Recent reviews by David 'Gadi' Assis

This is a game based on an original property of one of the biggest brands of pop culture, the standards are high, Insomniac and Nixxes did a great job, it's a swinging success.
There’s no reason to pass on this if you are into adventure games, as it stands, it’s a solid port, the definitive version of this hit action-adventure game.

The narrative is reinforced by a solid bit of world building, the streets of New York feel alive as pedestrians go about their business, the representation of day, night and in-between especially emphasized the verisimilitude of spidey’s neighborhood.

The combat is proficient and is easily bouncing from opponent to opponent, a nice list of unlockable skills and gadgets bolsters an already decent move set. Even if you’re not a massive fan of superheroes, Spider-Man Remastered has a narrative with story beats that many will be able to enjoy and relate to, it’s the most realistic Spider-Man experience out of the comics.

However, it has it's flaws as everything, if you play it a while, you'll start to see its failures, in short, Spider-Man's open world design is a missed opportunity, isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but as an open world it is very oriented to the main mission, you can't interact with what it could have to offer, the high bar set in the main plot shines a harsher light on the rest of the game's activities, these don't have the same narrative energy as the main throughline, some of the side quests with the time passed might get tedious, but most of what is available entertains thanks to how great it feels to be Spider-Man. This is especially true when it comes to the more action-oriented segments and running around the city.

The worse segment of the game is when you'll be playing as MJ or Miles Morales.
These sections aren’t engaging, to me it was the big downside of the entire game.

Overall a recommended game, you won't regret buying if you are looking for fun, it's a good game, but not 'overwhelmingly' so.

As good as it gets.

Meme soundboard.

I'm writing recommending it, however I've finished it having several issues regarding this game.

Although Yakuza 5 never attempts to be a real simulation of life in Japan, the areas of selective realism within are one of its biggest draws. Yakuza 5 takes what Yakuza 4 accomplished and amplifies everything in it to create a very ambicious game with a brand new experience that is bigger and better than before. It is to this date the biggest Yakuza title and contains the most playable characters.

Still, it doesn't surprass some of the best titles in the franchise, one of the reasons I could say is because it's a case where it becomes too much of everything that it starts to cause issues.

Yakuza 5’s story is massive. The major backdrop for much of Yakuza 5’s story, however, each character has a personal story that will weave into a full narrative in the final sections. Just like Yakuza 4, this title has segments with each of the characters, as they get their own section of the story (including Haruka).

The experience of each story i'd say is good, but besides the pacing where the game has to restart the story three times with entirely new characters and no firm connection between them, Yakuza 5 also has a bigger issue. Yakuza 5 is a very long game. If played at a reasonable pace and doing side missions, you are very likely going to spend at least fifty hours, with the ease of getting distracted, it’s more likely that you will spend more.

In the beginning the game has a good pace, you are getting settled on a new enviroment never presented before, however as you go by the characters, each time the narrative escalate and you end up with a lack of pace and a rather large finale. At this point you pretty much forgot the thread of the story.

Aside from the pace in the end of the game, another issue is that it has a lack of cohesion, Yakuza 5 tend to hard cut each time you are finishing a segment with a character. Each character’s section starts with a hard stop and feels like the game is starting over, Yakuza 4 had this issue, but you are going to feel it much more in Yakuza 5. There are some other issues, like focusing on sequences that add very little to the story, it all could be put as side quests.

In the finale, characters show up and you might forget who they were or what their relevance was. This is even true for the final boss which feels like a character who comes out of nowhere.

As for the gameplay, there’s more variety with each fighting style this time, a firm effort has been made to make each character unique, and it has paid off, giving four distinct brawlers, which becomes more noticeable once players use these characters back to back in the final segment where they are with their full abilities. One point noted, each corner of the map there's a fight, too many random battles, it's too much, even if you want to farm exp you will eventually get tired of it.

As I wrote above, the game forces you on sequences that add very little to the story, I’ve always been a big fan of the mini-games in the franchise and I do enjoy the majority of them, however with the massive sum of time already in the story, the fact that the story feels like it’s needlessly adding them to pad the run time, you start to question yourself if it is really necessary. Putting a mini-game on the player’s path makes it less special than if players accidentally stumble upon a mini-game.

The newer cities are smaller than previous locations but they are fresh additions to the game and one that helps Yakuza 5 feel brand new even with the game using a similar progression to the previous games.

Ultimately Yakuza 5 struggles more due to how much it tries to do, rather than any specific action it takes. It’s just too long of a game to be executed properly as it was planned, and with the depth and breadth of the gameplay offered, something had to give.

Yakuza 5 though is an enjoyable experience for that I recommend it. The story is interesting once players can piece it all together over the long run time, the gameplay is engaging, you feel like some of it could have been better executed, It’s strange to both want more challenging content for each character, while calling out the length of the game, but that’s where we wind up with Yakuza 5.

Cowabunga, dude!

This game will hit you hard with nostalgia because it's a great throwback if you were growing up as a child in the 90's.

Shredder’s Revenge is full of all sorts of winks and nods to the arcade games that inspired it, but it smartly doesn’t chain itself to them. Arcade beat-em-ups were originally designed to suck as many quarters as they could from the pockets of players, and thus have inherited a tendency to limit your ability to get out of the way of attacks or ramp up the difficulty without also ramping up your own power. Shredder’s Revenge changes all of that, as the turtles and friends can now freely dodge roll left and right; they can hold the attack button down to charge up attacks, which also has the added bonus of letting them take damage without flinching.

Story Mode augments the game with a city map over-world, where stages can be revisited to complete challenges, uncover hidden items and reveal character cameos. The system here features a smart peripheral RPG element, whereby you convert accrued points into additional health, upgraded supers, enhanced abilities and even extra lives. The aim is to incrementally power up the entire team while working through the collectathon objectives, if you want a challenge you can try arcade mode which is the classic experience — limited lives, no saves.

It's satisfying to take out a huge wave of soldiers on your own or with a friend, regardless of how it’s accomplished.
This is a good example of how to breathe new life into a classic arcade beat-em-up. Very well recommended.

I had a blast.

The second of three titles collectively known as The Yakuza Remastered Collection changes things up in dramatic fashion after the laborious Yakuza 3, it’s a much more enjoyable game for the average player in both gameplay and story.

Four heroes! We have not one, but four protagonists to run around Kamurocho with, all with a unique fun approach to combat, their own sidecontent and a unique outlook on not just the story, but the world around them. Kamurocho itself becomes a fresh face again, new areas to explore and character-specific routes give a lot to hand a newfound appreciation to the district. Entertainment wise, this will gripped you as much as the other titles did.

About the story and narrative, you know what to expect and I can assure you it won't disappoint. The story is again as usual very good and intriguing with plot-twists, melodramatic moments and of course, action, lots of violence. It starts with a very good pace and the longer you play the more complicated it becomes and it lasts until the very end. Honour, love, betrayal, death, friendship – you'll witness all of these. The franchise signature.

I would say the downside is having to introduce a new character multiple times throughout the game, altough the experience feels fresh, it might feel a bit down since you have to start from the bottom and learn how to play each time. The use of multiple protagonists also interrupts the flow of the overall plot. While it starts out very strong in the individual chapters, it goes completely off the rails by the end of the game, with way too many tangents.

Gameplay-wise controls are more responsive and the game isn't as janky as Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 feels more fluid and welcoming to players, overall i'ts a slight improvement over Yakuza 3. Some of the new features in the series is introduced here, you now can climb on roofs and explore the underground of Kamurocho. Like always you're bombarded by substories, some good, some really fun, some weird. If you've played it's previous titles you already know what to expect.

As a remastered title, graphically it looks slightly better than Yakuza 3 as well.
In general they're very similar when it comes to looks. The city looks improved and character models are slightly better, pretty decent considering it was a PS3 release game. Sound as usual is very good, a large variety of music, voice acting sounds great, believable and dramatic.

Part of the fun of playing a compilation of remasters is that you get a chance to see how the series evolved overtime.

Overall a very good game despite some downsides, it does not show its age as poorly as Yakuza 3 does. Good character design and story outweigh the negatives by a large margin.

If you play through this series blind, as always you'll gain an unforgettable experience.

After the full remakes of Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2, it now means that Yakuza 3 is the weakest technologically. The remaster improves a good number of environmental and key character textures, but it's very clear this is an earlier title.

Altough Yakuza 3 is not quite as grandiose as the aforementioned entries, there's definitely a charm on it, this is the game that laid the foundations for the later entries, it's somewhat a different tonally from 0 and the Kiwami remakes, life in Okinawa is a bit of a different beast to the seedier parts of Tokyo, spending time in Downtown Ryukyu is a lovely change of pace from the bright lights of Kamurocho. Kyriu is different from what he was, it is great to see Kiryu in a different light.

Rest assured, that is just the beggining, there are those that love the change of pace and those that dislike the elongated length. I'm with the second portion, most downside to me was how it's pace is slow, but Yakuza 3 isn't a ‘bad’ game, as soon as you progress throught the game you are back at what you love in the franchise, an open-world crime drama with a large emphasis on gritty storytelling, hilarious substories, and allowing you to feel like a walking tank whenever you wander the streets of your chosen city, kicking the hell out of anyone that stands in your way. Upon your return to Kamurocho is where things pick back up plot-wise.

I tend to agree that it is one of the weakest in the series, the combat show their age and the enemies block too often, if you played another Yakuza before that it's definitely a let down. But it is still a solid entry and worth playing through to see the foundations of Kiryu’s later life beginning.

If you are invested in Kiryu's story, then skipping this game is a no go, each game builds and develops the world of yakuza and Kiryu. As with any Yakuza games, it's a novel story.

A fantastic action adventure game with great narrative, art direction, beauty and chaos.

Instead of being a story solely about the trials Kratos faces, this one has its quiet moments, Kratos's backstory makes him almost the original sad murder dad of games, and while his previous adventures were sort of peak Degeneration X in their tone, in this God of War it foregrounds him being a father. His relationship with Atreus, his struggle to know what being a good dad might mean, and to express love in a way his son understands, is the heart of the game.

The unreal setting for it disappears behind the amazing performances of the voice actors, just being a man and a boy who don't understand each other, but want to. It starts from things like Kratos hesitating to show his son affection, to Atreus struggling with the sheer amount of violence that’s required of him, to Atreus commenting on events, expressing admiration for a particularly good shot, or defeating an enemy. As the game goes on, he ask for advices or disagree with Kratos more openly, seek approval, or gently make fun of his old dad. In return, Kratos gives approval, begins to respect Atreus's skills, and smiles.

They meet each other somewhere in the middle, balancing pragmatism and empathy. In the end of it all, this game is a story about family. You see their relationship everywhere in the game. In the architecture of ruined temples, in the side quests you're given, in every single supporting character who seems to be paired up with a family member somehow, a mirror of Kratos & son. It affects in the narrative how you fight, how you explore, how you interact with other characters.

They’re themes that have been dealt with in games before, but the subtlety with which God of War expresses them is incredibly well-written. For a series that began on PlayStation 2 with Kratos fighting a hydra on roaring seas as a ship crumbles around them, it’s fitting that now, almost two decades later, the most important moments of God of War are no longer found in the magnificent boss battles and set pieces, but simply from the conversation between a father and his son, a dialog while they are sailing slowly toward their goal.

It's an example that a game doesn't necessarily need a complex synopsis, but an execution well done.

The combat is also extremely fun, a complete overhaul and revitalization from it's previous games, unlike anything that’s come before.

God of War on PC is also the definitive way to play, it’s more than worth going back to play even if you played it previously on console. It excells as an excellent port, God of War never looked better, bringing into sharp relief an art style that’s colourful, brutal and incredibly inventive with practically faultless performance, even on a machine that isn’t at the absolute bleeding edge of PC technology.

If you are into story-driven games you shouldn't miss it out.
An absolutely essential game.

Trash stuff.

It's a good game, but not what they were selling.