PowerPyx's Reviews
It's sad to see a beloved franchise like Star Wars being destroyed by corporate greed. The only good thing to come from SWBF2 is the campaign. The rest they could have delivered in form of a $20 DLC to the first Star Wars Battlefront. The entire online progression is built around micro-transactions on a pay-to-win basis with randomized loot boxes. It's simply no fun to play in an online ecosystem like this. Shame on you, EA.
Vampyr is the worst glitchfests of 2018 so far.
A DLC that locks main game content? Yes, it exists, and it’s called Curse of Osiris. If you have the main game but not the DLC it has locked content that was previously accessible to you. Now locked behind a DLC paywall: Prestige Strikes, Prestige Raids, Trials, and the Platinum Trophy / 1000 Gamerscore. This is content you already paid for with the main game. The introduction of the DLC stole all of this away from base game players. Whether this is an ‘inventive’ way to push a DLC purchase or just a mishap, it’s a slap in the face to all Destiny 2 players and divides the player base. $20 is way too pricy for a 2 hour story and tiny new area. When a full game is $60, a $20 DLC should be one third the size, not one tenth.
Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a glitchy, unpolished, currently uncompletable game (due to bugs). It succeeds in delivering a believable sniping experience but fails on all other fronts.
You should not expect Prey to be much of a shooter. The gunplay is abysmal and resources quite limited. It rather focuses on many hours of exploration which give the game a slow pace. It has an interesting story with a lot of replay value but the outdated tech, bad graphics, absurd amount of loading screens, convoluted level designs and lack of waypoint markers are holding it back. If you liked the demo you will probably like the main game. If you didn’t, then it’s not for you.
Man of Medan does some things extremely well, particularly with its well-crafted story that offers great replay value, and choices having more impact than in Until Dawn. But then it completely fails on other fronts such as the many game-breaking technical problems, a horrible online experience, lack of a flowchart or cutscene skip in Chapter Select, and an absurdly convoluted trophy list.
What a grind! NFS Payback has its moments of joy but it’s being held back by a luck-based progression system built around microtransactions.
Mass Effect is not what it used to be. It feels like playing a Pre-Alpha build with tons of bugs, a slow paced story, a mind-numbing travel system, topped off with a completely broken Multiplayer. The only positive things are the combat and sheer amount of singleplayer content. Sadly this is overshadowed by poor technical performance and lackluster side quests.
Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite reuses a lot of old content and doesn’t keep up with modern day fighting games. The mission mode is great, the story and arcade are not. The character designs are the ugliest I have ever seen in a fighting game. They look nothing like the original characters. It’s as if Capcom intentionally tried to make them as ugly as possible. It’s an okay fighting game for younger audiences, easy to learn due to simple move lists, but hard to master due to countless combo possibilities. If you’re a fan of the series it’s worth a look, otherwise stick with more modern fighting games.
Knack 2 does little to improve from the first game. There are few combat moves, few enemy types and no combos at all. Even on the highest difficulty the AI is easily exploited. The cutscenes look nice though and it runs smoothly at 60fps with minimal loading times. The $40 price tag is more than fair given the long campaign and bonus challenges.
So what is Get Even you ask? It unites shooter, exploration and horror elements into a new psycho thriller experience. Its biggest strength is the phenomenal sound design and a unique story with decent replay value. The weak points are the unpolished gunplay and lack of scary material for which there was a lot of potential.
Hours of Darkness is a good start for the DLC trilogy of Far Cry 5. It’s a part unexplored in previous games but is quite short and doesn’t have much in terms of story.
My experience with Life is Strange: Before the Storm was a good one, but nothing spectacular as far as story-telling games go. It convinces with the beautifully written dialogues and voice acting, but beyond that follows a generic story with little surprises (so far). At $5.99 you can’t go wrong. Expect between 2-4 hours of playtime with multiple choices for added replay value.
KCD is a game of stark contrasts. The cutscenes, story and lore are phenomenal yet the game is unpolished, has outdated graphics and is very buggy. If you can turn a blind eye on those things it’s still a game worth playing that has a lot of content to offer.
Lost on Mars plays like a completely new, fleshed-out game and has a surprising amount of content for a DLC. A funny yet predictable odyssey to the red planet.
A Way Out revives a dying breed of co-op gaming. While on the shorter side (3.5 hours total story length), it keeps things moving with new styles of gameplay at every corner. The ending is particularly good and makes it worth the trip.
Mario + Rabbids is a nice mix of puzzles and turn-based tactical fights for younger audiences. It’s off to a slow start and gets better over time, containing a fair amount of content, collectibles and bonus challenges. It may not have the most elaborate combat system of all time but definitely brings unique ideas and concepts to the table.
No Man's Sky is not a bad game, nor is it the Game of the Year many expected. It is good for what it is and you can have fun with it for a long time to come. Just don't expect more than it really is and beware that with day-one patch the game still suffers from various bugs and crashes.
Ni No Kuni 2 teaches kids some powerful lessons: how to be a good leader, a decent human being (or cat-person haha), and how to solve political differences by peaceful diplomatic means opposed to brute force. While it may be too simplistic for hardcore gamers, it’s one of the best role-playing-games for younger audiences.
Project Cars 2 is a fine racing simulator with many different motorsport disciplines. It offers little new over the first Project Cars, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?