Recent reviews by corn

I first played Animal Well back when it released and very quickly fell in love with its design, gameplay mechanics and atmosphere. For whatever reason, I didn't finish it back in 2024 and I assumed coming back to it now would highlight its weaknesses and the gimmicky aspects of its gameplay. Boy was I pleasantly surprised that this little gem still feels fresh today, two years removed. Such a unique and unparalleled atmosphere, one that creates comfort from loneliness and a seemingly simple set of items that rewards creativity and experimentation all fit snuggly within a file size smaller than most demos.

When I first saw PRAGMATA gameplay I thought "woah this looks dumb and hard to control and just a naff idea. A Candy Crush third person shooter? Hell no". When I first played the PRAGMATA demo, I thought that the hacking actually worked pretty well and felt very fluid within the gameplay loop but felt it was pretty one note and assumed it would get stale pretty fast. But once I got my hands on the full game and progressed through the story, its so clear that there is a whole lot of strategy tied to this mechanic. The combat system feels like a weird mish-mash between the best survival horror combat and the semi-turn-based combat from FFVII Remake, and it works really well and creating an extremely tense and stressful feeling.

Similarly, I thought the setting just looked like generic semi-futuristic sci-fi but I was really compelled by the design of the world and settings, and the in-lore reason behind a lot of the visual decision making is really fascinating. Many games have portrayed the evil AI robots that are trying to wipe out humanity (wonder if the creative industries are trying to tell us something?) but not many have been able to meld this plot theme so well with their visual worldbuilding.

PRAGMATA is like the complete opposite of Crimson Desert, it does not waste any time worrying about systems that aren't the core features of the game. PRAGMATA has compelling combat, an interesting setting and a touching story and that is all it wants to have.

I'm not the first to say it, but CAPCOM is on an insane run at the moment and I so damn hope this continues. Bring on Onimusha: Way of the Sword!

NOT FINISHED

I really wanted to like this game, I do really quite enjoy the combat, but sadly a lot of the game's runtime is spent focusing on aspects other than the combat. The dialogue is poorly written and bizarrely paced, it feels like every character spends 5 seconds thinking about what they are going to say before they say it. I really like the world of Midgar, it is a beautifully rendered painting that is dragged down by the feeling that all NPCs only come to life when the game renders them.

As I said, I did enjoy the combat, but it was not worth sifting through all the sections of slowly following characters while they talk to you just to get to an okay combat sequence.

NOT FINISHED

I have not finished this game but I do plan to, and will edit this review accordingly.

Crimson Desert is an absolute mess. It feels like every member of the team were assigned a specific system to work on and none of the people were able to talk to each other. The combat is so satisfying and the bosses have really cool designs but it doesn't feel like the team designing the bosses knew the limitations of the combat sandbox. The world is beautiful to look at and the quests do a good job of getting you adjusted to the game's mechanics but it never feels like the two systems naturally talk to each other.

The game's clearest inspirations to me are Rockstar games, the Switch era Zelda games and the Dynasty Warriors franchise. The issue is, with the former two, I don't know whether Pearl Abyss took the correct lessons from those games. Crimson Desert takes the awkward controls and toiling mission structure of Rockstar games but does not have the interesting characters and humour of those games. Crimson Desert takes the spell/skill based sandbox from BOTW/TOTK (which is a great choice) but does not fully utilize them outside of very specific 'square peg in square hole' styled puzzles (which is a terrible choice).

So why recommend the game? Well, I think the answer to that is two fold. First off, the game is just an impressive feat of content; I have played over 45 hours so far and am still constantly experiencing new systems and moving pieces. Now this isn't like the modern use of content, the game has many hidden systems that it does not feel pressured to present to you in a timely manner. After 25 hours of gameplay I stumbled across a moderately robust stockmarket-based system and things like this happen every few hours or so and I know, purely based on what is in the trailer, there are still many pieces of content I am yet to encounter.

Secondly, the game does have long stretches where you can engage with the extremely satisfying parts of it's gameplay loop; you can start off by riding your horse through forests and valleys, drifting around corners when you come across a bandit camp and you RKO jumping cutter one into the others, pushing them all to the ground. You then slash at them all with your axe that summons lightning strikes and crows that finish them all off. You loot the camp, finding a secret cave that leads to a side quest that involves a large scale raid on a castle where you have to burn down wooden sentry towers, causing them to crash down on the surrounding enemies. This all concludes with you getting a completely unique weapon, armour set, mount or spell that is completely unique to anything else you have seen thus far.

Crimson Desert is a really really messy version of a game I would love. If the game was not as messy, maybe it would be my favourite game of all time, who knows.

With Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom has shown that they still have the power to create an ideal RE experience reminiscent of the original four titles based off of the gameplay innovations from both RE2R and RE7. Leon and Grace's stories are not masterpieces, but they are extremely well written and plotted out for this franchise. I know this is not an original opinion, but the gameplay weaves between intense survival-horror and satisfying action-horror gameplay so incredibly well that I still have to mention it.

It has been a long damn time since I have had my expectations met for a game I have been this hyped for and it has made me so so so excited for the future of this IP. Bring Zach Cregger's RE movie to me now.

I have been so out of star wars lately that I started to think that maybe I have just grown out of it. This game made me realise I was so wrong, cause ♥♥♥♥ I love Star Wars.

Combat is fine at best and pretty poor at worst, but ♥♥♥♥ it I love swinging a lightsaber around.
Parkour feels very clunky and derivative but ♥♥♥♥ it I love the world and the sounds and the music.
Pacing is all over the place and the game takes a while to really start but ♥♥♥♥ it I love the force and the themes of star wars

The past 10 years has been very clear to me that you can't just slap some random nostalgia slop on something and expect it to go down well. But this game is a great example that an okay game can be made so much better when it feels like people who love that specific nostalgia slop hand crafted an experience to go around that okay game.

MIO: Memories in Orbit looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ superb.

Honestly, I'm just going to recommend the game solely on that. The game might have my favourite visual design of any video game ever; the way the game feels as though it is being painted as you explore the world is incredible.

"An action packed experience in the RE universe could be fun if it grabbed that idea by the balls and ran with it, but RE5 does not run with it, it limps along with a broken leg."

Above is an excerpt from my RE5 review. Resident Evil 6 is the action game I was hoping RE5 would be. Now, if I was an RE fan when this game came out, I would be furious. But, taken out of the context as a main line resident evil game, it ain't too bad. I had a good time even if it is really silly, poorly paced and nowhere near what a Resident Evil game should be.

Resident Evil 4 is a survival horror game with some action elements thrown in. It was done superbly well, you get a new game in a beloved franchise sticking to its roots and traditional genre but you also get some cool and exciting new tricks to mix in to your combat.

Resident Evil 5 is an action game with some survival horror elements thrown in. It was done really poorly, you get a new game in a beloved franchise diverting from its roots and forcing an on rails shooter like structure while keeping all the tedium that comes with survival horror games.

Yes, limited inventory space, slow movement and janky controls work in a survival horror game because all of this is used to heighten the tension of the experience, in an action game they are just plain annoying. Resident Evil 5 just feels unconfident in what it should be. An action packed experience in the RE universe could be fun if it grabbed that idea by the balls and ran with it, but RE5 does not run with it, it limps along with a broken leg.

I would be amiss if I didn't mention this game's story and/or plot. This game manages to be quite smart in how it portrays colonialism and the impact that the white man can have on Africa. Every other portrayal of anything in this game is so outdated and just icky. Most of my experiences within the RE universe have been set in America and never really examined the cultures of other countries all that much... but this game... damn.

For ARC Raiders, Embark made the decision to train AI to use and recreate the voices of voice actors. This meant they would not need to ask the voice actors to come in to record new pings and voice lines for every new update. My understanding is that the voice actors were paid to have their voices used and recreated, but it is unclear whether they will be paid for every subsequent use or recreation of their voice. Either way, I feel this is a really scummy practise and it creates a worse product overall. The AI-generated voice acting in this game is bland, boring and lacks any character or emotion. ARC Raiders may have an extremely pro-consumer business model, but I don't for a second believe that Embark could not now afford to get the voice actors back in to record over the AI-generated lines.

Once you get past the unethical and unforgivable use of AI-generated voice lines, ARC Raiders is a phenomenal game that has some of the most unique PvE combat I have ever played. Most good PvE experiences thrive off of how fun it is to control your character; whether from a power fantasy, movement system or getting better loot. In ARC Raiders, the main thing that pulls me back in to the game is the interactions and combat with the PvE enemies. Seeing a wasp rebalance itself after you shoot off one of its thrusters, a leaper organically climb over surfaces to chase down a raider or a rocketeer flank an enemy to get the perfect angle for a rocket will never get old. The way these ARC enemies think, adapt and react to its surroundings is an overwhelmingly impressive feat unto itself. I haven't even mentioned the amazing world building, systems that allow for players to organically choose between a PvE, PvP or PvPvE experience and the amazing sound mix.

ARC Raiders really is something special. As an original sceptic, I am so glad that I was proven wrong. Now Embark, all I need from you is to do the right thing and replace the AI-slop voice acting.