3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor
3 Yrs✓#
19/02/25 - Just Cause
This game has been in my backlog for too long so decided to finally get around to it before it collected any more dust.
Background
The original Just Cause is the only Just Cause published by Eidos Interactive, the company that had Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Thief for a while until it became defunct in 2009. For all the games in the franchise, Swedish company Avalanche Studios was the developer behind it, including this very first one. The company, originally known as Rock Solid Studios, has a bit of a troubled star with a failed video game adaption of the movie series Tremors but when this was cancelled, the developers Christofer Sundberg and Linus Blomberg became unemployed and in debt. This didn’t stop them from launching a new company with six other employees and beginning work on their first game, “Rick: Terror in the Tropics” which would eventually become “Just Cause”. And it seems they did quite well since not only just they start the Just Cause franchise but they also did a video game adaptation of Mad Max alongside a sequel to Rage and starting theHunter series. For today, let’s investigate the original Just Cause.
Plot
The story of Just Cause is quite simple. The “Agency” drop operative Rico Rodriguez int the fictional world of San Esperito in hopes of overthrowing its dictator since that guy owns some dangerous weapons. That’s about it really. It’s a matter of finding the threat and dealing with it. No plot twists, no character development, not much dialogue. Just go to the area and stop it. I’m not expecting an amazing story from a game like this but I think it needs a bit more substance to make me care about the characters or its plot. It’s also quite short too but then again maybe it’s for the best that it doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Gameplay
The main campaign of the game is divided into 19 missions, one of them being split into three smaller ones. On the whole, I found it quite fun. Each tends to offer a large fight with a wide range of weapons and plenty of vehicles to choose from, with lots of explosions and action taking place. The grapple gun, while far from perfect, allows travelling around the map and hijacking vehicles to be very entertaining. A couple of bugs are seen in the game such as vehicles appearing out of nowhere, the inability to drive and a random crash, so there is a lack of polish still here. I also found jumping from large heights a bit of a gamble since sometimes the parachute doesn’t go off but yet sometimes you don’t take any fall damage at all. Being hit by a vehicle is also risky since sometimes it is only a little bit of health but other times its almost all of it. So, I guess if I were to summarise the main campaign up, I would say it’s a beautiful yet chaotic mess. I can’t help but admire it.
Other missions happen outside of the main campaign such as liberation missions and boy is it one of the most repetitive side missions I’ve ever seen. Premise-wise it’s quite fun. Simply go with a group of armed soldiers and take out an area of either government soldiers or the mafia, doing so “liberates” the area which grants access to a fast travel point, new vehicles, and access to other weapons. And yeah, it can get chaotic quickly with tanks and grenades thrown all over the place so it can be fun the first several times. The problem is that it barely changes the formula. They may be a bit stronger but you have stronger weapons by then and lots of experience. They may have a bigger battle with barricades but simply being in between buildings just solves the problem of tanks. And the fact that this repeats about 40 times across the map with little reward or progress just makes it a lot more tedious. I tried to do them all but I gave up halfway through, what’s the point? I got everything I needed from the main campaign missions, making the map green won’t change anything.
Other side missions exist too but don’t offer much. Each liberated area provides small side missions to increase the areas ranked, allowing for unlocking better vehicles. I don’t find them useful because, again, everything I need is already unlocked in the main campaign. However, I can appreciate that they try and vary these missions up, providing a different task until it starts to repeat. Racing tracks are also present but these are mostly for fun, acts as a good way of learning the area and using the vehicle. And of course, it cannot be a Ubisoft game without collectibles all over the open world. No there isn’t a reason for collecting them besides giving a small boost to the area in the hopes of unlocking a vehicle. On the whole, these just feel like ways of padding out the length of what is otherwise a short game.
Let’s take a step back for a moment and focus on the combat itself. Rico can carry up to two main weapons alongside pistols and explosives. The pistols are a fairly decent weapon and work as an alright backup, particular with unlimited ammo so you can’t go wrong with them. Failing that you can punch someone but I don’t think many people know you can either do that let alone find it actually useful. Grenades are actually quite good at taking out a bunch of enemies, although having one fired at you can be tricky since Rico cannot really run (he just walks slow to me) or duck so be cautious for those. In terms of weapons, it’s mostly assault rifles and submachine guns. I can never tell them apart to be honest but the ones I did use worked quite nicely, with plenty of ammo and alternative weapons being dropped at moment’s notice. RPGs are quite rare but very useful at taking out vehicles so I usually saved those for missions. There’s also a sniper rifle that just exists. I mean it can act as a typical assault rifle but with a lack of ammo and no stealth missions in the game, I don’t really get the reason for its inclusion. And finally there’s the shotgun which worked quite well, almost too well as it has essentially no reload time so taking out a boss can take as little as five seconds.
Rico also has a PDA equipped which acts as a menu for calling in help. This is where fast travelling comes into play, allowing Rico to go to areas he has liberated or, very helpfully, the area for his next campaign mission. These have speedy load times and saved a lot of hassle so it’s really nice to have it. The only drawback to this fast travel is sometimes you have to scroll down a menu to find the area you’re looking for so that can be annoying. The PDA also has a map which is handy for finding collectibles, liberated islands and a route to take to get to a destination. I had no problems with that, it just did its job and did it well. Vehicles can even be summoned with the PDA which saves the hassle of having to look for one. Other functions of the PDA is essentially just stats, showing how much of the country has been liberated and how many collectibles have been obtained. On the whole, the PDA is the most handy feature of the whole game, hope to see it in the later entries.
And we cannot talk about Just Cause without mentioning the vehicles. Each can be divided into five categories to let’s go through them real quick. Bikes were my original go-to for travelling around the world, they are very fast with good braking and can never seem to be destroyed so easily. That last point is why I never went for cars, if there was any sort of enemy about them there was a good chance it would be blown up in seconds. Helicopters were my primary mode of travel by the end of the game since, not surprisingly, there is no traffic in the air and can cover a large distance in the quickest time. And there’s also boats which are fine but are only useful for going around the islands and not in them.
Presentation
The map of San Esperito is fine. Maybe not the prettiest country during the time this game was released but for a new company I think it’s decent enough. It’s quite vibrant and it can look great when the sun is setting over the sea. I just wish there was more interesting things going on in the map rather than driving in similar looking areas again and again.
Musically speaking, the game is also ok at that too. Nothing too exciting but it sure beats it being silent which can happen if you’re walking out of the car from time to time. Also, there’s a bit of a weird thing with the police where the volume they speak doesn’t affect their distance. So, they may sound quite close and about to shoot you but in reality, they are likely 100 metres away shooting someone else. It’s just as annoying as hearing and seeing a helicopter follow Rico throughout most of the game, just leave me in peace.
Summary
Just Cause can be a fun game and has a great take for an open world with some solid vehicles, but it really suffers from a lot of repetition, a short dull story, and several bugs. I would only recommend this if you’re eager to see how Just Cause got its start.
Rating: 5/10
Update: I’m glad I got around to playing Just Cause even if it was quite messy. I do have the other three games but I have no idea when I’ll get around to those. For now, it’s business as usual with the Tomb Raider series so I’ll pop back to that next :)
This game has been in my backlog for too long so decided to finally get around to it before it collected any more dust.
Background
The original Just Cause is the only Just Cause published by Eidos Interactive, the company that had Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Thief for a while until it became defunct in 2009. For all the games in the franchise, Swedish company Avalanche Studios was the developer behind it, including this very first one. The company, originally known as Rock Solid Studios, has a bit of a troubled star with a failed video game adaption of the movie series Tremors but when this was cancelled, the developers Christofer Sundberg and Linus Blomberg became unemployed and in debt. This didn’t stop them from launching a new company with six other employees and beginning work on their first game, “Rick: Terror in the Tropics” which would eventually become “Just Cause”. And it seems they did quite well since not only just they start the Just Cause franchise but they also did a video game adaptation of Mad Max alongside a sequel to Rage and starting theHunter series. For today, let’s investigate the original Just Cause.
Plot
The story of Just Cause is quite simple. The “Agency” drop operative Rico Rodriguez int the fictional world of San Esperito in hopes of overthrowing its dictator since that guy owns some dangerous weapons. That’s about it really. It’s a matter of finding the threat and dealing with it. No plot twists, no character development, not much dialogue. Just go to the area and stop it. I’m not expecting an amazing story from a game like this but I think it needs a bit more substance to make me care about the characters or its plot. It’s also quite short too but then again maybe it’s for the best that it doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Gameplay
The main campaign of the game is divided into 19 missions, one of them being split into three smaller ones. On the whole, I found it quite fun. Each tends to offer a large fight with a wide range of weapons and plenty of vehicles to choose from, with lots of explosions and action taking place. The grapple gun, while far from perfect, allows travelling around the map and hijacking vehicles to be very entertaining. A couple of bugs are seen in the game such as vehicles appearing out of nowhere, the inability to drive and a random crash, so there is a lack of polish still here. I also found jumping from large heights a bit of a gamble since sometimes the parachute doesn’t go off but yet sometimes you don’t take any fall damage at all. Being hit by a vehicle is also risky since sometimes it is only a little bit of health but other times its almost all of it. So, I guess if I were to summarise the main campaign up, I would say it’s a beautiful yet chaotic mess. I can’t help but admire it.
Other missions happen outside of the main campaign such as liberation missions and boy is it one of the most repetitive side missions I’ve ever seen. Premise-wise it’s quite fun. Simply go with a group of armed soldiers and take out an area of either government soldiers or the mafia, doing so “liberates” the area which grants access to a fast travel point, new vehicles, and access to other weapons. And yeah, it can get chaotic quickly with tanks and grenades thrown all over the place so it can be fun the first several times. The problem is that it barely changes the formula. They may be a bit stronger but you have stronger weapons by then and lots of experience. They may have a bigger battle with barricades but simply being in between buildings just solves the problem of tanks. And the fact that this repeats about 40 times across the map with little reward or progress just makes it a lot more tedious. I tried to do them all but I gave up halfway through, what’s the point? I got everything I needed from the main campaign missions, making the map green won’t change anything.
Other side missions exist too but don’t offer much. Each liberated area provides small side missions to increase the areas ranked, allowing for unlocking better vehicles. I don’t find them useful because, again, everything I need is already unlocked in the main campaign. However, I can appreciate that they try and vary these missions up, providing a different task until it starts to repeat. Racing tracks are also present but these are mostly for fun, acts as a good way of learning the area and using the vehicle. And of course, it cannot be a Ubisoft game without collectibles all over the open world. No there isn’t a reason for collecting them besides giving a small boost to the area in the hopes of unlocking a vehicle. On the whole, these just feel like ways of padding out the length of what is otherwise a short game.
Let’s take a step back for a moment and focus on the combat itself. Rico can carry up to two main weapons alongside pistols and explosives. The pistols are a fairly decent weapon and work as an alright backup, particular with unlimited ammo so you can’t go wrong with them. Failing that you can punch someone but I don’t think many people know you can either do that let alone find it actually useful. Grenades are actually quite good at taking out a bunch of enemies, although having one fired at you can be tricky since Rico cannot really run (he just walks slow to me) or duck so be cautious for those. In terms of weapons, it’s mostly assault rifles and submachine guns. I can never tell them apart to be honest but the ones I did use worked quite nicely, with plenty of ammo and alternative weapons being dropped at moment’s notice. RPGs are quite rare but very useful at taking out vehicles so I usually saved those for missions. There’s also a sniper rifle that just exists. I mean it can act as a typical assault rifle but with a lack of ammo and no stealth missions in the game, I don’t really get the reason for its inclusion. And finally there’s the shotgun which worked quite well, almost too well as it has essentially no reload time so taking out a boss can take as little as five seconds.
Rico also has a PDA equipped which acts as a menu for calling in help. This is where fast travelling comes into play, allowing Rico to go to areas he has liberated or, very helpfully, the area for his next campaign mission. These have speedy load times and saved a lot of hassle so it’s really nice to have it. The only drawback to this fast travel is sometimes you have to scroll down a menu to find the area you’re looking for so that can be annoying. The PDA also has a map which is handy for finding collectibles, liberated islands and a route to take to get to a destination. I had no problems with that, it just did its job and did it well. Vehicles can even be summoned with the PDA which saves the hassle of having to look for one. Other functions of the PDA is essentially just stats, showing how much of the country has been liberated and how many collectibles have been obtained. On the whole, the PDA is the most handy feature of the whole game, hope to see it in the later entries.
And we cannot talk about Just Cause without mentioning the vehicles. Each can be divided into five categories to let’s go through them real quick. Bikes were my original go-to for travelling around the world, they are very fast with good braking and can never seem to be destroyed so easily. That last point is why I never went for cars, if there was any sort of enemy about them there was a good chance it would be blown up in seconds. Helicopters were my primary mode of travel by the end of the game since, not surprisingly, there is no traffic in the air and can cover a large distance in the quickest time. And there’s also boats which are fine but are only useful for going around the islands and not in them.
Presentation
The map of San Esperito is fine. Maybe not the prettiest country during the time this game was released but for a new company I think it’s decent enough. It’s quite vibrant and it can look great when the sun is setting over the sea. I just wish there was more interesting things going on in the map rather than driving in similar looking areas again and again.
Musically speaking, the game is also ok at that too. Nothing too exciting but it sure beats it being silent which can happen if you’re walking out of the car from time to time. Also, there’s a bit of a weird thing with the police where the volume they speak doesn’t affect their distance. So, they may sound quite close and about to shoot you but in reality, they are likely 100 metres away shooting someone else. It’s just as annoying as hearing and seeing a helicopter follow Rico throughout most of the game, just leave me in peace.
Summary
Just Cause can be a fun game and has a great take for an open world with some solid vehicles, but it really suffers from a lot of repetition, a short dull story, and several bugs. I would only recommend this if you’re eager to see how Just Cause got its start.
Rating: 5/10
Update: I’m glad I got around to playing Just Cause even if it was quite messy. I do have the other three games but I have no idea when I’ll get around to those. For now, it’s business as usual with the Tomb Raider series so I’ll pop back to that next :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
20/02/25 - Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Another spin-off for the Tomb Raider and the first game from the franchise to be released in the 2010s. Quite convenient to be looking at this since both Guardian of Light and its sequel Temple of Osiris are coming to mobile devices in the near future. How good that port will be and if anyone would prefer to play it on mobile is anyone's guess at the moment, but we can have a look at the PC version.
Background
Now normally when it comes to a spin-off, it's usually given to a different developer whilst the ones on the main franchise work on the next main entry. However this is not the case. Not only was this developed by Crystal Dynamics but the whole team who worked on this had worked on the previous trilogy of games, those being Legend, Anniversary and Underworld. The game was developed using the engine from the latter game, probably to make them spend less time on working with new technology and more on how they can shake things up. So how did they shake things up?
Plot
Well it wasn't with a ground-breaking story that's for sure. The plot is quite straight-forward actually. 2000 years ago in Mexico, Xolotl (Guardian of Darkness) was banished in an artefact known as the Mirror of Smoke, trapping him in a statue. Naturally, this is broken by a war chief who ignores Lara's requests and so the game revolves around Lara chasing after him with the Guardian of Light: "Totec". I do wish there was a bit more to the story than that, even if the game only clocks in around 5 to 6 hours of gameplay. It does treat the player to some cutscenes but these are quite few and usually just involve some taunting from Xolotl. Despite that, this is really the only thing weak with the game, the rest is actually very good.
Gameplay
The game can be played in two ways: solo or co-operatively. I played solo so my thoughts will reflect that but I think playing this with a friend is the ideal way of playing through this.
The major element that separates this from almost all other Tomb Raider games is that this is not a 3D platformer like those in the main entries or a 2D platformer like most previous spin-offs. Instead, this is an isometric action-adventure which has only appeared in one other Tomb Raider game, that being the spin-off Tomb Raider: The Prophecy. This style of game really suits the Tomb Raider franchise since it can incorporate almost every element of the 3D games into this sort of style. It really benefits things like the puzzles as all the elements needed for solving it can be seen in one go.
Level design is quite strong in this game. Neither the traps, puzzles, or combat outstay it welcome, which I always find to be key for an entertaining Tomb Raider game. Each level contains collectibles and challenges allowing Lara to obtain better weapons and buffs (more on those a little later). I didn't go out of my way to complete and collect all of these but I always appreciate seeing them and I don't think they are too hard to find either. Many of the levels are fairly small so it's not difficult to get lost in and those that are a bit bigger tend to have a map for navigating in. And even then, it's fairly linear so it always feels like you're going the right way.
Focusing on Lara more specifically for a moment, she controls very well in this game. No input delays, fast movement, able to dodge enemy projectiles with ease. It's pretty much Lara done perfect. Sure maybe they shouldn't have keybinded the bomb button to the capslock button but that can simply be rebinded. Oh yes Lara can bomb areas now with no worries about the quantity of bombs available. I don't see it working well for a 3D game but it works like a charm for this style of game. Lara can still grapple with ease although like Underworld this is barely used. Lara can climb using a spear but she cannot climb walls which is a bit disappointing but when looking at the levels themselves, it's easy to see why such a decision was made. This logic also applies for the emissions of the swimming and walking on balance beams, they would be hard to implement on a game such as this.
I found combat to be the hardest part of the game. Not because of Lara, no she has many good weapons to use from a simple assault rifle to a rocket launcher and it's fun to experiment with each new weapon (and trust me, there's quite a bunch). Buffs can be collected from each area that can be used to power up Lara's speed, strength and health which makes some fights a lot easier than they could have originally been. The difficult is not from a lack of health or ammo packs either, they are quite fruitful from each area and checkpoints are quite regular too. The difficulty is the enemies themselves. Now Lara is good at dodging incoming projectiles and even a large quantity of them can be somewhat easy to take down when the distance is provided. However, these enemies hit quite hard so some fights can take a few goes if you are unlucky enough to be killed in a fight. Despite this, the enemy designs were quite good and the boss fights even more so, making use of every trick that has been presented whilst also posing a real danger.
Presentation
It's alright. It certainly has a Tomb Raider style going on and Mexico is a solid pick for a game like this. Can't say there was anything bad or wrong with it, but nothing really mind blowing either. Just picture what a Tomb Raider level could look like in a Tomb and you wouldn't be far from what's in the game. Which it went a bit more adventurous with what's on offer but I'm satisfied with what we got. Same applies to the music too, it's nice but it's not something I can remember too well or focuses too much on during my time here.
Summary
A really fun game that blends combat, traps, and puzzles all well together into a short, entertaining game. If you don't mind a basic story, then I would recommend playing this with a friend even if you have never played a Tomb Raider game before.
Rating: 8/10
Update: I am aware this game has DLC but considering its just puzzle maps and survival levels, they didn't really appeal to me. Maybe I'll play them someday and update this post but for now I'm happy with finishing off the base game. I believe the next entry will be the 2013 reboot of the franchise which I have actually played before but I'm curious to play it now I have multiple Tomb Raider games under my belt. No idea what my next post will be on (as usual) so look out for that. Thanks for stopping by :)
Another spin-off for the Tomb Raider and the first game from the franchise to be released in the 2010s. Quite convenient to be looking at this since both Guardian of Light and its sequel Temple of Osiris are coming to mobile devices in the near future. How good that port will be and if anyone would prefer to play it on mobile is anyone's guess at the moment, but we can have a look at the PC version.
Background
Now normally when it comes to a spin-off, it's usually given to a different developer whilst the ones on the main franchise work on the next main entry. However this is not the case. Not only was this developed by Crystal Dynamics but the whole team who worked on this had worked on the previous trilogy of games, those being Legend, Anniversary and Underworld. The game was developed using the engine from the latter game, probably to make them spend less time on working with new technology and more on how they can shake things up. So how did they shake things up?
Plot
Well it wasn't with a ground-breaking story that's for sure. The plot is quite straight-forward actually. 2000 years ago in Mexico, Xolotl (Guardian of Darkness) was banished in an artefact known as the Mirror of Smoke, trapping him in a statue. Naturally, this is broken by a war chief who ignores Lara's requests and so the game revolves around Lara chasing after him with the Guardian of Light: "Totec". I do wish there was a bit more to the story than that, even if the game only clocks in around 5 to 6 hours of gameplay. It does treat the player to some cutscenes but these are quite few and usually just involve some taunting from Xolotl. Despite that, this is really the only thing weak with the game, the rest is actually very good.
Gameplay
The game can be played in two ways: solo or co-operatively. I played solo so my thoughts will reflect that but I think playing this with a friend is the ideal way of playing through this.
The major element that separates this from almost all other Tomb Raider games is that this is not a 3D platformer like those in the main entries or a 2D platformer like most previous spin-offs. Instead, this is an isometric action-adventure which has only appeared in one other Tomb Raider game, that being the spin-off Tomb Raider: The Prophecy. This style of game really suits the Tomb Raider franchise since it can incorporate almost every element of the 3D games into this sort of style. It really benefits things like the puzzles as all the elements needed for solving it can be seen in one go.
Level design is quite strong in this game. Neither the traps, puzzles, or combat outstay it welcome, which I always find to be key for an entertaining Tomb Raider game. Each level contains collectibles and challenges allowing Lara to obtain better weapons and buffs (more on those a little later). I didn't go out of my way to complete and collect all of these but I always appreciate seeing them and I don't think they are too hard to find either. Many of the levels are fairly small so it's not difficult to get lost in and those that are a bit bigger tend to have a map for navigating in. And even then, it's fairly linear so it always feels like you're going the right way.
Focusing on Lara more specifically for a moment, she controls very well in this game. No input delays, fast movement, able to dodge enemy projectiles with ease. It's pretty much Lara done perfect. Sure maybe they shouldn't have keybinded the bomb button to the capslock button but that can simply be rebinded. Oh yes Lara can bomb areas now with no worries about the quantity of bombs available. I don't see it working well for a 3D game but it works like a charm for this style of game. Lara can still grapple with ease although like Underworld this is barely used. Lara can climb using a spear but she cannot climb walls which is a bit disappointing but when looking at the levels themselves, it's easy to see why such a decision was made. This logic also applies for the emissions of the swimming and walking on balance beams, they would be hard to implement on a game such as this.
I found combat to be the hardest part of the game. Not because of Lara, no she has many good weapons to use from a simple assault rifle to a rocket launcher and it's fun to experiment with each new weapon (and trust me, there's quite a bunch). Buffs can be collected from each area that can be used to power up Lara's speed, strength and health which makes some fights a lot easier than they could have originally been. The difficult is not from a lack of health or ammo packs either, they are quite fruitful from each area and checkpoints are quite regular too. The difficulty is the enemies themselves. Now Lara is good at dodging incoming projectiles and even a large quantity of them can be somewhat easy to take down when the distance is provided. However, these enemies hit quite hard so some fights can take a few goes if you are unlucky enough to be killed in a fight. Despite this, the enemy designs were quite good and the boss fights even more so, making use of every trick that has been presented whilst also posing a real danger.
Presentation
It's alright. It certainly has a Tomb Raider style going on and Mexico is a solid pick for a game like this. Can't say there was anything bad or wrong with it, but nothing really mind blowing either. Just picture what a Tomb Raider level could look like in a Tomb and you wouldn't be far from what's in the game. Which it went a bit more adventurous with what's on offer but I'm satisfied with what we got. Same applies to the music too, it's nice but it's not something I can remember too well or focuses too much on during my time here.
Summary
A really fun game that blends combat, traps, and puzzles all well together into a short, entertaining game. If you don't mind a basic story, then I would recommend playing this with a friend even if you have never played a Tomb Raider game before.
Rating: 8/10
Update: I am aware this game has DLC but considering its just puzzle maps and survival levels, they didn't really appeal to me. Maybe I'll play them someday and update this post but for now I'm happy with finishing off the base game. I believe the next entry will be the 2013 reboot of the franchise which I have actually played before but I'm curious to play it now I have multiple Tomb Raider games under my belt. No idea what my next post will be on (as usual) so look out for that. Thanks for stopping by :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
22/02/25 - Solitairica
What would happen if you combine the card game Solitaire with elements of an RPG and a roguelike? Well you get this indie game, Solitairica! Since I wasn't sure what game to play next, I randomised the free games I had and this one came up. Certainly has an interesting premise that's for sure.
Background
Solitairica was published and developed by Righteous Hammer Games. From what I can gather, the company consists of a married couple with Clint Jorgenson working on the game itself and his wife Coreen supporting him financially. Jorgenson isn't new to game development. He worked with EA before on games such as Skate and Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Despite this, I always admire a developer who attempts to make a game by themselves as that must take a lot of time and effort. And this is the first one from him as well, with only another one being released between Solitarica and the time of this post.
Gameplay
As the game doesn't have a plot, let's just move straight to gameplay.
So how can you incorporate solitaire into an RPG? Well easily and effectively. Each round in the game consists of an enemy and a pack of cards laid about on the screen. The aim is to remove all the cards on the screen before the enemy kills you. Cards can be removed by either going one above or one below a certain card type, so a card with an "9" can be removed with an "8" or a "10". The type of card removed can help power up a type of ability which can attack some of the cards, heal the player, apply a perk on an enemy (i.e., stun them for a round) or adjust the current cards so they can be removed easier. Items can also be used to help boost stats before a battle using coins, with the items rotating around after each battle. Overall I think this is a fun and addicting take on Solitaire. Take something that's simple, make it a bit more complex and you have something that is quick to learn and very enjoyable. The roguelike element of it also keeps things unique each time since different items and abilities could be used. I do think this could be expanded further to have different enemies and/or more levels, but for a project by one person this is ideal for a fun afternoon. It even has little things like showing what card you should have picked if you selected a new card, I like little taunts like that which act as a lesson on paying attention.
Naturally, enemies can fight back in the game. They can poison cards, set them on fire, plant bombs, disable abilities for a round, add more cards or simply just hit hard. Again, the creativity here for a small game really shines through and it keeps these games engaging from how intense and addictive it can be. However this game suffers from a problem with its randomness. Imagine you have three cards left on the board, all in one column so you have to get Card A to unlock B which unlocks C. Now you may notice that if you have no abilities, you cannot protect yourself from any sort of enemy attack. So you have to really hope you get lucky and get a card that removes the last few cards otherwise it's not just the end of the battle, it's all the way back to the start. And sure there is an option to revive but for a roguelike it doesn't mean too much since dying could happen in the next fight. I honestly believe that to win the game, you need at least a good amount of luck.
Presentation
Considering it's a first game from an indie developer, I think it achieves its mark at looking and being charming. Some silly little sound effects here and there from the enemies give some life to what is essentially just a 2D drawing of them, providing a bit of light hearted fun for the quest. The designs are far from new but, again, I appreciated how random it can be sometimes such as a seal security guard that looks menacing but attacks by "acting cute". Nothing I can comment on about the music, it was fine and served its purpose.
Summary
A unique twist on the card game Solitaire. If you can handle losing some games due to luck being against you, this is a charming little game you can enjoy during a short break.
Rating: 7/10
Update: Not much to say this time but I'm glad I got around to this game. 2013 Tomb Raider will be next. Until then, bye :)
What would happen if you combine the card game Solitaire with elements of an RPG and a roguelike? Well you get this indie game, Solitairica! Since I wasn't sure what game to play next, I randomised the free games I had and this one came up. Certainly has an interesting premise that's for sure.
Background
Solitairica was published and developed by Righteous Hammer Games. From what I can gather, the company consists of a married couple with Clint Jorgenson working on the game itself and his wife Coreen supporting him financially. Jorgenson isn't new to game development. He worked with EA before on games such as Skate and Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Despite this, I always admire a developer who attempts to make a game by themselves as that must take a lot of time and effort. And this is the first one from him as well, with only another one being released between Solitarica and the time of this post.
Gameplay
As the game doesn't have a plot, let's just move straight to gameplay.
So how can you incorporate solitaire into an RPG? Well easily and effectively. Each round in the game consists of an enemy and a pack of cards laid about on the screen. The aim is to remove all the cards on the screen before the enemy kills you. Cards can be removed by either going one above or one below a certain card type, so a card with an "9" can be removed with an "8" or a "10". The type of card removed can help power up a type of ability which can attack some of the cards, heal the player, apply a perk on an enemy (i.e., stun them for a round) or adjust the current cards so they can be removed easier. Items can also be used to help boost stats before a battle using coins, with the items rotating around after each battle. Overall I think this is a fun and addicting take on Solitaire. Take something that's simple, make it a bit more complex and you have something that is quick to learn and very enjoyable. The roguelike element of it also keeps things unique each time since different items and abilities could be used. I do think this could be expanded further to have different enemies and/or more levels, but for a project by one person this is ideal for a fun afternoon. It even has little things like showing what card you should have picked if you selected a new card, I like little taunts like that which act as a lesson on paying attention.
Naturally, enemies can fight back in the game. They can poison cards, set them on fire, plant bombs, disable abilities for a round, add more cards or simply just hit hard. Again, the creativity here for a small game really shines through and it keeps these games engaging from how intense and addictive it can be. However this game suffers from a problem with its randomness. Imagine you have three cards left on the board, all in one column so you have to get Card A to unlock B which unlocks C. Now you may notice that if you have no abilities, you cannot protect yourself from any sort of enemy attack. So you have to really hope you get lucky and get a card that removes the last few cards otherwise it's not just the end of the battle, it's all the way back to the start. And sure there is an option to revive but for a roguelike it doesn't mean too much since dying could happen in the next fight. I honestly believe that to win the game, you need at least a good amount of luck.
Presentation
Considering it's a first game from an indie developer, I think it achieves its mark at looking and being charming. Some silly little sound effects here and there from the enemies give some life to what is essentially just a 2D drawing of them, providing a bit of light hearted fun for the quest. The designs are far from new but, again, I appreciated how random it can be sometimes such as a seal security guard that looks menacing but attacks by "acting cute". Nothing I can comment on about the music, it was fine and served its purpose.
Summary
A unique twist on the card game Solitaire. If you can handle losing some games due to luck being against you, this is a charming little game you can enjoy during a short break.
Rating: 7/10
Update: Not much to say this time but I'm glad I got around to this game. 2013 Tomb Raider will be next. Until then, bye :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
27/02/25 - Tomb Raider (2013)
Next in the Tomb Raider franchise is the tenth main entry in the Tomb Raider franchise and the third one to be called Tomb Raider. This is a replay for me since this was one of the first games I played on my PC, so I'll try not to be too nostalgic or biased (no promises though).
Background
So to recap from two posts ago, after Underworld was released to the public, developer Crystal Dynamics go to work on the spin-off Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Well that's not entirely true. Now under publisher Square Enix, the developers split into two teams with one group working on that spin-off and the other working on Tomb Raider (2013). The aim of this title was not to continue the Legend trilogy but to reboot the franchise a second time and focus on Lara's origins. It was quite ambitious with it moving for better graphics, a new voice actress for Lara (Camilla Luddington) and the beginning of a new trilogy, although I'm sure this part was though after the games release.
Plot
This is by far the most brutal and graphic story Lara has yet. You could point to the earlier titles with them incorporating some elements of horror, particularly towards the end of the game. Tomb Raider (2013), however, is not physiological horror but more of a survival, slasher with Lara and her friends having to survive a dangerous cult on an island away from civilisation. This is certainly not a game for those who don't like blood and I do think it sometimes it a bit needlessly excessive. But ok, let's ignore the violence and look at the actual plot for a moment. This game does a great job at slowly turning Lara from a woman who was scared at all the horror surrounding her to one who would do anything to save her friends. I wouldn't say the game ends with her being the Lara Croft from the other games, but most of her personality is there. The other characters are good also, although I wouldn’t go as far to say memorable due to having seen their traits before in other games. So while I wouldn’t say it’s the best plot the franchise ever had, it’s certainly the one that kept me the most engaged with its cinematic approach.
Gameplay
As with many Tomb Raider games before this, the game is linear with Lara having to reach a certain point via combat and platforming. Lara is easy to control while doing, being able to perform feats such as zip wiring across parts of the land and climbing walls with her axes. Even if some aspects of this can rely on quick time events or do-or-die situations, these don't take many attempts as the game makes it clear what Lara needs to do and with Lara's jump being quite reliable in this game. Survival instinct also highlights key elements surrounding Lara, helpfully providing more hints as to what Lara can use to make progress. Darker areas can be lit up with a torch which I find quite atmospheric, particularly in the more culty areas. However using survival instinct ruined the immersion of that since it shows the outline of the whole area rather than the torches small radius around Lara.
Platforming is great but how is the combat? Well, this is the most divisive part for the fans of the classic series as it's fairly different and be a bit cruel. This game shifts from to the cover and shoot sort of combat, with Lara needing to hide behind something before attacking again rather than constantly manoeuvring to avoid gunfire. Now this isn’t new, the Legend trilogy had part of this at play. What is new, however, is the removal of medikits. Instead Laras health regenerates over time but consequently she can take a lot less damage. In one way I get it. They want Lara to be more of a person trying to get out alive rather than some acrobatic who can tank a lot of damage. However, this does make it easy to die from gunfire has, although the AI isn’t that smart, it only takes a few moments to take you out. It does work well during stealth sections though, since you have to be sneaky during these moments or face dire consequences.
I think it’s worth going into detail about the weapons since combat is the main part of this game. The bow is the key weapon of this game, something really good for stealth killing enemies and decent at standard combat and platforming. It’s not my go-to weapon but it’s certainly satisfying to use. We have a pistol (not a dual one though, quite strange), which works solid enough although this works best as a backup for the rifle, a strong weapon for big fights but can run out of ammo too quickly. A shotgun works nicely at taking out the main enemies although I never ran out of ammo for it at any point, making it my primary weapon for enemies that were close to me. I rarely used the grenade launcher despite it clearing out enemies decently, I just forget about it half the time as it’s attached to the rifle so if I run out of ammo for it, I switch to a more appropriate weapon for the fight. We finally have the axes which are fun to use, even if they are tied to quick time effects for finishing moves.
New to this game are skill points and savaging. By killing enemies and completing tasks, Lara can earn salvage and XP. It’s a simple system but I like it, provides a reason to take out enemies as well as explore the island. There wasn’t anything I would say is a must purchase with it, but it allowed Lara to progress naturally rather than becoming overpowered at any point. Areas such as outside optional tombs (amazing little puzzles that I really enjoyed doing) and buildings provide plenty of areas to find camps, spots where Lara improve her skills or her weapons.
As I played this before, I wanted to 100% it this time which meant finding all the collectibles with some being more fun to find than others. Documents I found the best because they would either tell a story about the history of the island or provide more depths to a character, since Lara wouldn’t see them much during her adventure. Relics are second, providing lovely little notes about historical artefacts scattered across the island. GPS caches are mediocre, they only serve as a way of collecting salvage which you probably don’t need by the end of the game. Treasure maps are fine, they just serve as a way of collecting the latter three types of collectibles so I’m grateful that they saved me time. Challenges also act as trying to find or interact with certain objects in an area, and these were truly a challenge to find since they don’t appear on the map. Unless you really want XP, I wouldn’t bother going after these.
Presentation
The graphics have certainly had another major upgrade. The island has areas that look cool such as the sea hitting the beach or areas where the cult has been at work. Other areas can feel similar to one another although nothing that I would describe as dull or uninteresting. The soundtrack to the game was lovely despite it not being nearly as iconic as some of the 90s tracks.
One small extra note relating to the map. When finding collectibles, an object can be tracked by selecting it as a local waypoint on the map and then using survival instinct to view it. It's fairly handy but sometimes it's not truthful? For instance, an area with a lift had a collectible on it. The tracker said it was on the third floor but it was actually on the first. I'm not sure if this is just a me thing but I hope the next two in this trilogy can make it a bit more accurate (if they still have these features of course).
DLC
Oh yeah, I completely forgot this had DLC. Tomb of the Lost Adventurer adds an extra optional tomb to the game, involving a puzzle with a crashed plane. Now is this a solid puzzle? I would say so yes, not a difficult one but makes good use of the physics engine and environment. Is it worth three dollars for only 15 minutes of gameplay at most? Not in the slightest. I wouldn’t go out of your way to play something that adds so little to the game, it just feels like cut content than a worth expansion.
Summary
Tomb Raider (2013) is a different game from all the titles that came before it. If you don’t mind a lot of violence and cover-style combat, then this is a thrilling adventure to play within the Tomb Raider franchise.
Base game rating: 8/10
DLC rating: 4/10
Update
I’m not a big fan of replaying games but I’m glad I got through this again, especially with the knowledge of all the titles that came before this. The second Lara Croft spin-off will be next in the TR list which I’m curious about, since while I did love the first one, this seems to be less liked by people. I’ll be sure to go in with an open mind. For now, I’ll just move onto another random game. Thanks for reading :)
Next in the Tomb Raider franchise is the tenth main entry in the Tomb Raider franchise and the third one to be called Tomb Raider. This is a replay for me since this was one of the first games I played on my PC, so I'll try not to be too nostalgic or biased (no promises though).
Background
So to recap from two posts ago, after Underworld was released to the public, developer Crystal Dynamics go to work on the spin-off Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Well that's not entirely true. Now under publisher Square Enix, the developers split into two teams with one group working on that spin-off and the other working on Tomb Raider (2013). The aim of this title was not to continue the Legend trilogy but to reboot the franchise a second time and focus on Lara's origins. It was quite ambitious with it moving for better graphics, a new voice actress for Lara (Camilla Luddington) and the beginning of a new trilogy, although I'm sure this part was though after the games release.
Plot
This is by far the most brutal and graphic story Lara has yet. You could point to the earlier titles with them incorporating some elements of horror, particularly towards the end of the game. Tomb Raider (2013), however, is not physiological horror but more of a survival, slasher with Lara and her friends having to survive a dangerous cult on an island away from civilisation. This is certainly not a game for those who don't like blood and I do think it sometimes it a bit needlessly excessive. But ok, let's ignore the violence and look at the actual plot for a moment. This game does a great job at slowly turning Lara from a woman who was scared at all the horror surrounding her to one who would do anything to save her friends. I wouldn't say the game ends with her being the Lara Croft from the other games, but most of her personality is there. The other characters are good also, although I wouldn’t go as far to say memorable due to having seen their traits before in other games. So while I wouldn’t say it’s the best plot the franchise ever had, it’s certainly the one that kept me the most engaged with its cinematic approach.
Gameplay
As with many Tomb Raider games before this, the game is linear with Lara having to reach a certain point via combat and platforming. Lara is easy to control while doing, being able to perform feats such as zip wiring across parts of the land and climbing walls with her axes. Even if some aspects of this can rely on quick time events or do-or-die situations, these don't take many attempts as the game makes it clear what Lara needs to do and with Lara's jump being quite reliable in this game. Survival instinct also highlights key elements surrounding Lara, helpfully providing more hints as to what Lara can use to make progress. Darker areas can be lit up with a torch which I find quite atmospheric, particularly in the more culty areas. However using survival instinct ruined the immersion of that since it shows the outline of the whole area rather than the torches small radius around Lara.
Platforming is great but how is the combat? Well, this is the most divisive part for the fans of the classic series as it's fairly different and be a bit cruel. This game shifts from to the cover and shoot sort of combat, with Lara needing to hide behind something before attacking again rather than constantly manoeuvring to avoid gunfire. Now this isn’t new, the Legend trilogy had part of this at play. What is new, however, is the removal of medikits. Instead Laras health regenerates over time but consequently she can take a lot less damage. In one way I get it. They want Lara to be more of a person trying to get out alive rather than some acrobatic who can tank a lot of damage. However, this does make it easy to die from gunfire has, although the AI isn’t that smart, it only takes a few moments to take you out. It does work well during stealth sections though, since you have to be sneaky during these moments or face dire consequences.
I think it’s worth going into detail about the weapons since combat is the main part of this game. The bow is the key weapon of this game, something really good for stealth killing enemies and decent at standard combat and platforming. It’s not my go-to weapon but it’s certainly satisfying to use. We have a pistol (not a dual one though, quite strange), which works solid enough although this works best as a backup for the rifle, a strong weapon for big fights but can run out of ammo too quickly. A shotgun works nicely at taking out the main enemies although I never ran out of ammo for it at any point, making it my primary weapon for enemies that were close to me. I rarely used the grenade launcher despite it clearing out enemies decently, I just forget about it half the time as it’s attached to the rifle so if I run out of ammo for it, I switch to a more appropriate weapon for the fight. We finally have the axes which are fun to use, even if they are tied to quick time effects for finishing moves.
New to this game are skill points and savaging. By killing enemies and completing tasks, Lara can earn salvage and XP. It’s a simple system but I like it, provides a reason to take out enemies as well as explore the island. There wasn’t anything I would say is a must purchase with it, but it allowed Lara to progress naturally rather than becoming overpowered at any point. Areas such as outside optional tombs (amazing little puzzles that I really enjoyed doing) and buildings provide plenty of areas to find camps, spots where Lara improve her skills or her weapons.
As I played this before, I wanted to 100% it this time which meant finding all the collectibles with some being more fun to find than others. Documents I found the best because they would either tell a story about the history of the island or provide more depths to a character, since Lara wouldn’t see them much during her adventure. Relics are second, providing lovely little notes about historical artefacts scattered across the island. GPS caches are mediocre, they only serve as a way of collecting salvage which you probably don’t need by the end of the game. Treasure maps are fine, they just serve as a way of collecting the latter three types of collectibles so I’m grateful that they saved me time. Challenges also act as trying to find or interact with certain objects in an area, and these were truly a challenge to find since they don’t appear on the map. Unless you really want XP, I wouldn’t bother going after these.
Presentation
The graphics have certainly had another major upgrade. The island has areas that look cool such as the sea hitting the beach or areas where the cult has been at work. Other areas can feel similar to one another although nothing that I would describe as dull or uninteresting. The soundtrack to the game was lovely despite it not being nearly as iconic as some of the 90s tracks.
One small extra note relating to the map. When finding collectibles, an object can be tracked by selecting it as a local waypoint on the map and then using survival instinct to view it. It's fairly handy but sometimes it's not truthful? For instance, an area with a lift had a collectible on it. The tracker said it was on the third floor but it was actually on the first. I'm not sure if this is just a me thing but I hope the next two in this trilogy can make it a bit more accurate (if they still have these features of course).
DLC
Oh yeah, I completely forgot this had DLC. Tomb of the Lost Adventurer adds an extra optional tomb to the game, involving a puzzle with a crashed plane. Now is this a solid puzzle? I would say so yes, not a difficult one but makes good use of the physics engine and environment. Is it worth three dollars for only 15 minutes of gameplay at most? Not in the slightest. I wouldn’t go out of your way to play something that adds so little to the game, it just feels like cut content than a worth expansion.
Summary
Tomb Raider (2013) is a different game from all the titles that came before it. If you don’t mind a lot of violence and cover-style combat, then this is a thrilling adventure to play within the Tomb Raider franchise.
Base game rating: 8/10
DLC rating: 4/10
Update
I’m not a big fan of replaying games but I’m glad I got through this again, especially with the knowledge of all the titles that came before this. The second Lara Croft spin-off will be next in the TR list which I’m curious about, since while I did love the first one, this seems to be less liked by people. I’ll be sure to go in with an open mind. For now, I’ll just move onto another random game. Thanks for reading :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
13/04/25 - Snake Rattle 'n' Roll
Don't let this goofy art cover fool you, this is a very challenging isometric platformer from the early 1990s, originally for the NES and later ported to the Sega Mega Drive.
Background
Ok so we have another game developed and published by Rare, seems there are a lot of them on the Nintendo Online catalogue and the fact that the company published nine games for the NES alone during that year (1990) pretty much tells me there's still more to be added. To be specific, this game was developed by Tim Stamper and Mark Betteridge who both funded the company in the early 80s. This game seemed to be a challenge to Betteridge who wanted to create a game in the smallest file size possible which is where the idea of a snake came from, have an entity that can move objects in "cheap backgrounds". The game was inspired from an early isometric game from Atari Games titled "Marble Madness" and I think even from just looking at the screenshots you can see the similarities. And the name of the game? That's a reference to a 1954 song "Shake Rattle and Roll" which also influenced the soundtrack to the game.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned, it's an isometric platformer. Throughout eleven levels, players must control Rattle (and Roll if there are two players) and eat enough Nibbley Pibbleys to make the snake weight enough to ring a bell and leave the level. Not every level has the bell and sometimes you just need to reach the end, but considering the length of the snake is the health of the snake, eating is certainly necessary. These are located across the level so finding them won't be difficult. It's generally also fairly linear so having a time out from getting lost is unlikely to happen. Enemies such as big feet and anvils can cause damage to the snake however, but luckily combat isn't too difficult so losing a life from that isn't too common near the start.
I mentioned at the start of this post that this game is difficult and I truly don't think I could have beaten it without relying on some save states. The first few levels are fine enough, some water currents are a bit of a struggle to get past and the controls, while taking a minute to get used to, serve well at this point in the game. Halfway through the game is where things start to get tricky. There are many jumps they quite precise movement to get onto otherwise the snake dies and you either use a continue or restart the game. This precise movement falls into two categories: either the snake has to move on ice/currents that requires the snake to continuously move in a specific direction or that it has to jump at a precise angle to avoid danger. Towards the last few levels, these jumps fall into both categories and are all over the level. Sure you could use a cheat to skip most of the levels but you still have the four hardest levels of the games to get through, maybe a password system could have helped here. And the very last level with the boss fight.....that was just mashing a button and hoping I don't give it a second to fully recover (this is not an exaggeration, if you have one second of not attacking the boss, it fully recovers all its health, how fun). It was a nightmare.
Quite negative so far so let's look on the better side of things. This game offers a very arcadic challenge with each level showcasing a new location or new enemies or new hazards. No level is the same with each offering not only different obstacles but different enemies and traps.. For instance, water may hold a shark which can eat the snake or the floor may hold a blade which can easily cut the snake or maybe one of the Nibbley Pibbleys is actually a bomb which blows up. This sort of thing prevents boredom and makes every level stand out in its own way, good or bad. I also like the objects in this game, it certainly represents the creativity of the company that will be seen in its later games. An example of this a reverse which reverses a players controls. Putting that right at the destination of a jump is quite sneaky and yet creative move and those sort of things happen every now and then during the short campaign.
Presentation
One big thing that draws players in is how good this game looks. You can't really go wrong with an isometric 8-bit platformer that has a different colour scheme on each level. Even if you think it's basic, there aren't really other NES games like this so it's rather a unique entry on the system. The music compliments the aesthetic well, blending into the environment quite nicely alongside the sound effects of all the entities on the screen. If nothing else, play the game for this.
Summary
This game is a real pain in the ass due to how hard the later levels are, relying on performing many complex jumps in timed conditions which can easily result in a game over. But with how unique this game is makes me suggest to at least play the first few levels just to appreciate the art style and to see the imagination that was made in such an early 3D platformer.
Rating: 4/10
Update
Finally got around to a game after a bit of time away. Hopefully I'll get through more games in the Nintendo Online catalogue this year whilst I still have the subscription. Anyway, next post will either be random Doom WADs or Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. No idea which but should be up at some point this month (no promises). Thanks for reading :)
Don't let this goofy art cover fool you, this is a very challenging isometric platformer from the early 1990s, originally for the NES and later ported to the Sega Mega Drive.
Background
Ok so we have another game developed and published by Rare, seems there are a lot of them on the Nintendo Online catalogue and the fact that the company published nine games for the NES alone during that year (1990) pretty much tells me there's still more to be added. To be specific, this game was developed by Tim Stamper and Mark Betteridge who both funded the company in the early 80s. This game seemed to be a challenge to Betteridge who wanted to create a game in the smallest file size possible which is where the idea of a snake came from, have an entity that can move objects in "cheap backgrounds". The game was inspired from an early isometric game from Atari Games titled "Marble Madness" and I think even from just looking at the screenshots you can see the similarities. And the name of the game? That's a reference to a 1954 song "Shake Rattle and Roll" which also influenced the soundtrack to the game.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned, it's an isometric platformer. Throughout eleven levels, players must control Rattle (and Roll if there are two players) and eat enough Nibbley Pibbleys to make the snake weight enough to ring a bell and leave the level. Not every level has the bell and sometimes you just need to reach the end, but considering the length of the snake is the health of the snake, eating is certainly necessary. These are located across the level so finding them won't be difficult. It's generally also fairly linear so having a time out from getting lost is unlikely to happen. Enemies such as big feet and anvils can cause damage to the snake however, but luckily combat isn't too difficult so losing a life from that isn't too common near the start.
I mentioned at the start of this post that this game is difficult and I truly don't think I could have beaten it without relying on some save states. The first few levels are fine enough, some water currents are a bit of a struggle to get past and the controls, while taking a minute to get used to, serve well at this point in the game. Halfway through the game is where things start to get tricky. There are many jumps they quite precise movement to get onto otherwise the snake dies and you either use a continue or restart the game. This precise movement falls into two categories: either the snake has to move on ice/currents that requires the snake to continuously move in a specific direction or that it has to jump at a precise angle to avoid danger. Towards the last few levels, these jumps fall into both categories and are all over the level. Sure you could use a cheat to skip most of the levels but you still have the four hardest levels of the games to get through, maybe a password system could have helped here. And the very last level with the boss fight.....that was just mashing a button and hoping I don't give it a second to fully recover (this is not an exaggeration, if you have one second of not attacking the boss, it fully recovers all its health, how fun). It was a nightmare.
Quite negative so far so let's look on the better side of things. This game offers a very arcadic challenge with each level showcasing a new location or new enemies or new hazards. No level is the same with each offering not only different obstacles but different enemies and traps.. For instance, water may hold a shark which can eat the snake or the floor may hold a blade which can easily cut the snake or maybe one of the Nibbley Pibbleys is actually a bomb which blows up. This sort of thing prevents boredom and makes every level stand out in its own way, good or bad. I also like the objects in this game, it certainly represents the creativity of the company that will be seen in its later games. An example of this a reverse which reverses a players controls. Putting that right at the destination of a jump is quite sneaky and yet creative move and those sort of things happen every now and then during the short campaign.
Presentation
One big thing that draws players in is how good this game looks. You can't really go wrong with an isometric 8-bit platformer that has a different colour scheme on each level. Even if you think it's basic, there aren't really other NES games like this so it's rather a unique entry on the system. The music compliments the aesthetic well, blending into the environment quite nicely alongside the sound effects of all the entities on the screen. If nothing else, play the game for this.
Summary
This game is a real pain in the ass due to how hard the later levels are, relying on performing many complex jumps in timed conditions which can easily result in a game over. But with how unique this game is makes me suggest to at least play the first few levels just to appreciate the art style and to see the imagination that was made in such an early 3D platformer.
Rating: 4/10
Update
Finally got around to a game after a bit of time away. Hopefully I'll get through more games in the Nintendo Online catalogue this year whilst I still have the subscription. Anyway, next post will either be random Doom WADs or Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. No idea which but should be up at some point this month (no promises). Thanks for reading :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
17/04/25 - Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
I decided to continue going through the Tomb Raider games, not many left now.
Background
This game is a sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and although the story lines are completely isolated from each other, main elements from the first game are found here. Temple of Osiris began development after Tomb Raider (2013) was released, primarily developed by Crystal Dynamics with some help from long-time partners Nixxes Software. Lara Croft was going to be its own spin-off from the main franchise but in the end we only got these two games. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't continue with it, I assume it's because the reviews that came out weren't so positive as they had been for Guardian of Light. A shame really, I would have liked to see more games like this as even if it's not the best it's a little change from the main entries and offers fans something in between those entries.
Plot
If you thought Temple of Osiris has a complex plot with interesting character development and good voice acting then you're wrong. Quite the opposite in fact, it's as straightforward as you can get. Lara alongside a rival treasure hunter and two gods have to stop the Egyptian god Set from enslaving humanity by collecting parts of Osiris that have been scattered around in various tombs surrounding the pyramid. First off, yes Lara has faced Set before in Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, let's just pretend that doesn't exist for the sake of post otherwise we have to get into what's cannon and what's not cannon and which is better and all that. My real complaint is that it doesn't really do anything cool to keep me gripped towards the plot or its characters. Who are these companions I'm with? Could we learn more about Carters (the treasure hunter) thoughts on the situation and if his opinion on Lara or his understanding of mythology has changed besides his brief dialogue in a couple cutscenes? And the other Gods, I barely even realised Horus was there because Iris kept saying "you must destroy Set or else". Don't they feel bad about having to stop him considering his history? And Set was mostly just threats throughout the campaign. With such fascinating characters that have a wealth of history, I was expecting a bit more even for a 5 hour game.
Gameplay
Most of what I loved about the previous Lara Croft game is present here. Fast and responsive controls, allowing Lara to manoeuvre around the map with ease. Using weapons is a lot more convenient too as you no longer have to hold down a button to shoot the weapons. Jumping is just as important here, never felt like I messed up any of the platforms because of them. Instead of relying the grapple to get Lara places, this has mostly been replaced with a magical staff which can manipulate objects around Lara such as moving platforms up, stopping machinery, and (quite smartly) delaying a timed bomb so Lara can place it in a strategic position. I do love the grapple and it is still here, but the staff is quite a handy tool and can shoot if needed. Bombs also make a return and serve the same purposes as before.
The game itself is similar as before. Solve puzzles using objects around with some combat in between to make progress, potentially completing challenges whilst doing so. The puzzles themselves are quite simple, perhaps even easier than the previous entry since less objects are found within each puzzle. In fact the platforming is a lot easier than last time as well, with more time given to execute a jump as well as more space to land. Collectibles are still a challenge to get so you can be assured that each level can offer not only a test of skill but a reason to explore, just like before. Gems can also be collected like before only this time they have the purpose of unlocking relics to grant boosts, a nice addition to what I thought was a bit of a pointless addition before.
The key reason for the easier nature of the game is how the game is laid out itself. In this game, there is a hub world where Lara goes to each tomb to collect the needed fragment. For contrast, Guardian of Light didn't have this but rather a large connected map that progressively got more challenging the further Lara went through it. For that reason I prefer GoL's approach than ToS because not only does it give it a better reason to raise up the difficulty but it also just makes the world so much better. Why go through numerous of similar looking tombs when I can go through a massive terrain to enter one big, threatening one. The hub world isn't a dull one though, plenty to do throughout such as change the time of day to provide some perks or unlocks a certain area. Plenty of challenges about to, both in collecting items and fighting challenges. Heck there are even some optional tombs about, although there's only five this time. So while I cannot say I prefer the hub world approach to this game, I will say it was an overall success in how it was implemented.
Combat still works well, even if again it's taken a step down in difficulty. The quantity of enemies haven't changed in the slightest, still posing a threat in firing numerous projectiles or attacking up close. It's also still quite varied with some kamikazes and shield skeletons about. What makes it easier is how little health they had. Sure there are so many different weapons that can be unlocked through the already mentioned challenges but why bother when the default starting pistols can mow every enemy down with little problem. I only see the stronger weapons as useful during boss fights or if I wanted to get through a tomb under a time limit. Oh yes the boss fights, plenty more of them this time around and I did like them despite them having a simple gimmick to their defeat. Combat: quite easy but still quite fun.
Presentation
There really isn't much to say here. This is a good looking game that nails most of the Egyptian vibe quite well. The use of a torch in dark areas added more tension to the game than I though due to various traps scattered about. I do wish the tombs had a bit more uniqueness between them as it felt like I was going in the same tomb with a different colour each time. Music is solid as usual, maybe a bit too loud at points but still a nice little soundtrack to accompany the game.
Summary
I do think this game an inferior sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light since it's quite easy with a lack of story, but it's a fast-paced game with fun combat and well-designed puzzles that can serve as a fun afternoon activity with friends.
Rating: 6/10
Update
Still do want to get through those Doom WADs but I'll save it for a little longer. As for Tomb Raider, I've only got two games left to get through (no not doing mobile games or the remastered trilogies, maybe another day). For the moment, I'll find another random game to get through. Thank you for reading, always appreciate it :))
I decided to continue going through the Tomb Raider games, not many left now.
Background
This game is a sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and although the story lines are completely isolated from each other, main elements from the first game are found here. Temple of Osiris began development after Tomb Raider (2013) was released, primarily developed by Crystal Dynamics with some help from long-time partners Nixxes Software. Lara Croft was going to be its own spin-off from the main franchise but in the end we only got these two games. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't continue with it, I assume it's because the reviews that came out weren't so positive as they had been for Guardian of Light. A shame really, I would have liked to see more games like this as even if it's not the best it's a little change from the main entries and offers fans something in between those entries.
Plot
If you thought Temple of Osiris has a complex plot with interesting character development and good voice acting then you're wrong. Quite the opposite in fact, it's as straightforward as you can get. Lara alongside a rival treasure hunter and two gods have to stop the Egyptian god Set from enslaving humanity by collecting parts of Osiris that have been scattered around in various tombs surrounding the pyramid. First off, yes Lara has faced Set before in Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, let's just pretend that doesn't exist for the sake of post otherwise we have to get into what's cannon and what's not cannon and which is better and all that. My real complaint is that it doesn't really do anything cool to keep me gripped towards the plot or its characters. Who are these companions I'm with? Could we learn more about Carters (the treasure hunter) thoughts on the situation and if his opinion on Lara or his understanding of mythology has changed besides his brief dialogue in a couple cutscenes? And the other Gods, I barely even realised Horus was there because Iris kept saying "you must destroy Set or else". Don't they feel bad about having to stop him considering his history? And Set was mostly just threats throughout the campaign. With such fascinating characters that have a wealth of history, I was expecting a bit more even for a 5 hour game.
Gameplay
Most of what I loved about the previous Lara Croft game is present here. Fast and responsive controls, allowing Lara to manoeuvre around the map with ease. Using weapons is a lot more convenient too as you no longer have to hold down a button to shoot the weapons. Jumping is just as important here, never felt like I messed up any of the platforms because of them. Instead of relying the grapple to get Lara places, this has mostly been replaced with a magical staff which can manipulate objects around Lara such as moving platforms up, stopping machinery, and (quite smartly) delaying a timed bomb so Lara can place it in a strategic position. I do love the grapple and it is still here, but the staff is quite a handy tool and can shoot if needed. Bombs also make a return and serve the same purposes as before.
The game itself is similar as before. Solve puzzles using objects around with some combat in between to make progress, potentially completing challenges whilst doing so. The puzzles themselves are quite simple, perhaps even easier than the previous entry since less objects are found within each puzzle. In fact the platforming is a lot easier than last time as well, with more time given to execute a jump as well as more space to land. Collectibles are still a challenge to get so you can be assured that each level can offer not only a test of skill but a reason to explore, just like before. Gems can also be collected like before only this time they have the purpose of unlocking relics to grant boosts, a nice addition to what I thought was a bit of a pointless addition before.
The key reason for the easier nature of the game is how the game is laid out itself. In this game, there is a hub world where Lara goes to each tomb to collect the needed fragment. For contrast, Guardian of Light didn't have this but rather a large connected map that progressively got more challenging the further Lara went through it. For that reason I prefer GoL's approach than ToS because not only does it give it a better reason to raise up the difficulty but it also just makes the world so much better. Why go through numerous of similar looking tombs when I can go through a massive terrain to enter one big, threatening one. The hub world isn't a dull one though, plenty to do throughout such as change the time of day to provide some perks or unlocks a certain area. Plenty of challenges about to, both in collecting items and fighting challenges. Heck there are even some optional tombs about, although there's only five this time. So while I cannot say I prefer the hub world approach to this game, I will say it was an overall success in how it was implemented.
Combat still works well, even if again it's taken a step down in difficulty. The quantity of enemies haven't changed in the slightest, still posing a threat in firing numerous projectiles or attacking up close. It's also still quite varied with some kamikazes and shield skeletons about. What makes it easier is how little health they had. Sure there are so many different weapons that can be unlocked through the already mentioned challenges but why bother when the default starting pistols can mow every enemy down with little problem. I only see the stronger weapons as useful during boss fights or if I wanted to get through a tomb under a time limit. Oh yes the boss fights, plenty more of them this time around and I did like them despite them having a simple gimmick to their defeat. Combat: quite easy but still quite fun.
Presentation
There really isn't much to say here. This is a good looking game that nails most of the Egyptian vibe quite well. The use of a torch in dark areas added more tension to the game than I though due to various traps scattered about. I do wish the tombs had a bit more uniqueness between them as it felt like I was going in the same tomb with a different colour each time. Music is solid as usual, maybe a bit too loud at points but still a nice little soundtrack to accompany the game.
Summary
I do think this game an inferior sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light since it's quite easy with a lack of story, but it's a fast-paced game with fun combat and well-designed puzzles that can serve as a fun afternoon activity with friends.
Rating: 6/10
Update
Still do want to get through those Doom WADs but I'll save it for a little longer. As for Tomb Raider, I've only got two games left to get through (no not doing mobile games or the remastered trilogies, maybe another day). For the moment, I'll find another random game to get through. Thank you for reading, always appreciate it :))
5 Yrs✓#
Skyhler
5 Yrs✓#
Ah Lara Croft. I've always been interested in these games. Still prefer Nathan Drake but Lara is nothing to sneeze at either!
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
04/05/25 - Star Wars: Battlefront (2004)
I promise posting this wasn't intentional! I had written about 75% of this post before realising the date and finished the game several days ago! Well life can be funny like that sometimes, can’t it?
Background
Although this game was released in 2004, this is far from the first Star Wars game, there have been plenty on many different systems for different movies with each having a slightly different approach to how they are played. This Pandemic Studios release wanted to stand out by having an online shooter that was based on the first six films (ok well the first five, Revenge of the Sith hadn’t been released yet). Pandemic Studios has made some games before this, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this game would really be its big break. It would later go on to make a sequel to this game and Destroy All Humans along with several other games until it was acquired and a year after shut down by Electronic Arts with the employees moving to other companies such as 343 Industries. Moving back to this game, a high level of care was put into it. Actors from the films and tv shows came in to say a few lines, 3D models were developed alongside an AI, and they even snuck in a demo onto the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set as a little sneak peak. The fact this one went on to sell 4 million copies pretty much says that all of this was a success. Let's move onto a little rundown of the game :)
Story
I feel like I don't really need to explain the story for this game since it's simply battles that occur within the first five movies, but for the benefit of those who haven't seen the films (me included) the premise is around a war across multiple planets for the control and peace of the universe. The original 1970s trilogy (episodes 4 to 6) focused on rebels attempting to take down the galactic empire whereas the trilogy (episodes 1 to 3) sets up how the galactic empire came to be. Of course, this is a very brief summary of six films and I didn't mention any characters but you don't really need any of that. The game is simply just for gameplay with some clips from the movies being thrown in as a means of providing context for each battle, a bit random but I can understand it given that its more of a competitive multiplayer game than a single player one. If you're an expert in the franchise or have no knowledge, this game will be sure to welcome you with open arms.
Gameplay
Star Wars: Battlefront is quite similar to the gameplay of Battlefield’s conquest mode. Two opposing teams need to capture strategic points across the map to not only provide a new spawn point for the team but to prevent the enemy team from spawning in that location. The game ends when either a team holds all such points for twenty seconds or when the number of reinforcements (i.e., the number of players lives) reaches zero. There is no time limit for each match although I’d estimate a match is around 15 to 20 minutes in length if both teams are equally skilled.
For the moment, let’s just ignore all the Star Wars aspects and characters going on and focus on what’s it’s like to be a typical soldier fighting on the battleground. Most of this is coming from the perspective of the standard infantry class since I didn’t find most maps lent itself to close combat too much (and I’m not too good with a sniper). Each character has a fluid movement for the most part, some even having an extra ability such as rolling out of the way or using a jump pack to gain height, which is certainly a fun addition which shakes things up both as an attacker and a defender. By most part, I think sometimes the running was a bit too slow which meant if a player spawned far from combat and there’s no vehicle, it could feel like taking a while. Shooting itself was quite enjoyable though, having the ability to zoom-in is really useful on maps like this and its fairly balanced when it comes to health. A player is also equipped with grenades, nothing too unique there but who could resist throwing one at a large group of stormtroopers? There are also places to replenish health and ammo at a reasonable pace that doesn’t break the flow of the game so don’t expect to sit idly by for those 20 minutes (besides the walking, hated that).
This isn’t really going to be a shock to anyone but combat can also take places in vehicles. These can range from quick motorbike-like vehicles to large, slow vehicles that can take and give a lot of damage. I didn’t really use these them as it makes me a big target on matches with bots in (sometimes instant death) but they are a lot of fun to play as. I think they managed to catch the Star Wars spirit well without compromising the combat element of it, allowing players to cause chaos for the other team. I would like to maybe see just a game mode where it was vehicles only, whether that is all on the ground or in the air. I think some of the later entries did it but it'd be cool to see if the direct sequel to this game did that.
I should really mention the AI, I somehow haven’t done that yet. You know how sometimes in a team-based game which is mostly bots you have a team that just stay in one spot and do nothing whilst the other team are incredible focused and easily win? Well that is certainly the case here! Of course, a licensed game from the 2000s isn’t going to have the best bots ever but it can be a real test in patience and knowing where to go very quickly. Take the map “Bespin: Cloud City” for instance, the opposing team will immediately take the turrets in the courtyard and mow down your team in seconds as they like to attack the key point behind the turret. Now I wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea for either team, particularly, but if you were playing this single player level then it will be annoying to have to continuously fail because of this stubbornness. I should stress this doesn’t happen all the time, I’d say about 4 maps have this issue, the rest of the maps are fine. Consider this more of a warning of what to expect if multiplayer matches aren’t your thing.
Campaigns & Other Modes
When on the single player aspect of the game, there are four options to pick from. The first is the Clone Wars Campaign which contains battles from significant points in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Similarly, the Galactic Civil War Campaign which compromises of key battles from the original trilogy of films. Galactic Conquest is different from the previous two as it challenges players to take over the galaxy planet by planet. Instant Action simply just lets players jump into any battle they want, hence the “instant”. A fair bit going on here but it’s essentially the same gameplay with a different context. Ok let’s break it down bit by bit to make it easier.
The Clone Wars Campaign has 7 missions to complete, the first half involving fighting as the Separatist Army (i.e., the droids) and the second half involving the Imperials. This is a good set of levels, even if it relies a bit on the player knowing the plot of the films. There isn’t a tutorial in what you need to do but it doesn’t take long to figure things out, it’s fairly straightforward. Sometimes there’s a statement saying to protect or destroy a certain area but I’m not sure anything happens if the objective fails, just seems like a way to get the AI to focus on a particular area whilst the player can focus on other key points. The missions themselves were solid enough although repetition of the game format can feel a bit draining.
The Galactic Civil War Campaign is quite similar, this time holding 9 maps. This was a bit harder due to some maps granting the enemy team an extra 50 soldiers. I think having a jedi or sith lord in each time tended to help a fair bit despite them not only being quite rare but also not allowing the player to play as one of them. A bit cruel but understandable considering trying to implement one of them may be tricky. I did find the clone wars better in terms of combat although this had more variety in its maps both in terms of theme and how the maps contained different hazards and areas to manoeuvre in.
Finally, there is Galactic Conquest which is a more refreshing take on the same game mode. Take 8 planets/maps. Let a player select one and if they win, they either gain a perk or remove a perk from the opposing team. A player wins by taking control of all 8 planets and henceforth the galaxy. An example of a perk could be to prevent enemies being seen on the mini map or to sabotage enemy vehicles. I think this is a really fun idea which is worthy of being its own thing! I was getting a bit burned out after playing through both campaigns so this added a new level that kept things engaging
Presentation
I think in this case it would be pointless to talk about the music and art style for the game as its Star Wars which is as iconic as you could get for a sci-fi shooter, so let’s focus on how well it’s been incorporated into the game. The planets themselves seem very faithful to the original material especially for the early 2000s. I think in some worlds it’s a bit apparent that they were held back by the technology as the outskirts of the map are entirely plain. However, that can easily be looked past by how colourful the planets can be along with the detail to each particular area and how well the lightning has been executed. NPCs are also found in some maps that can aid the team in victory. There’s even a hazard in one map that is an enemy in one of the original trilogy films which is certainly worthy of praise for its time! The sound effects for the guns can be a bit distracting as they are directly ripped from the films but I think that can be ignored easily enough. The music was played just enough to so not to be repetitive yet not making the game be pure silence. Overall, strong marks in this section.
Summary
Star Wars Battlefront (2004) captures the elements of the films quite well whilst also offering entertaining combat which can be easy to get addicted too, particularly when allowing to play various classes and vehicles. Sure, there could be more game modes and the bots intelligent hasn’t aged the best in the single player campaign, but this is worth the time of any Star Wars fan, particularly those who want to play with their friends!
Rating 7/10
Update
Another review that I wrote more than I expected. I do have a few other Star Wars games, including the direct sequel to this, but I’ll leave them for another day. I could do it once every May 4th but I think that’s a bit too cheesy haha. Next game should be one given to me recently by a friend so I have high hopes for that. Thanks for reading :)
I promise posting this wasn't intentional! I had written about 75% of this post before realising the date and finished the game several days ago! Well life can be funny like that sometimes, can’t it?
Background
Although this game was released in 2004, this is far from the first Star Wars game, there have been plenty on many different systems for different movies with each having a slightly different approach to how they are played. This Pandemic Studios release wanted to stand out by having an online shooter that was based on the first six films (ok well the first five, Revenge of the Sith hadn’t been released yet). Pandemic Studios has made some games before this, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this game would really be its big break. It would later go on to make a sequel to this game and Destroy All Humans along with several other games until it was acquired and a year after shut down by Electronic Arts with the employees moving to other companies such as 343 Industries. Moving back to this game, a high level of care was put into it. Actors from the films and tv shows came in to say a few lines, 3D models were developed alongside an AI, and they even snuck in a demo onto the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set as a little sneak peak. The fact this one went on to sell 4 million copies pretty much says that all of this was a success. Let's move onto a little rundown of the game :)
Story
I feel like I don't really need to explain the story for this game since it's simply battles that occur within the first five movies, but for the benefit of those who haven't seen the films (me included) the premise is around a war across multiple planets for the control and peace of the universe. The original 1970s trilogy (episodes 4 to 6) focused on rebels attempting to take down the galactic empire whereas the trilogy (episodes 1 to 3) sets up how the galactic empire came to be. Of course, this is a very brief summary of six films and I didn't mention any characters but you don't really need any of that. The game is simply just for gameplay with some clips from the movies being thrown in as a means of providing context for each battle, a bit random but I can understand it given that its more of a competitive multiplayer game than a single player one. If you're an expert in the franchise or have no knowledge, this game will be sure to welcome you with open arms.
Gameplay
Star Wars: Battlefront is quite similar to the gameplay of Battlefield’s conquest mode. Two opposing teams need to capture strategic points across the map to not only provide a new spawn point for the team but to prevent the enemy team from spawning in that location. The game ends when either a team holds all such points for twenty seconds or when the number of reinforcements (i.e., the number of players lives) reaches zero. There is no time limit for each match although I’d estimate a match is around 15 to 20 minutes in length if both teams are equally skilled.
For the moment, let’s just ignore all the Star Wars aspects and characters going on and focus on what’s it’s like to be a typical soldier fighting on the battleground. Most of this is coming from the perspective of the standard infantry class since I didn’t find most maps lent itself to close combat too much (and I’m not too good with a sniper). Each character has a fluid movement for the most part, some even having an extra ability such as rolling out of the way or using a jump pack to gain height, which is certainly a fun addition which shakes things up both as an attacker and a defender. By most part, I think sometimes the running was a bit too slow which meant if a player spawned far from combat and there’s no vehicle, it could feel like taking a while. Shooting itself was quite enjoyable though, having the ability to zoom-in is really useful on maps like this and its fairly balanced when it comes to health. A player is also equipped with grenades, nothing too unique there but who could resist throwing one at a large group of stormtroopers? There are also places to replenish health and ammo at a reasonable pace that doesn’t break the flow of the game so don’t expect to sit idly by for those 20 minutes (besides the walking, hated that).
This isn’t really going to be a shock to anyone but combat can also take places in vehicles. These can range from quick motorbike-like vehicles to large, slow vehicles that can take and give a lot of damage. I didn’t really use these them as it makes me a big target on matches with bots in (sometimes instant death) but they are a lot of fun to play as. I think they managed to catch the Star Wars spirit well without compromising the combat element of it, allowing players to cause chaos for the other team. I would like to maybe see just a game mode where it was vehicles only, whether that is all on the ground or in the air. I think some of the later entries did it but it'd be cool to see if the direct sequel to this game did that.
I should really mention the AI, I somehow haven’t done that yet. You know how sometimes in a team-based game which is mostly bots you have a team that just stay in one spot and do nothing whilst the other team are incredible focused and easily win? Well that is certainly the case here! Of course, a licensed game from the 2000s isn’t going to have the best bots ever but it can be a real test in patience and knowing where to go very quickly. Take the map “Bespin: Cloud City” for instance, the opposing team will immediately take the turrets in the courtyard and mow down your team in seconds as they like to attack the key point behind the turret. Now I wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea for either team, particularly, but if you were playing this single player level then it will be annoying to have to continuously fail because of this stubbornness. I should stress this doesn’t happen all the time, I’d say about 4 maps have this issue, the rest of the maps are fine. Consider this more of a warning of what to expect if multiplayer matches aren’t your thing.
Campaigns & Other Modes
When on the single player aspect of the game, there are four options to pick from. The first is the Clone Wars Campaign which contains battles from significant points in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Similarly, the Galactic Civil War Campaign which compromises of key battles from the original trilogy of films. Galactic Conquest is different from the previous two as it challenges players to take over the galaxy planet by planet. Instant Action simply just lets players jump into any battle they want, hence the “instant”. A fair bit going on here but it’s essentially the same gameplay with a different context. Ok let’s break it down bit by bit to make it easier.
The Clone Wars Campaign has 7 missions to complete, the first half involving fighting as the Separatist Army (i.e., the droids) and the second half involving the Imperials. This is a good set of levels, even if it relies a bit on the player knowing the plot of the films. There isn’t a tutorial in what you need to do but it doesn’t take long to figure things out, it’s fairly straightforward. Sometimes there’s a statement saying to protect or destroy a certain area but I’m not sure anything happens if the objective fails, just seems like a way to get the AI to focus on a particular area whilst the player can focus on other key points. The missions themselves were solid enough although repetition of the game format can feel a bit draining.
The Galactic Civil War Campaign is quite similar, this time holding 9 maps. This was a bit harder due to some maps granting the enemy team an extra 50 soldiers. I think having a jedi or sith lord in each time tended to help a fair bit despite them not only being quite rare but also not allowing the player to play as one of them. A bit cruel but understandable considering trying to implement one of them may be tricky. I did find the clone wars better in terms of combat although this had more variety in its maps both in terms of theme and how the maps contained different hazards and areas to manoeuvre in.
Finally, there is Galactic Conquest which is a more refreshing take on the same game mode. Take 8 planets/maps. Let a player select one and if they win, they either gain a perk or remove a perk from the opposing team. A player wins by taking control of all 8 planets and henceforth the galaxy. An example of a perk could be to prevent enemies being seen on the mini map or to sabotage enemy vehicles. I think this is a really fun idea which is worthy of being its own thing! I was getting a bit burned out after playing through both campaigns so this added a new level that kept things engaging
Presentation
I think in this case it would be pointless to talk about the music and art style for the game as its Star Wars which is as iconic as you could get for a sci-fi shooter, so let’s focus on how well it’s been incorporated into the game. The planets themselves seem very faithful to the original material especially for the early 2000s. I think in some worlds it’s a bit apparent that they were held back by the technology as the outskirts of the map are entirely plain. However, that can easily be looked past by how colourful the planets can be along with the detail to each particular area and how well the lightning has been executed. NPCs are also found in some maps that can aid the team in victory. There’s even a hazard in one map that is an enemy in one of the original trilogy films which is certainly worthy of praise for its time! The sound effects for the guns can be a bit distracting as they are directly ripped from the films but I think that can be ignored easily enough. The music was played just enough to so not to be repetitive yet not making the game be pure silence. Overall, strong marks in this section.
Summary
Star Wars Battlefront (2004) captures the elements of the films quite well whilst also offering entertaining combat which can be easy to get addicted too, particularly when allowing to play various classes and vehicles. Sure, there could be more game modes and the bots intelligent hasn’t aged the best in the single player campaign, but this is worth the time of any Star Wars fan, particularly those who want to play with their friends!
Rating 7/10
Update
Another review that I wrote more than I expected. I do have a few other Star Wars games, including the direct sequel to this, but I’ll leave them for another day. I could do it once every May 4th but I think that’s a bit too cheesy haha. Next game should be one given to me recently by a friend so I have high hopes for that. Thanks for reading :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
Yeah I do agree Nathan Drake is a more interesting character than Lara, way more development even with far few games. Although I do think Lara is more iconic, both from being the first female protagonist and for helping 3D platformers becoming its own genre.
If you want to start playing the franchise, I'd say either do the PS3 titles (maybe Legend or Anniversary) as it balanced the old and the new better. The original ones are good if you can handle the old school controls and the newest entries are (from what I've played so far) pretty good even if they deviate a lot from the original material. Whatever route you take, I do recommend giving it a go :)
Also welcome back to the site! I don't comment much on other areas of the website but I do like your posts so its nice to see you return. Good luck with recommencing your games and enjoy finishing the Lee Child book (never read Jack Reacher but sounds good from what I've heard).
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
18/05/25 - Flashback: Remastered
Recently, a friend gifted me this game for the Switch. Even without looking at the art or the story, I had to give it a go!
Background
First of all, let's clear up which game this one is because people just love to mess up naming. The original Flashback was released as Flashback: The Quest for Infinity and released in 1992, primarily for the Sega Genesis but it also appeared on other platforms such as MS-DOS. The version I'm focusing on is the 2018 remaster of the game, found on the 8th generation of consoles and the PC. I should point out its not the 1995 sequel Fade to Black, nor is it the 2013 remake of the same name, and it's not Flashback 2 which you think would be a remake of Fade to Black but it's actually a prequel set before the original game.
With all that out the way, let's focus on the development. Flashback was developed by Delphine Software International and was mostly created by French programmer Paul Cuisset. The company was a short lived one, they only released about 15 games over its 16 year lifespan until in 2003 when it was acquired by Doki Denki and then that company shut down due to bankruptcy the following year. A shame that the company that released the game Shaq Fu was shut down but it's good to see Cuisset still giving some love to the Flashback franchise with remakes and sequels. In fact he even somehow managed to get a comic book released for the game. I had a quick read since it's fairly short, its fine if a bit cheesy. Anyway I think I've gone off topic long enough, let's see what one of the best selling video games in France has to offer.
Story
So what is the plot of Flashback? In 2141, an agent named Conrad (not a scientist, think that's a mistake on the steam page) finds himself awake on Titan, a moon of Saturn. Finding a message from himself, Conrad realises that he is a target of local police after uncovering some sensitive information that threatens human society. It's up to him to find out what this information is and put a stop to it.
I think for the most part, it's a good story. It's a relatively short game, about 5 hours long on a first playthrough, so the pace is relatively quick and the plot fairly straightforward. Conrad's the only important character here really, others appear but mostly serve as a way for Conrad to make progress which is fine for this sort of game. I think all the levels besides level 3 deserved to be here, I just found the 3rd level to be a bit random with its premise and how it just suddenly starts. There are small things like a little journal of a scientist trying to put a stop to evil and character interactions at a bar prevent this from being forgettable, it's just enough to motivate a player to explore. I also appreciate how it goes from one genre to another, quite unexpected but considering it was released in the 1990s I shouldn't be too surprised.
Gameplay
The game is split into several levels, the number of which can be debated but it seems to be 7. I found these levels to be a fun and natural blend of combat and exploration. Each level is fairly different from the others, offering an entirely new scene, objective and sometimes even style. For instance, the first level can be a bit like Prince of Persia (as many players have pointed out) with how the player needs to unlocks doors to progress as well as having a similar move set to the game. In the next level, it's almost a hud world where a player has to complete different tasks in different areas with a map to aid navigation. For a short game, it certainly likes to throw new things throughout which is really enjoyable. Whatever style of game it is, each level is well crafted in how a player makes progress in a seemingly natural yet simple way. Even if you think this is an easy game, particularly with the use of a rewind feature, this game still has some fun with its interactivity and traps.
Controls. I didn't like them. I mean they are mapped out correctly, I don't think that's an issue. Ducking and rolling was quite responsive and I got used to the jumping after a while. The main issue is using the gun. Here Conrad needs to holster the gun with one button and then shoot with the other. However sometimes Conrad doesn't know when to shoot and decides to put the weapon away instead. Since I'm on the switch so there are two buttons to holster the gun so what normally happened was if I holstered the gun with one button and its in a loop, I used the other button to break the loop although I would still get hit by an enemy if in combat. It's annoying but I wouldn't say game breaking.
The inventory system works well and comes equipped with some useful gadgets. There's the gun, doesn't need any reloading or ammo so it can be all action. A force field can deflect a bullet and is handy for the first 4 hours of the game, making it easy for players to ease into the tougher combat encounters of the game. Credits are ok, it's mostly for two specific situations although I can't really fault it for that, it's just a wallet really. A shield allows the player to have health, with no shield indicating the player will die in the next shot. It is a bit strange at first having the shield in the inventory and not at the top of the screen but it can be forgiven when you realise it has to be inserted into energy generators to recharge it so it's actually some nice world-building if a bit inconvenient. The teleporter is a cool concept, letting players place a receiver at any point in the map and then teleporting to that location whenever needed. Very useful for escaping a close death although be careful with it as sometimes you may end up teleporting to an area where progress can't be made due to some lifts not coming back down, resulting in having to play the whole game again. Who would be silly enough to do that.......
Presentation
This game is a great example of how good artwork can simply not age. The detail and colours really give it a retro look in the best way possible. And that's true of both the original and the remastered graphics, both really make this a good looking game that captures old school sci-fi quite well. There are even some little cutscenes which are quite cute and give some character to an otherwise simple character and world. It is a fairly quiet game but the soundtrack is decent when it did play.
Summary
Ignoring outdated controls and a game-breaking bug, Flashback is a thrilling and short sci-fi adventure that deserved its remaster due to its entertaining exploration, strong world building and great graphics. Certainly worth a five hour playtime if sci-fi and/or platformers are your thing.
Rating: 7/10
Update
Many thanks to Silly for the game, it was certainly a hidden little gem that I'm glad I got around to :)
I guess now I shall move to the next Tomb Raider game, Rise of the Tomb Raider. Not many of them left now but that doesn't mean they won't offer any fun! Thanks for reading
Recently, a friend gifted me this game for the Switch. Even without looking at the art or the story, I had to give it a go!
Background
First of all, let's clear up which game this one is because people just love to mess up naming. The original Flashback was released as Flashback: The Quest for Infinity and released in 1992, primarily for the Sega Genesis but it also appeared on other platforms such as MS-DOS. The version I'm focusing on is the 2018 remaster of the game, found on the 8th generation of consoles and the PC. I should point out its not the 1995 sequel Fade to Black, nor is it the 2013 remake of the same name, and it's not Flashback 2 which you think would be a remake of Fade to Black but it's actually a prequel set before the original game.
With all that out the way, let's focus on the development. Flashback was developed by Delphine Software International and was mostly created by French programmer Paul Cuisset. The company was a short lived one, they only released about 15 games over its 16 year lifespan until in 2003 when it was acquired by Doki Denki and then that company shut down due to bankruptcy the following year. A shame that the company that released the game Shaq Fu was shut down but it's good to see Cuisset still giving some love to the Flashback franchise with remakes and sequels. In fact he even somehow managed to get a comic book released for the game. I had a quick read since it's fairly short, its fine if a bit cheesy. Anyway I think I've gone off topic long enough, let's see what one of the best selling video games in France has to offer.
Story
So what is the plot of Flashback? In 2141, an agent named Conrad (not a scientist, think that's a mistake on the steam page) finds himself awake on Titan, a moon of Saturn. Finding a message from himself, Conrad realises that he is a target of local police after uncovering some sensitive information that threatens human society. It's up to him to find out what this information is and put a stop to it.
I think for the most part, it's a good story. It's a relatively short game, about 5 hours long on a first playthrough, so the pace is relatively quick and the plot fairly straightforward. Conrad's the only important character here really, others appear but mostly serve as a way for Conrad to make progress which is fine for this sort of game. I think all the levels besides level 3 deserved to be here, I just found the 3rd level to be a bit random with its premise and how it just suddenly starts. There are small things like a little journal of a scientist trying to put a stop to evil and character interactions at a bar prevent this from being forgettable, it's just enough to motivate a player to explore. I also appreciate how it goes from one genre to another, quite unexpected but considering it was released in the 1990s I shouldn't be too surprised.
Gameplay
The game is split into several levels, the number of which can be debated but it seems to be 7. I found these levels to be a fun and natural blend of combat and exploration. Each level is fairly different from the others, offering an entirely new scene, objective and sometimes even style. For instance, the first level can be a bit like Prince of Persia (as many players have pointed out) with how the player needs to unlocks doors to progress as well as having a similar move set to the game. In the next level, it's almost a hud world where a player has to complete different tasks in different areas with a map to aid navigation. For a short game, it certainly likes to throw new things throughout which is really enjoyable. Whatever style of game it is, each level is well crafted in how a player makes progress in a seemingly natural yet simple way. Even if you think this is an easy game, particularly with the use of a rewind feature, this game still has some fun with its interactivity and traps.
Controls. I didn't like them. I mean they are mapped out correctly, I don't think that's an issue. Ducking and rolling was quite responsive and I got used to the jumping after a while. The main issue is using the gun. Here Conrad needs to holster the gun with one button and then shoot with the other. However sometimes Conrad doesn't know when to shoot and decides to put the weapon away instead. Since I'm on the switch so there are two buttons to holster the gun so what normally happened was if I holstered the gun with one button and its in a loop, I used the other button to break the loop although I would still get hit by an enemy if in combat. It's annoying but I wouldn't say game breaking.
The inventory system works well and comes equipped with some useful gadgets. There's the gun, doesn't need any reloading or ammo so it can be all action. A force field can deflect a bullet and is handy for the first 4 hours of the game, making it easy for players to ease into the tougher combat encounters of the game. Credits are ok, it's mostly for two specific situations although I can't really fault it for that, it's just a wallet really. A shield allows the player to have health, with no shield indicating the player will die in the next shot. It is a bit strange at first having the shield in the inventory and not at the top of the screen but it can be forgiven when you realise it has to be inserted into energy generators to recharge it so it's actually some nice world-building if a bit inconvenient. The teleporter is a cool concept, letting players place a receiver at any point in the map and then teleporting to that location whenever needed. Very useful for escaping a close death although be careful with it as sometimes you may end up teleporting to an area where progress can't be made due to some lifts not coming back down, resulting in having to play the whole game again. Who would be silly enough to do that.......
Presentation
This game is a great example of how good artwork can simply not age. The detail and colours really give it a retro look in the best way possible. And that's true of both the original and the remastered graphics, both really make this a good looking game that captures old school sci-fi quite well. There are even some little cutscenes which are quite cute and give some character to an otherwise simple character and world. It is a fairly quiet game but the soundtrack is decent when it did play.
Summary
Ignoring outdated controls and a game-breaking bug, Flashback is a thrilling and short sci-fi adventure that deserved its remaster due to its entertaining exploration, strong world building and great graphics. Certainly worth a five hour playtime if sci-fi and/or platformers are your thing.
Rating: 7/10
Update
Many thanks to Silly for the game, it was certainly a hidden little gem that I'm glad I got around to :)
I guess now I shall move to the next Tomb Raider game, Rise of the Tomb Raider. Not many of them left now but that doesn't mean they won't offer any fun! Thanks for reading
You’re welcome, NotConrad :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
25/05/25 - Rise of the Tomb Raider & DLC
Getting near the end of the Tomb Raider games now, today focusing on the second in the survivor trilogy: Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Background
Another Crystal Dynamics developer game, starting shortly after Tomb Raider (2013) was released. It was an ideal time to begin as they could take in player feedback from the last game and improve it here such as reducing quick time effects and adding in more, larger tombs. The development team went all in with the details in more than last time, watching various movies to understand Lara’s mental health can set the tone of the game and travelling to Turkey to help design locations. The marketing for the game continued this high level of effort by setting up a Twitch event where eight contestants had to endure harsh weather, selected by the stream’s viewers, for the chance to win a trip. There was also a comic series released in between the games (huh second game in a row I’ve covered where the games have a comic, funny). It wasn’t all smooth as fans weren’t too happy when it was announced that the game would be an Xbox exclusive game, with the move most likely attributed to Uncharted 4 only being on Playstation 4. The game would eventually come out onto PC and PS4 a little later. So overall, I’d certainly say from a basic overlook this is one of the games in the franchise that had the most amount of effort put into releasing at a healthy, non-overworking rate.
Plot
Continuing one year after Tomb Raider (2013), Lara Croft goes into Siberia to find the lost city of Kitezh in the search for an artefact that grants immortality. Lara needs to not only battle Trinty, an organization that wants the artefact for themselves, but also the wilderness with its harsh weather and wild animals. Generally, I think the plot is quite basic. The characters are a bit dull and the twists are a bit on the nose, but it does have decent pacing and good action pieces scattered throughout. Of course, I won’t be spoiling the ending although I will mention that it sets up the final game quite nicely so it’ll be interesting to see how the trilogy concludes.
Gameplay
For the most part, Lara’s move set is still as same and as strong as it was before. She can still climb up rocky terrains, swing above hazards, and crouch to avoid enemy detection. Selecting and firing weapons is still a simple task with healing now being an option rather than relying entirely on regenerating health. Hiding is also now an option so stealth aspects of the campaign are a lot less troublesome. During moments where Lara needed to run from danger, I don’t think there was anything that was too demanding although some parts can feel easy to be overwhelmed due to how fast things are going and the variety of ways Lara can make progress. I’d probably say the only move that was awkward to control was making her perform a dive. Granted it’s rare that Lara needs to do this to the point where I think it’s optional, but the time window to perform the job is a bit too small compared to other moves such as dodging an enemy attack or hooking into a platform with the axe.
In terms of the main campaign, I think its gameplay is quite strong. It balances the platforming, exploring, puzzles and combat a lot better than the last game. Platforming is a bit more complex but still quick to accomplish and a smooth experience. Same applies to exploring, even with half the map being covered in snow the area feels lively and most areas have things to do in them whether its complete optional quests or to collect resources. Puzzles are more plentiful in this entry which I do appreciate as its more akin to the earlier games with its sense of a big mystery slowing being unravelled. Nothings really changed too much about the combat, the enemy types are the same and the weapons are also, although some attachments and variations have been provided so its not too stale.
Compared to the previous entry in the franchise, this game has a much heavier emphasis on crafting. Every weapon needs resources from animals, ores, and other material for them to be upgraded. Considering the developers didn’t want to make the game feel “grindy”, this sure does feel like a grind. Resources are all over the place and finding them can be a bit of an issue if you don’t know where they are. Despite that little complaint, I do feel like it’s a very natural way of making the weapons more dangerous and I do feel the difference when applying this upgrades. It certainly feels more rewarding than in the previous game where it was just salvage for everything. Another strong benefit is that Lara can craft items to heal her or provide ammo and explosives during the battle, so there’s less to worry about during combat. To sum up the crafting in a sentence, it’s easier to finish the main campaign but attempting to 100% takes longer to complete.
The side quests and collectibles found in the world are quite similar to the past game so I won’t go into too much detail here. Optional tombs remain the standout, just fun little bite-sized adventures that require a bit of problem solving and platforming. Documents, voice notes, and relics provide a bit of history on the story or the world so I didn’t mind finding these despite their vast number. Survival and coin caches were a bit more annoying as there were many to collect but they had the chance of providing a small upgrade to weapons so I collected the ones I found that weren’t too far away. Explorer satchels and monoliths (assuming Lara has enough understanding of the language it is written in) provide the locations of these caches which prevents 100% the game from being a complete chore. Challenges aren’t shown on the map however and tend to be very random, if one of those were changed then I’d probably enjoy those a lot more rather than just ignoring them. Side quests were a good addition, doing a little thing to help an NPC and receive a reward for doing so. Simple yet affective whilst not being overwhelming.
I almost forgot to mention this but the game also has a new game mode outside the campaign known as expeditions. Here a player can select different game modes to experience the game in different ways if they want to play the game again. The first is chapter replay, useful if you want to replay a certain part of the game again without having to restart from scratch. Score attack is the same as the last one only asking players to try and rack up a score to compete in leaderboards, not exactly a thing I’m too interested in as I’m not a competitive guy as such. Remnant resistance allows players to create their own mission. Completing these missions grants the player credits which a player can use to gain expedition cards, modifying the experience of the game. I’m not really sure who’d use this besides those who really like the game and want to play it several times in challenging aspects, the fact that the cards are behind a loot box sort of situation too just puts me off a bit more. Regardless, expeditions are a decent addition for those wanting to replay the game even if I’m not exactly interested in playing them.
Presentation
Another great looking game, the commitment to visiting real world locations really helped make a strong setting here. Having a survival vision can break the illusion a bit, particularly in dark areas but the tone set here really suits the plot.The soundtrack for the game is fairly good too although with sound effects it is a bit faulty as some enemies can found closer than they actually are or are in the wrong direction. I wouldn’t call it broken although it may feel a bit disorientating every now and then.
DLC
It’s rare I get DLC for a game since I tend to rather focus on the main content itself. However, since I have access to entire contents I might as well go through them briefly.
The Baba Yaga campaign focuses on investigating a witch. It’s a fairly short campaign but offers a fair bit with some trippy sequences and engaging combat, as well as telling a compelling story (which I think is better than the main campaign despite its length). I think the campaign even ends quite well with its boss, something the main campaign doesn’t really do as effectively. The resource collection halfway through was a bit on the padding side although I can overlook it as it makes sense to the plot.
Blood Ties I can think be either a really worthy expansion or a really dull one, it depends on how much you like to learn about Laras history and the exploration part of the game. The one-hour campaign reveals all about Laras parents and their relationship with themselves and their mansion, it’s quite a moving one really and told quite well. A majority of this story is told through collecting artefacts, letters, and voice notes which is a nice way of understanding how everything pieces together, although it can feel like quite repetitive considering it’s 90% of the game. The remaining 10% involves trying to unlock other parts of the mansion using these notes and I like that aspect, as silly as it can be sometimes with certain parts of the mansion being run down and the owners leaving important items about all over the place.
Cold Darkness Awakened is the most unusual of the DLCs because it involves zombies. I mean it doesn’t surprise me considering the supernatural elements the franchise has delved into as well as the big zombie boom during that time, albeit towards the end of the craze. I feel like this is just ok, it just adds another map to kill enemies in and the plot is essentially just to disable some towers. Quite straightforward yet tonally different from anything else in the game.
Despite owning the Endurance and Lara’s Nightmare DLCs, I decided not to play them as it just feels like more of the same. If I get around to them at some point in the future, I’ll edit this post here.
Summary
Rise of the Tomb Raider refines from the previous game in almost all areas, crafting a strong experience that embodies the old and new quite well. The plot isn’t anything to write home about, but the survival and exploration of the game is what makes the Tomb Raider franchise still stand out in the 2010s.
Ratings
Base game: 8/10
Baba Yaga DLC: 7/10
Blood Ties: 7/10
Cold Darkness Awakened: 4/10
Update
Almost finished with the Tomb Raider franchise now, just one more left to go. I’m sure I’ll get around to the remasters of 1 to 6 at some point but not for a long while. A bit conflicted on what to play next so I’ll have a look in my backlog and see what sticks out for me. Thanks for reading :)
Getting near the end of the Tomb Raider games now, today focusing on the second in the survivor trilogy: Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Background
Another Crystal Dynamics developer game, starting shortly after Tomb Raider (2013) was released. It was an ideal time to begin as they could take in player feedback from the last game and improve it here such as reducing quick time effects and adding in more, larger tombs. The development team went all in with the details in more than last time, watching various movies to understand Lara’s mental health can set the tone of the game and travelling to Turkey to help design locations. The marketing for the game continued this high level of effort by setting up a Twitch event where eight contestants had to endure harsh weather, selected by the stream’s viewers, for the chance to win a trip. There was also a comic series released in between the games (huh second game in a row I’ve covered where the games have a comic, funny). It wasn’t all smooth as fans weren’t too happy when it was announced that the game would be an Xbox exclusive game, with the move most likely attributed to Uncharted 4 only being on Playstation 4. The game would eventually come out onto PC and PS4 a little later. So overall, I’d certainly say from a basic overlook this is one of the games in the franchise that had the most amount of effort put into releasing at a healthy, non-overworking rate.
Plot
Continuing one year after Tomb Raider (2013), Lara Croft goes into Siberia to find the lost city of Kitezh in the search for an artefact that grants immortality. Lara needs to not only battle Trinty, an organization that wants the artefact for themselves, but also the wilderness with its harsh weather and wild animals. Generally, I think the plot is quite basic. The characters are a bit dull and the twists are a bit on the nose, but it does have decent pacing and good action pieces scattered throughout. Of course, I won’t be spoiling the ending although I will mention that it sets up the final game quite nicely so it’ll be interesting to see how the trilogy concludes.
Gameplay
For the most part, Lara’s move set is still as same and as strong as it was before. She can still climb up rocky terrains, swing above hazards, and crouch to avoid enemy detection. Selecting and firing weapons is still a simple task with healing now being an option rather than relying entirely on regenerating health. Hiding is also now an option so stealth aspects of the campaign are a lot less troublesome. During moments where Lara needed to run from danger, I don’t think there was anything that was too demanding although some parts can feel easy to be overwhelmed due to how fast things are going and the variety of ways Lara can make progress. I’d probably say the only move that was awkward to control was making her perform a dive. Granted it’s rare that Lara needs to do this to the point where I think it’s optional, but the time window to perform the job is a bit too small compared to other moves such as dodging an enemy attack or hooking into a platform with the axe.
In terms of the main campaign, I think its gameplay is quite strong. It balances the platforming, exploring, puzzles and combat a lot better than the last game. Platforming is a bit more complex but still quick to accomplish and a smooth experience. Same applies to exploring, even with half the map being covered in snow the area feels lively and most areas have things to do in them whether its complete optional quests or to collect resources. Puzzles are more plentiful in this entry which I do appreciate as its more akin to the earlier games with its sense of a big mystery slowing being unravelled. Nothings really changed too much about the combat, the enemy types are the same and the weapons are also, although some attachments and variations have been provided so its not too stale.
Compared to the previous entry in the franchise, this game has a much heavier emphasis on crafting. Every weapon needs resources from animals, ores, and other material for them to be upgraded. Considering the developers didn’t want to make the game feel “grindy”, this sure does feel like a grind. Resources are all over the place and finding them can be a bit of an issue if you don’t know where they are. Despite that little complaint, I do feel like it’s a very natural way of making the weapons more dangerous and I do feel the difference when applying this upgrades. It certainly feels more rewarding than in the previous game where it was just salvage for everything. Another strong benefit is that Lara can craft items to heal her or provide ammo and explosives during the battle, so there’s less to worry about during combat. To sum up the crafting in a sentence, it’s easier to finish the main campaign but attempting to 100% takes longer to complete.
The side quests and collectibles found in the world are quite similar to the past game so I won’t go into too much detail here. Optional tombs remain the standout, just fun little bite-sized adventures that require a bit of problem solving and platforming. Documents, voice notes, and relics provide a bit of history on the story or the world so I didn’t mind finding these despite their vast number. Survival and coin caches were a bit more annoying as there were many to collect but they had the chance of providing a small upgrade to weapons so I collected the ones I found that weren’t too far away. Explorer satchels and monoliths (assuming Lara has enough understanding of the language it is written in) provide the locations of these caches which prevents 100% the game from being a complete chore. Challenges aren’t shown on the map however and tend to be very random, if one of those were changed then I’d probably enjoy those a lot more rather than just ignoring them. Side quests were a good addition, doing a little thing to help an NPC and receive a reward for doing so. Simple yet affective whilst not being overwhelming.
I almost forgot to mention this but the game also has a new game mode outside the campaign known as expeditions. Here a player can select different game modes to experience the game in different ways if they want to play the game again. The first is chapter replay, useful if you want to replay a certain part of the game again without having to restart from scratch. Score attack is the same as the last one only asking players to try and rack up a score to compete in leaderboards, not exactly a thing I’m too interested in as I’m not a competitive guy as such. Remnant resistance allows players to create their own mission. Completing these missions grants the player credits which a player can use to gain expedition cards, modifying the experience of the game. I’m not really sure who’d use this besides those who really like the game and want to play it several times in challenging aspects, the fact that the cards are behind a loot box sort of situation too just puts me off a bit more. Regardless, expeditions are a decent addition for those wanting to replay the game even if I’m not exactly interested in playing them.
Presentation
Another great looking game, the commitment to visiting real world locations really helped make a strong setting here. Having a survival vision can break the illusion a bit, particularly in dark areas but the tone set here really suits the plot.The soundtrack for the game is fairly good too although with sound effects it is a bit faulty as some enemies can found closer than they actually are or are in the wrong direction. I wouldn’t call it broken although it may feel a bit disorientating every now and then.
DLC
It’s rare I get DLC for a game since I tend to rather focus on the main content itself. However, since I have access to entire contents I might as well go through them briefly.
The Baba Yaga campaign focuses on investigating a witch. It’s a fairly short campaign but offers a fair bit with some trippy sequences and engaging combat, as well as telling a compelling story (which I think is better than the main campaign despite its length). I think the campaign even ends quite well with its boss, something the main campaign doesn’t really do as effectively. The resource collection halfway through was a bit on the padding side although I can overlook it as it makes sense to the plot.
Blood Ties I can think be either a really worthy expansion or a really dull one, it depends on how much you like to learn about Laras history and the exploration part of the game. The one-hour campaign reveals all about Laras parents and their relationship with themselves and their mansion, it’s quite a moving one really and told quite well. A majority of this story is told through collecting artefacts, letters, and voice notes which is a nice way of understanding how everything pieces together, although it can feel like quite repetitive considering it’s 90% of the game. The remaining 10% involves trying to unlock other parts of the mansion using these notes and I like that aspect, as silly as it can be sometimes with certain parts of the mansion being run down and the owners leaving important items about all over the place.
Cold Darkness Awakened is the most unusual of the DLCs because it involves zombies. I mean it doesn’t surprise me considering the supernatural elements the franchise has delved into as well as the big zombie boom during that time, albeit towards the end of the craze. I feel like this is just ok, it just adds another map to kill enemies in and the plot is essentially just to disable some towers. Quite straightforward yet tonally different from anything else in the game.
Despite owning the Endurance and Lara’s Nightmare DLCs, I decided not to play them as it just feels like more of the same. If I get around to them at some point in the future, I’ll edit this post here.
Summary
Rise of the Tomb Raider refines from the previous game in almost all areas, crafting a strong experience that embodies the old and new quite well. The plot isn’t anything to write home about, but the survival and exploration of the game is what makes the Tomb Raider franchise still stand out in the 2010s.
Ratings
Base game: 8/10
Baba Yaga DLC: 7/10
Blood Ties: 7/10
Cold Darkness Awakened: 4/10
Update
Almost finished with the Tomb Raider franchise now, just one more left to go. I’m sure I’ll get around to the remasters of 1 to 6 at some point but not for a long while. A bit conflicted on what to play next so I’ll have a look in my backlog and see what sticks out for me. Thanks for reading :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
27/05/25 - Chasm: The Rift
This is one of the more unusual FPS games that came out in the 90s. A game developed by Ukraine students that was released towards the end of the MS-DOS lifespan (as players and developers were moving towards Windows 95, an OS that not only was compatible with DOS games but also made it a lot more accessible due to the shift from command line interface to graphical interface).
Background
As already mentioned, this game was made by students from a Ukraine university which would become the developer known as Action Forms. The game was originally called Tron: The Hammer of Wall with the gameplay being inspired from the 1993 game Doom. This along with the script and graphics changed over time when more people joined the team. We can see an early use of the Internet which not only allowed the team to promote the game but also allows the U.S company Megamedia Corporation to publish the game.
Looking at the rest of Action Forms output following these games, they remained moderately quiet. They switched their focus to creating the dinosaur FPS franchise Carnivores along with a cancelled Duke Nukem game and a few other FPS games. At the moment, the company is dormant with most of Action Forms moving to Tatem Games, a company focusing on mobile games. They have released more Carnivores games for this platform but most of it is studio managers and “brain puzzle game” where you have to move all the colours in the right tube. Yeah, I’ll think I’ll stick to todays entry rather than look at those.
Plot
Ah right, 90s FPS games don’t really have much of a plot but there’s still a story told through what I can only call briefings. From these briefings and the games manual, the game puts you in the shoes of an unnamed marine who is tasked at investigating an attack on a power station. This is the work of alien mutants who go by the name Timestrikers, a race who aim to take over the world by using time rifts/channels to attack humankind at different points in history. Naturally the marine has to stop them and you can see where the plot goes from there. A solid plot with a good excuse to go a little wild with the location and design of enemies. Some of the English being said isn’t perfect although it’s easily passable especially for a first game by students.
Gameplay
As many FPS games of its time, Chasm is divided into four episodes with each episode consisting of four levels.
Episode 1 is straightforward enough, the attention in how the level looks and works is really good. Lots of little structures and rooms shows that what it lacks in quantity, it makes up in quality. Enemies are quite simple to handle particularly with weapons like the super shotgun which only takes a shot or two for most enemies from now until the end of the game. However, one thing this game warns you about is how quick the enemies can shoot, requiring fast reflexes to evade bullets. With how fast and dangerous these can be, I would normally find them frustrating but there’s plenty of health and armour in these levels to make it not be too challenging. The episode concludes with a boss that needs to be defeated by solving a puzzle as opposed to shooting it dead, something that all other bosses in the game will involve. With this boss, I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so dark, as I was a bit stuck at first before I realised there was a hidden switch in a darkened area of the room. Ignoring that little thing, it’s a creative approach to the boss so I’m glad they stuck with it.
Episode 2 takes the marine to Egypt and these levels are a step down. It gets a bit more confusing as where I need to go, even with a very useful map to navigate where I have and haven’t been. The level design can be a bit annoying too with instances of cramming enemies suddenly behind the player in an enclosed space, something that you could only survive if you know it’s going to happen. Non-enemy traps are at their most frequent in this episode although I enjoyed them for their creativity and surprise, despite some being very hard to avoid. The boss for this one was the best in the game, quite a smart move by the team.
Episode 3 is set in the medieval era. Best enemies are found here, having some iconic designs and dangerous attacks. The “cram the enemies behind you” move is still present but the standard traps are less frequent. The areas are just as big but somehow less confusing, I guess it comes from the fact that there’s a bit less backtracking and more of a logical understanding of what is going on and how to get from point A to B. Somehow I accidentally solved the puzzle for this boss by accident so I cannot really say much about it besides that, even if I didn’t do so by accident, it’s nothing too challenging.
My comments on episode 4 are similar to those said in episode 3 only with some enemies appearing from episode 1. Ambitious level design with a few moments of “did you really need to do that?”. I’ll take this moment to go over the weapons briefly. The standard shotgun is a weapon with infinite ammo, weak but effective particularly when parts of an enemy have flown off preventing them from shooting (what a neat little thing that is). The super shotgun was my most used weapon, plenty of ammo about and plentiful damage to go with. The blade gun and arrow gun were fine, I typically resorted to this when out of shotgun shells simply because they didn’t really do too much damage to who I was aiming it at. The volcano is a chain gun, probably the best weapon to handle enemies at closer quarters simply because it can stun enemies to a point. Even though I barely used them, the grenadier and land mines are fine enough weapons although most of the environments doesn’t really allow for these. Same applies to a mega destroyer, if I can’t use it for a boss then what point do I use it as I always think that there’s a more dangerous situation around the corner. As for the boss in this fight, great design although a walk in the park once you realise what you need to do (and that may take a minute to figure out).
Oh you think we’re done? Nope because there are also the extra levels! These aren’t part of the base game, they were taken from an add-on although I’m not sure when it was made. It’s only three levels long and again the last one is a boss level. Really not much to add, it makes use of the best design aspects whilst maintaining some sense of challenge found in the later levels of the main campaign. It starts and ends as abruptly as the original game ended, would have been better to have some closure but these extra levels were still fun to play.
I should point out one aspect that many reviewers, both on this website and on others, have pointed out in that its quite similar to 1996 game Quake. I mean it’s quite hard to ignore the fact. It has a similar sort of visual tone, some comparisons can be drawn between the enemies of both games as well as the weapons, the last boss of the game and its text are also similar to the final level of Quake. There are arguments that it isn’t a Quake clone. To start with, the engine is quite different so while it may look 3D, it’s actually 2.5D so the map is mostly flat. This also feels like a hybrid of sci-fi adventure than a horror more of a sci-fi adventure than a horror game so it can feel more Quake 2 than the original (and yes Quake 2 did have dark areas). There’s also the shorter length, the use of a map, some weapons being different. So certainly, inspired but I hesitate to use the word “clone”. I still think its worth a play if you did enjoy the original Quake, certainly easy to get into.
Presentation
I feel like I’ve covered most points here but I’ll summarise them here. This is very well-designed game with its visuals. Things from the enemies themselves to the weapon effects truly highlight both the artwork and the engine of the game itself for being able to create these. Music is fairly quiet in this game but the moments it does come on, it’s fine. Sets the atmosphere of the level up well and doesn’t interfere with any of the sound effects that occur within the game.
Summary
A short game with a clever engine and solid FPS action. There are moments where the level design is frustrating even if the game isn’t too hard, so take this as a game to chill with rather than trying to measure it up to other similar games.
Rating: 6/10
Update: Nice to have played Chasm: The Rift, had a feeling it'd be the sort of thing I'd enjoy despite its flaws. I won't jump into Shadow of the Tomb Raider just yet, still a bit too early for me considering I finished it a few days ago. Thanks for reading as always!
This is one of the more unusual FPS games that came out in the 90s. A game developed by Ukraine students that was released towards the end of the MS-DOS lifespan (as players and developers were moving towards Windows 95, an OS that not only was compatible with DOS games but also made it a lot more accessible due to the shift from command line interface to graphical interface).
Background
As already mentioned, this game was made by students from a Ukraine university which would become the developer known as Action Forms. The game was originally called Tron: The Hammer of Wall with the gameplay being inspired from the 1993 game Doom. This along with the script and graphics changed over time when more people joined the team. We can see an early use of the Internet which not only allowed the team to promote the game but also allows the U.S company Megamedia Corporation to publish the game.
Looking at the rest of Action Forms output following these games, they remained moderately quiet. They switched their focus to creating the dinosaur FPS franchise Carnivores along with a cancelled Duke Nukem game and a few other FPS games. At the moment, the company is dormant with most of Action Forms moving to Tatem Games, a company focusing on mobile games. They have released more Carnivores games for this platform but most of it is studio managers and “brain puzzle game” where you have to move all the colours in the right tube. Yeah, I’ll think I’ll stick to todays entry rather than look at those.
Plot
Ah right, 90s FPS games don’t really have much of a plot but there’s still a story told through what I can only call briefings. From these briefings and the games manual, the game puts you in the shoes of an unnamed marine who is tasked at investigating an attack on a power station. This is the work of alien mutants who go by the name Timestrikers, a race who aim to take over the world by using time rifts/channels to attack humankind at different points in history. Naturally the marine has to stop them and you can see where the plot goes from there. A solid plot with a good excuse to go a little wild with the location and design of enemies. Some of the English being said isn’t perfect although it’s easily passable especially for a first game by students.
Gameplay
As many FPS games of its time, Chasm is divided into four episodes with each episode consisting of four levels.
Episode 1 is straightforward enough, the attention in how the level looks and works is really good. Lots of little structures and rooms shows that what it lacks in quantity, it makes up in quality. Enemies are quite simple to handle particularly with weapons like the super shotgun which only takes a shot or two for most enemies from now until the end of the game. However, one thing this game warns you about is how quick the enemies can shoot, requiring fast reflexes to evade bullets. With how fast and dangerous these can be, I would normally find them frustrating but there’s plenty of health and armour in these levels to make it not be too challenging. The episode concludes with a boss that needs to be defeated by solving a puzzle as opposed to shooting it dead, something that all other bosses in the game will involve. With this boss, I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so dark, as I was a bit stuck at first before I realised there was a hidden switch in a darkened area of the room. Ignoring that little thing, it’s a creative approach to the boss so I’m glad they stuck with it.
Episode 2 takes the marine to Egypt and these levels are a step down. It gets a bit more confusing as where I need to go, even with a very useful map to navigate where I have and haven’t been. The level design can be a bit annoying too with instances of cramming enemies suddenly behind the player in an enclosed space, something that you could only survive if you know it’s going to happen. Non-enemy traps are at their most frequent in this episode although I enjoyed them for their creativity and surprise, despite some being very hard to avoid. The boss for this one was the best in the game, quite a smart move by the team.
Episode 3 is set in the medieval era. Best enemies are found here, having some iconic designs and dangerous attacks. The “cram the enemies behind you” move is still present but the standard traps are less frequent. The areas are just as big but somehow less confusing, I guess it comes from the fact that there’s a bit less backtracking and more of a logical understanding of what is going on and how to get from point A to B. Somehow I accidentally solved the puzzle for this boss by accident so I cannot really say much about it besides that, even if I didn’t do so by accident, it’s nothing too challenging.
My comments on episode 4 are similar to those said in episode 3 only with some enemies appearing from episode 1. Ambitious level design with a few moments of “did you really need to do that?”. I’ll take this moment to go over the weapons briefly. The standard shotgun is a weapon with infinite ammo, weak but effective particularly when parts of an enemy have flown off preventing them from shooting (what a neat little thing that is). The super shotgun was my most used weapon, plenty of ammo about and plentiful damage to go with. The blade gun and arrow gun were fine, I typically resorted to this when out of shotgun shells simply because they didn’t really do too much damage to who I was aiming it at. The volcano is a chain gun, probably the best weapon to handle enemies at closer quarters simply because it can stun enemies to a point. Even though I barely used them, the grenadier and land mines are fine enough weapons although most of the environments doesn’t really allow for these. Same applies to a mega destroyer, if I can’t use it for a boss then what point do I use it as I always think that there’s a more dangerous situation around the corner. As for the boss in this fight, great design although a walk in the park once you realise what you need to do (and that may take a minute to figure out).
Oh you think we’re done? Nope because there are also the extra levels! These aren’t part of the base game, they were taken from an add-on although I’m not sure when it was made. It’s only three levels long and again the last one is a boss level. Really not much to add, it makes use of the best design aspects whilst maintaining some sense of challenge found in the later levels of the main campaign. It starts and ends as abruptly as the original game ended, would have been better to have some closure but these extra levels were still fun to play.
I should point out one aspect that many reviewers, both on this website and on others, have pointed out in that its quite similar to 1996 game Quake. I mean it’s quite hard to ignore the fact. It has a similar sort of visual tone, some comparisons can be drawn between the enemies of both games as well as the weapons, the last boss of the game and its text are also similar to the final level of Quake. There are arguments that it isn’t a Quake clone. To start with, the engine is quite different so while it may look 3D, it’s actually 2.5D so the map is mostly flat. This also feels like a hybrid of sci-fi adventure than a horror more of a sci-fi adventure than a horror game so it can feel more Quake 2 than the original (and yes Quake 2 did have dark areas). There’s also the shorter length, the use of a map, some weapons being different. So certainly, inspired but I hesitate to use the word “clone”. I still think its worth a play if you did enjoy the original Quake, certainly easy to get into.
Presentation
I feel like I’ve covered most points here but I’ll summarise them here. This is very well-designed game with its visuals. Things from the enemies themselves to the weapon effects truly highlight both the artwork and the engine of the game itself for being able to create these. Music is fairly quiet in this game but the moments it does come on, it’s fine. Sets the atmosphere of the level up well and doesn’t interfere with any of the sound effects that occur within the game.
Summary
A short game with a clever engine and solid FPS action. There are moments where the level design is frustrating even if the game isn’t too hard, so take this as a game to chill with rather than trying to measure it up to other similar games.
Rating: 6/10
Update: Nice to have played Chasm: The Rift, had a feeling it'd be the sort of thing I'd enjoy despite its flaws. I won't jump into Shadow of the Tomb Raider just yet, still a bit too early for me considering I finished it a few days ago. Thanks for reading as always!
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
10/06/2025 – Doom Eternal + The Ancient Gods DLC
Finally got around to playing this and naturally this is one of the longer posts.
Background
So Doom (2016). Popular game. There was no doubt this was getting a sequel, even if we ignored how the last game ended. With a new game engine (id Tech 7), the aim was to focus more on the look of the original Doom games and act more of an arcade action game than the previous one (I think by this it meant to very fast and very aggressive). After a Polygon journalist shared some poor gameplay online of the previous game, much to the ridicule of everyone online, the developer decided to try and playable to everyone which I think explains why there are many tutorials within the game which tell a player everything from using a weapon to knowing a boss’s weaknesses. Not too much information besides this other than a nasty legal trouble with the mastering of the soundtrack (quite ugly stuff there), let's just into how this game is different.
Story
Doom Eternal is a lot more story heavy than any of the games in the franchise before it. After the events of Doom (2016), the armies of Hell are invading Earth and its up to the Doom Slayer to stop it. He must reduce the demonic invasion by killing the Hell Priests who serve an entity known as the Khan Maykr. The plot isn’t too complex as such but there’s a lot of lore going on and it can be quite a lot to take in with all the new terms being introduced. Admittedly most of the lore is delievered through collectibles so those who really want to know the plot better be prepared for lots of text coming their way. Although I think the real sin of the story is how awkward some of the cutscenes can be, leaning a bit too much into the “we are so cool” territory. Overall, I don’t think people play it for the plot anyway although it’s nice for them to show new areas across different planets as well as giving a reason for why the player is in each area.
Gameplay
While most of the mechanics from the previous game are present, Doom Eternal plays quite differently at first which requires adapting to a whole new method of gameplay. The game does something cruel – it limits the amount of ammo you can carry with each weapon drastically. Take a shotgun, that can hold 16 shells at the start but with an upgrade it goes up to 24! If you’ve played any FPS, you’ll realise that the amount of ammo there is quite small and could barely get through a single fight let alone a whole campaign. Health and armour are also quite limited too, not with their capacity but rather with abundance of medikits and armour pickups in each of the levels. To get these supplies, a player needs to get up close and personal with the demons. Want ammo? Chainsaw a demon! Health? Glory kill them. How about armour? Apply some fire on them. It does take a while to get used to this new style of fighting, it definitely takes some time to get used to such an aggressive style of attacking but I think it works very well if you're willing to play that way.
I have played Doom (2016) on this blog before but I’ll go over the enemy roster again since A) it’s best to keep it all in one post and not have information all over the place, and B) some of the enemies have changed in how dangerous they are in this game. Many of the enemies in the previous game are the same only some, such as the pinkies and the cacodemons, now have weak points. Destroying these reduces the range of attacks a demon can do, making it a good idea to take them out as soon as possible. For this reason, cacodemons are quite easy to deal with now as the flying tomatoes can be dealt with using one grenade only. Not a bad thing considering the large quantity and variety of enemies can apply plenty of pressure to miss a simply shot. Rather than going through every enemy, I’ll focus on the new additions instead:
- Marauder – The most annoying demon, especially when there’s more than one. With a little time frame to attack, it takes a while to defeat one of them. Some people mention it breaks the pace of the game and I agree with that for the first 66% of the game, the remaining 33% is better as the weaponry by them as well as the muscle memory reduces the time of fighting by half.
- Whiplash – So cool yet so cruel. A snake like creature that can cause real fast attacks if you’re not careful. It feels like a classic FPS enemy but without the technical holdbacks. Certainly, a welcome addition.
- Arachnotron and pain elemental – I’ve added these both here since they are reintroduced enemies last seen in Doom II and Doom 64. I don’t think they are as much of a threat as their classic parts but they certainly were missed in the 2016 game. Their designs are just as menacing and iconic as they were before, glad to see them return.
- Tentacles – More of a hazard for free chainsaw ammo than a threat. Can’t see them being used again.
- Titan – It’s basically a mini cyberdemon. I mean it’s a bit cheeky but why not add it as its own enemy, they did it with barons of hell in the first game. It really adds to the stress as well, seeing a large intimidating demon about to fire several rockets at you. Killing it is really what Doom is all about, the gore and craziness of a fight and ending it on a high by taking down something that’s seemingly well more dangerous than you.
- Doom hunters – One of those enemies that are a bit tricky at first but became a breeze with plenty of powered-up weapons. It probably explains why they became so common in the campaign, it does feel more like an enemy from a Quake game than a Doom one but it’s a fine addition to the game.
- Carcass – Another enemy that’s a real pain. It can fire an energy shield to protect enemies from incoming attacks, it’s so cruel I love it. Again feels more like a Quake enemy than a Doom one, especially as it’s an energy weapon and a cyborg.
Normally I don’t spend too much time talking about the enemies in the game but I think its important to highlight how strong of a roster this is. A good range of melee attacks, far distance attacks, and medium ranged attacks. Combining this with the chainsaw, grenades (frag and freeze), the other physical weapon (which I shall not spoil but it’s pretty good) and the ability to dash in the air and you have a formula for a great Doom game.
Picture of a marauder advancing with a cacodemon in the background. You may notice that I'm using a cheat code (more on this later).
The weapons are as strong as they were in the last game. Many of the weapons make their returns here besides the pistol (furthering the ammo resource challenge that is present throughout the game). The others are still present with one or two small changes and perhaps a name change. I mean it’s a fantastic line-up, why focus on changing it when you can change everything else instead. If the battleground is a large open area or a small enclosed space, there’s a suitable weapon for every situation.
Ah yeah should mention the platforming. People tend not to like that too much because it’s vague on where to go, that it breaks the pace of the game, and that it is used too often. I agree only with the latter, they went a bit too frequent on the platforming in the middle of the game so it did feel a bit strange. The vagueness I don’t agree with, besides one or two areas I think it was clearly communicated where you need to go and if you couldn’t see from a specific point, the game would only take a small amount of health away which isn’t too costly and you should be able to see where the next step is. And the pace breaker? I think its needed between big arenas, you still have plenty of opportunities to shoot demons between levels and it sets up the level quite nicely so I don’t think it’s a strong criticism.
So arenas and platforming, what about the collectibles? Quite a lot (again) so I’ll go over them all again briefly:
- Codexs: The already mentioned lore pickups, good for those who care about the story but pointless to anyone else.
- Toys: Cute but impractical. Gets a smile out of me at least.
-Albums: Lovely callbacks to previous id software games, just wish you could play the songs outside of the hub (yeah theres a hub now, odd but it works).
- Modbots: Allowing for upgrades of weapons, an essential item to have as it can break certain parts of the game.
- Mastery tokens: Provides the final upgrade for the weapons, very rare to find but saves having to do a challenge.
- Slayers keys and gates: Slayer keys unlock slayer gates and slayer gates are very tough battles which will eventually look a very useful weapon, ideal for those who love the combat and want a challenge.
- Extra lives: pretty much do what they say, handy to have although the amount of times I used one because I did something stupid was embarrassing to say the least (that’s on me). They don't count towards progression either so you can skip it if you like.
- Sentinel crystals: They increase health, armour and ammo capacity whilst also providing a perk, very nice to have and probably also essential considering the constant low capacity.
- Runes and praetor suit points: Both provide further perks and are more plentiful, certainly very nice to have and allows for many different combos in the game.
Sentinel batteries can be found in the levels or by completing challenges, providing access to some of the already mentioned equipment, a nice benefit but so irritating when you unlock a cosmetic suit instead.
- Cheat codes: The best for last, modifying the gameplay of each completed level to allow certain items and challenges to be completed a lot easier. A useful and adds an element of fun to the game for those who want to replay a certain level.
I always find it so funny how games like this real pad out time with all these collectibles to find, but I will admit that not only are most of them useful to get, but they aren’t too high in quantity despite how many types there are to find.
Presentation
There’s really not much I can say here, it just all looks and sounds amazing. I feel like it captures the true essence of a chaotic FPS and hell very well. Not too many dark areas but the scenery of each location makes up for it. Don’t even need to comment about the music, top-tier soundtrack.
DLC – The Ancient Gods
As with many modern games, this game continued its story with some DLC split into two parts: The Ancient Gods Part One and Part Two. Most of the gameplay is similar but there are enough differences in its gameplay and level design that make it worth talking about here.
Part 1 is a major increase in difficulty from the base campaign and not in a kind way. I mean there is more platforming involved although that just remains annoying more than a serious threat. No the real challenge is both the new enemies and the level design of the arenas. Regarding the latter, the rooms are now a lot smaller so it’s easier to get charged at. And the new enemies, such as the spirit, just increase the speed of certain demons making it a very rough fight. The arenas are also more prone to errors so expect some enemies to get stuck in place and platforming is a bit riskier. The boss for this one was possibly the hardest in the franchise, quite a difficulty one and not one I enjoyed too much as the small arena came as a bit dull to look at and awkward to move on. Overall still fun but the challenge is starting to become a bit more unfair and repetitive.
Part 2, in my opinion, is a more refined experience that Part 1. Less bugs, arenas are a little bit larger, and there is the introduction of the sentiel hammer. This provides a stun effect to enemies in a small circumference around the player, granting additional armour, health, and ammo pickups if used correctly. I think this sort of weapon helps with the small arenas, allowing to escape with relative ease. The final boss is….well I won’t spoil it but a bit underwhelming with how it attacks as I’m already well prepared for that attack by then. Still the locations in this part are really nice to look at and changing the slayer gates to escalation spots (i.e., spots that restart a fight but with more intense enemy encounters) make it easier to get to completion, although I would have preferred the rewards to not be cosmetics again.
Summary
Doom Eternal has a very different gameplay style to other Doom games, providing not only the standard challenge of aggressive combat but also that of ammo management. Ignoring the story, it excels on everything and is certainly a very fun and very brutal game. The DLC is a little weaker but maybe worth the price if you’re really itching for more intense combat that focuses more on enemy weaknesses.
Ratings
Doom Eternal: 9/10
Doom Ancient Gods Part 1: 7/10
Doom Ancient Gods Part 2: 8/10
Update
I'm never a big fan of writing long reviews, I prefer to keep it short and snappy when I can but sometimes a game can offer a fair lot to talk about. I would have spoke about the master levels (remixes of some of the levels) and horde mode (I think it's a combat survival mode) but my internet connection kept going towards the end. Oh well, got through the important parts anyway. Thanks for stopping by and reading my posts as always!
Finally got around to playing this and naturally this is one of the longer posts.
Background
So Doom (2016). Popular game. There was no doubt this was getting a sequel, even if we ignored how the last game ended. With a new game engine (id Tech 7), the aim was to focus more on the look of the original Doom games and act more of an arcade action game than the previous one (I think by this it meant to very fast and very aggressive). After a Polygon journalist shared some poor gameplay online of the previous game, much to the ridicule of everyone online, the developer decided to try and playable to everyone which I think explains why there are many tutorials within the game which tell a player everything from using a weapon to knowing a boss’s weaknesses. Not too much information besides this other than a nasty legal trouble with the mastering of the soundtrack (quite ugly stuff there), let's just into how this game is different.
Story
Doom Eternal is a lot more story heavy than any of the games in the franchise before it. After the events of Doom (2016), the armies of Hell are invading Earth and its up to the Doom Slayer to stop it. He must reduce the demonic invasion by killing the Hell Priests who serve an entity known as the Khan Maykr. The plot isn’t too complex as such but there’s a lot of lore going on and it can be quite a lot to take in with all the new terms being introduced. Admittedly most of the lore is delievered through collectibles so those who really want to know the plot better be prepared for lots of text coming their way. Although I think the real sin of the story is how awkward some of the cutscenes can be, leaning a bit too much into the “we are so cool” territory. Overall, I don’t think people play it for the plot anyway although it’s nice for them to show new areas across different planets as well as giving a reason for why the player is in each area.
Gameplay
While most of the mechanics from the previous game are present, Doom Eternal plays quite differently at first which requires adapting to a whole new method of gameplay. The game does something cruel – it limits the amount of ammo you can carry with each weapon drastically. Take a shotgun, that can hold 16 shells at the start but with an upgrade it goes up to 24! If you’ve played any FPS, you’ll realise that the amount of ammo there is quite small and could barely get through a single fight let alone a whole campaign. Health and armour are also quite limited too, not with their capacity but rather with abundance of medikits and armour pickups in each of the levels. To get these supplies, a player needs to get up close and personal with the demons. Want ammo? Chainsaw a demon! Health? Glory kill them. How about armour? Apply some fire on them. It does take a while to get used to this new style of fighting, it definitely takes some time to get used to such an aggressive style of attacking but I think it works very well if you're willing to play that way.
I have played Doom (2016) on this blog before but I’ll go over the enemy roster again since A) it’s best to keep it all in one post and not have information all over the place, and B) some of the enemies have changed in how dangerous they are in this game. Many of the enemies in the previous game are the same only some, such as the pinkies and the cacodemons, now have weak points. Destroying these reduces the range of attacks a demon can do, making it a good idea to take them out as soon as possible. For this reason, cacodemons are quite easy to deal with now as the flying tomatoes can be dealt with using one grenade only. Not a bad thing considering the large quantity and variety of enemies can apply plenty of pressure to miss a simply shot. Rather than going through every enemy, I’ll focus on the new additions instead:
- Marauder – The most annoying demon, especially when there’s more than one. With a little time frame to attack, it takes a while to defeat one of them. Some people mention it breaks the pace of the game and I agree with that for the first 66% of the game, the remaining 33% is better as the weaponry by them as well as the muscle memory reduces the time of fighting by half.
- Whiplash – So cool yet so cruel. A snake like creature that can cause real fast attacks if you’re not careful. It feels like a classic FPS enemy but without the technical holdbacks. Certainly, a welcome addition.
- Arachnotron and pain elemental – I’ve added these both here since they are reintroduced enemies last seen in Doom II and Doom 64. I don’t think they are as much of a threat as their classic parts but they certainly were missed in the 2016 game. Their designs are just as menacing and iconic as they were before, glad to see them return.
- Tentacles – More of a hazard for free chainsaw ammo than a threat. Can’t see them being used again.
- Titan – It’s basically a mini cyberdemon. I mean it’s a bit cheeky but why not add it as its own enemy, they did it with barons of hell in the first game. It really adds to the stress as well, seeing a large intimidating demon about to fire several rockets at you. Killing it is really what Doom is all about, the gore and craziness of a fight and ending it on a high by taking down something that’s seemingly well more dangerous than you.
- Doom hunters – One of those enemies that are a bit tricky at first but became a breeze with plenty of powered-up weapons. It probably explains why they became so common in the campaign, it does feel more like an enemy from a Quake game than a Doom one but it’s a fine addition to the game.
- Carcass – Another enemy that’s a real pain. It can fire an energy shield to protect enemies from incoming attacks, it’s so cruel I love it. Again feels more like a Quake enemy than a Doom one, especially as it’s an energy weapon and a cyborg.
Normally I don’t spend too much time talking about the enemies in the game but I think its important to highlight how strong of a roster this is. A good range of melee attacks, far distance attacks, and medium ranged attacks. Combining this with the chainsaw, grenades (frag and freeze), the other physical weapon (which I shall not spoil but it’s pretty good) and the ability to dash in the air and you have a formula for a great Doom game.
Picture of a marauder advancing with a cacodemon in the background. You may notice that I'm using a cheat code (more on this later).
The weapons are as strong as they were in the last game. Many of the weapons make their returns here besides the pistol (furthering the ammo resource challenge that is present throughout the game). The others are still present with one or two small changes and perhaps a name change. I mean it’s a fantastic line-up, why focus on changing it when you can change everything else instead. If the battleground is a large open area or a small enclosed space, there’s a suitable weapon for every situation.
Ah yeah should mention the platforming. People tend not to like that too much because it’s vague on where to go, that it breaks the pace of the game, and that it is used too often. I agree only with the latter, they went a bit too frequent on the platforming in the middle of the game so it did feel a bit strange. The vagueness I don’t agree with, besides one or two areas I think it was clearly communicated where you need to go and if you couldn’t see from a specific point, the game would only take a small amount of health away which isn’t too costly and you should be able to see where the next step is. And the pace breaker? I think its needed between big arenas, you still have plenty of opportunities to shoot demons between levels and it sets up the level quite nicely so I don’t think it’s a strong criticism.
So arenas and platforming, what about the collectibles? Quite a lot (again) so I’ll go over them all again briefly:
- Codexs: The already mentioned lore pickups, good for those who care about the story but pointless to anyone else.
- Toys: Cute but impractical. Gets a smile out of me at least.
-Albums: Lovely callbacks to previous id software games, just wish you could play the songs outside of the hub (yeah theres a hub now, odd but it works).
- Modbots: Allowing for upgrades of weapons, an essential item to have as it can break certain parts of the game.
- Mastery tokens: Provides the final upgrade for the weapons, very rare to find but saves having to do a challenge.
- Slayers keys and gates: Slayer keys unlock slayer gates and slayer gates are very tough battles which will eventually look a very useful weapon, ideal for those who love the combat and want a challenge.
- Extra lives: pretty much do what they say, handy to have although the amount of times I used one because I did something stupid was embarrassing to say the least (that’s on me). They don't count towards progression either so you can skip it if you like.
- Sentinel crystals: They increase health, armour and ammo capacity whilst also providing a perk, very nice to have and probably also essential considering the constant low capacity.
- Runes and praetor suit points: Both provide further perks and are more plentiful, certainly very nice to have and allows for many different combos in the game.
Sentinel batteries can be found in the levels or by completing challenges, providing access to some of the already mentioned equipment, a nice benefit but so irritating when you unlock a cosmetic suit instead.
- Cheat codes: The best for last, modifying the gameplay of each completed level to allow certain items and challenges to be completed a lot easier. A useful and adds an element of fun to the game for those who want to replay a certain level.
I always find it so funny how games like this real pad out time with all these collectibles to find, but I will admit that not only are most of them useful to get, but they aren’t too high in quantity despite how many types there are to find.
Presentation
There’s really not much I can say here, it just all looks and sounds amazing. I feel like it captures the true essence of a chaotic FPS and hell very well. Not too many dark areas but the scenery of each location makes up for it. Don’t even need to comment about the music, top-tier soundtrack.
DLC – The Ancient Gods
As with many modern games, this game continued its story with some DLC split into two parts: The Ancient Gods Part One and Part Two. Most of the gameplay is similar but there are enough differences in its gameplay and level design that make it worth talking about here.
Part 1 is a major increase in difficulty from the base campaign and not in a kind way. I mean there is more platforming involved although that just remains annoying more than a serious threat. No the real challenge is both the new enemies and the level design of the arenas. Regarding the latter, the rooms are now a lot smaller so it’s easier to get charged at. And the new enemies, such as the spirit, just increase the speed of certain demons making it a very rough fight. The arenas are also more prone to errors so expect some enemies to get stuck in place and platforming is a bit riskier. The boss for this one was possibly the hardest in the franchise, quite a difficulty one and not one I enjoyed too much as the small arena came as a bit dull to look at and awkward to move on. Overall still fun but the challenge is starting to become a bit more unfair and repetitive.
Part 2, in my opinion, is a more refined experience that Part 1. Less bugs, arenas are a little bit larger, and there is the introduction of the sentiel hammer. This provides a stun effect to enemies in a small circumference around the player, granting additional armour, health, and ammo pickups if used correctly. I think this sort of weapon helps with the small arenas, allowing to escape with relative ease. The final boss is….well I won’t spoil it but a bit underwhelming with how it attacks as I’m already well prepared for that attack by then. Still the locations in this part are really nice to look at and changing the slayer gates to escalation spots (i.e., spots that restart a fight but with more intense enemy encounters) make it easier to get to completion, although I would have preferred the rewards to not be cosmetics again.
Summary
Doom Eternal has a very different gameplay style to other Doom games, providing not only the standard challenge of aggressive combat but also that of ammo management. Ignoring the story, it excels on everything and is certainly a very fun and very brutal game. The DLC is a little weaker but maybe worth the price if you’re really itching for more intense combat that focuses more on enemy weaknesses.
Ratings
Doom Eternal: 9/10
Doom Ancient Gods Part 1: 7/10
Doom Ancient Gods Part 2: 8/10
Update
I'm never a big fan of writing long reviews, I prefer to keep it short and snappy when I can but sometimes a game can offer a fair lot to talk about. I would have spoke about the master levels (remixes of some of the levels) and horde mode (I think it's a combat survival mode) but my internet connection kept going towards the end. Oh well, got through the important parts anyway. Thanks for stopping by and reading my posts as always!
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
15/05/2025 - Chessarama
Having picked a random game from my free games led me to a chess puzzle game. Quite random but I was willing to give it a try.
Background
The company behind Chessarama is Minimol Games, a Brazil game company that focus on, unsurprisingly, creating minimalist premium games. A quick look at their catalogue shows that most of their output is from chess related games with some card and jigsaw games thrown in every so often. Might explain how a small team (we are talking 13 people) have created over 30 games in five years, clearly their efforts are slowly getting some attention.
Gameplay
The are three main areas to the game: campaign, bonus, and chess match. I didn’t both with the latter as it is literally just online play so I’ll focus on the other two.
The campaign has four different and charming sections. The first is basically farming by using the knight piece and its basically knights tour (those who have played a Professor Layton game may know this). The second is a football game where pieces need to evade obstacles and score a goal. Would have preferred to have seem opponent pieces here rather than cones but it was alright. The third involved getting a queen to take out all the enemy pieces, probably the most fun as it kept the premise simple of just controlling a single piece whilst also providing layers with its combat. The final one was dragon slayer which was easily the hardest, having to escort a pawn to the end whilst protecting them (i.e., a piece cannot be taken without being taken itself by another piece) can be hard with many pieces about.
A few additional notes on the campaign. First of all, I think the progression part is decent overall. They introduced one piece at a time and slowly get the player to master it, so even if the tutorial doesn’t provide everything that’s needed then the player should understand in the next level. Challenges are also present which adds some replayability to each level even if all you get from collecting this xp is more battles and some cosmetics. There are some things that hold the campaign back such as a lack of a hint or rewind button. Normally these are just nice to have but if you are 20 to 30 moves in completing a challenge and mess a move up, you cannot undo the move made. A restart is required and that sets the player back a bit. Sometimes the game decides to crash when loading the next level so time has to be spent redoing the previous level which requires solving it again which is, at least, a bit tedious to do.
Battles are focusing on a 1v1 with the AI. It’s similar to the campaigns above. Knight supreme is just lots of knights against lots of knights, last stand is a few queens against a variety of pieces, pawn mania is lots of pawns against lots of pawns, and soccer chess is a sort of foosball situation. Besides soccer chess, it’s a bit underwhelming. I mean isn’t the value of chess the ability to use a variety of different chess pieces against each other? Having only two types in one game not only limits the options of what can be done, but also gets a bit dull especially when playing against an AI as opposed to a human. I think its fun to play once or twice although it outstays its welcome fairly quickly.
Presentation
For a game developed by a small studio, I think its pretty decent. I like the different themes going on with each level and how each of the pieces have a different appearance in each campaign or battle. There are a few little gags too which is quite cute to see! The music though? Yeah that is a bit weak. I’m not going around saying that they should choose or create better music, but some of the tracks like the one in “street soccer” can get really annoying especially when its looping and you’re trying to concentrate.
Summary
Chessarama is a cute little chess game that combines multiple genres with chess quite well. Some aspects such as the battle mode and the lack of an undo button hurt the game a fair bit, but this can be a nice challenge for those who enjoy chess and want to experience the board game in a new light.
Rating: 6/10
Update
Solitaire, hidden object games and now chess. I really am playing the hottest games out there. But in all serious, I guess this is one of the points of this blog. Not just playing the most acclaimed and well-loved games out there but also seeing what else is out there. They may be flawed games but can still be entertaining ones and if that’s the case then it’s not a waste of time in my eyes.
On that note, I’ll be finishing off the Tomb Raider stuff and playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Haven’t heard anything about this game either besides seeing it advertise on products back when it came out, we’ll see what it offers. Thanks for stopping by :)
Having picked a random game from my free games led me to a chess puzzle game. Quite random but I was willing to give it a try.
Background
The company behind Chessarama is Minimol Games, a Brazil game company that focus on, unsurprisingly, creating minimalist premium games. A quick look at their catalogue shows that most of their output is from chess related games with some card and jigsaw games thrown in every so often. Might explain how a small team (we are talking 13 people) have created over 30 games in five years, clearly their efforts are slowly getting some attention.
Gameplay
The are three main areas to the game: campaign, bonus, and chess match. I didn’t both with the latter as it is literally just online play so I’ll focus on the other two.
The campaign has four different and charming sections. The first is basically farming by using the knight piece and its basically knights tour (those who have played a Professor Layton game may know this). The second is a football game where pieces need to evade obstacles and score a goal. Would have preferred to have seem opponent pieces here rather than cones but it was alright. The third involved getting a queen to take out all the enemy pieces, probably the most fun as it kept the premise simple of just controlling a single piece whilst also providing layers with its combat. The final one was dragon slayer which was easily the hardest, having to escort a pawn to the end whilst protecting them (i.e., a piece cannot be taken without being taken itself by another piece) can be hard with many pieces about.
A few additional notes on the campaign. First of all, I think the progression part is decent overall. They introduced one piece at a time and slowly get the player to master it, so even if the tutorial doesn’t provide everything that’s needed then the player should understand in the next level. Challenges are also present which adds some replayability to each level even if all you get from collecting this xp is more battles and some cosmetics. There are some things that hold the campaign back such as a lack of a hint or rewind button. Normally these are just nice to have but if you are 20 to 30 moves in completing a challenge and mess a move up, you cannot undo the move made. A restart is required and that sets the player back a bit. Sometimes the game decides to crash when loading the next level so time has to be spent redoing the previous level which requires solving it again which is, at least, a bit tedious to do.
Battles are focusing on a 1v1 with the AI. It’s similar to the campaigns above. Knight supreme is just lots of knights against lots of knights, last stand is a few queens against a variety of pieces, pawn mania is lots of pawns against lots of pawns, and soccer chess is a sort of foosball situation. Besides soccer chess, it’s a bit underwhelming. I mean isn’t the value of chess the ability to use a variety of different chess pieces against each other? Having only two types in one game not only limits the options of what can be done, but also gets a bit dull especially when playing against an AI as opposed to a human. I think its fun to play once or twice although it outstays its welcome fairly quickly.
Presentation
For a game developed by a small studio, I think its pretty decent. I like the different themes going on with each level and how each of the pieces have a different appearance in each campaign or battle. There are a few little gags too which is quite cute to see! The music though? Yeah that is a bit weak. I’m not going around saying that they should choose or create better music, but some of the tracks like the one in “street soccer” can get really annoying especially when its looping and you’re trying to concentrate.
Summary
Chessarama is a cute little chess game that combines multiple genres with chess quite well. Some aspects such as the battle mode and the lack of an undo button hurt the game a fair bit, but this can be a nice challenge for those who enjoy chess and want to experience the board game in a new light.
Rating: 6/10
Update
Solitaire, hidden object games and now chess. I really am playing the hottest games out there. But in all serious, I guess this is one of the points of this blog. Not just playing the most acclaimed and well-loved games out there but also seeing what else is out there. They may be flawed games but can still be entertaining ones and if that’s the case then it’s not a waste of time in my eyes.
On that note, I’ll be finishing off the Tomb Raider stuff and playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Haven’t heard anything about this game either besides seeing it advertise on products back when it came out, we’ll see what it offers. Thanks for stopping by :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
20/06/25 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider + DLC
Took me about two years but I’ll finally all up to date with the Tomb Raider franchise, not counting the recent remasters, handheld and mobile games (and that random pinball game that just came out).
Background
Crystal Dynamics have been developing Tomb Raider games since Legend but this time around Eidos-Montreal took control with Crystal Dynamics only lending a hand. The reason for this is that Crystal Dynamics were working on the disaster that was Marvel’s Avengers, a Marvel game that would become delisted a few years after release due to several issues such as bugs, repetitive gameplay and grinding. Eidos-Montreal are experienced already in the franchise, having already completed the multiplayer for the first game in the trilogy. They also developer Deux Ex: Human Revolution, Thief (2014) and most recently supporting Playground Games with the development of Fable.
One thing that surprised me about this game was how it’s one of the most expensive video games ever made, taking around $120,000,000 to develop. I’m not entirely sure where this cost came from. I doubt it was from consulting historians how to create the setting, that’s been done before although it does explain the level of detail about. My guess it’s a combination of the DLC they would go on to make, the technology to create the game (both the scenery and the motion-capture) and maybe some of the marketing although that last part accounts for $35,000,000 of it. Pretty ambitious even after the success the game has already provided, let’s investigate as to whether if it paid off.
Plot
Continuing on from Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara continues to go hunting down the organization known as Trinity. With the aid of her friend Jonah, Lara travels to South America to find an ancient artefact that can stop a Mayan apocalypse which Lara accidentally unleashes (she has a habit of doing that doesn’t she). It’s a simple plot, nothing too mind-blowing with some characters with a bit of depth being shown. Some people say it’s a bit similar to Rise but I think A) Rise is a better story as it’s a more personal adventure for Lara and B) Rise is more similar to the 2013 entry with how it ends. As the last entry in the trilogy and concluding Laras origin story, I think it did a decent job although I would have like to have seen a darker side to Lara as there were only a few hints of it thrown in that only tease Laras struggles.
Gameplay
There isn’t too much of a difference in how Lara behaves between Rise and Shadow, probably less between 2013 and Rise. Running is about the same and jumping, fairly responsive even if she isn’t the best at either regard. Swimming is the same also, it’s a lot more frequent but air pockets and Lara’s really large lungs prevent this from being a hazard, even if they throw in obstacles within. Climbing remains fairly easy to do, simply jumping onto a wall and moving about on it with no real delay in movement. Two new mechanics were added to the climbing. Climbing on a ceiling which is ok, doesn’t really change much to the gameplay besides making some areas a bit more believable like “Oh why can’t Lara attach to the ceiling and skip all the puzzles, is she stupid?”. Grappling down from a wall is so satisfying to do. I don’t even care if Lara really hits a wall hard an absurd amount of times, I think it’s a clever little addition to her arsenal and really gives her the professional adventurer aspect to her.
Combat is the weakest in this game by far, but I don’t really care too much in this regard. I think this game calls back to the earlier entries of the franchise by focusing more on puzzles and exploration and less on mowing down enemies. But the action that does take place is fairly straightforward and repetitive, enemy variety is even less than before with shields being removed in favour of more melee enemies. The ammo is plentiful, enemies seem to be right by explosive barrels a majority of the time, and it’s easy for an enemy to lose track of Lara which lends into a stealth kill quite quickly. Lara can add mud to herself to hide by the walls although I don’t think it really adds much more to the combat as she could hide in the grass in the previous games (and this one). By the end of the game, it was almost mindless with what was needed to do besides the mandatory stealth sections which was more annoying than fun due to how easy it was for Lara to be detected and gunned down. Despite this, Tomb Raider isn’t an FPS game so these encounters aren’t too often so don’t feel offput about this aspect of the game.
The tombs though? For the most part, they are incredibly well done! They are unique, challenging in a fair way, and are visually stunning to look at whilst maintaining a sense of history behind them. Lara does tend to comment a lot when using survivor instincts (the ability to highlight important objects in a colour) but those can be turned off if you’re willing to lose the instinct. I do agree with the majority that they can be a bit too simple, but I think it complements the pace of the game and doesn’t outbalance the other parts of the gameplay. Maybe in the next entry they variety the difficulty a bit more.
Shadow is yet another game with a lot of side missions and collectibles to do. Optional tombs remain the best and provide a new skill on completion so be sure to do these if nothing else. Backpacks and archivist maps help add these collectibles to the map so they are handy. Challenges are still annoying, survival caches aren’t too useful considering resources are everywhere. Murals help provide the unlocking of monoliths which show where survival caches are so these aren’t too useful either, Lara doesn’t even comment on the murals this time although I do appreciate the riddle the monolith provides, it reminded me of the riddles in Batman: Arkham Knight. Documents and relics are decent for world building, they don’t suddenly appear on collecting them so I think that’s an improvement. More crypts which do offer a little puzzle so and provide armour pieces (I’ll talk about those in a second). Finally there are NPC side missions which are more personal than the last game and range from dull to lovely, it depends on whether you’re sitting talking to someone about a murder or exploring the world for a certain artefact.
A few notes about Laras inventory. Resources are just as important in this game and there are quite a lot of weapons about. In the end, I just stuck with the strongest of each of my weapons and upgraded those. I do appreciate the mix in styles here but I don’t see the need to try each of them out. Stores are more useful so you can increase the capacity of resources and buy other pieces of equipment, although I’m not a fan of trying to figure out which of the 5 or 6 stores scattered across different areas contains a certain item I want. Also I don’t really understand the reason as to give the player many different outfits to pick from? I mean some offer useful abilities (e.g., quick regeneration time in combat) and some are quite nostalgic and fun (e.g., the Tomb Raider 2 skin). But if you are forcing me to a use a certain costume for a few hours of the game to access a certain area, then do you think it’s worth constantly swapping back to the original outfit? A shame but it didn’t affect much at all so it’s more of a nitpick than anything.
Presentation
I mentioned it briefly when chatting about the tombs but the game, like the previous two entries is beautiful. Probably the best looking considering the first game was set on an island and the second one was mostly covered in snow, being set in South America really gives it a chance to enhance the historic part of the game by giving it the detail it deserves. The soundtrack is good also, arguably better than the last game and fits the mood quite well. A marvellous performance all around.
DLC
If you thought Rise of the Tomb Raider had a lot of DLC, Shadow has even more! Ignoring all the cosmetics (with some perks), there are seven expansions which are essentially additional tombs with a bit of story and the occasional bit of combat thrown in. I won’t go into a lot of detail but I’ll add some brief thoughts here.
The Forge: I’d argue this as the weakest of the DLC. The first half is some basic platforming and hunting down bits of a map, the second is the tomb itself which relies on stopping and starting a machine. I will give it credit for it being a cool looking tomb and for having a neat little story but I couldn’t see me replay this again.
The Pillar: It’s good. Has a nice balance of fighting and platforming, and managed to compliment the main campaign well (assuming you play this before finishing the main campaign). The Pillar part itself had a very intimidating look to it with its height and powerful winds which certainly gave it the menace it deserves. The ending was a bit silly with how how underwhelming and sudden it is, but it was a fun hour of fun.
The Nightmare: The first half explores Laras fears which, as done to death as it is, works fairly considering they don’t really delve much into it in the game which is a bit strange considering the title of the game. The second half is a short but a very nicely presented and creative tomb, certainly the best in terms of creativity even if mostly platforming. Probably my favourite of the DLC tombs.
The Price of Survival: I don’t know if I like this one because on the other hand it’s all over the map and is a good adventure but on the other, this results in many loading screens which can break the pace a bit. Ignoring that, I think it wins in the end with how it manages to balance all the key parts of a Tomb Raider game quite well in a short story.
The Serpents Heart: It’s fine if a bit forgettable. The tomb part was done well as always, had a nice puzzle to it which makes good use of the water mechanics. It’s just the combat is fairly standard and a bit repetitive at the first half. The ending also felt a bit sudden too, could have been an extra minute of closure.
The Grand Caiman: One of the more intense tombs, mostly testing a players reflexes. I can’t really think of a complaint for it but neither can I praise it for doing something new. It’s just decent and more of the same.
The Path Home: This tomb is a little different as it takes place after the events of the main campaign. It has a blend of combat and solving puzzles, the latter being quite clever if a bit repetitive and resorting to travelling the same route a few times. As for the former, standard stuff really. They do try and mix it up but it ends up still being the exact same combat again.
If I were to summarise all the DLC, I would say it’s a fun little bonus for the definitive edition but certainly not worth buying separately due to their short length.
Summary: A weak story and not really too many new things that separate it from the last game, but this offers some of the most beautiful scenery and best tombs in the franchise whilst providing a strong balance between the old games and new with its gameplay.
Ratings:
Base game: 7/10
The Forge: 5/10
The Pillar: 6/10
The Nightmare: 7/10
The Price of Survival: 6/10
The Serpents Heart: 5/10
The Grand Caiman: 6/10
The Path Home: 7/10
Update
Finally got through all the main Tomb Raider games, quite an interesting journey and I’m glad I got around to them. I have seen some “leaks” about what the next entry will be about although I’d rather wait until seeing and playing the game before making judgement. Personally, I think blending the atmosphere, tombs and exploration of the original games with the pacing, graphics, and open world (with not many collectibles and DLC) as the new games. And not pinball.
As for what’s next, I have one game to finish which shouldn’t take too long. Then I’ll figure out where to go from there. Thanks for reading the post :)
Took me about two years but I’ll finally all up to date with the Tomb Raider franchise, not counting the recent remasters, handheld and mobile games (and that random pinball game that just came out).
Background
Crystal Dynamics have been developing Tomb Raider games since Legend but this time around Eidos-Montreal took control with Crystal Dynamics only lending a hand. The reason for this is that Crystal Dynamics were working on the disaster that was Marvel’s Avengers, a Marvel game that would become delisted a few years after release due to several issues such as bugs, repetitive gameplay and grinding. Eidos-Montreal are experienced already in the franchise, having already completed the multiplayer for the first game in the trilogy. They also developer Deux Ex: Human Revolution, Thief (2014) and most recently supporting Playground Games with the development of Fable.
One thing that surprised me about this game was how it’s one of the most expensive video games ever made, taking around $120,000,000 to develop. I’m not entirely sure where this cost came from. I doubt it was from consulting historians how to create the setting, that’s been done before although it does explain the level of detail about. My guess it’s a combination of the DLC they would go on to make, the technology to create the game (both the scenery and the motion-capture) and maybe some of the marketing although that last part accounts for $35,000,000 of it. Pretty ambitious even after the success the game has already provided, let’s investigate as to whether if it paid off.
Plot
Continuing on from Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara continues to go hunting down the organization known as Trinity. With the aid of her friend Jonah, Lara travels to South America to find an ancient artefact that can stop a Mayan apocalypse which Lara accidentally unleashes (she has a habit of doing that doesn’t she). It’s a simple plot, nothing too mind-blowing with some characters with a bit of depth being shown. Some people say it’s a bit similar to Rise but I think A) Rise is a better story as it’s a more personal adventure for Lara and B) Rise is more similar to the 2013 entry with how it ends. As the last entry in the trilogy and concluding Laras origin story, I think it did a decent job although I would have like to have seen a darker side to Lara as there were only a few hints of it thrown in that only tease Laras struggles.
Gameplay
There isn’t too much of a difference in how Lara behaves between Rise and Shadow, probably less between 2013 and Rise. Running is about the same and jumping, fairly responsive even if she isn’t the best at either regard. Swimming is the same also, it’s a lot more frequent but air pockets and Lara’s really large lungs prevent this from being a hazard, even if they throw in obstacles within. Climbing remains fairly easy to do, simply jumping onto a wall and moving about on it with no real delay in movement. Two new mechanics were added to the climbing. Climbing on a ceiling which is ok, doesn’t really change much to the gameplay besides making some areas a bit more believable like “Oh why can’t Lara attach to the ceiling and skip all the puzzles, is she stupid?”. Grappling down from a wall is so satisfying to do. I don’t even care if Lara really hits a wall hard an absurd amount of times, I think it’s a clever little addition to her arsenal and really gives her the professional adventurer aspect to her.
Combat is the weakest in this game by far, but I don’t really care too much in this regard. I think this game calls back to the earlier entries of the franchise by focusing more on puzzles and exploration and less on mowing down enemies. But the action that does take place is fairly straightforward and repetitive, enemy variety is even less than before with shields being removed in favour of more melee enemies. The ammo is plentiful, enemies seem to be right by explosive barrels a majority of the time, and it’s easy for an enemy to lose track of Lara which lends into a stealth kill quite quickly. Lara can add mud to herself to hide by the walls although I don’t think it really adds much more to the combat as she could hide in the grass in the previous games (and this one). By the end of the game, it was almost mindless with what was needed to do besides the mandatory stealth sections which was more annoying than fun due to how easy it was for Lara to be detected and gunned down. Despite this, Tomb Raider isn’t an FPS game so these encounters aren’t too often so don’t feel offput about this aspect of the game.
The tombs though? For the most part, they are incredibly well done! They are unique, challenging in a fair way, and are visually stunning to look at whilst maintaining a sense of history behind them. Lara does tend to comment a lot when using survivor instincts (the ability to highlight important objects in a colour) but those can be turned off if you’re willing to lose the instinct. I do agree with the majority that they can be a bit too simple, but I think it complements the pace of the game and doesn’t outbalance the other parts of the gameplay. Maybe in the next entry they variety the difficulty a bit more.
Shadow is yet another game with a lot of side missions and collectibles to do. Optional tombs remain the best and provide a new skill on completion so be sure to do these if nothing else. Backpacks and archivist maps help add these collectibles to the map so they are handy. Challenges are still annoying, survival caches aren’t too useful considering resources are everywhere. Murals help provide the unlocking of monoliths which show where survival caches are so these aren’t too useful either, Lara doesn’t even comment on the murals this time although I do appreciate the riddle the monolith provides, it reminded me of the riddles in Batman: Arkham Knight. Documents and relics are decent for world building, they don’t suddenly appear on collecting them so I think that’s an improvement. More crypts which do offer a little puzzle so and provide armour pieces (I’ll talk about those in a second). Finally there are NPC side missions which are more personal than the last game and range from dull to lovely, it depends on whether you’re sitting talking to someone about a murder or exploring the world for a certain artefact.
A few notes about Laras inventory. Resources are just as important in this game and there are quite a lot of weapons about. In the end, I just stuck with the strongest of each of my weapons and upgraded those. I do appreciate the mix in styles here but I don’t see the need to try each of them out. Stores are more useful so you can increase the capacity of resources and buy other pieces of equipment, although I’m not a fan of trying to figure out which of the 5 or 6 stores scattered across different areas contains a certain item I want. Also I don’t really understand the reason as to give the player many different outfits to pick from? I mean some offer useful abilities (e.g., quick regeneration time in combat) and some are quite nostalgic and fun (e.g., the Tomb Raider 2 skin). But if you are forcing me to a use a certain costume for a few hours of the game to access a certain area, then do you think it’s worth constantly swapping back to the original outfit? A shame but it didn’t affect much at all so it’s more of a nitpick than anything.
Presentation
I mentioned it briefly when chatting about the tombs but the game, like the previous two entries is beautiful. Probably the best looking considering the first game was set on an island and the second one was mostly covered in snow, being set in South America really gives it a chance to enhance the historic part of the game by giving it the detail it deserves. The soundtrack is good also, arguably better than the last game and fits the mood quite well. A marvellous performance all around.
DLC
If you thought Rise of the Tomb Raider had a lot of DLC, Shadow has even more! Ignoring all the cosmetics (with some perks), there are seven expansions which are essentially additional tombs with a bit of story and the occasional bit of combat thrown in. I won’t go into a lot of detail but I’ll add some brief thoughts here.
The Forge: I’d argue this as the weakest of the DLC. The first half is some basic platforming and hunting down bits of a map, the second is the tomb itself which relies on stopping and starting a machine. I will give it credit for it being a cool looking tomb and for having a neat little story but I couldn’t see me replay this again.
The Pillar: It’s good. Has a nice balance of fighting and platforming, and managed to compliment the main campaign well (assuming you play this before finishing the main campaign). The Pillar part itself had a very intimidating look to it with its height and powerful winds which certainly gave it the menace it deserves. The ending was a bit silly with how how underwhelming and sudden it is, but it was a fun hour of fun.
The Nightmare: The first half explores Laras fears which, as done to death as it is, works fairly considering they don’t really delve much into it in the game which is a bit strange considering the title of the game. The second half is a short but a very nicely presented and creative tomb, certainly the best in terms of creativity even if mostly platforming. Probably my favourite of the DLC tombs.
The Price of Survival: I don’t know if I like this one because on the other hand it’s all over the map and is a good adventure but on the other, this results in many loading screens which can break the pace a bit. Ignoring that, I think it wins in the end with how it manages to balance all the key parts of a Tomb Raider game quite well in a short story.
The Serpents Heart: It’s fine if a bit forgettable. The tomb part was done well as always, had a nice puzzle to it which makes good use of the water mechanics. It’s just the combat is fairly standard and a bit repetitive at the first half. The ending also felt a bit sudden too, could have been an extra minute of closure.
The Grand Caiman: One of the more intense tombs, mostly testing a players reflexes. I can’t really think of a complaint for it but neither can I praise it for doing something new. It’s just decent and more of the same.
The Path Home: This tomb is a little different as it takes place after the events of the main campaign. It has a blend of combat and solving puzzles, the latter being quite clever if a bit repetitive and resorting to travelling the same route a few times. As for the former, standard stuff really. They do try and mix it up but it ends up still being the exact same combat again.
If I were to summarise all the DLC, I would say it’s a fun little bonus for the definitive edition but certainly not worth buying separately due to their short length.
Summary: A weak story and not really too many new things that separate it from the last game, but this offers some of the most beautiful scenery and best tombs in the franchise whilst providing a strong balance between the old games and new with its gameplay.
Ratings:
Base game: 7/10
The Forge: 5/10
The Pillar: 6/10
The Nightmare: 7/10
The Price of Survival: 6/10
The Serpents Heart: 5/10
The Grand Caiman: 6/10
The Path Home: 7/10
Update
Finally got through all the main Tomb Raider games, quite an interesting journey and I’m glad I got around to them. I have seen some “leaks” about what the next entry will be about although I’d rather wait until seeing and playing the game before making judgement. Personally, I think blending the atmosphere, tombs and exploration of the original games with the pacing, graphics, and open world (with not many collectibles and DLC) as the new games. And not pinball.
As for what’s next, I have one game to finish which shouldn’t take too long. Then I’ll figure out where to go from there. Thanks for reading the post :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
21/06/25 – Vampire Survivors
I played and beat this on my phone months ago but I decided to play it on PC also since it was a freebie and I wanted to see the differences. The post will be focused on the PC version.
Background
Today’s game takes us to Italy where Luca Galante, known as “poncle” online, began developing Vampire Survivors during unemployment. Inspired from the Castlevania and a mobile game known as Magic Survival, he began creating the game spending about a £1000 on assets. His knowledge of working in the gambling industry and being an admin for Ultima Online gave him the ideas for the game both visually and mechanically. Poncle didn’t see much success at first, it wasn’t until putting it up on Steam at a low price that he managed to get some attraction which far exceed what he was expective. This led him to quit his job, get freelancers and friends and begin improving the game. At the time of writing, poncle is now a team of 25 and have released a second game. It’s really nice to see stories like these of a solo developer putting in lots of work and seeing it pay off big time.
I should also talk briefly about bullet heaven, a subgenre of bullet hell as this game created the term. So first off, what is bullet hell? Well this is a sub-genre of shoot em ups, where the aim to dodge a lot of projectiles. Typically, this involves a ship or character that can move around the screen to avoid these projectiles and shoot back to destroy these waves. Games like Ikaruga and DonPachi are examples of this, although some elements of bullet hell can be found in games such as Undertale and Enter the Gungeon. Now Bullet Heaven. This flips the script where the character creates the bullets, typically automatically! The player still has the same amount of freedom to move about, can usually upgrade their attacks over time and it certainly doesn’t reduce the amount of enemies on the screen. I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd argue whether this is a reverse bullet hell or that bullet heaven is a bad term or that it's some other genre entirely, I just point this out as the game defined this term so it's worth seeing its influence on games such as Brotato.
Gameplay
I feel like the last paragraph explained most of the gameplay of Vampire Survivors but obviously there’s a lot more to it! A player has to survive usually about 30 minutes by killing all the enemies on the screen. Not much else to it, it is simply a matter of fighting to survive. Killing enemies in the game grants xp which leads to the character levelling up, allowing a player to pick from three rando, items, if the inventory is full or there is a repeat item, then an item can be levelled up. It’s certainly keeps things yet simple opens up possibilities on how a player wants to play the level. Do they focus on offence or defence? Attack close or far away? It’s a really smart way of keeping things addicting without the element of random items making too much of an impact on how a game is played. As for moving about, it’s fairly easy to do as its simply moving a character in a 2D area so it’s usually easy to evade enemies for the majority of the game.
I was trying to think of the best way to explain how the levels look like so I decided to use this screenshot to help. There aren’t too many enemies at the moment and these are mostly melee attacks, I’ll explain more about that a little later. The xp are the blue diamonds on the floor, always important to get and easy to identify no matter the level. There’s even some food for hp at the top right too, you can also find coins, a cross to destroy all enemies on screen, a way of stopping time, a way of attracting xp from all over the map (very useful in later levels), and (my favourite) a flamethrower that lasts about five seconds. Not too much but they can be a big sigh of relief when collected during a fight. Every level also has some obstacles to try and trap the player, here it isn’t too bad as it’s only trees but later levels can throw in some ambushes, so despite the relatively low number of levels each level is unique enough stand on its own. You may also note the blue bat on the screen, that’s a sort of mini boss that can drop a chest containing lots of coins and an upgrade or evolution (combining two weapons in the inventory into one) when defeated. It’s a good example of high risk, high reward as it helped me win each of the levels but was also the reason I died several times, attempting to get the chest that was completely surrounded.
Enemies aren’t deadly by their attack but by their number. The real test in this game is to keep moving away from them whilst also killing them and collecting xp. Almost all the enemies move in large groups and get very close, not too many fire projectiles and those that do tend not to appear in the most chaotic parts of the level (typically the last five minutes). This may feel dull but the enemy attacks and designs keep it from feeling too repetitive, such as a swarm flying across the screen from left to right or enemies that can resurrect on being defeated the first time. Bosses do appear every now and then and can range from a cakewalk to quite annoying. Two of the bosses are mostly just pressing right and avoiding horizontal and vertical line attacks, nothing too bad as long as you keep moving. One such boss is quite nasty, rolling across the screen and getting bigger (both in size and in health) for each enemy it kills. Would have liked to have seen more of the latter bosses but I’m happy with the ones I got and it didn’t take away from any of the levels particular with the rewards from beating them.
Even if you didn’t focus on the DLC, this game has a lot to do. Sure there’s 5 standard stages but what -about the bonus levels and challenges? And there’s about 48 characters to collect not to mention all the weapons and their evolutions, many of which can be unlocked via the hundreds of achievements in the game. I wouldn’t complain about it too much but I’m not a big fan of how vague some of the clues are to finding the more secret items. Hints are provided although I don’t think it’s super clear and if a person wants to google how to get it, they might as well save time and enter the code to unlock the item already. I feel like just focusing on the main campaign is the best but can be ideal for chilling with even after finishing it.
Presentation
Such a fantastic art style. A user on this website, “pretty_jesus”, described it as a “giant 2D love letter” and I couldn’t think of a better description. The characters, the enemies, the environments, all just oozing with 1980s pixel art with a 2020s polish. The music echoes this as well but it tends to flip between old and new, although each track fits in well with the game. Even with the large number of enemies on the screen, the sound effects don’t get too overwhelming on the ears and neither did it slow down the game at any point.
Summary
An addicting game with a cool art style and tons of little secrets and combat styles for replayability. If you want a fairly simple 30 to 40 minute game to pass the time, then this is worth giving it a go.
Rating: 8/10
Update: I wasn’t expecting to finish off the game the same day I finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but it was a pleasant surprise. Not sure if I’ll bother with the DLC for this game, maybe one day. But thanks for reading the post :)
I played and beat this on my phone months ago but I decided to play it on PC also since it was a freebie and I wanted to see the differences. The post will be focused on the PC version.
Background
Today’s game takes us to Italy where Luca Galante, known as “poncle” online, began developing Vampire Survivors during unemployment. Inspired from the Castlevania and a mobile game known as Magic Survival, he began creating the game spending about a £1000 on assets. His knowledge of working in the gambling industry and being an admin for Ultima Online gave him the ideas for the game both visually and mechanically. Poncle didn’t see much success at first, it wasn’t until putting it up on Steam at a low price that he managed to get some attraction which far exceed what he was expective. This led him to quit his job, get freelancers and friends and begin improving the game. At the time of writing, poncle is now a team of 25 and have released a second game. It’s really nice to see stories like these of a solo developer putting in lots of work and seeing it pay off big time.
I should also talk briefly about bullet heaven, a subgenre of bullet hell as this game created the term. So first off, what is bullet hell? Well this is a sub-genre of shoot em ups, where the aim to dodge a lot of projectiles. Typically, this involves a ship or character that can move around the screen to avoid these projectiles and shoot back to destroy these waves. Games like Ikaruga and DonPachi are examples of this, although some elements of bullet hell can be found in games such as Undertale and Enter the Gungeon. Now Bullet Heaven. This flips the script where the character creates the bullets, typically automatically! The player still has the same amount of freedom to move about, can usually upgrade their attacks over time and it certainly doesn’t reduce the amount of enemies on the screen. I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd argue whether this is a reverse bullet hell or that bullet heaven is a bad term or that it's some other genre entirely, I just point this out as the game defined this term so it's worth seeing its influence on games such as Brotato.
Gameplay
I feel like the last paragraph explained most of the gameplay of Vampire Survivors but obviously there’s a lot more to it! A player has to survive usually about 30 minutes by killing all the enemies on the screen. Not much else to it, it is simply a matter of fighting to survive. Killing enemies in the game grants xp which leads to the character levelling up, allowing a player to pick from three rando, items, if the inventory is full or there is a repeat item, then an item can be levelled up. It’s certainly keeps things yet simple opens up possibilities on how a player wants to play the level. Do they focus on offence or defence? Attack close or far away? It’s a really smart way of keeping things addicting without the element of random items making too much of an impact on how a game is played. As for moving about, it’s fairly easy to do as its simply moving a character in a 2D area so it’s usually easy to evade enemies for the majority of the game.
I was trying to think of the best way to explain how the levels look like so I decided to use this screenshot to help. There aren’t too many enemies at the moment and these are mostly melee attacks, I’ll explain more about that a little later. The xp are the blue diamonds on the floor, always important to get and easy to identify no matter the level. There’s even some food for hp at the top right too, you can also find coins, a cross to destroy all enemies on screen, a way of stopping time, a way of attracting xp from all over the map (very useful in later levels), and (my favourite) a flamethrower that lasts about five seconds. Not too much but they can be a big sigh of relief when collected during a fight. Every level also has some obstacles to try and trap the player, here it isn’t too bad as it’s only trees but later levels can throw in some ambushes, so despite the relatively low number of levels each level is unique enough stand on its own. You may also note the blue bat on the screen, that’s a sort of mini boss that can drop a chest containing lots of coins and an upgrade or evolution (combining two weapons in the inventory into one) when defeated. It’s a good example of high risk, high reward as it helped me win each of the levels but was also the reason I died several times, attempting to get the chest that was completely surrounded.
Enemies aren’t deadly by their attack but by their number. The real test in this game is to keep moving away from them whilst also killing them and collecting xp. Almost all the enemies move in large groups and get very close, not too many fire projectiles and those that do tend not to appear in the most chaotic parts of the level (typically the last five minutes). This may feel dull but the enemy attacks and designs keep it from feeling too repetitive, such as a swarm flying across the screen from left to right or enemies that can resurrect on being defeated the first time. Bosses do appear every now and then and can range from a cakewalk to quite annoying. Two of the bosses are mostly just pressing right and avoiding horizontal and vertical line attacks, nothing too bad as long as you keep moving. One such boss is quite nasty, rolling across the screen and getting bigger (both in size and in health) for each enemy it kills. Would have liked to have seen more of the latter bosses but I’m happy with the ones I got and it didn’t take away from any of the levels particular with the rewards from beating them.
Even if you didn’t focus on the DLC, this game has a lot to do. Sure there’s 5 standard stages but what -about the bonus levels and challenges? And there’s about 48 characters to collect not to mention all the weapons and their evolutions, many of which can be unlocked via the hundreds of achievements in the game. I wouldn’t complain about it too much but I’m not a big fan of how vague some of the clues are to finding the more secret items. Hints are provided although I don’t think it’s super clear and if a person wants to google how to get it, they might as well save time and enter the code to unlock the item already. I feel like just focusing on the main campaign is the best but can be ideal for chilling with even after finishing it.
Presentation
Such a fantastic art style. A user on this website, “pretty_jesus”, described it as a “giant 2D love letter” and I couldn’t think of a better description. The characters, the enemies, the environments, all just oozing with 1980s pixel art with a 2020s polish. The music echoes this as well but it tends to flip between old and new, although each track fits in well with the game. Even with the large number of enemies on the screen, the sound effects don’t get too overwhelming on the ears and neither did it slow down the game at any point.
Summary
An addicting game with a cool art style and tons of little secrets and combat styles for replayability. If you want a fairly simple 30 to 40 minute game to pass the time, then this is worth giving it a go.
Rating: 8/10
Update: I wasn’t expecting to finish off the game the same day I finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but it was a pleasant surprise. Not sure if I’ll bother with the DLC for this game, maybe one day. But thanks for reading the post :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
27/06/25 – Thief Gold
Haven't really played many stealth games, it's nice to deviate from my usual platforming, fps and puzzle route I've been on recently.
Background
Thief Gold is a Looking Glass Studios developed game, the studio known for the first two Thief games along with System Shock 1 & 2 along with the first Ultima Underworld. The company originally under the name Blue Sky Productions but that changed about two years in, and they kept developing games until they went defunct in 2000, primarily due to the lack of success with their projects. A shame the company didn’t last long but it seems they made a good impression.
To focus on Thief, this is an example of an early immersion sim which is basically a fancy way of saying the player can make their own free choice on how to approach a task. Thief went through several iterations, starting as Dark Camelot which was a sword fighting simulator involving communist zombies which then became more focused on a reverse King Arthur plot although eventually it focused on stealth and thieving. Of all places, the idea of being vulnerable when being seen and dangerous when hidden comes from submarine warfare which does make sense thinking about it. There was going to be multiplayer for the game but that financial trouble I mentioned caused some programmers to move to Ion Store to work on Deus Ex, and by some of the programmers I mean half the entire staff in six months. Despite all these setbacks, the game was released in 1997. While it may not have been a financial success that the team wanted, it was critically acclaimed and has been a cult classic since, particular since this is the first 3D stealth game for the PC which would later be seen as an influence on franchises such as Hitman and Splint Cell.
Before developing into the story I should clarify the difference between Thief: The Dark Project and Thief: Gold. Both are the first Thief game but Gold is the expanded edition that contains three new missions, slight changes to the original levels and a few bonuses such as a bloopers level. I’ll be focusing on Gold but I’m certain most of what has been written here can also be applied to The Dark Project.
Plot
The story focused on Garrett, a man who joined a faction known as the Keppers but would later leave to live a life of thievery. Eventually, Garretts work leads him between two other rival factions, The Pagens and The Order of the Hammer, worshipping The Builder and the Trickster respectively. This is all told through cutscenes (which are very gothic and very 90s) and through books found scattered around each level. I enjoyed the plot for the most part, not many characters but its edgy mood and world-building is pretty well-executed. There is one part that I did see coming although it was foreshadowed a bit with some of the books scattered about so I think its more of a sneaky job rather than basic story telling.
Gameplay
I bet you would never have guessed that the main objective in the game is to steal things as stealthily as possible. Avoiding enemies isn’t just about avoiding their line of sight. You have to hide in the shadows, ensuring the light meter on screen is below a certain threshold and I’m fairly certain this is the first game (or one of the first games) to introduce this mechanic! There’s also sound, you cannot walk on certain surfaces or move too quickly if an enemy is nearby, otherwise they will detect you. Usually there is one key item to get although there could be a few extra things to grab too, getting those and some coins can allow Garrett to leave the level. A common yet addicting hook for a stealth game, more impressive for its late 90s release.
Ignore that load failed, just my amazing key configuration striking again. This is taken from the first level and shows me hiding in the darkness and about to knock out the guy with the blackjack.
Garrett himself is alright to control although I do recommend spending some time adjusting the key bindings and installing some fixes to make the game more playable such as supporting widescreen resolutions as the Steam version isn’t too suitable for modern PCs. His move set is quite good, being able to peak around corners and crouch in the darkness is probably one of the key reasons this game is so well-received, it really achieves the immersion it sets out for when the game is like this. The swimming and climbing are fine, they certainly have an early 3D game feel to them so it can be a bit awkward attempting to do those things. Same applies to combat and it is clear some of the sword fighting simulation still survived with how attacks can be parried but that can be more forgiven since the game is not a combat-focused one so this is more of a last resort option.
Garrett also has quite a range of equipment to pick from. The sword is, naturally, for combat and as I said it’s typically a last resort and a bit iffy to use with its speed and deflection. The blackjack is a bat which is ideal for taking out many enemies with one hit, assuming they are taken by surprise. I used this the most as it just handles the “don’t kill anyone” side mission perfectly and keeps Garrett in the dark when equipped. The bow is a suitable weapon, can be a bit noisy but a well-placed shot is good for an enemy or two particular the rare gas arrows that can kill instantly. Health potions and food are great for health as always although cycling through the inventory to get them can be a pain, same applies to all the keys even if it makes perfect sense for each area to have different keys. Lockpicks are suitable strategies for ignoring those keys with the cost of them taking a while to open the door, good job that the guards cannot hear a loud unlocking noise. Flash bombs and mines I barely used, not because they are bad but rather the other equipment works perfectly enough to make them nothing more than a backup plan for tough situations.
Enemies in the game are quite standard. On the human side there is a swordsman who can be a bit tricky to fight making him an ideal target for the blackjack. Same applies to archers too, dangerous only in actual combat but trivial when in stealth. The mages aren't really a threat even in groups, attacking them with a sword pretty much stuns them and they don't usually launch a powerful attack. Stealth is a better option again although its just as easy for normal combat. Zombies are a pain in the ass and require specific equipment to take them out. When I see them, I tend to jump past them if I can because there's no point being stealthy if they will get up if I approach that area again. Spiders also exist although aren't really a problem, can simply be killed with a sword. Other enemies do exist although they are just stronger variants of existing enemies such as The Haunt or rarely appear such as the self-destructing Frogbeast.
Level design can either be really good or horrible. At it’s best it can be quite intense and involves a lot of scheming to try and understand the best approach to a level. Take Song of the Caverns or even the first level, there are NPCs having conversations with each other, many rooms to explore and raid, little details such as a hidden secret in a fireplace. I mean this is how you make a level, a rewarding experience in both ticking off each objective and collecting equipment to make the level a little easier. Levels can be quite large too so be wary that even the best levels can take an hour or two to complete.
The worst levels are the ones that don’t really use stealth at all. People tend to point to Escape! as the main culprit of this although I feel the one just before this (won’t name it as it is a small spoiler) was a lot worst due to the lack of places to ambush the enemy, the strength of the enemy, and how most of them are zombies so they’d just get back up anyway. Other weak levels aren’t as bad but can have tricky moments with how obscure some things are, such as finding five hidden switches that need to be pressed within five minutes to unlock one door. And sometimes it's just confusing to go about, areas all looking the same and trying to find one little thing that is kept hidden in a small area with not too many hints. Surprisingly that last point doesn't happen too much but when it does happen, it is very annoying.
Presentation
I don’t think I need to repeat myself on how great the game looks and how good it is at setting a tone again. It really does capture the unsettling nature of abandoned ruins and guarded mansions very well with its scenery and with its music also. Some areas are very dark to the point where I have to turn the brightness on my screen up to max just to see where I need to go. Hard to say whether thats a problem with the game or a problem with my settings but either way it was a true challenge. At least it made the actual lighting a lot more impactful. Despite me liking it, I do think the soundtrack was a bit too loud during some of the cutscenes but other than that is compliment the game quite well.
Summary
An atmospheric stealth game that holds many creative and detailed levels. Ignoring a few poor levels that don’t really take advantage of these, this is certainly a must-play for those who want to try their hand at a stealth game and enjoy exploring everything a level has to offer.
Rating: 8/10
Update: Will certainly play the other Thief games in the near future, there's only four of them so shouldn't take too long. No idea when my next update will be with life going on but hopefully not too long, thanks for reading :)
Haven't really played many stealth games, it's nice to deviate from my usual platforming, fps and puzzle route I've been on recently.
Background
Thief Gold is a Looking Glass Studios developed game, the studio known for the first two Thief games along with System Shock 1 & 2 along with the first Ultima Underworld. The company originally under the name Blue Sky Productions but that changed about two years in, and they kept developing games until they went defunct in 2000, primarily due to the lack of success with their projects. A shame the company didn’t last long but it seems they made a good impression.
To focus on Thief, this is an example of an early immersion sim which is basically a fancy way of saying the player can make their own free choice on how to approach a task. Thief went through several iterations, starting as Dark Camelot which was a sword fighting simulator involving communist zombies which then became more focused on a reverse King Arthur plot although eventually it focused on stealth and thieving. Of all places, the idea of being vulnerable when being seen and dangerous when hidden comes from submarine warfare which does make sense thinking about it. There was going to be multiplayer for the game but that financial trouble I mentioned caused some programmers to move to Ion Store to work on Deus Ex, and by some of the programmers I mean half the entire staff in six months. Despite all these setbacks, the game was released in 1997. While it may not have been a financial success that the team wanted, it was critically acclaimed and has been a cult classic since, particular since this is the first 3D stealth game for the PC which would later be seen as an influence on franchises such as Hitman and Splint Cell.
Before developing into the story I should clarify the difference between Thief: The Dark Project and Thief: Gold. Both are the first Thief game but Gold is the expanded edition that contains three new missions, slight changes to the original levels and a few bonuses such as a bloopers level. I’ll be focusing on Gold but I’m certain most of what has been written here can also be applied to The Dark Project.
Plot
The story focused on Garrett, a man who joined a faction known as the Keppers but would later leave to live a life of thievery. Eventually, Garretts work leads him between two other rival factions, The Pagens and The Order of the Hammer, worshipping The Builder and the Trickster respectively. This is all told through cutscenes (which are very gothic and very 90s) and through books found scattered around each level. I enjoyed the plot for the most part, not many characters but its edgy mood and world-building is pretty well-executed. There is one part that I did see coming although it was foreshadowed a bit with some of the books scattered about so I think its more of a sneaky job rather than basic story telling.
Gameplay
I bet you would never have guessed that the main objective in the game is to steal things as stealthily as possible. Avoiding enemies isn’t just about avoiding their line of sight. You have to hide in the shadows, ensuring the light meter on screen is below a certain threshold and I’m fairly certain this is the first game (or one of the first games) to introduce this mechanic! There’s also sound, you cannot walk on certain surfaces or move too quickly if an enemy is nearby, otherwise they will detect you. Usually there is one key item to get although there could be a few extra things to grab too, getting those and some coins can allow Garrett to leave the level. A common yet addicting hook for a stealth game, more impressive for its late 90s release.
Ignore that load failed, just my amazing key configuration striking again. This is taken from the first level and shows me hiding in the darkness and about to knock out the guy with the blackjack.
Garrett himself is alright to control although I do recommend spending some time adjusting the key bindings and installing some fixes to make the game more playable such as supporting widescreen resolutions as the Steam version isn’t too suitable for modern PCs. His move set is quite good, being able to peak around corners and crouch in the darkness is probably one of the key reasons this game is so well-received, it really achieves the immersion it sets out for when the game is like this. The swimming and climbing are fine, they certainly have an early 3D game feel to them so it can be a bit awkward attempting to do those things. Same applies to combat and it is clear some of the sword fighting simulation still survived with how attacks can be parried but that can be more forgiven since the game is not a combat-focused one so this is more of a last resort option.
Garrett also has quite a range of equipment to pick from. The sword is, naturally, for combat and as I said it’s typically a last resort and a bit iffy to use with its speed and deflection. The blackjack is a bat which is ideal for taking out many enemies with one hit, assuming they are taken by surprise. I used this the most as it just handles the “don’t kill anyone” side mission perfectly and keeps Garrett in the dark when equipped. The bow is a suitable weapon, can be a bit noisy but a well-placed shot is good for an enemy or two particular the rare gas arrows that can kill instantly. Health potions and food are great for health as always although cycling through the inventory to get them can be a pain, same applies to all the keys even if it makes perfect sense for each area to have different keys. Lockpicks are suitable strategies for ignoring those keys with the cost of them taking a while to open the door, good job that the guards cannot hear a loud unlocking noise. Flash bombs and mines I barely used, not because they are bad but rather the other equipment works perfectly enough to make them nothing more than a backup plan for tough situations.
Enemies in the game are quite standard. On the human side there is a swordsman who can be a bit tricky to fight making him an ideal target for the blackjack. Same applies to archers too, dangerous only in actual combat but trivial when in stealth. The mages aren't really a threat even in groups, attacking them with a sword pretty much stuns them and they don't usually launch a powerful attack. Stealth is a better option again although its just as easy for normal combat. Zombies are a pain in the ass and require specific equipment to take them out. When I see them, I tend to jump past them if I can because there's no point being stealthy if they will get up if I approach that area again. Spiders also exist although aren't really a problem, can simply be killed with a sword. Other enemies do exist although they are just stronger variants of existing enemies such as The Haunt or rarely appear such as the self-destructing Frogbeast.
Level design can either be really good or horrible. At it’s best it can be quite intense and involves a lot of scheming to try and understand the best approach to a level. Take Song of the Caverns or even the first level, there are NPCs having conversations with each other, many rooms to explore and raid, little details such as a hidden secret in a fireplace. I mean this is how you make a level, a rewarding experience in both ticking off each objective and collecting equipment to make the level a little easier. Levels can be quite large too so be wary that even the best levels can take an hour or two to complete.
The worst levels are the ones that don’t really use stealth at all. People tend to point to Escape! as the main culprit of this although I feel the one just before this (won’t name it as it is a small spoiler) was a lot worst due to the lack of places to ambush the enemy, the strength of the enemy, and how most of them are zombies so they’d just get back up anyway. Other weak levels aren’t as bad but can have tricky moments with how obscure some things are, such as finding five hidden switches that need to be pressed within five minutes to unlock one door. And sometimes it's just confusing to go about, areas all looking the same and trying to find one little thing that is kept hidden in a small area with not too many hints. Surprisingly that last point doesn't happen too much but when it does happen, it is very annoying.
Presentation
I don’t think I need to repeat myself on how great the game looks and how good it is at setting a tone again. It really does capture the unsettling nature of abandoned ruins and guarded mansions very well with its scenery and with its music also. Some areas are very dark to the point where I have to turn the brightness on my screen up to max just to see where I need to go. Hard to say whether thats a problem with the game or a problem with my settings but either way it was a true challenge. At least it made the actual lighting a lot more impactful. Despite me liking it, I do think the soundtrack was a bit too loud during some of the cutscenes but other than that is compliment the game quite well.
Summary
An atmospheric stealth game that holds many creative and detailed levels. Ignoring a few poor levels that don’t really take advantage of these, this is certainly a must-play for those who want to try their hand at a stealth game and enjoy exploring everything a level has to offer.
Rating: 8/10
Update: Will certainly play the other Thief games in the near future, there's only four of them so shouldn't take too long. No idea when my next update will be with life going on but hopefully not too long, thanks for reading :)
6 Yrs♥✓#
Civilwarfare101
6 Yrs♥✓#
I've been thinking about replaying the Thief games for some time. The first 3 mainly. Garrett is one of my favorite game protagonists and by extension fiction. If there is one thing that I think could annoy me now is the amount of searching around you have to do, that's fine but since it's a stealth game, it might take a lot longer to know how to complete the objective since there is time spent trying to take out the guards in between the searching. You still might need a walkthrough from time to time.
That and Thief Gold's extra missions just drags things out like crazy. The Theives Guild mission is infamous. I also think the Opera House and Mages Towers just goes on forever. Of course there is also the non stealth horror levels. The zombies sound really annoying without using holy water.
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
Through my experience with the game, it does strike me as a game where you really need to put a lot of time into exploring everything to get the most out of it. I don't mind doing that as such as there's a lot of little details in each level, but I do agree that sometimes it takes way too long. Personally its with the extra loot you need to find (gems, coins, etc). Trying to find a few more in a large map so a player can leave with x amount of gold can be a real pain, especially when its only one of two things left. I didn't use a guide too much but it was mostly for collecting these things, otherwise I would have spent a lot more time going around in circles. Hope it's reduced in the later entries but I have my doubts haha.
The Thieves Guild is certainly one of those large areas, especially with how they hid the bracelet in such a random place and how difficult some areas are to navigate with its size and it all looking the same. I do agree with The Mage Towers also, completing the objectives was a lot easier but finding all the keys just felt like it went on for way longer than it needed to. I didn't mind The Opera House that much, it was big but there's a decent map and lots of little things to make navigation a little easier, plus I don't think you need to explore everything to complete the level (on hard anyway, not sure about expert). I will say though, some spots in the building were quite nasty with how they placed the guards and how noisy the floor can be so it certainly deserves to be in the second half of the game.
The zombies were ok for the most part as, like you said, the holy water could deal with them easily and if not, you could knock them down or run past them as they are fairly slow. In the level Return to the Cathedral though....that was very annoying especially with The Haunts all over the place and the sheer number of them, not to mention the numerous objectives that needed to be collected. I just ended up knocking them down in spots where I could easily avoid walking past (like behind a gravestone), saving the resources for handling The Haunts.
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
17/07/2025 - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia is one of those franchises that I, and maybe other people, recognise by name but doesn't appear too often in the news. I mean its peak was in the mid 2000s, the only recent ones are The Lost Crown (which I heard is quite good), The Rogue Prince of Persia (only know its a roguelike) and a remake to the game I'm talking about today. I'm fairly certain the reason for this was Ubisoft wanting to move onto other franchises and the franchise failing to perform well enough. Whatever the case, we still have the past to play so here's The Sands of Time, considered as maybe the most iconic of the franchise with the only exception maybe being the first entry.
Background
I’m sure this will come as no surprise but The Sands of Time was not the first entry in the Prince of Persia franchise. The first entry, a self-titled one, was a platformer for the Apple II which did very well to start the franchise despite it not being a commercial success straight away. The second entry (Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame) was mostly the same with a few minor improvements here and there, and the third entry (Prince of Persia 3D) concluded this trilogy on Microsoft Windows but was met with a mixed reception.
That leaves us with The Sands of Time, with the franchise license being brought by Microsoft. The original creator of the franchise, Jordan Mechner, aided Ubisoft Montreal (who develop for franchises such as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell being working on at the same time as The Sands of Time) in the development of the game after seeing their work, removing any doubts that it would fail similar to Prince of Persia 3D. There’s quite a lot of information about this development but the team ended up creating 150 different versions of the game such as having nine characters representing different political region. Quite a lot of references too so it does capture that fantasy vibe it’s going for. The game was also developed using a modified Jade Engine so it’s a similar feel to the original Rayman games and Beyond Good & Evil. I could go into a lot more detail but I think I've covered the key points so I'll jump into the game itself.
Plot
The story of this game is relatively simple. The Prince managed to find a magical dagger that controls the flow of time. After being tricked into releasing the sands of time, The Prince and a woman named Farah have to undo the damage before the sand covers the world. There were a few moments that I felt could have been done a bit better, such as the final fight, but overall the journey in this plot is well paced and I’d enjoyed the characters as simple as they were. The character interactions were probably the best part, even just The Prince talking to himself can easily fill in the quiet parts of the game. I did like The Prince narrating his story as it went on also, it really felt like a true tale which not only provides each location with a purpose but also allows the chance to explore his thoughts on things such as his guilt on unleashing the whole disaster and his complicated relationship with Farah.
Gameplay
Platforming in the game is top-tier and shows Ubisoft knew how to make it work before they went into creating loads of open world games. It’s not a very complex thing by any means, but it shows how things like running across walls and jumping between pillars is not only easy but fast when its needed. The ability to rewind time also provides a comfortable safety net for any mistakes made so it’s weirdly a relaxing time for the most part. The small parts where its not is due to the traps such as spinning blades or the walls falling down, these aren’t too annoying to deal with as its just a matter of timing which I think the game provides plenty of. Even if a player was to struggle with the platforming, the game not only provides many checkpoints but also provides visions which grants a sneak peak at how to get past the next section of the game. Quite handy as while I wasn't confused on what I needed to do, it did prevent me from wasting time taking a certain approach to a task such as attempting to jump across a gap when I need to wall run and jump off the wall.
In terms of combat, I think its fine although the age shows itself a bit. It’s quite fast, being able to attack enemies with the sword is easy enough to do with a simple click of the button and parrying attacks tend to do the job quite well, even when knocked down. Dodging attacks is relatively easy to do as well but the enemies can land a combo attack and easily strike the players health down so combat can be quite tense. The one issue I have with the combat is the targeting. Sometimes I see an enemy on the floor and I’m about to finish it off but no let’s freeze the enemy right beside me instead as that special move is binded to the same key as the finisher. If I’m unlucky then the enemy can get back on its feet and if I’m very unlucky then I run out of health and cannot rewind time as I used up that spare time on the freeze attack. Another pain is having to keep an eye on Farah as she tends to fight alongside The Prince in combat and, while she can stun an enemy with a bow, more often than not an enemy will cause damage to her so you have to protect her as well. Fortunately, health is easy to come by as its just a matter of drinking water (I assume magical water otherwise I really underestimate how good water is at healing sword cuts) and the ability to rewind time is restored for every finishing move so the combat isn’t all bad, it just has its frustrating moments.
The game is one long continuous journey from start to finish. Typically, it has one long platforming section and then a few fights in a row and the back to the platforming which is probably the best format you can have in this sort of game as it’s a healthy balance of both. Occasionally a puzzle is thrown in which aren’t too difficult and provide a good change in pace. With both the puzzles and progress, the characters tend to make a few verbal hints at the start of the puzzle and sometimes there’s a short cutscene going “hey, over here”. I think it’s at the right level as it doesn’t make it too obvious on the exact action that needs to be completed but also not confusing the player on what they need to do. I've already mentioned the checkpoints but I didn't mention they are activated by walking into them and its okay? It saves time of having to pause a menu and manually save it and I assume autosave wasn't as commonplace at that time, but sometimes I need to walk back and I accidentally walk into the save point. So I think its a good idea to have but the positions of these save points should be adjusted in some spots.
Presentation
If I told you to imagine an early 2000s game set in a fairytale palace in the middle of a desert then you’d pretty much have this game. It captures it all quite well, having the whole game happen over the course of a day so you can see both the daytime and the nighttime. Each area felt quite unique too so this seven hour game doesn’t have that sense of déjà vu. I’m not sure if its just my PC setup or how the game is stored on Steam but the character dialogue outside of the cutscenes was really quiet, despite the options saying it was at the right level. The music was at the right level and is quite a bop during the combat sections so I always looked forward to hearing them after a long platforming section.
Summary While the combat is weak in this game due to its imprecise movement, this is a fun game that has aged well in its appearance and provides well-executed platforming and puzzles with some good characters.
Rating: 8/10
Update: Life is getting busy for me now so I won't be posting as often as I used to, but I'll do my best to keep post when I can. Thanks for stopping by :)
Prince of Persia is one of those franchises that I, and maybe other people, recognise by name but doesn't appear too often in the news. I mean its peak was in the mid 2000s, the only recent ones are The Lost Crown (which I heard is quite good), The Rogue Prince of Persia (only know its a roguelike) and a remake to the game I'm talking about today. I'm fairly certain the reason for this was Ubisoft wanting to move onto other franchises and the franchise failing to perform well enough. Whatever the case, we still have the past to play so here's The Sands of Time, considered as maybe the most iconic of the franchise with the only exception maybe being the first entry.
Background
I’m sure this will come as no surprise but The Sands of Time was not the first entry in the Prince of Persia franchise. The first entry, a self-titled one, was a platformer for the Apple II which did very well to start the franchise despite it not being a commercial success straight away. The second entry (Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame) was mostly the same with a few minor improvements here and there, and the third entry (Prince of Persia 3D) concluded this trilogy on Microsoft Windows but was met with a mixed reception.
That leaves us with The Sands of Time, with the franchise license being brought by Microsoft. The original creator of the franchise, Jordan Mechner, aided Ubisoft Montreal (who develop for franchises such as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell being working on at the same time as The Sands of Time) in the development of the game after seeing their work, removing any doubts that it would fail similar to Prince of Persia 3D. There’s quite a lot of information about this development but the team ended up creating 150 different versions of the game such as having nine characters representing different political region. Quite a lot of references too so it does capture that fantasy vibe it’s going for. The game was also developed using a modified Jade Engine so it’s a similar feel to the original Rayman games and Beyond Good & Evil. I could go into a lot more detail but I think I've covered the key points so I'll jump into the game itself.
Plot
The story of this game is relatively simple. The Prince managed to find a magical dagger that controls the flow of time. After being tricked into releasing the sands of time, The Prince and a woman named Farah have to undo the damage before the sand covers the world. There were a few moments that I felt could have been done a bit better, such as the final fight, but overall the journey in this plot is well paced and I’d enjoyed the characters as simple as they were. The character interactions were probably the best part, even just The Prince talking to himself can easily fill in the quiet parts of the game. I did like The Prince narrating his story as it went on also, it really felt like a true tale which not only provides each location with a purpose but also allows the chance to explore his thoughts on things such as his guilt on unleashing the whole disaster and his complicated relationship with Farah.
Gameplay
Platforming in the game is top-tier and shows Ubisoft knew how to make it work before they went into creating loads of open world games. It’s not a very complex thing by any means, but it shows how things like running across walls and jumping between pillars is not only easy but fast when its needed. The ability to rewind time also provides a comfortable safety net for any mistakes made so it’s weirdly a relaxing time for the most part. The small parts where its not is due to the traps such as spinning blades or the walls falling down, these aren’t too annoying to deal with as its just a matter of timing which I think the game provides plenty of. Even if a player was to struggle with the platforming, the game not only provides many checkpoints but also provides visions which grants a sneak peak at how to get past the next section of the game. Quite handy as while I wasn't confused on what I needed to do, it did prevent me from wasting time taking a certain approach to a task such as attempting to jump across a gap when I need to wall run and jump off the wall.
In terms of combat, I think its fine although the age shows itself a bit. It’s quite fast, being able to attack enemies with the sword is easy enough to do with a simple click of the button and parrying attacks tend to do the job quite well, even when knocked down. Dodging attacks is relatively easy to do as well but the enemies can land a combo attack and easily strike the players health down so combat can be quite tense. The one issue I have with the combat is the targeting. Sometimes I see an enemy on the floor and I’m about to finish it off but no let’s freeze the enemy right beside me instead as that special move is binded to the same key as the finisher. If I’m unlucky then the enemy can get back on its feet and if I’m very unlucky then I run out of health and cannot rewind time as I used up that spare time on the freeze attack. Another pain is having to keep an eye on Farah as she tends to fight alongside The Prince in combat and, while she can stun an enemy with a bow, more often than not an enemy will cause damage to her so you have to protect her as well. Fortunately, health is easy to come by as its just a matter of drinking water (I assume magical water otherwise I really underestimate how good water is at healing sword cuts) and the ability to rewind time is restored for every finishing move so the combat isn’t all bad, it just has its frustrating moments.
The game is one long continuous journey from start to finish. Typically, it has one long platforming section and then a few fights in a row and the back to the platforming which is probably the best format you can have in this sort of game as it’s a healthy balance of both. Occasionally a puzzle is thrown in which aren’t too difficult and provide a good change in pace. With both the puzzles and progress, the characters tend to make a few verbal hints at the start of the puzzle and sometimes there’s a short cutscene going “hey, over here”. I think it’s at the right level as it doesn’t make it too obvious on the exact action that needs to be completed but also not confusing the player on what they need to do. I've already mentioned the checkpoints but I didn't mention they are activated by walking into them and its okay? It saves time of having to pause a menu and manually save it and I assume autosave wasn't as commonplace at that time, but sometimes I need to walk back and I accidentally walk into the save point. So I think its a good idea to have but the positions of these save points should be adjusted in some spots.
Presentation
If I told you to imagine an early 2000s game set in a fairytale palace in the middle of a desert then you’d pretty much have this game. It captures it all quite well, having the whole game happen over the course of a day so you can see both the daytime and the nighttime. Each area felt quite unique too so this seven hour game doesn’t have that sense of déjà vu. I’m not sure if its just my PC setup or how the game is stored on Steam but the character dialogue outside of the cutscenes was really quiet, despite the options saying it was at the right level. The music was at the right level and is quite a bop during the combat sections so I always looked forward to hearing them after a long platforming section.
Summary While the combat is weak in this game due to its imprecise movement, this is a fun game that has aged well in its appearance and provides well-executed platforming and puzzles with some good characters.
Rating: 8/10
Update: Life is getting busy for me now so I won't be posting as often as I used to, but I'll do my best to keep post when I can. Thanks for stopping by :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
27/07/2025 – Thief II: The Metal Age
Might as well continue going through the Thief games, there aren't too many entries anyway.
Background
Thief: The Dark Project did well critically enough for a sequel to begin development about two months after release. Based on feedback from The Dark Project, The Metal Age was going to focus more on the stealth elements in an urban setting and have less supernatural elements and maze-like levels. The team took inspiration from several movies and a few books to create the world of the game alongside 2000 pictures taken by the lead artist during his holiday in Europe so it’s clear how dedicated they were into creating the game. In fact, it’s a good job they were as they went into “super crunch mode” towards the end as they slipped behind schedule resulting in some staff having to sleep in the office and avoid baths just to meet the deadline otherwise the company, Looking Glass Studios, would be shut down. The good news is that they met their deadline despite some believing it had a lack of quality. The bad news is that Looking Glass Studios still shut down regardless due to their other games not performing well and a wait for several months to receive their royalties from Thief II, with the Gold version of Thief II and Thief III being cancelled. It’s a shame it happened but the game was still received very well so at least the company went out on a high note.
Plot
Onto the game itself now, this game continues a year after the events of The Dark Projet where Garrett (the thief) is being pursued by Sheriff Truart who is going on a major crime cleaning spree. As well as the return of the Keepers, the Hammerites and the Pagans, Thief II focuses primarily on The Mechanists which is essentially a cult that are introducing new technology for security such as cameras with turrets and robots. Thief II is described as a “three-act structure” and I think for that reason it flows a little better than The Dark Project plot as that had some moments that felt a bit slow, although the final part of the game ended a bit suddenly, might be because of the rushed development and/or the planning of the third game directly afterwards. As before, the cutscenes were nice to watch and the characters are solid so if you want a simple, edgy steampunk plot then this game has you covered.
Gameplay
Most of how Garrett controls are similar to the last entry in the franchise. Crouching, jumping, running and peeking all work as before although some surfaces were more awkward to climb as before, by that I mean sometimes I’m awkwardly jumping up and down trying to go up a surface but keep missing. Also a few issues entering secret doors towards the end of the game so that requires a few reloads to the previous save point. Garrett can now also zoom-in to look at areas better, neat I guess but I barely used it as it doesn’t really show much you can’t already see.
The equipment is mostly the same also. Sword is still decent although more of the missions this time around won’t let you kill anyone with it and some enemies are just immune to it. Same applies to the blackjack, even had a bit of a downgrade as you can’t really knock out enemies that are alerted to you with it, otherwise it counts as a death. The bow is more critical than ever here, particular against the newly introduced worker bots who are best taken care of with a water arrow at the back. For that reason, the bow and blackjack are your best friends in this game. The only new arrow type is the vine arrow which is just a more powerful rope arrow as it allows a vine to be attached from many types of surfaces as opposed to just wood, it’s fine and can’t really fault it for it. In terms of the inventory, there's a flare which can light up an area although this feels a bit pointless as you want to be in the dark where you can. Scouting orbs are quite a fun addition, throwing one can allow Garrett to see around corners as the orb acts as a camera and while it wasn't commonly used, it allowed me to plan ahead to avoid some nasty situations.
A screenshot from the very first level, yes it is that dark although there are certainly brighter spots in that level.
Let’s speak about the level design as it’s all over the place in this game. Some of the levels of this game are incredible and capture the immersion of this game very well, probably beating the best levels of Thief Gold. The reason for this is pretty clear, there’s lots to explore without it being overwhelming. Details all about such as hidden rooms with lots of goods, lore regarding the story and characters, conversations about certain flaws in the building. While all of this was found in the first game for sure, they’ve really nailed down the details here and some of the traps are way sneakier than they were in the last game so those sorts of levels, such as Blackmail, Life of the Party, and First City Bank, really bring in the strengths of this stealth game. These levels do range in length, from an hour to two, but the pacing and exploration is good enough so that it doesn't feel too long so time does go by quickly when playing it.
The bad levels though? Utter nightmare. One level is just following some people around which is ok but drawn out a bit too long so it got a bit dull. Then there are the infamous two mansion missions right beside each other which is the exact same mansion (we are talking the exact same map with the same start point and end point) only with different mission objectives and some minor modifications (some doors are now locked, more patrols, etc). It would be a lot better if it was just one level instead of the two separate ones in what I can only assume was to pad out the game as then it’d just be seen as a solid Thief level. The final level provides the classic move of escalating the difficulty significantly whilst also being very big and confusing to navigate although I did appreciate the gloomy atmosphere it had and I do prefer it over Thief 1’s ending as this one feels like a test of all the skills Garrett has as opposed to just running towards the end.
Presentation
Even if I didn’t apply a TFix (a highly recommended mod) to ensure the graphics ran smoothly during my game (along with removing a few bugs involving the cutscenes), Thief II still has the same strong graphics than the first one had. Gloomy, dark, lots of attention to detail. As it’s shifting away from the supernatural element, this has more of an industrial look to it so expect less trippy sequences and more machinery scattered across each area. I wouldn’t say either one is bad or superior to the other, but personally I do prefer Thief 1’s gothic look as it invokes the feeling of suspense that this game doesn’t too much of. In terms of sound, yeah really not much has changed between games here. We do have female voices in the game now along with mechanical ones from the robots also so it’s nice to see some variety rather than just the same old guards.
Summary: A strong follow-up to the first entry in the franchise, fun stealth in detailed maps within a steampunk setting makes for a joyous playthrough. However it is far from perfect due to some obvious padding of time and some strange level design decisions towards the end of the game along with a few bugs here and there. If you enjoyed Thief 1, I'm certain you'll still enjoy Thief 2.
Rating: 7/10
Update: I have a flow going at the moment so I'll try to keep that momentum by hopping between the Thief games and the Princes of Persia games (that I own anyway). So by that logic, I should return with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within at some point in the near future! Thank you for reading as always, until next time :)
Might as well continue going through the Thief games, there aren't too many entries anyway.
Background
Thief: The Dark Project did well critically enough for a sequel to begin development about two months after release. Based on feedback from The Dark Project, The Metal Age was going to focus more on the stealth elements in an urban setting and have less supernatural elements and maze-like levels. The team took inspiration from several movies and a few books to create the world of the game alongside 2000 pictures taken by the lead artist during his holiday in Europe so it’s clear how dedicated they were into creating the game. In fact, it’s a good job they were as they went into “super crunch mode” towards the end as they slipped behind schedule resulting in some staff having to sleep in the office and avoid baths just to meet the deadline otherwise the company, Looking Glass Studios, would be shut down. The good news is that they met their deadline despite some believing it had a lack of quality. The bad news is that Looking Glass Studios still shut down regardless due to their other games not performing well and a wait for several months to receive their royalties from Thief II, with the Gold version of Thief II and Thief III being cancelled. It’s a shame it happened but the game was still received very well so at least the company went out on a high note.
Plot
Onto the game itself now, this game continues a year after the events of The Dark Projet where Garrett (the thief) is being pursued by Sheriff Truart who is going on a major crime cleaning spree. As well as the return of the Keepers, the Hammerites and the Pagans, Thief II focuses primarily on The Mechanists which is essentially a cult that are introducing new technology for security such as cameras with turrets and robots. Thief II is described as a “three-act structure” and I think for that reason it flows a little better than The Dark Project plot as that had some moments that felt a bit slow, although the final part of the game ended a bit suddenly, might be because of the rushed development and/or the planning of the third game directly afterwards. As before, the cutscenes were nice to watch and the characters are solid so if you want a simple, edgy steampunk plot then this game has you covered.
Gameplay
Most of how Garrett controls are similar to the last entry in the franchise. Crouching, jumping, running and peeking all work as before although some surfaces were more awkward to climb as before, by that I mean sometimes I’m awkwardly jumping up and down trying to go up a surface but keep missing. Also a few issues entering secret doors towards the end of the game so that requires a few reloads to the previous save point. Garrett can now also zoom-in to look at areas better, neat I guess but I barely used it as it doesn’t really show much you can’t already see.
The equipment is mostly the same also. Sword is still decent although more of the missions this time around won’t let you kill anyone with it and some enemies are just immune to it. Same applies to the blackjack, even had a bit of a downgrade as you can’t really knock out enemies that are alerted to you with it, otherwise it counts as a death. The bow is more critical than ever here, particular against the newly introduced worker bots who are best taken care of with a water arrow at the back. For that reason, the bow and blackjack are your best friends in this game. The only new arrow type is the vine arrow which is just a more powerful rope arrow as it allows a vine to be attached from many types of surfaces as opposed to just wood, it’s fine and can’t really fault it for it. In terms of the inventory, there's a flare which can light up an area although this feels a bit pointless as you want to be in the dark where you can. Scouting orbs are quite a fun addition, throwing one can allow Garrett to see around corners as the orb acts as a camera and while it wasn't commonly used, it allowed me to plan ahead to avoid some nasty situations.
A screenshot from the very first level, yes it is that dark although there are certainly brighter spots in that level.
Let’s speak about the level design as it’s all over the place in this game. Some of the levels of this game are incredible and capture the immersion of this game very well, probably beating the best levels of Thief Gold. The reason for this is pretty clear, there’s lots to explore without it being overwhelming. Details all about such as hidden rooms with lots of goods, lore regarding the story and characters, conversations about certain flaws in the building. While all of this was found in the first game for sure, they’ve really nailed down the details here and some of the traps are way sneakier than they were in the last game so those sorts of levels, such as Blackmail, Life of the Party, and First City Bank, really bring in the strengths of this stealth game. These levels do range in length, from an hour to two, but the pacing and exploration is good enough so that it doesn't feel too long so time does go by quickly when playing it.
The bad levels though? Utter nightmare. One level is just following some people around which is ok but drawn out a bit too long so it got a bit dull. Then there are the infamous two mansion missions right beside each other which is the exact same mansion (we are talking the exact same map with the same start point and end point) only with different mission objectives and some minor modifications (some doors are now locked, more patrols, etc). It would be a lot better if it was just one level instead of the two separate ones in what I can only assume was to pad out the game as then it’d just be seen as a solid Thief level. The final level provides the classic move of escalating the difficulty significantly whilst also being very big and confusing to navigate although I did appreciate the gloomy atmosphere it had and I do prefer it over Thief 1’s ending as this one feels like a test of all the skills Garrett has as opposed to just running towards the end.
Presentation
Even if I didn’t apply a TFix (a highly recommended mod) to ensure the graphics ran smoothly during my game (along with removing a few bugs involving the cutscenes), Thief II still has the same strong graphics than the first one had. Gloomy, dark, lots of attention to detail. As it’s shifting away from the supernatural element, this has more of an industrial look to it so expect less trippy sequences and more machinery scattered across each area. I wouldn’t say either one is bad or superior to the other, but personally I do prefer Thief 1’s gothic look as it invokes the feeling of suspense that this game doesn’t too much of. In terms of sound, yeah really not much has changed between games here. We do have female voices in the game now along with mechanical ones from the robots also so it’s nice to see some variety rather than just the same old guards.
Summary: A strong follow-up to the first entry in the franchise, fun stealth in detailed maps within a steampunk setting makes for a joyous playthrough. However it is far from perfect due to some obvious padding of time and some strange level design decisions towards the end of the game along with a few bugs here and there. If you enjoyed Thief 1, I'm certain you'll still enjoy Thief 2.
Rating: 7/10
Update: I have a flow going at the moment so I'll try to keep that momentum by hopping between the Thief games and the Princes of Persia games (that I own anyway). So by that logic, I should return with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within at some point in the near future! Thank you for reading as always, until next time :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
03/08/2025 - Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Continuing my journey through the 2000s Prince of Persia games has landed me on a game that could only have come from that decade.
Background
Ubisoft Montreal got to work on this game as soon as the previous game of the franchise, The Sands of Time, was in the final stages of production. The production took about a year to create which explains the one year gap between the games which is a bit crazy considering the changes made but not too surprising if you look at other franchises. Naturally, feedback was taken to help refine the game with one idea (the Prince being able to go down a drape using his sword) came from fans in the Ubisoft forums. With how crazy and popular the Internet is now, I doubt we'll see many ideas being implemented like that although it'd certainly be cool to see. Another surprising fact is that an idea of the premise of the game was called Prince of Persia: Assassins where a group of assassins would protect The Prince. I'm not entirely sure at what point during development it was changed, but the idea was moved from Prince of Persia into its own game that being Assassins Creed. Always interesting to see how franchises link together and I do see the similarities between the two, especially as Warrior Within is more open-worlded compared The Sands of Times linear progression.
Plot
Warrior Within is so funny. And I don't mean in like it being a comedic game, I mean it has done a complete u-turn on the games tone. This game is going for a dark, edgy story which I think the games cover art depicts fairly well. If it was a separate game then I wouldn't bring this up at all but to go from The Sands of Time to this? The best way I can describe it is having The Prince go from a sword-expert Aladdin to Metal Gears snake, and I can get that to an extent based on The Princes desperation but I think it went a bit too far. And don't get me started on the barely dressed female characters and how dialogue is delievered in the most growly way, it's ridiculous. Is this continuation too different from the first game and makes no sense? Yes. Is it hilariously stupid and over the top? Also a yes.
Okay the plot itself is decent. In order to stop a beast known as Dahaka from killing him, The Prince needs to prevent The Sands of Time from being created and thus prevent the Dahaka from being born in the first place. Despite the obvious confusion time-travel stories tend to make, I think its a good premise to have considering the power of the sands and certainly worthy of it being its own game. Seeing the changes between areas from the past to present is done quite well here and while there are barely any characters in the story, the amount of cutscenes prevented it from feeling too isolated. There are even two end cutscenes based on how the player goes through the game which is always a nice bonus for replays.
Gameplay
In terms of platforming, it's pretty much the same. Similar traps, similar vault points, and similar moves to traverse the area. Slowing down and reversing time really helps avoid this obstacles as well although at one point in the game it gets a bit too overpowered and it all becomes trivial. Granted it is towards the end of the game although I suppose that it takes the challenge away a bit too much. Besides that moment, the difficulty of the platforming is about the same as The Sands of Time, a bit of patience and timing is needed but on the whole its about the right difficulty (and this time you can change the difficulty of the game so it can be easier or harder depending on which you prefer).
Combat couldn't be more different. Simple swords attacks, parrying, and vaults over the enemy all still exist but just applying them is simply not enough. Enemies now can more easily swarm and perform combos on The Prince, even being able to grab him and drain his health quite drastically. To counter this, The Prince not only has the capacity to now carry an additional weapon but is also able to perform a lot more moves to handle the enemies with even more being unlocked as the game progresses. It is a bit hard to master at first, the game doesn't really tell you about these moves which is fine as the combos are in the menu although it is quite a difference between Sands of Time. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to take out enemies fairly well using those combos and certainly felt it was more engaging with how each enemy was handled. Enemy variety was also wider as well with enemies with projectiles and massive brutes thrown in to prevent it from being the same old fights again and again. There are even a lot more bosses this time around which is certainly welcome and was a good test of move usage so I hope there'll be more of that in the future games. I mean sure two of them were just repeats of the previous one with one or two little changes although I feel that the minor changes and motivation for the fights is enough to warrant those fights.
I mentioned it earlier but Warrior Within isn't linear and is almost an open-world. The Prince can travel between different times and access most of the previous areas. For the most part I think it works, the map prevented me from getting lost and hidden areas (such as health bonuses and artwork) are all over the place. Areas were also fairly detailed as before, impressive considering the year gap between games. The reason I'm not fully on board with this is that there's a lot of repetition with platforming. Going back to the areas is fine as it can unlock new areas you couldn't access before which is pretty cool, but by the last part of the game its the same sections again and again which switched my brain off in places and with how much health some of the enemies had at that point, I just started to run past them when I could or else that would be 5 to 10 minutes handling that. I think if they added some more new sections or reduce backtracking a little bit I'd enjoy it more but overall I'm alright with this. Also no protecting a person during a fight, big win there!
Presentation
I won't lie, some of the bugs in this game was frustrating and gave me a bad impression of the game. The first 30 minutes of the game I had to redo twice because one of the cutscenes was corrupted, in the end I was loaded in a save file so I could actually begin the game. There was also objects (both enemies and items) just disappearing after rewinding time which can be frustrating as it pretty much means a game over. Hopefully these can be patched out someday or the game gets a proper remaster as it is a bit depressing trying to immerse yourself in the world only for it to just crash.
The music and the looks though? Top-tier! I mean yes it's basically the same as the last game but the looks are still pleasant to look at and the metal soundtrack fits this games tone well especially during combat. The voices can actually be heard despite volume still not being able to be re-adjusted during the game. Not much else to comment it besides that I hope these are both present in the rest of the games.
Summary
Warrior Within is a good game with a different (albeit over the top) tone, refined combat, and shakes up the formula by being less linear and having more bosses. Just be cautious of a fair bit of backtracking and bugs.
Rating: 7/10
Update
Couldn't get a screenshot this time but oh well, maybe I will with Two Thrones. Will take a small sidestep away from Thief and Prince of Persia for one game then jump back into the remaining four games (2 each).
Continuing my journey through the 2000s Prince of Persia games has landed me on a game that could only have come from that decade.
Background
Ubisoft Montreal got to work on this game as soon as the previous game of the franchise, The Sands of Time, was in the final stages of production. The production took about a year to create which explains the one year gap between the games which is a bit crazy considering the changes made but not too surprising if you look at other franchises. Naturally, feedback was taken to help refine the game with one idea (the Prince being able to go down a drape using his sword) came from fans in the Ubisoft forums. With how crazy and popular the Internet is now, I doubt we'll see many ideas being implemented like that although it'd certainly be cool to see. Another surprising fact is that an idea of the premise of the game was called Prince of Persia: Assassins where a group of assassins would protect The Prince. I'm not entirely sure at what point during development it was changed, but the idea was moved from Prince of Persia into its own game that being Assassins Creed. Always interesting to see how franchises link together and I do see the similarities between the two, especially as Warrior Within is more open-worlded compared The Sands of Times linear progression.
Plot
Warrior Within is so funny. And I don't mean in like it being a comedic game, I mean it has done a complete u-turn on the games tone. This game is going for a dark, edgy story which I think the games cover art depicts fairly well. If it was a separate game then I wouldn't bring this up at all but to go from The Sands of Time to this? The best way I can describe it is having The Prince go from a sword-expert Aladdin to Metal Gears snake, and I can get that to an extent based on The Princes desperation but I think it went a bit too far. And don't get me started on the barely dressed female characters and how dialogue is delievered in the most growly way, it's ridiculous. Is this continuation too different from the first game and makes no sense? Yes. Is it hilariously stupid and over the top? Also a yes.
Okay the plot itself is decent. In order to stop a beast known as Dahaka from killing him, The Prince needs to prevent The Sands of Time from being created and thus prevent the Dahaka from being born in the first place. Despite the obvious confusion time-travel stories tend to make, I think its a good premise to have considering the power of the sands and certainly worthy of it being its own game. Seeing the changes between areas from the past to present is done quite well here and while there are barely any characters in the story, the amount of cutscenes prevented it from feeling too isolated. There are even two end cutscenes based on how the player goes through the game which is always a nice bonus for replays.
Gameplay
In terms of platforming, it's pretty much the same. Similar traps, similar vault points, and similar moves to traverse the area. Slowing down and reversing time really helps avoid this obstacles as well although at one point in the game it gets a bit too overpowered and it all becomes trivial. Granted it is towards the end of the game although I suppose that it takes the challenge away a bit too much. Besides that moment, the difficulty of the platforming is about the same as The Sands of Time, a bit of patience and timing is needed but on the whole its about the right difficulty (and this time you can change the difficulty of the game so it can be easier or harder depending on which you prefer).
Combat couldn't be more different. Simple swords attacks, parrying, and vaults over the enemy all still exist but just applying them is simply not enough. Enemies now can more easily swarm and perform combos on The Prince, even being able to grab him and drain his health quite drastically. To counter this, The Prince not only has the capacity to now carry an additional weapon but is also able to perform a lot more moves to handle the enemies with even more being unlocked as the game progresses. It is a bit hard to master at first, the game doesn't really tell you about these moves which is fine as the combos are in the menu although it is quite a difference between Sands of Time. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to take out enemies fairly well using those combos and certainly felt it was more engaging with how each enemy was handled. Enemy variety was also wider as well with enemies with projectiles and massive brutes thrown in to prevent it from being the same old fights again and again. There are even a lot more bosses this time around which is certainly welcome and was a good test of move usage so I hope there'll be more of that in the future games. I mean sure two of them were just repeats of the previous one with one or two little changes although I feel that the minor changes and motivation for the fights is enough to warrant those fights.
I mentioned it earlier but Warrior Within isn't linear and is almost an open-world. The Prince can travel between different times and access most of the previous areas. For the most part I think it works, the map prevented me from getting lost and hidden areas (such as health bonuses and artwork) are all over the place. Areas were also fairly detailed as before, impressive considering the year gap between games. The reason I'm not fully on board with this is that there's a lot of repetition with platforming. Going back to the areas is fine as it can unlock new areas you couldn't access before which is pretty cool, but by the last part of the game its the same sections again and again which switched my brain off in places and with how much health some of the enemies had at that point, I just started to run past them when I could or else that would be 5 to 10 minutes handling that. I think if they added some more new sections or reduce backtracking a little bit I'd enjoy it more but overall I'm alright with this. Also no protecting a person during a fight, big win there!
Presentation
I won't lie, some of the bugs in this game was frustrating and gave me a bad impression of the game. The first 30 minutes of the game I had to redo twice because one of the cutscenes was corrupted, in the end I was loaded in a save file so I could actually begin the game. There was also objects (both enemies and items) just disappearing after rewinding time which can be frustrating as it pretty much means a game over. Hopefully these can be patched out someday or the game gets a proper remaster as it is a bit depressing trying to immerse yourself in the world only for it to just crash.
The music and the looks though? Top-tier! I mean yes it's basically the same as the last game but the looks are still pleasant to look at and the metal soundtrack fits this games tone well especially during combat. The voices can actually be heard despite volume still not being able to be re-adjusted during the game. Not much else to comment it besides that I hope these are both present in the rest of the games.
Summary
Warrior Within is a good game with a different (albeit over the top) tone, refined combat, and shakes up the formula by being less linear and having more bosses. Just be cautious of a fair bit of backtracking and bugs.
Rating: 7/10
Update
Couldn't get a screenshot this time but oh well, maybe I will with Two Thrones. Will take a small sidestep away from Thief and Prince of Persia for one game then jump back into the remaining four games (2 each).
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
16/08/2025: Heretic + Hexen Part 1: Heretic
About a week ago, two Raven Software games from the 1990s got a remaster: Heretic and Hexen. Not only did this include the base game and the one expansion pack for Hexen, but also a new episode for each game. As there’s a fair bit for one post, I’ll cover all the Heretic content in this post and do Hexen a little later.
Background
So Heretic is an FPS developed by Raven Software, a company that would go on to handle Star Wars: Jedi Knight, a few X-Men games, and most notably some of the latest Call of Duty titles. Quite a varied line-up, with Heretic being the first big hit for the company. The idea for game came from Id Software, the developers behind Doom who suggested to do a fantasy style Doom. In fact there’s a good reason why many people call it a “Doom Clone” in that it uses a modified version of the Doom engine and the gameplay hasn’t changed all that much (as I’ll explain later). However to say it’s a clone wouldn’t be true as a few additional mechanics have been added such as looking up and down, inventory manipulation , flying, and improved audio, the first two being very rarely seen in FPS games at that point.
Might be important to note the difference between Heretic and Heretic Shadow of the Serpent Riders as both are on the website. Heretic by itself was released first and it was just three episodes long, sent via mail. Shadow of the Serpent Riders came about over a year later, with two extra episodes as it the version found in the remaster and the original Steam version.
Gameplay
Weapons, what have we got?
- A staff? Never used it, there is already enough ammo about to never need to use it besides to make the level significantly harder.
- Gauntlets of the necromancer are a better melee weapon anyway, stun locking enemies to prevent them from attacking which can be good for situations where there is one or two enemies left.
- An elven wand does sound very fantasy-like, this starter weapon is pretty handy for any low-tier enemies with its slow yet hit-scan attack, ideal for saving ammo even at the later levels.
- A dragon claw is basically a stronger, faster elven wand which I used when I had to deal with stronger enemies.
- Ethereal crossbow shoots three bolts at once and its probably my favourite weapons despite the variance in its damage output. I just think it’s ideal for crowd control and sure you could use a fast energy projectile weapon but this just feels more satisfising.
- The Hellstaff is that fast energy projectile weapon, good for the tougher enemies but the ammo runs out quick so I’d rather not use it or else I’m running around the map finding all the pickups for it.
- I barely used the firemace. It’s not bad, quite good actually with its strength but I just tend to forget it exists.
I won’t go over every item available in the game as there’s quite a lot and I didn’t use all of them. For instance I didn’t use the chaos device as I didn’t need to return to the start of the level and sure didn’t use the shadowsphere as why would I want to be invisible in a game like this? Quartz flask and mystic urns were nice for healing up when needed, even if there was an awful lot of them. Armour pickups were also ideal for the same reason. I did fly a couple times but it felt more for specific situations that required collecting a certain item, maybe if there were more I would have used it. Same applies to the torch and invincibility ring, only need it at one specific spot and even then it just makes it a bit easier. Time bombs and the morph ovum were fun but used about once, the weapons were fine enough.
An image from the very first level. Not a very exciting one but a suitable showcase on how the game works.
Combat in the game is exactly how you’d expect. Lots of shooting about and avoiding projectiles in usually small areas. Enemies in the game tend to fire projectiles which are easily avoidable but can be deadly when they are in groups or come from behind. I noticed in the later episodes that the main way of increasing the difficulty was to just throw in lots of lower-tier enemies which is a bit random. Like they can send lots of melee only enemies that can go down with a shock from the gauntlets or several shots with any weapon if there are too many. The stronger enemies were scaled correctly and the bosses were decent if a bit too reliant on the classic circle strafe technique (run around the boss in circles and shoot until it dies). Still, it is an addicting formula that works great here and doesn’t get dull across any of the five episodes.
As already mentioned, this game is based on a modified Doom engine so the level design too is also quite Doom-like. Go through each of the five episodes, consisting of 8 levels with a secret level. Each level involves getting to an exit switch or portal, with coloured keys sometimes needed to unlock certain areas. If you’ve played any old-school FPS then this is fairly familiar territory and shouldn’t take long to get used to, they are the right scale in terms of combat and map size, and don’t lead to trying to find any switches in random locations (Hexen foreshadowing). There never seems to be an issue with health or ammo usage, plenty of it about which is fine but does take some tension out particularly in the later levels. Also, this remaster comes with issues with raising platforms which did break a few levels although I see them easily fixing this issue in an updated version, I did play this a few days after its launch so these things are understandable if annoying.
Presentation
This is one of those games that you can tell it’s a 1990s game but still looks really well done regardless. It’s quite colourful which you don’t tend to get in many FPS games, those tend to be dark and grey and gloomy (although Heretic does have its moments), whereas this nails the fantasy vibe quite week with areas such as waterfalls, cathedrals, and palaces. Music is nice also, having the option between the original MIDI version and the remix and while the remix is a cool addition, it just feels a bit too weird for the game so I stuck to the original where I could.
Faith Revealed
Before concluding the post, lets go over the latest episode: Faith Revealed. It’s a good modern take on the game, it certainly captures the look quite well both in terms of the themes of each level and the colour being used: whether it’s a dark grey for a prison or a bright red for a palace. Level design is quite different though, opting for more arena-style fights with the occasional crowded trap thrown in for good measure. There’s even a few new enemies as well: a Draugr which is a mummy like creature that isn’t too much of a threat, a Troll that charges at the enemy and is one of the most dangerous enemies in my opinion, and a chaos serpent which I’m fairly certain is just a slightly changed chaos serpent from Hexen. All great additions especially thematically, although I do feel that at some points it’s a bit too modern and feels less like a natural episode and more of a mod. No new music which is a shame but completely understandable. Overall, a fun time with some nice additions, no harm playing if you have the bundle, just expect some tough fights.
Summary
A 90s fantasy FPS that provides fun gameplay with an early inventory system and really well-designed environments. Just be warned of some repetitive traps/enemies and the occasional bug. Faith Revealed is a strong new episode that holds moderately large maps and varied locations, just be wary that it swaps the level design for more arena-style fights.
Rating:
Heretic - Shadow of the Serpent Riders: 8/10
Heretic – Faith Revealed: 7/10
Update
A bit tired from working these past few weeks and I wasn't expecting this remaster to drop with new content so glad I managed to get around to it! I have played Heretic before hence why I got around to it fairly quickly. I'm already a bit into Hexen so expect the second part to come around at some point. Thanks for stopping by :)
About a week ago, two Raven Software games from the 1990s got a remaster: Heretic and Hexen. Not only did this include the base game and the one expansion pack for Hexen, but also a new episode for each game. As there’s a fair bit for one post, I’ll cover all the Heretic content in this post and do Hexen a little later.
Background
So Heretic is an FPS developed by Raven Software, a company that would go on to handle Star Wars: Jedi Knight, a few X-Men games, and most notably some of the latest Call of Duty titles. Quite a varied line-up, with Heretic being the first big hit for the company. The idea for game came from Id Software, the developers behind Doom who suggested to do a fantasy style Doom. In fact there’s a good reason why many people call it a “Doom Clone” in that it uses a modified version of the Doom engine and the gameplay hasn’t changed all that much (as I’ll explain later). However to say it’s a clone wouldn’t be true as a few additional mechanics have been added such as looking up and down, inventory manipulation , flying, and improved audio, the first two being very rarely seen in FPS games at that point.
Might be important to note the difference between Heretic and Heretic Shadow of the Serpent Riders as both are on the website. Heretic by itself was released first and it was just three episodes long, sent via mail. Shadow of the Serpent Riders came about over a year later, with two extra episodes as it the version found in the remaster and the original Steam version.
Gameplay
Weapons, what have we got?
- A staff? Never used it, there is already enough ammo about to never need to use it besides to make the level significantly harder.
- Gauntlets of the necromancer are a better melee weapon anyway, stun locking enemies to prevent them from attacking which can be good for situations where there is one or two enemies left.
- An elven wand does sound very fantasy-like, this starter weapon is pretty handy for any low-tier enemies with its slow yet hit-scan attack, ideal for saving ammo even at the later levels.
- A dragon claw is basically a stronger, faster elven wand which I used when I had to deal with stronger enemies.
- Ethereal crossbow shoots three bolts at once and its probably my favourite weapons despite the variance in its damage output. I just think it’s ideal for crowd control and sure you could use a fast energy projectile weapon but this just feels more satisfising.
- The Hellstaff is that fast energy projectile weapon, good for the tougher enemies but the ammo runs out quick so I’d rather not use it or else I’m running around the map finding all the pickups for it.
- I barely used the firemace. It’s not bad, quite good actually with its strength but I just tend to forget it exists.
I won’t go over every item available in the game as there’s quite a lot and I didn’t use all of them. For instance I didn’t use the chaos device as I didn’t need to return to the start of the level and sure didn’t use the shadowsphere as why would I want to be invisible in a game like this? Quartz flask and mystic urns were nice for healing up when needed, even if there was an awful lot of them. Armour pickups were also ideal for the same reason. I did fly a couple times but it felt more for specific situations that required collecting a certain item, maybe if there were more I would have used it. Same applies to the torch and invincibility ring, only need it at one specific spot and even then it just makes it a bit easier. Time bombs and the morph ovum were fun but used about once, the weapons were fine enough.
An image from the very first level. Not a very exciting one but a suitable showcase on how the game works.
Combat in the game is exactly how you’d expect. Lots of shooting about and avoiding projectiles in usually small areas. Enemies in the game tend to fire projectiles which are easily avoidable but can be deadly when they are in groups or come from behind. I noticed in the later episodes that the main way of increasing the difficulty was to just throw in lots of lower-tier enemies which is a bit random. Like they can send lots of melee only enemies that can go down with a shock from the gauntlets or several shots with any weapon if there are too many. The stronger enemies were scaled correctly and the bosses were decent if a bit too reliant on the classic circle strafe technique (run around the boss in circles and shoot until it dies). Still, it is an addicting formula that works great here and doesn’t get dull across any of the five episodes.
As already mentioned, this game is based on a modified Doom engine so the level design too is also quite Doom-like. Go through each of the five episodes, consisting of 8 levels with a secret level. Each level involves getting to an exit switch or portal, with coloured keys sometimes needed to unlock certain areas. If you’ve played any old-school FPS then this is fairly familiar territory and shouldn’t take long to get used to, they are the right scale in terms of combat and map size, and don’t lead to trying to find any switches in random locations (Hexen foreshadowing). There never seems to be an issue with health or ammo usage, plenty of it about which is fine but does take some tension out particularly in the later levels. Also, this remaster comes with issues with raising platforms which did break a few levels although I see them easily fixing this issue in an updated version, I did play this a few days after its launch so these things are understandable if annoying.
Presentation
This is one of those games that you can tell it’s a 1990s game but still looks really well done regardless. It’s quite colourful which you don’t tend to get in many FPS games, those tend to be dark and grey and gloomy (although Heretic does have its moments), whereas this nails the fantasy vibe quite week with areas such as waterfalls, cathedrals, and palaces. Music is nice also, having the option between the original MIDI version and the remix and while the remix is a cool addition, it just feels a bit too weird for the game so I stuck to the original where I could.
Faith Revealed
Before concluding the post, lets go over the latest episode: Faith Revealed. It’s a good modern take on the game, it certainly captures the look quite well both in terms of the themes of each level and the colour being used: whether it’s a dark grey for a prison or a bright red for a palace. Level design is quite different though, opting for more arena-style fights with the occasional crowded trap thrown in for good measure. There’s even a few new enemies as well: a Draugr which is a mummy like creature that isn’t too much of a threat, a Troll that charges at the enemy and is one of the most dangerous enemies in my opinion, and a chaos serpent which I’m fairly certain is just a slightly changed chaos serpent from Hexen. All great additions especially thematically, although I do feel that at some points it’s a bit too modern and feels less like a natural episode and more of a mod. No new music which is a shame but completely understandable. Overall, a fun time with some nice additions, no harm playing if you have the bundle, just expect some tough fights.
Summary
A 90s fantasy FPS that provides fun gameplay with an early inventory system and really well-designed environments. Just be warned of some repetitive traps/enemies and the occasional bug. Faith Revealed is a strong new episode that holds moderately large maps and varied locations, just be wary that it swaps the level design for more arena-style fights.
Rating:
Heretic - Shadow of the Serpent Riders: 8/10
Heretic – Faith Revealed: 7/10
Update
A bit tired from working these past few weeks and I wasn't expecting this remaster to drop with new content so glad I managed to get around to it! I have played Heretic before hence why I got around to it fairly quickly. I'm already a bit into Hexen so expect the second part to come around at some point. Thanks for stopping by :)
3 Yrs✓#
Not_Connor3 Yrs✓#
23/08/2025: Heretic + Hexen Part 2: Hexen
This is part 2 covering the recent Heretic + Hexen remaster, this time focusing on all the Hexen content.
Background
The word Hexen comes from the German noun “witches” and the German verb for “to cast a spell”. Quite a cool name for a game I cannot deny. Guess Raven Software wanted something beginning with “He-“ as a sequel to Heretic, forming what is known as the Serpent Rider trilogy (with Hexen II being the final entry). In terms of development, there isn’t much to note as there is only a year gap between Heretic and Hexen although to say nothing happen would be a lie. The games engine had a few tweaks to allow for moving objects, along with the ability to play music from a CD, and scripting levels. A year after release, it even for an expansion pack which was sold separately from the main game (typically it would require the base game to even run, this was not the case) albeit with a drawback of no music playing.
Plot
I completely forgot to talk about the plot of Heretic although it’s ok as not only do these games not have too much of a plot but this is also the second in a trilogy (the first being Heretic, the third being Hexen II) so it can all go in here. There are three brothers known as The Serpent Riders who use magic to convert kings across the world known as Parthoris into puppets. One of the elves who resist this magic (a Heretic shall we say) seeks vengeance on these three brothers and goes out to destroy them. As you can imagine, each game in the Serprent Riders trilogy focuses on one of the brothers but for this post let’s just focus on the second of the three.
Oh you expected the elf to be protagonist on this one? Despite him surviving the events of Heretic, Hexen takes place in another realm of Parthoris. In fact, this game has three heroes…and that’s about it really. 1990s FPS games don’t tend to have much of a plot besides a bunch of text at the start of the game and even then that tends to be in a manual. Although I have to say I wasn’t expect any cutscenes in the remaster, quite surprising and even if the graphics are vastly different from what the game offers it. I think I like it overall even though there is a good chance I’ll forget these exist not long from now.
Gameplay
Rather than having one character with several weapons, Hexen lets the player pick between three classes (the three heroes) with each class having up to 4 weapons with the last one having to be assembled by picking up parts throughout the campaign. As I’ve played this game twice, I can talk about The Cleric and the Mage although players in the remaster can swap between these two and The Fighter at any point within the hub. The Cleric has a good melee attack, even allowing for parrying attacks and his magic is fairly decent. I do prefer the Mage though, no melee attack but the magic can handle some of the more annoying enemies such as the centaurs that can block and even deflect some attacks. Plus a weapon with unlimited ammo, saves having to worry about collecting mana to reload the weapons. I won’t go over the inventory system again like I did with Heretic as it’s quite similar with its invulnerability, spawning enemies to help fight, health, armour, and other abilities although it’s nice to see it here in action again as it does prevent the combat from being too restrictive.
I briefly touched on the combat, some enemies have some cool mechanics like the centaurs and whatever the underwater enemies are called that submerge into the water to evade attacks. There aren’t too many different variants of enemies which can lead to attacking the same groups of enemies again and again. Normally this wouldn’t be too much of an issue, I mean many FPS games from the 1990s didn’t have many enemy types, but the fact that some of the enemies respawn as well pads out the game a bit. Bosses were fun though, not too difficult to fight against although their design and environment made them feel intimidating so I can at least go “huh that was cool” after a short fight.
One of the additions they added to the remaster was the inclusion of map markers and that has drastically reduced the time taken to play the game, particularly for newcomers. Hexen has five hubs, each containing about three to four individual maps that can be accessed through the hub (or themselves) via portals. To get to the next hub world, you need to hit certain switches in each of the maps and/or collect items to unlock the hub worlds door. The difficulty in this, however, is that these switches are not easy to find as they can be hidden behind locked doors or certain objects or off in a small area in the map. To make matters trickier, sometimes activating a switch doesn’t state where the change has occurred. It could be in the hub world but it can just as easily unlocked a certain door in the same map or even in a different one. This can lead a lot of annoying back and forth and I don’t mind that if it goes down that route, just that its too vague for it to be fun with the respawning enemies making it a bit worse. Fortunately, the remaster adds those map markers so the location of where I need to go next is easily shown on the map which really helps. I believe there’s an option to turn it off so those who prefer to play it the original way still can but I cannot see myself doing that unless I have a lot of time on my hands.
From the very start of the game, quite gloomy.
As for the rest of the level design, it’s solid stuff. Plenty of pickups and secrets about, usually enough to have the maximum amount and some backup which is fine all things considered. A good hybrid between open areas and closed off sections, a couple cruel spots with enemy placement although for the most part it’s fair for both close and long range attacks. Scripting is executed quite well also, with enemies smashing out of windows and areas shacking from events in the game, it really sells the atmosphere of the game in a way Heretic couldn’t really do at the time.
Presentation
On the topic of atmosphere, I’d say the visuals detain the dark gothic look quite well. More biomes are explored in this game and it is interesting to see how these contrasting locations connect together in a somewhat logical way. Again, the scripting events really showcase how good the engine is at displaying key events in the game so those were true highlights of the campaign. The music was good, set the tone well although quite easily drowned out by all the constant fighting going on. As with Heretic, I didn’t bother with the remix as I think the original midi fits the game a lot better than the remix.
Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
Uhhhhh yeah not a fan of this. More of the same really just with more obscure puzzles and a high quantity of enemies. Nothing new in terms of weapons or enemies, just shooting a lot and trying to find switches. Three hubs this time which is more than I thought for the expansion pack so you’re certainly getting your moneys worth. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this to a person who didn’t enjoy the base game, maybe a fan of the game would enjoy it if they liked both the combat and the exploration but disliking one of them may impact how much fun they have. Just expect a lot of back and forth between levels and a lot of the same enemy group attacking the player again and again.
Vestiges of Grandeur
This is a better expansion, focusing on one hub with four massive levels, an introduction level and a boss level. Again, no new enemies or weapons but the level design and presentation are far better. Not as many cryptic routes to take and fights tend to mix up the enemies rather than lots of the same one. The bosses are also challenging this time around by placing them in dangerous environments or throwing in lots of low-tier enemies so it’s good that theres some sort of tension in these fights that I felt was missing in Deathkings of the Dark Citadel and slightly in the base game. The only drawback I can think of is that the amount of backtracking in the game is quite high as I’m fairly certain the most efficient route to finishing the game is to visit each of the four big levels at least three times and very likely more if the map markers as disabled. Also there is an awful lot of platforming so if you don’t like Hexens jump mechanic then this may cause a bit of frustration in a few places. Overall a fun time even if it is just more Hexen.
Summary
Hexen is a unique FPS that relies on exploration and constant combat, the enjoyment a player gets from it stems from how much they enjoy trying to figure out how each of the levels work and from fighting the same enemies multiple times. Deathkings of the Dark Citadel is essentially the base game on steroids, I found it too annoying with its constant high-tier enemy spawning to enjoy fully but those who wanted more of a challenge from Hexen may get a kick out of it. Vestiges of Grandeur is more of the Hexen gameplay with some tougher bosses and equally impressive environments, certainly ideal for those did enjoyed Hexen.
Rating:
Hexen (original): 5/10
Hexen (remaster): 6/10
Deathkings of the Dark Citadel: 4/10
Vestiges of Grandeur: 6/10
Update: I should really get to the third in the trilogy sometime and maybe that sequel to Heretic which is a bit random. Regardless, this took longer than I expected even if most of it was a repeat but glad I finished off this random remaster. Replaying games isn’t something I tend to do although I will say sometimes its good to return to something and see if an opinion has changed or I missed something the first time. Should be back to Thief soon, just one more game and I should be ready. Thanks for reading :)
This is part 2 covering the recent Heretic + Hexen remaster, this time focusing on all the Hexen content.
Background
The word Hexen comes from the German noun “witches” and the German verb for “to cast a spell”. Quite a cool name for a game I cannot deny. Guess Raven Software wanted something beginning with “He-“ as a sequel to Heretic, forming what is known as the Serpent Rider trilogy (with Hexen II being the final entry). In terms of development, there isn’t much to note as there is only a year gap between Heretic and Hexen although to say nothing happen would be a lie. The games engine had a few tweaks to allow for moving objects, along with the ability to play music from a CD, and scripting levels. A year after release, it even for an expansion pack which was sold separately from the main game (typically it would require the base game to even run, this was not the case) albeit with a drawback of no music playing.
Plot
I completely forgot to talk about the plot of Heretic although it’s ok as not only do these games not have too much of a plot but this is also the second in a trilogy (the first being Heretic, the third being Hexen II) so it can all go in here. There are three brothers known as The Serpent Riders who use magic to convert kings across the world known as Parthoris into puppets. One of the elves who resist this magic (a Heretic shall we say) seeks vengeance on these three brothers and goes out to destroy them. As you can imagine, each game in the Serprent Riders trilogy focuses on one of the brothers but for this post let’s just focus on the second of the three.
Oh you expected the elf to be protagonist on this one? Despite him surviving the events of Heretic, Hexen takes place in another realm of Parthoris. In fact, this game has three heroes…and that’s about it really. 1990s FPS games don’t tend to have much of a plot besides a bunch of text at the start of the game and even then that tends to be in a manual. Although I have to say I wasn’t expect any cutscenes in the remaster, quite surprising and even if the graphics are vastly different from what the game offers it. I think I like it overall even though there is a good chance I’ll forget these exist not long from now.
Gameplay
Rather than having one character with several weapons, Hexen lets the player pick between three classes (the three heroes) with each class having up to 4 weapons with the last one having to be assembled by picking up parts throughout the campaign. As I’ve played this game twice, I can talk about The Cleric and the Mage although players in the remaster can swap between these two and The Fighter at any point within the hub. The Cleric has a good melee attack, even allowing for parrying attacks and his magic is fairly decent. I do prefer the Mage though, no melee attack but the magic can handle some of the more annoying enemies such as the centaurs that can block and even deflect some attacks. Plus a weapon with unlimited ammo, saves having to worry about collecting mana to reload the weapons. I won’t go over the inventory system again like I did with Heretic as it’s quite similar with its invulnerability, spawning enemies to help fight, health, armour, and other abilities although it’s nice to see it here in action again as it does prevent the combat from being too restrictive.
I briefly touched on the combat, some enemies have some cool mechanics like the centaurs and whatever the underwater enemies are called that submerge into the water to evade attacks. There aren’t too many different variants of enemies which can lead to attacking the same groups of enemies again and again. Normally this wouldn’t be too much of an issue, I mean many FPS games from the 1990s didn’t have many enemy types, but the fact that some of the enemies respawn as well pads out the game a bit. Bosses were fun though, not too difficult to fight against although their design and environment made them feel intimidating so I can at least go “huh that was cool” after a short fight.
One of the additions they added to the remaster was the inclusion of map markers and that has drastically reduced the time taken to play the game, particularly for newcomers. Hexen has five hubs, each containing about three to four individual maps that can be accessed through the hub (or themselves) via portals. To get to the next hub world, you need to hit certain switches in each of the maps and/or collect items to unlock the hub worlds door. The difficulty in this, however, is that these switches are not easy to find as they can be hidden behind locked doors or certain objects or off in a small area in the map. To make matters trickier, sometimes activating a switch doesn’t state where the change has occurred. It could be in the hub world but it can just as easily unlocked a certain door in the same map or even in a different one. This can lead a lot of annoying back and forth and I don’t mind that if it goes down that route, just that its too vague for it to be fun with the respawning enemies making it a bit worse. Fortunately, the remaster adds those map markers so the location of where I need to go next is easily shown on the map which really helps. I believe there’s an option to turn it off so those who prefer to play it the original way still can but I cannot see myself doing that unless I have a lot of time on my hands.
From the very start of the game, quite gloomy.
As for the rest of the level design, it’s solid stuff. Plenty of pickups and secrets about, usually enough to have the maximum amount and some backup which is fine all things considered. A good hybrid between open areas and closed off sections, a couple cruel spots with enemy placement although for the most part it’s fair for both close and long range attacks. Scripting is executed quite well also, with enemies smashing out of windows and areas shacking from events in the game, it really sells the atmosphere of the game in a way Heretic couldn’t really do at the time.
Presentation
On the topic of atmosphere, I’d say the visuals detain the dark gothic look quite well. More biomes are explored in this game and it is interesting to see how these contrasting locations connect together in a somewhat logical way. Again, the scripting events really showcase how good the engine is at displaying key events in the game so those were true highlights of the campaign. The music was good, set the tone well although quite easily drowned out by all the constant fighting going on. As with Heretic, I didn’t bother with the remix as I think the original midi fits the game a lot better than the remix.
Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
Uhhhhh yeah not a fan of this. More of the same really just with more obscure puzzles and a high quantity of enemies. Nothing new in terms of weapons or enemies, just shooting a lot and trying to find switches. Three hubs this time which is more than I thought for the expansion pack so you’re certainly getting your moneys worth. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this to a person who didn’t enjoy the base game, maybe a fan of the game would enjoy it if they liked both the combat and the exploration but disliking one of them may impact how much fun they have. Just expect a lot of back and forth between levels and a lot of the same enemy group attacking the player again and again.
Vestiges of Grandeur
This is a better expansion, focusing on one hub with four massive levels, an introduction level and a boss level. Again, no new enemies or weapons but the level design and presentation are far better. Not as many cryptic routes to take and fights tend to mix up the enemies rather than lots of the same one. The bosses are also challenging this time around by placing them in dangerous environments or throwing in lots of low-tier enemies so it’s good that theres some sort of tension in these fights that I felt was missing in Deathkings of the Dark Citadel and slightly in the base game. The only drawback I can think of is that the amount of backtracking in the game is quite high as I’m fairly certain the most efficient route to finishing the game is to visit each of the four big levels at least three times and very likely more if the map markers as disabled. Also there is an awful lot of platforming so if you don’t like Hexens jump mechanic then this may cause a bit of frustration in a few places. Overall a fun time even if it is just more Hexen.
Summary
Hexen is a unique FPS that relies on exploration and constant combat, the enjoyment a player gets from it stems from how much they enjoy trying to figure out how each of the levels work and from fighting the same enemies multiple times. Deathkings of the Dark Citadel is essentially the base game on steroids, I found it too annoying with its constant high-tier enemy spawning to enjoy fully but those who wanted more of a challenge from Hexen may get a kick out of it. Vestiges of Grandeur is more of the Hexen gameplay with some tougher bosses and equally impressive environments, certainly ideal for those did enjoyed Hexen.
Rating:
Hexen (original): 5/10
Hexen (remaster): 6/10
Deathkings of the Dark Citadel: 4/10
Vestiges of Grandeur: 6/10
Update: I should really get to the third in the trilogy sometime and maybe that sequel to Heretic which is a bit random. Regardless, this took longer than I expected even if most of it was a repeat but glad I finished off this random remaster. Replaying games isn’t something I tend to do although I will say sometimes its good to return to something and see if an opinion has changed or I missed something the first time. Should be back to Thief soon, just one more game and I should be ready. Thanks for reading :)