Neue Rezensionen von Legolas_Katarn

Mafia 3 is easily one of the strongest games I've played when it comes to voice acting and scene direction, with character expression and emotions perfectly acted and visually displayed in the game's cutscenes. A good story with well fleshed out characters with some great moments and lines, you even get some side supporting characters that aren't seen much but that has such strong dialogue and acting that you get to know them well in their brief appearances. Even a few of the main supporting characters and villains you go after can have sympathetic moments despite being terrible people. Lincoln's back and forth with his associates almost always manages to perfectly convey what kind of relationship they have and nails humorous or emotional moments very well.

The game makes use of it's setting, location and time period, and is full of small world, conversation, and gameplay details that are used to tell a story focused on race relations, returning from war, the changing times of the era which also frequently echoes modern era, and, like the other Mafia games, that the American dream is often more like a nightmare. People complain about the fair housing act and affirmative action on the radio and during conversations the same way they did back then and the same way they do now, you can get shot at or have the police called on you for going into the wrong store or for loitering, characters talk about police abuse of protesters and the Black Panthers, a contact that hates communists and wants you to stop supplies to Cuba just happens to be former secret police for their previous US backed dictator, the police response is slower in poor or primarily black areas, and one of the side quests talks about how the only time guns were being restricted in America was when black people wanted them. Mafia 3 is a game where you hear on the radio about a black kid getting shot and killed for knocking on a white man's door to ask for directions in the 60s and then you see the same thing in the news when you minimize the game and look at social media. You get multiple subtle hints at the main character's PTSD from Vietnam as well as one of the main characters talking about trying to cope with his. They make great use of the soundtrack both during main mission gameplay segments and on the radio and there is some very strong lines and acting in the parts of the story that are filmed as a documentary telling the story of what happened during the game years after the fact.

Full Review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Kennan/review/139171/

Has the strong art, music, world building, character design the studio is known for as well as well written characters and scenes. Vocal tracks tell the story of the game's main characters and credits song is a combination of the story of your group's journey and destinations. Re-playable due to different location options and characters that you can send off after winning matches, as well as having the ability to lose matches which can narratively feel as much like a victory and loss as winning often does.

Actual gameplay is more sports like and while there are some good ideas it isn't great and is easily exploitable. Both sides only being able to move one character at a time makes it a bit dull and the computer just can't react to certain things well, an ability of one of your characters can end up causing the enemy team to stand confused around your "goal" with them not understanding how to score anymore. With an excellent narrative and world design that is more of the focus though, I'm fine with what feels like a quick simple mini game that doesn't drag down the experience.

One moment marvel at the beauty of the world and creatures, the next kill all the larvae that burst from a defeated enemy's chest.

One of the best metroidvania games I've played. It offers a large game with a lot of extra content and lore to discover with extra boss battles and side characters you can run into in your journey that reveal more about themselves or their journey as you meet with your meetings possibly effecting their and your endings. You can equip a wide variety of powerups/modifiers that help you adjust your character to fit how you like to play or you. Beautiful world and backgrounds with well designed, and often grossly beautiful, enemies with a nice lore book to fill that gives you more details about the setting. Combat is quick and responsive with some varied and tense boss fights.

A standout feature of the game is the freedom it gives you in the possible routes that you can take through it. Most medtoridvania style games are almost completely linear other than side or extra content you might discover or have to backtrack for. Hollow Knight can allow you to conquer multiple possible areas in different orders both through casual exploration that can give you a few routes but those choices are increased by just understanding how the game and its systems work by default, allowing some players to get to areas early that might not seem accessible in the early game. Both allowing for potentially interesting ways through the game for those that don't follow a more obvious path as well as interesting paths for challenge or speedruns.

Hollow Knight's soundtrack can match the beauty of its world with City of Tears being a highlight and one of the better tracks I've heard in a game and the bench resting theme Reflection standing out as a memorable sanctuary area theme that is up there with Resident Evil 4's Serenity.

The only minor complaint I have is the odd way it seemed to want to get on the Dark Souls bandwagon where they make poor use of the FromSoftware style mechanic where you lose resources when you die unless you get to your body in one life to recover them. This hasn't even been an interesting or meaningful mechanic in FromSoftware's own titles since Demon Souls. In Hollow Knight you aren't even losing experience, just what is essentially money that you can spend on equip-able modifiers. At one point you will need to buy a lantern but nothing else is ever important and certainly not needed for completion, so it ends up being little more than a potential waste of time if you just lost your resources and were delayed in trying some alternate strategy or upgrade out. I never ended up dying outside of boss fights so I never lost anything but I suppose if you were really doing poorly at the game you might need to farm a little to buy that lantern which could make it more frustrating.

A well written and acted story of a "cursed" eccentric family and the influence family traditions can have on people. Story is told through excellent use of exploration and by narrating the family history while allowing you to experience the final moments of its characters with varied, interesting, artistic, and unique scenarios that can give you the details of what happened while also doing an putting you into a character's state of mind, all while often introducing a new control scheme that is intuitive enough to not need to be explained.

Covers themes of mental health, friendships, relationships, family, growing up, the generation gap, capitalism and economic effects on small towns and service workers, and the fear, hatred, and absurdity of those looking back on the past with nostalgia. All in a way that's more tactful and real than other games and most other media in general and with a unique and charming art style, well done back and foregrounds that give more life to the town and characters, and some of the best characters I've seen in a game.

Shows off a large new area of the setting's world, important people, and factions with a story focused around working with or against the native people of the Deadfire, foreign merchants and imperialist powers, pirates, and another foreign power looking to exploit and conquer their native homeland, all while tracking down a revived renegade God for other members of the pantheon. The ability to dual class and each class having sub options give you a lot of character options and chances to make interesting character types. A variety of difficulty and level scaling options let you play how you want. Post release updates to the game have been adding free content and making improvements, making some nice UI changes that weren't their at release. An easy game to recommend for CRPG fans that want to have a variety of combat options, a well written cast of main characters, and a setting full of interesting people and lore, though it's not that interesting as a ship captain/pirate game as some early previews focused on.

Mechanically, Celeste is one of the best platformers I've played. It controls well, perfectly introduces each new gameplay concept, the stages are varied with their own gameplay elements with each one being enjoyable to play, and there are alternate more difficult versions of levels for those that want a greater challenge. Narratively Celeste has a well done portrayal of someone suffering from anxiety and the themes, plot, mechanics, and score all blend together perfectly. It does offers a variety of accessibility options that can be used to alter how the game plays if you want to play the game in a different way or a way that is more in line with how you want to engage with it.

An adventure game dealing with conversation based confrontations with choices being based on your developed skills and your findings from exploring or talking with people. Puzzles solutions and story elements can be found out through exploration and with the help of your abilities. Entertaining story dealing with supernatural forces and your character joining an event hosted for world leaders and important figures while searching for his missing mother. Different events and endings in each episode that end up leading to some very different situations. The finale chapter felt rushed and while it can end in an interesting way or with at least some conversation events, mine didn't really require me to do anything, and no matter what it is followed by some narrated character epilogues that make it sound like they weren't sure what to do if certain choices were made.

Improves on the first while taking some of the better features added to the PSP sequels. New gameplay elements help to make levels feel more interesting and many of the levels allow for and are designed in a way to encourage different tactics and surprises. Tells a decent and mostly more serious war story and the side stories that star supporting characters have some very strong or entertaining moments. Art style still looks beautiful with more effects on the battlefield than past games. Doesn't completely fix some of the trial and error or easily exploitable tactics of the previous games, early actions and strangely placed reminders of his personality keep killing the likability of one of the main characters, and the in game Valkyria and bosses are still used poorly for the most part, but it is the best the series has been since the original and continues to offer a very unique and enjoyable strategy game.

An excellent use of the Battletech license with some of the best thought out gameplay I've seen in a turn based strategy game. Battle mechanics will have you making use of a variety of strategies while really having to plan out your movement, turn order, manage your mechs heat and stability, and knowing who to aim at, where to aim, and what weapons to use. Campaign has a good story supported by a good diverse cast of characters, fitting (and at times amusing events) and mission descriptions, backed up by a strong score, though the campaign can make it too easy to abuse certain mechanics later on. Updates have continued to make improvements to the game and balance things. Not only a great game for single or multiplayer but a strong foundation for future content and sequels and easy to recommend for Battletech fans or for people that want a turn based game with strong gameplay that fits well with an established franchise.