Gaming What was the last videogame you beat?

I think the only time I ever saw Myst being played was at my friend's house during the early 90s. It's certainly not for everyone.

 

Oh no, certainly not. Point and click puzzler, you can't murder anyone.

 

I played and finished Myst when it first came out. Loved Riven when it came out, but never got through the whole thing. After that I stopped.

I would love to replay Myst, though. And actually play my way all the way through Riven. I think I have both of them on Steam.

 

Borderlands 3 (2019)

I've always been a big Borderlands fan. I love the style of the series and how chaotic it is. It's a series that can get away with doing whatever the hell they want. What pushed me from being a big fan to a huge fan was Tales from the Borderlands, one of my all time favourite games, so I was really looking forward to Borderlands 3. And let me tell you, it's the best one in the main series and a definite contender for game of the year. I'm absolutely blown away!

When I refer to the series from now on, I won't include Tales from the Borderlands, as it's easily the best Borderlands game in every way and just a completely different game in general. So Borderlands 3 has the strongest narrative in the series. I hardly remember the stories in 1, 2 and the pre-sequel, but this one is actually really good. To summarize without spoilers, a brother and sister duo who are treated as gods by the Pandorans, are on a quest for power and will stop at nothing to do so. They have the ability to drain other's powers and add them to their own arsenal, making them extremely dangerous foes. You, along with a bunch of allies, have to travel the universe and find each vault key before they do and put a stop to them. And a lot of crazy **** happens along the way, obviously. One of the main reasons why this is my favourite in the series, is the interstellar travel elements, which were an amazing addition. You weren't just stuck on one or two planets the whole game, you actually got to travel the universe and visit a bunch of them, and each of them were completely different. Gameplay wise, it's awesome like the other games. Not a lot has changed, but this time there's an even bigger variety in weapons. The abilities of the four new playable characters are great from what I've seen. I chose to play as Amara the Siren, who was really fun. I'm super glad I chose her because the main storyline revolves a lot around sirens. The vehicle controls have always been weird, and take a little getting used to. The boss fights are a mixture of awesome, annoying, difficult and easy, so I guess there's something for everyone. I think the boss fights reach their peak difficulty mid-game, and then go back down again after that. That vault dragon was a ******* to fight.

The group of NPC characters are amazing and really memorable. Claptrap, Tina, Maya, Brick, Mordecai, Zer0, Lilith, Typhon, Lorelei, etc. etc. etc. And then of course the amazing Rhys and Vaughn from Tales from the Borderlands make surprisingly big appearances throughout the game, which was so nice to see. I love how the Borderlands games take the playable characters and then bring them back as NPC's in later games. It expands on their characters and you get to see what their personality is really like, as you never know a lot or see a lot of them when you're controlling them. The two main villains are... interesting. They're both absolute ***holes, but for some reason I actually liked Tyreen. Troy was just too weird, but Tyreen was someone I hated, yet was constantly amused by. The soundtrack was awesome and kept giving me DOOM vibes. It was full on during boss battles and waves of enemies. I just wish they'd made the music more prominent in the boss battles, as the sound effects often overshadowed it. The Borderlands art style is some of the best in gaming history, as it's so unique and there's nothing else like it. This is definitely the best looking game in the series. Sometimes I'd just stop and admire the views on every single planet. I love the crazy game world Gearbox created in this series, and it'll be one I remember for a very long time. If you're a Borderlands fan, you're going to love this entry so much!

Ratings

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

Overall - 9/10

 

Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition

Even though many many curse words were said throughout the course of my playthrough, as I died over and over again, and I had no clue what was actually happening for most of the story, I would still highly recommend this brutal, beautiful game.

Looking forward to the sequel next year.

 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

After Three Houses it was definitely a big deal for me to jump in feet first. I spent 165 hours on that game and it's my favorite game of this year. But I know Awakening is when the west got introduced in large part (outside of Smash ).

Personally, I liked the fully voiced characters in Three Houses better. But the characters and story in Awakening are still great, even if it's a bit more old school.

Solid A-

 

Katana Zero. It's essentially a side-scrolling version of Hotline Miami with swords and LucasArts-esque graphics. So, needless to say, it ****ing rules.

 

Arkham City for my 3098345th replay, with Arkham Asylum beaten shortly before that. The next on my docket is Jedi: Fallen Order, which I'm starting tonight, and I think I'll pick up Death Stranding once I'm done with that.

 

Finished The Outer Worlds, wow - did it really **** up its endgame.

Having played through it, it is very, very clear this is not a game built around combat, it is instead built around dialogue and conversation and, sometimes, creativity. Due to this you are likely better off putting points into speech, hacking, lockpick abilities rather than just the usual attack, defence etc. Except when you get to the final levels of the game, it clearly decides that difficulty now matters and ramps up the enemy to much higher levels - before you didn't need to worry about reviving companions? Now you do. It felt cheap and blatant, it didn't add anything to the game. And the dialogue options? Locked behind sky-high points requirements - it's as if they just lost all confidence in their product and decided they had to do a traditional action endgame. It doesn't work.

Similarly, until the endgame, you will have mostly been engaged in combat with your companions who you can't shoot. On the final mission, depending on your play through, you will have help. But what isn't mentioned is that a stray shot can turn them hostile! The problem with this is, first, until now you weren't told about it so can't correct for it, but a couple of times the game presented allies as enemies, complete with awareness indicators - which is why I had to shoot both Van Noys, despite saving them earlier.

And then there is the RAM final boss battle. I'm guessing this is what people felt about the Deus Ex mandatory boss battles, because this just sticks out so badly and is irredeemably awful. Vague, counter-intuitive and able to summon 10 enemies to mob swarm you - it's utter dreck.

Finally, the game has a bug for Parvati's second companion quest - a bug that stays even if you reload an earlier save. This bug kills her. Thus, when you get the ending of what happened to everyone, you get told Parvati is dead but have no way to evade it, as the game instant kills her after the quest dialogue. Apparently there's going to be a patch but I'm not inclined to be that forgiving on this one - it's a really ****** bug.

The rest of the ending? It is quite well done, but the flaws of the endgame seriously marred it. Didn't enjoy the final levels at all, felt like a different game.

The holographic shroud? Becomes a useless gimmick and you end up legging it from point to point. Other weird crap is that it directed me to a location that helped the person I was trying to persuade in a different direction. Very weird signposting.

I will say that when you're doing things outside of the Phineas-Board conflict, the game has far, far more nuance and complexity than has been reported. I had a very satisfying outcome on Monarch that was far more than the usual one side killing the other. When the game commits to its idea of enabling player choice, it's excellent but its commitment to this varies. There are times where you will feel very much railroaded by the game, which is a shame. The other minor but often flaw is you'll kill a load of enemies and then have to play a game of find-the-corpse to loot them.

The degradation and inventory systems? Can't say these add much, it'd be better scrapping the whole repair system but I suppose you wouldn't have anything to then do with all the loot you grab. The science weapons? Felt irrelevant. Tinkering? Becomes too costly to be useful. Mods? A minority are useful, the rest not so much. Ammo types? Doesn't really work in the way they likely hoped - everything dies if you shoot it enough.

It's also a much smaller game than its marketing suggested. The locations you have are very well designed but they are also limited in size, save for Monarch. Monarch's ****ing massive. Each of the towns has a very distinct design aesthetic, with characters to match. But this is not a supermassive triple A 100+ hours game, which may well appeal to you.

Despite the endgame flaws, I definitely feel I got my money's worth here. I'd love there to be a sequel that had far more confidence in the game strengths, of its smart characterisation, sharp writing and inspired dialogue engagements.

One question, which I think gaming is going to have to deal with sooner rather than later, is if difficulty really matters that much? I really think the endgame saw Obsidian give into the view that it does, thus they ramped it up. To me, that ramping contributed nothing positive to the game - it marred it. You found it too easy? Whack the difficulty up then hard arse and then see how you get on. Difficulty should not be the defining feature of a game, unless its by From Software, it should be an optional aspect of it. All that whacking up the difficulty at the end did for me was emphasise all the flaws on the combat system, plus that small display text.

Overall? I think flawed masterpiece fits.

 

Uncharted 4, really like this game but given I had already played it twice before it kinda ruins the experience which you get on a first run through. Rather than feel sorry for Sam, I just view him annoying and selfish. Other than that, it is visually stunning.

 

The only time I felt sorry for Sam is in Lost Legacy when he's having to put up with that psychopath Nadine.

 

I end up enjoying Sam’s character more with every playthrough. And I absolutely love his relationship with Nadine in The Lost Legacy. Some great banter in there.

 

Persona 5. Overall a lot of fun, with a lot of good, memorable characters. Drags a little bit in the middle, and there's one especially cringe moment when the two primary villains spell out their evil plan at great length... to each other. It was straight out of Austin Powers, only not played for laughs. Other than that, I really enjoyed it, and I might have to get around to some of the JRPGs I've skipped over this last decade. I shut off Final Fantasy XIII in disgust after about 5 hours or so, and that was the last one I'd played until this.

Next up: Kingdom Hearts 3 (which I wouldn't really count as a traditional JRPG, being more action-oriented) with a side project of a Mass Effect 2 playthrough to finally get to and finish 3.

 

Grand Theft Auto V (2013)

While I eagerly wait to play Jedi: Fallen Order at Christmas, I needed something to help pass the time, so I looked through my games cupboard and picked out GTA V. This was my all time favourite game for many, many years, until my recent Uncharted playthroughs. So does it still hold up after all these years since playing it? Hell yeah it does! I must've played it a lot in the past because I still knew the entire map off by heart. I hardly even had to put down navigation markers as I always knew exactly where to go and the fastest way to get there.

We all know what the game's about and what happens. But just to recap, the story follows three separate characters - Michael, Franklin and Trevor, each with vastly different personalities and backgrounds. The three of them end up crossing paths and working together to perform heists for both themselves and a corrupt branch of the government. Lots of things go to plan but a lot of things don't, and the three of them constantly find themselves being chased by the law and sometimes each other. It's what you'd expect from a Grand Theft Auto game. You get given a huge variety of missions, with lots of them being very memorable. (Sometimes memorably annoying... screw yoga!) In fact, the whole game is memorable, because before I started it again a couple of weeks ago, I could recall all of the missions and characters, and even some of the quotes. The missions that stood out to me the most were obviously the big heists, and all of the ones that felt like they'd come straight out of an action film. For example, the mission 'Caida Libre' is my favourite, where you shoot the engine on a jet and then follow it on your motorbike across the map from the city to the desert, performing some neat stunts along the way. It's both incredibly fun and exciting. My second favourite is actually a side mission where you parachute out of a plane and land on top of Mount Chilliad, and then race all the way down on mountain bikes. Apart from the main storyline and countless side missions, there's also lots of collectibles to find and random events to trigger. The amount of content is almost endless and will keep you entertained for a very long time. There's also the online mode as well, which is super fun with friends.

I love the diverse range of characters. The three leads are already incredibly different from each other, but throw in a bunch of others to the mix and it makes for one of the most memorable cast of characters in gaming history. There's the hilarious Lamar, the nerdy Lester, the brainless Wade, the douchebag Jimmy, the ****head Steve and the biggest **** of them all - Devin. Every single voice actor nails their performance as well, and completely sells you on their character. Even all the side mission characters are done brilliantly. There's two soundtracks in this game - the original soundtrack and the radio soundtrack. Both of them are brilliant and memorable to me. Most players probably don't remember the original soundtrack, as it's quite ambient, but I personally think it does a brilliant job at always setting the mood, even from the loading screen. A great example is the music that plays when you parachute, so give it a listen next time and you'll see what I mean. Having a radio soundtrack is such a great idea. There's so many channels with so many songs in each, so whatever type of music you feel like listening to, you'll definitely find it in there. The radio's also a great way to set the mood. For example, when I'm cruising around the suburbs with Franklin I'll put on West Coast Classics. If I'm speeding through the country side as Trevor I'll put on Los Santos Rock Radio. Or if I'm taking a drive around the city at night, Non-Stop Pop is a great channel I'd have on.

The game world is one of the best that's ever been made. Rockstar is a company known for it's insane amount of detail, and this along with Red Dead Redemption 2 is their best examples. The whole map, no matter what area you're in and what time of day it is, constantly feels alive. The NPC's don't just walk back and forth accomplishing nothing, they actually have tasks to do which change depending on the weather and time of day. They also drive around and follow the road rules perfectly (something that I didn't do once). At times it feels like you're playing a real person. You can sit down and watch TV, go to a vending machine and buy a can of soda, and go to a bank machine and deposit some of your money. You also have a phone that you can text and email people from, and browse the internet where you can even invest in the stock market. Like I said before, the content is endless. But back to the game world itself, it's perfectly designed with a great variety in locations and terrains. And it's incredibly accurate to the real Los Angeles. I remember going on holiday there several years back and thinking "Wow! It's just like GTA!" So yeah, I don't actually have any complaints. Everything was done amazingly.

Rating - 10/10

Other ratings:
Narrative - 9/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Soundtrack - 9/10
Characters - 9/10
Performances - 10/10
Graphics - 9/10
Art direction - 9/10
Game world - 10/10

 

Jedi Knight Fallen Order


It was decent.

I'm not one for long reviews suffice to say that the game was satisfying but will have no replay value for me and has already been sold on.

It was enjoyable and I enjoyed the ending. Lightsaber fights are satisfying.

7/10

 

I saw you on PSN over the past week playing the game; I was reluctant to send you an invite to join me in GTA Online because I noticed you were in Story mode.

 

I would’ve totally joined, but I don’t have PS Plus anymore to save some money.

 

Ah damn. Gotta take advantage of these sales! I've been adding these up one on top of the other every so often they come down. About a week ago they were being sold for about $25.

 

Until Dawn (2015)



Now, what the hell have you done to them? What the hell have you done to them, you psychopath? Psychopath!

Okay, so I’m just going to say it: Until Dawn is near perfect, really. Everything works. Everything. From a technical standpoint, I found the game pretty amazing. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at and the striking visuals work alongside an excellent score by Jason Graves in order to give the game a really wonderful atmosphere. Atmosphere is probably the single most important thing in a horror game and Until Dawn has it in every setting, from the dark, snow blown woods to the crumbling old sanitorium to the imposing empty lodge.



None of it was wasted. Every second I spent with you was all I ever wanted to do.

The characters are all really great. The game wants to both be a really good teen-slasher movie and also subvert the tropes of the teen-slasher movie and it manages to actually do both in a very striking way. The game sets the characters up neatly within their archetypal categories and then plays with those categories in interesting ways and it also lets the player him or herself decide the degree to which they want to live in those stereotypical categories or break out of them. But what I found was that even the characters I liked the least during my first hour or so of playtime quickly turned into fascinating, complicated human beings and this game bests the traditional slasher movie in one very important way: every. Death. Hurts. Think about even the “good” slasher movies; how many of the characters do you really care about in those movies? In the good ones, probably the two leads and maybe one supporting character or two if you’re extremely lucky. But in this game, I became deeply invested in every character and ultimately I was pulling for the survival of characters that I initially thought I would be glad to see get killed. The game gives all of the characters humanity and I think a lot of this is down to the performances. Like let me highlight Nichole Bloom’s performance as Emily; at first Emily is one of the most frustrating characters – she’s obviously supposed to be “The Bitch” of the group and she’s both written and performed really well in this stereotype. But later

Spoiler

when she’s alone trapped down in the mine, Bloom commits to the character and makes her come to life. Her body language is totally different from all of the other characters. She kind of slouches around the mine like she’s less tired and more just exasperated, but it feels so real that you fall with in love it and when she nearly topples to her doom and then recovers with a sheepish “Holy Cannoli,” well, she’s not “The Bitch” anymore, she’s just a teenager who can sometimes be bitchy and sometimes be dramatic and also sometimes be funny and weird and she’s absolutely real and I wanted her to survive, this character that, in one of the Analyst sessions early on, I had very specifically picked as my least favorite character in the game. That’s the genius of the writing and performing in this game and it’s what makes every moment of danger genuinely frightening and every death genuinely sad.

Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake, this is ******* unbelievable.

So, you’re saying, this is some sort of a heartfelt, character-driven drama game? Well, no. Because this game is scary. This game is scary as ****. This game is terrifying. I know people are rather divided on the usage of jump scares. Some people think all jump scares are cheap and stupid. Well, some are, sure, but this game is so committed to the “cheap jump scare” that it crosses a line and becomes genuinely brilliant. I jumped so hard a few times I actually felt it in my sinuses. This game is great at both building the suspense and then releasing it with a good, hard, super-satisfying jump scare. Also, I applaud the game’s commitment to the “full playthrough” model; on your first playthrough, it doesn’t let you do manual saves or go back to prior checkpoints, so, if you **** up and a character you love dies, too bad – the game just goes on. In later playthroughs, you can go from chapter to chapter to try to get the outcome you really want, but the “you ****** up, they’re dead” philosophy of this game makes the later chapters in the game truly terrifying because you just kind of know that at any given moment, somebody could die if you make like one or two mistakes in a row and there’s no getting that character back once they’re gone.

Spoiler

A late sequence of Mike exploring the lower levels of the Sanitorium that came right after I had lost Chris to a Wendigo attack is the most intense ten to fifteen minutes of gameplay I’ve ever experienced, bar none. I was so afraid of losing Mike in a totally stupid way, like I’d just lost Chris, that I was literally shaking by the time I got through that sequence. That’s horror gaming. That’s what a horror game should feel like.

She’s still looking out for me.

I should also say that I found the story to be really well done. It may sound weird to say it, but I figured out several of the twists before they happened.

Spoiler

While Ashley & Chris were in the basement, just before they get captured and put on the saw table, I figured out that Josh was faking a lot of it; the gutted pig somehow made it click with how Josh could have faked his own death. Likewise, I figured out that Hannah was a Wendigo; once they found Beth’s head, I realized what must have happened.

It probably sounds weird to be like, “Oh, yeah, the story is great because I saw a lot of it coming,” but what I mean is that the story played totally fair and the clues were actually clues and not just BS collectibles like they are in a lot of games. It’s often pretty frustrating when a mystery ends and you realize that the detective character was able to solve the mystery because they had information the author didn’t share with the audience; it’s so much more satisfying when the mystery unravels and you realize that all the clues were right there in front of you the whole time. That’s definitely the way Until Dawn goes and I respected that. And then there’s also that the story is just really good in the way it weaves in elements from a ton of different subgenres of horror, from the Monster genre to the haunted house to the slasher. I didn’t expect, for instance, that what I was expecting to be a slasher game to also feature a really frightening and suspenseful Ouija board (or, I suppose, a Spirit Board, since, occult nerd alert, I happen to know those are two things are different and Josh actually calls it a Spirit Board at one point). Anyway, yeah, the story really worked as well.



I get it. Catch you on the flipside, huh?

Anyway, at the end of the day, Until Dawn really is a near-perfect horror game. I suppose I could see the complaints some people might have: some choices don’t mean a whole lot, the game isn’t necessarily the most mechanically interesting, etc. I will say that I found the QuickTime events here to be, somehow, way more intense than Telltale QuickTime events; not sure exactly what it was, but they just felt more tense. But, anyway, those complaints don’t really reflect my experience of the game. I was just invested from very early and I just really loved it.

I’m really looking forward to the sequels, Rush of Blood & The Inpatient, which I assume will be exactly like this one and also extremely good.

. . . what?

 

Played Rush of Blood (I think I'm thinking of the right one) on my cousin's PSVR. It was kinda fun, but more of a diversion than a full thing.

I do have the studio's new game Man of Medan though. I'm gonna play it with my sisters and cousins at Christmas (playing with a group is the only way I like to play Horror games ). It has a greater emphasis on group play as well, where you each inhabit one of the 5 characters

 

Great review of Until Dawn. I will just add that for me, Mike was that character I hated at the beginning but adored at the end. He went from 'The Jock' to much more. And

Spoiler

wolf friend

definitely helps

I too can't wait to play Man of Medan. I'm sure it's not as good as Until Dawn, a game I played in one sitting from about 9pm to 3am when I first played it, believe it or not. But I think it will still be enjoyable, and they're basically doing exactly what I wanted, which is applying the Until Dawn model to different horror genres. So that's exciting at least. I don't normally play horror games, but these are so great and character-centric that I can't pass them up. I highly recommend them even to chickens who normally don't play horror games, or even people who aren't big gamers at all.

As to Rush of Blood and Inpatient... I've played both, and Rush of Blood makes me physically sick so I can't speak much to that one. Turns out on rails VR doesn't work for my inner ear.

But The Inpatient, I actually really liked. It's definitely not as good as Until Dawn, but I love the world and lore of Until Dawn so much that I absolutely adored seeing that world expanded. And there are different paths you can take that greatly affect how your experience of The Inpatient goes and whether it's basically even a horror game or not, I guess.... so please please play that one so we can talk about it Stephen! Because I don't actually know anyone else who's played The Inpatient yet.

 

Yeah, Until Dawn is definitely a game I could see as a "first step" into gaming for non-gamers. It basically is an interactive movie; the QTEs might be frustrating to non-gamers, but the game does a good job actually giving you a few early on that don't really matter to give you some practice time before they throw you into the ones that could result in death if you screw up.

I haven't bought Man of Medan yet either. I'm going to go into it expecting it to not be as good. I hear it's shorter and the characters are a little less well-rounded, so I'm going to moderate my expectations and I figure I'll like it just fine.

Mike was definitely my second least-favorite character after Emily after those first couple of chapters. And by the end, he was one of the ones I was most invested in saving. Probably either he or Chris ended up being my favorite character. Actually, I'd probably rank them:

1. Chris
2. Mike
3. Ashley
4. Emily
5. Sam
6. Josh
7. Jessica
8. Matt

Spoiler

Jessica's character was kind of hamstrung by her disappearing for most of the game. I did keep her from dying in chapter three, which apparently could happen, but it's still like all the way to Chapter 10 before she shows back up. I felt like she was definitely the one I knew the least and was the least connected to. Matt I felt like I knew pretty well, but he was also just kind of the most boring of the characters and the one who least broke out of his stereotype which was kind of "the nice guy," I guess. Though some of that was my choice; I could have started murdering deer with an ax, I suppose. But he totally would have died; any idiot knew that.*

As to the sequels, I kind of respect the fact that they just went like, "Oh, okay, everyone loved the complex characters, cinematic quality & choice-based story of Until Dawn; let's make an on-rails shooter!" I mean, it's so crazy I kind of love it. On the other hand, it's an on-rails shooter which I'm not crazy about. I've heard The Inpatient is dull, mostly, but I'll probably be okay with that. I think it's more likely that I'll pick up The Inpatient. I am still planning to get a PSVR in the next couple of months, so I'll be wanting games to play on it. So, I might try Rush of Blood too, who knows?

*This particular idiot probably shouldn't throw stones at people making bad choices since I opened that trap door. It's a pretty good game in terms of having enough chances to make absolutely idiotic decisions that probably everybody makes at least one and therefore can't be too hard on others.

 

Well, I finished the exercise in frustration that was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered. At least this time when I tried to carry that ****ing liability MacMillan onto the chopper it let me actually walk on board - the previous time there was an invisible in the way.

Having played the rest of it, it is very clear to me that the Shock and Awe level is the game's high point. It never returns to that degree of excellence and it never gets anywhere it die to numerous self-inflicted wounds. The rest of it? The levels in Chernobyl would be better as a cutscene. The stealth mechanics are non-existent and utterly opaque. What's more you clearly shoot the guy dead in it, but a few years on he's walking around just fine so the point of those levels were? Later there's this frigging awful level where you have to chase this guy and keep up with him despite loads of enemies shooting at you. Now, if the aim assist and the targeting was worth a damn maybe you could pull it off but in this game? They aren't. You may think you have the target on that guy and that when you fire you will shoot that guy, but you will not - your shots will go wide, or, since your are superhumans who shrug off bullets, make no ****ing difference.

It's been said this is where videogames first started trying to mimic Michael Bay movies. In the story, yes, this fits but the gameplay? Goes too far in the other direction - too often I just decide '**** it, get to cover, let my fellow superhumans kill all the stick figures' - works too because enemy aim is perfect, every. ****ing. Time. You might think you are safe and then from nowhere you will be near death. You will follow the direction indicator and you will see sweet **** all, so good are the enemy at hiding. The problem is: Do all these ambush mechanisms immerse you in the game and make you feel like you are playing an elite soldier? No, it does not. It makes you feel like a fraud, unfit to be there because you can do **** all - your shots don't hit, you can barely see the targets, the aim assist is useless. Close quarter missions? You will not believe how many ****in' guys can be in one ****in' room without you seeing them.

Another level has the idea of planting explosives on armour, using smoke grenades - neat idea, too bad it botched it. Press button to throw smoke grenade, nothing happened - in the end, I somehow did it.

Then there is the number of the literally respawning enemies. Does it really have more of an effect if you kill 100 guys in place of 10? Or is killing the 100 guys, who turn up in the same spots just really ****ing boring? I go with boring. After a few times of doing it, it becomes a case of 'we've killed how many?'

The timed missions are, well, they're timed missions - they are universally awful. Even in the storming the nuclear silo - which shouldn't have that many people inside it, there's an entire army in there - it's not great. The worst one was the pointless post-credit 'surprise' mission that was Mile High Club. It came out of nowhere, nothing was explained about it, it felt and was utterly pointless.

I don't think I've ever felt more uninvolved in a story in a game than this. Too often cowardice and staying in cover, letting your immortal squadmates doing the work was the best option. Too often I felt like 'Soap' was an imposter who must have paid to pass selection because the character was so useless. Yes, there has to be a limitation or the game is no challenge but this went far too far in the other direction. Especially as I was on Easy. This game's idea of easy does, too often, give Killzone 2 a run for its money but it doesn't sell itself as that experience. In a way the other game is easier as you can always tell who the Helgast are. In retrospect, this game also shows up why Killzone 3's gun accuracy was so revolutionary at the time.

And the final level? Underwhelming. It's up with the level after Death From Above whose intro suggests you will be piloting and shooting a tank, as it's the same as the previous level. Wrong, you are instead escorting the tank. The end level wants to be an epic finale but doesn't give you the tool to make it an epic finale. You don't have a gun that can actually destroy vehicles, just your standard machine gun and later, when it says to shoot missiles at a Hind gunship, the aim is laughably bad - you will never actually hit it and, later on, the level shows that you never supposed to. Finally shooting Zakhaev? Anti-climax. The end "cutscene"? Well, there isn't one - just some very brief narration on a white screen. Easily the stingiest, most limited unrewarding ending sequence I've seen. And it's far, far ahead of any competition.

The other aspect that was stunningly awful is this: It has a 74GB install - you'd think that was for the multiplayer, especially as it completed the 'all data to play campaign' but, or so it said. On these final 5-6 levels, I had 4 waits for the content install, even thought it was at the 49GB mark. It is not a big campaign, I should not have been having to wait for the game to still be installed. Due to their amazingly dumb accomplishments over in Infinite Warfare, where even after an update file is fully installed, the game still has to install the campaign which takes ages - yes, it is a good 20-30mins watching a progress bar slowly fill up, Infinity Ward have got themselves bottom of the list.

Oh yeah, the grenade indicator, the direction indirector, they are both awful. You might think you are running from an instant kill grenade and you will have ran to it. You 'll be told to find something and spend a whole lot of time looking for it. You'll be shot and try to follow the arrow of where it came from and see nothing. All I can really conclude is this series' success is built on multiplayer but even in that respect I doubt it.

It looks nice enough. In that respect it is a technically accomplished remaster but the game itself is one of the worst I have ever played. It was £12, in effect £6 for each game. I feel pretty much ripped off at having paid even that - oh yeah, and if, by some miracle, you are considering buying that Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition that includes this - don't. The DLC code for it expired 30 Sept 2019. An Actrivision special right there.

 

This should be the tagline for the Call of Duty franchise.