Recent reviews by andyf247

With over 160,000 reviews I feel it's not worth my time to give the usual level of depth that I give to gaming reviews as the chances of this being read are tiny.

Instead I'll summarise that I believe RDR2 to be a true masterpiece, a gaming experience unlike anything I've ever had before and probably never will again and that Arthur Morgan is one of the greatest fictional characters of any genre ever conceived.

Between the main story, the online mode and the hundreds of hours of optional content, this is one of the rare games that is truly worth every penny you spend for what it will give you in return. If you haven't played RDR1 then I strongly recommend watching a summary video of the story as it will greatly enhance your experience of RDR2

(10th March 2021, game still in early access but a major patch has just launched)

It's difficult to review a game that is still in development because there are clearly flaws that need to be addressed and content that will be added later that doesn't exist yet. My immediate instinct is to address the problems with the game and praise the good bits, but I feel instead I should talk about the experience I have had which has made me want to review an early access product instead of a release build

The majority of my game experience has been spent with friends and during covid it has been a great source of social activity for us. We get to hang out and talk as we'd normally do but with the thrown in fun of hunting for ghosts. The detective work of working out which ghost we are looking for, the unexpected screams of horror from an individual (and the screams from people next to you reacting to you screaming) when a ghost yells down your ear or the lights flicker, the thrill and terror of hiding from a ghost because death is so punishing. It's a social experience unlike anything I have experienced in any other game.

Is the game perfect? Far from it. Mechanically is it interesting? Honestly not really. There are tons of glitches, the animations are wonky and the ghosts can be frustratingly inconsistent. But do any of these things matter? No, because it is still a unique and fantastic experience to have with your friends. For that alone I recommend it

I didn't experience all the content so I won't go into a detailed review as I would ordinarily do. Instead I'll share my experience in a way that I hope will be helpful to anybody considering purchasing the game. I also haven't played any of the other games. This review is entirely about BL1 (enhanced) without any bias or influence from sequels (or prequels)

I tried the original version a couple of years ago, spent a couple of hours inside of a base for one of the early missions dying over and over to a boss, smashing my head against a wall working out a viable strategy before finally killing him. My game crashed moments later and I lost all the progress I had made. I uninstalled the game and didn't look back. I didn't know that I even owned this enhanced version of game until it appeared in the Steam Library recommended games. I was curious to give it a try again and I'm happy to say that I didn't experience any crashes, bugs, performance issues or anything worth complaining about on a technical level.

I chose the sniper class, but no others so my POV of the game is limited by this. Initially I was trying to complete everything possible available to me but I quickly found myself growing bored by the repetitive nature of tasks and the annoyance of getting from map to map so about half way through the main story (12-15 hours after doing 100% of available missions) I decided to focus entirely on the main story which lasted me about 4 more hours. This also means that I didn't experience any of the DLC content either, so please keep that in mind when I talk about repetition or any future talking points. I enjoyed the pick my build aspect of the talent tree. I assume BiS builds exist but I didn't care to look them up. I got to play my way and that was satisfying.

The choice of weapons is rather limited and it wasn't always clear how much of an upgrade something was beyond pure damage numbers. I found that I rarely had to upgrade weapons and besides elite enemies I never really struggled with killing anything. I very rarely needed to swap weapons, often only switching if I ran out of ammo or in the rare cases that weapon B or C would be more effective than my Sniper Rifle (such as an smg to take down multiple targets flying directly at me or a rocket launcher to take out a turret).

There aren't many enemy types which leads to the repetitive nature of gameplay. Mostly humans, the occasional animal or beast and very rarely other types depending on story and map location. Towards the end I found myself ignoring enemies when possible because they were an annoyance rather than a fun aspect of gameplay. Early combat is challenging unless you luck out on weapon drops, but that's a good thing. Seeing your power progress and the impact of talents is a great part of the game. The AI is pretty dumb though. Often you'll find them stood in plain view behind objects and they can easily be killed without effort - including bosses. The first few hours get a thumbs up and the final couple of hours with the strongest human enemies also gets a thumbs up. Human bosses are boring, beast/alien bosses are fun. It's a mixed bag but there's more to like than dislike

The story isn't worth commenting on, it's almost non-existent. The humour is decent and got a couple of chuckles out of me. I can't think of a single memorable character besides the voice in your head, and I can't name a single npc other than Claptrap and only because there are a million of him. I finished the game less than a day ago so not being able to name a single npc is kind of telling. But this also isn't the sort of game that needs a story so it's not really a negative.

Turns out this was more detailed than I anticipated. All in all this is fine, but I imagine the sequels will be a better experience and I'm looking forward to diving into BL2 in the future. This was a fine start to the series, especially if you want to see the evolution of the gameplay but won't be your go to game to play over and over. If you are here for the story then you'd be better off looking it up instead and going straight to BL2 (or maybe 3?)

This is the first game I have played that the Steam Labs recommended to me based on my gameplay history. I couldn't tell you how I came to acquire this game, most likely through a Square Enix bundle. I knew nothing of the game prior, but reading the description and checking reviews I decided it was probably worth taking a chance on. I'm glad that I did and give the Steam Labs a thumbs up for the first good recommendation.

This is going to be a difficult game to review. It's impossible for me to talk about this game without talking about Grand Theft Auto Five, which isn't really fair to Sleeping Dogs. From the moment I had the freedom to move around the open world map, my expectations were already set because of how familiar it felt. I believe if I introduced this game blindly to somebody who had played GTA 4 or 5 but had no idea what this game was or about any GTA sequels or spinoffs that I could easily pass it off as a new GTA game. But it quickly became apparent just how much polish SD was lacking in comparison to GTA. AI is terrible. Traffic lights don't always work. Most story characters don't stand out. There are plenty of bugs and glitches. There is var less variety across the board in the likes of guns, vehicles, characters, radio stations, areas to explore, etc. I could go on and on about what SD is lacking, but I don't want to do that. Instead I'll tell you what it has which had me hooked, what kept me coming back, what made me wish to complete as much optional content as possible because of how enjoyable it was.

The more I played, the more I realised just how un-GTA like the game actually was, despite how similarly both games felt to each other. For starters guns are a rare commodity, typically restricted to a handful of story missions. There are tons of mini-games such as drug busts, safe cracking or camera hacking, You are rewarded for exploring the map, with incentives such as increased maximum health for every 10 shrines you fine, new attacks to use in combat for each hidden statue you find, and tons of optional non-story related missions that will award you with exp which will aid with unlocking new skills. Optional missions will grant the appearance of collectables on your minimap so there is incentive to complete the non-story missions. And honestly? The missions are fun. Most of them are short bursts of gameplay, lasting no more than 5-10 minutes and to me that was a good thing. I didn't feel daunted by having to take on tasks because I knew it would be nice and fast. This applies to everything from street races to police missions to random obscure tasks for wackjob npcs. There are also gameplay mechanics unique(ish) to SD, such as the ability to jump from your vehicle to hijack another vehicle. When you drive you can also push a button to cause your vehicle to ram to the left or right which is fantastic for street races or if you are being chased by police. As mentioned there are also unlockable skills which you can pick and choose between. If you complete all the content you will eventually unlock every ability. There are some annoyances. A few missions will have you chasing npcs around the world, but they have a fixed speed that is always faster than you. Cars are inconsistent during openworld races and was occasionally frustrating. Sometimes the game wouldn't know how to handle certain events that happened because it didn't go perfectly to script, such as a fleeing enemy npc after a shootout already being killed will cause the game to think you left the area, or a car being knocked into a different highway entrance during an optional police event in which vehicles need to be damaged enough to stop running before reaching the finish line. The car didn't know to reverse and it was impossible for it to reach the destination along the path it was now taking so my entire game crashed instead. Thankfully these things didn't happen enough to dampen my experience.

The story isn't as grand as GTA, but it's still fine for what it is. It's predictable, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the characters are a lot of fun, but others are so generic that I often found myself not remembering who they were and how they were relevant to what was happening. The main character is a ♥♥♥♥, but it's up to you to determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing. To me it was a bad thing, but it had no bearing on my enjoyment of the story or the gameplay. The game also falls victim to the common open world trope of "big massive story plot" followed by free roaming adventure and lack of urgency. It broke my immersion to go from *major plot point* to completing a random mission for a random npc rather than having story npcs texting or calling to discuss what had happened.

All in all, this was a really fun experience and it saddens me that I couldn't help but compare my experience I had with it to my experience in GTA. There is plenty to differentiate the two from each other though and I would be very happy to see a sequel at some point, but given the game came out several years ago I assume it's unlikely to happen. This is a hidden gem and is well worth a play

Before I start I'll briefly discuss technical issues. When I first purchased the game it was impossible to play properly because I would crash every 1-2 hours. In that time there have been 5 patches and my crashing issue was resolved by the second. The game devs have worked had to work on issues and continue to do so. There are still some issues, for example if I leave the game idle for a couple of hours I'll come back to 100% cpu usage that makes it impossible to take actions. But for the most part my experience has been great.

When I'm playing games I plan out talking points for reviews as I progress through them. My initial thoughts about HZD were to compare it to Skyrim and to the Witcher, but the more I played the more I realised it was less of Skyrim and more of Tomb Raider. It's a weird combination of a vast realistic world of the Witcher, but with all the realistic elements of sci-fi versus fantasy, but it works fabulously. My first impressions of Aloy were also mixed. She seemed too Mary Sue for my tastes, but she grew as the game progressed and the woman at the end is a much different character than the one at the start.

The true strength of HZD lies in combat. I sincerely believe that this game may have the best combat of any open world game or even action game I have ever played. There is a large variety of machines, each with their own combat traits. Perhaps they will launch themselves at you in rapid succession. Maybe they are invisible and you have to look for subtle clues to find them. Maybe they'll launch blasts at you from far away, and perhaps you'll face all of these things all at one time. There are multiple weapon options but you may only equip 4 weapon types at a time. This forces you to think strategically about how you want to approach each encounter. Do you want to stock up on elemental bombs to launch at a distance? Maybe you want to use a bow specialised for accuracy and long range attacks. Machines also come with parts that can be knocked off with your weapons. These parts affect their ability to fight. Knock off a mounted rail gun and they can't attack you from range anymore. Destroy the stealth generator and no more invisible robot. Break their leg shackles and they can't charge at you. There's a hundred examples of this, but destroying the parts isn't a mandatory part of combat, but rather an optional approach. So do you try to take something down fast and hard and risk a death, or do you take a tactical approach. There are an unlimited amount of ways to approach a combat situation and it's part of what makes it so great. There is no "right" or "best" way to play.

For about 70% of the game I stuck to the same 4 weapons, and then I took on hunting challenges and it was mandatory to use a weapon that launches ropes at machines. What this does is prevents them from taking action which has the duel effect of removing them from combat but also vulnerable to you to hack them. This completely changed how I played the game and I regret not trying it sooner. I suggest you purchase 1 of every weapon that you can find and to try them all out. Human combat unfortunately isn't really worth discussion. It's your generic bad guys come after you and aren't very smart. It can be challenging on higher difficulties but not much thought is needed.

The game is beautiful and has perhaps the best lighting effects of any modern game. I've said previously that Death Stranding was the most visually stunning game I have played, but HZD has it beat for lighting effects. The music is a mixed bag for me. Sometimes it is fantastic, sometimes it's okay.

At the start of this review I mentioned how I plan out reviews in my head as I progress through the game and how my first perceptions of HZD changed as I progressed. The same is true of the story. At first I took it as a typical post apocalyptic endeavour with an interesting story but nothing too special. But the deeper I dived in the more interested in the story I became and by the end I was already craving a movie version of this story. The slow drip of information is superbly done.

All in all there is very little to complain about. Great combat, great story, beautiful world and plenty of content and open world tropes. I found myself exploring for hidden lore and wanting to obtain every collectable just for the fun of it, not because I was bored or felt obligated. That's a rare thing in modern world games. I never give scores for my reviews but I feel it's worth mentioning that I'd give HZD at least a 9/10 It's that good

I avoided as much information about the game as possible to not have any sort of expectations about the gameplay. I'm glad that I did that and if possible I'd advise you to do the same. I will preface by saying that the first few hours are VERY slow but stay patient and you will be rewarded.

This review will have very minor gameplay spoilers and no story spoilers. First I should discuss the port however. It isn't perfect. It took me about a month for me to steadily finish the game. For the majority of that the game stability wasn't great. It was often laggy or outright freezing (under the guise of a loading icon) and I had about half a dozen crashes. The game also tended to count Xbox controller input twice and it was incredibly frustrating. Getting onto a vehicle and immediately dismounting because it thought I pushed X twice. Charging a weapon, only for it to fire instantly because it thought I pushed RT twice. Things like that. The game isn't able to disable keyboard or mouse input so the ui will constantly bounce between gamepad input and controller input. If you alt tab during a fullscreen session and alt tab back in, the mouse will appear in your screen during gameplay and a loading icon in the corner won't vanish, even during cutscenes. A couple of days ago a patch came out and stability has massively improved, but there are still the occasional "loading" freezes and I crashed a few hours ago. I'm disappointed that it took so long for a patch to be released and that the problems still exist. I still enjoyed the game but I was highly frustrated through out. The game is much more stable now but I wish my experience had been better. Now onto the actual gameplay.

I'm a massive Kojima fan due to his works on the Metal Gear series and having followed him on social media. I was incredibly excited to see what he could come up with no limitations and total creative freedom. I can safely say that Death Stranding is a unique gaming experience, but it isn't perfect. As with Metal Gear, there is the appeal of the story and the gameplay as two separate entities. The game does require patience throughout and if you are easily frustrated or not prepared to spend a lot of time maneuvering around the world then this isn't the game for you and the story won't make up for that. If you do have patience then stick with it and you'll find yourself with an experience unlike any before.

Part of the fun is the challenge of making your way through the world. The game is easily the most beautiful of any game I have ever played and I spent a ton of time just taking in the beauty and taking pictures with photo mode (check my screenshots in my profile if you are curious). At one point I was walking alongside a river after a lot of travelling and was finally approaching my destination. Music started playing and I found myself getting emotional because of it. It was timed perfectly and an intentional design. It was essentially a message of "You are nearly there, you have done so well". Music is used sparingly in the game outside of combat, but it is always meaningful.

When exploring the world, there is a surprising amount of decision making. What tools do you take with you. Do you want to chance going up a steep and rocky cliff or do you take the safe route around the mountain. Will you take weapons with you? As you progress further into the game you'll unlock customisation options. Will you pick a bigger battery? More grenade slots? More ammo capacity? What about gear. Do you want to be able to carry more cargo? Run at high speeds without a vehicle? Have better balance and quicker recovery? These choices are appreciated and will ensure that everyone has a somewhat different experience with the game.

Combat isn't terrible but isn't great either. You'll either be facing BTs or human enemies. BTs aren't really a fight though, they are more of a stealth challenge with optional combat. Metal Gear fans will feel comfortable during these fights. Human combat has lots of possible approaches, including the option of lethal and non-lethal methods. My Metal Gear instincts compelled me to play from start to finish as non-lethal. How you approach combat will determine how much fun you have with it. The AI is sloppy though. If you have played MGSV then you'll find these fights far inferior by comparison, but you'll recognise the different ways to approach these fights. Heck, anybody who has played Metal Gear games is going to recognise Kojima tropes at hand.

The real strength of the game however lays in the online functionality. You will never see another player, yet you are connected to everyone and what one person does in the world will be there for every other person and your structures will be there for other players. A bridge to cross a river. A ladder to climb a mountain. A generator to charge your batteries. (these are just a small amount of potential things to be built). I never saw these players but I truly felt connected to them. Logging into the game and receiving likes for things I had built feels fantastic. Knowing some structures are built by multiple people feels good. We are improving the world for each other. There is no trolling. No traps. No negativity. This sincerely feels like the potential of the human race outside of the game world if we stopped being stupid and worked together. And I think that is the goal that Kojima had. Not everyone may feel that way, but I did and no other game has done that for me.

I don't think there's much for me to say about the story that wouldn't be a spoiler. It's the same Metal Gear style of realistic world with unrealistic supernatural entities that are taken seriously within the game and with an ingame logic that makes it easy to accept them. You can believe in what is happening and invest in the characters and plot. I enjoyed the plot and Kojima's creativity is clearly being utilised, but his style of presentation has changed over the years which was seen in MGSV. There are less cutscenes and lots of optional content such as emails that will expand the story. The ending of the game was very satisfying for me and it had that meaning because of everything you have done throughout the game. It relies on your personal experience and not on story cutscenes.

I recognised I was approaching the end of the game due to the nature of the missions and the direction of the story and I found myself sad. I was hesitant to keep playing because I didn't want it to end. Is this a super fun game? Not really. But I found myself highly engaged with what was on offer. I loved exploring. I loved the challenge of making it through mountains and rivers and enemy camps. I loved the steady progress of abilities, functionality and progress across the game world. I am sad that I couldn't experience the game without the port issues I listed at the start, but ultimately I still had a wonderful and unique experience and I recommend this to anybody who wishes to have their own strong experience

Within two minutes of playing the game I was almost in tears at the beautiful music and the gorgeous aesthetics. Five minutes in I was almost in tears at the story that was taking place. Half way through I was almost in tears due to approximately 17,000 deaths (Hard difficulty). The conclusion of the game almost put me in tears.

I'm not sure if it's necessary for me to describe the actual aspects of the game beyond that, I'm sure everyone is aware that this is a metroid-style platformer. What I will say is that I experienced gaming mechanics within Ori that I haven't experienced in any other game. The first boss battle is one of the most intensely fun things I've ever done in any game with background music that may be my favourite in gaming (I have it on loop as I type this). My Jaw dropped as I saw the changes to the world that my actions throughout the game caused.

Although often frustrating, the game is rarely unfair. Every mistake is one that you can learn from. You're going to die. A lot. But stick with it to the conclusion and you'll have one of the most satisfying gaming experiences of your life.

I'm being very careful to not allow my Star Wars fandom influence my opinion of this game. The game is not perfect and in my early hours I was finding myself very frustrated to the point of wondering if I had made a mistake in purchasing it. I stuck with it however and ultimately had a good experience.

Before anything however, I should point out that the majority of PC players seem to have performance issues regardless of specs or graphical settings. These range from inconsistent fps rates to stutters and freezes when moving the camera. My PC is capable of running everything on ultra comfortably, but these issues occurred for the entirety of the game, no matter what tweaking I did. I looked around a fair bit and there doesn't seem to be any fix. The most common suggestion is to increase the cpu priority for the game, but that didn't help me. Be aware that you might have the same issues when you play, and if this is a dealbreaker then it may not be worth the purchase. Remember that you can play the game for up to two hours and can request a refund via Steam.

So what kind of game is this? Well imagine that Dark Souls had a baby with Uncharted and Metroid and dressed it in Star Wars clothes. It's quite action adventure, it's not quite 3D platforming. It's not quite Souls-lite and it's not quite open world. It's a very interesting hybrid of gameplay styles that make for an interesting and unique gaming experience. The difficulty can be adjusted thankfully, meaning if you hate souls combat you can decrease the parry timings and AI aggression and vice versa if you love souls combat. I believe that platform fans will be most at home here as you'll spend about half your time exploring the world. There are some unique Star-Wars twists to be found. Is there a ledge too far away for you to reach? No problem, force pull that vine midjump to help you get over. Physics puzzles to solve? Force push those obstacles into place.

I'd say the second biggest influence is Metroid. You'll be exploring each planet multiple times as new abilities become unlocked. There are tons of things to be found from lore objects to cosmetic customisation items to HP/Force increases. The game doesn't tell you these things exist, you just have to go and find if you so desire. It's incredibly satisfying to stumble across a powerup that you had no idea was down the tunnel you chose to explore. Unfortunately there is a lot of backpedaling to do. There is no fast travel option and big chunks of time are spent going from one end of the map to the other. It's not enjoyable.

Combat is typically enjoyable, if not occasionally frustrating. It's never unfair though and learning how enemies attack will better prepare you for your rematch if you die to them. It's nothing amazing, but far from boring. Boss fights are mostly fun and midfight cutscenes are beautifully animated. You can pick and choose what combat upgrades you wish to focus on. There are force powers, combat abilities and survival increases. I had about 90% of all options by the end of the game. The choices are kind of bland I feel, but it's nice that they exist. Minor spoiler about lightsabers - later on in the game you'll get the ability to to have a double blade - maul style. Unfortunately the impact between single or double isn't so big and I feel this was a missed opportunity for customisation.

Graphically, this game can be beautiful at times. It's never ugly. Environments are varied, set pieces are jaw dropping, enemies look straight out of the movies and as mentioned the cutscene fights are fantastic. Sound effects are exactly what I'd expect from a Star Wars game, but the music is hit and miss. Sometimes it feels exactly like Star Wars, other times it feels like somebody doing their best Star Wars impersonation which sometimes took me out of my immersion.

The story is intriguing, if not a bit far-fetched. It's hard to make new stories fit into Lucas canon and Disney canon, but this game does an admirable job of trying. The characters you meet are great additions and you'll come to care for them as much as the main character Cal. Cal by himself is okay, but him and BB1 are an amazing team and I completely believe in their friendship and chemistry together.

All in all I had a satisfying experience. The flaws exist and can't be ignored, but if you can accept them then you'll find yourself with a fantastic Star Wars gaming experience.

There's not really a whole lot that can be said about Origins that wouldn't have been said about City. The gameplay is the same, the environment is the same, the progression is the same. These aren't bad things, but the lack of innovation is a shame.

The origins concept is intriguing at first, but the execution is poor. You're essentially thrown a dozen villains literally at the same time with only the main villain being of any true consequence and intrigue. Many of these were new to me however, and the new baddies (and goodies) was enough to keep my interest despite the poor execution. Of everything, I enjoyed the progression that Batman and Alfred made together more than anything else. The final character conclusions between the good guys and bad guys was pretty satisfying, especially given how darkly Batman is portrayed in the early half.

If you liked the prior games then you will like this. For completionists there is a ton of busy work that will take a good chunk of time to get through, but is almost entirely optional. If you just want to experience story then honestly you could skip this game and not really miss out, but it's fine for what it is.

(Reviewing a game for the Summer Sale 2019 perks). Normally I give more detailed thoughts on games that I care enough to review, but it has been a couple of years since I have played this so that detail isn't fresh in my mind anymore. So instead I'll summarise the highlights that I recall. One of the most unique, striking games I have ever played. From charming aesthetics, a unique combat system, a story I cared to see to conclusion and some of the best music of any video game I have ever played.

This game came as part of an ubisoft bundle that I purchased. I bought it for the likes of Far Cry, Watch Dogs and South Park. The other games such as Child of Light were just a pleasant bonus that I may end up trying if I felt like it. Out of all of the games in the bundle, none left as much of an impression on me as much of Child of Light did. Far Cry lasted longer, Watch Dogs had unique elements to it and South Park was hilarious. But none of them stuck with me. And yet here I am all these years later still with strong memories of playing this game and I still find myself playing the soundtrack when I need background music for working. I'm very happy that this game was included in my bundle, otherwise I might have missed out on this delightful experience.