Recent reviews by hellaplus

Starfield is a game I was initially apprehensive and worried about after I experienced profound disappointment with Fallout 4; a game that abandoned much of what made Bethesda games a roleplayer's paradise. I was convinced that Starfield would continue this trend. I'm overjoyed to say that I was completely wrong.

As someone whose favorite Bethesda game (and fav game off all time) is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I'm pleased to say that Starfield is Bethesda's best roleplaying experience since then. Starfield lets me lose myself in any identity I wish to craft for myself. It's a canvas loaded with content that doesn't imprint on your character, but rather allows you the freedom and depth to carve out your character as you wish.

That's really the main point I want to focus on. It's a detailed and rich roleplaying experience that hearkens back to Bethesda's golden age. It's a wonderful feeling to get lost in a game like this again.

EDIT: I wanted to update my review given the recent downswing in reviews for this game, and to share if my thoughts on it have changed at all. In short, they haven't.

While I agree the game has its flaws and room for improvement, the player fantasy of role-playing and exploring in space really landed well with me in Starfield. I went into this game with an open mind and felt like I understood what Bethesda went for with this game's vastly different style of exploration and wandering. I think the game is far more enjoyable when you don't try to play it like TES or Fallout. Starfield might not quite reach the highs of those franchises yet, but I ultimately appreciate Starfield for what it is: an experimental take on a Bethesda RPG with heavy utilization of proc-gen to simulate the vastness of space.

I'm actually glad they didn't just make a handful of fully hand-crafted planets, because that would have been playing it far too safe and literally just felt like "Skyrim in space." Starfield isn't that, and it isn't trying to be. I prefer the approach Bethesda took, imperfect as it may be, and I'm excited to see how it develops and grows. In simpler terms, I'm glad that they chose to be more experimental with a brand new IP.

In its current state, I'd give Starfield an 8.5/10. It really reinvigorated my excitement for Bethesda games after I was extremely disappointed by Fallout 4 (which easily remains my least favorite BGS game).

Don't fall for sensationalist hate trains. Play the game yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Capcom finally put some of that Monster Hunter money into Street Fighter, and it was about damn time!

I probably don't need to drone on about how bad SFV was for a large portion of its lifespan, so I'll mainly highlight the fact that this is a feature and content-rich product on release. Big props to Capcom for that, as this is becoming more and more rare with AAA games.

The overall mechanics of the game are well thought out and fun as hell to play. Whereas I felt like I had to "get the hang of" other fighting games before I really started enjoying them, SF6 felt fun from the very start.

For more experienced fighting game heads: yes, it's still a modern fighting game. Drive rush and certain OD moves can feel like neutral skips and the game can feel kinda nutty at times, but I've genuinely found answers to most of this stuff after putting in the time. So yes, it's a modern fighting game with modern fighting game things in it, but those mechanics don't overshadow good spacing and fundamentals imho. Definitely a lesser evil kind of approach compared to Strive, which perhaps took some of the modern mechanics too far and radically changed Guilty Gear in a way that many older fans don't prefer.

The netcode is also fantastic and, get this, it works! A fighting game that works online! Imagine that.

I strongly dislike the direction 343 is taking Halo in (again).

The maps are uninspired and boring. They don't encourage map control and are designed around clamber, which has only served to make traversing the map actually more restrictive to traverse than in Halo 2/3. Map layouts themselves are very scattered with few chokepoints, leading to people constantly running behind you (which you can't hear because the audio mixing is terrible).

The battle pass and monetization has been covered to death but its more than understandable since this series has historically let us customize our characters heavily from Halo 3 onward. The new event separates shoulder pad unlocks across long periods of playtime, which threatens players to play on the game's time instead of their own. If you don't want to miss out on cosmetics in a cosmetic starved game, you have to put up with the game's still horrible challenge system. This is honestly super disrespectful to players' time and investment.

The game has 343's signature overproduced visual + sound profile for modern Halo. Too flashy, noisy, and annoying (AI companions are one of the worst ideas yet and you can't turn them off). Very messy HUD and UI that gets visually disorienting. The outline system around enemy players really sucks, but is needed in this game because the color direction is flat as hell and its extremely difficult to see people against terrain in a lot of the maps. Whats the point of making detailed character models if I'm just gonna see them constantly covered up by static colors?

Matchmaking sucks with tons of modes gutted/removed. Playing the gametypes you want is left to chance. The content offerings are extremely meager for whats supposed to be the full multiplayer component of the game (the beta argument doesn't hold up. the game is weeks out from "release" and they're already charging people money for microtransactions. it's not in beta anymore).

Gameplay feels remarkably... not Halo. It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but this feel even less like Halo than Halo 4 did (I never played 5). The physics of the game feels very off in a way that makes you feel like you're not interacting with the game geometry/terrain in the same way you did in Halo 1 - Reach. It's a fundamental feeling to the way the game moves that undermines the weight-y feel to Spartan movement and the way you interact with space in the game. It feels remarkably generic and stripped of what made Halo movement unique.

No player collision and a hyperfocus on player convenience (not wanting people to accidentally bump into each other, etc) robs player's of a consistent playing field that promotes skill development and growth as a player. Balance decisions are clearly made with the intent to eliminate skill gaps as much as possible, rather than foster and encourage players to grow and improve.

343 doesn't understand what makes Halo tick. I'm sorry. It's been three games full of the same (and new!) mistakes that only make me further lament Halo. This really does feel like a "F2P" experience, and not the AAA suite of multiplayer offerings that Halo was historically known for.

I understand that MCC is an anthology of decades of games and content, but there's a problem when almost every single game in that collection had more multiplayer content on launch (meaning pre-DLC) than what was supposed to be 343's big redemption game. If this what the next decade of Halo is intended to look like, then the future is certainly grim and I have high doubts the game will last anywhere near that amount of time.

I'm a huge angry nerd about this because I love Halo and I genuinely hoped that 343 would get this one right. In my honest opinion, they haven't and are still far from the mark.

An incredible and lovingly crafted fighting game with several fresh takes and twists on the genre.

It's stylish, approachable, and near infinitely deep for newcomers and fighting game regulars alike. It's soared to the top of my preferred fighting game list after playing mostly Capcom and SNK fighters for most my life.

The game might seem a bit obtuse on the outside, but there's an incredibly thorough tutorial to help get you started, and the game is plenty fun at every skill level. Just jump right in.

DO NOT MISS THIS GAME. It's an incredible effort from indie studio Soft Circle French Bread, and it's worth every cent.

A shooter looter that abandons much of what made the first game feel somewhat like a return to old-school shooters. Damage numbers, colored text, and loot names adorn your screen as you unload clip after clip into bullet sponge enemies. Levels are a combination of procedural generation and minimal level design. A somewhat hollow clone of Borderlands.

If you enjoy shooter looters, you'll actually have a lot of fun with this. If, like myself, you played the first game to get away from games like Borderlands, you'll be left wondering what happened.

A meticulously crafted puzzle-platformer with engaging but extremely subtle storytelling elements. Playdead's followup to their 2010 game LIMBO makes some careful changes to the formula of their minimalistic platformer while maintaining familiarity. The game is a little longer then LIMBO, though the puzzles feel a little easier as well. INSIDE feels much more about the artisitic experience than LIMBO did however, and many puzzles feel designed to have you figure them out without too much difficulty. Despite this, my first INSIDE playthrough took longer than my first LIMBO playthrough six years ago.

The most acute point of contention when it comes to purchasing INSIDE is the $20 price tag. The game clocks in at around 3-4 hours, with perhaps another hour or so added on to find the hidden secrets (similar to LIMBO's hidden eggs). Those who usually aren't impressed with the artistic ventures that some indie games make may find themselves unsatisfied with the game's length. As someone who holds a lot of appreciation for this design approach however, INSIDE has quickly become one of my most engaging and impactful gaming experiences in years. Playdead hits all the right notes with movement, atmosphere, music, tone, mystery, and terror. INSIDE is a game I'll remember and replay for years, even if it isn't a game that one could pour hundreds of hours into in a short period.

Everything about INSIDE feels so carefully crafted and deliberately set up that it's clear to see why Playdead took six years to reach release.

Updated review to better reflect how the past year has fared for Capcom and this game.

Opinions on Street Fighter V are clearly polarizing, and that's not without good reason. There's still missing quality of life features and a lack of single-player offerings.

There have been clear improvements over the game's poor state at launch, but whether or not the game is for you depends on what you want out of a fighter and how experienced you are with the genre.

Street Fighter V feels very narrow compard to other fighting games. I think this can be both a good and bad thing. It's good because the game isn't too daunting to approach and it doesn't require a ridiclous amount of time spent to stay sharp. It's bad because what you can actually do in the game to outplay your opponent can feel stifled and restricted.

Most of it's going to come down to whether or not you like the gameplay and meta. I personally enjoy it more than SF4, but that's more of a personal preference than it is an argument of quality (I think Skullgirls is one of the most quality fighting games available, but it's gameplay just isn't for me unfortunately).

For experienced fighting game folk: the game is read heavy and wakeup pressure still reigns supreme in the current patch. Defensive options are lacking, so the best defensive options are either godlike footsies or relentless offense to prevent your opponent from getting started.

Street Fighter V still feels very much like a mixed bag, but I've personally had more enjoyment with it than disappointment.

It was difficult to hit "No" on recommending this game because I actually do feel that it justifies its $60 price tag. There's a lot of combat content here, the gunplay is solid, and the world is beautiful. As a Bethesda game however, I was left sad and unsatisfied by a game that feels largely unfinished and a ultimately like a hollow shell of of what makes Bethesda's games so enjoyable and long-lasting.

Since so many other negative reviews have long lists of pros and cons, I'll cut straight to the heart of why I was left disappointed. I feel that Bethesda games were always celebrated and cherished not only for their wide open and detailed worlds (which is mostly present in FO4), but also for how the player can create nearly any identity they want to venture out as, and how the world feels like its alive. Bethesda's motto with what they hope to achieve with their games is "live another life, in another world." This is completely missing. Character diversity is shot by a severe lack of dialogue options that ultimately makes all your characters feel the same. You can be a bit of a sarcastic jerk with some dialogue options, but you're ultimately forced into a morally good role for the majority of the game.

The world feels dead. There are hardly any towns compared to previous Bethesda titles, so if you're not a fan of settlement building, (as I wasn't. I found the UI more frustrating than anything) you're out of luck. Even then, most of the NPCs that fill out the player-built settlements are filler characters with little to no dialogue. The Commonwealth is beautifully constructed with great attention to detail, but is ultimately wasted with NOTHING but fetch quests and "kill kill kill" quests. There's an arena venue in the game that I was excited to stumble upon, but immeditely disappointed when you're only interatction with the place is to kill everyone inside. There's a racetrack with a bunch of raiders betting on races between their robots you can discover as well. However, instead of participating in what could have been a hilarious and impactful encounter, you just kill everything there without a second thought. This is a trend that repeats itself far too much in this game.

These are my major issues with the game. Along with other aspects like a Borderlands-esque looting system and an extremely meager weapon offering, Fallout 4 is a large departure from everything that made Bethesda games different (and better imo) than every year's typical shooter offerings. Bethesda instead elected to make Fallout 4 like "all those other shooters" to perhaps reach a larger market. Skyrim began to tip-toe in this direction as well, but it still largely kept most of what made Bethesda games great intact. The average player looking for $60 worth of tense gunplay and open-ended exploration to find that action will be satisfied, but Bethesda fans yearning for the next massive Bethesda playground/canvas will likely leave disappointed. Fallout 4 isn't a bad game, but I'd argue its certainly Bethesda's worst game. Mods might save it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Here's hoping that Bethesda doesn't go even further down this rabbit hole with The Elder Scrolls VI.

(edited for clarity and typos)

This is what Sonic the Hedgehog should have been after Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Freedom Planet appears to be a blatant Sonic clone at a glance, and it kinda plays like one too. Begin a stage at the left, and run toward the right until you reach the boss. Run, kill, and repeat.

It's the subtle differences however, that make it more than worthwhile. Freedom Planet takes the Sonic formula and enhances it in unique ways. The playable characters have varying movesets that make multiple playthroughs feel surprisingly fresh, and the level design is very well paced. Boss battles are frequent, and many of them are suprisingly challenging. The overall speed of movement is a little slower than Sonic the Hedgehog, though it actually feels better this way since exploration is also emphasized.

The art direction and soundtrack are also subtly remniscient of Sonic's world and characters, though they mostly take on colorful tones of their own. This familiar universe is vibrant in color and personality, which feels amazingly refreshing after playing countless monochromatic/minimalistic art-focused titles in today's indie game scene.

The story isn't groundbreaking, but it provides a simple coherent flow for the level progression that felt undeniably fun. I'm typically over-critical of story and writing in games, but I let so much slide with Freedom Planet for some reason. It strongly appeals to the childlike sense of wonder and amazement many of us had when playing games when we were younger. It made the story/world a joy to experience even if it wasn't superbly written. It knows it's simple, and it just aims to be fun.

While some may find the characters' voice acting a little silly, I found it to be just good enough to give each character their own charm. Besides the unfortunately mediocre audio quality of the actual voice recordings, the voice acting made each character more likable to me. Still, a "Classic" mode exists which omits all the cutscenes in favor of a Sonic style progression of levels for those who would prefer that.

If you have fond memories of playing Sonic the Hedgehog back in the Genesis era, this game will feel like pure bliss. If you didn't, it's still a must-play for any platformer fan. FREE dlc is on the way as well, which will add more playable characters.

Freedom Planet snugly fits into the massive shoes left behind by the classic Sonic games that modern Sonic has been woefully unable to fill.

LISA is ruthlessly gut-wrenching down to its story, setting, characters, and gameplay design. The game thrusts the player into Brad's tormented world as he sets out into a bizzare and hellish wasteland on a rescue mission.

The player is forced to make exceedingly difficult choices throughout the game. The turn-based combat, as well as artistic design, takes heavy inspiration from Earthbound. LISA distinctly carves out its own niche, however. It's difficult to explain the range of emotions the player will experience when playing through this game.

The game suffers from some very minor performance issues at times, though it doesn't detract from the game very much at all. The difficult choices all feel compelling save for one unfortunate event around the middle of the game. To be clear, this one particular event just feels cheap. You'll know it when you see it. However, I'd argue it's a very much forgivable misstep.

LISA is absolutely unashamed and relentless in its delivery of heavy, mature, and disturbing themes. This only makes it all the more essential to play in my opinion.