52 Games Challenge 2020

[kamikazekeeg]

37 - Streets of Rage 4 (PC 2020) - BEAT - Well after Battletoads being abit of a mixed bag for me, I was looking for a more proper beat 'em up game and you get that with Streets of Rage 4.  It's pretty no nonsense, not much frills, but there's a pretty competent game here.  The combat comes across a little basic, but I generally liked how it played out, as it's a tug of war with your life bar.  Power moves take away a chunk of recoverable health, and you get it back by punching stuff, so you can use it to block attacks and then recover your health afterwards as long as you don't get hit again.  It's a more clever way of handle things compared to the old way of doing it where you just lost health, so you didn't want to use those moves too often.  It is easy to lose track of that recoverable health, lose too much and then take one random little hit that knocks a huge chunk off your life bar.

My annoyances showed up later on in the end game, especially against the final boss, where I wish I had like a block and dodge.  It can be annoying getting in and out of spots without more mobility, there's no running that I noticed, and your block is a defensive power attack, so if you find yourself using it too much, you'll just lose a lot of life.  More mobility in general would've been nice as even the most agile characters like Cherry and Adam who can either jump on peoples heads to sorta get away, or using Adam's dashing doesn't add a lot to me.  Max was absolutely awful in the final boss fight because he has zero mobility other than his jumping ground pound move which means he's just gonna lose a lot of health most of the time.

It is a pretty reasonable time though, even if it felt real short.  I like that you can fight as the original pixel art versions of characters, though I think they lose their power moves, at least that is what it seemed to me when I tried to play as SOR1 Axel.  The cartoon art style is good, a big step up from the likes of Battletoads which went way too cartoony.  This feels like a proper update of the series for sure, so if you are into classic beat 'em ups, you'll probably totally dig this.

[kamikazekeeg]

38 - Genshin Impact (PC 2020) - ENDLESS - The game doesn't have a strict ending, being that it's a F2P experience and will be updating the story for awhile, so I'm just gonna count it as an "Endless" for my list.  As a game, it mixes a JRPG with Zelda: Breath of the Wild and it overall creates a pretty reasonable game.  I do feel like it sorta comes across like a lot of general anime games, not exactly having a lot of depth, but as a general action adventure game, I think it's pretty alright.  The F2P gacha stuff aren't too intrusive, though I heard after awhile the game stops giving you enough freebie stuff and gets grindy, but I've picked up a lot of characters with little effort, so for now, it's actually a pretty generous F2P game.  Not sure how long I'll keep with the game, but it's alright as abit of casual fun for now while I wait for the PS5 to show up.

[bikingjahuty]

49. Cruisn' World (Arcade)

Growing up Cruisn' World was always one of my favorites to play. There was a machine at a sports bar my dad used to take my siblings and I too and it was one I regularly played along with NFL Blitz and Golden Tee. But anyhow, Cruisn' World is a huge leap forward from its predecessor in pretty much every regard. While it by no means is an outstanding game in any regard, it certain was an above average arcade racer from the mid-90s with some pretty good graphics, sound, and gameplay. I really love a lot of the locations you race as well as various things that happen while racing them that make this game both fun and memorable. Really happy I got to tackle this one the way it was meant to be played. (10/18/20) [33/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

39 - The Surge 2 (PC 2019) - BEAT - I decided to play this as I heard it was better than the first game, which was fairly crappy, and was glad to see that this was true, its definitely a great step up from the first one, though I still had some issues with it.  The gameplay is what stands out, it's about directional parrying and focusing on certain body parts to get certain gear or crafting scrap.  I feel like in this Soulsborne style it's trying to be, this is generally what makes it stand out from them.  Otherwise, it's basically the same type of game, but not on the same level.  It just doesn't have the same quality that Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 have with their gameplay.  Another negative was just the the whole story and characters.  The setting and setup is functional, but there's nothing interesting going on with the story and characters.  The characters are all pretty basic and forgettable and usually when a character started chatting it up too much, I'd skip on through, because it's just not interesting and the writing isn't very good.  I may not be a fan of how FromSoft tends to do their lore and story, but it comes across way more interesting than what Surge does.

It's still a pretty reasonable game and I'd generally recommend it if you are into this style of action game, like the Soulsborne stuff, Sekiro, Nioh, etc...It hits much of the same itch, just with a scifi edge to it.  I played it through Game Pass, so I basically got it for very little, but it's worth like a 20 to 30 dollar price tag.

*EDIT*

There was a real good sale on the Epic store for Control, so with that and a coupon I still I had, I got the game pretty cheap and I'm really liking it so far.  It's weird and creepy, gives off like SCP/Cabin in the Woods vibes, and I love that it doesn't waste any time with the setting or characters.  Like in the first 5 minutes, something throws you for a loop and they don't drag out the reveals for what is happening, or playing dumb with characters, or feeling very stereotypical with the writing.  You learn a lot about what the place you are at is like, and it's super interesting.  Like I personally hate when stuff is weird for the sake of it, or everything is so vague and nonsensical, and they leave it up to you, wanting you to go "Well what do YOU think?"...I'm hear for a story, tell me a story lol Not that I want to be spoon fed info, but i want an engaging world built around this crazy experience, and I'm getting that info I want and there's still a great big mystery to deal with.

[dhaabi]

15. Gris || Nintendo Switch || 10.23.20

Meaning to play Gris ever since its debut release, I'm disappointed that it has taken me as long as it has to set the time to do so.  All in all, many accomplishments can be said of Gris despite its short three-hour play time. Without any dialogue, Gris strongly captures the feelings of loss, grief, hope, betrayal, and, eventually, accomplishment. Adopting some of the best creative art direction I've seen in a game to-date, Gris offers a magical visual experience full of vibrant colors and beautiful animations within a world of ruin. As a platform-adventure title, Gris is not set out to reinvent either genre. However, its gameplay, time and time again, excels at forwarding the player with environmental puzzles that subtly shift to something new which the player hasn't experienced yet to maintain interest. While Gris is only a three-hour journey, the game's pacing is at the perfect speed. New and unexplored areas remain awe-inspiring and a mystery throughout the time players adventure through them, leaving the player in a constant expression of wonder.

[kamikazekeeg]

41 - Control (PC 2019) - BEAT - This was a real surprise for me, I hadn't really looked too deep into the game and I only got it because it had a real great sale, but I ended up really loving the game for its story and setting.  This idea of an organization that deals with empowered objects that caused havoc is awesome and it's all handled so well.  Closest comparisons I can think of would be like the SCP stuff, or that one TV show I really liked, Warehouse 13 lol I had kinda wished it had gone full Cabin in the Woods and I felt like they were almost teasing it, but what we get is still quite good.  The writing and characters in particular is great, it never drags things out for too long, and characters don't just play dumb or keep secrets, kinda the tropey stuff you expect out of this kind of scifi stuff.  This is also one of the few games where I was actively looking for all the collectible note stuff, because it was all so interesting or funny.

Combat is generally a third person shooter with your powers, and the powers definitely improve the game, as the gunplay is pretty weak.  It's functional, but some of the gun forms really aren't that good and once I got Charge and Pierce, it's all I pretty much used.  Some of the combat situations honestly get kinda frustrating as even maxed out health, you are pretty puny, and the only way to get life back is to pick up shards dropped off bodies, but that means pushing into enemies, so it's kind of an aggressive gameplay style as a glass cannon.   You also pick up mods for your character and guns, and this felt really unnecessary to me.  Would've been better to not have it I think.

My only real negative with the story is that it ends pretty flat.  As a story it's pretty good, but before I realized it, the game ended.  No big climatic battle, just more of the same enemies I had been fighting.  It's put a slight black spot on what I thought was overall a real great time.  I also ended up doing the Alan Wake DLC on accident, it shows up within the middle of the story, so I just went for it, but it was real good.  I just have one more bit of dlc to do and I'll be done with the game, but I highly recommend the game.

[kamikazekeeg]

42 - Alien: Isolation (PC 2014) - BEAT - Originally a few years ago I picked up the game and didn't really get into it.  Not sure if I had the difficulty to high or what, but I was getting pretty frustrated with the game a few hours in, so I stopped.  Decided to give it another shot and I managed to get through the whole game.  This game is a huge mixed bag for me.  I'm not someone that really likes purely hide and sneak type games, especially with a low amount of combat, preferring Resident Evil or Evil Within over Outlast or Amnesia.  This game sits right in the middle of that, so it never really fully won me over.

The gameplay is overall interesting, I like the gear options, you get some weaponry you can use at points, I think dealing with the old school "future" tech is neat, I basically like the whole aesthetic and story.  The stuff that annoys to do with the enemies.  People are people, not hard to fight when you do need to.  Working Joes are like if Mr. X from Resident Evil was really boring.  They don't insta-kill you at least, but they get obnoxious.  The Xenomorph is definitely cool and intimidating, but it's all one hit kill stuff and that gets really annoying at points.  Also had a lot of audio issues with the game.  Like for some reason I wasn't getting all the audio upon death with the xenomorph, which was the most consistent problem, the audio balancing was kinda bad at times, and I would get some other odd audio issues.  Not sure if  this is a PC thing or just a me thing.

Also I don't know how I did this, but I picked two games with unsatisfactory endings to play back to back lol Control at least had a proper ending to it, but it was poorly done from a gameplay point of view, and Alien: Isolation is bad more because it's a half-assed cliffhanger.  I understand wanting to setup a sequel, but they could've done it way better, and seeing that there was no sequel to the game going on 6 years now, it's pretty lame.

It's not a bad game at all, it just never fully connected with me, but I was okay with the time I spent playing it.

[bikingjahuty]

50. Sturmwind (Dreamcast)

I remember being super excited for this one back when I first hear about it around 2011 or so. It finally came out in 2013, and while I can't remember why I stopped playing it, I got about 2/3 through the game and never picked it back up until recently. But anyhow, this is a pretty good homebrew Dreamcast shmup that is probably one of the most visually impressive Dreamcast games I've ever played. Unfortunately where it falters the most is its gameplay, which while still above average has some major issues like indistinguishable background and foreground elements, projectiles that are way too subtle, and things that obstruct your view of what's going on as well as the controls themselves. Still, it's hard not to have a good time with this game even if those things are fairly annoying. It also has a pretty cool techno soundtrack to boot. If you can track down a copy of this game I highly recommend checking it out. (10/30/20) [36/50]

[telly]

Game 38 – Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4) – 50 Hours

It feels bad to say this, but this game is my least favorite in the Tales series so far. This came as a surprise to me because apparently this game is considered the best in the series by all the websites that I’ve looked at. Personally, I found it to be a relatively comparable experience to the other Tales games I’ve played. But there were a couple areas where this game definitely fell short and that’s why it’s at the bottom for me.

The biggest letdown for me by far was the story. The pacing felt extremely poor at the beginning, with a trivial quest to fix a goddamn fountain carrying you through the first 10 HOURS of the game. It was such. a. slog. Then after that’s resolved, it’s another 10 hours trying to find Phaeroh so you can find out why he insulted Estelle. Exciting right? That second plot thread does pick up little minor points of interest over time before you actually meet Phaeroh, but it was still not a compelling motivation to keep playing. I’ve seen more intriguing plots out of Saturday morning cartoons, for crying out loud. Compared to Tales of Berseria where Velvet’s brother gets murdered in front of you within the first hour, this game was a huge disappointment.

As the game continues, the story gradually gets better and ends with a solid conclusion well told, but I still had a couple gripes after getting over the huge hump with the game’s beginning storyline fumbles. There’s a LOT of technical science-y stuff integrated into the plot which can be very confusing to follow. Some of the villains also felt superficial and left me wanting more development, such as Alexei and particularly with Zagi. The Adephagos was also disappointing when it showed up because it had been hyped as this cataclysmic event, but it ended up barely being an inconvenience. Like… one town gets attacked, and you have to save some migrating villagers once, and that’s it. For the majority of the time sky just gets purple and weird and you can stroll through every town like nothing bad’s happening at all.

The characters were another aspect that felt a little hit and miss for me. There’s usually one character in every Tales game that I can’t stand (with the exception of Xillia), and in this game it was Rita. Was just unnecessarily antagonistic and rude all the time. Also I didn’t really enjoy the party dumping on Raven over and over and over again, and wearing that Old Man joke down to the nub when he’s like… 30? But I digress. On the whole, I liked these characters. Some of the ones that I thought I would despise ended up growing on me over time, like Karol and Patty (who is hilarious). I think a really interesting aspect of the characters was Yuri acting like a vigilante and killing villains by his own discretion alone, and whether or not that was moral to do so. I was hoping for a little more conflict between Flynn and Yuri as the game progressed, but that doesn’t really pan out in the end. Ah well.

Despite my gripes with the story and characters, the gameplay is just as good as any other Tales game. I didn’t mind going back to an older version of the combat system, even if it is a little more clunky. I really appreciated how challenging the game could get at points as well. However, I don’t think the combat was truly perfected yet, so while I’m sure this was very impressive at the time, going back does reveal a couple rough spots around the edges. One of my biggest gripes was the locking of specific skills like backstepping and using items on allies behind skills that you have to learn and equip, and the game is not balanced at all with the limited amount of points you have to allocate to these skills.

Even though this game came out on the 360 first, this game has not aged at all with the graphics. This game was absolutely gorgeous. What I really loved was traversing that big overworld looking for secrets and filling out my monster book. I’ve been missing that from the newer games. The Definitive Edition also comes packed with a lot of extra content which definitely adds a lot of value.

It wouldn’t be a Tales game without some glitches and sloppy presentation. This time it was the sound design. No joke, I spent a good 15 minutes trying to get the sound levels to an acceptable level. The opening scene in the Lower Quarter where the fountain is blowing up assaults your ears with a deafening cacophony of crashing water and you can’t hear a damn thing. Once I finally got that under control, I was still having issues with the volume of the voices, particularly during some of the skits. The other weird thing about the sound was the recasted voice acting. Even though I never played the original and had no prior knowledge of the redone voicework, I still noticed it. It’s unmistakable on Yuri because the voice actor was a different person, but Karol, Estelle and Judy also have varying qualities of their voices from line to line. It ended up being distracting because I ended up focusing more on the character’s voice than the lines they were saying. I wish the new voice acting was an option you could turn off, but it’s not a huge deal.

There is one part about this game that I was pleasantly surprised about, because this game easily has the best music in the series. The Tales games have never been notable for their soundtrack, but this game actually has a great OST. The exception is the opening theme however, which is my LEAST favorite in the series. I don’t mind the lyrics, but the instrumentation was not good, especially with that strange dissonant riff after the first chorus. Oh well, can’t win them all, I suppose.

[kamikazekeeg]

43 - Wolfenstein: Youngblood (PC 2019) - BEAT - Kinda playing a few random games that I have left in what amounts to a backlog on Game Pass for PC, and Youngblood was one of them.  I know this game didn't really have a great launch, especially for singleplayer folks, but I heard they cleaned it up and they mostly have.   Functionally it plays much like the last Wolfenstein did, you can pick to go stealth or loud, I usually went loud, running around small areas of a map that you can keep coming back to, there's a hub section for picking up missions, it's overall an alright game that I could see being a solid enough co-op game.

Not a lot really impressed, it's just a side game, and it feels like it.  I think they wanted people to really get into the very talkative and goofy sisters, but honestly, they are very try hard to me.  Oh they are goofy dorks who kill Nazi's, how wacky and over the top.  You get more use to them as things go on, but as characters, they didn't really do anything for me outside of a few moments.  This game hurts from a lack of other interesting characters throughout.  Other than the sisters, you get Abby who is the straight-laced, technical, person of the group, and Juju is just a side character to kinda give background about Paris as it his new, but there's no villain hamming it up through the game like there was before and doesn't show up till the finale area.

If you are a fan of the new Wolfenstein games, there's something okay here.  If you are looking for a co-op shooter, I think this is a solid game to play with a buddy.  As a singleplayer shooter, it's alright, I'd only really recommend it if you have Game Pass or can get it on a sale that drops it to 20 bucks or cheaper.  No real complaints, but nothing that really blew me away either.

[telly]

Game 39 - Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 (PS4) - 19 Hours, platinumed

+

I had a lot of fun with this game. Beating it is really challenging, but the gameplay is so fun and addicting that it makes you want to keep playing. It's a very interesting spin on the classic Pac-Man that still emphasizes getting a big score but with a couple fun twists thrown in. Graphically the game is very stylized with lots of interesting options for backgrounds and effects and it looks really cool. The soundtrack is also phenomenal, with some really fun techno and EDM music that gets you all pumped up.

-

I will say that I wish the game had a little more variety. All the challenge courses and adventure courses have you doing the exact same thing with a different level layout, and I wish there were some more interesting challenges or maybe some different power-ups. All in all it does get a little stale especially if you're marathoning it and playing levels over and over again trying to get that high score.

[kamikazekeeg]

44 - Astro's Playroom (PS5 2020) - BEAT - I wasn't planning on making this the first game I beat on PS5, but I did lol I hooked up the system, started it up since it's meant to show off the controller features, and then I just ended up playing it for like 3 hours and beat it lol It's a fantastic and a wonderful nostalgic trip through Sony's history, finding all the "artifacts", and really enjoying all the references they pack in.  I recognized most of them, but there were a couple I just had no idea what they were. 

Honestly kinda bummed this game is so short, but for a free pack in game, it's brilliant and will be one of the few games I try to Platinum.  It's nothing groundbreaking as far as platformers go, but much like Wii Sports was, it plays super well to the controllers gimmicks and will likely be the best of controllers features.  The suit-ups you get are all pretty unique and do a lot to mix up the level.  Plus the game is just adorable with all the little Astro bots, and I think Sony has finally hit on a great little mascot that might actually stick.  I can't wait for them to add more to the game or do a sequel as I'm there day one, this is as good as any Mario game.

[bikingjahuty]

51. Psychic Assassin Taromaru (Saturn)

I have wanted to own this game for a long, long time, and have wanted to play it even longer. While I certainly do not own this game (it goes for around $1000) I did finally get to play it and while it's in no way worth it's asking price, it's still a pretty fun game. This game has a ton of Japanese folklore imbeded in it and as far as games rich in Japanese culture go this one is hard to beat. On top of that you're essentially combing Shinobi, Castlevania, and Wild Guns into one game. While this sounds like this game would easily be worth its asking price if it's truly a combo of those games, its actual execution leaves a lot to be desired. The presentation and sound are incredible in this game, but the gameplay is little more than slightly above average. Please do yourself a favor and do not actually buy this game to play it even though it certainly has some awesome things about it. (11/16/20) [38/50]

[Cartagia]

44 - Astro's Playroom (PS5 2020) - BEAT
[...]
 I can't wait for them to add more to the game or do a sequel as I'm there day one, this is as good as any Mario game.

You should check out Astro-Bot: Rescue Mission for PlayStation VR.  It's a full Astro game and is a total delight.

[telly]

Game 40 - Oxenfree (PC) - 4 Hours

+

I found myself really enjoying this game. While it doesn't offer much in terms of gameplay other than walking around and activating things with your radio, it tells a really interesting story with a lot of creepy and mysterious elements, and was paced incredibly well so that things didn't overstay their welcome. The game feels like a ghost story mixed with a teenage 80s movie and while it wasn't scary, it definitely had some unsettling moments and was very entertaining. Based on the ending and a replay of the beginning, I feel like there's more to explore with this game so I might play again someday to see if I can get a different ending. The characters and dialogue also felt really well written which is so important for games like this. Lastly, the visual design and audio were also very well done. Altogether it was a short, but sweet experience.

-

The only thing I didn't like about this game was the way the dialogue was handled. You are given a limited amount of time to select your answers when conversing with people, and it made things a little more annoying than it needed to be. You also end up cutting other people off prematurely as a result because you need to select a reply before the options disappear, which often happens while other characters are talking. In a different game where the dialogue wasn't such a huge part of the experience, I think it would have made less of an impact on me. Wasn't a huge deal at the end of the day though.