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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

Infamous Collection Review

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Infamous is another one of those games that I’ve always known about but never got to play before. Now thanks to the collection I get to play two of them at once so that’s pretty cool. The games definitely hold up really well as great 3D action games with a whole lot going on. They are the kind of games that you want to keep on replaying until you have completed all of the missions around.

Both games are a similar length. They’re not all that long but will still keep your attention at all times. The first one introduces us to Cole who was at the epicenter of a giant explosion. This destroyed thousands of humans in the area but Cole survived and now has super powers. Other people have also gained abilities so the city is in a terrible state. Cole has to decide whether he should use his powers for good or for evil. If he chooses the dark side, then he will be able to do whatever he wants but if he chooses the light side then he will need to start protecting the humans from all of the villains around. It won’t be easy.

The game has you choose between the light and dark options for every story decision so those tend to come around very quickly. Then at the end of the game, your choices will start being locked in depending on how good or evil you are. There are no takebacks here for the most part. You could do a bunch of normal missions to try and shift courses but the game intentionally makes this difficult so you can live with your decisions. You can’t really trust anyone in this game, every person has their own selfish motivations for either helping you or standing in your way.

Cole’s specialty is lightning so you are able to shoot bolts of it or even shoot out thunder grenades. You can absorb electricity from any object near you to power up when you are running low. You also have hand to hand attacks but for the most part that’s not something you will really need to worry about. Hand to hand simply isn’t as effective as ranged attacks although the sequel changes this a bit. There is also a pretty large hub world where you will be helping people out at different points in time.

In some ways I would even compare the game to Spider-Man in how the plot progression works. You can always choose to go right to the next story mission or clear some side missions first. You have a clear upgrade system as well which lets you get stronger and stronger. As always I would recommend beefing up your attacks as soon as possible but realistically you don’t need to go for all of them. As you play through the game you will quickly find your favorite and least favorite attacks to use after all.

The graphics are definitely solid. By now the game has certainly aged quite a bit but to me it holds up pretty well. The soundtrack also isn’t bad but it’s a little generic. I wouldn’t really recall any specific themes by the end. The sequel updates the graphics pretty well although the soundtrack is about the same. I guess some things can’t be easily upgraded to the next level in a single sequel.

The second Infamous is very similar but the small changes stand out more since I played them back to back. For example there is a much bigger emphasis on melee so your hand to hand attacks are actually useful this time around. The upgrade system was made to be a lot more convoluted which was annoying. Aside from the EXP needed to buy the upgrades, you now must have completed some conditions first which can be a bit of a grind. I ended up beating the game without a lot of the upgrades as a result of that.

For the most part it is all more streamlined than the first game though and a general improvement across the board which is what you want to see from any sequel. Even the story is a lot more intricate now as we have several main characters who all have powers. The whole story is about stopping the Beast, a being of unlimited power who is set to destroy humanity. It was cool that you get to fight him at the beginning of the game to see how outclassed Cole is and then to contrast that with his new powers at the very end of the game.

By the time you’re done with the first two games you are super hyped to get out there and play the third one which is exactly what I imagine the intent was from the start. I’ll certainly be there at some point. Outside of the main story content which should take you around 15 hours or so, the games have a good amount of replay value. You need to beat the game under both light and dark modes for each title. In the first game that means beating the entire story for a second time while for the second one you are able to quickly just re-complete the last level. Still, a lot of the other trophies will take time as well.

The best thing I can really say about the game is that it’s a lot of fun. The hub world is handle perfectly which plays a large role in this. With some games you can feel afraid to start a side mission because it’s going to take forever and be boring. The average side mission here takes less than 5 minutes and immediately rewards you with EXP and more territory so it just feels worth it. Likewise with finding the various birds across the city. All of the side content really adds onto the main story and just feels like a part of the overall experience.

Overall, This collection gives you a lot of bang for your buck and is also just a lot of fun. I had a blast using my superpowers everywhere. This feels like a full fledged superhero game all the way through and shows just how many things you can do with electricity. The blueprint is there now if they ever want to make a Static Shock game. That said, you don’t have to be a superhero fan to enjoy this game. As long as you really like 3D action titles then this one will be right up your alley. I would definitely recommend checking it out at any time and the price is generally really cheap nowadays.

Overall 8/10

Hollow Knight Review

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Hollow Knight is one of those games that I have been waiting to play for quite a long while now. It has been waiting and waiting for its chance to shine and that time is finally now. The gameplay and style are both well known for being distinctive and I’d agree with that. It’s a lot of fun to play through the game and there is plenty to explore. I have no real complaints on the gameplay front with the only weak aspect being the lack of a real thorough story. There is enough lore for you to build something out of it though.

The game follows the little Hollow Knight as he seeks to destroy all the monsters in his way. He must wake up the souls of three sleeping guardians from around the world and then face his final trial. Along the way he meets Hornet, the heroine from the legendary game known as Silksong. She tests his might on several occasions before letting him go on to the next challenge. Hollow Knight will have to gain more and more strength if he wants to end this quest in victory.

You start out with your basic jumping ability and a short sword. As is the case with most Metroidvanias you will gain more abilities as you play through the game. For example you will get energy blasts, double jumps, wall jumps, etc. You will feel quite powerful by the end of it all and that sense of power progression is absolutely important in a game like this. That’s because you will be doing a lot of backtracking and going across the same areas 50 times. So by getting stronger, you can go through the rooms a lot quicker than you could before. You will also gradually create shortcuts.

The game is very well done on the quality of life front. Whether it be checkpoints or maps, you will consistently be able to make things easier on yourself. There is also a very in depth customization system which lets you choose what you want to power up. Sometimes you may want to amp up strength while other times you want to amp up your speed instead. You have to choose carefully because you don’t have many slots. You can buy more slots as you go through the game but will always have to settle for just a few badges.

My lineup was to use the shield, expanded map, and orb gatherer. I found those to be the most helpful and for the very end of the game I got to use my longer sword. The game will be difficult regardless, in many ways you could even say that’s the whole point of the game. It’s not meant to be the kind of title that you breeze through. I certainly lost to some bosses over and over again.

I’d say the best thing to do is take it slow and learn the attack patterns. Eventually you will be able to dodge pretty well. You could even go for parrying but I found the timing to be tight, even for me. So personally I would say to not bother with that unless you are feeling incredibly confident. Jumping and dodging is the best way to go. You can also heal health by staying in one place but the bosses are all programmed to attack even more intensely when you stop moving so you want to be careful about that.

The minions can also be tough at times due to the sheer numbers. Make sure you don’t let them surround you and skipping a minion is a bad idea if you aren’t by an exit because it will eventually catch up to you. Dispatch the enemies as soon as possible when going forward and only skip the ones that you are sure you can outrun. As long as you keep on doing that then you should be good. This also may be obvious but I highly recommend prioritizing buying the maps as soon as possible every time they appear. This will save you an incredible amount of time.

Like I mentioned the only weak point here is the story. It’s really complete lore with very few cutscenes. The dialogue we get from characters like Hornet is pretty good but these scenes are rare. It is possible to just have a game be so atmospheric that it works without a story but I dare say that it is nearly an impossible task. The atmosphere here was good for example and I liked the surroundings but I still missed my in depth plot. Ultimately I just really wanted to see that. The sound effects for the various characters you walk past could be a little extra loud too.

The soundtrack is good though. Several good boss themes in there and the music always helps to enhance the scene. The graphics are also really good. Everything is polished and so the game feels modern all the way through. There is also a ton of content crammed within the game. I was able to clear it after about 15 hours but my completion% was only in the 70s. There is plenty more content to be played through beyond that including a ton of boss fights and extra rooms. One day it would definitely be worth going through more of the game to get some trophies. The price point for Hollow Knight is incredibly considering how much content you get.

Overall, Hollow Knight is a game that I would definitely recommend. The content and replay value really speaks for itself. The gameplay style is also a lot of fun as it tests your abilities greatly. There is no RNG here at all. Whether you win or lose is completely based on your own merits. There are plenty of checkpoints everywhere so you don’t feel bad when you lose. It doesn’t take long to return to where you fell in battle. I personally would enjoy an instant rematch button but I understand how that might make things a bit too easy. The exploring is part of the fun after all and if you’re seriously stuck then you can always double back and try another route. I definitely look forward to trying out Silksong at some point and seeing how it stacks up to Hollow Knight. By playing the first game so late I got to avoid a whole lot of the wait that fans had to put up with.

Overall 7/10

Mirror’s Edge Review

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I remember playing the reboot for this game a long time ago and it was pretty good. Generally people seemed to prefer the original though so I was interested in seeing just how it would stack up. Ultimately they play in pretty similar ways but this one is definitely going for a more stylistic approach. In a way it ends up feeling nostalgic as a result though and I definitely had a good time here. The game breezes by pretty quickly but you will have been having fun throughout.

The game starts with Faith’s sister being framed for a murder. Unfortunately, the circumstantial evidence looks bad so a guilty death verdict is imminent. Faith will have to find a way to figure out who the real crook is but it won’t be easy in a world where basically everyone is super corrupt. She also doesn’t have a lot of time here and will have to move quickly.

This game is all about parkour and so you’ll be jumping from building to building as you try to keep your speed up. You gotta be real quick with your reaction times as well. At times you will be able to grab a gun from one of your opponents and put that to use but it is never required. The game even rewards you with an extra silver trophy if you can go the whole game without shooting anybody. Without a doubt the game is easier if you do decide to just start shooting but that’s why it is satisfying not to do that.

Pay a lot of attention to the various movement options in the first level because you have to use them all by the time you complete the game. The gameplay mechanics themselves can be rather intricate so this isn’t your average title. It can be really rough to mess up a jump and have to reload to the last save point. It’s also not always obvious where you need to go. As you play through the game you will be better at recognizing your surroundings and moving to where you need to go.

The best technique you can probably learn for yourself is how to disarm your opponent. The exact timing will differ depending on the type of enemy you encounter so you should really keep that in mind. One wrong miss and you’ll probably be shot to death. You can also go at them with hand to hand combat. It takes around 5 hits to defeat an enemy so you want to hit them with 3 blows, then wait to avoid the instant counter and land another 2. In some ways it is a lot easier than the disarm but takes longer so it’s risky if you are up against a lot of enemies.

There are also shielded enemies that take many hits to defeat. You will want to be extremely careful about taking any of those guys on. I had to beat one in the parking lot level and it felt like at least 20 hits to beat him. Meanwhile if you slip or miss a dodge then you will be going down in a second. Very different levels of defense for Faith compared to these guys.

Outside of the main campaign you have the speed run versions of every level where you have to beat them without dying. There are also time trial missions where you play a portion of each level and have to try and clear it. This isn’t easy so be warned. It does add a ton of replay value though and you can get a good amount of trophies out of it. The Platinum looks particularly hard so I can’t say that I’m aiming for it but that would be a pretty good feather in your cap.

The graphics are definitively pretty good. I love how bright the game looks, particularly for the outdoor levels. Everything is incredibly shiny, it almost makes the game feel a lot newer than it actually is. The cutscenes between levels also have a very stylized look to them that works well. The soundtrack even has a lot of action/rock to it so on a technical level the game absolutely holds up. The whole atmosphere around the game is something that I enjoy.

Meanwhile I enjoyed the story as well with its full voice acting. The cast is small but they all get something to do here. The body count is rather impressive by the end of the game and there are a decent amount of twists and turns. I’m surprised they never did much more with Mirror’s Edge because this absolutely had all the tracings of being the next big thing. There’s just so much you can do with this franchise. At the very least I’d like more Parkour type games where you are on the run at all times.

Reminds me a bit of a Sonic game in that sense just with less action. I wouldn’t complain if there was a Sonic game that was all about the pursuit itself. That would be pretty interesting. There are a good amount of checkpoints here so you don’t have to replay large sections too often. Occasionally the checkpoint feels a bit far away but that’s not going to be your normal experience at least. Now that would have made things feel a bit rough. In general you don’t have to worry about any qualify of life issues like that though. The levels are well designed and often times there is more than one way to clear an obstacle. Particularly in the combat levels where you can totally choose how you want to complete them.

Overall, Mirror’s Edge is a pretty good game. I enjoyed the story and the gameplay is definitely very smooth. All of the level designs are on point and so while you will breeze through the game, it always feels like a full adventure. The game also has its difficulty so this is no walk in the park. If you’re looking for a retro game experience with a whole lot of running, then you should definitely be checking this one out.

Overall 7/10

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Review

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It’s time to look at a shooter that a lot of people probably haven’t even heard of. The game is one I only found because I was looking for poorly reviewed titles. It can always be fun to give them a whirl and these games tend to be dirt cheap anyway. Well, I can safely say that this one is a trip. I can understand the bad reviews because there are noticeable glitches here and that tends to weigh heavily. So long as my game isn’t crashing though, glitches aren’t going to limit my adventure too much. I had a pretty good time with this one and it just really lacked some quality of life features.

The game starts by introducing us to an alternate history where Chamberlain died in his car accident and so the Nazi’s ran unopposed for a long while. They also launched a pre-emptive strike on the USA and managed to take over the country. You play as a construction worker who survives the initial assault and decides to help the resistance fight back. It won’t be an easy fight, nor will it be a short one but this is a battle that he can’t turn his back from. One way or another, America will be united once more!

The gameplay is your classic first person shooter style. You go around blasting away at all of the enemies as you get closer to the goal in each level. Occasionally there is a little bit of platforming but these sections are few and far between. Generally you will be sticking to the shooter gameplay here. You can hold up to two weapons at once and will be switching between them a whole lot as you go through the levels. Keep a close eye on your ammo as well since you can run out at the worst times.

You can also carry grenades but the enemy tends to survive them while they pose a lethal threat to you so I recommend avoiding them. As you play through the game you will quickly find out which weapons you like to use and which ones hold you back. I recommend getting a favorite weapon quickly so you have it ready for the more difficult fights. The game’s difficulty level is considerably high so you don’t want to underestimate it.

The toughest part of the game is that checkpoints tend to be few and far between. So you could be having a great run but then die right before the checkpoint and have to redo a large portion of the level again. This is easily the game’s biggest issue because it adds a lot of unnecessary repetition. You will be dying quite often in this game so then it makes you want to speed through the level on your next attempt rather than taking your time which can make things even trickier.

Additionally, your health meter isn’t visible so you can only tell how close to death you are based on how gray the screen is. This is an interesting mechanic but it also means that sometimes it appears to be very inconsistent. There are times where I would die to a quick pair of bullets when I had survived 5 prior to that. Additionally there are explosions that happen randomly with RNG during some levels so if you get hit by one then you die right away. There’s nothing you can really do to defend against that.

So moments like that will feel a bit cheesy. Parts of the game’s difficulty are completely legitimate and then other parts like this tend to feel quite cheesy. The game does its best to make the best out of it but it does feel rushed at times. Just remember to do a lot of running and gunning. Your health completely restores if you can avoid taking damage for about 2 seconds so you need to try and buy that time.

Meanwhile the graphics are pretty decent. The game has full on cutscenes between each level and the graphics within the game are pretty solid. One unfortunate effect is that the flash on your gun is so high that you will have a hard time seeing where you are firing depending on the gun. It’s another reason why you have to pick your gun very carefully because the wrong option will actually cost you some lives.

The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side. I wouldn’t say that any of the tracks are particularly memorable. The story is really the driving force of the game and fortunately that part is really good. This is just a very fun what if and it’s also a good excuse to be the hero and save your country. You can’t really go wrong on that account. There isn’t any replay value as there are no trophies or a multiplayer mode to keep you afloat. So the main campaign has to tide you over at all times. It’s fairly short but the difficulty might add an hour to round the experience to around 5 hours or so.

My final tip here will be that the hand to hand combat attack is actually an effective strategy. If you are running out of bullets then you should run up to an enemy and take him out. One hit will defeat any opponent so the key is to only do this when you are in a one on one combat situation. Definitely do not do this when it’s 2 v 1 as the other fighter will shoot you during the long animation of you fighting the first guy. You are fully open during that period.

Overall, Turning Point is a good game. I had fun with the story and the gameplay is good enough for me even if I’m not a big fan of the FPS genre. That said, it does have noticeable bugs involving the health bar and how explosions will hit you out of nowhere. A few more checkpoints could have also gone a long way to getting the game to the next level. So long as you don’t despise fps titles or anything like that, I think you’ll have a reasonably good time here.

Overall 6/10

Spider-Man 3 (Playstation 3) Review

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It’s finally time to play Spider-Man 3 on the big console. A long time ago I played it on the game boy advance and naturally that’s a very different kind of experience. Still a lot of fun of course but I need my 3D environment to be swinging around in. The game surprisingly changes the gameplay quite a bit from the first two games. Or at least from the first since I have a vivid recollection of that one even if the second game is a bit more murky for me.

The game follows an extremely loose version of the movie’s plot as it adds on a ton of new villains and different scenarios to play with. I actually thought that was pretty cool because it keeps the experience fresh. Spider-Man will have to take down powerful threats like Venom and Sandman while also fending off the Lizard, Rhino, Kingpin, and more. Fortunately he has his trusty spider sense so it shouldn’t be hard to stay alive. Coming up with a way to counter these guys will prove to be the far bigger challenge.

The biggest challenge will be to the player though as this game is significantly more difficult than the first two games. It is seriously not even close. First off you have the fact that some of these enemies have state of the art a.i. with how they dodge and block your attacks. It often feels like you are fighting a total wall. One random henchmen blocked over 20 of my blows before I finally landed a hit in. Then the bosses can tank over 100 blows in order to defeat them. The toughest was either Kingpin or the Rhino, both of them will definitely have you fighting over and over again in order to conquer them.

Part of what makes the combat difficult is that you learn a new move after every level. There re 42 levels in the game and you need to complete at least 40 of them in order to beat the game. Why not just make it mandatory to beat all 42 at that point? I dunno. When you learn a move, it flashes on the screen briefly but otherwise you have to go into the pause menu and look at your upgrades to find it again. It’s really difficult to memorize all of your moves and most of them use extremely similar button combinations. As a result this became the first Spider-Man game where I was just button mashing for most of it. You just need to keep on throwing hits until they land.

Your spider sense is a meter that you can turn on to automatically dodge all attacks except for a rare few unblockable ones. Pretty handy right? Well, the catch is that the meter gets drained at different speeds depending on the attack used. So you might think you have enough meter to dodge one more attack when suddenly you don’t and take maximum damage. Most of the levels have no real way to restore health so if you lose some, it’s going to cost you. There are a good amount of checkpoints so you won’t lose too much progress but a lot of the cutscenes are unskippable so they do tend to add up a little bit.

You have some super attacks but the only one that seemed to be worth anything was the ground slam with R1+Triangle. It can one shot most minions and does serious damage to bosses. I recommend leading with that. You can meter by attacking and countering your opponents. Finally you also have a lot of quick time events and these are incredibly difficult. The buttons stay the same so you can eventually just memorize the combinations but it will be through a lot of trial and error. My own reaction times were just not enough to be able to keep up with this and so I would die to every boss at least once.

Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that I died at least once in just about every level. This was essentially my Elden Ring moment. There are no difficulty settings within the game so what you see is what you get. I can definitely respect that and it makes the game a little longer than it would be otherwise. I see online that some people beat it in around 5 hours while it took the full 7 for me. Even the web swinging is harder than in other games as you really have to watch your momentum. You’re using 3 different buttons while most of the other games just use one.

I prefer the first Spider-Man’s gameplay but it’s hard to say how much of that is nostalgia. Either way this one works pretty well and is definitely a smooth experience. It may be hard but the checkpoints helps to take the sting out of it. The game crashed during one boss fight which wasn’t the game’s fault but it was rough as I had just beaten him. I guess the Kingpin managed to get the last laugh there.

The graphics are pretty good. I really like how expressive everyone is. The game is really a product of its time in that way as you won’t usually see this level of movement among the NPCs otherwise. They just feel so animated and always keep you in the thick of things. The voice acting is also a lot of fun and of course the soundtrack is on point. It’s actually quite a bit better than I would have guessed. The hub world music is very ominous like a Batman Beyond track and there are a good amount of action tunes. They certainly put more budget into this than you would have normally expected.

I also think the UI is very user friendly. I like how you can pause the game and immediately see everything from your play time to your completion% and how many missions are left. It’s just all very direct and clear which is something a lot of other games can learn a lesson from. While the game is fairly short, there are a decent amount of crimes to stop before you reach 100%. So that adds a bit of replay value even if admittedly there isn’t a ton of it. I imagine this may buy you like an hour or two and then you have the various trainings/activities which might buy you another 2. There are no PS3 trophies for this game but all of that combined is still pretty decent.

Overall, This is definitely a game I’d recommend trying out. The game is well rounded with a solid story and a really big hub world. It’s also fun to see just how difficult games could be back then. The default difficulty level is rarely this challenging on a modern game after all. I have heard that Web of Shadows could also be difficult on the PS3 so I look forward to seeing how that plays out some day. In the meantime I am one step closer to owning all of the Spider-Man games. That will definitely be a real milestone I’d say.

Overall 7/10

.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

Soul Calibur IV Review

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It’s been a while since I played a Soul Calibur game and it was time to take this one out from the backlog. It’s always interesting to play an older fighting game after playing the sequels. Maybe even more so in a fighting game compared to other genres, you can see what mechanics stuck around and which ones were removed. In this case the gameplay feels so similar that I wouldn’t say it was that different. The main change is how the story mode plays out compared to other titles. In the newer installments, the games had a focused story mode while this one is more of the classic arcade mode. Interestingly there is an arcade mode which seems almost identical to the story mode which feels a bit redundant.

So I went through the story mode with a bunch of characters until I unlocked all of the characters and stages that could be unlocked through this mode. There is an extra character and stage through arcade mode but I didn’t go to that level of detail. So I had fun playing as guys like Darth Vader, Nightmare, Siegfried, Astaroth, and more. They each have their own signature control schemes, and the game does a good job of making everyone feel unique.

Story mode has 5 levels within it, typically 2 of those will have you defeat 4 enemies and then the other 3 levels are your classic 1 vs 1 fights. Each character has a unique encounter in the 3rd and 5th rounds with a few exceptions where you just get the generic dialogue. The character roster is actually rather impressive with around 30 characters in there, but I do feel like it shouldn’t have been impossible to have unique dialogue for all of them. It’s the small things like that which can really make a difference.

Still, you’re here for the gameplay and it’s really excellent. For a lot of titles, I may be skeptical of a ring out mechanic but in this one it just works really well. It feels satisfying to throw someone off the ring and make an ultra comeback that way. Each character also has a whole lot of different attack moves to the point where it’s actually a bit hard to keep track of them all. Half the time I would use a move and then be unable to use it again. It seems to be based not just on direction but also on momentum which would take some getting used to for me.

Blocking is a button rather than holding back so you want to be real careful about that as well. The levels where you fight 4 opponents back to back can actually be tough as well since they all have a full health bar. Make sure you don’t take them too lightly or you’re really going to be in trouble. Ultimately there is near limitless replay value here because of the vs mode. I also like how the unlockables are rapidly unlocked just by playing through all of the story modes. I’ve always found that is the best way to have the unlockables set up. There are no PS3 trophies for this game which is unfortunate, but you can still have fun on a local level.

The graphics are definitely really good. The art style has aged well and the characters look sharp. The colors are striking and I really don’t have any issues here. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also good. There are quite a lot of different stage tunes here and of course Darth Vader brings in his own remix from Star Wars.

Outside of the story and arcade modes, you also have a tower climbing mode. I did not try this mode out as of yet but it seems to be a fairly long one. You have to continue defeating opponents as you ascend the tower. This will get tougher and tougher as you go through and of course some unlockables are tied to this mode as well. I appreciate that the game has a lot of full fledged single player options since you don’t always see that nowadays. Sure, fighting games are going to spend the majority of effort on multiplayer but no reason why you can’t put a little budget into single player.

Technically speaking the existence of the sequels means there is less reason to buy this one specifically but it’s worth entering the time bubble here. It’s cool to just see the series evolve and this one still stands out on its own. My nostalgia goggles are strong for Soul Calibur II and V so they won’t be surpassed but this is a very good game and I wouldn’t hesitate to play it at any time. I also appreciate that this game still has the announcer who sets up the confrontation before every fight. He really does a good job of making each fight feel really thematic and epic.

Overall, I would definitely recommend picking this game up. It’s one of those fighting games that is easy to pick up and play while being hard to master. You will want to really hit the lab here in order to be one of the best. If you do put in that time, then I don’t think you will be losing many fights because it is hard to overcome that skill gap. I hope we get a new Soul Calibur game soon, it feels like the series has not been expanding as quickly as it should be. If you don’t have the game yet, then you can get it for a great price right now.

Overall 7/10

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

.Hack//Quarantine Part 4 Review

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After 8 years since part 3, it was time to dive into the final part. This one is incredibly difficult to get a hold of because it is completely out of print. Usually it goes for hundreds and hundreds of dollars so you’re really expecting a grand climax here. It was definitely fun to see the ending and everything about the game was nostalgic. That said, it is fairly short next to the other games and you’ll breeze through it. The longest part here was definitely just grinding normal enemies for the virus cores.

The story begins with the heroes preparing for their final battle. The Wave is approaching and intends to end everyone once and for all. The World is in danger and if this attempt to stop the Wave fail, then it will be too late to save anyone who is already in a coma. To prepare for this, the heroes have to defeat phases 7 and 8 of the virus. Get ready for some long dungeons.

So the game makes up for a lack of new dungeons by having absolutely massive ones in the area that remain. One of them is close to 20 floors and that dungeon took me around 2 hours to complete. Imagine losing at the end of that right? The boss had 6 phases and he wasn’t even the final boss. Granted, the final boss technically had less phases with 5 but was still really difficult to defeat. These are styled as raid bosses so they are meant to take a long while. Of course that means it would be rough to die when you’re deep into a boss. Fortunately I never lost in a phase after the first one. The first phase of one boss did manage to take me for a spin several times but then I got used to him.

I recommend having 100 revives, restoratives, and potions with you at all time. A single boss can have you using close to 80% of that. Also make sure to stock your allies with these as well for when the boss hits you with an unblockable/undodgeable one hit KO move. That may sound cheesy but every boss in the final game has this ability. It’s probably one of the only games I can think of where you can be taken down in one hit at level 99. That is super crazy but does reinforce how big teamwork is here.

You will need to set up your teammates with their orders and then dynamically continue to issue new ones the whole time. You really have to stay sharp because if you stop for even an instant then you might lose. Make sure you keep several different equipment’s ready for every part so that you can shift elements as needed. The bosses are constantly switching after all and so you have to do that as well. You can only hold around 30 types of items at a time though so you will always be running on full.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that the final dungeon has a ton of data enemies. These cannot be defeated until you have hit them with Data Drain. The problem? That increases your corruption levels. The more you do it, the more “glitches” affect your character. The effects are drastic like casting negative spells on your teammates or even losing entire level ups. I lost 2-3 levels during the final dungeon. There is even a chance that you can jump right into a game over screen. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me but I can tell you that I was definitely feeling the pressure here. My corruption level was deep in the red at the time so I knew that I was right on the border here. One wrong hit and that would be it.

The most annoying part of the game is definitely about obtaining virus cores though. Basically you have to hit enemies with your data drain ability and sometimes they will drop a core or an item. You then have to run back to an older world and best enemies to lower your corruption level and then try again. There is a lot of repetition here. Also you won’t get more than 1 EXP per enemy when you data drain them so this slows down your progress. You need a ton of cores for the final dungeons. I spent over half of my time in this game getting cores. There may be a faster way to do it but this was the best way that I knew.

I will say that the game does have a lot of replay value in terms of other dungeons. There are almost an unlimited amount of dungeons you could play through for fun. Additionally there are a lot of side quest dungeons to play through and even little games like tag against a demon. Those all help to add up to the play through if you want to have fun there. The game even has a post game with some more crazy dungeons. Getting trough that will definitely not be easy.

The graphics have aged pretty well. It definitely feels a whole lot like you are inside of an MMORPG. You get full on cutscenes and of course the text ones. The full voice acting also feels ahead of its time here. Finally the soundtrack is also pretty good. A lot of great tunes all the way around and at this point they feel pretty iconic. The 4 .Hack games really lasted a long while and it feels great to have made it to the end.

Overall, This was a fun way to end the saga. It was fun to be able to keep my levels from the first 3 games. Starting this one around the 70s after all was pretty impressive. I also like the way the level up system has a consistent 1000XP for each level and how much you get is just based on your level. I could do without the virus core mechanics though. It really feels like that doesn’t add a whole lot to anything. It’s more of a needless grind than anything. I suppose a lot of games ill have something like this to extend the play time but I’d prefer to have more main dungeons or something instead. Now I can finally go ahead and play the .Hack GU games and I can safely say that I have really high hopes for those. They always looked like a ton of fun. This next installment of 4 games shouldn’t take me as long as the first 4.

Overall 7/10