2020, sounds like the future…?

HZD and other games. Thought about Games lately…
It has been a very long time, since I wrote something gaming related.
Lately, I had some time to play some games.

(taken by me)

Red Dead Redemption 2: I finished it after a year. It took me 130h to complete this game and I haven’t even finished a tenth of the sidemissions. In the end, the game’s leaves a very bitter taste of gameplay. The graphics were gorgeous, Arthur morgan was a cool character, a believable story… but the controls… the very slow and long start and the quick end were killing it for me. I also was super overwhelmed at the beginning because I literally didn’t know how to behave or act in an open-world game. There were so many things which distracted me from my main objectives. This confused me quite a lot of times. So many things happened at the same time and I absolutely did not know, how to decide or which way to go first or if I missed this part of the game, once I decide to take the route X. I did not try out the online part, because that would take another dozens of hours of gameplay. The game is cool, but not really my jam, as I hoped. But I had fun. The game’s very dirty aesthetics were quite something. In some parts it was a lot of gore or… well if there is cannibalism slightly hinted… anyways… nicely done.

Ryse: it was back then, when the xbox one was released one of the best looking xbox games. It is included in the game pass, so I played it through. Man this game sucked so hard. I disliked the characters, the very stretched up shit story, the constant shit about slow-motion-killing(because this gets lame after seeing kills the 10^th time). The only thing I liked in this game was the last boss, which was a little bit of a challenge. Other than that, the graphics are dated, the way it plays is dated, the story is just a cheap god of war-knock-off shitshow.
I tried out the multiplayer; don’t do it as a warning: those motherfuckers who still play this game are just fucking you over. No chance of winning at all.

 

(taken by me)

Gravity Rush 2: I started this game almost 2 years ago. I was a HUUUUUGE fan of the first game, I loved the story, the graphics (which looked a bit like French future comics from the 60s), I liked KAT (KAT and Marina from Splatoon2 are the only coloured videogame characters I liked so far, the others are never designed in a nice way or have a good personality), the OST and traversing through that world. I had very high hopes for a second game. It was delayed and eventually announced to be a ps4-game. I was a little bit worried, because blowing this game up to a full fledged console title did not sound right(the game was so perfect for the vita, why should they make this into a console title?) anyways, I thought, well if the game gets better, sure why not. Boy, was I disappointed. The game has a very slow start and they fucking literally did not change a thing about the bad controls from the first game. It is as clunky as it was in the first. I thought, ok, well it’s the first game, I liked everything else, maybe in the second game the controls will be better…? Instead those lazy fuckers did nothing about it. The same mess as the first game. Fighting is a chore, trying to retain the overview is absolutely impossible. In smash bros, it is part of the brawl to sometimes lose the overview, which is also part of the fun. But in GR, it is not, it is just a flaw of the game mechanics.
The story starts very very slow and I had the feeling that the main story was told through talking to characters in the sidemissions and not in the main missions themselves. What the fuck. And, yeah, it is even worse: sometimes there were stealth missions, where the game tells you NOT to use the mechanics from the game. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS!?!? Stupid fetch quests, only taking up your time for fucking nothing. The stealth passages were just unfair. I had to retry some of the missions a dozen times until I understood them and then it took another infinity to finish them. The last 20% of the game were actually really good, but the first 80% were just a chore. Don’t get me wrong, I love the characters, the world, the OST and basically the game mechanics to change the gravity in the palm of your hands. But why is the story shit, why blow up and stretch missions with nonsense such as “walk past the guardians, do not use gravity”, because KAT would be able to simply shift gravity and could pass them through the roofs, but no, just let her make stupidly vulnerable and as slow as possible. Man, such a disappointment. I would love to see a third game, but the devs behind the game made a free dlc which pretty much clears up all the questions after playing through the main game. But in a shitty manner: they just scratched a little bit of the surface of raven’s background and childhood, finished that up and called it a day. The dlc was played through in less than 2h. Iam glad it was free, but c’mon, this does not need to be dlc or even… well you could have saved this one up for GR3. Since GR2 flopped massively, I doubt that there will be ever a third instalment of this game.

Link’s awakening (2019): Actually, an old title but Nintendo thought, they can cash in with old games again, and they fucking did it. They got me. Of course, I bought the fucking limited edition and played it through within a week. It was a blast from the past. Nice to see the game being so true to its original. They actually made a few changes to make this game playable in today’s terms, too: all necessary items are equipped automatically. The shield, the boots, the bracelet to lift stones and bushes… so you don’t have to constantly change your items. The was done in a very pristine way. My only downside of the game were the slowdowns which were minor, but noticeable. Sometimes the FPS drop to less than 20. Just going from screen to screen makes the game dip. Liked the remake, good graphics, good remake of the OST, too. The new content is only interesting to people with the amiibo or with friends who also own the game, otherwise, at least for me it wasn’t interesting. I barely remember playing this as a kid, I never finished it, when I got it on Gameboy, but finished it on an emulator… now, this felt so… different. Was a joy to get back to it.

(taken by me)

Horizon zero dawn: my personal game of the year 2019 and pretty much the game of the generation for the playstation 4.
Of course, I buy all good games, but it is very difficult to decide which game to play next for me. I decided to play horizon after wrapping up GR2 and, boy this was a ride. First, you play a redhead named ALOY. Weird name, weird to have your protagonist being a redhead (I think this is the first time for me having such a character). The story at the beginning or the reason why your character starts the journey is stupid, but the world, the people and fighting those machines becomes better and better once it clicks for you. The start is slow, and the beginning is very difficult, because you barely have weapons, you barely have any perks, no pouches or any sort of help to get through the wild. I think it clicked for me after 5h. I have to admit; the controls are a little bit overfilled with different inputs. But once you get past that, the game starts to become fun. There are some things I’d like to point out, why this game is great:

1. I loved ALOY because, she had red hair(a first time for me, hence cool), and she was actually a little bit like lightning from ff13; Sporty looks and a bit outlandish. I liked that. She always had a witty answer to all stupid assholes you meet throughout the game. You helped those fuckers even though they don’t deserve that. I really hope to see her again.
2. the controls were a bit frustrating, but after getting into the controls, it made a lot of fun to try out the weapons (there were too few in my opinion, sad that they did not include more variety) and the different perks you could equip them with. To control aloy felt natural. You could run, walk, loot enemies and it was nicely executable. After the mess of GR2, aloy was a saint sent to me to behave the way a character has to in games.
3. the story starts a little bit harsh, is unsettling and not welcoming the gamer into the immersing world. At least not me. I did not feel attached or felt sympathetic to any of those at the beginning. The story surrounds a world where people live in tribes, hunt with bows and speers. There is matriarchy which outcasted aloys fosterfather and isolated him completely. I found this idea of matriarchy awesome. I only read about this in books, so I have never seen this in action. It felt so outlandish, but this is what a videogame should be about: NEW UNEXPLORED WORLDS and NOTHING EVER SEEN BEFORE. You will eventually learn the truth why you were an outcast, how and why those tribes to exist and what the matter actually is in that world. Loved the twist at around 60% of the game.
4. the graphics were out of this world. The game’s aesthetics were awesome. I rarely comment graphics, but this is by far the best looking ps4-game. Nothing comes close, not even this generation of games. Of course it is not comparable with games such as okami or cuphead(the graphical best games ever created for me) but for a realistic game it was bonkers. I made so many screenshots than never before. I rarely use that feature, but in horizon, there were so many moments, where I thought, “how the fuck is this possible?”. The composition was straight up, dawg.
5.content-wise, it blew me away. I usually check out the games on howlongtobeat.com before starting one. I thought, well I will just spend around 30h and then go to the next game… but this game kidnapped my mind. I was constantly in awe and wanted more.

Eventually, I finished every sidemission, have maxed out the weapons and I finished the the frozen wilds which took me another 20h. the DLC is the best DLC I have ever witnessed. Great to see DLC being executed this well. The graphics and world in this one were even better and fun to explore. I was baffled, that in the end, I spent 85h to play and finish this game, what an experience.

Demon’s Tilt: A gamepass title for the xbox. Demonic pinball, with puzzles and shoot’em up elements. It has nice visual, and it looks like a game from the 90s. I can’t believe someone has developed such a concept and it actually not just is fun, but a very grotesque and awesome game. It has the vibe of “…-this is the final round, then iam stop playing for today”. Absolute gem, when it comes to niche games, except that this is a very good game and idea. love these „mixed-up“-games, where devs are mixing impossible genre together to create something new.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Taken from Gamepass. I will buy this game once it costs less than 10€. Even though this game has been released more than a year ago, it still is fucking buggy. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM!??! It constantly crashes, has a lot of glitches (such as a missing head of Miriam). except that, it is a very classic castlevania. I have to say, that the OST is not as good as the old music from past games. But it is hearable and okayish. I have played 15h, and somehow, I do not feel the vibe anymore to finish the game. It becomes like a grind, because I don’t know where to go, and I don’t want to look it up on the internet. There are literally NO FUCKING SIGNS or CLUES what to do next anymore, once you reach around 75%. THIS SUCKS.

GRID: Boy, was I a big fan of grid1+2. Drifting never felt better in a game than this. The feel of speed, the tracks, the cars were great and it felt good for semi-arcadey racegame.
This “reboot” of the series which is simply called grid but in big letters is a huge disappointment. I got this thanks to a friend in the industry for free, but the game is such a disappointment. They even sold a season pass for 20-30€ which at the time when I activated it, nothing was included. They will release 3 seasons with content, but during some time. The main games content is a lacklustre when you compare it with the old games. How can codemasters fuck it up this bad.
Graphics are a bit glitchy too. If you start a race, you sometimes see the textures and filters aren’t fully loaded, so the race you are going to start, looks in the first 3seconds a bit like a ps2-game.

Final Fantasy XV – Royal Edition: One of the most hyped games of my life. Fans were waiting for this game almost 10 years until it was released in a complete different form. I love the OST, because yoko shimomura is the new Nobuo Uematsu. I bought this game, once all the DLC were released. I bought it unorthodoxly on Xbox(X is the best version on consoles).

I actually wasn’t interested in starting this game when I bought it in 2018. I was so fed up from Japanese rpgs, I felt disappointed from lightning returns and XIII-2. JRPGS felt dead or I felt that I don’t want to sit through mindless grinding and stupid filler-like story-archs in games. Eventually after Horizon Zero Dawn, I got the chance between this and Witcher3(everyone is hyped and watched the show on Netflix) so I thought maybe because of the tv hype, I might have a look into this. But witcher3 is an even bigger game than ff15, which is why I choose the former one. The start is slow, the car and the driving parts suck, the graphics feel dated and clunky and the worst: the controls… So overloaded and actually nothing works the way it should. I love the ost, the character feel nice and upbeat and they chat a lot, but… the car sucks, the overworld feels empty and dead, it takes ages to get from one point to another, there are too many sidemissions and… the menu is so slow and a drag to navigate through. Iam 15h in and I still struggle with the controls. I have selected another control scheme, because the other one sucked totally. I randomly and by accident open the map or open a menu, instead of fighting or interacting with objects.

HOW CAN YOU FUCK UP A JRPG AND FINAL FANTASY THIS HARDCORE!?!?!

Iam disappointed that this is really the final version of the product fans were eagerly waiting for more than 10 years. The game came out in 2016. And was still a bit unfinished but received constant updates. The first people reported during December 2016, that this game does not live up to the expectations… which is why i started to become worried. When I heard there will be a pro/x version of the game, I decided to wait until those versions will be available… and yeah, here we are. The hype is over, most people do not seem to care about this anymore and the online mode+dlc were not the things, fans were looking for.
I will give a final verdict, once I finish the game, but as of right now, I do not feel the urge or vibe of a final fantasy game. Maybe it will start somewhere along the way. The ost is very good, it has a a huuuuge OST and it has the melodies from the early trailers shown in 2006. It even has the ost(or parts of it) of the older games. That is indeed a nice bonus. But whats the point, when the game is bad?

Thanks for reading, it took me a few hours to write down, what I have played in the last 6 months. hope you enjoyed it a bit.

Schlagwörter: bloodstained, demon's tilt, Final Fantasy, gravity rush, GRID, horizon zero dawn, red dead redemption 2, ritual of the night, the frozen wilds