Recent reviews by coded

GAME IS WIN

Review AFTER the 2.1 update:

this game is significantly better in so many ways than at launch. gameplay mechanics have been improved, there's been so many quality of life features and every gameplay upgrade, stat and skill tree feels like it has purpose now. there's actual progression!

so yes, i strongly recommend this game now. in the past, it was sort of a 50/50, but now, it's certainly worth it.

Review BEFORE the 2.1 update:

did the game have one of the worst launches in video game history? yes. even worse than no mans sky? probably. at least no mans sky was playable on launch.

- it's not really a cyberpunk version of grand theft auto 5 like you'd expect it to be. the city feels like a sort of... backdrop to your story, rather than a big world that your story happens to be taking place in. however, the story itself is actually pretty interesting, and there's a lot of likeable characters here.
- the gameplay itself is alright - it's nothing special, but the combat and hacking mechanics serve their purpose to a pretty decent degree.
- the driving kind of sucks and doesn't have nearly the same punch as other open world games of its genre - crashes have almost no impact and car destruction is almost non-existent, aside from a bit of fire and maybe a lost bonnet. in GTA 5, for example, you could get a lot of cars where you'd end up driving a burning chassis, but this game just feels like it doesn't take its car mechanics and driving seriously enough, which is pretty bad for a game where a lot of the time you'll be driving between locations.

now, it seems like i just said a lot of negative things, but i do enjoy this game - mainly because the characters and linear story sections carry the entire experience. however, overall, a lot of the mechanics feel pretty hollow, and while the game has improved a hell of a lot since launch, it's still no where near where it was promised to be. however, i think it speaks to more of a core game design and direction problem. it advertised itself as an immersive city of endless possibilities, but the focus ends up being scattered, almost like they made a promise that was impossible to fulfil - even for a massive video game company. i don't think that's the kind of thing that can be fixed with patches.

despite the fact that it doesn't live up to the original hype, i'd still say the game is worth it. it's quite a bit of fun, and while nothing special, i'd say the action and - specifically the story immersion - make it worth it. but, not at full price. definitely buy it on sale.

pros:
- story. this game has a pretty engaging story and i really enjoy how "star wars-y" it is. the universe is used to its fullest extent and i'm really happy with how Respawn utilised everything. also, the first act of the game literally made me so giddy, and so did the final act (but i won't spoil anything). both of the sequences were fantstic, especially the beginning.
- combat. i'm not a player of melee combat games at all, but the combat in this game feels quite enjoyable and it lets me have moments where i feel powerful and actually good at a game for once. sometimes i do get a few prompts which can't be acted on and mislead me in certain combat moments but it's never usually that bad at all. this game might've just got me in to melee combat games!
- level design. this is a bit up and down for me, but i generally had a good experience with the maps. only a couple of times where certain possibilites in platforming mechanics weren't hinted at, and i had to google some things which lead to me being like "hey, you can do that? didn't even get told!" you should never have to google things in games but tbh i'm not very observant when it comes to prompts shown through map design so that could be my fault.
- platforming. even though i didn't actually expect to like it, the amount of platforming in this game doesn't make me mad and i actually really enjoyed using the various platforming mechanics to discover things and reach new areas. they are very generic platforming mechanics (apart from the force-related platform mechanics, i guess) but that doesn't take away from the experience for me.
- boss fights. the boss fights always have moves to learn, and even though i died a lot on most of them, it was incredibly entertaining to figure out all their move sets and so rewarding to finally defeat a boss.
- voice acting. the VAs in this game are incredible, they do a very good job at getting across the emotion in scenes and whatnot.
- graphical fidelity. the game looks beautiful. as it should, it's always what a star wars game should've been!

cons:
- annoying enemy respawns. probably the biggest gripe i have with this game; having to back-track to and from certain areas on planets and having to fight the same set of enemies every time you go through an area is just annoying after a little while. especially when you start returning to certain planets. i said i enjoyed exploring and platforming, but doing this across the same area over and over again was just annoying eventually. this game did try and implement shortcuts to reduce time, but the respawning enemies still get in the way most of the time when using the rest feature while medidating. i understand that something like that was implemented to stop people abusing the mechanic, and maybe it was the best way to do it - maybe certain exceptions for already explored areas would be good?
- some jank. this isn't that bad as people made it out to be, however obviously i heard about jank on launch and this has received a lot of patches since then. sometimes the platforming can bug out and cause annoyances but i haven't actually died to a bug yet. there's been a few times where enemies get trapped on objects or glitch into the floor, but this obviously isn't game-breaking. nowadays getting a game that isn't mostly bugs is an absolute pleasure - looking at you, cyberpunk.

probably worth full price but it goes on sale a lot and can usually be fetched for relatively cheap (i got it at 67% off). a very good singleplayer experience by the creators of Titanfall 2 (TF2 being one of my favourite singleplayer campaigns in a game). not disappointed!

edit: now that i've actually finished the game, added a bit to my review to reflect the rest of my experience. wanted to also add that this game was incredibly enjoyable overall and has a satisfying ending and final boss.

space ship go vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmm

Half-Life 2

that is all.

update: i posted this review in 2021, and this game is still unplayable. absolutely abhorrent. valve, get your ♥♥♥♥ together.

one of my favourite games of all time, ruined by hackers and neglect from valve. such a shame. i wouldn't recommend it in its current state at all, but i'll always remember how good it used to be!

a fantastic game, and insanely good with friends. the game still gets updates, and despite a few quirks here and there, it only makes the experience more solid.

proof that valve's still got it (but only when they can be bothered)

full-life

screaming