Post by I_KilledYouWithA on Jan 29, 2017 5:19:02 GMT
Go ahead, try and stop me. Pro tip: you can't.
RWBY: Grim Eclipse
35 of 51 people (69%) found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
14.0 hrs on record
RWBY is a game I wish was fun, but it's not.
Combat/controls
The combat is about as boring and shallow as God of War. Attacks were designed in a similar fashion as a Dynasty Warriors game, you have a light attack button that throws out a combo and a heavy attack button that does a chargeable attack and various attacks based on how far into the light attack combo you are. There's no way to string attacks together and no incentive (like a style score or being useful for different scenarios) to vary up your attacks, so there's no reason not to just whatever combo does the most damage or has the best crowd control.
You also have a dodge that doubles as a sprint button when held, a ranged attack that's not worth using unless you just don't want to deal with something, and a garbage parry mechanic. The dodge works fine, it has iframes like a dodge should but there's not much to say about it. The ranged attacks can stun depending on your character, but if you can use melee attacks then you may as well just smack 'em around. The parry lets you block certain attacks to stun enemies. I say that because other action games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or Metal Gear Rising rewards you for waiting until the very last second - no, frame - to defend yourself. Playing like that here will get you killed as the window to parry ends before the attack comes out. A better way to handle the controls would be something like what the aforementioned games where almost all attacks have their own input method that allows you to chain attacks together and make your own combos.
The health system is bad. It rechargeable like in most FPS games. This means that you're incentivized to run away like a coward when low on health and you don't have much health to begin with. I understand that it seems to be like this for lore reasons, but I still think the health should have worked differently. I would go with something that requires items or health drops to recover while having a bigger health bar. Maybe only having health recovery when a fight ends.
Enemies and the unfair difficulty
First and foremost, enemies can and (especially on higher difficulties) will attack you from off screen. This is highlighted best by the three-legged enemies that can burrow underground and attack out of nowhere with little to no warning. There's an audio cue, but that's only for parryable attacks. An easy fix without changing the game itself would be to just zoom out the camera to make it easier to see around you, but ideally enemies just shouldn't attack while off screen.
As the game goes on, it introduces enemies that explode when killed, and parrying their attacks is a sure fire way to make sure they explode in your face since parrying teleports you towards the enemies. These enemies shouldn't have parryable attacks of any kind.
There's also enemies that have a lot of unparryable attacks and very short windows to even identify attacks let alone deal with them. I haven't tested it (so don't take my word for it, please) but it seems like some of their attacks are even too fast to react to. You are given less a fraction of a second to identify whether the attack can be parried and act accordingly. The fact that the the parry window ends before the attack comes out means you have even less time to react, then you also have to consider input lag taking up a few frames and you're left with attacks that are more difficult to react to than they should be. If the parry didn't depend on a QTE to work and rewarded well timed parries, this may have seemed more fair. Enemies having attacks that need to be dodged in different ways would also allow for more time to react while still being challenging, maybe even have some projectiles that can be deflected.
Then there's the higher difficulties where the devs seem to carelessly throw hordes of enemies at you. All attacking at the same time and from off screen. It's absolutely frustrating to deal with as one hit can get you stuck in hitstun as enemies chew through your health. There are several different things that could have been done to fix this. Having greater areas of affect for attacks would have made it easier to manage the crowds. When you're attacked, either you should be knocked away, be able to break out of a combo, or just have a chance to defend yourself in some way.
Content (or lack thereof)
The game is short, super short. It should take you a few hours to complete. There's almost nothing outside of the game's combat. You can go off the beaten path for s little extra xp, but that's it. It's just going to the next fight. If the combat were any good then I would count this as a good thing. There's a story, too. But it's sort of just, well, there.
Some stuff I actually liked
Okay, there actually are some tricks I found while playing. Since holding dodge makes you walk faster, I got into the habit of holding the button at all times, releasing it only to press it again when I need to dodge. Dodges in the air cover more distance than on the ground. Stunned enemies take additional damage on the next attack, so you have to charge a heave attack to take advantage of it. There's probably more that I can't think of. Finding then incorporating these into my gameplay was fun and satisfying. If there's ever a sequel, adding some depth like this would make the game more enjoyable.
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition
7 of 8 people (88%) found this review helpful
4 people found this review funny
Recommended
99.8 hrs on record
At this current point in time, I have lost no relationships to this game.
Tomb Raider
2 of 2 people (100%) found this review helpful
Recommended
13.4 hrs on record
I enjoyed this game. It's an exciting adventure where you're shipwrecked on an island and you gotta get the ♥♥♥♥ out before the locals beat you to death three times over.
The combat was fast and fun. In addition to just shooting at you, the enemies would throw explosives which flush you out of cover, walk towards you with shields (probably the only game I can think of where guys like these aren't a pain in the ♥♥♥ to deal with), or just run at you with a sword in hand. Shootouts become more fun as you unlock skills like throwing dirt, stabbing people with an arrow (sigh... in the knee) as a counter attack, or an actual melee attack. There's also a stealth system, but outside of one part early in the game, it's just a matter of seeing how many guys you can kill before you get caught.
When you're not busy killing a small town's worth of dudes, you'll be climbing, raiding, and exploring. The climbing is basically Uncharted. If there's something you can hang on to, you'll be jumping and climbing all over that ♥♥♥♥. Unlike Uncharted, there are also walls you have you press a button to grab onto and ropes that you can either zipline down or climb up. Also unlike Uncharted, the island can be explored. You can return to areas you've been to find anything from cool ancient artifacts to lame ♥♥♥ GPS trackers. I don't know what they do either.
Then there's the tombs. All the tombs are optional areas where you're tasked with solving a single puzzle. These puzzles are usually trickier than the ones you deal with as part of the story. It was always satisfying when I finally piece together everything and make it to the chest at the end. The puzzles outside of tombs, as I already said, aren't as tricky. But they still require you to think about how to get past and they're more fun because of it.
So just ♥♥♥♥ing buy this game already.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
125 of 150 people (83%) found this review helpful
17 people found this review funny
Recommended
57.4 hrs on record
Kojima shows that a small amount of content can still be a lot of fun.
RWBY: Grim Eclipse
35 of 51 people (69%) found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
14.0 hrs on record
RWBY is a game I wish was fun, but it's not.
Combat/controls
The combat is about as boring and shallow as God of War. Attacks were designed in a similar fashion as a Dynasty Warriors game, you have a light attack button that throws out a combo and a heavy attack button that does a chargeable attack and various attacks based on how far into the light attack combo you are. There's no way to string attacks together and no incentive (like a style score or being useful for different scenarios) to vary up your attacks, so there's no reason not to just whatever combo does the most damage or has the best crowd control.
You also have a dodge that doubles as a sprint button when held, a ranged attack that's not worth using unless you just don't want to deal with something, and a garbage parry mechanic. The dodge works fine, it has iframes like a dodge should but there's not much to say about it. The ranged attacks can stun depending on your character, but if you can use melee attacks then you may as well just smack 'em around. The parry lets you block certain attacks to stun enemies. I say that because other action games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or Metal Gear Rising rewards you for waiting until the very last second - no, frame - to defend yourself. Playing like that here will get you killed as the window to parry ends before the attack comes out. A better way to handle the controls would be something like what the aforementioned games where almost all attacks have their own input method that allows you to chain attacks together and make your own combos.
The health system is bad. It rechargeable like in most FPS games. This means that you're incentivized to run away like a coward when low on health and you don't have much health to begin with. I understand that it seems to be like this for lore reasons, but I still think the health should have worked differently. I would go with something that requires items or health drops to recover while having a bigger health bar. Maybe only having health recovery when a fight ends.
Enemies and the unfair difficulty
First and foremost, enemies can and (especially on higher difficulties) will attack you from off screen. This is highlighted best by the three-legged enemies that can burrow underground and attack out of nowhere with little to no warning. There's an audio cue, but that's only for parryable attacks. An easy fix without changing the game itself would be to just zoom out the camera to make it easier to see around you, but ideally enemies just shouldn't attack while off screen.
As the game goes on, it introduces enemies that explode when killed, and parrying their attacks is a sure fire way to make sure they explode in your face since parrying teleports you towards the enemies. These enemies shouldn't have parryable attacks of any kind.
There's also enemies that have a lot of unparryable attacks and very short windows to even identify attacks let alone deal with them. I haven't tested it (so don't take my word for it, please) but it seems like some of their attacks are even too fast to react to. You are given less a fraction of a second to identify whether the attack can be parried and act accordingly. The fact that the the parry window ends before the attack comes out means you have even less time to react, then you also have to consider input lag taking up a few frames and you're left with attacks that are more difficult to react to than they should be. If the parry didn't depend on a QTE to work and rewarded well timed parries, this may have seemed more fair. Enemies having attacks that need to be dodged in different ways would also allow for more time to react while still being challenging, maybe even have some projectiles that can be deflected.
Then there's the higher difficulties where the devs seem to carelessly throw hordes of enemies at you. All attacking at the same time and from off screen. It's absolutely frustrating to deal with as one hit can get you stuck in hitstun as enemies chew through your health. There are several different things that could have been done to fix this. Having greater areas of affect for attacks would have made it easier to manage the crowds. When you're attacked, either you should be knocked away, be able to break out of a combo, or just have a chance to defend yourself in some way.
Content (or lack thereof)
The game is short, super short. It should take you a few hours to complete. There's almost nothing outside of the game's combat. You can go off the beaten path for s little extra xp, but that's it. It's just going to the next fight. If the combat were any good then I would count this as a good thing. There's a story, too. But it's sort of just, well, there.
Some stuff I actually liked
Okay, there actually are some tricks I found while playing. Since holding dodge makes you walk faster, I got into the habit of holding the button at all times, releasing it only to press it again when I need to dodge. Dodges in the air cover more distance than on the ground. Stunned enemies take additional damage on the next attack, so you have to charge a heave attack to take advantage of it. There's probably more that I can't think of. Finding then incorporating these into my gameplay was fun and satisfying. If there's ever a sequel, adding some depth like this would make the game more enjoyable.
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition
7 of 8 people (88%) found this review helpful
4 people found this review funny
Recommended
99.8 hrs on record
At this current point in time, I have lost no relationships to this game.
Tomb Raider
2 of 2 people (100%) found this review helpful
Recommended
13.4 hrs on record
I enjoyed this game. It's an exciting adventure where you're shipwrecked on an island and you gotta get the ♥♥♥♥ out before the locals beat you to death three times over.
The combat was fast and fun. In addition to just shooting at you, the enemies would throw explosives which flush you out of cover, walk towards you with shields (probably the only game I can think of where guys like these aren't a pain in the ♥♥♥ to deal with), or just run at you with a sword in hand. Shootouts become more fun as you unlock skills like throwing dirt, stabbing people with an arrow (sigh... in the knee) as a counter attack, or an actual melee attack. There's also a stealth system, but outside of one part early in the game, it's just a matter of seeing how many guys you can kill before you get caught.
When you're not busy killing a small town's worth of dudes, you'll be climbing, raiding, and exploring. The climbing is basically Uncharted. If there's something you can hang on to, you'll be jumping and climbing all over that ♥♥♥♥. Unlike Uncharted, there are also walls you have you press a button to grab onto and ropes that you can either zipline down or climb up. Also unlike Uncharted, the island can be explored. You can return to areas you've been to find anything from cool ancient artifacts to lame ♥♥♥ GPS trackers. I don't know what they do either.
Then there's the tombs. All the tombs are optional areas where you're tasked with solving a single puzzle. These puzzles are usually trickier than the ones you deal with as part of the story. It was always satisfying when I finally piece together everything and make it to the chest at the end. The puzzles outside of tombs, as I already said, aren't as tricky. But they still require you to think about how to get past and they're more fun because of it.
So just ♥♥♥♥ing buy this game already.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
125 of 150 people (83%) found this review helpful
17 people found this review funny
Recommended
57.4 hrs on record
Kojima shows that a small amount of content can still be a lot of fun.
