Recent reviews by elodric

My personal opinion on the trilogy:

Pro:
- beautiful animation
- great character design
- fantastic music
- the 2nd episode had lovely and funny sections, much more than the others
- Bozo lashing out at Rufus

Cons:
- self-aware AND non-self-aware unfunny sexism: despite the voluntary crassness of the interaction with female characters, it's easy to notice that in general, women in this game are either non-interactive background or full-on clichés/plot devices. I'm struggling to remember any woman playing a somewhat neutral role such as vendor, therapist, journalist... the ones we see working are part of the main cast and mostly fall into tired female tropes.
- self-aware unfunny racism. See Rock Paper Shotgun article and other comments
- the writer(s) built a somewhat consistent character, but not a consistent world: friends and foes are mostly differenciated by their aptitude to put up with the main character, which is very high for both, despite all logic. The world does not react to the main character in general, making his antics tiring by the third episode rather than entertaining. We can't empathise with the character nor can we with the world, which is the shame.
- Not only the main character doesn't change throughout the series, but his actions become more selfish and tasteless as the story progresses.
- deus ex machina explanation which binds the whole story together
- we never get to play in Elysium
- disappointing ending.

Overall, I felt that the first episode was suprinsingly charming, because of the discovery of the great design, animation, music and somewhat original setting; the second introduced great new areas, clearer puzzles, and more funny moments even though the character becomes a bit tiring and his actions more cringe-worthy; by the third I no longer felt like investing myself heavily into the world and puzzles and I cringed much more than I laughed, both due to tasteless scenes and bad story.

This is a no for me.

I loved the ambiance in this game

Even if I knew the serie, this is the first time that I really play a Tomb Raider game. And I love it.

The game kept me interested longer than expected. As a fan of splinter cell, I enjoyed a lot the stealth sequences, and the dynamism of the action reminded me of Conviction. The game is beautiful, the story is good enough to never become boring, The mechanics are polished. The mix puzzle/adventure and action/gunfight is particularly well balanced. In short, this game is a real gem.

Special positive mention to the depth of the main character. I loved hearing her become more and more aggressive toward her ennemies, in a way that showed her desperation.

Two negative points: some mandatory fights are too drawn-out, and the Lara screaming "SAM, SAM", even when she should be hiding her presence. Annoys me every single time.

Anyway, get this game, you will love it.

Completely worth your 5 minutes.

A game that is finished quickly, but that you remember fondly.
Beautiful art style, and sweet story.

If you like point'n'click, buy it when it's cheap.

This game is great to play when you want to have a quick fun.
Each party does not last more than 20 minutes, so you can play it every now and then.

The gameplay is easy to grasp and the challenge is well balanced so you get the incentive to start over some levels to get all the points.

I'm going for 100% achievements for this game, because it makes me feel like I can do it.
I will do it at my pace, one play at a time, every now and then.
And when I'm done with it, I'll download the sequel to keep the fun going.

That makes for a fun game, that I recommend.

This game is worth every praise it got, and I'm glad it has been released for the modern computers.

I play it slowly but never fails to get engrossed in it whenever I start it up.
It's funny, quirky, and the story is simple yet not boring.
And it's long, too.

This is a must-play for any point'n'click fan.

I got this game because this is a classic. A masterpiece, for some.

I finished the game in a couple weeks, going through every emotion from amazement to motion sickness.
I had to stop playing at times because the game gave me headaches.
I was filled with anxiety every time I had to parkour my way out of a building filled with armed ennemies, and restarted my fair share of levels because I wasn't really skilled.

I got scared, anxious, sick. It made my eyes hurt, and I expected each level to make me die many times.
But when I finished the game, I felt warm and fuzzy, and immediatly went to check on Mirror's Edge 2 news.

That's the kind of game it is. And I recommend it.

This Splinter Cell has a lot more gamplay options, character animations, weapons and overall content than the previous entries.

I really enjoyed playing it, in single player and coop. Some missions have a lot of replayability, to unlock equipments or just to try to use the environment differently. Watching Youtube videos of how other players go through the missions is very fun.

But that's it.

I don't have fond memories left of the game after finishing it.
I don't even remember the story except for some bits. It wasn't memorable.
I'm not good at competitive multiplayer, so I couldnt enjoy this content much.
I was happy to find some mechanics from Conviction, but it didn't feel fresh like it was when discovered in Conviction.
I didn't like some FPS parts and when I couldn't avoid direct confrontation.

So this game is enjoyable for fans of the series or stealth/action games, and it's a good entry in the series. I recommend it.

But that's it.

I played this game very late compared to its release date, so the very poor graphics threw me out a bit.
I always wanted to resume in the series though, and I was not disapointed.
I bought a controller for my PC only to play this game.

The gameplay is as expected, the environments are varied, the story is interesting.
The parts in the base, even if somewhat repetitive, were exciting and playing through the most difficult part filled me with anxiety.

Overall, the game was an interesting continuation for the series, even though it didn't have the charm of Chaos Theory (but I played it too late to enjoy the graphics, so there's that). I recommend it, but only if you want to play all the titles of the series. Otherwise, there's no need to: just catch up on the story with the game wiki and play the most recent entries.