Gears 5
On paper, Gears 5 is the best looking, most fluid, and biggest Gears of War game to date. However, it is far from being the best for a number of unfortunate reasons that have currently left me feeling mixed on the game.
The biggest one being the absurd amount of bugs and glitches. They've been quick on patching things but it honestly looks like they're still doing tons of clean up, which only means this game should have been delayed, but now, my, along with many others' experience with the game have been forever tainted, making it hard to view this game in a positive light now.
I've heard the campaign stuff (which was where I experienced the majority of the problems) might be server related, since I played in online co-op, so I don't know if things have eased up since my 2 playthroughs. However, that doesn't excuse my awful experience with a triple A game I paid full price for and on day one. It started fine with a minor hiccup where my brother was ejected from the map and just forcibly died during a door opening animation. Little did I know, it was a sign of the nightmare to come. It's like the game couldn't function without breaking something. From minor stuff that could be laughed off to infuriating game breaking stuff that would stop us from progressing in the game. At one point, we had to restart all of Act 3 because the game was trying to force us to do an objective we had already done, and the game just didn't know how to let us continue and left us stuck, which was either due to poor open world game design, or just another annoying bug in the game.
I could go on and on about the countless bugs that made me regret purchasing the latest entry in one of my favorite game franchises and most anticipated game of the year, but it's just way too much to get into, and I'd rather get onto my actual thoughts on the game. Which is a total shame considering there are things that could have been improved upon already, on top of the game being such a hassle to even play, which further confirms my suspicion that the game was rushed.
The new open world levels for example, while a great concept and something I'd love to see expanded on in the next installment, just feels lifeless here. It's nothing but big empty spaces with small points of interest scattered around just to pad out the length of the game. It also feels heavily single player focused in that driving around in the open areas might not feel so bad when you're the one driving the skiff, whereas player 2 just kind of sits there until it's time to get off.
How much more exciting would it have been if player 2 actually had a mounted turret like the Worthog in Halo, and you actually encounter enemies or mini-bosses around the map while on the skiff? The flock being a great example of an airborne threat, menacing enough to warrant driving around and shooting at. There could be enemy skiffs or sand burrowing creatures. Just something to make traversal more engaging for both players while also making use of that empty space. The wind flare sequence in Act 3 in particular could have benefited from player 2 shooting those crystallized formations out of the driver's path.
Halo: Combat Evolved already set the blueprint for this kind of design back in 2001, so for Gears of War to do this half assed of a job with it, especially in a franchise that was built on co-op, is just extremely disappointing.
The game honestly felt at its best when it was linear classic Gears. Act 4 being a particular standout with all the classic Locust chaos unfolding around you and the return of the hammer of dawn. It was by far the high point in the entire game and you really felt like the world was returning to the state we found it in during the original trilogy. Which speaking of, I really enjoyed how much this game felt like a stroll down memory lane by making us revisit locations from the previous trilogy. The inclusion of JACK as an assist character and gameplay mechanic was absolutely genius as well, and actually came in handy in some very unique ways. I also really appreciate how much more useful the new melee is as it was always kind of a last resort, but ultimately useless attack. So, huge props to the Coalition for evolving the gameplay in some meaningful ways.
Horde Mode is a huge standout for me, and surprisingly actually works fairly consistently, unlike the campaign. I did however experience a couple of bugs during my countless hours with it. I had an enemy get stuck under the map at wave 40, making it impossible to kill him, and I had an A.I. partner spawn inside a wall during wave 50. Other than that, it is by far my favorite Horde Mode since Gears 3. Enemy variety is definitely key with a mode like this, and this game delivers so much more than Gears 4 did.
But, I do have two major issues with Horde this time around. The first being how cheap leeches are, as they're too fast and endless to react to, and down you instantly on harder waves, and the second being the new class system, which is just terrible. Definitely do not care for it being tied to a specific character. I'd rather choose my own character and assign whatever class I want. A definite step back from the previous game in that regard.
Escape is a neat diversion, but a little bare bones. I don't see myself returning to it like I constantly do Horde, and the maps all look quite similar. I also don't quite care for being forced to play as three nobody characters for this mode.
Overall, I'd say it's still a great game packed with tons of content to keep players coming back for more long after they've finished the campaign, but unfortunately, I can't forgive the bugs that plagued and soured my experience with the game. Had it not been for that, I would have definitely ranked the game a solid 9 out 10, but there's honestly no excuse why a game like this shipped with the countless problems it had.
7.8/10
Marvel's Spider-Man
By far the most overrated game I've played in a while. I'm honestly convinced that most of the people who hyped this game up have never played a single Spider-Man game post Spider-Man 2, and think that the pretty graphics and a cinematic narrative make it the best thing ever.
With that said, this is by far the best looking and most polished Spider-Man game, with the best representation of New York, and the most fluid web swinging and traversal of any Spider-Man game. Yet, despite all of that, this is far from the Batman Arkham equivalent of Spider-Man games because it falls into the same trappings most open world Spider-Man games do, repetitive combat, uninspiring collectibles, generic story missions, and a bunch of fluff side content.
The game splits up all of its side content into 9 various districts of New York, making for a very repetitive experience that will see you stopping the same 5 or so crime variations over and over again in each district, and it's repeated at least 4 times throughout the game when a new enemy faction is introduced. That's probably the most absurd amount of filler content that I've ever had to play through in any game, and is somehow not too dissimilar from the previous Spider-Man game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was by far, the worst Spider-Man game in recent memory, and how no one has pointed that out before, is mind boggling.
Other side activities include fetch quests, lab puzzles, challenges, and very by the numbers collectibles. I will however give credit to the backpack collectibles as they added nice bits of information about the game's lore. There were few side missions that actually felt unique or even amounted to something meaningful like a boss encounter. Some of my personal favorites being the random civilian side missions, Harry Osborn's lab projects, and enemy bases.
I was worried combat was gonna follow the Batman: Arkham free flow formula like The Amazing Spider-Man games before it, and while it captured the fighting style of those Spider-Man films perfectly, Spider-Man has already had satisfying combat in the past that worked for the character much better than what works for a more grounded character like Batman. Luckily, this game didn't disappoint. Combat is fluid but it's not exactly free flow, and that's okay as it opens up many possibilities with Spider-Man's expansive arsenal. Unfortunately, for as good as combat is, it can get rather monotonous due to the repetitive nature of the side activities that just see you constantly beating up bad guys over and over again, which started to get really tiring by the end of the game.
But, is this really the best combat in all of Spider-Man games? With how much critics and people have been holding up this game as the holy grail of Spider-Man games the way Arkham Asylum was for Batman, I would have thought so, but that's unfortunately not the case. I give Web of Shadows the edge in this category simply because there were far more dimensions to combat that just completely immerses you into the power fantasy of being Spider-Man. You had Spider-Man's regular moveset that could be interchanged with his symbiote moveset mid combo, and you had air and wall combat unlike any other game since. While combat is more than satisfactory in Marvel's Spider-Man, Insomniac should definitely take notes from Web of Shadows with their inevitable sequel.
While I hate to make this comparison again, a lot of the missions feel straight out of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was a step back from what Beenox had achieved with the first Amazing Spider-Man game, which mixed an open world New York setting with unique linear levels, giving us the best of both worlds, as Spider-Man games were either strictly sandbox or followed structured levels. While a lot of the segments themselves were quite unique, a lot of what you're actually doing just comes off very typical of a Spider-Man game aside from some of its larger set pieces.
I also thought the pacing was a bit strange. At the very start of the game, you take down King Pin and not long after, you take out Shocker in some very generic boss encounters and that's about it until you're bombarded with multiple boss encounters in Act 3, which is also when the game actually feels at its best, whereas the first 2 Acts felt pretty standard and largely uneventful. But I can't help but feel like the pacing would have been drastically improved if we got to take down each of the later villains individually before fighting them in pairs in Act 3, which would have greatly improved their motivation. But, I can only assume they're planning on making a prequel game at some point featuring those villains, which is a little too Arkham Origins but has great potential.
My only other complaint are the MJ and Miles missions, which were just bland stealth segments, and felt a bit overused. The only 2 times I thought they were quite unique was when MJ was acting as Spider-Man's eyes and you get to see Spider-Man in action from a civilian's perspective, and the last MJ segment that has her infiltrating Norman Osborn's home which leads to some major story revelations.
But I think the most important question with a game like this is whether or not the game makes you feel like Spider-Man, and that's a resounding yes. Most if not all Spider-Man games have done a pretty good job at bringing the costumed hero to life in video game form, but this one takes it one very essential step further with its seamless integration of Peter Parker into the game's narrative that constantly reminds you of the man behind the mask even when you're swinging around the city as Spider-Man. Spider-Man feels more like an instrument in accomplishing Peter's goals which is exactly how it should feel because it's Peter Parker's life, morals, and hardships that drive any good Spider-Man story.
Insomniac truly gets Spider-Man. By the end of the game, I cared so much more for these characters and for this version of Spider-Man that I almost teared up as he suffered heartbreak and faced impossible decisions. That's a pretty impressive feat, considering Marvel Studios and Sony can't even get the character right, let alone, make me care about him and his non-existent struggles. Marvel's Spider-Man captures the essence of the character and understands why the character resonates with so many and that's what makes it great.
Spider-Man has had a long history with video games, and while this one may not be the Arkham caliber reinvention the character needs, it is by far one of the good ones. Just as Web of Shadows, ****tered Dimensions, and The Amazing Spider-Man had something meaningful to offer, Marvel's Spider-Man continues to add to that list while also greatly improving on many of its concepts, even if it isn't exactly the ultimate Spider-Man game we've been hoping for. (No pun intended)
8/10
State of Decay
State of Decay is a great example of not judging a book by its cover because even way back in 2013, the game looked outdated for an Xbox 360 game, and the Xbox One version (which I played) doesn't look much better either. Character models are small and look generic, animations are basic, framerate is occasionally choppy, there's tons of wall clipping, and lighting can be pretty bad at night, specifically indoors. Yet, I couldn't stop playing it.
The game has a rather abrupt start, just throwing you into a zombie apocalypse conflict with no subtlety at all, and after that, your mission is very straightforward, survive. It's a simple yet satisfying premise, and it really makes you feel like you're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
The game is light on storied content, but the real meat of the game is between those story missions which made up the majority of my 30 hours with the game and I honestly couldn't get enough of it due to the perfect synergy it establishes between its open world setting, survival horror concepts, and RPG mechanics that just makes for an amazing survival horror experience unlike any other. The game is just as much about maintaining and growing a community as it is traversing zombie infested streets, scavenging every house, shop, and building, resource managing, recruiting, helping, or establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with other survivors, and so on.
But what really makes it stand out to me, is its open world setting, as it not only proves the genre is viable in an open world, which we've had a recent discussion about here on the forums, but it's a damn great example that lives up to my age old dreams of such a game. Every house and building is explorable, zombies are often creeping by or hiding inside, and loud noises can alert nearby hordes, which coupled with a stamina bar, and limited inventory space, can turn a simple investigation into a horrible nightmare that can lead to the permanent loss of your most valuable community member. It's honestly one of the most tense gaming experiences I've ever had.
The flaws are glaringly obvious, but never truly problematic and quite honestly, very forgivable coming from an indie studio. This isn't a triple A game but it has triple A ideas that were executed surprisingly well for a budget game that was originally released on the Xbox Arcade. If this is what Undead Labs can achieve on a budget, then I'm super excited to see what they can do now that they are officially owned by Xbox and have the proper funding to make a triple A game.
8.5/10
