Well, here we are with the final instalment in the Survivor trilogy, and I can happily say that with this one it FINALLY feels like they got Tomb Raider right. But at the same time, for me it’s too little, too late.
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I have lost count of the number of games I’ve bought just because they looked vaguely interesting and they’ve been cheap enough for my curiosity to override my aversion to spending money on things I don’t really need…hell, that’s probably a good 90% of my Steam library summarised. Most of the time when I get around to these games – IF I get around to them – I’m usually glad I didn’t pay the default price, and put it behind me. Sometimes I get lucky, though.
So here’s Goblin Sword.
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If Pokemon was the dominating force during my childhood, then Yu-Gi-Oh! defined my early-to-mid teens. I grew up on a Yu-Gi-Oh! forum (which is now sadly long gone, because the tech admin was a tyrannical piece of shit and the owner lost interest) and played the card game with my friends both online and offline. I loved the 2007 and 2008 DS games! But then the second half of the 5Ds anime happened and I completely lost interest. Fast-forward to now and I figured it’d be a good time to try and get back into the franchise again with this for some reason. So, without further ado…
It’s time to D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DUEL!
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Whilst I bought Skyward Sword for the Wii – complete with a fancy gold Wiimote! – I didn’t even make it past the second dungeon, for one very simple reason: the game was absolutely unplayable, and it did an admirable job of cementing my hatred for motion controls. A hatred I still carry with me to this day, and will firmly stand by. Motion controls do not work. They have never worked. They will never be as simple, intuitive, or fun as button-based controls, and any game based around them is made poorer for it.
So when it was announced that the Switch version of Skyward Sword would have proper, button-based controls, I was actually kind of looking forward to playing it as I should have been able to play it the first time around. But it turns out you can’t always fix what is broken, and there is much more about this game to dislike than just its control scheme.
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Growing up I absolutely loved the Tomb Raider series. I didn’t get the opportunity to play them too much in my earlier years because I didn’t have a Playstation of my own, but playing as a female character was such a rarity in those days (yes, I know Samus did it first, but I didn’t play Metroid until Fusion!) and the games were pretty standout; I loved getting lost in the ruins of ancient civilisations, dying to random spike and boulder traps, taking on random dinosaurs and tigers that definitely had no business being there but were there anyway. The series decayed a little after the fourth, but up to that point it was something special.
Even though they did well with Anniversary, Crystal Dynamics aren’t the first studio I would have chosen for a reboot – why aren’t you working on a new Legacy of Kain title?! – but I think, all in all, they did a pretty good job here. Although perhaps the spirit of the series is better carried in Uncharted than it is in this.
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My first foray into the otome genre was with an ironically titled game called Amnesia: Memories on the Vita, and I was…less than impressed. The romance options consisted of emotionless jerks, perverts, and one of them was a full-blown psychopath who locked you in a cage. The dialogue was flat-out disturbing at times as well – the whole “if you expose yourself I don’t know what I’ll do” thing is alarming. Do people really enjoy being told they’re at risk of having someone else forced on them if they do something? Is this considered romantic in some quarters? If so, the human mind is perhaps far more twisted than I had thought possible…
Anyways, Code: Realize was nothing like that, thankfully. In fact, I’m amazed at just how good it was.
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Whilst I had a few gripes with it – foremost of these being the frustrating unpredictability of the rock/paper/scissors combat that cost me several battles because monstie AI was just so damn BAD – Monster Hunter Stories was one of my favourite 3DS titles, and I was genuinely pleased and excited for the sequel. The more Capcom revealed of it – and god, did they promote this thing to hell! – the more I was looking forward to it.
Here I sit, one playthrough later, so happy I can write something glowingly positive for a change. Because this was everything I hoped it would be and more.
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I was a huge fan of Alan Wake when it released on the Xbox 360, it had an absolutely perfect atmosphere to it. Finding the next segments of Alan’s novel a few seconds before events actually happened – or not! – and being barely able to see the shadowy enemies in the night was thrilling. You were constantly under siege in that game and, whilst the narrative took a few turns for the bizarre near the end, it was such an amazing package.
I was so excited for Control. I need to learn to stop being excited for things.
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I actually quite enjoyed the DanMachi game last year, and I completely forgot about the shoot em’ up that PQube promised would be releasing on the same day…then the same week…then at some point in the near future. That was nearly a year ago now! Seeing it pop up on the eShop this afternoon – and for 99p, no less – was a pleasant surprise.
I feel a little guilty about counting it towards my total completed games for the year, but a game is a game…and this is certainly better than some of the other things I’ve played this year.
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Dawn's Video Game Corner 