@Octane More praise for Fallen Order. I really need to quit dragging my feet on that one.
Good write-up. Also nice to hear the game doesn't drag. Proper pacing is often overlooked, but it's important for story-based games.
It's really one of the first Star Wars-based games that has grabbed my attention (other than Galactic Battlegrounds on PC), since it seems like a proper story-based adventure, rather than a pod racer or space shooter or something. The SW mythology is just begging for more stuff like this and The Mandalorian, IMO.
I'm not sure I would have gotten through the game if it wasn't on the Switch, since the portability and constant accessibility of it meant I was constantly going back to try different challenges and whatnot. Although I also didn't play as much as you... I think I got the true ending, and ended up playing for 30+ hours, but at that point I didn't even bother to touch the DLC content. Partially since the Souls-y design of the game means you have to go out and deliberately look for it, which I wasn't really sweet on, and partially because I'd had my fill of the experience anyway.
And yeah, the White Palace segment sucked.
Plan on snagging the sequel when it releases?
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
@Ralizah Good thing is that it's relatively cheap at this point. Which was the reason why I bought it in the first place. Squadrons is a bit of a dud in comparison, based on what I've played so far, but I really enjoyed my time with JFO.
@Th3solution Oh yes, no real grinding really. For example, I got my backside kicked by a boss, found a different door, found a different area and several hours later remebered how I got there and went back to the boss. It is fairly intuitive as well in terms of level design. Only a few items are hidden behind bosses. Some are just waiting to be found.
@Ralizah I can see your reasoning. I think you can see all the game has to offer within 30 hours (which is no short time). I explored every inch really and did the DLC (and I am a bit rubbish). As for Silksong, I will be getting that day one. Hollow Knight was so competetively priced at launch, I really want to support Team Cherry.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@RogerRoger Nice review. This completely skipped me by but I remember quite vividly playing Frontline and was it Rising Sun on Gamecube and being wowed by how much of a step up they were from previous era shooters. They had some wow factor - at least for my jaded brain.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Right, one of my gaming resolutions was to try and keep up with this thread better so I've jumped back a few pages to catch up (apologies to the ones I've missed as I know it takes effort to write them !)
I can't say I've ever played any of the DOA games and only know them for that reason and it's kind of good to hear it hasn't abandoned it's roots! The amount of costumes (and the cost!) seems kind of silly but I guess it fits with the vibe of the game. It sounds like you enjoyed it though and that final boss does sound like a bit of a beast being able to change character at will.
Squadrons isn't a game I would have considered buying but I do enjoy the odd dogfighting simulator. Your thoughts make it sound like the short story is still worth playing and the few screenshots you threw in do look rather pretty. The idea of playing both sides sounds like it's well done too. Did you end up playing multiplayer much more in the end?
What an odd little game. I thought it was going to be a retro style RPG so it was a bit strange to see you talk about Arkanoid/Breakout and weirder to find out why. The idea of spells as powerups is a neat one and secret exits in levels also sounds quite clever. It's a shame it felt like it outstayed its welcome in only a short game though.
It's interesting to hear your thoughts on the game as it was one I loved back in the day but I haven't played the remake. I quite liked the drift style as it was quite tactical to try and get the third big boost. In the original game (where you didn't have UFO-esque vehicles) the smoke out the back of the cart would go black as well when you could boost. I do agree that relic races were well done but CTR ones a bit of a pain. I never minded the boss races but the Nitrous Oxide race is brutal (although I note Foxy seems to say they made him easier)!
The pixel art style is a bit overdone these days but the game looks great. The premise is suitably odd/different as well and you make the cast sound like good fun too. I'm not sure I'll ever play it but it sounds like something I'd enjoy.
Some brief thoughts there (particularly as I ignored the spoilers) but it goes with your thoughts from the thread for the game which finally convinced me to buy the game in the latest sale so I know who to blame if I don't like it (although I'm sure I will). The "short" game time actually sounds like quite a good thing too.
I'm glad you did write your thoughts as it's one of those games I love to hear other people talk about but one I feel isn't that widely known. Congrats on getting through so much of the game though! How did you find Nightmare King Grimm? I've said it many times on here but beating him was a real accomplishment for me (I've posted the video before and even on my successful run I almost ballsed it up).
I'm completely with you on the art, music, and overall feel of the game. It just struck a chord with me and I utterly fell in love with it. I can't say I found too many boss fights complete roadblocks but maybe I just have a higher tolerance for frustration. That said, it was the Hornet fights I found most difficult so it's funny you didn't find those ones too bad. I'm massively looking forward to the next game but with how much post release work they did on this, I'm not sure that picking it up early is a good move!
My MacBook autocorrected Honour there and I'm going to let it stand. That era of games really don't look great do they? It's funny that pixel art can look great and retro but the jagged polygons just look jarring. Anyhoo, what an odd mix of levels jumping around the entire world with fictional and factual battles. That Ardennes bit sounded really well done but I can imagine it didn't really work as a game.
@Thrillho Thanks for reading. I actually never fought Nightmare King Grimm - I think I messed that up. I banished the troupe after talking to the accordion guy as it seemed like the best thing to do. Then I googled it and found I had missed that boss fight. Part of me is relieved though as I know that is considered one, if not the, hardest boss fight.
I think I'll still get Silksong day one - I sort of trust that the base quality will be enough, however, I'd agree that PS4 owners who got the Voidheart edition meant they got the full package. It's like any GOTY edition - they always end up the best.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@Rudy_Manchego You probably did save yourself a whole world of pain not facing that boss It's one of those that is immensely tricky but fair as, a bit like you said in your thoughts, it's all about learning the move sets but at quite a speed! Plus, he's the only boss where each hit takes two notches off your health bar.
Here's my vid yet again if you're interested (the music is great but I turned it right down to help me focus!)
The one thing with Silksong is the amount of silence on the project. They're not a big team admittedly but even their twitter account is pretty minimal through 2020, although Edge seemingly had a piece on the game from the end of the year so there's still hope!
@Thrillho Oh wow - you are a far better player than me. I struggled on the non Nightmare version. I can tell you had his move sets pegged. When you got down to one soul I wouldl have panicked but you managed that dodge and Abyss Shriek!
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@RogerRoger Wow! That really was a fantastic review of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Rog. You have a way of discussing games that reads more like literature. There's an internal structure to it, but the fantastic writing hides the bones and makes the sentences flow smoothly from one point to the next. Really, really well done. Especially the discussion of your emotional reactions to the game, and how it generated sympathy for your character, and, by extension, real people who were likely trapped in the nightmare of war, crushed between the nexus of duty, honor, and pure terror.
To be honest, I know very little about this franchise, but it's interesting to think about military shooters having started as sober educational lessons about the sacrifices of war when the broad consensus has shifted so much via the recent Call of Duty games to regarding the genre as jingoistic.
That music was pretty good. Very theatrical and grand. I particularly liked Panzer Blockade: lots of variation in that piece, but, generally, it does a good job of conveying danger and thrilling action.
Also, I don't know if it was intentional, but making post #1,488 about a nazi killing game was some god-tier timing.
@Rudy_Manchego Practice makes perfect and there was a whole load of practice for that fight! The shriek was a clever way of getting extra hits in and gives you a brief window of invincibility too. I absolutely thought I was going to do the classic Souls thing of freak out at the last second but somehow didn’t!
@RogerRoger Call of Duty: World at War is worth a go if you want a little realism from the series. Having it set on the Pacific front but also on the Russian front was an interesting twist on the WW2 focus and I really enjoyed it at the time.
@mookysam Thanks and I get the White Palace point. It was the least enjoyable part of the game. I mean, who really would build a palace like that? The bugs in Deepnest... with headphones were... let's just say, unpleasant. Backtracking does take a lot of time. If it is natural exploration it is fine, but for example, with the Grimm Troupe when you have to go to set places on the map, it added time to the whole thing. On the plus side, I now know Hollownest and its map more than I know my own city.
@Thrillho I know that with a fully upgraded Abyss Shriek you can cheese the normal Grimm fight by slapping Joni's charm, having spell builds and triggering the fireballs by attacking him before he bows and just spamming him. Never worked for me because I never got the Abyss Shriek so I had to do it properly!
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@mookysam I have so many AAA last gen games to get to over the next few years, lol. The good news is that, thanks to the way AAA games are priced in this industry, they should all be incredibly cheap going forward.
@nessisonett Years of dealing with literally insane right-wing people in this country dog-whistling to one-another with glasses of milk and cartoon frogs must be messing with my brain a bit. I'll be seeing nazis in my breakfast cereal soon if things don't chill out a bit.
@RogerRoger It really was a fantastic post. You definitely need to get back to writing fiction (I recall that being one of your resolutions for the year?).
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that I thought the Medal of Honor games were docudramas or anything. But compared to CoD's nazi zombies and glorification of American imperial terrorism overseas, it sounds a bit more respectful and educational, which I appreciate. And yeah, I definitely like the idea of a war game actually putting the player, in some small way, into the shoes of a soldier, and letting them experience even one-millionth of the terror ground troops must have felt being bombarded with enemy fire.
I'm not really knowledgeable about the series as a whole, but I don't think CoD has always been uniformly brainless. i played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare way back in the day, and it does have this famous and genuinely interesting sequence where you play as a character who gets caught in the blast zone of a nuclear warhead. After it goes off, your character, who is clearly dying, crawls out of the downed helicopter he's in and sees his comrades dying around him before succumbing to the damage done to his body. It was a surprising, sobering sequence in the middle of an otherwise kind of mindless experience.
Yeah, the music is heavily cinematic, and reminiscent of the scores one would hear in somewhat older movies. It's nice.
It's a pity the series apparently lost its identity over time trying to compete with CoD. If anything, its developers should have doubled-down on the unique design sensibilities of their series, although I imagine corporate suits would have objected when the games continued to pull in a fraction of CoD's utterly gargantuan sales.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
@RogerRoger I’ll add my appreciation for your recent review. I’ll likely never play the Medal of Honor games due to my reluctance to go backward technologically, but as you know I really love my WW2 history. I went so far as to download COD: WW2 onto my PS4 after it was given to us a few months ago via PS+, but I have never clicked on the icon to open it and I don’t know if I ever will. Getting into any military shooter for me feels like walking into a party late after the introductions and get-to-know-you games are over, the food is half eaten, and all party participants are having a great time socializing with one another but you can’t find a person you know or will even talk to you. As everyone ignores you, the party goes on without you and clearly everyone loves the setting, but you sit by yourself in a corner with a broken cookie and stare at the ceiling trying to look like you belong. You feel so awkward and out of place and just want to go home, but also sense the embarrassment of walking out after you’d just got there. (Wow, that metaphor seems suspiciously too detailed doesn’t it? 😅)
Anyways... [ahem, let me wipe the sweat from my brow] I enjoyed the write up regardless. I happened upon Saving Private Ryan the other day as I was channel surfing and paused on it for a while. I forgot how good that movie was. The portrayal of the horror of that war is quite well done.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
As the eleventh main entry in Ubisoft’s long running Assassin’s Creed series, Odyssey continues with the formula established by 2017’s reboot of sorts, Origins, and ramps up the open-world action RPG gameplay even further. Arriving just a year after its predecessor, It’s bigger and longer, with my play through clocking in at 140 hours. Odyssey sees you plop on the animus (it’s now a portable visor) and step into the shoes of Kassandra, sword-for-hire misthios and altogether badass granddaughter of Gerard Butler King Leonidas of Sparta. Marooned on Kefalonia as a child, adult Kassandra is swiftly approached by a mysterious and entirely trustworthy gentleman offering her riches in exchange for a bit of respectful murder. Never one to shy away from a little death in paradise, Kassandra agrees, and joined by her trusty eagle Ikaros begins her adventure proper, as she soon becomes embroiled with the dealings of shadowy cult, comes to terms with her past and finds her destiny.
Kassandra is a wonderful protagonist; supremely strong, effortlessly charismatic and very likeable. She’s also a rarity for female protagonists in that she’s beautiful but doesn’t carry a hint of sexualisation in her design. Melissanthi Mahut does a brilliant job bringing the character to life with a commendable voice performance. If they wish players can instead choose to inhabit the role of her brother Alexios, although his voice actor is somewhat less skilled, but by no means unenthused. In addition to being better-acted Kassandra is considered the canon protagonist, though in a predictable twist of fate Ubisoft decided to focus on the male character in its physical marketing material. Once again the modern day story sees Layla Hassan at the helm, and once again it is a complete snooze. Thankfully it is relegated to just a few scenes, but at the same time one can’t help but feel it would be best to altogether retire the contemporary Abstergo storyline.
As this is an action RPG Kassandra will level up with XP gained from completing a multitude of quests, killing enemies, and exploring the map and ticking off an array of optional location objectives. With each new level Kassandra gains an “ability point” to augment her skills and provide her with new attacks. Combat is not particularly focused, but gets the job done, and most enemies will go down after a few swings of her weapon. The open-world gameplay is one massive to-do list, but is also comfort food gaming. So far, it’s what you’d expect, but I’d like to draw attention to one specific gameplay feature I’ve dubbed “ESP GPS”. As though blessed by Zeus himself, man and beast alike share an unusual psychic connection, communicating such abstract ideas as Kassandra’s location and crimes, the precise whereabouts of treasures and misbehaving children, and the positions, ranks, and even names of enemies. See, mercenaries will be summoned and hone in on Kassandra after after she commits a few crimes, yet if the bounty sponsor, typically located in a far-away location, is offed or paid off, the mercenary will immediately cease their hunt. Likewise Ikaros can be summoned at the press of a button, and highlight objects and NPCs on the HUD. Typically the more “gamey” aspects of Assassin’s Creed have been explained as “animus glitches”, but I like to think that in 5th century BC Greece random mercenaries and alarmingly long-lived eagles really were enjoined in telepathic communion.
As with previous Assassin’s Creed games, Odyssey blends documented fact and an array of real-life characters with its hokum plot to produce an alternate history of sorts. With the early portion of the Peloponnesian War serving as the backdrop, this was a period when Sparta and Athens battled for hegemony over the Greek world while important advances were made in the fields of philosophy, architecture, mathematics and art. While it was certainly an eventful time in human history, real occurrences are not always effectively weaved into the narrative, and important events in human history feel fleeting, existing on the periphery of Kassandra’s quest. Odyssey also finds time to blend in a few Greek myths, and these exciting scripted sections are unsurprisingly some of the best parts of the game, featuring genuinely thrilling battles. Among the important historical figures Kassandra meets are the father of democracy, Pericles, the philosopher Socrates, the historian Herodotus, and the doctor Hippocrates. It’s a veritable who’s who of the Classical Greek world. Of particular note is serial philanderer Alkibiades, said to be one of the most beautiful men of the period. Here he resembles Dusty Springfield in her Pet Shop Boys days and speaks with the sultry breathiness of an orgasmic camel. With so many characters Ubisoft could perhaps be forgiven for recycling models here and there, with random NPCs a variation of a handful of designs and voiced by about three actors.
With historical accuracy being Assassin Creed’s raison-d’être, everybody in ancient Greece is an almighty slut. They will immediately and incautiously proposition each other with sleazy come-ons, before shagging Kassandra, never to be seen again. Now, Kassandra could be a psychopath for all they know - indeed my Kassandra was a ruthless mass-murderer - so it seems unusual that no-one exercised the slightest bit of caution before bedding this very heavily armed goddess of death. My theory is Kassandra fed her prey to her eagle, Ikaros, though I can’t discount her burying them under the patio, either. A few lucky souls may be invited to join her ship’s crew, but only if they demonstrate exceptional skill in the sack.
While Odyssey may lack the wonder of exploring the striking deserts or realistically proportioned pyramids of Origins’ Egypt, one of the triumphs of its world lies in its recreation of well-known Classical Greek buildings and monuments, from the Parthenon to the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The world itself is enormous, featuring a scaled down version of much of the Greek world. It is so big entire regions feel almost superfluous, with numerous locations seemingly existing simply to fill space and give the player things to tick off the gargantuan to-do list, rather than feeling like organic, meaningful parts of the world. In the end they all sort of merge together, losing some sense of purpose. While Odyssey is a beautiful game, with lovingly rendered environments and lovely lighting and shadows, it is ultimately window dressing - something for the player to zip through from point A to point B while they complete quests. The “bigger is better” design mantra popular at Ubisoft HQ extends far beyond the world itself, with a multitude of gameplay systems vomited at the player. From a ranked mercenary system, to region conquests (this is a war, remember), ship enhancements and cultist hunting. It is perhaps a little overwhelming at first, and although it all sort of all fits together, it’s this lack of focus that is emblematic of Odyssey as a whole.
Storytelling in open-world games is often a fine balancing act between player freedom and exploration, and relaying a tight, effective story. Odyssey often feels like its pulled between its rote, formulaic open-worlding and linear narrative. There are story quests that feel like they should be of critical importance, but the player can easily spend a dozen or so hours exploring the map completing optional objectives, before finally skipping at a leisurely pace to wherever Kassandra’s most urgently needed. The world is decaying in the ashes of war, but Kassandra will always find time to holiday on Samos or paint the town red in downtown Thebes. The passage of time is not effectively represented in game, either. Odyssey actually takes place across many years of real-life events; Pericles’ death occurred in 429BC, and the Battle of Amphipolis in 422BC, but the player would be forgiven for thinking it was the following week. Nor is the end of the first stage of the war particularly apparent; both sides will carry on fighting in each region of Greece as though nothing of particular importance happened.
At times the plot doesn’t quite keep up with the open-world gameplay. There was one notable instance where I unwittingly killed a cult member long before the story wanted me to, yet by the time I got to that particular questline characters not only spoke as though he was still alive and needed to be found, the game then proceeded to list a series of objectives I’d already unknowingly completed. Unfortunately, because I’d already killed the target it made a later story mission slightly more difficult, as he needed to be spared in order to be given a vital clue to the identity of another cultist. A key character also fell out with Kassandra, which broke the immersion a little. The world is designed in such a way as to invite map exploration and the completion of location objectives, but then feels like it’s going out of its way to punish the player for doing so, breaking immersion.
In the end the story fizzles out with all the enthusiasm of a spent balloon. There’s no satisfying conclusion; the game simply decides enough’s enough, packs up its bags and goes glamping in Viking era Cotswolds. The specific ending I got was akin to the infamous Crayongate from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Kassandra told a cute story about mutilating stationery at kindergarten and the world was saved. Or something. Entire plot threads don’t really go anywhere, and as a result the story feels half-baked and ultimately a little hollow. That is not to say there aren’t genuinely affecting moments, or that it isn’t at times hilarious, effortlessly infusing slapstick and farce. While it’s all these things, it is the lack of focus, the vastly bloated runtime and the Eaton Mess of gameplay systems that stuck with me long after the credits rolled, and that’s a shame.
@mookysam A brilliant Odyssey review and genuinely made me laugh out loud a few times. But it also contained vital information for me, a player who has the game in his backlog. Some of the critique was familiar from previous reviews, but there is a lot you brought to light that I didn’t know beforehand. Wonderful job and a fun read.
As for whether it encouraged or discouraged me to move it up the backlog list... well, I think if anything it made me a slight bit less enthusiastic about it. I had slated it for my next Creed game to play in a few months, but now I’m wondering if it would be better to skip to Valhalla. I already own Odyssey, so I’ll probably try it; I do want to spend some time with the ubiquitously praised Kassandra.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@mookysam I’m about 35 hours into Odyssey now and I agree with a lot of your points in your review. It’s not a very good Assassin’s Creed game but it’s a brilliant open-world RPG. I’m really not a fan of the naval stuff though, didn’t like it in Black Flag and it still doesn’t feel great in this game. I’ve actually been 100%ing every single area before I move onto the next though, which means I’ll probably burn out but it helps me appreciate the little things like how the locations are a bit more diverse than Origins. The plot is totally all over the place though, the cult system is fantastic but the main story gets in the way of it at times. At least Kassandra is great fun to embody for over a hundred hours!
@mookysam The White Palace is mandatory if you want to fight the hidden boss at the end, The Radiance. You need to see the Queen and the King to get a charm, to then let you get another charm which then triggers that boss fight when you defeat the Hollow Knight itself. Which is also a horrible boss fight. I think it is a bit unfair hiding that behind the White Palace because honestly, it us just unpleasant if you aren't insanely good (which I wasn't).
Great review of Odyssey, you pretty much summed up my experience. The game does so much right except being so huge and the story just fizzling out. I never did all the additional end game stuff as I got tired of the game at about 80 hours. Comfort food is completely the right way to think of these AC games. They are fun to play when you are in them but then... well you just sort of forget.
Kassandra though was just a great character, well acted and possibly the best Ubi character I've ever seen.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
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