Recent reviews by Devadatta Baraka

Game won't work until you find whichever guide works for you and your system. Even after getting the game to run it still feels infested with bugs, mainly from being rushed on release it seems.

Gameplay is fun climbing, acrobatic gun action, and engaging exploration. It's fun looting treasure and shooting endangered animals. The story is like a Michael Bay movie, in that it is so stupid it's nonsensical but still serviceable and entertaining. There isn't a whole lot of depth beyond that.

Playing this in 2024 feels interesting because the franchise is currently in an identity crisis. I don't think this was intended to be some grand meta-narrative commentary on the franchise, but the shoe certainly fits now. One of the main antagonists this time around is a clone of Lara. There are multiple Laras contending, just like how there are two different ideas for this series at odds with each other.

Kind of hard to recommend with all the glitches and bugs, but I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would.

I just prefer the original. This changed too much and the same atmosphere that was there is now missing and stilted. Gonna replay the Dedux instead.

This is a mixed bag.... but great on sale!

+When this game is on sale you get six games for around ten bucks
+Two of these games are arguably among the best games ever
+Four of these games have amazing soundtracks from start to finish
+Fun challenges for all game modes that let you unlock armor and weapon skins, no microtransactions
+dozens of hours of campaign, and potentially hundreds of hours of co-op and multiplayer content
+All games can be played on Mouse + Keyboard or you can use a controller like the good 'ol days
+Cross platform multiplayer
+Steam Workshop makes adding mods easier than ever

-Halo 4 is an embarrassing fart stain of a game
-so few people play Halo 4 that the achievements are among the rarest in the MCC (nobody wanted them)
-Dying multiplayer, around 1,000 players a day on average with difficulty finding games
-Most days there are around a thousand players with difficulty finding games
-devs want to inject politics instead of fix the game with more potential than Infinite
-My friends say the lag on campaign co-op makes it "unplayable"
-the fact you can't do cross-platform campaign co-op is a MASSIVE MISTAKE
-some of the best Halo Mods are not in the Steam Workshop, such as SVP3 which was for the Gearbox port of Combat Evolved
-MCC needs around 15GB on it's own without any of the games installed, which sucks if you are struggling for storage space... even just having one of the Multiplayers and nothing else installed will take around 25GB... really only an issue depending on your storage but for me, I think this is very annoying.

You decide if this is worth it. I used to love these games and I put up with MCC because they exist in this capacity. You may not want to tolerate all of it's BS if you don't already like Halo.

The movement is fun, so is collecting stuff and finding new areas. Feels like the random generation was mishandled in this one, and it made the gameplay loop frustrating and boring.

I got a Game Over Screen that said not being vegan is wrong. Is this game bad because vegans made it?

Refund requested.

I've played this a couple dozen times all the way through since it came out on PS3. My favorite walking simulator, with a fair amount of depth and replayability. Great soundtrack, absolutely nails the atmosphere and captures my curiosity. This game looks better than ever on PC.

Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey comes to mind from the title, and similar to that book there is an absolute wealth of cultural parallels in this game. In my last playthrough I spotted numerous motifs from Christianity, Ancient Sumer, Taoism etc but I'm sure you can find even more if you're looking.

First person dungeon crawler with some tricky puzzles and difficult bosses. Charming art and music carry this game's atmosphere.

The new map system is pretty weird and takes some getting used to, but I like it. It's not as thoughtful as using a stylus on the DS, but it is fun to quickly build the map after practicing the new style.

The localization is a little weird but I'm happy it's here.

Deceptively simple game, and prop comedy sim.

Charming janky animations.

The certainty of death fuels gallows humor and general silliness.

Story is basically optional and the message of the game is clear without being forced into you.

Could go any direction over further updates....

Perhaps one of the greatest games ever made, it deserves to be overrated.

I have seen people say this game taught them how to balance their work and free time with their goals. It's not so ridiculous anymore to say the Nu-sona trilogy is like a New York Times best seller self-help audiobook, for how many people consumed it and transformed as a result. No doubt there are plenty of exceptions, but for every five waifuists worshiping the girls in this game, there's one guy who walked away to go ask out a girl because this sh somehow gave him the courage. This game has ended relationships, and started many. Some people managed their time better learning from this game and got their career going, some money saved up, and others even found their spirituality through Persona 5. This game introduced millions of people to a vast lore of international myths, deities, demons, and urban legends. Mostly owed to Atlus' pedigree of fifty plus games in the Megami Tensei franchise that helped it's recent entries become so polished. Not to mention the quality and soul put into the development of this game's story, inspired design, and influential gameplay.

All of this being said, Denuvo sucks and it shouldn't be here. Why hurt the people actually paying for the game? It makes the pirates look good out of principle, seriously. What an absolutely stupid damper on an otherwise fantastic video game.

WHAT A MESS

Very heavily flawed, but memorable to say the least. Get it on sale and you might end up liking it a little.

This game requires quite a bit of fiddling to get working.
I can't even tell if I actually got it "working" in the state that I have been playing it in.

The gameplay is a rip off of a lot of different ideas from other places, such as God of War/Devil May Cry, but it's not afraid to pull from anywhere for inspiration.

The story got cut somewhere along the way for the budget, so it's littered with filler missions that are all a one-trick-pony of a sex joke mini game.

Happy 10th Birthday crusty af Persona ripoff loljk I had fun honestly. I kinda like it, but can't recommend it as a dependably fun experience.

Even though this is a fun spinoff it's also just three levels done three times. No bossfight or tornado to jump around either. The writing is a mixed bag, definitely worse than the last game but not irredeemable. If you enjoyed Alan Wake, then get this on sale.