@Ralizah I really hope the haptic feedback continues to get used. It's a big jump up from the standard rumble of every prior generation. Out of the two biggest innovations of the DualSense, that's the one I like the most by far. Granted it's not going to make use stop using my Series X much or anything, but I did really notice the difference when I went from my PS5 back to my Series X recently. Even standard rumble is better on the DualSense though.
Just finished Halo Infinite after about 19 hours of playtime. Absolutely phenomenal game, easily the best Halo game I've ever played and definitely my GOTY of 2021. Holy crap what a ride! At first I thought this was a pretty good Halo game, but when the world opened up and you could explore for the first time, I immediately got hooked. It was so much fun exploring the world thanks to the introduction of the grappling hook, which made traversal much easier and more fun. You can climb walls if you manage to time your shots well and due to Master Chief not being able to take fall damage, it felt pretty easy to get around. In all honesty, I just can't imagine going back and playing the older Halo games now due to how slow they would feel without the grappling hook. It's such a simple addition but it makes the game so much more fun, especially when you use it on enemies as you're able to strike enemies from above with a ground smash with the help of the hook. I would constantly do that once I upgraded Master Chief and it just felt so badass to play as him now with all these new abilities.
As you explore the world, you'll find Spartan Cores to upgrade Master Chief's equipment, save marines to help you out in battle and take out targets that have been a threat to the UNSC for a long time. The last part was actually pretty cool as your AI friend would give you backstory on each target, so it felt rather satisfying and meaningful when you defeated them.
You would also unlock new weapons that you can call in at FOBs after defeating the targets and the progression system was overall great! I liked that you would continuously unlock new vehicles throughout the story and the thing is that this part of the Halo series has translated very well into the open world aspect. It's never felt this good to use the classic Halo vehicles before, such as Warthog, Mongoose, Ghost, Banshee and so on. Discovering the enemy vehicles for the first time was brilliantly done. Once you've gotten to a new area, you'd randomly stumble upon an enemy with a vehicle, such as a Ghost and your first thought would be to board it with the grappling hook and then you get it. The game doesn't tell you this, it just felt natural and I love that. The same can be said about the Banshee that you'll find later on in the game, which allows you to fly around the world and it's such a great feeling when you finally unlock the aircrafts.
The story was genuinely very interesting as a lot has happened in between the story since the last mainline game. So naturally, you'd want to know what has transpired and the game does a great job of slowly unraveling that throughout the campaign. Furthermore, I really like that the game focused on a couple of characters this time around as it made them more memorable and likeable as you follow their character development. The villains were great as well, I highly enjoyed the battles against them, which were really intense.
I also have to mention that this game is incredibly detailed. I mentioned before how it would naturally introduce new vehicles to you as you progressed, but another thing I really liked is the chatter from the NPCs. As you rescue marines or attack enemies, you'll hear them talk about you. The marines will speak highly of you and praise you when you've defeated the enemies, like they're acknowledging what a legend the Chief is. And then you have the Grunts who'll say stuff like "Master Chief's name is John. John? Seriously? We're afraid of a guy named JOHN?" and it's just hilarious. Subsequently, there would also be times where you're up on a hill looking over the horizon and all of a sudden, the main theme of Halo would play to make the moment more special. The attention to detail is just impeccable, it truly makes the world feel like a living place.
My two main gripes with the game are the repetitive level design for the linear levels and a lot of the equipment not being that useful in combat. So first off, and this was a huge issue with the first Halo game as well, the linear levels reuse the same level design over and over again numerous times throughout the campaign. And it would honestly get annoying after a while. It was never as bad as the first Halo, but this is definitely one of the worst parts of the game. Second, a lot of the equipment didn't feel all that useful. You have four equipment, your grappling hook, dropwall (a shield that you deploy), thruster (in order to boost) and a sensor for detecting enemies. The last two were absolutely worthless because the thruster barely takes you anywhere and it's much better to use the grappling hook if you want to escape from enemies. And the sensor was pointless because enemies show up on your main radar anyway. Grappling hook was easily the best one to upgrade as you'd be able to do a ground smash on enemies once fully upgraded, and the dropwall was pretty good for surviving intense situations. It's definitely saved me a good amount of times. But yeah, I just wish they could've added more useful equipment or at least better upgrades for the thruster.
All in all though, this was an absolutely fantastic game and I highly enjoyed my time with it.
@LtSarge Nice Halo Infinite write-up! Sounds fun. tbh after seeing how much fun it was exploring SMT V without fall damage, I'm very much over that particular mechanic. It adds nothing but aggravation to any game it's in. It sounds like Halo nailed the move to more open world gameplay, which is encouraging, considering the arguably rough reception it received last year. I know some people are tired of open worlds in their games, but it really is a lot of fun seeing classic franchises re-imagined around radically new level design and game progression models. Especially when they dramatically improve character navigation, and it sounds like the grappling hook does just that.
Is this the sort of game where it's ideal to play the old ones first, or could I just jump into Infinite and be fine?
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
@Ralizah Thanks mate! I agree regarding fall damage, but I feel like it would be hard for the developers to explain to the players why the protagonist doesn't take fall damage. In the case of Master Chief, he is pretty much a super soldier and he's in an armour suit that dampens falls so it makes sense to not have fall damage. But yeah, it would be nice if more games could do this!
The thing is that you don't really need to explore the open world if you don't want to. There aren't any side quests with a narrative or anything like that, the focus is mostly on enemy battles. In that regard, it really is fun and rewarding to explore because combat is so good with the grappling hook. I spent almost 20 hours but you can easily finish the game in 10 hours if you just focus on the story. So you're given a lot of freedom to choose how you want to play, which is great.
I do have to say that, while I have played all mainline Halo games, I genuinely don't remember anything from them, lol. It's been so many years since I played them that I've forgotten pretty much everything and despite that, it felt fine to play this game. Granted, there's a lot of general lore and terms that you would need to know to understand the story, so that might make things more difficult for you. Things like the UNSC (United Nations Space Command, i.e. the humans), Cortana (Master Chief's AI friend) and The Banished (an alien race) but the game does a good job of explaining a lot of these things later on. You will definitely feel confused in the beginning, but if you're willing to stick things out I think you'll be fine.
@nomither6 My favourite Halo campaign was Reach and I did try to replay it before I started up Infinite. But it didn't grab my interest at all, it's just way too slow in all honesty.
@LtSarge It's still better than Halo CE. I get how revolutionary it was 20 years ago, and that Xbox wouldn't likely even exist right now without it, but it's been difficult playing through it recently. It has aged poorly, with the most repetitive levels/missions I've ever encountered. I also don't miss the way it handled shields compared to Halo games afterwards.
I still thought Reach was decent, but I wouldn't be finishing Halo CE if I didn't want to play through every campaign completely before I play Infinite.
PSN ID/Xbox Live Gamertag: KilloWertz
Switch Friend Code: SW-6448-2688-7386
@KilloWertz I was actually thinking of you while I was playing through the linear levels in Infinite as they reminded me heavily of the repetitive corridors in Halo CE since we talked about that a while back. I have no idea why 343 thought it was a good idea to do that because it sure ruined the pacing of the game. So yeah, this won't be the last time you'll see repetitive level design in a Halo game, lol.
But yeah, Halo Reach is definitely one of the best games in the franchise. Are you playing through the series in release or chronological order?
@LtSarge As long as the rest of the game is great, and it seems to be, I'll be ok. It doesn't help with Halo CE is everything is repetitive no matter if it's inside or outside in the back half of the game.
Chronological. It'll be a while until I play them all since I'm back on my PS5 playing Horizon Zero Dawn again to get myself ready for Horizon Forbidden West though. Saying I'm having a lot more fun revisiting that than slogging through Halo CE would be an understatement.
PSN ID/Xbox Live Gamertag: KilloWertz
Switch Friend Code: SW-6448-2688-7386
@RogerRoger Great write-up! Sounds like a wonderful game and something you could relax to after having experienced a lot of action-focused titles, so it's right up my alley. Sadly I don't think I'll be buying it since it feels like a "one and done" kind of game, i.e. you don't really go back and play it when you've experienced it once. So I think that's another game I'll check out if it ever gets added to Game Pass.
Would you say that you're more interested to play more of these kinds of games in the future after having played this one now (referring to the part where you said that your experience with these games is limited)?
@RogerRoger Thank you very much for the tag. Nice review and does sound like a zen experience which I like to play in between all the killing. Seems to tick all the boxes with what i would be looking for in this type of game. All the things you compared it to and mentioned it where it took inspiration from have me closer to purchasing it.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@RogerRoger hmm, have seen it on sale a few times but it never really grabbed my interest… I might take a punt off of the back of your review though. Good stuff!
@RogerRoger
Nice write up (as usual) Rog.
I thought I had played this but after your review it turns out I was thinking of another game - Seasons after Fall where you also play as a fox (and spirit fox), solving environmental puzzles with no combat! that was more 2D platformer though...I wonder how many similar things there are?
Now that I am aware they are different games I may be tempted to pick it up for a simple chill game sometime.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
@RogerRoger You lost me at ABZÛ and then quickly brought me back with those Fumito Ueda comparisons. So, what I'm gathering is this is sort of an open-ended, lonely puzzle platformer with a bit of an arthouse vibe to it?
I'm not surprised it's not a technical stunner. It seems to run well on the Switch, and none of the other versions I've looked at seem substantially different. Playing this on a PS5 reminds me of how I'd build a powerful new PC capable of playing the latest games well and spend the next several years playing almost nothing but indies on it.
Nice review, Rog. It sounds like you enjoyed it. Might not be a masterpiece, but sometimes comfy games are just what the doctor ordered.
There once was a game called RiME; It was known to not take too much time, What it did take was grit To see all that’s in it, But with effort you’ll find it’s sublime
(Don’t worry — Although I’m tempted to rhyme my entire review, I think my lack of poetic talent was on display enough with that intro. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.)
RiME is a game that’s difficult for me to objectively review. As a big fan of Fumito Ueda’s work, it’s hard not to look at this as Ico or The Last Guardian with a new lick of paint. And by being such a facsimile of other beloved games, RiME has opened itself to have direct comparisons with those classics.
To be honest, there are things RiME does better than it’s artistic-platformer progenitors like Ico and Journey. But the nostalgia factor of those games hazes any clear view of what Tequila Works has actually accomplished. Regardless, here goes nothing…
How does it look and play?
First off, the game is lovely. Most notable is the use of color, especially in relation to the different areas and themes. Environmental storytelling is at its finest here with each chapter progressing the underlying story ever so subtly. Bright whites and reflective golds infuse the awesome architectural structures. Greens, oranges, and blues dot the landscape composed of cliffs, trees, and also underwater locales.
The nameless, voiceless young boy protagonist is stylized in that simple but effective animation, not unlike The Boy, Ico and Yorda, or The Traveler. Although I grew tired of the kid yelling “Hah!” as his main interactive skill, there was an ingenuity to the simple button inputs and lack of complexity. Unfortunately unsophisticated movesets and basic animation translate into wonky controls during some of the platforming. The sticky nature of movement and inaccurate starts and stops feel eerily similar to the worst aspects of Team Ico’s previous installments. Thankfully the game is exceedingly forgiving with instant respawns at the exact spot where you fail.
Beyond the platforming, the game is composed primarily of puzzles. Although I eventually got the hang of them, I found them to be far from simple. Some of them were rather involved with tricky techniques like disappearing doors and having to go back to an earlier area where there would inexplicably be an environmental change that opened up a clue or necessary item. Some of my frustration with the puzzles is probably related to my concurrent attempts to get all the collectibles, of which there are many. Some are extremely well hidden and require solving an extra puzzle of their own, so it added a little to the weariness I felt with navigating the chapters.
I did appreciate the merciful utilization of clearly marked ledges that clue you into where to climb, as well as the hints and direction that your companion fox gives you, yelping to indicate the area to go to next. If one were to mainline the game and didn’t care about collectibles, I’d see how getting through the chapters with these aids would be much more straightforward. Still, the collectibles actually add quite a bit of nuance and meaning to the story, so I’m glad I found them all. Unfortunately, according to the PSN stats, only 4% of players go through the effort to find all the secrets.
Speaking of the story….
Here is the rub, this game is really deep. Like, really well-crafted thematically. Actually, I think the narrative and themes are it’s strongest quality. It’s steeped in symbolism, allegory, and reflection.
The problem is that the game doles out the story points at such a creeping pace that it’s hard to feel the impact until one finally gets to the end and everything comes together. Perhaps that is what gives the message its power, and I wouldn’t necessarily change it, but there is a commitment one must have to get through some of the tedium and be able to be partake in the best part of the game. Again looking at trophy data, only 20% of players reach the conclusion. That’s pretty low for a 6 hour game. It’s a shame, but I can kinda understand why there is such a steep drop-off. I played for a total of 9-10 hours to complete everything, but this wasn’t a game I ever felt was ‘fun’, per se. It wasn’t a game that I could sit and play for more than 2 hours at a time before I’d grow impatient and want to change games or do something else entirely.
Still, I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t kept pondering the symbols and heavy message of the game, even many hours after having completed it. That’s a sign of a good game in my book.
Another redeeming quality
I would be remiss not to mention the music. The musical score is fantastic and adds so much to the experience. I’ve mentioned before how rarely I notice music in a game, so for me to pay heed to the orchestral soundtrack is really saying something. I can’t remember the last time a game was this dependent on the music to convey its message.
Summary
In the end, RiME is an outstanding game, despite its close imitation of previous trailblazing games. It still manages to have its own special personality. Tequila Works has some real talent and crafted a solid and emotional adventure. However, like the student who cheats and copies his classmate’s homework and inadvertently transcribes the wrong answers along with the correct ones, I have to take points off for RiME’s dodgy control and outdated mechanics. The artistic parts of the game do continue to feel inspired however. Not quite fresh, but inspired.
An impassioned narrative, epic music, fetching artistry, and clever level design save this game from being merely a cheap clone. But there is a certain piece missing that keeps it from achieving the pinnacle of greatness that it’s forebears accomplished.
@RogerRoger Thanks for the positive feedback and for your encouragement! It’s a game I felt deserved a review, if nothing else as a way to close the book on how I felt about it and try to make my thoughts concrete. As you can see with my wavering critique, I still had a hard time committing to exactly how highly I thought of it. In the end, I was torn between a wonderful story that really resonated with me, versus the undeniable difficulty that I had actually maintaining any interest in the game during my playthrough. The fact it took me weeks to complete such a short game was evidence enough that the game had flaws. I tried to tease out what those were, but still struggled with precise reasons for its failure in the gameplay engagement department.
But in the end, the game absolutely redeems itself, like you say. And I appreciate your campaigning for me to make it to the finish. In my opinion, many games completely redeem themselves if they can really stick the landing with a good conclusion, which RiME really does.
And I also appreciate that I didn’t have that surprise reveal spoiled for me. I definitely went along with the way the game fed you images and information leading you to believe the boy is the survivor and his parents are the deceased. However now, in retrospect, it makes complete sense that the boy is the one who’s dead and at the beginning he’s washed up on the shore of some version of the afterlife. But the game does a good job at leading you down the path that he’s mourning the death of someone else. By having his mother die previously it was easy to make it about his grief and then pull the rug out from under us when we discover this father is the one to really be mourning the loss of the boy (and his mother).
And I couldn’t really get into too much detail in the review about the symbolism in the game without revealing too much, but there is just so much. Just to mention a few — The red cape clearly is a symbol of the grief his father is holding onto. The constant use of suns and moons for the puzzles surely refer to death and the sunset of life. The real kicker for me was the penultimate chapter (called “Depression” I think) with the darkness and the rain. The symbolism of that grim setting; and the rain as it poured down the statues faces, representing tears… well it was just so moving. Then, when I pressed the triangle button and instead of idle humming of a tune, the boy sobs and weeps…. ah, man — it was just really powerful. That’s when the game really started to land haymakers all over my psyche and I felt the full extent they were trying to get. When the music kicks in to heighten the emotion, it really multiplies an already impactful moment. And to see the ending with the father mulling over toys and then finally letting go of the piece of red fabric was such a fitting end and a wonderful resolution.
So sometimes games don’t have to be fun to be good. And I think this is a prime example of that. Some of my favorite gaming experiences were ones that moved me emotionally, even if it was toward sadness or despair, so long as I felt hope as well, and I think the game does also show hope at the end, with moving on.
And with that in mind, one last really cool spoiler — the game probably has my favorite trophy in recent memory. It occurs in the third chapter I think (Bargaining) where you come upon an endless hallway. You can keep running down the hallway and it loops over and over, essentially making no progress until you turn around and suddenly what you’re looking for is behind you. If you follow the endless hallway for 2 minutes you get the trophy “Patience” and the trophy description says: “Turning your back to the truth and persevering will lead you nowhere.” Bam! That is really good stuff right there. Life lessons from trophy hunting! 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Awesome contribution! Opening the piece with a bit of poetry was rather inspired, I'd say. Don't worry: nobody's expecting Walt Whitman-tier work in a video game review, so if you ever wanna give that rhyming review a shot, I'd say go for it. This is an open forum for writerly experimentation.
We've actually talked before about the difficulty of reviewing around concept-heavy games that are easy to spoil, but in terms of your actual piece on the game, I'd say you did a pretty good job with Rime (sorry, "RiME"; I wonder if the symbolism extends to the capitalization as well, which makes it look like the title was conceived by a sarcastic internet commentator ), as you gave me a sense of what the game plays like without forcing yourself to delve into the actual theme of the game, which would spoil the experience for the uninitiated. The alternative, I suppose, being that you just discuss the theme openly and your review just ends up looking like a government document to those unwilling to click the spoiler tags.
I'm always impressed with puzzle platformers that introduce their puzzles organically, in a way where they fit in with the setting, instead of more artificially introducing them into the environment. Especially when they additionally take place in an open-ended environment like this game seems to.
This is one of those games I've been meaning to get to for years, but never seem to make the time for. Maybe I should change that.
@Th3solution
Thanks Sol, good write up and interesting read.
Completed it and got all collectables for the platinum but after reading your review and subsequent analysis it's kind of made me want to experience it again!
Agreed some of the game could be plodding and borderline tedious but the ending was really moving and made up for it.
As for the low completion rate, people often just lack the dedication of commitment to start what they finish - especially surprising like you say for such a short game.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
I beat Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS5. I expected to like it more than I did. It was alright, but I found it to be quite... boring?
Spider-Man (2018) was a good game, I really liked the traversal through NY, but the gameplay left things to desire. Miles Morales continued that path unfortunately. Every encounter was the same. You enter an area, stealth kill some baddies, rinse and repeat. It's not that a single encounter by itself bad, but the fact that it's just all very same-y.
The game started off strong though, with the Rhino fight, but went downhill after that. Even the final fight felt very similar to the standard fights with the Underground. I expected a little more.
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