Game #1282: Terminator Resistance

 Game... Terminated.

 Terminator has never had much luck when it comes to videogames, but Terminator Resistance is here to buck the trend. This is a first-person shooter set in the future era of the series, meaning a grown John Connor, and instead of travelling to the past, you play as a new character who's unit has been wiped out and now he's out to survive.

 As a first-person shooter, it follows every modern trend you could think of. You must scavenge for resources, opening every box you find, and then use these resources to barter for objects you can actually use, as well as use them to craft items. There's a very simple, but welcome, skill tree, and as you play the game you get to spend skill points. Lockpicking and Hacking wound up being very important, since hacking and lockpicking grants bonus XP and allows you to find even more resources. Early on the game tells you that your choices matter, but they don't, they only affect if you get the gratuitous first-person sex scenes and which slides you get during the ending narration.

 As for the game itself, it's very linear, but every 'chapter' has large environments to explore, and you can even go after sidequests for bonus XP, resources and story bits. The game has sort of a survival feel to it, thanks to very limited ammo, so you'll need to craft explosives and ammo, mind your backpack space as well as healing items supplies. It works pretty well, if you ask me.

 The game is sort of interesting when it comes to the difficulty... initially, on Medium, it felt pretty easy. Ammo was scarce, but I didn't use a single medikit and never had to retry a single mission. Then, the game crashed... and I accidentally downloaded the update. Medium, post-update, is brutal, I even had to lower the difficulty 'cause I was bored of retrying so much, and the loading times in-between retries is brutal as well, so I got bored of waiting. After patching the game, the Terminators become brutal, and they can soak up a ton of damage before going down, incentivizing using cowardly tactics and explosives. It makes sense in-universe, there's a reason machines are overpowering humans in the mythos, but I felt it made the game sorta boring.

 Visually, it's kinda lackluster, the game is full of greys and blueish greys, which makes for a very monotone game. The graphics themselves look very sharp but a generation behind, which makes all the performance hiccups all the more noticeable, even though they aren't very frequent.

 Terminator Resistance is a fun little game, and I don't think you need to be a fan of the franchise to appreciate it. While not very unique or memorable, the gameplay loop is satisfying, and as dull as the environments are at times, the RPG mechanics make it engaging to explore every nook and cranny, be it for resources or to complete missions. Yeah, it's not bad.

 6.0

Game #1281: Concrete Genie

 I've got nothing in concrete to say.

 Well, if anything, at least Concrete Genie is something different from the norm, which is a godsend considering how homogenous games have gotten as of late. This is a very simple adventure game in which you paint your way out of trouble.

 In the game you play as Ash, as he sets out to revive his town by using his art. The town is dark and bleak, completely covered in darkness, and bullies reign outside. Your main objective is to use your brush to paint under lights to light them up, and thus drive the darkness away. Painting is very simple, you tap R2 to enter Paint Mode, and then go through albums to pick different drawing you can place on the walls. These drawings are magic, so they animate ever so slightly. As you open up new parts of the town, the game actually remembers what and where you painted, which is massively cool. It's so amazing when backtracking to run across everything you drew exactly how you drew it. And, y'know, seeing the town covered in color feels pretty neat too. You can paint just for fun too, and the game will save it too!

 Sometimes, you'll need to paint genies to progress. Genie spots are highlighted on the ground, and these beings live inside the walls, you can hold down L1 to make them try to make their way next to you. They come in different colors and they can interact with different objects in order to help you progress, plus, sometimes they'll ask for a specific drawing. Make them happy and they'll give you Super Paing, the only way to clear concentrated darkness.

 The game is very chill, throughout most of the game the only enemies are the bullies, which you have to avoid by parkouring around or make noise to make them move from wherever they are. Exploring the town will reward you with more drawings for your sketchbook.

 The drawing is meant to be done with motion controls, but you can turn them off. I did. The collision detection sometimes feels a bit off, but it's nothing too bad.

 Lastly, two thirds into the game, combat is introduced. It's very basic, a simple attack and dodge affair. It was a bit boring, as the game is much better when it's you and the walls, but at least it's inoffensive... even if enemies can maybe soak more damage than they should. 

 Concrete Genie is pretty alright. It's a very charming game, which while not terribly fun, is a breath of fresh air.

 7.0

Game #1280: BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk

 Berserk and his friends. 

 I don't know who came up with the title BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk but that guy deserves a raise. I've been hunting this game for a while now, since it's gotten quite expensive as of late, but I finally found it, and I'd say it was almost worth it. What you might not know is that its original name was Berserk Musou, as this is yet another Dynasty Warriors reskin.

 The game covers a huge chunk of the manga, from the Golden Age up to the moment Berserk and his friends board the ship towards the land of the elves. That translates into 46 different stages. The presentation is actually really neat, throughout the entire Golden Age saga it uses clips from the frankly quite ugly CG-but-honestly-quite-good-looking-2D movie trilogy, and there's a TON of footage here. The game claims it has over 2 hours of anime cutscenes, and I believe them. Afterwards, the rest of the plot is told through dialogue boxes and in-game cutscenes. Hilariously enough, in many ways, the in-game cutscenes look much better than the fully CG scenes from the movie, as they are much better shaded and don't move as stiffly. The overall plot, as is to be expected, glosses over a lot of details and the Lost Children Arc, but I'm sure fans like me will feel fulfilled. The one thing I'd hold against it is that much like source material... Caska's rape feels a bit... erotized, and I know, Japan loves erotizing rape, but it still feels awkward. There are way too many shots and gratuitous use of a naked Caska being held by slimy tentacles throughout the trailer and even the gallery.

 After you are done with the very lengthy campaign you are left with the Endless Eclipse, a somewhat randomized 100 floor challenge. Each of the playable characters unlock different rewards upon completing it. That said... there are only 8 playable characters, which is pathetic, and one of the characters is... Wyald. No Farnese, no Isidro, no Corkus, no Pippin, no Rickert, no Silat.... but Wyald. Characters aren't super unique either, which they usually are when these games have lower playable character counts. Plus, throughout most of the campaign you can only play as Guts, heck, there's not a single stage in which he isn't playable. There were also a few missions, for instance the ones in which you must 'survive until morning', that felt like pure filler..

 On the other hand... this is one of the most satisfying Warriors games I've ever played. It's super bloody, letting you chop enemies as you kill them, and when you enter Frenzy mode, you get this delicious rumbling as you hack enemies in half. It feels SO good.

 Silly title aside, BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk is a fantastic game for fans of Berserk AND Musou games. It covers a lot of ground, the movie cutscenes are welcome and it feels a lot of fun to play. That said, there's room here for something much better. 

 7.0

Game #1279: Dawn of the Monsters

 Gozilla didn't sign the contract.

 If Japan and America have something in common is that they love giant monsters, and it seems Wayforward as well, because they have their own take with Dawn of the Monsters. As similar as it is, in name only, to War of the Monsters, it actually borrows more from SNK's King of the Monsters, as this is a 2.5D beat'em up.

 In DotM you can play as four different characters, once is a giant hero, much like Ultraman, there's the obligatory Godzilla stand-in, a giant-robot and another Kaijuu that is probably inspired by something, but I don't know. While the controls are the same for each monsters, they do have different moves. Y and X are weak and strong attacks, A is a dash atatck, each monster has three different gauge-costing special moves and a Rage Move, that uses a second energy gauge. You can also block or dodge moves, and the B button is used to pick up stuff or perform executions. Once an enemy is low on health, they start shining red, and pressing the B button murders them, healing you for a little bit and a giving you a nice score multiplier, at a cost of a single bar of the Special gauge.

 If anything, moving around sometimes feels a bit choppy. Be it because sometimes there's some sort of building or object obstructing your path or because the hit boxes, when it comes to depth perception isn't as generous as it could. The combat itself feels really nice, and later bosses will put your timing to the test when it comes to dodging or parrying their attacks. That said, the life bar of the final boss is ridiculous. I lost 5 minutes in, about a third of HP left and decided that it simply wasn't worth it. I know I can take it down now that I know how it fights, but I really don't care about trying again. Despite me saying this, the combat is decent enough, juggling enemies feels pretty neat, although it can get a bit repetitive by the end.

 Even better, you can customize every character with different color palettes and three Augments. Augments provide bonuses to your HP as well as extra effects, for instance, making executions heal you twice as much, stunning everything around you when you parry an attack or giving buildings a chance to spawn an item when you break them down. Building up characters feels really nice, and there's a lot of variety. The better you do in a stage, the better Augments you get to pick from after finishing a stage! Getting a S score also unlocks a new color palette for any of the four characters. And you'll have to work for that S, as getting anything less in a section of a level means you won't get the overall S score. It can be heart breaking to retry an entire stage only to fail at the last segment and having to redo everything again.

 I'd like to mention that graphics have this really neat 80's comicbook filter over them, so that characters have dotted textures on top of them. It gives it a very original look.

 Dawn of the Monsters is a fun time for a little while. It's not the most interesting game out there, but it accomplishes a lot thanks to its simple but effective mechanics.

 7.0

Game #1278: ExZeus The Complete Collection

 Well... no Zeus can help me now, this was brutal.

 I didn't know what ExZeus was, but after a quick search I discovered the Arcadiest Arcade game I've seen recently, so I decided to buy ExZeus: The Complete Collection from Limited Run Games. It's a collection of two nigh identical arcade shooters in which you are constantly flying forwards, trying to mow down everything in your way.

 In the original ExZeus you get to pick between three robots, the only thing that changes between them is their design. Gameplay is simple, but tough. You mash the shoot button to rapid fire your main gun, but you also get bomb, missiles and a big laser. You have to keep track of four gauges, the lock-on gauge, which lets you use your missiles, the Laser gauge, that lets you use the powerful laser by holding down the shoot button, the shield gauge and the health gauge. It's a lot to take in at first, but once you get in the groove of things it becomes second nature. In between levels you can use money to purchase permanent health and shield upgrades, or restore your bomb stock or other gauges.

 ExZeus 2 is pretty much identical, but you lose the laser, and instead of bombs you get three different types of special weapons. Stages are much longer in this one, and you get brief on-foot segments and bike segments which weren't so good, but adds to the action, as this is a very high-octane, frenetic game. The store has expanded to include permanent gun upgrades.

 So, so far so good, they sound like games right up my alley, super simple, high on action and simplicity, right? Well.... they are brutal. And there's no way to turn down the difficulty... as well as limited continues. As a matter of fact, ExZeus allows for ZERO continues. This is absolutely ridiculous on an Arcade game re-release, what's the fun in having a quarter muncher but limited virtual quarters? That's no fun.

 Bottom line is... ExZeus, both games are a load of fun, but this collection should've done more for Console players.

 6.0

Game #1277: Bayonetta 3

 Bigger, badder.... but not better. 

 For a change, I was actually really hyped about Bayonetta 3. Not only did I absolutely adore Bayonetta 2, but I was digging what little I allowed myself to see about Bayonetta 3, including Viola, who seemed like a banger new character, analogous to another character I adore, Nero. Well, maybe my expectations were too high or maybe Platinum aimed too high...

 You shouldn't play Bayonetta for its story, but, hey, at least this time around we don't have a dumb child character tagging along. Instead, Bayonetta goes through the Bayoverse, meeting all sorts of Bayonettas from other dimensions. It's super stupid, but damnit if I didn't like the alternate Bayonettas! A lot of noise has been made about canonizing Bayonetta as straight, or bi-sexual at least... and who cares? She's never been queer-coded in the games, and I'd argue that the official sapphic art was just Japanese fanservice. I'd complain, however, about her love interest being the biggest loser in the series, now that is something to complain about. Plus, the ending... I absolutely hated it. Much like DMC V, it's a passing the torch type of story, with Bayonetta/Dante passing off the torch to Viola/Nero, and as much as I adored Viola, the way they went about it.... didn't gel well with me.

 Now what really matters, the combat. It has changed quite a bit... One of the things I loved about the Bayonetta franchise, and something I liked over DMC, was how you could equip different weapons on Bayo's hands and feet, thus allowing you to toy around with mixed movesets. That's gone. Every weapon is stand alone, and as much as I enjoyed the variety... I think Bayonetta lost some of its DNA. To be fair, every weapon is fairly unique, and with each weapon comes a different transformation for Bayonetta, accessed through certain moves, and each transformation changes her dash and her jumping abilities. That said, having a paltry 2 different weapon slots to toggle is very limiting, three would've been the perfect number. For instance, if you like the Train Sword(Yeah!) and the Magic Cane(Weapons can get crazy in this game) you lose vertical movility, since their third 'jump' is a forward dash. Allowing for a third slot would've been just the right.

 There's a new emphasis on Giant Battles. Basically, there are larger enemies than ever before, and to battle them, Bayoneta can now summon her own giant beasts. And it's kinda cool, you hold down ZL and you lose control over Bayonetta, who gets rooted to her place, and now you take control of the giant monster. It's a great idea, and if you are savvy enough you'll realize that you can queue actions for the monster and quickly go back to controlling Bayonetta while the creature does its thing. It adds a whole new dimension to the combat, and I kinda like it.... except that when you do this, the framerate takes a hit, and even worse, often times it's easy to lose track of where Bayonetta is among the giant enemies. It kinda sucks getting hit by stuff you don't know you should've dodged because either you lost track of Bayonetta, the giant enemy(Who turns translucid when too close to the camera) or because your view of Bayo was obstructed by a giant being.

 Viola is the new playable character, and I adore her. I love her personality and her looks. Much like Nero, she offers a simplified combat system. She can't change weapons, only fighting with her Katana and darts, and holding down ZL summons Cheshire, who moves on his own, as long as you hold down ZL, and Viola gains a new fist-and-kick moveset. Unlike Bayonetta, who enters Witch Time when dodging at the last moment, she gains it when blocking at the last moment, this makes getting witch time as Viola is harder, plus, how much Witch Time you get depends on when you blocked, and you can get less than a second of witch time. Plus, mashing block will get you nowhere, because double tapping block while holding down a direction will make her dash. The one thing I didn't like about Viola is that she gets about a fourth of the total amount of stages to play. You can, however, use her on any of the bonus unlockable mini-challenge stages or in the Witch Trials, but I would've liked being able to play as any character on any stage 

 Jeanne is back too, and she is unlocked when you finish the game. That said... she gets four mandatory 2.5D stages built around... stealth? And one is a bike stage. Regardless... I hated her stages. I wanted hardcore, fast-paced 3-D character action combat, not... 2.5D Stealth. Thankfully, only the first stage was lengthy, the other three are mercifully short and don't place as much emphasis on avoiding enemies. Regardless, I despised the fact that her stages were mandatory, I didn't sign up for them.

 There's another gameplay element, yes, they went bonkers with Bayonetta 3, which are Giant Boss Battles. Most of these are awful, particularly when forced to use Gomorrah, because, in an attempt to make them feel like Godzilla... they are very slow paced. I hated this, absolute pace-killers. And they aren't any fun either.

 Honestly, the core gameplay in Bayonetta 3, despite a few small issues, is as good as ever, it's all the extra gameplay shifts that really bummed me out. Instead of focusing on what they've always done fantastically well, instead, they added these elements that they thought were cool(2.5D Stealth, Kaijuu battles) but don't really gel well with Bayonetta. And you can tell that they had an enormous budget this time around, besides all the new gimmicks, they finally removed all the stop-motion cutscenes. About time!

 Since they went all out with the budget, environments are much larger than they've ever been, and there's a gazillion different collectibles to find. Some are useless, such as gallery items, but there are also the usual health and magic upgrades. Most important among them all are the Three Umbran Tears, if you find all three in a level you'll unlock a mini-challenge stage. There are also a lot of interesting costumes to buy, since every Alternate Bayonetta's look can be purchased, as well as various different color variations, heck, you can even change Bayonetta's hair and glasses colors!

 Another brilliant idea was dividing currencies into three: Rings are used to buy cosmethics, Green droplets are used for items and accessories while red orbs are used to purchase new moves for both Bayonetta and Viola. 

 Despite all my gripes with Bayonetta 3, it's still a great action game, and there's a lot to like here. The grander sense of scale, multiple gameplay shifts as well as all the alternate Bayonettas does add some sort of celebratory feeling to the whole thing... but I feel that some of them actually take away from what Bayonetta has always done so well. In the end, it's another great game... just not as good as the previous entries.

 8.5

Game #1276: God of War Ragnarok

 Ragnarok wasn't averted.

 Not gonna lie, having played the previous God of War game, I was a bit irked seeing just how many awards God of War: Ragnarok received, but I made sure to come at the game without any bias, I mean, as homogeneous to every other modern adventure game as God of War was... it was still a fun time. Well... Ragnarok was disappointing in more ways that I would've liked.

 The good news? The combat is slightly more fun. While it's pretty much identical to the previous game, the juggling is more generous, so you can do more fun stuff. Unarmed combat was stripped bare, so you don't get much more than just punches and kicks, however, this time around you start the game armed with both the Leviathan Ax and the Blades of Chaos. For the most part, the function pretty much identically to how they did before, but the 'hold down button' attacks were changed completely, and the 'stance switch' was removed from the Blades. It's alright, the stance switch moves were always rather unwieldy. And, midway through, you get a new weapon, a lance-type weapon, and I was surprised at just how much I liked it considering I don't like lances. So yeah, while it's still a bit basic, the combat feels weighty and I liked the new juggling. The new weapon is a blast, and this game didn't have as many enemies that broke your lock on them, so me using Rage by mistake was a thing of the past. Speaking of Rage, now you can pick between three different types: GoW style, Valor, for Healing, and another type for dealing a ton of damage in one blow.

 Repeatedly using most moves eventually lets you spend XP to enhance them, by adding more Stun, Damage, Elemental Damage or super armor, which is a neat idea. Defensively, now shields come in two different types, favoring blocking or parrying, which was also a neat idea. Certain armor pieces now change as they rank up, which is pretty cool already, but you can alter the look of any armor so as to look as the armor that you like!! Atreus and Freya get alternate costumes too.

 But more interesting than anything... now Atreus gets his own playable segments. He only gets his bow, but he has his own unique moveset, based on speedy bow whacks and ranged bow sniping. He is definitely not as fun as Kratos, and during his most extensive chapter he becomes a bit boring, since his moveset is limited, but I enjoyed the variety. He is just an extra, however, so you can only play as him when the game demands it, and during the post game you can only use Kratos. Speaking of Atreus, now both Atreus and Kratos get different companions, and while they are very basic(Tap square to have them shoot, hold square to have them use their special move), it's still pretty interesting, plus, of course they have the now mandatory Uncharted banter between them.

 As for the plot... It's alright. I found it more interesting than the previous game, for sure, but all the emotional stuff they went for... it just didn't do it for me. They tried, they tried so hard to pull at your heartstrings, but barring a few moments... It didn't do it for me. And that's the thing, they went for this type of character moments to score high with critics, because if you remove every emotional bit... the overall story is nothing special. Sindri's development was very well done, and I love what, and how, they did with him. There's a plot twist near the end, and I've seen people call it brilliant, heck, Gamesrank called it one of the best plot twists in recent games and.... seriously? It's not that shocking, it isn't even a smart 'everything changes now' plot twist, it was more like a simple plot development than anything else. The foreshadowing was neat, but nah, it's not that amazing.

 What probably pushed me away from the overall narrative is how... Marvel the dialogue feels. Ratatosk gets reintroduced as a cute Rocket Raccoon type of furry NPC, and I couldn't help but wonder just what the hell was the plushy doing in God of War. The first playable Atreus segment was absolutely dreadful, as the whole pre-pubescent romance tease with Angrborda felt very, very forced and cringe, like something out of a cheesy Marvel movie. It's also a huge exposition dump interspersed with moments of slowly riding a cow-thing while collecting fruit, it's a huge pace-killer. Speaking of pacing... the walking-simulator bits felt more intrusive than they did in the first game, and more frequent too. Thankfully, as the game pushes forward the combat, exploration and story telling balance themselves out a bit better.

 The exploration... is nigh identical to the original game, but now instead of just rowing a boat you also get to drive wolf-sleds. Every side activity from the original game returns, finding lore markers, opening a ridiculous amount of worthless chests, Rune Chests(Which didn't feel as annoying this time), killing Odin's Ravens... pretty much everything is back. Instead of Valkyrie super bosses there are now fallen soldier super bosses. You also revisit every realm you did back then, although, thankfully, most places are completely different, only reusing small bits to show you that it's the same realm. It's a much larger game, frequently the game will just drop you into a new section and a ton of sidequests will pop up, and the post-game seems pretty meaty too.... if only I could've finished.

 For you see, this is one of the buggiest games I've played recently. By far. It's absolutely shameful how Sony released the game in this state. And sure, I could've patched the game, but I always play games unpatched, because that's what's in the disc, so that's what I'll always have access to. Here's a small list of just a handful of things I experienced, and I took videos of most of them:

 - One time, when collecting am Yggdrassil Tear from the boat, it didn't count as collected even though Atreus animation grabbing it played out. When I landed on a beach, Kratos was sitting on air, NEXT to the boat, instead of getting off. Had to restart the checkpoint.

 - Minor, but at least twice I got off the boat on a coast but the angle didn't let me walk into the land, had to get back on the boat and land again.

- When reaching the Gram boss fight, the camera went crazy and afterwards Atreus was invisible. Had to restart the checkpoint.

- Both Freya and Atreus, as companions, sometimes showed ineptitude when following me, and I had to exit and re-enter the room to fix their AI

- In Alfheim there are puzzles involving bouncing your ax on crystals. Sometimes, the trail that showed how your ax would bounce disappeared just because.

 - In the first Atreus sequence, there's a blue pick up, if you pick it up, you won't collect it and it will float on thin air.

 - This is a common one, there are threads on reddit about it, sometimes, certain audio sounds, such as breaking walls or the such, will just stop playing, and this even happens with VOICES. What's even better, not even the subtitles will appear!!! The only solution is to exit the game entirely, not just 'quit to main menu', but quit to the dashboard. This fixes it. This one is vexingly common.

- After fighting a Valkyrie I had to reload checkpoint because I couldn't trigger the mystic Gate.

- I went to grab a flower, a collectible, but it's your companion that has to grab it. Well... the AI got stuck running towards it. Not fun. Speaking of this, during Alfheim, Tyr LOVED running against walls. Not game-breaking, but immersion breaking.

 - In the Dwarven realm, upon revisiting it, you can clearly see a traincar flying over thing air. Looks dumb.

- In Muspelheim, after doing the big main challenge, trying to trigger the smaller challenges will fail and you have to reload checkpoint. This one is ridiculous.

- Evasive Storm move, with the Leviathan Ax, is bugged, sometimes Kratos throws the ax towards the ground or above the targeted enemy.

- The worst one, by far.... I was doing the side content, reached Vanaheim and... I couldn't exit. Every attempt to open the door back to Freyr's camp would fail because Freya wouldn't follow me, locking Kratos in place as he waits for Freya before starting the animation. This one was heart breaking, as I planned on finishing the post-game.

 Yeah... God of War Ragnarok wasn't all that spectacular. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun to play, but the story is nothing to write home about, and the enormous amounts of bugs really made my time with the game less than enjoyable. Plenty of times I was wondering if something was actually supposed to be happening or if it was bugging out again.

6.5