Recent reviews by Exfluence

I have waited 18, almost 19 years for this.

We are so back.

Despite the bugs (audio, visual and text), some lacking QoL/UX and one AI balance issue (Melancholy Angel), this is definitely worth the $30.

Genki, along with Jem (Night-Runners) are going to make the racing genre of video games great again in 2025, mark my words.

The Tokyo Xtreme Racer/Shutokou Battle sequel I have been waiting for since 2007.

Update 08/22/2024: Tokyo Xtreme Racer is coming to Steam, but this is still 100% worth playing if you liked TXR.

Came for the anime girls and memes.
Staying for the friendships and alcoholism.
This free game also has the most expensive hardware DLC.
10/10 Here's to another 1k hours.

Update 3/13/2023: Hit 2k hours and people stopped complaining about EAC months ago.
The new QoL features are neat.
Still 10/10 see ya at 3k hours.

Update 5/27/2025: Hit 3k hours and they improved voice latency and other neat stuff.
Still 10/10

This game was overshadowed by the popularity of Need For Speed Underground 2 during its original release. However, unlike NFSU2, this game has police chases, collectible women, and Steam trading cards.

Before I get to the review, here’s some personal backstory:

I was born in early 1992 and grew up with a PlayStation, but I have never played a Metal Gear game before this one. The last stealth game I played (not including the Elder Scrolls games, because their stealth mechanics don’t count) was Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on the Xbox, and that was released a decade ago (as of the writing of this review). I’ve heard a lot about the series, but it took a birthday gift from a close friend of mine to get Ground Zeroes (which I will abbreviate to GZ for the rest of this review).

I regret not buying this one release during the Steam Winter Sale; this game was awesome.

Unlike most AAA titles, GZ released on Steam with a $20 price tag (before the sale). This is because the game is essentially a tech demo to show off Hideo Kojima’s Fox Engine that will be used in The Phantom Pain (which I will abbreviate to TPP for the rest of this review). I never had any technical issues in the 27 hours running this game with my i5-4690K and my 280X, so it’s safe to say that this engine was incredibly well-made.

“Wait, you spent 27 hours in what you call a tech demo?”

There is only one story mission that will take even the newest of gamers no more than 2 hours to complete; it is a prologue to the events of TPP (not going to spoil anything). After you complete the story mission, you unlock a few “Side Ops” that have varying objectives. The open-world feel of GZ offers multiple ways for a mission to be complete (a quick search on YouTube would back me up on this). After you complete a mission, you’ll unlock the “Hard” difficulty for that mission as well as some gear to start with for that particular mission (granted you get a “C” Rank or better). Each mission also has a few optional objectives, most of them involving rescuing a prisoner or two.

The stealth mechanics, although not realistic, are definitely fun. Get too close in an enemy’s line of sight, and they’ll get suspicious and start searching the area for you. Stay in a camera’s lens for too long and the whole base knows exactly where you are. Sneak up too quickly behind a guy, and he’ll turn around and alert the base (which is the only map in the game, by the way; all missions have the same setting) unless you knock him out or kill him beforehand. Make sure you drag the bodies away, or their buddies will try to wake them up or alert the others if they find them. To assist in being sneaky, GZ allows you to “mark” an enemy, which essentially allows you to see them through obstructions granted you’re not moving or have the base on alert. You can also interrogate and disarm your foes to further help you in your missions. Explosives and even empty magazines can cause noise to divert your foes attention elsewhere while you sneak by.

Although you are aiming to avoid it, the combat in this game is well-done. There is CQC which allows you to knock out opponents in a cinematic way. Of course, there are also weapons such as a tranquilizer pistol, stun revolver, and your usual assortment of rifles and SMGs. You can toggle between third-person shooting and first-person shooting while aiming down the sights of your weapons. Certain weapons have attachments, such as silencers (which can break!) and lights to blind your foes.

What kept me playing this game were the collectibles and challenges, as well as a few hidden things. Completing a mission unlocks a challenge that you can do in the next play-through of that mission to unlock more challenges. These range from fastest marking of all enemies to fastest completion time and few other miscellaneous things. Steam keeps these records that you can look up and compare with your friends or with the rest of Steam.

I most certainly enjoyed my first Metal Gear experience, and this definitely won’t be the last. Now I remember why I liked Splinter Cell so much when I was younger and I think it’s time for me to be more invested in stealth games. I do want to go back and play the Metal Gear series from the beginning, but I have too much in my library to catch up on.

Also, I probably missed reviewing some parts of GZ. I’ll edit this as I figure that out.

9/10

Edit: Formatting and some wording.

This is a fun, realistic racing game. If it keeps crashing on you like it did for me, then go to the game's .exe file and set to Windows XP Service Pack 3 in Compatibility Mode. Haven't had a CTD since.

I installed this, played it for 35 minutes and realized that I hated the game mechanics. Fortunately, the files were needed for both Morroblivion and Skywind.

I'm being 100% serious here when I say that Daikatana was not as bad as everyone else made it out to be. Yes, the level-up system doesn't make you stronger. Yes, the graphics look terrible. Yes, the AI (both enemy and companion) is derpy. Yes, the level design (especially the Marsh) is confusing. Yes, John Romero was overconfident and cocky.Yes, the story is silly and has plot holes (because time travel). But if you cope with it (or get the community-made 1.3 patch), then you'll realize that the game is actually pretty fun.

Why did I wait almost 7 years to play this amazing game?

I already had a copy of BFBC2 on my Origin account where I played 200-some hours of multiplayer. Because I never did the campaign (and didn't want to reinstall Origin), I bought a copy for my Steam account for only $5. After playing Battlefield 3 for about 100 hours, I can say that BFBC2 is the best in the Battlefield franchise. The best part is that around 1.3k people still play this daily (according to Steam).