Recent reviews by Tsuwado

Eh...

Sound and graphics it seems polished. Gameplay is terrible. It has promise but as it is, it's bad. I have not played a game that has messed up my desktop in so long. I don't mean damaged my computer, I mean icons, windows, placement and size are wrecked from opening this game. The way they use unit to draw the screen, and it chooses Full HD to start with (I'm going 4k native these days) It moves things around. I have a second screen running and it even messes with that, though it's not on it. The last game I had do that was Tales from the Borderlands.

From the start you get the sense that the controls are... odd and so is the world. I'm use to games on rails and the obvious inspiration for this game but this isn't that and it's different in a bad way. For example; you have an aiming spot, two when you're charging but where you shoot may not be where you hit. Not because of the lock on, but the aiming isn't based on where you're positioned in the game. As such, you cannot try to make long shots. The world swings around with no regard to your location. This doesn't give you a sense that you're on rails but more that you're in a box that will go anywhere, without regard. When I went back through the training mission, one of the "teammates" told me to follow them. I tried and though it looked like I went through the rings, they immediately disappeared and I was told I was too slow. Teammates is in quotes because I didn't even know they were with me until the very end. The first time I took out one behind one before I was prompted and I though that was odd.

The enemies seem to be on a different plane, the mostly just scroll in from the side, doesn't matter how you or the world are moving. It's as if the background is a moving and you and the characters and just made with 3d but on a 2d plane going left, right, up, down, while the background plays. The enemies also have like no though in power levels, one charged shot takes down a warship?

All in all, it's just not fun. Though they have made a previous game, it is possible that this could all change.

Yes!

TL;DR I don't really know what to say, I don't know what people are worried about or want to know. I picked it up because it was a good sale and I had been looking at it. Also I heard about integrity choices by the Devs about not adding AI voices and I think adding something for free. I like that I can pick it up and put it down, short plays or long plays. It's interesting and story is a bit weird too! The controls are done well and it's challenging without being frustrating.

I like this so much better than Ex Zodiac, and while I an actual once through story, the mechanics of this is really what I need. The game can be broken into easily digested parts or you can have a bunch and make it a longer time in one go. If I want to spend some time or zone out for a while, this is great for both. The controls are simple: Steer, fire, boost, bomb and dodge. The only thing to forget (and I think it's shown on screen) is what pickups and how much of it do you have.

If you are familiar with Rouge... (ugh I hate the term) You always start the same, maybe you pick a new thing or two and you go at it. Everything else is random. What you'll pick up, what you'll traverse through. There will be some things that are the same like what boss is here and there but that could change too.

As such, I know what I'm getting into, while there are perks which are permanent, and I have not even bothered with any yet, I know that you're starting all over each time and that's okay, it's more about the fight. The controls are great and responsive.


Now, while I called them words, they are really more like sections, as until you finish the map (everything left to right) it doesn't change a great deal. All the worlds/sections will be related. Once you finish the map, then it changes more. (currently as of posting) Also the enemies don't very much until you get to the new map but it still eases you in. So some enemy types don't show til the second half or so and then the toughened ones will not appear until just before the end.

TL;DR: The story is absolute garbage. The game design starts low and get's lower.

I like Halo for it's gameplay, the 4x multiplayer, and mostly for its story.

343 has been riding the sled down the hill of quality ever since they took over. They scored this biggest failure when they showed Master Chief's face at the end of their very first game. I haven't looked for anything online so I have no idea if this is true, however this game suffers from signs that they had an extremely larger plan for this game and then scraped it back to just a few percent of that to ship it out the door.

The game starts like most Halo games and right away you notice... Armor abilities are back! This is not something that was well received from before and it's back. The game then opens up to an open world game, which is nice as an Idea but with the first given ability (a grapple hook) the invisible walls show up quite quickly. The next thing you might run into is ability points. Something Halo has never had and doesn't fit into the world of the game. You can find "Spartan Cores" and upgrade your abilities, you find more abilities the more you play the main story and then can just use them. Again, this doesn't fit well in the story. Then the first eye rolling lazy game mechanic appears, "go find this thing and bring it back to proceed." By the end of the game, they'll throw out the later lazy design of making a story level mirror a multiplayer "hoard" mode. Any fans of Gears of War will have talked about such a thing. For good measure they also throw in that later bosses sponge up so much ammo that I don't know if I should clean my house with them or if they're a used ammo depot. The third act has a "twist" that actually isn't and the reveal is not fitting. I can't get more into it without spoilers. OH! zero reason or explanation that we can understand the aliens now and they trash talk all the time. Not only that but they use our weapons, also new in the franchise. There is also no mention why they are extremely more like us, in how they act to even armor design.

Trying to go without throwing any spoilers: The story gives hints of what is to come, however there are lots of things that don't pan out to anything. For example one of the bad guys you'll face later in the game, constantly taunts you, by the midpoint of the game, it's clear that character is dying as well. Nothing comes of that, it's a detail in cinematics that isn't subtle. There is confusion between who is leader of bad guy in the writing. There is an enemy class that comes out of nowhere, no explanation, it's even said not much is known about them, yet later there is a high value one... Characters are dumbed down so much that it is out of character. If you ever thought about things after seeing "Superman Vs. Batman" and wondered how did a super intelligent alien and pretty much the world's greatest detective get duped into fighter each other - that kind of dumbing down. Finally, the game ends of a cliffhanger. That's not the bad part. It is that they messed it up! Let's say it's a story like Lord of the Rings, and all the story you're waiting on the ring to get destroyed, you get to the volcano, toss it in, but at the last second you see a figure jump from the side like they're going to catch it. You could even show them catching it, or cut it just before to have more suspense. You could even show them catching it, then using the power THEN cut it! No, no no, 343 decided lets show them catching it, making it to the other side, and instead of doing anything they just put it in their pocket and walk off. The heros, seeing all this, just turn around and start walking home without acknowledging it.

I could go on but this review is too long already. I cannot believe that firefight took so long to be released when it's in the story thought I don't remember how long between the story and firefight is. I'm glad I picked it up on a deep discount not just because multiplayer being free is a slap in the face, but paid story is short and rubbish.

Lastly, campaign is a secondary citizen. You cannot directly go into it. You have to first start as multiplayer, then switch. This adds extra time every time you start up and is just annoying. However, this is a bigger issue with this. The game doesn't build it's cache in the background, every time there is a game update OR you update your video drivers, it has to rebuild. Top end AMD system, this can take 90 sec to a few minutes, lower end can be looking at closer to 10 minutes. THEN you've got another build to get into campaign! It's not as long, and I'm not sure if you'd just have to do both anyway, but you still cannot just start the game, knowing that it's coming and do something else and come back ready to go.

This game seems to have Third Party DRM - which does not allow one to play offline or even in Steam's offline mode even if you're connected to the internet still.

I'm still not ready to give a review and wish that I didn't have to say yea or nae to the game. I wanted to warn others about the DRM and even suggested that steam add that classification. (I'm marking it not recommend for the DRM and that it may be seen more - wait until it's onsale and beware of what is pointed out) What I can say about the game so far is that it's nothing like Technika's controls, I knew that coming in having asked the community. Even buying the Technika pack doesn't change that but there is a mission where they emulate it I was told.

The difficulty seems way high - this might not be a problem. A song older song I knew has a rating that is moderate but I thought I knew it and could do it. NOPE! Again, I'm not saying this is bad, just be aware, you, may need to start at the lower difficulties and work your way up as well as if you knew songs with a different control scheme, you probably don't know them as well as you think now that they are redone.

Also, this game highly more GPU intensive than you'd think. It's just video (which you can turn off) under a simple interface of a rhythm game right? Yes, but no. I was hoping this would run on my HP Elitebook that only has Intel integrated graphics but no, it pegs the GPU and has obvious pacing issues which is crucial in any game but certainly these.