Jan 12th - Resident Evil 2 (PS5)
Mar 5th - Nier Automata (PS5)
Let’s start with what I liked.
It’s an interesting story and concept.
The structure is very unique.
The character and enemy designs are very original.
The music is awesome.
The opening and final hours are pretty epic.
I like that it tried to mix up combat and shooting.
Sadly that was about it. I really had to force myself to beat this game. I found so much of it infuriating.
I never understood fully the combat. It’s seems to punish you getting in close, but is insanely dull when further away. It lacks the tightness of Bayonetta nor the variation of Astral Chain, and isn’t Platinums finest hour.
There is so much repetition in this game. I suspect that’s by design, given the plot, but you see the same enemies, places, bosses, action etc over and over. The 2nd of the 3 main playthroughs needed to unlock a true ending is also incredibly dull. Not much changes at all. And I found myself relying on the same weapon over and over because I never had any materials to upgrade others.
The map. Oh God the map. I don’t know how many times I fast travelled somewhere, next to a red dot on the map, only to find it was accessible via some tiny access path in another part of the world entirely.
Saving was infuriating. There are large, 40 min spells with no option to save. So if you die, something entirely possible when some bosses can two hit you and using a health pack requires a totally unintuitive button prompt, you are doing it all again sonny.
I was so over the hacking by the middle of playthrough 2, let alone 3.
I read so much about the amazing side quests here. Yet I only found one in the entire game that wasn’t a fetch quest.
What else…
The combat arenas are dull. The village area is harder to navigate than that bloody hub sub in Wolfenstein 2. The music outlasted it’s welcome. The beserk action was not worth the risk. If you don’t do tons of side quests, it’s easy to be way under levelled and have to grind for multiple hours. 9S is a whingy little guy. The sections where you limp along injured or you lose visual clarity went on for way too long. The chip system was hard to fathom. Losing your shit when you die was galling here, and not just a case of a few lost Souls. Your item menu is full of utterly pointless shit. Most of the pod secondary functions seemed to be useless.
I don’t think I’ve been so out of sync with popular feeling on a game in many years. I don’t get the love. For me this is a slightly dull experience, like Killer 7 or P.N.03.
I get that’s it’s unusual, with a story it wants to tell and a strong personality. It’s bravery is welcome and I’m glad people get to make stuff like this, for those who love it.
But for me, it just was never an enjoyable game to actually play.
. Then gave me the option to start the post game stuff again, including having to redo the bits I’d already done… don’t know if I can be arsed.
