Cyberpunk 2077

It's basically GTA with hacking and implants.... yep...

Story-wise, V (the main character) gets saddled with stealing a high value chip from a large corporation. But through a series of events, ends up having to rely on the chip to keep him alive, even as it seems to be killing him. So most of the main storyline is around investigating a way to safely remove the chip before it kills him.

Honestly though the missions and fixers and terminology reminds me more of Shadowrun than it does GTA. Generally you can go a tech route (hacking, making your own gear, net attacking, etc), a brick grunt route (guns knives fists), or stealth. At 50th level you can get 2/3 branches.

Graphics: Near photo realistic. Assuming you turn off features until you can get it to consistently run 60fps it looks and feels really decently. Note, there is gory sections too (in scav dens half mutilated bodies, etc).

Audio/Voice Acting: Very well done, Fixers and main characters especially well done. Some acting is a bit flat, but it sounds natural with a 'English isn't their first language' so it's fine. All in all well done.

Music: Bit heavier on the metal and stuff i don't care for.

Gameplay/Mechanics: First part is it's a FPS game, with futuristic weapons. Well some futuristic, there's also a lot of them grounded in reality too.

Breech - A minigame where you can affect the battlefield, by unlocking Daemons you can make quick-hacks cheaper faster, or more effective. Same mini-game is used when hacking to get additional money at hotspots and some free programs/hacks.

The minigame itself is pretty simple, you have to enter a sequence of numbers, usually 1C 55 E9 FF in some combination in a grid, but it alternates horizontal and vertical, so you zig-zag to complete the sequence. Some sequences can overlap, so if something ends with E9, it can carry over skipping that entry if one starts with E9.

QuickHacking - With your cyberdeck you select programs/hacks, these are basically all offensive (or some disabling), be it short-circuit, rebooting synoptic (blind for a few seconds), or even ones like reboot that shut then down. A handful of ones for machines like 'distract' or 'open/close/on/off' to disable security or distract a nearby NPC to sneak past them.

Crafting - Get raw parts either from disassembling items like junk or weapons, or buy them. Though from what i see, selling and buying components generally is more efficient, and disassembling should only happen when you're overburdened. Regardless, you can make weapons and upgrade, but unless it's to make a final weapon it seems a waste, you'll keep finding weapons to keep up with your level as you go.

Cyberware - Buy hardware and install it for semi-permanent upgrades. Ranging from getting feedback from smart-weapons, to gorilla arms that help you with strength based obstacles, to once-every-60-seconds abilities like healing or active camo.

Honestly, if you have the eddies, buy the cyberware you're interested in at the highest level even if you can't put it on. When you get your stats up you can then install them, rather than having to scour all the 8 different ripperdocs to get the piece you wanted.

Laptops - usually you can just access a laptop, email/messages, local network to turn on/off security, and a handful of fixed web pages.

Quality levels - You have common (grey), uncommon (Green), Rare (Blue) and Legendary (Red or Orange). So the color tells you a bit, but also shows up on the map with downed enemies so you can hopefully loot everything.

Story: The story is okay overall, either the random missions where 'these people are stuck in a shelter because the entire outside is a minefield' to reading shards. Though while buildings are locked you can't get in unless you're doing some type of story (NCPD calls or fixer mission) otherwise other than dynamic/random events it's pretty well written and laid out.

Honestly as i was going i was caring more and more for some characters, and even making decisions not as them NPC's but as people. That doesn't happen often. So kudos for that.

Regardless, the premise that you have like 2 weeks or something to live (they aren't sure) ties into everything being done. But other than main story missions you won't be puking blood or glitching out.

Annoyances Money value is too low for most weapons/items. You really expect me to sell guns for $28 at the beginning? Half the value would be better, though a mod can fix this.

You can upgrade armor/weapons but not hacks. Why?

Starting routes/backgrounds are all assholes. Nomad is probably the most neutral.

Cyberware too limited. I would have liked to see various levels of cyberware keep going up and up, some cyberware only stops at uncommon for some minor bonuses. Most of the legendary stuff would need a 15+ of some stat, be it body or reflexes or something. I'd have preferred a 'custom order' or something to optimize cyberware if i could afford it rather than fixed limited selection.

Cyberdeck too limited. The max RAM in a deck is 11, and you can only have up to 6 shortcuts of quickhacks.

With Quickhacks you also can't double up and have multiple useful ones like short-circuit so while one is cooling you can go with a different one.

End game there's mostly bad ends, with a couple okay-ish ones. Giving him 6 months to live doesn't bode well either.

Jonny is a massive dick. Though he's just bareable if you get him to like you.

Low content after romance missions are done. You basically get occational texts of 'thinking of you'. Would have liked to have a few more romance scenes or shared missions. And when you visit them you don't get any useful options other than 'how are you doing?' basically.

Breech minigame gets tedius after the 50th time you do it, sometimes 3 in the same mission.

Some bugs, like elevator i can't press a button and am stuck. Controller 'skip scene' is the same button as 'crouch' so i try to uncrouch only to skip some dialog i'm trying to pay attention to. And i can't change it either.

Graphics: 5/5
Audio/Voice: 4.5/5
Music: 3/5
Mechanics: 6/10 (2 breech stuff, 4.5 everything else)
Story: 4.5/5
Annoyances: -3.5
Total: 20/30, 6.6/10, 3.3/5

Deus Ex - Human Revolution

Jensen, nearly dies and gets forced to have augmentations to keep him alive. Now to uncover what happened to him 6 months earlier and find what the hell is going on.

I remember trying this originally on the Xbox 360; Graphically it looks nice, clean, sleek, futuristic, and wholly unique. While some of the textures and models may be dated it still looks quite well today. However that isn't what I'm here to talk on. It occurred to me as I'm playing it what was annoying me and made it hard to play this, and it's ultimately who the target audience (vs the game mechanics it's built with).

So like most games you have an intellectual route, stealth route, combat route, etc. But you basically fall apart on all three counts in different ways. The intellectual route you're given one of a few options of conversation, no idea where it leads, and you may end up with hostages killed or accusing someone of something wrong. An augment to 'help' your social conversations is more a lie detector, as you can detect their stress and heart rate, but otherwise doesn't help diddly squat and you're still guessing. You're better off just using a walkthrough.

The Apathetic route. Jensen many times will have positive/negative/neutral responses not too unlike BioWare games. One of which is Apathetic, the 'I never asked for this' brooding Batman edgelord type.

The combat route. Let's just put this simply, combat is not where you want to go. They use machine guns, and 5-6 hits and you're dead. Game over. Combat is last resort. And there's no hand to hand either, only takedowns which uses your batteries so you have to constantly recharge via eating food (why does it cost a battery to punch someone? No clue... But i can move a fridge for free), so you are forced to use firearms in lethal or non-lethal means. And from what i can tell, there's basically only guns for combat. (Reminds me of the SNES Shadowrun game...)

The stealth route, is perhaps one of the only viable routes. But there's a problem it took a while to realize. Like in the matrix with 'there is no spoon', well guess what, there is no stealth either. You are instantly detected if you get within their sight, crouching or not. 'Stealth' is purely about going through air vents and hugging walls for cover and jumping from cover to cover. Crouching only helps you lower your sound (and maybe your hitbox a bit); that's it, it doesn't do squat with detection. And there's no stat or equipment or anything to decrease detection. There's ones to make you quieter, one to help you see detection ranges on radar, and one making you invisible for a whole 3 seconds. So you better have a lot of candy bars on you.

Then the inventory and strength comparison. You can take a arm upgrade letting you move HUGE VENDING MACHINES WITH EASE but you can't carry too many rifles without your inventory getting full or overloaded; Though since it's a Diablo-like space inventory system weight really isn't considered and instead you have a set number of slots, and guns take a lot of slots. An upgrade can increase it.

You don't have many credits to start with (mind you, he's the chief of security, who was likely on paid leave for 6 months while recovering, works at a major corporation and your boss is close friends with you) which is really stupid; And like in most games items sell for crap, so you have to collect as much as you can; You'll often find cred sticks with like 50 credits on it. Whoopdy do. To get a praxis upgrade it's 5,000. i saw you could get 2 grenades for 400, and upgrades for weapons at about 2000. So as a high paid worker for Sarif you need to collect a lot of junk to get by.

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So this goes back to who the target audience. It targets the slow and patient, perfectionist, hardcore, cover-mechanic, semi-realistic, grindy, gameplay. Even on easy you can't 80's cheese your way through running and gunning. It seems the ideally encouraged route is sneaking out of view to every major plot point possible without getting detected unless you're forced to fight. At the same time you'll only go that route if you already know and have memorized all the locations, routes and how to sneak around about. In many ways the game is configured like a rouge-like, forcing you to hammer it over and over again until you finally succeed, or just start tossing grenades and calling it a day.

I think the game needs a number of major tweaks to be more 'fun' and less just compelling or a long drawn out story. Without some tweaks, it's just a long grind. Though not nearly as grindy and long as a Level-5 Game.

Perhaps one of the best things about the game, is that as I've looked at resources playing it, it only seems to want 1Gb of ram or so. So there's that.

Score? Say it's above average, 3/5 if we need to go it. Just annoyed the stealth system is a utter joke making the game feel like it falls apart.

The Outer Worlds

It's Fallout. IN SPPPPPAAACCCEEE!!!... Well not quite, but it certainly feels a lot like New Vegas, being made by the same team Obsidian. Gameplay and story it feels like fallout in space, but it looks heavily inspired not only by Fallout, but Lost in space, the 50's TV series, where everything still has huge tv screens and tablets and whatnot. Also has vibes from No Man's Sky somehow, just the space theme probably. But seriously it just feels like Fallout 3 in space.

Anyways, the game starts off with you being a colonist from The Hope, a ship carrying 10,000 or more people, all frozen for their 10 year trek, but you've been frozen for closer to 70 years. You are dropped in (literally) by a wanted mad scientist who wants you to help him to 'save the colony' and basically give 'the board' the middle finger, because things are basically falling apart and would do better with different leadership under him and/or the colonists he can wake up.

Graphics: Well done i must say, even on lower quality to play faster it looks beautiful. Faces go just past uncanny valley to looking decent. Not that you see most of them as so many people wear helmets. Monsters also look more than sufficient, although when dead the physics engine makes it more jellowy. Only had one instance of a huge stretch from one blownup bodypart to another blownup body part.

Music/Audio: Music was.... nice, and forgettable unfortunately. And guns and things make proper pew pew sounds. Nothing stood out as outright wrong; Other than the occasional beeps you get from a weapon or something that isn't explained well enough.

Gameplay: The game is effectively a first person shooter, and does well enough of a job. Though you can't 'stealth kill' unless you max out stealth, which can be quite annoying. On the other hand with a maxed rifle and max stealth, you can quite easily take several out in sequence and not a single person comments how their buddy they were talking to suddenly slumps over without a head.

Anyways, skills and dialog basically only unlock if you have a high enough skill from what I'd seen. So they are more to unlock options than they are actually anything with chance. There's no mini-game or anything to go with it, hold button X and watch it unlock safe to get several higher valued items, etc.

The work bench probably is one of the more useful items, mostly when you find your preferred weapon just 'tinkering' with it to upgrade it, which just costs you bits. If your mechanics are high enough you can even swap out mods without losing them.

In your inventory you can mark items as 'junk' and when you find a vending machine just sell to it in bulk. Quite nice on that part.

Breaking down items will give you common weapon or armor points, and with the right perks, mods.

Unlike New Vegas, you can't seem to disarm traps or land mines, so just shoot them from a distance, or dodge the black beam that would be a laser beam.

Then beyond that, it just comes down to your quests. In many cases you have the option to betray the quest giver to benefit yourself, switch sides. So long as you have a high enough conversation skills you can completely avoid fights and change the outcome of some events. "What was that? Press the 'self-destruct' button?" 'How did you get into that subsystem? I'm leaving, i won't risk my neck over a maniac'.

Story:Spoiler Warning!

Like in many fantasy games I've seen of late (Fallout, New Vegas, Skyrim, Horizon Dawn Zero) There's a heavy emphasis on disrepair. Some seem entirely too much on being lazy to do the job. We're talking giant holes in buildings, sidewalks in disrepair. Though in this case, it's more a lack of parts, and how corrosive the air is in some places.

While many story and quest elements lean towards fetching X, or doing Y, reading the log and data on terminals slowly reveals shortage of not only parts, but food, human experimentation, and among other things, diet toothpaste. It isn't until the alien conspiracy when it comes up that it becomes more apparent (and not just in Edgewater) that malnutrition/starving is a major problem trying to be solved, and the board plans to just freeze everyone to buy time; As the human experimentation is intended to make humans in this system adapt better to their new home, which of course is taking too long to do.

So it would ultimately come down to going with the mad scientist, or go with the board. Neither are satisfying endings personally.

Annoyances: Not enough sorting options in the inventory.

When transferring more than one item to your ship stash, it resets to the top left corner, making removing bulk 'drinks' and food annoying to empty out.

No stealth 'take-down' unless stealth is 150. Then it's comically the opposite.

Many mods for your armor/weapons aren't that good or interesting. Same for perks.

Selling is something like 1/20th the value. Eventually you'll just sell in bulk but it doesn't seem worth it to sell for 50bits, but then buy for 1,200 bits, does it?

Not enough options in certain conversations based on things you found out. Example, Edgewater or the Hydroponics system for power, in the plant you learn it is falling apart and probably going to fail in like 2 years anyways, so choosing Edgewater for the power means when power fully goes out at least they'll have defenses vs in the wilds. Wish i could have had that as an option, and not being called a 'snake' by the woman every time she saw me.

Final Thoughts: Ultimately it is a first person shooter, and if you just like going where the quest marker takes you and shooting things and building up your weapons/armor and crew, well it's a fine game. Story tells of a bleak world to an oncoming doom, and the ending is unsatisfying even with a good ending.

Graphics: 4/5
Audio/Music: 4/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Story: 4/5
Annoyances: -2
Total: 13/20, 6.5/10, 3.25/5

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

A game where Toriel a ranger is killed and turned into a shadow, living a half life, with a constant companion in the form of a shadow elf who is likely a thousand years dead.

This is a game i would have loved to play longer and enjoy. But i honestly don't have the patience. Much like the Batman Arkham Asylum, where each 'failure' has one of the major villains mocking you and making fun of you, add in repeated instant deaths from monsters you have no chance of beating, and then targets you are suppose to go after are immune to everything you can attack with makes the game feel far harder than it really should be.

I was finding it interesting, ending up in a group of 20, attack, parry parry, manage a killing blow, repeat until all of them were dead and feeling like a boss. And then sneaking up to take out an enemy, but they are immune to ranged, immune to sneak attack, immune to killing strikes. What the fuck do you want me to do?

No, if the game is going to be this annoying, and not let up and is only going to get worse? it can fuck itself.

Graphically, looks good. It probably has good story, probably good music. But out of sheer annoyances it gets a 1. I don't care. I got better things to do with my time than getting mocked at for using mechanics I've been building up and using only to be told i should find their weaknesses. Then what? lead them to an exploding barrel and hitting it? No thanks. Unless you're playing and want to feel hardcore and constant deaths, this game isn't for you.

Total: 1/10 - Don't bother.

Lost Ruins

Ever wanted to play an anime girl horror rouge-like with difficult controls bad platforming castlevania backtracking and an obvious plot of who the bad-guy is but the character is oh-so-innocent, while having cheap deaths around every corner?

Yeah, me either. But this is the game for today.

First get out of the way, it's pixel-art and it looks okay, it sounds okay...

plays? Not so much. A myriad of problems in the controls, from a tiny bit off and not getting the jump needed for simple platforming, to your momentum totally stops the moment you hit the attack button, thus making your intended trajectory to fail, to really cheap deaths around every corner. As well as every attack feels slow as hell leaving you open for half a second or longer; If you want to be super slow and frustrated and spend a quarter of your time in the menu activating ointments and eating carrots to gain health back, then this is the game for you.

If not, the 'accessible' difficulty option is the same game, but you get auto +1HP healing a second and a couple minor benefits to make it just a little bit less anal inventory attentive to survive until you hit the halfway point. And the moment you get the battery plus chain lightning and can get +2 MP a second the difficulty basically goes out the window.

Now there are plenty of good things. My favorite is probably the throw-able ham, which magically teleports back to you if you lose it or don't pick it up right away. Second, there's a lot of equipment types that can add up to completely drastically changing your play style from sneaky assassin with daggers, to magical girl with chain lightning. There's some humor in descriptions, and common drop items from enemies that are funny and make sense (like carrots from snowmen). And then there's some puzzles, usually involving moving anvils to large buttons, or using a machine to shoot energy to hit a target.

However nearly every type of attack is slow as balls, movement and platforming suck, and one time the screen stopped updating and i had to restart the game. There's like 6 quests, 'get the key so i can enter this room' and 'get my katana' or 'get a battery and a sledgehammer'.

Honestly, if the platforming and combat was made to be less annoying, it's a good framework for a much larger exploration game.

So if you love rouge-likes or difficult games, i say go for it. But otherwise, i'd honestly steer clear. You'll be dying a lot.

Graphics: Okay
Sound: Okay
Writing: Meh
Annoyances: Grrr
Total: 2/5