Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Just what it sounds like.

This is an experiment. I don't want engagement to go down. I like how many people have been writing big, beautiful, critical impressions about various games. I like other people reading them and then having a discussion with you about them. And, in that respect, I see the value of having these discussions centralized in an established thread that people are constantly posting in.

But if this thread can thrive on its own user engagement-wise, then it might be better for this and Recently Beaten Games to function as their own independent threads.

EDIT: Removed the directory. It was fun while it lasted, but there are too many to track in this one post.

Replying here @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy.

Great Jade Cocoon 2 Review. The Pokémon-esque Divine Beasts sound like an interesting feature.

Shame that the music is so poor. It made me think how important music actually is to me in an RPG, especially older ones where it helps to convey moods and emotions that the visuals are unable to.

Nice. If I can come up with a good long form review, I don't mind using this thread, and I'm down with discussion if I'm familiar enough with the game someone else talks about.

@RogerRoger Nice review, I read all the way to the end. I still want to play the game one day though! I think I only had the Wii when it came out and it wasn't top of my list when I eventually got a ps3.

@RogerRoger Nice write up. It's been a long time since I played the PS2 version, but remember being a bit disappointed with it. Released long after the excellent Simpsons Hit & Run, The Simpsons Game felt mediocre by comparison. I still enjoyed it, but both the gameplay and the humour was hit and miss in it.

I think what this topic needed was a nice short and sweet review to get it started @RogerRoger!

I bought my son this for PS2... And... uhh... Least it's not The Simpson's Skateboarding?

Thanks @mookysam! The battle system in two is pretty unique in the switching sides and having to protect the protagonist from harm

The first has a more traditional fight system like pokemon except in that Levant can actually attack as well if you switch to him. Though it's kinda pointless...

@RogerRoger great review Rog. The Simpsons have been out staying their welcome for years, Homer the drunk dad, Marge the stay at home clever wife, the stupid and naughty boy, the matilda like daughter, the belligerent grandad. It's all very 1990s.

Crash Bandicoot Via the Crash N.Sane Trilogy for PS4

I played this title over the course of 4 days. I achieved 80% completion with ten gems (Obtaining the Red coloured one among nine clear gems) and beat the final boss obtaining one of two endings (Though I've collected all the gems in my original play through two years ago)

I didn't replay any levels and finished the game with a cool 91 lives.

Whoa! You poor lucky sods are gonna see two more of these in the future!

A Little Background

The initial concept for Crash came about in August 1994 as Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin of Naughty Dog began their move from Boston to Los Angeles to meet with Mark Cerny of Universal Interactive Studios.

Naughty Dog had signed up to do three more games for Universal Interactive and were on their way to pitch Way of The Warrior.

During the road trip Rubin and Gavin visited a number of arcades and noticed that racing, fighting and shooting games had all started to transition to full 3D ... the pair turned to their favourite genre, the character based platformer.

The Sonic's a*s game was born (A joke between them as you'd be staring at Crash's butt the entire time).

Of course it ended up being called Crash Bandicoot instead (Though Willie The Wombat was a placeholder name... And other names included Dash, Bash and Smash)

The wikipedia entry for this title was actually quite interesting to read and I'm sure there's been an article or two about it before... this bit in particular raised some eyebrows

In a continuing attempt by Universal Interactive to take credit for Crash Bandicoot , Naughty Dog was told that it was not "allowed" to go to the first Electronic Entertainment Expo. In addition, there were leaked copies of the temporary box cover and press materials for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, upon which the Naughty Dog logo was not found on the box art, in violation of the contract between Naughty Dog and Universal Interactive, was omitted. In response, Jason Rubin drafted and printed 1,000 copies of a document entitled "Naughty Dog, creator and developer of Crash Bandicoot" to hand out in front of the Crash Bandicoot display at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Beforehand, Rubin passed out the flyers "for review" to Universal Interactive, angering its president.

》Here's a link if you're interested《

As for the 2017 Remake that's essentially more of a remaster (or a "Remaster-Make" as I dub it ) Vicarious Visions (whom had worked on a few GBA Crash titles previously) was set to work on recreating the original trilogy.

Vicarious having almost none of the original source codes for the series and only some polygonal meshes from Naughty Dog and Sony they essentially had to go by eye, using the original releases to recreate the level design in what I'd say was a labour of love as it's faithfully recreated. (Jump physics aside if you have a problem with them)

Easiest. Level. Ever.

Story & Characters

The story of Crash Bandicoot is ridiculously simple.

Dr. Neo Cortex, an evil big headed scientist with a secret island base in the Australian archipelago, is attempting to create an army of super soldiers using animals and an Evolvo-Ray with assistance from Dr. Nitrus Brio.

The latest subject, Crash, a bandicoot inexplicably already wearing fingerless gloves, shorts and trainers, is placed into the Evolvo-Ray and submitted to the "Cortex Vortex" to enhance his intelligence.

Deemed a failure Cortex plans to dispose of Crash, only for our hero to cause havoc and escape... by falling out a window of Cortex's lab and washes up on N.Sanity Beach the next day.

Thus begins his adventure to run, jump and spin his way through three islands and 26 levels to defeat Cortex and his minions and save his girlfriend Tawna before she is also subjected to the Evolvo ray.

Hey what were you expecting?

Other characters (Aka. the bosses) include;

• Papu Papu, a tribesman. There REALLY isn't anything else to say about him besides him being the first boss of the game and is particularly easy to beat.
• Ripper Roo, a blue furred kangaroo in a straitjacket as the Cortex Vortex has made him mentally deranged. The second boss overall.
• Koala Kong, a buff as hell Koala whom loves his fabulous muscles a bit too much being a huge showboat. The third boss of the game.
• Pinstripe Potoroo (Pinstripelli Potorotti actaully). Presumably the only success story of Cortex's initial batch of experiments as he's the C.E.O of Cortex Power. He loves firing that tommy gun of his in the fourth boss battle.

Oh and Crash is helped on the way by Aku-Aku. A witch doctor like mask that'll protect him from the various wildlife and obstacles over the course of the game.

Because this is part of the trilogy you can also play as Crash's sister Coco once you've beaten Papu using the time travel shenanigans of the third game.

It makes sense I guess?

Ahh who cares about continuity she's adorable!

Gameplay & Design

The fact that Crash is based on the Sonic and Mario games of yesteryear (just with 3D modling) is quite clear with the focus on relatively tight hallways in the level design.

Hell it almost feels like an experimental 2.5D before the term was truly coined and refined as Crash Bandicoot doesn't really use the full 360° movement to it's advantage. Especially so this title where you travel one plane/direction only to switch another.

Not that I find it much of a problem. The enemies, obstacles and crate crashing all add to a satisfying platformer that's got a decent amount of challenge to it in my opinion.

I'll admit I never actually completed the original version of this back in the day. The archaic saving system of having to get a gem (Which you could only get if you didn't die) or complete a bonus round to be allowed to save (Or get a password if you never had a memory card) were annoying to say the least and I'm sure the original wasn't so generous as this doling out extra lives.

Thankfully there's a much more welcoming autosave function alongside being able to manually save at the level hub. Plus extra lives are plentiful, I in fact reached 99 by the start of the third island.

Also despite being 16 or so when I played the original I wasn't entirely used to gaming back then compared to now even if my reflexes have dulled a bit.

The levels are only 5-10 minutes or so in length so they aren't too long at all if you want a quick gaming session (Though if you're having trouble it'll obviously take longer) and I bet the title would be particularly good to have on Switch on a commute.

The only bad thing I can say about the gameplay is the bosses are fairly easy and nearly all employ the "dodge attacks til weakspot is shown" tactic (Ripper Roo's revolves around timing TNT explosions) and aside from the two hog levels and indianna Jones'ing away from a boulder it's pure platforming.

I also didn't have a problem with the jump physics at all. And the run towards the screen boulder levels have never bothered me either but I'm just weird.

The backdrops and scenery for the game are gorgeous. It was hailed back in the day for it's graphics with some neat trickery regarding how they did it and I think you'd be hard pressed to say that the "Remaster-Make" looks bad either!

As mentioned earlier the level hub is unique in this title and that compared to the so-so hub rooms of Crash 2 and 3 you can see the three islands in question (You can use circle and square to rotate the camera) with each level having some graphic to indicate what you'll encounter that's just a nice little detail to me.

The warp rooms never were as neat as this map

Though I do feel two levels are seemingly are out of order.

The first level of the third island "Heavy Machinery" has you start inside the Cortex Power building... only for the second level of the third Island "Cortex Power" to start with you entering the Cortex Power building and even has a slight visual cue at the start of the level highlighting you're outside. It's a really small quibble but I noticed it.

Plus whilst the addition of time trials are nice... The levels are much longer in this compared to the levels in the second and third games and don't quite fit the mould and encourage you to try one more time. I never bothered with them as a result.

Sound

James Mancell did the soundtrack to the original 1996 release (The remaster is a bit unclear on who actually did the remake's... I'm assuming Mancell?) is quite unique with the heavy xylophone usuage in the jungle and river tracks in particular but there's a very unique sound throughout the whole score like the use of animal noises in the jungle tracks and the chanting in the "wall fortress" levels.

Unfortunately you can't choose to switch between the original soundtrack or the updated one like in the Spyro trilogy or Crash Team Racing.

Some tracks are much better in the original.

Like 》Generator room for example《 (The link is to the original gameplay as the atompshere of the level as a whole really works for it)

》The updated track isn't bad at all《 I quite like it. It's just not as effective. (Plus the visuals in the level are nowhere near as spooky either)

However there are some tracks that shine a whole bunch more in the remaster-make

》Toxic Waste for example《 is pretty good in the original... but

》The Remake version《 turns it into a great heavy rock track

Of course this is definitely more a personal preference thing, so the milliage may vary to you.

The sound effects are pretty decent too. Like I said in my last review I find it hard to see on how you'd mess those up really and everything sounds like it should.

Special mention to Lex Lang whom has been hamming up the goofy side of Cortex ever since he got the part in Twinsanity.

Whilst he doesn't reach the heights of Clancy Brown in my opinion (Whom didn't voice Cortex til the second game when they originally released) Lex puts in a rather good performance!

Nothing to do with the sound really. I just wanted to put this screenshot in!

Round up & Final Score

All in all Crash's first outing is good. It's not perfect but the title is very well made and whilst the gameplay is simplistic, I'd say it still holds up quite nicely... espcecially as part of a trio for £30 or less.

Crash Bandicoot 1 get's a high 7

Pro's

• Crash has never looked better
• Varied and unique soundtrack

Meh's?

• Aside from the two hog riding levels there is next to no gameplay variety that the later titles have. Whether you consider that good or bad is up to you. I personally quite enjoyed it.
• Potential problems may arise with the jump physics

Con's

• Whilst the bosses are all visually nicely designed, the battles themselves are quite simple. Plus Papu-Papu feels a bit out of place compared to the others.
• Time Trials just don't fit at all.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Wow! You really dug into this.

I'll replay it when I get around to the Trilogy on PC, but I distinctly remember hating those levels where you run toward the screen.

Interesting connection to 2.5D platfomers, even if I don't think the style works here.

So you can play as Coco after the first boss? That might make me like to play it sooner.

I have no problem with them at all @Ralizah. In fact I love those levels... I don't understand what people find hard/have trouble with them 😂

I feel Crash 2 and Crash 3 make better use of the 3D axis. Being able to walk two steps to the left or right or perhaps jumping diagonally for a single crate isn't exactly great usage. Even the hog levels barely use it to it's advantage.

Yup. You can do the same in Crash 2. You just switch back to Crash for bosses and the "Great Hall" level in this one as that leads to the alternate ending when you have all the gems

Because you can't see where you're going or what to avoid until you're right at it. The camera is pointed the wrong way. It'd be like a kart racer where you're staring at the front of the kart the entire time.

I must be weird then @Ralizah as I've always thought there's plenty of time to course correct if you need to

Detroit: Become Human

WHAT IS IT?: Developer QuanticDream's latest cinematic adventure game (and the only one I've actually played). Set in the relatively near future (2038), the game follows the intertwining stories of three androids in the city of Detroit (Connor, a police android designed to investigate 'deviant' androids who are rebelling against their programming and attaining a sense of selfhood; Kara, a housekeeping android who, through a series of events, finds herself protecting an abused little girl named Alice; and Markus, a domestic care android who eventually finds himself the de facto leader of a revolutionary android rights movement).

Platform: PS4

Level of completion: I attempted to go for the platinum, which requires completing the game, and many individual chapters, numerous times. As it stands, I've gained all but three or so of the trophies and have completed the game's story two or three times, at least. I'll probably go back to it eventually and clean up the remaining trophies with another playthrough or two, but I'm kind of burned out right now.

GAMEPLAY
I mentioned that this was a cinematic adventure game, which naturally means that the level of interactivity here is somewhat limited. Like many other story-heavy games on PS4, you're almost always being directed through a scripted sequence that combines user input with narrative in such a way that the entire game feels like a playable cutscene of sorts. There are locations with some level of exploration and player agency to them (and there are actually collectibles to find in the form of magazines, some of which change depending on choices you make that impact the direction of the story), but, ultimately, you're always being funneled down a narrative route of sorts. Your character can often walk around and examine some objects in their environment. They also frequently engage in Quick Time Event-heavy action sequences or, more rarely, conflicts where the player must quickly choose how to respond to a situation from a list of prompts.

More than any game I've played in recent memory, Detroit: Become Human seems to satisfy that classic TellTale games mantra about your choices mattering. Each chapter features a complex internal flowchart of cause-and-effect that tracks how the player's actions cause events to turn out by the end. More importantly, though, is the way in which events ripple across the narrative of the entire game and inform events that come later on. There seem to be two kinds of consequential choices in this game: decisive ones which immediately impact the narrative (such as choices that lead, fairly quickly, to a character living or dying, for example, which directly impacts how events later in the game will turn out), and ones that effect how other people perceive certain characters or factions. These latter types of choices have little impact on their own but, cumulatively, they lead to narrative-shaking changes. It's similar to, if more complex than, the 'law vs chaos' scale that is employed by several SMT games.

STORY/CHARACTERS
Another strength of the game is the wide variety of characters you'll meet across the various chapters, from mentally unstable vagrant androids to people living in isolation who have quietly either become heroes or complete monsters. The core relationships in this game are between Connor and his cynical police lieutenant partner Hank Anderson, a complex character who struggles with discriminatory feelings toward androids while also finding himself becoming increasingly empathetic toward the "deviant" androids he comes across; Kara and Alice, who quickly find themselves developing an interesting mother/daughter dynamic; and Markus and a variety of other people in the rebel group he stumbles across: the core players in this group swing from hopeful pacifists who want to learn to co-exist with humans to hardened militants who think the only way forward is to respond with violence, and the ending of Markus' story, along with multiple big story events, will change drastically depending on which of these approaches he tends to adopt throughout the game.

So, to reiterate, while I won't go into more depth in the story, expect to investigate mysteries when playing as Connor, struggling to survive and protect Alice when playing as Kara, and deciding how to incite a revolutionary political movement as Markus.

ART/CHARACTER DESIGNS/MUSIC
Not a lot to say in these areas. Detroit: Become Human does a good job of cultivating a hyper-realistic art-style that (mostly) avoids the uncanny valley (except where it intends to: this IS a game about androids, after all) using a combination of high-poly models, effective lighting (some of the rainy environments in this game are especially gorgeous), and clearly motion captured faces. It's obviously not quite 1:1 with real life, but, for the aging PS4, it's a really impressive effort.

The music is... pretty good. It doesn't stand out for the most part. It's not something I'd listen to on its own, but it does a good job of heightening the emotions of whatever is happening in a given scene. I particularly like the panicked sound of this track:

Other observations:

• Some games get off to a slow start. This one doesn't, and essentially puts all its cards on the table at the beginning with a high-stakes hostage negotiation that does a really good job of introducing the player to the core gameplay systems. Very cool.
• Scenes in this game, while incredibly streamlined and directed, are dense with a ton of detail, including interactive objects that reveal lore and worldbuilding in the background, be it through readable news tablets that flesh out current (circa 2038) political events, polling data that reveals interesting things about the public's feelings on androids more broadly, the ways in which androids are changing different entertainment fields and areas of scholarly expertise, etc., signs on the wall or in stores, news interviews on the TV, etc. It does a fantastic job of building the illusion that you're taking a peek at what a future America might look like, as opposed to just playing through a science-fiction story about androids.
• I feel like Kara's storyline was worked into the game because the developers started with the character and felt like they needed to integrate her. Her storyline doesn't really mesh well with the Markus/Connor storylines, however, so every time one of her chapters pops up you know the game is going to start spinning its wheels narratively for a little while. This would have been more understandable if the storyline had interesting themes/ideas that enriched the broader social focus of the other storylines, but I never really felt like they added much to the game on their own terms. You had the REAL game with the other two characters, and then you had this little side story about Kara and a little girl that just kept popping back up.
• For all of the complex issues that feed into the setting and would make for fascinating subject matter to explore across the scope of the narrative, I feel like the writers really drop the ball here. The game is entirely uninterested in the possible cognitive, moral, and experiential differences between human life and android life or the extended implications of sentient A.I. becoming a thing, and instead uses human control over androids as a somewhat tepid metaphor for racism and bigotry more universally. I mean... IT WORKS, but it feels like the game's writers took the safer, but less interesting route when it came to constructing this narrative. In-game scenarios are also frequently VERY morally black and white (Markus' storyline is a bit of an exception to this, thankfully, and there are a few points where you'll be asked to make life-or-death decisions in his route). If Detroit succeeds as an interconnected, choice-driven adventure story, then it mostly fails as thought-provoking literature.
• Similarly, its depiction of political oppression and activism is fundamentally very lazy. Why do all 'awakened' androids seem to automatically join your side (people advocating against their own rights isn't exactly a recent historical phenomenon)? How is this massive civil rights movement kickstarted so rapidly? All it takes is a couple of non-violent demonstrations for the government to go full Third Reich on androids, and, similarly, a kiss or a song are enough to largely defuse government violence. The game's heart is in the right place, but it streamlines actual social conflict to the point where story beats feel vaguely cartoonish.
• This game desperately needs a function to fast-forward though many of the looooooong talky sections that you have to sit through over and over if you're going for all the trophies. This game certainly doesn't respect the player's time and, in many respects, feels like it was designed with only one complete playthrough in mind, despite the wealth of choices available to the player. Japanese visual novels deal with this by allowing the player to quickly skip through previously read dialogue, and this game would benefit dramatically from something similar.
• At several points in the game, it will ask the player to shake their controller around to simulate an in-game action. Can't say I'm a fan of this. Waggle controls weren't particularly engaging in various Nintendo Wii games a decade ago, and they make even less sense here.

CONCLUSION
Despite some narrative missteps, inconsistent pacing, surface-level treatment of complex social and technological issues, and missing QoL features for trophy hunters/completionists, the game stands tall as one of the best adventure games I've played in recent memory. The complex web of decision-making that happens across the various chapters can lead to radically different outcomes by the end, making this one of the few adventure games I've played where the player's decisions ACTUALLY do matter to the outcome of the story. The dire narrative stakes, thematic presentation, and gorgeous, ultra-realistic visual style make this feel like an interactive movie in the best way possible. I was fully invested in the fates of these characters from beginning to end, and frankly never expected I'd end up enjoying it so much.

8/10

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy My favourite and most frustrating level of crash is the bridge one where the panels fall out from underneath you. I also find the sound effects to be weirdly repetitive to the extent that they become trippy. The rhythm of that level and the trippiness of the spin, crate and dying sound effects resulted in one of my favourite game experiences for years!

Nice review as always @Ralizah 👍

When I saw it initially earlier I thought you'd already reviewed this already but I think that was just an extensive discussion with RogerRoger and Th3Solution in the Become Human thread!

It's nice that even if you found a number of faults with the title, you still ended up thoroughly enjoying it!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Very nice review of Crash 1, Foxy. I found the background info an interesting touch. The game is not my cup o’ tea but I enjoyed reading your impressions.

@Ralizah Nicely done summarizing and critiquing Detroit. Good point about the missed opportunities thematically; I hadn’t thought much about that. I’m glad that the game was a pleasant surprise for you.

For me, even after playing Spiderman recently (and really liking it) and very much enjoying Shadow of the TR and Red Dead 2, it was probably my GOTY for 2018 (but I haven’t played GOW yet) for a lot of the reasons you outlined. Although not perfect, it was impactful and unique.

Thanks, both!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I try to be as (constructively) critical as possible with the games I enjoy, but I really found it involving in a way that doesn't often happen with "movie games" like this. Low expectations going in might have helped, too.

Anyway, I had an involved discussion about it when I was playing it and soon after beating it, as you noted, and then went over a month without posting a review, so the confusion makes sense.

@Th3solution I actually haven't played God of War yet, either. I get the sneaking suspicion it'll go on sale for $10 before long, just like Horizon did, so I'm content waiting for it.

Last year... VC4 was my GOTY, for sure. I doubt that'll change, even after finally getting to GoW. Also, I played the Switch port of Ys VIII, and that was fantastic. I'm very, very tempted to repurchase it on PS4 for the improved performance and trophies.

I get the feeling I might as well skip previous QD games, because I feel like they'll only be disappointing in comparison to Detroit. Hopefully David Cage doubles down on the choose-your-own-adventure aspect of his games for whatever inevitable PS5 project he's working on.

@Ralizah I agree with your hesitation to go back to prior Quantic Dream games. Although both Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls are available free on PS Plus, so the investment is only time and energy. I liked Heavy Rain, but it is far inferior to Detroit. I keep saying I’m going to play Beyond TS but it’s buried deep in other backlog games.

I too hope Cage keeps going with the choice and consequence adventure story games. The outside investment of NetEase to financially support QD has potential to ruin the experimental and fresh nature of his development projects. I hope not, so I’ll be cautiously optimistic that they will let QD continue down this path. The power of the PS5 could really blow the top off the choose your own adventure genre.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Most of those comments echo my own thoughts on the game. I think the first game is the hardest of the three but I like that there are no gimmicky levels but just good platforming other than hog riding or boulder levels.

There are some fiendish difficulty spikes though; getting the coloured gem on Slippery Slope was a real one (complete a difficult level getting every box and without dying). I didn't bother with the time trials at all either.

The bosses were mostly a pointless distraction as they offered very little and were pretty easy.

Did you play the Stormy Ascent level? It was free DLC originally but I think is paid now but is a level dropped from the original game for being too difficult. You will certainly need those 91 lives!

@Ralizah @Th3solution I wonder if QD will ever make a game for Switch, now that they have ended there exclusivity partnership with Sony? Some of the motion control stuff that didn't well on ps4 might be better suited on the Switch and the Joy-Cons.