Recent reviews by never047

This is not so much about me reviewing Broken Sword 2, which is a timeless classic, as it is me expressing my total disappointment with the whole genre of point'n'click adventure games of today.

And it's really hard not to be disappointed with modern point and clickers, when a game that came out 25 years ago has a more expressive, vibrant and down right prettier graphics than the games of today (and yes, I'm also talking about the lazy 'pixel art' crap that we get served today under the guise of retro-gaming..). It's hard not to be disappointed when a 25 years old game has smoother animations than current titles. It's kinda hard not to be disappointed when writing, voice acting and music is leagues above most of the stuff we have today...

So yeah, I'll end my old man rant and summarize: Broken Sword 2 is awesome, it's one of the best adventure games ever made and you should still play it even today. The first game is even better.

Modern adventure games mostly suck tho.

Death Stranding is an odd game to talk about. I loved lots of things about it and I've enjoyed (most of) my time spent with it. I'm giving it a positive review (and I never write these lengthy reviews, so that should tell you something..), but at the same time I can't really wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

It's different, it's fresh and it's weird - if that's something you value highly then you should go for it. It can also be somewhat tedious and repetitive. You play a delivery guy in a post-apocalyptic world and delivering is what you'll do. It's a pretty cool concept, one that involves driving vehicles and walking - lot's of walking. However, to label this game a 'walking simulator' would be grossly taking it out of context. You navigate the treacherous terrain, balance the weight of your cargo, there's even the weather conditions to be taken into account. There's enough factors here to make your delivery routes fun and engaging. 
If making deliveries is not really your thing and you're mostly in it for the story - well, that's when the whole game can feel a bit stretched out. There's lots of going back and forth. For instance, there's times when you'll be making a long trek from point A to point B to point C and then back to A...only for the game to tell you to actually go back to C again. And only then you get to progress the story further. There's also enemies to deal with - personally, I found them to be more of a hindrance than anything else. Thankfully you can avoid them, for the most part. Yes, it takes perseverance to play this game, but I guess that's kinda the point..

The story itself, in my highly subjective opinion, is well worth experiencing. It's definitely 'out there' for most of the time, but it was also compelling enough to keep me going and pushing through some long stretches. The way this story is being conveyed to the player is where it gets a bit difficult. Expect (too) long cutscenes where characters dump a ton of confusing lingo on you, followed by long hologram messages where characters do more of the same and leave you with more questions than answers. There's also bits of lore and story elements buried within countless emails and data logs that you can read. Granted, the game answers most of its questions and clears things up in the last sections, but not everyone will have the patience to see it through.
Death Stranding also looks freaking awesome. It's a visual masterpiece and probably one of the best looking games that I've ever seen.

So there you have it, if you're into non conventional gameplay and you don't mind Hideo Kojimas particular brand of weirdness - then you should check it out. There's nothing quite like it. The rest should proceed with caution..