Picking up where Milestone One left off, the journey of our heroines continues. Fault is a linear visual novel, meaning there are no choices to make. But what does do is tell an interesting and engaging story. Building on the first game, we learn more about the world, and the characters. They face new challenges, and the consequences of their choices. And sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between friend or foe.
Fault Milestone One is a linear visual novel, meaning there are no choices to make. But what does do is tell an interesting and engaging story. There is a great deal of world building, the characters have depth, and the art is beautiful. The characters grow and develop as the story progresses, and you can't help but keep reading to see what happens next.
The protagonist is boring. The lady only exists to be the 'damsel in distress', several times over, and the 'reward' at the end. The puzzles are mostly logical, but suffer from often requiring you to find objects that are difficult to find because they blend into the background, or searching objects you've already searched before, which creates too much frustrating backtracking. With a bit of polish it could have been a classic, as it is... meh.
Saint's Row 3 takes much of the gameplay from SR2 and refines it to highly polished state. The story may not be as mature, and the clothing options are not as robust, but the over-the-top action makes this entry in the franchise a lot of fun to play.
Saint's Row 2 is arguably the best of the series. Some of the gameplay is a little dated, but overall it holds up well. The story is by far the most developed and mature of the series. Character customization is some of the best ever made for a game. Side quests and activities means you always have something to do. Highly recommended. While mouse & keyboard works fine for most of the game, driving a car or motorcycle is horrendous. Installing the Gentlemen of the Row mod makes driving playable (and has other nice, optional tweaks).
Gat Out of Hell acts as epilogue to Saints Row 4. The gamepaly is essentially a stripped down version of SR4, with about half the features taken out. Flying around is kinda fun, that's about the only good thing here. The story could have used a lot more development. There's no character customization, instead you play as either Gat or Kinzie, the latter of whom was obviously included so they could say they had a female character as she doesn't effect the story at all. Recommended only if you feel the need to fill out your Saint's Row collection.
Anima: Gate of Memories certainly isn't a bad game, but there is much room for improvement. The gameplay and animations feel like they were lifted from a console a couple generations ago. The voice acting is often bland, and doesn't always match the written text exactly. Too many times the game takes away control of the camera, especially in fights against multiple oponents. Menus display contoller buttons even if you're using a mouse & keyboard. BUT, the story is very interesting. Or, stories, since you come across several along the way. The world of Anima is quite intriguing. Likewise, the environments are varied and often beautiful, making the most of the limited resources they used. The mix of puzzles, platforming and combat keeps things from getting stale. The game doesn't hold your hand, but lets you explore and put the pieces together yourself. Still, for something made by a small studio, they did quite well. With a bit more polish it could have been a classic. If they make a sequel hopefully they learned and fix a few things. I wouldn't mind another trip around Gaia.
