Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@mookysam Thanks for the props. Glad that you could relate the nostalgia induced by revisiting the game.
And equal measure of kudos for your well organized and wonderfully written Super Mario Sunshine review there. Not a game (or a platform) that I play or have any real involvement in, but I can recognize how well thought out your writing is; it oozes with personality.

And I am tempted to churn out a review of God of War, but I don’t know - I’ve plastered these forums with sufficient praise already. 😄

Sorry for the late replies, everyone.

@RogerRoger FINALLY got a chance to properly sit down and read your opus and, I gotta say, Rog, I'm stunned. Your encyclopedic knowledge of all things Bond-related, your natural wittiness, and your increasingly excellent grasp of the art of game reviewing all contributed to make this not only your best piece yet, but arguably the best piece of writing submitted to this thread to date!

It really was a vision of hell for you, though, wasn't it? You're such a good-natured dude that I was impressed with the sustained level of contemptuous snark you managed to muster for this game. Not that this is at all inappropriate, mind you: while I think we both agree most games are made by people trying their best and are deserving of some certain level of consideration for best efforts made, sometimes a game comes along that really is just ill-conceived in all regards and deserves a proper and public caning. In that regard, your piece reminded me of some of Roger Ebert's unapologetically (and hilariously) scathing pieces on films he hated.

I really liked the way you structured your cold opening. It flows brilliantly into the body of the piece, and the use of your first screenshot as a well-timed punchline was excellent.

The screenshot of Blofeld putting up his dukes is pretty ridiculous. I kinda like it, not least of all because I can just laugh at the idea of it being included in a Bond game at all.

Also, for the record, stealth missions in non-stealth games are pretty much always the worst parts of said games. And at least as late as 2017, developers were still including them in their games. Here's to hoping for the final death of the forced stealth mission.

RE: screen tearing, did you mess with v-sync on your computer? Sometimes older games have weird v-sync issues that require hardware-based solutions. It's really weird that the game doesn't support resolutions over 720p. Really, really weird.

Oh, and I'm impressed you created your own videos to show off music and compare tracks with other versions that appeared in Bond movies.

I should also note that you now have the notoriety of posting the longest piece in this thread to date, displacing the record held by my Three Houses write-up. Wear your crown of thorns proudly, my friend, as the curse passes onto you now until someone is foolish enough to try and beat the record again.

But yeah, incredible contribution. Truly.

@Th3solution

Great piece on Uncharted! The trilogy collection on PS4 is indeed a great way of seeing how the games evolved over time and adopted a unique identity (as you point out, the first game is more than a little reminiscent of the Indiana Jones films; I guess they all are, but subsequent entries felt more grown into their own mythology and narrative tone). I didn't have a great time with the first game myself, but some of that could be due to my using it as a test case for the viability of cloud gaming on PS Now. So, the unpolished old PS3 release plus the latency issues inherent to cloud gaming.

Even if it's not as slick as its subsequent entries, though, it does seem like the series started off on a solid foundation. Glad you enjoyed it, and would definitely be interested in hearing how your experience with this series evolves as you replay through the games via the Nathan Drake Collection.

@mookysam

I like the extended mythology you're establishing with Lakitu.

I played this game circa the mid 2010s and was still super impressed with how good this game looked on the GameCube. The water effects truly are out of this world, and the image quality as a whole was such a massive step up from the blocky, polygonal nightmare realm of Mario 64. I ended up liking this game less upon replaying it (probably primarily due to my insistence on doing EVERYTHING in this game, which led to some rather frustrating road blocks, and irritation at the blue coin collecting in general), but I think I still had a lot more fun with it than you did. At least, when I wasn't screaming at the TV during those chuckster shine levels, or after being knocked off the underside of the village for the millionth time during The Goopy Inferno level (Pianta Village really would be better off just burning to the ground). The 3D All-Stars Collection hasn't been treating you well thus far.

A fun read as always!

@RogerRoger

Yeah, sorry about that. As a person who generally tries to be invisible as much as possible and avoids attention at pretty much every turn, it was uncharacteristic of me to draw attention to someone else's work like that. A while after I'd posted that, after people had already seen it, I did think: "I hope he doesn't mind too much that I called him out like that."

It's excellent work, though, and I wanted to get new eyes on it before it got lost in the shuffle.

So, again, sorry if that caused any discomfort!

It really is a rare game for me where I dislike it so much that I really just can't find anything nice to say about it. I'm impressed you got through it all. I generally stop playing games that I dislike that much, although now that I'm writing about the majority of stuff I play through, I do try to play through everything and be as thorough as possible.

Like I said, that someone as good-natured as you ended up being pretty withering about the game speaks volumes to its quality.

LOL I love how everyone grunts the same when being punched. And how the grunts sound like they were recorded in a bathroom.

A lot of modern monitors have a technology built into them where they dynamically adapt the refresh rate of your display to match the framerate of the game to avoid screen-tearing, but, sans that, you'll sometimes have to tinker with v-sync settings to avoid screen-tearing. Most modern games are well-optimized enough that you don't really need to worry about it on more powerful computers, but older games can be a pain. For DOOM 3, for example, I needed to disable the hardware-based v-sync solution I had enabled and played around with in-game v-sync settings in order to eliminate tearing every time I turned the camera. To this end, software that caps your framerate can be helpful as well. For the few occasions I've needed to use it (Ys I on PC has a boss that's borderline impossible to beat if you play it at an unlocked framerate, for example), the Rivatuner Statistics Server software is free and relatively easy to use.

@mookysam So, the lily pad level was weirdly easy for me this time, considering I died 40+ times in the original trying to get it. I got the lily pad shine on my fifth try, although I prepared for 40+ attempts beforehand. I found that being more conservative with the water nozzle helped. Really, even getting out to that island turned out to be way harder than the challenge itself.

The pachinko level is weird, because, if you know how to hold the stick when you launch, it's really quite simple, but otherwise it feels infuriatingly random where you'll end up. Still an ill-conceived challenge regardless.

What really does me in with the chucksters is both the dramatic difference even the smallest change in angle will make and how often that angle being wrong equates to instant death. Also, some of those levels require you to manipulate a LOT of chucksters before you get to the goal. Ugh.

I don't mind the barebones presentation for the 3D All-Stars games in general, but it annoys me that Nintendo wasn't even concerned about stabilizing the framerate. As you point out, it gets positively chunky in Delfino Plaza.

But yeah, Galaxy is the true hero of this release, as expected. Playing the other two before it only helped to highlight how much Nintendo's 3D Mario games have improved over time.

@Th3solution, great Uncharted review! I'm probably the only person on this site (the world even) who has never played an Uncharted game to completion (I partially played the first on the PS3 through a rental, but that was it). Good to hear it still holds up. I think I have the trilogy thanks to PS+, so I probably should give it a try someday.

@mookysam, nice Sunshine review! I played it for the first time last year (on Switch), and while it is janky in spots, I do think it's a lot better than 64, and didn't run into any major problems with the camera, and quite enjoyed the FLUDD-less levels for the most part. It probably helped that I didn't set out to %100 it, though.

Dragon Quest Heroes: the World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4)

The first entry in the Warriors/Musou style spinoff of the long running Dragon Quest JRPG franchise.

Gameplay:

• Like most Warriors style games, it is a mission based action game where you take a party of 1-4 characters into battle against hundreds of foes. While most other Warriors titles have you taking control of a battlefield by completing various tasks (such as capturing forts, defeating important named foes, etc.) DQH tends to be a much more singularly focused experience. Maps (particularly in story mode) tend to be smaller in scope compared to it's contemporaries, and while you sometimes get a pretty basic objective (such as "defeat all monsters"), the game largely has a "tower defence" style bent to it, and you'll more often than not be tasked with protecting a specific location (such as a gate or statue) or an NPC (escort mission style) from waves of enemies as your sole objective in a mission.
  
  Escort mission the game, pretty much.
• Maps tend to be more maze-like, where you have to figure out the best way to stem the incoming tide of enemies so you can safely venture out to slay the "Mawkeepers" (tougher enemies that guard the portals mooks endlessly spawn from). To do this you'll need to summon your own monsters to the battlefield (which you can do after picking up dropped "monster medals" from defeated monsters) in key defensive positions, as well as take advantage of other strategic elements, such as stones dotted across a map you can warp to (they need to be activated first, but only once, so it's completely viable to leave your main objective unprotected your first go around as you go around activating all the stones, that way you can make use of them from the start on future attempts) or map specific elements such as cannons or switches that open & close gates.
• I'll be honest & admit I really didn't care for the general gameplay loop in this. Don't get me wrong, mowing down hundreds of mooks can be as fun as ever (and it was kinda a relief whenever I didn't have to protect something), but general character control felt a little more heavy & not as snappy as other Warriors titles, and whenever you had to protect an NPC that has their own weapon they have a tendency to bum rush the strongest enemy that's currently in their "zone", even if they only have a sliver of health left, which makes for many a failed mission. Plus, I encountered at least one bug during a story mission where I had to protect a barricade, and the game considered it a failed mission whenever it reached half health (I've since watched a couple gameplay vids of people completing the mission with much lower barricade health, so it had to have been a bug, and not that isolated as I found a thread discussing the issue on the Steam forums). Luckily, you keep all EXP, Gold, & enemy drops you obtain in failed missions, so at least there's always some level of growth.
• I will concede that I enjoyed the boss battles that closed out each chapter, and while they have nothing on the boss encounters seen in something like FFVII Remake, they do tend to be more involved than your typical Warriors bosses, and were nice & challenging IMO (though it has a tendency to reuse bosses, or at least pallet swapped versions of them, as regular enemies later on, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine).
• Each character has a series of combos they can execute with various combinations of the Square (light attack) & Triangle (heavy attack) buttons, Cross is used to jump, and Circle activates Tension mode whenever it's guage is built up (think the "Musou" mode from other games. you'll get a brief all around stat boost & status effect immunity, followed up by a screen filling super attack once the guage empties, or if you pull it off early by pressing Circle again). By pressing one of the shoulder buttons you'll bring up the special attack (these attacks use MP) & Healstone (these heal everyone in your party, though not any NPCs you're protecting) menues, another shoulder button makes you guard, another is dodge, and the last one switches between characters.
• In terms of powering up your characters, they level up (general stat boosts) upon earning enough EXP (characters not in use earn EXP, but at a slower rate), by spending skill points on upgrades (you earn skill points every time you level up, and can learn/upgrade special attacks, upgrade combos, obtain extra stat boosts, and unlock other boons), by equipping new weapons/orbs (you buy these at the shop back at base, and the new items that appear at the start of each chapter are universally better than what came before, though a few characters have super weapons earned through late/post game side quests), and by equipping accessories (you synthesize these back at base with monster drops, and they offer boons non-stat related, such as protection against status effects or damaging terrain).
• From my experience there are only 13 playable characters in the game (outside of any potential DLC, which I haven't checked), and while this means the scope of the franchise that it represents is quite small, the characters it does have are well realized & play very uniquely. It has a whopping 4 OC's (Luceus, Aurora, King Doric, & Isla), 4 reps from DQIV (Alena, Kyril, Maya, & a secret character), 2 reps from DQV (Bianca & Nera), 2 reps from DQVIII (Jessica & Yangus), & 1 rep from DQVI (Terry, who is also the protag of the Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series). Barring Terry, all the characters present are from titles I've actually played, so lucky me.
• In between missions you'll spend time at your base of operations which houses the world map (which you select to set out on missions), the aforementioned weapon & orb shops, the aforementioned synthesis shop, the Mini Medal shop (rare collectables you obtain from a variety of sources that you can trade for synthesis recipes, monster drops, & a special selection of weapons), the side quest counter (more on these next), accolade counter (earn Mini Medals for earning achievements & defeating certain numbers of enemies), the mail counter (mostly just goofy letters awarded upon completing a sidequest, but certain sidequest rewards are obtained here as well), a Church (saving & refilling Healstones), & a Tavern (swap out party members here).
• A fresh group of sidequests become available at the start of each chapter (and in post game), and while there are a number of them that offer a bespoke mission, the majority just ask you to defeat "X" number of this enemy type or collect "Y" number of this enemy drop. The problem with this is that, as far as I could tell, there's absolutely no way to replay missions (story or otherwise). Instead, when you select a certain location on the world map (unless there's a new mission to play) you're only option is to take on an endless wave of enemies at one of three difficulties (which determine which monster types spawn, which you can check by pressing the touch pad). This makes grinding out the "Kill X enemies, or collect Y items" type quests (or heck, grinding in general) the absolute worst kind of rote grinding imaginable. You'll be roped into doing quite a bit of them too, as worthwhile upgrades are locked behind them (like expanding the number of enemy drops you can hold, number of total Healstones, and number of monsters you can call to your side in battle), and story mission difficulty ramps up quickly enough that you'll need to do most of them to stay properly leveled, in my experience.
• The only missions not completely pulled from availability after completing them are the boss fights, as souped up versions of them get their own map locations (appearing as caves) after you clear their associated chapter.
• Oh, each character also has a couple of alternate costumes to unlock (via sidequests...), but they're all pallet swaps, so nothing too interesting, and kind of disappointing considering DQVIII & DQXI both offer actual alternate costumes (like armor sets, bunny outfits, etc.) for party members. Apparently there are a couple of interesting armor sets available as DLC, but this only applies to Luceus & Aurora (the player character OC's).

Story:

• It takes place in a kingdom where humanity & monsters have lived in peace for as long as can be remembered, however strange events are afoot & monster kind turns against humanity. After securing Arba (the capital city), King Doric and his head knights Luceus & Aurora (the two player character choices) head out to protect the troubled kingdom & find out what's going on with their monster friends (which happens to involve slaughtering them by the hundreds, lol), and along the way they team up with iconic DQ personalities, who've been mysteriously transported to this realm.
• It's a simple story with legendary heroes of light & dark lords awaking from slumber, but it works, especially since such simple tropes are what set up most DQ games proper. The strength of DQ's stories has always been the games' eclectic casts, and as an all star crossover, you'll get your fill here (I especially enjoyed Alena, Kyril, Jessica, & Yangus).
  
  Most of the time the cast hangs out at the tavern back at base, where they'll usually have something new to say after every mission or so.
• DQ tends to have a way with wordplay & puns, and this holds true here as well. Even the iconic "Puff-Puff" gag makes it's return here, though I'm not sure what exactly triggers it (every once in awhile a party member at the tavern will treat you to a "Puff-Puff" of a various kind, though this only happened to me twice. Once from Kyril, & once I think from Bianca. From what I understand there's one from each party member though?).
  
  Writing is always in top form.
• Oh, the game also makes liberal use of one of the DS4's unique features, the built in speaker! All spoken dialogue is fed through the TV and the DS4 at the same time. While this is kind of neat during the heat of battle (character chatter from the controller will be louder or quieter depending on how close you are to the speaker on the battlefield), it gets kind of tiring back at base, where you'll have NPCs blaring the same lines at you at full volume everytime you want to save, visit the shop, etc.

Graphics:

• I will say it's a nice looking game that nails the vibe of the DQ franchise, and has all the typical environmental locations.
  
  
  
  There'll be a lot of various particle effects going on, and many marble & stone floors are plenty shiny.
• Likewise all the iconic DQ sound effects, music, and various voice accents & speaking patterns are here and accounted for, for better or worse.
• There's no performance issues as far as I could tell, other than the aforementioned barricade bug.

Conclusion:

• As someone who has really enjoyed the other licensed Musou games I've played such as Hyrule Warriors DE, Fire Emblem Warriors, One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (might be my favorite, and I'm not even a big OP fan), and even Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, I was looking forward to this as someone who likes the DQ games, and while there are aspects of it I do like, in the end I found it to be a slog to finish, and chose not to bother with any of the post game stuff (which apparently includes a total of 3 superbosses). To be honest the experience will likely put me off trying out the new Hyrule Warriors for awhile, and especially the second DQH game (which I hear is a lot better, apparently).
  Bye, we're off to return to more enjoyable games!

@RR529 Sorry to hear you didn't really get on with DQ Heroes. A musou game oriented around escort missions sounds dreadful, honestly. Lack of optional costumes, poor mission variety, and small, mazelike levels don't sound ideal, either.

I've been tempted to snag this a few times in sales, so I'm glad I didn't.

It's a shame, really, because a proper ARPG Dragon Quest that still had all the other things that go into this series would probably be a lot of fun.

Nice work on the review!

@mookysam As far as I can tell, Galaxy is locked 60fps. It's very nice after all the jank in 64 and Sunshine.

RE: Mario 64, what gets me is that Nintendo could have put in the visually improved NDS version of the game, but I guess just upscaling the N64 version was easier. Zero effort for one of their most iconic games.

At least Galaxy had some effort put into it. The gyro/touch controls felt like a great evolution of what they accomplished with the IR sensor on the Wii.

@mookysam Yeah, if I can ever find it for a decent price, I'm very tempted to review Mario 64 DS as a separate entity.

...actually, as I typed that out, I realized that Mario 64 DS is also on the Wii U VC. Guess being a Wii U owner still pays off at times.

I think I'm waiting on Age of Calamity until Nintendo releases something that can run it at more than 25fps. Whereas, from what I hear, Persona 5 Strikers runs perfectly on the system (near locked 30fps, anyway), like you would expect an exclusive to do.

@mookysam I've heard 64 DS works well with the circle pad on the 3DS. I imagine it likely works well with actual analog sticks as well. ANYTHING is better than a D-Pad for a 3D platformer, lol.

Same here. Even though I slowly seem to be replacing my Wii U collection with Switch ports, I don't own a Wii, so it serves that function well. I just wish all the GBA games on here were also available on Switch. Nintendo choosing to put GBA games on a home console but not on an even more powerful hybrid that would be an amazing host platform for all of their games is the sort of moon logic that infuriates me.

I think I'll probably download some of the VC games as well. I bought Kokuka on 3DS recently after hearing about it being delisted in other regions. Not excited about buying an expensive-ish 3DS eshop game at full price, but it beats permanently losing access to a game I've maintained a very mild level of interest in for a long time.

AFAIK, the AoC demo was a fairly good indicator of how the game as a whole performs. Maybe they've patched it post-launch, but I've not heard of any improvements. I was already kind of sour on the game once my worst suspicions about it were realized anyway, so the poor performance just killed any interest I had at the time. If it works better on a Pro model or something, I'll definitely get it, though.

@RogerRoger Whenever I finish and review Persona 5 Royal, there's a DS4 gimmick in that game that's equal parts bizarre and delightful that I'm looking forward to mentioning. I also like when developers actually use the hardware in creative ways.

@RogerRoger I remember having the same experience nearly dropping the controller with Resogun. Although it’s a cool system with a lot of potential, I also prefer the sound quality of using headphones, so the DS4 speaker features don’t get to shine unfortunately. (Ex. - I think the controller coos like a baby in Death Stranding when you have to rock BB, as well as the light turns color to yellow). Maybe someone who doesn’t use headphones can confirm this. I just have bog standard TV speakers without a surround-sound set up so the headphones are so much better as a whole.

@RogerRoger I’m seeing a lot more utilization of the DS4 light bar in games I recently played. God of War definitely used it to change colors and I seem to recall flickering a time or two out of the corner of my eye. Another prominent game I played recently did some similar things. Maybe Ghost of Tsushima or RE2... can’t remember.

In a way it’s a little distracting, but it’s also a nice touch when we’ll implemented

Better late then never @Ralizah but I got round to reading your Bowser's Fury review (I'm working my way through your galaxy one as soon as I post this!)

I've actually ended up watching some extended gameplay of Bowser's Fury so I actually know how this title plays out and the progression is handled in this compared to all the other mario games I've neither seen or played (but have an obvious gist of how they play seeing as they are just platformers).

First of all I very much approve of the usage of metal in the Fury Bowser segments. Very nice indeed! 😎 It did honestly throw me for a loop and a half though (especially the vocals which ended up reminding me a bit of FF X and the first appearance of Sin) as the first time you see him when you start up the mode it does have that rather lovely, albeit very ominous, orchestral track instead.

It's nice Bowser's Fury makes Boswer come off more like an actual threat rather then the bit of a nuiscance he's looks to been as of late (I mean he looks fairly nice in that Tux in odyssey... but it's not exactly very threatening)

Though the whole mechanic of having to wait for Bowser to fury to obtain certain cat shines does seem a bit obnoxious (and ironically make him a bit of a nuisance), especially if you don't have any Boswer amiibo that let you summon Fury Bowser at will.

The music you've posted is rather lovely indeed and some of the other stuff I've heard is fantastic too. And it does look very nice too and it's very cool to see them impliment a photo mode a too!

Uhhh... Yeah the whole everything being a cat thing is a bit overkill to say the least. Cat Mario has always looked a bit funny to me anyway for some reason... But yeah EVERYTHING being cat themed is kinda taking the piss 😅

The islands having mutiple varients to them with the various objectives seemlessly popping up as you return is really cool and well implimented I thought... Though the missions themselves do look a little repetitive at times (Like the cat & kitten missions you mentioned).

Overall very good stuff Ralizah with your review (Nice little bits on regarding it's perfomance as well) and glad to hear you enjoyed your time with it!

I finally finished reading your Super Mario Galaxy review as well @Ralizah and boy was it worth the wait! I don't have as much to say about this compared to Boswer's fury as I haven't seen any footage of it... But you've really made me want to try it out!

I loved the way you weaved the game's soundtrack throughout the review rather then just leaving it as a small section at the very end. It's very majestic, beautiful even, and suits the grandoise nature of the game and paired with your writing made it all the more enjoyable.

It's a very informative review that's filled to the brim with admiration for the title and you should really be proud Ral. Utterly fantastic.

Oh and you mentioned Galaxy 2 a couple of times in your review... Is the ommision of it from the 3D All Stars Collection come off as rather notable to you or are not quite as fond of the title?

Not so much a full review from me (as this isn't really where my skills lie!), but just thought I'd share some impressions on Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

So I spent a good chunk of my Christmas and New Year obsessing over the Uncharted series - eventually finishing six titles within as many weeks. Craving something similar, but having exhausted the series, I looked towards Tomb Raider. These two series are so often compared, plus I grew up with the original Core Design games and really enjoyed Tomb Raider 2013 when it first came out, so thought I'd give the modern trilogy a spin.

Tomb Raider (2013) still holds up well as a standalone title. Gameplay-wise it combines the combat and action setpieces that Uncharted is known for with wider spaces, backtracking, and RPG elements. Although I'd argue that Tomb Raider is weaker in the former (the combat is much easier and your encounters are usually briefer and simpler, and the action sequences generally aren't as diverse or exhilarating), the latter is a somewhat welcome addition that helps this game to carve its own identity. In particular the ability to gain skill points to enhance Lara's skills, as well as to collect salvage to modify your weapons, gave me an additional thing to look forward to while playing through the story. The world is littered with secrets to collect and reasons to backtrack if you're into that - but I'll get back to that in a second.

For me, the story is one of the stand-out features of this game. As a continuity reboot, this game seeks to explain how Lara became the eponymous Tomb Raider, through her fight for her and her crewmates' survival following a shipwreck on a mysterious island harbouring a murderous cult trying to resurrect an ancient queen. Playing as a less-experienced Croft does a lot to make the player feel more vulnerable - and for the first few hours of the game it maybe does feel a bit more survival horror than your typical tomb raiding (although, Tomb Raider as series did always have horror elements!). Overall the tone is much darker than Uncharted - the personal stakes are higher, the deaths are gorier (and allies aren't immune to death!), and even the colour palette is muted to go along with this. Journals add an extra dark layer to the story but, if I'm honest, I mostly skipped over these as I'd be keen to get to the next section.

And this is where my main criticism lies - pacing. This is probably all personal preference - but I found little to motivate me into exploring the wider world around me. Sure, if a secret tomb or chest was in my path, I would consider exploring it - but anything beyond that felt like a massive halt in the pace of the game. The game is a juxtaposition of very tense story-telling and open segments with backtracking and collectathon missions, which generally doesn't sit right with me. Luckily these things are optional, so I didn't have an issue skipping them.

Overall, this was a fairly solid game with fairly diverse gamplay elements that is made memorable by the tense situations that Lara is put in. Definitely a respectable start to a new continuity.

Rise of the Tomb Raider follows on from Tomb Raider (2013) by giving us Lara's first big adventure as the eponymous tomb raider. I'll keep things short and say that, while I generally enjoyed this game, I was left diappointed.

You may wonder why Lara has decided to go into tomb raiding following the disastrous events of the first game. In attempt to clear her late father's reputation as a crackpot historian, Lara ventures into Siberia to find the lost city of Kitezh, which he believed to hold the secret to immortality. Unfortunately she faces competition along the way, stumbling upon a military organisation known as Trinity which are willing to do whatever they can to obtain such a treasure. The story seems very cliche and...well, it is. Honestly I don't think it ever really gets better than that. There is some further drama between the characters along the way - but none of it is particularly compelling, nor does it come close to any of the character interactions of the Uncharted series (which I believe to be one of that series' strong points).

The gameplay is more of the same, except with some enhancements. Now more experienced, Lara now has access to a wider repertoire of tools for fighting (different arrow and bullet types) and climbing (climbing arrows, a grappling hook for swinging and making more difficult jumps) - these are welcome but fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. Puzzles seem to be more abundant - I'm fairly neutral on this, but this is a welcome addition for Tomb Raider veterans who enjoy the puzzle-focused nature of previous entries. However, probably the most notable change gameplay-wise is in the implementation of open spaces and resource gathering. Rise expands the crafting system from 2013 to include a number of resources - with different resources needed to craft different items. This adds an extra layer of complexity to anyone interested in crafting but, personally, this just made the process more tedious. Rather than appreciating the surroundings***, entering each area became a tedious process of using "survival instinct" to scan for, and gather, resources. Again, this was a massive break of pace in the game - much more so than 2013 - and worked to its detriment IMO.

*** To add - generally I found the environments in this game to be quite forgettable. I'm generally not a fan of snowy environments in games...and this game has a lot of it.

Altogether, while Rise of the Tomb Raider retains some of the core elements that keep me interested, it really went in a direction that was off-putting for me. I was motivated to finish the game to see where the story went, but also felt that it fell really flat.

So far these seem like good games that probably aren't 100% to my tastes.

I'm curious to know what direction Shadow of the Tomb Raider goes in, and whether it really is for me. Does it just go further into the things I was less keen on with Rise?

Again, I have no aversion to open world, collectathon, metroidvania, or RPG elements (some of my favourite games are in these genres!). Perhaps I've been coming in with the wrong mindset just off of Uncharted - looking for something that is as exciting, action-packed, and with as engaging (if cliched) a narrative.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks!

RE: Bowser's Fury: Yeah, the inclusion of metal was a pretty inspired choice as a way to add to the perceived danger of Fury Bowser. I think the segments would have worked out better overall if he was actually more of a threat, but, as with Galaxy, I think the koopa king is in top form here. He'd become quite defanged over years of overexposure in various games and spinoffs. Bowser's Fury makes him scary again, and I like that.

I'm a bit more mixed on the choice to connect levels seamlessly via an oceanic open world setting ala The Wind Waker, but it's definitely a refreshing break from the usual style of Mario game design. The best Mario games almost all take chances and try out weird new concepts.

RE: Galaxy: The music was just too good to stuff into one corner. It has one of the best video game OSTs of all time, and was a MASSIVE departure from the scores for previous Mario games, and Nintendo games in general.

As for Galaxy 2... it's not a bad game. A lot of people prefer it to the original, and I do understand their position, but, for me, the game removed way too much of what made Galaxy special. The melancholy, the sense of beauty, the space theme (aside from gravity manipulation mechanics, Galaxy 2 barely feels like a space-themed game at all) and the way new mechanics and level designs were integrated with that theme, the approach to level design in general... it streamlines or removes too much entirely. Honestly, despite the title, it feels much more like a predecessor to the 3D Land/World games than it does a successor to Mario Galaxy.

I do think Galaxy 2 is worth remembering, nonetheless, and I hope it gets ported to the Switch at some point for people who don't own a Wii.

@timleon You know, the more I read about the recent Tomb Raider games, the more I have to wonder why it's taking me such a long time to get to them. Because, frankly, the idea of an Uncharted-esque adventure game with actual exploration, wideness of level design, and light RPG elements seems splendid.

I'm bumping Tomb Raider 2013 up my list. Not least because I recently purchased the PS4 version on sale for cheaps.

Thanks for contributing your honest and well-thought-out feelings on these games!

@timleon Fantastic Tomb Raider reviews! I enjoyed reading them and can mostly agree with your well organized assessment. A few comments —
I do agree that, although there is a tendency for people to compare Tomb Raider with Uncharted (aka “Dude Raider” as someone recently remarked) they really are different styles of games. The Uncharted masterclass of breakneck pacing, cinematic moments, character interactions, and overall storytelling is not really the focus of Tomb Raider. I agree with you that the first TR game has a reasonably good narrative, but the style of game design means that the story unfolds in a less natural way and can be off-putting if a person is expecting that level of cliffhanging narrative. And I agree that, although I enjoyed Rise of the TR for what it was, I found the story to be the most forgettable and least engaging of the series. And I think it’s not necessarily the story’s fault, but as you eloquently explain in your review, it’s more because of the way the game unfolds it’s narrative in a rather start-and-stop style because of the interspersed survival elements. And I also have never been a fan of snowy settings in games. I’m glad I’m not the only one. I think it’s subconsciously why I could never get excited about the HZD expansion, but I digress...

As for Shadow of the TR, I’m sure you’ve heard or read by now that some of the criticisms you have of the first two games, Rise in particular, are less of a problem in Shadow. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that the exploration of areas feels more natural and each area you travel through seems to hold more interesting story elements and gameplay which is less tedious. At least that’s how I felt. It is still not like an Uncharted game, though. And although I liked the story miles better than the story in Rise, it isn’t one in which you’ll fall in love with character interactions and well fleshed-out relationships. But I really like the jungle setting a lot and the core conflict which drives Lara through the game. And the best part about it is that she returns to tomb raiding. It has the best tombs, puzzles, and exploration in the series. There is some combat and survival, yes, but it doesn’t feel like it gets in the way of the fun parts like climbing, discovery, and solving a satisfying ancient puzzle for treasure. Definitely let us know how you get along with it! I’m always glad to see new people discover these games!

@Ralizah @Th3solution Thanks for the feedback! It's my first time posting in this thread and quite nice to hear others' thoughts in relation to my experience.

@Ralizah I'd say give it a go! These are objectively great games, even if they don't do as much for me personally as the Uncharted games do. Did you play Lost Legacy? I really like how they approached more open level design in that title, but Tomb Raider goes a whole lot further.

@Th3solution Yeah, I tried not to be too harsh on these games as I was very much coming in from the perspective of Uncharted (this is partially why I was reluctant to call these reviews and more "impressions"...I don't doubt that my thoughts were coloured by my expectations going in!) Beyond the surface-level similarities, they are quite different. Funny you mention Horizon Zero Dawn actually - because in my mind, Tomb Raider really feels like a hybrid of Uncharted and Horizon. Unfortunately, I just love the latter two much more - I feel they do a better job at being what they try to be, whereas, while taking elements from both, I never felt that Tomb Raider reached the heights of either game.

Great to hear about Shadow though, and that really makes me keen to try it soon (after maybe a week's break...). I've actually heard very little about it. A jungle biome is appealing, as my favourite memories from the old Tomb Raider games largely lie in Tomb Raider 2's Great Wall and especially Tomb Raider 3's India. What you describe actually sounds reminiscent of my earlier experiences of the series!

@RogerRoger Good to hear your view! I'm actually quite excited to try out Shadow after these comments...might give it a solid go this weekend!

@RogerRoger So this is the GBA game you were playing! I'll admit, the music you posted sounds pretty good, and would serve well to get the juices flowing.

I'm definitely sharing in that experience of fully completing games I've beaten but never seen all of in the past more recently. Given my recent completionist streak, the way I used to play games feels shockingly haphazard by comparison.

While I play almost no licensed games, I do kind of miss these smaller, bespoke portable versions of games. Even if I find the Switch's ability to play full fat modern home console games away from the TV to be insanely impressive, there's definitely a sacrifice insofar as an entire type of video game has effectively vanished. It's increasingly looking like the 3DS was the swan song for dedicated handhelds as a whole, and, with them, the types of games that would only be made for and released on low-resolution handheld devices.

Those screenshots look amazing, by the way. Did you find them online somewhere?

An impressive piece, as usual. If I ever get around to rebuilding my GBA collection, I'll absolutely keep an eye out for this game, as it sounds like a lot of fun, unnecessary headaches aside.