Recent reviews by l a n g g i

Hitman™ 2: Homing Briefcase™

Edit: now updated with Port Hantu and The Bank level, still w i l d

A miracle of a game.
Don't know why Square Enix even greenlit this game. It's a sequel to a game nobody plays. Original Nier, to put charitably, is a niche title with poor sales that never got the love it deserved.

Anyway, against all odds, NieR Automata got greenlit, developed and released.
And sold 2 million copies across all platforms. [gematsu.com]
And was praised by critics and players.[opencritic.com]
And saved PlatinumGames from near financial crisis [www.polygon.com]after cancellation of Scalebound (and some major flops).
And rejuvenated Square Enix Business Division 6.[www.usgamer.net]
And it's an amazing, beautiful, one-of-a-kind game that plays unlike anything I've ever played before, plus Keiichi Okabe soundtrack is god-tier, like dammm son I listen to its soundtrack even when playing other games.
And yes, better read other reviews for detailed gameplay description or something. I'm just singing praises for this masterpiece here.

Play this miracle of a game. For the glory of mankind.



(A note for potential buyers: if you're going to buy it, keep in mind despite numerous problems of the game, there's been exactly zero technical fix by Square Enix. Given the PS4 version still left with dropping framerates and other hitches, I doubt the PC version would get better treatment. As sad as it sounds, but the most likely scenario is that there won't be official patch anytime soon. Or at all. This isn't me defending Square Enix, but noticing the pattern of their Steam releases, there's big chance of that being the case. Anyway, there's always the excellent FAR mod though.)

I just pretend this is the Magic Knight Rayearth game I've been waiting my whole life :3

CONTENT
Blue Reflection lets players control Hinako Shirai, a regular student by morning, a magical girl after class and a victim of questionable cutscene camera angles all the time. The gameplay and story largely take place in two distinct settings, Hoshinomiya high school and a fantasy realm called The Common.
School is the non-combat section of the game, the gameplay there consist of talking to NPCs, receiving (or reporting) quests and watching a lot of cutscenes. (yes with a lot of questionable camera placements). The Common is dungeon crawl section where players get to fight enemies along with two other party members, Yuzu and Lime. The combat is usual turn-based JRPG, and even though enjoyable, often feel predictable and too easy even at hardest difficulty. Spamming attacks with knockback effect and putting party in constant healing will result in victory everytime. A bit boring, but being a new IP, I imagine the scaling down of difficulty is just Gust trying to make the game accessible for as many audience as possible, probably to appeal those who play non-combat games like the visual novel or dating-sim crowds (which the game clearly borrowed lots of elements from). Content-wise, Blue Reflection is nowhere near bad, but not exceptional either. And seriously the 'fanservice' needs to be toned down, it's on uncomfortable level here. Mahou shoujo genre is almost always about innocent girls being burdened with heavy task of saving the world and never about ogling underage girls taking shower. Do better, Gust (and don't submit to Koei Tecmo pressure to make every game another Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball either)

PRESENTATION
Art and presentation is where Blue Reflection excel the most and the main reason I purchased it. Faithful to mahou shoujo aesthetic, Blue Reflection is a very beautiful and colorful game. Every visual aspects in the game could make players scream 'sugoooi!' all day long. The use of photorealistic environment with anime characters fits the whole two worlds concept; Mel Kishida's character design translated perfectly in 3D form while still retain the illustration-like charm; and the user interface, just look at the them bby. It's probably the most amazing game UI I've seen, like a cross-bred between MS Metro UI with Google Material color palette.

http://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1161332856
http://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1161332931

It's awesome and ultimately looks far more 'crafty' than those template-like UI made with Scaleform. lol. (anyway, RIP Scaleform †). Oh, and the game soundtrack is fire. Art and presentation-wise, Blue Reflection is fantastic, I fall in love with it <3

TECHNICAL
Technical is where the game falls flat and can be summarized in single sentence: it's a Koei Tecmo PC port. While there are some improvements from previous Gust/KT ports, like resolution no longer locked in 1080p and somewhat stable framerate. There are still no meaningful PC-exclusive features. Every adjustment must be done driver-level or by tweaking the config file. Some users even reported crashes, though I haven't found any, since patch 1.02.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Blue Reflection is a beautiful magical girl game with decent gameplay, but with ugly porting job and questionable amount of 'fanservice' (whatever that thing is). The way I see it, the game is a bit experimental title for Gust, being a new IP and all. There are clearly lots to be improved from this game, but I give it a free pass this time around, since it's rare to see mahou shoujo genre gets video game treatment, after all. I keep praying to all the magical girls in all the realms that Gust will revisit this world and characters again with better effort next time.

HITMAN™ is a return to form for IO's signature series. This is my first Hitman in a decade (I skipped Absolution) and playing it feels like I've never left the series at all. It plays like a Hitman game, it controls like a Hitman game, it looks like a Hitman game. The only thing missing is Hitman cool music from Jesper Kyd, but that's fine by me. Just go play Hitman Contracts youtube playlist while playing this or something like that :V

Now I'm aware many people complain about the always-online requirement for this game (I must admit it kinda silly to have such thing in exclusively single player game) but here's my thought on it:

I live in 3rd world country with crap internet (and pricey monthly fee!) but never, not even once, in my gameplay this always-online thingy ever bother me. It's a generally non-intrusive system that works in the background, never gets in the way of your game. So if people like me have no problem with it, ye guys with better internet should too.

The episodic installment might seems gimmicky at first but IO's tight on budget and it was their own way to reduce cost. For me personally, episodic content fits Hitman, since this series has always been about loosely-related missions, in which individual levels could be played entirely without any worry about your result on previous mission or the next. Which, if you think of it, kinda look like episodic games.

The one characteristic that always distinguish Hitman from other stealth game is the freedom of doing missions. It's here as well, HITMAN™ presents you with absurdly many ways to kill your target, to the point of overwhelming for newcomers or relapsed fan like me.
I'm serious. The first time I get into Paris level, I don't even know what to do. But that's the beauty of the game, it doesn't hold your hands or force you to follow rigidly scripted path.
It's like the guys over at IO saying, "Ayy, you're a professional killer out to eliminate your target, just do it. We don't care how." (Thanks for trusting us IO.) Just like always, the more you repeat a mission, the more you're familiar with the levels, the better you will perform. (For ye sadomasochists, there's always suit-only challenge.)

Hmm, what else? Oh, technically the game is as smooth as 47's bald head, at least on my modest rig. I love this Glacier engine. Whatever it's made of, it's good. My personal favorite is the crowd system. Most games would drop your FPS to single digit to present such huge crowd as HITMAN™ do (looking at you, Assassin's Creed). And it's a really glorious crowd system, just go into Morocco level and check the protest scene there if ye don't believe me. It's jawdropping.
http://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870543413
(ayy nice shot too).

Also, the game spend most of player's time indoor so it's only natural the interior design of HITMAN™ is one of the greatest I've ever saw in a game.

And as it is a 2016 game, it bears the characteristic of game-as-service like found in most modern games. IO keep updated the content of the game throughout the year with new missions, new targets and other stuff. The most amusing is the Elusive Target, one-off contracts which must be finished in limited time window, once the targets gone, they're gone for good. It's challenging and forces player to perform their best.

All in all, as I wrote in the beginning: HITMAN™ is a return to form for IO and the series. It does many things right, gameplay-wise and technical-wise. 47's back in the most awesome way possible.


Now bring on Season 2.

*Steam review, Buzzfeed style*



1. Gorgeous hand-painted assets and background
The game might not features next-gen graphics, but every asset in this game is beautifully hand-drawn -- IMO, that alone is far better than Lara Croft's hair with TressFX on.

2. Amazing soundtrack
The game's soundtrack is simply out of this world. You just gotta listen to believe it.

3. Deep, rich and rewarding gameplay
Interesting leveling system and skill upgrades. Plus that in-battle pause mechanic is very cool, gives you room to breathe for planning the next attack.

4. Amazing soundtrack
Really, you must listen to it.

5. Well-written, thoughtful story
Good writing extends beyond just good story, and Transistor know that. The characters are interesting, the dialogue and narration is great. And yes THAT DAMN ENDING.

6. Immersive futuristic/dystopian setting
Imagine Blade Runner's neon-lit world married to Ghost in The Shell colorful art but secretly having an affair with art-deco style. Transistor = cyberpunk aesthetic at its finest.

7. Amazing soundtrack
Seriously, I wrote it three times already.

8. Classy voiceover and narration
Hey, this game came from the people behind Bastion, so above average voiceover is expected (hint: and then the game went beyond expectation)

9. No hand-holding
From the get-go, Transistor features no tutorial, no hints, not even a main menu when you boot it up! The game trusts its players to be clever enough to figuring out the mechanic themselves. That's rare these days.

10. Amazing soundtrack
That's it.


Yes, don't let it go. Grab Transistor now.
Truly recommended.

*Low health after an epic battle*
*Opened a chest in search for health syringe*
*A Loot Midget came out and whack me in the face*
*Entered Fight for your Life but midget ran too quick*
*Friend approached from a distance* (thank god I will be revived!)
*Friend fought the midget first*
*Midget killed* (quick, pls revive me!)
*Friend distracted by the dropped loot*
*SLOWLY DIED WHILE WITNESSING FRIEND GRABBED ORANGE LOOT*