Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@RogerRoger I somehow missed your Burning Shores review last week, but saw it last night and waited until today to give a proper response to it given how big of a Horizon series fan I am. I am glad to see such positivity for it, especially given how Forbidden West got overlooked last year and how even some received the DLC (not just the obvious part). This is basically my review posted on another site back in April edited to fit as a response.

With that said, I don't agree with everything, particularly the spoiler. I opted to not kiss Seyka, and it's not because I have anything against gay people or anything. If that ended up being the route they went with Aloy in the end, fine, but my main problem with it in Burning Shores is it felt so rushed and so forced. Even the moments where you get hints of those kind of feelings that are throughout the game are forced and unnatural. Yes, it can happen, but for the most part people that have only known eachother for that short amount of time don't get that attached to eachother. It would have been so much better if they had just had them be friends and then possibly explored a relationship in the third game. At least then they would have spent a lot more time together and it would have been a lot more realistic. Aloy's response to Seyka when you do the thoughtful decline is 100% what I would have expected Aloy to say in that situation prior to Burning Shores.

I also thought The Frozen Wilds was better than Burning Shores as a whole. There was nothing I thought was particularly bad about Burning Shores outside of what I talked about in the spoiler, but it was a flawed experience for me all around. The story obviously had to be flawed for me, even though I thought the overall arc itself was perfectly fine, but the lack of side missions for the most part along with other gameplay issues dragged it down for me. The Aerial Captures were glitched at launch (they have been fixed long ago now of course), but I also flew the entire map over the course of the game and only unlocked a fraction of the Devotee Camps and Aerial Captures. I didn't bother going back and trying to finish them otherwise out of frustration that traversing the entire map wasn't enough. I will say that the "A Friend in the Dark" side quest with Gildun was vintage Horizon with a very heartfelt ending to that particular quest.

All is not doom and gloom though, as it would be hard for a diehard series fan to be completely unsatisfied. Getting to return to the world of Horizon and spend more time in it will always be a good thing, so it was still nice to get to spend another 10-15 hours playing as Aloy. In other words, despite my issues with Burning Shores, I'm still glad I got to play it. The main story was fine, the end boss fight was great for the most part, and the A Friend in the Dark side quest was an obvious highlight.

@RogerRoger Yes, you remember my DLC contention well. Burning Shores does seem more in line with my expansion philosophy, and just a step away from the ‘expandalone’ games that Sony puts out like Miles Morales, First Light, etc. which I really like.

It reminds me that I still need to try the Iki Island content for GoT. If there was one defense that I’d concede to the quick release, pre-planned DLC it would be that when too much time passes from finishing the base game, it’s harder to go back to extra content the further from the original you get. Fortunately for me, I’ll be able to play Burning Shores in close proximity if I am feelin’ it upon concluding HFW.

@RogerRoger Any patches for Forbidden West while you were doing NG+ were for Burning Shores as far as I know, but obviously they would be applied to Forbidden West since it's just DLC that was added on to the main game file.

It would take quite a bit of effort on Guerrilla's part in order to make me truly dislike mainline Horizon content (not counting Call of the Mountain as I'm not spending over $500 for one game), which is why I said I was still happy to be back playing as Aloy in the world of Horizon. There is also nothing wrong with liking it even better than me, so I wouldn't worry too much about second guessing yourself. I also see you came up with the same title as me for Horizon 3. It wouldn't be surprising at all if it ends up being exactly that.

@LtSarge Wow, glowing Final Fantasy XVI review! It's nice to see that it has re-invested you in the series. I take it your hope is that the series will continue in this direction with future entries?

Interesting to hear how the series' classic staple of focusing on elemental crystals has been re-contextualized in a way that's more grounded and not unlike modern human civilization's struggle to move past a dependence on fossil fuels. How would you say the game's Game of Thrones-esque dark medieval story/setting evolves throughout the game? I've heard mixed opinions in that regard.

It's definitely true that older Final Fantasy games tended to funnel you down a path through the games. One interesting aspect is how they eventually opened up full map exploration via the use of vehicles. Does FFXVI feature anything similar in terms of having a moment where the game opens up more fully?

The music does sound pretty epic! Square-Enix has almost never disappointed with their orchestral scores for their more RPGs. How would you say the game balances these big battle pieces against softer themes throughout?

Sounds like you really loved this game. It's always nice to just thoroughly fall in love with a game like that. Although I've personally found that pumping 70 - 100+ hours into a game in a short span of time tends to lead to a way longer burn-out period (still recovering from my initial burst of time with TotK; haven't played almost anything in almost 1.5 months now!)

@RogerRoger I'm sure HFW doesn't feel incomplete without Burning Shores, much in the same way that Zero Dawn didn't really need its expansion... it was just an extra thing. It's possible I'll be playing it on PS4, although, at this point, I'm considering waiting for the inevitable PC port as well. We'll see. If I get through my current PS4 backlog and its still not out on PC, I'll probably pony up for the PS4 version.

I didn't mean to sound like I was dragging you for addressing the "controversy." Largely just emoting frustration that it's considered a "controversy" at all! America, and even the state I like in, has been hit with a fairly ruthless onslaught of anti-LGBT legislation and judicial activism as of late, and I see a lot of it reflected in these absurd 'controversies' that keep hitting the gaming scene. People throw a fuss, others talk about the fuss, and it ends up creating momentum for the right-wing hate machine that seems to be dragging us decades into the past.

Started the original Devil May Cry for the first time via the HD Collection on PS3 and have already made my way through the first 7 missions!

I've been itching to play DMC for the longest while as a massive Capcom fanboy and I've gotta say: it's been really fun so far! Stringing together hits on large amounts of enemies (constantly interlacing sword slashes with gun blasts) is incredibly satisfying, the music is a fantastic mix of unnerving ambience and kick-ass rock and the gothic horror aesthetic, while very much a bi-product of DMC1 being a reworked version of beta RE4, is done super well and makes the locales infinitely more atmospheric and memorable.

However, for as much as I am enjoying it, it's fair to say there's been a few bumps in the road along the way.

Firstly, in an issue exclusive to the HD Collection rerelease, the cutscenes are entirely out of sync with their audio, causing them to feel incredibly disjointed and bizarre. I managed to find a workaround to it by simply skipping the cutscene, pausing the game immediately after and pulling up an 'All Cutscenes' compilation on Youtube, but it's still a shame given how delightfully cheesy they are.

The other big problem is something that's a bit harder to ignore unfortunately: THE GODAWFUL CAMERA. DMC was very much a pioneer of it's genre (being 3D hack-n-slash action games) so I suppose I can't fault it too hard for not getting it right on the first attempt but Sparda almighty; whereas it's relatively serviceable when moving from room-to-room via the old RE fixed camera angles (not great, but serviceable), this gets entirely thrown out the window during boss fights where the camera will simply not focus on the boss in question no matter how hard you try, leading you to get completely pulverized by attacks you had no idea were coming (DAMN YOU PHANTOOOOOOOOOOOM).

This, combined with the bosses in question basically being giant damage sponges, is certainly enough to put a bit of a dampener on the experience so far, but the good stuff is so good that I'm still enjoying my time regardless. DMC really feels like a game I'll have to play through more than once to fully know my thoughts on but as of right now? It's pretty damn good 😈

@RogerRoger I live for Capcom cheesiness so I was going to find a way to watch the cutscenes if it's the last thing I did XD

On the topic of DMC1's jankiness, I see a lot of people wanting games like RE Code Veronica or Dino Crisis to be remade in RE Engine these days and, while I would also love to see that happen as well, I think the original DMC could benefit the most with a remake given how most of the issues I've encountered with it are purely down to it being one of the first 3D Action games ever made. Make it more like DMC5 in a similar way to how they made RE2/3 like RE4 gameplay-wise and I think you'd have something super special on your hands.

also could you IMAGINE what this scene would look like with the detail RE Engine provides

@Fizza Ah cool that you have found Devil May Cry. I think it would be interesting to know more about your thoughts on the game as you continue play it. While I guess that it would be cool if Capcom decided to do a remake of the original Devil May Cry games in the RE the engine I think its basically zero chance it will happen. I think it would be better and I think its more likely that Capcom decides to develop a new game in the series instated. Speaking of Devil May Cry I can really recommend Ninja Theory version of the game from 2013... I think many, many people have missed that one.. That being said I guess that it may make sense to first try and beat the other games in the series if you have patience for that..

@RogerRoger Ok, so I guess I didn't know as much as I thought I did.

True, but your interpretation was wrong.... I mean it was fine I suppose. I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen between the two of them since there were articles about it pretty much right at release about it because of the review bombing, but obviously the game failed to convince me. Oh well, no big deal in the end. The only question is where Guerrilla takes it.

I will protest for a whole 30 seconds after installing the game and day 1 patch before I dive into the game if it's not called that.

@Th3solution Thank you for the kind words! I think you'd enjoy the game but you mustn't force yourself to play it if you're not in the mood. Granted, this is a very linear game so it doesn't feel overwhelming in terms of content. I mean, whenever you play an open world game with tons of markers, it feels very overwhelming. But even though FFXVI is a long game, it doesn't feel overwhelming like an open world experience.

@Ralizah Yeah, I hope the next FF game will be similar to XVI. It's just so much more accessible compared to your traditional JRPGs, which is perfect for me as I don't have as much time for gaming these days. It's just so easy to start up FFXVI, play for a while and then put it down.

Honestly, I thought the story constantly got better. It focuses first on the protagonist and his struggles but slowly introduces other characters and places just enough so you get familiar to them once they're fully introduced. Just like Game of Thrones though, it is quite difficult to keep up with everything that's happening but it gets easier the more you progress. It can get a bit cliché in the second half of the story but there are enough twists that keep things interesting.

I mean, not really because you don't walk around on a world map like in the older games. You use a fast travel system instead. But as I mentioned in the review, each kingdom is like its own map and while each chapter is linear, all areas in a kingdom eventually link up to form a more open world. It's kinda like the Souls games in that regard.

The balance between the different tracks is honestly perfect. You have these epic tracks for the big battles and then you have the more common, "softer" themes whenever you return to your "main hub" as well as when you enter regular battles or when you explore the different environments. Suffice to say, there are plenty of different and memorable tunes in this game.

Yeah I absolutely loved this game. Like I mentioned to @Th3solution, this is a linear game and because of that, it doesn't feel overwhelming to play compared to an open world experience such as TotK. So even though it's 70+ hours long, it doesn't feel like it. Everything is done in such short bursts, it's a great structure. In fact, I'm actually in the mood to play an open world game now lol. I don't feel burned out at all!

@RogerRoger Glad to hear that you enjoyed reading it! It's true that the game doesn't have things like steampunk influences (although it does have some now that I think about it) that previous FF titles have, but it feels more grounded because of that. I mean, it is a medieval setting after all. I don't think it would've fit it in as well as it does in the older games.

I don't know how much experience you have with the series, but like I said in my review, you'll still enjoy the game regardless if you're an FF fan or not. In fact, while others haven't mentioned this, this game does feel like something that's come from PlayStation Studios. It's a very accessible, narrative-driven game, like God of War, The Last of Us and so on. So it feels very fitting to play this as a PlayStation fan.

Just beaten Star Trek Resurgence and maybe I shouldn't be surprised by how much I ended up enjoying it, but I still was kinda shocked by how good I thought this ultimately was all the same.

Even if you aren't a Trekkie, I think there is a chance you'll still really enjoy this story. There is definitely some Trek cringe and cheese to cut through in places, but it really maximises the delivery of epic moments, strong character writing and engaging choices.

It is rare for me to be properly invested in a story, and I realised just how invested I was here when I was unable to stop myself from cheering out loud at some developments, especially during the build to the final showdown and how that plays out. Just some absolutely awesome stuff.

The choices you make along the way feel meaningful and tangible too, importantly. Based on the post game stats, I clearly played one of the dual protagonists very differently than the general audience and my mind is already racing at all the choices I’d now handle differently on a second go around.

Even if you just play this through the once, I think it is an easy recommendation. Especially if you are looking to scratch that Mass Effect itch all fans of that series have spent the last decade or so chasing.

…It is just a shame that its technical state is such a mess, and that outside of navigating conversations and making choices, it is so rarely fun to play.

For sure, at times, its visuals can dazzle - especially thanks to its often genuinely striking art direction. During its best moments, you’ll be really glad they patched in the ability to run this in native 4k. I will also say that I had very few bugs and no hard crashes from memory. I had some weirdness when I tabbed out of the game (I was playing on PC) and a rather silly bug that spoiled a key moment towards the end, but was also so bizarre it was borderline hilarious.

No, in that regard, it probably sits at a higher than normal standard. It was more just the moment to moment technical state that was the problem. The PC port basically has no options whatsoever to tailor the game to your system and even when 60 fps was eventually patched in, I was never able to achieve a stable 60 fps, which shouldn't be the case on a PC like mine with a game that looks like a 360 title in places.

In terms of “gameplay”, it mostly has you rotating between tedious scanning the environment sections, “combat encounters” and maddening stealth sections. I hate when games force mandatory, instafail, stealth sections anyway. I’ve never played a game where these sections make a game better, but I've played plenty of games where they actively drag the game down around them with their presence.

Now take all that distaste I already have for these sequences and then try and give me that ***** in a game this jank?… blood is boiling. Thank Goodness for the “story mode” which basically makes these impossible to fail or I may have snapped a controller… or 12.

The “combat encounters” are awful as well, like with the stealth sections they are often unnecessarily frustrating due to how clunky this game is to control. It isn't a good sign when you find yourself thinking “this could have been a cutscene” rather than wishing it was a playable section instead. Like the scanning may be boring, but out of the three pillars of “gameplay” this has, it is the only one that doesn’t have me seethe with frustration.

I will never complain about Mass Effect's combat again after this.

Overall, this very much fits into a wider conversation about what makes a video game… a video game. I know some people out there can’t imagine praise being given to a game that isn’t very fun to actually play and honestly it is kinda hard to argue with that stance.

However, as I’ve said on here what feels like countless times at this point, I can't think of any game I've loved just based on the quality of the mechanics alone. However, there are plenty of games I would easily recommend to you with what are arguably pretty weak gameplay mechanics. Like for my tastes, your game has to be basically irredeemably broken to spoil a game for me if I am engaged with your story and characters. But then on the flip, all the flashy in the combat in the world don't do nothing for me if your game is otherwise hollow.

As I said somewhere else, bolt a loot system or a dialogue tree onto any mediocre video game and I’m feasting. This is the Final Fantasy 16 paradigm. Mechanically strong, otherwise hollow, so I came away not really liking that at all. Resurgence on the other hand sings for me in all the ways that matter to me personally, while being mechanically pretty bad, honestly.

This is not my game of the year, but is definitely up there in that conversation. I thought this was excellent and is some of the most fun I've had with a game this year, even if the most conventional "game" parts of this are its worse aspects. Funny that.

@Pizzamorg On the back of our other discussion, I see that I really should keep Resurgence in mind. @RogerRoger already had me deeply considering it, despite me not being a Star Trek guy. The number of quality entries in this genre is fairly low, comparatively speaking, so it’s important to have a few in the backlog. Thanks for the added support that I should give it a go sometime! If the characters and story are solid, I can live with some jank. 😄

I think as long as you like sci-fi and these style of narrative games, you'll enjoy this one. I think it nails that really careful balancing act, where there is extra meat on the bone if you are a Trek fan here, but you won't be left starving if you aren't, as the core story can be just appreciated as a great space adventure on its own, regardless of branding and aesthetics. At least in my opinion, anyway.

@Fizza I've always felt like I should try DMC. It's such a recognizable, important series. My experience with Bayonetta had made me... hesitant to give other character action games a chance, though. It's fine when they exhibit more gameplay diversity (like in NieR: Automata or Astral Chain), but balls-to-the-walls technical action constantly doesn't really do it for me, it seems.

That audio desyncing issue sounds hideous.

@RogerRoger Yeah, I'm really impressed with the footage of HFW on PS4. Sony's best developers do an amazing job of getting that old machine to sing quite beautifully. It makes me wonder what late-gen PS5 games will look like, in that regard, as I feel like there's a lot of potential for creating amazing looking games on the modern hardware.

Now we just gotta hope HFW on PC doesn't ship with a million issues. Even Zero Dawn had some pretty big issues late game early on, from what I hear.

They really need to just leave these ports to Nixxes. All of their conversions have run well, as I understand it, and they even came in and rescued HZD with post-launch patches.

@Pizzamorg Yeah, I get the idea of enjoying these otherwise clunky games that seem to have more of a sense of heart to them. I really ought to get around to this Star Trek game at some point, considering how hard I've been going on the series this past half year (half of TOS; all of TNG; all of SNW so far; all of Picard).

The performance issues are regrettable, but they'd have to be pretty damn severe to keep me from properly enjoying a game anyway. I think people get too worked up over that sort of thing these days, even if I sometimes understand the frustration.

Story mode definitely sounds right for something like this, where the gameplay is tedious and aggravating as is.

Nice Star Trek: Resurgence piece!

Thank you @RogerRoger! It was Rydek, it turns out. There is a pivotal moment during the final battle which is basically this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk3zmfhC6Dw

Apparently only 6% of the players made this choice. I offered a hand every step of the way, I felt like I had done everything I could to show them kindness and mercy and it cost me so much. So when, after all I had lost, they then turn around and beg me to save them? Well... "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you."

I dunno, maybe this wasn't the logical choice, but to me it was the only choice that could be made here, so I was surprised this was such a rarely chosen choice.

The other big divergent point for me was my relationships with Westbrook and Bedrosian. I made Westbrook my first officer, because when you need someone to confide in, it made the most sense to confide in the person who is challenging me every step of the way. My logic was that he'd know given our rocky relationship, I had to be telling the truth to confide in him and when he stuck to his word, stood up for me and saved my life in the encounter that follows, I knew he was the best person to be at my side. This was apparently a choice only made by 2% of the playerbase.

On the flip, I already cost countless lives saving Bedrosian the first time, and God this is one choice I wish I hadn't made. She stuck around then every step of the way as an annoying devil on my shoulder trying to tempt me into constantly making the worst decisions in any scenario. I didn't care when she eventually resigned as I didn't want her awful input anyway. But again, apparently on 2% of the player base had this kind of relationship with her.

I am interested to play it again, there are a series of "mistakes" you can make during the first playthrough that are effectively unavoidable until you have the knowledge you gain from a complete playthrough, so I am interested in how they handle those choices, as there are a bunch of choices Rydek especially in story at certain moments in time would logically have no reason to make and only make sense in the end, so I wonder how they land those moments.

Also thank you for your kind words too @Ralizah!

That is fair @RogerRoger. When it came to that choice, Westbrook gave an impassioned speech about what we do as part of Starfleet, IE once again show mercy for the thousandth time and ignore all they had done. But this time I just couldn't. I guess that is the cool thing about it being a choice based game, as they let you do the things Captains on the show just wouldn't ever be allowed to do.

Urmott was kind of a weird character in my playthrough. He is the first of the three choices you meet, but outside of that initial interaction, I felt like he sorta falls out of the story. Like he is present during the meetings and bridge sections, but I can't remember any real interactions with him outside of those moments, whereas I felt like I spent so much more time with Westbrook or Bedrosian outside of meetings and the bridge, the most Urmott did in my playthrough was die, get taken over by the enemy and become effectively a boss fight.

Yeah! In the climactic battle, I got hit by the bioforming ray which we had no defence for because Solano hid the data breach and I supported him as I didn't know he had been replaced at that point. I was also hesitant to just blown the enemy out of the sky at that point because I was still trying to help them. Urmott was in the section of the ship that got hit by the ray as he was trying to fix our communications. I also lost the young engineer you meet right at the start here and had to take him down. Once taken over, Urmott immediately started trying to sabotage the ship and I had to take him down. Really cool that was a unique interaction to my choices rather than a fixed moment in the story.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Series X) - Impressions

Just finished Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time after 8 hours of playtime. It was an enjoyable experience overall but it has quite a few issues.

First, I'd like to say that the game felt a bit misleading at the start. It felt like it was going to be an Uncharted type of game with a lot of action moments but it wasn't like that. It turned out to be a very laid-back puzzle/platforming/fighting game. This is fine but it's not an exciting game at all because of this, which is disappointing.

The platforming aspect is easily the most fun part of the game. Running on walls, wall jumping, swinging on bars, it's just so cool. This game was really ahead of its time.

The combat is easily the worst part of the game. Not only is there not much variety in terms of moves, but the enemies are mostly unfair and spawn for a long time during each battle. I've found myself in many situations where one enemy knocks me down, another hits me while I'm trying to get up and I fall back down again. Then this keeps happening until I lose all of my health. I literally cannot do anything. I would've disliked the combat even more, but then I realised halfway through that I needed to block more and that made the combat more bearable. But even so, it's still not fun at all.

I also didn't like the camera in this game. It kept changing when you get too close to an object and during battles, it would mess you up frequently.

The time mechanic is cool though. Being able to rewind time whenever you mess up a platforming section is a great idea, especially since you can easily mess up in this game. But even if you do, there's plenty of save and check points. It's a very forgiving game, except for the battles.

In terms of story, I genuinely didn't understand what the goal of the game was until the very end. For numerous hours, you're just solving puzzles, platforming and defeating enemies with no goal in sight. The final section of the game was really annoying as well. Taking away your rewind ability during tough platforming sections is so uncalled for. I did like the ending of the game though.

All in all, I enjoyed my time with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. There are a fair amount of issues that plague this game. Awful and unfair combat as well as annoying camera to name a few. I do hope that the later entries fix these issues. Either way, I'm glad that I've finally started playing this series. I'm looking forward to playing the sequels down the line.

@RogerRoger Thanks for reading!

I think deep down, the upcoming game might have influenced me into starting up the first title. Other than that, I just wanted to play an adventure game in all honesty.

I think you'd like this series actually. The first game reminded me a lot of the older God of War games in terms of their structure: platforming, solving puzzles, fighting enemies, rinse and repeat. It also has the feel of an adventure game like Uncharted or Tomb Raider, even though it's more laid-back. Give it a go sometime! I don't know where you could play the first game on PlayStation though. Maybe it's on PS+ Premium as a PS3 title? It's too bad that the remake of the first game got delayed indefinitely.

@LtSarge It's on PS3 if he still has one. I had it still installed on mine when I found it in the basement earlier this year, but I likely won't play it now given the issues you brought up. Oh well, it's in a way my own fault for not playing it over a decade ago when I bought it.

@LtSarge Yeah, the series combat/adventure focus has waxed and waned over the years. That said, none of its previous incarnations have really gotten my heart racing. So glad the new one is basically just historical/fantasy Metroid Dread, lol.

Well, as with many classics, it sounds like the game probably doesn't hold up as well in 2023 as it did when it first came out. Such is the nature of an interactive entertainment medium.