Paul Tassi's Reviews
Outriders has surpassed my expectations in almost every way. Months ago, I figured this would be another looter flop, but now, it’s one of the best current entries in the genre, and even with no “live service roadmap” at hand, it’s clear you could potentially extract hundreds of hours from it regardless. I plan to do just that.
Though in theory, an “endgame” playthrough of Diablo 4 is probably 100-200 hours across a larger span of classes, I feel like I can judge what I’ve seen. My impressions are overwhelmingly positive based on what I’ve experienced so far, from the map to the gameplay to the new systems to even the story, which I was not expecting. Blizzard really seems like they’ve nailed this, and I’m going to say the only way this will be poorly received at launch is if technical issues kill people’s ability to play. But once it gets rolling? Yes, I think you’re going to like Diablo 4.
Destiny may have seemed like a total letdown a week after launch. but I think what it does bring to the table is enough to have attracted a large, passionate playerbase, and the game is going to have legs well into the future. We're living in an age where for better or worse, many games eventually evolve into what we hoped they'd be at launch. If current trends hold, that's going to be Destiny too, but two months from its debut, it hasn't had a half-bad sprint out of the starting gate either.
Infamous is a good game. I don't know about great, but "good" is enough to be the best in the series, and the best exclusive PS4 has to offer right now. With 100% completion and new missions to come there are plenty of worthwhile hours to be spent with the game, and it's definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of the series or the genre. The powers are innovative and a lot of fun, I just wish there was a bit more to do with them, and a more compelling story that perhaps took itself just a little more seriously.
In the end, despite an unmemorable story, I quite liked Shadow Fall's campaign simply from a design perspective alone. By ditching overbearing auto-aim, bending linearity and actually posing a real challenge at times, it's a fun experience and PS4 could do a lot worse for a debut title. I don't know if the series will ever explode in popularity, but for now, it's done its job showcasing the new abilities of the PS4.
In my mind, Fallout 4's greatest triumph, and its one major point of evolution is in its storytelling, crafting a lengthy, unexpected ending and resolution that I will remember for years to come. It also remains one of the best games in existence for those who simply like to wander and explore and unearth long-buried secrets. But it struggles with archaic gameplay systems and an inflexible engine that anchor the game to the past for all the wrong reasons. Fans may enjoy more Fallout and a brand new map to explore, but this sequel will not be heralded as revolutionary or overly impressive this time around.
I have a feeling that Mass Effect fans will enjoy the game, but I don't think anyone will claim it outclasses the original trilogy, outside of maybe the very first game. If you could combine the story and memorable quests of the originals with the combat, visuals and scope of Andromeda, you would have the perfect video game, though I think what's offered here will satisfy most.
Prey has come out of relative nowhere to be a truly great campaign experience that succeeds despite some of the game's more muddled aspects. I'd recommend giving it a shot.
Again, it's more cake. Origins was delightful and Odyssey hits almost all the same notes, so there's a lot to like about it as well. But this series needs a bit of breathing room, and I hope it gets another bit of rest after this.
For fans of the first game, or Spider-Man, or action games in general, Spider-Man 2 is an easy recommendation. There are about five dozen teasers and easter eggs by the end so I’m sure we’re in for more, whether that’s another Miles-sized game or another sequel down the road. But for now, yes, this is all the Spider-action you need for a good long while.
Like Grand Theft Auto V before it, sometimes it's not enough to simply be big and well-made. Watch Dogs feels like a collection of promising concepts with nothing solid holding them together. Aiden Pearce should have been that something, but instead, he's just a character meant to sell cool looking hats in collector's editions. Perhaps that can be rectified in a sequel, but for now, Pearce is pretty big issue, and so is his propensity to kill people in boring, cover-based shooter-y ways.
Need for Speed: Rivals is one of the more fun installments in the series, and certainly a great PS4 launch title. But it needs deeper customization and tweaks to racing SP loss in order to more fully realize its potential, and a more involved attempt at a story would inject some life into a relatively stale campaign mode. Fortunately gameplay is so intense and fun you forget about most of the game's other issues, and it can certainly be enjoyed despite its lingering issues and relative lack of depth.
If you're a fan of the first game, I certainly recommend this one as well. But in a competitive season, it's hard to see Mankind Divided being as impactful or memorable as Deus Ex's reassurance five years ago.
If you like Far Cry, there's a pretty good chance you'll like this as well. But if you're becoming exhausted by ~20 hours of leveling, skinning, leaf-collecting, trinket-finding and map-clearing after the last few installments, Primal is definitely more of the same. The setting change is effective, but this isn't going outside of the series' comfort zone as much as Ubisoft might have you believe.
No one makes more beautiful shooters than DICE, but their gameplay still leaves something to be desired, despite what appeared to be a total refresh with the WWI setting. Fans of the series may look past these faults or even embrace them, but some of them are hard to get past, and can define the entire experience.
I suppose we can now venture into the old “is Guardians worth $60?” debate. If you miss hyper linear story games with no live service BS, and are a big Marvel fan, then this might be the game for you. If you are hoping for Devil May Cry level combat and God of War type puzzles and exploration within a linear story, you will be disappointed. But I can safely say this is probably a better end product than most people were expecting, and that alone is a pretty big win for a game that felt like a bit of a risk and like it’s been lacking in buzz leading up to launch here. It has issues, but it gets a lot right, and pushes storytelling in ways I haven’t seen in this genre before.
Stellar Blade is a good game, not a (don’t say stellar) fantastic one. Its peers do a lot of the things it does but better, though that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable in its own right. Don’t go in expecting a revolution, but this may be the start of a solid series and could make Eve a Bayonetta/2B-esque star. The ensuing discourse about this game is going to be exhausting, as it has been already, but divorced from that, the game itself is solid, and that’s what matters the most.
Given that all my progress from the review build is about to be wiped, I’m not sure I’ll go through it all again to start re-grinding the endgame, but perhaps on a new class. Melee this time? That fact is what I really want to see is some substantial leaps forward for this series, as it’s starting to feel pretty dated in a lot of ways, but I also have to understand what Wonderlands is, a game Gearbox made from home during the pandemic that’s meant to be a stopgap before Borderlands 4. And I do think it succeeds at that job well enough to please most fans.
[W]e're back to tightly packed cities and crowds for two years running now, like we've warped all the way back to the Assassin's Creed II trilogy. And no matter how pretty the games get and how tight the mechanics are, it never feels fresh anymore.
Halo Infinite might be the best campaign 343 has done, but considering I didn’t love the last two, I’m not sure how much weight that carries. Halo Reach remains the gold standard for me in that department, and while I had a lot of fun here zipping around the open world, and I can see the potential of the concept, something about Infinite feels small and unfinished to me compared to both other Halo campaigns, and other open world titles. I don’t need (or want) a sprawling Assassin’s Creed map that takes 200 hours to clear, but I think I need more diversity than what’s here, and a better story with better characters told within it.