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[SHIV4]

Introduction & Visuals

I remember playing the game on the PlayStation 4 at 30 FPS, and the image had a heavy filter that made it look blurry. I told myself I just had to replay it on pc.

Technically, the game is still legendary, and the effort put into it is truly unforgettable. After six years, I expected to see a graphical downgrade here and there, but honestly, the graphics are still top-tier, especially indoors. At times, the game looks completely photorealistic.

Gameplay & Difficulty

I played on "Grounded" difficulty, which is the hardest setting. The game became incredibly enjoyable, forcing you to carefully calculate every single encounter. The smooth animations add to the fun, and the impact of the hits on enemies is deeply satisfying. However, the Grounded difficulty did make me spend long hours on certain encounters.

Artificial Intelligence

The AI is acceptable, but it could have been better. The developers clearly relied on randomized enemy patrol paths so the player can't predict them. They also added a clever feature for human enemies: when someone loses their companion, they call out their name, and if they can't find them, they start searching for you. However, I see this as an addition that creates the illusion of good AI, while in reality, it's just average.

The problem with the AI is that enemies sometimes search an area far away from where you were last spotted. This doesn't make sense and significantly weakens the AI's credibility. Furthermore, on this difficulty, the enemies' aim becomes exaggeratedly accurate—they'll instantly give you a headshot and you die quickly. They can also spot you from across the map. Unfortunately, the maximum difficulty doesn't make the enemies any smarter.

Pacing & Story

There is unjustified padding in the game. I felt the island chapter was completely out of place, and it makes no sense for the muscular character to go to such great lengths for people she just met.

As for the story, there are incredibly stupid elements, not to mention the overwhelming agenda:

• The laughable way [****] died, and his sheer naivety right before his death.
• Playing as a character I do not care about, and feeling like the developers are forcing you to sympathize with her.
• The stupid ending that completely contradicts the events of the game.
• The game doesn't have a single character you actually care about.

Final Verdict

I am surprised how Sony gave full creative control and an open budget to the infamous director. The game was supposed to be one of the best in history if it weren't for him.

Final Score: 8/10

1- god of war ragnarok my score 8\10 (Steam)
2- the last of us 2 my score 8\10 (Steam)

 

[falling into hell]

4. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare 5/10

I loved the main game but this dlc was rather underwhelming. There was lots of things you could do in the main game. Here you just have a short story with some quests. There are some site activities but it doesn't seem to be worth doing them.

5. Legend of Heroes Trails to Azure 8/10

The game is awesome it's just that it was a little bit too exaggerated. I wished it was slightly more down to earth. Also it had too many boring quests to do. Somehow it felt like there was too much story and not enough gameplay.

 

[SHIV4]

I finally played and finished AC2. I played it on PC and struggled with the controls because the game wouldn't recognize my controller, but I managed to use a mod to fix the issue.

My impressions are based on my experience today, not by the standards of its release year. The game is outdated in many aspects.

The biggest outdated element which I believe was bad even for its time.. is the missions. Note that I didn't play any side missions or side content, and I don't even know if there are any side missions to begin with. The game presented disastrous missions, and honestly, I didn't expect them to be this bad. They are constantly repetitive, like the chases and the boring eavesdropping missions, which they drag out to the point where you have to walk slowly for five minutes or more just to listen in on someone.

There is also one mission that made me hate the game, and I consider it one of the worst missions I've ever played: assassinating 9 targets without being detected. This is incredibly difficult because the stealth system in the game is practically non-existent. You just have to try your best not to step right in front of the enemies, but even then, they sometimes spot you from impossible angles. Then there are the mandatory Codex-gathering missions, which force you to run all around the game's cities just to collect them.

As for the combat, I initially thought it was good, but over time it became boring because it relies entirely on parrying or timing the enemy's strike to counter it. This means there is no real offense in the game, as enemies will just block all your attacks. However, there are some nice touches, like being able to taunt enemies during a fight. This serves the character's charisma well and makes him a cool, unconventional hero.

There are massive issues with the parkour, the biggest being the character's sudden, unpredictable jumps. Unfortunately, this happened to me a lot during one of the annoying missions; the character would just jump on his own, forcing me to restart the mission all over again. The annoyingly slow climbing is another issue.

The graphics are outdated, but the game compensates with a beautiful vibe and atmosphere. The character models look bad, especially the eyes. I don't know if it's a glitch, but the characters' eyes have a weird shadow over them.

The story is good and simple .. and I'm talking about Ezio's story here, not Desmond's. Ezio is genuinely a great character with a lot of charisma, far better than all the protagonists in recent Assassin's Creed games. The voice acting is also excellent.

Overall, my experience with the game was decent, but the missions, combat, and parkour really dragged down its rating for me.

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Finished Games & Ratings:

1- God of War - 8/10 steam
2- The Last of Us - 8/10 steam
3- Assassin's Creed II - 6.5/10 Ubisoft store

 

[SpiceRacz]

13. - Super Mario RPG (SNES9X)

Another replay. Completed the holy trinity of SNES RPGs - Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, & Mario RPG. I've never finished FFVI so it's excluded for me.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Review: 6/10

Spoiler: Final Thoughts

I'm by no means an RE originalist, I only emerged in the fandom after acknowledging it as one of my major gaming blindspots a few years ago and started to become familiar with its offerings with RE2 Remake (which is still my personal favorite). But lord almighty there is some otherwordly degree of buffoonery going on throughout this game that I elect to describe as groan-inducing nonsense (that's being kind). The majority of creations seem to have been developed in isolation from one another before the core creative unit attempted to stitch them together in any way they could, like a grab-bag of dartboard-selected horror genre cliches. The overarching universe feels incoherent and erratic, far more than any other game thus far (out of RE2R, RE4R, RE5, and RE7).

Gun to my head, I found the gameplay to be uncertain of itself. Bouncing between walking-sim horror sections and horde-mode action scenes, RE8 wants to evoke both terror and heroism from its player while achieving neither. Thankfully, it has a pair of saving graces: the weighty approach to player movement/weapon handling sports a novel feel, providing a sense of personality to the way the player moves about the world. Plus - insofar as you can ignore the broader context - the individual environments and enemy types are laced with a high degree of visual intricacy both when static and in motion that make each character/setting a joy to observe.

Perhaps I'm just a crotchety old man nowadays. And yet am I going to just plow into RE9 immediately afterward? Most certainly....