For almost two decades, I, and many other Pokemon fans have waited eagerly for the most anticipated Pokemon game of all-time. The fabled ‘Sinnoh Remakes’ have long been a meme in the Pokemon community, and it wasn’t until the approach of the 25th Anniversary of the franchise that they may have seemed truly possible. Well, they released, and I played them. Thus, here is my review of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
Pre-Release Beliefs and Expectations –
I think it is important to take into account just how high the expectations were for Sinnoh Remakes before giving a review of what I thought of the games. Now, in fairness, it is not unusual for Pokemon fans to set their expectations a bit too high, but at the same time, it isn’t unusual for the series to deliver sub-par experiences as of recent. I cannot speak for everyone, but personally, I felt that a truly next-generation experience of Sinnoh is what I always wanted. Did BDSP deliver on this concept? Not in the slightest, almost nothing that I expected in my wish-list for the games that I wrote last year came through. However, that isn’t to say all hope is lost, as Legends: Arceus seems to have delivered upon the potential I was imagining (more on that in the future).
Story –
The story of BDSP follows the exact same lines as the original games, with it being an almost 1 to 1 remake of the original Diamond and Pearl. I do wish there were some changes to the general story, however, I cannot really complain, as Diamond and Pearl is one of the best Pokemon adventures to run through in my opinion. I guess in a sense you can say that you shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken. That is certainly what Ilca went with here, as the story remains completely the same.
Art-Style & Graphics –
One of the biggest controversies surrounding almost every 3D Pokemon game these days seems to be the art style that is used for each game. The moment in which the reveal of the style used for BDSP was shown will forever go down in history as one of the biggest collective groans in Pokemon history. Now, the art-style isn’t bad by any means, but in my personal opinion, it just doesn’t work. It gives off the impression of a cheap app-store game in many areas. I was not a fan of the decision to revert back to a chibi style.
That being said, despite disliking this decision and finding the game unpleasant visually for the most part, there are times where the game’s visuals really do shine. One of these moments particularly shines through when you go to the lake with Barry at the beginning of the game. The water, music and general aesthetic gives off a vibrant and lively feel. It is just a shame that this quality doesn’t remain consistent throughout Sinnoh.
Pokemon Themselves –
Sinnoh has long been hounded for lacking choice in a variety of areas. In the original Diamond and Pearl, there were two fire-type Pokemon available. Thankfully, this oversight has been addressed in BDSP. That being said, choosing my team members never feels meaningful in modern Pokemon games thanks to the inability to turn off the collective gain of experience. Why does strategy matter in building my team and its members when realistically they are all going to be over levelled in comparison to my opponents anyways. For a few years now my thought process regarding choosing my team members has shrank smaller and smaller This depletion of meaning leaks over into the battles in recent Pokemon games, which will be my next point of discussion.
Battles Losing Meaning –
As well as choosing your Pokemon strategically losing its meaning as of recent, the battles themselves are also losing all meaning. Teaching your Pokemon specific moves, or getting them specific traits and abilities, all holds quite literally ZERO meaning in BDSP especially. I found myself only running into battles because it has been ingrained in my since I was a child. But, if I was honest, battles in BDSP are nothing but button mashing fests that are completely empty and hold zero meaning whatsoever. This is extremely detrimental to the experience of the game when the entire concept of Pokemon being enjoyable is built upon choosing your teams and excessive battles. Unfortunately I cannot see this changing, as Pokemon as a game franchise remains hellbent on keeping the collective and permanent EXP Share on at all-times.
Pokemon Following You –
Now that my major gripes with BDSP are out of the way, I will actually speak on a positive. Pokemon following you has been added back. This is a great feature that needs to be permanent throughout every single Pokemon game. It shouldn’t even be a question fans have whether Pokemon following you will or will not be in each Pokemon game before release. Unfortunately, I don’t see it remaining a permanent feature, as history shows that these games follow a trend of removing and adding back the same features over and over, much like how annual sports games do.
Underground –
The underground is nice to see return, and building bases can be quite fun. However, that being said, the new rooms of Pokemon do feel quite pointless. They are essentially just Let’s Go rooms, and serve little purpose beyond seeing some special rare Pokemon. But, it is something different that they didn’t have to add I suppose, and for that reason, it is a welcome addition.
Missing Online Features –
The former GTS building (not sure what it’s been renamed to in BDSP), along with union rooms not holding the advertised amount of people from the trailer are all things missing from the game at launch. Despite now being added, it is too little too late, and the game feels effectively dead since the release of PLA and the announcement of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Lack of New Additions/Old Events –
I know these games are meant to be 1 to 1 remakes, and I know the events were added in the end, however, let us not beat around the bush, this is the fastest a Pokemon game has ever died out. Adding these events in 2022 effectively made them meaningless and they should have been in the game from the beginning, just like the missing online features.
The Bare Minimum Once Again –
Unfortunately these games are just another show of Pokemon settling for literally the absolute bare minimum and the lowest acceptable standard possible. These games were the most anticipated Pokemon games of my life-time on a personal level. Yet, if I am honest, they are the ones that have killed my spark for the series. It was the first time that I had to force myself to finish the main story of a Pokemon game, which is upsetting. It was a complete slog, and by far the worst and most unenjoyable experience I’ve ever had playing through a Pokemon game.
Thankfully, Legends: Arceus released, and that addressed a lot of issues I have with modern-day Pokemon, and with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on the horizon, things seem to only be on the up from here. That being said, BDSP are Pokemon games to forget. I have been tame in my criticism I feel, but these games are not even worth half the price they go for. I would be more angry in my tone, but these games have almost zero effort put into them, so that’s about as much time and effort I am willing to give them in my review.
I am back to writing. Apologies, I have had a cheeky mental breakdown for a few months there. Nonetheless, it is appropriate to mark my return with a mental breakdown of a Crash game, Crash Twinsanity.
After a rocky start to the PS2 era for Crash Bandicoot with Wrath of Cortex, next up was a new approach to the genre of game that Crash had perfected in its first three entries. Crash Twinsanity is a game that divides opinion. With its back story being very well known by now, I sat down to finish this game, and give my genuine opinion on what I thought of the experience.
Story –
Crash Twinsanity does try to have more of a story approach than previous games. Cut scenes are aplenty and there is far more dialogue. I thought that Twinsanity had moments that were peaks for the Crash series at the time in terms of story. The concept into Cortex’s time at the Academy of Evil, amongst his treatment of Victor and Moritz, are some of the most interesting expansions in the series. That being said, the story is still not anything to blow you away. However, I do not feel that is all too important in a Crash game personally.
Crash games had been introducing a variety of modifications to character appearance and portrayal in the years leading up to Twinsanity. Crash himself remains largely the same, so no complaints there. Other notable characters such as Aku Aku, N’ Brio and N’ Tropy almost have zero bearing on the game despite their presence. They never really feel relevant. This could be said about every character that is not Cortex and Crash. Even characters such as Nina, who play crucial roles near the end of the game, do not even speak a single word. It was odd.
Speaking of Cortex, I feel this was a game where his character excelled. A look into his past, as well as plenty of funny and iconic lines, make this one of his more memorable portrayals. I especially loved the line of ‘Wrath of Cortex hadn’t done as well as we would have hoped’ and ‘there was supposed to be two dimensions but we ran out of time’. Meta quotes like this are in line with the humour of a Crash game, although admittedly the meaning behind them doesn’t hold well to Twinsanity as a game.
‘Open-World’ –
As mentioned earlier, this was the first time that Crash had moved into a new genre of gameplay. Obviously, at its core, Twinsanity remains largely the same as the original formula, that being, smashing crates and platforming. However, Twinsanity does have more of an ‘open-world’ feel to it. This would become a trend for the remaining titles that would release on the PS2 for Crash. Although it does feel odd, I would not necessarily say it failed as a new turn in ideas, and would genuinely love to see what a new Crash game in this style could accomplish if given the resources and polish of what Crash 4: It’s About Time got.
Length –
I am not one to complain about length in video games. No game has to meet a certain threshold in terms of hours for it to feel worth my time. However, that being said, Twinsanity kind of is ridiculous in terms of length. If we ignore glitches that allow the game to be beaten in minutes, it will take the average person five hours to finish the game. It took me just over four hours to finish the main story and collect 75% of collectables and other items of interest. This is due to cut content or lack of time, which was noted in the literal script of the game itself, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of content here as a package. It was still a full-priced product when it was released despite the knowledge of rushing and cut content.
Glitches, Cut-Aspects –
This is where the game is inexcusable. I do not think I have played a game where this many glitches occur naturally throughout a playthrough. There are compilations of glitches for this game, that is how many bugs crop up throughout.
Off the top of my head, I can note missing sound effects throughout many large portions of the game, making it feel incredibly awkward. Missing or extremely quiet music, this was the case particularly for the first skiing mission upon Cortex. Elsewhere there are glitches where Crash just floats along the ground, rather than moving any of his limbs, or when Evil Crash chase mission, Evil Crash would endlessly twirl in place and fail to even chase after Cortex every single time without fail.
These are just some of the bugs I encountered, there are quite literally hundreds more that not just myself, but other players have encountered. This game was released in an unfinished state, and that is inexcusable despite the common trend of modern games releasing in unfinished states.
Conclusion –
Crash Twinsanity was an okay time. There is so much potential here that it almost hurts the game, even more, to see where it all went wrong. I can acknowledge the new approach and even embrace it in many instances. I think Twinsanity is truly the first time Crash hit a low point. This game is buggy, unfinished, and just a genuine waste of potential. This is not the fault of the developers if their crunch and time schedule is to be believed, but that still does not make it okay.
Having played both previous Bioshock games, it is fair to see my experience has been a mixed bag. However, Bioshock: Infinite has always been the one game of the three that has piqued my interest the most. This is due to the conversations surrounding it of people either adoring or hating it. As well as this, the massive stray in atmospheric tone was something that I was very keen to experience. So, here is what I thought of Bioshock: Infinite.
Story –
Bioshock: Infinite managed to do the impossible and not only matched the incredible story of the original game but also bettered it. Like the first game, Bioshock: Infinite creates characters that feel they have a genuine impact on the situations of the game. As well as this, it’s full of twists and turns around every single corner.
I didn’t think any video game twist could match that of the ‘would you kindly?’ moment of the first game. That said, Bioshock: Infinite’s ending, revealing that you are the father of Elizabeth, and also explaining the premise of never-ending worlds and scenarios, left me speechless. It left me with the feeling that only the best games leave me with, that being the feeling of emptiness. Upon finishing Infinite, I took a break from gaming, as I knew nothing could match what I’d experienced for a while. I needed time to take it all in. It was a phenomenal experience was capped off perfectly.
Characters –
Bioshock has always managed to create iconic characters. Yet, especially in the second game, characters are often left in the background. This leads to them playing little physical role throughout the story. This was far from the case in Infinite.
For once, your character is audibly present. You play as Booker DeWitt, voiced by the iconic Troy Baker. Booker is fleshed out as a person. His morals and reasoning are always being questioned throughout large portions of the game, only for it all to make sense in the end. Although generic in appearance, he is far from generic in his characteristics. Other characters that supplement the protagonist are also huge plays on the way the story pans out. Elizabeth is ever-present. She is constantly offering an opposing viewpoint to Booker’s morals and feelings. There are also side characters that physically have a presence but do not play a consistent role, such as the Lutece Twins or Songbird.
Lastly, there is the main villain. The main villain in Bioshock games is always the character on which the world and story build their foundations upon. Comstock for me regains the iconic status of villains like Atlas (Ryan). This is despite not being visually present for the majority of the game. This is due to the world Comstock has created constantly reminding you of his presence, even when he is not physically there.
Columbia –
The world of Columbia is a vast change in atmosphere and visual representation from that of Rapture. This was something I had been calling out for after the second game. I felt Bioshock 2 had hit a point where the game no longer felt as impactful due to the repeated world of Rapture Bioshock: Infinite addresses this perfectly by straying from what the series had become known for, whilst still including dark moments that remind us of Bioshock’s roots.
Infinite gives birth to a completely bold and new world. Columbia offers a new experience and message. Every single aspect of its scenery and messaging lands perfectly. For me it wasn’t just the best world of the Bioshock series, it was one of the most immersive video game worlds I have ever experienced.
Visuals –
Despite not being visually incredible, Bioshock: Infinite is still easily the best looking game in the series. This is due to the change in tone of the game, once again. The brightness and lighting allow for a more colourful and vivid world to look at. I suppose being a come from early 2013, it is impressive for its time, although there was definitely better-looking games at the time too.
Game-Play –
In many ways, Bioshock’s general game-play has never felt smoother. Gun-play is as precise as it has ever been in a Bioshock game. But, I felt that this could be somewhat of a complaint as Infinite feels more like a generic shooter than the first two games did.
In other areas of game-play such as navigation and customisation, navigation was handled poorly. The navigation arrow is no longer a permanent fixation. Instead, needs to be pressed every few seconds to display the correct path again. Infinite tries to be seen as a game that promotes arranging some sort of class set-up system, but really, I never customised any of my gear whatsoever. It felt as if it had zero bearings on how easy or difficult the game was. As a side note, I found the audio of the game to be odd on many occasions. This was particularly evident with voices being so much quieter than any other auditory aspect of the game.
Generally though Bioshock’s game-play is smoother than ever. Although there are many areas in which could be seen as a double-ended dagger, straying too far from what Bioshock was originally.
Music –
There are songs in Bioshock: Infinite that set the tone perfectly. One of the most memorable moments in the game is arriving at Shantytown and walking past two homeless, poverty-stricken children. The girl is singing Shake Sugaree, and for about five minutes I did nothing but stand there and listen to her sing.
As well as this, one of my favourite tracks used in a game of all time has to be Will the Circle be Unbroken. This song is used at the start of the game in some ways, and the minute I heard it, I knew this game was going to be something else. Every time it’s used, it invokes something inside me as the player. It is as if it adds meaning to anything around you.
Binding a Story Together Through an Ending –
An ending to a story-driven narrative is so vital. It is the foundation that can cap off or destroy an experience. There have been so many occasions for me in which I adored something, only for the narrative to be spoiled due to a disappointing ending. Bioshock: Infinite avoids this completely. It caps off with a heart-stopping and exciting ending, with twists at every corner. It was captivating, enthralling, and come the end, left me speechless. So much so that I booked a tattoo to commemorate my experience almost immediately after finishing the story.
Conclusion –
Bioshock: Infinite is the game I have been looking for. After getting sick of the repeated surrounding of Rapture, Infinite takes a bold step in a new direction. It tries something completely different whilst still retaining many elements of the original game. Bioshock: Infinite is a rollercoaster, and a story-telling masterpiece, and truly one of the best and most exciting games I have ever had the joy of finishing.
After the incredible experience that was my delayed time with Bioshock 1, I decided that moving onto its sequel, Bioshock 2 was an order. Sequels are notorious for not living up to their predecessor, and given how revolutionary Bioshock 1 was for me, I was excited to see if its sequel managed to better it somehow. Nonetheless, here is what I thought about Bioshock 2.
Story –
Although captivating, I thought Bioshock 2’s story was a lot less… enthralling than that of the first game. Bioshock 2 follows similar story-bases as Bioshock 1, with a cast of characters that are rarely seen yet play vital roles throughout. Personally I thought that one of the main reasons I could not really get into the story of Bioshock 2 was for large portions, I never really understood what was happening. Still, I do not know why I was a Big Daddy, or why I was supposed to actually care about Sofia or Eleanor in the end? It lacked the real ‘wow’ moment that came from the first game when you find out you’ve been tricked throughout your entire journey by Atlas.
That all being said, it was still interesting, and I never really thought of it as a slog to get through, making it to the end regardless. It is just, when I finished the experience, I was kind of left with no real impact or satisfaction from what I had experienced.
World Premise & Characters –
Bioshock 2 follows a lot of the similar patterns of the first game, however it lacks the first time impressions left from your first visit to Rapture. It also lacks that kick that the cast of characters from the first game left upon you as the player, with Eleanor Lamb not really having the same footprint as Atlas. The setting and characters are still okay, but as is the case with most sequels in gaming, they do not feel like they leave the same impact as the original title. I really cannot understate how a nearly identical world and atmosphere impacts this.
Game-Play –
Bioshock 2 is the same as Bioshock 1 in terms of game-play. It has everything you’d come to expect, such as plasmid and gun-play in a horror/dystopian setting. However, there is one major difference, that being that you are now a Big Daddy.
Being a Big Daddy in Bioshock 2 was a unique play in comparison to the first game, however, I never really understood it? It made the game-play feel slow paced and generally I never really *felt* like I was a Big Daddy, especially when compared to how intimidating they seemed in the first game. I never felt like I was suddenly the character to be feared.
That being said, being a Big Daddy opened a space up for a new main enemy, that being the Big Sisters. These enemies are a lot more terrifying than Big Daddies in the first game. Their sudden arrival, combined with the announcements of their incoming created a sudden adrenaline rush that the first game couldn’t match. As well as this, they were the first enemy to actually kill me between the two games. I thought they were a great addition and allowed for a lot of tense and difficult moments.
Unfortunately though there were a few glitches throughout my play-through. There were times where enemies would become lodged in walls or floors, or more importantly, where my left hand would just vanish, and it would take spamming of all the shoulder buttons to randomly bring it back.
The game felt incredibly rushed playing through it, not in terms of development, but in terms of actual length. Once again comparing it to Bioshock 1, Bioshock 2 felt very fast to finish. This may have contributed to how unsatisfied I was with the ending, due to how quickly I got there.
Visuals –
I am not sure whether it is just a me-thing but Bioshock 2 had some absolutely awful visual experiences. This was especially the case during cut-scenes, where they would look as though they were displaying at 240p resolution, despite playing on a PS5 and a 4K TV. This was particularly the case in the final CGI/cut-scene moment of the game, I barely could see what was going on visually.
As for the actual game-play visually, I found no real issues, it looks the same as the first game.
Music –
Something Bioshock always gets right is the music. Bioshock 2 had more impactful music in my opinion, particularly in the loading screens. Songs like ‘You Always Hurt the One You Love’ and especially ‘Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogeyman’ left such a brilliant impression. Bogeyman sets more of an atmospheric tone that most of the actual game-play, especially with you being the bogeyman per se this time around.
Conclusion –
Generally, Bioshock 2 was a good enough experience to finish, however it really failed to leave the lasting impression that the first game left upon me. This is largely down to the repeated visuals from the first game, with similar scenery and world. Characters are not as memorable as the first game, and the story feels somewhat pointless come the end. It is a traditional Bioshock experience, but that is its downfall, it fails to really innovate in any way from where the first game was so great.
I have never really been a fan of the rogue-like genre of games. However, upon seeing the renowned praise Hades received when it released for Nintendo Switch and PC, my interest was peaked. That being said, I waited for a Playstation release, mainly due to trophies being a huge factor in me maintaining my interest in a game like this that will constantly reset. Regardless, I picked up Hades for Playstation 5 in August and here is what I thought of one of 2020’s most critically acclaimed games.
Story –
If I speak truly, I never really showed an interest in the story of Hades. I found myself always listening in on the dialogue options, but constantly zoning out after a while. This is understandable though, as I think in most games of this nature, story is never really the first point to move toward.
However, it is quite disappointing that a story to become infatuated with wasn’t spawned out of Greek mythology, as I think that is a field that a lot of creativity can spawn from. I just personally never really took any interest in the story premise of escaping your father’s torment in an attempt to reunite the Greek Gods as a family.
Characters –
Despite the story not really doing much for me, the characters were always well portrayed. They are light-hearted, cracking jokes with Zagreus. There is very in-depth index’s dedicated to every character, weapon, item and location in the game, ever growing with more information on each aspect. On top of that, each character does a good job in portraying their relationships to each-other in the ‘reality’ of Greek mythology.
Voice-Acting –
Although characters are well portrayed, I have to admit, Greek mythology and voice acting must be a match made in hell (no pun intended). In the last twelve months, I have now witnessed three Greek mythological horror shows when it comes to voice acting. Those being, Blood of Zeus on Netflix, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and now Hades. That isn’t to say there isn’t some good performances, but truly I do not know what it is about Greek mythology and annoying voices.
I think it must come down to the English-ness of the lines. There is nothing that makes my skin crawl more than hearing Zagreus address everyone as ‘mate’, whilst a lot of the other characters seem to just sound like similar versions of each other. The voice acting in this game and in Greek mythology-themed forms of media just do not seem to do it for me whatsoever. They give off the same effect as when playing Final Fantasy. That being, enjoying the game, only to have the moment ruined by the generic ‘anime sounds’. Greek mythological media seems to be the anime sounds of the West.
Rogue-Like –
I already said to begin with that these genre of games are not my cup of tea. I find them tedious and repetitive, never really feeling motivation to slog through the repetition. However, that being said, Hades is an outlier in some ways. Hades provided me with a game-play loop that was ever-changing enough to keep me coming back through the varying sets you can run through each escape attempt.
As well as this, the combat and general game-play is something of major importance to me in these games. Similarly to what I said in my review of Returnal, its biggest achievement was the fluidity and freshness of its gameplay. Hades has this also, and is arguably much better than Returnal in this area. Hades provides enough of a mix and differentiation between escapes that every re-try is just as intense as the last, which is accomplished mainly through the variety of temporary upgrades and boons that can be mixed and matched.
One thing that a lot of rogue-like games ignore, for me, is the importance of permanent upgrades. That ability to constantly feel like your progression is not left purely down to your playing performance in comparison to the last time is massive for me. Hades sorts this issue I have with games like Returnal through the use of the mirror in Zagreus’ room. This allows for permanent upgrades to provide clear progression going into each escape attempt for the player. It can provide something to save up toward, something that you know will definitely give you an extra edge once you achieve it. Permanent upgrades create sub-goals to work toward separate from the main goal of escaping.
Music –
Hades has a very distinct and stylised track fitted to the locations and scenarios of the game, however, on a personal note, I never really found any of the tracks throughout the game to be that memorable or adrenaline inducing. This isn’t to say there was a lack of care in terms of musical output, there obviously was, but just on a personal level nothing really connected with me unfortunately. I think this is just how it is with music, you either connect or you don’t.
Visuals –
As someone who was looking from the outside-in at Hades when it initially released on Switch, I was deterred. This was not because of a lack of visual quality, nor was it because of the art-style. However, it was because of the connotation I had subconsciously built up against top-down dungeon-crawlers or MMO visually styled games. Hades has this style, although more vibrantly distinct. This initially deterred me as I had not bothered to do my own research, and instead assumed purely by the style that it would be the same type of game as the likes of Diablo. In some ways, it is similar, but in almost every other way, it is different.
Away from these assumptions, Hades has a very distinct style. Areas are vibrant and uniquely stylised. All character sprites and models are crisp and excellently portrayed. For what Supergiant went for, I genuinely do not see how else this game could visually be any better.
Replay-Value –
I think one of the main aspects of a game of this genre is the replayability. Hades masters this. When playing Hades, or not playing Hades, you’ll find yourself contemplating whether or not you can fit in one more run, or adjust to a new style of play in the next run. Even if you beat a boss, you can try beat it again with a different weapon, or set-up. The fluidity of the game-play is what makes this so easy, it allows for a non-tedious flow between escape attempts.
Thus, I would argue that Hades probably has the most replay-value of any rogue-like that I have played, not that I’ve played many, but still. A combination of addictiveness, fluidity of game-play and variations in escape combinations creates a game where new ways of playing are always encouraged.
Conclusion –
Hades is a game that surprised me, as one of the best of the few rogue-like games I have played. The general combat and game-play create an addictive experience, with permanent upgrades ensuring that it never really feels up to performance, and that you will always be working towards being permanently better in the next escape attempt. However, a lack of impact in terms of the track means no area or moments in the game really made much of an impact to me. With that, often cringe-worthy voice-acting combined with a story that sort-of takes a back peddle to the general game-play, meant that I generally found it being a nuisance to be interrupted by dialogue and ‘story’.
Despite these complaints, Hades was an enjoyable and addictive game, and one that is great value for the cheap price that it currently is on PS5.
Firstly, I’d like to provide an update on my website. I usually post weekly, however, I have had a difficult few weeks in my personal life and thus decided to take some time away from writing, I hope all readers understand. Weekly posts are expected to resume as normal from here on out! Nonetheless, let us get into the main topic of this article.
Few games I have given my firm ‘no, I’m not buying that’ stance to as much as I did to Skyward Sword HD. This was largely due to the insane prices that Nintendo charges for these ports. It is also due to my bitterness that my beloved WindWaker HD port was ignored in favour of this game. However, leading up to the release, I kept seeing advertisements and I was led into what was truly my first Zelda experience that left me completely infatuated. Anyways, here is what I thought of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.
Story –
I am going to be honest, I’ve never fully beaten a Zelda game outside of Breath of the Wild. This isn’t for lack of wanting to, it is just that when I was growing up I was always more of an Xbox and Playstation kinda guy. This meant I never really got to experience any Zelda games growing up. It also meant that Breath of the Wild was my first Zelda experience.
However, despite the fact I have nothing to compare and contrast it against, I can say that Skyward Sword’s Story really is fantastic. I’d say my favourite genre of games are cinematic, linear, story-driven adventures. This game quite literally ticks all those boxes, which was a surprise that I was not expecting whatsoever.
Obviously Skyward Sword keeps in line of the simple and over-done ‘go save the princess’ tagline that Nintendo loves. However, in this game, it feels like it has a lot more depth to it. With Zelda playing active roles in the story, fleshed out areas, and characters that combine to create a sense of true adventure and meaning behind what you are trying to accomplish.
A ‘save the princess’ story can never be the most amazing thing to hit the market. That being said, I’d say Skyward Sword HD, as of now, is the best iteration I have seen that has managed to make it with more depth and meaning.
Characters –
Truly, Zelda has always had great character portrayal from what I’ve experienced. That being said, once again, all I’ve really experienced is a bit of Link’s Awakening and Breath of the Wild. However, it has seemed that from the outside looking in anyways, character portrayal has always been handles well. This is the exact situation with Skyward Sword HD.
Personally, from the few Zelda games I have played, Skyward Sword’s characters and designs are the best for me. I can say characters like Zelda herself are really well fleshed out. Others such as Groose offer a lot of character and personality to the game also, with there being a few funny moments sprinkled about too. This is all combined with him especially having a redeeming side-story.
However, there is also the side-characters who do not really play much of a role in the game’s story. Characters such as Beetle and Rupin are brilliantly designed and are just bursting with really unique personality traits in how their characters interact with Link. Rupin specifically shows the passion that went into making this game truly feel like a living world filled with unique people.
That being said, one of the main complaints against characters in this game comes against Fi. She is Link’s servant, attached to his sword in his quest to stop Demise. I would have to say I agree with every complaint made against Fi. I understand she is supposed to be an emotionless spirit/robot, but that being said, it just feels awkward and annoying to listen to her repeat the same phrases over and over completely void of any personality. I can only imagine how annoying she must have been in the original version of this game where her dialogue wasn’t optional.
The World –
Obviously a big aspect of Skyward Sword is the world in which it takes place. That being Skyloft or The Surface. These two areas act in-tandem from one and other despite being completely separate in terms of what they offer to the game-play.
Skyloft acts as one of the most iconic ‘hub-worlds’ I have ever witnessed. Everything from the design, to the people, to the general atmosphere just creates a constant feeling of returning home every single time you harken back to their from your adventures elsewhere. Admittedly, there isn’t really much to do in Skyloft itself, other than the odd side-quest. However, ignoring that, it acts as a fantastic and memorable hub-world to reach the rest of the map from. That being said, it can become quite tedious to have to slowly fly to every single area of the game from Skyloft.
In terms of the rest of the game, which mostly takes place on The Surface. This area initially feels exciting at every turn, and that remains true until the end of the game. However, with a game as long as this (I finished it in around 35hours), I do think there needs to be more unique areas to traverse.
The game tries its best to freshen up each area with new challenges and changes in the environment, but usually these changes do not differ much from the original look of the environment, and in some cases (Faron Woods), they become worse for their changes by becoming flooded with immense amounts of water. Trust me, you do not want to be trying to move through a world filled with water with motion controls whilst having to accurately collect notes on a timer.
The game also introduces Silent Realm versions of each world, which are the most unnecessarily stressful sections of a game I think I have ever gone through. Ultimately, the world is vibrant and memorable, but I think for the length of the game there can be a little bit of staleness that settles in through the world progression and development later on in the story and although they attempt to freshen things up with the environment changes and aspects like Silent Realms, they never really make the experience change for the better.
Controls –
Moving onto the controls, which judging from the internet, was one of the main reasons Skyward Sword was regarded as a bit of a disliked title when it originally released on the Wii in 2011. If I was totally honest, this game would definitely be a lot more enjoyable if it had the controls of a traditional console title. However, that isn’t to say the motion controls are disgusting. They are sometimes annoying, particularly when the game forces you into an entire world of water, but they can often immersive in some cases too. For the most part though, the motion controls are bare-able, and just leave you imagining how much more enjoyable this already great game could have been had it been made with button controls in mind.
Speaking of button controls, this is something the Switch version of Skyward Sword attempted to address. The key word here being ‘attempted’. It is an incredibly difficult task to make a game designed for motion controls to work with solely button controls. This is particularly noticeable in areas of the game that have design choices such as making every encounter with an enemy a puzzle in itself, that the player has to work out through the use of guiding your weaponry through motion.
Aspects of the game such as this that are designed with motion in-mind are possible through button movements, but never really feel like a real alternative. Essentially, button controls sound good in concept, but in this game, they are completely worthless. This comes mainly due to being unable to efficiently move the camera via gyro and just design choices being designed with purely motion in-mind back in 2011. I played almost the entire game with motion controls, as buttons never felt like a real option.
Freedom Within Linearity –
This section of the article is based completely on personal preference. I understand that a lot of people prefer to have a more open-ended adventure, something akin to Breath of the Wild. However, for me, I find my mind more focused and attentive to a game that is open-ended, but still promotes linearity in its objectives.
What I am trying to say is linearity within games and clear goals promote freedom within my mind as the player. Games that have vague or optional goals, such as open-world titles are less preferred for me, and I often find it incredible difficult to ever have the motivation to finish them. I like knowing where I am going, what I am doing and everything I am doing being focused toward one particular end-goal.
As someone who had only ever really played Breath of the Wild before Skyward Sword HD, I never really considered myself a Zelda fan. I enjoyed and was blown away by Breath of the Wild, but the open-ended nature of the game never really allowed me to fully immerse myself in the story or world. Skyward Sword’s linearity addresses all these issues for me and allowed me to have a focused experience where I was fully immersed every single time I sat down to play.
It was this alone that made me realise that it isn’t that I am just ‘not a big fan of Zelda’, instead it made me realise that I just am a fan of a ‘particular’ Zelda. That being, more linear 3D Zelda games!
Boss Fights –
Boss fights in this game are memorable and never really easy the first time around. I expected a Mario level of boss difficulty with the bosses and was surely surprised. However, they are not exactly unbeatable. Almost all the bosses in Skyward Sword balance a good difficulty with beatability. Ghirahem and Demise are great ultimatum villains in particular.
However in contrast, was it REALLY necessary to fight The Imprisoned, not once, not twice, but THREE times? To make it worse, the fight just becomes a more annoying and tedious version of itself each time it occurs. It truly is was the worst experience in the entire game one of the worst experiences in the game.
Visuals –
Visually, this game obviously falters in some areas given its age and just generally some bad animation choices. These odd facial expressions can be seen a lot, but are none more obvious that whenever Fi decides to spawn satan with her signing animation. It truly is a thing of nightmares.
However, beyond that nightmare. Most of the visuals look fantastic. I think the design for Zelda is my favourite in the series, and Link looks great too, although not my favourite design of him personally. The world is bright and vibrant, and just completely bursting with life, or a lack of it through dark-toned areas.
Skyward Sword HD is one of the more cinematic Zelda games from my understanding and is definitely one of the more cinematic games I have played on the Switch. There is an endless amount of iconic scenes, one in particular for me is when Link plays the harp whilst Impa sings for the first time. This was the one scene in particular that made the hairs on my arms stand up, it was the point in the game where it finally clicked for me that ‘this’ was THE Zelda experience I had been waiting for.
For a Wii game that initially released in 2011, I personally think Skyward Sword looks great, and with it being in HD with this port, it looks even better. It is definitely the peak cinematic experience I have played through on Switch thus far.
Music –
I have never really been a fan of any music from the Legend of Zelda series. In Skyward Sword HD though, that all changed. Although there is a lot of tracks that I am not a fan of, the ones that do click with me were more than enough.
It all begins with the title screen. My first experience of this game was literally sitting moving the motion pointer in tandem with the beats of the title screen theme to the noise that your save files make. As mentioned earlier, the place you’ll visit most in the game consistently is Skyloft, and thus, it needs to have a memorable and lovable theme that never gets old. This is perfectly achieved through its theme that is heart-warming, calming and just generally amazing all round.
There isn’t just joyful themes though, how I judge a game’s music is if a track truly indulges me in the experience. If it connects me with the game I am playing. Songs in Skyward Sword HD such as the Ballad of the Goddess, and the theme of the Gate of Time are pieces of music that I think will stick with me until the day I die. These themes awakened something in me, something I don’t think I have felt since I was a child, and that is pure nostalgia, pure immersion, complete fulfilment from being in-the-moment in a game. They are bone-chilling, they are what I think of now when I think of the Legend of Zelda.
Toxic Traits of Nintendo –
With all the positives being said, and some negatives. I do think there is some things that need to be addressed regarding Nintendo, not so much Skyward Sword HD before capping off this review. This is obviously regarding some of the anti-consumer practices that cropped up through Skyward Sword HD’s release, and some Nintendo releases recently in general.
The practice of pricing with Nintendo has been a major issue. I fully think Skyward Sword HD was a full-price experience, however, when it had been available on Wii-U for €19.99 before releasing on Switch, it is easy to see why charging essentially triple the price for the same product is wrong. It also just makes no sense. How can a HD port of a Wii game cost the same as Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury? How can it cost the same as Super Mario 3D All-Stars? Where is the logic and continuation in how products are priced with Nintendo.
Also, the practice of looking features behind amiibo is wrong also. I am not talking about locking invincibility or extra-life behind amiibo, but locking fast-travel behind a figure that is not even readily available for all fans of the game shouldn’t need explaining as to why that is wrong, even if I found that a lack of fast-travel bore almost no impact upon my personal play-through of the game.
Conclusion –
Despite the obvious negative connotations that came with Skyward Sword HD, I have to admit I was wrong. I fully expected this game to leave me feeling unfulfilled and robbed, and instead, I got one of the most beautiful, complete, and immersive gaming experiences I have ever had the pleasure of going through. Not supporting Nintendo’s ridiculous practices is perfectly justified, however, for anybody sitting on the fence as to whether this game is worth the money, I can just say, take the leap of faith and you will not be disappointed.
Sonic is a name that has written itself in the history books, however, it is no secret that since the Hedgehog’s move to 3D, there has been a distinct lack of quality and identity in Sonic’s adventures. Although after almost two decades of 3D flops, Sonic returned to its roots with the game Sonic Mania. In this review, I’ll be going over the magic of Sonic Mania and how it ignited that love I had for Sonic as a child.
Game-Play –
The most important aspect of any Sonic game has to be the game-play and momentum. This has been an area of Sonic games in recent years that has felt choppy and broken. However, in Mania, the momentum and speed is fluid, lightning quick, riveting and most importantly, replayable and addicting.
The game-play of Sonic Mania is what makes it so brilliant, and it is also what made the original Sonic games such hits too. Mania has a game-play loop that is just quick enough to keep the player coming back, even after beating the game, to beat it all over again. This provides potentially multiple play-throughs, with multiple characters such as playing as Tails, Knuckles, Sonic, Sonic & Tails or if you are playing Sonic Mania Plus then you can do even more with Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel.
(Source: Stack)
Visuals and Style –
Personally, I always thought Sonic looked his best when he was in 2D, and I hold that opinion more than ever after playing Sonic Mania. Sonic Mania, despite being a 2D game based on pixel-type graphics, is on another level with vibrancy and distinct locations.
Each zone vibrant and offers something fresh, even the old zones are great to go through again (except for Chemical Plant Zone). General animations of the characters are a charm, as noticing even the idle animations of both Sonic and Tails for example was something that showed me the passion the developers for Sonic Mania had for the identity that they felt matched these characters since their creation.
I also cannot ignore the animation at the start of the game. I would pay to watch a show in that style, it perfectly represents Sonic Mania and reignited that feeling and love for Sonic that I haven’t felt since I was a child.
(Source: Fortress of Solitude)
Sonic Mania has beautiful and vibrant designs and locations, and the sprite work shows for me, what has been a major missing component in modern Sonic games, similarly to what Pokemon lost when they abandoned their sprite-based designs in favour of 3D models.
Music –
Even if Sonic has failed in recent years, something it always achieves is a stellar OST, I guess that is another similarity Sonic has with Pokemon in recent times. Sonic Mania is no different when it comes to the stellar songs that are at play. Some of my personal favourites are Metallic Madness Zone Act 2 and Studiopolis Zone Act 1. These tracks create that drive to move forward, and when you’re going at full speed with these kinds of songs playing, it feels like such a high for adrenaline.
(Source: Gameranx)
What Has Sonic Been Missing? –
Sonic has been missing a number of things. Most significantly for me I think Sonic Mania provides a sense of natural speed and momentum that feels almost artificial in some way in the 3D games. The game-play in 3D has felt choppy and like it leaves the player without consistent control throughout, this couldn’t be further from the case in Sonic Mania. As well as this, a consistency in style and distinct sprite work that makes the characters really stand-out and pop off the screen is just something that hasn’t been the same in 3D. I could write an entire separate piece about what Sonic has missed in recent years but for now I’ll leave it at that.
Sonic Mania was an insight to what Sonic should have remained as over the last two decades. Sonic Mania is a love letter to what made people fall in love with him, and is a complete diss to what he had become and what followed this game with Sonic Forces. It is disappointing to see that this game was swiftly swept under the rug in favour of a failed formula, however, with Sonic’s Anniversary being this year, one can always dream that they heard the love for this game and seek to make a Sonic Mania 2.
I always admired Jak and Daxter from afar, even as a child. However, as a child, my options of games were limited throughout the year, and when I did get the chance it was usually Crash Bandicoot or Spyro that I turned to rather than Jak and Daxter. Since maturing though, I obviously have had a chance to revisit some games from the past, and one of them was Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. So, what did I think all these years later?
Story –
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy follows Jak and Daxter. They were caught in the midst of stalking on Mirage Island and ended up in an accident in which Jak accidentally pushes Daxter into a pot of dark eco, turning him into a ferret-type-thing. As you can probably imagine, Daxter wants to be turned back to his old human self. This is where the duo set out on a mission to collect power-cells and travel across the world in an attempt to try and manage to convert Daxter back to his old self before Daxter realising he would have to sacrifices his chances to ever become his old self again for the sake of the world.
The story of Jak and Daxter is nothing special, but then again, nor was many games in the Playstation 2 era. However, it does suffice. The story is mainly brought alive by the expressive characters and voice acting performances that give off that butterfly feeling of being a child and loading up a new game for the first time.
Game-Play –
Jak and Daxter follows similar feedback game-play loops to a lot of 3D platformers like Spyro and Super Mario 64 in the late 90s and early 2000s. The game has a lot of counters, for the player to keep track of what power cells they haven’t gotten yet, as well as what precursor orbs they haven’t got. The game is nothing deep or complex, and missions and collectables are pretty easy to figure out. Despite this, it is incredibly satisfying every time you get a new power cell, giving off that same feeling you’d get when getting stars in Super Mario 64 all those years ago. However, just like Mario 64, there is plenty of levels and power-cells that grind the gears, with some of the checkpoints being nothing short of completely ridiculous.
The world feels alive, and large. There is very few loading screens and transition from area to area feels very natural. A big part of the game-play in this game for me was actually becoming immersed in what I was doing at a given point in time. This lack of loading and breaking the immersion is something that helped me in going through large spaces of time of continuous play. It is genuinely quite impressive how fluid and connected the world is for this era of gaming.
Visuals and Graphics –
Visually Jak and Daxter is obviously quite aged. Admittedly I should have played the HD version of the games on PS4, but I wanted that authentic PS2 experience. Despite ageing, these games have such a vibrant and atmospheric charm to them that it is hard to not feel impressed. Even with the aged resolution, there is a lot to be in awe by.
Once again, the world is impressively connected, and the characters are impressively animated. This can be seen especially in Daxter, whose face and mouth movements bring him to life, and his dancing whenever you get a power cell makes it feel like these aren’t just hollow bodies, and are actual characters that you could get to know.
The game has aged, but the charm is still all there for you to take in, and that is what is a big draw in for a lot of people returning to these old and classic games from this era.
Conclusion –
Jak and Daxter is really one of the best games on the PS2. It takes a lot for an old game to maintain my interest, or any game really, yet Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy manages to do that. It is a game with a lot of charm, world-building and simple, yet addictive game-play loops that feel similar to that of the stars in Super Mario 64.
So, after all this time, I have decided to actually give Bioshock a try. I played this game through the Bioshock Collection on PS4. I’ve sat back and heard the praise for this series of games, in particular the first game, for years. Despite hearing the constant praise, I never seemed to be interested in giving it a go, due to its ‘fallout’ style of game-play visually. However, this didn’t prove to be a stumbling block, and actually enhanced my experience.
Story –
To come out in 2007, Bioshock really is a landmark in gaming storytelling. Although I am usually turned away from dark stories or games, Bioshock drew me in. This game is dark, filled with interestingly psychotic characters and twists. This captivating story is obviously helped by the interesting and unique world in which Bioshock takes place in. It takes a lot to get me to play a game to the end, and having a captivating story is one of the key factors in enabling me to do that. Bioshock had the captivating story ten-fold. There has been few moments in my gaming-life that havve made my heart drop as swiftly and heavily as the ‘would you kindly reveal’, it was truly an iconic gaming moment.
In terms of negatives my only complaint is that it does seem to end rather quickly, although that can be looked past as it prioritises quality over quantity.
Game-Play –
Bioshock’s game-play was what initially turned me off of it for so many years. I had played first-person perspective games with similarly styled game-play, such as Fallout, and was never really captivated. This translated over into my perceptions of Bioshock, however, I was pleasantly surprised.
Bioshock offers a very unique way of playing. A variety of weapons, ammunition, gene modifications and upgrades allow for the player to move their character toward the direction that they want to play. Although the gun-play and movement isn’t perfect, it isn’t awful for the time, especially for what a game like Bioshock is.
As I said in the summary of my feelings on the story, the main captivating motive for me is the world-premise. Even almost two decades later, Bioshock still has one of the most unique and interesting concepts for a world in a game. The idea of building an entire psychopathic and modified city underwater, is brilliant. Rapture is a place with so much detail put into it, with every being, visual and area fully fleshed out to its max potential.
Rapture allows for the player’s own interpretations. It is whatever you want it to be for a large portion of the game. It plays into the game-play elements that I discussed through allowing and feeding into unique pathways for the player, such as choosing whether to harvest or purify the little girls for example. As a concept, and as an executed idea, there are few games even in the modern-era of consoles that have achieved the level of world-realisation that Bioshock did, and it is the main reason this game was so great.
Visuals –
For 2007, Bioshock has visuals of its time. The game looks like a good PS3 game, and that is fine. Obviously there was better games visually at the time, but Bioshock still holds up, especially to visually accomplish what it does in such an interactive world. It could look better, it could look a whole lot worse. Little details, phrases, posters and other depth-bringers are key to adding depth to the surroundings. These are ways in which graphical limitations of the time are brilliantly glossed over.
I truly cannot believe it took me almost 15 years to give Bioshock a try. This game obviously has limitations of its time, but in other ways it excels and sets a new standard for games from the mid-2000s. The story and world-premise showed that video games could be a lot more than fun, and could also provide captivating and meaningful story-experiences. I certainly will be doing reviews on the sequel and Infinite in the near future. However, if you were like me and thought Bioshock ‘wasn’t for you’ then would you kindly reconsider and try it now. You will not be disappointed.
I wasn’t getting Returnal right up until the day before it released, when social media praise and high metacritic scores led me to believe that maybe this Rogue-Like is the one for me. I have never really been a fan of the genre, I usually find it tedious and repetitive, however, Returnal in some ways made this satisfying. With Sony recently acquiring Housemarque, lets see what I thought of the first major game that certainly made them take the next step toward purchasing Housemarque as a development studio.
Story –
The story of Returnal makes up a decent amount of the game. Selene, an astronaut who crash lands on an alien planet, is forced into trying to uncover the secrets behind the species, lore and other elements of the planet. Along with this, the incorporation of the Rogue-Like tropes being put into the story to make sense was something that I rather enjoyed, with Selene trying to discover how to break this endless cycle she has discovered herself in.
The story takes second-fiddle to the game-play, however it is decent enough to maintain the player’s interest throughout and will obviously take a lot of commitment to get through.
Rogue-Like –
Obviously if you know anything about Returnal you’ll know it is part of the Rogue-Like genre. I for one have played games in this genre before such as Enter the Gungeon and just generally found that these sorts of games are not for me. However, despite how hard Returnal sticks to the genre’s ideas, this was definitely the first time I have played a rogue-like and not found the resetting aspect to be tedious, pointless and annoying. It served a purpose, I think it also helped that it was adapted into the story to add meaning to the cycle.
Ability to Save During a Cycle –
For all the praise I stated about the genre’s tropes, I do think at times maybe Returnal sticks to the concept a little too much. The concept of having to leave your PS5 on rest-mode purely just because you have to do something can be quite annoying. Each cycle can take hours depending on how far you go and how much stuff you get in advance prepping for future biomes, it is quite ignorant in a way to think that players can commit half of their entire days to just this one game without taking a real break.
I am not saying resetting is a bad thing, far from it. However, I see little reason as for why the game resets when you turn off the console. It punishes you for having real-life commitments, not just dying in-game. There should definitely be a save system in-place for when you are in the middle of a cycle and are yet to die. For me, I think the lack of a save and quit system to the liking of which I have mentioned has almost made the game unenjoyable to play for the most part.
Stick to the Objective –
One thing I realised pretty early on is how easy it is to think that this game is just a mindless corridor fest. I found myself just going from room to room, taking out enemies, with no real idea of what I was actually trying to achieve. My best advice is to follow the main objective in the top-right of the screen. This is the ultimate guide and keeping it in mind as you go from room to room will allow you to add meaning to why you are going into these repetitive sequences and rooms. Stick to the objective.
Game-Play Elements –
The thing that keeps games like Returnal fresh amongst the constant restarting is the game-play elements. There is a variety of weaponry, each with specific alt-fire modes, all of which allow the player to eventually pick one that suits their style of play best pretty quickly into the game. Among the weaponry there is also the enhancers such as parasites, which allow the player to gain benefits but also lose something in return. Silphium resins which can be malignant and once again makes the player weigh a risk/reward scale and other general improvements such as consumables and artefacts that make the journey just that little bit easier.
Smoothness of Gun-Play and Movement –
Returnal is the first game on the PS5 to fully get the DualSense haptic feedback and adaptive triggers right. Games like Demon’s Souls and Sackboy: A Big Adventure incorporated the features, but Returnal fully commits to them. This full commitment shows its benefits as it feeds into some of the most smooth and responsive gun-play I have ever experienced. Combined with movement that is satisfactory and smooth, it creates for a fun experience that allows repeating areas to be enjoyable.
Enemies –
Returnal is a game that is about remembering patterns. Although enemies are difficult, if you can remember their movements and attack patterns, it obviously becomes easier. My first encounter with the first boss of the game, Phrike, was a complete failure. It didn’t take me long to realise that this boss was easily the easiest boss in the entire game. Enemies aren’t as daunting as games like Demon’s Souls, however they do give you that immense satisfaction upon beating them.
Visuals and Graphics –
Now this will be probably the hottest take in the review, but Returnal doesn’t look that good… yes it has its moments, but on the most part I came across some genuinely awful graphical attempts. The atmosphere is down to a tee, but when you enter an eerie house and look in the mirror only to see Selene look like she is from the PS1 era, it does take away from the illusion a bit.
Elsewhere there is just some issues such as sudden pop-in, particularly in the opening cut-scene that plays. There is also the issue with textures and blurriness of elements such as fog, which you see most noticeably during the battle against Phrike. There is also notable bugs that have been shown online once again, such as personal issues that I experienced being sudden loud and painful audio distortions that sounded like high-pitched static, and on other occasions audio intermittently cutting out for no particular reason. As I said, despite these issues the game has its beautiful moments and the atmosphere of the worlds are great, it is just not up to par for an €80 AAA title on the PS5 in my opinion.
Conclusion –
Returnal is the first Rogue-Like to genuinely maintain my interest and not burn me out instantly. The game-play is unforgiving and definitely should include a save system during a cycle, the lack of this save system makes the game incredibly tedious and hard to commit to when living with a life outside of the PS5. Visually, the game is not up to scratch in many areas, but it also has its moments. Is the game worth the €80? No. I’d say it is more of a €50 game to be honest. However, it is still a premium experience and one that highlights and utilises the PS5’s controller and features perfectly.
In a season of complete chaos for football, Liverpool seem to have taken a complete nose-dive as a club both on and off the pitch. Owners who seemed like they were finally caring about the progress of the club last season, being outed as money-hungry sewer rats. Players getting injured to never-before-seen scales, and completely flopping in almost every single competition in comparison to the standards set in the previous two years, it really has been a dismal season in football. However, late revivals in the Premier League seemed to have papered over the cracks a little bit.
In this review, I’ll be going over how I felt the season went, my thoughts on it through every factor and competition they took part in, and how the club can improve for the 2021/22 season. Admittedly, I cannot remember much from before January, it has just been that kind of season.
Carabao Cup –
The Carabao Cup increasingly seems more and more like a competition that should have been done away with years ago. I do not think anybody really cares for it outside of Everton and Spurs fans. However, Liverpool’s Carabao Cup campaign started off with a comprehensive win against Lincoln in which the likes of Minamino and Jones shone to score seven goals. The following round against Arsenal produced a borefest in which Liverpool exited on penalties after misses from Origi and Wilson.
This competition did not highlight much for the season ahead, and usually I am fine with us exiting it early. However, it is quite odd how we never get far in any of the domestic competitions and I’d like to see Klopp at least have a chance of winning almost everything possible during his time at the club.
F.A Cup –
Liverpool had a chance to avenge the game in the last season where Aston Villa shamelessly battered our kids by having the gods grant us the gift of being able to batter their kids this year. However, it was far from a battering. Liverpool were drawing for large portions of the game after Louie Barry got a dream goal against almost our complete first-team. Despite a 1-4 win, it was hard-fought, and not pretty at times.
In the next round despite having chances, Manchester United went through after a 3-2 win thanks to Bruno Fernandes. This game felt typical of Liverpool at the time, with us going ahead feeling like it was only a matter of time until the entire team fell apart, and it did. I am not bothered much about the F.A Cup either, but it would have been nice to win and looking back now at a season with no trophies, it seems the F.A Cup would have been a great chance to at least come out of 2020/21 with something at the very least.
In the Champions League it was clear early-on that winning it without many of our key players would be difficult. The performances in the group were stellar, and barring baffling decisions to allow players such as Jota to play a meaningless final game, only to end up injured for months-on-end, it was a perfectly executed group qualification for once. In the knock-out rounds, class performances against Leipzig provided hope that despite shocking performances in the League, maybe a run in Europe wouldn’t be affected. Despite this, we were brought back down to Earth in the following round, being outclassed by Madrid and then despite a sturdy performance from Phillips in the second-leg, it wasn’t enough and we went out.
I could not complain about this, to get to the quarter finals with the defence we had, and despite Madrid being their weakest in over two-decades, it is still Real Madrid at the end of the day.
Premier League –
The Premier League is where the bread and butter of the season is, however this has easily been the worst in recent memory. COVID-19 made most the season be played behind closed doors, and that combined with an awful Liverpool team genuinely killed a lot of my love for the game.
There were long-term injuries all over the pitch for Liverpool, however it was none the more apparent than in defence. Not only did Liverpool have van Dijk out for the entire season, but Gomez and Matip too. Then, even the midfielders who were put in their place ended up injured for large portions also, that being Fabinho and Henderson. This Premier League season is obviously been marred by injuries that nobody could have prepared for, but even despite that, it doesn’t seem that injury recoveries will solve all the issues.
Mentality problems and performance dips have been apparent. Constant inabilities to take our chances, kill off games or even get motivated to continue fighting when we go behind highlight that Virgil and Gomez returning will not fix everything. There needs to be major refreshes in the squad.
However, despite all the negatives, somehow the club managed to finish third, and only 5 points off Manchester United in what was consistently spoken about as their best season in years. As well as this, 26 points out of our final 30 available, and also conceding less than second-place Manchester United too, despite having our entire defence ravaged by injuries for the entirety of the season. These are achievements that are quite difficult to believe, but they happened regardless and really are something to write home about.
Despite finishing third and qualifying for next season’s Champions Leagues, this is mainly due to Klopp, once again. If it was not for him and Salah in particular, this club would have finished bottom-half this season. After the issues with the European Super League, FSG cannot afford to hide behind Klopp’s brilliance this Summer. Huge investment is needed to challenge Manchester City again next season, however, I doubt that will happen.
Despite a lot of mistakes early-on in the season, Alisson set new standards for a goalkeeper towards the end of the season. Many of his mistakes and uneasy-natured errors could be down to the constantly changing back-line. Off the pitch he had to struggle with the sudden loss of his father, which left everybody devastated for the goalkeeper, but none more devastated than himself. As said earlier, he assured the fanbase that he is the perfect goalkeeper, scoring a winner against West Brom to essentially keep the Champions League qualification dream alive, and in doing so, created the most memorable moment of the season without a doubt.
Despite an incredible drop in quality in the first-half of the season both defensively and offensively, Trent finished the season as his old-self. His drop in offensive output could be down to the huge drop-off in quality from the attack, and also with the lack of reassurance in defence, he was required to stay-back more often than not. His second-half of the season was almost flawless though. He is still easily the best right-back on the planet at 22, and it would be shocking to see him not be selected to go to the Euros with England.
Nat Phillips is the true hero of this season. Having not lit the world alight during his time in the German second-tier last season, his Liverpool future obviously seemed completely foregone. Sudden injuries ensured that once Henderson and Fabinho returned to midfield, Nat was there to being an aerial force. Despite lacking in quality, nobody can question his determination to put himself at risk at every opportunity to try and earn us the points needed to achieve something this season. No matter what the future holds for Nat, his performances and moments this season have written him into history as a cult-hero of the club.
Despite playing most of the second-half of the season in midfield, Fabinho is mostly known for his defensive contributions this season. Filling in at defence, Fabinho on many occasions was absolutely flawless, proving himself to be world-class in two positions. However, his presence in defence were not enough to cover-up his lack of presence in midfield, which is pivotal. In the second-half of the season, all games where Fabinho played in midfield, Liverpool failed to lose. The fact he didn’t play in this position for a majority of the season is a key reason as to why we may have struggled in many situations, similarly to how Manchester City struggled last season when Fernandinho had to move into defence for Laporte.
The only player to play every single game of Premier League action this season at the club, barring 5 minutes. This is obviously to the detriment of Kostas Tsimikas, but Robertson, despite not offering so much offensively this season for similar reasons to Trent, has been an ever-present. His work-rate and defensive solidity once again highlighted that even when the team was struggling, he remained world-class and the best in his position in the world.
Thiago is a player that came with probably the most hype of all the signings in the Premier League last Summer. Had it not been for injuries, it seemed that he would have played a key part in a team that was going to easily run for the title again too. Getting man of the match on his debut despite only playing 45minutes, and getting man of the match against Everton before getting injured for several months, it was clear that he had the quality.
Thiago was never an assister or goal-scorer, which is a big reason why the agenda behind his ‘flopping’ gained so much traction. The truth is, Thiago performed similarly number-wise this season as he did in all his seasons at Bayern Munich. Being labelled the best midfielder in the world not even a year ago, and despite putting up similar numbers, he is now labelled an ‘underperforming flop’. It is a clear showing of the toxic mentality of social media in football today. Which is, it doesn’t matter how little you watch a player, it is only numbers that matter.
He had a lot of games where he struggled to make an influence, but also a lot of games where he looked head and shoulders above every single player on the pitch. Shockingly, he didn’t start in either game against Real Madrid, which is something I still cannot believe. It is clear that in a settled and fully-fit Liverpool team, Thiago would prove once again why he is easily one of, if not the best midfielders on the planet.
In his final season at the club, it was a standard Gini season. Despite the constant hate he gets for his style of play at the club, it is clear these are tactical moulds that he is fitted into by Jurgen. One of Klopp’s first signings, Wijnaldum has played more games than anybody else from the midfield and almost the entire team since he signed. This is down to his incredible reliability, fitness and just collosal mentality. Yes, he struggles at times to play a forward pass, but that is his role. He is a ball recyler.
Wijnaldum may not be regarded as a Liverpool legend by many, but when you put up performances he has in all the big moments of the last 5 years, I am not sure how you can argue that he isn’t. He epitomises what it meant to be a Klopp team at Liverpool, and will be incredibly difficult to replace. I wish him nothing but the best at PSG and hope that he realises how much his contribution will have been appreciated by fans like me over the last five years.
Jordan has once again proved his importance on and off the pitch. On the pitch, he once again proved his versatility playing many times at centre-half, whilst also continuing to prove his importance a the heart of midfield. His presence is continually missed as shown by how the form of the team dipped upon his injury.
Off the pitch he was a role model too. Standing for multiple major messages via social media, as well as organising and standing against the idea of the European Super League later in the season. He may not have been up for Player of the Year like in 2020, but he put in another memorable season in a red shirt nonetheless.
What can I actually say about Mo? To put it simple, without Mo, we’d have been in the bottom half of the table without a doubt. With both Mane and Firmino falling off a cliff this season, Mo didn’t just sail is to success, but he proved that at times, he really is too good for this club. If anybody ever had any doubt about who is the most important of the attackers before this season, then those doubts are certainly gone now.
In probably his worst season to-date, Firmino matched his numbers from last season in two less games. However, this doesn’t tell the full-story. Thanks to sudden bursts in form, in particular against Crystal Palace and Manchester United, Firmino’s numbers were inflated. Before scoring a brace against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Firmino had scored one in his previous twenty-three games. These stats combined with just performance dips that were hitting new-lows for Bobby show that his time should be coming to an end as a guaranteed starter sooner rather than later, he also didn’t exactly help himself when he was caught liking Richarlison’s pictures after Everton had beaten us at Anfield.
Sadio’s drop off a cliff was the most surprising of anybody in the squad, and yet it is still completely unknown as to why. Potentially the long-balls from Virgil being missing prevented a lot of his runs in-behind. It could also be the full-backs need to stay back due to a lack of quality at centre-back meant that Sadio was forced out wide more often this season, however Salah didn’t struggle in this same manner.
Sadio could bounce back, and he still finished the season in double-digits. However, his dismissing of Klopp at the end of the season for being dropped to the bench for a game showed a display of poor attitude, combined with odd posts on his instagram of a video celebrating Sarr’s goal against us in 19/20 that ended our hopes of an invincible season, it does seem that Sadio in general is making some poor choices.
Kelleher didn’t play enough games to warrant gaining a rating, however he definitely had a progressive season to be proud of. In moments where Alisson had become injured, or was on leave due to his father’s passing, Kelleher stood in. Some slippy performances in the cups were backed up by a strong performance against Wolves in particular. Binning Adrian and getting a new back-up keeper’ wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I also wouldn’t be against Kelleher keeping the second-choice spot.
I know I said Kelleher played too little games to warrant a rating, and Adrian played even less. However, in the games Adrian did play, he was so bad that I couldn’t not give him a rating. Adrian has to be one of the worst footballers to ever wear a Liverpool shirt in my opinion. The goalkeeping performance against Aston Villa in particular has to be one of the worst individual performances in Premier League history, shipping seven goals in a single game. It is no wonder that his spot as second-choice was almost instantly stripped from him. Upon his contract ending, he should be let go from the club and hopefully never spoken of again.
Neco, similarly to Kelleher, didn’t play enough games to warrant a rating. However, I think his last of progress in game-time, in a season where Trent spent large portions of it struggling, says a lot about how he can progress at this club, that being, at the moment, he cannot. I think a permanent move away or a loan to a Premier League/Championship side would do him the world of good in getting some consistent first-team football, to hopefully come back in a better position to actually challenge Trent.
Obviously Virgil didn’t play enough to warrant a rating. However, he should still be the talisman next season, regardless of how unclear it is in terms of his recovery from such a devastating injury.
Despite also not playing much, Gomez has seemed to warrant more question marks. Consistent injuries have hampered his entire Liverpool career, and although he is world-class when in-form, he does have his odd moments. It is clear the trust in the current array of defenders is not high, through the signing of Konate. I think for me, Gomez stays alongside Virgil for now, but I won’t be surprised when Konate eventually has his time to shine.
Another season of devastating injuries for Joel Matip seemingly has brought his Liverpool future into question. A world-class defender when fit, Matip isn’t getting any younger, and potentially selling him on to replace for a young Kabak would be my choice if the scenarios aligned. However, I would love for Matip to stay if he could ever manage to stay fit.
Rhys was playing in the 6th tier of English football last season, and yet produced some amazing performances for a player so young on such a high level so soon. He obviously had struggled in a lot of occasions, although showed promise. I don’t think he will be Liverpool material, but a loan for the upcoming season could help him mature further at a decent level.
Ozan, Ozan. Kabak has divided the fanbase. Having not played many games, probably due to his status being determined by the end of the season, rather than injury, it is unfair to give any true judgements of Kabak. Having struggled initially, Kabak eventually performed at a good level on a consistent basis and generally seemed like a good player for his age. £18million for a centre-back of his quality seems like a steal, however, knowing John Henry, getting another £18million out of him for another vital position that needs strengthening will be difficult. So, with Konate coming in, does it make sense to spend that £18million on Kabak? Not really. I wish we would, but realistically I do not think we will.
Regardless of what the future holds for Ozan, he did well. I am gutted for him, but this is football, and he will no doubt go on to sign for a good club if he doesn’t get signed by Liverpool.
Despite not getting many chances, I cannot help but feel like Naby Keita and Liverpool just will not work. When he played, he struggled to leave lasting impressions on games, but at the same time, how can a player be expected to hit his stride when injuries combine with a lack of trust and consistent starts from the manager. Naby Keita was consistently praised by Klopp throughout the season for his training performances, most notably prior to the game against Real Madrid. However, despite having been injured for weeks, Keita was hooked off in the first-half against Real Madrid ruthlessly, and wasn’t given another chance again really.
I am not saying Keita didn’t deserve to be taken off against Madrid, but in that first-leg, there was several players playing below the expected level, many of which didn’t have the excuse that Naby had of being out injured and having not started in weeks. Despite this, Naby was chosen to be the scapegoat and was hooked by Jurgen.
I think Naby can be a world-class player, but I worry that Klopp doesn’t trust him as much as he publicly says he does. I would be surprised if Keita was still a Liverpool player in 2022.
James Milner – 7/10 –
Milner struggled for game time too this season, but that is expected given his age. Despite this, during a time where the team struggled for performances, Milner came in and played to a level that was certainly on par with the peak performances of his career. During this time he showed how important he can still be to this team, and I for one am glad he still has a year remaining on his contract going into next season.
Oxlade-Chamberlain is a player that has a lot of the same excuses as Keita. A combination of injuries and a lack of managerial trust has ensured that his place at Liverpool is more uncertain than not. I really cannot see Ox hitting the levels needed to play for Liverpool consistently, and I think I could see him moving on in 2022 also to a team like West Ham or something.
Jones broke into the first-team last season, and did great in his rare opportunities. He showed composure beyond his years. This season, he played a lot in the first-half of the season, and showed maturity going forward and defensively. Liverpool fans seem to have manufactured a forced agenda against Jones, stating he isn’t good enough. However, are we forgetting he is still only 20 years of age? I have no doubt that with Gini leaving, Jones will get even more chances in 2021/2022 and continue to show his progress as a player.
Having been linked with a close move away in January, and having been stated as being ‘for sale’ this Summer, Shaqiri’s Liverpool career really is an odd situation. Having never really played ‘bad’ when given the chance, and having been relied upon heavily in his first few months at the club, it is a wonder what went wrong behind the scenes for him to have earned his place in the basement.
Nonetheless, Shaqiri is a great player and always performed when given the chance. I think he will leave this Summer and hopefully he finds a great club where he can be valued more highly.
Diogo Jota – 8.5/10 –
I have to admit, I was not sure about the signing of Jota for such a high fee when he came in, but I was proved more than wrong. Jota started the season in form similar to that of Salah and Mane when they first joined. However, he picked up a lengthy injury in a meaningless game and we were left to pay for that decision as Firmino and Mane blanked for months on-end whilst the Portuguese forward was out injured. I have no doubt that Jota will continue to improve from next season onward, though.
Despite his heroics in the season where we won the Champions League, it seems that Origi retired from football since then. He rarely played, but whenever he did, he looked lethargic, heavy on the ball and had an absolutely awful touch of the ball. Far below the already low standards he seems to set. I would not be surprised if Origi was one of the first names out the door this Summer, despite everything he did in 18/19.
Sadly, I think the end could also be near for Takumi Minamino, to no fault of his own. Having rarely gotten any minutes, Minamino failed to make an impact at the club. Even when he did play and scored in a 7-0 win against Crystal Palace, he was immediately dropped for another few months afterwards, despite Firmino’s awful form. I had hoped that he would at least have the chance to play in front of a crowd at the club, but that now seems unlikely. I think had he been given more of a chance and had a better environment to settle in, rather than settling in a new country with new teammates during a global pandemic, things could have been very different for Taki at the club. Here’s hoping his fortunes can still turn around!
Jurgen Klopp – 7.5/10 –
Despite making a few odd decisions throughout the season, for the large part, to get a team with such ravenous injuries throughout the squad into the Champions League, is easily one of Jurgen’s best achievements throughout his time at the club. He also was one of the first along with James Milner to speak out against the European Super League. Always remember, if it wasn’t for him, we’d be in the bottom half of the league every season. We achieve success because of Jurgen, not FSG.
All in all, a season without a trophy is a failure of a season. However, given the unprecedented circumstances the team had faced, I think finishing third in the league is a sign of progress and quality in-depth. I am unsure whether we will return to our best as simply as some of our fans think we can, but with a Summer of rejuvenation, injury records being set straight and fans back in Anfield come August, who knows what we might achieve.
As someone who adored Ratchet & Clank since I was little, seeing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart announced for PS5 was one of the main reasons I wanted to get a PS5 before the end of 2021. In my review of the PS4 remake, it is no secret that I was concerned for the future of the series, and concerned for large sections of Rift Apart when it launched based upon the issues I had with the remake. That being said, upon playing Rift Apart, all those concerns vanished. With that, my childhood love for Ratchet & Clank came back after all these years. Here is what I thought of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Story & Cut-Scenes –
In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Dr. Nefarious has stolen the Dimensionator, a device built by Clank as a gift for Ratchet to allow him to visit other Lombaxes. Through stealing the device, Nefarious is able to transfer himself to a universe where he has become emperor, separating Ratchet and Clank from each other as a result. As the story progresses, other dimension counter-parts of characters come into play. Such as Ratchet’s counter-part, Rivet. Clank’s counter-part, Kit, and even Dr. Nefarious’ counter-part, Emperor Nefarious. Throughout the adventure, the stakes higher. Ratchet, Rivet, Clank, and Kit overcome personal obstacles and join forces with a selection of other characters to try and stop Emperor Nefarious from fully controlling all the dimensions.
The story is nothing to bring tears to the eyes, but for Ratchet & Clank, it is one of the best yet. Compelling characters with an interesting plot-line creates a universe and concept that grips the player by the shoulders and pulls them into what Insomniac have fully fleshed out. This is in stark contrast to the story of the PS4 remake, in which nothing made sense due to choppy movie tie-in scenes being thrown around. This is along with the cut-scenes and conversational moments between characters being as lifeless as a cemetery. That being said, these issues are fully addressed and fixed in Rift Apart.
Characters –
In reference to my review of the Ratchet & Clank remake on PS4, it should be known how much I value character depth in a Ratchet & Clank game. My biggest flaw with the remake was the lack of animation or memorability of the characters. They were lifeless husks that had no believability when it came to trying to convince the player that they were actually interacting with each other in a meaningful way that felt earned.
I was very concerned that this would be the case in Rift Apart. Luckily, I was incredibly wrong. Characters are fully animated, with completely developed emotions and expressions. Despite me still wishing Ratchet could return to his egotistical, rash personality of the old days, I was able to bare his soft and nerdy persona more so in this game due to the development of the characters around him playing into his change in personality.
Characters like Rivet and Kit in particular provide great moments in contrast to Ratchet and Clank. I think pairing Kit with Ratchet and Clank with Rivet for the first portion of the game also created many memorable moments and bred a lot of situations in which character composition and development was ripe for the picking. There are plenty of new characters, such as Pierre, Gary, Emperor Nefarious and of course, Kit and Rivet. All of these characters are fully realised and earn their place in the world of Ratchet & Clank, especially Rivet and Kit, once again, they are brilliant.
Mental Health –
Many journalists have written on the tones of mental health in Rift Apart already, so I’ll just briefly go over the tonal backgrounds of it in the game. Throughout the characters, almost all of them have their own insecurities and mental battles. Though not fully frontal at times, they are always reminded as being present within the characters’ minds.
For example, Ratchet has a fear of meeting other Lombaxes, as he shows signs of insecurity and imposter syndrome. He feels he has not lived up to their intellectual and almost mythological past. Rivet struggles with loneliness and forgiveness, as she spent most of her life alone, fearing to trust others. All the while struggling to forgive Kit for what she had done to her arm. Kit is probably the most prevalent mental health advocate story in the game though. Her story is one of isolation, self-hatred and self-distrust. She was born as Warbot, and as a result, was programmed to have a bad side that ruthlessly attacks all in her path. Despite this, she learns to accept that side of her that she cannot change, and build relationships with those she loves rather than isolating herself out of fear for what she could do to them.
Even the villains such as Emperor Nefarious even has subtle mental health challenges, though not really explored much, there was one line that I related to a lot. Emperor Nefarious had suddenly won, he had conquered everything and yet he still had only realised that his life had to go on as normal. Emperor Nefarious says ‘why don’t I feel any different?’, in response to his assumed resounding victory. Obviously I have never achieved any giant success, but I can relate to the feeling of achieving something and then feeling empty afterwards once that instant moment of gratification has passed.
Mental health isn’t front and centre in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, but it does play a role in almost all of the main characters. Even if only subtle, the advocation of mental health and representation of some internal struggles that those of us go through, through these characters, is something that I think will allow many to identify with and should have further representation in future games. Kudos to Insomniac for including so many relatable internal struggles within their characters in this game.
General Game-Play –
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has the best game-play of any Ratchet & Clank game to date. Usually games in the series are rated upon their gun-play and satisfaction that stems from that. In this game, the DualSense allows the gun-play to take front and centre, but along with that, there is also another inclusion that I think helps freshen up the game-play.
The freshener within this game is the use of alternate lines of game-play. This has been used in quite a few big Sony games as of late. In particular, The Last of Us II utilises it to full effect through the branching paths that Ellie and Abby take you on. The same technique is used here through Rivet and Ratchet.
One complaint with the branched paths, despite it doing a great job at keeping the game fresh, is that Rivet never really feels like a different character in terms of game-play. Generally, she feels like a re-skin of Ratchet, this is due to them sharing the same move-sets, weaponry, and bolt balances. I think if Rivet were to have some weapons and moves exclusive to herself, that would allow the branched paths approach to reach its full potential. It would also allow Rivet to truly feel like her own full character, completely separated from Ratchet.
Speaking of re-skins. There is also an element of character customisation that has made its way into the game. You can collect a selection of armour for both Ratchet & Rivet, these are cosmetic changes to their design, but also play a beneficiary function on your adventure. For example, some suits of armour offer better bolt yield, or better resistance to certain types of enemies. If I am honest though, I never really cared much for the armour as I preferred to look at Ratchet & Rivet’s default designs.
Collectables are present in the game as usual through the form of Golden Bolts, which offer cheat-like options in the options menus, such as alternative designs for Wrenches, or other early 2000s elements such as Big-Head Mode. Other than that, they really play no other role outside of trying to obtain all the trophies though.
A major complaint that I do have with the general game-play in Rift Apart comes with the performance vs fidelity options. This is more of an issue with the PS5 rather than with Rift Apart individually, but in many cases, having the option to choose between performance or graphical fidelity feels completely redundant. When choosing graphical fidelity, the game is almost too unbearable, with awful, choppy frame-rate. Although not as unplayable as Demon Soul’s, it is still incredibly annoying to the point where choosing graphical fidelity just doesn’t feel like an option whatsoever. This just begs the question, what is the point in making this an option if performance is only the ever true choice that you have at your hands if you want to actually enjoy the game?
Gun-Play and Weapons –
Guns have always been the main aspect of Ratchet & Clank. Ever since I was young there was nothing like purchasing a new weapon to give it a try. In Rift Apart, the weapons have hit new heights, mainly thanks to the DualSense controller. Though not as immersive as I would have expected, it is still something that takes the experience to another level of immersion from older generations of consoles. Although generally the gun-play does follow the same format as all Ratchet & Clank games. That being, strafe and spam.
With the weapons, there is a large variety, and as mentioned, due to their differing nature, they are made all the more distinct from each other through the use of the DualSense controller’s features. Personally, I found that in the beginning of the game, I stuck to my staple weapons, but as the game lengthened, I went on to try and fully upgrade every weapon, even the more useless ones. Rift Apart does a good job at making every weapon feel distinct, and even if they feel worse than another, they still ensure the player feels compelled to use and fully upgrade them at some point or another.
Music –
Generally, I don’t think many Ratchet games have matched the level of influence and uniqueness that the original game had on PS2. Rift Apart is no different. Similarly to the PS4 remake, a lot of tracks sound like they blend together, being loud and bombastic. Occasions where I arrived in a location and took in the music were few and far between. That being said, I did love the tracks ‘A Most Nefarious City‘ and ‘Zordoom and Gloom‘. I think Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has similar issues to Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, that being, just not being able to make the soundtrack sound as legendary and specific to their new entry in the series as they did with older games.
Visuals –
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is easily the best looking game on the PS5 at the moment. There were so many occasions where I found myself absolutely awestruck at the depth of every single piece of scenery. There are moments in outer space where clusters of destroyed debris aimlessly hang, with it backgrounds seemingly going on forever.
There is also grounded moments on planets, where the tiny details of dirt and water particles on the ground just immediately caught my eye.
There isn’t much to say regarding the visuals of this game that pictures themselves wouldn’t do alone. All I can say is it is a beauty, with depth and care put into every single nook and cranny of the universe that Insomniac have created. Even as someone who is a big disagreer with the new €80 price tag for games, this time around, it really does feel like the game has the market value of €80 based upon its visual scale alone.
Technological Marvel –
As mentioned earlier, the use of adaptive triggers and haptic feedback performs its role well in Rift Apart. It allows the player to feel more immersed in the mixture of weaponry at your disposal. I wouldn’t say it is anything special for a game that primarily seems built for these types of features, but it is a better experience for the inclusion of these features regardless.
However, where Rift Apart truly excels is through its performance in terms of load-times. This game is a prime example of what people called next-gen. The SSD of the PS5 has allowed for quite literally, instant load times in Rift Apart. They show this off well through the use of rifts and portals, which allow the environments to instantaneously transfer from one area to another, without any blackening or waiting. It really is something that is hard to get your head around having become accustomed to checking my phone in between load-screens or transitional sections of old-generation games.
Conclusion –
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart calmed all my fears that the PS4 remake had planted in my mind. It is a game with an enjoyable story, fantastic characters, and great messaging in some areas. As well as this, it is also a technological marvel, best displayed in the areas of game-play, visual depth, and load times. Despite this, it still does have a few issues here and there that I think would have made the game better. Such as making Rivet more distinct from Ratchet, the lack of a real choice when it comes to choosing between performance mode and graphical fidelity on the PS5, and slightly, I think the DualSense could have felt more distinct in this game, given that it is based entirely around trigger-usage and distinct weaponry. Other than those minor complaints, all I can say is, what a game. I am so glad I had a PS5 in 2021 to play this when it came out.
After getting a PS5 I went on a mental spree of trying to find as many decent looking games as I could find to play on it, however, this came down to a small number. At the time of writing this review, in February, there wasn’t many PS5 games that were *must plays*. This is one of the reasons I took a gamble on Immortals Fenyx Rising. Nonetheless, let’s get into what I thought of the game.
That Ubisoft Hunch –
I have grown to become sceptical of the games that Ubisoft makes. They have grown a reputation for making repetitive, lazy and annual releases, along with running them into the ground for all they are worth. Just look at Assassin’s Creed for example. My feelings when this game was revealed as ‘Gods and Monsters‘ was one of interest, however, not really being all too invested. Although one thing that is fair to say is that the Ubisoft logo being attached to the game did send me into the experience with a certain level of cynicism beforehand. I found this important to mention as my initial feeling when it came to my judgement of this game was, will it defy my preconceptions of Ubisoft releases? That was the deal breaker for me.
The Story –
The story of Greek myths and gods is a pretty easy idea to make interesting, as shown by countless forms of media such as God of War and Blood of Zeus on Netflix. This was the initial idea that did get me into the game, as I have a history of enjoying concepts based around Greek mythology.
In this game, Typhon has been awoken and is basically looking to end the world and shocker, you are the hero. Zeus and Prometheus narrate the entire game in a past tense without giving away any spoilers, and they are quite funny and interesting to listen to. However, outside of them, the dialogue and accents are awful. I know they’re going for a Greek accent, but the voice acting combined with the mouth-full-of-water accent way of speaking is quite honestly a disgusting combination to have to listen to.
The Open World –
The open-world of Immortals Fenyx Rising quite obviously takes the majority of its inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which seems to be the new precedent to try and reach in the open-world genre. You can see this through a number of aspects, from the generic over-the-shoulder pan-out camera shot. To the abilities such as climbing, the hand-glider, all the way to the godly abilities.
This game really would have felt more in-place as an RPG rather than an open-world adventure, although RPG elements do make a feature in the game through upgrades of your character and load-outs.
The game feels very linear and quite frankly, boring. The world does open up slightly as it allows you to take stuff at your own pace, similarly attempting to replicate how Breath of the Wild lets you do things. However, it doesn’t work as well here. The world feels almost completely lifeless in comparison to games like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Breath of the Wild and even Assassin’s Creed to be frank.
Things to Do –
There is a number of things to do, and on the surface, it seems like there is a lot to do even. There is Lyres, Myths, Chests, Tautoros’ caves all alongside the main-story missions. Although these all feel pretty randomly muddled together and generally feel pointless and repetitive, showing clear elements of where the Ubisoft influence comes into this game. The game gets boring very, very quickly. None of the things to do feel enjoyable or worth doing, they all feel randomly and meaninglessly thrown around the map without any real significance or thought put into why they are where they are.
Scenery Scanner –
The main unique idea of this game in comparison to the game it copies is the scenery scanner. This is used to locate new objectives and areas to go to. This is a decent idea but quickly made me feel overwhelmed and doesn’t do a good job at showing you what is the closest thing to you. It does a bad job at allowing the player to have a clear mind and prioritise and instead just completely overwhelms the screen with a bunch of the same objectives.
Conclusion –
This game is a game highly inspired by the game that sets the bar when it comes to open-world games, Breath of the Wild. Despite attempting to copy it in many ways, it doesn’t even come close in any capacity. This game failed to sustain my interest and it earned a place on the list of the very few games that I actually get rid of again upon buying. I stated at the start of this review that my judgement of Ubisoft games nowadays is if it manages to break my preconceptions of what a modern ‘Ubisoft game’ is. Does Immortals Fenyx Rising break these preconceptions? No, it doesn’t even come close.
When I first got my PS5, my first thought was ‘Demon’s Souls’. The reveal of the game was enough to make me truly believe in the idea of ‘next-gen’. So, despite the disgusting €79.99 price tag, I forked out for the PS5’s first truly exclusive main-line title. Keep in mind, I have never played these relentless games before, although have been tempted by the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodbourne in the past. Nonetheless, let’s get into what I thought of Demon’s Souls.
Game-Play & Character Mechanics –
The feeling of starting off in this game is one of dread. You feeling feel like a lost child in a world that is pitted against you. However, through each area that you go by, you feel more and more strong and a sense of power. For me, someone who is a reserved player in difficult or stressful games, the feeling of backtracking, along with the general movement and speed of my character left me grateful and feeling pleased with myself at any level of progression through the game. The smallest progress forward felt like a huge step for me.
As well as the general game-play though, through character customisation and building your class that suits your needs, the customisation of Demon’s Souls is something that at first I didn’t quite understand or expect, yet despite this it shapes your entire feeling and play-through. Of course there is other elements to the game-play, but more on that later.
An Unrelenting World –
The world of Demon’s Souls is something that brings in much of the draw of the game. Usually I shy away from bleak and ‘scary’ worlds in games, however this one drew me in. The lack of sounds and moments of silence create an atmosphere unlike anything. The enemies combining with the general movement of your character create the feeling of a constant sluggish uphill battle the further you get into the game.
However, the uphill battle is rewarded by returning to older areas and beating these enemies who once wiped the floor with you, with you. Dying and losing progress can be agonising, but death is but a sign of progress in Demon’s Souls. The game is incredibly difficult, but not in an unfair way. The sense of adventure, world building, and linear yet broadened paths that the player has a choice in taking is on another level in Demon’s Souls.
The Beginning and Lacking Guidance –
One of the main faults in an otherwise greatly planned out formula is the lack of clear guidance and the confusion that came from the Path of Botamia a the beginning of the game. This was one of the few times in Demon’s Souls where I had to use a guide just to know what to do. I had no idea where to go, what I was supposed to be doing or what the goal even was. If it wasn’t for a walkthrough I do not think I’d have made it through the first area of the game.
However, once this first area is finished and you beat Phalanx, thus unlocking the Black Maiden among other things, the other elements of the game become a lot more clear and obviously progressive.
Killing Tower Knight by Myself and Bosses in General –
Something that adds to the collosal feeling of each boss is the fog of the doorways. You never know what is on that other side, and that revelation is something that adds to the adrenaline of the moment. A gaming moment that will stay with me forever is the defeating of the Tower Knight. The Tower Knight was stressful as he was the first large, mobile boss after Phalanx, which is sort of made to be a tutorial boss. His aura and abilities created a feeling of a boss battle that can only really be bested by the likes of God of War. The moment I took him down, I felt such an incredible high.
Despite the fact that not many bosses matched the level of euphoria I got from taking down the Tower Knight, there is something from games like this that cannot be emphasised enough, and that is just how powerful and strong the feeling of winning in a boss fight in Demon’s Souls and other games of this genre truly is to the overall feeling of the game, even if I did shamelessly cheese my way to a victory against Flamelurker via poision cloud.
Death and the Nexus –
Death in Soul’s games is a big part of the journey. You will have many moments where you unfairly die or die by just being absolutely battered. In Demon’s Souls I thought that the deaths would be something that would make the experience more frustrating, however, they only made the game more worthwhile. For me, each death was like a fire had been lit in my stomach to return to the area I had died in to get my souls, each death was like a signal of the obstacle ahead and the effort it will take to eventually overcome it.
As well as death, another important element of Demon’s Souls is the Nexus. This hub world confused me at first, however it acts as an area of salvation where you can return safely and plot your next moves to progress in areas of the game.
Visuals and Graphics –
The graphical achievements of Demon’s Souls speak for themselves. The setting design is the first real signal of what the PS5 can do. Walking along the bridges of the castle in Boletaria and seeing that Dragon fly over me was something that you need to experience yourself to fully understand just how incredible it looked and felt.
This game is part of the elite when it comes to graphical achievement, and the setting design of each area is a large reason for this. There isn’t much in the ways of massive deviants in location design, however they do all give off unique and varying vibes from one and other.
First PS5 Only Main-Line Title –
This is a great launch title for the PS5, despite being a remake. This game sets the standard of first-party exclusives that Playstation had set themselves near the end of the PS4’s life-cycle. However, I understand that this game can be somewhat of a deterrent for many players, it is a very specific and niche genre that takes a lot to get into. I personally don’t think I’d have bought this game if it wasn’t for the lack of games on the console at the time of writing this review. Despite this, I am glad I did and I am hoping that this is a sign of what is to come with future Playstation first-party titles such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and God of War: Ragnarok.
Conclusion –
Overall, as mentioned, Demon’s Souls is a brilliant journey and experience for all of those who are looking to get into it. It does have a lot of entry barriers for players who were new to this genre of game like myself, however once you get past that, there is something really special there. Despite being a remake of an outdated title, it doesn’t feel outdated at all. It is a great launch title experience that alone can make that hole in your wallet from purchasing a PS5 feel a little bit better.
Growing up probably my most beloved game franchise outside of Pokemon was Ratchet & Clank. I have not played many of the PS3 titles, but I played all the PS2 titles and have since played the PS4 game that coincided with the failed Ratchet & Clank movie. In this review I’ll go over what I thought of this game that is now a few years old in anticipation of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on the PS5.
Story & Cut-Scenes –
The story of this Ratchet & Clank has to be the poorest I can remember, and that’s saying something as the stories in these games are never the strong points. It is incredibly disappointing to see that the story is so lazily ripped from the movie, with the cut-scenes being rehashed from the movie completely.
As well as this, I know this game is a reboot, but the whole redoing of how Ratchet & Clank specifically met was something that didn’t sit right with me. The way they met in the first game was something iconic as time went on, and to completely write that off in this game feels like a defamation to the legacy that the original Ratchet & Clank created.
Along with this, the change of character from the original games when it comes to Ratchet is glaringly disappointing, with Ratchet now being a hopeful and friendly yet apprehensive in character, which is completely different from the cocky, selfish and often rash character that we had came to know. This character change has hindered the relationship between Ratchet and Clank specifically, with their personalities clashing less and them feeling less like strangers who come to love each-other, and more like two agreeable nobodies who have no qualms with each-other whatsoever.
Game-Play & Weapons –
In terms of game-play there cannot be any complaints, it is Ratchet & Clank. The movement feels smooth and fluid with the gun-play as Ratchet and even the few sections where you play as Clank feel like an enjoyable rare change of pace.
The weapons are really what makes these games for me. The upgrade system and general variety in how each weapon works is really something that makes this game so satisfying despite the lacklustre story. Weapons such as the Pixelizer offer a unique idea, turning enemies into pixelated versions of themselves on-demand, or the Groovitron making enemies unable to resist the urge to break it down, regardless of how big or small they may be.
Visually, as of now, this is obviously by far the best Ratchet & Clank has ever looked, however, and I know this may seem completely negative for the sake of being negative, but, I cannot be the only one who prefers the look of the old games more? I am not sure what it is, but the charm of Ratchet and the general atmosphere of the planets doesn’t hold the same weight in this modern graphics-style. It also is made all the more evident through the cut-scenes that aren’t movie clips. Character are as lifeless, awkward and as dead behind the eyes as games like Skyrim or Horizon: Zero Dawn.
I just personally didn’t get the same feel from the planets and characters in this style that I do from the older games despite the shiny new graphics.
The music of this game isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but once again, it just feels bland in comparison to the older games, with many of the tracks being completely forgettable and almost identical. The idea of a remake is to create remixes or remasters of old tracks, however this game does not do that. So many iconic tracks from the original game are replaced by out-of-place or identical and annoying tracks. I could not name a single track right now whilst attaching it to the section of the game that it plays in even if I tried.
Conclusion –
Ratchet & Clank (PS4) is a game that does a good job in the game-play sections and general loop, however, it feels soulless in almost every other way in comparison to the original games. There is enough here to satisfy the average player, with the weapons and general combat system being enjoyable and satisfying, but as a person who loved the older games, this game doesn’t even compare when it comes to the universe, characters and general atmosphere that those games created and quite frankly defecates upon the original legacy of Ratchet & Clank. I am excited for Rift Apart, but if this is the Ratchet & Clank personalities they are going for in those games, with this level of character enthusiasm and development, then I can only really see that game being as lacklustre as this one.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69006163/1230487320.0.jpg)
Nathan Brennan 