Tag Archives: PS4

.Hack//G.U. Last Recode Review

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It’s time to jump into the world of .Hack GU. This series always looked like a blast but I wasn’t able to jump into it for a long while because getting Part 4 of the original series was really tricky. Well, now I’m here and the series lives up to the hype. It does a good job of bringing in the best parts of the old games while dropping the annoying parts (Cores grinding) so the whole thing feels very streamlined. It also has a whole lot of content within the games outside of the story which is already at least 35-40 hours between the 4 games.

The games follow a guy named Haseo who plays an online MMORPG called: The World. This game allows you to have a good time with your friends as you clear various events and get treasure. One day, his teammate is murdered within the game by a mysterious player named Tri-Edge and she falls into a coma in the real world. Haseo spends a lot of time getting all the way to the max level in the game and tracks down Tri-Edge. Unfortunately he is defeated and somehow reset back to level 1. Haseo will need to regain his strength and also find some way to beat this guy. Normal power is not enough, Haseo will need abilities that transcend that of the game itself.

Right away you’ve got some high stakes here. Tri-Edge is somehow able to murder players from within the game and that makes everything scary. He also looks like Kite, the main character of the first 4 games. So something odd is going on and as the games continue you get a lot of plot twists and new events going into this. The story flows rather seamlessly and the collection even brings a mini 4th game that works as an epilogue to the events. It’s technically a really short game compared to the first 3 but is still a lot of fun to play through. The games are all similar but still different so lets break this down a bit.

The first one has your basic 3D action gameplay. You are able to fight enemies at different locations and gradually get stronger. You have a bike that you can use to travel across areas with great speed and ultimately make a lot of headway. Your main weapon can be swapped a lot as you grow stronger and you can seamlessly link combos. The hub world feels pretty large and you will meet a lot of characters. You gain levels rather quickly as well so even if you are underleveled you can fix that without too much trouble. The sheer amount of content can even be a little intimidating with all of the quests outside of the main story missions but that is a good problem to have.

Then we have part 2 which adds some things like the vs battle mode, upgradable bikes, and the ability to equip different weapons at once. The combat is slowed down a little bit as you can’t link cancel your moves anymore. Still really smooth though and the rest of the game is just as intense. The first one’s story had the benefit of the mystery beginnings but this one also throws in the plot of temporarily getting trapped in the game itself. That would have to be a scary thing. Also I should mention that every game has an obligatory tournament which us fun to see. This game may have had the best climax and cliffhanger ending.

In part 3, things are fine tuned even more. There aren’t too many actual additions compared to the first two games though. At this point you are juggling multiple hub worlds in addition to the rest of the content though. It really feels like you are approaching the end of the adventure and there are a whole lot of bosses. It’s also fun to be fighting enemies while being over level 100 though. There aren’t too many RPGs where that is the case after all.

Finally part 4 is a much more scaled down version. You unlock a new form which seals all of your other equipments and most of the bonus content is turned off. It makes sense as this is purely to finish off the story. We get a lot of nice looking cutscenes and a fun epilogue. The boss battle at the end is also reasonably tough. I ended up making it to level 150 and hit the level cap at the end which was cool. In general the giant kaiju fights were definitely pretty fun. I wouldn’t say they were as good as the normal gameplay but they were a fun change of pace too.

So you’ve got a ton of content here. Aside from the story being about 40 hours long, clearing all the content and getting the Platinum trophy would probably add another 15 hours or so to it. It doesn’t look like an unreasonable platinum either but it’s not exactly a top priority for me while I work on games where I have a lower trophy score. If you’re worried about playing this game because of all the grinding from the original then you shouldn’t worry about it. This game has virtually 0 grinding which is a nice change of pace. You may have to get some levels but like I said that part’s pretty fast. I ended up doing a few dedicated level grinding batches and then I would one tap every enemy for the next 5-7 areas.

The graphics are also really good as you’d expect. Everything looked super sharp and the gameplay is on point. The colors are sharp at all times. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also great. It definitely has more of a rock motif to it compared to the old games but the openings to each title feel like classic .Hack. Likewise I enjoyed the endings for each of them. These games really kept The World as a mysterious kind of game which I appreciated. I may not have played “The World” if it were real but I can see the appeal.

Overall, .Hack Gu is definitely an elite title. I also think collections in general tend to be a buff when all the games are good. Individually these games would have all been 8s with the last one being a 7 but when they are all packaged together it becomes a 9 because of the sheer length. This is not the kind of game that you can complete in a weekend and that’s a good thing. I’m definitely eager to see how the next game goes in the saga. The timing of their announcing a new .Hack game now was certainly perfect!

Overall 9/10

Okami HD Review

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Okami is one of those games that I’ve heard a lot about but had never gotten to play before. Well, now I’m finally in on the action and I can safely say that it is a great title. There is a ton of action here and the game is a whole lot longer than you would expect. It’s not every day that you get a 30 hour adventure from an action game. That usually feels more like an RPG adventure right?

The game starts by introducing us to Amaterasu. She is a powerful deity who once sealed the frightful Orochi 100 years ago. Unfortunately in the present, a swordsman decides to free Orochi and plunges the world into eternal darkness. Amaterasu is forced to return to save the world once again but it won’t be easy. She has lost all of her abilities and will have to gradually reclaim them. This means fighting a ton of monsters and also bringing life back into the world. Orochi’s darkness has destroyed all of the plants and left all of the animals hungry. Amaterasu has to use her unique abilities to fix this and stop Orochi, but can she pull it off again?

Okami has a very unique mechanic with the air brush system. You use this to recreate objects that have been destroyed like bridges and the like while also attacking enemies. Her powers all revolve around the brushes like wielding the elements or creating bombs. If this game was played on the Wii then it would probably be a tragedy because you’d be fighting with the stylus the whole time. Since it is on traditional controls, that never ends up being a problem. Instead you are able to have fun since it uses traditional controls.

I will say that the drawings can be rather precise at times so you won’t always draw what you want to. I imagine that people who love drawing are going to be able to really have a blast pushing the system to its limits though. The rest of the combat is more like your classic action-fare as you swing at opponents with your sword or beads. I went with the beads for most of the game since I love the range but they all work really well. You can continue learning new moves and abilities at the dojo. At first it will be hard to buy anything because getting money is tough but then by the end it becomes a whole lot easier.

I will warn you that the game is definitely on the easier side so you may want to avoid maxing out your skills. The reason for this is that the weapons deal a tremendous amount of damage so you will be crushing the enemies in your way with ease. Even bosses go down in an instant. Then you are able to use bombs from your items and some of them can take down a whole health bar in a single hit. I was able to wade through 10 bosses in a row with my mighty supply of bombs. You also learn the ability to slow down time later on in the game which is an absolutely broken ability.

I will say that it’s pretty fun though. You are playing as a god so in a way this delivers on being a true power fantasy. The opponents can only watch helplessly as you save the day. The toughest parts in a way can be some of the puzzles which aren’t always easy. Your partner will give you hints if you start taking too long though so I appreciate that. Often times it’s just that you have to draw something you weren’t expecting to.

There is a good cast of characters here. I wish Amaterasu would talk in English of course but you can still feel the heroism. Her partner Issun is definitely the worst character. The poor guy is a constant flirt and so the game throws in a surprising amount of fanservice because of him. Now granted, the artstyle is such where it’s hard to take any of the fanservice seriously which is nice but it’s always rare to see that in a video game because it’s so rare. It’s mainly all for humor.

The villain roster is also rather strong. Orochi is a menacing presence of course but then you also have the Ninetails monster who is really crafty. Definitely a solid mastermind to have around. There is also the mysterious Waka who is always getting in the way and challenging you to a fight. Okami is the kind of game that is a bit of a slow burn when it comes to the story so anytime the big players showed up, you couldn’t help but get excited.

Meanwhile the graphics are definitely good. This is a very specialized kind of artstyle and so it has aged pretty well. It’s probably not going to be competing with the top echelon of gaming but does hold its own. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side. It’s not really my style as it’s going for ancient Japan/China kind of vibes. You shouldn’t expect any big rock themes here. It also decides to use the Banjo & Kazooie type of voice effects which I’m not a big fan of. You’ll get through it though. The story itself is interesting which is the most important part.

The game has a great amount of replay value. Not only is the base game 30 hours but there are plenty of side quests and people to help along the way. If you want to get full Cherry Blossoms for the ending to get another trophy, then you will need to help just about everyone. The Platinum will also be a trophy that takes you a while because of how many trophies are missable. You will want to really keep close track of that or you’ll be in trouble.

The biggest strength of Okami is how the various mechanics are just fun to use. I fed every animal I came across because it was fast to do and didn’t feel very intrusive. Likewise with why I revived every tree I came across and destroyed every enemy gate. They would each directly help me by getting more skill points to upgrade my stats with but also because you could see the changes in real time as life went back into the land. When a game seamlessly integrates these mechanics into the story and gameplay it is a beautiful thing. I would also say it’s a rare thing in general which is why I’m not always chomping at the bit to do bonus content until I’m trophy hunting.

Overall, Okami is definitely a really fun game. There are quite a few plot twists within the story and the action gameplay is really on point. You feel like you are wielding true power in the game and there are just so many items and attacks to use. You can fight in a variety of ways and I definitely look forward to playing the sequel at some point. We’ll see if it’s able to beat the original game though, that’s going to be a tough task.

Overall 8/10

Star Ocean First Departure R Review

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It’s been a while since I played the last Star Ocean title. With this one we get back to the classic days of the series. It’s a great RPG with a lot of quality of life features scattered throughout. Surprisingly the one thing it is missing is quick travel. I gotta admit that it would have been handy to have that around but I suppose it would have definitely sped the game up a great deal. This game is already fairly short compared to other RPGs so you would probably not want to let it get too out of hand.

The general plot starts with a mysterious plague infecting the people of Roak. Roddick needs to figure out what is going on with this plague quickly because everyone is turning to stone. That’s when mysterious beings from a planet called Earth show up. They explain that they are from the future and will need to join Roddick in the past in order to stop the plague. It will mean going up against a demon lord and an army of high powered fighters. Will Roddick and his friend really be enough to stop them? Well, they have an ace up their sleeve in the form of symbology, a kind of magic that defies even the most advanced sciences.

The game did a good job of balancing both sides pretty well. Sometimes in these things you wonder what the old timers can really do against the future. Well, in this case having your swords amped up by magic helps quite a bit. The future folk can still just wipe out the planet but fortunately that’s not their style. Then you have the demon lord who is immune to conventional weaponry but not against magical attacks. So it’s a rather perfect balance there.

The gameplay is not quite turn based. It’s an auto attack system where you continually attack as you wait for the meter to build up on your specials. The strategy comes down to positioning. You always want to be surrounding the opponents and preventing them from doing the same to you. Even if they are considerably lower leveled, a few good shots from both sides will take you down in a flash. So you want to always be moving and it seems to help with accuracy but that could be placebo.

As you level up you will learn more attacks and have to decide which ones to use in battle. You can also switch between characters at will and use their attacks as well so you want to make sure that all of your characters are in good fighting shape. There will be times where some members of your group are not available so you should keep that in mind. Otherwise you may have a situation where your strongest fighters are all gone and your weak ones are too underleveled.

The game can get rather difficult so this one is definitely not a walk in the park. You will need to get stronger at multiple points so you should go ahead and fight a lot of enemies. There is no way to turn off encounters so you will have plenty of chances for that. At times the spawn rate can feel really high but later on you will learn skills to reduce that a bit. You will also learn skills that reduce your stats in order to get more exp and skill points. I highly recommend using these while training.

Also you should level up the skill that reduces the cost for all other skills as your top priority. It makes it possible for you to learn all skills before reaching level 100 with a lot of room to spare while it would take you way longer to do that otherwise. You will have the opportunity to use all skills but this will save you so much time on it. So the game has a lot of little strategy problems for you to deal with like that. You want to really keep these things in mind before just diving in.

The graphics are pretty impressive within the game. You have some fully animated cutscenes in addition to the normal ones. The game also allows you to swap between the modern character portraits or the more retro styled ones. The game is always very clear visually on what’s going to happen next. Then we have the soundtrack which is also pretty good. It’s a little more limited but there was a danger theme that I enjoyed a lot. So that was a good one to listen to.

In terms of replay value you have the trophies to try and obtain. That should take you a very long time because of all the endings. There is also a post game dungeon to try and complete as well. So you’re getting a good amount of content here. The main campaign is probably around 10-12 hours as well so that’s decent. When you combine all of the content, then you’re definitely in good hands here.

The only improvement I’d like the game to have would be a quick travel. It just feels like that should be a necessity for any RPG nowadays. If not, then you at least need a way to turn the random encounters off. Whether you do that directly by turning them all off or only turning them off when they are a certain number of levels below you, both are solid options. I dare say that would make this game even better, but like I said that’s just a minor quirk. Ultimately it’s not a big enough deal that it would significantly hurt the experience for you. There’s also no excuse or you to be underleveled as a result of it. Make a backup save every now and again just in case though.

Overall, Star Ocean is a great game. In some ways you can call it a very basic RPG but it does the job for me. You have enough time to get used to the characters and the story is good. I liked the gameplay and the technical effects were all good. I have no real complaints with this game and in general I just really enjoy RPGs. You can’t really go wrong with the genre and it tends to churn out a lot of the all time best video games. I look forward to seeing what the next Star Ocean adventure will be like.

Overall 8/10

Marvel’s Avengers Review

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After all these years I get to see what all the fuss was about for this game. It really had a tragic history as the game decided to be a live service title and those never do well. I contributed to this since I never got the game. Live service can work to be sure but I generally think it needs to be a free to play title. Even then the market is pretty saturated at this point. The game goes for dirt cheap nowadays though and you get all of the unlockables by default so that’s a lot of content. Ultimately it is a great game and I hope one day we get another big budget Avengers game that is made with a proper ending.

The story starts off with you playing as Kamala. She was at the big Avengers expo when they are attacked by a bunch of robots. They manage to stop the invasion but not before thousands of people are murdered and a genetic weapon is exploded which forcibly alters the DNA of many in attendance. These people are being referred to as the Inhumans and they are being hunted by AIM. AIM now controls the entire country and continues to spread. The Avengers have broken up and are too depressed to do much about this. So Kamala will have to save the world and reunite the team in the process.

It’s definitely an ambitious story here. The game decides to not actually have the Avengers present for nearly the entire base story. I feel like you could only make this decision if you actually think that you’ll be around for years and years. So I do like the confidence, I can really appreciate that. That being said, it is a risky move for a reason. You’re probably looking forward to properly playing as Captain America and Thor who have not really had a triple budget experience prior to this. Hulk and Iron Man have had their fun before but not the rest of the team.

We do get the 4 DLC update stories though so that’s pretty fun to play through. The Avengers are finally back for those and we gradually unlock more and more characters. There are well over 100 missions within the game and tons of items to buy and such. The menus for upgrading equipment and stats can be a bit overly convoluted though. There are just so many menus. It reminds me of a mobile game where you decide to download it in year 3 and there’s just so much going on. I think the best games can mitigate this to an extent but Avengers does feel pretty overwhelming at times.

Like I mentioned, the gameplay is really why you’re here though. It’s very solid with a lot of care being put into the combat system. You have a whole lot of attack options at your disposal so you can approach a fight in different ways. Additionally you have numerous takedown animations and can equip up to 11 at a time. Mix that in with the dozens of costumes for each character and you’ve got so many options at your disposal. It’s really a fun thing to see.

Keeping up with the best gear and equipment can be a bit of a nuisance but it’s not completely necessary. There was just one fight that was particularly tough for me and that was the Maestro. He beat me several times so I actually had to pay attention to my gear. All of the DLC missions auto scale their level to match yours which is why they are considerably tougher. Definitely keep that in mind since you may even want to pick a weak fighter for that reason. Go too weak and it’ll feel just as painful though.

The graphics are definitely really good. This feels like 1st party Sony from the character designs to the destroyable environments. I don’t have any real issues on the visuals. The soundtrack is a bit generic though. Now the biggest issue here are the loading times. They are absolutely brutal and far longer than you would expect. The first time you boot up the game for each session can take almost 5 minutes to actually start playing. Then between every mission you get close to 2 minutes of loading times.

These really add up as you play the game and it’s the one big technical issue here. You’ll run into some visual ones as well but this is one that actually affects gameplay which is what makes it a really big deal. It’s too bad they couldn’t have optimized this a little bit in the final dlc update or something. That would have been cool but making everything free offline was already a big step so I suppose I won’t say much here.

Each character has a very unique moveset so you don’t have to worry about them all feeling the same. I enjoyed playing as Iron Man the most because I always love beam spamming. The other characters were all fun too and the main story forces you to play as quite a few of them which is a good thing. Otherwise I have a tendency to just stick to my favorite character the whole time. I found Black Widow to be the toughest character to play as so it’s no coincidence that I lost several times when playing as her. I doubt they literally made her the weakest on purpose or anything but that would be funny if that was the case.

Overall, Avengers is a pretty great game. Definitely one I would recommend checking out. You have a lot of parkour and high octane action. It’s the kind of 3D experience I feel like we don’t see a whole lot of from Marvel outside of a few characters. Spider-Man typically gets a lot of action but otherwise Marvel isn’t super active. We need more games like this, but done offline. It’s a shame we couldn’t get to the end of the story here but the journey is still long enough to make this a W either way. You’re getting a pretty decent amount of content within this one and that’s not even counting all of the side content. It should keep you busy for quit a long while. If they ever make another Avengers game then I’ll be ready to check it out. Hopefully that can arrive sooner than later.

Overall 8/10

God Eater 3 Review

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It has been a little while since I played the second God Eater but now it is time to finally wrap things up with the third one. I would say this one may be the most cinematic in terms of consistent cutscenes although it is a good deal shorter than the first two games. There is a bit of a post game here but of course the first two had longer post games as well so that’s something to consider. You can get this one for a really good price nowadays which is also nice for the value. If you enjoyed the first two God Eater titles then I bet you will enjoy this one as well.

The game starts off by showing us that humanity is still on the loosing end against the Aragami. They have seized control of most of the planet by this point and the few who can fight back are now treated as slaves by humanity. Why create a caste system when things are so helpless right now? Well, that’s just how toxic humanity is as a whole. They continue to make it easy to root for the aragami when it counts. We follow two God Eaters who manage to escape their captivity during a mission and are taken in by a much more humane group. They aim to help out and gradually get the funds to lead a peaceful life.

It won’t be easy though, the government owns most of what remains of humanity and god eaters are explicitly treated as second class citizens. It’s not as if the heroes can just walk outside either. Most of the world is covered in a fog that is completely poisonous. To get around that, most people live in various bases but of course those are owned by the government as well. Meeting up with a friendly crew was definitely a stroke of good luck. They even meet a humanoid aragami who looks like a little girl. She befriends the characters but everyone wants to murder her so that’s going to be another tricky thing to deal with.

The story itself is pretty fun even if I have some doubts on the logic of it. If you only have around 1000 God Eaters left for humanity and they are the only ones able to fight off the monsters, why would you treat them like slaves? Seems to me like they could easily revolt and finish the extinction of humanity. It’s also hard to see how we got to this point after the events of the first two games. It sems like there was a decently large time skip as the only big returning character from the first two games is the original humanoid aragami. He even goes by a new name now and nobody recognizes him so a lot of time must have gone on for that to have happened.

The story also does go in circles a bit with how many times the villains try to convince the heroes to hand over the little girl. So I can see some faults with the story but overall I was engaged. Just as important is the gameplay of course and fortunately I can say that it was very good. It’s taking a much simpler approach than the first two games. This one almost feels more like an arcade game in that sense. Gone are all of the different god burst abilities and they have de-emphasized the elemental boosts here. In the last games it was very important to switch up your weapon both for element as well as weapon type based on the enemy. Sometimes you would want a sword and sometimes a hammer.

It was based on if you needed striking power, piercing power, and I forget the name of the third one. Well, in this game you can forget about all of that. Just pick one weapon and focus on it until you’ve gone really far. I picked a buster blade from the start and that carried me all the way through to the end. I never switched weapons and just kept upgrading this one the whole way through. That was the best way to go and I have no complaints.

I imagine it would make more of a difference in post game so it’s not like the mechanics have been removed. They’ve simply been de-emphasized which is a big difference. Beyond that, the rest is as you remember it. The game is a 3D slasher where you have to defeat all of the key monsters in each level in order to move forward. The main story has around 70 or so levels in it. You’re given 30-60 minutes to complete each level but most of them should only take around 5 minutes or so. The final levels take a bit longer but even then it’s not by much. So you will end up beating the game in no time compared to the others.

The gun seems a lot weaker in this one so personally I’d say to stick to the sword. The gun is maybe okay at bet for aerial enemies where you will be missing a whole lot. Then it’s worth breaking out the gun. Otherwise, stick to the sword and trust me you won’t regret that. My personal tip is to try and keep your burst mode on at all times even if it just means level 1. That 10% boost really ends up adding up before you know it.

The graphics are pretty good as you’d expect. The PS4 is able to render the cutscenes well and there are a number of full on cinematics outside of the main gameplay cutscenes. The soundtrack is also pretty good with a solid variety of tunes to enjoy. Less lyrical songs than the second game but the ones that we do get definitely hit pretty hard. In general I would also say that the battle osts are good. The menus and various layouts are also handled really well. The game has polished them throughout the years and this one didn’t take a backseat or anything like that.

Overall, God Eater 3 is pretty fun. If you enjoy 3D combat then you have to enjoy this one because the action is basically nonstop. For that reason the gameplay is infinitely important because if you are the type of person to get bored of the same gameplay for too long then this won’t be for you. There are very few bits of variety within the game as you will literally be defeating the same enemies over and over and over in the levels. I just really love the hack and slash gameplay so for me that was a real blast. It all comes down to if you enjoy the style or not. I’d definitely be hyped for a 4th game if they ever did it, hopefully we would actually get a real ending this time though instead of humanity’s endless fight against the Aragami.

Overall 7/10

GI Joe: Operation Blackout Review

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The GI Joes have returned and you could say that his game is definitely a lot more intense than the previous one. I wouldn’t call it super high budget or anything but I appreciated that it was trying to be a full adventure. The third person shooter action works really well as you’d guess because that genre is one of the best. It’s a game that is reasonably short but not super short and since you can get the game for a good price, it doesn’t feel bad. I would definitely be recommending this one.

The main story sees the GI Joes going up against Cobra once more. Cobra had been quiet for a while but it turns out that they were just biding their time and they launch an all out offensive against the heroes. This results in most of the Joes being captured so the last remaining ones have to find a way to launch a counter attack. Meanwhile everything is not well within the Cobra household as 4 different members are all betraying the commander and working on their own plans. He will have to try and deal with them before it’s too late.

I’m not the biggest expert on GI Joe so based on the vibes in this game, it definitely looks like the Commander could use some more loyal allies. If he has to be constantly watching his back all while fighting with the Joes, then that’s not going to be a good combination for him. To be sure, he doesn’t end up looking good in this game and that’s impressive since part of the whole premise is that his side won for once. That’s why you can’t get overconfident.

The game was definitely made with a multiplayer mode in mind. Easch level has two playable characters, the second will be controlled by the AI when playing single player mode. You typically have to defeat all enemies in an area, proceed to a checkpoint, or stay inside of a circle to conquer it like in Overwatch. There are 17 missions in the game and each one tends to range from around 8-10 minutes. The default difficulty also gives you a mild challenge in some areas.

I died quite a few times but it never feels bad because the game has a really excellent checkpoint system. You will see respawn points constantly so you never lose more than a few minutes of progress. Some characters have better weapons than others so you really want to be careful who you pick on the character selection screen. That said, just try enough times and you’ll be fine. It’s one of those games where you just have to brute force it. Also sometimes when the mission is about getting to a checkpoint, the best thing to do is just run through the enemies without fighting.

Sometimes their aim isn’t that great and you will make it without any real issues. Other times you will end up dying and then you have to play it the traditional way. The different kinds of weapons vary between standard guns, explosives, and lasers. Generally lasers are the best. Yes, they deal the least amount of damage but the ammo and nonstop firing makes it worth it. They are on a completely different level. The enemies are always moving around so quickly that it’s just easier to follow them with an endless stream as opposed to trying to time the bullets perfectly.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty good. The cutscenes don’t have a lot of movement to them but I’m just glad for the fact that we have cutscenes in general. That’s something you wouldn’t have expected too much of for a cheaper game. It would have been dialogue based or something. The voice acting is fun and the graphics within the gameplay as also on point. You definitely won’t see any complaints from me in that area. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a soundtrack so I guess you can’t win them all. I would have liked some fun rock themes or something there.

There are also a few vehicle levels. These tend to be pretty easy and seem to just be around as a change of pace. You have to try and dodge land mines and defeat opponents while racing to the goal. It’s essentially a straight road as you get to the end of the game. You just have to keep on driving and driving until you get there. There are a lot of health containers in these levels that are hard to miss which is why the levels feel so much easier.

One last gameplay tip for the standard levels, your close quarters attack is really good against most bosses. Don’t try it on Storm Shadow since his sword will slice your health bar apart but on the other bosses it is the best way to whittle down their health. I was able to complete the final boss way quicker than most of the others in the game because of that. I just went in swinging and they went down extremely quickly. This is because your close quarters attack cuts through the shield and straight to their health bar but of course the same is true of theirs so watch out for the counter attack.

Overall, Operation Blackout is a pretty fun game. It’s nothing fancy, you’re not going to find a lot of fancy gameplay mechanics or anything like that. At the same time, the fundamentals are sound enough to where this is the kind of game you could really recommend. It takes you back to a simpler time of gaming where you only needed a few buttons to play through a game. You can pick this one up and play it at any point without worrying about what the advanced combos were or how you’re supposed to be playing it. Not bad eh? Hopefully more GI Joe games come out in the future.

Overall 7/10

God Eater 2: Rage Burst Review

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It’s time to jump into the big sequel to the first God Eater. Rage Burst definitely improves on some things here quick helped to streamline things. It does fall into some of the issues of the first game though and I would say the story itself doesn’t hold up as well. We do get more cutscenes technically and the pacing is quicker but it doesn’t have the same super end of the world stakes that the first game managed. So it’s a close fight with the two but in the end I would say this one gets the slight edge.

The plot continues where the first one left off. For a while, Aragami had slowed down but now new variations are appearing that are even stronger. Typical God Eaters are fairly ineffective now so you need Blood Eaters in order to tip the scales. The main character joins this blood unit and shows a whole lot of potential. Will the heroes be able to destroy all of the new aragami and save the world or will they only prolong the inevitable? The original game showed that aragami will continue to exist so long as the planet does so perhaps this is a never ending fight.

I would say the game does have you almost sympathize with the villain’s plan from the first game because of this never ending cycle. A lot of sacrifices were made in the first game so to see that the villains are stronger than ever is a bit disheartening. The new villain’s plan is a bit more insane though as she flat out wants to destroy the planet and end humanity. Sure, that’s one way to beat the Aragami but is it a real victory if everyone is dead? At least escaping into space would save some people. Still, you do understand the thought process when the stakes are this high. For all the people outside of the main human bases, they live on the brink of life and death every day.

This game also introduces a red mist that transmits an incurable disease if it touches you. It also contaminates the rain so there are more ways to die than ever before. This game focuses on the story through more of a chapter system as each character gets their own story arc before we reach the climax. Additionally, all side characters get an additional bonus story through character episodes. The amount of content is impressive as the 162 story missions took me around 30 hours and that’s considering that this time I did not do almost any bonus missions and 0 character missions.

The reason for this is because the game is considerably easier than the first game. In the first one they were a lot stingier with the materials and you had to have an incredibly strong weapon to stay in the game. In this one there are so many different power ups and ways to get strong that you can have your weapon be a little weaker to compensate. I still tried to make sure I had strong weapons in all 4 categories so I would be ready for anything but it did give me some extra wiggle room that was super important. I only used Buster Blades and Charge Spears. I didn’t bother with any other types of weapons so this way I could max them out sooner. Additionally I always stuck to the same blood art until it was maxed out.

Trust me, these decisions will save you a ton of time as you go through the game. It makes an absolute world of difference. Not to say I never died or anything though, there were a few times I was defeated. Survival missions are an example of this as you will fight in 3-5 boss battles back to back and they don’t tell you what the final boss’ weakness is. Once you’re in the fight you cannot change weapons and so I guessed wrong twice so I had to go all the way back.

In this game if you use the wrong element then you are cooked. For example with the right type effectiveness you might deal around 1000 damage per hit and then the wrong one is around 80-100. Keeping in mind that it can take around 8 minutes of nonstop attacks to put the enemy down in the first example, the latter takes so long that you get timed out. If you notice that you aren’t doing much damage, your best bet is to immediately quit and save time. Trust me, it’s the best way to salvage a bad situation.

There are so many ways to customize your character, supports, and equipment that you can spend a long time just on that. The one area where the game still suffers is in crafting as they throw over 500 materials at you and they are not alphabetized or anything. It makes searching way more tedious than it should be. I’m surprised that this wasn’t fixed yet since I’d imagine that most players would complain about it.

The other area where the game suffers a bit is in being lazy. Nearly all of the game’s minions and environments are from the first game. Around 90% of the assets are all reused which just feels like something that should not have happened. The game’s sheer length may be impressive but since it keeps on recycling everything, that takes a bit of the punch out of it. God Eater would easily be able to make it to the next stage if the gameplay could feel more innovative. I like 3D combat and even I thought it was a bit exaggerated to keep on fighting the same minions over and over again. After 160+ of them you really get the drill.

The soundtrack is pretty solid, it may even beat the first game. It’s not the biggest soundtrack by any means but it gets the job done and the opening is always fun to hear. The graphics are okay but I would say below the average PS4 experience. I did really like the hand drawn cutscenes when they would show up though. That was always an added treat.

Overall, God Eater 2 is a pretty solid game. If you liked the first game then you will like this one as well because they are so similar. In a lot of ways they are basically the same game just with a new story. So it feels familiar in a fun way and the lowered difficulty does help make the levels a lot more bite sized when going through them. There is dozens of hours of replay value as well so you’re getting a bargain here. I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall 7/10