Johnny Wang's Reviews
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, in broad terms, seems to be a stripped down Far Cry 4 with more focus put into bullet ballistics. While the elements of a decent title are buried in here, there is a noticeable rough edge around everything that throws off the feel of the game. Some parts, such as the slow-mo sniper camera, seem like a cheap imitation of better titles. The lack of interesting side quests made me question if a switch to open world gameplay was the right choice. Perhaps providing a focus on smaller, well-designed maps instead of three large ones would have better fit the action-stealth genre. While the game is relatively bug free and the controls are decent, there is not much motivation to complete it due to repetitive missions and uncompelling plot. CI Games has a long track record of rather mediocre games and unfortunately this entry does not break the mold.
Platforming ain’t dead. Yooka-Laylee however doesn’t really break any new ground. It does, however, apply a nice fresh coat of paint over the old mechanics of Banjo-Kazooie. The mini-games throughout provide some variety from the usual jumping around, but they rarely captured my interest for more than a minute or so. It is a great modern take on the platformer genre, but the bright colors and quirky music quickly dull after a couple hours when you find the game has little else to offer. Perhaps some will revel in the return of the collect-em-up, but the gameplay, however well-made and tight it is, seldom seems rewarding.