Recent reviews by SkykilleR21

Awesome overall.

Easy recommend for metroidvania players.
Note however that this feels incredibly derivative of Hollow Knight. You can see it heavily in the story even, also in regions.
Borrowing from HK is definitely not a bad thing, don't get me wrong, but it's done to an excessive extent in my opinion. I knew where some things were going often, which can be a problem.

For those new to metroidvanias, I am not sure how they will fare here.
It's not very difficult but it relies on your apetite for exploration, also it offers a variety of skills for different combat playstyles which can be good.

The game looks stunning, visually it is a treat.
It nails the atmosphere and setting. Music is very good, except it can become a bit repeitive. Regions have different music but the variety of those is limited.
Exploration and curiosity is not exactly well rewarded I felt. It was usually some resources, not something to intrigue or spark imagination.
The structure is a bit too straightforward for my liking, the game feels almost uninterrupted. There are no events that change anything, like change some part of the map or lock you in a certain place, give you an indication of something happening. This can be good or bad depending on what you prefer.
The combat offering is surprisingly big. Sure many skills are gimmicky or too specific but they offer interesting solutions to certain fights and have the visual flair to make them distinct and fun to use.
The map is a little disappointing, as there isn't a sense of place, it doesn't separate regions so you don't know where you are, which should be clear as it has implications for the narrative as well.

A straightforward metroidvania, not exactly remarkable for the genre but it's a great game outside of that.

It was an incredible experience. A very compelling stoyry. With an interesting direction, bit unusual for games, a more cinematic approach, which is neither good or bad by default. But here it was pretty good.

Now the overarching story, you've likely seen before, or something similar. Nevertheless I found it quite engaging and became really invested in it and most characters.
I much prefer Connor's and Kara's stories to Marcus', the whole massive awakening and revolution arc didn't really jive with me as opposed to the priors' much more individual and personal journeys.

There isn't much in terms of gameplay, it's just dialogue choices, button prompts, quick time events with button prompts and some walking around.
Even moving around feels a little difficult and unresponsive, but it's no big deal.
I feel they could have presented at least a number of choices in a more gameplay-y manner, where you feel like you are doing a certain action such as shooting, instead of just selecting the dialogue window or hitting a button.
One thing that disappointed me a bit in this area was that there isn't ever -as far as I could tell- a scenario where choosing not to do something, not hit a prompt, leads to something else, a moment, an extra dialogue, something along those lines.

Technical issues, there were a few. During certain points in the game when the GPU can't handle the load the graphics break, you have to restart the game. I found this to happen at 3 certain missions, on specific points. If anyone encounters such a thing, drop settings or resolution scale termporarily to get through it, then you can revert. I also found 1 prompt which was wrong and required a different button than what it showed.

Some general thoughts I have in no particular order (very light possible spoilers) :

The game starts really really strong, the hostage situation, looking for clues, it works really well here. Investigations in general I felt worked really well.
I found Connor to be a great character, I don't know if it's a result of my choices but he was the last to turn Deviant very late in the game for me. However he felt the most human of the 3 for me from the get go. Incredibly acted as well.
I also really bought into Kara quickly. I didn't find Marcus as compelling after he became a leader, I found him better at the beginning.
Even the manu hits hard in the game, I am a big fan of that.
I think the game leaves many aspects of Androis being alive unexplored, important stuff as well, but what's here is enough I think for most people, maybe more than enough even.
Music was great as well.

Strongly recommend it, it also has a certain amount of replayability.

It's a very special game. it demands a lot from the player but gives back so much too.
It's an incredibly impressive game, especially with knowing how it was made.
With that in mind, a lot can be and is forgiven, yet I still submit my criticisms a vacuum.

It's not an easy, conventional experience, the opposite.
It will startle new and casual players for sure.
Virtually nothing is streamlined like most modern games of this category and I love that, the fact that the game doesn't play itself, it requires your attention and your input.
It has survival and simulator elements, one might even call it a simulator game outright.
It doesn't let you savescum early on, kind of forces you to live with the consequences, prevents you from optimizing the fun out of the game as they say.
It's a slow and often arduous burn, you are meant to take it slow and take it all in.

Combat is really hard to grasp at first, an engaging and difficult system extremely rare in such games, which doesn't break with stats and leveling up.
While great on 1v1 combat situations, vs multiple opponents it's just broken, impossible, especially early on. It's clear that it was built for 1v1, anything else you have to cheese it in different ways.

It has an open world that is beautiful and believable, a lot of it is just nature.
It sells the setting really well even with a few issues. Issues such as, there is not much -tangible- exploration, the sites of interest rely on your imagination usually.
Now the world feels alive for various reasons, but it could have been even better. I wish it had that Skyrim feeling of interesting stuff being around almost every corner, not to that degree of course. Some personal NPC stuff like notes/letters, some unique items like an armor of legends, a hut in the forest, that kind of thing is lacking for me.

The story is compelling only at the start and at the latter half, albeit built around a simple premise, the rest of it is kinda forgettable.
The music plays a big part and is really nice, though rarely a tune doesn't fit the tone of the situation.
It has intresting characters but could use a few more, or said characters could use more time.
I also like how historical it is and it feels authentic to that period and place. It should elaborate a bit on the surrounding regions however, show them on a map at least to give an idea of what they are like.
Love that it's not a typical story of the chosen, all-important, all-powerful hero.

As for the RPG systems, a mixed bag.
It felt like leveling up almost all skills since you level by using said skill, rather than commit to any direction, which can be fine on its own, except there is not much to distinguish when you are a beginner and master at something.
Some skills are way less important than others and many perks are really niche. The stats for dialogue checks didn't really matter for me, they scaled comfortably and I might have failed not even a handful of times, I only tried to advance speech, but had high levels on all anyway.

I should also say that there is a substantial amount of jank and a few bugs. How animations and locking works in combat, the occasional odd camera angle in dialogues. Other rarer stuff too but nothing to ruin the experience, nothing not worth pushing through.

All things taken into account, it's not a game for everyone but it's a really great game in my opinion, with some jank.
It requires patience, willingness to roll with it, not rush things.
Don't treat it like the run of the mill open world checklist game, because it's not, only follow a quest if you actually want to. Don't fast travel or sprint exclusively.
Then I trust you will be rewarded in spades.

Not exactly what I expected but still nice.

I think you should treat this as an atmospheric experience more than anything else.
The detective part doesn't work very well sadly. I don't think there is enough to go on frankly, be that information, deduction, mechanics to support those.

If you are in for the mood and the dialogue you can have a good time.
Also you can seriously fall asleep to this, if you are playing late at night, almost happened to me.

Short, cute, fun.
Can be completed in a couple sessions.
Keyboard-mouse controls are not as responsive as I would like.

Great game. Remarkable in many ways. Disappointing in others.

A rare kind of story from my experience, really well written. It is however a small story in scope.
It offers a resolution for what it sets out at the start, but it lacks size, characters are few and sparsely seen.
Perhaps it felt like half a story, which continues in Ragnarok.
Big part of said story is spent between chasing mcguffins sadly.
While there is all this norse mythology which is been talked about the whole time and is great, you spend so much time for artificially important items rather than characters, there was so much potential there.
Atreus I felt went through changes too rapidly, way too much, it didn't feel natural or organic.
But Kratos in this, is a truly great character.

What is remarkable about the game is the use of the camera, how it moves primarly, it's not something you see in games often if at all. Also the way it seamlessly transitions from gameplay to cutscene, it almost feels like it's not a cutscene.

There is also a lack of load screens. In the same spirit of seamlessness. That however, while nice at the start comes at the cost of some sequences that become tedious as you go on. It effectively hides the loading while it lets you move in game, a novel concept but sometimes a break of a few seconds isn't detrimental at all in my opinion, especially if the alternative is moving within a confined space repeatedly.

Puzzles. Man, too many, way too many. They don't really hide the linearity of the game, they also become tedious, might as well embrace the linearity and tone them down significantly.

The soundtrack was good but I found it very forgettable. Maybe it blended too much with background noise or played very rarely. I expected more epic sounds, since the game overindulges in other aspects, this is one that I would be fine with.

Combat was way more fun than it looked, somewhat expressive, also challenging. Some enemies are badly designed though, or do not belong in the game. There is a lot of room for improvement here regarding animations, interruptions and other things.
The cracks start to show more during the Valkyries fights, which of course you could entirely skip as it's side content, but I recommend you don't.

Now I have to say, while it innovates in presentation and cinematography or whatever, it doesn't with gameplay.
The contrast is stark too, the whole seamlessness it achieves in presentation, is nowhere to be seen here.
Everything gameplay -outside of combat- feels too crudely defined. What I mean is, it feels overly gamified and everything you do feels pre-planned. There is no freedom in movement, there is 1 way forward and it's all specific ledges to climb, elevators to descend etc.
Exploration suffers the same way, no need to go into further detail I think.
It is disappointing in this way.

Then there is progression. The whole economy feels off in many ways. As for power levels and stats, they feel out of place, even though I like upgrading ♥♥♥♥, I don't think this is the way to go about it in a game like this.

I hope to see some of the existing potential realised in Ragnarok.
This is absolutely worth experiencing though, and for a better experience I'd suggest not bothering much with things outside the main story, other than the handful of side missions.

It's almost like when I played Slay the Spire for the first time, I'll leave it at that.

It's a great experience, especially the first half.
Lovecraft mythos and themes that make for great atmosphere, it reminds me a lot of Darkest Dungeon.

Really exceeded my expectations from the beginning.
It packs an interesting story, familiar to its themes. Gradually you start to realize more and more.

The gameplay loop grows tiresome after a point I must say. Maybe time could be used a little differently, I think it passes too fast overall. In a game like this there should be moments to slow down and soak it in as well. As you advance basically optimize against this system, you go faster, fish more efficiently, it devolves into a resource management of sorts for me.

Other things could also be done better in my opinion.
The story while good is spread thin across the playthrough, it's frontloaded. The characters offer very little, in terms of dialogue and quests, both are over really fast and it's a shame since they were interesting.
I didn't like the variety, in the sense that it felt too varied. It would be better to maintain the tone, visual and music a bit more. Some specific locations feel like they stand out too much, both in visual and practical terms.
The night stops posing a risk after a while too, and it depends on your location, some you are free to roam pretty much.

Essentially it drops off in the latter half, because its content is frontloaded and the new things after that aren't necessarrily very good.
But the start is gripping and addicting. I recommend loosely following the story. Don't bother too much with quests that don't seem like they are worth it, you'll know which ones.

I would love to see it evolve in a sequel for sure.

Approved.

Time Dr. Freeman?