Emperor of Awesomeness tarafından yazılan son incelemeler

This is a game that even before it came out people had mixed feelings about so it's no surprise that on Steam the user reviews are mixed with just over 50% of people recommending the game.

I, seeing the trailers and whatnot, thought it would be awesome as it is a space shooter and as I love si-fi I preordered the Digital Deluxe Edition. This is normally something I would not do but in this case I think it was money well spent.

What I aim to do is look at the three game modes (campaign, multiplayer, and zombies) and note what I did and did not like.

The single-player experience is fun gameplay-wise. I remember something they said about this game before it came out was that it be reminiscent of classic COD gameplay. And I think that it is. It does remind me of WAW or MW (more so MW) a bit in terms of how the combat plays and how levels are laid out. I will grant however; the game is a little bit (just a little) too cutsence-y for me. Also, and this may be a personal thing, but I was disappointed by the fact that you don't get to drive anything or be a passenger in a cool vehicle like you did in previous games. There was one part that lasted all of 15 seconds where you were a passenger but that was it.

The story was good and had some touching moments, except that it was focused around how unbeatable the SDF was but in gameplay you always beat them hands down and they never felt like a threat when you fought them and that made the story seem a little bit silly.

There were some cool levels - namely Port Armor which had the civilian terminal area that had super cool futurist design. Also in the level, windows you could shoot out to temporarily depressurize the area made good use of the space theme. Unfortunately, still like that was far and few throughout the game.

Not much to say here: pretty similar to the multiplayer of past games so if you like COD multiplayer you'll probably like this. That said, there's not always a lot of players, which Infinity Ward/Activision can't really be blamed for though. They can however, be blamed for the fact that you can only play with Steam players and there is no cross-platform multiplayer at all. Also there is apparently no anti-cheats which, being true, would be pretty poor.

I knew it would not be in the game before it came out but also disappointing is the lack of local multiplayer. Just because it's on a computer does not mean some of us would not like to play locally.

It is worth mentioning that the maps are really pretty for what that's worth.

I've only been able to play this by myself as of yet (lack of local zombies is also disappointing if that didn't go without saying) but it is, again, similar to what was in previous games. Obviously, they added new stuff but it's largely similar. All I can really say is I do enjoy it more or less and the map is cool enough, if way too big for my tastes. It's probably not my favorite iteration but it's neat and I'm sure the coming maps will be pretty cool to play around on.

Overall, I would recommend this game if you like shooters and si-fi.

EDIT (12/3/15): Since Rocksteady has released a number of patches and just put the Arkham games into my account I’ve decided to revamp this review to reflect this and to be more helpful in general.

Note: This review may contain minor spoilers.

Many people had a lot of trouble trying to play this but for me it ran fine on minimum settings. The updates haven’t really done much to allow me to increase the settings without getting low frames. Also, it is disappointing that multi-GPU support won’t be added (as my computer has dual GTX 760s) and that Rocksteady has said that there are unfixable problems. However, even on low settings I think the game looks fine so I’m not complaining too much.

The batmobile drives like a dream. Basically, it goes moderately fast, takes really sharp turns, and smashes through just about anything. I prefered driving to gliding a lot of the time. I enjoyed the tank sequences but there was just so many of them that they became rather burdensome. I also would have liked more high-speed vehicle chases and more specifically, I would have liked to chase down Two-Face.

Batman, just like his enemies, have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ more capable each game. Well, Batman has. In Arkham Knight, Batman feels like he’s at the top of his game. He’s got new moves such as a Ground Takedown throw and an environment takedown. He’s also got new gadgets such as a voice synthesizer, that lets you order enemies around, and an improved disruptor that lets you disable more things such as gun crates. Batman can also (at certain points) team up and do a dual takedown with his partner.

To be honest, the guys you fight in this game seem much easier than in the previous ones. Sure in Arkham Knight there are guys who can hide from your detective mode and guys with mini-guns but in previous games they started mining the highpoints or scanning them or otherwise doing something to make things more difficult than it could have been. In this game they don’t do that kind of thing as much; even with the Arkham Knight giving them tactical advice.

I though the story was good. Though there are some twists and turns along the way, the Arkham Knight’s identity is pretty obvious (even to some like me who doesn’t really read the comics) and the story practically shouts out his identity to you before you actually find out. Still, the story is satisfying and the ending was well done. Also, John Noble voicing Scarecrow is, needless to say, a very nice touch. All that said, while I enjoyed the main campaign, the side missions were, for the most part, repetitive and anti-climactic with really lame “boss fights”. Two-Face and Penguin could have had a bigger part in the story, as well. The Riddler stuff was, on the other hand, exceptional. Although not every “riddle” he placed actually was one (certain in-game characters even comment on this) his content and boss fight was enjoyable. The best of it was the insane race tracks he designed.

Like I stated, the game ran fine for me so there’s not much room for me to complain this way. The main compensation was the previous Arkham games. I already had Asylum and City so apparently I didn’t get these ones again so someone with all of the Arkham games would have, apparently, got nothing here. Personally, I would have preferred to get the Shadow of Mordor game instead but the game did run for me so it’s not a big deal. Someone else whose game didn’t run at launch and already had the Arkham would have some reason to be upset.

Since the game ran for me I give it an 8/10. The gameplay is fun and what you would expect from the series however, the repetitive side missions were a drag.

In this review I’ll be focusing on the single player experience. This review will contain minor spoilers.

Starting off I played with the Realistic difficulty and for whatever reason could not stealth the first real mission so shot my way through with ease. For a few missions after that I stuck to the Panther playstyle but soon got the hang of stealth and starting doing Ghost on Perfectionist. Ghost seams easier than it should be to be honest. A few segments are tough but most of the game is easy to ghost through. Even Brigg’s first person segments (which you’re not even supposed to ghost through anyway) are easy. As a side note, I tried Assault on Perfectionist and that can be very hard; much harder than Ghost in fact.

The gameplay is very fun however, I will complain that there are segments where they force a certain playstyle on you and I really don’t like that. I think it defeats the purpose of tracking how much the player sticks to a certain style if at certain parts of the game you’re told you have to play a certain way. The three parts that annoyed me the most are as follows:

• The (I think) first Briggs sequence. I snuck past everyone without disturbing any of them only to have the game tell me to take them all down; not just the ones near the bomb; all of them. This is made worse by the fact the Briggs does not have a lot of nonlethal options
  
• When Sam is on the subway and the game forces you to fight through the bad guys there
  
• The Iran Embassy level because for all (or at least most) of the areas sneaking past the guards nets Panther points instead of Ghost points because, due to the story, the guards already know you’re there

These sequences don’t ruin the game by a long shot; they’re just annoying.

The story is decent but I don’t like Sam’s new voice or that the main characters like being jerks to each other. I do like that you can talk to the main characters between missions and call Sarah.

Splinter Cell Blacklist has what I consider to be very advanced AI. At the very least the AI is far better than its predecessor Splinter Cell Conviction as well as Hitman: Absolution and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

The AI in Conviction had a lot of potential but felt underdeveloped (but still not as bad as Black Flag). Blacklist takes everything Conviction’s AI tried to do but does it in a much improved way. The last known position is still a part of the AI’s decision making but they respond to it in a smarter way.

In Conviction the AI pretty much always assumed that you were trying to draw them out and found cover near the last known position and shot it until someone ran towards it and figured out you weren’t there. In Blacklist enemies will become suspicious over different things and actually try to search for you and will dynamically form searching parties and then break those up as need be. They respond to different things like lights turning on or off or doors that were closed being opened really well.

Unfortunately, their patrols, when they don’t know you’re there are often easy to avoid. However, they sometimes require a frantic mix of waiting in an area very patiently and hoping to not be caught and quickly moving forward, towards and past enemies that are often too close for comfort because staying still will get you caught. These situations require very precise timing. On rare occasions, areas did seem unfair but mostly, it was because I was being a complete idiot and missing the too-easy path past all the enemies right in front of my nose.

Throughout the game the AI did various things that impressed me such as, enemies noticing that their buddy I had knocked had vanished and then trying to find them.

The game still had a few of what I’ll refer to as “Black Flag moments” which are when the AI acts so incredibly stupid you have to wonder how no one noticed the flaw and fixed it. The two main complains I have in this regard are:

• Snipers seem to only spot me when their laser is nowhere near me and never when their laser is right on me
  
• On one occasion I was trying to draw a High Value Target away from a sniper’s gaze with a whistle but doing so made everyone know that I was in the area, where I was and that I should be shot at even though no one knew I was there before the whistle or saw me when I whistled. I tried several times but always got the same result

I’m not the biggest stealth fan out there but this is easily the best stealth game I’ve ever played with the exception of Hitman: Blood Money (but that’s like comparing apples to oranges). It has some issues but it is still really fun. It also runs well performance wise and is an excellent port in terms of quality. Obviously, Uplay is stupid and should not be allowed to exist. I give this game an 8.5 out of 10; loosing points mainly for sequences that force a certain playstyle on you.

Gunpoint is a unique game that requires you to rewire levels to trick the guards and solve puzzles. The rewiring mechanic may seem a bit gimmicky at first glance but it is very fun and challenging. The game also includes a great soundtrack. The storyline is good even though the choices you make during the dialogue sessions are unimportant.

Is the game worth $10? I'd say so. It is a bit short but it is fun and does include a level editor.