10 public written reviews
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
God of War is not a game I should have enjoyed, and after spending seemingly 20+ hours playing it, reaching the credit sequence, and perhaps most importantly, planned out my trip to trade it in to get a new game, I'm not sure if I did. On the surface, there is absolutely no reason I should have even bought this game. "Cinematic" games like Naughty Dog's The Last of Us or the entire Uncharted franchise does little…
Surprise, surprise, Mighty No. 9 is the garbage fire that gives garbage fires a bad name. That isn't exactly a new or refreshing take on the game; it was, in a way, D.O.A. thanks to the increasingly negative word-of-mouth surrounding it up to its release. Keiji Inafune 's newest game to hold him up as the "father" had increasingly poor reception ever since the Kickstarter, and perhaps it wasn't entirely unjustified.…
If it existed in a vacuum, Twilight Princess would be one of the finest examples of what games are capable of with regards to the sense of scale and adventure. The game is kind of a classic high fantasy tale, with a princess in a tower to be saved, a great evil to be conquered, and a hero exhibiting every admirable quality imaginable, from simple origins to greatness. The world of Twilight Princess is varied enough…
It'd be irresponsible to recommend anyone purchase Devil Daggers. It'd be an outright lie to say that Devil Daggers is a pleasant experience. From top to bottom, every part of the game is a hellish, fever nightmare-evoking trip to Satan's backyard, where you're forced to watch replays of the dedicated handful who are far more talented at the wave-based shooter than you can possibly imagine. Of course, those…
Firewatch manages to be both fundamentally derivative and wholly original in the same breath. While it clearly takes notes from the derisively dubbed "walking simulators" like Gone Home or Dear Esther , it does so by taking the best of both and transforming that into its own beast, one predicated on totally isolating you, the player, and leaving you to your own devices. You may be controlling an over-the-hill,…
I'm sure when it dropped in 2010, Limbo was an impressive piece of work. People were still high off the frankly amazing puzzle-platformer Braid that showed just what games could do, thematically and mechanically. People had tried (and, indeed, are still trying) to incorporate the mechanics of the game directly into the theme and purpose in a way that Braid somehow managed. We've come close, and Gone Home is one of…
If you have any love in your heart for choice-based narratives, from the "______ will remember that" style that Telltale Games popularized, to the dialogue tree and routes in some visual novels , or even the dialogue options to pick in Fallout 4 , then Life Is Strange is worth your time for one mechanic alone: you can rewind time, however briefly. It's a surprisingly limited form of save scumming in that each area…
Sexy Hiking manages to occupy the same emotional, cultural, and, perhaps most important, personal space in the zeitgeist of games as underground classics like Dwarf Fortress , Rogue , and The Three Stooges (Digitally Remastered Edition) . The very first obstacle in the game--a massive tree, dwarfing the player-controlled character and his simple hammer with it's impenetrable oaken shaft and jutting branches--can…
It's kind of impossible to talk about Undertale without acknowledging what it does differently; there isn't a game out there that has a battle system quite like this one. Unless you "play the game wrong," it plays almost like a visual novel by selecting actions and seeing how the monster responds before smash cutting to inventive bullet hell-like segments. All this with the sole motivation not of killing, but of…
To be clear: I enjoyed this game. My money was well spent, and I played it all the way to the end with enthusiasm. I understand what it's trying to achieve and how the anti-climactic ending was the whole point. The meta-narrative regarding violence and futility of it comes back in full force from the first Hotline Miami. I get that, and I enjoy it. That doesn't mean I can look over some of the glaring flaws at work…
