Rate the last game you finished

[Peppermint Lounge]

God of War

I'm careful not to spoil, even name names, so anyone yet to play will enjoy discovering as I did. So it's an absolute top tier single player game that now easily sits among my favourite ever. Combat is deep and varied, difficulty/challenge is good with fun campaign and optional fights. Combat is also extremely fun with every move feeling weighty and impactful. I've enjoyed seeking out the tougher fights and playing GOW makes me want to play more TPS action RPGs with difficult but fair combat eg: Sekiro. One thing GOW does supremely well is circumvent the usual videogame fair that has protaganists pausing their urgent, life-changing main campaign to do side quests that in most games come off as filler and don't gel with the story. It all feels natural in GOW and is something I really noticed and appreciated. I can't praise it enough.

The story had me attentive throughout and character performances were super high quality. You'll be hearing from Kratos and Atreus (not spoiling to name the lead chars at least) the most and they're great together. It's a mesmerising quantity of material they've voiced for the game.

Negatives? The port needs some optimisation. In some areas my GPU util would drop and so would my framerate. When GPU was properly utilised I was never dropping below 80fps at native 2k and high/ultra settings. I've read GPU util is an AMD thing. The devs have it listed as a known issue and are investigating. Not really a negative but you'll encounter lots of load sequences eg: crawling under or squeezing though rocks - a byproduct of designing a game around limited PS4 memory. No biggie but it's mildly annoying in the moment when you're exploring or having to backtrack. It doesn't detract from the overall experience at all.

Still some stuff to discover and fights to have after the credits have rolled. I can't see myself ever uninstalling this.

Easy 10/10.

Oh I thought of a valid criticism. The map. Nice art but I found it hopeless for orientation.

[Ambrose Burnside]

I only buy games for Christmas and my birthday these days. It's like I'm a kid again but it's mainly because of Game Pass.

God of War is top of the list for my birthday in April. Won't come to Game Pass either so it's an obvious choice. Have never played a God of War game before but keen af.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Played and loved 'em on PS2. Haven't played GOW3 on PS3/4.

Original GOW creator David Jaffe has a YouTube channel which is often an entertaining watch.

[t0mby]

I finished GoW1 and half way through GoW2 on PS3 collection, felt like a Conan clone I played on 360 back in my London days. This new GoW seemed nothing like the older ones.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Expected a Zelda-lite romp of high end Pixar-style visuals with combat and platforming. Certainly got that but also some huge difficulty spikes during mini and full boss fights. Turns out Kena is a very challenging game even on 'Spirit Guide' difficulty which is one of three difficulty options available to new players and rests between 'Story Mode' and 'Expert Spirit Guide'. So assumed to be 'normal' then. You''ll breeze through the gorgeous early game with trash mobs easily dispatched via basic attacks. The stunning visuals, whimsical wind chime sound effects and super-cute animal companions called Rots lull you into a state of relaxation. Soon after you face the first mini boss and you quickly learn the game means business. Fast, aggressive attacks that aren't immediately easy to read. The first main boss in the game is savage. After being repeatedy flogged I checked online re: difficulty and read Story Mode is too easy so I persevered. The majority of main boss fights have two stages. The first stage is always a lot easier to read with the second stage amping up aggression and unpredictability of attacks. If you're a Soulsborne vet accustomed to tiny parry windows you'll probably cotton on quickly. Thankfully that first main boss remained by far the hardest part of the game for me. The rest was challenging but with power-ups and the game forcing you to git gud the remaining boss fights were overcome much more quickly. I ended up really enjoying the diffuculty and rate the combat overall very highly. Upon finishing the game you unlock 'Master' difficulty.

Kena visuals are amazing. If you haven't played you've likely seen some images or a trailer. The theme is hardly original but it's executed very well. The semi-open world (hubs connected by portals), stunning visuals, platforming and good controls make exploring a pleasure however the rewards for doing so are pretty thin. You'll come across chests that often require you to overcome a challenging enemy wave and the reward usually pertains only to new hats for your Rots - either a new hat for the shop or currency to buy them. Boring.

We're at the stage now where in-game visuals exceed cutscenes however it's especially jarring with Kena. Native resolution 120fps in-game to low res 30fps cutscene (admittedly beautifully animated). When you have a package that looks as good as Kena the imperfections stick out a lot more.

Overall a stunning game and one of my '21 games of the year.

8/10

[Deef]

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Honestly I was a bit unerwhelmed by this one. Despite all the work that has clearly gone into it, it still feels a bit like a project they've just phoned in. The unsurprising response then would be "Too similar to its predecessor." And usually I don't mind that; a sequel that's more of the same but a bit better.

But MM just wasn't better enough, in fact it wasn't even more enough, and then there was a handful of downers sprinkled on top.

In terms of improvements over its predecessor, there really weren't any. Sure, 60fps and raytracing and 4K and high-res background textures and whatever. Phenomenal production and all, but for me this was one of those cases where the visual difference just wasn't nearly enough to impact the experience. 60fps was nice but I find consoles actually hide 30fps surprisingly well already, so even that difference didn't jump out to me until I checked things back to back. Even docking the crowd density didn't make a difference we would have noticed had we not been looking for it. I went back to the first game, the PS4 not-remastered version, and had fun and did not register the lower-tech visuals in the slightest.

Meanwhile you've got a smaller map, and no play this time in revealing it. You've got a smaller story, fewer suits, far fewer gadgets, and only a handful of new combat tricks to make up for it. Overall it's a smaller game. And I might be wrong, but didn't the first one have more bosses along the way? Miles Morales barely had any; just a few tougher fights. About 60% of the way through I realised I still hadn't had a decent boss fight. I believe there are only 3.. maybe 4.. in the whole game. I think the predecessor had more, but I could be wrong.

As for downers... there are only a couple really.

I was at first a bit irritated by Miles' whiny voice. Then I got comfortable with it. Then I got completely tired of the forced positivity that just doesn't quit (admittedly this is in the predecessor also, but eh, that worked for me). Then after completion I went back to the previous game and immediately remembered the fun of controlling a hero that was actually cocky-cool, not forced-positivity-whiney. Sure, Miles has a character that has to be developed and all, but the way they did it... I just got tired of it pretty soon.

I wasn't a big fan of the winter weather they'd gone with. I guess it's obvious they did this for some visual distinction from the previous game, but I'm a big blue-sky-in-games person.

But probably the biggest downer that I didn't consciously notice, but definitely subconsciously noticed and was a bit mind-blown later to discover: Combat is way more twitchy in Miles Morales. Go back to the previous Spider-Man and it's amazing how much more paced combat is. Not at the scope of incoming enemy attacks, but at the scope of issuing commands through your controller. Miles Morales' play is madly responsive; animation will break at any nanosecond to respond to the latest button you've smashed, so fights are a lot of SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH as you punch dodge punchdodgepunchpuBREATHEdodge punch punch VENOM dodge dodge DODGEDODGEDODGE punch punch VENOM punch FINISHER. Madness.

Not saying that's necessarily bad either; that honestly sounds great to me. But upon firing up the PS4 Spider-Man and trying it out again, what a difference and honestly, I definitely prefer the original. The fights are still fast and super active but you get a little more time to think... which feels more like play... rather than madly reacting to every spidey sense warning. Gets tiresome in the larger mob fights.

I wrote "definitely subconsciously" earlier because almost immediately after we started playing, we were completely aware that we were having a much harder time with these fights than we were expecting. It just wasn't until after I'd returned to the first game that I realised why.

So it was the more tiring combat, the whiny character, the less sunny appearance of the game, and the (perceived) lack of boss fights that made me feel things were definitely less fun this time around.

I will say though that at least the parts where you're controlling Not-Spiderman were dialed wayyy down this time, which was an irritation of the previous game. No MJ this time thankfully.



7.5 / 10 - Mainly because it's actually less fun and less big than its predecessor. If you've played neither, definitely get the previous Spider-Man first, even if it's just the older PS4 version.

[t0mby]

A Way Out (Xbox Gamepass)

Bought this originally 3 years ago but never made it past the river segment. Managed to persuade Chaos into playing co-op with me as it's free. It's not too bad, drags on in a few places as you take turns meeting your partner's. Has a few humorous parts and looks like 2 different endings. In a way I was annoyed by the split screen even playing online but sometimes it's actually pretty cool seeing different camera angles. There is a cool chase segment when you take turns playing full screen while the other watches.

7 cheating caravan trash out of 10

[Mavy]

Horizon: Forbidden West.

This was awesome. 50 hours I put into this. All Cauldrons, all Tall Necks, a whole lotta side quests. Screw all the pits and other stuff. I don't have time for that.

I started and stopped Zero Dawn as it initially didn't grab me but got right into it on return. This one grabbed me right from the start in both story and gameplay and I was happy to sink a lot of time into side quests and errands.

I really liked the team dynamic and that added a lot story wise I thought. Battles were fun and challenging without being mind numbingly frustrating, though occasionally seemed artificially tough then super easy on another attempt. That said I didn't care much for the final battle. Which was all those things until I watched someone do it and make me feel like a chump.

Ending was a bit short but that might be because I had different expectations

Spoiler!

Really seemed like it was leading up to a conclusion for a 2 game series until you find out about a bigger badder enemy in the final scene before the boss. I was already thinking that the Zeniths weren't really required in the story. Saving the world from dying was enough really. So adding this third layer to it seems too much. It's not like it's the end of the world that I'll get to play a 3rd game though

Definitely 9/10 for this one

[t0mby]

Guardians of the Galaxy - XBSX

I probably wouldn't have played this if it wasn't on Gamepass, bit I am glad I did. Production is through the roof, great graphics and most excellent voice acting that got a few laughs from me but then I may be a bit biased as GotG is one of my most liked Marvel movies. It's a decent adventure spanning new and old locations (some from the movies). The combat is pretty simple but enjoyable for most of the game and I say most of the game as I feel it drags on for a bit too long. At one point I thought I was near the end and then ended up having another 6 chapters to go. By the last couple I was groaning there was another. If it wasn't quite so long I wouldn't hesitate giving this a 9½ out of 10 but as it stands......

8 flarken captured space alpacas out of 10

[Froggy]

Lost Judgment

So finally finished off the main story to get it out the way for Elden Ring. Like Judgment the story feels much smaller\shorter than your usual Yakuza ones. It was probably a weaker story for a western audience as there's clearly some Japanese history with bullying or something over there so it didn't seem to translate so well but was still enjoyable, your usual RGG production quality. I enjoyed the performance of the dragon engine on XBX.

Pros:

• Kamurcho really feels alive now, the amount of NPC's wandering about really pack the streets in the night club part of town. Really felt like being in those types of areas in Japan.
• Two locations off the bat and easy to switch between them
• Skateboard - getting around with a taxi or having to level up running etc was sweet
• As usual there is still heaps of things for me to do - bought the school stories DLC and have hardly started that.
• Grew out the group of characters well, Kaito could drive this well, starting to get a Kiryu vibe about his character as Yakuza gone good kind of thing. If that other muppet is being difficult it's well worth a go at either him in a standalone judgment or bringing Kaito across to Yakuza 8/9.

Cons:

• Like Judgment, in Lost Judgment seemed to have cut off roads that are there in Yokohama but are inaccessible in this. Like the red light district in Yokohama is all blocked off but there's no new roads or locations for this.
• On the same lines there seems to be less places to enter, so you can't go into the "centrelink" in yokohama that's central to Like a Dragon but I wonder, why not? Why not just extend the world more and have everywhere you've ever made accessible open? I get they don't want people to go into the red lighty stuff, seems a clear effort to separate the "underworld" of Yakuza style people of bars\strip joints\seedy parts of town with the lawyers office gang but I mean the dudes investigating dodgy Yakuza style people whilst trying to be a non lawyer detective anyway.
• Seemed too easy, playing on normal difficulty like I do but had zero challenge at all at any stage.
• Lack of licensing compared to Yakuza series.. couldn't use vending machines for some reason but can buy coffee boss etc at 7 elevens..

So whilst I enjoyed it, not as good as Yakuza main series as it still feels like that smaller release like Judgment was. You'll enjoy it if you're a fan of YGG anyway and Yakuza and you can probably get through the main story relatively quickly (20 hours) with no issues so not the same level of investment you'd require in one of the others.

I'm gonna go 7.5/10 for final score, I think judging by the drone racing and school stories I was starting to get into (robot wars etc) I might revisit that upwards but most of this is DLC so doesn't really count.

[Deef]

Can't delete posts now it seems.

[t0mby]

Can't delete posts now it seems.

You can but it must be done from the "Edit Post" tab and there can't be any replies after the post you want to delete

[Deef]

Yeah was trying that but it was simply telling me I'm not allowed. Thinking it changed with the new boards.

[t0mby]

Ahhh tried that, it's changed. Press the X next the the Edit Post icon. That works.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Guild Wars Prophecies

Elden Ring sent me. I'd fought through another level of hard as balls mobs to reach a chest with another weapon I couldn't try and started to think of the games that encouraged swapping skills, weapons, points and overall builds on a whim. Guild Wars popped into my head so I checked out the ArenaNet site with the intention of looking at Guild Wars 2. Turns out Guild Wars 1 is still sold and supported. I loved Guild Wars in 2005 but it ended up buried by WoW at the time. I'd lost my account info from way back so ended up just starting a new account. I was expecting a nice nostalgia play and while I definitely got that I also really, really enjoyed the game on its merits. It still looks great, the pinnacle of mid-2000s RPG visuals, and runs well on a modern high refresh display.

Guild Wars is billed a MMO but it's really an online co-op RPG. You can mix with other players in outpost hubs but when you leave you're in an instanced explorable area with just you and your team (real players or NPC allies). Guild Wars characters require you choose a profession and later on you can choose a secondary profession. With a slew of skills for each profession you have literally thousands of skill combos you can experiment with. To totally revamp your build you just need to warp to an outpost where you can apply new skills and redistribute points for free. Prophecies is the first campaign from the GW1 series. It's a decent story but the fun is traversing the map, acquiring items, building your character and team. Combat is strategic - attack skills, interrupts, defence, healing. It's a tab-target game but movement remains important and you're able to dodge attacks and use terrain to block projectiles. It's an old game but it's still a lot of fun to play. 100 hours later and I'd played nothing else.

I definitely did not expect ye olde Guild Wars to crop up in 2022 but here I am. Currently playing through the second campaign Factions now with a new character and it's brilliant also. I'll get back to Elden and others one day.

9/10 score with a +1 thanks to ArenaNet still supporting the original Guild Wars - 10/10.

[pilonv1]

Oh to have time to spend on an MMO, even if it's not a real one

[Peppermint Lounge]

Dug out the old box for maximum nostalgia.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Oh to have time to spend on an MMO, even if it's not a real one

There's none of that with GW1. Max char level is still 20 which you get to quickly. From there you're just acquiring skills, exploring, knocking off quests and tweaking. There's some grind there if you want it but it's optional. It still has the option to create a fully levelled and spec'ed PvP character straight away for dedicated PvP use.

[Mavy]

Finally got around to finishing Far Cry 5.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I did Far Cry 6 but mostly due to the theme of the story. Not that into cults and stuff like that.

The ending though, chose resist. What the hell. Didn't expect that. Leaves you feeling like you didn't win.

Strange game.

[Peppermint Lounge]

If you fancy more Far Cry give New Dawn a go. It's a proper sequel to FC5 and picks up after that sledgehammer ending.

[Mavy]

Really? Might need to cause I don't feel like it's over. Like watching half a movie.

[Deef]

Outer Wilds (2018)
8.9/10

Talk to woodland aliens, travel through space, and hey it turns out you're in a time loop.

Pretty special game that, to me, felt like it almost hit on being something beautiful. Outer Wilds has a big heart and I imagine the creators must have felt really proud of this one. I was hooked by the vibe of campfire lullabies mixed with space adventures, as well as the frequent and seamless transitioning between ground-based and interplanetary-based play. The music also is very nice, with a main theme that sweetly carries the mix of fireplaces with the vast uncertainty of space. And if you sit on the title screen for 10 minutes, you'll realise that it (the literal title) is breaking apart more slowly than you can detect. That's the tone of the game and it's excellent for it.

Some things let it down for me though; three in particular:

1) Fundamentals affected by the time loop

While integral to the story, the time looping mechanic isn't really mixed into the gameplay. In terms of your play and decision-making it's really just an infinite lives mechanic. At a stretch, it enables some timing-related moments but that's as interesting as it gets.

More than that though, this time looping approach meant some fundamental restrictions that hurt the experience a bit. This wasn't really a mistake since the game is the way it is intentionally; championing those restrictions if anything. But for me, the different style of progression felt frequently unpleasant.

For example: It enables the game's extreme non-linearity; something I thought I'd never hear myself complaining about. For the first two-thirds of the game I just felt like I was getting through a giant playground of stuff to do. Each thing I explored was just one of umpteen other things I could have looked at this loop, and would look at next loop, so every loop was just another reminder of the absence of progress. I consciously wondered how much I had to get through until it stopped feeling like that.

The answer is almost the whole game. By the time I had ticked off enough things that I actually had to think to get anywhere new, and thus actually got to feel like progress was finally a thing... the game was nearing its end.

I admire the commitment to the approach, but it started the game off with a subpar experience and it was pretty much by design. There were just too many open threads and not enough to develop yourself for quite some time.

Another restriction involved with the time looping mechanic, that also hurt the game (for me) along similar lines, is the game's replayability. It can't really exist with Outer Wilds, since there is nothing in which to make progress in the first place. There's no way to start clean and progress through the game again. Tutorial area aside, starting the game again is exactly the same as reloading your most recent save file. In fact it's exactly the same as starting another loop, which you've done 100 times. ...Except for the ship notes, I admit. I suppose that's why I'm harsh on this; I turned those notes off. I hate games that deliver their own spoilers and Outer Wilds does that a little, so I disabled the automatic note-taking and didn't use the ship's log at all. That's the only place where you could argue progress does exist, and it's basically just a notepad. The actual game progresses entirely in your head.

I don't mean to devalue the novel approach Outer Wilds takes; I admire it. But I also think they could have had both the time-looping progressing-wiping novelty, and mechanisms in which to also allow progress to actually be a thing. I like the game enough to want to play it again, but there really isn't a way to do so without contriving my own play. I could look for things I haven't yet discovered, but I don't get the feeling that there are any, or if there are they wouldn't mean much.


2) The heavy reliance on text

Outer Wilds does use all of its text content well; there's nothing wrong with what's there. This aint no HZD.

The problem is that there's almost nothing else. Almost all characters are nothing more than a name preceding a colon, and you have nothing to indicate who matters, and who doesn't. It doesn't even feel right calling them "who"... they're just names. There must be about 40 different "characters" that exist in this way. Some are core to the story, some aren't, some are nothing but information about the next puzzle. Since you can't tell anyone apart other than some letters, from the very start you just go into information-parsing mode. You don't remember every name; in fact you deliberately skip doing so.

Then at some point things start to come together and there is a lot of feeling: "Wait.. was that the guy that... ?". It's a headache not knowing when to pay attention and when to not, and as that gets less clear that feeling gets more irritating.

The non-linearity is just as much to blame, but even then .... ok you get the picture.


3) The story

Avoiding spoilers, I'll just say that the story was pretty cool but particular large parts of it disappointed me. I didn't want this to be the thing that bothered me the most, but I think it is. That's probably a fairly individual thing too; it won't bother other players so much I think.

Nevertheless, a few things disappointed me quite a bit, story-wise, which is unfortunate.


----------------------------


The end

Overall... a little unfulfilling, and yet I still rate it "almost a 9".

It's the bittersweetness that makes me rate it highly. Outer Worlds just misses the mark of being something really amazing, maybe beautiful, but in doing so also tuned me in to how good that could have been. It's still pretty special and I value the vision that it was going for, and that it was going for it so sincerely.

[Deef]

Stray - PS5

6 / 10

Here's everything good I can say about it:
* Its moments of background music are great. It has pretty cool music tbh.
* There's a cool bit with eyes everywhere watching you.
* If I think of a 3rd thing I'll come back to this.

_______________________________

There was a bit of hype around this game, and the impression left on me by its trailer was pretty compelling. At least 1 IRL friend was also independently keen on the game from the same advertising.

But it's just effective marketing on a disappointingly average game. It's super short too, but I certainly wouldn't wish for it to be longer so I don't feel any desire to complain about its brevity. I was so bored, so quickly, that I am glad it could be over ASAP. About 5-10 hours. Of boredom. Nothing particularly stinks about it, it's just nothing special, nowhere near as unique as it appeared to be, and super lightweight in terms of play/story/character.

I want to find a better description for the genre than "Walking Simulator" due to the negative tone that comes with, but Stray is well and truly a Walking Simulator.

Cutting more to the point now, I could say Stray has 3 ways in which to appeal:
1. Gameplay
2. Story
3. Atmosphere/character

All 3 are just so bland.

-- Gameplay --
The actual play in particular is close to non-existent. You can't jump freely; you can only jump when a jump icon appears. If there's nowhere to jump, you can't jump. If you can't jump, there's nowhere to jump. So your ... play ... is Go this way -- React to jump icons until you get there -- Repeat. This also means you're always at the mercy of the game's algorithms in recognising when you are or aren't trying to make a jump happen, so sometimes you'll be trying to go to the right place but the game hasn't sussed it out yet, so you walk off elsewhere, only to figure it out when you return later out of exasperation. I admit though, this only happened a few times.

All other interactions are the same; spot the icon. There is an option to turn them off, but this is absolutely a game that is in no way designed to be played without the aids, and within a minute of trying it's completely obvious that this is not a remotely genuine option.

There is a small handful of exceptions to the walking where you actually do run and dodge "Zurks", who certainly exist as a designed break from the rest of the game, rather than a focus of appeal in their own right. These moments are engaging, but the game just isn't about that type of play. I would say there are fewer than 10 minutes of this in the whole game. You briefly get an upgrade; a Zurk-combating device and it feels like the game is going to unfold into a sequence of tougher travels, with more path-opening upgrades and the like. Nope. You complete the 1 level, the upgrade kills itself, and that's it. That is the one time anything like that occurs in the whole game.

Finally, collectibles. "Memories" to find on the way. Find the shiny blue squares. They add some lore and go on the record as being found; that's it. If you miss some, you can't go back. We missed some before we even knew what they were so whatever. The Memories stand out again as another thing that exists to fill in the space that would otherwise leave you noticing what little game there really is.


-- Story --
Nothing unique here. Humans died out, sentient robots still live undergound, freedom to the Outside awaits. That's the task you're given at the start and it doesn't go much deeper than that. So even though you recognise early on that Stray isn't about platforming thrills, looking to the story for some entertainment is also a hard no. It's simply super lightweight.


-- Atmosphere/character --
This leaves what appeared to be the biggest hook about Stray: You're a cute little kitty kat trying to survive in a world of robots.

But wow, the game chooses its tone and sits on it. The cat has zero character. It is literally a cat. This tracks too; your personal real-life experiences of non-family cats will make you think "Yeah, no, yeah, cats are like this. They're aloof." And it distracts you from how starved you are for something actually interesting to get engaged in.

This locks in even more as the game progresses. Soon you find a companion and that companion is actually everything. It does all the talking. All the interacting with objects and with robots. It handles storage. It tells you where to go. You go there and it does whatever. The entire game is really that companion, "B-12". The cat remains completely disinterested-cat-like, by design, for the whole game. Even after the ending, your relationship with the cat is still the same as the relationship you have with a cat you encounter in the street. It doesn't care. It literally walks off screen and doesn't care. The character you play is basically a vehicle for the game's real character: a text-box producing drone.

It throws you too. You soon find yourself wondering if the cat even knows what's going on. It's not hard to ask if the cat even understands anything B-12 is saying. It certainly doesn't act with recognisable response. It's clear that this is deliberate; I just don't like it or see the fun in it.

The cat does do several cute catty things though. Scratch, meow, knock crap off shelves, sleep on robots' laps. There's the odd cutscene where it hisses or lies down or whatever. Yeah that stuff is nice but it comes across, again, as done out of shallow obligation, not celebration. The game definitely isn't making a genuine effort to entertain you with the fun pecularities of being a cat, which is a shame because it's not like cats don't have heaps of entertaining potential; be it cuteness or hilarity. The only thing that being a cat really means for the game is: "is small".

From a tech perspective I was underwhelmed too. The cat is visually not hugely appealing; Far Cry Primal's animals look way better in a technical sense. There's no visual charisma either. Animation also stood out to me as pretty lacking for a game whose big sell is that you're a cat. There's intentionally no flair in any of this; the game is deliberately not trying to upsell the cat.

So ok, sure. But come on game... upsell something.

I've glimpsed reviews that say the game does respect the idea of being a cat well; saying that it isn't just a game that happens to have a cat. That's a lie from where I'm sitting. The cat is an empty vehicle that lets you read what a drone is saying. Its main character trait is that it has none, because cat. There are also some token catty gestures and that's it.

Off the cat now.

The setting is nice but there's nothing unique in style or concept. The things you have to do to progress are low effort concepts you won't be surprised or entertained by. This path is inaccessible. This guy wants a poncho. There's nothing at all intriguing/exciting/surprising about how the world unfolds; it's all just contrived busywork. One small exception near the end with this aspect of "police" developing, but it's far too little too late.

__________________________

So in all 3 ways I can imagine the game can use to grab you, it's just really dull. This is a game for people who don't want to play games, don't want a good story, an interesting world, or an engaging character. It's something I'd expect in an old people's home. Ok ok get off my back, old people.

__________________________

One more thing. The ending sucked. I guess I better not spoil it but it felt just as induced from a need to distract as pretty much every other part of the game. "Cheated" is a word I heard used to describe it; cheated because it feels like the devs give you a crappy ending to avoid bothering to make a good ending work. The crappy ending has impact, so they went with that for lack of real effort in making a story. Now it's edgy and emotional. Lame.

Hard spoiler within:

Spoiler!

• B-12, who turned out to be the last human "alive" in digital form, dies.
  You've barely grown any attachment to B-12 but you're so starved for anything to care about in the game, and the cat is such a non-character, that this feels really sad. It's a tragedy you feel that the last human just died, yet the game has barely used this as a focal point. It simply pulls this up at the last minute because the story is about to end.
  
  It's the one time the cat shows feeling as well, which is nice but really just adds to the impression of how aloof it is. It's over in a few seconds too, and the cat is immediately back to being emotionless until it walks away.
  
  So the ending has impact, but it does indeed strike me as cheating.

I won't be surprised if other online impressions are more positive than mine. Ima go check them out now. But honestly I think the game is just an example of using a good concept and cheap ending to manipulate players into overlooking all the dialed-in nothing.

Even just throw away all my complaints about character and wotnot; the game is still just very boring to play through. There's nothing here to get entertained by. If you're into walking simulators... ugh.. maybe? But for the people who typically visit this board, just avoid this one. It's not as good as its trailer made it look.

[unfnknblvbl]

Stray
PC
7/10

I was actually disappointed in the visuals. When the critters in Viva Piñata from fifteen years ago look better than the main character here, that's a problem.

Having said that, I really liked the general style of the game. The not with the eyes was super creepy, but they really didn't explore it much.

Which gets me to the story. It has a nice enough premise, but it's really let down by the third act. Once you're out of the slum area, the story just feels rushed, especially once it gets closer to the ending. The actual ending feels more than a little tacked on.

Also, while I'm glad it's a cat as the main character, it really could have been anything. A cute rat, a possum, spiny anteater... just about anything. There really was nothing particularly "catty" about the game.

I don't really have any desire to go back and 100% it. At least it ran well, I guess... Which is more than I can say for...

[unfnknblvbl]

Deliver Us The Moon
PC
5/10

Ran like utter dog shit in the second half with ray tracing enabled. That's despite being on a 5950X and 4070Ti.

Anyway, another game with an interesting premise that just felt rushed in the third act. And what was with that ending? Get the fuck out of here with that.

The game makes zero attempts to make you connect with your character, then it tries to get you to care about somebody who took the same path as you earlier. Truth be told, I had no idea who that person even was for almost the whole game.
The game also randomly switches between first and third person perspective for no good reason at all. There's different physics (specifically gravity) based purely on whether you're in a vacuum or not. What?
Also, what kind of space suit only holds three minutes of air?