Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Platinability - 10/10

A boss game to pick up some sweet golds

I think after Ralizah's monster Fire Emblem post... a review that takes twenty seconds at most to read was just the thing I needed 😂

Shame I could care less about trophies @themcnoisy but nice one none the less lol

As for @Rudy_Manchego well done on finally getting the Witcher III done and dusted in no small thanks to the delightful little Switch and it's versatility!

I agree with quite a few points you've made. The alchemy especially with both it's actual use and ingredients but as you say that's also probably because I'm also playing it on the medium difficulty where oils and the likes don't really matter at all. Especially if you have a good sword.

Hope you enjoy the DLC's too when you decide to get round to them!

@Ralizah gee whizz that's one hell of a fire emblem review. Bravo.

I missed it somehow, thankfully @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy replied to me and let me know it was there.

It sounds like a prior version of me from 2013 would have loved this game (loved tactical RPGs and strategy att) but after ditching Disgaea 5 years ago and my playthrough of into the Breach has been lost to time there's something about the genre these days which refuses to hold my attention. Maybe it's the pedestrian speed, or watching a plan come crashing down after building it up for 15 minutes. The other side is my family play boardgames regularly if we have visitors which possibly scratches the same itch?

Either way thanks for the review and good luck on your second playthrough.

@themcnoisy Thanks.

Having pumped 80+ hours into an Advance Wars game this year as well, I probably wouldn't have been as gung-ho on the game as I was if it didn't lean so heavily on the RPG side of things this go around.

With that said, I've also been playing so many RPGs recently that I'm afraid I'm on the edge of burning out soon. Not yet: I'm still playing the delightful Dragon Quest XI S for hours at a go right now, but I do wonder if I should call it a day after FF7R and leave the Cyberpunks and Xenoblades and Manas for another year.

Probably not.

RE: Disgaea, it's weird, because, while I've mostly enjoyed my time with the series, I'm not really feeling the urge to return to the series after the first two games. I tried playing the third game, but the writing is so bad that I just had to stop.

Batman: Return to Arkham City, including the Harley Quinn's Revenge story expansion (PS4) - Remaster of the PS360 era game. My first time playing it in any form.

Pros:

• The core beat 'em up gameplay is solid, and while at times you can still feel Batman's gameplay wasn't made with them in mind, the bosses are all definitely a few notches higher in quality than they were in Asylum.
• I loved the expanded gadget inventory, especially the new options available to deal with armed thugs.
• While it does lose some of the tense atmosphere from Asylum, I do think I prefer the more open world approach (not that open worlds are inherently better, it's just that I think they're a particularly good fit for superhero gameplay). Plus it helps that the world itself is a manageable size that's pretty easy to memorize compared to others in the genre.
• I enjoyed the expanded roster of villains involved in the goings on (many of whom were only foreshadowed in Asylum).

Mixed:

• While most of the sidequests are both manageable and decently interesting, there are WAY too many Riddler challenges. I loved that they unlocked tons of lore, concept art, and character trophies, but at the same time they definitely feel like bloat for the sake of bloat.
• After getting a small taste during the Harley Quinn's Revenge expansion, I really wish we got to play as Robin more.

Negative:

• There was occasional slowdown while grappling through the open world in certain spots (not often enough to be a real detriment), and it crashed on me once.

Overall a pretty good time.

Star Wars Battlefront II, including the Resurrection story expansion (PS4) - Current gen shooter based on the irreverent sci-fantasy series. I've stuck mostly to single player, and as such is what I'll be focusing on.

Pros:

• The on foot gameplay is no Titanfall 2, but it's still pretty solid.
• Ship missions/segments are genuinely great. Nothing to complain about here.
• As expected of a big AAA production, it looks great and it nails the Star Wars vibe down great.
• While I mentioned that I'll be focusing on single player mostly, I do want to mention the few Hero VS Villain multiplayer matches I engaged in were actually good fun (it's the only multiplayer mode I've dabbled in as of yet).

Mixed:

• Story won't win any awards, but it gets the job done and the cutscenes look great.
• The gameplay is obviously suited best to gunplay, so the token Luke Skywalker & Kylo Ren missions feel a bit off, though not bad.
• The on foot missions had way too many instances of "leaving the mission area, please turn back". I'm not sure if this is a result of them reusing multiplayer maps for singleplayer (yet want to funnel you down a relatively linear path), but it's a bit counter intuitive since many missions have collectables for you to find, so you think a bit more exploration would be encouraged.

Negative:

• Long loading times. Nothing too terrible as far as I'm concerned, but it was just enough that I was getting impatient at times.
• It can get pretty glitchy. Nothing game breaking, and more humorous mostly (enemies glitching through walls or floating in mid air after being killed). The worst one being Luke falling through his level upon loadup, but that was fixed by simply reloading the checkpoint.

It won't go on a list of my favorite games, but all in all I had a good time with it.

@RR529 All fair points, on both games. Glad you emerged from them with good feelings!

@RR529 Slowdown in a port of a PS3 game on current gen hardware? That's... kind of sad.

I think I only played the Catwoman DLC mission for Arkham City as far as DLC goes (when I had it on the 360).

Plan on getting Arkham Knight as well? It's controversial for some reason, but, imo, is one of the best entries in the series.

Still need to get to Arkham Origins myself. :/

@RR529 ' Remaster of the PS360 era game'

I love that combination which got me thinking - the wips360 gen / box2cube / saps164cast / snenisis etc.

@RogerRoger, thanks. Tried out some more of Battlefront's multiplayer, particularly Starfighter Assault, and while I'm moving on to KHIII, I think I'll try to make time for the occasional round.

@Ralizah, yeah, it didn't happen that often, and only when I was grappling in the open world (the crash happened when I was trying to go from one end of the map to the other quickly during one of the Zsasz timed phone hunts), but I noticed it once or twice.

As far as Arkham Knight, it was a Plus game a couple months ago, so I'll definitely be giving it a go eventually.

Anyhow...

Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)

Pros:

• Luigi has a nice set of abilities that enables some creative puzzles & boss encounters. Some of the gems in particular are devilishly hidden, and I'm yet to find them all.
• Though the first couple aren't anything to write home about, it mostly has a real solid lineup of bosses, outside of a couple annoying ones.
• Attention to detail is immaculate. There's a wide variety of environments on offer, with your surroundings being full of things to interact with & destroy, whether they be common things like vases, sinks, & trash cans, or unique elements such as a punching bag, billiard table, or a telescope (even the least interactive elements of an area will oftentimes still creak & moan at the sucking/blowing effect of the Poltergust), with the lighting system in particular offering some stunning moments.

Negative:

• The polterkitty segments were clear padding, though never too intrusive or long.
• While the quality of the game's environment is evident (as I've mentioned), I'm not a big fan of the art direction. While the core Mario series characters have that clean cut, round "Disney" look about them (that has been very influential and popular in Japan, where the series originated), the ghosts and environment have sort of an uneven, angular look more reminiscent of some random cartoon you'd see on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, and it's a dead giveaway that this wasn't developed by a Japanese team (heck, one boss is even a redneck stereotype). Now, feeling western isn't necessarily bad, but it just feels like there's a bit of a disconnect between the core Mario characters and everything else IMO, and I don't think I care for it in this instance. Clearly a personal preference though, and not really a knock on the game's quality.

Overall it was a really good time. I don't put it quite up there with the system's best exclusives, but it's second tier for sure.

@themcnoisy I think, if it gets real bad, you can get a cream for your snenisis.

@RR529 As a "waste a spare evening" sensory overload, you can do far worse, which is what I've basically kept it around for. I don't play seriously at all, just steadily since launch, and only got my gold trophy for reaching Level 50 a couple days ago. Have fun and, should we randomly end up on the same team someday, I apologise for the amount of comrade-carrying you'll have to do!

Pokemon Shield for Nintendo Switch. They've already tested the waters for the Switch console with Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, which were remakes of Red and Blue using Pokemon Go style game mechanics. However Pokemon Sword and Shield represent the first pokemon games containing a brand new region and the traditional mechanics to appear on TV.

Pros:

• The basic gameplay. The general loop of catching different monsters in the wild, raising them and battling against other trainers is as fun as always.
• Great variety of Pokemon in the wild. There's a nice mix of both new and old pokemon to catch, including creatures from all of the past regions.
• Pokemon appearing in the overworld. Random encounters have mostly been replaced with being able to see pokemon roaming the wild, giving the player more choice in whether to battle or avoid wild pokemon. This also adds depth to the world, making the region feel more alive.
• The wild area. This is a big open area containing lots of wild pokemon that the player will have to go through for parts of the game. There's a lot of freedom here in where to go, as the player is welcome to head as far as they want into it, potentially encountering some high level pokemon that they'll be wise to flee from early on.
• There's actually a dark type gym leader and a poison type legendary for once.

Mixed:

• The new pokemon. There's a nice number of new creatures. Some are really well designed, others aren't so good. This point is fairly subjective though, as everyone has different preferences on what pokemon they do and don't like, but everyone will likely find some new monsters that they really like.

Cons:

• Too easy. All throughout the game, my pokemon seemed to be overlevelled, so opponents rarely ever provided any challenge. This is partly due to the developer's decision to make the Exp Share on at all times, which causes all pokemon in your team to gain experience in battle. In past games, the player could turn this feature off, so that only the pokemon active in battle will gain experience. A simple difficulty option would have gone a long way to helping this, but the game doesn't give you any choice with difficulty.
• Hop. He's the main rival in this game, and is arguably the most annoying rival of any pokemon game. He has an unbearable over the top level of excitement. There's better written characters in the game who the player can slowly get to know and can gradually grow a bond with, but Hop is different. From the start, you're thrust into being best friends with him. This creates a kind of disconnect as you're being told how to feel about someone instead of the game leaving you to form your own opinions. He'll get in the way far too often and generally not have anything interesting to say, and will spend a while chatting and battling when there could be better things the player could be doing in the game.
• Lack of exploration. The wild area is a nice large open area, but it's fairly easy to navigate with not much to do there other than capturing and battling wild pokemon. Elsewhere, exploration is very lacking. Most of the routes are fairly simple to explore, and there very few dungeons to explore. The few dungeons in the game are mostly just a single floor, and are much shorter than past games.
• Unable to transfer all your past pokemon into these games. All previous generations would allow you to transfer your past pokemon in to the new games, with the exception of the Gameboy Color games due to hardware incompatibilities. Pokemon Shield does away with all this, and will only allow you to transfer those pokemon that already feature in Pokemon Shield. This requires the Pokemon Home app though, which hasn't yet been released, and few details have been revealed about it.
• Lack of choice. All throughout the game, there'll usually be various roadblocks that'll prevent the player from advancing down the path until they've done something specific. Gyms have to be done in a specific order, there's no choice in the matter. And any dialogue options are mostly pointless, as both choices generally result in the same outcome.
• Slowness of battles. The new dynamaxing and gigantamaxing mechanics can really slow down battles. The animation takes a while and can't be skipped, and if both the player and the opponent are using it on the same turn then the player could be waiting around for the best part of a minute for both pokemon to grow to their large size. There's also some abilities that slow things down. For instance every time a pokemon with the intimidate or unnerve abilities enters the battle, a message pops up for a few seconds detailing its effects. This quickly adds up if a pokemon on the player's main team is doing this. Weather has a similar issue. If it's hailing or there's a sandstorm, then at the end of every turn each pokemon out in battle could lose a bit of health from it. They lose health one by one instead of simultaneously, so it can take a while if there's several pokemon in the battle. Some characters such as Hop will also contribute to this, by adding in some inane chit-chat in the middle of battle, such as commenting on whether they or the player has scored a super effective hit.
• Variety of Galarian forms and Gigantamax forms. Though there's a good variety of different pokemon in the game, this unfortunately doesn't extend to having a diverse range of older pokemon getting new forms. The generation 1 Kanto pokemon gets a lot of the new forms, and other past generations get little to none of them.
• Team Yell. They're the main baddies that are encountered throughout the game, but they're fairly forgettable. Compared to all the past enemy teams, Team Yell has the least story and are the least interesting.
• Towards the end of the main story. There is no Victory Road or the Elite Four, which were staples of all the past games. There's no final dungeon leading up to the Pokemon League, so no final test of strength for the player before the League. Instead of battling an Elite Four comprising of four powerful unique trainers, the League comprises of rematches against a few trainers that the player has already beaten, before battling the champion. The story towards the end of the game is fairly rushed, with no time to flesh out the villain's intentions.
• Not being able to get all the creatures on a single game without trading. Yes it's a staple of the pokemon series, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. There's only one of either Zacian or Zamazenta in the game, the box cover legendaries, so it could be tricky to find someone willing to part with the other legendary. Gigantamax forms can't be bred, making it more awkward to obtain the exclusive forms by trading. There's also gigantamax Pikachu and Eevee forms, which are only available to those with save data for the Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee games. Only one of each are available per game, and gigantamax forms can't be bred, so it'll be tricky to obtain them without owning the Let's Go games. For the other exclusive pokemon, trading has been made more difficult in this game due to the next point. Despite all this, the game encourages you to catch them all by offering a Shiny Charm for those that complete the regional pokedex, which makes the super rare alternate coloured pokemon easier to find.
• No GTS. Ever since the pokemon games connected to the internet in Diamond and Pearl, there's been a GTS in them. This feature made trading with others much easier, as it allowed players to search through other players' trading requests, as well as make their own trading requests. This is completely gone in Pokemon Shield, making it much harder to trade with random players.
• Sports themes. This is a subjective one, but I'm not keen on sports in general, especially not football/soccer, so I don't really like all the gyms resembling football stadiums.

So overall, Pokemon Shield keeps the essence of the pokemon formula that has made the series so popular, but various underwhelming aspects of the game along with missing features from past games makes it much harder to recommend. The games makes some attempts to modernise the series by adding in an open Wild Area to part of the game along with pokemon appearing in the overworld, but is overshadowed by it lacking elsewhere.

My score: 7/10. I'm going this high despite the many faults mainly because the core pokemon formula is so good. However, it's a lower score than what I'd give for most of the past pokemon games. Even before this game was announced, I'd been becoming less enthusiastic about the pokemon series, and Pokemon Shield merely reinforces those feelings for me.

Holy moly that's a LOT of cons @crimsontadpoles!

The lack of exploration sounds quite disappointing above all things. The fact that routes are shortened plus caves and the likes are barely there sounds like a let down. Mt moon may've been a bit of a journey but I can remember it quite easily.

...It doesn't sound like the wild area really added anything really worthwhile to the experience either as a whole.

It's nice you still found postives and enjoyed your time with it though! Hopefully the next games made for the system will fix some of those pesky cons!

@crimsontadpoles Honestly, the lack of GTS is, far and away, the worst aspect of the game for me. I can put up with the usual design flaws in Pokemon games, but gimping the multiplayer features to the point where they're sub-DS era in quality? Horrible.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy To be quite honest, I can't remember the last time a Pokemon game had decent dungeons or exploration. Granted, they've been getting more and more excessively linear over time.

X/Y actually weren't too bad on that front. And they had that (at the time) really amazing 3D city to explore, too.

The Gen VI pokémon games were the last I played @Ralizah... I fell off the Pokémon bandwagon once again after them. (Lumiose City was pretty large and unique!)

It's like you said before in that Pokémon is doing it's own thing, going in a different direction and whilst it was nice getting swept up in the hype a bit for Sword and Shield I think I can safely say the series is not for me anymore.

I can still play some of the older ones if I want and I'll always have the memories of playing Silver for the first time or the look of wonder on my daughter and son's faces when they played Ruby and Sapphire (and me having to help them both on the way 😂)

Hopefully those Digimon games can fill the void a bit too

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy My young nephew has been playing Pokemon Shield (via the Switch's digital game sharing feature), and he was actually really proud to have beaten the game 100% on his own (we've beaten games before, but usually with me stepping in and helping during boss fights and whatnot). I know that older fans want the games designed around their adult capabilities, but seeing his reaction to the game, and messing around with some older games in the series, makes me think (GTS aside grumble grumble), it's less that the games are getting worse and more that the original crop of fans are outgrowing them.

Kids today will likely remembers games like Sw/Sh the same way I remember R/B/Y or G/S, and I think that's fantastic. And, insofar as the series was a major part of my childhood, I'll probably keep getting at least the new generations of Pokemon games because it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of new regions/starters/etc., even if I usually end up somewhat underwhelmed by them.

@Ralizah @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Pokemon has changed over the years, and my tastes have also changed a bit, but in a different direction to pokemon. I just got to accept that the series isn't going to appeal to me as much as back when I was most excited for the series, and adjust my expectations accordingly.

Trying a new format for a new year.

***

Given that I just earned its platinum trophy, twenty-six months since launch, and given the evolutionary (or in some cases, revolutionary) nature of modern gaming, I thought I'd use this topic to draw a line under a recent peak in a life-long obsession.

This is the state of Star Wars: Battlefront II in 2020.

So, did those evil microtransactions ever make a Palpatine-esque comeback?

Yes and no. Thankfully, the game is no longer pay-to-win. EA reactivated microtransactions a while back, but the currency bundles are only used for fast-tracking some cosmetic items. Regardless, everything is unlockable via Credits, which you earn via gameplay. This used to include Hero characters and ships, but DICE recently made them available to all players, without the need to purchase them.

The cosmetics are where the fan service is at its most esoteric, so it makes sense to monetise that part of the game. I mean, I'm a pretty hardcore fan, but even I'm not paying the equivalent of £7.99 for Count Dooku's pyjamas, no matter how exquisite they are.

They're not even that exquisite.

I know, right? Maybe they're really soft silk or something.

What about all that pay-to-win stuff? Did removing it break the game?

Nope. They've retained the Star Card progression system which, admittedly, isn't always fair, but it works well with a simpler level-up mechanic. Put simply, the more you play as a particular class or Hero, the more points you'll earn to spend on their Star Cards. By getting to choose how and where to upgrade your characters, you can tailor your experience to your playstyle, powering up your favourite weapons whilst not having to waste anything you've earned on a weapon (or person) you never use.

It's much better than before, when upgrades to random Star Cards just popped out of loot boxes.

But you said it isn't always fair...?

Well, no, it isn't. Most of the basic classes, ships and armoured units have well-balanced Star Card bonuses, but the need to accurately represent established Star Wars characters can sometimes get in the way of an honest, evenly-matched fight.

Because no matter how awesome she might be, Princess Leia isn't lightsaber-proof.

Kinda. I mean, it's all arcade-y action so yeah, you'll see Leia stand up to a slicing and whatnot. It's more about when Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader have unique Star Cards to double their maximum health, to reflect their strength, whereas characters like Bossk get bonuses like "reload slightly faster" or "be 10% less pathetic" or something equally ridiculous.

That's what you get for playing as Bossk. He's such a random choice!

He was at launch, yes. The best of the free updates over the past two years have greatly expanded the roster, adding in new Heroes alongside improved classes and other ground units, like the Infiltrators. DICE have worked hard to correct the sequel-heavy imbalance and show love for all eras of Star Wars, so there really is something for everybody now. Even if you're slow to select a character in the lobby, there'll still be one left that you like enough to wanna use.

Yeah, being stuck playing as Rey in a match of Heroes Vs. Villains was the worst.

That mode is much better in general now, too, because they've removed the whole "designated target" mechanic and made it just a straightforward free-for-all. There's even a wisecracking commentary droid to make it feel as silly as possible. It's awesome.

What else have they tweaked?

Tweaked? Not much else. They've been adding a bunch of new content instead!

Ooh, like what?

After the three-part epilogue to the campaign was completed a couple months after launch, they started chucking out new game modes aplenty. Arguably the biggest was Capital Supremacy, which essentially plays like classic Star Wars: Battlefront and has you capturing command posts in order to then fly up and sabotage an enemy ship. It was exclusive to the prequel era at first, but it'll apparently be coming to the sequel trilogy maps towards the end of the month.

The best thing about that update was when they made its ground phase available offline, against bots. As a result, you can basically play classic Battlefront on PS4 now.

Sounds a bit mindless, though. I thought Star Wars was all about a good story?

Well, sure. In the middle of any match, particularly Capital Supremacy (which can drag on for hours, if the opposing teams are of equal skill) things can descend into a repetitive "pew pew pew" cycle, but it isn't for lack of effort on DICE's part. Many of the maps and modes have unique narrative context.

Take the Mos Eisley map from Galactic Assault, for example. Start as an Imperial Stormtrooper and you'll spawn in a landing area, where citizens are being rounded up for interrogation.

Start as a Rebel on the other side of town, and you'll be part of the fleeing crowds instead.

Of course, some maps fare better than others in this regard, but it's a vast improvement over the previous game's simplicity. Stay in a rotation of Galactic Assault and one minute, you'll be escorting a stolen AT-AT through the Endor forest and the next, stealing valuable Clonetrooper DNA samples from Kamino. It might all boil down to the same "run forward, shoot, get shot, respawn, run forward, shoot, get shot, respawn, and so on" gameplay loop indicative of countless online multiplayer games, but at least it makes an effort to keep you entertained and engaged whilst you're there.

What if I just get lost in big, sweeping battles? Or I'm not very good at them?

There are smaller, more focused things you can try. Extraction is an objective-based mode limited to twelve players on each side, and there's always Ewok Hunt.

Ewok... what?!

Ewok Hunt. It's basically Star Wars survival horror. I can't even begin to describe its genius!

Bullet dodged. I guess my point is, what if I'm not good against humans?

Aside from the aforementioned expansion of the offline modes, there's also a new Co-Op menu. It's limited to the prequel and sequel trilogies at the moment, but it has a really obvious gap for the original trilogy to be added later on. It teams you up with three fellow gamers (randoms or friends) and allows you to play classic command-post-capturing scenarios against an army of A.I. opponents.

Do random people even wanna play that, though?

Oh, absolutely. It's a very popular mode. Mainly because it's one of the few parts of the game where you can pick which side to be, so all those fancy Clonetrooper skins you purchased (to match your friends) will get a guaranteed run-out and look all smart on the scoreboard.

It's also a great place to quickly level up your classes, armour and Heroes. Other modes can be quite tough-going and it can feel like a grind to earn those all-important Star Card points.

Really? That sucks.

Yeah. Fans of space combat have been underserved, it must be said. Starfighter Assault remains kinda fun, but it's chaotic and all too often winds up being a bunch of bloody-minded players chasing their own tails, determined to fly in a tiny circle as they attempt to loop back on the enemy who's trying to do the same to them. Then somebody spawns in as Slave 1 and blows them both up with a seismic charge.

There was an attempt to provide some variety with a mode called Hero Starfighters, and that can be alright, when other people actually wanna play it. Which they never do. Bring some knitting or light reading material for its empty lobbies.

Or it looks like you can gawp at the pretty ships whilst you wait.

Indeed. Whatever else it may be, Star Wars: Battlefront II is a phenomenally gorgeous game.

It'll always be its launch controversy to me.

And that's a genuine shame. DICE have worked so, so hard to improve it over the past two years, and they've managed to make it one of the all-time greats, and yet barely anybody wants to go near it (or even write articles to champion its incredible, free updates) because it'll be forever tainted by EA's greed.

It isn't enough that the game works, and works brilliantly. It isn't enough that it looks stunning, or has more modes (both online and offline) and content than many of its contemporaries. It isn't even enough that it's dripping with authentic fan service, from its levels and gameplay scenarios all the way down to its emotes and those exquisite pyjamas (which, by the way, are from an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars).

Honestly, I wasn't gonna ask.

Maybe you should. Maybe more people should. Star Wars: Battlefront II is one heck of a game, but it's an even better redemption story. One to even rival Anakin Skywalker's.

One last thing?

Shoot.

I heard Yoda talking about midichlorians. I've been wondering, what are midichlorians?

Right, that's the last time I talk to myself for review purposes.

@RogerRoger I’ve been a little AWOL from Push Square the last week or two, only with enough time for a casual drop in sporadically for a lurk here and there — but I had to say that I really enjoyed reading your review/update. The new format is great! And now I’ve got another Star Wars entry to add to the queue. Finished all the Mandalorian, partially through a rewatch of both the prequels and Epi 7 & 8, preparing for a visit to the theater for Epi 9, and have a brand new copy of Fallen Order to put in for a spin soon. Battlefront 2 will have to wait but it sounds brilliant. Too bad about the whole “you never have a second chance to make a first impression” stigma that it will forever be stung by.

... Talking to yourself @RogerRoger is the first sign of madness as my mom would say We're all a little mad though I say lol

Nice shake up to your reviews! I have actually played Battlefront 2. The Story mode though for about ten minutes and then never bothered going back as I couldn't get into it 😅

Still nice to hear about all the online stuff I was never really gonna touch and can't deny it looks nice!

@Th3solution Aww, thanks buddy! If it wasn't the holidays, you'd have gotten a concerned tag in a couple days, but it's a busy time of year so I'm super-appreciative of your reply. Just as I'm breaking the surface of the Star Wars deep end, you'll be diving in! Best of luck with it all. If I've managed to get a single person over the "...but this is the bad game, right?" misconception, then it was worth writing.

@LN78 Genuine thanks for the honest feedback. To be honest, I doubt I'll stick with this format; it was more because this piece was less of a review, and more of a way to address the stigma surrounding a remarkable redemption story. Was kinda fun to write, but I'll probably be back to normal in future.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Oh, don't worry, I'm already a good three or four signs along that particular route, but thanks all the same! And thanks for the review praise. Online stuff isn't for everybody; on the strength of its campaign alone, Battlefront II would be bang-average (if not bang-awful) and I'm most certainly not an online multiplayer kinda guy... but I am a Star Wars kinda guy, so it's an exception to my rule.

@RogerRoger I like the new approach. Very fun and creative writing-esque.

Oh, and "Star Wars survival horror" sounds like the sort of weird mash-up I never knew I wanted in my life.