Recent reviews by Joelv2__

Overall: 7/10

Hitman is one of the many games in the Hitman video game franchise, that expands on a lot of the aspects that made the original games great in the first place. It is part of a trilogy that reebots the franchise, and a lot of people say that it's very open ended in a lot of ways. There are always multiple ways of tackling a challenge, and you can mix these different ways together to make the best run for you. I think this is true, but this open ended gameplay aspect is one of the things that made this game get a lower rating that it should have. I do think it has a lot of good parts, but the bad parts stand out.

Gameplay: 7.5/10

One of the worst things about Hitman is how it rarely motivates you to use all of these tactics. You can get by having fun by not being creative at all, and just doing the most basic and boring thigs. Obviously, Hitman does give you the tools to play creatively, but it doesn't give you any rewards that are special or anything. Just a dopamine hit after throwing a wrench at fifty people dressed up as a clown. A lot of people like playing creatively, but any players who bought this game, clueless about the potental, will find themselves beating the game in around a week without even noticing all of the special ways that you can complete this game. A lot of people don't mind this, and think the game is still good the way it is even without all of the fancy open ended ways to complete it, which is true. The game's levels are well designed, and have challenging taks for you to complete. Each corner you turn gives you a new puzzle you need to complete.

Story: 7.5/10

The story of the Hitman franchise gets heavier in this reboot trilogy, and it doesn't get complicated on Metal Gear level, but more like Portal level. It is a creative mess that basically used to be just a tool for different maps in the game for you to play in. This technique of story telling was good if delivering a deep and gripping story is not your focus, but Hitman tried to be different. This game in the reboot trilogy didn't have that much story, so there isn't much to review, but the weak story that is present is more shown in the next two games, and only feels like a story they would make up for a demo, or a spin-off.

Overall: 7/10

GTA4 is the game right before the world-wide hit GTA5. The Grand Theft Auto series has always been making hit after hit, and this time it's nothing different. The game is based on Niko Bellic as he arrives in Liberty City and finds himself doing crime after crime. The game has also made a popular meme about a character in this game, a certain cousin, which only made the game more popular. It was released in 2008, but the graphics, gameplay and story still hold up.

Story: 9/10

In my opinion, the story is the best part of the game. The game has multiple different characters, each one being well written with a good background. The beggining of the game is certainly a more simple area, you have the first antagonist, and the story missions are relatively the same, but after that, the game really picks up. Rockstar Games have been known for making deep and depressing stories, and they managed to do it here. The world of Liberty City is dark and gritty, just like the story.

Gameplay: 7/10

There are three main things that the gameplay excels at, they're shooting, physics, and socially interacting with other characters. The shooting in this game is amazing, it's not very hard to aim since it basically does it for you, but you feel like you're really damaging the people you're shooting at, while destroying the area you are in. A good example of this is one of the early missions where it is one of the first parts you really use a gun. The physics is also one of the things that GTA4 is popular for, the driving and crashing feels like you're actually crashing, not just a small time waster while you're getting to your next destination. The Grand Theft Auto franchise never did really encourage roleplaying too much, but they gave you enough tools in this game for you to really act like Niko Bellic. You can call almost all the characters you meet, either to go out with them or for other reasons. You can even get girlfriends, do with that information as you wish. I even felt like the NPCs acted like real people, and didn't just say the same voicelines every time you crashed a car. Once, I flipped over the car with another NPC inside, I expected them to just say a couple words until I flip over the car, but they actually stopped the mission and got mad at me. I even wanted to call someone at night, and they said they were sleeping. This is not the first example of NPCs being more human in a Rockstar Game, and not the best, but it was surprising for a game made in 2008. The fist fighting is not really a good part of the game though, in the first mission where you fist fight somebody, it was frustrating and felt like a game of who would hit first. Overall, the gameplay does some things wrong, but where it does good, it makes you feel like it's the best part of the game.

Overall: 8.5/10

Portal 2 is a unique puzzle game, and the sequel to, you guessed it, Portal. It's great, but not because of the amazing puzzle design and mechanics. It's because of the story, characters and places that the game makes you experience. Not to mention it's writing, with good pacing, storytelling and great dark humor, Valve didn't miss. I know the game is pretty old by the time i'm reviewing it, but there are always new people missing out on great games.

Puzzles: 9/10
Of course, puzzles are the main part of the game, so that's why they're so good. There's always this thing that early puzzle makers do to make their puzzles seem more hard and extreme, but all it does it make them confusing and messy. They add a lot of red herrings, they add extra steps you need to do, etc. But Valve does not do that, when they want to make a puzzle longer, harder, and overall better, they don't just add a bunch of fluff in the puzzle. They add actual fun things to do. Maybe by adding a new mechanic, adding some platforming, giving you a new location. And with the freedom of the portal gun, puzzles are always more complicated, in a fun way.

Story: 8.5/10

The original Portal game had some lore itself, but the second installment in this franchise in an expansion to the story. I'm not going to explain the whole story here, since it will take up the whole review. Early game, the story is less told by telling, and more by showing. It shows you parts of the location you are in for you to understand it, it shows you other characters choices to show you who they are. Later on in the game, you are introduced to way more mechanics, and I mean a lot. And you get a very unique and different area of the location you are in. Throughout the Portal franchise, commentary coming from other characters has been iconic. And sometimes it's used to give you more story. But at the last part of the game, there are almost no speakers for people to give you exposition, and no one to guide you except the countless YouTube tutorials. The last part of the game relies on spectacle, there are gigantic voids of metal surrounding the expansive puzzle area, and overall, the story is one of the best parts of the Portal series, and in Portal 2, it only improves it.

Humor: 8/10

The Portal games have been known for their satirical and dark humor ever since Portal 1. But with the much longer and bigger sequel, there's more of it. GLaDOS, for example, is the sarcastic antagonist of both games. And Wheatly, the British and pretty stupid core that mainly guides you throughout the game, played by Stephen Merchant, is one of the funniest character in the game. Even as early as the first ten minutes of the game, you are bombarded with Stephen Merchant shouting because he hates his job. He even tells you to press space bar to say apple, and when you press it, you jump, obviously.

Overall: 8/10
The game has been dumped on quite a bit, but when something positive is said about it, it's always true. The game has multiple systems that all work well, and when you progress in it, it feels really rewarding. Progress is a big part of the game, it has a gigantic research tree, a big map to take over, and there's always multiple ways to progress.

Story: 6/10
The game has four campaigns to play, one of them being the tutorial, which is one of the only things I do not like about this game. The tutorial is buggy and limited, and just a big mess, but i'll get to that later. The early campaigns that you play feel like you have to rush through all of the quests, and just leave a mess of unorganized and ugly systems behind you when you finish the campaign. The later campaigns are especially long, and do not feel like the earlier ones. The good thing about the campaigns is the length, each one becomes longer and longer, and overall you're going to be spending forty, or even more, hours on the campaigns. Each one becomes harder too, the fourth and last campaign even being listed as impossible.

Gameplay: 8/10
Tycoon games often manage to become idle games about halfway in, Cartel Tycoon does not. It feel involved, since if you even leave the game on for half an hour, you'll come back to burnt down buildings, full warehouses, no money and a load save button that is looking as clickable as ever. One of the systems that really immerses you is the loyalty/terror system, it is a sort of reputation and moral part of the game. You get loyalty from citizens that live in regions that you are in control of, you can build casinos in their cities for them, you can donate money to them, and make their life better overall. This will be met with rewards. The terror system is more punishable, if your terror keeps going up, by gang wars, failing to smuggle illegal goods etc. You will get attention from the police. At the start, local police arrest your buildings that are full of illegal goods, and eventually it goes up to the police blowing up your territory. If your loyalty goes down to zero, you get killed, if your terror goes to the max, you get killed. And another member that you hired in your cartel will become the capo. I expected the terror system to also have benefits too. For example, you are feared, not loved, and you are notorious. And you will need a lot of power to keep up with the attacks, but only bad things come from terror, which wasn't too much of a deal breaker though. The game has a lot of good gameplay mechanics, but I can't list them all here.

Community: 7/10
The developers of this game are always responsive to suggestions and reviews that they find, the community page on steam is overflowing with developer responses. But they don't respond to a lot of the big problems. The community of this game wanted Cartel Tycoon to feel like you're really making progress, you're building an empire and you're getting rich. They wanted to spend a day in the office of their gigantic mansion, then go out to the pool and swim in a pool of cocaine. But the developers wanted it to be more of a survival game, running from the police, managing your money, seeing what the market is used etc. The voice acting in the game is very good, though it is not present in most of the conversations outside of the campaign.

Overall: 8/10

Max Payne 3 is the third installment in the Max Payne franchise. This game has a reputation of being bad, but most of the people who say that are die-hard fans of the original games. I have not played the original games, but this game does not deserve the hate because it is different to the other games. The first two Max Payne games where made by Remedy Entertainment, but this time, Rockstar Games took the wheel and made Micheal De-Santa but he likes scotch.

Story: 8/10
The game is pretty long, but it never feels once like something happening does not matter. This game explores the character of Max more, by making him depressed. But now that his life is falling apart after the death of his wife that fueled the story of the first games, there's nothing else for him to do. Except now he's a bodyguard for a rich family. One by one, this family gets killed off by multiple Brazilian terrorists, and Max has to stop them. You always feel like you, yourself are Max. The non-stop action can get you exhausted, and every time you see crowds of enemies rush into the room and start shouting in a language you don't understand, you are excited, but also have a sense of 'here we go again.' Max mostly has the second one for most of the game but we don't care because the gameplay is fun.

Gameplay: 9/10

Max Payne as a franchise has become iconic for it's bullet time mechanic. If you somehow didn't know this already, you can slow down time and give yourself more time to shoot. You might think, that's cool but what's so special. Because Max Payne is the bullet time game, when you want bullet time you don't go to Superhot, you go to Max Payne. You can dive in the air as time slows down and you pump lead into men who have killed you sixteen times in this one area. And the game is known for being pretty hard to, this one was not as hard as the other ones, i've got to say.

haha i like when ship go zoooom

haha i like it when go boom

i didnt even play the game lol

america simulator

haha funny cat on skateboard