FEARSlayer01 の最近のレビュー

So I've reviewed Half-Life 1, it's two expansions: Blue Shift and Opposing Force as well as Half-Life 2, so I figure I'd complete my reviews so to speak and review the 2 episdoes as well as Lost Coast possibly to really give my thoughts on the series as a whole. So Episode One follows after the cliffhanger ending of Half-Life 2, which I won't spoil for those who wish to play Half-Life 2 and haven't yet. So once again you're Gordon Freeman and your main goal is to escape City 17 before the place goes Kaboom pretty much, you spend a majority of your journey with Alyx Vance in this game as the 2 of you try to escape the city along with other members of the resistance. So right away it's a slightly more intruiging premise. So imma go over the good and bad about this


Pros

1. Alyx Vance was already a pretty good character to begin with and thankfully she gets more time to shine here and her personality shines through, she really grows as a character more in this game as she spends much of the runtime in close proximity with you. Her ever so famous Zombine line is here too. Overall I really like this change as I always liked her and felt while she was prominent in HL2, she never really showed up as much as I would've liked and you the player don't get to spend as much time with her in HL2 as you do here. Great addition


2. Once again the Gravity Gun is front and center here, however it's more involved in this one as you start out with only the Gravity Gun for a long period of time and you only get a few weapons with limited ammo, having to rely on Objects in the area and Alyx in combat which is a nice touch imo, and it almost brings back the survival horror aspect from Half-Life 1 that was really missing in Half-Life 2, glad to see this here.


3. Generally the level design here is fine, there's only about 7 or so locations and none overstay their welcome, so you don't need to worry about being tired of the same area after a while, unless you are just sick of City 17 as a whole.



That's really about the only positives here tho, now let's get into the negatives about this expansion


Cons


1. It's way too short, I get that it's supposed to just be an expansion, although Valve seems to treat this as if it were it's own game, which I feel is a bit bad. The game can be beaten in about 4 hours, probably even 2 honestly if you really know what you're doing which is a shame. Gives me some bad callbacks to Blue Shift and how short it is, although at least Episode One has a bigger impact on the story


2. The Final Section sucks. The Final Section boils down to a glorified escort mission where you gotta clear out guards and escort resistance members across a battlefield to allow them to escape and after all that you gotta basically run through an onslaught where this boss hammers you until you get the weapon to finish him off at the end, talk about an underwhelming finish.


3. Once again the graphics fail to impress, I know it's like beating a dead horse by mentioning it, but really you would think that an expansion would possibly bring something new to the table here, after all this was a year after Lost Coast which had introduced HDR to the Source Engine, so to not really see it shine here is rather disappointing imo.


4. While I enjoy the lack of ammo for it bringing back the horror experience, it really can be a pain having to rely soley on Alyx to take out enemies for you as while her AI is certainly improved, it's still not the best, so you're essentially a sitting duck while you wait for her to shoot.


5. Once again the AUX meter causes problems, I briefly mentioned it in my HL2 review but I couldn't go into as much detail as I wished because of the review character limit, so now is my oppertunity to explain why this mechanic is bad. So essentially you have an AUX meter which refers to your biohazard suit's power meter, when you sprint, use your flashlight or swim it uses this power. The issue arrises when say you were sprinting a long distance to get around faster, and all of a sudden you need to swim, well the meter will have been drained from your sprinting so when you go in the water, you'll start to drown because you wanted to sprint, which is bad, so it basically forces you to then stay above water while the meter slowly, and I do mean slowly recharges itself so you can go swimming again. The problem also exists when sprinting and you come across a dark area, if your meter is too low and it runs out, your flashlight turns off which is a real issue when some areas are incredibly dark and you can't see without it. This also can occur when just using the flashlight in general as the meter runs out way too fast and thus you're stuck with having to deal with constantly turning your light on and off to preserve battery, and this can lead you to taking unfair hits by enemies you can't see because you just wanted to use your flashlight. This game design really does hurt Half-Life 2 and Episode One, but thankfully Episode 2 would remedy this issue.



So overall I think this expansion is an improvement over Half-Life 2 as a whole, but with that being said: it's not very good and honestly I can't really recommend it unless you're planning on playing every single entry in the series, it's certainly not a bad game and I think it's slightly above mediocre, but it's not very good. You should only get this if you want to play every entry or if you want it's materials for Garry's Mod, otherwise pass on this one

So after reviewing Half-Life Opposing Force, Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2 I figure I would review Blue Shift as well to finish out the pack. So our pals at Gearbox are back at it again with this expansion, after having made the rather excellent Half-Life Opposing Force. Now what you might not know is that Blue Shift was intended as a bonus chapter of sorts for the Dreamcast Version of Half-Life, however since that port was cancelled due to the Dreamcast being discontinued. Blue Shift instead became a standalone expansion released for the PC Version in 2001. So with that all said, you may be wondering how is Blue Shift? well..there isn't much to say. I'll just go over the only notable things about this, because really this expansion is very forgettable and can be finished in less than 2 hours if you know what you are doing. So here we go, I will state the things I find worth talking about here both good and bad and then give my final thoughts at the end.


1. You play as Barney Calhoun, a Black Mesa security officer in this expansion who happened to be on the job when stuff goes south. Due to Barney not having an HEV Suit you cannot use any HEV Suit chargers, instead you have to rely on finding Body Armor around the field to preserve your armor meter.

2. Your main goal is to just escape Black Mesa alongside a group of scientists and other officers..that's literally it. It doesn't leave much to the imagination.

3. The game is super short with only about 5 major areas to go through, you'll go through Black Mesa, Xen and a Power Plant alongside 2 others that honestly escape me atm and as mentioned above you can finish the game in less than 2 hours if you really know what you are doing.

4. Rather then have Barney fight something at the end, you just face a bunch of Army Grunts who you don't even need to kill, you can just walk past them and walk through the portal to escape Black Mesa, talk about underwhelming. Considering that Gordon and Sheppard both fight a final boss.

5. Barney has a serious lack of weapons compared to Sheppard and Gordon. All the new weapons introduced in Opposing Force are notably absent, the only weapons you get are from the base game of Half-Life but even then not all of them are here. Notably absent is the Tau Cannon, Gluon Gun, and Crossbow are all absent here, leaving Barney with the absolute smallest arsenal of the 3 protagonists. Very lame

6. Basically as a whole this game only serves to explain how certain Black Mesa employees manage to escape the facillity, however most people could probably just take a wild guess on how they did so, so really this expansion just serves as filler content which is a shame. I know it was intended as just a small bonus chapter for the Dreamcast version, but you'd think if they were making it a full expansion, they could..you know expand it?



So overall Half-Life Blue Shift is a pretty forgettable Expansion and entry in the Half-Life series that honestly is just there and doesn't have much to talk about. It's not a bad game or anything, but it just feels so bland and forgettable, consider that the most significant thing is Barney Calhoun who would later go on to be a major character in Half-Life 2, other than that this entry is very forgettable and honestly you can skip out on this one. Unless you absolutely want to play everything Half-Life then I would Only pick this up for dirt cheap, it goes on sale for about 1 dollar which is about how much you should pay for it. Otherwise pass on it.

Blue Shift would get about a 5.5/10

So here we are, where it all started for Valve, the original Half-Life, is it as amazing as everyone claims? Let’s find out.

Pros:

1. Good Graphics for a 1998 release, the visual style is very nice and charming to look at even today, character models also look good for the time as do weapons, and visual effects.

2. A very well built atmosphere with the survival horror aspect and each environment really adds to the atmosphere as a whole. You’ll explore many labs, production factories, and even go outside the complex, and with the well built atmosphere in each area, you really feel like you’re there.

3. The Story at first is intriguing as you are left wondering what is happening and want to know more and this only continues as it builds up towards the end.

4. This game does something rather revolutionary for the FPS genre with the way it tells its story as during "cutscenes" if you will, you have the ability to move freely in the world while everything happens, meaning that gameplay isn't broken up during story moments, while this was technically already seen before in GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64, Half-Life does it better as you're given more freedom in the environment then GoldenEye and Half-Life is fully voiced acted as opposed to being subtitles only as seen in GE. Really nice innovation that Half-Life brought to the table here.


5. The gameplay has a good balance between your typical action that you’d expect and solving puzzles to proceed. Puzzles are well varied and take some thinking to solve, it’s a nice break from the action.

6. The weapons in this game are really awesome, from the 9MM Glock to the SMG, to the Shotgun, Magnum and the Crossbow and explosives. You have a pretty healthy arsenal of weapons here and each weapon feels unique and like they serve their own purposes with strengths and weaknesses. The sounds they make feel great and they're fun to use. My favorites have to be the Shotgun, SMG and Magnum, those 3 seriously pack a punch. Not once in this game do you feel like your weapon selection is lacking.

7. The enemy types you encounter are vast and quite varied. You’ll fight Headcrabs, Zombies, Marines, Assassins, Bullsquids, Barnacles and more. Each enemy feels distinct in how they combat you and one must plan out different ways to deal with each one effectively, having multiple enemy types is always a good thing, especially when they’re done well like they are here.

8. The G-Man, I don't think anything else needs to be said about why this is a pro

9. Despite each character really only having 2 or 3 voice actors, the voices are charming if a bit cheesy at times.

10. The difficulties are very well balanced. The higher you go the more damage you take obviously and enemies take a bit more, and health pickups give you less health overall, but you never feel like it’s unfair. Half-Life on hard is a well designed challenge which is great as some shooters like to artificially increase difficulty.

11. While there isn’t much of it, the music in this game when it is present is quite good. It ranges from atmospheric ambience to heavy hard hitting rock that pumps you up for a big fight.

12. Very good opening as the game is more focused on survival horror as you make your way through the Black Mesa Laboratory while aliens and various other creepy creatures invade the place, armed with only a limited amount of supplies and a crowbar, you have to really preserve your ammo to survive. I love the first hour or 2 of this game and I wish the rest of the game retained that horror feel.


Cons:


1. A few of the chapters in the game suffer from feeling either rushed or just being too long. The biggest offender and probably best example of this goes to On A Rail, it speaks volumes that nobody really likes this chapter as it's incredibly tedious and drags on. The chapter mainly boils down to using a monorail, having to stop a few moments later to either remove an obstacle or take out enemies and then repeating the process around 4 times or so, it gets old quick.


3. Some enemies in the game can feel a bit too bullet spongey which at times can make the game feel a bit unfair. The biggest offender of this is probably the Ichthyosaur as they take so much damage to kill and since they’re only really found underwater, this means the only 2 weapons that are really viable against them are the 9MM and the Crossbow as those are the only 2 that enable you to shoot underwater. Most enemies, even some that take more abuse than others, often only take more because they tend to actively avoid your gunfire such as the Marines, focused fire on them is enough to deal with them. But the Ichthyosaur doesn’t do this,


4. On the topic of enemies, one issue with this game is the hitscan problem. For those unaware: hitscan is a feature in games that essentially means if enemies have a line of sight on you, they will hit you, meaning they aren’t projectile based. Now of course this is common place in many shooters, especially back in those days, but in Half-Life at times it feels like you’re getting sniped and because of the hitscan, enemies can feel tougher than they should and often you can be punished for someone you cannot see. Just minor things like that can be a tad frustrating,

4. Some sections in the game are a bit poorly designed to put it blunt, obviously this is more forgivable as it was Valve’s first game but it’s worth bringing up as a flaw. Some examples of this include sections where it is impossible to avoid taking damage although this is sorta mitigated by you getting health pickups but it doesn’t excuse it. Others can be enemies that can easily ambush you and you not being able to do anything about it without knowing beforehand that it’s going to occur, just things like that.

5. Xen, this whole chapter deserves it's own con because man it's just terrible and even Valve themselves admit to it's shortcomings. The novelty of being in the alien world wears off quite fast and the levels and tasks you have to do are just really boring and feel cobbled together. Top that off with a pretty annoying and tedious Final Boss and it's easy to see why even the most hardcore of fans stop playing when they reach Xen

6. The Decision to make Gordon Freeman be a silent protagonist while acceptable back in 1998, is honestly just plain bad by today's standards. Having him not talk is supposed to make you feel immersed into the levels and atmosphere but if anything I find it takes me out of the experience because you have all these characters talking to you like you're best buds are like you've been there for a while yet Gordon doesn't utter a single word in response, and due to cutscenes always being in first person, you don't even get to see him express emotion.




So with that said that’s mainly all I have to say about Half-Life. What do I think overall? I think the game is honestly a pretty great time, it has a lot of good things about it, although some things do miss the mark a fair bit, making the game a bit flawed in the grand scheme of things. I think while the game is great, I feel it is a bit overrated as I feel a section of it’s fans are blinded by all the positives and only sing the praises while ignoring the pretty obvious flaws on display. But hey it’s still a solid time and I’ll be honest: on my first playthrough I didn’t enjoy it much but on a 2nd playthrough you do get to appreciate it a lot more.


So I’d recommend this game if you are interested, it’s only 10 dollars normally and goes on sale often for far less than that so really what’s stopping you from trying it? The only thing I’ll say is don’t go in expecting this masterpiece and listen to the hype as you may be disappointed like I originally was, but if you go in expecting a fun classic shooter, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

If I had to give Half-Life 1 a rating, I would give it a solid 8/10.

So I reviewed Half-Life 1 and while I did quite enjoy it, finding it great, I feel it does have flaws and isn't a masterpiece like people say, but still it's well worth a look. So now we have the sequel that for some is considered to be even better and even has been called game of the decade. I however completely disagree with this sentiment. In this review I will explain why I feel this game isn't that good and why it's imo a big step down from the original game in almost every way. But before that, let's talk about things it does do well first.



Pros:

1. The Gravity Gun is a nice addition that adds some layers of depth to the combat, allowing you to grab anything in the environment and use them to your advantage whether it be an explosive Barrell or a saw blade. It also allows you to grab items that are otherwise out of reach.

2. The Characters are really good with Alyx Vance who is a really solid sidekick character who has lots of personality, Barney Calhoun makes his return from Blue Shift and he's also a fun companion with many memorable quotes such as "About that beer I owed ya", Mayor Breen takes the role of the villain in this game and he's very charismatic and entertaining to watch, Eli Vance is the father of Alyx Vance and is a pretty chill and laid back guy who just wants things to be good, and there's Dr. Kleiner who is your typical run of the mill scientist.

3. The Physics Puzzles were a nice new addition that did add on to some parts and many games in the future would use them somewhat.

4. The first chapter up till about Ravenholm is mostly solid with Water Hazard and the aformentioned Ravenholm being the 2 highlights of this game.

5. The G-Man is back and better than ever, that's all I need to say about that.


But uhh yeah that's all the positives I can think of..so without further ado, let's talk about the flaws.



Cons:


1. The Story is just bad, it has nothing to do with Half-Life 1 outside of forced mentions of the Black Mesa Incident and it just boils down to your average everyday Resistance vs Evil Empire storyline that's been done to death and seen many times both before and after this game, and this game certainly doesn't try to do the story in a unique or interesting way to stand out amongst the rest.

2. The Gunplay is so so but feels a little janky, however unlike Half-Life 1 the gun selection here is pretty poor with guns having weak sound effects to them and they're also worsened by the fact that the amount of ammo you can carry on you for each gun is severely limited. The Magnum for instance can only hold 12 additional bullets at a time, this is really a problem when you consider that there is tons of ammo lying around that you can't even use because the game decides you just aren't allowed to have more.

3. Enemies once again rely on hitscan instead of projectiles, however it's much worse here considering the sheer greater amount of enemies and open areas. I get Hitscan is sorta common but it isn't a problem when implemented well. Half-Life 2 just implements it really poorly so it's a con. There are medkits scattered around too but that doesn't excuse poor design in my eyes.

4. Speaking of Enemies: The Striders warrant their own con because these enemies are total BS, they're essentially giant spider like creatures with guns on them and the only way to take them down is to shoot them with 3 rockets. The problem is that they can shoot down your rockets and if they do, you're left eating their gunfire while you wait for the Rocket to hit the ground and explode just so you can fire another off, not to mention this forces you to scavange for ammo while fighting them which can easily lead you to being killed. The Combine Helicopters also do this and so they get lumped in with this issue.


5. The AUX Power meter here causes many problems. Basically put: if you sprint it uses up the meter, if you use your flashlight it uses power and if you swim it uses power. When the meter runs out you have to sit and be patient and wait till it slowly and I do mean slowly recharges so you can do one of the above actions again. This is a problem because if you use your flashlight while swimming it quickly drains your power and you'll drown rather quick. Same goes for if you decide to sprint and the meter goes, no flashlight for you. It's bad


6. The level design is pretty poor and generic. They boil down to a bunch of streets, stretches of land or a building, no locations really stand out or are fun to blast through, not to mention sometimes there is a lack of direction in a lot of these levels as well so really the level design is bad.

7. Speaking of levels: The chapters just go on for far too long, the biggest offender is Highway 17 which is the longest of the game and far overstays it's welcome. It basically boils down to Driving the car to an area, fighting some combine with Rebels and then driving off to repeat the process. Also add onto the fact that the Jeep handles like crap and the first person view makes it hard to back up when the Jeep gets stuck, which only leads to more frustration and more time spent on the chapter.

8. On the topic of Chapters: They seriously go downhill after Ravenholm, with awful chapters like the above mentioned Highway 17 but also return to City 17 which boils down to a bunch of hordes of Striders and combine and feels incredibly rushed and lazy.

9. This game lacks a serious atmosphere, the awesome survival horror aspect of the first game is tossed out in favor of a generic by the numbers FPS game that is incredibly repetitive. The World and story also fail to really add any atmosphere to the game. The only part of the game that even remotely has any kind of atmosphere is Ravenholm and it seemed like that would be a return to the Survival Horror style of Half-Life 1, sadly RavenHolm fails to deliver on this despite being an otherwise highlight of the game. The biggest problem is there really is no sense of danger and with Father Grigori treating the killing of Zombies and creatures in Ravenholm as an everyday job or hobby instead of taking it seriously or acting even remotely like he's in danger, the chapter just fails to build a great horror atmosphere that the first game honestly did well.

10. The graphics in this game are abysmal even for 2004 standards. When games like Burnout 3, Metal Gear Solid 3 came out the same year and look far better, you know it's a problem. Hell 007 Nightfire for GameCube, Xbox and PS2 looks far better than this game and that game came out 2 years prior in 2002!!. This isn't even bringing up Doom 3 which completely blows this game out of the water.

11. Once again Gordon Freeman doesn't speak and this is a problem considering there is a more consistent cast of characters in this game so it really makes them look like they're talking to a ghost and ruins a lot of tension the plot could've had. Oh and on the topic of Gordon and the other characters? Why does everyone treat him as some sort of legendary hero and why does he trust anyone and just instantly accepts being a part of the resistance? If I woke up from years of stasis, I'd question everyone and seriously ask what the hell is going on here, because the fact that Gordon doesn't bat an eye at anything going on is seriously just bad storywriting.



So yeah as a whole this game is very flawed. While again I feel it isn't a bad game, but I can't help but feel harsher on it when people constantly talk it up like it's the best game ever when it really isn't and imo has very obvious flaws that hinder the experience. The first game had it's issues for sure, but I feel the positives far outweighed them, Here though it feels like things actively bringing down the experience. I feel mostly the game screams missed potential with many cool ideas not being executed well. I'd say only get this for cheap and if you want to play them all.

I would give Half-Life 2 a 5.5/10

Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare is a game that perhaps quite rightfully gets a bad rep but I'm here to explain why perhaps it isn't all warranted.

The game was mainly hated because it came out at a time when most didn't want another futuristic COD game which is fair. However I think it has some merits.

Gameplay is basically the same as BO3 but with some minor tweaks and different weapons, Multiplayer is pretty standard but has some nice looking maps and all modes can be played with bots and in private matches with friends. It's unfortunately the same typical generic COD MP so all the same issues as other entries from COD 4 onwards apply here but with a few friends one could have some decent fun.

However the thing that sets infinite Warfare apart for me is the Zombies Mode. The Zombies Mode is great here as you get a nice giant map called Zombies In Spaceland to start and it's basically a trip back into the 1980's complete with 4 nerdy stereotypes from the 80's as playable characters, David Hasslehoff himself as the DJ and a secret playable character as well as awesome 80's tunes to listen to while you kick some ass and take names as well as many fun traps AND YOU CAN PLAY ARCADE GAMES while you are waiting to be revived. The DLC maps are mostly good too with Rave In The Redwoods and Shaolin Shuffle being the highlights.

There is also some quality of life improvements made such as being able to reload while sprinting, The ability to retrieve your weapons from Lost & Found if you die, the Wall Weapons are very viable and actually last you, you can deposit points into an ATM so other players can withdraw them, allowing you to share points. You also now can carry 5 perks instead of just 4 and you can return a perk you don't want anymore simply by going back to the perk machine. Speaking of perks the classic ones you know and love are back with new names: Juggernog, Speed Cola, Double Tap, Quick Revive, Mule Kick, Stamin-Up, Electric Cherry and PHD Flopper are all back along with 2 new ones in the form of Trail Blazers which lets you set a Back To The Future Delorean Fire Trail behind you when you slide that will ignite Zombies who touch it and Slappy Taffy which increases the strength of your Melee. These 2 new ones aren't anything special but it's nice to see new additions. The Fate & Fortune cards are also here and they are basically gobblegums from BO3 but imo are done way better, the only negative about them is that you are limited on Fortune cards which really is cheap and the only way to get more is through crates you unlock by earning keys from playing. There is thankfully no way to purchase any keys outside, but still having this system is pretty bad in general. But really I can't express enough how good the Zombies mode is in this game, it's super addicting and honestly is better than TreyArch's Zombies in some ways and you absolutely should play it if you haven't yet.


So as for campaign I can't say much due to not playing it but it seems like it had effort put into it unlike the last 3 campaigns found in Ghosts, Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III, although by what I saw all the same issues with COD campaigns remain so that's a shame.


So by in large this game is still hurt by being a COD game so really overall it's a rather mediocre game at best and at worst is awful and lacking depth like most COD games. it's definitely not the disaster that everyone says but once again calling it good would be a stretch much like any COD past Call Of Duty 2. Although I do think Infinite Warfare deserves some positivity because of the really good Zombies mode, there's a lot to enjoy there especially with a group of friends it's just a shame you have to pay for the other 4 maps and 2 of those maps Attack Of The Radioactive thing and Beast From Beyond aren't that great.


So while it definitely has a lot of enjoyment it will get old after some time much like every other COD zombies mode because after a while you've seen everything there is to see in a map and unfortunately unlike Black Ops III there is no workshop for custom maps so what you see is what you get. So the already limited fun doesn't last for too long, I'd say you'd get about 40 to 50 hours of fun before it's all gone and that's if you have the DLC. So..I wouldn't recommend picking this game up unless you find it for real cheap and are a big Zombies fan, otherwise don't bother especially not for 60 dollars.


So with that in mind: I think Infinite Warfare does net a positive review, but it's only going to get a 6/10 as it's just okay if we talk zombies only, the rest of the game you can ignore.

So after the Abortion and stain on life that is FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction that almost killed the FlatOut franchise in 1 go, I was surprised to learn that there was a 4th entry. I didn't get to play this game on release but I did finally try it out a few weeks ago and ngl it's not too bad.

The heart and soul of FlatOut is still here, you have the typical junky cars racing on unconventional tracks as well as the derby and stunt modes which the series has become quite famous for. For the most part these are done fairly well and feel like an extension of what FlatOut 2 brought to the table and that's not a bad thing. The Driving also feels pretty good here, it feels like an odd mix of FlatOut 2's more typical racing game driving and the junk car feeling of FlatOut 1, while it doesn't feel as solid as either of those, it still feels pretty good nontheless and is a breath of fresh air after the disaster driving that was in FlatOut 3.

The graphics also look nice in this game, especially the car models and some of the lighting on the tracks, it's a decent looking game for a 2017 release although there were better games at the time.


So overall this does seem positive and I would recommend it as it still feels like a FlatOut game but I would recommend it only if it's on sale for cheap. While it's a decent game with fun to be had, there isn't a whole lot here to justify the standard 30 dollar price tag and if I will be honest, the game isn't as polished as FlatOut 1 or FlatOut 2 are as I ran into some performance issues at times when my hardware is more than capable of running the game at max settings and full speed, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. If the FlatOut series continues in this direction and makes improvementss where needed, I think the series will be in good hands. If you are a fan of FlatOut 1 & 2, you should pick up this game for cheap, you probably will get some enjoyment out of it.


FlatOut 4 is about a decent 7/10

Play this game instead of the absolute abortion that is the 2020 remake. This game is very well made and is fun to play and full of style. The Comic Book style visuals are really nice to look at 17 years later, the gunplay is satisfying and the story is captivating. This game also goes for cheap so I suggest you pick this up if you were waiting out for the remake.

Left 4 Dead is an absolutely outstanding and fun game even to this day, especially with tons of friends. The basic premise is that you are a team of 4 survivors left in a world where most people are zombies and you have to go through each campaign from start to finish without dying all the while being hunted by the zombie horde and special infected.

The game plays like your typical Source engine shooter so if you've played one then the learning curve here won't be that difficult, but this game feels so satisfying as each gun really has a distinct feeling of impact and control to it that other games don't. Each of the 6 guns all are good in their own ways and can be deadly in the hands of a great player. You have The Pump Shotgun, The Uzi SMG, The M16 Assault Rifle, The Hunting Rifle as well as The Auto Shotgun and your Pistol Side Arm.

The game looks really good for 2008 as it has some really nice lighting effects and models for the time. It also is very well optimized and will run on pretty much anything, even a potato could run this well.

I also think the campaigns themselves are all very good and each feel distinct and different enough and are fun to play through over and over again, especially in Versus mode.

Speaking of I feel I should mention the modes available in the game. You have your standard Campaign mode where up to 4 players play through a campaign and try to survive till the end, There is Versus mode where 8 players face off in a 4 vs 4 battle in a campaign where 4 players play as the Special Infected and the Tank and the other 4 play as the survivors and the 2 teams trade roles back and forth to see who gets the furthest in the campaign and the team with the highest score at the end wins. The other mode is Survival which involves up to 4 players playing as the Survivors in a small map and trying to last for as long as they can before they are overwhelmed, it may seem simple but it gets chaotic really fast.

I feel I should mention the Special Infected as well, There exist 5 types of special infected in Left 4 Dead, they are as such

The Boomer: A big fat Zombie that is slow and very weak but if he vomits on you or blows up on you then he will cover you in Bile which will attract hordes to you as well as cover your screen.

The Smoker: This guy will grab you from a distance with his Tongue and drag you to him where he will start hammering away at you or he'll hang you from a high place, the only way to escape is to either shoot him before he drags you or a teammate will have to help.

The Hunter: This guy can move pretty fast and is small, but he can leap onto a survivor and pin them down and constantly slash away at you, the only way to get him off is for another player to smack him off or shoot him.

The Tank: The Tank is like a boss basically and only shows up once or twice per chapter depending on the campaign, he takes a big beating and he deals out a lot of damage by punching you or throwing rocks at the player. He also can smack cars and other objects into a survivor for an instant knockdown, so watch out.

The Witch: The Witch is a stationary infected that sits and cries and if she is awakened or startled by a survivor such as shining a flashlight on her or getting to close, she'll get up and charge at that survivor and instantly knock them down if she lands a hit and will continue to slash away. It's best to stay away from her


I also really love the horror atmosphere of this game as it really nails it's tone so well and the characters are fantastic and all have unique personalities, backstories and bounce off each other well and are entertaining.

Overall this game is really a classic and you absolutely should play it, I also would highly recommend playing it over Left 4 Dead 2 as this game is a much better experience.

I would give this game a solid 9/10

So a while ago I made a review of this game where I basically called it complete garbage and that you shouldn't buy it and should buy Left 4 Dead 1 instead. Well after the disappointment of Back 4 Blood's Alpha, I decided to play this game again and honestly I've been enjoying it a lot, and tbh it made me realize how much my old review was biased and made out of complete rage, so I figured why not review this game again in my current style and list the pros and cons?


Pros:

1. Some great new Campaigns are introduced here with the rather excellent Dead Center, The Last Stand and Dark Carnival and the alright Swamp Fever and The Parish, these 4 are pretty fun and entertaining to play.

2. New Weapons have been added and some are really nice. There's now 2 types of every weapon, or 4 types in the case of the shotgun and while I think There's perhaps too many weapons, but I think by and large there's far more good weapons than bad. Some welcomed new additions are the Scar, The M60, The Grenade Launcher, The Desert Eagle and the Melee weapons

3. New Items such as Explosive and Flame ammo have been added alongside the Adrenaline, Laser Sights and Defibrillator which add some depth to the gameplay. You now can revive teammates who have been killed ot use the Adrenaline to do actions such as healing or reviving much faster, which does come in handy in tough spots.


4. Mutations are new here and they're Essentially fun little challenges or extra modes you can play to get different experiences from the game. Want to have a mod where you only use an M60 with infinite ammo? go for it. Want to have to carry a Gnome to the end of each course? do it. there's tons of fun to be had with Mutations overall, and it's a nice addition.


5. Versus Survival has been added to the mix and as the title implies: it's essentially Survival mode but in a Versus style where you're trying to last longer as the Survivors than the other team, it's quite hectic and fun I will say.

6. The new Survivors are all nice fun characters, and they all have great chemistry like the L4D1 crew did, you have Ellis the young mechanic who has many funny stories about his friend Keith, Nick the gambler who's got an attitude and isn't afraid to tell things how it is, and Coach the funny fat man who always has wisecracks and is entertaining. Rochelle however isn't nearly as good, which I'll get into later.


7. The mod support for this game is outstanding as there's tons of great stuff on the workshop and elsewhere to spend hours on.

8. Versus mode is back and it's as fun as ever, you basically take turns playing agaisnt another team where both teams play as Infected and Survivors with the goal to get the most points as possible. As infected you want to stop the Survivors from reaching the exit while as Survivors you want to reach the end without suffering much damage. Points are earned based on how far the Survivors got in the chapter, if any Survivors died and how much damage they took, while Infected are scored based on overall damage dealt to the Survivors. It's a really fun mode that's even better with friends and when you learn how to play as the infected


So I think that mostly covers the positives, however I feel there's still many negatives to be had in this game.

Cons:


1. Let's get the elephant out of the room first because I know everyone is waiting for me to mention it. This game is essentially a fully priced expansion pack to Left 4 Dead 1 instead of a real sequel. While the game is fun, there's really nothing that L4D2 added that couldn't have been added to the first game through an Expansion Pack, this of course really upset people back then and rightfully so. It's a pretty crap move tbh, and even now it feels like this game should've had more to give.


2. Adding onto that, they decided to put every Campaign of Left 4 Dead 1 into this game which is something I disagree with because it makes people not bother playing the original game which is a crime I feel because the Original is really good and worth playing.


3. The Weapons in this game feel..off, like the gunplay doesn't feel nearly as good as Left 4 Dead 1's did, it at times feels like you aren't hitting anything at all. Idk how to describe it, but if you compare the 2 games you'll definitely notice.

4. While the Campaigns I mentioned above are good, there's unfortunately other ones in the package that aren't. Hard Rain is pretty bad as you can't see, it's full of Witches and you spend the last 3 chapters just backtracking through the same levels you've played already. Cold Stream is a non-canon campaign and for good reason z it's got horrid and boring design and at times can be insanely brutal for no reason at all, it really needs a chill button. Then we have The Passing which..is hands down the worst Campaign in the game, First of all it's blatantly fanservice as it includes the Left 4 Dead 1 crew meeting the Left 4 Dead 2 crew, however notably absent is Bill who was killed in The Sacrfice by a Tank after sacrificing himself so that Zoey, Francis and Louis could escape by raising the bridge. Now The Sacrifice was perfectly done and Bill's Sacrifice was sad and hits you hard, but what makes me mad is how this Campaign completely undermines and makes Bill's hard work pointless as after all the work spent raising the bridge, it just gets lowered again so the L4D2 crew can pass by which really is bad. The other thing about it that's bad is that they only killed Bill off because his voice actor: Jim French was unavailable at the time, mind you when this campaign got announced we were told Bill was to be a part of it, but since Valve couldn't obviously get lines from Jim French where he interacts with the L4D2 crew, instead of doing the respectful thing and not doing the Campaign, they did it anyway and killed Bill off. I may think that The Sacrifice and the way Bill went out is perfectly done, but The Passing totally ruins the entire thing and I wish it didn't exist.

5. Rochelle is also a bad character, while she's a fine person and is caring for her squad, she has no personality and is frankly just annoying af, she's a big step down from Zoey.


6. The new special infected are quite cheap imo. The Jockey himself isn't too bad, but the Charger and Spitter are total BS. Especially since the Spitter's hitbox is often broken and the Charger can charge you into a hole for an instant death, which is rather cheap. oh and the game throws more hordes out in general which can lead to you being drained in seconds.


7. Sadly the amazing horror atmosphere and music of Left 4 Dead 1 is tossed out in favor of a more goofy style where campaigns are set in daytime and the music is now a bunch of banjos mostly, pretty disappointing.



8. One big issue that can occur commonly with this game is crashes, they can happen a ton for no reason. Granted they've certainly gotten much less frequent since The Last Stand update but they can still happen and it's frustrating when it always happens.


So overall Left 4 Dead 2 is mostly a fun time, especially with friends and mods but honestly I think the First game is a much more polished game. Valve should've given this game another year so it could really do something to make it more of a proper sequel and to prevent some issues. In my opinion if you can tolerate the above flaws, you have yourself a fun game to play with friends or just to screw around in with mods. However if you do decide to pick this up, I also heavily encourage you to also pick up and play Left 4 Dead 1 as it's a fantastic game and is sadly overlooked because 2 has all it's campaigns, but imo 1 does play better and is more polished overall. But this one is still fun just for mods if anything.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a rather solid 8.5/10

So I already reviewed the first 2 Max Payne games and said that they are games that are excellent almost 2 decades after their releases, so you may be wondering how does Max Payne 3 hold up almost a decade after it's release? Well the answer is PRETTY FREAKING WELL

Max Payne 3 was different as it is set 9 years after the events of Max Payne 2 and it wasn't developed by Remedy or written by Sam Lake. Instead Rockstar took development responsibility as well as Writing with Dan Houser being one of the writers for this game. In this game after Max leaves the world of being an NYPD officer, he get a job as a security bodyguard for a rich family in Sao Paulo alongside an old friend of sorts and things soon go out of control as you would expect.

That's enough about the plot, but you may be wondering? how does it play? well pretty damn well. Max Payne 3 feels familiar yet different, if you've played GTA V then you have experienced Max Payne 3's gameplay to a degree as GTA V's gameplay from the shooting down to the cover mechanics were inspired and based on Max Payne 3, however Max Payne 3 feels much more polished and well put together. The Game still has the traditional gameplay you would expect with features like bullet time, shoot dodge, variety of weapons, interactable environment objects like explosives, and Painkillers all make a return here. As well there is now a cover system which allows Max to take cover and shoot behind it, the Shooting has gotten an overhaul with guns now feeling much more meaty than before and the kills feel as satisfying as ever as do the guns which all have great sounds and feel great to use.

The Atmosphere is also pretty good, it may not be the Film Noire style of the first 2 games but I think a change was needed and frankly 3 did a very good job of switching it up while keeping a Max Payne feel to a degree.

Another plus point is the graphics, as this game looks quite gorgeous on Max settins (no pun intended) and I honestly had a hard time believing that a 2012 game could look so good and in place with games released today. It honestly is breathtaking and adds to the already fun environments

The Music is also quite good with American Noise band Health taking the stage as the composers and they did a very good job as this may be the best Max Payne soundtrack to date. Many memorable action tracks, a great original song for the credits in the form of Tears and a really beautiful Piano rendition of the Max Payne theme song all really add to the great soundtrack that this game has.


Now you may be wondering? well what about the characters? and I am happy to say that Max Payne 3 mostly delivers. The characters while not as great as the first 2 games, are all still memorable and relatable to a degree and James McCafrey once again returns as the Voice of Max Payne and he delivers yet another stellar performance, and in a very good choice of the team, he also serves as the likeness for Max in this game which is so fitting for what is essentially Max's final ride.

In terms of gamemodes, you have a very good campaign full of many memorable locations, collectibles to find and fun gameplay and it all comes out to about 10 hours or more depending on how used to the game you are. The New York Minute mode also returns and it's like a mixture of Max Payne 1 and 2's version. You select an individual level like 2 but you now have the 1 minute timer that ticks down and is refilled by killing enemies from the first game. There is also New York Minute Hardcore and a Score attack mode. Score attack has you going through a level with selectable modifiers and you aim to reach a high score. New York Minute Hardcore however has you going through the whole game in New York Minute mode, but the catch is that if you die just once, you start the whole game all over again. You can also select various Max's to use which is a neat touch.

In Addition to these modes, there is also now a Multiplayer mode. The Multiplayer mode features various deathmatch modes and even a co-op mode (assuming you have the DLC for it) and many classic characters also return via a DLC pack such as Vladimir Lem, Mona Sax and others. The Multiplayer is honestly very fun as you fight to a score limit or see who gets the most kills in a time limit and it gets really tense especially if you play with painkillers so that you have a limited supply per life. The Multiplayer sadly is full of dead lobbies but if you can get friends to play with, you will have a blast.


So with a great campaign, story, graphics, gameplay, multiplayer and music. Max Payne 3 is a really damn good game and is worthy of the Max Payne name and it's a really good send off for the character. If you haven't yet played it, I would highly recommend you do so. It's an excellent game that really doesn't get the credit it truly deserves.


Max Payne 3 gets a rather high 9.5/10