Recent reviews by Helixion

The best unfinished game I have ever played since Halo 2

Destiny 2 is without a doubt my favorite multiplayer game of this generation. It’s a game that I was never sure I would commit to - especially after picking up and dropping a multitude of MMO/"live service"-type games and the game's own rocky launch in Fall 2017. But two years later, I’ve put more time into this than any other game I’ve played this decade (~800 hours at the time of writing, across two years and two platforms) and I plan to put in another 800 more.

What sold me on Destiny 2 is it's smooth FPS gameplay, beautiful world design and it's science-fantasy storytelling. There are plenty of looter shooters (or "shlooters" if you're Pat from SBFP) and MMOs out there on the market right now but none have really provided an experience that was comparable to Destiny, which made me stick with it even through its lowest points. It's a game that's easy to pick up and hit the ground running, which is crucial for a multiplayer game you'd want to play with friends.

So, should you play Destiny 2? Well, I wouldn't be saying all of this if the answer was "No". With it being (sort of) F2P, the barrier of entry is very low and if you'd like to "Try Before You Buy" then I highly recommend doing so. There's enough content in the New Light edition of the game to get you acquainted with the game and if you're hungry for more, the expansions (Forsaken and Shadowkeep) are more than worth their asking price. The storage requirements can be rather steep if you're space-conscious but it does in fact run well on toaster PCs; you'll have to make a lot of sacrifices, but it's certainly doable (I'd recommend watching DigitalFoundry's video on the subject)

So that's my review and whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So let's get to taking out their command, one by one. Valus Ta'aurc. From what I can gather he commands the Siege Dancers from an Imperial Land Tank outside of Rubicon. He's well protected, but with the right team, we can punch through those defenses, take this beast out, and break their grip on Freehold.

I’ve never played any other Tomb Raider game before, so I can only judge the game on its own but the best way I can describe it is that it’s a game with lots of great stuff held back by other, less interesting stuff common in typical AAA games. I don’t know if any of these decisions were a part of Crystal Dynamics intended vision or were the result of men in suits from Square Enix wanting the game to be more marketable but either way they’re bad and they should feel bad

Visually, the game is beautiful and though not being that old, I think it easily rivals some of the best looking games of 2016. The area layout is very cramped, with not a lot of the open areas, but the benefit of that is that every space is dense with well-designed details and decorations both big and small. Progression is very linear, but there’s still enough “open-endedness” that never makes me feel like I’m being railroaded. The game nudges players to go off the primary path by looking out for collectibles: some of them lead to bonus salvage (what you use for crafting), but the best ones in my opinion are the ones that fill in the blanks of mystery of the island. Notes from WWII soldiers that were stationed there, relics and objects from the feudal Japanese citizens that once lived on the island, etc. As typical with collectibles, you don’t need them unless you want to 100% the game but I recommend looking for them because they drive home the “tomb raider” aspect of the game.

And then…there is bad, and boy is it terrible. The worse parts of the game are the tropes and mechanics more common in other AAA games (which TR2013 is): crafting and perks, boring and derivative third person cover shooting which you do too much of imo, serviceable but laughably mediocre ””””””stealth””””””” moments, attempting to be “gritty” and “realistic” while still abiding by Video Game Logic™ in full force (example: Laura accidentally falls onto a small, rusty metal rod which pierces her side early in the game. She removes it, wads through muddy waters, can jump, climb and hop just fine but never seeks medical attention. Ironically enough, a friend of hers is attacked by wolves with his leg being severely damaged and the game wants you to look for the first aid kit the wolves took to their lair). All of these things, and the frequency of them, greatly dampen the quality of everything else in the game with the shooting being the worse offender of them all because you’ll be stuck doing it so often; It’s almost like the game is terrified of letting the player move and run around in peace without nameless armed goons (all of which look the same to me) attacking the player.

TR2013 is a game I both really love and really hate, and it's a game I'd also hate to "Not Recommend". If you can get past the dumb stuff, you have yourself an excellent action/adventure game.

The Witcher is such a janky, unpolished game; a game you can clearly tell was made by total amateurs. But under the copy pasted NPCs, stiff animations and wonky as hell combat you're left with one of the most ambitious games of 2007 and the banging introduction to one of the best new WRPG series in the past 10 years.

In the game, you play as Geralt of Rivia who is a witcher, a mutant monster hunter-for-hire, who finds himself caught in the middle of a conspiracy of assassinating kings and ushering in the end times. The games story leads you hoping around the small country of Temeria: from swampy villages overrun by zealotry to a walled city plagued by a literal disease and corruption. What seperates The Witcher from many WRPGs is it's take on morality and choices: while many games go for a very binary "Good Cop vs. Bad Cop" approach marked by convient color-coded meters coughMassEffectcough, TW1 instead places a heavy emphasis on grey morality. As it says on the marketing blurb, there are no hardline good guys and paragons of virtue: everyone is very flawed in various ways and it's up to you to decide how you will approach or ally with them. While there's alot of unneeded fluff to some of the story (Chapters 1 and 4, specifically) but ultimately every moment and character feels incredibly memorable and well-writen. Friends like Thaler, Dandelion, Zoltan and enemies like Javed, the Professor and Salamandrian bandits all add lots of life and personality to the setting. Even if you started with The Witcher 3 and are spoiled by the overall higher quality...everything, you'll begin to see the same ingredients that made the third game so great.

And then there's the bad. When I say The Witcher is jank, it is J A N K. Geralt moves faster going forward than moving backward or strafing left and right. Combat isn't like a typical action RPG where you keep clicking to attack, but instead it's like a psuedo-music game where you must left-click on time. Positioning is also a pain in the butt because of said movement control jankiness. I think the gameplay is the biggest issue with the first Witcher because, to be quite honest, CDPR really didn't seem to know what they were doing as this was literally their first game. This can be a huge deterrent for new gamers, especially those coming from the much more refined TW3.

But despite that, I still highly recommend playing this game if you're looking for a great WRPG that isn't made by either Bethesda or Bioware (both of which I think are slacking but that's another story for another time). It's flaws are less the result of malice and more the result of inexperience and if you really want to get into The Witcher and see how everything began, I can't recommend any other place to begin but the first game.

In Binary Domain, you and your team of international soldiers have been sent into an isolated Japan to investigate a series of strange attacks by androids.

BD isn't the most creative shooter out there but it does have a few golden nuggets in it. One mention is the voice command system. Because you'll be split up into squads, the game allows you to issue different commands to your teammates. Though many have expressed issues with the system (i.e: mic not recognizing certain words), so you can turn off the mic control and issue commands using the Tab key.

The game heavily emphasizes working together as a team and building trust. Occasionaly, the characters will begin to talk with each other discussing whatever. Dan (that's you!) can respond in a number of ways, each will add more trust to your teammates or take away trusts if you say something wrong.

Another great thing is the damage system in the game. The androids aren't easy to put down and may seem like bullet sponges at certain points (Aim for the head!). However, watching the androids' armor come off as you shoot is really a spectacle to see. Androids will limp at you, crawl at you and will even grab your leg! Blasting off the armor on a Grand Lancer and seeing the skeletal remains left me struck with awe on the amount of detail SEGA put into this.

The port itself isn't the greatest (For some fun, try spinning Dan around using the arrow keys. Chances are he might spin so fast, his torso starts to clip a bit and do a 180), so don't be surprised if you encounter some issues of some sort. However, since the latest patch, many of the major problems have been ironed out.

Basiclly, buy this game. It's about $4 (You can get, like, two cheesburgers from McDs for that price) now so even if you think it sucks, it's not like you spent that much on it. On top of that, a robot with a French accent joins your team and 15yr old Japanese girl starts hitting on you. That's pretty good for 4 Murikka Dollars.


And they said the Japanese couldn't make a good shooter!