The Last of Us Part II Review

I ended up really enjoying my time with the Last of Us: Part 2 despite some shortcomings. The weakest element of the game is definitely its length—it’s a few hours too long, and some chapters of the story—especially during the second half—really drag on. It takes too much time getting to the ending, and even though I was relatively satisfied with how it concludes, some sections could have been shortened or replaced with a cutscene. However, it was definitely fascinating to see how Naughty Dog justified a direct sequel to a game that I felt didn’t really need one. But what really makes Part 2 so good is the open level design, improvisational combat, and gorgeous visuals.

Throughout the game you’ll be transitioning between two gameplay mechanics: exploration, and combat with either human enemies or infected. Even though the game is relatively linear, the levels are designed in a way that you can explore all sorts of abandoned buildings or houses to find resources and collectibles, or chat with companions. I even got lost on occasion because not only is the game visually dense, but the levels are so wide. The game usually funnels you to your objective pretty well though. There’s also a lot of really cleverly designed environmental storytelling bits and an Uncharted: The Lost Legacy-style open world area near the beginning which I appreciated.

The combat is similar to the first game but it feels more much dynamic this time around. You can go prone and crawl in tall grass to pick off enemies one by one, and you’re given a ton of different weapons throughout the game like a silenced pistol and a bow & arrow. Even if you get caught, it’s easy to scamper away and hide—it allows for more improvisation. The game is also pretty brutal—stabbing dudes in the neck or shooting them in the face with a shotgun is especially grotesque. It’s not perfect—fighting the infected is still sometimes frustrating, especially those damn one-hit-kill Clickers. The combat is overall really fun though, and made the slightly uneven campaign quite a lot of fun to play. I obviously wish the pacing was better but the exploration, combat, and the stunning visuals still make it a must-play in my eyes.

Rage 2 Review

Rage 2 was always been billed as this pompous, neon-paint covered shooter with Andrew W.K. riffs playing in the background while you blow shit up with your arsenal of weapons. Looking back, this advertising is a little misleading because other than some Mad Max-looking enemy designs and a modicum of pink paint splattered across the world, I wouldn’t say that Rage 2 feels very bombastic. It’s really just a fairly rote open world shooter.

The game is designed like a typical open world game where you make your way through this massive landmass with points of interests scattered around the environment. Your main mode of transportation is an upgradable vehicle, but the driving always felt like it was supposed to be something a little more ambitious. It’s kind of just… there. Rage 2‘s shooting mechanics are very good though. It’s tactile in a way that makes killing enemies a thrill, and by the end of the game some of the extra powers can make you feel absolutely unstoppable. You can potentially find all of the most powerful weapons/abilities immediately too, which is one of the few unique elements in Rage 2 that I found to be pretty cool.

Some of the locations around the world like the Bandit Dens are fun since shooting enemies is always a blast, but some locations are straight-up bad—the collection of lame Sentry fights specifically come to mind here. There’s lots of other stuff like a reputation system for completing various activities across the game world, levelling you character, and weapons upgrades, but it takes a little fiddling to understand how everything works. For some reason the menus are incredibly sluggish—I even had the game crash multiple times on the vehicle upgrade menu. Rage 2 might be a really good game to plough through on a weekend on mute with a podcast in the background, but otherwise I definitely can’t say it’s essential.

Far Cry Primal Review

Primal is essentially a modern open world Far Cry game set during the stone age. Instead of pistols and assault rifles there are bows and spears. Instead of scoping out and tagging enemies with a sniper rifle you have an owl companion. Rather than barreling down roads on a jeep there are ridable mammoths. The game’s design is predictably Far Cry—there’s a fairly big map full of various icons, there’s a ton of side quests, and you’ll need to hunt and skin animals to upgrade your gear, but it’s cool how Ubisoft was able to take this theme and run with it—they really nailed the aesthetic.

I don’t think Primal a bad game—in fact, I actually liked the game overall—I just wish it was smaller in scope. The game’s map is huge—comparable to the maps from Far Cry 3 and 4—so the amount of activities available to you at any given time can get overwhelming. Primitive weapons like spears and clubs just aren’t as fun to use as say, an assault rifle, so the combat got old pretty quickly. If Primal was smaller in scope like Blood Dragon then I think Ubisoft would have had a home run. It was just a little too big for my liking.

One of the more unique parts of Primal is how you can use the resources you collect throughout your adventure to upgrade a village of allies. This will unlock things like better equipment and new skills which was pretty cool. You could argue that this is just another box on a massive checklist of crap to do, but I thought it was neat. You can also tame wild beasts and use them as companions. I found them to be really useful—I tamed a black panther that was great at sneaking up on enemies and taking them out quietly. So there’s lots of fun to be had with Primal—it has some really cool, unique mechanics with a cool aesthetic. I just wish was a tad smaller in scope.

A Plague Tale: Innocence Review

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a narrative-heavy action-stealth game set during the Hundred Years’ War in 1300’s France. You play as a young woman named Amicia de Rune as she finds herself and her little brother Hugo caught in the middle of an invading English army and a nasty plague of flesh-eating rats. You soon find out that their desperate expedition isn’t simply happenstance, and the fascinating plot had me guessing what was really going right until the credits rolled.

There are two main gameplay loops that become familiar throughout the many distinct chapters. First is the stealth that has you sneaking past enemy soldiers using a repertoire of handy equipment, while the rest of the game has you puzzling your way around hordes of horrific rats. Various abilities unlock throughout the story and it was fun to use a wide assortment of them during the final few acts. Using fire/light rays to circumvent the hordes of rats was fun to solve as well, and some encounters were surprisingly clever. Both gameplay concepts are well designed with really good checkpointing, so even if you fail an encounter it puts you right back into the action fairly quickly. You’ll also be accompanied by other secondary characters frequently, but thankfully the game never feels like a giant escort mission.

The presentation really needs to be commended here because it’s remarkable. Most of the voice performances are really good—Charlotte McBurney’s performance as Amicia is especially terrific—and the game’s atmosphere is fittingly bleak. The main narrative does lose a little steam in the last few chapters and there’s one late-game mechanic that felt a little under developed, but A Plague Tale is a shockingly great game. It’s not super long too—you can easily finish it in just a few sittings.

Journey to the Savage Planet Review

Journey to the Savage Planet is one of the few games that really feels like another developer’s take on the Metroid Prime formula. It’s a sci-fi-themed first person game where you traverse and explore a fascinating “savage planet.” You’re constantly finding upgrades to your space suit, Metroid-style, which allow you to traverse previously unaccessible sections of the world. You can even use a Prime-inspired scan visor to discover interesting tidbits about the adorable wildlife, vicious enemies, various flora, and other points of interest that flesh out the lore.

I loved the Metroid Prime trilogy, so it’s only natural that I enjoyed Journey to the Savage Planet. It’s identical, mind you, but it feels pretty similar. The narrative is surprisingly funny in spots, it has a great sense of humour, and I had a ton of fun traversing the fascinating, colourful, alien environments while upgrading the variety of abilities. There’s a wise-cracking AI companion that will constantly quip at you throughout the game, and while she does kind of feel like a rip-off of other characters like Failsafe from Destiny 2, she was fairly well written and I enjoyed her commentary.

Throughout the adventure you’ll come across a decent selection of enemies but you’re only ever given a melee attack and a small pistol to defeat them with, so the combat is fairly one-note. The exploration is the game’s strongest feature though, and it does this really well—you can even play the entire game cooperatively with a friend which is pretty cool. If you enjoyed the Metroid Prime games in the past, or if you think you’d like the light-combat but exploration-heavy formula, then I definitely recommend it.

Jedi: Fallen Order Review

Jedi: Fallen Order’s game design is a little head-scratching at times—for example, I don’t really understand the in-universe justification of how enemies like Stormtroopers respawn at meditation points, Dark Souls-style, after you had just defeated them minutes earlier. There’s also like, 25 way-too-long, poorly controllable slides in the game for some reason? But the game’s mixture of Metroid Prime-style map design with From Software-like, punishing combat results in a peculiar but ultimately fun Star Wars adventure.

You play as a Jedi Padawan named Cal Kestis who has been hiding from the Empire since they executed Order 66 during Episode III. When you accidentally reveal that you’re a Jedi trying to save a friend from falling to his death, the Second & Ninth Sisters, henchwomen of the Empire, start hunting you down. The characters are all really well done and I was totally invested in the narrative by its conclusion. The game takes you to a collection of different planets like Kashyyyk and Dathomir, and each area is designed like a Metroid game where you can’t proceed unless you have learned the proper ability first. The level design is really good and reminded me of the Metroid Prime trilogy frequently. The user interface is really well crafted too and even highlights areas with red or green depending on if you possess the corresponding power yet. Abilities come at a good pace though, and each section has a good collection of puzzle solving.

Fallen Order’s combat is very Souls-like where even some smaller, non-threatening-looking enemies can kill you fast if you’re not paying attention. It requires a good amount of concentration, and you’ll need to learn how to dodge and punish your enemies, especially the collection of tough boss encounters. It’s satisfying to feel like the ultimate Jedi badass when you take out tough enemies, and the checkpoints, where you can heal and level up your abilities, are usually never super far apart. The game looks and sounds suitable Star Wars-like, but it has a lot of technical shortcomings. I ran into issues like spotty frame rates, crashes, long load times, and a ton of texture pop-in. I definitely enjoyed the game for what it is, but if its inevitable sequel can improve upon its technical imperfections, and improve some of the head-scratching game design, then we could be looking at an amazing game in the future. But for now, Jedi: Fallen Order is pretty good.

Metro Exodus Review

Metro Exodus is very similar to past Metro games but with the introduction new semi open world levels, a first for the series. I was initially excited for these new stages because I felt an open world environment could really elevate the Metro games to the next level. Unfortunately, while I definitely commend the team on trying something new, these stages are just not very enjoyable. My biggest problem is the awkwardly designed layouts where traversing these locations—in conjunction with the already strenuous, weird, and super-complicated Metro stuff—sucked away most of the fun.

There’s definitely no denying that Exodus is a well-made game. It’s absolutely stunning, the story of exiting the Moscow’s metro system is fascinating, and it’s fairly polished despite some weird nitpicks. But in addition to the weirdly designed open world areas, the game’s moment-to-moment action really turned me off. I always felt like I was either lacking ammunition for my weapons, or I was completely outmatched by groups of enemies. The more linear sections throughout the campaign, set between the new open world areas, were a little better—it makes me wonder if another another fully authored set of stages would’ve been the better direction to take.

After I fumbled my way through Exodus’ story, I realized—the Metro series really isn’t for me. I know I probably could have figured that out after grinding my way through the original Metro with its bullet economy and such, but Exodus really drove it home. I don’t think I will ever play another Metro game after slogging my way through Exodus, but if you like the Metro series’ weird brand of gameplay, then I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Review

New Horizons is the best and most modern take on Nintendo’s adorable, leisurely series so far. The blueprint of moving to a new town, setting up and furnishing your own home, and making friends with a collection of cute, anthropomorphic villagers is still unchanged, but Nintendo has made a handful of neat alterations to the formula that makes it finally feel like a new, modern video game. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely the most beautiful, relaxing, and streamlined the series has ever been.

You start on a small island and these islands are pretty similar to the towns of previous games, but you can now terraform parts of the environment once you reach a certain town rating. You can set up any item or piece of furniture anywhere on the island, which means you can shape the island however you want—a nice evolution of the mayor stuff from New Leaf on the 3DS. You can also decide where shops and townsfolk’s houses go, so you can essentially craft the island exactly to your liking. You won’t be able to do all of this as soon as the game begins since you’ll need to slowly acquire all of these mechanics, but the day-by-day Animal Crossing structure will have you coming back every day anyways, so you’ll get there eventually. I really love being able to set up by town any way I want—it gives the player much more freedom than ever before.

New Horizons does have some oddities, especially with its online implementation. You can only have one island per Switch console, meaning any other player profiles will have to live on the same island. Connecting online to visit other people’s towns is quite time consuming too, something I wish was a little more seamless. There’s also a ton of small nitpicks like not being able to craft more than one item at a time, or annoying villagers that are really hard to get rid of (I’m looking at you, Elise!). But I’m over 150 hours into the game and I don’t see myself putting it down anytime soon. It’s the most streamlined and fun version of Animal Crossing so far, and easily the best game in the series.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 Review

As the third game in the series, Luigi Mansion 3‘s mechanics aren’t especially new or ground-breaking. But because there’s only been two previous Luigi’s Mansion games in the last 18 years prior to 3, the series’ blueprint is still relatively novel. It’s funny that Luigi’s Mansion 3 is called what it is considering there’s no mansions in this game at all. It instead takes place in a giant hotel when Luigi and friends get tricked into entering it by King Boo and his henchmen.

The hotel is filled with all sorts of various floors that are themed around something, like Medieval times, Egypt, or a TV Studio. Each floor has its own set of unique puzzles and boss fight at the end which is pretty neat. You can definitely tell a lot of care went into making each floor feel different from one another, and the game looks really nice on the Switch’s small screen. The progression is mostly fun but I was a little disappointed that the hotel wasn’t a Resident Evil or Metroid-style setting that involves a bunch of exploring. The game’s combat has you using Luigi’s flashlight and vacuum to stun and suck up ghosts, but because there’s very few types of ghosts in the game the combat gets pretty repetitive. Aiming with the vacuum was a little rough too which made some of the boss fights pretty frustrating—don’t get me started on the last boss.

There’s also a new mechanic where Luigi can summon a jello-looking version of himself called Gooigi. You can use him (it?) in tandem to solve puzzle and defeat bosses, but his inclusion felt like it was made with cooperative play in mind—having to constantly switch back and forth gets pretty tedious. I actually found a lot of Luigi’s Mansion 3 to be tedious. The series’ blueprint is still sound, but I got frustrated with its length, the lack of variety in the combat, and the annoying boss fights. I can still see a lot of people really enjoying it despite its shortcomings, but I wanted to like it more than I did.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps Review

Like its 2015 predecessor, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a terrific, beautiful, and sometimes masochistic take on one of the my favourite gaming genres. The team at Moon Studios has taken the scope of the original game and expanded the mechanics with a bunch of new, clever, and surprising abilities, resulting in a super tight package that feels exactly how a sequel to one of the best Metroidvania game should be.

The deceptively difficult platforming and combat from the original game again plays a huge role in Will of the Wisps, but it feels much more like a modern side scrolling action game than it did previously. There’s more depth to the combat this time around—there’s a collection of new abilities that can be used in and outside of combat, the enemy variety has you changing up your tactics constantly, and the cinematic boss encounters can get quite challenging. The world map is pretty large and filled with a ton of devious platforming sections, and you need to traverse these sections regularly to get from one area to the next. The extravagant escape sequences are back too, and I definitely died on them more than I’d like to admit—luckily the checkpointing is always on point.

Will of the Wisps is an absolutely stunning game, and you can tell that a lot of work went into making every piece of the gorgeous, hand-drawn artwork.  I did find that your character can get lost within the scenery, especially when there’s a lot happening on the screen at once. The frame rate can also take a dive, sometimes in sections that feel less stressing on the console than other areas. Luckily these blemishes never really affect the game too negatively though, I was just thankful that I had a chance to play a new Ori game. It’s definitely an essential game within the genre, and since it’s on Xbox Game Pass there really isn’t a reason to skip it.