Recent reviews by Albab

Pirated it,
almost 100% completed it...
bought it,
trying to 100% it all over again.

Superb game!

Brilliant visuals (even now, in 2024), atmospheric level design, great build up of tension, good gameplay.... but for some backward-ass reason we can't skip cutscenes... Think I've reinstalled this game like 4 times, itching to play through it on madhouse (hard difficulty) but I give up almost immediately - I shouldn't have to sit through 5 whole minutes of unskippable babble just to have another go at a boss fight.... it's maddening! wtf were they thinking...?

Anyway, good for one playthrough - on normal

I haven't had this much fun since 2008 when Left 4 Dead was released!

For any future newcomers to Helldivers 2, be aware that many of the negative reviews likely still up are due to Sony's boneheaded move to screw over a significant portion of the community in May 2024 - look it up for the deets.

Arrowhead (devs) spent years making something special, and Sony (publisher) sh*t on it, presumably to keep shareholders happy.

Don't be quick to dismiss this one. It looks simple, and plays simple, but man will you have a good time with a bunch of friends! What's nice is that when I say 'friends' I mean shoulder to shoulder! Like, you can actually see them in 3D... in the real world.... You know, that place where you eat and poop in!

Mindless and boring. You hold the shoot button down and walk between gates/blockades.... rinse, repeat...

If you are a huge fan of James Cameron's 1986 masterpiece 'Aliens', and have even the slightest interest in strategy games, then just go right ahead and pull the trigger!

Before even taking into account the game play, I have to commend the art and sound teams... it's not close... it's spot on what an experience in this universe should look and sound like. The pulse rifles, the sentry turrets, the music all fit perfectly. The amount of visual clutter and detail in every environment is beyond anything I've ever see in such a game - the environments feel real and 'lived-in'.

At first, game play felt a bit awkward and unnecessarily restrained, but stick with it. I am very accustomed of being in full control of each party member in games like this. It feels counter intuitive to not be able to micromanage every move order/action. After 1.5 play throughs, I still feel the same way, but only for specific actions. For example, not being able to move a marine with a unique skill take point as you walk around is irritating and can effect missions quite drastically if they're not in the ideal position. Overall though, I think they made the right call eliminating a lot of pointless micromanagement, but some adjustments to the formula would be appreciated.

The story isn't going to win any awards, but it's still well presented and the interactions between characters feel genuine. I would have liked it if one or two other characters got a bit more 'screen time', but it's fine as it is.

The UI and controls are mostly excellent, but do yourself a favour and don't play with a controller... Mouse and keyboard is the only way you can react quickly enough to a lot of what the game throws at you.

Bugs - and no, I don't mean the aliens - are still present, but most of the big ones from release are gone. Haven't had any crashes since the recent patch.

In summary, this game is clearly made by developers that know their stuff when it comes to Alien/s. There's a lot of passion and attention to detail on display! I can see myself playing this for many more hours and can't wait for any DLC content!

I'll preface my review by saying that this style of action game is perhaps not for me and I obviously haven't finished the entire thing (...but why would you continue to play something if you're not enjoying it after nearly 9 hours...?). Though I have had a lot of fun playing through DMC titles back during the PS2 golden era, and I'm no stranger to punishing titles like Dark Souls or Hollow Knight, this game feels so bland...

Starting with the superficial, it's not a very visually exciting world. Aside from the amusement park, the world is uninspired and devoid of detail. The character models look great and are very well animated, but they're in total contrast to the incredibly muddy and repetitive textures everywhere else.

The combat is fine, plenty of weapon variety and skills to choose from, but it's nothing special. Every encounter plays out essentially the same way.

The difficulty scaling is ridiculous. Normal difficulty level is boring, button mashing is all that's required to progress. Hard difficulty is absurd... the majority of enemies can basically one-hit kill you... and yet that's what 'Very hard' explicitly states - one hit to die. So then, why make 'Hard' difficulty essentially the same thing? On Normal difficulty, you can kill enemies that are 20 levels higher than you without too much trouble. On Hard, you get annihilated by enemies that are even 1-2 levels lower than you if you're not paying the utmost attention.

What exacerbates the nonsensical difficulty scaling even more is the death system. People online seem to compare the death system to that of Dark Souls. That's just objectively incorrect. Dark Souls titles punish a death by potentially erasing any 'un-banked' 'exp/cash'. You still have your equipment and your stats (stats that are baked into your character and have a much greater bearing on your build and the difficulty). Death in Nier is FAR more punishing. If you die in Nier, you lose all of your chips which cost a fortune to buy and upgrade. In Nier, your chips are by far the most important part of a build. Without those chips, you are massively weakened, and should you die attempting to retrieve them (very likely on Hard difficulty), They're all gone - I hope you enjoying grinding mobs! It's just pointless and unnecessarily punishing...

I will refrain from commenting on the story, as that is surely something that needs to be appreciated from at least one completion.

Climbing ladders was fun!

No idea how this is rated 'overwhelmingly positive' to be honest.

Perhaps the 2nd half picks up, or the Dante levels make it all worth-while, but compared to previous entries in the DMC series... this is a mediocre experience.

The characters aren't bad and the combat is about what you'd expect from a DMC title - which to many, is what they're here for anyway- but the pacing and level design of the game in general is seriously under-developed, and not at all exciting. In a word - bland!

Rockstar has never been a developer I had a high opinion of prior to RDR2.

Sure, Vice City was fantastic and had a ton of charm, but every other entry in the GTA series just falls flat for me - Immensely popular games that are well executed, but just lack any real emotional impact.

Red Dead Redemption 2 delivers on the emotional front in spades. It will stick with you long after it has ended...

The setting, the characters and the story are meticulously crafted. You may fall into the same trap I did at first, and wonder what all the fuss is about, but you'll steadily grow more immersed while you sit and listen to your companions by the campfire at night. If you enjoyed the heartfelt interactions between characters in The Witcher 3, you'll appreciate the same and more here.

Age of empires is a series that I have loved right from the beginning. It's very likely I've spent close to 2,000 hours playing these games (mostly in AoE 2). I'd perhaps rank the first three games as follows:

AoE 2 > AoE 1 > AoE 3


It makes sense to compare AoE 4 to AoE 2, as they both deal with the same era technologically and are the two best.

Some of my highlights below:

* The Rock-Paper-Scissors system is very much in place and for the most part is well balanced. It also includes a 'light' and 'heavy' system which further expands upon the system.
* Each of the 8 civilisations are far more distinctive in how they play than in AoE2.
* The campaigns are very well crafted and easily on par with AoE 2.
* Siege units are actually fun to use and very much feel like glass cannons with major vulnerabilities.
* The landmark system is a great way to further differentiate the civilisations and despite some duds, most landmarks are viable.

In summary, people frequently say that AoE 2 and 4 are essentially the same game as if that's a problem. Yes, they are... but Age 4 has more than 20 years over it in terms of game design,


It's the little things, a LOT of little things, that make this game the best of the bunch.