Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Murder By Numbers - 7/10

Some decent, warm writing for something that is just a wraparound for a picross game. I've only recently got into picross and this mainly seemed to provide a beginner to intermediate level of difficulty. After thirty hours I think I got my fill as for whatever reason I didn't manage to get an S rank on the second and third cases, meaning I have to play through them again to unlock all the extra puzzles that unlock all of Scout's memories. So that's a bit rubbish.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 9/10

+ Nice visual design
+ Satisfying combat and cover mechanic
+ Good range of augmentations and abilities
+ Open-ended approach to completing objectives works well
+ Good variety of locations
+ Plot was fairly interesting
+ Everything generally feels polished and well thought out

- Boss fights feel out of place and unnecessary
- Goes on for slightly too long
- Slightly clunky menus
- Inventory management is annoying

I had a great time with this. I'm not sure how long it took me to complete, but certainly 80% or so of the game was excellent. Towards the end - I think returning to China onwards - it started to drag though. The variation in how you can approach objectives, and mix them up (i.e. not tie yourself into one play style) was really good, and I easily lost myself in the game for several hours at time, on more than one occasion. I'd have liked the levels to be a bit less disjointed, but that was presumably a hardware limitation, and minor UI niggles aside (and the outdated and frustrating approach to inventory management) the only real gripe was the boss fights. They felt forced, and quite out of place. I don't think they added anything to the experience and the game probably would've been better off without them. Really good though overall.

Lotus wrote:the only real gripe was the boss fights. They felt forced, and quite out of place. I don't think they added anything to the experience and the game probably would've been better off without them.

Did you play the original or the director's cut? The bosses were reworked for the latter to give more stealth/hack options. I think in the original the boss battles were outsourced to a different dev which is why they stand out against the rest of the game.

Human Revolution is a brilliant game, managed to convince me that some semblance of the original Deus Ex could exist in the modern gaming landscape which was a huge surprise for this jaded soul at the time!

Whilst I agree with the fact that the boss fights are gooseberry fool whenever this debate comes up in Deus Ex/Immersive Sim circles that I frequent I often think that people are too dogmatic about it. I think from a broader perspective it highlights something that I think should be a part of these games - the option to be presented with a challenge that you and your characters skill set is not ideally specced for.

When a game allows deep customisation of the players skills and abilities and presents a world in which players can experiment with the interaction and reactivity of the world and find their own solutions to situations then I feel that in some way that experience is diminished if every single problem has a "perfect" solution for every type of player. It reveals the artifice of the situation and shows the designers hand too clearly in an experience that otherwise thrives on making you feel you have freedom and agency. When every locked room has a keypad that can be hacked, a wall that can be broken, an air vent that can be climbed through etc. it makes player choice more of a surface level element of the game - any player can get in the room no matter what path they have gone down - they don't have to go off the beaten track to find another solution because there it is: "oh I'm a hacking player I'll take the obvious hacking route thanks!". Choice without consequence isn't really an especially valuable choice. Basically situations that force the player to think differently and operate using a set of skills other than the ones that they have honed aren't inherently a bad thing IMO.

Too often in RPGs you're able to create a character capable of achieving anything and everything in the game. As Jenuall says, you might not have a high hack ability but you'll probably have another skill that can do the job just as easily.

It's one of the reasons that Disco Elysium is my favourite RPG ever. You're crafting a genuinely flawed character who often messes up and either has to admit defeat or try something entirely different. They're not a Jack of All Trades hero that gets to see and do everything.

I get what you mean Jenuall. My main issue was that they couldn't be killed non-lethally so made a true non-lethal playthrough impossible (but without like that being a deliberate choice with some point to make).

OrangeRKN wrote:
Lotus wrote:the only real gripe was the boss fights. They felt forced, and quite out of place. I don't think they added anything to the experience and the game probably would've been better off without them.

Did you play the original or the director's cut? The bosses were reworked for the latter to give more stealth/hack options. I think in the original the boss battles were outsourced to a different dev which is why they stand out against the rest of the game.

I played the directors cut and thought the bosses were still pretty crap even though I knew they had been improved. A shame as the rest of the game is fab.

Squinty wrote:The Swapper - 8/10

This is a real sleeper hit. I just wish there was more of it.

Great game. The ending is really effective to.

OrangeRKN wrote:
Lotus wrote:the only real gripe was the boss fights. They felt forced, and quite out of place. I don't think they added anything to the experience and the game probably would've been better off without them.

Did you play the original or the director's cut? The bosses were reworked for the latter to give more stealth/hack options. I think in the original the boss battles were outsourced to a different dev which is why they stand out against the rest of the game.

I played the original. Good that they acknowledged that they weren't great, but I still wonder why the game needed bosses at all.

It has been a while since I played it but I don't really remember the sequel having bosses in the same way, and I agree that they are a concept which doesn't really fit with the series and the type of game in general.

Human Revolution was a weird one for me initially. I hated the original version. I bought it on 360 and ended up trading it in.

Gave it another chance on Wii U and I completely fell for it. It's an excellent game, and the sequel is slightly better I think.

Dirt 4 - 7/10
Overall, I enjoyed this, as it struck the balance between sim and arcade. The rally and rallycross were lots of fun, but, the career mode grind did end putting a dampener on things. Also, the difficulty veered quite a bit, from too easy to feckin' hard depending on the vehicle in use (ie the godawful karts that handle like shite and the MG Metro with tinted windows and no lights, in the dusk/dawn welsh valley stages

).

Another annoyance was the triple crown trophy didn't pop after all my hard work! :cry:

Borderlands 3 - 8/10

It plays better than either of the previous 2 games (I haven't played TPS), as in the shooting/grappling/battlefield carnage is the best it's ever been - and it looks great - but the world-building lets it down.

The game area is huge but it's definitely lost something as a result. The previous two games you got used to all the locations, which were much more tightly designed and memorable.

The main story/characters are not as good either. But it plays so damn well!

Borderlands 2 is still the best BL game I think.

I would love if they bought Human Revolution to Switch, that Wii U port was fantastic and one of the few games that actually put the systems gamepad to good use.

Bowser's Fury - 3/5

Gets off to a slow start but once I got into things it was great. Some interesting ideas that will be exciting to see how they're carried out in a future game. Not much replayability but it was a fun romp while it lasted.

Donut County - 6/10

Nice and short but much more shallow than I was expecting. Good humour and writing though.

Heaven's Vault - 6/10

There's a Game of the Generation masterpiece in there somewhere, held back by a frustrating dialogue system that makes it really easy to miss things and accidentally hinder progress. I know the idea that the game should be played more than once is central to a lot of the appeal but it's way too long to contemplate putting up with the game's shortfalls again. Which is a shame as the overall the quality of the story and the core gameplay around translating logograms is so strawberry floating good.

Mass Effect Andromeda

7 out of 10

Weakest Mass Effect but I still enjoyed it, I decided to go back to it because I am thinking about if I should get the remake of the Mass Effect trilogy when it comes out, this made me think that I probably should.

Bloodstained Curse of the Moon - 7/10

Overall, really good. Feels like a Castlevania game. The bosses were really cool, and I liked that you can turn off the knockback.

I got a bit annoyed by the way the character deaths work. Sometimes it feels like a death from a thousand cuts. I suicided at the last boss just to get all my characters back, because I wasn't sure how to actually beat the thing with the ones I had left. It's a weird mechanic.

Also has some banging tunes in it. The boss battle music is awesome.

kerr9000 wrote:Mass Effect Andromeda

7 out of 10

Weakest Mass Effect but I still enjoyed it, I decided to go back to it because I am thinking about if I should get the remake of the Mass Effect trilogy when it comes out, this made me think that I probably should.

That's a game that I'm intrigued by, kerr. I just remember the memes about face graphics and the general furore at release... but it kinda sounds like the gameplay is pretty decent. I've yet to play any Mass Effect game but I would like to and I may try and grab Andromeda the next time it's cheap on the PlayStation Store.

jawa2 wrote:
kerr9000 wrote:Mass Effect Andromeda

7 out of 10

Weakest Mass Effect but I still enjoyed it, I decided to go back to it because I am thinking about if I should get the remake of the Mass Effect trilogy when it comes out, this made me think that I probably should.

That's a game that I'm intrigued by, kerr. I just remember the memes about face graphics and the general furore at release... but it kinda sounds like the gameplay is pretty decent. I've yet to play any Mass Effect game but I would like to and I may try and grab Andromeda the next time it's cheap on the PlayStation Store.

I think I got it in an xbox sale for about £10 I'd definitely keep an eye on sales for it.

I gave up on Andromeda. I loved the original trilogy but nothing about Andromeda made me want to continue playing. It was all just really dull with no hook to pull me in.

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

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