Recent reviews by tobi_rules

If I didn’t have complete and utter faith in Hideo Kojima, Norman Reedus, and Mads Mikkelsen, I don’t think I would ever have played this game, but give it a chance! One of the best original stories I have ever played if not the best.

I almost want to cry trying to comment on the story Ha ha hah… this is so difficult to sensibly put into words…The world is set after what could be referred to as an extinction event, death now transcends all understanding with people needing to be burnt to prevent further casualties lest they be swallowed by the death stranding which are entities similar in shape to humans now tied to the world through what resembles an umbilical cord pervading the earth, and wherever they are unique weather phenomena called time fall also persists causing rapid time acceleration or aging wherever the rain touches.

The world unequipped to deal with this event found its infrastructure rapidly destroyed and the nations people withdrawn into themselves, cut off from all others. You follow the story of Sam Porter Bridges a man with psychological conditions that he finds best enables him to live by transporting packages when no one else would risk venturing into the now harsh world, and living alone. Despite this his history ties him to a greater fate and destiny than he would like to acknowledge. As Sam comes to grips with this destiny, the player helps to shape the world into one connected through technology now possible due to the new connection with time and death.

Ultimately this story, despite how drastically differently the people of the world perceive it, revolves around death and understanding one self. Help Sam keep on keeping on towards a brighter future for himself and others, and eventually help him keep the bonds with others he so cherishes, by battling the terrain, people lost in their ways, death itself, through blood, sweat…. And ♥♥♥♥.

That is how I would try and summarise the task in playing through the story. I will say this, it really is an interesting story if you give it a chance, and invest yourself in it.

I almost feel level design is not the right word to use, as it is more like world design. Death stranding almost exclusively occurs outside in an open world environment. The reason for this being Sam’s job and life occurs outside. This being the case the designers developed a variety of terrain for the players to traverse as opposed to simpler level design such as buildings or more structures in a flatter open world with less intricacies focused on the outside than in.

Sam therefore has the challenge of having to move across a world that is entirely uneven and natural, as opposed to manoeuvring the typically unnaturally flat designed worlds like GTAV. As such the physics and mechanics of the world centre mostly around how you traverse in the world to overcome the terrain to get to your destination, and how Sam does this is up to the player and the tools they have on them, or at their disposal. The game has been likened to walking simulator as quite rightly, you are having to manage aspects of life closer to walking in the real world then most other objectives in games you would come across. This however should not be considered a negative, and no less challenging than other platforming games as the management of the items Sam has to bring with him to his destination require pristine treatment as the recipient needs those items. Risk jumping across a crevasse with a 15 metre drop? Well that would probably kill you if you don’t land it first off, and what about the 50 kg’s worth of packages on your back? Maybe take the long way, or use a ladder, or use a rope to get down and out, or jump it using a specially made exoskeleton to enforce your physical capabilities, or maybe try using a bike in rugged or slippery terrain? All comes with risks and rewards and is cleverly thought out. As you get on later in the game you have access to more infrastructure better enabling travel by vehicle, foot, or other means.

The level of gameplay variety is a bit hard to cover entirely, but assuming you understand the level design, and how it implies careful management of Sam’s body and physical capabilities we can move on past those interactions with the world itself and onto more normal aspects of gameplay with enemies and tools outside the traversal section.

So death stranding has two or three main types of enemies, simply put, humans and death stranding entities. Human enemies typically relate to mules and they are motivated by greed of taking things from you, the game means this literally… maybe if you have nothing on you, they do not bother you. Aside from this there are terrorists… which kind want to kill you, so yeah it is all in the name with human characters. A variety of methods exists for both sides with how to deal with your human counter parts, keeping in mind a lethal take down has extreme repercussions by which I mean the death stranding kind of eventually causes an eruption equal to a nuclear crater. So non lethal is typically the way to go. With this being the case the player can choose to knock out, incapacitate, electrocute, or otherwise disable human players to progress through territories under enemy control. Doing so on a wide scale has benefits of allowing npc porters to traverse more safely as well as automated systems to traverse more safely.

The player has access to a variety of tools to effect the engagement, ranging from movement support on the terrain for greater manoeuvrability with your package load… no innuendos please, as well as the weapons themselves, with non-lethal grenades, rope close quarters combat, firearms a variety, bola gun for non lethal, and use of your BB… a baby biological tool that senses death stranding and operates your terrain detector and flashlight… yeah no good way to say that. Stealth is always an option, but your enemies have detection tools and traps too. Keeping in mind what you use incorporates into what you must carry means you must always maintain a well kept inventory to make sure you are not overloading yourself or crippling your ability to reach your end goal.

Touching now on the death stranding, the unique aspect of this game is how you go about defeating death in a way. How you achieve this is ultimately a spoiler in the story, but suffice to say it is all down to Sam. You are able to make some serious weapons that allow you to deal serious damage to these monsters, however it costs resources to make these like everything sometimes you are better off trying to avoid a fight and running.

Graphics in the game are important but only so much in allowing you to experience the world in all it offers with its various visual effects made through particle physics, cloth physics, water physics, etc . It is quite obviously a natural beauty game presenting some of the best environments for pictures the gaming world has to offer yet, rivalling Red Dead Redemption and surpassing it in some aspects.

In regards to the sound, it has some very unique and well made folly sounds, with a lot of effort being made to increase the immersion of the player in the world. Keeping in mind that the game has few sections in which music is played, but when it does are often well chosen moments and make for a very touching or emotional scene.

I suppose voice acting and animations deserve a mention, which I will quickly sum up as superb, and is like watching a movie at times. Motion capture is really well implemented.

A 10/10 game for me and all round experience. Delving into and exploring all the mechanics makes the game, and even just exploring it causally for the sake of exploring is a pleasant experience. At times it does not feel like a game.

My time in Hogwarts Legacy has been memorable, marvellous, and magical... and yet also mediocre, misguided and monotonous.

The world building in this game is of course fantastical, with the setting that Harry Potter books describe, it is hard not to be successful, yet inspired games are the majority of most Harry Potter games I have played. Hogwarts Legacy actually succeeds in bring the imagination alive with Hogwarts itself and a few choice locations in the world whose ambience was successfully illustrated to the players great satisfaction. I believe the world is the greatest selling point of this game, and considering how much time you spend in it, a good thing indeed.

This for me is where the positives end, in my opinion... however I imagine for most, some of the points I bring up will still be attractive to the average gamer.

The gameplay I would describe as easily accessible to anyone picking up this game for the first time. With multiple difficulties available to choose from affecting neither story or achievements, anyone can jump in. I personally like a bit of a challenge though, and found that starting the game was as difficult as it got. The more you progress the greater the tools and spells you have access to, some of which in my opinion are so overpowered that playing with them takes the fun out of it. For others this will be good news but I personally found it to be unbalanced. That said it is still fun blasting enemies with your multitude of spells in various combinations to achieve increasingly damaging affects.

Aside from spell casting combat which has colour coded parse checking for the spells you use... which fine, its so anyone could get it, there is some level of quick time events, with perfect block mechanics, but it is so easy to do I felt the reward for succeeding in anything becoming rather mundane. There is some flight sequences side quests, but mostly it serves as an increased movement function. There is like one mini-game which I found lack lustre, and a large amount of frankly simple puzzle solving, with maybe one or two optional exceptions you may never come across if you aren't going out of your way.

There is unfortunately a lot of progression related blocking in the game right from the get go, where you have to progress in the story to have the necessary abilities to do certain things... The reasons for this decision make no reasonable sense as you are a student studying magic... you have next to no choice on when you study things or what, as looking into your curriculum is entirely out of your hands, which really breaks immersion and frustrates the player as it means a lot of back tracking for things that could otherwise have been done when the player comes across it.

There are some good characters and great voice acting, but ultimately the story is pretty linear with no player choice to speak of, and where there is choice it has no overarching affect on the game except in like two situations I can think of. Both towards the end of the game.

It's a pretty brute force plot, with mcguffins a plenty. You can't expect too much when they are inserting characters into an already established world, with a story that has no affect on the universe.

You might like some characters but you probably won't care about whats going on with the story.

Character customisation is pretty good I think. A wide variety of clothing options... but you have to unlock or find them. The character creator is okay, I think it could be worse, and it could be better.

Sound design is actually very in tune with the movies, and I enjoyed the ambient music and sound effects. It isn't overly complicated, and has little bearing on assisting you in terms of gameplay but it is okay.

Level Design... oh dear, some of the choices made in terms of level design were crap, some were brilliant. Hogwarts for example, bloody fantastic! A veritable treasure trove of nooks and cranny's to explore, everywhere you go there is a call back to the books in some fashion, and it is a delight to just wander around... the over arching world leaves something to be desired, though the general appearance is well done in terms of English and Scottish countryside. When it comes to "dungeons" or smaller single instance locations, then it kind of breaks down. No really memorable places, with 90% of them being uninspired caves. Some of the puzzles are nice, but none overly difficult, so none are really rewarding... well for me anyway, very accessible to all ages though.

I wouldn't play this game for the gameplay. Play it for the world, it's individual characters, and then get out. You do not stand to benefit trying to treat this as an expansive game with a level of challenge befitting something with an in depth combat system, branching story lines which reward you for time invested or for anything else you might expect this game to be. Harry Potter fans, you can have a field day I am sure!
6/10

“I WANT SPIDER-MAN!”

(Say it in J.K. Simmons’ voice. If you don’t know who that is, you do, you just haven’t googled him yet) 10/10


One of my favourite lines from the first Sam Reimi Spider-man film with Tobi McGuire, among so many. Return to the Spider-Man universe and be giddy with web headed joy! For NOW , is the time to swing into the tight spandex suit that is Spider-Man. Please read on, as I delve into why we at the Daily Bugle think you should play this Game!

Do you, like myself, have a childhood steeped in Spider-man related films and games, that to this day remain a core memory? If so, then I imagine, like me, you look back upon those simpler times and think, “ah the epitome of gaming and film”, where games made from movies were actually enjoyable! Go figure! Well, finally you can live that fantasy you always had to swing around as the web-head himself, your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man! “Took them long enough though, I feel as old as the vulture having waited for this game”

Swing with glorious acrobatic grace from building to building in the city of dreams, New York! A beautiful and meticulously crafted landscape for we gamers to enjoy, and immersive for those invested in the marvel universe. With content up the ying yang, you can find call backs and references galore to your favourite spiderman hangouts, and other marvel allies, just one swing and a zip round the corner. The environment is so well designed yet so easy to overlook, considering it is such a beautiful game, because there is always something to do or see as you are playing it, that I found myself wanting to slow down and enjoy the scenery.

Are you well versed in one sided beat downs? Do you feel sorry for NPC’s that don’t know how many bones there are in the human body to break? Do you have no regard for throwing public property and household waste at peopl- I mean criminals!? Well, congrats! because you already have the mindset of being a menac- I mean Spider-man! Catapult yourself (and other criminals where applicable), with a vast array of torture dev- I mean gadgets! At the disposal of your totally ”FRIENDLY” and not SADISTIC at all neighbourhood Spider-man! Dance around New York’s roof tops in scintillating style demonstrating a devil may care attitude to criminals in one of the best combat systems to date, use fists, gadgets, or the environment to rack up numerous counts of assaul- I mean numerous arrests! Seriously though, regardless of your experience, the game is really easy to learn and a joy to master.


From the frankly devious minds of insomniac studios, witness perfection with the wonderfully timed audio and visual cues, where if you don’t know about a rocket that’s going to explode in your face in the next second with the plethora of hints the game gives you, it is probably because you have a serious problem with beating up “criminals”… seriously get some help, it is not okay to beat people to an inch of their life and then “web them up”… you menace!… All jokes aside, the mood music complements the vast array of sounds and down to earth visuals, which really immerse you in the world along with relatable characters which are brought to life by the realistic style, brilliant voice acting, and motion capture that bleeds the love and care of the developers. I found myself stopping to listen or do all optional dialogues purely because they are so well spoken, and dear god, props to insomniac for the writing behind J Jonah Jameson, I split my sides too often laughing at his lines ha ha ha!

So, do you have what it takes? If you think you do, then consider applying now to the Daily Bugle where you could work directly under award win—sorry, two time, awarding winning Journalist J Jonah Jameson, and get your proverbial butt chewed out every second of the day because you have a proBLEM JONAH! AN ANGER PROBLEM!... I QUIT!... OH WHAT?! THAT A “SHOCKER” TO HEAR, OR MAYBE YOU JUST THINK I AM BEING A “MR. NEGATIVE”, WELL TOO BAD! NOBODY CAN ENDURE WHAT HAS CRAWLED UP YOUR A** AND IT ISN’T THE WEB CRAWLER! GOOD DAY TO YOU SIRRrrrr!

Regardless of your age or blood pressure, you will look forward to playing this after a long day, where you just want to be entertained, because what you really need, and perhaps didn’t know you even wanted, is a witty web headed wall crawler wiping the floor with a bunch of wanton criminals, cracking jokes like your anxiety does in a Zoom meeting, where you were supposed to be leading the call, but forgot to prepare not one iota worth of information to share with the group… Yeah, that’s totally not a real life scenario…

Anyway, hope you enjoy the game, PEACE!

A nice and simple mahjong game to play with your friends, that said it helps to have some fore knowledge as it doesn't teach you anything

I played this originally on console, but wanted to relive the experience... instead I run into multiple bugs and game breaking stuff on the first mission... so if you are going to buy be aware you might run into issues.

That said if it works it is a wonderful game with some truly memorable moments, there is a reason why it has memes made after it. The gameplay does rock when it works and a fairly good sound track to boot... shame I can't experience it again, but oh well.

Gosh I am annoyed I can't play it

If I didn’t have complete and utter faith in Hideo Kojima, Norman Reedus, and Mads Mikkelsen, I don’t think I would ever have played this game, but give it a chance! One of the best original stories I have ever played if not the best.

Story
I almost want to cry trying to comment on the story Ha ha hah… this is so difficult to sensibly put into words…The world is set after what could be referred to as an extinction event, death now transcends all understanding with people needing to be burnt to prevent further casualties lest they be swallowed by the death stranding which are entities similar in shape to humans now tied to the world through what resembles an umbilical cord pervading the earth, and wherever they are unique weather phenomena called time fall also persists causing rapid time acceleration or aging wherever the rain touches.

The world unequipped to deal with this event found its infrastructure rapidly destroyed and the nations people withdrawn into themselves, cut off from all others. You follow the story of Sam Porter Bridges a man with psychological conditions that he finds best enables him to live by transporting packages when no one else would risk venturing into the now harsh world, and living alone. Despite this his history ties him to a greater fate and destiny than he would like to acknowledge. As Sam comes to grips with this destiny, the player helps to shape the world into one connected through technology now possible due to the new connection with time and death.

Ultimately this story, despite how drastically differently the people of the world perceive it, revolves around death and understanding one self. Help Sam keep on keeping on towards a brighter future for himself and others, and eventually help him keep the bonds with others he so cherishes, by battling the terrain, people lost in their ways, death itself, through blood, sweat…. And ♥♥♥♥.

That is how I would try and summarise the task in playing through the story. I will say this, it really is an interesting story if you give it a chance, and invest yourself in it.

Level design
I almost feel level design is not the right word to use, as it is more like world design. Death stranding almost exclusively occurs outside in an open world environment. The reason for this being Sam’s job and life occurs outside. This being the case the designers developed a variety of terrain for the players to traverse as opposed to simpler level design such as buildings or more structures in a flatter open world with less intricacies focused on the outside than in.

Sam therefore has the challenge of having to move across a world that is entirely uneven and natural, as opposed to manoeuvring the typically unnaturally flat designed worlds like GTAV. As such the physics and mechanics of the world centre mostly around how you traverse in the world to overcome the terrain to get to your destination, and how Sam does this is up to the player and the tools they have on them, or at their disposal. The game has been likened to walking simulator as quite rightly, you are having to manage aspects of life closer to walking in the real world then most other objectives in games you would come across. This however should not be considered a negative, and no less challenging than other platforming games as the management of the items Sam has to bring with him to his destination require pristine treatment as the recipient needs those items. Risk jumping across a crevasse with a 15 metre drop? Well that would probably kill you if you don’t land it first off, and what about the 50 kg’s worth of packages on your back? Maybe take the long way, or use a ladder, or use a rope to get down and out, or jump it using a specially made exoskeleton to enforce your physical capabilities, or maybe try using a bike in rugged or slippery terrain? All comes with risks and rewards and is cleverly thought out. As you get on later in the game you have access to more infrastructure better enabling travel by vehicle, foot, or other means.

Gameplay
The level of gameplay variety is a bit hard to cover entirely, but assuming you understand the level design, and how it implies careful management of Sam’s body and physical capabilities we can move on past those interactions with the world itself and onto more normal aspects of gameplay with enemies and tools outside the traversal section.

Enemies
So death stranding has two or three main types of enemies, simply put, humans and death stranding entities. Human enemies typically relate to mules and they are motivated by greed of taking things from you, the game means this literally… maybe if you have nothing on you, they do not bother you. Aside from this there are terrorists… which kind want to kill you, so yeah it is all in the name with human characters. A variety of methods exists for both sides with how to deal with your human counter parts, keeping in mind a lethal take down has extreme repercussions by which I mean the death stranding kind of eventually causes an eruption equal to a nuclear crater. So non lethal is typically the way to go. With this being the case the player can choose to knock out, incapacitate, electrocute, or otherwise disable human players to progress through territories under enemy control. Doing so on a wide scale has benefits of allowing npc porters to traverse more safely as well as automated systems to traverse more safely.

The player has access to a variety of tools to effect the engagement, ranging from movement support on the terrain for greater manoeuvrability with your package load… no innuendos please, as well as the weapons themselves, with non-lethal grenades, rope close quarters combat, firearms a variety, bola gun for non lethal, and use of your BB… a baby biological tool that senses death stranding and operates your terrain detector and flashlight… yeah no good way to say that. Stealth is always an option, but your enemies have detection tools and traps too. Keeping in mind what you use incorporates into what you must carry means you must always maintain a well kept inventory to make sure you are not overloading yourself or crippling your ability to reach your end goal.

Touching now on the death stranding, the unique aspect of this game is how you go about defeating death in a way. How you achieve this is ultimately a spoiler in the story, but suffice to say it is all down to Sam. You are able to make some serious weapons that allow you to deal serious damage to these monsters, however it costs resources to make these like everything sometimes you are better off trying to avoid a fight and running.

Graphics and sound
Graphics in the game are important but only so much in allowing you to experience the world in all it offers with its various visual effects made through particle physics, cloth physics, water physics, etc . It is quite obviously a natural beauty game presenting some of the best environments for pictures the gaming world has to offer yet, rivalling Red Dead Redemption and surpassing it in some aspects.

In regards to the sound, it has some very unique and well made folly sounds, with a lot of effort being made to increase the immersion of the player in the world. Keeping in mind that the game has few sections in which music is played, but when it does are often well chosen moments and make for a very touching or emotional scene.

I suppose voice acting and animations deserve a mention, which I will quickly sum up as superb, and is like watching a movie at times. Motion capture is really well implemented.

Conclusion
A 10/10 game for me and all round experience. Delving into and exploring all the mechanics makes the game, and even just exploring it causally for the sake of exploring is a pleasant experience. At times it does not feel like a game.

If you want to play a game with a bizarre yet somewhat gripping story, fantastic graphical manipulation in level design, and do so in style by manipulating forces beyond your understanding or anyone else’s? Well you’ve come to the right place but be careful, because once you start down this road… you might find yourself gravitating into a wormhole of wonderful weirdness.

Story
So its been a little while since I last played… That said I remember the story well enough to not spoil anything… The story to this game is well written, but very very weird. The player sees the story from the perspective of the main character who is on a journey of discovery and re-discovery involving her family. She is someone who is tugging a thread from her past, which is connected to a dimensional microwave, making a bowl of cereal, in zero gravity, influenced by the overlord plastic flamingo’s maniacal personality, tugging three times just to find herself at the other end of the hall before continuing to search for answers to her past, present, and future. Honestly half of what I just wrote makes some sense in this game and the other half is nonsense, but still kinda in there somehow.

The way the games lets you interact and experience the world makes for a very psychedelic trip down the rabbit worm hole, but not in a bad way. It might be very far fetched and aspects might not make sense but this game is all about trying to grasp some semblance of understanding from that which we sorely do not. If you like to ask questions, like to really read into a game’s lore, and engross yourself, you will likely enjoy this games story a lot.
Level design
So initially, I didn’t like the level design of the game. However, on re-assessment and time away you can appreciate how well the atmosphere fits with forces at play in the setting of anything is possible, and how you must traverse the world in the game. In fact some of the side missions make for more interesting gameplay because of how whacky they decided to get with some of the objects and level design. None of what they do is really ground breaking but it just makes for an interesting scene with how they decide to do it. A very clever way to make the player have fun, just keep your eye on the clock, well all of the clocks actually.

Gameplay
So I am a sucker for any kind of superpower mayhem, That said it is quite modest with this game, as they correctly chose to balance how much power they would give their players. As you progress through the game the player gets access to an increasing arsenal of versatile abilities that make battling the supernatural in this bureau of craziness all the more interesting and fun, but still challenging as the enemies are not without their fantastical strengths too.

The game has shooter elements but for me it is more about means to deal ranged damage, of which the player has many choices. Your firearm which accompanies you through the game gives depth to how you engage your enemies as a way to compliment your abilities that you increase throughout the story. It never becomes redundant, and becomes more important as time progresses.

Don’t forget though, as you traverse the never-ending mystery of this game, you will find yourself performing increasingly odd feats in increasingly odd places, the level design really compliments how you utilise your environment to engage your enemy, before you then try to return your mind to some normalcy.

Graphics and sound
So, I remember the game for its graphical representation and cannot remember being sold on its sound per say, but it all fits together for the levels of weird the game hits. I liken the world to vibes from the Matrix movies and inception with how the environment becomes really jazzy at times spawning out of nowhere and changing for all kind of reasons, and then of course the glitching with reality it is supposed to represent. Without even considering the actual quality of the models the game looks really good, but then you actually get the lighting, the texture quality, cloth physics, and bring it all together to have this really quality and life like represented game, I have to admit it was quite impressive.
Conclusion
I personally was best invested with the story when I was taking my time to enjoy this game and reading all the lore it has to offer as it really offers the most when you are asking questions and reading into things. I would love to see more games from the world setting this game originates from, and would love to see more wackiness. I however stayed for the fun I had with hurling things across the room, and the interactable game world, so much fun with the gameplay.

Solid 8/10 it was a cool trip, but not one which I became emotionally invested in.

If the header doesn’t give you a hint, this game was just a mess for my head to decide on would I recommend or not...

Story - SPOILERS
So the story itself, as a whole, (as a whole is important), I thought was poorly put together, with so much that would alienate players… and yes that was a pun, feel free to stop reading, I will understand if you want to move on.

If we leave out the part that Andromeda is a spin off in the series, for just a moment, so that eliminates the huge amount of lore and species that invested players of the trilogy would have liked to see returning or represented, and just focus on the new... Two new species of aliens, (potentially 3 by the end of the story), are at war, one side a familiar society of aliens with hierarchy’s, feelings, families, a bunch of qualities we the player can relate and understand, but with seemingly little background or history, and with so many questions regarding there society and infrastructure choices that it leaves you thinking the entire species is stupid, with few aspects of the game even touching any actual depth to them. I felt like they only got there a few days before we did. The Angara; they are supposed to be a very emotional species, and your interactions with Jaal is great, but as a wider experience the infrastructure, innovation and leadership is just non existent with no historical significance to give the species a character... The story is set to explain some of the holes in their story but not all of them. I mean seriously what the heck? The more you learn about them the more questions you have than answers.

So yes alien species Angara are very alienating in how they exist, and then the main antagonists are supposedly this super evil race that want to bio-convert other species into them or kill them if they can’t with no other way to re-produce… Honestly there is nothing relatable or remotely empathetic about the Kett let alone sensible, the only thing they seem to have going for them is killing… like how is that any way for a society to function? How on earth did they get the ball rolling where they are from? Something or someone would have wanted to exterminate these things from the get go, especially as they are sterile, and they have no redeemable qualities, how did the Angara get hoodwinked by these blatantly evil looking things? The whole colour scheme of the Kett is like “here to kill you, don’t trust us”, our favourite colour is military death green, and 50 shades of evil for when we celebrate the Archon’s birthday. Anyway, the point is, if you want to write a good story make your villain… or antagonist race, RELATABLE… Every other game in the mass effect series does this significantly better than Andromeda… which would not be hard.

The whole thing besides the two alien races, is incredulous, oh so conveniently placed terraforming technology that literally magics planets into being habitable, which were uninhabitable due to giant space tentacle things… which is still unexplained by the end of the game, and… you know what I stopped caring. If you want to know more about the stupid narrative watch a youtube video.

The thing is, the only story worth anything is player interactions with their crew. That part of the game is relatively well done, relatable characters with understandable motivations and flaws… for the most part with some characters being noticeably stronger written than others... I really didn’t like Gill, he was bland, and so was Kallo, but I liked Drak, and PeeBee... . The pacing is pretty bad by the way, with the quest tracking, and story tracking system being really hard and annoying to navigate naturally, and there is no notably well written side quest with any kind of real investment with characters, so you are best off just sticking to your crew and leaving it there.

Animations, bugs, and acting
So, the written main story sucks, but putting that aside how tolerable is the voice acting, animations and the bugs that supposedly pervaded the game on launch?

Bugs
Yeah… its got issues still. Don’t get me wrong it is rare to come across game breaking stuff, I did a few times, where I had to restart from end of the first mission once, auto saves stopped working for a time, and Drack’s loyalty mission broke when I jumped over a railing I wasn’t supposed to causing me to restart it. So as long as you manually save regularly and don’t mind backtracking an entire mission once, then you can play without issue really.

Voice acting, and animations
Right, that’s bugs covered. Voice acting. I personally thought the voice acting itself, the actual sound files for the speech in game, is great, very well done, lots of personality, a lot of effort was clearly put in. The character models, and animations to complement and express that… I had to stop playing at times due to the pure disparity. If it was me doing the voice acting for a character I was portraying, where I put time, emotion, and effort into, that had as little care and effort put into expressing said time, effort and emotion through animations and model? I would have left. The animations and character models are so bad, soulless or completely absent! That I would say it is an insult to call them character models at times because they are so generic, bland and downright unimaginative, absent of any character you would expect to find in a game like this.

Gameplay
Thank god this part of the game did not suck ass. I do not know how I sunk a 100 hours into this game despite suffering through the horrendous story (I mean I like the crew a lot, and the gameplay was set to hard difficulty so, the gameplay sections took me longer than normal by a large amount due to my stubbornness, and I experimented with gameplay elements a lot, before I decided I was going to experience every aspect of the game to review it.) Sooooo, I know precisely why I sunk 100 hrs into the game, but I wanted to sound like I had been robbed or wronged in some way to elicit a sympathetic response from my reader. You know how it is?

Moving on! The weapons, powers, and general balancing of the game is pretty well managed, movement is fun, the driving is well done… enough, and fun at times. The open world element is both a plus and a minus, I do not think it was well implemented, but it was done well enough that I did not really feel too bad about spending time navigating it, though this might not have been the case had I not played previous mass effect titles which gave me much needed experience in playing the actual game, as the tutorial kind of sucked, and so much of the game is left unexplained to new players I felt.

The gameplay is supposed to merge well with the story, but because the player will often move past sound cues or do something else than what the designers expected (they must expect people to freeze whenever something new occurs for like 5 plus minutes so that the gameplay goes off without a hitch). Anyway it doesn’t merge well with the story.

I had fun with the guns and powers, but for a triple A game you expect more than that, and I didn't really come for the gameplay.

Conclusion
The game is just underwhelming, I know a lot of people thought Ryder main character was underwhelming in comparison to Shepard of the main trilogy, I think this is not a fair assessment of the games wider failings that contribute to the character portrayal that ultimately leads the player to being unsatisfied by all aspects of the game.

This is not, in my opinion a bioware game, the studio has long since lost its key players, the quality stamp is absent, and the source of all evil in the games industry EA (Evil Associations), has engulfed the name in its bony death like grasp.

This game is highly likely to; Feel like a chore, aggravate you, leave you feeling underwhelmed, and wanting your time back... but you can have fun.

So frustrating the game is actually okay, even if I prefer number 2 in the series, the linear progression is slow-ish paced but fine really, and the story isn't that long, combat is okay, and it is an aged game so don't expect too much. However, if I keep getting kicked out of the game due to connection issues on an offline story mode why should I bother? I just cannot be bothered to repeat the same part over and over, even if it does let me progress eventually. Half way through the story, from what I read, shame really. Probably best played with steam in offline mode but I have stopped caring.

6/10 not including connectivity issues, with connectivity issues, 1/10

Summary
For those of you looking for a quick summary of what to expect from this game:
This game is one of many made by platinum games who are well known for their polished over the top action games, that usually oozes style, in this case sexual appeal too. Play casually for fun, stay to master, and when finished? Remember fondly about how you took heaven down seven notches closer to hell, in style. It is a hack and slash action game, be prepared for learning to button mash a bit.

Umm, story isn’t that important but… Witches, hell, heaven, angels, are all a thing, you lost your memory, have to get it back, go on a self-discovery adventure, get stronger as you go and remember more of your past, and confront it. As you progress your badass-ery increases on the road to becoming the sexiest most powerful witch ever!

Game Mechanics/Gameplay
The game has very solid game mechanics that reward players for putting a moderate amount of attention in. The premise being don’t get hit, but flirt with danger, they can look on in awe, but the only touching involved is when Bayonetta is going kick their sorry ass into an iron maiden for a taste of hell so richly deserved. This game can be as challenging as you want it to be, and for those that like a challenge there is a secret boss at the end…

Like with DMC which this game clearly takes a pew from, there is an emphasis on skilled dispatching of enemies in the most elegant way possible, and rewards you at the end of each level depending on your performance. The progression in upgrades you receive teach you slowly how best to utilise the various move sets, skills, and weapon properties. Unlike with other action games there are elements of careful choice in passive accessory skills that are rewards for completing optional parts of the game, that add another level of depth to how you fight and, they can be very powerful when used correctly. End game players, and completion-ists will make full use of the additional mechanics from accessories, quality of life upgrades, and unlockable weapons to add both fun and versatility to how the game is played. There is also heavenly one-use weapons which are insanely over powered, the pole being the most enjoyable 😉

Enemy variety is good, and on harder difficulty some of the lesser enemies start to actually be challenging, however the boss fights are the real reason to play. The spectacle of jumping through a hurricane, hurling cars like tennis balls, and summoning giant demons from hell with your magical hair is fairly surreal and awesome to play. EVEN BETTER is when you fight human characters though! Common also in DMC. Cinematic quick time events are not that difficult but always great to play through, and usually just involves mashing a button to eviscerate your enemies.

As someone that did everything the game has to offer, this game is most fun after you have sunk 10 hours in or so and you get used to all the combos and enemy ques, properly utilising your weapons and skills. There is evidence of good level design which you will come to appreciate, with a fair amount of it being enjoyable, but the platforming that does exist can be very frustrating and in some levels it is down right infuriating as for 90% of the game it is a formality, you don’t even notice it, but when you fall to your death when doing an otherwise perfect run, ugh don’t know why some games still do this. The camera angles are mostly very good, but occasionally these are also a pain in the butt which can be very disorientating. These are my two biggest gripes, minor, but I have little patience for recurring issues.

Story Telling/Writing
Let us be honest, action games are not widely known for their story rich content, and story telling in this game isn’t great. At least the game seems to recognise that, and wholeheartedly leans into the ludicrous nature of it all, by which I mean dump you into the crazy world of witches, heaven and hell, and you just roll with it as you fly on missiles, summon demons to eat angels from your hair, and spend your spare time at a bar sucking on lollipops which give you more power (I NEED MORE… POWER) Shout out to edge lord Nero.

In terms of the general atmosphere of the game, there is a heavy lean on the feminine wiles, with many in game lines being centred around character having “been a bad boy” or angel… or whatever… Can I also just say it appears to be a guaranteed qualification for witches to be a seductress, and possess supermodel like bodies as you aren’t the only one. For supporting roles, you have very few characters you interact with in the game, the most regular being Rodin the demon smith/bartender/human lighter/all round badass. There is like 6 other characters that play a discernible role, reporter and perv Cheshire, child claiming to be daughter baring an uncanny resemblance to Bayonneta, Rival who appears to be another witch, penultimate end boss, and the civilian from Boston USA that has his car destroyed. This list of course excludes perishable articles such as minor enemies and bosses.

The game is genuinely funny, the quips and insults from the seductive main character is really great, and the voice actor embraces her role really well. The developers also literally just go with the vintage blues detective cinematic style with stills to cover for the budget they clearly didn’t have to animate for some of the story, but its fine because it just fits, and hey why not! I mean at one point you are a flight hostess standing on a supersonic missile protecting a random child and reporter from… well physics mostly… So screw it, throw it in with the pole dancing team to develop, story telling is getting a makeover!

Music, Models, Graphics, and General Style
The graphics at the time were really good when the game came out, it isn’t life like or anything, but it is just generally presented well, and polished with the colours models and environments being well made, which is what you would expect of a linear story. What I found most notable was the catchy and upbeat music track that is in stark contrast to a lot of hack and slash, or action games in general which tend to go with rock or metal vibes. Makes for a nice change and really goes with the main character. “Fly me to the moon” took on a new meaning for me playing this game and I liked it actually quite a bit, got to watch the credits of the game by the by.

For character models, the main character has well-presented and accentuated… features… with a variety of clothing choices becoming available for those investing their time… wisely? By completing certain tasks for these rewards… We are talking about a game which the main character becomes more naked as she exerts more of her witch powers though so, what can I say!? it doesn’t shy away from being a bit overt in the adult nature department. Most enemy models are not overly sophisticated but are somewhat grotesque, most notable when they are dying, dead or being killed spectacularly by Bayonetta, which was an intriguing move to make and very well done. There is depth to enemy damage in how the models reflect how badly they are doing which makes perfect sense for a game which has torture tools as super moves.

All animations and physics are expertly done and each movement melds wonderfully to the next… Also, the water droplet physics in this game were very eye-catching… just saying.

Conclusion
Gameplay 10/10
Story telling 4/10
Writing 7/10
Music/Sound 8/10
Graphics 8/10

This game is just fun, over the top, wild and sexy. If you want to play something with some character to it, give this game a chance and you won’t be disappointed, but don’t expect there to be some emotional character development, and life message. Adult themes prevalent, not for kids, especially the secret boss!

Overall 8/10