Runboard.com
Слава Україні!
Keshi Heads The Neutral Zone Rogue's Holonet Bit O' Moander
Susa's Sunroom If... Temple of Illusia Final Fantasy Dreams


runboard.com       Sign up (learn about it) | Sign in (lost password?)

Page:  1  2  3  4  5 ... 7  8  9 

 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Revelations: Persona (PS1) 8/10

Revelations: Persona is first game of Persona series, itself a part of much wider (Shin) Megami Tensei franchise. It's classic turn-based JRPG with some interesting twists in the battle/development system.

It would be hard to explan the plot (especially without spoilers), but generally we're in the Inception/Matrix territory of "what is real?"

Persona is in some ways unusual JRPG and it takes a while before you figure out the development system (and I kind of never optimized my battle order). You'll probably need to do some grinding at some points, but not awfully much compared to RPGs in general.

My main complaint is the game being so linear - which is ironic as the game apparently (I'm reading FAQ after playing) has a great split to two storylines*. The game is also relatively short (for JRPG), 50-60 hours.



*=I think the alternate route was cut out of Persona English release? Apparently it was included in PSP remake.



Edit: I have never before edited a game review after posting it. In this case it is necessary because I reviewed it prematurely. I had come to what is the short/bad ending of the game - which does not actually tell you this, that you've missed quarter of the game.

After looking a FAQ/walkthrough, I found out that by replaying last 20 hours of the game I could continue for another 20 hours and see, among other stuff, the "real" ending.

I'll stay with my original score 8/10 as the added content (fixing my argument on game being short) counters the frustration of not being able to finish the game (or know I didn't actually finish it) without walkthrough.

Last edited by Kaunisto, Feb/19/2019, 21:25


---

Feb/2/2019, 0:02 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Driver 2 (PS1) 6/10

I played original Driver many years ago on PC - cheating as much as I could, as it was hard as hell. Driver 2 is not far behind.

Driver is what you get when you take shooting and open world from GTA and leave just driving missions. Except the main character is actually undercover cop instead of criminal. It's hard to compare the PC version of the first game to Driver 2 on PS1 (D2 wasn't made for PC), PC required to run the first being so much better than PS1.
I recall the first driver had better story. The games have about same amount of content; D2 has 37 missions, 4 cities/maps and bunch of separate minigames.

D2 is rage inducingly unfair. Time limits (that exist for almost everything) are acceptable, even if they keep getting harder. But there are too many random elements, especially cars that chase you can sometimes come from straight ahead so that they are impossible to dodge. Or there may be cars on every lane so that you don't have a place to go. And you hit trees/poles when you can see there's tire width or two room. and so on.
There also seems to be a bit of rubberband that a car you chase drives faster (sometimes accelerating faster than you could) when you get close to it.

Driver 2 has some split screen two player thrown in as extra feature.

It's an all round infuriating game, but I'll say that I was able to finish it with a walkthrough without using cheats (which btw are so profoundly hidden that you'll need the walkthrough to activate them).

---

Feb/25/2019, 21:24 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Descent 3 (PC) 7/10

Descents are essentially 90's FPS with fully 3D movements. You fly corridor mazes shooting nearly everything you meet (while they shoot you) and figure out few simple level-pushing puzzles on the side.

Descent 3 is a hard game, at least for me as I've played very little anything between Wolfenstein 3D and Half-Life and the completely 3-dimensional movement makes it different from any game I'm used to. I've played plenty of space flight-sims, but this is closer to FPS because you strafe (to any direction) and reverse also.
So, playing on the easiest of 5 difficulties and using walkthrough much of game, I could barely finish it. And I rarely had fun doing it.

Yet it's not a bad game, it just caught me off-guard. I usually plan ahead for months what I'll play, considering how busy and enthusiastic I am and what else I'll play. I happened to come by D3 on flea market, tried it just to see if I could run it (on a specific PC) and ended up playing (partially because I didn't want to either leave it to take up HD space nor reinstall later).
Had I played it another time - especially decade or two earlier... - I might have enjoyed it more.
But it one of those (rather rare) games where I can see why many people would like it more than I did.

The game felt long, being tiresome for me, and I would've preferred the 15 levels would've been split to shorter ones (most took about 1-1½ hours, one over 3, but I may have been stuck there). Couple are cool, interesting or unusual, but most levels are somewhat generic. There's not great variety of enemies, but that's more of a positive thing, that you learn to handle them.

Plot is a bit meeh, music just there in background, graphics... 20 years old.
D3 lives on gameplay. It's not perfect and some thing don't work. There's big selection of weapons - so big that I didn't learn to use most. But the action works well enough, even though you need to lurk behind corners often.

As usual I haven't been able to try multiplayer.

All in all Descent 3 was a tiresome experience for me, but looking objectively I have to appreciate it a bit more.

---

Apr/25/2019, 19:35 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen (aka TM!: Game Edition or TM!: RPG) (SNes, translation hack) 9/10

Tenchi Muyo! *whatever you call it* is a Japanese strategy-RPG based on anime of same name.
It's relatively short game for the genre - I played in in few days - but I assume you're supposed to replay it aiming for a 100% finish, which means you need to find all 12 playable characters (most of them aren't a problem, I missed only two) and train them all to their maximum 8th level (I did 3, though at least as many were on level 7 - that gave me 45% score on finishing).

The battle system is something between what you'd see in most complicated JRPGs and typical strategy-JRPG. You only choose (up to) 4 characters for each battle and instead of ca. 40*40 map typical to the genre, the battle area is only 5 squares wide, with varying length of about 15 (sometimes you start in middle and enemies come from both sides). In almost all battles more enemies appear as you kill first ones, yet another atypical feature.

There's only so much story, game being short and the genre rarery having much, but if you're familiar with the anime/characters, you'll enjoy the little jokes (like Mihoshi being only character in whole game who can miss an attack).

The big fault in the game is that while usually you can gring battle at the time and save, storyline/boss fights tend to last half dozen battles, some couple hours of gameplay between saves - assuming you always win. And the biggest and worst comes last, including also the only moment where you can get Game Over for something other than losing a fight and quitting.

As in all similar games, it's kind of like solitaire: you just play it for fun until you finish. Mostly it's as difficult as you choose to make it, whether by trying to beat the game as quickly as possible or doing the 100% finish.

But overall a delightful little game I for most part enjoyed.

---

May/15/2019, 1:27 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Spider-Man (PS2) 6/10

The first PS2 game I've ever played. Not sure how that effects the score; there's charm and interest in a new thing, but also I was entirely unfamiliar with playing on "modern" controller, sticks and shoulder buttons being new to me as well as the diamond 4 button setup.

Like in so many games with unusual 3-dimensional ideas, camera is often a problem. Controls had a couple issues: I would've preferred up/down inverted on ceiling crawling to/from camera and the 3 button battle combos were so hard to use that I didn't even bother, just playing on Easy difficulty and button smashing.

The story is another weak spot. You have mostly unrelated encounters, to include some extra villains, and there isn't really a total storyline, more of several little glimpses to life of Spider-Man. And it was a bad mistake to stretch hunting Uncle Ben's killer to three levels.

It's a short game - fortunately, as it's not that fun to play - but there's decent amount of bonus content to hunt.

Spider-Man is one of those games that prove power of franchises. If it wasn't Spider-Man, I probably wouldn't have played it; if I had I'd probably scored it lower. But it is Spider-Man and that keeps me somewhat interested, so it's OK game.

---

Jun/5/2019, 16:41 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Paddington Bear (PS2) 3/10

Because it was there. That's the best reason on why would I bother to play a children's game like this.
And to be fair, there are many games aimed to small children that an adult could enjoy.

However, Paddington Bear is something hard to enjoy for anyone, at least after first 15 minutes. I don't know what it has once cost, but being a PS2 game I'd expect at some point people had to pay 30€ or more for it. And if this game was 5€ download for pads, it'd still be a terrible ripoff.

All there is are nine little levels/minigames and a room to decorate with point you gather. This is the sort of game (very skilled) people make in a day in game jams. This is clear case of 99% of budget being the licence and 1% making the actual game.

Except for one the minigames aren't awful, if nothing I'd care to play more than once. But the points system is nasty: for any mistakes in the games you lose points and particularly in the worst one you're - and I mean as me, an adult gamer - likely to lose more points than gain (unless you spend all your earlier points before, making it zero).
Worse yet, the games give you points very differently and as one does so much faster and easier than others, you'll just grind that 20 times for points if you want all the decorations for the bear's room.

Console makers should not allow this kind of games to be published, there needs to be some quality control.

---

Jun/8/2019, 13:37 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Ben 10: Alien Force (PS2) 7/10

Ben 10 is like a shorter and simpler version of Lego games: beat'em up platformer with some simple puzzles and secrets to hunt by playing levels for second time.

The action is quite nice, with the main character Ben switching freely between 5 alien forms (once you've gotten them all) and another two characters providing some change. There are only 5 boss fights (or sort of sixth in the end) and only 14 different enemies beside them. With just 8 not awfully long levels, that's not much content.

The most difficult and worst part are some platformer bits. I always say that if the most difficult thing in a game is jumping from one place to another, something is wrong with the design.
Another fault in the game is that it's very unclear what there is to unlock and how to do it. Also, like in Lego games, 2-player is exactly same as single player, just whole lot easier.

Despite all this, Ben 10 is a decent game, especially for the younger gamers and fans of the series.

---

Jun/16/2019, 22:14 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


Marvel Super Hero Squad (PS2) 5/10

MSHS is toy series and animation selling the Marvel characters to young kids. The game has the same target audience - which is never a good sign.

The game has to modes: adventure and battle. The battle mode is bit like Smash Bros and that kind of fighting games; you start with 6 characters and need to unlock 15 more, plus costumes (which enable two players to use same character against each other). Battle has various rules and 15 slightly different arenas (4 plus 11 to unlock) for 2-4 human or CPU fighters.

Usually I'd say adventure is the actual game and battle just a bonus thing, but in this case they're pretty even. In the adventure you play 8 levels, something like a simplified Lego game (or Ben 10 above). Within these you sometimes have to do fights similar to battle mode, sometimes with a twist, and in addition to that there are couple fortunately short QTE bits.
After you play first level, you can in any order play 6 levels with the main characters: Wolverine, Hulk, Thor, Falcon, Iron Man, Silver Surfer (you can choose second character of three others plus ones you've unlocked). Having defeated those 6, there's the finale (which is tiresome).
You have normal difficulty and Easy Mode (where you can die as many times as you want); it doesn't matter about unlockings which difficulty you use.
To unlock battle arenas you must also gather points (like Lego money).

All this sounds fine, so why is it a bad game?
First of all: camera. For decades reviewers have complained about camera even in best of games, it is hard to get right. But it's also hard to get it this bad wrong. MSHS literally has the worst camera angles I've even known in any game. And to add insult to injury, you can adjust it with right stick... just a tiny bit. Which doesn't matter when after couple steps it may have turned 90 or 180 degrees on its own.
The combat system is too clumsy and complicated to learn, you'll just button smash. (Though the battle mode is a good excuse for having dozens of moves you'll probably never do, at least on purpose.)
There's classic fall=death platforming which was over two decades before this game proven as complete ******* ******* **** to have in games.
And to unlock the characters (to fully enjoy battle mode) you have to play the adventure levels 3 times.

Limited amount of content with mediocre execution and some serious flaws. But hey, it's good bunch of your favorite Marvel characters. And likely more fun with a second player.

---

Jun/29/2019, 0:20 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


I won't change the score, but I'll add a footnote about MSHS:

While it's not a good game, it's actually fun toy. For couple weeks I've enjoyed pitting computer controlled characters against each other, making tournaments to see who's the best.

Answer, btw, is Thing (of Fantastic Four).

---

Jul/16/2019, 13:57 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 
Kaunisto Profile
Live feed
Blog
Friends
Miscellaneous info

The Big Boss

Registered: 01-2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 10359
Karma: 67 (+69/-2)
Reply | Quote
Re: My (old) game reviews


I usually only review game that I've finished, but I'll make exceptions here.
I did finish the story modes of Ninja Assault and I'm not sure if SWAT can be finished (and highly doubt I ever will).



Ninja Assault (PS2) 7/10

I bought Ninja Assault (for 2€) because I didn't look carefully enough the back cover to understand what kind of game it is. If I had, I wouldn't have bought it. And that would've been my loss.

Ninja Assault is a light gun game you can also play with pad. And it actually works. Don't know about light gun, not having one for PS2, but playing with pad it's pretty good game, if simple.

NA has story mode and bunch of minigames. Story mode has four different versions: I believe one is original arcade version of the game and three others (with additional story bits) with some of levels replaced with different ones. Each of these has two of three characters to choose from with slightly different damage and amount of ammo (between loading).
Story mode has 2-player option, with kind of smart system of the two having same amount of lives to share between them as a single player does.

The minigames are divided to 5 actual minigames and 5*4+12=32 story missions. One minigame and all but 4 first missions you have to unlock by playing the story mode or them. This is overall a decent amount of content. Finishing all of it, you could also unlock couple extra weapons but... what do you need those when you've already won everything?
While story mode works well on pad, many of the minigames/missions are ridiculously easy or hard depending whether you play on pad or gun. (I've lost my faith that I'll ever unlock everything.)

It was a game unlike anything I've ever played, it got pretty damn exciting at times - I once finished a story mode with last life of dozen and before getting to that last life, didn't remember if there a zero life or Game Over if I die at "1" - so I have to give it credit. There's only so much you can do on a light gun game, but Ninja Assault does it about as well as you can hope.




SWAT: Siege (PS2) 4/10

Like Ninja Assault, SWAT: Siege is a game where you move cursor and shoot everything.
It should be a light gun game; I have no idea why it isn't.

The main issue with SWAT is lack of content. Just look at manual: minus index, legal text and empty space, there's total of ONE PAGE of manual. And it really does cover everything you need to know to play the game. It's not because the game tells you what you need to know, like Pokemon or such. It doesn't... because there's nothing else to tell.

You shoot everyone you see and dodge left and right when they shoot you. You get hit, you die. Three lives, plus extra at certain amount of points. Like an 8-bit game with PS2 graphics.

It's kind of OK to play, for a moment after you get the hang of it, but this barely counts as game by modern standards, or when it was made decade and some ago.

(Also have to wonder how did a game that's all shooting people get age rating 7, while NHL is rated 12 for the fist fights?)

---

Sep/2/2019, 2:18 Link to this post Send PM to Kaunisto
 


Reply

Page:  1  2  3  4  5 ... 7  8  9 





You are not logged in (login)

Back to top