Recent reviews by Jet

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Having been diagnosed with a terminal case of "being a Sonic fan" in my early childhood, these past years have been quite tough to weather. It's hard to watch as a franchise you've loved since the beginning continues to have their missteps turn into full blown car crashes, all while feeling that if the developers just listened to their (very) passionate fan base, maybe they could claw back some of the series' dignity.

Sonic Frontiers feels like they are starting to listen again.

NOTE: To add context to this review, I have 100% completed Sonic Frontiers over the course of around 40ish hours.

The game is divided into two main parts. You have the open-world areas which are focused on exploration and exposition, taking the form of five large islands filled with rings, enemies, collectibles, and challenges to complete. Then you have Cyberspace, which are your 3D platforming levels like you would expect to find in a more linear Sonic title. Each Cyberspace level has challenges to complete within it, awarding a rank based on performance upon completion.

The writing is certainly a breath of fresh air compared to previous titles. Bringing in Ian Flynn was one of the best decisions they made for this game, and I hope Sega and Sonic Team choose to keep him around. Around the late 2000s and early 2010s was when Sonic started to adopt a more childlike and immature style of humor that did not jive well with most, myself included. Frontiers dials it back to a more tolerable level, about even with 90s Sonic. He's got an actual personality now instead of being a walking joke/quip/sarcasm dispenser, and I really hope we get to see some more actual character development for him in-game in future titles. The supporting cast is great as well. It's hard to explain, but this is the first time in recent memory where Sonic and his buddies have actually felt like they hang out on a regular basis, rather than just meeting up once a year to stop Eggman's evil schemes. As far as the main story goes, to keep this review spoiler-free, it's okay. Nothing ground breaking. Sonic needs to figure out how to get him and his friends off these mysterious islands, which naturally leads to him needing to save the world along the way. The real interesting bits are the side-conversations between characters. Frontiers seems like its trying to fix one of the major issues with the Sonic series, which is how disconnected it all feels. Every one to three games seems like they take place within an entirely different universe. This is the first time in my memory that characters have made direct reference to events and characters from previous games, seemingly trying to tie everything together moving forward.

The gameplay is decent. I get the feeling that Sonic Team was unsure which part of the game they wanted to throw more of their developer weight behind, leading to both the open-world and Cyberspace areas feeling lacking in at least a few ways.

The open-world areas can be fun to blitz through at high speeds, but lack a significant amount of variety and begin to look very samey after a few hours. The open-world also suffers from truly abhorrent draw distance and pop in issues. Many of the activities on the islands involve platforming between seemingly randomly placed springs, zip lines, boost pads, and grind rails. You will encounter many times where you simply cannot see the next step in a sequence, leading to you falling down and needing to retry. You'll also have times where you see what appears to be a conveniently placed boost pad or spring you'll want to use as it appears to get you to where you want to go, only to find your camera is suddenly locked to a 2D perspective, and that you are unable to leave the platforming section you've entered without completing it or falling off in a certain direction. Combined with a half-baked combat system that throws so many unnecessary moves and combos at you in the first hour you'd think you were suddenly playing a fighting game, and we are left with a truly bizarre experience.

The Cyberspace sections are where the game truly begins to crack under its own weight. Fair warning, there are minor gameplay spoilers ahead. You would imagine that being Sonic's first real foray into an open-world experience, the more linear sections would be strong enough to hold the game up if they struggled. Unfortunately, these levels were not able to be given the time and love they needed to truly blossom. Another common criticism of Sonic games is their over reliance on past successes, most often taking the form of Green Hill Zone or a variant being the first level of the game. Sonic Frontiers takes this to a new height by making 1/4th of the game's 30 Cyberspace sections themed after Green Hill Zone. There are four themes in total for the Cyberspace levels, including other fan "favorites" like Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, and "Eternal Highway", which is just an amalgamation of city-themed levels in previous titles. Most of the Cyberspace levels contain recycled geometry from previous games as well, though this is much less of an issue in my personal opinion. There is a story reason as to why the levels look like this, but I do not feel like it justifies it from a gameplay perspective. Additionally, the controls within these levels vary wildly, seemingly from level to level. Compared to a game like Sonic Adventure, where you had fairly full control, Sonic Frontiers gives Sonic so much inertia in movement and jumps, but still somehow made him feel very floaty. It feels like physics from Sonic Generations with Sonic's weight cranked up a handful of notches.

Despite all this, I maintain the opinion that Sonic Frontiers is a good game at the end of the day. It does indeed have its flaws, and some people may consider the game not worth your time because of them. I recommend you give it a try, though maybe wait for it to be discounted first if you aren't the kind of person who regularly plays Sonic games, and don't have exploitable feelings of nostalgia to help you look past some of the more glaring flaws on display here. Give it a shot. You'll know whether you'll enjoy the full game or not well within the refund window.

I really wish there was a "Meh" button on Steam for games like this, because while I think there is enjoyment to be had with Sniper Elite 5, I don't feel like this game lives up to its own name.

I bought this game on a whim without really doing any research, which is rare for me, but I've played a handful of hours of Sniper Elite V2, so I sort of felt like I knew what I'd be getting here: an open-world stealthy romp with baddies to shoot from a long distance with my long gun. And I guess that is... technically correct here? But after making it to the third level, things just feel wrong.

For starters, maneuverability is all over the place in this game. One of the main selling points on the store page is the "advanced traversal system", which seems to refer to taking a page from games like Assassin's Creed or Hitman and giving you ledges and vines to climb all around. It works fine enough on the clearly marked pieces of level made for those mechanics. But then you encounter a small pile of stones on the ground, and your character can't quite seem to figure out how to deal with it. Getting stuck, whether due to bad geometry or invisible walls, is a major issue in this game from my experience. This happened SO MUCH during the first level, and really left a sour taste in my mouth early on. When you are trying to maneuver tightly in between patrolling guards, the last thing you want is to be blocked from proceeding to a spot that appears to be safe.

Speaking of getting stuck, the "open-world design" could use some work. There were so many times while playing the first few levels where I had to stop and ask myself "why can't I just go this way?". Each level so far has been large in scale, but limited as far as where you can actually go. Strict paths are present in ways where they just don't make sense, funneling you more or less to into areas with objectives in them. Pathways lined with indestructible rows of bushes or insurmountable waist-high fencing just feels like they couldn't think of ways to make these large levels feel more interesting.

Touching more on the levels specifically, for a game called "Sniper Elite 5", the levels don't seem to encourage you to use your sniper rifle all that much! The levels feel utterly devoid of spots to actually post up and snipe from, instead pushing you towards using stealth to directly insert yourself into hostile areas, relying on your SMG, pistol, or hand to hand combat for the entirety of levels. Most combat engagements take place at pretty close range, meaning mechanics like bullet drop or wind don't even come into play. This may change in later levels, but I feel it's important for these concepts to mean something for the entire game. This makes the game feel like its lost its own identity in an attempt to emulate what works for other games, which comes off as very generic.

A few more minor gripes less worthy of full paragraphs:

- Enemies being master trackers even on lower difficulties, able to perfectly pinpoint your location and mobilize after a single shot
- The existence of a non-lethal weaponry and techniques which doesn't seem to have a purpose, especially when the game seems to award fewer points for using them
- Gun customization where your changes don't seem to matter outside of things like magazine size and scope range

I realize I'm probably parroting a lot of the same points people have made over and over already, but I have to say as someone who hasn't played the other games in the series, coming in and being this disappointed might speak to how much a fan could be letdown by the game in its current state.

I can't comment much on the multiplayer as I haven't played it yet, but it seems to be pretty divisive. The PvP invasion mode for the campaign is a pretty sore spot for some people. It sounds cool to me in theory; you have the option to allow other players to invade your campaign as an enemy sniper looking to ruin your day, and you are granted additional XP for playing with this option enabled. Whether you view it as a bonus for playing with it, or a penalty for playing without it boils down to your personal preference, but locking certain progression items behind it is sort of gross in my opinion.

To sum it all up, Sniper Elite 5 less of a sniper simulator and more of a simple military action sandbox. And that is okay. I just wish it was a bit different is all.

This bums me out more than anything to say, but I personally cannot recommend this game at its current price unless you are more interested in Resistance than the actual remake itself.

I played the demo and thought it was FANTASTIC. I really liked the way the game felt (and still do, for the most part). I couldn't wait to get into the full game. RE3 is the game I'm least knowledgeable about, so I was really excited to see it from an updated perspective. But there are so many story elements straight up missing from this game. I won’t go into excruciating detail here as there is already another review with a huge list of all the missing content. But unfortunately all that we are left with feels like a bunch of hastily stitched together set piece battles with one or two branching pathways thrown in to simulate depth.

I don’t mind the action-oriented gameplay, I don’t mind certain pieces being omitted, but I beat this game in under four hours on my first playthrough. Four. Hours. I swear I was not even trying to rush through the entire game. There just wasn’t a lot there. But it's so unfortunate because I really enjoyed what was there.

As far as gameplay goes, the zombies don’t go down quite like they did in RE2. They seem to take many more hits to the head to drop, and don’t stagger nearly as often to allow you to slip by to conserve ammo. It seems to be deliberately done to encourage use of the new dodge mechanic, which I have to admit is a little clunky. Sometimes zombies will lunge at you and you’ll get hit despite dodging because the game decided you didn’t dodge correctly. Sometimes the direction you dodge seems important, but other times it seems up to chance whether you get hit or not. This applies doubly so in boss fights.

Nemesis encounters in the early game are pretty cool. He definitely fights harder than Mr. X in RE2, and you’ll definitely need to take advantage of the environment to avoid him. Sometimes though he will do things that rub me the wrong way. For example, you’ll look back behind you and he’ll be a good 30 or 40 feet away, and then in the time it takes for you to pan the camera to look in front of you again, he’ll have mastered time and space and drop down in front of you with no logical way to have ended up there that fast.

All in all, this just feels like such a missed opportunity. I enjoyed what was here, and enjoyed my time playing it, I just feel like for what the money I spent there should have been so much more to it. I feel like the big argument there is going to be “Well technically for the money you spent you bought two games, so the remake obviously had a lower budget than if it came out as a standalone release.” And I feel like that is a fair point. But with how little we got, I can’t help but feel a little salty about my purchase. This feels like it should have been a $15 DLC expansion for RE2.

Finally, I honestly can’t comment on Resistance. I wasn’t very interested in it before launch, and now all I can see when I look at it is a leech that took development time away from making this remake better. It honestly feels like Resistance is the game they wanted to make, but knew it wouldn’t sell well on its own, so they had to bundle it with a remake of Resident Evil 3 to push sales. Maybe it’s good, maybe not, but it isn’t my kind of game anyway.