This is where they absolutely perfected how you use the lightsaber & the force powers. It's intuitive, responsive and just an absolute joy. The story is not quite as good as the first Jedi Knight game but it is genuinely emotionally engaging. You can play this as a Star Wars style fps without using the Jedi traits a lot of the way, similar to the original Dark Forces if that is your preference. The cameos are cool and not excessive, the boss fights vary somewhat and there's at least one that's just ridiculous. It manages a good balance of having enough lightsaber fights that you feel like you've got your money's worth (after all it is the main appeal of this game for a significant chunk of the players), but also not having so many fights that it ends up just feeling tedious. The weapons are very well balanced, there isn't a single one that doesn't have some compelling use and I really appreciate that you can counter any ranged attack with either the lightsaber or the telekinesis. In fact there's times where you'll get a real kick out of that. Through and through this feels like Star Wars enemy design, levels, graphics, music, sound work. It also lets you visit multiple distinct corners of that universe including ancient temples, a modern city, imperial bases, etc. The antagonists are memorable. There are some really excellent environmental puzzles though an argument could be made that they overdo it once or twice perhaps more but in part they serve to remind you that at the end of the day you are still human you have tremendous power but you're not invulnerable when a lot of fps titles boil down to a power fantasy with almost nothing challenging you other than running and gunning. Not a fan of the lightsaber throw in my opinion that's a weapon that should never become a projectile under any circumstances. I get wanting an alternate attack for that there is for the rest of the arsenal, wanting it to be ranged, IMO, it should have been one of the telekinetic powers.
The nostalgia and fanservice definitely go overboard here. You're constantly being reminded of the movies by where you go who you fight and how etc. It is very cool that you get to choose your appearance and lightsaber and such at the very start, limited by today's standards but not bad by those of the day it came out. It's also very clear that they really badly want you to use lightsaber and force powers here which is not something that bothers me personally because that's how I play these anyway but I appreciate that if that's not you it might be really frustrating. It's cool that you can play this without having played any of the games in the series that came out before it. I think the Jedi training should have been longer after all it's actually shorter than what we got in Jedi Outcast. Also, I think the loosely connected if at all missions are fairly hit and miss. I do appreciate that we get a lot of one-offs that there's no way they would have been able to turn into an entire game at the very least not with the same game play as this and some of them are definitely deeply memorable. Like the one with the giant worm, the one where you have to fight your way through an imperial ship, etc. The story is fine but probably the weakest of the series. Ultimately the fact that there's not that much going on in these stories other than riffing on the original trilogy did catch up to them by this point. It's another light side versus dark side and there's something in the past that's really powerful. One issue with it is that you're not particularly connected to it. Because it's happening close to the character you play as but you’re not being directly targeted, any more than any of the other Jedi padawans. Like in the first Dark Forces, it's the fact that it's the right thing to do and it is technically your job because of who you are. But after two games and an expansion pack where it's specifically something that happens to Kyle Katarn, it feels like a step backwards.
There are definitely things to love about this one so I think I'll start with some of that before getting into the reasons my rating is so low. It genuinely is cool to witness your soldiers gradually change appearance based on which genetic mutations you choose and there is a charming mix of simplicity and strategy to that element. Throughout this you are gathering genetic material by killing enemies (as well as the indigenous life that you were sent to protect. Oops). You use it to grant your soldiers a variety of abilities & weapons so if you kill something fast you can move faster something that fires a cannon you get that cannon etc. Some of them get creative and fun. You can get the ability to spew mucus which sticks to anything it touches whether living or dead and it can be set on fire by you or the enemies you kill to get the flamethrower. Just be very careful that it doesn't hit one of the soldiers. I do wish that it made complete sense to, as it seems the game encourages you try, actually evolve them in completely different directions. But there is at least one level where you will need a decent variety rather than hyper focus. And it's fairly late in the game. That segues nicely into the other negatives the level design can get frustrating and uninspired. The gameplay loop is a tiny bit too tedious despite how often it grants you new abilities. While the setup of saving the natural life of the various planets you visit does immediately get you on board with what you are sent to do as already mentioned you will yourself be killing a lot of it like literally you cannot complete this without killing a bunch of it for its genetic material. I don't know how they overlook this while making it. I mean heck at least Just Cause 3 has a throwaway line about “don't worry about the stuff you destroy cause we can always rebuild”, acknowledging the silliness of combining liberation and chaotic destruction. And that was already commenting on US foreign policy.
So much to love here. Ever present tense atmosphere. This is one of the most creepy and disturbing games ever. The story is engrossing. Level design is unique. There is a tad much micromanaging and there's definitely some stuff you can unlock with your limited resources that turns out to not be as useful as you might think though not always right away. The controls and UI can be slightly awkward at least at first though it's a massive improvement on the original game. This has aspects that are also seen in some of the developers other games including the first two Thief games where you can customize controls to an almost ridiculous degree which helps make up for it. It has a lot of my favorite nightmarish enemies. The designs, the voices, the things they say, the fact that some of them are literally apologizing as they’re attacking you, unable to refuse the order to attack you. While not quite as open as Deus Ex 1, the king of these, this does allow a good amount of tailoring your stats and such to the playstyle that you prefer. Ultimately it is all survival horror. There's no way to go stealth though I have heard of people who have worked out how to limit how much violence they use and certainly there's a massive difference between going guns blazing and hacking. I've played this half a dozen times and can confirm that very different play styles can absolutely work though some are significantly more difficult. I'm usually against the idea of letting the player undo unlocking abilities and such but this is definitely a case where it would save you either going back and redoing an earlier part so you can get the thing you need now or just using a walkthrough to make sure what you get is worthwhile. By today's standards it does feel dated but it was a pretty good not amazing FPS hybridized with a fairly solid ARPG and stunning survival horror up there with early Silent Hill albeit obviously very different styles since this is Sci-Fi, that is Supernatural fantasy.
In a number of ways this is like the first entry. I will focus on how they differ instead of restating. This is a vast improvement on the already excellent original. It helps explain some of the stuff in Hotel not overtly but thematically. It's much better paced. The various areas and puzzles have much greater variety in part aided by the setting of the various homes through the generations of the family Vanderboom who suffer various traumas so you're inside of those places you're in the garden etc. The developers had gotten better at what they do and they also listened to feedback hence these improvements. You can now sometimes drag which opens up to new types of puzzles such as one where you color in a painting another where you use Ouija board etc. You do sometimes appear to be controlling one of the characters on screen. But other times you are this omniscient force affecting what's going on. You see a lot of varied situations and some of the people you do follow from birth through adulthood. This continues the trend of the developers poking at various anxieties, injury, death and other taboo sometimes it's really down to context such as how it opens on a morbid version of a proposal. Whilst the story itself is chronological you can complete a number of the levels in the order that you choose. Each time you complete one another will open up until you've completed that entire branch so at times you'll be able to choose between multiple different ones as the next one. I wasn't sure exactly where it was going but by the end I felt like they had done a really great job wrapping everything up and bringing everything together in a satisfying way. You can play this before Hotel. Neither of these spoil the other. I understand that there are people who have gotten a lot out of replaying Hotel after finishing this. I was impressed by how complete this feels considering the length and the fact that it is just one part of a franchise that now has over half a dozen entries.
This is one of those that is difficult to recommend entirely and I can 100% understand why many will prefer not to play this at all. I must have played it somewhere between a half and a full dozen times total over the years but I doubt I ever will again. One of the biggest strengths is that this is something you can really get into. It has a fascinating world and lore, the conflict is gripping, the settings, characters, etc. are deeply memorable and like StarCraft and Star Wars it doesn't feel the need to spoon feed you every single little thing, a lot of things just are and it feels much more natural. The magic system allows you to do some incredibly cool stuff and the cards used for it feel earned as you get access to them gradually over the course of it meaning that there's usually something new still yet to come as you play all the way through this. This is also true of the playable characters and their main attacks, nine of each, not all equally useful. Though the downside is that the gameplay loop is ultimately just not quite enough to keep you engaged throughout the entire thing. I would say that the last five to ten percent of this, each time that I played it, I kept going just because I wanted to get to the end. It is at least a little bit too long even though the plot itself does warrant its length overall. There are more limited turn-based strategy games out there but even so this is still slightly underwhelming. Combat is sometimes very frequent. There are areas where you'll barely spend a few seconds between fights and this ends up tedious. The game could do more to make it clear what exactly you’re meant to do to proceed. There's some moon logic to puzzles. The graphics are good, the voice acting holds up. You encounter a number of different cultures over the course of this and all of them feel authentic. Everywhere feels lived in and as a bit of a mythology nerd it was quite fun recognizing where they took inspiration, for example a Trickster God.
I'll start with the positives. Taking the body Horror from 1982's The Thing and having the player literally cut off limbs as an effective strategy is legitimately inspired. Sure you can just try to attack normally but once you face a lot of enemies at once you'll find yourself focusing on taking them apart like this and it is deeply satisfying. You go up against a lot of beings that partially look human but clearly there's something wrong. Our bodies are not supposed to do stuff like that and it really pokes at an anxiety deep inside each of us. The physical isolation adds another layer not to mention the general survival horror with resource management and choices that have consequences. I won't pretend that I particularly cared about the plot but I'm told many others did. Walking on walls and the ceiling in zero gravity is compelling. Some of the weapons do feel like they're there to check a box. They're not at all appropriate for the way you have to play. And I wouldn't rule out that they are literally just there because some people would refuse to give this a chance if they weren't in there. Thankfully you're never forced to use them. The fact that your character takes up half the screen does lead to completely unnecessary and easily avoidable by the developers frustration. The gameplay just isn't that fun, really doesn't offer very much that we haven't seen done better. It's boring and obnoxious. The control scheme is incredibly poorly designed. I get that this was apparently a console port. It's one of the worst when it comes to this area. I managed to get through this whole thing once but I can't imagine ever playing it again. The horror is too driven by jump scares and it lacks the contrasting safe areas that for example Silent Hill, Amnesia, Penumbra and Soma master. This does get points for taking the orb on the ship from Event Horizon and putting it in something that made it feel much more gripping. There's some memorable and even creative level design.
There's a lot to love here. It works in pretty much any and every type of gameplay that it at all makes sense to. And one or two that don't. It is a platformer with vehicle control, racing segments, action adventurer with puzzles, combat and more. No, it is not all equally smooth. I really appreciate the exploration of war and the messaging around it especially in a post 9/11 context. This is partially aimed at younger audiences. It's rated for teens but there's elements that are clearly meant to appeal to children and it's extremely important to teach them to question these things. It's a cool world that you find yourself wanting to explore which is good because you'll need to. I really felt a sense of accomplishment each time I was able to unlock something that opened up new areas to me over the course of it. You get access to new abilities to help keep the gameplay fresh. Another great element is the camera where you're rewarded for snapping pics of animals. Ideally you'll want to take a picture of every single animal that you encounter, encouraging love of nature and interacting with it in ways that don't involve violence but just appreciating its beauty. The characters are memorable, some of them bursting with charisma. We get a very engaging plot although some of the twists do end up cheapening some of the appeal in ways I can't really get into without spoiling anything. The ending is quite satisfying although I would love a sequel. And the difficulty level is one of those great things where it provides a challenge but you can play at least some of this even if you're not that used to the genres of games that it resembles. For sure near the end you do need to have mastered the various things it expects of you but you can practice until you get there as long as you've saved your game before you get to that part. It would probably be frustrating but still this is one of those rare cases where I would actually recommend a game both to elites and newbies.
I don't have Nostalgia for the original so this will be unbiased. I definitely do think that it makes sense to make more entries in this series and I could imagine one or more of its sequels which I haven't played yet nail it. Overall it is too easy. You can basically sleepwalk through it. This is probably one of those cases where the developers so badly wanted players to experience all the content that they didn't want to risk dissuading any through excessive challenge and they went too far in the other direction. It is definitely fun using the sword which it also was in the original but here you can even chop off limbs if you cut off the dominant hand the enemy will be less effective against you but will continue attacking you similar to House of the Dead and in general very zombie-like. The various abilities and powers are pretty cool though it is too easy to get all of them unlike something like Deus Ex 1 for example. As you unlock them the idea is that this will keep you engaged but really in just minutes of playing you'll have experienced everything this really has to offer. It would be great if you could get Lo Wang and/or Hoji to stop with the snark at least briefly or honestly maybe just shut up entirely. The plot is quite thin but I did appreciate the backstory and universe. And I'm really glad that they went the soft reboot path and didn't try to make a direct sequel to the original, since if we're being honest the plot of that one wasn't amazing it didn't create as interesting a world as this does. The weapons sound significantly more memorable than they are once you start using them. Also, the levels are too open leading to a lot of frustrating backtracking. You don't get to do that much cool stuff other than combat puzzles tend to boil down to key hunts and flipping levers and such. At least the door you're headed towards does glow nicely so when that's all you got to do you can tell where to go.
In some ways tops the core game. It delivers almost everything that that one does other than length and feeling less like it's efficiently building to the climax and more like a series of encounters, albeit some of the ongoing antagonists here are more compelling. Much more in the way of personality, far more distinct designs. I mean if we're being honest even the ones who aren't actual twins are quite similar other than of course the comically gigantic one. There are a couple of times where they reuse assets and it feels as cheap as that is. Also, there are times where it feels more challenging when it comes to what still boils down to key hunts, and some of the solutions make you feel like you accomplished something to a greater extent. The protagonist is infinitely more appealing and it is devastating to read his horror at realizing that if he dies his family will be traumatized by it. It fleshes out some of the original. Certain parts go bigger and the fact that there is such a personal connection between you and what is arguably the central villain makes those encounters so much more hard hitting. Literally you keep struggling against the guy who catches you blowing the whistle, who actually works for the company and thus is responsible for some of the monstrous things they do where ultimately all of the variants are in part victims of it even if they also perpetrate violence. The level design is great and it's very interesting seeing other parts of the facility. There is one particular situation that leaves you with a distinct threat that increases the tension. The visceral horror is slightly less roller coaster, more properly built to. Some of what happens early on is not violence but anxiety making it more effective once the blood starts dripping. There are certain parts that stick with you for an extremely long time. Some of what enemies intend to do to you and why, not to mention what ends up happening to a non-zero amount of them after a lot of pursuits.
