Évaluations récentes de MultiSapman

69 hours in (lol noice!) with very heavy exploration of the first few areas and the map and secrets just do not seem to end. There is always a new area to go to. There is always an NPC putting you up to some obscure questline.
I caught a glimpse of the actual map from wiki and I have around 40-50% of the map yet to uncover. And some of the best areas and bosses of the game are entirely optional and some are even hidden behind highly obscure questlines which you can 100% miss.
I am simply lost for words trying to explain just how magnificent the map design is. This is like they took the map design from dark souls 1 and cranked it up to 10000 on steroids.
This game is sheer insanity in terms of how beautiful it is and how fun it is(if you like souls games atleast).
This is truly a generational title and should be on everybody's wishlist.

Rating - Masterpiece/10

I went into this God of War absolutely blind. I've never owned a console so I haven't played the previous games and though this game came out in 2018, I never really paid any attention to it since I never thought I'd end up playing this franchise. So I watched a recap video for the GOW franchise for the past games before jumping in here.. And let me tell you, that helps so much in adding context to character actions, reactions, dialogue. It also helps in understanding how Kratos is suddenly in Norse mythology when the past games were set in Greek mythos. While this is not necessary, I feel knowing Kratos's past adds so much more depth to this game.

This game is something special. You take a cookie cutter character from a hack and slash franchise and you ground that character by giving him depth. And there is so much nuance and character development here for both Kratos and his son. It is a wonderful tale about family and adventure. And there is just so much to explore in this game. A lot of it hidden away cleverly and a lot are blocked off by metroidvania mechanics where you have to revisit some areas with some skills to explore further. I finally understand how this game beat out Red Dead Redemption. The production quality, visuals, lore, music, voice acting are all magnificent. Every truly great game has moments which inspire chills. This game has plenty of them.
And the final reveal at the end was magnificent.

Pros:-
Story, Visuals, Music, Performance(Runs brilliantly on ultra+high on an old gtx 1070), Art, Lore, Animation, Character Development, Exploration.

♥♥♥♥:-
Lack of boss variety/special boss encounters, some minor old game design elements(archaic armor and rune system, environment interactions etc). Honestly don't even read this section. There are no significant ♥♥♥♥ that will ruin/hamper the experience.

Rating - 9.5/10 ~ A Work of Art.

The best statement I heard which described this game was - "If creativity was electricity, It takes two can power an entire planet". Or something like that. This is not an exaggeration at all. Absolutely deserved the GOTY awards and all the high ratings.
Especially for couples and people who have significant others, this game is something truly special.

Doom Eternal is a work of art and a modern masterpiece.

I loved Doom 2016 and thought it was quite fun and challenging. Enter Doom Eternal and they absolutely topped Doom 2016 and made it look like an easy children's game.
Don't get me wrong, If you start Eternal right after finishing Doom 2016 you will hate it for the first 2-3 levels.
There is less ammo, the colour palette is more arcade-y and you constantly feel stressed in encounters if you are used to just using 1-2 weapons only.
After that, you realise just how insanely amazing Eternal's combat, mechanics and gameplay is. Its all the Rip and Tear glory you can ever ask for but this time,
you actually need to use your head, master the combat loop and effective use of all your weapons. The ammo is rainbow coloured which is off-putting at first but you quickly realise it
needs to be in order for you to see it amidst all the chaos. Its a design decision that makes sense once you get into the game.

Enemies are far far more aggressive and you need to constantly be on the move juggling ammo, health, all the resources you have and seek out moments to prioritize and dispatch of stronger enemies effectively and quickly.
This juggling of resources and management of damage output on enemies, while avoiding incoming damage is nothing short of an artform. This constant dance helps Eternal ascend into something
absolutely special in the FPS genre while revolutionizing decade old concepts that are common to this genre.
You can't casually play Eternal. You need to be switched on and use every tool you have in the game efficiently in order to survive encounters. And you'll need a breather from time to time.

I have absolutely 0 complaints about the platforming in this game, its easy and is a welcome change compared to waiting for loading screens and elevators to get into areas.
Once you have finished Doom Eternal, you can't really go back and find Doom 2016 challenging. And that is quite a feat considering Doom 2016 was insanely good.

The environments and the artwork of Doom Eternal are jaw dropping and quite literally, otherworldly.
And as for the music, Mick Gordon is an absolute genius.

DLC:- The DLCs are exactly what DLCs should be in every game. Improvement over the base game and far more challenging.
In terms of difficulty, DLC1 > DLC2 > Doom Eternal > Doom 2016.
There is one slayer gate in the first DLC, The Holt slayer gate, which is easily the hardest encounter in the series.

Final Rating - 10/10 easily.

UPDATED 2023 REVIEW (PATCH 2.0 +PHANTOM LIBERTY DLC)

9.5/10

If you read my original review, you'll see that I mostly loved the original game when it was released because I was familiar with the lore and the vision behind the world was something that I resonated with. The roughness in the game back then was mostly due to the developers being
forced to rush deadlines by some greedy "Corpos" with numbers to meet. Two years and a lot of patches, gameplay changes and phantom liberty expansion later, Cyberpunk 2077 finally manages to be one of the best renditions of a dystopian world in a video game to ever exist. And even froma visual
standpoint, there is no other game out right now that can stand up to what is on display in CP 2077. It is a graphical and a technological masterpiece(quite literally with pathtracing and DLSS 3.5 showcased).
I played through the entire game again and the DLC just to see how different it felt. My thoughts are below:-

Base game(without Phantom Liberty DLC) -
I encountered 0 bugs in my 2nd playthrough. The cop system actually felt like it was a challenge if you get wanted enough. The biggest change was to the RP mechanics. The base game by itself on release, was RP based only at a surface level, Your "build" didn't
really matter much as you could pretty much shoot your way out of all scenarios and any stealth/alternate gameplay styles didn't feel impactful or rewarding enough to warrant a playthrough. That has completely changed now. Sure you can still shoot your way through the whole game. But why do that when
you can actually run a highly specialized time slowing katana build. Or a one shot pistol build. Or a pure throwing knives and netrunner build. Or just a big hulking punching machine build. This is all possible now and having tried each of these builds that I mentioned, I can confirm they are all equally viable
and fun to play with. But considering the base game was developed at a time when these methods were not available, the base game's story itself doesn't benefit or make use of these possibilities as much other than you using these gameplay techniques to play the game.
Enter Phantom Liberty DLC.

Phantom Liberty DLC:-
The best way to play the DLC is to push the main game and sidequests all the way up to the final mission of the main game (Nocturne OP55N1) and then go into the DLC. This creates maximum emotional impact and resonance.

A good spy thriller makes you second guess yourself at every turn with its twists and turns and that is exactly what Phantom Liberty does. There is a point around the midway mark in the DLC where you legitimately cannot figure out which of the main characters you can/should trust and who is lying to you.
That is just absolutely crazy good levels of storytelling. And the characters introduced in Phantom Liberty are absolutely fantastic. Well layered characters with their own emotional spectrum and convoluted logic that they operate upon.
Idris Elba was absolute perfection in how he potrays Solomon Reed in the game. The other characters Songbird, Rosalind Myers, Mr.Hands deserve a huge round of applause as well on how well they were written. Even Keanu Reeves had a lot more nuance to his appearances and dialogue in the DLC compared to the basegame.
And the DLC is an absolute showcase of exceptional environmental design.
The political turmoil of Dogtown was constructed very well here. And the DLC plays out like a top tier 10/10 spy thriller. And there is even a sequence which is straight out of 2009's Alien:Isolation and that was done exceptionally well.
That is no easy feat considering that is one of the best horror games of all time.
There is also a very bittersweet melancholic ending to the main game that you can unlock via the DLC which truly shows that in a world like this there aren't ever any win-win conditions. There is always some sacrifice.

The Bad:- The bad is mostly in what is NOT in the game. More interesting braindance sequences/interactions. The menu system could be better. But there are an infinite number of possibilities a world like this will have which is not really possible to capture fully in a video game environment(currently) I suppose.

In short, Phantom Liberty + the 2.0 update pushes cyberpunk finally to a level where it is on par with the Witcher universe. It just needed some polish. Quoting Asmongold, you can't polish a piece of turd.
In this case, the diamond is no longer rough.



OLD REVIEW(PATCH 1/ON RELEASE):-
TL:DR - A diamond in the rough.
This is the first time since the OG Deus Ex, that the choice to approach a scenario and playstyle has felt so free and normal.
There are flaws with this game as of now, but there are missions and stories being told here that evoke emotions in a manner very very few games manage to do.
And the world. The real protagonist and antagonist of Cyberpunk is Night City itself. The amount of detail, references, background lore, environment design that has gone behind creating this living, breathing city is a monumental achievement.
Its a shame that the game is infested with bugs and other optimization issues, because there is a real gem underneath all that layer of filth. Its a game that came out too early(ironic lol). They overpromised and underdelivered(probably investors and "corpos" clashing heads with developers).
With an year of proper patching, can end up as one of the best games ever created.
Pros:-
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1.) The Audio. I cannot stress, how good the audio is in this game. From weapon sounds, to the soundtracks, to voice acting(minus Keanu in some places).
2.) Night City(Lore and worldbuilding).
3.) Missions and side missions(To remember a few - Killing in the Name, Sinnerman,I fought the law, Pyramid Song, Raymond Chandler evening, Violence, Panam, River, Judy's storylines, Evelyn's fate, Heroes,etc,etc)
4.) Conversation scripting, especially between major characters. Extremely organic conversations(exceptions are there as with anything).
5.) Combat (Its still not buttery smooth, but they have come a long way since Witcher 3's clunky combat).
6.) Choices( Lets be real, free-choice games usually mean you get to choose within set parameters). It's no different here but it doesn't feel unnatural like a lot of other games. Sword only? Pacifist? Glass cannon netrunner?
Brawling guy with a club? Stealth? Guns blazing? They all feel viable and they all feel natural to use.
7.) Keanu Reeves sequences were polished to the max and they were hype af.
♥♥♥♥:-
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1.) Dumb enemy AI.
2.) Bugs to put the ones from Starship Troopers to shame (Far far too many to list).
3.) Crafting system is broken(made millions because it is though)
4.) Night City -> Lack of activities to do in Night City (San andreas has more things to do. thats a shame).
5.) Unfinished systems (Rudimentary GPS and tracking, Braindance sequences extremely limited, police spawns and heat tracking broken, breaching systems extremely basic).
6.) Keanu's voice acting is a bit meh in some places.
Here's hoping CDPR turns it around with the two upcoming patches.
Will hold off on my Corpo scumbag playthrough till then.

It is an injustice trying to find negatives in this game.
This is one of those golden oldies. Aged like find wine. And the impact this has had on the gaming industry is massive.
Yes replaying this game is a different experience since you already know all the puzzle solutions by then. But then its a matter of how fast and smoothly you can operate the levels using portals.
This is also a fantastic game for kids and adults(considering bunch of adults these days are dumb as bricks) to assess their critical thinking abilities.
Fantastic game and experience.

10/10

Have been playing hades since early access. It is one of the absolute few games that had more polish in early access than many other complete/final release games.
The combat is smooth, music exemplary and weapon and enemy variety is good. Great lore too which unlocks bit by bit the more you play.
Now that the game has finally released, its even better than it was in early access.
On the surface Hades might look like a random button mashing game, but its not that. It has a low skill floor but an extremely high skill ceiling.
But most of all, its fun as hell(geddit?).

Raji is a beautiful little game. A lot of love has gone behind the game which shows while you play.
Pros:-
-Audio - Excellent
-Animation quality - Decent
- Art and Environment Design - Gorgeous
- Difficulty - A bit easy but I have played nearly 4-5k hours of souls like and pvp so I guess the difficulty is decent for the casual gamer.
-Environment design/Art - Great.
-Voice Acting - Good(except one character)
-Combat and Enemies - Moveset and animations are good. But overall combat could have been a bit tighter.
No lock on/targetting kind of sucks but isn't a deal breaker.
-Bosses - Good art design. Fairly average moveset.

♥♥♥♥
-No Sprint/Dash - Really annoying.
- Ledge animation - Animations in general are decent but while on a ledge, seems stiff.
-Voice Acting for Durga - Not my cup of tea. Sounded like she was reading powerpoint slides in a meeting. Improved significantly after the halfway mark in the game.
- Combat - No targeting mechanism.

I'd rate this game a solid 6.5 or even 7/10. At a runtime of around 4-5 hours, it doesn't overstay its welcome and its a nice short game that pretty much anyone can enjoy.

Pros:-
-Visuals
-Environment design and exploration
-Challenge tombs/crypts and decent puzzles

♥♥♥♥
-Annoying gameplay decisions like going into a non-player controlled animation when trying to go through gaps in walls/rocks etc. Which means you can't backtrack out if you change your mind and decide to go back without watching the entire animation play out again.
-Repetitive combat(Apply mud->sneak->stealth kill-> repeat)

Story is average and I absolutely loathe the concluding thoughts Lara has at the end of the game.
That being said, exploration and the environments(though mostly forests) are extremely well done and it is an enjoyable experience. The highlight of the game are the challenge tombs/crypts etc.

Rating 7.5/10

Took around 45 hours to beat on the first playthrough with very heavy exploration and 2 instances of farming(Edit:- Forgot to mention, I got the Return ending which is takes the longest to achieve it seems. And apparently there are 3 other endings to this game, so great replay value).

This game is difficult if you are used to playing Dark Souls-ish games as it makes you unlearn a lot of the mechanics from those games. Instead of block/rolling/continuous evasion, this game forces you to go head-on and clash the glorious nippon steel with your foes at full throttle.
If you keep your block up, prepare to get punished after getting posture broken. The trick is to learn the enemies attack patterns and deflect his attacks by just blocking the instant his/her damage is about to hit you. All the other while, you need to be aggressive and target their posture meter down to get deathblows. If you consider enemies having just 2 resource bars (health and posture in sekiro instead of health and stamina from souls games), then focusing on posture breaks is what works in Sekiro. At the end of the day Sekiro's combat seems close to a rhythm game.

That said, there is a lot of flexibility in Sekiro in terms of how you want to approach fights. The boss encounters are memorable and the mini-bosses are basically skill-checks to see if you have really learnt the mechanics of the game up till that encounter.

And there are multiple endings, and certain bosses are locked out if you chase certain endings.So there is quite a bit of replay value here. Not to mention NG+, demon's bell and no Kuro's Charm challenges if you really want to spice up the difficulty. While it is a complete game on its own, I do wish they launch some DLCs. There are certain stories and characters mentioned in the lore of this game which would make fantastic DLC additions.