@Ralizah I wasn't actually kidding, Mortal Kombat is on my Prime watchlist! Didn't get around to it yesterday like I'd planned, alas, but it'll be up soon. I'm really looking forward to it.
You do yourself a disservice; you're funnier than you think!
I think you're right, I fail to see why an "original" flashlight toggle wasn't added (on PS4, when you cycle through all your weapons, there's an awkward empty space where I assume the flashlight used to be; it's just been wholesale deleted, which feels cheap). Speaking of, I'm not sure whether you'd call it a "quick" save, but you can totally pause the game and manually save your progress anywhere and everywhere, as many times as you'd like. As a fellow cautious saver, I barely noticed the checkpoints either!
Ah, the beauty of PC gaming... the other day, I downloaded a save file from a fan site, in order to circumvent a glitch in something I was playing. Sounds similar to the trick you pulled. It's amazing how trophies have transformed my approach to some games. I'm playing two titles at the moment; one on PC, which I'm enjoying and messing about with, and one on PS4, for which I'm nervously checking trophy guides every thirty seconds, making multiple saves in case I miss a cumulative criteria. It's nonsense, and I wish I could just be happy with whatever random percentage I get upon completion, but there we are.
The original shareware DOOM and Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II (the pair of PC shooters I grew up with) both had weapon selection mapped to the number keys, so it's what I go for by default. I will admit, scrolling through an inventory with my mouse wheel does feel pretty cool, though!
Yeah, from the looks of things, the new DOOM games are all about speed and precision with a "proper" controller, so that might be your best bet. Hope you get on with them alright!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Playtime: Took roughly six hours to complete on "Veteran" difficulty
This expansion for the original DOOM 3 is included in the BFG edition, along with a new expansion pack, which I'll play next.
Resurrection of Evil is set shortly after the events of the original DOOM 3. You play a new marine who discovers an ancient, demonic artifact that accidentally re-opens a portal to Hell again (whoops!) Gameplay is largely the same as the base game, although with two new weapons (three if you include The Artifact) and, mercifully, with far less of the audio log bloat. Things progress along at a nice clip in this expansion, and, for that reason, I actually kind of preferred it to the main campaign.
So, one of the new weapons you unlock is the Super Shotgun, returning from DOOM II and 64. It's not quite the powerhouse that it was in those games, but it still packs a punch, and despite the long and frequent reloading times, it's a great option when you need to bumrush a smaller enemy and dispatch them quickly. But, since it only holds two shells at a time, and fires both shells at once, you won't want to use this if there's more than one enemy in close proximity.
The other weapon is a lot more creative. It's called the Grabber, and if anyone has played Half-Life 2 and remembers that game's Gravity Gun, it's sort of like that, although more limited. You can grab some objects in your environment and use the gun to propel them into enemies, which usually kills the smaller ones. Speaking of small enemies, you can actually grab the lost souls with this gun, which is hilarious. Finally, you can use it to toss enemy's projectiles back at them. Specifically, the fire and plasma balls the Imp, Vulgar, and Hell Knight like to toss at the player. This is kind of clumsy, though, and the game still rains so much ammo down on the player that they're never wanting for massive firepower. I was actually able to use the Grabber to maneuver some crates in such a way as to reach inaccessible doors, although, unfortunately, they never opened to me. I was hoping it would be used for environmental puzzles, but, alas, that never really ended up working out.
Finally, you have The Artifact, a gross, beating heart that gains powers when you slay the Hell Hunter bosses who are pursuing you in this game. There are three of these big boys, who you fight in surprisingly Zelda-esque encounters (they have specific patterns and weaknesses to be exploited; you can't just mindlessly shoot at them), and each time you unlock a new power via the heart. The first boss grants you the ability to activate bullet-time, slowing the world around you to a crawl so that you can safely dispatch multiple enemies at once. The second power is one that grants you the berserk status effect, meaning that you can run around killing enemies in one punch with your bare fists. Finally, the third boss taken down grants you invulnerability for that period. All of thes abilities are cumulative each time you activate the artifact, so, after it's fully powered up, you're slowing down time and invulnerable, smashing enemies left and right with your unstoppable death punches.
This is all horrendously OP. of course, which is why some pretty strict resource requirements are imposed on the player. In order to activate The Artifact one time, you need to absorb a human soul, which you'll only find via standing over the corpses of various dead marine comrades that you routinely encounter across the game. You can also only hold up to three souls at a time. This requirement helps the player to not abuse The Artifact, but it still really helps out in a pinch.
Otherwise... yeah, it's more DOOM 3, but with fewer frustrations involved. 7/10
@RogerRoger I should re-watch it, too. In general, I need to rewatch, replay, and reread a bunch of my favorite things. I press on too much with what's new, aside from a few classics.
So, this Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II. Is it... worth experiencing? I've never heard of it. My experience with SW games has been limited to Galactic Battlegrounds from way back when I was in my Age of Empires phase. I really need to go on a good SW game-playing binge.
And yeah, I'm actually really looking forward to nu-DOOM. I've had DOOM 2016 for years, but just never got around to playing it. I think the release of Eternal is really what pushed me: the game just looks phenomenal, but I wanted a sense of where the series had come from first. I think it's fair to say I've achieved that perspective.
RE keyboard play, I think the big issue for me with the keyboard is that, largely growing up as a console gamer, I grew accustomed to the shape and feel of a controller. Hitting random keys on a long board just feels alien to me. The precision of aiming with the mouse makes up for it, though.
@Ralizah Once again, I'm in complete agreement with you. Nicely put. I felt the plot-to-gameplay ratio was much better in the expansions (if you don't have much of a story, don't drag it out) and agree that the Grabber was a missed opportunity, whilst the Artefact was an "instant win" button. I thought it was a bit cheeky of them to expand upon and ultimately show Betruger's fate in a DLC pack but then everybody was up to similar nonsense back in the day. Doesn't make it right, but there we are.
You'll have more than enough perspective for the new DOOM games, and then some! By and large, have you enjoyed your trek through the franchise's history?
Considering that mouse aiming (or mouse-based camera control) wasn't a thing back when I played shooters on PC, that's the part I often feel so awkward with. It was all "arrow keys for movement, Ctrl for fire, X to jump" and very stop-start, no matter how good you got.
Which yeah, brings us to Jedi Knight. It's the sequel to Dark Forces, which is considered one of the best DOOM clones of its day, and itself led to Jedi Outcast (which I didn't like so much, but others did) and Jedi Academy (excellent game). They're often held up as the best single-player Star Wars action games on PC and, helpfully, they're all available on GOG.com for a reasonable price. I have very fond memories of Jedi Knight, admittedly soaked in childhood nostalgia, but I still enjoyed a recent replay for what it was. I don't wanna say too much more, because it'll give key mechanics away... but sure, the next time you're in the mood for a late-90s PC action game, you could do far worse.
@nessisonett recently re-completed the game, I believe. I'm tagging them just to ensure that I'm not leading you up the garden path with any of this!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Ralizah@RogerRoger Yep, Jedi Knight is enjoyable for what it is, a reasonable Star Wars game with slight awkward controls, labyrinthine maps and hard as nails boss fights. I still enjoyed my time with it though, it feels like Star Wars and as long as you make good use of quick save then you shouldn’t be in too much trouble. If it’s cheap, I’d recommend it.
You'll have more than enough perspective for the new DOOM games, and then some! By and large, have you enjoyed your trek through the franchise's history?
Yeah, I've become something of a fan. Granted, IMO, the first two games are far weaker than 64 or DOOM 3, but that's to be expected in any series that's broadly improving over time.
So far, I'd rank them:
DOOM 64
DOOM 3
DOOM II
DOOM
Although that list is a bit deceptive. I liked 64 a lot more than the other three games, and consider it to be one of my favorite first person shooters now. 2016 and Eternal are going to have to really impress to top it.
@RogerRoger@nessisonett Nice. I'll grab the lot of them next time there's a SW or site-wide sale, then.
This impression is strengthened as you bear witness to plot events throughout, but always from a safe distance, like in a separate room where you're separated by a pane of glass.
I do recall a teensy smidge of that last line in particular occurs in DOOM 2016 where you get a small speech from behind a pane of glass by the villain. Pretty sure that only happened the one time from what I recall.
You do get a few words every now and again from the supporting cast via radio or whatever but otherwise Doom 2016 is pretty light on the story beats & when you do get talked to by the very small cast half the time the Doom Marine is just not paying attention in the slightest/does his own thing which is completely against what he's being told.
For being mute I did think the Doom marine is portrayed fairly well in that.
And nice didn't realise there was already a post from you @Ralizah about one of DOOM 3's expansions! 😅
I fear there's not much I can really say about this other then yay for the super shotgun returning and the new weapon and item which both sound fairly interesting? After all you say it's basically the same as the base game with a shorter runtime and few extra bits and bobs.
I think it's safe to assume the second expansion is similar in not being too far off with a few extra bells and whistles? It's not like it becomes a point and click adventure game or anything?
It seems like DOOM Eternal is, in a way, another story-driven entry in the series, so I'm curious to see how that manifests, since nothing I've seen or heard of the game indicates any tendency for the action to have to slow down while the player listens to people drone on for minutes at a time.
Anyway, the muteness of Doomguy in the older games seems somewhat different from the muteness of the Doom Slayer in the newer games, based on footage I've seen and bits I've played of 2016. If Pre-2016 Doomguy is the FPS equivalent of Link from The Legend of Zelda, then the Doom Slayer of the newer games in the FPS equivalent of Michael Myers. He's creepy, lacking in humanity, and utterly unstoppable.
@Ralizah Sorry for the late reply, but I just wanted to note your DOOM rankings up there and, for the most part, I can see where you're coming from. Personally I'd put the classic DOOM above DOOM 3 but beneath DOOM 64, which really surprises me given my fond childhood memories of the original and relatively recent introduction to the Nintendo64's oddly unique interpretation. Your clarifying note about the distance between DOOM 64 and the rest of the list means we clearly agree!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Red Dead Redemption 2. First off, some nitpicks. It's a large open world, so there is a lot of travelling. It did feel like the majority of the game was just riding from A to B. Also, the 3rd person camera is perfectly centred, making a kind of blind spot in front of Arthur and his horse. There's been more than a few times where I've crashed into someone in front who I couldn't see. Also, weapons that I had equipped often disappear back to the horse's saddle. It wasn't uncommon for me to get into a big fight, only to find that Arthur's powerful rifles have been left back on the horse.
There is also a large focus on realism, but I'm not quite so keen on these aspects. Horse balls, horses pooping, and graphic skinning of animals aren't things that I needed to see. Then there's the tasks that feel like chores to me, such as occasionally preparing and eating food to restore the health and stamina cores, shaving, changing clothes based on the weather, and keeping the camp supplied with provisions.
Now I've got my complaining out of the way, I did really enjoy this game. It's got a good story, and I like how we slowly get to know our fellow Van der Linde Gang members throughout the game. There's some interesting members in the gang. Missions are quite good as well. Many are the typical "ride somewhere then get into a gunfight" kind of thing, but every now and then something more creative will pop up.
The large world is a highlight of the game. There's a variety of locations, including snowy mountains and swampland. There's also a lot of events that happen throughout the map, making the world feel more alive. It's rare to travel from one place to another without something happening, such as someone needing help, rival gang ambushes, or some crooks attempting to blow open a safe with a bit too much dynamite.
Overall, and this might be a controversial opinion, but I think I still prefer Red Dead Redemption 1 over RDR2. I liked the protagonist of RDR1 more than Arthur, and I was generally was more interested in the story of the first game. Plus, the first game did seem to have more of the memorable quirky characters, such Nigel West Dickens, Seth, and Irish. But with the sheer amount of depth that's in the second game, it's hard to argue against it being the better game.
@crimsontadpoles Nice work! I can agree with a lot of your review. I thought I liked the first RDR better and have it slated as one of the best PS3 games. However, as time has gone on, I have grown to appreciate RDR2 more and more. I think when you’re caught up in the monotony of it all it becomes harder to appreciate the genius of it, but then in retrospect, it’s just absolutely amazing what Rockstar achieved with this game. The world is unparalleled in its development. If I had to choose one to replay now, I think I would rather play RDR2, but I’m not sure. Both are great!
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
When I recently started the original Final Fantasy VII on PS4, I felt like I'd need to be playing something a bit more current and familiar alongside it. This way, I figured that I wouldn't ever be forcing myself through an experience I wasn't enjoying; if I got stuck or lacked motivation, I could just take a break, mix things up a little, and come back refreshed the next day.
Knowing that JRPGs aren't exactly known for their brevity, I picked a full trilogy to be its companion. "No matter how I might struggle with this old classic," I thought, "there's no way I'll ever finish three games before I've seen the end of Cloud's story!"
In this context, the following review might say more about Final Fantasy VII than anything else.
***
Some of you may remember the piece I wrote about Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness late last year, a game which dealt Lady Croft a near-mortal wound? Well, mercifully, somebody at SquareEnix came to her rescue. They dusted her down, replenished her health with a couple of medkits and entrusted her to American developers Crystal Dynamics. There she would lay low for a while, before getting one last shot at staying relevant in the ever-evolving gaming landscape.
It was a shot that sparked a trilogy. Some call it the "HD Trilogy" or the "First Reboot Trilogy" but I like to give it a more accurate name, one that gives credit to its central star.
LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: The Keeley Hawes Trilogy
PC (version played), PS2, PS3 and Xbox360
The platforms listed above are the only places you can experience all three games. Many of the individual titles came out on many, many other consoles; there were waggle-friendly ports to the Wii, for example. You can even play some instalments on GBA and DS, as well as PSP, which is partly what led me here. Some weeks ago, I returned to a half-finished playthrough of the first game on Sony's first handheld and found it to be a buggy, near-unplayable mess. It speaks to the desire to see Lara succeed, that SquareEnix pushed the project to release on everything available at the time (whether it worked well or not). There was no escaping her comeback, no matter what system you owned.
It all starts with Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (2006). Our hero receives a tip about some ruins that have always been of interest to her, and we discover why, uncovering the tragic familial motivations which drive Lara's obsession with digging up the past.
I'm not gonna be coy about this; Legend has always been my favourite. Not just out of this trilogy, but perhaps out of the entire series. It returns the Tomb Raider to raiding tombs (a must after the criticism levelled at The Angel of Darkness) but it also injects some much-needed character to the proceedings, retaining some of the unique badassery Angelina Jolie brought to her live-action Lara and expanding her world beyond a few rooms full of old things. This makes for a decidedly "cool" adventure, similar to a globetrotting Bond film in its variety and pacing (it even has a funky title sequence every time you boot it up). It's short, punchy and tons of fun.
Lara benefits from a support network back home, again inspired by the additional cast of the films, and she chats with them wherever she goes. Some decry this departure from the traditionally silent action of the classic games, but the tone of Legend demands it. We're not exclusively partaking in reckless archaeology here; there's a party atop a Tokyo skyscraper to attend for one, and a Russian military base in Kazakhstan to infiltrate for another. We meet many of Lara's international network of contacts (some friendly, others less so) as she becomes increasingly determined to unravel a mystery that's been vexing her since childhood, and you slowly start to realise that she'll cross any line to get answers.
Second Life: The concept of sending Lara anywhere other than a tomb doesn't have to be controversial, especially when you also happen to nail the tombs themselves.
This is where Keeley Hawes comes in. The key to ensuring the success of Legend was in casting not just a great voice actor, but a great actor, period. Hawes is the definitive Lara Croft (said with no disrespect to others before or since) and her performance ties the whole project together with consistency and likeability. The script is good, almost very good, but Hawes elevates it with sincerity, whether delivering a quip or an ultimatum at gunpoint. Everything feels like it matters.
The rest of the production benefits from this cinematic approach. Nowhere ever outstays its welcome, preferring a focused run which allows you to follow the story first and foremost (there are plenty of hidden treasures and relics for later replays, but there's also a time trial mode, with target times that reinforce the level design's linearity). Weapons sound weighty and crypts crumble around you with plenty of bass. The music is also incredible; haunting vocals and orchestral punches mix with electronica to produce a distinctive soundscape, again taking its lead from the 2001 Tomb Raider movie. There are times where it swings to a particular extreme, but it always ends up working really well. Take this track, for example, from a segment where Lara uses a motorcycle to chase a train:
Or the bizarre sense of fun this track brings to an otherwise-unremarkable boss fight. "How many wacky layers does the music have now?" "Eleven." "Great, add more!"
Admittedly, the game's conclusion would've been frustrating as heck in 2006, although its edge is blunted by foreknowledge that the story continues. Lara returns to an area previously visited, and fights a boss previously fought, to trigger a few rushed revelations and only a partial answer to the plot's core question. It's a brave ending of sorts, considering that this was the franchise's do-or-die release, but thankfully SquareEnix's carpet-bomb approach to putting Legend on anything with buttons had helped to ensure healthy sales (and, in the wake of The Angel of Darkness, relief-riddled reviews weren't exactly scarce, either).
Tomb Raider was back and, with an enticing cliffhanger to resolve, everybody was asking the same thing; where would Crystal Dynamics take this new Lara next?
I don't think anybody put any money on "backwards", but they should have.
Smack in the middle of its trilogy, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) is a faithful remake of Lara's original PSone adventure. As before, it follows her first quest to pilfer the Scion of Atlantis out from under the nose of nefarious businesswoman Jacqueline Natla.
Well, I say "faithful" but there is a teensy bit of storyline expansion, with elements added or subtracted for several reasons. Given that it wasn't exactly a plot-heavy game in its day anyway, these tweaks are welcome, not only from a modern perspective but also thanks to the context they now bring to the ongoing trilogy. In terms of environmental progression and the actual raiding of tombs, however, this is as faithful as a decade of evolution would allow. All of the classic memorable moments are lovingly placed into the gameplay mould left by Legend, and the results can be spectacular.
It's here, second time around for Crystal Dynamics, that said gameplay is refined to near-perfection. Whilst the combat is dialled way back, in keeping with its source material, it's the platforming and puzzle elements which come to the fore. They're simple in execution but grand in scale, although you're allowed to muck things up and start over when trying different solutions for the first time. Traversal is fluid and graceful, but you can stumble and fall if you're not too careful; the participation of the player is perfectly balanced. This may be an unpopular thing to admit on a PlayStation forum but, cover-based shooting aside, Naughty Dog owes these games everything. Heck, Lara had a grapple line an entire two console generations before Nathan Drake ever got one, and hers is far more useful.
Trip the Light Fantastic: You might be able to see some obvious handholds back there but, contrary to their name, they didn't hold my hand as I sought this sparkling solution.
Because of the baggage which comes with being a remake, however, I've got to admit that Anniversary feels slightly devolved when compared to its immediate predecessor. There is a motorbike, for example, but Lara only rides it in a cutscene. This restraint (or respect) is admirable but, by and large, it means that things become quite predictable; you walk into a room, look around, and then figure out how to escape it. Given that its runtime is also longer than Legend, I wouldn't blame anybody for finding this rinse-and-repeat level design kinda boring. I mean, have you tried playing any of the classic Tomb Raider games recently? Doctors should prescribe them to insomniacs.
Gone is Lara's headset, and so absent is any kind of character commentary outside of the infrequent cutscenes (there is a journal in her inventory, where Keeley Hawes reads you some hints, but they're often as insultingly banal as "I need a key to open this locked door" and, at one point, she literally just says "hmm... interesting..." as you stand before a wall of gears, switches and movable blocks). All of the enemies are wild animals, too, which is again in-keeping with the original but, again, serves to isolate Lara. To counter this, some famous areas are given some silent narrative advancement, and a couple of boss encounters are greatly expanded with tactics to pep them up. It'll certainly keep you awake; this isn't even a criticism if I'm honest, rather just a tonal shift that I noted when playing the trilogy in quick succession.
Jurassic Lark: Why yes, we have a T-Rex, and she's much more of an event this time around, but the source material means that the chance of a snarky one-liner has been made extinct.
Elsewhere, the music strips away its techno elements, letting a full orchestra aim for a respectful reinterpretation of the soundtrack from 1996. It's beautiful work but, again, lacks that cheeky streak which ran through the core of Legend. Many praised (and still praise) Anniversary as a "return to Lara's roots" and it certainly is that, for all the good and bad that entails. By its end, when the checkpoints had become haphazardly sparse and the final level had tested my platforming patience to the limit, I was happy to be returning to the promise of the trilogy's contemporary conclusion.
Such expectation is probably why I ended up being a little disappointed, but hey.
We finally arrive at Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008) which, after a shocking cold open, picks up the cliffhanger from the end of Legend and introduces elements from Anniversary in order to finally resolve the tragedy of Lara's backstory on an epic scale.
There's a lot to love about Underworld, so I'll be generous to start with. Given the generational shift in console technology at the time, Crystal Dynamics took a couple of extra months to overhaul their engine, making the PS3 and Xbox360 home to the "proper" version and delivering a truly next-gen Lara Croft. The results are pretty striking, even by today's standards; our heroine is now fully mo-capped by a professional gymnast, making every jump, roll and sprint feel authentic and satisfying. Traversal is expanded even further, with free-climb surfaces introduced and even more inventive ways of using the grapple.
The end result is that your path through each location is not immediately clear, but you won't mind running around trying to find it... most of the time. That's the problem starting from scratch, isn't it? For a good 80% of the game, Lara controls perfectly, but for the remaining 20% she'll bug out, grabbing for non-existent ledges or developing a sudden inability to stand on a flat surface. She's a personal injury lawyer's dream, hopelessly flailing about and turning simple tasks into stop-start obstructions. You get used to some of her shortcomings, and can adapt accordingly, but it's a shame all the same, especially when the previous two games nailed this aspect of the gameplay so consistently.
Platforming Premium: How am I gonna get across there? What dangers await me? And have you had an accident at work that wasn't your fault?
This approach of "improve one thing, break another" becomes a bit of a pattern. For example, QTEs had been used extensively in Legend and Anniversary to sell some cinematic set-pieces, but Underworld opts for a much better system of adrenaline moments, where time slows and Lara needs to react quickly before the floor collapses / an explosion hits her / some fugly sea monster eats her (delete as applicable). This is awesome but, because Crystal Dynamics were busy implementing these new ideas, they forgot to hide the supposed-to-be-hidden treasures, so you'll frequently find them just discarded in the corner of every other room. There are enormous, breathtaking underwater settings and a pair of land-based, jaw-dropping temples which were obviously the focus of development efforts, but then there's also this boat which Lara sinks early on, only to later discover that (surprise!) it has a sister ship. The contrived need to board it leads to one of the laziest and most obvious level rehashes I've ever seen.
Now, in light of my praising Legend for being succinct, I've clearly got nothing against a game being short and sweet. There's no denying that Underworld feels bare-bones on its surface; there are no unlockable outfits, barely any replay incentives... heck, there's not even a Croft Manor mode any more (although I guess that's for narrative reasons). Considering its peers, I can forgive its preference for plot prominence. It's a stellar swansong for Keeley Hawes and the other returning cast members, who never give the darker script less than both barrels. When I first played it, I didn't even mind that its ending felt conveniently hasty (for one game, let alone three). Lara had her answers. Her journey was over.
Hammer Time: I mean, c'mon, there's dramatic flair, and then there's this, but such shots can't compensate for actual substance outside of a few fleeting scenes.
It wasn't until later that I discovered the curtailed crescendo was partly intentional. There are two DLC packs for Underworld which expand upon its ending, revealing the true fate of a major villain and exploring the motivations of another antagonist. They were apparently pre-planned during development but hey, such is the nature of the beast, right? So let's just download them.
Except I can't, because Microsoft paid to keep them exclusive to the Xbox360. They've never been released on any other platform, not even PC, and never will be. I've watched them on YouTube and how much they actually bring to the table is up for debate, but it would've been (and still is) a kick in the teeth at the eleventh hour for fans who'd been following this character-driven story on other hardware. Crystal Dynamics should rightly be praised for all three of these excellent games, there's no question, but such a mean-spirited gatekeeping deal is nothing more than a cunning stunt, executed by a stunning c... uh, wait, this is a family forum. Best I leave that sentence unfinished.
***
Which is a really bum note to end on, particularly since I'd still turn around and say, without hesitation, that these games create one of my all-time favourite trilogies. Keeley Hawes' incarnation of Lara Croft is who I think of whenever anybody mentions Tomb Raider to me; she carved out her own identity in the role, whilst also going back and fleshing out a crucial part of its past. My love for her Lara would still be intact regardless of gameplay but, as luck would have it, all three of her adventures remain accessible, exciting and ultimately playable (even with a keyboard and mouse). Legend flows. Anniversary mostly flows, with a few late-game exceptions. Underworld can flow when it wants to.
I'm being harsh on Underworld, but with good reason. I consider Legend the best experience, with its Hollywood flair and whizz-bang pacing. Anniversary is the best game, packed with puzzles and problem-solving. Underworld should've been the perfect blend of both, from a developer with two success stories under its belt... but the unfortunate truth is, it isn't. All the ingredients are there, but the mark feels missed, likely compounded by Microsoft's anti-consumer greed. It's a real shame.
And before anybody asks, I'm not just drawing this conclusion because Underworld has a bunch of gross, endlessly respawning giant spiders in it, either.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Completion: Beat game (normal ending, not 100%); roughly 35 hours. I imagine closer to 45 or 50 hours if someone wants to 100% it.
Paper Mario: The Origami King (referred to as TOK henceforth) is the sixth game in the Paper Mario franchise (seventh if you include the 3DS crossover game with the Mario & Luigi series) since the series started in 2000 on the N64. The series has gone through some pretty radical changes over the years: the story-driven, turn-based JRPG series from developer Intelligent Systems has slowly but inexorably drifted from its roots over the years, causing some level of dismay with long-time fans. TOK follows this tradition, being something more of an adventure game with puzzle-based combat. Despite this, I feel like the game is still satisfying to play off the back of an acknowledged classic like the Gamecube's Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (my main reference point for this series other than my almost six year old partial playthrough of Paper Mario: Sticker Star on the 3DS).
The game's premise is an unusual one, and it immediately drew my interest when the first trailer dropped. Mario travels to Princess Peach's castle after he is invited to celebrate an Origami Festival in Toad Town. The town and castle seem abandoned however, and things go from normal to apocalyptic quickly when he discovers that Princess Peach has been folded into origami and inculcated into a bizarre origami cult by a sentient origami entity known as King Olly. King Olly has also partially folded Bowser and has gradually been kidnapping and folding his minions. Mario discovers a sympathetic ally in the form of Olivia, King Olly's sister, who is horrified by the imperialistic and destructive aims of her brother. Mario, an incapacitated Bowser, and Olivia escape from the castle as a number of brightly colored streamers wrap around the castle, rip it out of its foundation, and relocate it to a volcano. Separated from Bowser, Mario and Olivia, alongside a variety of companion characters they meet along the way, set out to to destroy the enormous streamers, which originate from a variety of locations around that section of the world, so that they can confront King Olly and hopefully rescue a world that is quickly falling to Olly's origami army.
It's impossible to discuss this game without also addressing the controverises surrounding it, so I find it best to get those out of the way first. The first of these is the combat system itself, and the progression mechanics tied into it. Like other recent entries in the series, TOK ditches a traditional XP system, so your characters don't gain levels as a result of battling. What you do gain, however, are coins (and confetti, but more on that later). You need money for pretty much everything in this world, and certainly, if you want to fill out the in-game museum (again, more on that), you'll need to do quite a bit of battling to gain the funds needed to buy expensive treasures. Money can also be used to buy badges which boost your stats and more powerful attacks in order to handle the increasingly powerful enemies you'll encounter across the game. Health upgrades aren't purchased, but can be found in your explorations. The cumulative result, I feel, is something approximating the feel of the character building you'd experience in an RPG, albeit more streamlined than what fans of the older games might be used to. A common complaint about the Paper Mario games since Sticker Star is that there's "no reason to battle," which certainly doesn't hold true here. You'll need money to buy weapons, to gain access to plot-important areas, etc. What the game perhaps doesn't do is provide an incentive to endlessly grind enemy encounters in order to max our character levels, which I don't personally mind. Nobody deliberately seeks out every Moblin in BotW to kill. I also don't recall people trawling the levels of 3D Mario games for enemies to kill. The lack of traditional RPG mechanics might not be ideal for certain people, but I strongly resist the notion that it makes battling enemies "pointless," or that it's even problematic game design.
The battle system itself is fascinating, and probably unlike anything one has ever encountered in a video game before. Mario stands in the center of a stage, surrounded by concentric rings where enemies are situated. You will have to move the rings to line enemies up in certain patterns so that Mario's attacks can attack them. Not only does lining them up efficiently give Mario the ability to kill them sooner, but you're also granted damage multipliers for doing so. The puzzles at the beginning of the game are a bit obvious and mindless, but the complexity of these timed ring puzzles increases as the game goes on. While there are some issues with this system (I'm not really a fan of how you only ever unlock more powerful boot and hammer attacks; although, thinking about it, outside of special attacks, almost every fight in TTYD devolved into boots and hammers as well), but I do like it makes every encounter something engaging, as the fights in TTYD got a bit mindless over time. Mario can pay coins to toads in his audience, who will solve the ring puzzle for him to varying degrees of completeness, depending on how much is paid, although I almost never opted for this.
Battles against the awesome, gigantic bosses feature a unique system of their own. This time, Mario is on the outside of the rings, with the boss in the middle, and the plumber has to set up a path through the rings ahead of time. Not only does Mario need to navigate to the center of the area, but he also frequently needs to be positioned in a certain way to attack the boss efficiently. Bosses in TOK are a lot like Zelda bosses insofar as they have specific weaknesses to be exploited and attack patterns to be anticipated. Just running up and randomly attacking them might eventually kill them, but it'll lead to an unnecessarily drawn out battle. In that respect, the boss fights are another area of TOK that feel puzzle game-inspired.
On that note, while it's true the bosses here aren't memorable personalities like you'll meet in TTYD, they are quite fun to fight. You'll go between vellumentals, enormous elemental deities that you need to beat to obtain their special powers, and enormous, sentient office supplies that belong to the "legion of stationary." While I'll admit it seems quite stupid initially for Mario to fight against staplers or boxes of colored pencils, these objects are characters in their own right, possessed of specific personalities, and the set-pieces and dungeons leading up to your encounters with them are often creative and incredibly fun, and even a bit foreboding at times.
Speaking of which, the player will also explore a fair number of dungeons throughout the game, and they feel rather like streamlined Zelda dungeons in terms of their puzzles, numerous enemy encounters, hidden heart upgrades, bosses, and theming, which fit well alongside the game's more action-adventurey approach. To be honest, TOK makes me wish Nintendo would expand the paper spinoff approach to other franchises. I'd LOVE a Paper Zelda game.
The other primary controversy in this game stems from Nintendo's now-infamous policy that developer Intelligent Systems is apparently not to create any original in-universe characters for this game, or for future Paper Mario titles. This... I feel, is a more valid complaint. TOK is a colorful, imaginative game filled with fun writing, great humor, and some superb characterization at times, but the main leg up I feel a game like TTYD had over this is that there are simply aren't a ton of interesting NPCs or even party members to meet in this, which does detract from the appeal of this game. The game's cast of important NPCs is dominated primarily by toads, and is utterly lacking in the vibrant array of unique designs and separate races that proliferated in TTYD. Almost none of the characters you meet (aside from Olivia and King Olly, who are alien to the Paper Mario universe in a very fundamental sense) have a distinct name: you'll find a Bob-Omb as a companion, but he just looks like any other Bob-Omb and insists that this is his name (in a perhaps cunning loophole to Nintendo's corporate restrictions, Olivia ignores this and continuously refers to this particular Bob-Omb as "Bobby"), since Bob-Ombs apparently seem to sublimate their individual identities in a collective identification (there's actually a rather shocking plot twist that, interestingly, dives a bit into the nuances of Bob-Omb psychology, which is weirdly fascinating).
The developer seems to take this as a challenge, however, and goes out of its way to allow Mario the opportunity to interact with a variety of Bowser's underlings (traditional Mario enemies), who are now on the run and attempting to evade the Folded Soldiers that are terrorizing this world. As a result, while it lacks the vibrant individual personalities of some previous titles in the series, the game works well in exploring the mindsets of Mario's classic foes outside of the context of a platformer. Since pre-established in-universe characters are still allowable, of course, you also interact with characters like Luigi, Bowser, Bowser Jr., and Kamek. I do sort of miss the more character-oriented focus of TTYD, but, honestly, I feel like TOK still has enough fun dialogue and interesting interactions that the game still felt like it had something of an identity, unlike the dispersonal toad hell of Sticker Star.
One of the central complaints about this series is how it has gone from being a series where the characters happen to be stylized as paper beings to being a series ABOUT paper, in some sense, and TOK leans extremely heavily into this element as well. TOK's characters are distinctly aware that they're made out of flat paper, and that their world, more broadly, is one of flat paper constructions. Really leaning into this worldbuilding is what allows the gradual encroachment of King Olly's origami army, which is constructed entirely out of unwilling paper victims, to feel as apocalyptic and uncanny as it often does. It also imbues the Legion of Stationary bosses you fight throughout with an aura of danger that one wouldn't normally associate with staplers, hole punchers, boxes of colored pencils, etc. Which is to say: I'm OK with the change to paper beings becoming somewhat self-aware of their own papery metaphysical nature. Like Media Molecule's Tearaway, the style extends to the entire world the characters inhabit, which feels like one made out of arts and crafts. This is a style employed in a few other Nintendo games as well (recent Yoshi games, in particular, come to mind), but there's a pleasing coherence of theme, story, and aesthetics here, since TOK leans into the 'paper world' concept so completely.
Despite the somewhat more childish premise and tone of TOK in general compared to TTYD, the game is strangely replete with tragic and emotionally potent story beats. I never expected a cutesy adventure game about adorable papercraft characters to have such a high body count by the end, frankly, although I guess it does fit with the underlying body horror this game is filled with (ever seen a giant monster constructed out of the punched out faces of your friends? Paper Mario has, and, even with them being made of paper, it's still horrifying), and the overall creepy tone of King Olly and his borg-like origami cult as well. This is one of those children's games that gets creepier and darker the more you think about it, which I thought was an interesting change of pace for the series. TOK's ending, in particular, is hugely bittersweet (and inspired quite a few tears from my eleven-year-old gameplay companion), which is an interesting contrast with TTYD's much more generic happy ending. The game can be surprisingly thoughtful insofar as it portrays characters grappling with issues related to personal identity, meaning, and death.
None of this, of course, should be taken to mean that TOK is a primarily grim experience. Like TTYD, this game is filled with jokes and humorous situations, often to the point of being something akin to slapstick. And as with that game, TOK can be funny without being obnoxious about it, and the script still manages to maintain a sense of perspective about what's actually at stake for these characters on their adventure. Although I would argue that much of TTYD's biting, often savage wit is missing here: it's a funny, charming game, but it lacks the whip-smart dialogue of its GameCube predecessor.
TOK's world is reasonably large, interconnected (one larger publication misreported it as being an "open world" game, but progression through the game's landscapes is still as linear as it ever was in previous games), and utterly filled with interactivity. The origami menace has savaged this delicate paper world and left it with holes everywhere. Mario carries a bad of confetti with him at all times, and he can use it to fill in these holes to uncover secrets and advance through plot-important locations. Confetti is everywhere in this game, and you'll need to constantly be collecting it to fill up your confetti bag so that you're prepared to paper over holes you find.
When you're running around these large environments, there are a few different things to do. You'll encounter simple environmental puzzles to solve in order to find chests that contains collectibles. You'll encounter different minigame activities. And you'll be finding tons and tons of hidden toads.
Running around looking for toads sounds horrible, like Sticker Star nonsense. But... it's really not. It's fun. Part of that is just how much variety there is in terms of how you find them. ANYTHING can be a toad in this game. Various animals in your environment can be toads. Toads can hide under rocks and behind walls. Fish you catch can be toads. Things you buy can be toads. Sometimes it's just a matter of running up to something and hammering it to reveal the toad. Sometimes they're simply hidden. Sometimes there's an environmental puzzle required to catch them.
Some toads you find will be important and run back to town to open shops and services, such as research centers, locations that serve as shortcuts between major zones, item, accessory and weapon shops, a museum, and a battle center where you can practice various functions related to the puzzle battles you'll so often engage in. Others will join your audience in battles, and, for a price, will help you in various ways.
Finding toads awards you toad points, which you can use to unlock art pieces at the museum. The museum also hosts 3D models you can find in chests throughout the environment, origami toad models you unlock throughout the game, enemy models more generally, music tracks from the game (which requires the player to fill in all of those holes located throughout the world, as I alluded to earlier), etc. Rather like in Animal Crossing, I'm finding the gradual development of my museum to be reward enough to consistently engage with the environments. And there's so much to engage with, considering nearly everything in this game feels like it can be collected or reward the player in some way. It's all a bit skinnerian, of course, but it works well in the context of this game.
The art design and general aesthetic sense present in TOK is phenomenal. Rather like Tearaway or the recent Good-Feel Yoshi platformers, the entire world looks like it was constructed in an arts and crafts class, and nearly every aspect of the environment relates back to the concept of paper in some way. Combine this with the detailed, often dense environments and the overall polish of the product, and you have one of the prettiest games on the Nintendo Switch. This primarily shines through when the game is docked, but it still looks vibrant and clean when undocked as well.
Musically, this is a high water mark for the series, with diverse and frequently evocative tracks setting the mood for your adventure. A track is worth a thousand words, so I'll link what I feel are some of the game's better compositions below.
Given the series' checkered reputation as of late, along with my own experience with the disappointing Paper Mario: Sticker Star, I approached The Origami King with some level of trepidation, but I was surprised to discover what turned out to be one of Nintendo's best releases of 2020 and one of their better Switch exclusives overall. The Origami King might not be the JRPG long-time fans were hoping for, but it is also absolutely undeserving of the cold reception many have greeted it with. While, pound for pound, I'd say The Thousand Year Door was still a better game overall, I think anyone willing to look past its change in genre will find a consistently creative, engaging, and delightful first-party release.
8/10
@RogerRoger Great write-up! I own Tomb Raider Anniversary on my PS2, actually, but I wasn't aware it was part of a larger subset of games. I think I'm one of those people who forgets there are apparently a huge number of TR games between the first three and the reboot trilogy, although these reviews make me want to go back and actually play through the series. Weren't there rumors of a Tomb Raider collection coming out on modern platforms? Maybe the exclusive DLC for Underworld will release on that.
As to the exclusive DLC itself... I wasn't aware there was a history of Microsoft paying for Tomb Raider exclusivity beyond RotTR, although it doesn't surprise me, as they were deep in the thick of that sort of moneyhatting in the seventh gen. The fact that next-gen Sony is looking to replicate that strategy for PS5 concerns me slightly.
I also genuinely had no idea there were Tomb Raider games on the NDS. Looking at footage, Underworld on that platform actually seems like a surprisingly decent 2.5D version of the game. I have to admit: I sort of miss bespoke handheld versions of bigger console games.
By the way, it sounds like you aren't particularly enjoying Final Fantasy VII. It's probably a bit rough from a modern standpoint. It's oddly appropriate to play it alongside a Tomb Raider collection, though, because Lara Croft and Tifa Lockheart are two of the most iconic female characters from that console generation.
As always, your writing is extremely funny. Keep it up!
@crimsontadpoles Can't say I really shared most of your nitpicks. The one that stands out to me the most as a "totally" was the firearms disappearing back into your horse's saddle. That was absolutely aggravating. In terms of the realism aspects though, I quickly realised you didn't really need to participate in them. I'd very occasionally bring something back to camp or eat a meal, but generally my Arthur was just anorexic throughout most of the game. I don't think I ever changed clothes according to weather either, nor did I ever hunt or fish outside of when the missions required it. I felt like those features were all well balanced in that you could engage with them if you so wish, but you didn't have to if that extra realism isn't your thing.
Absolutely agree with your points on the open world. This is the first time playing an open world game where I felt like the game really utilised the open world concept to the extent that it should be. Too often open worlds feel like a simple checklist or just a way from get to mission start to mission start. This time I actually felt like I was part of the world, the world was interacting with me and that the world was constantly changing. I usually dread long rides in games, but this one I had such a pleasure just slowly making my way to wherever I needed to go next. I don't think I used fast travel even once. It's just the perfect version of what an open worlds should be to me. Can't say I can compare any of RDR2 to the first one since I haven't played it, but one day I will definitely have to.
@RogerRoger Fabulous review; as it was an interesting read and great to reminisce about these games which I thoroughly enjoyed in the past. It’s good to see they hold up to a replay, especially Legend. I think I do remember Legend and Anniversary the most, and Underworld left less of an impression on me.
Okay ... you’ve delayed long enough. Looks like you’re going to have to fish or cut bait on your FF7 playthrough. 😄 I’d hoped that it eventually clicked with you but it seems like it may die a slow painful death in your gaming graveyard. Which is fine. The rose-tinted glasses I look through on it are probably the reason I value it so.
@RogerRoger Excellent write-up. Out of those 3 games, the only one that I've played (so far) is Tomb Raider Legend. It's very different to the previous games in the series, and for good reason. They had to change direction after how disastrous Angel of Darkness was. The positive reception of Legend shows that they did a good job of that.
However, at the time, I was a little bit disappointed with Legend. My favourite aspect of the series has always been the exploration. Past games were packed full of environment puzzles, and it generally took a lot of looking around to figure out how to proceed. In Legend, those aspects were subdued as the focus was fully on the cinematic experience. The few environment puzzles that Legend had were mostly quite simple, and the game was fairly linear.
Legend modernised the series, and I may well be in the minority for preferring the older style games.
It would be a good idea for me to replay Legend, as I've not played it since the PS2 days. I think that in a new playthrough in this day and age, I'd better appreciate what it does do well, instead of focusing on what it doesn't do.
@Ralizah Lovely write-up as well. The Origami King does seem to have its fans. Judging by the gameplay footage I've seen, this game probably isn't for me though. I'm glad you had fun with it.
And looking at the screenshots, it's great to see that Ho-Oh, one of my favourite pokemon, has snuck its way into the Mushroom Kingdom
@Ralizah First up, excellent review of The Origami King. I went back and compared your conclusions from the impressions piece you posted, and I'm real glad your initial "What are the haters talking about? This is pretty good!" panned out as you completed it. Proof that change isn't always a bad thing.
I even think I prefer the sound of learning more about established characters, rather than developing new ones for the game. It's fair to say that you recognise some people's objections to this part but, in a fictional world as developed and as layered as Mario's has become, I'm always keen to be surprised by new information about parts I'd never considered before. This is the self-aware where we both realise we're debating the psychology of a sentient bomb, of course, and laugh awkwardly.
Thanks for linking the music. Whilst I could never condone a kid's game featuring a track called "Thrills at Night" no matter how funky it sounds (somebody, please think of the children!) the track before it, "Exploring the Great Sea", is an utter delight.
And yeah, I think I'd like to see a Paper Zelda game, too!
Thank you for your (as always) generous feedback on my Tomb Raider piece. You could actually play Anniversary as a standalone if you wanted to, knowing you'd get around to its bookends later if its gameplay reeled you in. There have been rumours of a collection, yes, but they've been the kind you find buried in a roadside hopper of gritted salt. I remain optimistic, and part of me wants to say that it'll definitely happen now that I've finished them on PC, but you never know.
Moneyhatting has always happened, and is always happening; it all depends on which examples people wanna get outraged about on a day-by-day basis. Sony are in the lead right now, so the PS5 is gonna be everybody's favourite target. The story about Spidey in The Avengers had me rolling my eyes, because I was recently replaying some of his older games on my PS2 and finding that I was missing entire sections of gameplay, and entire boss fights, because they were exclusive to the original Xbox. It's been happening for decades, and will continue to happen, because gaming is a business. Sucks for us, but what do we matter? We're just the consumers. We exist to pay up and shut up.
I've got both Legend and Underworld on my Nintendo DS and let's just say, there are far worse 2.5D platforming adventure games out there! I had fun with them and, you're right, they're certainly indicative of that golden age, when a game would come out on everything. Handheld versions often got dismissed off-hand, but I sometimes preferred them to their "proper" counterparts.
Ah, Tifa... one of the many characters I'm actively ignoring in my playthrough... sorry, I know you're right an' all but, as far as I'm concerned, she ain't no Lara!
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@Th3solution Thanks, buddy. Was hoping you'd enjoy it, knowing you're a fellow fan, and I don't think you're alone with regards to Underworld feeling less memorable. It has tons of great components, but there's just something about its overall impact which slips through the cracks. As I said, it's a shame because when it makes an effort, it can be momentarily incredible.
No, I'm gonna sit down with FFVII this coming weekend and give it another chance. Apparently, I've gotten quite far with it; about three-quarters of the way through the first disc, in PSone terms. I might end up cheesing my way to the end of the story, as the PS4 port comes with readily-accessible cheats baked in. I've avoided them thusfar, wanting to play "properly" but the prospect of slapping on God Mode and speeding the battles up to x3 speed might be what keeps me going.
Because it has a trophy list, I'll forever be taunted by my failure if I abandon it. I will see it through eventually, and before I start anything else major on PS4.
Guess it's just a question of how much it'll hurt to do so!
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@crimsontadpoles Thanks! Before I continue, I should say that I'm grateful for your write-up on Red Dead Redemption 2, which I've only just noticed. As somebody who struggled to enjoy the previous game, you've reinforced my belief that its sequel simply isn't for me. I'm still glad to see you ended up enjoying what is obviously a technical marvel, but don't feel bad for preferring what you prefer.
If you're looking for more challenging puzzles in your tomb raiding, forget Legend and move on to Anniversary. I think, from what you're saying, you might have more fun. Solutions are still more obvious than they were in the PSone days, thanks largely to graphical improvements making it more difficult to hide things in plain sight, but there's definitely more of a requirement to engage your brain with Anniversary (and in some levels of Underworld as well). You're most certainly not alone in levelling that criticism at Legend, and it's entirely valid if you see cinematic flair as a bad thing.
Unless you're prepared to play on PC, the best place to play through the entire trilogy would be PS3, where they were put on a single Blu-Ray and sold in one of those "HD Trilogy" collections (or, as Ralizah noted, you can join me in waiting for the potentially-non-existent-but-rumoured-anyway remaster).
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger, great write-up of the Tomb Raider games. Many Moons ago I played the demos to a few of those mentioned on my 360, but I could never get to grips with them (the Underworld demo in particular, I just never figured out where to go after arriving at the temple it featured).
I'd like to try them again someday if they're ever re-released on modern hardware, as I'd love to try out the series, but am not all that attracted to the grittier reboot trilogy (I did play Lara Croft GO on mobile a few years ago and enjoyed it, but that's the extent of my TR experience), lol.
@Ralizah, great ToK review! I'm only in the Fire Vellumental temple, but I agree with a lot you've said. In particular I think the whole conversation around Olivia trying to name Bob-Omb was a sly middle finger to the restrictions put in place, and it was a brilliant move to separate Origami beings into the villains, freeing up a wide selection of Bowser's minions to be friendly NPC's as to not overload on Toads.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@RR529 Thanks! I think I know the level in Underworld that they made a demo from, and it's oddly the third location in the game, so it would've definitely thrown you in at the deep end!
Yeah, if you're not wanting to play the recent reboot trilogy, then the games outlined above are the closest you can get to a contemporary take on a classic Lara Croft. They tweaked and streamlined the formula, rather than totally change it inside and out. Fingers crossed for that rumoured remaster!
Lara Croft GO is a cracking mobile game, and one that holds up well on console. If you care about your trophy statistics, then it's got an easy platinum, too!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
So I finally finished and got the Plat for Ghost of Tsushima. I have been playing this heavily for over a month since pretty much launch weekend and spent a good deal of time with it. Not sure how long but got to be in the 60 plus hour region as I explored and got everything.
So my user impressions - I will try to avoid spoilers with regards to the story though there are some gameplay concepts that do stray into spoiler region so will tag those.
Firstly, I enjoyed this game. It was well made, the graphics etc. are truly gorgeous, the realistation of Tsushima island is one of the most beautiful and diverse open worlds you can find. The traversal in the game is smooth and relatively simple and the use of environmental wind for way points and markers does vary things up from icon heavy adventures such as the recent AC games. The music, when used is sparse and the Japanese locale is refreshingly different for me as a Westerner. I couldn't comment about cultural or even historical accuracy. The combat as well is, especially when you engage in open combat, fun and the unlocks of techniques feel meaningful though, one could argue the earlier parts of the game put you at a severe disadvantage as you have a 'stance' for different enemy types and you can't access them till you have them all. That makes some enemy types painful till you get them. However, powering through enemies, parrying and chopping their bits off is satisfying and skill led. The story, on the whole and some of the side missions was fairly fulfilling though not remarkable however they got the core themes of the story across very well.
That said, I found my enjyoment waining and I think this may be less of a fault of the game and more of my general fatigue with open world games at the moment. Over the last 4 or 5 years I've played Far Cry 4 and most of 5, HZD, Infamous Second Son and Last Light, Witcher 3, AC Odyssey, BOTW, Skyrim, Spiderman PS4, Shadow of Mordor, MGSV etc. Now these have varied in size and quality (and I would argue BOTW is the most distinct of these games) and I am not arguing that some of these are amazing games - such as The Witcher 3, HZD and BOTW. The thing is that the gameplay for many of these games is very repetetive as you move from title to title. My main issues with them - and this is something that I felt with Ghost, is the impact of open world narrative and the lack of cause and effect the open world structure has. Take for example side quests - you have a side character that has their own quest lines but they are going to turn up in the main story line so you know that whatever happens in those can't affect the narrative. At the same time, you have the typical issue of your actions not really affecting the world around you. I am fairly certain I murdered thousands of mongols by game end yet they are still just wandering around, even by end game.
I guess my point is that we have really just seen the refinement of the open world genre this generation (again, I exclude BOTW) and Ghost is an example of a really good one for sure, but does little new except for pretty good combat and an amazing setting. It is a very safe game in that it does what it does very well but it does little new. Now is this a complaint against the game? Not really but it sits alongside a lot of games that have incredibly similar fundamental mechanics. It has stealth sections, it has trail missions, it has forced stealth missions, it has a weapon upgrade path, it has a skills upgrade, there are lots of collectibles, side missions and NPC's etc. There are enemy outposts. Even things to climb. Now is this a hard one to review because there is nothing wrong with them as said and it is hard to mark a game for not being terribly original but at the same time... I feel a little like it became a shopping list to 100%. Which is also my fault for trying to 100% and get the platonum and if I had just focused on story missions I may have enjoyed it more.
Also from from a story perspective the central theme is that Jin has to choose between the honour of the Samurai and doing some unsavoury stealth things to beat the baddies. This is all fine but then you can choose to be honourable and fight by calling out your enemies or not you can play stealth and choose - except in story missions where you are forced one way or another and it meant that I played with little stealth and largely chopping in the open but the story took none of that into account and I was branded the same way as if I had been stealthy. Also, there is no recognition that without being dishonourable you couldnt win. A small niggle but something that didn't quite work for me .
So overall a good, well made game but really a little too generic. However, still think this is a great game and worth playing. Just maybe don't go for 100% if you just want to focus on the story and character missions.
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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