Review The Last Game You Beat

[Kenny]

Yeah, but I thought it had a better presentation than pretty much the entirety of Phantom Pain in terms of story.

Which I find pretty fucking tragic.

[ShenGCH]

Yeah, but I thought it had a better presentation than pretty much the entirety of Phantom Pain in terms of story.

Which I find pretty fucking tragic.

Yep, Ground Zeroes is very much a no-nonsense, concentrated, condensed game compared to The Phantom Pain which is all nonsense in terms of plot.

[MiTT3NZ]

FFS, seriously? Ground Zeroes was an unexpectedly perfect setup. Everything about it - other than the absurd length - just oozes quality.

[ShenGCH]

FFS, seriously? Ground Zeroes was an unexpectedly perfect setup. Everything about it - other than the absurd length - just oozes quality.

Everything related to the gameplay, functionality, and variety is even better - way better - in The Phantom Pain. The plot and story on the other hand...

[shredingskin]

That dragon cancer.

It's an interesting premise. But the game was a drag.

Visually is very pleasing, but gameplaywise was so off. It's some sort of those myst but 360, that you have to look around where to click to move forward, there are some mini games that while some are ok (trying to mimmick an emotion, or feeling lost with the gameplay), most feel wonky.

There's even a level where you have to read cards from other people to other patients... Let's say I read a couple and went straight to the exit.

Then there's this really religious tone lingering around to become really explicit at the end that just didn't click for me.

It's different, and the minigames way of thinking "interactions" is a concept I'm trying right now, but the game is a lackluster (even while it's like 2 hours).

Also I felt like a voyeur of something I really didn't want to see, I guess nothing in the game was much on my frequency to actually enjoy it.

[Calshot]

My friend is playing through X-Com right now, so I feel like reviewing The Bureau: X-Com Declassified. It's been a couple of months, so my memory may be hazy.



While it certainly deserves some of the flak it gets, at least part of it derives from being different from other X-Coms. Any entry in a long-running series that's different enough seems to get shat on by a sizable portion of fans just on principle and The Bureau is no exception.

The gameplay isn't anything revolutionary, but it's fun enough. It plays like your normal third-person shooter with some tactical elements to give it a similar vibe to the X-Com games. I only found the partner AI to be mildly annoying at worst compared to other reviewers, though it's a definite weakpoint. The enemy AI is good enough that you can't haphazardly run and gun and the squad AI isn't so bad as to artificially raise the difficulty by much.

The story is fairly by-the-numbers for an alien invasion, but it's fairly well done (up to a point) for me to not care. The 60s Cold War aesthetic contributed to making it feel novel enough compared to other alien games, which lean more towards modern or sci-fi settings. There's some neat world building in the side quests and spread around the X-Com base, which acts as the game hub.

I did say the story was well done up to a point for a reason, because it takes a ginormous nosedive in quality around the last 1/5 or so of the game. According to the lead designer, the main story beats were set in stone by the previous designer and he filled in the details. I don't know if the twist was planned or added later on, but it fell flatter than Apollo 13. It shat out all the Wrong Stuff and made me want to crack my Skully faster than Will Smith could say "WELCOME TO ERF".

The twist and the multiple endings all can contradict or ignore all the choices you've made and the character development the characters undergo.

I could go into many details, but I only really need to write one detail to drive home how bad it gets.

You can kill the character you played as for the majority of the game.

It's not game-over. It's not like you're controlling the character when he dies. It's not a major climax to the story. You literally can have somebody casually walk up to him and shoot him point blank, and whether he lives or dies doesn't have any effect on the ending you get

Despite all the negative stuff, I'd still recommend giving it a go if you're a fan of the X-Com series or like the Cold War + aliens setting.

3/5

[St. Elmo's Fire]

Thanks for that, I was quite a fan of X-Com: Enemy Unknown and its Enemy Within DLC. Wondered about this one, based on your review I'll wait until it's a bit cheaper than it is now. Whilst Googling X Com stuff I found out X Com 2 is released shortly though, which I will deffo be checking out.

[OL]

Was looking forward to this quite a lot since seeing someone post a quick video of it a while back. Just came out today, and I finished it today. Can't remember the last time I could say that about anything.
It's... a hard game to pin down. No doubt the biggest thing everyone was anticipating it for was to hear the interactions between the voice actors. See, the game is all about a guy named Henry who takes a temp job as a fire watchman at a national park in 1989, in an attempt to forget about the troubles in his normal life. Obviously, a job like that comes hand-in-hand with a whole helluva lot of solitude. Except for the very last seconds of the game, you never come into contact with anyone, outside of a couple unreachable characters yelling to you from off in the distance and (more importantly) a fellow fire watch(wo)man named Delilah, who communicates with you entirely through a walky talky. It's the interaction between Henry and Delilah that really makes the game worth playing. The writing is gold, and the voice acting is just as good. It's a joy to listen to them. Overall the game could really be considered a "hiking simulator" of sorts, because that's pretty much all you do; you hike. You go from one part of the map to the next, following whatever trails the game sets up for you. Without the great voice acting, the game would probably be a bit of a drag. The sights are nice, sure, but that's not always quite enough to get me moving. So y'know, it's great that the characters have such brilliant chemistry.
THE PROBLEM is, it really doesn't amount to anything in the end. See, the game starts out ridiculously intriguing, pulling a lot of cool tricks to make you wonder about what's really going on... because of course there's got to be a slightly grander story to it, right? Henry and Delilah start making small discoveries which lead them to believe that someone is observing them, tracking their movements, listening to their conversations, all that. Is Delilah on the level? Is Henry going crazy? Is anything really what it seems?
Creepy shit, and I was really, genuinely gripped by how things were proceeding as I played through it. Felt like the meat of a great thriller.
But then you find out what's really going on... and it's just about the most disappointing "reveal" I've come across in quite a long time. Spoilers, obviously:

So after theorizing that they've unknowingly been taking part in some kind of behavioral experiment, that someone high up has been watching them, working toward some kind of scientific ends... Henry and Delilah find out it's just some crazy guy.
That's it.
Some former fire watchman that Delilah knew, who's been living in the woods after his son died in a climbing accident. So he starts fucking around with Henry and Delilah, trying to make them think someone is experimenting with them, because... um.
Reasons?
Pft, reasons. He's crazy. That's about all the reason you're given.

It's just a very, very weak reveal that ultimately makes the whole thing feel... pointless. You find yourself so intrigued initially, only to be completely let-the-fuck-down.

So it's a weird little dichotomy; the game is totally worth playing for the character interactions, but it's still pretty damn disappointing because the story goes fucking nowhere.
And for a 19.99 digital-only release, is a few hours of nicely-delivered dialogue and pretty nature sights really worth it?
I dunno, man. I mean, I'm overall happy I played it; it's not an easy game to hate, because there's so much personality there. But that narrative... good lord, what a disappointment.

Apparently the writer worked on the Walking Dead Telltale games, so I have no doubt plenty of people will be raving about how the game is pure artistry, that it's a beautiful story with so much meaning, that it's an instant classic or somesuch other nonsense... but really it's just an okay experience with some pretty sights and likable interactions between good actors. It's certainly not a great "game" by any stretch. Could have been so much more... but it's not.

[shredingskin]

How do you compare it to gone gome ?

[OL]

I haven't played Gone Home, but looking stuff up on it, I would imagine this is quite a bit bigger since it's outside in the open air.

Looking at it again, I think things may have come out a bit harsh on Firewatch, but I don't mean for it to sound like the game itself is worthless; the story just doesn't lead anywhere meaningful. With all the detail they put in, all the items you can pick up and examine, all the books you find scattered around written by the same author, complete with back-cover synopses and all that... the game initially makes it feel like it's all going to add up to something in the end, like every readable item has some purpose, like nothing is random. But that's not the case.
I suppose if one goes into it knowing that the story really doesn't lead anywhere, they might be able to enjoy it a bit more. But the story kind of misrepresents itself otherwise, and for someone like me, who went into it knowing nothing about the story... it certainly has the potential for major disappointment.

[Spaghetti]

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Don't let the flashy presentation fool you, this game is about as shallow as a puddle and lacks any kind of individual identity. You can almost see the game design and creative decisions being made as you progress through the story.

"Oh it needs to have set pieces like Uncharted!" "It needs an XP system like CoD!" "Kids like Skyrim right? Make it snowy, and then have a marshland forest area with a medieval looking village!" "It needs to have open world sections!" "It needs to have supernatural elements, but also a shady PMC, who are also being run out of the Vatican, and there are hints about aliens!" "We need to have the best performance capture systems available, despite having awful actors and a worse script!" "Can we crowbar cards in here somehow?" "Give Lara the Assassin's Creed/Batman vision!"

The game is at its best when it's quiet, spooky, you're platforming, and you're solving puzzles. So when it's being like Tomb Raider, then. Simple, but fun. Unfortunately these sections are really only seen in the optional challenge tombs areas. Most of the time the game is just funneling you into bad shooting galleries or predictable "OH NO THE GROUND IS COLLAPSING YOU BETTER PRESS FORWARD AND JUMP OCCASIONALLY" sequences. The game has a formula and it sticks to it religiously.

The shooting is loose and lacks impact, the enemies are bullet sponges, the cover system is poor, and the level design is often baffling in how narrow and closed off environments are when faced with enemies who LOVE throwing grenades and charging at you with reckless abandon. The story is trash, the characters are flimsy, the acting is surprisingly poor, and it just feels like a totally bloated, unfocused experience. It's competently made technically, but it just lacks a personality of its own and feels like a giant pastiche of every popular video game series of the last 5-10 years.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the best example of AAA games becoming a homogeneous unidentifiable blob of the same ideas in barely different configurations.

**--- (2/5)

[Monkei]

I haven't played Gone Home, but looking stuff up on it, I would imagine this is quite a bit bigger since it's outside in the open air.

Looking at it again, I think things may have come out a bit harsh on Firewatch, but I don't mean for it to sound like the game itself is worthless; the story just doesn't lead anywhere meaningful. With all the detail they put in, all the items you can pick up and examine, all the books you find scattered around written by the same author, complete with back-cover synopses and all that... the game initially makes it feel like it's all going to add up to something in the end, like every readable item has some purpose, like nothing is random. But that's not the case.
I suppose if one goes into it knowing that the story really doesn't lead anywhere, they might be able to enjoy it a bit more. But the story kind of misrepresents itself otherwise, and for someone like me, who went into it knowing nothing about the story... it certainly has the potential for major disappointment.

I finished it last night and feel pretty much the same. Maybe they should sell it for 12.99 instead. Reminds me of how I felt after the final season of LOST. Still, with both LOST and Firewatch, the experience up to that point was pretty great.

[Henry Spencer]

Beat Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4) last night, second time through I appreciate the game even more. Game stills fresh when put against all of the other games out there. Feels like an open world action platformer done just right, althugh I can definitely see them improving on plenty in the sequel, such as having a tighter storyline (it was nice and charming don't get me wrong, but that abrupt ending always felt like it was a "to be continued" panel). There's so many mysteries they needs to explain in the sequel it's unreal, we still know practically nothing by the end. Game is charming as all heck though and Kat one of the best female protagonists out there. Some of the best art direction I've ever seen in a game too (locales in the distance turning into line graphic drawings...just ace). What was my favourite game on Vita is now my favourite game on PS4 (thus far). Just a replay needed to remind me why it's so good.

I also got to play through the DLC that I didn't get on the Vita too, so that was all new to me (new storylines in each too) and they were all good too. Added some depth to the military and citizens.

[OL]

Finally beat Black Rock Shooter: The Game. Been meaning to get through it for a long while, but could never find the right time/mood.
Having finally finished it though, I'm finding myself more impressed with it the more I think about it.

phpBB [video]

For those that are unfamiliar with it, Black Rock Shooter is based not on an anime (as just about every reviewer on the internet seems to believe), but on a picture. An artist called Huke (also responsible for the design work for Steins;Gate) posted an image of the main character on pixiv, which inspired someone to write a vocaloid song based upon it, which went on to have a music video featuring the character. This became popular, and the character was licensed out for multiple formats: an anime, a manga, and the game.
The thing is, with no established backstory to speak of, each "adaptation," so to speak, ended up with its own story. The anime, manga, and game are all completely separate entities, with different stories and characters.
Honestly, the whole thing is a little foggy in how it came about. It's just about the oddest "franchise" I've ever seen, because it only qualifies as such due to the appearance of the main character in each iteration. Regardless, from what I've seen the game really ended up as the best product out of the lot.

At its core, the game takes on the appearance of a JRPG, although divided into six "stages" with various missions to complete in each. When you encounter an enemy it switches to a separate battle screen, much like any other JRPG. The difference is the battles are completely in real time, with only the slightest of menu interaction. You primarily move an aiming reticle around the screen to shoot at the enemies across from you, occasionally hitting separate buttons to dodge, block, or use powers/items.
However, despite the mechanics leading you to believe that it's an action-RPG, it's really more so a shooter with RPG elements. It might have separate screens/mechanics for exploration and battle, but overall the game is completely linear, with almost no grinding required, and almost every attainable power/skill sprinkled directly in your path. It may feature experience points and leveling-up, but at the end of the day the game pretty much forces these things on you anyway... so if they were missing, it really wouldn't make much of a difference. In a way, it could almost be likened to old SNES games like Illusion of Gaia, where yes, it's an RPG in technical terms, but at the end of the day most of what makes it qualify is a bit shoehorned in; Illusion of Gaia is really just a hack-n-slash adventure, and Black Rock Shooter is a shooting game.
Not that this is a bad thing; in fact it totally works in the game's favor. The runtime is a brisk 10-12 hours, which is good because it manages not to overstay its welcome. The gameplay is unique and unlike just about anything else out there, but it's simple enough that it could get repetitive after too much exposure, especially with the limited selection of enemies and situations it offers. The excellent boss battles do a lot to mix things up here and there, but they can only go so far. So it's good that the game doesn't try too hard to fit in as an RPG by padding itself out. It's good that it checks out when it does, because it leaves you with that "just right" feeling at the end.

While the gameplay is certainly a major plus, however, I find myself even more impressed with the storytelling (which, bafflingly, most reviewers seem to have disregarded as either incomprehensible or generic).
Black Rock Shooter just may be among the most bleakly-apocalyptic stories I've ever come across in gaming.
Basically, aliens invaded Earth and wiped out the majority of humanity. When the game begins, all that's left are twelve men out of the entire human race, a couple of which don't even live past the first few minutes of the game. When the story opens, these men are trying desperately to awaken a biological superweapon to help fight against the aliens. That superweapon is Black Rock Shooter, typically abbreviated to BRS (or occasionally referred to as Stella, her actual name as revealed through flashbacks).
It feels almost Mega Man Zero-esque in those opening moments, which of course is nothing but a good thing (MMZero is amazing). And, much like Mega Man Zero, you get to know most of the members of the resistance force through some surprisingly well-written sequences. Each one has their own completely distinct personality, and it all really shines through when they start joking over radio calls about old movies or food they wish they still had. They're all totally likable and interesting in their own ways... which makes it all the more effective when some of them start getting picked off. Without spoiling anything, there's one death scene in particular which creeps up with almost no warning and occurs with little fanfare, which, in the oddest of ways, makes it hit even harder. It left me with that ever-elusive feeling of disbelief and denial when it happened, which only ever happens when I've grown to genuinely like a character.
So, needless to say, the writing impressed me. I was surprised to find as the credits rolled that the whole thing was actually written by Kazushige Nojima, also partly responsible for some of the best stories in the Final Fantasy series, so the strength of the writing should be obvious.
And despite the visuals being very colorful, occasionally flashy, and a number of the characters being cute girls, there really is a sense of utter bleakness when everything wraps up. There's a slight note of hope at the very end, but it still leaves you with a feeling of melancholy. And good god, do I ever love it when a game pulls that off effectively. As a point of comparison, I felt at the end of this much the same way as I felt at the end of Phantom Dust. And as big a fan as I am of PD... that's saying something.

Just a few other notes: the presentation quality is absolutely through the roof for a PSP game. I doubt the game had the same kind of budget that, say, Crisis Core or The 3rd Birthday had at the time, but there's still a crazy level of polish to the presentation of everything. The character designs are ridiculously colorful and unique, the cutscenes are incredibly well-directed, and the action therein is really well-choreographed and exciting. Whatever the budget was for the game, the developers used it extremely effectively. The game probably wasn't triple-A necessarily, but the talent of those involved makes it feel like it is. Kudos for that.
Likewise, the soundtrack is a thing of wonder. I listened through it before I ever even tried the game, and I loved it so much I bought it then and there. Much of it sounds very much like something you'd find in a Mega Man X or Zero game, with a number of flourishes that making it completely its own thing. Excellent melodies, really appealing synth. Probably one of my favorite OSTs of the last several years.

It might be digital-only in the US and Europe, but if you have a PSP, Vita, or a PSTV, I wholeheartedly recommend the hell out of this game. I'd call it a must-play for anyone who loves a good PSP outing. Buy a PSN code on Amazon or something, and download this sucker right away.

[Riku Rose]

Firewatch

I felt like overall the game was a good idea but they didn't know where to take it.

There is no middle of the game at all, it seems to go Day 1, 2, 3, 30 seconds of day 40, 76, 77, 78. I would have liked to see more of the relationship between the two characters spread over their time together and not just the beginning and end. In the first 5 minutes you get a better idea of the relationship between Henry and his wife then you're expected to just understand of the relationship between Henry and Delilah.

The whole B plot just feels pointless as well since you never get attached to those characters. The game is about 4 hours long and you only hear about them a handful of times so the reveal has no emotional punch. Gone Home is only a couple of hours long but it makes you care about the family since for two hours straight they're all you're learning about.

I felt like the game was something that could have taken just a bit more time and planning overall, had it be fine tuned this would be up there with the likes of Gone Home but all I can say is that it's 'pretty good/ok'.