Recent reviews by S S Absolution

ANNO : Mutationem just frankly needs more... if you want to look at pixel anime-ish art legs... then sure it's perfect. Honestly it just feels rushed and unfinished. There’s never any big reward as you progress to really keep you involved. It's got the sparks of originality and intrigue, it just never catches fire.

I'm not trashing the pixel art... I was nice, I'm not attacking the music or sounds... they were fine. It's everything that makes this a "game" that needs more content and refinement. You'll do a bunch of useless tasks that never really drive the story forward. Characters can come off as annoying or pointless. The combat is simple and never really posed any challenge. If you want to do any of the side quests, there’s just a ton of backtracking.

The pacing is all off too. Beginning sections feature a ton of menial, boring tasks. Only the final act finally makes you feel as if the game is starting to catch it’s stride, when it ends. Almost no meaningful information is given out in the first half of the game, and even when it does it still ends up retconned at the end. I just never felt like I was ever actually building toward anything.

The entire second act is spent looking for your brother and his search for the mcguffin. The first act, all these little tidbits are dangled out in front of you, but never actually get delivered. All the characters fail the muster test as well. Sure some are interesting, but others can be annoying. Even the interesting ones, might disappear to never be spoken of again.

If you’re just looking for a super casual experience where you never really have to follow anything until the last few hours, then I recommend this for you. If you’re looking for something fleshed out that delivers, I’d avoid this one. There’s just not enough delivered to make it worth your while.

Just why... why did you make the choices you made? Was it your intention to finally kill off a beloved franchise, or were you just irresponsible? Did you go in just screaming about profit margins and the silly saps who were gonna shower you in gold, 343?

Well... seems like there were plenty of showers of gold to go around... 343 towards its fans, the fans back to 343... it's a sad state of affairs to be involved with. Luckily, I didn't spend any money and got away with just an 87 hour time sink, hours not representative of actual playtime. It feels like a shell of the game we'd anticipated, a demo for what's coming Holiday's 2022, not a well polished game ready for release.

The game isn't a mess... but... I remember an interview I watched with ole Bungie creator of CE and he talked about how the game is just capturing the same 30 seconds of fun over and over again. This tries that formula, but in the weirdest way possible, it tries to give you the exact same fun for 30 seconds over and over again. In terms of an initial rush of fun, yes it succeeds for a time, but the sugar crash you feel afterward if just depressing.

Design-wise, I'm not entirely certain what they were thinking. Sure the character models looks fine and the scenery and all that is good to look at, but many of the more subtle design choices were just mucked up with a seemingly brazen disregard for intuition. The menus can be a nightmare to operate and move around until you just learn by clicking through the thousand options that do essentially the same three things.

Then there's the technical design choices... hope you like de-sync, rubber banding, and completely unexplainable hit box issues. If not, then you're gonna face some real frustration with this. I benefit from the last one quite a bit, and it makes me seem like I'm better than I am, but I suffer the penalties of the other two far too often. For some reason I love to pull the trigger on the BR for complete misses, but the game rewards my consistency with missing by giving me super bullets and head shots where none existed.

The one I get penalized the most by, is because this game exists in the Wanted universe and we can now bend bullets around corners. I don't think I'm a fanatic about this on any game, a step or a half second around the wall... I understand I'm still in the danger zone due to the technical limitations of what we have... but... full seconds where I have enough time to feel safe and begin trying to strafe back out.. but gasp... I've been taking damage non-stop and before I even step back out to get murdered... I'm already dead. Rockets blow up in your chest and you'll run away is another crowd-pleaser I'm sure..

Finally, the choices that kill franchises... do you want to only play a certain map, or maybe a specific game type in ranked? Find a different game! That's your choice! Certainly sounds like a business decision to keep people around for a long time. Gut basic features that are the reasons for the franchises sustained success like co-op campaign, forge mode, all lumped together with some rather loathsome map selections. It just feels like a hollow representation of what it should've been with all the resources behind the game...

I'll likely play the game again with friends... and like I said it's not that it doesn't have fun in it. It's just that there's a great deal of refinement and remapping that the game needs to go through to reach a state that feels like it properly competes for my time.

Plot driven games are terrible to review when you hate all the themes the plot is built off of. How do I describe why the message is bad... without defining the actual message...

Here it is spoiler free... parents suck, people die, and autistic spouses make terrible partners. Your life is gonna be sad and there's never gonna be any happiness that makes it worth it. The only solace you'll have is on your death bed when you completely change the memories of your life and all the people in it. Even that though... will last for like 20 seconds... sounds like the type of life worth living Johnny.

Surfing through the rust colored muck that's this guys life, there seems a probability that we'd find a pivotal moment where he was... I don't know... happy... but there's only really one. That one though is overshadowed by a p3n!s kick so righteous that it actually turns the happy memory into a source of pain. It's also a bit convoluted as to why these things would even need to be done.

For lack of a better definition, I just lacked any real empathy for Johnny. I don't feel bad that you lived your life and didn't like it... better git gud. Next time someone will stop being a coward and actually discuss fundamental issues with their spouse or find help that can assist with those additional challenges from autism. I had no faith in the love for his wife and that felt like he deserved to die without his memories being changed. I only wish I had the option

Describe this rhythm game in one word, niche. It tries to set a rather high bar early on, but it never quite lives up to its own hype. It's a fun distraction, but that's all it ends up being, and is remembered simply as a white and orange blob with a thin blue line that separated me from glory.

Really this game doesn't have any one thing you can point at that you just flat out say, that ruins the personal satisfaction of the game. It's a culmination of small seemingly innocuous designs that make it feel rather bland. There's a lot of simple monotony in this, and yes simple, and/or monotonous do have their positives. Objectively though this misses that slight aesthetic flair I'd expect from such choices. There needs to be some stark contrast that acts as a backdrop, and that's woefully missing.

With variety comes a bit of memorability. It breaks up a rather soporific experience into smaller little portions that are easier to remember. Even now, I have trouble picking level designs out by memory, and that's a problem. It means I can't say to anyone... ohhh this part, that part will make all the other minutes worth it. It's not for a lack of trying though, there are "boss" fights, but it boils down to the same mechanics as all the other levels. It's different and fun, but not quite different enough.

Maximum ribbon accuracy is not 100%, and it shows on the leaderboards. The best, let alone a pissant like me, can't get 100% so don't expect to. The ribbon is graded very harshly, but I never felt as if it were overly unfair. I can get the 5 stars on the Master level difficulty songs, so it's not a ripoff by any metric.

However, there are certain sections of levels, (I can't remember which, as I was in a tunnel gliding along a blue line listening to Dub Step) where the designer seemingly took a few shots of meth and wanted to wiggle the joystick around as quickly as possible. I'm being a bit facetious, but there are a number of these points that feel almost deliberately there to ensure 100% is impossible.

There's always a certain je ne sais quoi that separates the moniker of timeless classic from fun distracting diversion. There are just so many other better rhythm games out there, that I feel this is sort of an extra niche game that dub steppers and point/rhythm game junkies will thrive off of. For all others, the details will be lost to the ether forever more.

This game is a real conundrum to review... there's a part of me that loves it and a part of me that finds it to be terrible. I was able to beat it in a single sitting, but there were times where I openly looked at the game with disgust. It gave me moments of clairvoyance, and self-reflection; while at the same time it descends into a predictably inscrutable mess. It does so many things right, only to turn around and ruin it for no good reason. This double-edged eventuality is what ultimately makes this just one of those experiences that really depends on what matters to you most.

There is one section of the game that is fantastic throughout, the atmosphere. This will portray itself more in emotional contexts than through usual things like story, or plot. This is mainly accomplished by the music. Although the color tones really do find a way to add that extra little response. The tone of general conversation on your train really does hit on all the pathos one could hope for. Even in the end it's the emotion of it that'll take you and not the intellectual resolution.

This thing does do one thing bad all the way through as well, the train simulator portion. The best parts of the trip are when the passengers are talking among themselves, and the scenery you're traveling past. These are what really tell you the stories, these create that place within yourself that really wants to feel the experience. Unfortunately, most of your time will be spent on other things, that really remove you from the best parts and then makes it difficult to come back into it. It's really sad when the travelling sections could've been the best parts with better implementation.

Other than those, it's a roller coaster. The locations feel fresh at one stop, just to become monotonous the next. There are a few sections of the action-adventure portion that will be challenging, but I ended the game without any concerns for ammunition, I killed every enemy on the maps, and only died maybe 10 times. The enemies were interesting for a bit and then dull about halfway through. The game play itself is up and down between stops. The story lines will grab at you and then fail to deliver. Also, why are all the NPC sprites decent quality, but my main sprite looks like complete garbage?

There were some missed potentials in this too. There is a section of the game that takes a rather... psychological turn. Only to completely be pointless 2 minutes after you're through it. I thought it really added an extra little something that could've helped take this to that next level, but alas... it wasn't meant to be. The missing aspect of a conceivable story lines really hurts this as well. With the already amazing atmosphere, this additional feature could've really propelled this onward with ease.

As it stands though... while I really want to recommend this. There's another guy punching that guy in the face telling him no. That first guy is tired of getting punched in the nose so that’s why it’s not recommended. If there was a "Confused" option I'd have picked that though.

- 5.4/10

It's nice to know that Ninja Theory is only capable of following a single formula. It really makes me hesitate to purchase another title by this developer. This is just a re-skinned version of one of their earlier releases, Heavenly Sword. Sure there's a few extra bells and whistles but 90% of it is the same game. Personally, I liked Heavenly Sword and I liked this as well, for many of the exact same reasons. This is missing one thing that Heavenly Sword isn't... originality, pure, plain and simple.

Dante re-hashed isn't cool... he's pretty much a tool. Other than that it's just a very forgettable story line and cast of characters; with boring dialogue to back it up. It fails to deliver on this level entirely. The slightly more visceral themes of DMC, are highlighted to an extreme in this. Lets not forget stupid fedora @s$ Vergil, oh my god, he gets special mention for being the most substantial tool bag in the entire store.

The gameplay operates around the three weapon system, activated by the triggers (I played this with a controller). Your main sword, which is a medium strength/speed weapon, the left trigger for your light strength fast speed weapons, and the right trigger for your heavy, but slow, hitters. I don't mind the gameplay, as I said before its basically a clone of Heavenly Sword. That in turn, by definition, makes this wholly unoriginal.

When there's a basic clone of a game, which does more aspects properly, it's hard to recommend something. If you're like me and you need a hack and slash fix, then this might be for you. Otherwise find a way to get Heavenly Sword and play that instead.

Gaben keeps stealing my rank

A unique take on the rhythm genre that has plenty of fresh ideas and perspective. It’s far from perfect though and mostly suffers from implementation issues that shoot itself in the leg like Cheddar Bob. Every facet will impress you, and then at the same time disappoint you. It’s an experience to play this game, offering plenty of challenge and sublime moments of accomplishment. The issue is that I see this being a game you’ll either love or hate, with little to be found in the middle.

The most important aspect is the gameplay, and this offers a combination of 140’s rhythm platforming elements and DDR’s rhythm based direction action phases. Everything is mostly solid, with the occasional bug where the beat and action/platformer phases don’t sync up properly. Upon death or reset though these usually rectify themselves. This section is the main reason for my recommendation, as there are only very minor issues.

The visuals are one of the most prolific section that I can think of that is a double-edged sword. They are beautifully colorful, with a great aesthetic pleasure to it. The use of visuals gives a very psychedelic persona to the whole experience. Yet, these same qualities end up being the downside as well. During peak action times the screen gets overrun with various effects and color swaps that end up looking more like screen vomit than anything else. It distracts from the gameplay at a variety of times and is just too much at times.

Next is the control options. Both the keyboard and controller controls feel very tight. The keyboard is by far the better option though, with the timings and input lag between commands being decreased. This is mostly due to the full reset control scheme that must be adhered to. When using the Klangs, the right joystick must go to a full neutral position before the next command can be input. This offers a few extra millisecond lags as the keyboard only relies on a key to fully reset. Movement controls are better with the controller though. Certain sections see you flying around on a board, of sorts, and the keyboard limits you to only 8 directions. The controller joystick has no such limitations. Then there’s no remapping allowed for either scheme. Old controllers beware though, there are no sensitivity options for the joystick so even the slightest offset from neutral will have you running at full speed.

Third, the difficulty is skewed at many sections of the game. This game is hard, and the dev states that this was intentional. The hardship of this is manageable on the main setting throughout the entire game. As well you can change the difficulty on the fly with no real penalties applied. The issue is that there is no ramping of the difficulty once you get past the p1rate b4y level. There are sections in the early areas that are more difficult than other later sections. Now the end levels are by far the most difficult, but there are random ups and downs in this context. As well, the controller issues explained above can add to the difficulty in what feels like an artificial way.

A few things that this hit totally on the head are the music and story aspects of the game. The former has maybe a song or two that I wasn’t a fan of. While the latter is perfectly flippant, and comical for what it is. There is a subtlety to the story that one must look for in some of the fine-tuned details that add depth. Either way they felt totally at home within the context of the game.

I enjoyed this game, it was an interesting experience. If it didn’t sabotage itself through implementation issues, I would easily give it a much higher score than the 7.5 I’d rate it currently. As it stands though, I still think this is a title that deserves to be checked out. It’s a challenging and fun experience that I think most rhythm gamers will thoroughly enjoy. Though maybe watch the videos on the community page to get a sense of some of the faster paced action elements.

At best this is a frustratingly disappointing tactical turn based simulator. Major issues lie underneath the surface of the gameplay that once discovered make this rather silly. With balance issues across every facet, the will to punish yourself is the only way to make this challenging or even fun. Level design is acceptable at first, dreary soon after. Broken game modes that were good ideas but poorly fleshed out. You should Breach and Clear this from your Wishlist as soon as possible.

Balancing issues come into play immediately upon building your squad. Soon after building it, you'll realize not all classes are built equally. Then once you meet Jugs, it'll become painfully apparent. For me, the Weapon Sergeant ended up being the most OP bebop you could hope for. Mixed with the Pro90 he was a god amongst men, outclassing the ravenous hordes with minimal effort. Breacher and Intelligence weren't useless, but their strengths offered for only a specific approach to the game. While others were more well-rounded and offered a trove of tactical and strategic options.

Other more serious balancing issues come in with weapon selection. Many are just useless at the best of times and others make drone warfare look like child's play. Shotguns are a sham, with a whole three choices and then a reskinned one later, it leaves something to be desired. Also, Jugs has a super OP shotgun. Why can't I get that thing? A single sniper rifle (not counting the MK17), which is pretty dookie. You wanna know what this game has in variation... rifles, lots and lots of rifles. You want a submachine gun... Pro90, only choice. SAW is your only LMG choice, and no riot shield.

Terrible design choices lie in the level selection and game modes. Each game mode shares the same maps as the others, which is alright for a while, but boring by the end. A few levels stand out as excellent levels that you enjoyed but most are simplistic and others are bad enough to rely on random enemy placement for victory at all. The worst sin of all though is in the game mode Escape Plan. An excellent idea that was so poorly thought out and implemented that it left an image that haunts the rest of the game. All the game mode is, is what happens if we randomly place your four guys around the map, sometimes with 4 to 5 enemies aiming at them at the start. What a terrible waste of a great idea.

With so many annoying balance issues, design choices and wasted potential this is something that needs to be avoided. There are other smaller issues that I don't feel need to be gotten into as well. In the end though, the real lack of choice is what did this in for me. With strategic options limited due to a lack of variability in the weapon choices I found this to be lacking in the fun deparment fairly quickly.

Another Souls game in the books. As a veteran of all four previous Soul entries, this review is written from that perspective. Some of the issues I experienced with this may very well be lost on you if you're new to the series. This feels like the idiom, one step forward... two steps back, some things are better than ever and others are at their weakest. Bonfire placement is abysmal, making levels far easier than they need be. Design aspects feel recycled and stale at times with a few flashes of grandeur. Streamlined gameplay and upgrade mechanics mark a major improvement within the series. With the most challenging, fleshed out boss encounters yet. Still worth it though...

A lot of the grindy portions of the gameplay have been routed for a more streamlined upgrade system. No more, farming vast quantities of various individual enemies for their specific ore drops. Thank you. No more guessing which item you need to get to +9 to use the Boss Souls, though there are a few that if you don't want to look up take some pretty nifty guessing to get. I spent far less time in the menus of this one, meaning I was playing the game, which is a plus.

In detail, there are some previously stated issues with it. The bosses are harder in this, but the levels in general are easier. Bonfire placement is mostly to blame. It makes whole areas vanish before you really know what happened, making each area less memorable than the last. Nearly every boss has a straight path from a bonfire with at max 2 enemies awaiting you. Also... cool story another poison area... it'll be your favorite.

The storytelling is classic Dark Souls, read some stuff and fill in the holes with whatever you can. I found many of the item descriptions to be lacking though. Either too short, or no real information to be gleaned. As well, the content felt far less original than any other installment. This aspect is easily the weakest from any of the previous.

Most of the areas, and designs also feel a bit recycled. There are a few that stand out and make this it's own beast. Irithyll of the Boreal Valley portrays itself as the mystical phoenix sprouting from the ashes of an iconic location. It's unfortunate that this is an exception and not the rule. If you can recall a previous area from any of the other installments it makes an appearance in one way or another. The real issue at heart is the lack of effort to make them feel original in their own way.

The challenge provided by the bosses is what drives this into a refreshed experience. Once again, every idea will feel like a reprocessed version of a previous manifestation. Granted as well that most of the added difficulty of this one is provided merely by an increase in speed, damage, and stamina. Most feel balanced enough, but some will display signs of unlimited stamina, unfathomable hit boxes, and homing attacks that will rotate them 260 degrees on a single foot. Still though I felt that every concept that was done before was improved upon and made to be its own version of what it was.

Whether you're a Souls veteran or a newcomer this is sure to give you the enjoyment you're looking for. There are flashes of amazing uniqueness that will make you smile, and marvel at the artistic direction. Be warned that if you're a vet then these will be few and far between, and a ton of content will feel recycled. It's still Dark Souls though and that alone makes it worth playing, for the challenge and all.