Recent reviews by Zaiydo

Bug-ridden, asset-flipped, terribly repetitive shovelware. Objectives despawning and constantly falling through the map. Not one dimension of this game is worthy of complimenting. Also, the review score for this game is definitely being influenced by botted reviews.

A Fall Guys clone made for mobile devices and ported to PC, which explains the considerable amount of jank still present after many updates. Most egregious of all though, is their shameless implementation of pay-to-win emotes, a mechanic that almost everyone abuses.

What initially attracted me to the game was the ranked mode. I wanted to achieve the highest rank without the use of these emotes, and for a while, it seemed like the task would be fairly easy. It wasn't until reaching the second half of the ranked ladder that I realized I would need to adopt a different playstyle to start winning games. This is because no matter how hard you try to avoid players, they will always target you if they see you wearing free-to-play clothing. The targeting got so bad the higher I went up in rank that it was almost impossible to win unless i was playing the maps Rush Hour or Block Dash. I haven't touched the ranked mode since getting champ, and I don't plan to. I've given this derivative slop more words than it deserves, so I'll just leave it here.

Telltale's magnum opus, and their only good modern title whose success hasn't yet been abused by the release of a half-baked sequel/s. Emphasis on YET because given the news surrounding Wolf Among Us 2 (or lack thereof), I'm very skeptical about leaving that previous statement as a definitive one. Not that poorly made sequels ever changed my opinion of the original, but I thought it was something noteworthy to mention.

Back to the topic at hand, this game is characterized by two very well executed elements: great voice acting and beautiful, vibrant visuals, stylized to appeal to the tastes of a mature audience. It features a cel-shaded artstyle, emblematic of virtually all of Telltale's titles released during the 2010s, but I think it's The Wolf Among Us that best utilizes the style. It does so by painting a world that is charming, with its diverse ensemble of colorful characters and locations, ranging from the fantastical to the caricatures of real life, while also revealing the gritty, nastier undertones of its criminal underworld. Let's also remember that the source material is a comic book, the medium from which cel shading was inspired.

A criticism I often see in reviews of Telltale games is the lack of gameplay, but I don't mind this so much. I can cede most, if not all gameplay as long as everything else being presented to me is enjoyable. The one area where this does bother me (this is more of a criticism of the writing) is in the lack of choices for dialogue. The big emphasis in the advertising of Telltale games is in the choices given to the player. "Choose your path." "Your decisions affect the story." To an extent, these statements may be true when looking at the minutiae of different dialogue responses you get with different choices, but that's about it. There is the occasional major decision, and these can affect the story in a noticeable way, but they're few and far between, easily recognizable, and the end result is more or less the same. What I would suggest, since this seems to be an issue with almost all of their games, is for them to incorporate more dialogue options for the player to choose from. Not all interactions need this, but the ones during moments of tension or confrontation shouldn't be limited to 100% passive, 100% aggressive, a weird mix of both that I'm positive almost nobody ever chooses, or silence. If my ending is predetermined, then let me feel that the responses or reactions I choose are mine.

A continuation of the first game, but the pacing of each level has been ramped up with different types of speed boosts scattered abundantly. This leads to faster, yet simultaneously more fluid gameplay. There's also a pleasant surprise for those of you that make it to the end. The bonus content has also been expanded to include more little quirks to play around with. Overall, a noticeable improvement from the previous game, but I really hope the developer considers a larger project for the next one. I'm thinking more platforming mechanics and a larger selection of levels, maybe different worlds with their own sets of levels. Hell, maybe even an editor to be able to make community maps. A project like that would certainly warrant a price tag higher than the standard $1, but I think the small, yet passionate community would definitely support something like this.

A remaster that isn't an overall improvement on the visual and gameplay elements from the original is a remaster that shouldn't exist. Although visual fidelity has been improved, it's accompanied by this god-awful shader engine that distorts critical information that I, the player, shouldn't be struggling to decipher. I get that CoD 4 wasn't the prettiest game to look at, especially with its one-noted color grading, but I don't ever recall having to squint to make out enemy locations or specific details in the map geometry. Also, every animation feels heavier and clunkier, leading to a very noticeable accentuation in the view bobbing that the player will experience.

The shooting, movement, and map design are superb enough to put this game on par with the poster children of the competitive fps genre. Let the fact that they captured a large portion of the devoted promod playerbase act as a testament to that statement. One of my deepest regrets when I look back on the game's history was not putting in more time during its initial release. As for its unfortunate downfall, I'm not sure what caused it because I didn't stick around enough to find out. My negative review rests solely on the fact that it's impossible to find a server with other humans to play with, and it's been like this for a good number of months now (at least during the many times I tried to launch the game in the hopes of finding some action).

The precursor to Black Ops 1, and in many ways better than than the aforementioned successor. Although the stories of CoD games have never seemed worthy of high praise, especially given that the majority of them feel like pro-U.S. war propaganda along with the vast number of plagiarisms seen in the writing and directing of Treyarch's entries, (though not legally plagiarism, I consider the plethora of examples egregious enough to warrant the description) this story couldn't really escape the same fate. It's a typical WW2 story, reminiscent of many war films from the 80s and 90s but with a far less fleshed out story and one-dimensional characters. It sounds like I hate this game, but I don't. Let me finish the point. The great film director, Robert Bresson, had something interesting to say, and I think his words perfectly describe my opinions of this game: "I'd rather people feel a film before understanding it." Now, playing with the words and semantics of this quote, I'd like to rearrange it to fit my case with World at War. I don't enjoy the writing of World at War. In fact, I find it to be devoid of much substance, acting more as a segue into the next obective, cutscene, level, etc. However, I love the tone, atmosphere, soundtrack, and core gameplay of World at War. And herein lies the unique beauty that video games have as a medium of art. I think, more than any other medium, video games can, and often do get away with lacking in one critical aspect by overcompensating with another. Hell, the entirety of the CoD Zombie franchise perfectly encapsulates this notion. Very seldom do players even care to understand the unorganized, trope-filled mess that is the zombies storyline. No, the vast majority of players are booting up the mode to do two things: kill zombies and see that round number go up. The same applies to this campaign. I've replayed it a good number of times, and each replay has been characterized by the same awe I feel when coming across one of the many grandiose set pieces scattered in every level, or the satisfaction that comes from engaging with the fluid movement and gunplay that you expect with most CoD games.

SImple, yet enjoyable 3D platformer with a cute artstyle. Couldn't ask for a better $1 title.

I always knew something like this would happen with Krunker. Yendis was already making a lot of money with the skin market, not to mention the ads everywhere on the browser version. They were lucky to have such an active community then, with full pages of custom servers filled with players. Then came the newer seasons, crafting, and other pointless updates. Greed took control once again, and they sold the game to FRVR. What does FRVR do with it? They shift priority towards the laughable mobile version and leave the PC version to rot. Beneficial community members like map creators, skin creators, and content creators left simultaneously. There isn't even an active competitive scene anymore. I distinctly remember being able to run scrims against other participating clans 24/7 back in 2018. Revisiting the game is so difficult now because it's hard to believe that any of it ever existed.

This and Deep Rock Galactic have to be some of the few games to have done the live service model correctly. Obviously, I'll always view Deep Rock as the GOAT of PVE coop shooters, but this is easily a close second. Both games have seamlessly integrated procedural generation which allows for infinite replayability. Both games have offered free additional dlc as a reward for mastery rather than as extra purchasable content. Both games have also mastered the ability to give players the freedom to approach the game however they want. Solo or full-man squad? You choose. Sentry, stratagem, or quasar cannon and jetpack build. Not a problem. Speedrun or 100% all objectives? Say less. Despite this, I do still have some valid criticisms to share.

First, the teammate problem. Please nerf the damage that stratagems do on teammates. One of the biggest killjoys is when 50-year-old Billy Joe Bob logs on and decides to throw all of his stratagems near his teammates, unintentionally griefing the match. Regardless of the level, hours played, or platform you will always run into dumb farts like these. So pretty please Arrowhead, with whip cream and a cherry on top, nerf team damage on these things.

Second, glitches. This game released half a year ago, and the same glitches I ran into during the first week are still ever-present upon my revisit. Granted, most of them are funny, but some like my samples being dropped under the map aren't. Although extremely rare, it's happened at least twice to me. That's like an hour and a half of game time completely wasted. There's really no excuse for this to still be in the game.

Criticisms aside, I really do enjoy playing this game. The satisfying gameplay loop of calling in stratagems and going around the map doing objectives while killing bugs and robots never gets old.