Batch 33 assassinated …
This has been a really SLOW batch to complete. I moved to Portland back in November and despite still being stuck inside due to Covid keeping public spaces closed, I just haven’t been playing a lot of video games lately. I slow-walked a second playthrough of The Last of Us Part II for the achievements I missed the first time.
On the other hand my library/backlog has only grown! We managed to snag a PS5 during the holidays, and if you were a Playstation Plus subscriber and PS4 owner you got a ton of games for free right out of the starting gate for buying the new console. Also have been grabbing some free stuff through Epic Game Store. And nabbed two items in the Steam winter sale. So here’s what got added since November.
Steam:
- Metro Exodus
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Playstation Plus:
- Days Gone
- Erica
- Fallout 4
- Final Fantasy XV
- The Last Guardian
- Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
- Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
- Persona 5
- Ratchet & Clank
- Resident Evil: Biohazard
- Until Dawn
Epic:
- Darkest Dungeon
- Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment
That’s a lot of stuff. I won’t play all of it, but there’s a lot of titles in there that could perk my interest.
This is a significant upgraded experience from the first title, which I enjoyed playing but found a lot to complain about. Nearly every aspect of the game has improved. The story is focused and interesting. The combat is a bit more fair. And the cards and gambits are well-designed and thought out.
You are a nameless adventurer who has been approached by the former Dealer from the first game, and he sets you up to take on the guy who replaced him, guiding you through 22 challenges that encompass the story. Before each challenge you get to pick cards that you have unlocked to spread throughout the encounter, mixed in with the Dealer's own cards. You can pick a companion (who joins you for combat and has special abilities you can unlock) and supplies that will be with you at the start of the encounter. You can also pick encounter and equipment cards that you will uncover as you progress through each level.
Still it IS a game based around RNG. Nearly every card has some mini-game attached to it that can go good or bad. However there is a bit more added player skill involved this time around. Some games like the pendulum and the spinning wheel are more about timing. And dice throws allow a certain number of re-rolls. There are also item cards that will give you advantages.
A worthy and better sequel. Unfortunately the game studio who made it went out of business.
This is a short game that is best played with a controller. It falls into the same class as point-and-click without the clicking. All prompts are handled by button presses just being near objects you can interact with. The gameplay is simple. Watch the story unfold, move around, get to places and pick up collectibles with some light puzzle-solving to complete each story segment.
As for the story, Carl is dealing with the loss of June in an accident and he gets the opportunity to alter the past to prevent it from happening. The puzzles are usually about managing the locations of NPCs and events so that the accident never happens.
As sweet as this sounds, the game actually sets more of a dark tone. For all the cartoon-iness of the visual style and wordless script told though emotional vocalizations, there are several complex issues that pop up in the tale that would be hard for kids to process. And the framing focuses on how difficult it is for Carl to deal with loss. None of this is bad, per se, but I was not sure this aspect of the story was well-served by the style. It seemed to hint at directions that weren't fully explored because they were trying to keep it 'age-friendly' but also felt dissatisfying for the same reason, cheapening some of the harder issues in the process.
Still, it's not a bad game, and it's easy to 100% if you like achievements.
The Last of Us Part II
? hours, 10/10
1 7 8 10 of 28 achievements
There's already been a ton written about this game that I won't attempt to re-hash here. I am a fan of the series. The Last of Us is my all-time favorite. That's closely followed by this one because everything about the technical aspect of the game is an improved experience. The scenery and graphics design, combat and crafting -- everything is amazing.
It also has a much more mature and complex plot. Everyone is free to disagree on whether or not they liked the story. But I think many criticisms of the narrative are largely based around the fact that it doesn't make you feel good as a player/viewer.
And that's the real rub. A lot of people see video games as a pleasant distraction, something where they want to feel like heroes in an RPG or standing up against a powerful enemy in an action-based thriller. The first game delivered on that -- a lot -- while providing a moral framework on the "hero" similar to how people idolize characters like Rorshach from Watchmen. Joel, however, is a much more sympathetic figure. Still his rampage that saved Ellie's life was the controversial point that people fought over in discussing what message Part I was sending.
We got an answer in Part II... that today's win through violence can have devastating repercussions tomorrow. And in this case it's a daughter seeking revenge for Joel killing her dad. With Ellie's commitment to go after her and Joel's killers, the cycle of violence constricts, ruining them both and the people around them.
That isn't the kind of game that we sit down to intentionally enjoy any more than we sit down to enjoy an Oscar-nominated movie like House of Sand of Fog. We watch these stories to remind us that sometimes our sense of justice is anything but, and that the world will not magically intercede to stop good people from doing terrible things to each other.
In any case, this game is brilliant. I believe it also plays better the second time around after you have processed most of the discomfort of playing it through the first time. The entire cast is wonderfully complex and nuanced. There also are scares that far outstrip anything from the first game.
I hope the new series on HBO lives up to all that.
I probably wouldn't have played this one except for the fact that my brother was telling me how much he enjoyed Metro Exodus and I told him about the two prior games of which he was not aware. I played Metro 2033 Redux a little over two years ago (Batch 24). And since his opinion compelled me to pick up Exodus during the winter sale, I was determined to play through Last Light before I started it.
I enjoyed the game, although much of it was a rehash of the prior one. This time the story focus is on the power struggle between different political factions in light of the events that occurred in the previous title. You return as Artyom, although the game ignores your choice at the end of the last game and assumes you destroyed the Dark Ones. You mission soon uncovers intelligence that a Dark One child is alive and a part of a larger plan. Once again you take to moving through the metro tunnels and outdoors to track down and figure out what is going on. Much gunplay and horror-themed situations move you along to the final conclusion.
Overall it's a good enough game to scratch your FPS itch. It's linear structure never lets you stray far and there are no side missions. If you want those, there are several isolated missions that unlock after you finish the game that can test your combat and/or stealth skills. If you've already played any of the Metro series games the monsters are nothing new and the occasional jump scare is strategically thrown in for effect and thankfully not overused.
I don't really have a lot to say about this one. I loaded it up on my Playstation and tried it for awhile. The first thing that hit me was the quality of the graphics seemed much closer to 2014's Metro Last Light Redux than more modern games in 2018 when it was released.
I was willing to live with that but the atrocious dialogue and plot setup killed it for me. The main character constantly states his feelings and objectives out loud every couple of minutes. This was not only immersion-breaking but made me want to shout at the screen, "Yes, thank you! I know that already!" Then his first meeting with a guy named Dr. Edgar Swansea ended whatever remaining good will I had. The dialogue between these two characters was horribly written and was only to quickly establish him as knowledgeable and probably a future mission giver -- without really doing any work of establishing the relationship between them.
Maybe there's a decent game lurking in this title past the introductory stuff but with a ton of fresher, more highly rated games sitting in my backlog, I felt I should be playing those instead.
I absolutely love the Metro series. I still haven’t played Exodus though, kinda dying to play it. The games are based on books in case you didn’t know and the first game actually did a pretty good job of staying true to it. Last Light was something else entirely. Regarding your comment about the choice of the first game not carrying over to the second, you are absolutely right however it gets complicated from here on out if we still want to keep comparing the games to their source material. The following spoiler is about the books (I won’t spoil the ending of the 2nd or 3rd book) so read at your own risk or if you are not interested in reading the books.
Dark Ones being destroyed by Artyom is canon ending. It happens in the end of the first book. For some reason Last Light makes it not matter at all, hell even the act of annihilation itself doesn’t matter at all cause a small group of Dark Ones still survives. However, in the books they are completely gone and extinct now. Not a single Dark One survived which puts Last Light in a totally different light for me because it’s as far away as it can get from the actual story it’s supposedly based on. The fact that Artyom annihilates the next step in human evolution becomes a pivotal moment for his character arc. Even in the 3rd book he can’t get over his regrets and guilt for what he has done and his self hatred significantly increases to the point of him not caring about what will happen to him if he goes outside the metro without wearing a gas mask. Because he feels like he deserves to suffer and die.This feeling of “I don’t care what happens to me anymore” type of mindset actually allows him to discover some pretty interesting things”
The 3rd book ends on a cliffhanger and it’ll be the last book in the series. I read that Exodus picks up after the ending of the 3rd book so I’m extremely interested in knowing what happens. I hope they’ll do it justice unlike Last Light which was a total mess story wise for reasons I explained above. I’ll buy Exodus eventually. I’m carefully avoiding spoilers about Exodus until then.
Sorry for the wall of text. I thought maybe someone might be interested in that trivia.
That’s really interesting! I haven’t read the books, but yes, a complete departure from the second novel. Did the game start development before the second novel was published?
A quick Google search says the publication date for 2034 (2nd book) is 2009 and the release date for Last Light is 2013. Artyom isn’t even the protagonist of the 2nd book by the way (he’s back as the main character in the 3rd book). They clearly wanted him to be main character of the 2nd game but they didn’t have to change the most important detail about the story to make it happen in my opinion. Canon ending, however tragic, is very important for the specific events to happen that will lead Artyom to the end of the 3rd book and eventually the Exodus game. I really hope Exodus will do it justice at least.
This comment was deleted about 3 years ago.
You slowly play the last of us waiting for the moment it will happen in RL :D. Anyway, that is a very nice list. It’s a pity I will never get to play the last of us (I don’t own a PS). I agree with you in Last day of june, it was well written IMO, but it did not go far enough in exploring the theme, this game is not for children anyway.
You make me worry about Vampyr, I have it in my to play list and I never read any really good reviews about it…
Even if you rent a PS4 or borrow one, both games are worth it!
Vampyr might have good things in it that I didn’t stick around long enough to see, but it had a distinct vibe of being behind the curve where most AAA titles currently sit. I’m OK with that as long as it makes up for it in other areas. But that dialogue… ugh!