Category: Video Game Reviews

I have to be honest when I say that I had never played Shadow of the Colossus when the game initially came out. Coming in as a newcomer was intimidating. The reason I felt this way was for a couple of reasons. I felt intimidated by how much I was told the controls and camera are difficult. Plus I was worried that I would not like this legendary game. I can happily say that I love it.

The game is remade from the ground up by Bluepoint Games. They are experienced in remasters with the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and the PS3 remaster of Shadow of the Colossus. So, this remake was in excellent hands.

The story in Shadow of the Colossus is quite simple. Most of the story is told in the beginning cutscene. After a few bosses, there might be a new scene to show some more story. Then you get another long cutscene at the end to give you the wrapup of the story.

Wander is the protagonist of this story with his trusty steed Agro. When they arrive at a large temple, Wander places a young girl on an altar in the main room on the first floor. Mysterious shadows appear with a voice speaking to Wander. The voice reveals himself to be Dormin. An ancient entity that is a pseudo-villain who strikes a deal with Wander because he sees that Wander is wielding the Ancient Sword that can be used for his benefit. He will revive this girl, only if Wander kills 16 colossi. Then that is where the game begins.

As a game, everything is relatively simple, but with some of its own complexity to it. For the most part, you are not told much. The game will say to you basic controls, but there is a lot it does not tell you. A big part is for the player to figure things out on their own. Gameplay is simple. You have a sword that can be used to attack and use a light to guide yourself to your targetted colossus. The other weapon that is available is a bow and arrow. This is mostly used for strategic purposes for individual bosses. Climbing is an essential aspect of the game. Climbing to get to specific areas and most importantly, to get on top of the colossi. To travel you use your horse, Agro. Each boss is a puzzle by finding out how to get on top of them. When you do get on top of them, then you have to stab a particular weak point that will have a shining symbol when you get near it. Stab a couple of marked points then the colossus will die. The puzzles of each colossus are not challenging but can be tricky. The game does ramp things up by giving you easy battles then increasing the difficulty as you progress.

Controls in the game have been enhanced for modern gaming. You can switch back to the old controls for nostalgia if you have played the original or want to know what it feels like as a newcomer. They are clunky. Bluepoint has remade the game from the ground up but maintained how the original was. UI and control layout is different along with enhanced graphics, but that is about it. The controls and camera can be awkward especially as gaming has changed so much in the years since the game initially came out. However, it was not a huge deal for the most part. Agro is challenging to control, sometimes harder depending on the area of the game you are in. Wander can be troubling, but you can get used to how the game controls. Depending on which boss battle you are on, the controls and camera can make things extra tricky. This was a pain during the final colossus because of the amount of climbing required.

Graphically, the game is absolutely stunning. I played on my PS4, and the game looked incredible. If you play on a PS4 Pro, then you get an extra option for graphics. There would be a cinematic selection that makes for FPS 30, but the game will look better. Personally, I would not choose that even if I could because framerate is so essential. The developers put in a lot of detail to enhance how gorgeous this game is. Each hair on the colossi moves so realistically. Walking through the various terrain is breathtaking. A photo mode with multiple filters and options to get the best camera shot possible is in the game too. This makes for some incredible screenshots to show how pretty this game really is. This is a stunning remake that you can look at for hours.

With each colossus, there is such beautiful music that gets played. The soundtrack to this game is just as pretty as the graphics. The orchestral music fits so perfectly with every moment.

The game is incredibly short. I was able to beat the game in about seven hours. Since the game is a bit of a puzzle when it comes to trying to find out how to defeat each colossus and to find them can be tricky. Without these moments of being lost, I could have beaten the game closer to five hours. However, there are unlocks after beating the game. New Game + allows the player to play through the game with all your upgrades to health and stamina. A time attack mode is a time challenge mode to beat each colossus in a certain amount of time. You do unlock items with this mode that can be used in the other modes. Then there is a reminiscence mode is just a way to refight any of your favorite battles with the inclusion of a filter to change to the look of the game.

This game does live up to its legendary status even by today’s standards. The controls and camera angles can be awkward, especially to new players. Along with Agro who can be quite terrible a lot of the times too. If you are someone who loves a game with puzzles, epic boss battles, and do not mind a short game, then you should absolutely check it out. If you are a fan of the original, then this is the definitive edition of the game. Everything will play like you remember, but with updated graphics to give a different feeling to the world as you go around fighting your way through each colossus.

Score: 9/10

Images are in-game screenshots with photo mode on a PS4.

Buy the game here (this also support me and the website):

Another year means another Call of Duty. Every year they sell 20+ million copies and is always successful. I have not been a fan since the release of Black Ops in 2010. The games were always far from perfect, but they became more dull, less creative, and got more ridiculous with the sci-fi evolution that the last few games have made. Now, they are back in their “roots” to be in World War 2. I put roots in quotes for a reason because going back is not entirely true. The theme is, yes, but a lot of aspects are different enough to make the game feel unique, but fails to do so. Don’t get me wrong, I really like this game, but falls short from greatness.

The story focuses towards the end of the war when America sends soldiers over to Europe. The game starts with the invasion of Normandy. You and your squad must push forward deep into Europe to fight off the Germans. You play as Ronald “Red” Daniels, a young Private in the United States Army. Daniels and his squad will team up with a French and United Kingdom resistance forces to achieve victory.

This short campaign has a lot of good qualities but falls short in many ways. Starting with the positives first to get them out of the way. Gameplay is full of different mechanics such as having a health bar for your character. You need to find health packs or get some from a teammate in order to heal. Your squad will have a few other support actions too besides giving health. Characters can spot enemies and give you extra ammunition when needed. The game feels more tactical and team-based with these mechanics. You can lean over cover to take a few shots while still remaining relatively safe. There are some missions that give some variety such as driving sections and stealth missions. The graphics in the game are pretty, but sometimes look a bit inconsistent. Still, it is the prettiest game yet in the series. The cut scenes look incredible and will stun players by the detail. These are all great ideas, but almost all fall short in some capacity.

Needing a health pack can be tricky since there is a cooldown on your teammate. Once the cooldown is complete, then he can give you a few more health packs. I was caught a few times with no health and no way to heal which left me getting killed multiple times. The variety of the missions is not enough and when it gives it to you, the mechanic will feel off in some way. Driving feels silly on how loose the steering is. The game is so linear that it makes it feel pointless to try to steer. You can hold the gas and scrape against the wall, but keep moving forward towards your objective. Stealth missions sometimes work well but feel off on how enemies can spot you. Overall, these sections are not that fun. You usually can just fight off everyone or follow a path in order to walk around all of the enemies. My favorite is a stealth mission in which you play as a spy for the French resistance. I wish there was more to that mission because it had a lot of potentials to go to a really cool direction. The game’s AI is painfully bad. They either miss every shot and are unable to notice you being in front of them or are magically able to kill you right away. Nothing has changed in terms of AI and game difficulty in this franchise at all.

Characters and story development are pretty weak. The story feels sometimes disconnected in its pacing. The overall tone is bizarre and unnatural. The game starts off as a serious take on World War 2 in a Saving Private Ryan style. Showing the brotherhood the men feel for one another and the brutality they must face. To demonstrate the horrors of the war, it is only done a few times, and most of the time it is hard to take it that seriously. There are moments of over the top action sequences that are cool but do not feel right for this story. I am not sure on what type of story the developers really wanted to tell. A heroic, compelling story about World War 2, or an over the top action story with the theme being World War 2.  When promoting the game, the developers prided on how accurate this experience will be, but none of what they said about this campaign is correct. The accuracy is pretty weak at times. More on the inaccurate side of the game when I get to the multiplayer. For the characters, they are all pretty bland. I feel like these characters have been made before in World War movies and games. The most rememberable character is Sergeant Pierson, who plays such a stereotypical character that I remember the same type of guy in Call of Duty 3. The chemistry between these men is inconsistent. There are times with great dialog that makes it feel they have a real connection. These moments are too far and few that make everyone feel unimportant. The story is fun but has a lot of issues. It is the first time since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare that I actually enjoyed playing the single player.

Now to the meat of the game, multiplayer. A lot of the cool mechanics that you see in the campaign are not in multiplayer at all. This is common for many games to do, but always disappoints me when I like something from the campaign that is not implemented into the online. It is the standard Call of Duty online as usual with some great new mechanics added. As with the single player, let us talk about the good parts of the online then get into the bad. There are a few divisions to select from that are your classes. You can use any weapon for any division, but the game leans you to use specific guns for particular divisions due to certain perks attached to them. They are all pretty standard, but let’s do a rundown of each one. Infantry is based on rifles, both semi-automatic and automatic. You get a bayonet to instantly kill enemies. This is my personal goto class to play. Airborne is focused on submachine guns in which they get a suppressor that you can attach or detach at any time with the press of a button. Armored is centered around with a heavy machine gun that has a bipod attached to it. Expeditionary uses a shotgun that can use incendiary rounds to light enemies on fire. Finally, the mountain class is the sniper class has an assist to focus on while sniping. This is the first in the franchise that I actually like using the sniper rifles. Some maps are a lot of fun to snipe on. Each class is fun and allows for more tactical gameplay, as tactical as a Call of Duty game will get at least. You can prestige a class to gain rewards. You don’t lose anything out of it. Prestiging a gun will reset all equipment on it, but you earn rewards. Prestiging your level, class or gun does not really give you much incentive, but for the players that like it then they will enjoy. The best aspect of multiplayer is one of the new game modes which is War. Mostly like the rush game mode from Battlefield, players on one team have objectives to complete while the other team tries to stop them. This can range from destroying machines, escort tanks, and reaching specific points. The other team will build walls, slow down tanks, and push back the enemy as much as possible until time runs out. There are no score streaks, which allow the player to accumulate enough points before dying to have a special attack with artillery, plane support, or other methods just like the other Call of Duty games. Sadly, there are only three maps, but this is a lot of fun overall. I wish the maps were bigger. The lack of players and the size of maps makes it feel less like a real war. Despite these issues, it is my favorite part of the entire game.

The negatives of the multiplayer for the most part are not too significant. Basic training replaces perks. Instead of taking multiple perks to give you specific advantages, you get one. I like this idea a lot, but most of these new perks are not that useful. I find myself getting nothing out of the ones that I played with. There is a hub world in which players can play minigames, interact with other players, take up challenges to gain rewards and more. This was an interesting idea that is boring. None of the games to play are really that fun. Just tacked on to give the players something to do. It is just a copy of what Destiny has. As someone who is not a fan of Destiny, I do not like this hub world idea at all. You can open loot boxes here to gain cosmetic rewards for your character and guns. There is no reward at all. You feel like you gain nothing interesting at all. The least they could do is give you cool costumes, but it is just like every other game that comes out right now. Another part of customization is swapping your character to make him a female or different ethnicity. That does not work if you are playing as Americans since women did not fight in World War 2. Also, how does it make sense to allow black soldiers on the Nazi side? I understand letting the player choose who they want to be and look like when playing but make some restrictions to allow some historical accuracy. The immersion is taken away on a lot of levels, but these small details pile on in a significant way if you want to make a good World War 2 game. A criticism this franchise always got is how unoriginal it is, and they excel big time with some of these decisions. Just following the herd to have game mechanics that every other AAA game has these days. The worst decision that could have worked is the second new game mode. Gridiron is painfully bad but could have been a great idea. There is a ball that players must score on the enemy goal. Just like the Halo game mode, Grifball. What made this work for Halo is that there are no guns, only melee weapons. When people can call airstrikes and shoot you down, it becomes a chaotic, messy, and straight up annoyance of a game. Having more creative and less traditional game modes would be healthy for the game, but they fail to make it work.

The final piece of any Call of Duty game is the zombies game type. As usual, there is a story to it if you follow along with puzzles that are difficult, but rewarding. The horror aspects that Sledgehammer talked so much about are nonexistent. Sometimes zombies pop up at you and they look creepier, but that is it.They could have made something totally different but decided to just make another zombies game like all the others. Fighting waves of zombies or deciding to do the story related puzzles are your options. If you love this like me, then you will not have a problem at all. It is a lot of fun, especially with friends. You can now choose a class that will have special perks and abilities to give you an advantage. Selecting a few different starting weapons as you level up more give the player an upper hand during early waves when zombies are weak. Each class has a special ability such as going invisible and special attacks. A lot of promises went into the zombies this year that did not come true, but overall the game is a ton of fun.

Despite how much I want to like this game, there is no denying the plethora of problems. As of writing, I still have issues with crashing, glitches, server issues, and more technical problems. On top of that are poor decisions with multiplayer and yet another lackluster campaign. At least I was able to have fun with the campaign unlike every other game in the franchise, but it still fell flat in many ways. I do think people should buy Call of Duty WW2 if they love these games and can accept its flaws. Just know that there are a lot of problems on all levels, but it is insanely fun. War and zombies save this game. What kills the Call of Duty games is the fact that they can not be that creative at all. I hope they can branch out more and that this is a turning point for the Call of Duty juggernaut.

Score: 6/10

If you want the game, you can follow this link here:

Image via Activision and Sledgehammer Games

One of the biggest comedic giants out there is “South Park”. If you have a vulgar sense of humor then you are probably a big fan of the show. In terms of gaming, it has had its fair share of games in the past. In 2014, Ubisoft teamed up with Trey Parker and Matt Stone to create “South Park: The Stick of Truth”. The game was a huge success that made every fan of the show so happy. It felt like the player was inside of an episode of the show. Full of the same satirical humor and the art style, it fit so perfectly. After many delays, we finally got the sequel, “South Park: The Fractured But Whole”. Does this game meet the hype and reach the high bar as did its predecessor? Well, it gets a bit complicated with the games pros and cons.

The story takes place right after the first game. The first game had the main kids including your character playing a fantasy style game. Cartman is sick of it and wants to play superheroes. So, the game stops making fun of “Lord of the Rings” and then turns to making fun of the big superhero cinematic universes that we have currently. He convinces his friends to join him to save the town from the increased crime rate in which a cat is missing. The reward for this missing cat is $100, so in any child’s mind, that is enough to start their own billion-dollar superhero movie franchise. You later discover a giant conspiracy that is set up to create a crime increase and to replace the mayor. Only you, your friends, and your farts can save the town of South Park. I love the story. There are so many things that happen that will surprise you. Personally, I enjoyed the story of the first game more, but that does not take away the writing of this game. I felt that the jokes were better in the first title. Some jokes did not work as well and even felt like it was too much. Even then, those jokes that did not work so well were only a few times. The amount of time spent to complete the story and side missions only took about 20-22 hours roughly. The story felt slower and I was waiting for things to pick up a bit more. A bit short for a $60 game, but I felt satisfied enough that I got my money’s worth.

The biggest difference in this game is the gameplay. Exploring South Park is the same as the first with even more to do. There are side quests to complete and items to collect. Side missions were weak. After finishing the game it felt good, but I wish there were more variety in side missions. Most of them just introduced the collectibles around the map to get a reward. I wish this aspect were fleshed out a lot more. The most significant change is the combat and loot system. Combat takes place with a playing field divided up by squares, while still being a turn-based style. You get to move your character to where you would like to strategically place them then choose which of three moves you would want to use. Pressing the indicated button when being hit will build up a meter for a special move. Each character has a unique move that is unique to them. Some are more useful than others, but it is fun seeing the different kinds of abilities. Each fight you get three companions so you can switch them out each battle to decide who you like the most. Most of your choices are great with only a few characters I did not enjoy playing as. If you play right, you can be tactical to stack effects to make enemies bleed or be grossed out to cause extra damage. Summoning has made a return to having a character come in to heal your whole team or deal damage to all enemies. These supportive characters that come in to be summoned are far less exciting and helpful than the first game’s summons. For some reason, there are way fewer characters to summon. “Stick of Truth” had 11, while this has only 4. I wish there were way more characters to summon to add more variety than the same couple of people. This combat is fun, but something about the simplicity of the first game made it more enjoyable. I will get into what played into making the combat less fun in a moment, but it felt like a chore sometimes. Depending on the difficulty will change your view towards the combat. I recommend playing on the medium difficulty, but you may find that to be too easy. Maybe try the hardest difficulty to give yourself a good challenge. The final act does get much harder which I enjoyed a lot. The easy portions can get a little boring. For the player, you can choose between three classes at the beginning which determines a play style and particular move set for that class. Later on, you will get more to choose from that allows you to swap out different powers. This aspect is great. Taking the class idea from the first game and expanding it.

The loot system is different. There is a linear, but useful crafting system to make items for gear, healing, and other supplements for battle. Getting the supplies to craft will take looking through openable containers, destroying objects, and buying them. I like this system, it is easy but works well. Getting gear is my biggest issue. There are artifacts that are unique that will make you and your team more powerful. This felt so unrewarding, which goes into battles becoming a chore and less fun. You can go into a big battle and get an artifact to help you. The problem is that it is not as satisfying. The first game you could have a new piece of armor or a weapon that is unique looking and to build you up. This variety of gear made it much more interesting to see what you were getting and would make you feel like you got a greater reward. I felt more powerful with getting this better gear. The artifact system did not make me excited or even feel like I was getting that much stronger.

The town has expanded overall, but still quite small. Exploring throughout South Park to find characters to interact with, take selfies with to make them a follower on social media, to find collectibles, find artifacts, and to find more costumes for your character. Like said before, all gear is useless except for certain supplements and artifacts. So, changing your costume is purely cosmetic to make yourself look cooler or funnier. While exploring the world and doing missions you will find these little puzzles in which you can have a companion to push over an object or help you over an object to get to a new room or uncover a hidden item. This is used heavily in both exploration and story missions. I got bored of this after a while. It got so annoying seeing the same animations and hearing the same little phrases after doing these puzzles so many times. The added fast traveling makes it easy to get around the map instead of walking around everywhere which can get so tedious.

Character customization is well developed and can change the game slightly. A variety of costumes with colors to change to give yourself a unique look. A character sheet that will have your religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender. Sadly, there is not a huge difference in how you identify. This can cause some battles to occur with rednecks who hate you for identifying one way or another. I wish there was more variety on this, but I still love it. Hearing them go on about wanting to hurt me for a long list of reasons. You can be a gender neutral, black, Canadian, Jew that they feel does not belong in the USA. Even if you are a white, heterosexual, American, Christian, those characters will react the same way pretty much. That is what we expect out of South Park, being as offensive as possible and I love it.

I do love this game, but it falls so short of the previous title. Lack of rewards makes it feel meaningless when you explore and win a battle. Jokes that fall flat and even dragged on made the writing feel worse than the first game. Combat can feel annoying with little enemy variety. The variety you get is not even worth it most of the time. The story is so much slower and does not have enough pay off in the end. I managed to feel satisfied, but in some aspects, I wanted more out of the game. Poor side quests that could have made the game longer and more interesting, but felt more like a chore than anything. More interesting loot that was more meaningful would be motivating to go and explore. Almost every quality is weaker than “The Stick of Truth”. “South Park: The Fractured But Whole” is fun, but was a big disappointment despite my positive feelings.

Score: 7/10

Buy the game through the link below:

Image via Ubisoft

Better late than never to finally put out my review for “The Evil Within 2”. In 2014 the horror action shooter released the first title. The first game was fairly successful in which earned a sequel. I personally liked the first game despite its flaws in cheesy characters and clunky gameplay. What has given these games the amount of attention they have received is because of Shinji Mikami, who has directed many “Resident Evil” titles which launched one of the most popular gaming franchises around. Now let’s give a quick summary of “The Evil Within” to recap before going into the sequel. There will be spoilers, and for this game, you will need to play the first title to fully grasp the story.

Three detectives from Krimson City, Sebastian Castellanos, Joseph Oda, and Juli Kidman receive a call of a crime at Beacon Memorial Hospital. After discovering on a monitor that a ghostly man killing people, the three detectives are taken into another world. It looks like the hospital, but not quite. Sebastian, the protagonist, goes through to find out what is happening and to find his partners. Turns out he has put into STEM, an experiment run by the corporation Mobius with the mastermind behind being Ruvik, who is the main villain of the first game. STEM is meant to unify the minds of everyone in the machine. This process takes everyone connected to another world that can be manipulated by the main mind controlling everything, this is called the Core. A powerful and psychotic mind can delve everyone inside into horrors unlike anything imaginable. Ruvik takes control of the core and must be defeated for Sebastian, Joseph, and Kidman can escape. Now let’s look into the story of the sequel.

Overall, the storyline is much more simple. The first game has an ambiguous ending and the details on STEM is confusing. The story here focuses on the past of Sebastian. The first game gives some details on his past in which his daughter Lily is killed after a fire occurs in their home. Determined that there is foul play, Myra, Sebastian’s wife and a police detective too, goes missing after discovering details about their daughter’s death. The game starts with you being fired from the police department due to everyone you have gone crazy after trying to tell your coworkers the events that occurred during the first game. Kidman meets with you to reveal she has always worked for Mobius. They need Sebastian’s help to save Lily. Lily was never killed, but it turns out she was taken by Mobius to be taken into STEM. Her purity would be the perfect core in order to unify all human life into her world which would be the perfect utopia. This utopia is called Union, a small town that looks like your typical small town in the United States. Since the first game goes horribly wrong and this is a horror game, it does not turn out all that well. Somehow Lily is lost, so Sebastian goes into STEM again in order to save his child. He discovers that some force is destroying Union and creating monsters. This is Beacon all over again with this time having more weight to it since it is not only Sebastian’s life on the line. The story has a great pacing overall. The first hour starts a little slow but works so well that it does not get boring. Characters are not the strength of these games. The voice actors have changed for all recurring characters which bothered me greatly for my first few hours. After a while, I grew to appreciate the new actors. The original game had horribly cheesy acting and dialog. That does not go away in this sequel but is still a lot better. To be fair, it is expected out of the mastermind behind “Resident Evil” which is the kind of cheesy horror in the gaming industry. The villains were a lot less interesting. Some recurring monsters did not have really any background to their origins or have anything interesting to provide except for tense battles or scares. Stefano is the first major villain, a photographer who can manipulate the world around him. Easily the cheesiest character who feels like a placeholder for tension and drama. When you get to fight him later on, just like all other boss battles, it is painfully simple. I won’t dive into specific enemies later on for spoiler sakes, but there are not really any great villains. Ruvik was not an amazing villain but served a good purpose in the first game. The story has a satisfying amount of time with clocking around 15 hours. It could be more, but with how this game turns out with the story, it ends up feeling like a great amount of time to spend. Much of the story gets deeper as you find collectibles. Just like the first game they give you rich details about the Mobius, STEM, and characters. It makes you want to look around every corner to find more information. Overall, the story is the strongest point of this series. The characters and dialog can be pretty weak but does its job. Let’s transition to the most important part of any game, which is the gameplay.

I was worried about this aspect. I was hoping for something new and some fixes from the first game. Surprisingly there was a lot delivered. Union is a linear, but a somewhat open world. Some chapters of the game will lead you into very linear paths, but the first act is quite open. For the early few hours, this is awesome. Exploring is very rewarding with upgrades and supplies to help you fight. Some side missions are in the game, but there are so few that it feels almost tacked on. These side missions are nice, but I wish there were a lot more things to do in Union. Shooting has improved slightly. It feels a lot better from the previous game. Movement and the camera still suck. It just does not feel that great moving around and can be frustrating especially during intense battles. The camera is so close that it can be more annoying than adding any more horror to the game. The scares to me are just like the first game. It is intense, but not scary at all. More creepy than anything, but if you are bad at horror games, you should do fine with these games. Also, there is a crafting system in the game. You can craft ammunition and healing supplies. You do use more resources if you are not at a workbench. If you find a workbench, then you can even upgrade your weapons which has a high variety that helps make you feel more powerful. Most of these areas are in safe houses that are scattered across the map. Running across the map for objectives or safe houses do not take any time since the map is so small and linear. The difficulty should be set at casual just to get the hang of everything. These games can get tough quickly especially if you start to run low on resources. The balance of difficulty felt off to me with some parts feeling too hard or too easy, but mostly on an easy side. Now to look at how the game looks and sounds.

The sound in this game is overall great. Hearing doors slam behind you and other noises that happen when you aren’t looking are placed so well to create atmosphere and horror. The game is usually beautiful, but I did see a few textures that looked washed out and not appealing. These bad textures are few and not distracting. Plenty of moments will look stunningly beautiful and at the same time disturbing. Violent games that look great can create beauty while being in a room full of mutilated bodies. A lot more attention to detail was placed to make Union more immersive. The blend of gameplay, sound, and graphics really made me feel like this dystopian town could be a place that I could visit if STEM were real. Let’s move to conclude.

“Evil Within 2” is a beautiful, suspenseful, and dramatic game. The story of Mobius, STEM, and Sebastian’s journey are powerful. I love this world that was created and find it just as interesting as the first game. Improvements on dialog and voice acting were made. Improvements on gameplay along with some additions that made the game feel like a true sequel. Sadly, the characters are still fairly bland or even generic. The pacing felt good, but too much cat and mouse type moments. You are about to get your daughter then something happens to prevent it. This would happen so many times that it wasn’t that original and made the game longer. Some of the dialogs that were written feel weird or not directed at the actors on how to say it properly. Gameplay is still a bit clunky with some annoying moments of running or walking. The open world needs a lot more to make it feel worth it regarding side storylines and activities to make it more fun. Some touch ups on the graphics here and there would benefit the game, but this was only a few moments in which I saw that a texture looked wrong. If you liked the first game, then you will like this one. If psychological horror games that are primarily action oriented like “Resident Evil” are your desire, then you must pick these games up.

Score: 7/10

Buy the game through the link below:

Image via Bethesda Softworks

The original Star Wars Battlefront games are some of my all-time favorite games. Mixing various eras of Star Wars to create incredible battles. You can have Darth Vader fight Mace Windu and so many more awesome battles. In 2015, DICE had made a reboot of the series. This made me very excited because I love Star Wars and the Battlefield series. Sadly, DICE delivered a poor game that had very little content. Battlefront 2 is coming and this weekend was the beta. Is it better than the first game? Sorta, but I will dive into all that I got to experience in the beta. I did not play everything available due to time restraints on other things in my life this will not be perfect.

Regarding my subjective perspective of having fun, I will say I did have fun in the beta. I did not have any fun playing the beta or full release of the 2015 reboot. This game added a class system much like a lot of other shooter games. You have a heavy, specialist, assault, and an officer class. I wish there were more to the support classes like the officer. I did not feel like I was able to really give my team that much support in battle. I played a little bit of the specialist who is more of a sniper class, but this map on Naboo wasn’t ideal for sniping. I still liked the abilities and loadout that I was given. My main go-to were either the heavy or the regular assault which is more focused on delivering some brute force. Each class gets 3 upgrades which I was not a fan of. The ones in the beta were not the most useful, but I am sure there will be more variety in the full release. The class system does help a lot in organizing on how to play and playing as a team. There are points rewarded when you get kills or complete objectives. You can spend these points on different characters or vehicles. I  prefer games to have vehicles laying around that I can jump in. I am too used to the original Battlefronts that had dozens of tanks and aircrafts that players can dive right in. The system they have works overall. Each team gets four additional characters. Two will be heavier and powerful such as a wookie or a Clone Jumptrooper. These special characters are fun and be a powerful force on the field. Then, of course, there are the heroes and villains. The beta has Han Solo and Rey as heroes, while the villains are Darth Maul and Boba Fett. Playing as these characters is a lot of fun. You do feel that power on the field, but you can get destroyed quickly if not careful enough. Unlocking these characters with points instead of a random pick up on the field is much better of a mechanic.  Now to move onto the two game modes.

The beta has a space combat game mode called Starfighter Assault and a large scale battle mode that is objective based called Galactic Assault which is, similar to what we see in Battlefield games. Space combat was surprisingly fun with pretty decent controls. It wasn’t entirely different from the first game, but having an actual space game mode makes it easier to move around instead of flying on the planets which were harder. The objectives on defending or destroying certain ships to help your team win were not satisfying to me. Even in the other game mode, the objectives did not make me feel like I was doing much, especially when I was defending. I compare the two modes so closely because they are so similar besides one being more of a grand scale battle and the other being a space oriented game mode. Also in, space battles are that it is not what it used to be in the original Battlefront 2. I miss going inside of the enemy’s main ship to go inside on foot to destroy it from the inside, or to shoot it with my fighter ships to kill the enemy from the outside. Instead, the game just has you shoot specified ships that lead you to win. There are fewer ships for the player to use too. The beta only had three ships, so hopefully, there are more in the full release. I mostly focused on Galactic Assault which was a 20v20 game type. The same problem with Galactic Assault is the same as Starfighter, the objectives are not fun. Most people were just fighting until the game ended. Even when we were all playing the objective to destroy or defend, it did not have a lot to it. The simplicity of the objective and the feeling that it was too easy killed the fun. If the defending team are on top of it, then they can quickly destroy the enemy MTT. Since most people ignore that, then you go into the other two phases in which the attackers, which are droids, will then win. All because the clones team are idiots who want to kill. If played right, it is a ton of fun if you like that Battlefield style gameplay.

The Strike which is 8v8 and Arcade 2vAI game mode I did not touch at all. I got distracted so I will wrap up saying that I did not entirely play the beta, but enough to know my opinions. It is not for me. If you like the 2015 reboot, then you will like this. It is improved in many ways. Just as stunningly beautiful and with incredible sound, which is what is expected out of DICE. I could stare at this game all day because it is that beautiful. The game has a loot box issue which is common to every game now. There is still the possibility of a lack of content, but we will see when the game is fully released. Story mode will be a great addition and it will be canon which will make any Star Wars fan excited. I will say, not to buy it, but do your research before spending your money to see if this is the game for you. We are not far from seeing the full product of this game. Star Wars Battlefront 2 releases November 17 of this year.

Image via Electronic Arts