February 2021
No quote due to lacking game content
So… it’s been a while. Since-last-year a while. Let’s just say a constant stream of stress and anxiety (with letting my reviews/posts build up on top of that) kind of got carried away. Either way, I am back and plan to slowly catch up on what’s been up with gaming for me as of late. Hopefully everyone’s year has been well and will continue to be. Well, to start off here’s February 2021. (This is also going to be out of order as I just realized I was looking at the wrong month in my recently played. whoops.)
Lego Batman is back with more characters than ever. Unfortunately, with each entry in the LEGO game series, I grow more uninterested despite having a small itch to play. In part this is due to the LEGO games introducing actual dialogue for the characters instead of general noises and some form of charade. I found the charade speech far more humorous while the dialogue in these later games made it more of a serious story than the usual comedy LEGO was known for. The gameplay is about the same as most in this series. Each character has their own ability to help conquer puzzles and foes while also building solutions out of Legos. The game is arguably the easiest in the series that I have played where bosses felt very weak in both difficulty and design. Lastly, there seemed to be a number of nearly game breaking bugs where my characters would either get stuck permanently or have various graphical errors. The greatest distaste is the amount of DLC that is being charged for this game. After all, the original target audience is children, yet multiple DLCs with little content and high prices is simply ridiculous.
Recommend? Generally, yes, but at a discount.
A sort of metroidvania and bullet-hell arcade combo. The main mechanic is the ability to shift between two colors (red/blue) to negate damage from energy orbs and/or deal damage to enemies. There was not much of a terribly interesting story behind the game, nor did I find the gameplay itself particularly engaging. However, with the main mechanic it strives for, it does well to incorporate it throughout the game. Puzzles, platforms, and enemies need you to be on your toes and shift colors on the fly to succeed and move on. The boss fights were entertaining and provided the occasional challenge to give the game some much needed spice.
Recommend? Yes
Having supported this game in it’s early access, I thought it about time to finally return and beat the story of this game. For those not familiar, this is a survival game with horror aspects as you find yourself stranded on an island where cannibals have taken your son. The survival and build portion of the game was surprisingly limited. There were only so man build options for this game, some of which can cause issues with other buildings you create. Other buildings had invisible walls and issues for carts you can build. There is no undo when creating blueprints. Some resources are just far too scarce and impossible to get (i.e. raccoon skin) thus making simple inventions not worth the effort.
There is a decent amount of “deepest lore” as most of the story is told through items you find with very few having dialogue or text. As well, the more you explore the island the more horrors you truly find await you as your quest to find your son continues. Once you do complete the story, the limiting building you can do and the post-story rewards do not leave much for you to continue to enjoy and thus the game comes to a fairly quick stop.
Recommend? Overall, yes. I can only imagine this game only gets better with friends, but a first time through creates an enjoyable and genuinely scary experience. Discount suggested.
The sequel to Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, you return to see the comedy club flourished with recruited members as well as following the story of a potential new recruit with some fame behind them. Despite being the second in the series, this game steps away from the multi-path adventure visual novel (choices, walking around, time management) and goes full linear visual novel. This felt much more of a side story as there did not appear to be a greater theme behind the story it told. It felt closer to being a bridge to the next greater arc. An intermission as the Comedy Club started to hold their meetings and the members finding their place and where their paths will take them… without actually getting to those destinations… yet. There is still a decent amount of jokes and comedic moments but is toned down a bit from the previous entry.
Recommend? I can’t say either way. More of an Okay+ where it was generally good, but nothing with any real substance.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
As far as the Prime series goes, this was probably my least favorite of the bunch so far. Despite feeling relatively Metroid-y, it felt overcomplicated with the addition of two additional ammo types to keep track of, a “dark world” to traverse in and out of, a ramp up in difficulty, and generally confusing level design. The introduction of light and dark ammo was interesting at first, but needing to use light ammo to get dark ammo and vice versa created an annoying necessity to try and keep them balanced. The level design and trying to figure out what exactly was next was unclear at best. Despite giving you a general place to go, there were multiple points in the game that I was just simply lost on either where or how to proceed (particularly in the Bog world). Even with the ability to scan, some bosses required a specific action that could have been explained better. Despite these errors, the game still felt very much like Metroid and trying to restore the light for the Mothmen in a darkening world was a good fit. Bosses that did not require a weird action to defeat were enjoyable and made good use of your various equipment.
Recommend? Despite being my least favorite in the Prime series (due to overcomplexity and frustrations) this was still a very enjoyable game and absolutely recommend to fans of the Metroid series.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Samus debuts on the Nintendo Wii with Corruption as it takes full liberty with the motion controller for aiming and various actions. It did seem that since this was a new platform for Metroid and innovative controls (for the time) they toned down the difficulty quite a bit to the point where the game was generally a breeze in comparison to it’s much harder prequel. This game also took on a mulch more cinematic approach as you find yourself in a narrative with unique characters and dialogue. A focus on story did take away from the Metroid experience and felt much less like a Metroid game and closer to a standard FPS. The level design and tracking were a little more straight forward with only a few points where there is some unclearness as far as next steps. Other than that, it is pretty consistent with the Prime series as a whole and the use of the motion controller to aim your arm canon just works. If anything, using the motion controller for even the simplest of actions (such as grabbing power cells) seemed a bit gratuitous).
Recommend? Yes. Though a bit on the easy side and a little too cinematic, the game is still an enjoyable adventure and (as of right now) conclusion to the series.