Recent reviews by zero557

Makes the world a better place

A dream game come true. TL;DR: It has its limitations, but this is easily a must play for anyone who likes Harry Potter

Gameplay is relatively bogstandard open worldy gameplay, though due to a nice steady introduction of new mechanics and collectibles it never really felt stale until after I had finished the game and I had the choice to collect all the leftover stuff, but by then it's completely optional. It did frustrate me a few times early on that I kept on getting introduced to new collectibles, as it felt like I was "wasting time" by scouring an area, only to have to scour it again later to get the newly introduced collectibles. I got over this eventually as I just changed my behaviour to not go out of my way trying to find collectibles until later on in the game, and instead I just collected anything I happened to come across.

The core loop is quite nice, items will need to be 'identified' at your home base and this breaks things up as you're able to to several other things at your base like brew potions, tend to beasts, enchant gear etc. You can even decorate the place if you like, I didn't really bother (and maybe I missed out there).

Possibly the highlight of the game for me? I LOVE that the companion storylines are intricately woven throughout the main quest instead of being seperate oneoff stories, it lets the characters be more important and have deeper meaning to the protagonist. It can be a turn off if you don't like the companion's storyline though.

Natty's felt like the weakest out of the three for me, I get what they wanted to do with her ending (almost identical to the 2021 movie Belle) but everything spent getting there just didn't really hit. They could've done a lot more with her story as well considering that she is an animagus, but it's kinda just thrown out there and then not much is done with it.

Poppy's questline is so wonderful, she is such a lovely and positive character and it's satisfying seeing the depth they give her by making her so angry and upset by the poachers that you face against in her story. A lot of innocent wonder and caring for cute creatures, what's not to love.

Sebastian's questline was probably my favourite, I wanted to play as an evil Slytherin so I just pretty much backed my boy up the whole time from start to finish. I love that they give it proper nuance though, it's not just Sebastian becoming evil, he is trying to do something good and at every turn he gets scorned and pushed away by everyone he cares for. A lot of similarities to the main quest line with Isidora.

The main questline isn't too bad, Ranrok is a bit of a basic villain though. Isidora is the clear highlight for me, god I LOVE how she is portrayed. I really like that they let us have the option to make the choice to kind of take her side at the end by releasing the pain magic, feels very liberating and it is satisfying to just spite the Keepers due to their hypocritical qualities (San Bakar casts the Killing curse but it's okay because uhhhhh, uhhhh because we said so). I rolled my eyes a bit at the four trials because it's typical game story to have a "you must collect X things", and I got worried when the second one was the same as the first, but luckily the last two are very different and mix things up a lot.

The main part where it falls short is there are several points where you can really tell that they wanted to do more with a particular mechanic or storyline, but due to budget/scope limitations they couldn't. I'm glad they at least had selfcontrol and didn't try to do everything and have it result in disaster, so it's not really a game ruiner, it mainly bummed me out when it came to the story because I just wanted more of the story behind these characters. For the most part you can just accept that it's a miracle the game has as many features as it does considering that it's the team's first game. It's a new company, not Bethesda, so temper your expectations.

An average execution of an interesting concept, but I'd say for the price of admission it's worth it. I feel like the sequel will expand on the concept a lot more and flesh it out

Quite short, but really engaging and genuinely scary/stressful when you're being chased. Absolutely worth the buy if you're into the genre

When compared to the other Life Is Strange, this one excels in a lot of creative and new ideas, but ultimately the story is a little disappointing. Still worth playing, but it's arguably the worst entry into the series for me

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

For reference this is my first David Cage game, I haven't played Heavy Rain or Detroit: Become Human.

I really enjoyed this! It's in the same vein of a Dontnod or a Telltale game, but with a few tweaks to the formula. The most significant is that there's less of a focus on puzzle solving and more of a focus on QTE's, which can is sometimes a blessing and a curse. It's up to people's preference on what minigame they enjoy more, but I think the QTE's worked well here. You won't always do them right, but that's where the tension and excitement comes from. Unlike Telltale games there's no 'Game Over', so by failing QTE's you get a less desirable outcome of events. This raises the stakes because you really don't want to mess up.

Another big change is the order of events, I've only played it once so I'm not certain but I think for the most part, the order in which you play each scene is randomised. So for example, you might play a scene where you're a teen, then another scene a few years later where you're grown up, then another scene that's a flashback to when you were a kid. I think this is probably a bad idea overall, as it means there's less you can do in one scene that will influence future scenes. Also as general rule it's a good idea to have a proper structure and order in which you want to tell your story, hitting the randomise button on scenes from your favourite movie would likely make it worse.

The AAA budget was incredibly enjoyable, it felt awesome seeing big names like Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe in a narrative game!

In terms of the story, I'd say it's a little upfront about what it's trying to convey, but it does so earnestly so I kinda appreciated it. It's not perfect, but during a scene it upfront says "this is what's happening, the theme is X, what do you want to do about it". It probably is better for the audience to understand what's going on too well rather than not well enough, because that way they'll at least be able to make an informed decision.

One complaint I do have is that it gets a little too obsessed with the sci-fi/lore aspect of the game, when really I'm only here because I care about the characters. I only need the basics of the world's logic, I don't care about every nook and cranny of detail about precisely how the world works. It's like trying to come up with a rational reason why cartoon characters are real in Space Jam, your audience is willing so accept it so don't bother trying to waste time elaborating on it, just move on to that they care about.

Overall it's not perfect. If I had my way with this game, I'd just make the scenes be in a specific order rather than randomised, and add a little more consequential impact into future scenes that way. I'd also toss out some of the lore/sci-fi dumps, because they really took me out of the story at times. Apart from that I really enjoyed this, I absolutely recommend it. A great AAA narrative game, we are incredibly lucky to have this

An above average visual novel, I would've liked more interactivity but a lot of visual novels lack that feature.

NEGATIVES:
The first 90% of the game is extremely linear, only in the very last segment of the game are you given more freedom in your choices. The consequence of this is that the protagonist (Evelyn) will say a lot of things that you will disagree with, and yet you are the one who has to put up with the consequences of her actions.

A lot of scenes felt quite unnecessary to the story or even in developing the characters. I'd be in a scene for 10-20 minutes and realise that nothing of importance has happened in the story, and neither have I started to care more greatly for any of the characters. It in fact has an adverse effect, if a character was in a lot of scenes that felt useless then I would start to care less for that character.

POSITIVES:
At it's very core the initial premise and concept of the game is great. It explores the complete moral area of a topic, alongside characters who articulate each of the moral viewpoints. By having it executed in this fashion nothing felt underexplored or left out, the topic is explored to its fullest extent, which is very satisfying.

The visuals are great, the text is clearly presented and it's clear what is happening 100% of the time. The game doesn't try to overstep its boundaries with some overly elaborate presentation of its narrative, it's straightforward and legible in a manner that means you never feel lost or confused as to what is happening in the story.

The voice acting does miracles for the game, it certainly gave the characters another dimension of personality and made them seem a step closer to real people. Not every performance is great or even good, but there are some who act quite convincingly, which makes an emotional or tense scene that much more engaging. When it didn't work it didn't really bother me, but when it did work it only pulled me into the story further.

CONCLUSION:
A great concept for a story, and although presented very linearly, it covered enough interesting ground and its interactive conclusion ended the game on a high note for me. I would recommend this game, though do be aware that for the overwhelming majority of the game, your actions have little to no effect on the overarching story whatsoever.

I truly have to commend Dontnod for being so absurdly ambitious with this game. Entirely new cast/setting, road trip style so we never stay with any characters for the entire season, AND attempting to tackle a slew of divisive social issues. In theory this should be a sloppy mess but the fact that it's even decent is a miracle.

I will say that ultimately I think I prefer Life Is Strange 1 due to the fact that I'm not a big fan of the road trip style. I like getting to know a set of characters and see them change slowly over time, as opposed to a series of mini-arcs that this game was. Some characters I grow incredibly fond of then never really get to see again, which in itself is fine but I felt like there was no satisfying resolution to the part they play in the story.

Naturally dealing with pressing social issues is for sure going to be a little dicey, you really need to make sure that dialogue sounds authentic otherwise the message can come off completely the wrong way. There is at least one scene where it feels quite poorly written and delegitimises the argument that Dontnod is trying to make, but for the most part it's treated fairly well. One scene in particular felt incredibly haunting and terrifying because of just how accurate and real it felt, so a big kudos to them for pulling that off.

Just because I prefer the first game doesn't mean that this isn't worth getting, episode 4 is easily some of the greatest narrative gameplay I've ever experienced in my life. If you enjoyed the first, you WILL enjoy this one. Dontnod could've played things a lot safer but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ they just went nuts with this sequel, and I absolutely love them for it

Usually in these games I go out of my way to explore and active everything in a level/area that I can, but this is the first time where I've actually been scared to do that which is pretty insane. If I had one complaint I would say it's too short, but that's to be expected since this is basically a glorified trailer for Life Is Strange 2. Treat this as a snippet from a theoretical full story and its fantastic

As of writing this review with 106 hours logged, I can confidently say that this is the definitive Minesweeper game on Steam, nothing comes close in terms of features. After sinking 400+ hours in Fine Sweeper I made the switch to this and there is just a wealth of content to be had here. So much potential for strategising and every game keeps things fresh with stage mods and items. Not only that but the developer seems very invested in the game and is already working on a massive expansion. If you like Minesweeper and want a new twist on the classic game, you will LOVE this.

Almost too many features but oh well