Uncharted - The Lost Legacy Review (Revisited)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, my second post of the year will cover a game I previously reviewed and have just finished replaying on the PS5 which is Uncharted - The Lost Legacy featuring the character of Chloe Frazer who was previously a supporting character in the previous games, who teams with Nadine Ross, who also featured previously in Uncharted 4.

And I just got finished playing the remastered version for the PS5, so figured I would give the game another update and see how it fairs 6 years on...

And a bit of the story is coming up so...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD (BUT NOT MANY!) 

STORY

So, instead of Nathan Drake, the story instead follows two women, a treasure hunter, Chloe Frazer (voiced by Claudia Black) who also enlists the help of ex-mercenary, Nadine Ross (voiced by Laura Bailey) to find the legendary tusk of Ganesh.  Chloe with the help of a young girl, Meenu, who's father is in the Indian army, get past an insurgent group and she meets up with Nadine.  The two of them together then sneak into the office of the insurgent leader, Asav (Usman Ally) who is also after the tusk in an effort to rally India into a civil war.  Chloe and Nadine also manage to steal a map and a disk that is a key of sorts before they finally manage evade Asav's men.

The map leads the two women into the Western Ghats in India where they start their hunt for the tusk and encounter plenty of dangers along the way....

THOUGHTS

As a follow-up to the highly acclaimed, Uncharted - The Lost Legacy is a very enjoyable game and even with the absence of Nathan Drake here, the game works very well thanks in part to the two lead characters of Chloe and Nadine, as the two of them work well together and have a nice chemistry.  And the fact that there are two female leads for a change adds a refreshing dynamic to the Uncharted series and a welcome change in itself.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, its pretty much the same as the previous Uncharted games with a third person perspective with the usual moves and Chloe being your main playable character.  And Chloe pretty much has the same level of ability that Nathan Drake has as she is a great climber and her moves are more or less identical as she can run, jump, swim, climb aswell as perform other actions such as driving vehicles.  Chloe can also use a rope to swing from trees to reach platforms and other areas (again similar to Nate in Uncharted 4).

COMBAT 

Combat wise, the game is also very much the same as the other games in the series, where Chloe can use both weapons and melee attacks when fighting against enemies.  There are also a large number of different weapons available in the game, which Chloe can pick up as she goes along as she kills her enemies.  The different weapons include handguns (pistols and revolvers), shotguns, rifles, rocket launchers as well as grenades.  Chloe can also perform stealth attacks, as she sneaks up on her enemies and breaks their necks (yeah she even manages to do that with the bigger guys!).

AI CO-OP 

As for the game's AI starting with Nadine, she will be able to help out Chloe as the go on through the adventure by also taking down enemies aswell as helping with certain sections of the game that might involve opening sealed doors (Nadine at some point will use Chloe's jeep to break open sealed doors).  As for the enemy AI, they will react to certain situations, especially as Chloe and Nadine sneak around, there will be a detection meter that goes from white, yellow to eventually red when they are detected.

LOCK PICKING 

Another new feature of the game is lock picking where Chloe can use a lock pick to open various crates that can be found around the world or even to open doors. This is especially useful for gaining new weapons and explosives from crates but also plays its part in the story of the game at times too and the process itself isn't too difficult. 

INVENTORY 

And last of all is the inventory system, where Chloe can access her mobile phone to take pictures of the scenery at certain points, which she can also scroll through.  Chloe from the inventory can also access her map, which she will use at certain points to scribble down entries for new destinations as she gathers information from different places. 

GRAPHICS, VOICE ACTING AND MUSIC

As for the game's graphics....well similar to Uncharted 4, they are simply stunning as the environments in the game are just gorgeous to look at and richly detailed from the temples, to the trees, to the rocks, to the mud ridden terrain not to mention the weather.  The character models are also all excellent as both Chloe and Nadine look great (particularly Chloe!) although they are not quite lifelike, they aren't entirely far off either!  And the graphics look even better in the remastered PS5 version with improved detail, lighting and shadow effects. 

As for the voice acting, again the performances are excellent as Claudia Black and Laura Bailey are both great in their respective roles as Chloe and Nadine and they work well together as a team and they share a natural chemistry also.  Claudia Black as Chloe, has the more flamboyant of the two characters as Chloe is quite witty and enjoys bantering with her co-workers (a bit like Nate does!) whereas Nadine is a bit more serious but she too has some good lines (especially when she refers to looking up a certain type of catapult on Wikipedia!). Nadine can be a bit of a pain and whiny in the game it does have to be said but she does at least lighten up a bit as the story progresses.   

Troy Baker also later appears in the game as Sam Drake (Nate's brother, who appeared in Uncharted 4) and he is once again great in the role and the game actually even gets better when Sam appears as the banter between the three characters at from this point on is great.  And its clear from this point on that there is no love lost between Nadine and Sam (which you would understand if you played Uncharted 4) and you really need to in order understand a bit of the game). Baker also gets plenty of funny lines especially the one where Sam mocks one of the shoreline leaders for his "mullet" which even Nadine laughs at.   

Usman Ally last of all does a fine job as the main villain, Asav, who is desperately after the Tusk and tries to have Chloe and Nadine killed at every turn and his real intentions for the Tusk are revealed near the end of the game.  

And last of all the music score by Henry Jackman is also very good and is quite similar to the score that features in Uncharted 4 and it is more than suitable for the tone of the game and it has plenty of good sections.  The score is also both adventurous and atmospheric and even though it is a bit samey at times to Uncharted 4, its a still a good one.

FLAWS

As for flaws...well yes OK, The Lost Legacy isn't quite perfect.

And to kick off, the first thing I would have to say about the game's flaws is basically that it really doesn't offer much new over the previous games, particularly Uncharted 4, as the gameplay is practically identical.  The only real new inclusion here is the ability for Chloe to take pictures of the vistas and that's probably about it (well that and the two female leads in the game).  But that aside it is pretty formulaic as a game but with a formula as good as the one in the Uncharted series, there isn't too much to complain about here.

Another issue is to do with the gameplay physics as there are certain scenes where Chloe should basically be dead from certain injuries or falls (although she is more likely die from falling than get shot!). As an example, Chloe in certain action sequences, can appear to take on a fair bit of gunfire without actually dying and this is quite remarkable in itself!  Then there is another sequence in the game where Chloe has to evade a series of traps where giant mechanical guards take swipes at Chloe with giant axes.  And if Chloe gets hit, she takes damage but she still manages to survive it but in reality she would have been dead with one strike and most likely to be sliced in half!

I also find it a bit incredible that Chloe can posses the same level of strength (or appear to at any rate!) as Nate does in the series, as she can appear to break men's necks with great ease (even if they are a big guy!) which is something I don't quite buy!  However when you look at Nadine's physique, she is certainly a bit more muscly than Chole, so I can buy her taking down a guy with a neck break but not so much Chloe.

And further to that, I have to say from what I've read the instant neck snap thing in games and movies really is a myth and there is no way someone can have their neck broken that easily. In fact I had read an online post on a forum where a medical student suggested it would be very difficult to break someone's neck and also you are more likely to just give them whiplash (and piss them off!). 

I also found it a bit strange how Chloe keeps having her hair in her face and getting into her eyes and not at any moment does the game have her push her hair back from her eyes, which would have been a good detail but they just left it alone. This is a minor gripe of course but its still something they could have added in even in the cut scenes. 

The game also has a lack of helpful visual cues or hints for when you might be lost and the only marker you do get is for the chapters where Chloe and Nadine look for their jeep. The game does have the option to switch on hints but they don't appear until after a few minutes, which is not much use! The game also could have done with showing the outline of enemies in a similar way to how the Tomb Raider reboot games does making it a bit easier to see your enemies around you.

And lasty I found some of the game's puzzles also a bit annoying and tedious at times particularly the ones in the later chapters as there is one in chapter 5 that will have you tearing your hair out trying to suss it!  But puzzles and Uncharted have always gone hand in hand but I myself have never been a fan of puzzles (and little patience for them either!) so for me it was always the part of any adventure I like least.   

Anyway that's it for the flaws!

SUM UP

So, in summing up, Uncharted - The Lost Legacy is a very enjoyable spin-off game in the Uncharted series, which features plenty of great action and platforming as well as two great female characters in Chloe and Nadine, who work well together in the game and features a welcome return of Sam Drake.  

It could be argued of course that the game doesn't really offer anything new over Uncharted 4 but its still a very worthy and entertaining follow-up which is worth playing and if you are a fan of the Uncharted series then you won't be a disappointed.

So, I will rate The Lost Legacy:

8 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post at some point or other.

Until then bye the now! 

Game Review - Judgment

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, its time for a new review and this will be of a video game I have recently finished playing, which is the action adventure video game, Judgment, which is a spin-off of the Yazuka games series. I haven't played the Yakuza games but I had seen some videos of this game on Youtube and was intrigued by them, so thought I would give it a go. 

So, with that said, let's take a look at the game and see how it stacks up...

And the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD (BUT NOT TOO MANY!) 

STORY 

So, I will quote a bit of the plot from Wikipedia below to save time on typing (lol!).

"Defense attorney Takayuki Yagami investigates and successfully clears hospital worker Shinpei Okubo of the murder of patient Koichi Waku. However, Okubo is arrested shortly thereafter for allegedly murdering his girlfriend. Guilt-ridden, Yagami resigns from his law firm. Three years later, Yagami becomes a private detective in Tokyo's Kamurocho district and accepts investigation requests with his partner, ex-Tojo clan member Masaharu Kaito. A serial killer has been murdering yakuza members in Kamurocho and removing the eyes of the corpses. Yagami accepts a murder case concerning a Matsugane clan captain, Kyohei Hamura, who is suspected of killing a Kyorei clan member using the same methods. Yagami proves Hamura's innocence, though he suspects that he is working with the killer that Yagami dubs the Mole...". 

THOUGHTS 

Judgment is a very entertaining action game, which tells a really good and intriguing story that keeps you playing and guessing as to what is going on and who is really behind the killings. The characters are also very well drawn out with Yagami, a former top defense lawyer, who now works as a private detective and feels guilty after he defended a man, who then went on to murder his girlfriend. Yagami however is not only good with his mind but also with his fists as he often takes own many of the street gang thugs and Yakuza to be found in the fictional Tokyo district, Kamurocho and is helped by partner, Kaito, a former Yakuza, who was expelled from the Matsugane family. At the heart of the game is a man, who is determined to get to the truth and will stop at nothing until he gets it (sounds familiar lol!).

GAMEPLAY 

As for gameplay, I will cover it in sub sections below as per usual. 

MOVEMENT

Starting with movement, your character Yagami, who you play in the third person perspective, can walk, run and climb and jump over obstacles and during chase scenes, you will use quick time event button choices to allow Yagami to evade things in his path when chasing someone. Yagami can also tail someone in the game and in those instances, he can find certain spots that he can crouch behind to stay out of sight of his target before resuming his tail.

COMBAT 

Combat wise, Judgment inherits a similar combat system found in the Yakuza series, where Yagami exclusively uses hand to hand combat and can perform a series of combos on his enemies, which can be street thugs, Yakuza members or the main game bosses. Yagami can also choose between two different fighting styles, crane-style, which focuses on fighting enemies in groups and tiger style, which deals with fighting individuals. Yagami can also pick up objects to help him deal greater damage to enemies such as bicycles, traffic cones and advert signs (yep ad signs!) which can be triggered by a quick time event button press.

Yagami will also have access a number of consumables that can boost his attack power that even give different effects such as fire and lightning to his combos that last only a limited while. Yagami can also be helped in combat situations by Kaito and without giving the plot away, he has another couple of associates who can help him in combat too. 

INVESTIGATIONS AND TAILING

Another key aspect of the gameplay involves Yagami using his investigation skills to look for clues either at crime scenes or other areas when working a main story case or a side case. The player will have to hover over certain objects within one area and Yagami will scan them for clues, once he has looked over the required objects, his investigation will be complete. 

Yagami will also as part of his investigations, ask people different questions throughout the game in both the main story and side missions to obtain information. Based on which order you ask the questions, Yagami may also be awarded a skill point bonus in these moments but if you ask in the wrong sequence, you will miss out on the bonus. The game will also try and ensure you were paying attention as Yagami will at times have to recall information he had learned and you will be prompted for it. 

As for tailing, Yagami can tail suspects involved in crimes or other activities in both the main story and also the side missions. In this mode, Yagami must keep his distance from the person or they will become suspicious and turn round and look out for him, which will cause a suspicion meter to increase as the person grows more aware of Yagami following them. Yagami can also in some instances  use his phone to take pictures of the people he is following if related to a specific case e.g. one case involves Yagami to follow a female client's husband she suspects is cheating on her and Yagami must get a picture of him as proof. 

CONSUMABLES AND HEALTH  

Moving onto consumables, there are various ones to be found in the game that have different uses such as replenishing HP, boosting Yagami's EX gauge (to perform special attacks), boosting Yagami's attack power and also to increase item discovery when defeating enemies. As for Yagami's health, which is shown by a health bar on the HUD, it can be increased by gaining skill points but Yagami can suffer mortal wounds during combat, which will require him to use medical kits or to visit an underground doctor, who can treat him for these wounds. 

SKILLS 

As for skills, Yagami can learn different skills for combat as well as adaptive skills within his environment. Such skills for combat include different attacks for both the Tiger and Crane fighting styles, evasive moves to dodge attacks during fights. Other skills also include Yagami's ability to pick locks and use wires to open doors, so he can infiltrate different areas as well as increase his abilities to use a drone, which Yagami will use off and on through the game to spy on suspects to gather information. 

FRIENDSHIPS AND DATING EVENTS

Throughout the game, Yagami can also get to meet knew people, who he can befriend by doing them favours or helping them out in some way, which will allow him to form friendships with them. Further to this, Yagami can also through friendship also go on dates with women, which will involve texting them back and forth in order to meet up and eventually form a relationship with them.

ENEMIES AND BOSSES

And lastly in the gameplay section are the enemies and bosses in the game as Yagami will face a various number of enemies throughout the game. The enemies can range from street thugs, who Yagami often fight in groups and for the most part are quite straight forward, however as the game progresses, the gangs can become tougher. Then there are the bosses of the game, who can present a stronger challenge for Yagami as they larger health bars and more often than not, they will have at least two health bars that Yagami must deplete before defeating them. There are however mini bosses in the game, which Yagami can fight and on defeat, he will just get up and take his loss on the chin (literally I guess!) but the main game bosses will see Yagami die, which involves restarting the fight again. 

VOICE ACTING

As for the voice acting, well I played the game using the English voice option, so the accents are exclusively American and I know some of the English voice acting in certain Japanese games can sound a bit dodgy but overall here, they have done a pretty good job with a solid cast.

Starting with Greg Chun, who is excellent as Yagami, the former lawyer, turned private detective, who takes on a murder case, which goes way deeper than he expected and event links to his past. Yagami generally a pretty morose expression on his face but despite that, Chun actually makes Yagami quite likeable while serious, he does show that Yagami has a lighter side too. 

Crispin Freeman is also very good in his role as Kaito, Yagami's partner at the detective agency, who was a former Yakuza member, who was expelled from his family but now helps Yagami to try and solve the murder case in the main game. Kaito is a very ballsy, gung-ho character but basically a good guy in his own way and his brash yet likeable manner, adds a lot of colour to the game (especially the shirt he wears throughout!).

Fred Tatasciore is excellent too in his role as the intimidating Yakuza captain, Hamura, who is arrested for the murder of a Yakuza member and put on trial for it but there is more than meets the eye with him. Tatasciore actually replaced another actor in the role, who had criminal charges against them, which forced the makers to dismiss him and change the actor's likeness. 

Brian McNamara also is very good as Genda, the head lawyer of the law firm, where Yagami used to work before his resignation and he plays a key part in helping Yagami out during the murder case of the main story.

Cherami Leigh also provides a fine performance as Mafuyu, a lawyer at the chief prosecutor's office, who was once romantically linked to Yagami and as the game progressives, she tries to help Yagami with the murder case. Leigh herself would go on to voice the female version of V in the RPG action game, Cyberpunk 2077.

Steve Blum is also very good in his role as Higashi, a high ranking member of the Matsugane Yakuza family, who faces stern pressure from Hamura's brutal ways throughout the game and has torn loyalities toward his family and helping Yagami and Kaito.

Keythe Farley also provides a very good performance as Shintani, one of the lawyers that Yagami works with and defends the Yakuza captain, Hamura on his murder trial. Shintani however soon becomes involved in something deeper than just Hamura's trial, which later has dire consequences.

And last of all is Michael Gough, who also does very well in his role as Shono, an important research scientist who works for a centre that is trying to create a drug that will cure alzheimer's disease with the drug known as AD-9. 

GRAPHICS 

As for the graphics, the game looks great with plenty of good detail in the environments and the busy streets of Kamurocho are always lively with people walking around but there are also plenty of neon lights, traffic, reflections and shadows. As for the character models, they are also excellent although not quite lifelike, they still look very good as Yagami and the other characters all very well rendered. There are some rough edges to the graphics however here and there (well there was on the Xbox Series S version I played but maybe not so much on the other next gen consoles) which are often noticeable on windows and blinds. That aside though, Judgment is still a pretty good looking game.  

MUSIC

As for the music, the score was composed by Hidenori Shoji and it is pretty good overall as it sounds both quite modern but at the same time, it also has a noir feel to it, particularly in the moments where Yagami is tailing someone. The score also re-uses a couple of its themes for different parts of the game, specifically where Yagami is questioning someone or there is a fight scene. Overall however, this is a pretty good score and one that is well suited to the tone of the game. 

FLAWS

As for flaws...yeah Judgment does have some worth mentioning. 

For starters, I think while the game's story is a very good one overall, I did think the game ran on just a bit too long as there are a whopping 13 chapters in these game and each chapters is at least a couple of hours each. So, by the time I had finished my playthrough time was over 26 hours long, which is just a bit long winded for my liking for such a game. The story thankfully is pretty compelling overall but I just felt the game still could have benefited from being a bit shorter.

Another issue I had was to do with the repetitive nature of the combat, as the game overwhelms you with loads of enemies as Yagami runs through the streets, he frequently is forced to fight street thugs or Yakuza family members over and over again. So, it tends to get a bit tedious after a while, as you just want to get from A to B after a while without having to open another can of whoop-ass on more enemies! The same can also be said for the main game missions where Yagami has to infiltrate different places, he will again have to fight groups of enemies time and time again before he can reach his objective and again this can get a bit tiresome after a while as it is so repetitive. 

This is also brings me onto the side missions of the game, as there are times where the game also springs them on you at some inconvenient moments where again you just want to get somewhere but then the game presents with another side mission! One such example is where Yagami has to chase a floating object through the streets and if you lose it, you have to start all over again and I just happened to stumble on this side mission by accident, which I didn't really want to do in the first place. So, if that happens, you basically just have to reload the game and try and take a different route to avoid the mission.

Another problem I had was to do with the map system as reading the map can get a bit confusing from a directional standpoint, especially when you place a way point to get somewhere but following the map, you can too easily take a wrong turn and end up in the wrong direction entirely! You can get use to the map system after a while but at first it is pretty confusing.

WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!! 

And last of all on a plot note, I felt there are time where Yagami was being a bit too direct and confrontational with certain suspects before he had sufficient evidence in the game. Such an example was when Yagami goes to the ADDC to confront the research scientist, Shono, who is working on the drug, AD-9 to cure Alzheimer's. So, Yagami basically barges into the place, beats up the guards that oppose him and he corners Shono and tells him his theory that implicates Shono in the murder case Yagami investigates, without any proof whatsoever. So, for me there are times where Yagami just wants to intimidate his suspects to get a reaction but without actual proof its more just a waste of time. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Judgment is a very solid and enjoyable spin-off game from the Yakuza series, which tells a really compelling story that will keep you guessing and riveted to its end and the gameplay itself is fun with a number of different things you can do and not just the combat, which is also fun. There are some issues of course still as the game is very long and the combat can get a bit repetitive after a while with non stop hoards of enemies after you. 

However, if you are willing to forgive its shortcomings, Judgment is definitely worth checking out and I for one, will definitely be checking out the game's sequel, Judgment Lost, which should be out later this year. 

So, I will give Judgment a rating of:

8 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back sometime soon with another review.

Till then, bye for now!  

Resident Evil Village Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, its time for a new review and this one is on a video game I have recently finished playing, which is the new survival horror game, Resident Evil Village, which came out last week. 

So, how does this new entry to the RE franchise fair? Well, let's gear up and take a look..

And the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD BUT NOT TOO MANY! 

So, I've taken the first paragraph of the plot from Wikipedia and quoted it below:

"Three years after the events in Dulvey, Ethan and Mia have moved to Europe to start a new life and raise their newborn daughter Rosemary. One night, Chris Redfield and a team of soldiers raid their home, asassinate Mia, and abduct Ethan and Rosemary. Ethan loses consciousness and later wakes up next to a crashed transport truck, with its guards dead. Ethan reaches a nearby village that is under attack by mutated wolf-like creatures known as Lycans. Escaping a massacre, Ethan is captured by the village deity, Mother Miranda, and her lords Alcina Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau, and Karl Heisenberg...".

THOUGHTS 

As the latest entry in the franchise, Resident Evil Village is an excellent game and one that is a direct sequel to the events of Resident Evil 7, so it features the main protagonist of RE7, Ethan Winters again only this time, we also see the return of Chris Redfield, who appears at different points in the game. But what makes RE Village work so well is the bosses are actually well designed and quite memorable, particularly Lady Dimitrescu and Karl Heisenberg (who resembles Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne!). 

The game's village environment and castle also provide a lot more visual variety than in RE7 and there are also more enemies this time round than in the previous game also with a greater emphasis also on combat and gun play and I will saw more on that in the gameplay section. RE Village also makes good use of its jump scares too but doesn't overdo them and it also features one of the freakiest looking enemies I've ever seen in a Ressie game (not going to say much more than its a baby-like!). So, the game does a great job at putting the player at unease right from the get go. 

GAMEPLAY 

As for the gameplay, I will split this into different sub sections as usual for the different aspects of the gameplay itself.

MOVEMENT

To start with the game's movement, we get another first person perspective view playing again as Ethan Winters, so we never get to see his face (and we never find out why?!) and he has the standard move set, walk, run, sprint, crouch and he can climb over fences and up or down ladders by default when he reaches them. There are certain moments in the game where Ethan will automatically take control as he moves through cracked walls or crouches to crawl under places. So, pretty much the basic move set you would expect from a fps game.

COMBAT AND WEAPONS

As for the combat and weapons in the game, as mentioned, it takes on the first person perspective, so we can see Ethan hold weapons but this time around he can also block enemy attacks by holding the weapon up as a shield. Weapon wise, Ethan can use the trusty old combat knife (which he can also use to break crates containing items) and other fire arms such as hand guns, shotguns, sniper files, magnums and of course a grenade launcher. He can also use other weapons such as mines and pipe bombs that can be placed and thrown respectively! In combat, Ethan will typically need to keep his space from enemies as much he can to avoid being overwhelmed but he will push away enemies after taking so much damage.

DUKE THE MERCHANT AND UPGRADES

Another key aspect of the game is the merchant, Duke, who is an obese man who Ethan can find throughout the game and can buy weapons and other items from. You can also upgrade your weapons through Duke and different aspects of the weapons such as their fire power, rate of fire, reload speed and capacity. Ethan can also purchase other items such as first aid kits (well more like first aid juice!) in addition to purchasing mines and pipe bombs, however all these items have a limited capacity. Its also worth noting that you can resell items to Duke but beware that he can resell them back to you for a profit, so basically Duke is a scalper! 

ENEMIES AND BOSSES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers relating to details of the bosses)

As for the enemies there is a bit more variety in RE Village than in RE7 so here we get enemies such as the village werewolves known as Lycans who are very aggressive and generally bite you and they come in different forms. Then there are the Moroica, who are female blood sucking monsters that can carry swords and are found in the castle. Samca are another enemy found in the castle except they have wings and can also suck blood using their long tongues (not too nice then!). And lastly there are the Soldat, who are basically Frankenstein like creatures that have a long chainsaw like drills attached to their arms and again there are different types of them to be found. 

As for the bosses in the game, there are four main bosses starting with Lady Dimitrescu, who is tall, elegant vampire-like woman with pale skin who can attack with a large claw and she also has three daughters, who you must also fight in turn! Donna Beneviento is the next boss, who also uses her creepy little doll named Angie to taunt her victims. Then there is Salvatore Moreau, who is a rather gross fish-like man, who can transform into a giant sea fish that spews forth acidic goo. Yep lovely guy and kind of nauseating to look at! And last of all is Karl Heisenberg, who bears a striking resemblance in his costume design to Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne and has telekentic powers as well as an army of automated cyborg soldiers at his disposal.

There are also some mini-bosses to be found here to that can present some challenges along the way but the most part they aren't too bad. Some of them include a large werewolf, Urias who is armed with a giant hammer and Sturm, who is a heavily armoured mutated soldier, who has large propellers in front of his body that do heavy damage!

So, there is quite a bit of variety in terms of enemies in RE Village.

SAVE SYSTEM 

As for the save system of the game, RE Village returns to using the typewriter system used in most of the previous games unlike RE7 where it used tape recorders for save files. The typewriters are usually found next to where ever you find Duke as you progress throughout the game. As for checkpoints, I think the game automatically saves your progress during certain sequences also, so you won't always needs to rely on your typewriter saves alone.

GRAPHICS 

Moving onto the game's graphics, RE Village is a very impressive looking game and it is built using the RE engine, which has featured most recent Ressie game. The game's environments again look great from the dark and foreboding outdoors of the village to the beautiful lavish castle interiors, the game's visuals are a treat and they also look even better if you have an next gen console or a graphics card that supports ray tracing, which will give you more realistic lighting and shadows. The only downside is this can be quite a demanding feature on your graphics card and indeed on the Xbox Series S, which I played the game on and I felt it was better to play it with this option switched off, which is a pity. 

The game's character models are very impressive once again as the main game characters all look great in their own ways and even the enemies are well presented in their unpleasant glory! The only problem is once again we don't get to Ethan's face as it is hidden from the audience and we only see the back of his head and later on near the end, we see him with his head down facing front. Not sure why Capcom decided to go with this method of not revealing his character's face but that's what they did. 

Anyway the game's graphics are overall excellent and its a visual treat for the eyes, particularly if you have ray tracing capable graphics card such as GeForce RTX 3070 or 3080 (good luck getting them though due to the GPU shortage right now!) or even the Xbox Series X and PS5 (good luck getting them too!). 

VOICE ACTING AND MUSIC

As for the game's voice acting, the cast are all very solid here and provide excellent performances. 

Starting with Todd Soley, who does a pretty good job as Ethan Winters even if he doesn't get a great deal of interesting dialogue to deliver, he still does well with what he is given. Soley also voiced Ethan in RE7, so it makes sense that he would return to voice him again in RE Village.

Jeff Schine is also very good in his role as Chris Redfield although again his character isn't given the best dialogue as he is played as being a bit overly serious but then again its not a light-hearted situation that he is in. In fact Schine's voice actually reminded me of the guy that voiced Jonah in the Tomb Raider reboot games although it isn't actually him.

Michelle Lukes is excellent in her role as Miranda, who is the main village of the game and controls the village along with her underlings, the four main bosses that you will face in the game. Lukes dialogue again is bit on the hackneyed side and typical to your average villain but she still does a fine job.

Maggie Robertson is also excellent as Lady Dimitrescu, the deadly, yet elegant vampire, who has three daughters who wander the castle and look for their next victims to feast upon their blood. Lady D as a character is definitely one of the standouts in the game, so its a fine performance from Robertson for sure. 

Neil Newbon is great also in his role as the villainous Karl Heisenberg, who has an affinity for manipulating metal in a Magneto fashion (i.e. the villain from the X-Men who used telekinesis to move metal objects). Newbon's vocal delivery is very effective throughout and he also voiced a few other characters of note in recent games such as Nikolai from RE3 Remake and Elijah Kamski from Detroit Become Human. 

Aaron LaPlante is also very good as the merchant, Duke, an obese fella, who appears throughout the game at different stages to sell weapons and other accessories to Ethan and he even provides some exposition for the game too. LaPlante also has a fun line where he references the merchant from RE4 as he says the line "What are you sellin? As a colleague of mine once said!"

And last of all is Katie O'Hagan, who makes a return as Mia, Ethan's wife, who also featured in RE7 only this time it appears that she doesn't last too long in the game but I won't say anymore than that. The trailers somewhat give away what happens to her early on but I won't go into more detail than that for now. Regardless, Katie does a fine job in reprising her role as Mia. 

MUSIC 

As for the music score it was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama and overall its pretty good and its tone is just right for the game. However, I have to say its not an entirely memorable score for me but that aside its still a fitting one, so can't really say much more than that as it does its job well enough. 

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for flaws...yes RE Village isn't perfect.

For starters one of my main complaints of the game would be to do with the character of Ethan himself as I think he is a pretty bland, one-dimensional hero, who shows little in the way of actual personality and usually just utters really serious dialogue and that's about it. It also isn't helped by the fact that we never even get to see Ethan's face, which also kind of essentially makes him a faceless character. So, for me I just see Ethan as no more than the playable character and the game happens around him more than anything else.

Another problem I had was to do with the lock picks in the game, as you had to find individual lock picks to open each drawer or cupboard rather than just use the one lock pick like you can in the previous games. I just felt this was a pretty stupid change when having just one lock pick in the past was more than enough to open any locked cabinets or drawers and was made to make things alot more inconvenient.

I also found that at times it was a bit too easy to get lost in the game and you really had to rely on the maps you find throughout it, which made life a bit frustrating. This is especially the case later on in the game where you enter a factory, which is a pretty big place with so many different rooms that it is all too easy to lose your way. Maybe that was by design to make sure you did rely on the map and to use it as an essential tool and if that was their intention, it sure worked! 

I also felt that the game difficulty wise maybe a little bit too easy at times and I didn't really die that much throughout my playthrough playing at standard difficulty. Most of the bosses and mini bosses I was able to beat on my first try even if they were fairly close fights some of them but it still felt a bit easier than it should have been. To be fair the final boss (which I won't mention here!) was a bit more challenging than the rest of the enemies in the game, which was good to see that the finale wasn't a pushover. 

Then there were times in the game where Ethan makes some daft decisions and one such example is when he steals the flask from an oblivious Moreau, who is far away and has his back turned to him but Ethan decides to get his attention and says "I'll take this thank you!". Now, that to me was pretty stupid as Moreau was clearly not aware of Ethan, so Ethan could have just easily sneaked out without saying a word and could have avoided his whole encounter with him! 

And last of all, I can't but help wonder just how could Duke transport himself throughout the game and be ahead of Ethan??? I mean the guy is basically (no offense) a bit fat slob, who is almost like a human version of Jabba the Hutt and his mobility doesn't look that great! Later on of course we see that he is riding in a horse carriage,which would explain how he travels on ground but later he is found in the factory area in an elevator. I don't somehow think he could fit his horse up in there and given he doesn't appear too mobile due to his weight, it begs the question as to how he managed it!

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Resident Evil Village is an excellent addition to the RE franchise as its a gripping first person survival horror actioner that has plenty of suspense and ample amounts of gore and horror (although its probably less gory than RE7). The gameplay is also pretty tight throughout with plenty of solid combat, as well as very impressive visuals, a very solid voice acting cast and a decent score. 

There are of course a few niggles here and there but that aside, RE Village, is definitely worth checking out and it stands a pretty impressive entry in the series. 

So, with that I will rate Resident Evil Village:

8.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back again soon with another post.

Till then its bye for now.  

Dark Souls III Review (Revisited)

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so I did a revisitation of Dark Souls II quite recently and I actually did one of Dark Souls Remastered over a year ago, so I figured it was time to do a revisit of my Dark Souls III review and expand on it a bit more, as I have played many times since and thought I would do an update on my thoughts on it. 

So, with that said, let's take another look at the final game of the Souls trilogy...

And I will say a bit about the plot below, so the usual warning is coming...

STORY

So, I will quote a bit of the story line from Wikipedia just to save myself a bit of time...

"Set in the Kingdom of Lothric, a bell has rung to signal that the First Flame, responsible for maintaining the Age of Fire, is dying out. As has happened many times before, the coming of the Age of Dark produces the undead: cursed beings that rise up after death. The Age of Fire can be prolonged with the linking of the fire, a ritual in which great lords and heroes sacrifice their souls to rekindle the First Flame. However, Prince Lothric, the chosen linker for this age, has abandoned his duty and instead chooses to watch the flame die from afar.

The Ashen One (your playable character) an Undead who failed to become a Lord of Cinder and thus called an Unkindled, rises and must link the fire by returning Prince Lothric and the defiant Lords of Cinder to their thrones in Firelink Shrine..."

THOUGHTS

As a sequel and what is a conclusion to the series, Dark Souls III is an excellent and highly enjoyable game similar to its predecessors and it is arguably a better game than Dark Souls II as it is tighter one with fewer bosses, which are of a higher quality than the previous game. I also felt in Dark Souls III, they raised the bar on the level of challenge too, albeit in a more consistent manner than in Dark Souls II, which is a good thing given DS2's difficulty was very inconsistent.

It also makes quite a few references to the previous games throughout and brings back a few things that were missing from Dark Souls II, so it stays more faithful in a way to the original Dark Souls and also makes references to Demon's Souls.  So, you could argue that the game is lacking in innovatie new ideas as it appears to borrow so much but it still does have some new features and challenges to work through, which I will get to as the review goes on.

GAMEPLAY BASICS

The gameplay mechanics here are very similar to the first two games with the usual third person perspective in use here and your character do the usual running, jumping, attacking etc but I will mention more about that later. Your character has a similar inventory system as before in Dark Souls II where you can access your equipment and items. The HUD (heads-up display) is also similar with a red bar for health and green bar for stamina but this time round there is a blue bar, which is for what's known as "Focus Points" which are reserved for casting spells and carrying out special moves with your weapons. Focus points or "FP" also featured in the first game in the series, Demon Souls (the predecessor to Dark Souls).

Throughout the game you will also be able to upgrade your various stats such as your vigor (health), endurance, strength, intelligence and faith. These stats can be upgraded with the number of souls that you claim from fallen enemies and the requirement becomes higher each time you level up. However not all the choices of character have the same starting stats as they will be based on their different skill sets, e.g. a warrior's main stats will fall under strength and endurance whereas a sorcerer would rely more on intelligence and a cleric could be a mixture of faith and intelligence.

Similar to the previous games, the player will also rest at bonfires, which act as checkpoints throughout the game and through the main bonfire at Firelink Shrine, the player can also upgrade their health recovery items, Estus Flasks at the bonfire with the help of additional items (known as Estus Flask Shards). The shards are spread throughout the game and can be obtained as the player progresses, which will see them end up with 15 Estus flasks in total. Estus flasks this time around are a little different as with the introduction of the FP system, you also get blue coloured flasks called Ashen Estus Flasks, which will restore your Focus Points for casting spells and using specific weapon skill moves. The player can also through Andri, allot their estus flasks between using one for restoring health and another for your focus points.

WEAPONS

The game also has a very similar number of weapons to the first two DS games with a large selection available such as swords, bows, axes, halberds, spears, throwing knives and firebombs in addition to shields and armour. All the weapons and shields can be upgraded through the game's blacksmith, Andri of Astora (who also appeared in the first Dark Souls) at Firelink Shrine (also from DS1!) which he will do via the use of different types of material known as titanite, which come in different shapes and sizes. The player will also have to meet certain strength and dexterity requirements to successfully wield these weapons, which they can. However this time around you can no longer get your armour upgraded unlike in the previous DS games and this is similarly the case in Bloodborne where you can't upgrade armour.

Of course the game also features options as before for sorcery, pyromancy and clerics all of whom can cast spells via the use of specific items, such a staff for the sorcerer, a pyro glove for the pyromancer and a chime for the clerics. The spells for sorcery generally require intelligence to use and the miracles require faith, which you will need to upgrade as you go on in the game. Again these items can be upgraded by the blacksmith Andri with the use of titanite or if not some other materials, so they can increase their power and damage output.

COMBAT

The combat system is pretty much the same as before but with some slight changes with the main one relating to the FP system, where a player can perform a skill move with their weapon, which could be a weapon buff or a specific enhanced type of attack. The player can as before also lock onto their enemies to keep track of them in combat although this isn't always 100 percent reliable as you can tend to lose sight of them at times, which automatically cancels out the lock-on! Another big addition this time around is the inclusion of liberal amounts of blood gushing from your enemies as you hit and kill them, however if you don't like that you can turn the blood settings off.

ENEMIES

The enemies in the game are very much varied and can range from being a minor nuisance to being downright brutally difficult! As usual there are a mix of enemies from the previous games such as the standard hollows, skeletons, basilisks (who can curse you, which ends up killing you!) as well as the return of the black and silver knights. However there are of course plenty of new enemies as well some of which can be very challenging while others more straight forward but you always tend to fight the enemies will get tougher as the game progresses and DS III is no different here.

So, this time around we get new enemies such as the really annoying Ghru, who come in different varieties and can cast a poisonous mist at you aswell as smother you to near death. There are also other enemies such as the loudmouthed fat female Evangelists, who cast spells at you and can cause heavy damage with their large spiked clubs. And later there far more challenging enemies such as Pontiff Knights, who can hit hard and fast with curved swords. Then there are stranger enemies that include the Jailers, who can attack you with soldering irons and use lanterns that when lit red can reduce your health bar down to near zero! So, these new enemies can be quite annoying and challenging all at once for sure.

RINGS

Another key aspect of the game similar to the previous ones is the use of rings, which all give the player different abilities throughout and like Dark Souls II, you can now equipment four rings at once. Some rings will give you the ability to boost your attacks, especially for pyromancy and sorcery whereas others will allow you boost your overall health or discover more items or increase your resistance to hazardous things such as poison, toxicity, frostbite (new to this game) and curse.

It also recycles one or two rings from the original game such as the Dusk ring (increases spell use) and of course the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring (I think!) that cancels out any noise you make when you move, which is very useful sneaking up on enemies. It also brings back the Silvercat ring, which appeared in DS2 and is one of the best rings in the game, which negates fall damage very well. 

NPCs & SUMMONS

As before, in Dark Souls III, there are plenty of non-playable characters (NPCs) for you to interact with as the game progreses and some of which become merchants who will sell and trade items with you. However some of the NPC merchants require you to save them from capture in order for them to make it back to Firelink Shrine to trade with you. As for the summons, similar to the previous games, you can summon certain NPCs to help you in the boss fights but in order to do this your character must use an ember so that the summon sign will appear. 

HOLLOWING

The hollowing process (which always happened when you died in Souls 1 and 2 and it left you looking more zombie-esque with emaciated skin) is different this time around to the previous games in the series because in this game when you die, you will not go hollow, so their appearance will not change. However you can still become hollow in this game by gaining an item called a dark sigil, which is supposed to increase your "inner strength". Hollowing can also be reversed with the use of an item called a purging stone (which was used to remove curse in the first Dark Souls). Your hollowing level increases with every time you die and will max out at 99 and being hollow can also benefit some weapons as you can infuse them with hollow gems for additional damage. 

BOSSES

Again just like the previous Souls games, DS III has its share of bosses to fight although they had reduced the number that appear after the excessive amount that appeared in Dark Souls II. So, this time round there are only 19 bosses in the official game but there are an additional six more in the two DLCs for the game.  As usual as in the previous games, the player will take on these bosses by stepping through a fog gate into an area where they will fight and they cannot leave until the fight is over.

The bosses themselves are for the most part very high in quality and range in difficulty level from easy to extremely difficult. There are also plenty of memorable boss encounters to be found here also that include the Abyss Watchers, which are a legion of undead knights who keep resurrecting and fight you. Pontiff Sulyvahn is another boss, who can be pretty tough to deal with as he uses two swords with a giant range and he can also spawn a clone of himself that deals hefty damage. Then there is of course the notorious Nameless King, who I struggled BIG TIME against on my first playthrough and took almost 200 goes to beat him! 

And lastly there are a couple of DLC bosses worth of note, Sister Friede, who is hands down one of the hardest bosses in the game as she has a 3 phase fiight, which is incredibly difficult to get through and to this day still haven't beaten her solo! And last of all is Slave Knight Gael, who is the final DLC boss in the Ringed City and he is unquestionably a difficult boss but is easily the best DLC boss in the entire game. 

So, DS3 definitely isn't short on challenge when it comes to its bosses.  

GRAPHICS 

As for the graphics, I was initially disappointed in the game's visuals as I played it on the base PS4, which is locked at 30 fps but when I got the PC version, I saw a big upgrade in terms of visual quality as well as a steady 60 fps, which makes the game a lot more enjoyable. And on the PC, Dark Souls III looks terrific as it has arguably the best visuals of any Souls game up to this point as the environments are nicely detailed throughout with plenty of rich textures and details to the buildings and surrounding areas. 

Character models for the most part are quite good although the shading and lighting on their faces in darkened areas doesn't look as good and does lack fine contrast it has to be said and their hair lacks the vivid colours of the previous games. In fact I would say that out of the Fromsoft games so far, Bloodborne has the best character models with DS3 a close second. 

Your character also unlike the previous can also get all messy as they go through areas such as poison swamps or indeed just water, they're clothes will get all muddy and wet, so its a nice touch that they added this in. However, it has to be said that the blood in this game looks a bit silly as it looks like your character is covered in black tar! 

MUSIC

As for the music score it is primarily scored by Yuka Kitamura with some contributions by Motoi Sakuraba who composed in the first two Souls game and overall this is an outstanding score with plenty of highlights contributed by both composers. And the score has a real epic and emotional feel to it on a greater scale than the previous games with the tracks all primarily for the boss fights.

The standout tracks for me are Pontiff Sulyvhan, The Abyss Watchers, Twin Princes, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, Sister Friede to name a few but the very best two tracks for me are The Nameless King and Slave Knight Gael themes, which are both outstanding in different ways but both are undeniably brilliant pieces.

If there was one criticism I could level at the score maybe is that it does have a somewhat repetitive feel to it with its extensive usage of choral singers and operatic singing and the score itself can be a bit of a downer at times. However, none of this really detracts from what is largely a terrific soundtrack with superb contributions by both Kitamura and Sakuraba. 


FLAWS

As for flaws...yes Dark Souls III isn't perfect.

For starters there are some frustrating omissions from the game such as the ability to upgrade your armour, which is pretty daft if you ask me as you could upgrade it in the previous so why take that option in this one??? It makes little sense to me as upgrading armour was a key aspect in Dark Souls I and II but here they just followed Bloodborne mandate of having armour with a base level of defense only the settings for Bloodborne I feel were better optimized than they are here. Further to this, in DS3 you can upgrade your torch but not your armour but how often will you use a torch in the playthrough compared to armour?! Not as much that's for sure, so yeah it doesn't make sense why they changed this. 

Another thing that bugged me was to do with the whole idea of Andri, the blacksmith being the go-to guy to upgrade your estus flasks and NOT the bonfire keeper! I mean what is all that about??? However you can upgrade your Estus flask's strength at the Firelink bonfire yourself, so it makes little sense as to why you would need Andri to do the rest.

In fact it would have been much easier to have you upgrade your stats, allot your estus flasks between health and FP ones at the bonfire yourself without even relying on Andri to all that in the first place! It just makes things less convenient for the player and involves a lot of tedious back and forth between areas.

I also felt that the game's progression is just a bit too linear as you don't have the same freedom as you did in Dark Souls I and II to branch off to different areas, so instead you need to logically make your way from A to B. This might not be a problem for everyone but I have to say it does kind of bug me a bit although there are a couple of exceptions to this in the game as you can enter inside Lothric castle earlier on if you kill an NPC but you need to fight a pretty tough boss first (the Dancer). Also the DLC for Ariandel provides a break from the linear path of the game, which is a good thing. However, those two aside, you are pretty much forced to play the game in a linear order.  

Another issue is to do with how the game makes farming for titanite shards difficult early on as they are pretty sparse in the game until a bit later and you of course need 2 to upgrade weapons to +1, 4 for +2 and 6 for +3. After this again you are forced to wait until you can upgrade your weapon using large titanite shard (which upgrades your weapons to +6) until later on in the game. And of course don't get me started on the wait you have before you can upgrade your weapons up to +9 as you need titanite chunks for that and that is also pretty sparse in the game until much later on! So, the whole titanite upgrade process does get quite frustrating but again no doubt it was deliberate on the part of the makers to make life tricky.

And this brings me onto another area of frustration about the game, which is to do with the limited amount of alternative items to estus flasks that can replenish your health and while there are some they are always available in a limited capacity. So, as an example in the game you have an alternate health restoring item called divine blessing, which will restore your health completely and cure any poision/toxic effects but they are available only in limited amounts. You can however use miracles to heal if your faith is high enough and have a cleric build. So, if you are going into a big boss fight and find you are burning through your estus flasks too quickly you are left with little or no viable alternative most of the time, which does suck.

And then of course we get to the NPC summons for the boss fights, which are a bit of a mixed bag in their effectiveness in the fights themselves as some are clearly better than others. As an example both Sirris and Orbeck are summonable into the Twin Princes fight but they generally don't last beyond the start of the 2nd phase and then they are clobbered to death by sword wielding prince, Lorian, which makes them pretty useless at lasting the whole fight. 

Its also a bit annoying that you can only click on a single summon sign at a time and you need to wait for the first summon to come in before you can click on the second summon sign. This feels like a backward step from DS2 where you could easily click on summon signs one after the other and didn't have to wait ages for them appear either.  

I also wish there would have been more options to top up your focus points for casting spells as there will be times in boss fights or indeed enemy areas where you will run out of FP until you get back to a bonfire. However there is one item that can do this in the game called hidden blessing but they are available in limited quantity, which kind of sucks it has to be said. Another alternative is to equip a weapon infused with a simple gem, which will slowly regen your FP but I mean SLOWLY as it takes forever to do it!

Then there is of course the issue with the game's blood options, which I am OK with to an extent as you see the animation of blood flying from your enemies when you attack them and vice versa (a la Bloodborne style). However my main grip here is with the blood option turned on, your character ends up with a bloodied face but instead of the blood being red its black! So, instead the character looks like they are covered in tar or soot and it looks silly!

Another problem I have with the game is to do with volume of the enemies as there are some enemies in the game that are way TOO NOISY!!! Yep, there are quite a few enemies that screech like hyenas such as the female hollows who carry lanterns, the tree enemies in the Painted World DLC area and of course the Ghru, who screech loudly when you kill them (OK they are pretty funny the way they screech I admit!). So, I do wish that they turned down the volume just a little bit on these enemies as the previous games were never like this and it can be annoying and it was clear that DS3 borrowed its soundscape from Bloodborne, which was also a noisy game.   

I also felt that with this game, the director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, took the idea of bringing back mimics (i.e. the monsters that disguise themselves as a treasure chest) just a little too far as virtually every second chest you come across is a mimic! Now, it is common practice to hit chests to make sure they aren't a mimic in disguise in the Souls games but they did not feature as half as much as they do in this game! So, yeah I think they went a bit too far with the mimics in this game.

And last of all is to do with cursing (not swearing!) in the game, which appears to do nothing in this game other than kill you and that's it with no other after effects! Now in the previous games when you were cursed it actually did something to you when you were resurrected at the bonfire as in the original game, cursing halved your life and in the second game it increase your level of hollowing by one each time. However here apart from death, the curse has no other effect so to me I think it was just a pointless inclusion in the 3rd game, which I think was just added for the sake of consistency with the other games.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Dark Souls III is an excellent conclusion to the Souls series and it is packed with plenty of gripping and exciting combat and stern boss fights that will keep you thrilled and frustrated in equal measure. The game does still have some faults but overall would say its still the second best of the Souls trilogy with the original Dark Souls being the best of the three and Dark Souls II the slightly weaker overall. So, suffice to say Dark Souls III is a game that is still as addictive and long lasting as the previous ones with near endless replay value and is well worth checking out.

So, I will give Dark Souls III a rating of:

9.2 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back again soon with another post.

Till the next one, its bye for now!

Cyberpunk 2077 Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, for a change, I thought I would a new review with NEW content (yay!) and the review in question will be on the RPG action game, Cyberpunk 2077, which I recently finished at the Easter weekend there. The game itself has of course received much praise for its graphics and gameplay but also equally as much criticism for its numerous bugs and glitches on its initial release. 

So, what do I think of Cyberpunk 2077? Well, let's take a look and find out...

And as I will mention a little about the story, I will give the usual warning:

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!

STORY

And this section of the plot has been lifted from the Wikipedia page:

"In 2077, you play as a mercenary called V (voiced by Gavin Drea and Cherami Leigh) who becomes involved in Night City and befriends a local crook, Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower) and together they work numerous jobs. 

As time passes, V meets with a local fixer Dexter DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley) who hires V and Welles to steal a biochip known as "the Relic" from Arasaka Corporation. They acquire the Relic, but the plan goes awry when they witness the murder of the megacorp's leader Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama) at the hands of his treacherous son Yorinobu (Hideo Kimura). Yorinobu covers up the murder as a poisoning, and triggers a security sweep in which T-Bug is killed by Arasaka's netrunners. V and Welles escape, but Welles is fatally wounded in the process, and the Relic's protective case is damaged, forcing V to insert the biochip into the cyberware in their head."

"DeShawn, furious at the unwanted police attention, shoots V in the head and leaves V for dead in a landfill. Upon awakening, V is haunted by the digital ghost of war veteran turned iconic rock star Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), believed to have died in 2023 during an attempted thermonuclear attack on Arasaka Tower. V learns from their ripperdoc Viktor Vector (Michael Gregory) that DeShawn's bullet triggered resurrection nanotech on the biochip. In a few weeks, Silverhand's memories will irreversibly overwrite V's. The biochip cannot be removed, so V must seek out a way to remove Silverhand and survive...".

THOUGHTS

As an RPG action game, Cyberpunk 2077 succeeds very well in creating an immersive and entertaining experience that is basically a futuristic GTA but its one that also features many interesting characters with multiple paths for them to go on that can lead to numerous endings. The game also has plenty of main missions but even more side missions for players to explore that will lead to different characters and other bonuses along the way, which I will mention more about in the gameplay section. 

The game itself as mentioned was notorious on release for having many different bugs in it and it was even withdrawn from the Playstation 4's online store due to the vast amount glitches in the game not to mention running at poor frame rates. Thankfully since then, the bugs have largely been patched out and I waited until a couple of weeks ago before buying (on PC) it to be sure that was the case, so I could enjoy it glitch free (well mostly!) and it did receive a big patch update during my playthrough time of the game, which also helped with other issues. So, overall I have managed to enjoy playing CP77 without any major problems at all.

GAMEPLAY 

As for the gameplay, well this is going to be a pretty expansive section as Cyberpunk 2077 is such a big game and offers so much variety for the player, so as usual it will be split into sub sections below.

MOVEMENT AND PERSPECTIVE

Starting with the game's movement and perspective, the game is in the first person perspective, so you will generally only see their hands when using fists or a weapon. In certain cutscenes you will see more of your character when picking up bodies, hacking into computer systems or climbing ladders and platforms. Move wise you can walk, run, jump, slide, crouch and climb and engage in melee combat with your fists when not using weapons. V can however occassionally be seen in the third person when he/she looks into a mirror or when they are riding a bike or driving a car.

CHARACTER CUSTOMISATION

Character wise for V, you can customise the look of your character and make them male or female (hence the two voice actors playing the part) change their face, hairstyles and body type and yep there is even an option to change penis size! Yep... nice one CD Projekt Red! You can also choose which type of background character to play as, which are a Nomad, Streetkid or Corpo.  

STATS

There are also several stats you can upgrade as you progress in the game that are: body, which determines your raw physical power and will allow you to force open doors and deal more melee damage with your fists. Then there is Cool, which determines your composure, resilience and effectiveness when in stealth mode. Then we have Intelligence, which will determine your proficency in your netrunning skills and increase your RAM capacity when hacking. Next are Reflexes, which determine your maneuvoring capabilities and your speed when moving. And last of all is your Technical Ability, which is to do with your technical abilities and allows you to unlock doors and use tech weapons. 

WEAPONS 

There are also a large variety of weapons in the game, which are split into different types for firearms, which are power weapons, tech weapons (which penetrate walls) and smart weapons that having homing bullets. Ranged weapons can be used to ricochet bullets off walls and even slow them down using bullet time mechanics, which are achieved through cyberware upgrades for your character. There are also a selection of melee weapons that can be found throughout the game that include baseball bats, crowbars, hammers, cleavers, knives and katanas. So, overall you won't be stuck for a weapon in the game as there are plenty to found!

CYBERWARE

One of the key aspects of the game is cyberware, which are implants that can be installed, exchanged and upgraded into V's body via NPC's known as ripperdocs. Cyberware available in the game are split into categories for different parts of V's anatomy. 

As a few examples of the cyberware available there are Cyberdecks, which can be used to hack into enemy networks and controll all the devices within them. Ocular system is another example of cyberware, which upgrades V's vision for scanning environments and items. Integumentary system is another cyberware, which increases V's resistance to shock and burns aswell upgarde his armour. And last one I will mention is the Operating System, which can determine different features such as increase in melee damage, armour resistance and weapon recol and sway reduction. 

NIGHT CITY AREAS

As for the game's environment, Night City is a pretty big metropolis with much to explore and it is split into six different regions, which are City Centre (corporate area), Watson (an immigrant area), Westbrook (luxury), Heywood (suburban), Pacific (gang lands) and Santa Domingo (industrial area). There is also another area in the game called Badlands, which can be explored also and features playable missions too. 

NPCs (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

The game also features numerous NPCs, which V can do main and side missions for and the main NPCs in the game include for starters, Johnny Silverhand, who was once the leader of the band, Samurai but also waged a war against the Arasaka crime family, which cost him his life. Johnny's memory would later appear in a chip V stolen from the Arasaka's and it would be fused to V, so he would often see and interact with Johnny throughout the game and there are even moments where you can play as Johnny.

Other NPCs in the game also include Jackie Welles, a small time crook, who V befriends and they do some jobs together, which come to an unfortunate end further down the line. Goro Takemura is another NPC, formerly a loyal Arasaka soldier, who works with V after he saves his life from a job that goes badly wrong. 

Then there is Judy Alvarez (who is pretty cute!) who works with V and is a braindance technician who can also become a possible romantic partner for V (regardless of you being male or female, now that's hot lo!). Then we have Panam, who is a mercenary and former member of the Aldecados nomad clan, who V also works with and can also be a romantic partner for the male version of V only. And lastly there is River Ward, a Night City police officer, who V helps out with different missions and he can also be a romantic opportunity for the female version of V. 

VEHICLES 

V can also have access to a wide variety of vehicles in the game that V can obtain by carjacking on the streets or by purchasing them from vendors. V can also quick access vehicles from the HUD menu and they will appear on screen after a short time. V can also perform side missions where he/she will steal specific ones but they can also be rewarded with vehicles also.

BRAINDANCES

Another important aspect of the gameplay are braindances, which are devices that allow V to undergo other peoples experiences and are essentially like the tapes that Ralph Fiennes character in the sci-fi film, Strange Days, used to relive people's experiences also. V however can manipulate and scan the data within the braindances to look for clues that can help obtain leads during main and side missions in the game. During the braindances, V scan replay through the entire video clip, fast forward or rewind it and change layers (audio, visual and thermal) that will give further clues. 

STREET CRED

And last of all is street cred, which is basically V's reputation on the streets of Night City, which can be upgraded simply by completing missions or performing other activities all of which will accumulate in V's street cred increasing. This will also result in V getting calls for new jobs and opportunities from fixers (who are well connected smugglers and info brokers) and other contacts throughout Night City.

GRAPHICS 

As for the game's graphics...well depending on what version you play you will get mixed results with the PS4 and Xbox One base console versions being disastrous on release and Sony even had to withdraw the game from its Playstation store. 

However, I will the review graphics based on the PC version, which is what I played myself on my system and the game frankly looks absolutely stunning as it is rich with vibrant colours and richly detailed environments that have superb lighting and shadow detail. Character model wise, the graphics also look terrific as the character models all look excellent and while not quite lifelike, they look more than good enough from the rockstar figure in Johnny Silverhand to the sultry Evelyn, the sexy Judy and the feisty Panam, they all are well designed.

And regarding the game's graphics, if you have a ray tracing compatible graphics card then you can enjoy this game looking its best that way as the shadows and reflections are far more realistic with this feature. The only downside to ray tracing is that it is very demanding technique for graphics cards and CP77 is already a pretty demanding game, so you need a really well specced PC to play the game on and get good solid frame rates as well as the ray tracing feature enabled. I think the ray tracing support will be added (or maybe already has been) for the next gen consoles, the PS5 and Xbox Series X, so that would be a cheaper way to run the game this way, only if you could get a console! 

VOICE ACTING

As for the voice acting, the game's cast are all excellent and give solid performances all round.

Starting with Keanu Reeves, who is excellent in his role as Johnny Silverhand, the charismatic rockstar and former war veteran, who also wages war against the Arasaka clan in his former life but in 2077, his memories end up inside V when V steals an experimental chip containing Johnny's engram (imprint I guess). Keanu isn't the world's best actor for sure but overall this is definitely one of his best performances in recent years. 

As for the dual role of V, Gavin Drea and Cherami Leigh are both excellent in the role as the male and female versions of the character respectively and they are given plenty of dialogue to work with here and plenty of emotion also. 

Jason Hightower is also really good in his role as Jackie Welles, a merc who befriends and works with V at the start of the game and then on several missions after that before things go a bit sour and end on a rather emotional note (won't say more than that!). 

Emily Woo Zeller is excellent too in her role as Panam, a merc who V works with and was a former member of Aldecado clan and she can also engage in a romantic relationship with the male version of V in the game. 

Carla Tassara is very good too as Judy Alvarez, a braindance technician who works with V and they do several missions together. Judy can also have a romance with V in either male or female form in the story and based on dialogue choices, their relationship can take on different outcomes.

And last of all is Rome Kanda as Takemura, a former Arasaka foot solider, who rescues V from being killed and later works with V, who knows the truth behind the death of Saburo Arasaka and wants the truth to come to light. 

FLAWS 

As for flaws...yeah Cyberpunk 2077 isn't quite perfect.

For starters, I think while the game offers plenty of variety and that is ultimately a good thing, it is also a bit too overwhelming at times and you are left with so much to do and choose from that it can be hard to make a decisive choice on your next mission. This is especially the case as the game's map is so big and spread out, you have so much ground to cover and it would easily take hundreds and maybe even thousands of hours to platinum this game! 

Another issue is to do with certain gameplay aspects such as e.g. stealth, which can be a problem when you are trying to evade detection in certain missions, I often found I got caught out too easily by enemies, so stealth felt like a redundant option at times, especially when you try to stay crouched by the alert meter maxes out! However, there are times where stealth is necessary and in one mission it is almost totally essential to its completion.

I also feel at times the first person perspective can make the gameplay a bit awkward, particularly when it comes to melee combat as it doesn't feel that natural fighting enemies with your fists or even using a knife of sorts, it just looks out of place. I mean for using firearm weapons, the first person mode is fine but not so much for melee combat.

The game's main storyline I also have to admit drags on WAY TOO LONG similar as to how The Last of Us Part II's story did. I mean the final missions must have taken me about an hour and a half at least to finish alone with a hugely protracted finale! There are of course different endings but the one I had chosen just went on forever and in the end it dragged the pacing way down.

It also has to be said that some of the missions that involve braindances can be pretty obscure to work out fully as it is very easy to miss out just one clue and if you do then you will be left stumped as to how to complete it! And that is where I needed to consult a few Youtube videos in order to make sure I got all the clues I needed, which can make for an annoying experience if you are stuck forever on the same mission.

The hacking processes in the game can also take a while to work and I know this depends on how sophisticated your cyberware and cyberdecks are (which hack into enemy networks) but the wait to hack certain devices such as gun turrets can take a tediously long amount of time. So, this can slow down the gameplay quite a bit and make for some frustrating moments when you want to just to get on with things. 

Another problem I had was to do with the sheer amount of calls V get's after completing a mission where he is offered more jobs to do. I mean there are times where the game really is bombarding with new missions and content just a bit too much and would be better if they tried to tone it down rather than overload gamers with their choices.

And last of all, I have to say while the game's bugs have mainly been ironed with recent updated patches, I still did encounter one or two annoying bugs here and there. And one such example is during a mission in Badlands where V is supposed to get on a bike and drive out with Panam to take down an enemy gang, however at the time, I couldn't get on one of the bikes to drive and Panam herself was glitched out in the scene! So, yeah in the end I had to reload the mission in order to get V to mount the bike and drive off. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Cyberpunk 2077 is a very good RPG with the plenty of variety in its gameplay with a ton of missions and other activities for players to check out. The game also features an excellent voice cast featuring Keanu Reeves, Gavin Drea, Cherami Leigh in the main roles of Johnny Silverhand and V. The game's graphics are also definitely worthy of note as they are utterly stunning in their detail and look even better if you have ray tracing enabled graphics card to play them on for enhanced lighting and reflections. 

There are some gameplay issues of course and it has been hampered with loads of bugs and glitches on its release that have hindered the game and has even seen CD Projekt Red been subjected to various lawsuits for releasing the game in such a subpar format. However if you can forgive the game's faults then there is still much to enjoy here in Cyberpunk 2077 and its definitely worth a look, especially if you have a decent PC to play it on.

So, I will finish and give Cyberpunk 2077 a rating of:

8 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back some time soon with another post.

Till then its bye for now!

Dark Souls II Review (Revisited)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, so I figured I would do another revisited post on one of my previous reviews and this will be a revisit of my Dark Souls II review, the RPG action sequel to the acclaimed original. 

So, I will do the usual expanding on sections of the review and my thoughts on the game since my previous review. Now, Dark Souls II is a very divisive game in the Souls series as there are as many fans that love as it as they do hate it. 

So, after this time, what do I think of it? Let's take another look!

And I will quickly mention a little about the story but not too much, so I won't bother with a spoilers warning as such.

STORY 

So, the story is fairly similar to the original Dark Souls, where the playable character is a human who is undead and cursed to never die and eventually become hollow, a zombie like being with no memories or purpose. So, in order to break the curse, the undead travels to the kingdom of Drangleic and is tasked by the Emerald Herald to obtain four Great Souls from powerful Old Ones whose names are forgotten and forbidden. 

And its from here that the chosen undead starts their long and incredibly dangerous journey in their battle to claim the four Great Souls to end the undead curse.

THOUGHTS

As a sequel to the original, Dark Souls II had alot to live up to but thankfully the game makers, Fromsoftware were more than up to the task this time round as DSII while it doesn't quite scale the heights of the original, its still an excellent, entertaining and gripping sequel with plenty of new features and enemies to deal with.  

The game itself also sees many different changes over the original but it does still follow pretty much the same forumla but it definitely has its own look and unique feel all the same. The game also appears to rack up the difficulty level from the original as it is filled with more bosses and even more enemies! 

It is however worth mentioning that it is available in two editions, the vanilla original Dark Souls II and the remastered updated version, Scholar of the First Sin, which features plenty more content some of which very contentious among fans of the series as there are so many more enemies and NPC invaders!

The game was also made by a different team at Fromsoft this time around as the Souls creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki was working on Bloodborne at the time, so he was not available to direct the game (even though he was given supervisor credit). And this does of course account for the change in tone from the other Souls games with much different lore and references to its predecessor and even in its successor. 

GAMEPLAY BASICS
 
As for the gameplay it follows pretty much the same patterns of the original Dark Souls with the third person perspective approach and similar move set such as running, jumping, walking the usual stuff however there are one or two changes still in terms of the controls than before. However one addition to the game is that there are certain areas where the character can use rope zip lines to traverse between different high up areas. 

The player's HUD is similar also with their health bar and endurance bar on the top left although the inventory has been given a bit of an overhaul with items positioned in a more boxed grid, which makes selecting items a bit easier. Then there is the stats screen that shows attributes such as your strength, endurance, vigor (which has replaced vitality to upgrade your health points, or HP) and what level your character is at. This is also where you can level up these stats, which now has to be done through one of non-playable characters (NPC) in the game, Emerald Herald, who is based at the central hub of the game, Majula.

In Majula, the character can come back to rest and upgrade their stats, equipment via the local blacksmith (Lenigrast) and deal with other merchants. It also leads off to other nearby areas, which again shows how the game is quite well connected similarly to the original Dark Souls.   

The player can also make the choice of character like before and select the character's gender, build and class of character e.g. warrior, knight, sorcerer, cleric or pyromancer and similar to the first game each character has their own different characteristics but more on that soon.

HEALTH AND WEAPONS RISKS

Dark Souls II also sees it set the difficulty level a bit higher when it comes to your player's weapons and health this time round because weapons can break much easier than in the previous game where most weapons didn't break at all! Your weapons however can be repaired by one of the blacksmiths in the game or if your weapon is almost broken you can return to the bonfire and it will automatically restore your weapon for you. 

Also if the player dies then their health bar will reduce a little each time they do, which can be reverse but only if the player uses certain items in the game. The player again though can replenish their health by drinking Estus flasks (same as the other Souls games) and additionally they can use a new item called life gems to do the same, which they can do when you are on the move.

HOLLOW VS HUMAN 
 
In terms of the hollowing and humanity process, things are also a little different this time because when you go hollow, as I said above you will lose a little of your health every time you die, however the game uses a new item called a human effigy to restore your player's humanity. The advantage here is that when your player's humanity is restored you can completely restore their health bar but you need to be wary that the process will repeat of them losing their health bar fractionally when they die and become hollow.  However there are also other items in the game that can reduce the amount of health you lose.

RINGS

This brings me onto the rings in the game, which feature a large variety that are spread throughout the game that can be bought via merchants or discovered in wooden boxes or treasure chests during their travels. The rings will have various abilities such as increasing your stamina, your life bar, defenses and resistances to certain things and later on enhanced versions of these rings can be found also that are +1, +2 and +3 in strength. Another improvement in the game sees the player now being able to use four rings at once rather than just the two in the original game, however the rings can also be broken during combat. 

TORCHES

A new addition to the game this time is the use of torches, which come in hand frequently as there are a number of dark or dimly lit areas to be found here. The player can either light their torch at a bonfire or light it from one another flamed source and it can also act as a key gameplay mechanic when fighting certain bosses. You do however need to find a fire source to relight your torch, so you can't equip it and un-equip it at will but the more torches you pick up it will increase the torch time you can keep them lit. 

WEAPONS

Not surprisingly in the game there is a huge selection of weapons to choose from which can be picked up either from the fallen dead or enemies or can be purchased from merchants and blacksmiths.

So, the game features all sorts of melee weapons such as swords, knives, maces, axes, spears, bows and crossbows that can be upgraded throughout the game by blacksmiths who enhance them with the use of different materials. The materials used are the same as in DS1, which are titanite shards, chunks, slabs and specific types of stone that create various effects such as magic, fire or lightning or just increase the overall power of the weapons attacks. There is also a big selection of shields that the player can access that range in all different sizes from small, medium to large shields (or great shields as they are known).

There are also other weapons in the game such as firebombs, which you can toss at enemies from a short distance that will explode on impact, throwing knives, which can be well...thrown at enemies! One thing about the throwing knives is that you can purchase ones that are covered with poision that can kill enemies quicker. In fact this reminds me that poison has a more potent effect this time round in the game as you die quicker if you are poisoned but it can be cured through poison moss. 

As for sorcerers they will have access to their own abilities that involve using a staff (or catalyst) to unleash their magic attacks and pyromancers can use a flame to launch their fire attacks and all of these attacks have various effects. Miracles on the other hand are cast using chimes and these can also be upgraded up to +10 to increase their power (just like the staffs) and effect of the miracles. 

GAME STATS, MELEE, MAGIC, PYROMANCY & FAITH 

Moving onto the game stats, this is where the game's depth really come into play as this is where it really depends on your choice of character and what characteristics they have and again things are very similar here in Dark Souls II. And as an example a melee character, who wields powerful swords and shields will upgrade their strength, endurance and their vigor (which is a new stat, which essentially increases your health bar) and adaptability (helps to maintain their poise in combat situations) to improve their performance throughout the game.

However when it comes to other characters such as a sorcerer, you may depend less on strength and endurance and more on intelligence and attunement where intelligence is used to cast spells and attunement to gain more slots to use different spells at once. As for pyromancy, intelligence wouldn't be a factor to use this but they use attunement that will improve their ability to cast faster. Clerics can probably have similar stats to melee characters with the exception of their key stat which is Faith that is used to cast their spells, which are known in the game as "miracles".

So basically in the game the stats remain much the same with the exception of two new stats of vigor (raises your health bar) and adaptability (increases your poise ability in combat i.e. so you won't stagger when attacked as well as your agility in combat). Vitality however undergoes the main change here in the game, which no longer governs the player's health but more their equipment load and defense.    

COMBAT

The combat system again is pretty similar to the original game where the player takes on enemies either in free flow or they can lock on to a single enemy.  The combat mechanics feature similar attacks such as the typical forward combo attacks but you can also parry your enemies (involves shield bashing them as they are about to strike and counter-attacking them). The backstab however that featured in the original game is now replaced with a critical attack but you can still backstab with certain weapons such as spears. You also have the option to perform a strong attack that inflicts more damage on enemies and there is options for a running attack, which has a similar potent effect.  

As for sorcery and pyromancy the attacks are very similar to the first Dark Souls only the casting speed for sorcerers is much faster than before although pyromancy appears to have only moderately been improved (I think!). You can also upgrade your casting speed via your stats as you progress with your intelligence and attunement but there are also rings that you can acquire than shorten the casting time. The same should go for pyromancers here I think but having not played as a pyro character yet I'm not sure of this myself nor of the clerics abilities in this regard as I haven't played as those characters myself.  

ENEMIES, BOSSES AND NPC's

This time round the game features a lot more enemies per area, which can range from the weaker enemies up to stronger ones. Of course a lot of the enemies that featured in the original reappear here such as hollows in various forms, skeletons, rats, mimics (the creatures that disguise themselves as a treasure chest) basilisks (the big frog-like creatures that can "curse" you with their gas). However there are of course plenty of new enemies that range from the weakest type such as infantry hollow soldiers to armoured knights (the dreaded Alonne knights!) but there are a vast array of enemies here for sure that will not leave stuck for a challenge as they can become very challenging as the game progresses! 

The game also features a much larger selection of bosses than in the previous game where this time round there are 41 bosses in total (which includes the bosses from the DLC content for the game). This is way more than any other Souls game and the bosses are in different forms such as giants, knights, sentinels, dragons, hybrid creatures and of course demons!  

Again the bosses vary in difficulty with some of them being quite easy whereas others are infuriatingly difficult but hey it is of course Dark Souls, so you have to expect that.  There are very few bosses however that can regenerate their health in the game (with the exception of the DLC boss, the Fume Knight, often considered the hardest in the game!).

Then we have the NPCs in the game who you can either interact with for trading and selling items or in the case of Emerald Herald, upgrade your stats with. There are other NPCs that you can also summon to help you fight in most boss fights (but not always!) who often prove very useful in battle and at times you can summon two of them for one fight but you need to be in human form before you can do this. However there also other NPCs that are enemies and invade you throughout the game, who are after your souls or humanity. In the first Souls game you were only invaded when you were in human form but here they can invade you in either a hollow or human state.

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics, well the original version of Dark Souls II was released in 2014 but it was given a remastered update in 2015 when they released Scholar of the First Sin, which featured revamped graphics, some additional enemies and also all the DLC content. As for the graphics, going by the Scholar version, they look terrific and the game's environments look stunning and rich with detail. 

The character models also look pretty good albeit there are more sophisticated looking ones by today's standards and the character's mouths don't appear to move when they talk! But overall the graphics for the game are very impressive and Scholar of the First Sin saw a big upgrade in Dark Souls II's visuals from their original release. 

MUSIC

As for the music, well its another fine score, which is again composed by Motoi Sakuraba with contributions by Yuka Kitmura and its filled with some great passages of music, which can be dramatic, suspenseful and even at times with poignant, such as the "Majula" theme which is the main hub of the game where the character rests.

In fact I think Dark Souls II's score while it might not hit the epic emotional heights of Dark Souls III, it is a more diverse sounding one and there plenty of highlights in there. And such examples include Fume Knight, Skeleton Lords, Vendrick, Old Dragonslayer, Ancient Dragon and the best of all is Sir Alonne's theme, which is easily one of the best tracks in the entire Souls series.   

So, Dark Souls 2's soundtrack is a very strong one for sure and to this day I often give it a listen independent of the game via Amazon.

FLAWS

As for flaws...yeah Dark Souls II does have some.

For starters the game insists on continuing its increase in difficulty over its predecessor but it does it more by bombarding the player with more enemies. Now in itself this could be seen as part of the challenge where but there are many enemies who are actually way tougher than the actual boss they are protecting that you go on to fight! So, there is a quite a bit of inconsistency in the difficulty level here as you get really tough standard enemies and at times dead easy bosses! However sometimes you do get both but the difficulty of the game certainly isn't always that balanced.

In fact further to this point, one of the game's major drawbacks is there are simply way too many bosses and DS2 would definitely have benefited from cutting out about half of the bosses, especially as lot of them are quite easy and not that memorable. And if they had cut down on the naff bosses in the game and concentrated on quality over quantity then I'm sure the game would be better received by the Souls community.   

Another issue is to do with the NPC invaders, who to put it bluntly are a major pain in the ass! Now there are some invaders in the game that are tougher than others but when you are trying to simply work your way through an area and you get invaded AND get killed in the process, it becomes VERY annoying pretty quickly! I mean you get the Forlorn invaders popping up at numerous times when you are trying to get from A to B and even in areas like the Iron Keep (my most HATED area in the main game of DS2!) there are two in-game invaders that appear and then you can get one of these Forlorn a-holes spawning in on top of them as well! So, yeah the invaders are a bit much although most of them were actually added into the Scholar version as the vanilla version of DS2 didn't have half as many.

Another problem is to do with how your weapons, shields and weapons can break much easier than in the original Dark Souls after so much fighting. Now the bonfire does reset your weapon's damage but if it breaks you then have to pay a blacksmith to fix them. Now, this does make things a little more realistic I guess but it can also be a pest when you are trying to fight your way past a big number enemies but to be fair you do have a large amount of weapons at your disposal, so you can always select another one but if its your most trusted weapon then its still a nuisance. You can however get a ring that reduces weapon degradation, so that does help out a bit.

I also cannot forget to mention the problem that existed in the original Dark Souls with the action of drinking from your Estus flask to recover your health being too rigid as you were rooted to the spot when drinking Estus, which hindered you in combat. Well, in DS2 that problem is replaced by the fact that your estus drinking action is even SLOWER than it was before, although the action of it doesn't feel as rigid as in DS1.

So, this means you end up getting murdered more times than not in a fight as a result! In fact for this I have coined my own phrase (which I should try and patent!) which is "Estus Murder" where drinking from your flask too slowly gets you killed!  However, perhaps they kind of addressed this issue by introducing life gems into the game, which the player can also use to restore their health and can do it on the move, which is an improvement over your pathetically slow Estus flask drinking. 

However to be fair the animation of Estus drinking can be sped up by raising your adaptability stat, which also improves your ability to roll through enemy attacks without taking damage (aka as invincibility frames). It is however worth noting that the adaptability stat itself is a pain in that exists and has to be upgraded in the first place as it would be best left out of the game if you ask me to allow for a standard roll and drink speed as in DS1 and DS3. 

And this brings me onto another issue in the game to do with the Estus flask upgrades as here you need to try and locate what is called Estus shards in order to increase the number of Estus flasks you have at your disposal. So, this means you need to locate these shards throughout the game as they are hidden in different areas, which can also be a pain and early on if you only have a couple of Estus flasks its a pain in the ass but to be fair the life gems also help with your health are more accessible.

Update: Again however, on reflection, the estus shards aren't a bad idea because at least once you find them all, you have a set number of estus, which can be refilled at the bonfire not unlike the first DS where you had to continually kindle each bonfire to boost your use to 10 or more. 

Another fairly big problem with the game is the fall damage, which is absolutely RIDICULOUS compared to the other Souls games, it is unreal how much damage you can take falling from heights that not that high up! And in the other games you might take a bit of fall damage when falling a fair height but here it outright kills you! 

The one way you can mitigate this however is to use the Silvercat ring, which is pretty decent at cancelling out a lot of fall damage from higher falls although it isn't a perfect solution. You can also use the fall control spell to reduce fall damage as well but you would need to meet the intelligence requirement to use it. So, yeah the fall damage sucks in DS2. 

Last of all is an issue to do with how enemies progressively stop re-spawning unlike in the original Dark Souls where all enemies respawned in all areas when you rest at your bonfire. Now, this is something of a blessing but also a problem as it makes life easier when you want to get through certain areas and the enemies stop respawning so much but it can also limit the amount of souls you can "farm" in order to upgrade or purchase items. 

So, its kind of double-edged sword that the game has handed you, its good you have to deal with lesser enemies the more times you redo an area but its also annoying you cannot farm for souls as much when they stop respawning. However, this again can be resolved by using the bonfire ascetic item, which allows you to reset all enemies in the area and items but on the flipside they now have more strength and damage output.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Dark Souls II is an excellent sequel to the original and it offers plenty of new features, weapons and upgrades that are all welcome additions as well as challenging enemies that can provide for a satisfying experience when you have finally defeated them. It also continues the non-linear nature of the DS1 and allows you to full explore a lot of different areas freely, which is a bonus that can allow you access to better items earlier on if you are adept enough at the game's difficulty.

However it has to be said that it doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of its predecessor due to some frustrating issues with gameplay. Also the game makers blatant attempts to make things more difficult at times by bombarding you with extra enemies is also an issue not to mention the level of difficulty can be a bit inconsistent. And it really has to be said there are too many bosses in the game and not only that but too many of them are mediocre and forgettable.

But if you can forgive its faults and try and not let yourself be too biased by the split opinions of the game, you might just enjoy DS2 whether it be the original or the Scholar version as it is very addictive and can be great fun and its easily one of the most under appreciated games out there. Basically, its a game you need to try with an open mind and not let the reputation given to it by players and audiences get in the way of you possibly enjoying what is a game that is quite different from the others in the Souls series. However, I think is one of its strengths and I still really enjoy it myself regardless of the criticisms leveled at it. 

So, I will finish and rate Dark Souls II:

9 out of 10

That's it for now and I will be back soon with possibly a revisited look at my Dark Souls III review.

Till then, its bye for now!