic of the lot, before the screen goes black and says "TO BE CONTINUED..." and I just found myself saying "So what?" out loud to nobody in particular.
The screen goes black a lot, by the way. There's no escaping the mid-level checkpoints, as they intrusively crush any possible sense of immersion and give you nothing to look at but a spinning wheel and the word "CHECKPOINT" in big green letters. To be fair, breaking immersion isn't gonna be a primary concern anyway, not when the framerate is practically set to "PowerPoint slideshow" for almost all of the game. Busy external environments you kinda expect, and there are some particularly chaotic areas later in the game, but even the most grey-brown of corridors stutter and stall. Add to this an antiquated control scheme which sees you wrestling with your DualShock to perform the simplest of tasks, and there's little satisfaction to be had when you eventually do manage to pull off something stealthy and smooth... it's more a sense of relief than anything. "Thank goodness; now I can make a save so that I never have to do that again." Not a happy feeling to have about a game at all.
In fairness, some levels were pretty neat. Highlights included a Shanghai skyscraper, down which Sam had to rappel, dodging helicopters and open windows alike as fireworks erupted over a detailed cityscape. It was very atmospheric and came at a point where the short, simplistic level design had started to allow for the gameplay to gel. I didn't have to restart a checkpoint or manual save more than once or twice (whereas in other levels, it was a frustrating exercise in patience and perseverance to overcome the finickity enemy A.I. and muddy, inconsistent geometry). There was also a cruise ship which was quite impressive, if it weren't for the fact that its sheer scale made it one of the worst-performing environments from a technical standpoint.
But, aside from the terrorist headquarters rest-stops, it's all really linear. There aren't any levels which give you, say, an embassy or office building and challenge you to find a way through. There's often only one route to your objective, with maybe some side rooms you can poke your nose in for extra credit. I feel like I've seen every single corner of every single environment rendered, whereas I know there's dozens of places I never even had to enter in the previous three games, but could if I wanted to. I don't mind scripted, cinematic gameplay in the slightest, but Double Agent seems to be constantly wrestling with itself, whether to be open-ended stealth or tightly-controlled adventure (perhaps fitting for the premise, if not frustrating for the player). There's nothing here to match the quality of the series' best, such as the train from Pandora Tomorrow, and that's a real shame.
All this aside, and my faith in the franchise shaken, I'm still determined to play a half-decent spy thriller. So, up next? The controversial Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Despite my fears, I'm looking forward to it, because I've seen some gameplay before and it at least looks playable (even without Michael Ironside behind the goggles).
Heck, after Double Agent, it's gonna feel practically current-gen by comparison. Don't be concerned; this isn't some tirade against older, less-intuitive games.
Even at launch, this game should've gone dark and stayed dark. Mission failed.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Th3solution Thanks. I'm quietly proud of what I wrote the other day, in the "What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??" topic, when I said that trying to steer Sam around "has felt like trying to steer a milk float with burst tyres. Whilst wearing oven gloves. On the Moon."
Not sure I was able to best that quote here, but it was fun to try.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Lol, awesome. And I should amend my statement. I enjoy reading all your game impressions, not just the bad ones. But the descriptions and analogies like steering a milk float are especially humorous and insightful. 😛
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Thanks to all who responded to my write-up / angry rant yesterday!
@KALofKRYPTON Now that I've calmed down a little, I can genuinely recommend Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory as excellent stealth games. The remastered HD Trilogy on PS3 is a worthy purchase, especially if you can find it for twenty quid someplace. Just... yeah, as it stands, don't bother going beyond those first three games (this coming from me, the sworn defender of mediocrity).
@Kidfried I got that distinct impression. I won't bother seeking a more stable / complete copy in future. The overall design and implementation was just lacking, even in a non-technical sense. It was as though a couple artistic directors had a meeting, threw a bunch of cool ideas up on a flipchart, and then went on a really long lunch, leaving the work experience kids to scramble around and figure everything out as best they could before home time. I'm actually thinking of going back and reminding myself of why I love Splinter Cell, before continuing forward, so good advice! Cheers!
@Th3solution@Ralizah As somebody who prides himself on being "the nice guy" all the time, defending underdogs wherever possible, there is something rather cathartic about allowing myself to be cruel towards something. I'm just glad I haven't reached the scathing wickedness of Roger Ebert... yet!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
I'd had my eye on this for a little while because of all the similarities to XCOM mentioned in every article about the game and finally picked it up in a sale.
The story in a nutshell is classic post-apocalyptic fare with only small human settlements now remaining. You control a group of mutants who essentially act as scavengers for the colony but end up on a mission to find the chief mechanic for the settlement after he goes missing and it all goes from there. It's all a bit weird but works well enough to tie everything together.
The gameplay is pretty fun and is pretty combat focused. The USP here though is that you control your party in 3rd person but can switch into XCOM style turn based combat whenever you want with the general idea being to recce areas first so you know what enemies are around, and then try and silently pick off lone units as you can. Units walk around with a sphere of vision around them and avoiding these lets you perform sneak attacks. Generally going in all guns blazing will fail miserably. For the most part this works well but does get highly repetitive and there's no penalty for running into the enemy's line of sight if you're sure you can take them out in one turn.
Taking on larger groups in the standard combat style is trickier but quite satisfying. There is a small variety of guns but also only a small variety of enemies so, again, it gets quite repetitive and mostly comes down to swapping between the best weapons for robots or living enemies. There's a small roster of character to choose to play as but they're all pretty much the same other than Bormin who has the hog rush ability (which knocks out enemies for two turns) and Magnus who has a mind control ability. Those two abilities are pretty overpowered and allow you to get on top of small groups quite quickly. The EMP weapon attachments, abilities, and grenades make robotic enemies quite easy too. I'd also read the game was pretty tough so played on standard difficulty but this made it quite easy with quick skill cooldowns and full energy recovery after each fight so I ended up with more medpaks than I could possibly use.
The biggest quibble with the game, however, is that it felt like it ended before it got going. The "conclusion" to the story was pretty unsatisfying and almost made it feel like this was just one very long demo with the full game to come at some point.
Overall, it was a neat little game that has it's limits coming from a small studio but after what I got from Hollow Knight, this felt a little lightweight.
It has the slickest turn based combat I've ever experienced in an rpg. Everything moves really smoothly/quickly, it has an easy to read guide on screen that displays turn order, and the bosses have dynamic effects that make them very exciting (as an example, there's an early boss fight at sea, and it'll often move to a different side of your ship. This doesn't effect gameplay, though many of the other boss' gimmicks do, but it adds a level of excitement you usually don't see in turn based battles).
The sphere grid, while appearing intimidating at first, is a pretty straightforward character growth system. Most characters are effectively locked into a set path for growth at the start (letting you get accustomed to how things work), but by late game you'll have the option to break characters out of their own path, and explore other options (you'd have to go out of your way to do so, but given enough time, everyone can learn everything).
It's equipment system is straightforward as well. Unlike other rpgs, gear doesn't inherintly affect stats. All gear has 1-4 ability slots (many have empty slots that you can customise later on), and the only effect they have on you is based on the abilities they have. While a late game shield may have really good abilities, let's say Stoneproof (immune to petrification), Zombieproof (immune to zombie status), and Waterproof (immune to water magic), it won't give you any extra physical defense than that early game shield that only has Fire Ward (diminishes the damage you take from fire magic). Of course, many equipment does have stat altering abilities (such as HP +10%, etc), but that's the only way it can effect your stats, so that makes it very easy to pick what best suits your current foe.
While the story does have it's fair share of technobabble (what JRPG doesn't?), I found it pretty easy to follow, and it has some big twists. It didn't quite have the effect that it did when I first played it on PS2 since I knew the major twists, but it still managed to completely grip me.
It has a great cast of characters, and they most all have their own interesting character arcs. You'll definitely be sad to part with them when it's time to move on to something else.
It has really fantastic world building, with some unique locations, and it still looks really nice cleaned up in HD.
It has some classic music, and I dare you not to fall in love with "Suteki da Ne".
Cons:
Unskippable cutscenes. Not a dealbreaker, but it's annoying having to listen to the same chatty boss' spiel on your second or third attempt.
I thought they should have given more backstory to Yu Yevon. He's just a really old, really powerful summoner who's constantly summoning Sin for no particular reason apparently. It would have been more interesting had he had been one of Zanarkand's summoners trying to get an eternal revenge on Bevelle for the destruction of his city.
Other:
It is very linear. Now, I personally happen to think it works very well for the particular story they're trying to tell, it helps them to keep things moving at a good pace with something of interest happening almost all the time (and I think makes it a great starting point for someone wanting to get into rpgs), but I can understand that it can be a deterrent to some. It does have the ocassional side objective along the way, but it really doesn't open up until the final story location is available (and even then, most of it is superboss type challenges that might only interest the most hardcore players).
Overall, I think it stands the test of time and is up there with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 & Ys VIII as one of the best JRPGs on the system.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
So started My Friend Pedro and I sort of agree with the Nintendo Life review. It is quite fun but the controls are quite complex for an old man like and it means I'll need a lot of practice to really do all the cool moves from the trailer.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Resident Evil Zero via the Resident Evil Origins Collection for PS4
So this is my first time playing it... And booooooooy do I have some thoughts!
A Little Background
So... I have a history with the Resident Evil (Or Biohazard if you prefer) series in that it's what got me into gaming.
My dad came home one day after weeks of being gone (He was a stage technician/roadie) when I was fifteen with a PS1 in one hand and a copy of Resident Evil 1 in the other. We quickly set it up and both of us got sucked in to the wonderful (and since it was Resident Evil) scary as hell world of gaming (Sorry SNES you just bored me after 30 minutes of playing).
Needless to say I've been a fan of gaming and Resident Evil ever since.
I've played Resident Evil 2, 3, 4, 5, Code Veronica, Darkside Chronicles and even the first Gun Survivor. Watched a playthrough of 7 (after being too spooked by the first person perspective and headphones on to play it myself)
I missed out Zero/0 though.
I'd heard of it ... But I didn't have a Gamecube when it originslly came out and I assumed that I'd never get to play it at all cus of the exclusivity (And kinda forgot it was a thing).
Until now that is!
Zero of course if you couldn't guess by the title is a prequel to the terrors of the mansion in the mountains of Raccoon city that scared me silly when I was but a teen.
Originally Zero was going to be a N64 game before it was scraped entirely, brought onto the Gamecube and redeveloped from the ground up.
It features Rebecca Chambers from the Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S Bravo team (Whom first appeared in the original Resident Evil in Chris' scenario) and Blly Coen who's new to this instalment.
It's one of the last resident evil games to feature the series' claasic camera angles and tank controls (Though I used the modern control scheme for the port)
What I like
The Opening
The opening of Zero on the train is pretty darn good! With the tightly packed corridors it was quite tense at the start with limited supplies and I was starting to get the layout of it embedded into my head.
The Port/Remastering
It's... also pretty darn good! The updated comtrol scheme is nice, the option to go 4:3 or widescreen is a neat little bonus, the upscaling is nicely done and it just looks really good!
... Yeah that's honestly about it for the good points to me 😅
What I don't like
I could just write "Everything after the train" here and call it a job done. But I'm not. Zero's faults NEED to be known to all!
The Partner/Switching Mechanic
So about five minutes into the game Rebecca meets up with second protagonist Billy and they end up working together to get through this nightmare.
Billy is the muscle of the pair. With extra health and endurance, increased damage to his physical attacks (Molotovs and the knife) and has a lighter as his special item that's used a grand total of one time throughout the game. He also can't mix herbs like every other Resident Evil protagonist.
Rebecca meanwhile has the Hp of a wet noodle. But she can mix herbs! And has a medicine/chemical kit special item that's used twice throughout the entire game! For being the dedicated Medic of the S.T.A.R.S team it'd be nice if she could say hold a healing item for free in a first aid kit or something... But she can't and... yeah.
While on paper this no doubt sounded like a great idea it really only just takes away from the experience.
You split up from each other about six times throughout the game Including one time where Billy is knocked away off a tram platform and you lose him and his stuff for half an hour . But it's not used in any neat or interesting way. Not even for puzzles really.
Not to mention because Rebecca can only take about two attacks before getting in the Danger condition you should really just dump Rebecca in a safe area and go round as Billy to clear out enemies first before bringing her along if you can just so you don't burn through precious herbs/first aid sprays.
The actual switching between characters takes about 2 - 5 seconds depending on how far away you are and is perfectly fine. It's just a pointless and unnesscary mechanic.
I'd greatly prefer if it was just a Rebecca or Billy scenario/campaign choice like the other games with two protagonists.
The Inventory System
What seems at first to be a revelation in that you can actually put items down on the floor to pick up later rather then use things up quickly becomes more horrifying then the enemies.
As between Billy and Rebecca you have 12 item slots (Yup... Rebecca doesn't get any extra slots to compensate her squishyness unlike Jill in Resi 1). The powers that be thought that what you needed to make Resident Evil fun was limit your inventory space even more.
So the hunting rifle (with a measly two bullet count), Shotgun, Grenade launcher and the oh so wonderful and not completely useless in any way Hookshot (A grappling hook basically) all take up TWO spaces in your inventory. Plus this Resident Evil! So there's the standard puzzles and a whole bunch of other items you need to carry around the place with you.
This results in an insane amount of back tracking and dumping items across multiple rooms and ferrying things back and forth like an indescisive hoarder.
Because the item box system wasn't good enough apparently! There's none of those wonderful reality warping item boxes in sight! It just sucks beyond belief and I have no idea how anyone thought it was a good mechanic to do.
The Bosses
There's six bosses in the game You fight the Prototype Tyrant twice and the Leech Queen has a second part to it so there's techincally seven/eight ... and they're all pretty boring really. The first three are just animals that are big (The third being the worst boss in the entire series to me).
The last three are pretty uninspiring and nothing you haven't already seen before really (The last two just remind me of seven's blob monsters) and by then you have the magnum and loaded up on shotty shells/grenade rounds so you take them down pretty easy without much problem.
The Story
There's plot holes galore, doesn't make a lick of sense a lot of the time, is fairly boring and the villain is plain bizarre and weirdly like he's ripped out from an anime rather then Resident Evil (even if the early titles of RE are considered goofy)
The locations
Baring the train the other locations are pretty uninspiring and unmemorable Excluding the locations brought back/called forward from Resident Evil 2 (That doesn't make any sense in the geometry/layout of Raccon City and it's surroundings)
Additional points
The sound design is alright? I didn't honest pay much attention to it... I was groaning at having to ferry bullets, items and weapons for the 50 millionth time
Also there's some pretty bad voice acting. Not so bad it's good either. Just bad.
The alternate costumes are nice?
Plus there's two alternate game modes you unlock upon completion which sound ok. I may give them a look at some point,
Overall
I'm not mad at you Resident Evil Zero. I'm just disappointed.
I'd rather play Gun Survivor without the G-Con then this (But I won't cus who would?)
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy REmake is a masterpiece. Probably the best survival horror game ever made.
Anyway... great write-up! I've owned both 0 and REmake on GameCube forever, but, having heard most of your complaints echoed by other people who have played 0, I never actually ended up playing it, whereas I've probably cleared REmake 4 or 5 times on the GameCube alone. I've always intended to get around to it, but the issues it has just sound so... annoying! I can never work myself up to it.
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