22-10-20, 06:52 | #3341 |
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23-10-20, 12:22 | #3342 |
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 4,695
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Parasite Eve
I only ever played the sequel to this because Square in their infinite wisdom never released the first game in Europe. I remember not being overly impressed with the sequel, mainly because I had no idea what was going on in the plot because I had no way to play the first game to get the backstory or learn the basic mechanics of the game. Now I've played this for the first time I want to shake whatever idiot at Square decided not to bother releasing this outside Japan and the US! The story is great, the gameplay pretty unique, and it still holds up really well. If they really wanted to get a piece of that survival horror pie they could have if they actually gave this a fair chance. Mixing Resident Evil with Final Fantasy is a crazy but awesome idea, enough to set it apart from the competitors but familiar enough to fans of both genres to make it accessible to a wider audience. Why Square? Why did you do this game dirty? |
23-10-20, 16:01 | #3343 |
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I really liked Parasite Eve 2, although the reviews always said it wasn't a patch on the first game. And I never played the first one so I don't know how it compares.
I do think this is a franchise that merits a revival and would do quite well in today's market. |
24-10-20, 18:50 | #3344 |
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 4,695
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Well I just finished...
Parasite Eve 2 ...and I completely agree with those reviews. Nothing in PE2 is as good or memorable as PE1, it's weird to see this much of a step back. The characters aren't as fleshed out, creature design isn't as good, the amount of backtracking through the same dull areas is ungodly, the controls aren't as responsive or intuitive, the puzzles are just not fun to figure out, the difficulty is ridiculously over the top, and little things like sometimes keys will be used automatically but sometimes you have to select them in your inventory to use them just make no sense. It feels like a lot of this game was designed around the idea of selling strategy guides just so people could make sense of what to do. PE1 just felt compelling to play through, I wanted to see what happened next and where in New York we'd go, but PE2 just made me sigh everytime I had to go back through the area I'd just slogged through because the game folded it's arms and said "no". One example early on is finding a cabinet bolted to a wall, you have to go all the way back through the stage and walk past a shelf with a wrench on it so you can politely ask an old man politely to borrow it, then walk back from there to the shelf to pick up the wrench and finally back to where you were. Why? Aya can literally evoke the elements to obliterate anything that gets in her way! Plus she always carries y'know, A GUN! My opinion on this one didn't change from my initial reaction way back when it was new, I'm so glad I discovered the first game because that's one I will probably replay again but not this one. EDIT - And now I've finished... The 3rd Birthday OK, I can understand why this is kind of the black sheep of the franchise because the gameplay doesn't really resemble a PE game. The game is just a generic cover based shooter at its core, the ability to dive into any NPC is neat but that doesn't really carry an entire game. Having no PE powers doesn't help either. The creature design is again a little lacklustre but they are at least cool to see for the first time, characters are a little flat and predictable, a returning character is just plain weird, and I very much didn't like how a big chunk of time was skipped over and you were expected to just read some documents to fill in the gaps. Did they just get bored with making this? That all being said, I kinda liked it. The story is actually pretty good when it's all out there, a decent follow up even though it does kind of paint the series into a corner it still hasn't managed to work itself out of. The gameplay is generic and simple yes but sometimes that's all you want, and after playing the first 2 games back to back I was quite happy to just switch my brain off and coast through a game. Besides with the plot jumping around so much your brain power is kind of taken up just trying to keep up with what happened when. It didn't surprise me at all to find out the games director also did FF7:Crisis Core and FFXV, there are parallels between all of them. Now I need to find something else to work through Last edited by rewak; 25-10-20 at 17:27. |
26-10-20, 16:19 | #3345 |
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 8,582
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The Last of Us 2
After avoiding it for a long time I decided to give it a shot. I rate it a 9/10 overall tbh just like the first one. |
26-10-20, 16:59 | #3346 |
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26-10-20, 22:56 | #3347 |
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Joined: Aug 2011
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That said, I hope it never gets a sequel. It is the end of the line.
Last edited by JsotoTRSaga; 26-10-20 at 22:58. |
26-10-20, 23:29 | #3348 |
Golden
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 7,096
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Just finished Rise of the Tomb Raider (my first playthrough on PC).
Again, the game turned out to be decent as a game, but not really that decent as a Tomb Raider game (measured by the Classic's standards). I didn't really like the story and how daddy-centric it was (although in the end it turned out, that that was actually what they wanted to convey). Still, I didn't really enjoy it. The graphics of this game are pretty awesome - even held to today's standards. Unfortunately most of the areas feature a rather bland color palette, diminishing the otherwise glorious looking effects. Gameplay-wise, Rise of the Tomb Raider could not keep up with its graphical representation, though. Combat was ... well ... there, but nothing really enjoyable (luckily, most combat scenes were quickly to get over with). Traversal featured a few nice mechanics, but Lara's moves often felt weightless and unresponsive to the environment. All in all I think the game left a similar mark as it did when I first played it on the PS4. |
29-10-20, 13:56 | #3349 |
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,549
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Syberia 3.
It was a tedious waste of time. The only reason I completed it is beacuse I am a huge fan of the first 2 games. They had such a feeling of progression and adventure. But 3 is just bleak and uninspired 90% of the time. Also I just saw a trailer for Syberia 4, and that game looks beautiful actually. Let's hope it's actually good. |
29-10-20, 18:11 | #3350 |
Golden
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 7,096
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Keeping the Point & Click train going, I finished my playthrough of 'Secret Files 2' yesterday. I actualy think it was quite ok. The puzzles were quite logical (for the most part), and the moments where a character simply refused to do the obvious thing in favour of a way grander and more complicated solution were rare. After solving a puzzle I usually understood how the character came up with the solution, but I would have preferred a less restrictive approach. I'm still waiting for a p&c game that supports multiple solutions to puzzles, based on how the player thinks and not based on how the character thinks. But I guess that woud be rather hard to implement.
Currently playing part 3, and the fact that it spans over more than one timeframe and that it feaures multiple endings based on player choice sounds intrieguing. |
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