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.

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.

The Outer Worlds Review

The Outer Worlds is Obsidian Entertainment’s spiritual successor to 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas, and while it’s an entertaining, incredibly well-written space faring adventure, they’ve aptly adjusted the formula to allow for a much smaller, compact game—one that doesn’t take months to fully complete. You start The Outer Worlds by dropping into this place called the Emerald Vale after being unwillingly “saved” from a derelict space station. It turns out that this space station holds a whole colony of people trapped in cryosleep, and it’s your job to try and find a way to save them.

The universe is really fascinating where mega-corporations literally own everything, including humans themselves, which results in a ton of really crazy quest-lines. One of the most memorable quests is a bout between rival space factions only to find out it’s over a fancy toothpaste recipe. These type of well-written quests are all over the game, and I found myself wanting to complete every one I could find. You can also acquire companions to take out on quests. They have their own unique abilities and they have some of the best dialog in the entire game—they have a Mass Effect 2-vibe which I can definitely appreciate.

In addition to the typical gun/melee combat there are some neat mechanics like a time-slowing ability that brings time to a halt to allow for pin-point aiming. You can also take various weaknesses throughout the game if you repeat something too frequently, like taking taking more damage from plasma weapons in exchange for a perk point. I noticed the default difficulty setting becomes extremely easy but bumping it up makes the game frustratingly hard—it’s too unbalanced. And while I’m nitpicking—the default text for item descriptions and dialog subtitles are far too small, especially if you sit far from your TV. But The Outer Worlds is a great, more compact, space-faring take on the Elder Scrolls/Fallout open world formula. It’s obviously not a reinvention of the wheel, but the terrific writing ties the fascinating universe together in a really cool way.

Control Review

In Control, you work your way through this Metroid-esque place called the Oldest House which has a collection of diverse sections. I found myself constantly finding side passages that sometimes lead to completely new sections of the game. The game’s main storyline is fairly linear that takes you from one section of the Oldest House to another, but you’re allowed to stray from your main objective to complete other side activities. You’re even encouraged to explore as some sections can potentially house useful things like a new ability or interesting bits of lore.

Throughout the Twilight Zone-adjacent story you’ll encounter a lot of really weird, unexplained stuff, and the story is pretty open ended by its conclusion. I liked how strange everything felt, and the collectibles you find around the Oldest House were always fun to consume. It’s a 3rd-person action game that plays similarly to Remedy Entertainment’s previous games like Quantum Break and Alan Wake. The shooting feels really responsive and some of the supernatural powers like the telekinesis feel incredibly satisfying. There are other neat abilities too but I found myself relying on the same 2 or 3 by the end of the game. The enemies vary and have you switching up your strategies—sometimes they’ll float overhead and throw crap at you, while others may be surrounded by a shield that takes a few hits to take down. There are also a handful of boss fights, but these were my least favourite parts of the game—especially having to wait through fairly long load times in order to get back into the action if you die. The checkpoints can be pretty distant too.

You can equip different passive abilities and upgrade your weapons, which allows for some experimentation with the various abilities, but I found the interface to be a little difficult to manage and it affected the pace of the game. There’s a map that you can bring up at any time but it was hard to read and would often disappear for no reason. Despite these small nitpicks I loved Control. It’s an easy recommendation for anyone who has ever liked games with one contained, explorable setting. The combat feels tight and some of the supernatural powers were a blast. There are some smaller issues, for sure, but they never really got in the way of enjoying what is an otherwise fantastic game.

Okami HD Review

Okami HD is a really great update to one of my favourite action/adventure games of all time. The sumi-e, Japanese folklore aesthetic looked beautiful on the PS2 at the time, but the updated visuals on the HD remaster makes it look like a new, modern video game—it’s actually pretty shocking how well it holds up. Okami is a heavily inspired Legend of Zelda-like adventure game, and while it isn’t a complete rip-off of Nintendo’s acclaimed series, it shares a lot of the same elements. The adventure takes you around a decently-sized over world with a collection of towns, dungeons, and boss fights, and I really enjoyed experiencing it all again.

Okami’s big hook was the use of a Celestial Brush where you can draw different shapes on the screen. You could use it for solving puzzles around the game world and as an attack during combat encounters. It continues to work really well, and you can use the Switch’s touch screen to draw the different shapes, which is pretty neat. It’s definitely not a game without its quirks, and since the remaster is mostly a visual update, a lot of its weaker elements remain. One of the biggest issues I had with Okami originally was its amount of dialog, and it’s still a text-heavy game. Some cutscenes feel like they go on forever too which can affect the overall pace. But it’s such a fun overall game that these long-winded sequences are somewhat easy to look past. You can skip the cutscenes too if you prefer.

Okami has always been one of my favourite action/adventure games, and if you’ve never played it before the HD remaster is a perfect way to experience it for the first time. Playing through it again made me remember just how fantastic it really is, and the sumi-e visual aesthetic holds up shockingly well—it’s one of the most unique looking games I’ve ever played. It’s an absolute must-play, especially if you haven’t experienced before.