r/gamereviews

I started my own YouTube channel been learning how to shoot, edit, write and light. Having fun and learning something new with every video. Check out my channel and leave a comment, like and subscribe. Would help me out a lot :)

Hello everyone. I want to start off by saying that I understand that I am quite late to the party of Metro Exodus, and this is my first time making such a post simply due to how baffled I have been left by this game. This is quite a long and messy review but I feel like I have a lot to say about this game and I want to share my thoughts since I have heard so many opinions about it.

CONTEXT:

I have always been into the post-apocalyptic genre, having played games such as EFT and the whole Stalker Franchise. My journey with the Metro series started a few months ago when I decided to give the franchise a chance. I started with the first game and absolutely loved it. Everything from the atmosphere to the gameplay although quite dated instantly captivated me. I have then also played the second game, Last Light. However, due to a series of events I had taken a break from gaming and couldn't play Exodus. Fast forward a while and I decided to finally sit down and give Exodus a try...and I was left disappointed.

Before I dive into my honest review, I have played Exodus until and including some of the desert part after meeting a certain character in a lighthouse and descending into the communications bunker. Additionally, this is not a rage/vent/beatdown of the game. The game is great..but for me it's just not what I was expecting at all. I will only be focusing on the gameplay and not the story. I have heard some mixed feelings about the writing and plot but I don't feel like I have the right to judge the game's story fairly without having finished it.

The good: I came into this experience with the idea that I will be able to experience the conclusion to Artyom's story in a much fresher environment gameplay wise (new graphics, new mechanics, newer approach) compared to the older games in the series. And..I got what I expected...at first.

The game really shines in terms of its design, the sound, the world building. FInding notes and learning about events going on around you was something that really immersed me in this game. A great example is in the Volga level where I had stumbled upon a destroyed house and once in I saw bodies, it seemed like a makeshift care house for the ill. My ideas then having been confirmed by a notebook I found of the man taking care of some radiation patients inside his house and then succumbing to the illness himself. All that followed by hallucinations of the ghosts of the dead, their screams and cries. Finding stuff like this while exploring really helped sell the new idea of an open world metro game where you gradually discover the outside world and the "aftermath" of the war.

The design of the levels was great. While I am not a great fan of stealth I found myself actually prioritising it over killing everyone, trying to follow the ideals of the Spartans that Artyom belongs to, of them being bringers of justice and security and not mindless savages like everyone else in the wasteland and metro.

The levels up until where I have played (the desert) were quite varied and pleasant to explore. No area really felt tedious to complete and the encounters were all unique: The cultists, the mutants lurking around at night, the mutant shrimp, the cannibals, the mad-max looking oil miners in the desert. But then this is where the good things ended, especially when I've reached the desert.

The bad

After reaching the desert I had instantly realised that the whole game was just going to be: Go here with train, train is old so it breaks/we run out of fuel, we have to stop, random event happens, we get a twist or two with the characters we encounter, repeat.

This is not bad design in my opinion, but it just left me really disappointed due to the expectations I had. After clearing the underground communications bunker with the spiders in the desert I realised that I just can't force myself to slug through the entire game knowing that it's just go to X, do 2-3 missions, do the same again but the map has a different colour now. The events on each map felt very forced. One example is here in the desert where I am initially sent to investigate the nearby surroundings and find out more about the area and the locals, then halfway through the Colonel is already besties with the woman in the lighthouse and I have to go kill a bunch of raiders to help her get me in the bunker. Sure, it adds to the world building but the whole process feels very loosly thought out. Why set this vague objective and not let the player piece everything together if you're gonna make an open world level? The first games were linear and simple yes, but it also allowed them to be unpredictable and give you something fresh to think about, or a new section of the metro to get tangled in in order to achieve your overall objective while piecing it all together: the factions, life in the metro, the mutants, the dark ones and their connection to the events unfolding. Here with these open world "episodes", they feel much more like one-off stories rather than part of the same game, with the only connecting element being the train. Take Yamantau where it s really just a shootout gallery that s maybe 40 minutes long trying its absolute best to give us a reason to progress into the next open world desert section. It makes sense from a writing perspective I guess but the way it plays made me feel like I was playing a linear COD Zombies level full W forward sprint. What it did not make me feel like, and what it should have made me feel like was fighting for my life against creepy cannibals trying to save my wife in a dark unwelcoming place reminiscent of the claustrophobic and dark D2 bunker (even one of the squad memebers acknowledges that this looks just like D2). So on paper they had the same map almost but made it feel less intimidating, less tense and more like a whack-a-mole pop the cannibal when he gets out of cover. Mind you I was playing on the highest difficulty.

The previous games were scary, tense and really put you on edge. Even on the highest difficulty in Exodus I was never out of supplies, enemies were easy to deal with and the Watchmen which absolutely terrified me in the first 2 games when encountering them had become nothing more than an annoyance when traversing the map. The closest that Exodus got to feeling like this was in the underground comms bunker with the spiders, fighting for my life in the vents, in the dark, fending off the bulletproof spiders with my flashlight only to then go back out again to popping raiders and running around from one outpost to another.

I ended up uninstalling the game because I did not feel like I could enjoy another 25 hours of the same formula of playing different loosely tied mini-episodes of this Stalker wannabe game. And I am a fan of open-world games, don't get me wrong. It's just that for me personally, I feel like they have ruined what the name Metro meant with this new take that they did on the game.

I want to end the review by saying that I give credit to the team that created this game. It takes a lot of courage to completely switch up the well established formula that the 2 games had and go for something new. However, for me personally, it just didn't cut it and left me disappointed enough to want to voice my opinion regarding what people say is a masterpiece. This is a beautiful and well made game in terms of what it means to be an FPS and I wish I could finish it one day.

If you read this far I want to thank you for hearing me out. In the end so many people loved this game and I completely understand why, which made this review even more interesting for me to write even if I feel like I have missed a lot of good talking points.

An in depth review of Zero Parades: For Dead Spies from ZA/UM's, their first game since Disco Elysium. Minimal spoilers. I'm purposely vague on any story or missions

Coming out of absolutely nowhere, this small indie game is completely dominating the market and is the topic of every conversation, and for good reason. It’s incredibly unique and leaks passion in every frame. For starters, it’s adopting the all too successful art style of the spider verse movies, with low frame rates that complement the visuals wonderfully. I’m happy to see it being used more and more, with the likes of Puss in Boots the last wish being one of the most recent examples of it, and to much success, I might add. In my personal opinion I feel that art direction over graphics is the name of the game, and will help your creation stand the test of time and age much more gracefully in this ever changing medium. The use of this art style is paired well with the vibrant colors and almost claymation-like character models.
The story isn’t trying to do anything ground breaking, it comes and goes as quickly as a feature length film and just asks you to go along for the ride, and take a trip down memory lane with our three main characters. Cass is your average rebellious teen archeotype, she’s the daughter of a very strict police chief who has high expectations for her, which only adds fuels to the fire of her rebellious nature, of course.
Stacey is the passionate music lover, with big dreams of moving to New York to pursue her passions. She’s very laid back and chill, but takes music very seriously and has an obsession with pairing each moment with just the right song, declaring that it’s her life’s purpose. And throughout the game, she’ll narrate the soundtrack with each and every song that encapsulates the moment. And might I say, she’s damn good at it. At the best of times, at the worst of times, fast paced, slow paced, happy, sad, angry, melancholic, each song fits perfectly and she’s certainly got a gift for it. I love that when she’s declaring a song, she’ll add little facts and lore behind the track, the attention to detail is great and these moments have such a unique vibe to them.
Slater is the final lead, and he’s the skater stoner archetype, but he does not come across as dumb or unintelligent. Most of my favorite dialogue in the game comes out of his mouth. He’s very philosophical and introspective, but delivers it in a loose way that doesn’t sound pretentious or preachy. I would say he’s the glue of the group.

This game is being overwhelmingly praised but I’ve seen a lot of the negative backlash this game has been getting as well, and it’s mostly from two key complaints. And they are that the story doesn’t have a good message and there’s not enough gameplay.
As for the message, I would argue that this game doesn’t really need to have a deep introspective meaning, and that’s not what it’s setting out to achieve. This is a very quick and brief experience. It’s absolutely impactful, but in the way that it’s a trip down memory lane and asks you to get drunk on nostalgia for a couple hours, that’s what it set out to do and that’s what it achieved. It’s not trying to create the narrative complexity of the last of us. They say this because at the end, Cass’ dad accepts her threats and essentially allows her to get away with crime and condoned her rebellion. Should he have stopped her? Probably. Is the choice he made problematic? Probably. But I don’t think the game has a bad story for it. It’s a man who’s recognizing that he’s been too hard on his daughter, and chooses to let her live for a single night and not rob her of her future. It’s not objectively the correct option, but I don’t see an issue with it. We’re rooting for our leads to run from the cops while being dumb teen delinquents for the whole game anyways, that’s simply just the atmosphere and that ending feels right at home. Would you feel more fulfilled if the game flashes forward to Cass being in a jail cell after getting charged with arson? Or Stacey not getting to go to New York because she got charged as well? The game isn’t telling you that what they did was okay, the game just asks you to go along for the ride and enjoy the story. There’s no philosophical message to pull out of it from the characters actions in the story. The philosophical message comes from the appreciation of making memories and the melancholic nostalgia that comes from the end of an era, and the complicated feelings that arise when we know we’re doing something for the last time. The fear of the unknown, the uncertainty about the future, and mourning the loss of their current lifestyle as they know it’s coming to an end, and they’re striving to go out with a bang. That’s the message. The game isn’t trying to say that they’re all politically correct, or that you should view them as role models and strive to be just like them, or repeat their actions.
The other complaint being the lack of gameplay, I think it would be valid if it were any other game except this one. When the storytelling plays this critical of a role in the game, I feel like it’s not necessary to pad out sections with walking and button mashing when it’s not required. The game doesn’t have extremely long stretches of cutscenes or anything like that, and the interactivity is just spread out enough that I don’t see it as a problem or a flaw. This game is meant to be enjoyed as an interactive movie. And as someone who’s favorite games include Elden Ring, and Telltale, I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to interactivity in games and it’s involvement or lack thereof has never been enough for me to develop a worse opinion on it as a result. It can be factored in to your enjoyment of it, but it’s a very petty and minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. And going back to what I said earlier, this game is succeeding at what it set out to do, and it did not set out to be a highly interactive gameplay experience. It’s a much slower paced visually interactive experience. It did not set out to be the last of us, and it did not set out to be Elden ring. And if you prefer games that align with that sort of criteria, that’s perfectly fine, I just think mixtape is not the game for you. But you cannot say that it’s a bad game because it isn’t your preferred genre. That would be like saying that Stanley Parable is a bad game because there’s no enemies to fight. It’s just simply not applicable or relevant.

I think for what it is, mixtape is phenomenal and well worth the praise. However, my
only complaint would probably be the pricing. With just a two hour runtime with absolutely no replay value, twenty dollars does seem a bit too steep. Personally I would have priced it at the cost of a movie ticket, since that’s essentially what you’re getting. I think $14.99 or $12.99 would have been much more reasonable. But it’s a small indie studio who most likely needs all the support they can get, so it’s frankly a very tiny nitpick to complain about that.

Pre nekih sat vremena je pao embargo za novu ZA/UM igru, ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies. Ko ne zna, ovo je nešto kao duhovni naslednik Disco Esylum naslova, ali jeste ipak malo drugačije, možda malo više :). Ko želi neka overi našu recenziju, a od prošle nedelje, naše recenzije su i na OpenCritic sajtu!

Hey Legends, made this video in the first week of the new season with all the struggles of playing and facing AXLE, hope you can relate!

Guys I don’t generally drop games before I platinum them especially if they are open world games. Crimson Desert started as a great experience and felt like it was going to be my new Favourite game but it’s just getting depressing at this point. Empty feeling of exploration everywhere I go, in fact horizon zero dawn you could read peoples journals or shards if they called it iirc which made exploration feel kinda rewarding since it meant you could learn something about a character. Here all npcs and more or less place holders, few randoms that actually have white dot on the minimap mean they can actually share some extra dialogue other than the customary greeting and I interacted with a lot of them and they were reused information tid bits at best no new information or lore. The game is amazing at a few departments which carry the game to being mid at best. Like the start where you are almost dead and revive in the heavens felt like a great launching point for a character like kliff that wanted to build back the camp and gather the team. Everything is good until it’s not and it clicks you slowly and gradually that the game doesn’t get better anymore.

The graphics are really good as well and combat clicks eventually but by the time it clicks you are just too strong for most bosses so boss fights don’t feel rewarding slashing through enemy hoards becomes monotonous after a point.

Some puzzles felt really well designed on the other hand many were really tiresome to do with the solution being easy but the janky controls but it feels rewarding for the amount of work that was put in.

Like many said it’s kms wide but only inches deep.

I think this is like an advertisement of their engine capabilities like they showcased so much that’s possible where unreal would struggle sadly the game lacked story telling through world or its characters or its narration.

So basically story mid, exploration mid (exploration for the sake of skins on your gear, puzzles mid), combat good but mostly easy since boss fights really have 2-3 moves that you need to understand.

I think imma stop playing I’m at 180 hour mark.

Hope you guys enjoy it more than me because it had so much potential.

My experience with this game left me with a lot of feelings and memories of a time in my life when nothing mattered. Finding myself in a nowhere place and discovering everything about myself and this game really screamed that! I love the music accompaniment with the changing of chapters which also had a great control of the emotional weight of said chapters. I know I'm not poetic and my review will leave more to be desired, this isn't a conventional review, this is a piece of shit I am choosing to throw at the wall.

I would give this game an 8/10, nothings perfect but if you score it too high it doesn't feel right. You got to leave room for more.

As for the ''is it a game or not'' I argue it is an experience, for the people that have similar experiences and for those who don't. It is a beautiful way for everyone to share in the moment of what this game has achieved. Sure its not punishing and their is no failed attempts. things just rewind for you to try again and that's not life. But it is a slice of media handcrafted people who just want to slap their sticker on the face of creativity.

Upvotes and downvotes be damned.. This is my fucking Sistine Chapel!

just played the MOTORSLICE demo on PlayStation and honestly my mind is blown, this game is such a hidden gem i cant believe more people aren't talking about it. the mechanics feel so good and the performance is super smooth, and the world they built inside this giant brutalist megastructure is genuinely beautiful to just look around in. even the combat is way better than i expected, its fast and satisfying in a way i haven't felt from a game in a while saving the best for last tho... just try the Motorslice ability and thank me later. demo is free on PlayStation you wont regret it

Now that it has had some time to settle, my thoughts on Hell Is Us.

The Good:

-Excellent lore and history. Hadea is a fascinating place and every time I entered into an ancient ruin it was so exciting to see what murals and painting the place had and explore the country's history. This was legitimately one of the best archaeology simulators out there.

-The Civil War was absolutely unrelenting. The developers did no shy away of try to sugarcoat ANYTHING. The absolute worst of humanity was always on display alongside people trying to simply survive or even help. This is possibly one of the best portrayals of a civil war in fiction, as it not only shows it to you, it lets you walk into it and interact with it.

The Bad:

-The combat was at best functional and unimpressive.

-The level design was extremely unintuitive. I know the developers said that they wanted the player to feel lost, but they missed the mark. I never felt lost in a good way. It was almost always "I know the way to the place I need to go was here somewhere". There was no threat to worry about to make being lost exciting, which other games, particularly soulsikes, have absolutely nailed. This was the equivalent of removing all road sign and markings and calling commuting exploration. To top it off, the levels where conceptually cool, but very monotone internally to aid in the exploration. A cave with 6 branching paths that all look like more cave does not help immerse or excite.

-The path blockers. This gets its own section because the amount of obstacles that were impassable was extreme and the type of blockers was insipid. How do i get over this pickup truck? How do I get through this already damaged glass door? How do I get to the other side of this knee high fence? The entire level design would break like a twig if we had a jump button.

-Far too much backtracking. I should never have to approach a puzzle and go "Am I meant to solve this, or is the clue in a different part of the country in 10 hours?". It does not incentivise actually exploring the area and trying to figure things out.

-The story. There kinda wasn't one. The world and lore were brilliant, but the story was plain and anticlimactic and the main character was especially uninteresting. The ending in particular screamed "We run out of time".

In summary some very high highs, some extremely low lows, and the majority was fairly middling. I can safely suggest this for people who want to experience cool lore and probably diehard Remedy fans, but that’s it. At least it gave me some visuals that will stay with me for a while. - D

Would love feedback on the review article i wrote! Thank you! Here is an exerpt:

I have complicated feelings toward Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. When I finish games, I am usually eager to write, feeling as if the game sets up a conversation between its creators and me. KCD2 did not elicit this response in me, sadly. There were aspects of it that really intrigued me, but on the whole, I find it hard to say much about the game. It is full of content, but void of meaning. It is a massive game, but its core thesis is incredibly weak.