Recent reviews by Ikov Thunder

An excellent Co-op experience. Go into it blind if you can. Replay value is a bit undercut by the story itself with twists having obvious counterparts, but the decisions given do present different mission variety and the gameplay itself does vary a lot, despite the initial presentation as a gallery/QTE experience. This is a story game with excellent cinematography first, and gameplay to make the co-op experience fun between friends.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is probably the most approachable way to get the story of Tommy Angelo if you're a fan of Mafia II. It takes the combat mechanics of Mafia III and uses the same engine to recreate the original game's map and storyline. The problems the game has in being a mafia tale akin to The Godfather lay in the game copying the story beat for beat of the original game which is excusable as it exists more to preserve the story of the 2002 original in reference to the series trying to continue. The devs at Hangar 13 did an excellent job of turning Lost Heaven into something realized on a modern engine without losing the structure of anything. I played the original Mafia (2002) and I recognize many of the streets. It's very cool to explore in Free Ride mode the realized 1930s combination of Chicago and San Francisco, reading the newspaper clippings of Germany electing a new chancellor, crashing through Hooverville's, and feeling the consequences of the repeal of prohibition. A couple of complaints on the historical tourism come from the cars having radios (Motorola first displayed their in-car radio in 1930 at a trade show, but it would not have been in many cars even in 1938 near the end of the game, and certainly not in the older cars or early parts of the game) but it certainly adds to the feeling of the time and the use of the term Molotov Cocktail, which comes from the Russo-Finnish War (1939-1940) and would not be a known term to the Italian Americans of the criminal enterprises in 1938. Other than that, it's cool to see the old cars and I'd almost consider it essential to play the game with manual transmission turned on. (sometimes, for some reason, when you get in a car after a cutscene the vehicle will mysteriously be in 3rd gear and won't really accelerate despite the context demanding you to) In terms of gameplay, it's serviceable. The gunfighting borrows a lot from Mafia III, which is a good system but I don't feel was appropriately translated to the setting, as Tommy Angelo(An Italian immigrant cab driver) should not fight the same way Lincoln Clay(A 6'4" orphan trained to be a Green Beret in Viet-Nam) but he shares animations nontheless. The aiming is certainly less precise which adds to the idea he's not as combat capable, but the lack of any substantial reduction in sensitivity when aiming makes fighting frustrating, particularly on the higher difficulties where body shots are a joke. It's impressive to play a mafia game where the shotgun isn't good in close quarters, and I am using the Tommy gun as a semi-auto carbine instead of the chopper that it is known to be. The movement largely suffers from some degree of unresponsiveness, and whether that's some animation confusion or some sort of hangup on an input overwrite I don't know but every once and a while you will lose on account of the game more than the enemies. Sometimes the game will even see you do too well in a combat sequence and spawn more enemies than might appear on another run in a scripted linear gunfight section. The enemy AI does fight, and though they can be a bit slow to engage advanced tactics, they're there. Pushing as a group, getting in firing lines to maximize suppression, flanking, throwing grenades and firebombs to flush you out of cover, and they even continue to fight towards your last known position if you maneuver out of their sight. The driving is pretty good and I really like the implementation of motorcycles as a first for the series. The only oddity seems to be that you will have tighter turns when accelerating than when slowing down, and the different gears effect traction in different ways which you don't properly grapple with until the mission where you're asked to win a race in a car you've only driven once before with 0 player advantages(You are not faster than anyone else. If you want to catch up, the straightaway isn't your friend, the corners are. You have to properly race in a way that a lot of modern action-racing games don't ask of you). The stealth exists, which is better than the original simply not really having those systems, and only really come into play during the 2-3 stealth sections which are decent.
The story is one that I had "spoiled" on account of playing Mafia II first then playing the original so I can't say I can appreciate the impact of the reveals, especially given the oddities of audio in the voice acting sometimes, but it's animated well and the modifications to the story that exist clearly are the product of taking the original's focus on gameplay and understanding that this game isn't going to play out the same. These gripes I've mentioned are frustrations I've experienced playing on the Classic difficulty, the game's hardest, and it certainly reminds me of the difficulty of the original game. Probably the biggest disappointment of the game is that they didn't add anything to make the world more fun to play in, but that gives me hope that the new assets they've made for this tale will be the basis for a new entry in the Mafia franchise which is set back in the 20s and 30s at the height of the age of the zoot-suited mobster. I don't know that I'd recommend this to someone new to the series, but perhaps on a lower difficulty where the few jagged points can smooth out over the forgiveness that provides. I would highly recommend to someone who played Mafia II, did the mission towards then end where you randomly gat a dude on his front lawn, and want to see the story behind that without dealing with 2002 jank. I would not recommend this as a sequel to Mafia III if that was your entry point and what you liked, but if this game is where you go before doing Mafia II, you'll transition really well. Overall, generally a good game and I'd recommend at the $30 and below price point given the limits of the content.

Helldivers 2 is an excellent sequel to the original Helldivers, which suffers in having slightly less mutual support focus as the original, instead having the chaos ramped up through being in 3 dimensions. This is a fun game with people who know what they're doing, and a great deal of fun with friends when you can laugh at the mistakes being made and celebrate overcoming challenging missions. The trouble with Steam reviews is that it requires a Yes or No answer for the product, and to evaluate this game as a product means matters of access need to be taken into account. While I have seen people on potato PCs play the game, it is a game that really has a far more enjoyable experience if you have a PC with some capability (doesn't have to be thicc, but it's nice on the eyes if you do). My complaints with the game stem from having played the original Helldivers when it was finally released on PC. The current game feels content incomplete in comparison, though certainly playable, but it feels like it has more to go to complete all the base mechanics, not just new textures. I have some reservations about the difficulty system, moreso in how it straight up cuts off progression unless you get good, but I'm kinda ok with that (I'm not a game journo) but it does oftentimes lead to randos progressing higher in difficulty than they actually should in the name of progression rather than unlocks. Currently, despite SONY backing down on forcing every PC player to get a PSN account to play, they have seemingly continued to region block sales to areas that are ineligible for PSN accounts so the review will remain negative until that is remedied.

It's a brutal team based game that'll give you a shock every time something goes wrong. This game makes you paranoid of bushes and terrified of fire. The sound of napalm splashing and punji's trapping are wonderful. If you have the patience to deal with the pseudo realism, this game rewards the player with a Viet-Nam experience next to none.

I believe this to be the best Far Cry game, and is one of my personal favorite titles, but I have some more off-center tastes that come from my civ-builder and survival game past. There is something almost artful about this game that, as you might see by its constant news relevency over influence and feeling, that Far Cry 2 is a game worth playing at least to smile at the sight of a brushfire clear an outpost for you, grimmace as you get caught in a fire fight where your gun jams and you scramble to adapt, cry at the loss of a well written and mechanically valuable companion, and laugh as you stare at the orange plastic at the bottom of your now empty malaria medication container.

It's probably the most fun you'll have on a moment to moment basis if you liked Far Cry 3. As a pure 80s nostalia trip and power fantasy, there is little to criticize over its 6-8 hour length. There are issues in that it is a stripped down and streamlined Far Cry 3 with a less interesting world and less customization, but it's style more that makes up for it. On its own, it is a cheap fun game. As part of the franchise, it is an excellent side-game that clearly allowed the devs who delved into deep stuff with Far Cry 2 and 3, have a bit of fun with their inspirations.

This is now the worst entry in the franchise. Do not buy this if you like Far Cry games as the freedom of the franchise has been stripped out by the "RPG" mechanics. Do not buy this as an RPG as it has no in depth stats, builds, or branching narratives due to its resemblance to action games. Do not buy this an action game as the reduced exploration ability from the restriction on vehicles, and lack of weapon customization and ammo from the survival mechanics make all actions limited at best and unresponsive at worst. Do not buy this as a survival game, as beyond crafting molotovs in your HUD, the survival is really just limiting collectibles. This game did 3 things for the better, that is implement bayonets, the addition of suppression on the player, and the introduction of motorcycles to the franchise but even that was messed up as they either have sidecars or are tricycles. I cannnot express enough that this game is a worthless and offensive slog meant for no audience I can think of.

Definitely the best of the mainstream Far Cry games, having the most mechanics within the open world, an excellent environment that is not often seen in other games, and takes Far Cry 3s excellent basis and only enhances it greatly. Multiplayer was interesting, with its asymmetric design, but alas, no one plays that anymore.

I will say this is the worst game in the franchise, albeit the other games are rather good, so, it comes across as a disappointment. Essentially, the weapon progression and selection is baffling, the skills are narratively meaningless, the companions don't offer much in the way of story beyond their mission to unlock, and the enemies are only interesting in a cursory manner. This is a Far Cry I have no problem not recommending and would say to skip, minus the Viet-Nam DLC, and the Map editor, This Far Cry has the BEST EDITOR FOR AN FPS without delving too deep into more serious design software. With the assets from prior games and the extremely varied DLCs, it's great fun to make and play maps, but alas no one really does online that much.

This game is best played have no knowledge of its story at all. They do an excellent, albeit seemingly wasted, job at setting up Lincoln's motivation for this Objective based open combat game. It is open world, but doesn't quite have the interaction to really fit that mold. Clearly the team behind this game saw Mafia 2 having success with a shallow open world, and so made the world a larger portion of the player's story. It does one thing really well and, for the most part, sticks to it. the combat. My God the combat is great. Yes, I have a complaint about the weapon progression, but I have never played a game 3 times through(once over for each DLC release) before, and all of this hinged on the fact that once you figure out the combat, it is entertaining to play and watch. Lincoln Clay is not the best protagonist, but is an interesting character nonetheless, and the supporting cast in phenomenal. The writing and animations for this game mixed with the 1960s soundtrack make the story portions amazing. I have issues with structure and pacing in this game as well, and even moreso an issue with the failure of the police to pull you over for speeding, but all those flaws fade away on your second playthrough, when you know the missions and can create your own flow. I have a lot of praise for this game, and some really good memories of it. There is, oddly, a way to even play through the game killing only specifically the people you need to kill in order to get to Marcono. Don't ask me why, but there is a non-lethal way. To this day, I find myself replicating Lincoln's movement and style in airsoft because it looks so, right.
Definintely worth a playthrough, with DLC for cheap if you can. The whole package together is certainly worth the retail price of the base game.

There are great references in the game to, like how the Prowler outfit is similar to what The Punisher wears, and his backstory is not too dissimilar from Lincoln's.

This game, as I will explore in my video reviews, is an excellent 3rd entry in the Mafia franchise, appropriately building on, but separating from, the previous entries.