Second Time Around: Blood Omen 2 Part 1

 Kain's back!

 I did finish Blood Omen 1, but since writing about it would take longer than writing a 'Now Playing' thingie... here we are, I'm dead tired, sue me.This is the thing... Not only have I played BO 2 before, but I also covered it on the blog(In a very cringe worthy way). Which is why I'm gonna be a lot more loose with this one, it's more of a... 'let's see how it stacks up now' kinda thing. After I 'review' it again, I'ma check back on my previous piece and compare if I had the same issues as before, or if I found new ones or whatever. And another thing, since I'm replaying it, I used the Soul Reaver cheat, and I'm not even ashamed!

 So, things I like: The graphics. I like the environments, the architecture, I love it, it makes Nosgoth comes to life. Sucking the blood out of your enemies(Or victims) feels so flippin' good, it oughta be one of the most rewarding things in gaming ever.

 Then there's the things I don't like... like losing health constantly, I understand WHY they did it, but I don't like it. And the controls? Who though tank controls were a good idea!?

 All in all, I like what I played.

Now Playing: Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain

 And thus begins the Legacy of Kain-athon.

 So, what does the Legacy of Kainathon entails? There's five games in the series, with two 'branches' that merge into the fifth, final game. There's the Blood Omen branch, which includes Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2 and the Soul Reaver branch that includes Soul Reaver and Soul Rever 2, and then there's Defiance, the last game that ties both narratives together. Kinda, since it picks off from Soul Reaver 2. Regardless, there's two ways in which you can play these games, if you care about chronoligical order that is: Blood Omen, Blood Omen 2, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and finally Defiance or Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2 and Defiance. Why is that? Blood Omen 2, technically, takes place on an alternate timeline created during Soul Reaver 2. But the way I see it, Blood Omen 2, whether it's what actually happened or what happens after fumbling with the timeline, it follows Blood Omen, so it makes sense to play it after Blood Omen. And yes, I did review Blood Omen 2, but I will give it another look and see how I feel about it two years later.

 Thus begins my journey with Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain. It's... it's surprisingly fun. I mean... it's an isometrical adventure game, with a very dated, muddy look and the combat is simple to a fault... and yet something about it sunk its claws on me. At the outset, the game looks massive. There's 9 pillars that require fixing, which involves killing its keeper, and I gave the map a look... and it's kinda huge. I like how it seems that the game will give you a ton of abilities, I read the instruction booklet, so I know that I will get an axe at some point, and with it I will be able to chop down trees! Not only that, I got the wolf form and now I can jump over small ledges! I can't wait to see what the game throws at me. That said, I'm cautiously worried about bosses, just how much fun can they be with these simple mechanics? Combat involves mashing on Square and hoping for the best, no dodges, no defense no nothing... although I found out that it's pretty easy to move around enemy attacks before slashing them a couple of times and then rinse and repeat. Still, there's no depth to the combat, so... let's see what the game pulls off.

 All in all, it feels like a great way to start the franchise, and this style of gameplay won't be revisited by any of the subsequent games! That said, I noticed that there seem to be a rather obvious focus on puzzles, which is what the other games focused on as well... except Defiance... But I'm getting ahead of myself, and my memory of Defiance and the Soul Reaver games might fail me. There I am, digressing again! All that matters is that Blood Omen led me off to a great start!

Review #221: Red Faction 2

 DESTROY EVERYTHIIIIIING... or just, y'know, a few select walls and floors.

 Red Faction was, as far as I remember, one of the early games announced for the then-new PS2. It boasted having fully destructible environments, and while I never played the first one, nor am I interested in doing so, I did play the sequel. Twice.

 The game has two modes: Single Player/Story and Multiplayer. First comes the Single Player Mode, and I'd like to delve into the Story a bit... but it's hard without spoiling it. Y'see, there are few story bits, but it's there, and it moves rather fast. To say the least, it has a plot twist halfway into the game, and I don't remember how I felt about it when I first played the game, but this time around, knowing that it would happen, I didn't notice any foreshadowing or what not, so I think it's safe to assume that it will take some people but surprise.  And hey, it's a twist befitting of an action movie... or well, game. There's also a pseudo-karma mechanic that affects which ending you get, just don't shoot civilians and you'll get the good one! All that said, it's rather short, clocking at about 4-5 hours.

 As far as Story Mode is concerned, I had a couple of issues with it, gameplay wise. Firstly, the feature that they boasted of the most: Destructible Environments. It's a lie. That is to say, there are breakable walls and floors, but they are specific walls and floors. Sometimes you are required to destroy structures in order to continue, but it's a feature that's very underused and the novelty wears off pretty darn fast. Then there's the enemy AI... it's spotty at best. I played the game on the medium difficulty, and most enemies refuse to try to avoid my grenades, and they rarely strafe or move, opting instead to stand in front of you, gunning you down. Later in the game a new enemy is introduced, the last enemy type as a matter of fact, and I like to call them 'The Cowards', these bastards are a real pain in the butt to defeat, as they love, love to round around, without even shooting, just running away from you. And most enemies in the game are immune to head shots and a bit of bullet sponges. There's also a few sections with enemies that spawn indefinitely, so your best bet would be to avoid them and run. And you know what? Despite all that, the game isn't particularly hard. I must've died 4-5 times throughout the entire game. The last thing I want to mention is the lack of subtitles. This is a First Person Shooter, a game that involves a lot of shooting. If NPCs decide to talk to you during a shoot out, believe me, you won't catch a single word they say.

 Then there's the Multiplayer Mode, and it's pretty neat. There's about 30 maps, and not only can you play against another player, you can also add bots to either solo or multiplayer bouts! Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, 'Bagman', Regime and Arena, most which can be played in teams. Bagman and Regime are basically the same, if you become the dictator/bagman, stay alive for as long as you can. Every weapon from the Story Mode makes it in, and some maps even house a few destructible walls! All in all, not a bad offering.

 Red Faction 2 is a First Person Shooter, but an oldschool one at that. For instance, you can carry a gazillion weapons on you, something I appreciate even if switching weapons with a Joystick can be a bit slow, and there's no 'Iron Sights' aiming mode, but at least each weapon gets a 'secondary fire'. Not gonna lie, it takes a little while getting used to. You are also lacking regenerative health... kinda. You can pick up Health Packs, but these act as extra life bars, up to three of them, and your life bar can regenerate if you stay outta combat for a while. A rather long while, so it's usually not a mechanic you can rely on. Still, what took the most getting used to where the controls. Thankfully you can customize them to your liking, so after some fumbling about I managed to get a more modern set-up, one I grew accustomed to in recent years. And hey, the back of the box claims that it supports the PS2 keyboard and mouse, so there's always that.

 The game looks fairly good. Character models are a bit... ugly. To be fair, their designs are at fault, as the models themselves are fine. The environments are a bit repetitive, and with a rather dull color palette, nothing memorable or worth writing home about. Luckily the weapons, what you'll get to see most of the time, look pretty impressive. They even manged to make the good, ol' boring gun look cool. The shooting feedback feels pretty good as well. The music took me by surprise, the soundtrack is pretty damn fine. There's a lot of heavy music, which fits nicely and sounds fantastic. Another thing that took me by surprise... voice acting. It's quite good, and it features a couple of known actors, like Jason Statham!

 I liked Red Faction 2. It's a game that certainly shows its age, but remains a fun little romp. It's probably not a good idea to expect as much destructibility as it claims, or rather claimed, but the weaponry is fun to wield and the core gameplay is pretty decent.

 7.0 out of 10. 

Now Playing: Red Faction II

 Them cliches...!

 Red flippin' Faction 2. I used to LOVE this game, I particularly remember being very fond of the Assault Rifle that you get late into the game, thing looked so epic and felt so good. But that was then and this is now.

 So far I've cleared the first mission, and I'm pretty sure I am now playing the mission in which you are betrayed. Oh yeah, I remember it clear as day, heck, I even remember who the final boss was. But I digress, what matters is how I feel about it now... and I feel like it's a bit dated. I've grown too comfortable with what FPS games have become, this harkens from an era way before 'Iron sights' was a thing, so yeah, aiming takes a bit getting used to. Know what else takes getting used to? The controls. L1 is Jump, like, what the hell? I took a couple of seconds to rework the controls a bit, and they are fairly comfortable now, thank god for customizable controls!

 As for the game's main selling point, back in the day, was the destructible environments and.. they are... there? I mean, some structures can be broken, and others cannot, and as far as I could tell, there's no tell or sign on what can be demolished and what can't. So yeah, it's a feature I don't really care about.

 Know what I do care about? Health. This game is before 'Regenerating Health' was a thing, this is hardcore, I love it.

 To sum up: It has aged, but I'm enjoying it. Of course, I've only cleared the first mission, so there's still time before I can safely say how I feel about it. Oh well, time to get stabbed in the back by these bastards.

Review #220: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

 Just what I expected. Sorta.

 What started as a humble mascot fighter back on the Nintendo 64 is, nowadays, an event. Whenever a new Smash Bros is announced, people get hyped and hungry for any sort of leak on the final roster. If one thing's for sure, is that Smash is yet to disappoint... Unless you are into competitive Smash, but that's a can of worms I'm not willing to open.

 Well, I'm gonna start with the menu because it bears mentioning... it's a bit of a mess. Upon starting the game you are greeted with buttons of different shapes and sizes that lead you to 'Smash', 'Smash Run' and 'Games and More'... and it's in 'Games and more' where 'classic' lays hidden. Frankly, the menus are cluttered and a mess, why hide Classic, arguably the game's main single player component, under a sub menu? like, really. Once you learn to navigate the menus, you'll have access to these modes: Classic, Smash(Online/Offline), Smash Run, Street Smash, Training, Customization and Stadium, where Multi-man melee, Destroy the Targets and hit the bag reside. Where to start with? Classic has been redesigned, no longer do you follow a straight path, but rather, it features branching paths, that all end up against a Mii army and later the Master/Crazy Hand boss. The difficulty selection has also been tweaked a bit, it defaults at 2.0, but you can raise it up to 9.0 by betting coins... or spend coins to lower it below 2.0. You can't change your life stocks, but you start each fight with 2 lives, regardless if you died previously or not. Dying forcefully drops the difficulty setting and lowers the rewards, heck, you may even lose some rewards. All in all, Classic Mode is... it's alright, I much prefer the older set-up, but it's not bad by any means.

 Hit the Bag works just as it did before, pummel on the sand bag and then hit it with the Homerun bat trying to send it as far as you can. Target Blast is no longer an individual challenge depending on which character you choose, but rather a generic mini-game inspired by Angry Birds and the sort. As for Multi-Man Smash it features 10-man, 100-man, 3 min, Endless and Cruel variations, alongside a new 'Rival Smash' in which you must defeat more enemies than an enemy CPU. Smash Run is a weird mode... You've 5 minutes to traverse a medium-sized stage, and defeat as many enemies as you can, featuring NPC enemies from the many Nintendo franchises, although mostly from Kid Icarus Uprising, and collect power ups, so that you have better stats to face another 3 players in a random challenge. It can be a race, or just a run-of-the mill Smash battle. Hilariously, while every player goes through the same map, and can interfere with the other players by using 'powers', you can't actually interact with them directly. Honestly, it's a terrible successor to Sub-Space Emissary, and while it can be fun the first couple of times, and even though the enemies vary between playthroughs, you always go through the same map and it gets very repetitive, very fast. I understand why Sakurai, the director, did away with the Sub-Space Emissary, but I don't agree with it. Heck, even Melee's Adventure Mode was much more interesting than Smash Run.

 Then we have the Normal Smash game, that can be fought either in Stock or Time-based matches against CPUs, Offline or Online against other players. On the plus side, there's an 'Omega' form to every single stage in the game, so that tournament players can fight on t boring, plain and obstacle-less versions of the stages. Heck, you can play 'For Glory' online in order to fight without items and on the Omega Stages, to accommodate for them! As per usual, you can individual items on or off, but... you can't change the frequency. They are either On or Off, and there's probably an explanation for it.... the 3DS' processor probably couldn't handle having the Frequency on high, since it'd imply having a lot of stuff going on at the same time. Then there's Street Smash, a Street-pass based mode, although you can train against CPUs, which has you sliding a puck around, with the touchscreen, trying to through the other pucks outside the platform. It's dull and boring, and I don't understand why there's about 3 challenges surrounding them. Oh, yes, Challenges are back. Think of them as trophies, there's 105 of them, and they are fun...ish. You see, they can get, nay, they will get long in the tooth as a lot of them require finishing X mode with all 40+ characters. Needless to say, Challenges are best enjoyed as something that you clear slowly, rather than trying to clear them all as soon as possible. Hilariously, there's a couple of them that are quite... arbitrary, to say the least, like say... 'play 3 smash matches as Samus', which feel a bit like filler.

 In All-Star Mode you must defeat all fighter, which appear in the order in which they made their first appearance. But the last mode, and the more interesting one, is Customization. Playing through the many modes will earn you three type of rewards: Coins, Trophies and Customization items. Customization items range from costumes, to passive items to moves. Costumes are equipped on the Miis, yes, you can create Miis, there's three archetypes: Brawler, Swordfighter and Gunner, they have derivative movesets(Mario, Link, Samus), but they get their own unique moves, it's pretty neat! The Passive items can be equipped on the Miis or on the normal characters, and they raise and decrease different stats. Lastly there's the Customization Moves, every character gets two different variations to each of their special moves. It is true that not all Custom moves where made equal, some share the same animations and only change the properties of the move, while others like... Kid Icarus' Palutena gets 12 possible different moves altogether. Still, it's a really cool twist, and something I hope they keep for future installments.

 Now I want to talk about the roster... Firstly, there were cuts. Ice Climbers, due to the 3DS' poor processor, Wolf, Lucas, Snake, Squirtle and Ivysaur. Charizard, Zelda, Sheik, Samus and Zero Suit Samus were reworked into individual characters. The 'Gliding' mechanic that only some characters had is gone completely. Every character now gets at least 8 colors, and in some cases, these colors feel more like costumes. Now then, as far as the returning characters go, everyone feels new. Not only thanks to the new engine, but you'll notice at least one or two new animations on every returning character, in some cases there's new attacks. Sadly, while some characters that didn't need a new Ultimate Smash got one, like Kirby, others like Peach and Jigglypuff keep their useless Ultimate Smashes. I absolutely loved all the new comers, minus one I will elaborate upon shortly, it feels as if every new character has something, some new mechanic that makes him completely unique to the rest of the cast. Like Robin having 'ammo' on his specials and smashes, the Villager having a Down Special that changes depending on the tree he plants or Megaman having projectiles as his basic attack. I feel like this is not only the largest, but the best roster that Smash has ever had. Clones are a necessary evil, they allow you to have more characters, but spend less time and money of them, both developers and players win. I could rant about Ganon keeping his cloned moveset from Captain Falcon, but I won't, instead I will rant about Dark Pit. Y'see, I don't mind clones because we get different characters, in this game we get Lucina, we get Doctor Mario, these have different models than the characters they are cloned from. They add variety. Dark Pit looks exactly like Pit, he is nothing but a glorified 8 extra colors for Pit. I even dare say that having Dark Pit in the game cheapens the roster. Look at Alph, he shares a slot with Olimar, yet they have different models... but Dark Pit gets his very own slot? Really?

 I will digress a bit, but you will indulge me, since this is my blog. Before the game's release, people were accusing Sakurai of having bias towards Kid Icarus Uprising, the last game he released before Smash. Palutena made it into the game, and I didn't care, Kid Icarus had a new game recently, Palutena was fine. A lot of weapons and enemies from Uprising were recycled for Smash Run, once again, I didn't really care. But Dark Pit? Why... why would you give him his own slot? I'd rather get Roy back. Pichu. Wolf. Lucas. Anyone but Dark Pit. Anyone but a glorified extra 8 colors for Pit. Mind you, I don't like the game any less due to Dark Pit's presence, nor did it affect my enjoyment of the game in any way, but that doesn't mean I don't get to hate the fact that he is in the game over other, more worthy clones.

 Now with that out of the way, how did I feel about the game? Well, it is Smash through and through, and on the go to boot! The game does feel faster than Brawl, which I like, but not as fast as melee, which I don't mind, and they got rid of tripping. Thank god. Ledges have been reworked, so that if you get on an edge on which an enemy is holding on to... you will push him out of it. It will certainly change how the game is played, as edge-guarding is no longer an option. I liked Edge-Guarding, it could provide some very exciting moments, but this is different, and different is not necessarily bad. The controls are a bit... they aren't terrible, but the 3DS' nub isn't up to snuff. I don't think anyone will take competitive 3DS Smash too seriously as to care for it though. On the bright side, controls can be customized almost entirely, however, the Digital Pad has to do the taunts and the analog stick has to be used for movement. It would've been nice to be able to map movement to the digital pad, but that would mean losing the tilt attacks, so I understand why they did it. As for the gameplay, they managed to keep frame drops to a minimum. If you play without items, you won't get any frame drops at all, and when items come into the equation... it takes for a very crowded scenario for the framerate to drop.

 As well as the game runs, it does have some issues... The game is a bit of a handful on the 3DS' processor, you can tell simply by how long it takes for the OS to restart after closing the game. But there's another tell... in my 20-hour experience with the game, it crashed twice on me. No other 3DS game has EVER crashed on me. I did some research, and it seems I'm not the only one that had the game crash. It's rare enough as not to be an annoyance, but it's still worth a mention. The game does include a lot of content though. There's a lot of music tracks, over 40 characters, a ton of stages(Both new and returning from previous installments), alternate Special moves for every character, a ton, and I do mean a ton of trophies with their own colorful descriptions.... This is a game that can potentially soak up a lot of time, and it doesn't feel like a grind. Unless you are an idiot like me and try to get all the challenges in a short period of time. Do not do that, or the game will get repetitive and even slightly boring.

 The visual presentation is absolutely gorgeous. I dare say that it looks even better than Melee. There were a few concessions made in order to get it looking so good... while the game runs at 60 FPS, secondary NPCs, like Pokemon or Assist Trophies, move at 30 FPS. It's a tad jarring, but nothing too bad. The music... It's Nintendo, and it features tons of classic tunes from the many franchises featured in the game, there's absolutely no way to dislike the soundtrack. Unless, y'know, you have a different taste. But whatevs'

 So, Smash Bros on the 3DS... it's exactly what I wanted. A portable version of Smash Bros. I like how it feels like an in-between Melee and Brawl, it's not too much like either game(Although it tilts towards Brawl), and I like it for that. I loved 99% of the new comers, I loved the new stages and am pretty OK with the ones they chose to make a return. Some of the Challenges could've been better thought-out, and the fact that it can crash is a bit scary, but the game saves often enough as to make it a non-issue. All in all, I liked it. It's not the system seller I thought it would be, but I can't say that I didn't get flippin' Smash on the flippin' go.
 8.5 out of 10.

Archile's Grab-bag : 'nother day, 'nother TMNT game Edition

  New Package, yadda yadda

 Mega Man - Legends: Back when I was younger, I played the terrible PC port of the game and wound up hating it. Heck, I remember I had to play it with my sister, since the keyboard controls for turning and strafing where such a mess, it became a two-person effort! But since it's so beloved, for some reason, I decided to give it another chance.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 - Mutant Nightmare(DS) : Just a reminder that Turtle Month is a thing, and a thing that I want to keep yearly, and this is just further confirmation that it is a thing that is happening this November.

  Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver: Yet another game of which I played the PC port, but this time around, it was a decent port. I don't remember how I felt about it exactly, part of me thinks I didn't like it too much... but I have a ton of memories about it, so I must've liked it! Plus, I even bought the sequel. Anyways, Soul Reaver.

 Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain: And just as I plan on playing Mega Man, a ton of Mega Man at that, this year, I also plan on playing the entirety of Legacy of Kain. It's funny, I just wanted to play Defiance, originally, since I remember loving it, but as I read about it, I noticed just how rich the Legacy of Kain mythos are, and now I want to experience it first hand! And, by the by, Soul Reaver 2 is on its way, so soon, soon I will delve into Legacy of Kain!

Review #219: Haunting Ground

 Give me that Azoth!

 Haunting Ground is a Survival Horror game that borrows more from Clock Tower than Capcom's own Resident Evil franchise. It's a rarely talked about game, and a game that has risen in price, though luckily not as high as Rule of Rose.

 The game pits you as Fiona, a youth that finds herself in a mansion inhabited by some odd fellows, after waking up from a car crash. Eventually Fiona finds Hewie, a dog, and both of them become unlikely allies as they attempt to escape the premise. The story is alrightish, but it's the characters that really stand out. The game features 5 different 'stalkers', enemies that populate the mansion and will attempt to kill Fiona, and most of them are pretty creepy and have their own motives, quirks, attacks and music. Fiona is a bit bland, displaying little more than fear throughout the whole ordeal, but the supporting cast make up for her. All that said, I felt the initial half of the game is a bit stronger and scarier than the latter half, since it starts getting a bit more... wizardry, so to speak.

 The game nails the atmosphere right on the head. Music is creepy and foreboding, and the sound design is excellent, it's hard not to feel unnerved when you hear other steps besides your own, due to the impending arrival of a stalker. The imagery is very bleak as well, with a very grey color palette, but in this game, it works. All that said, this is a Japanese game, so they just had to go full Japan with the fanservice. Fiona's breasts will bounce everywhere with even the smallest step, which looks ridiculous and can sometimes break immersion, I just couldn't help but laugh at how dumb it looks. Plus, the game tends to focus on her breasts during cut-scenes, which is hard not to notice, and almost every unlockable costume offers some sort of fanservice. It's the only blemish to the otherwise phenomenal atmosphere the game can create.

  Gameplay is pretty straightforward, you have to explore the Mansion and find items in order to solve puzzles, simple. Some puzzles involve Hewie, who can enter holes that Fiona cannot, or having him stand on platforms. Hewie is controlled with the Right analog stick, you depending on where you tilt it, you can praise him, scold him, tell him to stay in place, order him to attack or follow you. Issuing commands is very simple, though it can get some time getting used to it, for instance, if you tell Hewie to stop before he stops himself, when ordering him to stand on a platform, he will eventually move, which frustrated me to no end and I had to learn that the hard way during a certain end-game puzzle. Speaking of puzzles, there were a couple that were perplexing, to say the least. Off the top of my head, there was this one puzzle... You come across a room that has a torch on a wall, and flammable crates nearby, and eventually you'll come across a Candlestick, that the description happens to mention it being 'unlit'. Logic would dictate that you'd have to use the candlestick on a torch in order to make the crates explode. Wrong. You have to wander around until you trigger the Stalker, and then, with the candlestick in your possession, walk below the torch, so that Fiona will finally decide to light that candlestick and make the crates explode.

 If that was all there was to the game, it'd be pretty easy, but you'll have to deal with the different stalkers. You will randomly come across them, or sometimes get into a cutscene that'll trigger their apperance. Regardless, Fiona by herself, can only use a weak kick, a tackle(That consumes stamina) or throw special, limited, items that you can find. Your main source of damage will be Hewie, but he too can get hurt, and eventually knocked out. Stalkers also scare Fiona, and if she gets too scared she'll enter 'Panic Mode', which makes her run by herself, and won't let you enter the sub menu to equip or use items, plus, the screen gets very blurry. Combat, is more often than not, the last thing you'll want to do, instead, you'll want to run away and either hide from the Stalker until it goes away, or outrun them through the different rooms in the Mansions. You also have to keep in mind that Fiona has stamina, and eventually she will slow down to a walk, so you have to mind where you are going. To be honest, I only died once or twice to the Stalkers, and only to the third one at that, outrunning the Stalkers was pretty easy.... which means that eventually I came to think of these chases as a bit of a nuisance. I just wanted to finish the damn puzzle, but if a Stalker is close by, you can't use items or trigger switches, which made me more annoyed than anything else. Maybe it was just me, but the chases didn't really scare me, the moments before the chase did, and the fact that they'd sometimes appear before I could solve the puzzle after figuring it out annoyed me more than anything.

 The game looks gorgeous, animation is smooth and character models are gorgeous. The Mansion itself houses a ton of different, creepy areas. There's few enemies, but the first two stalkers and the second-to-last are amazing, amazing in the scary way, I enjoyed their quirks and what not. The other two are alright, but can't match these other three. The music, while not particularly memorable, is scary and fits the mood of the game perfectly, and so do the many different sound effects. Everything just works together to make a very scary game. Oh, and loading times are almost 0, which is amazing.

 I liked Haunting Ground. Survival Horror is not a genre I'm particularly fond of(Which is weird since I love everything horror), but I really grew to love the game. There's a few things I don't agree with, like the fan service, some of the puzzles or the direction the game takes after the second Stalker, but none of those really turned me away.
 8.5 out of 10.