Recent reviews by monkeytheboy

I can't get over how amazing this game is. Roaming through it, it seems like every blade of grass was deliberately placed where it is. NPCs are continuously surprising you. Almost every time that you think "Is it possible for me to do [insert activity that isn't possible in any game here], it is almost always possible. This is what a game is supposed to be like. I fail to comprehend how the existence of this game does not give any developer pause as to if they should release a game years before they are complete. This game stands as an example of what a game MUST look like in order to be believable. It is impossible to play games that feel devoid of life, environment, personality, etc, after playing ANY rockstar game.

10/10

I don't know what it is about Ubisoft games, but after about three acts in, things start to feel like work instead of feeling fun. I think my biggest gripe here is that I can't get into the game. I don't know if it's the acting or the animation of the characters or what, but I... JUST... CAN'T... GET... INTO... IT. Not to mention my biggest gripes is with Chicago, I know the city inside and out. Ubisoft very VERY OBVIOUSLY does not.

First of all, Chicago is NOT New York City. For some reason, the hispanic neighborhood they show has a bunch of Puerto Ricans and dominicans in it. Chicago is a segregated city even amongst white people. The Italians don't mix with the Polacs, and these don't mix with the Irish. The neighborhood they portrayed is a Mexican neighborhood. The tower they portrayed is a check in. It mentions that it's in a Mexican neighborhood, but it also mentions pupusas. PUPUSAS. When I lived there myself, I had no idea what pupusas were. I had never heard of one until I left Chicago. To me, this is an insulting oversight to both Salvadorians and Mexicans alike.

Second of all, the animations are ALL OVER THE PLACE. The game's first scene that introduces the main character and his Asian helper (see I can't even remember their names because they are so bland and generic) is very well animated. I was excited for the first five minutes because I thought this game was going to knock my socks off in the graphics department but almost immediately we start to see scenes where the characters are basically just faces with moving lips. What? And the game flip flops between good face animation and bad face animation. Some scenes are so realistic and well animated that I can almost feel what the characters feel. But, for example, in the scene where the main character visits a grave and feels sad, his face is just a generic face that is affixed to a moving neck that rotates around. Awful.

I don't feel rewarded by what I do. I walk around hacking people both good and bad. I withdraw money, I unlock new hacks (that the game story makes it seem like I should have had access to from the beginning), I drive to the new mission, I do it all over again. It's a cycle that keeps repeating over and over again. I thought I'd get some pleasure from walking around the city or walking around downtown. No. It's the same five conversations between people over and over and over again. The girl that wants the guy to hit her and he hits her. The lady that wants the husband to pick up his mom. The two men that are hitting on the girl as she walks off. The prostitute. And the lady that is happy that the gay guy is coming out to his family. Over and over and over and over and over again. There's NOTHING NEW. It's like I'm literally playing the same thing over and over again.

Not to mention that the soundtrack SUCKS. A lot of the songs were picked because they had something to do with chicago. Which means you're going to listen to a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ music. Each car is locked to a specific genre and you can't tell which car will give you which genre. The rap station is filled with music from random people's soundclouds apparently. The streets feel so small and tight. The car's camera can't be fixed. You can't shoot while you're driving but your chasers can shoot while driving. Gang hideouts and bases that you have to penetrate have the exact same bad guys saying the exact same things. People that shouldn't survive situations survive them and you don't get an explanation as to how.

It's awful. Just awful. I can't finish it. I don't know how he's going to save his sister and at this point, I'm too fed up to go through it. We'll see if I come back at some point but right now I can't. >:(

ALSO FIX THE BUGS. IT'S BEEN FIVE YEARS.

Amazing game. A must play for any serious gamer.