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03/01 - Halo 3: ODST (Master Chief Collection)
06/01 - Halo 3 (Master Chief Collection)
09/01 - Hotshot Racing
25/01 - Halo 4 (Master Chief Collection)
29/01 - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
03/02 - Heavenly Sword
05/02 - Need for Speed: Carbon (Battle Royale)
09/02 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
20/02 - ICO
24/02 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD
25/02 - Halo 5: Guardians
05/03 - Asura's Wrath
09/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Normal mode)
30/03 - Shadow of the Colossus HD (Hard mode)
30/03 - Forza Motorsport 3 (100%)
01/04 - Muramasa: The Demon Blade
11/04 - Forza Horizon 2 (100%)
17/04 - The Darkness
20/04 - The Darkness II
25/04 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
29/04 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
29/04 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X360)
06/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
07/05 - Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
10/05 - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2)
18/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Very Hard)
21/05 - Umurangi Generation Special Edition
27/05 - GRID Autosport
29/05 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Revengeance)
02/06 - Lost in Random
03/06 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
12/06 - Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix
13/06 -
God Hand
Another one off the "I'll get to it someday" list. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but I don't think I'll become one of the people who evangelise this game like it's the best thing ever. It's fun, goofy, unique, but also had some issues that I couldn't overlook. I talked about the game before
here, so this will be building on that.
The combat mechanics are pretty cool, especially when it comes to the amount of control it gives you over your abilities. It has a cleverly simple system that gives you a lot of room to build your own fighting style with a lot of intricacies out of a basic and easy to understand control scheme. Certain moves have special properties like breaking a guard or launching an enemy, and while it makes sense to have those on their own separate commands, you can also put them in your normal default combo too, so there's a lot of flexibility there. But it does so in a way that encourages a more tactical approach to your actions, rather than just giving you everything you could possibly want without any downsides to account for. It's a cool system. I found myself gravitating towards using a lot of leg sweeps to knock down enemies before wailing on them, as it seems like a lot of them are susceptible to that. The kinaesthetics of the combat are nicely done as well. Really fast and hyperactive, with good impactful sound design too.
The pacing of the overall experience is pretty odd, but in a way I like. It ties in with the difficulty too, in how fast paced it is. It is a hard game that will knock you down in an instant if you're not on the ball. But when you're on top of it, you are blasting through the experience like crazy. Enemy design is generally pretty simple and easy to learn, but until you learn it you're going to get utterly stomped on. You're either steamrolling everything, or losing your entire health bar in seconds. Levels are extremely short too, so it thankfully never feels like any sequence is too long or drawn out. It has a breathless pace to it that makes you feel untouchable, but still makes enemies feel like a constant danger so you can't let your guard down. Bosses are like this too, but they can be a bit of a wall since they have much more health. But it's just a matter of getting their attack patterns down, which is never as hard as it first seems.
I still had big problems with the movement controls the whole way through though. I hated the tank control style turning, and the way the camera is locked to your character's back the whole time. It did nothing but create problems, and I can't see any advantage to it at all. In a game where you need to be relentless with your aggression, and not let enemies get an opening on you, it's a massive flaw to have such a slow turning speed. Without having a lock-on, it makes trying to target the correct enemy basically impossible in some scenarios, as the game just goes to whatever one it wants, even against you trying to push it in a certain direction. It's a huge hindrance to prioritising targets. Your character's own body can sometimes block the view of enemies too, obscuring incoming attacks. The dodge is also awkward and inconsistent, as a sidestep automatically rotates you around a nearby enemy, and tries to point the camera towards them too. But it's inconsistent with which enemy it will decide to do this to in a group, putting you in positions you don't intend to go to, or pointing you in the wrong direction after a dodge. I assume the dodge being on the right stick is why this control scheme exists, even though having it there doesn't necessitate these tank controls. While these controls do make this game stand out among this genre, it's clear why other games don't copy this style. The novelty factor comes nowhere close to making up for the issues it causes.
The tone of the game is very weird, but I do enjoy it, with caveats. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, and is obviously leaning hard in to comedy. It does so in an intentionally silly and stupid way too. It's a hyperviolent slapstick. I think it does that quite well. It's sort of lame, but that's also part of the joke. It's almost as if everyone involved knows this is a game, and how everyone has their role to play in it. They know it's dumb, and they are leaning on the fourth wall a bit and having fun with it. The level design also adds to this feel as well, with how they are these really small boxy areas that seem devoid of any life except you and a bunch of weird looking goons trying to beat you up. Almost like this is cheap film set and everyone on it are just a bunch of actors. But there's also the elephant in the room when it comes to stuff like how heavily it relies on shallow stereotypes and its treatment of women. On the one hand, it's hard to really take seriously because of how extremely stupid everything in this game is, but it is a constant and undeniable part of the game. It's pretty juvenile.
But overall I did enjoy my time with the game. The level of customisation you have with your abilities is really impressive, and definitely makes this game worth trying out. The wacky tone does create some genuinely amusing moments, despite its issues. It's a weird, curious thing that stands completely on its own. Not the greatest game of all time, but one that I'm glad to have experienced.
