Recent reviews by The-Game-Warden

There are definitely performance problems at the time of this review and the game feels a bit more empty for some reason than the Arkham Batman games. With that said the game is beautiful and I was able to play Co-op on day 1 without any noticeable technical issues.

A few quality of life improvements I'd like to see in the game are being able to teleport to my Co-op partner, being able to grapple to get on my bike, be able to use taxis and other vehicles as ramps. Right now if you drive onto another vehicle the bike just stops most of the time.

Yes, the game is a mobile port, but I think at this point everyone knows that. My expectations were pretty low going into this game, but it was at least interesting enough for me to complete the game which is more than I can say about a lot of $10 games. So, if you're considering playing it just keep your expectations that this is essentially a mobile game from almost 10 years ago as of this review. It also probably goes without saying that you could probably wait for it to be on sale.

Very addictive management game!

I'm about a third of the way through the game and can say that if you liked the other two games like I did then this is more of the same with additional abilities for Lara.

If you enjoyed the first installment you'll enjoy this one as it's much of the same stuff. The story is pretty good too! :)

This is a great engine with an even better price (free and open source)! While it is still lacking some features, the pace of development has been very rapid over the last year or two and is catching up very quickly to other game engines and has surpassed probably most primarily indie engines.

Simple, fun, physics puzzler. Relaxing most of the time. A few puzzles are fairly tricky, but most of them are just relaxing fun.

Yes, this minimalistic, yet not overly simplistic puzzle game was definitely worth more than the $3.39 I spent on it. While not your 3rd person Tomb Raider game, the type of gameplay feels 100% proper to the series. Especially if you enjoyed Hitman GO or the other GO games from Squeenix you'll definitely enjoy this puzzle game.

If you love open world games you'll most likely enjoy the unique environment and gameplay of this game. It's both fun and unique to have a car (that you can upgrade) as a one of the primary forms of combat. The game is a bit short compared to most other open world games. I have ~35 hours as of this review and cleared everything except for the challenges (I have all but 1 achievement). But, the shorter game is probably for the best since the desert does get a little bit old after a while, no shock there, right? I think the game is just the right length that the visuals don't lose their appeal. Any longer and it probably would have gotten pretty old, pretty fast. There isn't much to say for the story. If you've watched the first Mad Max movie, there are some homages to it, but there isn't much of a story otherwise.

Overall, it's a very fun game as far as gameplay goes, but with a story that lacks much depth. I personally found the comments on the relics the be more interesting than the main story because they give you the backstory of the game in a way that lets you imagine how events unfolded.

So, to sum up:

1) Fun gameplay
2) You get to beef up your car to make combat more effective
3) Short, shallow story
4) Shorter game, but probably for the best

Overall, I would definitely recommend this game to a friend, especially if it was on sale, but even at the current full price of $20 I think it's worth it.

If you aren't already aware, Mankind Divided picks up where Human Revolution left off. Being a huge fan of Human Revolution, and playing through it 3 times, I can say that I also love this game. My first playthrough was in "Give Me Deus Ex" mode. If you've played HR, there's no reason why you shouldn't give yourself more of a challenge. I tried to get several achievements such as "Pacifist" and "Foxiest of the Hounds" and ended up spending over 50 hours in a single playthrough. I didn't get the latter as I must have set off an alarm somewhere. Do car alarms count?

There are many reviews about gameplay that you have already read. It has received a lot of criticism. I will try and address why I disagree (at least partly) with the critisisms below, as well as offer my thoughts as to why I think it let some people down, so that you won't be disappointed when playing it.

#1 - The game offers in app purchases.

* I do agree that $60 AAA games shouldn't offer in app purchases, please let's stop the madness! However, to be fair, they don't put it in your face or beg you to spend more money. If I didn't know it offered IAPs ahead of time, I wouldn't have gone looking for the menu, and probably would have never seen it. As of this review I have put in 56+ hours into the game and have seen the IAP menu once, because I went looking for it.

#2 - The game has too many loose endings.

* I'm not sure why people say this. The game wraps up quite nicely. At the beginning of the game you find out that Jensen has experimental augs and you never really find out from where. But, this is all to setup a third game, and it's dead obvious that this is what it's for. There is a surprise cliffhanger in the middle of the ending credits regarding these augs, but again, this is to setup a third game and is quite exciting to know that the developers want to continue the story! :) However, if you follow the main storyline from the intro mission in Dubai all the way to the end, it wraps the primary story up, while leaving just as much mystery as Human Revolution did when it ended. You didn't think that Pancea was the ultimate goal of the Illuminati at the end of HR, did you? Of course not :)

#3 - The game just doesn't have the same mood as HR.

* You're right, and I suppose this is due to the fact that HR is consistently dark all the way through the game, however, MD starts out in the middle of the day which makes the mood a little lighter and much more settling. Don't get too settled in though, the mood does change from there and I think is a great storytelling element far superior to HR :)

#4 - The gameplay feels identical to HR.

I hope that nobody who makes this comment also thinks Mass Effect 2 or 3 were great games, because they suffer from the exact same problem, but I would argue they were worse in this area. That's not saying those two games are bad, they aren't, but for some reason people holds this game to a different standard.

#5 - Unstable and buggy.

* I only had one crash bug that got fixed when I was about half way through the game. The developers obviously want a high quality game and didn't just put it out and just rake in the cash. Some advice... don't buy games (or anything technology related) shortly after they release! I'd think this would be common sense by now, but apparently not. Wait a few months. If you wait, the bugs will get ironed out and you'll end up paying less for the game. The same goes for new CPUs, GPUs, games, software, etc. If you get something immediately when it comes out, expect bugs, including major ones.

Overall, I really loved the game and am going to play through it again. I can understand some of the critisisms above, but many of them I believe are from people setting their expectations far too high, or getting on the hype train. Also, I hate to say it, but I think we are at a point where games are getting large and complex enough that you can expect bugs for the first few months after release. This is just how software is. Early adopters always get bitten by bugs, and games are no different. If you want to have a more bug free experience when playing games, then wait at least 3-6 months until after a game is released.

To cap it off I would like to add in something I did miss from HR (Director's Cut). I really enjoyed the Director's Cut boss battles. They were like challenging/intense milestones that helped break up the story, but also offered a non-frontal assault approach to defeating the bosses. I know this makes it harder with the "Pacifist" style gameplay/achievement, but if you can't figure anything out, adding that "bosses don't count" again is perfectly acceptable, at least to me. :)

[Update] Now that I've also played through the "Criminal Past" DLC I can say that it feels like a fun, unique, standalone DX game where you can literally play through it with the old Aug system from HR, or the new Aug system from MD, or no Augs at all. I've also played through the two other DLC missions and enjoyed them as well. Finally, Breach mode, although not my favorite of what DX:MD has to offer, is quite fun too and adds even more gameplay if you want more DX style gameplay.