Gaming What was the last videogame you beat?

Might give it a try tomorrow.

 

Timeshift

An average shooter at best but the satisfying weapons and the ability to pause time to steal an enemy's weapon from their hands or shoot them point blank in the head does make it a fun experience if nothing else.

 

Red Dead Redemption 2.

 

Sniper Elite 4

This game was free for PlayStation Plus members this month, and I’m glad I didn’t spend a cent on it. I don’t regret playing it, because it was quite fun, but I’d never play it again.

The strongest element of this game by far is the gameplay. I really liked how you make your own way across each map, doing the missions however you want, as you have to plan everything out instead of the game leading you on a path and telling you exactly what to do. It makes it more engaging and more of a challenge, which I appreciate. The actual sniper gameplay is fantastic, and the slomo kill cam never ever gets old. It’s so awesome to watch. I also really like how you can shoot vehicles and cause them to explode. The eight maps are all really good and very different from each other, which keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting.

I’ve mentioned this many times before, but there’s three things that a game needs to have for me to really enjoy it. Great gameplay, a great narrative, and great characters. This game had great gameplay, but the story and the characters were lacking a lot. The story was almost non-existent, and the characters were very forgettable. They had no personality or standout traits for me to get any sort of attachment to them.

I played a bit of the multiplayer as well, which was quite fun, but got boring after a while. So overall it didn’t feel like a new generation game at all. I felt like I was playing a PS3 game, or even a PS1 or PS2 game that had been remastered. If it’s free, go ahead. If it costs, don’t bother.

Ratings

Narrative - 5/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Soundtrack - 6/10
Characters - 5/10
Performances - 7/10
Graphics - 7/10
Art direction - 7/10
Game world - 7/10

Overall - 6/10

 

Aaaaand? Thoughts?

I just finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I thought it wasn't as good as the other two rebooted games, but I did appreciate the shift towards more puzzles. It was the story that was a bit of a mess this time around. But I just set the combat on easy, kept the puzzles and exploration on normal, and had a pretty grand time.

I finished all the tombs and side missions (which mostly involved their own tombs and were quite substantial, never fetch-quests). Those were the best part of the game.

I'd probably give it a 7/10.

 

How are the underwater stealth section of Shadow of the TR?

 

RDR2 has one of the best written campaigns that I've ever seen in a video game. I legit ugly cried more than once and I'm not ashamed to admit it. IMO people are robbing themselves of one of the best gaming experiences ever by not playing this gem.

 

I agree, it's a masterpiece of a story (although the middle probably could have been tightened up a little). The ending made me sob. Not just the very end but literally many parts of the whole last chapter. Beautiful work of art.

And it's only the second-best game of last year! We're living in good times for gamers. I hope RDR2 comes to PC soon so more people can experience it.

The fact that I don't even know what you're talking about says they weren't that big of a deal for me to remember them.

Of course, I set only combat on easy (keeping puzzles normal). So I just killed everyone with one-shot of a shotgun blast each basically. I could have easily played on normal, I just didn't care about fighting in this one. It was all about the tombs for me, and there were quite a few of those.

 

Excellent, just what I was hoping for.

Really don't like the underwater bits in TR, now if the point is that they be terrifying then they succeeded. Shadow's marketing had Lara having to avoid lethal piranha packs in one of the videos.

 

For me, it felt like I was going to drown quite a bit, but that’s just to add suspense. There’s quite a few air pockets you can use on each section. The piranha’s and giant eels don’t help, but you’ve just got to be quick and stealthy. But I wouldn’t say those sections are anything to worry about.

 

Er._._ stealthy ._.Yeah, I'm, er, ._. Not really that stealthy .

 

Oooh yeah. The eels you can kill so they're not a big deal. The very few parts with pirhanas you have to try to avoid were a little annoying. But they weren't frequent. And I never died from running out of air, that's easy to upgrade early.

 

I hate underwater sequences in games. Just in general.

 

Yeah I think that's a universal. It makes sense in Tomb Raider as it's usually a "hey there's a lever hidden down there" thing. Or a puzzle where you have to raise and lower the water level. So that aspect is fine. I just don't know why they needed to add piranhas

 

I LOLed at work thanks to this!

 

I, on the other hand, achieved Clean Hands in Dishonored 2, where I beat the game without killing a single person. I am the master!

 

Surely, you mean Missy?

 

Ha, touche

 

American Mcgee's Alice

What a wonderful little game. Its not perfect but I love it's twisted take on the classic story with a fairly captivating atmosphere. There's also a pretty wide varierty of enemies and equal variety of weapons to use said weapons on, which does help elevate the otherwise clunky combat.

 

I'm sure @solojones meant what she said and don't call her Shirley.

 

Hmm, currently split as to whether to deploy Leslie Nielsen or Michelle Gomez GIF as response.

 

I beat the main story (second time) and one of the DLC's for AC Origins. My main complaint then and now is how incredibly rushed the story gets once you meet up with Cesar.

 

I thought the best story stuff was in the DLCs.

 

The Last of Us (2013)

All of you guys talking about The Last of Us, on top of my recent playthroughs of Telltale's Walking Dead series, made me want to revisit this game, and I'm so glad I did, because I think I love it even more now. Naughty Dog never fails to deliver top quality games with amazing stories and characters. My favourite zombie/apocalypse game is now between this and The Walking Dead season two. Both absolutely amazing, so I can't decide. As for the lead characters, I'd put Joel above Lee and Clementine just above Ellie, but it's close.

The Last of Us follows Joel, as he does all he can to help deliver Ellie to a group called the Firefly's, as she's the key to cure to the disease that's plagued the world. They both go through disaster after disaster, and are in a constant fight for survival, but never give up and constantly help each other through every situation. The Last of Us is said to be like an interactive movie, and in a way it is, thanks to it's long cutscenes and deep storytelling. And I wish there were more games like it. Uncharted is quite similar, but that's cause it's from the same company. The pacing of the game is perfect. It gives you slower sections followed by intense sections, then gives you time to breath again before throwing into the next disaster. And inbetween all of that, it gives you a few genuinely beautiful moments (like the giraffes). It never, ever feels boring, even during the long cutscenes, as the story and the characters are just so well done that it's hard to pull yourself away from the screen. I love how the game is split into four seasons. I've never seen a game set over an entire year like that before. I think winter may have been my favourite, as playing as Ellie was a nice change of pace, and the storyline during that time gets really, really intense, thanks to the new psychopathic villain. Speaking of being intense, there were some sections of the game where I was legitimately terrified. The part where you have to turn the generator on under the hotel for one, and the final show down with David for another. After the machete wielding maniac David, I found clickers to be the scariest. There's nothing worse than running into those things, only to realize than you don't have a shiv or your weapons aren't reloaded. The sound design helped a lot with the creepy atmosphere of the game, especially with the sound effects of the clickers. That'll be appearing in my nightmares for a while.

The gameplay was really well done. Sometimes it got a big annoying when you were bombarded with zombies, but it was really fun when you were prepared. The shotgun and flamethrower are your best friends. It may be annoying to some, but I loved the fact that you were always running low on ammo and had to constantly keep finding some, along with other supplies to craft things, like medpacks, shivs and explosives. It felt more realistic that way. I usually dislike stealth sections and dark areas in games, but I didn't mind them at all here. I feel like the game designers made it so you were switching between dark areas and light areas often enough that it never got annoying. The game world was really well designed. For a world that's been taken over by a zombie apocalypse, it still somehow managed to look beautiful every now and then. The bright green colours used in some of the outside sections looked fantastic. So props to the art department. The soundtrack was great too, and maybe even a little underused. Everything in the game is incredibly well designed.

Joel and Ellie are definitely two of the best characters in gaming ever. There's just so much to like about them both, like Joel's caring and protective nature, and Ellie's badass attitude. There's great chemistry between them, and they were enjoyable to play as and watch for the entire game. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson gave absolutely incredible performances. Two of the best I've ever seen in gaming. Baker is a voice acting legend, and nails every role he does. There was another voice acting legend in this game - Nolan North as David. It was completely different than his usual work, but he completely sold it. So even after a second playthrough, and the fact that the game's six years old, I'm still completely blown away by it. I can't wait for the sequel. Can it hurry up already?!

Also, I'll leave you with this:

Spoiler

Ratings

Narrative - 9/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Soundtrack - 8/10
Characters - 9/10
Performances - 10/10
Art direction - 9/10
Game world - 9/10

Overall - 9/10