So, I could give you a small, non-spoilery recommendation that'll make your life 100x easier, because, if you don't know it's going to happen, it'll totally blindside you if you're not careful. But that could possibly intrude on you allowing yourself to be totally surprised by the game. And it's... one heck of a surprise when it happens the first time.
@Foxy-Goddess-ScotchyAlready got to the crimson heads, eh? I was 15 or so when I first played this, and I was so freaked out when the zombie I'd killed in a tight corridor an hour early suddenly rose up and started running after me that I hastily smashed the power button on the GC and quit playing the game for a few days.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
Level of Completion: All stages completed (53 S Ranks; 10 A Ranks; 1 B Rank). 70 hours of total playtime.
Type of Game: Turn-based tactics game. Unlike the developer’s other big tactics series, Fire Emblem, there are no RPG elements to this game, as nothing carries over between missions. You make do with what you’re given at the start of each mission.
Premise: Some time after meteors rain down on the Earth and destroy civilization, the existing order of the world collapses. The main character is a young survivor named Will, who is taken in by a rogue military captain who now uses his squad to try and maintain some semblance of justice in a wasteland where the weak have no protections from the cruelties of the strong. Insane generals, factional/ideological conflicts, and a bizarre disease that makes flower burst from the heads of the infected all factor into the narrative as it progresses.
What I Liked:
There’s an actual narrative in this game. It’s nothing deep, but people have actual personalities, and dialogues aren’t merely jokey interludes meant to separate missions like in previous games.
The pool of units in this game is easily the most balanced in the entire series, and, more than in previous entries, I often found myself relying on almost the entire set to accomplish my goals. The various buildable units in your unit are designed to complement each others' strengths and weaknesses, and you'll quickly be punished by the CPU for trying to ham with a bunch of OP units that don't properly address stage conditions, enemy positioning, and the available pool of resources the enemy has to call on.
Units can now level up and gain EXP in missions, which helps to increase their effectiveness against enemies. This little addition actually adds a lot to the game.
The changes to CO powers, unit selection, and map design in this game makes Days of Ruin, by far, the most strategically pure and challenging game in the series. The player is now more consistently rewarded for following through on a strategy to route the enemy as opposed to just zerg rushing the enemy in every map (although this can still be employed at times to often devastating effect). Moreover, while CO powers, properly utilized, can help to turn the edge in a battle, their effects are drastically limited and consistently more difficult to trigger. This helps curb the annoying tendency to over-rely on OP CO powers to help you beat a difficult opponent.
While the story itself is fairly serious, there’s a good bit of goody dialogue between characters that helps to lighten the mood. This is most evident in the “war room” dialogues. Ostensibly designed to help you complete a mission by giving you hints, dialogues in the war room are often filled with amusing scenarios and interactions between characters.
The OST is pure rock and roll, and, even if the compression of the sound files keeps the tracks from sounding as good as they might have on more powerful hardware, it’s compulsively listenable.
The main single-player campaign in DoR is one of the longest and most satisfying in the series.
What I Disliked:
There's not quite as much content as in the previous entry, Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Although you could probably make a quantity/quality argument here. And there's still a ton of content here.
While it was cool at the time, it undeniably sucks that it's now impossible to access content that was gated behind Days of Ruin's online mode. It's also one less mode to engage with if you didn't play the game before Nintendo shut the DS' online down.
While I get the reasons for the change, I feel like the muted color palette of this entry takes away from the series' unique visual identity a bit.
This game was undeniably a step forward for the series on the narrative front, yet the modern player shouldn't expect too much. Characters are incredibly tropey. The plot, while interesting, is a bit underdeveloped, and less unique a decade on, when post-apocalyptic stories have been increasingly common (at the time this released, the only game with a similar theme I can recall is Fallout 3). And while, as previously mentioned, the dialogue can be a lot of fun, there are also moments that skate dangerously close to over-localization. The treehouse crew clearly added a lot of humor to the script that wasn't there originally, and it doesn't always land. In general, I'd say this series was still lagging far behind the Fire Emblem franchise on the narrative front.
The game never really bothers to reward the player for going out of their way to ace missions. Perhaps this should be its own reward, but I always like when games have a tasty-looking carrot to dangle in front of my face and compel me to persist in my quest for perfection. Earlier AW games were better on this front.
Conclusion: A satisfying and lengthy tactical experience that is easy to learn how to play but only really reveals its full potential when the player takes the time to experiment, strategize, and replay missions for better scores. Attempts at making it more of a coherent narrative experience are admirable. Unfortunately, a lot of emphasis was placed on the new online multiplayer mode, which has been long abandoned, and the presentation is never elaborate enough to really sell you on the new direction IS seemed to be taking the famously gameplay-centric series. Ultimately, while I really liked this game, I did kind of miss the old, cheerier aesthetic of previous games.
Well, I finally have the God of War classic series under my belt now. Finished GOW 3 last week.
Again, with how identical they are, it's hard to get really in-depth, but thankfully there's enough changes in it to talk about.
The combat is the same as it ever was. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. However it has been improved with the new weapons. Previously, they were more like secondary powers like Typhon's Bow or weren't as fleshed out as Kratos' blades. Now, the additional 3 weapons you get over the course of the game are just as viable as his blades, as well as having unique abilites: one weapon can briefly summon an enemy, another can destroy certain objects, and the last can do continuous damage by holding the attack buttons. There's also 3 side weapons that now take up their own separate, regenerating meter, while magic attacks are tied to the weapon currently equipped.
The graphics are easily the best of the old God of War games, since this is the first PS3 entry. It has it's niggles, like texture pop-in and some weird animation, but environments and most characters look great.
As for the story, as the finale of the old series, it's every bit as epic as it needs to be, and does try to pull on the feelings a bit in regards to Kratos himself. It's a bit better than the past games, but it's also where the characters are at their most ruthless, including Kratos himself. The game itself is a bit of a downer, as you are the one destroying everything.
Anyway. Definitely a good game, and probably the best in the series for me. I know there's Ascension as well, but I haven't been able to get a copy of it, or sure if I want to play it after 5 God of War games. Not sure when I'll get Dad of War either.
"We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real 'greatness' is what you do with the hand you're dealt." -Victor Sullivan "Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing." -Solid Snake
Hitman 2 (2018). I was expecting it to be a fairly standard stealth game, but I'm glad to see that it was much better than that. I completed the main Hitman 2 campaign, as well as the Hitman 1 (2016) campaign and bonus Patient Zero missions from the DLC Legacy Pack. Missions were completed on medium difficulty and I also did some of the story missions (including all the recommended ones).
This game involves the main character Agent 47 trying to assassinate various awful people. How you do that is up to you. There's a huge variety of ways to do every mission, thanks to the large number of disguises and assassination methods available.
Pros:
Lots of disguises. Many of the characters in each level are wearing uniform that you can steal. Each costume has their own benefits, and can grant you new opportunities. For instance, when disguised as a chef, people won't complain if you go in the kitchen or hold a sharp knife. Guard uniforms let you carry guns around the area.
There's various ways to kill each target. Options include stealthily taking them out when nobody's looking, causing an accident, poisoning, sniping from afar, or going in guns blazing.
Mission stories: These are optional stories that can crop up in various places in each mission. If you follow them, then they will guide you through a few events, usually helping you out in some way. Often these will reveal some interesting background info about your target, and will sometimes set up a cool method to kill your target.
Has various locations around the world. There's great variety in the locations, and every one feels different to each other.
Most locations have a large map that's fun to explore. There's plenty going on and lots of people going about their lives. Exploration can also be beneficial, as you might find a useful item or disguise, or overhear some helpful info leading into a mission story.
Cons:
The limited nature of elusive targets. These are extra targets that only appear in the game for a limited time, and then they're gone. If an elusive target is available, then it'll only let you have 1 attempt at it. This means that some content is now inaccessible, for instance anyone buying the game today won't be able to kill Sean Bean's character unless they bring back that target.
Overall, it's an excellent game, with the main appeal coming from each location being a large open sandbox containing multiple methods for eliminating each target.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Weird. I've ALWAYS heard people bash it. Even going back a couple of gens. It's probably part of the reason I never bothered playing my copy.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask 3DS. It's one of the more weird and wacky Zelda games, but it's also one of the best.
The 3 day cycle was very well done in this game. I was worried at first that this was going to cause a lot of repetition, but it turns out that's mostly not a problem. Since you get to keep key items, masks, songs, and banked money at the end of each cycle, it meant that there's very little repetition when you warp back to Day 1.
Characters will do different things depending on the time and day, making this game feel a lot more alive than other Zelda games. The notebook automatically keeps track of what's going on, making it easy enough to manage the different events.
Another thing I really like about this is the hint system. If you get stuck, there's a shrine in an easily accessible area that you can crawl into that'll show you visions to help guide you. If you don't want any hints, then this shrine is easily avoided. Zelda games generally have these areas where I miss something important, then spend a long time trying to figure things out, then usually having to resort to a walkthrough. With Majora's Mask, looking at an occasional hint meant that I could reach the end credits without frustration.
Dungeons in this game are rather good. There's plenty of depth to them, and they require plenty of exploration and some thinking to reach the end of them. The number of dungeons does feel a little low compared to some of thw other Zelda games though.
Out of the three 3D Zelda games I've played (Ocarina of Time 3DS, Wind Waker Wii U, Majora's Mask 3DS), its really hard to choose a favourite. They're all great in different ways.
@Kidfried Great write up and I agree with everything you say. I got Burnout Paradise on 360 a while back for free with Games with Gold and it was alright. I can see at the time it was probably a great game. However with games like The Crew and Forza Horizon there are better options for the kind of game they were looking to accomplish. Now the people that give it such high praise are probably looking through rose tinted glasses, which isn't bad thing more power to them but to someone who's coming into Burnout Paradise now.....
Still it's not a bad game, I played it enjoyed it for what it was worth but then I moved on. If I have an itch to play an open world racing game would I play it? Probably not due to as you said there is the Horizon series.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
So I recently decided to wrap up my second playthrough of Bloodborne last night. I finished the base game and had done all the DLC except for 2 bosses - Laurence and the Orphan Kos. Hadn't even tried the Orphan. I have also got half way through the Chalice Dungeons but I was getting burnt out. So I still need to get one weapon and get to the Ptumerian Queen for the platinum, and do the last 2 bosses for the DLC 100%.
Now I am torn with what to fully commit to next. I want to go into Bloodstained but I got it on Switch so waiting for a patch. Might give Detroit a go.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@Rudy_Manchego I mentioned it in the game thread but I do consider Detroit a nice palate cleanser type game, one that is more of a sit back and enjoy the story type of game. Since you’ve been a little burned-out on high intensity combat and difficulty, I think it’s a good one to recharge your batteries on, so to speak.
@Th3solution That's what I was thinking. I fancy something where I am not sat bolt upright and having to give 100% concentration. Unless there are loads of non signposted quicktime events
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
I can't play two games in the same series back-to-back. Heck, I can't even do multiple lengthy character scenarios in the same game back-to-back. I've been taking a break from REmake 2 for months after finished Leon's campaign for that reason.
Only my absolute favorite games have hooked me from beginning to end without stopping. Especially if they're long. I recall both SMT IV: Apocalypse and BotW were completed in breathless, three-week marathons.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
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