Recent reviews by BrainLemon

What a game. I played the original PS2 version when it came out, and at the time, I remember enjoying it, but it didn't knock my socks off the way P3 did. Fast forward 12 years, post Persona 5, and I get the chance to play the Golden version I couldn't play because I never bought a Vita. Does it hold up, given its shiny new followup and almost three generations of consoles?

Oh yes. Yes it does. Better than I even expected, being a raving Persona fanboy. Persona 4 has a unique charm that I hope the series is able to achieve someday, though I don't think it will now that it's hit the big time with P5. The setting is wonderfully quaint and low-key; the stakes high for the characters, but not for the country or the world. This lends it a delightful small-town feel where you genuinely know pretty much everyone in town. Your friends are just normal kids, all wonderfully written and unique.

The serial killer/murder mystery vibe suits this perfectly. Even when the story reaches its zenith and things become more abstract (as is the series wont) it always feels like you're fighting for your friends and family. You have to keep Nanako safe, make sure the Amagi Inn can continue, help your high school friends find dates. Your hero is powerful, but not almighty. He's kind of a blank slate, of course - this is a Persona game - but you have more of a chance to form your relationships through your choices.

Overall, this is a fantastic entry into the Persona series. It only asks about 30-40 hours of your time and fills that period with incredible depth, humor, and memorable events. It has some good improvements over P3, including many that would show up in P5. It's a tragedy that we went a decade without a Persona game between 4 and 5; I'd have loved to see another title or too with a more modest scale and setting, P5 is of course wonderful, but P4 will always be a special little place inside your TV... or monitor, now.

While the concept for this game is great, the execution is severely lacking. The worst part for me was just how tedious and slow battles are. You'd think a bunch of giant robots fighting would be exciting, but instead it plays like a D&D encounter with 20 characters and everyone taking 30 seconds to decide what to do. I can't think of any reason why there is so much loading time between turns. And when you do go? It's entirely possible your pilot won't hit a damn thing and fire his lasers every way out into the cosmos. I get this is supposed to be a strategy game with hit percentages, but it makes for terrible gameplay.

There are many things to like about this game. I generally enjoy games like this that are more like immersive movies than games. This one had all the makings to be another great game in the "walking simulator" genre. But in the end, it just left me wanting more. It's very short, and while this is not a problem in itself, it is harmed by a feeling that you are not really part of the story. There are no puzzles to solve, no mysteries to figure out, no secrets to uncover. I'm not sure if it even mattered that I solved all the "question marks" (which are not explained at all). There is a lot of interesting stuff here, but the game left me unfulfilled and wanting more. There's just not enough meat to justify buying this unless it's on sale and you have a couple hours to kill.

The concept of this game has a lot of potential. If done well, it could be both a good game and a commentary on policing. Instead, it's just boring, and any value it has as commentary is lost due to exaggeration. You are given insane orders that no department would ever follow. Officers and civilians die routinely without any impact. The music concept is cool, but I don't really wan to have to pick a record every day. Just too many issues for me to recommend.

Orwell is a short but engaging story about an investigator (that's you) being given incredible power to peer into the information of anyone you want. This idea does not seem far-fetched at all. In fact, despite its rather in-your-face name, Orwell presents a world that is quite believable. There really is nothing here that is overly dystopian or fantastic. Rather, the world in Orwell is just our own world, with surveillance taken a few notches up.

The game isn't perfect. The interface sure could use some work. I often found myself having to go through the same emails, chats, etc. until I found the link or "data chunk" it wanted. As such, it was a let down on its initial promise, and felt much more pre-determined than I hoped. There are a few choices here and there, but they don't feel like they matter much. In the end, things will go as they go, and there is little reason not to submit every data chunk.

All that said, Orwell is a good game, and well worth the time to play. It's not long - I did it in a single session. Hoping the sequel adds a bit more choice and complexity. But in a world where these type of games tend to go a bit too far in dystopian future, Orwell is very welcome, because it feels much closer to reality. It clearly has a point to make, but it is generally not heavy-handed. Its most important trait is that it places you in the role of the investigator. You might find the level of access you have to be unnerving. But you feel like you're the good guy. In that way, it's both humanizing to the agents who pore through our data, and showing how no human should have that power.

Pick Orwell up. It'll be a few hours well spent.