[size=large]Mirror's Edge Catalyst:[/size]
Faith, a "Runner" skilled at parlour and her friends attempt to stop the mega corporation that controls the city of Glass called K-Sec from launching a mass surveillance system "Reflection".
The gameplay involves free flow parkour in an open-world setting letting you use various moves for traversal and sparse combat. The main story is about 6-7 hours long and there's the usual open world fluff, skill trees and side missions(which I mostly ignored) as well.
Pros:
The traversal, it's near perfect, especially when the game actually lets you go non-stop, and you build moves on top of one another at full speed.
The level design is immaculate for the main missions.
The city is great looking especially because of the colour choices(red, gray and yellow). Looks clean and sharp.
Cons:
The story and characters are sorely lacking and go nowhere in the last act.
The open world contributes nothing. It's a bunch of time trials, deliveries, etc and get tiring after a while.
The combat is extremely wonky and I dreaded everytime I had to engage in it for extended periods of time when it didn't blend with parkour.
Occasional FPS drops.
Braindead fast travel system.
Overall, I'd give this 2.5/5, if you wnat a game with great traversal mechanics and level design and just focus on the main missions, and not care too much for everything else you can get through this quickly and have a relatively good time like I did. Although I was able to play this for ~$1 alongside other games so this is a pretty myopic view, I can't recommend that you buy this game.
[size=large]Dishonored 2:[/size]
An otherworldly usurper has seized Empress Emily Kaldwin’s throne, leaving the fate of the Isles hanging in the balance. As Emily or Corvo, travel beyond the legendary streets of Dunwall to Karnaca, the once-dazzling coastal city that holds the keys to restoring Emily to power. Armed with the Mark of the Outsider and powerful new abilities, track down your enemies and take back what’s rightfully yours.
Gameplay:
The gameplay style involves either stealth+non lethal route(low chaos) or combat+lethal(high chaos) or a mixture of both. You find a variety of weapons such as pistols, bows, sleep darts, bombs, etc. You also get supernatural abilities such as teleportation, the ability to link enemies together to chain attacks, becoming a shadow, summoning a doppelganger, etc and all these can be unlocked by collecting runes in each level.
The level design is non-linear and involves a lot of verticality, sort of like Assassin's Creed except every level is dense and you enter/come out of buildings to go to the next part. Exploration is highly rewarding too, you get a lot of health, mana, ammo if you go through every part. And you can finish each mission in so many different ways using the tools and magical abilities at your disposal.
You can play as one of two characters, I played as Emily and I recommend being stealthy and non-lethal, I found that to be a lot more fun. The story itself is mostly told through environments, notes. There isn't a lot of cutscenes and frankly the story isn't exactly why you need to play the game. The characters are fine but the voice acting can be a bit wooden, even in dramatic scenes.
My main issues were that mana regeneration works in a weird way in that if you chain two abilities together it doesn't regenerate, it only does when you use one at a time. Also non-lethal stealth takedown is wonky and you need to be in a particular position to trigger it. Plus I'm playing on base PS4 so as always there's FPS drops.
Overall, I give this a 4/5, it's easily the 2nd best game I've played this year next to Celeste. Among the best steatlh games ever made.
Faith, a "Runner" skilled at parlour and her friends attempt to stop the mega corporation that controls the city of Glass called K-Sec from launching a mass surveillance system "Reflection".
The gameplay involves free flow parkour in an open-world setting letting you use various moves for traversal and sparse combat. The main story is about 6-7 hours long and there's the usual open world fluff, skill trees and side missions(which I mostly ignored) as well.
Pros:
The traversal, it's near perfect, especially when the game actually lets you go non-stop, and you build moves on top of one another at full speed.
The level design is immaculate for the main missions.
The city is great looking especially because of the colour choices(red, gray and yellow). Looks clean and sharp.
Cons:
The story and characters are sorely lacking and go nowhere in the last act.
The open world contributes nothing. It's a bunch of time trials, deliveries, etc and get tiring after a while.
The combat is extremely wonky and I dreaded everytime I had to engage in it for extended periods of time when it didn't blend with parkour.
Occasional FPS drops.
Braindead fast travel system.
Overall, I'd give this 2.5/5, if you wnat a game with great traversal mechanics and level design and just focus on the main missions, and not care too much for everything else you can get through this quickly and have a relatively good time like I did. Although I was able to play this for ~$1 alongside other games so this is a pretty myopic view, I can't recommend that you buy this game.
[size=large]Dishonored 2:[/size]
An otherworldly usurper has seized Empress Emily Kaldwin’s throne, leaving the fate of the Isles hanging in the balance. As Emily or Corvo, travel beyond the legendary streets of Dunwall to Karnaca, the once-dazzling coastal city that holds the keys to restoring Emily to power. Armed with the Mark of the Outsider and powerful new abilities, track down your enemies and take back what’s rightfully yours.
Gameplay:
The gameplay style involves either stealth+non lethal route(low chaos) or combat+lethal(high chaos) or a mixture of both. You find a variety of weapons such as pistols, bows, sleep darts, bombs, etc. You also get supernatural abilities such as teleportation, the ability to link enemies together to chain attacks, becoming a shadow, summoning a doppelganger, etc and all these can be unlocked by collecting runes in each level.
The level design is non-linear and involves a lot of verticality, sort of like Assassin's Creed except every level is dense and you enter/come out of buildings to go to the next part. Exploration is highly rewarding too, you get a lot of health, mana, ammo if you go through every part. And you can finish each mission in so many different ways using the tools and magical abilities at your disposal.
You can play as one of two characters, I played as Emily and I recommend being stealthy and non-lethal, I found that to be a lot more fun. The story itself is mostly told through environments, notes. There isn't a lot of cutscenes and frankly the story isn't exactly why you need to play the game. The characters are fine but the voice acting can be a bit wooden, even in dramatic scenes.
My main issues were that mana regeneration works in a weird way in that if you chain two abilities together it doesn't regenerate, it only does when you use one at a time. Also non-lethal stealth takedown is wonky and you need to be in a particular position to trigger it. Plus I'm playing on base PS4 so as always there's FPS drops.
Overall, I give this a 4/5, it's easily the 2nd best game I've played this year next to Celeste. Among the best steatlh games ever made.
