Recent reviews by THE RTN

I don’t have much bad to say about MOUSE. In a way, I understand those who’d call it mediocre, especially if they’ve got dozens of boomer shooters under their belt. The game leans heavily on the safest genre tropes. But it’s also easy to digest: a straightforward action-FPS with fun bits, even if it’s mostly lookist.

The script never hits a home run. From dialogue to plot, it’s a cheesy affair filled with cheesy jokes — stereotypical characters leaning on accents (French, German, Spanish, you know the drill). Our P.I. even calls out that they’re faking it. You’ll fight crooked cops, mobsters, Big Mouse Party goons, fringe scientists, and occultists across bunch of stages like sewers, swamps, an opera house, a mansion and... Hell. Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like you’re playing a mouse-shaped Indiana Jones. Obviously, the script never leaves the campy tone but it can get too over the top. The same approach also applies to guns that range from regular 20th century military stuff to a crowd-controlling chainsaw that can shoot projectiles. In complicit with today's shooters, most weapons have secondary alt-fire options.

On the plus side, the voice acting is great. Troy Baker leads, and I wouldn’t have known it was him without being told. Strong art direction, rich environments, a sweet jazz OST, and savvy sound design all work together to sell that mid-20th-century cartoon aesthetic. And MOUSE doesn’t forget to cram in plenty of classic movie references.

The structure is simple: drop into a level, take care of business (that is, indubitably, shooting everyone), leave. There’s a whodunit premise, but if a game isn’t marketed as a detective game, you can bet the detective mechanics won’t be fully gamified. You can collect clues and pin them on a board —some are missable— but they mostly act as collectibles. You’ll still go through the same main missions regardless, with no real puzzles or locked content. That might disappoint some, but I didn’t expect more from a game that calls itself a “guns-blazing, jazz-fueled adventure.”

On that front, MOUSE absolutely delivers. It scratches a specific itch, the New Order or CoJ Gunslinger kind. I got my money’s worth as far as the game's production value concerned, even if it never reached the fluidity of something like New Blood Interactive or 3D Realms boomer shooters. And I would believe that comparison, by nature, would not be doing any favours to MOUSE. Regardless, it's a well-produced, fast-paced shooter.

The runtime is about 10–14 hours for a semi-completionist run. I rarely got tired or bored, but the appeal faded quickly. One reason was the fact that it’s too conveniently easy. Typewriters (save points) are everywhere, plus auto-checkpoints. Consumables and armor are scattered liberally, and you can still carry up to nine cheeses. Ammo is plentiful. Even with a steady flux of enemies —snipers, brawler brutes, flyers, dogs— it all comes down to suppressing them with the James Gun (nope, not Gunn). I’m glad it’s not another weapon-juggling shooter, but I also had no real reason to experiment. With all these said, play on the hardest difficulty for a better balancing. There are powerups in certain encounters that turns each encounter a breeze and one of them lets you finger gun folk.

Traversal is often fun while doing some good ol' platforming and escape sequences but is underutilized in combat. Your capabilities include walljumping, grappling, double jumping and climbing. There are some open-ish levels where it's certainly more than a corridor and there are some optional objectives, but it never lets you roam ''free'' enough to find out interesting stuff. You'll be mostly dashing through tight corridors, and doors will slam after you, which will lock you out of grabbing missable stuff unless you restart the level.

Bosses are generally fun and on the stronger side, if not groundbreaking. The game includes cash for ammo, more collectibles and a baseball card mini-game I didn’t care for. Weapon upgrades come from missable schematics. There’s a hub city for mini-games, upgrades, and your office, plus a map you can drive across with roadside roadhouses for saving and shopping. I wouldn't call any of these necessary but they are there. Optional safes offer maze puzzles, some timed although I never ran out of it, some limiting your moves, and if you jam one, you restart from your last save. There’s no New Game+ or level select, so anything collected in the last two levels is essentially useless.

All in all, I’d have preferred a tighter 6–8 hour shooter with less dialogue and optional content. The detective angle is definitely redundant and doesn’t complement the action well. I’ll admit a bias: I used to read Detective Mickey (and those stories are no bueno), so I can handle cartoony noir scripts. But even for a lighthearted game, MOUSE can be overbearing, considering it seemingly flirts with heavier themes through dislocated shrews (a stand-in for Jews). At the risk of repeating myself, I must say: from occultist/esoteric objects and themes to fighting a party leader with a recognizable mustache that doesn't really take an educated guess, it's very Indiana Jones, and although it is sometimes at odds with the rest of the noir tone, I am all for it. You are highly likely to leave the game smirking.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

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Had no budget constraints, this would have been a classic. With what Milestone had, it'll carve out a semi-niche fanbase and will be following its racing colleagues in a line: "There was Split/Second, Pure, Ridge Racer, Blur... and Screamer."

It's sweet that people want story in their racers. The animated cutscenes here were simply amazing, no surprise, given the studio behind it delivered some of the most successful animated work for well-known IPs. They're sparse, which is understandable. But events themselves also act as cutscenes (animated or visual-novel-style), and sometimes you genuinely read more than you race. If I recall correctly, there are six events back-to-back where you only read cutscenes. That's overwhelming, and I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping them — I pretty much did so. I'm here for the races, not Doki Doki Drift Club. Sorry, if I must.

But skipping takes away from the context of the races and objectives, which surprised me. This is a narrative-heavy game, and the main tournament events (gold-colored ones) are actually straightforward, often functioning as tutorials. Even by the end, the objectives aren't really about "winning" which I respect. Most of the time it's about surviving a race, knocking out opponents and extracting revenge, or simply learning how your car works when you are introduced to a new character. If you expected a "story" where every event is another race you keep winning, this ain't it.

With a Tekken-like cast where everyone speaks a different language yet understands each other, Screamer is gritty and mature if not overly melodramatic. The PEGI16 rating, if you ever wondered why, is granted when you get that 'aha moment' seeing a man gets crushed under weight and blood is spilled, certainly an unorthodox moment for a racing game. It's essentially a tournament story hosted by a rich, mysterious benefactor, with several factions harboring ulterior motives. There are 21 playable characters (including the tournament hosts).

The campaign stretches to about 15-20 hours, plus split-screen (rare these days), multiplayer, and Arcade mode with six racing disciplines. The price isn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane, but I'd have preferred a shorter game with a smaller cast for more animated screen time, a $40 price tag would've been too sweet.

Still, there are moments where the story bleeds into the gameplay, and that's a good effort. You won't catch them without watching the cutscenes. There are moments where you think, "Why is this too easy?" and "How the hell do you beat this guy?" Take Hiroshi's nemesis Gabriel, he gets knocked out, and you can easily beat him. Even then it's not a total breeze; you still need to study opponent movesets and race behavior (tbf, they mostly spam overdrive by the end). Then the host himself, he's an unstoppable beast, but as Hiroshi learns more about him, reveals his identity and motives, you understand him and beat him. You could say the devs just nerf and buff opponents according to the story, but it's still cool.

Some races feel mad, though. I haven't played many Milestone games in the last decade beyond the first Hot Wheels. Milestone is known for their bike racers; I quit those long ago, only briefly playing the first RIDE. I hear they're inconsistent, but Milestone releases lots of ♥♥♥♥. There are 13 games between Screamer and fkn Hot Wheels Unleashed — another Hot Wheels, Monster Jam, Monster Energy, annual MotoGP games, SBK (I left it at SBK X, probably one of their best), two more RIDE games. How can anyone keep up? So Screamer for most is just another Milestone game, but anime-styled.

I think Milestone just didn't know how to market this, but it'll get noticed in the long run. Until then, I can't say how bad the rubberbanding is or dive into other racing jargon because I simply didn't run each race dozens of times across difficulties. There were races where I gave up and switched AI difficulty from Medium to Easy (which I tried hard to stick with as the intended difficulty). I even switched tournament difficulty to "Story" from "Balanced Gameplay." The latter I feel worked better although I often noticed the objectives really didn't change. Some races I simply couldn't clear consistently. I'd chalk it up to skill issue, but it wasn't happening on main objectives, the hard parts are mostly side stories. Some races had me stuck for an hour, and I still couldn't tell exactly why. And that's despite all the accessibility and difficulty options.

It can get tough. Admittedly tough, and I'm low-key glad to see a game step away from conventional racers. But I also feel people are acting hard because it just released and if the learning curve is steep so is parsing out inconsistencies in the AI behaviour across dozens of events. Whether intended or not, there are events where the AI aggressively sticks to you and gaps you, and others where you gap them and leave the pack behind. Sometimes you actually need to babysit them as you are required to knock them out so you need to stay behind (and still asked to win the race). And sometimes, you can't even do that because they often place 1st or 2nd and you need to drive aggressively (regularly knocking out the pack to fill your gauge) to catch up. Objectives doesn't always align with how races play out and they feel unintuitive.

One particular frustration was chasing Fermi the corgi. That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dog is wild. No matter how clean I raced, he always outpaced me with his boost, even on easier difficulties. When I was about to give up, a wise friend suggested ambushing him. It was a circular track with a KO objective. I waited, and as he approached, I knocked him out. It worked. Was it intended? I can't tell. Either way, I'm glad of the outcome.

Most races are about micromanaging your gauges - that comes as natural but may also distract you (particularly trying to read the cues for gear shift). As others have said, once the game clicks (timing the perfect boost, reading attack cues etc), it's a lot of fun. I didn't mind twin-stick driving, and while I can't say it's truly innovative, I wouldn't mind seeing more of it. I thought it would be tiring, but give it a few years and it'll feel second nature.

Character abilities add depth. They fit their personalities. Go into overdrive with your shield off and you risk exploding if you clip a corner. Some are risk-takers and have longer, more aggressive overdrives, while safer chars get conventional buffs like a secondary boost after a perfect boost or larger boost/entropy gauges or even an emergency shield when you get KOed. Hell, one of the chars has a secondary mechanic ''Hype'' which actually rewards drifting and you get a free strike when you 100% the bar. I wish that was the main part of the game.

I haven't played multiplayer, so I can't say how chaotic it gets, but in single-player, corner-bombing isn't easy. There were times I did everything right but was simply out of juice for any gauge, only to get wrecked at the last moment. Annoying as it is, that's probably the "emergent gameplay" beauty of these games. It's easy to think you can always align an opponent for a strike or micromanage gauges to perfection, but beyond a handful of races where I raged and couldn't tell if they were unbalanced or I just wasn't enough, it's usually manageable. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to hear some cars/abilities need balancing with a cast this large, it feels inevitable. That's what most fighting games suffer from.

The aesthetics are charismatic, though I lost some interest when the game stepped outside the bright neon streets. Then it launched me into a spaceship! There's good track variety, but environmentally it's still somewhat sparse.

I hope it'll continue. Milestone finally tried something original, and they might be about to hit it big.

★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆

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You Guys Loved Chloe So Much, So We Decided to Return Her: The Game
(Also an apology tour because Double Exposure was hated in nation...)

It's a complete oxymoron compared to what the 2015 game accomplished. I can't tell if it's because the story underwent several rewrites or if they felt the pressure of giving closure to Chloe and Max and simply choose the most common denominators for a happy fanbase. Probably a mixture of both.

The gameplay has lost a step from Double Exposure. Hell, it doesn't even have as many interesting bits as True Colors, but I know a lot of folks will forgive that. Long story short: Max, with her regained power to rewind time, does her usual thing from 2015. Double Exposure mechanics are gone. Caledon is smaller. Chloe (your playable dual protag btw) can backtalk and convince people… by selecting the correct options that require the bare minimum of environmental observation.

Then there's Safi. A shapeshifter who's too conveniently a parallel to Chloe, just sort of… there. Still a badly written character, still no real emotional payoff. Deck Nine doesn't even bother letting us play as a shapeshifter and, you know, do interesting things. We get it: she has mommy issues, and like Chloe with her Rachel, she lost someone. ♥♥♥♥ happens, I guess. She's left as an afterthought, much like Diamond from the last game, who has completely vanished. And just like that Safi loses her character hook. So, begs the question, what was the point of Double Exposure besides the completely failed ''murder mystery'' plot? Remove Safi, remove the love interests, remove most of the Caledon. It's completely fine as far as Reunion concerned. That said, romance with Amanda (and Vinh, if you had the stomach) is a foregone conclusion. They conveniently forgot Max's powers, and you know who's back. They definitely pivoted and forgot this was meant to be a sequel to a game people paid for.

All the Abraxas ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is an waste-of-time excuse for more Chloe and Max adventures because they couldn't make a good plot point out of it... unlike, say, Vortex Club. Surprise, surprise.

Chloe and Max never stop reminding us how much they mean to each other, how they wouldn't trade their time together for anything else, how blessed they are to be reunited. Man… all this happened right before I decided to save Arcadia Bay. Why can't I catch a break? The 2015 ending was controversial because a) it was a complete mockery of the choose-your-narrative genre, and b) it somehow worked within that framework anyway. It was a neat ''butterfly effect'' game and didn't really have that need to be anything more than that.

Now? Now we get an ending reminiscent of an FMV tribute to the Life Is Strange 2015 & Before the Storm lineage (they even dared to put Kate and Warren in there despite they are barely recognized much like the rest of the og cast) and some bits from Double Exposure and Reunion as if someone wanted to post it on Youtube. Arcadia Bay is thriving and our sweethearts are back in town! Holy fk what an unasked-for, massive overcorrection that completely undermines DONTNOD.

And yes, this time the final choice is less binary (in a way, it actually is), but does that truly matter? I am not convinced that it is. You, Super Max must stop fires from breaking out at Caledon and killing innocent students. Not a bad premise, but it's kind of hilarious to think a couple of teenagers stopped an unknown storm, Double Exposure teased an even bigger threat, and now we're chasing arsonists. Okay…

Determinant characters are too safe. You can easily tell why people missed who they missed by looking at the global percentages. I couldn't save everyone, but say I did, then Super Max can happily retire. Say I lost one or two and then not-so-super Max can still retire; she's got the one that matters most. Say she lost a bunch and couldn't work things out with Chloe. Eh, we've seen that already.

I'm genuinely glad Chloe and Max rekindled what was lost, and they keep exposing us, the players, how glad they are to be together without giving much else other than, perhaps, a few soap opera cutscenes. But come on for a second, you have a whole cast that simply can't shine the way the original's did. The script keeps telling us what a burden it is to mess with time (and reality, and all that jazz), but I'm not exactly sensing that threat or urgency.

Max is too sweet of a character. It's really hard to take anyone else's side when they have doubts about her (and it's really only Safi lmfao). Yes, she has some selfish tendencies —like every other person on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ planet— but she's still too perfect of a protagonist. Come to think of it, Max (and by extension, Chloe) is basically the Leon of RE9 anyway. Hell, just like him, they leave on better terms than they started. Not that I mind, but where's the payoff? Where are the stakes? Max can literally briefly blip out of time and reappear. Where did that come from?

Besides, I haven't seen many games like A Plague Tale: Requiem that dare to show what it truly means to let go. If you want me to let go of my obsession with replaying(rewinding) and essentially messing up with time again and again until perfection, then make it part of your gameplay. If you don't, and instead urge players to save everyone to get the "perfect" ending, then congratulations: you've undermined the emotional tone of the original work.
Max's monologue after making a major choice is kept and she's still doubting if she should rewind. Yet, she also knows better of the severity of outcomes that could possibly come into fruition. I am still unsure why Deck9 would refuse to stich the whole rewind mechanic into something grander.

The social media from Double Exposure (was it Crosstalk?) is gone. You may think I'm being too picky but nah, I loved it man. It was a great way to observe the interactions between people and it helped the worldbuilding. And Max would post the photos you take as collectibles. The SMS are kept but they are just more exposition that unfolds the story. Speaking of SMS, poor Chloe didn't hear back from Steph or David... Figures. Merging the timelines is messy, ain't it? Too many plot points to address... ugh.

Putting all the endless exposition and cowardice of the game aside, they did Chloe right. Still witty, still has hilarious lines, still loves science, and hangs out with Moses. She's matured but still has ''that'' edge.

What else? I don't really know. Or rather, I don't think it would matter. If you're here for closure for Chloe and Max: great. More power to you, more power to them. But despite using Caledon for a second time —and not really introducing new places— the game fails to add more depth or mechanics on top of its predecessor. Sometimes the facial animations are off too, weak in expression. Environment & hair textures are somehow worse than DE. It has a diluted gameplay and, of course, diluted narrative by simply refusing to leave its comfort zone.

But it's finally fkn over. Or so they say.

It's bizarre to see a work that continues the "your choices don't matter" trend, not only within the game itself but across the entire franchise. What an innovation with zero catharsis. Not to mention Square, after a decade, still fails to see the literary weight of their western IPs and they simply don't get what works with them. They keep amounting to nothing.

★★½☆☆☆
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-

Regarding endings:

If Max burns the photo herself after saving everyone Congratulations, you've finished the game 100%, you're amazing.
If Chloe burns the photo The wiser Chloe falls out of favor because she can't make decisions together.
If Max goes back in time again The wiser Max also falls out of favor because she can't learn from her past mistakes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

güncelleme ve oyuna veda: benim işime yaramayan kilisenin papazını sikeyim.

ne olur şu piçlerin sikik BDO'sunu 1 dolardan alın, alın ki sırf başlığa online koyamıyorlar diye iyi bir aksiyon-macera yapabileceklerini sanıp vaktimizi sik sik işlerle yemesinler ve ölene kadar BDO satsınlar.

geliştirici ekibe tavsiyem ise oyunu bütünüyle (ama özellikle her yemek pişirdiğimizde giren tava animasyonuyla beraber) götlerine sokmaları yönünde olacaktır.

mümkünse witcher 3 combat çok basit, rdr2 animasyonları çok yavaş diyen gamedesign101 delikanlıları da bu oyuna sarsın bir süre boyunca.

Note: It's currently not possible to unlock achievements.

Two things are undeniable: the OST is catchy, and the gameplay has rough edges. But seeing something like Don't Stop Girlypop in the bloody arena shooter market for sweaty dudes is inherently interesting. It’s a weirdass mashup of Ghostrunner, Ultrakill, Neon White, Metal: Hellsinger, and even an instagib.

The first two hours are a generic Y2K-coated arena shooter with lots of bunny jumping. Then, mechanics pile on. The problem, however, it feels disjointed. It’s like the team ran a game jam or launched an user-created map contest and included every map/mechanic so no one got upset. To put it shortly, it's not as cohesive as something like Sayonara Wild Hearts with its 2 hours runtime.

Movement is alright —crouch + dash to keep speed as weird as it may sound— and you get used to it. The HUD is clear and centered on the middle, making it always visible. Weapons have alt fires, but they’re mostly pointless. Once the sniper/railgun appear, it becomes an instagib FPS. Honestly, that’s where it’s best.

The screen is almost always cluttered, but you can still tell when an enemy is alive (star) or dead (heart) through the symbols, there's your visual feedback. It doesn't always give enough impression of how much damage you do, but it gets the job done.

There’s a Marauder-type enemy. Interesting to see a ♥♥♥♥ like that post-Eternal discussions. It’s annoying and kills flow, but at least it’s easy. Weapon juggling isn’t really required, but balance is off. I feel the sniper outclasses everything else.

The final boss is fun, switching between the girlypop OST and the villain’s theme. Wish there was more unique stuff like that. It actually introduces a prior mechanic (shooting to the beat) and reuses it. The game doesn’t always do that. Example: a stopwatch mechanic appears in a few levels, messes with your motion and perception, then vanishes once you started to get familiar. Some might like the rhythm shift, but in a movement shooter? Ehh. The stopwatch could’ve let the game breathe, but instead, they throw more shielded enemies and incredibly fast traps at you. Platforming becomes even more painful when the screen is cluttered. I tried avoiding the stopwatch. Died way more. The intent was clear —arenas were built around it— but adding mechanics for flair doesn't guarantee good results.

You get interrupted constantly. Kill animations, a parry, a dash finisher (where it's very Ghostrunner). A phone keeps talking (not necessarily interrupting the combat, but still annoying). Little things add up fast to build bigger frustration.

Arenas have jump pads, rails, grapple points but they’re underused. Movement is never used to its full potential like in Ghostrunner or Neon White. Then, right at the end, the rocket launcher gets an alt mode that lets you fire your own grapple points. For one platforming segment. Why not earlier? It would’ve solved so many elevation problems even if the intervals were long for a relaunch.

Rankings are meaningless. Never got below S for 'Love' and 'Speed', even when I thought I massively sucked. Clear time seems to be the only metric that truly matters. If it’s that easy to max out Love and Speed, what’s the point? Is it meant to be a speedrunning game in disguise?

Anyway, it’s a good 4-4.5 hours. Annoying at times, but it manages to serve ♥♥♥♥. If anything, it’s overdeveloped. Keeping it simpler but more intense would’ve been finer.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

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I won’t be able to pretend I had fun with FF II, even to rizz up ps2 survival horror chicks.

I’m not the guy who desperately needs to “like things.” Who cares? But that sentiment has never felt more appropriate than now. I’m genuinely upset that I can’t see the appeal. If anything, experiencing this (although a remake) firsthand made it abundantly clear why this series never truly broke into the mainstream. Its semi-niche status probably made it seem far more alluring and conceptually sound than it actually is.

I’m not entirely sure who I’d avoid recommending this game to. Not die-hard fans, obviously, they’ll have their own informed opinions on whether this remake does the original justice, and they certainly know better than me. I don’t get the sense that Tecmo exactly knocked themselves out here, either. Just look at the game’s tagline: “Together, always.” For fans, that’s supposed to be poignant, stylish, iconic. For the rest, it’s barely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ anything.

Under normal circumstances, given the critical score this thing carries, I’d probably slap a thumbs up on it and move on. However, and won’t lie that recency bias almost certainly plays a part here, I can’t shake the feeling that FF II is being utterly crushed by the shadow of the recent remakes of RE and SH2. That’s probably history repeating itself, but I wouldn’t personally lump FF II in with those titans. Tbf, this game leans much harder into action-adventure territory than survival horror. And I’m picky about my survival horror. I’ll colloquially tag it as such for clarity, but without meaningful inventory management and those other crunchy microsystems, it’s definitely not my preferred flavour of the genre. It certainly didn’t help that it launched barely two weeks after RE9.

I wish I could offer something more substantive than "this game is boring as hell," but I think I'm genuinely at a loss. I don't even know how to convincingly argue that point. In my mind, FF II is an okay game with a genuinely stronger first half. The storytelling is conventionally Japanese in a way I'm not particularly fond of, but it's serviceable. The atmosphere is undeniably unique, bar none, honestly, with maybe only TEW and AW2 coming close to challenging it.

And here’s the thing none of those other games can do: make you stare at your foes. You don’t need to stare at an enemy for prolonged times in most survival horrors. You just need to put a bullet in their not-so-pretty face and move on. Here? You hold them in your frame. You see their expression. The new designs are genuinely uncanny —very Frankenstein-esque. You can tell they were once people, but their movement, their look, their entire presence is just plain erratic. There’s something uniquely unsettling about being forced to gaze at something that refuses to stop moving toward you. Sometimes that results in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grab attacks and ends up with a rather cheap jumpscare but I can forgive that.

I'm completely ignorant of the original Crimson Butterfly (and wouldn't mind getting educated on it), so I can't parse the finer nuances. But overall, the source material seems perfectly acceptable for 2003. However, as a revitalization of the genre in 2025? The remake is genuinely annoying.

One reason, as foolish as it may sound, is the utter lack of direction for objectives. Yes, I'm fully aware there are cues tied to the camera, audio, text, and even the environment. But I never felt like anything less than a lab rat desperately trying to prove I possess basic memory retention. Just give me a waypoint. Paint the walls with markers if you have to. I'd be happy. Or, at the very least, make the process less inconvenient.

It's not like the objectives are subtly hidden, either. Chitose, for instance, has a very clear, distinct audio cue to help you locate her, but the game is simultaneously as dark and grainy as physically possible. For some reason, it features some of the ugliest film grain I've ever seen. On top of that, the audio mixing can be wildly off, with far too many low-pitched sounds muddling everything together. I get the distinct impression Tecmo didn't allocate anywhere near the resources to this that they did for Gaiden 2 or Nioh 3. And if that's the case, FF II is still somewhat competent, but it's far from the most cohesive work out there.

The combat is okay. It takes an hour or two to get used to, but you develop quick muscle memory. And to be fair, with the upgrade system —which I understand is making a return from the first game, which makes me wonder why it was absent in the original Crimson Butterfly in the first place— you don't really have to think much about it. You don't need to be anything more than a paparazzo or a voyeur. Sneak a few shots in when convenient, and for the rest, just shove the camera in their faces and they'll die of shame. Max out the basic filter (I never felt the need for the others), upgrade reload speed, auto-focus, magazine capacity, and you'll be snapping every ♥♥♥♥♥ in the village without breaking a sweat. One fatal frame after another.

But of course, some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ refuse to die because... who knows why. I don't think undefeatable foes are an inherently failed concept, but they're not particularly interesting unless there's a really neat gimmick attached. In the FF II remake, there is none. It's plain, tedious hide-and-seek, and it's the most frustrating element of the game. It detracts from the overall experience and adds absolutely nothing.

The loss of fixed camera angles probably detracts from the experience as well, eliminating any potential for surprise. Now, the tricky part is that I'm someone who genuinely geeked out over the remakes of MGS3, RE2, and SH2. But in my mind, despite losing their original perspectives, all those remakes were gamified according to today's paradigm. I can't tell if FF II meshes well with modern reflexes. You can see the ghosts even without pulling out the camera now—I don't know if that was the case in the original—and it's definitely a bad idea. The cinematic dread just isn't there. Regardless, I low-key appreciate the movement of the enemies, since they don’t have much else going on aside from a few ranged attacks.

As far as I'm concerned, the change to the camera upgrade system definitely meshes better with modern standards. It creates a genuine reason to explore. But while it rewards exploration, it also ironically de-emphasises the need to actually line up good shots. To answer my earlier question: I think they once realized it was far more clever to tie upgrades to playstyles and make exploration a bone for the combat system, rather than sticking to generic survival horror exploration.

The village is a decent hub (or closed world, if that's the right term, though it's quite limited in scope), but the game is the backtracking king. There's no virtue in revisiting the same space for the 4th or 5th time. Hell, the game has the audacity to ask you to revisit a place you just escaped from to grab a crest. FFS. You know what that's called? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Despite new items and enemies appearing, you're already far too familiar with the space. I think FF II being this claustrophobic and set in similar-looking environments is generally a huge plus, it does mess with your sense of direction. Getting lost in survival horror is a good thing. But there's absolutely no virtue in revisiting a place for yet another item or objective hunt for another ten minutes.

There's probably more to add, but I'm willing to leave it here. I just got bored. I can't tell how much of that tedium should be attributed to the original material and how much to the remake, but that's my relational ontology for the day.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

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Full review [thertn.substack.com]

UPDATE:

Well, ♥♥♥♥ me. I am bumping my score to 3.5 from 3. It’s apparent that this is more than just a weekend game. I came to realize —and I’m glad I kept playing— that Very Hard is the sweet spot for difficulty in this game. The driving is definitely far more than decent. The terrain plays a huge part, and you can pull off wild stuff (including convoys) that you couldn’t possibly do in single-player. Medic skills are incredibly satisfying once they’re fully leveled up. As expected, Defender and Medic can be game-changers. Playing with randoms was a blast, as I could clearly tell who had a solid grasp on things and who didn’t and honestly, the game is genuinely functional in that regard.

A fun weekend game, if nothing more.

Saber Interactive is generally trustworthy when it comes to post-launch roadmaps, and they did a solid job with WWZ and Space Marine 2. So if you're on the fence, it might be worth waiting to see how things shape up during the first year.

As it currently stands, whether Toxic Commando is worth $35 (with the launch discount) really depends on your gaming preferences and dependencies. If you're not into bloated progression systems, you're in luck. Toxic Commando plays very similarly to Space Marine 2. You'll mostly be grinding for cosmetics and weapon attachments alongside class and weapon leveling. The game is heavy on meta-progression (there are weapons tiers that you must upgrade for which increases damage output and you can unlock 3 levels of prestige for special camouflages). The unlockable outfits and headgear for the chars are incredibly weak and uninteresting as of the launch. You'll also have to unlock the same skin for each weapon individually which is something I'm not really fond of.

Once you complete your first playthrough (which consists of eight missions/maps) on your desired difficulty, you'll be done in roughly six hours. There's nothing groundbreaking or spectacular about Toxic Commando, and as a one-and-done experience, it's certainly not worth its full price tag. If you're going for completion, expect well over dozens of hours as you are needed to max out levels for each class.

That said, if you don't mind a lack of depth and just want something to kill time, this game fits the bill. The first playthrough sets you up for the higher difficulties, letting you max out about two weapons in terms of both level and attachments. After getting a taste of what's to come, you can replay each level on Hard, and eventually unlock Very Hard —something I haven't bothered with yet— for better rewards.

While Normal and even Hard difficulties are fairly straightforward and rarely punishing, I can't speak for Very Hard just yet. Most of the gameplay in Toxic Commando really boils down to hunting for points of interest. You can rush objectives on Normal, but on higher difficulties, resource gathering becomes essential. Speaking of resources, the loop stays consistent across missions: you start somewhere, find a vehicle, fuel it up, and begin scavenging. Resources include parts needed to repair turrets, mortars, traps, etc.—the tools that come in clutch during the final defense segment of each mission. You can also unlock caches to grab a special third weapon.

The hub area feels completely pointless, so it's back to Killing Floor 3 vibes. You can hang out there and shoot some targets, but you'll mostly be navigating menus for everything else.

As an unapologetic horde shooter, you'll spend most of your time clearing out trash. But of course, there are the obligatory special infected types that genre entries must include — the dudes you are already familiar with: variations of Chargers, Spitters, Boomers, and Hunters.

The classes aren't groundbreaking either, though "The Strike," who can shoot fireballs to decimate larger hordes, was fun to use. I would imagine The Operator with its drone would be decent for crowd control. The Defender and Medic are less distinctive, and while I have no doubt they'd be essential for the hardest difficulty, I'm unsure if they're the best fit for solo runs. The AI is mostly competent at supporting you and clearing trash; however, you'll need quite a bit of playtime to hit max level on each class, so I stuck with the one I found most engaging. Besides the specific class skills (which have unlockable variations), the rest of the skill tree is pretty generic and generalized. The characters aren't class-dependent. You can play any character with any class.

The game is always online, and you can't pause even in solo. As one might imagine, solo play isn't the best fit, and I was unable to play with randoms since I played pre-launch.

The story is something you just get over with. It's an excuse. I wasn't expecting anything grand, not even merely serviceable despite Carpenter's involvement, so it's alright. But the cast... I'd be damned if I end up remembering anyone, despite the voice acting itself being just fine. It makes you wonder: why is the Left 4 Dead cast so memorable compared to what came after? Was it just because it was a novel experience? While Toxic Commando's cast is in the same vein (no deep backstories or personal goals, and they could have been described with traits that people can latch onto), they just aren't fleshed out contextually. I can't recall much good banter or memorable dialogue that gives enough context clues to develop their personalities. There are some moments, and they can be very fitting, but they're rare. For a corny action game with room for stereotypical characters, I'm not sure what traits truly define the ones we're playing. Maybe that's just me.

On the bright side, the gunplay is tight, and most of the weapons I tried felt impactful. The downside, probably, is the fact you'll be sticking only a few weapons while trying to prestige them. Driving is certainly decent, and I do like that each vehicle has its own abilities. If you don't mind spending time traversing compact-sized semi-sandboxy maps (which change slightly each run) and hunting for points of interest, Toxic Commando is a well-polished game that looks and runs well — it's just also pretty vanilla.

★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆

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I never cared about Highguard closing the TGA, and honestly, I doubt I ever will. Geoff’s announcement of the game (that he said they were an indie) was, frankly, kinda dumb, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s a minor footnote.

It’s also patently unfair to say people didn’t give the game a chance. They did. It just fell off the map quickly, like countless other live-service titles before it. Still, Highguard is much more of a success story than Concord. And I do respect them for dropping one final content drop before shutting down forever (compared to a more stoic Sony that refused to do anything but to get rid of the game asap).

If I must be clear about the game’s actual merits, plenty of niche multiplayer titles have carved out long-term existences over the years (even if some of them had strong peaks during free weekends etc.): Loadout, Block'N'Load, Natural Selection 2, Guns of Icarus, Defiance. None of those games ever truly reached their full potential or recaptured their initial peaks. In the 2010s, 10k concurrent players was a big deal, and 30-40k was absolutely massive. By that metric, Highguard hit near 100k. Are we ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kidding? It's still massive for a game that people thought it was going to get stoned to death.

It appears that, nowadays, if you can't sustain your launch-day peak indefinitely, you must be sunset. Maybe, from a cold business perspective, that's the right call (I can't be assed to tell if it is). But there's no value in pretending Highguard wasn't capable of more. It was. The core gameplay was competent. It obviously played like a slightly more stripped-back version of Apex, meaning the gunplay and movement were naturally decent right out of the gate. The resource gathering and management system was fine for what it was; maybe not thrilling for quick-play sessions, but I could easily imagine it shining in tense, strategic ranked-mode raids. I am speaking strictly of 3v3 raids though, I was unable to find sessions for 5v5 but I think 3v3 seemed to be a sweetspot anyway.

I genuinely miss games like Natural Selection and Guns of Icarus, titles where gathering resources and maintaining a base felt integral to the experience. That's why it’s so damning to see a game with a similar foundational promise, and the player-count proof of concept, fail to secure a future. It also doesn't help (although it's not a direct comparison) that the Deadlock is and most likely will be around.

But I don't know... the mount combat was actually exciting and seamless, isn't it? The PvP, whether you're on foot or on a mount, was actually quite tight. The raid mode could have used more PvE elements rather than simply going to PoIs to harvest materials, but it's too late to discuss that now. Perhaps in an alternate universe, Highguard is a competitor to Halo's BTB, who knows. I think it's fair to say that PvP on a relatively large map is draining (and uninteresting) to most people when it's not a grand battle.

Regardless of the reasons, the verdict is clear: Highguard would have been far better off releasing in the 2010s. But we don't live in that decade anymore. We live in this one, where you can shut your doors and lay off personnel in just about a month. It's pathetic to go out like this, and the negativity is not aimed at the game itself, but at every little aspect behind its actual making.

Even without considering how Tencent benchmarked the game, the studio behind it should know better — huge drops in player base are the new norm. I'll never understand what they expected from shadow-dropping a new IP. You don’t really get away with axing games too soon unless you're 2K, releasing the same slop every year (and even they postpone server closures by a few months, and giving you well over two years of content).

How could someone not have any B or even C plans to revitalize the game and steadily grow it in a scenario where it takes off big and then falls back hard? This isn’t the first time this has happened, and most certainly won't be the last.


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btw: https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/highguard-boss-says-the-player-count-doesnt-matter-3313383/

post graduation meeting with the boys

(and they are giving a tf2 item for the launch... im crying)

When you realize Grace was the saving Grace...

"Typical RE game," and for once, that descriptor isn't necessarily a compliment. It's a statement that cuts both ways. Having spent 14 hours across two sessions with Requiem, there's an undeniable, if inconsistent, level of enjoyment to be found. Hey, it's a catchy game and it plays good. Yet, for everything it gets right, it feels like a franchise caught between identities once again (and I am well aware that's actually its selling point). After already revitalizing and re-establishing the series with RE7 and the with Village, Requiem feels less like more a soft reboot that's content to remix the greatest hits. If this is the way to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary, fine. Do as you wish.

The game’s identity crisis is baked into its dual-protagonist structure. At its best, when the game aligns itself with the survival-horror ethos of the RE2 through the eyes of the new character, Grace, it's utterly compelling. At its worst, when it channels what I often call the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ action of RE5 or RE3 Remake during Leon’s segments, it borders on "actionslop." While Capcom has always mixed stuff up and Chris's raid in Village and Mia's action-heavy segment in RE7 are proof of that, Requiem struggles to find a harmonious balance. Nevertheless from the very first RE to even Umbrella Corps, you see bits of every RE iteration in this game. That's something to be celabrated on its own terms.

THE ENTIRETY OF THE REVIEW IS SPOILER HEAVY

Grace’s chapters are where Requiem truly shines. Despite the fact they are still your classic formulaic, slow-burn, methodical survival horror. Thrust into the nightmare with nothing, you’re forced to chart a map, conserve scarce resources, and flee from seemingly unstoppable threats. The decision-making is classic RE, what do you leave behind? What do you craft first? The "Blood Collector" is a clever addition, forcing you to engage with enemies just enough to extract resources from their corpses. The Care Center (Rhodes Hill), a visually striking and thoughtfully designed hub, is certainly a highlight. It’s in these moments that the game feels most refreshing, even within a well-trodden formula.

Grace herself is a study in contrasts. Her vulnerability as a newcomer is perfectly suited to the FPS, I wouldn't mind playing Leon in FPS but Grace in TPS didn't feel right. Her reactions aligns with the FPS (with a limited FOV) better. She's clumsy, overwhelmed and mostly torn apart. All great as I got sick of stoic super-cops (that also applies some of the women of RE) but I couldn't really say if Grace isn't a regression to the past of the series. If you are going to introduce a new character at least finish the game up with them FFS. Grace is mostly there to be saved by Leon. (I also don't like the detour to the orphanage, which turns into a derivative "Emily Wants to Play" gameplay, adds mostly nothing to Grace's backstory and I don't quite understand why Capcom can't let go of this habit - making us play as children). While Requiem is more serious and much less camp like RE4, RE stories are always over the top when it comes to deliveries. Just pay enough attention to the deliveries between Victor and Zeno, you'll get it. Solid minute to minute action but overall, simply bad writing and Grace's backstory suffers from that.

Then there's Leon. Of course. With his XXXL inventory and an arsenal that includes a personal annihilator called "Requiem," he transforms the game into a 180-degree different experience. He mows down enemies Grace could only dream of escaping, complete with a badass Uncharted-esque motorcycle chase, a sequence where you fight on top of windows in a collapsed building (that you can break to have enemies fall off) or run out of mortar strikes. Do I appreciate the variety? Sure. It's far more mechanically adequate than the action segments of pre-Village games. But it’s simply not my jam. Never have been.

All the while Leon's drowning in the T-Virus yet still managing to drop Letterboxd one-liner, at this point his cool demeanor feels redundant when compared to the path Chris somehow managed to take (and dude lost another friend too).

Unfortunately, the game's structural issues extend beyond its characters. The plot is a clumsy web of plot holes and retcons (mostly Spencer), messy even by RE standards. The introduction of Zeno, a Wesker clone who is unceremoniously beheaded, and Victor, underdeveloped antagonist number 67th. For a game seemingly meant to celebrate 30 years of Resident Evil, the cast feels strangely sparse. It could (and should) have give plenty room for Capcom to develop those two but they really didn't. I would also point out that Grace would highly benefit from interactions with Ada (or preferably) Claire. I certainly have bones to pick up with Hunk (or 3A7, whatever) despite I lowkey liked the fight. I am indifferent to the returning Tyrant although it was mostly ok too. I don't love to confine things to ''fan service'' but I guess I see people's point after all.

The pacing is messy (and I rarely go into pacing because it's not only both mental and skill dependent but it's also a matter of taste). The game lurches from a slow, atmospheric start to a frantic, action-packed finish. Victor, introduced early, vanishes for most of the game after a mid-game bike duel. The constant switching between Grace and Leon is initially effective (and thankfully nothing like DMC4), but when Leon inevitably takes the mantle for hours on end, the character who needs real development (Grace) is sidelined and simply chilling out with Zeno. The game culminates in a boss fight that feels RE3 ahh. I didn't mind Grace occupied the most part of the first half and Leon was simply there to help her (as he should), however, the second half of the game is much more disorganized in terms of structure and narrative compared to the first half. The first half is more suited to the experience akin to Baker Estate.

And at last, the good ol' puzzles. You only have a few — just enough to complete the blood specimens. Puzzle boxes (only one with a neat twist that requires you to consider two halves of different photos), a double helix, and the photo that literally tells you how to solve the organ transplant box. And that's it? Leon's too busy to solve puzzles. When you look at the Village, you have an entire section dedicated to House Beneviento alone. It’s really hard not to miss the Village, not just because it felt fresh (with its introduction of the Mold and so on), but also because it was such a cleverly designed game. I don’t see the same level of attention in Requiem.

That said, I really love the interactivity with Grace, when you interact with objects like pushing doors (and I wish that kind of interaction had been used for puzzles, like the braziers in Village). On the other hand, the key-item hunts were also too formulaic and straightforward, but that’s kind of the case in every modern RE, including the remakes...

On a technical level, the optimization is also just so-so. I switched between DLAA and DLSS Quality depending on the scene, toggling frame gen on and off as needed, all while running at max settings in 4K. When it sings, it looks genuinely impressive, though I would argue that a title like Metro Exodus still could outclass Requiem in terms of its shadow work and lighting game, at least in certain compositions. For the most part, it looks and plays like a modern AAA title. That is, until you hit a few segments where the frame rate dips noticeably in certain scenarios. It’s not a broken game by any means, but it's wasn't as smooth as RE2/DMC5 either. But I won't pretend I didn't to play at 4K max. It was mostly stable and that's a great effort.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ for the brilliant opening and strong first half
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