Tag Archives: PS4

inFAMOUS: Second Son Review

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Unlike most fans who had to wait quite a while to play a new Infamous title, the gap was only a few weeks for me. It’s cool to see what the experience would be like on the PS4 and I can safely say that the game holds up incredibly well. In fact….I dare say this is the best Infamous title. While the story isn’t quite as good as the first two, it wins in terms of gameplay which is ultra important and the characters as well. They really grabbed what made the first two games work so well and focused everything into those attributes.

You play as a rebel who wants to defy society. See, there are people with powers running around who are called bio terrorists but the lead believes that the government is spreading division where it isn’t warranted. One day Augustine, the leader of the government faction shows up and stabs all of his friends and family with rock spires. The only way to save them will be to force her to undo this…or to copy her powers. It turns out that he can copy powers by touching someone who has them so now the game is really on. His brother is a police officer who has never liked the powered community though and so he is coming along to basically get in the way for most of the adventure.

Delsin may be a total rebel but he’s just a lot of fun. The guy has a lot of quick wit and is never at a loss for words here. When he sees an opportunity, he takes it. He’s quite aggressive in going after the villains but I really found myself agreeing with him the whole time. This is certainly not a moment for hesitation or holding back. His brother Reggie doesn’t look good in comparison because he isn’t very subtle about how much he dislikes the conduits. Throughout the game the two characters are bickering.

In a way the game deserves some credit for not immediately having Reggie change his mind or anything like that but it can still get real old after a while. You also get two allies as the game goes on. The crazy girl (Which seems to be a staple for the series) and a shy gamer dude. They’re not the greatest supporting characters but they’re okay. The real standout here is the main villain Augustine. She takes charge right away and I like her absolute confidence. Even once Delsin has a bunch of powers, she is still able to square up with him. Conventional wisdom would say that this should be impossible but she always has a trap up her sleeve.

The game has its share of twists and origins for everyone but for the most part this is just a classic action story to have fun with. You have to choose whether you want to be a hero or a villain as you go through the game. I went down the heroic path this time around and didn’t mess with any of the evil choices. I feel like that is a good approach for the first run. If I go back to get the platinum then I’ll do the dark path for the second playthrough.

This is a 3D action game where you can shoot energy blasts and knock people out with hand to hand combat. You start out with one power set and by the end you have 4. Each power set comes with 4-5 abilities. You have to absorb them all manually so you will be seeing the main character gritting his teeth and being stuck in place quite a few times. The graphics definitely get really funny because of how the faces turned out. It looks a whole lot different than the first two games, I can tell you that much.

One thing Infamous does super well is how traversing through the city is super easy. You can move at much higher speeds than in the first two games so no distance feels too great. This makes going after all the collectibles and side missions a lot more fun than it would have been otherwise. They are all very quick so even though there are a ton of them it doesn’t feel too overwhelming. Instead it’s just a lot of fun to try and completely clear each of the districts.

You also have a lot of freedom in choosing how to tackle these challenges. Personally I thought that the neon abilities were easily the best ones. I was using those constantly over all of the other forms. It just felt like the best bet but you may prefer another one while playing. They all have their special perks. You also get to immediately buy a lot of upgrades as you clear the side content so you really feel yourself getting stronger. It all makes a big difference so I recommend doing a few side things as you go around town.

The length of the story isn’t bad although it is a little on the short side. I’d say it’s maybe around 10 hours or so. Throw in the side content and you can probably add around 5-6 more hours. Since the platinum means beating the game twice, now you’re looking at around 20 hours. The game has a good amount of content even if it could have stood to have more. The most important part is absolutely that the game runs very smoothly. The gameplay is top notch. I only encountered two glitches in the game. One where I fell through the ground with no way out and one where the final boss cutscene froze. Otherwise no issues.

Overall, Infamous: Second Son is definitely a great game. You are constantly going to be involved in some really fun, high intensity action battles. You feel yourself growing stronger as you buy the upgrades and so everything about the game was developed well. It’s all the small quality of life stuff like this which adds up. If you haven’t picked this game up yet, then I would recommend changing that. It is the definition of AAA with how fun it is. I just wish they wouldn’t take so long to make new games.

Overall 8/10

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Review

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It’s time for Nathan Drake to have one last journey. I got to play this one pretty much immediately after the original trilogy so it was fun to see how the gameplay had changed over the years and how it remained consistent. This is a great wrap up to the main series. Naturally I would still like a full Uncharted 5 but the game went out of its way to really wrap everything up nicely so it really does feel like the end.

The game started off by introducing us to Nathan’s brother Sam. Turns out that they were really close as kids but unfortunately a job went sideways one day and Sam seemly died. We fast forward to the present where Nathan has put his adventuring days behind him and married his adventuring buddy Elena. The two of them have agreed to lead quiet lives now but Sam shows up one day and asks Nathan for his help. They need to find a $400 million treasure fast or Sam’s going to get bumped off by the mafia. So Nathan agrees to help and lies to his wife about a quick work trip. Will this come back to bite him and does Nathan still have the physical abilities needed for a mission like this?

Obviously lying to your wife is never a good idea and this game shows you a bunch of great reasons for that. You’re throwing a ton of trust out the window in a single moment and also showing that when the going gets tough you are willing to do your own thing. Elena gives Nathan a hard time about this later and it’s completely justified. Honestly I think she would have ultimately been ready to help Sam even if she wasn’t big on the idea. Sully also stops by so we really have the whole gang together for one last ride.

You could tell that the game wanted to go all out here as we have several gameplay types outside of the main one. You have at least 2 levels where you drive a car around and there are even puzzles bult around the car. You play as Sam in one level which is the first time you’ve played as someone other than Nathan in one of these titles. Then you also have some underwater sections as well as a boat level. The game has much larger levels than the other titles. While the overall game length isn’t much different, you can actually get lost in some of these levels.

As a result I got less collectibles than in the other games as you’re probably supposed to explore these sections. There are also mor kinds of collectibles than in any of the other titles. You’ve got a good amount of replay value built right into the title although it also looks like the hardest platinum since one trophy is about beating the game in 7 hours. I believe it took me at least 4-5 hours over that in my initial run. Knowing the puzzles will help a lot but even then I feel like this would take me a whole lot of practice.

The core gameplay is still built around a lot of parkour and platforming. They actually streamlined this a little bit as you don’t have to worry about jumping into nothing anymore. The game has invisible guard rails that prevent you from taking wrong jumps. Yes, this may make things a bit easier but it’s a nice quality of life approach. Then the shooting gameplay is still around even if it doesn’t feel quite as tight as in the last few games. Shooting is much less of a focus this time around as you are heavily encouraged to use stealth attacks to take down your opponents.

I enjoy hand to hand well enough so it works but part of me did miss going for 1000 headshots for all the trophies. The shooting gameplay is still solid but perhaps it feels a bit more arcade-like. The difficulty is pretty reasonable. I’m sure you’ll die several times during the adventure and usually it’ll be because you just got too aggressive. I’d see two enemies and charge in, only for another 5 to show up out of nowhere and take me out. I did like how the villains would essentially set traps like that.

The game also has an easter egg for another Playstation title which was a lot of fun. It definitely felt nostalgic and I like the idea of being able to play a video game within a video game. More titles should try something like this. You don’t want to overuse the idea but right now it is absolutely underused. The game’s story is also really solid and by the end of the title you will feel like you had a whole lot of different adventures. Sam may only have been around for this one game but the title does a great job of giving him a lot of character. At the end of the day I can’t say that I was a big fan of this guy but I was glad that he was in the game. You need somebody to dislike a bit and there was nothing two dimensional about him. If the series keeps him on as a main character, I’d say that it would make a lot of sense. I would still want Nathan to show up in some capacity though. Maybe he could be the one Sam calls for some of the trickier puzzles?

Overall, Uncharted 4 is definitely a great title. For the record, I’d still say that the second game is the best one but this is a close second. It’s all relative though as all 4 games were really excellent. Uncharted is absolutely a true AAA series and after marathoning all the games, I’m going to miss it. I’ll absolutely be getting the spinoff at some point so that I can say that I really experienced the whole franchise though. That’ll buy Uncharted 5 some more time to get everything in order. If you haven’t played the game after all these years, then you need to change that asap!

Overall 8/10

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Review

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The Uncharted series is an award winning one that has been one of Sony’s top franchises. I’ve been generally aware of them but never got a chance to play them before now. Well, this was my chance and I can definitely say that the games live up to the hype. They are super fun to play through and really nail the third person shooter genre. I don’t think I’ve played any this smooth since Star Fox Assault. The 3 games are all comparable and everything about the experience is super smooth. It’s clear that they had the gamer’s comfort in mind.

The first game introduces us to Nate who is basically a treasure hunter/explorer. He has always been obsessed with his ancestor Francis Drake and seeks to uncover the treasures and discoveries that he made. This latest one takes him on a trip abroad where he is followed by the reporter Elena. Unfortunately, Nate’s partner Sully owes some money to the mob and they come to collect. Nate must now try to stay one step ahead of them to whatever treasure is buried. This treasure may be guarded by supernatural creatures though. Perhaps it isn’t worth obtaining?

A common thread throughout each game is that Drake only discovered powerful artifacts that really shouldn’t be discovered. Drake often tried to bury the evidence but unfortunately Nate always ends up finding out about it anyway. While Sully had a rough start here, he does tend to be a very reliable ally to Nate for the rest of the adventures. It really does make a difference to have someone at your side that you can count on. When you’re all alone inside some of these old dungeons, well that starts to feel very tough.

Elena also ends up being a main supporting character and she does a good job of keeping Nate on his toes. She can keep up with the banter and even knows how to shoot a gun. They have to rely on each other in order to survive these life threatening encounters after all. While the romance may not be the strongest for me with how Nate tends to always be rather flirty, it was good to see Elena show up in all of the adventures.

The gameplay is a mix of parkour, shooter, and puzzle solving. Naturally the puzzle solving is the weakest element but the game handles it way better than most. The game will throw you hints if you are stuck for a long time and then most of them actually make sense anyway. You’ll be turning wheels and following shapes in the sky. The toughest puzzle in the trilogy was one where you had to shine shadows on the surface of a wall. I just did not understand the hints and had to just go with brute forcing the solution.

All of the puzzles in these games can be brute forced if you have to do that but there are around 50 possible solutions in each case so it sure takes a while to get to the right one. The puzzles aren’t super intrusive though. Then you have the parkour which should feel a lot like Mirror’s Edge. In some ways it’s actually smoother which I found to be super impressive. It’s not every day that you can top that game in movement after all. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the game is intuitive. So when you’re climbing a rock, you can spam jump to move up very quickly. At the same time if there is no where to jump to, the game will stop you instead of just letting you jump to your doom.

It’s a subtle but great quality of life feature. Then you also have the fact that Nate can jump rather far so it’s not like you will constantly have to be stopping and wondering where to go next. That’s another really big one. Then we have the gun combat which is where the game absolutely thrives. You have a wide range of different guns to use and can hide around cover and also use hand to hand combat when necessary. The game has a realistic feel to it where a headshot will take down any enemy in one hit even if they are a powerful boss.

The only exceptions are enemies who are undead or ones that wear a helmet which makes sense. The game encourages you to get really good at making headshots and I was able to do this very easily in the first game. The second and third games were just different enough where it threw off my timing a bit but I was still able to do pretty well overall. The game even keeps track of your stats relative to your friends on PSN which is pretty fun.

Each of the guns have their pros and cons without any of them being too weak. I had fun using a whole bunch of weapons throughout the game and you get a trophy after hitting milestones with all of them. So there is plenty of reasons to experiment. You can also shoot while running, swimming, and climbing. There is just a ton of freedom here which is really nice and you won’t be running into any glitches or issues.

The game can be rather difficult so you can expect to die a lot. That said, the deaths are always fair so you don’t feel too bad about it. Often times I was just going too fast or I would underestimate an opponent. The game’s difficulty also forces you to be creative and rethink your approach in each case. At times if you die next to a checkpoint, the game will actually push you forward a bit which is always funny tho.

The graphics are also really sharp. The game has a realistic art style to it which may not work as well as a more colorful one but it’s clear that a lot of detail was put into this. The landscapes also look great. The soundtrack is more on the invisible side though. You’re probably not going to really remember any tracks by the end of this. They tend to just blend together and fade into the background. That’s probably the idea, the only track you may recall is the main theme of the games which will sound familiar while you’re hearing it, but is just generic enough where you will forget it afterwards.

The second game expands things quite a bit as Nate has to team up with Chloe and Harry to infiltrate a palace and find more means to treasure. These two have always been bad influences but Nate likes hanging out with them. Both guys like Chloe but Harry is the one who is oblivious while Nate tends to have the advantage. Of course Elena shows up later on and things get complicated. Drama aside, this was my favorite game of the trilogy. I thought the pure gameplay was at its peak here. It’s very similar to the first game but the hand to hand combat has been further refined.

There is a lot of variety among the levels and it’s also the longest adventure from the first 3. It really feels like they went double time on this one and playing both games back to back, you can feel the improvement. I really had no complaints here, it’s just a great game that works seamlessly after the first one. The climax also has some really hard levels with how durable the creatures were.

Finally we have the third game which wraps things up. We learn about Nate’s past and he is forced to deal with some familiar foes. This game had my favorite villain of the trilogy. An unassuming guy who ends up being great at parkour and is always one step ahead of Nate. In the end, Nate is really only able to win thanks to having Sully around. This villain felt like a “what if” version of Nate who had decided to go it alone. It’s a great narrative way to end the trilogy off.

On a gameplay perspective, the combat may have taken a slight step back but the rest is about the same as the first two. You’ll be handling a bunch of fights and solving some puzzles. The puzzles may be the weakest overall. This is all very relative among the three but that’s part of what keeps part 3 from beating the second one.

There is plenty of replay value among the 3 games as you will want to get all of the Trophies for each one. That will not be an easy feat as you will have to play each game more than once. That said, the constant checkpoints do help with this. I wouldn’t plan on getting the Platinum anytime soon, but I did complete two games with a D ranking so I need to fix that asap! I just don’t like seeing those D ranks in my profile score. It just feels so messy you know?

Overall, I highly recommend playing through these games. They deserve all of the accolades that they get and then some. They were crafted extremely well and having 3 games in one makes for an incredible amount of content. You’ll be really engaged with the story and absolutely entertained by the gameplay. If they kept this gameplay intact, it would make for an awesome multiplayer battle game. Sony should give that a try at some point, there’s a ton of potential to be had there. I’ll be working on the 4th game right away so stay tuned for that!

Overall 8/10

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Update

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I finally have the Platinum trophy! Always feels good to snag one of those because they really aren’t easy to achieve. At this time I still have less than a 50% completion rate in general (47%) so I’ve got a ways to go. This was a fun ride though and I look forward to trying to get more Platinums in the future.

.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