Topic: Games you've recently beat

@LtSarge I found the "lost levels" in DOOM 64 to be reasonably challenging compared to the main game, which was pleasantly surprising. In general, that game had such fantastic level design.

Did you manage to collect all of the demon keys in the main game? They're a bit of a hassle, but they make the final boss hilariously easy to kill.

@Ralizah No, I didn't and I didn't even realise there were such things until I looked up the achievement list for the game, lol. I did wonder what those stone-plates were in the final level because I couldn't activate them. Maybe I should've looked into getting them because the final boss was such a pain to kill, lol.

Yeah, I really liked the level design of the Lost Levels as well. It was definitely a good way to wind down after playing through the intense main campaign.

Out of curiosity, have you played through a lot of DOOM titles? I'm really excited to start up DOOM 3 next but I realised that I could also play Quake remastered as that game is very similar to classic DOOM. Could be a good time too I think.

@LtSarge I didn't get them in my first playthrough either, since they're pretty thoroughly hidden. It's hilarious watching the Mother Demon go from being a terrifying menace (only way I could beat her on the hardest difficulty setting was to stunlock her with the super shotgun at point blank range by timing my blasts right) to melting in, like, five seconds to a fully powered-up Unmakyr.

A little over a year ago I played through almost all of the DOOM games except Eternal in order. So:
DOOM / DOOM II / DOOM 64 / DOOM 3 + Expansion / DOOM 2016

2016 probably ended up being my favorite, with DOOM 64 a close second as the best older DOOM.

DOOM II was third for me, as it improved on aspects of the original game (primarily the lack of enemy diversity), but its often really creative level design sort of fell apart at times (the city levels are barren and pointless). The super shotgun was first added in this game, and, as unbalanced as it is, it's still insanely fun to use.

DOOM 3 would probably be fourth. It's a decent horror shooter, but still not really what people want from a DOOM game (way too slow-paced, too many audio logs to dig through, etc.), and the BFG edition available on modern devices kinda ruins certain setpieces with the changes it makes to the flashlight.

OG DOOM is... fine for, like, one of the first FPS games ever made, but pretty much everything that released after it improved on it in some way. A lot of fans still hold it up on a pedestal and react poorly if you criticize it, though.

@Ralizah I quite enjoyed the original DOOM but I’m struggling with DOOM II. It’s kinda too open in a way, I’m just getting lost in the levels.

@nessisonett DOOM II is a bit of a controversial sequel, but I ended up liking most of the changes it made. Both DOOM I and II have some really substandard level design, though: DOOM I goes between boring labyrinths and genuinely frustrating hell levels, whereas II gets carried away with gimmicks. That Chasm level can burn in hell, as far as I'm concerned.

I didn't really have an issue getting lost in the levels, though.

You don't get really good level design in these games until 64.

@RogerRoger Yeah, but luckily I very rarely ever get that close. I think the closest I've come recently is roughly 2 trophies away in Mass Effect, but I couldn't get them because for whatever reason I didn't get credit for the kills in that specific way even though technically that's what the description said. At least one, and I think it's because they want you to use a specific ability to accomplish it even though special ammo accomplishes the same thing. I think the other one I just simply got screwed on, but it's been a few months, so I could be remembering wrong. Either way, not a big deal, but I wouldn't have exactly complained if I had gotten the platinum without too much extreme effort like most require.

If I didn't end up bumping from my PS5 to my Series X after getting extremely frustrated with Kena, I might have played even more horror games, but it's ok. I figured since I had several unplayed horror games in my backlogs, I might as well actually make it a point to play at least one in October like I used to do with movies back in the day.

Maybe you could replay God of War. There's snow, and nothing says "Merry Christmas" like Kratos killing a bunch of people.

@Ralizah Ah, nice to see that you liked DOOM 64 more than the rest of the older games because I feel the same way. Really enjoyed it more than 1 and 2. Although I can definitely see how the modern titles trump them, can't wait to eventually start them up as well. It's too bad that DOOM 3 is so different than the other games, but I think I'd still enjoy it for what it is.

I actually decided to give Quake a go yesterday and found it to be just as fun as DOOM 64, maybe a bit too simple, at least now in the beginning. The interesting thing with Quake is that it's basically classic DOOM but you can jump, aim vertically and the levels have now more verticality in general. It definitely feels like a direct evolution of classic DOOM, which is nice to see. Have you considered trying it out? I think you might like it.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Congrats for beating the game! What was your total playtime? I think I spent 50 hours when I played it, which is a lot for that game but that's because it was my first Yakuza title.

Yeah, it's definitely a step-down and that's sadly how it's going to be like for the rest of the series since 0 set the bar so high. But these are still phenomenal games, there's definitely not a single bad Yakuza game. Not even the zombie spinoff Dead Souls. Even though that game got repetitive, I still enjoyed my time with it overall.

@RogerRoger My bad. It was Mass Effect 2 as well like you, and I was only 4 from the platinum. Like I think I said, I have a feeling I was required to use a certain power even though special ammo ends up doing the same thing (burning through shields and such).

Yeah, it was my most anticipated game of the year once Horizon 2 got delayed, so it is disappointing that I never finished it. I had no idea they made the boss fights to be something straight out of the Souls series though, which is a series I refuse to play as it's not my thing to die 100 times because they want the game to be insanely hard on purpose.

Honestly, I'm one of the few people that didn't think God of War was that great. It is a beautiful game technically, and the gameplay is fine, but his son nearly ruined the game for me on his own. He was so annoying that I nearly turned the game off unfinished. I'm also not a huge fan of them forcing the series into their 3rd person action adventure template that at least 80% of their games are now (or at least it seems that high), as I loved the original trilogy when I played them for the first time via the remastered versions on PS4. It was a good game, but best game ever or even just of that generation? I can't give it either title honestly.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Ah I see. So what are your plans for the series now? Taking a break or continuing with the next game?

@KilloWertz If you are struggling with some of the bosses in Kena, you can drop the difficulty down to Story and see how you get on?

@JohnnyShoulder That probably would have made sense to try before instead of giving up, but thanks for the suggestion regardless.

@Iver Despite my frustrations with Kena, I do think it's a pretty good game. Maybe GotY is a bit much, but honestly, this year has been a bit thin on new experiences that would garner the attention for the award, with a good amount of remasters and such being released. Not saying it's been a bad year by any means, as I've had plenty to play all year, but the last couple of years were definitely better overall for bigger titles.

Like I said, I came close to joining you on the list of people who didn't finish it, but that was due to the son of course. I'm surprised so many people were able to just shrug off how absolutely annoying they wrote the character. Just because he's young isn't a good enough excuse imo.

@KilloWertz
I’m due to start Kena this weekend, the intention being that this game would serve me as a sort of ‘palette cleanser’ off the back of finishing Returnal (and before I start Demon’s Souls).

Honestly, the idea of a shorter experience really appeals to me right now - especially after ploughing 40+ hours into Returnal. I also have Dread going on the side via my Switch, and I feel like Kena & Dread could be played simultaneously without either infringing too much on dedication to the other (normally I only play 1 title at a time).

I have heard interesting comments about the difficulty spikes, and would like to ask your opinion on best difficulty to select?

I’m pretty much a ‘casual’ gamer, but have beaten Sekiro and Returnal recently… although I’m not too proud to admit that both of these really pushed me to my limit at points!!

Is the highest difficulty setting in Kena still an ‘achievable’ challenge? Or soul crushingly difficult?!

I also agree with your comment that Kena is maybe being held in a higher regard this year due to lack of new IPs, and 2021 generally being saturated with sequels, remakes & remasters (not to say that some of these aren’t great, but nonetheless there has not been much original/new content)

What would your personal GotY be out of interest?

@CJD87 If you're very familiar with the Souls series and games like that, you should be ok on Normal. I hate that kind of a game, so the difficulty spikes in Kena for the bosses was likely a bigger deal than it would have been for some other people. I doubt you'll find many people that don't agree that the boss fights are hard though. In other words, I'd probably start at Normal and then drop it down if they end up breaking you like the first true boss did to me.

My personal GotY so far would probably be Mass Effect Legendary Edition, but if that's considered cheating since it's a collection of old games, then Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. It brought me back to the days when I bought a PS3 late in that console generation and got to experience some of those series (Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, etc.) for the first time, along with Metal Gear Solid 4.

@KilloWertz - Never played a ME game, so I’d be going in cold to the trilogy remaster…. But I’ve heard this could be positive! Now that Eden Ring has been pushed back, I might have the needed gap to squeeze into the backlog before Feb… will see how I get on, cheers for the recomendation!

@Iver I'm finding Kena a pretty solid 7 - 8 out of 10 so far. Like I said elsewhere, the gameplay is pretty standard fare, but the presentation and story is what I think rises it above average for me.

For a studio's first game it is a really good effort and am glad they have already made back the cost of making the game. One to watch in the future, fo sure.

@LtSarge Yeah, I think we did, and I remember how much you enjoyed Ys Seven. 😀 It's taken me a long time to finally get into the series! Next up I'll do Memories of Celceta, which is in my Vita ready to play after Metroid Dread. I had initially considered playing the games in chronological order, but the shift from old to new and back again would be too jarring. There's one character in Ys Seven that seems to have been in Ark of Napishtim, so I had no idea who they were or why they had so much animosity towards Adol and Dogi, but aside from that there's been nothing particularly linking the games thus far.

Ys Origin is so good. The framerate was pretty atrocious during boss battles, but I love the combat and script. I'm looking forward to getting to Ys VIII and IX, but have preferred the shorter playtimes of the other games.

@nessisonett I wasn't expecting the entire party to be split up in the final battle, so even though reserve members do gain XP, they were still a few levels behind my main team. It was a really unnecessary difficulty spike that dragged the final section out far too long. It was also the only boss battle that didn't give the option to drop the difficulty when I got a game over, which was a bit mean!

@RogerRoger I played Temple of Osiris in local co-op, so maybe that's why there were performance hiccoughs. It seemed a bit strange considering it didn't seem to push the system hard. There was this really strange bug that emerged when redoing the first level alone for the time trial. All of the enemies disappeared, and none of the cutscenes popped up, so it made whizzing through it a breeze.

@Iver That's somewhat surprising, unless she really struggled against the bosses too. Then I could definitely understand.

@Iver It's not gonna beat Returnal for me, but it is defo up there in the top 10 to 5 games I've played this year. Unless some drastic happens in the last third.