Recent reviews by Neverblade

Rating: 9/10

(no spoilers, reviewed after finishing the true ending (E))

Nier: Automata is proof that video games can be used to tell a story in ways wholly unique to the medium, and that alone makes it worth recommending. The game has many flaws, but is carried by a cohesive artistic style, beautiful music, and emotional narrative that make it a strong title.

The story is the main focus to this game - everything else is arguably there to support it. Nier focuses on themes of nihilism throughout. The plot starts off as relatively mundane, establishing a foundation that gets built upon and subverted repeatedly down the line. While it can feel overly convoluted at times (in typical JRPG fashion), the plot does a good job in making the player invested in Nier’s characters. There were multiple moments that either caught me off-guard or otherwise impressed me. Everything culminates in an emotional finale that leaves the player musing on the theme and questions presented.

Worth mentioning here is Nier’s approach to story-telling. The overall experience is structured as multiple playthroughs that follow different character perspectives and reveal further events in the game. This sounds repetitive, but the game does a good job of preserving progress between playthroughs and minimizing duplicate content. There are multiple moments, even during the credits, that take advantage of the interactive nature of Nier’s storytelling in ways that cannot be found in any book or film.

The gameplay is split between hack-and-slash and several variants of bullet hell shooter. While it looks flashy and fast-paced, the combat felt rather shallow / button-mashy. Several systems of the game (the surprisingly detailed weapon combos, the plugin chip upgrades, etc.) felt like they had potential for really interesting complexity, but the game never pushes or incentivizes the player to dig deeper.

The visual art style is distinctive and fits wonderfully with the tone of the narrative. The landscapes and vistas are stunning when viewed from afar, and there are a lot of impressive cinematic moments. On the flip-side, the graphical fidelity isn’t great, and the level design feels empty when seen up close. There are invisible walls everywhere that punish the player for trying to explore.

The music is incredible, one of if not the best of any game I’ve played. The OST is largely vocal + orchestra, with electronic elements used in some of the more ambient tracks. It is fully worth recommending independently of the game. Variants of the music (8-bit, non-vocal, muted) also play depending on the player’s actions. I opted for Japanese voice-acting, which was very strong (particularly 2B’s), but a warning that subtitles can be hard to read whilst in combat.

Finally, a foot-note about the PC port: I personally found no major problems with it after installing the FAR mod to fix a resolution issue. There were noticeable visual artifacts (blurriness, bad aliasing), but it didn’t detract from the experience.

Rating: N/A

Path of Exile is a game unabashed by its complexity and is sure to satisfy anyone looking for an ARPG with the greatest amount of depth possible. There is mountains of content to uncover here, and the dozen or so hours I put into it thus far was only able to get me a third of the way into the campaign (which is just the start).

Unfortunately I cannot deliver a more nuanced review because the technical issues render the game unplayable. I found myself disconnecting from servers every 5-20 minutes on stable internet - a problem that appears to be widespread based off of some quick research - and also encountered frequent freezes. When I did get to play the game, there would often be rendering glitches that prevented items, enemies, or particle effects from showing up, making it difficult or impossible to tell what was going on until the textures popped back in a few minutes later.

It's important to note that Path of Exile has no single player mode, even if you only wish to play single player as I did. There is unfortunately no way to remove yourself from the networking issue lottery.

Rating: 8/10*

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes the strengths of its predecessor, Human Revolution, and doubles down on them, resulting in an exceptional stealth game. The game is at its best when the player is willing to slow down and explore the carefully crafted world being presented.

The core gameplay remains focused around open-ended stealth, but is noticeably better now. Gunplay feels a lot more satisfying, and AI is less frustrating (they no longer alert their friends a nanosecond after seeing you). There have also been significant quality-of-life changes: the environment shows up on the map, knockouts now leave the body behind cover, you can climb ladders from either side, etc.

The level design is truly best-in-class, probably the best I’ve ever seen. Prague, while not particularly large in size, is ridiculously dense with quality content. Nearly every building has an explorable interior. Many are inhabited by characters, which you learn about through emails, messages, and the like. There are secret rooms and passages everywhere, and the sewers are basically an underground city in themselves. Hours can easily be spent navigating and learning more about the world.

Mankind Divided is an odd game in that its main story is relatively weak compared to its optional side missions and other content. The main plotline is rather tame and average, and feels more like a first installment rather than a stand-alone game. The side missions, however, focus on world building rather than the plot, and are well-written in of themselves. They reveal crucial pieces of lore, direct the player to interesting parts of the city they might not have found themselves, and allow Jensen to interact with a wide array of well-written characters. Any player that sticks to the main storyline is experiencing a gimped version of the game.

The graphics of the game match are on par with any modern triple-A title, and while not revolutionary, serve the level design very well (Golem City in particular looks amazing). The character animations and lip sync aren’t amazing, but that’s also expected in such a character-heavy game. Voice acting is great, just like the last game, and the music is similarly good but typically plays an ambient role. However the subtitles feel rushed, with bad spacing and the occasional typo. A lot of ambient dialogue is also not subtitled.

* The game is not stable on PC: I ran into frame drops, random freezes, inconsistent load times (HDD), and the occasional crash. It didn’t significantly detract from my experience and YMMV, so I didn’t account for this in the score.

Rating: 7/10

My favorite moment in Deus Ex: Human Revolution was when I entered a room looking for an important character in a side quest, only to find him on the floor, dead. Turns out I had accidentally hit him with my wall-piercing laser rifle while melting down enemies in the room next door. There was no npc immunity to save him, there was no “mission failed” - I simply accepted the situation and moved on with the game.

Human Revolution is full of moments like this, where seemingly innocuous actions made during gameplay can have surprising consequences down the line. The game favors the observant: guards reveal useful info in their dialogue, emails will point you to hidden caches of items, and conversations can both open and lock doors at the drop of a hat. All these little things keep you on your toes and fully engaged throughout the playthrough.

The gameplay is open-end in classic stealth game fashion. I never found myself forced into any particular playstyle, and the suite of augments you can unlock different styles of play that are fun to try out. I did find myself backtracking often to unlock irrelevant doors, knock out remaining enemies, and crawl through redundant vents purely for the exp, which dulled the moment-to-moment experience. There were also more than a few bugs (hello infinite laser ammo), but nothing game-breaking.

The story is quite strong (although it teeters at the edge of ridicule near the end), but it’s the characters that really carry the narrative. Most of them, even the side characters, feel fleshed out and have interesting interactions with Jensen, which is further supported by the excellent voice acting - the VA for David Sarif in particular nails the tone of a narcissistic CEO. In contrast, the villains left a lot to be desired, but they don’t hold back the story too much.

The graphics hold up decently well considering the age of the game, and the general cyberpunk ambience of the game shines through well. As a warning, cutscenes and tutorials were not rerendered for higher resolutions, and will look terrible on most monitors. The audio is average, and the music is excellent (although it doesn’t get much time to shine).

Rating: 7/10

Prey starts off very strong. You're quickly drawn into a story of intrigue and mystery, which is paired with great, organic world-building. It captures your attention and keeps the tension rising as you slowly piece together everything that happened. Unfortunately a lot of the narrative threads that Prey builds up well end on a whimper, including the game's multiple endings. They aren't bad endings per se, but left me thinking "is that it?"

Prey's greatest strength is in the flexibility of its play-style. Each of the different weapons, tools, and powers are unique, and most have uses beyond just dealing damage. You can turn into a cup to sneak through small crevices, or use the glue gun to build paths across dangerous terrain. Even "boring" powers like being able to jump higher or run faster end up opening more doors and options to the player, thanks to Prey's fantastic level design.

The combat is at its most enjoyable during the first half of the game, where everything is new and dangerous, and you're constantly forced to experiment with new powers or strategies to defeat or bypass enemies. By the end of the game though, you'll have landed on a strategy that works for everything (most likely involving the shotgun), and fighting enemies will quickly become stale.

The graphics are great, and really sell the atmosphere of the game. The sound design and music get the job done, but don't particularly stand out.

Overall, a solid game; I would definitely suggest to anyone who enjoys mystery, good world-building, or open-ended gameplay.

It's pretty good