Topic: Games you've recently beat

inFamous: First Light

Platform: Playstation 4

Level of Completion: Everything. Got the platinum trophy after three days of intensive play (7+ hours a day)

What is it?: The prequel to early PS4 title inFamous: Second Son. You play as a mutant(coughs excuse me... a "conduit") named Fetch who joins forces with a drug lord to help save her brother from the clutches of Russian mobsters.

What I Liked:

• So, the most immediate thing that comes to mind when talking about this game: the method of locomotion you'll be employing the majority of the time. Running around at supersonic speed is extremely fun, and, as you upgrade your abilities, you'll be flying through the streets, bounding off of rooftops, and generally treating the city of Seattle like your own personal playground very fun. This sort of seems like it would be a good model for a Sonic the Hedgehog game to follow, considering you collect items in your environment, pass through energy rings of sorts dotted throughout the city to boost your speed, and the momentum based movement and combat flows really well.
• Combat involving your powers is decent fun, too. How could someone not like blasting bad guys with hand lasers, shooting energy missles to blow up cars, or using gravity manipulation to hold your enemies in the air while you run up to punch them?
• The facial animations during cutscenes are legitimately stunning in terms of how authentically they convey real human emotion. There are games with more photorealistic characters, but I don't think I've ever seen quite so realistic a depiction of human emotion (behaviorally, that is) as I have in this game. When the main character cries, for example, her face scrunches, her mouth trembles, and it all adds up to the effect of feeling like you're watching a real person struggle with grief. I'm often critical of realistic visual design in video games, but it's used extremely effectively here.
• So, this game can run at either an unlocked framerate or at a locked 30fps, depending on what you toggle in-game. I love that this is an option for those of us who don't appreciate varying framerates. The small moments when the game gets closer to 60fps are nice, but it's annoying that the framerate drops so obviously when anything happens and starts taxing the system. I say "locked 30fps," but it's not REALLY locked. When you're in one of those arenas and you're on higher wave levels (30+ especially get pretty crazy), you'll have dozens of enemies spawning and gunning for you at any one time. So, understandably, when 50 enemies are out in force at once, jumping around and shooting lasers and bullets at you constantly... this all starts to tax the PS4 a bit, and it starts dropping to the low 20s or even lower pretty frequently. Performance, overall, stays pretty glued to the target when you cap the framerate, though.
• Environments are pretty awesome, too. I had to have spent a few minutes or so just watching the realistic way in which the rain hit the pavement around my character. Very cool.
• The game does a good job of balancing the meat of the story, which are had in flashbacks the main character is having, with modern-day segments in a government training facility that act as tutorials of sorts for your various combat abilities.
• Like Gravity Rush or Super Mario Odyssey, there are collectibles EVERYWHERE, are they're good to hunt down. Given that you use them to help upgrade your abilities, there's also good incentive to grab them early on.
• At one point in the game's story mode, you have to hack into police drone feeds and figure out where they are by looking at the environments so you can destroy them. I really enjoyed this sort of light puzzle-solving gameplay.
• What really elevates this game for me is the depth and challenging nature of its arena challenges, which see you facing off against increasingly huge waves of difficult foes in giant artificial environments. These allow you to fully explore the nuances of the game's cool traversal mechanics and combat system, which, unfortunately, just isn't possible in the fairly basic campaign mode.
• Arena battles also have better enemy diversity. You're stuck with fairly basic human enemies in the story, whereas you get to fight drones and, for some reason, projections of various types of demons (when you're bouncing around shooting demons in the face and doing melee takedowns left and right, it starts to feel a bit like a weirdly bloodless third-person take on DOOM)

What I Didn't Like/Was Disappointed By:

• While the presentation is great in some ways, it misses the mark in others. For example, Fetch frequently calls people on her phone, but the character model never actually takes out a phone and holds it up to her ear. It's weirdly lazy.
• As pretty as the world is, and as fun as it is dashing around it like The Flash... it's a very empty world as well. There's little interactivity with the environment to be had. Nothing to find outside of little red orbs everywhere and races where you chase something called lumens (they're like sentient balls of gas) around the city in an effort to catch them. Beyond those, and some random encounter types that are needed for achievements, it really doesn't feel like a living world. It's lacking even a rudimentary system where mass destruction attracts the attention of authorities, for example, despite the game telling you that the government is tracking down Conduits so ruthlessly that the main character didn't even use her powers for years on end. You can run around Seattle blowing up cars and killing people willy-nilly, but the only thing that attracts attention is when you actually start messing with soldiers. There's no escalation to conflicts even in scenarios like this: you kill a vehicle full of soldiers and... that's it until you happen across the next one.
• The story missions in the main story mode are pretty shallow and forgettable. There's a very low level of difficulty, and they mainly encompass escort missions of sorts that you can find in many other open world titles.
• The writing frequently falls flat for me. The villain is a boring stereotype, and there's not really a compelling emotional arc regarding the main character. Nobody really shines in this game.
• I know I praised the arena mode, but we have to have a talk about some of the challenges you have to complete to 100% the game. Now, some of them are great and make perfect sense, such as scoring a certain number of points in each arena, or surviving a certain number of enemy waves. Others are... grindier than I like, but once you know what to look out for, they're mostly OK, and accumulate over time anyway, like the challenges that ask you to kill a certain number of enemies. But there are some trophies here that just... don't work right. Or the requirements for them are weirdly specific in ways that the game doesn't tell you. For example, the one where you have to kill a certain number of airborn enemies whilst in the air as well. Well, I probably sniped hundreds of flying demons over the course of my time with the game, but that counter kept failing to tick up. Apparently it ticks up if you use your power to make a landlocked enemy float in the air, jump, and then shoot him while airborne, though. But it doesn't count if you hit their weak spot and you've already grabbed the perk that brainwashes them for a time when you hit their weak spot, because they're not technically dead yet. So I kept having to stasis them, jump up, use my focus to slow time, and then desperately unload tons of lasers into the rest of their body in a big to kill them before the stasis I gave up or I landed from my jump. And then you have the one that wants you to blow enemies off of platforms... except this doesn't work with melee attacks, and stasis just makes them float in the air, so my only real hope was missiles. But... well... missiles generally latch onto and kill my targets, so that wasn't going to work. I had to exploit a glitch in the store mode where baddies in drive-by encounters would be slightly tossed away from their car when I stasised their vehicles, which would make the counter tick up each time. The cars seem to show up randomly, though, so I spent a good hour or so randomly wandering the map looking for more drive-by encounters so I could clear this achievement. There were a number of other annoying, somewhat glitchy, poorly-designed achievements, but these were the most annoying.
• I eventually adjusted to letting the game auto-adjust the camera as I dashed, but I never liked it. I want control of the camera, and having it mapped to O makes it impossible to control the camera and dash at the same time unless you pull off some extremely uncomfortable contortions with your hand (I did, initially). Not a huge problem when you're just running forward, but I HATE rounding corners without being able to adjust the camera to see where I'm going. Again, the camera adjusts for you, but I don't like it.
• Actually, a lack of any sort of button remapping is a sore spot in this release in general.

Conclusion: While the game undermines itself somewhat with a lack of polish in mission structure, writing, and many of the challenges in the arena mode, the core experience is quite fun, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an addicting little third-person open-world action game.

Verdict: 7/10

I beat Mad Max. Just a solid game. Having said that, I won’t forget it’s use of the DS4 mic for a long time.
’Paint my name in blood’, screams the 10 year old Child continuously

Completed Space Hulk: Deathwing. No trophy popped at the end and that's a shame. Will return for the multiplayer if anyone is still in there.

@Ralizah Great thoughts on First Light! I’m glad you enjoyed it. It really is a nice game and I’d agree with the 7, and with most of what you said.
Do you fancy trying out Second Son now? I would say the protagonist is a little less fun to play as and less interestingly written, but the world and overall campaign are more fleshed out and developed. It’s a longer game, with more variety of powers as you play through. But at its core, it’s more of the same, just packaged in a way that emphasizes story a little more.

@Th3solution Not right away, although Second Son is definitely on my radar now. When it hits the right price in a sale, I'll likely download it. Whatever its flaws, I can't deny that First Light was a blast, and I wouldn't mind digging deeper into this series.

@Ralizah Second Son is part of the PlayStation Hits range, so shouldn't be too expensive these days. I'm surprised it hasn't been offered with PS Plus yet, but First Light has.

I agree with the facial animation is top class, I was blown away by how good it was in Second Son.

@JohnnyShoulder It actually was a PS+ title a couple of years ago, but that was during the few months I let my sub lapse.

@Rudy_Manchego @mookysam @RogerRoger Thank you! Glad my rambles are appreciated, and not a total pain in the butt to read, haha.

@Rudy_Manchego The line of "There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city." definitely will stick with me. I'm jealous you have it on a poster! If I was into buying merch, I'd absolutely be rushing out to buy some Infinite memorabilia.

@mookysam I will play Burial at Sea for sure! I checked, and it came with the PS4 collection so I don't even have to make an additional purchase to play it. The premise sounds really cool. I'd love to see Rapture from before it all went to hell, especially when it's through the eyes of my beloved Infinite leads. I'm a bit hesitant to jump into it right away at the risk of burning myself out, but I can't see myself being able to put it off for long.

As for the opinions on the game that you mentioned, I agree with mostly everything you said. The only thing I would somewhat put an asterisk to in my opinion was the development of the Booker/Elizabeth relationship. I loved them together obviously, but I did feel Booker's attitude towards Elizaebth switched a bit too quickly and drastically without any real dialogue addressing it. He went from "can't wait to bring this girl back to New York" to "I'LL SAVE YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO, ELIZABETH" a bit too superficially in my eyes, but it didn't withhold me from enjoying their relationshop at all. Just took some getting used to once he reached that turning point!

I also didn't realise Jennifer Hale voiced Rosalind Lutece until looking it up today. Huh, never would've known. Even more reason to love Jennifer Hale!

@Tjuz I'm not a big merch fan but when we decorated the house, me and my wife agreed we could choose a few framed posters/pictures/paintings each so that was one of mine. That said, it is largely out of view.

Ooooh nice review @Ralizah !

Being a similar person who hasn't played any of the inFamous games before, like RogerRoger a few weeks back (but with the first instead of the last (?) of the series) (not to mention the general praise it already gets) seems this is the kick in the pants I need to try these out sooner rather then later!

@Zukato I am very interested in your thoughts on Deathwing. It's been on my radar for a good long while. I think the theme is enough to carry it past the storied shortcomings of the game for me, but how solid is it in late 2019. Up to date with the PC changelog?

Just finished 'Man of Medan'. Man, what a massive disappointment.

There's so much potential in a horror anthology series like this but to lead with a game like this is a very poor start and has me doubting whether the series will really last 8 games.

As the site review says, the story is just weak. The characters aren't that interesting, the dialogue is bad and overall it's just straight up not very good.

Biggest disappointment of the year for me. A real waste of potential.

Since Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is out real soon, I figured I share my thoughts on the game since I completed the base game last week.

Story: What story? You and a whole fleet end up in uncharted territory. Go explore and fight monsters.

Gameplay: As the riveting story summary suggests, you're probably playing for the battles and such. Monster Hunter is essentially a boss fight only type of game, as the point is to hunt monsters in the environment and fight them. There are areas where they have their own habitats and are found wandering around, and you actually track them down. You find enough of tracks (it doesn't take much, unless it's a story mandated hunt) and you are lead to it's area via scoutflies. It's a lot like an action RPG gameplay wise- You fight enemies directly and how well you do is affected by your weapons, armor, and the stats from your build.

Weapons and armor are crafted from the spoils of your monster hunting, and can be made from pretty much any creature in the game, even from the fodder like a Girros. This is the crux of your stats, since this game doesn't have a real level system (If Hunter Rank did anything other than let me take better assignments, I forgot or never noticed). Weapons have quite a variety of types, from your classic bows and sword/shield combo to a transforming axe-sword and a horn. Like the instrument. I personally used an insect glaive, a bladed staff that controls large beetles, for most of my playthrough. Armor has five pieces to make a set, each piece with it's own specific ability, and can be mix and matched with other sets, although as you may guess, you get a bonus from having either a full set or a certain number of parts from a set. You can also upgrade each piece itself with armor spheres to increase it's viability.

However, I think this game kinda has an issue with certain stuff being so obviously better than others. Not in that natural progression way, but in that "why would I use anything else" way. The Nergigante gear is a good example of this, I think. I had a well enough build beforehand, but was told to use a few Nergigante armor pieces as a recommendation, and it somehow gets results despite clashing with my other stuff. This I feel kinda kills the variety of the rest of the armor if I feel I have to use a certain set to get by.

Combat itself is alright. I personally don't find it as enthralling as other action RPGs, but it works well enough. I'd say my one real issue is the lock on system and the camera associated with it. I'd rather have a janky lock on than none, especially with how often monsters move around, and how quickly. At times however, it seemed to have issues focusing on the monster, and when it was, the camera can be pretty jerky and disorienting.

Since this title is made with co-op in mind, I highly recommend playing with a group of friends, or even randoms. Admittedly, this type of RPG isn't really my preference. I don't really enjoy constantly grinding one monster just for a few parts for a piece of armor, especially if my level doesn't mean a lot. But what makes it enjoyable for me is playing it with pals. Battling large beasts with a group is very enjoyable, and the few times I played this alone, I found it unfulfilling.

Graphics/Sound: I feel like this game is kinda underrated when it comes to it's graphics and music. There are better looking games, but this isn't a slouch in it's own right. The characters look well done, and the environments are amazingly done. While I couldn't tell you the name of a single music track, the score is pretty good at being intense during a fight and enjoyable out of combat.

I feel this game is kinda flawed, but it's still a good time with friends, enough of a good time for me to put the money down on Iceborne.

I also admit that there's probably quite a bit I'm leaving out. Aside from a few events and grinding, I haven't done much outside the main story. I'm sorry if this isn't as in depth as you'd expect.

@DerMeister That’s a great summary and review of MH, very helpful. I’ve thought about playing this in the past and I played the demo / beta and it just didn’t gel with me. Your input is spot on with what I was wondering and brings a few new things to light. When I played the demo, I also was not really sold on the combat per se, and without any friends to co-op with I never thought I’d get maximal enjoyment out of it.

It is interesting to see that, as you suggest, the main component of success is having good equipment. So it’s not like a Soulsborne game where if you “git gud” with your combat skills that you can overcome these beasts with sheer technique? I’ve heard that the game is hard, but would you say then that it’s not hard like a From title, it’s just hard in the sense you have to plan your equipment utilization accordingly to be successful?
My other gripe with the demo was that the menus and crafting and items systems looked pretty complex and dense. I didn’t have the patience to tackle it and learn them at the time. Do you spend a large chunk of your playtime sifting through menus and crafting?

Finished Wreckfest... Career mode AI has been hamstrung by the last update which is a shame, with the hardest setting not really offering much, bar them purely going out of its way to kill you, which is great until they do it on a right hand turn in a race and they veer sharp left for no reason other than to kill the player and themselves.

Got the one and only online trophy to platinum it and to be honest, i'm a bit disappointed now, even though it is fun to play.... Arcade racing without some targets to aim for feels a little pointless now...

Driveclub for all its issues, at least had me wanting to come back to improve my leaderboard positions, this... not so much

@Th3solution In my 20 hours or so with the game yeah I found there was a lot of time spent in menus crafting your equipment and what not, especially back in the hub section and camps. Skill will only get you so far as without good enough weapons the monsters will take an age to beat. I also didn't like that you could not pause the game whilst on a hunt, and as some of them are timed if real life got in way the hunt was basically null and void. Shame cos I enjoyed the hunting and battling of the monsters for the most, just all the other things around it felt like a bit of a chore. And the music in the main hub section was terrible.

For me, not really but even if you need to craft items or gears the process is usually pretty quick.

Regarding difficulty, from my I understanding FromSoftware's games are some of the hardest out there and if you have no problems playing them you'll no problem with Monster Hunter World.

@JohnnyShoulder Oh wow, I didn’t realize that you couldn’t pause the game either. This might be a deal breaker in and of itself. Although I managed with Bloodborne, it was a slight annoyance.
@WanderingBullet I’m no FromSoft master, by any means. I beat Bloodborne and I played the first Dark Souls for a few hours until I got side tracked. But good to know that the game’s difficulty doesn’t eclipse From’s outings.
The menu issue is more of a concern about spending a lot of time planning and perusing the menu to make your checklist of items you need. Other games with a lot of equipment change outs have resulted in me getting burned out and losing interest. I don’t mind learning a complex menu system, but I tend to be a little obsessive-compulsive about my gear and so if I end up constantly tracking my gear and what supplies I need, and do I have the best things equipped, etc. — I end up with fatigue at all the options and things to equip. There is definitely a sweet spot for ‘how much is too much and how much is not enough’ when dealing with crafting and customization of equipment.
It sounds like for you that MH hits a good level of ‘planning your approach’ balanced with ‘getting on with the action.’

@Th3solution I personally wouldn't say MHW is back breakingly hard, but it does have it's moments. The worst it got was against a late game fight against a Kushala Daora, and I thought it was one of the worst designed fights I've experienced in a long time (Didn't help my connection crapped out midway, separating me from my group and having to fight it alone). Special event quests can also be difficult, but everything else in the main game is fair enough.

You can try to beat it with skill, but as mentioned above, you'd just make it harder, and the quests have a time limit, so you can't stall the battles. You can only have 3 defeats per mission too, so getting good equipment is definitely necessary. I did spend a decent amount of time looking at what I have, so there's gonna be some prep time involved. The menus themselves can be pretty clunky. I got used to it after a while, but I still thought that there's a better way organize everything.

Something else I didn't mention is that at the hub and camps when you enter an area, there's a canteen where you can eat. Eating gives stat boosts as well as increasing health and stamina, and they last until a monster kills you. I definitely recommend eating before every battle to help give a better chance.

@Th3solution At least in Bloodborne you could find a corner with no enemies and feel safe you could leave the game unattended. With most of the hunts in MHW being on a timer you couldn't even do that. It felt a massive pain having to plan my life around doing a 45 minute section in a video game. And come to think of it most of the actual hunting I found a chore to do as it got really samey eventually. So it was only fighting the monsters that I was enjoying, which is why I gave up on it. I get that it is heavily geared towards playing with others, but I've played games like Destiny and The Division solo and found those much more enjoyable playing through the story missions.